A few weeks after refusing to appear before an aldermanic budget committee, the Board of Police Commissioners appears likely to get hit with a subpoena forcing them to show up.
The aldermanic Budget Committee will vote today on whether to issue a subpoena, a rare move for a committee of the St. Louis Board of Aldermen, though not an unprecedented one.
Get a fresh take on the day’s top news
Subscribe to the St. Louis Daily newsletter for a smart, succinct guide to local news from award-winning journalists Sarah Fenske and Ryan Krull.
“The goal is not to be confrontational at all,” says Alderman Rasheen Aldridge, who chairs the committee. “The goal is for them to present their FY27 budget. I don’t think they get a pass to not come.”
In order for the subpoena to happen, Aldridge will need a majority vote from the five-person Budget Committee, as well as the approval of the president of the Board of Aldermen, which right now is Acting President Shane Cohn. (While Megan Green was at City Hall on Thursday, she remains on maternity leave.)
In recent weeks, pretty much every other city agency has presented its budget for next fiscal year to the Budget Committee. But in late April, Commissioner Sonya Jenkins-Gray, who serves as the board’s government liaison, said the police wouldn’t be doing so, following the advice of their legal counsel. She cited the active lawsuit that the city is bringing against the Police Board over its budget. (That same suit is trying to dissolve the state-appointed board entirely.)
The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department budget has been far and away the most contentious of any department this year. The Police Board wants a budget for next year of somewhere between $250 million and $270 million, while Mayor Cara Spencer argues that, according to state law, the budget allocation should be around $219 million. Spencer filed suit against the Board in early April. Just last week, the Police Board filed its own suit, asking a judge to order the city to spend $67.5 million more on police before June 30. Every alderman, as well as Green and the mayor, received summons related to that lawsuit last week.
Aldridge appears to have the votes to force the issue, so long as Cohn doesn’t resist. Two other members told SLM Friday that they would vote yes, enough to give Aldridge a majority on the five-member committee.
On Friday, Alderwoman Alisha Sonnier said the subpoena had her strong support. Committee Vice Chair Michael Browning said he understood why an attorney might counsel a client who is being sued to stay mum, but that, nonetheless, “These asks that [the Police Board] is making are not connected to any actual real need.” He’s in favor of the subpoena: “They’re sending us summons, and so I think it’s only appropriate that they come and talk to us.”
Alderman Matt Devoti, who also sits on the Budget Committee and is himself an attorney, was on the fence as of Friday.
“I understand the want,” Devoti said. “It would be good to hear from the police.” However, he said he’d just been made aware that this had been put on the committee’s agenda, and was still considering his vote.
Cohn, the acting aldermanic president whose approval is required for the subpoena to go out, said he was in favor as well. He spoke as he left Friday’s full aldermanic meeting, and he happened to have the summons he’d just gotten from the Police Board in his hand. He said he knew about the agenda item for Monday’s Budget Committee meeting.
“I’m aware,” he said. “And I will be signing.”
Aldridge said that he’s flexible on who from the five-person police Board shows up to present their budget. He said that whoever shows up needs to be “prepared to talk certain line items—you know, ‘Why do you want a huge increase in this, why do you want a huge increase in that?’”
