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Area Mayors United Against . . .
Better Together’s Plan for City-County Merger
By Bob Lindsey
Mayors and community leaders of North County municipalities have joined in the growing opposition to the city-county merger plans of Better Together. In fact, the North County mayors are among the most vocal against the plan that calls for a statewide vote in 2020 to consolidate most of the municipal services in such a city-county merger.Better Together is expected to start collecting signatures late next month for the initiative petition to reunify St. Louis City and County. The group does expect legal challenges by April 1.
In addition to area mayors, the St. Louis Area Police Chiefs Association has joined to oppose the proposed consolidation of all police departments in the city and county as one. This is one of the key elements of the Better Together plan. The Municipal League of Metro St. Louis membership went on record opposing any statewide vote
on a city-council merger. Black Jack Mayor Norm McCourt is the current president of the Municipal League. Florissant Mayor Tom Schneider, Ferguson Mayor James Knowles, and other St. Louis County mayors oppose the merger as outlined by Better Together and especially a statewide vote on the issue.
“This is a local issue and should not be any concern to the residents of Kansas City, Springfield or any other community,” (in Missouri) McCourt said in a letter. Mayor McCourt said the League’s position was unanimous in a vote opposing the plan. McCourt said only St. Louis City and County residents should vote on such a merger proposal. No counter proposal was presented by the Municipal League. However, the league membership agreed to collect the necessary signatures for the formulation of a “Board of Elector.s” This board used to be known as the “Board of Freeholders.”
McCourt pointed out that under the “Board of Electors” process the mayor of St. Louis and the St. Louis County Executive would have 10-days to appoint nine members each to serve on the board. The Governor would appoint the remaining (one) member. The board would have one year to come up with a plan. Proponents would need about 19,000 signatures in St. Louis City and County.
“What they come up with would be totally up to them,” said McCourt. “The important point here is that the approval or rejection of their proposal would be by the residents of the city and county, and not the entire State of Missouri,” “We don’t have any predetermined outcomes,” said Municipal League Executive Director Pat Kelly. He added that the Freeholders could meet for 12 months and make no recommendation.
Ferguson Mayor James Knowles III said going through this process is
preferable to Better Together’s approach, because city and county voters could reject a statewide plan. However it could still be implemented if the rest of the state approves it. Knowles said the Missouri Constitution gives the board the power to adopt any other plan for the partial or complete government of all or any part of the city and the county. Knowles was one of the first mayors in the county to oppose city-county merger plan. He and the other mayors of county municipalities contend the Better Together plan takes too much away from the local jurisdictions.
Mayor Tom Schneider noted that Florissant is older than St. Louis County, older than State of Missouri, and even a few years older than the Constitution of the United States. “We appreciate our long history as a sovereign city and wish it to continue for another 233 years,”
He said they want to continue to be protected by police “who we know and trust”
“The award winning Florissant Police Department is one of the best law enforcement agencies anywhere and was one of the first to receive the gold standard in public safety, the CALEA certification from The Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies. The Florissant Police department is our most valuable asset and is highly appreciated by our residents and is also one of reasons why many investors continue to locate and develop their business in Florissant,”
Schneider listed more reasons why the city should remain intact. “We would prefer to maintain our streets, bridges, sidewalks and other infrastructure rather than surrender it to the Better Together Mega Metro,” He noted Florissant has a “very proactive Public Works Department which has been validated by our voters with additional revenue to continue proven programs to maintain and systematically rebuild our streets and sidewalks,” The Florissant mayor added that the city “wants to participate in a conversation on how to be a part of a more competitive Metropolitan area,”
UMSL’s Terry Jones* literally wrote the book about St. Louis’ divided government structure, publishing “Fragmented by Design” in 2000 to explain why the region ended up with so many government bodies. Obviously, he has been much sought-after source on the Better Together city-county merger plan.
Last Saturday morning, Jones joined The Randy Tobler Show on KFTK (97.1 FM) to share his opinion on a proposed merger, which would merge city and county police departments.
“It’s difficult to see what the other advantages would be because many of the things where it makes sense to do them on a larger scale St. Louis has already done,” Jones said. “It’s formed a metropolitan sewer district, it has a joint community college district, it has a joint museum district.”
Jones also noted that this current push or reunification comes with a different focus than past proposals: “equity.” “Equity has not been used as part of merger attempts over time, including in St. Louis,” Jones told the Business Journal. “The arguments have always been economic development, and secondarily, cost efficiency.” It’s unclear how that shift will impact what comes of Better Together’s proposal he said.
(*This information came from the University of Missouri-St. Louis UMSL Daily web site.)
