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ST. LOUIS — A Civil Service Commission hearing to consider charges against the chief of the St. Louis Personnel Department will go on as scheduled Monday after a judge declined to halt the proceedings.

Personnel Director Sonya Jenkins-Gray sued the city and Mayor Tishaura O. Jones last month seeking to delay the Monday morning hearing, which could lead to the first mayoral removal of a personnel director in the 83-year history of the city’s civil service system. The position has broad powers over hiring and promotions among the city’s 4,000-employee workforce, but it’s also the only cabinet position the mayor can’t hire directly.

As a result, past personnel directors have served across multiple administrations. Jenkins-Gray, however, was hired by the current mayor two years ago after the former director of 17 years retired.

But now the mayor’s office has filed formal charges against Jenkins-Gray over her use of a city vehicle in July to drive to Jefferson City on personal business. The Civil Service Commission will begin Monday to weigh whether that is enough to recommend the mayor fire her.

In court on Friday, Jenkins-Gray’s attorney, Ron Norwood of Lewis Rice, asked St. Louis Circuit Court Judge Joan Moriarty to delay Monday’s hearing until several procedural issues are resolved. Those include whether the City Counselor’s office has a conflict of interest representing the commission, whether the commission has been improperly communicating with the mayor’s office and whether the commission can conduct the hearing after one of its three members resigned this week.

Deputy City Counselor Michael Garvin, representing the Civil Service Commission, said he has had no involvement in the investigation into Jenkins-Gray and thus had no conflict disqualifying him. And he said the two remaining members constitute a quorum so the Monday hearing can proceed. He also said the commissioners “value their independence and are not likely to be influenced.�

Jenkins-Gray, in her lawsuit, asserts that the mayor is trying to fire her for “petty, self-serving political reasons,� despite improvements to the city’s hiring processes.

The director says the mayor’s animus is motivated by, among other things, Jenkins-Gray’s refusal to bend hiring rules and the political activities of her husband, the Rev. Darryl Gray. The prominent clergyman caused a stir earlier this year when he broke with former U.S. Rep. Cori Bush, a Jones ally, and endorsed Wesley Bell’s successful challenge to her reelection.

Norwood argued in court Friday that Mayor Jones was “hell-bent� on removing Jenkins-Gray but that the director of personnel is supposed to “remain free from political interference� per the city’s charter.

The charter is “designed to protect the independence of the civil service system,� Norwood said, and the issues in the case are “much bigger than my client.�

But Reggie Harris, an attorney from Stinson the city hired for the case, said Jenkins-Gray has presented “no evidence� of her allegations of political score settling. He also said Jenkins-Gray’s subpoenas of several high-ranking city officials were overly broad, including one to compel testimony from Jones herself. Harris said the mayor delegated her authority in the Jenkins-Gray charges to her chief of staff, Jared Boyd.

“The mayor was not personally involved in this matter at all,� Harris told the court.

He dismissed the lawsuit as a ploy to sidestep an administrative process spelled out in the charter to remove a director of personnel. That process should be allowed to proceed before the courts get involved.

“There is nothing that has occurred that would require the court’s intervention,� Harris said.

In her order Friday afternoon, Moriarty agreed, writing that Jenkins-Gray needed to finish the administrative process first.

The specific charge against Jenkins-Gray is that she used a city car on July 3 to travel with a subordinate to Jefferson City for personal matters. Jenkins-Gray admitted the trip and repaid the city $170 for use of the vehicle. Norwood said the city’s vehicle policy has “never ever been used to discipline an employee,� much less fire a top city official.

Harris, the city’s attorney, said the case was not about $170. It’s about Jenkins-Gray’s violation of the city’s vehicle policy and the “very troubling circumstances� under which she took the car to Jefferson City.

Harris said the city this week deposed Anthony Byrd, one of Jenkins-Gray’s top deputies in the Personnel Department, about the trip. He said Byrd testified that Jenkins-Gray asked him to procure a city vehicle for the trip and he drove her there, staying with her until “after midnight� on July 3. After learning of the trip in August, the mayor’s chief of staff, Boyd, delivered Jenkins-Gray a letter saying the city was moving to fire her.

“What’s unprecedented is the behavior that the director of personnel has engaged in here,� Harris told the court.

The city and Jenkins-Gray have not elaborated on what the personal business of the trip entailed. But in a court filing last month, the city said that while she was in Jefferson City Jenkins-Gray had an “encounter� with her husband, the Rev. Gray, and that she and her driver returned to St. Louis after that.

After Friday’s hearing, Harris declined to explain why the city believes Jenkins-Gray traveled to Jefferson City in July. Jenkins-Gray and her attorney also declined to comment, as a did a spokesman for the mayor.