On Monday President Barack Obama accused Republican governors who resisted his stimulus package with placing politics over the wellbeing of the people who live in their states.
Mayoral candidate Irene J. Smith makes the same accusation against incumbent Mayor Francis G. Slay, who turned down an offer to meet personally with Obama and Vice President Joe Biden Friday at the White House so that he could remain in St. Louis to attend a campaign fundraiser and a party.
According to Darwin Hindman, mayor of Columbia, Missouri and an advisory board member for the U.S. Conference of Mayors, Slay is a member of the conference and was invited to the private meeting with President Obama at the White House on Friday.
Instead, on Thursday night Slay was in St. Louis, attending a poorly attended event at a Downtown nightclub thrown for him by former state Rep. Betty Thompson.
On Friday night, Slay hosted his annual Mayor’s Ball in St. Louis City Hall, a Mardi Gras-themed gala.
In between those two parties, both thinly disguised campaign events, Slay missed a private meeting at the White House, during which Obama and Biden advised a group of U.S. mayors on how to prepare their cities to benefit from the stimulus package.
“It was more important for Slay to let people rub elbows with him than to rub elbows with the president for our benefit,” said Irene J. Smith, who opposes Slay in the March 3 Democratic primary.
“It is truly reprehensible for Slay to find it more important to attend a fundraiser and a party rather than to go to the White House and meet directly with the president and the vice president to learn how the stimulus package will affect this city.”
Mayor Hindman of Columbia did attend the meeting with Obama in a group of 80 mayors, including the mayors of Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Boston, Milwaukee and Little Rock.
“We met with a panel of five cabinet members, and then the president and vice president came in and both spoke,” Hindman told the American.
“We were allowed to ask questions. It was a great experience. We learned a lot from the administration’s point of view respecting the recovery act, who we should contact and how our cities might fare.”
Slay spokesman Ed Rhode did not respond to a request for comment as to why Slay attended two parties in St. Louis rather than a private meeting at the White House with the president.
Rex: ‘Resign’
According to public records, Slay has attended two other U.S. Conference of Mayors events within the past year, June 20-23, 2008 in Miami and Jan 16.-19, 2009 in Washington – a trip that enabled him to miss the St. Louis celebration of the Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday.
Slay submitted expenses for those two trips totaling a little more than $3,400.
A clerk for the City of Columbia said that Mayor Hindman – who is not paid a dime to serve as volunteer mayor – had not yet submitted expenses for his trip to Washington on Friday and “sometimes he doesn’t submit any expenses.”
Slay’s salary is $121,620 plus a $30,000 annual expense account.
Smith wondered if Slay snubbed Obama, in part, out of respect to his largest campaign contributor, the Republican private school advocate Rex Sinquefield.
Smith pointed that in the current (Black History Month) issue of St. Louis Magazine, Sinquefield is asked if he has any advice for President Obama.
Sinquefield responds, “Resign.”
Slay endorsed Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary, and his home 23rd Ward on the South Side voted for John McCain in significantly larger numbers than the rest of the city.
Rhode has told the American that Slay voted for Obama. Slay is running for reelection as a Democrat.
In snubbing Obama on Friday, Slay also passed on a personal meeting with Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. Like Obama, Holder is the first African American to hold his position.
Tomorrow night (Feb. 26), the Mound City Bar Association – the oldest African-American bar association west of the Mississippi – is hosting a mayoral debate to which Slay was invited. The president of Mound City, Robert Kenney, is chief of staff for Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster.
Slay was the only invited mayoral candidate to decline the invitation. Rhode declined an invitation to explain why Slay would not attend the debate.
The other cabinet members Slay missed out on meeting with regarding the stimulus package are Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, Energy Secretary Dr. Steven Chu and Education Secretary Arne Duncan.
Slay’s peers also met with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson, U.S. Department of Energy Weatherization Program Director Gil Sperling, and U.S. Department of Justice COPS Office Acting Director Tim Quinn while Slay was partying in St. Louis.
“I thought it was useful to be there, and I thought I got a lot out of it,” Columbia Mayor Hindman told the American.
“They are getting ready to do the rules for administering the stimulus funds. The secretary was taking down our questions and concerns and will take them back and have them when they are figuring out the rules.”
Homeless for Slay
While his counterpart mayors from cities ranging from Anchorage to Bowling Green to Seattle to Des Moines to Pittsburgh to Honolulu were settling into Washington, D.C. on Thursday night to prepare for the morning meeting at the White House, Slay was attending a so-called “Black History” fundraiser thrown for him at a Washington Avenue nightclub.
“Arriving guests were greeted by a squad of Irene Smith supporters holding red campaign signs for Irene J. Smith for mayor,” reported Nick Clement of St. Louis Schools Watch.
“Attendees were further startled by a bright yellow banner which read, ‘Welcome! The Republican Party Thanks You for Your Support.’”
Clement reported that “about 50 people” attended the event.
“Slay’s campaign staff were evidently irritated enough by the Irene supporters outside to hire a passing group of African-American homeless men to carry ‘Slay for Mayor’ signs in front of the nightclub,” Clement reported.
“The Slay staffer told them, ‘We’ll take care of you inside.’ After carrying Slay signs for about 10 minutes, the group went inside and reappeared about 10 minutes later. One bystander noted that last year Slay was driving homeless people off the streets and Downtown city parks. Tonight he needed them to carry his campaign signs.”
“He stays in St. Louis for a campaign fundraiser and a party rather than going to the White House to discuss the stimulus package with the president – and he already has $2 million in his campaign fund,” Smith said.
“This epitomizes the fact that Slay is more concerned with his own well being than with the city of St. Louis.”
– Daasha Jones contributed reporting to this story.
