By Tony Brockmeyer
On September 2, 2005 Mayor Patti York was deposed in the Thomas Mayer vs. City of St. Charles lawsuit. Mayer, a former police officer had filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against all ten council members and the City Attorney Mike Valenti last year. Mayor Patti York is the only elected official not named in the suit.
In May of 2005 York crafted a letter of recommendation to St. Louis police chief Joe Mokwa regarding Thomas Mayer. The First Capitol News’s was the first to break the story of the letter. In the letter York states…………..
Since 2001 we have had some Councilmen who have gone out of their way to single out and harass Sergeant Mayer, both in public and behind the scenes. It was obvious to many of our residents that Sergeant Mayer was a target by certain Councilmen because he was constantly being written about in a local paper that stoops well below the gutter when “reporting” the news. This harassment has gone on ever since, and yet in every instance, Sergeant Mayer performed as he always does; with absolute decorum, with great skill and as the true professional he is.
This firing was truly and only a political “payback” to Sergeant Mayer. I believe this in every way because he has withstood deep harassment from certain Councilmen for such a long time and his reaction was to resolve the harassment by filing a lawsuit against these men. I believe he will be successful.
During the deposition the lawyer for the City, Chet Pleban, asked York why she wrote the letter and if she thought about Mayer’s pending lawsuit before she sent the letter. Chet Pleban asked York. “At the time when you wrote the letter of recommendation, did you know that Thomas Mayer had filed a lawsuit against the City of St. Charles and the members of the City Council both in their individual and official capacities? York replied, “Yes”. Pleban continued to try to find out why York would jeopardize the City of St. Charles taxpayers with this potentially damming letter of recommendation. Pleban asked York, “Did you take that consideration when you wrote this letter? York replied, “Honestly, no”. I didn’t really think about it. The letter to Mokwa clearly says that she believes Mayer will be successful in his lawsuit, yet she testified that she didn’t really think about it. Pleban went on to ask, “Did you consider in any respect the impact of this letter on the lawsuit? York answered, “No, I did not. This was something that was put together, as I said before, kind of leveling the playing field and trying to get some of this out in the open. It was truly allegations. There’s things I heard, the gossip, the rumors around and tried to put some of those to rest.” Pleban then asked, “If I understand your testimony correctly, the bottom line here is that Thomas Mayer is a friend of yours, correct? York answered, “Yes”.
The testimony clearly shows that York wrote the letter knowing that her admitted friend was fired from the City of St. Charles, had a multi million dollar law suit against the City and she told Chief Joe Mokwa, she was confident Mayer would prevail.
“York appears to have placed her friendship over the best interest of the City and the City taxpayers. This is very irresponsible of the Mayor of St. Charles.” stated Joe Koester, councilman Ward 9. Councilman John Gieseke, Ward 8 questioned York’s statements that the City Administrator had disclosed the reasons for Mayer’s firing. Gieseke told the FCN’s, “Williams has never told us the reasons for Mayer’s dismissal and I wouldn’t think he would until the appeal process was complete yet York testified under oath that it happened but it never did.” There seems to be a number of inconsistencies in York’s testimony that leads one to wonder why the Mayor of the City of St. Charles would write such a letter.
York testified that she had been told the reasons why Mayer was fired in closed session so she couldn’t talk under oath about the reasons. Pleban questioned why under oath she felt the closed session information was confidential yet she sent a letter about Mayer’s termination to Chief Mokwa and that information would have been relayed to her during closed session. “The truth is she couldn’t have been told the reasons in closed session because the council would have been there to hear the reasons. It did not happen in closed session. If you look at the testimony that she never discussed this with anyone other than her son you see the reason she had to testify that she heard it in closed session. She would have to come clean and really tell the truth that she had been speaking with Mayer the whole time and that is why she wrote the letter.” Councilman Mark Brown, Ward 3.
Thomas Mayer and Mayor Patti York have both hired the same Public Relations firm to do work for them. Glennon Jamboretz and his Glennon Company has been working for Thomas Mayer and the FOP. In February of 2005 York began to pay Jamboretz’s companies, Lafayette Partnership and Sarah Collins & Associates, from the City treasury. According to many on the Council the two are seemingly working in concert with one another in an effort to gain control of the council so the City will settle with Mayer on his lawsuit.
