Too little, too late – or too much, too late – is the name of the political game this season.
Take County Executive Charlie A. Dooley and the trial balloon advocating for minority business goals he floated via County Councilman Hazel Erby in this very paper last week.
Technically, it’s never “too late” to embrace policy that cuts the minority business community more equitably into the region’s growth. But it has been the right time for this push the entire time Dooley has been in office, and we have heard too little from Charlie before now. The timing in this instance, as a result, is a little suspect. Charlie is suddenly a down brother with the MBE community – after everyone else is turning on him and his administration.
That said, it’s never “too late” to push for policy that cuts the minority business community more equitably into the region’s business opportunities. Come on into the minority inclusion goals pond, Charlie. The water is fine.
Way whiter
At certain times the EYE feels The American is forced to be defensive on behalf of Dooley’s administration, whether because it’s not a fair fight in the media or because his white senior staffers are being heckled with white ethnic jokes in the daily paper.
It’s not always easy standing up for this administration. Someone who knows county government very well once told the EYE that we are missing it. He said, “I’ve been at meetings in the city, and you all beat up on Jeff Rainford, but he knows he has to at least have an answer for black politicians and black contractors. County government is way whiter than that.” Despite the fact that the elected chief executive is black.
That might be changing, now that Dooley is running scared in the wake of authentically bad news that the local mainstream seasoned with innuendo before the fact and malice after.
The water is fine.
Black solidarity (not)
Also coming a little late to the party is U.S. Rep. Wm. Lacy Clay. Clay seems to have finally taken notice of Paul McKee Jr.’s Northside redevelopment. Clay appeared before an aldermanic committee with his new BFF Mayor Francis G. Slay on Tuesday. Clay and Slay were pitching hard for McKee’s revised redevelopment agreement and TIF bid. Clay’s sudden, very public presence in the McKee deal mostly called attention to his previous absence.
It’s also remarkable that the committee in question failed to reach a quorum because of some black aldermen being absent. Alderman Sam Moore was recovering from an automobile accident, Alderman Terry Kennedy was serving as pallbearer in a funeral, and Alderman Antonio French “regrettably” was unable to attend, according to his testimony on Twitter, for unspecified reasons. (Moore has since resigned from the committee because of his injuries; aldermanic President Lewis Reed appointed Alderman Sharon Tyus to replace him, and as the EYE was going to press Tyus was dominating action at the committee meeting on Wednesday.)
McKee wanted Clay to speak up publicly for his proposal, presumably, to show “black solidarity” with his project. It was not a good sign that this “black solidarity” did not embrace even the black aldermen on the committee that is considering the deal.
The point is not that Clay is completely without stick among black elected officials. It’s more that Clay’s appearance was seen as a side show on this issue even among the elected officials who know him best.
El Dorado in the 3rd Ward
One black alderman who has suddenly hopped aboard the McKee program is Alderman Freeman Bosley Sr.
Bosley was not even on McKee’s radar until the ward redistricting after the 2010 Census tossed a much larger portion of the Northside redevelopment area into Bosley’s 3rd Ward. For Bosley, it’s as if redistricting suddenly threw the gold mines of El Dorado into his jurisdiction.
As for Bosley’s recent and sudden change of heart in favor of McKee’s project, the EYE is reminded of the sage legal counsel that an attorney once gave to a developer: “Don’t buy them off now. It’s too early. They won’t stay bought.”
Not the only dreamers
Another party who is late to the affair and making a little too much noise to make up for their tardiness is the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Yes, them again. The EYE knows. That paper takes a lot of hits here. But it’s part of a weekly newspaper’s duty to touch up the daily paper. And it’s also the policy of daily newspapers to ignore weekly papers – publicly, at least. Everyone is playing to long-established industry code here.
Anyway, the Post is now tossing gobs of confetti at McKee and telling the whole world it needs to stop what it’s doing – now – and help McKee get his deals done.
The Post didn’t really say that. What it said, in an editorial this week, is: “Mr. McKee’s project may be dreamy, but turning that dream into reality should be the No. 1 goal of every elected official in Missouri.” So it’s not everybody in the whole world, just everybody who got elected to their current job in the state of Missouri, who needs to drop what they are doing and help McKee get it done.
The EYE has shared our many flourishes of excitement on behalf of McKee’s project. Many times, the EYE has explained the facts of a TIF proposal or court ruling in this matter, when the rabble was turning – counter-factually – against McKee. So the Post’s advocacy for McKee is not strange to the EYE, just the paper’s rather stagey and belated gusto.
The EYE guesses that McKee finally broke down and drove Tony Messenger and Kevin Horrigan the wrong way onto the new bridge. That is a good view, fellas. Seems to have gotten you all a little high.
The view is fine.
Name that appointee
The EYE admits we were a little too much, a little too early on the St. Louis license collector’s appointment. We went all in for Terry Kennedy, then he changed his mind. Then we went all in for Karla May, but we hear she won’t be the one. The EYE is told that Gov. Jay Nixon will nominate a state government worker who has been appointed to a different elective office in the city before, which this person then lost in a reelection bid. Nixon owes this person a favor, we are told, since the labor muscle he shares with Clay knocked this person out of the box for a federal appointment she had been all but promised. Name that appointee!
