Mehlville Fire District Loses Again

Captain Don Hoskins has won in the Missouri Court of Appeals.
A few years ago, Bonnie Stegman and Arron Hilmer tried to screw Cpt Hoskins out of his disability payments. Not only was their action in violation of Missouri law, it was also done in a meeting in violation of Missouri's Sunshine Law. The Call tends not to report on their friends' misdeeds.
I'm sure you'll be hearing about more losses by the board in future months.

Tax Savings in the Mehlville Fire District

Just so you don't think I've cherry picked my own tax records to show you how the fire board has lied about saving us 600 bucks a year, let's look at another person's taxes.
Mehlville Fire Board Director Boniface Stegman resides at 6039 Cardinal Creek, 63129.
Her real estate bill from 2005 shows she paid $299.25 for the fire department.
In 2008, she paid $242.24. This adds up to a savings of $57.01 last year. It's difficult to put an amount of money you feel would be worth risking the lives of your family but I guess Stegman thinks $57 is that amount. All the while, she has burning through the department's financial reserves. Great job Mrs. Stegman!

Burning Down the House

The citizens of Mehlville have been fed a steady diet of bullshit by the Board of Directors of the Mehlville Fire Department. I've heard about huge savings going to the average property owner. Here we are 4 years later and I've watched them ruin a fine department and for what?
I just looked at the breakdown for my taxes since 2005. I've gone from paying $275 per year to $201 for fire and ambulance service in 2008.

Mehlville Fire Board Needs to Answer Some Questions

To: Mehlville Fire District Board of Directors and Chief James Silvernail,

Having requesting Chief Silvernail's last several contracts under Missouri's Sunshine Law, I have some questions about them.

1. The latest contract which was approved Oct. 29th by the BOD is dated 4/4/2008. I assume this is a clerical error. I would like a new copy after it is corrected.

2. As I understand it, the Chief agreed to a two year contract starting 4/25/08 at $100,000 a year and $11,000 in lieu of pension. Then, on Oct 29th it was changed to $103,000 and $11,330 again beginning 4/25/08. This would be a gift to give a salary increase for time already completed and a violation of Missouri statutes.

3. Also, 3.g it appears another gift was given to Chief Silvernail in the form of payment of legal expenses, "including litigation prior to this agreement."

4. It appears the district violated the Sunshine Law in not stating that the were going into closed session to discuss hiring, firing, etc. I can't be sure of this because the district does not take take minutes of the meetings, nor provide them, in violation of Missouri's Sunshine Law and 321.200.
Please provide some explanation for what appears to be egregious and wilful violations of Missouri's laws.
Mike Heins

Mehlville Fire Department Chooses to Spend More Money on Litigation

As I'm sure most of you know by now, the firefighters wrongfully fired by the Mehlville Fire Protection District have filed their lawsuit. Our district will be wasting valuable resources on this indefensible lawsuit.

Continued Conflict of Interest at the Mehlville Fire Department

MFPD Director Bonnie Stegman continues to serve two masters and only one seems to be served well. At the last Mehlville Fire Board meeting, Deputy Chief Walk presented his concerns that St. Anthony's Medical Center was using our ambulances as medical taxis. He complained about transferring of patients within St. Anthony's system. He has written the hospital but has not received a response. He told the board that if this continues, he thought they should be billed. The board told him to write another letter and Stegman agreed to help with the letter. Can we expect Stegman to aggressively pursue this matter when she is employed by St. Anthony's? I don't think so. She has yet to stand up for the district while St. Anthony's emergency room diverts our ambulances to other St. Louis hospitals. Stegman needs to stand up or step down.

Mr. Stonebraker's Inaccuracies

This morning,I was sent some comments from the South County Truth Spot that needed correcting:
An outside consulting firm was hired to revamp the management and culture of the Mehlville FPD. The South County Truth Spot sees this action as a very positive step to provide a harassment-free workplace and a change of the District's culture. While the MFPD moved forward with their proposal, the only one submitted, there is no contract, so no one was hired. Also, please note, the only one found guilty of harassing anyone has been the department's chief, James Silvernail. He was hired by Bonnie Stegman and Aaron Hilmer on the sole recommendation of James Stonebraker.
We are also told that two of South County's biggest losers, failed write-in candidate Dennis "Jaw Breaker Skelton" and former Mehlville Board of Education Secretary, Mike Heins (TruthDetector: Heins was defeated for reelection by a strip club owner) were sitting together observing the official proceedings. Mr.Ocello is the president of a company that owns many of these clubs, he's not the owner. If being defeated by someone he doesn't respect is a knock on me, what does he think about John Ashcroft being defeated by someone who was deceased? Perhaps, I can get appointed as the next United States Attorney General?

South County has a Medical Problem Continued

St. Anthony's Hospital was ranked number 1 of the St. Louis Metropolitan area's 24 hospitals. Unfortunately, they lead St. Louis in turning away patients from their emergency room. In May, St. Anthony's was turning away patients 29.3% of the time. The next highest diversion rate for a hospital in St. Louis was 6.5%. This is the second month in a row and the fourth out of the last six months they have lead the region.
One would think that having a registered nurse on our fire board would be a good thing, but it appears Mrs. Stegman cares more about pleasing the bottom line then patient care. At the very least, we should expect a nurse director to be an advocate for patient care. Frankly, it doesn't appear she cares about patients at all. Perhaps she feels she can't speak out because she is employed by St. Anthony's Hospital. If she can't do her job, she needs to step down. South County deserves better care.

The Mehlville Fire Department Gets Hotter

Tonight, I understand the MFPD's Board of Directors authorized the hiring of an outside firm to investigate some alleged harassment to one of their employees, Marty Becker. That's quite a coincidence. I understand James Stonebraker has been up in arms about the fact that none of Becker's fellow firefighters will tuck Marty into bed at night. This is quite humorous since the only district firefighter known to have harassed anybody is our current chief. James Silvernail had issues with his his former employer, Metro West Fire Department and their board of directors. He pleaded guilty to harassing them and a restraining order was issued against him after being hired by the Mehlville Fire Protection District. Former Ladue Firefighter Marty Becker is the brother of Mike Becker, Realtor, fee license agent for the state of Missouri and political tool for Chris Brown, Davis Bertelsen, Arron Hilmer, Bonnie Stegman, James Stonebraker, Kenny Hulsof, Rex Sinquefield, etc.