Judge Allows Unlimited Fundraising During Session

The Associated Press is reporting via the Belleville News Democrat that Jim Trout’s lawsuit challenging Missouri’s new campaign finance law  (see prior post) has been partially blocked by a Judge:

A Cole County judge on Monday temporarily blocked a new law banning fundraising by lawmakers, statewide officials and candidates during the legislative session, which began last week and runs through mid-May.

Although Circuit Judge Richard Callahan’s order only addresses the fundraising ban, the law also eliminated individual contribution limits; banned cash contributions to candidates from political parties; prohibited certain people from running for office; and imposed new Ethics Commission reporting requirements on lobbyists. Callahan set a March 2 hearing for consideration of the lawsuit seeking to declare the entire law unconstitutional

In his ruling, Callahan said the Legislature did not address the concerns raised by a federal judge who struck down a similar Missouri legislative session fundraising ban in 1996 as an unconstitutional infringement on free-speech rights.

Hopefully the judge will throw out the entire new law so that we stick with reasonable contribution limits.   With a hearing just days before our St. Louis primary election is looks at though local races will not be affected by this case.  I don’t know how these things work but it would be interesting if the judge was able to rule that contributions received over the old limits had to be returned by candidates.

City Sidewalk Parking on KMOX Radio Tonight, 11pm

Following on the excellent report by KMOV Channel 4 TV earlier tonight (see post), I will be a brief guest on the Mark Reardon show on KMOX radio, AM 1120 talking about the same issue.  That will be in the 11 o’clock hour.

City Sidewalk Parking on Channel 4 at 6pm Tonight

KMOV News (Channel 4) will be airing a story tonight on their 6pm news about city employees parking on the public sidewalk along 14th Street (see prior post). I met with KMOV’s Russell Kinsaul this afternoon on 14th to discuss the issue. He gave me a copy of a statement received from Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce. You will recall that I emailed her Friday afternoon prior to posting my story on this subject a couple of hours later. To date, I have not heard back from Ms. Joyce.

I will post a copy of the statement and some additional thoughts after the story airs tonight on the 6pm news, KMOV Channel 4.

UPDATE 1/8/2007 – 6:20pm

This story was Channel 4’s leading story if you don’t count the breaking news of a double stabbing in North St. Louis. As mentioned in their story, and referenced above, Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce issued a statement about this issue:

Thank you for bringing this issue to my attention, as I was unaware that vehicles from this office were parking in this manner.

The Circuit Attorney’s Office has historically been assigned parking spots along 14th Street. My staff has informed me that the parking spots allocated to the Circuit Attorney’s Office on 14th Street are occassionally occupied by other city vehicles. To correct the situation, I will do the following:

• I have directed my staff to never, under any circumstances, park on the sidewalk, even if our spots are illegally occupied by someone else; and
• I have asked and will continue to ask the city police to ticket and tow unauthorized vehicles in our parking spots or on the sidewalk; and
• I will speak to other city agency leaders to request their staff members don’t park in our parking spots on 14th Street.
  

Click here to view the statement in PDF format, with thanks to Channel 4 for providing me a copy of the statement even though I made such a request Friday afternoon. All in all this is a good statement, it says she was unaware of the issue and then lists specific steps that are being taken to address the oversight.

But I want to look at the bigger picture here for a moment. Their office has “historically been assigned parking spots along 14th Street.” Ok, that is nice. Assigned by whom? Does the Treasurer’s office who runs the City’s parking garages and members have authority over all on-street parking? When the Circuit Attorney’s Office moved two blocks East to the other side of Tucker was the parking situation not evaluated?

I love the fact that an elected official must inform her staff that it is not OK to park their cars and SUVs on a sidewalk. This would seem to be common sense in my book. And finally Joyce is going to speak with other leaders and ask them not to park in their spots. This goes back to the question about numbers of spaces, who assigns them and how often this is evaluated. Yet another example of poor parking management downtown.

UPDATE 1/8/07 @ 10pm – link to KMOV story & video.

Some Kudos for the Board of Aldermen

Usually I am complaining about what our elected representatives are not doing, or in some cases things they should not be doing.  They seem to provide an endless supply of material.  Every so often, however, are some good things that deserve recognition.

Two bills warrant such recognition:

The first is Board Bill 175 sponsored by Ald. Matt Villa (D-11th) and Ald. Charles Quincy Troupe (D-1st):

An ordinance pertaining to parking for disabled persons; amending paragraph (A) of Section 17.76.020 of the Revised Code, as enacted in Section One of Ordinance 65142 in order to add “Blindness” to the list of disabilities; and containing an emergency clause.

This came about because the city’s Office on the Disabled would not renew a blind woman’s parking designation in front of her house.  Of course, she didn’t drive but her husband did.  By having a designated parking space it allowed her the comfort of knowing how to get in and out of the house.  Mayor Slay called the woman to apologize on behelf of the City.  The bill, introduced last July, was fully passed and sent to the Mayor for signature.
Board Bill 323 was introduced by Housing and Urban Design Chair Ald. Fred Wessels, (D-13th) on December 15, 2006:

An ordinance directing the Board of Public Service to adopt Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building rating system for all newly constructed and renovated city-owned facilities.

Signed on as co-sponsors were seven other aldermen: April Ford-Griffin (D-5th), Phyllis Young (D-7th), Stephen Gregali (D-14th), Joe Roddy (D-17th), Craig Schmid (D-20th), Bill Waterhouse (D-24th) and Jim Shrewsbury, President of the Board of Aldermen.   This, I believe, is an important step by the city.  The bill, if passed and becomes law, would require new facilities greater than 5,000sf to acheive the silver level.

So kudos to the aldermen listed above for taking some important steps in the right direction.  The first alderman to introduce a bill establishing a new pro-urban form-based zoning code will become my first Alderman of the Year award.

A Job Opening at St. Louis Public Schools Paying $80,000+

Posted on the St. Louis Public Schools website is a job titled, “Executive Director of Board Affairs” and it pays $80K or better. I bet you are thinking that is some good pay? What if I told you your boss would be none other than board president Veronica O’Brien, that pay doesn’t look so good now does it?

Here is a teaser from the job posting:

Position Summary:
The Board of Education of the St. Louis Public Schools is seeking an Executive that will be responsible for managing the daily operations of the Board Affairs Office.

Essential Functions:
1. Reports directly to the Board of Education by way of the president or vice
president.
2. Manage the day-to-day operation of the board office.
3. Act as board liaison with the Superintendent and other staff of the school district.
4. Makes recommendations to the board concerning administrative and school related matters.
5. Act as liaison, when necessary, with the public and fielding questions from the community regarding Board and district business.

You can read the full description on a Word document from the school board site linked above as long as it remains posted, or you can view a PDF here.  In all seriousness, this is a good position although I don’t know that anyone who is actually qualified for the post would want to even apply given the current state of board affairs.