Categorized | Antonio D. French

20 Comments For This Post

1. Antonio D. French Says:
   December 15th, 2006 at 1:14 pm

   Who knew that elections could be suspended in America when the powerful don’t like the voter’s choices?

2. Anonymous Says:
   December 15th, 2006 at 1:38 pm

   Who knew bad education couldn’t go on indefinitely?

3. Doug Duckworth Says:
   December 15th, 2006 at 1:51 pm

   Rather than back his slate, Mayor Slay should have taken direct control over the SLPS. A strong leader could produce results which would land him in Jefferson City. Instead we have a mayor who spends his time demolishing historical buildings for parking garages, wooing the cardinals, promoting suburban development, and putting our credit at risk.

   Police Department and Schools, lets let the State take responsibility as St. Louis is unable to manage itself!
   Sounds like Theodore Roosevelt:

   Chronic wrongdoing, or an impotence which results in a general loosening of the ties of civilized society [however], may in America, as elsewhere, ultimately require intervention by some civilized nation…to the exercise of an international police power…While [our Southern neighbors] obey the primary laws of civilized society they may rest assured that they will be treated by us in a spirit of cordial and helpful sympathy…

4. Antonio D. French Says:
   December 15th, 2006 at 2:03 pm

   Anony, I hate to tell you, there are a lot of things the City of St. Louis does poorly. Should we do away with the Board of Aldermen or the mayor too?

   Make the City an unincorporated part of St. Louis County and let outsiders run the whole thing! At least we won’t have to pay the earnings tax anymore, right?

   Jesus. What have the Bush years done to our minds? It’s like “Here, gimme that democracy! You don’t know how to use it right.”

5. Anonymous Says:
   December 15th, 2006 at 2:17 pm

   “Rather than back his slate, Mayor Slay should have taken direct control over the SLPS.”

   With what? Fire engines? Building inspectors?

   The St. Louis school district — like every other school district in the state — is defined by state statute.

6. Howard Says:
   December 15th, 2006 at 2:24 pm

   Kansas City Mo also has a state controlled police department.

   It has, however, an elected school board of 3 at-large seats + 6 district seats, which would make a lot more sense for us as well.

7. Doug Duckworth Says:
   December 15th, 2006 at 2:34 pm

   We do have state legislators representing St. Louis. Its called coalition building. Change the statute! Change the special district somehow which accommodates control for the Mayor. Do an experiment or look to other cities for ideas. Our leaders should be thinking of this.

   Similar action has been done in cities like LA, NYC, Chicago, while DC is attempting this.

   For the PD: join with KC representatives for the common goal of getting local control of the Police Department. The Civil War is long over.

8. Anonymous Says:
   December 15th, 2006 at 3:15 pm

   Apparently he will have some direct control, by being able to appoint one of the 3 member panel. I’m sure he knew he would be getting another shot at controlling or partially controlling the issue.

9. Anonymous Says:
   December 15th, 2006 at 3:29 pm

   wron wrong wrong…

   The reason why school districts are seperat from any county or city government is so the can be independent.

   Look what happend when the mayor had 4 members that followed his whims?

   A 20 point drop in acretidation score, 5 superintendents and the books still don’t balance.

   What is the track record of the state being able to fix schools? None, the first school district they have taken over in decades was the Welston school district and they have no results eather.

   WE broke it WE have to fix it.

10. Anonymous Says:
    December 15th, 2006 at 3:56 pm

    “WE broke it WE have to fix it.”

    Good, you’ve got about two months.

11. Anonymous Says:
    December 15th, 2006 at 4:05 pm

    Antonio….

    A serious answer to your rhetorical question: a qualified yes! Do away with half of the Board of Aldermen. Kansas City, with a population of 442,000 and 313 square miles, gets by quite nicely with a city council of twelve–six elected at large and one each from six council districts.

    Doug: I don’t understand your position. You want to give control of the Police Department to the Mayor, but yet blame him for the School board??? Yes, the Mayor had a slate, but it was the voters who voted them in office.

12. Doug Duckworth Says:
    December 15th, 2006 at 4:24 pm

    A 20 point drop in acretidation score, 5 superintendents and the books still don’t balance.

    If Mayor Slay was nefariously controlling the school board, with these results, why is he still the Mayor? Probably because he didn’t have direct control and anger is directed to the members that he supported. If the organization chart were different then perhaps redirecting blame or using PR to claim innocence wouldn’t be so easy. Also if the Mayor came out ahead and made some great improvements then we can congratulate him. Right now his informal power of persuasion and fund raising grants him influence absent of accountability.

    I can see why a school district should be independent when multiple municipalities are within its boundaries. Yet how many other municipalities are within the SLPS? This is the City’s District and our top executive should have more accountability. This is a big incentive for success. I don’t see how this can happen with the current structure. Currently he can influence decisions without having responsibility, good or bad, for the results. That is what he is doing by asking the State to takeover.

    Regarding voters: the small turnout compounds this problem.

13. Michael Allen Says:
    December 15th, 2006 at 4:50 pm

    “You want to give control of the Police Department to the Mayor, but yet blame him for the School board??? Yes, the Mayor had a slate, but it was the voters who voted them in office.”

    There is a difference between wanting the office of mayor to have a power and wanting Francis Slay to have it.

14. Anonymous Says:
    December 15th, 2006 at 5:13 pm

    Dear Mr. French,

    Please tell me who has held the voters accountable for the terrible state of St. Louis Public Schools? For over 30 years people have been elected people to the school board that did not have the best interest of students in hearts and minds. For if they did we the school district, nor the students, would be in the shape they are in today!

    I say let’s try it this way because the other way has killed and is continuing to kill the education of our children.

15. armstrong Says:
    December 15th, 2006 at 6:14 pm

    As the first anonymous that Mr. French called out, there many things that St. Louis does poorly, but the adults are the ones most effected by them and the adults can (try) to make effective change at the ballot box. Adults can excercise their rights of free movement to make their situation better. Children are very much dependent on others to flourish.

    Others have very much let them down.

    Since the children are pretty much powerless, anyone and everyone with the power to ensure their well-being has to do so. That has not been done by, well, just about the whole society.

    Adults have the purse strings and the power, and they must make intelligent choices for the most vulnerable in our society.

    The social contract has been broken, and just because a majority of people vote to tolerate it doesn’t make it right.

    I offer no guarantees that state takeover will improve things, but continuing things with the way they are has little chance of success.

16. Anonymous Says:
    December 15th, 2006 at 6:20 pm

    but continuing things with the way they are has little chance of success.

    Actually, leaving things the way they are had way too good a chance of improving things for Mayor Slay’s comfort level.

    Leaving things the way they are would allow an election to go forward with the possibility that two more people like the very constructive Downs and Jones would have replaced Slay’s appointees, and some stability and direction could have been established.

17. Anonymous Says:
    December 15th, 2006 at 10:53 pm

    To the last Anon, do you call what has transpired over the past several months stability? O’Brien on the warpath against Borusaw. Purdy and Downs trying to stage a coup against O’Brien. Local 420 para professionals not being paid. The ever downward spiral of the number of kids coming into the school district, the increase in drop out and truancy rates.

    No, the adults have let the kids down for way to long. There needs to be a timeout to all the maddness and get our collective energies focused on two things, the education of kids and the increase in parent participation in the education of their children.

18. Anonymous Says:
    December 16th, 2006 at 12:44 am

    To the last Anon, do you call what has transpired over the past several months stability?

    My point exactly. The next election could have replaced two of the people causing most of the problems—did you not read the roll call about who voted to support the revisions in the budget which would have allowed people to be paid? Did you not read which members voted against it, and then whined that they did not know it would happen.

    The board is not one thing—-it is seven individuals, and two of the worst could be discarded by the voters—who have had that spportunity stolen from them based on how they voted last time.

19. Anonymous Says:
    December 16th, 2006 at 10:09 am

    Antonio,

    We definitely should look at getting rid of this Mayor. We should also look into reducing the number of Alderman that we currently have. We continue to say that we are out of the Civil War times and that the control of the Police Department should be given back to the City. In the same breath I would say that the City has declined in population to a size that does not warrant the current size of government.

    I think that the City has more than proved that it cannot control the Police Department properly. Plus if you give the full control back to the City how can you continue to have one of the most underpaid Police Departments around? The Police Department could actually demand and receive pay increases, whereas now the City claims the Hancock Amendment and always fails to give a fair pay increase.

    Really do you know exactly what the City does not control in the Police Department? It really boils down to the discipline of officers, however, the Mayor does have a vote and the setting of policy, which the Mayor has a vote. The City has quite of bit of control when it comes to the Police Department. The Mayor has considerable amount of say when it comes to electing a Board Commissioner, especially when the Governor is a Democrat. We don’t hear rumblings of City control to this extreme when there is a Democratic Governor and control of the State Legislature.

    You are right about one thing I don’t want to live in a dictatorship and you mention President Bush. With the power that you want to give the Mayor of St. Louis I would liken his power locally to that equal and beyond any President and I am not comfortable in that. Where is the oversight there? Where are the checks and balances there?

    The Mayor is going to give away millions of dollars so that a political backer can turn a profit out of the St. Louis Centre disaster. How can he justify this when our Comptroller says it is a bad idea and will hurt the City financially. Won’t ALL developers see this and ask this same question and want their money returned if they look like they are going to lose? He has set precedence which is on shaky ground and at my expense. I am not ready to give him full control of the Police Department or the School System. He publicly supported arguably the worst School Board in history. He also supported one of the most costly and worst decisions in Public School history by hiring an outside consulting firm. How much more control do you want to give him? Do you want to the City to go bankrupt?

20. Anonymous Says:
    December 16th, 2006 at 10:42 am

    Getting rid of Mayor is something that potential candiates considered. They also knew that if they didn’t succeed they would be “dead meat”, so waited until another day.

    Would be wonderful if someone offerred Slay a judgeship.

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