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Thanks so much for joining us for Last Call, where we broached the topics we couldn't get to in the first segment.

Wendy, Chris Slusser is the chairman of the East-West Gateway Council of Governments, which is an organization representing I think 14 counties in the area, and he's also the chairman of the Madison County Board in Madison County, Illinois.

Last week, after Dr.

Anthony Fauci appeared in front of a U.S.

Senate panel and pleaded the fifth about 150 times, Slusser posted on Facebook that Dr.

Fauci should receive a hanging.

So people reacted, I guess angrily to that, mostly Democrats, saying that he should have been more careful with his choice of words.

What do you think?

A public hanging.

And then I remembered that on this program, around this table, just five, six, maybe seven weeks ago, we had a similar conversation about a Kirkwood school board member who said 86 -47, correct?

I think that, yeah.

86-47, okay.

And I thought that was inappropriate, after however many attempts there have already been on this president's life, and after just everything becoming so volatile.

And so I thought, you know what, if that upset me, this is going to upset me too.

And it did.

I think we have to expect more out of, we understand that they're very passionate people, that's why they're involved in politics in the first place.

But for him to then say, oh, well, I of course, I didn't mean actually, I was just, as a figure of speech, or, you know, I just thought, I think that part of it is ridiculous.

Don't insult our intelligence, you know, after you take this stance.

Just admit, say, hey, I shouldn't have done it, sorry about that, it won't happen again.

And there were some Republicans that called him out.

Right, oh yeah, yeah.

Just like in Kirkwood, like, my politics are probably closer to the Kirkwood school board president than this gentleman from Madison County.

They're both wrong.

And that's just... Take your lumps.

But don't say, I didn't mean it that way.

I do not understand how there is any, how these are at all equivalent.

The idea of saying 86, that's like saying at a restaurant, like, you can't have that, we're taking it off the menu.

Versus you're going to like hang the guy publicly?

Like this gentleman... Hold on a second.

You're a wordsmith, and you know that some dictionaries say that to receive a public hanging, or subject to a public hanging is a metaphorical phrase to represent should be rebuked in public for certain actions.

I have actually never heard that.

I have never looked it up in the dictionary, in fairness to your point.

No, no, no.

According to Mr.

Schlesser.

I think it was Jason Rosenbaum or another reporter for St.

Louis Public Radio who pointed out that in some dictionary, I think it was Collins Dictionary.

Yes.

That's what it means.

And I looked it up myself and indeed it is a metaphor.

Well, I don't believe that.

Metaphors aside.

It's both of these people weren't like trapped by some tricky reporter.

I mean, they went on social media on their own volition and why, what were they hoping for?

I mean, it's just such poor judgment again.

This is not what we want our officials to be doing.

And, you know, I thought the pox on both their health.

Well, are we getting too sensitive?

Remember there was a years ago, there was a song, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb era.

And then I've even said it before when people say, what kind of punishment should they receive?

And I think they shouldn't receive anything.

I say, oh, they should be shot at dawn.

I don't really mean it.

I'm just saying.

But that's happening.

You're saying that in a personal face-to -face conversation, social media is very different.

And if these politicians or if these committee members or chairmen of what this County or that County, if they haven't learned that by now, then, you know.

He's representing pretty much all the population of the region in that position that he sits in.

So basically he kind of insulted probably what 60, 65% of the population, not because he really meant it, but what he was saying was I'm a vaccine denier and you all are fools.

And I think that's why people- Alvin, I think it's a stretch to say that the chairman of the East West Gateway Council of Governments is our leader.

Because he's in a leadership position.

Oh yeah.

Everybody in bars are just talking about East West Gateway.

I mean, that's a good point, but at the same time.

But they're doing important work behind the scenes.

They're choosing bridges in the Metro-Wik route.

They think they're doing important work anyway.

Just wait till the letters we get out there.

Why do we care?

Nobody cares about East West.

Okay, Alvin, I want to ask you about someone who almost was run out of town.

Dr.

Faisal Khan was the health director of St.

Louis County.

No, he was.

And at one public hearing, he claimed that he was the victim of some racial epithets and that he was manhandled a little bit by the audience.

And then television cameras that happened to be in the room proved that what he said did not happen.

So he left town and his exile took him to Seattle, King County, which is I think where we got our superintendent of schools at one point.

That's right.

Our dear there.

To make a long story short, he's coming back to town.

He was hired by Mayor Kara Spencer of the City of St.

Louis to become the health director.

Mike Kelly on KMOX Radio said, maybe it's possible we can't attract qualified people.

What do you think?

Well, I mean, when I read that, that's one of those that some stories that are like you're reading in print, you read again because there's like, so that was really well written or whatever.

This was one where I had to do a double take and said like, this can't be serious, right?

I think if you listen real closely, I think there's some hounds on his tail, chasing him back to St.

Louis from Seattle.

We'll probably find out, you know, what was up.

But I don't want to say you're not in your right mind to leave Seattle and come to St.

Louis, but to come back to a place that said, you know, beat it.

I don't get this.

He lost his job a year ago in Seattle.

The question I think is why did Mayor Kara Spencer hire this man with a embattled past?

Well, I mean, look, I am all for giving people second chances.

And I feel like what happened in 2020 and 2021 is the whole country went a little nuts.

Like COVID lockdowns, it turns out we're not great for how people interact with each other.

And I think like part of what was happening was there was a lot of abuse being given to public health officials.

They were getting nasty emails all the time.

And at the same time, they also sort of saw themselves as heroic.

They're out there trying to, you know, and nothing could be bigger for a public health hero than to have a scene where you're being jostled and you're sort of the victim.

And, you know, he got excited, carried away, and said some stuff that wasn't true.

Yeah, except it didn't happen.

He lied, he lied.

I mean, that's a real problem for a guy.

He had this moment of being a fabulist.

And if that's the one blot on an - No, no, no, no, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

He fought against it as his supporters did and finally saying that, well, maybe it wasn't your reality, but it was his reality.

And I thought, well, that's- And he also went on national television.

Remember, he went on national television and cried the racism that is St.

Louis.

And to race bait in St.

Louis and to lie, that to me, that is, that's up there on the Mount Rushmore.

You know, you cannot do that in St.

Louis.

So you think that's the one unforgivable thing?

Nobody can come back.

I'm like Alvin.

I had to do it.

I was like, you know, when I saw Mayor Kara Spencer is bringing him back, I thought, oh my God, you know, I mean, maybe she wants somebody who is familiar.

I mean, it's gonna be the city, I'm not gonna take his word on things.

If he tells me that he was jostled and that someone called him a racial slur, guess what?

I'm not gonna believe him.

But if he can come in and sort of quietly administrate this, there better be a witness, Charlie, because we know that- We lost 20 years.

But if he can administer this department- Well, I agree.

Who's she gonna bring back next?

Stan Kronke?

Yeah, exactly.

And the Doan committees?

Let me bring some money with him.

Wait, you guys have it wrong.

He didn't mean it when he said that he was jostled, just like the Madison County.

Oh, look it up in the dictionary.

Look that up in the dictionary.

Yeah, that's it.

Sarah, let's go to Webster Groves.

Last week or the week before, Jim Laritz, the judge there, quit, said that they're completely mishandling the courts.

This week, it's reported that two of their workers, one, the finance director and a CPA who worked for the city, were using two of the city's 44 credit cards to buy cannabis or some products in a cannabis shop.

They used the money on American Airlines tickets, Airbnb's, and they spent money, one did anyway, at a strip club.

But they did pay back the $4,100, except for $103.

I love that.

So is it actually an issue?

I think it is actually an issue.

I mean, it sounds like Webster did deal with it before this audit came out.

And what they didn't do is tell us all that it was happening.

Maybe for transparency reasons, they should have, and they could have kept our state auditor from getting this big headline and enjoying making fun of good, well-meaning Webster.

That was probably the biggest mistake here.

But I think this is a big deal because everybody knows, as an investigative reporter or as a federal prosecutor or as an auditor, you get the paperwork crime that you can prove.

And you know that generally, underneath it, there's some sort of miasma of corruption and some much bigger underbelly.

And so you look for the receipts.

And if the receipts are showing $4,300 or whatever it was, there's probably a lot more that went wrong.

You know, the big, big mystery is still Maria Peoples.

You know, she was the city manager they brought in from Arizona and left under strange circumstances with a bunch of money.

And it turns out that one of the fellows who got in trouble here, she had brought with her friends.

So it's a little bit like the school board with Dr.

Stewart, you know, bringing friends in and then you wonder about them.

So this goes back to Maria Peoples.

I think the CPA was making about $53 ,000 for Webster.

Now, anyone who works hard and works honestly, that's fine.

Okay.

But $53,000 is not much for an accountant.

Well, I would tend to agree.

But I mean, if you signed up for the job, I guess, you know, you signed up for the job.

And they get pensions.

I have friends that have chosen to work in government jobs that are comparatively poorly paid because, hey, if you put in a certain number of years, you're getting that salary for the rest.

Well, I'm sorry, what are we saying here?

That if you're only making X number of dollars, somehow we change the- At that pay level and cities are strapped, maybe they're just not attracting quality people.

And that explains Dr.

Fizer as well.

At least I could say that in Kirkwood, I don't think they spent $13 million at the strip club.

Now there's an audit going on and we'll find, we'll see.

You know, maybe you could argue that, you know, to unwind after a hard day, they're going to visit the cannabis shop.

Put it on the city's bill.

Yeah, this is driving me crazy.

There's a little place in your heart for this guy.

I wonder if I've seen him at the shop.

I think in some of these cases, like 7th graders or 8th graders or 6th graders or 5th graders, might have better judgment than some of the municipal employees that we've been talking about.

I would think the people in Webster Groves would be pretty upset, unless they're strippers.

Well, living in Webster?

I don't know where they live.

Every time I've ever had access to the credit card through a paper or anything like that, I've spent 0.00.

They've given it to me and I've said like, you keep it.

I'm never gonna use it because I just, not that I didn't trust myself, it's just that, no.

That's wisdom.

Yeah.

That's wisdom that apparently a lot of these municipalities, you know, these employees do not have.

Oh, I remember the first time somebody bought me a credit card lunch.

I was a reporter in Arizona and an old friend had gotten a job on the Public Service Commission and he said, hey, let's meet at Mikayo's for lunch.

And I said, that's too ritzy for me.

He said, the people are paying.

You ordered double, right?

Yeah, yeah.

I said, well, the people.

Or maybe two bow boxes.

Now that you mentioned it, you did write in Sunday's column, you dined at Sam's Steakhouse.

One, how are we gonna get a pay race here at Nine PBS if you keep writing these columns about your affluent lifestyle?

You're a jet setter.

And two, who paid for that Sam's Steakhouse?

Well, it was my birthday, so I paid.

Happy birthday again.

You have to pay for your own birthday?

I paid for the Father's Day meal.

Right.

To conclude.

You paid for Father's Day?

I paid for Father's Day meal.

That's not right.

We'll be discussing that next week, right here on Last Call.