ST. LOUIS — The embattled chief of the region’s tourism bureau plans to retire when her contract expires next June, a spokesperson said Wednesday evening, defying critics calling for her immediate ouster.
The announcement follows a difficult few years for Kathleen “Kitty†Ratcliffe as the face of the troubled expansion of the downtown convention center, a taxpayer-funded project so far over its original budget that it’s not clear it can be completed. Things didn’t get any better this week.
On Monday, the Post-Dispatch reported that since Ratcliffe said officials would find at least $8 million in savings on the first phase of the project in April 2022, overruns have increased costs by $7 million, leaving nearly all of the city’s contingency funds exhausted. On Tuesday, in a virtual meeting mistakenly left open to the public, the board governing the ºüÀêÊÓƵ Convention and Visitors Commission heard a call for change at the top.
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David Robert, the board’s vice chair, spoke of ongoing issues with sales and operations, and trouble with staff morale, and called for “a change for the organization’s sake and for our people’s sake down there.â€
After the meeting, commission spokesperson Brian Hall downplayed the remarks, saying board members had begun “the process of succession planning†as Ratcliffe, who made $350,000 in 2022, neared the end of her contract. He said he didn’t even know if Ratcliffe planned to leave.
On Wednesday, however, he said he’d gotten more information.
“She’s been planning her retirement for quite some time,†he said. He said he could not explain why.
Ratcliffe, 66, was hired to head the CVC in 2006. She did not respond to a request for comment.
Next year is not soon enough for critics who have been calling for Ratcliffe’s resignation for months.
Bob Clark, the longtime chief of builder Clayco who has condemned the convention center expansion as unambitious and doomed to fail, told board members  Tuesday that new leadership was needed immediately to salvage the project.
“Now,†he wrote in a letter. “Not later.â€
ºüÀêÊÓƵ County Councilman Ernie Trakas said 60 more days should be long enough. An honest broker would know when it’s time to go, he said.
“I guess that’s not the case with Kitty Ratcliffe.â€