Mehlville Fire Board Complies with the Law

In compliance with the Missouri Open Records (Sunshine) Law, the Mehlville Fire District has set the price for copies of records at ten cents. This is the highest amount allowed when the law was changed a few years ago. Prior to that, public entities were required to establish a rate based on their costs. The law's changes simplified this and gave them the ten cent ceiling. This probably doesn't get charged very often since the district may give copies away, and it does, in its best interest. This just passes the costs along to those who would be using these records for their own purposes. I've checked with a number of entities and they've all made this their policy. In fact I don't know one that doesn't have a ten cent rate. Now that the facts are before you, I must ask one question.

Where's the outrage?

The Call repeatedly blasted the Mehlville School District for its policy of charging ten cents. They complained about the district making a profit charging for records? It was one of the rallying cries by a Call sponsored candidate for the school board. This was a silly and self serving complaint as usual. The fact that the Call has not complained about the fire district's policy just shows their double standards.

Mehlville Fire Board Violates the Law

In another clear example of their double standards, Call Newspapers has not reported the ongoing open meetings violations of our fire district. The close personal relationship between Call owner William T. Milligan and Fire Board President Arron Hilmer continues to erode what little credibility they have.
Already admonished by the MO Attorney General's Office for failure to obey the law in 2007, the Mehlville Fire district has not posted nor conducted regularly scheduled meetings in 2008.
RSMO
321.200. 1. The board shall meet regularly, not less than once each month, at a time and at some building in the district to be designated by the board. Notice of the time and place of future regular meetings shall be posted continuously at the firehouse or firehouses of the district. Additional meetings may be held, when the needs of the district so require, at a place regular meetings are held, and notice of the time and place shall be given to each member of the board. Meetings of the board shall be held and conducted in the manner required by the provisions of chapter 610, RSMo.

Had this been the City of Crestwood, City of Green Park or one of our school districts, the Call Newspapers would be screaming bloody murder, not to mention, threatening or filing petty, malicious and vindictive lawsuits.

The Concord Call, Oakville Call, Sun Crest Call and Green Park Call are an embarrassing example of American journalism. As one of their former editors once told me " I don't know how he stays in business."

News From Our Capitol

Well Walt has hit two home runs in just one day. He has managed to serve two masters, Arron Hilmer and Bill Milligan both, although I don't think Arron will like the audio recording bill.


Rep. Walt Bivins plans to file the following legislation on January l6, 2008 upon adjournment. If you would like to Co-Sponsor please reply to this email or contact Betty at 751-9766. Thanks.

1. This legislation would allow Fire District Directors to place on the ballot voter authority to lower their property tax levy. Current language only allows ballot language to increase a district’s levy. (4033L.01I)

2. This legislation will require public bodies to make an audio recording of executive or closed meetings. In the event there is a Sunshine Law Challenge to what was discussed, the recording would be provided to the courts for an in camera review to determine if the complaint had any validity. (3887L.01I)

The first bill is somewhere between silly and horrible. Fire directors already can lower the rate if they like. This will only confuse voters into thinking their rates will go down. It will however tie districts' hands in the future. That's real forward thinking. I can see this moving into our school districts next. On behalf of the kids, let me thank Walt in advance.

The second bill I like but it ought to be video tape. Anyone can shut off an audio recorder.

Either way, Walt has really secured the sponsorship of the Call. He won't even have to spend any money on this race. Milligan will take the gloves off. Polizzi will be beaten like a bowl of eggs.

I Looked at the Concord Call.

It's been a while. Ever since the Call Newspapers honored my request not to send me their trash, I haven't read the thing. I came close yesterday when I went out of my way to pick one up. My wife and I have decided to buy a new car. This is a big decision for us so naturally I had to do some homework. I didn't read their paper and I tried my best not to notice their advertisers, except for automobile dealers. Fortunately, none of the dealers here in South County had an ad in the weakly newspaper. That was good news because I couldn't buy a car from one of their advertisers. That made my shopping experience much more enjoyable!

Mike Anthony-The Editor from Arnold

Thinking about the public comments portion of public meetings, reminds me of a story about Mike Anthony (the editor from Arnold). A couple of years ago, while I was on the school board, I mentioned that using the citizens' public comments portion was probably the worst way to communicate with the board. I went on to say we needed to share with the community the various ways people could contact us, i.e.; e-mail, phone calls, visiting, etc. The problem is that normally board members don’t interact with people at the meetings because unless it was posted as an agenda item, it could be a violation of the Sunshine Law. Many people are disappointed that this interaction doesn’t take place and go away frustrated. That week Mike Anthony wrote a long editorial about how I didn’t like the open comments portion and that I should be hung, well maybe he didn’t say hung, but it was something stupid like that. I called him at home and told him I felt he unfairly represented my statement and that I never said I didn’t like it but that it wasn’t a good way to communicate. I asked him why a parent who was upset about something should have to wait three weeks for a meeting when we might be able to give them the information they needed instantly over the phone. “ You shouldn’t be talking to parents,” he told me. I’m sure my voice rose when I asked him why. “Because we couldn’t observe that. You could make a deal!” I had to ask him if he was serious that I shouldn’t be talking to parents. Oh, yes he was serious. I had to get off the phone before I told him what I really thought of him. Where does a guy, who doesn’t even live in our community, get off telling a board member, he shouldn’t talk to a parent or anybody else for that matter? That’s when he got one of his new nicknames: the Journo-fascist.

Call Legal Problems - Ignoring the Law

For those new to our blog, below is just some of the legal problems Bill Milligan and the Call Newspapers have been involved in.

Litigation versus
William & Deborah Milligan
Concord Publications, Inc dba Call Publishing
Call Newspapers

· Case #21C94-18795 Landlord, Darrel D. Climer back rent for over $11,000 Release of Garnishment Oct 27, 1995.
· Case # 21C97-23879 State of Missouri Failure to pay taxes,
· Case #681813 Alonzo Potts- Former Business Partner with Call Publications sues the Milligans and the Call for Breach of Fiduciary Duty, Breach of Contract, and Fraud ($30,000).
· Case # 97CC-001749 continued action to settle previous case by Alonzo Potts- Judgment #781307, March 26th, 2003.
· Case # 21S90-02371 Small claims by Lockos, hostile work environment
· Case #21S90-02372 by Voyles
· Case # 21S96-01019 by Service Assurance Corporation

Against
William T. Milligan

· Case # 21B901359 07/17/90 Adult Abuse brought by Deborah S. Baker (spouse)
· Case #21C98-04554 Failure to pay account Commercial Phone Marketing
· Case #931976939 Failure to register vehicle
· Case # 932000078 speeding
· Case #96010990 Failure to register
· Case #76151990 Failure to appear
· Case #90030990 speeding
· Case #7651990 Failure to appear
· Case #21-94TR-011892 speeding
· Case #94TR-11892
· Case #95TR-7291
· Case # 90TRTR-26455 Disobeyed red light
· 2 cars were totaled in 1990!

Against
Deborah (Baker) Milligan
Case # 613949 Dissolution of marriage 08/14/90

Buttheads

Seen directly in front of Call Publishing's office last Saturday: Honda SUV with license plate holder that said,

" I played in the Butthead Open."

Where else could they play?

Just Ignore the Law

Missouri’s Open Records (Sunshine) Law’s intent is very simple. The public has the right to view public business. This includes meetings and documents. There are some exceptions to protect personal information and a few financial things, but for the most part, that’s it.The Mehlville Fire Board does not attempt to comply with the law’s spirit and intent whatsoever. No meetings for this year are currently posted. Only last year’s are posted on their website. There’s something funny about the postings from last year. If they posted them ahead of time, usually they didn’t happen. Normally, their meetings are posted just over the 24 hours required by the law. Even though they are well aware they intend to meet, they withhold posting. Their last meeting was held on December 27th at 7pm and it was posted on Dec. 26th at 4pm. Could a reasonable person think this met the spirit of law? As I write this, the Lemay Fire board has their January meetings posted, so does the City of Crestwood, etc., etc. Looking through some Suburban Journals, I see last year’s meetings posted for many of our public entities such as the Lemay and Fenton Fire Boards but never the Mehlville Fire Board. Would the Call Newspaper allow such blatant disregard for the law for the other entities they cover? Their favoritism is quite apparent. The hypocrisy continues with your weakly newspaper!

Call Newspapers- Taxes and Corruption

What can most people agree on? We don't like paying taxes. After much discussion, we usually find that taxes are necessary to fund our civililized society. I don't know anyone who thinks we don't need the police and the military. We work through elected officials to establish policies which reflect our needs and desires. We often disagree on the details of these policies, but that makes for American politics. It's better than killing each other over stuff as happens in so many countries. We are fortunate to be part of this great nation.
As I look through public records, I see so many public officals who don't pay their taxes as required by law. Many of these officials have been endorsed or sponsored by Bill Milligan and the Call Newspapers. The Call is again late this year on one of their accounts. Last year, they paid it six months late and only after I contacted them and wrote about it. This is another example of their lack of moral authority to lecture our community's citizens. You can't count on the Call to report on their friends with fiscal improprieties. The amount of tax evasion, fraud, theft, legal contempt, and threats made by these individuals fills the court records yet they are not reported by the Call. These are the same people who set your tax rates and hire staffs that serve your families.
Effective 1/6/2008.
Tax Year:
2008 2007 2006
Account Number:
E00157193
Record Status:
Active
Name:
Call Publishing
Doing Business As:
Call Publishing-Wells Fargo
Taxing Address:
9977 Lin Ferry DrSaint Louis, Missouri 63123 6913
School Sub Code:
138GP
City Code:
106
Site Code:
1624
Total Assessed Value:
810
Tax Rate:
6.3552
Personal Property Tax Due: E00157193
Tax Year
Taxes
Interest
Penalties
Amount Due
2007
$51.49
$1.03
$1.05
$53.57
Total Amount Due >>
$53.57

Last year this account was paid seven months and three days late!

Call Newspaper's Hypocrisy

I've said many times over the years, I have a great deal of respect for the service of Walt Bivins on the Mehlville School Board. He was unmercifully attacked by the Call for enforcing reasonable limitations of time to the public comments portion of their meetings.

The Call has made no such attacks on the Fire Board for much greater restrictions. They only allow comments about listed agenda items. If a citizen wants to speak about fraud, nepotism or favoritism in hiring, this is not allowed. Also, the comments section of the meeting is after the business portion, so citizens can only comment after board action has already been taken.

Why is it OK for the fire district to limit speech during public meetings but not other public entities? Mr. William T. Milligan sponsors rather than reports on Arron Hilmer.

The Mehlville Fire Department and the Call

Looking back over the last couple of months, it appears that most excitement is stirred over our fire district. Since I like to stir it up, lets get back on the subject. As you know, it's a fact that the Call gives our fire board a pass on just about everything. Let's see if we can point out a few of those things.