Tempers have been high lately at Pevely City Hall, with two factions vying for power. One of the factions appears to support Mayor Stephanie Haas, and the other supports Ward 1 Alderman Steve Markus, who’s challenging Haas for the mayoral seat in the April 8 election.
One sign of the rift happened Dec. 23, when the Board of Aldermen voted 5-1 during a closed session to have department heads report to Markus instead of Haas until the election. In most cities, the top staffers report to the mayor, not a board or council member.
Stephanie Haas
Those voting for the motion were Markus and Don Menkhus of Ward 1, Tyler Leeder and Steve Miles of Ward 3 and Travis Dittman of Ward 4. Ward 2 Alderman Ryan Tucker cast the only dissenting vote. Ward 2 Alderman Rick Yount and Ward 4 Alderman William Brooks did not attend the meeting.
Haas said she feels the move was politically motivated.
“I’m very disheartened at the actions of members of the board, who are being led by a few who are trying to censor issues that have been brought to my attention,” she said. “I believe they feel by taking away my authority as mayor, they can keep me from finding out what’s taking place in City Hall.
“I ran (for mayor) 10 years ago to make sure the city was abiding by all policies and procedures, and I feel as though a few within our city are trying to avoid transparency within the community. I have been questioning the actions of some employees and board members.”
Also at the Dec. 23 meeting, the majority of board members voted to limit Brooks’ access to City Hall and to deactivate his key card to get into City Hall. The motion also directed him not to have contact with the city clerk or other subordinate staff members, and instead take up any city business he has with City Administrator Andy Hixson.
During an earlier meeting, on Dec. 2, Brooks called for the formation of a committee to oversee the city attorney. Both Allison Sweeney and her father, Bob Sweeney, provide the city with legal representation. The committee would be similar to the committee that oversees the Pevely Police Department. However, no new oversight committee had been formed as of Tuesday.
Markus said the votes to rein in Haas and Brooks are justified.
Steve Markus
“The mayor and Alderman Brooks have created a volatile environment for employees,” he said. “The employees are being retaliated against for doing their jobs. When we found out, we voted (at the Dec. 23 closed meeting) to protect all the employees.”
During the board’s Feb. 3 regular meeting, Haas called for more transparency at City Hall and requested that someone from the board make a motion to “waive fees” for the Sunshine Law requests the Leader has made attempting to gain information about recent city business, and the board voted 5-2 to approve the motion. Those voting for the motion were Brooks, Leeder, Miles, Tucker and Dittmann; those who voted against were Menkhus and Markus. Yount was absent from the meeting.
The Leader asked for police pay information on Nov. 4, the day after the board voted to increase pay for most police officers. It has since filed Sunshine Law requests for budget information and other documents.
Markus said he voted against the motion out of “fairness,” saying that regular citizens must pay the fees and he knows of other cities that charge for all Sunshine Law requests.
“I know Crystal City charges, too,” Markus said.
Haas said the no votes on the matter troubled her.
Complaint, board actions on Brooks
During the Dec. 23 closed session, board members also voted to prohibit individual elected officials from “completing staff investigations and to cease all investigations into the Police Department and individual officers.” Brooks was not specifically named, but he believes Tucker had him in mind when making the motion. The motion passed 6-0, again with Brooks and Yount absent.
A city staff member filed a complaint on Dec. 23 against Brooks “for harassment, creating a hostile work environment, emotional distress and discrimination against a disability.” The Leader has received a copy of the complaint, but the city employee’s name was redacted.
William Brooks
The complaint also recounts how multiple elected officials had argued in front of the employee, who felt uncomfortable in those situations. In addition, the complaint specifically refers to Brooks making frequent requests for information and acting in a way that made the staffer feel “shaken up.”
At one point, the employee obtained a body camera from the Police Department to have because of concerns about interactions with Brooks, according to the complaint.
Brooks said his frequent requests stem from not being able to obtain city information that should be available to him, adding that he felt Haas was justified during the Feb. 3 meeting to call for more transparency in city government.
“I can’t imagine why any government official wouldn’t vote for that,” he said. “I was disheartened the press had to pay for that information and got little out of it (the initial response to the request included extensively redacted documents).”
Brooks said he feels targeted because of his inquiries into the Police Department and city attorney operations, citing that deactivation of his key card to City Hall is an example.
He said he still may enter the building like residents do, but must go through the lobby and request specific staffers to come meet him, rather than using the key card to go directly to City Hall offices.
“They do not want me roaming around the halls trying to see what’s happening,” he said.
Markus said the majority of board members did not like the way Brooks had been dealing with employees.
“The board felt (Brooks) was excessive in what he was doing,” Markus said. “The police, for one, have a bill of rights through the state. We didn’t want Pevely to get sued. You’ve got to adhere to that bill of rights.”
Markus said he feels any lack of transparency is not due to the majority of the board members, but due to the mayor and those who side with her.
“They’re not being transparent at all,” Markus said.
Allison Sweeney said any board actions targeting Brooks have to do with the employee complaint against him.
“The actions taken by the board to restrict Alderman Brooks’ access had nothing to do with a legal oversight committee or his quest for information,” Sweeney said in a written statement. “They were taken in response to a complaint received by a city employee. All actions that have been taken by the Board of Alderpersons regarding personnel have been to protect the city from liability and protect the employees.”
She said there has been no move to retaliate against Brooks for his suggestion to create a committee to oversee the city attorney.
“I have worked for the city of Pevely since 2020,” Sweeney said. “At no point has any elected official approached me with concerns regarding my services. Alderman Brooks made an offhanded comment about a legal oversight committee from his report at a meeting in December. I don’t know what an ‘oversight committee’ is, and when I attempted to ask Alderman Brooks about what he meant, he refused to speak to me and never brought it up again.”
Haas said she feels Brooks has been targeted.
“I believe the city attorney and the board grossly overstepped their authority with denying Alderman Brooks the information he was requesting so he could make an informed decision on items being addressed by the board,” she said. “I believe this is another form of censorship by denying Alderman Brooks information he believed the community should be informed of.”