St. Louis County Council members discuss new roles and changes
ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. – One St. Louis County councilman is hoping to convince voters to change and revise both the county charter and government.
Potential changes include the role of county executive and adding a new position of county manager. Councilman Mark Harder is introducing the effort.
“The county-wide manager would run the day-to-day operations of St. Louis County government. That person could handle the budgets; that person would handle the operations,” he said. “The council could lose a little power too, but it needs to be a compromise. We need to have a bi-partisan, nonpartisan compromise to make this work.”
Harder says it is similar to the form of government in some county municipalities.
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“We need to have a person who is at the center of the government that almost is like this stability portion of our government and how it works,” Harder said. “The measure would have to be OK’d by the council to send to voters to put on the November ballots.”
Some others have their doubts, though, including Councilwoman Rita Days.
“I really want to take the time to look at this idea and look at it long range, not just what we’re doing now…I’m leaning toward looking and getting more information about it before I make a decision about which side of the fence I’m going to be on,” Days said.
In order to ensure that the issue will be on voters’ ballots in November, Harder is hoping the council will pass the legislation by the end of the month.
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