To run for office, politicians have to raise money from private donors to pay for their signs and glossy mailers. But Missouri campaign finance laws limit local politicians to taking a maximum contribution of $300 from any one donor. The idea is to limit any single rich guy or company from simply buying a local politician.
But St. Peters Mayor Shawn Brown came up with a scheme to get around this law. He started taking in big checks in the $1,500 to $3,000 range from builders who had matters before the City’s Planning and Zoning Commission where Shawn has a vote. (Isn’t it surprising how quickly the builders turn over big checks when their multi-million dollar projects are held up by P&Z?) Because of the contribution limit, Shawn did not have the builders make the checks out to his own campaign committee. Instead, he created a deceptively named committee called Citizens for Fair Government. And he had his wife, Rhonda Brown, sign the committee’s formation paperwork as treasurer.
Strangely, the committee’s contributors included a $1,500 donation by Esteem Homes. A couple months ago, County Prosecutor Jack Banas investigated allegations of a dirty deal between Esteem Homes and the Mayor. Banas closed his investigation saying that he couldn’t find any proof that Esteem Homes gave Shawn or his campaign any money. I guess it depends on how hard you look?
Another bizarre contribution to the committee came from a lady who listed her address as a local trailer park. Normally, you don’t see many political contributions from folks living in trailer parks—particularly for $3,000! So a local reporter did a little digging—turns out the lady is an employee of Tom Johnson Construction, which has a large housing project in St. Peters. Somehow I am guessing she may have gotten a BIG Christmas bonus this year.
By “shaking down” the St. Peters builders (and sometimes their employees), Shawn’s committee quickly raised over $18,000. The committee gave more than $10,000 back to Shawn’s campaign and spent more than $3,000 on his wife’s campaign for school board. The rest of the money was spent on Mark Lafata and the other anti-administration school board candidates running with Rhonda Brown (by the way, they all won as a slate on those funneled funds).
Interestingly, Rhonda didn’t open her own campaign committee for her school board race. Legally, she was required to open a campaign if she was going to spend more than $1,000 on her race. But who needs to go to the trouble of forming a campaign committee to try to raise money at $300 a pop for a school board campaign when a single donation from a lady living in a trailer park can cover your entire campaign?
St. Peters Alderman David Hayes uncovered the whole convoluted flow of dirty money when he discovered that the Mayor was faxing the illegal committee’s paperwork out of the Mayor’s office at City Hall. (It’s hard to claim you’re not running a committee that your wife started and that has your fax header on its paperwork.) Hayes logically turned it all over to the Missouri Ethics Commission.
Like a Federal grand jury, the Ethics Commission investigates complaints to determine if there is probable cause for prosecution. In the case of the allegations against the Mayor, the Ethics Commission voted to move forward with a prosecution and turned it over to Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon. The question is whether Jay Nixon will prosecute the case or sweep it under the rug (reminiscent of Banas’ “insufficient evidence” bit).
While the Mayor is now under the Missouri Ethics Commission’s equivalent of an indictment, he has other problems that would make even Lewis “Scooter” Libby stop and take notice. Shawn “Skippy” Brown’s business venture has hit the skids.
Remember Shawn’s Haunted House of Fraud? Shawn, together with a local convicted thief, Chris Blevins, set up the Haunted House. But Shawn tried to hide that he owned the business by putting down a false address on the company’s formation papers. And then he slipped the project past the City’s Planning and Zoning Commission without telling them that he owned it. When caught, he claimed that he didn’t put down his real address because “nobody needed to know it was the Mayor.”
Well, sometime on Halloween, one of Shawn’s employees took off with $11,000 of stereo equipment. Turns out, the employee was a fugitive from justice with an outstanding warrant for burglary. You’d think Shawn, who had an outstanding warrant for filing a police report when he ran for mayor, or his partner the convicted thief, who still owes $14,000 in restitution, would be more careful of who they hire.
Regardless, the St. Peters police recovered all the stolen equipment for the Mayor. But according to the Mayor, he still lost about $14,000 on his Haunted House. Wait a minute! Isn’t that what Chris Blevins owes in restitution? Maybe the Mayor should check Blevins’ share again. After all, there is no honor among thieves.
But Skippy shouldn’t panic. I doubt he will have to file for bankruptcy, again. Instead, he can always turn back to his personal ATM machine—Citizens for Fair Government.
But Mr. Mayor, a word to the wise, this time keep Rhonda Brown out of it. Because all I know is that if Mrs. Spencer’s picture ended up on the front page in a scandal, I’d be sleeping on the coach for a longtime…
