At the Brentwood Board of Alderman meeting on Monday a retirement, and a new hire was announced. Also some old faces reemerged.
Brentwood Fire Chief Ted Jury is retiring after just under five years with the city. He’s leaving for Hawaii on Friday with his wife, Tammy. He said after the meeting he told the mayor of his plans about a year ago. Jury and his wife plan to live on the island of Maui. See Jury’s bio information from the city of Brentwood.
Assistant Chief Terry Kurten will be the interim chief and Captain Ronnie Cottrell will be the interim assistant chief, Jury said.
From the podium, former Brentwood mayor, Pat Kelly explained the Missouri General Assembly Sales Tax Bill to the aldermen. When Ward 4 Alderman Tom Kramer asked Kelly a question, he said it was strange to be talking to Kelly where he was; Kelly said he preferred it there.
Former Ward 2 alderman, Lee Wynn stepped to the podium to thank the aldermen for naming a trail in Brentwood after him. “My wife and I walk that a lot,” he said. “It brings back fond memories. I want to thank you for that, and thank you for the job you’re doing.”
Brentwood has hired Lisa Koerkenmeier as the new director of planning and development, Brentwood City Administrator Bola Akande said in the meeting. Koerkenmeier has more than 25 years of experience in the field. She most recently served in O’Fallon and Fairview Heights, IL, where she oversaw the comprehensive plans for the cities, Brentwood City Administrator Bola Akande said. Akande said city administrators consider Koerkenmeier “the go-to person in the urban planning technical skill set, so we are thrilled to have her.”
Koerkenmeier is replacing Justin Wyse, who left the city for a similar position for the city of Chesterfield.
The board of aldermen also elected Ward 4 Alderman Tom Kramer to be the acting president for the year. The position runs meetings when the mayor is absent.
Both Kramer and Ward 1 Alderman David Plufka were nominated, and the first vote was a tie. Dimmitt withdrew his name after that, and Mayor Chris Thornton declared Kramer the winner.
ROGER is partially correct, here. “You need to stop living in the past.” Now, talk about what YOU ALL are going to do to make things right, IN THE FUTURE.
Vote or sell my house and move we will see how it goes.
Jack, “common policy” just means people have been getting by with it. It doesn’t mean it is popular with the taxpayers, nor does it provide any legitimate rationale for it. You might as well say “because I said so” as your “reason”. It’s an explanation, as opposed to a persuasive argument.
I believe it was unapproved overtime, discovered while searching databases of the former administrator, thus why the fire fighter union settled and no raises were given, to re coup the stolen money..jack, it may have been authorized, but not in public with the union contract. Thus making it a scandal.
Jack – If your anecdote about being employed at a college and getting paid for hours during which you did nothing is, indeed, true, it only serves to illustrate the problem, not to justify it.
Jack, trusting that you are an up-front sort of guy, I am sure you would not mind sharing with us the name of the college that paid you for overtime hours that you did not work.
My personal information is not for the enjoyment of the general population. It doesn’t matter which college it was. Like I already stated, paying in this fashion is common practice. What would be the difference of a salary employee leaving early occasionally but still getting a full day of pay? To call this a scandal is an inaccuracy, and a jab to the firemen who were working under an approved system.
If that is how you want to run your private business go for broke. When it comes to public money, people should be fired, resign, or go to prison. If I were to allow my employees to go home and then clock them out, I would be in the un-employment line, maybe you have not had a position of responsibility but it is not tolerated. If it is, are you hiring?
The assumptions you make about me are astounding. Nice job! Back to the topic…
Bob Kurtz was interviewed during the gambling investigation, and he is the one who brought up the maintenance program overtime. HE is also the one who twisted it to fall on the backs of the firemen and Chief Niemeyer, saying it was “sham” and “unearned”. It was not discovered in a database or computer like previously posted. It wasn’t in any kind of data base or red flagged because it was an approved program by the city, and in the budget. Kurtz twisted it for his own personal gain of wanting to be the Chief.
The city manager gambled away tons of money on our dime- and did it despite knowing it was wrong. You don’t see him constantly being publicly shamed on here near as much as the firemen. The firemen worked under the APPROVED program, the state audit even stated they could not prove any wrong doing on their part, they still had wage increases taken away for years, and to this day they are called criminals, thieves, and crooks. Despite your opinion of the fire department and what happened, it’s been settled, it’s in the past, and everyone has moved on with the exception of a few people who like to bring up old news and throw their own twist on it, thinking they know everything when clearly, they don’t. When will all of you get over what happened 5 years ago and start appreciating all of our first responders again? Your negative attitudes and input make our community look juvenile compared to those thriving around us.
Youre wrong. Kurtz cooperated with the investigation once the evidence was found on the computers. No one is living in the past and if it was approved as you say then the fall guys should not have been the fire dept…are you hiring?
Here’s the Post-Dispatch story about the Brentwood firefighters overtime scandal. Draw your own conclusions: http://bit.ly/24w2Dxn
Jack and Roger – given you see this as no big deal, would you mind paying me to mow your lawn, now i am obviously not going to mow it, however, with your comments that does not matter. Taking money from you for faking that i did the work is okay.
Thanks, let me know and i stop buy to pick up the cash –
Who said they never actually performed the work? They absolutely did. Our city officials approved the program which allowed them to be paid a set amount of money for the work that was done. Perhaps you should do more research before spewing false accusations.
Tony you obviously don’t care about the truth, it’s easy to find, if you actually tried. If you want to mow my lawn I’ll pay you $100, no matter how long it takes.
No idea about this Seelbach person, but…
I don’t believe anyone who was in FD management during the overtime scandal should be on our payroll.
Besides, he’s probably planning to retire to Hawaii too.
It’s a well known retirement destination for firefighters.
Regardless of who Seelbach is, you need to to stop living in the past. The ” overtime scandal” was no scandal. You obviously got all of your information from the Post-Disgrace article written by the disgruntled Paul Hampel
Agreed. It was not a scandal. It was a program approved by the city. Kurtz was on a power trip to toss the fire Chief for his own personal gain, and used the firemen as a stepping stone to try and make that happen. That obviously didn’t work out too well for him.
It was definitely a scandal. Weren’t you paying attention? Just because it was approved by the city doesn’t mean it was popular with taxpayers or approved by them. The firefighters were pretending like they were working extra hours and getting additional $$. If that’s not scandalous, I don’t know what is.
I used to be an assistant educator at a college. I was told when I got hired I would be paid for 8 hours, even if we got done early. That came from the program director, approved by the college as well. That is a common policy among employers. It is no different than what happened here in Brentwood.
This is a good time to bring back Kevin Seelbach as Fire Chief. Kevin was trained by Chief Neimeyer what more could we ask for?