BUSINESSMAN SEEKS RECALL OF ALDERMAN – 26 Jul 1988 P-D

A leader of the unsuccessful effort in 1984 to remove a St. Louis alderman by recall says he is circulating petitions again in another effort to oust the alderman.

Gary Sandstedt, who owns a computer astrology business at 2241 South Grand Boulevard, said he was an organizer and ”the fall guy” in the renewed effort to unseat Alderman John Koch, D-8th Ward. Sandstedt was among the key organizers of the recall bid in 1984.

Koch survived the recall referendum in November 1984 by 402 votes. He was the first alderman in the 74-year history of the St. Louis Board of Aldermen to have to submit to such a vote. The second, Alderman Jimmie Matthews, D-27th Ward, will face a recall referendum Aug. 2.

To force such a referendum, a minimum number of registered voters within a ward must sign petitions seeking to put the question on the ballot. Sandstedt said Monday that he needed about 1,800 signatures, but he refused to say how many he has already.

Koch could not be reached for comment.

The 1984 recall dealt primarily with Koch’s support for closing many streets in the Shaw neighborhood to through traffic and with a redevelopment plan along South Grand. Sandstedt’s building is among those that are to be taken through condemnation for redevelopment, but he continues to fight the plan in court.

Sandstedt said the current recall bid was over Koch’s support of a new plan to redevelop land along Shaw Boulevard from DeTonty Street to Russell Boulevard. The Board of Aldermen adopted the plan in January on the urging of the Shaw Neighborhood Improvement Association. The plan calls for demolishing buildings along the three-block stretch and replacing them with new homes.

”Koch just doesn’t know when to stop,” Sandstedt said. ”In his lust for power, now he’s going after the elderly.”

(The following portion of text appeared in the 3* edition only)

The Rev. Larry Rice, who operates the New Life Evangelistic Shelter for homeless people, also has taken up the cause of the people who would be forced to move to make way for the redevelopment. In March, Rice opened his Rights of Residency office at 2011 South Grand.

A spokesman for Rice said Monday that New Life was not participating in Sandstedt’s petition drive.

COURT IS ASKED TO VOID PLAN FOR SOUTH GRAND – 31 Mar 1988 P-D

A business executive on South Grand Avenue has asked the St. Louis Circuit Court throw out a redevelopment plan on grounds that a key contract was signed more than 14 months late.

The issue concerns the Grand-Shaw Redevelopment Corp., which proposes renovation and some new construction along the west side of Grand near Shenandoah Avenue. The plan helped prompt the attempt to recall Alderman John Koch, D-8th Ward, in 1984.

The lawyer for Gary Sandstedt, a businessman who has refused to sell his building at 2241 Grand to the redeveloper, filed a motion Monday in St. Louis Circuit Court asking that the whole plan be thrown out. Sandstedt filed suit in August 1987 challenging the developer’s attempt to take his property through condemnation.

Sandstedt was a leader in the recall drive against Koch, who survived it by a margin of 402 votes. He is the only alderman in the board’s 74-year history to face a recall election.

The July 28, 1986, city ordinance setting up the redevelopment required that the city and the developer, Constance Schwartz, sign the enabling contract within 90 days. But it was not signed until Jan. 11, 1988, or more than 14 months late.

Schwartz’s lawyers filed a copy of the contract with the court on Jan. 15. Before the court hearing on the condemnation on Jan. 6 before Circuit Judge Thomas F. McGuire, her lawyers had filed with the court a ”proposed contract” that was unsigned.

What happened with the contract is itself a subject of controversy. When the Board of Aldermen acted last Friday to adopt the Grand-Shaw redevelopment plan for the second time, Koch told reporters that he had had to resubmit the ordinance because the original contract had been ”lost.”

Koch said Wednesday that he ”absolutely did not know” that the contract had been resting in the court file since Jan. 15, or more than 1 1/2 months before he resubmitted his bill.

”I’m embarrassed. I was not aware that the contract had been signed,” Koch said.

Koch said that Schwartz had signed it long ago and sent it to City Hall but that it had been lost and had never been signed by city officials. Deputy city counselor Thomas J. Ray said he also understood the original contract had been lost at City Hall.

Schwartz and her lawyers were said to be out of town this week and could not be reached.

But Sandstedt’s lawyer, Robert Babione, said, ”It’s my opinion that they simply forgot to sign it in the first place.”