Former Firefighter Files for MFPD Board Seat

Robinson files for third term as mayor of city of Crestwood.

EVAN YOUNG

Staff Reporter - Call Newspapers

December 22, 2010 - A former Mehlville Fire Protection District firefighter (Keith Floyd) filed last week to run for a seat on the Board of Directors that fired him.

Candidate filing opened Dec. 14 for the April 5 election. It will continue until Tuesday, Jan. 18.

Besides the MFPD board seat, seats on the Mehlville and Lindbergh boards of education are up for election in April.

Also up for election are the Crestwood mayoral seat and mayoral and aldermanic seats in Green Park as well as aldermanic seats in Sunset Hills.

Two candidates have filed for the MFPD board seat held by Chairman Aaron Hilmer since 2005. The seat carries a six-year term.

Michael Klund, 560 Lind Road, 63125, and Keith Floyd, 7120 Caddie Way Lane, 63129, filed Dec. 14.

Board members voted unanimously during a Sept. 17, 2009, closed session to fire (Keith) Floyd for "violation of district policy, including the district anti-harassment policy,'' according to Matt Hoffman, the district's legal counsel.

Floyd, who'd been a Mehlville firefighter since 1995, demanded the board conduct a hearing so he could appeal its decision.

The district said he was not entitled to one as an at-will employee.

Floyd brought the matter before St. Louis County Circuit Court, where a judge on Nov. 1 of this year said the board's decision to dismiss the firefighter without an appeal hearing was "an abuse of discretion."

The judge ordered the district to give Floyd a hearing. Hoffman said last week the district has informed Floyd's attorney the board agreed to conduct a hearing, but a date hasn't been set.

Klund in April 2009 filed a complaint with the Missouri Ethics Commission against the district and the board. He alleged taxpayer resources were used to promote board Treasurer Bonnie Stegman's re-election campaign and two tax-rate-decrease measures the board placed on that month's ballot.

Stegman, elected to a four-year term on the MFPD board in April 2005, was elected to a six-year term in April 2009.

The two tax-rate-decrease measures, called Proposition 1 and Proposition 2, were overwhelmingly approved by voters that month.

The Ethics Commission in June 2009 dismissed Klund's complaint, calling his allegations "unsubstantiated."

Five people have filed for three seats on the Mehlville Board of Education that are up for election.

Marea Kluth-Hoppe, 5315 Oaklawn Drive, 63128; John Roland, 3715 Pinon Pine Court, 63129; Deborah Langland, 2823 Spring Water Drive, 63129; Elaine Powers, 5123 Suson Oaks Court, 63128; and Rich Franz, 4937 Lockbriar Court, 63128, have filed for seats currently held by Drew Frauenhoffer and Erin Weber, as well as a vacant board seat formerly held by Karl Frank Jr.

All Mehlville school board seats carry three-year terms.

Frauenhoffer and Weber, elected in 2008, have said they do not intend to seek re-election.

Frank, who was elected in 2005, resigned Nov. 18.

Kluth-Hoppe served on the board from 2002 to 2005, when she was defeated in her bid for a second term by Frank.

She ran unsuccessfully for the board in 2008, as did Langland.

Langland and Kluth-Hoppe are the president and vice president, respectively, of the Mehlville-Oakville Foundation.

Franz is a founding member of the Mehlville Community Taxpayers Association, which campaigned this fall against the district's unsuccessful 88-cent tax-rate increase proposal, Proposition C.

Five people have filed for four seats on the Lindbergh Board of Education that are up for election.

Seats held by board Secretary Kathleen Kienstra, board Treasurer Mark Rudoff and member Don Bee that carry three-year terms will be up for election. Also up for election will be a seat vacated earlier this year by Janine Fabick that will carry a one-year term. Larry McIntosh currently is serving in the seat.

Kienstra; Bee; outgoing state Rep. Vicki Lorenz Englund, 4539 Valmeyer Drive, 63128; Joseph Sartorius, 10315 Grant Forest Lane, 63123; and Leslie Weiss, 10757 Roanna Lane, 63128, filed for the three seats that carry three-year terms.

Rudoff filed for the seat that carries a one-year term.

Englund was elected to serve the 85th District in 2008, but the Democratic lawmaker was defeated for re-election last month by Republican Cloria Brown.

Sartorious is a former Sappington Elementary School principal. He also was a candidate earlier this year for Fabick's board seat, to which McIntosh was appointed.

Weiss this fall co-chaired the committee that campaigned for Lindbergh's successful 65-cent tax-rate increase proposal, Proposition L.

Missouri law states no school-board election will take place in a district if the number of candidates who file is equal to the number of board seats to be filled by the election.

Looking at April 5 municipal races, Crestwood Mayor Roy Robinson on Dec. 14 filed for re-election and so far is unopposed in his bid for a third term.

The Crestwood mayoral seat carries a three-year term.

In Green Park, the mayoral seat held by Tony Konopka will be up for election. Also up for election will be aldermanic seats held by Tony Pousosa of Ward 1, Tim Thuston of Ward 2 and Joe Monteleone of Ward 3.

Konopka has filed for the mayoral seat.

Pousosa and Monteleone have filed for their respective board seats.

All of the Green Park seats carry two-year terms.

In Sunset Hills, aldermanic seats held by Dee Baebler of Ward 1, Scott Haggerty of Ward 2, Jan Hoffmann of Ward 3 and Pat Fribis of Ward 4 are up for election. The seats carry two-year terms.

The four incumbents all have filed for their respective board seats and so far are unopposed for re-election.

In Grantwood Village, seats on the Board of Trustees held by Building and Streets Commissioner Robert Bess, Village Clerk Rich Muraski and Communications Director Mike Jones are up for election.

All three were appointed earlier this year following the resignation of Trustees Glenn Biffignani, Mike Boone and Bob Prebil.

The seats carry two-year terms.

Filing for the Grantwood Village seats opened Tuesday — after the Call went to press.