St. Charles City Council

Oh my GOD, is the only thing I can think of, here. Just when you think things can't get uglier or stupider within an elected body, along come City Councilmen John Gieseke, Dotty Greer, Mark Brown and Joe Koester.

Now, the ONLY reason I'm not throwing council President Rory Riddler's name in the mix, there, is because he's the mastermind behind the chaos in the City of St. Charles. Riddler's been around the block a time or twenty, rest assured. He knows the city budget and the departments backward and forward, and he knows politics. That being said, I think Riddler's time has passed, and his days (decades) on the council are numbered.

Riddler, over the years, has managed to assist many candidates in getting elected to the city council and other offices. Problem is, the ones he helps put on the council with him end up being pawns that are used by him to do his evil work, while he sits back and watches it happen. After all, he's not the one that will be attacked politically for it.

Gieseke -- does he remind anyone else of that character Joe Pesci played on Saturday Night Live? You know ... when he was in a skit and was shopping for a pinky ring? This guy is nothing but a thug in training. He's not smart or powerful enough to be an ACTUAL thug, and hopefully we won't see him get that smart or powerful. While working for a hotel management company that has a hotel in Earth City, Gieseke used to go to the Convention and Visitors Bureau and use his position on the city council to see what organizations were headed to St. Charles for tours and/or meetings. He would then use this information to call the organizations and try to convince them to stay in the hotel in Earth City! Now, while I might give him a LITTLE bit of credit for coming up with an interesting marketing plan for his employer, what he was essentially doing was taking tourism dollars out of St. Charles. All the time, he was using his position to criticize the job that was being done by Steve Powell, the former director of the CVB. Powell is considered one of the quintessential tourism professionals in the state, and cities all over the state of Missouri would comment about how fortunate we were to have him here. But alas, Powell made one big mistake. He became friends with Mayor Patti York. This alone created the wedge that certain members of the council needed in order to go after him. Gieseke doesn't understand the tourism industry. He doesn't understand the advertising campaigns that go along with tourism, the marketing aspects, the expenditures on behalf of bringing people to an area. But because he's a city council member, he can use his bully pulpit to get rid of Powell, oppose the convention center proposal, which had not only gotten an appropriations nod from the legislature, but also two separate votes from taxpayers of the city. To this date, Gieseke swears he will never step foot inside the convention center, which is much to the chagrin of the employees there. Now Powell is in Peoria, but still has his feelers here and, I've heard, he's itching to come back.

Greer -- wow ... what is she really doing on the council? She sleeps through meetings, doesn't follow the agenda, votes against her own bills and doesn't know how to form a motion. It is obvious that she takes her marching orders directly from Riddler, because she wouldn't know what to do if she weren't being led.

Brown -- a real piece of work that moved here from Overland, after screwing up their city council for years. Brown moved here amid rumors of criminal wrongdoing that were never put to rest, and built a house in the now-infamous Pearl Ridge area. Pearl Ridge is just off Blanche Drive -- a street with houses built some fifty or more years ago, for the most part. The homes on Pearl Ridge are much more upscale than their neighbors, I've often thought it would be an incredible thing to buy all the houses on Blanche Drive, tear MOST of them down and build REALLY upper scale housing there. Dead-end street, interesting topography, woods, close to the school, private. All the makings of a classy neighborhood. I sympathize with Brown in his quest to receive assistance from the flooding problems that occur on his street, because the drainage is directed toward one of many large sinkholes in the area. Problem is, the sinkholes fill up and flood sometimes. It's always been this way, and it will always BE this way. But Brown takes it a step further. He refuses to get the appropriate permits for occupancy, building, buisness license, etc, then he goes after his own neighbors when they try to improve their homes. Brown comes across as a nice enough guy when you talk with him face to face, and he ran a VERY professional looking campaign. (Hey, I suppose you can do that when you own your own printing company) Brown has really been one of the weakest links in this council, partially because of his ability to butcher the english language, but mostly because of his attitude toward screwing anyone that tells him no. He reminds me of someone I know on the Francis Howell School Board, actually, but that's upcoming. Brown and Greer have both been the target of recall petition drives, that have been successful. Or have they been? Enough signatures were collected and verified by the Director of Elections' office. So why isn't that good enough for the city council to place the recalls on the ballot? Well ... Riddler, no stranger to election shenanigans, himself, has decided that he is now a handwriting expert. Because some of the signatures look similar to our new handwriting expert, he has called the city police in to investigate. Not only do people take their privacy into their own hands by signing the petitions, but Riddler and company have obtained copies of the petitions and the police are knocking on doors to verify that voters actually signed the petitions! To add insult to injury, rumor has it that Brown himself is personally calling or knocking on doors of those that signed the petition. He has sent out a post card with instructions on how to remove one's name from the petition if they so choose. He even went so far as to suggest to a reporter that those collecting signatures were telling voters that the petition wasn't a recall petition, but a petition to place Brown back on the ballot! This has voter intimidation written all over it, and I hope he and Greer both get their asses booted, but for good! Now, don't get me wrong, I also hope that the city can bring some closure to the problems at Pearl Ridge. After all, it was the city that approved the drainage plans in the first place, against the objections of many.

Koester -- or JoKo, as some have pegged him. Can this guy cry a little more? The only thing I can say about this joke of a public servant is that we should all thank our lucky stars that he's not the county executive!!

Riddler -- now here's a peach. Riddler, the mastermind, has reached the end of his rope. I think that was well indicated by the fact that he voted with the other five members of the council to approve the city budget this week. Riddler masterminded many things, including having most of the city council that was elected to not allow Mayor York to swear them in, as has been the tradition for years. Most democrats on the council chose to have democrat judge Bill Lohmar swear them in. Then the council directed that York should be removed from the dais and placed at a table on the floor. They just couldn't bear the thought of sitting with the mayor as an equal. This move, by the way, has been recently reversed. I don't know whether public outcry has finally taken its toll, or what, but it's about time these wise-asses woke up. Riddler has allowed the others on the council to take the heat for doing his bidding for years, and I think it has finally caught up with him. Republican Party Chairman Tom Kuypers almost defeated Riddler for that council seat in the last election. No word yet on whether Kuypers will run again, but I can assure you that more people in that ward have gotten thoroughly disgusted with their "home town boy" Riddler, and if the race were tomorrow, I'd definitely put my money on Kuypers.

York -- just needs to open her eyes and keep them open. She's a wonderful person, but has not been a very effective mayor. Her desire to beautify the city has created problems on most fronts, and her lack of ability to put Riddler and others in their place early on to avoid the crap that is happening now is enough to make you sick. I look forward to someone with true leadership skills take over as this city's next mayor. Some are suggesting Kevin Kast is taking a serious look at it, although I'm not quite so sure why he'd wish to do something like that after his successful career as a hospital administrator. Besides, he is squarely in York's corner, and York has declared to many that she intends to run again, when the mayor's job becomes full time and more hands-on.

More on this as things unravel. Gee, I hope I'm not forgetting anyone! By the way, what happened to the charter proposal that all members of the council SAID they supported? You know -- the one that staggers the terms so we don't end up with all new councilmembers at one time?? Grow some balls,boys, and put it on the ballot!

St. Peters Board of Aldermen

Wow, there are a few things that immediately come to mind when thinking of this bunch.

Okay, first of all ... although she's not an alderman, Randa Hayes' name must come up. This is the gem that, along with her husband, St. Peters Alderman David Hayes, did quite a bit of fundraising for gubernatorial candidate Matt Blunt, and apparently quite successfully. Randa, who was very active in helping out with the production of the "Jeff and Bruce Show," on cable tv (featuring former County Councilman Jeff Morrison and St. Peters Alderman Bruce Holt), as well as numerous other duties within the city of St. Peters, ended up with a rather lucrative appointment by the newly elected Governor Blunt within the Department of Economic Development as Director of Business Development.

One other thing that Randa was apparently successful at (until she got caught) was stealing $36,000 from her sorority in college. She was arrested, and later paid restitution and pleaded guilty to misdemeanor theft in a plea bargain.

This alone should have been enough reason for Blunt to not consider appointing Randa to a prominent position in state government. I can only assume that Blunt knew nothing about Randa's past when making the appointment. She was correctly removed from her position with the state. As far as I know, she has never apologized to the governor for embarrassing him in such a fashion.

How does this play into what's going on in St. Peters? Well, first of all ... if I were an attorney and on the Board of Aldermen and my wife had these issues that had deeply embarrassed the governor's administration so publicly, I think I'd keep my damn mouth shut about others for a while. But nooooooo ... not David. He continues to publicly berate and attack Mayor Shawn Brown over anything he can come up with, in order to weaken Brown when it comes to reelection time. Now, I don't think Brown is as smooth as he thinks he is, but come on, David! Accusing Shawn of all sorts of business improprieties, ethics reporting issues, etc? Who are you to be talking about others' ethics?

Enter county Prosecuting Attorney Jack Banas, who investigated a claim by David that Brown had tried to use his office to coerce a would-be business to buy electrical components from the company for which Brown works if they wanted to have zoning for their business. Hello, David ... this is SHAWN Brown, not TOM Brown! Perhaps you had your corrupt mayors confused?

Banas, of course, exonerated Brown of any wrong-doing. I'm not going to sit here and paint Brown as a saint, mind you, but it still seems to me that if I were David, I'd let someone else be the one to go after him if I thought he had done something wrong.

Anyway, recently, one of my favorite subjects has become a permanent fixture at BOA meetings in St. Peters. Good old Brandy Pederson, our local expert on anything that is ethical and proper. Pederson, as you'll recall, is the vice chairman of the republican central committee in St. Charles County. This alone should place her high on the credibility scale, except for one thing. She seems to spend most of her time bashing other republicans. Whether they be officeholders or not, if they've ever had anything to do with people she doesn't like, look out!

She started by going after the "queen matriarch" of the party, Penny Bennett. Penny, mother of former state Rep. Jon Bennett, and son Jon had begun discussions with Jeff Morrison about repairing the rift between certain factions within the party. Because of this, Pederson took it upon herself to tell others on the committee that Penny and Jon were trying to take over the central committee and give all power and financial decisions over to Morrison, which turned out to be completely fabricated. Instead of talking to either of the Bennetts, however, she just went forward with her version of the truth. If she had bothered to find out, she would have discovered that there were many people in the party that were encouraging the burying of the hatchet, in favor of looking out for the big picture. Penny was the long-standing vice chairman of the committee and poised to remain in that position, until Pederson, with the help of a few unnamed people (I'll get to them later) managed to convince enough newcomers that she needed to be replaced.

ANYWAY ... Pederson has become such a fixture at the St. Peters BOA meetings that she now believes that she can not only take up an unlimited amount of time at the microphone during public comment period, but can shout out comments from the audience, as well. She was removed by police from the latest meeting for her outbursts, at the request of Brown and a couple of members of the board.

Now, the BOA wants to place a time limit on those who speak to them during the public comment period. Seems like a reasonable request. Will they refer to it as the "Pederson rule?"

I'm just waiting to see which one of our republicans Pederson goes after next. With an election year looming, it seems like she has a lot of work to do in order to further weaken the party before November. Rumor has it that she's none too fond of Rep. Scott Rupp, the candidate chosen to run for the special election for the 2nd Senatorial district, because he accepted past campaign contributions from organizations tied to Morrison . Whose side is she on, anyway?

City Councils, Boards of Aldermen, Where to Begin?

Suffice to say, I don't have enough time now to go through all of these embarrassing governmental bodies at this moment, but I will dedicate one thread each to the cities of St. Charles, O'Fallon and St. Peters.

These people, and the people that either support or oppose them, have given me PLENTY of fodder over the past several months. Don't think I'm going to pull any punches here, either, because they all deserve it for the way they've acted in public. These people have made a shambles out of our communities and deserve every bit of criticism they have coming to them -- not just from me, but from all the different arenas.

Special Elections, Part 2

All right ... in keeping with chronological order (although not necessarily LOGICAL order), we now turn our attention to the 2nd Senatorial District, which was vacated recently by Jon Dolan, who chose to go into the private sector, working in Jefferson City.

While I don't loathe Dolan, I'm glad to see him go. His self-serving antics have not been well received by many members of the house or senate, not to mention the community. He's a witty guy, no doubt. He's as comfortable with a microphone as any stand-up comic, and could probably give many a run for their money. But now he's out of politics and it's time to put a statesman in the position of senator.

Many of our local elected officials wanted the opportunity to go to the senate. Heck, I can't blame them -- senators are treated like royalty in Jefferson City. Four different republican state representatives, a former state rep candidate and a county councilman sought the nod from the 2nd Senatorial District Committee, which, might I add, does NOT allow proxies, since we're talking about a state elected position.

The 2nd Senatorial District Committee is made up of all those members of the republican central committees in St. Charles and Lincoln counties whose township lines are within the confines of the 2nd District. In addition, according to state statute, the central committee chair and vice chair of each county has a vote. The committee is chaired by Georganne MacNab, whose husband felt it necessary to compliment on her job performance on his blog site (as if we don't all know who runs it!). I hope he was rewarded for his comments, although the visual that accompanies it isn't pretty!

Let me tick down the list here, and we'll all see who was interested in the position. I'll do it in alphabetical order, so as not to appear biased.

Joe Brazil - St. Charles County Councilman, represents that area of the county. Good at making headlines, but would be rather lost in Jefferson City. The ability to fight with Jeff Morrison on the council won him some brownie points with Brandy Pederson and others, but that and the ability to put an attractive young lady on your arm aren't enough reason to receive the nomination. Hey, this is the REPUBLICAN party, remember?? Anyway, Brazil has declared that whether he won the nomination or not, he is planning a run for the state senate in the August primary election. Not a big shock, considering that Brazil took out a republican when he first ran for the county council. But it's a bit disheartening that he would make such a decision that flies in the face of the party and its elected officials.

Mike Clynch (pic not available to be stolen) - retired teacher in the district, resident of Lincoln County, ran unsuccessfully in 2004 against Rep. Wayne Henke, the democrat nominee for the special election. A good guy, and given the opportunity to run as a republican and include the western and southern parts of St. Charles County, may have put up a much better fight against Henke. But the competition was more fierce. I would expect to see Clynch run for Henke's house seat, since Henke will now have to vacate it in order to run. (more about that later)

Cynthia Davis - state representative from O'Fallon. A bit on the quirky side (I'm being polite), but she's ours! Davis is an unabashed Christian, who touts her faith wherever she goes. I don't find anything necessarily wrong with that, but it doesn't help republicans' message that we're not a bunch of kooks! That alone wasn't worth her not earning the nomination, but the many ethics charges that have been filed against her would have haunted her throughout this campaign. Davis enjoys the highest approval rating of any legislator from St. Charles County, but I'm afraid that a senate race could have gone terribly awry with her as our candidate. I should point out that Davis originally declared that she would also be running for the nomination in August, even if not chosen, but she has backed away from that comment and is now speaking of filing for re-election to her house seat. Good for her!

Scott Rupp - state representative from Lake St. Louis. Rupp pulled off the nomination, as predicted, and his main source of competition came from Brazil, who peeled off a few votes from the rabble-rouser crowd. Rupp, as a member of the Young Republicans, ran for office for the first time in 2002, during which time he attracted a primary challenge from Lake St. Louis' own Darrell Hollinger. As soon as Hollinger filed, I had assumed him to be the winner. Apparently, so did Hollinger, as he didn't really do anything for his own election and was soundly defeated by Rupp. To hear Rupp speak was both refreshing and invigorating. He really impressed me, as well as a number of others that didn't know he had it in him. Like Davis, Smith and Schneider, Rupp has worked hard in Jefferson City, but his ability to be a statesman is what I think separates him from the rest of the crowd. It's appropriate to point out that the word from Jefferson City was that the governor wasn't even going to call a special election if Rupp wasn't to be the nominee. So it's safe to assume that the votes were wrapped up prior to the meeting. Rupp, by the way, was the ONLY office holder who declared from the start that he would not run against his fellow legislators in August, should he not be chosen. I thought that showed quite a bit of class.

Vicki Schneider - state representative from O'Fallon. Nice lady, short on legislative substance. Her family builds custom homes and is well established in the community, but I'm not quite so sure what she's doing in Jefferson City. She's one of ours, but seems a bit invisible for a member of the majority party. Schneider has also declared that she intends to run for the senate in the August primary, even if it means running against an incumbent. That alone tends to make me want to steer clear.

Joe Smith - state representative from Harvester. Great guy, as long as he's not giving a speech. Smith, while reportedly short on substance, has done a good job keeping his name in the paper for issues that have some controversial overtones. Smith chose to back out of the nominating process prior to the committee convening, to spend some more time with his infant son. A worthwhile reasoning, which should endear him to more women in his district, but the fact is that Smith made rumblings that he would also run in the primary, and his lack of political prowess in capitalizing his position in Jefferson City, doomed his chances at being nominated in the first place.

In all, with three state reps declaring that they would vacate their seats to run against Rupp in the primary, along with Rep. Sherman Parker leaving after this term, we would have had five open house seats in St. Charles County. This would have created a smorgasbord for democrat money to be dumped in our county in a desperate attempt to recapture some of the seats they've lost over the years (democrats currently hold NO legislative seats in St. Charles County, out of nine).

Now ... I DO have to take issue with whoever the brain surgeon was that declared an April election. I'm not really sure what Governor Matt Blunt was thinking, since filing for offices ends in March. If Rupp runs and loses, he can't go re-file for his old house seat. When the discussions were running around that everyone was treating this as a free-for-all, it would have made better sense to hold a February election, allowing the candidates to work through their campaigns and determine what they were going to file for in February when filing opens.

As it stands, Henke doesn't really have a prayer of winning this district. It is way too republican and way too St. Charles County, and Henke is way too Lincoln County, regardless of his somewhat conservative voting record. Maybe this was Blunt's way of getting Henke out of the house? Nahhh ... Henke isn't enough of a threat politically to worry about such things.

Prediction, the seat will stay republican; Brazil files for senate, but doesn't put up much of a fight, since senate races and the funding that goes along with them are often handled out of Jefferson City; Davis, Schneider and Smith all wisely run for re-election to their house seats.

Special Elections, Part 1

It doesn't happen often, but now voters in St. Charles (and Lincoln) County are faced with not one, but TWO special elections in April.

The ever-popular Jeff Morrison, who is a very talented young attorney, but a bit of a lightning rod for criticism (and I think he does it on purpose), has resigned not only his seat on the County Council, but also his position as prosecutor for the City of St. Peters.

Rumor has it that Jeff has landed a job with a presitgious firm (or is it a federal agency?) in Virginia, and it was too good an offer to pass. While going through a divorce with young children, Morrison is essentially AWOL, pulling what I consider to be the final FU to the media and members of the community that hounded him while in office. My only thought is that, for Jeff to consider moving that far away from his estranged wife and children, he must really be going through hell, internally. I personally wish him and his family the best, whatever becomes of them.

This now opens an opportunity for someone to replace Morrison on the County Council. The republican central committee met and four individuals were vying for the nomination. When it was all said and done, Darrel Lackey, former mayor and current alderman from Wentzville, was chosen.

But wait a minute!! One of the candidates that wasn't chosen has now called foul, with some interesting help. Former St. Paul alderman Joe Cronin has filed suit in St. Charles County Circuit Court asking a judge to declare a new nominating vote by the members of the central committee. For the record, those members are state Rep. Vicky Schneider, Lackey, St. Peters Alderman Terry Hawkins and Cindy Morrison, Jeff's wife.

Mrs. Morrison was not in attendance, and Terry Hawkins sent a proxy vote with Amanda Darnel to the meeting. At issue is the proxy vote issued on behalf of Hawkins. Is it allowed? Under state statutes, it doesn't appear to be. But St. Charles County has its own charter form of government, which rules in these situations. The charter does not expressly prohibit proxy voting, as statutes do, so the proxy was allowed.

Interestingly, this suit is moving forward at the encouraging of Brandy Pederson, vice chairman of the republican central committee, and driving force behind the "do anything to get even with Jeff Morrison because I don't like him" campaign, which included two unsuccessful attempts to put a recall vote on the ballot. Pederson has taken to the offensive (VERY offensive in some minds) against the entire city government of St. Peters, turning against the mayor, most members of the board of aldermen, staff, etc. In fact, she became so out of order that the chief of police had to escort her from the building during last week's board meeting. Her incessant accusations of corruption have become tiring, especially considering she keeps going after people about issues which she doesn't even understand.

Forcing another meeting of the four (three?) members of the central committee to re-nominate Lackey, as Pederson insists, would not only be time consuming and aggravating, but it will taint the very process. Lackey had the majority of votes of those voting, this should be a dead issue.

Best of luck to Darrel Lackey. I think he'll be a fine addition to the County Council. That is, if Ms. Pederson doesn't create so much animosity in the eye of the public that he loses the race. After all, Brandy ... what is your real objective, here?

Welcome

So here I sit, wondering whether or not this new fangled Internet thingy is going to ever take off, and suddenly I find myself blogging all the time. Doesn't matter whether it's Political Fix (somewhat non-partisan), St. Chuck Watch (definitely non-partisan, but very directed toward one common goal), or Fired Up Missouri (partisan ramblings of a lunatic), I find myself intrigued both by the information that is presented and the idiots that post on these blogs, showing me and countless others that maybe there ISN'T so much wrong with us!

I'll be blunt (no pun intended). I'm a republican. I'm from St. Charles County, Missouri, a republican stronghold and indeed a headline-making community. And I'm pissed off.

Not just about some of the nonsense that seems to continue to happen within the varying municipal governments throughout the county, but the internal sniping that continues within my party. You'd think that people within one political party that have generally similar ideas would sit down and look at the big picture, but no. If it's not about them, it's wrong.

Well, this blog is NOT all about me. It's all about everybody else, which means this should be a LOT of fun for me to do !! Issues, personalities, office holders, candidates, bureaucrats, policies ... you name it.

I'd LIKE to keep subjects on the local or political front, but I suppose I'll let you help determine the direction. There seem to be so many colorful people and subjects within that broad spectrum that it shouldn't be too difficult to stay on task.

Whether you're a member of a board of aldermen, a senator, a congressman, a school board member, a fire board member, and employee of a political subdivision, an outspoken supporter or critic, or just someone in the community that is worthy of recognition, you're fair game for discussion purposes.

Just remember ... if you don't like the turn that the discussion has taken about you, I'M not the one that put you in the position. You are.

I promise this'll be fun for most involved. I also promise that there is a severe learning curve, here. So bear with me as I work out all the bugs and get this thing on its way.