Paper ain’t cheap, and it don’t come easy — especially if it’s for public consumption.
For more than two months, three municipalities in north ºüÀêÊÓƵ County have struggled to comply with a simple records request under the Missouri Sunshine Law.
A request on Jan. 8 from the Post-Dispatch was: provide monthly invoices that Sam Alton submitted for 2019 through 2023 for providing legal services to your municipality.
Two of those three cities have yet to comply with the request, and a third just did, on March 6.
Alton, whose day job is chief of staff to ºüÀêÊÓƵ County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell, moonlights as a city attorney and prosecutor for Pagedale, Bellerive Acres and Breckenridge Hills.
And a lucrative side job it is.
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Alton has made more money in the past five full years from those side gigs, $776,500, than he has working for Bell: $674,012.
While Alton’s side-job workload now is only three cities, he has in the past worked for as many as six while also working for Bell.
Bell has said he has no problems with Alton’s moonlighting. Bell is no stranger to working the North County legal circuit; that’s what he did before winning the top prosecutor’s seat in 2018.
But some clearly have a problem with the practice.
On Tuesday, Councilman Dennis Hancock, R-3rd District, about the issue of secondary work for county employees.
Andrea Harrington, Bell’s deputy chief of staff, told the council that the prosecutor’s office didn’t have a specific moonlighting policy and doesn’t approve or supervise outside work.
Several times, Harrington said prosecutors were not like other county employees in that they were self-regulating and expected to follow rules of professional conduct.
“They’re treated like professionals,†she said.
Councilman Mark Harder, R-7th District, said reports that Alton was making more money at side jobs than he was working in Bell’s office raises the question of: “So which job is the master here?â€
He pressed Harrington about who in Bell’s office keeps track of time sheets to ensure that people were not working at side jobs while they were on the county’s clock — a practice known as double-dipping.
Harrington “was not familiar with†the policies about such checks and balances.
“I don’t know who signs off on the time sheets,†she said.
When Harder asked if prosecutors were allowed to be in private practice — Alton bills municipal clients under the heading of “SJAlton Law Firm†— Harrington told Harder he should refer that question to the county counselor’s office.
Councilwoman Rita Heard Days, D-1st District, responded to Harrington’s statement to the council that moonlighting “just hasn’t been a problem.â€
Days said she has received calls from her constituents who are unhappy with the outside earnings of highly paid employees: “Your contention that it has not been a problem; then you obviously have not read the papers.â€
In closing out the almost hourlong questioning of Harrington, Council Chair Shalonda Webb, D-4th District, referred to Harrington’s repeated statement that outside work had been going on for years.
“That traditional response maybe needs to be reevaluated,†Webb said.
Should anyone wonder why information from Alton’s invoices would be an issue, let’s return to Alton’s own words at a November hearing before the County Council.
Upon questioning from Hancock about his moonlighting, Alton said he worked a minimal amount at his side jobs. But Hancock persisted and asked Alton to be more specific as to the number of hours he worked.
“Less than three,†Alton replied.
Hancock, a former mayor of Fenton and a veteran of many municipal meetings, seemed to doubt that Alton could serve all three cities and spend less than three hours a week doing it.
Alton’s short reply recalls the egg-eating contest in the movie “Cool Hand Luke,†where Luke says he’ll eat 50 hard-boiled eggs. A fellow inmate then asks Luke, “Why you got to go and say 50 eggs for? Why not 35 or 39?â€
Maybe in the heat of the moment, Alton quickly grabbed at a number. Or “less than three†is indeed the number of hours Alton works on the side.
Either way, the best way to find out would be to look at the monthly invoices Alton submits to each of his three client cities.
But that hasn’t been as easy as the Sunshine Law makes it sound.
In the two months that have gone by since the Jan. 8 request, only Breckenridge Hills has complied. On March 6, the city sent 100 pages to the Post-Dispatch.
On March 7, Pagedale city clerk Lois Sampson-Hooker emailed to say she had finally compiled the records for public release — at a cost of $757.50.
“The rate is $25.25 an hour and the total hours to complete is 30,†she wrote.
Well, that raises some questions.
On Feb. 26, Sampson-Hooker informed the Post-Dispatch that the hourly cost would be $20.25. We all understand inflation, but a 25% price increase in less than two weeks?
And the total cost seemed a bit, well, let’s say on the high side.
If Pagedale provides 100 pages of records, like Breckenridge Hills did, that works out to a little more than $7.50 for every page.
So on March 10, an email was sent that asked her for an explanation of the cost. That date was a Sunday, just to make sure the email was waiting for her Monday morning.
We await a response.
Bellerive Acres city clerk Deletra Hudson, who quit working in Jennings shortly after Alton did, released invoices for only 2023 in an email on Feb. 21.
Hudson had said previously that she was having a problem finding prior invoices. She has not specified whether the invoices no longer exist or have just been misplaced.
On Sunday, an email also was sent to Hudson, asking if any progress had been made in finding the missing records.
Again, we await a response.
Given all the difficulty in gaining access to public records, a call was made last week to the office of Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, the top state official for enforcing the Missouri Sunshine Law.
Still, we await a response.