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Politically Speaking: St. Louis County Executive Stenger reviews his first two years

St. Louis Public Radio | By Jo Mannies,
Jason Rosenbaum
Published March 21, 2017 at 5:36 PM CDT
Carolina Hidalgo | St. Louis Public Radio

Our latest edition of the Politically Speaking podcast features St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger, who’s making his first appearance since taking office more than two years ago.

Stenger had joined St. Louis Public Radio’s Jason Rosenbaum and Jo Mannies in 2014, when he was a candidate against then-Executive Charlie Dooley.  Stenger ousted Dooley in a combative Democratic primary, and narrowly won a general election contest against Republican Rick Stream.

 

Stenger is a native of south St. Louis and nearby south county, working his way through law school as a singer in a rock band.  He’s also a certified public accountant and served on the County Council for six years before moving up to the county’s top post.

Stenger is now putting his political clout on the line as he campaigns for Proposition P, a county measure on the April 4 ballot that seeks a half-cent sales tax increase. The $80 million a year raised would be designated for county police and public safety, with just over half earmarked for the countywide force and the rest for the various municipal police departments.

Among his observations on the show:

  • Stenger says establishing a prescription drug monitoring program has been a major success story of his administration. A number of other counties and cities, including St. Louis, have joined the database — which Stenger says could stop someone from “doctor shopping” for prescription drugs.

  • If the state legislature doesn’t act, Stenger expects more local governments to join the database. "In the event that the state does not come forward with a solution, which has been years in the making, we very well may have a PDMP that covers the entire state," he said.

  • He expects to have a good working relationship with Lyda Krewson, a Democrat who won her party’s nomination for St. Louis mayor. Stenger attended Krewson’s election night watch party earlier this month, saying, “I thought it was important to get up on that stage to show that we’re have unity.”.

  • Stenger says he may work closely with Krewson on a number of big-ticket projects, including a potentially expensive overhaul of St. Louis’ convention center. “It’s in extremely early stages right now,” he said. “What exactly the rehabilitation is going to call for, I don’t think it’s been exactly determined yet.”

  • He said he plans to run for re-election in 2018. Stenger has more than a $1 million in his campaign account.

 
Follow Jason Rosenbaum on Twitter: @jrosenbaum

 

Follow Jo Mannies on Twitter: @jmannies

 

Follow Steve Stenger on Twitter: @SteveStenger

 

Music: “Cranes in the Sky” by Solange

 

Copyright 2021 St. Louis Public Radio. To see more, visit St. Louis Public Radio.

Missouri News
Jo Mannies
Jo Mannies has been covering Missouri politics and government for almost four decades, much of that time as a reporter and columnist at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. She was the first woman to cover St. Louis City Hall, was the newspaper’s second woman sportswriter in its history, and spent four years in the Post-Dispatch Washington Bureau. She joined the St. Louis Beacon in 2009. She has won several local, regional and national awards, and has covered every president since Jimmy Carter. She scared fellow first-graders in the late 1950s when she showed them how close Alaska was to Russia and met Richard M. Nixon when she was in high school. She graduated from Valparaiso University in northwest Indiana, and was the daughter of a high school basketball coach. She is married and has two grown children, both lawyers. She’s a history and movie buff, cultivates a massive flower garden, and bakes banana bread regularly for her colleagues.
See stories by Jo Mannies
Jason Rosenbaum
Since entering the world of professional journalism in 2006, Jason Rosenbaum dove head first into the world of politics, policy and even rock and roll music. A graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, Rosenbaum spent more than four years in the Missouri State Capitol writing for the Columbia Daily Tribune, Missouri Lawyers Media and the St. Louis Beacon.
See stories by Jason Rosenbaum