St. Louis County Council Approves Most Board Of Freeholders Picks
Date Posted: October 25, 2019
Posted In: News,
From St. Louis Public Radio: The St. Louis County Council signed off on eight of nine nominees to the regional Board of Freeholders on Tuesday night.
It is waiting to vote on the ninth nominee, independent Dee Joyner, until next week, said the council’s presiding officer, Ernie Trakas. The county council members haven’t had a chance to interview Joyner yet because she has been out of the country.
The Board of Freeholders will be tasked with rethinking county and city government. It could propose the merger of county and city services — or nothing at all. Whatever it proposes must go to a vote of county and St. Louis residents before being implemented.
The board is supposed to be made up of nine representatives from the county, nine representatives from St. Louis and one gubernatorial appointee. With Tuesday night’s votes, the county moved further along in the process than the city.
St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson is struggling to get freeholder nominees confirmed by the Board of Aldermen. It’s unclear what might happen if agreement can’t be reached about the city freeholders.
The county may have moved ahead of the city in the process, but the county council didn’t wholeheartedly agree with all of County Executive Sam Page’s nominees, either.
The council unanimously approved just three of the eight county freeholders — Republican Katy Forand, Democrat Cheryl Milton Roberts and Democrat Fred Searcy. The other five were confirmed on split votes.
Independent Alex Garza, Democrat Mark Mantovani and Democrat Jason Wilson were confirmed on 4-3 votes that split along partisan lines, with all Republican county council members in opposition to the nominations.
Garza is the chief medical officer at SSM Health. Mantovani is a businessman who lost the Democratic nomination for county executive in 2018 to Steve Stenger. Wilson owns Northwest Roasting Co. and is a member of the Clayton school board.