Support for Donnybrook Last Call is provided in part by Design Aire Heating and Cooling.

Thanks for joining us for Last Call where we discuss more issues from the St Louis region.

Joe you had a story this week on Sam Page the county executive for St Louis County who is hiring more people to communicate the message of his office but you point out there's already what six people in the executive department who have communications attached to their title there were five people $400,000 in 2024 uh and and the story started out was I had received information that the county executive office was looking for outside help public relations Communications uh to help get their message out in the way it was very worded it said to take into account political considerations so me it's like are you looking for help to run a political campaign so started ask around I said hey I want to find out I've got the letter I wanted some basic information from County government about it and I think what it ended up being was what I what should have been a small story ended up being an entire column because I think it spoke to how when governments these days love talking transparency and then go about making it as hard as possible for people to get the facts so all I did was send an email to the person who was was the gentleman who sent out the email was going to receive the bids for the services and also is the custodian of records for Dr PA's office he immediately throws it into the sunshine request machine and says I will have a response in six days this was information that could have taken five minutes but it now it's going to be six days so now I'm left with a question how much money are you hoping to spend because in 2021 Sam Page's office got a lot of trouble about some covid Communications that farmer councilman Tim Fitch said this is just promotional stuff this is Sam page running for office and he's using taxpayer money to do it so I want to see what was going on as it ends up they're only looking to spend $225,000 for some outside help but for six days instead of just giving me the information right up front we had everybody you know and it it to me it just showed how government every time they start talking about the public has the right to know they do more than they can to keep the public it's a lack of communication it is a it is a lack of communication and with all of these frigid temperatures we've been watching a lot of documentaries and CNN has a fantastic it was produced by Tom Hanks in the 60s the 70s the 80s and all of those politicians even when they got in trouble you know they faced the firing squad there were no spokespeople back then and you are absolutely right this is a campaign office that's what we're paying for Sam pagee is responsible for conveying his message to the people of St Louis County and I think we have too many spokespeople now we have Conor carrian for the mayor Mitch McCoy for the police chief we have Doug Moore for the county executive I want to I want to go back to the days when CLA MCC CasCal picked up the phone and she talked to you personally and same was true for John Danforth John asht and uh you know I think well as a police reporter you could just go to the police station the district station ask to talk to a sergeant ask to talk to a detective people come out and talk to you tell you and and now you have to go through spokes people and I remember a couple of years ago uh somebody from homicide talked to me about something and the spokesperson uh complained and said there's a leak in homicide you guys aren't in charge of this yeah right I mean yeah they're it's all about managing the message political consult they want to control the narrative control the narrative manage the message massage the message and there's people out there making millions of dollars a year telling politicians this is how you've got to do it uh hey I'm County government out and Wendy boy when you said firing I thought you was going to say something else I was bracing for you you heard that F I heard it okay okay Elin Reed let's let's I know but said but you I know with time constraints we're gonna move to you Elvin Reed about the Rams money in November 2021 we settled with the NFL and Stan Kony and and the city got about 250 it's now worth $270 million officials have been trying to figure out how to spend it it looks as though there might be a compromise among some members of the board of alderman to put some money in housing and then fixing water mains some money for downtown St Louis some money for housing um it's it's not one big program doesn't look like public safety's part of this the money that was going to college tuition has gone down as the money that was going to preschool so what's your analysis over all this well first of all I was in Kansas City last weekend and I missed the Rams cuz that whole city was into that football game okay so meanwhile hey they reached compromise and there were two bills and they were kind of I won't say far apart but they were apart they reached compromise downtown's getting something North side's getting something there is money for daycare and some other things this is how government should work I wish more problems went away this fast with compromise I was kind of questioning and I think a lot of people on social media were questioning the some of the the money that's going on sort of on on behalf of MSD because didn't we already I mean didn't that already happen uh in terms of the $40 million for I I hope they fix that up because we lost an entire vehicle last week in North St Louis because the water M broke and the car went into the ground sub terrarian you know I thought it was great that they stopped so much of this social transformation I mean daycare for workers college funds because the college funds aren't going to amount to enough to really pay anybody's College tuition and just do concrete things but I there I don't think there's a lot of concrete here it it appeared to be a little oh sprinkle sort of like the grants a little bit a little bit over here we're going to sprinkle a little bit in the devils and the details I agree they're going to give $71 million for downtown which sounds like a lot of money but do you know that to renovate one building the Jefferson arms that's $145 million yeah so this is half of what they were what what a developer is spending to renovate one building okay well all right whoever's in charge of this downtown they can take the 71 million and hire enough private police officers to guard that place for the next 20 years it depends on how it depends on how they want to use that money so you know like I say it it's not a lot if you're trying to you know fix the Millennium Hotel it is a lot if you're trying to keep downtown safe which is what they want so and then let the private developers develop well and I personally would like to have seen it all went to streets and water lines yes personally I think I I never mind when government can compromise and I think the mayor's office had to reach some sort of compromise and and same way with the the police race uh that the mayor's office uh signed off on there needed to be something delivered before an election that's coming up in March and April and having these two bills sitting there trying to battle between are we going to transform our lives or are we going to fix things I think there had to be some sort of compromise so the mayor had something to show for it and I like I generally I don't hate the compromise but if there are six committees overseeing it and that's apparently how it's going to work out do we literally have the media to oversee six committees that'll be meeting on a regular basis dispersing that money currently no reporters go to MSD meetings and they spend a lot more money these remember when Phil suton used to go to those meetings even on vacation it was just so it's funny though we used to cover those meetings when nothing happened at them right and now everything's happening and nobody's there and we could do a two-hour show on the lack of reporters and media to cover what's going on I mean it's I start pulling that threat I could go on forever no we don't have enough your paper had a great story uh I think by Bryce gray on St Louis and lead pipes and basically we're number seven in the nation with lead pipes in going into households and of course that causes brain damage and I don't think I've seen any money from this Ram settlement to remed well not to that but there was an allotment of some kind to address the lead thing and this is several years ago this this may have even before tashar was a mayor I think so but there has been some effort to remove lead pipes in the city I'm sorry can I I can't well you know the other thing is like we grew up with lead pipes we grew up with lead paint we grew up with secondhand smoke yeah we grew up with no seat belts and we grew up with asphalt playgrounds I don't I don't know that you're making I don't know that I don't know that you're making that explain I was going to say I don't know that we're making the point that we think we're making and on that note thank you wend sure how bad some of this stuff is have you seen America okay proof is in that's all the time we have for this last call it's the last part of our last call thanks for joining us we'll see you next week okay and Alvin what did you think when they was