St. Louis and Missouri politics, history, gardening. Statehood for St. Louis! Or 103rd Illinois county!
Help support the important services provided to unhoused neighbors by AmeriCorps St. Louis by attending 6 pm Saturday’s 12th Annual Share the Warmth Fundraiser
AmeriCorps St. Louis operates My Mother’s House Emergency Winter Shelter and provides showers, meals, laundry, mail service, and more.
There’s a 6:30 pm Tonight Soulard Special Business District Board Meeting at Soulard Station, 1911 S 12th.
Soulard SBD is the property tax district, for part of the Soulard neighborhood, that funds privatized policing, off duty police via TCF, and so-called security cameras.
This is also the tax district that held the extra super #TransparencyFail meeting last month. Not giving proper notice of meetings is just one of many problems with the Board.
Over 70% of Soulard residents are renters who pay property taxes via their monthly rent. Tonight’s meeting will be conducted without a required residential renter Board member. It’s companion sales district district- Soulard Community Improvement District– requires all Board members to be property owners.
The previous residential renter Board member was Molly Dougherty. In March 2021, She bought a home in Soulard but was allowed to remain on the Board repping renters. She now serves as a homeowner Board member. Dougherty is a landlord attorney at Sandberg Phoenix and serves as treasurer for 7th Ward Alder Jack Coatar’s campaign committee for St. Louis City Board President. Coatar served on the Board before he was elected Alder.
The due diligence made by Soulard SBD Board to fill the residential renter Board seat is found in the July 2021 Minutes. They posted a notice in the St. Louis Daily Record, a subscription service for legal notices, a publication read by likely less than a dozen residential renters in Soulard.
Additional transparency issues with Soulard SBD:
These special tax districts represent the worst of government- poorly run private clubs providing inefficient parochial responses to citywide concerns. Instead of stopping this trainwreck, Alders continue to rubberstamp creation of new ones. As the 2023 elections for Alders and Board President approach, who will run on a platform of getting rid of special tax districts?
Further Reading
St. Louis’ Private Police Forces Make Security a Luxury of the Rich by Jeremy Kohler, ProPublica, September 8, 2022
A Private Policing Company in St. Louis Is Staffed With Top Police Department Officers by Jeremy Kohler, ProPublica, September 9, 2022
UPDATE: Sometime after 8 am Monday, September 12th, Soulard Special Business District posted a notice to its website for the 6:30 pm Monday, September 12th Soulard SBD Meeting, less than seven hours notice for a public meeting on public tax money. That Notice says the meeting has been moved to Molly’s, a venue owned by Soulard SBD Chair Luke Reynolds (also Vice Chair of Soulard Community Improvement District, sales tax district). As of 10:30 am Monday, September 12th, the meeting Notice on City’s Public Meetings Calendar had not been changed to reflect a different meeting place. That notice says the meeting is at Soulard Station. Notices and edits to City Public Meetings Calendar get time-date identification. Notices on most special tax district websites only get a date first posted.
Original blog post below.
Or not.
Soulard Special Business District is one of St. Louis City’s special tax districts that fund private policing and part of last week’s two part investigative report by Jeremy Kohler for ProPublica.
We know that as a part of their response to the ProPublica investigation, Soulard SBD’s Board voted in November 2021 to hire Husch Blackwell as legal counsel for $5,000 “to ensure the Board complies with an ongoing Sunshine request and fully complies with the Sunshine Act.”
We know that before Jack Coatar was elected to the St. Louis City Board of Alderpeople, he served on the Soulard SBD. In May 2022, as Alder, he gave the welcome and introductions at Soulard SBD Neighborhood Safety Forum. Secretary of the Soulard SBD Board is Molly Doughtery, also Treasurer of Coatar’s campaign finance committee. Coatar is on Tuesday’s special election ballot to fill the vacancy caused by resignation of Board of Alderpeople President Lewis Reed, a friend of Coatar’s.
We know there’s a meeting notice for Soulard SBD on the City of St. Louis Public Meetings Calendar. We also know that a year’s worth of meeting notices and generic skeleton agenda’s were posted by the SBD Board to the City Calendar on Dec 7, 2021.
We also know that as of 5 pm Sunday, there was no notice for a September Soulard SBD meeting on the SBD’s website.
It doesn’t matter whether they’re having a public meeting without a notice on their website or failed to cancel the meeting notice on City website. It doesn’t matter whether they don’t want questions relating to the ProPublica investigative reports or Coatar’s involvement in tax districts before Tuesday’s election. It’s all Transparency Fail.
The Soulard SBD Budget includes $18,000 for Communications Management, $50,000 for Advertising/Promotion, $25,000 for Communications, $50,000 for Marketing/Branding. You would think that one of those line items includes competent online posting of public meetings notices at both their website and the City Public Meetings Calendar.
How does your neighborhood association support the public schools within or near its boundaries? In Lafayette Square and Soulard, they don’t. They do, however, support private charter schools*.
This weekend was Lafayette Square Neighborhood Association’s Patriot Day Run. It was a fundraiser for LSNA, BackStoppers®, and Charter Athletic League, founded at Lafayette Preparatory Academy.
Lafayette Prep is a private charter school located in Lafayette Square. The school is considered an important neighborhood asset and is on the agenda for monthly LSNA general membership meetings.
According to LSNA Board Meeting Minutes, fundraising for Charter Athletic League is not the first time LSNA financially supported private schools. In March 2021, they donated $250 to Lift for Life Academy fourteen blocks away in Soulard/Kosciusko neighborhoods. In March 2022, Lift for Life asked for $1,000. The Board approved $333 and then asked members at the next general membership meeting to donate and reach the $1000 goal.
I looked at LSNA Board and General Membership Minutes for 2021-2022 and found no mention of their closest public schools: Peabody School (it is mentioned on their website’s resources for residents page), seven blocks east, and Sigel School, seven blocks south.
Soulard has a longstanding relationship with the neighborhood’s two private charter schools- Lift for Life Academy and Soulard School. Some examples. In February 2022, the SRG Board voted to buy a table ($250) for the Soulard School Trivia Night. In May, there was a pitch for the fundraiser at the SRG general membership meeting. Lux Living SoHo Apartments says it will donate $100,000 to Soulard School. Mardi Gras Foundation awarded a grant to Soulard School for landscaping.
There is no relationship between the neighborhood and Humboldt School, Soulard’s remaining public school. aside from Trinity Lutheran, which adopted the school for school supplies, special events, volunteers. Humboldt is five blocks from Soulard School and eleven blocks from Lift for Life.
*Charter schools are private schools funded with public tax dollars taken from public schools.
The Great State of St. Louis 