Dear Tony,
I may not always agree with Mark Brown on every issue or his delivery. I am convinced that he is looking out for the taxpayers of St. Charles.
Silent Majority
Ward 3 resident
Gene Fitzwalter
Dear Tony:
While my husband and I listen to Channel 20 City Council hearings i realize there are many residents of St. Charles City who do not have access to cable television and in addition are not able to attend the council hearings. It is also apparent to those of us who do listen to the meetings that the Post-Dispatch reporters who cover them are not accurate in what they report. Therefore, my proposal to you is that you devote some space in the First Capitol News accordingly:
have a column devoted to: HOW THEY VOTED (give the date of the meeting)
1. List the matter to be voted on (many of which would not be of general interest and need not be listed)
2. List the councilperson in either a YES or a NO column.
As you may have noticed some of the councilmen (especially Bob Hoepfner) speak so low it is difficult or impossible to hear their vote. An example of things i the past that were voted down were:
When Mayor York’s signing of the Express Scripts contract was brought up it was proposed subpoenas be issued on the Human Resources person and several Express Scripts people which would help clarify what occurred. THIS WAS VOTED DOWN.
While I am not suggesting you go over old history by mentioning the above, there were things at last night’s meeting that were voted down and future meetings will continue in this vein.
Dear Editor:
Imagine that! On January 21st the Post-Dispatch printed an article about two St. Louis County Councilmen recently receiving thousands of dollars from a group of developers. Could that happen St. Charles City and if it did would you suppose the Post-Dispatch writers Sonderegger and Jason Lee would print about it?
Also, doesn’t it seem strange for the St. Charles County Prosecuting Attorney to recommend putting Mark Brown’s recall petition on the City ballot in April when it was discovered during a deposition that one of the people canvassing for signatures admitted she did not actually see the people signing her petition as required by law and while in the course of taking another deposition a different canvasser took the Fifth Amendment (or her lawyer did) regarding the method of collecting signatures on her petition. The police department have not even started investigating the legality of the Mark Brown recall petitions as they are busy investigating the signatures of Ms. Greer’s recall petition and are already discovering signatures of people who deny they signed the petitions.
When it was suggested that Mr. Riddler and Dr. Williams were at fault taking this to the police department implying it was a political matter and somehow the police would be favoring Mr. Riddler I would ask where would they ask for an investigation?
All of this is indeed unfortunate and as one who loves the city in which they live, let us all get together now and Do The Right Thing. Ask the Post-Dispatch to print all of the St. Charles City news and not just pick out the items favorable to their advertisers and power people. Ask Mr. Banas, the Prosecuting Attorney, why he would make such a statement regarding Mr. Brown’s recall petition even as he admitted he did not have the means to enforce it and also at the time an investigation was ongoing as to the validity of the recall petition. Ask Mr. Weller who he thought should be handling the investigation if not the police department.
Carol Diller
Dear Editor,
I was watching the council meeting last Tuesday and I am positive that I saw John Smith in the audience with the people promoting the recall of two council people. John Smith is the head of the School Board that has been mismanaging the district for years. Who is he to even begin to think that he is qualified to determine if someone is fit for office or not? His actions or lack of action has created a crisis in the school district and his answer is to ask the tax payers to bail them out. John Smith has forgotten the reason we have public schools is not to have the best administration money can buy but to educate the kids. The fact is he hasn’t given a clear or concise idea of what to cut, what to do, he just sits back and says well this is what the superintendent has told us. He is void of any leadership skills and lacks the ability to lead our school district. I say recall the school board president before anyone on the council. The council isn’t asking for tax increases. If fact they are trying to cut our taxes, decrease the size of government and hold the administration accountable.John Smith should dream about having the guts to do what this council is doing.
M. Wilson
We do not negotiate; we put them out of business". That's what the White House tells America. We don't believe you guys? You're no threat to us? We're bigger and tougher and we will send our young men and women to fight you and we will win? Wow, would that it were that easy, but then this White is known to carry a big stick. "Bring'em on", the President said; how about, "Bring'em on with your son's and daughter's, not ours", as one of my Vietnam Veteran friends recently said. Remember the "Wanted Dead or Alive" - "Osama bin Laden, you can't hide, we'll find you". Lets see, that was 4 years ago, right and they are bigger and stronger than ever with or without him now? How many of our young men and women are dead; how many wounded, paralyzed, traumatized?
So lets just dare them again, how about it? And while we're at it, why bother having others around the world negotiate? Why try and get Israel to negotiate with the Palestinians on a "Roadmap to Peace"? Why negotiate with North Korea? Why work on peaceful solutions between Russia and Chechnya or Serbia and Croatia, or for that matter why negotiate peace talks anywhere in the world, why not just solve them all with whomever can wipe out the other one the fastest; last man standing, as it were? Then we'd never have to negotiate with anybody we could just have an all out world war and we could all just put each other out of business and get it over with once and for all. Who needs peaceful negotiations anyway?
Sandra M. Vago
Dear Editor,
Wanted to pass this wonderful story onto you. A lady who has been suffering from Plantar Fasciitis and who has a friend who has been trying to get her to buy some Birkenstock shoes came into our store Wednesday. She said her husband sat in his chair and read the article out loud to hear because of all of the foot pain he knows she’s been experiencing, this convinced her to come in and try on a pair of Birkenstock clogs. She couldn’t believe how good they felt, she walked out with them on her feet and a great big smile.
I just had to share this with you, I thought you would enjoy knowing how we were able to help someone feel better.
Sincerely,
Pat Hamilton
Aaron’s Birkenstock Store & All Brand Shoe Repair
Aarons1.com
