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She was elected to the city’s Board of Aldermen in 2022. Pine Lawn is small, with about 2,700 people. Like many municipalities in St. Louis County, it struggles with a dwindling tax base.

It also struggles with government transparency.

So said two different state audits of Pine Lawn, one in 2011 and . When she was elected, Jones read those audits. She watched the YouTube videos of then-state Auditor Nicole Galloway explaining that the Board of Aldermen was failing to do its job overseeing the city’s finances.

“The auditor said the board is responsible for the finances of the city,� Jones says. “That hit me like a ton of bricks.�

After she was elected, she started asking for the documents she and her fellow aldermen needed to do their jobs: bills, bank statements, credit card receipts. About a year ago, I wrote about Jones having to resort to filing a Sunshine Law request to get the information. The alderman passed an ordinance requiring the city to provide the documents.

But Mayor Terry Epps, City Clerk Victoria Stevenson, City Administrator Lillian Eunice and City Treasurer Delitra Hudson didn’t comply. Over and over again, Jones says, including at the most recent January meeting of the board, some documents were missing or incomplete. Yet city officials are asking the aldermen to sign off on bills.

“We never get what we need,� Jones says. “They get angry at me for asking questions.�

On Wednesday, Jones and three of her fellow aldermen upped the ante. They filed a lawsuit against Pine Lawn in St. Louis County Circuit Court, asking for an injunction to stop the city’s top administrators from spending money until they start complying with laws requiring transparency.

“Despite repeated efforts to obtain the documents and information needed for proper oversight of the City’s expenditures, Defendants have repeatedly failed and refused to provide the board the information it ordered to be produced to it,� reads the lawsuit, filed by attorney Lynette Petruska. “It is in the public’s interest to require City officials to obey the laws/ordinances they are required to follow so that the board can perform its proper financial oversight function.�

The lawsuit is the second filed in two months alleging a lack of transparency in Pine Lawn when it comes to spending. In December, attorney Elkin Kistner sued on behalf of resident Greta Rothmiller, alleging Pine Lawn is violating state law by not publishing semiannual reports of the city’s receipts, expenditures and debts.

“If you don’t publish these statements, you can’t spend money,� Kistner says.

His lawsuit is being funded in part by a new nonprofit in the St. Louis region, called the Holy Joe Society. Founded by several prominent attorneys who have experience in municipal matters — including Bevis Schock and a former judge, Robert Dierker — the group aims to shed light on municipal corruption.

Jones says she doesn’t know why Pine Lawn officials are unwilling to follow the law and provide basic financial information to the Board of Aldermen. But the lawsuit filed by Petruska suggests where there is smoke, there is likely fire.

“When someone, including an elected or appointed official, acts like s/he has something to hide, it is usually because s/he does,� the lawsuit reads, before ticking off a dozen cases of government corruption in Missouri that started with the misappropriation of taxpayer money. From 2015 to 2022, the lawsuit notes, state audits led to 81 criminal charges against public officials.

Pine Lawn officials have not yet responded to either lawsuit.

Jones wants to tell the voters who put her in office where city money is being spent. Right now, she doesn’t know.

“My constituents ask me where the money is going,� Jones says. “I can’t even tell them, and I’m ashamed.�