ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
10/24/2007

St. George — The mayor of this tiny but recently infamous community resigned Tuesday, a day after he was arrested for misdemeanor drug possession, a city official said.

Mayor Harold Goodman, elected last year, was arrested Monday night by St. Louis County authorities, Alderman Carmen Wilkerson said.

Board president Heather Hediger is serving as acting mayor, Wilkerson said.

"I think she'll do a good job representing the city," Wilkerson said of Hediger. "That's why we selected her (as board president)."

Goodman and Hediger could not be reached for comment. St. Louis County authorities, who reportedly made the arrest, also could not be reached.

Aldermen will hold a special public meeting at 7:30 p.m. Thursday for residents of the community of about 1,500 to discuss the situation, Wilkerson said.

Several aldermen said they learned about the arrest from reporters.

"I didn't know a thing about it," before a neighbor saw it on television, said Alderman Paul Keene. "I haven't been able to find out anything."

He said Goodman was a former police officer who had taken early retirement because of illness. Goodman won election in a three-way race in which the incumbent mayor was challenged by his wife while the two were in the process of getting a divorce.

St. George, a one-fifth square mile hamlet at Interstate 55 and Reavis Barracks Road in south St. Louis County, landed in the national spotlight recently after a video of a police sergeant yelling at a motorist went public. The officer was fired.

Wilkerson said she's tired of seeing her town in the news.

"It's a charming little community," she said.

Not sure this qualifies as an "isolated incident", but it would seem that part of the mayors job is to keep his employees (the Police) accountable.

St. George mayor, arrested on drug charge, resigns