I think that people outside of Ellisville misunderstand what is going on here. We are not “At War Over Adam Paul.” This charade to remove him is just the latest “front.”

The current City Council is planning to give away millions of taxpayer dollars to a million dollar developer and a billion dollar global corporation that couldn’t accomplish this without the legalized extortion known as Threat of Eminent Domain. The Sansone Walmart TIF is just the beginning.

There are other redevelopment areas marked on the map. Property rights are on the way out in Ellisville as a "quaint" out-dated notion.

Nearly everyone’s property is at risk to one degree or another. With RPA-1 seemingly accomplished, RPA-2 on the horizon, and RPAs-3, 4, 5, 6 etc… down the road, developers could make millions.

This is about making money and the only way to accomplish that—by taking property at a discount.

This is a massive transfer of property and wealth at the expense of people who are mostly middle class and simply want to live their lives in the home they bought or get income from the investment they made. It is merely disguised as “economic development” and “progress.”

Let’s keep our eye on the ball.

"Unlike a recall process, where citizens would have to do the hard work of collecting enough signatures to have the question placed on the ballot and voters would have to agree by majority in a straight up or down vote, this removal process gives voters no say in the process."

This is an important point. Every action this council has taken has been to *avoid* a referendum of it's citizens. Instead of representing the citizenry, they have treated it with disrespect.

The April 2nd election will change everything, but only if the duly-elected mayor is in office.

Whether one agrees with TIF/Walmart or not is secondary in my mind. We have a group of people on this council (along with the city attorney) who have worked to avoid accountibility by residents. No matter what side of the Walmart fence you're on, all residents should be disturbed by this.

At some point, the City Charter needs an overhaul.

The mayor and city council are nothing but window dressing at this point.

"Who's running this show, circus, etc... ?" is a question people ask all the time.

The pendulum has swung too far from past and the issues they were trying to avoid when Ellisville became a Charter City.

Agreed, E. And the council has done NOTHING to address the constitutional problem uncovered by perrillo's suit that eliminated the voters right to petition their government for the removal of an elected officer as an exception and oversight of the election process. That is disenfranchisement and the council spends its time and the it's treasure in all-out fratricide instead.

Also, the council is acting like the mayor is not part of the council when the charter clearly says he is. An equal member of the council. The charter does not define special limitations on his powers but defines additional duties and powers.

It also means, if they assert that the city manager is in charge of directing the police at city council meetings, then he is also in charge OUTSIDE of council meetings. And that they have no power over his personal discretion to direct the police chief in all areas of micro-managing his day-to-day duties in preferentially directing the chief and staff for or in conflict with individual members of the council, of which the Mayor is a full and equal member.

They are putting a lot of power into the city manager to undermine the efforts of the council to act except in unanimous directives from the council.

So who runs council meetings? The city manager, the Mayor, or only unanimous council resolutions and the chief is simply the city manager's lackey/enforcer?

>>>...the council has done NOTHING to address the constitutional problem uncovered by perrillo's suit that eliminated the voters right to petition their government for the removal of an elected officer as an exception and oversight of the election process...<<<

What's going on here doesn't even rate as government by representation because this group doesn't understand the word "No."

The votes from the Town Hall meetings in 2010 as reported by the Patch were against a Walmart and for a hike in sales tax to keep them out.

Then Ellisville passed a half-cent sales tax to keep Walmart out in April 2011.

Followed by 70+% of the voters choosing an Anti-TIF mayoral candidate in April 2012.

In a straight up or down vote, a binding or advisory Walmart TIF referendum would have failed miserably.

I dare say that each of the recall questions would have gone against the sitting council members or been a very close shave had they ever seen a ballot.

Now they see their efforts crumbling in the next election which they can't control.

The only strategy left is to remove Adam Paul from office and defame him in the process.

It smells of fear and panic. They are hanging on by their fingernails.

You all are acting like Mr. Paul has done nothing wrong and while only a hearing will tell, but if the resolution is correct (and I can't imagine the council would launch this type of resolution without proof to back it up), Mr. Paul defied the city charter knowingly (the Sansone item on the resolution) and has committed MULTIPLE charter violations, including leaking confidential information. And while it doesn't say who he leaked it to, I wonder if that's why Elizabeth Schmidt knew things before they were addressed at the council meetings. I don't care if he was elected by the people or not, he doesn't belong on the council with ANY one of these infractions violated. I'd love to know if he could get jail time for any of these infractions.

I find all this "who knew what & when" laughable. If some forces were not working so hard to keep everything 'under the table', there wouldn't be so much speculation -- and that's what a lot of this seems to be = finger pointing based on speculation due to a lack of transparency.

“There are only so many courses of action to be taken...Consider most or all of them and it seems like you know more than you do only because you considered the possibilities. It's a version of "game theory." No math necessary.”

Tsk, Tsk. Math always necessary.

People make odds and don't even realize it. I bet you $5 that's true

The degenerate gambler in me still wants odds on that before we call the bookie.

Allegation F(4) is problematic. Mayor required to maintain order, failed to throw out disruptive audience members. However, when Mayor directs the police chief or a lieutenant to maintain order, Mayor is accused of violating directives only through City Manager. They also claim the Katie James incident is "evidence" when the Charter Commission expressly and unanimously dismissed her claim.

The entire time, they claim the Mayor "directs" city employees in violation of the Charter, however, if they refuse or just don't do it or ignore him, how exactly did he "direct" their action when said action did not take place? Were there any punitive consequences by this "weak" Mayor upon those refusing? No.

It is the City Manager's responsibility to ensure that his employees have also read and adhere to the Charter as well. So if an employee performs as *suggested* by the Mayor, they have the *choice* to agree with his suggestion or, if they truly determined for themselves that he Mayor was "directing" them, they have the *obligation* to *refuse* to perform "as directed", in accordance with the Charter. If they didn't, then they decided, through their performance of that activity, that the Mayor's suggested course of action was to the benefit of the city.

The former Mony magazine "10 Best Cities" now looks like north county Manchester Rd is baren, our tax base is gone. The owners of those apartments are happy to sell. TIF will bring in business like WalMart did to Manchester. I don't see E. Schmidt complaining about a new/remolded Rams Dome for 1 BILLION when the old dome is not paid for. OH, I forgot the Rams pay $50,000 a game for 10 games. The new council will change Ellisville-All of the new elected members will be able to put "STAY AT HOME SOCCER MOM" on their resume.
The lawyers will get rich and the socalled "DO GOODERS" will move out of the city

As for third-party contact claims in Section C. it prohibits contact with parties "regarding any application or petition" before the Council. His contacts with the relocation person was AFTER the Council approved the relocation plan by resolution, thus terminating the "application or petition" status and designation of said item. I would ask for the specific open application or petition that was before the Council if they claim that's what he violated.

There are several chest-pounding statements to the effect that "this activity is reserved only for the Council and the Mayor is prohibited". However, last I checked, Article 3.2(a) specifically states that the Mayor is a full and whole member of the Council, and fully authorized to perform any of the duties required (Article 3.1).

He has *additional* duties that the District Members do not have. Such as calling meetings, including special and closed sessions, of the Council. He can call a meeting "upon request" of one half of the District Members. He must still preside over all such meetings as well.

It would be interesting to know if the Council met in any closed sessions to discuss the drafting of the proposed resolution -- without the required presence and presiding over by the Mayor -- in clear violation of the Charter.

It will be interesting to see if we will see a St. Louis County Court ordered injunction served on the Council tonight. Bring popcorn!

>>>Allegation F(4) is problematic. Mayor required to maintain order, failed to throw out disruptive audience members. However, when Mayor directs the police chief or a lieutenant to maintain order, Mayor is accused of violating directives only through City Manager. They also claim the Katie James incident is "evidence" when the Charter Commission expressly and unanimously dismissed her claim.<<<

Stop making sense, will ya? This is Ellisville...

All of you need to quit complaining cause all of the businesses are leaving Ellisville and it will turn our town into a ghost town. And regarding the mayor he is to young to be having that kind of responsibility. He only ran because of an ex mayor that is against walmart because they are not union. If you dont want revenue from walmart then maybe the city should cut out all the free things that are provided to the residents and no concerts in the park and no 4th of july celebration

That was quite a love feast tonight. I especially enjoyed Mayor Paul's tirade at the end of the meeting. Can't hardly wait until the March Meeting when the council finally gives him the boot and we can get some business coming back into Ellisville