Poll: How Do You Feel About Police Chief Dotson’s Vision For Using Drones?

In February drones were the subject of the weekly poll and readers supported regulation of drones in Missouri. Last week we learned of a real local example:

In Chief Sam Dotson’s vision of modern policing, a drone would circle Busch Stadium to watch for terrorists, or silently pursue a criminal who thought the chase was over when the officer in the car behind him turned off its red lights and siren. (stltoday)

Dotson sent a letter to the FAA on March 25th indicating they’d like permission to operate an “Unmanned Aerial Observation Platform”. See the RFT for Dotson’s March letter and a letter of support from Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce.

I personally like the idea of using drones in the above situations, allowing the police to do their jobs, while not endangering the public with a high-speed chase. But I know many of you are camera shy, you expect more privacy even in public spaces.

This non-hypothetical example seemed like a good enough reason to revisit the issues of drones again. The poll is in the right sidebar, results on Wednesday July 10th.

— Steve Patterson

Readers: Alderman Freeman Bosley Sr. Should Resign

Given that two years ago readers wanted Ald. Bosley out of office the results of the poll last week shouldn’t be a surprise:

Q: Ald Bosley sent a letter to supporters asking for help paying the remaining $14,276 private college tuition for his daughter he couldn’t cover. Reaction:

1. Bosley has lost the public trust, he should resign 58 [42.03%]
2. Missouri legislature should tighten ethics laws 43 [31.16%]
3. If constituents are upset, they should start a recall campaign 23 [16.67%]
4. Meh, no big deal 11 [7.97%]
5. Unsure/no opinion 3 [2.17%]

Ok, “only” 42% said he should resign, not a majority. But I’m pretty sure many of the 31% who picked the answer about state ethics laws wouldn’t mind if Bosley resigned.

But he’s not going to do so. Why? He has no clue how out of touch he really is, the original letter is proof of that. Unfortunately, he’ll be in office until he’s dead or physically incapacitated.

— Steve Patterson

Non-Profit Carr Square Tenant Corporation Has Massive Annual Deficits

Tenant management of public housing projects was a new thing forty years ago:

In 1971, brought together by frustration with poor management and maintenance, the residents of the Bromley-Heath public housing development In Boston formally Incorporated the nation’s first resident management corporation That same year, St. Louis’ public housing residents waged a rent strike against their housing authority to protest poor maintenance and rising rents In the wake of the strike settlement, the authority eventually delegated control over a number of management functions to newly-formed resident organizations at several Sites, Including Carr Square and Cochran Gardens. These events marked the beginning of the resident management movement, which today is viewed by resident advocates and policy makers as a potential solution to many of the problems facing America’s public housing stock and the people who live In it. (HUD – Evaluation of Resident Management in Public Housing – 1992)

The St. Louis Rent Strike actually took place in 1969, it took a few years to get to tenant management.  The Carr Square Tenant Corporation was incorporated as a non-profit on September 27, 1972, before Cochran Gardens. Initially tenant management corporations had limited roles but over the years this has expanded greatly, especially at Carr Square. Rodney Hubbard Sr. is the Executive Director of the Carr Square Tenant Corporation.

Cochran Gardens leader Bertha Gilkey became a high-profile face of tenant management with a May 3 1991 visit by President George H.W. Bush to Cochran Gardens (read speech) and was honored by Oprah Winfrey in 1992. In 1998 the Post-Dispatch discovered Gilkey had charged thousands of dollars on Cochran credit cards for personal use.  The Housing Authority demanded the return of the credit cards and questioned expenses at Carr Square:

The new leaders of the St. Louis Housing Authority are questioning hundreds of thousands of dollars of expenditures at the Carr Square housing complex.

The biggest expense in question: a contract for at least $ 616,000 for telephone work at the development.

Meanwhile, Thomas P. Costello, interim executive director of the Housing Authority, said he also wants top officials of another public-housing development, Cochran Gardens, to return their credit cards. That demand followed publication Sunday of a Post-Dispatch investigation that showed that Cochran board chairwoman Bertha Gilkey made thousands of dollars of purchases for herself and her consulting firm on her Cochran- issued credit card. (St. Louis Post-Disptach 1/14/1998)

What’s this about deficit spending? Take a look:

I obtained the 990s (non-profit tax return) for 2008-2010, the 2008 return also includes figures for the prior year, 2007. I’ve uploaded these to Scribd for review:

• 2008
• 2009
• 2010

In the four years covered above they had revenue of $4,530,275 and expenses of $7,864,725, for a cumulative deficit of -$3,334,450. I’m not an accountant, but I know you want revenue to be higher than expenses. Much of their revenue is from HUD and other government agencies. I don’t understand how this continues.

The St. Louis Comptroller’s Office has reviewed compliance for an annual daycare contract of less than $40,000. In December 2001, May 2009, and November 201o the results were the same: “Conclusion: The Agency did not fully comply with federal, state, and local CDA requirements.”

Maybe everything here is on the up and up, I just see red flags that don’t make sense to me. I’m notifying the HUD Office of Inspector General and the St. Louis Circuit Attorney, hopefully they’ll look into this.

— Steve Patterson

Poll: Your Thoughts on Ald Bosley’s Solicitation For Tuition Money?

Last week we learned Ald. Freeman Bosley Sr. (D-03) sent a letter asking help covering $14,276 of a $38,890 bill to the private Xavier College in Chicago.

So the longtime city politician sent an unusual letter to friends and supporters, asking them to provide $14,274 he says is the outstanding balance of his daughter’s upcoming bill at St. Xavier University in Chicago.

“Although the help from scholarships and grants has paid for nearly twenty-five thousand dollars, the remaining balance is still a challenge,” Bosley wrote in the undated letter obtained this week by the Post-Dispatch. (stltoday)

You can view the letter here. Freeman Bosley Sr. is 78, his son, former mayor Freeman Bosley Jr. will turn 59 next month. Just how old is this daughter? Forty-five?

Bosley tells us that his daughter, Kenya Young-Bosley, who is turning eighteen next month, will attend St. Xavier University in Chicago this fall and eventually wants to go to law school. He says that she has maintained a 4.0 GPA and is in the top 2 percent of her class. (Riverfront Times)

Many bright young people attend public colleges, but Bosley seems to have a different view:

But it is a comment made to News Channel Five that continues to ruffle feathers. Bosley,Sr said, “Why would I want to send a child that can do that (get 97%) over four years over to a public university when her intent is to become a lawyer?

“It doesn’t make sense to send her out to Forest Park, now would it.” (KSDK)

“Forest Park” is a reference to St. Louis Community College at Forest Park. Most of us know there are numerous public colleges in Missouri such as University of Missouri, University of Missouri – St. Louis, and Harris-Stowe State University. Heck, at Harris Stowe she should feel right at home.

Bosley Jr. attended Saint Louis University, a private school, for undergraduate & law school. As mayor he helped Harris Stowe take over part of the land that was once LaClede Town, part of the urban renewal project that razed the area known as Mill Creek Valley.

Back to Bosly Sr.; apparently officials from the Missouri Ethics Commission say he didn’t violate any laws. Not surprising, Jefferson City isn’t keen on regulation of industry or politicians.

When questioned by numerous news outlets, Ald. Bosley indicated he would return any checks if he receives any.

Which brings me to the poll question for this week:  Ald Bosley sent a letter to supporters asking for help paying the remaining $14,276 private college tuition for his daughter he couldn’t cover. Reaction?

Has the media blown this out of scale? Is this a major violation of public trust? Vote in the poll in the right sidebar then add your comments below.

— Steve Patterson

Central Valet Zone Now On Tucker

I’ve been writing about valet parking since July 2005. Years ago valets would take every on-street parking space on the block in front of the restaurant that hired them. leaving no spaces for the public to use. They’d place valet signs in bike lanes.

Finally the city to placed signs on the meter of the spaces that were permitted for valet service, including days of the week and hours of operation. The valets continued to take more spaces than given, again inconveniencing the general public. For example, until recently, we had three different valet stands in the two city blocks of Washington Ave between 10th and Tucker (12th), two were directly across the street from each other!

The city has permitted valet on Thursday-Saturday evenings after 6pm. Lately the city did something it should’ve done 8 years ago — created a central valet zone to cover these two blocks. So now on Tucker from St. Charles St to Washington Ave you have a bus stop and a valet zone. This area didn’t have any on-street parking before, it was just excessively wide.

Valet problems are solved, right? Wrong! The valet companies still feel they have the right to take public parking whenever and where ever they like.

Empty spaces mean the city isn’t getting revenue to pay off bonds to cover parking garage debt. Since it was before 5pm I was able to email the above pic to the appropriate people so they could come out and tell them they couldn’t do this.

I personally don’t care if valeting happens 7 days a week, as long as it is in the central spot on Tucker so the public spaces remain available for the public to use.

— Steve Patterson