Mayor Slay, Geisman, & Rainford To Be Deposed in Century Case

St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay, Deputy Mayor Barb Geisman and chief of staff (now campaign manager) Jeff Rainford have all been served subpoenas to be deposed in Century case against my friends Roger Plackemier & Marcia Behrendt.

Plackemeier & Behrendt have been accused of “malicious prosecution” over their previous legal challenges to the Old Post Office redevelopment project, which included preventing the historic Century Building from being razed and replaced by a parking garage.  The deposition date is February 27th.  The lawsuit,  first filed on April 19, 2005, will begin over four years later on Monday April 27, 2009.

I personally believe the case to be a SLAPP suit (strategic lawsuit against public participation, see Wikepidia).  Slay, Geisman & Rainford will be questioned about the withdrawal of an alternative plan for the redevelopment of the Syndicate Trust/Century Building by a development team that included Craig Heller and Kevin McGowan.  Heller was later able to obtain and renovate the Syndicate Trust.

Both sides will be presenting motions before the court this morning at 9am.  See all my Century Building related posts dating back to 2004 here.

Candidate Questionnaire Responses from the 25th Ward

Four years ago I was a candidate for Alderman in the 25th Ward, losing with 44.1% of the vote in the 2-way race . In November 2007 I moved downtown to a loft in the City’s 6th Ward where Kacie Starr Triplett was elected earlier in the year after a 3-way race.

Dorothy Kirner, who defeated me in 2005, decided not to run again this time.  Four candidates filed as Democrats.  The winner of the March 3rd Democratic primary will potentially face Independent Chris Clark on April 4th (assuming he submitted signatures yesterday and they are verified).

This election cycle I sent out letters to candidates in contested primary races asking them to complete an online questionnaire.  The following are answers from three of the four candidates on the Democratic ballot in the 25th Ward: Shane Cohn, Travis Reems and Angie Singler.  A fourth candidate did not respond.

4. Campaign website URL is (this WILL be published). Type ‘none’ if you don’t have a website/blog.

Cohn:  www.myward25.com

Reems: http://www.WardUnited.com

Singler:   www.Ward25.com

5. List your 3 main qualifications for the position?

… Continue Reading

Missourians Against Red Light Cameras

This just in from local singer and anti-red light camera activist Jesse Irwin:

The bill that would ban red light cameras in Missouri, SB211, is being ambushed. It was granted a premature, unexpected hearing by the Senate Transportation Committee scheduled for this Wednesday, February 18th at 8am at the capitol in Senate Conference Room 1. We have to keep them from killing the bill before it gets to the senate floor. I need people to do one of three things.

1. Call or email one or all of the senators on the committee. You can find them here:

http://www.senate.mo.gov/09info/comm/tran.htm

Let them know you don’t like the cameras and you support the passage of SB211

2. Give me a written statement saying they do not like these cameras, etc. You can fax it to 968-5981 or send it to irwinjes@webster.edu. I  will take it to the capitol for you and enter it into the record

3. Ride to jeff city with me on Wednesday morning to sit in on the hearing.

There is a lot of big money trying to stop us, so we are going to have to be loud and persistent.

I am organizing a group of people who will be driving down to attend the hearing. If anyone is interested in going and would like a ride, they can send me an email at irwinjes@webster.edu or call me at 314-775-5760.

Thanks again,

Jesse Irwin

http://www.redlightcameraban.com/

Now that I’m driving a car again I’m concerned about the cameras.  Not that I might get caught doing something I shouldn’t — that a camera might falsley cite me.

Candidate Questionnaire Responses from the 23rd Ward

I recently contacted candidates in contested primary races for the city’s March 3, 2009 primary.  The following are the responses received in the 7-way Democratic primary for the 23rd Ward.  I received responses from Colleen Bridges, Doug Dick, Mary Homan, Forrest “Woody” Lange, Kevin Toal and Joe Vacarro.  Not everyone answered all the questions.

The first 3 questions were related to name, phone number and a secret code to ensure it was the candidate answering the questions.

4. Campaign website URL is (this WILL be published). Type ‘none’ if you don’t have a website/blog.

Bridges:     colleenbridges-23rdward.com

Dick:    dougdick.com

Homan: www.maryhoman.com

Lange:   vote4lange

Toal:  www.KRTOAL23RDWARD.COM

Vaccarro:    www.stlvaccaro.com

5. List your 3 main qualifications for the position?

… Continue Reading

New Poll; Ready for digital TV?

Each Sunday I change the poll question that appears on the upper right of the main page. This week I want to know if you are ready for the change to digital TV. I know Congress has extended the deadline from February 17th to June 12th but about a third of the “full power” stations will stick to the 17th –Tuesday! The balance will make the switch between March 14th and June 12th.

Two stations in the St. Louis market will make the change at midnight Tuesday: WRBU (46) and KDNL (ABC30).

From KDNL’s website:

For the past year, television stations, including this station, have notified viewers of the February 17, 2009 analog shutoff date through on-air announcements, informational crawls, full-length programs, and their website. As a result, in order to avoid additional confusion due to the date change and as permitted by the recently enacted legislation, this station has notified the FCC that we would like to cease analog operations on February 17, 2009, as originally planned, and the FCC has consented to this station’s plans for early termination. As required by the FCC, we are currently airing announcements throughout the day to inform our viewers that we will terminate analog broadcasting on effective at 11:59PM on February 17.

So if you are still analog you can watch Scrubs & Deal or No Deal on Tuesday but if you want to watch Lost, Grey’s Anatomy, Ugly Betty, Barbara Walters Special or Oscars within the week you’d better get busy or call a friend who is digital prepared.

I have not had a TV since moving to my loft in November 2007 so come the 18th my life won’t be any different than today. Although I’ve enjoyed the break, I am planning to purchase a small (26″) HDTV soon – I miss CBS Sunday Morning and 60 Minutes

So take a minute and answer the poll above in the upper right corner of the main page. Add any comments you have below.