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DEF is a non-partisan, independent political blog based in the
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Calloway Jumps Into Mayoral Recall Fight -- Against the Recallers
By Antonio D. French
Filed
Wednesday, November 14, 2007 at 8:09 AM
Last week St. Louis County state representative candidate Don Calloway, Jr. penned a letter to the St. Louis American questioning the strategy of those involved in the effort to recall St. Louis City Mayor Francis Slay. Calloway, an attorney at the firm Thompson Coburn (as of July, Calloway is now with the firm Lathrop & Gage) and a political newbie, is running in the district currently represented by Ester Haywood, who is term-limited.
Whatever justification there may be for the criticism [against Slay], the current recall effort is possibly the most horrendous thing the anti-Slay contingent could have come up with ...
... A recall, similar to any other election, is a battle of campaign finance. The pro-Slay contingent will be raising lots of cash to combat the recall. The pro-recall committee doesn’t have the support of an established political base to give enough money to make the recall effort viable. Furthermore, political donations are public record. This will force otherwise-closeted supporters who could give big money to support a recall into the open, which many are not willing to risk.
The Slay for Mayor October 2007 quarterly report shows $318,000 on hand, every penny of which can be lawfully used to battle a recall. Strategically, the pro-recall committee has helped Slay, by giving him a golden opportunity to raise money that will eventually go to his 2009 reelection effort...
Most importantly, the pro-recall effort will weaken the moral authority and political viability of our most important advocacy group: the St. Louis Clergy Coalition.
Contrary to mainstream media reports, the recall is NOT a Clergy Coalition thing, it is a Rev. Douglas Parham thing. As president of the coalition, Parham had to have known that taking a stand as the face of the recall would paint the entire coalition as being in support. This is not the case. At the Oct. 21 recall rally, coalition members in support included Parham and the Rev. James T. Morris, who as a candidate for the state House can take political stances. Where were the Revs. Sammy Jones, Earl Nance Jr. or E.G. Shields? The recall is not a Clergy Coalition endeavor.
Calloway's letter fails to mention that Rev. Shields is his campaign treasurer.
In response, local activist Eric Vickers, who is one of the organizers of the recall effort, wrote an open letter to Calloway defending the strategy and attacking the young candidate for his old thinking.
[Calloway's] claim that the recall is infeasible because it "doesn’t have the support of an established political base," is indicative of the racial paradox that has stymied the collective progress by blacks in this city. That paradox, simply put, is the difference between talk and action, the difference between black leaders being captive or being free.
Too many of this city’s black leaders (and blacks in positions like Calloway) live in a benign state of captivity in which they dare not confront the powers that crush beloved black men like Sherman George. They are as afraid today to face and fight a mayor as Frederick Douglas was initially with his slave master. They say it is a difference of means and methods and approaches, but in the end it is fear.
In the end, they are leaders who, as Douglas poetically put it, "profess to favor freedom and deprecate agitation," but "want crops without plowing up the ground…rain without thunder and lightning."
In the end, they will realize that Douglas is right about Mayor Slay: "power concedes nothing without a demand."
Click here to read Calloway's full letter. Click here to read Vickers' full response.
We're a little late posting this video, shot Saturday outside the America's Convention Center in downtown St. Louis.
Members of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the Brotherhood of Union Support Staff (BUSS) picketed outside the convention center, where the Missouri Progressive Vote Coalition (Pro-Vote) was holding its 12th Annual Progressive Awards Dinner.
SEIU has filed a formal complaint against Pro-Vote with the National Labor Relations Board charging the organization with "union-busting" and "constructively firing" workers who tried to organize.
According to union members, the United Auto Workers, which was scheduled to receive an award from Pro-Vote for "Outstanding Labor Union" refused to cross the SEIU/BUSS picket line and boycotted the awards dinner.
There is a growing rift between two of the more active organizations in Missouri Democratic politics.
The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is charging the liberal political action group Missouri Pro-Vote with "union-busting." Meanwhile, Pro-Vote says SEIU Local 2000 and the Brotherhood of Union Support (BUSS) are using intimidation and harassment to force its five St. Louis employees to join the union.
SEIU has filed a formal complaint with the National Labor Relations Board. Pro-Vote has responded by kicking SEIU off its steering committee.
On Wednesday we filed a formal counter-notification with YouTube in response to our account being suspended and our more than 500 videos being taken off-line. The suspension came just hours after KSDK Channel 5 filed two complaints with YouTube alleging that we violated their copyrights by using clips of their broadcast in our piece criticizing their coverage.
We believe our usage of KSDK's video falls under the "Fair Use" provision in copyright law. From the Stanford University Libraries:
Fair use is a copyright principle based on the belief that the public is entitled to freely use portions of copyrighted materials for purposes of commentary and criticism. For example, if you wish to criticize a novelist, you should have the freedom to quote a portion of the novelist's work without asking permission. Absent this freedom, copyright owners could stifle any negative comments about their work.
Speaking at a meeting hosted by Alderman Charles Quincy Troupe Wednesday in north St. Louis, freshman alderman Marlene Davis fired off at legislators that voted in favor of the Distressed Areas Land Assemblage Tax Credit (three of the four northside state reps and both state senators supported it).
She also weighed in on Fire Chief Sherman George's situation. She said voters should hold Mayor Francis Slay accountable in 2009.
Davis joined Troupe in spreading some incorrect information about the Land Assemblage Tax Credit that caused fear in the minds of many poor homeowners in the audience.
She said the legislation was filled with "jargon" that "doesn't mean a whole lot other than [developer Paul McKee] can have what he wants and you don't have no say so."
That is false.
The words which Davis disregarded as "jargon" say that the tax credit can only be awarded after the Board of Aldermen has passed an ordinance approving the redevelopment plan. That process, like with any other bill, means public meetings and hearings.
Any "giving private land or property to a developer" has to be initiated and approved by the Board of Aldermen. This piece of legislation has nothing to do with that process.
Any properties taken by eminent domain, condemnation, or acquired from the LRA are not eligible for this tax credit. Such properties may be part of the total redevelopment, but only if the ordinance passed by the Board of Aldermen says so.
I am not aware of any instance in the history of the Board of Aldermen (and please, if someone knows otherwise, do let me know) when a property was taken by eminent domain without the support of the alderman in whose ward that property was located.
Most of the Blairmont property is located in the 5th Ward where Alderman April Ford-Griffin has said repeatedly that she will not support — and in fact, fight — anyone's property being taken by eminent domain for this project. One can only assume that Davis, in whose ward McKee also owns property, has a similar position.
There is too much on record that developer Paul McKee and the City of St. Louis have done wrong since the inception of this project that there is no need for people to start making things up. It damages the credibility of the valid arguments of people who are serious about making sure this project benefits the people who live there today and it's irresponsible because it uses lies to scare the shit out of people.
While these people keep spinning the events of two weeks ago they are missing the fight which is going on right now.
Details, details. We've said it before and we will keep saying it. The difference between if this thing turns out to be good for St. Louis or very bad for the people who live in the Blairmont area will be in the details.
All the little details not expressly stated in the legislation — you know, all that "jargon" — is being worked out right now by bureaucrats at the Missouri Department of Economic Development in the form of rules. These rules will further lay the groundwork for what can and cannot be done with this money.
Please, no more public meetings and press conferences on old stuff. Three in one week is quite enough.
Will the legislators who are unafraid of big words and legal phrases please get back to the table. This thing is not over. Look for more videos from Wednesday's meeting later.
UPDATE: And if you haven't read the final version of the legislation, here's a link (see pages 13-18).
And if you'd rather watch someone explain it to you (I know you spoiled PubDef readers like the video stuff), here is a very informative 10-minute video of Sally Hemingway from the Department of Economic Development discussing the tax credit in detail.
Mayor Francis Slay and his public safety director, Sam Simon, have issued another — much stronger — ultimatum to Fire Chief Sherman George: promote by next Friday or face disciplinary action. Click here to read Simon's letter (via KSDK).
Members of the elected school board dropped a stack of homework on Superintendent Diana Bourisaw's desk last night.
The Board added to next week's agenda requests for 20 different reports and information requests from Bourisaw and her staff. But all the other requests really could have been rolled up into the one from former Board President Veronica O'Brien: a letter from Bourisaw saying who she thinks she works for — the elected board that hired her or the newly appointed board that is in charge of the district now?
Requests from the board members present:
From David Jackson: an executive summary on district's procedures for dealing with staff abuse of students.
From Veronica O'Brien: a letter stating who Bourisaw thinks she works for and a request for what exactly "academic leave" is and is the superintendent paid while she is on it.
From Donna Jones: an update on the RFP for the district's food service contract, a report on the supplies the district currently has, and the status of a proposed back-to-school fair.
From Kate Wessling: a report on how the administration plans to handle excessive heat in un-airconditioned classrooms.
From Bill Purdy:
the identities of the 30 employees who were laid off last week, the rationale for doing so, and any plans for new layoffs;
detailed report on the employee early retirement plan;
update on repairs to Metro High;
status on air conditioning projects;
status on text books and supply orders;
status of food service contract;
enrollment projects for next years and the number of empty seats in magnet schools;
report on previously approved property sales;
report on teacher staffing;
review of superintendent's evaluation for previous year;
what (if any) plans for "split" classes next year;
what is the status of the new gifted high school at McKinley;
and reports from the district employees who traveled to Harvard for a seminar on urban education on what they learned
Bourisaw was not at last night's meeting. She, along with several district employees and CEO Rick Sullivan, are attending a seminar at Harvard University on urban education. According to a district spokesperson, she is expected to be back in the office on Monday.
Kristen Hinman of The Riverfront Times posted a story yesterday on their blog about Susan Turk's recent email about me and my involvement, as an advisor to Lewis Reed, with the selection of Richard K. Gaines, one of the members of the Special Advisory Board of St. Louis Public Schools.
"... for my money, for Antonio to be on a payroll collaborating with the installation of the Trans Board and then to go off and complain about it in print amounts to highly questionable behavior," wrote Turk.
As a frequent reader of PubDef.net (and the St. Louis American), Susan was well aware of my role as political director for President Reed. She also knows that I am strongly against the state takeover. Still, all she needed to hear was that Richard Gaines is a member of the Black Leadership Roundtable before she concluded that the fix was in and I had flipped sides.
"My ass," I told the RFT. "The thing that Susan is missing -- and really a lot of folks on that side are missing -- is they sometimes don't know when they've got a friend."
Too many takeover opponents have adopted the "with us or against us" position expressed by a Local 420 member at the last meeting of the SAB: "If you want to help the children, then resign," he told Gaines.
As if the Transitional School District is going to disappear because only the governor's and the mayor's selections were left to decide its direction.
President Reed, Richard Gaines and I all oppose the state takeover of St. Louis Public Schools. But none of us have the power to stop it at this point. This situation will ONLY be decided in the courts or in the state legislature.
In the meantime, President Reed has selected someone to serve on the board who clearly has the most experience with St. Louis Public Schools (as student, parent, school board member, school board president, and behind-the-scenes player), someone who will not tolerate any plan for a wholesale dismantling of the district (not that such a plan has been proposed), and someone who will demand that the board operates like a responsible public body.
What Susan and I have here, perhaps, is a difference of philosophy. Can someone do more good from the inside than outside?
But, really, that's not even the question we have here.
Foes of the takeover will continue to defend traditional public education from outside of the new state-controlled system and fight for our city to regain local control of our schools.
At the same time, we will have some voices inside the process fighting to make sure, at the very least, the situation does not get worse and that our city does not have a repeat of the Roberti period, when the powers that be ran the district like a private corporation intent on protecting its trade secrets.
Susan does have a friend in me — and in Richard Gaines and President Reed — even if she didn't realize it at first.
At the last SAB meeting, I captured Turk quizzing Gaines on a range of topics, including his role on the Roundtable, a group which, despite his membership (Percy Green, another vocal takeover critic, is also a member), he strongly disagreed with many of its decisions regarding SLPS.
I'm not sure, but I think by the end of the video, Susan learns that she and Gaines agree on most things.
One more thing: The RFT's story is called "French Bread". Come on, guys. You can be more clever than that.
Okay, two: Hinman also gives me a bit more credit than I deserve, I did not run Lewis Reed's aldermanic president campaign. I was just part of the team.
There are currently 26 vacancies for supervisors at the St. Louis Fire Department – 22 slots for captains, 4 for battalion chiefs. If the Fire Department needs these supervisors, Chief Sherman George should fill the jobs. And if he fills the jobs, he should promote the best qualified firefighters from the rosters of men and women who scored best on the Department’s competitive promotions exams.
A federal judge has ruled the test is valid, and that it fairly tests the skills needed to be a captain or battalion chief in the St. Louis Fire Department. The men and women who scored best on those tests should be serving in the jobs and being compensated for their service.
Right now, the Fire Department is halfway up a ladder. Firefighters are filling supervisory roles without competitive testing, formal promotions, or legal compensation for the firefighters who are serving as ad hoc captains and battalion chiefs.
Chief George should make the real promotions – or eliminate the jobs from the Table of Organization as unnecessary to run an effective department. I’ll support either decision, but not further organizational paralysis and bad practice.
In an open letter to his old friend and publisher of the St. Louis American newspaper Dr. Donald Suggs, longtime activist Percy Green says the esteemed dentist should have remembered to "do no harm" before operating on St. Louis Public Schools.
"I have confronted the St. Louis Board of Education on issues as far back as 1969," said Green in the letter dated March 5. "So, that does not make me a 'Johnny-come-lately' on tackling issues pertaining to [public] education."
Green outlines Suggs' involvement with the 2003 takeover of the St. Louis School Board led by Mayor Francis Slay. Suggs served as advisor and campaign treasurer for candidates* Vince Schoemehl, Ron Jackson, Bob Archibald, and Darnetta Clinkscale. He also advocated in his newspaper their candidacies and their eventual decision to briefly privatize the management of the district and close several school buildings (located mostly in predominately black north St. Louis).
"Mayor Slay with Donald as a team member, lost two straight school board elections, year 2005 and 2006," wrote Green. "After the last election, 'like me and my shadow', Slay and Donald begin advocating a state take-over of the public school system."
Suggs was appointed to the five-member state committee (later known as the Danforth-Freeman Advisory Committee) which, as expected, recommended a takeover of the local school board.
According to Green, all five members of the Advisory Committee "were either friends or close associates. They all supported the Slay failed experimental school practices that lost many accreditation points over the past three years. This scheme was like putting the wolf in charge of the hen house to say the least."
"I am sure my old friend Donald had good intentions when he first engaged Mayor Slay about him teaming up with the Black [Leadership] Roundtable," wrote Green.
"Mayor Slay and Donald’s 'how-to' intentions of fixing the public schools became obvious after three years and the accreditation points slipped downwardly from 2 to 25 points from full accreditation.
"Purposely done or not, it happened. My old friend Donald has made it worse than what it was before he and Slay intervened."
A couple of weeks ago, in our open letter to the St. Louis American -- written in response to yet another unprovoked jab in their Political Eye column -- we asked a question in a comment.
In the absence of any kind of real reporting (have you broken a single story this year?) you've turned a once-great newspaper into a gossip rag, something people pick up just to see which local African-American you spit at this week.
The question was, have they broken any stories this year? We don't read the paper regularly so it was an honest question. So this week we picked up a copy of the American (why not, it's free). And we got our answer.
In the last seven days, PubDef.net was the first or only news outlet to report 14 different stories. As far as we can tell, the American didn't break a single piece of news.
Amazingly, in just one sentence the still-anonymous character assassin at the American makes two factual inaccuracies:
By the way, at least one of Talent’s quasi-supporters in the local "independent" media went nowhere near his candidate’s party at the Frontenac Hilton, spending the evening cheering results at McCaskill’s party downtown. Funny how that worked out.
It's sad. So long a champion of biased and opinion-laced reporting, the American no longer even recognizes what non-partisan reporting looks like.
And they're blind too. Here's our video from the Talent watch party, in which we interviewed radio commentator Jamie Allman and flashed shots of Talent, Sen. Kit Bond, and even consultant Tim Person, another frequent target of the American's venom.
So why does the St. Louis American continue to take shots at this little website? Look at the scoreboard.
"Reed’s running for aldermanic president opens up his 6th Ward seat. It was rumored that Reed was ready to hand the job to lobbyist and perennially defeated candidate Patrick Cacchione (who, so long as we’re keeping track of apples and oranges, is a white male). Then here comes Kacie Starr Triplett...
"...if you want the political support of folks old enough to be your father or grandfather, next time talk to them about your candidacy before you quit your day job.
Triplett also may not have a pitch-perfect ear for friends, as she is close friends with an avowedly independent local journalist [Antonio French] who seems to have at least one leg in the Republican Party, if attracting exclusive ads from the Jim Talent campaign are any indication."
St. Louis American editors,
What the hell is wrong with you folks over there?
Have you completely forgotten how to build young people up, so now all you can do is take anonymous shots at us every week? Me, Kacie, Jamilah, Talib, Rodney, Yaphett...
What is you guys' problem over there?
At least be man enough to sign the rubbish you write. I have about as much respect for your editorial board as I do an anonymous blog commenter that jabs politicos on their rumored sexual orientations or the number of "baby mamas" they're supposed to have.
In the absence of any kind of real reporting (have you broken a single story this year?) you've turned a once-great newspaper into a gossip rag, something people pick up just to see which local African-American you spit at this week.
And to editor Chris King in particular ("who, so long as we're keeping track of apples and oranges, is a white male"), how do you feel so comfortable tearing down black people, telling us how we are supposed to think politically, when you hide your own race from your readers? I see everyone else's picture in the your paper but yours.
I don't know what you guys think you're doing over there, but it is not journalism. If it were, you might have mentioned in your latest shot at me for allowing Jim Talent to advertise on my website that he has spent much more money advertising in your paper during this campaign.
The American used to be the tool with which blacks on the bottom of the economic and social ladders told their stories to the world up top. Now it's the tool elites use to tell poor and working-class blacks what to think and who to vote for.
And it's a shame. We sure could use a newspaper we trusted in these times.
Earl Wilson Says He's 'Sick and Tired' of Being Taken Advantage Of [Updated]
By Antonio D. French
Filed
Monday, October 16, 2006 at 9:45 AM
The head of the Gateway Classic Foundation has a beef with State Sen. Joan Bray (D-St. Louis County) and he's taking his support across the aisle.
Earl Wilson has endorsed Bray's Republican challenger, John Maupin, after being personally offended by Bray's refusal to support his nomination by Gov. Matt Blunt to the Lincoln University Board of Curators earlier this year.
In a press release sent out Friday, Wilson said he was "sick and tired of some Democrats taking advantage of Afro-Americans by not doing anything for them and expecting them to vote for them during election time." Wilson said since Bray didn't support him, he won't be supporting her.
"From this point on, I will support the candidate who is best for the community, whether he or she be a Democrat or Republican," said Wilson.
The 74-year-old founder of the foundation known best for its annual black college football game said he's tired of being disrespected by so-called liberals. "A liberal thinks he or she can kick your butt and still have you support them," he said.
"Not me. Scrutinize each candidate whether they be Democrat or Republican and vote for the individual based on his/her record."
UPDATE: Sen. Bray told PUB DEF this morning that it was at the request of three of her senate colleagues, Senators Rita Days, Maida Coleman, and Yvonne Wilson (all Lincoln alumni), that she supported replacing outgoing curator Pearlie Evans with another female candidate on the overwhelming male board.
"I respected their interest in replacing one good woman with another good woman," said Bray.
She also pointed out that Wilson, a cousin to Congressman Lacy Clay, had already twice before served on Lincoln's board of curators.
"And how does it serve his cousin at all to support a Republican in an overlapping district?" she added.
Steve Smith, owner of The Royale Food and Spirits, which is often home to many political and social get-togethers, has some beef with 20th Ward Alderman Craig Schmid. While Smith is eyeing a Cherokee Street property for his next splash of urban cool on the southside's often beige canvas, a little thing called Ordinance No. 66690 all but ensures the underutilized commercial area remains one of the city's notable underachievers.
Last year, around the same time Schmid was also pushing a law to authorize seizing young people's vehicles for merely possessing speakers deemed too large, the shall we say "conservative" alderman passed Ord. 66690 which extended by three years his ban on new bars in the ward.
The ordinance states, "The existence of alcoholic beverage establishments appears to contribute directly to numerous peace, health, safety and general welfare problems including loitering, littering, drug trafficking, prostitution, public drunkenness, defacement and damaging of structures..."
Smith takes objection to that blanket characterization of neighborhood watering holes.
"Contrary to Ordinance No. 66690, I do not believe that an establishment similar to the Royale will contribute to the destruction of property or community values in the 20th Ward," wrote Smith in an open letter asking people to write a letter of their own in support of his campaign against the devil-90 law.
But even with a Santa's bag full of supportive words and "fight the power" sentiments, Smith is going to have a tough time swaying Alderman Schmid.
Schmid told former RFT reporter Mike Seelyearlier this year that he'd rather see buildings remain closed and vacant in his ward than allow new bars to open.
"In particular locations, absolutely," the alderman said. "What happens is that your good residents go somewhere else, and you can't attract people to take their places. We're planning some new homes right to the north of [Crimmins' property], and we can't have that next door. Quite frankly, we want to have our cake and eat it too."
The Crimmins in reference is Tim Crimmins, a local realtor who paid $130,000 for a 20th Ward property with plans of opening a hip urban bar similar to what Smith now has in mind. But before Crimmins invested another $200K in the building, the alderman pulled his coat tail to the fact that he, his bar, and his money weren't welcome in the 20th Ward.
Despite that precedent, Smith remains hopeful. In the nearly 10 years since the bar ban was first enacted, the city has seen a surge of new energy and a greater willingness on the part of entrepreneurs to invest in the region's urban core.
"What the Ordinance does not take into account," wrote Smith in his letter, "is the progress that has been made in the intervening years by the neighborhood, and the City itself. The area is poised for additional growth."
File this in the WTF folder. Mayor Francis Slay's website staff sent out an email yesterday with a picture of the mayor's face on the body of Leonardo Da Vinci's famous "Mona Lisa" painting.
The email talks about Dan Brown's book (and Tom Hank's movie), "The Da Vinci Code."
"Not since Salman Rushdie’s much more readable – and much less widely read -- 'The Satanic Verses' has a work of fiction attracted so many strong opinions," wrote Slay.
It's not clear what the mayor (or his advisor and web czar Richard Callow) were thinking with this, but we think someone should remind the folks over at MayorSlay.com that Photoshop can be very dangerous in the wrong hands.
In Case You Missed It... Conflicts of Interest Still Infest Slay's Office
By Antonio D. French
Filed
Tuesday, May 16, 2006 at 8:52 AM
Jake Wagmanwrote a story in Friday's Post-Dispatch shedding a little light on some of the conflicts of interest that infest the Barnes-Forest Park deal.
Much of Jake's story focused on lobbyist Lou Hamilton, who works for both Mayor Francis Slay and Barnes-Jewish Hospital. Hamilton has also made loans to at least one of the aldermen Slay selected to "independently" examine the deal. From Jake's article:
Recently, Barnes-Jewish officials hired Hamilton to lobby for them on the Forest Park deal. That Hamilton wears so many hats in the deal - employee of the mayor, friend to aldermen, lobbyist for the hospital - is a window into the sometimes close-knit world of city politics.
This kind of playing both sides has become the modus operandi of several employees of the mayor.
Readers might recall a story we published back in February about the ongoing conflict of interest that exists with the personal and business relationship of two other Slay appointees: Deputy Mayor Barb Geisman and hired gun (who's been firing blanks after losing three campaigns in a row for his boss) Richard Callow.
Very similar to this situation, Callow was lobbying for the St. Louis Cardinals (along with Hamilton) when the team's owners were trying to get as much public money as possible to build a new stadium. At the same time, his "partner," Geisman, as deputy mayor, was presumably trying to get the best deal for taxpayers (although you couldn't much tell that from the horrible deal that Slay first supported before being slapped down by the state).
Callow continues to work for Slay's political campaign, ghostwriting for Slay on his blog and leading the Mayor's political fights like last month's school board election and charter reform.
PUB DEF readers may also recognize the name of Lou Hamilton. He was the winner of our "Name that Politico!" contest last month. Still haven't gotten that "prize" to him yet. Related stories:
Whatever justification there may be for the criticism [against Slay], the current recall effort is possibly the most horrendous thing the anti-Slay contingent could have come up with ...
