2006-02-17 Emergency Special - Laserfiche WebLink

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Arrival of City Attorney, Mr. John Mulligan At 4:40 PM this meeting resumed with the arrival of the City Attorney. Mr. Ollendorff distributed a copy of the letter from the complainant and then spoke saying that this issue is a sensitive matter, so he wanted to investigate everything before making it public. The City Clerk thought that it was her job since she was told by the St.Louis County Board of Elections that she should review this matter with the City Attorney. Ms. Brungardt observed that a great many business hours had been spent for one citizen who was aiming to remove from the ballot his only opponent and also two other candidates. Mr. Mulligan reviewed how he became involved. At 4:46pm on February 13, 2006, he received a voice-mailed message from Mr. Ed McCarthy, a candidate for Council nd Member from the 2 ward, claiming that he had just dropped off a letter to the City Clerk, demanding the removal of 3 candidates from the April ballot who were running for municipal offices. Continuing, the message revealed that if Mr. Mulligan did nothing, then Mr. McCarthy would hire an attorney to sue the city. Mr. Mulligan learned that the City Manager was looking over the charter and ordinances. The next day, Mr. Mulligan received a voice-mail message from City Clerk Pumm stating that an official of the St. Louis County Board of Elections told her to contact the City Attorney to determine her course of action. Since no copy of the citizen’s letter had arrived at Mr. Mulligan’s office, he called the complainant and was informed by this citizen that he, the City Attorney, needed to take action. Next during this session, Mr. Ollendorff inquired if the City Charter does not mention paying “personal” property taxes, what legally covered this situation and was told that there are two state laws that make the city responsible for verifying if personal property taxes are paid. Mr. Mulligan mentioned two state laws: sections 71.005 and 115.346 RSMo. In a St. Louis County Circuit Court ruling on this matter of personal property tax payment and placement of candidate’s name on an election ballot, Judge Drumm had declared the laws unconstitutional. The Missouri Supreme Court then declared the issue moot, since the election in question was already over. Ms. Welsch asked City Attorney Mulligan about the status of this ruling and if the Circuit Court decision declaring a statute unconstitutional was still controlling. Mr. Mulligan stated that he thought the decision had been vacated although he had not yet read the decision. Council Member Welsch also asked about the city’s past practice of checking if personal property taxes had been paid before certification of names for the ballot. Mr. Mulligan replied that he did not know. Councilmembers Wagner and Welsch both stated that it’s up to the complainant to handle this, not our city. It gives the appearance that the city is taking the side of the complaining candidate. Further, Ms. Welsch asked why in one week did the city manager attempt to take the drastic step of going from a complaint by one candidate on the ballot to the Court, putting the full weight of this city and our city attorney behind the complaint without involving the Council in the discussions. 4 Revision Date: 2/27/06