ST. LOUIS — Newly-elected St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones has named key members of her Public Safety team – and one of them will be making more money than her.
Former St. Louis Police Chief Dan Isom has been tapped as the Interim Public Safety Director – which means all of the city's public safety apparatus including the fire chief, police chief along with the Division of Corrections Commissioner and the Emergency Communications Division will answer to him.
To take on this task in the most violent city in the country, Isom will be paid $200,018 annually – the same salary as his predecessor, retired Judge Jimmie Edwards.
The mayor’s salary is about $131,000.
Serving as Isom’s senior advisor will be retired St. Louis Police Sgt. Heather Taylor. It’s a new position in terms of its title. Personnel Director Richard Frank tells me it existed during the previous administration, and was called the Deputy Director of Public Safety.
Taylor, too, will make the same amount as the person who had that position – albeit with its new name – before her: $98,670 annually.
As former police officers who put in at least 20 years of service, Isom and Taylor will continue to draw from their police pensions as well along with contributing to new city pensions with their new salaries.
Isom told me during an exit interview in 2012 his pension was about $62,000, or 48% of the salary he made as chief.
So is that a lot of money to spend on the salaries of the Public Safety Division leaders?
Frank tells me to consider the context.
They are coming in to lead in one of the most violent cities in the country.
In order to be competitive, their salaries have to be comparable to their peers, he said.
In addition to managing the police department, fire department and corrections division, Isom will also only be serving on an interim basis to help conduct a national search for a permanent Public Safety Director.
That’s going to be a hard sell.
One of his former colleagues Chief John Hayden has been the city’s top cop for about four years and has the city’s highest murder rate per capita in its history on his watch.
Hayden has done away with one of Isom’s priorities – relying on criminologists at the University of Missouri-St. Louis to help guide policing strategies.
Isom holds a bachelor's, master's and a Ph.D. in criminology and criminal justice from UMSL.
After his retirement, Isom joined the faculty there.
His successor Sam Dotson expanded the use of UMSL criminologists to develop hot-spot policing strategies when Isom was on the staff.
Despite their differing approaches to including criminologists into the crime-fighting plan, Hayden was a key member of Isom’s administration as chief.
He was a lieutenant in Isom’s Internal Affairs Division – a position most chiefs assign to only their most trusted allies.
While there, he handled some of the department's most controversial moments including the shooting of Anthony Smith by former Officer Jason Stockley in 2011 along with the circulation of a photo of an officer took of the man who shot and killed a U.S. Marshal after police shot and killed him.
A new face Isom will now supervise includes Division of Corrections Commissioner Dale Glass.
I’ve reported about how the corrections staff was allowed to dwindle to about 80 people short during the year leading up to the Feb. 6 riot at the Criminal Justice Center in downtown St. Louis.
Corrections Commissioner Dale Glass insists he asked the Division of Personnel to hire about 30 guards in June 2020, but that request wasn't fulfilled until December.
Frank fired back, saying Glass told his staff to stand down on hiring anyone in anticipation that the city's other jail would be closing.
In the weeks leading up to the very visible February riot at the downtown facility, there had been at least two other incidents involving detainees.
And, in case you haven’t been keeping tabs, there’s now been a second very visible riot there, with detainees again breaking windows, setting fires and throwing furniture to the street below.
Two detainees were charged this week with attacking guards during the February riot.
In addition to staffing shortages, pandemic protocols reducing recreation time for detainees, delays in the courts and prosecuting attorney’s office, the locks don’t work.
And Isom’s boss proposed a budget on her first day in office that would cut funding to the city’s other jail known as The Workhouse after June 30.
It was a campaign promise of hers.
Activists have been saying for years that conditions there are inhumane.
The previous administration spent at least $5 million to upgrade the facility.
It’s now proving crucial to house the city’s detainees who had to be moved following the riots at the downtown facility.
But some things Isom will find remain the same as they were when he was chief.
The 911 call center is still a problem.
I can’t remember a time during the 15 years I’ve lived here that the city’s 911 system hasn’t been an issue.
Poor pay. High turnover. Putting callers on hold.
Local reporters have highlighted the problems through the years, and the most recent reporting appears to have put the issue front and center once more.
But Isom now brings with him the skill of managing a major corporation called the Regional Justice Information Service, or REJIS. He became its executive director in 2017 for what I'm told was at least $180,000.
It’s essentially a quasi-public/private partnership that manages mainly law enforcement databases. So, when a cop looks up someone in their computers, the data they are retrieving comes from REJIS.
The board gave Isom a leave of absence to serve as the mayor’s Interim Public Safety Director.
With all of that, would you want the job for $200,018 a year?
Editor's note: An earlier version of this story contained an inaccurate salary total for Dan Isom provided by the Personnel Director. It has been corrected.