If the Missouri Secretary of State were allowed truth-in-labeling on writing ballot titles, the 2012 initiative seeking to return local control of its police department to St. Louis might look like this:
"Shall the state of Missouri declare that the Civil War is over?"
Indeed, that's how long the battle over the control of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department has been stewing. In 1861, Confederate sympathizers in the state capital placed control of the department under the governor, fearful that Unionists in St. Louis would turn the police against the rebel cause.
Shamefully, some of the same fears have been driving the discussion in Jefferson City in recent years as city leaders have fought unsuccessfully to convince lawmakers that local control simply makes political sense and is the law of the land in every city in the state except for the two largest ones.
Arguments against local control have featured suggestions from rural lawmakers that the aldermen in St. Louis, many of whom are black, would exercise undue political influence over the police department.
And exactly how would this make them different from the mostly white mayors and town councils of those lawmakers' cities?
The good news is that this 150-year-old farce is closer than ever to coming to an end.
Failure to get the Legislature to do the right thing has led to a historic agreement between Mayor Francis Slay, Board of Aldermen President Lewis Reed, über-campaign donor and philanthropist Rex Sinquefield and the St. Louis Police Officers Association to seek a statewide vote in November 2012.
If it passes — and why should anyone outside of the city care who runs the city's police department — the city would regain control of something it never should have lost.
Lately, Mr. Slay and Mr. Reed haven't agreed on much. But they agree on this: City voters ought to have control over their own police department. Right now, that's not the case, at least not directly, as the department continues to be controlled by a board appointed by Gov. Jay Nixon and confirmed by the Missouri Senate.
That board has a history of meddling. We're confident that aldermen and mayors will meddle, too. This is what politicians do. But voters in every city in the state except for St. Louis and Kansas City have the power to limit that meddling, or punish it, at the ballot box. That needs to change.
The Legislature and the governor have failed to lead on the issue. They've failed to live up to reasonable principles of governance in responding to repeated requests from the citizens of St. Louis to give them back their police department.
The big hangup in recent years has been opposition from the Police Officers Association, which has been worried about protecting officers' pensions and benefits. Those concerns are addressed in the ballot language, so officers no longer will have to work the halls of the Capitol, buttonholing rural lawmakers.
It's wrong that voters in St. Louis must ask permission from the rest of the state to run their own affairs. But this is not the first time. Thanks to Mr. Sinquefield, in 2010 voters statewide forced St. Louis to hold elections every five years on its earnings tax. Rex giveth, and Rex taketh away. At least he's on the right side this time.
