A bill to allow a public vote on privatization of airport operations has stalled again.
On Thursday, December 6, the aldermanic Transportation and Commerce Committee held its fourth hearing for 20th Ward Alderwoman Cara Spencer’s bill to require a city-wide vote to approve any proposal to privatize operations of the St. Louis Lambert International Airport. However, 19th Ward Alderwoman Marlene Davis, the committee’s chairman, did not allow the committee to take a vote on the legislation, saying that any potential proposals wouldn’t come in for at least another 18 months.
“A vote on this could discourage bidders,” Davis said.
Spencer said that the proposal timeline should not matter.
“This measure will say, ‘Look, public, if we are going to move forward on a proposal, you’ll get a say,’” Spencer said.
The South City alderwoman doesn’t understand why the committee is having such a “difficult time” moving forward on a vote, she said in an interview after the hearing.
“If it doesn’t make it through this round because the chairwoman is going to continue to hold it up, one way or another we are going to get somewhere,” Spencer said.
She was referring to the St. Louis Not For Sale petition initiative, led by a citizen group, to require a public vote on airport privatization. The group has obtained more than 3,000 signatures and is on track to meet their goal of having 10,000 signatures by August, organizers said.
“We think these hearings are just theater because there doesn’t seem to be any desire by the chair to send this to a full board vote,” said Glenn Burleigh, spokesman for the petition initiative. “We are going to get our signatures. The public should expect a vote on this even if the Board of Alderman doesn’t take Board Bill 93 for a vote.”
Support of a public vote has now become a campaign issue for candidates looking towards the March 2019 primary municipal election, Burleigh said.
President of the Board of Aldermen Lewis Reed, who is up for re-election this spring, has not yet responded to The St. Louis American’s request for comment on his stance. St. Louis Comptroller Darlene Green stated on Twitter this week that she agrees there should be a public vote. However, Mayor Lyda Krewson said she does not support giving the public a chance to vote because a proposal would already have to be approved by the Board of Aldermen, Board of Estimate and Apportionment – which is made up of Krewson, Green and Reed – as well as the airlines and FAA, St. Louis Public Radio reported.
“I personally think that those four groups will do a good job of evaluating any proposal, if we get to the point where we even receive proposals,” Krewson said at an October news conference.
Leasing the airport would require a city ordinance, approved by the Board of Aldermen, or a City Charter amendment, which would require 60 percent voter approval.
However, the mayor has been criticized for supporting a proposal process filled with so many potential conflicts of interest.
Billionaire conservative Rex Sinquefield’s nonprofit Grow Missouri paid for the application into the Federal Aviation Administration’s Airport Privatization Program. Grow Missouri has also launched “Fly314,” its outreach project to gain support for privatizing Lambert. If the deal is successful, Grow Missouri will be reimbursed for the application fee and its promotion efforts.
Then-Mayor Francis G. Slay initiated the application process just weeks before he left the office and now is a lobbyist for a firm believed to be a leading contender for a privatization contract. Slay’s former chief of staff and campaign manager Jeff Rainford is also a lobbyist for one of the potential bidders.
Not only could taxpayers potentially pay Sinquefield’s nonprofit to privatize operations of the city’s single most lucrative asset, but city residents are currently paying for two lobbyists with strong Sinquefield ties to represent city residents’ interests. Since January, former state Senator Tom Dempsey (R-St. Charles) – who also works at Sinquefield’s primary political shop, Pelopidas LLC – has been registered as a lobbyist for the City of St. Louis. The city’s main lobbyist, Jeff Aboussie, also represents Great St. Louis, a Sinquefield-backed political action committee.
Aside from local conflicts, Spencer said in the December 6 hearing that the Trump Administration is in strong support of airport privatization, which “should raise red flags.” Citizen watchdogs agree.
“When Trump came in and announced his privatization plans, all these Democratic elected officials said, ‘Boo for Trump’s structural privatization plans,’” Burleigh said. “But when it came to St. Louis, they seem to be more than happy to talk. We think that’s pretty disturbing in an all-Democratic Board of Aldermen and in a city that votes resoundingly against Donald Trump.”
Leaders of the St. Louis City NAACP expressed their support of privatization – and opposition to a public vote – at a November 12 event. Experts in finance and engineering spoke about the NAACP’s plans on monitoring the proposal process to analyze the benefits and how “realistic” they are, they said.
“We need to make sure that the opportunity for something to come to the table happens,” said Adolphus Pruitt, president of the St. Louis City NAACP. “And right now I’ve been concerned that there is enough chatter that act as an impediment and keep a potential deal from coming to the table. And that is the wrong thing for St. Louis.”
