March 2019 Perspective

Friends,

First a quick reminder; our next CCBA full membership meeting will be held on Thursday March 28th at the Crescent. The meeting will begin at 7pm. We invited the candidates for the Clayton School Board to attend and present their platforms as well as to answer your questions regarding the proposed School Tax Levy.  I will be sending a reminder to all members as the date approaches.

Now the real purpose of my communication to you, on February 11, 2019, Better Together filed an amended petition submitting a plan to merge St. Louis City and St. Louis County.  Your CCBA Board has researched this plan and discussed it in detail. We believe that our metro area has suffered as a result of the split and lack of coordination between and among St. Louis City, St. Louis County, and the 90 plus municipalities included within this area. This condition has resulted in a decline of our competitiveness to attract and retain the core elements of economic growth that would sustain our community in the long run. This has also contributed to a series of unintended consequences resulting in various social inequities as outlined in the Better Together Task Force Report all of which  place a drag on our ability as a Community to reach our full potential. Thus, at the highest level your Board is very supportive of the idea that we as a Community will be “Better Together”. However, as we continue to dig in, research and more deeply understand the Better Together Plan as submitted, we have come away with some deep concerns about what we may be getting ourselves into.

We have spent the last few weeks seeking out and meeting with various community leaders and experts in the field of political science and governance. Among those with whom we have met is E. Terrence Jones, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Professor Jones pointed out that the plan will cause the existing St. Louis County Executive, Steve Stenger, to submit a plan of merger by January 1, 2023, only a few short weeks following the vote to elect the proposed 33 members of the Metropolitan Council. Further, the plan presented by Mr. Stenger will automatically be finalized and adopted unless disapproved by resolution by 2/3 of the newly elected Metropolitan Council within 30 days of submission. Thus, this plan which will never have been voted on by the citizens of this Metro City will more likely than not be adopted.

The amount of power vested in Mr. Stenger as Metro Mayor is staggering. In fact, Professor Jones suggested that in all his research he could find no other civic official anywhere in the country vested with this much power. 

While your Board believes we are better together we also firmly believe in the checks and balances built into our democratic system. This plan as submitted, in essence will bypass those checks and balances and allow one person to establish a plan that may radically change the processes that govern and protect the citizens of our metro area communities without necessarily having had an opportunity to understand what the needs of each community are and to ensure citizens have a voice in the outcome. There will be no natural checks and balances to manage the performance of the Metro Mayor as he establishes and implements his merger plan and Mr. Stenger will have a term of office that keeps him in office until long after his plan is implemented. All we can do is hope he is acting in our best interests and that he is experienced enough to know what he is doing.

Your CCBA Board of Directors has discussed this in some detail and has decided to hold an informational meeting during the week of April 29, which will be designed to inform our membership about the nuances of the Better Together Plan and to provide a forum for debate. We will also open the meeting to other members of the Clayton Community. Professor Terrence Jones will be our speaker.

Before finalizing our plans, I am asking you to respond to me with your level of interest in attending. This will also give us a sense as to the size of the event and help us decide on the best venue. Please ask your building managers to circulate this note within your condo buildings and to help communicate back to me the level of interest in participating.  

Thank you for your attention and as always please reach out with any questions.

 Best regards,

 Brian Kinman, CCBA President