County Executive Charlie Dooley has shown risk-taking leadership in addressing two of the most pressing problems facing the St. Louis region: its political and racial fragmentation, which hobbles our region’s competitiveness, and its stagnating population, which erodes our tax base, workforce, innovation, entrepreneurship and capital investment.
He and his staff have worked closely with the city administration to begin the gradual consolidation of services this fragmented region needs, in the police departments and – most crucially – in economic development initiatives. If nothing changes in this region other than St. Louis city and county beginning to collaborate, rather than compete against one another, to retain and attract new businesses, that is a major step forward, and it could not have been done without Dooley. His leadership is all the more remarkable when we see craven officials running for municipal offices all over the county he leads by campaigning against this badly needed regional cooperation.
To address lagging population, Dooley has embraced the Mosaic Project more energetically than any other regional leader. This project welcomes newcomers to the region because they bring fresh ideas, energy and talent. Rarely does Dooley make public remarks when he does not find a way to pitch the message that the St. Louis region embraces immigrants for their entrepreneurial vigor. The Mosaic Project is based on a study that an uptick in immigration to a region creates more economic development with new jobs, rather than taking jobs away from the people who are already there. Since this is counter-intuitive, we expect that much of Dooley’s original African-American base in North County remains suspicious of it. Yet Dooley has been a staunch leader on this crucial issue, despite the political risk.
The city and county have only begun to cooperate meaningfully, and it’s too early to tell what impact the Mosaic Project will have on our region, but we can also point to some brash leadership on Dooley’s part that led to a clear success. In response to a critical regional need, in 2010 Dooley joined in full support of Proposition A, a half-cent tax increase to maintain Metro transit services, when the effort was a long shot (a similar tax initiative had been defeated twice in recent years). Eventually the region’s corporate and civic elite joined Dooley and others in the campaign, but Dooley led early and forcefully. His role in building coalitions in North County was essential to the passage of Prop A in the county and the continued funding of transit services in the region.
We are compelled to add that he has made these bold leadership moves as an African American who is at ease with other communities and encourages greater cooperation and integration across racial and cultural lines. He also has an unaffected personality and plain way of speaking that connects with a wider range of people in this region than, say, the technocratic and often severe style of his counterpart in the city.
Meanwhile, the county has benefitted from the 32 employers (including Monsanto, Reinsurance Group of America and Express Scripts) that brought nearly 6,000 new jobs and nearly a $1 billion in new investment to the county in 2013. Crimes in the areas patrolled by the county police have decreased by almost 60 percent since 2006 when Dooley took office. And St. Louis County has the best bond rating in the state, as rated by Moody’s, S&P and Fitch.
However, it’s possible to ignore everything good about Charlie Dooley in the wake of years of relentless, negative coverage by the Post-Dispatch, which has been echoed, in many cases, by other mainstream media outlets. We can put aside baseless charges of widespread corruption in county government – which the Post has been reporting as fact without a named source for years – after the letter to Dooley from the region’s U.S. attorney last month explicitly stated that the embezzler in the county health department acted alone. In the absence of a new documented corruption scandal, we no more should be talking about corruption in county government that talking about corruption in city government, which saw two higher-profile officials in Slay’s parks department sent to prison for fraud without the mayor facing years of defense against “swirling rumors,” as the Post irresponsibly sourced its weakest attack on Dooley.
We admit that Dooley has given his enemies fodder. The way the county has interpreted conflict-of-interest law to apply only to contractors, not to subcontractors, left his administration open to a major embarrassment over a county construction contract. But at fault was a questionable way of construing the law, not a systematic pattern of breaking the law, as news reports suggested. The Dooley administration’s handling of the county parks budget was poor public policy and absolutely dreadful politics. Some of Dooley’s attempted (and then withdrawn) appointments to controversial board positions were badly miscalculated.
Acknowledging the difficulty for African-American elected officials in particular to garner necessary financial and political support, Dooley has not been served well by his senior team. While don’t think any more highly of their counterparts in the Slay administration, we agree with the Post that Dooley’s political director, John Temporiti, should act more transparently and with less self-interest, and that Dooley’s main operations director, Gary Earls, should learn some of his boss’ skills at cooperation and inclusion. But when we compare Temporiti and Earls to, say, Jeff Rainford and Stephen Gregali in the city, then we have to conclude that Dooley is hiring from the same talent pool as Slay and doing neither better nor worse. There are many hacks in county and city government who do not deserve their leadership positions, but the fact is our politics are so toxic, at all levels, that many of the best and the brightest are not lining up to serve. That said, we urge Dooley to upgrade and diversify his senior staff.
However, we can not recommend to county voters a change in their county executive on August 5. Dooley’s opponent, Steve Stenger, an attorney from Affton, has fueled and often driven the Post’s negative coverage of Dooley as a hostile colleague on the County Council, and then based his campaign on the negative coverage he has helped to generate. We met with Stenger and were impressed with his apparent candor and forthrightness; however, he did not do the one thing he pledged to do during our meeting. He pledged to support meaningful minority inclusion legislation, and then went and backed an inclusion bill that, by virtue of a clause stipulating apprentice programs, would have kept smaller minority-owned businesses locked out of business opportunities with the county. We also see that he has flip-flopped his stance on abortion rights to appear more electable county-wide and is fishing blatantly for crossover votes from county Republicans. This does not bode well for the kind of leadership he would provide on issues of concern to our community.
The Post endorsed Stenger, but on the weakest of terms. “Mr. Stenger is a little vague on a long-term vision for St. Louis County,” the Post admitted, whereas we know that Dooley has stood for vital issues like greater regional cooperation and openness to immigrant energy and talent. The Post acknowledged that “for better or for worse” Stenger is a “lesser-known quantity,” whereas we know Dooley well, even if some may have forgotten his accomplishments, given that he has been on the defensive for years. Stenger’s “public record,” the Post noted, “is relatively thin.”Â
That is just not anywhere near enough to go on when electing a new leader. If you are looking for a better alternative to Charlie Dooley, we advise you to wait until one appears on a ballot. There is no better alternative to Dooley on the August 5 ballot. While we hope to see him upgrade his senior leadership team, learn from his mistakes and do a better job of communicating his accomplishments to the public, his political future is now largely dependent on a strong turnout of well-informed, fair-minded, forward-thinking voters. We strongly endorse CHARLIE DOOLEY FOR COUNTY EXECUTIVE.
PREVIOUSLY ENDORSED
Mavis Thompson for license collector
We would endorse Mavis Thompson for license collector in the August 5 Democratic primary even if Mayor Francis Slay had not meddled in this election. Thompson, who was appointed to the position by Gov. Jay Nixon, has demonstrated that she is an able administrator in this office. Slay endorsed the less-qualified Jeffrey Boyd against the African-American Democratic incumbent before filing even opened, making this a proxy campaign to assert his dominance in city politics. Because Thompson is a better candidate – and to prevent Slay from doing any more damage to this city’s fragile ability to cooperate – we strongly endorse MAVIS THOMPSON FOR LICENSE COLLECTOR.
Leslie T. Broadnax for county prosecutor
Leslie T. Broadnax is an experienced, intelligent, capable and dedicated attorney who deserves her chance to improve a public office that has tremendous impact on our community. The incumbent, Bob McCulloch, has had nothing to offer our community and has used his elected office as a bully pulpit to campaign against County Executive Charlie Dooley. We strongly endorse LESLIE T. BROADNAX FOR ST. LOUIS COUNTY PROSECUTOR.
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No on Amendment 7
Amendment 7 would authorize a Âľ cent increase in both sales and use taxes to pay for improvements to the state’s transportation system. The heaviest burden for paying this sales tax will fall on families, particularly those with low incomes, while those who profit, like the trucking industry, construction contractors, will pay virtually nothing. We strongly endorse a vote of NO on Amendment 7. Â
The American also endorses
JAKE ZIMMERMAN FOR COUNTY ASSESSOR
KIMBERLY M. GARDNER FOR STATE REPRESENTATIVE, DISTRICT 77
NO ON AMENDMENT 1
NO ON AMENDMENT 5
NO ON AMENDMENT 8
