ALDERMAN NEWSLETTER 49
March 10, 2010
From: John Hoffmann
HITTING THE DUSTY CAMPAIGN TRAIL:
THE BIG SECRET: Al Gerber, my opponent in the April election, is an elected official of a political party and he doesn’t want anyone to know. He is not telling anyone he is the President of Missouri River Democratic Party Township. You have to think that voters have a right to know if a candidate holds an elected position within a political party.
OUT OF TOWN MONEY FINANCES GERBER: My opponent Al Gerber has already raised almost three times the amount of money that I plan to spend according to his first filing with the Ethics Commission.
Of his first 20 contributors only three are from Ward-2. 79% are from outside of Ward-2. 59% of the cash raised is from out of town and his biggest contributor is WAY OUT OF TOWN.
Out of his first $1,800 in cash raised, $500 came from an individual from Pacific Palisades CALIFORNIA!
His second highest amount of money came from Byron DeLear, the guy who ran from Congress on the Green Party ticket in California, before moving to Missouri and running as a Democrat against Todd Akin. DeLear, of Maryland Heights, gave his current deputy campaign treasurer, Gerber, $150.
The few locals are led by a check from Mariette Palmer and followed by others of the local Deer Lovers from Wards 1 and 3.
WAY OUT OF TOWN: Gerber’s In-Kind contributions of goods or services, minus the $325 of food donated by his wife, came to $1,300. $1,000 was donated by three OUT-Of-STATE sources.
HEY IT IS A CITY ALDERMAN RACE!: I am not going to spend over $1,000 in this campaign. All the money is raised and has come from within Town and Country. You have to wonder why someone would spend thousands of dollars to run for alderman raising most of the money from outside sources. We are in a recession. Spending this kind of money for an alderman’s seat is more than a bit odd. Also what interest would people in California, Ballwin or Manchester have in a Town and Country Alderman race?
HEY, WHO I AM RUNNING AGAINST: My opponent in the April 6 aldermanic election was going door to door with Tim Welby the last weekend in February. Tim is the guy I beat in 2008.
I understand from residents in the Thornhill subdivision that Tim did all the talking.
It was strange to see them together, Al campaigning with someone just found in violation of Missouri Ethics laws. Tim, who after being beat in 2008, ran unopposed for the seat left by Bill Kuehling. He is going door to door in the heart of TOO MANY DEER country…with a candidate who does not want to reduce the deer population.
KEEPING THE MEETINGS IN THE DARK. The Board of Aldermen continued to refuse to act on my resolution to record Board of Aldermen meetings. The city had purchased a digital recording system which the city clerk used to record the Board of Aldermen meetings. That is until October when the city attorney “suggested” she stop making the recordings.
My resolution to have the city clerk record the Aldermen, Board of Adjustment and Planning and Zoning meetings was before the Board at the February 22 meeting. Two aldermen were missing so the others rather than simply taking a vote continued the resolution to the Monday’s meeting.
During the workshop session prior to the actual meeting, Fred Meyland-Smith asked me if the point of this resolution was “good government” I replied that it was.
Fred then went off on a rant that sounded like lines Fredric March might have said while playing the pompous Matthew Harrison Brady in Inherit the Wind.
“I think we clearly have good government and protect good government here in Town and Country,” said Fred.
He went on to say that Board of Adjustment is required to have a court reporter present, so we don’t need a recording of that. He continued that the Planning and Zoning meeting is already recorded so we don’t need to do that.
He went on to say he wanted to ask the city clerk about what parts of meetings she records and how many requests are made for recordings of the meetings. (Fred apparently was not listening when Pam Burdt said on February 22 that she still records the first portion of the meeting to help her write the minutes.)
“It sounds like this needs some adjustments,” said Mayor Jon Dalton.
Once the regular meeting began, I answered Fred’s comments.
“While Fred can claim we have good government, I’d like to have better government,” I said.
Part of the reason to record meetings is so members of the public who can’t attend in person can hear what happened.
The reason that the Planning and Zoning meetings were included in the resolution despite being recorded now, is obvious. We were recording the Board of Aldermen meetings and that stopped.
We bought this equipment to record meetings. Then the city attorney “suggested” the city clerk stop. The reason to include P&Z in the resolution is to make sure someone later doesn’t “suggest “we stop recording those meetings.
Of course this entire resolution would be unnecessary if Mayor Jon Dalton would have simply countermanded his city attorney’s “suggestion” and tell the city clerk to record the meetings.
Alderman Phil Behnan said we should check and see what other cities do. Mayor Dalton thought that was a dandy idea.
What difference does it make what other cities do, if you want to have better government? I mentioned that you could call a number of cities where I am pretty sure they don’t record meetings. But we bought a recording system to record meetings and now are not recording them. That is a waste of tax money.
Alderman David Karney then mentioned that the City of Creve Coeur digitally records all of their City Council meetings and posts them on their website within 48 hours of the meeting.
Currently there is a bill before the legislature in Jefferson City to require cities that make digital recordings of meetings to make those recordings easily available to the public.
On a voice vote the Board of Aldermen voted to continue the resolution another two weeks. I was the only one to vote nay.
Good government can sometimes be hard to find and better government in Town and Country can even be more elusive.
WHY DO YOU NEED TO KNOW HOW MUCH IT WILL COST THE CITY? (I am being sarcastic here.) The only other real item of note on the agenda was the second reading of the lease to rent office space to the Town and Country Symphony.
It was technically a “second reading” but the contract was rewritten since the first reading from where it would cost the city nothing to rent the office space for a $1 a year to now it could cost the city as much as $1,500 to rent office space to the Symphony.
In the past the city forked over $10,000 a year to “underwrite” the Symphony. Yes, this is just another regular city service, police, fire, roads, zoning, parks and a symphony orchestra. Wait a minute…no most cities don’t fund orchestras.
In 2010 the recession and loss of tax revenue sources forced us to make cuts. The $10,000 to the Symphony was one of the first to go. The Symphony came back and wanted to rent office space in the Longview Farmhouse which is pretty much vacant 24/7.
The first lease was for $1 a year but the Symphony had to pay for any modifications required by the fire code for us to rent out office space. The Symphony refused saying in essence that the city had already stripped $10,000 from them and they would not pay for the fire code require improvements.
The new contract says the city will make the modification up to $1,500 to install a rail, change hardware on two doors and install emergency lighting. A representative of the Symphony was present and said if the modifications were over $1,500 the Symphony wasn’t going to pay the additional money.
I had to speak up and ask the staff what the modification were, since we had not originally been told. Once told I asked how much they would cost. “Up to $1,500,” said Parks Director Anne Nixon.
I could not believe this. The bill in front of us wanted us to sign a contract requiring us to make unspecified changes to the building at an unknown cost. I asked if they wanted me to vote on something that might cost $200 or might cost $1,500. Before I spend money on projects at my house I get several estimates and have an idea of the costs.
What the city staff and Mayor Dalton wanted the Board of Aldermen to do was vote on a contract where we did not know how much it was going to cost us. I said that you don’t vote on a contract without knowing the cost, especially when we have just cut branch chipping, deer control and three employees from the budget.
I also asked why we don’t just give the Symphony free storage for its music arrangements and allow them to use the public meeting rooms at Longview for free just like we do other civic groups without incurring a $1,500 expense.
The vote was 7-1 for the contract.
Perhaps in Fred Meyland-Smith’s mind this was “good government” but to me it was BAD government.
Al Gerber, my opponent in April was in the audience writing away on a notepad. I am waiting to see where someone claims I voted against the Symphony. In fact I voted against a contract where no one knew how much it was going to cost the city.
CLAYTON ROAD 3-LANE CONFIGURATION SET FOR VOTE ON MONDAY MARCH 22: There was an emergency first reading of a bill that will be voted on at the March 22 Aldermanic meeting to make Clayton Road 3-lanes from Bopp Road to Mason Road permanent. The bill was not on the agenda. This was not a big surprise. The last report from the Clayton Road Task Force showed. The postcard survey was overwhelming in favor of the three lanes. The percentage dropped slightly for residents with houses on Clayton Road. However I have yet to meet a resident in Ward 1 whose house in on Clayton Road that is crazy about having no shoulders in front of their house.
SHOULDER REPAIR FOLLOWED BY ROAD REBUILDING: If you drive eastbound on Clayton Road approaching Chapel Hills Estates you will see some very large potholes craters on the current far right of the road. This is on the former shoulder. Shoulders of Clayton Road were not built to the same specification as the main lanes and were not designed to have everyday traffic. We have turned the shoulders into the main traffic lanes for 2 ½ years and they have now FAILED.
Here is the plan…we are paying to rebuild the shoulder lanes this year. Next year we will be tearing it up and rebuilding the entire road from Mason to Topping while the new sidewalk is installed. (Extra wide sidewalk…also referred to as a trail.) In 2012 the road will be rebuilt from Topping to Bopp as the sidewalk is installed.
SOME RESIDENTS TURNING INTO TO SUBDIVISIONS LIKE THIRD LANE: Some residents have reported they feel safer having the left turn lane present to stop in waiting to turn left into their subdivision.
SOME RESIDENTS UNHAPPY WITH TRAFFIC RIGHT NEXT TO MAILBOX: As mentioned before in this newsletter some resident on Clayton Road feel like they are placing their lives in jeopardy just getting the mail with no shoulder present.
CONTINUITY: Some think the continuity of Clayton Road will be confusing, with Frontenac going back to two lanes on Clayton then going to three lanes at Bopp and then back to two lanes at Mason.
PROPERTY VALUES: Some residents fear the three-lanes will give an impression of a more urban area and affect property values. These residents believe the city lied, when it was said the road would be turned back to its original configuration once the Hwy 40/64 project was completed.
FEAR OF ILLEAGAL USE OF THIRD LANE EAST OF 270: Residents have complained that during morning rush hour some motorists are using the third lane as a through lane to get from 270 to Ballas. This means eastbound traffic stopping in the lane to turn onto a street or drive risk being rear ended and motorists going west who move into the lane to turn left into a drive or a street risk being hit head on.
The Clayton Road Task Force has issued a draft report recommending the 3-lanes become permanent. They had already recommended that the temporary stripping remain 3-lanes with no shoulders. That temporary recommendation was followed by the Board of Aldermen with a 7-1 vote.
The meeting on March 22 will be the last one for the residents to speak on the topic. It is likely to be approved by the Board of Aldermen.
PARKS & TRAILS…AN AMAZING VOTE: The Monday March 1st meeting was just amazing…on several counts.
WHAT’S IN A NAME: The current provider of the Horse Riding for disabled kids put on their presentation. That group is Equine Assist Therapy (EAT). The current president of that group, located in Robertsville and Eureka, Gary Harke, stated that they have no therapists. He said their group and volunteers allows disabled and Autistic children to ride horses.
“We do not do therapy,” said Harke at one point. “We put a child on a horse and teach them how to ride. That is the best we can do.” This eventually brought to my mind the question, “Then why do you call your group ‘Equine Assist Therapy’ if you don’t do therapy?”
It was brought up at this point that in the RFP (request for proposal) there was no requirement for therapy.
HORSE HOCKEY! When the subject of too much manure in the pasture this fall and winter, Mr. Harke said, “I’d be happy to do something about the manure if someone would call me.” He admitted that after hearing about complaints he looked at the pasture and agreed. He then brought a tractor and raked the pasture.