Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Ballpark Village Announcement

I have written before about Ballpark Village – and several times about That Hole.

Ballpark Village is planned to complement the various elements of our revitalized downtown. Today, the partners in the Ballpark Village project, the St. Louis Cardinals and Cordish Co., announced an important step in the process. After months of discussions, negotiations, delays, a couple of announcements, and more negotiations, the partners have now come up with a project, a time-table, and a financing plan that I support, and which I will recommend for approval to my colleagues on E&A, to the members of the Board of Aldermen, and to the appropriate agencies of state government.

I am pleased to be moving this project forward. It will undoubtedly have spin-off benefits for the entire region.

It is rare to be able to finance a development of this size without putting any existing tax dollars at risk. With zero City risk and zero City direct investment, Ballpark Village will create thousands of new construction and permanent jobs, generate tens of millions of tax dollars for City services, and create new office space to keep and attract high-paying professional jobs.

I congratulate the Cardinals and Cordish, and I thank Stifel Nicolaus for their invaluable assistance in getting us to this point.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Chief Mokwa’s Statement

Police Chief Joe Mokwa spoke out in public today about the practices of a police department contractor, a towing and parking company. He did not, however, take questions at his press conference, citing an on-going investigation into the matter. I think he should have, because this matter will continue to roil until he does.

Late last week, Police Board President Chris Goodson released a memo that reported to the Police Board that the chief told investigators he had reported the towing contractor’s practices as soon as he learned of them. On Monday, Col. Goodson said he believed that the chief had not been completely forthcoming. Based on what Col. Goodson said, the lawyer who prepared the report subsequently said he believed that the chief had misled him.

Chief Mokwa told me – and he repeated again today-- that he did not know until April 2008 that his daughter and son-in-law were using cars loaned to them by the towing contractor. He also said he did not know if the towing contractor had been loaning cars to police officers for extended periods. He said he thought it was possible someone had told him that a car his daughter was driving in an accident in 2002 was owned by the towing contractor. He said that if he heard that, he did not follow up on it. He said that — with that exception — the report was accurate and truthful.

As a City resident, I have a strong appreciation for Chief Mokwa’s efforts to keep our neighborhoods safe. As a parent, I can empathize with his struggles to address the many problems of a troubled offspring. But as the mayor, I find that neither my appreciation nor my empathy outweighs my judgment that the St. Louis Police Department needs strong, credible leadership.

I believe that Joe Mokwa’s tenure as St. Louis police chief depends on his version of these events being true – and on his ability to convince City residents and his own officers that he can continue to lead the police department. That’s why I think answering questions right now is important.

But, my concern does not end there.

Regardless of what the chief knew about his own daughter, the people of St. Louis deserve to know if (and which) police officers took free stuff from the towing company, and who knew about that.

So, I look forward to the results of an independent investigation and to any new information about this matter. Meanwhile, now might be a good time to consider whether it remains a good idea for the State of Missouri to control the St. Louis police department.

Monday, July 21, 2008

Report On The Police Department

A report prepared for the police department by a downtown law firm says that some St. Louis police officers and the adult daughter of St. Louis police chief Joe Mokwa may have gotten good deals on used cars from a local parking company with a department contract to tow, impound, and sell cars.

No one seems to be saying that there was a connection between the car deals and the police contract. But, no one is denying that the chief’s daughter, who is married to a former police officer, benefited from one association or the other.

The story is troubling because it suggests – as did an earlier story about World Series tickets – that being a police officer (or being related to one) can get someone special benefits unavailable to other citizens or, even, to most police officers.

The report is troubling because it implies that Chief Mokwa reported his daughter’s involvement to the Police Board as soon as he knew it was happening – an implication which turns out to be inaccurate The report is also troubling because it asserts, without naming names, that serving members of the police department also participated in the practice.

As an ex officio member of the police board (and, thus, one of the police department’s five civilian bosses), I have been primarily concerned with the pressing issues of public safety and budget. On those two scores, I am generally satisfied with the department’s – and Chief Mokwa’s – performance.

I am not yet satisfied on the overall issue of departmental conduct, the important details of when exactly the department became aware of the practice, whether others besides the chief’s daughter did the same thing, and why the report seems to be wrong. These all raise questions which must be answered clearly and publicly.

Chief Mokwa says that he will address the issue in public tomorrow. I plan to withhold judgment and a decision on how to proceed until he has spoken. I think he has earned that much respect.

I support turning this matter over to United States Attorney Catherine Hanaway. In light of the clear shortcomings of the original report, that is a prudent decision.

We have to be able to trust the police. That is the cornerstone of public safety.

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Employee Compensation

A reader recently asked what’s going on with compensation for City employees.

The short answer: total compensation of City employees is going up, and the percentage of the City budget going to City employees is going up again this year.

Here is the more detailed answer and some history:

Based on a promise made to its employees, there will be a raise for all City employees for the entire fiscal year. In addition, $53 million will be allocated to employee pension funds in the current fiscal year. And the City will not pass along to employees a $3.3 million increase in health care costs to employees and their families.

Here’s some history:

In the last five years, the overall City budget has gone up by about 15 percent.

In Fiscal Year 2000, $265 million was allocated to compensate City employees. That represented 70.8 percent of the budget. This year, $348 million will be allocated to compensate City employees, a 31% increase. Employee compensation now represents 75.5 percent of the budget.

According to the City’s Budget Division, the only way to offer higher pay raises would be to lay off other employees. I doubt that most department directors – or the chiefs of the police and fire department – would be able to promise that the same level and quality of municipal services could be provided by a much smaller workforce.

More revenue would help – and that has been growing. But, because of the poor national economy and major local changes, the short-term outlook for the City budget is uncertain. For instance, we do not know what Inbev’s purchase of Anheuser-Busch will mean to its St. Louis operations and the more than $21 million the company pays in City taxes.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Crime Comparison By City

In a report to the Police Board this week, Chief Joe Mokwa offered some context (and support) for his recent statement that St. Louis is generally safer – a double digit decrease again this year — than it has been in years.

One thing he did was to show us how St. Louis compares to other cities around the country.

The image below is the first of three that makes the comparisons.

The Cities on the right side of the slide are ones that are currently experiencing increases in Total Crime. Places like Atlanta, Charlotte, Philadelphia, Indianapolis, and Chicago all show increases in Total Crime.

The second image below shows Property Crime and tells a very similar story. St. Louis continues to show some of the largest decreases among the cities listed. St. Louis’s percentage decrease is greater than Los Angeles, Baltimore, New York — and certainly better than the increases in Atlanta, Chicago, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.

The third image shows Violent Crime. St. Louis, in red, with its 8.2 percent decrease in violent crimes, is doing better than cities like New York, Washington DC, Philadelphia, and Kansas City.

Unfortunately not all the Chief’s news was good. St. Louis continues to be plagued by homicides.

Last week, the police department announced it would focus a large percentage of its available uniformed and tactical resources on two of the most violent areas in the City. The plan is to deter the most violent crimes by applying the department’s superior tactical and logistical skills against the worst offenders in the places they are most likely to operate.

By some of the early measures, including arrests made and citations issued, the Homicide Deterrence Initiative is working. It is too soon, though, to know if homicides and other violent personal crimes are being affected.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

In New York

Fortunate timing.

I arrived in New York yesterday to take part in some of the festivities of Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game, including today’s “passing of the ball” from Yankee Stadium (this year’s host ballpark) to Busch Stadium (next year’s host). While I was traveling, my office got a call from Bloomberg TV asking me to comment on the impending sale of A-B. Since I was staying only a fifteen minute walk from their studio, I agreed to do the interview there.

Here’s what I told them:

My own brand loyalty is to St. Louis.

Budweiser beer and the city have been closely and cordially associated together for 150 years. The beer’s earliest motto and its most recent TV ad both said St. Louis. Brewers in twelve other breweries add or subtract things from the water to make their brewing water taste like St. Louis tap water. Thousands of St. Louisans work for AB – most of them in the big brewery on Pestalozzi Street. Tens of thousands of other St. Louisans are from brewery families, residents whose parents, grandparents, and great grandparents worked at the brewery and most of them own its stock. Two of my own siblings work at the brewery. AB treats its employees very, very well.

That history and all those connections make most St. Louisans, including me, face this merger with mixed feelings.

We do not yet know what impact the inevitable cuts at A-B will have on the employees, on their retirements, on A-B’s corporate philanthropy. Having the top decision makers live across the world instead of across the street is going to change things. Obviously, one of my first goals will be to try to convince InBev, which loves to cut costs, to move to St. Louis where pretty much everything is cheaper than in Belgium.

On the other hand, $70 cash a share for A-B stock is going to mean a tremendous transfer of wealth into St. Louis – which I expect will mean an up-tick in the purchase and sale of St. Louis real estate, automobiles, and a lot of other things.

I am very committed to working with both companies to make sure that the merged company remains a great corporate citizen and a great employer for thousands of St. Louisans.

It doesn’t matter what I believe about any promises made by InBev (or A-B). What matters is what they end up doing.

I will tell you more about All-Star Week later.

Monday, July 14, 2008

Dr. Senti

Clayton School District superintendent Don Senti announced today that he will retire in 2010. Dr. Senti has been Clayton’s superintendent since 1995.

This news will catch the attention not only of Clayton parents, but of many City parents as well. Over the years, hundreds of City children have been enrolled in Clayton’s public schools as part of the inter-district transfer program. Dr. Senti’s strong personal and continuing commitment to educating children in a diverse environment has made the experiences of both City and Clayton students far richer than they otherwise would have been.

I have always thought of Dr. Senti as one of the region’s education heroes. I congratulate him on a career that has made a real difference for so many people.