New City Police Board Awash In Scandal — And It Hasn’t Even Met
The conflict of interest. The racial insults. The fired official turned litigant as commissioner. No questions for new members. Great start.
The city has its new Police Board and it’s exactly what the people wanted.
Unfortunately, that would be the people of Jefferson City—more specifically, its politicians—and, most assuredly, not the people of St. Louis. Especially those who don’t mirror the image of the nearly all-white political class in the state capitol.
Gov. Mike Kehoe announced his appointment of five members to join Mayor Cara Spencer as the new governing body of the city’s perpetually beleaguered Police Department. The new board was proscribed over the objections of city leaders last year, reversing 11 years of local control made possible in 2012.
As might be expected from one of the nation’s most inept state governments, this latest exercise in political hubris is scandalous in all directions:
It’s a master class in impropriety, featuring a major conflict of interest so egregious as to rate as unprecedented and perhaps historic.
It’s by design offensive to the city’s Black community, which remains roughly the same size in population to its white counterpart.
It stars an appointee who was fired by as a key city official amid a bitter controversy and is presently suing the city whose police she’ll now help oversee.
It set a world record —at least tied one—for violating basic transparency by announcing that the new police commissioners would expressly be unavailable for public comment at their unveiling as public officials.
The Police Board could not be off to a worse start.
Here are the members joining Spencer who, like most city officials, opposed creation of the board:
Sonya Jenkins-Gray – Fired former City Personnel Director, now suing the city; voting member with a 2-year term.
Don Brown – Owner of Don Brown Chevrolet and high-visibility TV figure; non-voting member with a 4-year term.
Edward McVey – Restaurateur (Maggie O’Brien’s); voting member with a 3-year term.
Chris Saracino – Hospitality group owner and security co-founder; voting member with a 4-year term.
Brad Arteaga – Media entrepreneur (Arteaga Photos Ltd., BAKM LLC, Arteaga LLC); voting member with a 1-year term.
Here’s just some of what’s wrong with this picture.
The Conflict of Interest
Brown’s appointment doesn’t carry the appearance of a conflict of interest—it blows the doors off of it. His company has done $5 million in business in just the past three years with the department he’ll be overseeing as a board member.
Excuse me? The largest vendor of the police department for its cars and vehicle service is going to double as one of the folks overseeing the department? I’m going to guess this vendor-as-board member gig is without precedent, anywhere.
Brown’s non-voting status could not be less relevant. Non-voting members still sit in closed meetings, receive privileged information, and — most importantly — have the ability to shape discussions, maintain close ties to the police chief and influence outcomes. Not to mention the chilling effect his board presence might have on anyone in the department having any issue related to the work of his company.
By no means does Brown’s presence on the board violate law and there’s no implied misconduct on his part. But the vendor-as-board member arrangement is beyond unseemly.
Here’s an idea: Brown could end any controversy by announcing that his dealership will no longer sell or service police vehicles during his tenure on the board. Good luck with that.
The Racial Insensitivity
The city Police Board will not look like the city as a whole, which is a design feature not a bug. It has long been a 50/50 city as the relative size of its Black and white populations—very much unlike the U.S. population at large.
Bottom line: The board will be comprised of five whites and one Black. Here’s another bottom line: If that were reversed, had Kehoe appointed five Black people to join Spencer, well, let’s not dwell on absurd hypotheticals.
Race matters more in the arenas of crime and policing than in any other part of our culture. You can like that or not like it, but it’s as real as it gets.
The three white men appointed by Kehoe—McVey, Saracino and Arteaga—are each solid choices as respected local businessmen with great reputations and experience suited to the task at hand. There’s just one too many white guys for a board this size.
As to Jenkins-Gray, it is a gross understatement to suggest hers was not a popular selection in the Black community. It’s obvious that one of her attributes was her infamous conflict with former Mayor Tishaura Jones, who hired her in 2022 and fired her in 2025. Jones was an outspoken Kehoe critic.
Remember that line, “my enemy’s enemy is my friend?”
The Fired Official Turned Litigant
It doesn’t rise to the level of Brown’s bizarre placement on the board, but Jenkins-Gray’s appointment does raise an age-old question:
“Hey, Mike. Couldn’t you find someone who isn’t suing the city to serve on its Police Board?
'
Okay, maybe that’s not age-old. But the litigant-as-board member thing is lousy, too.
Especially in light of the reasons for Jenkins-Gray’s firing that are in turn the reason for her lawsuit. Her less-than-three-year tenure as city personnel director hardly commends her for a vital seat on one of the city’s most important positions.
The most explosive allegation was that in July 2024, Jenkins‑Gray used a city-owned car—driven by a subordinate—to travel to Jefferson City under questionable pretexts. The city claimed it was unauthorized and constituted malfeasance; Jenkins‑Gray countered she was unaware of policy restrictions and reimbursed the city $170.
The allegations were salacious, but that’s beside the point. This was not “stepping stone to a seat on the Police Board” conduct. Not even a little bit.
There were also whistleblower complaints claiming Jenkins‑Gray had abused her authority to manipulate hiring decisions and wage increases, bypassing civil service rules. And testimony during her Civil Service Commission hearing that she had fostered workplace dysfunction.
Disqualifying for a Police Board appointment? How about we say, “not qualifying?”
Transparency Is Off the Table. And Don’t You Dare Ask the Commissioners Why
This one’s almost as brief as any reporter’s question-and-answer session with any of the commissioners at the freaking news conference introducing them to the public as commissioners.
The news media was advised in advance that there could be no questions addressed to the commissioner at—yes, it bears repeating—the freaking news conference introducing them to the public as commissioners. (I’m told the instructions were translated from the original Russian.)
Why of course. It’s none of the public’s business to know unscripted things from the public officials serving on the public Police Board. Such an invasion of privacy.
I believe Kehoe used the word “transparency” more than once Wednesday. That’s funny, in a sad way.
So’s the entire debut of his new Police Board.
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