Polarized Crestwood Board Rejects Mayor's Choice for Alderman

In what some might see as politics at work, Crestwood aldermen voted 4 - 3 Tuesday to reject longtime Crestwood resident and retired police officer Doug Mosby to fill a board seat left vacant by the election of Jeff Schlink to mayor in April.

Mosby, who said he is pro-business, was Schlink's top choice for the Ward 2 post. The mayor typically does not vote on measures, except to break a tie vote. 

City Attorney Robert Golterman said he knew of no other instance in the past when the Board of Aldermen rejected a mayor's nomination for a seat.

Voting against were aldermen Mimi Duncan, Deborah Beezley, John Foote and Chris Pickel. Several of them said they weren't happy that the nominee was a retired employee of Crestwood.

Aldermen Paul Duchild, Jerry Miguel and Darryl Wallach voted in favor of Mosby. Later, when the board was debating over whether to buy two new police cars, Wallach pointed out that Mosby's expertise would have been a plus for the board in making such decisions.

The next step in filling the board vacancy, according to city charter (laws to operate by), aldermen may now nominate individuals, and the board votes again, attorney Golterman said.

So, whoever the majority nominates could potentially be a shoo-in for the vacancy. The eight-member board tends to vote in two blocks. 

For example, in the debate Tuesday on whether to buy two new police cars, Alderman Miguel said he spent time researching the matter. He said he found the existing cop cars from the 1990s had low mileage compared to neighboring city police cars.

Miguel also said the cars the police department wanted to purchase were gas hogs. He suggested the city wait a year until a new Ford police model with better gas mileage was on the market. 

Miguel appeared to have support from two other members of the board.

However, Duncan pointedly told Miguel he was not an expert on cars or fleet management. She said it was her duty to decide on the advice from the police, who were the experts.

Foote then said he believed the police were experts on this matter and they needed a comfortable ride to do good work.

Beezley introduced into the debate a fear factor about the existing cars, saying: "All it takes is one incident . . .someone holding a gun to someone's head, and we can't get there."

The majority then voted for the city to buy two new Ford Crown Victoria police cars from John Machens Ford for $45,392.

Crestwood Police Lt. Kevin Avery said patrol cars were used 12 hours a day.

A police memo showed one of the cars being replaced was eight years old with 67,755 miles. The other car was 13 years old with 59,272 miles clocked.