Jane Dueker: Democrat running for St. Louis County Executive 2022

ST. LOUIS — Jane Dueker is running in the Democratic key for St. Louis County Executive. The most important is August 2. The standard election is in November.

Dueker, a authorities attorney by trade, begun her lawful profession as an Assistant Attorney Normal and later on suggested Governor Bob Holden as his Main Legal Counsel and chief of workers. 

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A lot more a short while ago, she’s taken stints with corporate legislation corporations and lobbied point out lawmakers on behalf of law enforcement unions. Dueker has taken a scorched earth approach on the marketing campaign path, demanding each aspect of Sam Page’s administration, like his individual character, leadership, and efficiency. 

Her Twitter take care of says, “I am not Sam Site,” and her marketing campaign technique has adopted that exact template, portraying herself as the anti-Webpage applicant on the ballot.

What speedy measures would you just take to make improvements to community protection and cut down violent crime? 

Dueker: Perfectly, 1st of all, violent crime has doubled in Saint Louis County in the very last ten several years. And everywhere I go in this county, north, south, west, central citizens enterprise is the amount one difficulty on voters minds is criminal offense. So that’s fantastic that you might be foremost off of that. Very first of all, I would have been endorsed by the 7000 law enforcement officers throughout the state of Missouri and simply because of my exceptional expertise in policing and crime difficulties. And first of all, I would restore the promise of Prop P in 2017.

The voters passed Prop P overwhelmingly in buy to fund police desires and to fund public basic safety. Claims were designed that, 1, there would be two officers to a vehicle and significant crime parts. That has not occurred. Which is for the protection of the local community. That’s for the security of the officer. We have to get we have we are going to have in all probability 100 vacancies in the law enforcement section by the conclude of the yr. We have to get entirely staffed since we have to get back to community policing simply because that was one more promise we made the voters is that we would have a lot more neighborhood policing. And you do that. 

You have to set up that romantic relationship involving legislation enforcement and the communities that they serve. And we guarantee that and we have not shipped. We promised to establish new substations in North County and South County. They have not even broken floor on individuals basic. You will need the substations positioned in which the citizens are. They will need appropriate, you know, almost everything from Web to to function with bodycams. They will need the true sources to do their career each day. And now they’re going to be two times as pricey to make mainly because they have not been completed in 5 yrs. So 1, restore know Prop P, evidently group policing. Our users were surveyed and the frustrating the vast majority of the St. Louis County law enforcement officers ended up not knowledgeable of what the criminal offense approach is. You won’t be able to have the persons carrying out the plan, not understanding the strategy. So we have to have a lot more transparency with the law enforcement board. They are the ones that create and employ the crime system. I will be strongly advocating for a community primarily based criminal offense program, which is the local community needs to have input. The officers need to have enter. Everyone desires to have input to get started tackling criminal offense now. A single of the most crucial things that we can do is we have to advise the public of the real truth about the crime issue by ordinance. The county govt is essential to place crime stats on the net. Given that Sam Paige has been appointed, he has not put the crime stats up. And I believe that it is incorrect to not advise the persons of the actual crime complications they are facing. And I think he’s gaslighting the general public when he tells individuals that there is certainly not a crime planned appropriate now, a criminal offense problem ideal now. There is a critical crime issue proper now and voters know it. So individuals are some of the initial things. Chief Look for Main Gregory has served the county nicely for many years. He by no means even applied to be the chief. We need to have to do a chief research. We need to fill the spot on the law enforcement board that is now vacant and has been vacant. There is certainly been a large amount of turnover on the police board given that county executive Sam took around. And so we have to fill that. And there has to be on the law enforcement board, there has to be anyone with regulation enforcement track record so that they can appropriately administer. We have the purest, most impressive civilian evaluation board. Our civilian law enforcement board does all procedures, all discipline, firings. They they make your mind up all insurance policies and they do willpower. They do anything and that they have subpoena ability. They have all the matters that persons communicate about that they want for a civilian overview board. But you have to fill the board and they have to be much more transparent. The fantastic issues, the troubling issues the group needs to truly feel that the law enforcement board is, you know, in bed with the neighborhood. And so we want to do that. So those people are some of the items that I would do. A further essential variable is, seem, policing is a regional challenge. And the trouble is there are specified pieces metropolis of St. Louis who are not policing. They are not policing, they’re not prosecuting. That strains all departments in all other counties. And that is a trouble. And we require to have the rough dialogue that criminal offense is a regional issue that has to be addressed regionally and that it’s not likely to be an easy dialogue, but it really is a conversation that has to consider put. And I imagine the encompassing county executives concur on that issue, that it has to be a regional issue.

What is the single finest place in St. Louis County govt that involves public financial commitment? How would you make guaranteed that it occurs?

Dueker: Well, I imagine there is a few of areas. We do have overall health care disparities that were being exposed by the pandemic and chair times. Councilwoman Shalonda Webb proposed a wellness centre that will start offering, providing some much more immediate wraparound products and services in North County with a precise target on co-morbidities. Mainly because co-morbidities feel to have, as we’ve figured out through the pandemic, have been some of the main variables in determining hospitalizations and regrettably, fatalities. And so continual circumstances, coronary heart, diabetic issues, things like that. Working with underserved communities, kind of tackling these co-morbidity issues. Can begin making an attempt to get by means of the health disparity gap that we saw exposed by COVID. One more situation, we have the Children’s Solutions Fund in St Louis County inhabitants, very generous individuals who decided to have a independent tax in purchase to fund the Children’s Expert services Fund. And it is a phenomenal matter. Ideal now, there is certainly about $70 million in that fund. We have a psychological overall health crisis with our children, and we need to have to deal with that. We want to support with that. We need to husband or wife. We require to commit resources to it. And it requires to be a priority with our children. And it can be a nicely-run frequently. It’s run by a different board, and it truly is a perfectly-operate agency. But I would like to advocate that we shift mental overall health up the food items chain to deal with what our young children have long gone as a result of for the very last two yrs. 

How do you explain the modern corruption investigations in community government? What safeguards would you apply to make improvements to public trust?

Dueker: The trouble with the corruption and the scandals as they were being at the prime management is the problem. So the main of personnel that was he was handpicked by Sam Web page. Absolutely nothing in his biography, very little in his do the job background indicated that he was ready for this position. So that was a pink flag. Sam Website page is the a person that hired Mark Tucker as the auditor, a person with no working experience and in 4 several years under no circumstances executed a solitary audit. In fact, the condition auditor discovered that the deficiency of oversight by the council and the auditor that was picked by Sam Web site enabled Steve Stenger to dedicate his crimes. That is, management at the best. And appointing Rochelle Walton Gray, a former council girl, to be the vaccine coordinator when she experienced zero practical experience. That is a issue. Tony Weaver, the gentleman who was indicted for a kickback plan involving compact business enterprise aid funds right out of county federal government. That was a hand-picked political crony of Sam Web site. He worked on his campaign. It was section of his political operation. And he bought a $40,000 increase to go operate at the jail when he experienced zero experience. This is not mid-level bureaucrats performing things. This was corruption and scandal at the major. He is dependable for that. So you I you should not know that we require more legislation. We want improved leaders. And, you know, I’ve worked in government 30 a long time and I was a chief of employees. And the kind of conduct that we’re viewing heading on in county govt is unacceptable. And frankly, it really is tarnishing the standing of our county. So on this one, all of those people illustrations, the worst illustrations we have observed in county govt, those people had been all from the leading sexual harassment lawsuits becoming settled of, you know, of of councilman, you know, discrimination at the leading of the police office. These are all at the top rated levels. Which is leadership. And I believe that in management by empowerment. I believe that you empower the folks who get the job done with you and for you, you empower citizens, fascination groups, the business. Sam, his his check out of leadership is management. And we’re viewing the vestiges of that form of destructive leadership in our county.

What quick measures would you take to cut down the value-of-living burden St. Louis County voters experience throughout this interval of inflation?

Dueker: I signify, it is really really difficult since I you should not have handle in excess of fuel costs. I never imagine I even have the capacity to regulate, you know, foods selling prices and whatnot. The most essential factor we can do as a county is one is make everybody safe. But two, we have to restore the overall economy in St. Louis County. That was shut down. And and I consider that overhauling the partnership and creating Saint Louis County open for company again, I never know if you’ve got ever been to county govt, the real making the place he’s shut down the building to county citizens, you have to go by way of a funnel and go by means of a maze and then I simply call it the rat maze. And then you have to go to the rat chairs in get to get your normal small business completed that that can not occur anymore. We have to let modest companies be in a position to functionality and they require to be equipped to get to the county individuals, men and women who are making, they require to be equipped to get permits in a well timed trend. We require to make it not more challenging for persons to to dwell their life, you know, to get their tax receipts, to do the day-to-day enterprise. That is pretty disheartening to voters when they won’t be able to do ordinary enterprise. So, a person, we will need to get the financial system transferring all over again. And frankly, I can provide St. Louis County, and I never think Sam Web site is capable of carrying out that. We have to have to build new industries. We need to do a ton of workforce enhancement. It’s not just a issue of instruction individuals, but you have to educate them and match them for the careers that are the positions of the upcoming. And we want to do the job on that. We can associate with the point out in accomplishing that. So jumpstarting the economic climate is the ideal thing we can do and matching persons who want work opportunities with the labor scarcity, people today who want personnel.

To the extent that St. Louis County authorities can increase obtain to very affordable well being treatment, what practical ways would you get to enhance entry to well being care?

Dueker: Effectively, I talked a minor bit about the wellness heart and the wraparound expert services that I am supporting with Chair Times and Councilwoman Webb in North County. And co-morbidities and one of a kind problems that are plaguing that group. Yet again, the Kid’s Expert services Fund is a person that can certainly fill the gaps in any sort of kid’s wellness treatment wants that are out there. I believe mental wellness is the a single problem that needs to get started remaining prioritized both equally by children and adults, and I think we can do some of that. So we are fortunate in St. Louis, we have just one of the well being care’s very best health treatment programs in the nation. And, you know, during the pandemic, these those people assets were being strained. They were being strained since most people from all around Missouri came to our well being treatment program, in component. And so we are fortuitous to have so we have significantly considerably less limitations than a lot of other places in the place. And so I am grateful. And even in Missouri, there are rural places in Missouri that don’t have the accessibility to wellness treatment that we have below. And so I believe there are factors we can do with existing assets in order to do that. And the sources that have been devoted to COVID can now be redirected toward some of the other health and fitness treatment and overall health desires that we have in the county.

What is your preferred motion picture, most influential book, and go-to genre of tunes?

Dueker: Preferred motion picture is hard because I am a movie fanatic, so let’s see, favourite film of all time. I imply, Godfather is up there just simply because I just watched the give that show. So that has brought The Godfather back again to me and just living colour. Let us see what other flicks I imply, that’s so difficult to pick to see. Well, Godfather has to be up there, some of the greatest motion pictures of all time. This is too difficult. And I just saw Elvis. And I will convey to you this. Elvis was a wonderful motion picture and I’m an Elvis fanatic. I’ve browse each individual biography. I have finished the pilgrimage down to Memphis quite a few situations and lately even. So, that will explain to people today that a minor little bit about me, that I am an Elvis fanatic. I like looking at about his lifetime. I necessarily mean, he was the very first real rock star and no one experienced there was no playbook on how to be a rock star. And he was the first. And however, the technique type of chewed him up and spit him out. And so in some strategies, it is tragic, but he was wonderful. And so I am definitely an Elvis fanatic and have strange memorabilia all around my house. The most exciting reserve, Truman Truman is my favorite guide and by McCullough, and I’ve study it twice. It really is a 900 web site e-book and I have browse it two times due to the fact I thought Truman was our ideal president and the motive he was the best president. It’s uncomplicated. It really is hard to be simple. It’s challenging to make. He produced some of the most tough conclusions in the history of our state determining irrespective of whether to fall the bomb. I mean, but this guy took really tough concerns, in no way misplaced his values, by no means dropped, he was often as well distinct sighted in what was proper. And he was able to take pretty tricky, terrible shutting down industries. And he did brave issues, integrating the armed service. And but he always was equipped to maintain matters easy. And he went into the presidency with absolutely nothing and arrived out with a indication. And he asked the governing administration if he could have even if he could continue to keep the signal that claims the buck stops below. And I feel that is interesting. He adored his wife. He adored his daughter. He performed poker. He hung out with Supreme Court justices and the speaker of the Property and the president of the Senate. And, you know, they labored collectively and he was underestimated his whole life, not just when he was president, but he was he was the often the underdog. And so and he is Missouri’s own. So. Truman. So that is my beloved reserve. 

Yeah, very well, Elvis is the greatest. So yeah, he’s selection a single. But I’m incredibly eclectic in my music preferences. So a single that’s form of special. I appreciate present tunes I cherished I was in musicals when I was in substantial faculty. And so I do appreciate exhibit tunes and I adore the theater, so I love Hamilton. I was the lead in West Side Story in higher university at CBC Superior School. I also was the direct in Bye Bye Birdie at my own substantial faculty. So I enjoy the tunes and the show tunes so that is dorky but Elvis and present tunes.