Jeff Jull Juices-up campaign via Jennings

Just got back from a field trip to Maplewood. On this exciting trip I picked up a copy of the “8-day prior” reports from the election board. More over-the-limit, soon-to-be-refunded contributions on Schneider’s report. (The rule rollback, which might be post-dated, set the limits at $325). They include:

Reliable Research $350
Munsch Outdoor Maintenance $500


And, the big winner is (drumroll please)....


Jennings Printing with an additional $1147 of in-kind contributions, bringing P&Z Commission Chair Jeff Jull total for this campaign to $4,422.00 !!

I assume refund checks will soon be in the mail.

Sorry, I don’t have copies yet to post. I might be near a scanner tonight. If so, I will scan and post them then.

Cowabunga!

MT Schneider Q&A--Empty Questions, Empty Answers

Oh did I get a good laugh today when coming across MT Schneider's website. On there he has a Q&A, with some of the silliest questions I have seen.

Here are some of my random thoughts while reading.

No he didn't!! Question#3 he talks about restoring trash service. This would only be with a “big box” store at Page and Woodson. Never mind the further devastation of “downtown” and that in the same sentence he promised them tax breaks. Tell the people what they want to hear!

He continues patronizing with talks of a skateboard park downtown (Question#7). A few years ago, the battle cry of the ORT was “We want a skateboard park.” Sorry, not buying it gives “the kids something to do” line. It gives the skateboarders something to do, and by far, those kids are not in the majority.
But, that is his solution to “energize downtown”. I guess a skateboard park can be constructed where all the stores used to be after he gives tax breaks to the new “big box stores” at Page and Woodson. I think there is even a ramp already built within Overland Hardware (near the back door)--we're half-way there!

In question number two he talks about a Public Relations Board. Yes, promotional flyers is what will improve Overland’s image. Is he kidding? Or, is he that simple minded?
I have this feeling that this is just another “board” for him to appoint his cronies for political favors in this election.

In Question #6, he plans to be in constant contact with other city council members. 3 or 4 times a day! Wow, I hope that he keeps within Sunshine Law. Well, for that matter nuisance laws if he thinks daily phone calls are needed.

Question #5: I can only think this is included because he wants to throw a bone to dog lovers. I mean, who has ever one any election in Overland without the canine contingent? :)

But, the biggest threat of all is in question #4. He wants to be a full-time mayor!!! He claims he will not be a part-time mayor and says his employer supports this (I can only think to get rid of this blowhard). We don’t need a full-time mayor, especially one without the experience, education or other qualifications. We need the professional management of a city administrator.

And he has the nerve to put "different enough to make a difference" at the top. Sounds like same ol', same ol' to me.


What are your thoughts?

Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign (Part II)

On Sunday, someone posted that an address on Lackland had been reported to authorities as the poster tried to bully someone into removing their "Big Sign for Conlon." I would like to report that the "Big Sign" that was on Lackland has been removed.

And replaced with an even bigger one!!!!!!!!!

File this under "Kiss my big white...."

Give it Back, Mike!

In today's Post (bottom of page 3 of Metro, I believe), there is an article updating the status of the recently overturned campaign financing legislation. According to the article, the Missouri Ethics Commission has filed a brief with the Missouri Supreme Court requesting that they rule that all over-the-limit contributions received between January 1 and last Thursday be returned to the donors.

As we have stated before, MT Schneider received an in-kind donation from the company owned by the P&Z Committee chief that is ten times what are the now the legal caps. Does MT Schnieder see the writing is one the wall? Why doesn't he just act now and avoid the court order in the future?

Give it back, Mike!

Experience vs Education

I am a strong believer that sometimes actual experience can be a substitute for education. For example, if one has worked on computers, learned about programming, and proven able perhaps they should be hired for a computer programmer job regardless of their lack of a BS in Computer Science.

On the other hand, I really don' t want a doctor, lawyer, or teacher who has not had the appropriate professional studies practicing medicine, law, or education.

In Overland, we have a situation where we might look at education vs experience.

Keller has three months on the council. No education in the arena of government.

Schneider has 15 months on the council, twelve of which he did nothing and the council achieved little. Also, no education in the arena of government.

Now, you have MBC. She has the best of both worlds. More experience than both Keller and Schneider combined. A college degree in public policy. And, probably more importantly, a plan for Overland and the means/method to enact such a plan.

Why would anyone not support MBC as a candidate for mayor?
I can only think that there is something in it for them or they are voting for their buddy.

Wake up Overland. We have an opportunity to move forward. Please do not squander such opportunity.

Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign (Blocking out the Scenery, Breaking my Mind)

Someone posted a comment, which has subsequently been deleted, questioning a yard sign on the private property of an Overland resident. The comment was partnered with a threat that “city hall” would soon be citing the resident for breaking sign ordinances.

Such sign ordinances have been found unconstitutional by SCOTUS, based on a suit that happened practically in our own backyard (or front yard as may be the case with yard signs). A unanimous U.S. Supreme Court in City of Ladue v. Gilleo, agreed that residential yard signs were “a venerable means of communication that is both unique and important.” The Court explained:

“Displaying a sign from one’s own residence often carries a message quite distinct from placing the sign someplace else, or conveying the same text or picture by other means. … Residential signs are an unusually cheap and convenient form of communication. Especially for persons of modest means or limited mobility, a yard or window sign may have no practical substitute. … Even for the affluent, the added costs in money or time of taking out a newspaper advertisement, handing out leaflets on the street, or standing in front of one’s house with a handheld sign may make the difference between participating and not participating in some public debate.”

The Gilleo decision has been used to overturned many laws, not just the solid right to have them in the first place. For example, Lower courts have cited the Gilleo precedent with great success in challenging city bans on time limits surrounding political yard signs. In Curry v. Prince George’s County (1999), a federal district court in Maryland invalidated a sign ordinance that limited the posting of political campaign signs in private residences to 45 days before and up to 10 days after an election. The court wrote, “When political campaign signs are posted on private residences, they merit the same special solicitude and protection established for cause signs in City of Ladue.”

Taking another example, the Supreme Court of Ohio ruled in City of Painesville Building Department v. Dworken & Bernstein Co. (2000) that a city law requiring the removal of political signs within 48 hours after an election is unconstitutional as applied to the posting of such signs on private property. “Although the Supreme Court has not considered the issue, the overwhelming majority of courts that have reviewed sign ordinances imposing durational limits for temporary political signs tied to a specific election date have found them to be unconstitutional,” the court wrote.

It has also been used to overturn laws regarding the quantity of signs in one’s yard. In Arlington County Republican Committee v. Arlington County (1993), a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals invalidated a county law that imposed a two-sign limit on temporary signs for each residence. The court noted that “the two-sign limit infringes on this speech by preventing homeowners from expressing support for more than two candidates when there are numerous contested elections.”

All of the above was presented to me in a Civil Liberties class taught by none other than Overland City Attorney Bob Herman. Thus, if city hall wants to “bring it on”, I think even their own lawyers would advise against it! But, if the city chooses to do so, I hope that they are an equal opportunity violator of civil liberties and cite signs from all candidates. However, when it comes down to it—the original poster is likely just full of shit and attempting to use intimidation tactics to win an election.

Sources: Supreme Court of the United States, First Amendment Center, Bob Herman’s “Civil Liberties” class

What's a P&Z Commissioner to do?

According to a story in today's Post, the Missouri Supreme Court has reinstated campaign contribution limits. In addition, they have noted that the court will decide in the next few weeks whether this is retroactive to January 1. Meaning, that candidates may have to give back any contributions over the limits.

Thus, as of today the contribution limits are $325 per person, per candidate, per election cycle. And, a certain campaign contribution from Jeff Jull, P&Z Board chair, to M.T. Schnieder is ten times those limits.

What's a candidate to do? If the court decides this is retroactive, will he have to pay Jennings Printing for their services offered?

And what's a P&Z Commissioner to do? They can't just take away a person's method to buy influence, right?!

OBA Candidate Forum

This morning the OBA had a candidate forum for the three mayoral candidates. Conlon and Schneider were both in attendance. Peggy "No Show" Keller could not be bothered.

The OBA had put together a list of questions. Most of them were, of course, related to business and economic development.

Sailor has the video posted on his blog. Here are my thoughts:

1) Starting at 7:30, it was way too early for me to think straight.

2) In a question about Overland's strengths and weaknesses, Schneider states something about Overland's best quality as being "Twenty minutes from where you want to go." (12:52) I think that speaks volumes. MBC seems to have plans to make Overland the place to go, not just the place to live.
Instead of looking at Overland as twenty minutes from where you want to go, why doesn't Schneider look at it as it only takes the rest of St. Louis twenty minutes to get here.

3) On questions on how to develop overland's tax base, Schneider was all over the map. MBC seemed to have realize that the more incentives you give to draw those big box retailers (such as TIFs and tax abatements) the more you hurt the small business base in Overland.

4) The third question for the candidates was for them to list their top 3 priorities for Overland, if elected. Schneider's answer was "Fast, Fun & Friendly".
"What a Schmuck" is all I could think.
I mention this because it was somewhat typical of Schneider's answers during the forum. They lacked substance and real answers. I am amazed that anyone is supporting this candidate who doesn't even seem to be able to list his top 3 concerns for Overland.

5) Everything is "his". The company he works for he refers to as "his". He said if elected mayor he would meet with "his council members"

6) Can one really run a government entity like a business? (5:28) Schneider has said as much in both the Lions and the OBA debate. Is Overland now going to be run for profit? Or for the citizens?

7) There were two back-to-back question on the working relationship between city hall and the OBA. Schneider starts by saying that elected officials should be making every effort to attend OBA meetings. That, after all, it is only once a month and they should be making the effort. A minute or so later he is saying how tough it is for him to make the 7:30 meeting since "his" shop opens at 7:00 and tells the OBA they should be having their meetings in the evening. (One of them "family friendly" policies, huh?!)

8) In Schneider's closing statements, he states "if you don't know where you been, you can't know where you're gonna go" (40:18). I find that an amazing endorsement for MBC, who has actually been here the last few decades and has first hand experience about where we have been, along with plans to lead us forward.

Shame! Shame! Shame on the Journal

Shame! Shame! Shame on the Journal for such one-sided coverage of the Overland Mayoral debate.

Really, Lester Dills is who they interview? Didn't in the debate Schneider say that was his hand-picked replacement?

And why interview Keller about the debate if she can't bother to show up?

And a committment to "discuss" an upgrade by a commissioner of a partially funded system that has no room for growth in our area (Metro) hardly merits a mention. It is a false promise that cannot be fulfilled with our current lack of funding for Metro bus service.

Update: I should have mentioned (as well as recommended) that Journal has a feature that allows readers to post comments to articles, letters to the editor, etc. I am sure they won't allow anything that is out of line, but I don't feel it is out of line to question their objectivity or perhaps just laziness of their reporters.
It is at the bottom of each article, letter, editorial, etc.

Why does Jeffrey R Jull want Schneider to be mayor so badly?

According to MoEthic Commission reports filed with the County Election Board, Schneider's biggest contributor to the campaign (to the tune of a $3275.00 in kind donation) was Jennings Printing. The Secretary of State shows that President and lone member of the Board of Directors of this corporation is Jeffrey R. Jull.

Perusing the City of Overland's website, there is a Jeff Jull listed as chairman of the Planning and Zoning Commission.

Is this a conflict of interest on the part of the P&Z board?

When you think about how his donation totals almost 3/4 of the remaining cash donations, it makes you wonder why?

What motivates someone to the point of such a large contribution in such a small city mayoral race?

Why do the Schneiders hate the Community Fire District and Ritenour Schools?

Was just verifying that Schneider's middle initial was "T" (going to use some play on the words MT/empty), and came across something peculiar. I thought the best place to look this up would be the database from St. Louis County. Upon further inspection of his personal property tax record (you know, the one "paid under protest"), I noticed that the payment only covered his car.

Where are the back taxes on her car?
Is she claiming she didn't live here then, just him?

I mean she really can't claim "didn't know" after her husband was forced to pay. I realize she is not the candidate, but they are one household and legally bound through marriage (including binding in tax laws). It all makes me ask:

Why do the Schneiders hate fire fighters, teachers, public parks, public libraries, school children...? You know, all those institutions supported by property taxes.

Midland Valley Estates the bain of Overland?!

Just saw a news report on Channel 4 that detailed some teenage hijinx in regards to some missing campaign signs (both Conlon and Schneider) in Midland Valley Estates (MVE). As part of the story, they showed a street along MVE that had no signs, where one would assume the culprits had hit. However, along with the empty yards they showed a driveway with two trashcans that also had trash bags lying outside the cans.

Doesn't city ordinance say that trash must be in the can?
Should we call our city council members to complain that MVE is making the rest of Overland "look bad"?
Perhaps they are the source of the rat problems elsewhere?

*wink*

Schneider: "I don't know nothing 'bout birthin' no cities" (Debate)

I have a ton of notes from the debate to go through. However, this struck me as funny and I thought I would post this first.

In the opening comments, Schneider states "I know nothing but sales" and I immediately thought this includes that he does not know how to run a city. He then verifies my thoughts when he continues, saying "I know nothing about business operations. I think Overland needs to be run like a business." (5:35)

Well, if you don't know anything about business operations, why would you run a city via that method?


Note: On all debate posts that I make, the time in the red parenthesis is the time of the candidate statement on Sailor's video. In addition, all posts will have the 0711Debate label which will allow you to pull those posts out from all the other misc OVCC items.

The Big Bad Debate and Drinking Games

Overland Sailor recorded last night's debate. I assume he will post it on his blog soon. I will wait for detailed comments until then, so those who were not in attendance can keep up.

I was a bit irritated with his "grant fairy" comment. He had plenty of programs he was trying to rally around, but never clued us in on how he was going to fund any of those programs. Perhaps, that "grant fairy" might put us on the road to such programs. But, in reality, he realizes he knows nothing about city grants or city funding and thus chose to belittle the concept of getting "FREE FEDERAL MONEY". (All apologies to Matthew Lesko.)

Overall, MBC ran circles around Schneider. He obviously didn't know the basics of city government and it showed! He even admitted "All he knows is business". (See opening remarks)


Debate Bonus:
For those who imbibe, we did invent a drinking game that you can play while watching the video. Everytime Schneider mentions the term Ward Warriors (or makes reference to "his program") take a drink.
Caution: Hide the keys, because one might be over the legal limit within 30 minutes of the debate.

Updated to include a direct post to Sailor's blog entry with the debate video.

"I can't be bother with such frivolity as taxes"--Mike Schneider

Have you been to your mailbox yet? We all received a set of delusions from Herr Schneider regarding the petition. He deemed to call it "frivilous". I don't know--the end result was that he generated some tax revenue by paying his taxes (although "under protest"). We would have never gotten those funds if not for the petition.

I love how he outlines how honest and trustworthy he is in the letter. I would show you a copy, but I spit my Kool-Aid out all over it when reading this portion.

Again, he does a good job of outlining MBC's plan for Overland.

Be There or Be Square!

Wednesday is the big candidate's forum. Here are the details:

Who: The mayoral candidates and you!
What: debate/forum
Where: Lion's hall on Lackland (at Simms)
When: Wednesday, July 11 at 7 PM
How: How could you not show up?!

Prepare your questions that the LWV can ask of all candidates. Make 'em good, not the lame "How do you feel about annexing Elmwood Park" that a certain race-baiting stock selling Ritenour School Board member asked a while back! Of course, the answers were funny. Sellers and Knode both said "Well, I don't think you can just annex a park." Okay, that's making me laugh even now.

For those of you who are truly civic minded--and with a lot of free time on your hands--there is also the City Council meeting on Monday. No agenda on the website, as of this morning.

A/P, A/R experience is not apparent

Last night I watched the city council meeting on cable. I was very surprised at the debate over the budget, specifically the misc. items.
From what I understand it was explained to both Keller and Owensby in the workshop meetings that the misc. items are to cover unexpected expenses and/or items where we have unknown costs. A lifelong bookkeeper I know who attended the meeting, told me she just rolled her eyes at the Ward 3 council members lack of savvy over a budget, "Of course you have to pad these types of things as it is better to make allowance for the unexpected than go bankrupt over them."

Now, Keller claims experience in Account Receivable and Accounts Payble. Heck, she's been married 20+ years, right. All of this should be known by someone with that type of work experience and/or has created a household budget.

Ice Cream Social or Political Rally

On Tuesday, the city sponsored a not-very-well-publicized ice cream social. The lack of publicity was evident in that only ONE council person seemed to be aware of the event.
Guess who?
Mikey-mike was well-informed and on-hand with a bunch of his supporters, with the supporters wearing Mikey campaign materials.

This goes beyond to informing the other two candidates for mayor. Even the Mayor Pro-tem, as well as council members from Wards 1, 2, and 3 were not informed of the function.

Shades of Purznerites during the power outages.

The question of the day: Should the city fund such an event or should Schneider pay for this out of campaign funds?

Comparitive Campaign Lit: Keller

Whew! I am finally having time to post my thoughts on Keller's ad from this month's Localite. So much to say, so much to say--I guess I better get started.

She has three bullet points, Determination, Dedication, and Vision for the Future. She then expounds on Determination and Dedication. No further word on that vision for the future.

9 years work experience! Oh boy! I had 9 years of work experience before I could legally drink!

Purchasing, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable experience? Is she running for mayor or city treasurer? Like New Girl has said, don't we all have this experience when we pay our bills, buy stuff for our homes, and get a job to pay for all of the bills and purchases?

The "platform" is the most telling (or lack of telling):

• She speaks of returning services back to the residents. Oh no--not the same ol' trash story!
• Takes time to slam the other two candidates as part of her platform. I can only take this to mean she plans to bring such negativity into the office of the mayor. (Note: this is NOT a platform item! Probably better under the "about myself" which is a weak area for her.)
• A balanced budget that stops wasteful spending. Hmmm...isn't by law the budget balanced each and every year? And, what exactly is the wasteful spending? If she continues to parrot Owensby I can only assume this to mean she would eliminate the police department in favor of the County and reduce spending in public works.
• "To give the residents a voice on how your heard earned tax dollars will be spent....". I can only assume this is linked to her proposal to put the Wild Acres/Seminary Property sale on the ballot. It also reminds me of Knode's desire to put the trash issue on the ballot. Our city council and mayor are elected to make budgetary decisions, including purchasing property and paying for services. Why should we vote for someone who cannot make the tough decisions on budgeting, etc?

The thing that has me the most weary is the "full-time mayor" promise (threat?). We've seen that before, most recently in Purzner's campaign literature. Sadly, no mention or endorsement of a full-time City Administrator. You know, a professional that knows what she/he is doing!

Overall opinion: Very ORTian!