LAKE SAINT LOUIS • Former Mayor Harry Slyman says he's resigning as a city alderman to protest the board's recent passage of a bill allowing convenience store/gas stations to sell hard liquor.
"I don't respect this Board of Aldermen and I cannot serve with people I don't respect," Slyman said Wednesday of the decision he announced at a board meeting Monday night.
Slyman, who became known areawide in the 1970s and 1980s appearing in his family appliance store chain's TV commercials, said the bill runs counter to efforts to reduce drunk driving.
"It's sending the wrong message to make it available to the driving public at our gas stations," he said.
He added that aldermen had created a double standard on health issues by voting last year to ban smoking in bars and restaurants but expanding the sale of hard liquor.
City Clerk Donna Daniel said the liquor bill was passed 5-0 on June 6; Slyman was absent. He said he had expected the board to first schedule a public hearing on the matter.
Daniel said the measure affects six gas station/convenience stores, all along either Interstate 70 or Highway 40 (Interstate 64.) The city previously allowed the sale of only beer and wine at the stores.
Slyman announced that he was resigning effective July 29. Daniel said city ordinances require the Board of Aldermen to accept the resignation before it can take effect.
That means Slyman still has time to change his mind and stay on the board, Daniel confirmed.
Slyman said, however, he has no plans to do so unless the board backtracks and rescinds the bill - which already has been signed into law by Mayor Mike Potter.
"I'm not expecting it," he said. "They're so headstrong."
Slyman, 76, first ran for mayor in 1989 but lost. He won the job a decade later and served two years before losing his bid for re-election in 2001 to Potter.
In 2005, Slyman won the first of four two-year terms as an alderman. He most recently was elected last April.
Slyman and his brother, Bob Slyman, appeared in a string of commercials for the firm they founded - Slyman Brothers Appliance Centers. One memorable spot pictured the two as sitting on the Gateway Arch.
