The Jennings City Council held an impeachment hearing for Mayor Yolonda Fountain Henderson on Monday, February 29 at Jennings Municipal Court. Special prosecutor Paul Martin highlighted 19 allegations of misconduct during his opening statement.
“The city will prove that the mayor spent city resources on things not approved by the council and which did not benefit the city agendas, including public repair on private property, the private use of city vehicles and the unauthorized contribution of city resources and public entities for other than the city,” Martin said.
Martin said Henderson has placed the city at risk of litigation, liability and dysfunction by “acting outside the scope of her office and without regard to the authority of the council and to the law.”
Henderson’s attorney, Donnell Smith, said he did not have enough time to perform discovery – request documents, subpoena witnesses. “I don’t believe that 20 days is adequate enough time to prepare the defense for 19 separate instances of alleged misconduct over a nine-month period,” Smith said.
The council voted 8-0 to proceed with the hearing on February 8 after being presented with a five-page Bill of Impeachment by Martin.
Meanwhile, Martin had prepared binders with over 500 pages of evidence and exhibits for the hearing.
“The city will prove that Mayor Henderson bypassed the city’s personnel policies and attempted to get her handpicked choices, people associated with her past, on the city’s payroll,” Martin said.
“The city will prove that Mayor Henderson tried to control public discussion on city issues by removing items from meeting agendas and that she tried to muscle the city attorney –the person you rely on most to keep you out of trouble – by prohibiting her to give advice to the counsel and the department heads without giving her permission.
“Finally the city will prove that Mayor Henderson, after making claims of insurance fraud, suspended the city clerk and tried to suspend two City Council members without any authority in the law and, in the process, bullied city employees, destroyed city property and unlawfully accessed and removed personal information from city files.”
The two council members in question were Rodney and Carol Epps. When called to the stand, Smith questioned whether each could reasonably make a decision in this impeachment proceeding without bias due to the insurance fraud investigation that Henderson launched against them.
Both said the fraud investigation was not significant because the mayor had no case against them.
Henderson has claimed the impeachment process, which Rodney Epps did the most to initiate, was a political attempt to undo her election victory. Smith’s questioning of Carol Epps implied her husband wants to be mayor. When Epps said her husband once wanted to be mayor but no longer does, Smith asked when she learned that.
“I think that would be between me and my husband,” Carol Epps said.
Smith said, “I’m asking you the question though.”
Epps said, “Can I say none of your business?”
Bill Kaeshammer, Jennings director of Public Works, Streets and Parks, was called as a witness. According to the Bill of Impeachment, Henderson asked Kaeshammer to perform several duties that were not approved by the council, including providing snow removal to a nearby city, picking up wood pallets from St. Louis and delivering them to Jennings High School for a bonfire, and dropping off her lawn mower to her home.
Kaeshammer said that although he used a city vehicle, he dropped the lawnmower off during his lunch break. Kaeshammer also testified that he was not aware of violating any municipal ordinances when he performed duties for Henderson.
Smith questioned whether Kaeshammer was ordered to do these duties and to what extent he chose to do them. “If she told you to shoot the special prosecutor,” Smith said, “you would do it?”
Art Jackson, 56, a retired U.S. Marine who observed the hearing, said he and three business partners are considering moving four businesses, including a children’s outreach program, to Jennings, but are deterred by the infighting.
“To take it to this level doesn’t make any sense,” Jackson said. “If this doesn’t get done by the middle of April, we’re going to have to move on to another city.”
The next impeachment hearing will be 2 p.m. Saturday, March 5 at Jennings Municipal Court, 7005 Florence Pl.
This story is published as part of a partnership between The St. Louis American and the Huffington Post.
