It had the potential to be the St. Louis Board of Aldermen’s Watergate hearing, but Deep Throat did not show.
The board’s Personnel and Administration Committee invited 15th Ward Alderwoman Megan Ellyia Green to discuss her allegations of corruption and bribery at the board in a public meeting on Wednesday, February 17, but Green did not appear.
17th Ward Alderman Joe Roddy pointed out to committee chair Alderwoman Marlene Davis (19th Ward) and aldermanic President Lewis Reed that they had the power to subpoena Green and compel her testimony, but the committee did not discuss issuing a subpoena.
Formally, the committee was considering Resolution Number 197, which calls for the committee “to hold a public hearing regarding allegations of criminal conduct and to issue a report.” At the outset of the meeting and again at the end, Davis said she hoped the committee would not vote on the resolution, and if it did vote she would vote “no.”
In the end, the committee did not take any action on the resolution. Davis did fleetingly call for a motion for Reed to censure Green, but Reed advised that this would not be the best way to let the matter die. No one made that motion.
4th Ward Alderman Sam Moore did appear and address the committee. Though Green’s accusations of bribery and corruption in City Hall were sweeping, and Davis and other committee members said her accusations impugned every board member, Moore is the only alderman who stood accused of anything resembling a specific crime.
According to media reports, Green claimed that Moore accepted a donation of winter coats for residents of his ward by unions in exchange for legislative consideration. Moore told the committee that he regularly accepts donations of coats and even dresses up as Santa Claus to give them away to youth in his ward. Indeed, Moore made an appeal for more coat donations while speaking to the committee.
The legislative consideration in question would have been support for the NFL stadium financing bill. The unions and many business interests pushed hard for partial public financing of the stadium deal that was offered to the St. Louis Rams and the NFL. Green first alleged “bribery and correction” (a misspelling of “corruption,” the word she subsequently used) in a tweet on December 10. That was the day the Ways and Means Committee passed the stadium financing bill by a 7-2 vote.
Moore and Reed voted to pass the bill out of committee, along with 21st Alderman Antonio French, 18th Ward Alderman Terry Kennedy, 8th Ward Alderman Steve Conway, 13th Ward Alderwoman Beth Murphy and 23rd Ward Alderman Joe Vaccaro. Aldermen Chris Carter (Ward 27) and Scott Ogilvie (Ward 24) voted against the measure.
As The St. Louis American reported at the time, it was a new minority inclusion proposal for the stadium deal that swayed Reed, French, Kennedy and Moore to vote the bill out of committee. Moore used the same language before the personnel committee on February 17 that he used before the Ways and Means Committee on December 10, talking about the promise of jobs for the “forgotten people” of the 4th Ward.
“There were millions of dollars floating around on this stadium deal,” Moore told the committee. “Check my bank account. If you don’t see a million in my account, leave me alone. Don’t cheapen me by saying I took coats for a bribe.”
As Davis reminded the committee and the public, authorities very quickly dismissed Green’s allegations. Davis read in full the letter that St. Louis Police Commissioner Sam Dotson sent to Reed on December 14. “Certainly any individuals with relevant information are encouraged to come forward,” Dotson wrote, “but based on the social media posts and the interviews with Alderwoman Green, there was no actionable information obtained.”
Bribery is a felony, so Green had accused unnamed colleagues of a felony without having any “actionable information” for the police and the FBI – or any testimony for her colleagues when called before them in committee.
“The alderwoman of the 15th Ward, by not talking to us, has done some harm to herself,” Roddy said as the meeting was winding down. “Is it irreparable harm? She does not remain unscathed because we do not take more action today.”
‘Legal safeguards’
Green said that she did not appear under advice of counsel, after Vaccaro hinted at a law suit in a media report. She said her attorney advised her to testify only if served a subpoena, since that would ensure “legal safeguards” that would not be in place if she testified voluntarily before the committee.
Green has backpedaled since making her public accusations of “bribery and corruption,” using the term “legalized bribery,” but in fact bribery is a crime and a felony at that.
Green objected to a report in the EYE last week that she had accused Reed of bribery. It is true that she never stated that Reed took a bribe. However, she made her claim of “bribery and corruption” on the day the stadium financing bill was passed out of committee after a number of aldermen switched their vote in support of the bill. Even Dotson, in his letter to Reed about Green’s allegations, said she made her claims “in the context of the upcoming vote for the financing of the city’s new stadium.”
It would not take a brilliant investigative mind to link Green’s vague allegations of bribery to Reed. After all, he is board president who whipped votes in support of the stadium financing deal and was in the voting majority that passed the bill out of committee. Anyone investigating her claims would ask what, if anything, she knew about Reed. This also is in keeping with standard practice when investigating corruption. Investigators always try to work their way up to the most powerful elected official they can snare.
In other words, for all of Moore’s piety about 4th Ward children who need winter coats, this was never about an alderman accepting some coats for cold kids. If this was only potentially about Moore and coats, the media would not have bit on the story and it would never have merited the committee meeting on February 16. This explains why Reed was so enraged at Green – angry enough to sit through a shock radio host’s misogynist tirade against her without objection – and why Dotson mailed his letter saying he had “no actionable information” to Reed. If there were a genuine investigation, it would have tried to get to Reed’s office.
But clearly Green did not have enough evidence to start a genuine investigation. Just a few days after her tweet accusing unnamed colleagues of felonious acts, the St. Louis police commissioner was writing to Reed to inform him that all of the aldermen were off the hook. “Currently there are no criminal investigations underway by either this department or the FBI that I am aware of,” Dotson wrote.
Social justice and legislation
The personnel committee meeting may not have been the beginning of Watergate hearings for the Board of Aldermen, but there were some amazing moments.
Davis pointed out that Green was motivated by a passion for social justice, which led Davis to the unforgettable comment that “social justice does not belong in a legislative body.” Yes, she said that. She meant that Green was using tactics that belong in the street, not on the Board of Aldermen, but it was not the best message to send about a legislative body that stands vaguely accused of bribery and corruption.
Davis also had this to say: “You can train a dog, you can train a cat, you can train a bird, but that is impossible with humans.” Two questions. What tricks has Davis taught her cat? Those animals are difficult to train. And: Should the city stop funding the St. Louis Agency on Training if it is trying to achieve the impossible? It is, after all, humans they claim to be training.
12th Ward Alderman Larry Arnowitz revealed a very poorunderstanding of social media, where Green first made her accusations. “Social media was playing this up because they need more people to watch TV,” Arnowitz said. Memo to Larry: social media, if anything, competes with television for eyeballs. You seldom find anyone on Twitter with anything good to say about broadcast media.
Arnowitz also seemed to vouch for the spirit, if not the letter, of Green’s accusations when he said this of the wrangling over the stadium financing deal: “I felt like I was in a chess game, and I was a pawn.”
Moore testified wearing blue jeans, sneakers, a loose-fitting casual shirt and a ball cap. He said, “I dress like this ‘cause I’m a ‘hood rat.” He also said he might be incoherent because he was heavily medicated.
Moore may have joked his way through his testimony, which is not unusual for him, but he ended up in tears when he offered to take all of the aldermen on a tour of his ward, “but I guarantee you you’ll get off the bus, it’s so horrible.”
11th Ward Alderman Thomas Villa brought a literary touch to the proceedings when he wished that Green would appear and testify and “make this whole exercise in the macabre go away.”
