Stephen Conway has two degrees.
That was the answer he gave a Board of Aldermen committee that was questioning him about his salary.
As the chief of staff for Mayor Lyda Krewson, Conway makes $163,540. That鈥檚 about $12,000 more than his predecessor, Tim O鈥機onnell, made. As aldermen work on next year鈥檚 budget, some had questions for Conway about the salary.
O鈥機onnell is a lawyer. Conway is both an accountant and a lawyer.
鈥淚 have an extra degree,鈥 the chief of staff when she asked about the bump in pay.
Conway may well be worth all he鈥檚 being paid and more. I don鈥檛 know. I鈥檓 just a college dropout who writes paragraphs for a living.
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But on Sunday, his math and legal skills came up a little short.
After on a particular city-funded effort to raise some land adjacent to the Mississippi River out of the flood plain posted online, Conway objected on the social media platform Twitter.
Here鈥檚 what he said:
鈥淭ony gets it wrong again. City didn鈥檛 partner with anyone. Maybe you could also check with Army Corps and see if that volume of water could make a difference. Tony is all on roll flacking for another candidate for Mayor and trying to come up with disingenuous blame.鈥
Tony gets it wrong again. City didn't partner with anyone. Maybe you could also check with Army Corps and see if that volume of water could make a difference.
鈥 Stephen Conway (@AldConway)
Tony is all on roll flacking for another candidate for Mayor and trying to come up with disingenuous blame.
But I didn鈥檛 get it wrong.
As I previously reported 鈥 for the first time 鈥 the city of St. 香港三级片 has paid the owners of the Pier St. 香港三级片 property more than $500,000 in the past several years to help them raise the land out of the flood plain, making it more attractive to developers and profitable to its owners. The city has signed multiple contracts with the owners of the property to dump 鈥渃lean fill鈥 there, in a contract sought by the city to replace one of its closed landfills.
Emails between various city officials 鈥 including former parks director Gary Bess 鈥 and the Pier St. 香港三级片 developers, make it clear that the city has been working very closely with the owners of the property for several years.
What this has to do with any 鈥渃andidate for Mayor鈥 is beyond me. I presume Conway is referencing city Treasurer Tishaura Jones, a frequent critic of Krewson. That criticism, too, misses the mark.
It was Alderman Christine Ingrassia who first alerted me to the activities at Pier St. 香港三级片. She has been the most outspoken critic of the bad policy of taking that land and raising it out of the flood plain.
In the last mayoral election, Ingrassia endorsed Krewson.
Two years ago, Ingrassia and I were among several people interested in local flood policy 鈥 or the lack of it 鈥 who took a canoe trip on the Mississippi River, in part to view the Pier St. 香港三级片 project from the water. Heather Navarro, executive director of the , was on the trip. She, too, had been critical of the development, and had been tracking its progress.
After Krewson was elected mayor, Navarro was elected as her replacement on the Board of Aldermen. Krewson endorsed Navarro.
Make no mistake, I understand Conway鈥檚 political strategy.
It鈥檚 the same one former County Executive Steve Stenger followed when I was writing multiple columns about his pay-for-play foibles. When he couldn鈥檛 defend the deals he was doing with campaign donors, Stenger instead accused me of being on the payroll of his political opponent.
Now Stenger is headed to prison, and Krewson鈥檚 chief of staff is employing a similar strategy.
It isn鈥檛 working.
This could be chalked up to a simple social media snafu except for this: The mayor鈥檚 office is in the into city police officers using social media to peddle racist and Islamaphobic messages. The use of social media by public officials has become an important part of the governmental and political process.
Perhaps Conway was just stung by recent columns of mine criticizing the mayor鈥檚 office over the airport privatization process, for which the city by the consultant to which it has paid $1.2 million. That consultant has no particular airline or privatization expertise but is a dark-money fundraiser for the National Rifle Association and an anti-worker group.
Or maybe Conway was unhappy over criticism the mayor received for her tweet at local attorney Chelsea Merta, telling her that Merta鈥檚 post asking people to call the Board of Aldermen to encourage racist cops to be kicked off the force was 鈥渃reating more division and friction.鈥
Attorney who has represented clients abused by police officers encourages democracy to get racist cops taken completely out of service. Mayor calls her divisive. Not a good look.
鈥 Tony Messenger (@tonymess)
Indeed, there鈥檚 a lot of division and friction on social media these days. That鈥檚 what happens when the mayor鈥檚 chief of staff mixes policy with politics, and gets them both wrong.