Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Manestar has lived in Brentwood her whole life. She's been a PTO president, and now is ready to take her community service up a notch.
Maplewood-Brentwood Patch sat down for a cup of coffee with Cindy Manestar in Ray’s Doughnuts the day after her first Brentwood Board of Alderman meeting. Manestar ran uncontested for the open Ward 2 seat on April 3. Patch learned she’s open, honest and about as Brentwood it comes. She took few out-of-town detours between growing up on Bridgeport Avenue and winning a seat on the Brentwood Board of Aldermen. “I’ve lived in Brentwood basically my whole life,” she said. “I married my high school sweetheart, Jeff Manestar. Bought a house over on Annalee, live there 12 years, then we moved to Rosalie.” Jeff Manestar is a sergeant with the Brentwood Police Department. She graduated from Brentwood High School in 1984. Her first date with Manestar…
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Two out of four races in Brentwood will be contested.
The filing period for residents interested in seats on the Brentwood boards of aldermen and education, and the Maplewood Richmond Heights Board of Education, closed on Tuesday evening. That means the ballots for the April election have basically been set. Brentwood Board of Aldermen While four seats on the Brentwood Board of Aldermen are up for election, only two of those are contested. Each seat carries a four-year term. In Ward 4, three candidates have filed for one seat. Patrick Toohey, 35, lives on Oriole Lane and works as a financial advisor at Wells Fargo. Toohey is a first-time filer who entered the contest because of his background in financial and operation audits. "I am filing due to the lack of financial oversight in the City of…
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Brentwood City Hall
2348 S Brentwood Blvd, Brentwood, MO
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Monday, December 5, 2011
Two aldermen sought to waive fees for one Brentwood resident but the motion failed to pass.
Brentwood city officials will ask the Missouri attorney general if they can legally charge some members of the public for copying records while waiving fees for others. The attorney general's office oversees the Missouri Sunshine Law, which guarantees the public's right to access most documents recorded by public entities. The Brentwood Board of Aldermen is divided on how the city should proceed with requests made for copies of different city records. The disagreement began during the public comment period of Monday night's meeting. Brentwood resident Julie Pozzo suggested that the board waive fees that have been charged to people requesting documents related to the recent investigation of former city administrator Chris Seemayer. He was …
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Brentwood City Hall
2348 S Brentwood Blvd, Brentwood, MO
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Thursday, December 1, 2011
Residents interested in serving on the Brentwood boards of education or aldermen must register in December to be placed on the April 2012 ballot.
Two seats on the Brentwood Board of Education and four on the Brentwood Board of Aldermen will be open on the April 2012 ballot. The filing period runs from Dec. 13 to Jan. 17 for both boards. The municipal election is slated for April 3. Brentwood Board of Aldermen Four aldermanic seats will be open in the April 2012 election. The two-year terms for Barb Clements (Ward 1), Mike Marshall (Ward 2), Andy Leahy (Ward 3) and Lorraine Krewson (Ward 4) are set to expire. For residents interested in running for one of the open aldermanic positions, the city will accept your filing notice at Brentwood City Hall between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. from Dec. 13 until Jan. 17. Potential candidates are required to meet a few criteria: While candidates were …
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Brentwood City Hall
2348 S Brentwood Blvd, Brentwood, MO
/articles/candidate-filing-opens-dec-13-in-brentwood
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Brentwood School District Conference Center
1201 Hanley Industrial Ct, Saint Louis, MO
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Monday, November 21, 2011
In a 2012 budget proposed by city administrator Bola Akande, revenues and expenses are expected to rise compared to last year.
A finance director, dump truck and two new police cars are among the extra costs included in a preliminary budget for the city of Brentwood in 2012, which runs from January through December. City Administrator Bola Akande presented a budget draft to the Brentwood Ways and Means Committee on Nov. 10. In 2012, the city projects $15.3 million in revenues and $15 million in expenses. The numbers increased compared to 2011 and 2010. The city expects an increase in sales tax revenue because of new retailers and restaurants in Brentwood, Akande said. Sales taxes account for 40 percent of the city's revenue. Business license fees are also expected to jump, as the city projects Drury Development Corporation to break ground on a new hotel at the …
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Brentwood City Hall
2348 S Brentwood Blvd, Brentwood, MO
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Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Brentwood residents spend half of Monday's meeting asking questions and criticizing the city's handling of recent events.
Monday night’s Brentwood Board of Aldermen meeting quickly became heated as residents once again took Mayor Pat Kelly and the board to task about their handling of recent events and the way the city conducts general meetings. The open session lasted roughly an hour, but half of that time was spent on the public comment period. Of the 20 residents who attended the meeting, five spoke. They continued to ask why former Brentwood city administrator Chris Seemayer was allowed to resign instead of being fired. Others asked about purported financial mismanagement in the city. For the most part, Kelly and the aldermen waited patiently to respond while being peppered with questions and none-too-subtle criticisms. Legalities prevented Kelly from …
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Brentwood City Hall
2348 S Brentwood Blvd, Brentwood, MO
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Tuesday, October 18, 2011
The public comment period of Monday's Brentwood Board of Aldermen meeting lasted one hour and 32 minutes as 10 residents raised objections and asked questions of their elected officials.
Brentwood residents used a Board of Aldermen meeting as a platform to share their disappointment with their elected officials on Monday night. The meeting follows last week's sentencing of former city administrator Chris Seemayer, who is still collecting benefits from the city he pleaded guilty to stealing nearly $30,000 from. The residents were outraged that the city's contracted labor attorney, Chris Hesse, negotiated a settlement with Seemayer to pay him accrued vacation and sick leave pay. The city paid Seemayer nearly $43,000 after his resignation, because he had accrued a sick leave balance of 120 days and a vacation leave balance of 25 days, City Administrator Bola Akande said. "I don't know how any of you sleep at night," said …
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Brentwood City Hall
2348 S Brentwood Blvd, Brentwood, MO
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Tuesday, September 6, 2011
A property tax hike gained preliminary approval, but the bill requires final approval from the Brentwood Board of Aldermen.
*Correction (1:59 p.m.) — An earlier version of this article listed incorrect math to calculate a homeowner's expected tax bill. We are sorry for the error. A move to increase property taxes for homeowners and commercial property owners in Brentwood gained preliminary approval during a Brentwood Ways and Means Committee last Wednesday. The planned increases are $.06 for residential and $.055 cents for commercial properties per $100 in assessed valuation. For a $123,600 home—Brentwood's median housing value according to the 2000 U.S. Census—homeowners would pay $14.09 in extra taxes if their home values remained the same. But preliminary data show a $28.4 million drop in residential and commercial assessed valuation in Brentwood. If a home …
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Brentwood City Hall
2348 S Brentwood Blvd, Brentwood, MO
/articles/with-declining-home-values-brentwood-might-hike-property-taxes
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Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Eight residents spoke during a public comment period at a Brentwood Board of Aldermen meeting on Monday night.
Residents crowded Brentwood City Hall on Monday night and demanded more transparency from their elected officials. It was the second straight Brentwood Board of Aldermen meeting where frustrated residents raised questions about how the city handled the firefighter overtime pay scandal and Chris Seemayer embezzlement investigation. (See related on Patch: Brentwood Residents: "I'm Embarrassed") Eight residents spoke about the scandals during the meeting's public comment period. Jeffrey Harrison, who lives on Annalee Avenue, asked the aldermen about Bob Kurt'z employment status. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that Kurtz, the former assistant fire chief of the city, retired during the overtime scandal to take a building commissioner …
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Brentwood City Hall
2348 S Brentwood Blvd, Brentwood, MO
/articles/brentwood-residents-seek-answers-from-aldermen
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Monday, August 8, 2011
The city sent a press release on Monday that called for a state audit of its finances to "restore confidence in our city government."
This article was updated at 10:15 p.m. to include information from an interview with Gary McElyea, spokesman for the Missouri State Auditor's Office. On Monday, Mayor Pat Kelly called for a state audit of the city's finances, two weeks after two Brentwood residents began collecting signatures on a petition for the same purpose. Kelly made the statement in a press release sent to local news outlets. The release notes that the mayor sent a letter to Missouri State Auditor Tom Schweich on Friday that requests the audit to "restore confidence in our city government." (See PDF attached to article.) In an interview, Kelly said a state audit would help the city "regain the confidence of the citizenry." The audit would help the city establish …
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Brentwood City Hall
2348 S Brentwood Blvd, Brentwood, MO
/articles/after-citizen-led-effort-brentwood-city-hall-calls-for-state-audit
1427354
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Mr. Completely
6:31 am on Tuesday, May 8, 2012
"A year prior to all the negative press" she said. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, not their own facts. The facts about recent & past problems within Brentwood city government, in my opinion, supported the "negative press". more ›