Norman Pressman is running for alderman on a unique platform.
If elected, he will work to make his city go away.
That’s what he told his neighbors in tiny Crystal Lake Park in a letter announcing his candidacy.
“It’s time for CLP to disincorporate or merge with an adjacent city,†Pressman wrote in a letter he sent to his neighbors. “We are a city of 100 acres, smaller than the campus of a number of private schools. There are only 457 residents. We have a sales tax but no stores, and a police commissioner but no police force. Many of the city officials are close to my age of 70, and eventually there will be no one to fill these positions.â€
Pressman is a 70-year-old lawyer who has lived on Bopp Road in west ºüÀêÊÓƵ County for a couple of decades.
We first began talking about his neighborhood last year after down the street from him.
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For more than two years now, Jim and Erin Hayes have been battling in court with Robert and Carol Ann Giovando over a large addition to the Giovandos’ home that now towers over the backyard of the Hayes’ house, next door.
There have been allegations back and forth, but the simple reality is that the house is in legal limbo, as the battle continues over questions of zoning, permits and notice.
That dispute has cost Crystal Lake Park taxpayers more than $60,000, Pressman says. In his letter, he doesn’t take sides, but he suggests it never should have happened:
“That cost breaks down to about $200 per household for the initial year of litigation alone,†he writes. “The eventual total cost to all parties could easily exceed the values of these patches of ground and drag on like Dickens’ fictional case of Jarndyce v. Jarndyce. If we were part of a larger city or simply part of ºüÀêÊÓƵ County I do not believe this problem would have occurred.â€
It is an argument, to some degree, that ºüÀêÊÓƵ is better together.
I used small letters because Pressman isn’t necessarily a fan of the nonprofit by that name that has filed an initiative petition seeking a November 2020 statewide vote to unite the city of ºüÀêÊÓƵ with ºüÀêÊÓƵ County in a merged metro city. The way Pressman sees it, Better Together is taking a top-down approach, and he’d prefer a more bottom-up effort.
He shares an opinion that could portend trouble for Better Together’s nascent effort: Voters who share serious concerns about fragmentation in the ºüÀêÊÓƵ region, but have issues with some of the specific proposals made by the Rex Sinquefield-backed nonprofit.
“They have a lofty goal,†Pressman told me. “However, one lesson I learned early in my legal career was to try to avoid fair fights. In other words, try to turn the odds into your favor before fighting. The backers of Better Together seem to have done everything possible to rally forces against them, from the African-American power brokers in the cities, the police chiefs in the smaller towns and the mayors who keep proposing (tax increment finance districts) to steal businesses from their neighbors. Putting King (Steve) Stenger in as the inaugural mayor is the final straw on this camel … this is just several bridges too far.â€
On Monday, leaders in adjacent Des Peres . City administrator Doug Harms indicated that the city would lose more than $8 million in annual revenue if the Better Together proposal goes through.
Of course, that’s part of the point. If Des Peres loses its police department and municipal court, it won’t need as much revenue. It should need significantly less city staff. The same is true whether small cities like Crystal Lake Park merge with neighbors, or the city and county merge on a much larger scale.
Pressman has talked to Des Peres about his plan, and the city of Town and Country and even Stenger. If elected in April, when the Better Together town halls will enter their second month, Pressman plans to pursue putting a vote before his 456 neighbors to see if he can start a trend.
Call it better together-ish.
“Crystal Lake Park is a fourth-class city,†Pressman says, “but by any other label would be as nice a place to live.â€