Saint Louis
CitySide
St. Louis Front Page presents St. Louis CitySide, an overview of the City Government of Saint Louis. From time to time, we will take an indepth look at many of the projects in which the city is involved and how these projects will affect residents and visitors.
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Public Hearing on Proposed Mississippi River Crossing
Missouri Governor Holden Signs Bill Which Changes Property Tax Policy
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Citizens at the second public meeting for Advance St. Louis discussed the existing government structure and then wrote their ideas and comments on a large chart for future meetings.
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Advance Saint Louis' Second City Wide Meeting - Concerned Citizens Work to Change City Government
by Bob Moore, SLFP.com
ST. LOUIS, MO, (SLFP.com), August 2, 2003 - A grass-roots campaign to change and improve city government in St. Louis drew an intense audience, August 2, for the second in a series of public meetings, sponsored by Advance St. Louis.
Interested citizens gathered in the student center at St. Louis Forest Park Community College to hear presentations about the project and learn more about governmental structure in other major cities.
Following comments by George H. Walker III, chairman, Citizens for Home Rule, Inc., participants listened to presentations by Marit Clark, president, Citizens for Home Rule, Inc., and Sylvester Murray, professor of public administration, Cleveland State University.
"We think we are making tremendous progress," stated Mike Jones, executive director of Advance St. Louis. "This is an excellent turnout for this to be August when people are on vacation, Jones told St. Louis Front Page.
"The first meeting, held June 28, explained the project," stated Jones. "At this meeting, we talked about the various structures of city government around the country. We reviewed our current structure with specific emphasis on how the structure process goes," continued Jones.
Former Mayor Clarence Harmon (center) participated in a discussion about city government with interested citizens.
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He explained that during the second half of the meeting people broke into smaller groups to take a closer look at the information.
Jones said it provided an opportunity to really find out about what people think about the project - good, bad, indifferent, or not at all. "They'll come back later this morning and report their findings per table," said Jones.
When asked about the purpose of these meetings, Jones said, "For us, it's a feedback process so that we can make adjustments to tell if we're on track or make adjustments if we're not."
He said that in the process, "We explained what our current charter is all about and how it handles budget. Then Sylvester Murray went over various structures of local government. Basically there are four forms of government: manager-council; strong mayor; mayor-council; and, what we call non-standard."
Participants in a group discussion on changing government listen to comments by former Mayor James F. Conway (center).
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St. Louis is a non-standard because the executive authority is dispersed through a lot of elected officials," explained Jones.
The purpose of these public meetings is to give citizens the materials to formulate their own ideas of city government.
Jones emphasized that "We are not bringing any preconceived ideas about what they should be doing. We are attempting to give people enough information so that they can make informed comments to give back to us. Also, they can form their opinions so that at the end of this process, there are people who can say that 'Yeah, I've been keeping up with this ... We have provided the data'," said Jones.
When asked how Advance St. Louis is making sure that the majority of citizens are being informed about the process, Jones stated that Channel 10, the city's public access station, is taping all the meetings throughout the entire process.
"All the material we give out at the meetings is on our website www.advancestlouis.org so that even if you didn't come to the meeting, you still have the opportunity to get most of the experience of the people who came and get the same material," said Jones.
Jones added that "For information about Advance St. Louis or about becoming a more active participant such as volunteering to be a stakeholder, they could call 314-342-2123."
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