Accusing his fellow Jefferson County Council members of playing politics, Jim Kasten did not take his ouster from the county’s Port Authority’s Board of Directors quietly.
“There is too much ideology on this council – people coming in here with set beliefs that can’t be changed or altered no matter how much evidence there is to the contrary,” he said after the council voted 5-0 at its Dec. 27 meeting against reappointing Kasten (District 5, Herculaneum) to another term on the Port Authority’s board.
Kasten has been a member of the Port Authority board for eight years; the reappointment would have extended his tenure through the end of 2018.
Kasten abstained and George Engelbach (District 4, Hillsboro) was absent.
Under the charter, County Executive Ken Waller makes appointments to various boards and commissions, and the council votes to confirm them.
He had renominated Kasten, who is the city administrator of Herculaneum, where a fledgling port development is underway.
Conflict of interest?
Councilman Don Bickowski (District 1, Eureka) made the motion to vote on Kasten’s reappointment but said he would vote against it because of Kasten’s day job.
Bickowski said he has consistently voted against placing other city administrators on the Port Authority, namely Jason Eisenbeis of Crystal City and Happy Welch, who recently resigned from his job in Festus.
Bickowski said the Port Authority should be independent of municipal governments.
“I believe there is a conflict of interest,” he said. “Nothing against Mr. Kasten, but I believe he has an even higher conflict of interest being on the council.”
Four of the five council members who voted against Kasten, a Democrat, are Republicans. Cliff Lane (District 6, De Soto) is a Democrat.
Kasten bristled at the notion that his service on the Port Authority board posed a problem.
“Never one time can you show me where there’s a conflict of interest,” Kasten told the council. “If there is, I want you to point it out right now. You don’t have any because you are all a bunch of ideologues and I’m fed up with it, and I’m going to call you out every damned time I get a chance, so get ready.”
Kasten then turned to Councilman Jim Terry (District 7, House Springs), who regularly attends Port Authority meetings.
“That goes for you, too,” he told Terry. “You saw how I acted. You saw how I treat people and act as a voice of compromise.”
“I’m concerned about a conflict,” Terry responded.
“I’m concerned about your conflict, Jim,” Kasten replied. “Everybody on this council has a conflict. This is unbelievable.”
Later, Kasten raised questions about Waller’s appointment of Councilwoman Renee Reuter (District 2, Imperial) to the East-West Gateway Council of Governments Board of Directors.
“I’d like to know from Councilwoman Reuter how she expects to judge other people for conflicts of interest and she’s going to sit on a board that directs millions of dollars to Jefferson County and not sway her opinion for her district over the other districts,” Kasten said. “I find this position way more of a conflict of interest than my appointment, especially when you have a history from me of not showing any kind of preference to one side or the other. I’d like to know how she’s going to handle that.”
“I don’t see this as a problem,” Reuter told Kasten. “I think that any money that comes into Jefferson County helps all of us. If you think there’s a conflict, go ahead and vote no.”
However, Kasten said he would vote for Reuter.
The county executive is a permanent member of the East-West board. A second representative from Jefferson County is appointed in odd-numbered years, alternating with Franklin County.
“I don’t really have any ideology like you do and will probably vote for you because our county executive thought enough of you to nominate you,” Kasten told Reuter.
Later, Kasten questioned whether Councilman Bob Boyer (District 3, Arnold) should abstain from voting on the 2017 county budget.
Boyer was elected county assessor in November and will assume control of that office in September.
“Is it appropriate for Bob to vote for this?” Kasten asked. “That seems like a conflict of interest, and I think you should abstain.”
Boyer did not abstain and the council voted 6-0 to approve the budget.
Boyer asked how Kasten believed that he (Boyer) might affect the revenue of the Assessor’s Office.
“I understand you’re upset,” Boyer said.
“You don’t understand how upset I am,” Kasten replied. “I’ve done nothing but try to get along with you people. If you had gone to the county executive before (and told Waller that they would not approve him), I wouldn’t have shown up tonight for this embarrassment.”
Attorney says no conflict
Waller said because the Dec. 27 agenda would include 12 appointments, he sent an email with those nominations on Dec. 5 to all council members so they had time to respond with any concerns.
“I had no idea that this was going to happen,” Waller said of the vote against Kasten. “I did get a call from one council member about it – about an hour before the meeting. But I had talked it over with our attorney, and he doesn’t think it’s a conflict of interest (with Kasten), and neither do I. Whenever anything has come up on that board that involves Herculaneum, he abstains from the vote. If they had a problem with him, why did they let me know at the 11th hour – really the 12th hour?”
After the meeting, Bickowski expanded on his reasons for voting against Kasten.
“He’s (Kasten) got a duty to his city, he’s got a duty to Jefferson County, he’s got a duty to the school district (Kasten also is on the Dunklin R-5 Board of Education) and a duty to the Port Authority. Which one of these duties takes precedence?”
Kasten said his focus is clear.
“Who do I serve?” he said. “The people. That’s who I serve.”
Kasten later said he felt blindsided by the vote.
“The fact that they did it behind my back is what’s really upset me,” he said. “They didn’t give me a chance to respond to any of their concerns; they just made up their minds. They embarrassed me, they embarrassed Ken, and I think they really embarrassed the whole room. I’m sad that they disrespected me and they disrespected Ken.”
Kasten said that in his role on the Port Authority board, he has worked for the county as a whole rather than just Herculaneum.
“I may not have been the first, but I was one of the more outspoken people who pushed to expand the Port Authority west of I-55 to include the whole county,” he said. “I was pushing for us to do something in Crystal City, and when the Delta Queen came up, I got behind that 100 percent. I don’t understand why they’re against city administrators. People know us, and I think our being on the board gives the Port Authority a little more credibility, more validity. We have contacts and knowledge that other people may not have. I don’t understand why someone would think that those things aren’t assets.”
Lane returns to Port Authority
Bickowski said he always has believed that council members should not serve on the Port Authority board. He cited Lane, whose final meeting on the council was Dec. 27. Lane served on the Port Authority board before he was elected to the council in 2010 but resigned soon after he took office.
“Cliff and I had a brief conversation about a possible conflict of interest,” Bickowski said. “I told him that I thought that serving two government entities with overlapping power may be a bad idea. He resigned soon after that. And that’s the key – entities with overlapping power and interests.”
Now that Lane has departed from the County Council, he is returning to the Port Authority board. Waller nominated him to replace Welch, who has taken a job in Harrisonville, and the council voted to approve him 6-0 at its Jan. 10 meeting. Kasten was absent from that meeting.
“Appointments to the Port Authority by state law are by political party, and both (Welch and Kasten) are Democrats,” Waller said. “When I learned that Happy would be leaving a few weeks ago, I asked Cliff whether he might be interested in returning to the Port Authority, and after thinking it over for a couple of weeks, he said he would be OK with serving for a couple of years.”
Other appointments
The council voted 6-0 to approve Waller’s other appointments and reappointments, which included Derrick Good to the Port Authority’s board, Alex Schwent to the Industrial Development Authority, Kelly Steffens and Audrey Mitchell to the Mental Health Fund Board, Karla Fincher to the Board of Equalization, Clyde Pratt to the Jefferson County Sewer District, James Huber and Robert Conley to the Northeast Public Sewer District, Vincent Coleman to the Developmental Disabilities Resource Board and Phil Amato to the Jefferson County Library Board.