The two contenders for St. Louis mayor engaged in often tense discussion on Tuesday over the city’s immediate and long-term challenges.
Mayor Tishaura Jones and Alderwoman Cara Spencer tackled a number of issues during an episode of the Politically Speaking Hour on St. Louis on the Air, including clamping down on crime, managing city services and how to stem population decline in the city.
Jones said that if she wins reelection she’ll continue working on the progress the city has made — pointing specifically to lower crime rates and more investment in north St. Louis.
“I think that St Louis' biggest challenge on the horizon is trying to make sure that we keep moving forward,” Jones said. “That we expand our population, that we increase our tax base, that we take care of our children, that we expand our economy.”
Spencer said the city isn’t making the progress it deserves. She said the latest U.S. Census figures showing that the city is losing population should set off alarm bells among policymakers.
“This is our tax base,” Spencer said. “These are the folks that we rely on to pay for city services and pay for the city to be able to position itself for the growth we all want to see in our community.”
Tensions over state control bill
One of the first heated disagreements during the hourlong joint appearance was over recently passed legislation that will have a state board oversee the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department.
Spencer said that showcased a failure of Jones to persuade the GOP-controlled legislature to not pursue that option. She also said the fact that lawmakers voted to have the bill go into effect right away shows that the mayor’s strategy didn’t work.
“And it's my understanding that our mayor had not reached out to the vast majority of the Democratic elected leaders down there,” Spencer said.
Jones accused Spencer of mischaracterizing her advocacy against the state control bill, adding that since the proposal was a priority for Gov. Mike Kehoe, there was little any mayor could have done to stop it.
“For her to say that I haven't reached out to any of the senators or the representatives is patently false,” Jones said.
“I'm hearing directly from them,” Spencer replied. “And we have two dozen [Democratic] elected representatives that represent the city and the region here, and the majority of them hadn't heard from your office and hadn't heard from you.”
Jones fired back: “Well, it's easy to criticize when you've never served in the legislature. When some of these legislators had their mind made up before I even contacted them, there were some who were going to vote for state takeover — regardless of whether I contacted them or not.”
Jones defends city services shortfalls
After acknowledging that the city fell short in its response to an early January winter storm, Jones said the city was able to adjust its strategies and deal with subsequent snowstorms more effectively.
“Our typical playbook for addressing snow and this particular snowstorm, we found that our playbook was inadequate,” Jones said. “We did make the adjustments necessary to call in contractors and also use other departments. And I apologize for everybody's frustration as they experienced this snowstorm.”
Spencer said the city’s struggles during that snowstorm showed a “lack of urgency.”
“It was clear to me in just a couple of days that the response was inadequate,” Spencer said. “I think it was clear to most of us. And the failure to take urgent, immediate action was apparent to all of us. But that's been the case for many years.”
In response, Jones noted that almost all county and local governments struggled with the storm — primarily because it was so cold outside that there were few strategies available to melt ice.
“And when you're at a lower temperature, like it was in the city, or actually after the snowstorm, your chemicals don't work,” Jones said.
Other topics discussed on the program included:
- How to fairly implement automated traffic enforcement systems, like red-light cameras, in a way that doesn’t make life impossible for the working poor.
- The candidates' priorities to spend the St. Louis Rams settlement.
- Both elected officials’ plans to help the region’s homeless population.
A dash to the finish
Jones was also asked about how she plans to rebound after coming in a distant second place during the March primary. She said that she’s hoping turnout is higher, given the stakes of the election.
“We need people to care that there’s an election coming up,” Jones said. “And we need people to turn out more than the 17% on March 4.”
If Spencer wins, she’ll have a short period to put together an administration since the winner of the general election will be sworn in just a few weeks later.
“We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves,” Spencer said. “But we are spending time building that transition and bringing in partners to help us build out what exactly that transition team will look like.”
The election is April 8. Early voting starts March 25.
“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by Miya Norfleet, Emily Woodbury, Danny Wicentowski, Elaine Cha and Alex Heuer. Jada Jones is our production assistant. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr.
