By Tony Brockmeyer
In an obvious attempt to keep the residents of St. Charles from discovering sweet heart deals for her friends and supporters and special favors given to special interests by her and her administration, Mayor York has made another attempt to hurt the publication of the First Capitol News.
York, who has been at odds with the newspaper since it began reporting on questionable questionable activities of her administration several years ago, has made many attempts to put the First Capitol News out of business. Her latest effort has been to halt payment of invoices due the newspaper for City advertising.
In June of last the First Capitol News was contacted by Marilyn McCoy, the City Clerk. She told us the City Council was considering printing the Council Agendas in a newspaper so the people watching the Council meetings on cable television could follow along and understand the discussion. She asked what we would charge. We were later informed our price was the lowest and the City Council voted to print the City Council Agendas in the First Capitol News.
The money for printing the agendas comes from the City Clerk’s advertising budget. Since the budget had already been approved before the printing of the agendas had started, the City Clerk determined that there was not enough funds in her budget to pay all the outstanding invoices. Other money available in her budget so she requested a line item budget transfer. Even though this is a common practice and done many times throughout the year, the Mayor refused to make the budget transfer. A City Hall source told us the Mayor also ordered the finance director not to write any checks to the First Capitol News as she would not sign them. This is in direct violation of the City Charter and City ordinances.
At a work session of the City Council on Tuesday evening the Council voted 10 - 0 to pay $9,600 in outstanding invoices for the printing of the agendas out of the City Council Directives. City Council Directives is a separate account controlled by the City Council. City Clerk Marilyn McCoy, when questioned, told the Council she ran out of money in the advertising account not because the cost had gone up but because the length of the agendas had increased, therefore taking more space to print them. Councilman Larry Muench said, “I like printing the agendas for the public to follow but I would like to see them shortened. Maybe reduce the size of the print.” Councilman Bob Kneemiller told the Council. “We need to pay our bills.”
Councilman Mark Brown made several attempts to discover if the other newspapers had been paid for their advertising and if the First Capitol News was the only one who had not been paid. City Administrator Allan Williams avoided answering Browns questions and became very belligerent towards him. Williams told the Council there is a state statute requiring a contract with vendors and told the Council that even if the First Capitol News sued the City, the City would not have to pay the outstanding invoices because there was no contract. Several Council members told Williams that the Council, the governing body of the City, had authorized the advertising and the City needed to pay the bills.
Phyllis Schaltenbrand, publisher of the First Capitol News said, “The City has never asked us for or presented us with a contract for this advertising. We would have been happy to sign a contract had they asked. Unlike other publications, the First Capitol News, since our inception, has never required our advertisers to sign a contract committing them to advertise with us for a specific amount of time or for a specific dollar amount. We take our advertisers at their word. I always thought your word was your bond but apparently that doesn’t hold true for some in the City Administration.”
A local attorney, considered an expert in debt collection, had been watching the Council proceedings on cable TV and contacted the First Capitol News the next day. He told us William’s interpretation of the law was in error and that if the First Capitol News sought relief in court for the monies due them from the City, the newspaper would be victorious. He further said that Williams, who is neither a licensed attorney or law school graduate, should not be interpreting law or giving legal advice to the City Council. That is the job of the Council Attorney.”
In a review of City records, the First Capitol News has learned that the St. Louis Post Dispatch and the Suburban Journals, both owned at the time by Pulitzer Publishing, received over $150,000 a year for the past several years for advertising and subscriptions. Records do not reflect any indication that their requests for payment were delayed at any time.
Some of the invoices owed the newspaper by the City date back to the early part of February.
