With Mayor Francis Slay’s record run drawing to a close, staff writer Jeannette Cooperman set out to explore his complex legacy. She interviewed both his closest allies and harshest critics over several months and, time and again, heard them remark that Slay has managed to serve four terms without scandal—and without being a particularly charismatic leader.
“People say you’re not flamboyant or colorful,” she told Slay when they sat down together in Room 200.
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“That’s OK with me,” he replied.
Of course, that low-key profile has led some St. Louisans to speculate whether Slay really was in charge. Some believe that his former advisors, including Jeff Rainford and Barb Geisman, ran the show—a claim that longtime Comptroller Darlene Green disputes. “He was the mayor even when people thought he wasn’t,” she remarked. “He wasn’t waitin’ on Jeff’s or Barb’s answer.”
Mike Wolff, former dean of the Saint Louis University School of Law, first met Slay long before he entered politics, when he was a law student in the ’70s. “The mayor of this city has few actual powers, but he has used those few powers exceedingly well,” Wolff told Cooperman. “Even where he has no control, he has used persuasion and incentives to try to make city living better.”
St. Louis didn’t keep the Rams, but we did hold on to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. We lost some corporate headquarters, but we gained scores of startups. The city gained control of the police department, but crime continues to soar. The central corridor is flourishing, but some neighborhoods still founder. District schools retooled as charter schools multiplied. And the city earnings tax remains, but the city is still strapped.
All this during two recessions and with fewer than half the staff members of previous administrations.
“What a great mayor does is use what few tools are available and try to do the best for the city and region. In this respect, even when he falls short of his goals, he is a great mayor,” Wolff said. “But there must be a qualification: His relations with leaders of the African-American population in the city often have been strained. Many see him as pursuing the interests of the downtown businesses and the sports franchises and other bread-and-circuses interests instead of the real street-level interests of the city. I think the charge is unfair, but that’s politics, and politics ain’t beanbag.”
