Candidates Night 2012

There were probably between 150 ant 200 people attended the Chamber of Commerce Candidates Night, last night at the Holt High School auditorium. I was disappointed to see that the radio station wasn't there but life is full of little trade offs. Only two of the candidates didn't make an appearance; Ward 1 candidate Forrest Gossett, who had a confirmed medical emergency and; Rodney Stratman candidate for Ward 3, who insiders said; got cold feet, everyone else was there. I was also disappointed in the quality of the questions asked, many were just lame, as a matter of fact I didn't hear one question that was hard-hitting—you know, it was all generic, "oh, by the way" kind of stuff. Questions could not be addressed to individual candidates and I think that was a big mistake. The Chamber of Commerce could have done a much greater service to the City without this touchy-feely event, but that's another story all in itself.

Each Candidate had an opportunity to give an opening statement and some were revealing while others were just downright laughable. I'm going to start with Ward 1 and run through all the Wards before I get to the Mayor Candidates. I have to warn you, Nick Guccione was running true to form, blaming everybody else for his problems, claiming everything that was good was because of him, and flipping on subjects, he needs a new script writer. Here was some of the questions asked and responses of Aldermen candidates.

Ward 1:

Forrest Gossett, absent. I wish Mr. Gossett had been able to attend because I've heard him speak on the subjects regarding Wentzville and believe he could have given his opponent a lesson in government and the problems facing Wentzville's future.

Jay Webber: Mr. Webber was asked two questions, the first was: "What specifically would you do for the downtown area?" Answer: "There are things that can be done." Second question: "How would you cut taxes?" Answer: "Repeal the sales taxes on the Parkway." Since the Wentzville Parkway and infrastructure was built using TIFFs, CID's, TIDDs, and other tax incentive vehicles on the various developments in securing the coming of  businesses like; Wall Mart, Home Depot, Target, and Lowes, anyone with a third grade education in government financing should know that it can't be done. Mr Webber was a well spoken gentleman who was recruited by Nick Guccione so it's easy to see why he didn't know this, he simply had no intention or self initiative to become an Alderman.

Ward 2:

This ward has three candidates running ; Donna Sherwood, two time loser of this seat; Sonya Shryock, and Jeremy Pritchett, Guccione recruit. They asked these candidates questions and I'm just going to give the highlights. It was interesting to note that in their opening statements, Jeremy Pritchett declared his political affiliation; "I'm Republican." Obviously Mr. Pritchett either didn't know, or didn't care that candidates at the City level do not declare political affiliations.

The first question was: "How would you cut spending?" Sherwood said: "Get rid of unnecessary equipment and stop buying it." Ms. Shyrock said: "locate and reduce waste spending throughout the City." The moderator asked: "What's the most important problem facing Wentzville today?" I was disappointed in all of the candidates answers but one stuck out in my notes: Jeremy Pritchett said: "Parks." I'm no real fan of newspapers and don't read them but I do know that it's been all over the news that a half-cent sales tax was approved by the voters to the tune of 20 million dollars and they are breaking ground on three new parks in the City this year. I guess that "important problem" was solved.

Ward 3:

Three candidates are vying for this seat: Rick Stokes (incumbent), Rodney Stratman (absent), and Curtis Davis. It was noted that Nick Guccione was on the phone with Mr. Stratman asking him to come to the event. He was heard to say: "There's still time, they won't get to Ward 3 for awhile." Sounds like his recruit broke ranks and ran, good for you Rodney. The other Guccione recruit was Curtis Davis a seemingly very nice old black gentleman who introduced himself as the local president of the NAACP and husband of his lovely wife of 57 years. He stated: "I see none of my peoples' here and I want to see more blacks involved." Unfortunately for Mr. Davis, he knew little about City issues and gave the impression he's a throw-back to another generation in time. I truly felt empathy for him as he addressed the assembly trying to answer the questions.

The first question set the tone of the rest of the night for Ward 3 candidates: "Name the one goal you'd like to attain if you are elected." Rick Stokes answered: "Enhance transportation and maintain our current roads." Mr Davis: "The school system. And to make the neighbors in my subdivision cut their grass" He does not know that the school system is a separate entity and Wentzville has absolutely no control over its activities. The other questions were answered with the accuracy of a learned Alderman by Mr. Stokes but Mr Davis when asked about tax incentives such as TIFFs, CIDs, and others he admitted that he didn't know what they were.

Mayor:

Bill Schuette didn't show but that was expected, Leon Tow, Darrel Lackey, and Nick Guccione were there and all but Guccione answered all of the questions. Guccione instead, campaigned on the strangest thing: "I made a mistake voting for Ranken Technical School," he  voted for it three times, attended all of the talks over several months and participated in the writing of the resolution to have Ranken come to Wentzville. Obviously he was either asleep or just following the group (his specialty) rather than listen to these non-existent protesters. "I voted for it but I made a mistake, people don't want to give them an incentive to come to Wentzville." Guccione made this speech twice in answer to two unrelated questions. He went on to say that he'd only made two mistakes but didn't elaborate on the second. He said he voted against Sam's Club because citizens didn't want it. If the truth be known, the unions that are financing his campaign told him that if he voted for Sam's Club, they'd pull their support. Talk about a special interest group having an Alderman in their pocket, Nick, your it!

If I had to pick a winner of the evening, it would have to be Darrel Lackey. He seemed to have a better command of the audience than Leon Tow and (the campaigning instead of answering questions); Nick Guccione. Both Lackey and Tow answered all of the questions and did a very good job of it but Guccione got a "D" on the questions. In my opinion, the only thing Guccione did right last night was find his way to the school. All of the candidates running for office missed a biggie: the unified new city hall and the economic engine it would start if it were in the downtown area.

One other point of interest, Nick Guccione reiterated in public that he was solely responsible for bringing the GM expansion to Wentzville, He said: "They called me, not the city, they called me." He truly believes that GM would not have expanded if it weren't for him. He claims to be responsible for bringing about a whole shift of employees to GM. I think that talking with the UAW and asking for a campaign donation is a stretch and a far cry from convincing decision makers in Detroit to expand their Wentzville facility—and using the GM logo on his literature is still illegal.

The Alderman candidate winners of the night were: Forrest Gosset (Who was in the hospital), Sonya Shryock (who answered all of the questions with sound conservative answers) and Rick Stokes by a landslide.

This has been a dirty campaign season and Nick Guccione and Donna Sherwood led the pack slinging mud rather than campaigning on their merits or qualifications. Should they be elected, it will be a gray day in Wentzville but I'll still be here reporting on their lack of leadership and crazy antics. It should be fun, at least for me.

Welcome Back to Mayberry, Andy!

I've hesitated to comment on last weeks board of alderman's meeting of September 14, 2011, probably because I have been trying to figure out why the process of finding a new CA (city administrator) hasn't been started. The aldermen and mayor have known that Dianna Wright would be gone—they've known for sure since August 24th when in executive session it was decided to offer her the option to resign. Then two weeks later, after she declined the boards offer, again in executive session, they voted unanimously to fire her. Hadn't anyone noticed that when she left there was no one in her office?

Other than Dennis Walsh, our finance director taking over as acting CA, the only person crying about Wright's leaving is Mayor Lambi, but he's been crying a lot lately. Wednesday, Lambi introduced the idea to hire an interim CA, stating what a heavy burden has been placed on his staff and himself, wah, wah, wah. He said, "it's painfully obvious how much additional work has been placed on Dennis Walsh, and it's taking more time than I can spare," wah, wah, wah. "I don't want to burden Dennis to the extent of his jeaprodizing his health." Wah, wah, wah. He opened it up for discussion and the aldermen, in turn commented.

Alderman Tow asked Walsh, "are you so overburdened that you cannot cover both jobs?" "No, I can do it with the help of the other directors," said Walsh. Alderman Kross said that our directors were hired because they were intelligent, and capable to direct their departments, they will step up to the plate, "Mr. Smith, Can you do your job?" "We are well equipped to handle our ongoing projects," he answered. Lambi jumped in; "All of our department heads are capable but they need a CA, a CA is the ramrod," wah, wah, wah. Then he stated how he has only so much time to give and he's "already at city hall six to eight hours a day," wah, wah, wah. That's interesting, for the last few weeks I've passed city hall three times a day and I've seen Lambi's car there only twice. Unless he's carpooling or taking some other form of mass transit, I seriously doubt he's hanging around that much.

It's at this point, Lambi gets to his point; he wants to hire Andy McCown to fill in and direct the search for a new CA. McCown would require; travel, lodging, and an hourly wage for three days a week. McCown was the CA here and retired three years ago to move to Arkansas to be nearer his children. Don't get me wrong, I really like Andy McCown, he was always nice, gentile, and attentive to problems but, why do we need someone to travel to Wentzville to "fill in" for our absent CA. My answer is that Lambi and McCown were close for a number of years and Lambi wants to help his "bud" by having him come up to save his sinking ship. At least then he'll have someone in city hall who will talk to him.

Does the city really want to spend travel money (back and forth twice a week to and from Arkansas,) lodging, and hourly wages for three days a week? It's funny that Lambi says he's spending six to eight hours every day and McCown will do it in three days. Hmmm! The estimated term for McCown will be two to three months. Anyway, the aldermen would agree if McCown was the assistant CA under Walsh's direction. Lambi perked up, "That's exactly what I'm asking for," Lambi responded. It's amazing how long it took him to wise up the alderman to hire an "assistant CA." That guy can change his tune on a dime when he's not getting his way.

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 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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