St. Louis City Charter Reform – The Great State of St. Louis

Burn it all down.

Vote against anything proposed by the St. Louis City Charter Reform Commission. It has proven itself unworthy of the trust and votes of St. Louisans.

It’s been Transparency Fail after Transparency Fail, the latest related to 4:30 pm Tonight’s Commission Special Meeting.

I know. I know. We’re supposed to give the Sunshine violations a pass because we personally like some of the Commissioners and some of the ideas they’ve been exploring.

I know. I know. We’re supposed to give them a pass because they’re volunteers.

Nope. It’s a dumpster fire. Let it go down in flames.

Tonight’s Meeting has a notice on the City’s Public Meetings Calendar that was posted on June 20th. But like so many Charter Commission meetings before it, there was no Agenda posted online at least 24 hours in advance of the meeting.

Missouri’s Sunshine Law (610.020) requires public notice at least 24 hours in advance for public meetings and that notice shall include an Agenda. It is a very weak law that does not require the Notice and Agenda be posted online. That’s where St. Louis City’s Sunshine directives come into play here. Executive Order 60 and City Ordinance mandate the public meeting notices required by state law be posted to the online City Public Meeting Calendar.

8:58 am Today, over 16 hours past the deadline for required 24 hours Meeting Notice with Agenda, after much dragging on Twitter about the missing Agenda and need to cancel and reschedule meeting because of noncompliance with City Sunshine requirements, the Charter Commission added an Agenda to the meeting notice on City Calendar. We know this because the Public Meetings Calendar notices have Time/Date stamps for creation and editing at the end of the entry.

Then, and this really has my blood boiling, this afternoon, mere hours before the 4:30 pm meeting, the Commission dumped a 38 page “Meeting Packet” pdf on the documents page created for the Agenda. There is no way of knowing exact time this happened because document pages have no Time/Date stamp.

Time and time again, this Commission has failed to be transparent- lack of Minutes for subcommittees, Meeting Notices with Agendas posted late or never, Meeting Minutes of the Commission that do not reflect the meetings, etc.

And don’t get me started on the writing failures in the proposed Charter amendments.

Let this thing die.

Old black and white photo of St. Louis City Hall

Below is the St. Louis City Charter (Reform) Commission‘s latest hard on the eyes, semi-public document on proposed changes to Charter.

I am publishing it here because the Charter Commission may never post it to their online documents page or may not post until right before, during, or even after their next meeting, a Virtual meeting set for 4:30 pm Wednesday, May 29th.

The Charter Commission has failed to be transparent at the level needed for Charter reform. It posts meeting materials long after meetings, sits on Minutes until City Counselor edits, the Minutes often are at odds with what actually happened, there are no Minutes for the three Workgroups’ meetings, meetings have gone into Closed Session for sketchy reasons, and other issues.

I personally like a number of people involved with the Commission. They are well-meaning but it’s a rigged process, a hot mess. The spreadsheet may give you an idea of the agenda, which must go before voters to be adopted but the devil is in the details. In this case, the details will be written by City Counselor Sheena Hamilton, who works for Mayor Tishaura Jones.

The Commission is composed of voting members and nonvoting members. Voting: Briana Bobo, Anna Crosslin, David Dwight IV, Chris Grant, Scott Intagliata, Dr. Jazzmine Nolan-Echols, Travis Sheridan. Non-Voting: Director of Personnel Sonja Gray (Mayor Jones appointee), City Counselor Sheena Hamilton, former State Senator Jake Hummel (Missouri AFL-CIO President)Christine Ingrassia (Board President Megan Green’s Director of Operations), Casey Millburg (Mayor Jones’ Policy Director), 5th Ward Alder Joe Vollmer.

I am chopping up the spreadsheet and adding pape by page as images, instead of importing the word salad, hard on the eyes spreadsheet, because I am not paying to upgrade this site for spreadsheets and videos.

Note1: Many people confuse the Charter with the City Code: Ordinances, Laws. The Charter is the City’s constitution. The Code is City’s version of Revised Statutes of Missouri (RSMo).

Note2: St. Louis City has a Strong Mayor system of government. Many people are confused about this because of propaganda by past charter reform efforts. Could the position be made stronger? Sure. A Weak Mayor system is usually associated with City Managers and ribbon cutting mayors. St. Louis City has had many weak mayors but that’s not the same as a Weak Mayor system.