Irene Smith wants Nixon to remove Police Board members
Smith
Mayoral candidate Irene J. Smith has been quiet as the Tale of Two Colemans drama has swirled around the race.
But today, Smith issued a release congratulating Gov. Jay Nixon on his inauguration yesterday — and asking, for one of his first official acts, to seek the resignation of the four members of the St. Louis Police Board appointed by his predecessor, Matt Blunt.
“The citizens of St. Louis and I will take responsibility for removing the sole elected member, Mayor Francis G. Slay,” Smith said in a release.
Smith won’t be the only St. Louis Democrat seeking Police Board changes from Nixon. City Hall has long pushed to remove state control of police headquarters — the recent scandals surrounding tow-contracts and pricey badges should only help their case.
Either way, the Police Board will lose its top member in the coming weeks. Board President Chris Goodson, appointed by Blunt in Jan. 2005, is near the end of this four-year term.
Thank you, Irene Smith.
You are the first city official to demand accountability for this Police Board’s failure to provide oversight and accountability for the Police Department. I know that you will support Chief Isom 100%.
I am pleased that you have taken a firm stance on this issue.
I thought the PD spiked talk of pricey badges with a broken link
and a “sorry no longer available”?? I would think that anyone wanting to
clean up the Polic and the City would not stand a chance in he77 of
being elected. There is a lot of power and good old boys clubs to
run against. Does anyone think the tow scandle started over night?
Would she demand accountability from red light runners? Let police
borrow game tickets…I can’t run the complete list here…
Best of Luck
Thank you Irene “pee in a bucket” Smith for your astute insights on public policy. Maybe now you can plead guilty to urinating in public.
Oh please. That was eight years ago. If it happened at all. Besides, I applaud her for being one of very few city officials to have the guts to stand up against the corrupt police board.
So does this release mean Smith is actually running a campaign? Where is her committee? Does she have an office? Website?
I wish her well, but wonder where she was for the last year when she should have been building a campaign against Slay. It’s way too late to start, but maybe she can pull it off.
>Irene Smith wants Nixon to remove Police Board members
I dare say there are a few Police Board members who’d love to remove Irene Smith.
Why not propose a replacement for Goodson instead of asking the governor to do something of questionable legality?
Smith is an attorney of unquestioned ability and esteem among her colleagues and constituents. She is asking for Governor Nixon to live up to his campaign promise of bringing change to Missouri by demanding change at the Police Board. In addition, she is a strong supporter of local control for the police. Replacing the Police Board is only an interim step toward bringing accountability through local control. The present board betrayed the public trust through its unqualified support for Mokwa during the Police Department’s many scandals. In addition, at least two members of the current board (Goodson & Bommarito) failed to support Chief Isom’s gun buyback initiative. This is inexcusable. St. Louis needs a Police Board that will support the new Chief in his efforts to prevent, mitigate, and investigate crimes.
She certainly has a committee (the Missouri Ethics Commission has yet to update its website committee listings) and a website: irenejsmith.com .
Irene’s graphic identity is powerful and inclusive, two words that perfectly describe her message of change.