With the deadline for the City of St. Louis to advance its budget for the year coming up in just a few days, the question of how much the city must allocate for its police department may get its answer from a judge.
Police commissioner Sonya Jenkins-Gray said Wednesday that a judge or mediator was “how we’re going to get [this resolved],” echoing earlier comments from commission president Chris Saracino and fellow commissioner Edward McVey. To her, “the legal question has not yet been addressed.”
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 attorney for the Board of Police Commissioners, Chris Graville, has stated that he believes the Police Board is entitled to around $330 million under the law giving the state control of the police. But the board has not yet officially asked for it, instead settling on a lower $250 million figure. That’s still greater than the $208 million Spencer thinks is required under the law that says the city must allocate one-quarter of its general revenue to police. And Spencer has grown impatient, saying the board has left the city little time to negotiate a further budget figure before advancing its budget for the year.
Spencer criticized the Police Board at its meeting Wednesday morning, saying they had not communicated well with the city and had little time left to solidify their budget ask. Jenkins-Gray acknowledged the deadline enshrined in the city charter as she sparred with Spencer, saying the board and the city needed mediation “expeditiously.”
Spencer also clapped back at attempts by McVey and Saracino to paint their efforts to meet with her administration as productive.
“With regards to the comments related to working with the Mayor’s Office on the budget, I have to disagree with you,” Spencer said. “We did meet last week in my office, but the key component here, the question is … what amount the city is providing the Board of Police Commissioners to run the department.
“As you well know, the city is moving forward with its budget next week. We have to under city charter.”
The Police Board previously approved an initial $250 million budget allocation, Graville said, characterizing discussions about a request for an additional $70 million as preliminary. Spencer says that any additional money would come at the expense of the rest of the city’s workforce. “In order for the police department to collaborate with other city departments, we have to have other city departments,” she said.
There are also disputes over whether the state law requiring the city to put roughly a quarter of general fund revenue towards the police includes the Rams settlement fund. The Police Board has suggested it’s on the table; Spencer has reacted with shock at the idea that it possibly could, as the parties continue to have competing definitions about the meaning of general revenue.
Saracino cut short the budget discussion between Spencer and Jenkins-Gray, calling it “repetitive” before moving on with the remainder of the meeting.
What’s Next: The next meeting for the Police Board’s budget committee is set for April 24, too late for the city’s budget deadline, Spencer noted. McVey said that doesn’t mean more meetings won’t be scheduled in the interim.
Multiple police commissioners seem ready to have a judge step in and settle the dispute over what the state requires of the city through the courts or a mediator, a difficult task to expedite in the few days before city charter requires budgets to be set in stone.
“What’s really clear here is that this process, and failing to do this over the last three months, … has pitted our workforce against our police department,” Spencer said. “No one, most importantly me, wants to see our community frustrated with our police department.”
