As a region battered by upheaval works toward healing, the fallout from Ferguson has turned talk of St. Louis re-entering St. Louis County into barely a blip on the civic radar screen.
“I’m coming into a job that demands an overhaul of St. Louis County government,†says St. Louis County Executive-elect Steve Stenger. “We have a lot of issues to address and we don’t need those issues compounded by a merger with St. Louis city.â€
Stenger already had been non-committal about a merger before his election while St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay and County Executive Charlie Dooley backed the idea.
The mayor will continue to work toward a day when the city will rejoin St. Louis County as its 91st municipality, said his chief of staff, Jeff Rainford.
But Rainford said before returning to a discussion about a possible merger, it is imperative that the region first regain its footing after the unrest that shook the area in the months following the fatal shooting of Michael Brown by a Ferguson police officer.
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Rainford said the administration will continue efforts to identify avenues for the city and county to consolidate specific services and programs similar to the alliance that recently formed a regional economic development agency.
At the same time, Rainford said, “The mayor understands that it takes two to tango. He understands we need a willing partner.â€
As he prepares to take office on Jan. 1, Stenger also believes the events that have overwhelmed the St. Louis area since the August shooting of Brown demand that the county and city take a step back to re-evaluate where the region has been and where it is going.
Stenger proposes to narrow the focus once the conversation is renewed.
“I think the consolidation of North County municipalities is what we should be talking about, not consolidation with the city,†he said.
Meanwhile, Better Together, a civic and business group formed to study the St. Louis city-county merger issue, contends the Brown shooting and the subsequent turmoil emphasizes the relevance of its mission by elevating issues such as police training and tactics, municipal courts and governance to the forefront.
“Clearly, it has made a big, big difference in the intensity,†said executive director Nancy Rice. “We were a civics lesson before. Now, we’re something different. Ferguson shows there are real consequences to public policy questions.â€
Better Together has responded to Ferguson by reshuffling several priorities.
The outcry over law enforcement tactics both prior to and following the shooting of Brown prompted the nonprofit to commission the Washington, D.C.-based Police Executive Research Forum to conduct a study into improved training procedures and community relations.
“We have to recover when this is over and we have to do it quickly or we’ll lose a couple of generations,†Rice said.
Antagonists, however, remain unconvinced of Better Together’s intentions.
“They are still trying to communicate that small (government) is bad and big government is good,†said St. Louis County Municipal League Executive Director Tim Fischesser.
The organization, on the other hand, is still backed by the elected official holding the second key to the unification door — Slay.
“Better Together is gathering information to compile facts wherever they may lead.†said Rainford. “And we are supportive of that.â€
Slay and Dooley have repeatedly cautioned that any effort to bring the city back into the county it departed in the Great Divorce of 1876 will ultimately be decided by area voters.
Stenger in the primary and general election campaigns limited his comments on consolidation with only a promise to analyze the issue.
The eruption of Ferguson four days after the primary defused reunification as a debate topic in the November general election that ended in a narrow Stenger victory over Republican Rick Stream, who opposed a merger.
Meanwhile, Better Together reports on regionalism or its effort to address law enforcement issues raised by Ferguson have done nothing to appease critics such as Bob Pieper of Common Sense for St. Louis.
A grass-roots effort opposed to any form of city-county reconciliation, Common Sense uniformly rejects a claim by Better Together that consolidation will not result in the city saddling the county with its debt and crime rate.
Pieper also disputes the notion that reunification could address issues raised by Ferguson.
“The problems in Ferguson are not the problems in Kirkwood or Richmond Heights,†Pieper says.