What Affect Will Mayor's Letter Have On $104 Million Lawsuit Against City?
By Tony Brockmeyer
Several local attorneys interviewed by the First Capitol News believe a glowing endorsement letter written by Mayor Patti York, to St. Louis Police Chief Joseph Mokwa, on behalf of fired St. Charles Police Sergeant Tommy Mayer, could have a chilling effect on the $104 million lawsuit Mayer has filed against the City.
The letter, dated May 3, 2005 (see letter on page 3) from the Mayor calls the firing a political “payback” to Sgt. Mayer. She also says in the letter she believes he will be successful in his lawsuit. She writes that she is proud of his record and proud of his service to our City and she is proud to have him as a friend. She also said that she thinks the Council members were picking on him.
Mayer was fired after an investigation regarding an incident where it was alleged he forced City Administrator Allan Williams to the ground at gun point during a traffic stop.
In June of 2004 shortly after the lawsuit was filed by Mayer against the City, the First Capitol News reported Mayor York’s close ties to Tommy Mayer, his and her (the Mayor) PR firm, Glennon Jamboretz and to Citizens for Responsible Community.
The First Capitol News learned that Glennon Public Relations handled the press conference and the press release regarding Mayer’s filing of the suit against the City. In that edition our sources informed us, they don’t believe in coincidence regarding what appears to be close ties between all those involved with the Mayor, Thomas Mayer and the contributors to Citizens for a Responsible Community.
According to Glennon’s web site, their client list includes Anheuser Busch, large home builders and Ameristar Casinos. Several Councilmen have complained this same bunch is trying to take over the City of St. Charles and gain control of the $100 million budget.
The First Capitol News also reported Mayor York supported Tommy Mayer’s receiving 200 hours of paid leave to work on Fraternal Order of Police business, a organization of which he is the president, at the expense of St. Charles taxpayers. Tommy Mayer and the FOP, supported York when she ran for City Council in 1993 as well as her most recent Mayoral election.
Most recently, the Mayor, under oath, admitted Tommy Mayer was her close friend and in the most recent disclosed document she stated, “I am extremely sorry to see Sergeant Mayer leave our employment. If there was anything I could do to stop it, I would have.” The Mayor also indicated, I believe he will be successful in his $104 million lawsuit.
After the discovery of this most recent letter written by the Mayor supporting Tommy Mayer alleging that all his accusations were true, our source from 2004 phoned us and said, “Now that all the pieces of the puzzle had come together, I called to tell you I told you so.”
Councilman Bob Hoepfner, for the past year, had questioned whether the Mayor was going to be loyal to the taxpayers of St. Charles or to Tommy Mayer.
Our sources also stated, now you know why the Mayor was not named in the suit.
In our April 2, 2005 edition the First Capitol News reported, City Administrator Allan Williams was investigating Tommy Mayer after receiving numerous complaints that Mayer was visiting the home of his girl friend while he was on duty. Shortly after midnight on March 24th Williams was ordered out of his vehicle at gun point on the parking lot of the police headquarters and forced to lie face down on the ground by Police Sgt. Tommy Mayer.
On September 2, 2005 Chet Pleban, the attorney for the City of St. Charles took Mayor York’s deposition at her private attorney’s office, Gallop, Johnson & Neuman, in Clayton in St. Louis County.
A defense fund had been set up by Glennon Jamboretz, Ken Kielty, TR Hughes, Kevin Kast, and other large developers and home builders to raise money to pay Gallop, Johnson & Neuman for her legal defense. in the Express Scripts incident where it was alleged that she signed a contract without City Council approval, in violation of the City Charter and City ordinances. Her signing of this contract resulted in an additional claim being filed against the City for $200,000.
Our 2004 Sources said, “We told you so!”
All attempts to get comments from City Council members were referred to Chet Pleban, the City’s attorney.
Pleban told the First Capitol News, “We are evaluating her commentary in her letter and her efforts to retract her statements. Admittedly, in a recent deposition, she said there was no factual basis for the statements in her letter. When asked if she was going to retract her letter to Joe Mokawa, (Police Chief for St. Louis City), she responded she needed to think about that.”
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