The Ambush!

 

September 25, 2013 marked the beginning of the end for one of the best, most responsible Board of Aldermen to have ever joined forces to bring Wentzville out of the governmental Dark Ages. I thought perhaps it might have happened next April when our illustrious mayor, Nickolas Guccione, would continue with his hobby of election tampering to get a couple of his hand-picked candidates elected. If you've followed the career of his last selection; Ward 3 Alderman Michael Hays, who has done absolutely nothing but take up space and support his master, you'd see the quality of Guccione's unconscious siftings. However, Guccione preempted the April election and schmoozed two fearful and disgruntled aldermen to underscore his lunacy; Cheryl Kross and Sonya Shryock.

I have a friend who is a photographer and she likes to photograph inanimate objects that appear to be alive. I laughed and she asked me what was so funny? I told her that she needs to come to city hall and snap a few shots of our Mayor Guccione and Alderman Hays, but I digress.

Without knowledge of the President of the Board, Rick Stokes, Alderman Sonya Shryock, on the advice of Guccione and/or Kross, pushed a political snowball down the hill which ultimately crashed into Alderman Forrest Gossett. It is believed Guccione got Shryock to add an impromptu item under "Other New Business" dealing with the ethics policy. Her addition was a prelude to Guccione taking command of an ambush of Gossett, without him being perceived the aggressor. This act of pugnacity was completely staged by Guccione—Shryock was his unwitting sock-puppet as I will explain later.

To preface: Gossett had sent an email to the mayor and aldermen stating that he had contacted an old friend of his who was employed by  the firm contracted to do the city's audit. He was questioning the bill the company had sent to the City of Wentzville. The environment in City Hall got hectic with outlandish predeterminations and Guccione was leaping to conclusions with joy that one of the aldermen whom he had no control over had committed an ethics violation. Guccione was determined to make a huge production of it and put his political slash-and-burn mode in high gear.

Enter Shryock, who has issues with Gossett anyway. She and Guccione cooked up the plan for her to surprise everyone at the meeting to call Gossett on the carpet so Guccione could attempt to make him, Stokes and Gard look bad without being the instigator, he left that for Shryock. What they didn't know is that Gossett knew he'd displayed poor judgement and was prepared to announce it during his alderman's report. In addition, prior to the meeting, he had informed the President of the Board, Stokes, of his intentions. If there is ever any indication of wrong-doing of any elected official by another, proper procedure is to contact the President of the Board. Had Shryock followed proper procedures, she would have contacted Alderman Stokes with her concerns and found out what was going to happen. Instead, she pushed the snowball and let Guccione take over. The reason I know this to be true is: It wasn't on the agenda, but Guccione was ready, he cited the article and paragraph of the violation in the ethics policy, it's too bad he didn't understand it. Normally, he can hardly remember his own address, much less quoting the ethics policy.

As the heated discussion escalated, Guccione slobbered: "We either have policies or we don't. We either follow them or we don't. Everybody makes mistakes so when I make one, I don't want all of you building a guillotine in the back room to hang me. I have to watch my back all the time, accusations come from all sides." He's referring to when he violated city ordinance by using the City logo on his campaign literature. That was no mistake, that was criminal, and Mayor Lambi had to issue an executive pardon to spare Guccione the shame and cost of being prosecuted. Guccione simply doesn't understand that when more than half of the registered voters in Wentzville didn't vote for him, he has a huge target on his back—surprise, surprise, it comes with the job.

Unfortunately, the video of the meeting has still not been posted so accounts are from my notes and memory. If I were Guccione, I'd be glad that it hasn't been posted because it would prove that he was the aggressor in this matter.

As frustrations grew, Gossett read the emails (for the record) between him and the friend with the auditing firm. The emails clearly indicated that Gossett did nothing illegal and the allegation of a violation is unfounded. According to the letter of the policy, it was confirmed by the City Attornery; there was no personal gain or manipulation by Gossett, consequently, no violation of the ethics policy. For his poor judgement Gossett apologized, admitted his mistake, and in answer to Guccione's incessant attack he said, "Mr. Mayor, as I see it, you have one of two choices; you can either censure me or start impeachment proceedings." This is when I thought I heard Shryock say, "I didn't mean to start all of this." During the entire battle royal, Alderman Cheryl Kross said nothing in the defense of her old friend and kept her head down—she knew this was going to happen.

I know Guccione was using this confrontation in an effort to minimize his unethical election behavior of the last two years. I further believe, he is using this instance to assist him with his future ethics violations in the upcoming election of April 2014. Guccione is a sneaky little rascal, always looking for diversions and justifications for his lack of ethics and incompetence in the job. For his information, the target on his back will not get any smaller until he realized that he is unfit to lead the city and he steps down. Furthermore, He is blaming everyone for everything that goes wrong during his term, but the day will come after he's out of office that the citizens of Wentzville will not remember the aldermen or the staff, everything that went wrong during his administration will rest squarely on his back. If he doesn't believe that, he can ask Vickie Boedeker or Paul Lambi about their legacies.

Dear Mayor Nickolas Guccione: When you choose a thankless job —lie, cheat, and steal to get it—you can't be upset when nobody thanks you! Oh, and before you jump to conclusions and build a gallows you should be careful, it could be yours.

PSS: The dominoes are falling. Guccione's platform has termites and there's no place for him to hide. For the next couple of months City Hall watchers won't be cheated on their entertainment, there is BIG news popping in City Hall. Send in the clowns ... Oops! ... they're already here.

 

The Coup De'état

 

It is extremely unfortunate when a city's residents and businesses have governors who sell out to politics. Elected officials forfeit their personal values and ideals, and turn their backs on their constituents to grab for the political brass ring. Wentzville has had that problem with its mayor since he first sought election as an Alderman seven years ago. Nickolas Guccione's life is political, it's not about issues or service to his community, it has always been all about the race and getting elected.

 

Wentzville has had the strongest Board of Aldermen it has seen in years, only because they had values and ran for office to make their city a better place. Regrettably, things have changed drastically with the election of Mayor Nickolas Guccione who used his dirty, smear, and win at any cost campaigns to deceive just enough voters to win. Two of our Aldermen for whom I had great respect, have sold out and are now doing the bidding of their new political overseer; Nickolas Guccione. Aldermen Cheryl Kross and Sonya Shryock whose popularity has been waning for the last six to nine months abandoned their desire to make Wentzville a better place to join forces with arguably the worst mayor in the history of our city.

 

It all started about nine months ago when Kross turned on the city and flipped on her vote to reject Guccione's appointment to the Ward 3 seat; Michael Hays. Some speculate that she didn't want to start a political war and once again, subject herself to Guccione's dirty campaign machine—fearing for her election prospect, she gave into political pressure. Then came her petty war with Board President, Rick Stokes, all because she thought she should have had that job—things started going downhill rapidly for Wentzville's city government. Kross was a well-respected champion for conservative values, but now because her attitude has been leaning more toward the values of our apathetically-political mayor, she's become what some call a penny-pinching RINO (Republican In Name Only). What's even worse, she's turned against her mentor, strong supporter, and good friend, Alderman Forrest Gossett, who had been one of her strongest allies.

 

Kross befriended Alderman Sonya Shryock, whose record has been lacking, and the two of them started voting as a block against Aldermen Stokes, Gossett, and Chris Gard. Guccione, who is only lacking in qualifications, oh, and city business, but a cunning political reprobate, saw the split and is now using it to his advantage. The lunch witnessed by citizens between Guccione and Shryock several weeks ago was not a casual get-together, it was the beginning of a political coup d'état.

 

Shryock knows her bid for re-election will more than likely end in failure, but if she were to be a loyal ally of Guccione, he would not put anyone up to run against her next April, and lend her his support. Unfortunately for Wentzville given this scenario, her constituents will not be electing a representative, but a sock-puppet of Kross and Guccione. This is the way it works when dedicated and caring elected officials start to feel that their job is more important than the people they represent.

 

I really liked both Kross and Shryock and it saddens me to see them cheapen themselves to enter into this most vile and unholy alliance with our totally unqualified Socialist mayor. It's ironic, both Kross and Shryock despised Guccione until a petty dispute of not being board president, and the fear of not being re-elected set in.

 

I was going to continue with more of the Board of Aldermen meeting of September 25th, but I needed to set the stage (so to speak) for the next revolting development of that night. Shryock, Guccione, and Kross were totally out of line with their political ambush of Alderman Forrest Gossett. The board dynamic has drastically changed and was illustrated on September 25, 2013. The Wentzvillian will post what transpired next Monday,

 

 



"I'll Have No Truck With Plot" —Sheldon Cooper

 

Last night's marathon Board of Aldermen meeting hadn't ended for the aldermen when I left at 12:45 AM — they were all cozy in the back room in executive session when I decided I'd had enough fun for one day. Fun was the word for it too, in all the years I've been watching Wentzville city government I've never witnessed a more bizarre meeting. This meeting could have easily lasted until three in the morning had the aldermen not deferred five discussion items to the next regular board meeting. So much happened that I know I'm going to miss something during the reporting. However, I'm confident that my screw-ups will pale by comparison to the mishandling of the meeting and pufferous-buffoonery of our Mayor Nickolas Guccione.

 

I will not be able to cover even a small portion of what transpired last night, so I'll start with the item I thought the most ridiculous and try to elucidate in as few paragraphs as possible. If at anytime you get lost, I suggest you go to the city's video of the meeting and see if it's any less confusing there (good luck). But first, in Guccione's inimitable style (or lack of); after the call to order and the pledge, he decided not to have an official roll call and skipped right on down to approval of the agenda. Later he gave the wrong bill number on a second reading making me wonder if the vote was legal, and he continuously introduced bills to be read "by title only" which is the duty of the aldermen, not the mayor, but what the hell, he is the King.

 

Getting down to "NEW BUSINESS, Item 6, (ID#4799) Municipal Legal Services (City Attorney)," a cut and dried vote to approve the recommendation of the Professional Services Committee to accept Vogel, Cunningham & Rost Law Firm turned into a nightmare. After Alderman Forrest Gossett read the findings and gave the scores of the competitive bidders, Alderman Sonya Shryock made the statement; "I don't like that the board doesn't get to interview the bidders." This isn't the first time I've heard her say that, but this time it started a rhubarb that still has me shaking my head this morning.

 

I don't know the exact count of aldermen and directors who comprise the Professional Services Committee but I do know that at least two aldermen and three staff members are involved. The formation and parameters of this committee were created by this very board and has become a part of the Purchasing Policy which was recently approved and adopted by ordinance of this board. It appears that if there were objections, they should have been aired out long before thousands of staff hours were expended to write such an in-depth document. It must be remembered that our City Attorney is not an employee and as such, does not fall under scrutiny of the board other than to have their contract approved or disapproved, interviews take place at the committee level. The ensuing discussion raised brows throughout chambers.

 

What I found interesting is that there was a vote not to accept the recommendation of the committee and reinvestigate the process of selection. Those voting "No" (to accept the recommendation) were Shryock, Cheryl Kross, and Michael Hays, voting yes were; Chris Gard, Rick Stokes, and Forrest Gossett. Guess who got to break the tie with a "No" vote? The subject of investigating the process is opening a can of worms — if they decide to change the process it means that the board is once again micromanaging the city by interviewing every professional services company to ever bid on a service to the city.

 

Now it's time for a little preface to this subject: I know that Kross does not like the law firm representing the City and that they fell out of grace with Guccione, probably because he didn't get the answers he wanted from them when he was going through his and Mayor Lambi's ethics problems. Kross and Shryock have become very close in the last year-and-a-half and have been voting as a block of late. Hays is a total zero on the board and would do anything to please his benefactor, Nick Guccione. This sounds like the days of The Lurchettes when they were creating problems for the city and costing tax-payers in the process.

 

I believe Shryock made a huge mistake bringing this forward and that her decision to do so was influenced by Kross and Guccione. I've gone on record saying, I've been disappointed recently with some of Kross' actions and that she has fallen prey to the Third Term Crazies, it appears that Shryock has stumbled into lock-step with her. It's a known fact that Kross is still seething about not getting to be board president and has had a huge falling out with Stokes, communication has broken down, and she has been dragging Shyrock over to her side.

 

There are many ramifications to what happened last night on this subject, all of which will burden our already overworked staff, and waste valuable city resources. This board is clearly divided, just like Guccione wanted, and we must thank Alderman Cheryl Kross for it's demise as an effective body. I'm disheartened that her vendetta toward Board President, Rick Stokes, has taken this once well-oiled government machine to a rusty hunk 'o junk (Lurchettes), in just six months. I'm sorry that The Wentzvillian ever supported her in her last election, that mistake will not be repeated.

 

What happened last night in regard to this item has proven to me that The Wentzvillian's polls are correct: look at them, see which aldermen are the most effective and asks the most relevant questions. It all boils down to the fact is that the Mayor (who has a 19 percent job approval rating) and Kross (one of the least effective aldermen and asks the most irrelevant questions) do not like our City Attorney, Paul Rost. I believe Aldermen Shryock and Hays are taking part in a plot to remove him from his position, and that the subject to reevaluate the selection process is simply a cover for the conspiracy. I agree with Wentzville's most effective aldermen on the board: Gard, Gossett, and Stokes who sided to approve our City Attorney, and keep the process of selection intact (I have a hunch that the City staff does too). 

 

 

Let's See How Much $ I Can Waste Today!

 

I'm trying very hard to respect the mayor of Wentzville, Nickolas Guccione, but every day I am presented with more and more challenges to that endeavor. I'm sure I hold the office of Mayor in great esteem, however King Nickolas is killing me with his constant ideas on better ways to waste city time, resources, and tax-payer dollars.

 

This past Sunday I wrote a piece that has yet to be posted because I was waiting for some information about his wasting city money. The information has come now, but I won't post it until after I relieve myself of a more recent burden King Nickolas has placed on my mind and the tax-payers pockets. This guy, who calls himself the CEO of Wentzville is in reality the most inane, unlettered individual to ever claim the honorable position of mayor.

 

It has been stated numerous times that Guccione has an inability to communicate or literate in any capacity of the office. Today, I learned that our mighty Potentate has a problem with his memory, which I suspected for some time. He cannot remember what was said in the meetings he has with his staff. I always figured that he couldn't read his own notes, but in actuality, he doesn't take notes—he relies on his memory, which has undoubtedly begun to fail him.

 

When one of his staff tries to remind him of what he said, or was said to him, he sometimes doesn't believe them. I don't know why, but he went to our celebrated City Attorney, Paul Rost to see what he could do about his new-found problem.  Rost advised him to take his Administrative Assistant, Ms. Lisa Etling to the meetings to take notes for him. I'm sure Rost was referring to his weekly, Thursday morning staff meetings, but Guccione has decided to take Ms. Etling along with him to take notes anytime he drops in the offices of his staff or visa-versa. If you wanted to jog your memory, wouldn't it be cheaper for you to buy a pocket recorder, Mr. Mayor? Hell, the City might even pop for one if you ask nicely. I'd even buy you one if you would agree to release your Administrative Assistant from her shackles and let her do her job.

So here we are, Mayor Guccione has Ms. Etling following him around city hall writing down every word he utters or that is uttered to him, during all of his conversations with the city's directors. It might not be as bad as it sounds because he's only at city hall one day a week and he's out campaigning half of that day. He has dumped all of the tasks of the city administrator on the directors and now he's taking away precious time from Ms. Etling. A word to all city employees, don't stand around in one place very long because Guccione will pile some more of his duties on you. When you have a man like Guccione in power who has the corporate mentality of a gnat, there's never enough slaves to satisfy the overseer.

With everyone in city hall doing Guccione's work, and that of the city administrator (which was assigned to him), what is left for him to do but strut and puff? Every initiative he's brought to the Board of Aldermen, has or will cost the city money, and now he's taking more time away from city staff to do another job he should be doing.  C'mon Nickolas, at least make an effort to take your own damn notes.

I'll be back real soon with more of King Nickolas' spend, spend, spend trend way of doing business at city hall, stay tuned.

 

And God Said ... "I Don't Remember"

 

Much was discussed during the six-hour meeting of September 11th and I'll try to report on a few of the highlights without getting side tracked by the lack of our Mayor's participation—or his fashion trend. The overwhelming preponderance of the evening's talk was focused on finances. There were reviews of various projects, but I think everyone already knows that Splash Station is a half-million dollars over budget and now scheduled to open in November. I hope our Wentzville residents bring their fur-lined bikinis and thermal-Speedos to the grand opening.

 

On April 4, 2013 The Wentzvillian posted Mayor Guccione—First Year Review  which listed Mayor Nickolas Guccione's accomplishments of 2012. Unfortunately, he didn't give the City a list of initiatives for 2012, so I listed only his accomplishments.

 

Now we get to Board objectives, when each Alderman had the opportunity to tell the people of Wentzville their accomplishments for 2013 and their vision of what needs to be done for 2014. After they finished, Guccione attempted to move forward with the agenda when Board President, Rick Stokes asked; "Mr. Mayor, don't you want to give the public the status of your 2013 goals and objectives?" This is becoming cliché, but after King Nickolas shook off his thousand-yard stare, he said, "I don't remember what they were, and I didn't bring them with me." WHAT!!! On March 29, 2013 The Wentzvillian posted; 4 Days to the Election, and... where Guccione's goals and objectives for 2013 were listed. It was fun to go back and see just how many have been pursued or realized by the Almighty, can anyone say; NONE?

 

Guccione is famous for saying some pretty imbecilic things, but "I don't remember ... ," (referring to his goals and objectives) has to be one of the all-time most dicrous statements ever made by a seated mayor. Isn't it the job of a mayor to have a vision and work toward seeing it through, how could he not remember? To hear him say, "I don't remember ... " is like hearing a gunfighter say, "Hold on a second, I didn't remember to load my pistol and I didn't bring any bullets."

 

I find it totally irresponsible that for the second year Guccione is not telling the people and staff his goals for the future, and now can't remember his objectives from last year. The city is going into budget mode, shouldn't the mayor tell the city what he wants to accomplish in 2014 so it could be budgeted? So what is really going on?

 

Guccione is not, and never has been one to set goals. If he were to announce anything he wants to do, he would then take ownership of a potential failure. He doesn't want to take responsibility for anything that might not happen—to him it would be political suicide. If he ever does commit to something and it doesn't happen you can make book on him already having a list of people in his pocket to blame for the failure. I've heard from several of my sources that he is already blaming the last two City Administrators; T. Michael McDowell and George Kolb, for things that he himself should have taken care of. He gets away with it because one is in another state, and the other passed away. Deceive, divert, and redirect, is and always has been Guccione's mode of operation. Never take responsibility, never commit, and always have someone to blame it on.

 

Politics is our mayor's first priority; getting elected and re-elected is his objective. It has been this way since he first ran for alderman in 2007 and that position has never changed. Keeping his eye on the political ball and controlling every election comes before any City of Wentzville business. Right now, our mayor is out knocking on doors furthering his political agenda to replace Aldermen: Rick Stokes, Sonya Shryock, and Forrest Gossett with his own candidates. It's the same every year, controlling the Board of Aldermen, that is his vision for 2014. He's not committing to anything to better Wentzville, he wants total power over the city. There is absolutely no chance of you ever hearing him say; "I didn't remember the election," or any aspect of it.

 

The King's New Clothes

 

The Wentzvillian has a reader who goes by the name; "Meat Grinder," and on August 16, 2013, he/she posted a comment on Got Ho-Lotta-Mo (click here) that I thought fitting to begin this post: 

 

Thursday I stopped by city hall to pick up information. City staff was well dressed in business attire, very professional in appearance. There was your strong and capable mayor in a tee shirt and jeans wearing a ball cap sitting at his desk. I asked a city worker were jeans allowed and the reply was on Fridays only. I guess the strong and capable leader missed that memo. I will return to city hall in 2 weeks on a Thursday and can't wait to see if he finally read the memo.

Before I get started, I hope no one other than Wentzville people watched the video of last night's Board of Aldermen meeting, but I hope the voting residents watch it twice. The reason: Mayor Nickolas Guccione trotted out his new GQ look for on-the-rise urban politico's, and in the opinion of this writer, he was an embarrassment to our fair city.

In Guccione's first year as mayor, I thought he dressed quite dapper, as a matter of fact, I was impressed by his fashion sense, I should have known it wouldn't last. Now I'm wondering if who ever has been dressing him every morning overslept, and King Nickolas snuck out before the morning inspection. He was wearing all black; pants and t-shirt, the only visible color was a large red tattoo on his right shoulder. At first I thought it might be a pack of Luckies rolled up in his sleeve, but it was indeed a tattoo. Honest to God, if he had a beer in his hand, I'd have sworn we were in some sleazy bar.

The staff was very well dressed; the ladies wore slacks and nice blouse, one even wore a business suit, very professional; the men all wore either a suit, or sports coat and tie, again very business like. The same went for the aldermen; the ladies wore skirts or slacks and business-like blouses; two of the men wore suits (I can't help admiring Alderman Gard's stylish suits, very cool), and the other two wore open collar white dress shirts but at least Alderman Stokes wore a suit coat. All-in-all, a pretty snazzy looking group.

Now we get to our mayor; in all the years I've been watching Wentzville politics, I have never seen a mayor dressed like a slob while conducting city business from the dais. I've seen an alderman do it on occasion but never a mayor, by the way, that alderman only lasted one term. I've seen Guccione slobbing around town, and even at his home, and that's fine, but I never in my wildest dreams ever thought he would disrespect the office of mayor and shame his constituents by wearing a black t-shirt and displaying his body-art on international TV. Anyone from anywhere, watching last night's video must be thinking that Wentzville is full of inbred hillbillies.

It's bad enough that every time he opens his mouth and mumbles something, or attempts to read a  bill or resolution, it's like watching a third-grader running the city. Speaking of third-grade, didn't all of us learn how to read Roman numerals in grade-school? At least I know I did. It's a sad state of affairs when a mayor tries to read a bill or public hearing and stumbles over the first Roman numeral he comes to so badly that he utters; "I can't read Roman numerals." So what does he do? Every time he comes to one, he skips over it, he doesn't even try to read it. Guccione is the man we elected to safeguard taxpayers money. To put us at ease that our budget is sound and that our city finances are in good hands. I'm not getting a real warm and gooey feeling here! God, I pray there are no Roman numerals on balance sheets.

I'm going to end here but I promise to come back and talk about last night's six hour and ten minute Board of Aldermen meeting which mostly had to do with finances and budget. It was a treat! I'm sorry I got so side-tracked with fashion but I was really embarrassed for our city last night. I'll try not to talk any more about King Nickolas' new clothes.

 

First 18 Months Has Been A Real Bell-Ringer

 

Wentzville has some serious problems, everyone including the aldermen realize it, so why is it that seemingly no one is trying to solve them? First off, Mayor Nickolas Guccione cannot do anything because he's clueless, not because he doesn't have the authority to step up and do something, but because he is seriously clueless. He can hardly read a resolution, does anyone really think he reads anything that comes across his desk? The answer to that is: absolutely not!

 

We have Aldermen who are micro-managing the city because Guccione is clueless. We have high ranking city employees who have left and are still leaving Wentzville at an alarming rate because Guccione is clueless. Management is having difficulty communicating with Guccione because he doesn't, or chooses not to, comprehend what they are telling him–he is clueless. I've got to tell you, I don't know how much longer this will be allowed to go on before Wentzville implodes under the inept hand of Mayor Nickolas Guccione.

 

Lots of folks think I'm picking on poor, poor Nickolas again, to that I say horse pucky! I have too much respect for Wentzville to have it driven into the ground by some North County Socialist blow-hole who's only claim to fame is getting elected. Incompetence, and negligence of duty used to be sufficient reasons to have anyone removed from office. Start the damn process, whatever it is! Several friends have told me that I need to lighten up on Guccione. Ok, I'll just state the facts:

 

So what has Mayor Nickolas Guccione chosen to do since being elected almost 18 months ago? Our mayor, Nickolas Guccione was pardoned by the outgoing mayor for crimes against the city during the election of 2012. Nothing was done. For the last several months he's been knocking on doors campaigning for his next election while trying to get some new initiatives to claim for his own. So far his initiatives have been; trying to get Pearce Blvd. renamed to Martin Luther King Blvd., instead of trying to get a new City Administrator to replace the one he had fired. He flexed his new-found muscles, proving to the city that he is the almighty with his  relentless "It's my appointment, it's my appointment, it's my appointment" speech, and at the same time firing the Public Works Director to cover for his own negligence. He abused his executive power when he pardoned a retail owner for not filing for its liquor license on time saying; "It was kinda like an emergency." That alone should have rung the bell in the stupid booth. He tried to have everyone pay a $28 tax to pay for a few people every year whose sewer or water laterals break. Once from the dais, he told citizens that he wanted stricter gun laws in Wentzville, that ought to be a party. Now he's railing for "double fine zones" that Wentzville cannot possibly enforce. He should be in his office solving the problems we have today, not out on the streets campaigning or digging up more costly lunacy to bring to the board, in the name of; "the will of the people."

The city is missing a City Administrator, an Economic Development Manager, and two key engineers who were assigned to parks projects. The Purchasing Director has handed in his retirement papers and I believe they still need to replace the assistant finance director and accounts payable manager. So, what's going on? Mayor Nickolas Guccione is out walking the streets drumming up votes for his next election and along the way, bringing more, "will of the people" items to present to the board. I ask this board: What is the job of a Mayor? Is it necessary for the board to micro-manage the city? What the hell is Guccione supposed to be doing if not keeping his staff intact.

 

In a past life I had a manager once who would "promote someone out of a problem." When he ran into some middle-management incompetence he would promote the problem employee laterally and remove them from the flow. It's too bad we can't do that with Guccione. Since this board of aldermen chose not to have Guccione brought up on charges, or penalized in any way, for his ethics violations during the election of 2013, a great number of citizens are disgusted by their lack of action. It almost seems like they don't really care that we have someone sitting in the main seat of our city who is clueless. They seem to be content with having a leader of our city do nothing! Citizens should be afforded aldermen who are responsive to a mayor who is clueless.

So now, If you still think I'm picking on poor, poor Nickolas, tell me what I've stated that isn't true! And then tell me what he is doing to fix the many problems he has avoided in the performance of his duties. One thing for sure, Mayor Nickolas Guccione is on target to go down in the history of this city as the worst it has ever seen.