ST. LOUIS — A group of prominent area attorneys are looking to turn a convenience store owner’s quest for a permit into a larger debate on aldermanic influence over the city’s bureaucracy.
A new nonprofit named after former ºüÀêÊÓƵ Circuit Attorney Joseph “Holy Joe†Wingate Folk, who crusaded against the city’s corrupt political machine at the turn of the 20th century and rode the progressive reform wave to the Missouri governor’s mansion, has taken up the plight of a Bevo Mill convenience store owner who claims he was denied a permit to reopen his Double AA Market based solely on the alderwoman’s opposition.
The Holy Joe Society is promising to lend financial and legal support to the lawsuit filed by the business owner seeking a city permit, a lawsuit that has been expanded from typical arguments made during zoning litigation to one alleging that aldermanic influence in executive branch functions breaches the constitutional separation of powers.
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“This case certainly has the classic ºüÀêÊÓƵ city fact pattern, that if you didn’t have the blessing of the aldermen you were not going to get whatever it is you were seeking from the city,†said Dan Emerson, the business’s attorney and a former lawyer in the city counselor’s office.
It’s the latest swipe at the ºüÀêÊÓƵ tradition of “aldermanic courtesy,†where civil servants and regulatory boards defer to individual members of the ºüÀêÊÓƵ Board of Aldermen on issues within their wards. Federal prosecutors put the practice in the spotlight last year when they sent several aldermen to prison for accepting bribes in exchange for letters supporting a business owner’s applications for tax breaks and purchase of city-owned property.
The Board of Adjustment, though it may have some discretion, is a quasi-judicial agency that is supposed to make decisions based on the evidence presented in the record. In his client’s case, Emerson said Double AA Market presented evidence including witnesses and a petition, while the alderwoman didn’t even testify at the hearing against the permit.
“That’s exactly what aldermanic courtesy can do, is cause a board to act arbitrarily,†Emerson said.
But Carol Howard, the former alderwoman who represented the Bevo Mill area and opposed the reopening of Double AA Market, said this case is about nothing more than a problem property opposed by her constituents.
Turning this particular instance into a debate about aldermanic courtesy is a stretch, she said. The business, across the street from the landmark Bevo Mill, drew persistent resident complaints about trash, single-sale cigarettes and underage liquor sales. The neighborhood association opposed the business reopening, she said, as did the area business association.
“I followed my constituents’ wishes and tried to stand up for the neighborhood,†Howard said Friday. “If those people cannot be listened to and the neighborhood has no say as to who comes in and operates a business, then we have another nail in the coffin for the city.â€
Permit request and appeal denied
This case hinges on the ºüÀêÊÓƵ Board of Adjustment’s October denial of a conditional use permit for Double AA Market at 4743 Morganford Road. The business owner, Ahmed Awad, acquired the convenience store in 2020 but had his operating permit revoked by the city in June 2021.
He reapplied for a permit after enduring the required one-year closure. He complied with city requirements, including removing bars from the windows, and he pledged to properly dispose of trash.
But the city’s Board of Public Service denied his request for a new conditional use permit in August. Awad appealed to the Board of Adjustment, presenting a petition with nearly 100 signatures of support (Howard contended most didn’t live in the neighborhood) and bringing several witnesses who testified in support of Double AA Market reopening. The city’s planning department found the permit would be consistent with the city’s land use plan.
Awad testified at the Board of Adjustment in October that he has inventory he cannot sell and his next-door restaurant, City Fish and Chicken, has had no issues with the city. His lawyer at the time, Jay Kanzler, said the alderwoman, Howard, refused to even meet with them about reopening the business.
“More businesses, more traffic is 1,000 times better than another vacant building,†Kanzler told the Board of Adjustment in October.
Howard, along with the president of the neighborhood business association, the , filed letters in opposition. The Board of Adjustment denied the permit, and Double AA Market sued a month later.
“People have a right to make a living, but you have to follow the rules,†Howard said Friday. “Calling it aldermanic courtesy is a complete misrepresentation. I call it doing your job you were elected to do.â€
Yet that’s not how several prominent area attorneys, including Bevis Schock and longtime former Circuit Judge and associate city counselor Robert Dierker, view it.
They are among the founding members of the Holy Joe Society. Schock, well-known for his successful lawsuit overturning the state’s red-light camera laws and an ongoing suit challenging the city’s collection of its earnings tax during pandemic remote work, said this case is the nonprofit’s first, and it would likely tackle other issues it views as government malfeasance or overreach.
“We intend on bringing many cases,†Schock said. “We have raised money. We will hire private attorneys.â€
As for aldermanic courtesy, Schock likened it to medieval feudalism and argued the city struggles economically because of such backward political practices.
“Almost every project requires a variance of some kind,†Schock said. “And the alderman is in charge. If the alderman doesn’t support, it it doesn’t go forward.â€
The Post-Dispatch has documented issues at the Board of Adjustment where it declined to grant a variance before builders obtained letters of support from aldermen. But it wasn’t that an alderman was opposed to the project — those developers said they simply couldn’t get the elected official to return their calls or emails.
Some have since suggested that the recent halving of the number of wards and aldermanic seats may make it more difficult for aldermen to micromanage their wards as they used to, and thus lead to the natural decline of aldermanic courtesy.
“Don’t be Pollyannaish,†Schock said. “That won’t last.â€