Editorial
There are few competitive races in south county in this election, but the one competive aldermanic race is in Green Park.
With Mayor Bob Reinagel stepping down, Ward 2 Alderman Tim Thuston is the only candidate who filed for mayor. That creates a vacancy in Thuston’s Ward 2 seat. Residents Donald Lattray and Matthew Farwig are running to replace him.
Voters could be excused if they didn’t know that, however: Neither candidate returned our questionnaire.
Asked why he wouldn’t return his questionnaire, Lattray said he and Farwig are neighbors: “I don’t care if he wins and he don’t care if I win. It’s not a big deal.”
The Green Park Board of Aldermen oversees millions of dollars in tax money and thousands of residents of south county.
And the Green Park Call (that’s us) has covered every aspect of the city for 20 years. We’re not stopping now.
These are our readers, and as our mission statement says, “We dedicate ourselves to the public.” Green Park residents deserve to know just as much about their elected officials as people who live in larger cities.
Because they obviously know each other, Lattray and Farwig can essentially work together to not have to fill out the questionnaire and leave voters in the dark. We fail to see how either of these men would make a worthwhile alderman.
And as for Lattray’s insinuation that he could be the possible victim of identity theft for identifying his wife and children on a newspaper questionnaire, this newspaper has asked the same biographical questions about everyone from U.S. Rep. Ann Wagner to County Executive Steve Stenger to mayors to school board members, fire board directors and aldermen. Those hardworking officials take the time and effort to fill it out because they obviously want to serve the people around them in some sort of public service capacity.
We’re not sure what end Mr. Lattray wants to achieve. At the last Green Park meeting, he threatened to call Better Together to get them in to possibly conduct a lawsuit against the city so that aldermen wouldn’t talk about opposing a city-county merger.
How is that in the best interests of the city, its taxpayers or Mr. Lattray himself, who is one of those taxpayers? Possible identity theft is the least of his problems. And it’s a problem Green Park residents shouldn’t have to take on.
The Call endorses no one.
