ST. LOUIS–A trimmed-down St. Louis Board of Aldermen convened Tuesday for the first meeting of the 2023-2024 legislative session following the April 4 election that reduced the size of the board to 14 members, one for each ward, in addition to the Board President. Here’s a look at what’s ahead:

Charter Commission

Voters in April also gave the city the green light to review its charter through a commission that started taking applications for membership Monday. Once the application period ends June 6, the board of Aldermen has to confirm the 9-member panel, which meets for the first time in September.  

“Our city charter was drafted in the horse-and-buggy era before women even had the right to vote,” Mayor Tishaura Jones said in a news release. “It’s time we take a hard look at what worked in the 20th century but doesn’t in the 21st. I’m ready to work alongside the commission to make city government more efficient, more responsive, and more inclusive for generations to come.”

Aldermanic Board President Megan Green told Spectrum News Friday getting the commission seated was the board’s top priority.

"Year of the tenant"

“The 2023-2024 legislative session is going to be the year of the tenant so we will be focusing quite a bit on a tenant bill of rights followed by an unhoused bill of rights to make sure that the 56 percent of people in our city who are renters have protections and have safe affordable clean housing to be in,” Green said.

Public Safety

Jones and Green both say legal opinions are still being gathered when it comes to bringing a form of red light cameras back to the city as a way of boosting traffic safety. They’ve been banned since a state Supreme Court ruling said the cameras weren’t proving that the person driving the vehicle was the person who owned or registered the vehicle. 

Green said similar legal research is ongoing that could stand up a traffic enforcement division within the city streets department. 

“We are still working out the legal ramifications around that as well but we know if minor traffic violations could be enforced through a mechanism like that that also puts people into a pipeline to have to take a driver’s test rather than have to pay a fine that is I think a way to change behavior which is ultimately what we’re going for,” Green said.

NFL settlement

With the new board set, expect to see community outreach similar to the forums held by city officials about priorities to spend American Rescue Plan Act funds. Unlike the federal stimulus, there’s no required timeline to spend the city’s $250 million share of the money paid out by the NFL to settle the lawsuit over the Rams’ departure. 

Green said the Board of Aldermen would work as a Committee of the Whole when it comes to identifying how that money will ultimately be spent. Like Jones, she sees it funding a long-term play.

“I think it needs to go toward creating generational change. I would be in favor of a portion of it going to an endowment to support certain functions of the city into the future but I also think we should be looking at long-term investments like early care and education for kids which we know that if we invest in early on it can produce 11 dollars return on investment in the future,” Green said.

Fighting Jefferson City

The previous board took an aggressive approach when it came to issues like access to abortion. When Missouri’s trigger law went into effect last summer, largely banning elective abortions without exceptions for rape or incest, the board passed several measures designed to help families in need of help traveling out of state to seek abortion care.

Green said the issue of transgender medical rights in Missouri could push the new board into some legislative action.

Temporary emergency rules on transgender health care developed by the Missouri Attorney General’s Office are set to take effect April 27, and lawmakers in the Missouir House and Senate have passed their own dueling versions of legislation that bans transgender health care for minors. 

“St. Louis has to be a place that is a sanctuary for folks who are facing this type of discrimination that is coming out of Jefferson City so I can tell you under my leadership that we view our role as protecting all folks who live in our community including our transgender community and if that means we have to push back on some of the egregious legislation coming out of Jefferson City we will do that,” she said, without offering specific ways that could happen.

New rules, new pay

While the size of the new board is cut in half from its predecessor, members will get paid roughly double what previous members did–$72,000–thanks to one of the last acts of the 2022-2023 board.

There has been debate about whether serving on the board should be an Alderman’s only job, after voters in recent years  approved a proposition that requires more transparency when it comes to potential ethical conflicts which drove some members off the board.

Incoming 9th Ward Alderman Michael Browning said last week was his last working for Washington University as he prepared to be sworn in Tuesday.

Regardless of what members decide to do with outside employment, Green said they need to be ready for more work at the committee level.

“We have consolidated the committee structure down from 15 committees that we had previously down to 8 standing committees which means that all of those committees are going to have a lot more business than our committees previously had so I would expect that board members are going to spend a lot more time in committee hearings than they have previously,” she said.

Committee chairs will be nominated by the Board’s Vice President, Floor Leader and Assistant Floor Leader, who will be elected by the full body, as opposed to previous rules that leaned toward seniority.

While the COVID pandemic is coming to a procedural end, some legislative practices that emerged from it will continue, with tweaks. The public will be able to testify virtually instead of coming to City Hall, and in cases where an alderman must participate on a remote basis, they will not be allowed to do so while driving.

“Now our board of aldermen reflects the diversity of our city. We look at who was elected and the diversity of the board of aldermen we have White Black Latina, LGBT, a strong number of women, that reflects the diversity of our community and so I’m excited to work with them to develop a policy agenda that we can work on for the spring session,” Jones said, with eyes on the first budget that the new body will produce.