looking a gift horse in the mouth

For those keenly watching St. Louis City Hall’s grappling with the issue of whether to privatize Lambert Airport, this recent Thursday was eventful. City Counselor Julian Bush (a former judge who counts another former judge as a top deputy in his office) informed a committee of the Board of Aldermen that Ald. Cara Spencer’s proposed ordinance to require voter approval of Lambert privatization would likely be struck down by the courts as void. The language of Spencer’s proposed ordinance mirrors that of the ordinance proposed by an organization calling itself STL Not For Sale; that group’s proposed ordinance would likely fail to pass legal muster as well. Nevertheless, the City Counselor offered an alternative that he believed would pass legal muster: a City Charter amendment to ensure a binding public vote. Ald. Joe Vaccaro said at Thursday’s hearing that he had been advocating for such a charter amendment for roughly a year, but that Spencer had refused to help with the charter amendment effort and instead focused on promotion of her fatally-flawed ordinance proposal. Vaccaro, himself a strong opponent of Lambert privatization, did not mince words. “This is a feel-good bill,” Vaccaro said about Spencer’s proposal. “But it does nothing.”

Spencer’s reaction to Bush’s opinion and Vaccaro’s commentary was furious. In addition to a heated off-camera exchange between the two aldermen in City Hall’s Kennedy Room, Spencer took to social media with an out-of-context quote of Bush’s testimony.

Unfortunately, I am all too familiar with such a furious reaction to looking this particular gift horse in the mouth. On January 24th of this year, I expressed to STL Not For Sale’s Glenn Burleigh similar concerns about the efficacy of the group’s proposed public vote ordinance. Burleigh became very agitated with me. His response was “you’re such an asshole, Matt. Everybody hates you.” Since then, I and my partner have been subject to a relentless whisper campaign of smears. It’s been disheartening for the both of us. It’s been incredibly stressful. But we were right. We stuck to the truth. My partner stuck with me despite the nastiness. She could have abandoned me. She didn’t. I am so grateful for that.

And goodbye to you, gift horse.