The View From The Cheap Seats
By Jerry Haferkamp
I’m going to start off the column today by disagreeing with a comment in last issues “The People Speak” section. Mr. Morice from O’Fallon wrote of the “conservatives” illegal recall efforts. Don’t blame it on “conservatives”.
Anyone who knows me knows that I am as conservative as anyone can be and am a Republican. They also know I detest this assault on our electoral system. There are many conservatives who don’t want to see this misguided recall effort succeed.
The group pushing this assault is not all conservatives. At least one is a liberal Democrat who has fed at the public trough for years. The only thing bonding these individuals together is greed and future benefits derived from a council they can count on to vote in accordance with the Golden Rule…He who has the gold makes the rules.
The recall of council member Greer started innocently enough. The wife of a police officer didn’t want to see the control of the police department taken from the unions and put back in the hands of a qualified Chief of Police. She tried several issues to get support, but none gained traction until she spun the good ordinance controlling fireworks into a negative thing. It wasn’t enough to warrant recall, but it piqued the interest of the power hungry that desperately needed to get a majority back on the council so they could continue to rule the city by proxy. They managed to get a 50/50 council when Bob Hoepfner did his Darth Vader act and went over to the “Dark Side”. Now they knew that if they poured enough money into it, they could once again own the council. All they needed is one more seat. Therein lies the unholy alliance.
I’m not much of a public speaker, but I put in my two cents worth at Tuesday’s council meeting. After the S.C. West Band was recognized at a prior meeting, the band director confided in me that he hoped to get the band members out before they were subjected to the real council meeting. The real meeting being the one where council members attacked each other or were attacked by speakers at the podium. The real meeting is where verbal attacks from the podium are thrown at our mayor. The real meeting where audience members with no self respect and no sense of decorum heckle and cajole any council member who doesn’t agree with them. The band director stresses good citizenship and didn’t want to expose the students to this circus. Out of respect for him, I decided to say something at this past meeting.
My time at the podium was used to challenge the council to do whatever is necessary to bring about an atmosphere where the students and citizens could witness city business being conducted as it should be. Council meetings are not the time or the place where speakers can verbally assault the mayor or the council and certainly not where they should make personal attacks on each other.
There are outlets for people to voice their opinions. The council meetings are not the proper place for political speeches or non-city issues. For the average resident of St. Charles there is always an outlet to voice concerns in the First Capitol News. For anyone with ambition to gain financially from our city coffers, there will always be a home for you in the “Non-Citizen” and the St. Peters news(?)paper.
Since I was facing the council, my remarks either didn’t carry to the audience, or they just turned a deaf ear. I had hardly returned to my seat when a speaker likened some council members to the K.K.K. Only minutes later one of the financiers of the assault on our election process refused to stop his political speech after his time was up. Apparently he, like councilman Weller, wanted someone like Roscoe P. Coltrane to do the fraud investigation. Somewhere in the circus a former councilman unleashed a tirade against this newspaper. This was hardly classified as city business. Later the head…yes, the HEAD of the ill named group “Do The Right Thing” had to be gaveled down for doing the wrong thing and comparing our police department’s investigation into fraud to the Nazis going door to door hunting down Jews in Germany. It appears that “Do The Right Thing” feels that fraud laws don’t apply to those who support their agenda. Given their connections, I doubt that Jack Banas will do what is really the “right thing” and prosecute. The investigation reveals there are apparently fraud, forgery and conspiracy to commit fraud by telling someone to commit an act of fraud. Don’t count on getting what you pay for from the prosecutor. Friends are friends.
There are rumors flying that there is even a move to “get” Chief Swope for doing his sworn duty. The residents need to wake up to the power of this mob trying to control every aspect of this city. Shutting them down means voting to keep the council you elected. They want to overturn elections. They want fraud swept under the rug. They want freedom of the press, but only their press. They feel they have enough money be immune from our laws. Get mad! Tell them NOT ON YOUR WATCH! Vote to keep your council.Of course this is just a view from the cheap seats.
