CLAYTON — The St. Louis County Council has issued subpoenas to the owners of the former Northwest Plaza, commanding them to testify on Aug. 6 about dealings with the administration of former county executive Steve Stenger that led to a 20-year lease for office space there.
The subpoenas use the strongest language the council has ever adopted to describe the circumstances that led to the county relocating several offices to the renovated former shopping center in St. Ann: “potentially criminal and unethical activities.â€
The council’s presiding officer, Ernie Trakas, R-6th District, said in an interview on Wednesday that “by my count, four people have pleaded guilty†in a federal pay-to-pay sting, including Stenger. “So, I don’t think I’m out of line including that language in the subpoenas.â€
Trakas said if the owners, Robert and P. David Glarner, failed to appear before the council’s ethics committee on that date, they would be found in contempt of the council and would be arrested and brought before the committee. The subpoenas also seek to compel a wide range of documents, including communications between the Glarners and several advisers both in Stenger’s administration and his political campaign.
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Rich Chrismer, a spokesman for the Glarners, said, “We are exploring all of our options in response to the county’s unprecedented action against private citizens. The Glarners not only have been open and transparent about the leases since Day One, they created a world-class commercial and government center ....â€
The council voted 5-0 on July 2 to subpoena the developers after they failed to show for a council ethics hearing last week examining the 2016 lease that relocated county offices to the redeveloped shopping center, now named the Crossings at Northwest. It marked the first known time the council has used the subpoena power that the county charter appears to grant it.
The Glarners were among the largest contributors to former St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger’s campaigns, donating $365,000 to his 2014 and 2018 races. The Northwest Plaza lease did not factor into a federal grand jury indictment of Stenger, which led to his resignation and guilty plea this spring. Investigators did, however, subpoena documents from the county related to the deal. The Glarners and Stenger have denied any quid pro quo in the decision to move county offices to the St. Ann development.
The council in 2018 spent months investigating the Northwest Plaza lease following a Post-Dispatch investigation showing the savings touted by the Stenger administration were false and that the lease would likely cost the county millions of dollars more. It relaunched the inquiry following Stenger’s guilty plea.
The new administration of St. Louis County Executive Sam Page is attempting to renegotiate a lease with the Glarners. The two sides met for the second time on Wednesday without reaching a new agreement, Trakas said.
Trakas said he was “not going to stand down simply because they are in negotiation.â€
But he said that if the Page administration was able to reach an agreement on a new lease, “I’m not sure there is much point to pursuing the council’s investigation.â€