By Chris Krehmeyer, President and CEO of Beyond Housing
As a region we have talked for many years about the number of municipalities in St. Louis County and how it just seems like too many. Ironically, one of the only issues that we have moved quickly to a degree of consensus on from the Michael Brown tragedy is municipal government reform. With the pushing of Better Together and the Arch City Defenders, our state legislature is moving quickly to change the rules on how municipal governments across the state must function. For example, the Missouri Legislature passed a law limiting the amount of city budgets in St. Louis County that can come from traffic fines to 12.5 percent. I will be the first to acknowledge that some reforms are needed to ensure efficient, just and fair delivery of all municipal services. But instead of telling municipalities what they can and cannot do, we should ask the citizens what they want and work with existing leaders for better governance.
What I have not heard from the many voices in this conversation is what actually constitutes good governance for our 91 municipalities in the County and all the other political jurisdictions across the state. Should not that be the goal of all this work? How can we debate the percentage of income from traffic fines and fees each municipal government shall be allowed to pull in if we do not have the accountability structure to determine how that jurisdiction runs its entire government? If the policing and court system is fair, just and does not disproportionally harm someone for a traffic violation, then does it matter what percentage of their total budgets are fees and fines?
The St. Louis County Municipal League already has a ten best practices list for municipal governments that covers financial soundness, municipal codes, and basic core services that are needed to accomplish good governance. We need to add a provision about policing and court systems to ensure that the abuses that have been brought to light never occur again. Let us have this conversation so that tax payers in these jurisdictions can fully understand and be part of deciding what is best for them.
If a municipality is unable to meet an agreed upon litmus test of good governance over a reasonable amount of time, then there needs to be an end game. Let us not, however, get blinded by the bright light of “fix Ferguson” and rashly make changes that will not bring us good governance. We should not be lulled into thinking that bigger is necessarily better. We also must remember that each municipality has an obligation to provide for the safety of its residents.
For years our region has believed that there are too many municipalities. This may or may not be true. What is important is to ask residents in these smaller communities what is important to them and whether they have been receiving these goods and services from their municipal governments. Ask the residents of these communities whether they would like to join with another municipality or become part of unincorporated St. Louis County. The broad-based assumption is that everyone living in these small, mostly African American communities is being treated terribly and is unable to change their political leadership. I do not believe this to be true.
In our rush to “fix Ferguson” let us not unintentionally disrespect the democratically elected leaders of many predominantly North County communities. Let’s fix the issues that need to be addressed. Let’s find the places where collaboration and sharing of services are possible. Let’s make sure we have good governance in every community in our region no matter its size. Let’s allow the people who live, pay taxes and raise their children in these communities to decide what is in their best interests.
Articles in “From the Field” represent the opinions of the author only and do not represent the views of the Community Builders Network of Metro St. Louis or the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
