CLAYTON — St. Louis County Executive Sam Page plans to address local officials and news media Wednesday at the University of Missouri-St. Louis campus in a State of the County address that will also be livestreamed.
The county had yet to publicly announce the event Thursday, but one of the invitations to the event was shared with a reporter. The invitation asks recipients to RSVP for the “invitation only” event at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday in a theater at the Touhill Performing Arts Center, where “attendance is limited.”
County spokesman Doug Moore said he planned to issue a press release Monday inviting news media and announcing the event, which is meant to mirror annual addresses given by U.S. presidents in the State of the Union or by Gov. Mike Parson in an annual State of the State address.
The invitations to attend in person were sent to a broad list of about 300 local officials, Moore said, including the seven-member County Council, department heads in Page’s administration, municipal mayors, school district superintendents, state representatives and U.S. Reps. Cori Bush, D-St. Louis, and Ann Wagner, R-Ballwin. Invitations were also sent to members of the regional East-West Gateway Council of Governments and the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force. Moore said a Facebook livestream of the address is intended to provide public access.
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Page plans to “highlight” county work over the last year, including the county’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and “recognize the hard work of our county employees during a challenging time,” Moore said.
The address comes as Page, who was elected in 2020 to complete a term vacated by Steve Stenger, launches a campaign for reelection to a full four-year term.
Jane Dueker, a local police union attorney and registered lobbyist, has filed to run against Page in the August Democratic primary.
Seeking the Republican nomination are Rep. Shamed Dogan, R-Ballwin, and Katherine Pinner, a South County Republican.
Moore said Page had not scheduled a large, in-person address before because of winter surges of COVID-19 cases. Inaugurations for county elected officials in January 2021 were closed to the public and livestreamed online.
Daily COVID-19 cases have in recent weeks dropped to levels considered “low transmission” by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which announced in late February that areas with low transmission no longer needed to require masks. The county lifted its mask mandate Feb. 28.
The county sought an outside venue for the address because county buildings don’t provide enough space or access for as large an audience, Moore said. He said UMSL offered the space to the county at no cost.
Posted at 1:45 p.m. Thursday, March 31.