Board Hires Reed Aide as Attorney [Updated]
Filed Friday, January 18, 2008 at 12:00 PM
Following the sudden resignation of Denise Watson-Wesley Coleman as attorney and clerk for the St. Louis Board of Aldermen, in a closed session this morning, the board quickly hired a member of the Aldermanic President to fill the position.
According to documents obtained by PubDef through a “Sunshine Law” request, Dave Sweeney, looks to be getting a $22,000 pay raise — from $73,545.94 per year to Coleman’s salary of $96,014.10 annually. That is, unless the Board voted to change the salary, which we have not heard yet.
Here’s Coleman’s resignation letter, dated January 11, and also obtained via a “Sunshine” request. In it, she writes that her resignation would be effective February 10.
Coleman was the first African-American to hold that position. She was the compromise candidate and was voted on unanimously after the Board was bitterly divided, mostly along racial lines, between two other candidates, Hope Whitehead, the former head of the state Liquor Control Division, who was black, and Annette Kolis Mandel, a former mayor of Creve Coeur, who was white and an employee of Richard Callow’s Public Eye PR firm.
Coleman lasted less than six months.
Here’s video from the tumultuous meeting last year when the board first tried to select a new attorney.
Related Stories