Sine Die at the Board of Aldermen
Today is Sine Die at the St. Louis Board of Aldermen:
Adjournment sine die (from the Latin “without day”) means “without any future date being designated for resumption” or “indefinitely”. It is often used with reference to meetings or when an organized body’s existence terminates. (source)
In short, today is the last meeting of the old Board. For three members today is their last meeting as an elected official. Ald. Hanrahan & Ald. Kirner both opted not to run for reelection. Ald. Bennice Jones King was defeated in the Primary by Antonio French.
Tomorrow 4/21/09 is the first meeting of the new session. The winners in the odd-numbered wards will be sworn into new 4-year terms. For 11 of the 14 it is just a continence of prior terms. But three new members will officially become Aldermen tomorrow:
- 21st Ward -Â Friend and fellow blogger Antonio French
- 23rd Ward – Political insider & car wash owner Joe Vacarro
- 25th Ward – Shane Cohn, a friend and the first openly gay elected official in St. Louis city government
The testosterone level in our legislative branch will change. Three seats held by women will now be held by the men listed above. The old board had 11 women and 17 men — or a 40/60 ratio. Tomorrow it will have 8 women and 20 men. Not that gender matters. The racial composition of the Board will be unchanged tomorrow — 16 white and 12 black (57/43).
What about political party? After all we went through a partisan primary. Well, the political party composition of the board remains unchanged. It remains 27 Democrats and 1 Republican.
Last week the Democratic members held a caucus to determine seniority among members elected at the same time. I’m not sure how it turned out. Ald Heitert has been on the Board the longest but, as the only non-Democrat, he has the least seniority.
Also on the agenda tomorrow, Darlene Green will be sworn in again as Comptroller. Francis Slay will begin his 3rd term as Mayor.
Friday May 1st is the first full business meeting of the new Board.
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Vive le change. Congratulations to the new aldermen.
Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.
Q: What is the hardest part about being an alderman?
rhetorical question? finding the bathroom? staying awake? keeping your constituents happy?
No, serious question. Which is harder…thinking about the overall city budget, or how to spend your ward’s share of capital improvement funds? Which is harder…promoting downtown development or charter reform? Or convincing people in your non-downtown ward to even care? Which is harder…attracting development or dealing with problem properties? About being an Alderman: Hard job for low pay? Easy answer, YES!
To paraphrase that old Clairol ad, only an alderman will know for sure . . .
It’s a lot harder than think when they run for office. Things take longer and they’re a lot harder. They want to do certain things, and then they find out how few dollars there are and how many competing demands. Too many demands; too few dollars. A good approach is to underpromise and overdeliver. Much better than the other way around 🙂
What do you mean by “first openly gay member”?
I am very pleased Shane won. He might happen to be gay, but that is not what qualifies him to be a great representative. Having met Shane through NCCJ, I can honestly say St. Louis’ 25th ward is fortunate to have such a good person tending to its business. Congrats to Shane, he deserves it, as he has shown through his tireless efforts in creating and bridging connections to all persons in the community. I cannot think of a person more attune to the sensitivities needed in a political role.
Reginald Pennypacker III;
You certainly look to be quite right. What’s this about Antonio French and campaign contributions from Rex Sinquefeld?
http://www.archcitychronicle.com/node/547
And not to piss off the rabid pro-Shane Cohn people, but he seems too close to Slay for my liking. Ditto and x10 for Vaccaro.
God forbid there be an amicable working relationship between parties that have mutual goals.
What mutual goals are those?