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ST. LOUIS — An unprecedented disciplinary hearing over the city personnel director’s use of a city car was delayed first by snow Monday and then impassioned objections from her attorney Tuesday that the process was “farcical� and “a vindictive effort to destroy� her.

But by late Tuesday morning, a lawyer for the city finally began presenting evidence and questioning Personnel Director Sonya Jenkins-Gray in a public Civil Service Commission hearing that could lead to the first-ever mayoral firing of a city personnel director, a uniquely independent department head in City Hall.

The mayor’s office contends that Jenkins-Gray’s use of a city vehicle to drive to Jefferson City on July 3 for an undisclosed personal matter — while bringing a subordinate along — constitutes malfeasance, a prerequisite to firing the director of personnel. Jenkins-Gray insists the vehicle policy violation is a trumped-up charge Mayor Tishaura O. Jones is using to oust her in retaliation for her refusal to comply with mayoral directives on hiring and the political activities of her husband, the Rev. Darryl Gray, a prominent local activist.

The charges against the director must be heard in a public hearing, per the city’s charter. Jones is the first mayor to use the process to try and oust a personnel director, even though Jones chose Jenkins-Gray to lead the department in 2022, a hire many mayors do not get to make.

Jenkins-Gray has already sued to try and stop the public hearing, but a judge last week allowed it to begin this week. After the snow cancelled most City Hall business Monday, her lawyer, Ron Norwood of Lewis Rice, spent over an hour Tuesday morning poking holes in the process, alleging proper notice hadn’t been given, arguing the commission couldn’t use a hearing officer and questioning the commission-approved rules governing the hearing. That officer, retired judge Edward Sweeney, grew visibly exasperated with Norwood’s arguments and refusal to allow the city’s attorney to speak at points. He said Norwood was being “discourteous� and asked that he not interrupt him.

Norwood suggested he was willing to be escorted out by security if need be and at one point held up a plastic bag with $170 and change in it, the amount Jenkins-Gray reimbursed the city in mileage for the use of the city car on her July 3 trip, declaring that “this is why we’re here.�

“I am fighting for a civil service system that is under attack by the mayor,� Norwood said.

Reggie Harris, an attorney with law firm Stinson hired by the city, pushed the commission to begin accepting evidence, calling Norwood’s arguments “clear attempts� to delay the hearing by “filibustering.�

By the afternoon, Harris finally began presenting the case, which centered around Jenkins-Gray’s July 3 trip to Jefferson City with her chief administrative officer in the department, Anthony Byrd.

Jenkins-Gray has said she did not realize it was a violation to take the car to Jefferson City, and when she did, she promptly reimbursed the city for mileage. She needed to go to Jefferson City to retrieve “personal� papers from her car, she said, which her husband had taken there. She said she would not share publicly what was contained in the documents.

As Harris began asking about what her personal business was in Jefferson City, Norwood objected, saying the city was trying to engage in “character assassination.�

“To allow this probing into something that has zero relevancy is shocking,� Norwood said.

Sweeney, the hearing officer, concurred, and limited the questioning into the personal nature of the trip.

Still, Harris was able to get Jenkins-Gray to testify that she was upset on the drive back to ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ and called both her daughter and her father. After returning from Jefferson City, Byrd took her to Hollywood Casino in Maryland Heights to retrieve a key from her car parked there. And then Byrd took her to one of her friend’s homes for the night.

The questions were relevant, Harris contended, because it showed that Jenkins-Gray “put her own employee in certain uncomfortable situations.�

The commission will make a recommendation to the mayor on whether Jenkins-Gray should be fired. The hearing is expected to continue at a later date.