Here is a welcome surprise: as Ald. Kacie Starr Triplett gets some seasoning, now joined by the plucky rookie Ald. Antonio D. French, and they and the old guard in the African-American Aldermanic Caucus learn to work with aldermanic President Lewis Reed to their benefit, suddenly the aldermanic water carriers for Mayor Francis G. Slay have to watch their step. And, sometimes, they slip. Sometimes, they lose.
The next legislative session, which begins in mid-April, is where the rubber will really hit the road, as the aldermen attempt to weigh in on $45 million in cuts and reductions to City services. But a fight at the close of the most recent session was promising, as the black caucus successfully sent a message to Slay (and a water boy and girl of the mayor) that they do not take too kindly to being disrespected. There is a new energy, a new fight, and the caucus seems determined to prevent the mayor or his lackeys from trampling over the interests of the people they represent. The entire city benefits, in the long run, when the city’s black majority is represented effectively.
The 2009-2010 legislative session for the Board of Aldermen ended on Friday, March 12. During the weeks leading up to the end of any session, there is always a flurry of activity, with aldermen rushing to get their pet bills passed so they won’t die with the end of session. This year the mayor had several pieces of legislation he was working to get passed, including Board Bill 80, which would amend the residency requirement for City employees. If passed, BB 80 would allow voters to decide in November whether or not they wanted to allow City employees who have worked for the City for at least seven years to live outside the city. If 60 percent of voters voted in support, the City Charter would be amended to make this allowance.
The Mayor’s Office argued that by putting this issue to city voters, the state Legislature would be less likely to push similar legislation. It is City firefighters, by the way, who are really pushing for the lift in the residency requirement; and Slay is feeling the heat to shore up some of his red meat white male base now that the police have figured out he is for real, this time, in pushing for local control of the police department, which the cops adamantly oppose.
Many black caucus members felt lifting the residency requirement would be bad for the City – especially when facing a $45 million budget deficit. Employees moving out of the city means less property taxes, and fewer people living in the city means less patronage of city businesses and restaurants. Finally, the caucus believes City staff should reflect the citizens paying for their salaries.
‘Learn the rules’
So what happened?
On Friday, BB 80 was brought to the floor for discussion by its principal sponsor, Alderman Stephen Gregali, a veteran proxy for Mayor Slay and his chief of staff Jeff Rainford. During his floor speech, Gregali hit all the mayor’s talking points, “if we don’t do this, then the state Legislature will make the rules for us,” blah blah blah.
Ald. Charles “Quincy” Troupe did a good job of battling Gregali, informing him that the tactic of legislating out of fear is foolish – that it’s stupid to create a law out of fear of what another governmental body might do.
Then some strange procedural things started to happen. In an effort to get his needed 15 votes, Gregali and his ally Ald. Jennifer Florida started working on newbie Ald. Shane Cohn, the effective swing vote. Cohn wanted an amendment that would restrict City employees to living within 15 miles of the city limits. With Cohn’s commitment to support BB 80 in the pocket, Gregali took his bill off the Informal Calendar, allowing for all members to discuss Cohn’s amendment.
By removing his bill from the Informal Calendar – a parking lot for bills that don’t have enough votes to pass – Gregali made his fatal slip-up. Earlier in the day, Gregali taunted a colleague to “learn the rules.” He should have followed his own advice, because by not paying attention and losing sight of the rules Gregali lost control of the floor, and this is how the black caucus got the edge.
French took the floor and made a motion that BB 80 be sent back to the Public Employees Committee. The motion was seconded, a vote was taken and it was back to committee for BB80 – with all black caucus members voting in support of the bill being sent back to committee, including Reed, plus two white aldermen who show relative independence, Ald. Craig Schmid and Ald. Joe Roddy.
At this point Gregali kicked into circus sideshow mode, his arms flailing while he screamed that he had control of the floor and that the motion made by French was out of order. Again, he was incorrect (again, he needed to “learn the rules”), and with the leadership of Reed, Gregali was shut down.
Note that it’s quite uncommon for a bill to be sent back to committee – especially a bill this high profile that was supported so strongly by the mayor, who was calling aldermen all week, pressuring them to support it. Having a bill sent to committee is essentially a swift kick in the butt of the bill’s sponsor. It is considered rude, insensitive and confrontational to make a motion to send a bill back to committee.
Gregali was, in part, getting a taste of payback here. A week prior, when Triplett’s vacant building legislation was on the floor for debate, both Gregali and Florida threw everything they had at it. Gregali even made a motion to send the bill back to committee, and many aldermen (both white and black) were shocked that he did. Unfortunately for Gregali, he hadn’t “learned the rules.” He made the motion at the incorrect time, when he didn’t have the floor. Also, none of his colleagues supported the bill being sent back to committee. Hence, the bill passed the first round of debate and was ultimately passed this past Friday.
Revenge, of course, begets revenge. After Gregali’s bill was sent back to committee (essentially killing it), he, Florida and the other core Slay proxy Ald. Stephen Conway made another attempt to kill Triplett’s vacant building bill. In full jerk mode, Gregali pulled the bill (BB 322) off the consent calendar and put it in a section where you have to debate it and vote on it individually. Again, he, Florida, and Conway used this as an opportunity to poke holes in the bill. They failed (again), and the bill was finally passed with full caucus support, including Reed, plus Schmid, Roddy and Ald. Lyda Krewson. The week prior, they had worked to kill the bill by offering amendments (that were all shut down) and trying to find holes they could in the legislation (they couldn’t find any). When they realized they didn’t have enough votes to kill the bill, they left the meeting early before the vote. If I can’t win, I won’t play!
Robin no-show
You may have heard that President Barack Obama was in town last week, in part, to raise funds for Democrats running for the U.S. Senate. You may have heard that there is a Senate seat coming open this year, being vacated by U.S. Sen. Kit Bond.
You may have heard that a Democrat is running to replace him, Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan (the largest statewide vote-getter in the most recent statewide election). You may have expected her to be there, basking in the president’s glow. Not so.
Carnahan’s camp said there was a scheduling conflict, but it sure looks like a calculated campaign decision to keep some distance from Obama and his association with incumbent Washington politics.
Notwithstanding Missouri’s purple state status, there is no way for a Democratic candidate to win without some enthusiasm for the candidate in the African-American community.
The election is more than seven months away, and this is no time to start taking chances on drifting too far away from the most reliable voting bloc for Democratic candidates in Missouri.
Robin needs to come up with a balancing act between running as a Washington outsider and embracing the person who still remains, by many miles, the most popular, transcendent political figure for African Americans: Barack Obama.