St. George Board Corrects Voting Misstep at Emergency Meeting

At an emergency meeting Monday night, the St. George Board of Alderman passed three motions in the first meeting since the election of .

The board voted to appoint Susan Preis as the new city clerk and court clerk, replacing long-time clerk Marilyn Schneider. Cathy Heins, who acted as clerk during the meeting, was appointed treasurer, replacing Dave Pozzo. Paul Martin, who acted as attorney during the meeting, was appointed city attorney, replacing John Malec.

These three motions had failed Thursday with three votes yes, two votes no. According to Martin the bills had been framed as ordinances, which require four votes to pass. Had the full board been present on Thursday new mayor Carmen Wilkerson could have cast a fourth tiebreaking vote. As it was alderman Marjie Loukes had been absent from the meeting, and three yes votes, while a majority, were not enough to pass the ordinances.

Loukes was present Monday, but alderman Nelda True, who had voted no on every motion Thursday except adjournment, was absent. Nonetheless Martin had recast the three bills as resolutions, which require only a majority of the quorum to pass. Martin said that ordinances were normally used for laws that go into the city code, while resolutions were used for most administrative business. It had been a mistake to originally frame the appointments as ordinances, he said.

Alderman Herb Pyne and Loukes both voted against the appointment of Susan Preis as city clerk. Pyne, however, voted for the appointments of the new city attorney and city treasurer. Loukes voted against all three.

Though Thursday’s meeting had lasted close to two hours, the board adjourned Monday after only 20 minutes.

Regular board of aldermen meetings will now be held at 7 p.m. on the fourth Monday of the month. On May 19 the city of St. George will host an informational town hall at for St. Louis County officials to answer residents’ questions about the potentially disincorporating the small city.