Grumble, Bumble, Stumble, and Mumble

I always find it fascinating to watch Mayor Nickolas Guccione grab onto a subject that he had nothing to do with claiming it for his own. He's desperately trying to be the champion of the taxpayers but with few, or no ideas of his own, he latches onto anything proposed by someone else. Off he scurries with his new idea avoiding research and giving no thought to the consequences—this is the part where it usually ends up badly for our hero—a safe falls out of the sky onto the head of Mayor Wile E. Coyote.

Now that I have your interest, the Board of Alderman meeting of February 27th (video) was over before 11:00 PM but in my elevated years I found it difficult staying awake. The Peruque Valley and Heartland Park projects, "(ID # 4369) was an exciting discussion and I will dedicate my next writing to cover the story. Other than the parks discussion it was the subtleties of the meeting that piqued my real interest.

Let's start with the smoking issue brought up in; "Heal Thy Self," which I posted on February 26th. Mayor Guccione got his brilliant idea from Alderman Forrest Gossett during a phone call when Gossett told him that he had seen employees smoking in City owned vehicles. This led to the "To All Employees" letter which was the subject of my scrutiny yesterday, the rest is history. Guccione claims to anyone who he thinks might believe him that he does not read The Wentzvillian. Coinsidently he brings up smoking in front of the buildings even to the extend of giving a no smoking distance from the front door of city hall, a number that was posted as a comment to this blog.

I've stated on numerous occasions that our mayor is incapable of making decisions and this is the subject for his new idea to disallow smoking within 25 feet from the entrance of any municipal building. The fun part of this is that he brought it up after reading it here and he introduced it into discussion yet he will not issue a directive. It's funny that he issued a directive on the 25th that there will be no more smoking in city vehicles but he won't issue a directive for a smoke-free zone at the entrances of city owned buildings. Why is that? Well, Mayor Coyote rode one of his ACME rockets into the side of a cliff (it begins to smart after a while) and The Wentzvillian challenged the hypocrisy of his directive.

"I'm not going to tell people they can't smoke in public." He wants the Aldermen to take the next ride on his rocket. He stated that he won't make the decision unless the Aldermen make it for him. He's slicker than a firehouse pole. Rather than conform to OSHA and Federal rules, which seems to be a no-brainer (something that is well within Gucciones ability), Mayor Coyote won't issue the directive and defaults to the Board to make it for him. If a Mayor can't make a decision based on Federal guidelines, I question whether or not he is a Mayor.

Now let's move on to another funny story. Last week the Board of Aldermen set the agenda for the "Strategic Planning Session" (retreat), without the assistance of the Mayor, who was supposed to do it. Every year since I've been watching City Government the Mayor has always set aside a half-hour or so to give his goals for the City to the Aldermen at the retreat, oops, I mean Strategic Planning Session. I thought it curious last week that his goals for 2013 weren't discussed as a topic for the meeting. Guccione was suspiciously silent and didn't mention that it was his place to tell the Aldermen his plans for the coming year. After thinking about it a while, Guccione doesn't have any goals!

"Looking at our agenda for the Strategic Planning Session we didn't include the Mayor's Goals," said Alderman Cheryl Kross. Her offering was met with Guccione's patented deer in the headlights look, I love her, she's cuter than a junebug in a jumpsuit. Again he didn't know what to say but agreed to take a time slot. When opening on Friday evening was suggested Guccione said "I won't be there Friday." They then offered Saturday and Guccione knew he was trapped he was going to have to fabricate some goals to give to the Aldermen. Saturday ... or Friday ... whenever ...  Guccione grumbled, bumbled, stumbled, and mumbled.

I was disappointed last year because the retreat video experienced "technical problems," I didn't have the opportunity to hear his goals for last year. This year I have been guaranteed that citizens will be able to watch Guccione give his famous "Goals for 2013." I can't wait to see what he's going to say simply because he has no goals, never has, and never will. He is going to have to find out what the Aldermen have done to effect the coming year and lay claim to it. I'll bet he won't take credit for the Splash Station or the other new parks. Honestly, I cannot think of a single thing that he can ask the Aldermen to achieve for him, but a wink's as good as a nod to a blind mule.

More Wile E. Coyote funny stuff came up in a discussion regarding appointments to committees and boards. I need to tell you about it so I'm putting this reminder to myself for my next writing  to explain just what happened, funny stuff, you'll love it.

Heal Thy Self

A funny thing happened when I opened my email this morning I received a copy of an email sent by my favorite mayor, Nickolas Guccione, "To All City Employees." I'm not going to reprint the entirety of the transmission here, just the parts I have questions about. It is regarding the ever popular smoking issue, and regardless of your preference I believe you'll find some portion of it interesting.

Sentence Number 1: "In order to promote a positive image of the City of Wentzville smoking in city owned vehicles will no longer be allowed." My question with this statement is this: If you are sincere in wanting to give a more positive image, why can you be seen standing in front of city hall puffing your brains out on cigarettes? Or don't you believe that your edict should pertain to your own nasty habit?

Sentence Number 2: "Vehicles and buildings owned by the City are essentially paid for by taxpayers." You forgot to mention that the ground the buildings stands on is paid for by the taxpayers too. It stands to reason that you shouldn't be smoking on the grounds either.

Since Guccione has been elected, he has even instituted smoke breaks at every Board of Alderman meeting. Shutting down the business of the City while he goes out in front of City Hall to be seen by citizens driving by where he stands outside the front door enhancing the image of the City by blowing smoke on each and every passer-by. Nickolas Guccone says he is concerned about the City's image but has no intention of taking himself and his nasty habit off of the grounds away from public view.

I've heard several times over the past year about Guccione smoking in front of city hall, it's not just me complaining about it. What does the good-book say: "Let he amongst you who is without sin cast the first stone." Mr Mayor, I suggest that before you say others are hurting the City's image, you need to clean up your own act.

It's Time For Our Mayor To Make A Decision!

A perfect example of Mayor Guccione's total lack of leadership came at Wednesday's Work Session. A mayor is responsible for setting agendas. Wednesday they set the agenda for the annual retreat, currently known as "Strategic Planning Session." Ever since I've been watching Wentzville City Government, the mayor has not only participated in setting the agenda but approved it. Guccione did neither, if he was to give input, someone would have needed to wake him up. I hope everyone watches that video (click here) just to see how little our mayor really does in the one place where he should shine.

Being an idealist and while writing "Report Card Part I," and "Report Card Part II" and most recently watching the work session this past Wednesday, The Wentzvillian was reminded of the election of 2012 and the mistake the voters made electing Nick Guccione over all of the other more qualified candidates. Today, less than two months until his first year in office and seeing his lack of accomplishments and leadership has me sitting here again shaking my head in utter disgust, I need to vent!

I'm convinced that Presidents, Governors and, Mayors who are less than qualified must be narcissistic, why else would they invite the scrutiny of the press, demanding employees, irate citizens, and one lowly voice in the darkness of cyberspace? I'm further convinced that in Mayor Nickolas Guccione's case, there was quite a lot of naivety.

Alderman Nick Guccione's political teething came by following the lead of five other Aldermen who were more bold than he, only by being very quiet did he outlast them. Having been told how to vote he never had to read or investigate items, he merely voted "Yea" or "Nay" in harmony with the leading Aldermen. When his leaders were not reelected and other strong more-conservative candidates were seated he was all alone on the board. Knowing he would have a frustrating time trying to compete with stronger-willed, more government-savvy Aldermen, and aware of the great possibility he would not be reelected to represent Ward 3, he made the bold decision to run for mayor. The unethical course of his campaign is no secret as he bamboozled the voters and steamrolled Wentzville with his slash and burn strategy. Every candidate running for any office other than those he hand-picked caught the mud he was slinging all over town. As expected he has begun slamming Alderman Cheryl Kross of Ward 1 and Ward 3 candidate Darrel Lackey with dirt and lies in an effort to manipulate the coming election. Other than thinking about fame and bright lights, I'm really not sure why he wanted to be Mayor so much that he would discredit himself by trashing everyone who ran against him and his aldermanic hopefuls. Unfortunately for him, none of his posse were elected leaving him with more than a few disgruntled Aldermen to deal with.

Working with today's Aldermen, directing a staff, managing almost 200 employees, representing 29,000 citizens, and managing a $60 million dollar budget are not within Guccione's area of expertise. So what are his reasons for wanting to be Mayor of Wentzville? Alderman Guccione had a history of following but as Mayor he can't do that anymore, Harry S. Truman said; "The buck stops here." If Guccione is ever going to have a chance at being an effective Mayor, he's going to have to make some decisions. Since he was elected mayor, the Board of Aldermen have been carrying him and doing his job by making educated decisions that he should have made and had they not, the city's budget and policies would be in serious trouble.

Now I'm reminded that our Mayor is supporting two candidates in the soon-to-be election and I find it troubling that Guccione is longing for days gone bye when he agreed with the Aldermen and they agreed with him and things got messed up in City Hall. God help Wentzville if he chips away at this board replacing them one at a time with clones of himself. Vote for Cheryl Kross and Darrel Lackey!

More From the 20th

At the meeting Wednesday the 20th (click here), one of the few times our man of few words (Mayor Nickolas Guccione) spoke was to say that he's all about customer service. He's talked about "customer service" so much since being elected he has me convinced that he must know a lot about it. But, it was brought out at the meeting that an email was received from a resident by the City regarding a financial matter. It was asked of Mayor Guccione if he had directed it to whoever may be able to answer it and the question got his usual deer in the headlights look. As it turns out, he hadn't done anything with it, I guess hoping someone else would take care of it, which no one had. Anyway, I thought customer service involved responding to someones needs but I guess I was wrong. I reckon I need to reread the Customer Service for Dummies handbook. I wonder if he gives that same kind of "customer service" attention to someone buying chicken parts.

Every year about this time the city holds a "retreat," now known as a "Strategic Planning Session." This year rather than rent a fancy meeting facility at a resort somewhere in another city or county this year the Aldermen decided to have it locally, here in Wentzville. Last year for the first time they had to hire a facilitator to keep the meeting on topic and moving along. They had to, especially since they had a look at the way our Mayor conducts a meeting, any meeting. Previous Mayors knew how to facillitate a meeting but knowing that Guccione isn't capable of facilitating any sort of meeting and in an effort to save money, they will use the new City Administrator.

Now it's onto another subject; opening day for Wentzville's new Splash Station. With delays in construction, the latest date given for the grand opening of the Splash Station is August 15, 2013. An interesting discussion happened at the meeting between President of the Board, Rick Stokes and Mayor Nickolas Guccione. If it were possible to open on August 15th, that would mean it would be open for a whole 19 days before it would have to close for the season. Hiring employees, lifeguards, and concessions must be fairly expensive which under usual circumstances making a decision should be easy, but when you have Guccione at the wheel sometimes scraping a fender or two should be expected. Stokes asked the Mayor: "Will we be opening Splash Station for only two weeks?" Guccione was caught flat-footed probably not sure how to answer, on one hand if he decides not to open the park he broke a promise to the people and on the other, if he opens it'll cost the City dearly. Stokes continued; "This is your bailiwick it's clearly operational." I'm not sure Guccione understood what the reference to "operational" meant, after all he's only "Kinda like the CEO" At any rate he responded; "If you want me to make a decision, I'll make a decision." I'm telling you, any Mayor who doesn't know when to make a decision is lost.

There's more from the meeting of the 20th and I'll touch on it in another day or two.

Are We Keeping You Up?

Looking at the Work Session agenda of February 20, 2013 (click here for video) it really didn't appear to be very exciting, but it emphasised many of the things I've been harping on about Mayor Nickolas Guccione for the last two years. Guccione was disengaged and other than for a few brief moments never opened his mouth other than to yawn, which was frequently. After the meeting a  reporter from a local publication asked me what I got from the meeting. I told the reporter that I took two pages of notes but not being a reporter myself I look for a lot different content than you would. The reporter did make the following comment without solicitation; "Guccione didn't say much," to which I responded; "that kinda sums up the job performance of our current mayor."

I'm going to start with the Work Session Topic List. There were a total of 24 items on the list and one of them will ring loud with the village center businesses and residents; "Honorary Street Names." It's interesting to note that this topic is the only item on the list not to have anyone listed in the "Requested By" column, or a "Date Received." This item is different than the "Renaming Streets" subject brought forward by Mayor Guccione a few months ago. That topic incited such an uproar of the citizens and business community that it was decided by the board to write a policy which will protect our historic street names.

Memorializing our historic street names has Mayor Guccione out on a limb with a saw in his hand sawing as fast as his Wile Coyote arms can move. Twice, Alderman Stokes asked for ownership of this item and twice Guccione ignored him. At 2:38 into the meeting Guccione said "Do you want to talk about Honorary Street Names?" He brought it up, he is the one pushing for it and if you watch the video starting at 2:51 I think you'll see that Mayor Guccione wants this to happen. He won't take credit for placing it on the Work Session Topic List but he got it on the agenda of March 13th as a discussion item.

Mayor Guccione has been out on the streets bad-mouthing Alderman Cheryl Kross because she's running for reelection against one of his boys. He's tried saddling her with the Street Renaming change disaster and now he wants her to take credit for the Memorial Street Name crap. In my opinion, if the Aldermen want to put ownership where it belongs, they can do it publicly. When it comes up on the March 13th agenda and Guccione asks for discussion, they need to ask him for his recommendation. There's where Guccione will need to make a decision; either break his promise to his friend or piss off everyone in the downtown area. If he doesn't want to take a stand then it's time for the "Board of Crickets" to sing their lonely song, chirrup. chirrup, chirrup.

I'm tired of Guccione's political agenda and believe the Aldermen need to let him stand or fall on his items of discussion. There was more from last night but I wrote more than I wanted today, the thought of the mayor yawning all last night has me longing for a nap. I'll probably be back tomorrow if I wake up.

21% Job Approval Rating

Some of you have taken the opportunity to vote in the "Rate Mayor Guccione's Performance" poll at the top of the column on the left, and I thank you. Even though it's not as yet a huge sampling of Wentzville voters I thought it would be fun to track how my readers judge our Mayor through the end of his term. Personally, on my report card he has been a miserable failure in his first year in office. I can't say he was a disappointment because I followed his career through five years as an alderman and he did absolutely nothing, so in that respect he got an "A,"—I expected nothing and he delivered—nothing.

Mayor Nickolas Guccione was elected on April 3, 2012 with just 42 percent of the vote so I expect his job approval ratings here would be no more than that and most probably something less. Guccione didn't do himself any favors with the Board of Aldermen when he ran such an unethical campaign and holding his vacated seat open for nine months, failing to work with them on an appointment made it even worse. The hole he dug created interpersonal relationship problems and he is having a difficult time assimilating. His obvious lack of oratory skills and inability to articulate will remain problematic for the remainder of his term. Unfortunately for Wentzville, the officials of other communities in St. Charles County see him as a joke and question the intelligence of our citizens who voted him into office.

Today, according to The Wentzvillian Poll; Mayor Nickolas Guccione's job approval rating is bleak at 21%. It's interesting to note that all of the positive votes for him were "Excellent" which puzzles me because anyone who is conscious or watches him in action (and I use that word loosely) could not possibly call his job performance "Excellent." Since he has five "Excellent" votes I have to assume he has four friends left he hasn't ailenated—yet!

A Muddy Elephant in the Snow

In only a month and a half we will be going to the polls to elect two Aldermen and our Municipal Judge here in Wentzville. It reminds me of another election when then-Mayor Vickie Bodecker stuffed the ballot with her hand-picked candidates. At the time she was frustrated that her conservative Board of Aldermen didn't subscribe to her ultra-liberal beliefs so she initiated one of the dirtiest campaigns (until Nick Guccione's of last year) ever to be held in Wentzville. Unfortunately, two of her bozos overthrew the conservative board that would have allowed her to cast tie-breaking votes had she been reelected. Fortunately, Paul Lambi was elected and for a year the balance of power remained just right of crazy, but that would all change the following year with the election of the ultra-left socialist Alderman Nickolas Guccione.

With Guccione on the Board creating a majority, things got real nuts in City hall. The Socialist board of that time took apart any resemblance of fiscal responsibility and they binged on useless and destructive legislation. The effect of their influence is still being felt today, employees being fired or quitting out of fear, audits and policy violations because of a lack of oversight, and Guccione is the only vestige of those chaotic times.

Mark Twain said; "History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme." Guccione is trying to do the same thing he did last year and Bodecker did over nine years ago—stuff the board. That tactic set the city back for years to come by endorsing candidates who agreed with them rather than what's best for the city. If he were to be honest he'd have to admit that he has no interest in what's best for the city, it's all about him and his nonsense politics. If he were interested in creating a better city, he'd do what he does best (besides lying); follow—follow this Board of Aldermen who could make him a great Mayor instead of one who will go down in history as our worst.

Today, our Mayor is parading around town with Michael Hays and Robert Hussey in tow, introducing them as the best things since sliced bread. A little advice to them; check with some of the candidates he supported in the past and see what they have to say about him and his loyalty. Even better, ask his campaign manager of last year, see what she has to say about his ethics. In case you don't know, the Board of Aldermen just passed new ethics policies because of Alderman Nickolas Guccione's total lack of ethics, so if you want to follow his advice you'd better prepare yourselves for some fines. Guccione won't leave a paper trail when he stabs you in the back, he'll just slither away leaving you out there twisting in the wind, that's the way he does things.

I'm waiting for him to use his latest "campaign propaganda tool;" his weekly Newstime articles (that we all pay for) to hawk his recruits. He doesn't do anything different, he merely changes a few names and starts the motor running. You can smell his influence and he covers his tracks like a muddy elephant in the snow. He really believes that no one can see him coming or where he's been. Soon we'll see the old worn-out trash that he and Bodeker used for years in their campaigns to help Hays and Hussey smear and defame anyone who runs against them. One more thing; Guccione is campaigning for Michael Carter for for Municipal Judge but everyone knows he's a loser just like Guccione.

To the voters; Don't let Guccione get another foothold on dirty politics in Wentzville's City Hall. Reelect Alderman Cheryl Kross in Ward 1 and elect Darrel Lackey for Ward 3, as for Municipal Judge; incumbent Steve Martin is the man. Remember, a vote for Kross, Lackey, and Martin is a vote to keep Guccione frustrated for another year. Who knows, if we can't get rid of him maybe we could have him committed, he is definately not drooling out of both sides of his mouth.