Petition for the Removal of Steven Megerle From The Covington, KY City Commisioners Office.

To:  The Covington, KY Mayor's and City Commisioner's Office

On Wednesday April 29, 2009 Covington City Commisioner Steven Megerel, along with Mainstrasse Village Association Director Jerry Bamberger, and Craig Johnson co-owner of “Coco’s” (now renamed “Sidebar”) pleaded GUILTY to conspiracy to violate campaign finance restrictions in Kenton County District Court.

During the 2008 City Commissioner Race Mererel, Bamberger and Johnson engaged in a scheme to create and hand out campaign fliers aimed at damaging openly gay candidates Shawn Masters run for a City Commissioners seat by divulging personal information, including Masters Social Security number opening him to identity theft and creating a negative campaign based on Shawn Masters personal life and sexual identity that emphasized his supposed lack of “moral value.”

Steven Megerel was given a 12-month jail sentence that was suspended for a year, he cannot raise, collect or handle money of any political campaign during the one-year suspension period. But still he stubbornly refuses to resign from his current position as a Covington City Commissioner.

Kenton County District Judge Ken Easterling was quoted saying:
“I think what you did is abhorrent to this political process,” and Easterling added that he believes the pamphlets were an attempt to “stoke the fires of bigotry” because they targeted Shawn Masters’ sexual orientation. Easterling went on to say that Megerel's actions were “offensive to this court” and “but for the agreement with the Commonwealth, you would be serving jail time.”

Mayor Denny Bowman has called for Megerel's resignation but Megerel still refuses and is quoted as saying:

“I don’t plan to resign because I don’t feel what happened rises to that level and I feel that I have a lot to offer the city,”
Mr. Megerel (who is a Lawyer) has cast a shadow upon the city of Covington and The Northern Kentucky Area. What he did was not only illegal but also morally unethical and homophobic.

WE the undersigned DEMAND that Steven Megerel either resign or be removed from his Commissioner position IMMEDIATELY.
We all must show that we no longer allow premeditated criminal activity amongst our politicians to go unpunished and let illegal activities, prejudice, bigotry and intolerance of any kind or form be tolerated.

Please sign this petition and pass the URL along so we can show Steven Mergele, Covington Mayor Denny Bowman, and those in power in The City of Covington Commissioners Office that we the will no longer stand for this type of behavior in any politicians and we call for Steven Megerle to either voluntarily resign or be removed from the Covington City Commissioners Office immediately.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

The Petition for the Removal of Steven Megerle From The Covington, KY City Commisioners Office. Petition to The Covington, KY Mayor's and City Commisioner's Office was created by and written by Patti Herrmann, Rod Padgett, and Will Kohler (freewil@hotmail.com).  This petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service. There is no endorsement of this petition, express or implied, by Artifice, Inc. or our sponsors. For technical support please use our simple Petition Help form.