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Florissant License Office
Efforts Continue to Grow to Get
Rotary’s License Fee Office Back
The list of local leaders continues to grow in the efforts to reverse a state decision to award the Florissant license office to a for-profit company in St. Charles County, taking it from the long-time license holder, the Florissant Rotary Club. The not-for-profit Rotary Club of Florissant has appealed the state license decision.
The Rotary Club of Florissant has held the contract for the license office in Florissant since March 1994. The club has donated more than $2.3 million to charities in North County and throughout Missouri in the last 20 years from its profits in running the license office, which has been among the top five of the best-run of the 172 license offices in Missouri.
Florissant Mayor Tom Schneider has put his support behind the appeal, as have numerous other legislators and leaders. They include St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger, St. Louis County Councilman Mike O’Mara, State Senator Gina Walsh, State Rep. Sharon Pace (District 74), State Rep. Margo McNeil (District 69), and Hazelwood Mayor Matt Robinson. Others supporting the appeal are North County Inc. Executive Director Rebecca Zoll, Hazelwood School District Supt. Grayling Tobias, Marygrove CEO Sister Helen Negri, and Valley Industries Executive Director Jim Guyre.
On Wednesday, Jan. 21 Mayor Schneider released a statement to let the community know that the Florissant Rotary will continue to run the Florissant License office during the appeal process which will take several months. The office will remain open and continue business as usual until the appeal process handled by the Office of Administration is complete.
Schneider said recent news stories “have brought home the reality that North County charities will be adversely affected if the Rotary Club of Florissant is forced to curtail its donations to those in our community who most need assistance, particularly given the circumstances of the past several months.”
As part of the appeal process, the Rotary Club of Florissant 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 was filed by the deadline of January 13 and included letters of support from many area leaders as well as beneficiaries of the Rotary Club of Florissant.
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 by mail at PO Box 720, Jefferson City, MO 65102, by phone at 573-751-3222 or online at www.governor.mo.gov.
Profits Go to Charities
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 owner of Nimmons Wealth Management. All profits have been used to help those in need not only in Florissant but the entire St. Louis region and beyond.
Past contributions by the Florissant Rotary to area 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.
(from page one)
When he became governor in January 2009, 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 January 1, 2015 and was awarded to ACM, a for-profit business located in St. Charles County. AMC got 10 points for being a woman owned business. She is Amy Fila of Lake St. Louis who along her husband Tim also was awarded the Harvester office.
And while the Florissant Rotary gives back to the community, the state gets only two percent from the Rotary, while AMC reportedly would give the state 10 percent of its profits, a big factor in the decision. The Rotary got 14 points for being tax-exempt
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.
(story was written by local sources including Mark Bretz and the City of
Florissant and Editor Bob Lindsey
