By Pauline Masson
Twice elected Ward One Alderman Rafael Madrigal resigned from his seat early this month.
Alderman Madrigal verbally reported to City Clerk Kim Barfield on Aug. 4 that he was resigning. Mayor Heather Filly announced his resignation at the Aug. 5 board of aldermen (BOA) meeting and said she would look to appoint a replacement in an upcoming meeting to serve the remainder of Mr. Madrigal’s term, which ends in April 2026.
This brings to five the number of seasoned city officials who have thrown in the towel at city hall since the government reshuffle that followed the approval of the Manors at Brush Creek Subdivision on LaMar Parkway, which resulted in the election of aldermen James Cleeve and Scott Lesh.
Two city administrators, Steve Roth and Harold Selby, police chief Scott Melies and building commissioner Steve Brune, all resigned from their city hall posts as Mr. Cleeve and Mr. Lesh tackled the finer points of how government works.
If you throw in the the three former office holders – former alderman/planning & zoning commissioner Jerry Eversmeyer, former alderman Andrew Nemeth and former park board president/planning and zoning commissioner Stephen Flannery III, who were denied serving on boards and commissions under Mr. Cleeve and Mr. Lesh’s reign of reshaping city government – that brings the total to eight seasoned city officials whose service is lost to the public since the controversial subdivision was approved.
Mr. Selby and Mr. Brune each cited the style and direction of the aldermen as the reason for their departure.
Mr. Madrigal echoed the discontent of Mr. Selby and Mr. Brune telling Hometown Matters that BOA inaction left the city with poor prospects for the future and no prospects for growth.
When asked if he intended to remain in the city he said he was unsure, saying, “If the city goes bankrupt, if we lose our police department and city staff, I have to think of my family and live where they will be safe and provided for.”
“I did what I could for the budget,” he said. “At least we did not lose police officers and city staff.”
In a telephone interview, the resigning alderman detailed his views on the city government.
“It all comes down to money,” he said. “The city needs growth. It needs rooftops. If you’re not growing, you’re dying. Developers need to know that Pacific is open for business. That is not the case now. Developers do not see Pacific as a good place to build.”
“Things have been stopped – like two highly regarded local veterans being stopped from serving on planning and zoning,” he said. “And it will continue unless there are dramatic changes next April.”
The current city hall looks increasingly like a two-man board of aldermen. Both Mr. Cleeve and Mr. Lesh challenged Mr. Madrigal’s stated reason for leaving in a Washington Missourian newspaper article.
Mr. Cleeve, who seems to assume the role of assistant mayor in the search for a new city administrator, was quoted in the article saying he was for growth but he favored “controlled economic activity,” control being the operative word.
In the same article Mr. Lesh acknowledged that the recent disfunction at city hall did indeed go back to 2022 and citizen dismay over the much debated subdivision.
Acting mayor Herb Adams, and alderman Jerry Eversmeyer were unseated in that race, which Mr. Cleeve and Mr. Lesh interpreted as a mandate to keep any official in office before 2022 out of city government.
In the two-year search for a new city administrator, the BOA has looked at 72 applications for the job – 42 when the BOA was handling the search and 30 since the firm SGR was hired to help find a professional manager that Mr. Cleeve and Mr. Lesh are willing to work with.
Mr. Madrigal said in his view the search for a new city administrator is the biggest challenge facing the city. He cited the hostility of BOA members as the reason for the resignations of the two previous city administrators, who, he said, were “run ot of town.”
In the city administrator search, which has has dragged on, aldermen selected three candidates which were presented to Mayor Heather Filley, who did not approve one of them.
Of the 30 applicants presented by the search firm SGR, twelve were identified for more review but interviews have yet to take place as Mr. Cleeve corrals the full BOA through the selection process dictated by the search firm.
A former official who asked not to be identified decried the loss of eight leaders whose voices were silenced as “unfathomable.” They said it was perplexing that the BOA has been unwilling or unable to settle into a working pattern where views that differ from theirs can be heard.
“Maybe they should read author Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book Team of Rivals, about President Abraham Lincoln’s decision to appoint every candidate who opposed him in the general election to posts in the government. He wanted citizen to hear the voices of those who disagreed with him,” they said. “On second thought, maybe a better read for BOA members would be author Jimmy Breslin’s book The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight.”
Another local pundit took a more somber approach, saying the stone wall at city hall is no laughing matter. Inaction continues to plague the city, they said.
The city budget though balanced as approved is not fully funded, therefore not balanced in this reporter’s view. Contingency funds required to balance the spending plan were never approved or transferred to the new budget due to the objection of Mr. Lesh.
Five votes are required to take contingency fund money for any use other than specified needs. With the absence of one aldermen a unanimous vote would be required to transfer the funds.
Meanwhile the public stays away and keeps silent. Few show up at city hall for BOA meetings and fewer still watch the meetings on YouTube.
Voters will have one more chance to weigh in on who runs the city in the April 2026 municipal election.
For the ward one seat Mayor Filley noted at the Aug. 5 meeting that there will be two positions on the April 2026 municipal election ballot, one for the unexpired term of one year and one for the two year term.
It is anyone’s guess who would be willing to place their names on the ballot for the three seats that will be open in the April 2026 election and step into the quagmire at city hall.
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In the last 2 years, many houses have been built in this town adding dollars to retail stores (which we have few) and property tax dollars to the city coffers.
Are we experiencing mismanagement of funds?
I’ve heard some big to do local in Washington has stopped growth on Osage but I’m fairly new here and still learning.
We weren’t residents when Lamar subdivision decided on but we did purchase a new home behind Riverbend. One thing the city needs to look at is infrastructure/ water pressure fell here the more houses built and ed had to complain to get a bigger pump put in. Increased the pressure but still not to measure from other communities I’ve lived in.
This town needs growth but between the person blocking land sales, presuming mismanagement of funds and a small town of Pacific having so many aldermen with big heads and own agendas we are set up for failure. Big cities use alderman to split governing a big population, don’t think ee need so many chiefs.
Putting money into tourism, that’s nice but ya gotta have a steady stream of events or something to pull folks off the interstate.
Pacific has once a year rodeo, car show, not sure how many dog shows at Liberty Field. We have Big Foot and Red Cedar Inn and that is what is suppose to make money, the kind this town needs to survive?
I love Brew Haus, Brown Jerry’s, Camilla’s and Pacific Family Restaurants but not exactly what folks pull off the road for.
St. Louis has attractions year round that produce tourism, then 4 hours west/south you have Branson and Silver Dollar City. Continuous draws not here and there.
“Build It & They Will come” was fiction for a movie. A skateboarding park, dog park and frisbee golf not gonna bring in much. People go to Union and Washington pools, why, more to do at the pool than just swim.
Perhaps a small city as Pacific having Aldermen isn’t such a good idea. Big cities have them because they are so big and need to split government but 7000 people cmon. Big heads, own agenda and cannot agree on anything…sounds just like democrats and Republicans dog fighting
Mr. Jaco:
Between the Pacific Partnership, the Chamber of Commerce, the Downtown District , and events partly sponsored by City tourism money, at my last count there are approximately 30 events either free or at nominal cost in the city including “Touch-A-Truck” yesterday every year. If you do not know what these are, I would send your email in for e-copies of the quarterly Cedar Log from Tourism, which lists these upcoming events. About 1/4 are kids’ events, half are family-all ages, and 1/4 are adults only. The car shows, Rt. 66 events, the Rodeo, public music events, egg hunts and such are bringing outsiders to the city. Nearby events and venues do too: how many people who are going to the Rock Church picnic will stop here for gas or food? The bluegrass/BBQ event is on the docket for next year again, as well as a 4th of July 250th Anniversary parade, and a revival in some form of Railroad Day.
These do not include things like the Library adult and kids events (I personally have helped put on a Poetry Slam, Bring a Rock to the Library Day, and in October will be doing an evening program on the springs of the Missouri Ozarks.) These do not include author readings at Pages, music at Brown Jerry’s or whatever they do in the Cigar Vault. (I don’t smoke but sometimes it is hard to get an evening parking space on St. Louis Street. )
If nothing floats your boat, contact one of the organizations with some other ideas. Come to the Tourism meeting next week, or talk to one of the citizen members. Over the last 30 years, we’ve had Civil War re-enactments, steam locomotive stops, farmer’s markets, and for a while, even had a canoe rental in town. There are a bunch of Route 66 things for 2026 in planning for the 100th of the old road.
We do get many people in town who don’t live here for events, as well as those who do business here. There is now something in place to help quantify how many.
7,000 people is more like 5,800 because we are forced to count 1, 200 prisoners a ‘residents’.
I am sure some of the employees and staff live or shop in Pacific but do not generate enough taxes to cover all the other wasteful spending of tax dollars that occur in the City budget.
; example is the $ 400,000 a year that could be found at the bottom of our tourist attraction money pit. while vital services like sanitary and storm sewer problems go unaddressed ( we will try and fix it next year, maybe).
Henry, the amount of money collected from the bed tax is roughly $140,000 per year. The bed tax is what the tourism commission is authorized to recommend usage for in the city budget. The last few events we have had included event grant money in excess of that– from outside sources– to the credit of Kelly O’Malley, who seeks out such grants. Some bed tax money goes to the RCI, but the bed tax, predating the RCI, was never intended to entirely support it. As I understand it, the city also has a Tourism budget, independent of what the tourism board provides recommendations on. Some RCI expenditures are museum expenditures, attributable to that committee, not tourism. Some are personnel expenditures, filed under city administration. I agree, it is rather confusing to have two income/expenditure streams: the bed tax income and tourism expenditures from general revenue. The audited budget for FY 24 is filed here : https://www.pacificmo.gov/DocumentCenter/View/1161/City-of-Pacific-Audited-Financial-Statements—No-YB-Report-2024. Y25 will be placed similarly when it is completed.
Going through all the tourism expenses, and trying to figure out what part is the bed tax authority as we just did is confusing. It is confusing to me to know there are people working on tourism projects who are not on our committee. The city desperately needs an administrator and a treasurer/auditor, the latter being a CPA, both of whom to oversee day to day income and outgo of the departments and doing the will of the part-time aldermen. Tighter auditing should have overseen the renovation of the Red Cedar, but that is water down the river right now. I’d love to see a pool renovation where part of it could be used year round by adults for health reasons, not just summer splashies for kids. As it is, I need to leave town for that.
Keep holding our feet to the fire, Henry. But accountability problems are bigger than just current personnel. The system needs to be re-engineered to be more citizen friendly and accountable.
Pacific needs to get rid of the board of alderman. I moved out after the idiot alderman Ron Mueller was getting away with criminal activity. Pacific has always been corrupt and always stagnant in growth. I was a police officer for a year plus one day. I couldn’t believe the corruption and scandalous behavior from the police chief, a lieutenant and the supervisor of dispatch. I left as soon as I could and went to work for the sheriff’s department under Gary Toelke. It was refreshing not to see and hear about all the corruption and who’s in charge and who you have to listen to. Until, that city grows correctly with everyone working together and not having a King attitude that city will collapse and become the kinloch of Franklin county. It’s such a unique city sitting in three different counties. I’ve had family members living in and around Pacific Missouri since 1820s. It’s about time people grow up and start working together, or you won’t have a city. I was a police officer in the 90s in that city and it hasn’t changed with all the bickering and power plays of certain individuals pulling the strings. Certain individuals need to be pushed out to identify them. These families in the area with businesses in that town are THE PROBLEM PEOPLE. Call them out and see that issues are dealt with harshly and severely on these certain individuals and you’ll see things will change. These individuals need named that don’t want growth in Pacific.