St. Louis’ Public Meetings list offers some help staying informed

Since I’m critical of the management of the City of St. Louis in much of my writing I thought it would be wise to get more involved – to learn more about the process and be better informed. Well, just learning how to get better informed has been a process in and of itself.

I started with a pretty handy link on the City’s website appropriately titled Public Meetings. This dynamic list shows you public meetings to be held in the upcoming 31 days. As of today eleven meetings are scheduled with the first being the Affordable Housing Commission on December 7th.

Affordable Housing sounded interesting so I clicked on the link and I get information on the time & location of the meeting. But, I don’t get a link to their web site, an agenda or anything. So I go to the St. Louis City web site and search for Affordable Housing Commission and get their website. But, it doesn’t really tell me anything. I do get a list of Commissioners & staff, their mission and prior development awardees. I have no clue if this commission meets monthly and what the upcoming agenda will be. If they do meet monthly – say on the first Tuesday of each month – the next meeting would be on January 4th which is within the next 31 days. So, perhaps they don’t meet each month? Or they do but don’t want to meet that close to the new year? I move on…

Next on the list is the Planning Commission scheduled for December 8th. Clicking the link I get the time & location of the meeting as well as a detailed agenda – excellent. Some of the list is pretty cryptic but with many addresses & neighborhoods listed I can probably see if I’m interested in attending. What I don’t get is a link to the Planning Commission site to know who is on the commission. I search the city website and the best I can do is find the Planning & Urban Design Agency site which indicates they provide staff support for the Planning Commission. Someone looking at the Planning & Urban Design site doesn’t know about the upcoming meeting or agenda. The agenda from the Public Meetings site does tell me the next meeting will be January 5th – exactly 31 days from today. But, the upcoming 31 days on the Public Meetings site doesn’t list the January 5th meeting – the last one is listed for 12/27.

Next on the list is the Land Reutilization Authority (LRA) meeting, also on the 8th. Here I learn the meeting is at 8:30am at the same place most of these meetings are held – the 12th floor board room at 1015 Locust. No agenda, no link to the LRA site. Like most of these, a contact person is listed with phone number and email address. This one has a link to “SLDC Boards” but it simply takes you to the City web site – not to a list of SLDC Boards. But, a concise site with all the SLDC Boards does exist – click here for list. Once again I haven’t a clue who comprises the authority or what the upcoming agenda is.

Much of the rest of the list is in the same vain. You’ve got the Tax Increment Financing meeting without a clue who is making the decisions and what they are deciding. The Industrial Development Authority (IDA) at least has a working link to take you to the list of SLDC Boards but still no idea who makes up this authority or what is on the upcoming agenda. The Planned Industrial Expansion Authority (PIEA) public meeting notice is like the others – no link, no agenda and no clue who is makes up the authority.

Then we get to my favorite – the Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority (LCRA). A relic from the urban renewal days still abusing the powers of eminent domain for the public good. Of course, public good is now defined as a grandiose development plan with financing so complicated it is hard to see how much the tax payers are getting taken for but will give the Mayor and Alderman of the ward something to say they’ve done something. No agenda, no list of authority members, no link to site.

Same is true for the next three – the Port Authority Commission, the St. Louis Local Development Co. (LDC), and the St. Louis Development Corporation. No agenda, no list of decision makers and with the exception of the LDC, no link to a more detailed site. But, like all of SLDC boards, no agenda is provided online.

Last on the list is the Cultural Resource Preservation Board for Monday December 27th. I’m disappointed by the date because I’ll be out of town. The link to Planning & Urban Design sends you to the City’s site – not to Planning & Urban Design. I have Cultural Resources bookmarked and there I see the December meeting date, due to holidays, has changed to December 20th. The agenda is not yet posted yet but I know from past experience it will be. I also know from past experience it will be available in PDF format with all the detail presented at the meeting. Cultural Resources sets a great standard for informing the public. The Cultural Resources site is highly informative and includes a list of current Preservation Board members. I would prefer the list to show expiration dates of their terms but just knowing the names helps when you attend these public meetings.

Of the eleven upcoming public meetings I’ve got (or will have) two agendas, and only two lists of Board/Authority/Commission members. Sad.

While the Board of Adjustment, Board of Appeals and Board of Public Service are all public meetings they must not have any meetings in the coming month as past meetings were included on the Public Meetings site. But, like the others links to more information are either not provided at or too general to be helpful. These meetings are also publicized in the City Journal. This document is published weekly and is available by subscription or PDF online. The most recent issue is 18 pages of board bills and public notices. Basically, you’ve got to have lots of time on your hands, be paid to review these comings and goings, or be looking for something specific.

While the Public Meetings listing is hardly as informative as it could be, it is a start. It may take some phone calls or emails to find out an agenda or who is on the board. The pessimist in me says this information is absent or difficult to find on purpose – we wouldn’t want the public to be informed about the goings on within the government. Instead I’ll take the optimistic view that the city simply doesn’t have its act together with respect to the power of the internet.

When I get my act together, I intend to have a pretty exhaustive listing of links to various web sites relating to Urban Design – of local & general interest.

– Steve