ST. LOUIS — The top attorney for city government and City Treasurer Tishaura Jones are at odds over whether she had the authority to execute a three-year, $7 million contract with a company to manage city parking meter operations.
The issue also is becoming embroiled in an ongoing court fight over the treasurer’s powers initiated by, among others, Alderman Jeffrey Boyd, who’s running against Jones for treasurer in the August Democratic primary.
At issue is a contract Jones executed on April 10 with Hudson and Associates LLC of ºüÀêÊÓƵ to manage parking meter collections, maintenance and the city’s parking violations bureau. Hudson began working under the contract in mid-May, Jones said in an interview.
The city lawyer, City Counselor Julian Bush, said in a legal opinion May 27 that the contract was invalid because it wasn’t in the budget for the fiscal year ending June 30 approved last year by the Parking Commission and the Board of Aldermen.
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“I don’t find an appropriation authorizing the expenditures called for by this purported contract,†Bush said in the opinion, which was requested by Boyd. Boyd and Jones, who are longtime antagonists, are both on the Parking Commission, which has discussed the contract.
Bush said that while the budget included $2.8 million for outsourcing, the overall contract totals more than $7 million. The parking budget for the upcoming fiscal year, which has been approved by the commission and is pending before aldermen, has about $2.3 million for outsourcing.
Jones, in an interview Thursday, said she and her office’s attorney disagree with Bush’s reasoning.
She asserted that the parking budget always has handled parking operation contracts on a year-to-year basis, with only the amount needed for the year in question provided. That’s about $2.35 million. “The money’s in the budget,†she said.
Bush also said the contract isn’t valid yet because Comptroller Darlene Green hasn’t certified it. Jones, in response, said Green has notified her that the comptroller’s certifying of contracts issued by county-type offices like the treasurer won’t begin until July 1. Jones said that’s a new procedure.
The Hudson firm had previously been a subcontractor under both Jones and her predecessor as treasurer, Larry Williams, for other firms hired to do such work. Jones said Hudson was chosen in a competitive process over several other companies.
Meanwhile, Boyd said he and other plaintiffs are raising the points cited by Bush, along with other new issues, as an addition to their lawsuit.
The overall suit seeks to give more authority over city parking revenue to aldermen and the city Board of Estimate and Apportionment, and less to the treasurer, an independent county-type office.
The Missouri Supreme Court earlier this year dismissed Jones’ appeal of a circuit judge’s 2018 decision voiding state laws outlining the treasurer’s role but didn’t rule on the merits of the case.
Instead, the high court said it can’t consider an appeal yet because the lower-court judge has yet to rule on some other points raised by plaintiffs in the case.