ST. LOUIS–On March 4, voters in St. Louis will decide which two candidates in a four-way race for mayor will advance to the April 8 general election. 

“No excuse” absentee voting is already underway using the city’s approval voting system, which allows voters to choose as many candidates as they want in the primary, with the top two candidates moving on to the April election.

Spectrum News extended interview requests to all four candidates–the incumbent, Tishaura Jones, 8th Ward Alderwoman Cara Spencer, Recorder of Deeds Michael Butler and businessman Andrew Jones and is releasing them in the order they were conducted. Questions were edited for clarity.

What should voters expect from the early days of your administration?

“In that first period I actually want to seal the deal on Rams (NFL settlement) funding and take parts of the bills that have been already put together and put my spin on a couple things with reducing vacant housing, supporting our public schools especially and getting our police department the equipment they need to succeed. I think those last two are things are things we can get done immediately.” 

What metric do you want voters to use to hold you accountable for your first term?

“By the end of my first four years I want there no longer to be a Delmar divide, they'll be a Page divide  and I want to change the unfunctioning housing market between Delmar and Page, Skinker to Jefferson and make sure we expand on the asset of the Central West End of the city and those strong neighborhoods south of Delmar, expanding north of Delmar. On the south side it looks like there’s a Gravois divide and I want to make sure that we have expanded that down in the first four years down to maybe a Cherokee divide, so we’re expanding on the good neighborhoods in our city and transforming neighborhoods for our citizens.”

What can the Mayor and the city do to look more attractive for potential employees?

“We have to aggressively have a salary that's better than others. And we've got to create a workforce that brings back the prestige of a city government job as well as the technology and the tools they need to succeed. I believe in one thing when I’m hiring employees and I haven’t had a vacancy in my office in the last four years because I believe in paying people what they’re worth and giving them the technology they need to succeed…I believe in quality over quantity”

The next mayor may not have authority over the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. The Missouri House last week passed legislation that would put the agency under a state-appointed board. The Senate could consider similar legislation on the floor again this week. There are several versions of the legislation but each calls for the mayor to at least be a member of that board. If the mayor could recommend appointees, what would you be looking for?

“If the state government wants to take over our police department, they’ve got to put their money where their mouth is and what I’d want to do is work with state legislators to make sure that we’re putting money in the state budget that is going to fulfill the mandates that the state government wants us to have and of course get the raises that the state government wants us to have to have quality police officers and get the funding that the state government wants us to have so that police officers can have quality equipment and tools they need to succeed every day. I would be a big advocate for making sure we can get $38 million dollars from the state government annually in order to improve our police department.”

What would you consider your biggest potential weakness in office and how would you compensate for it?

“I think the only weakness I have is relationships with the business community and I wouldn’t compensate for that. That weakness also coincides with me having strong relationships with a lot of folks that are on the ground, in our communities, and I’ve always wanted to be that kind of elected official that was closer to people on the ground and to solutions than folks with money. I know enough folks in the business community but I think most people want me to know more but I’ll let some of my advocates take care of that and my lobbyists take care of that whenever I become mayor.”

What would you do to address the concerns residents in north St. Louis have had about decades of disinvestment and a lack of signs of progress?

“Improving their material neighborhoods, materia living conditions in neighborhoods are very important. That means reducing vacant houses. What I hear from people in north St. Louis all the time is they want the vacant house across the street from them gone, they want the vacant houses down the street gone, they want the vacant house around the corner gone, and they will physically see a difference with me as mayor by getting rid of thousands of vacant properties as soon as possible within my first term. Also we want to continue to invest in north side businesses, creating an economy on the north side and supporting businesses that can succeed, and lastly of course, reducing crime. Building a quality police department, enforcing our city’s traffic laws equitably and attacking the root causes of crime by reducing poverty in our areas.”

Candidates were given a chance to dispel a misconception about their campaign. Butler said this is not a race only between Tishaura Jones and Cara Spencer. (Businessman Andrew Jones is also in the race.)

“The biggest misconception is that this is a two-person race and that my campaign because of the time I started the campaign that we’re not as organized as or ready to lead like the other two candidates because they ran last time—that couldn’t be further from the truth. I have a masters degree in public administration, I’ve served in the state legislature for six years, I ran a city hall office for the past six years as well. I’ve got a tremendous amount of experience…We’re running a campaign that we’re very confident is going to win this election.”