Councilwoman Files Amended Ethics Complaint Against Creve Coeur Mayor Barry Glantz

Creve Coeur Ward 4 Councilwoman Jeanne Rhoades announced Wednesday evening that she had amended claims in an ethics complaint filed last month against newly elected Mayor Barry Glantz related to the just-completed campaign.

Rhoades , accusing the Glantz campaign of failing to properly disclose the employer of its biggest donor. Garrick Hamilton is General Counsel for the , a fact Glantz did not deny in a May interview with Patch. Hamilton's donations, including a $2,000 check, came from a Yogurt firm's account, and not the developer with long and sometimes complicated ties to city politics and infrastructure projects, including the Olive Boulevard Transportation Development District.

Rhoades, , said in her amended filing that Mayor Glantz's answers to questions about Hamilton's donation opened the question over whether other individual donations to the Glantz campaign came from corporations but were reported as having come from individuals.

Hamilton has not returned previous messages left seeking comment on the matter.

The amended complaint continues to take the Glantz campaign to task for "at a minimum...looking the other way," as campaign supporters used bulk mailers and emails to attack Glantz's opponent in the Mayor's race, Laura Bryant.

The complaint also officially cites Ward 1 Councilman David Kreuter and Planning and Zoning Commission Chairman Tim Madden for letters they signed on behalf of the Glantz campaign to congregations atand Church members, among other groups. The complaint said the letters, which appeared to be form written, "masqueraded" as individual personal letters, and that Glantz's campaign records didn't appear to reflect in-kind donations from Kreuter or Madden.

Mayor Glantz Responds

In a phone interview late Wednesday, Glantz told Patch he had "nothing further to add and nothing to hide," when it came to addressing issues raised in the initial complaint.

Also reached late Wednesday by phone, Madden told Patch that someone from Glantz's campaign staff reached out and asked if he would support the campaign with a letter. Madden said he went through a list of members at St. Monica Church and thought he came up with roughly 60 recipients. He addressed the envelopes, and then the Glantz campaign worker stuffed them and mailed them.

Messages seeking comment from Councilman Kreuter were not returned late Wednesday.

Glantz said his campaign did reach out to a number of community members who might be able to appeal to large groups of people, and that there were others in addition to Kreuter and Madden who did so. Glantz said his campaign did have a letter "template" but that people were free to use their own. He did acknowledge that his campaign paid for the envelopes and the postage, and believed that his campaign finance reports reflected "in-kind" donations from Glantz and his wife Sheri to cover those expenses.

He also conceded that the letters did not clarify in print that they were, in part, paid for by the campaign. "If I need to more clearly identify who paid for what, I'll do it," he said.

"I wish I fully understood what she was trying to accomplish," Glantz said of the complaint, adding that he felt Rhoades' interest in the matter was "almost like an obsession."

Rhoades has said in her filings with the Missouri Ethics Commission that "It is my belief that the only way to deter such conduct going forward is to expose the truth and then hold all parties accountable to the maximum extent allowed."

By law, the Missouri Ethics Commission cannot comment on complaints, or acknowledge that one even exists while it is under investigation.