In the News

Dillon Goodson 3/21/25 Dillon Goodson 3/21/25

Post-Dispatch endorsement: We recommend Cara Spencer for St. Louis mayor

Alderwoman Spencer, this time, as last time, is stressing the importance of competently delivering those core services — snow removal, garbage collection, street repair, and, most of all, police protection. To “focus on doing the job of being a city,” as she put it to us recently. That focus was right four years ago and it’s doubly right now. Spencer has our enthusiastic endorsement for St. Louis mayor.

Dillon Goodson 3/9/25 Dillon Goodson 3/9/25

St. Louis Public Radio: St. Louis Democratic Central Committee endorses Spencer over Jones in mayor’s race

The St. Louis City Democratic Central Committee officially endorsed Alderwoman Cara Spencer for mayor on Saturday, a rare show of support for a challenger against an incumbent of the same party. The Democratic Central Committee met with 26 of 28 members from all 14 wards, and the group cast votes on whom to support for mayor and comptroller. Mayor Tishaura Jones had nine supporters in the final vote for mayor, and Spencer had 15, with two members abstaining.

Dillon Goodson 3/6/25 Dillon Goodson 3/6/25

Post-Dispatch: Spencer flipped south St. Louis areas that once backed Jones, grew support in north city

Four years ago, Treasurer Tishaura O. Jones beat Alderwoman Cara Spencer in the mayor’s race with a coalition built on overwhelming support from north St. Louis voters combined with comfortable spreads in progressive-leaning neighborhoods around Tower Grove Park. In a rematch Tuesday night, Spencer handily flipped the south side neighborhoods that backed Jones in 2021 and ate into the mayor’s margins in north St. Louis.

Dillon Goodson 3/5/25 Dillon Goodson 3/5/25

On to the general election

This victory belongs to all of us. Every conversation, every door knocked, every vote cast — it all made a difference. But we’re not done yet. Now, the real contest begins. I need your help more than ever.

Wow — what a night! The results are in, and thanks to you, we’re moving on to the general!

Final numbers: Cara Spencer received 68.13% of the votes, Tishaura Jones 33.17%, Michael Butler 24%, and Andrew Jones 13.6%. The voter turnout for this election was 17.8%.

This victory belongs to all of us. Every conversation, every door knocked, every vote cast — it all made a difference. But we’re not done yet. Now, the real contest begins. I need your help more than ever.

To become mayor, I must win the majority of votes at the general election on April 8.

Let’s keep up the momentum! Talk to your friends, share our vision, and help us reach every voter in St. Louis. If you haven’t yet, visit my campaign website to learn more about my plans for setting St. Louis on a new trajectory upward.

And if you can, please chip in. Every dollar fuels this campaign to get us to the finish line with the most votes.

Donate

We’ve come this far together. Let’s complete the final stretch focusing on a brighter future for St. Louis!

Dillon Goodson 1/5/25 Dillon Goodson 1/5/25

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.

Watch

Dillon Goodson 12/13/24 Dillon Goodson 12/13/24

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.

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.

Dillon Goodson 12/12/24 Dillon Goodson 12/12/24

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.

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.

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.
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.
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.

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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.

Dillon Goodson 11/29/24 Dillon Goodson 11/29/24

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."

Dillon Goodson 11/26/24 Dillon Goodson 11/26/24

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 (commonly called the City Jail). This is an unacceptable track record by any standard of incarceration in the United States, which is made worse by the Mayor’s refusal to allow access to the Detention Oversight Board or to follow the law regarding access to attorneys.

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.

Dillon Goodson 11/26/24 Dillon Goodson 11/26/24

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.

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

Cara Spencer, who is challenging Jones in the upcoming April election, was on the board of SLDC until resigning her seat Oct. 28, saying she had lost confidence in the organization’s management. When she resigned, Spencer didn’t know that Meyer had been reassigned earlier that month and actually addressed her resignation letter to him, she said Friday.

“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.”

Dillon Goodson 11/21/24 Dillon Goodson 11/21/24

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.

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.

Dillon Goodson 11/12/24 Dillon Goodson 11/12/24

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.”

Dillon Goodson 10/14/24 Dillon Goodson 10/14/24

A Once in a Generation Opportunity Slipping Away

How will the deployment of historic ARPA funds be graded by future generations?

The City of St. Louis was awarded just shy of $500 million in pandemic relief money through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). This was more than any major city in the U.S. per capita because of our city’s vacancy, population loss, and lack of economic opportunity for residents. A historic and once-in-a-generation opportunity for our community.

Here we are, a few months shy of four years since we received these funds, and as of this morning, the city has only spent $155M. That’s less than a third of the awarded funds.

While the funds don’t need to be spent until 2026, they do need to be obligated by the end of 2024. That’s just 10 weeks from now. Today, we have $316M obligated. That means we still have $184M on the table that is still unaccounted for, with the expiration date drawing near.

The mayor's chief of staff, Jared Boyd, acknowledged last month that it was too late to get new requests for proposals out—a devastating blow to projects promised but not yet contracted for. So what does that mean?

Here we are at the finish line, and the administration is presumably putting together an omnibus bill to obligate a whopping $184M in the last two months of a 48-month timeline provided by the federal government. This is happening without any public communication about how they plan to allocate such a large amount of funding. As Chair of Budget and Public Employees, I can confirm there has been no communication with our committee about the mayor’s plans.

ARPA funds were an enormous opportunity to invest in our communities—and, just as importantly, to build trust. We have seen the opposite of that. From a failure to deploy funds in a reasonable timeframe to the debacle with the North Side Grant Fund and, just today, egregious oversights are coming to light in the Private Building Stabilization Program. What's next is a last-minute dash to the finish line with no time left for robust community discussion or even thoughtful planning. This is no way to spend $184M.

The current administration’s actions do not optimize results. Where was the data-driven decision-making we were promised? Maximizing results takes careful planning, true transparency, and competent and timely deployment of resources.

Dillon Goodson 9/26/24 Dillon Goodson 9/26/24

Cara’s Vision for Restoring Trust and Transparency in City Government

Trust and transparency are core tenets of democracy and critical to a functioning society. Without trust, a system cannot work well, jeopardizing its legitimacy, stability, and the collective well-being of its citizens.

The past several years have seen a troubling but consistent lack of transparency in the functioning of St. Louis City government: failure to respond in a timely manner to sunshine requests, failure to allow for oversight into the very troubled jail system, and most recently, failure to disclose records around some of the largest awardees of federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds.

Failures in transparency have real consequences. A recent lawsuit against the St. Louis Division of Corrections has led to a judge determining that the facility “purposefully violated the Sunshine Law.” This not only results in statutory penalties against the division but also a breakdown in trust in the criminal justice system — a system that badly needs trust.

More recently, the failures of transparency in the North St. Louis Small Business & Non-Profit Grant Program, funded by ARPA, have badly damaged the impact $32 million will have in North City. As a member of the St. Louis Development Corporation (SLDC) board, Cara refused to vote on the program. She stood with the public, who continue to have concerns and questions about the distribution of the money, as outlined by both the St. Louis Post Dispatch and KSDK. It's unacceptable that two years into implementing this program, these questions remain.

As mayor, trust and transparency will be more than words used during campaign season. They will be core tenets of Cara’s administration. These are some of the objectives Cara will prioritize from day one:

Providing transparency in the jails. Allowing members of the Detention Facilities Oversight Board into the city jail and working to improve, not hide, conditions in the detention facility.
Enforcing conflict of interest policies. Developing and adhering to real, disclosed conflict of interest policies across city agencies, including quasi-governmental entities such as SLDC.
Complying with the law. Complying with the state Sunshine Law across the board in a timely manner and reasonable prices. Period.
Building reliable reporting systems. Making it easier for citizens to engage and report problems by implementing a 3-1-1 system for nonemergency issues and finally fixing the 9-1-1 system so citizens can have a trusted set of reporting options.
Sharing data to provide accountability. Publishing data related to city services through a platform similar to Baltimore’s CitiStat program to disclose performance metrics and hold city government accountable.

Residents deserve to know how and where their tax dollars are spent and how the city government is operating its departments. As mayor, Cara will use transparency and reporting to build trust and improve systems.

Dillon Goodson 9/20/24 Dillon Goodson 9/20/24

Hard No: Cara’s Statement on the Transparency of the North City Small Business and Non Profit Grant Program

“The more we learn about the North St. Louis City Small Business and Non Profit Grant Program, the more troubled I become with the program.”

“The more we learn about the North St. Louis City Small Business and Non Profit Grant Program, the more troubled I become with the program. The Post Dispatch reported that some of the businesses appeared to be vacant, abandoned buildings, among other issues of transparency and due diligence. Yesterday, I was a hard no on reallocating funding dedicated to the administration of this program. If we still haven’t vetted these businesses before awarding businesses the city has more work to do.

“The lack of transparency in this process has impacted the trust and validity our institutions have in our community: we must ensure that the organizations we empower to handle our development and growth are held to the highest standards. The ongoing concerns make clear that the residents who need these funds the most are now worried they may not have been given a fair shot.

“In the coming weeks you will hear more from me on why transparency and trust are important pillars to uphold in our government. We need to implement measures that will help build back the faith our community demands; I will share how I plan to do just that.

“We have work to do and transparency should be our top priority.

“If you can, help fuel our campaign to make transparency a priority in city government through a contribution or volunteer to help us spread the word about my commitment to good government.”

– Cara Spencer

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If you'd like to read more on the situation, check out some of the articles below:

Dillon Goodson 8/13/24 Dillon Goodson 8/13/24

Fox 2 Now: St. Louis trash woes reach retired teacher’s backyard

“We need to get serious about hiring the people that we need to pick up the trash on a regular basis and right now our refuse department is woefully understaffed, but we need to make sure that they have the right equipment too,” Spencer said.

5 On Your Side: Spencer’s gun bill “allowed officers to seize” guns on a downtown rooftop overlooking July 4 parade route

Officers arrested Trentston Sappington, a 23-year-old from Granite City, who was found armed and observing the large crowds gathered for the festivities. Sappington, who lacked a concealed carry permit, violated the city's new open carry ban. This ordinance, introduced by 8th Ward Alderwoman Cara Spencer, enabled officers to confiscate his weapons and hold them as evidence while prosecutors review potential charges.

Last Thursday, thousands of people celebrating Independence Day along the parade route in downtown St. Louis were unknowingly being watched by an armed wanted man. St. Louis police responded to a report of a suspicious individual on the rooftop of a parking garage at 604 Pine Street, which overlooks Kiener Plaza and Market Street, areas bustling with paradegoers and protesters.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Cara Spencer kicks off bid to be St. Louis mayor. ‘Our city is at a crossroads.’

Alderwoman Cara Spencer kicked off her second campaign for mayor Tuesday night, telling a room full of supporters at the old Post-Dispatch building downtown that she’ll get the basics right again.

Dillon Goodson 5/3/24 Dillon Goodson 5/3/24

St. Louis Public Radio: Alderwoman Cara Spencer plans second run for St. Louis mayor

An alderwoman from south St. Louis is taking a second crack at the mayor’s office. “I believe in St. Louis - but we have a lot of work to do,” 8th Ward Alderwoman Cara Spencer wrote in a Facebook post announcing her candidacy on Thursday. “Our city isn’t meeting the needs of her people.”

An alderwoman from south St. Louis is taking a second crack at the mayor’s office.

“I believe in St. Louis - but we have a lot of work to do,” 8th Ward Alderwoman Cara Spencer wrote in a Facebook post announcing her candidacy on Thursday. “Our city isn’t meeting the needs of her people.”