Schmid Names All Association Members to Nominating Committee In Marine Villa Neighborhood
It’s been a tough year for Alderman Craig Schmid. The old guard controlling the Cherokee Station Business Association were ousted (see post). Schmid then faced a primary opponent to keep his seat (which he did) and neighbors in the Marine Villa neighborhood, where he serves as President, have been pressuring him on the leadership of the organization.
Neighbors have been pushing for open elections, per the 1969 bylaws they finally got a copy of earlier this year (see post). These bylaws call for the President to create a “Nominating Committee” of an unspecified number of persons. So what does Schmid do? He mails out a letter to all members stating they are all on the nominating committee. He is asking them to mail back to him their nomination.
Several things I should note about this, I received copies of these mailings via an anonymous email account. The mailings were sent out in official Board of Alderman envelopes, despite not being official aldermanic business (image at right, click to see larger version in Flickr). Presumably city tax payers bought the envelopes for official business? The mailings were stamped so we don’t really know who funded the postage. Ditto for the return envelopes which had postage affixed.
Despite this questionable use of taxpayer funded materials (envelopes at a minimum) the mailed out form listed all six positions up for nomination. However, it gives the member only one place to nominate for a single office. Must these members run out to Kinko’s to make multiple copies of this form to nominate someone for each office?
One last thing the sender pointed out to me — the materials sent have conflicting boundaries for the neighborhood. The bylaws state Jefferson as the Western boundary and I-55 as the Eastern boundary. However, a flyer for their next meeting on January 28, 2008 indicates California (street) as the Western boundary and the river as the Eastern boundary. Maybe the first order of business at the next meeting might be to nail down those boundaries once and for all?
Click here to view the 3-pages mailed to members (I’ve circled the boundary sections on pages 2 & 3). Their next meeting is on the 28th of January although the flyer doesn’t list the time. Their website says 6:30pm. I’m thinking this will be an interesting meeting to attend.
What’s wrong with naming all members to a nominating committee?
Isn’t working with neighborhood groups a legitimate role of city government? Aldermen do it all the time, and always in their home wards.
Nine months ago a group got together for the purpose of marketing the neighborhood. The idea was to promote the neighborhood and encourage more home owners to take up residence.
Toward that goal came suggestions that the website be redone, that the neighborhood logo be modernized and that the association should recruit additional members. These goals did not require any change of leadership. Unfortunately these suggestions were met with resistance from those who were comfortable with things as they are.
The frustration that came when new ideas were dismissed eventually led us to investigate the bylaws and election procedures. It was very difficult to get Craig to share this information and to this day we have still not acquired a membership list.
When this election is over we will finally be freed to work on our neighborhoods future. Hopefully the nine months wasted while negotiating with Craig will not have dampened the groups commitment.
Mark Magas
To understand why this is a problem you need to know a little history about the Marine Villa Improvement Association. Below is a description of the problems that were posted at (http://www.15thwardstl.org/node/361) in July:
“There is no denying that Craig Schmid deeply cares about the community where he lives. Craig has been instrumental in the revitalization of Marine Villa and the Marine Villa Improvement Association (MVIA). I have no doubt that when Craig took presidency of MVIA nobody else wanted to do it. Things have changed in Marine Villa. Marine Villa has seen a resurgence of new residents who want to be equally involved in their neighborhood as Craig. Unfortunately Craig does not give them this opportunity. Residents of Marine Villa have repeatedly tried to become more involved in the MVIA by becoming elected officials, chairing committees etc. As president, Craig would not allow this. When MVIA members asked for the bylaws, Craig refused to provide them. It wasn’t until a large group of Marine Villa residents sent him a letter voicing their displeasure that Craig disclosed the bylaws, agreed to elections, allowed the formation of committees and a formal agenda for the meeting. All of this lasted only one meeting. Last meeting Craig did not have an agenda, copies of the bylaws or committee sign up sheets. He did not even allow the members time to speak about the committees that he supported the prior months meeting. When I paid my dues I thought I was becoming a member of the Marine Villa NEIGHBORHOOD Association, not the Marine Villa Craig Schmid lecture series.”
Back in July the MVIA had only 15 members and less than $300 dollars. Benton Park Neighborhood Association has over 100 members and more than $25,000 in the treasury. Benton Park West has similar membership and treasury totals.
Also, the MVIA has very few activities. The Policeman and Fireman barbeque is the only fund raiser and the main activities involve neighborhood beautification. There is no newsletter to get others in the neighborhood involved and there are no social events in which neighbors could get to know eachother. People have volunteered to do these things and Craig refuses to allow it.
Craig naming all members to a nominating committee sounds like a fair idea on the surface but it is not. When Craig was asked about the details of the election (i.e, who can vote, how we were voting, if new members can vote, if business owners can vote etc) Craig said he would appoint a nominating committee to decide. Now no one knows the answer to any of these questions until we get there in January. This is an issue because in the meeting after the above mentioned letter was sent to Craig many non Marine Villa residents were there to protest the people who sent the letter to Craig. How do we know that only MV residents are voting?
The bylaws specify how to nominate people: “Nominations shall always be in order from the floor from a member with paid-up dues of at least Two months.” That is in stark contrast to nominations should be mailed to the president with a writeup about why they should be nominated.
Also if Craig is running for a position (maybe President again) it is not fair for him to be the point of contact for the nomination forms. It is also not fair for him to determine the details of the election.
I agree that working with neighborhood groups is a legitimate role of city government. What I disagree with is an alderman running the neighborhood group. This creates a conflict of interest. It is also disrupts the dynamics of the neighborhood group. I believe that people are less likely to voice opposing views if they are also apposing their alderman.
Craig Schmid has been responsive to my calls for various issues such as crime and pollution. Those issues haven’t been resolved, but he has been responsive.
I am naturally suspicious of institutions, including city government, from my years of growing up in a political household and small town, etc. Not to mention all that’s happened in this state and country in the last decade.
To that end, I submitted my nomination form and will see what occurs. I want to make where I live a better place, and I want some neighbors who care about the community like I do.
I figure the only way I can make things change is by getting involved. If I am unable to get involved due to inappropriate barriers, then I will take whatever action is necessary to resolve the issue.
I still feel strongly that if there is this pool of concerned Marine Villa citizens, then the US Constitution says we can meet and gather. You can always call yourselves something else until the time comes to integrate into the neighborhood association.
I am still confused, though, on the neighborhood boundaries. I am pretty sure Marine Villa is the only ‘hood I could be in, and have viewed some maps online. I don’t understand how “Jefferson” can be the wester boundary as it turns into Broadway. So, we do need to get that resolved, not to mention understand how Marine Villa works with the Chippawae group and the Cherokee group.
We should change the neighborhood name to Benton Park South.
^ That is an excellent idea. “Marine Villa” sounds like a pseudonym name for a place where there is heavy loading and unloading of cargo ships/barges, oil storage, waterfront related industrial uses, etc. Sure enough, look east of 55 and what do you see? Benton Park South connotes the historic fabric of the area. This renaming should be first on the agenda for the re-energized community organization. Oh, and Craig Schmid? He’s not the enemy.
If a name change was to be made I would rather see something original that doesn’t include Benton Park.
About Craig the Alderman… He has done wonderful things in his ward. He has worked with other neighborhood groups and helped them succeed. I just saw a post yesterday at (http://stlua.blogspot.com/2007/11/alderman-schmid-no-music-beer-or.html) about one of the great things he did in BPW:
†Just wanted to say a few good things about Craig…
Yesterday we had a hearing at City Hall, in refernce to a used car lot. Out of 5 hearing for 5 differnet wards he was the alderperson there supporting his residents and what the belive. All the other Alderperson just wrote letters.
Alderman Schmid is working his butt for Benton Park West Dog Park, Craig has done tons for us to obtain an extra lot so our dog can be double in size.â€
Craig often goes the extra mile for things he believes. I also read an article in the Post the other day about Craig standing up for one of his constituents.
This is not an Us v. Craig issue. It is an Us vs the President of the MVIA (who happens to be Craig the Alderman)