Politics & Government

Carnahan's Office Stays Away From Ballwin Election; Dept. of Revenue Still Investigating

The secretary of state's office is one of three in the capital that have been researching the election procedure that got two Ballwin aldermen elected under a cloud of controversy.

A recent letter from the Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan's Office to Ballwin council members said concerns about city election procedures are not part of their jurisdiction. Meanwhile, the Missouri Department of Revenue still is investigating whether two Ballwin aldermen's unpaid taxes disqualified them for April's election.

Earlier this year, the City of Ballwin contacted the Secretary of State's Office, and the St. Louis County Board of Elections in search of answers about candidate certification. In April, Ward 3 Alderman James Leahy and Ward 1 Alderman James Terbrock were elected to the Ballwin Board of Aldermen, despite not having paid personal property taxes and real property taxes, respectively, that were owed to St. Louis County at the time of filing. A signed statement as part of the candidate declaration process, however, says no candidates may appear on a ballot if they "shall be in arrears for any unpaid city taxes or municipal user fees on the last day to file a Declaration of Candidacy."

that at least one of the two aldermen therefore should have stepped down prior to the April 5 elections. The St. Louis County Board of Elections later informally told Ballwin representatives that local election authority belonged to the municipality, not the election board.

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A similar sentiment was echoed by the secretary of state's office letter addressed to Mayor Tim Pogue, which effectively said the issue wasn't a state-level concern.

"Candidate filing for local office is conducted at the local level and is not under the authority of this office," wrote Leslye Winslow, senior counsel for the secretary of state's office.

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Ballwin City Attorney Bob Jones said neither letter requires a call to action for Ballwin or its council members.

“I did not see anything in either of those letters or the opinions that were shared with us anything to change my legal analysis, and that is that we should stay out of this," Jones said. "And I still think that’s the case."

State Researcher Says Clerks Can Vet Candidates

A letter from state Senate research analyst Chris Hogerty said Missouri state statutes do not specifically authorize any party to verify candidate qualifications. However, Hogerty did identify at least one case where a city clerk was deemed correct to refrain from certifying a candidate because of apparently unpaid taxes.

The letter also identified "discretionary" versus "administerial." Research Analyst Chris Hogerty said the latter are part of municipal clerks' job duties while "discretionary" duties are not.

"It would follow under this reasoning, then, that a city clerk would not be authorized to decide whether a candidate meets residency requirements or make other discretionary decisions based on candidate qualifications, but would be authorized to withhold or complete certification based on whether or not the candidate has paid taxes as this would constitute a ministerial act," Hogerty wrote.

Hogerty also noted the case State ex rel. Brown v. Shaw, wherein a city clerk withheld a candidate's name from the ballot based on the candidate's alleged failure to pay taxes. Although the court concluded that the candidate's mortgage company was at fault, not the candidate, the clerk's decision to omit the candidate from the ballot was never challenged, Hogerty wrote.

City of Ballwin Responds

Despite a precedent for city clerks withholding candidate certification based on taxes, Jones told the Ballwin Board of Aldermen at its Sept. 12 meeting that no further action be taken.

“I think we can certainly consider what we want our city clerk to look at in terms of certification, but ultimately, I think we just need to be very careful with who we would consider keeping off the ballot.”

Jones also said at that meeting that since the city received written election input from state offices last month, he has not communicated with Dr. Raj Sajid, a former candidate for the Ward 1 seat that Terbrock later was elected to. After the April election, Sajid submitted against the city that alleged proper election procedure was not followed.

Heather McCreery, council for the Missouri Department of Revenue, told Ballwin-Ellisville Patch on Thursday that a formal complaint against Aldermen Leahy and Terbrock filed March 31 still was being investigated.

Part of the question regarding the complaint, McCreery said, is Ballwin’s classification as a municipality according to state statute.

“In any event, we consider the investigation and any details about the investigation to be confidential,” McCreery said. “If we do determine that any delinquencies exist, we will follow up on that, but we can’t really disclose anything about the investigation.”


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