As an original petitioner of the Take Back St. Louis ballot initiative, it’s only with morbid curiosity that I’m willing to be lectured by a Peabody executive about democracy (“Development, not democracy, at stake,” June 19). But you must remember; Mary Frontczak is an authority on the three branches of government. After all, her company extends its buying power in the legislative branch with $51 million in D.C. lobbying, and the executive branch with $40,000 each to Mayor Slay and Gov. Nixon. Peabody has also spent plenty of time exploring the judicial branch while fighting charges of racketeering, safety and equal opportunity violations, and a huge settlement in a clean coal contamination case.
Ms. Frontczak went as far as to call the state legislature’s intrusion into St. Louis City politics “democracy at its finest” and applauded the mayor’s work with out-of-town representatives to limit the powers of his own constituency. Predictably, she even made an argument to “save the jobs.” I wonder if the disabled miners share her view that the more than $100 million she extracted from their healthcare is being put to worthwhile use with a satisfactory purchase of influence here in Missouri.
Peabody Energy might be able to buy expensive favors from local politicians or render the services of big tobacco PR firms, but their recent performance in the stock market would suggest that more than just our handful of 22,000 petition signers have their doubts about investing in dirty coal.
David Scott • St. Louis
response to:
St. Louis is slowly reversing decades of urban decay thanks to smart public policies, and our leaders are committed to preserving this progress. So, when a judge ruled against a deeply flawed initiative petition to restrict economic development, the Legislature and mayor’s office quickly moved to block it. As the St. Louis mayor’s chief of staff noted, the overly broad petition threatened to sweep up dozens of businesses — large and small — in its net. It was “an anarchist’s dream” that would “drive jobs out of the city and hurt the delivery of vital public services.”
Predictably, a handful of activists protested this decision, casting themselves as defenders of democracy. It must be terribly inconvenient that all three branches of government — judicial, legislative and executive — disagree. Of course, the group and its Boston-based lawyers say they speak for the people of the city of St Louis. And what do these self-appointed representatives say we want?
The premise of their petition is to make St. Louis more sustainable — an attractive idea. Unfortunately, the St. Louisans who signed the petition probably didn’t read the fine print. The document is so badly crafted it could drive practically every business of any size out of our city by targeting any company that relies on “extraction” — fossil fuels, natural gas, coal, oil, nuclear or radioactive materials — and any organization that does at least $1 million worth of business annually with these companies. As the judge noted in one ruling, “The city is barred from granting a wide range of economic benefits — even if not basic services — to airlines, railroads, public utilities, law firms, automobile manufacturers, and a host of other enterprises.” If you are a charity, professional firm, or even own a fleet of delivery vehicles, St. Louis suddenly would become a very bad place to do business.
No wonder the petition was found to violate the Missouri constitution.
We all have a stake in keeping our city competitive, so a nonpartisan coalition of officials, private citizens and companies formed to sound the alarm, including my company, Peabody Energy. Ironically, while Peabody has been portrayed as the petition’s chief target, we are among the least affected. Our modest incentive was received years ago; since then, we’ve repaid these monies many times over in taxes alone. Many small and mid-sized companies are at greater risk. Did the professional protesters who cooked this up care about the enormous human costs of this initiative petition? Apparently not. As Steve Johnson of the St. Louis Regional Chamber noted, “The harm that this proposed amendment would do to job creation would be immense, long-lasting and damaging to employers in every part of our community.”
The debate over this initiative petition isn’t about democracy; it’s about indifference. A tiny protest group attempted to shut down a whole segment of our local economy to further its own narrow agenda. Here in St. Louis, we are lucky to have leaders willing to take a tough stand to save jobs.
If you ask me, this is democracy at its finest.
Mary Frontczak is Peabody Energy senior vice president and general counsel-Americas.
Ms. Frontczak went as far as to call the state legislature’s intrusion into St. Louis City politics “democracy at its finest” and applauded the mayor’s work with out-of-town representatives to limit the powers of his own constituency. Predictably, she even made an argument to “save the jobs.” I wonder if the disabled miners share her view that the more than $100 million she extracted from their healthcare is being put to worthwhile use with a satisfactory purchase of influence here in Missouri.
Peabody Energy might be able to buy expensive favors from local politicians or render the services of big tobacco PR firms, but their recent performance in the stock market would suggest that more than just our handful of 22,000 petition signers have their doubts about investing in dirty coal.
David Scott • St. Louis
response to:
St. Louis is slowly reversing decades of urban decay thanks to smart public policies, and our leaders are committed to preserving this progress. So, when a judge ruled against a deeply flawed initiative petition to restrict economic development, the Legislature and mayor’s office quickly moved to block it. As the St. Louis mayor’s chief of staff noted, the overly broad petition threatened to sweep up dozens of businesses — large and small — in its net. It was “an anarchist’s dream” that would “drive jobs out of the city and hurt the delivery of vital public services.”
Predictably, a handful of activists protested this decision, casting themselves as defenders of democracy. It must be terribly inconvenient that all three branches of government — judicial, legislative and executive — disagree. Of course, the group and its Boston-based lawyers say they speak for the people of the city of St Louis. And what do these self-appointed representatives say we want?
The premise of their petition is to make St. Louis more sustainable — an attractive idea. Unfortunately, the St. Louisans who signed the petition probably didn’t read the fine print. The document is so badly crafted it could drive practically every business of any size out of our city by targeting any company that relies on “extraction” — fossil fuels, natural gas, coal, oil, nuclear or radioactive materials — and any organization that does at least $1 million worth of business annually with these companies. As the judge noted in one ruling, “The city is barred from granting a wide range of economic benefits — even if not basic services — to airlines, railroads, public utilities, law firms, automobile manufacturers, and a host of other enterprises.” If you are a charity, professional firm, or even own a fleet of delivery vehicles, St. Louis suddenly would become a very bad place to do business.
No wonder the petition was found to violate the Missouri constitution.
We all have a stake in keeping our city competitive, so a nonpartisan coalition of officials, private citizens and companies formed to sound the alarm, including my company, Peabody Energy. Ironically, while Peabody has been portrayed as the petition’s chief target, we are among the least affected. Our modest incentive was received years ago; since then, we’ve repaid these monies many times over in taxes alone. Many small and mid-sized companies are at greater risk. Did the professional protesters who cooked this up care about the enormous human costs of this initiative petition? Apparently not. As Steve Johnson of the St. Louis Regional Chamber noted, “The harm that this proposed amendment would do to job creation would be immense, long-lasting and damaging to employers in every part of our community.”
The debate over this initiative petition isn’t about democracy; it’s about indifference. A tiny protest group attempted to shut down a whole segment of our local economy to further its own narrow agenda. Here in St. Louis, we are lucky to have leaders willing to take a tough stand to save jobs.
If you ask me, this is democracy at its finest.
Mary Frontczak is Peabody Energy senior vice president and general counsel-Americas.
