St. Louis Comptroller Donna Baringer says the devastating May 16 tornado should spark more discussions about regional cooperation.
"Anyone under 40 right now that comes into St. Louis says: 'What is wrong with you people? Why are you so separated?'" Baringer said. "And I tell everyone, that is why we're having an issue."
If St. Louis were part of St. Louis County, similar to how most of Kansas City is in Jackson County, it would not only be possible to have a larger tax base for expenses like an emergency management system – but also be eligible for other types of money, Baringer said Friday on the Politically Speaking Hour on St. Louis on the Air.
"We would start qualifying for hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funds, because that money is based on our population," Baringer said. "And right now, the county alone and the city alone do not qualify for all the money."
Modernizing the comptroller's office
St. Louis went through a major political and governmental transition last year when Baringer's election ended Darlene Green's 30-year tenure as city comptroller.
Baringer said she's overhauled the office that's responsible for the city's finances. That includes, she said, implementing technology to make quicker decisions.
"There were people that were used to the way things were," Baringer said. "And I came in and I wanted to update us, especially via technology. So I was paperless. And that was kind of difficult for some people at first, because they were used to printing emails."
Baringer said embracing technology especially helped during last year's tornado. She said she was able to quickly sign off on some emergency contracts – even in the early morning hours.
"So when we had the emergency contracts that needed to move the trees, do this at 2 o'clock in the morning, they could send it to me and I could DocuSign it. So it was immediate," said Baringer, referring to an electronic signature system.
Baringer said one of the challenges of recovering from the tornado is wading through complicated insurance situations and figuring out who owns the damaged property. She said there are some situations in which there are multiple generations living in a house but the owner of the property is deceased, which often requires courts to get involved.
She also said the speed of the Federal Emergency Management Agency can be frustrating for residents and governmental officials.
"FEMA goes slow as molasses, but you have to have everything correct," Baringer said. "So I had accountants that did not take overtime but worked nights and weekends after that happened when everything was coming in. They were reviewing it to make sure it fell within the guidelines. Made sure we were tracking it."
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