“Call the Tune” by Mike Anthony
Executive Editor
news1@callnewspapers.com

The past year certainly was a wild ride for candidates for the Call’s Most Misguided Quotes of the Year.
As usual, we have more quotes than space for our annual column in which we chronicle the most misguided, misinformed and misleading statements of the year. We offer two of the Most Misguided Quotes of 2017 selected from previous columns and another just too good to be overlooked.
Embattled county Auditor Mark Tucker told another publication that he has to work nights and weekends because the deputy auditor quit shortly after Tucker took office in March.
“If I only did it between 9 to 5, nothing would get done,” Tucker said.
But Tucker has worked one weekend day and has regularly missed Wednesdays, according to a review of his badge logs through late August.
His first 20 business days in office, he missed eight days entirely.
Furthermore, county documents through August show he has not taken any paid time off, the county’s version of vacation and sick days.
While Tucker claims he’s working hard, the appearance is that he’s hardly working, especially since he still has yet to produce a single audit.
Despite the lack of audits, County Council Chairman Sam Page, D-Creve Coeur, defended Tucker’s hiring as a real catch for county taxpayers in an email to a reporter.
“Auditor Mark Tucker brings experience and skills earned in the private sector and state government to this position. We were lucky to be able to hire him,” Page wrote.
And then there’s Matt Alonzo, a Parkway teacher elected to the Lindbergh school board in April.
In the Call’s candidate questionnaire, Alonzo said, “I have not been satisfied with the leadership of our current superintendent, Jim Simpson. On multiple occasions I have witnessed him making comments that belittle and undermine our students and staff. When the superintendent says we are at war with teachers over salary, that sends a powerful and disappointing message …”
We’d be hard pressed to recall any of the so-called “multiple occasions” where the superintendent belittled or undermined students and staff, let alone any reference he made to “war.”
But, hey, never let the facts get in the way of a good story, especially during a successful political campaign.
Next week: In honor of 10 years of publishing the Most Misguided Quotes, we’ll select some of the best ones from the past decade.