City Semantics: What a Wicked Web Williams Weaves or Valenti Invalidates Veracity
From the very beginning, I was strongly opposed to the contract with Allan Williams. I lobbied some on the council and two like-minded members voted, “nay” on a contract that passed 7-3.
Besides a compensation package that would be the highest in the area, the City would agree to provide lifetime health insurance for just a few years service. This is an insult to working men and women in our City who spend thirty years to secure the same benefits. Many in our community and country are losing their benefits and pensions after a lifetime of work and for elected officials to hand out such benefits because it’s not their own money (per se — it is our tax dollars) is flat out wrong!
There was one reason I did not fight even harder against this appointment and that was because it was agreed to have a one-year contract that would have to be renewed for Mr. Williams to receive full compensation. If I was proven wrong and Mr. Williams turned out to be a wunderkind who wowed us all, then maybe his compensation wasn’t the worst thing in the world, but if Mr. Williams was mediocre or if he showed bias against council, at least the council had the ability to decide to not renew his contract. This guarantee was what was presented to us in closed session and this is what we believed in good faith!
Aaah, yes! A man’s word is worth little nowadays and yet another semantics game was surely concocted by Mr. Williams and gang from the start!
The current dilemma is what to do when someone doesn’t keep and honor his word and there is not enough political will to enforce the council decision. The council president refuses to prevent Mr. Williams from partaking in meetings. I, for one, do not recognize Mr. William’s authority any longer since his contract wasn’t renewed. What to do, what to do!
This forces us to file a lawsuit against Williams. Mr. Kneemiller is adamant that whoever hires an attorney pays full price because, he claims, someone working pro bono would be considered a gift and therefore illegal.
Mr. Kneemiller need not worry, city precedence has shown us that a legal defense fund can be set up to pay for this.
Unfortunately, we will have to litigate because Williams has chosen deception over honoring his word and the contract at hand.
This situation also makes a very strong case for the need of special counsel to the city council. Our city attorney cannot serve both the legislative and executive branches of city government without putting one side’s interests in front of the other. Our attorney drew up a contract that he later claimed violated the charter. Really, what we see is that it is better for both branches to hire private firms to represent them and do away with a city legal department; this is not uncommon in city government and it makes sense.
An aside: If you happened to watch the meetings since the council split 5 to 5 you will notice that the other “Fab Five” vote in lockstep, seem to vote out of revenge, and vote based upon politics. To read some publications in town, however, would give the impression that it is only Gieseke, Brown, Riddler, Greer, and Koester who do such!
For those out there who didn’t hear about things in O’Fallon already, Bob Lowery has taken over out there as city administrator and it appears that he is cleaning up corruption in city hall. Maybe we can get the mayors of Saint Charles and O’Fallon to agree to swap administrators…but I doubt it.
