51黑料

ST. LOUIS 鈥� Lauren Green voted for Mayor Tishaura O. Jones four years ago. She thought 51黑料 needed more diversity in government, and picked the first Black female mayor in city history.

Then she saw city refuse trucks combining trash with the recycling her family carefully separated, and, just last month, the streets covered in snow and ice for weeks. She鈥檚 not voting for Jones again.

鈥淲hy does it take so long to get a basic service?鈥� said Green, 39, a teacher and design consultant from Tower Grove South. 鈥淲here are our tax dollars going?鈥�

At Tuesday鈥檚 mayoral primary, the city is going to find out how many voters are like her. For four years, the city has battled breakdowns in basic services, from answering 911 calls to filling potholes to clearing snow to hiring cops. Now the mayor is back before voters seeking reelection. And at nearly every turn of the campaign trail, she鈥檚 faced questions from residents on how she鈥檒l fix things and from challengers saying she can鈥檛 鈥� that it鈥檚 time for a change.

Alderwoman Cara Spencer, who lost to Jones in the mayoral race four years ago, has gone from neighborhood to neighborhood with her speech.

鈥淲e can do better at filling potholes,鈥� she says. 鈥淲e can do better at picking up your trash.鈥�

Recorder of Deeds Michael Butler has turned the issue into a mantra. 鈥淏ack to the basics,鈥� he says.

And businessman Andrew Jones, making his third run for mayor, says hiring more police officers will improve everything else. 鈥淚t starts with police,鈥� he says.

The mayor inherited a city with problems: She came into the office in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the city reeling from a record spike in homicides and hamstrung by staffing shortages, made worse by a tough labor market.

She says her administration has worked hard to turn things around as quickly as possible.

鈥淲e had to fix a lot of things in my first term,鈥� she told the Post-Dispatch in a recent interview, 鈥渁nd for anybody to say that they鈥檙e going to do better is laughable to me.鈥�

Crime is down in 51黑料, she notes, even with the police department down hundreds of positions. Last year鈥檚 homicide rate was the lowest recorded in a decade.

Still, residents are frustrated. And data indicate they have reason to be.

A crisis in city services

The 911 problems predated Jones. Dispatchers, poorly paid for stressful hours, had been leaving in droves. Replacements were hard to come by.

By the time Jones took office, a unit that was supposed to answer at least 90% of calls within 10 seconds 鈥� the national standard for quality service 鈥� was answering closer to 60% in that time. Residents complained of being put on hold as they reported crimes happening right in front of them.

In the summer of 2021, Jones announced a plan to combine police and fire dispatcher units to simplify operations and bolster the number of people taking calls, a task long reserved for the short-staffed police unit. But labor leaders resisted, the plan went nowhere, and hold times continued to worsen.

A few months later, the trash problems began. For months, trash division leaders had managed their own staffing shortage by having drivers throw out alley recycling with the trash, saving them an extra trip and freeing up time to hit more trash routes. Then, in May 2022, the administration ordered alley recycling to resume.

And the division buckled.

Dumpsters across the city were left untouched for weeks. Frustrated residents pelted the city with complaints in record numbers. Even after city workers pulled overtime to clean up, clearing the dramatic scenes of trash piles overwhelming alleys, the problems persisted.

The city got some good news in 2023, when officials finally raised pay for 911 dispatchers, filled a bunch of empty positions and saw wait times return to 2018 levels.

As campaign season heated up last year, Jones focused her message on falling crime rates and burgeoning investments in long-neglected neighborhoods.

鈥淥ur future looks vibrant,鈥� Jones said in her State of the City address on May 14. 鈥淎nd it鈥檚 not too far off.鈥�

But the most recent data available show services are still struggling:

• Complaints to the customer service bureau about trash not being picked up on time, which have increased every year that Jones has been in office, hit a new record high in 2024 at more than 7,000.
• Complaints about potholes on major thoroughfares, which were trending in the right direction in 2023, hit a five-year high in 2024. Worse, it took the city two months on average to fill them 鈥� nearly twice the amount of time it took under Jones鈥� predecessor 鈥� and it hasn鈥檛 yet even filled them all.
• The percentages of 911 calls answered within 10 seconds each month dropped from the mid-80s in the first three months of 2024 to the low 70s by the end of it.
• Complaints about derelict vehicles also hit an eight-year high, though the time it took to close requests decreased slightly.
• And staffing remained a challenge: As of December, more than a quarter of civil service positions remained unfilled 鈥� nearly double the vacancies pre-pandemic 鈥� including 28% in the trash division and 27% in streets.
• The police department employed about 900 commissioned officers early this year, down from nearly 1,200 when Jones took office.

Then January arrived. A storm hit 51黑料, dropping ice, then snow. The city, following longstanding practice, plowed only main arteries and other key routes. But many protested even those were done poorly.

And as neighborhood streets turned into ice rinks for weeks, residents and officials boiled.

Cut workers. Pay more.

Jones鈥� rivals say they can do better.

Butler says he鈥檒l fix the staffing problem the same way he has kept his current office full: Reduce the number of positions, and use the extra money to pay remaining workers more.

鈥淚 believe in quality over quantity,鈥� he says. Indeed, budget records show headcount in the recorder鈥檚 office dropped to 34 in 2024 from 39 in 2018, the year before Butler became recorder. Meanwhile, the average salary in the office jumped about 30%.

The Jones administration did just that in the police department, cutting 124 positions to give remaining officers raises of up to 7%.

But Butler said he would do it throughout the city. And he said the money saved would not go to across-the-board raises, but instead to key positions 鈥� police officers, trash truck drivers, street pavers 鈥� to compete with the private sector and suburban governments.

鈥淲e鈥檝e got to be able to target and give way more,鈥� he said.

Spencer has indicated interest in a right-sizing effort, too. 鈥淲e have a budget that allows for 6,000 employees and we had just over 4,000,鈥� she told an audience on Jan. 27. 鈥淭his is no way to deliver services.鈥�

On her website, Spencer calls for hiring private contractors to repair streets and pick up trash if the city can鈥檛 hire enough workers itself.

She has also proposed reworking the city鈥檚 recycling system, which struggled in recent years with people throwing trash into the blue bins, spoiling loads to the point where only a third of recycling was being processed.

The city, she says, should expand the number of drop-off sites, where officials have said contamination is generally lower because the people who use them really want to recycle.

The city should consider charging an extra fee, she says, for people who want to keep home pickup.

Spencer has also proposed raising more money for road maintenance. The city鈥檚 streets chief said last year that his division needs about $10 million more per year to keep up.

Some of that, she says, should come from the city鈥檚 $20 million-per-year parking meter operation, which is run by the city鈥檚 elected treasurer, and whose office uses the money for its own expenses.

Businessman Andrew Jones has focused almost exclusively on policing and staffing up the department.

鈥淓verything, starting today, it starts with police,鈥� he said at a recent forum.

The mayor brushed off the criticism from Spencer and Butler in an interview last week.

鈥淣either one of them has any idea how the hiring and personnel process really works,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not as easy to fill vacancies and to keep people employed as they think it is.鈥�

鈥楾he sidewalks are a mess鈥�

Jones said she and her staff have improved the city.

They鈥檝e thrown out slow, carbon paper-based systems and installed new software speeding up applications and processing.

They鈥檝e given multiple rounds of across-the-board raises to city employees in an effort to make up some of the gap with competitors, and done so in part by eliminating vacant positions and reallocating their salaries.

They鈥檝e conducted employee training meant to reduce harassment and promote diversity, equity and inclusion in departments.

鈥淲e have been hard at work,鈥� Jones said.

But at candidate forums across the city, and in neighborhoods from north to south, the questions about basic services keep coming.

Mike Hill, a Shaw resident who recently relocated from rural Tennessee, showed up at a recent debate in the Southwest Garden neighborhood to ask Jones if she had fired the Street Department director over the snowstorm response. She hadn鈥檛.

鈥淭hey鈥檙e not taking care of the basic things,鈥� Hill said in an interview later.

He said Spencer, who said on stage that Streets Director Betherny Williams has to go, appeared to be the only one with a clue.

Ann Stanley, 70, of Tower Grove South, was of similar mind.

鈥淚 think a lot of things that are going on in the city are heading in the wrong direction,鈥� she said in an interview. 鈥淭he core responsibility of the city is making sure the trash is picked up and the streets are maintained. The sidewalks are a mess.鈥�

She voted for Spencer over Jones last time, and will again.

Green, the teacher in the Tower Grove South who voted for Jones last time, has a Spencer sign in her yard now.

鈥淭here hasn鈥檛 been a lot of change that I鈥檝e seen, or a lot of positive things happening in city government,鈥� she said. 鈥淚鈥檓 going to vote for Cara this time.鈥�

Jason Best is moving in the opposite direction. The Tower Grove South resident voted for Spencer last time. And he鈥檚 heard the frustrations about city services. But he鈥檚 been impressed by the reduction in crime over the past four years, and feels like Jones should get some credit for that.

鈥淚 feel like the city is as safe as it鈥檚 been,鈥� said Best, 51.

Helen Money was less sure as she looked out from her porch in the Walnut Park neighborhood in north 51黑料. She said her street desperately needs to be repaved and fitted with a speed hump to slow down drivers 鈥� her car鈥檚 been hit three times 鈥� but it probably won鈥檛 happen. She said she reports derelict vehicles to be towed, but it takes forever. And she thought the snowstorm response was a disgrace.

鈥淧eople couldn鈥檛 get to work,鈥� she said. 鈥淚鈥檓 65 years old, out there shoveling the snow in the middle of the street. What the hell?鈥�

She didn鈥檛 think anyone running for mayor could fix the problem, though.

鈥淯ntil I see progress,鈥� she said, 鈥淚鈥檓 done voting.鈥�