Leadership's Neglect of St. Louis City
It is often said that 90% of success is in showing up. These words make it easy to understand why St. Louis City is in such a tailspin.
On January 7th, two blockbuster reports were made concerning City leadership. And, if we’re being honest with ourselves, we know that these reports go a long way towards explaining why St. Louis is facing such serious problems.
Kim Gardner neglected her responsibilities and the results were devastating
Missouri State Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick released an audit report of the City Circuit Attorney’s office under former prosecutor Kim Gardner in which he documents that Gardner spent nearly 35 work days studying nursing at St. Louis University instead of working where the taxpayers were paying her $171,000 per year.
The results of Gardner’s negligence and abandonment of her duty were plain to see in Fitzpatrick’s report. Her office took an average of 463 days to dispose of a case—that was 170 days longer than Jennifer Joyce’s administration and twice as long as the current prosecutor’s (Gabe Gore) average of 142 days. Further, the waste of millions of dollars from City taxpayers isn’t even the worst outcome of this stunning neglect. When the prosecutor doesn’t do her job, bad guys stay on the street, where they are further emboldened to commit more crime.
Tishaura Jones has also neglected her responsibilities and the City is suffering mightily
This week we’ve seen more results of Mayor Tishaura Jones’ seeming indifference to her responsibilities to City taxpayers. St. Louis has struggled to clear the snow from City streets and make it possible for people to go about their business. We’re told by the Mayor and the media that the City (and other jurisdictions) do not have enough workers to clean the City streets.
Where is the City’s sense of urgent interest?
The St. Louis Business Journal’s Jacob Kirn published a meticulously-researched story detailing Mayor Jones’ travel over the past four years. Kirn documents 64 trips and 163 days away from the City over 42 months. Kirn interviewed previous City mayors and staff and learned that no other mayor has traveled this extensively.
Let’s take a look at the issues facing Mayor Jones right now.
She doesn’t have enough workers to consistently provide the direct service that citizens need/expect. We’re referring to basic services including trash pick-up, street-sweeping and street maintenance (potholes).
Crime is still a big problem. The Mayor and her police chief want to argue that crime is down but it doesn’t feel like it and businesses are voting with their feet—abandoning downtown and other City locations in what feels more and more like a death spiral.
The Mayor went to the FBI last month to report that St. Louis Magazine was reporting that fraud and bribery were occurring in the City Building Division. The frustrating part of this story is that several people came forward and relayed that they had complained to the Mayor’s office about this alleged fraud and bribery scheme. The Mayor did not act until St. Louis Magazine broke the story.
The St. Louis Development Corporation has some serious problems. They stand accused of mishandling the dispersal of ARPA federal funds (covid) by outsiders and, most recently, by a high-ranking former SLDC official who filed a Whistle-Blower suit. Again, Mayor Jones was warned about these possible misdeeds by businesses and not-for-profit managers throughout the City, by aldermen and, most strongly, by City Comptroller Darlene Green. And, again, the Mayor did not take action until the situation became critical.
Jones and Gardner have some things in common.
Most notably, they have both shown inadequate interest in doing their jobs. Gardner was focused on her next job and Jones continued her interest in travel. The tragic thing here is that failure by these two women has had devastating consequences. While Jones failed to get on top of the dire situation at her jail, 12 inmates died while in custody. Gardner simply oversaw the collapse of effective prosecution in St. Louis and there can be no doubt that dozens of people were killed by criminals that she failed to take off the street. Thankfully, Gabe Gore and his team have righted the ship of prosecution which should lead to improved safety in St. Louis.
- Nancy Rice
