ALLEGATIONS OF CONFLICTS HAVE ARISEN BEFORE

Conflict of interest again has sparked a rift between Cape Girardeau's mayor and members of the City Council.

At Monday's council meeting, the council amended the minutes of a June 17 meeting to reflect that Mayor Gene Rhodes abstained from voting on a paving contract with a company in which he has financial interest.

Prior to the amendment, the minutes read that Rhodes abstained for financial reasons, although in the June meeting he never stated the reason for the abstention.

City Clerk Julie Dale said she incorrectly recorded the minutes because she knew of Rhodes' interest in the company, although he never stated it at any council meeting.

City officers are required by the city charter to divulge financial interests they might have in any company with which the city does business.

The matter again has raised the issue of whether the mayor has properly removed himself from issues that directly affect his financial interests. A few of the past issues in which Rhodes has been criticized for conflicts of interest include:

In 1987, city council members and other community leaders accused the mayor of lobbying for personal gain on behalf of 630 Inc., a corporation he had invested in.

During debate over the contentious Lexington Avenue arterial project that came to a head last year, Rhodes voiced opposition to the project and pushed for construction of an arterial street that aligned instead with New Madrid Street and an outer belt two miles farther to the north. Rhodes lives on Perryville Road, at its intersection with the planned Lexington route.

Two years ago Rhodes favored alignment of a new four-lane, Mississippi River bridge route with the existing Highway 74, which fronts the 630 Inc. property.

Last year Rhodes supported a proposal to align a downtown exit from the bridge route with Fountain Street, through an area where he owns property. The council approved an exit that aligned with Lorimier Street, which was substantially cheaper than the Fountain Street plan.

20Earlier this year members of the council took Rhodes to task over his actions as head of a highway group that lobbied the state highway department to extend Nash Road, south of Cape Girardeau, from Interstate 55 to the Southeast Missouri Regional Port.

Rhodes also owns property along Nash Road, where Rhodes City Truck Stop and Cafe is situated. He was criticized for claiming that the Nash Road extension was Cape Girardeau's top, future highway priority despite the council having designated another project as being more important.

The latest matter involves a paving contract with ASA Asphalt Inc. of Advance, a company in which Rhodes reportedly owns about 40 percent of the stock. Rhodes and Donald Rhodes were original incorporators of the company in 1979.

The contract involved the city's annual, three-inch asphalt overlay program.

Although Rhodes abstained from voting on the contract, the city charter states that any city officer who has a "substantial financial interest" in any contract with the city, "shall make known that interest to the City Council and shall otherwise refrain from voting upon or otherwise participating in his capacity as a city officer or employee in the making or performance of such contract... ."

Other council members said that Rhodes had never disclosed his interest in ASA Asphalt despite the company having been involved in city paving contracts over the past four years. The company was awarded the same contract last year and, in 1988, did paving work for the city.

Rhodes maintained at Monday's meeting that he thought he previously had mentioned his interest in ASA Asphalt, but conceded that he didn't make mention of it at the June meeting when he abstained from voting on the contract.

Even though Rhodes didn't vote on the contract, in April and May he voted in favor of resolutions authorizing the engineering work on the streets in the program.

Rhodes also led a push to expand the program to assure that the full $150,000 of street improvements were done.

The program allocates $150,000 annually to pave gravel streets in the city, provided a majority of property owners along the street approve of the work. The cost of the work is paid initially by the city, but is then assessed to the property owners.

Because the program is funded entirely by tax bills, in the past only work that could be done for $10 per front foot or less was approved for the program. Last year several streets slated for improvements were later dropped from the program because they were either too expensive or because a majority of the property owners didn't want the paving done.

City Manager J. Ronald Fischer said about $87,000 worth of paving was done through the program last year, which prompted Rhodes this year to ask that the program be expanded.

Fischer said: "The mayor had said to me at different times that he felt we should spend the $150,000 that was budgeted. He mentioned that he was concerned last year that $150,000 was budgeted and we only spent $87,000."

Fischer said he explained to Rhodes that although the city budgets $150,000 for the program, all the street improvements are paid by property owners. He said the city is limited, without forcing street installation through condemnation, to paving only those streets where a majority of property owners want the improvements.

"It's not actually the city building the streets and paying for it, but the people that have lots that abut these streets," he said.

The contract the council approved in June involved a list of streets that would probably cost $75,000 to $85,000 to pave. As a result of Rhodes suggestion, which was supported by other council members, a list of alternate streets was drafted, which include streets that might not fit the program's criteria or where property owners might object to the paving.

The council, including Rhodes, has approved the engineering work for the alternate streets, but is yet to vote on awarding a paving contract.

Rhodes said Wednesday that he told ASA Asphalt "several weeks ago" not to bid on the second group of street projects because of his involvement in the council negotiations.

"The part that I was pushing has not come up for contract yet," Rhodes said. "I have instructed those people that I did not want them bidding on that when it comes up because I pushed to get the streets together."

Rhodes said he lobbied for expansion of the asphalt overlay program not to benefit his company, but because the council established the $150,000 program as a policy in 1988.

"That's what the City Council years ago instructed them to do: $150,000," he said. "I think that's what we ought to be doing as long as the property owners are willing."

However, Fischer said that several of the projects included in the alternate group of streets faced stiff neighborhood opposition.