U. City HR Commission Suspends Meetings After TIF Survey Dispute

UNIVERSITY CITY, MO — University City's Human Relations Commission has suspended future meetings after a phone call from the mayor prompted one member to resign. According to an email obtained by Patch from commission member Lucille Harris to Jaclyn Kirouac-Fram, the commission's chair, Mayor Terry Crow ordered the commission not to proceed with a survey on the Olive Boulevard redevelopment plan that contained questions on support for a potential Community Benefits Agreement.

Last month, the city's Tax Increment Financing Commission voted to give Webster Groves-based Novus Development about 70 million taxpayer dollars to build a shopping center at Olive Boulevard and Interstate 170. Likely anchored by a Costco, the development will displace about 60 homeowners and dozens of small, minority-owned businesses. Big box retail stores, offices, luxury apartments and more than 2,000 parking spaces will take their place.

Some residents have said they want a Community Benefits Agreement to protect Third Ward residents, but the city has resisted the idea.

"After our last meeting, I received a phone call from Mayor Crow ordering us not to proceed with the survey at the TIFF [sic] Commission meeting, without Council approval of the survey (for which there was not time)," Kirouac-Fram wrote in a email to commission members dated Sept. 18. "He also stated that the Council is planning to discuss the structure and purpose of the Commissions in general, in October. I requested a meeting with him to discuss their findings and I will follow up to schedule that meeting later this month.

"In the meantime, I am canceling Human Relations Commission meetings until further notice," Kirouac-Fram continued. "I do not think it is worth our valuable time to meet when we are so uncertain of the Council's view of our purpose and role."

The Human Relations Commission acts to advise the City Council, according to its description on University City's website:

Its functions and duties are to foster mutual self-respect and to further amicable relations among the various segments of the population which together comprise the City of University City; to help preserve and further the good name of University City for tolerance and fair play and promote even better relations amongst its people; to help make it possible for each citizen, regardless of race, religion, creed, color, ancestry, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, disability, political affiliation, marital status, familial status, income, or educational level to develop their talents and abilities without limitation; and to aid in permitting the community to benefit from the fullest realization of its human resources.

Kirouac-Fram said meetings may resume as soon as October or as late as next year, depending on "how busy the Mayor's schedule is."

"Mayor Crow advised us that the Commission serves in an advisory capacity to the Council, and that the survey would have to be approved, via official vote, by the Council prior to its distribution," Kirouac-Fram told Patch in an email. "There was no time for such a vote, so we did not distribute the survey."

Read the proposed survey below:

Mayor Crow did not respond to request for comment.

Citing the mayor's phone call and other "negative, immediate and confrontational remarks," Harris said she would resign from the commission, effective October 15.

"I have enjoyed working with the Human Relations Commission for the past three years," she wrote.

According to her resignation letter, Harris said guidelines for the planned survey stipulated that "absolutely no reference to a Community Based initiative could be included." It's not clear if those guidelines came from the mayor or other city staff or elected officials.

"I then understand [sic] that the project was perceived as a done deal and that we had been betrayed as residents of U. City and commission members," Harris continued. (Emphasis is in the original.)

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Second Ward Councilmember and TIF Commission member Paulette Carr would not comment on the issue but seemed to confirm at Monday's council meeting that she was briefed on Jonathan Ferry's analysis of the development's tax increment financing plan prior to the commission's vote on public financing in August. Other members of the TIF Commission were not shown that report.

"What happens in closed session may not be divulged to the public," Carr said after Monday's council meeting, repeating that answer twice and refusing to say more. In a subsequent email, Carr suggested Patch work through the city manager and refused to clarify her statement or answer additional questions.

A source with knowledge of Ferry's work tells Patch that Carr was indeed among those briefed on the report, but Carr would not say when the council voted to go into the closed session she referenced.

The same source told Patch that Ferry recommended a significantly smaller amount of public financing than the commission approved. Taxpayers will foot about a third of the development's total cost, a far higher percentage than other TIFs throughout St. Louis County.

That echoes closely what TIF Commission member Glenn Powers, who also serves as chief of staff to St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger, told Patch just after the commission voted last month. Powers was one of only two commission members to vote against the plan. He would have liked to have seen Ferry's analysis, he said, but the city did not provide it.

Powers said he voted no because he believed the TIF was "too rich" for the developer.