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.

Experience Counts

Three days after the election and I’ve been trying to analyze what’s happened and what’s going to happen after the swearing-in of the new Mayor and Aldermen. Today I’d like to focus on the stable of Aldermen and their impact upon the city.

Those elected for the first time are Forrest Gossett and Sonya Shryock. Gossett is an extremely intelligent man with an education in journalism; it’s been a treat speaking with him, he’ll keep me on my toes and I hope visa-versa. A man who understands and can categorically critique what I do, and has done so, calling my work (sometimes) bombastic. At first I was uncomfortable with that moniker until I looked it up and found him correct. He covered many major elections during his days as an editor and has a very good understanding of Government and its inner workings. Sonya Shryock spent 20 years in the real estate industry and comes from a family of Realtors. She understands the engine that keeps home sales going and will be an asset to Wentzville in its effort to fill our 3,500 vacant lots we have as a result of the housing bubble bursting. Re-elected was “Bulldog” Rick Stokes, the resident voters of Wentzville recognize quality and displayed it with his landslide return to the Board.

Seated Aldermen for one more year are Chris Gard and Cheryl Kross both highly capable Aldermen who are not in favor of mediocrity and have a history of challenging the status quo. Leon Tow who was the senior Alderman with 14 years on the Board of Aldermen lost his bid for the top-spot and consequently bequeathed the senior Alderman title to Cheryl Kross who is beginning her fourth year of service. Leon, with his experience served as a stabilizing force on the Board, they looked to him for leadership and questions involving procedures and history of Board actions, which leads me to the point of this writing.

Today, we have the youngest Board of Aldermen I’ve ever known. Having elected a new mayor with highly questionable leadership skills who has only five years of dysfunctionality on the Board will be of no help with policies, procedures, and history of actions to this new board.  The Wentzville City Attorney, Paul Rost; and City Clerk, Vi Skillman will be busy babysitting this Mayor and young group of energetic Aldermen. With only one person on the Board with over two years, there will be lots of questions that were mostly fielded by Mayor Lambi or Leon Tow.

Now we come to the vacated seat in Ward 3, left when Nick Guccione stole the election with lies, mud-slinging, and deviousities, he will probably appoint Rodney Stratman to that seat. As a voting citizen of Ward 3, I do not want another lame Alderman, especially one living right next door to a Mayor as sneaky as Nick Guccione. I want an Alderman I can trust, one who will represent me and the other citizens of Ward 3. It is my opinion that the Board should reject any of Guccione's appointments and put someone in that seat who knows how to represent.

So who should that be? It should be someone with experience, honor, and integrity. There is only one man or woman that I know of who lives in Ward 3 that fits all of those qualifications; Darrel Lackey. Mr. Lackey served as Alderman in both Ward 2, and Ward 3, and was Mayor for two terms. I cannot see any other candidate or more qualified person to serve as my representative in Ward 3. With no Alderman having more than three years on the Board and the possibility of losing both Gard and Stokes to the Missouri State House of Representatives, Wentzville is going to need a strong person on the Board of Aldermen, Lackey has a history of being a strong servant of the people and businesses here.

I have spoken to Mr. Lackey and when I asked him if he would accept such an appointment, he said he would be honored to serve out Guccione's vacated seat. I will be calling my Alderman; Rick Stokes and the Aldermen of the other wards to urge them to nominate Darrel Lackey to serve as Ward 3's Alderman.

I'm appealing to all of my readers to call your Aldermen and ask them to appoint Darrel Lackey to Ward 3. Not only would it provide a stronger Board, it would provide the experience lacking in our current Board. If and when we lose Alderman Gard and or Stokes, we would insure that there would be another "Gard Dog" and "Bulldog Stokes" representing the people of Wentzville who knows how to serve our City.

You've Got to Stand for Something

Mayor-Elect Nickolas Guccione would normally take the throne of Wentzville on the second week of April but due to Friday being a State holiday (State Arbor Day), and the possibility that there may be a delay in receiving the official certifications, the swearing-in ceremony will probably take place on the fourth week of April, the meeting of the 25th. This is a historical event, in the 157 years of our city's founding it's the first time any mayor of Wentzville was ever sworn-in for more than two years. It's unfortunate that voters elected a man without a program, without accomplishments, and without a clue.

The delay in the changing of the guard will accomplish two things: 1) It will give Mayor Lambi two more meetings to force the Board of Aldermen to release the unedited minutes alleging his conflict of interests. It will be interesting to see where Guccione stands on this situation now that he's taking over. 2) It gives Guccione two more weeks to master parliamentary procedure and read Mayor for Dummies a couple of times. I wonder if there's a section in there on getting elected using the assist of stolen copyrighted and trademarked corporate and City logos. I'm sure there's something in the Wentzville Policies and Procedures Manual regarding the use of the City logo and I'll bet it doesn't include using it on campaign literature and websites. It's ironic, one Mayor going out of office wearing the shroud of legal problems and another coming into office with a similar shroud of possibilities.

This is just the begining of Guccione's problems. After watching him for five years as an Alderman and in discussion with people in the know, his lack of knowledge brings a great propensity for getting the City sued early and often. Mr. Guccione knows just enough about city government to be dangerous. One of my readers posed the challenge: "I'll wager that Guccione will get the city sued within the first 100 days of his administration." That could happen, it depends entirely upon his level of grandiose delusions.

I'm struggling with his vision for the city. The only thing I've ever seen him perk up and get involved with is the pitbull ordinance, is he going to turn Wentzville into Dogville, and will he preside over the Sam's Club ribbon cutting, knowing that his unions will frown upon it? I kind of wonder if he's going to continue picketing at the Lake St. Louis pet store. He's never brought forth any legislation during his time as Alderman, what exactly does he stand for? What is he going to do besides pander to the unions, bash the home builders, and blame the blog? Someone please help me with these questions, he never came to my door campaigning so I didn't have the opportunity to hear any of his promises. His campaign flyers said nothing about his vision or platform and I'm clueless.

I've pondered long and hard for many months about the possibility of Guccione becoming Mayor of Wentzville and I've yet to figure out why he would want to be or why any right-thinking voter would elect him. He has no platform, no accomplishments, and no allies in any government, where is he taking us for the next four years? I'm totally lost, some of my readers have stated that he will be a great Mayor, my question is how and why? I asked that question to each and every comment and never once got an answer, can someone please help me understand?

Rainbows and Lollipops

Congratulations are in order for Mayor-Elect Nick Guccione so when Mayor Lambi turns over the keys to the city it's time to look to the future. What is the future of Wentzville with Guccione at the reigns? He-Haw said it best; "Gloom, despair, and agony on" Wentzville, but I digress, in order to answer that question, first we need to set the stage and the cast is a dandy!

Ward 1, Forrest Gossett wins over one of Gooch's goons. Ward 2, Sonya Shryock outlasts Jeremy Pritchett, and best of all, Donna Sherwood loses her third consecutive election bid. Not only did Sherwood lose, she came in last place, now isn't that enough to put a big shit-eatin' grin on your puss? For you hard-core Sherwood fans, do not dismay, I'm sure she'll be back to run again next year with even more signs to plaster and annoy. Ward 3, "Bulldog" Rick Stokes beat two of Gooch's goons.

This leaves only one other seat to be named; Guccione will need to appoint someone to complete the term of his vacated seat. This will be fun, he promised his seat to either Rod Stratman or Curtis Davis but since he threw Davis under the bus after his poor showing at "Candidates Night," Davis is probably out of the picture. Guccione also made one other promise; if elected he would appoint Darrel Lackey, wouldn't that be a party, especially after he trashed Lackey so bad in the past month. So that leaves Stratmen, the problem with this appointment is; in my humble opinion, the Board will not approve the appointment of Guccione's next-door neighbor, and name someone else, wouldn't it be great if the Board appointed Darrel Lackey! Just imagine for a moment, the Ward 3 Aldermen sit on either side of the Mayor, that would put a falsely accused "Bulldog" Stokes on his left hand and a trashed Lackey on his right, I get goose-bumps just thinking about it, what a treat that would be for Mayor Guccione.

Guccione doesn't realize that being Mayor requires dealing with the County, State, and worst of all a Board of Aldermen who probably haven't forgotten his mud-slinging campaign where he insulted every one of them. Things are not looking good for the Gooch. As I've stated before he has no relationships with anyone at the County or the State level and he has a Board that he's admitted he can't get along with. Normally the acclimation of a new Mayor takes awhile but with the roadblocks he's created, he may never assimilate. But that doesn't matter to him, he's the Mayor after all, the great and powerful, all-mighty potentate of Wentzville—good luck with that. I'm going to have a good time watching Tricky Nicky worm his way through the meetings and his duties of office.

Wentzville will suffer due to his lack of influence and communication skills. I don't have a clue what his purpose is but hope he has one somewhere otherwise Wentzville will stumble along struggling to maintain pace with the rest of the County. I have the feeling that he thinks being Mayor is an honorary position that requires nothing on his part, it's one big party. I think he'll change his mind about that very soon, he's on his own and I hope his butcher shop experience has prepared him to run this city.

I fear for the future of Wentzville with Guccione at the helm, I am certain there's an iceberg ahead with Wentzville's name on it, and if I know him, he will be the first rat off of the the sinking ship. He's not good under pressure and I see a ton of it coming down square on his shoulders, he has no answers, only problems. That first evening he runs the Board of Aldermen meeting is just a test, when the problems start he will melt down like a cheap Dollar Store candle. Guccione was heard saying that he despises me, he has just begun to despise, Nick, you're in good company, the last two Mayors of Wentzville share your sentiments, that's 16 years of despise before you came on the scene.

Last night was a good night for Wentzville, we kept a great Board of Aldermen despite Nick and Donna's best efforts to trash each and every one of them. The highlight for me was watching Sherwood crash and burn and be beaten to a pulp by two rookies. Wentzville will survive and continue to grow, the only difference is; it will show two black eyes to the rest of the County.

I always take two sharp pencils to the meetings but from now on I'll be bringing at least six, there will be that much more to share with my readers. I'm looking forward to reporting on Guccione's administration, it's going to be great sport  for The Wentzvillian. Congratulations Mayor-Elect Guccione, welcome to my world of rainbows and lollipops!

The Final Hour

The election is well under way and I did my civic duty first thing this morning, after which I visited several other polling places throughout the afternoon. The turnout seemed sparse and as a matter of fact I was the only one voting when I was there just after 8:00am. Spending time talking with quite a few of the campaign volunteers at various polling places they echoed my observation, it could be a slim day in the voting booths.

I'm not ashamed to say I voted for my Alderman Rick Stokes, he has accomplished miracles in his first two years on the Board and I hope he can continue working for us in Ward 3. I could not in good conscience vote for his opponent who is Nick Guccione's next door neighbor recruit and I hope the voters in Ward 3 have a similar view. For Mayor, the only thing I will tell you is; I made a non-Guccione and non-Schuette vote and trust my readers did the same, we really don't need one of those clowns running our city.

I drove down to the Wentzville Community Club Flea Market grounds to see who was there campaigning. Low and behold, right outside the front door sat at least a half-dozen Guccione supporters all holding signs. I did spot the Gooch right in the middle of them, sitting on his ass acting regal but not holding a sign, I guess sign-holding is beneath his pay-grade. I also met with Leon Tow and his lovely wife Mary who were busy helping people get to the polls, and I had a visit with the wife of Forrest Gossett.

At progress Park, I was greeted by Rick Stokes and his supporters, he told me that he feels good about his re-election. While talking with Alderman Stokes I couldn't help but notice Donna Sherwood sitting right in the middle of several handicapped parking spaces with a group of her flying monkeys. If anyone needed to park there, they'd have to run over her and her goon squad. Someone mentioned that she was handicapped, I had to agree, she is indeed.

A lot of folks say; "It doesn't matter who you vote for, just vote." Horse puckey it does matter who you vote for. That kind of thinking is why our country's government has lost touch with us. Think about who you're voting for, find out who they are and what they stand for, then and only then, vote.

It's two hours until the polls officially close at 7:00pm and then the candidates will be heading to their rally points to watch the results as they come in, I'll be there in support of Leon Tow and Darrel Lackey. If you've never been to one of these, they are real neat events where you meet new friends with similar views and all of them are concerned citizens of the community. If your candidate loses you'll be  down for awhile but if they win, it's a party. I hope the parties will be with the TOW or LACKEY, GOSSETT, SHRYOCK, and STOKES campaigns. Regardless of whether your candidate wins or loses, the party starts tomorrow for The Wentzvillian!

The Promise

To the good citizens of Wentzville,

It's Election Day here in Wentzville and I just read a mass mailed letter to a selected special interest group of voters from someone named Michael Rasher, the letter was a rant against Leon Tow, Rick Stokes, Chris Gard, and Sonya Shyrock. After looking into this person, I find he is not a registered voter in Wentzville, owns no property here, is not a resident, and there was no return address. He states things in the letter that could only have been fed him by none other than Nick Guccione and Donna Sherwood because the facts are so skewed, they make no sense.

In this letter he accuses Leon Tow of a plot to; "destroy city hall staff." Guccione/Sherwood/Rasher claim; "they fired Dianna Wright because she would not do unethical works," Nick Guccione was instrumental in "firing" Dianna Wright, without his motion, it's entirely possible that she could still be working for the city today. But of course telling that factoid would blow the whole fairy tale. Nick Guccione and Donna Sherwood are two of the most unethical candidates in the race today, if Wright was so ethical, why wouldn't Guccione lead the charge to fire her, as he did. This letter is just the finale to six months of unethical campaigning on their part and after reading the lie in just the second paragraph, the whole damn letter was discarded.

There's not much more I can say about Nick Guccione and Donna Sherwood that I haven't already said, but if they are elected I will have plenty more to expose. They don't like me much today but I don't really give a rats-ass what they like. I promise the citizens of Wentzville to continue exposing their self-serving agendas right out of office, but it won't be with lies, it will be with the truth supported by public record.

Nick, Donna, get ready, you are both in the sights of my microscope and no matter how disgusting that thought might be to me personally, anytime you try to pull your unethical crap on the citizens of Wentzville, you will pay for it. You can't hide, once your in the public eye and you think you can do anything you want to do, you're through! That is my promise to the citizens of Wentzville, especially those you used, lied to, and conned.

Final Countdown

As I write this last chance appeal, only 24 hours remain before we go to the polls to elect competent Aldermen and a Mayor who will lead Wentzville through the coming years. We can either build upon the good work of the last two years or take a huge step backward into chaos and partisan squabbling in City Hall.

Today, with the exception of one Alderman, we have an outstanding Board who are dedicated to make Wentzville a better place. That one Alderman is Nick Guccione, he has fought this Board to side with small interest groups at every turn. As we all know, he is running for Mayor and in that effort is doing his best to replace three of our Aldermen with like-thinking drones who know nothing of the challenges facing Wentzville nor care, they are running to be Guccione's pawns in his drive to control our city.

One of my readers gave an assessment of Nick Guccione and I think he or she hit the nail square on the head: "He will identify with whatever groups he believes will help his political ambitions. He has no reason, beyond ambition (and maybe power) to be a candidate." Mark my words, if Guccione is elected, Wentzville and the future of our citizens (and their families) will feel the negative effects long after he is gone. Look at the problems of the last decade and the efforts of our current Aldermen to bring sanity and order back to the city after being saddled with a Board dominated by unthinking people who knew nothing but special interests. It wasn't until just two years ago that Wentzxville elected a majority Board that dug into the problems and began rooting them out of our City. That process and progress will stop if Nick Guccione is elected to be our Mayor. Nick Guccione has dedicated himself to rebuild that Board of unthinking zombies who's sole purpose was, and will be, to follow the lead of their master.

Nick Guccione's recruits are:

Ward 1: Jay Webber

Ward 2: Donna Sherwood and Jeremy Pritchett

Ward 3: Rodney Stratman and Curtis Davis

His plan is to:

Ward 1: To beat Forrestt Gossett and fill the vacated seat of Leon Tow who is running for Mayor with Jay Webber.

Ward 2: Beat Sonyia Shryock with Donna Sherwood (two time loser in Ward 2) and he put Jeremy Pritchett in the mix to split the vote to hedge Sherwoods chances of victory.

Ward 3: Run two opponents against incumbent Rick Stokes who is one of our most productive Aldermen. His plan here is to have Stratman beat Stokes and appoint Davis to Guccione's vacated seat.

If his plan works, he will have recruited a majority of the Board of Aldermen with people who have had no inclination to ever run for office, have no knowledge of government, and whose sole purpose is to be his sock-puppets. This plan is disaster for Wentzville and the voting citizens need to get up on all fours to fight off Guccione's conspiracy.

To avoid this convoluted deception, the voters need not do anything more than vote for:

LEON TOW or DARREL LACKEY

FOR MAYOR

FORREST GOSSETT

ALDERMAN WARD 1

SONYA SHRYOCK

ALDERMAN WARD 2

RICK STOKES, Incumbent

ALDERMAN WARD 3

This slate of candidates will insure that Wentzville will avoid the devious plot of Nick Guccione and continue to cut spending and taxes while bringing back representation to the citizens of our City. We are truly at the crossroads and this election is more important to Wentzville than any in recent history. Put Guccione, Sherwood, and their band of recruits back in their caves where they belong. The future of Wentzville is in the hands of our voters, I hope to see you at the polls tomorrow!