Manchester Board of Aldermen Set to Discuss Censure of One of Its Own

At Tuesday night's meeting, the Manchester Board of Aldermen is set to discuss the possible censure, or public reprimand, of Alderman Mike Clement after a recent ethics violation. Earlier this month, the Missouri Ethics Commission found Clement in violation of campaign finance laws  for sending out but not reporting the $2,436.50 spend on mailings in time. According to Missouri Campaign Finance Laws, any person, even if they are not running for office, must report any expenditure of more than $500 in support or against any candidate or ballot measure within 14 days of making the expenditure.

(Read Previous Story: )

The resolution to discuss whether Clement should be censured for the ethics violation was introduced by fellow Alderman Bob Tullock. This comes after another local alderman was already censured this year. Town and Country Alderman David Karney was censured by his follow board members on Jan 10. after a threatening e-mail was traced back to an alias account under his name and his computer.

Read Previous Story: 

Tullock is also the alderman who initially filed the complaint with the ethics commission which sparked the investigation into Clement, who said he did not know he had to report the expenditure and did so as soon as he was notified that he was required to do so.

Tullock said he should have known better. 

"If you were new, just threw your name in the hat, you're not going to know everything. He's been an alderman now for almost 10 years. He should know better."

Tullock told Patch that discussing a possible censure is appropriate because of an issue different from the violation. Tullock said his concerns is that Clement's flyer read, "A Message From Ward Two Alderman Mike Clement." He said that previously aldermen have been censured for similar actions when they have sent out campaign propaganda with city information on it that might make voters think the city is backing their views.

"You just don't do that and that's a policy that the board established years ago," Tullock. "We need to distance the city from campaign material."

However, Clement said that is a non-issue. He pointed out that the ethics violation was for failure to report an expenditure and said he was not running for office at the time and was putting all of his info on the flyer so it was clear who sent the flyer to residents.

"I certainly did not represent it as coming from the city. I made it clear it was coming from me," Clement explained. "I should have a right to put the info out there for the people."

When asked if he thought being censured was an appropriate consequence for the ethics violation, Clement responded, "Of course it's not, but that's not even the intent. Bob's just trying to create a little embarrassment."

Both Clement and Tullock are running for re-election in the April 5 election.

However, it's not likely to be discussed Tuesday night even though it is on the agenda. Board meetings are normally held on Monday nights, but as a result of the President's Day holiday, this week's meeting was moved to Tuesday. Clement has a prior commitment that conflicts with the date change, so he will not be in attendance Tuesday. However, he said he will be there and ready to take on the issue at the next meeting on March 7.

"I expect it to come up at the following meeting," Clement said. "And I will have things to say at the following meeting. We'll see how the conversation goes."

Mayor David Willson said without Clement at the meeting, there's not much to discuss. "Doesn't make much sense to me. It's up to the board of aldermen, but I would be surprised if they would have too much discussion."

When asked if he thought a censure was appropriate for Clement, Willson told Patch, "I don't want to put words in anybody's mouth...Because I don't know what the ethics commission found."

Another issue set to be discussed Tuesday night is posting the city's expenses on the city website. It's something Alderman Tullock proposed and the board discussed at previous meetings. Tullock said it's been researched and appears to be as simple as cutting and pasting a PDF file on the city website. He said some private citizen information will have to be redacted,  but he was told that should only take a total of two hours each month, so he thinks it can easily become a reality.

Patch will attend Tuesday's meeting and have the latest on what happened on these issues and more.