City Hall Opinions

Every year our City government changes with the annual election when  three Aldermen seats come up for bid. Until two years ago City decisions and discussions have been very erratic and unpredictable, simply because there has been dissension in the ranks of our Aldermen. Before that, the Board was so radical left they gave away most of the farm and angered the voters, but after the election of 2009 brought in Ward 1 Alderman Cheryl Kross, things started to change. One year later, Ward 2 Alderman Chris Gard and Ward 3 Alderman Rick "Bulldog Stokes" were elected. With them and Ward 1 Alderman Leon Tow, sanity was beginning to come to Wentzville for the first time in the minds of the old-timers. Now, with the addition of Sonya Shyrock in Ward 2 and Forrest Gossett in Ward 1, the last of the left-wing radicals were replaced and fiscal responsibility is now the term for the day. Wentzville transitioned from chaos to conservatism in only three years.

The old guard listened to special interests and small groups of citizens, in doing so they made some terrible and expensive decisions in the process. This new Board with some Aldermen who are ultra-conservative are not immune to making the same mistakes of their predecessors if they don't listen to the people who have lived in Wentzville through it's growth period. I believe the majority of Wentzville citizens want/demand accountability and  due diligence guarding their tax-dollars but not to the extent of doing harm to our community.

One of the most damaging mistakes made in the last 20 years was to build a new police station and place it out of town on the Wentzville Parkway. The facility they built was ill conceived and poorly designed. In the long-run, this building will cost more to maintain than it was to build. Mayor Vickie Boedeker had a dream to build a civic center (City Hall / Law Enforcement Center [LEC}) that would be the envy of the county and her legacy but in reality it has become the beginning of a nightmare. Had she polled the citizens of Wentzville at that time, that project would never have gotten off of the ground. Her dream, now our nightmare, may be fulfilled if the Aldermen have a mind to put a new City Hall on the Wentzville Parkway in front of the LEC.

Once again the sounds of a new City Hall are being heard coming from the Aldermen, Ward 2 Alderman Chris Gard has been pressing to get the talks going again and has indicated to me that he thinks it should be in the Village Center. This topic has been discussed for the better part of ten years, and after some confrontation and feedback with the residents, the general consensus that it would be built downtown. A resolution was passed by the City almost seven years ago and recently reaffirmed to build a new City Hall in the Village Center if, and when it became necessary. I have railed for the Village Center location longer than any of the current Aldermen or Mayor has served in office, and I will continue to do so until ground is broken.

I have never been afraid to speak out about what I believe is right and I believe the downtown location for a new City Hall is the right decision. There have been only a few topics over the years that have drawn enough passion to compel me to get up on all fours and fight, but the location of a new City Hall is one of them! The question was asked of every Alderman in the City of Wentzville: "In one sentence, tell me where you stand on the location of a possible new City Hall?" The following are the answers given by our representatives of each ward.

Alderman Ward 1, Cheryl Kross: "I don't have sufficient information to make that determination."
Alderman Ward 1, Forrest Gossett: "I'm not convinced we need a new city hall but If we do, I'm leaning toward the Downtown location until a more thorough investigation proves differently."

Alderman Ward 2: Chris Gard: "I prefer it downtown it would be the spark for the Village Center development imitative,"

Alderman Ward 2, Sonya Shryock: "It's the right thing to do."

Alderman Ward 3, Rick Stokes: "It's critical to the revitalization of the downtown area to build it in the Village Center."

Alderman Ward 3, Vacant: "I have no voice on this matter until a certain knot-head (who will remain anonymous) gives me one."

Regarding Mayor Guccione's opinion; I'm not going to ask him again because he's flipped in it twice already, besides, it's not his decision to make and I really don't give a rats-ass about his opinion on the matter.

Playing Favorites

I have received emails from anonymous people who accuse me of "playing favorites" in this past political election. They want to warn my readers that those candidates supported by The Wentzvillian will soon come under the knife when I turn on them. To those anonymous concerned citizens; you may be correct, The Wentzvillian may turn on them.

I was friends with Nick Guccione and his lovely wife Sandy long before he placed himself in a position of displaying unethical behavior. In my defense, I never turned on Donna Sherwood, her mode of operation was known long before I ever met her. She's been on the wrong side of every issue since her days of political leg breaking for Vickie Boedeker.

At any rate, Guccione came under the scornful eye of The Wentzvillian when he admitted to me his conspiracy to get hand-picked candidates elected to replace every Alderman up for re-election regardless of their record. He wanted people who agreed with his agenda, not people who represented the constituents of their particular ward. This practice is too common in politics today and could very well be one of the reasons the general consensus of Americans today is so negative when it comes to politics and politicians. This needs to change, it has been used in Wentzville since at least the 1980s.

The problem is, no one in the news media has balls enough to tell the voters about it, the conventional media deals with breaking news, not background news which doesn't sell papers. A perfect example was the alleged conflict of interest investigation involving Mayor Lambi. That investigation was going on long before it hit the St, Louis Post Dispatch and I doubt if Mark Schlinkman would have written it if one Alderman hadn't granted him an interview, that Alderman was Nick Guccione. Going against the advice of Wentzville's City Attorney, Guccione told Schlinkman the details of the investigation and the next day the story broke all over the county. The Wentzvillian watched and gathered information for months and posted it's speculations a good three or four weeks before the news media got it. Guccione's complaint that "I didn't do it, it's because of the blog, the blog did it," tipped off the conventional media that The Wentzvillian's allegations had some viability so they went to the weakest Alderman on the Board and got the whole story.

It's no secret that The Wentzvillian is an idealist in an imperfect world but that's no reason not to tell the facts of what's going on in our City government and to dislike what some people want to do to it. If it is found out that an Alderman or Mayor is doing anything other than representing the people while in City Hall, it will be reported here. If that is considered "turning on" someone then so be it, the voters need to have as much information as they can get to make intelligent decisions in the voting booth. Personally I applaud the voters for electing what I believe to be a very capable Board of Aldermen. I question their selection for Mayor but I think my fears will come out as our new Mayor gets involved in the matters facing our City. It's unfortunate that he did such a great job of fooling the voters and I think they'll see the error of their ways sooner rather than later. Wentzville will come under a barrage of conventional news media stories as time goes by and I think Mayor Guccione will be the subject.

As for "Playing Favorites," I guess you are correct. The Wentzvillian's favorites are Aldermen who represent the better interests of their constituents and the City. It also wants to see a Mayor who can lead Wentzville through difficult situations and bring honor to our City and its citizens. I believe that Mayor Lambi did that for the most part of eight years, I didn't agree with some of his ideas but I hope Mayor Guccione can do half the job he did. I'll be watching.

Payback Time for a Decade of Unbridled Growth

Sooner or later the unbridled growth of Wentzville over the past decade had to come back and bite us in our asses. With thousands of homes, miles and miles of streets plus everything that goes along with them, the recession is teaching us—the only thing that can support growth is more growth.

About five years ago Mayor Lambi forecasted that by the year 2010 Wentzville would have a population of 50,000 and that by 2015 the number would increase to 80,000 residents. Gearing up for this anticipated growth he continued the vision of his predecessor (Vickie Boedeker) and became the vanguard of Wentzville's resource expansion: A larger police force and oversized-illconcieved law enforcement center; then you have the acquisition of parkland which begs more equipment and personnel; all of this means more infrastructure hence the need for a larger public works operation i.e. more equipment and manpower; finally, increased resources equates to more administration and personnel to support the city. When the housing bubble burst, Wentzville was left with  unbuilt subdivisions, empty streets, and aging infrastructure that must be maintained. Today with a population of 29,000 some hard choices are having to be made in city hall—where to cut the budget and still maintain necessary services. This subject will be addressed in another blog in the very near future.

Now it's time to talk about just one instance of our street maintenance that was seen last week while driving to Walgreens at the corner of Meyer Road at the Wentzville Parkway. Noticing signs and cones across the Parkway on Bridlespur and being the nosy person I am, I drove on over and entered the Fox Run subdivision. Wow, what a mess. It seems the city is replacing many of the street slabs there and for some reason they decided to remove all of them at one time. They took out slabs in front of peoples driveways throughout the subdivision resulting in complaints and phone calls to their aldermen. I don't know the thought process behind this project but I do know that the residents of Fox Run subdivision should swarm to city hall for the next Board of Alderman meeting. Since Mayor Lambi is the Chief Executive Officer and governs all of the things that happen regarding the city, he needs to hear from the citizens first hand about how he has been handling projects in our city, the buck stops with him. He loves to take credit for everything positive in the city, whether he had anything to do with it or not, so give him credit where credit is due.

Rumors:

Dianna Wright is going to run for Alderman of Ward 2.

Forrest Gossett will run for Alderman of Ward 1.

Matt Garvey will oppose Rick Stokes for Alderman of Ward 3. There is supposed to be a campaign kick-off planned for Thursday September 29th, 7:00 PM at the Olde Towne Pub. If it's true, there might be some interesting conversations.

Show Us You've Got A Pair!

It seems a little early but our elected officials are gearing up for the April 2012 election. "Politicizing" has become—"the word of the day"—used often in recent board meetings by Mayor Lambi and retorted by incensed Aldermen in rebuttal of his agenda seeking accusations. It is obvious that our mayor is not making any friends in city hall and the word on the streets of Wentzville is that he's not making many friends there either. Lambi is alienating more of his friends and followers everyday. I have yet to be in a small business, barbershop, or other public place where his name was spoken with affection.

The aldermen whose terms will up for reelection are: Leon Tow, Ward 1; Vann Samples Ward 2; and Rick Stokes, Ward 3. Of those, Tow has already announced his bid for Mayor, Stokes is likely to run for a second term, and Samples status is unknown at this time, it has been said that he most probably would not run again. For Mayor, the known candidates at this time are: Alderman Leon Tow,Ward 1; and Alderman Nick Guccione, Ward 3. Where incumbent Lambi is concerned; he made an anouncement at a local meeting several months ago that he was running, since that time there have been conflicting reports. It is known that his popularity is at an all-time low and many of his financial supporters have pulled their funding to give it to one of his opponents. As a personal commentary I would like to add: with the mood and unified determination of the current aldermen, if he runs and is somehow reelected, it will be the most miserable four years ever experienced in his political career. Lambi, just as his predecessor Vickie Bodecker, has lost touch with the needs and wants of the people who elected him.

The election of 2012 is going to be complicated. In the Aldermanic elections, if Vann Samples, who has a good record as alderman decides not to run, it will leave a vacancy that could create havoc on the board. "Lurch" (Bill Schuette) like a shark will smell the blood and may seek to get back involved and once again bring lunacy to the city. A definite candidate for Ward 2 will be the ever-present Donna Sherwood who doesn't know the meaning of the term: "three strikes and your out." Unfortunately, "Lurch," who doesn't know it either, does know that anyone running against her would be virtually unopposed . Hopefully, the machine will find a candidate to fill Samples vacated seat. Another potential problem is if Tow wins, or loses his bid for Mayor, his Ward 1 seat will given up to anyone wanting to seek office. I hope Brian Brinkly doesn't get wind of it because if he does, he'd jump on it like flies on a manure truck. If by some strange happenstance he should get reelected someone needs to tell him to get a new sombrero to wear at board meetings.

One thing that could be positive about the mayoral election is if Guccione should win, he would be in a position to nominate someone to finish out his vacated seat. There has been talk about Darrel Lackey being the appointee. Lackey, a two-term mayor is known for his "no nonsense" approach and would be a great addition to this board. Lackey has been asked about running for office since he left but has always declined. This time would be different, no campaigning, no hassle, just be approved by the board and serve out the last year of Guccione's term. That would be a win-win situation for him and the city. I urge anyone who knows Darrel (and that's most of the town) talk to him about filling the vacated seat. It would be an enormous advantage for the relatively inexperienced aldermen to have his expertise and knowledge of the city back on board. Especially if Tow loses and his 30 plus years is no longer serving the city. Come on Darrel, show us you've got a pair, Wentzville needs you!