Festus leaders are deciding what to do – if anything – after staff failed to place the municipal city treasurer position on the April 7 ballot.
City leaders are calling the omission an “administrative oversight.”
Lori Eisenbeis has served as the Festus city treasurer since 2012 and will continue to do so until the April 2027 election or if the mayor and City Council decide to replace her with someone else.
Appointing Eisenbeis to the position that she has run for unopposed repeatedly since 2012 was on the council’s agenda Monday night, but a motion to appoint her as city treasurer died when no council member offered to second the motion.
“Not hearing a second, the motion dies,” Mayor Sam Richards said. “So, Lori will continue to be treasurer.”
Newly elected Ward 4 City Councilman Rick Belleville had suggested tabling the appointment of Eisenbeis until the city could advertise to see if anyone else would be interested in applying for the position. Other council members said the issue should be hashed out at a work session.
Brian Malone of Lashley & Baer, the city’s law firm, said the ballot omission was discovered too late to be able to add it to the April 7 election.
He said “the error in notifying the county clerk was realized on Jan. 27,” too late to get it on the ballot.
City Council members unanimously voted to table the matter.
City Clerk Leah Smith said she had made the mistake.
“I just want to take accountability for doing this,” Smith said. “It was genuinely a mistake.”
Malone said that in many cities the treasurer position is appointed, not an elected position, and it can be a hard position to get people to run for in an election.
“Miss Eisenbeis, as the current treasurer, continues to hold the seat until her successor is appointed and qualified,” he said. “I believe a review of city records has shown no other person than Miss Eisenbeis has filed to run for the office of treasurer. So, she’ll continue to hold that until her successor is appointed and qualified.”
