Meeting with the St. Louis County Council Members (Featuring Dr. Sam Page)

This blog piece was written by one of our students, Elliot. The opinions expressed herein do not reflect those of Civitas other than respect for the value of open dialogue.

At the internship Civitas hosted this year, we got to see many different dynamic and fascinating guest speakers. One of the most interesting opportunities we had to listen to guest speakers occurred on the third day of the internship. We met with two council members from the St. Louis County Council, Councilwoman Kelli Dunaway and Councilman Ernie Trakas. From the very beginning, our meeting with the council members seemed special. Instead of them coming to us, the interns traveled to the St. Louis County Government Center to see them. We rode up in an elevator to the top floor of the building, where we met the council members in a large meeting room with a very long table and tall, large chairs. It was a far cry from the cozy, social meeting room in the World Community Center, where Civitas’ office is located.

The council members began the meeting by describing what the council does and how it functions. Each intern was given a pamphlet which included the charter for the St. Louis County government and a copy of the US Constitution. Councilwoman Dunaway described what was included in the charter, and Councilman Trakas talked to us about the Constitution. This, the very first thing each council member talked about, already showed the difference between themselves and the differences between their politics. Dunaway seemed focused on how she could improve the County Council. She described how the charter was rewritten every ten years, and the changes she hopes to make to it. Trakas, however, seemed focused on protecting the basic Constitutional rights of his constituents. He went through several amendments in the Bill of Rights and told us about how he planned to maintain those rights and expand upon them for the residents of St. Louis County.

After Dunaway and Trakas finished their speeches on the pamphlets they each gave out, Dunaway was the first to begin speaking about other issues. She introduced herself by describing a large bill she had been working on. The aim of Dunaway’s bill was to get electric car charging stations in all parking lots in St. Louis County. She told us about how many small-business owners complained to her that they couldn’t afford to put charging stations in their parking lots. She had to make concessions and compromises every step of the way to advance her bill. After she finished talking about her charging station bill, she began describing a bill her and Trakas were both working on. Consumers do not pay any tax on purchases from online retailers unless the goods they’re buying come from a Missouri warehouse. Anything delivered from out-of-state ended up being tax-free. Dunaway and Trakas both agreed that this was a significant issue, and they both wanted to pass a bill to rectify the problem.

There were significant issues they disagreed on too. When interns asked the council members about their views on abortion or gun control, their opinions differed significantly. Neither seemed to want to talk at length about these issues though. Instead, they focused on issues they had similar opinions about. They both seemed to enjoy talking about bills like the one on taxing goods from online retailers. They were able to support each other when talking about issues they agreed with and they were able to get the point across better when they were both trying to get to the same point. Another issue they both had similar opinions on was about cutting costs for the county. Dunaway and Trakas agreed that the best way to cut unnecessary costs to the county would be to simply have fewer employees. For two people who did not grow up in the technology age that many young adults today are familiar with, they were surprisingly in favor of making much more use of computers in county bureaucracy instead of relying on paid employees.

During this meeting, Dr. Sam Page, the County Executive, came in to speak to us too. He didn’t spend much time with us, but the interns were able to ask him a handful of questions. One of these questions was about the partisanship of local government. There’s not much reason to run on party lines for many issues facing counties. A saying I heard several times when learning about county politics was, “there’s no Democratic or Republican way to fill a pothole.” However, the County Council members and the County Executive still run with party nominations anyway. Sam Page explained that this was because the party designation helps show constituents what many of their representatives’ basic views are, but that because of the lack of partisanship in things like filling potholes, it means that at the local level there is much more bipartisan work.

All together it was a very enlightening visit, and it gave me much to think about. I feel lucky that I was able to choose this topic to write about, because the meeting gave me plenty of ideas. Writing about it came easy to me because of how engaging the council members were and how much the interns learned that day.