It was a tense night in the St. Louis County Council chambers.
Just nine hours after an unsealed 44-page federal indictment revealed that County Executive Steve Stenger was being charged with mail fraud, theft of honest services, and bribery—and his abrupt resignation—the County Council convened an emergency meeting to fill the post. (For more on the Stenger indictment, see St. Louis Magazine‘s story here.)
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In packed chambers, Council Vice Chair Hazel Erby expressed what many in the crowd were feeling: that the meeting was called in haste and that it was unfair that the public wasn’t allowed to comment. Those were the auspices—after five ayes, one no (Erby), and some outbursts from the audience (“See you in court, Page!” onetime county executive candidate Paul Berry III yelled before storming out)—under which Council Chairman Sam Page, a Democrat, assumed his role as interim county executive.
Page, an anesthesiologist who’s taking a leave of absence, will serve until the November 2020 election. Before he was elected to the council in 2014, he served in the Missouri House of Representatives and ran for lieutenant governor. He now must navigate Better Together’s proposed city-county merger, work with a County Council that could divide along party lines, and help revive a St. Louis Economic Development Partnership and St. Louis County Port Authority going through their own troubled transitions—all while trying to win back the public’s trust.
“Godspeed!” a member of the public called out before the special meeting was adjourned.
Less than 24 hours later, Page sits in a conference room on the ninth floor of Clayton’s Lawrence K. Roos County Government Building. It’s hot, the air is still, and the lights are so bright, he asks for them to be dimmed. He doesn’t have all the answers, he says, but he has a place to start: reviewing the county’s contracts—even ones that weren’t questioned in the indictment—and setting up a process to prevent elected officials from making government decisions in exchange for campaign money. “We will try and set up as many barriers to that as possible,” he says, “and I hope to have some policy initiatives in the next couple of weeks.”
Another issue that Page believes deserves immediate attention: shoring up the St. Louis Economic Development Partnership and the county Port Authority. “One of my first actions will be to replace the membership of the board of the Economic Partnership and request they move forward in search for new leadership to rebuild that organization. It’s a critical component of economic development and job creation in St. Louis County,” he says.
At press time, Page wouldn’t comment on Better Together’s plan because he had yet to meet with the Municipal League of Metro St. Louis and St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson. In general, he’s opposed to changes in county government not decided on by voters here, a common critique of the proposal. Collaboration between the city and county is a conversation that needs to be happening, he adds, but “it needs to be driven by St. Louis County voters and voters in the city.”
As for the party factions that could form now that Stenger is no longer in office? “I think all council members, even if they disagree, will sit down and listen to the other person’s position in a respectful manner,” Page says.
It’s a daunting task, a promotion that likely comes with a pay cut—and the risk of failure. Why would Page want it? A conversation with his wife persuaded him. “She said, ‘The county is a mess, and you know more about it than anyone. You should go and try to help them fix it.’”
