A report in 40 South News that Brentwood mayor Pat Kelly and aldermen Andy Leahy, Tom Kramer and Keith Robertson will be investigated by the Missouri Ethics Commission has brought close to two dozen comments — some agreeing with the investigation and some supporting the city officials.
The investigation will look into allegations that the officials accepted health insurance benefits from the city of Brentwood that were identified by the state auditor as illegal because the benefit was not established by an ordinance.
Following are excerpts from some of those comments, in chronological order. See the complete article and comments in 40 South News.
- The Citizens of the city of Brentwood need to put its past behind it and move on for the future and if the voters are unhappy vote everyone out and start over.
- Why dig this up again and create a big stink. This constant need for conflict is what is wrong with Brentwood!
- The Mayor and Alderman took benefits illegally, ignorance of the law is never an excuse. As a citizen I do not believe these folks should be allowed to stay in office.
- It is a fact that our leaders broke state laws, did not follow the statutes of the city, took benefits illegally, and paid benefits to employees against state law.
- I worked with these 4 men for many years, we may not have always agreed with each other, but all are honest to the core!!
- We all know bad things were done but when does it end, I guess the audit did not go enough. Does anyone not see how this makes our city look to the outside public?
- This city has rotted from the top down for 15 years and its only been uncovered because of the hard work of people who really are honest and who really do care about Brentwood…
- If you do not like the way our city is run, the run for mayor or alderman and change it. My friend Maureen did, so did Keith and everyone else.
- The state law and city ordinances are pretty clear. And the aldermen voted to stop the illegal benefits? Seems like you would not need a vote to stop something that was never legally approved in the first place.
- I appreciate these are nice people. When is it okay to break the law? If I steal from your home, show up at court with people who say I am a nice guy, will you drop the charges?
- Before you start calling people criminals/lawbreakers maybe you should get the facts yourself and not just make assumptions based on comments from people who have their own agendas.
- I just do not know who would want go into public office in Brentwood given the mistrust in our community right now.
- What I am surprised by is the auditor told us all the laws that were broken and there is absolutely no action the auditor’s office can take.
- The BOA keeps telling us that everything is corrected and that we need to move forward…but it is evident to me that we still have a lot to correct.
- Whenever I share information regarding Brentwood activities with others outside of Brentwood – whether it be friends, other council people, lawyers – they have a similar response: Brentwood seems to feel that they don’t have to follow the same rules and laws that other do.