Members of the St. Louis County Council are looking to have more sway over many county department heads. But in order to get that new power, they’re going to need voter approval. And in order to get voter approval, the council might need to spend a half-million of its Rams settlement cash.
How the county ought to spend its slice of the settlement funds has seen significantly less buzz than the heated debate in the city over what to do with its portion. In 2021, the county received $169 million from the NFL following the football team’s messy exit from St. Louis, compared to the city’s $280 million. Both sums have sat in interest-bearing accounts, with the city’s sum now sitting at around $300 million. Other than $30 million used to expand The Dome at America’s Center, the bulk of the city’s fund remains untouched.
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Not so in the county.
To date, St. Louis County has allocated $40 million of those funds on a program to repair subdivision streets, almost $10 million on cybersecurity, around $9 million for a police pay bump, $765,000 to draft a climate action plan, $340,000 on a study for Spanish Lake, and $400,000 in postage for the county Department of Revenue. That leaves $123 million available.
Now, Councilwoman Rita Heard Days would like to use $520,000 of the county’s Rams money to fund an April election for county voters to weigh in on Proposition B. If approved by voters, the measure would give the seven-member county council the power to remove the county counselor or any department director—including the heads of county police, parks, public health and transportation. Removal would require five of the council’s seven votes.
Days’ proposal would need the approval of the County Council, which is slated to consider the matter today. When the council passed the budget for 2025, no county-wide election was slated for April and so no money was allocated for it. The Rams fund solves that problem. Prop B will be the only countywide item on the ballot. Early voting starts today.
Days tells SLM that the $520,000 would come from the interest earned from the Rams money, not the principal. “I did not want to add to the current deficit that faces the County budget,” Days says.
Not surprisingly, County Executive Sam Page, who currently has the hiring and firing authority over most departmental heads other than the police chief, isn’t a fan of Prop B or using Rams money to fund an election to vote on it and only it.
“Proposition B, a proposal to grab power and disrupt county services, is not a good use for the Rams settlement funds,” said Page’s spokesman, Doug Moore.
Councilwoman Lisa Clancy agrees. “It’s absurd,” she says. “For the council to approach the Rams fund as a piggy bank for their political beef.”
Richard Banks, the head of the county’s Board of Police Commissioners, told Spectrum News that Prop B’s “broad language” could create conflicts because, right now, only the board he chairs has the power to hire and fire a county police chief.
Councilman Dennis Hancock, on the other hand, supports Prop B as well as using Rams funds to get it in front of voters on April 8.
“It’s ultimately going to lead to better government,” says Hancock. Right now, he says, he doesn’t feel like the council is getting timely information from departments. “Lines of communication are at times difficult at best,” he says. These new powers would give the department heads more reason to be responsive.
Hancock says that April is the appropriate time for county voters to weigh in, because otherwise the next countywide election wouldn’t be until 2026’s midterm federal elections.
Asked why the county’s Rams settlement money—and debate about how to use it—has been relatively low profile, Hancock says that is because there is agreement on the council to use the funds for “one-time capital projects.” In the city, some aldermen feel that way, but others want to use the money in more transformative ways.
“We’ve recognized it’s valuable to have funds on hand for special projects,” says Hancock.
Depending on how tonight goes, one of those special projects may be the council giving its own power a boost.
