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Thanks for joining us for Last Call.

This is where we get to the topics we couldn't get to in the first half, even though this week we had a lot of good topics.

Wendy, I want to ask you, this is kind of civics, which typically speaking is not all that interesting, but I find this one kind of fascinating.

The mayor of St.

Louis is pointing out that the 1941 civil service reforms are completely outdated.

She's bringing in directors to head up departments, but they don't like the fact that they are stuck with civil service lieutenants.

The assistant directors are all protected and they can't be fired.

Now the good thing is they bring a lot of institutional memory because they've been there for a long time, but I think the mayor thinks that her department heads should be free to pick their assistants.

What do you think?

I was of two minds, which will certainly come as a surprise to no one, because my first thought was, I thought, is this really, with all of the other priorities that the city is facing, is this a hill that she wants to spend this much time on?

On the other hand, Tevye, I say yes, because I understand that.

We've had so many stories over the years over the personnel department.

They're going to revamp it.

It's going to be a human resources department.

One of the things, according to the charter, is that the people who are responsible for getting applicants, they basically are making all of the decisions about which applicants are interviewed or seen.

Mayor Spencer, the idea going forward would be, no, we want to see everybody.

You don't get to pick and choose.

I think it's going to be important for her, and I think that this is a hill that she's willing to take some flack on.

She's got Aldermanic support, so I hope it works out, and maybe it will facilitate other issues that she's facing down the road.

I think if you talk to Mayor Spencer, so many of the systemic issues come down to they haven't been able to hire enough good people, they haven't been able to keep good people, they haven't been able to get people to get really proficient at their jobs and take ownership.

She's made that a huge priority, which I respect, because that's the only thing you can do proactively to head off the kind of chaos that has so bedeviled the city in terms of its workforce.

It might not feel like the most immediate thing, but I think she feels like if we can't solve this, we are never going to solve the problem with city services.

It's not a budget problem.

You also figure that two things that are so important to city residents in any city are law enforcement, she's not in charge of the police anymore, and education.

She's got nothing to do with education, so you might as well let her have some power.

I mean, whoever the mayor is, she's got to be able to do something, and if you can't do police and you can't do education, you might as well do administration.

Okay, well you said whoever the mayor is, and it's kind of like the Oval Office.

There are a lot of things being put in place right now that the people that put them in place are going to say, how are we going to put this toothpaste back in the tube?

Because now somebody else is president.

I lied to Cruz.

If D'Kara Spencer was going to be the mayor for three terms or whatever, which we haven't had in a while, that's one thing.

But, I mean, all you're going to do is create a new mayor that's going to come in, and they're going to have their own people, and there's just going to be no continuity within the government.

I'm kind of like you, Wendy.

I see both sides, but I have a tendency to see this one as a glass half empty, not half full, because this will just create new problems.

I've got to tell you something.

Let's say you're a really bright person, and you're living in, I don't know, Santa Fe.

No, I'm talking another city.

Denver.

Sarah hates Denver.

Yeah, Denver.

Kansas City.

If you're going to lure that person here, I think Richard Franks, the former personnel director, is right.

You have to have high wages.

Also, let's be honest.

That city hall is pretty drab.

It's not a very exciting place inside.

Well, it looks way better than the 30s.

It's beautiful inside.

I know it's not.

Every time I go in there, it takes my breath away.

I'm actually shocked.

It's a drag.

It's a total drag.

No wonder you like Denver.

I mean, you compare it, let's say, to a modern building like where Emerson is now, or Centene.

I agree with you, Sarah.

Oh, I disagree entirely.

That's why I agree wholeheartedly with Charles.

Oh, I know.

I hate going in city hall.

Can I ask?

Sarah, on behalf of my partner here, who decorated your house?

Us?

Who decorated your house?

Uh-huh.

Uh-huh.

Who decorated your house?

Ms.

Store?

Salvador Dali.

Uh-huh.

I think I may.

Exactly.

Frank Lloyd Wright.

City hall is beautiful.

That is not a problem.

I wouldn't work in it.

I would say this is disgusting.

I'm sure that would be devastating.

Yeah, no, I know.

I agree.

It's depressing.

It is.

Oh, and I think some of the meeting rooms are so stately.

They're beautiful.

They're beautiful.

Well, compared to the old post-dispatch, maybe.

Yeah, right.

No, I was at the Mayor's Ball last year, and this was just... You felt like you were at the MAC.

Well, that's because they had a band in a bar.

That's why they liked it.

No, it's because... Oh, the rotunda is fine.

I'm talking about the offices.

When you go into, like, these individual offices, it's like, oh.

Well, we're not... Okay, this is not what's holding back our city workers.

No.

I didn't say why, but I don't want to work there either.

Alvin, your story this week in The American caught our attention, and took a look at the Goldwater Institute suing the St.

Louis Metropolitan Police Department for lack of transparency.

Tell our viewers what happened.

Well, a person that had one of these, you know, I guess they're not called Airbnbs anymore, but the police showed up, and, you know... Short term.

Yeah, the police showed up, and he said, like, you know, scared his guests or whatever, and I don't know what all was going on.

But apparently the police told him that, well, somebody said that the place was condemned, but we already know that the place is not condemned, so he wants to know, like, well, what happened?

Why were you here?

And he can't get any answers from the police department.

Now, you know, Mitch McCoy and the rest of them are out there running their mouths every five minutes, you know, about the state board and all that.

Why can't they tell this gentleman why, you know, the police showed up at his place of business?

And I think it takes a lawsuit like this to get to the bottom of it.

And it's the police's own fault, so I don't feel for them at all.

And it's a good lawsuit by the Goldwater Institute, and trust me, I ain't no friends with the Goldwater Institute, but hey, thumbs up on this one.

Well, I like their lawyer, David Rowland.

We like him, right?

He's local, right?

Oh, he's a great guy, and he has really fought the good fight on government transparency, so now that he has their backing, I think we're going to see more Sunshine Law lawsuits, and that's what it's going to take to get even the bare minimum records released, because there has been a complete erosion of being able to get public records in this state.

They now know that publications can't afford lawyers, and that other than the post dispatch, nobody in town is ever going to sue over anything.

We can rattle our sabers and make all the threats we want.

People know we don't even have time to follow up on it, with the state of local journalism being what it is.

I am so glad this phalanx of lawyers has come into fight.

Well, I agree with almost everything you said, but there is one problem that the government agencies have, and that's that everybody and anybody can file a freedom of information request.

They take a tree down on your street.

You can demand information about, I want to see the e-mails from this part to this, and the government says, we don't have time to do everything, and I hate to be a journalism snob, but I think that we ought to be able to get stuff.

Everybody's a citizen journalist now.

A good example is the Rittner teacher, who's now suing Hillsdale over information.

Remember, the Hillsdale sent these jack-booted thugs to the school looking for immigrants, and this teacher is saying, okay, what the heck was going on?

Why were you doing it?

What's your relationship with ICE?

And Hillsdale doesn't respond.

It's not because they don't like her because she's not the press.

They don't want the information.

That's a good point, and that's a great example of how... And Bill, I think you make a great point, and I understand from talking to officials just how overwhelmed they are with the volume of requests, but these days, it's like there's so few journalists, and a lot of times, we don't even have time to put in the public records request.

We need citizens to do that for us and then bring us the records.

It's gotten very sad in journalism.

Now, Bill, you remember this.

There was a time at Daily Newspapers where if you were going to put in an FOI request, you didn't have to ask permission, but it was asked of you, what are you... Like, we didn't just send them willy-nilly.

It was almost like, we won't play that game where we'll get on your nerves.

We'll only do this if it's really, really something that we need or want to know.

Boy, we never played by that rule.

Let me move on to Bill for our last topic this week.

Bill, it was reported that Washington University and St.

Louis' endowment went up $4 billion, from $13 billion to $17 billion.

How about them apples?

Well, my personal endowment went up a lot, too.

You know, I'm happy for WashU, and I like to give other people's money away.

So what I think WashU ought to do is say to the city of St.

Louis, you know, we're going to spend some of this money, not a big chunk of our endowment, but just a portion of what we made last year on helping the city, and, like, redo the water department.

If you remember, we had a big fight about should it get $40 million or, you know, to really fix it would be $400 million.

If WashU were to say, look, we're going to redo your water department, and we're going to take our engineering students and give them experience, and we want them to be working on this project, and we're going to redo your water department, I think it would be wonderful.

I love that idea.

Well, I love that idea, too.

Okay, this whole endowment thing.

All right, whenever you're wherever we all, you know, went to college, and you get that e-mail or there used to be a letter saying, like, we are going to build a new science wing and all that, and we need your help.

And all I say to myself, you got billions of dollars in the bank, but you want my $50 or more than that?

You know, I've never quite understood that.

And as somebody described to me one time, he said, like, you know, like maybe when you were 8 years old, and you were watching TV, and your parents had said, like, hey, how come we don't live in Beverly Hills?

And your parents say, like, you know, just not possible.

That's how these boards of trustees are with their endowments.

They're like, hey, why don't you use the endowment to maybe help out the city of St.

Louis.

And they just look at you like you're 8 years old.

Weren't we just talking about, like, the employees at Washington University having to park over by the golf course?

And the fact that they don't pay taxes is another thing.

Yeah.

Hang on a second.

Let's defend WashU.

I mean, their research right now is all universities, not just WashU.

That's not just WashU.

And not all universities have that kind of money.

WashU really does it well.

And, you know, you can – the city has proven in the past that it's had fundraising arms like Forest Park Forever that can raise money.

WashU is successful at that.

In fact, our good friend Sarah has a wonderful story this week on how the head of the High Point needed money for an air conditioning unit or something and put out the word, got a $100,000 check from Anonymous.

I don't want my name out there.

That's why I call it Anonymous.

I knew you.

So, you know, let the city get its act together like WashU.

Well, I mean, now wait.

Okay, one thing.

Now, Kay, you had this problem.

Let's go all the way back when I first started college.

Kay, you had money invested in South Africa.

And they had, like, a little fracas at graduation in 1978, you know, especially before I got there.

What's WashU invested in?

Well, they're investing in Elon Musk's space.

Right.

And it was a wonderful investment.

Right.

But I'm just saying that some of that, hey, I bet you if we could scrutinize everything they had invested in, like, why don't you divest in that, sell that, whatever.

They're doing well.

To help them?

Oh, that was your idea.

I'm surprised.

And it was a terrible idea.

This is Reed McClellan.

This is Reed McClellan behind the scenes.

I'm sure the Board of Governors will be calling each of us later tonight to talk about this idea and ways that we can spend their endowment.

I'm sure that they're going to be.

That, unfortunately, is all the time we have for this program.

Thank you very much, and we'll see you next week.