Comptroller Darlene Green developed suspicions as a Post-Dispatch reporter kept calling her office in recent weeks, asking if she planned to run for mayor.
“I had already clearly stated my intent to seek reelection as comptroller,” Green told the American on Tuesday.
“The Post seemed to be ignoring my intent with their continued questions. So, the question becomes: what, then, is their intent?”
Green came to the conclusion that the Post is working on a story about potential challengers to Mayor Francis G. Slay that will focus on a narrow field of African-American elected officials who already have substantial campaign funds, such as Green.
Green – who reconfirmed, again, her intent to seek reelection as comptroller – judged the Post to be doing the mayor’s bidding with this story.
“To come out this early and look at who would be running more than a year out – that’s to the incumbent’s advantage,” Green said.
“It might be at his urging.”
Clearly, the Post’s advocacy of Slay and his sometimes-disruptive decisions has never been stronger. On Tuesday, the Post ran a baffling editorial that read as if lifted directly from MayorSlay.com, Slay’s campaign website. It lead with the startling assertion that Fire Chief Dennis Jenkerson had made more progress in his first 100 days in office than all of his predecessors put together.
No evidence was supplied by the Post to support this assertion, which deals a collective insult to 24 fire chiefs – including, of course, Sherman George, the city’s first-ever African-American fire chief.
Slay promoted Charles Bryson, a black man, to demote George over a set of contested promotions, despite strong opposition in the African-American community. George resigned and sued for illegal job action and racial discrimination.
Slay then appointed his personal friend Jenkerson to the post of fire chief. At the time of his appointment, Jenkerson was a battalion chief. No black battalion chief in the department can remember a time when a battalion chief was eligible for promotion to fire chief. Every time the position has been open in living memory, only deputy chiefs were considered eligible.
Green has been publicly supportive of George throughout his long struggle with Slay. She said she has, in fact, been encouraged to run for mayor, but not only by voters embittered by the mayor’s handling of the fire department.
“I have received sincere requests to run for mayor, based on the need to heal the city and change course from the spin-doctoring tactics of the current administration,” Green said.
“We need to build up public trust, instead of eroding it. We need to improve race relations. We need better crime-prevention strategies and stronger public education.”
Though she won’t be the candidate to oppose Slay, she agreed there is a need for the City to change direction.
Green said, “We need a politically savvy leader who brings people together instead of dividing people.”
Comptroller campaign
Green will seek reelection as comptroller in March 2009, the same time the mayor’s office will be contested, so her reelection bid precludes any mayoral ambitions in 2009.
However, her bold criticisms of the mayor are striking, coming as they do from one citywide-elected incumbent Democrat against another. Clearly, she is banking on a stand against Slay to strengthen her reelection bid, or at least not to undermine it. Her strong stance against Slay all but guarantees she will face a challenger who is openly sympathetic to the mayor and attempts to raise funds from the same sources as Slay.
The mayor and comptroller are two of the three positions on the Board of Estimate and Apportionment. The other is held by the president of the Board of Aldermen, Lewis Reed.
Green bases her reelection campaign on her own accomplishments, rather than what she judges to be the mayor’s failures.
“I believe I have a proven track record,” Green said.
She pointed to a continued improvement of the City’s credit rating, increased funding for City services, improvement she made to the Barnes-Jewish Hospital lease extension, increased transparency and accessibility in adding City audits to her office’s website, initiation of a City-wide policy requiring all employees to use personal codes for long-distance calls, and the creation of a confidential, toll-free fraud reporting hotline.
She also has saved the City more than $78.7 million through the refinancing and refunding of outstanding bonds and other debt, issued more than $3.2 billion in bonds and other debt since 1996 to fund City operations and capital improvements, and injected millions into the City budget through timely debt refinancings.
Her work has been consistently recognized by the Government Finance Officers Association with its Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting, which she has been awarded every year since becoming comptroller in 1995.
In addition to her documented accomplishments, Green has a sizable campaign fund of more than $217,000.
As for the mayoral race, however, she thinks it is mistaken to focus (as the Post seems to be focusing) on potential candidates who already have sizable campaign funds, based upon the disaffection which Slay, which she says she has heard “from black and white, citywide, countywide, even from Kansas City.”
Green said, “Somebody else’s war chest could come right up to speed if the business community had a viable alternative to Slay.”
