As they have been threatening to do for a while, Jefferson County Republicans officially began devouring one another last week. At least they picked up silverware and got the hot sauce ready.
Seven people who all have either been candidates or activists in one way or another announced they were starting a petition drive to recall County Executive Ken Waller, a fellow Republican.
Waller has clashed with the ultra-conservative/Tea Party majority of the County Council for years. The straw that stirred the Tea into action was his support of Jefferson County joining a prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP) that the council voted 4 to 3 not to join.
The council, however, was thwarted when the Jefferson County Health Department passed an ordinance to establish a PDMP, which is a database aimed at eliminating doctor-shopping, a common practice among those addicted to opioids and other prescription drugs.
Opponents have cited privacy concerns, which is code for, “They’re coming to get our guns.”
The privacy claim is a crock – Google and Facebook have a hundred times more information on citizens than the PDMP would have.
Forty-nine states have a PDMP. Missouri still does not, which prompted St. Louis County to start a regional program, the same one the County Council voted not to join. Ste. Genevieve County, by contrast, voted to join it after 10 minutes of discussion. The Jefferson County Council stalled for six months before voting it down.
Waller, the petitioners allege, “has declared war on his own people.” The petition also claimed that Waller “empowered” the Health Department to do an end run on the council on the PDMP issue, even though the Health Department has long had the authority to enact ordinances.
But somehow, Ken Waller made them do it!
The petitioners also brought up that Waller is one of 13 current and former officeholders who are party to a lawsuit against the county seeking higher wages. The plaintiffs are basing their case on language in the county charter, passed by voters in 2008, that they believe says Jefferson County officeholders should be paid at least as much as the highest-paid equivalent officeholder in any first-class county in Missouri.
One of the more delicious aspects of the lawsuit is that the plaintiffs are being represented by attorney Derrick Good, one of four lawyers on the 14-citizen Charter Commission who authored the charter. Write an unclear document, get it passed, then sue over the language and collect a big contingency fee. Really?
The suit was filed in December 2015, all local judges disqualified themselves and no court date has been set by the out-of-town judge assigned to the case. Most of the plaintiffs are former Democratic officeholders who either retired or were vanquished in Republican landslides in 2010, 2014 and 2016.
Most. One of the plaintiffs is Republican Public Administrator Steve Farmer, who is not targeted in the petition’s barrage of charges against Waller, who is accused of a “money grab” and other atrocities. Neither is Democratic Collector Beth Mahn, the only other current officeholder besides Waller and Farmer who is a plaintiff.
To be sure, this is not a high-minded lawsuit, based on one fuzzy sentence in the charter. If successful, the plaintiffs could claim back wages and benefits as far back as 2009.
Waller has set aside $1.2 million in this year’s budget to pay the tab if the judge rules for the plaintiffs, but the damage could be even greater – current officeholders continue to collect pay that a successful lawsuit could backdate at a higher rate.
If a judge rules that the higher wages should have been paid all along, other officeholders – most of them Republicans – also could collect.
Will all those current Republican officeholders take the money? Will it be characterized as a “money grab?”
Naw. This is all about putting the worst possible face on Waller, who has repeatedly stuck to his principles and stood up to the wack jobs who hold sway on the County Council.
For this, he must be punished.
A week or more into the Waller witch hunt, Leader reporters are still trying to get someone to say how much the special recall election would cost if the petitioners are successful in gathering the 21,179 signatures of registered voters needed to put it on the ballot.
Admittedly, it’s a difficult question to answer because it depends on when the election is held and how many other entities are holding elections that day, which would spread the cost around.
So, these patriots and protectors of the purse are going after Waller with a blank check.
If they get their petitions gathered and a recall election is ordered, that check will be filled in and taxpayers will pick up the tab.
Sounds about right. Way, way right.
