The Gateway to the West Chapter of the American Political Items Collectors (APIC) will host a Jackie Kennedy expert at their quarterly meeting this Saturday. Steven Brawley runs the website pinkpillbox.com and will speak about the 1960 election and the first lady’s term in the White House.

The APIC will also be buying, selling and appraising political memorabilia.

The meeting will be this Saturday at 12:00PM at the Carpenters Union Hall on 1401 Hampton Avenue.

Robin Harris will officially announce his candidacy for the State House District 86 seat tomorrow night. The campaign kickoff and fundraiser will be held tomorrow at 7:00 pm at 1813 Loehr Estate Drive in Ballwin.

Harris, a retired Naval officer and current Northwest Airlines Captain has not run for public office before.

To RSVP or for more information, call (636) 519-7173

Another State House candidate, Deb Lavender of Kirkwood just launched her website, www.lavenderforstaterep.com.

The agenda for next Thursday’s State Board of Education meeting includes Derio Gambaro’s oath of office. Since he was sworn in once, but then withdrawn, he must be sworn in again to make him a member of the board.

This calls Rick Sullivan’s appointment into question since he was also withdrawn and reappointed, but to our knowledge he was not sworn in again. We are awaiting word on Sullivan’s status.

UPDATE: As of 5:00, SLPS Communications Official Deborah Sistrunk had not yet gotten back to us regarding Sullivan.

According to a news release, 30,729 students are currently enrolled in St. Louis Public Schools. On the first day of school this year, 22,793 students showed up for class.

Earlier this week it was announced that the Centene Corporation will move its headquarters from downtown Clayton to two the coming Ballpark Village in downtown St. Louis. But not everyone is happy about the arrangement.

Centene has promised 1,200 new jobs downtown in the next five years. In return, the city and state must fork over $78 million in tax incentives.

One group that has always been opposed to taxpayer funding of the Ballpark Village is the Coalition Against Public Funding for Stadiums. They say the Ballpark Village is part of the stadium and should not be built with taxpayer funds.

Fred Lindecke of the Coalition visited PubDef’s studio to talk about the issue.

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The membership of the St. Louis Police Officers Association has voted “no confidence” in the leadership of Chief Joe Mokwa. But despite the lack of support among his officers and numerous scandals — including $40,000 stolen from a police station vault — the mayor and Mokwa’s state-appointed bosses say they’re staying with their man.

“The fact that only 17 percent of the Police Department’s 1,859 employees said they do not have confidence in Chief Joe Mokwa is hardly an indicator of any widespread discontent with his tenure,” said the Mayor Francis Slay’s blog.

Of course, the mayor neglected to mention that the 48% turnout in the no-confidence poll was much higher than the 15% turnout in Slay’s own 2005 primary victory.

Chris Goodson, president of the Board of Police Commissioners, which is appointed by the governor, told KWMU that despite frustration over staffing and pay, Mokwa is doing a good job.

“Leadership is going to have popular and unpopular decisions that comes with the job, but what we want to know is are you making the right decisions to provide the best public safety for the workers and the citizens of St. Louis,” Goodson told KWMU.

But the citizens of the City of St. Louis, which once again has earned the title of “most dangerous” in America, have little say in the running of their police department. Unlike most cities, the mayor does not hire or fire the chief of police. In fact, the chief is only accountable to the the police board, which is appointed by the governor and approved by the senate, both located in Jefferson City.

The politics suggests the People have little control over the police. The crime statistics suggest the police have little control over the streets. And the mayor’s statement shows the opinion of rank-and-file cops can (and will) be disregarded as easily as the opinion of the people they protect and serve.

As reported earlier, the Green Party of St. Louis gathered enough signatures to request an audit of the city. They held a rally outside of City Hall today to make the announcement.

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Missouri Congressman Wm. Lacy Clay and the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) are asking the Justice Department to investigate possible civil rights violations in the case of the Jena 6. Clay and the CBC say the treatment of the case appears to be “An unbelievable example of the separate and unequal justice that was once commonplace in the Deep South.”

They have also asked the Governor of Louisiana to pardon one of the Jena 6, 16 year old Mychal Bell. Bell is currently being held without bail, awaiting trial as a juvenile. The Third Circuit Court of Louisiana previously ruled he was erroneously tried as an adult.

In their letter asking for Bell’s pardon, Clay and the CBC say the decision to refuse bail “Is harsh, to the point of being unconscionable.”

ST. LOUIS — 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@aol.com or call 314-727-8554. Tips may be left anonymously.

Those awaiting the outcome of the trial to decide control of St. Louis Public Schools will have to hang on for another six days. According to SLPS spokesperson Deborah Sistrunk, Judge Richard Callahan has said he does not expect to make a ruling until at least next Tuesday.