City Council Delays Code Clarifications, Votes Down Court Reporting Changes

Mayor Bill Hennessy and several councilmen began Thursday night’s city council regular session by encouraging O’Fallon residents to support relief efforts in Joplin, MO, where a deadly tornado struck earlier this week. Mayor Hennessy said that local officials and the State Emergency Management Agency had the staff and supplies necessary for their immediate response, but cash donations were being encouraged.

“As images from Joplin spread through the media, we immediately start to wonder what we can do to help,” said Hennessy. “If any residents or businesses are interested in supporting the relief efforts in Joplin, the best way is to make a monetary donation to the Red Cross via their website, www.redcross.org, where the residents can specifically mark donations for the Joplin relief efforts.”

In old business, council was scheduled to vote on the adoption of Bill 6090, sponsored by Hennessy. The bill would have eliminated some records reporting requirements for municipal courts to the city council, but was voted down six to three after Ward 2’s Jim Pepper spoke out against it.

Pepper said both city and state code requires a list of all cases heard or tried by a city judge be presented to the city council, but that his records request had been ignored by the courts since September. He said with this bill city administration wanted to eliminate the reporting requirements for these public records altogether.

“This would basically undermine the policy of openness and transparency so much espoused by our local administration and this council,” said Pepper. “I would ask the council to also instruct the court to abide by the law, meaning not only the city code, but the statutes of the state of Missouri.”

Pepper told O'Fallon Patch on Friday, that he was now “in talks with administration to facilitate the retrieval of the records” he requested.

, the council was also scheduled to vote on Bill 6087, to amend sections of the city code regarding the parking of commercial vehicles in residential and public parking lots. The issue was instead tabled for further discussion, as on April 28 and May 12, in order to discuss a timeframe requirement in the bill’s language.

Another tweak to the language of city code, Bill 6088, was withdrawn so a clearer version could be reintroduced next month. The measure will make minor changes to the definition of the word “nuisance,” to be more easily understood by both members of the community and those enforcing the laws. Councilman Pepper said a cleaner version of the bill with exact wording will be given a first reading at the next city council workshop and meeting, along with an anticipated “plain language” bill aimed at making city code clearer and more simplified in general.

In new business, the council voted to table resolution 05-26-2011B, a contract awarded to Schneider Construction for restrooms at Westhoff Park. According to Ward 5 Councilman Mike Pheney, a subsidiary of the same corporation, Schnieder Custom Homes, reportedly failed to show up to an O’Fallon court to pay fines.

In a workshop prior to the regular session where the issue was discussed, Council President Pro-tem Jeff Schwentker said, “It’s not something that is pressing, so if you [Councilman Pheney] or Councilman Howell have any other questions that are unanswered and you want them, make a motion to table it.”