Swirling rumors have captured the EYE’s attention this week, starting with the horrid whispers that State Senator Steve Roberts, Jr., and his family have been lobbying behind the scenes for Roberts to be appointed if Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner is either removed or decides to leave her office. It’s no secret that Roberts’ mother, Dr. Eva Frazer, is a member of the un-elected committee that nominates the panel of judges in St. Louis City for Governor Mike Parson to consider for his selection. She has developed a relationship with Parson over the years and our sources say she has been working hard to place her son’s name in the running as a potential replacement.
Spencer may acknowledge some of the city’s racist history… but she doesn’t seem interested in advancing more equitable forward-thinking policies as much as she is in benefitting her benefactors.
Roberts previously worked in the Circuit Attorney’s Office until, while working as an assistant city prosecutor, he allegedly sexually assaulted a law student and eventually settled that conflict out of court. Roberts apparently was put on administrative leave, and if you believe him, he was fired by former circuit attorney Jennifer Joyce because he was considering a run for city prosecutor. If you believe everyone else in the office; however, Roberts was forced out due to inappropriate sexual misconduct toward his co-workers that made his employment there untenable. This was also prior to the charge of sexual assault of a legislative colleague, the late Cora Faith Walker, shortly after Roberts was initially elected to office.
We simply cannot imagine how a person apparently forced out of a job for repeated deplorable behavior could somehow end up back in that office – and leading it, to boot. Considering the nature of his departure from that office, we hope that Gov. Parson will consider other appointees, should Circuit Attorney Gardner decide to leave office prior to the end of her current term.
The Governor could appoint yet another unelected official to wield power over our city. There are now two announced candidates running for Circuit Attorney next year, former alderman Michael Gras joining fellow candidate and defense attorney David Mueller in the race for Circuit Attorney. Despite increasing difficulties, neither candidate’s funding, at the time this article was written, came close to Gardner’s reported $440,000 war chest.
——–
Another barely-kept political rumor — Alderwoman Cara Spencer (Ward 8) is seriously considering another run for mayor in 2025. Even before she won re-election to the Board of Aldermen in April, Spencer was publicly teasing with the idea of a citywide office and her campaign utilized a lot of regional rhetoric in her ward-level race.
Spencer hasn’t gotten over her resentment since losing to Mayor Tishaura Jones in April 2021, and has gone out of her way to attack Mayor Jones on social media and silently “liked” comments asking her to run again. Spencer has blamed Mayor Jones for getting involved in her 8th Ward race when Mayor Jones endorsed community activist Shedrick Kelley. Spencer sought to blame the administration for ward-level issues and constituent services for which the alderwoman is responsible.
But looking at Spencer’s legislative record since her 2021 loss, we see that a significant number of her sponsored board bills are largely beneficial to her campaign donors, including her recent sponsorship of a 10-year, 75% tax abatement. Since her mayoral loss, the majority of board bills Spencer has sponsored have been related to development incentives. The next-to-final bill filed last legislative session was a request for the placement of speed humps within her ward – the first bill to benefit directly her own ward (versus a developer or donor) since December 2020, when she sponsored a lead removal grant.
We can’t look past Spencer’s ongoing, glaring conflict of interest as an alderperson: her full-time employment as a senior vice president at Saint Louis Bank, where she oversees their “community development.” While we wish Spencer the best as an alderwoman for her expanded larger ward, we shudder to recall the last time she faced Mayor Jones and the ugliness that came from that race – namely, Spencer’s dog whistles and explicit racist comments.
Her campaign initially launched a racist ad targeting opponent and former aldermanic president Lewis Reed, and then she turned her attention to Mayor Jones and used her whiteness against her former ally. And that racist turn alone should disqualify her as a citywide leader in St. Louis, which is substantially Black. Throughout her campaign, we watched Spencer seek to leverage her status as a white woman against her Black opponents and she leaned heavily into hateful pandering. In this era of “anti-woke” being pushed by Republicans, Spencer should learn that she might want to temper her behavior as it will be difficult for her to sustain her past racist strategy as people do move and things change.
St. Louis deserves leadership that not only acknowledges the city’s racist past but acknowledges those truths and actively works to redress historic and ongoing wrongs. This type of leadership can and should be seen across any race or ethnicity – city officials of all backgrounds who support some level of recompense for Black St. Louisans.
Spencer may acknowledge some of the city’s racist history – hopefully including the role of her other employer – but she doesn’t seem interested in advancing more equitable forward-thinking policies as much as she is in benefitting her benefactors. Even Spencer’s behavior during the Board’s vote for needed systemic rule changes at the first meeting raises questions about whose interests Spencer primarily serves. The first rule change brought before the full board democratized power and revised the process of how committee leadership was selected, which allows new members to take leadership roles. After Resolution 1 was introduced by Alderman Shane Cohn (Ward 3) and the Board voted to pass it, Spencer asked President Megan Green if she could “recall” her previous vote of “aye,” effectively revoking her support of four new colleagues, the majority of whom are people of color.
Let us not forget Spencer’s earlier claim to KMOX that her worst fear was that St. Louis would become like East St. Louis, while wholly disregarding how the plight of our neighbor across the river came to be. Racist policies like institutional divestment and systemic neglect were implemented helping to lead East St. Louis to suffer violent, deadly race riots – in the wake of which white residents were able to move away, typically further east into Illinois or into the West and South County suburbs. Black residents with no way out were left behind to rebuild, even though a major shift in the economy and practices like redlining and blockbusting continued to decimate the community. Nevertheless, Spencer was quick to claim her mother’s East St. Louis heritage, but failed to share her reasons for her family’s move to St. Louis County.
Spencer may be lauded for her constituent services, but her racist actions obfuscate her ability to lead a substantially Black city, just as Roberts’ trail of alleged past abusive behavior disqualifies him to serve as Circuit Attorney.
Note:
The Riverfront Times wrote on Wednesday that “Kim Gardner is currently enrolled in an advanced nursing program at St. Louis University, the school’s registrar’s office has confirmed… Under Missouri law, circuit attorneys (as well as their assistants) must devote their entire time and energy to the discharge of their official duties.”
This column and the above referenced Riverfront Times article were written before Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner submitted her letter of resignation to Missouri Governor Mike Parson on Thursday, May 4, 2023.