Politics & Government

Meet the Mayoral Candidates: Bruce Geiger, Richard Riley, Joseph Gambino and Dan Hurt

Both Geiger and Hurt have served on city council. This is Gambino's first run for municipal office.

On Tuesday, residents of Chesterfield will elect a new mayor.

Residents will choose from four candidates:

  • Bruce Geiger is a current Ward 2 councilman who said he wants to build on the city's current success. 
  • Richard Riley did not respond to several attempts to contact him.
  • Joseph Gambino is a retired business owner who said he'd have an open door policy as mayor. 
  • Dan Hurt is a former councilman who said he'd like to see more residents involved in city government. 

Candidates are running to serve a two-year unexpired term. The post was left open when former Mayor John Nations stepped down to head Metro. Nations served as mayor from 2001 to the fall of 2010.

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The mayor presides over city council and votes only to break ties. The mayor has veto power, which council may override with a two-thirds vote. 

Bruce Geiger

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  • He has lived in Chesterfield for 34 years and currently lives at 14787 Greenloch Court.
  • 69 years old
  • Retired from Monsanto
  • Bachelor’s of science in accounting from the University of Missouri
  • He is married to Lynne. They have two daughters, Sherri and Tracy
  • Geiger is a St. Louis native who worked at Monsanto for 32 years in a variety of finance and strategic planning positions. He spent five years with the company as the finance director for its North Pacific businesses located in Tokyo and was controller for a major worldwide business unit. He retired when Monsanto spun off Solutia, the chemicals portion of the company. He started a consulting company that specializes in logistics management. He’s the chairman of the Chesterfield Community Development Corporation, which works with the City of Chesterfield on economic development opportunities. Since 2001, he has been a Ward 2 councilman.

When Geiger speaks about Chesterfield, it’s in glowing terms. Financially speaking, the city is one of the strongest in the state, he said. The police department, public works department and parks department provide outstanding services. And he’s proud to been a part of that in his 10 years on city council.

“It’s fun to cast votes and then three or four years later, you drive around the city and you know you voted on that project, and it came out pretty good. It’s exciting to be involved in the whole process.”

As the mayor, he’d like to see the city keep that success.

“Just maintaining it, it’s going to take a tremendous amount of effort, but we’re positioned to do so,” he said.

Geiger said residents he’s spoken to share that sense of pride in the city. As he’s campaigned, not many people have expressed dissatisfaction. Many are excited about the upcoming completion of several city projects, including the dog park in Eberwein Park and , he said.

Geiger wants to expand upon the city’s success by focusing on the city’s arts scene. In a decade, he said, he’d love for people to view Chesterfield as the cultural center of West County.

He said he’d like to see the city move forward with . The plan was adopted in 2009, but hasn’t yet been funded. And he’d like to see some sort of auxiliary arm of the Saint Louis Art Museum in Chesterfield, an undertaking he admits could be difficult.

He said he hopes to maintain the quality of life in Chesterfield, which means maintaining the city’s neighborhoods. To the city’s credit, the council and city staff spend “a tremendous amount of time” working to maintain the character of the city’s neighborhoods as developments are planned, he said.

Keeping the city’s quality of life also means maintaining fiscal discipline, he said. He’d honor the policy that the city maintain a balance in fund reserves that is equal to 40 percent of the city’s total funds.

As mayor, he said he’d work to be a consensus builder.

“You have to put partnerships together. It’s teamwork. You’ve got eight council members, often with differing opinions, and one of the jobs as mayor is to bring those opinions together and reach a consensus to move the city forward,” he said. Invariably, he said, the decisions he makes after considering all the facts will favor residents over businesses.

Geiger said he hopes voters give him the chance to continue his involvement in city government, which he has found rewarding.

“I like it. It can be exasperating at times trying to figure out the best solutions to issues…but when it’s all said and done, you look back and say ‘I think I did the right thing; I didn’t do the political thing,’ and you feel good about it. And I like what I see in Chesterfield.”

Richard Riley

Riley did not respond to several phone calls and emails from Chesterfield Patch.

Joseph Gambino

  • He as lived in Chesterfield for 34 years and currently lives at 1923 Dovercliff Ct.
  • 72 years old
  • He is retired. He owned PAR Telecommunication Inc.
  • He majored in business at Webster University. He also attended University of Missouri and Harris-Stowe State University’s College of Education. He graduated from Christian Brothers College High School.
  • He is married to Helen. They have two children, Thomas and Michele.
  • Gambino is a retired communications contractor who ran for State Representative in the 86th District in 2008. He spent 20 years as an usher at and was a charter member of the Knights of Columbus Council there. He rose to a fourth-degree knight before he left the group. He has a broker/real estate license and is a U.S. Army veteran. He’s got an active interest in soccer; he started a team at Harris-Stowe and coached a Catholic Youth Council (CYC) team.

Gambino has run for public office before. He squared off against current State Representative Cole McNary in 2008, and learned a lot from that campaign, he said. This time, he’s knocking on fewer doors.

“This community would rather read about info, get as much detail as they can and make up their mind,” he said. That’s not to say he’s not going door-to-door. He’s just also mailing campaign literature and using his signs to get the word out.

Overall he said, the city’s doing an OK job.

“It didn’t get to be No. 2 because it was doing everything wrong,” he said, referring to a that named the city the second in the state.

But, he’s concerned that not enough is being done for the residents of Chesterfield. They are busy, he said, and don’t have much time to examine the actions of city government and staff.

To Gambino, the office of mayor is all about serving the people. The city administrator runs the day-in and day-out business of the city, but the mayor should answer to the will of the people. If elected, he said he will treat the position of mayor as a full-time job.

“I don’t have a second company to run and operate,” he said. The mayor should speak directly to residents, he said, even making house calls at times. The mayor should also be a “watchdog,” willing to exercise the position’s veto power, he said.

In fact, Gambino said he would have vetoed a recent , including boats, motor homes and jet skis, in neighborhoods. Restricting the parking of these vehicles, Gambino said, restricts residents’ rights and creates a landlord-tenant relationship between the city and its residents.

The mayor should keep an eye on city spending, Gambino said. He said he’ll be conservative with money and not spend where it’s not fruitful, and he’ll work to have all the facts before making financial decisions. For example, if he had been the mayor last fall when the city eliminated 17 positions, he said he would have examined cutting city employees’ pay before resorting to layoffs. Letting police officers go was the wrong choice, he said, since generally when the economy declines, crime rates rise.

“Unemployment can do some strange things to people,” Gambino said.

Surviving the economic downturn is the biggest issue facing the city, he said. With revenue down, it may not be enough to rely on a retail base to support the city.

“Retail is fine, but if there’s a problem with retail, then you have to look outside that area and bring in manufacturing,” he said. He said he hopes to find ways to bring more jobs to the area and revitalize the community. He said he also hopes to work with the newly elected county assessor to correct property assessments in the city, which will help residents’ pocketbooks, too.

“I want to help the people of Chesterfield, who deserve to reach somebody when they phone and ask to speak to the mayor.” 

Dan Hurt

  • He has lived in Chesterfield for 32 years. He currently lives at 2035 Emerald Crest Ct.
  • 59 years old
  • He is the owner/president of two USA manufacturing companies, St. Louis Pneumatic and Stoner Machining.
  • He is married to Rhonda. They have two children, Justin and Jenna.
  • Hurt has been actively involved in Chesterfield’s government for years. He was a councilman from 1989 to 2009, and he said he’s served as council president pro tem more times than any other candidate. He’s the past chairman of the Planning Commission. He was also the architect of the city’s policy to maintain a 40-percent fund reserve, which has led to the city’s AAA bond rating. Hurt sees public service as an extension of his commitment to Chesterfield as a Boy Scout leader, coach and YMCA instructor. He also credits his background in business with providing him with the skills to balance products and services with the cost of providing them during tough economic times.

Hurt has been involved in Chesterfield’s government since its beginning. He was on the city’s first city council and served for 20 years. He stepped down to focus on his manufacturing businesses, but when former Mayor John Nations stepped down to head Metro, Hurt had a decision to make. Several residents came forward and asked him to run for mayor.

“I hesitated when I was first asked, because I wanted to make sure I could give the community the time it deserves,” he said. After some thought, he said he felt comfortable running.

Since then, he’s hit the pavement, trudging even through snow at times as he goes door-to-door to meet voters.

“In my material, I basically put my résumé. When I hand it to them I say, ‘Here’s my résumé. Please consider hiring me in April.’ They’re the boss,” he said

Hurt’s track record of service is lengthy. In his time on city council, he was the chief architect of a policy that calls for the city to maintain a reserve fund equal to 40 percent of the total money in the budget. It’s a policy the city maintains today and one that led to its fiscal strength, Hurt said.

He also had a lot of input into the development of the Chesterfield Valley area, he said. For example, he worked to ensure that businesses in Chesterfield Commons were set back from Chesterfield Airport Road because residents did not want a Manchester-Road-like development, he said.

Hurt sees his work on the council and his current run for mayor as an extension of his commitment to community service. He was a Boy Scout growing up, and has served as a Boy Scout leader and YMCA instructor in Chesterfield. He’s dedicated to the community, he said, because he loves it.

“It’s almost like a family community, in which everybody’s your neighbor. We all care about each other,” he said of the city. Hurt said the quality of life in Chesterfield is one of the best he’s seen in his international travel and time in other cities in the U.S. He’d maintain that quality of life if elected, he said. He also said he’s like to bring the city’s police force back to 2009 levels.

He said he wants to see the city become a regional and national leader. Chesterfield is in a unique position as a crossroads, he said. It has a major U.S. highway and a major river, plus a rail system and regional airport.

“What that means is that it’s a community that has the ability to help the region and the nation do things,” Hurt said. He said he’d like to see Chesterfield draw on those resources, as well as the small business sector and research centers in town, to emerge as an economic leader.

“I think Chesterfield is one of those communities that can help the country, and I have the experience, energy and education to do it."


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