St. George Write-In Campaign Was Sparked by Alleged Plan to Revive Speed Trap

The former mayor of St. George was negotiating with other municipalities for police services, perhaps in an effort to beef up the traffic fines flowing into city coffers, according to the new mayor and the chief of a neighboring police force involved in the discussions.

This Tuesday, St. George swore in a new mayor and several new aldermen after an successfully of the open city races in the April 5 municipal elections.

Former Mayor Mary Kaufmann told Patch her discussions with other police departments were only designed to give her information the city could use in contract renegotiations with the St. Louis County Police.

But documents and conversations with some of those involved in the discussions say they went further.

The recent political drama in St. George is only the latest in a long string of controversial incidents in recent years. Until 2009, when the city began contracting for police service from the St. Louis County Police, St. George was notorious as a speed trap. Drivers exiting Interstate 55 at Reavis Barracks Road were often ticketed for going as little as 3 or 4 miles per hour over the speed limit.

According to new Mayor Carmen Wilkerson, who succeeded Kaufmann, the former mayor planned to bring back the speed trap by contracting for police service with the north county municipality of Charlack, which put up speed cameras to ticket drivers on Interstate 170. That plan inspired Wilkerson to lead the write-in campaign, with hopes of eventually moving the city toward disincorporation.

“Wanting to go back to the private police department, that was just outrageous,” said Christina Charpentier, who ran on the pro-disincorporation write-in ticket for an unclaimed board of aldermen seat in Ward 2.

Wilkerson said she believes the idea was to end St. George’s contract with the county police in favor of a police department that would be amenable to writing more traffic fines. Without the revenue provided by the old speed trap, Wilkerson said, the city was having trouble paying the salaries of its mayor, aldermen, city administrator, attorney, treasurer and building/health commissioner and streets/park supervisor. These salaries cost the city $90,000 out of a total $234,500 in expenditures projected for 2011.

In 2008, St. George took in $152,884 in revenue from arrest notices and court costs. In 2009, after St. George dissolved its police department and contracted with the county, that revenue stream was down to $104,753.

“That revenue is needed to continue the existence of our city, which is not needed at all,” Wilkerson said.

Kaufmann, however, said she never intended to contract with Charlack. The discussions with Charlack, as well as the municipalities of Bella Villa and Lakeshire, were advisory in nature, she said, and she was merely looking into the prices and services offered by other police departments to better inform contract renewal talks with the county police. She said that she also spoke with the City of Winchester, which, like St. George, contracts for protection from the county police. She also said she called Kirkwood, but heard no reply.

“(Police contracting) is like a menu,” Kaufmann said. “We were young and dumb when we went with St. Louis County.”

Wilkerson, who until being elected mayor served on the board of aldermen, said she first became aware of the discussions at a closed meeting on Dec. 2 that included the St. George Board of Aldermen, Charlack Mayor James Beekman and police chief Tony Umbertino. In the meeting, Wilkerson said, Beekman and Umbertino presented a proposal for Charlack to expand its small police department to provide patrols and police service for St. George.

Affton-Shrewsbury Patch obtained a copy of the document Umbertino distributed to the board of aldermen at that meeting. Titled “Police Contract Proposal for the City of St. George, Submitted by: Chief Tony Umbertino,” it sets out the provisions of a contract and the details of what Charlack police would provide, including a day-shift officer and three nighttime patrols.

“Nothing had been fully determined on what our role was going to be,” Umbertino later told Patch.

Dianne Burns, a St. George alderman who ran unchallenged for re-election on Wilkerson’s pro-disincorporation ticket, was also at the Dec. 2 meeting.

“I think they were there to offer their services to us, and we were supposed to consider that,” Burns said. “I thought (Kaufmann) had wanted us to consider Charlack taking over the police department.”

Lakeshire Police Chief Dan Duffy also disputes Kaufmann’s claim that she never had any intentions of contracting with a small municipality.

“My impression of the meeting was that they were looking for alternatives for law enforcement,” Duffy said. “I made it very clear that Lakeshire does not rely on tickets to fund our city, and we would not be a party to that. It is contrary to what I believe is important in professional law enforcement.”

Duffy said that after that first conversation, he was not asked to submit a proposal.

The mayor of Bella Villa, Joanne Yates, said that she was not involved with the discussions between Kaufmann and then-Bella Villa police chief Edward Locke, as she was recovering from surgery at the time. She added that she was not interested in contracting with St. George.

“We strictly tend to our own business here,” she said.

Locke was acquitted in two civil suits alleging sexual misconduct and was awaiting retrial in a case over employing an unqualified police officer. He has since been dismissed from his position as Bella Villa police chief and could not be reached for comment. Kaufmann said she had expected to meet with both Yates and Locke, and was surprised to be meeting with Locke alone.

After the Dec. 2 Charlack meeting, several St. George aldermen opposed the plan, including Wilkerson and Burns, and the idea was dropped.

St. George has since renewed its contract with the county police for a reduced level of service. The new budget pays the county police a projected $56,000 for nine 10-minute patrols each day. In 2009, St. George paid $298,352 for county police service. Running its own police department cost St. George $353,828 in 2008.

Captain Mike Dierkes of the county’s Affton precinct, said that prior to renewing the contract, St. George officials voiced concerns about the number of citations being issued in St. George by county police compared to what had been issued before.

Garry Earls, the chief operating officer for St. Louis County, confirmed that St. George officials had pressured the county police to write more traffic tickets.

On Jan. 12, the county police set up a “stealth stat” speed camera on Reavis Barracks Road, where St. George police had formerly been infamous for issuing speeding tickets. The speed limit there is 35 miles per hour. According to the camera, Dierkes said, the average speed on Reavis Barracks Road is 31.48 miles per hour.

When it maintained its own department, St. George had a long history of police scandal. In 1981, St. George police chief Milton Russell Schepp built the bomb used to murder mobster Paul Leisure. In 2007, the city received national attention when a video was posted online showing a St. George officer cursing a motorist and threatening him with fictional charges. In 2008, police chief Scott Uhrig was fired and the city’s police department disbanded. Uhrig is now awaiting retrial on charges of second-degree statutory sodomy and sexual misconduct involving a child.

St. George’s new administration will hold its first board of Alderman meeting at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday.