A group of St. Charles residents who want to recall Mayor Dan Borgmeyer have until March to collect the signatures they need.
The organizer of the “Stop Dan Borgmeyer” protest, 22-year-old Zane Scott, hopes to bring more attention to what he considers the mayor’s failings with a weekly protest on Main Street. Scott is not directly involved with the group in charge of the recall effort, but he is part of an activist group called Indivisible We Will Persist, which is the St. Charles chapter of the Indivisible Project.
He said he believes the mayor is contributing to unaffordable housing in the city.
“We’re a retail, restaurant, tourism city. We need housing that people working in those industries can afford,” Scott said. “(Borgmeyer) wants us to have doctors and lawyers living here. That doesn't make sense. You can't do government on hypotheticals.”
Sunday's demonstration marked the third week of the protest. About a dozen people stood on the sidewalk in front of Borgmeyer’s home, which is next to the proposed site of the Katy Trail Place luxury townhomes.
The townhomes are one of the recall organizers’ concerns. In the affidavit that started the effort, they say Borgmeyer has an outstanding mortgage on the land.
Galt House LLC, which is registered under Borgmeyer’s name, transferred the deed for the plots to Katy Trail Place LLC for $1 in 2023.
The affidavit speculates that Borgmeyer may financially benefit from the construction of these townhomes and that the mayor has not disclosed under oath whether he has a financial relationship with the townhomes.
Borgmeyer denied this and all other accusations in the affidavit in September.
Other issues raised by the protesters include an allegation that the mayor misused public funds, his support for the proposed data center in the city, the sale of St. Charles park land and his threats to cut funding for the city’s popular Christmas Traditions events.
During a Dec. 2 city council meeting, Borgmeyer defended his analysis of the cost of Christmas Traditions, saying there would be no mass firings.
“There’s too much emotion involved,” Borgmeyer said. “This is just basically a business process that we’re going through to make sure that, are these 50 festivals costing the taxpayers money.”
In making his remarks, Borgmeyer referred to himself as the “CEO” of St. Charles.
“We don’t need a boss,” said Paige Curtis, who gathers signatures for the recall petition. “We need a mayor that represents the people.”
St. Charles resident Olivia Cross, who is in charge of the recall effort, signed the affidavit alongside four other people. She said they have received some pushback from the mayor and other city officials.
“Members of the police have driven by,” Cross said. “Usually there's no action, but I have had a volunteer say that she's been flipped off a couple times.”
Zane Scott, the protest organizer, said the mayor confronted the protesters during the first week, but he has not made an appearance since.
Recall organizers have to collect about 10,000 signatures for the recall to get on a ballot.
