Just ahead of us, on April 6, is the important municipal election, in which St. Louis voters will be electing a President of the Board of Aldermen, aldermen from all even-numbered wards, four members of the Board of Education, and one member of the Board of Trustees for the Junior College. In addition to filling these offices, we shall be voting on the proposed joint zoo-and-museums district for City and County, and on two amendments to the Charter of St. Louis. Thus, a good many important decisions face the voter April 6.
The office of the President of the Board of Aldermen is especially important because this official acts as mayor when the mayor is out of town and suceeds him in case of death. He is also one of the three members of the powerful Board of Estimate and Apportionment, the City’s chief fiscal agency. (It must approve all departmental fundings before they can go to a vote by the aldermen. The other two members are the mayor and the comptroller.) For this office the incumbent, Joseph Badaracco, Republican, is being challenged by Stephen Darst, the young Democrat who recently won a heated primary contest.
Among the aldermen to be elected is one from our ward, the Twenty-eighth. Incumbent John A. Roach of 6106 Kingsbury, a Democrat, is facing Republican Edward M. Walsh of 6205 McPherson in a rematch of the contest last fall for the incomplete term created when Brendan Ryan became circuit attorney.
The school board election is unusual this year because in addition to the slate, mostly incumbents, endorsed by the Committee for Quality Schools, a second group of candidates calling themselves “the grass roots slate” is running an active campaign. On the first slate are Daniel Schlafly, who has served three six-year terms; Malcolm Martin, seeking his second term; the Rev. James L. Commings, an appointed incumbent; and Mrs. Garnell De Ramus, a former president of the Banneker District Council of Parent Organizations.
The contending group of candidates consists of Mrs. Helen Floyd, Mrs. Vivian Barnett, Mrs. Melvin Thomas and Arthur Wade. They have been pressing their case at many meetings, including ward meetings. They charge that the present Board does not truly represent the people of the inner city, that its members do not have children in the public school system and are so isolated from parents that the latter have no voice in the education of their children.
Six candidates are running for the single spot on the Board of Trustees of the Junior College: Richard Eichhorst, Paul R. Keys, Homer G. Phillips, Earl J. Poe Jr., Victoria Schmidt, and Robert Thebeau.
The two proposed amendments to the City Charter have so far had little public discussion, but interest in them will presumably pick up before election.
The first of these amendments changes the system of fine and imprisonment regulations at present laid out in the Charter. The amendment proposes that in the future no municipal court can impose more than a $500 fine or over six months’ imprisonment. It also proposes that any one who has had a fine assessed which he cannot pay shall be committed to the workhouse and given a work assignment until the fine has been paid off at the rate of $15 per day. If the prisoner chooses not to work, the fine is to be reduced at the rate of $5 per day.
The other amendment changes the Charter requirements for correction of ward boundaries. The present provision is that ward boundaries must be adjusted every ten years in accordance with the number of registered voters in each ward. The amendment would change the correction to accord with population, so as to bring the correction under the one-man one-vote principle laid down by the Supreme Court.
Altogether, an important piece of voting is to be done on April 6. Usually voting is quite light in this election. It is to be hoped that residents of our area will make it their business to go to the polls that day.
Originally published in The Paper, April 1971.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1971_04.pdf, printed page 1.
