St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “Indictments shake St. Louis City Hall, cast cloud over upcoming Board of Aldermen meetings”

“The bombshell corruption indictment of Aldermanic President Lewis Reed and two allies shook city government to its core Thursday, even spurring questions about how the Board of Aldermen would operate while their cases proceed in federal court.

Meanwhile, Benjamin Singer, a leader in a successful effort at the April election to get voters to pass tougher conflict-of-interest rules for aldermen, said the indictment shows why the measure was needed.

The measure, Proposition R, also will shift ward redistricting from the Board of Aldermen to a new independent commission.

Reed, Boyd and Collins-Muhammad had been among critics of the proposal. The day before he resigned last month, Collins-Muhammad was among four aldermen who filed a lawsuit to try to get the new law thrown out. He later withdrew as one of the plaintiffs.

‘This type of corrupt self-dealing alleged in the indictment is exactly why we passed Prop R for Reform to ban conflicts of interest at the Board of Aldermen,’ said Singer, the CEO of Show Me Integrity, one of the groups involved in the effort.”

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