The St. Louis County prosecutor is trying once again to oust a county councilman in a nepotism scandal that he said also implicates the council’s clerk.
Wesley Bell announced Thursday that he had filed a quo warranto petition to remove 3rd District Councilman Dennis Hancock, R-Fenton, from office.
“What began as a straightforward violation of nepotism laws turned to what is, in a word, a cover-up,” Bell said at a news conference announcing his decision.
Hancock referred questions to his attorney, Kimberley Mathis. Mathis said neither she nor Hancock had received any official notice of a legal proceeding and therefore could not comment.
The ongoing legal fight stems from Hancock’s decision to hire his stepdaughter, Hollie Galati, as his administrative assistant. The move violated a provision in the state constitution that prohibits politicians from hiring any relatives more closely related than a great-great grandparent.
Bell filed a previous version of his petition in August but withdrew it pending more investigation. Hancock said at the time that he did not know Galati’s hiring violated the constitution.
“She was never a county employee. She's never been paid,” Hancock said during an Aug. 27 news conference.
Further investigation, Bell said Thursday, revealed those statements were false.
“Councilman Hancock misled the public, misled the media, and this whole machinery of false information, false narratives, false documentation began as a result,” he said.
According to documents that Bell provided to the media, Galati had completed all steps of her hiring process and was listed in the county’s central personnel database as a new permanent hire with the county council. Her start date was Aug. 19.
On Aug. 27, the day the original quo warranto was filed, Hancock returned a call from county counselor Dana Redwing, who informed him about the nepotism violation and that he had forfeited his office. That call was recorded by someone who worked in Redwing’s office.
After that, according to emails provided by Bell’s office, members of the St. Louis County Council staff, including its clerk and director of administration, Diann Valenti, began working to make it look like Galati had never been officially hired.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has reported that Valenti faces forgery and other misdemeanor charges, though the case is not yet publicly accessible on the state court website.
The council, which hired Valenti in 2015, has teed up legislation to cover the cost of her legal bills. And its members have made it clear they believe Bell and St. Louis County Executive Sam Page are playing political games.
“When it comes to our employees, they are not political folly,” Council Chairwoman Shalonda Webb, D-Florissant, said at the council’s final 2024 meeting in December. “Sam Page has once again demonstrated an inability to lead with integrity, instead resorting to manipulative self-serving tactics that serve only to boost his fragile ego.”
But Page, she said, was not acting alone.
“Wesley Bell, someone who I had come to trust and the people of our communities depended on, has found himself as a willing accomplice,” Webb said.
She said Bell was a “prosecuting attorney who seems more interested in playing Page’s errand boy than fulfilling the impartial duties of his office.”
Bell said the motivation behind the quo and any potential criminal charges was not political.
“It is disappointing to me that the chair, without having access to the information, would make statements that she has no idea if they're true or not,” he said. "She has my number. She could have called me. She could have reached out to us to get the accurate information, as opposed to questioning not only my office, but my own integrity.”
Mark Harder, the Ballwin Republican representing the 7th District, called Valenti the best clerk he had worked with during his 10 years on the council.
“I just hope that her attorney will help her out in a way that will vindicate her as well as expose the corruption in this administration,” he said. “I’m very upset by this, and I hope people in this community get upset about the caustic political environment that we're in with this administration.”
