Two St. Louis aldermen called for the recall of St. Louis Mayor Krewson during a press conference in City Hall on Tuesday, February 26 because of her support of Better Together’s proposal to merge St. Louis city and county governments, though they were cryptic about their plans.
“You never show the lamb the blade when you’re coming for them,” 3rd Ward Alderman Brandon Bosley said when asked for specifics about a recall effort. 21st Ward Alderman John Collins-Muhammad joined Bosley for the announcement, along with eight citizens who were not introduced.
Bosley attacked Krewson for agreeing to the Better Together proposal without garnering public support and for agreeing to a plan where the St. Louis mayor’s position would be eliminated, leaving the St. Louis County executive to run the merged Metro City.
Both aldermen attacked Better Together’s strategy of seeking these changes through a statewide vote, rather than a vote in just the city and county. Better Together officials claim that a change in the Missouri Constitution is needed to merge municipal courts, which they claim is a primary motive of their initiative. They cite the Ferguson Commission report’s focus on the need to merge and reform predatory municipal courts.
For these two aldermen, however, this strategy undermines the democratic rights of voters in the city and county.
“It’s complete disregard for democracy,” Bosley said.
“It’s a slap in the face of democracy,” Collins-Muhammad.
If Better Together succeeds, then voters in St. Louis would be represented by a chief executive they did not elect. If St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger remains in office and Better Together succeeds, he would replace the city mayor. City aldermen like Bosley and Collins-Muhammad would be replaced by a 33-member Metro City Council.
Both aldermen objected to the plan also because the merged Metro City would have a significantly smaller representation of African Americans than the city.
“It’s a whitewashing of the voting electorate,” Collins-Muhammad said. “African-American representation is something this city and region have fought hard to achieve.” Because it would undermine black political power, Collins-Muhammad said, “The plan in its very nature is racist.”
Bosley also ridiculed the notion that a city-county merger would solve the region’s many ills, some of them nationally notorious.
“This doesn’t change the 200 murders in the city, it doesn’t change the school system” – indeed, public school districts are untouched in Better Together’s proposal – “it doesn’t change the children walking hungry on our streets, it doesn’t change our homeless population,” Bosley said.
In response, Krewson did not respond to the claims of voter disenfranchisement and black political disempowerment. Through a spokesman, she restated Better Together’s premise that a city-county merger would make for “a stronger, more efficient, more attractive and more competitive region.” Of the recall effort, she said it “is more internal fussing, but I get it. Self-preservation is a strong instinct.”
