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.
2 comments:
Maybe the voters in South County will wake up and make a change that will give better fire and ems services to the community then they have now with putting in and experience fire chief and training officer that actually has some experience. Its my understanding that on several fires they did more water damage then the actual fire did. Also none of the testing that the chief does is consistant and each person is treated different. I guess if you dropped out of the union you have a real chance of being promoted and will pass all fit for duty test. THIS IS WHY THE MEHLVILLE FIRE DEPARTMENT NEEDS BIG CHANGES IN THE UPCOMING ELECTIONS:
Not only did the Hendricks family make a big profit off of the property but there son got promoted to Deputy Chief after being a captain for a very short period of time plus he got one hell of a raise this year. What is wrong with that picture:
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