Spencer Administration Declines to Provide Tornado Response Payroll Information
In the weeks following the historic tornado that damaged thousands of buildings in St. Louis, Clayton, and Granite City, there has been significant online back-and-forth about the city’s response to the ongoing disaster. While city officials have put forward a largely united front and declared that city workers are going above and beyond to help impacted communities, many local activists have been equally unified in their belief that the city is failing to properly respond to the disaster. Given that city departments are understaffed, it is unsurprising that the city’s response was unable to reach every block at a pace that would make everyone happy.
In an attempt to go beyond the competing anecdotal evidence being presented by both the mayor’s supporters and detractors, this publication reached out to Beverly Isom, the Spencer administration’s newly appointed Director of Communications. We requested payroll information from city departments that are involved in the clean-up effort. If city departments have been going above and beyond to help respond to the devastating tornado, then it follows that they would currently be incurring significant overtime payroll expenses. The request asked for department-level information from the weeks leading up to the disaster and the same information for the time following the tornado. Information about the city’s refuse, streets, building, and forestry departments was requested, as these departments would most likely be involved in the clean up efforts. The goal was to provide readers with an easily understandable metric to show that the city has vigorously responded to the disaster.
Dir. Isom was contacted over the holiday weekend. When she still had not responded after this past Tuesday, we again reached out with a second request for information on payroll information from the periods before and after the tornado. This request did receive a response, but that response did not include the requested information or instructions about how to obtain it.
“Glenn, you will forgive me as a resident of north city, if I am not abreast of all of the negative commentary on how the city is turning its back on north city. I have been with the Mayor, police and fire walking and talking to people in NORTH CITY since the tornado,” began Dir. Isom’s response. Isom continued, “Not sure who those people are or where they are getting their information but we are in the midst of helping people to get back to some semblance of rebuilding property and lives from a traumatic and devastating tornado that hit one of the most disinvested communities in St. Louis. Triaging people’s lives is our most urgent need, no doubt there are some who will want the data of how much it cost the city and who was working when but right now helping people to rebuild their lives is our highest priority.”
The email did not include any further directions about how to obtain the payroll data that would verify administration claims that city departments are working hard to help the residents in impacted neighborhoods.
