St. Louis Charter Commission Ousts Controversial Chair

One week after the RFT broke news about infighting within the nine-person group tasked with re-imagining the charter for the City of St. Louis, the chairwoman of the group was removed from her position after a vote of no confidence by the other members. 

Last week, the RFT reported that five members of the Charter Commission had sent Chairwoman Jazzmine Nolan-Echols an email calling on her to apologize for comments she made during an April meeting to Christine Ingrassia, director of operations for the St. Louis Board of Aldermen and a non-voting member of the Charter Commission.

At yesterday's meeting, the chair’s removal was begun by commission member Travis Sheridan, who initially called on Nolan-Echols to resign.

"What was exhibited at the April meeting, the public meeting, was unacceptable," said Sheridan. "We're getting close to the end of our tenure on this commission, but I do think it's time for a leadership change."

Nolan-Echols refused to resign. The other commissioners then quickly passed a vote of no confidence and voted to remove Nolan-Echols from her position as chair. 

Briana Bobo, who had been the secretary for the commission, was elected to take her place. 

The Charter Commission, the creation of which was approved by voters in April 2023, has been given the responsibility of updating the city's century-old charter. The document outlines how government gets done in the city, but because it is over 100 years old, some of its language and many of its provisions are antiquated — including ordinances related to horse-shoers. It also sets up a complicated system of city government with a weak executive and a bureaucracy that Charter Commission members themselves say involves "too many people [who] have too many bosses.”

The Charter Commission was put together to update language as well as to streamline government. The proposals they put forth will be voted on in the November election. 

However, in recent months, Nolan-Echols increasingly came under fire from other members, who criticized her proposal to employ a California-based, Republican lobbying firm as well as communication she sent to staff that one member deemed “inappropriate and disrespectful."

Then, at the end of last month's public meeting, Nolan-Echols reacted angrily after Ingrassia noted that a recent speaker, the Reverend Darryl Gray, is married to the city’s personnel director. She accused Ingrassia of ignoring “the conflict of interest and biases that you may have as part of this process, as it relates to your past cases in running and actively participating in the death of a Black girl in your neighborhood.” 

Ingrassia is being sued over a 2014 car crash that resulted in the death of a 15-year-old old.

That first spurred commission members Anna Crosslin, Chris Grant, Scott Intagliata, Anthony Riley and Travis Sheridan to send Nolan-Echols a letter calling on her to apologize, followed by the commission’s vote of removal last night.

For her part, Nolan-Echols has sent Attorney General Andrew Bailey a letter asking his office to take action against those five members for alleged Sunshine Law violations. Nolan-Echols is calling on those five members to be removed from the commission and fined. 

She also sent a separate letter to Bailey asking that he take action specifically against Ingrassia as well. 

(You can read the lengthy letters in full below.) 

The business of replacing Nolan-Echols took up the first 15 minutes of yesterday's meeting.

Immediately afterwards, the group heard from Jumaane Williams, who serves as New York City's public advocate, a position the commission has talked about proposing be set up in St. Louis too. 

"Obviously there's some stuff going on that we're not privy to. It's just interesting to know New York City is not the only one going through some internal political stuff," Williams said. "That's some comfort. I might recommend, in the future, others get invited a little bit after some of the stuff that needs to be taken care of."

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St. Louis Charter Commission's Work Marred by Infighting: Jazzmine Nolan-Echols called out a former alderwoman for a fatal car crash, but members weren't having it