notmymayor

“This being an ordinance for the preservation of public peace, health, and safety, it is hereby declared to be an emergency measure within the meaning of Sections 19 and 20 of Article IV of the Charter of the City of St. Louis, and, therefore, shall become effective immediately upon its passage and approval by the Mayor.”

As a citizen observer of St. Louis’s depressingly ineffectual political culture, I find distressing the Board of Aldermen’s present debate about enacting a mythical smoking ban. When the Board of Aldermen finally chooses to debate an issue of city-wide significance, it does so by asserting that any effects of a City legislative change will stand contingent upon subsequent legislative action in St. Louis County? This strikes me as a sick joke. Even if the Board of Aldermen passed the smoking ban presently before it and Francis Slay chose to sign the measure, smoking in St. Louis City’s public places would remain completely legal!

During this time of tremendous economic stress and cuts in local government services here and throughout the country, I have difficulty accepting any justification for taxpayer support to the Aldermanic payroll. Perhaps if they did their jobs and worked toward true community development and empowerment, then I could accept giving paychecks to Aldermen. As long as fewer St. Louisans have jobs today than at any point in the last century, however, I will stand by my assertion that we simply cannot afford to pay the Phyllis Youngs and Matt Villas of the world for their labors.

Gosh, I digressed.

I am on the subject of the Board of Aldermen today, because the above quote comes directly from an Alderman’s stock-in-trade, a Board Bill, which eventually becomes an Ordinance!

The above-language finds its way into any number of Aldermanic creations, including:

• The Lyda Krewson-sponsored St. Louis City Ordinance 67422, which allows the Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis to have a 10-year lease on land in Forest Park;
• Phyllis Young’s St. Louis City Ordinance 65599, which concerns parking on Clark Street downtown for vehicles that serve the Medical Examiner’s Office;
• Francis Slay, Lewis Reed, Lyda Krewson, Matt Villa, Fred Heitert, Stephen Gregali et al.’s St. Louis City Ordinance 65094, which exempts stock options from the City’s earnings tax: (In other words, a tax break for millionaires);
• And more than 100 others, when you search this exact language on Google!

Now, I am confident that we can debate the merits of whether a lease between the City of St. Louis and the Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis in Forest Park constitutes a true emergency. As I claim no knowledge of this issue’s intricacies, I might be wrong to question the wisdom of Lyda Krewson’s use of the emergency clause in this measure; perhaps the lack of an emergency declaration would have led to the termination of the Shakespeare Festival’s wildly popular summer performance series! I will let this Ordinance avoid further scrutiny for the time being…

Phyllis Young, for whom I lack respect, is lucky today as well; although I have a difficult time imagining the emergency nature of an Ordinance that exempts employees of the Medical Examiner’s Office from paying fines associated with parking in “No Parking” zones, I again do not claim intimate knowledge of this issue. Phyllis just might know more about this matter than I do.

As for the emergency tax break for millionaires sponsored by my man Matt, many other right-wingers, and our illustrious current President of the Board of Aldermen, Lewis Reed, I am unforgiving. In no possible scenario can I imagine the need for our Board of Aldermen and Mayor to act expeditiously in cutting taxes for St. Louisans who can afford to pay even more than their present tax burdens. I am disturbed about this particular measure, because the emergency clause is more than semantic window-dressing; rather, this language actively disempowers all residents of St. Louis City from participating in debates about the City’s legislative priorities.

An”Emergency” Means No Voter Review

According to the language quoted at the beginning of this post, the definition of an emergency measure derives from Sections 19 and 20 of Article IV of the St. Louis City Charter. The definition of an emergency measure reads as follows:

“An emergency measure is any ordinance necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health or safety, or providing for public work or improvements of any kind or repairs thereof, or establishing a benefit or taxing district or a sewer district, or a joint sewer district, and declared to be an emergency measure; any ordinance calling or providing for any election or vote by or submission to the people, any ordinance making an appropriation for the payment of principal or interest of the public debt, or for current expenses of the city government; any general appropriation ordinance; or any ordinance fixing any tax rate; but no ordinance granting, enlarging or affecting any franchise or amending or repealing any ordinance adopted by the people under the initiative shall be an emergency measure.” [Section 20, Article IV, St. Louis City Charter]

The St. Louis City Charter affords our legislators tremendous freedom to define Ordinances as emergencies; I do not question the authority of our Aldermen to use this tool. I do question the motives of our Aldermen, however, when they employ the emergency clause, because this language does more than to expedite 1.) the time required for Mayoral review (from 10 days to 0 days) and 2.) the effective date of said Ordinance (from at least 40 days to as few as 0 days).

Article VI of the St. Louis City Charter enumerates the rights of St. Louis’s voters to challenge and review Ordinances passed by the Board of Aldermen and approved by the mayor through a Referendum petition process. The power of Referendum always remains at the disposal of voters, unless the Board of Aldermen declares an Ordinance an emergency measure:

“The people shall have power, at their option, to approve or reject at the polls any ordinance (except it be an emergency measure as defined in section 20 of article IV), such power being known as the referendum and to be invoked and exercised as herein provided.” [Section 1, Article VI, St. Louis City Charter]

I raise this issue to raise awareness, because far too many St. Louis Aldermen abuse the City Charter’s emergency power. If my man Matt and Lewis Reed’s tax break for millionaires could withstand voter scrutiny, then the measure would not require an emergency clause. Quite frankly, I dispute the notion that any measure short of legislation passed to ameliorate the ongoing effects of a natural or manmade disaster should ever employ emergency language. If our Aldermen represented our interests, then they would have nothing to fear from our review of their actions.

Francis Slay is not my mayor, because he does not trust St. Louis’s voters to scrutinize his actions or those of the Board of Aldermen. Worse, he knowingly disempowers us.

Watch out, McKee Town; I would imagine that Paul has this one locked down.