ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ

One of the names I always mention is St. Charles County Executive Steve Ehlmann.

I know what you’re thinking: Take away my “woke� card. Ehlmann is a white, male Republican in a region that has massive issues with diversity.

But hear me out.

For the next year, Ehlmann will be the chairman of the , which makes him the closest thing to a regional mayor in the eight counties in Missouri and Illinois that make up the membership of the council.

As such, he’s found himself thrust into the controversy of what, if anything, to do to improve St. Louis Lambert International Airport.

Actually, before he took the helm of East-West Gateway, Ehlmann already had inserted himself into the issue, with an op-ed in the St. Louis Business Journal calling for a more regional approach to airport governance.

For Ehlmann, this wasn’t a new idea. He pushed the idea as a state representative and senator in the Missouri Legislature. Separate from the airport, Ehlmann, who leads the fastest-growing county in the region, has always had a regionalism gene.

With black pastors in north St. Louis County, he helped fight the spread of red-light cameras, which were nickel-and-diming too many citizens in the region. He has long been one of the strongest voices for regional flood-control planning, joining with environmentalists to pass the state law that gave regional tax increment finance commissions more power. When such a commission voted against the recent Maryland Heights flood-plain development, Ehlmann played a role in making that happen.

And when the Ferguson Commission released its report, Ehlmann was among the first leaders in the region to do what it called for, applying a racial equity lens to decisions being made in St. Charles County.

One of the key proposals in that was for St. Louis city and St. Louis County to commit to building the North-South MetroLink expansion, which would make the region’s struggling transit system robust by connecting people living in poverty — most of them people of color — with transportation to jobs.

This brings us back to East-West Gateway.

At its most recent meeting, the board — which includes St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson, St. Louis County Executive Sam Page, and St. Louis Board of Aldermen President Lewis Reed — discussed in broad terms the potential for outlying counties, including Jefferson, Franklin and St. Charles, to invest in Lambert in exchange for having a seat at the table for regional governance.

Krewson and Reed pushed back. ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ were recently stung by the miserable failure of the privatization process they supported, in which they outsourced the city’s authority to wealthy businessman Rex Sinquefeld and his merry band of well-paid consultants.

Reed, for instance, said that if the region wanted a say on the airport, St. Louis County should share the sales tax it receives from concessions at the airport, which is situated in the county.

Put it on the table, I say. In fact, put it all on the table.

With the collapse of Better Together (for many of the same reasons as the misguided privatization effort), and the failure of the city to make appointments to the Board of Freeholders, which is supposed to be discussing efforts to regionalize, why not have East-West Gateway do the job it is already tasked with doing?

At its core, East-West Gateway is a transportation organization. It is already studying ways to improve security on MetroLink and reports monthly on its progress. It is the organization that has funded various studies on the North-South MetroLink routes.

Voters in the city and county already have dedicated taxes to help fund those still nonexistent yet absolutely necessary routes. But the collar counties that would benefit most by having better access to an employee base don’t have any investment in the success of the region’s underfunded transit system, unlike successful transit systems across the country, from Portland to Dallas to Denver.

It’s time for a quid pro quo. Marry regional investment in a better airport with regional investment in a robust transit system. Do it in a public way, holding difficult discussions with all the key elected officials already at the table.

Have the true discussion of regionalism that offers growth potential to the entire region by first investing in the success of the lifeblood of St. Louis.

Have at it, Mr. Ehlmann. Don’t forget your racial equity lens.