UPDATE: O’Fallon denies records request for closed meeting on Lowery’s job
O’Fallon this morning rejected my public records request for minutes and any recorded votes during last Thursday’s closed session of the City Council. During that meeting, council members discussed the status of City Administrator Robert Lowery Jr.’s employment.
Lowery, Mayor Donna Morrow and several city council members have refused to comment.
Today, city spokesman Tom Drabelle said my records request could not be fulfilled because closed meetings only become public if a vote is taken.
So apparently, there was no vote to oust Lowery in that meeting.
Lowery still has his job. But clearly, things are heating up in O’Fallon in an election year in which at least three candidates are vying for the mayor’s chair. Jim Frain, a member of the planning and zoning commission, Councilmen Bill Hennessy and Pierce Conley are running for mayor. However, Morrow has yet to announce her intentions.
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Are nasty politics returning to O’Fallon, Mo.? Or did they ever really leave?
No one’s commenting about it publicly, but O’Fallon’s City Administrator Robert Lowery Jr. is concerned about keeping his job.
The City Council held a closed meeting Thursday in which Lowery’s employment was discussed, but several city council members refused to say anything about what happened during the closed session.
City Administrator Robert Lowery
Lowery, who wouldn’t comment, was hired in October 2005 amid a contentious political climate after Donna Morrow won that year’s mayoral election on a reform campaign. She declined comment.
The city has yet to respond to an open records request filed Monday by the Post-Dispatch for minutes of last Thursday’s closed session. Under the Missouri Sunshine Law, the city has three business days to respond, which would be Thursday.
Last month, Police Chief Jerry Schulte retired unexpectedly after nearly 35 years with the department. After the announcement, he said Lowery and Morrow had approached him with a retirement package. A national search is being conducted for a successor.
Today, the city announced the appointment of Maj. William K. Seibert as interim police chief. He has been with O’Fallon for a little more than a year and worked for the Missouri Highway Patrol for about three decades.
(2 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
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Hey Bob,
Good riddance, don’t let the door hit you on the way out!!!
O’Fallon
Make no mistake about this article, as much as the Post-Disgrace would like to make Lowery a victim, he is not. Lowery deserves everything he has coming….all bad.
Wow, Bob must have wanted this story out. He bragged about controlling the Journal and Post before. Third safest city but Bob wants the Chief of Police fired/retired. Go back across the river big guy.
Having known back stabbing Bob for many years the most amazing part of this story is that he has lasted so long in a job where his daddy wasn’t his boss. Lets just hope he doesn’t slither back to Florissant.