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County public advocate criticizes $1 million consent items, seeks lobbyist reports
Summary
Arnie C. A. C. Deinoff criticized what he called wasteful spending on the consent agenda — naming two $1,000,000 items — and requested disclosure of lobbyist reports and open-records detail as he campaigns for county executive.
Arnie C. A. C. Deinoff, identifying himself as County Public Advocate and a candidate for County Executive, used his public-comment time to press multiple transparency and spending questions before the St. Charles County Council on May 11.
Deinoff thanked county engineering and crews for recent emergency repairs on Piney Road, then questioned two consent-agenda line items he said were listed at $1,000,000 each: playground equipment at Klondike Park and the Gateway Greenlight program. "Which are dollars 1,000,000," he said, and described the Gateway Greenlight program as "political pork waste" in the transcript (profanity redacted in the recording). He also questioned why the county would invest in a police-training center outside the county rather than invest locally.
Deinoff additionally requested copies of reports from lobbyists Mike Gibbons and Tom Dempsey, which he said were paid from taxpayer funds, and cited sections of county law (chapter 67.021, 67.022) in asking for open-records compliance. He described an estimated staff cost for an open-records response as 2.5 hours at $77.01 per hour, totaling $154.02, and asked the council to release responsive records.
The council acknowledged the comments and moved on; the transcript does not record a formal follow-up or a response committing to release the records during that meeting.
