South County News

Letter to the St. Louis Post Dispatch Editor

2012-01-22T05:48:00.000-08:00

The article “A to-do list for legislators” offered opinions on state funding for the St. Louis Public Schools and the State of Missouri.
The authors share their conclusions but offered zero facts from which they were based. The article suggested the funding formula be changed because the city schools (according to them) were not using their money effectively. The State of Missouri took over the city school district several years ago. If there is something wrong with the district, it’s the state’s fault. That’s not a good reason to change policy for the other 523 school districts.
The Missouri K-12 budget is short some 500 million dollars.To suggest that the legislature give out tax credits worsens the problem.
Perhaps since these doctoral fellows are working from Arkansas, they aren’t familiar with public education in the state of Missouri and have no idea about what’s going with the St. Louis Public Schools. But likely they do. We know the authors are KIPP school promoters. KIPP, like Imagine, is a corporate school operator. Like any business, they are motivated by profits. They make promises and take over schools. They selectively weed out the underperforming kids and your left with the same problems and a lot less money.
The legislature must deal with the state’s education funding formula. They also have a challenge dealing with the St. Louis Public School District since they took it over. These simple solutions offered by those with corporate agendas will only help their shareholders.
Mike Heins Concord/SouthCounty

Show Me Progress Missouri's Progressive Politics Community

2012-01-02T07:28:00.000-08:00

Show Me Progress Missouri's Progressive Politics Community

They gave us a republic...:: Back home again in Indiana: a modest solution to our universal school funding crisis

2012-01-02T07:15:00.000-08:00

They gave us a republic...:: Back home again in Indiana: a modest solution to our universal school funding crisis

Mehlviile Fire Board 2012 Meeting Dates

2011-12-30T10:31:00.001-08:00

Mehlville Fire Protection District
2012 Board Meeting Dates

January 11 5:00 p.m.
January 25 5:00 p.m.
February 8 5:00 p.m.
February 22 5:00 p.m.
March 7 5:00 p.m.
March 21 5:00 p.m.
April 11 5:00 p.m.
April 25 5:00 p.m.
May 9 5:00 p.m.
May 23 5:00 p.m.
June 6 5:00 p.m.
June 20 5:00 p.m.
July 4 (reschedule) 5:00 p.m.
July 18 5:00 p.m.
August 1 5:00 p.m.
August 15 5:00 p.m.
August 29 5:00 p.m.
September 12 5:00 p.m.
September 26 5:00 p.m.
October 10 5:00 p.m.
October 24 5:00 p.m.
November 7 5:00 p.m.
November 21 5:00 p.m.
December 5 5:00 p.m.
December 19 5:00 p.m.

Bevis and Buttheads

2011-12-17T07:32:00.000-08:00

This week, Missouri State James Lembke, known often as defendant, goes to court in the city of St. Louis with a a red light violation. Again, our state senator is more interested in publicity for himself than the safety of Missourians. His attorney is Bevis Schock. Bevis just lost a round with the City of Clayton with their no smoking ordinance.

Did you ever notice these conservatives are always worried about constitutional issues except when it might help out someone of a different color?

Challenge to Clayton outdoor smoking ban rejected

BY Margaret Gillerman • mgillerman@post-dispatch.com > 314-725-6758 STLtoday.com | Posted: Tuesday, December 13, 2011 12:05 am |

Smoking Ban starts Thursday in Clayton
J.B. FORBES
6/30/10 Wednesday Clayton Lawyers Charles Teschner, left, and Nathan Collins finish their lunch at Barrister's in Clayton Wednesday afternoon. Teschner finished his cigarette and said the majority of people had spoken when it came to a cigarette ban. J.B. Forbes Jforbes@post-dispatch.com
loading Loading…

* Smoking Ban starts Thursday in Clayton
* Smoking Ban starts Thursday in Clayton

CLAYTON • A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit against Clayton that sought to overturn the city's ban on smoking on outdoor, city-owned property, including public parks.

"The city was confident that our ordinance was enacted properly and within the authority of municipal public health concerns," said Mayor Linda Goldstein.

Attorneys W. Bevis Schock and Hugh Eastwood filed the suit on behalf of resident Arthur Gallagher, who enjoyed smoking cigars in city parks. The suit claimed that the ordinance violated Gallagher's constitutional rights. Among the arguments, the suit said that 'smoking is a fundamental right" and asserted that smokers are persecuted and members of a legally protected class.

Schock said Monday that his client would appeal.

"It really comes down to whether the federal courts are going to hold the line where there really isn't any evidence of health benefits at all" for banning outdoor smoking, he said. "The question is whether they are going to let the members of the Board of Aldermen — who respond to fashion — infringe on our liberty.

From the Cayton Richmond Heights Patch: In a statement issued shortly after Goldstein's, City Attorney Kevin O'Keefe claims Schock took out an ad in the West End Word advertising for plaintiffs in a complaint that had already been drafted against the city. A copy of the ad, provided by O'Keefe, is attached to this article file.

"I hope Mr. Schock enjoys the publicity he so avidly seeks," O'Keefe stated. "The fact that Mr. Schock paid to advertise for a volunteer plaintiff for a suit he had written in advance and, in writing, said he would 'be paid by The City of Clayton' is a sad and embarrassing commentary on the state of the legal profession. I also believe the fact that his pleading is prefaced by the musical musings of Groucho Marx in a make-believe place is telling evidence of the merits of the case.

I'm guessing Hugh Eastwood, Show-Me Institute's Counselor of Silliness will also be involved.

Lembke Supports Martin Over Spence

2011-11-30T17:14:00.000-08:00

Surprise , surprise! One Tenther supports another for governor. Hey Jim, do you remember what Martin did during the Blunt administration?

Lembke Supports Martin Over Spence By .Sean at Fired Up on November 30, 2011 - 1:54pm

Sen. Jim Lembke wrote the following to the Draft Ed Martin for Governor Facebook group this afternoon: "We need a candidate for governor that embraces the constiution, knows the proper role of government and is not afraid to stand firm against the tyranny of the federal government. We need a leader at the top of our ticket that will take the fight to Nixon. This race is an uphill climb and will take a candidate that is seasoned, and has been around the block. I believe the right man for the job is ED MARTIN."

Be Thankful for Government

2011-11-27T12:25:00.000-08:00

By Mark Sumner
Like many of you, I was lucky enough to spend Thanksgiving with my family. Big breakfast, bigger lunch. My son had to leave early so he could go to his night shift job, but hey, I'm thankful he has a job. I'm thankful for all of it—the family, the home, the food, the moments of peace and satisfaction. I realize how many people were missing family, missing homes, missing jobs, missing the chance to enjoy the day.

While I was being thankful, I gave my thanks for what made a good day possible. I gave thanks for government.

Thanks for the highways and railroads that brought my family swiftly and safely together. The need for an system of federal roads to connect the nation was so clear that the first major effort was commissioned by George Washington and the legislation signed by Thomas Jefferson in 1806. The value of the railroads so obvious that the acts to put lines across the nation were signed by Abraham Lincoln in 1862 and 1864 while the Civil War was underway.

Thanks for the safety of the food we ate. I'd like to say that everything we had was organic and locally owned, but I'm thankful that when a Midwesterner resorts to canned cranberries, he can do so with the assurance that the contents of the can will be cranberries, and not sawdust or simply garbage. For that I can think the Pure Food and Drug Act that Theodore Roosevelt signed in 1906. Roosevelt was a skeptic who didn't believe the horror stories that Upton Sinclair wrote in The Jungle. So he sent his own team out to investigate. Within weeks the legislation was passed. Thirty years later, another Roosevelt signed the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, strengthening the ability of the new FDA to make sure our food was safe and labeled correctly.

Thanks for the safety of the water we drank. Yes, there might be problems with that water we don't yet recognize, but I can drink it with some assurance that it won't hold raw sewage thanks to the Rivers and Harbors Act that William McKinley signed in 1899, and that it won't be laced with toxic chemicals thanks to the Federal Water Pollution Control Act that Harry Truman signed in 1948, and the Clean Water Act which a Democratic House and Senate passed in 1972 over the veto of Richard Nixon.

Thanks for the safety of the air we breathed. On Thanksgiving week in 1939, the area where I live was shrouded in a smog so thick that day and night were the same. Street lights glowed in the gloom of noon, and people passed out just walking along their sidewalks. This week we looked out on beautiful blue skies and the only smell in the air was the last autumnal hint of fallen leaves. For that I thank the Clean Air Act signed by John Kennedy in 1963 and the expansions of that law that came later, including the one Nixon had the sense to sign in 1970. I thank that same legislation for the beautiful woodlands out my window, woods that could easily have have died from pollution, acid rain, and disease were it not for the legislation that protects them.

Thanks for the teachers that went all out to see that we got good educations at public grade school, high school, and college. While I'm at it, some thanks for the fantastic national benefits of an educated populace, and to the incalculable rewards in dollars, health, and standard of living that have come from an extensive system of public research universities.

I give thanks for the system that saw so many travelers safely through the air this week. I know that you guys don't like looking in our shoes any more than we like taking them off.

I certainly give thanks for those in the military who are, let's hope, spending their last Thanksgiving away from their families. My brother-in-law who is actually older than me (such people exist) was still required to spend this holiday in Iraq; everyone in the family will give special thanks when that's no longer true.

Thanks for Social Security and for how it has transformed this nation from the place where the majority of the elderly lived in poverty.

Mostly I give thanks the words that Lincoln said: government of the people, by the people, for the people.

There are those who see government as the problem. As the enemy. They want to reduce government's role. There are candidates for president running on the idea of destroying the government as a tool to protect health, safety, and envionment; campaigning in the name repealing some of those same laws i just listed and eliminating the agencies that enforce them. The thing is, none of those laws exist because someone thought it would be a peachy idea. They exist because there was a need. Government is not a power grab by some outside force, it is the body of the people, acting in the people's own self interest.

I suppose it would be possible to live in a country were every road was a private road. Where only the children of the fortunate were educated. Where the elderly were on thir own. A country where the only law protecting your family's food was caveat emptor and clean air was available to those who could buy it in bottles. A place where safety was measured in the caliber of your weapon, and peace in the height of your walls. It might be possible, but it would be ugly. It wouldn't be America.

Our government exists for many purposes. These purposes include protecting the resources we hold in common, regulating the activity of business, protecting our health and welfare, and seeing that the people are given the information they need to make informed choices.

Says who? Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, McKinley, Roosevelt, Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy... and that's just scratching the surface. America is only as good as its government, and that government deserves people who want to make it better, not worse.

I'll be thankful if eleven months from now we elect a few.

Oakville Gets New Pizza

2011-11-25T07:09:00.000-08:00

From the STL Core

Joanie’s Pizza Opens in South County

By Mary Miller Cullins

St. Louis Core wants to give a shout out to our friend, Joanie Thomas! Last week, due to popular demand, Joanie Thomas and her staff opened a 3rd Pizzeria in Oakville. Many of you are familiar with Joanie’s Pizzeria and Joanies-To-Go located in the Soulard neighborhood near downtown St. Louis. But did you know that as of last week if you live in the South County/Oakville area Joanie opened a new location to serve you? That’s right, Joanies famous pizza, pasta, and sandwiches are now just a phone call away for south county residents.

The restaurant offers delivery and carry-out for now, but Joanie plans to make renovations next year and open a dining area that will seat 35-40 guests. Located at 5441 Telegraph Rd., Joanie’s Pizzeria Oakville is open Tuesday-Thursday and Sunday until 10:00 p.m. and is open until midnight on Friday’s and Saturday’s.

Congratulations Joanie! Good Luck to you and your staff from your friends at St. Louis Core. And from the South County News as well.

Tesson Ferry/21 Development

2011-11-19T06:54:00.000-08:00

It looks like the Siteman project will soon be breaking ground on their new site here in South County.Delays in obtaining the state's certificate of need have pushed back the start of this 17 million dollar development. St. Anthony's Hospital opposed it. This is good news for area cancer patients, homeowners and workers in our community.

Have you heard much about it in the local media?

Siteman Plans New South St. Louis County Location

South_County_Map
The 16.28-acre site is immediately south and east of the intersection of Interstate 55 and Butler Hill Road, with access from Butler Hill Road. View a larger version of the map.

July 29, 2010 – Washington University School of Medicine and Barnes-Jewish Hospital have signed a contract to purchase property and filed a Certificate of Need Letter of Intent to build a new Siteman Cancer Center location in south St. Louis County that will serve the Interstate 55 corridor and southern Illinois.

Upon completing obligations related to the sale, zoning and Certificate of Need application and obtaining final approval from Washington University and Barnes-Jewish Hospital boards, construction is estimated to begin in spring 2011, with an opening anticipated in about two years.

The 16.28-acre site is immediately south and east of the intersection of Interstate 55 and Butler Hill Road, with access from Butler Hill Road. The site is generally construction-ready, having been cleared for construction of an apartment complex that went into foreclosure following the market downturn.

Currently, more than 4,500 cancer patients in the area near the new location come to the Siteman Cancer Center, Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University for evaluation and treatment. This includes approximately 850 newly diagnosed cancer patients yearly.

The new outpatient center will provide the latest advances in cancer diagnosis and treatment to south county and southern Illinois patients in a convenient, comfortable setting closer to their homes. Barnes-Jewish Hospital will place a linear accelerator in the facility for state-of-the-art radiation therapy. Washington University will operate a chemotherapy infusion center.

Washington University medical oncologists and radiation oncologists will treat patients at the new location, and surgical oncologists will provide consults there. Medical staff at the new facility will be Washington University faculty physicians.

A 40,000-square-foot facility is planned, and Washington University programs will occupy about 70 percent of the space. The one-story outpatient center will operate during daytime hours Monday through Friday.

Siteman, through Washington University, has one of the largest cancer research programs in the nation, providing access to hundreds of clinical studies that greatly expand the options available to patients. Clinical studies also will be offered at the South County location.

Siteman, which encompasses the combined cancer-related programs of Washington University and Barnes-Jewish Hospital, is the only cancer center within 240 miles of St. Louis designated as a Comprehensive Cancer Center by the National Cancer Institute.

Construction of the $17-million facility will generate nearly 300 jobs. Once open, the facility will create about 50 new permanent positions with Washington University’s departments of medicine and radiation oncology or with Barnes-Jewish Hospital.

Siteman’s other locations are at Washington University Medical Center in the Central West End area of St. Louis, Barnes-Jewish West County Hospital and Barnes-Jewish St. Peters Hospital.

Taxes

2011-11-18T18:20:00.000-08:00

Corporate CEO: The Rich, ‘Including Me, Should Be Paying More’ In Taxes

By Pat Garofalo on Nov 18, 2011 at 10:30 am

Dow Chemical CEO Andrew Liveris

Patriotic Millionaires for Fiscal Strength has been meeting with congressional leaders this week, continuing their push to raise taxes on the very richest Americans. “We want to pay more taxes,” said California millionaire Doug Edwards, a former marketing director for Google. “If you’re fortunate, and you make more than a million dollars a year, you ought to pay more taxes.” The group even told anti-tax zealot Grover Norquist that he should take his extreme positions and “move to Somalia.”

In a speech before the U.S. Council for International Business yesterday, Dow Chemical CEO Andrew Liveris joined the tax-me-more crowd, saying, “I can tell you the highest taxpayers, including me, should be paying more“:

“Come on, everyone over a certain threshold of money — and you can define what it is — but I can tell you the highest tax payers, including me, should be paying more,” Liveris said during a speech on Wednesday night…”Come on, we are underpaying for our future.”

CNN Money noted that “while his speech did garner applause a few times, his call to raise taxes was not applauded.”

Poll after poll has shown that the American people favor higher taxes on millionaires, while several ultra-wealthy citizens like Liveris, Edwards, and investor Warren Buffett have all said that they should be paying more to support the country. A survey by the Spectrem Group found that “68% of millionaires (those with investments of $1 million or more) support raising taxes on those with $1 million or more in income.”

We can’t lose sight of the fact that Liveris’ company, Dow Chemical, makes its money flaunting environmental rules and corrupting the EPA. But when it comes to taxing the rich, Liveris is on the right side of public policy, along with a majority of both his income cohort and the American people. In fact, the only ones adamantly standing against such an increase at the moment are congressional Republicans.
Tags:

* Taxes

He's Back.

2011-11-06T08:23:00.000-08:00

That's right. I'm back and you are better for it. I must warn you, I've changed. No, I haven't gone batshit crazy and started voting with the Tea-Party or anything like that. But I'm older, wiser and I'm much better looking. That last part may have been added strictly for humor. Seriously, I plan to get back to discussing issues in South St. Louis County that I feel aren't being discussed in our local media. I do plan to keep it more civil. That includes censoring of comments. I'll welcome differing points of views but I need to keep out the mean.

One other thing. Many people tell me I should write about this or that. I have a suggestion for you. You can write about it and send it in. If you don't like to write, ask someone else to send it in. Alright.

Destroy the Sweatshops: Buy Alta Gracia

2011-11-06T08:05:00.000-08:00

(by: Yellow Dog
Thu Nov 03, 2011 at 17:00:00 PM CDT
By @KYYellowDog

Yeah, capitalism sucks. But you don't have to destroy it to eliminate the suckiness; you can beat it at its own game.

Peter Drier at The Nation:

Aracelis "Kuky" Upia, a 39-year-old factory worker in the Dominican Republic, is participating in an experiment that, if successful, could help end sweatshops as a staple of the global economy.

A single mother of four, Upia has been sewing in factories since she was 15. For years she earned less than $50 a week. Some employers simply refused to pay her. At one point she was so deeply in debt, the local market stopped extending her credit.

Today Upia sews T-shirts for $2.85 an hour, a leap in income and nearly three times the country's minimum wage. She has paid off her loans and can shop again at the grocery store. She has purchased a refrigerator, plans to add rooms to her home to rent out for additional income and has paid for her son Nisael's long-postponed dental work. Her son Yacer is studying accounting at the university.

Upia was among the first workers hired by Alta Gracia, an apparel company named after the town where she has lived all her life and where the factory is based. One of 120 nonmanagement employees-mostly sewing-machine operators, but also cutters, packers and maintenance staff-Upia, like her co-workers, earns a living wage, plus at least 35 percent overtime for more than forty-four hours of work a week, and more on weekends and holidays. Alta Gracia's T-shirts and sweatshirts are sold mainly at US colleges and universities at about the same prices as clothing made by Nike, Russell and other brands.

Beginning in the mid-1990s, students on American campuses used various forms of protest to pressure universities to adopt "codes of conduct" as a condition of allowing companies to use their names and logos. But implementing these standards was extremely difficult. College-bound goods are only a small fraction of the products made by the thousands of apparel factories around the world, and monitoring all these workplaces would be impossible. For years campus groups like United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) refused to support companies claiming to make "sweatshop-free" clothing, because they couldn't be sure the companies would keep their commitment. Today, USAS, as well as the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC), which was founded in 2000 to help enforce the "codes of conduct" drafted in the '90s, have embraced Alta Gracia as a model that proves socially responsible clothing production is not only possible; it's profitable.

SNIP

Can the Alta Gracia label compete with Nike's swoosh? Are consumers willing to look for the Alta Gracia union label? These questions, too, will determine its success. If clothing companies can make profitable merchandise under humane conditions and sell it at competitive prices, it will challenge the basic race-to-the-bottom economics of the apparel industry and prove that conscientious consumers can have an impact on humanizing the forces of global capitalism.

Read the whole thing.
Discuss :: (0 Comments)

Mehlville Fire Department Tax Decrease Shell Game

2011-03-24T03:24:00.000-07:00

As sent in by a reader:
In the latest issue of the Call, there is an article about the MFPD and the MO Attorney General signing off on "stipulation of facts" document. Mike, I really hope you can get your hands on a copy and post it in full and comment on it.
A couple of things that caught my attention. Regarding the ballot language of the "historic tax decrease": "But the agreement also notes Missouri statute 321.244 sets forth "the required form of the ballot language for increasing — or decreasing — the general levy for fire protection districts. By adding the last two sentences to the form of ballot, neither Proposition 1 nor 2 followed the ballot form set out in Section 321.244 RSMo.''"
Hmmmm, was the ballot language illegal??? Next comment: "The agreement also states, "If Mehlville's certified rate is calculated disregarding the ballot
language as worded, the certified rate would exceed the levy rate used to calculate tax bills for 2009.''"
Now I'm no attorney, but to me these two quotes are saying this: The ballot language was illegal, therefore the decrease is declared void. MFPD can collect the higher tax rate because the ceiling was never reduced due to illegal language.
Wouldn't this mean that no Hilmer, you did NOT pass the first tax decrease????

Congressman Weiner Mocks the GOP's Funding of NPR

2011-03-19T06:52:00.000-07:00

Yea, I know. They're all about helping us get jobs.

http://www.balloon-juice.com/2011/03/18/funny-2/

Keep the Faith with Newt

2011-03-13T10:31:00.001-07:00

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/377118/march-10-2011/newt-gingrich-wants-to-screw-america?xrs=share_copy

Senator Lembke Calls Missouri's Unemployed Freeloaders

2011-03-05T06:30:00.000-08:00

By now, most people have read reports of our State Senator Jim Lembke referring to the unemployed as freeloaders and lazy asses.He has blocked passage of a bill to get millions of federal dollars just for the sake of cruelty. To top it off, this action won't save any money as it will just flow to other states. Lembke lives in his own little world. I ask you Jim, with veterans returning to civilian life facing even higher levels of unemployment, are they lazy asses.

Veteran Unemployment

December 28th, 2010
86Share

By Lynn Goya

I just watched White Christmas last night. I’d forgotten that the plot was about a World War II military hero facing bankruptcy. Veterans know that those well-touted military skills perfected while in service often don’t translate to civilian jobs. As a November NY Times article notes, unemployment rates are higher for recent veterans than for the general population. With the general unemployment rate the third highest since WWII, veterans are finding it extremely difficult to land on their feet.

Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America summarizes a recent committee hearing on unemployment among vets to the House Veterans Affairs committee where veteran Tim Embree testified that,

“civilian employers who do not understand the value of [veterans’] skills and military experience. As a result, unemployment rates for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are staggering. Additionally, the National Guardsmen and Reservists who leave behind their civilian lives to serve alongside active-duty troops, are inadequately protected against job discrimination. The experience of previous generations of veterans who faced similar situations suggest that today’s veterans may continue to struggle for years to come.”

The government and some private employers are trying to help. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provided funds for a two-year tax credit for employers who hired unemployed Iraq or Afghanistan vets. Hiring a disabled veteran gives the company a credit worth up to $4,800. The Department of Labor’s Veterans’ Employment and Training Service (VETS) helped over 850,000 vets through grants to state and local agencies. In addition, in November 2009, the Obama administration issued and executive order that enhanced employment opportunities within the federal government.

Still, that isn’t enough. Veterans who are unemployed can seek employment help through various – perhaps too many – veteran-specific agencies geared specifically to help veterans make the transition into the civilian job force. IAVA advocates the Veterans Administration coordinate and vet job creation organizations so that veterans can turn to a single jobs-for-veterans portal. If you are a vet looking for work the VA is the best place to start.

Here are some others: Warrior Gateway.org; Vet Jobs; Military Hire.com; and Veterans Green Jobs.

Mehlville Fire Protection District 2011 Board Meeting Dates

2011-03-05T06:14:00.000-08:00

Mehlville Fire Protection District
2011 Board Meeting Dates

January 6 5:00 p.m.
January 13 7:00 p.m.
January 24 5:00 p.m.
February 7 5:00 p.m.
February 21 5:00 p.m.
March 12 11:00 a.m. #4 Open House
March 14 5:00 p.m.
March 21 2:00 p.m. #3 Groundbreaking
April 4 5:00 p.m.
April 18 5:00 p.m.
May 2 5:00 p.m.
May 16 5:00 p.m.
June 2 5:00 p.m.
June 16 5:00 p.m.
June 30 5:00 p.m.
July 14 5:00 p.m.
July 28 5:00 p.m.
August 11 5:00 p.m.
August 25 5:00 p.m.
September 8 5:00 p.m.
September 22 5:00 p.m.
October 6 5:00 p.m.
October 20 5:00 p.m.
November 3 5:00 p.m.
November 17 5:00 p.m.
December 1 5:00 p.m.
December 15 5:00 p.m.
December 29 5:00 p.m.

Shopping for Identity Tips for Parents of Teens

2011-02-26T06:59:00.000-08:00

Shopping for Identity

False Slogans

2011-02-12T03:55:00.000-08:00

Martin Luther King said “In our glorious fight for civil rights, we must guard against being fooled by false slogans, as 'right-to-work.' It provides no 'rights' and no 'works.'”

Truer Words Were Never Spoken

2011-01-15T09:28:00.000-08:00

"Pretty soon we're not going to be able to find reasonable decent people who are willing to subject themselves to serving public office." Sheriff Dupnik, AZ

Merry Christmas Mehlville Fire Dept Captains

2011-01-03T09:17:00.000-08:00

On the 21st of December, a decision was rendered by Missouri's State Board of Mediation in favor of the IAFF 1889 (Local 1889).
In April of 2010, the Mehlville Fire Protection Board of Directors filed a clarification petition seeking to exclude captains from Local 1889's bargaining unit.
It's interesting to note that former State Representative James Avery is chairman of the MO Board of Mediation.
This is obviously good news for the captains in the district. The district's BOD and new chief continue to attack the men and women of the district and they need all the protection they can get.

New Poll Shows the Majority of Americans Know What's Wrong With Education

2010-12-11T07:50:00.000-08:00

SEATTLE (AP) — Blaming teachers for low test scores, poor graduation rates and the other ills of American schools has been popular lately, but a new survey wags a finger closer to home.

An Associated Press-Stanford University Poll on education found that 68 percent of adults believe parents deserve heavy blame for what's wrong with the U.S. education system — more than teachers, school administrators, the government or teachers unions.

For the complete story: http://www.charter.net/news/read.php?rip_id=%3CD9K1OH3G0%40news.ap.org%3E&ps=1018&page=1&src=facebook

Dr. Eric Knost Isn't Superman

2010-12-04T04:17:00.000-08:00

Most people know by now that Dr. Knost will be taking over the Mehlville superintendent's position this summer.Many people look at the position as some sort of super-hero kinda thing. That's a problem for the district. When your expectations are unreasonable, you're doomed for failure. Eric Knost is a capable administrator. How he will do as its leader will be much more of a reflection on this community than on him.

Mehlville School District's Prop C

2010-11-03T06:27:00.000-07:00

It's like deja-vu, all over again.
Yogi Berra

The Mehlville School District lost another tax levy election. And they lost it by almost a 2-1 margin. That stinks. For many people today, it’s a time to second-guess or to blame others for the loss. Some will celebrate, having stood by their low tax principles or just showing off their power to control events.
For me, I’ll just try to get over my sense of deja-vu for it was five years ago that the district went before the voters with a tax levy. It was soundly defeated. I remember shortly after the loss, Tom Diehl speaking during the open comment portion of the school board meeting. He admonished the board for even attempting the levy request in a poor economy. He told us the almost 2 to 1 vote against it was a rebuke of the board for our arrogance and poor decisions. Tom was wrong then and he should apologize.
The reason the district loses an election like this are many, but you can’t just blame our school board. You can’t just blame the Call Newspapers. You have to take a long look at those who criticize the district for their own benefit. It’s a shame, but this has been going on for a very long time and until we recognize this fact and deal with these people who hurt our schools and our children, it will continue.

Diehl vs Fred Weber Court Case Paused for Settlement

2010-10-18T06:14:00.000-07:00

Things are looking good for Tom Diehl and his wife Barbara as his SLAP case against Weber has been paused for settlement. Diehl's attorney has succesfully gotten this thing to court and I'm guessing Weber doesn't want to risk a big payout by a sympathetic St. Louis City jury.

22052-07589-01 - DIEHL VS FRED WEBER INC

10/18/2010 Docket Entry: Memorandum Filed
Text: CAUSE PASSED FOR SETTLEMENT. SO ORDERED JUDGE MICHAEL MULLEN #39719

Docket Entry: Settlement Conf Scheduled
Associated Events: 12/10/2010 , 09:00:00 - Settlement Conference

Call Newspaper Owner Bill Milligan Finally Pleads Guilty

2010-10-13T06:26:00.000-07:00

090164079 - ST V WILLIAM T MILLIGAN

The reckless jerk finally plead guilty yesterday. I hope his lawyer got cash up front.

10/12/2010 Docket Entry: Guilty Plea
Associated Docket Entries: 08/30/2010 - Hearing Continued/Rescheduled

Associated Docket Entries: 08/30/2010 - Traffic Appearance Scheduled

Associated Events: 10/12/2010 , 09:00:00 - Traffic Appearance

Docket Entry: TR Viol Costs Taxed(no sher)CC

Social Security: Clip 'n Save

2010-10-07T06:21:00.000-07:00

Social Security Facts: Clip 'n Save
by: Yellow Dog
Thu Oct 07, 2010 at 11:00:00 AM CDT
Social Security bamboozlement is moving into high gear for the last month of election season. Don't expose yourself to repug lies without protection.
From Digby:

Do yourself a favor and print this out. Or memorize it. Read it at least. It is written by Paul N. Van de Water, a Senior Fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, where he specializes in Medicare, Social Security, and health coverage issues:

In a new paper, I've tried to correct some of the misinformation that critics of Social Security have been spreading about the program.
Here are the facts. Social Security is a well-run, fiscally responsible program. People earn retirement, survivors, and disability benefits by making payroll tax contributions during their working years. Those taxes and other revenues are deposited in the Social Security trust funds, and all benefits and administrative expenses are paid out of the trust funds. The amount that Social Security can spend is limited by its payroll tax income plus the balance in the trust funds.

The Social Security trustees - the official body charged with evaluating the program's long-term finances - project that Social Security can pay 100 percent of promised benefits through 2037 and about three-quarters of scheduled benefits after that, even if Congress makes no changes in the program. Relatively modest changes would put the program on a sound financial footing for 75 years and beyond.

Nonetheless, some critics are attempting to undermine confidence in Social Security with wild and blatantly false accusations. They allege that the trust funds have been "raided" or disparage the trust funds as "funny money" or mere "IOUs." Some even label Social Security a "Ponzi scheme" after the notorious 1920s swindler Charles Ponzi. All of these claims are nonsense.

Every year since 1984, Social Security has collected more in payroll taxes and other income than it pays in benefits and other expenses. (The authors of the 1983 Social Security reform law did this on purpose in order to help pre-fund some of the costs of the baby boomers' retirement.) These surpluses are invested in U.S. Treasury securities that are every bit as sound as the U.S. government securities held by investors around the globe; investors regard these securities as among the world's very safest investments.

Investing the trust funds in Treasury securities is perfectly appropriate. The federal government borrows funds from Social Security to help finance its ongoing operations in the same way that consumers and businesses borrow money deposited in a bank to finance their spending. In neither case does this represent a "raid" on the funds. The bank depositor will get his or her money back when needed, and so will the Social Security trust funds.

As far back as 1938, independent advisors to Social Security firmly endorsed the investment of Social Security surpluses in Treasury securities, saying that it does "not involve any misuse of these moneys or endanger the safety of these funds."

Moreover, Social Security is the "polar opposite of a Ponzi scheme," says the man who quite literally wrote the book about Ponzi's famous scam, Boston University professor Mitchell Zuckoff. The Social Security Administration's historian has a piece on this topic as well.

Unlike the frauds of Ponzi - and, more recently, Bernard Madoff - Social Security does not promise unrealistically large financial returns and does not require unsustainable increases in the number of participants to remain solvent. Instead, for the past 75 years it has provided a foundation that workers can build on for retirement as well as social insurance protection to families whose breadwinner dies and workers who become disabled.

See how simple that is?

Oktober Court Fest

2010-10-01T06:09:00.000-07:00

22052-07589-01 - DIEHL VS FRED WEBER INC
Associated Events: 10/18/2010 , 08:00:00 - Jury Trial
Docket Entry: Jury Trial Scheduled
Associated Events: 10/18/2010 , 08:59:00 - Jury Trial
Docket Entry: Ord Transfer P/Judge for Assn
Text: Cause assigned to Division # 02 for trial. So Ordered: David L. Dowd, Judge
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
9/28/2010

This email is to inform you of an upcoming court event involving the defendant WILLIAM MILLIGAN and court case number 090164079, speeding in excess of 20 mph over posted limit. A(n) Traffic Appearance has been scheduled for 10/12/2010 at 9:00 AM. This will take place in Saint Louis, Circuit Division 38 Courtroom located at: Saint Louis County Court Building at 7900 Carondelet Avenuein Clayton, MO 63105.
If you plan to attend the hearing, be sure to check with the prosecutor's office to make sure the hearing is still set. You should telephone the day before the hearing, as last minute continuances are often granted. For more information, contact the office responsible for this case. The telephone number is (314)615-8029.

This notification is sponsored by the Missouri Department of Public Safety. It
is our hope that this information has been helpful to you.

Thank you,

MOVANS

Mehlville Firefighter Fundraiser

2010-09-30T06:24:00.000-07:00

9/27/2010

South County Mike

What a wonderful weekend it was for the members of IAFF Local 1889 and so many caring and sharing residents of our area who, along with many others, attended the barbecue – car show fundraiser for Corporal Todd Nicely – USMC. Corporal Nicely is the young warrior who lost four limbs in March after stepping on an IED in Afghanistan. Great weather, food, and fellowship graced all the wonderful people who came out to give to this brave young man who gave so much for our country and each of us. I understand that this two day event raised $30,000.00 for this wounded warrior and his family.

The only negative I can think of was the absence of any MFPD vehicles being displayed amongst equipment from numerous fire departments or districts. The MFPD Board of Directors and Fire Chief chose not to attend, support, or participate in any way. Lemay Fire Chief Neil Svetanics stepped in to present Corporal Nicely with an Honorary Firefighter Helmet – fulfilling the young man’s lifelong dream. Now that the Administration of the MFPD has embarrassed themselves beyond redemption in the eyes of many – what will they do next? I offer up a suggestion. The MFPD Board of Directors should stop patting themselves on the back for building fire houses “with a tax decrease” – because while so many of us were having fun at the event raising money for the wounded warrior you were at a meeting raising our tax rate for the 3rd year in a row! Maybe the MFPD Board should stop their spending frenzy and realize the best asset and investment the MFPD has is the caring men and women who carefully planned and produced this event for this young hero in hopes that he and his family could have additional resources to meet the years of challenge that awaits them. The compassion and concern for this young man demonstrated by IAFF Local 1889 members, their families, and all who supported this effort – especially Faith Lutheran Church who generously opened its doors and property up for this function – reinforces what I already knew. Now, as in the past, the men and women who staff the equipment owned by the District are the ones who make the District what it is – not the equipment or the firehouse it sits in.

In closing, I might add that I didn’t see any thugs, bullies or ax-murderers. I also didn’t see any representatives from the Oakville Gall. They must have followed the Board of Directors and Chiefs lead in finding something more important to do. I would guarantee that whatever they chose to do was not nearly as rewarding as the premier event I attended.

Thanking who participated, I remain

Dennis C. Skelton

Update for Fundraiser for Corporal Todd Nicely This Weekend

2010-09-23T18:21:00.000-07:00

It sounds like the whole community is really getting into the fundraiser this weekend.
The guys will be out BBQing from 11am to 7pm on Friday and 11am to 4pm on Saturday.
They'll be at Faith Lutheran Church at Erb and Telegraph.

This is going to be a great event for a great cause!

I'm told 18 fire departments in the area are providing equipment and at 1pm on Saturday there will be a very special ceremony.

Please share with your e-mail lists and tell them the food's a great deal as well.
1/2 Chicken dinner $8.00 Porksteak Dinner $7.00
Brat(2) Dinner $6.00 1/4 hotdogs $2.00

Fundraiser for Corporal Todd Nicely This Weekend

2010-09-20T13:30:00.000-07:00

Mehlville Firefighters Local 1889 will be hosting a benefit for Corporal Todd Nicely and his family. Todd is the grandson of retired Mehlville Firefighter Russ Bono. He was wounded in the war in Afghanistan and suffered life changing injuries. He is only the second soldier to survive after losing both arms and both legs during battle.
The BBQ Benefit will be held September 24th and 25th at Faith Lutheran Church. Faith Lutheran Church was generous enough to allow us to use their parking lot to host this event. It is located at the intersection of Telegraph and Erb Roads in South County. This 2 day Bar-B-Que event will include: live entertainment, fire truck display, car show, military equipment display and much more.

The Ad That Fox Sued Robin Carnahan Over

2010-09-18T08:04:00.000-07:00

The ad that Fox sued Robin Carnahan over

Mehlville Fire Protection District Demotes Another Senior Administrator

2010-09-11T19:46:00.000-07:00

Clearly the Mehlville Fire Protection District has a leadership problem! Over the last 5 years, numerous individuals have come and gone from their senior staff positions. But this week, Assistant Chief Jim Hampton was been demoted to Captain and assigned to Six House. Word is, the chief wanted to see the former star assistant knocked down to private. As a civilian observer, I can't keep track of all the comings and goings of this administration, but I do know the one who stands alone at the top, Chief Tim White. The Chief has a lot of explaining to do!

Call Newspaper's Owner Gets New Court Date

2010-09-09T06:12:00.000-07:00

090164079 - ST V WILLIAM T MILLIGAN

09:00:00 - Traffic Appearance Driving 20 mph over posted speed limit

Docket Entry: Traffic Appearance Scheduled
Associated Events: 10/12/2010 , 09:00:00 - Traffic Appearance

You would think Milligan would know how to dispose of a little charge like recklessly driving 20 mile per hour over the posted speed limit. Through the years, he's gotten out of numerous violation like running red lights and speeding. Below are just some of his many infractions.

MILLIGAN, WILLIAM T 2105T-07291 Defendant ST V WILLIAM T MILLIGAN AC TR State Traffic Ticket 04/21/2005
ST LOUIS, MO Circuit 21 St. Louis County St Louis County

MILLIGAN, WILLIAM T 2190T-26455 Defendant ST V WILLIAM THOMAS MILLIGAN AC TR State Traffic Ticket 06/19/1990
ST LOUIS, MO Circuit 21 St. Louis County St Louis County

MILLIGAN, WILLIAM T 2194T-11892 Defendant ST V WILLIAM T MILLIGAN AC TR State Traffic Ticket 09/22/1994
ST LOUIS, MO Circuit 21 St. Louis County St Louis County

MILLIGAN, WILLIAM T 090164079 Defendant ST V WILLIAM T MILLIGAN AC TR State Traffic Ticket 03/25/2010
SAINT LOUIS, MO Circuit 21 St. Louis County St Louis County

Call Newspapers Looks to Be Going to Court Again

2010-09-05T10:50:00.000-07:00

Milligan has retained the services of Greensfelder Hanker & Gale. Will he decide to admit the truth or go to court again? It's taken him over 8 months and hasn't settled his reckless driving charges yet. This could on forever should he decide to go the litigation route. All I have got to say is Greensfelder Hanker and Gale should get a cash retainer.

Note:

This is most likely a personnel related case. Remember, Milligan and the Call Newspapers fired their bookkeeper and sales staff over the last eight months. All were women. Greensfelder Hanker & Gale specializes in the defense of management in these kind of issues.

Milligan Refuses to Plead Guilty

2010-08-31T06:15:00.000-07:00

Call Newspaper owner Bill milligan get yet another continuance in his reckless driving court case.

Date: Tuesday, August 31, 2010 6:06 AM
From: MOVANS

Subject: A message from MOVANS
Size: 2 KB

8/31/2010

This email is to inform you that a court event involving the defendant WILLIAM
MILLIGAN and court case number 090164079 has again been cancelled. The event was
scheduled for 8/31/2010. We will notify you again once this court event has
been rescheduled.

For more information, contact the office responsible for this case. The
telephone number is (314)615-8029.

This notification is sponsored by the Missouri Department of Public Safety. It
is our hope that this information has been helpful to you.

Thank you,

MOVANS

Call Newspapers Bill Milligan Finally Back in Court

2010-08-30T04:34:00.000-07:00

Date: Monday, August 30, 2010 3:59 AM
From: MOVANS Subject: A message from MOVANS
Size: 2 KB

8/30/2010

This email is to inform you of an upcoming court event involving the defendant
WILLIAM MILLIGAN,(owner Call Newspapers) and court case number 090164079, exceeding posted speed limit by more than 20 mph. A(n) Traffic Appearance has
been scheduled for 8/31/2010 at 9:00 AM. This will take place in Saint Louis,
Circuit Division 38 Courtroom located at: Saint Louis County Court Building at
7900 Carondelet Avenuein Clayton, MO 63105.

If you plan to attend the hearing, be sure to check with the prosecutor's office
to make sure the hearing is still set. You should telephone the day before the
hearing, as last minute continuances are often granted. For more information,
contact the office responsible for this case. The telephone number is
(314)615-8029.

This notification is sponsored by the Missouri Department of Public Safety. It
is our hope that this information has been helpful to you.

Thank you,

MOVANS

Roy Blunt's Role with Terry Schiavo

2010-08-26T06:17:00.000-07:00

From: The Erstwhile Conservative http://duanegraham.wordpress.com/

Roy Blunt’s Unforgivable Role In The Life and Death of Terri Schiavo
August 23, 2010 by Duane Graham
More than five years have passed since the death of Terri Schiavo, the reportedly quiet and shy Pennsylvania girl, who those five years ago was the center of worldwide attention, as her husband Michael—the first man Terri ever kissed—finally succeeded in allowing her to pass away with not much dignity to spare.

Terri Schiavo was 26 years old when she suffered extensive brain damage, after collapsing at her home in St. Petersburg, Florida, the victim of cardiac arrest. That was in 1990. After a couple of months in a coma, doctors diagnosed her as being in a persistent vegetative state, a diagnosis that would be challenged again and again over the next 15 years.

After a long trial of experimental therapy, and with hope gone, in 1998 Michael finally asked the Pinellas County Florida Sixth Circuit Court for permission to remove the feeding tube that had kept Terri alive for eight years. Terri’s parents, Robert and Mary Schindler, understandably not wanting to let go of their daughter, fought Michael’s attempt to let his wife pass in peace.

Thus, a lengthy fight in the courts began, and it would not end until just before Terri’s death in 2005, closing with one of the most unseemly and disgusting political episodes in our nation’s history, certainly in the history of the Republican Party.

And near the center of that unseemly and disgusting political fiasco was our own Roy Blunt.

Blunt, who as Republican Majority Whip in 2005, was the right hand man of Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who while the Republicans controlled the House—and before he was forced to resign amid accusations of money laundering and violating campaign finance laws—was nicknamed “The Hammer” because of his fierce enforcement of ideological and party discipline and his tendency to punish his political enemies.

But before I get to Blunt’s role in the Terri Schiavo case, it’s important to understand the dynamics of what was happening back in 2005 regarding the case.

Tom DeLay, along with Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, led the Republican charge to use the federal government to essentially ignore the years of state court litigation in Florida over whether the feeding tube keeping Terri Schiavo alive should be removed and whether Terri would have wanted it removed.

DeLay favored congressional action that would essentially usurp state jurisdiction in such matters in order to satisfy his Christian, “pro-life” sensibilities. “Terri Schiavo doesn’t want to die,” DeLay confidently said at a press conference on March 18, 2005—with Roy Blunt at his side.

But others quickly concluded at the time that the Schiavo case was more about politics than compassion, Christian or otherwise. A memo written by a lawyer working for Florida Republican Senator Mel Martinez surfaced, which declared the Schiavo case would be “a great political issue” that would “excite” the party’s pro-life base.

And of course it did.

But The Hammer, not content to merely play politics or argue the niceties of moral philosophy, actually attacked the Florida judge who heard the original Schiavo case and who had consistently ruled that Michael Schiavo’s request to administer mercy to his wife should be granted.

That judge, George W. Greer, was a Southern Baptist Republican. Here’s what Tom DeLay—again with Roy Blunt at his side—said about Judge Greer during the March 18, 2005, press conference, on the very day and at the very hour that Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube was to be removed:

What this is about, is we have a state court with a judge that has been trying to kill Terri Schiavo for four and a half years…

Such was the venom pouring from the lips of The Exterminator, Mr. DeLay, in those days. He also called removal of the feeding tube “an act of barbarism,” and accused three Democratic Senators, who failed to see things his way, of, well, I’ll just let him say it:

Those Senators responsible for blocking our bill yesterday afternoon—Senator Boxer, Senator Wyden, and Senator Levin—have put Mrs. Schiavo’s life at risk to prove a point, an unprecedented profile of cowardice.

Cowardice, he said. Unprecedented cowardice.

About a week later, The San Francisco Chronicle revealed that the DeLay family had faced a similar Schiavo-like situation back in 1988, when the family decided to allow the congressman’s father to die because, after a freak accident at home, he would “basically be a vegetable“:

“There was no point to even really talking about it,” Maxine DeLay, the congressman’s 81-year-old mother, recalled last week. “There was no way he (Charles) wanted to live like that. Tom knew, we all knew, his father wouldn’t have wanted to live that way.”*

Now, it turns out that Roy Blunt, who currently is laboring to become our U.S. Senator and thus a colleague of Senators Boxer, Wyden, and Levin, was in agreement with Delay’s “cowardice” assessment. He said, moments after DeLay’s comment about the Senators:

I share the leader’s disappointment with less than a handful of individuals who stood in the way of that bill being sent to the president yesterday and this being resolved at that time.

So, Blunt essentially concurred with the “cowardice” characterization and continued with this:

It’s really hard to imagine a death a lot more hideous than simply deciding that you’re no longer going to allow someone to have food and water, and as you watch them dehydrate, and starve to death. It’s clear from watching the tapes of Terri Schiavo that she interacts with people, she’s aware of her surroundings, she attempts to communicate.

Fortunately, there were real journalists at this 2005 press conference. One of them had this exchange with Dr. Blunt over his video diagnosis of Schiavo’s brain state:

Questioner: Mr. Blunt, you expressed a, kind of a medical opinion about Ms. Schiavo’s condition based on what you’ve seen on TV, and many, many doctors have pronounced her to be in a vegetative state. How is it that you think you’ve got a better handle on what condition she’s in than they do?

Blunt: You know her mother who sees her, I think every day, has a different opinion than they do, too. And she appears to recognize her mother, to make attempts to communicate. And beyond that, if you want to get into the medical position here, I think the medical view is that she’s not being kept alive by any artificial means. She’s only being given food and water. The medical care here is at a minimum to sustain life. It’s not like she’s on some huge life support system. She’s very much alive, and the only way that she won’t be alive is if the people responsible for her care stop feeding her and stop giving her liquids. I think that’s the medical line that needs to be drawn here. But when you look at the films of her, her change—the way she appears to change when her mother comes into the room, there is a recognition there.

Now, perhaps it never occurred to Roy Blunt, or any of the Republicans involved in the Schiavo legislative travesty, that Judge Greer—who had presided over the case from the beginning—had considered all the evidence, including the video and extensive medical testimony provided by real experts, not just the observations of a Republican legislator from Springfield, Mo., watching from afar.

At the first Schiavo trial in March of 2000, 18 witnesses testified about her medical condition and whether she preferred heroic care at the end of her life. Judge Greer found that Terri was indeed in a persistent vegetative state and that her husband Michael’s claim that she would not want to be kept alive artificially was credible. An appeals court affirmed that decision.

In April of 2001, Terri’s feeding tube was removed for the first but not the last time. Further court action by the Schindlers resulted in the reinsertion of the tube within two days. In 2002, an evidentiary hearing was held, involving CAT scan results, EEG data, and the testimony of five doctors—two of which were chosen by Terri’s parents.

Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia, which relates to Roy Blunt’s video diagnosis:

The five doctors examined Terri’s medical records, brain scans, the videos, and Terri herself. Drs. Cranford, Greer, and Bambakidis testified that Terri was in a persistent vegetative state. Drs. Maxfield and Hammesfahr testified that she was in a minimally conscious state. As part of the court-ordered medical exam, six hours of video of Terri were taped and filed at the Pinellas County courthouse. The tape included Terri with her mother and neurologist William Hammesfahr. The entire tape was viewed by Judge Greer, who wrote, Terri “clearly does not consistently respond to her mother.” From that six hours of video, the Schindlers and their supporters produced six clips totaling almost six minutes and released those clips to public websites.

It’s hard to believe that Roy Blunt sat down and watched the entire six hours of video of Terri Schiavo. Perhaps if he had done so, he would not have sat beside Tom DeLay at that press conference in March of 2005 and made an utter fool of himself.

In any case, he was at that press conference, which can be viewed here. He was also on the Today show debating the issue, which can be found here. And there are other places one can find even more information, for those still unconvinced of Roy Blunt’s shameful role as co-pilot, while the Republican Party flew itself into legislative lunacy.

There is much more to the Schiavo case, and it makes for sad reading. But eventually, DeLay, Frist, and Blunt got a version of their federal legislation—termed by DeLay as the Palm Sunday Compromise—passed by questionable means.

But to no avail. Federal courts, including the Supreme Court, refused to bite.

After seven years of court battles, Michael Schiavo finally prevailed. Judge Greer’s last order to remove the feeding tube—the day Blunt and DeLay held their press conference—was upheld.

Terri Schiavo died at Woodside Hospice in Pinellas Park, Florida, not quite two weeks later.

Needless to say, the comprehensive post-mortem examination revealed that Judge Greer had made the correct decision. Terri Schiavo’s brain was extensively and irreversibly damaged. Her vegetative state was very real.

Although there is much to be learned from what Republicans attempted to do during the fight over the fate of Terri Schiavo, for voters in Missouri, one fact stands out.

The man who wants to be our representative in the U. S. Senate, who seeks entrance to “the world’s greatest deliberative body,” is, by virtue of his role in the Schiavo case, unworthy to represent us. His judgment is flawed.

Scott Schiavo, Michael’s brother, said this to Jennifer Frey of The Washington Post just before Terri’s protracted death:

“It’s so sad that they’ve turned this wonderful person into a sideshow,” Scott says, his voice shaking. “Into a media circus. It’s such a shame. It really is. The one that’s hurt the most here is Terri. Her memory. They’re taking away whatever dignity she had left. They’re taking it away. And it really stinks.”

During the Republican Party’s relatively recent and disgraceful battle to use the power of the federal government to impose conservative pro-life doctrine on first a family, then a state judicial system, Roy Blunt was right there on the front line, fighting beside his conservative comrade, Tom DeLay.

And if only to give some measure of posthumous dignity back to Terri Schiavo, Missourians ought to end Roy Blunt’s legislative career this November.

______________________________________

*Related to DeLay’s own family decision about his father is the following exchange, which occurred at the March 18, 2005, DeLay-Blunt press conference:

Questioner: The husband in this case—Terri Schiavo’s husband—has said that she expressed a verbal desire that she not continue in this sort of state. How does the, sort of, the issue of sanctity between spouses in marriage fit into what the Congress is doing now?

DeLay: In my opinion, the sanctity of life overshadows the sanctity of marriage. I don’t know what transpired between Terri and her husband. All I know is Terri is alive, and this judge in Florida wants to pull her feeding tube and let her starve for two weeks. That is barbaric, and unless she had specifically written instructions in her own hand and with her signature, I don’t care what her husband says.

DeLay’s father did not leave any written instructions before his accident.

Call Newspapers Bill Milligan Receives Court Date, Again

2010-08-08T08:18:00.000-07:00

I guess we can't expect the Call to ever accept responsibility for their reckless ways.
This has been going on for over 8 months.

Docket Entry: Traffic Appearance Scheduled: Driving 20 mph over the posted speed limit
Arresting Agency: St. Louis County Police

Traffic Appearance
TUESDAY, AUGUST 31, 2010
Judge/Commissioner Time Day Setting
LAWRENCE J PERMUTER 9:00 AM
Event Text: Location:DIVISION 38 St Louis County

Milligan Fiddles as the Call Newspapers Burns

2010-08-01T17:16:00.000-07:00

In an update to the problems with the Call Newspapers, it seems that Milligan and Baker are on vacation. That wouldn't be unusual except Milligan fired both of his sales reps during the last month. My guess is they don't care anymore.

Chris Brown is Dead (Politically)

2010-08-01T13:57:00.000-07:00

OMG, has anybody wasted so much political capital. Chris Brown is running in the primary to be the Republican candidate for Missouri's 97 state representative this Tuesday. I don't know Mr. Brown but I've watched him waste money on two unsuccessful school board races. Losing doesn't really mean a lot when the odds are against you. But in those two races, we didn't see any energy from the candidate. He appeared lazy. I assumed he didn't really care if he'd won, just that he'd gotten his name out to the masses. That way, he was setting up his race for the 97th while Walt Bivins was being term limited. But history has repeated itself. Brown has done little in this campaign. He hasn't been seen walking door to door and neither have his supporters. He will lose on Tuesday. Folks won't like donating to someone who doesn't want to work with their money. His political career is dead. Maybe Kutis can give him a discount on the casket.

Who Has Purchased Call Newspapers?

2010-07-29T09:16:00.000-07:00

No, they haven't been sold. Not their business that is, just their integrity. That's what little that was left. Today's the last paper before the primary election and I'm sure the Call will strongly endorse whomever gives them the most money. That's not always easy to figure out because large sums of money have been given to the Call already by Arron Hilmer. This means his guy gets preferential treatment. The Call will, of course, take money from the other candidates for ads. They just won't get the good placement, endorsement or glowing letters to the editor that the purchaser gets.
Election time is critical for the Call. They are mired in debt and are losing good people. I'm working to confirm a variety of problems with medical insurance, bookkeeping and sales staff. Stuff has hit the fan.

As to the Call actually ever being sold, don't get your hopes up. They're not making money. Milligan and Baker/Milligan would want to keep their jobs. Nobody would pay for that. We are going to watch this ship go down and it won't be pretty. It never was.

HE CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!

2010-07-20T06:03:00.000-07:00

Gee Whiz! This is a pefect example of what's wrong with our court system. Milligan can't find it within his self to tell the truth and simply plead guilty. Does he think he'll stretch this out long enough that he'll get some more Fire Department Hotline money so he can pay his fines?

7/20/2010

This email is to inform you that a court event involving the defendant WILLIAM
MILLIGAN and court case number 090164079 ( speeding over 20 mph over the posted limit) has been cancelled. The event was
scheduled for 7/20/2010. We will notify you again once this court event has
been rescheduled.

For more information, contact the office responsible for this case. The
telephone number is (314)615-8029.

This notification is sponsored by the Missouri Department of Public Safety. It
is our hope that this information has been helpful to you.

Thank you,

MOVANS

Call Newspapers Owner Back to Court

2010-07-19T09:54:00.000-07:00

Bill Milligan will be back in court again tomorrow. It's unfortunate that traffic court can't give him the punishment he so justly deserves!

This email is to inform you of an upcoming court event involving the defendant
WILLIAM MILLIGAN and court case number 090164079 (driving 20mph over the posted speed limit). A(n) Traffic Appearance has been scheduled for 7/20/2010 at 9:00 AM. This will take place in Saint Louis,
Circuit Division 38 Courtroom located at: Saint Louis County Court Building at
7900 Carondelet Avenue in Clayton, MO 63105.

If you plan to attend the hearing, be sure to check with the prosecutor's office
to make sure the hearing is still set. You should telephone the day before the
hearing, as last minute continuances are often granted. For more information,
contact the office responsible for this case. The telephone number is
(314)615-8029.

This notification is sponsored by the Missouri Department of Public Safety. It
is our hope that this information has been helpful to you.

Thank you,

MOVANS

Yard Signs Don't Vote in the Missouri 97th

2010-07-19T09:20:00.000-07:00

One used to be able to predict elections on the number of yards signs each candidate had in their areas. With better targeted mailings, cheaper cable advertising and telecommunications, those predictions are practically meaningless. Having written all that, it's interesting to watch our local state representive race here in the Missouri 97th.
On the Republican side, it looks like there will be an upset. Chris Brown appears to have more signs outside the district than he does inside. I'm guessing he was counting on more support from the party regulars and they are staying neutral. Retired FBI agent Gary Fuhr appears to be spending the most money as he not only has signs but has a couple of billboards on I-55. The guy that seems to be working the hardest is Bill Zobrist. He's got signs all over my area of the 97th. I'm predicting he'll be representing the Elephant Party this November.
On the Democratic side, we've got Rudy Pulido. Rudy is a retired Baptist minister and appears to be one heck of a nice guy. His signs aren't as numerous and I think that reflects his newness to elective politics. Jan Polizzi. Jan has held this seat before and was a director on the Mehlville School Board as well. She was out early with signs.
Jim Barrett has numerous signs out and the locations and messages I have suggest he has the support of most organizations typically associated with the Democratic Party.
He will represent the party of the Donkey this fall.

Diehl VS Fred Weber Scheduled for Trial

2010-07-13T06:09:00.000-07:00

22052-07589-01 - DIEHL VS FRED WEBER INC

07/12/2010 Docket Entry: Jury Trial Scheduled
Associated Events: 10/18/2010 , 08:00:00 - Jury Trial

Docket Entry: Order
Text: Cause set for jury trial on October 18, 2010 at 9:00 a.m., is hereby GRANTED. SO ORDERED:JUDGE DAVID DOWD

Mehlville Fire BOD Agenda June 22nd, 2010

2010-06-21T05:19:00.000-07:00

Mehlville Fire Protection District Agenda
Directors' Meeting June 22, 2010
MFPD Conference Room
11020 Mueller Road

CALL REGULAR MEETING TO ORDER AT 5:30 P.M.

PUBLIC COMMENTS

BOARD VOTE ON CLOSED SESSION

OPEN SESSION ADJOURNMENT

CLOSED SESSION IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING OPEN SESSION
Personnel
Interview Financial Officer Candidates

CLOSED SESSION ADJOURNMENT

Posted 6/21/2010 @ 1200

Mehlville Fire BOD Agenda June 17th, 2010

2010-06-17T06:13:00.000-07:00

Mehlville Fire Protection District Agenda
Directors' Meeting June 17, 2010
MFPD Conference Room
11020 Mueller Road

CALL REGULAR MEETING TO ORDER AT 5:00 P.M.

PAYMENT OF BILLS OF JUNE 7, 2010

PUBLIC COMMENTS

OLD BUSINESS
Physical Agility Test/Fit for Duty

NEW BUSINESS
Presentation of Financial Statements/CAFR as of 12/31/2009
EMoPP Clarifications:
Defined Contribution Pension Plan
Absences Due to Illness
EMoPP Addition: Employee Performance Review

BOARD VOTE ON CLOSED SESSION
OPEN SESSION ADJOURNMENT

CLOSED SESSION IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING OPEN SESSION
Personnel
Legal
Real Estate

CLOSED SESSION ADJOURNMENT

Posted 6/15/2010 @ 1700

Rescheduled Court Date For Call's Milligan

2010-06-10T06:24:00.000-07:00

William T. Milligan, Call Newspaper's Owner, aka Bill, Defendant, Willy the Weasel and Dirtbag has gotten a new court date.
Docket Entry: Traffic Appearance Scheduled
Associated Events: 07/20/2010 , 09:00:00 - Traffic Appearance

Milligan Refuses to Plead Guilty

2010-06-08T06:00:00.000-07:00

C'mon Milligan. Can't you do something honest and admit the truth?

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

This email is to inform you that a court event involving the defendant WILLIAM T.
MILLIGAN, owner Call Newspapers, and court case number 090164079 has been cancelled. The event was scheduled for 6/8/2010. We will notify you again once this court event has been rescheduled.

For more information, contact the office responsible for this case. The
telephone number is (314)615-8029.

This notification is sponsored by the Missouri Department of Public Safety. It
is our hope that this information has been helpful to you.

Thank you,

MOVANS

Dear MOVANS,
If you really cared about public safety you would make it your priority to get jerks like this off the street. Here again Milligan gets another continuance after failing to show up the first time. The system will probably let him plead to a lesser charge just like in the past. Then he can continue to drive around South County without regard to the public's safety.
South County Mike

Call Newspaper's Owner Back to Court

2010-06-07T06:09:00.000-07:00

Date: Monday, June 7, 2010 3:58 AM
Subject: A message from MOVANS

Monday, June 7, 2010

This email is to inform you of an upcoming court event involving the defendant
WILLIAM MILLIGAN, Owner, Call Newspapers, and court case number 090164079. A(n) Traffic Appearance has been scheduled for 6/8/2010 at 9:00 AM. This will take place in Saint Louis, Circuit Division 38 Courtroom located at: Saint Louis County Court Building at 7900 Carondelet Avenuein Clayton, MO 63105.

If you plan to attend the hearing, be sure to check with the prosecutor's office
to make sure the hearing is still set. You should telephone the day before the
hearing, as last minute continuances are often granted. For more information,
contact the office responsible for this case. The telephone number is
(314)615-8029.

This notification is sponsored by the Missouri Department of Public Safety. It
is our hope that this information has been helpful to you.

Thank you,

MOVANS

Mehlville Fire BOD Agenda June 3rd, 2010

2010-06-02T06:30:00.000-07:00

Mehlville Fire Protection District Agenda
Directors' Meeting June 3, 2010
MFPD Conference Room
11020 Mueller Road
______________________________________________________
Aaron Hilmer Bonnie Stegman Ed Ryan
Chairman Treasurer Secretary ______________________________________________________

CALL REGULAR MEETING TO ORDER AT 5:00 P.M.

PAYMENT OF BILLS OF MAY 24, 2010

PUBLIC COMMENTS

OLD BUSINESS

NEW BUSINESS
House #2 Punch List
Approval to Discard Old Files
Fit for Duty

BOARD VOTE ON CLOSED SESSION
OPEN SESSION ADJOURNMENT

CLOSED SESSION IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING OPEN SESSION
Personnel
Legal
Real Estate

CLOSED SESSION ADJOURNMENT

(Individuals wishing to make comments should fill out a Speaker's Card and turn it in to the Chairman before the meeting. )
The District's Training Facility and Conference Room are handicapped accessible. If you need any special accommodations, please contact 314.894.0420, extension 1713 between 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Posted 6/2/2010 @ 1700

Mehlville Fire Board Chairman Shows Little Class

2010-05-31T05:57:00.000-07:00

It's just amazing that a elected official could chair a board meeting without dressing appropriately.

Mehlville Fire Department BOD

2010-05-27T16:16:00.001-07:00

MISSOURIANS REJECT PARTISANSHIP

2010-05-26T19:44:00.000-07:00

MISSOURIANS APPARENTLY REJECT PROPOSAL
TO INJECT PARTISANSHIP AND POLITICS INTO MISSOURI COURTS
Analysis Predicts ShowMe Better Courts Failed to Collect Sufficient Signatures
in at least Six of Nine Congressional Districts

Jefferson City, MO – Missourians for Fair and Impartial Courts Action Fund today announced that according to an analysis of signatures submitted to the Secretary of State by ShowMe Better Courts, a group proposing a constitutional amendment to dismantle Missouri’s Non-Partisan Court plan, it appears that insufficient signatures were collected to qualify the amendment and send it to the voters. The review predicts that ShowMe Better Courts fell short of the signature requirement in at least six of nine Congressional Districts.

“Missourians were presented a clear choice between preserving Missouri’s Non-Partisan Court Plan, a model for the nation, or scrapping it in favor of judicial campaigns full of partisanship, politics and negative campaigning. It appears that Missourians have rejected this proposal to inject politics and partisanship into Missouri’s courtrooms by refusing to even provide sufficient signatures to put this bad idea on the ballot,” said Ken Morley, an advisor to Missourians for Fair and Impartial Courts Action Fund.

In order to qualify a proposed constitutional amendment for the ballot, proponents must submit signatures equaling 8% of the total number of votes cast in the last gubernatorial election in at least six of the nine Congressional Districts in Missouri. The review revealed that despite spending more than $1.5 million on signature collection efforts, ShowMe Better Courts failed to collect sufficient signatures in the 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th Congressional Districts. An analysis of signatures can be found at http://mofaircourts.com/analysis-of-signatures/. A copy of all signatures submitted by Showme Better Courts was obtained from the Secretary of State’s office through a Sunshine request, and is also available for review at http://mofaircourts.com/petitionanalysis/.

Missourians for Fair and Impartial Courts Action Fund mounted an unprecedented voter education campaign to warn Missourians about this dangerous proposal, including grassroots education activities, online communications, and educational radio advertising.

“Amendment proponents spent an unprecedented amount on signature collection. To fail to collect sufficient signatures after spending over $1.5 million demonstrates clearly that once Missourians understood the risks presented by this proposal to dismantle Missouri’s Non-Partisan Court Plan, they rejected it out of hand,” said Morley.

Despite claims by Showme Better Courts that approximately 250,000 signatures were submitted, a full count of all petitions reveals that less than 200,000 signatures were actually submitted to the Secretary of State.

Call Newspaper's Owner Back to Court

2010-05-25T18:56:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

This is to inform you of an upcoming court event involving the defendant
WILLIAM T. MILLIGAN, owner Call Newspapers, and court case number 090164079. A(n) Traffic Appearance has been scheduled for 6/8/2010 at 9:00 AM. This will take place in Saint Louis, Circuit Division 38 Courtroom located at: Saint Louis County Court Building at 7900 Carondelet Avenue in Clayton, MO 63105.

If you plan to attend the hearing, be sure to check with the prosecutor's office
to make sure the hearing is still set. You should telephone the day before the
hearing, as last minute continuances are often granted. For more information,
contact the office responsible for this case. The telephone number is
(314)615-8029.

This notification is sponsored by the Missouri Department of Public Safety. It
is our hope that this information has been helpful to you.

Thank you,

MOVANS

Mehlville Fire Department BOD Meeting May 27th, 2010

2010-05-25T18:31:00.000-07:00

Mehlville Fire Protection District Agenda
Directors' Meeting May 27, 2010
MFPD Conference Room
11020 Mueller Road
CALL REGULAR MEETING TO ORDER AT 5:00 P.M.
PAYMENT OF BILLS OF MAY 10, 2010
TREASURER’S REPORT AS OF APRIL 30, 2010
PUBLIC COMMENTS
OLD BUSINESS
Firefighter/Paramedic Assignments
NEW BUSINESS
Execute 4 House Construction Agreement
EMS Week Proclamation *
Execute Amendment Number 3 to the Defined Contribution Pension Plan
Execute Amendment Number 1 to the Deferred Compensation Plan
Meal Allowance

BOARD VOTE ON CLOSED SESSION
OPEN SESSION ADJOURNMENT

CLOSED SESSION IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING OPEN SESSION
Personnel
Legal
Real Estate

CLOSED SESSION ADJOURNMENT

* better late than never

Update: Mehlville Fire Department Tax Issue Still In Court

2010-05-23T11:56:00.000-07:00

According to an attorney from the MO AG's office, the MFPD tax issue will be heard in court in June.

Mehlville Fire BOD Agenda May 20th 2010

2010-05-18T12:06:00.000-07:00

The May 20, 2010 Board meeting has been canceled.

Carla J. Juelfs, PHR

Mehlville Fire Protection District

11020 Mueller Road

Mehlville Fire Protection District Agenda
Directors' Meeting May 20, 2010
MFPD Conference Room
11020 Mueller Road

CALL REGULAR MEETING TO ORDER AT 5:00 P.M.

PAYMENT OF BILLS OF MAY 10, 2010

PUBLIC COMMENTS

OLD BUSINESS
Firefighter/Paramedic Assignments

NEW BUSINESS
Execute 4 House Construction Agreement
EMS Week Proclamation

BOARD VOTE ON CLOSED SESSION
OPEN SESSION ADJOURNMENT

CLOSED SESSION IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING OPEN SESSION
Personnel
Legal
Real Estate

CLOSED SESSION ADJOURNMENT

Posted 5/18/2010 @ 1700

Mehlville Fire Department Land Deal Doesn't Pass the Smell Test

2010-05-18T04:55:00.000-07:00

http://www.kmov.com/news/local/Land-deal-for-Mehlville-fire-house-raises-eyebrows-94024114.html

You Scratch My Back, I'll Scratch Yours

2010-05-06T06:21:00.000-07:00

My goodness! If what people are telling me is correct, MFPD Chairman Arron Hilmer's back must be completely raw. I understand that Mike Anthony has really been taking care of him for their financial contributions to the Call with a "get down on your knees editorial" and a " suck up" Hotline. This kind of thing could lead to a new movie: Brokeback Oakville.

Even Jerry Berger is Covering the Mehlville Fire District

2010-05-05T12:09:00.000-07:00

http://www.bergersbeat.com/

The Most Irresponsible Legislator in Missouri

2010-05-05T07:01:00.000-07:00

Today's Post Dispatch front page article shows again why Jim Lembke should be considered the most irresponsible legislator in Missouri. I really don't care why he thinks we shouldn't use the latest technology to enforce our traffic laws but to encourage citizens not to pay their fines proves once again he's off the deep end.How this clown got elected after trying to get a judge impeached for ruling against a friend/politician in a child custody case, is just amazing.It's embarrassing that he represents my community in the Missouri State Senate!

Call Legal Problems Update

2010-05-01T11:32:00.000-07:00

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 CorporationAgainstWilliam 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!AgainstDeborah (Baker) MilliganCase # 613949 Dissolution of marriage 08/14/90

Current Legal Problems:

090164079 - ST V WILLIAM T MILLIGAN
Description: Exceeded Posted Speed Limit (Exceeded By 20 Mph Or More) { Misdemeanor B RSMo: 304.010 }
Date: 12/17/2009 Code: 5602000

Next Court Date: 06/08/2010 , 09:00:00 - Traffic Appearance
TAYLOR , JEFFREY MILES , Attorney for Defendant
Note: After having failed to appear as ordered at a hearing last week, Milligan has hired an attorney and has recieved a date for a new hearing. Question. Why is it that Milligan rarely hires the same attorney two times in a row? Could it be that they don't get paid for their services? I wonder if Mr. Taylor got a cash retainer?

Next Judgment
09SL-AC16994 - PELARIOUS INC V CONCORD PUBLICATIONS

Date: 08/10/2009 Description: Judgment Entered Against: CALL PUBLISHING INC
Amount of Judgment: $9,182.69 Date of Satisfaction: not yet on file Note: This default judgement is now 9 months old. You would think with the payoffs ( I mean payments) for the MFPD Propoganda ( I mean Hotline and all editorial comment from Mike Anthony) that they could afford to pay this judgement. Text: AFFIDAVIT FILED. SO ORDERED: JUDGE JUDY PREDDY DRAPER

Reckless Disregard with Employees' Personal Information

2010-05-01T11:20:00.000-07:00

For those of you who didn't catch last evening's 6pm news on Channel 5.

http://www.ksdk.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=201150&catid=3

Only in the Mehlville Fire Protection District is this commonplace!

Reckless Disregard for the Community

2010-04-27T11:28:00.000-07:00

Bill Milligan, part owner and full time Bully for the Call Newspapers, was scheduled for an appearance this morning in St. Louis County Court. He wasn't there at 9am and we have to wonder if the arrogant jerk failed to appear again for another judicial proceeding. He's gotten away with this behavior for a long time and we shouldn't be surprised if he does again. One has to wonder when his belligerent lifestyle will catch up with him!

090164079 - ST V WILLIAM T MILLIGAN

Description: Exceeded Posted Speed Limit (Exceeded By 20 Mph Or More) { Misdemeanor B RSMo: 304.010 }
Date: 12/17/2009 Code: 5602000

Updated Mehlville Fire BOD Agenda April 8th, 2010

2010-04-07T06:00:00.000-07:00

Mehlville Fire Protection District Agenda
Directors' Meeting April 8, 2010
MFPD Conference Room
11020 Mueller Road
______________________________________________________
Aaron Hilmer Bonnie Stegman Ed Ryan
Chairman Treasurer Secretary ______________________________________________________

CALL REGULAR MEETING TO ORDER AT 5:00 P.M.

PUBLIC COMMENTS

PAYMENT OF BILLS OF MARCH 29, 2010

APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF JANUARY 14, 21 AND 28, 2010

OLD BUSINESS
Open Construction Bids for Proposed New Fire House

NEW BUSINESS
MSD Smoke Testing

BOARD VOTE ON CLOSED SESSION
OPEN SESSION ADJOURNMENT

CLOSED SESSION IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING OPEN SESSION
Personnel
Legal
Real Estate

CLOSED SESSION ADJOURNMENT

Mehlville Fire BOD Agenda April 8th, 2010

2010-04-06T05:00:00.000-07:00

Mehlville Fire Protection District Agenda
Directors' Meeting April 8, 2010
MFPD Conference Room
11020 Mueller Road
______________________________________________________
Aaron Hilmer Bonnie Stegman Ed Ryan
Chairman Treasurer Secretary ______________________________________________________

CALL REGULAR MEETING TO ORDER AT 5:00 P.M.

PUBLIC COMMENTS

PAYMENT OF BILLS OF MARCH 29, 2010

APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF JANUARY 14, 21 AND 28, 2010

OLD BUSINESS

NEW BUSINESS
MSD Smoke Testing

BOARD VOTE ON CLOSED SESSION
OPEN SESSION ADJOURNMENT

CLOSED SESSION IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING OPEN SESSION
Personnel
Legal
Real Estate

CLOSED SESSION ADJOURNMENT

Mehlville Fire BOD Agenda April 1st, 2010

2010-03-31T06:21:00.000-07:00

Mehlville Fire Protection District Agenda
Directors' Meeting April 1, 2010
MFPD Conference Room
11020 Mueller Road
______________________________________________________
Aaron Hilmer Bonnie Stegman Ed Ryan
Chairman Treasurer Secretary ______________________________________________________

CALL REGULAR MEETING TO ORDER AT 5:00 P.M.

OLD BUSINESS
Chain of Command/Management

NEW BUSINESS

PUBLIC COMMENTS

BOARD VOTE ON CLOSED SESSION
OPEN SESSION ADJOURNMENT

CLOSED SESSION IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING OPEN SESSION
Personnel
Legal
Real Estate

CLOSED SESSION ADJOURNMENT

(Individuals wishing to make comments should fill out a Speaker's Card and turn it in to the Chairman before the meeting. )
The District's Training Facility and Conference Room are handicapped accessible. If you need any special accommodations, please contact 314.894.0420, extension 1713 between 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Posted 3/30/2010 @ 1700

Enough Already

2010-03-28T07:20:00.000-07:00

I do my best not to censor items sent in. I keep out the really vulgar but for the most part, I try to post most comments. Can I make a request though? Let's try to keep the name-calling down.
For example, instead of calling someone a drunken wifebeater, note that an individual has had restraining orders requested against them and that employees have reported that they witnessed such activities.
Thanks.
Mike

Nothing Has Changed, The Call Still Stinks

2010-03-22T07:31:00.000-07:00

A recent comment by a visitor brought to my attention the Call's recent trashing of one of Mehlville's former superintendants, Dr. Tim Ricker:

Mike--
Not only does the Call not pay their bills, but they are short-sighted and quick to forget also. I point to the recent editorial about how Mehlville, under Terry Noble, is finally headed in the right direction financially. Now, I like and respect Mr. Noble, and feel is has done the best he could possibly do. However, the Call blames Mehlville's current financial troubles on Tim Ricker and the school board of that time, which you were on. They seem to forget, and never mention, Jerry Chambers...you know, that "fill-in" superintendent who the Call LOVED who pushed for a 6% pay increase with no way to pay for it. Or who pushed to spend over $1million to renovate St. John's for SCOPE, or who gave all administrators a 6% raise. And the school board of Jerry Chambers is pretty much the same as the current....So why isn't that mentioned? Could it be because the Call would NEVER admit that they were wrong about that guy? That he was just trouble? Hmm, then is Tim Ricker to blame for the Call's problems? Or maybe it's your fault Mike!!! Thanks to the Call for wanting transparency from everyone but themself.

March 15, 2010 5:43 PM

Now, I'm not familiar with our school district's current financial situation. I'm guessing it's similar to the way it's been for the last 20 years or so. I'm sure that whatever they need to do to balance the budget, they will do it. Our community, fueled by the ignorant bastards at the Call, will be frustrated, point fingers and then push on. We will continue to be a good, but not great district. We don't have the financial resources to be great and the status quo is acceptable to the community. As to Dr. Ricker having anything to do with any financial problems we might have, that's just buffoonery. Notice that any comments like that were in the opinion section. That area doesn't require any accuracy, which is why Mike Anthony generally writes it. The Ricker era was one of fiscal conservatism for the district. He lead by example. In his three years as superintendent, he never accepted a raise. His senior staff all followed suit one year and all asked not to be given a raise. He slashed spending in administration at not only the central office, but around the district. A number of people didn't care for Ricker and they are entitled to their opinion. He wasn't perfect. I disagreed with certain things he did and said. But for the Call to suggest that he wasn't prudent with the district's money, is just absurd.
As to Dr. Chambers, you're probably right. And I know that he purchased food and drink for Call management in violation of journalistic ethics. That's just one more shinning example of hypocrisy.

Call Newspapers Still Not paying Their Bills

2010-03-11T06:21:00.000-08:00

09SL-AC16994 - PELARIOUS INC V CONCORD PUBLICATIONS

It's been 7 months and the Call still hasn't paid off their last judgement from court.

Judgment
Date: 08/10/2009 Description: Judgment Entered Against: CONCORD PUBLICATIONS INC
Amount of Judgment: $9,182.69 Date of Satisfaction: not yet on file
Text: AFFIDAVIT FILED. SO ORDERED: JUDGE JUDY PREDDY DRAPER

Next Judgment
Date: 08/10/2009 Description: Judgment Entered Against: CALL PUBLISHING INC
Amount of Judgment: $9,182.69 Date of Satisfaction: not yet on file
Text: AFFIDAVIT FILED. SO ORDERED: JUDGE JUDY PREDDY DRAPER

Mehlville Fire Protection District BOD Agenda Thursday March 11th, 2010

2010-03-10T12:03:00.000-08:00

Mehlville Fire Protection District Agenda
Directors' Meeting March 11, 2010
MFPD Conference Room
11020 Mueller Road
______________________________________________________
Aaron Hilmer Bonnie Stegman Ed Ryan
Chairman Treasurer Secretary ______________________________________________________

CALL REGULAR MEETING TO ORDER AT 5:00 P.M.

PAYMENT OF BILLS OF MARCH 1, 2010

APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF DECEMBER 3, 10, 17, 23, 28 AND 30, 2009

OLD BUSINESS
Archimages Update

NEW BUSINESS
Tuition Reimbursement Request from One Firefighter
South County Fire Alarm Lease Agreement

PUBLIC COMMENTS

BOARD VOTE ON CLOSED SESSION
OPEN SESSION ADJOURNMENT

CLOSED SESSION IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING OPEN SESSION
Personnel
Legal
Real Estate

CLOSED SESSION ADJOURNMENT

Posted 3/9/2010 @ 1700

Mehlville Fire Board Meeting Minutes Feb. 11th, 2010

2010-03-01T10:25:00.000-08:00

MINUTES OF A REGULAR MEETING OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
OF THE MEHLVILLE FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICT OF
ST. LOUIS COUNTY, MISSOURI, ON THE
11TH DAY OF FEBRUARY, 2010

The Board of Directors of the Mehlville Fire Protection District of St. Louis County, Missouri, met at the Mehlville Conference Room, 11020 Mueller Road, St. Louis County, Missouri, on the 11th day of February, 2010.
Present at the meeting were:
Aaron Hilmer, Chairman and Director of the Board;
Bonnie C. Stegman, Treasurer and Director of the Board;
Edmond Ryan, Secretary and Director of the Board; and
Timothy J. White, Administrative Chief Fire Officer of the Mehlville Fire Protection District.
James J. Silvernail, Chief of the Mehlville Fire Protection District, was absent.
Mr. Hilmer called the meeting to order at 5:00 p.m. and announced the Board to be in session for the transaction of business.
Mrs. Stegman made a motion to pay the bills of February 1, 2010 and to attach a copy to the minutes. Mr. Ryan seconded the motion and it was unanimously approved.
Mr. Ryan made a motion to approve the Board meeting minutes of November 3, 12, 17, and 19, 2009. Mrs. Stegman seconded the motion and it was unanimously approved.
Mrs. Stegman reviewed details of the contract with Health Stream for the EMS CEU Program, including a reduction of the annual fee to $6,106.50.
Mr. Ryan made a motion to accept the revised Mission Statement for Mehlville Fire Protection District. Mrs. Stegman seconded the motion and it was unanimously approved.
Chief White discussed the bids for a hydraulic power unit. Mrs. Stegman made a motion to accept Tower Fire Apparatus’ bid of $6,500. Mr. Ryan seconded the motion and it was unanimously approved.
Mrs. Stegman made a motion to approve Captain Jason Appel’s request for tuition reimbursement of $3,575 for the paramedic program at Mineral Area College for the 2010 year. Mr. Ryan seconded the motion and it was unanimously approved.
Chief White discussed the current EMoPP Provision for employees obtaining instructor certificates and recommended its elimination. The Board will vote on this at a future meeting.
Mr. Hilmer then made a motion that a closed meeting be held for the purpose of discussing personnel, legal and real estate matters immediately following the adjournment of the regular meeting. Mr. Hilmer, as part of said motion, moved that said closed meeting not be open to members of the general public under the provisions of Chapter 610 of the Missouri Revised Statutes, commonly referred to as the Sunshine Act. The motion was seconded by Mrs. Stegman. A roll call vote on said motion was taken.
Director Stegman yea.
Director Ryan yea.
Director Hilmer yea.
There being no further business, Mr. Hilmer adjourned the meeting at 5:10 p.m.

Mehlville Fire BOD Minutes Feb, 6th, 2010

2010-03-01T10:23:00.000-08:00

MINUTES OF A REGULAR MEETING OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
OF THE MEHLVILLE FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICT OF
ST. LOUIS COUNTY, MISSOURI, ON THE
6TH DAY OF FEBRUARY, 2010

The Board of Directors of the Mehlville Fire Protection District of St. Louis County, Missouri, met at the Mehlville Conference Room, 11020 Mueller Road, St. Louis County, Missouri, on the 6th day of February, 2010.
Present at the meeting were:
Aaron Hilmer, Chairman and Director of the Board;
Bonnie C. Stegman, Treasurer and Director of the Board;
Edmond Ryan, Secretary and Director of the Board; and
Timothy J. White, Administrative Chief Fire Officer of the Mehlville Fire Protection District.
James J. Silvernail, Chief of the Mehlville Fire Protection District, was absent.
Mr. Hilmer called the meeting to order at 10:00 a.m. and announced the Board to be in session for the transaction of business.
Mr. Hilmer then made a motion that a closed meeting be held for the purpose of discussing personnel, legal and real estate matters immediately following the adjournment of the regular meeting. Mr. Hilmer, as part of said motion, moved that said closed meeting not be open to members of the general public under the provisions of Chapter 610 of the Missouri Revised Statutes, commonly referred to as the Sunshine Act. The motion was seconded by Mrs. Stegman. A roll call vote on said motion was taken.
Director Stegman yea.
Director Ryan yea.
Director Hilmer yea.
There being no further business, Mr. Hilmer adjourned the meeting at 10:01 a.m.

Mehlville Fire Board Meeting Minutes Jan. 28th, 2010

2010-03-01T06:21:00.000-08:00

MINUTES OF A REGULAR MEETING OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
OF THE MEHLVILLE FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICT OF
ST. LOUIS COUNTY, MISSOURI, ON THE
28TH DAY OF JANUARY, 2010

The Board of Directors of the Mehlville Fire Protection District of St. Louis County, Missouri, met at the Mehlville Conference Room, 11020 Mueller Road, St. Louis County, Missouri, on the 28th day of January, 2010.
Present at the meeting were:
Aaron Hilmer, Chairman and Director of the Board;
Bonnie C. Stegman, Treasurer and Director of the Board;
Edmond Ryan, Secretary and Director of the Board; and
Timothy J. White, Administrative Chief Fire Officer of the Mehlville Fire Protection District.
James J. Silvernail, Chief of the Mehlville Fire Protection District, was absent.
Mr. Hilmer called the meeting to order at 5:00 p.m. and announced the Board to be in session for the transaction of business.
Mrs. Stegman made a motion to pay the bills of January 19, 2010 and to attach a copy to the minutes. Mr. Ryan seconded the motion and it was unanimously approved.
Mrs. Stegman made a motion to approve the Treasurer’s Report as of December 31, 2009 and waive the reading. Mr. Ryan seconded the motion and it was unanimously approved.
Mr. Ryan made a motion to accept the bid of $49,580 from Schaeffer Electric for the purchase of a Kohler 125KW Generator for 1 House. Mrs. Stegman seconded the motion and it was unanimously approved.
Chief White discussed the success of the Fit for Duty program.
Mr. Ryan raised the issue of the District’s carbon footprint and said he and Chief White would be exploring ways to improve energy efficiency, beginning with free energy audits by Ameren UE of all seven firehouses.
Chief White presented the Board with several potential mission statements for review and discussion at a later meeting.
Mrs. Stegman made a motion to approve tuition reimbursements of $2,180 for Jason Appel, $1,570 for Kevin Reis, and $4,000 for Daniel LaFata. Mr. Ryan seconded the motion and it was unanimously approved.
Mr. Hilmer made a motion to remove Private Adam Baumgartner and Private Shannon Klossner-Roden from probationary status. Mrs. Stegman seconded the motion and it was unanimously approved.
Chief White informed the Board that he would be developing a plan for updating the District’s aging computer network.
Chief White discussed the District’s need for four EMS Field Training Officers. Mr. Hilmer made a motion to approve four Field Training Officers at a cost of $4,000 each. Mrs. Stegman seconded the motion and it was unanimously approved.
Chief White discussed two bids for the EMS CEU Program. CE Solutions’ bid is $8,000 and Health Stream’s bid is $12,900. Mrs. Stegman stated her opinion that the Health Stream content is more robust and that Health Stream includes an LMS tracking system. Mrs. Stegman made a motion to accept Health Stream’s bid of $12,900 for a two year contract. Mr. Hilmer seconded the motion and it was unanimously approved.
Mr. Hilmer recognized Lieutenant Doug Weck who asked Mr. Hilmer for an update on the distribution of the defined benefit pension plan. Mr. Hilmer said the matter may take six months to resolve due to IRS delays.
Mr. Hilmer then made a motion that a closed meeting be held for the purpose of discussing personnel, legal and real estate matters immediately following the adjournment of the regular meeting. Mr. Hilmer, as part of said motion, moved that said closed meeting not be open to members of the general public under the provisions of Chapter 610 of the Missouri Revised Statutes, commonly referred to as the Sunshine Act. The motion was seconded by Mrs. Stegman. A roll call vote on said motion was taken.
Director Stegman yea.
Director Ryan yea.
Director Hilmer yea.
There being no further business, Mr. Hilmer adjourned the meeting at 5:15 p.m.

Mehlville Fire BOD Agenda Thursday, Feb. 25th, 2010

2010-03-01T06:13:00.000-08:00

Mehlville Fire Protection District Agenda
Directors' Meeting February 25, 2010
MFPD Conference Room
11020 Mueller Road
______________________________________________________
Aaron Hilmer Bonnie Stegman Ed Ryan
Chairman Treasurer Secretary ______________________________________________________

CALL REGULAR MEETING TO ORDER AT 5:00 P.M.

PAYMENT OF BILLS OF FEBRUARY 15, 2010

TREASURER’S REPORT AS OF JANUARY 31, 2010

ANNOUNCEMENTS
New Construction Award

OLD BUSINESS
EMoPP – Instructor's Certificate

NEW BUSINESS

PUBLIC COMMENTS

BOARD VOTE ON CLOSED SESSION
OPEN SESSION ADJOURNMENT

CLOSED SESSION IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING OPEN SESSION
Personnel
Legal
Real Estate

CLOSED SESSION ADJOURNMENT

Posted 2/24/2010 @ 1700

Clodes Session Votes

Mr. Heins:

Per your request, please note that no votes were taken. Thank you.

Matt Hoffman
Hoffman & Slocomb, LLC
1115 Locust Street, 4th Floor
St. Louis, MO 63101

Closed Session Votes from the MFPD BOD

2010-02-18T06:56:00.000-08:00

I guess Mr. Hilmer's friend must wait another week to fatten up on our tax dollars!

Please note that no votes were taken in the Mehlville Fire Protection District Closed Session held on 2-11-10. Thank you.

Matt Hoffman
Hoffman & Slocomb, LLC
1115 Locust Street, 4th Floor
St. Louis, MO 63101

Call Doesn't Pay Their Bills

2010-02-17T02:54:00.000-08:00

It's been 7 months since Milligan and the Call were slapped with a default judgment yet they still haven't paid it off. Perhaps Milligan should get Hilmer to loan him some money, buy some property, and then flip it to the fire district.

Next Judgment
Date: 08/10/2009 Description: Judgment Entered Against: CALL PUBLISHING INC
Amount of Judgment: $9,182.69 Date of Satisfaction: not yet on file
Text: AFFIDAVIT FILED. SO ORDERED: JUDGE JUDY PREDDY DRAPER

Mehlville Fire PD BOD Meeting Agenda Feb. 11, 2010

2010-02-13T08:26:00.000-08:00

Mehlville Fire Protection District Agenda
Directors' Meeting February 11, 2010
MFPD Conference Room
11020 Mueller Road
______
Aaron Hilmer Bonnie Stegman Ed Ryan
Chairman Treasurer Secretary
______

CALL REGULAR MEETING TO ORDER AT 5:00 P.M.

PAYMENT OF BILLS OF FEBRUARY 1, 2010

APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF NOVEMBER 3, 12, 17 AND 19, 2009

OLD BUSINESS
EMS CEU's
Mission Statement

NEW BUSINESS
2010 Tuition Reimbursement Request from one Firefighter
EMoPP – Instructor's Certificate

PUBLIC COMMENTS

BOARD VOTE ON CLOSED SESSION
OPEN SESSION ADJOURNMENT

CLOSED SESSION IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING OPEN SESSION
Personnel
Legal
Real Estate

CLOSED SESSION ADJOURNMENT

The MFPD is again in violation of Missouri's Sunshine Law. They have refused to disclose whether any votes were taken in the closed session!

Mehlville Fire District is Sued Over Tax Rate

2010-02-09T18:47:00.001-08:00

The Mehlville Fire District has decided to change their name to Defendant.

For the online story and comments:

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/politics/story/9C31AC2314A68E54862576C500100AD2?OpenDocument

By Tony Messenger
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
02/09/2010

JEFFERSON CITY — A long-running dispute over a south St. Louis County fire district's ability to cut its local tax rate is heading to court again. And this time, the entire $10 million budget of the Mehlville Fire Protection District might be at risk.

Attorney General Chris Koster asked a St. Louis County Circuit Court judge on Monday to decide whether the fire district collected more taxes last year than state law allows.

The lawsuit, filed Monday, is believed to be the first of its kind in Missouri. Depending on how a judge rules, the district could end up having to pay back most of the revenue it collected in 2009, or voters from the district might be told that their 4-to-1 vote to lower its tax ceiling was an exercise in futility.

Either way, a district split by turmoil between the firefighters' union and its board finds itself in a familiar place: in court.
MORE POLITICAL NEWS
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At issue is the Mehlville Fire Protection District's vote last year — also a first — to lower its tax ceiling by 36 cents. The move was pushed by fire district board chairman Aaron Hilmer. Hilmer and other board members thought they were lowering their tax ceiling from about 74 cents per $100 of assessed valuation to about 38 cents. A tax ceiling is the highest amount of tax a board has the authority to collect.

The problem is that a new state law that had been backed by St. Louis County lawmakers says that in a reassessment year, such as 2009, the effective tax ceiling for a political subdivision is whatever tax rate was set the year before. That means that Mehlville voters unknowingly lowered the district's tax ceiling from about 37 cents per $100 in assessed valuation to about a penny in 2009. That would have allowed the district to collect only a fraction of its $10 million budget.

State Auditor Susan Montee first brought attention to the taxing discrepancy last October when she told the district she wouldn't certify their proposed tax rate. Montee later referred the matter to the attorney general's office, which ultimately agreed with the auditor's legal reasoning.

As a matter of course, the state auditor refers several political subdivisions each year to the attorney general's office for improperly setting a tax rate. But this appears to be the first time the attorney general has taken a taxing district to court over the issue, officials said.

When the issue arose last fall, Hilmer and his board met at the attorney general's office to discuss their options. Hilmer said that Koster's staff told him they didn't plan to seek legal action, so the district went ahead and set the tax rate. A spokeswoman for Koster disputes that the attorney general's office gave the district the go-ahead.

Either way, Hilmer said he doesn't believe the lawsuit will amount to much.

"It doesn't worry us," Hilmer said. "No one is going to say: 'You have to give the money back.'"

In his petition, Koster asks a judge to rule that last year's tax vote was unconstitutional because it tried to avoid other state law regulating the rollback of taxes in reassessment years. Koster said that state law takes precedence in a dispute over local ballot language.

If a judge were to agree with Koster and overturn last year's vote, then the district would still have enough taxing authority to have collected the amount of money it already has because the vote to lower the tax ceiling would be tossed out.

But there's no guarantee that a judge will overturn the wording of last year's ballot issue. A different circuit court judge already ruled the wording was constitutional after district resident Dennis Skelton sued last year to try to stop the tax decrease vote from ever taking place.

That ruling, however, dealt with the issue of whether the district had the authority to place the vote on the ballot. The judge did not address the wording on the ballot initiative that tries to get around state tax rollback law.

Skelton, a critic of Hilmer and the current board, said he believes that the district should ultimately have to refund the money that it took above whatever taxing authority it had by law.

Hilmer calls that sentiment "disingenuous."

"The same people who said 'you can't cut our taxes' are now saying 'you took too much money,'" Hilmer said.

2010-02-09T18:47:00.000-08:00

Mehlville Fire Lawsuit Settled With Update

2010-02-09T18:33:00.000-08:00

As I said in my last post, the Mehlville Fire Board met in closed session Saturday. The district has confirmed that they approved a settlement with Firefighter Strinni and Paramedic Fleschert. The district faced the possibility of a large judgment in federal court this week. While I'm sure the district's insurance company will pay for the boards errors, the district and its taxpayers will be paying for it with increased premiums for a very long time.

Date: Monday, February 8, 2010 12:20 PM
From: C Juelfs Add to Addresses Block Sender

Subject: RE: February 6 Board Meeting Sunshine Law REquest
Size: 3 KB

February 6, 2010
Closed Session Vote
A unanimous vote was taken to approve settlement offer by insurance
company with regard to the Strinni/Fleschert federal litigation.

Update:
From the District's legal counsel:
At this point, the District has reached a tentative resolution of the
litigation pending execution of a settlement agreement. The case
remains active in the Federal District Court, though we are hopeful that
a settlement agreement will be fully executed in the near future.

Mehlville Fire Board has Emergency Saturday Meeting

2010-02-06T08:45:00.001-08:00

The board threw together an emergency meeting at 10 am this morning with the sole purpose of immediately going into closed session. I guess Mr. Hilmer will be overcharging the district at the rate of over $6,000 an hour again as I'm sure the meeting lasted shorter than 1 minute.
The only item on the agenda for the closed session was Legal. We are left to speculate what they were discussing but smart money has it it was the trial set for this Monday in federal court.

The Mehlville Fire Board Did Nothing

2010-02-04T06:15:00.000-08:00

Officially, they did nothing. At least that's what they are telling the public. Minutes probably won't be available from Tuesday's 45 second public meeting for a month, but the only thing on the meeting's agenda was to go into closed session.
In a response to our Sunshine Law inquiry, the district's custodian of records told me no votes were taken in closed session. We're left to speculating what they talked about in a meeting that was so urgently in need of discussion.
The only item on the agenda was real estate so we know that one of their buddies is planning on making a killing. Why did they have to rush? Why didn't they pull the trigger on the deal? Unfortunately, the new "Confidentiality" agreements are working so well that we don't even have a clue as to what is going on*.

* Bull$#&t

Mehlville Fire BOD Agenda Today, Tuesday, Feb. 2nd, 2010

2010-02-01T06:01:00.000-08:00

There's nothing on the agenda for the open portion of today's MFPD BOD meeting. That means the meeting will last less than a minute and Mr. Hilmer will again pay himself at the rate of over $6,000 an hour. Worse than that, the only thing on the closed session agenda is real estate. Another lucky South County Republican is gonna get fat with our tax dollars! It's like they've got their own little stimulus plan.

Mehlville Fire Protection District Agenda
Directors' Meeting February 2, 2010
MFPD Conference Room
11020 Mueller Road
______
Aaron Hilmer Bonnie Stegman Ed Ryan
Chairman Treasurer Secretary
______

CALL REGULAR MEETING TO ORDER AT 5:00 P.M.

OLD BUSINESS

NEW BUSINESS

PUBLIC COMMENTS

BOARD VOTE ON CLOSED SESSION
OPEN SESSION ADJOURNMENT

CLOSED SESSION IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING OPEN SESSION
Real Estate

CLOSED SESSION ADJOURNMENT

(Individuals wishing to make comments should fill out a Speaker's Card and turn it in to the Chairman before the meeting. )
The District's Training Facility and Conference Room are handicapped accessible. If you need any special accommodations, please contact 314.894.0420, extension 1713 between 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Posted 2/1/2010 @ 1200

Mehlville Fire BOD Minutes Jan. 14th, 2010

2010-01-30T06:33:00.000-08:00

MINUTES OF A REGULAR MEETING OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
OF THE MEHLVILLE FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICT OF
ST. LOUIS COUNTY, MISSOURI, ON THE
14TH DAY OF JANUARY, 2010

The Board of Directors of the Mehlville Fire Protection District of St. Louis County, Missouri, met at the Mehlville Conference Room, 11020 Mueller Road, St. Louis County, Missouri, on the 14th day of January, 2010.
Present at the meeting were:
Aaron Hilmer, Chairman and Director of the Board;
Bonnie C. Stegman, Treasurer and Director of the Board;
Edmond Ryan, Secretary and Director of the Board; and
Timothy J. White, Administrative Chief Fire Officer of the Mehlville Fire Protection District.
James J. Silvernail, Chief of the Mehlville Fire Protection District, was absent.
Mr. Hilmer called the meeting to order at 5:00 p.m. and announced the Board to be in session for the transaction of business.
Mrs. Stegman made a motion to pay the bills of January 4, 2010 and to attach a copy to the minutes. Mr. Ryan seconded the motion and it was unanimously approved.
Mr. Hilmer made a motion to adopt the proposed changes to the EMoPP (Employee Manual of Policies & Procedures) regarding physical examinations. Mr. Ryan seconded the motion and it was unanimously approved.
Mr. Hilmer made a motion to adopt the proposed changes to the EMoPP (Employee Manual of Policies & Procedures) regarding the Substance Abuse Testing Policy. Mr. Ryan seconded the motion and it was unanimously approved.
Mr. Hilmer recognized Greg Garner from Archimages who presented an update on the construction plans for House 4, including the site plan and changes to the floor plan. Archimages is now proceeding with construction documents and is on schedule for groundbreaking on or about April 1, 2010. Mr. Garner reviewed geotechnical proposals for soils and construction testing and recommended accepting the lowest of the three bids. Mr. Ryan made a motion to accept the bid of Gateway for $2,800 for geotechnical soils and construction testing. Mrs. Stegman seconded the motion and it was unanimously approved.
Mr. Ryan stated that he would like to have security cameras added to the plans.
Mr. Ryan requested postponing discussion of the next item on the agenda, the 1 House Generator, until the next Board meeting.
Chief White discussed proposals to rebuild the 1760 Pumper. Mr. Hilmer made a motion to approve the bid to Degel Truck Center for $21,977.50. Mr. Ryan seconded the motion and it was unanimously approved.
Mr. Hilmer made a motion to change the Purchase Order Amount to $500. Mr. Ryan seconded the motion and it was unanimously approved.
Mrs. Stegman reported that software training for EMS was still being evaluated.
Mr. Hilmer then made a motion that a closed meeting be held for the purpose of discussing personnel, legal and real estate matters immediately following the adjournment of the regular meeting. Mr. Hilmer, as part of said motion, moved that said closed meeting not be open to members of the general public under the provisions of Chapter 610 of the Missouri Revised Statutes, commonly referred to as the Sunshine Act. The motion was seconded by Mrs. Stegman. A roll call vote on said motion was taken.
Director Stegman yea.
Director Ryan yea.
Director Hilmer yea.
There being no further business, Mr. Hilmer adjourned the meeting at 5:16 p.m.

Mehlville Fire Board Meeting Minutes 21st Jan, 2010

2010-01-30T06:31:00.000-08:00

MINUTES OF A REGULAR MEETING OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
OF THE MEHLVILLE FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICT OF
ST. LOUIS COUNTY, MISSOURI, ON THE
21ST DAY OF JANUARY, 2010

The Board of Directors of the Mehlville Fire Protection District of St. Louis County, Missouri, met at the Mehlville Conference Room, 11020 Mueller Road, St. Louis County, Missouri, on the 21st day of January, 2010.
Present at the meeting were:
Aaron Hilmer, Chairman and Director of the Board;
Edmond Ryan, Secretary and Director of the Board; and
Timothy J. White, Administrative Chief Fire Officer of the Mehlville Fire Protection District.
Bonnie C. Stegman, Treasurer and Director of the Board, and James J. Silvernail, Chief of the Mehlville Fire Protection District, were absent.
Mr. Hilmer called the meeting to order at 5:00 p.m. and announced the Board to be in session for the transaction of business.
Mr. Ryan and Chief White discussed several issues with regard to ArchImages’ plans for House 4, including door and window placement and the property fence.
Mr. Hilmer then made a motion that a closed meeting be held for the purpose of discussing personnel, legal and real estate matters immediately following the adjournment of the regular meeting. Mr. Hilmer, as part of said motion, moved that said closed meeting not be open to members of the general public under the provisions of Chapter 610 of the Missouri Revised Statutes, commonly referred to as the Sunshine Act. The motion was seconded by Mr. Ryan. A roll call vote on said motion was taken.
Director Ryan yea.
Director Hilmer yea.
There being no further business, Mr. Hilmer adjourned the meeting at 5:05 p.m.

Mehlville Fire PD BOD Closed Session Jan. 28th, 2010

2010-01-29T14:26:00.000-08:00

Per Chief White, there were no votes in last night's BOD closed session meeting.

Tony Messenger and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch

2010-01-28T06:21:00.000-08:00

Be sure to check out today's Post-Dispatch for the article about the Mehlville Fire Protection District.

Update: For the online version with comments, go to:

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/politics/story/F90A26ACEC85A14B862576B900030D53?OpenDocument

Mehlville Fire BOD Agenda Jan. 28st, 2010

2010-01-27T06:51:00.000-08:00

Mehlville Fire Protection District Agenda
Directors' Meeting January 28, 2010
MFPD Conference Room
11020 Mueller Road
______
Aaron Hilmer Bonnie Stegman Ed Ryan
Chairman Treasurer Secretary
______

CALL REGULAR MEETING TO ORDER AT 5:00 P.M.

PAYMENT OF BILLS OF JANUARY 19, 2010

TREASURER'S REPORT AS OF DECEMBER 31, 2009

OLD BUSINESS
1 House Generator
Fit for Duty Update

NEW BUSINESS
Energy Study
Mission Statement
2010 Tuition Reimbursement Requests from three Firefighters
Remove two Fire/Medics from Probationary Status
Computer Network
EMS Field Training Officers
EMS CEU Program

PUBLIC COMMENTS

BOARD VOTE ON CLOSED SESSION
OPEN SESSION ADJOURNMENT

CLOSED SESSION IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING OPEN SESSION
Personnel, Legal, Real Estate

CLOSED SESSION ADJOURNMENT

(Individuals wishing to make comments should fill out a Speaker's Card and turn it in to the Chairman before the meeting. )
The District's Training Facility and Conference Room are handicapped accessible. If you need any special accommodations, please contact 314.894.0420, extension 1713 between 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Posted 1/26/2010 @ 1700

Mehlville Fire BOD Closed Session Jan. 21st, 2010

2010-01-26T10:22:00.001-08:00

Mike:
There were no votes taken at the January 21 meeting. Minutes will
follow. Carla Juelfs

Angry Voters

2010-01-22T14:11:00.000-08:00

Reading today's Post-Dispatch, I couldn't help agree with Tony Messenger's article about (R) Scott Brown's victory in Massachusetts and the good news for Missouri Republicans. I said I agreed, not that I liked the idea.
Remember 2005. The voters in South County were angry. They had just recently approved a tax increase to improve services for the Mehlville Fire District by a large margin. But just a short while later, they elected "reform" candidates Arron Hilmer and Bonnie "Nod" Stegmann by a large margin. They also elected " reform" candidate Karl Frank, Jr., to the Mehlville School District Board of Directors.
The interesting thing about these candidates is that they are political opposites. Hilmer/Nod is an extreme,anti-tax,tea- bag type, conservative Republican and Frank is a pro-tax, liberal, Democrat.
So how did these diametrically opposed "reform" candidates both get elected at the same time. The answer is anger.
In the fire district race, we had a series of articles by the daily newspaper, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, reporting on influence by local labor organizations and supposed wasteful spending. In addition, the weekly area newspaper, always ready to get funding from whatever source it can, supported Hilmer. The message was simple. There's waste. Save your tax money,vote for me. To top that off, Republican state legislators saw to it that St. Louis County's re-assessment notices were mailed just days prior to the election.
All the while, Frank, supported by the same weekly paper with absolutely no ethics, was saying the same exact thing. There's waste. Save your tax money. Vote for me.

Since that election, we have seen the opposite approach to public governance. Hilmer will not spend a nickel more more, or even a quarter less, to maintain emergency services for our area.* Unless of course, one of his buddies like Rep. Mike Leara or the Hendricks Family can make a hundred grand off of it.

Frank on the other hand, doesn't mind the risk of bankruptcy for either the school district or his family. Frank hasn't met a tax dollar he couldn't spend. Hell, if the district doesn't have the money, borrow it.

What do these men have in common? They were elected by anger, not common sense.

Mehlville Fire Protection District 2010

2010-01-20T10:29:00.001-08:00

Mehlville Fire Protection District
2010 Board Meeting Dates

January 14 5:00 p.m.
January 21 5:00 p.m.
January 28 5:00 p.m.
February 11 5:00 p.m.
February 25 5:00 p.m.
March 11 5:00 p.m.
March 25 5:00 p.m.
April 8 5:00 p.m.
April 22 5:00 p.m.
May 6 5:00 p.m.
May 20 5:00 p.m.
June 3 5:00 p.m.
June 17 5:00 p.m.
July 1 5:00 p.m.
July 15 5:00 p.m.
July 29 5:00 p.m.
August 12 5:00 p.m.
August 26 5:00 p.m.
September 9 5:00 p.m.
September 23 5:00 p.m.
October 7 5:00 p.m.
October 21 5:00 p.m.
November 4 5:00 p.m.
November 18 5:00 p.m.
December 2 5:00 p.m.
December 16 5:00 p.m.
December 30 5:00 p.m.

Mehlville Fire BOD Agenda Jan. 21st, 2010

2010-01-20T06:24:00.000-08:00

Mehlville Fire Protection District Agenda
Directors' Meeting January 21, 2010
MFPD Conference Room
11020 Mueller Road
______

BOARD VOTE ON CLOSED SESSION
OPEN SESSION ADJOURNMENT

CLOSED SESSION IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING OPEN SESSION
Personnel
Legal
Real Estate

CLOSED SESSION ADJOURNMENT
Posted 1/19/2010 @ 1700

Confidentiality Agreements at the Mehlville Fire Department

2010-01-16T14:47:00.000-08:00

The South County News was billed $5.20 for two sheets of paper. If the Call was billed this, they'd throw a fit.

From the Mehlville Fire Protection District:

All administrative employees required to sign this.

CONFIDENTIAL DISCLOSURE AGREEMENT

This Agreement is entered into this ___day of January, 2010, by and between_______________, an Administrative Employee of the Mehlville Fire Protection District, and the Employer, the Mehlville Fire Protection District.
WHEREAS, Employee acknowledges that, in the course of employment, Employee has, and may in the future, attain Confidential Information relevant to issues and matters of the Mehlville Fire Protection District; and

WHEREAS, the Mehlville Fire Protection District does not want the disclosure of said Confidential Information;

NOW THEREFORE, in consideration of the mutual undertakings under this Agreement, the parties agree as follows:

1. Disclosure. Employee agrees to refrain from discussing Confidential Information relevant to the Mehlville Fire Protection District.

2. Confidentiality

2.1. No Disclosure. Employee agrees to use his or her best efforts to prevent and protect the Confidential Information relevant to the Mehlville Fire Protection District.

2.2 Protection of Secrecy. Employee agrees to take all steps reasonably necessary to protect Confidential Information, or any part thereof, from disclosure to any person outside the Administrative Staff of the Mehlville Fire Protection District.

3. Term and Termination. The obligations of this Agreement shall be continuing until the Confidential Information disclosed to recipient is no longer confidential.

4. Failure to abide by this agreement may result in discipline up to and including termination.

5. This Agreement constitutes the entire understanding between the parties. No representation or promises have been made except those that are set out in this Agreement.

6. This Agreement may not be modified except in writing and signed by the parties.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the parties have executed this agreement effective as of the date first written above.

EMPLOYEE MEHLVILLE FIRE PROTECTION
DISTRICT
Signed: Signed:

Print Name: Print Name:

Title: Title:

Date: Date:

This is a true shame. Not only does our fire district's leadership not trust their own staff, they think forcing them to sign some agreement will gain their obedience. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the district has admitted they have no written policy covering these agreements nor any policy defining " Confidential."

Mehlville Fire Board Closed Session Vote

2010-01-15T08:06:00.000-08:00

There was a unanimous vote on 1-14
to promote Dan Furrer to deputy chief.
Carla
Sent from my Blackberry

Confidentiality Agreements at the Mehlville Fire Department

2010-01-15T07:55:00.000-08:00

At the beginning of the year, administrative employees of the MFPD were directed to sign confidentiality agreements to keep their jobs. I have a copy of the agreement and find it quite ambiguous so I asked the district the following questions:

Is there a written district policy covering these new confidentiality
agreements? If so, please provide.
If not, is there a district policy that defines confidential? if so, please
provide.
> Mike Heins
> South County News

After 4 days, and without explanation for the violation of the Missouri Sunshine Law, the district's records custodian told me the answer was" no "to all my questions. This leads me to ask some new questions.
Who proposed this new secrecy code?
Who wrote the secrecy code?
Is the code designed to hamper testimony in the current lawsuit in federal court against the district?
Is the code designed to to restrict the citizens' rights to access to our public records? We know the answer to this one!

I have also learned through Sunshine Law requests that an employee has been suspended for not testifying properly on behalf of the district in a sworn deposition. The district has refused to disclose the name of the employee citing a pending appeal. But I've learned that the employee has already served the suspension. This is crazy. This is exactly why we have a Sunshine Law. This information should all be public. No new secrecy codes can override Missouri's statutes.

Update: The district's records' custodian has told me that the tardiness in reply to my request was caused by human error. I can accept that. Things happen.

Mehlville Fire BOD Agenda Thurs. Jan. 14th, 2010

2010-01-14T06:30:00.000-08:00

Mehlville Fire Protection District Agenda
Directors' Meeting January 14, 2010
MFPD Conference Room
11020 Mueller Road
______
Aaron Hilmer Bonnie Stegman Ed Ryan
Chairman Treasurer Secretary
______

CALL REGULAR MEETING TO ORDER AT 5:00 P.M.

PAYMENT OF BILLS OF JANUARY 4, 2010

OLD BUSINESS
Physical Examinations EMoPP Proposal
Substance Abuse Testing Policy EMoPP Proposal
Archimages Update
1 House Generator
1760 Pumper Rebuild

NEW BUSINESS
Purchase Order Amounts

PUBLIC COMMENTS

BOARD VOTE ON CLOSED SESSION
OPEN SESSION ADJOURNMENT

CLOSED SESSION IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING OPEN SESSION
Personnel
Legal
Real Estate

CLOSED SESSION ADJOURNMENT

(Individuals wishing to make comments should fill out a Speaker's Card and turn it in to the Chairman before the meeting. )
The District's Training Facility and Conference Room are handicapped accessible. If you need any special accommodations, please contact 314.894.0420, extension 1713 between 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Posted 1/12/2010 @ 1700

Deadbeats Don't Change With the New Year

2010-01-10T15:48:00.000-08:00

It's been four months, as of today, when the Call was slapped with a default judgment for failing to pay its web vendor. They still haven't paid up. Perhaps Milligan should cut Mike Anthony' salary. Whatever it is, he's overpaid!

09SL-AC16994 - PELARIOUS INC V CONCORD PUBLICATIONS

Judgment
Date:08/10/2009
Description: Judgment Entered Against:
CONCORD PUBLICATIONS INC

Amount of Judgment: $9,182.69
Date of Satisfaction:
not yet on file

Against:
CALL PUBLISHING INC

not yet on file

AFFIDAVIT FILED. SO ORDERED: JUDGE JUDY PREDDY DRAPER