[imc-st.louis] St. Louis City To Be Audited

[Fitzdon at aol.com]

Gateway Green Alliance/Green Party of St. Louis
P.O. Box 8094, St. Louis MO  63156
314-727-8554  E-mail: fitzdon at aol.com  www.gateway-greens.org

For immediate release: September 27, 2007

Contact: Don Fitz, 314-727-8554; Daniel Romano, 771-8576

Issues now go beyond lead poisoning

St. Louis City To Be Audited

September 27, 2007. St. Louis, Missouri.  According to Missouri State Auditor 
Susan Montee, CPA, there WILL be an audit of the City of St. Louis.  State 
law requires that a citizens' petition for a municipal audit have enough valid 
signatures to equal 5% of those who voted for governor in the most recent 
election.  For St. Louis, that would be 7,192 signatures.  Montee's office counted 
10,842 signatures that were turned in and determined that 7,715 were valid.  A 
press conference announcing the successful petition effort will be at: 

11:00 am, Thursday, September 27, 2007, St. Louis City Hall, Tucker entrance

Members of the Green Party of St. Louis began collecting signatures in late 
2006, when they reported that the City had not given full disclosure of where 
childhood lead poisoning prevention money was being spent.

"The issue has now gone far beyond lead poisoning dollars," says chief 
petitioner Daniel Romano.  Along with other City residents Susie Parker, Percy Green 
II, Cris Mann, and Jerry S. McCaleb, Romano signed the July 25 letter 
submitting the petitions that requested an audit.

"In addition to lead remediation work in homes, we are asking the auditor to 
investigate how much is being spent removing lead from public schools," Romano 
adds.  "We would also like to know how federal grant money allocated to build 
a recreation center on 12th Street near Peabody School was used, since the 
center never went up."

Susie Parker is Outreach Coordinator for the Green Party and collected 
several hundred signatures herself.  She is concerned that block grants were made so 
that businesses would create jobs for low income citizens.  "But I don't see 
the jobs that were created from those grants," Parker observes.  "I want the 
auditor to tell us where the grant money went, how many jobs were created, and 
how much people earned on the jobs.  And we need to know how much money was 
spent in each ward so we can know if all areas of the City benefited."

Both Romano and Parker want the audit to shed light on people who have lost 
their homes through eminent domain. "We've heard that HUD grant money should 
have been used to repair homes that were later blighted and taken from their 
owners," charges Romano.  "We want the audit to tell us how much HUD money was 
supposed to be spent for repair and how much was actually spent."

Parker added, "And we need the HUD grant expenditures broken down by ward.  
Are all areas of the City being treated the same?"

The Greens say that the audit should begin with a specification of sources 
and expenditures of all Departments, Divisions and Commissions of the City of 
St. Louis, all "County" offices (i.e., Sheriff, License Collector), the Police 
and Fire Departments and the airport.

In late October, Romano, Parker and several other petitioners will meet with 
Thomas Kremer, CPA, Director of Local Government Audits for the State 
Auditor's office.  They will indicate their interests for issues to be addressed by 
the audit.  Residents with suggestions for what the audit should examine can 
e-mail fitzdon at aol.com or call 314-727-8554.  Tips may be left anonymously.

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