ST. LOUIS 鈥 Mayor Tishaura O. Jones opposes plans to eliminate the elected comptroller鈥檚 office and 狐狸视频鈥 unusual, three-headed executive branch, a top aide said.
The proposals from the city鈥檚 Charter Commission would, if ratified by city voters, give the mayor鈥檚 office more control over the city鈥檚 finances and could allow the chief executive to make decisions more quickly. Politicians and political scientists have long derided the current system, which dates back to 1914, as an inefficient relic.
But Jared Boyd, Jones鈥 chief of staff, told the crowd at a commission hearing Monday night that the mayor stands with Comptroller Darlene Green, who says the changes will remove a critical check on corruption.
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鈥淲e get a chance to work with Comptroller Green on a day-in, day-out basis,鈥 Boyd said, 鈥渁nd see the ways that she has helped the city in ways that may not be obvious to everyone.鈥
Boyd鈥檚 comments marked a potentially fatal blow to some of the most ambitious and controversial plans considered by the citizen-led Charter Commission, whose members Jones appointed to conduct a yearlong review of the city鈥檚 foundational document and suggest changes to improve it.
Green, in office since 1995, has long opposed eliminating her job and its seat on the Estimate Board, which controls city spending. And challenging that has always carried the risk of going after one of the city鈥檚 longest-serving Black politicians.
But at age 68, some had begun to speculate she might retire rather than seek another term next year. She had also come under fire for failing to pay the city鈥檚 bills on time, coming into work only once or twice a week, and overseeing rapid turnover on her staff.
The message from the first Black female mayor Monday night, combined with vocal opposition from other Black community leaders in the crowd Monday night, reinforced Green鈥檚 hold on power and left commissioners in a difficult position less than two weeks out from the deadline to submit proposals to the Board of Aldermen for placement on the November ballot.
Commissioner Anna Crosslin, who used to run the refugee and immigration center called the International Institute, said she wasn鈥檛 surprised by Boyd鈥檚 remarks.
鈥淚t鈥檚 an election year,鈥 she said.
But Commissioner David Dwight said Monday鈥檚 meeting, where North Side leaders and residents berated the commission as racist and out-of-touch, should trigger some serious reflection. The commission, he said, had failed to properly engage the public in its work.
Aldermanic President Megan Green, who has been open to getting rid of the Estimate Board, was also taken aback.
鈥淭here needs to be much more community engagement before this is sent to voters,鈥 she said. 鈥淓ither by the commission, the Board of Aldermen or both.鈥
City leaders have debated the merits of the comptroller鈥檚 office and the Estimate Board for decades. Both ideas were adopted more than a century ago to curb then-rampant corruption by diluting the mayor鈥檚 power over city coffers.
The Estimate Board, composed of the mayor, the comptroller and the aldermanic president, requires the chief executive to convince at least one of the other two to sign off on budgets, money transfers and contracts. Having an independent comptroller鈥檚 office allows all bills to be paid separately from the mayor鈥檚 office. And a requirement for the comptroller to sign all contracts before they can become final gives leverage to resist a questionable deal.
But over the decades, critics have said the Estimate Board and the comptroller鈥檚 office are also choke points that enable more political maneuvering and delays in decision-making. While mayors in other cities only have to negotiate budgets with legislators, the mayor of 狐狸视频 has to horse-trade with two other officials who have unusually powerful leverage.
But the last time reformers proposed doing away with the ideas, in 2004, the proposals fell well short of the 60% vote threshold they needed to change the charter.
And in recent days, some of the themes of the opposition then have reprised themselves.
Comptroller Green posted to Facebook Friday saying that the elimination of her position and the Estimate Board would strip away essential checks and balances. She urged supporters to show up at Monday鈥檚 public hearing on the matter.
鈥淒on鈥檛 let them muzzle the city鈥檚 watchdog,鈥 she said.
Then on Monday night, supporters packed a room at Julia Davis Public Library, on the largely Black north side of the city. After months of publicly withholding her opinion, the mayor made clear she is on the comptroller鈥檚 side. And the other speakers took turns accusing the Charter Commission, which has a Black majority, of trying to reduce Black political power.
鈥淚t is petty, it is political, and it is geared toward what you intended it to do, which is to minimize Black leadership,鈥 said the Rev. Darryl Gray, a longtime activist and current chair of the city jail oversight board.
Ollie Stewart, a longtime advocate, said the comptroller鈥檚 office holds a special place in local Black political history. She recalled how North Side voters banded together to get John Bass elected as the first Black comptroller in the 1970s, and how Black leaders traded their support for white Mayor Vincent C. Schoemehl Jr. to get Virvus Jones, who is Black, into the comptroller job in the 1980s. Virvus Jones is Mayor Tishaura O. Jones鈥 father.
鈥淲e earned the comptroller鈥檚 office,鈥 she said. 鈥淭hey didn鈥檛 give it to us.鈥
The charter commission is scheduled to meet again at 4:30 p.m. today via Zoom at , and at 4:30 p.m. Monday, July 8, via Zoom at .