St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson said she does not support giving the public a chance to vote on whether a private company should operate St. Louis-Lambert International Airport.
“There are four entities that would have to ultimately decide on this,” Krewson said on October 24 at a news conference. “That would be the Board of Aldermen, which they represent the people of St. Louis, that would be the Board of E&A [Estimate and Apportionment], it would be the FAA and the airlines. So I personally think that those four groups will do a good job of evaluating any proposal, if we get to the point where we even receive proposals.”
A bill to force a public vote, sponsored by Alderwoman Cara Spencer, D-20th Ward, remains in the Board of Aldermen’s Transportation and Commerce Committee. Spencer called the mayor’s comments “disappointing” and said she has asked the chair of the committee, Alderwoman Marlene E. Davis (D-19th Ward), to take a vote on her bill. She said she is considering a procedural move to force it out of committee.
A group calling itself STL Not For Sale is working to gather signatures for a referendum in case aldermen do not act.
A seven-person advisory group has been working since August to evaluate a potential lease of Lambert, a process that could take 18 to 24 months. Krewson said she hopes the group will put out requests for qualifications in the first three months of 2019. Those would give the group a sense of what companies would have the skills needed to operate the airport.
The process has been criticized over potential conflicts of interest. A group connected to billionaire Rex Sinquefield paid for the application for privatization with the Federal Aviation Administration. That group, Grow Missouri Inc., has a representative on the advisory board and is paying the consultant fees for the first 18 months, which will be reimbursed if the city goes through with privatization.
Additionally, former Mayor Francis Slay, who started the process during his last months in office, has been hired as a lobbyist for a firm that is believed to be a leading contender for a privatization contract.
Follow Rachel on Twitter: @rlippmann.
Reprinted with permission from news.stlpublicradio.org.
