By SCOTT MILLER
Staff Reporter
The opening bell rang and the two candidates seeking the 6th District County Coun-cil seat began swinging.
Actually, Councilman John Campisi, R-south county, spent most of the evening dodging verbal punches from Democratic challenger Julie Leicht of Concord, who repeatedly tried to lambaste the incumbent’s character at a candidate forum last week.
The two will square off in the Nov. 2 election for the council seat, which carries a four-year term.
The candidates’ remarks on issues affecting St. Louis County had to wait for the smoke to clear. By that time, Leicht and Campisi had time to answer one question regarding job and business growth from a resident who attended the Oct. 7 forum sponsored by the South County Chamber of Commerce.
The candidates did give brief opening remarks about their qualifications before the finger-pointing began, however.
Campisi said, “Under my leadership, St. Louis County government has been brought to the people of the 6th District with evening meetings to allow more citizen input and involvement and monthly town-hall forums in the community. I established citizen advisory groups to collaborate developer proposals for the citizens to maintain common-sense development.
“My office has been working with neighborhood preservation to ensure that we maintain property values in St. Louis County. During my council term, many important issues have been brought forward to the council that I personally have responded to. I’ve worked with the state legislators and their leadership to resolve the property tax problems. I’ve arranged for caravans for homeowners to travel to Jefferson City to meet with our state legislators. I’ve worked with the Republicans and the legislators to help pass the Homestead Preservation Act to give property tax relief to our senior citizens. I’ve worked with the council members to pass legislation to stop the unfair drive-by property tax reassessments,” he continued.
“My office has been instrumental in bringing new companies and jobs into the St. Louis County area. I’ve helped businesses move from the city to St. Louis County. Small and large companies continue to develop in our community to give more stability to our residential properties, safer neighborhoods and build a strong tax base to support our schools,” Campisi said.
Leicht began her opening statement discussing her educational background and her time spent as an assistant to former St. Louis Mayor Vince Schoemehl. Leicht also served as an aide to former County Councilman Jeff Wag-ener, whom Campisi defeated four years ago.
“Over the last four years,” she said, “I’ve been concerned with the lack of leadership in our community,” she said. “South county has been fraught with controversy and turmoil. A lot of issues have not been addressed and we have not been moving forward. I think we can do better.
“Let me tell you a little bit about my background,” she continued. “I have a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Missouri-Columbia. My first position was I worked for the (Missouri) Division of Fam-ily Services in Jefferson City in the financial management section where we compiled the $800 million budget request of the Division of Family Services. Now to compare that to the county budget for 2004, which is $192 million, the budget that I was responsible for coordinating was four times as large.
“In addition to my experience with the state, I also served as an aide to Mayor Schoemehl for eight years working in the operations of city government,” Leicht said. “I have the experience of bringing diverse groups of people together working toward consensus and achieving a common goal. I have the education, the qualifications and the experience to lead south county forward.”
As Leicht concluded her opening remarks, the feud began.
“This evening I was interested in learning a little bit more about my opponent and his stance on some key issues,” she said. “For example, the paper reported Mr. Campisi breaking his campaign promise, saying he wasn’t going to take campaign money from developers. He said he wouldn’t take money from developers and he has.
“He acts as if the rules don’t apply to him,” Leicht continued. “It’s like when he stole water from that hydrant after the city told him to stop. In addition, what really concerns me is I’ve had several conversations with local developers in the community who have been invited to Mr. Campisi’s restaurant for so-called ‘theme nights,’ and a lot of time these individuals feel they can’t refuse the invitation for fear of retribution from Mr. Campisi.
“Mr. Campisi says he doesn’t take bribes. I think that’s an unusual thing for a candidate to say. I think it would be strange if a candidate said, ‘If elected, I won’t commit murder.’ It’s the same thing. I think we can do better and the citizens of south county deserve better,” she concluded.
Campisi already had given his opening remarks, but did rebut Leicht’s allegations later in the forum. He said he has only taken contributions from development company employees, not developers, and reminded voters of his work with the Federal Bureau of Investigation to eliminate bribery and corruption on the County Council.
Responding to Leicht’s remarks, Campisi said, “First of all, I’ll start off with the bribery part of it. Everybody knows that I helped and worked with the Federal Bureau of Investigation to stop bribery, stop corruption in county government. I feel very strongly about taking bribes. No-body should be taking any kind of bribes at all. I think I was the one that brought that to the attention of the local Police Department, and we were able to put away two people for doing such a thing.
“Second of all, I think the part about the people coming to the restaurant and having retribution, I think that’s just a bunch of crock. We’ve been in business for over 20 years, and we have a hell of a database and we use that database to get people into our restaurant.
“The part about the water,” he continued, “everybody makes mistakes. I have a paid receipt, but I have to tell you, once we paid the bill, we moved on and that’s life.”
In September 2002, Campisi pleaded guilty to two counts of tampering with a public utility. Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch had filed two charges of tampering against Campisi for filling his swimming pool in the back yard of his home in the 10100 block of Jeffleigh Lane with water from a fire hydrant on Memorial Day 2002.
“When I said I wasn’t taking developers’ money, I meant the owners of the developers, and those are the people that actually lobby the councilmen for votes,” Campisi continued. “I don’t include people that work for those companies. I don’t include the subcontractors and those kind of people… I said I wasn’t taking developer money, and if I have, I’ll send it back.”
When the exchange simmered, the two candidates re-sponded to one audience question.
Asked what they would do to stimulate job and business growth in south county, the candidates gave these responses:
Leicht said, “One of the things that we need to focus on is growing our economic base so our schools, fire and police departments remain strong. One of the ways we can do this is by reinvesting in our older neighborhoods, by drawing people back into our community. That will grow our tax base. In addition, on a statewide basis, I think we should explore the possibility of out-of-state businesses collecting taxes for us. That’s something else that will expand the tax base for us. Another thing that we need to look at in regards to this question, we need to continue to move forward as I said and not stagnate our economy into growing so that our schools do remain strong.”
Citing his last four years in office, Campisi said, “Well I think I’ve been working with that subject, the economy here and in Lemay and south county. I’ve been working with a lot of businesses. I’ve been bringing in a lot of businesses from the city. One of which was Packaging Concepts, which is doing a wonderful job here in the county. We lured them in from the city because the city doesn’t really do a real good job of holding onto the businesses there. Pack-aging Concepts is building a new facility right in Green Park, the industrial park. They currently have 300 jobs and they’ll be bringing in another 200 jobs. I’ve been working with Stupp Brothers property, Ace Hardware, which fills in the Walgreens building, Gardner Electric, which fills in the Hill Behan (Lumber Co.) building, and so this is all bringing in brand new tax money to the south county area, which is helping us out tremendously.”
At the end of the forum, each candidate had two minutes to conclude.
Campisi said, “I’ve been instrumental in helping expand businesses and decrease vacant buildings in our area for over a year-and-a-half since I started. My efforts to continue to expand economic development by encouraging growth and expansion by relocating into existing buildings, and I have explained to you some of the businesses I’ve been able to help.
“I’ve worked closely with the Lemay community to support the casino at the National Lead site, which will bring thousands of jobs. My voting record on the county council has consistently supported the needs of the county police officers, pay raises and equipment for officers. My ex-perience on the council has been to deliver results to the citizens of the 6th district, and I have served as vice chairman of the council, chairman of the Committee on Disabilities and I’m a member of the Rev-enue and Personnel (Committee).
“As a county councilman, I’ve refused to accept the status quo by accepting bribes for my vote. I worked with authorities to stop corruption in county government,” he continued. “I have personally responded to 35,000 e-mails, received 45,000 phone calls, attended 168 council meetings and I have conducted 35 town hall meetings, which has been very successful throughout the community.
“My commitment is to continue to make south St. Louis County the best place to live and to protect the property values in south county,” Campisi concluded.
Wrapping up, Leicht said, “I have 12 years of financial management experience, and I think that makes me a unique candidate to serve the residents of south county. One of the reasons I got into this race is because I grew up in south county. My husband, Mark (Kiesewetter), and I have three children and we’re committed to raising our family in this community, so I have a vested interest in the future of our south county.
“As a council member, it is critical that south county continue to focus on growing its tax base. We need to reinvest in our older neighborhoods. We need develop a comprehensive solid-based policy management. And we also have to address the financial constraints that are facing our government. There’s going to be some tough decisions that we’re going to have to make, and elected officials have to be willing to make those decisions,” she continued.
“I think voters in the 6th District have a clear choice in this election. If voters are interested in being represented by someone who has proven qualifications and ex-perience to move south county along to growth and prosperity, then the only choice in the 6th District is Julie Leicht,” she concluded.
