CLAYTON — A flip in one vote Thursday kept alive an effort to fund a study that could provide a second opinion on St. Louis’ efforts to potentially privatize St. Louis Lambert International Airport.
On a 4-3 vote, the St. Louis County Port Authority authorized issuing a request for proposals from firms to produce a study on whether privatizing Lambert is in the best interests of the region. The vote came one month after the board voted 4-3 to table soliciting proposals for the study. Board member Mary McMurtrey provided the swing, switching in favor of the proposal.
The port authority, which collects some $5 million annually in casino revenue with broad authority on how to spend it, waded into the controversial Lambert privatization discussion in October, irking St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson. The city owns Lambert and has been studying privatization since Mayor Francis Slay kicked off the effort in early 2017.
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Officials say leasing the airport to a private operator could potentially result in upfront payments worth hundreds of millions of dollars — money a cash-strapped city can use to finance infrastructure and other projects in the urban core. It’s evaluating 18 potential bidders that include international operators who run European airports.
Critics complain that libertarian megadonor Rex Sinquefield’s operation is funding the entire privatization effort, paying consultants hundreds of thousands of dollars a month. Sinquefield would be reimbursed from the proceeds of a privatization deal. And many complain that much of the discussion at the city’s airport working group meetings is in closed session.
Board members who opposed the county port authority getting involved said it isn’t any of the county’s business what the city does with its airport, and a new study won’t do anything to address complaints about transparency. But proponents said an outside study could provide an important counterweight to a process that appears predisposed to a privatization deal.
“We can’t ignore 4,000 acres in the middle of St. Louis County and pretend it doesn’t affect us,†said port authority Chairman John Maupin. “We have no clue what is going on … (The city) may well want to have information that is not slanted toward one answer, a predetermined answer.â€
But board member Mike Hejna, who opposed issuing the request for proposals, pointed to the portion of the RFP that calls for a consultant to provide “recommendations for regional governance implementation.â€
“This is not a nonbiased report,†he said. “This is asking how do we go about regional takeover.â€
Board member Amy Hunter said if businesses and county municipalities were so concerned about the impact on economic development, they or a business organization such as Civic Progress should fund the study.
“Why would we have a county that has no power to make a decision about this pay for this study?†Hunter said.
The proposal was initially pitched by Maupin and port authority Director Denny Coleman, the longtime head of St. Louis County’s economic development office before his 2015 retirement after former County Executive Steve Stenger’s election. The County Council brought Coleman back to lead the port authority last year, one of the council’s moves aimed at wresting control of the powerful agency from Stenger, who pleaded guilty on charges related to awarding contracts to donors through the port authority.
County Executive Sam Page has said he supports conducting a study on Lambert privatization.
Hejna initially held up the move last month, asking that the port authority at least invite someone from Krewson’s office to attend. Krewson’s office said it couldn’t send a representative to the meeting but it might be able to attend next month, according to Maupin. The mayor’s spokesman said last month that the airport working group’s meetings “are all public and they’ve made numerous presentations to the public at separate events. We invite the St. Louis County Port Authority to attend any of these meetings.â€
But County Councilman Ernie Trakas, a nonvoting port authority board member, said documents from the working group have “every piece of salient, important information redacted away. Why?â€
He urged the board to move quickly.
“Time was of the essence 30 days ago,†Trakas said. “This has all the makings of Stenger 2.0.â€
Editor's note:ÌýThis article has been updated to clarify that the St. Louis County Port Authority voted in November to table an airport study RFP. It did not vote against it.Ìý