CLAYTON • The court will end almost 16 months of financial oversight of the embattled Northeast Ambulance and Fire Protection District, a judge announced here Friday.
St. Louis County Presiding Judge John Ross said he plans to officially lift a restraining order Monday, pending approval of fees for two attorneys: Booker T. Shaw, who acted as special master, and Kris Boevingloh, who represented a municipal official who had sought the court control.
"I think there's been significant progress and great strides made," Ross said during a hearing. He said the former board had been "destined to spend itself into bankruptcy" but that the district now has a viable budget, a functioning board and financial safeguards.
The court took control on Oct. 20, 2009, amid allegations that board members at the time were violating open meetings laws and spending large sums inappropriately. Ross had appointed Shaw, a retired Missouri Court of Appeals judge, to supervise the funds.
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Since then, two of the district's three board members have been appointed by Ross, and the third by the previous board majority. All three spots are open in the April 5 election; 11 candidates have filed for the posts.
Lawyers in the case offered no objection Friday to lifting the oversight.
Kevin Buchek, chairman of the Bel-Nor board of trustees, who originally sought court control, did not attend the hearing but said later he was surprised it wasn't removed sooner given the efforts of the court-appointed board members and special master.
"I think it's probably acceptable to lift it at this point," he said. "It's not perfect, and hopefully in April it will be resolved at the polls."
Northeast attorney Anthony Gray told Ross the district had been "a locomotive going down the track prepared to crash, fiscally." He added, "We survived in a way much better than we forecast in the beginning."
Gray presented Ross with a 12-page document of safeguards and responses to a state audit, some of them already implemented.
Ross drew some criticism for his role. U.S. Rep. William Lacy Clay, D-St. Louis, sent President Barack Obama a letter urging him to withdraw his nomination of Ross for a spot on the federal bench, accusing him of "judicial activism and blatant unfairness."
Clay attached a letter of complaint from others, including ousted fire district attorney Elbert Walton Jr. The court's intervention was a key reason why Walton, attorney Bernard Edwards Jr. and former board president and district Chief Joseph Washington did not walk away from the nearly bankrupt district with almost $1 million in a cloudy deal struck with the board then in place.
Several other legal matters involving the district are pending in the courts, including the status of former board member Bob Lee. A judge recently ruled that Lee was illegally ousted by former board members Washington and Robert Edwards in July 2009, but the question of whether Lee can regain the seat remains unresolved.
Meanwhile, a former deputy fire chief, Robert Manuel, filed a lawsuit last week against the district, claiming he was the victim of age and sex discrimination when he was fired last year. Manuel had been dismissed after his arrest while driving a stolen car in Pine Lawn. He was later charged with first-degree vehicle tampering and driving with a revoked license.
