ST. LOUIS COUNTY 鈥 A 51黑料 County Council majority opposed to County Executive Sam Page voted Tuesday to express no confidence in County Counselor Beth Orwick after a judge handed victory to Page鈥檚 critics in a monthslong dispute over council leadership.
The council voted 4-3 to adopt a nonbinding resolution accusing Orwick, a Page appointee, of bias when she sued them Jan. 16 to keep Page allies Lisa Clancy and Ernie Trakas in the council鈥檚 top two leadership positions.
The lawsuit was filed a day after a new council majority voted to instead make Rita Heard Days, D-1st District, and Mark Harder, R-7th District, the new chair and vice chair.
51黑料 County Circuit Court Judge Thomas Albus last week rejected the unusual legal petition, ruling that Clancy and Trakas weren鈥檛 legally elected to the leadership positions because the deciding vote was cast by a lame duck councilwoman who had been unseated by Webb months earlier in the 2020 primary.
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Orwick had advised the lame duck former councilwoman, Rochelle Walton Gray, to continue representing District 4 until her successor, Shalonda Webb, was sworn in.
Page spokesman Doug Moore said Tuesday that Orwick has Page鈥檚 鈥渃omplete confidence.鈥
Councilman Tim Fitch, R-3rd District, authored Tuesday鈥檚 resolution, which also blamed Orwick for a $10.25 million verdict against the county in a workplace discrimination lawsuit by gay police Sgt. Keith Wildhaber. It also accused Orwick of 鈥渇ailure to investigate鈥 an accusation that Page violated the county charter by working monthly shifts as an anesthesiologist. Fitch has argued that the charter requires Page to 鈥渄evote his entire time to the duties of his office.鈥
Fitch, Harder and Trakas have sought to curb Page鈥檚 power to issue emergency health orders during the COVID-19 pandemic, and Fitch accused Orwick of justifying executive control over the orders.
Webb, Days and Harder voted with Fitch to express no confidence in Orwick.
鈥淚 didn鈥檛 receive a welcome mat when I joined this County Council 鈥 I received a lawsuit,鈥 Webb said. 鈥淎 lawsuit that was not based on facts 鈥 but a lawsuit that was based on biases.鈥
Clancy, D-5th District, Trakas, R-6th District, and Kelli Dunaway, D-2nd District, opposed the measure.
Clancy said Fitch was targeting Orwick simply because he disagreed with her office politically.
鈥淭he laundry list of grievances that Mr. Fitch has in this resolution includes clearly political fights that he has spearheaded over the last year,鈥 Clancy said. 鈥淪ome may be unhappy with (Orwick鈥檚) advice, but that does not make her biased, nor does it make her action political.鈥
The leadership fight stemmed from a Jan. 5 meeting where Clancy and Trakas were elected chair and vice chair behind Gray鈥檚 votes.
Days, Harder and Fitch argued that Gray鈥檚 four-year term should have ended Jan. 1 and that her votes after that date were illegal.
But Gray and her council allies, relying on Orwick鈥檚 opinion, argued that Gray could continue to represent District 4 until Webb was sworn in on Jan. 12. A charter change, approved by voters in August, moved the start of county officeholders鈥 terms to the second Tuesday in January after the general election; before the change, those terms began on Jan. 1.
Albus, appointed to the bench last year by Gov. Mike Parson, ruled that Gray鈥檚 hold on the District 4 seat legally ended on Jan. 4 when Webb, in an effort to block Gray from voting for new council leaders, privately swore an oath of office and presented it to the county.
Fitch, Harder, Days and Webb hired outside attorneys to defend them in court, arguing Orwick鈥檚 office could not represent them while it was working on behalf of Clancy and Trakas.
In other action Tuesday, the council unanimously approved an environmental nonprofit鈥檚 plan to plant native grass and wildflowers over about 40 acres of Creve Coeur Lake Memorial Park, a corner of the park former County Executive Steve Stenger had cleared by bulldozers in 2017 to build a four-rink hockey facility without getting approval from the National Park Service.
Dunaway, who sponsored the prairie legislation, said the nonprofit Missouri Prairie Foundation will plant and maintain the prairie at no cost to the county with a grant from the . The fund was established in 2018 when the now-defunct Bridgeton Landfill paid $16 million to settle a state lawsuit that alleged odors from an underground fire harmed the health of nearby residents.听
The coalition of Page critics also fell short of votes needed to override the executive鈥檚 veto of a bill that would have cut $150,000 from the 2021 budget to eliminate funding for six lobbyists fighting efforts in the Legislature to limit local governments鈥 power to issue and enforce public health orders.
In a letter to the council, Page said the county is joining dozens of other local governments in retaining lobbyists at the Capitol to represent county interests.
Webb said she wasn鈥檛 opposed to the lobbying arm but said the council wasn鈥檛 included in the plans.
鈥淲e voted for this to say we need oversight,鈥 she said. 鈥淚t will send a message that we want to be part of that process.鈥
Editor's Note: This report has been updated to correct the funding source for a project to plant native prairie grass and flowers in Creve Coeur Park.听
