Two elected officials want the ºüÀêÊÓƵ County Council to take a closer look at the outside legal work being performed by Sam Alton.
Alton, the full-time chief of staff for county Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell, also works as a city attorney for several municipalities.
During his five years on the county payroll, Alton has been paid $674,012 in salary. In that same time, he has earned at least $728,933 from his side jobs.
Alton has claimed his outside employment takes up “less than threeâ€Â hours a week.
Alderwoman Maureen Roach of Bellerive Acres, one of Alton’s outside clients, wants the County Council to pass moonlighting bans similar to the change in the County Charter that voters approved in 2022 that aimed to stop County Executive Sam Page from working as an anesthesiologist.
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“I highly recommend the County Council pass a law to not allow highly compensated employees of ºüÀêÊÓƵ County (over $125,000) ... to moonlight with extra jobs,†Roach said in her letter to the council.
One of the council members, Dennis Hancock, already is taking a closer look at Alton’s outside work.
Hancock, R-3rd District, said he plans to call the council together, as a committee of the whole, to discuss possible restrictions on outside work by high-level county government officials, including changes to the County Charter.
“We’re not talking about someone who, let’s say, works in our maintenance garage and works part-time as a mechanic to make ends meet,†Hancock said.
“We’re talking about the senior employees, who make in the mid- to upper six figures,†he said.
Roach also asked the council to conduct a forensic audit to determine how many hours Alton works outside of his job with Bell’s office.
In her letter, Roach shared information about Alton’s workload. She said that in August, while she was serving temporarily as city clerk, Alton “billed us an extra eight hours of time.â€
“The norm is that he usually bills extra hours (more) than just his monthly stipend†of $1,000, Roach told the council.
Roach said if Alton’s invoice to Bellerive Acres was accurate, “that only leaves four hours for all the other municipalities he worked for in the month of August.â€
Bellerive Acres has yet to release any information about Alton, as requested by the Post-Dispatch on Jan. 10 — not even the amount of money Alton has been paid.
Pagedale and Breckenridge Hills, two other Alton clients, have provided the total amount of money that Alton has been paid by the cities.
But the two cities — acting on legal advice provided by Alton himself — refused to release invoices, claiming they were protected by attorney-client privilege.
When contacted Friday about the matter, Alton said he was not able to comment at that time.
Later on Friday, Chris King — who is paid by ºüÀêÊÓƵ County to work as Bell’s chief information officer — contacted the Post-Dispatch said he would “manage†responses to the story and asked what questions the reporter wanted answered.
Asked by a reporter if he also worked for the cities and the county simultaneously, King said that because the stories create “negative inferences†about Bell’s office, the issue falls “within my scope of work.â€
The reporter declined to submit questions to King. Shortly thereafter, Alton called the Post-Dispatch and provided more information.
In the subsequent interview, Alton conceded that the number of hours for which he has billed cities may not be exempt to the Missouri Sunshine Law and agreed to inform his clients of that fact. Those cities currently are in the process of compiling that information.
Alton has defended his outside work, saying he has been available “24/7†to Bell’s office, adding that no one has pointed out problems with operations in Bell’s office.
Bell said he has “no problems†with Alton’s moonlighting, contending that the outside work allows his office to keep good workers who might otherwise leave to make more money.