February 12th Overland City Council Meeting

A few issues came up at the Overland City Council Meeting on February 12th, 2007. The most interesting of which was a claim made by Mayor Purzner. The Mayor stated that her "veto" regarding a resolution passed at the January 22nd, 2007 City Council Meeting was meant to be a veto of the Motion to send the Recall to the Election Board that passed at the December 1th, 2006 meeting.

After hearing this I went back through the video of the January 22nd meeting. I'm not sure if what the Mayor said at that time even constitutes a veto based on Missouri Revised Statutes Chapter 77, Section 77.270 which says in part "should he neglect or refuse to sign any ordinance and return the same with his objections, in writing, at the next regular meeting of the council, the same shall become a law without his signature." However, if you assume that it does, there is still no mention of a veto of the December 11th, 2006 vote. I contacted City Hall but they could not locate a veto message from that meeting at this time.

I went through the video of the meeting looking for any reference to a veto by the Mayor. The only reference I could find is the following clips:

In the first clip. Mayor Purzner suggests that the Council did not deal with this issue at the December 11th 2006 meeting. Yet as we clearly pointed out in this article, a vote on a motion to place this measure on the ballot occurred. Also, as we show here, the Judge who ruled against the Mayor on her lawsuit agreed. It appears that somewhere between January 22nd and February 12th the Mayor changed her mind from believing that vote never happened to believing she vetoed it. Perhaps this change occurred somewhere between the morning of February 6th and the evening of February 7th. Here's the clip:

This second clip shows the Mayor discussing vetoing the resolution under consideration at the January 22nd meeting. There is no mention to the December 11th, 2006 vote:

Traditionally a veto message is read during the Mayor's report. However, the Mayor's brief report makes no reference to a veto:

Though I question whether or not the Mayor's actions at the January 22nd, 2007 Council meeting constitute a proper veto, I have to assume that a veto of the Jan 22nd resolution did happen since the Judge hearing the Mayor's failed lawsuit against the St. Louis County Election Board said in his ruling: "Taken as true, the allegation that on January 23rd, 2007, the Mayor vetoed the January 22nd, 2007 Resolution calling for her recall, there is no evidence or allegation that the Mayor vetoed the Motion which passed by 4 to 3 vote of the Overland City Council on December 11th, 2006." As seen here:

click the image to see larger size

According to RSMo. 77.270 The Mayor must present a written veto message to the Council by the next regularly scheduled Council meeting, otherwise the measure will stand as law without signature. In the case of the December 11th, 2006 motion that would have been the January 8th, 2007 meeting that Councilman Knode, Councilman Sellers and Councilman Owensby were all absent from which prevented the meeting from happening due to a lack of a quorum). However, if you let that issue go and look at the January 22nd, 2007 Council meeting, you still find a complete absence of a written veto message referencing the December 11th, 2006 vote. There isn't even a verbal veto referencing that vote.

Finally, if you review the Mayor's Attorney's legal filings from the failed lawsuit against the Election Board you find no mention of the existence of that vote on December 11th, 2006, let alone any reference to an attempt to veto it. I find it curious that this "fact" would be absent from those filings if it had actually occurred.

I would certainly like to see the original written veto from January 23nd, 2007 (as referenced in the lawsuit decision), assuming one exists.