Records Confirm Aldermen Still Ignoring Ethics Changes
A public record request has revealed that members of the Board of Aldermen are continuing to flaunt the expanded conflict-of-interest disclosure requirement in the Reform St. Louis charter changes. In fact, it appears that the board members have been doing even less conflict disclosure than was reported to St. Louis Magazine in its coverage of the unsuccessful legal attempt to stop the expanded ethics rules.
As previously reported, the legal challenges to the updated ethics rules in the city charter failed. This means that the new ethics rules are in effect. President Green’s office initially said that it would be instituting the new rules, but it does not seem to have done so. A public record request for all conflict of interest forms filed by the aldermen in the past year has revealed only two conflict of interest forms. The first is from President Green and relates to her former employment at Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL), while the second form was filed by Ald. Browning and relates to his wife’s employment at Enterprise Mobility, which operates out of Lambert-St. Louis International Airport.
If accurate, this would mean a member of the board misrepresented its previous system of ethics disclosure. In St. Louis Magazine’s reporting on the potential that the failed lawsuit against the reforms was being funded by a secret backer, Ald. Brett Narayan is reported to have told Ryan Krull that the aldermen already filed annual conflict paperwork. “To his point, Alderman Bret Narayan says aldermen were already filling out both a local and state conflict-of-interest form every year, and neither changed after the passage Prop R,” said Krull in his report. Given that records requests indicate Ald. Narayan and the overwhelming majority of aldermen have not filed the paperwork mentioned; this appears to be a likely false statement. In the same report, Ald. Narayan was also quoted as saying, “Part of the issue with Prop R is that it goes four degrees out, like what your cousin’s cousin’s cousin is up to. Every human being on Earth is separated by six degrees of consanguinity.” This is a false statement. Four degrees of consanguinity would actually refer to much closer relatives, such as first cousins. Six degrees of consanguinity, which Ald. Narayan claimed connects all human beings, would refer to someone’s second cousins and similarly related relatives. It is also worth noting that the 4th degree of consanguinity is already the standard that aldermen are supposed to be following, according to the conflict of interest paperwork filed by both Pres. Green and Ald. Browning. As such, it appears that this is the standard of consanguinity aldermen should already be following. Ald. Narayan did not respond when asked for comment on this story.
Ald. Cohn Responds
For his part, Ald. Cohn told St. Louis Magazine, “It’s bullpucky on so many different levels” and that enforcement of the charter would “bring the work of government to a halt.” It is unclear how a more formalized version of the Board of Aldermen’s existing conflict of interest rules would cause the city government to cease functioning. Responding to questions about whether he still opposes the new rules, Ald. Cohn indicated that he supports conflict of interest rules in general, but opposes these particular rules. He pointed to continued concerns about how the charter changes were written. He also disputed not having filed an annual conflict of interest form, saying, “I also filed a conflict form last session, so I’m uncertain who conducted your search but their efforts were not comprehensively undertaken.” The record search was completed by the Board of Aldermen’s Custodian of Records. The request was submitted using the city’s “sunshine request” system on September 26th, and documents were uploaded as a completed response to the request on October 10th.
Ald. Cohn also stated that he has been told that there is another legal challenge against the charter changes, based on what he described as a recent conversation with someone in the City Counselor’s office. This does not appear to have been previously reported by the media. The President of the Board’s office has also failed to mention this in response to numerous Mound City Messenger articles concerning the ethics reforms in question. The City Counselor’s office has been contacted for further information regarding this previously unknown additional suit and any related injunction stopping the city from following its charter. If more information about this potential suit comes to light, it will be covered in future reporting.
President of the Board of Aldermen Megan Green’s office was contacted for comment, but did not respond by the time of publication. Ald. Cox Antwi was also contacted due to her active participation and media appearances supporting the Reform St. Louis ballot campaign. Ald. Cox Antwi also served as the reform campaign’s policy committee chair.
