The botched effort to recall 22nd Ward Alderman Jeffrey Boyd has become
a never-ending soap opera of political blundering. The amount of energy
that both sides in this fight have exerted to see who will wear the
crown of king or queen of the ward with arguably the most vacant lots
of any ward in the city shows clearly just how badly politics in the
city of St. Louis has degenerated.
According to Ed Martin, chairman of the Board of Election
Commissioners, the forces who want to recall Boyd (former Alderman
Kenneth Jones and Democratic Committeepersons Jay Ozier and Faye Davis)
have turned in so many bogus petitions that the Election Board has
decided to not certify any of their petitions. Whether Martin’s
decision is legally sound is debatable; even after disqualifying the
alleged fraudulent signatures, the petitions contained enough valid
signatures for a successful recall. Martin could make the more
persuasive argument that the board’s decision to not certify the recall
is based upon the failure of recall organizers to pass the stupid test.
It is hard to fathom. The notary used for the first batch of petitions
didn’t sign the documents, but only stamped them. And two people listed
as signers of petitions were discovered to be dead. Yet the organizers
still continued to turn in petitions signed by dead people, plus
petitions that looked like one person had signed for other voters. With
what looks like an obvious case of fraud, Martin and the Election
Commission had no choice but to toss out the petitions.
The EYE has heard the argument from recall organizers that the city of
St. Louis Charter requires only that a valid number of signatures be
certified for a recall election to be established. The issue of
legality will have to be determined in a courtroom; the issue of
stupidity seems already to have been made manifest.
In reality, the EYE believes that the recall problem in the wards is a
Trojan Horse. The real problem is the bloated 28-member Board of
Aldermen. Members of the St. Louis Board of Aldermen who posture and
primp about the proliferation of recalls should have supported the
needed reform provided in the charter amendments, reducing the Board of
Aldermen to a smaller number, which would have raised the threshold
number of voters needed to trigger a recall to a more significant
level. Instead, the board voted to put a charter amendment on the
ballot to reduce the amount of time allowed to collect petitions to six
months. This is another example of narrow, self-serving band aid
politics that ignores the public’s interest and hampers the city’s
efforts to foster needed economic growth and improved services.
By the way, don’t be fooled by a clever leaflet the recall organizers
are handing out. It pulls a quote from this column – the headline “Slay
dirties his hands in 22nd Ward scuffle” – and then runs some verbiage
in support of the recall effort, quoting Kenny Jones, as if all of the
text is quoted from the American. It’s not. That’s all them. We don’t
have a dog in this fight. We don’t support or oppose the recall effort.
