A quote by Doug Floyd states, “You don’t get harmony when everyone sings the same note.” When this adage is applied to politics, it simply means that out of disagreements and arguing one’s case and viewpoint, the finished product is a tune we can find pleasing to the ears.
If we did not have huge revenue from gambling combined with development, City government would be rather boring and mundane. When big money is available, everybody wants his slice of the pie. The only sure way to get that slice is to control the elected officials through campaign donations with the expectation of future cooperation.
To the victor belong the spoils. This has been going on in one form or another since the beginning of time. It will not change anytime soon.
If elected officials dance only to the tune of special interests and big money, then every three or four years, the voters enact a change. In the recent April City election, the voters mandated such change and that was a message intended for the Mayor and her three Councilmen. They have rejected the message and worked full time to undo the election and go back to doing things as usual.
The new City Council should be commended for saving the taxpayers millions of dollars and attempting to curb wasteful spending. Gieseke, Brown, Riddler, Koester, Greer and Hoepfner are not timid creatures. They are strong personalities and each has his own ideas. They seem to do their homework, are prepared and are not shy in voicing their goals. If they agreed on every topic on the agenda all the time and voted accordingly, then we should have just skipped the last election and kept the old Council.
This Council has been under attack by the Mayor and her friends and that also will not stop because they lost the power of having the majority of the Council vote their way without question. When two people never disagree, then only one person is thinking.
The Mayor would have us believe she is the only one capable of doing all the thinking and making all the decisions unilaterally. This Council has obviously elected to do their own thinking. This is not only healthy and rewarding, but it best serves the voters who pay the taxes to support City Hall.
We’ve heard a lot about the Magnificent Seven. They do not always vote the same way. They are maligned when they do and maligned when they don’t. All that is happening here is that the Mayor and friends want a different Council and are attempting to circumvent and undo the will of the voters. The Mayor never included Councilman Reese in the Seven. She boasted early on he would vote her way. Most of the time, he does. Recently he and Hoepfner seem to vote the same way.
During the tenure of the previous Council, the mayor and her friends rode over Hoepfner like a bulldozer and defeated every attempt he made to enact his legislation. They worked and spent lots of money in an effort to defeat his reelection. He was a voice crying for responsible spending. He received the largest vote percentage of all when he was reelected.
For some time, a columnist in another publication has had fun attacking and ridiculing Hoepfner and other members of the City Council. I don’t believe he actually dislikes them. He just happens to have the full-time job of being Patti’s Boy Friday. He recently had a field day using Hoefpner to ridicule the rest of the Council and likend them to children, not adults. Hoepfner was the “fat boy being picked on by the other meanies at recess.” (Does that columnist ever look in the mirror or does he just hang a picture of George Clooney and stand in front of it?)
If Patti’s pet (that columnist) wants City Hall to be run by adults, then he should immediately sign the Mayor’s recall petition. She turned City Government into a high-school click, and her behavior and that of her assault team has been nothing less than shocking. When a group of people exert that much time and energy to attempt to close a newspaper, they are doing questionable things which they do not want reported. Patti’s pet doesn’t pose a threat. He’s just a fly on the wall wanting to stay with the in-crowd. He reports accordingly.
There is no provision in the Charter to break a tie-vote (5-5) of the City Council. Since Hoepfner and Reese generally vote the same, Patti and her friends hope to use any and all to get those two firmly in her grasp. Muench will sometimes breakaway but Weller, and Kneemiller never go against her. They don’t have to think because Patti does it for them. With a perpetual tie vote, nothing could ever get done. If the Mayor can’t have her way, there will be no other way. If it doesn’t stop, we can look forward to a miserable two years until the next election.
When sparks flew between Hoepfner and the rest of the magnificent body at the last City Council meeting, Muench and Kneemiller stayed under cover and relished the moment. It was an opportunity for control, or at the very least, a perpetual stalemate. Patti’s pet thought they seemed ridiculous and used that accordingly. I’d rather look foolish and fight for what I believe, than be a non-thinking puppet. In politics, today your best friend is your enemy and your worst enemy is your best friend.
It depends on the issue and what is at stake. I’d also rather see them disagree in public rather than agree behind closed doors.
The bottom line here is, if Hoepfner fights with his Magnificent Seven, he’s an okay guy and will gain the sympathy of Patti’s pet and his mayor. When he agrees with the others with his vote, then he’s back to being non-adult, stupid, fat, and all sorts of things. It doesn’t even matter who is right or wrong or what is sensible. One thing for sure, regardless of what the Magnificent Seven says or does, the Mayor and her friends will target their next race and again try to unseat them. If they can’t be controlled all the time, then they have to go.
The past election should stand and all parties involved should concentrate on doing the City’s business. The voters will get it right. It is not wise to go against the will of the voters.
There appears to be an effort to pit T.R. Hughes against Whittaker with the suggestion that Whittaker is getting preferential treatment. The difference between New Town and St. Andrews is that New Town is in the City of St. Charles. St. Andrews is not. St. Andrews could have been in St. Charles but the developer did not want to adhere to the standards required by the city. City residents should have priority for basic services over non-residents.
