ALDERMAN NEWSLETTER 8

From John Hoffmann

BOARD OF ALDERMEN MEETING 8/25/08:

This was not going to be a long meeting…but it was pretty interesting.

LET IT SNOW LET IT SNOW LET IT SNOW: At the last meeting Peter DiGasbarro, the president of Thornhill Board of trustees, was at the work session looking a gift horse in the month complaining about the city’s new policy regarding snow plowing private streets of “once in-once out” plowing. While this was a reduction in service, the city added more trucks and all the streets will be plowed 1/3 faster than in previous years, plus gated streets would be plowed for the first time ever if they kept the gates open during the snow event.

Peter’s complaining brought two aldermen to question why were we plowing any private streets at all. That brought the request of the mayor for City Attorney Steve Garrett study the issue and report back to the board.

Mr. Garrett did a good soft shoe dancing around the subject. He began saying if you consider snowplowing a public safety issue of the city making sure fire, police and ambulances can reach all the homes, than yes the city can legally plow private streets with public funds.

He then compared the street plowing to that of shoving a sidewalk. If you shovel the walk and it later becomes icy you could be liable if someone slipped and fell, but if you did nothing it was simply an act of God and you were not liable. So I’m thinking…old Steve is gong to say legally we are best off not plowing private streets at all…BUT WAIT…here comes a curveball. Mr. Garrett says instead we should do all the streets the same. If we do all the public streets curb-to-curb we should do all the private streets that way to.

One alderman suggested we go back to the old policy and do more work on a new policy. It was then brought up that subdivisions, including the gated ones have been told about the new policy and already are expecting city do to once-in and once-out plowing.

It was then suggested that for this winter only we do curb-to-curb on all streets. Now the new policy that doubled the number trucks will cost us 27% more. Adding curb to curb plowing for the private non-gated streets will cost 15% more and doing curb-to-curb on the gated-streets another 15%. Suddenly we have increased our snow plowing costs by 57% over last year

The mayor suggested the new policy that the Board approved without comment in June be sent back to the Public Works Commission on Sept. 15 along with Mr. Garrett, at

$140 an hour, to answer legal questions of the Commission. Frankly it seems to me that we need to have a Legal Commission…why send this to a commission made up of engineers and contractors for legal considerations.

Then up stood the Director of Public Works, Craig Wilde…he had a very valid point…when he said he was happy to do whatever he was told but it could be difficult for all concerns if he is told to violate the policy accepted by the Board in June when it snows in December. The mayor then asked Craig to prepare a resolution for the next Board of Aldermen meeting. If this all sounds confusing it is because it is confusing.

WALK DON’T RUN: Next up was the oddest thing. Fred Meyland-Smith brought up a concern of traffic failing to yield to people walking in the crosswalk across Mason Ridge at Clayton Road to go to and from Longview Park. Fred said he had a complaint of it being a bit dicey crossing on the sidewalk along Clayton Road at Mason Ridge Road.

Fred suggested we consider a crosswalk where if someone hits a button traffic is stopped on CLAYTON ROAD!!!! Yes I said Clayton Road…plus of course Mason Ridge. Fred didn’t want any driver to be able to turn right or left from Clayton to Mason Ridge when someone was crossing street, so he was suggesting stopping through Clayton Road. Police Chief/City Administrator John Copeland admitted the problem was people cutting through Mason Ridge and turning right onto Clayton Road without stopping at the stop sign and not yielding to pedestrians.

He said drivers would look to their left and run the stop sign. Now I have seen this during rush hour many times while Diana and I walk the dogs at Longview. Chief Copeland continued that there wasn’t anything the police could do to stop it due to the layout of the intersection. Now come on…our crack police force, which solves a large number of the crimes committed in town, can not figure out a way to write citations to people running a stop sign? Now I hate to say this but in my years as a cop or a police supervisor I never was unable to figure out a way to address a traffic problem like this. The fact that our police chief just shrugged his shoulder and acted like this was impossible was hard for me to fathom. Of course it might take away from our traffic officers writing citations on I-270.

I have added this to the next agenda of the Public Works Commission because I think there are some pretty smart guys who given a month should be able to come up with some solutions short of putting a stop light at Clayton and Mason Ridge.

THE GATE: Or as Etta James might put it…AT LAST! Yes the gate which would have connected the wrought iron fence around five acres of ground at 1761 Topping Road finally came up for a vote.

After months of lawyers claiming they had reach an agreement only to have the neighbors of the owner of 1761 Topping Road claim they were no where near an agreement, this matter was finally voted on.

Just a reminder…this involved a person who bought the two lots consisting of almost 5 acres on a flag lot at 1761 Topping Road two years ago. The new owner tried to buy the houses around his lots without success. The new resident is an ex-convict, who served two years in Federal Prison for drug distribution in the 1990’s and was now running a business on N. Forty Road, across Mason Road from the Highway Patrol, where in the last three years 12 complaints have been filed with the Attorney General and nine law suites filed in St. Louis County Circuit Court claiming he was running a pyramid scheme, committing frauds and acting in bad faith. The same person in 2002 legally changed his name to one different than the one he was convicted for drug dealing under.

The person, Brian Marchant-Calysn, had hired well known land use and zoning attorney John King to represent him. King in May sent the neighbors, who had complained to the city about the fence, a letter threatening to litigate against for forever or until his client was victories if they didn’t immediately stop challenging the fence and gate.

When the bill was called King stated that he was close to a settlement with the neighbors and asked that the bill be tabled until the end of the meeting. It was a short meeting with only two other items on the agenda. He got his request and the neighbors, their lawyer and King all huddled in the hallway. We finished the agenda and there was no Mr. King. I moved that the bill be brought before the board and it was.

Finally Mr. King came in as we began to debate the bill. He announced there was a settlement and his client would agree not to try and claim easement rights along the side of the shared driveway and he would be able to place the gate where he originally purposed.

I got things started by saying there was still the matter of the encroachment of the driveway onto the rear of a neighbor’s property that Marchant-Calsyn wanted to fence off. I said lawyers for both sides had filed opinions that were completely opposite and the easement question should be settled in the Circuit Court. There was still the issue of motorists and delivery or work trucks trespassing on the neighbors’ property when they reached the gate with no turn around provided and backed into the adjoining yards or the safety issue of the trucks trying to back from a blind driveway entrance onto Topping Road.

Fred Meyland-Smith mentioned that while Mr. King was speaking one neighbor was shaking her head “no” to everything he was saying about reaching the deal. Nancy Avioli stated she felt that a last minute hallway agreement was clearly undo pressure being forced on the neighbors. Lynn Wright and Jon Benigas both said they safety issued still existed, with Lynn adding the neighbors have children and pets in the yards where vehicles stopped at the gate would be backing up or backing onto the neighboring lawns.

Nancy also countered a King argument concerning the time and expense Marchant-Calsyn has spent putting in buried electrical for the gate controls…she asked King if his client did the work before receiving a permit for the gate?...She added, “Whose fault is that? Not the city’s.”

King then countered that his client had been negotiating in “good-faith.” He just opened a huge door which I was more than happy to walk through. I pointed out that one would have to question any “good faith” agreements his client entered into since there are 21 active complaints or lawsuits against his client claiming bad faith. I then began reading a portion of King’s threatening letter to the neighbors back to him. (I had read almost the entire letter to King during a Public Hearing on the matter in June and demanded to know why he would send such a letter.) I read:

“If Mrs. Godding pursues delay of the building of this gate, and construction is delayed by one day due to Mrs. Godding’s claims, you can rest assured that she too will be the focus of intense litigation that will not be abandoned until my clients are victorious.”

Now I used to be a radio announcer and I am still a college sports PA announcer, so I was sure to hit each threatening word with the proper volume and hold it for the perfect effect.

I then asked King if he considered such threats as negotiating in “good faith.” That is when he either exploded or imploded…I am not sure which. But he started screaming that he resented my tone and he would hold his reputation up to mine any day. He continued to rant and marched toward the rear of the chamber.

At that point Mayor Dalton, who really can be a very good emcee at these meetings, said, “Well we have debated this issue at length do I have a motion for a vote. He did and the final vote was 7-1 with only Steve Fons voting for the drug dealer.

DEER TASK FORCE: FAILURE TO DELIVER

Immediately after the Board of Aldermen meeting the Deer Task Force consisting of the chairman, Bill Kuehling, Lynn Wright, Jon Benigas and Fred Meyland-Smith met. The Task Force had promised to deliver a report to the Board of Aldermen by the final meeting in August. Well, they had failed to do that. I’m not sure when they might deliver the report.

However the meeting was interesting…and long…it was so long that I left after two hours when they began to repeat themselves for the third and fourth times.

It became clear that they were very interested in doing field sterilization of deer, involving tranquilizing a doe and then operating on it in the field. Total costs per doe were estimated at $1,000. They talked they wanted to sterilize at least 100 or maybe 200 does. Such phrases as “front loading” the $100,000 to $200,000 for sterilizations were used as being legitimate since the does could not have off spring so the expense would pay off years down the road. It was also mentioned that the City had not spend any money on the deer issue in eight years.

Next there was the admission that some deer needed to be killed to reduce the overall number of deer. That raised the question of how to kill them.

Most felt that sharp shooting was the most productive way to do it and most humane to the deer since it was an extremely quick death. It was decided a police officer would have to be present. (I wonder where they got that idea. Maybe it was the bill I introduced in May that required an off-duty police officer to be present as a city safety officer when firearms were used.) Of course the drawback to this was the fact that a bullet can travel a lot further than an arrow in the unlikely event of a miss.

Also bow hunting was discussed as an effective way to kill deer at the lowest cost. The drawback was there was a chance an injured deer could flee the area to die elsewhere. The normal death to a deer with a bow is within a minute however a shot slightly off the mark could result in less than immediate death.

The Trap and Captive Bolt method that is currently legal in Town and Country where a deer is caught in a trap and then has a bolt shot into its head was listed and it was decided that the method was too expensive and not as humane as the others.

Then Lynn Wright brought up another way to kill the deer. She suggested that we should consider using darts containing an overdose of tranquilizers. This is apparently a new installment of Anthropomorphism Theater. Yes, let’s make the deer feel really sleepy like we do before an operation. Lynn admitted that by overdosing a deer you could not use the meat, but it might be a nicer way for the deer to die.

Now I could see when I was elected that this Deer Task Force was not likely to allow the reduction of deer in at least a year. I think I was right on the money, when Jon Benigas wanted to not do anything until we had another helicopter deer count using infra red scopes during the winter. (Infra red equipment in a helicopter during the winter when there are no leaves on the trees can identify body heat of deer.) Here is another expense to tell us something we already know…there are a lot of deer around here.

This discussion of the pros and cons of ways to kill deer and how $100,000 to $200,000 was really not so much tax money to spend went on like the Energizer Bunny.

I found it somewhat amusing for the anti-deer killing group of people who labeled my bill as being outrageous now see where it is likely that city money, not private money is going to be used to kill deer.

I really have some concerns about the field sterilizations. How prudent is it to spend $1,000 to sterilize a doe that may be hit by a car at anytime. Also how cost effective is it to sterilize an 11 or 12 year-old doe that is about at the end of its fertility?

I spoke with some staffers with the Department of Conservation who thought it would be a better plan and far more cost effective to shoot 100 or 200 does and sterilize 25 or 50 as an experiment.

Now if you are a proponent to completely leave the deer alone you would have to be asking, “Where is Archbishop Burke when you really need him on the question of birth control.”

Maybe we cold use some synergy. The mayor is a lobbyist for four or five cigarette companies. If we could get them to donate the smokes we would just have to figure out a way to get the deer to start smoking…and in a matter of a few years they would be dropping left and right.

POLICE COMMISSION August 19: Yes I was the only member of the public to attend the police commission meeting on Tuesday August 19. The agenda didn’t involve any actual work for the police commission. It was instead merely PR pats on the back by the cop shop leaders or updates to up coming events.

Under Old Business was simply the approval the minutes from the June meeting…in other words…nothing was done at that meeting either.

The new business was a summary of the robbery at Linens n’ Things which included how the suspects (teenagers from St. Louis) were quickly caught, thanks in part to the suspected gunman calling his accomplice , an employee at the store, on a cell phone after the robbery.

Next was the six month police activity that showed traffic accidents were down 21 from the first six months in 2007 (377 down to 356), tickets were down (5.700 down to 5,000) reports written were down slightly (1450 to 1411) and incidents generated were up, but that was because the department began counting certain officer activities that had not been counted before. Crime however was up, led by stealing offences apparently driven by the economic downturn, with more thefts from stores, office buildings and parking lots. (Up to 80 from 63) House burglaries remained even at 5, two of which have been solved. There were seven commercial burglaries. Arrests (609-to-506) and DWI arrests (203-to-156) were down. Now the police commission gets this information, but the Board of Aldermen does not…something I can not understand.

Next on the agenda was an update on the BMW Golf Tournament at Bellerive CC. Capt. Hoelzer and John Copeland reported 300 Federal, sate and local officers would be involved at the golf tournament. He did not mention how much it was gong to cost. He has budgeted $10,000 for officers’ salaries…something that just mystifies me…why isn’t the PGA and BMW paying this cost instead of the residents?

The final agenda items was how the National Night Out isn’t so national in Town and Country and the event was moved to 9-11-08 instead of the National Night Out date in early August. Cooler weather and fewer residents out of town were likely major reasons. When I was the Assistant Police Chief in Chevy Chase, Maryland we did not participate in the National Night Out. Why?...Well first the National Night Out was originally designed as a way for residents in high crime areas to show they were serious with the police in taking back their streets. The streets of Chevy Chase (and for that matter Town

and Country) have not exactly been in danger in going over to the gangs and criminals, unless you count as gangs 40-year-old women driving imported SUVs and talking on cell phones. The other reason was that literally 50-percent or more of the residents in Chevy Chase were out of town at Delaware beach houses or on Cape Cod in August.

At the start of the meeting a commission member asked for a deer update and Chairman Jon Benigas provided the information that the Deer Task Force was moving forward to recommend that deer needed to be thinned out by bow hunters and sharpshooters and then field sterilization would be done on a number of does.

Next a commission member asked about the Trash Task Force. Ald. Benigas pointed out that I was on the Solid Waste Task Force. I offered to discuss trash after the meeting, but Jon told me to go ahead.

GOOD IDEA…BAD IDEA: Then someone asked about the No Cell Phone While Driving bill…and the police department’s position…That they decided to hold off until the end of the meeting.

At the conclusion of the meeting Chief John Copeland stated that he was in favor of a cell phone ban if it was state wide or county wide. He then dismissed me by saying “my heart was in the right place.” He went to say there were too many entry points to the city…He went on how hard it would be to enforce on the interstate highways and he thought tractor trailer drivers should be banned now. He never discussed the danger of talking on the cell phone and driving on our secondary streets was. Also they asked me to give a response to a question about the trash, but not to address comments brought up by Copeland about my bill. I did this anyway with an e-mail to all the police commission members. That letter is below:

Members of the police commission, at the meeting on August 19, I was a little disappointed when the police chief was able to dismiss my efforts to ban cell phone use while driving by saying that “my heart was in the right place.” Just for the record it is in the same place it has always been, just slightly to the left of my breast bone. I was more disappointed when no one asked me to address the issues brought up by the Chief of Police. I’d like to do that now.

STATE WIDE OR COUNTY WIDE BAN: Chief Copeland said he was in favor of a cell phone ban only if it was state or county wide. That hasn’t happened and for a very good reason. MONEY! With a number of cell phone companies giving campaign contributions through straw parties and directly this isn’t about to hit the Missouri Legislature anytime soon for a vote. Also this is not a real big issue in rural areas of the state. HOWEVER IT IS A BIG PROBLEM RIGHT HERE. Many cities passed laws banning open containers of alcoholic beverages in motor vehicles before a state law was passed. How is this any different?

The idea of a county wide law making the ban isn’t as easy as you think. Almost all traffic laws passed by the County Council effect just unincorporated County. Exceptions

would be on County roads. Municipalities are left to enforce state law or enact their own laws. Even if there was a County wide law enforceable in Town and Country, T&C would immediately pass their own law to make the enforcement easier through the municipal court and to have fines go to city coffers instead of into the county’s revenue stream. Frankly cities do not like their police officers enforcing traffic laws that require their officers to go to Clayton to testify in cases. It costs more in overtime and keeps officers away for the city and out of service for a longer time.

INTERSTATE ENFORCEMENT: Here is area where we do not need to do enforcement of an ordinance banning cell phone use while driving. MoDot is not going to allow signage on I-64 or I-270 alerting drivers of the ban. We only would use the ordinance on the Interstate in serious auto accident investigations, by policy.

CHIEF COPELAND’S STATEMENT THAT WE WOULD LIKE TO SEE A BAN FOR TRACTOR TRAILERS: John Copeland said tractor trailers kill people and he would like to see the ban for truck drivers first. Talk about enforcement nightmares. How in the world is an officer in a car gong to be able to tell if a trucker 10 feet above him is using a cell phone? Under the policy I recommended you would still use the city law as a tool in accident investigation. THERE ARE MANY DISTRACTIONS…WHY NOT OUTLAW THEM? Clinical psychological studies have shown that talking on cell phones is very different than other distractions one encounters while driving, such as listening to the radio, eating or smoking. Brains of people who are having telephone conversations while driving tend to concentrate more and more on the conversation and begin to think ahead and develop questions and responses to what people are saying. This does not occur while doing other activities and driving. This is why peoples’ reaction times, under clinical testing, slow dramatically when talking on the phone and driving, so they react to stopped traffic later and resume speed or start from a stop much later.

WHY HAVE A CITY LAW?

SAFETY: Our primary goal is to make city streets safes. Clayton, Bopp, Conway, Topping, Mason and Ladue Roads are roads we need to make safer now! These are the streets were our families are every day going to and from work, school, recreational events and church. Do not think for a second that a person in a Lexus can not hurt, maim or kill you? City government’s first function is to protect the public’s health, safety and welfare. By saying we know there is a problem but we are going to close our eyes or write a letter and hope the County or State does our responsibility is not doing much to protect the public’s health safety and welfare.

Education: In any type of attempt to obtain traffic compliance education is the first tool to use. Our goal is to make some of the public stop using a cell phone while driving. Publicity of the law is a tremendous way to reach a lot of people. Secondly signs at our city limits or along county and city streets off of state highways is another way to educate people. You use education first and then follow with enforcement. Education can also be part of the enforcement process through warning citations. If we get 30-percent of

those talking on cell phones now to stop in Town and Country through the publicity, signage and fear of receiving a citation…we will have reduced a serious threat to motorists by 30-percent.

LEADERSHIP: Town and County has an opportunity to be a leader and not follow the pack five years from now after countless more accidents are caused by distracted cell phone using drivers on our streets. If Town and Country would pass such a law, neighboring cities would feel pressure to do likewise. If Des Peres, Frontenac and Creve Coeur join us, then we would be that much closer to having a county wide ban. Good leadership acts to protect people and doesn’t wait for someone else to do it.

A RECOMMENDATION: I would urge you to do more as a police commission than to pass a resolution asking someone else to address a problem. Take an active role in protecting people in Town and Country and at your next meeting be independent and make a decision to pass resolution urging the Board of Aldermen to reconsider the cell phone driving ban bill for Town and Country. As a side note, I attached detailed research studies to the bill that was sent to all the aldermen. I have attached a copy of the bill to this e-mail.

I’d just simply ask that you take charge as a police commission. Take an independent stand from the police chief and make the city a safer place.

John HoffmannWard-2 Alderman

CELL PHONE BAN FALLOUT: The week of August 18th was interesting on the Cell Phone Ban While Driving front…the week lead off with the lead editorial in the Post-Dispatch, calling for a cell phone use while driving prohibition, citing much of the research we mentioned when we proposed the bill. This was followed by the editorial in West Magazine saying my calling for the ban and the board’s failure to second the bill were both the right things to do. The writer then made the mistake of claiming that other distractions in driving were as serious of talking on the phone. According to academic research quoted in the Post-Dispatch editorial, the West Editorial was WRONG…cell phone use is far more distracting.

Also on the web edition of the West, but not the print edition, was a letter from Alderman Fred Meyland-Smith who wrote,

“…the board rejected Hoffmann’s attempt at grandstanding because it was flawed from both a legal and practical perspective, therefore very ill-conceived. Regrettably, the proposed measure was initiated unilaterally without any consultation with the city’s police commission, police department or any portion of the board.”

The bill was not flawed. In fact it was pretty much the same as the California state-wide law that went into effect on July 1.

Now if Fred actually believes I was grandstanding, I would think he should drop the “attempt at grandstanding” in his writing. Appearing on four television news shows, three KMOX talk shows and a talk show on KTRS, plus three Post-Dispatch articles and a lead editorial in a week I would hope in the mind of Fred would qualify for all out grandstanding not just a mere attempt. Actually I find that I’m best off to let Fred speak or write about his beliefs on a topic as in opposition he often helps in supporting my position.

The week ended with another Letter to the Editor by Fred Meyland-Smith, this time in the Post-Dispatch. It was a much calmer letter which disappointed me to no end, but was classic Fred…as it went on and on and on.

THIS JUST IN: This from the Webster-Kirkwood Times (Aug 20) police blotter section of area crimes and police events…this one from Kirkwood:

• A driver distracted by a text message on his cell phone rear-ended another vehicle Aug. 14 at the intersection of North Taylor and Jefferson Avenues. The driver who caused the accident also was charged with possession of a controlled substance.

FROM THE FAMILY: I received a letter this week from the sister and other family members of Mark Tiburzi one of the victims of the I-64/40 crash that left 3 dead and 15 injured. Mark apparently has permanent brain damage.

Dear Alderman Hoffmann:

I want to extend a thank you on behalf of the Mark Tiburzi family for speaking up on August 11, 2008 for your proposal to ban cell phones and text messaging while driving with city limits.

This horrific accident that occurred on Highway 40 and Mason Rd. left 3 dead and my brother Mark with severe brain injuries. The damage that was done will never allow him to have the full life he once had.

It is an injustice that the proposal dies and didn’t go before a vote during the Town and Country regular meeting.

We admire you for speaking up and wanting to bring about change for those who become victims of other people’s actions on the highway. Lack of attention to your driving is inexcusable if you sit behind the wheel.

Sincerely,

Mark Tiburzi Family

COMMUNITY RELATIONS COMMISSION August 14: Well I finally a chance to attend a Community Relations Commission meeting…as I had conflicts with other meetings in the past. My first Community Relations Meeting was on Thursday August 14.

I was eyed rather suspiciously from the get go at the conference room at the Firehouse. Chairman Nancy Avioli introduced me as the “new alderman who is going to all the commissions” which seemed to suggest… “this will be his only visit.”

There was barely a quorum and of the five members there, only one was not a mid-30s to mid-40s mom. The discussions got started with members either talking about how many times they have had their picture in the city newsletter or how they didn’t have their picture in the newsletter or did or didn’t have their photo on the wall at city hall. Oh yes there was a short discussion about if the photos of the kid playing in the water at Fire and Ice were “cute” or “cute-cute-cute.”

Under Old Business they had listed the Squires and Ambassadors, the review of two bills from the mayor concerning establishing the Town and Country Squires and Ambassadors, taking up staff time and money to do what most cities do with a proclamation, thanking people for their good deeds. The second program, the Ambassadors is to be citizens appointed to do good deeds. It is pretty sad when government has to get involved to get people to do good deeds. The commissioners mentioned the changes they made to the bill, but I was not offered a copy of the draft bill.

The Summer/Fall Festival: Next up was the discussion of the Fall Festival, which this year is actually not being held in the fall at all, but on September 20. Yes, the Almost Fall Festival or the Good bye to Summer Festival…but Fall Festival it technically isn’t.

First discussion was the pumpkins and how in past years the 100 or so pumpkins were boxed up in crates, but last year commission members had to actually pick up each $1 pumpkin. Oh the humanity! It was mentioned that it was smart to have smaller pumpkins so kids could easily carry them around. Then came the question of permanent markers that kept the design on the pumpkin and on the kid or use of non-permanent markers that didn’t stay on the pumpkin but washed off the kid’s t-shirt.

This year’s festival was to feature horse rides, entertainment by Radio Disney characters and the pumpkins.

Then they was a short discussion on the importance of reapplying for the commission as only two members were on the commission whose terms had not expired.

GARDEN PARTY: Next up was the proposal to the mayor by the Town and Country Garden Club (the ones who take care of the garden at city hall and the garden by the log cabin at Drace Park) for a garden tour of private homes in Town and Country in early June of 2009 as a fund raisers for the club. Someone suggested that the tour should end at the new conference center or solarium that has been attached to the rear of the

Longview Farm house for a mere $1.6 million. I smell trouble with the Town and Country Garden Club coming onto the turf of the Mason Ridge Garden Club. West Side Story set in Missouri with a new back drop. Instead of “Gee Officer Krupke,” one of the early numbers would be, “Hey Chief Copeland.”

The suggestion was made to interview the new interim principal at Mason Ridge Elementary despite the fact the deadline for articles for the current newsletter occurred two days earlier. Clearly Mason Ridge is the center balancing point for this group. Staffer, Mary Olson, who frankly seems to have 90-percent of the newsletter work instead of this group, suggested that to do so would rush her and the new acting principal.

INSANITY: Okay then the really dangerous idea came up…a member suggested to the newsletter cover sports at CBC. I wonder if someone has a son at CBC? Another member mentioned that her son was supposed to have a good year on the Parkway West football team. Yes a sports section in the town newsletter.

Let me lay down some advice based on experience from covering high school sports from 1997-to-2000 in the Washington DC area for real newspapers and working the Kansas City Star Sports desk for four years. Mothers can be vicious if their son or daughter is not included in local high school sports coverage. Also the one school in town with the most local kids has to be Principia…since half the kids live 9-months a year on campus and 25-percent live in nearby subdivisions. No one on this commission even gave a thought about Prin. What a Visitation? Westminster Christian Academy is coming to town with a $50 million total sports complex proposed. You don’t want to even consider doing local sports because you will tick off far more parents than you make happy. However, if they insist on doing this so they can put their kids’ names and photos in the newsletter…it might be fun to sit back and watch the fireworks.

PARKS AND THE HAPPY TRAILS August 18: The Parks and Trails meeting was held on Monday August 18th. Besides myself there were four other members of the public, which the commission quickly got rid of. Betsy Rinehart from the Mason Ridge Garden Club who is also a member of the West County Woman’s club was present, along with Karen Roos, another member of the Mason Ridge Garden Club, a boy scout working on his Eagle Badge wishing to do a project of placing two benches at Longview Park for parents to use while their kids ride horses in the Equine Therapy sessions. Also the Boy Scout’s mom was present. (Regular reader will remember the scout and mom accidentally showed up at a Public Works meeting.)

One member of the commission basically got rid of the guests by saying they should speak first so they didn’t have to stick around.

The Boy Scout laid out his plans and one member wanted to vote on it. I really liked it when the Boy Scout said how they shouldn't vote on anything until he actually submitted a proposal. 

Everyone else spoke their mind or asked their questions and then they were excused. When I am sitting on the Trash Task Force meeting I’m always hoping that members of the public will stick around so I can have someone to talk to on the way to the parking lot.

Betsy asked about using the new glass solarium/conference center at the Longview Farm House for her Women Club meetings. She was quizzed about the make up of the club in relation to area addresses. She said about half the group was from Town and Country and the rest were from West County. She was then told that for the first six months they just want to have the facility used by groups from inside the city. It was also mentioned that they do not have anyone as for yet assigned to close up after night meetings.

Next they had three proposals from companies to do the long range park study and survey.  They didn't have enough proposal booklets for the commission members, so they passed around four and told everyone to share.  The books looked to be 20-30 pages.  The members just flipped through them.  The overall proposed costs were between $30,000 and $40,000.  The survey costs were around $14,000.    Parks Director Anne Nixon talked about how well the last planning report was 10 years ago and recommended that the city negotiated with that company.  Another company was dismissed because it was from Kansas City.  Without any member actually reading any of the proposals or having all three side by side to break down each proposal...they voted for one company over the other two.  Just amazing!  Then they went outside to do a decibel test as they want to recommend to the police and the board to establish a decibel level for noise in the park in response to a complaint from a resident of Wheatfield subdivision of loud noise from the park.  Anne turned on a car radio in the parking lot while commission members stood outside. With a decibel meter next to the car, a 110 decibels could be heard 300 feet away.  100 was noticeably less. However keep in mind most of the noise was being absorbed by the car...this was not from an outside speaker. They finally decided that 95 deciles would be too loud.  Lynn felt they were all okay.   Keep in mind this is a class commission when compared to the Conservation Commission and the Community Relations Commission. We all need to go to these meetings and just watch.    Finally Lynn and Anne were unaware of $15,000 grants being offered by the Missouri Dept. of Conservation for clearing public land of weeds.  (i.e. Longview of interior weeds and honeysuckle.)  I got a pamphlet mailed to me as did all the aldermen from the St. Louis County Municipal League. My wife Diana noticed the grant money. 

EVERYTHING MIGHT BE UP TO DATE IN KANSAS CITY…BUT NOT HERE: Just checking the few Commission rosters I have it was interesting to see that other than Parks and Trials, most city commissions are made up of members whose terms have

expired. Per the June 10, 2008 roster all the members of the Police Commission are currently serving on expired terms. The Finance Commission, which has a lot of highly qualified members, just submitted new applications for reappointment.

TRASH TASK FORCE August 20: Uh Oh!... No public members were at the meeting. Chairman Steve Fons did not feel the need to check himself or his comments. As the meeting started he asked Public Works Director why two letters were attached to our agenda. Craig Wilde said he included all citizen input he received since the last meeting. One of the letters was in long-handwritten by a resident from Bopp Lane. Fons bitterly complained that we should not consider handwritten letters from people who didn’t know how to send e-mails and that were hard to read. Folks he wasn’t joking. I was about to call him something worse than a JERK, when Alderwomen Nancy Avioli told him to “be nice.”

The next reason why it would have been good for public members and certainly members of the two Sanders Hauling companies, who had been present for the last two meetings, was that Craig Wilde and our trash consultant brought up a proposal for us to consider. It was bidding the city as a whole for rear yard pickup and a separate contract for curbside pickup. We had voted twice to accept proposals (bids) per ward…because that was the only way smaller long term existing companies could compete…because neither Sanders company could bid on the city as a whole or even half the city, but they both could compete in the bid or proposal process by ward. Fons suddenly thought this was a great idea. Nancy and I spent 10-minutes going over stuff we had discussed weeks and months ago on why that was not a good idea.

The only other point I made was that every time our consultant tried to talk, Fons interrupted and he was not getting a chance to do what he was being paid to do…advise us. I made a motion that every time he clears his throat we should shut up and let him talk…I did this while staring at Fons.

Luckily we did not take any real votes other than to adjourn. The harm was minimal.

ONE FOR THE ROAD: John McGuire (not the former Post-Dispatch writer) appeared in Town and Country Municipal Court on August 21 along with his attorney. McGuire pled guilty to DWI and got the usual sweetheart deal of a suspended imposition of sentence for two years (no record if you successfully serve the probation period). He also pled guilty to speeding and he had to pay a $500 fine, plus attend an alcohol diversion program and perform community service. He told the court that he was checking into “Sober by the Sea” in California for a month to dry out. At the time of his guilty plea, McGuire’s driver’s license was revoked.

When he left the city hall he walked to the parking lot, got into his car and started the engine. He was promptly pounced on by a T&C Police Officer. He was taken out of the car and then found to be intoxicated by the cops. He tested at .19 BAC. His probation was 35 minutes old and he was in violation of it. McGuire’s explanation of why he was in his car at city hall wasn’t because he drove to court on a revoke license and was going to

drive home or to a bar. No he told officers that his car was there so he could charge his cell phone and that was why he was behind the wheel having started the engine.

A police lieutenant made McGuire sit in the courtroom and when court was over the lieutenant explained to the judge what had happened. The judge of course couldn’t hear this and told the lieutenant so and instructed him to take McGuire from the courtroom. The city prosecutor then instructed the lieutenant to arrest McGuire.

Actually the judge could not do anything because the prosecutor needed to file a probation violation against McGuire. There could be a problem with the guilty plea since McGuire was clearly intoxicated when he made the plea.

THEY’RE BACK! Lookout…after signing a 5-year contract to provide fire service to Town and Country (signed by Mayor Dalton in December of 2005 after the fire district was a lobbying client of the Mayor’s from January through May of 2005) the West County EMS and Fire Protection District (WCEMSFPD) attempted to renege on the contract by annexing T&C into the fire district, a move that would have increased everyone’s taxes by $0.84 per $100 evaluation. Luckily for our pocketbooks loal political pressure forced the election off the ballot. After dropping their tax rate down to $0.72 per $100, the WCEMSFPD now wants to raise it back to $0.84. Among the wish list for the fire district is building a new engine house. I have reviewed the district’s call loads and they just don’t justify a new engine house. Actually with two interstate highways and most of the nursing homes in the district, the T&C house is the busiest and it is not all that busy. The other two houses handled 40-50% fewer calls. I smell another attempt to grab high tax yield property in T&C in our future.

25 PERCENT: That is about the number of leases signed versus stores available at the new Town and Country Crossing. Some merchants I have talked to said the rents there are too high. The developers did have to agree to add a number of expensive features by the Board of Aldermen. Currently 75% of retail space is unfulfilled as tax generating businesses. 10 of 45 spaces have leases signed.

YAKETY YAK: This from the letters to editor of the August 29th Webster-Kirkwood Times:

Ban Cell Phones

Is the danger great enough to justify banning cell phone use while driving? If you have lost a loved one because of someone using a cell phone while driving, your answer to that question is: You bet your life it is!

When students took driver's education at Kirkwood High, they were taught to keep both hands on the wheel and to focus 100 percent on driving. People who don't do this are risking our children's and our lives.

When driving, people who are talking on a cell phone are very

much distracted by concentrating on a conversation. They are also driving with one hand. Either condition is a recipe for disaster for our families.

Every day my wife, Nancy, and I observe people on cell phones who drive erratically. Driving while talking on a cell phone is a disaster waiting to happen. It is total sanity to ban the insanity of cell phone use while driving. We drive a vehicle, not a phone booth.

The Kirkwood City Council would be performing a great public service to the citizens of Kirkwood and Missouri by courageously leading the way and banning cell phone use while driving in Kirkwood. Other communities would follow this great example of concern. Eventually this would lead to a ban on cell phone use while driving in all of Missouri and thereby save many lives and futures.

Dick ReevesKirkwood