Members of the St. Louis Board of Aldermen have begun to consider and pull apart more of the specifics of legislation that spends $277.2 million, which the city received from its settlement after the Rams football team moved to Los Angeles.
The board’s Housing, Urban Development and Zoning Committee heard testimony on Monday about the TRANSFORM STL Act, sponsored by Alisha Sonnier of Ward 7.
“It’s my hope that the things we do with this money mean that in 20 years when different people are sitting in our seats, they’re able to solve a different set of problems,” Sonnier said. “Because we’ve been able to transform our city and address some of our most pressing issues right now.”
Sonnier’s bill splits the millions of dollars into six separate funds that address water and street infrastructure needs, the city’s workforce, child care and affordable housing and community development. It’s also backed by Mayor Tishaura Jones and board President Megan Green, who unveiled the legislation together last week.
Board members at Monday’s hearing mostly asked broader questions about the legislation, wanting to know more about the mechanisms for neighborhood development, provisions for city workers and new child care programs.
Members Anne Schweitzer of Ward 1 and Rasheen Aldridge of Ward 14 had questions about how different parts of the city would qualify and be prioritized for neighborhood development funding.
“If the money is really diluted across the whole city in areas that might not need the investment, does that limit the value and usefulness of the funds?” Schweitzer asked.
Sonnier responded by saying she didn’t want to eliminate any area from potentially receiving support, using the example of the Tower Grove East neighborhood, which she represents.
“You might look and say, ‘Well, overall they’re doing great,’ but there are still homeowners within that neighborhood whose homes are decaying,” Sonnier said. “There are businesses in that neighborhood that could use resources.”
Community Development Administration Executive Director Nahuel Fefer added there are trade-offs among the many competing priorities even within neighborhood development: for-sale vs. rental housing, rehab and new construction, concentrating the funds vs. spreading them out more broadly.
“I really like the terms sweet spot and balance,” he said. “I don’t think it’s necessarily something that needs to be in the legislation, so long as there’s an oversight process in place to make those determinations.”
Aldridge was curious how the funds would specifically go downtown.
“Especially in the downtown area, one of the concerns that residents have been saying is, how are they going to be able to tap into the Rams fund?” he said. “The convention center is right there and when [the Rams] left a lot of businesses left.”
Sonnier said as a neighborhood, downtown would have access to funds that apply to large vacancies as well as ones to support business corridors. She added she was open to meeting with Greater St. Louis Inc. and other entities to find common ground on a solution.
Cristina Garmendia, policy director for Green’s office, added downtown would be eligible for public infrastructure investment through matching funds laid out in the bill.
“That’s really an opportunity for all the different entities in downtown and [ones] like [Greater St. Louis Inc.] that have talked about matching to come to the table,” she said. “There’s an opportunity not just for the development side of it but also public infrastructure.”
There was considerable discussion about provisions for city workers and the proposal around child care. Raising pay for public employees, for example, was among the top three priorities identified by the public when considering how to use the settlement, yet it’s not a provision in the legislation. It’s something the board and the mayor’s office are sensitive to, but it's difficult to directly affect, said Casey Millburg, policy director for Jones.
“The way the City of St. Louis governs its compensation process is through the Civil Service Commission,” she said. “That is, largely by design, a very independent entity that operates with autonomy.”
Millburg added a meaningful and sustainable salary infusion for city workers would likely require most, if not all, of the settlement money.
“There’s so many different priorities that we have to focus on,” she said.
The bill aims to make up for that by allocating $20 million for the city’s workforce, including expanded job training and supporting city employees with things like tuition reimbursement, transportation costs or professional development, said Fredrecka McGlown, executive director of the St. Louis Agency on Training and Employment. She added it’s critical, as the city has an aging workforce.
“These funds would help us be able to expand training programs that we currently have to create that next generation of workforce,” McGlown said. “[And] creating new programs and pathways based on the department of personnel’s need to fill city vacancies.”
City workers would also be the first to access new programs like those that would be expanded through the endowment for child care, which Sonnier said could help alleviate a cost burden keeping some people from finding work.
“They’ll get first access, first dibs,” Sonnier said. “Even though you might not be adding to wages, if we can, instead of paying $1,400 per month for child care, put you in a position where there’s just $200 left for you, that’s a big incentive itself.”
These programs would also need time to develop as the funding for them only comes from the interest from nearly $57 million of Rams funding allocated. But Millburg said they could form an important part of enticing people to stay in the city.
“When we think about how we can grow the services we provide, it all comes down to people and keeping you here,” she said. “Part of that is retaining a talented city workforce who want to stay here, live here and be supported.”
The hearing concluded without any vote on the measure, indicating there will be more in the future. Sonnier said residents can continue to leave feedback on her proposal through the Ram’s Settlement Portal.
Sonnier’s bill isn’t the only one that seeks to spend the Rams money. A proposal sponsored by Pamela Boyd of Ward 13 seeks to spend $232.5 million of the settlement on infrastructure, housing improvements and business support in parts of north St. Louis, southeast St. Louis and downtown.
That bill has also been assigned to the Housing, Urban Development and Zoning Committee but has not yet been heard.
