Tag: Comptroller

St. Louis Electeds Repped in Decision to Contract with Accused Murderer

St. Louis Substantial Awards Selection Committee Agenda for December 9, 2025, meeting

Update to St. Louis Hires Murder Suspect’s Company for Demo Contract.

It turns out that the Board for St. Louis City Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority is not the only City entity that had a say on awarding the $3,692,000 contract to S. Shafer Excavating.

The contract is for environmental remediation and demolition services at 4690 and 4700 Goodfellow Blvd, a 16.45-acre former ammunition plant site.

The company is run by Sammy J. Shafer Jr, accused of murder for hire. The alleged driver is Marty D. Shaw, Shafer Jr.’s employee. The alleged shooter is Gary D. Johnson, previously convicted of a different murder, and Shaw’s cousin.

The three are accused of the January 21, 2025, murder of Portia Louise Rowland in Collinsville, Illinois. Rowland was the girlfriend of Sarah Shafer, Shafer Jr.’s wife. She was living with her at the time of the murder. They intended to be married after Shafer’s divorce was finalized.

Shafer Jr. allegedly provided the gun used in the murder and left the $10,000 payment in an excavator at his home. His trial is set for April 27, 2026.

Before LCRA awarded the contract to the accused murder’s company on December 16, 2025, there was a December 9th meeting of the City’s Substantial Awards Selection Committee in which the contract for services on the Goodfellow site were discussed, mostly in closed session. T

his was the meeting where it was decided to recommend S. Shafer Excavating to LCRA.

Members of the Substantial Awards Selection Committee include representatives of Mayor Cara Spencer, Comptroller Donna Baringer, and Board of Alders President Megan Green.

The only records of the committee posted online are Agendas. No meeting materials, exhibits, etc. No Meeting Minutes. No meeting videos. A Transparency Fail.

Did no one from the Board of Estimate and Apportionment- Mayor, Comptroller, Board President- bother to do a records check on Sammy Shafer Jr. and his company?

Or did they just ignore the information readily available?

Campaign $ and Millennium Hotel Deal

Cha Ching graphic with floating paper money

March 10th , 2025, A Brighter Future for St Louis PAC received $50,000 from The Lamar Johnson Collaborative, the architectural firm now working with Bob Clark’s Clayco and Gateway Arch Park Foundation on redevelopment of former Millennium Hotel. It’s Mayor Cara Spencer’s PAC, a way around campaign finance contribution limits.

Clayco contributed a total of $130,674.60 to the PAC in January-February. Those monies helped fund mailings produced by Mike Kelley‘s Show Me Victories and negative media against then Mayor Tishuara Jones.

Clark donated the maximum $2,600 to both Spencer and now Comptroller Donna Baringer this year. But he also donated $10,000 February 25th to 71 Percent PAC run by Kelley Group/Show Me Victories, political consultants.

The 71 Percent PAC paid $77,897.24 to Show Me Victories for digital ads and mailings supporting and opposing candidates. It supported the election of Spencer and Baringer as well as re-election of 11th Ward Alder Laura Keyes and losing 7th Ward Alder candidate Cedric Redmond. It opposed the re-election of Mayor Jones and Comptroller Darlene Green as well as 7th Alder Alisha Sonnier.

Board Bill Number 39 In Session 2025-2026 Chapter 99 Redevelopment Plan for 200 South 4th St. Redevelopment Area Summary This Board Bill seeks to approve a Chapter 99 Redevelopment Plan and Blighting Study for the 200 South 4th St. Redevelopment Area. The proposed Bill also allows for use of eminent domain within the area for all properties. This Board Bill will allow for up to a 20-year tax abatement at 90 percent.

In 2019, then Alder Spencer co-sponsored Charter amendments against concealment of campaign donor true identity ( Board Bill 41) and against candidates accepting funds from donors seeking City contracts (Board Bill 40). Neither made it to the ballot.

In September, the Board of Alders passed and Spencer signed a redevelopment plan for Millennium Hotel. Board Bill 39 provides for 20 years of tax abatement (making St. Louis public school children pay for redevelopment), per Bill Summary on City website as of 12/29/2025, on the project as well as eminent domain use.

Updated 12/29/2025 to reflect tax abatement information from official bill Summary, not me comparing the 105 page Introduced bill to the 104 Committee Substitute bill. If Summary is wrong, that’s not on me.

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.

Will STL E&A, Tax Districts Go To AG Sunshine School?

Art: Sun wearing sunglasses

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.
——————–

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.

Item 17, Exhibit A, St. Louis Board of Estimate and Apportionment Agenda, December 20, 2023: ShotSpotter amendment

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.

Screenshot of Tweet by St. Louis Board of Alders President Megan Green regarding her vote against Shotspotter contract amendment

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.

Screenshot of error message from St. Louis City Sunshine Portal, Public Records Archives

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.

St. Louis City War Chests Update

Updated 1/14/2023. Includes municipal and county citywide offices, Board of Alders, State Senators, State Representatives. Does not include School Board.

#1 $458,051.44 on hand, $1,112.99 debt: City Collector of Revenue Gregg F.X. Daly

#2 $337,460.92 on hand, $0 debt: former Mayor Lyda Krewson

#3 $85,200.13 on hand, $0 debt: City Mayor Tishaura Jones + $105.239.35 on hand, $0 debt: 314 Forward PAC affiliated with Jones

#4 $168,641.65 on hand, $0 debt: former State Senator Joe Keaveny

#5 $137,451.18 on hand, $0 debt: City Comptroller Darlene Green

#6 $98,263.29 on hand, $0 debt: City Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner

#7 $65,542.77 on hand, $32,500 debt: State Rep. Steve Butz

#8 $63,683.94 on hand, $0 debt: State Rep. Donna Baringer

#9 $48,254.47 on hand, $1,291 debt: State Senator Karla May

#10 $35,967.89 on hand, $0 debt: 13th Ward Alder Anne Schweitzer (New 1st Ward Alder candidate)

#11 $32,626.48 on hand, $0 debt: State Rep. Peter Meredith

#12 $31,787.12 on hand, $0 debt: 16th Ward Alder Tom Oldenburg (New 2nd Ward Alder candidate)

#13 $31,070.27 on hand, $0 debt: State Rep. Rasheen Aldridge (New 14th Ward Alder candidate)

#14 $20,584.46 on hand, $0 debt: 7th Ward Alder Jack Coater (former Board President candidate) + $5,266.34 on hand, $0 debt: Jack PAC affiliated with Jack Coatar

#15 $24,014.17 on hand, $0 debt: City Treasurer Adam Layne

#16 $21,745.06 on hand, $0 debt: the late 12th Ward Alder Larry Arnowitz (no reports for two years)

#17 $21,257 on hand, $24,978.41 debt: 1st Ward Alder Sharon Tyus

#18 $20,657.21 on hand, $0 debt: former 28th Ward Alder Heather Navarro

#19 $19,560.85 on hand, $0 debt: 10th Ward Alder Joe Vollmer (New 5th Ward Alder candidate)

#20 $15,569.88 on hand, $0 debt: State Rep. Kimberly Ann Collins

#21 $13,566.65 on hand, $540.39 debt: 23rd Ward Alder Joe Vaccaro (New 4th Ward Alder candidate)

#22 $13,504.89 on hand, $0 debt on hand, $0 debt: former 17th Ward Alder Joe Roddy

#23 $13,440 on hand, $0 debt: 19th Ward Alder Marlene Davis

#24 $11,711.43 on hand, $20,000 debt: accused rapist State Rep. Steven Roberts

#25 $11,376.876 on hand, $0 debt: State Rep. LaKeySha Bosley

#26 $10,988.18 on hand, $23,000 debt: Board President Megan Green + $938.37 on hand, $0 debt: Progress PAC affiliated with Green

#27 $8,668.92 on hand, $1,831.33 debt: City License Collector Mavis Thompson

#28 $8,586.50 on hand, $0 debt: 9th Ward Alder Dan Guenther

#29 $8,400.82 on hand, $0 debt: 20th Ward Alder Cara Spencer (New 8th Ward Alder candidate)

#30 $6,934.07 on hand, $0 debt: former 6th Ward Alder candidate Debra Carnahan (she still has running for 6th Ward Alder in 2023 on her MEC account)

#31 $5,953.72 on hand, $0 debt: City Recorder of Deeds Michael Butler

#32 $5,857.89 on hand, $0 debt: 24th Ward Alder Bret Narayan (New 4th Ward Alder candidate)

#33 $4,574 on hand, $150.76 debt: former 11th Ward Alder Sarah Martin

#34 $4,002.21 on hand, $0 debt: 27th Ward Alder Pam Boyd (New 13th Ward Alder candidate)

#35 $3,448.49 on hand, $7952.66 debt: 26th Ward Alder Shameem Clark-Hubbard (New 10th Ward Alder candidate)

#36 $3,483.09 on hand, $0 debt: 25th Ward Alder Shane Cohn (New 3rd Ward Alder candidate)

#37 $2,515.84 on hand, $5,108 debt: 1st Ward Alder Bill Stephens (ran for State Rep. 2022)

#38 $2,474.33 on hand, $5,800 debt: 6th Ward Alder Christine Ingrassia

#39 2,326.65 on hand, $1,000 debt: 5th Ward Alder James Page (New 14th Ward Alder candidate)

#40 $1,908 on hand, $0 debt: 8th Ward Alder Annie Rice

#41 $1,799.37 on hand, $2,000 debt: 22nd Ward Alder Norma Walker (New 13th Ward Alder candidate)

#42 $1,478.79 on hand, $0 debt: 11th Ward Alder Jimmy Lappe

#43 $229.53 on hand, $0 debt: 21st Ward Alder Laura Keys (New 11th Ward Alder candidate) + $1,248.58 on hand, $0 debt: 21st Ward Organization PAC affiliated with Keys (this committee is filed with MEC as a candidate PAC, not a ward PAC)

#44 $1,346.88 on hand, $86.72 on hand: 17th Ward Alder Tina Pihl (New 9th Ward Alder candidate)

#45 $1,271.18 on hand, $55,025.69 debt: State Rep. Del Taylor

#46 $1,077 on hand, $0 debt: 4th Ward Alder Dwinderlin Evans

#47 $980.75 on hand, $0 debt: 1st Ward Democratic Committeewoman Yolanda Brown (New 12th Ward Alder candidate)

#48 $316.76 on hand, $830.15 dent: 28th Ward Alder Michael Gras (New 9th Ward Alder candidate)

#49 $100 on hand, $0 debt: 3rd Ward Alder Brandon Bosley (New 14th Ward Alder candidate)

#50 $100 on hand, $0 debt: 2nd Ward Alder Lisa Middlebrook (New 13th Ward Alder candidate)

#51 $42.57 on hand, $0 debt: 18th Ward Alder Jesse Todd

#52 $0 on hand, $0 debt: City Sheriff Vernon Betts (does not maintain a campaign committee between elections)

City Election Candidate Filing Opens Nov 28

Candidates for Board of Alder President and all 14 Ward Alder seats begin filing 8 am Monday, November 28. Filing ends 5 pm January 6. The Primary is March 7 and General Election is April 4.

For those of you interested in running and not part of a slate, or running on your own, and already collecting nominating signatures, here are the qualifications and requirements.

A candidate for Board of Alder President must be at least 30 years of age, a U.S. citizen for at least 5 years, St. Louis City resident for at least 5 years, an assessed City taxpayer for at least 2 years, and must not have been convicted of malfeasance in office, bribery or other corrupt practice or crime.

A candidate for Alder must be at least 25 years of age, a U.S. citizen for at least 5 years, St. Louis City resident for at least 3  years, a resident of the ward from which elected for at least one year, an assessed City taxpayer for at least 2 years, and must not have been convicted of malfeasance in office, bribery or other corrupt practice or crime.

✔️ All candidates for City office will need petition signatures for Certificate of Nomination.

✔️ All candidates must obtain a receipt from City Treasurer for payment of a filing fee  equal to 1% of the salary of the office sought.

✔️ All candidates must obtain a Statement of Tax Clearance– confirmation the candidate  is not delinquent in the payment of city taxes and water and refuse bills- from City Collector of Revenue.

Candidates must take their Certificate of Nomination, receipt for payment of filing fee, and Statement of Tax Clearance to the Board of Election to file by the deadline.

✔️ Candidates must also file campaign finance reports with Missouri Ethics Commission.

Also see Board of Election Candidate Filing Information.