Shifting Sands & Secret Memos
Bring On A Flood Of Questions
If they ever wanted to spice up the game of baseball, they could try designating a “switch player”. At any given time in the game, this player would switch sides and start playing for the opposing team. We had a pitcher like that for the Cardinals, or so it seemed to fans at the time. I’m not even sure if it isn’t already a rule in the American League.
Last week in local politics, we saw the equivalent of a New York Yankee tearing off his jersey and going to bat for the Cardinals in the middle of a game. I’m referring to the sudden political conversion of St. Peters Mayor Shawn Brown on the Lakeside 370 development.
Opponents of the development, which include a strange assortment of bedfellows, were shocked when their “star player” suddenly switched sides in the debate. Arguably Shawn Brown would not have been elected Mayor of St. Peters over long time incumbent Mayor Tom Brown without the massive infusion of political cash they provided.
First there were huge sums donated to his legal defense fund (much like one now being set up for our own Mayor). Donations to a legal defense fund can be anonymous and are not required to be reported. Speculation is the money to pay Shawn Brown’s legal bills came from members of the group opposing the Lakeside 370 Development. This money helped keep Shawn Brown’s name on the ballot.
Second, his campaign benefitted from over $100,000 donated to Citizens for Responsible Community, most of the money coming from large donations from just three wealthy individuals; Adolphus Busch IV, Don Musick III and Glennon Jamboretz whose advertising firm worked for Musick. Normally an individual would be limited to donating $300 in the race for Mayor of St. Peters. But there is no State Law limiting what an individual can give to a group like Citizens for Responsible Community. They in turn spent most of the funds they raised running a negative campaign against Mayor Tom Brown to benefit Shawn Brown.
A coalition of political enemies of the incumbent Mayor, environmentalists and millionaire duck hunters were out to seize control of City Hall in St. Peters. Cost was no object. Their only agenda was to stop the rampant development of flood plain ground North of St. Peters. Or so we were told by a complacent mainstream press which doesn’t ask tough questions of old money whose names end in Roman numerals.
As it turned out, defeating Mayor Tom Brown didn’t scare St. Peters into submission. A majority of the Board of Aldermen in St. Peters and the City Administrator were still firmly behind the Lakeside 370 Development. The new Mayor spoke out against the development at every turn, but really couldn’t do much to derail it.
That’s when millionaire homebuilder Tom Hughes appeared on the scene and joined the Great Rivers Habitat Alliance...the group created by Busch and Musick to oppose the Lakeside 370 Development. It seemed strange at the time. Now you had environmentalists, ant-sprawl advocates, millionaire duck hunters, a St. Louis County developer AND now a homebuilder joining forces...but for what?
Then last week it was reported that the Great Rivers Habitat Alliance wanted to buy the Lakeside 370 land for $12 Million from the City of St. Peters. But instead of backing its sale to the group that put him in office, Shawn Brown switched jerseys and hit one out of the park for the home team. He came out strongly in favor of selling the land to developer Leonard Kaplan for a deal totaling approximately $47 Million...nearly four times what the Great Rivers Habitat Alliance had offered.
Great Rivers Habitat Alliance Executive Director Wayne Freeman was fuming as he told members of the press that Shawn Brown would have a lot to “answer” for to the voters. But Shawn Brown apparently knew a lot more about the group which had backed him than they wanted him to know. He was also smart enough to get himself traded from the losing team at just the right moment.
A few days after the sale to Kaplan, the City of St. Peters issued an amazing press release revealing the contents of a “secret” memo from Wayne Freeman to Adolphus Busch IV and Great Rivers Habitat Alliance board member Don Musick. Ironically, St. Peters got its hands on the secret memo from documents subpoenaed as part of defending itself from the Great Rivers Habitat Alliance’s own lawsuit.
Let me quote directly from their press release:
“In a memo dated April 21, 2005, Great Rivers Executive Director Wayne Freeman outlined a plan to take over the Lakeside 370 property and instead of keeping it as floodplain, as they had been proposing for the last two years, they would actually develop properties which could reap the Alliance millions of dollars from the sale of property to developers and “administrative fees.”
“The document was addressed to Great Rivers Chairman Adolphus Busch IV and Board member Don Musick III. Freeman’s proposal led to a surprise offer to St. Peters in mid-May which increased Great Rivers year-old offer for the 1,600 acres from $5 million to $12 million, but did not reveal the potential financial gain for Great Rivers and their intent to develop as much as 800 acres of the property.”
“The secret document describes Freeman’s plan for Great Rivers to disguise its real intentions by telling the public, in a full-paid ad to be purchased in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, that the only way they could get control of the property was to promise St. Peters that they could have some development on the land after the sale to Great Rivers.”
Talk about uncovering a smoking gun! These guys need to move to California and hire Michael Jackson’s attorney.
The discovery of the memo raises a flood of questions, washing away the levee of credibility they had tried to build through buying political friends and smearing the reputation of those who stood in their way. I would like to know who they had lined up to develop the 800 acres? Who stood to pocket that rich prize? When exactly were they going to tell all the people who believed in them, and really do care about environmental issues, that they had sold them out?
Now I have always believed that if something looks like a duck and walks like a duck, that it is probably a duck....or in this case a competing development meant to make someone rich, while promising to protect some ducks! And what the heck, if you can TWIST the truth and blame it all on the other guy go ahead. It’s enough to make we want to go the ballpark and order a Coors Light.
