ST. LOUIS, Missouri — St. Charles County Executive Steve Ehlmann authored an op-ed calling for state lawmakers to rein in the City of St. Louis and reshape its governmental powers because "crime in the city hampers growth in the region."
Ehlmann's proposal, published in the St. Louis Business Journal, calls for state lawmakers in Jefferson City to take over control of the city's police board, consolidate the judicial circuits in St. Louis County and the city, to reconsider which governments control the Lambert International Airport, and to send in the Missouri Highway Patrol to help police crime in the city.
Ehlmann explained and defended a number of his ideas during an interview on The Record with 5 On Your Side's political editor Mark Maxwell on Wednesday.
Ehlmann likened the city's control over the airport to "taxation without representation."
"The city continues to own it, continues to run it," he said of Lambert International Airport. "But it's basically the users and the federal taxpayers who are paying for it."
Later, he suggested if the state could wrestle control of the airport away from the city, it could open up job opportunities for workers who live in either St. Louis County or St. Charles County.
"For one thing, you wouldn't have to live in the city to work at the airport," he said when asked what benefits might come with shared control of the airport.
As a member of the Missouri legislature, Ehlmann voted in favor of St. Louis taking local control over its police department. Pressed to explain his flip-flop, Ehlmann said he merely wants to see Jefferson City revisit the debate.
"I think the key to the region growing is getting the crime in the city under control because the city is the face of the region," he said.
Would he support a state takeover of the police board in St. Charles?
"If we had the crime rate that the city of St. Louis has? Absolutely," he said.
You can watch the full interview with St. Charles County Executive Steve Ehlmann below.
Watch our livestream next Wednesday at 3 p.m. to see our guests Mark Mantovani, GOP candidate for St. Louis County Executive, and Alderman Jack Coatar, candidate for St. Louis Board of Alderman President on The Record.
