ST. LOUIS 鈥 On the eve of two key city board meetings, top officials continued to battle Thursday over whether all of the Board of Aldermen鈥檚 $168 million pandemic aid package meets federal guidelines.
Mayor Tishaura O. Jones, who says $33 million allocated to spur business development along four major northside streets wouldn鈥檛 pass legal muster, asked Aldermanic President Lewis Reed Thursday afternoon to meet one-on-one to discuss the issue further.
Reed, who insists that the allocation would be allowed, at 4:20 p.m. issued a news release saying he would meet the mayor via teleconference on the matter.
Instead, Reed had his legislative director, Mary Goodman, represent him in the 6 p.m. meeting.
Both sides said nothing was resolved in the session, in which Jones and two top aides took part.
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鈥淭hey shared their concerns and we鈥檙e reviewing their concerns,鈥 Goodman said.
Jones鈥 spokesman, Nick Dunne, said the mayor鈥檚 position remained unchanged.
Dunne also again declined to say how Jones would vote on the bill Friday morning at a meeting of the city鈥檚 top fiscal body, the three-member Board of Estimate and Apportionment.
鈥淲e want to get this passed as soon as possible but we also don鈥檛 want to be under fire from the feds,鈥 Dunne said.
Comptroller Darlene Green, another estimate board member, also has yet to say how she would vote. Green has sided with Jones over Reed on some key budget decisions since Jones became mayor in April.
Goodman said Reed, the third member of the estimate board, didn鈥檛 take part in the teleconference call with the mayor Thursday night because he decided that doing so would violate the state open meetings law.
Goodman said because Reed and Jones make up a quorum of the three-member board, a joint talk between the two would constitute a board meeting on an item that鈥檚 already on the agenda for Friday鈥檚 scheduled meeting.
Dunne, Jones鈥 spokesman, didn鈥檛 comment.
Aldermen on Tuesday night gave first-round approval to the $168 million bill, which includes most of the $81.4 million in spending requested by the mayor but also significant additional allocations added by Reed, the sponsor.
The full board tacked on still more items in Tuesday鈥檚 10-hour debate.
The spending bill needs approval by both boards to become law. If the estimate board endorses the legislation at its 9 a.m. meeting Friday, the Board of Aldermen is expected to give it final passage at its regular weekly session that starts at 10.
If the estimate board rejects the plan, Reed says the package could be stalled until aldermen return in September from a two-month summer break that begins after Friday鈥檚 meeting.
The board, however, also could be called back earlier if a compromise is reached before its scheduled return.
Jones and Reed have both said they want the bill passed as soon as possible so the money can be used quickly to help people hurt by the pandemic.
Among other things, the bill provides money to help residents cover rent, mortgage payments, utility bills and property taxes.
Money also is allocated to help fund home repairs, neighborhood violence prevention programs, help for the homeless and efforts to step up the pace of COVID-19 vaccinations in the city.