I am really disappointed in the most recent editorial in The American. The statement that the underlying problem with the events and problems outlined in the DOJ report is the “proliferation of all these municipalities” is shameful. St. Louis County has 90 munis, and most of us are running our munis for the good of the residents who live, vote and pay taxes in them.
Most of the 24 munis that make up the Normandy School District, most of which are headed by African Americans, have worked tirelessly together for years on everything from joint contracts for street paving, cooperative efforts on solid waste collection contracts with haulers, to fleet maintenance and purchases. These efforts have saved our taxpayers $500,000 in the last four years.
Claims that we are inefficient and that services are duplicated are simply not true. My City of Greendale delivers all of its services for a mere $650 per year per person. You cannot show me a large city that does what we do in Greendale – and quite well – for that amount. Who is inefficient?
The number of munis is not why so many STL-area African Americans are not well-educated. That is the fault of a racist and backwards State of Missouri and its decisions to underfund school districts and keep shoving the same ineffective methods down our throats.
The high unemployment rate here has nothing to do with the number of munis in St. Louis County, but rather the failure of businesses successfully increasing their profits to hire and pay workers what they are worth, and the lack of a cohesive plan for economic growth in this region.
The Denver area has a similar “proliferation” of munis, but they work together to attract and locate new businesses for the good of the whole region. We should do the same here, and we don’t have to kill the munis to do it. It takes strong and effective leadership at the county and state level to pull together every aspect of the economy to work together.
Regarding police departments, DOJ’s report pointed out some very serious and horrible practices and policies. Any police department that does what the report found needs to be harshly dealt with or dismantled – period. But every police department in St. Louis County is not guilty of such disgraceful acts.
Greendale contracts with Normandy Police Department, and our residents are very pleased with the service we get. Many other cities’ residents will tell you the same thing about their police. Painting all of us with the brush of the few that do not do the right thing is wrong.
I don’t expect The American to jump on the bandwagon like this without finding out the facts from those of us charged with running these cities. Those advocating the elimination of county munis in favor of us all becoming part of unincorporated St. Louis County better think again.
The county does not deliver municipal services in the unincorporated areas it has today, including residential street snow and ice removal, building and home code enforcement, occupancy inspections to keep the housing stock of good quality, and much more. Our residents would get way less in terms of services that we currently enjoy, and we do not intend to allow that to happen.
Folks making such sweeping negative statements need to talk to those of us in these cities to find out the real facts. I am not talking what I think. I am talking what I know.
Monica M. Huddleston is the mayor of Greendale, with a population of 654.
