My Cheerios Taste Funny!

 

Sometimes when I'm watching Wentzville's Board of Aldermen meetings I just sit and shake my head at the utterly stupid things that come out of Mayor Nickolas Guccione's hole. Last night was one of those nights and it all happened in the final half hour of the meeting. It amazes me how anyone could spend the better part of seven years in public office and know so little about how things work, but that's our beloved King Nickolas. In high school I'm sure you remember when the bell rang for the next class there was always that one guy who would wake up and leave a puddle of drool on the desktop for the next unfortunate student who may have to sit in that seat—you get the picture.

 

Item XV, No. 2, (ID #4594) Draft Ordinance for Increased Safety Areas. This is just a kinder way of saying; "Double Fines for Speeding." Everyone agrees that safety is paramount on our streets, but some drivers don't obey the posted speed limits in our subdivisions. So, a couple months ago Guccione began championing double fines in posted areas of our city. I thought it interesting that Guccione wanted to postpone the discussion until Alderman of Ward 2, Sonya Shryock returned from her trip to California (we may now know why he and Shryock had lunch together last week), he probably should have postponed it—given what transpired.

 

Alderman of Ward 1, Forrest Gossett asked if they might still have some discussion and he said, "Mr. Mayor, I appreciate the passion you have for your agenda, but I don't hear anything about the other wards." Immediately, without hesitation Guccione jumped in, "It's not my agenda," like the word "agenda" had become a dirty word to him. He's pressed this issue at every opportunity for months and now that it's called what it is, he gets all huffy.

 

On several occasions Guccione referred to paying for the signs and the increased police presence needed to enforce the program by using the fines generated by the new ordinance. Someone must have pissed in his Cheerios  that morning because he really got hostile with President of the Board, Rick Stokes, when Stokes said, "Mayor, I hope I heard you wrong when you said this program will be funded by the fines collected by it. I thought this was a safety issue, not a revenue generator. If that's what you said, I will not support it." Guccione's blood pressure shot up, "I never said that. I said, the fines could be used to pay for it." What the hell did he say, what's the difference? He said the program is a revenue generator to sustain the program regardless of semantics. Then Guccione said, "You're making this a political issue and I'm offended by it." WHAT! Where the hell did that come from? He still has an unbearable 1050 days in office, is he campaigning for 2016 already? Leave it to Guccione to bring politics into it, that's all he knows. This heated discussion went on for a few minutes before Guccione finally got so flustered (that he couldn't defend his asinine statements) he banged the gavel to end it.

 

But that wasn't the end of it. After Guccione told staff he would talk with them about the issue, like a little kid who needs to have the last word on everything, he said, "I guess I can't offer an opinion, so I'll do it in private." So now he's implicating the staff in his plot to use the double-fine program as a revenue generator.  As said on numerous occasions, Guccione can't handle pressure and he doesn't think well on his feet. All he had to say was; he misspoke and that the funds to support the program will be taken from the general fund. It probably wouldn't have been a bad idea to apologize to the President of the Board, Aldermen, and city, but he's not too good at admitting he's wrong, about anything.

 

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The board voted to allow the Mayor to take over certain duties of the City Administrator, one was to approve liquor licenses. Now he doesn't need to pardon business owners who don't file on time, he can just sign it, and say "vote for me, or anyone I support."

 

Normally, The City Administrator takes down a list of board actions and keeps the work session topic list so this task has fallen to our mayor. Well, I see he's delegated those tasks to our already overburdened City Clerk. I guess that means everything Guccione inherited when he took over the duties from our City Administrator will be piled on his staff mules to keep his time free to campaign, politic, and strut around city hall with his chest pushed out and head held high. All Hail King Nickolas!

 

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In retrospect, it's going to be difficult for today's police department to cover these double-fine streets effectively and I'm sure they will need more officers, patrol cars, and equipment. I believe our police department does an outstanding job protecting our citizens, whether it's dangerous drivers or armed criminals, but I also think they have reached their saturation point. If they take officers away from their regular duties to handle double-fine areas, something has to give. I personally know many members of our law enforcement community and I know they do a lot of overtime just to do their job. Chief Lisa Harrison has her hands full just trying to keep this city safe, if Guccione insists on making this "Safe Zone" work, it means putting a strain on our police protection.

Our Public Works Department is strained to the max., there is a shortage in manpower and budget. I know somehow they'll get the signs made and posted but the Public Works Director, Ms. Susan Mueller has a radically reduced staff and hiring new engineers to replace the two who left should be of the highest priority for our mayor. We have now given contracts to outside firms to handle the manpower shortage at $145 per hour. The clock is ticking.

Unfortunately, our mayor has ignored the current staffing problems at Public Works and the strained situation with our Police Department to work within their budget, and he's elected to go for the feel-good "Safe Zones." The bottom line is that Mayor Nickolas Guccione's priority is VOTES!