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Rotary Club Of Florissant, Sen. Gina Walsh

Seeks Appeal to State on Loss of License Office

The Rotary Club of Florissant, a not-for-profit organization that has donated more than $4 million to charities since its founding in 1960 and state senator Gina Walsh (D) are appealing the Missouri Department of Revenue’s recent decision to award the contract for the state’s license office in Florissant to ACM, LLC, a for-profit business in St. Charles County.

The Rotary Club of Florissant, which has run the state’s license office in Florissant since it was appointed by former Gov. Mel Carnahan in March 1994, has donated more than $2.3 million to charities in the last 20 years. All this money came from its profits in running the license office, which has been among the top five best-run of the 172 license offices in Missouri.

ACM, listed as a woman-owned business, got more points than the Florissant Rotary to win the bid. Although the Rotary got 14 points for being a tax exempt  entity, AMC got ten points for being being minority owned with a woman president. She also was awarded the Harvestor license office, which previously was run by her husband. It has also been reported that ACM would send back more money back to the state than the Florissant Rotary Club, which could be a factor in the state selecting AMC

As part of the appeal process, the Rotary Club of Florissant has authorized the filing of a formal appeal to the Missouri Office of Administration, which handles disputes regarding the awarding of state government contracts. The appeal must be filed by Jan. 13 and will include letters of support from many beneficiaries of the Rotary Club of Florissant.

Mayor Thomas P. Schneider of Florissant appealed to Governor Nixon with a letter delivered in person on Oct. 27, 2014 regarding the Rotary Club of Florissant’s contract renewal for the Florissant license office and other matters.

“The Florissant Rotary has run a very efficient and crime-free office for nearly 20 years,” said Mayor Schneider in his letter to Governor Nixon, “with very few if any complaints about service to thousands of drivers who use the office.”

Senator Walsh has joined the Rotary Club of Florissant in the appeal. Additionally, the Florissant Rotary Club is asking supporters to contact Missouri Governor Jay Nixon with phone calls, letters or e-mails to protest the Department of Revenue’s decision to award the contract to a for-profit business. The governor can be reached at PO Box 720, Jefferson City, MO 65102 by mail, 573-751-3222 by phone or online at: www.governor.mo.gov.

In recent years, the Florissant license office has provided the Rotary Club of Florissant with approximately $40,000 in annual profits, according to immediate past Rotary Club president Howard Nimmons, a financial planner and owner of Nimmons Wealth Management (current president is Keith Took, owner of Old Town Donuts). All profits have been used to help those in need not only in Florissant but to the disadvantaged in the entire St. Louis region and beyond.

Past contributions by the Florissant Rotary to various charities have included:

• $312,000 to the Florissant Valley Workshop at Valley Industries, which provides fulfilling employment to mentally challenged adults;
• $282,450 to Marygrove Home for abused and neglected children;
• $205,235 to The Emergency Assistance Ministry (TEAM) food pantry;
• $216,000 in scholarships to students attending local high schools to assist with their college education;
• $10,000 to Joplin to assist in tornado recovery efforts;
• $10,000 to Ferguson to assist in tornado recovery efforts.

When he became governor in January 2009, Gov. Nixon required the Missouri Department of Revenue to put contracts to run the 172 state license offices out for bid every four years, most recently in November 2013. After months of no decision on a new contract for the Florissant office, the Department of Revenue re-opened the contract for bids in October 2014. The new contract, now for five years, is effective Jan. 1, 2015 and was awarded to ACM.

Since 1994, the Rotary Club of Florissant has operated the state license office in Florissant with less than 0.01 percent rejections for transactions processed through the office, compared to the State of Missouri’s “acceptable” amount of 2 percent. The Florissant license office has had one of the lowest, if not the lowest, rejection rate for any office, and often has been used as a training model for other offices throughout Missouri.

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