If the Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District upholds former Fire Chief Sherman George’s appeal of the ruling issued against him by the City of St. Louis Civil Service Commission, all hell will break loose. George would be reinstated as fire chief, according to state law and city rules. Mayor Francis G. Slay’s carefully groomed choice for the chief’s replacement, Dennis M. Jenkerson, would stand down. One of the mayor’s most costly political victories – when he freed up promotional opportunities for Firefighters Local 73 stalwarts, at the expense of his last shred of credibility in the black community – would be ruined. How Local 73 would respond is anybody’s guess.
George and his attorney, Thomas M. Blumenthal, envisioned this eventuality and prepared for it in their brief, which ends with some sage advice to the court, should its ruling favor the former chief. “The result may be considered disruptive of City governance, and an understandable reluctance to create such a state would give a court pause if it were not the rule of law,” Blumenthal writes. We urge the court to rule on the points of law, and disregard the touchy politics in this divided city. We agree with the former chief and his attorney that the court need only consult its own 2005 ruling in State ex rel. Killingsworth v. George to see that Mayor Slay overstepped his authority granted (and limited) by the City Charter in ordering the same fire chief to make the same promotions that an appellate court had ruled was securely within the chief’s authority.
Blumenthal offered the mayor some free advice in his oral arguments before the court on Tuesday: If the law is not on your side, change the law, don’t break it. He suggested that Slay should lobby the Board of Aldermen to pass a default provision that gives the mayor some authority to override an appointing authority who repeatedly refuses to make promotions. Blumenthal even was so impudent as to remind the court – and the mayor – that the mayor is a lawyer. (And indeed, Slay may have considered this option and concluded that an onerous voter-approved change in the City Charter would be needed, not just a city ordinance.)
One of Slay’s deputy city counselors argued his case on Tuesday, voicing what we always hear from this administration: fear of the boss and the need to obey the boss. But Blumenthal rejected this argument as not applicable in terms that bear broadcasting. Blumenthal argued that the fire chief has two bosses – the mayor and the City Charter, which does not give the mayor the authority he claimed to have in this case. Blumenthal later added, outside of court, “And the mayor has the same boss: the City Charter.”
We agree. Sherman George’s case ignited passions in the black community, because he was the first African-American leader in a department with a history of the most rank racism. Also, because he is a respected, empathetic and dignified man with deep commitments to this community. However, his case is about much more than race. It is about the rule of law and whether this mayor, who has sworn to uphold the law as lawyer and mayor, will abide by it. We hope this court shows this mayor he has one more very painful, bitter lesson to learn from Fire Chief Sherman George: that the law is the ultimate boss.
