Asked about Page side job, county assessor, former officials tell committee charter forbids second jobs

Jun. 18—CLAYTON — In response to questions about St. Louis County Executive Sam Page's side job as an anesthesiologist, County Assessor Jake Zimmerman and three former county officials on Thursday told the council ethics committee that they gave up private work for public office under the assumption the charter forbade secondary employment.

The hearing was the latest development in allegations by committee chairman Mark Harder, R-7th District, and member Tim Fitch, R-3rd District, that Page, a Democrat, is violating a charter provision that "the county executive's entire time shall be devoted to the duties of the office" by working weekend and evening shifts at Mercy Hospital and Western Anesthesiology in Creve Coeur.

The charter includes similar provisions for the offices of police chief, prosecuting attorney, counselor and assessor. On Thursday, the four-person ethics committee invited Zimmerman, former county prosecutor Bob McCulloch, former County Executive Gene McNary, and former police superintendent Gil Kleinknecht to weigh in.

They each told the committee — which includes Council Chair Rita Heard Days, D-District 1, and 4th District Democrat Shalonda Webb, who was absent Thursday — that they gave up private-sector careers. And they refused any other paid work while in office, as they assumed was required by the county charter.

"I felt it was mandated by the charter, but it was never really a choice in my mind," said McNary, a Republican who was county prosecuting attorney for three years before serving as county executive from 1975 to 1989.

Page spokesman Doug Moore declined to comment, referring to past statements that Page's medical work is in his free time and doesn't interfere with his public duties.

Page has repeatedly denied the ethics committee's requests for his work schedule and information about compensation, telling the panel his personal finances and activities on his own time "are not your proper concern" and calling the inquiry "political theater." His reelection campaign has also referenced the issue in a fundraising email that accused "Republicans on the council" of following "Trump-inspired" politics.

Members of the ethics committee denied that speakers at Thursday's meeting had a political motive, making a point to note their past political connections to the involved parties: Zimmerman ran against Page in the August Democratic primary, and Kleinknecht previously served as treasurer for Fitch's county council campaign.

Zimmerman said he felt it was his "obligation" to the council to answer an invitation from Harder to testify.

"I can only tell you the choice I've made which is not to seek outside employment," he said. "For me, one job is plenty."

McCulloch, one-time political ally of former County Executive Steve Stenger, told the committee that the county charter clearly forbids secondary employment for the county executive and the county prosecuting attorney.

When Fitch asked McCulloch if he were still prosecuting attorney whether he would file a court motion against Page, McCulloch said, "Somebody would be looking deeply into it, absolutely."

McCulloch told the council the prosecuting attorney and the state attorney general have the authority to file a court petition to vacate offices in the event of charter violations. But, he said, he would likely ask the courts for an outside prosecutor to avoid a conflict of interest with the executive branch. In 2018 McCulloch asked the courts for a special prosecutor to investigate allegations that Councilman Ernie Trakas, R-6th District, performing contract legal work for out-of-state school districts violated a charter provision barring council members from holding any other governmental employment

St. Charles County Prosecuting Attorney Tim Lohmar, working as a special prosecutor in the case, asked the courts to remove Trakas from office, but St. Charles County Circuit Judge Dan Pelikan disagreed.

Another former county executive, Charlie Dooley, told the Post-Dispatch in late May that he disagreed with McNary when both men weighed in on the allegations against Page. Dooley, a Democrat and the first Black county executive, said Page's anesthesiology work was in his spare time and didn't interfere with his public duties.

Harder said after the committee meeting that he did not invite Dooley or St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell to testify at the hearing but that he reached out to other officials, who denied the invitation.

In a statement, Bell declined to comment on McCulloch's testimony to the committee.

"What is clear regarding the County Charter language is its lack of clarity, which is not under the purview of this office," Bell said.

No subpoena

After the hearing, the committee met behind closed doors and emerged to adjourn the session, without voting on a plan announced last month to subpoena Page's work records. The committee had said they would subpoena the records if Mercy or Western didn't respond to requests for the information by a June 11 deadline.

Harder said after the meeting that an attorney for Western denied the request, but that the committee needed to consider "all options" in enforcing a potential subpoena, including seeking legal aid from a special prosecutor or the state attorney general.

"We're only going to get one bite at the apple here, so we've got to make sure we're on solid legal ground going forward," he said.

A spokesman for Western Anesthesiology could not be reached for comment. Mercy has said that Western is responsible for scheduling anesthesiologists.

Updated at 11 p.m. with comment from Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell

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