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   It was another raucous night in Ellisville Wednesday as supporters of the impeached mayor, Adam Paul, tried to get him reinstated.  

   But the city council didn't get to vote on the issue because City Manager, Kevin Bookout, pulled the item from the agenda saying he wanted to get a legal opinion on it first.  

   Newly elected council member Mick Cahill told Fox 2 news that Paul's supporters plan to put the reinstatement question back on the council agenda.  "We'll have to do it in a different way, putting it in as an amendment.  And then once we do that, we'll be able to take that and hopefully be able to vote on it," he said.

   City residents expressed outrage at a packed council meeting last night.  One recurring issue: the amount the impeachment battle is costing taxpayers, including an eight-thousand dollar bill for emergency PR services to handle the impeachment fallout.  

   Paul's attorney, Chet Pleban, told the council that the impeachment costs are going to continue to climb, because "Adam Paul's not going away." He added, "This 84,418 bucks is the beginning of your legal fees, not the end of your legal fees."

The city of Ellisville is without a mayor.  That's because the city council voted 5-to-1 to impeach Adam Paul Monday evening.  

Mayor Paul and his attorney Chet Pleban left before the final vote. They have maintained for weeks that the impeachment hearings and deliberation were just for show -- that the council's decision was a foregone conclusion based on Paul's opposition to using tax incentives to build a new Walmart.  

But former mayor, Councilman Matt Pirrello denies that and tells McGraw in the Morning here on the Big 550 although he's not a fan of tax increment financing--he would still vote in favor of the Walmart TIF.

Matt Pirrello says, "As a responsible leader for my community, I cannot sit back and let my municipality go broke standing on principle."  

Before taking the impeachment vote, the council found Paul guilty on six charges of violating the city's charter.  

Paul says he'll ask a St. Louis County judge to set aside the impeachment until the newly elected city council takes office April 17th so that the new council can make the decision. 

   The fate of Ellisville's embattled mayor won't be known until next week. The City Council was supposed to vote on Mayor Adam Paul's impeachment Wednesday, but postponed deliberations until Monday.  

   Paul and his attorney Chet Pleban spoke with KTRS's McGraw Millhaven Thursday morning about the proceedings.  

   Some of the charges against Mayor Paul were dropped last night - due to a lack of evidence.  Those include allegations Paul leaked confidential information.  Paul says those charges should never have been brought against him.  

   "Releasing confidential information is pretty, pretty significant, and they're pretty serious allegations," Paul told McGraw.  "And if you're going to put allegations like that out there, you better have some evidence."

   Paul's attorney Chet Pleban told KTRS's McGraw Millhaven this morning that the charges against his client keep shifting.  Pleban says although some charges against his client have been dropped, another charge - that Paul improperly questioned a city official - took center stage at last night's council meeting.  

   Pleban says the charge stems from an inquiry the mayor made on behalf of a constituent.  Pleban told McGraw that the resident wanted to know how he would be compensated for being displaced from low-income housing by the new Walmart development.

   "He went to the person who was the relocation expert and asked that question of what does this person get," Pleban said. "He got the answer to that question. He was satisfied with the answer, took it back to his constituent.  And now they want to impeach him for asking the relocation person that particular question." 

   Paul says that when the council finally votes on it, he expects to be ousted, and if that happens, he says he will sue.

   Pleban says the city council is already hiring legal representation in anticipation of that lawsuit.

On the home page of the Ballwin/Ellisville Patch online newspaper, the news outlet features a breaking news item alerting readers that there would be breaking news on McGraw in the Morning at 9am today  (Wednesday) on KTRS 550AM (The Big 550).

Below is the story:

"Ellisville residents should listen to tomorrow's radio show sitting down," said Ellisville Mayor Adam Paul, due to the nature of what will be announced. The show will be 9-10 a.m.

Embattled Ellisville Mayor Adam Paul is scheduled as a radio guest on the McGraw Show—radio station 550AM—at 9 a.m. Wednesday. He is slated to discuss items he referred to Tuesday afternoon as "unbelievable."

Paul tells Patch major breaking news and developments will be released regarding his impeachment hearing, which is currently scheduled for April 1.

"If you are an Ellisville resident, you do not want to miss this segment," he said. 

Paul was suspended in February after the Ellisvile City Council approved a resolutionalleging the mayor had violated the city charter on several occasions. 

His interview will last until 10 a.m. "It will expose a lot of things, and connect the dots," he said.

 

 

http://ballwin-ellisville.patch.com/articles/mayor-adam-paul-impeachment-development-ellisville-residents-can-listen-live-wednesday-morning

The man who's accusing a St. Louis police officer of using excessive force during a July arrest, is again in custody. Thirty-six year old Jerrmaine Lacy was arrested yesterday just after he finished testifying at Officer Charles Proctor's disciplinary hearing.

Chief Sam Dotson acknowledges that a letter from the officer's attorney, Chet Pleban, precipitated Lacy's arrest on four outstanding warrants.

Lacy is accusing Officer Proctor of choking him and slamming his head into a patrol car bumper during a trespassing arrest at Lumiere Place Casino last July. Two of the four-outstanding warrants against Lacy stem from that arrest.