Voters across St. Louis County and city made their voices heard on Tuesday, ushering in a wave of transformative laws and charter amendments for the region.
Most notably was voters’ overwhelming support for Proposition R in the city, which garnered 69% of supportive votes. Prop R installs a code of ethics for the Board of Aldermen – long overdue — and requires that alderpersons disclose any potential conflict of interest prior to taking an action, like sponsoring a bill or voting on it. This means, for instance, that Alderman Jeffrey Boyd (Ward 22) would have been required to publicly disclose his conflict of interest involving a $40,000 federal grant that he received through SLDC’s Neighborhood Commercial District Improvement Program, in part due to his position as an alderman serving as chair of the Neighborhood Development Committee.
With so many ethical reforms passed this week, one thing is for certain: St. Louis’ old guard should pay close attention to what voters want, instead of telling them what they need.
Unsurprisingly, Boyd and his allies were among the most vocal opponents to the passage of Prop R. Opposition efforts were lead and primarily funded by the St. Louis city Republicans, although President Lewis Reed and Alderpersons Brandon Bosley (Ward 3), Carol Howard (Ward 14), Tom Oldenberg (Ward 16), Marlene Davis (Ward 19), John Collins-Muhammad (Ward 21), Joe Vaccaro (Ward 23), and Pamela Boyd (Ward 27), all jumped in to fight against Prop R’s passage. Interestingly, the city’s Democratic Central Committee found itself aligned with city Republicans in opposition to Prop R, although it’s worth noting that the DCC also opposed 2020’s Prop D, which reformed the city’s electoral system and brought us approval voting.
Prop R also requires that each alderperson make their financial disclosure statements available to the public and explicitly prohibits the Board of Aldermen from undoing voter-enacted laws (such as Prop D). Finally, Prop R establishes an independent commission to redraw ward lines, although this piece of the new law will not take effect for another decade since a new ward map was just redrawn in December.
Although opponents of Prop R loudly decried the 10% voter turnout across the city, they showed little effort to register voters, to educate voters on the ballot issues, or to inform voters of the now-past April 5 Election Day. Instead, they engaged in a fear-mongering campaign with non-specific “threats” to voters, that the proposition would “end critical checks and balances” for aldermen or that an “inequitable process that limits African-American & Minority judges” from participating in redistricting — all which were misrepresentations of what the law actually said. But this is a new political era in St. Louis, where misleading voters and pushing narratives of fear no longer work.
With its overwhelming support, Prop R is the first citizen-initiated petition to pass in the city to amend the charter in nearly 70 years. The last proposition introduced by citizens to pass was in 1941 and established the Civil Service Commission.
Conversely, Proposition 1 passed with 84% of the vote and with little controversy. It was endorsed by nearly every city elected official. Prop 1 allows the city to issue and allocate up to $50 million in municipal bonds (read: no additional taxes!) for fixing potholes, repairing crumbling bridges, upgrading city parks and recreational centers, and improving accessibility.
In St. Louis County, voter turnout fared slightly better, with 19.1% of total registered voters casting their ballots. County residents resoundingly rejected efforts to add a county-wide sales tax for online purchases (Prop C) and to lease part of Queeny Park to a charter school (Prop D). More concerning, however, were the number of voters who fell victim to another misleading campaign involving the County Executive and whether the person holding that office can hold a second job. Although current County Executive Sam Page has not found himself in any actual conflict or danger between his elected role and the one weekend per month that he works as an anesthesiologist, the narrative still is pushed predominantly by police lobbyist Jane Dueker, the cacophonous small fry challenging Page in the August primary.
Finally, and perhaps long overdue was the passage of Prop A, which requires the County Executive’s Office to disclose the salaries of politically-appointed persons who work within that office. This means, for example, that any work that Dueker did for her old boss, former County Executive and now-convicted white collar criminal Steve Stenger, would have had to be disclosed under the new law.
With so many ethical reforms passed this week, one thing is for certain: St. Louis’ old guard should pay close attention to what voters want, instead of telling them what they need.