St. Louis Public Radio: “As Ward Reduction Looms, New St. Louis Coalition Pushes Redistricting Reform”

“Earlier this month, the [Reform St. Louis] coalition began pushing out a survey to gather community input. Among other questions, it asks, ‘Which reforms should be included in future advocacy efforts, including a potential ballot initiative to amend the City charter?’

‘Just from a layperson and citizen’s perspective, I think St. Louis has seen a lot of change — obviously this initiative is one of them — but a lot of changes just with certain things that are happening in the city and the country,’ [Reform St. Louis Policy Chair Jami] Cox said. ‘And so I think in a similar vein to a lot of our peer cities around the nation, we want to find ways to make our government work better.’

‘One of [those functions of the Board of Aldermen is] making sure that conflicts of interest are public and fully disclosed,’ Cox added. ‘When alderpersons have personal interest in bills that are on the table, we don’t want those to sort of influence their votes — we want them to be voting for the will of the people and what’s best for the community and not for themselves.’

The alderwoman added that while the data and software local politicians now use in the redistricting process has improved it, there’s been ‘little-to-no robust community input’ as part of it.

‘It’s still not really allowing us to make the best decisions,’ Ingrassia said. ‘Even if we’re well intentioned, unintended biases are problematic. We really need to make sure that there’s an independent way, free from political actors that are reliant on the outcome of how redistricting works.’

Cox added that Reform St. Louis’ initiative would ‘take that power and put it in the hands of the community.’

‘That community group, or that independent citizens commission, would be representative of the people of our city,’ she said. ‘It would be diverse. It would represent people not only geographically but also racially and by gender identity as well, and just making sure we have a comprehensive picture of what the people of our city would want to see.’”

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