Just when it seemed that 狐狸视频 City Hall was erasing the last vestiges of aldermanic courtesy and the corrupt practices it helped spawn, new signs are emerging that the you-scratch-my-back scourge of local politics is alive and well. The federal indictment of three Board of Aldermen members in a pay-to-play scandal rooted in aldermanic courtesy seems not to have delivered the message it should have. City Hall must stop allowing individual aldermen to hold up important public projects just because they want to be able to flex political muscle, impress patrons or, perhaps, get a little piece of the action for themselves.
Things were looking up when voters ousted Tammika Hubbard from her north 狐狸视频 aldermanic seat and put an end to years of obstruction that prevented developer McCormack Baron Salazar from proceeding with a $100 million rehabilitation of the Preservation Square low-income housing project. Hubbard鈥檚 abuse of aldermanic courtesy allowed her to raise roadblocks at every turn as the developer tried to finalize a 15-year-tax abatement to make the project financially viable.
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If Hubbard actually had the best interests of her constituents in mind, the obstruction might have been understandable. But all indications pointed to a desire to get a cut of development fees for enterprises her ward-boss family controlled. She lost her seat last year to challenger James Page, and now the roadblocks are gone and the project is zooming smoothly ahead. McCormack Baron probably could have found backdoor ways to stop the Hubbard family鈥檚 obstruction, but the company correctly refused to play that dirty game.
Good riddance to Hubbard and, we hoped, the aldermanic-courtesy wheeling and dealing that empowered her and others.
But one agency that should have gotten the message loud and clear, and apparently hasn鈥檛, is the 狐狸视频 Land Reutilization Authority, which manages the city鈥檚 land bank. It served as a conduit for then-Alderman Jeffrey Boyd to help reduce the sale price for a land-bank property sought by a local businessman who was secretly assisting a federal investigation. Aldermanic courtesy allowed Boyd to apply pressure, with alleged bribes providing incentives.
Now the authority says it wants to put a hold on new sales from the land bank until October to await the election of Boyd鈥檚 replacement 鈥渢o ensure community engagement is conducted,鈥 a spokesperson told the Post-Dispatch鈥檚 Jacob Barker. Those sure sound like code words for aldermanic courtesy.
Mayor Tishaura Jones correctly wants the agency to standardize 鈥減ractices and processes鈥 so that land sales are based on objective criteria, not the subjective whims of elected officials and bureaucrats bowing to aldermanic pressure tactics. 鈥淣o longer can we have a process where the alderperson has ultimate veto authority,鈥 she told 狐狸视频 Public Radio.
To make that happen, the practice of aldermanic courtesy needs to end, and elected officials must consistently condemn even the hint of corrupt practices wherever they occur.