Cry Havoc and Unleash the Dogs of War

The Board of Alderman's regular meeting of October 12th, 2011 held no mercy for our  omnipresent, Chief Executive Officer, and all mighty potentate; Mayor Paul Lambi. It all started during the "Alderman's Reports" when Alderman Kross wanted the city to entertain a resolution which would not allow elected officials to solicit money for private citizens or organizations from other elected officials during open session. The suggested resolution was not just a shot across the bow of Lambi's rowboat, it was a full frontal attack. Watching him squirm during the short ten minutes of this process was worth every minute of enduring the subsequent three hours of blight. In order to understand this seemingly insignificant resolution we'll have to go back in time:

I truly believe Mayor Lambi is a good and generous man but I also believe he is not an effective or even competent mayor. Never the less, he has always had a tendency to bring his benevolence into city hall with inappropriate liberal requests of the board and city. Just a few weeks ago during his "Mayor's Report" he told of a homeowner who ran over his water meter with a lawn mower and could not afford to pay the $180 it costs to replace it. Lambi offered the first $75 of his own money to help and publicly solicited the aldermen to contribute to help out. Another incident was several months ago in a public meeting. He proposed that the city enter into a "contract for services" with the 501c LINC Corporation in the amount of $18,000. Their county funding had all but dried up and Lambi thought sure that the aldermen would buy-in under public pressure. Prior to these, over the last five years he has wanted the city to pay for all sorts of give-aways to needy organizations or individuals. When The Lurchettes were in power, they were all too incompetent to know they were being used and granted many of his cornball ideas.

Lambi defended his right to say anything in board meetings because it's a constitutional right—freedom of speech—even to the extent of calling on City Attorney, Paul Rost for support of his argument. Rost explained that any citizen can come into the meeting during open forum and exercise their constitutional rights. As far as elected officials, there are policies of behavior at the Dias and the aldermen can amend or drive those policies in any direction they want. Alderman Vann Sample suddenly turned into a junk yard dog joining in on the meal: "The citizens who come to open forum are allowed to ask for support of anything they wish, but when an elected official uses their report to ask others to support some personal cause, I believe it to be inappropriate behavior." It is embarrassing to the elected officials as well as the community to be put on the spot in a public meeting with requests for support of financial or other needs. If Lambi is seeking support for something, he needs to talk with the aldermen before springing it on them unexpectedly in the middle of a video taped public meeting.  All of the aldermen except for Tow and Guccione chimed in on the sound drubbing of Lambi and his unethical tactics.

I'm certain that Lambi promises people things and then purposely puts the alderman in uncomfortable situations in an attempt to keep his promises. What it really serves to do is embarrass and further alienate them. Lambi invited the LINC Corporation chairman to lobby in an attempt to shame the alderman into donating money for their cause to the board of crickets. The latest incident (paying for the water meter) is what took the aldermen over the edge and unleash the dogs of war.

If you haven't taken the time to watch board meetings at; wentzvillemo.org, you've missed out on a great many nuances that fill in the blanks during a proposal such as that offered by Kross. From the casual audience, the introduction of this resolution would sound like any other political mumbo-jumbo, but when you're an informed citizen, not only do you know what's going on—you'll have a better government. The election of our representatives is extremely important. The men and women running for office in any community are only incompetent when their communities voters are incompetent. Lambi has illustrated the damage an uninvolved figurehead can do. Please get involved and check out the credentials and records of our candidates before you go to the polls to cast your vote! Wentzville can ill-afford another incompetent Chief Executive Officer but if we do elect one, Cry Havoc and Let Go the Dogs of War!

Rattle Those Pots and Pans

The October 5th board of alderman's work session addressed the budget, another completely enjoyable two hour lesson in drollery. Acting City Administrator Dennis Walsh presented and the entire staff was on hand to field questions.

This board is intent on cutting the budget and completely focused on trimming the fat out of the city. Addressed in The Wentzvillian of September 29th; Payback Time for a Decade of Unbridled Growth, there are some hard choices to be made—reducing taxes and employee benefits are two of the proposed remedies. Alderman Vann Samples is on record that he does not want to lower the real estate taxes and on the other hand he is fighting a reduction in employee benefits. Samples was not in city hall during boom times when the city was increasing the size of Wentzville government so he seems unaware that we have a bureaucracy based on a population of 50,000 citizens, Wentzville falls considerably short of that number today sporting 13,000 platted and 3,700 undeveloped lots. With the election only 5 months away most of the aldermen are tip-toeing around the subject of layoffs but unless staff comes up with the directed half-million dollars, downsizing could be a possibility. Politicizing issues will come more frequent in the coming months.

Speaking of "cutting the fat out of the city," Mayor Lambi was in particularly rare form again last night. During the budget presentation, Alderman Cheryl Kross asked questions of Walsh regarding the reserve funds in every budget department trying to determine if they were non restricted funds. Along about the third time she questioned one of the unallocated funds Lambi had had enough of her inquisition and in his inimitably condescending manner cut in to challenge, "what (possible) value would that be?"

Lambi has a history of treating women aldermen disrespectfully. Since Kross was elected three years ago, he has continuously attempted to intimidate and belittled her in public meetings. In previous years when Peggy Meyer and Cheryl Kross were on the same board, Lambi was particularly aggressive in his quest to make them both look like idiots. There were times that I felt terrible about the abusive verbal beatings they took from Lambi. After one particularly hard badgering he gave Kross, he was called on his attitude toward her and gave an apology to her both publicly and in private. His pseudo remorse didn't last long. These are not isolated or infrequent incidents, any current or past alderman can verify them. Lambi, plain and simply is a chauvinist, his chauvinism is manifested in his public treatment of our women Aldermen. He has shown us that he thinks women don't belong in the political arena, it appears to him they should "get back in that kitchen and rattle those pots and pans." I'm surprised that a husband or close friend of one of these women hasn't invited Mayor Lambi to a meeting on the parking lot.

One highlight of the meeting came when the aldermen asked Walsh about the ongoing investigation of the benefits comparison analysis and when it might be presented for board scrutiny. As Walsh began to answer their question and realizing he didn't have all of the information (which is understandable due to his performance of two major roles,) he called on the Human Resources Director Amy Holloway. She presented a list of items that she and her department are ready to report on which made the alderman's eyes sparkle. I thought she should have taken a bow. Great job Amy! (It's a good thing you're not an alderman and come under the scornful eye of the master.)

More Candidates for 2012 Announce Their Bid

The Wentzville election is more than seven months away and five months from the filing deadline but the number of candidates revealing themselves is swelling. The biggest news and most disheartening for Wentzville is that Mayor Lambi stated in a public forum earlier this week: "The only thing Alderman Leon Tow and I have in common is; we are both running for mayor." Not only does this complicate the mayoral race, it also reveals the narcissist that Lambi is. He fervently believes himself to be the best, most invincible mayor that Wentzville has ever had the privilege of electing. Lambi is also a glutton for punishment if he wants four more years of beatings from this mostly conservative board of aldermen.

With Lambi, in the fold, Tow and Nick Guccione will be in the same predicament as 2008 when Guccione and Lurch butted heads with Lambi—in that race Lambi won with only 36 percent of the vote. Had one of the other candidates stepped back, Lambi would have been sent packing two years ago by a landslide. Perhaps his memory is failing when it comes to the small number of votes he received but what the hell, any self respecting narcissist would call a 36 percent win a slam dunk in his favor. If Tow and Guccione are really interested in the welfare of the city, one of them will back off and let the salvation of Wentzville take place. There are a great number of uninformed voters out there and with three in the race, Lambi could sneak back in again. One other problem is; there's a rumor of a fourth candidate—could be a plant from the Lambi camp to further dilute the vote, it's been known to happen.

Of those known or rumored, this is the line-up of prospective candidates (underlined) for the various wards:

Ward 1: Incumbent Leon Tow is vacating to run for mayor.

Forrest Gossett, is a friend of Alderman Cheryl Kross.

Jay Weber, is a friend of Alderman Nick Guccione.

Ward 2: Incumbent Vann Samples was asked if he is going to run for a second term, his reply was, "Why wouldn't I?"

Donna Sherwood, rumored to be campaign manager for Guccione and a one time Lurchette supporting Bill Schuette and ex mayor Vickie Boedeker. This is Sherwood's third run at a seat.

Dianna Wright rumors are coming more frequently that she may run but a new one has surfaced; she could be running for mayor.

Ward 3: Incumbent Rick Stokes is running for a second term.

Matt Garvey, is a friend of Guccione

A third candidate may be in the hopper.

For the record as it lines up now, The Wentzvillian is supporting; Forrest Gossett for Ward 1 and Rick Stokes in Ward 3. I'm waiting to hear more about the candidates from ward 2. Regarding the mayoral race, the term of office is now four years so I urge voters to take a long-hard look at the records of the candidates before casting their ballots—it's going to be terrible to find out that, one year after the election, we have a chimpanzee headlining the circus.

Footnote: Tow made a good showing when he ran for mayor against Lambi in 2006, for more information go to his website; http://www.leon4mayor.com/. Guccione ran third in his bid against Lambi and Lurch in 2008, when his website is available, it will be posted here. Except for the somewhat inconsistent voting of Alderman Vann Sample, the aldermen incumbents have done a good job of curbing spending and cutting the budget.

2012 Campaign Kick-off at Wabash Days

It's six months until Wentzville citizens go to the polls to cast their vote for a new mayor and three aldermen. You may think this a little early to have candidates positioning themselves but I assure you the drums in at least two of the mayoral camps are beginning to be heard around town. As I stated in earlier blogs, this is going to be a complicated election but as of this writing a couple of the horses have left the gate. So here we go!

Leon Tow, President of the board of aldermen representing ward 1, and Nick Guccione, Alderman of ward 3, both running for the top spot have selected their respective committees and are starting to gear up for next April. Although I'm not usually caught unaware of what's going on in elections, I was surprised to see both candidates availing themselves of the Wentzville Community Club's Wabash Days parade to enter floats. I don't remember their order in the parade but I suppose it's of little consequence, they were however the only candidates entered. Lambi either didn't get the memo, thought he could pass them in the straight-away, or chose not to run. Option three would be best for him, unless he wants to feel, first hand, the agony of defeat.

Tow's procession included three other aldermen, one from each ward; Cheryl Kross from ward 1, and Chris Gard from ward 2 both walked along side greeting spectators and passing out candy for the children (today's equivalent of kissing babies); Rick Stokes of ward 3 drove the tractor pulling Tow, his family, and supporters. All-in-all, a very impressive array of high-profile pundants. In past elections when Lambi and the Lurchettes would be coursing for office, many of them would campaign for each other at the polls but I never saw them clustered up walking in a parade—maybe I'm wrong, I could have mistook them for circus clowns—I didn't pay much attention to them until they got elected, after all, they were only interesting when they were making fools of themselves in the board meetings.

Guccione's float was somewhat less endowed with elected officials, he did however have his family and several benefactors walking alongside. None-the-less, Guccione was announcing that he is a serious contender and is not going to run third this time. His campaigns are always aggressive, he and his committee will be heard around the city

The news about aldermen slots up for bid is about the same, it's wide open in ward 1, since Tow is putting all of his resources into running for mayor, a new candidate has yet to appear. Ward 2 is still a question as rumors that Vann Samples will not seek reelection. In ward 3, Rick Stokes' campaign hasn't disclosed itself but it's almost certain he'll be there in the home-stretch, who his opponent(s) will be is still unknown. It's going to be an interesting election and I look forward to seeing the strategies unfold.

One more indication that the campaign of 2012 has been engaged comes from Tow's camp. A mailed announcement was received by several hundred voters to attend an "Open House" tonight at the Golf Club of Wentzville Pavilion. I didn't receive an invitation because I only heard about it moments ago, I would suppose walk-ins are welcome. I would really like to hear his platform and the questions posed by the attendees but alas, I have prior obligations. The Wentzvillian readers will hear about this event at 6:00 PM this evening at the exact moment it will start, if you can get there before 7:30, you might be able to catch some of it.

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