Guest Columnist Jamala Rogers
The finger-pointing has reached frenzied proportions in the Metro debacle. Formerly called the Bi State Development Agency, Metro began looking around for some fall guys when the Shrewsbury Metrolink extension was almost a year and a half late and $126 million over budget.
Kwame Building Group Inc, a part of the Cross County Collaborative (CCC), had the most to lose as the minority firm in the legal assassination waged by Metro. Being fired in a major construction venture as the Metrolink extension has already had negative consequences for the firm. Tony Thompson, founder and CEO, told the St. Louis American that he had to lay off almost half of his employees since Metro filed suit against them three years ago.
CCC says it incurred nearly $30 million in legal fees in defending themselves. Metro won’t reveal its legal costs. Both sides hired big legal guns to represent them.
CCC was vindicated in St. Louis County’s longest civil trial in history. The jury found that CCC was not guilty of a breach of contract, fraud and negligence as claimed in Metro’s suit. Instead, it awarded the group $2.56 million towards its unpaid work before it was abruptly fired.
Since the ruling, Metro CEO Larry Salci and its head attorney M. Celeste Vossmeyer have been given the boot. Metro’s Board of Commissioners is under attack for its lack of supervision. And in typical fashion, Mayor Francis G. Slay claims Metro didn’t listen to him when he tried to give them his good advice. One of Slay’s recommended commissioners is none other than former mayor Vince Schoemehl, also known for his destruction of the St. Louis schools while representing the mayor on the school board.
Salci has been under fire from almost the beginning of his tenure for the lack of inclusion of minorities on Metro projects. He didn’t help his case when he referred to Fox 2’s Elliot Davis as a “clown” in a You Paid for It segment. The words came across as incredibly racist, but some think the label was also meant for people like Tom Sullivan, Eric Vickers and Rep. Jamilah Nasheed, who have relentlessly leaned on Salci for fiduciary accountability to taxpayers and for equitable inclusion in construction as well as ridership.
Under Salci’s leadership, Metro incurred a $19 million deficit, has not contributed its $11 million portion to pension funds this year and payment on its bonds is overdue. Salci unsuccessful lobbied the Missouri Legislature earlier this year for $20 million to bail out the agency. That’s a troublesome performance review by any standard, yet his contract was renewed this July. He walks away from the mess he made with a cool $250,000 severance package.
Financial disaster for taxpayers will result in a political payback come February 5, 2008 when voters will express their no-confidence vote at the ballot box. Metro is seeking a transit sales tax that would generate about $80 million over a 20 year period.
County voters turned down the tax in 1997 when things at the agency weren’t nearly as disastrous. I’m sure when they go to the polls in February, voters won’t be clowning around.