The Coming Prognostications of Kmail

With a new election season soon upon us in Kirkwood, a certain group of Kirkwoodians will be receiving Kmail election prognostications. The author of Kmail is Keith P. Williams Sr. Keith has a select group of Kirkwoodians he sends his emails to regarding various issues in our community. Keith has refused to allow me to receive his emails directly ever since I dared to question his grand proclamations from on high during the Prop C vote in 2007. Yet, several folks that receive his Kmails forward them on to me for a good chuckle.

Keith’s election prognostication Kmails are always a humorous read. It is especially funny to review them after the election happens. His previous two election prognostications have been so far from reality it is almost hillarious, if it were not so sad. I do not know ...

who makes more outrageous claims in our community …

Keith Williams? … or … Michael Moore?

Keith Williams and how he supposedly speaks for all of Kirkwood with Kmail? Michael Moore and his title of Ombudsman with his alleged Human Rights crusade in Kirkwood? It is a real toss up!

Keith really has a good shot at the top spot though. Take for example his first election prognostication about the Prop C – Property Tax Vote in June 2007.

Keith was rambling on in email after email trying everything he could to defeat the Prop C proposal. It was one excuse after another. Keith finally settled on showing how ignorant or clueless he was about our City’s budget reserves. He tried to paint the reserves as some sort of slush fund and how those funds should be used to bring City employee salaries in line instead of solidifying our community’s financial structure with Prop C. Keith either chose to ignore the realities of how that budget reserve needs to be used by our electric department through 2011 or he was just totally clueless about the facts. Since he never seems to go to City Council meetings or any City Board meetings that I know of, I can only suspect it was an issue of cluelessness. But, it was clear he was feverishly trying to defeat Prop C.

This brought on his totally over the top forecast. He supposedly had Kmail readers who in Keith’s world represent his real Kirkwood do a poll on Prop C. Here are Keith’s comments from his May 4, 2007 Kmail:

“Whoa ! Little did I realize how many DIFFERENT reasons people have for voting no on the upcomming Kirkwood Property Tax increase proposal on June 5th. Nor did I expect to get so many replies to the K-poll in only four or five hours after sending out the Kmail. The replies are still pouring in and I am not prepared to handle them as I anticipated. The long and short is that NO is winning over YES by about 4 to one. There are more "no opinions" than YES votes.”

Prop C is going to be defeated 4-to-1. When I read this I just chuckled for a good long while. The K-Fair Ward Proposal was only defeated 3.2-to-1. There was no way Prop C was going down harder than K-Fair’s mess. The response supporters of Prop C were getting from Kirkwood voters while canvassing around the community was too positive for it to get so badly defeated, if defeated at all.

The elections results on June 6, 2007 were YES – 2,280 and NO – 1,583. That is a 1.4-to-1 victory in Kirkwood. It is not the 4-to-1 defeat predicted in Keith’s Kmail Kirkwood.

The next set of election prognostications came in April of this year. Keith once again did a Kmail reader’s poll over who would be our next City Council members. But, prior to the poll Keith went after City Council candidate Tim Griffin for not subscribing to Kmail. Yes, in Keith’s mind if you do not subscribe to Kmail you are not worthy to be a City Council member. (Yet, he refuses to add me to the Kmail list. It is bizarre and boggling.) He even went so far as to keep Tim’s name off the list of “qualified” candidates for the Kmail poll (March 25, 2008 Kmail). What a fair and open poll Keith was running in his own little world! Here is what Keith sent out on April 7, 2008, just a day before the election:

“The K Poll final results as follows: The percentages are calculated on the total number of VOTES cast. (Some cast votes for only one or two candidates instead of voting for 3)

Grand Total

Gina Jaksetic 23%
Craig Conway 22%
Gary Reim 20%
Gerry Biedenstein 18%
Dan Kertz 11%
Tim Griffin 6% “

These poll results are just too foolish to take seriously. The reality in Kirkwood is that after all his years of service to this community there was no way that Tim Griffin was going to be defeated by the entire field of candidates. Especially, not after the way he stepped up to the plate following the February 7th tragedy to lead our community as Deputy Mayor. Plus, there was just no way Tim would be defeated 3-to-1 by four different candidates. If you know past election results in Kirkwood, you know City Council elections do not have very many 2-to-1 defeats, much less multiple 3-to-1 defeats of a sitting City Council member.

The April 8th City Council election results in order of votes received were as follows:
Tim Griffin 3525
Gerry Biedenstein 3189
Gina Jaksetic 2858
Craig Conway 2564
Gary Reim 2524
Dan Kertz 1768

The reality was the Kmail’s bottom candidate was actually the top candidate in our community. Obviously, Keith and his poll results live in their own Kmail world.

So, what will be Keith’s new Kmail election prognostications with the upcoming August 5th special election? What grand forecasts, proclamations and predictions will be made by Keith in the name of Kmail and Kirkwood?

No one really knows.

But I suspect we will still be asking the question …

who makes more outrageous claims in our community …

Keith Williams? … or … Michael Moore?

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