Following a very public backstabbing by ally County Councilman Tim Fitch, County Council Chairwoman Rita Heard Days is scrambling to find support on the St. Louis County Council, especially as that support may relate to her stonewalling progress on the County’s share of municipal bonds, already committed for much-needed upgrades and repairs to the America’s Center Convention Complex. As Days has claimed, the Convention & Visitors Commission (CVC) reneged on a 2019 deal made between disgraced former County Executive Steve Stenger and the late County Councilwoman Hazel Erby to construct a recreational facility in North County. The CVC has disputed Days’ interpretation of that agreement and has placed responsibility for the lack of progress squarely on Days and the County Council.
The sponsor of a bill before the County Council has a great deal of power over when it comes to a vote, as does the chairwoman. But the most powerful person on the St. Louis County Council is the sponsor of a bill who is also the chairwoman. And because of that absolute power, Days’ Bill No. 201, 2021 – an ordinance that would fulfill the Council’s agreement to authorize bonds to provide the County’s $105 million contribution to the Convention Center project – has never been given a Council vote. Using her power as bill sponsor and chairwoman, Days has stalled the bill for months, convening conference calls and meetings to threaten both the project and the region’s future in tourism.
Privately, all but two of Days’ Council colleagues have committed to supporting the bill, making its veto-proof passage certain, but only if Days called up the bill for a vote. Thus far, Days has refused to do so at the suggestion of her advisers — including an ambitious former state senator and the transactional leader of a local civil rights group — who whisper to her that holding the bill back gives her vanity-driven leverage to leave her name on a new building to be constructed on UMSL’s campus. Eventually, suggest the advisers, County officials, her Council colleagues, and the region’s hospitality giants will cave to Days’ demands and be willing to trade a vote call-up in exchange for a new $80 million on-campus recreational facility – the funding of which is at the mercy of excess hotel taxes that have sharply decreased because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
So, what’s at stake by Days’ refusal to call up Bill No. 201, 2021 to a vote? St. Louis’ tourism industry – which includes landmark features like Forest Park and the Zoo Museum District, the Missouri Botanical Garden, and the Gateway Arch — already has taken a big hit from the pandemic, causing the region to fall further behind without the promised upgrades and repairs to the America’s Center complex and resulting in millions in lost tourism revenue. Inaction by Days to advance this bill hurts the entire St. Louis region every day and comes during a time the City, County, and Regional Convention and Sports Complex Authority are still working out the terms to divide roughly $500 million from the NFL and Stan Kroenke settlement.
The Eye calls on Days and her team to stop the intentional disruption of St. Louis’ tourism efforts, an industry that employs tens of thousands of Black workers, and to honor the legacy of Hazel Erby, whose vote originally made the convention center bonds possible, by calling up Bill No. 201, 2021, for a vote before the Council. The Eye further notes that Days’ own political future relies on the outcome of this vote, as more voters and influential political people consider Days’ most serious primary challenger, Jennings Councilman Terry Wilson.
Charter school lobbyists, public school advocates clash in state capitol
The debate around Missouri’s education system has spiraled into personal attacks, defensive responses to campaign donations, and a lot of lost focus on Missouri schoolchildren. Tensions increased after lobbying group Missouri Charter Public School Association paid charter school families a “stipend” to travel to and attend a protest in Jefferson City. In their virulent support of House Bill 1552 — which would strip $18 million from St. Louis Public Schools (SLPS) and other public schools across the state — predominantly white charter school advocates have launched a barrage of bizarre, alienating attacks against public school teachers and elected officials who support public schools.
SLPS Board of Education members Matt Davis and Alisha Sonnier appeared at the H.B. 1552 hearing in opposition, alongside St. Louis Democratic representatives LaKeySha Bosley, Kimberly-Ann Collins, and Raychel Proudie, and former school board member Susan Jones. White St. Louis-area Democratic state representatives nevertheless supported the bill to “defund” SLPS, just months after each received a $1,000 campaign donation from the Quality Schools Alliance PAC, the lobbying arm of pro-charter school nonprofit Quality Schools Coalition. Christine Kemper serves as a board member for Quality Schools Coalition.
Charter schools, which notoriously side-step laws that ensure equal access to free public education for all, rose in popularity for white families following the Brown v. Board of Education decision that desegregated public schools in the 1950s. Framed as “school choice,” the charter school movement has resulted in public funds being siphoned from public schools and reallocated to privately-owned and -managed charter schools. Charter schools boast that they follow a different set of laws, which have allowed them to racially discriminate against Black and brown students and to operate as businesses instead of a constitutionally-guaranteed public service. Until a few years ago, a local “desegregation tax” funneled money from City sales tax into charter schools, shorting SLPS by more than $42 million in much-needed revenue.
Not all charter schools are created equally, but some are certainly more up front about their intentions: for example, Kairos Academy’s 2021 – 2022 staff handbook suggests that “low-income student[s] will make it harder to get the high academic results my teacher is striving for…Disadvantaged students tend to come in below grade-level.” Being a “private” actor and therefore not subject to laws that protect students from discrimination, Kairos Academy’s own handbook seems to imply that financial factors – not the students’ best interests – dictate the school’s decisions. Despite calling themselves “public schools,” charters legally are “private” actors, subject to a separate set of laws and have shareholders and investors to appease. Jack Krewson, son of former mayor Lyda Krewson, co-founded Kairos Academy and serves as its chief strategy officer.
City court data tracking
On Feb. 16, the St. Louis City Circuit Court announced that it would begin releasing monthly data from its pre-trial criminal reports, including how many individuals were criminally charged in the City, the level of the charges, the average bond amount set, and how frequently a bond is allowed, among other things.
Notably missing from the three reports published thus far was any data on the race of persons charged or detained by the criminal legal system — a fact noted by the Freedom Community Center’s CourtWatch program. Specifically citing the lack of demographic information that would illustrate how the criminal legal system enacts violence on Black and Brown communities at higher rates than white communities, CourtWatch also noted the lack of prosecutor bond recommendation data and missing information on defendants’ mental health, presence of substance abuse, and other social factors that are considered into a judge’s decision.
“As CourtWatchers, we are encouraged by the display of transparency from a body that all too often obscures the violence it does behind complicated legal rhetoric and closed doors,” the organization said in a statement last Thursday. “We will continue to bear witness to these practices so that we might bring more light to the decisions made in our name.” CourtWatch has announced the upcoming release of its highly anticipated summary report following six months of observing the St. Louis City Circuit Court.
Meanwhile, the St. Louis Bar Foundation has been fundraising to meet a $1 million goal for the Freedom Lawsuits memorial, which will be installed outside of the City Courthouse. The memorial was originally conceived by City Circuit Court Judge David Mason, who led the court’s investigation into and archiving efforts of the Freedom Lawsuits, the hand-written petitions filed by hundreds of enslaved persons to obtain their freedom prior to the Harriet and Dred Scott “legal” decisions. The filings were found in off-site storage by accident around 20 years ago. More than 300 individual petitions for freedom were discovered. The Bar Foundation continues to accept donations for the construction of the memorial, which is set to be unveiled this Juneteenth in front of the St. Louis City Circuit Court.
