Wentzville Hall of Shame

Looking at the candidates, I noticed that I hadn't said nearly enough about one of our candidates for Mayor; Bill Schuette. When he was Alderman of Ward 2, he was loud, arrogant, and absolutely uneducated in governmental procedures. In his first term he stumbled his way onto the Wentzville Hall of Shame and dragged Nick Guccione and John Luby down with him. He continuously embarrassed himself, other Aldermen, and the City both in public and on record.

With Schuette leading Guccione and Luby it was like watching the Three Stooges, none of them had any knowledge of the City or city government but here they were, large and in charge. This group was elected because they were recruited by Vickie Boedeker in a conspiracy to control the Board of Aldermen (doesn't that sound familiar?) and three Aldermen retired. It almost worked, they were elected to the Board but Boedeker lost her bid for Mayor. With no one to tell them how to vote or act, Schuette took charge, what a disaster. If any Board in Wentzville was ever called dysfunctional, they set the bar. They drove the sane Aldermen and Mayor Lambi insane with ridiculous studies, ordinances, and over-spending. I think it's funny how Guccione makes a point of taking exception to studies today; he, Schuette, and Luby passed more studies in their term than I've ever seen. Only after a barrage of news articles questioning the need for these studies did Guccione change his tune today. It's like a new toy, he brings it up every time the staff proposes one, thinking it will be a feather in his proverbial cap.

It's difficult to talk about Schuette without dragging Guccione into the conversation, they were so close it was like trying to separate coffee filters. Both of them decided to run for Mayor in 2010 and were obviously unsuccessful. Since Schuette gave up his Alderman seat to run, when he lost, he was off the scene. Luby lost his re-election bid and that left Guccione all alone on the Board floundering around like a hooked fish on the river bank flip-flopping around ever since.

After Schuette had lost the election and his seat, he may have had an epiphany himself  that he had made a mistake running for Mayor. That decision subsequently cost him his seat on the Board of Aldermen so he decided to try regaining his seat in 2011. Running against him was Chris Gard, Patrick Vining, and the ever present, bad penny Donna Sherwood. His Ward 2 constituents had been embarrassed long enough and denied his plea to be re-elected and instead elected newcomer; Chris Gard. They also knew about Sherwood and reminded her a second time that they didn't want her anywhere around city hall. I sincerely hope they remember next month to scratch Schuette and Sherwood (oh, and Guccione too) from their vote. I know that the good citizens of Ward two deserve better representation than they had from Schuette or would get from Sherwood.

It's been only one year that we've had a productive intelligent Board of Aldermen and there is only one Alderman remaining from the good-old-boy days; Nick Guccione. If the voters get this right next month we can preserve the integrity of our board by keeping incumbent Rick Stokes, Ward 3; electing Sonya Shyrock or Jeremy Pritchett in Ward 2; and elect Forrest Gossett in Ward 1; then for Mayor we need to elect either Leon Tow or Darrel Lackey. The balance of the candidates on the ballot were recruited by Nick Guccione in an effort to recreate his control of the board just like Boedecker tried. The Guccione recruits are: Jay Webber, Ward 1, Donna Sherwood, Ward 2, and Rodney Stratman and Curtis Davis in Ward 3.

Vickie Boedeker's effect on Wentzville has burdened our city for eight years and we can ill afford another conspiracy to get a foot-hold in our city. If any of Guccione's recruits are elected it will have a huge negative impact on Wentzville for years to come. The only thing left to do is find a new independent thinking candidate to replace Guccione in 2013, then Wentzville will be able to move forward without agendas or conspiracy in our government. I'd agree with Guccione that he's a good and ethical Alderman, but then we'd both be wrong.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2012

The new year holds great promise for Wentzville, not only economically but politically. With General Motors adding a new assembly line and the possibility of Ranken Technical College bringing a satellite school to town, things are looking up. With the growth of Wentzville, our citizens have brought a new sense and logic to our city hall and slowly uprooting the "good ole boy" political party. I have held vigil, watching and reporting on city hall for the better part of 15 years and can say that the ball is over the crest of the hill and beginning to roll.

It all began about eight years ago with the election of Mayor Paul Lambi. I had hopes for a better life for Wentzville after Vickie Boedecker was dethroned, but the political rubble of our city was firmly implanted. Lambi worked with the support of several good aldermen to clean up city hall but the cancer was deep and it would take two more years for Boedecker to get over the fact that her second defeat was not just "voter apathy," her style of "good ole boy" politics was no longer wanted by our growing population. A huge blow to Wentzville was the retirement of three outstanding aldermen: David Hoekel, Dave Billing, and Darrel Lackey who all left the same year leaving an opening for Boedeker's flying monkeys to take over.

During attempts over the next two years to regain the throne she brought in three successful candidates to run for aldermen, John Luby, Ward 1; Nick Guccione, Ward 3; the ultimate Vickie-clone, Bill "Lurch" Schuette in Ward 2. Even though Boedeker lost the election, her flying monkeys continued the reign of terror in Wentzville. Lambi became frustrated in his second term toward restoring sanity as it entered its blackest days. "Lurch" became the "man behind the screen" who led the fledgling "Lurchettes." They met frequently in private (the Boedeker system) to determine their strategy of taking over Wentville's political system, a clear violation of election law.

In 2009, a glimmer of sunshine appeared on the political scene; Mrs. Cheryl Kross, new alderman in Ward 1 was elected, but even she, Lambi, and Alderman Tow couldn't break Boedeker's grip on the city. Then "Lurch" made the ultimate mistake and opened the door for sanity to come to the city, he decided to run for Mayor. Unfortunately for him and the Lurchettes, Guccione decided it was also his time to make a move. What happened was Lambi beat them both by a small margin sending "Lurch" back into the spectator's seat and left Guccione all alone on the board as Luby lost to Cheryl Kross. In 2011, things started to change and when Guccione's attempt to plant a candidate in Ward 1 to replace Kross failed, and Lurch's unsuccessful bid to regain his Ward 2 alderman seat, he watched as a new order came to Wentzville; Kross, Stokes, Sample, and Gard. These four aldermen have the opportunity to close the book on the 155 year "good ole boy" brand of politics in Wentzville.

It is my belief that in the election of 2012 voters can take back the city with two clear choices LEON TOW for mayor, and the re-election of RICK "Bulldog" STOKES in ward 3. There is more to the equation and I will give that on a later blog but I think I can predict a date of the overthrow of the old order (Boedeker system), April 2nd, 2013 when Nick Guccione is not re-elected alderman in Ward 3. Guccione should have paid more attention to what was going on in Ward 3 and a little less on his upward political aspirations.

Things look very good for Wentzville but we must always keep guard, people like; Lurch, Nick Guccione, Donna Sherwood, and a host of flying monkeys will always be looking for the chink in our Wentzville good-government armor.

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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A Half-Million or Heads Will Roll

The Wentzville Aldermanic work session on Wednesday, August 31, 2011 dealt mostly with the 2012 budget, and budget meetings are always synonymous with dozing off for me. This one was a little different because within the first five minutes, before they even got into the topics, it got interesting.

Alderman Rick Stokes, Ward 3, got the attention of Mayor Lambi to ask for a brief Executive Session. I'm unclear about the exact reason for his request but I believe it was something to do with the agenda. Lambi replied: "Alderman Stokes, we've begun the meeting and I see no reason why we should stop it now." Stokes organized his papers and placed them in his briefcase, pushed his chair back, and started closing his computer, Lambi asked; "where are you going?" "I'm leaving." I thought I heard Stokes say something like; I'm not sitting in this meeting with a revised agenda that I've never seen until this very minute. They sat glaring at one-another for a few seconds when Lambi slammed the gavel down with a loud bang (something he's gotten a lot of practice at during past months), "We're going into a brief executive session," he said as Stokes, and Dennis Walsh, Acting City Administrator followed Lambi out of chambers. A few minutes later they returned and the meeting began. In my years reporting on city government I've seen aldermen go into executive session many times but never once during the regular meeting.

If I was surprised by the mid-meeting Executive Session, the second one was a complete mystery. Jerry Hillin, Wentzville's Purchasing Administrator, interrupted the meeting by saying, "there has been a breach of security," and called for executive session. This had to be a half-hour into the meeting when Hillin, Walsh, and Stokes followed Lambi out of chambers. The term "breach of security," had me looking out the window to see if maybe Afgan Rebels were storming city hall so I was preparing myself to duck out the side door. Prior to Hillin requesting the side-bar, Alderman Stokes was having trouble with his microphone and in the midst of his frustration he uttered; "shit," and of course the microphone started working just in time to record his expletive on tape. Shit may be a breach in most instances but I can't imagine how it effects the security of a meeting other than in the context of a Depends blow out, but the city's waste treatment people were present so I would think it could have been handled without Executive Session.

Voters should be disappointed in a couple of our aldermen regarding statements they made concerning the $500,000 real estate and property tax cut proposed by Stokes and supported by Alderman Kross, Ward 1 and Alderman Guccione, Ward 3 a while back. During discussion, Alderman Vann Samples, Ward 2, stated that he is "not in favor of cutting real estate taxes," implying that once you reduce a tax it's impossible to get it increased without a vote of the people, unfortunately Alderman Chris Gard, also Ward 2, agreed with him. It amazes me, after the city announced an increase of $38 million in sales tax revenues which go directly into the general fund, how a paltry half million in real estate and property tax is not a no-brainer. Samples and Gard believe that it should be found elsewhere in the budget, in other words; cut services, not taxes.

Toward the end of that discussion, Stokes told the city staff in no uncertain terms that he wants to see a half-million dollars cut out of the budget even if it means cutting heads. It has been said for quite a few years that there are too many employees in the city. He went on to say that "no one wants to see anyone lose their job, but I want that half-million, what ever it takes." I don't know how that statement will be perceived among employees or citizens but Stokes is persistent, and I don't think he's going to give up on it.

Earlier that evening I heard one of the City's Administrators say that they are trying to hire an assistant for him. I have noticed that any time someone gets a promotion (or a position is created) in the City, they get an assistant. Bob Swank, ex-Economic Development Director, left his employment with the city (in a similarly mysterious fashion as Dianna Wright), and whom accomplished very little, got an assistant. Before Andy McCown, ex-City Administrator, retired, he set up an HR department and named Amy Holloway director, she got an assistant within the first year of her position. When the smoke-and-mirror-shrouded eviction of our public works Director came about, the City turned his job into two jobs which created the need for at least one new assistant. My point is; it appears that anyone working for anyone in the City above the level of grunt, gets an assistant.

At least most of these promotions and their assistants come from within—lower level jobs were left vacant meaning they had to hire more people to fill those positions. The problem is that it appears that no one is promoted at lower pay levels than their predecessors and that adds up to higher payroll. A perfect example is Dianna Wright, she initially hired in at $117,550 that is $14,000 more than Andy McCown was making ($103,000) when he left. When Wright disappeared she was making over $121,000. Mark my words, whom ever is hired to replace Wright will earn as much or more than she did. The City's motto should be; "make room for lower level employees to make higher salaries." The mayor only makes $13,000, but then again that's way too much for what he does. And then you have the aldermen, I think our elected officials make (at last look) around $4,300 for making the hard decisions for their constituents. There was a time when Mayor Lambi wanted to do away with mayor and have a city manager—he wanted that job. Just think, if he had gotten his wish, he would have been gone last week—now we have to wait until April.

How Do You Skin a Cheshire Cat?

I'm sorry to say; the Wentzville regular Board of Aldermen meeting of August 3rd was not all that it was cracked up to be, or at least what I had hoped for. For the most part it was droll and even sleepy at times. I was anticipating a repeat performance of the explosion of previous weeks especially regarding the "Personnel Board." Alderman Guccione has worked very aggressively toward making law and I was certain that something more will come of it. If I recollect, the staff was directed to prepare an ordinance for the "Personal Board," which could have made an exciting first reading.

Citizens are not privy to the subtle changes often made in the agenda, I mean we go to city hall and look at the agenda in the glass case outside the front door on Monday, but by show-time on Wednesday it's a whole new ballgame. I guess it's the fault of the citizen for not checking the City's website to see if there are any changes, only to find out later that changes were made too late to post. So in reality, citizen spectators are not in the loop. At any rate, there was some scrambling going on in City Hall the prior week to head off the "Personal Board" ordinance at the pass.

Mayor Lambi opposes this ordinance to the extent of having his staff contact the city's special attorney Ivan Schoeder to defend Lambi's position against it. He doesn't want to allow the Aldermen to be the final appeal for Wentzville employees who feel they cannot defend themselves, or get a fair shake in the current appeal process. He feels that it would undermine his authority. On a side note, I don't know what the special attorney charged or how many staff hours were used to prepare an ordinance, that wasn't used, and defend this but it seems odd that when Lambi has a crusade, he has no regard to staff hours or other financial obligations in order to aid his cause. An excellent example of his waste of "valuable staff time" was the 501c organization LINC, to which he wanted the city to donate money. The aldermen reminded him that the city cannot donate money to a 501c. A week later he offered a "contract for services," drafted by staff, and proposed it to the board of crickets (see Meeting With a Bang posted August 1, 2011). But if aldermen request things, oh my! What a fuss he makes about using staff hours to give reports or request information. His immediate response is always, "do you want to waste valuable staff hours?"

Anyway, I assume there was an ordinance drafted but instead of a first reading, the "Personnel Board" was placed under Discussion items on the agenda. Which means the agenda changed somewhere in mid stream. The special attorney gave a talk on the reasons why the city could not set up a "formalized Personnel Board." Mayor Lambi sat there grinning like the Cheshire Cat the whole time. The aldermen asked questions and the special attorney responded to them. The attorney's focus was that; the city has a process in place for appeals and it is legal, but to appoint a hearing board as proposed is not; he has several state statutes and Federal laws to support him. Lambi concluded by rubbing his win in the aldermen's faces was by asking if the board wants to go forward with the ordinance, the "nays" outnumbered the "yeahs," five to one.

It disappointed me to see our mayor being so smug in his hollow victory; "hollow" is the operative word, this matter is not closed. One question asked by Alderman Gard set up what will follow. He asked the special attorney if the process in place can by changed by the board of aldermen? The answer was affirmative; I look for them to wipe the grin off of Lamb's face in the very near future. There's more than one way to skin a cat!

A Closed Mouth Gathers No Foot!

The work session of August 3, 2011 was an historic event. I saw and heard things that I've never seen and heard in a meeting of the board. First, Alderman Rick Stokes, who was obviously on vacation (probably in some tropical place) was on a conference speaker phone set up right in front of the Dias. It was an indication that something very important to the City was going to be discussed. I was correct in my assumption, it was the expenditure of $20,000,000 of taxpayer dollars.

The discussion which dominated the meeting was the bid process for the new sports parks and Aquatic Center. The aldermen were questioning the process by which the staff selected the contractor that would build these projects. Without boring anyone; basically, they wanted to know why the sports parks and aquatic center weren't bid out separately, rather than lumped into one contract. The aldermen believe that the companies that specialize in sports parks, or aquatic centers only, were at a disadvantage to companies who do both. The staff presented their position of why they selected a certain company to do both. The mayor was on the defense offering his usual diversions and usual ridiculous similes.

Mayor Lambi said something to the effect of; you can't change a flight plan when your taxiing to the runway and that the aldermen need to stop politicizing this project. After he got done telling the aldermen what they can't do, he said; "If you don't take staff recommendations, you don't need a staff, you can do it all yourself." Alderman Tow, angrily retorted; "I resent your remarks." Alderman Stokes, obviously insulted said, "I am not politicizing this, you are and I resent your statement." Alderman Guccione said, "If we passed everything staff puts before us without questioning it, we are just a bunch of bobble heads." Alderman Gard was angry pounding his fists on the Dias, "If this Board doesn't look for ways to make things better, and represent our constituents who elected us, we don't need a board."

This subject went on for what seemed like hours, it was the greatest aldermanic demonstration of getting the city on track, that I've ever seen. The staff was on their heels and Lambi had humiliated himself—again. Someone needs to tell him that a closed mouth gathers no foot! I'd heard about board meetings in the 1970s when some members had raised their voices and hated the mayors but in those days the boards were filled with aldermen who had axes to grind and special interests. This group of alderman's special interests lay in saving the citizens of Wentzville tax dollars, and they are in agreement about how to do it. 2011 is the year of the people of Wentzville.

The next meeting of the board of aldermen promises to be round two—they will vote on several issues that have been vigorously debated over the last few weeks. I recommend that you make plans to see your aldermen defend you against a city staff who is hell-bent on spending as much as they can and a mayor who can't find his ass with a radar screen. If you can't make it, make sure you watch the video of it on your computer next Thursday, it should be a daisy. Catch it at http://www.wentzvillemo.org/.

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