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Greater North County Chamber Opposes . . .
City-County Merger Plan
The Greater North County Chamber Board of Directors have voted to oppose Better Together’s City-County merger plan. Better Together, the advocacy group whose plan to consolidate St. Louis City and St. Louis County would require a statewide ballot to create a new government.
The initiative would combine under one metro city the police departments, court systems, roadways, regional planning and zoning, and economic development arms of the city, county and the 88 county municipalities. County municipalities could continue to exist, but with restricted authority.
Rick Dorsey, chair of the Greater North County Chamber’s Governmental Affairs Committee said in a statement: “The board is very concerned that this process was done in secret and that the public has no input in the final product. We are further concerned that the proposal could be placed on the ballot and approved without a single signature or vote in favor of it in coming from either the City or the County.”
The Greater North County Chamber Board members are concerned over voters elsewhere in Missouri deciding the shape of government in the St. Louis area, as well as the fact that the proposal is a take it or leave it proposition in which St. Louis area residents have no say in its final version and its concentration of power in a mayor not elected by a majority of the residents.
The Greater North County Chamber of Commerce is a voluntary partnership of business professionals and community leaders united to promote the North County regions. The chamber office is located at 420 W. Washington, Florissant. For more information visit the chamber web site at www.greaternorthcountychamber.com
Four more town hall meetings were announced, all in April and all limited to 150 people, but none will be held in North County. The closest one will be held in Clayton at 6 p.m. April 25, Center of Clayton, 50 Gay Avenue. RSVP at 314-669-6505.
Mayors Oppose Better Together Merger Plan
At a scheduled meeting of the Missouri Mayors United for Progress held in Jefferson City, the mayors in attendance from every corner of Missouri voted unanimously to oppose the Better Together proposal of a statewide vote to determine the future governance structure of St. Louis City and County.
After lengthy discussion the Missouri mayors in attendance voted unanimously to oppose the Better Together plan for a city-county merger.
At the same vote the Missouri Mayors United for Progress unanimously endorsed the initiative by the Municipal League of Metro St. Louis to form a Board of Electors (Freeholders) to deliberate the future governance structure of St. Louis City and County in open public meetings. This would be in a forum already approved by the Missouri State Constitution.
Florissant Mayor Thomas P. Schneider led the discussion and explained that Florissant is older than St. Louis County, Older than Missouri and even a few years older than the Constitution of the United States. “The safe, historic, patriotic, and faith based City of Florissant would be summarily dissolved if the dastardly un-American Better Together plan was passed in a statewide vote that would undermine not just Florissant voters but disenfranchise every voter in St. Louis and St. Louis County, ” Schneider said in an editorial in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Feb. 7 and contained in a story in the Feb. 7th issue of The Independent News.
