Lambi Stalls Defeat of Tax Ordinance

The dreaded "Storm Water Utility TAX" rears its ugly head and gets another day in court here in Wentzville. This rancid topic has been hanging around on a meat hook for four years and the subject of two Wentzvillian blogs this year: May 25, 2011 - Bend Over Wentzville Here Comes Another TAX!; and September 2, 2011 - Storm Water Utility "TAX" Revisited. 

Mandated by the Federal Government's Clean Water Act, cities across the country are having to ensure water runoff quality. In an effort to assist in funding these new requirements states have made provisions which allows them to create a "utility fee" to pay for adhering to these new requirements.  Historically, storm water has always been paid from the general fund and the general fund comes from taxes. This new fee would free up all of the tax money regularly scheduled for storm water to be used for whatever the city wants and citizens have no say. It must be kept in mind that this is a very unusual fee and when instituted by MSD in St. Louis it was challenged in court. The court ruled it a tax, not a fee, and MSD is appealing that decision—it's still ongoing.

Introduced by; then City Administrator Andy McCown, supported by Mayor Lambi and the Lurchettes, it made it through the first two readings when Lurch (Bill Schuette) got cold feet after hearing about the law suit. Rather than realize there was something inherently wrong with this fee (tax) it was tabled by this band of knuckleheads before the third reading to wait for the outcome of the law suit.

In the board meeting of October 12th, Alderman Cheryl Kross supported by Alderman Stokes petitioned the board to bring the storm water utility fee back on the table with the intention of voting it down. Seeing  board consensus on this subject, our illustrious Chief Executive Officer (Lambi) jumped in giving all the usual excuses why the city desperately needs this and how it's a Federal mandate. He never once mentioned that the implementation of this tax was not a matter of the mandate, but only a right given to cities to impose it. Taxes are governed by a vote of the people and calling this a fee does not override the simple fact that it is a tax. Lambi flat out lied in the meeting stating; "The city has spent $400,000 in preparation for this fee." The original study was for $97,000 and they added another $20 or $30 large when the consultant was asked to do more analysis. The city spent an undetermined amount on preparing the ordinance and too many PowerPoint presentations trying to convince aldermen that it is necessary. Any money spent on coming into compliance would have been spent from the general fund anyway and has nothing to do with the ordinance. Anything spent over the items listed trying to get this ordinance made into law was counting chickens and Lambi should have known better than write checks his ass couldn't cash.

After more discussion and comments on the MSD case by City Attorney Paul Rost, the aldermen agreed to have another work session to hash it out. The tax ordinance will have to wait two more weeks before it's voted on. This waste of time concession to the mayor will be the same old PowerPoint presentations given by the staff to new aldermen who already know the facts. Between you and me, I think the board of aldermen merely want to show how the mayor lied or is hiding the fact that he spent more money on the come than he had the horse power to spend. I look forward to a very entertaining work session.

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!

Committee Formed for Hiring New CA

The special meeting on the evening of Tuesday, October 11th dealt with the selection process for a new CA (city administrator) and appointment of the committee. Oh, I forgot to tell you; Andy McCown will not be coming back to Wentzville. At the meeting of September 28th Mayor Lambi lost another battle trying to hire his buddy McCown for acting CA at a rate equal to $165,000 a year. Of course he would only have been here two or three months but that could add up to over $40,000, that seemed like an awful lotta dough to me. The board put the poo-poo on the idea and Lambi pouted the rest of the evening. They also put the kibosh on hiring a consultant firm to search for a CA stating; "the city has an HR Manager" and that she can handle it. I'm not going into the whole WA-WA-WA thing again but that sums up Lambi's meeting that evening.

Back to the matter at hand: The selection committee will be comprised of the Board of Aldermen, HR Manager (Amy Holloway) and the mayor. Lambi tried to get the acting CA and directors of each department on the committee but the board once again denied his bid. They discussed and set benefits on top of a base salary of $108,000 per year plus a $6,000 car allowance which was vigorously debated by Alderman Cheryl Kross.

A discussion was had regarding a requirement that candidates need to be a member of the ICMA (International City/County Management Association) and Lambi once again made a fool of himself trying to demand its necessity. He stated; "it was an elite organization and as Chief Executive Officer I will not accept any recommendation from the board without it!" When queried, Dennis Walsh stated that it comes with very expensive price-tag. ICMA dues are 0.008 x base salary—in this case it comes to around $850 per year. Aldermen Vann Sample Jumped on Lambi's remark, "I don't want to hear that you will not accept board recommendations..." It's the first time I'd heard Sample chastise the mayor for his CEO (I'm important) talk—now it's unanimous—all of the aldermen have taken shots at him at one time or another in recent weeks for his idiotic blathering. Lambi likes calling himself "Chief Executive Officer," it gives him some sort of self-worth, I guess. It's apparent to everyone that if he had been doing his job as mayor, the Aldermen wouldn't have to be doing it for him. Another item Lambi slid in; was when he mentioned hiring an Assistant CA. There is no intention of doing that but he mentioned it for some reason and I found out later that he promised the job to another friend. It's tough finding friends when your going down, Lambi can't even buy one.

The procedure was finally set except for one more foot in Lambi's mouth. In his frustration over not getting his way, he compared the candidate to several successful men; "he needs the qualities of Ghandi, Bill Gates..."(among others.) Aware of Lambi's chauvinist characteristics, Alderman Cheryl Kross jumped in; "HELLO, Mayor, I'm here!" Red-faced and grinning like the Cheshire Cat he tried desperately to slight the fact that once again he had let his disregard of women shine through. He stumbled around to add some successful women to his list, Mother Theresa was his first choice, but the cat was definitely out of the bag regarding his low opinion of women in general. Alderman Kross should bring a pot to meetings and beat on it with a wooden spoon to get Lambi's attention and remind him that it's not nice to discriminate.

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.)

Influence Peddling in Wentzville?

Wikipedia defines: "Influence peddling; the illegal practice of using one's influence in government or connections with persons in authority to obtain favors or preferential treatment for another, usually in return for payment. Also called traffic of influence or trading in influence."

Surely, your thinking, this couldn't happen in the itsy-bitsy town of Wentzville. Could it be that one of our elected officials is doing just that thing? Tune in again later for more on the subject of Influence peddling and Wentzville.

Wentzville Candidates—An Open Invitation

Attention Wentzville Candidates:

The Wentzvillian is being read by voters all over the city, receiving over 400 hits per month and our numbers are increasing every day. This expanding community of citizens have a need to know where the candidates who are going to be representing them stand on important issues concerning the future of Wentzville. Issues such as public safety, growth, taxes, budget, parks, roads, and other infrastructure, These subjects are paramount to voters when going to the polls to elect you as their mayor or aldermen. We know that elected officials, staff, employees, and prospective candidates, along with hundreds of voters follow The Wentzvillian, so we are offering candidates the opportunity to state their platform here for Wentzvillians to see.

The Wentzville Chamber of Commerce has historically held a "Candidate's Night" each year, and are planning another this year. The problem with this forum; it's only one time—one evening. Historically the event has been sparsely attended and it could never reach the audience we have here every single day. The citizens who attend "Candidate Night" are concerned voters, and even though the audience may be small, attendees do  talk to other concerned voters and so do The Wentzvillian readers. To be heard by Wentzville voters candidates need to be accessible to the most voters possible, as often as possible. The Wentzvillian offers candidates the opportunity to campaign to  hundreds of interested and motivated voters.

The process is simple, just email (or comment here) your platform topics or comments you want voters to hear. We will post your statement and it will become a part of this blog to be seen 24 hours a day until the election April 3rd, 2012. The Wentzvillian is like having a "Candidates Night" every day and every night. To reach the Wentzvillian, you may either leave a comment here (below) or click the following link: thewentzvillian@aol.com to send an email. Every candidate's post or email will be posted as they come in. We also invite citizens to post comments or email us with questions for the candidates. Comments and emails should be signed. If you wish to have your name omitted from the posting we can oblige but it must be available (comments may be edited for objectionable material.)

The citizens of Wentzville look forward to read what our candidates have to say and how they can make Wentzville a better place to live, work, and play.

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.