ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½

Partnership Chairman Karlos Ramirez said Wednesday that he planned to testify at the council ethics committee hearing on Jan. 15. Board member Kathy Osborn and the attorney for the Partnership, Chuck Hatfield, did not respond to requests for comment. Board member Ed James could not be reached.

Meanwhile, the Partnership board is scheduled to meet to review the budget and hold a closed session to discuss, among other things, personnel matters. The Partnership two weeks ago held a closed meeting for the same reasons.

Partnership CEO Sheila Sweeney, who made $500,000 in total compensation in fiscal 2017, may be preparing to leave the organization following a tenure marked by high staff turnover, low employee morale, controversial contracts and questions about political influence from ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ County Executive Steve Stenger, the Post-Dispatch reported last week.

The council’s ethics committee chair, Ernie Trakas, R-south ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ County, said Hatfield had refused to make Partnership staff available to the committee until late last month. Hatfield, a partner at law firm Stinson Leonard Street, was hired to represent the Partnership and ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ County Port Authority when the council launched its investigation in July.

“In a startling reversal … (Hatfield) has now agreed to make all members of the (Port) Authority’s board as well as members of the Partnership’s executive staff available to testify before the Committee in this inquiry,� Trakas wrote in a memo to fellow council members.

A letter from Hatfield to Trakas that the councilman provided to the newspaper says the Partnership still “disputes(s) the Council’s authority to conduct its investigation� and “object(s) to the expansive scope� of the inquiry.

Still, Hatfield wrote that Sweeney would be willing to appear before the committee as would board members of the port authority, which is managed by Partnership staff.

Whether all of the Partnership board members will also cooperate is not yet clear. Trakas said Wednesday he had not received confirmation that all of the called Partnership board members would appear at the hearing, but he said “I took Mr. Hatfield’s letter as an acknowledgement he would make people available.�

“From my perspective, members of both boards are necessary to do a full and complete investigation,� Trakas added.

Trakas plans to hold a subsequent hearing to gather testimony from Sweeney, Partnership Chief Financial Officer Joyce Steiger and Partnership Vice President of Administration Kristin Lappin.

He said the recent Post-Dispatch report on the Partnership “exposed what the council has been discovering all along. Just because we haven’t had hearings doesn’t mean we haven’t been digging. Based on the committee’s work, we came to many of the same conclusions you did.�

After the Post-Dispatch published its report, newly sworn-in Councilwoman Lisa Clancy, D-Maplewood, said on Twitter that she was “deeply concerned (and) troubled by the allegations in this piece. A thorough investigation is warranted.�

Council Chairman Sam Page, D-Creve Coeur, said in an interview that “the council’s worst fears of the Partnership may just be true.�

Hatfield’s indication that the Partnership and port authority may cooperate in the council’s investigation follows the council’s move late last month to appropriate the Partnership’s roughly $4.1 million county allocation in quarterly installments. “I would suspect it has something to do with the budget process,� Page said of the Partnership’s recent shift in position on the council investigation. “The council has made it clear that it will withhold funding from the Partnership until it meets its transparency obligations and cleans up this mess.�

The Partnership is still resisting the council’s requests for documents. Hatfield’s letter says that Trakas’s request for personnel records from the Partnership is “overly broad and unduly burdensome� and includes records protected from disclosure. It calls a request for emails from Steiger, the Partnership CFO, “extremely broad� and beyond the focus of the committee’s investigation. The Partnership won’t “voluntarily produce documents� responsive to that request, Hatfield wrote, but may accommodate a more narrow request for Steiger’s emails.

Trakas contends the council has broad investigatory powers, pointing to provisions of the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ County Charter granting it the power to “establish procedures for the conduct of investigations.â€� He also contends the ordinances creating the county’s port authority grant it oversight of the powerful entity, which collects about $5 million in annual rent from the River City Casino.