There are a lot of personal attacks in national politics these
days, but the New Wentzvillian has to wonder if that is what Wentzville
wants. One thing is for certain, in this
April's race for Mayor, challenger Chris Gard has been relentless in his failed
attempts over the years to smear the name of Mayor Nick Guccione.
Given the New Wentzvillian's fact gathering over the past half a
decade, we cannot find one instance where Mayor Nick Guccione attempted to
besmirch ANY political opponent.
However, Chris Gard has formed a habit of attempting to do just that to
Mayor Nick Guccione. It has really gotten old.
In fact, in his campaign literature and on his website, Gard says
that if he is elected he will create a citizens committee to investigate any
wrong-doing by city officials. Is this Gard's 2016 version of Senator
McCarthy's Un-American Activities Committee?
As The New Wentzvillian sees it, Gard's committee
would essentially amount to his own personal political revenge committee and would
be used to intimidate and threaten his political enemies -- Not unlike what the
Republican Party wishes they could do to Donald Trump.
Gard's biggest challenge in this election are the facts. Mayor Guccione has done an outstanding job
during his four years as Mayor and has earned another term. The proof is all around us. Wentzville is a great
hometown and by any measure our community is one of the best places to call
home. Have you ever driven through a random neighborhood on a sunny day? OMG!
Families, kids, neighbors everywhere!
We are a safe community where our children and grandchildren can
enjoy playing in our many parks and participating in recreational opportunities. We are also a retirement friendly community
that cares about its seniors. Under
Guccione's guidance, our city has continued to honor its history and the
service of our veterans, as well as our police and firefighters, who put their
lives on the line to keep us safe.
Wentzville is also an attractive community for new business,
industry and job creation. It is why we
are one of the fastest growing cities in the state. In the year 2000 our city had a little less
than 7,000 residents. Today we have a
population of around 35,000. That is a
500% increase in just fifteen years.
That we have been able to keep up with the rate of growth is a tribute
to the teamwork between Mayor Nick Guccione and the aldermen.
Wentzville is a great community made up of great residents
who care about each other. We deserve a
Mayor who wants to serve for all the right reasons. The New Wentzvillian proudly recommends
Mayor Nick Guccione for re-election on Tuesday April 5th
Nice post Michael. How is pointing out facts about nick mudslinging?
ReplyDeleteCiting the city growth over a 15 year period is not a supportive fact for a Mayor who has not been Mayor over those 15 years. Most of the job growth in Wentzville is low paying jibs. Most Wentzville answer work outside of the city. The parks plan was in the works before he became Mayor. Anyone running against an incumbent is going to point out the truth of what they believe should be changed such as the health care they decided to give themselves. The citizen committee Gard proposes is to be the watchdog of our city officials instead of our officials policing themselves. They way you wrote this article makes me think it was bought and paid for since you really didn't have any facts but merely opinions.
ReplyDeleteShow me one time where Chris Gard has launch a personal attack on Mayor Guccione please. Challenging policy is not personal, it is politics. Now it's mayor Guccione's turn to defend his policy instead of hiding behind a blanket statement of running a "clean campaign." Please. Seems like a sneaky way to get out of having to fess up to being caught. Defend your policy Mr. Mayor. By the way, it should be mentioned that the writer of this article, I believe, is the mayor's lawyer, Carter, and he will himself be running for office soon, most likely depending on help from Mr. Guccione if I had to guess. If I am wrong, show me some facts proving that I am wrong. Quit hiding you guys! Come out and stand up and be accountable for your words and deeds. Defend the facts Gard has put up with some facts of your own. You owe us that.
ReplyDeleteI agree. Chris is running a clean campaign. The mayor is upset about being caught with a high raise and free taxpayer insurance.
ReplyDeleteIt appears to me that all of you are hiding since all your comments are anonymous.
ReplyDeleteColleen Simon
There have been many non-anonymous comments that have not been kept on the blog. Not sure why Mr. Carter refuses to publish the comments with names attached. The Facebook version of the post has many responses, and also many that were deleted since they did not side with Mr. Carter's views on the mayoral election.
Delete"In fact, in his campaign literature and on his website, Gard says that if he is elected he will create a citizens committee to investigate any wrong-doing by city officials. Is this Gard's 2016 version of Senator McCarthy's Un-American Activities Committee?" ...
DeletePublic officials (and company executives, and non-profit organizations) need non-partisan, citizen oversight to prevent those in power from strong-arming their positions on officials in the minority, as well as to keep those elected officials ethical. An official not being open to such oversight is disconcerting. Does Mayor Guccione and Mr. Carter have something to hide, which causes them to be so adamantly against an oversight committee made up of citizens?
Amen Colleen!!! Anyone who posts as Anonymous is already discredited.
DeleteMany comments were deleted. Judge Michael Carter runs this blog. He says so on his resume page. I have seen nothing that shows Chris mudslinging. I feel they are back peddling because they got caught. I'm sure they will have some nice mailer coming out soon.
ReplyDeleteGard filed spurious and unfounded charges against the Mayor with the County Prosecutor and other agencies that all refused to follow up on such baseless attacks. He then tries to get the Board of Aldermen involved by filing charges with the police, but they also rejected his charges as baseless and without merit. Oh, and he times that all to take place just before he files for office at the last minute. Gee sounds like a pretty negative campaign to me.
ReplyDeleteTHE ONLY MUDSLINGING GOING ON IS BY YOU TOWARDS MR. GARD. DO YOU THINK WE ARE STUPID?
ReplyDeleteThe Real Cost of Elected Official Health Coverage
ReplyDeleteHealth insurance coverage for elected officials will cost far more than just the monthly premiums paid by the city. In fact, the monthly cost is a fraction of total insurance expenses to taxpayers. For elected aldermen, combined with approved pay increases, this could represent a total compensation to more than $28,000 a year, a 560 percent over the $5,000 a year salary aldermen are now receiving.
Here is how that would work:
The city of Wentzville maintains a self-funded health insurance plan. What that means is the city purchases a particular plan from a health insurance provider that provides access to that company’s provider network. In addition to underwriting the majority of monthly premiums for employees, the taxpayers foot the bill for medical costs. This keeps insurance rates lower than if the city just purchased coverage from a carrier.
In simple terms, that means that each time an employee goes to a doctor’s appointment, gets an X-ray, is hospitalized, or any other medical issue, taxpayers foot about 90 percent of the bill, up to a limit of $75,000 per person each year. That is when a separate insurance policy kicks in to make medical payments.
In its meeting of July 22, 2015, the city was informed by its consultant that total dollars spent on health care were projected to be approximately $2.4 million during 2016, with $1.8 million paid out in medical claims. That works out to an average of about $9,300 per participant. Those projections did not include the participation of the Mayor and Board of Aldermen.
Just based on the average of a single participant, that would bring aldermen total compensation to potentially reach nearly $28,000 a year, up from about $5,000 now – an increase of nearly 560 percent per year for aldermen and the mayor, if they participated in the health insurance program, and that does not include covered family members. That’s $10,000 more a year than a $9-an-hour retail employee - the starting rate for Wal Mart employees - would receive for working a 40-hour week in Wentzville.
I was appalled to read The Wentzvillian interpret Gard’s invitation for citizens to oversee the officials as this scare tactic: “Is this Gard's 2016 version of Senator McCarthy's Un-American Activities Committee? As The New Wentzvillian sees it, Gard's committee would essentially amount to his own personal political revenge committee and would be used to intimidate and threaten his political enemies -- Not unlike what the Republican Party wishes they could do to Donald Trump.” McCarthyism? Revenge? Intimidation? Threats? That’s what it means to Mr Carter for citizens to hold officials accountable? I am not using my name because my only fear is that the current administration would black list me from working for the city. After 6 years of political scandal here, I wish we had not moved to Wentzville.
ReplyDelete