Letter to the Editor: Dave Hinman Will Not Get My Vote April 3

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Letter to the Editor:

The has a history of great service to us, the citizens. They go above and beyond when they take care of people and their belongings.

Remembering items in the newspaper about one of the board members made me look into his background before I would decide to vote on April 3 and one of the first things I found was an audit done by the State Auditor’s Office of the City of O’Fallon completed in December 2004.

Dave Hinman was chairman of the city council at that time and the audit found:

1. January 2004, seven board members with their spouses traveled to Ireland with six business representatives and guests with former mayor and city administrator. There was no overall accounting for the total trip costs and no documentation of the benefits of the trip to the city. In addition, items purchased by the city for the participants do not appear to be prudent and reasonable expenditures of the city.

2. Several concerns were noted regarding real estate transactions including inadequate enforcement of or not following contract terms, lack of appraisals and advertising for bids, and the payment of real estate agent fees that appear to be unnecessary.

3. The city's financial obligations rose significantly over several years to a higher level than that of similar sized cities.

Now look at what Hinman has been involved in at the Fire District according to STLtoday, meeting minutes and a recent board meeting.

1. On June 24, 2011, an O'Fallon Fire Protection District vehicle was parked outside a liquor store 150 miles from home. At 9:15 p.m. the fire district SUV was at Dick's Liquors on Highway 54 in Osage Beach. It was driven that night by Dave Hinman, chairman of the fire district's board of directors.

2. A plan to restructure the O'Fallon fire district's administration got final approval with the change costing taxpayers a total of $13,500 over the next five years and then about $1,600 a year. The previous month, Hinman said the plan would save up to $10,000.

3. In January 2012, Hinman signed a contract with Media Magic to conduct a citizen survey in the amount of $19,500. At a board meeting, a citizen commented that the survey looked like campaign literature that violates the Missouri Ethics Statute and the board should wait until after the election to send it out. One board member made a motion to wait, but there was no second.  Board member Lamantia made a motion to finalize the changes and send out the survey ASAP which was quickly seconded by Hinman.

4. Dave Hinman announced the fire department’s reaccreditation at conference in Las Vegas. He and three members of the staff had attended at the expense of taxpayers.

Elected officials should be honest, ethical and compassionate. Hinman has and continues to promote unnecessary spending and dishonorable activities at the expense of the taxpayers both on the city council and the fire department and will NOT get my vote on April 3.

Very Concerned Citizen,

Jay Bomont

O’Fallon MO