St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay is a real card! The four time elected Mayor seems too have a real penchant for sacrificing his underlings when touch decisions have to be made. When the African American fire chief needed to be fired a few years ago, Slay promotes an African American within his administration to public safety chief so he could be the one to fire him.

Fast forward to 2009. The city is broke, and two hour meters are a great source of revenue. What’s a cheesy way to squeeze a bit more revenue from the meters? Start charging disabled motorists! Again, this from the so called “party of compassion?” Slay again sacrifices an underling:

STL Post Dispatch:

“The policy shift comes not from some enemy of the disabled, but from one of their leading advocates — David J. Newburger, the new head of the city’s Office on the Disabled.

Newburger’s change has the backing of his boss, Mayor Francis Slay, and one of the area’s leading disability rights groups.”

“If each permit user parked eight hours a day, five days a week for a year, that would come out to $741,000 worth of free parking a year.”

The city agency responsible for collecting the coins from the meters has had a colorful past to say the least:

St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MO)
November 6, 2005

Some employees of St. Louis City Treasurer Larry Williams have a way of bringing attention to him for all the wrong reasons.
In spring 2004, a parking lot attendant he hired was busted for selling crack from a booth outside City Hall. In August, a man who worked “booting” cars with unpaid parking tickets was charged with felony drug possession after police found methamphetamine and ecstasy at his home.

In another instance last year, a woman was given a job checking parking meters even after she admitted stealing public funds in her previous job with the city prosecutor. The employee, an alderman’s daughter, was hired just two days before she was sentenced for forgery and theft.

A Post-Dispatch examination of Williams’ hiring practices show his payroll features employees with criminal records, political connections and, sometimes, both.

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