St. Louis airport privatization bill put aside as aldermen recess until Sept. 18 – STLtoday.com

ST. LOUIS — The Board of Aldermen on Friday began a two-month summer recess without acting on a plan to put airport privatization before city voters but passed a measure aimed at closing the city workhouse by Dec. 31.

Aldermanic President Lewis Reed said he may seek a special board meeting to try to pass his airport lease bill before the Aug. 25 deadline for qualifying for the Nov. 3 election ballot. As of now, aldermen aren’t set to return until Sept. 18.

“The board bill absolutely is not dead,” Reed told the Post-Dispatch after Friday’s meeting.

Reed insisted he had the needed 15 votes on the 29-member board on Friday to pass an ordinance setting up the citywide election on the proposal to lease St. Louis Lambert International Airport.

But he said two aldermanic backers asked him to again hold off voting “until we can truly vet” a follow-up legal opinion issued Thursday by City Counselor Julian Bush.

Bush’s latest opinion elaborated on one he issued Monday that contended that an alternative privatization measure proposed by a petition group was legally flawed and shouldn’t make the November ballot.

Attorneys for the petition group strongly disagree and a leader in the drive, St. Louis NAACP president Adolphus Pruitt, said Friday that they believe they are still on track for a November vote after the city Election Board verified they had enough signatures.

It’s unclear whether Bush’s legal opinion will spur anyone to challenge the petition plan in court.

Alderman Joe Roddy, D-17th Ward, who announced during floor debate that he was switching his position from support to opposition, said in an interview that he was told by a supporter of Reed’s bill that Reed had 13 votes in favor Friday.

Roddy said Reed knew long before Friday’s meeting about his plan to switch sides and wasn’t counting on his vote. He said in debate that he changed his position because it was inappropriate to ignore the city counselor’s opinion.

The petition drive was begun by the NAACP and the Carpenters Union and funded mainly by a firm tied to political megadonor Rex Sinquefield, a longtime backer of privatizing Lambert.

Reed later introduced his alternate bill, which was given tentative board approval June 29 on a 14-11 vote. The two proposals have differences but both would channel $1 billion upfront into various city projects, including various initiatives to improve poorer Black-majority neighborhoods.

Opponents, who warn that private operators would put profits ahead of the public interest, celebrated the failure to pass the bill Friday.

“St. Louis residents came together to defeat this rigged deal today, but the fight is not over,” the STL Not For Sale group said in a statement. “Our coalition will continue to work to protect our most valuable public assets, including Lambert Airport.”

Reed said whether he seeks a special meeting depends on what he and others conclude about Bush’s opinions and whether the petition plan appears to be headed to the ballot. Reed says the main reason for his bill is to improve on the plan offered by petitioners.

Aldermanic rules allow a special meeting to be called during the recess if any two of three people agree to call it. Those three are Reed; Roddy, the board vice-president and majority leader Jeffrey Boyd.

During debate Friday, supporter John Collins-Muhammad, D-21st Ward, said the bill would provide millions of dollars “to undo decades and decades of disinvestment” in north St. Louis and other areas if voters agree.

Opponent Bret Narayan, D-24th Ward, said both measures would give the city only 30 days to get bids, which he said is much too short a time even during good economic times.

Reed also said it’s possible that the whole issue could be delayed until the municipal primary next March. “We need to make sure we have a competing measure on the ballot whether that is in November or March,” he said.

Pruitt has said he’s willing to discuss with aldermen the idea of just having one proposal go before voters.

The workhouse closure bill was passed unanimously. Also sponsored by Reed, it would require corrections officials to prepare a plan to shut down the Hall Street facility, formally called the city Medium Security Institution.

Mayor Lyda Krewson has said she doesn’t know if the city could meet the end-of-year deadline but that her administration is working in that direction.

The board also passed a bill to put caps on the fees that third-party delivery apps can charge restaurants and groceries during the coronavirus pandemic.

Aldermen also gave narrow tentative approval to scheduling another citywide election on a ward reduction plan adopted by voters in 2012.

The bill, endorsed 15-13, calls for the issue to be placed on the ballot next April.

In 2018, aldermen gave tentative approval to a similar bill, also by a 15-13 vote. But that measure died after Krewson promised a veto, which would require a two-thirds majority to override.

On Friday, mayoral spokesman Jacob Long wouldn’t say what Krewson, who supported the 2012 ward reduction vote when she was an alderman, would do on this year’s bill to call another election on it.

Long said “she continues to listen to the conversations happening” at the board and would review bills sent to her for action.

Updated at 8:13 p.m.