ST. LOUIS â A nonbinding referendum on whether to close the controversial city workhouse wonât be on the April 6 city ballot after all.
Mayor Lyda Krewson effectively blocked a public vote on the issue by failing to sign the Board of Aldermen-passed referendum bill before the Tuesday deadline for court orders to add items to the ballot.
Mayoral spokesman Jacob Long didnât comment Wednesday on why Krewson decided against allowing the referendum on the workhouse, a jail formally known as the St. Louis Medium Security Institution.
The referendum billâs sponsor, Alderman Jeffrey Boyd, D-22nd Ward, said he was disappointed at Krewsonâs move.
âIt is a great survey tool to demonstrate the thoughts of the residents who pay for the expenses of the workhouse,â he said of a referendum.
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Boyd and some other referendum backers have said they would support eventually shutting down the facility but that there still is a need for it now.
A leading opponent of the referendum, Alderman Annie Rice, D-8th Ward, said she was glad that the public vote wasnât going forward.
âIt would be a really complicated thing to ask the public right now when thereâs a whole lot going onâ regarding the cityâs jail system.
She said she and other advocates of closing the workhouse, on Hall Street, still want that carried out as soon as possible.
âObviously that canât happen immediately because, frankly, weâre down a floor at the Justice Center,â referring to the cityâs main jail downtown.
About 115 prisoners commandeered the fourth floor of the City Justice Center on Saturday, setting fires, clogging drains, shattering windows and hurling furniture to the sidewalk below.
That spurred corrections officials to move about 65 detainees to the workhouse, increasing the number held there. But the 188 being held there Wednesday is still far below its capacity of 1,138.
The Board of Aldermen on Jan. 29 passed an ordinance that attempted to schedule the workhouse referendum.
While that was after the Jan. 26 deadline for getting something on the April ballot, state law also allowed judges to order the inclusion of additional items as late as 5 p.m. Tuesday.
Krewsonâs failure to sign the bill by Tuesday prevented the city from obtaining the necessary court order.
The mayor under the city charter has 20 days to sign, veto or allow a bill to go into effect without taking action.
Krewson, meanwhile, on Monday announced the formation of a task force to examine conditions and operations at the downtown jail. By Wednesday, the task forceâs leader, Michael Wolff, had stepped down.
Wolff, a former Missouri Supreme Court judge and former dean of the St. Louis University School of Law, is âmost interested in working to address the longer-term challenge of criminal justice policy,â according to a press release from Krewsonâs office.
Circuit Attorney Kimberly M. Gardner also has said she will open an investigation into the situation.
But Krewson and her administration have pushed back against activistsâ claims of inhumane conditions at the main jail, which opened in 2002, and the 65-year-old workhouse.
