Professionals Demand Diverse Hiring in Ballwin

The Ballwin Board of Aldermen was criticized this week for not actively seeking minority job candidates for the city’s prosecutor vacancy, which led a former St. Louis City Circuit Clerk to throw her hat in the ring for the job.

Mavis Thompson, who served as the county circuit clerk for six years beginning in 1994 and now works as an attorney throughout St. Louis, said the surrounding area has a large and rich variety of lawyers.

“And looking at the judicial system, it is one that should reflect not only that diversity, but also the face of Ballwin.”

Thompson’s comments came just days after U.S. Census data reported significant growth among Ballwin’s minority population. The report said Ballwin’s Asian community grew from 1,022 in 2000 to 1,704 in 2010, marking a 67 percent increase. The black population in Ballwin also increased, from 468 to 748.

“A lot of time people say that they can’t find qualified candidates of color ... and to that end, I submit my résumé as a qualified candidate and person of color," Thompson said at this week’s board of aldermen meeting, which prompted an unusual mix of laughter and applause.

In addition to Thompson and about a dozen other candidates, Mayor Tim Pogue is reviewing applications for a prosecutor nominee for the council to confirm. Although the city approved the interim appointment of Ballwin attorney David Porta, some members were leery to confirm him in light of separate , the city’s last two prosecuting attorneys.

James J. Robinson is a lawyer with an office in Chesterfield, and a former Ballwin alderman elected in 1999.

He said that when the city had an opening that year for a municipal judge, the board made a commitment to “be proactive in our efforts to attract minority (job) candidates.”

That meant contacting various professional groups, including minority bar associations, to ensure that potential minority applicants would know about the opening, Young said.

This time, board members instead relied on what Robinson referred to as the “old boy” network to seek applicants. He knows the city isn’t practicing racism “by design,” he said, wherein minorities actively are discriminated against.

“But what we recognize on the board is that there may be racism by practice – practice that is exclusionary. Practice without intentions, that these minority candidates not be contacted (and) that these key positions all be filled by white individuals,” said Robinson, who identified himself before the board as Asian American.

After aldermen expressed concern last month about hiring the city's interim prosecuting attorney, Alderman Richard Boerner drafted a procedural outline presented Monday wherein Pogue is likely to nominate multiple applicants. The board will then interview the candidates and make its recommendation.

Pogue said the city’s main goal still will be to hire the most qualified candidate possible, which means municipal prosecution experience will be the No. 1 sought characteristic, he said.

The hiring process will be comparable to what was followed for the appointments of former Municipal Judge Kathryn M. Koch in 2007, as well as the city’s current attorney Bob Jones, Pogue said.

“So we’ll be following a somewhat similar procedure for (the prosecuting attorney hire),” said Pogue, who was elected mayor in 2009 after serving as an alderman.

Resident and former Ballwin Mayor Walt Young, who served from 2005 until 2009, said appoints like the one made for Koch were solely based on qualifications.

“We didn’t look at whether they were green, white, purple (or) what they were,” Young told the council. “We looked at them as a candidate, and for you to do anything differently would be wrong. You take the best person no matter what (race) they are.

“I know you take the time to look at the best candidate, and I have no doubt in my mind that that’s what you’re doing,” Young said.

Boerner’s revised proposal for mayoral appointment procedure is expected to be presented at the board’s 7 p.m. meeting at the on Monday, March 14. The rules also could apply to municipal department heads, in addition to city attorneys and judges.

Editor's Note: This article last was updated at 1:10 p.m. A previous version of the article incorrectly identified Thompson's last elected office.