I have been trying since January 15, 2025, to find out which St. Louis business organization(s) or business trade association(s) nominated Darryl Gray to the Missouri Workforce Development Board.
Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe’s office, which I contacted on January 16th, says I can expect the record(s) on or before January 31st and they will let me know if the cost is over $50. January 31st would be eleven days after my email to Sunshine@governor.mo.gov.
I worked for decades in public records preservation and public access. My ass would have been fired if I had told a customer that it might take eleven days to retrieve a record.
The person handling this Sunshine request is Jordan Roling, Deputy General Counsel, a seasoned member of the Missouri Bar since… July 2024.
Roling’s previous jobs, per LinkedIn, were Assistant Tennis Coach at Helias Catholic High School in Jefferson City and summer internships at the Cole County Prosecutor’s Office and U.S. Department of Homeland Security during law school at Mizzou.
Roling’s most recent job, per Missouri Ethics Commission records, was working on the campaign of Mike Kehoe, now his boss as Governor, at $2,500 a month since August plus mileage.
Back to Darryl Gray. He has a business- Gray and Gray Associates, a political consultant business. I wrote about it here. It’s a side story to the Mayor Tishaura Jones v. Sonya Gray, Personnel Director battle. The Mayor is trying to fire her for cause. Sonya Gray is wife of Darry Gray and was, until October 28th, agent for Gray and Gray Associates.
And allow me to insert here that this whole Jones v. Gray thing would not be news click bait if mayors of the City of St. Louis had the authority to hire and fire any cabinet level appointee. The Personnel Director and Police Chief do not serve at the pleasure of the Mayor in St. Louis under the City’s arcane Charter. You want to hold Mayor Tishaura Jones accountable for the Personnel Department or Police Department, hiring and crime? Sorry. The Charter has a confusing chain of command for both. Blame the Charter Commission and Alders for not sending a fix for this mess to voters.
Back to Darry Gray. He was nominated to serve on the Workforce Development Board under former Governor Mike Parson, appointed by Parson. There’s a weird subplot involving accused rapist State Senator Steven Roberts trying to derail nominations. Of course there is.
Darryl Gray holds a “Business Representative” seat on the Board, meaning, per Board’s By Laws, he had to be nominated by one or more local business organizations and business trade associations.
I am trying to find out which business group nominated him. It seems odd that a business group nominated a political consultant to Democratic candidates. Workforce Development Board does not require a parity of political parties. Even more peculiar, a MAGA Governor appointed a Democratic consultant.
The Workforce Development Board said it did not have records. I emailed a Sunshine request to them on January 15th and heard back next day. They didn’t bother to tell me who else to ask for the record(s). This sort of thing annoys me because when I worked at City Hall, a county office, we were not allowed to say, “not my job.” We had to find the correct resource and refer, give the customer the contact info and, if by phone, try and tranfer them.
Since this is a former governor appointment, I decided to email the Governor’s Office regardless of the change in occupants. I had no idea the request would be handled by a recent tennis coach/political campaign worker.
This qualifies as a Sunshine Fail, in my opinion.
The Great State of St. Louis 