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DEF is a non-partisan, independent political blog based in the
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Tomorrow night, February 1, opponents of the Mayor Francis Slay’s decisions to demoted Fire Chief Sherman George, support the State takeover of the public schools, and veto a police Civilian Review Board will picket outside the Mayor’s Mardi Gras Masquerade Ball from 6 to 7:30 PM on the east side of City Hall.
At approximately 7:00 picketers dressed as the ghosts of the City Fire Department, the Elected School Board, and the vetoed police Civilian Review Board will lead a procession to the front door of the City Hall and seek to join the Ball in a dance of discontent.
Citing this video from last week's tumultuous events at the Old Courthouse, the group opposing Mayor Francis Slay is asking jazz artist Wynton Marsalis to forgo his plans to perform in St. Louis next week in honor of the call for an economic boycott of the city resulting from Slay's rift with the black community.
To: Mr. Wynton Marsalis
Dear Mr. Marsalis:
We are forwarding to you a video which captures the recent incident of the Mayor of St. Louis, Francis Slay, being literally shouted down at the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. celebration at the Old Courthouse last week. This video demonstrates how the racial tension in this city is escalating to a fever pitch, receiving front-page coverage last week in both the white and black press and being widely broadcast on every TV and radio station.
We bring this to your attention because I have not heard back from Ms. Stewart, who I understand is your agent, since my January 7, 2008 e-mail to her, which was in follow-up to previous correspondence and e-mails concerning a Boycott Alert that we have issued because of this racial strife.
It is now critical that you communicate with us immediately - prior to your scheduled concert - so that we can make you aware of our position with respect to your appearing here in St. Louis.
We would ask that you show the black community here during this crisis the same kind of courtesy and respect being demonstrated by the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), which is threatening to cancel its 2011 convention that is expected to generate $30 million in business for the city. (This information was sent to Ms. Stewart as well).
We hope and trust that you will follow NSBE's example of hearing first hand the concerns of our community, and then let that weigh on your consciousness and conscience. This video amply illustrates how disruptive this situation potentially is because of the deeply felt racial injustice, and we think that you, like NSBE, can and should play an important role in curing this.
Thank you, and because of the urgency, we will expect to hear from you within the next 24 hours.
Eric E. Vickers Chairman Boycott Committee Citizens to Support Fire Chief George
Marsalis is scheduled to perform February 1 and 9 at the Sheldon Concert Hall.
Reporter Lucas Hudson interviews Mayor Francis Slay in this week's issue of the Vital VOICE.
From Hudson's intro:
The city’s sweltering racial thermometer portends an all-out political meltdown as Mayor Francis Slay was booed right out of the Old Courthouse by supporters of the city’s ousted first black fire chief, Sherman George, as he gave a speech Jan. 21 honoring Martin Luther King Jr. This humiliating show of resentment demonstrates that Slay’s legacy is in danger of being permanently branded with the scarlet R of racial unrest.
African-American displeasure with his administration did not start with the political game of chicken that resulted in the public demotion of George, but that event lit the match in an environment already filled with the fumes of African-American distrust, suspicion and anger at what some have described as Slay’s "racial politics."
In a Jan. 11 interview with the Vital VOICE, Mayor Slay speaks to these issues, and also outlines African-American progress that has taken place under his administration, declaring that "There isn’t enough coverage of positive news."
From the interview:
The Vital Voice: We both know that some of the city’s African-American leaders are up in arms over what many have described as your “racial politics.” With racial tension inflamed in the wake of Fire Chief Sherman George’s removal, The National Society of Black Engineers has threatened to move its 2011 conference scheduled to take place in St. Louis unless the situation changes. In addition, a citizen’s group primarily made up of African-Americans called the Citizens to Recall Mayor Slay has started an effort to recall you from office.
Consultant and blogger Antonio French’s site (www.PubDef.net) lists major gripes the black community has with your administration, which I have paraphrased. They include:
Disassembling the city’s largest black voting ward (the former 20th).
Removal of the city’s only ever black fire chief and the subsequent 4-to-1 promotion of whites over blacks.
The closing of more than a dozen schools (neighborhood anchors) in North St. Louis.
The disproportionate investing of hundreds of millions of tax dollars in downtown and white neighborhoods, while northern black neighborhoods continue to suffer.
Mayor Slay, if you don’t agree with African-American disillusionment regarding your administration, can you at least understand it?
Mayor Slay: I am very aware of some racial unrest in the City of St. Louis. I am very aware of some of the reaction to what happened in the Fire Department. I will also tell you that if Chief George had made the promotions, he would still be the chief. I talked to civic, political and clergy leaders throughout the community during the process before any decisions were made. I want you and the community to know that I did everything I could to try and get the promotions done without confrontation or controversy. I respect Sherman George as a man of principle, but ultimately, we disagreed how to handle that situation.
There isn’t anybody in St. Louis that agrees with every decision I have made, but there are some people that want to divide the city. However… I don’t think anybody can argue with the fact that St. Louis is much better today than it was seven years ago. We were losing jobs and people faster than virtually any other city in America. Now, our job base has stabilized, our population is on the increase, and we’re getting national and international recognition for our successes. Chief Mokwa and I just announced that crime in the city has dropped 16 percent from last year. Crime is now at a 35-year low. That is something that impacts everybody positively.
Have we solved all the issues? We have not. And some of those allegations like disassembling the largest black ward in the city…Well, the people are still there. If that was the largest black voting ward the city, it is still the largest black voting ward in the city, but it just has a different number on it.
Most people only hear the negatives, and there is no balanced view. For example, the affordable housing initiative that I helped pass is spending $5 million a year, with much of that money impacting people of color. When I took office in the year 2000, 31 percent of the kids tested were positive for lead, and now it is only six percent. The neighborhoods with high incidences of lead poisoning are in predominately African-American areas. I am not suggesting there are no more challenges and everything is fine, but there isn’t enough coverage of positive news.
VV: What specifically have you done, and what more can you do to defuse the current racial tension in the city?
MS: I have been working hard to call upon fair-minded people who are very interested, regardless of what they think of my decision or how it was done—to pull together, begin the healing process and move the city forward. I believe that is going to take some time, but I have been very encouraged by conversations with a number of black leaders. I believe I realize how deep this issue goes, and I am not taking this tension for granted. It is going to take a lot of work and leadership from me and my office.
Click here to read the entire Vital VOICE interview.
Group Wants Slay Disinvited from Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration
By Antonio D. French
Filed
Wednesday, January 16, 2008 at 4:44 PM
Dr. Henry Givens, Jr. Chairman Martin Luther King, Jr. State Celebration Commission 3026 Laclede Avenue St. Louis, Mo. 63103
Re: St. Louis Racial Climate - Economic Boycott Alert
Dear Dr. Givens:
We write concerning the current intense racial climate in the city of St. Louis, which was sparked by Mayor Francis Slay recently ousting the city’s first and only black fire chief, Sherman George, replacing him with a less qualified white, and then promoting white firefighters to 80% of thirty-four high-ranking captain and battalion chief positions that were open.
As you may be aware, we have initiated a Recall campaign against the mayor, and have also issued a Boycott Alert to organizations, entertainers and celebrities planning to come to St. Louis, advising them of the atrocious racial circumstances and conditions now pending in the city, and of our intention to launch a boycott of the city if this situation is not corrected.
As you may also be aware, the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), in responding to the Boycott Alert, has put the city on notice that it may cancel its national convention that is scheduled to be held in St. Louis in 2011, and that is expected to draw over fifteen thousand and have a $30 million economic impact on the city.
We are aware, of course, of the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. activities being planned by your Commission for January 21, 2008, including the program at the Old Courthouse and the march to Powell Symphony Hall.
Because of the manner in which the mayor has totally disrespected the black community with his handling of this issue, we respectfully request that your Commission not invite Mayor Slay to either speak at the Old Courthouse or participate at the head of the march. Frankly, given what the mayor has done, it would be slap in the face to the memory of Dr. King for him to participate in any sort of prominent way at this hallow event.
We commend you and the Commission for the fine work you have done over the many years in honoring and preserving the important message of Dr. King, and we thank you for your earnest consideration of this request.
Sincerely yours,
Eric E. Vickers Chairman Economic Boycott Committee
Boston Herald, AP Report on Slay's Fire Dept Race Relations Debacle
By Antonio D. French
Filed
Saturday, January 12, 2008 at 5:09 PM
First the New York Times, now the Associated Press via the Boston Herald.
From yesterday's Herald:
Few brotherhoods are as strong as the one among firefighters, who depend on one another just to stay alive. But powerful racial tensions have divided the St. Louis Fire Department and spilled over recently to City Hall.
In October, the city’s white mayor, Francis Slay, demoted black Fire Chief Sherman George after a three-year dispute over the firefighter promotion exam.
Since then, the FBI has investigated two incidents inside engine houses that were reported as possible hate crimes — one involving a stuffed monkey hung by the neck, the other a noose tied around a cracker box.
More...
George — the city’s first black chief — himself won his first promotion only because of a federal court order in 1978 that found the department’s tests for promotions discriminated against blacks. George, 63, and other black veterans of the department say racism hindered their rise at every step.
"The fire department was a country club for white folks," said retired Capt. Baby Webber, who is black. "Then the black folks started coming in and breaking up their country club."
For many, the humiliating demotion of the city's first black fire chief was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. But the "Wutcha gonna do about it?" posturing of Mayor Francis Slay and his chief of staff Jeff Rainford brought together people from all walks of life to call for an end to the politics of division that have defined the Slay Administration.
Citing the City of St. Louis' current racial problems, the chairman and the executive director of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) said today they will give Mayor Francis Slay six months to make peace with the city's black community or they will relocate their 2011 national convention and take its millions of dollars of economic impact elsewhere.
PubDef, along with crews from Channel 4 and 5, waited for Mayor Slay or a spokesman to discuss his meeting with NSBE, but no one came out by 5:00 and we all left.
THIS STORY WAS NOT REPORTED LAST NIGHT ON KMOV CHANNEL 4 or KSDK CHANNEL 5 10:00 NEWS SHOWS EVEN THOUGH BOTH HAD REPORTERS AND CAMERAS AT THE SCENE.
Slay's Troubles May Cost Region Millions with Convention Loss
By Antonio D. French
Filed
Monday, December 17, 2007 at 1:46 PM
In response to the recent call to boycott the City of St. Louis, the Chairman of the Board and the Executive Director of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) will arrive in St. Louis tomorrow to meet separately with community leaders and Mayor Francis Slay to determine whether NSBE will cancel its national convention scheduled for 2011 in St. Louis. That's according to the group which called for the boycott and are seeking to remove Slay from office.
By some estimates, the NSBE convention is expected to draw 15,000 visitors and generate as much as $25 million in business for the city.
According to a press release from Slay's opponents, the head of the NSBE will meet with their group before his meeting with the Slay, and will follow that meeting with a joint press conference with the group at 1:30 PM at the Gateway Classic Foundation building.
St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay told Channel 5 reporter Cordell Whitlock yesterday that he thinks Firefighters Union Local 73, which is white-dominated, and F.I.R.E., the African-American firefighters organization, need to come together.
But as Slay was quick to publicly remind ex-fire chief Sherman George, the mayor's office controls the fire department. He can, as he did with George, order both sides to the table.
Instead, he has clearly sided with Local 73.
To now say "something" needs to be done by "someone" "someday" is just skirting his responsibilities once again.
This whole ugly mess with the stuffed monkey hanging in Firehouse 13 has brought to light a serious problem in how the Slay Administration is running both the St. Louis Fire Department and the City.
When the media learned about this incident from a mass email sent out by a member of F.I.R.E. (the organization representing black firefighters), Mayor Francis Slay and his public safety director Charles Bryson responded a few days later by forwarding the situation F.B.I. At no time did the mayor's office or the public safety director meet with or even call leaders of the black firefighters organization to try to dampen the flames which such an incident could ignite.
The Slay Administration's policy with regard to the fire department is to deal only with the firefighters union, Local 73, and not the black firefighters association. The new fire chief also operates under this policy.
It is interesting that the old chief, Sherman George, was instructed by the mayor's office to meet monthly with both organizations. But now, as F.I.R.E. vice-chair Wayne Luster noted at yesterday's press conference, the black firefighters are no longer involved in the direction of the department, even though their membership accounts for nearly 45% of the department.
So what is the real effect of this policy? Well, when the head of the mostly-white Local 73 was asked about the hanging monkey incident, he downplayed it and suggested there was no need for an investigation.
"[The monkey] was put on the coat rack because it was wet and it was drying," Chris Molitor told the Post-Dispatch. As for the rope, he said it "has been attached to that coat rack for several years."
This calls for some clarification.
First, the black firefighters organization, F.I.R.E., while not a recognized bargaining entity with the City of St. Louis, is still nonetheless clear on their mission: representing the interests of black firefighters. And like any good union, recognized or not, they push hard for the advancement of their members.
Local 73 on the other hand has long rejected its characterization as the "white firefighters union." Its leaders say their mission is to represent all firefighters, regardless of color. However, history has not shown that to be the case. And this incident indicates that the professional needs and desires of African-American firemen and women are still not being represented by Local 73.
While Molitor and the people he represents believe that a hanging monkey means little, his African-American co-workers and his bosses (at least publicly) think it deserves serious investigation.
The fire chief and the public safety director told the media Tuesday that the department was taking the situation "very seriously." Though, again, neither have talked to the black firefighters' organization about it.
If Jenkerson, Bryson and Molitor think the fire department can be its best without communicating with the black firefighters organization, they are wrong. But they are not alone. This "blackout" started at the top.
St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay's office — specifically his chief of staff, Jeff Rainford, and his communications director, Ed Rhode — continue to ignore St. Louis' African-American press. No responses to inquires (the St. Louis American has not received a response in over a month). No press releases or notices of press conferences.
How long will the Slay Administration continue this "blackout"? And how long with the white press sit without comment and watch the disrespect of its African-American colleagues?
As a citywide elected official from a majority-black city, Mayor Slay actually has more black constituents than white. But that's not how his administration sees it.
A white elected official recently told me how Slay's chief of staff, Jeff Rainford, once suggested to him that he was wasting his time by attending meetings in north St. Louis.
"They'll never vote for you anyway," Rainford told this official.
Is that how we're going to operate in this city? Elected officials only recognizing the importance of half their constituents?
Where's the outrage among more of our white citizens — our white journalists, our white firefighters, our white elected officials?
I can only hope it is because they sincerely don't know what's going on.
I'd hate to think that you are OK with our city being divided as it is today by the people in Room 200.
Leaders of the city's black firefighters association said today that Mayor Francis Slay's removal of Fire Chief Sherman George has created an "energized atmosphere of defiance and intolerance" among some white firefighters, and it is in that atmosphere that a toy monkey was left hanging from a makeshift noose at a northside fire house over the weekend.
The F.B.I. has been notified of this possible hate crime, but Abram Pruitt and Wayne Luster, co-chairs of F.I.R.E., said no one from the Mayor's office nor Public Safety Director Charles Bryson had bothered contacting F.I.R.E. regarding this incident, despite the organization representing 98% of African-American members of the department.
The following statement comes from F.I.R.E., the African-American firefighters association:
Almost 50 years ago Black firefighters for the City of St Louis were told by white firefighters that they could not attend the firefighters' barbecue.
Those African American firefighters were given $5.00 by the white firefighters and instructed to go have their own function----because of the color of their skin they were not welcome at any firefighters' event in the City of St Louis. It was out of that incident that F.I.R.E. was founded.
African American firefighters understood then that the racism that infected the fire department could not be cured from the inside out.
Unfortunately little has changed with regard to acts of hate directed at black firefighters.
A few days ago a stuffed monkey was hung by a noose in a northside firehouse. This act of hate comes shortly after the first African American fire chief was forced out and replaced with a lesser qualified white firefighter.
F.I.R.E. (Firefighters Institute for Racial Equality) is demanding that the City of St Louis respond to this act of hate properly and F.I.R.E. is also requesting a Federal Investigation.
F.I.R.E. is holding a press conference today at 5:00 PM at their headquarters, 1020 North Taylor Ave.
VIDEO: Slay's Clinton Appearance is Off, So is Scheduled Protest (Maybe)
By Antonio D. French
Filed
Friday, November 30, 2007 at 6:02 PM
The coalition seeking to remove Mayor Francis Slay from office appears to have won a battle in a much larger war. The group's threat to protest a public fundraiser for Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has forced the campaign to find someone other than Slay to introduce Clinton at the high-profile event.
The Post-Dispatch reports that former Congressman Dick Gephardt will now be introducing Clinton at her event at The Pageant on Sunday. And Traci Blunt, a Clinton staffer in charge of African-American media, tells PubDef.net that African-American clergyman B.T. Rice will join an otherwise color-free host party.
Today the recall coalition held a press conference outside The Pageant to warn that if Slay makes a surprise appearance at the rally, they'll be ready.
"We have purchased a block of tickets [to the Clinton event]," said spokesman Eric Vickers. And if the mayor should appear on Sunday, "those people that we will have on the inside will protest the fact that this mayor has discriminated, divided this city, and disrespected this community."
When presidential candidate Hillary Clinton comes to St. Louis on Sunday she was scheduled to be introduced by one of her best known supporters, St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay. But a threat to picket the event by the coalition seeking the mayor's removal from office may have put an end to that.
It was former U.S. House Speaker Tip O'Neal who was best known for saying "All politics is local." Well, the prospect of stepping into a big steaming pile of Slay's local political woes seems to have forced the Clinton campaign to distance themselves from the beleaguered mayor.
State Representative Jamilah Nasheed and others supporting the recall effort contacted the Clinton campaign this week to inform them that they planned to picket Clinton's event at the Pageant theater if Slay would be introducing the New York senator.
According to Nasheed, a representative from the campaign notified her Wednesday evening that Slay suddenly had a "scheduling conflict" which will prevent him from introducing Senator Clinton.
In the past, Clinton has offered praise for Slay.
"Francis Slay is one of a new breed of mayors who are revitalizing their cities and setting an example for the rest of the country," Clinton said back in April. "I'm honored to have his support."
Still concerned by Slay's role in the Clinton campaign, the recallers have not yet decided whether to call off their protest entirely.
Clinton will be speaking at the Pageant, 6161 Delmar, this Sunday at 5:00 PM. This is Clinton's last trip here before the important Iowa primaries.
FIRE: Slay Ignoring Our Issues, Demand Independent Investigation of Cheating
By Antonio D. French
Filed
Wednesday, November 28, 2007 at 9:57 PM
The group representing African-Americans in the St. Louis Fire Department today called on Mayor Francis Slay to address the issues of their members — which account for 44% of the department — and no longer deal exclusively with the so-called "white firefighters union," Local 73.
Addington Stewart, the chairman of the Firefighters Institute on Racial Equality (F.I.R.E.), also said that only this week was he informed by St. Louis police that they were about to begin an investigation into allegations of cheating by white firefighters on the 2004 promotions exam — three years after the alleged cheating occurred and after promotions have been made off a possibly tainted list.
Stewart said F.I.R.E. wants to see an independent investigation performed by a federal agency, not local police.
The mayor's education liaison's PR event with a group of St. Louis Public Schools students Friday got a little too real when a parent asked why recently air conditioned schools were closed and sold off by the past school board supported by Mayor Francis Slay.
Robyn Wahby told parent Yolanda Nelson that the mayor's office had nothing to do with that decision, that it was entirely the decision of the school district, a separate government entity.
Despite Wahby's assertion to a parent, the mayor's office — through Wahby — was indeed very much involved in decisions made by the school boards of 2003 through 2006, including big ones like:
the decision to hire a $425 per hour New York-based corporate "turn-around" firm to run the district for a year;
the decision to close 16 schools (mostly in north St. Louis); and
the decision to outsource the district's food service and maintenance.
"Appointing a fire chief, police chief, or economic development director, or public works director, or streets department director because of his of her race is wrong," said Mayor Francis Slay today standing next to Public Safety Director Charles Bryson.
Slay and Bryson announced Dennis Jenkerson as the new fire chief.
Some important things about today's promotion of Jenkerson as the head of the city's fire department:
Jenkerson is a personal friend of Francis Slay;
Francis Slay changed the rules to by-pass the leading deputy chief candidate, who was black (Historically, only deputy chiefs are considered for chief);
Jenkerson was a battalion chief, a lower rank than deputy chief;
Jenkerson is currently being investigated by St. Louis police for authorizing firefighters under his command to do personal work for lobbyist Lou Hamilton while on duty;
Last week at a press conference in city hall, parents angry at the results of Mayor Francis Slay's years of involvement with the city's public schools joined with organizers of the effort to remove him from office.
The group is angry about Slay's new plan to rapidly expand the number of charter schools in the city. Charter schools are funded by St. Louis Public Schools, which is mandated to pay the schools based on their number of students.
"There has been approximately $60 million diverted from the St. Louis Public Schools," said State Rep. Jamilah Nasheed. "If we want to fix the St. Louis Public Schools we can not continue to take from the St. Louis Public Schools."
Comptroller Darlene Green and License Collector Mike McMillan were among the estimated 350 people who attended a "Unity Rally" yesterday organized by Citizens to Recall Francis G. Slay.
State Representative Jamilah Nasheed, who has been the most visible elected official in the recall effort, served as emcee for the event which was also sponsored by the St. Louis Clergy Coalition and the Gateway Green Alliance. The event took place at the Gateway Classic Foundation building downtown.
According to the event's flyer: "The mayor has a history of playing racial politics, and a history of ignoring the wishes of the people. The Unity Rally is to show the power of the people – of all races – to stand against this racial and social injustice."
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.
When Mayor Francis Slay informed St. Louis Public Schools CEO Rick Sullivan of his plan to push for a rapid expansion of charter schools in the city in a meeting last week, according to a source close to the situation, Sullivan voiced his strong objection — to the surprise of the mayor.
Sullivan, the governor-appointed leader of the district who is still in need of senate confirmation, testified just two weeks ago before the Joint Committee on Education that charter schools hurt St. Louis Public Schools financially.
"At some point you introduce so many alternatives that you reduce the revenue that it takes to run a successful school district," Sullivan was quoted as saying by the Post-Dispatch. Sullivan stopped short of asking legislators to address the issue.
But Slay is asking legislators to do something: give him the power to grant charters.
State Senator Jeff Smithsponsored legislation last session that would have given the mayor exactly that. It is very likely similar legislation will again be introduced next year.
In the meantime, Slay is wasting no time. His office is sending invitations to organizations across the country to come to St. Louis.
This is just the latest step the mayor has taken to reform public education in St. Louis. His earlier efforts have proven disastrous for the district:
In 2003, Slay backed four candidates to run for school board. With his support, the new majority outsourced the management of the district to a New York-based corporate turn-around firm. For $425-an-hour and an expenses-paid $2,400-a-month suite at the Chase Park Plaza, Bill Roberti, a man with no educational experience at all and an often palpable disdain for poor people, was made superintendent of SLPS. Roberti and his firm left town after a tumultuous 13 months with more than $5 million in their pockets and the district still in financial crisis.
In 2004, Slay appointed Veronica O'Brien to the school board. Enough said.
In 2005, the district slipped further away from accreditation due to decreasing test scores and graduation rate. Slay's school board also blew through five superintendents between 2003 and 2005, leaving state officials concerned about stability in the district.
After seeing all four of his school board candidates elected in 2003, the mayor was only able to see one (Flint Fowler) of his three candidates elected in the next election. And in 2006, Slay saw voters reject his board majority in a huge upset election.
Within days of the April election, the mayor's office began secret communications with state education officials about doing away with the school board entirely.
Recallers Call Out Buford, Brown, Motten, Smith: "Ought to Be Ashamed!"
By Gabe Bullard
Filed
Tuesday, November 06, 2007 at 12:35 PM
The Citizens to Support Fire Chief George have harsh words for some elected officials and public figures.
"You have betrayed us," group chairman Rev. Douglas Parham said of State Senator Jeff Smith.
The attack came on reports that Smith and several other officials – including Urban League CEO Jim Buford, Committeeman Claude Brown, and John Motten of the Black Leadership Roundtable – were working with Mayor Francis Slay on a task force to address racial diversity.
In a press conference at City Hall today, Parham called the idea a "farce," saying the group would be made up of Slay's cronies and it would not make progress.
"He is trying to use black leaders to camouflage his racism and utter disregard for the black community" said Parham.
The task force has not yet been formed, and when asked about rumors that it was never planned, Parham said that means his group has already crushed the idea.
Parnham was joined by State Representative Jamilah Nasheed, who called for Mayor Slay's recall. The Citizens to Support Fire Chief George support recall efforts.
The membership of the 24th Ward Regular Democratic Organization voted last night to work against the proposed recall attempt of Mayor Francis Slay. PubDef is told the vote was unanimous.
"It was decided, after much discussion, that our ward organization would not sit silent while recall proponents pass the petition around the 24th Ward without the benefit of information from the ward association," said John M. Corbett, the group's president.
"We feel our collective voice must be heard in this matter, as it should always be the task of any ward organization to speak out in regards to issues of interest to ward voters," he said in an email to PubDef.
The 24th Ward, located in south St. Louis, has an 87.5% white population and voted overwhelmingly for Slay in the last primary. Given those facts, it is unlikely recall organizers would target the 24th as one of the 19 wards it must collect signatures in.
Nearly a thousand people protested outside City Hall on Sunday in support of former fire chief Sherman George and in support of removing from office the man who demoted the 40-year veteran, Mayor Francis Slay.
The group Citizens To Support Fire Chief George is doing just that. The group is asking people to 'Come by the thousands' to City Hall this Sunday at 3:00 PM to show support for demoted Fire Chief Sherman George.
From the press release:
Chief Sherman George, the City’s first and only African-American Fire Chief, has been unjustly removed from his position and publicly disrespected by Mayor Francis Slay. This is an insult and disregard to the entire St. Louis Community. These, and other actions by the Mayor, have created deep division.
Featured guests at the rally include: State Representative Jamilah Nasheed, Bishop Willie Ellis, Bishop Alphonso Scott, Reverend Tommie Pierson, Bishop B.T. Rice, Reverend Douglas Parham, Don Fitz, Bill Ramsey and Zaki Baruti.
UPDATE: The St. Louis American is reporting that this is also a Francis Slay recall rally.
VIDEO: George Calls Slay's Actions Discriminatory, Plans Legal Action
By Antonio D. French
Filed
Thursday, October 11, 2007 at 10:54 AM
Former fire chief Sherman George made it clear today that the circumstances surrounding his refusal to make promotions and his subsequent demotion by Mayor Francis Slay and his public safety director Charles Bryson was, for him, always about ensuring the best and most qualified people were elevated in the department.
It was the mayor's office, said George, which constantly tried to link his position to the racial bias lawsuit filed by a group of Black firefighters.
That — and Slay's repeated undermining and micromanaging — was what led to the showdown that ended with George's removal, said the former chief. George and his attorney say all this has created an environment designed to force George to quit. "Constructive termination," George called it, and he's filing complaints with the Civil Service Commission, the City Diversity Director, the Missouri Human Rights Commission, and the U.S. Equal Opportunities Commission because of it.
Watch the full press conference...
"I consider myself retired from the fire department as a result of the constructive termination while I seek reinstatement. I am informing the City of that today. But I am not retiring from the fire service to run for public office. I am not interested in running for mayor of the City of St. Louis, but neither should Francis Slay," said George.
Black Caucus Asks Slay to Reverse George Decision or Promote Him
By Antonio D. French
Filed
Wednesday, October 10, 2007 at 8:17 AM
Members of the African-American Aldermanic Caucus have sent a letter to Mayor Francis Slay voicing their displeasure with his recent decision to demote Fire Chief Sherman George.
"Our Caucus strongly supports Chief George because of his fine work for the City of St. Louis," says the letter. "Please recognize that our Caucus can not and does not support the demotion of George and find it distasteful and displeasing. With all the legitamate concerns raised by Chief George related to his reluctance to promote in the manner directed by you our Caucus feels that his demotion was unwarranted."
The letter briefly outlines the role the Caucus played in trying to broker a compromise between the mayor and the chief.
"We felt then, as we do now, that these complicated issues can be worked out if all parties are willing to truly hear each others concerns and find places of compromise. Still further, we believe that all steps were not taken that could have remedied the situation in a balanced and community sensitive manner."
In conclusion, the letter asks that Slay either instruct his public safety director, Charles Bryson, to reconsider the demotion and immediately reinstate George as chief or that Slay appoint George the new public safety director for the city.
St. Louis' new interim fire chief, Steve Kotraba, promoted five Fire Captains to the rank of Battalion Chief today, filling the vacancies from the controversial list of candidates recently-demoted Fire Chief Sherman George called flawed.
The promotions are effective immediately. PubDef has been told two of the new Battalion Chiefs are black, three are white.
Per Article III, Section 2, of the City Charter, a recall petition directed at a citywide elected official must contain the signatures of at least 20% of the registered voters in the City of St. Louis at the time of the last mayoral election (i.e., 43,456), and include the signatures of at least 20% of the registered voters at that time in each of at least 2/3 of the wards (about 18 wards) in the city. As you may recall from previous recall efforts, there is currently no legal requirement that proponents of a recall officially notify the Election Board (or anyone else) that such an effort is underway, nor is there any restriction on how long proponents can be gathering signatures before they submit their petition.
Comptroller Green: Slay's Action "Shameful" and "Should Not Stand"
By Antonio D. French
Filed
Monday, October 01, 2007 at 5:16 PM
The following is a statement from St. Louis Comptroller Darlene Green:
“I’m disappointed with the shameful action taken today against Chief Sherman George. The city’s leader, the mayor, could have led the way by offering and/or accepting a compromise position on the promotions. His all or nothing position only stands to further divide an already troubled city. The demotion of Chief George is a wrong and shameful action and should not stand.”
Will today's move against the city's first black fire chief spark an effort to fire the city's first white mayor since the city started electing black mayors?
From what we (and the St. Louis American) have heard, that's the immediate word in the streets and hallways of parts of the city.
St. Louis, a majority-black city long divided by race and class, has become even more so under Francis Slay's tenure as mayor. Slay's pension for division dates back to his controversial redistricting map of 2001 which moved the ward boundaries of one of his most vocal critics, former Alderman Sharon Tyus, to south St. Louis, and in the process broke up the city's largest black voting ward, something which the black community still feels the effects from today.
Slay caused even further division with his controversial involvement in the city schools, backing the outsourcing of control of the schools to a New York-based firm which, while completely failing to "turn-around" the city schools as it was hired to do, was nonetheless paid millions, but not before closing a disproportionate number of schools located in north St. Louis — schools which long served as anchors in neighborhoods without any institutions or businesses to fill that role after the schools closed.
Most recently, the mayor supported wrestling control of the $400 million, 80-percent-black school district (only 4,000 white kids attend SLPS) away from a school board elected by the city's black majority and placed in the hands of a wealthy white businessman from Chesterfield, a move that still angers thousands of city parents and residents.
But it is Mayor Slay's recent handling of the situation with Chief George — his going out of his way to criticize and embarrass a 40-year veteran leading a department which, especially in comparison to the police department or even Slay's own City Hall, is largely controversy-free, while at the same time supporting a scandal-ridden police chief and an, at best, negligent public safety director who recently escaped to a cushy private sector job before today's events.
And to add insult to injury is Slay's shameless use of black faces to do his bidding. The only apparent qualification for Charles Bryson to serve in the capacity he used today to demote Chief George is his race.
Roughly 50,000 signatures would be needed to recall Mayor Francis Slay. That's about 20% of the number of voters registered at the time of Slay's last election, which is what the city charter requires.
There are at least that many African-American voters in this city angry at one or more of Slay's actions. But there are also thousands of white voters upset at Slay's policies of giving public assets to private developers.
Since 2001, Slay and his deputy mayor of development, Barb Geisman, have given away hundreds of millions of dollars in future tax revenues to wealthy developers (some of them clients of Geisman's partner, Richard Callow, a relationship which continues to be one of the most lucrative and underreported conflicts of interest in the state). Ironically for a mayor so concerned with public education, much of that money would have gone to the city's public schools, which still finds itself in a financial crisis.
From transforming historic downtown buildings into underused parking garages, to demolishing successful (and air-conditioned) public schools to make way for sports arenas, to his latest moves to hand over the Arch grounds to private developers, Francis Slay's form of trickle-down economic development will have effects long after his time as mayor is over.
Today F.I.R.E. issued a statement calling Mayor Slay's demotion of Fire Chief Sherman George to Deputy Chief "A lawless act." They added, "Mayor Francis Slay has made it clear that the safety of our city is not a priority."
So far, there is no word on who will replace George as Chief.
From the press release:
F.I.R.E.'s Statement Regarding Mayor's Action Against Fire Chief Sherman George
Today we are told that Fire Chief Sherman George has been demoted. This is a lawless act and once again Mayor Francis Slay has made it clear that the safety of our city is not a priority.
“These are dangerous times in the City of St Louis when a sitting Mayor puts politics, ego and personal gain ahead of the law and the safety our citizens,” Vice Chairman of F.I.R.E., Wayne Luster.
The issue of the authority of Chief Sherman George to promote is well settled law. The Missouri Court of Appeals and the Missouri Supreme Court addressed the issue of the authority of Chief George in 2004 and both courts concluded that Rule 7 Section 4 of the City Charter gives the absolute authority of whether and when to promote to Fire Chief George.
Despite the fact that the Court of Appeals and the Missouri Supreme Court concur on the authority of Chief Sherman George, Mayor Slay continues to ignore the law. These relentless and unlawful demands on Chief George by Mayor Slay are not simply some sort of political obsession. These actions on the part of the Mayor’s office have put the safety of our city at risk.
As F.I.R.E. has previously stated, the selection of Charles Bryson to head the largest department in this city, was a cynical and racially calculated appointment. Indeed if Mayor Slay had confidence in the ability of his appointment, why are Charles Bryson’s phone messages forwarded to the Mayor’s office?
The attempted demotion of Fire Chief Sherman George will not stand.
F.I.R.E., Fire Chief Sherman George and thousands of other concerned citizens have made our position clear: the law must be followed and safety must be first. And we will not rest until the office of the Mayor sets and follows those same priorities.
The Arch City Chronicle points out that according to the properties function of the document, it was authored by former radio host Lizz Brown.
The membership of the St. Louis Police Officers Association has voted "no confidence" in the leadership of Chief Joe Mokwa. But despite the lack of support among his officers and numerous scandals — including $40,000 stolen from a police station vault — the mayor and Mokwa's state-appointed bosses say they're staying with their man.
"The fact that only 17 percent of the Police Department’s 1,859 employees said they do not have confidence in Chief Joe Mokwa is hardly an indicator of any widespread discontent with his tenure," said the Mayor Francis Slay's blog.
Of course, the mayor neglected to mention that the 48% turnout in the no-confidence poll was much higher than the 15% turnout in Slay's own 2005 primary victory.
Chris Goodson, president of the Board of Police Commissioners, which is appointed by the governor, told KWMU that despite frustration over staffing and pay, Mokwa is doing a good job.
"Leadership is going to have popular and unpopular decisions that comes with the job, but what we want to know is are you making the right decisions to provide the best public safety for the workers and the citizens of St. Louis," Goodson told KWMU.
But the citizens of the City of St. Louis, which once again has earned the title of "most dangerous" in America, have little say in the running of their police department. Unlike most cities, the mayor does not hire or fire the chief of police. In fact, the chief is only accountable to the the police board, which is appointed by the governor and approved by the senate, both located in Jefferson City.
The politics suggests the People have little control over the police. The crime statistics suggest the police have little control over the streets. And the mayor's statement shows the opinion of rank-and-file cops can (and will) be disregarded as easily as the opinion of the people they protect and serve.
"Hey Hey, Ho Ho, Francis Slay must go!" That was the chant outside city hall today as the 5:00 deadline the mayor imposed on Fire Chief Sherman George came and went without George making any promotions.
Slay and his public safety director, Charles Bryson, said they will announce George's punishment on Monday.
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.
Only four days on the job and Charles Bryson, the new public safety director, has already received his first mob of angry citizens to descend on his northside home. Lucky for Bryson they were carrying picket signs and not burning torches.
Bryson and his boss, Mayor Francis Slay, have given Fire Chief Sherman George until 5:00 PM Friday to make the promotions. If he does not, he will be "disciplined" on Monday.
It's never good when you come home to see firefighters at your home. The good news for Charles Bryson is that it's just a political fire that will be ablaze on his street today.
The Fire Institute for Racial Equality, AKA F.I.R.E., AKA the black firefighters' union, will be protesting today outside the home of the City's new public safety just one day before he is expected to take action against Fire Chief Sherman George.
Mayor Francis Slayappointed Bryson as director just this week, replacing Sam Simon, who after being criticized for months about his supervision of the fire department, abruptly took a job with St. Louis University just days before his scheduled showdown with George. That task has now fallen on Bryson, who has found himself in the middle of a racially-charged storm of controversy.
George supporters have charged that Bryson (who is black) lacks the necessary experience to lead the Department of Public Safety and was hired only to provide political cover for Slay when he fires the city's first black fire chief.
F.I.R.E. will also conduct another protest tomorrow (Friday) at 5:00 PM at City Hall.
UPDATE: PubDef has heard a rumor — rather, a possible scenario — in which Mayor Slay and Director Bryson place Chief George on 30 days unpaid suspension for failing to make the promotions as directed. During that time the fire department is placed under the control of an interim chief — maybe an African-American — who makes "compromise" promotions reflecting the racial balance of the department.
We won't have to wait long to find out if this rumor — or scenario — has any legs.
UPDATE 2: Appearing on Channel 2 yesterday morning, Bryson appeared to offer a tiny bit of face-saving wiggle room for the chief. He said he and Slay would accept if George, by 5:00 Friday, offered a date in the future when he would be willing to make the promotions.
Bryson also said Slay has told the chief that he did not have to promote anyone that he did not feel comfortable with.
If the confrontation plays all the way out, George will lose his job. That will not be good, and I say that not just because I like George. Firing him would be racially divisive. A lot of people in the black community see the dispute as a matter of respect. George is the chief. Where's the respect?
There has not been much in the tone of the mayor's rhetoric. It's almost as if the mayor thinks history started yesterday. I mean, come on, this is about race. George came through the ranks when the association was pretty much a white guys' club. Nothing unusual about that. My dad was a union electrician in Chicago and I remember when his union was that way. Those fellows felt that they were protecting what was theirs.
I remember the business agent talking to my father. "If your son wants to get into the union, he's not going to have to wait in line behind any blacks," he said, although he used another word for blacks. It's a word we don't use any more. Times have changed, and thank goodness for that.
But it's easier for white guys like me or the mayor to say that times have changed.
Kristen Hinmanwrites on the Riverfront Times blog:
Bryson, who has worked in Mayor Francis Slay’s office for just shy of seven years and has a background in social work, brings an additional new perspective to the director’s office –- that of an African-American. “One of the reasons the mayor chose me is so that we can work on race relations,” says Bryson.
Race has long been said to be a factor in the tenuous relationship between George and city hall. “If you talk to clergymen on the north side,” points out Bryson, “they will suggest that part of the problem in the past between the public-safety director and the fire chief may have been race.”
Bryson says he and George already have “a good working relationship” from having made the rounds at various public boards and commissions over the past few years.
As the new public-safety director puts it: “My race will not be an ace in my pocket. It will be a different way of looking at things.”
Click here to vote for PubDef.net in the RFT's "Best of St. Louis" Poll
Following revelations last week that Streets Department employees have been working on private jobs on public time and with public equipment, another city worker, Sterling McKinney, told Channel 4 News of how three years ago he was ordered by his supervisor to pave the driveway of a city business.
He told Channel 4 that it is common for low-level workers like him to be ordered to do such "high-profile jobs." For fear of losing their jobs, he said, the workers comply.
When informed about McKinney's allegations, Ed Rhode, spokesman for Mayor Francis Slay said he was happy to hear McKinney "confessed his wrongdoing."
"We all know this is wrong and we plan to turn this information over to the Circuit Attorney for prosecution," said Rhode, suggesting that the whistleblower may soon need to find himself a lawyer.
First, Mayor Francis Slayreplaces his troubled public safety director, Sam Simon (at whose feet many of his critics place much of the fire department's current problems), with his favorite black guy, Charles Bryson (it's been barely a month since Slay promoted Bryson from Neighborhood Development Executive to deputy chief of staff).
Next, only moments on the job, Bryson goes after Slay's least favorite black guy, Fire Chief Sherman George.
"Chief George must still make the promotions by Friday," said Bryson in a written statement. "That order stands – and I endorse it. If he doesn’t, he – like you, me, or anybody else who refused to obey an order and do their job — will face disciplinary action."
Let's see how this could play out...
George refuses to be forced to promote
Bryson fires George ("It's not a race thing. They're both black.")
Black folks go nuts (Front page of the American: "SLAY FIRES FIRST BLACK FIRE CHIEF WHILE WHITE POLICE CHIEF IS LOSING CONTROL OF THE POLICE DEPARTMENT AND THE STREETS!" Wow, that's a long headline.)
Slay appoints a new black chief ("See, I'm not racist.")
Last week, Governor Matt Blunt and St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay joined to declare Missouri a State of ONE to help raise awareness about global disease and poverty with the ONE Campaign, a non-partisan national program dedicated to the cause.
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).
"Fight, fight!," as we used to say on the school yard.
The Political Eye column of the St. Louis American newspaper and MayorSlay.com, a creation of Public Eye, Inc., the PR firm of Richard Callow, have gone to the mattresses.
Last week, the American reported that actions by the city's public safety director, Sam Simon, had possibly left city firefighters in a dangerous position by ordering that all Fire Department airmasks be removed by Aug. 1 without notifying Fire Chief Sherman George.
A few days after the report was published, Mayor Francis Slay's anonymously-written blog, MayorSlay.com, called the story "bad reporting" and outlined its own version of events:
Five years ago, two St. Louis firefighters died tragically. Their widows filed suit against the manufacturer and distributor of some of the Department’s equipment. In the course of the first trial, testimony suggested that equipment might be defective. Both widows are convinced the equipment contributed to the deaths of their husbands.
Armed with that information, Simon wrote to the distributor asking for a $1.2 million refund. The distributor responded by offering to remove the equipment, but without refunding any cash. Simon declined. At no point did Simon ever order the equipment removed.
That’s the simple chronology that "supports" the baseless assertion by some partisans that Simon’s actions were improper.
Bad reporting? "Surely it is not 'bad' reporting to report a 'demand' as a demand. That is simply letting grammar be one's guide in interpreting the English language," answered today's anonymously-written Political Eye column.
In another post on mayorslay.com, using the same pompous tone, Slay-Rainford-Callow-Rhode write, “One of the challenging things about the current state of news reporting is the mix of rumor and fact that gets churned around in blogs, talk shows and boards - and then re-reported on mainstream TV and radio.”
It should be evident from Simon’s signed letter and the statement of the "facts" on mayorslay.com that the mayor’s own blog is guilty of mixing rumor and outright lies with whatever facts it churns around - and, unfortunately, the mayor’s version of events too often gets "re-reported on mainstream TV and radio," whether or not it is based in fact.
How about local control of our police department first? After all, that is where about a third of our city's annual budget goes. But then, why should city folks have any say over how one out of every three of our dollars is spent?
Perhaps Mayor Slay could be calling for local control of our schools — even mayoral control. No, wait. That's right, he was the one pushing for the state's Republican governor to take control of our $450 million-per-year school system.
Well, it's not like crime or schools have anything to do with the quality of life here in the city — at least not like the Arch grounds anyway!
As a matter of fact, we're so out of practice with controlling our own destinies around here, if the U.S. government did give up control of the Arch grounds, they should probably just turn it over to the State of Missouri.
At least that'll keep Hizzoner from building a parking garage or a Walgreens on it.
At a 1st Ward neighborhood meeting this morning, Mayor Francis Slay broke the news of the arrest of three youths in the shooting death of police officer Norvelle Brown.
The Post-Dispatch pointed out that Esquire Magazine recently named Mayor Francis Slay one of the best-dressed mayors in the country. Slay appears in the September issue of Esquire.
But St. Louisans may have a different idea about their best-dressed politican. According to a poll on Mayor Slay’s Website, License Collector Mike McMillan is the best-dressed local politician. McMillan beat out April Ford-Griffin, Gregor Francis Xavier Daly, Charlie Dooley, Lyda Krewson, Kacie S. Triplett and Joe Mokwa.
Update: This month's issue of Alive Magazine named McMillan one 2007's "Men of Style." Other Men of Style for this year include KTVI anchor Kevin Steincross and St. Louis Ram Orlando Pace.
Chief Sherman George City of St. Louis Fire Department 1321 N. Jefferson Avenue St. Louis, Missouri 63106-2100 Hand-Delivered
Dear Chief George:
I want to start by making something clear: I support you as chief of the Fire Department and want you to continue to succeed. However, I also believe the department must promote, and fear the issue of promotions, if not addressed fairly and immediately, will severely damage your ability to lead the Department.
To review the facts, a Federal judge has ruled that the current promotional test is valid, does not discriminate, and legitimately tests the skills and knowledge needed to be a captain or battalion chief in the St. Louis Fire Department.
The Federal judge heard all of the testimony and held a full trial on all of the merits. He ruled the plaintiffs "did not produce any evidence of alternative selection procedures of which the City was apprised … which would have been as substantially valid as the 2000 and 2004 Fire Captain and Battalion Chief examinations, but with lesser adverse impact."
In other words, Chief, those opposed to the test have now had their day in court and lost. Ignoring the court’s clear, unequivocal ruling is creating hard feelings among many of the men and women in the department who have waited patiently for promotions. If we — the City and the Fire Department — are not going to live by the court’s ruling, what was the point of all of the litigation?
You said recently that if the positions are in the budget and the list is still active, you would "be happy to request a list from which to promote for both Fire Captain and Battalion Fire Chief." Chief, the City has budgeted for the positions; the list is still active. It is time to do what you said: promote.
This issue has torn the Fire Department apart. I know that you feel yourself boxed in, torn between angry members of FIRE who continue to dispute the tests’ fairness and angry members of the Local 73 who continue to dispute the fairness of not promoting.
For the good of the Department and to avoid a confrontation that will divide our City and hurt everyone involved — including you — I propose the following:
Fill all of the Fire Captain and Battalion Chief positions using the current, active list.
After the promotions are made, the Department of Personnel will close the list and begin the process of hiring a company to conduct a new test.
The process of hiring a company will include new protocols to permit you, FIRE, and Local 73 to have greater input into the wording of the RFP and the selection of a testing consultant from among the RFP responses.
In addition, I would like to use this same opportunity to work with you to address the rifts in race relations that have developed within the Fire Department, whether based on ill feelings about these promotions or from historic grievances.
The City will invest $20,000 a year, and ask Fire and Local 73 each to contribute $5,000, to a fund for the purpose of providing mandatory training in diversity and race relations.
Finally, the racial divide in the Fire Department will not close unless the men and the women of the Fire Department want it to close. So, I will ask FIRE and Local 73, the two firefighter organizations that represent most members of the fire service, to develop together a plan that will spell out concrete measures to improve relations between the two groups, and race relations within the Department.
Chief, I believe this approach is a fair way to allow us to put this matter behind us and work together to improve the quality of the St. Louis Fire Department.
It is time for all of us to set aside any differences for the good of the department and the good of the City.
I look forward to hearing back from you by Friday, August 3, 2007.
Our town's Gentry Trotter has worn many hats in his day, but this may be the first time he's worked for a Republican Missouri governor. Trotter, known mostly for his pr mavenry, has been named special assistant to Ed Martin, Gov. Matt Blunt's chief of staff, and communications advisor to the Governor's office.
Trotter is expected to provide statewide counsel in the area of media relations and community outreach. He will also advise the administration about utilities, economic development, consumer issues and boards and commissions. Trotter does some similar tasks with Democratic St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay.
After getting a free ride through most of his two terms in office, and benefiting from years of praise (deserved and undeserved) for the work of entrepreneurs and developers who've been rebuilding and repopulating downtown, Mayor Francis Slay is having another tantrum about the Post-Dispatch's "careless reporting" — this time, on its late coverage of developer Paul McKee's secret plan for a large section of north St. Louis.
"I am a great admirer of Paul McKee," Slay writes on his blog. "He is a generous donor of time and money to a range of civic enterprises. He is a mainstay of several Catholic charities. In fact, until he decided to spend money acquiring privately owned vacant lots and empty buildings in north St. Louis, he has been either feted or unnoticed. For whatever reason, this particular good deed has earned him the enmity of the local newspaper."
"The story, by political writer/blogger Jake Wagman, is a thin web of half-facts, rumors, and tenuous connections that would have benefited from better editing and less careless reporting," Slay writes.
The mayor goes on to deny that he knows any details about what McKee has in mind for the 400-plus properties he has acquired so far – but, "I do know that he is buying properties that no one else has even looked at in decades."
Neighbors of McKee's properties have complained about his lack of attention to his buildings, which have been cited numerous times by the City for dangerous conditions.
The aldermen in the wards where most of the properties are located have made several attempts to meet with McKee on his plans for the area and the condition of his properties, with no luck. At the same time, the mayor confirmed to the Post-Dispatch that he has met with McKee several times.
While McKee's plan may eventually lead to much-needed northside development, in the time between his first acquisition and when he breaks ground years from today, residents say his properties are undeniably leading to an even faster decline in the quality of life of people in his targeted neighborhoods.
Perhaps the mayor should heed the words of those citizens at least as much as that of the "vision" of a developer — and not kill the messenger in the process.
McKee wisely wanted to keep the cat in the bag until the last moment, in order to keep his acquisition price as low as possible. But after two front page stories in the daily newspaper, it is probably fair to say the secret is out. Perhaps it is time to bring the aldermen, if not the general public, to the table.
No one — not the public, and obviously not the Post-Dispatch — believes that someone as smart, or at least as rich, as Paul McKee is going to spend millions of dollars on hundreds of properties without a plan for what to do with them.
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.
Mayor Francis Slay said today that if the St. Louis Board of Education refuses to recognize the Transitional Board's authority, even after the courts validate its existence, it would be breaking the law and suffer the consequences.
Appearing on a local news show this morning, Mayor Francis Slay said that the U.S. Conference of Mayors had recently voted, in a blind taste test, the City of St. Louis as one of the five finalists for the "Best Tasting City Water in America."
Slay said the vote was based on three factors: clarity, aroma and taste.
From a starting group of 93, the other finalist cities are Anaheim, CA; Colorado Springs, CO; Long Beach, CA; and Toledo, OH.
The five finalist cities will be advancing to compete at the 75th Annual Meeting of The U.S. Conference of Mayors in Los Angeles (June 22-26) for the title of "Best Tasting City Water in America." Hundreds of mayors from around the nation will then be the blind taste test judges. The winning city will receive a cash award of $15,000 and bragging rights.
Regional leaders, current and former elected officials, and a wide assortment of other early birds attended an 8:30 A.M. breakfast this morning and the St. Louis Zoo in celebration of the fifth anniversary of the innovative River Ring plan.
Developed by the Great Rivers Greenway District, the region-wide system of 600 miles of greenways, parks and trails covers an expanse of more than 1,200 square miles.
KMOX host Charlie Brennan emceed this morning's event and introduced Mayor Francis Slay, St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley and St. Charles County Executive Steve Ehlmann, who each spoke briefly.
The morning's featured speaker, respected Senator John Danforth, praised The River Ring plan as a model for other cities to follow. He said getting this project done was a break from the all too familiar obstructionism that St. Louis is known for.
"The positive approach — making things happen isn't easy," said Danforth. "Blocking things is easy."
The former Republican senator and U.N. Ambassodor singled out St. Louis City's mayor for his role in rebuilding the region. He praised Slay as "one of the city's greatest mayors."
"Let's not be satisfied with the status quo," said Danforth. "Let's not be satisfied with a riverfront that looks like something the cat dragged in."
Some highlights from Mayor Francis Slay's 25-minute speech today:
On the City's Population Losses and Gains:
"It is difficult to grasp how far the City has come without remembering how far it had fallen. Between 1950 and 2000, the City’s neighborhoods lost more people, more jobs, buildings, and businesses than New Orleans lost to Hurricane Katrina. Finding our way back has taken time, money, and plenty of hard work."
"The U.S. Census Bureau, which annually estimates population, has agreed that our population last July was 353,837 – an increase from the previous July and the two Julys before it. It is not a dramatic jump – about 6,000 more St. Louisans since the last Census – but it has been a steady and welcome one."
On Crime:
"Crime is not the same in every neighborhood. The vast majority of our neighborhoods are safe places any time. But, some of our neighborhoods are not.
No one should be satisfied – wherever you live – until every child can play outside and walk to school without fear, until every senior citizen can live without bars on the window, and where every parent feels comfortable raising a family."
On Development:
"... we have set aside nearly $2-million dollars in Community Development Block Grant funds to spur neighborhood development in challenged neighborhoods in north St. Louis. Now that elections are over and all of you are firmly seated, Barb [Geisman] will be working with you to see that these funds are put towards uses that have long-term impact.
Third, I intend to work with you and President [Lewis] Reed to continue to use tax increment financing to attract private investment to those City neighborhoods where it is most needed and where TIF will work. And he and I will oppose any blanket policy that seeks to ban or restrict residential TIFs."
On Public Education:
"For decades now, families – both white and African American – have left the City to put their children in good schools in the suburbs. In 1970, more than 100,000 children attended the St. Louis Public Schools. Today, that number is fewer than 33,000. Not only are fewer kids attending the St. Louis Public Schools, but enrollment in City parochial schools is falling as the cost goes up.
Fewer families are sending their kids to St. Louis County Schools as the desegregation settlement is phased out. Our City cannot continue to grow if we continue to lose families because of a shortage of quality, affordable schools.
That’s why it is critically important that we fix the St. Louis Public schools. The St. Louis Public Schools did not fail overnight. They will not be fixed overnight either. But, our children cannot wait and our City cannot wait.
That’s why I support quality charter schools."
On the Election Board:
"Our election board – once a source of scandal and national disgrace – has regained its professionalism. (They now finish counting the votes so fast that we can all go to bed before St. Louis county can.)"
Click here to read the full text of the mayor's speech.
The St. Louis Public Schools students who engaged in non-violent civil protest to bring attention to the issues on the minds of thousands of the city's young people ended their nearly one week long sit-in Sunday with a well organized media event in City Hall.
The students announced they will be taking their cause to Jefferson City this week. They are scheduled to meet with State Education Commissioner Kent King ahead of Thursday's meeting of the State Board of Education. The students plan to ask King about the effect the loss of accreditation will have on their college futures.
In a press release issued last week, contrary to what has been reported in the Post-Dispatch, DESE could not say with any certainty that lack of accreditation won't negatively affect students, saying they have no control over colleges' admission policies.
"As far as state education officials are concerned, students aspiring to attend college should not be negatively affected if their school district becomes unaccredited," said the statement. "However, because colleges and universities may set their own criteria for admissions and financial aid, it is possible that students could encounter obstacles in some cases."
Sunday's nearly one-hour event began with the presentation of the students' video diary...
Part 1 (9:50)
Part 2 (4:29)
The students then gave personal testimonies about why they participated in the protest...
Part 3 (14:47)
Superintendent Diana Bourisaw then spoke...
Part 4 (3:05)
And the students concluded the press conference with a Q&A session with reporters.
Part 5 (14:23)
When asked what they had learned during the past five days, one student said he learned that the media is biased.
"The media would come in with smiles on their faces and we would see one thing, but when the news would come on at night we would see a totally different story like we were in two different buildings," said Howard Hughes.
The St. Louis Public Schools students that five days ago entered City Hall seeking a meeting with Mayor Francis Slay today held a press conference at which they hinted that today may be the final day of their protest.
Check back later for video from today's event, which included remarks from Superintendent Diana Bourisaw and details about a meeting scheduled for this week between the students and state education officials in Jefferson City.
The group of St. Louis Public Schools students engaged in Day 5 of their sit-in demonstration at City Hall has sent out a press release announcing a press conference this afternoon.
Superintendent Diana Bourisaw is scheduled to join the students for the event which may, as we reported yesterday, announce an end to the City Hall sit-in and a re-targeting of the students' efforts from the now-vacationing city mayor to state education officials who are expected to meet Thursday to strip SLPS of its accreditation.
Press Release
Who: St. Louis Public Schools students and Dr. Diana Bourisaw
What: The students of St. Louis City Public Schools will hold a press conference.
Where: Downtown City Hall – Room 208 "The Kennedy Room"
When: March 18, 2007 promptly @ 2:30 p.m.
Topic: "Deconstructing the Myth: Why Our Scholarships and College Admission Are Still At Risk"
The following video was shot and edited by St. Louis Public Schools students who are entering the fifth day of an ongoing sit-in protest at City Hall.
This video shows most of the students' Thursday morning meeting with Mayor Francis Slay. It also shows some of the confusion and confrontation that followed the meeting.
Students remain in City Hall tonight waiting for another meeting with the mayor — a meeting that is unlikely to happen anytime soon because Mayor Francis Slay is out of town on vacation.
Students met briefly with the mayor Thursday, but left unsatisfied (Check back later for exclusive video from that meeting). A second meeting was attempted Friday after approximately 200 students and adults arrived at City Hall in support of the young protesters, but that meeting did not happen.
The mayor sent a letter to the students yesterday in which he says he spoke with the Commissioner of the State Department of Education to convey their concerns about the loss of accreditation.
In his letter, the mayor also referenced an incident we first reported in which a city marshal cursed at the group of students saying, "I don't give a care about you motherfuckers."
"I have instructed my staff to treat you with respect," wrote Slay. "It is my understanding that a city marshal has apologized for a confrontation with you. That is appropriate."
"It is my hope that you can see that people who disagree — even a lot — can still treat each other in a civil manner," said the mayor.
There is a rumor that the sit-in may soon relocate to Jefferson City, the site of next week's State Board of Education meeting at which St. Louis Public Schools is expected to be stripped of its accreditation.
However, several students tell Pub Def they are committed to staying in City Hall until the mayor comes back from vacation and meets with them again.
Well-wishers from all over the region have sent food, water and snacks for the kids. Several adults remained with the students tonight, including radio host Lizz Brown, School Board Member Donna Jones, Alderman Charles Q. Troupe, former Alderman Irene J. Smith, and April Harris, a former campaign staffer for Aldermanic President Jim Shrewsbury, who is technically currently the mayor of the city in Slay's absence.
Last report has about 30 students sleeping in City Hall tonight, some in the Mayor's office and others in hallways. At one point today, over 200 students and parents crowded the halls of City Hall.
School officials reported that numerous high school students staged protests at Soldan International Studies and Gateway Institute of Technology this morning. Administrators at each of those schools were able to get the majority of students back into their classrooms.
Students at Roosevelt High School also walked out of class in protest.
"I understand the desire of these students to have their voices heard," said Superintendent Diana Bourisaw. "We are working to provide them answers to their questions regarding the proposed unaccreditation of the St. Louis Public Schools. In the meantime, I want them to all return to their classrooms."
This morning, Dr. Bourisaw and Senator Maida Coleman met with seniors representing all SLPS high schools. Bourisaw shared with the students the results of the district’s research into how unaccreditation might impact college acceptance.
"So far our research has found only one private college and one public university where students may have difficulty in getting accepted if the district loses its accreditation," she said. "However, the majority of our students should not have any difficulty in being accepted to college."
Yesterday, Bourisaw met with the students currently holding a sit-in at City Hall and encouraged them to return to school. She offered to answer any questions they had and offered to follow-up on the college accreditation issue. This afternoon, answers to the students’ questions regarding college admission were delivered to them.
"We want all of our students to be in school every day," Bourisaw reiterated.
Hundreds of students walked out of school today and headed to City Hall to join their peers who are engaged in the third day of a sit-in in the office of Mayor Francis Slay.
The students were not allowed to enter the mayor's office, which is now guarded by armed City Marshals as well as St. Louis Police officers. They have settled in and sat down in the hallway outside the office, where they plan to stay until Mayor Slay addresses their concerns.
We are told that city officials will make accomodations for the students to sleep tonight in the Kennedy Room in City Hall.
As students enter Day 3 of their sit-in protest in Mayor Francis Slay's office, time may be running out for the mayor to defuse the situation before it escalates.
After a brief and unsatisfying meeting with the mayor yesterday, students have committed to remaining in his office until he seriously addresses what they see as the most serious items on their list of 10 demands — and they may soon get reinforcements.
At three o'clock this afternoon, St. Louis Public Schools students begin their week-long Spring Break. The student protesters tell Pub Def that at that point, more SLPS students will be on the way.
City Hall may soon be the site of a 10-Day slumber party, with vacationing students joining their peers in the Mayor's office.
If that wasn't enough, the end of Spring Break comes just one week before the April 3rd school board election, adding even more political fuel to the protest.
Considering this situation will likely end in only one of two ways: the students leaving on their own, or the students being physically removed — the mayor may want to end this thing before 3 o'clock today.
Students Not Satisfied with Brief Meeting with Slay, Sit-In Continues
By Antonio D. French
Filed
Thursday, March 15, 2007 at 2:45 PM
Mayor Francis Slay met for only 25 minutes with the two dozen students that have been waiting in his office for over 20 hours and the group said they left feeling disrespected and unsatisfied.
Check back later for video interviews with students, School Board member Donna Jones, and radio host and activist Lizz Brown.
The 6 o'clock deadline has come and gone and City Marshals have allowed the students to remain.
School Board member Donna Jones, radio show host and activist Lizz Brown, Committeeman Jesse Todd, and activist Eric Vickers are among the adults accompanying the two dozen high school students.
Pizza has arrived and although the room remains warm after marshals turned off the air conditioning, tempers have remained cool.
Head Marshal Ron Hill and three to five of his deputies are keeping a close, but so far polite, watch over the group.
No one from the mayor's office has spoken to the students yet. Ed Rhode, the mayor's spokesman, did invite reporter Charles Jaco into the mayor's chambers briefly before he and the rest of the mayor's staff left for the day.
Jaco was overheard saying that he was told the mayor was going to allow the kids to stay all night.
The air conditioning has been turned off and City Marshals are preparing to bring an end to the student sit-in currently in progress in the mayor's office.
We are told that officers will remove the students from City Hall in about 35 minutes.
Smith's Bill Would Let Mayor Sponsor New Charter Schools in the City
By Antonio D. French
Filed
Thursday, February 22, 2007 at 2:18 PM
READ IT HERE FIRST
State Senator Jeff Smith today introduced a bill (Senate Bill 564) to allow St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay to sponsor new charter schools.
More later...
To learn more about the relationship between charter schools and their sponsors, see Section 160.400 of the Missouri Revised Statutes.
Currently charter schools can only be sponsored by:
the school board (or perhaps the "transitional" board) of the district;
a public four-year college or university with its primary campus in the school district or in a county adjacent to the county in which the district is located, with an approved teacher education program that meets regional or national standards of accreditation;
a community college located in the district;
or any private four-year college or university located in a city not within a county with an enrollment of at least one thousand students, and with an approved teacher preparation program.
Under existing law, the Mayor may request a sponsor to consider sponsoring a workplace charter school, which is defined as a charter school "with the ability to target prospective students whose parent or parents are employed in a business district".
Smith's bill, if passed, will apparently (the full text is not yet available online) simply allow the mayor to sponsor charter schools directly, effective August 28, 2007.
Mayor Francis Slay is once again using his blog to call out our city's daily underachiever.
"Based on an interview with one person," wrote Slay (or his regular ghost writer, Richard Callow) on MayorSlay.com, "the St. Louis Post Dispatch ran a headline that asserted that the Mardi Gras celebration this past weekend in Soulard was 'the worst year yet.'"
"Aside from the fact that the one person who believed it was a bad event also suggested that the Christian calendar be re-worked so he could sell more beads, what about the thousands and thousands of people who had great times in Soulard and other nearby neighborhoods despite the winter weather?"
"Mardi Gras is a fun event," concluded the mayor. "There is no such thing as a 'worst' year."
"I am extremely disappointed with the action taken today by the State Board of Education. As evidenced by the overwhelming representation by St. Louis residents, we are very interested in maintaining our representative democracy to run our schools. The board's decision takes a big step toward silencing the public with respect to how their schools are administered.
Furthermore, the decision also emboldens critics of our public schools who have a pro-voucher agenda. The vote by the State Board of Education did nothing to improve academics this year in the St. Louis Public Schools."
From Mayor Francis Slay:
"Today, the Missouri Board of Education took an important step towards joining education officials in Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, and Philadelphia in looking for a better way to administer a failing urban school district.
Over the past 20 years, the St. Louis public school district has failed students, employees, regional employers, and City taxpayers alike. So, I welcome and support today’s decision by the state Board of Education to relieve the district’s hopelessly dysfunctional school board of its duties.
Half the kids who start in the St. Louis public schools do not graduate. Many of those who do graduate don’t have the skills to go to college or get a good job. Only one in ten high school kids can do math at grade. Only one-third of third graders can read at grade level. Almost a third of third graders cannot read at all.
Some people will complain about the state Board’s action regarding an elected school board. The fact is that many City parents have voted with their feet. Thousands of families have left the City for better public schools elsewhere. In the 1970s, this district had more than 100,000 kids. Today, the district enrolls fewer than 33,000 students. And far fewer attend on any given school day.
I have three hopes for the St. Louis public schools: a smooth transition into its interim new governance; a steady improvement in student achievement; and some common efforts over the next few years by both the supporters and opponents of the interim system to identify a better permanent way to administer a public school district."
From Governor Matt Blunt:
"Education is my highest priority as Missouri's governor. As I have said from the beginning, I am willing to work with anybody who cares about our children. To me, when it comes to ensuring our children have access to the world class education they deserve, no option is off the table.
The State Board of Education’s action today, to pursue the option of forming a transitional school district, is a step forward for the students who for too long have been denied even a basic education.
There is still much to be done. I hope current district leaders put their students’ best interests first and work with the State Board of Education to provide a stable and productive learning environment for the remainder of the year and to facilitate a positive change for years to come."
From State Rep. Jamilah Nasheed:
"A state takeover is not the solution to the problems plaguing the St. Louis Public School system. At a recent public hearing in St. Louis attended by more than 1,200 people, the opposition to a takeover was overwhelming. With its action today, the State Board of Education has ignored the voices of district residents and taxpayers.
It is true the St. Louis Public Schools are broken and need fixing. However, I can't see how replacing a seven-member board with three-member board solves the problem and improves student achievement. I urge the State Board of Education to back away from taking the final steps toward a takeover. If it fails to do so, I will work in the General Assembly to repeal the state law that currently permits this drastic action."
Sources tell PubDef that the director of the city's health department has resigned four weeks after reportedly making racial jokes and using slurs in a meeting.
Dr. William L. Kincaid came under fire this morning on the "Wake Up Call" radio show when host Lizz Brown and guest Irene J. Smith reported that Kincaid, who is white, said that "the only people that drink Kool-Aid are niggers..."
The incident reportedly happened nearly a month ago and was apparently verified by the office of Mayor Francis Slay. Brown and Smith said they were appalled to hear that the mayor thought the incident only warranted a one-week suspension and not termination.
Brown asked her listeners to call the mayor's office to demand Kincaid's firing. She tells PubDef that her loyal listeners did indeed flood Slay's office today with calls demanding he take the incident more seriously. Hours later came word of Kincaid's resignation.
PubDef has also learned that members of the Aldermanic Black Caucus had also begun organizing to demand Kincaid be fired.
Slay Continues Push for Takeover, Says He Would Support Mayoral Control
By Antonio D. French
Filed
Tuesday, January 09, 2007 at 12:30 PM
Mayor Francis Slay continues his push to remove local elections from public school governance. He also seems to agree that it is unlikely the state Board of Education will take action on that recommendation this week.
"Sometime during the next couple of months," the mayor writes today on his blog, "the state's Board of Education will consider the likelihood that a student enrolled in the St. Louis Public School District today will graduate with the skills she needs to go to college, get a good job, and be a participating citizen."
"I expect the state Board to come to the same conclusions that almost everyone else has: that the school district is mired in a crisis decades in the making, and that the current system of governance (direct citywide election of seven board members) cannot undo the damage of thirty years of decline."
While the St. Louis Public Schools, along with dozens of other districts around the state and hundreds more around the nation, have suffered from decades of mismanagement, lack of sufficient funding, and the effects of poverty and urban flight, the "current" situation that is, the current state of instability (6 superintendents in under 4 years) began in 2003, when the mayor got involved in SLPS.
The mayor now says that the state Board of Education will face the choice of two "competing values" -- elective school boards and educated children.
"As much as I cherish the notion of direct elections, I hope the state Board puts children ahead of ballots. It is clear to most people that the status quo in untenable."
The mayor also, for the first time we know of, said he would support SLPS falling under the Office of the Mayor.
"The proposal recommended by the Danforth-Freeman Committee falls far short of a state or a mayoral takeover, either of which I would also have supported, but it changes the governance and the management of a failed district by removing those functions from the oversight of the St. Louis Board of Education and entrusting governance and management to a three-person board for the next several years."
Either way, Slay said "most people won't notice the difference." He cites the low voter turnouts in the past three school board elections.
"I believe that the compromise proposed by Danforth-Freeman is really the last best chance that tens of thousands of City public school children have of getting a good, free education. Right now, that opportunity eludes most children enrolled in the St. Louis Public School District," said Slay.
The following letter comes from activist Eric Vickers...
January 5, 2007
Completely left out of the glowing remarks about the City and County made this morning by Mayor Slay and County Executive Dooley during their address at the St. Louis Business Journal's "State of St. Louis 2007" annual breakfast is a problem that is severely stifling the area's progress: economic disparity.
Studies and newspaper editorials too numerous to mention have pointed out that, even with all the development taking place, we have not elevated the poor and low income as much as we have just shifted them around. These officials can talk all they want about improving the school system and combating crime, but unless and until there is an escalation in the economic status of the black community, their words will amount to no more than an aspiration.
In the same way these elected leaders coalesce and collaborate to promote development, they need to come together and develop a plan specifically to address the debilitating, pernicious and growing economic disparity.
SLAY KNEW? -- Curiously absent from last night's failed, sad attempt to destabilize the school district by forcing the resignation of Dr. Diana Bourisaw was anyone from the mayor's office.
At just about every board meeting and at the special meeting that ended with the resignation of Dr. Creg Williams, one can usually spot the mayor's education liaison, Robin Wahby. But not last night.
Every reporter in town knew what was going on last night, but no representative from the mayor's office was there to take questions or relay info back to Mayor Slay? Makes some believe that "Hizzoner" knew exactly what was about to go down, did nothing to stop it, and wanted to be nowhere around when the crime went down.
EARLY CALL TO DUTY -- Governor Matt Blunt has asked State Auditor-elect Susan Montee to finish the remainder Claire McCaskill's term as state auditor.
"I have asked Susan Montee to begin her service to the state a little early," Blunt said. "I look forward to working with Susan to improve the efficiency of state government."
McCaskill becomes Missouri's newest U.S. Senator beginning noon Eastern Time, Thursday, creating a vacancy in the auditor’s office. Blunt will appoint Montee to finish the four remaining days of McCaskill's term until Montee’s four year term officially begins on Monday.
S.O.S. for SLPS -- A "Save Our Schools" Public Forum and organizing event has been set for 6:00 p.m., Thursday, at Carr Lane Middle School, 1004 North Jefferson Ave.
Save our Schools is organizing with the expressed purpose of seeking input from the community, parents, teachers and voters in the decision making process.
"We welcome advocates of the St. Louis Public Schools to take part in this organizing meeting and public forum. Save Our Schools invites all stakeholders, especially parents, to voice their concerns," said Claudia Blackmon, a St. Louis Public School parent. Ms. Blackmon, a Gateway High School parent, will moderate the forum.
TINY BRIEF -- Congratulations to the new legislators being sworn in today in Jefferson City.
Purdy Says 3 "Out of Control" Members Attempting to Sabotage District
By Antonio D. French
Filed
Tuesday, January 02, 2007 at 8:27 PM
The vice-president of the St. Louis City school board tonight said three members of the board supported by Mayor Francis Slay are actively trying to sabotage the school district.
Bill Purdy said tonight's grilling of Superintendent Diana Bourisaw in a closed-door special meeting was an attempt to force her resignation at a time when the district most needs stability.
"If we were talking about this on the school yard, we would call it bullying," said Purdy.
"It is my opinion that these board members want so desperately the state to takeover the district that they want to send the signal out to the state and to everyone in this community that the board is out of control. And it is not the board out of control, it is those three people that are out of control," said Purdy.
In April, parents Peter Downs and Donna Jones pulled off a huge political upset by defeating two incumbent school board members that were backed by Mayor Francis Slay and were well financed by some of the city's business interests. But the support of the city's elite nor spending more than $50 per vote could make up for the incumbents' lack of parental and teacher support.
"There are a lot of angry people out there," James Buford told the St. Louis American. Indeed there were, and still are -- maybe even more today.
Pub Def asked has Post-Dispatch columnist Bill McClellan become the Che Guevara of southside liberalism? Don't ask us. Ask The Bill McClellan Motherfuckers!
In his state of the city address, Mayor Slay announced plans to seek voter approval for a sales tax that would pay to hire 50 new officers and fund a "Career Criminal Unit" in the city prosecutor’s office.
Post-Dispatch publisher Terrance C.Z. Eggerresigned. "Even in a job you love, sometimes 10 years is enough," he said.
The five-way race to replace the term-limited State Sen. Pat Dougherty began to heat up with the candidates attending forums around the city. Pub Def's camera was there at many.
Maxine Johnson, a homeowner in the 3rd Ward, picketed on Easter Sunday in front of Bethlehem Lutheran Church to call attention to a plan supported by Ald. Freeman Bosley, Sr. to use eminent domain to take her home as part of a planned redevelopment project.
On April 21, Vince Schoemehl and his supporters celebrated the 25th anniversary of his swearing-in as mayor of the City of St. Louis.
Pub Def's camera was there as Air Force One landed in Columbia carrying President George W. Bush (Click here to see our exclusive photos). Anti-abortion activists parked two large trucks in front of the State Capitol displaying graphic photos of aborted fetuses. They were meant to send a loud message to President Bush and others during his visit.
Mayor Francis Slay's statement on recently released statistics showing violent crime on the increase in the city...
Totals and trends are two things to look at in the annual crime reports. Neither dynamic has much good news for City residents in 2006. There were too many crimes reported in 2006 – and the trend in reports for some violent crimes in the first half of the year was upward.
Chief Joe Mokwa doesn’t make a lot of excuses about that. He notes that bad schools, a sluggish economy, and some practices in other parts of the criminal justice system are among the causes of some sorts of crime. And he notes, correctly, that most City neighborhoods are safe places and that St. Louis’s crime numbers are generally in line with other cities our size. But, the chief knows that, whatever the causes of crime or the City’s relative ranking in the surveys, his department’s most important job is to arrest the bad guys wherever they are.
Thanks to City voters, there will be more police officers out on our streets next year. And the chief has already announced plans to concentrate his forces in the six most dangerous City neighborhoods and against the most dangerous repeat offenders. That should mean fewer bad guys on the streets of fewer neighborhoods next year – and better totals and trends.
Friday afternoon, the day the Special Advisory Committee on St. Louis Public Schools recommended that an appointed three-person board run the city schools for the next 6-10 years, Mayor Francis Slay sat down with PUB DEF to discuss what it all means for the children and parents of St. Louis City.
"The school district is in crisis. It's been on a downward spiral for quite some time," said Slay.
"It's not something that happened last week, or several months ago, or even four years ago. It's something that's been going on for a number of years."
But some would argue that the current state of the SLPS financial and academic spiral can be traced back to 2003, the year longtime superintendent Cleveland Hammonds retired and four new members, all backed by Mayor Slay, were elected to the school board. Since then the district went from a positive to a negative fund balance, slipped further away from full accreditation (after being only two points away), and has lost the confidence of the city's parents, voters and corporate community.
But Slay maintains that the current woes have more to do with troubles which started much earlier.
"What happened back then is something that was created by the crisis this district presented," said Slay.
He said the financial situation realized in 2003 forced the board to make some tough decisions causing some disruptions. But the mayor repeated his view that the school district's problems go back many, many years.
"This started a long time ago," he said.
Even if all of the Advisory Committee's recommendations, which seem to attempt to take politics (and the voters) out of the process for a while, are eventually adopted, the central question of how to better educate urban children is barely addressed in their report and is by no means a riddle only we in St. Louis are scratching our heads about.
All across America, large school districts are trying to answer the same question: How do we prepare poor children for the world of the future while competing with the deadly challenges of their world today? None of these recommendations guarantee success. So we asked the mayor if at the end of two, four, even six years into this latest experiment, SLPS still isn't succeeding -- what then?
"I think everyone involved in this ought to make sure that doesn't happen," said Slay.
The Board of Aldermen today approved Mayor Francis Slay's appointments to the Locust Central Business District. Samuel Coleman was reappointed to the board, representing the district's renters. Harry Michael was also appointed to the board, replacing Brad Hamilton.
Mayor Francis Slay has requested that Gov. Matt Blunt again mobilize the National Guard to aid a city that is largely without power.
According to Jeff Rainford, the mayor's chief of staff, there are approximately 53,000 city households currently without electricity -- compared to 95,000 earlier this year when summer storms left hundreds of thousands of residents without power for several days.
It appears that for many residents, it's the same story, different season. Ameren officials say it could be 24-48 hours before they will even know when power will be restored.
To help deal with the extremely cold tempertures (expected to drop in the single digits tonight), Rainford said four heating centers are open (see below), with the Wohl Recreation Center, 1515 N. Kingshighway, being left open throughout the night.
Most of the city's libraries are with power and open for people to warm up in. While the city's homeless are being directed to the 12th and Park Recreation Center, 1410 S. Tucker Blvd.
Rainford said the fire department checked on 60 of the city's senior centers this morning and found 11 without power. He said efforts are underway to get power generators set up at those facilities.
And many more generators are on the way. Rainford said the state is purchasing close to 600 generators which will arrive sometime tomorrow. The mayor has requested that the governor send some National Guardsmen to help set up those generators and to help provide primary medical care, just as they did this summer.
Slay praised city workers for helping to clear the streets early this morning. "The Streets Department has done an outstanding job in clearing the arterials and many of the secondary roads," the mayor said on KSDK at noon. He said their work enables Ameren and emergency workers to get where they need to go.
If anyone needs assistance, they are asked to call 1-800-427-4626. This number is operated by the United Way and only for people needing help, not to ask Ameren when power is coming back on. Please be safe and take care of your neighbors.
Warming Centers in the City of St. Louis:
Township Hall (2060 Delmar) St. Louis Senior Center (5602 Arsenal) Friendly Temple Missionary Baptist Church (5544 Dr. Martin Luther King) Wohl Recreation Center (1515 N. Kingshighway)
While other urban mayors are fighting to take the reigns of their city's failing school districts, Mayor Francis Slay continues to push instead for the state's Republican governor to take over St. Louis Public Schools. And he's finding an ally in the woman he first appointed to the school board.
After denials four months ago by his aides, Robin Wahby and Ed Rhode, of secret conversations first reported by PUB DEF in July in which the mayor's office called on the state to intervene following the defeat of his hand-picked school board candidates, Mayor Slay, a Democrat, has grown more and more vocal about his desire for Gov. Matt Blunt to take control over St. Louis' beleaguered schools.
"A State takeover of the district is a needed first step," the mayor wrote on his website Saturday.
"If legislation is needed to make the law clear and to protect a takeover from legal challenge, the Missouri General Assembly should pass a bill the first month it is in session -- and the Governor should sign it."
The current school board president, who Slay appointed to the board in 2004 after former member Rochelle Moore was removed because of her erratic behavior, has joined Slay in calling for state intervention.
Veronica O'Brien said that while she doesn't yet support an all-out "takeover," she does think the state should do away with the superintendent's office.
"A state takeover in the truest sense would be disastrous and it would not help the children," O'Brien told KSDK this week. But she said she wants to see the position of superintendent completely eliminated and replaced by two positions; a chief operating officer and a chief academic officer.
O'Brien also has begun to undermine the credibility of the very woman she abruptly introduced as superintendent just four months ago.
"Dr. [Diana] Bourisaw does not have the experience to handle some things in this district," O'Brien told Channel 5. She said she once believed Bourisaw had the "potential to grow," but no longer.
O'Brien said she doesn't believe she personally deserves any of the blame for the current state of the district. "I don't think I bear the burden of many years of the district falling apart," she said.
In that regard, she and the mayor are again on the same page.
For three years, between April 2003 and April 2006, Mayor Slay enjoyed unprecedented influence over St. Louis Public Schools. Under the direction of his original slate of candidates -- Vince Schoemehl, Bob Archibald, Ronald Jackson and Darnetta Clinkscale, who later became the heavy-handed board majority -- the district embarked on an expensive experiment, overseen and co-directed from the mayor's own office, that turned control of the district over to a New York City-based corporate turnaround firm and a superintendent that had absolutely no prior experience in education.
When the dust settled, the district was left in debt, the community was even more divided, and the New Yorkers where back in New York preparing for their next adventure in New Orleans.
But Slay, like O'Brien, accepts no blame for his role in today's mess.
"It would be controversial to give up local control of the St. Louis Public Schools, but it would be plain wrong to allow the district to continue to betray the futures of thousands of students," Slay wrote today on his website. "It's past time for a state takeover. Why not just say that?"
If Slay and O'Brien get their way, it would put St. Louis City residents in the very unique position of being perhaps the only city population in America with no control over either its own police force or its own public schools.
Now the commentary:
It is not leadership to jump to the front of a steady march and join in the chorus. Indeed, it is cowardice for elected leaders to abandon their mission and turn over the power voters invested in them to outsiders -- whether they be from New York City or Jefferson City.
If Mayor Slay wants to be a good leader and if he truly wants someone to have the authority to "put the district in the hands of a strong administrator with a mandate to stabilize the district and start it on the long road to recovery," as he says, then he should ask for that power, not pass the buck to a governor who has repeatedly voiced his own insensitivity to this state's urban people.
Instead of giving our power over to the state, the mayor should ask for control over his city's schools -- as mayors have done in Chicago, Cleveland and Los Angeles, and as is currently being considered in Seattle and Washington D.C.
It would be controversial, but no more so than if a governor who is not directly accountable to St. Louisans was given control.
And at least there would finally be one person the voters of this city could hold accountable for the future of our public schools.
STILL BLUNTED -- Missouri Congressman Roy Blunt, father of Gov. Matt Blunt, fended off opposition to his House leadership post today. By a vote of 137-57, Papa Blunt beat out Arizonan John Shadegg to be minority whip when the new Congress convenes in January.
AND THE OSCAR GOES TO... Director Frank Popper and State Senator-elect Jeff Smith have to be worried silly with excitement about the recent announcement of the Academy's short list. I mean, will this actually beMartin Scorsese's year?
THE TROOPS TURN THEIR BACKS ON AMERICA -- Where has the patriotism that followed September 11, 2001 gone? We can remember when Americans dared not question the leadership of our country's elected officials! But leave it to some battle-scarred war veterans to go and disrespect our local political warrior.
At last weekend's scantly-attended Veteran's Day parade, eight veterans literally turned their backs on Mayor Francis Slay when he rose to speak. They told a Post-Dispatch reporter they were angry about the departure of the Soldiers Memorial's longtime superintendent, Ralph Wiechert.
According to the Post, Wiechert, who was in the audience, said he had had "no support" from City Hall for repairs at the Memorial.
Well, I guess next they'll be asking Congress not to cut their health benefits! Don't they realize we're at war? It's about sacrifice, people.
Proposition P, a sales tax increase to fund two new recreation facilities in the City, passed (60/40).
Click here to see PUB DEF's video of Mayor Francis Slay explaining this plan.
Proposition R again confirmed that the vast majority (65%) of City residents want cops and other police department employees to live in the city limits. However, the state-controlled police board already voted to lift the requirement just weeks before voters went to the polls yesterday.
Click here to see PUB DEF's video of the police board's controversial vote.
Proposition 1, to raise the maximum allowed fine in the city, failed again (46/54).
Propositions 2, 3 and 4, all making changes to the civil service system, passed.
BUSH IN THE STICKS -- Air Force One landed at the Springfield-Branson Airport yesterday at 6:55 p.m. carrying President George W. Bush, Karl Rove and the gang. According to Springfield's KY3, he is scheduled to speak at a campaign rally for Jim Talent at 9:20 this morning. The two will then head to an invitation-only rally at noon at Missouri Southern State University in Joplin.
JUDGE GETS A BREAK -- According to the Post-Dispatch, U.S. District Judge Charles A. Shaw has been cleared in a complaint filed earlier this year alleging he told 314 people at a local naturalization ceremony to vote for Congressman Lacy Clay. The Appeals Court ruled that there was not "sufficient evidence" to believe the incident actually happened.
Apparently the word of a Post reporter and 314 new Americans just doesn't cut the mustard.
THE MAYOR, THE CHIEF, and "THE SYSTEM" -- The Mayor and Police Chief Joe Mokwa were side-by-side this week defending their city's honor (if not their streets) from the label of "Most Dangerous City". But as the American Spectator observed yesterday, just a few days before, Mokwa was trying to explain why his department can't seem to keep this city safe -- it's the judges' fault!
Mokwa complained to the Police Board that his officers "keep re-arresting the same habitual criminals, whose presence keeps some neighborhoods in a crime rut and makes the job of officers more difficult and dangerous."
No wonder, the chief continued, "that it's difficult to make an impact on crime while there are so many predators on probation"...
The problem -- and more important, the solution -- is plain, noted one beleaguered police commissioner: "The police are doing desperate work on a nightly basis....The neighborhoods are crying out, but the judicial system is turning its back to them....We've got to demand stronger sentencing, stronger results. It's our judicial system that's letting the people down."
The police board blaming the judges? You know, in a place where elected officials were more accountable to the people, a police chief would be taking heat from his boss, the mayor. Or the circuit attorney would be taking heat from her boss, the people, for not getting tough sentences for hard offenders.
But in the City of St. Louis, "the man" blames "the system" for our dangerous predicament. And we just watch.
On Nov. 7, St. Louis City voters will be asked to raise their sales tax by 1/8 percent to pay for the construction and maintenance of two new state-of-the-art recreation centers -- one in north St. Louis and one in south St. Louis -- and to provide a dedicated revenue source for maintaining and upgrading the City's existing recreation facilities.
In an interview yesterday, Mayor Francis Slay said the new tax is estimated to generate about $4.37 million annually. Should Proposition P pass, the City would almost immediately issue bonds to pay for building the new rec-plexes (which cost about $19 million each) and upgrading its existing rec centers (about $9.5 million). Expanding the number and scope of recreation programs offered by the City will cost about $700,000 per year, according to Slay.
The southside rec-plex is going to be built in Carondolet Park. The northside location has not been finalized, but O'Fallon Park is the frontrunner after receiving the endorsement of the Aldermanic Black Caucus. Should the tax increase pass, Slay said to look for doors to open on the two facilities in two to three years.
If Prop P fails next Tuesday, Slay said it will have been another "lost opportunity" for the City of St. Louis.
"This is what it's going to take," said Slay. "It's going to take something like this to really do something that makes a difference as far as recreation in the City."
The Police Board voted this morning to lift the residency requirement for civilian employees who have been with the department for seven continuous years.
Mayor Francis Slay had made a motion to table the vote until after the Nov. 7 non-binding referendum in which voters would let their preference be known in the matter, but the mayor's motion was not seconded by any other board member.
Video later...
UPDATE: Here are some clips from today's meeting. BTW, the final vote was 3-2 with Slay and JoAnn Freeman Murrow voting against -- though interestingly, Murrow did not second Slay's motion to table the vote.
The state-appointed St. Louis Metropolitan Police Board will be meeting this morning at 9:30 a.m. at the department's headquarters, 1200 Clark Avenue. They are scheduled to vote on a proposal to change the residency requirement for civilian employees -- seven weeks before the public is allowed to let its feelings be known on this issue in a Nov. 7 non-binding referendum.
Board President Chris Goodson and Mayor Francis Slay (who as mayor is also a member of the board) have not responded to requests for comment on whether this action is further evidence that the police board has no accountability to the citizens of the City of St. Louis?
Michael Allen of Ecology of Absenceis reporting that Richard Callow, political consultant to Mayor Francis Slay and live-in boyfriend of deputy mayor of development Barb Geisman, is the new chairman of the City's Preservation Board. Allen writes:
At its Monday meeting, the Preservation Board elected a new chairperson: Richard Callow, the public relations consultant who edits Mayor Slay's campaign website. New board member David Richardson nominated Callow after Melanie Fathman nominated architect Anthony Robinson, a reasonable voice who would have done well in the position.
Callow received the votes of Richardson, Luis Porello, Mary "One" Johnson (who presided over the vote rather clumsily), John Burse and new member Michael Killeen. Robinson received Fathman's vote, and the nominated parties abstained.
VIDEO: Citywide Elected Officials Join for Back to School Message
By Antonio D. French
Filed
Tuesday, August 22, 2006 at 9:31 PM
Several citywide elected officials joined today to bring attention to the effort to get St. Louis kids to attend the first day of school on August 28.
Gathered in the rotunda of City Hall, the group included most of the city's at-large officeholders. But noticeably absent was Mayor Francis Slay.
After unprecedented influence over the city's school district for three years, Slay has been a vocal critic of the new school board majority and has even called on the state to move in to take over the troubled district. Reporters were told that Slay -- as well as Aldermanic Board Pres. Jim Shrewsbury, the second highest ranking city official -- was on vacation.
Comptroller Darlene Green told reporters not to read too much into the absence of the mayor or a representative from his office. "This message is not about the adults today. It's about the children," she said.
"Though there are troubled times in the district, we want the children to know that the elected leadership in the City of St. Louis stands behind them 100%," said Green.
School board member Peter Downs today charged Mayor Francis Slay with playing politics with needed funding for St. Louis Public Schools.
In his St. Louis Schools Watch email newsletter (which PUB DEF hosts a blog for), Downs says the City of St. Louis, which collects taxes on behalf of the school district, is currently holding on to about $4.5 million of SLPS' money.
"Like a modern-day George Wallace standing in the schoolhouse door, St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay is still trying to deny educational opportunities to St. Louis children," wrote Downs. "His latest stunt is to withhold tax money from the city's public school system."
Downs also charges that Slay is using building inspectors to harm the school district. "For the three years that Slay controlled the schools through his hand-picked board members, he turned a deaf ear to parent, student, and employee reports of building safety issues," said Downs.
"After losing control of the schools, he bided his time until it would seem he could do the most damage. A week before school starts, he sends in inspectors to find any possible problem."
A spokesman for the mayor has not yet responded to a request for comment.
MORE: The $4.5 million that Downs is apparently referring to is SLPS' cut of hundreds of property tax bills being challenged by local property owners -- including many local companies.
Readers may remember that we reported back in February that the State Tax Commission sided with Nestle Purina in its case against Tax Assessor Ed Bushmeyer and the City of St. Louis. The decision meant that the company would pay taxes on its property valued at $19 million and not the $47 million that the city had assessed. Since then, more companies have challenged their assessments.
Downs seems to subscribe to a conspiracy theory running around certain government hallways that has the mayor organizing his corporate pals to hold back needed funds from the school district (and the city too, by the way) in order to push the district over the brink of financial ruin so the state can come in to take over.
The Mayor's office still has not responded to our request for comment. But a source in the Comptroller's office has confirmed that the City of St. Louis is current on its obligations to SLPS.
STILL MORE... Jeff Rainford, Mayor Francis Slay's chief of staff, hit back this evening at allegations from a member of the St. Louis City School Board that the mayor was withholding tax money from the district. Here is the text of an email he wrote to PUB DEF responding to Peter Downs' charges.
Peter Downs, William Purdy, Veronica O'Brien, and Donna Jones have been the recent subjects of a great deal of community anger, worry, and scorn because of their unfortunate decision to force Dr. Creg Williams to resign. To deflect some of this emotion, the quarrelsome quartet have been willing to say almost anything about almost anyone. Normally, I ignore them. Mr. Down’s most recent whoppers, though, are big enough to demand a response – if not from the District, at least from me. Using the readership of his muck-raising Internet newsletter, Downs now accuses Mayor Francis Slay of withholding $4.5 million in taxes collected on behalf of the schools. Mr. Downs also accuses the mayor of "unleashing building inspectors" into the schools to prevent them from opening on time. In fact, the Mayor does not collect taxes. The Revenue Collector, elected by the people and independent of the Mayor, collects taxes. The Mayor has nothing to do with the process of tax collection. And, as Mr. Downs (and everyone in the building division of St. Louis Public Schools probably knows), the City inspects the buildings EVERY year before the start of school to make sure they are safe. One likely consequence of Mr. Downs’ outburst of fiction? A school district mired even more deeply in disarray. That's the real shame.
Mayor Francis Slay took the stand today in the trial of Percy Green vs. The City of St. Louis. He testified -- as did his deputy, Barb Geisman, yesterday and his chief of staff, Jeff Rainford, later this morning -- that Green was not fired in retribution for comments he made in a June 17, 2001 article in the Post-Dispatch.
Percy Green contends that he was fired as director of the Minority and Women Owned Business Enterprise (MBE/WBE) Certification program because he was openly critical of what he told the Post was a "broken system." He also said this week that Slay wanted to weaken the office "because his major political contributors are owners of businesses that stand to profit from doing business with illegitimate 'front' companies."
Closing arguments in the case are expected around 12:30 after which Judge Jean C. Hamilton will hand the case over to a jury of 7 whites and 1 black. We expect a verdict later today.
Developing...
UPDATE: The jury found in favor of the City of St. Louis. Green says he has not decided yet if he will appeal.
VIDEO: Residency Supporters and Opponents Address Police Board
By Antonio D. French
Filed
Thursday, August 17, 2006 at 1:12 AM
Meeting tonight at the Tandy Center in north St. Louis, members of the St. Louis Police Board again heard from civilian employees of the department who want to be allowed to move out of the City of St. Louis. Board members also heard tonight from citizens who want all police employees to live where they work.
Jamilah Nasheed, who as a new State Rep will soon be representing the north St. Louis neighborhood where the meeting was held, spoke against lifting the residency requirement.
"I'm against any city resident that's on the city payroll to be living outside of the city," said Nasheed.
And in his first interview with PUB DEF, Mayor Francis Slay said he hopes the police board, which as mayor he is a member of, waits to decide on this issue until after city voters are again allowed to let their feelings be known through a non-binding referendum which will appear on the November ballot.
"Frankly, tonight there was a total of 13 people that testified. We have 350,000 residents in the City of St. Louis. I'm sure there's a lot more than 13 in this neighborhood alone that have an opinion on this issue," said Slay.
During the power outages last month, more than 1,500 people were left in the dark at Lambert Airport after three separate power generators failed. An investigation by Chris Hayes of Channel 2 News revealed that those generators had not been properly serviced in years, despite claims by the airport's deputy director, Girard Slay, brother of Mayor Francis Slay, that they had been tested as recently as June 30.
At a press conference after the storms which knocked power out to much of the region, Girard Slay told reporters that the generators had been regularly maintained -- including the June 30 test which he said included them being ran "at idle speed for a half hour." He told the same thing to Lambert's director, Kevin Dolliole.
But records reviewed by Channel 2 showed the June 30 "tests" did not allow the generators to run at all. In fact, according to the station's report which aired last night, there is no record of the main terminal's generator being turned on at all since September of last year.
After learning the truth about the maintenance records, Dolliole told Channel 2 that the situation was "unacceptable" and said he has notified Mayor Slay about pre-disciplinary hearings which may include his brother.
Slay has posted a comment about the situation on his blog. He notes that "a supervisor initially claimed that [the generators] had been tested every month." He does not mention his own relationship to that supervisor.
TALENT WON'T TELL - The Secretary of State's office last week approved for the November ballot a measure that would raise the minimum wage in Missouri to $6.50 ($1.35 higher than the federal minimum wage). Gov. Matt Blunt is against it, candidate for U.S. Senate Claire McCaskill says she supports it, but her opponent, incumbent Jim Talent won't say whether he favors it or is against it.
We do know that Talent did support a bump in the federal minimum wage -- but only if it was linked to another tax cut for businesses and America's most wealthy individuals. We also know (thanks to the Associated Press) that one of the groups opposing the ballot measure is the National Federation of Independent Business, which Talent briefly lobbied for in Washington after he lost his 2000 campaign for Governor and left the U.S. House.
THE CASE OF PERCY V. SLAY - Percy Green will have his day in court Wednesday. The jury trial is expected to last only a few days as the legendary activist makes his case against the City of St. Louis and Mayor Francis Slay for his 2001 termination as director of the Minority and Women Owned Business Enterprise (MBE/WBE) Certification program. Green contends that the mayor wanted to weaken the office for political reasons.
"The purpose of the certification program was to prevent white, male-owned businesses from setting up 'front' companies to get city contracts that should go to legitimate minority- or woman-owned businesses," wrote Green in an email. "A weak (or non-existent) certification program benefits Slay because his major political contributors are owners of businesses that stand to profit from doing business with illegitimate 'front' companies."
The trial is set for August 16, at 9:00 a.m. in the new Thomas Eagleton Federal Courthouse, 111 South 10th St., in Judge Jean C. Hamilton's Courtroom, #16 North.
State Senator Maida Coleman told PUB DEF today that she still feels disrespected by Mayor Francis Slay and would have a tough time forgiving her former ally even if he did apologize for his recent behavior -- which he has not.
As we reported over the weekend, Coleman was taken aback by a call on her cell phone from an angry and loud Slay last week. The mayor yelled at the senator about a letter she recently wrote to Gov. Matt Blunt defending the recent actions of the St. Louis City School Board.
"The only instability that you talk about in your press release that has occurred happened under the old majority school board, which the Mayor of St. Louis helped elect," wrote Coleman.
Slay ended his tirade with a thinly veiled threat: "Good luck with any future political plans you may have."
Coleman, who asserts that she never yelled back at the mayor, told PUB DEF today that even if Slay did offer to patch things up with her, she doesn't know if she can forgive him for speaking to her in such a disrespectful and bullying manner.
"I'll make my peace with God. I'll have to think twice about Francis Slay," she said.
SLAY'S "EYE" IS WATCHING THE POST Apparently Mayor Francis Slay -- or at least his blogger, Richard Callow -- has joined the ranks of people who think The Post-Dispatch sucks.
"The P-D's spotty and often inaccurate coverage of local, state, national, and international news has made opening the hometown newspaper a chore fewer and fewer St. Louisans are willing to face each morning," said MayorSlay.com on Wednesday.
"The paper's current struggling fiscal health and demoralized voice are drags on our own civic renaissance," it continued.
The Mayor lists the surnames of a few local bigwigs (Roberts, Koplar, Kent, Steward, Sherberg, Cohen, Suggs, Vittert, Franklin) that might be willing to takeover the paper should Lee Enterprises decide to sell their flagship.
"I will be watching this closely," the blog post ends mysteriously.
THE CASE OF SLAY V. MAIDA Maybe it's the new, tougher Francis Slay or maybe it's just frustration at his recent loss of power -- not electricity, but over St. Louis Public Schools -- but whatever it is, St. Francis is losing his cool.
A source tells PUB DEF that State Sen. Maida Coleman was taken aback by a recent phone call from an angry and loud Mayor Slay. He was furious with Coleman -- who on many occasions has carried water for the mayor and his southside allies -- because of a letter she recently wrote to Gov. Matt Blunt.
In the letter, Coleman blasted Blunt for putting his nose into the SLPS superintendent swap. "The School Board made an administrative decision based upon what they thought was in the best interest of the children of the St. Louis Public Schools and I support their authority, which is derived from the citizens who elected them," she wrote.
"The only instability that you talk about in your press release that has occurred happened under the old majority school board, which the Mayor of St. Louis helped elect," said Coleman.
Speaking truth to power -- go 'head, Maida.
BLUNT, ELECTION BOARD UPGRADES When Ed Martin prepares to step down as chairman of the City's Election Board to try to help salvage the last two years of Gov. Matt Blunt's first term, it looks like he might be leaving behind a significant legacy here in St. Louis.
Besides the big switch to electronic voting machines, which happened under his watch, Martin will also be leaving behind a couple of other techno upgrades.
The first arrives this week much to the delight of the city's political journalists. We're told that the Board has adopted one of the ideas PUB DEF dropped in the suggestion box back in March: Wi-Fi on Election Night. That's right, reporters and bloggers will be able to relay results as soon as they are made available via their laptops. But maybe we won't even have to thanks to the other upgrade: a new website with up-to-date election results.
What?! This can't be. We're talking about the St. Louis City Board of Elections, right?
The new STLElections.com is loaded with a bunch of bells and whistles, including "election alerts" to get reminded of upcoming elections and, best of all, to get election results automatically delivered to your inbox. Flippin' Sweet!
State and local elected leaders gathered for a press conference and photo op at Wohl Community Center in north St. Louis yesterday. Governor Matt Blunt, U.S. Senator Jim Talent, Mayor Francis Slay, and St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley thanked each other for their cooperation during the ongoing crisis that has thousands of St. Louis area residents still without electricity.
The politicians also asked the public to be patient, saying that Ameren, the electric utility, was doing all it can.
"They are overwhelmed," said Slay. He said Ameren's resources have been extremely strained by the amount of storm damage. "Why that occurred and where do we go from here, we're going to address in the future, but at this point, complaining and pointing fingers is not the way to approach it," said the mayor.
Monday's more favorable assessment of Ameren's handling of the situation contrasted with the mayor's comments in Saturday's Post-Dispatch. In that article by reporter Jake Wagman, Slay blasted Ameren officials for being "very, very vague" about when power would be restored to the city.
"They don't really promise anything specifically - I think intentionally so," Wagman reported Slay saying in a briefing to aldermen at City Hall. He later added: "This is a life or death situation."
Wagman asked the mayor about his change in tone yesterday. Slay said his position has been consistent. "The article was inaccurate," he said. Slay said Ameren was vague because they didn't want to get people's hopes up prematurely.
If you're interested in hearing audio from the entire press conference, you can download it here. It's about 20 minutes long. Check back for the full video later.
KSDK is reporting that Mayor Francis Slay has asked Gov. Matt Blunt to send National Guard troops to the city. No, not to assume control of the city schools (yet), but to aid in the recovery from last night's storms.
Speaking on NewsChannel 5 at Noon, St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay says he has asked Missouri Governor Matt Blunt to call in the National Guard and declare a "State of Emergency." Mayor Slay said he expects National Guard troops to begin arriving Thursday evening.
Ameren says the storm was the worst in its history. Click here to get the latest information about outages from the company's website.
