Former St. Louis Personnel Director Sonya Jenkins-Gray is suing the city to be reinstated, claiming her firing violated the charter’s antidiscrimination provision.
The suit filed Wednesday in St. Louis Circuit Court also argues that the city’s Civil Service Commission acted outside its charter authority by operating under a two-member board, rather than a three-member board, following the resignation of a commissioner and by relying on a hearing officer to preside over the process.
The commission recommended that Mayor Tishaura Jones fire Jenkins-Gray following a months-long hearing that stemmed from a July 2024 incident where she traveled to Jefferson City in a city vehicle with a subordinate, Anthony Byrd. Jenkins-Gray said she went to retrieve personal documents from her car.
Jenkins-Gray argued that Jones was targeting her for political reasons, citing the political differences that her husband, the Rev. Darryl Gray, has with Jones and Jenkins-Gray’s opposition to a proposed charter change that would’ve given the mayor more power over the Civil Service Commission.
Lawyers for the city argued that Jenkins-Gray committed malfeasance and put a subordinate at risk during the trip to Jefferson City. In the suit, Jenkins-Gray rejects the malfeasance claim, saying that she was unaware she was violating the city vehicle policy and that the city failed to show evidence that Jenkins-Gray did anything “wrongful and illegal.”
The city named Deputy Personnel Director John Unnerstall as the new personnel director last month under an emergency appointment that lasts until April 18.
Correction: Sonya Jenkins-Grey was charged with malfeasance and traveled to Jefferson City and says she retrieved documents from her car. A previous version of this article misstated whose car it was.
