Category: St. Louis City Politics

posts about elections, elected officials, legislation, policy, public meetings, public services in St. Louis City

Sonya Gray, Political Consultant?

Profile photo of Sonya Gray on City of St. Louis website

last updated 5:11 pm 01/23/2025

The first of many questions. Are the Gray and Gray of Gray and Gray Associates LLC, political consultants, Daryll Gray and St. Louis City Personnel Director Sonya Gray?

January 9, 2018, Sonya Gray, as agent, and Daryll Gray, as organizer, both using the same address on Enright, filed Gray and Gray Associates LLC with the Missouri Secretary of State. Purpose of the company was to “Provide consulting services.”

November 5, 2018, Ecumenical Leadership Council of MO Political Action Committee paid $3,400 to Darryl Gray, same Enright address, not the company, as a campaign worker.

October 22, 2020, Nicole Galloway for Missouri paid $13,820 to Gray and Gray Associates, same address on Enright, for GOTV services.

November 2nd, 2020, Nicole Galloway for Missouri paid $20,000 to Darryl G. Gray, same address on Enright, not the company, for GOTV services.

December 14, 2020, Nicole Galloway for Missouri paid $7,780 to Darryl G. Gray, same address on Enright, not the company, for GOTV services.

October 6, 2022, St. Louis City Mayor Tishaura Jones announced the hiring of Sonya Jenkins-Gray as the City’s new Personnel Director.

June 5th, 2024, Missouri Governor Mike Parson appointed Darryl Gray to the Missouri Workforce Development Board. There was, prior to Governor Mike Kehoe’s inauguration, a press release for the appointment here. UPDATE: It is available tho on Internet Archive.

The Workforce Development Board’s web page shows that Darryl Gray is a Business Representative on the Board. Per the Board’s By Laws, “1) Business representatives are appointed from among individuals who are nominated by local business organizations and business trade associations.”

Which St. Louis business organization or business trade association nominated Darryl Gray to Governor Parson?

UPDATE 1: I made a Sunshine request to Workforce Development Board on January 15th for the nomination correspondence. They responded, no records on January 16th.

UPDATE 2: I made a Sunshine request for the nomination correspondence to Governor Mike Kehoe’s office, new governor sworn in on January 13th, on January 16th. Missouri’s Sunshine Law requires a response within three days. That has passed without a response.

UPDATE 3: I received a response from Governor Kehoe’s office at 9:26 am January 23rd and am now waiting for the record(s).

October 28, 2024, Daryll Gray, using an address on Waterman (not owned by him and located in a Special Business District), filed an amendment to the LLC with Missouri Secretary of State. He changed the agent to himself and the address to the Waterman address.

Why did Darryl Gray remove Sonya Gray’s as agent for the company?

There is no website for Gray and Gray Associates in St. Louis.

I did not search the Federal Election Commission database for Gray and Gray, the company or individuals.

Why was money for consulting services paid to Darryl Gray instead of the company?

Did Sonya Gray violate Civil Service Rules or Employee Code of Conduct by participating in or failing to disclose her participation in the company?

Disclosures: September 24, 2018, Darryl and Sonya Gray attended a Drinking Liberally Happy Hour, which I hosted, with guest speaker State Auditor Nicole Galloway and I donated $27 to Daryll Gray’s 2019 campaign for Alder. I have donated to the campaigns of Tishaura Jones for Mayor, most recently in December 2024.

Delmar’s Corporate Welfare for Rich People

There are a lot of great things happening in St. Louis City and I credit hard work by many people, including activists and Mayor Tishaura Jones. Unfortunately, there is also the ongoing epidemic of corporate welfare, which started forty years ago and is now fecklessly rubber stamped by Alders, and pretty much the City caving to the public school privatization movement.

Among the awful things that happens in St. Louis is making public school kids pay for rich white people’s projects. Today, I’m writing projects on Delmar: Maxine Clark’s Delmar Divine, a home for privatization nonprofits, and billionaire Jim McKelvey’s Delmar Makers Place.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Some really nice places owned by good people and good organizations are also now on Delmar because of Clark and McKelvey. That’s what rich people do. They drape themselves with good to ward off criticism. If these rich people were good themselves, they would pay for these projects on their own instead of burdening taxpayers and public school kids.

Maxine Clark is the welfare queen of Build A Bear. We used #WelfareBears on Twitter back in the day.

Clark has a net worth of $22.1 Million and makes $1,370,260 a year as a director on the board of Build A Bear. The City gave the company 50% of its earning’s/payroll/income taxes and 75% tax abatement (money taken from public school kids) to move fourteen miles from St. Louis County to Downtown St. Louis.

Millionaire privatization activist Rex Sinquefield’s Dimensional Fund Advisers owned 6.4% of Build A Bear stock at the time.

Alder Cara Spencer took a walk on that vote and then Alder now Board President Megan Green voted Yes. Voting No were Alder Shane Cohn and former Alders Heather Navarro and Dan Guenther.

A 200 jobs figure was tossed around by everyone during the process but the TIF agreement only required maintaining the 170 jobs. Information was highly problematic during the process and generally a #TransparencyFail, as we called it on Twitter.

Meanwhile, as public school kids pay for the Build A Bear move, Clark spends her retirement as godmother of public school privatization in St. Louis. Reminder: charter schools are private schools funded by tax dollars meant for public schools.

Clark’s Delmar Devine is a nonprofit campus that focuses on all sorts of privatization schemes and got all sorts of corporate welfare, including tax abatement, of course. It is home to:

Opportunity Trust, hell bent on using public dollars to open charter schools

WePower (an arm of Opportunity Trust), which wants more public money to expand child care at charter schools, not being content with a sales tax grift ridiculously adopted by voters to fund training and marketing of child care at charter schools but not public schools

United 4 Children, part of the early childhood education grift which doesn’t actually fund child care but rather funds training, marketing, information

KIPP charter schools

Clark-Fox Family Foundation, supporting various anti-public school and anti-union teacher efforts and I believe working on the funding child care at charter schools initiative

Teach For America, the anti-union, anti-teachers as a degreed profession group

All of them have well paid staff and public relations budgets that most of the small noprofits the rest of us are associated with will never see. It’s really stretching the definition to use “charity” on some of them. They are nonprofit arms of political agendas.

Then there’s Delmar’s Jim McKelvey, of Square fame. He could well afford to do anythign he has in St. Louis without making public school kids pay for it.

I meant to write a lot more on all this but I need to run. Just search McKelvey’s name for the millions and millions in tax abatement and other incentives he has benefitted from.

Michael Butler, Defendant

You may notice people gathering signatures at the polls Tuesday to nominate Michael Butler for Mayor of St. Louis City. They are Butler’s indentured servants at the Recorder of Deeds Office or their family, or people wanting a job at Recorder Office. Support for his election is a condition of employment at the Recorder’s.

Butler, in violation of the Recorder of Deeds Employee Manual, fired employees who had not supported his 2018 campaign, beginning with his first day in office. I worked as a public records archivist at the Recorder’s and put in my retirement paperwork before getting fired. Georgie Simmons, et al v. Michael Butler, Defendent (Case No. 4:19CV10HEA, U.S. District Court for the Eastern Division of Missouri, Eastern Division) dragged out for years and was eventually settled for a six figure amount to Plaintiffs paid by St. Louis City taxpayers. Butler was represented by the City Counselor’s Office.

As Recorder, Butler fired additional employees or caused them to retire or otherwise leave and very few employees, if any, hired prior to January 2, 2019, are still employed in that office. The lack of institutional wisdom is probably why big mistakes happen in the office.

In 2021, Butler was Chair of the Missouri Democratic Party when the National Labor Relations Board moved forward on a case against MDC, settled a few months later in favor of Plaintiff.

Receipts from Georgie Simmons, et al v. Michael Butler, Defendant.

On August 7, 2018, Defendant Michael Butler (“Butler”) defeated the incumbent Recorder of Deeds for the City of St. Louisin the primary election for that office. On November 6, 2018, Butler won the general election. Plaintiffs Georgie Simmons (“Simmons”), Johnetta Sherrod (“Sherrod”), Robert Dillard (“Dillard”), and Julie Ellison (“Ellison”) (collectively, “Plaintiffs”) were employees of the City of St. Louis Recorder of Deeds Office (the “Office”) until they were terminated on January 2, 2019, Butler’s first day in office.

None of the Plaintiffs openly supported Butler during his political campaign. In March 2018, Butler had met with Simmons and Sherrod and asked them for their support in his political campaign. Simmons and Sherrod declined to become involved with any campaign, which caused Butler to become upset. Dillard actively campaigned for Butler’s opponent, the previous Recorder of Deeds. On August 7, 2018, Butler told Dillard that he could not “guarantee” his position if he did not support Butler’s campaign.

Between August 7, 2018, and January 2, 2019, Butler appeared in the Office on no fewer than four occasions, including September 7, November 16, December 10, and December 28. On these visits, he spoke with staff and provided assurances that no one would be fired for political retaliation for failing to support his candidacy. During the same time period, Butler’s alleged agents, including paid campaign staffer George Poole, appeared in the Office to threaten long-term employees’positions in the Office. These agents, including Poole, said that the Plaintiffs would be terminated for not supporting Butler’s political campaign. Poole appeared in the Office no fewer than five times between August 7 and December 28, 2018.

On December 17, 2018, Denise Starks, an Office employee who was also a political supporter of Butler, filed a false sexual harassment complaint against Simmons and another employee. Plaintiffs allege that this complaint was “part of Defendant Butler’s crusade against Plaintiffs to force them out of theirpositions,” filed at the behest of Butler. Butler allegedly assumed that the outgoing Recorder of Deeds would not be able to process the complaint before Butler took office. Butler then would be the one to handle the complaintand have reason to terminate Simmons for cause. In fact, the outgoing Recorder of Deeds investigated the complaint and found it to be unsubstantiated. Plaintiffs allege that Butler “took advantage of Ms. Starks by conspiring with her to file a false, frivolous complaint against Plaintiff Simmons.”

On January 2, 2019, Butler delivered letters of termination to Simmons and Sherrod. In essence, these letters offered Simmons and Sherrod two weeks’ pay if they gave up their right to sue Butler and the City of St. Louis. Neither Simmons nor Sherrod would sign, and Butler terminated them. Butler included non-managerial employees in the termination meetings, which Plaintiffs claim violated Simmons’ and Sherrod’s right to privacy. As Sherrod was leaving City Hall, George Poole physically confronted Sherrod in front of dozens of onlookers, causing Sherrod significant emotional distress and embarrassment.

Butler replaced Simmons and Sherrod with political associates who had no previous experience in the Recorder of Deeds Office. Plaintiffs aver that the replacements lacked requisite professional experience for the positions to which they were assigned.

The Recorder of Deeds Employee Policy & Benefit manual expressly states that an employee’s “position in the Recorder’s Office is no way impacted negatively or positively by [her or his] participation in the political process.” Defendant issued a “status” form letter for each terminated employee that did not include the reason for termination as required by policy. Additionally, Butler dated the status letters for January 7, 2019, but did not send them until January 15, 2019. This “backdating” was allegedly done in an effort to prevent Plaintiffs from requesting a disciplinary hearing within the 10-day time limit required by policy.

Plaintiffs allege that they were wrongfully terminated in violation of the First, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments as retaliation for not supporting Butler in his political campaign for the office of Recorder of Deeds. Plaintiffs allege that Butler’s conduct was willful and intentional and that he intentionally caused Plaintiffs emotional distress, pain and suffering, and health problems including elevated blood pressure, severe anxiety, and depression. Plaintiffs also allege loss of income and loss of potential employment opportunities due to the history of “firing” in their employment record.

Plaintiff’s Complaint alleges: violation of their First Amendmentrights (Count I); violation of their Fifth Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment rightsto due process (Count IIand Count III, respectively); that they are entitled to declaratory judgment (Count IV); civil conspiracy (Count V); wrongful termination (Count VI).

Charter Amendments. Sigh.

Old black and white photo of St. Louis City Hall

The St. Louis City Board of Alders Legislation and Rules Committee set aside two hours of their 28 day summer vacation to hold in-person plus virtual option hearings on Board Bills to send voters seven Charter Amendments.

The meeting is set for 2 pm Today, Tuesday, July 23rd. The time allotted would appear to be seventeen minutes each Charter Amendment for presentation by Alder sponsor and then pro-con testimony. Absurd. I can see why people would just ignore it.

I have not reviewed all of these Board Bills thoroughly yet but here are some of my notes on these proposed Charter Amendments.

City Counselor Appointment and Removal– Board Bill 60 by Alder Bret Narayan. Changes City Counselor appointment from mayoral appointment to mayoral appointment with consent of Board of Alders. Allows Board of Alders to remove City Counselor for cause with a 2/3 vote.

I do not have strong feelings about this proposal at this time. Doubt Board of Alders will ever have 2/3 vote to do much of anything other than approve corporate welfare. The Charter Commission or Alders should have looked at the whole issue of City Counselor working for Mayor but providing legal counsel to all departments and offices, including other elected offices, and in charge of compliance with State and City Sunshine Laws (cough cough).

Create Transportation Department– Board Bill 61 by Alder Michael Browning. Changes Streets Department to Transportation Department and moves Excise Division (Liquor Licenses) from Public Safety Department to new Transportation Department. Removes engineer qualification for Director of Streets, new Transportation Department.

I oppose this ballot issue because I believe all department heads should have qualifications other than “knows the mayor” and I believe Transportation Director should be an engineer. The removal of engineer qualification looks suspiciously like an effort to help one person move up the ladder. I think the part about removing engineer qualification should be in the ballot language and it’s not.

Creating Office of Public Advocacy– Board Bill 71 by Alder Daniela Velazquez. This whole thing is a hot mess and I will write at length about it later. Well intentioned. Good idea. Poor execution.

Changes Who Decides Hikes in Fines/Fees– Board Bill 72 by Alder Daniela Velazquez. Allows fines and fees to be set by Board of Alders instead of citywide ballot vote. Hard NO.

Changes Election Date and Screws Public Schools– Board Bill 75 by Alder Shane Cohn, Alder Daniela Velazquez, Board President Megan Green. This Charter Amendment would move municipal elections from March and April to August and November. This would leave School Board elections to low turnout and allow groups and persons such as Rex Sinquefield to run the table in electing school privatization slates. Voters defeated this proposal in 2017.

There is a lot more to Board Bill 75 and it’s mostly all bad. Will have more to blog on this later.

Changes name of Board of Alders to City Council– Board Bill 76 by Alder Shane Cohn, Alder Daniela Velazquez, Board President Megan Green. This amendment does a lot of things that would be good- changing pronouns to titles for example. But changing the name of the Board to Council will just lead to confusion and should have been left out. I will write more on this later.

Gives Board of Alders Power to Reorganize City Departments Without Public Vote on Charter Amendments – Board Bill 77 by Alder Alisha Sonnier. Hard NO. Fix the Charter. Board of Alders does not deserve more power to do things poorly.

Community Mobility Committee- Request for Emails

I made a Sunshine request for records relating to communications among members of the St. Louis Community Mobility Committee created by Resolution 233 in 2020. It appears that one or more voting members believe the Committee is not subject to Sunshine Laws and desire the Committee to detach itself from the City of St. Louis in order to not be subject to Sunshine Laws.

The Community Mobility Committee is scheduled to meet 1 pm Tuesday, July 16th, to receive Sunshine training in… Closed Session.

The request was made for emails over the last weekend and specific to one nonvoting member of the Community Mobility Committee. That was necessary because of the City’s not helpful by design Sunshine Portal. The Portal only acknowledges certain departments and agencies for document requests and one at a time. The Portal does not acknowledge the Committee.

The Community Mobility Committee uses a Google Group for communication between members, both voting and nonvoting members. A number of City employees are nonvoting members of the Committee or otherwise included in the Google Group, including but not limited to former Alder Christine Ingrassia, now Director or Operations, Board of Alders President Megan Green; John P. Kohler, P.E., Planning and Programming Manager; Grace Kyung, Senior Strategic Initiatives Manager for Mayor Tishaura O. Jones; Andrew Lackey, Deputy Commissioner, Office of the Disabled; former Alder Scott Ogilivie, now the Program Manager for Complete Streets at City’s Planning and Urban Development Agency; Betherny Williams, Director, Department of Streets; Jamie Wilson, P.E., Traffic Commissioner.

I chose to make a request for records received by Ogilivie. Random choice.

STL City Budget Hearing Fail, Public Denied Opportunity to Speak

Old black and white photo of St. Louis City Hall

The Budget Committee of the Board of Alders (BOA) had a public hearing today, June 5th, 2024, on the 2025 Budget for the City of St. Louis. The hearing, per its City Calendar Notice, was to include public testimony both in person at City Hall and by Zoom. At least two Alders participated by Zoom.

6th Ward resident and local government transparency advocate Gerry Connolly planned to testify by Zoom. He confirmed his participation with BOA staff. He wrote his notes. He logged on to the hearing.

The hearing began with Mayor Tishaura Jones presenting on her office’s budget. Then it was time for public testimony. But Budget Chair Cara Spencer announced a recess. People who had taken time off from work to make their voice heard were told they would have to wait 39 minutes.

When the Budget Committee reconvened, Alders heard in person public testimony. Then it was time for testimony by Zoom. It was Gerry’s turn. I’m not sure how many others had planned to testify via Zoom.

But Gerry was not allowed to speak. No Zoom testimony was taken. No explanation was given. It was yet another Sunshine Fail, Transparency Fail at City Hall.

Gerry was told he could submit comments by email. He was angry, and rightfully so, but he hurridly transformed his notes for three minutes of testimony into written, expanded comments.

Since Gerry’s testimony is not available as a part of the online public record, and while the Budget Committee Chair may not be interested in what he has to say, others may be interested. I asked him if I could publish his testimony on my blog and he agreed. I have made a few edits for formatting purposes and add links.

Below is Gerry’s testimony on 2025 Budget for City of St. Louis which he submitted by email.

———-

Gerry Connolly.
6th Ward resident
38xx Botanical Ave
St. Louis, MO 63110

June 5, 2024

Honorable members of the Budget and Public Employees Committee,

I had planned to provide this testimony via Zoom at today’s Budget Committee meeting. However, due to the fact the committee failed to take any public testimony today via Zoom, I am submitting my comments in writing. 

Public Testimony in opposition to Board Bill 1

I am testifying against Board Bill 1. The City should allocate financial resources from within the budget as recommended by the Board of E and A necessary to implement the policy recommendations described in items 1 through 7 below.

  • 1) Fix the City’s “Sunshine portal, The Public Records Center, which hasn’t been consistently functional for 6 months. Make the responsive records of all city government bodies available in the Public Records Archive. The St. Louis Development Corporation (SLDC) and St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department (SLMPD) currently do not make records available to the general public in the Public Records Archive. Only requesters may view responsive records via their portal user accounts.There may be additional City entities that do not make records available to the general public.
  • 2) Open government and transparency must be consistent across city government. The Board of Aldermen (BOA) must update the decade old transparency ordinance:
    1. Post meeting recordings to Youtube for government entities currently missing. These include the Airport Commission, Affordable Housing Commission, Mental Health Board and Senior Fund.
    2. Standardization of meeting notices, both physical and online. The official agenda (not just the text) must include the resolutions to be voted upon. The meeting packet must include the draft minutes of prior meetings, if applicable. All other documents utilized during a meeting should be posted online. The BOA’s posting of many budget presentations on the BB 1 webpage should serve as a model for all departments.
    3. The following city bodies do not operate consistently in a transparent manner: Board of Estimate and Apportionment (E and A); Charter Commission, Reparations Commission and Detention Facilities Oversight Board. The persistent violation of Missouri Sunshine Law by the Board of E and A is cause for alarm. The Board of Aldermen’s silence on the Sunshine violations by the Board of E and A has been noted.
  • 3) Continue to reform of how development incentives are awarded. Ordinance 71620 was a step forward in the system for awarding tax breaks to development projects. However Ordinance 71620 (BB 64 in the 2022-23 BOA session) had major flaws that subsequent legislation has only addressed in part (See BB 98 and BB 236 in the 2023-24 BOA session). More changes to the ordinance are needed.  All provisions in Ordinance 71620 must be enforced by the BOA. SLDC did not follow the mandated procedures for the 15 projects, with development costs over $10 Million, that were approved in the 2023-24 BOA session. The non-compliance included a failure to consult St. Louis Public Schools (SLPS) and affected tax districts. Every effort must be made to shield SLPS from the impact of tax breaks.
  • 4) All development incentives must be authorized by an ordinance approved by the BOA. Incentives that presently do not require approval by ordinance include, but are not limited to:

    1. Bond issuances authorized by the Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority (LCRA), Planned Industrial Expansion Authority (PIEA), Industrial Development Authority (IDA) and Port Authority.

    2. Certain tax abatements authorized by the Port Authority Commission (PA) and Enhanced Enterprise Zone Board (EEZB).

    3. New Markets Tax Credit (NTMC) program, currently authorized by the SLDC board of directors.
  • 5) The Land Reutilization Authority’s lot sales policy must be modified. In 2023, the Land Reutilization Authority adopted new sales policies for LRA-owned property, per the recommendation of SLDC staff. In the category of sale of lots for the purpose of building one home, a lot whose area is less than 4,000 sq. ft. is ineligible for sale under the new policy. LRA eliminated the opportunity to provide housing, strengthen the fabric of a neighborhood and grow the city’s tax base.

    The LRA sales policy must be modified in order to restore the ability of homebuilders to purchase lots under 4,000 sq. ft. and construct much-needed housing.

    The Jones administration, SLDC and the Community Development Agency (CDA) frequently cite the Economic Justice Action Plan (EJAP) as a guide for City policy and program spending. SLDC included citations from the Economic Justice Action Plan (EJAP) in the LRA board resolution adopting the new sales policies.

    It is noteworthy that the EJAP planning process, conducted by consultants to SLDC, did not include the participation of the general public or Board of Aldermen. Only narrowly focussed public outreach was performed.

    I have not heard an explanation of the rationale behind the new sales policy in any setting- SLDC website, development board meetings or at BOA committee meetings. The BOA should investigate this matter.
  • 6) All fee revenues from SLDC’s Sales Tax Exemption Fund should be transferred to the City’s General Fund and included in the annual appropriation to the Affordable Housing Commission
  • 7) Eight reforms for the BOA to enact for Local Taxing Districts (LTDs). It is possible that changes to Missouri law will be necessary in order to accomplish some of the recommendations.

    1. The budgets of the 100 plus LTDs in the City likely exceed $50 Million with taxes and/or special assessments imposed on the public. The vast majority of LTDs operate routinely in violation of Missouri Sunshine law. Enact all recommendations of the 2019 Missouri Auditor’s report on LTDs. Read the audit report here (See pages 9 – 18 for recommendations)

    2. Place all policing duties funded by LTDs under the command of SLMPD.

    3. Extend community oversight of surveillance technology to all LTDs.

    4. A representative of the following must be appointed to the board of all single site LTDs: Mayor, Board of Aldermen and Comptroller.

    5. Prohibit developers from controlling single site districts.

    6. Document all City of St. Louis resources allocated to the LTDs. Such resources include:

    (i) City funds expended on projects of the LTDs.
    (ii) City staff attending LTD meetings.
    (iii) Work performed by City staff to support the activities of LTDs. (Examples of City staff: SLMPD personnel when working for the City; Neighborhood Improvement Specialists).

    7. Establish robust Conflicts of Interest regulations for people serving on the boards and committees of LTDs.

    8. Establish a limit on the number of LTD boards on which one person can serve. (Some individuals serve at least five LTD boards).

    I would be happy to discuss the above recommendations by phone, in-person or at a committee meeting. My contact information is below.

    Thank you for your consideration.

    Gerry Connolly

    cc Honorable members of the Board of Aldermen
         President Megan Green
         Clerk Terry Kennedy
         Mayor Tishaura O. Jones
         Comptroller Darlene Green
         Budget Director Paul Payne

STL City Charter Commission, May ’24 Draft Doc

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.