ST. LOUIS — Dr. Sam Page is the St. Louis County Executive. He is running in the Democratic primary for re-election. The primary is August 2. The general election is in November.
Page, a medical doctor, has promoted his health care credentials and his steady hand guiding the county government through the pandemic.
KNOW TO VOTE: Missouri primary 2022: Voter guide for St. Louis area
He initially campaigned on an anti-corruption platform, highlighting his role as Chair of the County Council during the hearings investigating the former Stenger administration.
Page’s rivals on the county council have grilled him for handing out patronage jobs to political workers. His campaign introduces him as “Dr. Sam,” presenting him as warm and approachable, while his detractors say he’s used his power to protect himself and his political allies.
5 On Your Side candidate survey
What immediate steps would you take to improve public safety and reduce violent crime?
Page: Well, we have to recognize that what we've done in the past two years has worked. Crime is down in St. Louis County, year-to-date from 2021. And what we have done is address crime from both ends, from policing, and we've made our investments in public safety. We just invested $5 million in our new 911 Center. And we've invested in officer pay and equipment. And we want our police department to be well staffed, well-funded, to be well trained, to be responsive when they're called, and responsible for their actions. And the other end of crime and public safety, we're working very closely with the prosecuting attorney, and in the jail. And we're working to recognize that 55% of the folks that are committing crime right now in St. Louis County were once in jail. So we're initiating programming for the folks that are in jail to make sure when they leave, they don't come back. We're deploying mental health treatments. We are making sure they get treatment for their substance abuse, and we're giving them even some job training while they're still in jail to give them a pathway to a job when they leave. And we know that they have a job, that they won't reoffend.
What is the single greatest area in St. Louis County government that requires public investment? How would you make sure that it happens?
Page: Well, the number one role of county government is to protect the health and welfare of people in St. Louis County. And that's what we do through our police and through our public health. So we know we need to invest more in our health department, because that's the front of our war on substance abuse and addiction. And so we know we need more investment in public health. We have three Health Department... three clinics where we provide direct care in South County, one in South County and two in North County. And we need to continue the investments we've made in our police department.
How do you explain the recent corruption investigations in local government? What safeguards would you implement to improve public trust?
Page: Well, the safeguards we implemented protected us from the one incident in St. Louis County. There were three indictments in the city of St. Louis, and one in the county for an employee who was trying to defraud the county government of COVID funds. The protections we put in place prevented any theft of funds from St. Louis County.
We hired an accounting firm to review all of the applications for COVID relief funds related to the small business program. We had a law firm designing the applications and then we had a second accounting firm that reviewed the receipts to make sure that everything was in order. The indictment was for attempting to defraud the county, but it failed because of the protections that we had in place.
But to your question of restoring trust, that means we need to talk more about what we've done. And trust is about understanding what your government is doing to protect you. And after the indictment of the previous county executive, three years ago we instituted all kinds of changes in county government: we appointed new people to the partnership board, and in the Port Authority Board, which was the epicenter of the problems before; and we created a web portal for folks to track the spending in St. Louis County. All of the COVID spending is tracked and updated on a regular basis, on a weekly basis, to see where all the money's going.
What immediate steps would you take to reduce the cost-of-living burden St. Louis County voters face during this period of inflation?
Page: So in St. Louis County, our greatest impact on the voters in their cost of living is to make sure that our services are delivered reliably, and at low cost, to avoid any increase in the tax burden, and to make sure our services are are delivered efficiently. And that's what we do. We provide our public health services for the people that are struggling who don't have health insurance. We provide a lot of direct care at our three health centers, one in South County and two in North County. And we make sure that we're following the recommendations of the Boston Consulting Group which came in two years ago during the pandemic, and made many, many recommendations of how to redesign the services provided in county government.
And that's why when you walk into the building in Clayton, it looks much different than it did in the past. Part of those recommendations was to move as many services online as possible: permitting, review of development plans. All of these things that you used to have to drive down to Clayton to get a permit for, you can now do it online and that saves our folks time of getting in a car and driving across town and spending time and money on gas and time that they don't have.
To the extent that St. Louis County government can improve access to affordable health care, what practical steps would you take to improve access to health care?
Page: Well, we know that there's a population in St. Louis County that don't have access to traditional health insurance or to our traditional health systems for primary care. And we provide that. We provide prenatal care, postpartum care, immunizations and vaccinations, care for newborns and in babies. We have a pretty active Health Department providing direct care with almost 100,000 visits a year in our three locations. We're very proud of that. In addition, our health department provides the main policy guidance and regulatory guidance for businesses that have a public health risk to them. For example, our restaurants. We have active restaurant inspectors that are around the county every day helping our restaurants understand what the rules are, what the guidelines are, and how to safely provide services to people in our community.
What is your favorite movie, most influential book, and go-to genre of music?
Page: Well, my favorite movie I would say would be something from the Star Wars saga. It reminds us of our childhood. The first Star Wars, of course, is most impressive, but it's something we can share with our kids. My wife and I both can remember where we were when we went to see the Star Wars movie, the first of many times that we saw it. And it's been interesting to watch that develop over time and all of its spin offs.
Favorite book? I would say Truman's biography, because he was a very interesting politician who did not appear to be headed to the presidency early in life, and ended up in a place of significant responsibility at a very important time in the history of our country. But certainly from very humble beginnings on the western side of the state.
I usually listen to country music. I'll have Spotify on rotating through either the really, usually, the top hits in country music. My wife and I have a pretty extensive playlist that we listen to, and we're at our place in southern Missouri at our farm.