Two years ago, the St. Louis region embarked on a short-lived effort to see if we could be “Better Together.â€
That was the name of the nonprofit that pitched a statewide constitutional change that would unite the city of St. Louis and St. Louis County as one governmental entity. There are any number of reasons why the proposal, years in the making, collapsed quickly, most notably that it chose as its first Super Mayor a man who is now in federal prison.
Even now, it’s easy to see why the government divisions that plague this region keep St. Louis from realizing its potential. Nevermind combining the two major seats of government in the region into one, both of them — the Board of Aldermen and the County Council — remain hopelessly divided among themselves.
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Witness the action taking place — or not taking place — in the two bodies in the past week.
The County Council is paralyzed. Chairwoman Lisa Clancy, a Democrat and ally of County Executive Sam Page, and County Councilman Tim Fitch, a Republican and constant thorn in the side of Page, are fighting over the chairman’s gavel.
Clancy says she’s still in charge. Fitch said he was. Both have 4-3 votes backing their positions. It’s a stalemate of name-calling and stubbornness. On Friday, in a meeting called by Fitch, and called illegal by Clancy and the two lawyers on the council, Democrat Kelli Dunaway and Republican Ernie Trakas, the Fitch allies elected Democrat Rita Days as the putative new chairman. Clancy, Dunaway and Trakas all objected to the vote and abstained, reading similar responses to each attempt by Fitch or Days to run the meeting. Team Clancy says they are following the legal advice of County Counselor Beth Orwick.
“This is an unlawful act,†Clancy said.
“This is obscenely illegal,†added Trakas.
Every attorney on the County Council Zoom meeting agreed. But not Team Fitch.
The dispute is based on an interpretation of the county charter and likely will need a judge to intervene. On Saturday, Orwick sought such judicial help, filing a quo warranto petition asking a judge to remove Days and Councilman Mark Harder, a Republican, from the chairman and vice chairman positions they now claim as theirs. The lawsuit lays out the advice Orwick gave the council before its Jan. 5 vote, which she says was both necessary and lawful, based on the charter.
After the lawsuit was filed, Clancy issued a statement that said she would follow the judge’s determination, whatever it is: “It should go without saying that the court’s interpretation will be final,†she said. “It’s time to get back to work.â€
That’s some advice that should apply to the city, also.
There, the Board of Aldermen can’t decide what they stand for. First they voted unanimously last year to Close the Workhouse. Then some of them, led by Aldermanic President Lewis Reed, who sponsored the Close the Workhouse bill, decided they didn’t really mean it. Now they’re asking voters to weigh in on the issue, in a non-binding vote in April that carries no actual weight.
What a waste of time and effort when so many real problems, in the city and the county, need tackling. When Better Together collapsed in 2019, there was a movement led by the Municipal League of Metro St. Louis to convene a Board of Freeholders, a body called for in the state constitution that has members appointed by the city and the county, and the Missouri governor, and meets to potentially decide important governance issues that cross political boundaries.
It was a good idea, sort of an antidote to the mistrust bred by the secrecy of the Better Together effort. So Page appointed his members. Mayor Lyda Krewson appointed hers. But the Board of Aldermen and Krewson could never agree, the city freeholders were never officially appointed, and the effort stalled before it could begin.
This is St. Louis. And it will continue to be St. Louis as long as petty political differences, most of them more personal than based on policy, continue to drive the most important political bodies in the region.
Fitch and Clancy could both be effective council members representing different constituencies, but they’re too busy fighting a proxy battle over Page.
Reed, meanwhile, could have used his citywide pulpit to give meaning to the unanimous vote to close the workhouse, but instead, he’s backed off so that he can contrast his race for mayor with two candidates, Treasurer Tishaura Jones and Alderman Cara Spencer, who do want to close the workhouse.
What a ridiculous spectacle, when a unanimous, uniting vote becomes a cause of division in order to feed one politician’s ambition.
Maybe wishing for a Board of Freeholders is naïve, thinking that some other body might succeed in forging compromise and a path forward on regionalism where others have failed. But as I watch the political houses of cards in City Hall and the county government center fall upon themselves, I continue to wonder if the experiment is worth a try.
Just one bit of advice: Decide early on the rules for electing a chairman. Vote once and move on.