Here's an official statement from the city of St. Charles, MO, on the Sugar Plum Fairy incident. As should be obvious, all italicized and/or bracketed material is my commentary and not part of the official statement.
Mayor Sally Faith – Public Statement (St. Charles City Council Meeting – Nov. 15, 2011)
I wanted to take a brief moment to thank everyone who has contacted the city of St. Charles related to the Christmas Traditions festival. [Even those who threw dung at City Hall last night could still be said to have acted in the spirit of giving.] I appreciate people taking the time to express opinions on the subject [even those spelled out with flaming bags of dung on the street in front of City Hall.] It is unfortunate that what has appeared in the local news media [and on CNN, USA Today, Fox News, and that jackass lawyer's blog, whatever it's called] is one-sided at best.
As you might imagine, the situation surrounding hiring the Sugar Plum Fairy character for our year-end Christmas Traditions celebration is a personnel matter. As such, it would be inappropriate for me or any other city officials to discuss related details. [Although I may appear to do that later on in this very statement.] However, what I can tell you is the city takes great pride in ensuring the integrity of all our various events and festivals, and we have policies and protocols in place to support that end.
For the purposes of background, our Director of Human Resources extended 62 prospective offers to individuals who applied and auditioned for the part-time roles of a Christmas Traditions character this year. Out of those 62 people – two of whom were children applying for the role of Tiny Tim – a total of 61 people were able to follow the process to the letter, and, as a result, their job offers were approved and finalized. [Wait - you drug-tested Tiny Tim?] In the case of the Sugar Plum Fairy applicant, these same contingencies were not met during the hiring process.
I’d also like to add that the individual who has played the character of the Sugar Plum Fairy in past years [for those previous temporary and short-term engagements] has done a fantastic job. All of us involved with the Christmas Traditions festival appreciate her participation in previous years, and likewise, we were looking forward to having her back again this year. However, given her excessively inappropriate behavior and language at the drug testing facility and actions following this process [which should not in any way be interpreted as me having publicly discussed details of a personnel matter], the city made the right decision in not rehiring this former cast member [who we did not fire as she had not been "hired"].
In fact, I would go even further in underscoring we would not hire anyone to work for the city of St. Charles who behaves in such an unacceptable manner [though again this should not be taken as public commentary on a private personnel matter]. So the key element I would like everyone to remember [especially any potentially interested plaintiffs' counsel] is that as a prospective employee [who had not yet been hired] of the city, she was not fired, as she was never actually hired to participate in the 2011 festival.
As we move forward [thereby putting this embarrassing incident completely behind us] in kicking off this season’s Christmas Traditions festival a week from Friday, I would encourage everyone to continue supporting St. Charles’ year-end festivities [and to please not boycott the event as you have been threatening to do], along with all the many fine merchants in our historic district [many of whom I realize are also pissed off about this nonsense]. Thank you and I’ll look forward to seeing everyone on Main Street the Friday after Thanksgiving [though hopefully not as part of "Occupy Main Street," which would be dealt with harshly.]
Mayor Sally Faith
