By Phyllis Schaltenbrand
The First Capitol News has learned that Eric Tolen, the special counsel to the St. Charles City Council has filed a lawsuit in St. Louis County Circuit Court charging Conspiracy, Breach of Contract and Tortious Intereference With A Business Relationship against St. Charles Mayor Patti York. City Administrator Allan Williams, City Councilman Bob Kneemiller and City Councilman Mike Weller. York and Williams are being charged in their official capacity and individually. Kneemiller and Weller are being charged only individually.
The lawsuit seeks damages in the amount of $100,000 on conspiracy and nine different counts of alleged premedicated, malicious conduct.
Tolen’s lawsuit alleges the actions of York and Williams are in violation of his contract and of section 7.8 of the St. Charles City Charter in that only the City Council has the authority to employ special legal Counsel as it deems necessary and the compensation of Special Counsel shall be determined by City Council.
On July 27, 2004 the Mayor and the City Council authorized a three year contract for legal services with Tolen.
On January 3, 2006, Council president Rory Riddler, during an open Council meeting, told the defendants that the Special Counsel position was appropriately funded in the 2006 budget under the line item for Outside Legal Services, as it has been in the past. Moreover, the Council President instructed the defendants that they should pay Tolen for the work he has performed pursuant to the contract and Ordinance No. 04-195.Council President Riddler also told the Mayor and Administrator at several budget meetings that putting a line item in the City budget for Special City Council Counsel with a zero amount was in violation of the Charter and City Ordinances.
The First Capitol News contacted Tolen in reference to the lawsuit and he said, “I take my duties with the Council of the City of St. Charles very seriously. I have lived up to every aspect of my contract and I have always acted professionally and in the best interest of the City of St. Charles. All I want is to do my job and I wish the Mayor and City Administrator would put their hatred aside and stop interfering with my legal obligations to the City Council. I spend a lot of time working for the City of St. Charles and it troubles me deeply to have to go to this extent to get paid for the professional services I have performed. I have not been paid for my legal services since early last fall. On December 29, 2005 I sent a formal demand for payment and it was ignored even though Council President Rory Riddler had warned them they were legally obligated to pay for my services and that the money was available. I believe it is not my work performance that concerns them, they voted against my contract before they knew anything about me.”
Tolen told the First Capitol News he respected every member of the Council and the Mayor and City Administrator and would still continue to provide them with the best legal services possible.
Councilman Joe Koester at the February 7th City Council meeting warned the Administration not to allow this claim to get to a point where the City would have to expend taxpayer dollars due to incompetent management practices.
Councilman Weller responded, “Mr. Tolen don’t you understand, we don’t like you. I don’t want you here.”
Several Council members expressed hope that this matter could be cleared up before the City spends hundreds of thousands of dollars on legal expenses to fight this matter.
The City has not yet been served with the Suit papers and once they have been served they have 30 days to file an answer.
Tolen also claims in his lawsuit the Mayor, Weller, Williams and Kneemiller from the inception of his contract had a meeting of the mind, and conspired with malicious and aforethought to break the Council’s valid contract with Plaintiff and intentionally caused him undue financial hardship by not paying for services authorized by them. In addition, Tolen claims the defendants knew and had knowledge that by having him perform such services and duties as instructed and requested by him that each activity would and did in fact occupy his time, thereby preventing him from taking on additional work, outside the City of St. Charles government, resulting in financial loss and hardship.
The petition also claims since the time of Kneemiller and Weller refusals to vote in favor of Tolen’s contract with the City and Ordinance 04-195, they have acted in bad faith and maliciously interfered with his contract by attempting to prohibit the City and the City Council from utilizing its Special Counsel, as provided in the contract and the City charter, and have attempted to prevent payment of Tolen’s contract by the City.
Councilman Mark Brown told the First Capitol News, “There is a lot more to this matter and I believe the citizens of St. Charles will be embarrassed when all the facts are revealed in court. There is a lot of outside political influence involved. I can’t discuss the matter further because of the pending litigation.”
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Our entire edition can be found at
firstcapitolnews.blogspot.com. Our editions are archived from November 2004.
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