CLAYTON — St. Louis County Executive Sam Page on Monday hired a new chief of staff and filled two other top administrative roles.
Cal Harris will serve as Page’s new chief of staff, starting Jan. 31.
Harris, who has been spokesman for the city of Baltimore since February, is a St. Louis-area native who has worked in communications, lobbying and advisory roles to Democratic electoral campaigns.
He replaces Winston Calvert, chief adviser and chief strategy officer. Calvert is leaving the county at the end of this month to become chief executive officer of The Equity Network.
Andria Nelson Roberts, county director of transformation, left the county last week to join Calvert at the same foundation, Page spokesman Doug Moore said Monday.
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The county has hired Stephanie Lewis, vice president of the public relations firm FPM Communications, to replace Roberts in the role as chief transformation officer. Lewis begins the new role Jan. 31.
And in a third new hire, Karen Aroesty will become director of the county Department of Administration, filling a seat left vacant since former director Tod Martin retired in June.
Aroesty chairs the county’s Human Relations Commission, an advisory panel, and is co-chair of the U.S. Attorney’s Hate Crimes Task Force. Aroesty is a former longtime regional director for the Anti-Defamation League.
In another change to the executive branch’s daily operations, Harris will serve as the lone direct report to Page.
Calvert and two other top advisers — Chief Administrative Officer Deanna Venker and Chief Policy Adviser Cora Faith Walker — had all reported directly to Page since September 2020.
Venker, Walker and Moore will report to Harris, Moore said.
Moore said the change was meant to make the executive branch’s organization and communications “more clear.â€
Harris was hired from a handful of finalist candidates that had included some current members of Page’s administration, Moore said.
Harris was previously a spokesman for the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, a regional communications director for Mike Bloomberg’s presidential campaign, and a senior adviser to Missouri Auditor Nicole Galloway’s unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign in 2020.
“Returning home to serve in the Page administration and impact policy for a community I love is truly humbling,†Harris said in a written statement. “I believe in Dr. Page’s principled approach towards governing and vision for St. Louis County, and I cannot wait to get to work,†Harris said.
In an interview, Harris, added that he grew up in north St. Louis and in Ferguson, and he graduated from Christian Brothers College High School.
Harris said he sought the county role in part to follow his romantic partner C. Renee Vaughn, who moved to the St. Louis area in 2019 to become staff vice president of Enterprise, Innovation, and Commercialization at Clayton-based Centene Corp.
Centene was among the largest corporate donors to Page’s 2020 election campaign to complete a two-year term vacated by Steve Stenger.
Harris said Vaughn was “a health care nerd†with no connection to politics.
Moore denied the Centene connection could pose a conflict of interest.
“Dr. Page didn’t hire his wife, he hired Cal,†Moore said.
Harris also previously was a co-founder of a lobbying firm, Pine Street Strategies, along with former Democratic state representative Don Calloway, of St. Louis. The firm, based in Washington, D.C., has lobbied for clients including Anheuser-Busch InBev and the National Bankers Association.
Harris said he cut all ties to the firm in 2019 before going to work for the city of Baltimore.
Harris received a Bachelor of Arts from Morehouse College and a Master of Public Policy degree from the Heller School of Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University. His starting salary as Page’s chief of staff will be $156,000.
Lewis, the county’s new chief administrative officer, is a board member of the nonprofit St. Louis Area Resources for Community and Human Services and a member of the Annie Malone Historical Society.
She was previously vice president of human resources for People’s Health Centers, a consultant at Gateway Management Group and a director of human resources and diversity for Office Depot. Her starting salary for the county will be $135,012.
Aroesty, director of the department of administration, will be paid a $129,064 salary.
In a statement, Page said he was “excited to welcome†the three new hires.
“Each of them has a unique skill set and tremendous capabilities that will add to the strong team we have assembled to lead county government through 2022 and beyond,†Page said.
Calvert and Nelson are the latest top county officials to leave Page’s administration in the last seven months.
Mike Chapman, former chief operating officer, left the administration in July to become deputy director of the Housing Authority of St. Louis County. Venker has assumed Chapman’s former responsibilities over seeing most county departments, Moore said Monday.
Chapman followed another top Page staffer, former deputy human services director Shannon Koenig, to the authority. Koenig left Page’s administration in January, 2021 to replace longtime authority director Susan Rollins, who retired.
Gerard Hollins, former director of revenue, left in October to work for Green Street, a Clayton-based real estate firm. Erica Savage, deputy to Hollins, has served as acting director of the department since.
Andrea Jackson-Jennings, who had been director of the Department of Human Services since 2011, left the county in September to lead the Regional Response Team, a coalition of nonprofits. She was replaced by Howard Hayes, former director of the St. Louis Agency on Training and Employment.
Yusef Scoggin, a former director of the department’s family and community services, left in October to become the City of St. Louis’ human services director.
Each case was an official deciding on their own to pursue other opportunities, Moore said.
“Dr. Page certainly didn’t ask any of these people to leave and he was very happy with all of them,†Moore said. “But they saw other opportunities they wanted to pursue, and he fully supported that.â€
Originally posted at 6 p.m. Monday, Jan. 24.