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ST. LOUIS — While a recently concluded disciplinary hearing focused on the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ personnel director’s use of a city car, it also raised questions about her close aide and his extracurricular vehicular activities.

Anthony Byrd, the personnel department’s chief administrative officer, was the driver when Sonya Jenkins-Gray decided she needed to go to Jefferson City on July 3 — and he was a key witness during the hearings, which stretched over six weeks.

Byrd later told co-worker Biannca Lambert about the trip — and she eventually reported it to the mayor’s office, triggering the disciplinary action against Jenkins-Gray.

Disciplinary hearings against city employees are closed to the public, but the city’s charter makes an exception for the personnel director. A public hearing was seen as a potential check on a mayor who might attempt an unwarranted firing of the powerful department head who oversees hiring and promotions across the city bureaucracy.

While the city focused its case on Jenkins-Gray’s activities, her attorney also used the hearing to pry out details on possible vehicle rules violations by Byrd.

When Lambert was testifying last month, Ron Norwood, the director’s attorney, questioned her about an episode several years ago where Byrd may have been drunk while driving a city vehicle with Lambert as a passenger.

“You just talked about the fact that you told the director that you were in a vehicle with Anthony, in a city vehicle, where he was driving drunk, correct?� Norwood asked.

“I said that the worst thing that Anthony could do to me would be to report that, yes, I was in a vehicle with him while he was drunk and I was drunk,� Lambert responded.

Lambert mentioned the incident to Jenkins-Gray after the director warned Byrd had it out for her.

“She said that Anthony was going to come for me, and I said, that’s fine, ‘the worst thing that Anthony can do is say this,’� Lambert said. “I can’t testify to what happened that night. I was drunk. I couldn’t take my own property home. The only person who knows truly what happened would be Anthony.�

Lambert said the two co-workers had been closer friends about five years ago. On the night in question, she said she was “blackout drunk� and got in the car with Byrd because he was someone she “felt could drive.�

It’s unclear when the event happened exactly. Byrd declined to comment and referred a reporter to his attorney, Brendan Roediger. Roediger did not return requests for comment.

Though Byrd was present during several days of the hearing, he did not testify in person. Instead, an edited video deposition of Byrd taken before the hearings was used to relay his version of events. It’s unclear why neither side called him as a witness.

Byrd was hired by the city in 2017 and worked in the personnel department and then at ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Lambert International Airport before he transferred back to personnel in mid 2023, after Jenkins-Gray had been in her new position for about eight months. During testimony, Jenkins-Gray described Byrd as her “right arm.â€�

And when she wanted a car for her trip to Jefferson City — her husband, the Rev. Darryl Gray, had borrowed her car to drive to the capital — she asked Byrd to handle it.

“I trusted and believed that he could get a car because Anthony always drove city cars,� Jenkins-Gray testified in early January.

Jenkins-Gray’s lawyer also homed in on a discrepancy on the mileage log for the vehicle when Byrd returned it after the July 4 holiday.

“And he drove an extra 488 miles between the time he took it out beyond the 230 miles to Jeff City, another 488 miles, which would suggest he may have traveled somewhere, right?� Norwood asked Jared Boyd, the mayor’s chief of staff who conducted the investigation into Jenkins-Gray.

Boyd replied that it “did appear longer than a trip to Jefferson City.�

Norwood asked why Byrd hadn’t been investigated for the large number of extra miles driven on the city car.

“I am not Dr. Byrd’s appointing authority, and he thwarted several attempts from our office to actually receive text messages or other information with this investigation,� Boyd said.

Boyd said he did tell Sylvia Donaldson, the acting personnel director while Jenkins-Gray was out on leave from August until November.

“I would say that I raised this with his supervisor at the time, that there were concerns regarding his involvement with the trip, and that we needed additional information to effectuate an investigation,� Boyd said.

In his closing remarks during the public hearing on Jenkins-Gray’s conduct, even the lawyer for the mayor’s office, Reggie Harris, acknowledged the extra mileage on the car Byrd used.

“Now, it may be that Anthony Byrd’s use of the vehicle in the days after this caper should be reviewed,� Harris said. “But that’s for another day, perhaps some other proceeding.�