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By Pauline Masson –
There is no easy way to say, “citizens are worried that city government is mired in inactivity.”
You might argue that it is better to do nothing than to do the wrong thing. But there is no denying that the board of aldermen (BOA) is bogged down in a series of postponed issues and tabled action.
Hometown Matters has talked with several parties who have a vested interest in these issues but are hesitant to enter into public dissent for fear of repercussions. The most frequent wish is that the BOA bite the bullet, debate the issue and take action. Hopefully action that would benefit the greater number of citizens. But take action.
What brought these worries to the forefront this week was the piles of downed limbs along the fence line and throughout the City Cemetery. Upwards of a dozen clumps of browned limbs have been pushed into piles and left. Concerned citizens with family members buried in the cemetery say the abandoned storm debris have been there since the January when the cemetery was battered by ice and snow storm.
“Don’t the aldermen ever drive by the cemetery,” one frustrated caller wanted to know.
“They just cut around it,” one frequent visitor to the cemetery said. “None of the piles are next to my family’s graves, but it is an eyesore for people who come to visit and an indication that the city is not maintaining the cemetery.”
Callers were aware that Public Works Commissioner Robert Brueggemann has been short handed and had asked aldermen to approve a previously authorized pay matrix to help him attract new hires, but aldermen opted to wait until budget time to act on the pay scale.
A decision on a request to limit parking at East Union and North Columbus streets, one of the city’s busiest intersections, was put on hold in the hope that the issue will solve itself.
A Pacific Soccer Association (PSA) request for the city to come to an agreement on the maintenance and use of the soccer fields in Liberty Field park has been tabled. PSA rents the soccer fields for its season, which runs from July to November. The park was developed, in part, with grants that identified use of the fields for the soccer games that involve hundreds of local youths.
The PSA leaders say they need a formal agreement because they put a substantial amount of their resources and funds into maintaining the fields. And they want to get started before the 2025 season begins.
Citizens were already wringing their hands over the BOA’s inability to hire a city administrator. That is the most frequent worry cited by concerned citizens. Ten months after interim city administrator Harold Selby resigned from the post, saying aldermen wanted to go in a different direction, the city is left with no professional manager of city.
Early response to the search for a city administrator attracted 38 candidates who submitted applications for the job but resulted in only one candidate being offered the job and that applicant decided not to come to the city.
And there are still steps to be followed before a recently hired recruiting firm will submit any applicants, according to Alderman James Cleeve. In February the BOA entered into an agreement with, a professional recruiting firm to solicit candidates for the post, screen them and submit applicants for the city to interview. To date the firm has not submitted a single applicant for the post. The primary reason for delay is that the aldermen want to meet with the firm’s representatives to acquaint them with the city and coach them on what the city would want in a city administrator – presumably, one who could get along with aldermen.
Speaking at the Mar. 24 Administrative Committee meeting, Mr. Cleeve, who chairs the committee said the firm had assigned a recruiter to the city but would need to come to Pacific for one (maybe two) meetings to iron out details of the search.
One frequent Hometowm Matters caller repeated a previous suggestion, that a city administrator could work through all these stalled issues by sorting through requests and city capability and offering aldermen a plan of action.
In a bit of political gamesmanship at the Apr. 15, BOA meeting, five aldermen voted to postpone installing the newly elected police chief James Klinger and Ward Two aldermen Tyler Hoven until May 6.
They said the official results from Franklin and St. Louis County had not been received at that time. As it turned out they were received the following morning.
Alderman Debbie Kelley objected to waiting, She asked her fellow aldermen to call a special board meeting Apr. 25, so the elected individuals could take office and begin work. But in lock-step five aldermen said no.
Ward Two Alderman James Cleeve was the most vocal on the matter.
“I’d be willing to do this if there was a reason,” Mr. Cleeve said. “I just want to know why.”
“They need to be sworn in because they were elected,” Ms.Kelley said. She added it was just good manners – and a matter of protocol – to install newly elected officials the same month they are elected. I just wish someone would tell me why we shouldn’t do this.”
“We should not (do it) because we don’t have a meeting that night,” Mr. Cleeve said. “That’s why we should not. But I want to understand the urgency of this. It’s not putting them off. We have not put them off. If there’s a reason like if we need our police chief sworn in. If there’s a reason for that.”
If a special meeting would not recalled, Ms.Kelley asked Mayor Heather Filley if she would consider appointing newly elected police chief James Klinger interim chief so he could get started with the department. The mayor said she would not do that. She didn’t appoint an interim chief when Scott Melies resigned and would not appoint Sgt. Klinger.
Alderman Scott Lesh asked Attorney Bob Jones if there was a statute regulating when newly elected people are sworn in.
“No, there is no statute,” Mr. Jones said. “By the way you don’t have to have a special swearing. These people can come up to city hall and be sworn in by the city clerk. It’s normally aa ceremony that you do it in a meeting but that’s not required.”
Lesh said there was no protocol. He said in 2021 they (Pacific) did do the swearing in May. “Jerry Eversmeyer, Andy Nemeth and Gregg Rahn were sworn in May,” he said. “If there is any standard, that is it.”
A quick review of the April 16, 2021 BOA agenda and the May 4 recorded meeting minutes show that Mr. Eversmeyer, Mr. Nemeth, Mr. Rahn and Police Chief Scott Melies were sworn in April 16, 2021).
The sad part about all this is that no one who spoke to Hometown Matters on these issues had any inclination to attend BOA meetings and voice their concerns directly to alderman.
They don’t listen to citizens,” one disgruntled citizen said. “Or, if they listen they don’t hear.”
In one ‘say uncle’ moment, one caller turned his dismay on his fellow citizens, saying individuals that are unwilling to stand up to a do-nothing board are as a much the problem as aldermen.
“The city is just lost,” they said.
Pathetic!
BOA members don’t give a crap about their image nor the will of the people.
Looking at the voter turnout, the citizens don’t care.
The cemetery, and the roads could be fixed for a price, if a certain loan had not been forced on the City
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The City of Pacific is dysfunctional. It has been for years. As Franklin County begins to experience significant growth I suspect Pacific will be, mostly, passed by. Developing ground is difficult and expensive. Why pile on more problems? I remember, years ago, being told by someone in the construction business, as I was, that Pacific was known as a place to avoid. Too much interference and good old boy politics, he told me. From what I’ve seen over the last forty some odd years of living in this area, I can’t disagree.
We generally shop in Union or Washington, even though Pacific is only eight miles from our home. The dysfunction evident in city politics is also, unfortunately, evidenced in the businesses in the area. Not all, but enough.
The Lazy Larry property has been vacant for years and the property across the highway from the new interchange looks as though it will suffer the same fate. These are properties crying out for development. They front a major interstate in an area that is growing. I understand some of the long rumored issues that surround them, particularly the Lazy Larry site, but, come on! As Union and Washington experience the current building boom, with more and more homes and commercial properties being developed, these prime pieces of commercial properties are growing weeds.
The city and residents of Pacific seem intent on failure. We’ve seen this for years. There is a small group that has always worked to better the city but they seem to get a lot of pushback anytime they want to do something different or attractive. I hope that as people from outside the area move in they bring with them the ability to get something done. The old ways and old days need to end.
That, or Pacific will die a slow death.