St. Louis and Missouri politics, history, gardening. Statehood for St. Louis! Or 103rd Illinois county!
The Missouri & St. Louis City Candidate Age & Residency Qualifications page has been updated with current and future election cycle filing information.
If you see anything that needs editing, let me know at stlouisstate@gmail.com.
When I worked at St. Louis City Hall in the Recorder of Deeds office, our employee manual prohibited use of personal email accounts on our City computers and use of our City email accounts for personal purposes. Both were fireable offenses because of security concerns and highly problematic for Sunshine Law purposes. It is hard for me to imagine that isn’t the case in all government offices. But here we are.
Wednesdays by 5 pm, when the St. Louis City Board of Alders meets on Friday, a Calendar Letter goes out from Board staff to an email list of currently 141 addresses. The Calendar Letter includes the Tentative Agenda for Friday’s Full Board meeting and committee meeting schedule.
The Calendar Letter is mandated by Board of Alders Rule 11. “Sunshine Gerry” Connolly and I have worked for years, since Lewis Reed was Board President, to get the Board to comply with their own Rules as well as improve upon them.
The Board has made some progress on transparency this year under Board President Megan Green but they still do not prohibit use of personal email accounts by Alders for public business. I count Board President as an Alder because the position sponsors and votes on legislation. Board President Green, unfortunately, is one of the electeds still using a personal email account for public business.
9 of 15 voting members of the Board of Alders on the Calendar Letter email list use only their official City accounts with an @stlouis-mo.gov address.
Three Alders use both their City accounts and personal accounts. If you’re going to Sunshine records from them, make sure to include their personal email: Alder Michael Browning uses michael.james.browning@gmail.com, Alder Joseph Vollmer uses vollmerjoe@att.net, Alder Daniela Velazquez uses dv@danielavelazquez.com.
Board President Green and two Alders only use personal email accounts. Again, if you’re Sunshining records, make sure to include these accounts: Board President Green megan.ellyia@gmail.com, Alder Pam Boyd boydstuff@aol.com, Alder Tom Oldenburg thomas.oldenburg676@gmail.com.
Use of personal email accounts for public business is highly problematic in the same way use of personal social media accounts for public business is a bad idea. “Using a personal account does not nullify state records law. If public records are generated they must be maintained per their retention times, are subject to Missouri’s Sunshine Law, and are considered discoverable information in case of litigation.”
Two former Alders have City email accounts by virtue of their post-Alder employment with the City. “Marlene (Alderwoman) Davis,” as she is still identified on the list, is Legislative Assistant to Alder Laura Keys, who she endorsed for the seat. Former Alder Craig Schmidt works at the City Health Department.
Eight former Alders still have City email accounts but are not on City payroll. Why do Jack Coatar, Steve Conway, Dionne Flowers, Carol Howard, Heather Navarro, Joe Roddy, Jesse Todd, and Joe Vaccaro still have City email accounts?
27 Board of Alders staff, Alders and Board President Office combined, are on the Calendar list using City accounts. So are four former staffers. Mary Ries, Mary Cullins, and Tom Shepard worked for former Board President Reed. Saida Cornejo-Zuniga was Legislative Assistant to Alder Velázquez for less than a year and now works for WePower, a public school privatization advocate. Why do they still have City email accounts?
Five staff for the Mayor and two for Comptroller are on the Calendar list. So is former Deputy Comptroller James Garavaglia. Why?
The City Treasurer and Circuit Attorney each have someone on the list. No one from the other county offices- Collector of Revenue, License Collector, Recorder of Deeds, or Sheriff- participates, best I can tell. I guess they really don’t care about the legislative body of City since they are unfortunately still not organized under City Charter.
16 current Mayor’s Cabinet and Department related City accounts get the Calendar letter using City email accounts. Former employees, including the late Todd Waeltermann (former Streets & Trash Commissioner), former Personnel Director Richard Frank, former Traffic Commissioner Jamie Wilson are still on the list with City email accounts. Why?
When I retired from the City, I had no idea that I could keep my official City email account. It’s apparently forever. Or so I guess since Leonard Johnson, previously with St. Louis Development Corporation, was found guilty of embezzlement in East St. Louis but is still on the list with a City account. At least Kevin Huntspon uses a personal account to receive the Calendar Letter. He pled guilty to bribery during his job as a City health inspector in 2016.
Back to the use of personal email accounts for public business. If you’re going to Sunshine records relating to the Community Mobility Committtee (all on its own a Transparency Fail), make sure to add Scott Ogilvie at gsogilvie@yahoo.com to your request. The Calendar Letter list shows Ogivilie, Program Manager for the City’s Complete Streets program, uses both a City email account and a personal account.
The Calendar Letter is inside baseball. Anyone can ask to be added to the email list via Board Clerk Terry Kennedy (boaclerk@stlouis-mo.gov) but the Board doesn’t promote it. Subsequently, of the 141 email addresses on the list, the largest group of participants after Alders and staff is lobbyists and corporate welfare attorneys. There are only four active media persons on the list.
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.
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.
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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.
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.
Pleased to share that there has been a Transparency Win regarding St. Louis City’s Board of Estimate & Apportionment. On June 24th, E&A began publishing Exhibits with Agendas on City’s website.
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An interesting development in enforcement of Missouri’s Sunshine Law happened last week in a city of 6,344 in southwest Missouri. It could impact government entities in St. Louis City, including the powerful Board of Estimate and Apportionment (E&A: Mayor, Comptroller, Board of Alders President).
The City of Willard has ben slapped on the wrist by the Missouri Attorney General’s Office and told they have to attend Sunshine School. At issue was the use of the generic Agenda topic “Unfinished Business” by Willard’s Board of Aldermen. (paywall) The AG’s Office says it should also include sub-topics detailing points of discussion.
That’s potentially huge because many St. Louis City special tax districts, agencies, and even the Board of E&A routinely use generic categories for Agendas.
As examples, Soulard Special Business District, a taxing district to fund private police and surveillance, and Soulard Community Improvement District, a taxing district to fund improvements with $1.8 Million dollars banked, both use skeleton agendas. They also have an atrocious record of posting late notices or wrong meeting location to the City’s online public meetings calendar.
The significance of E&A failing to provide specifics in their Agendas was highlighted recently when E&A approved more funding for the controversial ShotSpotter contract without public notice.
ShotSpotter is a surveillance product by SoundThinking. While cities have been turning down contract renewals and Chicago may soon dump the program, as promised by its mayor, St. Louis City’s E&A gave the contract a fourth amendment. And it was done, as is most E&A business, without the public notice.
For twenty years, it has been standard practice of E&A to post meeting notices and agendas to the City’s Public Meetings Calendar. The Agenda for the December 20, 2023 E&A Meeting, like most meetings, included:
“Request from the Comptroller’s Office for approval of contracts and leases for various
City departments as listed on Exhibit A.”
“Request from the Comptroller’s Office for approval of intradepartmental and
interdepartmental transfers from various City departments as listed on Exhibit B.”
“Request from the Comptroller’s Office for approval of transfers between projects for
Capital Improvement Funds listed on Exhibit C.”
But no Exhibits, the meat and potatoes of what they’re voting on, is available online for public inspection.
In the case of the December 20 Agenda, ShotSpotter was in Exhibit A, Item 17, hidden from the public. There was no opportunity for the public to contact E&A with concerns.
There was no debate on the ShotSpotter amendment. It was adopted on a 2-1 vote. Mayor Tishaura Jones and Comptroller Darlene Green voted yes; Board President Megan Green voted no.
No E&A Exhibits to Agendas or Meeting Minutes are posted online. How do we know the amendment happened and that the vote was? E&A meetings, usually very short, can be watched via Zoom or City’s YouTube channel.
We can see from the YouTube video that Board President Green made a motion to separate ShotSpotter from the rest of the Agenda for the vote. She gave no reason why at the meeting. But, as the meeting ended, 7 minutes after starting, Green Tweeted about her vote against ShotSpotter. A graphic had been prepared in advance.
Why didn’t Green share the ShotSpotter Exhibit item with the public, Privacy Watch STL coalition, etc. before the meeting? That’s a good question.
The next meeting of E&A is 3 pm Wednesday, January 17th. Exhibits A, B, C missing. Again. The secret business is anyone’s guess.
People also Sunshine E&A Exhibits.
“Sunshine Gerry” Connolly usually makes a request as soon as the E&A Agenda is posted online. It can take a day to a month for the documents to show up in the City’s Sunshine Portal.
Public access to the Portal’s Public Records Archives is limited to when it is functioning, which is often not the case. It’s been down most of today while I’ve been trying to write this. You have to be persistent when filing a Sunshine request. Try in the morning. Try again in the afternoon. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
Big question is why aren’t E&A Exhibits posted with the Agendas? Why the secrecy?
Maybe it’s time for the AG to look at how government entities in St. Louis City comply (or don’t) with Missouri’s Sunshine Law.
It’s definitely time for St. Louis City to have a strong municipal Sunshine Law in the Charter (via amendment by Charter Commission or otherwise) or via ordinance by Board of Alders.
This blog’s Profile page for St. Louis City’s New 2nd Ward has been updated with General Election results (all candidates and ballot issues) and post-election campaign finance reports filed with Missouri Ethics Commission.
You’ll notice that the winning Alder candidate is now listed under Public Officials Residing In New 2nd Ward and defeated candidate information has been moved toward bottom of the page. Eventually, the General and Primary Election info will move above those.
Also have added link to Neighborhoods in the new ward.
Winner of the April 4th Alder election in New 2nd Ward is U.S. Bank community development banker Tom Oldenburg, former 16th Ward Alder. Oldenburg came in first during the three candidate Primary and in the General Election earned 2,205 votes (59.76%).
Oldenburg filed one report in April. He raised another $10,565.26 including $4,400 from Labor Unions and $1,000 from Commerce Bank, $1,000 from attorney Jerry Schlichter, $500 each from Associated General Contractors and Missouri Restaurant Association, and $250 each from St. Louis Police Leadership Organization (sergeants and above) and former Mayor Lyda Krewson. He spent another $31,130 including $21,124.66 to Kelley Group/Show Me Victories. He has $18,857 on hand and $0 debt.
In addition to the contribution from the Police Leadership group, Oldenburg accepted $1,000 from St. Louis Police Officers Association in January.
Oldenburg’s General Election opponent, former police officer Phill Menendez, received no contributions from police groups. He earned 1,439 votes (39.00%) in the General Election. His April MEC report shows another $1,012.55 raised and $1,456.95 spent, including $185.50 raised from a raffle at The Christy that he paid $434.71 for catering. He has $2,605.39 on hand and $0 debt.
Katie Bellis, the third candidate for 2nd Ward Alder, the candidate who did not make it to the General Election, terminated her campaign committee this month. She spent $11,237.24, including $4,000 owed Dani Revord, $1,250 for campaign management by Morgan Lowe, and $1,287.50 to We Are Novella for graphic design.
82nd District State Rep. Donna Baringer, a resident of St. Louis Hills Neighborhood of New 2nd Ward and former 16th Ward Alder, filed an April Report showing $160 raised; $2,229 spent; $62,494.94 on hand; $0 debt. Baringer is term limited and cannot run in 2024. What to do with that campaign war chest?
Baringer’s next run would probably be citywide in 2024 for a county office, not a return to Board of Alders. It makes little sense financially now for Oldenburg to swap the new $72,000 municipal legislative salary for a $35,915 state legislative salary.
New 2nd Ward Regular Democratic Organization filed a hot mess for an April Report. They deleted their beginning balance, the previous $1,589.07 on hand, for new cycle. Just made it disappear. They raised $772 plus reported $636.94 In-Kind from Alder Oldenburg’s campaign committee. Then, under Miscellaneous Receipts, they reported the $1,117.07 transferred from old 16th Ward Democratic Organization and already reported by them in January.
Old 14th Ward Democratic Organization filed a Limited Activity Report for April.
The Republicans have no new ward organization in New 2nd Ward nor old ward organizations in Old 14th or 16th Wards.
Old 14th Ward Committeeman Matt Bell and Old 16th Ward Democratic Committeeman Steve Lenivy (also treasurer for St. Louis Democratic City Central Committee) both filed Limited Activity Reports. Both live in the Southampton Neighborhood in New 5th Ward.
This blog’s Profile page for St. Louis City’s New 1st Ward has been updated with General Election results (all candidates and ballot issues) and late, amended, and post-election campaign finance reports filed with Missouri Ethics Commission.
You’ll notice that the winning Alder candidate is now listed under Public Officials Residing In New 1st Ward and defeated candidate information has been moved toward bottom of the page. Eventually, the General and Primary Election info will move above those.
Also have added link to Neighborhoods in the new ward.
Winner of the April 4th Alder election in New 1st Ward is Anne Schweitzer, former 13th Ward Alder. Alder Schweitzer came in first during the three candidate Primary and earned 1,614 votes (52.02%) in the General Election.
Schweitzer filed three reports and one amended report in April. She raised $5,915 including $3,450 from Labor Unions and $500 from Pro Choice Missouri. She spent $12,437, most of it to Bouchard Gold Communications, Austin, Texas. She has $14,101.61 on hand and no debt.
Schweitzer’s General Election opponent, Deputy Sheriff Tony Kirchner, received 1,472 votes (47.4%). He filed an April Quarterly Report showing $5,200 raised, including $2,600 from Schnuck Markets’ Todd Schnuck and $2,600 from Lawyers of TIF Husch Blackwell. He spent $12,152.86 including $3,000 to G3 Strategies, run by Greg Christian, Public Information Officer at the City Sheriff’s Department and former 15th Ward Democratic Committeeman. He has $10,912.53 on hand and $2,000 debt. Look for him to file for office again.
Matthew E. Kotraba, the third candidate for 1st Ward Alder, the candidate who did not make it to the General Election, terminated his campaign committee and returned $835.94 to donors.
City Collector of Revenue Gregory F.X. Daly, a resident of New 1st Ward and Boulevard Heights Neighborhood, is sitting on a war chest of $446,845.03. His April Report shows his campaign account earned $718.38 for the quarter. Daly spent $6,605.63 , $3,065.26 on food and beverages, often identified on the report as “entertainment,” including $1,096.83 at Bartolino’s South, $879.43 at four restaurants in Florida, $294.56 at Sam’s Club, and his committee made a $250 donation to the Prop C Charter Commission campaign.
81st District State Rep. Steve Butz, a resident of the Holly Hills Neighborhood of New 1st Ward, filed a, April Report showing no new contributions and $66,332.22 on hand, $32,500 debt. There was a rumor on Spoutible that Butz wanted to run against Mayor Tishaura Jones.
New 1st Ward still has no Democratic or Republican ward organizations (political action committee) filed with Missouri Ethics Commission.
Old 12th Ward Regular Democratic Organization filed a Limited Activity Report for April. This is Collector Daly’s ward PAC. In January, it had $833.47 on hand.
Old 13th Ward Regular Democratic Club, this is Old 13th Ward Democratic Committeeman Fred Wessels ward PAC, reported a $100 contribution from AFT Local 420 and $4,109.37 on hand.
The only Democratic committeeperson residing in New 1st Ward with a campaign committee filed with MEC, besides Collector Daly (12th Ward Committeeman), is Old 13th Ward Committeeman Fred Wessels, Holly Hills Neighborhood. Wessels is a former State Rep, former 13th Ward Alder, and former candidate for City Treasurer (the year Tishaura Jones, now Mayor, ran and won the Treasurer’s race). He reported no money raised or spent but has $1,477.45 on hand and no debt.
Former 13th Ward Alder Bill Stephens did not file an April Report. His campaign committee account at MEC says that he is running for State Rep 81st District in 2024 Democratic Primary.
Philomena Arnowitz, widow of the late Larry Arnowitz, former 13th Ward Alder, filed a lot of campaign reports- all Limited Activity- to get the account into compliance. The last report that wasn’t Limited Activity was July 2020 with $0 raised, $0 spent, $21,745.06 on hand, $0 debt.
As St. Louis City election returns come in, you can check your ward to see who legally bought access to the Board President and your new Alder here.
Campaign finance laws are completely useless under a system that allows legal money laundering, and makes conflict of interest laws a moot point, and a culture of ignoring the ethical lapses of leaders in order to feel like part of a winning team.
All New Ward Profiles have been updated with both Primary Election Results and campaign finance information for Board President and Alder candidates. There’s info toward the top of each page as well as each candidate’s profile.
I chose to not use percentage of votes because Tuesday the Election Board changed percentages to the Approval Rating percentages. Those do not add up to 100% because voters may “approve” of more than one candidate in the Primary. It’s too big a hassle to explain what it all means.
Under the City’s Approval Voting system, the top two candidates from the Primary advance to the General Election.
Under a 50% +1 to avoid run off system, 5 of 14 Alder races would not need a General Election. Shane Cohn would be the winner in 3rd Ward; Joe Vollmer in 5th Ward; Daniela Velázquez in 6th Ward; Shameem Clark-Hubbard in 10th Ward; and Laura Keys in 11th Ward.
The Great State of St. Louis 