Impeachment for Thee but Not for Me
Impeachment for Thee but Not for Me
A closer look at the Bill of Impeachment - No. 2
Election night — April 4, 2023.
Around 10 pm, the Greene County Clerk’s office releases the unofficial vote totals for Willard’s mayoral race:
Sam Snider - 314 votes
Jennifer Rowe - 281 votes
Mayor Snider wins reelection by a 33-vote margin.
With the contentious mayoral race finally over, and with three new aldermen being elected as well, I have high hopes for there to be—despite a few ongoing issues—a much-needed reconciliation between Willard’s mayor and the remaining three members of Willard’s board—Sam Baird, Landon Hall, and Corey Hendrickson.
“The voters have decided,” I tell myself. “It’s the perfect opportunity for a fresh start. Things will surely calm down now.”
But those hopes quickly prove to have been misplaced.
On April 10th—the very first meeting after the election—Alderman Hall approaches me after the meeting as I’m preparing to leave:
“You should look into the mayor’s personal property taxes and his form 5120.”
Inwardly, my heart answers, “Wouldn’t it be far better for everyone involved, now that the election is over with, simply to try to get along with each other and stop this endless oneupmanship?”
In hindsight, that’s what I should have told him. Instead, I tell him that I’ll look into it.
It would have been better to just forget about it
What is Form 5120? The Poplar Bluff-based Law Firm of KKR&Y explains:
“All candidates for elective office must file Department of Revenue Form 5120 – Missouri Candidate’s Affidavit of Tax Payments. The law requires all candidates to be current in the payment of any state income taxes, personal property taxes, municipal taxes, or real property taxes on the candidate’s place of residence.”
It would have required a Sunshine Request to obtain a copy of the mayor’s 5120. Wanting to avoid that process, I visited the Greene County Collector’s website to check his 2022 personal property taxes, hoping they weren’t delinquent. While there, and to be fair, I also checked the personal property taxes of the three aforenamed aldermen.
Two days later, on April 12th, I contacted Alderman Hall via Facebook messenger, hoping when I explained what I had found that he would just drop the matter and move on:
Confused by the stark difference between his reply and what I was seeing on the Collector’s website, I asked a couple of follow-up questions.
He never responded back.
To be clear, then-Mayor Corey Hendrickson’s 2020 personal property taxes—though paid a year late—were not delinquent when he signed his Form 5120 on December 15, 2020, as a candidate for the April 2021 mayoral election (which he subsequently lost to Mayor Snider). Hendrickson signed on 12/15/20 — The tax wasn’t due until 12/31/20 — He later paid the tax on 12/15/21.
We’ll dive into the personal property taxes and 5120s of Alderman Hall and Mayor Snider in a moment.
Anyway, given I didn’t hear anything back from Alderman Hall, I hoped he had just decided to drop the matter entirely. Because that’s what I did—hoping to see the aldermen and mayor focus their efforts on Willard, rather than on undermining each other.
But then the board decided to impeach the mayor…
Unless it has recently been updated, the Bill of Impeachment includes the following charge:
Unless there’s something I don’t understand, the above charge is completely false. The mayor didn’t sign his most recent Form 5120 while owing delinquent personal property taxes. Therefore, he did not commit perjury.
Much like what happened above with then-Mayor Hendrickson, Mayor Snider’s personal property taxes were not delinquent when he signed his Form 5120 on December 4, 2022, as a candidate for the April 2023 mayoral election. He signed on 12/04/22 — The tax wasn’t due until 12/31/22 — He later paid the tax on 10/20/23.
Definitely late, but not as late as then-Mayor Hendrickson.
But what I simply can’t figure out is why the above impeachment charge makes no mention of Mayor Snider’s 2019 personal property taxes or of the Form 5120 that he signed in December 2020 during his first run for mayor. At that time, Mayor Snider’s 2019 personal property taxes were nearly a year late. He signed his 5120 on 12/15/20 — His 2019 taxes were due on 12/31/19 — He later paid the 2019 tax on 03/26/21.
Nearly 15 months late.
Why no mention of that in the Bill of Impeachment? Is it because the Bill only applies to the mayor’s current term? I do not know.
Will the alderman be impeaching himself after he votes to impeach Mayor Snider?
What I do know is this:
Of the people mentioned in this article, the only one who appears to have committed perjury during their most recent election is — —
Alderman Landon Hall.
His 2020 personal property taxes were delinquent when he signed his Form 5120 on December 28, 2021, as a candidate for the April 2022 election. He signed his 5120 on 12/28/21 — His 2020 personal property taxes were due 12/31/20 — He didn’t pay his 2020 personal property taxes until 03/31/22.
A full 15 months after they were due.
Recall that Alderman Hall signed the Bill of Impeachment against Mayor Snider. Again, that Bill includes the charge of perjury:
The above charge against the mayor appears to be false. And Alderman Hall himself appears to be guilty of the same thing.
Given the above information, what will happen to the charge of perjury that has been brought against Mayor Snider?
And if the Board for some reason does impeach Mayor Snider on the charge of perjury, what does that mean for Alderman Hall? Should he be allowed to vote on the matter? Should he himself be impeached?
Also, how did the author of the Bill not realize that the charge of perjury leveled at the mayor was false?
Earlier today, I wrote here about another charge from the Bill of Impeachment that appears to be inaccurate.
Could there be anything else that the author of the Bill has overlooked?
Maybe I’ll write about that later.
Holy smokes man, this is just so blown up. It definitely sounds like they're out to get the mayor or they wouldn't have mentioned it or looked into it themselves to alert you to it. They probably should have cleaned their own houses first before deciding to look into someone else's. What a poop show.
Just as complicated and twisty turny as Clevers debacle. What is going on across this country?! Even city council boards are corrupt like any other office, all the way to our national government. I expect it there but not in these small town boards. Prairie View TX has their mayor buying lingerie and Corvette parts on the city credit card!! Geez. Where are all the good upstanding people in this country?!