Jay Nixon’s appointee to head the Department of Economic Development, Linda Martinez, has not only come out in favor of illegal immigration at all costs while also telling the Legislature that she is against illegal immigration, it now surfaces that Martinez apparently favors a merger of St. Louis City and St. Louis County:
“Martinez was greeted with applause when she defined a key part of rowing in the same direction: a merger between the city and the county of St. Louis.”
Did she bother to mention that in her Senate confirmation hearings?
*St. Louis Business Journal (November 5, 2004)
Meanwhile, some are questioning if there is a conflict of interest given that Bryan Cave’s Martinez and the city’s Geisman are working on the Bryan Cave project and also own property together downtown. The two are co-owners of the Paristyle Lofts building at 1517 Washington Ave. Together with other partners, they set up a development company named Porfidio LLC in May 1998 to rehabilitate the eight-story building and turn it into nine loft condominiums. The project cost $3.2 million. They are still selling a few remaining units.
The mayor’s office said there is no potential conflict of interest as a result of the business partnership. “It would be a problem if Barbara Geisman was the mayor, but she’s not,” said Jeff Rainford, Slay’s chief of staff. “Francis Slay is the mayor. He is working directly with Bryan Cave. She reports to him.”
0 responses so far ↓
1 kuyt // Feb 9, 2009 at 10:12 pm
“come clean on all of her radical ideas”
It is not a radical proposal to propose City and County merger. It has been discussed at all levels, by Dems and Repubs and for many years. I assume you have not followed those discussions? Controversial? Yes. Radical. No.
2 Closet Independent // Feb 10, 2009 at 11:02 am
I agree with Kuyt! Since when is merger a radical idea? Don’t get me wrong: I think it is a fantasy. But radical?
In terms of Martinez and her pro bono work on the illegal alien ordinances, I can understand her perspective that allowing every single municipality to have its own standards would be a huge problem for businesses that operate in more than one community. I guess that St. Louis folks have decided that illegals are the cause of the economic problems we face. I think that is ridiculous. Have you been to Chicago lately? Wouldn’t you trade economies with that city? I would almost be willing to accept the Cubs in exchange for the economic vitality that city has.
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