If voters approve Proposition B on Tuesday, it would empower the St. Louis County Council to fire department heads and the county counselor with five out of seven votes.
Because the council consists of six members who generally are adversaries of St. Louis County Executive Sam Page, passage of Prop B could allow council members to oust members of the Democratic chief executive’s cabinet. That threat, Prop B supporters say, could motivate the county executive’s administration to be more communicative with the council.
“We need accountability and checks and balances,” said Councilwoman Shalonda Webb, D-St. Louis County. “This is not a power grab. This is to ensure that county council members are able to interact with the department heads and get the information that they need. If you're working well and you're doing your job and all these excellent things, you don't have anything to worry about.”
But Page and a host of groups opposed to Proposition B say the measure is a power grab. They contend that it will make the council too powerful and provide a disincentive for people to join county executive administrations.
“I think that this is an overreach and puts a lot of executive authority into what is the legislative branch of government,” said Councilwoman Lisa Clancy, D-Maplewood, who is considered Page’s last ally on the council. “Our department directors, even though we see things differently, are ultimately public servants, just like we are. Many of them have come out of the private sector or out of the civil servant system to serve us.”
Page’s road to council conflict
When Page was on the council, he led a bipartisan coalition that bedeviled Steve Stenger, the county executive at the time. By the time Stenger resigned over corruption charges, every single member of the council was aligned against him.
But after a relatively brief period of executive branch-legislative harmony, council members gradually began to turn against Page for various reasons — particularly because of his response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Webb’s election to the council in 2020 meant that a majority of members were either skeptical or opposed to Page. And the election of council members Gretchen Bangert and Michael Archer in November 2024 cemented the veto-proof opposition majority.
Proposition B was a byproduct of this new council. Council Chairwoman Rita Days said that the measure stemmed from the council’s frustration with department leaders.
“I will not stand idly by while our constituents are robbed of the transparency and honesty they deserve,” said Days, D-Bel Nor. “The bar to remove someone from office is intentionally high and rightly so. However, we must have the authority to take that step if officials are repeatedly derelict in their duties.”
Page said during an interview on the Politically Speaking Hour on St. Louis on the Air earlier this year that he didn’t think it would be fair for “our department heads to feel threatened if they don't agree with a request or direction from a council member.”
“It's a very clear effort to gain authority over department heads,” Page said. “And that is going to be difficult for our department heads who have to make tough decisions.”
In addition to speaking out against Proposition B during his State of the County address and at council meetings, Page’s political action committee gave $100,000 to another committee set up to defeat the ballot item. He’s also noted that groups like the St. Louis County NAACP and the St. Louis Labor Council came out against Proposition B.
Will it count?
Page’s department heads filed a lawsuit to try to knock Proposition B off the ballot. While the circuit court initially sided with the department heads, the Eastern District Court of Appeals put it back on the ballot.
But that doesn’t necessarily mean that measure will go into effect. The case is still in the hands of the appeals court, and those judges could refuse to let Proposition B go into effect if it passes.
As of Thursday, the court hadn’t made a decision on whether the measure can take effect if approved.
In the meantime, the council overrode Page’s veto of legislation allocating St. Louis Rams settlement funds to pay for the countywide election. The council also overturned another one of Page’s vetoes of a bill restricting county employees from attending meetings related to county ballot items.
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