St. Louis begins salting icy side streets, but residents remain salty

Anger over the condition of St. Louis streets following the Jan. 5 snowstorm boiled over during an aldermanic hearing, where residents and officials criticized the city’s response. As streets remained coated with thick ice 10 days after the storm, the city announced a new plan to salt streets, but for many, the plan was too little, too late. Alderwoman Cara Spencer said the city’s response had been “really frustrating.” She pointed out that “I too cannot drive on my own street. There are three inches of ice on it right now.”

Candidates trade barbs at St. Louis mayoral forum, talk cops, trash, snow

The four mayoral candidates faced off at a Mayoral Candidate Forum on January 9th. Alderwoman Cara Spencer cited issues such as declining census numbers, inadequate trash collection, failing public schools, and recent corruption scandals, including grants awarded to nonexistent businesses

5 On Your Side: The Record with Mark Maxwell

Cara Spencer joins 5 On Your Side to address a serious lawsuit against SLDC from a former employee.

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St. Louis Magazine: St. Louis aldermen weigh two plans for Rams funds—and infinite possibilities

The St. Louis Board of Aldermen are debating two proposals for spending $280 million in Rams settlement funds. Alderwoman Cara Spencer, a co-sponsor of Pam Boyd's bill, supports prioritizing investment in struggling neighborhoods and downtown, contrasting with Alisha Sonnier’s Transform STL bill. “We were awarded those funds because the judge decided, rightfully so, that the city lost revenue when the Rams left,” Spencer said. “We have a revenue problem in our city right now because of the loss of population, a massive loss of population, and if we don't address that, we can put in these short-term gains on issues, but they're not going to solve the ongoing slide.”

Fox 2: Cara Spencer pushes bill targeting reckless driving

Cara Spencer introduced Board Bill 80 in the Board of Aldermen to combat reckless driving and illegal street takeovers, which she describes as a “reckless driving crisis.” Highlighting the dangers, Spencer stated, “It’s terrifying to be a pedestrian, to be a cyclist, to even be a fellow driver.” Emphasizing the bill’s focus on prevention, Spencer explained, “The idea here really, the concept is not to punish people. It’s to curb the behavior. It’s to end the reckless driving.” The urgency is clear: last year, 223 pedestrians were struck by vehicles in St. Louis, with fatality rates three times the national average.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Editorial): Mayor's plan for Rams money would fritter it away

The Post-Dispatch editorial board opposes Mayor Jones' Transform STL Act, criticizing it for lacking transformative vision and ignoring public safety. Instead, they currently support Greater St. Louis Inc.'s proposal backed by Cara Spencer and other aldermen, which prioritizes Downtown revival and targeted infrastructure improvements in underserved areas, offering potential for economic growth and private investment to reshape St. Louis.

St. Louis Magazine: St. Louis building inspector linked to $2.3M in ARPA spending resigns

A St. Louis building inspector is under scrutiny for alleged connections to construction firms awarded $2.3 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds. The revelations have raised concerns about conflicts of interest and prompted calls to review how public contracts are awarded and monitored in the city.

First Alert 4: Alderwoman Cara Spencer calls for criminal investigations, audits after investigation reveals city inspector has ties to construction companies receiving millions in public funds

Not only are they demanding deeper investigations, but some area leaders also say they believe the flow of money needs to stop immediately until more transparency is brought to the program.

“It’s jaw-dropping. The lack of oversight is absolutely stunning,” said St. Louis Alderwoman Cara Spencer.

Spencer also supports pausing the program and conducting a thorough review.

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St. Louis Post-Dispatch: St. Louis hires ex-county jail chief to fix downtown jail troubles

Doug Burris, credited with reforming St. Louis County’s jail, has been hired as a consultant to address problems at the City Justice Center. Under Commissioner Jennifer Clemons-Abdullah’s leadership, the jail has faced ongoing criticism from oversight boards and activists who have highlighted urgent systemic issues, including riots, deaths, and healthcare complaints.

St. Louis American: Rams settlement funds touch down in Transform Act

Mayor Tishaura Jones introduced the Transform STL Act, proposing to allocate Rams settlement funds to infrastructure, development, and community programs. An alternate plan, backed by Greater St. Louis and Cara Spencer, prioritizes $130 million for disinvested neighborhoods and downtown infrastructure, focusing on equitable growth and rehabilitating downtown, an important engine of city economic growth.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: St. Louis personnel chief sues mayor, says she’s target of political retaliation

St. Louis' personnel director, Sonya Jenkins-Gray, has filed a lawsuit against Mayor Tishaura Jones, accusing her of political retaliation. Jenkins-Gray alleges she was targeted due to disputes over hiring policies and because her husband endorsed Wesley Bell over Cori Bush. She is seeking a judge's intervention to block pending disciplinary charges.

First Alert 4: Property owners receive giant bills for repairs they didn’t agree to. Now, it’s all under investigation

St. Louis property owners are raising concerns after being billed for repairs made to their properties using city funds. Many are questioning the fairness and legality of these charges, sparking calls for greater transparency and accountability from local officials regarding how repair costs are assessed and communicated.

5 On Your Side: St. Louis Public Schools putting a temporary stop to district-issued credit card spending

Following an audit revealing over $1.5 million in credit card purchases by former Superintendent Keisha Scarlett and her staff, St. Louis Public Schools has temporarily halted the use of district-issued credit cards. Interim Superintendent Millicent Borishade mandated the return of all cards to the Chief Financial Officer. The audit recommended implementing monthly spending limits, defining acceptable purchases, and enhancing staff training to ensure fiscal responsibility.

Cara’s Vision for Restoring Basic City Services

Every day, residents in every neighborhood of St. Louis say they don’t feel like the city is meeting their basic needs. Take one look at the requests to the Citizens’ Service Bureau (CSB), and it’s easy to see what people complain about: the condition of roads and trash piling up in alleys.

Basic city services are clearly not a priority of the current administration. Cara has plans to ensure that roads are well maintained and trash and recycling services are reliable.

Fixing the Roads.  The condition of our roads is getting worse over time. Potholes plague almost every city road. This not only impacts quality of life, but it also costs residents money for additional car maintenance and repairs. Cara has solutions to for these problems.

1. Staff up. The Street Department is terribly understaffed. About 60 of the 160 maintenance positions are open. These positions are budgeted and approved, and funds have been allocated. If staff can’t be hired, the department needs to contract with street repair services to supplement city staff. 

2. Overhaul the paving policy. When a utility company digs up a street, the current policy directs it to pay the city to repave it at a cost that does not cover the cost of paving, thereby leaving streets with steel plates for months on end. Following the lead of other municipalities and requiring the utility companies to repave our streets themselves will free the short-staffed Street Department to work on other projects, such as street repair. This should also result in faster and more complete repairs by the utility companies.

3. Establish a Transportation Department with a dedicated funding source. The city’s street director estimates that general maintenance of the city’s roads would cost between $12 million and $13 million a year just to keep up with wear and tear. The department currently allocates between $2 million and $3 million a year for such work, $10 million less than actually needed. Recognizing the lack of funding for street repair is a first step. Prop V, which created a Transportation Department and passed on the ballot in November, is a good start. But the proposal included no funding. City leaders and the community will have to work together to find a solution to making the new department a helpful reality –  not to mention determining a dependable funding source, given the current tax environment.

Picking up the Trash.  Garbage in alleys has been piling up with no end in sight. CSB complaints regarding collection during this current administration have almost doubled compared to the previous one. The problem is not only frustrating, it’s a serious public health concern. The city needs to staff up, change policies to streamline collection and save money, and use the money saved to contract for service to fill in gaps.

1. Staff up. The Refuse Department is seriously understaffed. It is currently operating with about a 40% vacancy rate. Positions are budgeted and approved, and funds are allocated. But workers have not been hired. If the department is unable to hire staff it  needs to contract for additional garbage collection services. City staff cannot be expected to work six or even seven days a week and still not keep up with the workload.

2. Honesty regarding recycling. Currently, the vast majority of recycling in alleys isn't being recycled. In fact, auditing the last three years shows only around 5% is actually getting recycled, a sharp drop from the previous five years. Residents are accustomed to seeing the refuse trucks pick up both the recycling and garbage and put them in the same truck. It's time to be honest with our citizens.

3. Expand the drop sites. The vast majority of the items residents drop at recycling spots is being recycled. Making it easier for residents by establishing more drop sites will result in more high-quality recycling items staying out of landfills and reducing the cost to dispose of the material. That would make the recycling program sustainable.

4. Opt-in Program. Piloting an opt-in recycling program would allow residents who want the convenience of home pick-up for recycling to pay an extra fee to help cover the cost of additional routes. Just as importantly, the program would identify people who are separating items for recycling from trash, thus enabling the city to collect clean recycling reliably. The city currently pays 4.5 times more for collecting recycling items, in part because of contamination from trash. Clearly separating recycling from trash would allow the city to cut costs. 

5. Beef up consequences for illegal dumping. Almost every neighborhood is plagued with dumped furniture, tires, and construction waste. Expanding the camera program to catch dumpers, streamlining the process of collecting the data, and focusing the legal department on prosecuting these cases will reduce the personpower spent cleaning up the mess, the tonnage fees for getting rid of dumped trash, and, of course, the quality of life lessened by living with illegal dumping. 

6. Modernize the Refuse Department. Right now, refuse workers are operating with old machines and paper maps. Even though the department is understaffed, drivers still show up to work and are met with an inadequate number of working trash trucks. This is unacceptable. Cara will prioritize unspent federal money investment in working trucks and equip them with tracking software so the department can keep track of blocks that are missed when routes get cut short. That way, areas won’t go weeks on end without garbage collection, as too often continues to happen.

Cara is committed to doing this work. Her plan goes beyond fixing roads and picking up trash. It’s about making St. Louis work. She believes the city needs a mayor who will put competent people in place, restore trust through transparency, and take action to solve the problems residents face every day. As mayor, she is committed to using reporting and transparency to rebuild confidence in city government, ensuring that residents know where their tax dollars are going and how services are being delivered.

5 On Your Side: Bureaucratic blockade: SLDC charges steep fines to show public records, concealing conflicts of interest

Alderwoman Cara Spencer, who recently resigned from SLDC's board citing her frustration over a lack of transparency, did not mince words: "It's absolutely ridiculous. There's no excuse for that lack of organization in a digital age, in an organization that gets tax dollars. This is an organization charged with driving economic activity for the city."

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Cara’s Vision for Transparency and Accountability at the City Justice Center

Since 2020, 18 people have died while in the City’s custody at the City Justice Center (CJC), commonly called the City Jail. This is an unacceptable record by any standard of incarceration in the United States. It is made worse by the mayor’s refusal to allow access to the jail for the Detention Oversight Board or to follow the law regarding access for attorneys.

In April, a circuit judge issued an order requiring jail officials to allow detainees access to their constitutional right to attorneys after repeated complaints of obstruction. The findings of the Missouri State Auditor’s investigation earlier this year further emphasized these systemic failures. The summary of the probe noted that the Detention Facility Oversight Board, formed to review complaints and provide accountability, has been consistently blocked from performing its duties.

St. Louis Corrections Commissioner Jennifer Clemons-Abdullah, appointed by the mayor to run the CJC, has been on an unexplained leave for more than two months. The administration has yet to comment as to whether she will return. This lack of clarity raises serious questions about who is accountable for overseeing the jail's operations – while the number of deaths is rising.

In response to these alarming statistics and incidents, activists, social justice groups, and concerned citizens are united in their calls for urgent and sweeping reforms. The Justice Center must address its systemic issues to prevent further loss of life and to restore public trust.

As Mayor, Cara will: 

• Replace St. Louis Corrections Commissioner Jennifer Clemons-Abdullah.

• Ensure the Detention Facility Oversight Board has access to the facility and relevant records to conduct independent audits, monitor conditions, and hold the facility accountable.

• Ensure that detainees' grievances receive a proper review. A thorough and transparent process must Include grievances being taken seriously, addressed promptly, and not retaliated against. The lack of such oversight has contributed to a climate of fear and disregard for basic human rights within the facility.

• Increase transparency and accountability of the administration of the CJC and ensure accurate reporting.

• Improve conditions at the CJC. Immediate steps must be taken to address the deplorable conditions. This includes ensuring access to medical care, improving sanitation, and providing adequate food and water to people detained.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: And they’re off! 12 file for St. Louis mayor, comptroller and alderman on first day

A dozen candidates filed paperwork Monday to run for city office this spring on the first day they could legally do so.

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St. Louis Post-Dispatch: St. Louis economic development agency’s top lawyer reassigned to job at airport

“A very trusted voice in an organization that’s under a lot of public mistrust right now was unceremoniously shipped off to the airport,” Spencer said. “And this fact wasn’t disclosed to the public nor the board of directors that’s supposed to be overseeing the organization.”

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AP: St. Louis was once known as Mound City for its many Native American mounds. Just one remains

Spencer said the mounds are an important and overlooked part of St. Louis, and preserving Sugarloaf is vital.

“This is a really special place to the Osage history and to our Native American heritage in this country, which has largely been erased,” Spencer said.

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St. Louis Public Radio: St. Louis aldermen propose investing $232M in Rams money in north city and downtown

“We were awarded these funds because of the loss of the Rams,” said Ward 8 alderwoman Cara Spencer, a co-sponsor. “It’s imperative that we invest these funds in a way that can be transformative and provide a path to having a revenue stream for our city.”

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