Arnold City Council members have condemned Mayor Bill Moritz’s actions during an Aug. 24 meeting that led to the removal of a councilman during a discussion about the city’s 2026-2027 budget.
Council members voted 7-1 on Sept. 3 to censure Moritz, who last month told Ward 4 Councilman Brad Cary to leave a meeting about the city’s budget due to a potential conflict of interest.
Ward 2 Councilman Michael Rother voted no on the censure.
The resolution calling for the censure, which was composed by Councilmen EJ Fleischmann (Ward 1) and Matt Saller (Ward 3), said Moritz’s actions exceeded the scope necessary to address the conflict of interest and warrants a formal corrective action by the council.
“I think what it shows for the council is that when we have a concern we have the power to work together and make sure those concerns are properly addressed,” Fleischmann, who is the mayor pro tem, said of the censure.
Saller said he believes the censure will allow city leaders to move forward and allow the council members and Moritz to work better together.
“I do believe the mayor was dealing with a legitimate conflict of interest, and it is a concern,” Saller said. “I believe he was trying to protect the city. I can understand that. My concern is the action taken went beyond the specific conflict and resulted in a council member being excluded from the broader budget discussion.
“This isn’t about embarrassing Bill or trying to remove him from office. I don’t believe one decision defines his service as mayor. It is about acknowledging what happened, making sure it doesn’t become the norm and learning from it. Then it is about getting back and working together for our constituents and the people of Arnold.”
Before the vote, Rother said he did not believe Moritz acted maliciously when he asked Cary to excuse himself from the Aug. 24 meeting. He said there was a legitimate concern about a conflict of interest.
“The mayor’s handling of this situation may not have been perfect,” Rother said. “However, I believe our greater responsibility is to correct the process that allowed the situation to occur, rather than assign formal blame to one elected official. I believe procedural reform is warranted. A form of censure is not.”
Before the council members voted, Cary said he believes he was elected to ask questions, understand issues brought before the council, protect the taxpayers’ interest and help bring more transparency and accountability to the city’s government.
“My goal has never been to create conflict,” he said. “My goal is to help build a city government where questions are welcomed, information is shared openly and elected officials can disagree professionally without fear of retaliation or intimidation.”
Before council members voted, Moritz said he promised to be open and honest after being elected as the city’s mayor in 2025. He said he has tried to remain transparent throughout the conflict that led to the censure.
“I believe it is time to move forward, learn from what has happened and stay focused on ensuring that Arnold remains a safe, strong community for everybody,” he said.
The problem
Cary on Aug. 20 had requested delaying passage of the budget because he and some other council members wanted more information about what the city planned to do and not do this fiscal year, which began Sept. 1 and runs through Aug. 31, 2027.
Council members voted unanimously on Aug. 20 to hold a second work session meeting to review the proposed budget on Aug. 24 and then decide whether to pass it during a special meeting on Aug. 27.
Between Aug. 20 and Aug. 24, City Attorney Bob Sweeney said Arnold staff members questioned why Cary abstained from voting on a warrant item on Aug. 6.
It was discovered that he did not vote because the Nemesis Fighting Alliance, a mixed martial arts promotion that Cary’s wife, Marlene, owns, received a $10,000 Tourism Commission grant, Sweeney said.
Sweeney penned a four-page memo outlining the possible conflict. He wrote that due to the Tourism Commission budget being part of Arnold’s budget, Cary would not be able to participate in the Aug. 24 discussion unless two separate budgets, one for the city and one for the Tourism Commission, were created.
The memo said, “the member should recuse from all discussion and action on any budget or tourism-funded item that authorizes, appropriates, increases, reduces, conditions, extends, audits, rarifies or otherwise materially affected the $10,000 payment, the event or the spouse’s company.”
After reading the entire memo, Moritz said, “As we are here for budget for fiscal year ’27 review, Mr. Cary, you are excused from this discussion.”
Cary then started walking out of the council chambers before stopping and saying, “I have a question.”
Moritz responded by saying, “This is not question and answer time,” and he started the meeting after Cary left the chambers.
Before council members voted on the budget on Aug. 27, attorney Allison Sweeney said Cary would be allowed to discuss everything in the budget except for money involving the Tourism Commission and could participate in a vote to approve or reject the proposed budget.
However, Allison Sweeney said City Clerk Tammi Casey would first have to read a disclosure statement on Cary’s behalf to create a public record that his wife’s company received a tourism grant from the city, and Cary would have to agree that it was accurate.
Allison Sweeney represents Arnold along with her father, Bob Sweeney, as part of the Sweeney Law Firm.
Cary said the disclosure statement was true, and then he voted along with six other councilmen on Aug. 27 to approve the 2026-2027 fiscal year budget. Fleischmann was not at the Aug. 27 meeting.
The resolution calling for the censure said Moritz acknowledged in writing to council members that he could have handled the Aug. 24 meeting differently. The resolution said Moritz wrote, “Another approach would have been to proceed with the budget discussion with Brad except for anything related to the tourism fund. Brad could have stepped out then. If I had to do it over again, that would have been my choice.”
Fleischmann said while the censure addresses what occurred on Aug. 24, the council’s actions were about more than one meeting.
“I look at it as it is about the integrity of all of our roles as council members,” he said. “If that can happen to one councilman, it can happen to anyone at any given point.
“When you remove one person from the discussion of their ward, that is 50 percent of their representation removed from the discussion. I think that is a great way to look at it. We all come from different backgrounds. We all have different ideas. We have different thoughts. All of us together sharing our thoughts and ideas is a great thing. When you remove one of us from a conversation, you are missing a piece of the puzzle.”
Rocky relations
Fleischmann said he would describe the relationship between the mayor and council as rocky.
“I think it has been that way for a while,” he said. “Unfortunately, instead of getting better, there have been circumstances after circumstances that have led to further deterioration. I think what we have seen as a council is a lot of us are on the same page. We want to move forward, see new ideas, improve the relationship with constituents in the city, and we want to move the city forward.
“I think several council members have ideas to do that, but if it doesn’t fit the mayor’s ideas, we don’t even have the opportunity to bring those thoughts forward. We have not had the opportunity to discuss those. That has led to where we are today.”
Fleischmann said an example of the mayor ignoring him is exploring options to develop areas along Jeffco Boulevard between Hwy. 141 and the Meramec River. That area is in Ward 1 in the northern portion of Arnold.
“I think we have a lot of great opportunities there,” said Fleischmann, who was first elected to the council in 2016. “That is one area since I have been elected that I have pushed for new developments and cleanup along that area. At the beginning of the current mayor’s term, I was very hopeful that we would see a shift in that area. We just have not made any inroads there. There does not seem to be support for that.”
Saller, who was elected in April, said his relationship with Moritz is fine. He also said council meetings have been frustrating at times, and he hopes the censure will change the relationship between councilmen and Moritz.
“I want to work with the mayor and council,” Saller said. “I am not a fan of having tension. I want to work with a team to make things stronger.”