http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/...cle_51c33b67-9b72-5055-ba56-94cc9e1b46e2.html
UPDATED at 5:30 p.m. with comments from Mayor Francis Slay's chief of staff, plus new details in the ruling.
ST. LOUIS • The construction of a riverfront stadium does not need voter approval here before spending city tax dollars, a judge ruled on Monday, knocking down yet another barrier in the race to keep the National Football League in St. Louis.
Circuit Court Judge Thomas Frawley declared invalid the city ordinance requiring a public vote, calling sections “too vague to be enforced.” The law has so many “uncertainties,” he
wrote in his ruling, “their sum makes a task for us which at best could be only guesswork.”
Moreover, Frawley ruled, the placement of the new stadium, along the riverfront just north of downtown, does not break a state law requiring the building be “adjacent” to the convention center — it is close enough, he said.
“‘Adjacent,’” Frawley wrote, “has commonly been interpreted by Missouri courts to mean ‘near or close at hand,’” — and not necessarily, he continued, “touching each other.”
Proponents quietly promoted the new victory. Dave Peacock, one of Gov. Jay Nixon’s stadium task force members, praised the legal team as “extraordinary,” and called for “everyone in the St. Louis region” to rally behind the effort.
“The court’s opinion is a victory for a bold and promising future for the NFL in St. Louis and the continued rebirth of our downtown,” Peacock said in a statement.
“We can make it happen,” he continued.
Nixon lauded the task force for continued “solid progress.”
Mary Ellen Ponder, chief of staff to Mayor Francis Slay — who supports the stadium development — nevertheless called Frawley’s decision “very disappointing.”
She said in a statement that, by declaring the ordinance invalid, Frawley essentially barred the city from scheduling a vote as authorized by that law. Still, she committed the city to public meetings “and other opportunities for public participation” regarding stadium financing.
In addition, she said Slay’s office will ask the Board of Aldermen to “consider a new ordinance that requires a public vote for future projects and can survive a judicial challenge.”
Maggie Crane, the mayor’s communications director, said the city was still considering an appeal.
The news quickly drew outbursts from critics, who had long braced for a ruling against the ordinance.
St. Louis University Law Professor John Ammann, who has filed a separate suit to force a city vote, called it a “terrible day for democracy.”
Ammann’s clients moved to intervene in the suit, filed against the city in April. The public Edward Jones Dome authority, acting on behalf of Nixon’s task force, challenged the 2002 city ordinance requiring a public vote before spending tax money on a new stadium.
But Frawley denied Ammann’s motion in a related ruling on Monday. Ammann said he was meeting his clients on Monday afternoon, and expected they’d want to appeal.
Fred Lindecke, who helped pass the city law, said he thought they followed the law on the initiative petition. “The people voted,” Lindecke said. “And now the judge has said forget all that. It makes me angry.
“The law is as clear and straightforward as you can get. It covers every kind of technique known to man for getting into the taxpayer’s pocket,” he continued. “And it says very clearly, without ambiguity, that people have a right to vote before any of their tax money is used to build a stadium. I would hope that someone in city government would be as upset as I am, and would try to do something about it.”
Regardless, the ruling represents another step toward a new football stadium, now expected to cost $998 million.
Nixon’s task force has recently outlined current financing estimates: It hopes for about $250 million from team ownership, a $200 million National Football League loan to the owners, $187 million in tax incentives, $201 million in state and city bond proceeds and $160 million in seat license sales.
It’s making progress on some of those pillars: The task force has recently applied to the state for tax incentives. It is
lining up riverfront land. A recent NFL market study suggested the effort
could sell $200 million in seat licenses.
And now the task force has a judge’s decision blocking a city vote.
NFL owners meet next week in Chicago to hear from teams interested in moving to Los Angeles. Representatives from the St. Louis Rams will present, for the first time, owner Stan Kroenke’s plans to build a stadium in Inglewood.
Frawley's ruling, however, will likely aid task force efforts to keep the Rams, or another NFL team, in St. Louis.
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@bubbaramfan for the bolded part