Back in the Saddle

The 2011 Florissant mayoral race isn’t the first rodeo for and candidate Andrew Podleski.

In the 2007 election, Podleski challenged incumbent for his seat and earned more than 40 percent of the vote.

Although he lost the race, Podleski kept his aspirations alive by running and winning the Ward 6 city council seat in 2008. 

Now in the midst of a six-person race for office, Podleski said his opponents are riding on his coattails of topics such as transparency in government, balancing the budget and keeping funds separate. These are all issues, which, Podleski said, are issues he brought up four years ago.

“I brought this up four years ago, and none of these other candidates, who have all been in this city, none of them were willing to stand up and say we need to get some new administration in here to take care of this,” he said. “They were all afraid.

“Then, when I ran, they said, ‘Look, he got 43 percent of the vote. Well, maybe anybody can run for mayor now, which is what’s happening with six candidates.”

Even in a crowded field of candidates, Podleski is counting on his experience and his previous run to aid him in his second go-round for the seat.

Florissant Bred and Raised

Podleski has been a Florissant resident since the age of 2. After completing his education at Sacred Heart and earning his high school diploma from St. Thomas Aquinas in 1969, he headed to the University of Missouri at Rolla (now Missouri University of Science and Technology) to study engineering.

Two years later, he decided to join the Air Force, where learned Mandarin for his work as a language specialist and served in the Philippines for 15 months.

In 1973, Podleski returned to the St. Louis area, where he earned his degree in mathematics from the University of Missouri at St. Louis four years later.

After that, he went to work for a government mapping agency as a cartographer and worked for the Department of Defense for more than 30 years. He currently works as a systems engineer for the department.

Although Podleski has spent most of his life in government, he hadn’t thought about running for a political position in Florissant until a conversation with some friends in 2006.

“I decided that we needed to get someone to run, and I said, ‘I’d do it.’”

Despite running a campaign as a virtual unknown, Podleski made a formidable opponent to incumbent Mayor Lowery and came close to winning.

Florissant resident Kevin O’Donnell heard about Podleski a few days before the 2007 election and quickly jumped on the Podleski bandwagon.

“I got into reading his platforms, and I thought he was the right choice for me that time,” he said. “He’s standing for being accountable.”

O’Donnell also supports Podleski in his current campaign.

After losing to Lowery, Podleski set his sights on the Ward 6 council seat to keep his name in front of the public. He’s also gained further knowledge into the inner workings of the council and City operations.

“People can see that I’m reasonable, and that I’m a reasonable person and that I’m asking reasonable questions,” he said. “I’m trying to be their representative, and as mayor, I want to continue that, except that I’ll have more power to do that.”

Carl Chappell and Podleski have worked together on , a nonprofit organization that’s working to create an all-inclusive playground for all children to play, where Podleski serves on the board of directors and Chappell as the design committee chairman, for the past three years. He said that Podleski’s service as a city councilman reflects how he would act as the chief administrator of the City.

“He’s always been responsive to the needs of his constituents and residents of his ward,” Chappell said. “Andrew has the ability and understanding of what the City of Florissant needs to bring it back to its glory days.”

Gaining a Second Wind

Four years after his initial campaign, Podleski said several of the problems he wanted to tackle in 2007 still exist.

He said his top priority is getting a better handle on the budget and making sure that it’s transparent and easily available to residents. More importantly, he wants to make sure that funds have been used for their intended purpose.

“I ran for mayor in 2007 because I saw things that were not what I thought was the way things should be,” he said. “The other things are the parks improvements and the capital improvements. The citizens voted for those for specific uses, to improve the parks, not to buy gasoline and lawn mowers.”

Podleski also hopes to work with Florissant police officers to make sure that they’re in the best positions as well as to speak to the officers who know what’s going on in the department.

“We need to make sure that we get the good people,” he said. “Florissant was always highly rated for its police department. We’re training people, and they leave after a couple of years. We need to make sure we get stable people.”

Podleski also has some ideas for what could be changed in the city. He told Florissant Patch he’d like to see an Internet café for senior citizens; more programs for “tweens”; and greater mayoral involvement in the local school districts.

“The cities Florissant, Ferguson, Hazelwood--none of those administrations are actively involved in these schools,” he said. “I want to be able to do that. I want to be able to know the superintendent by first name and talk to him and ask him, ‘What can we do?’ because you affect us.”

Florissant resident Don Houston was one of 11 people who filed to run for the mayoral seat. After falling 50 signatures short of being placed on the ballot, Houston put his support behind Podleski.

“I want to vote for someone who will represent me and do a good job,” he said. “If he’s elected, I would feel like city government wants us to be involved and give valued input.”

That’s what Podleski’s said he’s aiming for.

“Somebody needs to get our city back where it’s not about the mayor, it’s about the citizens,” he said. “It’s about serving, serving the people. Making sure the government we give them is as good as it can be and it’s oriented to them and not to our schedule.”