There’s a new man at the helm of St. Louis’ chamber of commerce, and St. Louis’ media has greeted the news with its best chamber-of-commerce spin.
After a nine-month search, Joe Reagan has been chosen to head the St. Louis Regional Commerce & Growth Association (RCGA), replacing Dick Fleming and his controversial $600,000-plus annual compensation package as president and CEO. Reagan leaves a similar post in Louisville, Ky., where his $370,000 salary was itself newsworthy.
Perhaps not to seem unwelcoming, local media coverage of Reagan’s impending arrival (he starts in February) dutifully avoided any reference to the subject of pay. So out of idle curiosity and knowing that as a 501 C-6 organization, the RCGA is required to disclose the information annually on IRS Form 990, I inquired.
“They are still finalizing his employment agreement,” says Gary Broome, RCGA vice president for communications. “That’s really all I can tell you for now.”
Wow. No offense intended, but chambers of commerce aren’t all that interesting news-wise, and the most noteworthy RCGA splash of 2011 came when KMOV-TV’s Craig Cheatham cornered Fleming like a deer in the headlights—actually a deer in a hallway—to grill him about the compensation thing.
Are they really going to stonewall this innocent question until the 2012 forms are due near the end of 2013?
Reasonable people will disagree about the topic of RCGA compensation. As a private organization, the RCGA can pay what it wants. On the other hand, with public entities as dues-paying members, there is an argument that it’s at least indirectly a public matter. And there’s always that irritating IRS annual reporting requirement.
To the average Joe, a $600,000-range package for the new President Joe would seem unfathomably rich, but the true relevance of the question is what it says about the search process and—really—about how St. Louis' business community sees itself and its future.
If, as we suspect, the RCGA was expecting to pay the next president what it was publicly known to be paying the last one, one would assume that with that kind of coin to throw around, this would be a fairly prized job. In that context, is hiring a guy who was running the chamber of commerce in the 42nd largest metropolitan area (less than half the size of St. Louis)—and in the process giving him a pay raise of, potentially, a quarter of a million dollars—really the best that the nation's 18th largest metropolitan area can do?
Add in the fact that Louisville’s NPR station, 89.3 WFPL, greeted the news with a story quoting Reagan as insisting his decision to take the RCGA “has nothing to do with increased criticism of the agency.” That story went on to recount searing criticism of Reagan from the Louisville Chamber of Commerce's founder and original CEO.
With absolutely no disrespect to Reagan personally, one wonders why this region—with this checkbook—couldn’t find someone from, say, a larger and growing region, rather than someone from a small and equally stagnant one. Or at least someone who isn’t getting a batch of negative coverage on the homefront.
For all we know, that criticism is unfounded. Reagan might turn out to be the best chamber-of-commerce guy of all time. He is said to be a nice fellow and a man of faith, and, to be fair, here’s a link to the RCGA’s view of his qualifications for the post.
But at least so far, neither the Post-Dispatch nor the St. Louis Business Journal nor 90.7 KWMU (WFPL’s local counterpart) has seen fit to cover anything other than the chamber-of-commerce point of view. The Post did link to one WFPL story, however, in an article mentioning that Reagan and Lambert-St. Louis International Airport director Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge were the two finalists for the post.
Speaking of that, shouldn’t there be at least a little intrigue as to why Hamm-Niebruegge was edged out for the post? Since she became airport director in 2010, she has been widely credited for making the best of a miserable situation, overseeing a facelift of the facility and winning a rare national award for handling last year’s major tornado.
I tried to contact Hamm-Niebruegge for a response, but was told through a spokesperson that she would have no comment on the matter, on or off the record. That lack of speech speaks for itself.
Personally, I’m wondering if she has a headache from hitting her noggin on the glass ceiling. Perhaps the gender thing is off limits, though—just like the whole is-this-all-we-can-get-for-$600,000 line of questioning.
There might be a persuasive argument that Hamm-Niebruegge simply didn’t have the specific experience needed as a chamber-of-commerce exec, although she was qualified enough to make it to the No. 2 position. I’m fairly certainly that she would have been a widely popular choice locally had she been selected as RCGA president.
But it’s also obvious that Reagan was impressive enough to the search committee to rise to the top of a pile of more than 200 candidates. Presumably, the skill set necessary to impress the suits of the selection committee are similar to the ones needed to impress the suits who donate money to the RCGA (a big part of the president’s job) or who make corporate relocation decisions.
Reagan’s selection is certainly not indefensible. But should it be undebatable?
If the RCGA is to be taken seriously as an important institution in St. Louis, it should be the subject of grown-up media inquiry—good, bad, or indifferent. And it should be completely accountable to the public as to how it compensates its top executive.
For that matter, it would be interesting to hear how the RCGA selection committee decided that someone from a market that's less than half the size of St. Louis—and the objection of criticism there—was nevertheless the right choice in this case. Perhaps there would a good answer.
That is, if the local mainstream media bothered to ask the question.
SLM co-owner Ray Hartmann is a panelist on KETC Channel 9’s Donnybrook, which airs Thursdays at 7 p.m.
Commentary by Ray Hartmann
