Brian Wahby’s license plates are still suspended, according to the State of Missouri.
Last month, Wahby, the chairman of the city’s Democratic Central Committee and a candidate for Treasurer, faced public criticism regarding a warrant issued in December for his arrest in St. Louis County related to unpaid parking tickets.
On August 7, Wahby will run against three other Democratic candidates in the City Treasurer primary election – hoping (ironically) to lead the office that oversees parking tickets.
Wahby’s license plates for his 2008 Jeep Cherokee were suspended for “unpaid parking tickets in the City of St. Louis,” according to the Missouri Department of Revenue spokesman Ted Farnen. And they are still suspended, he said.
Wahby still has a valid Missouri driver’s license because the suspension applies to the vehicle registration, not the driver, Farnen said.
On June 25, 2011, a Missouri Highway Patrol trooper pulled over Wahby’s Cherokee on Interstate 55 near Reavis Barracks for failure “to display valid plates. Expired February 2011,” according to records.
At the time of the pullover, Wahby was delinquent on four parking tickets dating back to the 1990s in St. Louis City, KMOX reported in May. During the time that the four tickets were issued, he worked in the City Treasurer’s office.
And according to the city’s Parking Violation Bureau, the plates were suspended in 2010.
After Wahby failed to appear at his court date on Nov. 17, 2011, St. Louis County Circuit Court Judge Lawrence J. Permuter Jr. issued a warrant for his arrest on Dec. 22.
Wahby declined an interview with The St. Louis American. He said, “All this information is part of the public record as you already know.”
Wahby’s case is actually confidential, and the public cannot access his court case. A court official said he can not say why Wahby’s case is confidential. Wahby’s lawyer Joseph V. Neill declined to comment about the confidentiality of the case.
Wahby told KMOX that he received the traffic ticket for expired plates because he had just bought the Jeep from a leasing company, after driving it for three years.
“The leasing company generally took care of the licensing, and I didn’t realize that the plates expired,” Wahby said in a KMOX interview. “So I got a ticket for expired plates.”
However, Farnen verified that his plates were suspended for unpaid parking tickets in the City of St. Louis.
Wahby told KMOX says his parking ticket problems underscore the need for reform in the office.
“There’s no way for me to know that there are these tickets from nearly 20 years ago on the plates,” Wahby said in a KMOX interview. “What we’ve got to do is implement systems that make it easier for people to know that they have violations outstanding, and make sure it’s easier for them to pay them.”
Wahby’s outstanding parking tickets have been paid, and he just needs to file a letter with the state showing proof of compliance to get his plates out of suspension, according to the bureau.
The three other Democratic candidates for treasurer in the Aug. 7 primary election are Tishaura O. Jones, Jeffrey Boyd and Fred Wessels.
Ethics complaint against Wahby
On May 30, Green Party candidate Anthony Stevens filed a complaint against Wahby with the Missouri Ethics Commission for violating campaign finance disclosure requirements.
In his complaint, Stevens stated that Wahby’s campaign finance treasurer is not a city resident, as required by state law for a city campaign. William Donius, the treasurer for the Wahby for St. Louis committee, is a St. Louis County resident.
The residency requirement became law again on Feb. 14, 2012, when the Missouri Supreme Court declared Senate Bill 844 unconstitutional. That bill, passed in 2010, had stated, “Treasurers and deputy treasurers are no longer required to be residents of the county or district in which their committee sits.”
Stevens encouraged the commission to impose appropriate sanctions on Donius and Wahby.
“A candidate for treasurer of one of Missouri’s largest cities should be aware of [and] in full compliance with the legal requirements for serving as a treasurer,” Stevens stated.
