PAY TO PLAY: After three St. Louis elected officials are indicted on bribery charges, Jim Gallagher and David Nicklaus say the city needs to take a hard look at policies that give individual aldermen too much control over development.
ST. LOUIS — St. Louis’ economic development agency is pausing all sales from the city land bank following federal indictments of three city officials.
St. Louis Development Corp. said it will not accept any new applications to purchase property from the Land Reutilization Authority beginning in July while it “reevaluates and retools its processes.” Properties that are part of Prop NS, the neighborhood stabilization program passed by voters in 2017, are excluded from the moratorium, as are pending transactions.
The ban will last through October, officials said in a release.
The LRA receives titles to all tax delinquent properties not sold at the St. Louis Sheriff’s sale. It owns thousands of vacant lots and abandoned buildings throughout St. Louis.
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Last week, Lewis Reed, president of the Board of Aldermen, and two former aldermen, John Collins-Muhammad and Jeffrey Boyd, were indicted on federal bribery charges related to their acceptance of cash payments from a small business owner seeking property tax abatement and the purchase of property from the city’s land bank.
The indictment alleges Boyd pressured the LRA to sell a property in his north St. Louis ward to the small business owner for far less than it was valued.
The LRA approved the sale for $14,000 even though the small business owner had bid $16,000.
Thursday's indictment of three St. Louis aldermen, including Board President Lewis Reed, is just the latest political scandal to rock the St. …
