Councilman Mark Brown addresses
the political
environment in St. Charles.
If your opinion is:
- The infighting in our city is hurting our city’s reputation
- I’m tired of the petty politics
- I wish our elected officials would work for the residents and stop all this political fighting
Please examine the following facts:
Politics in St. Charles are the same as every other city except for … controversy.
Each city throughout the St. Charles/ St. Louis area has its share of disagreement and debates.
What makes St. Charles different?
In April of 2004, a new council was elected. The council quickly recognized that big money and special interest groups were controlling the city at the residents’ expense. The majority of the council established a goal to return the city to the residents who elected them. For this reason, the mayor and her rich friends hired a public relations firm to twist the truth and degrade any accomplishment the council achieves. This has created 14 months of what appears to be negative publicity for our city.
When individuals hire a public relations firm to spin the truth and create negative publicity, are they interested in helping the community or destroying the city’s image? The answer is not quite that simple. These big money people (who for the most part are not St. Charles residents) have taken advantage of our mayor and preyed on her weaknesses.
How do the big money people get their hooks into elected officials and newspaper columnist?
They first look for the weakest personalities and prey on their weakness. Most politicians, after getting elected, try to make a positive impact in their community. However, a small percentage of elected officials begin to think they are way more important than they really are.
They allow their ego to take over their mind and they become consumed with their image of importance and stealing everyone’s ideas and accomplishments as they strive to feed their ever growing ego.
These high rollers have continued to further take advantage of these simple minded people, when they feed politician’s egos by inviting them to special events and parties where they are allowed to hobnob with the rich and famous.
Unfortunately, the rich and famous could care less about the residents in St. Charles. They only care about getting favors and special treatment even if it comes at a high cost to the taxpayers in our city.
In the city of St. Charles, the rich and famous did their homework. They knew before Patti York was elected mayor that she was an airline stewardess with low to moderate income. They recognized that she was approachable and targeted her to lead their agenda. Since that time, she now drives a high priced Lexus sports car, shops in the most upscale clothing stores outside St. Charles, and attends special events put on by these raiders who feed at the public trough at the expense of the taxpayers.
Together they had a very successful five years and it appeared that the more they took from the residents of St. Charles, the more they wanted.
This came to an end after the last election. The voters of St. Charles said they had enough. The voters of St. Charles demanded their city back.
The voters in Ward 3 were upset that developers used our mayor and former councilman and convinced them to create new ordinances to rid our city of its last existing green space. They programmed them like puppets as they lobbied to double the density previously allowed for subdivisions.
The more land they took, the more they wanted. Substandard homes were allowed to be built and inspectors and department heads overlooked violations on a regular basis.
That brings us to where we are today. Six members on the city council decided to fulfill our obligation to the residents of St. Charles. We stood up and said we are going to hold the rich and famous accountable. The council would no longer allow the rich and famous to rape the taxpayers.
This new approach to “fair government for everyone” has been costly to The Big Money People. It has also restricted their activity on issues such as getting unfair bidding practices, overlooking ordinance violations, cost over runs, selective enforcement, buying of city property and receiving special consideration. Putting a stop to this process is not an easy task. The big spenders have made it clear they will do whatever it takes to protect and save their mouthpiece at city hall. This includes hiring public relation firms to act as spin-doctors. These spin-doctors, spin the truth and make anyone who challenge them appear to be a fool and attack their integrity.
Read between the lines of a recent article that appeared on page 1 of the June 23, 2005 issue of the St. Charles County Post reported:
York defense fund nears $20,000
How far will they go to defend their unethical practices?
Close to $20,000 has been raised for a legal defense fund set up for Mayor Patti York, says Ken Kielty, a former City Council member who helped set up the fund.
Much of that amount was raised at a fundraising reception Tuesday evening at Pio’s restaurant, he said. He said that more than 75 people attended. The fund was set up to pay for a lawyer to represent York during the current council’s inquiry into her signing a pharmacy benefits agreement last year without council approval. The council refused York’s request to use city funds to hire an attorney for her.
Kielty also is treasurer of a new political committee, St. Charles Citizens for Responsible Government. He says that committee will be available to raise money for potential recall drives against some or all of York’s critics on the council.
Glennon Jamboretz, a St. Louis public relations firm owner who is deputy treasurer, said the committee also may support candidates in future city elections.
Until The First Capital News came along, these high rollers only worried about wining and dinning one newspaper columnist who began feeling important because he was invited to attend special functions and he was allowed to associate with the rich and famous. In turn, he never reported on any unethical practices that involved this group of raiders. No matter how bad their actions are, he will view the situation through his rose-colored glasses and attack everyone who attempts to seek justice. The interesting thing about this is that St. Charles is the only place the daily paper allows this unethical reporting to exist. You never find it in North County, South County or the West County papers. By and large, the newspapers normally don’t allow reporters to accept this special treatment for favorable reporting. Maybe the money is too big here and the people involved spend a tremendous amount of money advertising in their paper.
Whatever the case is, public relation firms have only one job, spin the truth and protect their client.
I want to personally thank The First Capital News for continuing to report on the issues affecting the taxpayers of our city and for exposing this public relations firm when they distort the facts and attempt to confuse the public.
The First Capital News has obviously taken a tremendous toll on this group of raiders. It has exposed them to such a point that they were forced to start a disingenuous and demonic newspaper to muddy the waters and confuse residents by getting them to a point that they just don’t care.
I ask the public to see through the spin doctors’ distorted truth and examine the facts. When Big Money talks, everybody listens and often times the less informed are fooled. Stay informed and examine the facts. Why would this group be concerned to the point of establishing a mayor’s legal defense fund? If the mayor did not do anything wrong, she has nothing to fear. The only question left now is: how fearful is the council of this group, now that they publicly announced their attempt to recall anyone who continues to seek justice? This group is among the people who raise money again and again throughout the year for the mayor for one reason or another. They are concerned that York has lost her political steam and without their political spin, they will not be able to buy a mouth piece in the up-coming election.
Our city is no different from any other city;
We have debate and disagreements.
The only difference is the negative publicity
“The Spin Doctors” create when
The City of St. Charles attempts to debate or disagree with the big spenders who continue to feed at the public trough.
