EX ALDERMAN NEWSLETTER 5
July 27, 2010
FROM: John Hoffmann
SPEED CAMERAS: I mentioned several newsletters ago that Mayor/Cigarette Lobbyist Jon Dalton has a new lobbying client, Coalition for Speed Enforcement. This group, along with his current cigarette client Imperial Tobacco, is hidden from being connected to Dalton by being listed under the name of Dalton’s Jefferson City office manager Shannon Hawk with the Ethics Commission.
The Coalition for Speed Enforcement lists the same address as Dalton’s Jefferson City office. I wrote that I was sure the group was actually a company or several companies that make and sell red light and speeding ticket camera systems. I also wrote that I was sure somewhere down-the-line there would be some involvement between this group and Town and Country. It took two months for that to happen.
The following is from Alderwoman and chair of the police commission Nancy Avioli’s newsletter:
Police Commission. The mayor has been approached by companies wishing to establish contracts with the City for installation and management of both red light cameras and speed cameras. He referred these queries to me as Chair of the Police Commission. Neither project appears to have the support of the Police Department or the Commission, at least until action is taken on a state-wide basis.
Now do not try and tell me that Jon Dalton is not using his position as mayor to aid his lobbying clients. In 2005 as mayor he represented as a lobbyist in Jefferson City the city’s largest contractor, the West County EMS and Fire Protection District. While representing four cigarette manufactures as a lobbyist he refused to sign a letter to the County Council supporting a county wide smoking ban.
HELP I’M BEING ROBBED…CALL 9-1-1…part 2: In our last newsletter we pointed out that Town and Country residents followed by Chesterfield residents were funding an unfair percentage of the Central County Emergency 9-1-1 Fire and EMS dispatch center in Ellisville. While the average cost per call at the Fire/EMS dispatch center was $125 a call, T&C was paying $170 a call and the Monarch FPD, serving Chesterfield was paying $167 a call. Meanwhile, Creve Coeur and Maryland Heights Fire Districts were paying a lot less. This was caused because the dispatch funding is based on ASSESSED VALAUATION and not actual call for service use. (For full report see Ex Alderman Newsletter #4 posted on: johnhoffmann.net)
Remember that Town and Country maintains its own 9-1-1 police dispatch center but is allowing the thieves at Central Country 9-1-1 to do Fire/EMS dispatching. We are currently being billed for more than $100,000 a year above what we should be paying, based on actual usage. We could be saving as much as $200,000 a year if we did the dispatching ourselves.
I recently interviewed the manager of the East Central Dispatch Center located in Richmond Heights. East Central does the dispatching for a number of city police and fire departments. City departments are much different animals than Union controlled Fire Districts! They tend to try and deliver services at reasonable prices.
East Central uses a two-year review of calls dispatched to determine the billing rates for the cities of Webster Groves, Shrewsbury, Maplewood, Richmond Heights, Clayton and Olivette. Clearly this is the fairest way to do it. They use a two-year average of calls in the event there was an unusual event that would have caused a spike in calls for a single year.
THE RESPONSE: In the last newsletter I blamed both Mayor/Cigarette Lobbyist Jon Dalton who was behind the current West County EMS & Fire contract in 2005 that requires we pay for Central County 9-1-1 fire/EMS dispatching without examining the payment formula. I also blamed former mayor and current alderman David Karney. Karney approved dispatch agreements with Central County 9-1-1 before Dalton. He also chairs the current Fire/EMS Services Committee that ignored the Dispatch contract.
Karney took exception about what I wrote in the last newsletter and sent me an email that included photos. Having looked at the photos they seem to bolster my position.
Here is what I wrote about former Mayor and current alderman David Karney in the last newsletter.
Former Mayor and current Alderman David Karney also gets his share of the blame. Karney re-upped with Central County 9-1-1 during his term as mayor. As the 2010 fire committee head Karney missed this plundering of our tax revenues.
Earlier this year Karney led the committee in voting not to investigate starting our own fire department, which clearly put us at a disadvantage at the bargaining table with the Fire District.
Concerning fire dispatching service, Karney made a grossly vague and untruthful statement.
“The committee has decided it is better to stay with Central County 9-1-1- both quality wise and price wise.”
I attended the first Fire Committee meetings and the topic never came up, other than Karney telling members we had to stay with Central County 9-1-1. This is not true. I have talked to the director of Central County 9-1-1 and been told T&C could walk away from the partnership but would lose all ownership in the dispatching center located in Ellisville. This could occur if we consolidated or contracted fire service with Ladue and/or Frontenac or started our own fire department and dispatched ourselves, much like Frontenac and Ladue do now.
The agenda and minutes for the meetings I did not attend, show dispatching was never discussed. So there was never a decision made by the committee despite what Karney claims…
If you go to Karney’s shop you will see a number of fire helmets given to him as gifts by the fire district over the years. Dave is what we folks in the public safety field call a “fire fruit.” David has never responded to a burning building. He has never inspected buildings for various code violations. He has never opened a nozzle and put water on a fire, he has never dragged hose. He has never spent a day or days at the scene of a fire, digging in ashes, putting soil, carpet and wood samples into cans to be tested for accelerants. He never tried to rebuild rooms with charred furniture to determine the origin and cause of a fire. I believe that David thinks it is neat to be around cops and firemen. In my opinion Karney has shown that he is basically a Fire District and Union plant on this committee.
Here is an email I received from David shortly after the newsletter was posted online.
Hi John,
As always enjoyed reading your latest newsletter.
Since you are now writing about me I would like to point out just a few facts which you have incorrectly about me. Perhaps you will devote a few lines in your next newsletter making the corrections.
I am attaching three pictures of the "Fire Helmets" from my office wall which pre-date my Town & Country/West County days.The two yellow ones I was given in 1985 from a family in Castle Shannon PA. If you look you will see that they are both have the Castle Shannon & VFD on them. The black one was given to my dad in the early 80's from the fire chief in the City of St. Louis where we had our family business from 1889 till 1999.
I am also attaching the last picture that was taken of me holding a fire hose. Just about every year for the last 4-5 years I partake in a turn out event in Eureka. While I have never held a hose at a workingfire I do have some experience with holding a fire hose. In addition I hold a valid Emergency Vehicle drivers license from the University of Mo in Columbia.I was an ambulance driver in the Army Reserves also. I have driven several different fire trucks, ambulances, (non of West County)and a couple of police cars.
Lastly, your comments that I am a Union man are very insulting to me. I have not taken a single penny from any member of any fire district in any city/state. Our family business was one of the last Union clothing shops in the City of St. Louis. We were forced to close down our shop in 1977 due to them. I have never supported any union be it clothing or firefighters.
Please feel free to write about me but I would appreciate you keeping your facts correct.
Best Regards,
David
RESPONSE TO THE RESPONSE: I stand corrected the helmets are not from the West County EMS & Fire Protection District. But they reinforce my smart ass comment that Mr. Karney is what we in the fire and police business referred to as “fire fruits.” Please look at the photo below David sent me of him holding a fire hose, at a PR event. Note the real firemen holding the hose for David while he plays being a fireman. I think this photo pretty well makes my “fire fruit” case. (Now I make this smart ass comment as a person who had my fire boots melt while at a fire scene, dragged hose, opened a nozzle to put water on a fire and had to receive medical treatment for injuries received at fire scenes. I was a cop and arson detective and spent 10 years of my life around fires.)
Concerning the Union reference, in the last newsletter, I never said David was pro or anti-union. I simply implied that the way he has been running this fire services committee and steering it away from issues, such as the Central County 9-1-1 Dispatch billing, the refusal to enter into talks with Frontenac for a fire service contract and in April when he made a motion they stop investigating the possibilities of starting a city fire department, that he appears to be a plant or stooge for the fire district. Who controls the board of directors of the fire district? The Firefighters Union!
That is why the average pay for firefighters and paramedics with the fire district is almost $100,000 a year.
What was interesting is that I claimed in the newsletter that David lied at the Board of Aldermen meeting work session on June 28 when he said his committee favored staying with Central County 9-1-1 based on costs and professionalism. I pointed out that his Fire Services committee never had fire dispatching on the agenda and never took a vote about fire dispatching. Mr. Karney did not complain about me calling him a liar about this.
I had to laugh when David wrote how much he enjoys reading my newsletter then lists all the things that he was mad about. Here’s the photo of David playing fireman sent to me by Mr. Karney (he appears to be having a good time):
DEMOCRAT AL GERBER LATEST REQUEST TO SPEND DURING THE RECESSION: Here is what happens when you elect a liberal Democrat with close ties to a special interest group: This is Alderman Al Gerber’s comment at the June 14 Board of Aldermen meeting from the minutes of the meeting:
Alderman Gerber
Alderman Gerber spoke in favor of the signalization to be installed on Clayton Road, which will make it much safer particularly for the nine children living on Rutherford Lane to cross Clayton Road to attend school at Principia.
First all of Al is apparently unaware that Clayton Road and Rutherford is not a good place to put a stoplight. That is at the crest of a hill where the westbound section of road comes out of a curve. Also too many traffic lights leads to increases in people running red lights.
Next stoplights cost between $30,000 and $60,000 for installation depending on the technology used. Plus the city then has to maintain them. Hello! We are in a serious recession with our revenues drying up.
There are only six homes on Rutherford Lane. I believe that only three of the six account for the nine kids going to Principia. So Al wants to spend $30K-$60K plus annual maintenance for a stoplight that benefits three houses. How does the city look in five years if there are only one or two kids from that street going to Principia or none?
Also there are at least nine kids that go to Principia living off of Takara and Tammany, plus more Principia kids in the Chapel Hill Estates. Don’t they deserve stoplights also? Under Al’s theory we should have SIX traffic lights on Clayton from Mason Road to Topping Road.
Special Interest: Al won his seat on the Board of Aldermen by getting the Christian Science and Principia votes. He actually registered out-of-town high school seniors living in dorms at Principia so they could vote in the city election. Al is using his ties to Principia and the CS Church to suggest the city use funds specifically for Principia that are not in the best interest of the majority of the residents.
DRUG DEALER MOVING: A member from our “Gangs of Town and Country” list is apparently moving. Brian Marchant, the ex-convict who served federal time for drug dealing in the 1990s and who later took his wife’s maiden name, making it difficult for investors to check his background, is apparently moving. Mr. Marchant-Calsyn was later reportedly a salesman in the S&K Investment scheme that landed two Town and Country residents in prison for operating a Ponsi-Scheme. Next he began operating his own “Internet Investment” companies including “Health Career Agents” that drew dozens of lawsuits and complaints with the Attorney General’s Office all alleging fraud.
He advertised a “Moving Sale” on online claiming that everything must. He also advertised in the Post-Dispatch as having an Estate Sale on July 10 and 11.
There is an ongoing blog on the Riverfront Times website concerning Brian. Here is the link:
http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/dailyrft/2009/01/case_alleging_fraud_dismissed_before_trial.php