This story originally ran in the Washington Missourian July 30, 2008.

By E.J. Rotert, Special to the Missourian 

PACIFIC, Mo. -- City and state law to the contrary, Ward 2 Alderwoman Carol Johnson is living in Herculaneum, more than 40 miles from the citizens she represents.

Johnson, whose local address is 132 Vincent St., has lived with her daughter in the Jefferson County city since at least Christmas - and possibly longer - due to a waterline break at her own home, according to neighbors. Mold has developed in the home as a result, they said.

Herculaneum is situated on the eastern edge of Jefferson County, north of Crystal City and Festus.

Several attempts to speak with Johnson were unsuccessful, at both the residences in Pacific and Herculaneum and at the phone number listed for her on the city of Pacific's Web site.

In a message left on a reporter's voicemail, she noted she was working 12-hour shifts, seven days a week at the Fenton Chrysler plant, where she is a line employee with limited access to a phone.

The city's Web site states that under city law no one shall serve on the board of aldermen unless, among other requirements, the person is "a resident of the ward from which he (sic) is elected . . ." City and state law correspond, according to the Web site.

Mayor Herb Adams said he wasn't sure how to handle the alderwoman's situation, including whether she should be asked to vacate her seat. He will take the matter under advisement, he said.

In the meantime, he planned to seek counsel from the city attorney and the St. Louis County Municipal League.

"I don't want to talk hypothetical. I surely don't want to do that. I've never experienced anything like this . . . I've never even been asked anything like this," said Adams.

The mayor said he wasn't aware of Johnson living in Herculaneum. When the two get together to talk, he said, it's about city business.

"Outside of city hall . . . we're not social at all," he said.

City Attorney Dan Vogel also said he was not familiar with Johnson's case and couldn't speak to its specifics, but he highlighted a few cases where a politician's residency was challenged.

Most times, he said, a residency is challenged during a political race and is almost impossible for the challenger to win. The burden of proof rests on the challenger, he said.

The issue in Missouri and most states focuses on where a person intends their permanent address to be and where they are when they change that intent, he said.

One of the cases cited by Vogel was that of current U.S. Sen. Kit Bond of Missouri. Bond attended college at Princeton University and law school at the University of Virginia before later returning home to Missouri to run for U.S. Congress. His candidacy was challenged, but since Bond's intent was to return to Missouri, the candidacy stood.

Vogel said if seven to 10 years away doesn't cause a politician to lose his residency, nothing will.

A similar residency question could pop up with an elected official who as a National Guard member is sent to serve in the conflict in Iraq, he said. "Where do you draw the line?" he asked.

Voters elected Johnson in April 2007.

This story originally ran in the Washington Missourian, July 15, 2008.

By E.J. Rotert, Special to the Missourian

PACIFIC, Mo. -- For months, City Cemetery Sexton Alan Bruns has weathered accusations that he's charged bereaved families too much for digging graves for their loved ones.

Now Bruns is weathering criticism for halting the funeral procession of a decorated Iraqi war veteran just before the hearse carrying his body drove through the cemetery gates. The soldier died while a student at Kansas State University.

The problem? Third-generation city sexton Bruns - who has been publicly castigated for charging $220 more to dig graves than city law allowed - said he only needed a signature on a burial order, a form recently adopted by the city that details grave information.

That request sparked a confrontation, responded to by city police, with the funeral home owner Jeff Palmore who was leading the procession and who brought the high bills to public light.

A family member of the soldier, 26-year-old Army Sgt. Shaun Alden McDonald, a native of Washington, said if she had known about the form earlier, she would have taken care of the matter, rather than having her brother's funeral procession held up.

The family likely will not seek to bring the issue before the city's board of aldermen, said Tasha Burt of Pacific, stepsister to McDonald. But Burt said she was disappointed in the action by Bruns, whom she knows, and who had even coached her 13-year-old brother, Tyler, in elementary school intramural basketball.

Palmore said he planned to make a complaint to aldermen at their next meeting July 15. Mayor Herb Adams said he personally had no plans to bring the issue before the board.

"Far as I know . . . there's two sides to every story," said the mayor, who appoints the sexton, subject to approval by the aldermen. The two men's perceptions of the incident differ, he added.

The board recently passed on a resolution that would set a new fee of $635 for digging a grave, with $575 going to the sexton, a city spokeperson said. That would be an increase from the current $580, just instituted by aldermen in February to bring Bruns' fee in line with city law.

Bruns has defended his grave digging fees, noting that they are not out-of-line with other grave digging fees in the area and that he has business expenses to meet.

Aldermen postponed the resolution until their next meeting to amass fee information from other area cemeteries, said the spokesperson. The resolution also would set an extra charge of $50 for Saturday grave openings, $100 more for those on Sunday and an extra fee of $280 for double-deep graves.

The fee for closing and opening graves by the sexton had been previously set at $360 by city leaders in 2001. Of that total, only $60 went to the city.

The overbilling issue, along with other accusations against Bruns, has roiled for nearly nine months in this Meramec River town, where almost four months ago roiling floodwaters damaged nearly 200 homes and businesses. The issue has pitted city aldermen against Adams, at times escalating into a shouting match between Adams and the then aldermanic representative on the city's cemetery committee, former Alderman Bill Hohman.

Bruns blocked the procession with his truck, according to Palmore said. This required the procession to use a second entrance with a tight turn, he said. Bruns then would not let anyone leave the cemetery until the form was signed, he said.

Bruns consented to a brief, after work interview at his business, R.H. Bruns Vaults and Monument Co. On the day of the confrontation, he was scheduled to go into the hospital for kidney stones, and noted he wasn't in a mood to deal with Palmore.

A police complaint on the confrontation, released to the media, reports that Bruns requested the police presence.
Palmore said he did not threaten Bruns and only told him to "get the --- out of the way."

Since last October, Palmore has tirelessly questioned the sexton's bills, stressing the fees to open and close graves were higher than city law allowed. Bruns did not comment on the allegations until a February board of aldermen meeting.

Mayor Adams has defended Bruns' right to defend himself against public accusations, noting he wasn't available to attend the meetings due to being injured in a car wreck. Adams said he was well acquainted with the Bruns family and knew any potential wrongdoing would have been accidental.

Palmore said Bruns' business had charged his funeral home $520 for the grave work. In addition, he paid another unspecified $60, bringing the total to $580. His funeral home does not bear the fees, but rather they are passed onto the families of the deceased, Palmore has stressed.

Palmore also has questioned the city practice of allowing only the sexton to dig city cemetery graves, under a 1910 city law, saying it amounted to a no-bid contract.

But City Attorney Dan Vogel has defended the practice, likening it to the city picking one garbage collection firm. Picking more than one collection firm would make the process chaotic, he has said.

In another allegation, Palmore has accused Bruns of selling a lot he owned to a former city employee, after telling the person that the city had no lots available.

The board of aldermen's current representative on the cemetery board, Mike Pigg, said he wanted to talk to both parties involved.

The new burial order details the city cemetery section, lot and grave number of the deceased, among other information. City spokespersons said the order was established in April in the annual updating of city code to bring city cemetery information into line. The cemeteries have suffered over the years from inadequate record keeping.
Also, grave digging fees are now paid to the city collector, rather than the sexton, and the city pays the sexton his share, according to city law.

Bruns denied he had a vendetta against Palmore because he waited until the day of the burial to have the form filled out. Since the city has required the forms, he said, he's had all of them filled out the day of burial. He claimed Palmore also does not like to be "led" into the cemetery.

Adams said the city might look into the time frame when the burial form should be filled out.

Bell Funeral Home is one of two funeral homes in the city. The other, Nieburg-Vitt, Thiebes, has publicly remained silent on the issue. Funeral spokesmen could not be reached for comment.

Bruns stressed that all city gravesites are documented since he took over as sexton in 1988, although he admitted that his father and grandfather kept a lot of information "in their heads."

"Everybody's accounted for out there - that's the main thing," he said. "And nobody's robbing anybody."

Originally posted on Newsvine.com, Oct. 13, 2008.

By E.J. Rotert

PACIFIC, Mo. -- The City of Pacific is paying more than $100,000 a year, on average, for a part-time city attorney than the maximum legal costs set by another comparable area city.

A review of cashed city general fund checks written to the law firm of Cunningham, Vogel and Rost shows the city paid nearly $292,000 for legal advice and the creation of legal documents, as shown by city bank statements from July 2006 to June 2008. The yearly average comes to about $146,000.

That compares to a maximum of $32,000 a year that the City of Union pays its attorney. Both posts are part-time jobs.

A legal source, a long-time attorney, noted a city could secure a first-rate attorney for $80,000 to $100,000 a year. That would save the City of Pacific as much as $66,000 annually, based on the cited check totals.

Cunningham, Vogel and Rost is a Webster Groves law firm that specializes in representing governmental entities, such as municipalities and counties, across the state. The firm's website stresses its lone representation of the public sector avoids conflicts of interest as opposed to "a law firm that represents interests (both) advocating and opposing local governments."

The cashed checks, from Bank Star in Pacific, covered a period from June 2006 to June 2008.

The city paid nearly $113,000 in legal fees based on bank statements from July 2006 to June 2007. From July 2007 to June 2008 the city paid just over $179,000 in fees.

Mayor Herb Adams declined comment on the legal costs. But Pacific City Attorney Dan Vogel said in early August that high legal costs over the last year didn't surprise him, given the Pilot development, which includes a gas station, convenience store and tractor-trailer weight scales situated off Thornton Street near Viaduct Street. The city also had legal costs connected with its extensive flooding in March, its buyout program of flooded homes and some bond refinancing, he said.

He also stressed the city had become embroiled in only four lawsuits since the law firm took over in 2002, saying the city was successful in all. If people know a city is handling its matters correctly, he said, they won't sue.

"We've avoided litigation, which is the goal. Pacific -- that's a success story," Vogel said.

All the legal costs are not completely borne by the city, said Vogel. The city recoups some of the costs from developers building or considering building projects in the city. When Cunningham, Vogel and Rost took over legal matters for the city, the firm recommended a policy be put in place that would require developers to bear the projects' legal costs, rather than taxpayers, he said. For every development that comes to fruition, probably three don't, he said.

The developers involved with the Pilot project reimbursed the city nearly $44,000, according to city records.

Vogel said Adams, along with former mayor Jeffrey Titter, has put a lot of focus on city economic development.

The City of Union pays its current attorney $90 an hour, but caps its legal outlay at $32,000 annually, said City Administrator Russell Rost. Documentation citing legal service fees presented by City Clerk Jonita Copeland showed the city paid about $12,770 in legal fees from December 2007 to the end of June this year.

Union's current attorney assumed the post Dec. 10. The city's prior attorney was paid just over $31,500 in the preceding year, said Copeland.

Comparably, Pacific nearly matches the City of Eureka in what the two cities pay in legal fees. City of Eureka Finance Director Karen Crayne said the city spent about $136,000 last fiscal year on its part-time attorney, who attends two aldermanic meetings a month and serves as the city's prosecutor. The fiscal year ended June 30, Crayne said.

In contrast, the upscale City of Ladue pays its part-time attorney a base salary of $24,000, according to an e-mail from the city. Any court filings or extended legal proceedings result in additional costs, but the city has not incurred any such fees in either 2007 or 2008, another e-mail said.

Figures were unavailable from the City of Wildwood. City Adminstrator Daniel Dubruiel did not respond to either phone or Email requests for city legal costs.

Originally posted on Newsvine.com, Oct. 14, 2008.

By E.J. Rotert

PACIFIC, Mo. -- A private business that erroneously had its address listed as the city's address has avoided paying real estate taxes for at least a quarter century -- and possibly as much as nearly 60 years.

Now, Sunset Memorial Cemetery, owned by the city's beleaguered cemetery sexton, Alan Bruns, faces an estimated 2008 yearly tax burden of about $3,000, according to Franklin County authorities. An employee with the county collector's office said it was doubtful the county would be able to recover any back taxes.

The 13-acre cemetery along Orr Street may have operated under tax-exempt status as far back as 1950, when it was sold by the City of Pacific to the Sunset Memorial Cemetery Association.

About a year ago, Bruns first came under fire when it was determined he was charging more than city law allowed to dig graves in the city's two cemeteries, Pacific City Cemetery and Resurrection Hill Cemetery. The city has also weathered criticism for allowing only Bruns, as sexton, to dig the graves. The city has been accused of providing Bruns, in essence, with a no-bid contract.

Sunset Memorial Cemetery was listed as recently as August as tax-exempt and had its address listed as 300 Hoven Drive, the address for the City of Pacific. On Thursday, an official with the Franklin County Assessor's Office said the cemetery had been reclassified as commercial for the 2008 tax year, with its mailing address as 1802 Deer Run Trail, Pacific. The address matches the address listed for Bruns and his wife, Laurie, in a local phone book.

County authorities in August had identified the cemetery as a city-owned public cemetery when questioned by a reporter.

"It's been tax-exempt as long as I know," Franklin County Appraiser/Supervisor Donna Butyenek said then of the cemetery. "That's been 25 years."

City Clerk Kim Barfield, as well as Alan Bruns, were at a loss to explain how the city's address came to be listed for the cemetery. Barfield took over the position when former long-time City Clerk Joann Hoehne retired earlier this year.

The Missouri Secretary of State's website, which is responsible for the initial creation of non-profit corporations, has the cemetery listed as a "benevolent" corporation in good standing, noting the "entity creation date" as April 8, 1950. It is listed under the association name. A copy of a city bill from March 1950 -- Bill No. 612 -- shows the city sold the parcel to the association for $800.

Asked last week how the property came to be tax-exempt, Bruns said he did not know. It came into his ownership through his family, noted Bruns, also owner of R.H. Bruns Vaults and Monuments Co.

A similar explanation was unavailable from county authorities. Sherri Story, manager of the county assessor's office, referred a reporter's inquiry to county Commercial Appraiser Wayne Overkamp. Story said Overkamp was out of town until October 20.

Bruns, a third-generation city sexton, was informed in August about the cemetery's city mailing address by a reporter, who had discovered the error. Bruns later explained that the private cemetery had that address listed because Franklin County authorities needed an address for the cemetery.

But Story said nothing would need to be mailed out on a tax-exempt property parcel.

As well, the Missouri Secretary of State's website says the cemetery, as a benevolent corporation, is not required to maintain a registered agent and, or, an office. The state website displays a section for the cemetery's "registered agent," as well as window listings for "agent name," "office address" and "mailing address." No information is listed for any of the three.

In August, Bruns said the cemetery's association was made up of relatives and one non-relative. He declined to name them, saying he was respecting their privacy.

Bruns also said that all of the cemetery's profits are invested back into it. He declined to open the cemetery's financial records to a reporter.

Mayor Herb Adams was unavailable for comment at his home Sunday evening.

Despite the tax rate for 2008 not yet being determined, a county assessor said the cemetery, appraised at nearly $142,000, would pay about $3,000 in taxes, based on the 2007 tax levy.

County Collector Linda Emmons could not be reached for comment, but an office worker said the county would likely be unable to collect back taxes because the cemetery had previously been listed as tax-exempt. Barfield said the county would reportedly not seek to collect back taxes.

Originally posted on Newsvine.com, Nov. 3, 2008.

By E.J. Rotert

PACIFIC, Mo. -- Police still say a drive-by shooting more than a month ago resulted in no one being hit by gunfire.

Tell that to Larry Armistead.

Armistead, of Pacific, said last week that six bullet fragments still remain lodged in his head because they're too risky for physicians to remove. Additional fragments from the bullet were removed from his left forearm and the rear of his right shoulder, he said. The bullet broke apart when it hit the rearview mirror of the car he was sitting in, he said.

"They (police) said if it hadn't been for the rearview mirror it would have blown my brains out," said Armistead, 35, of Pacific, who was in the vehicle's passenger seat when the bullet came through the car's windshield.

Of the shooter, whom he said was a male in a hooded sweatshirt, he added: "He was aiming to shoot me. I was who he was intending to kill."

Pacific police have told reporters on at least three occasions that no one was hit by gunfire. An investigation into the case is ongoing.

Police Chief Jim Brune said Monday that police have at least one suspect in the crime and believe to know the motive, but declined to specify details.

The shooting occurred in the 100 block of East Orleans Street at approximately 1:10 a.m. on Sept. 29, a Monday, a police press release says.

Armistead, his half-brother, Nathan Schindler, and a third person, the driver, were in the car, a mid-1990s Lincoln Town Car, when it was shot with a .38-caliber pistol, say the brothers. They said the shot came from a small sports car with tinted windows that was painted black and a glittery, burnt-orange color.

Both declined to name the driver of the Town Car, as have police in an incident report on the shooting. The driver was injured by flying glass and was treated at the scene. Armistead was taken to St. John's Mercy Medical Center in Creve Coeur, he said, where he remained two days.

The press release from police says a single bullet passed through the car's windshield and lodged in the rearview mirror. "Any injuries sustained appear to be from broken glass and not from the projectile itself," the press release reads.

Brune last confirmed on Oct. 13 that no one was struck by the bullet. But Armistead said a police detective had come to the hospital the day after the shooting and talked to both he and medical staff. He said he also signed over his medical records three days later to police.

Armistead showed a reporter corroborating paperwork from St. John's hospital on his injuries.

Brune agreed to release the incident report documenting the shooting, but only after sections of the report were blocked out in black ink. About 30 percent of the report is rendered unreadable.

The report says the driver of the damaged vehicle said he had driven to the Pacific Moto Mart convenience store to buy a pack of cigarettes. While returning, the driver observed a car following behind him. He then parked his vehicle in front of an ice cream shop on South First Street. While the car was sitting there, the other vehicle pulled alongside. The handgun was pointed out a window and fired.

Schindler said he recalls hearing two shots.