Marie Ceselski, the 7th Ward Democratic committeewoman, published a blog post advancing Tishaura O. Jones, currently St. Louis treasurer, for mayor of St. Louis. Her post included this disclaimer: “I write my own posts. I am not paid to work on any campaign. I have no family paid to work on any campaign. I am a city employee but not employed, nor have ever been employed, in the treasurer’s office, or Board of Aldermen, or any business associated with any mayoral candidate.” A lightly edited version of her post appears below.
It will probably surprise some people that I have not always been a huge fan of Tishaura Jones. I was troubled by her role in a Rex Sinquefield agenda item – school choice – when she was a state legislator.
But I also know her now and understand the desperation she felt then, like so many St. Louis city parents, about public education, and that her actions were in spite of Rex and not because of him. Not many of us are without some of Sinquefield’s agenda on our hands. I went along with him funding the statewide ballot issue for local control of police and regret that. I haven’t changed my mind about local control, I just think we should have done things differently.
I know Tishaura Jones is not Sinquefield‘s candidate in the mayor’s race. I am convinced that she, more than any other mayoral candidate, would be our fiercest defender against him and the bully consultants spending his billions.
I liked her father, former Comptroller Virvus Jones. He was a good comptroller. He used campaign money for personal purposes in violation of campaign finance laws and didn’t report it to IRS – and went to prison for it. He was a good comptroller, but a flawed man.
I bring this up because at least one other mayoral candidate or surrogate is spreading some awful rumors about the Jones family. In one rumor, Virvus Jones embezzled city funds (which he did not do), and there is an inference to apple not falling far from tree. If you believe or promote that crime is genetic, may you rot in hell.
August 7, 2012, was the election when I was first on the ballot for 7th Ward Democratic committeewoman. I had no opponent, didn’t campaign, had no organization and filed an exemption to not spend any money. I punted on the Democratic Primary choices, including the treasurer’s race in which Tishaura Jones, my then 7th Ward Committeeman Brian Wahby and Aldermen Fred Wessels and Jeffrey Boyd were competing. My alderwoman endorsed Wessels.
I was ambivalent about the treasurer’s race, other than wanting anyone but Wahby. It was my opinion that the treasurer’s office was such a big a mess under Larry Williams that no one was going to be able to clean it up.
Nearly every elected official had been propping up Williams all those years and tithing to his fundraisers while bad-mouthing him on the side. Some of this had to do with empire building. I think the plan was to let the treasurer’s office implode to generate support for making it a mayoral patronage job.
But Tishaura Jones was elected treasurer and proved me wrong. She cleaned up that mess and more. None of the other mayoral candidates who have filed has done anything like this. She is the only candidate who as actually taken a public problem, fixed it, and turned it into a public benefit. We have gotten away from the idea that small stuff matters. What seems small to a large bureaucracy can mean the world to a resident, small business or visitor. Tishaura Jones understands that fixing the small stuff is important.
When Treasurer Tishaura Jones was sworn into office, 1,600 of the city’s 7,000 employees were not using direct deposit for their paychecks. They were cashing their checks every two weeks, often paying a fee to do so. Treasurer Jones set up bank and credit union fairs for employees to pick an institution for direct deposit. A debit card option for paychecks was also made available.
As a city employee, I can tell you that this transition, requiring direct deposit, has changed the lives of many people at the low end of city salaries. I personally know city employees who were living paycheck to paycheck, and now they put a little something into a savings account every pay day.
St. Louis city was No. 1 in unbanked minority households when Treasurer Tishaura Jones came into office. She understands financial literacy is a necessary step to helping people out of poverty. She established the Office of Financial Empowerment to educate St. Louisans on checking and savings accounts, college funds, identity theft, earned income tax credits, foreclosure prevention, small business development and credit counseling.
One of the Forward Through Ferguson Report’s “Signature Priorities” is to establish financial empowerment centers. When we look at who has actually done something citywide to make Black Lives Matter, Treasurer Tishaura Jones is the candidate who stands out for bringing positive change. It’s not flashy. It didn’t put her on TV. But small things can change lives in big ways.
Another Forward Through Ferguson priority is Child and Family Development Accounts. And, again, Treasurer Jones stepped up and established a Children’s Savings Accounts program for college savings. Thousands of St. Louis City school children now have college accounts.
If you don’t have kids or your child doesn’t benefit, why does this concern you? Studies show that even a small amount of money invested in a child’s college education helps keep that child in school and increases graduation rates. Breaking the cycle of poverty, which impacts us all, requires children to stay in school.
Most recently, Tishaura Jones wrote about tenant rights, about local government, landlord associations and tenants working together. In St. Louis city, 160,000 residents are renters. We are renters. We have a great landlord, but some of our neighbors do not. Many of us have been horrified to find the owner of condemned property at 2408-2411 S 12th renting it out, over and over again. Tishaura Jones is the only candidate for mayor talking about protecting renters.
Tishaura Jones wants a fully staffed police department that includes social workers. Many problems that come to the attention of police are related to mental health. If we staff police stations with social workers, we can treat some problems, instead of criminalize them, and free up police resources for more important concerns.
Tishaura Jones wants to shut down the City Workhouse, an arcane, dangerous and expensive institution. Freeing up money to keep people out of jail is better than spending money on incarceration. I don’t hear anyone else running for mayor talking about it.
We cannot afford more of the same. We must change. Tishaura Jones brought change to the treasurer’s office, cleaned up a big mess. I trust her to do the same for the City of St. Louis.
We need someone who will look at redevelopment incentives for what they bring to the community and not merely serve as a bribe to anyone who says they will leave or won’t build without it. I trust Tishaura Jones to attract development worthy of our assistance and fix the small things that are big problems for small business.
We need transparency in city government, including replacing the city’s word salad website and lack of timely online public notice of public meetings. I trust Tishaura Jones to bring that transparency because I’ve already seen what she did in the treasurer’s office.
We need someone who will go to the mat for us fighting Rex Sinquefield here, in Jefferson City, and statewide if necessary, and I also trust Tishaura Jones to do that.
