CLAYTON — Sam Alton, a lawyer who has drawn fire for moonlighting as a municipal attorney while holding a high-paying job with ºüÀêÊÓƵ County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell, will be leaving the county’s payroll next month.
In a press release Friday, Bell’s office said Alton will be leaving his post as Bell’s chief of staff on July 22 to take a position with Dowd & Dowd, a ºüÀêÊÓƵ law firm.
Dowd & Dowd was established in 1957 and has offices in downtown ºüÀêÊÓƵ. It bills itself as a personal injury law firm.
Alton, in a prepared statement, said, “the time has come for me to step back, get out of the line of fire in what has become an increasingly polarizing political world, and try to focus on my family and my civil practice.â€
Alton began working for Bell’s transition team shortly after Bell was elected in November 2018, and then joined the office as chief of staff when Bell was began in January 2019.
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Calling Bell “a leader and visionary,†Alton also complimented the office’s staff for its dedication.
Bell, who calls Alton “a friend†in a prepared statement, went on to describe Alton as “a public servant who deeply cares about justice, equity and everyone in this community.â€
During his five years working for Bell, complaints bubbled up about the extent of Alton’s work as a municipal judge and lawyer while he was being paid by ºüÀêÊÓƵ County.
In his first five years on the county payroll — January 2019 through December 2023 — Alton was paid $674,012 in salary by the county. In that same time, he earned more than $776,000 from the side gigs.
But the criticism of Alton’s moonlighting became more pointed in November, when Alton told the County Council that he worked “less than three†hours a week at his side jobs.
County Councilman Dennis Hancock, R-3rd District, said he did not believe Alton’s claims of working minimal hours at his side jobs and eventually called two meetings of the council to question Bell’s office about its outside-employment policies.
When told Friday of Alton’s pending departure from Bell’s office, Hancock said, “Well that makes sense. If you’re going to quit a job, it’s best to quit the one where you’re making less money.â€
A subsequent check of invoices from the municipalities for which Alton had been working indicated that he worked more than seven hours a week — and was making more money from his side jobs than from his work as Bell’s top legal assistant.
And instead of decreasing, Alton’s workload for the municipalities had increased by almost 80%.
Hancock had planned to call another meeting, one in which records from at least one municipality might have been presented which showed that Alton had conducted municipal business during his normal hours in Bell’s office.
Hancock said his initial hearings uncovered outside-employment practices in the prosecutor’s office that require more attention.
“If holding multiple jobs is the norm, then we need to look at the county’s regulations†regarding the outside employment, he said.
The invoices used to compile Alton’s work and pay history were obtained by the Post-Dispatch after roughly a three-month effort — an effort initially slowed by Alton’s opinion, as attorney for the municipalities, that the invoices were protected by attorney-client privilege.
Alton eventually agreed with the newspaper’s contention that the amount of hours billed and money paid to Alton were indeed public records.
In a short telephone interview Friday, Alton said he would continue to represent his municipal clients after he joins Dowd & Dowd. At this time, those clients are Pagedale, Breckenridge Hills and Bellerive Acres.
Alton’s departure removes a possible distraction for Bell, who is running in a heated U.S. congressional race against incumbent U.S. Rep. Cori Bush in the Aug. 6 Democratic primary.
Bell is the chief challenger to Bush, who has come under fire for her campaign spending on security, including employing her husband, and for positions that have been described by critics as anti-Israeli and antisemitic.
Another candidate in the 1st Congressional District Democratic primary, former state legislator Maria Chappelle-Nadal, said, “I’m glad Sam Alton’s gone; he should have been gone a long time ago.â€