The Challenge We As A Community Now Face

Below is the email I sent to Mike Brown, our City Administrator, concerning the "war of attrition" the members of HAK have waged, are waging and will continue to wage on our community.

In the nearly 12 years I have been a citizen of Kirkwood I have never seen any group of residents act in such irresponsible and unreasonable way like the members of HAK are in our community.

I have talked with numerous life-long residents that are dumbfounded and dismayed the members of HAK would treat fellow citizens and our community as a whole with such disdain and disrespect.

But unfortunately this is ... The Challenge We As A Community Now Face ...

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Dear Mr. Brown,

I am writing you in regards to the Healthy Air for Kirkwood (HAK) Citizen’s Initiative Petition that will be voted on by fellow Kirkwoodians this November.

This is the second Citizen’s Initiative Petition on the issue of a smoking ban from the same group of surrogate citizens. In each case, there was no community dialogue on how these proposals were drafted. There was no dialogue on how these proposals could impact our entire community. These surrogate citizens for various outside organizations chose to totally ignore fellow Kirkwoodians. They simply set about forcing a community-wide vote on their proposal by abusing the Citizen’s Initiative Petition process. Then, they used various methods of political manipulation to stack the deck against any opposition to their outside agenda. It is unfortunate that these surrogate citizens continue to act in such an irresponsible and self-serving way.

The challenge we as a community now face is the fact that HAK has already declared they will continue forcing their outside agenda on our community, even if the voters for a second time defeat their rehashed proposal.

At the August 6, 2009 City Council meeting I asked this question in my speech to the City Council:

“If they (HAK) are defeated AGAIN by the good citizens of Kirkwood … how many more times will these folks abuse the citizens’ initiative petition process and try to force their outside agenda on our entire community?”

We as a community were given a response by HAK member Michelle McDonald in her speech that followed mine when she said,

“I would like to respond to Joe Toenjes. We are going to keep doing this until it passes.”

Ms. McDonald and the rest of HAKs leadership have stood by that statement.

Kirkwoodians can easily conclude one thing from HAKs previous actions and their stated future intentions. HAK will continue to abuse the Citizens Initiative Petition process to force their outside agenda on the rest of our community. Sadly, these surrogate citizens want to create a revolving door of protracted “duke it out” battles against the clear will of the citizens of Kirkwood expressed by their vote. This kind of belligerent and unreasonable waging of a “war of attrition” on fellow citizens is unprecedented in Kirkwood’s history.

The past actions of HAK combined with their overbearing future agenda places a new and, I suspect, unforeseen burden on the administrative staff and the elected leadership of our community to protect the rights of other citizens in this matter.

Given these facts, I would like to know what steps will be taken to inform the citizens of Kirkwood in the future when any group submits a proposed Citizens Initiative Petition, Referendum or Recall and begins to form a Petitioner’s Committee?

It is clear there needs to be a concise and extremely time sensitive process developed to address this issue. The citizens of Kirkwood deserve the right to know what they are facing given the precedent set by HAK. I would hope you, our City Clerk Ms. Montano and the rest of the administrative staff would begin to offer various options in conjunction with our City Council to protect the rights of all Kirkwood citizens.

It is unfortunate that this issue was created by those in our community more desirous of demanding and abusing a right at the expense of fellow citizens, rather than being responsible and reasonable citizens.

Finally, I have several ideas about how to accomplish this goal. Yet, I am unsure how they would apply within running the day-to-day operations of our city with the unique and specific requirements that entails. I am more than willing to discuss my ideas with you or anyone else involved in trying to bring a solution to this unprecedented challenge our community is facing. If I can be of any assistance in this matter please do not hesitate to contact me.

Your Fellow Kirkwoodian,

Joe Toenjes
329 Rose Lane
Kirkwood, MO 63122

cc: Betty Montano, City Clerk
Kirkwood City Council

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Note - You can see the video of Michelle McDonald's statement before the City Council at:

http://www.incitynews.com/stlc-kirkwood-/council-meetings/index.php

Just go to the August 6th meeting video. Let it download. It will take a few minutes. You can move the slider bar to the closest time-mark. You can view Michelle McDonald's statement starting around the 13:26 time-mark. If you are interested, you can view my speech to the City Council at about the 6:21 time-mark.


I will keep you updated on this issue as it proceeds.


If you want to express your thoughts on this issue, please hit the "Comment" link below.