Issues

From day one, Sam’s administration has been committed to tackling gender and racial discrimination in government, and in St. Louis County at large.

Sam’s first Executive Order prohibited the County from asking job applicants about their salary history. Often, asking about salary history locks people into wage disparities, especially for minority and female applicants.

Within the first two weeks of his administration, Sam created a new position to focus on equity: the Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Sam is also creating the County’s first equity strategic plan. While he served on the County Council, Sam led the County Council to adopt the first minority participation program in public contracting, and fought to protect the County’s anti-discrimination programs.

Sam believes in collaboration between government and private investors, and attracting job creators to our region.

Working alongside the County Council, Sam has already started rebuilding the St. Louis Economic Development Partnership after years of corruption had left it inactive. With new direction, the Partnership will return to its original purpose - helping businesses and opportunities grow in Greater St. Louis.

Sam will continue to welcome investment in our region while working with organized labor so that we can keep growing good jobs in St. Louis County.

Representing St. Louis County as a State Representative and on the County Council, Sam has prioritized public safety and effective law enforcement strategies. He led the County Council’s recent actions to improve safety on Metrolink and fought to put Proposition P on the ballot to increase police officer pay. Sam supports mutual accountability between law enforcement and the general public, as well as measures that will help improve trust between police officers and communities, like the expanded use of body cameras by St. Louis County police officers.

With 25 years experience as a medical doctor, Sam has made public health one of this administration’s top priorities.

As a full-time doctor specializing in pain management, Sam saw firsthand the emerging opioid crisis and decided to do something about it. As a State Representative, he worked with providers, hospitals, and community groups to create substance abuse opportunities for the people who needed them.

As a County Council member, Sam introduced the St. Louis Prescription Drug Monitoring Program. That program has linked over 55 counties across Missouri into a statewide network that represents about eighty percent of the state’s population. In 2018 alone, five more counties joined the PDMP, bringing Missouri in line with other successful state programs.

And now as County Executive, Sam has continued his work on the issue by requiring doctors to report non-fatal opioid overdoses to the County Health Department, so they can determine what intervention strategies work best and how to best help those at risk.

Sam’s commitment to public health goes beyond his work on the opioid crisis. While serving on the County Council, Sam sponsored legislation to increase the age to purchase tobacco products to 21. In the County Executive’s office, he has fought for the health and safety of our region’s most vulnerable by defending public housing and emergency shelters. He continues to work toward eliminating preventable deaths at the St. Louis County Jail.

Before Sam became the County Executive, important infrastructure projects had been ignored for too long. In his first 100 days, Sam got to work on the roads and bridges that had fallen into disrepair.

He ordered long-overdue work on Clayton Road and Big Bend Boulevard, which had both disintegrated to a bone-jarring degree. His administration is currently obtaining the rights over five structurally deficient bridges, and more than a dozen other construction projects are in the works - most aimed at improving access and ensuring compliance with the ADA.

Much of the County’s affordable housing is in disrepair, creating unsafe living conditions. Sam is working with the County Housing Authority, Housing and Urban Development and private developers to improve them.

After years of corruption ending in an indictment of the former County Executive, there is much work to be done to rebuild people’s trust and restore integrity at every level of government.

Sam is committed to doing that. Within his first 100 days, he appointed Beth Orwick, a former prosecutor, as the new County Counselor to oversee past and current compliance with state open records laws. He also requested an audit of the office from State Auditor Nicole Galloway.

Even before he became County Executive, Sam focused on ethics and cooperation. While serving on the County Council, Sam saw that campaign donors and insiders appeared to have special access to County contracts and taxpayer dollars. Starting as a solo act, Sam built a broad, bipartisan coalition on the County Council that brought to light wide-ranging corruption in County government.

As County Council Chair, Sam created the Council’s first Ethics Committee. As a historic first, Sam appointed a Republican to chair that committee. Building on that bipartisan gesture, the Ethics Committee worked tirelessly to uncover the insider deals that ultimately resulted in federal investigations into the former County Executive.

Sam recognizes that, over the past five years, complicated policy issues that hold the St. Louis region back were ignored. To flourish, issues like equity, criminal justice reform, public safety and affordable housing have to be addressed.

Those issues do not stop at city boundaries or county lines. So, as part of the work to find solutions, it is important to find ways that St. Louis County and St. Louis City can have a more cooperative relationship. The Municipal League is leading that conversation through the Board of Freeholders process, a citizen-led board that will explore ways the City and County can work together, instead of the proposals of the Better Together group. The Freeholders recommendations have to be approved by St. Louis County voters. That’s the right way to do it.

The work of the St. Louis County Council is neither Democratic nor Republican. As a Democratic County Executive and a former Council member, Sam knows that nearly all of the issues that come before the Council aren't partisan, even if the approaches to solve them might vary by party. He also knows that the Council and County Executive cannot do their best for the people if they aren't working together.

Sam is committed to working with the elected representatives of each of the seven County Council districts, no matter what party they belong to, to make sure your government is working for you.

St. Louis is the largest metropolitan area in Missouri and the second largest in Illinois. Many of our region’s opportunities and challenges are here in the County – and best addressed by St. Louis County leadership working with our surrounding counties and cities. 

Sam believes that we must lead the region by example, by making sure you have easy access to good services and a government that's run honestly and transparently. And he believes that when County residents' taxes pay for most of the region’s transportation, tourism, and infrastructure, you should see the benefit of your investment.