Side gigs provide extra income, but for one high-level ºüÀêÊÓƵ County employee, they more than double it.
Sam Alton works as chief of staff to ºüÀêÊÓƵ County Prosecutor Wesley Bell. He also moonlights as a prosecutor, judge and attorney for several county municipalities.
But payroll records show that Alton has made more money in roughly the past five years from these municipalities than he has earned from actually running Bell’s office.
From Jan. 1, 2019, through Oct. 31, 2023, Alton has been paid $650,180 for his work in the prosecutor’s office.
In that same period, municipal records show that Alton has made $659,102 for legal work in Bel-Ridge, Edmundson, Jennings, Olivette, Pagedale and Vinita Park.
County Councilman Dennis Hancock, a Republican from Fenton, said the large amount of money Alton has earned on the side, while also working as Bell’s chief of staff, calls Alton’s priorities into question.
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“It’s a question of dedication, of loyalty. Is he 100% dedicated to the county?†Hancock said. “That’s a fair question.â€
On Monday, responding directly to Hancock’s question, Alton said that his dedication is “100% to the county and to Wesley Bell.â€
“And I don’t think our community partners, the people we work with, would say any different,†Alton said.
Hancock was the council member who asked Alton about his outside employment during a November budget hearing.
“We’d been hearing about this (outside work) for a while, and it had come up a few times,†Hancock said recently.
When asked about his workload outside of his county job, Alton told Hancock that he spent a “negligible†amount of time with his side business.
Pressed by Hancock to be more specific, Alton said he worked “less than three†hours a week.
Hancock said he was dissatisfied with Alton’s answer.
“I’ve been involved in municipal government for years,†said Hancock, who served 14 years as the mayor of Fenton.
“Two to three hours? That’s one meeting, which doesn’t take into account any prep time†or phone calls from municipal officials, Hancock said.
Hancock said he declined to pursue the matter at that time because he could find no prohibition of Alton making large amounts of money outside of his county job.
“But that certainly seems to be something we need to look at,†Hancock said.
He said one possibility would be to amend the County Charter to prohibit certain high-salary employees from holding other jobs — similar to the “anti-moonlighting†provisions that county voters approved in 2022 to ban County Executive Sam Page from working part time as an anesthesiologist.
Also, questions have circulated in political circles for several years about possible conflicts of interest that may arise from Alton being employed by the county prosecutor while he also works as a prosecutor or judge for municipalities.
Instead of hiring a full-time attorney, most of the county’s 87 municipalities use lawyers hired on a part-time basis to prosecute and adjudicate cases in their municipal courts, as well as using them for advice on legislative, personnel and other legal matters.
Bell, Alton’s boss and “good friend,“ also has a history of working as a lawyer for municipalities. Before being elected in 2018 as the county’s top prosecutor, Bell worked as a municipal judge in Velda City, a prosecutor in Riverview and as city attorney in Wellston.
In a statement Monday, Bell’s office defended Alton’s outside employment and pointed to the same conclusion reached by Hancock, that there is “no rule or law against (Alton) holding outside employment.â€
“Prosecutors who are paid considerably less than their private-sector counterparts always have been allowed (long before our current administration) to work part-time secondary jobs,†the statement said, adding that this allows Bell’s office to retain lawyers “who could otherwise leave for greener pastures.â€
The statement goes on to say that because Alton is on call to both Bell and other staff members at all times, Bell’s office has “no problems†with Alton’s outside work.
Alton said that the work he does for municipalities is done after the hours taken up by his work for Bell.
Financial records from the six municipalities concerning payments to Alton cover the period from the start of Bell’s first term through October of last year.
The Post-Dispatch began requesting the municipal information, under the Missouri Sunshine Law, in early November. The information was fully received just last week.
How much was Sam Alton paid?
Government | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023* | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Pagedale | $49,326.00 | $50,835.00 | $62,158.00 | $41,741.58 | $63,355.00 | $267,415.58 |
Jennings | $70,380.18 | $70,380.18 | $70,380.18 | $71,733.69 | $46,920.16 | $329,794.39 |
Vinita Park | $14,010.00 | $9,600.00 | $13,200.00 | $15,568.00 | 0 | $52,378.00 |
Bel-Ridge | $8,795.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | $8,795.00 |
Olivette | $370.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | $370.00 |
Edmundson | $350.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | $350.00 |
$143,231.18 | $130,815.18 | $145,738.18 | $129,043.27 | $110,275.16 | $659,102.97 | |
ºüÀêÊÓƵ County | $130,000.00 | $130,000.00 | $131,805.00 | $139,457.00 | $118,918.40 | $650,180.40 |
The largest client on Alton’s side-employment list is Jennings, which has paid him $329,794 in that 58-month period.
Alton’s earnings from Jennings might have been more in 2023, but he resigned his position of city attorney in August.
At that time, Alton said Jennings Mayor Gary Johnson had created a hostile working environment and illegally attempted to oust Alton from his position, which he had held for 10 years.
Pagedale came in second place among Alton’s clients, paying him $267,415.
He also was paid $52,378 by Vinita Park; $8,795 by Bel-Ridge; $370 by Olivette and $350 by Edmundson.
Payments from Bel-Ridge, Olivette and Edmundson stopped after 2019, the first year of Alton’s county job, and Vinita Park quit paying Alton after 2022, records show.
Since Alton began as Bell’s chief of staff, the prosecutor’s office has had to defend its spending.
In 2019, the prosecutor’s office was grilled about paying out more than $30,000 on meals. In 2020, Alton was questioned about paying out $117,000 of federal COVID-19 relief funds to buy 65 iPads and 17 big-screen TVs. And in 2022, Bell’s office was lambasted for spending $130,000 from an employee salaries account to buy two four-wheel-drive Ford Expeditions equipped with special law-enforcement option packages.
J.D. Evans, first assistant attorney under Bell predecessor Robert McCulloch, performed similar staff-related functions as does Alton, although Evans was not classified as a chief of staff.
Evans said he never had outside employment while acting as what he called “being McCulloch’s lawyer.â€
He said his duties included meeting with other prosecutors about cases, interviewing applicants, handling various administrative duties and also prosecuting some cases.
“We tried to be in there early, and we’d stick around late,†Evans said of himself and Dean Waldemer, formerly McCulloch’s chief trial attorney and now a circuit judge.
“It certainly seemed like a full-time job to me,†Evans said. “I was well-compensated and thoroughly enjoyed the work.â€