City councilor office budget factors in wrongful-conviction costs, prorated vacant-building hires

The St. Louis City councilor's office included money in its proposed FY26 budget to cover potential settlements or judgments in two pending wrongful-conviction cases, and the office said some positions tied to a new vacant-building initiative were prorated pending revenue realization.

Why it matters: Large civil judgments already shape the legal office's spending plan and could affect available funds for other city services. The committee also heard that staffing to enforce a new vacant-building ordinance depends on revenue that the budget office is estimating conservatively.

The councilor's office presentation opened the committee's review of the FY26 budget. "The budget is mainly based on the previous year's budget, in terms of personnel and various other costs," said Michael Garvin, of the city councilor's office. "Some of the significant items were that we've had some adverse judgment and wrongful conviction cases ... there is money in here because there's still 2 wrongful conviction cases that, just by their nature, they involve a lot of money." Garvin said one person was incarcerated for 28 years and another for 11 years and both have claims pending.

Garvin told the committee that departures of litigation attorneys had required the office to retain outside counsel; "we had a specialist firm we retained for those cases," he said. He added the office is discussing with the attorney general how future litigation will be handled after the police department moved to state control but said the attorney general "wants to, get take all the litigation matters over" while city staff would continue to provide internal legal support and discovery work.

Deputy Budget Director Jim Benoist told the committee how staffing tied to the vacant-building initiative was reflected in the budget. Benoist said the city councilor originally requested two Attorney I positions for the program; later, after the budget established an "11.11" vacant-building fund, Benoist placed one Attorney I in that cost center and left two in the problem-properties cost center. "Technically, they're probably getting too many Attorney Is," he said, adding the conservative revenue estimate led staff to budget at 50% of the projected first-year receipts.

Benoist said building commissioner Ed Ware estimated about $1,300,000 in first-year revenue from enhanced fines and fees beginning Sept. 1, and the administration therefore budgeted roughly $650,000 to avoid staffing the fund beyond what revenue could support in a partial year.

Several aldermen pressed on staffing and compensation for litigation work. "We do need more experienced attorneys. Absolutely," Garvin said when asked whether the office could better defend high-exposure claims if it retained senior litigators; he proposed changing salary ceilings in the comp ordinance as a mechanism to keep experienced lawyers.

Committee members asked for continued follow-up with budget staff and the councilor's office so hiring and accounting for the vacant-building program align with the ordinance's planned effective date and revenue timing.

The committee recessed after the presentation and moved on to other departmental reviews.