This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Oct. 29, 2012 - Residents of St. Louis will be asked Nov. 6 to cut the city’s Board of Aldermen in half in 2022 – a proposal that even proponents agree could be a tough sell.
Backers of Proposition R will need approval of at least 60 percent of the city’s voters because reducing the size of the 28-member Board of Aldermen requires changing the city’s 98-year-old charter.
Proposition R would slash the board in half, to 14, after the 2020 census.
Alderwoman Phyllis Young, D-7th Ward, is among the leaders of the effort and the sponsor of the bill that put the proposed reduction on the ballot.
Young says the campaign’s slogan is simple and straightforward: “Reduce and reform.”
Yard signs, fliers and a possible TV commercial are planned during the final week before the vote.
At a little more than 318,000, St. Louis’ population is less than half of the 687,000 in 1910, the last census before the charter was approved. Young and other advocates say that, with the city smaller and financially stretched, it makes no sense to retain such a large Board of Aldermen.
“We’re cutting city services, but not the number of aldermen,’’ Young said.
St. Louis County, for example, has a population of just less than 1 million, more than three times the size of the city’s, but it has only a seven-member County Council.
Alderman Antonio French, D-21st Ward, voted to put Proposition R on the ballot. But he doesn’t plan to vote for it.
“I don’t know what problem that Proposition R solves,” he said.
Cutting the number of aldermen means increasing the size of each city ward, which French said, “make it more difficult for people to have direct access.”
He predicts that the surviving 14 aldermen would have to have larger staffs to serve their constituents, which French contended would result in little or no cost-saving compared to the current 28-aldermen setup.
Fewer aldermen and larger districts also would mean that running for the posts would be more expensive and politically tougher, French said. The result would make it harder for younger politicians, like him, who often rely more on shoe-leather politicking and less on money, he contended.
The city’s Democratic Central Committee, made up of two committeepeople from each ward, also has come out against the reduction. Besides cutting the party’s leadership in half, some also were concerned about the effect on African-American representation.
French said that the likely division of a smaller 14-member board would mean only four aldermen from the predominantly African-American north side. Six of the new wards would likely be in south St. Louis, while four would be along the central corridor, he predicted.
As it stands, the 28-member board now has 12 aldermen in its Black Caucus.
Young said that reducing the size of the Board of Aldermen could be the first step in a longer process to revamp various city operations. About a decade ago, city voters rejected proposals to do away with the city’s independent, so-called “county offices,” such as recorder of deeds and collector of revenue.
Voters also rejected an earlier proposal to slash the number of aldermen, which was placed on the ballot by an initiative petition.
Young said the fact that the aldermen – pro and con – voted to put the proposal before voters is a good first step, win or lose on Nov. 6.
Ballot language: “Shall the Charter of the City of St. Louis be amended in accordance with the Board of Aldermen Amendment Ordinance?
This Amendment restructures of the Board of Aldermen of the City of St. Louis as a body of 14 aldermen representing 14 wards, provides for a transition schedule to implement the restructuring, and other related matters, all as set forth in the ‘Board of Aldermen Amendment Ordinance,’ a copy of which is available at polling places.”
