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>> Thank you so much for joining us for Last Call.

Alvin Reid, you're going to kick things off and talk about the Lions Club.

I think it's based in St.

Charles.

For 30 years, it's had a farmers market.

Uh most recently on Main Street, occupying two blocks, 50 vendors, sending uh selling baked goods and locally sourced vegetables and fruit.

Just wonderful.

But uh Dan Borgmeyer, the mayor of St.

Charles City, raised, you know, the fee that he's charging the Lions.

And so they're going to move to St.

Peters about 8 miles west to uh what is it called?

Lakeside 370.

It's a business deal.

Anything wrong with it?

Well, you know, Don Borgmeyer out there is giving him a >> Dan Borgmeyer >> Dawn.

The Dawn.

Yeah.

>> The Dawn.

>> The Dawn.

Right.

Corleone.

>> I Bill.

You know, this is the Chicago way here.

Like, okay.

All right.

So, yeah, you had this good thing going for 30 years and you were making a whole bunch of money and you're giving it to charity.

Well, the number one charity in St.

Charles is St.

Charles according to the mayor.

And so I think there's a fine line between, you know, doing your fair share to to help out the city and being extorted.

And I I I think the mayor just wants them out because they're going to have their own farmers market in this different location.

And I think he just basically drove them down to St.

Peters.

>> He did.

And there was a certain Cook County squeezy thing I think to it that, you know, the mayor looked at, hey, I want to do this.

But that's the way government is.

I mean, you know, they they they looked at the mob doing the numbers game.

They said, "I want some of that money.

Let's start a lottery."

Yeah.

>> And then it was illegal to gamble and they said, "Hey, I want some of that.

We'll build casinos."

And now they look at the Lions and go, "That's really nice work they're doing, but they're making too damn much money."

And all these municipalities are going broke.

And so that I it's it's hard to fault the mayor to me for deciding, you know, I'm gonna push these charity boys right out the wall and and put this money in the city coffers.

>> They're only the lions, right?

I mean, they've been doing this charitable work >> 30 years, >> decades.

>> It seems so shortsighted though.

Like it is hard to get one of these things up and running and have it run well and it it adds vibrancy and it brings people who might like stay for lunch at one of your local businesses.

And like when you turn these things into money grabs, it's like, okay, you are like killing the goose that laid the golden egg.

I think they're going to regret this.

>> And I will say this that I agree.

I see where the mayor is coming from.

But it didn't seem like there was any negotiation.

Basically the story it just like hey 16k or by and they just said like well I guess we're leaving.

>> And it was kind of uh when the mayor said I wish them well.

I mean I I thought oh you you know you do or you don't mayor but you're taking something that they had but I can understand it.

>> No no the the Lions are great.

They do great work and they had volunteers and they were you know from soup to nuts.

They were working very hard for this for this farmers market.

>> But we talked last week about the St.

Patrick's Day parade with the cost going up for security and porter johns and all that kind of stuff.

And maybe the mayor was facing costs that we don't know about and he's saying hey we've got to raise the cost on the lions.

said that, right?

>> Well, you know, I think that was kind of in the story, right?

No, we said, "Oh, we're giving them all this stuff for free.

How about we just drive them out of town?"

It didn't sound like, you know what?

It's going to work out for everybody.

The Lions will be happier in uh St.

Peters.

St.

Charles St.

Charles used to be, you know, I mean, it was cozy, right?

I mean, still this doesn't exactly do a lot for their cozy cache, Charlie.

>> They're still going to have the farmers market.

I agree.

Farmers markets are great.

I wish we had one where I live.

We don't.

>> Strikes.

>> Well, and and you're talking about raising uh cost increases.

Like, this is not a bunch of drunk hooligans on St.

Patrick's Day.

This is farmers market folk.

How many costs can there be?

>> And speaking of St.

Patrick's Day, I should say that I was against, you know, uh giving any public money to the downtown and I I still am, but uh you know, I heard from members of my you were pillaring plan.

Don't you remember how much fun it was to go down there for the St.

Patrick's Day race and downtown was so vibrant?

So, I hope some company does pick that up.

>> Wow, you went wobbly on us.

I did.

>> You did.

Okay, I like that.

>> He's a family man.

>> Sarah, I want to ask you about the uh first month figures for sports betting in uh the uh state of Missouri.

Uh the early totals indicate that people waged a lot of money.

$543 million.

That's, you know, half a billion dollars.

It's and we just started in December.

That's tremendous.

People were going out, you know.

I mean, tremendous if you like sports betting.

>> Sure.

>> And how much did the state get?

521,000.

That is not the dollars.

That is that is not onetenth of 1%.

You would think the state would at least get 1%.

It didn't even get onetenth of 1% of the total wage.

>> Yeah, this is horrifying.

So, I am anti-gambling as a rule.

I get that a lot of people disagree with me on this, but I was so torn going into this thing being on the ballot.

And what persuaded me to say, you know what, gambling's happening anyway.

I guess we should get our cut of it.

Is they said this was going to go help the schools.

And in retrospect, you know, there was this whole campaign that said, we don't think that much is going to help the kids.

Well, weren't they right about that?

You know, the way they set this thing up, these companies gave themselves this sweet deal where they could write off all their promotional costs.

And so those horrible commercials I have to sit through anytime I turn on anything.

They're trying to convince me to waste my money on gambling, that's a write off so that money doesn't have to go to help the people in Missouri.

>> But it does make sense though why you had wallto-wall to wallto- wall.

Every time you picked up your phone, there was a draft kings.

They don't have to pay for it.

and and you were probably I don't even know if your parents were dating when we were all, you know, familiarizing ourselves with the lotto and oh my goodness, it's going to be transformative for the kids in school.

That never material.

>> Well, that's because the state put it into general fund instead of education fund like so that would that's water down the Mississippi bridge.

Here's where you're wrong, Sarah.

>> Missouri representing draft >> Missouri is late was late to the party.

I'll take three, four years behind other states.

So to introduce it, everybody, they all have these incentives where you make a $5 bet and if you win it, then you got $300 in free gambling.

That's way they didn't make all that money.

In six months, that $500 million will be $500 million.

>> Can I hold you to this?

The state's going to get a ton of money.

>> The state is going to get a ton of money.

In six months, we'll be like Illinois and every place else because this incentive gambling will be over.

So every lost bet >> and every one bet because we get a percentage of that too, but especially every loss bet, the state will be making a lot of money.

So the state is going to make a lot of money.

>> I hope someone is recording this television station.

Believe me, >> I'm supporting Ameren.

You know, I should have a little Ameren, >> right?

Right.

You got your little show.

Alvin's got his little show.

Sometimes people think that we're like the music man, right?

We're just this innocent little state because look at the gambling.

Look at the legalized marijuana.

We have broke all sorts of records the first couple of We are definitely sort of a >> and we're still we got money.

It's gambling will pay the state of Missouri money that we do not have.

>> We'll see.

Okay, Bill.

I want let's move to Webster Groves.

Bill, apparently the city manager from Webster Groves bolted.

She headed for the exits as did a number of other officials.

So now uh everyone's wondering what's going on in Webster.

What insight do you have?

>> Well, very little, but my my daughter lives in Webster and I talked to her about this and she said, "Well, Dad, everybody's always upset around here and you know that we have a mayor, a city manager, two deputy city managers.

You know, it's it seems topheavy to people."

And so I think that's what's going on, you know, and you have to remember the city council just we talked last week I think about the fact that they decided not to put a new sales tax on because the the citizens are just not in a giving mood right now.

And in in addition uh the city manager was apparently confrontational and made enemies with the firefighters and the cops.

And those are just two people that you really two groups of people that you really can't fight with.

I mean, you're not you're not going to win that fight.

>> Well, and our colleague Jamie Mowers with the Kirkwood Webster or Webster Kirkwood Times, um, she's been she's been all over it.

And it does it does seem like the two camps, you know, you're talking major lockerheads here.

I mean, for for a city that size, that's a big story.

>> Well, you know, as a city manager, and I don't know.

Now, one thing apparently this the now former soon to be former city manager hired somebody who came like to Webster from where she used to work and then there were some malfeases with a credit card or something like that.

Never looks good.

Sounds very SLPS's kind of.

At the same time, the city manager is in a in a municipality like that.

That's the person that tells the fire department or the police department, "No, it's not the mayor.

It's not the city council.

It's the city manager.

It's an unenviable position.

And I just wonder, you know, was the toxic atmosphere because you didn't get everything you wanted and the state is not paying for, you know, like or making Webster give raises to everybody.

They have to make that judgment oursel.

And maybe the city manager's person like, "No, we're not going to break the city to give you all raises or give you whatever you want."

Now, that might be the toxic atmosphere.

It may not.

But I could see where the loggerhead, as you see, could be fiduciary.

city manager is making $220,000 a year, which is interesting to me because the county executive, you know, Webster is 26,000 people, county executive, 1 million people.

He's getting 140,000.

Well, >> and then they're not going to raise that either.

>> They're not going to raise.

>> So, I mean, I think the citizens do kind of look at these pay scales and go, really, we're paying these people?

>> Well, the highest the the highest paid employee in m most municipalities is the city manager.

Now, I don't want to say what the >> or the superintendent.

Well, I mean, that's elected, you know.

Yeah.

>> Well, the city manager is not elected.

>> Well, I I but appointed by I guess somebody is elected.

That's that >> the city council.

Wouldn't the city council hire the city manager?

They used to.

>> Well, yeah, but the mayor's office usually finds it and then they have to approve it.

>> Well, we'll have to see what happens.

We'll read uh Jamie Mo's Webster Kirkwood Times and get more information and share it with you next week, maybe.

Thanks so much for joining us.

We'll see you again next week at this time.