The Northeast Rip-off and Fire Protection District
Elbert Walton Jr., standing, and tame fire board members Robert Edwards, left, and Joe Washington. (Post-Dispatch photo by J.B. Forbes)
So here’s attorney Elbert Walton Jr. and his pet rocks at the Northeast Ambulance and Fire Protection District. Though besieged by the state Ethics Commission, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the state auditor’s office and spurned by voters four times in a single year when they tried to fog a $10.7 million bond issue past them, Mr. Walton and his cronies are fearless.
As reported Sunday by the Post-Dispatch’s Elizabethe Holland, last month Mr. Walton got his pet rocks to pay him and his law partner a “retainer” of at least $180,000 a year for the district’s legal work. This is 7.5 times more than any of the 11 fire districts in north St. Louis County — some of which are considerably larger and have more complicated business dealings — paid their lawyers last year.
It is $47,000 less than Mr. Walton and his partner, Bernard Edwards Jr., were paid by the district last year. Those of us who are fans of Mr. Walton’s work believe the retainer is merely a down payment. Surely there will be bills to come.
Still, the retainer is a beautiful thing. It can be paid in a lump sum, and Mr. Walton can use the cash. According to federal records, he recently filed for bankruptcy for the third time. He owes the IRS some $40,400 in back taxes, which don’t go away in bankruptcy.
Also, with a retainer, you don’t have to actually demonstrate what specific work you’ve performed to earn the dough. This keeps investigators off your back.
To get a sweetheart deal like this, you’ve got to have the board in your pocket. Mr. Walton got his crony Joe Washington elected to the three-member board in 2005. Two years later, Mr. Walton got a working majority by getting crony Robert Edwards elected, too. The new board majority quickly named Mr. Walton the board’s attorney; tax dollars have been flowing his way ever since.
The board routinely violates the state Open Meetings Law. The board bought a new building and moved the district’s meetings to find a tame police force willing to throw troublemakers (i.e., people who oppose them) out of meetings. The board keeps trying to pass a bond issue without telling voters what the money will be used for, though it’s not hard to guess.
Missouri law makes this brazen scam easy by allowing fire boards to be controlled by as few as two people. Board members are elected in April elections, when turnout is pathetically low. Voters in the Northeast District (formerly the Normandy Fire District) will have to wait until 2011, when Mr. Washington’s term expires, for a chance to atone for their apathy.
The Legislature should upset this apple cart. Ideally, the county’s 23 fire districts and its 20 municipal fire departments should be consolidated into one fire service, with four regional subdistricts. That would save money and increase professionalism, reducing the power of special interests. At the very least, fire boards should be made up of five to seven members.
Attorney General Chris Koster should join the queue of public officials investigating the district, enforcing open records and open meetings laws. Mr. Koster should work closely with state Auditor Susan Montee’s office to enforce the findings of her audit.
County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch should have his investigators attend a few board meetings to watch this farce. Knowing Mr. Walton, he’d try to have them thrown out.
……..The very idea that any fire protection district (let alone a ONE-STATION district) would need that dollar amount of legal fees would be laughable, were it not true. At least the voters are being smart enough NOT to give them any more funds from bond issues.
I don’t know why you’re picking on poor ol’ Mr. Walton. This is just one example of what goes on all the time - people translating political power into dollars. The best example? School boards. In most areas, the teachers’ union controls the board. And this year, when almost everyone has a neighbor who has lost his home, her job, or both, and when private companies are canceling raises and cutting benefits, teachers all over town are getting a raise - and our tax rates are going up to pay for it.
I find it racist that the Post Disgrace would devote so much attention to a BLACK lawyer’s fees. You first write that Mr. Walton is being paid a high fee. When the fees are lowered by over $80,000 annually, instead of praising the lowering of the fees, you find reason to criticize the fee because it is paid in the form of a retainer instead of hourly. When black professionals are successful in landing some of the political plums that white folks have enjoyed for a millenia, they end up as headline stories and in editorials in the white news media. The only consolation we have is in knowing that the Post Disgrace doesn’t have long in this world and is about to go out of business. Elizabeth Holland better go to law school.
This has nothing to do with race. This is simply a crook. Walton is opposed by both black and white politicians. Race is simply a smoke screen. He stole from Berkley and now he has another target. When you have nothing better to say you pull out the race card. How about if he tried to get and real job and do some real work, like most people. He is nothing but a thief and a bully with a pen. Hopefully he will end up where he belongs.
Yes Mr Miller, It’s always the white man keeping the black man down. Only someone with your intelligence could justify stealing when it’s $80,000 less than he stole before. Alway rely on old faithfull - - The Race Card. Well done.
I’m black and I think that Walton should be in JAIL!
So a local fire district is scammed by a slick organizer, attorney. Let’s see, how does this seem familiar? Oh, I know, Ameri”corrupt”, Kevin Johnson, get-paid-to-play, and all that.
Why is one worthy of comment and not the other?
C’mon P.D., you know you’re going to have to cover it. It’s only bigger than “Travel-gate”, and more revealing of the O’s character than killing a fly. Get on with it please, delay will only make you look weaker and more
“beholding”. So bite your tongue and make it happen.
Arthur Miller- not really black are you? Even black folks (if they are informed) can see these crooks for what they are. Maybe white poltico’s have stolen in the past, but at this level(fire board) and to this degree? Believe me the fees Master Walton is charging aren’t 80,000 less. That is only a retainer. When he is done we will have either a bankrupt fire district or heavily increased taxes. Not a problem, right? ….Schulte Hardware should offer a loaner pitchfork to anyone going to the next Board mtg.
“This is 7.5 times more than any of the 11 fire districts in north St. Louis County — some of which are considerably larger and have more complicated business dealings — paid their lawyers last year.”
It would be interesting to know how much is paid to attorneys across all St. Louis areas, West County, South County, City etc.
Why are they neglecting to mention the pension funds that are missing from the Northeast Fire District? It has taken too long for such little info. to be made public since the audit has taken place. What about the assault in their board meeting this week? Wow, that’s not made public either. Just how many people are involved?