The sheer volume of scandals that have befallen St. Louis County government would put any nearby municipality to shame, the City of St. Louis included.
This year alone has seen County Executive Sam Page find it necessary to proactively prevent something akin to a coup by the council chair before a trip overseas. A plan to temporarily relocate county government headquarters became mired in dysfunction, infighting, and county staffers getting screamed at by elected officials behind closed doors. A councilwoman was recently caught on a hot mic saying she would love to punch someone—perhaps the county health director—in the “f—ing face.” There has been controversy surrounding the jail, animal control, and even an obscure board that oversees medical clinics. Oh, and Page is under indictment, as was the county executive who preceded him.
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.
That’s the bad news. The good news is that the leading candidates to replace Page seem determined to get the government back to good governance. In interviews with Nine PBS and SLM for Race for County Executive: The Citizens’ Agenda, those candidates disagreed on what caused county government to become defined by infighting—and shared what they see as the solution.
State Senator Brian Williams (D–University City) said he has a proven track record of combating dysfunction, pointing to his history of building bridges in the Missouri legislature with people who have no inherent reason to care about the St. Louis metro region. Drawing on his time in Jefferson City, he noted that building coalitions among roughly 160 state representatives and 34 state senators—most of them from outside St. Louis—to push for his district’s priorities was no easy task. Compared to that, he suggested, working with the County Council and its six members would be a snap.
“What would I give to do that among seven of my colleagues from the same county that ultimately should be focused on growing our region, making sure it’s safe, making sure we’re creating job opportunities and a political nonpartisan government,” he said.
County Assessor Jake Zimmerman pointed to his current, profoundly unsexy job as proof he’s the right person to change the culture of county government. He talks less about building coalitions than about lowering the temperature more generally, creating the kind of atmosphere in which coalition-building happens naturally.
“So much of what the county government does oughtn’t to be sexy, and it shouldn’t be on the front page of the paper. There’s not a Democratic or a Republican way to make sure that the nurses at the jail get paid so that the prisoners don’t riot. But that was a big fight in the county council just this past week,” he said in his interview, taped in late June. “And it’s crazy to me.”
Zimmerman said there isn’t a Democratic or Republican way to carry out the day-to-day business of running county government—only a right way and a wrong way. “One of the mantras I’ve tried to live by is you just do the right thing.”
County Councilman Dennis Hancock is the lone Republican in the race and will face whichever Democrat wins the primary. (State Senator Angela Mosley, a Florissant Democrat, is on the primary ballot along with Zimmerman and Williams, though she declined to make herself available for the Citizens’ Agenda, along with other efforts by local media to cover the race.)
Hancock suggests he has his own proven track record of collaboration, pointing to his ability to work with the mayors of neighboring municipalities back when he was the mayor of Fenton. He adds that he would be uniquely well-positioned to work with current council members, who have formed bipartisan coalitions even as they struggle to get along with Page. “Disagreement is good, as long as it’s done in a civil manner,” he said. “And I think that what we’re seeing a lot of times on the council is being driven by the lack of leadership coming from the executive’s office. I would hope to change that by being a leader and by continuing to work closely with the people that I work with today.”
Indeed, Hancock says the dysfunction in county government is largely driven by Page: “He shows up a minute before the meeting starts. He leaves immediately after the meeting’s over. There’s no conversation.”
Zimmerman sees things differently. He blamed Page’s predecessor, Steve Stenger, who served about two years in federal prison after pleading guilty in a pay-to-play corruption scheme in which county contracts were steered to campaign donors in exchange for political contributions.
“When you make a criminal your top leader, bad things are going to happen,” Zimmerman said. “It’s no surprise that there was fighting and a lack of trust. But that lack of trust has gotten worse in large part because people just keep talking past each other.”
Learn more:
Watch our one-hour special Race for County Executive: The Citizens’ Agenda
Read about what the candidates say about the issues that matter to voters:
St. Louis County executive candidates aren’t ready to endorse city-county unification
