South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

Aldermen postpone action to remove Nieder from planning panel

Mayor’s actions contravene state law, attorney contends

Crestwood aldermen postponed removing former Ward 4 Alderman Steve Nieder from a city panel after Nieder’s attorney contended that Mayor Gregg Roby’s effort to oust Nieder “contravenes Missouri state law and is void.”

The board’s decision to postpone consideration of removing Nieder from the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission came after the board voted 6-1 to appoint Robert Sweeney, who serves as Arnold city attorney, to the panel. Board President Mike Tsichlis of Ward 4 was opposed, and Ward 3 Alderman Paul Duchild voted “present.”

In recommending Sweeney’s appointment, Roby said city code requires the eight-member Planning and Zoning Commission to have an aldermanic representative with no voting power, three citizen at-large members, and members of specific professions, including an architect, city planner, landscape architect and an attorney.

With Sweeney’s appointment, Roby said, “… So at this present time, this committee is now in compliance with the code. We have three citizens at-large. We have an attorney, a city planner and two architects …”

Nieder, who served as an alderman from 2006 to 2009, was appointed to a four-year term on the commission in September 2011 by former Mayor Jeff Schlink.

Roby invited Nieder to address the board.

However, Nieder’s legal counsel, Ron Kwentus Jr., spoke instead, saying, “As Your Honor just stated, the board you have compiled may be in compliance with the city ordinance, however, the city ordinance is in contravention of state law, and the state law supercedes city ordinance.”

Citing state law, Planning and Zoning Commission members serve four-year terms, Kwentus noted, adding, “The most important part (is): The council may remove any citizen member for cause stated in writing after public hearing.”

Though city code states appointive officers may be removed by the mayor at will and without cause with the consent of a majority of aldermen, that provision “is in conflict with the general law of the state on the same subject and (that provision) is thus void,” Kwentus said.

“The state statute prohibits removal of a member of a planning commission by a city council without cause stated in writing after a public hearing,” he continued. “Moreover, the state statute places no recognized profession requirement on the citizen at-large membership of the commission …”

Nieder first raised the issue of his removal from the commission at the June 10 board meeting, after receiving a letter from Roby that thanked him for his service on the planning panel and asked him to serve on the Board of Adjustment instead.

Roby previously said that after taking office, he reviewed the membership of the city’s boards and commissions and found many vacancies and that some people were serving whose terms had expired.

He said he mailed a form letter to members of the city’s board and commissions, asking them to update their information and whether they wished to continue to serve. If he didn’t receive a response, Roby said, “I will assume you’re not interested in serving any longer and we will replace you.”

After he did not receive a response from Nieder, Roby said he called Nieder’s house twice and left messages, but the calls were not returned.

Nieder told the Call that he did not receive the form letter or the phone calls. At the Sept. 23 board meeting, Nieder alleged that Roby illegally removed him from the Planning and Zoning Commission.

In an Oct. 20 letter sent by certified mail to Nieder, Roby wrote, “In light of your concerns, and to avoid continued factual disputes over receipt of the letters and calls, I discussed this issue with our city attorney and propose to formally act to remove you from the commission …”

Citing Roby’s letter, Kwentus said, “… Basically, Your Honor, the code upon which you base your decision is in contravention of state law and is unenforceable …”

Roby said, “… In all fairness, if you don’t mind, I’ll defer any comments regarding your legal issue here to our city attorney, (Lisa Stump). I will say that based on my oath of office to this city, it states that I will enforce the ordinances of the city of Crestwood, and that’s what I intended to do. There was no — as I’ve told Mr. Nieder — this is not (a) personal issue.

“This is not personally about him. This is about the fact that Mr. Nieder had not responded and therefore I took that as a signal that he no longer wished to serve …”

Kwentus said, “… But his four-year term is not up — is that correct?”

Roby said, “I don’t know. If he’s not legally still a member of the board, then his term is up.”

Board members then voted to postpone consideration of Nieder’s removal until Stump can review the information presented by Kwentus. Ward 4 Alderman Mike Vincent was opposed.

In a statement at the meeting, Vincent said he fully supports Roby’s efforts to remove Nieder from the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission.

“… I just wanted citizens and board colleagues to know why I continue to support our mayor’s actions,” Vincent said. “I think at the core of this discussion, in my opinion, is not our mayor’s action or his intentions, but rather Mr. Nieder’s apparent desire to serve our city.

“We would not be having this discussion if Steve had responded to either of two letters or two phone calls that he received … At our last meeting, Mr. Nieder pointed the finger at our mayor and said that his actions were politically motivated.

“I point the same finger at Mr. Nieder. If you truly desire to serve Crestwood, Steve, I suggest that the best way to do that at this juncture is to stand down. I voted for you in the past and I applaud your past service as alderman and Planning and Zoning committee member. But your belligerent and constantly critical opinions and behavior at any number of recent meetings have dishonored your previous record, in my judgment.”

Nieder responded that Vincent was “incorrect on many facets.”

“… I did not receive the letters you purport that I received, and you would have no way of knowing that anyway. Nor did I have phone calls that he (Roby) says that I was supposed to have gotten,” he said.

Nieder acknowledged the receipt of an Oct. 20 letter Roby sent certified mail to him, and noted his attorney, Kwentus, had responded.

“I am standing for what I know is correct, and I have a four-year term,” Nieder said. “It’s as simple as that … and everybody here so far, except for a few people, refuse to recognize that. You have forced me to buy counsel to make it known that this is wrong, and (Roby is) moving outside of his boundaries of power. And I think that’s pretty pitiful that a citizen has to go out and hire a lawyer to hold you guys responsible and accountable for doing the right thing …”

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