A nonprofit group largely funded by a billionaire philanthropist and political donor is set to unveil a plan that would ask Missouri voters to force the city of ºüÀêÊÓƵ and ºüÀêÊÓƵ County together, reversing a split widely faulted for sinking the region’s ability to compete with peers such as Indianapolis and Nashville, Tenn.
Get ready to hear a lot more about it. The group, Better Together, will undertake a $25 million campaign to put a city-county merger vote on a statewide ballot in November 2020. The issue is likely to dominate public discussion in the region for much of the next two years.Â
Largely bankrolled by billionaire Rex Sinquefield, the group is preparing ballot language for a constitutional amendment that would superimpose a new type of government — a metro city — over the city and county. The action would not dissolve existing municipalities, but it would sharply curtail their ability to raise their own taxes, control development or run their own police and courts.
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The proposal, even in its infancy, has drawn skepticism and scorn from many municipal officials, pitting them against business executives who insist the region can’t move ahead without consolidation.
Chesterfield Mayor Bob Nation called the plan “ludicrous, thoroughly shortsighted … absolutely un-American and unfair.â€
But business leaders insist it must happen.
“I think there are an increasing number of people who realize this has to be done if ºüÀêÊÓƵ is going to rise to its potential and once again be recognized as one of the truly great metropolitan areas in this part of the world,†said George Herbert Walker III, a founder of , a cousin of the late President George Bush, and a former chief executive of ºüÀêÊÓƵ investment bank Stifel Financial Corp. “I am very excited about it. It’s taking off.â€
ºüÀêÊÓƵ' place among U.S. cities has slid steadily over the decades, from fourth in population in 1910 to 62nd in 2017. A merged city, with a combined population of 1.3 million residents, would be the 10th largest city in the country, between Dallas and San Jose, Census figures show.
People with direct knowledge of the plan shared details with the Post-Dispatch last week.
The proposal would allow local mayors and council members to remain in place. New “municipal districts†that would replace cities like Webster Groves and Bel-Nor could continue to raise utility and property taxes, operate parks and recreation, collect trash and recycling, and direct building and zoning. But they would lose their authority over roads, courts, police and economic development.
The region’s fire and school districts would not be affected.
The plan is being written by a five-member of prominent business and academic leaders. The recommendations are based on ideas raised through public forums, the Ferguson Commission , a report on in ºüÀêÊÓƵ, and Better Together’s own research.
Better Together has briefed dozens of business and civic leaders in recent weeks, and it says most are supportive. ºüÀêÊÓƵ Mayor Lyda Krewson and ºüÀêÊÓƵ County Executive Steve Stenger are on record supporting the effort, as are some business leaders.
“I think it’s something we absolutely have to do as a region,†said ºüÀêÊÓƵ Cardinals President Bill DeWitt III, who said he was briefed recently.
This effort is already raising the same types of fears that sunk previous reunification efforts: Residents worry they will lose the intimacies of small-town ºüÀêÊÓƵ — police officers who knock when garage doors stay open too long, the mayor who waves as he walks his dog. Some bristle at the thought of their tax dollars being spent fixing other communities.
ºüÀêÊÓƵ leaders have tried at least five times to put the city and county back together and failed each time.
History of failing
In 1876, city leaders wanted independence from ºüÀêÊÓƵ County, which they felt had outsized political clout. The booming city pushed its western border a few miles west and, believing it had enough room to grow, petitioned for the split that became known as “The Great Divorce.â€
By the time concerned leaders began to doubt their grandfathers’ decision to secede, other U.S. cities were outgrowing ºüÀêÊÓƵ. The 1920 Census demoted ºüÀêÊÓƵ to the sixth-largest city, from the fourth.
A look back at failed efforts to bring ºüÀêÊÓƵ city and ºüÀêÊÓƵ County back together following their 'Great Divorce' in 1876.
The first major effort to undo the split began in 1923 with the launch of the “Million Population Club,†which pitched a reunion with a combined population of 950,000.
Reunification bids were raised and defeated in 1930, 1959 and 1962.
But efforts continued:
A 1976 study under Mayor John H. Poelker found that more than $5 million could be saved by eliminating the city’s “county†offices, such as the city sheriff and treasurer, but it went nowhere.
Debate resurfaced in the 1980s. The business leadership group Civic Progress commissioned studies and drafted a merger plan. It went nowhere. In 1987, County Executive Gene McNary led an effort to consolidate the county, with a Board of Freeholders drawing up a plan to carve the area into 37 municipalities. Though both made headlines, neither made it to voters.
In 1995, Mayor Freeman Bosley Jr. and County Executive George “Buzz†Westfall told the Post-Dispatch the only thing holding back a merger was an “ego problem†among local officials.
Now Better Together executive director Nancy Rice says what began as a “quaint and adorable civics project†in 2013 will yield the nonprofit’s multimillion-dollar effort to change the state constitution in less than two years.
They’ll need at least 160,199 signatures to put a merger question on the ballot, according to a spokesman for Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft.
Better Together could have pursued several options for consolidating governments.
Opening the issue to all Missouri voters may give the effort a better chance of being enacted, but it is an approach that has raised alarm bells for those who feel outstate voters and lawmakers have already forced ºüÀêÊÓƵ’ hand on issues like gun control and the minimum wage.
‘You’re just a number’
Better Together was born in November 2013 as a project of the nonprofit Missouri Council for a Better Economy. Organizers have long described it as a grassroots research project on the efficacy of local government in the city of ºüÀêÊÓƵ and ºüÀêÊÓƵ County.
Rice, a longtime Democratic political operative in the city, said Walker, the founder and a board member, provided the nonprofit’s initial $100,000.
Its board is now stacked with influential members, from Fortune 500 executives to university deans to political consultants. And it hires or works with former campaigners with deep ties to both Krewson and Stenger.
Sinquefield is the agency’s largest donor, Rice acknowledged last week, funding half of the project’s $1 million budget last year.
The Post-Dispatch sought to interview Sinquefield about the project, but his staff said he was not available.
The billionaire likes their work, Rice said. He was “knocked out,†she said, by the team’s research on crime, health, government and economic development. He answers when she calls looking for donations. “He’s a generous man,†she said.
This campaign will likely lean on the billionaire, too, Rice acknowledged.
It will also work to raise money from as many sources as possible, she said, in an attempt both to gather support — Rice believed many donors with “skin in the game†provide for a better campaign — and to help remove the project from Sinquefield’s shadow.
That won’t, however, turn some local opinions on the project.
“What’s the appeal of a small municipality?†asked Cool Valley Alderman Floyd Blackwell. “You feel a sense of belonging. You’re not going to get lost in the shuffle. When you have a problem, you can get it solved.
“But when you have a large metropolis, they don’t give a rat’s whatever about you. You’re just a number. It’s, ‘Shut up and give me your tax dollars and get out of my face.’â€
Antagonism toward the plan on the County Council was bipartisan.
County Councilman Tim Fitch, who represents parts of Manchester, Chesterfield, Kirkwood, Sunset Hills and Fenton, said the region should allow the city to continue to fail until it defaults on its debts, hits “rock bottom†and goes through bankruptcy to discharge its debts. He suggested the state could help ºüÀêÊÓƵ re-emerge the same way that in 2014.
And Hazel Erby, a Democrat who represents parts of University City and north ºüÀêÊÓƵ County on the council, said, “I represent 39 municipalities, and the people I’ve talked to are not in favor of a merger, so I go along with them.â€
Better Together staff said they know they will have a battle coming. But they also say support is growing across the region and might surprise opponents.
Business executives told the Post-Dispatch that, while they aren’t yet committing to the nonprofit’s plan, they agree that something has to be done here.
“We don’t have the luxury of fragmentation,†said David Peacock, president of Schnuck Markets. “We need to leverage our resources as effectively as possible across the region.â€
EDITOR'S NOTE: This article has been changed to correct the year when ºüÀêÊÓƵ was fourth in population in the nation.Â