St. Louis Board of Aldermen President Megan Green is facing intense blowback from her colleagues on the board over a Facebook post in which she accused at least one of them of being drunk during a tense debate on Friday.
On Saturday, Green posted on Facebook that she put the board into recess Friday “to preserve decorum and allow conversations to happen between Alders and the bill sponsor.” She wrote that she “later learned that members of the Board may have been consuming alcohol during the morning’s proceedings, which likely contributed to the high tensions.”
“There is zero tolerance for this sort of behavior and I am expecting Tuesday’s meeting — and every meeting moving forward — to be alcohol free,” she wrote.
In a comment on a Facebook post from Alderwoman Anne Schweitzer, Green said that 5th Ward Alderman Joe Vollmer was “visibly intoxicated” and that “apparently was part of the reason for the circus on the floor.”
In an interview with St. Louis Public Radio on Saturday, Vollmer strenuously denied drinking any alcohol on Friday — adding that his Yeti mug was full of coffee during debate.
He added that he demanded a public apology for “defamation of character” and contacted an attorney. Vollmer, who is not running for reelection after serving for 22 years on the Board of Aldermen, said: “This is a mark on my record that she's put in print.”
A spokesman for Green did not immediately reply to a request for comment. But another member of the board sent St. Louis Public Radio a letter that Green sent Vollmer on Saturday apologizing for her “lack of decorum" on social media. She added that her comments “lacked professionalism and did not adhere to the standards I set for myself or this Board of Aldermen.”
She also wrote she “deleted her comments as requested.” As of Saturday afternoon, most of the references to board members drinking alcohol were gone from both Green’s Facebook post and her comments on Schweitzer’s post.
“I will strive to do better and look forward to working collaboratively with you in the future,” she wrote.
While Green deleted references to at least one colleague being inebriated on the floor, her critics contend her social media posts exacerbated already heightened tensions.
At issue is disagreement over how to spend a settlement stemming from the departure of the St. Louis Rams. Members have gone back and forth on how to divide the funds, and those disagreements spilled out in open view on Friday.
Green abruptly recessed the board until Tuesday after a majority voted to overrule her decision not to call on Schweitzer. The 1st Ward alderwoman said on Friday that the majority of her colleagues now support passing $40 million for water infrastructure and holding off on allocating the rest of the funds. She said she had prepared substitution language for both bills being considered Friday that would make that change.
Impact on Tuesday
Alderman Tom Oldenburg of the 2nd Ward said that Green’s Facebook posts and comments will likely make Tuesday’s meeting regarding the Rams funding even more contentious.
“If she cared so passionately about these causes that are in the bill, why not sit down over the weekend and try to have meetings with people and keep your mouth shut instead of lashing out because you're so angry making wild accusations that one of our members was intoxicated on the floor?” Oldenburg said.
Both Vollmer and Oldenburg are siding with Schweitzer that board members should allocate money specifically for water infrastructure and keep the rest of the money in the bank for now.
“With our current executive in Washington, D.C., and with federal funding that might be changing, maybe we should take a step back with the remaining [portion] of the Rams settlement and say: ‘OK, maybe we need more caution here, but to throw this money into programs — it makes no sense.’”
Oldenburg said he’s still in favor of spending money to help downtown St. Louis and disinvested neighborhoods but added, “I just don't see it coming together given what has transpired over the last 24 hours.”
“It's time to renegotiate and start over,” Oldenburg said. “But knowing that water was the one issue everyone agreed on, and we have an aging water infrastructure and politically, it also makes sense. Because everyone in every neighborhood has had water main breaks, and they're frustrating because we have an aging system.”
Fracturing coalitions
For longtime observers of the Board of Aldermen, the fight over the Rams funds is eerily familiar.
In 2015, Green was part of a multiracial aldermanic coalition that often clashed with then-Mayor Francis Slay. But that group fractured after a number of Black board members decided to support a proposal for a riverfront stadium aimed at keeping the Rams in St. Louis.
Green played a major role in opposing the stadium plan, which ultimately passed but wasn't implemented as Rams owner Stan Kroenke absconded with the team to the Los Angeles area.
That fissure contributed to the rise of the progressive wing of the Board of Aldermen in which Green was a prominent member. And a number of members elected over the past four years were nominally attached to that faction — enough to outnumber more conservative members like Oldenburg.
But some board members assumed to be in the progressive camp — like Schweitzer, Bret Narayan and Michael Browning — have voted against some of Green’s priorities as of late.
The shifting alliances on the board come amid a hotly contested mayoral race among Mayor Tishaura Jones, Alderwoman Cara Spencer, Recorder of Deeds Michael Butler and businessman Andrew Jones.
The uncertainty of how that race may turn out, Vollmer said, is another reason to put the brakes on spending most of the Rams money.
“I am so disillusioned as I'm leaving … with our leadership — our lack of leadership,” Vollmer said.
