St. Louis aldermen weigh two plans for Rams funds—and infinite possibilities

With the introduction of Alderwoman Alisha Sonnier’s Transform STL bill at the St. Louis Board of Aldermen last week, there are now two competing visions of how to spend the almost $280 million windfall stemming from the NFL’s messy exit from the city. But with two bills seeking a majority of the 15-member board, the winning vision may involve a compromised version involving elements of both.

At a committee meeting to discuss Sonnier’s bill on Monday, Ward 1 Alderwoman Anne Schweitzer said she found “really good ideas and merit” in both bills. 

“You got to get eight votes, and a bill that won’t be vetoed at the end of the day, so we’ll all have the goal of working together to get there,” she said. 

Sonnier’s bill, which has the support of Mayor Tishaura Jones and Aldermanic President Megan Green, proposes allotting the funds to citywide infrastructure, community development, and support for the city’s workforce, as well as two endowments providing annual support for childcare and college-bound city students. 

Sonnier’s bill is competing against a bill introduced last month by Alderwoman Pam Boyd, which would invest $130 million in struggling neighborhoods in North and Southeast City, plus $100 million in downtown. That plan largely mirrors a previous proposal put forth by Greater St. Louis Inc. and has as co-sponsors Aldermen Laura Keyes, Tom Oldenburg and Cara Spencer. 

Neither bill seems to have the votes it needs—yet. 

After introducing the bill Friday, Sonnier gave an in-depth presentation at Monday’s Housing, Urban Development and Zoning Committee meeting. Signs that some sort of compromise may be in the offing—or at least an openness to tweaks—were not hard to spot. 

“I’m putting this public commitment on the record that I would love the opportunity to meet and talk with GSL about both of our bills and finding a common ground that can work for everybody,” Sonnier said. “I can’t force anybody to come to that table and have that conversation, but it is a conversation that I welcome and that I think we should do.” 

Sonnier was responding to a question from Alderman Rasheen Aldridge, whose ward includes a portion of downtown and North City. Aldridge asked Sonnier about his constituents who want to make sure their neighborhood is getting its fair piece of the settlement given that no area was affected more by the Ram departure than the area around the Convention Center, where the Rams used to play. 

“Alderwoman Boyd started a conversation I think earlier than most board members wanted,” Aldridge tells SLM. “Because we still were going through the process of taking community input. But I think this is part of the Board of Aldermen process.”

Aldridge says he favors Sonnier’s bill more than Boyd’s because it is more detailed, though he appreciates how explicit the support for Downtown and North City is in Boyd’s proposal. He says whatever ultimately passes will have to include investment in those two areas. 

Sonnier isn’t ruling that out. In a separate back and forth with Schweitzer about which neighborhoods would be eligible for the funds, and which would be prioritized, Sonnier said, “Knowing that this is a democratic process, there’s still ongoing conversations, including [with] Greater St. Louis in hopes that we can maybe find something that hits a medium sweet spot.”

Sonnier’s Transform STL bill breaks the $270 million into six separate buckets: water; mobility; children and families; workforce; affordable housing and neighborhood development. Each fund would be overseen by its own board. The money would wind up doing everything from paving streets and fixing sidewalks (the mobility bucket) to being used to rehab large vacant properties into affordable housing (the affordable housing bucket) to lowering the cost of childcare for city residents (children and families).  

The funds would accrue interest. However, for most of them, the principal could also be spent on projects if the board overseeing the money approved the expenditure.

The Post-Dispatch editorial board blasted the Transform STL proposal, saying it would “fritter” the money away via a combination of “routine infrastructure spending” and other expenses that “arguably shouldn’t be a function of city government at all.” 

Cara Spencer—an alderwoman, mayoral candidate and co-sponsor of Boyd’s bill—is also not a fan. 

“We were awarded those funds because the judge decided, rightfully so, that the city lost revenue when the Rams left,” she tells SLM. “We have a revenue problem in our city right now because of the loss of population, a massive loss of population, and if we don’t address that, we can put in these short-term gains on issues, but they’re not going to solve the ongoing slide.”

Green’s spokesman Yusuf Daneshyar wouldn’t say one way or the other if he believed the Transform bill currently has the support it needs to pass. “I’m not going to speculate on who’s a yes and who’s a no,” he said. “The thinking was, let’s get the bill introduced and have the first hearing before the board goes on break, so that folks can start having these conversations and have more time with the bill to think about, are they supportive of it? If they’re not, what would get them to yes?”

He says that he anticipates his office meeting with Greater St. Louis Inc. sometime not long after the New Year, saying that the whole ethos behind the Transform bill was to take community feedback into account and they’re not going to stop doing that now. 

Greater St. Louis Inc. CEO Jason Hall announced earlier this month he’d be leaving to take a similar job in Columbus. Right now, the organization is being led by its chief real estate investment officer, Dustin Allison, as they gear up for a national search for Hall’s replacement.

“We understand that they need some time to regroup and focus on internal stuff in their organization,” said Daneshyar. 

Greater St. Louis Inc. shared a statement saying, “We have made very clear our support for using a portion of the Rams settlement fund to make long overdue and critically needed investments in disinvested neighborhoods in North and Southeast St. Louis and Downtown. We are reviewing the bill that was filed through the lens of ensuring that those two priorities are met so that these funds are focused on catalyzing the long-term, sustainable, and equitable growth St. Louis and its residents need.”