Gene Barbagallo is the newest member of the Jefferson County Council.
Barbagallo, 72, of Imperial was selected by the other six members of the council on Feb. 27 to succeed Renee Reuter, who resigned her District 2 seat late in 2022 before she was sworn in to the District 112 seat in the Missouri House of Representatives.
Reuter had served on the council since it was formed in 2011.
Barbagallo and six other applicants for the vacant seat were interviewed by the council, a process that took 2 1/2 hours in an open session, before going behind closed doors to choose the new council member.
Seventeen minutes later, Barbagallo was announced as the victor.
He then was sworn in and took his place on the dais.
Barbagallo said he had a simple motive for seeking the position.
“To be honest, I observed the other people who were applying, and I figured I could possibly do a better job,” he said.
The other applicants included Billy Crow Jr., Jeremy Day, Alicia Embree, Richard Lamborn, Alan Leaderbrand and Jeff Roorda.
Barbagallo will serve through the end of 2024 after primary and general elections for even-numbered council seats will be held.
He said he hasn’t yet determined whether he will seek a full four-year term.
“If my health is as good as it is now and no one files for that spot that I believe is a viable person who can take this thing over, I would have to consider filing,” he said.
Barbagallo’s goals
Barbagallo said he has a few goals he wants to accomplish in the meantime.
“I’d like to see permits for demolition of derelict property reduced to just a token amount,” he said. “The people who are applying for those permits are doing a service to the county, and I’d say I’d like to help them as much as possible.”
He said he’d also push for a change in the way the county deals with property owners along streams.
“I brought a proposal for stabilization of banks to the county a few years ago, but it didn’t gain much traction,” he said. “There are a number of areas in all parts of the county where there is erosion along stream banks, and the property owners start with the (U.S. Army) Corps of Engineers, the EPA (federal Environmental Protection Agency) and the DNR (state Department of Natural Resources), and they’re all fine to deal with. But then when you go to the county, you have to have the plans that the Corps have approved transferred by an engineer onto his letterhead, and that can cost thousands, and they haven’t added any work to the process. You don’t have to look far to see stream beds in terrible shape all around the county, and we should be making it easier to address those problems, rather than making it tougher.”
Barbagallo’s background
Barbagallo said his extensive experience should be a benefit to the council.
As a shop steward for the Teamsters Union, Barbagallo said he negotiated several contracts. He has served on the Board of Directors for the C-1 Public Water Supply District since 2009, and he has served on the Jefferson County Planning and Zoning Commission and Board of Adjustment.
He said he plans to keep his water district board seat if possible.
“I understand there’s a lot of work to being on the council, but a lot of people connected with the water district have asked me to continue on the board, and if I can balance the two, I’m going to try.”
A 1969 Fox High School graduate, Barbagallo is a retired farmer and property manager who also worked in the quarry industry and as the shop manager for a heavy construction equipment hauler.
He also had attended the U.S. Air Force Crash Fire and Rescue Academy, where he was trained in pilot rescue.
Barbagallo said he is a descendant of Jean Baptist Gamache, the first European settler in the Arnold area. Barbagallo said Gamache, his sixth great-grandfather, operated a ferry across the Meramec near the Flamm Park boat landing.
“He’d sometimes stay overnight on the Jefferson County side, which makes him one of the first residents of the county,” Barbagallo said.
He and his wife, Gail, have six children and 23 grandchildren.
Council switches up rules
Charles Groeteke (District 4, Barnhart) said the process to fill the council chair, which began in January, was a lengthy one.
“Some of it was quite contentious,” he said.
Barbagallo was chosen on the third ballot, as votes on first Crow and then Roorda failed to produce the majority needed.
In both those cases, council members Brian Haskins (District 1, High Ridge) and Scott Seek (District 5, Festus) voted yes, and Groeteke, Shannon Otto (District 3, Arnold), Dan Stallman (District 6, De Soto) and Bob Tullock (District 7, House Springs) cast dissenting votes.
Under new rules of procedure the council approved late in 2022, after two failed votes, each council member would be asked to rank all candidates.
However, all six voted to suspend that rule and proceed to a third straight-up vote, and Barbagallo was elected, with Otto, Groeteke, Stallman and Tullock voting for him and Haskins and Seek voting against his appointment.
“I supported him (Barbagallo) because of his experience with the county and with county government,” Groeteke said.
He said a newly formed council committee will examine its rules of procedure, including the move for a ranked system after two failed votes.
“It was my interpretation that all of the council members didn’t want to go to a ranking so soon,” he said. “I believe in this particular instance, it was the right way to go.”