It's A Party Invitation! Part I

On February 9, 2012 The Wentzvillian featured: "Grab Your Popcorn, Gather the Family, and Enjoy," this post has become the most read post since The Wentzvillian appeared four years ago. It reported on a Board of Aldermen meeting that was a classic. That one meeting inspired at least three subsequent posts and was one of the most enjoyable meetings I've ever attended. Unfortunately for Mayor-elect Guccione, it revolved mainly around his campaign ethics, or lack thereof. I have been waiting for another party for journalists in City Hall and although some meetings have been fun, none have contained the sparkle and notoriety of February 9th.

It's T minus 78:22:54 and counting until a new Mayor is sworn-in and the agenda for the April 25th Board of Aldermen meeting was released yesterday. There are items on the agenda for next Wednesday's meeting that could make February 9th look like a little league watermelon seed-spitting competition by comparison. I've identified six items on the agenda that will cause grief for Mayor Lambi and/or Mayor-elect Guccione.

First, and most important, right out of the chute under "Unfinished Business" is: "Item 2. (ID # 3840) Use of the City Logo," this is what I spoke about—the public spanking of Nick Guccione. He was the recipient of a letter from the City Attorney, Paul Rost, who laid out some of Guccione's violations and stated: "The City would ask that, in the future, you please refrain from the unauthorized use of the City's logo..." This friendly warning letter is just a formality, I look to see the Aldermen bend him over just to make sure he remembers that City copyright and trademark infringements are a no-no.

The next; "Item 3. (ID # 3839) Conclusion of the investigation of Payment to Westplex Sports & Entertainment L.O.C., LLC." Here we go, the famous $15,000 check. Again under "Unfinished Business," paragraph: "Memorandum," packet page 105 is the "Conclusions and Recommendations." Lambi ordered Rost to investigate this matter in an effort to clear his name of any wrong-doing. Unfortunately for him, I believe he was only concerned about the money and almost sure he didn't figure on what the City Attorney did find. Rost found no proof that Lambi pocketed any money from this check but he did conclude that there was a conflict of interests or at least the perception of wrong-doing. Something tells me that the information within this investigation was not supposed to be made public and I really believe that someone made a huge mistake putting it in the full agenda packet. This should have probably been brought to the Board for them to decide whether or not to make it public.  If my estimation is true, I'd hate to be the dude (probably our Acting City Administrator) who pulled this boner, at any rate, it appears that Lambi's legal woes and fees will continue to escalate.

Now we go to "Bills and Resolutions," Item 5. This Item deals with the creation of the new HR and Purchasing Departments. I've talked about this twice on recent blogs and Guccione is opposing it because it would put the managers of these respective departments out of reach to the conventional employee hiring and firing policies. It's alleged that Guccione has riled up certain employees to discredit Purchasing Manager Jerry Hillin and now they want his head for doing his job. Guccione will get to vote on this issue again Wednesday night but he will not be able to stop it. He was the only "Nay" vote at the last meeting and he will be the only "Nay" vote next Wednesday night.

There are three other items on the agenda that will be very interesting but I'm going to hold those until Monday when I'll post them, there's just not enough time or room to include it here today. All in all, I look for another fun-filled, action-packed meeting and I hope you all get to watch. History will be made next Wednesday, one mayor will exit in scandal and a new Mayor will be sworn-in under a shroud of shame. It's gonna be a party!

City Logo, Public Domain?

Something that I've addressed in the past is the illegal use of the GM and City of Wentzville logos by Alderman Nick Guccione on his campaign literature. It was pointed out numerous times that they are proprietary and off limits without written authorization from the City. The logo was designed by Leon Tow and copyrighted by the City. I saw a campaign flier designed by Tow's committee for Mayor which illustrated the flag he had designed. Tow approached the city attorney asking his opinion and he suggested that it should not be used, even though it was taken prior to the copyright. Regatding the GM logo, I heard that Guccione got a nasty letter from GM but I have no information of any litigation or fine.

Wednesday evening, April 11th, during Guccione's Alderman's report, He apologized to the Board saying "it was used inadvertently" on some of his campaign fliers. I don't believe that it was an accident. I believe his use of the city logo was strategic. Even though none of the other candidates turned him over to the Ethics Board, where there would have been fines levied, the unauthorized use of copyrights is a serious offense. The Library of Congress has a team of attorneys waiting to be called in to deal with violators, which includes severe fines and even jail time. He said: "I didn't use it for promotion" which begs the question; why did he use it?

Guccione said to the Board that he takes responsibility for his committee and went on to tell them that he is ready to take any punishment or fine they deem appropriate. Guccione filed at least three ethics violations against candidates in this past election which resulted in fines for those candidates. He knew what he was doing then and realizes that at least one of those candidates won their election, that Alderman might not feel so forgiving. Guccione ran a terribly intrusive campaign with slander and ethics violations at it's core. He knew that those candidates would be fined by his actions and it will be interesting to see how his apology is received by this board, half of which were at the butt of his slam campaign and none of them returned his volleys.

Copyright fines at the Library of Congress are stiff and based on a per instance basis. Guccione used the city logo at least six times that I saw, there could be more. Copyright fines could start at $500 for the first instance and increased with each subsequent violation. Even at a flat rate fine of $500 per instance, Guccione could be in for a  lot more than he was looking for when he made his apology.

I don't know the city procedure for levying fines for copyright infringements but I'm sure something needs to be done. If nothing happens and the fine is minimal, I can see companies around town using it on their letterhead. Hell if it's cheap enough, I might even consider using it here on The Wentzvillian. It's in the hands of the Aldermen and city attorney. I wonder, since it's not a personnel issue, or land acquisition, would it be litigation and be held in closed session? I hope not, if it were a public hearing, the citizens would know that it's not OK to use the city logo and that healthy fines would insure it stay out of the public domain.