Charter Commission eyes boroughs, municipal governance reform

The St. Louis County Charter Commission is moving toward development of an entirely new county charter, commissioners indicated during their March 28 meeting.

Commission Chairman Gene McNary told the meeting he wants to use a new charter to restructure the county and its existing municipalities into a borough system.

At a minimum, he hopes the commission will propose new standards for municipal functions, such as law enforcement, that will effectively require some municipalities to consolidate.

While Commissioner Maxine Schumacher initially suggested the commission should focus on an in-depth review of the county’s existing governing document and revisions to specific provisions, Chairman McNary called for a more all-encompassing approach – specifically development of an entirely new charter to implement a borough system.

Under McNary’s proposal, St. Louis County would be restructured into seven boroughs – based more-or-less on the county’s seven existing county council districts – which would replace the county’s present 88 municipalities.

Each borough would have its own mayor, police and fire department, McNary said. The seven mayors would be members of a Council of Mayors, which would elect the county’s chief executive – effectively a county-level version of city manager, McNary said.
At present, St. Louis County’s chief executive – the county board chair — is elected by the general public.

McNary first proposed borough government for the county in the 1970s, while serving as county board chair. However, the concept failed to win popular support. He has reviewed his call for borough government over the past two years in a series of media interviews.
Ultimately, commissioners opted to form six working groups on:

–Form of government (addressing the overall structure of county government including the borough proposal);
–County budget;
–County departments;
–County governance (addressing specific issues concerning the county chief executive, county council, county counselor, etc.)
–Local governance (addressing uniform standards for police, fire and other municipal functions); and
–Cyber security.

Sixteen specific proposals for charter charges, submitted by county department directors prior to the meeting, were assigned to various working groups.

McNary said after the meeting that his current borough proposal does not include the City of St. Louis. Although he acknowledged the city conceivably could move to join the county borough system through an action of a city Board of Electors.

Several commissioners expressed a desire to avoid the type controversy surrounding the so-called “Better Together” city-count merger proposal.

Schumacher urged her fellow commissioners to seek public input on the charter review and said she may hold public meetings for residents in her area of the county.
Commissioners plan to finalize their proposal by October.

The commission plans to meet weekly, at 1 p.m. on Wednesdays in the County Council Conference Room, on the first floor of the St. Louis County Government Center, 41 South Central, in Clayton. However, meeting days or times may be changed during some weeks, due to scheduling conflicts.

Public comment periods are included in the agenda for each meeting. Speakers are encouraged to provide written copies of their comments.

Interested members of the public can register to receive commission meeting notifications and minutes by emailing to [email protected].

However, working groups are not subject state open-meeting law, according to the county counselor, and therefore will not be required to post notice of their meeting or accept public comment during those meetings.