Tag: Mayor

STL City’s State Rep Murray Supports Data Centers

sweatshirt that says "COWARD"

March 19th, 2026, St. Louis City State Rep. Marty Joe Murray bravely *cough cough* sent a letter of neutrality (not really) on data centers to something called “the Zoning Committee” in Room 400 at City Hall.

He failed to cite the specific data center Conditional Use Permit before the City’s Zoning Section and Board of Public Service, a proposal for a hyperscale data center at the failed Armory redevelopment in Midtown.

The permit was applied for by Deadbeat Developer Phil Hulse, Greenstreet, who owes $3,095,346.08 in property taxes on the proposed data center site as well as Greenstreet’s headquarters (3660, 3728 & 3852 Market St., 500 Prospect & 4565 McRee).

Murray wrote, “Data centers are critical infrastructure for the modern economy. The question before us is not whether they should exist, but whether they will be built responsibly. We can welcome investment while still protecting the health, affordability, and stability of our neighborhoods.”

“I am not asking this committee to slow progress. I am asking that we guide it with intention. That we ensure the benefits are shared and the burdens are not unfairly imposed”

I have no idea how anyone reads those two paragraphs as other that support for data centers slathered in economic development bullshit but the City has his letter labeled as “neutral”.

The City’s bizarre Conditional Use Permit process involves a hearing before the Zoning Division followed by a vote of the Board of Public Service. Members of BPS are mayoral patronage cabinet level appointees who owe their jobs to Mayor Cara Spencer. BPS does not attend Zoning Division hearings.

The five hour Deadbeat Developer Data Center Hearing was held March 19th, same day as Murray’s letter is dated.

BPS will vote on the proposal at their Meeting at 1:45 pm Tuesday, March 31st. It is expected that they will rubberstamp the proposal.

As of 5 pm Monday, March 30th, no one has filed to run against Murray for the 78th District House seat. Tho I don’t know why anyone would. It’s a shitty time to be in the minority party in Missouri and Murray has lobbyist/PAC friends to fund his re-election campaign because he is a reliable vote.

Candidate filing for Missouri House and Senate occurs in Jefferson City. The Deadline for filing is 5 pm Tuesday, March 31st.

Page One, Letter from Stat Rep. Marty Joe Murray
Page two, letter from State Rep. Marty Joe Murray

School Privatizers Want Another STL Sales Tax for Child Care

Man with giant green money bag

Some people would like to raise the sales tax in City of St. Louis for early childhood education (ECE) in the City. Again. Don’t be fooled. Again.

Unlike in Boliver, where there is a $3 Million expansion underway for their ECE center on the public schools campus, this sales tax campaign is not for St. Louis Public Schools ECE. Again. It’s not for free ECE. Again.

Instead, it’s another sketchy way to publicly fund charter schools, church day care, for profit child care, and a jobs creator for the nonprofit industrial complex. A lot of staffing positions with important titles will be created using the bloated bureaucracy role model of City’s Mental Health Board.

Like MHB, which manages the current ECE tax fund called Community Children’s Services Fund, that pays for ECE consultants, not ECE, the new tax would be managed by another mayoral appointed board independent from the City of St. Louis, unaccountable to the Board of Alders, or anyone else really.

Read the proposal here, not just the ballot language, read the whole thing.

Note that Stephen Westbrooks, Mayor Cara Spencer’s new director of St. Louis Development Corporation, City corporate welfare umbrella agency, and a charter school supporter, is one of the ballot issue petitioners.

Note that the proposed sales tax is enabled by 67.547 RSMO and is a county sales tax, not a municipal sales tax. That’s because Best Start for Kids also wants a tax in St. Louis County. I don’t have any idea how the campaign it’s going in the County. I do know that when MAGA eventually bankrupts St. Louis City, sells off assets, forces annexation of City into County, the folks running this scam will still be well funded.

Best Start for Kids campaign makes a lot of promises not backed up with the petition they are circulating. Again. It’s not about funding free ECE at public schools.

“Increase wages and benefits for early educators” and “Improve quality of care” are just campaign sales pitches. There is no guarantee that will happen. AND there is no sunset provision so that later down the road voters could decide to end the experiment and start over.

Best Start for Kids filed with Missouri Ethics Commission last August as a ballot issue campaign committee for November 3rd, 2026, election in the City.

A lot of preachers think their churches are getting a piece of the pie but most of the money is coming from school privatizers.

The committee filed Limited Activity for August and October 2025 reports but then received $10,000 on November 10th from Robert Fox. He is the husband of Maxine Clark, founder of Build A Bear (a corporate welfare recipient) and queen mother of school privatization in St. Louis based at her Delmar Divine development.

Fox’s contribution appeared in the January 2026 Report with others including:

$5,000 (11/17/2025) Tony Thompson, Kwame Building Group CEO, St. Louis County Board of Police Commissioner, and charter school supporter

$5,000 (12/02/2025) Laura Horwitz, JF Roblee Foundation and Board member for WePower, the main proponent for Best Start for Kids sales tax hike campaign

$1,000 (12/07/2025) Hank Webber, part of the group seeking a Midtown Infrastructure TIF, former Vice Chancellor for Washington University, former chair of Cortex, charter school advocate, and Board member of Maxine Clark’s Delmar Divine. He also serves on

Starting in January, Best Starts for Kids started receiving donations requiring “48 Hour Report of Contribution Received Over $5000” and which will not appear on a quarterly Report until April. These contributions include:

$8,000 (01/21/2026) Anne Miller, education consultant, a charter school founder (North Side Community School)

$50,000 (01/30/2026) Missouri Action for Kids, same address as Kids Win Missouri (which receives public funding)

$25,000 (02/03/2026) Elizabeth Mannen Berges, Mannen Financial Group, and Jim Berges, former President of Emerson Electric. Berges Family Foundation supports the Opportunity Trust, St. Louis Police Foundation, Greater St. Louis, and charter schools.

$10,000 (02/10/2026) Child Care Aware of Missouri, a child care referral nonprofit and member of Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Associated Industries of Missouri

$17,500 (03/05/2026) + $30,000 (03/12/2026) + $12,000 (03/20/2026) WePower, school privatization nonprofit, driving force behind the previous Proposition R for a St. Louis sales tax to fund early childhood education consultants, the fund managed by St. Louis Mental Health Board.

WePower is represented by a stable of lobbyists including David Sweeney, everyone’s friend at Board of Alders, and Nexus Group. WePower is located in Cortex Innovation District.

In 2020, The City’s Board of Alders passed an ordinance to send voters a tax hike to fund ECE. The BOA vote was 25-0 with two absent and one vacancy.

Unfortunately, it did not really fund ECE as in subsidizing costs to parents. It was money for training and marketing consultants and creating a large staff to award grants.

Like Alders, not many bothered to read the proposal. It was approved 56.26% (72,745) to 43.74% (56,554).

Proponents of the previous ballot issue like to say the issue drove voters to the polls but it was a Presidential and statewide office and ballot issues election. 6,170 fewer ballots were cast for Proposition R than the total votes cast for US President in that 66% turnout election.

Deputy Treasurer for Best Start for Kids is Mike Pridmore, who serves as treasurer or deputy treasurer for numerous campaign accounts including Mayor Spencer, City and State ballot issues, and political action committees (legal money laundries in Missouri).

There was previously a Best Starts for Kids, STL committee, not run by Pridmore, for a 2024 St. Louis County Charter Amendment to increase sales tax by for early childhood education. That ballot measure did not end up on the ballot.

Board President Megan Green and Alders Pam Boyd, Shameem Clark-Hubbard, Tom Oldenburg, and Daniela Velázquez have endorsed the ballot issue.

Board President Green unsuccessfully tried to organize a charter school before she was an Alder.

Saida Cornejo-Zuniga worked briefly as Legislative Assistant to Alder Velázquez before taking a position at WePower.

Rodney Hubbard, Alder Clark-Hubbard’s husband, is a lobbyist for Steven R. Carroll & Associates, which is lobbyist for St. Louis Public Schools, tho Hubbard is not registered to represent that client.

During the 2024-2025 session of the Board of Alders, Alder Clark-Hubbard sponsored Board Bill 7 for a second sales tax ballot issue, an additional one-half of one percent to go to the Mental Health Board’s Early Childhood Education Fund.

Board Bill 7 was very oddly assigned to the Transportation and Commerce Committee.

The St. Louis City Board of Education unanimously opposed the measure, saying the bill “directs taxpayer dollars to non-public entities with no oversight or accountability measures in place.”

Debate was cut off an hour into the hearing and Board Bill 7 advanced no further.

The major proponent for that bill was WePower, which seemed to be complaining that their previous tax hike that they wrote and won was flawed, basically the same argument this time.

We’ll talk later about how irresponsible it is for anyone to propose a new sales tax in Missouri as MAGA General Assmbly and Governor pushes to eliminate income tax and replace with sales taxes.

Will St. Louis Cancel Contract with Murder for Hire Defendant?

Fail Stamp

Updated again January 14th.

Also see St. Louis Hires Murder Suspect’s Company for Demo Contract and St. Louis Electeds Repped in Decision to Contract with Accused Murderer

Thursday afternoon, January 8th, a new meeting notice appeared on the City of St. Louis Public Meetings Calendar. It caught the attention of more than a few people.

The notice was for a meeting a week later. 10:30 am Thursday, January 15th, there was to be a “Special” meeting (meaning not a regular weekly or monthly meeting), Zoom only, of the Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority (LCRA) Board. 

The meeting was changed to 12:30 pm Thursday, January 15th, at 12:19 pm Wednesday, January 14th.

The LCRA Board was the second City entity to approve a $3,692,000 contract with S. Shafer Excavating Inc for environmental remediation and demolition services at 4690 and 4700 Goodfellow Blvd, a 16.45-acre former ammunition plant site.

LCRA spent less than ten minutes on the contract at their December 16th meeting. The Illinois company is owned and run by Sammy J. Shafer Jr., whose murder-for-hire trial is set for April in Madison County. It’s alleged that Shafer Jr. was the mastermind and paid for the murder of Portia Rowland, who had planned to marry his wife, Sarah, after their divorce.

The contract killing never came up in the LCRA meeting.

We don’t know if the murder case came up at the meeting of the first City entity to approve, recommend, the contract with S. Shafer Excavating. There are no Minutes or video available online for the December 9th meeting of the City’s Substantial Awards Selection Committee.

It was there that the contract for services on the Goodfellow site was discussed, mostly in closed session, and Shafer’s company recommended. Members of the Substantial Awards Selection Committee include representatives of Mayor Cara Spencer, Comptroller Donna Baringer, and Board of Alders President Megan Green.

The Meeting Notice for Thursday’s meeting had no agenda posted as of 10:30 am Wednesday, January 14th.

Had the meeting time not been changed and Agenda added, the meeting would have been in violation of Executive Order 60 requiring Notice with Agenda be posted at least 24 hours advance.

Thursday’s LCRA Meeting Materials page has two files: one is labeled “hidden” and has a link back to the Meetings Materials page; the other is the Agenda and Minutes from last meeting.

The Minutes include information on the vote at last meeting to award the contract to S. Shaffer Excavating.

The S. Shafer Excavating contract is not on Thursday’s Agenda. However, the combination of a “hidden” file on the Meeting Materials page and the listed statutory citations for Closed, Executive Session suggests the contract might come up.

“A) Proceedings involving legal actions, causes of actions or litigation or confidential
or privileged communications with attorneys or auditors as provided by Section
610.021 (1) RSMo. and/or Section 610.021 (18) RSMo.”

“C) Proceedings to regarding sealed bids and proposals and related documents or
documents related to a negotiated contract as provided by Section 610.021 (12)
RSMo.”

But what about accountability? Who is to blame for no background check on Shafer Excavating? Is it an isolated instance at St. Louis Development Corporation, LCRA’s boss, or is this a systemwide failure on contracts?

What was the role of the Substantial Awards Selection Committee, which includes the offices of the three most powerful positions in City government, in this mess? None of them have come forward to say it was a mistake and they’ll do better. I suppose it does take time to find a scapegoat.

And where are St. Louis City Alders on this?

Silence is complicity.

How is the lack of a background check on potential contractors being fixed? Will there be a committee appointed to study the situation and issue a report absolving elected and mayoral appointed officials and identifying a scapegoat? It would not be the first.

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

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

Updated 01/11/2026 Will St. Louis Cancel Contract with Murder for Hire Defendant?

This is an 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 was discussed, mostly in closed session. This 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.

More Data Center $ for Greater St. Louis PAC

Man with giant green money bag

How Much Does A St. Louis City Alder Seat Cost? has been updated to reflect new donations to 21st Century St. Louis PAC, the legal money laundry of Greater St. Louis.

Two 48 Hour Reports totalling $40,000 by Jerald Kent, Chairman and CEO of Tierpoint and Cequel 3, data center developers, were made in December.

Transparency Fail. The August 11, 2025, contribution to 21st Century St. Louis PAC should have been reported by 48 Hour Report in August and then also in the PAC’s October Report. It was not reported until December 22nd. This should result in fines from Missouri Ethics Commission for failure to disclose in a timely manner.

In September, St. Louis City Mayor Cara Spencer issued Executive Order 92 on data centers, probably written by a lobbyist.

In October, the St. Louis City Board of Alders passed Resolution 111 on data centers that was not worth the paper it is printed on.

Greater St. Louis is the successor organization from the merger and rebranding of Civic Progress, Downtown STL, St. Louis Regional Chamber, Arch to Park, and AllianceSTL.

Tierpoint lists three data centers in the St. Louis area among their many facilities, including two in Downtown at 1111 Olive and 2300 Locust.

The Locust data center counts Greater St. Louis, Ameren electric company, and St. Louis Development Corporation, the City’s corporater welfare agency, among its partners.

1111 Olive was a 2010 TIF redevelopment and part of State Auditor Nicole Galloway’s 2020 audit on deficiencies in Tax Increment Financing in St. Louis.

Unlike Missouri MAGA Governor Mike Kehoe, who wants to get rid of the State’s income tax, Tierpoint notes the state is a “Strategic Location” “With a low corporate income tax rate… recognized for its low costs and pro-business environment” and “The state incentivizes the building and expansion of data centers with sales and use tax exemptions.”

Plans to redevelop St. Louis Armory into a data center met public opposition and the developer has failed to answer all questions raised.

I Sunshined a Record from Governor’s Office, Sigh

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.

Letter from Governor Mike Kehoe's Office

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.

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.