Chastain Brings His Plan Back to City Hall Demanding a Vote

Mass transit advocate Clay Chastain threatens to launch a recall effort against Mayor Sly James, unless the Mayor moves on 2010 mass transit plan.
Chastain says he’ll launch the recall if the Mayor and City Council do not make a move in 60 days.
Recalling the Mayor is very difficult. Former Mayor Mark Funkhouser faced a serious recall effort during his one term. The effort came up just short after an intensive drive.
Chastain held a news conference at City Hall. He blasted Mayor Sly James for a lack of leadership on mass transit. He also says James is wrong in blocking a vote on his plan.
” The Mayor is to democracy what a chain saw is to an old growth forest,” Chastain said.
The City never put Chastain’s $2.5 billion dollar plan to voters, even though he had enough valid signatures for an election.
A district judge upheld the city’s claim they could not afford it. The matter is now before the Missouri Court of Appeals.
Chastain also ripped the City’s new 2-mile street car plan that was approved late last year.
Chastain called it nothing more than ” a ride for drunks” shuttling between bars. There was no comment from Mayor James on Chastain’s threat.
City Councilman Dick Davis, a former executive with the city’s ATA bus service, accused Chastain of being one of the reasons the city has struggled for years to start a mass transit system. Sent from my iPhone