ST. LOUIS — Mayor Tishaura O. Jones remained noncommittal Wednesday on how she’ll vote on the Board of Aldermen’s $168 million pandemic aid bill at an upcoming meeting of the city’s top fiscal body.
Jones, part of the three-member Board of Estimate and Apportionment that will meet Friday morning, supports the bulk of the measure, much of which she requested.
But she repeated her view that the bill, given preliminary approval by aldermen on Tuesday, also includes some items that don’t meet U.S. Treasury guidelines for spending the federal aid.
She cites an opinion from the interim city counselor and an accounting firm advising the city.
People are also reading…
“We’re looking at options regarding these ineligible funds,†Jones said in an online news conference. She didn’t elaborate.
Tyson Pruitt, a spokesman for another estimate board member, Comptroller Darlene Green, declined to comment on how Green would vote.
The other estimate board member, Aldermanic President Lewis Reed, sponsored the aldermanic package. He disagrees with the legal opinion.
“We’ve done our work, it’s in the bill; E&A needs to meet on that bill and move it,†Reed said in an interview.
At issue is $33 million to spur business development along four major north St. Louis commercial corridors — Martin Luther King Drive, North Grand Boulevard and Natural Bridge and West Florissant avenues.
The legal opinion, released Tuesday by the mayor, said the most recent federal guidance indicates that the aid money “as a general rule†can’t be used on general economic development.
But Reed argues that the treasury department also allows aid to areas in which COVID-19 exacerbated preexisting conditions that affected people in low-income areas.
“We are getting another opinion on it also,†Reed added, saying he is considering law firms to retain on the issue.
The spending bill needs approval by both city boards to become law. If the estimate board endorses the legislation Friday, aldermen are expected to give it final passage at their meeting the same day.
Reed says estimate board rejection could stall the issue, perhaps until September, because aldermen begin a two-month summer break after Friday’s meeting. Negotiations usually resolve disputes between the two boards.
Regarding the north side corridor money, Reed said Jones had proposed that the provision be changed to make it a citywide fund and give it a different name.
He alleged that Jones wanted to â€take it from north St. Louis to the areas where some of her friends are†in other parts of the city.
He added that “it appears to be somewhat retaliatory†against some north side aldermen who got their wards declared off-limits in the bill from so-called intentional encampments for the homeless that Jones has proposed establishing.
Jones’ spokesman, Nick Dunne, denied that.
“This isn’t about retaliation,†he said. “This is about getting people the urgent relief they need.â€
He said Jones in an attempt at compromise proposed replacing the four-corridor fund with one that could be used citywide.
But, Dunne added, she wanted its focus changed to job training for unemployed workers, street upgrades and other items that clearly would be allowed by federal officials. Just changing the name would not achieve compliance, he asserted.Aldermen did approve an amendment changing the funds’ name from economic development to economic empowerment.
Jones and Reed also disagree on the legality of $20 million in Reed’s bill set aside for a citywide fund to renovate dilapidated homes. Dunne said that would be allowable if moved in the bill from the city’s main development agency to the city’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund.
