Sunday Poll: Should Gov Grietens Sign The Minimum Wage Bill?

On Friday May 12th, in the final minutes of the session, the Missouri legislature sent a bill to Governor Greitens that would nullify St. Louis’ recent increase in the minimum wage. 

The House failed to adopt an emergency clause on the bill, meaning it won’t immediately take effect should Gov. Eric Greitens sign it, which sponsoring House Rep. Jason Chipman said he had promised to do. The new minimum wage in St. Louis would instead be nullified in August if the measure becomes law. 

Speaking to reporters after session’s end, Greitens said he’d have to take a close look at the bill before making a final decision. (Post-Dispatch)

Missouri’s minimum wage is $7,70/hr while St. Louis’ new minimum wage is $10/hr.

Which brings us to today’s poll:

The poll will close at 8pm.

— Steve Patterson

St. Louis Board of Aldermen: New Board Bills 5/19/2017 (#35-#36), Update On Board Bill #34 From Prior Week

The following two (2) board bills are being introduced in the St. Louis Board of Aldermen today:

As of 5:30am the pages with the full bill language are not posted online, I’ll update this post once these are available. [UPDATED @10AM]

Today’s agenda can be viewed here. The meeting begins at 10am, it can be watched online here.

An update on last week’s meeting. Just before 7am on Thursday May 11th I downloaded the Week #4 agenda (view on Scribd). I then copied and pasted the list of new bills (#25-#34) into the post for the next morning. That night I updated the post with links to the bill pages. The Week 4 agenda currently posted online (Scribd) doesn’t include Bill #34 — 25 through 33 all match The video of the meeting shows no #34 was introduced — BB#33 was introduced at 28:53 in the video. However, a Board Bill #34 creating a buffer zone at abortion clinics is listed, though it shows no legislative action taken. Perhaps #34 will be formally introduced at a later date? I’ve downloaded copies in case it disappears.

— Steve Patterson

Readers: Lawsuit Against NFL Won’t Be Successful

On Friday we learned about the legal team coming to St. Louis to defend the NFL & Rams against the lawsuit filed by St. Louis:

To no one’s surprise, the NFL is sending in its “A-team” in the St. Louis breach of contract lawsuit over the relocation of the Rams to Los Angeles.

The Washington-based law firm of Covington & Burling will represent the NFL and 31 of its 32 teams, according to court records and sources familiar with the case.

The exception is the Rams, who are represented by Kirkland & Ellis, also a nationally prominent law firm but headquartered in Chicago.

 

Also representing the NFL and the 31 other teams locally is Jerry Carmody of Clayton-based Carmody MacDonald. (Post-Dispatch)

The case is filed in St. Louis Circuit Court (22nd): 1722-CC00976 – STL REGIONAL CONV ET AL V NATL FOOTBALL LEAGUE ET.  (find on CaseNet)

In the recent non-scientific Sunday Poll a slim majority of those who voted don’t think the lawsuit will be successful.

Q:  Agree or disagree: St. Louis’ lawsuit against the Rams/NFL will recoup millions spent trying to keep the team here.

• Strongly agree 9 [16.67%]
• Agree 5 [9.26%]
• Somewhat agree 7 [12.96%]
• Neither agree or disagree 3 [5.56%]
• Somewhat disagree 1 [1.85%]
• Disagree 8 [14.81%]
• Strongly disagree 20 [37.04%]
• Unsure/No Answer 1 [1.85%]

The home field advantage for the plaintiffs certainly helps, but the local jurors will need to be convinced. I’m not going to say either way because it is hard to predict outcomes of lawsuits. I’m tracking the case through CaseNet — the jury trial is currently scheduled to start at 9am on Monday October 2, 2017. The case is currently assigned to Judge Michael K Mullen.

I hope they’re successful, but I can’t help but think of Metro’s 2007 court loss.  Not an apples to apples comparison — but it comes to mind as an embarrassing loss.

— Steve Patterson

Remembering The Old Kiener Plaza

The ribbon will be cut on the new Kiener Plaza at noon on Friday, May 19, 2017. Kiener Plaza is a 2-block urban park, part of the Gateway Mall, bounded by Broadway (5th) on the East, Market on the South, 7th on the West, and Chestnut on the North.

Originally Kiener Plaza was just one block — Broadway to 6th. The 2nd block was added in the 80s with the Morton May Amphitheater replacing a surface parking lot on the West block.  Sixth Street was closed between Chestnut and Market — just one block. This forced the one-way Southbound traffic on 6th to turn onto one-way Eastbound Chestnut.

I went through my photos of Kiener Plaza — I’d used a few on the blog before, but added 20+ to this post.

The two blocks were never a cohesive design, from different decades. The new design starts from a clean slate, we’ll see Friday how well it turned out.   See cityarchriver.org/visit/kiener for more information on Friday & Saturday’s activities.

A week from today I’ll have my thoughts on the new Kiener Plaza.

— Steve Patterson

Sunday Poll: Will St. Louis’ Lawsuit Against The Rams/NFL Be Successful?

It has been over a year since the Rams returned to Los Angeles after a costly failed attempt to keep them in St. Louis.Last month a lawsuit was filed relating to the effort to keep the NFL team here:

The relocation of the Rams from St. Louis to Los Angeles has left many fans in St. Louis angered and disillusioned. Some of them are convinced that the team’s owner, Stan Kroenke, and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell dishonestly conspired to sell out the Gateway City for the riches and glamour of Los Angeles. This anger has sparked the City of St. Louis and the St. Louis Regional Convention and Sports Complex Authority (RSA) to sue the NFL and all of its teams. The lawsuit, which was filed in St. Louis Circuit Court on Wednesday, alleges that the NFL and its teams breached their own contractual commitments in how they assessed relocation plans. In doing so, the plaintiffs insist, the NFL defrauded the city and the RSA of over $100 million.

To be clear, the plaintiffs, who are represented by attorneys Robert Blitz and James Bennett, do not demand the return of the Rams to St. Louis. As has been shown in other franchise relocations, once a team leaves, it’s gone.
 
Instead, the city and RSA request that the court award them disgorgement of NFL profits that have been generated by the relocation and impose unspecified punitive damages as well. In other words, St. Louis wants the many millions of dollars that the NFL has gained from relocating the Rams to L.A., plus other money to reflect a stiff punishment for team and league officials allegedly behaving as frauds. (Sports Illustrated)

This is the subject of today’s poll:

This poll will close at 8pm.

— Steve Patterson