ST. LOUIS — A new St. Louis County Council majority on Friday selected new leaders for this year, despite the objections of opponents who called the moves "obscenely illegal."
The move now leaves the council with two members — Rita Heard Days and Lisa Clancy — contending they've been elected as chair, raising questions about whether the council will be able to make it through its next regular meeting, on Tuesday evening. That agenda includes approval of numerous contracts.
During a special meeting Friday, the majority — council members Days, Shalonda Webb, Tim Fitch and Mark Harder — selected Days as chair and Harder as vice chair.
The other three members — Clancy, Kelli Dunaway and Ernie Trakas — continuously called the moves illegal and abstained from the votes. They had previously voted to re-elect Clancy as chair during a controversial Jan. 5 vote.
Following the moves, Days acted as leader of the meeting — but so did Clancy, as the lawmakers traded turns giving directions to the council's clerk and public speakers.
"When you were the chair, we respected you, we asked you permission to speak," Days told Clancy, in asking her to stop talking. Whether you believe Friday's votes were legal, "please allow the respect of this chair that was just elected to perform her duties," Days said.
The issue stems from the timing of the Jan. 5 vote and a voter-approved charter amendment that changed the official start date of council members' four-year terms from Jan. 1 to Jan. 12.
In winning re-election as chair Jan. 5, Clancy relied on the vote of Rochelle Walton Gray, who lost to Webb in the August Democratic primary. Though her term had expired Jan. 1, Clancy — backed by St. Louis County Executive Sam Page's counselor, Beth Orwick — argued that Gray could stay in office and vote until Webb was sworn in.
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