ST. LOUIS — Shamed Dogan is a Republican running for the St. Louis County Executive. The primary is August 2. The general election is in November.
State Representative Dogan, a moderate Republican, served four two-year terms in Jefferson City. Now that term limits have ejected him from the House, he has his eyes on a job closer to home at the county government building in Clayton.
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Dogan, who warned against the rise of polarization in politics during his farewell speech on the House floor, sees a path to victory for a bipartisan legislator in a year where national political sentiments could swing against the party in power in Washington.
In the statehouse, Dogan chaired the House Special Committee on Criminal Justice, and focused most of his efforts on education, ethics, and public safety.
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What immediate steps would you take to improve public safety and reduce violent crime?
Dogan: The biggest part of reducing violent crime is acknowledging there's a problem. And unfortunately, we have a county executive who would just rather ignore the problem and ignore the crisis. We've had record high homicides here in the county for the past two years, we've had spiraling rates of violent crime of all kinds in all parts of the county for the last decade. And so first and foremost, you have to acknowledge that there is a real problem, and that people's public safety is not being protected right now. And that's the first and foremost responsibility of county government.
So one thing that I would do that Sam Page has failed to do the last three years he's been county executive is work with the county council to fix Prop P. Because when voters passed Prop P five years ago, we were told that we were going to get two cops in every patrol car, we were told that we were going to get increased salaries for police. That part, the salaries, has been delivered on, but we've not gotten everything else because there was a loophole in the proposition. Some of that money has been diverted towards purposes that have nothing to do with policing. So I'm going to work with the county council to fix the Prop P, and make sure that that money goes to where it's supposed to go, which is towards the policing.
What is the single greatest area in St. Louis County government that requires public investment? How would you make sure that it happens?
Dogan: First and foremost is public safety. That's the number one responsibility of county government or any local government. So making sure that Prop P funding gets spent properly is job number one.
Job number two is economic development because St. Louis County has been losing businesses and losing population over the last decade. So we've got to work together with our business community, and figure out how to get jobs back here, how to make this a more attractive place for businesses to invest in, and make this more attractive place for people to live, and work, and play. And so we are going to work comprehensively with our partners in the business community, with our economic development agencies, both city and county, and make sure that we are on track to make this an attractive place again, and not be a place where we're losing population and losing businesses.
How do you explain the recent corruption investigations in local government? What safeguards would you implement to improve public trust?
Dogan: It's been awful. And public trust is rightfully pretty low right now, when we've seen these federal indictments coming both in the city and the county. So I would tell voters if you want more corruption, if you want more scandals, Sam Page is your guy. Vote for him if you want more corruption and more scandals. But if you want to get rid of corruption in county government, you've got to get rid of the people that have been causing it. And you've got to get rid of the machine that keeps electing the same people, and electing the same crowds of folks who have been engaged in that kind of behavior.
And so I'm offering voters a breath of fresh air, somebody who's going to be an inspiration to our kids and to our residents, instead of an embarrassment and somebody who's hiring people who are getting indicted and who are getting involved in all kinds of scandal.
What immediate steps would you take to reduce the cost-of-living burden St. Louis County voters face during this period of inflation?
Dogan: Well, I'm proud to say that in my time in the legislature, we just passed tax relief legislation to try and put some money back in the pockets of Missourians. Unfortunately, that got vetoed by the governor. So we're going to be working with the governor over our special session in September most likely to try and deliver some tax relief for our voters. So that can put money back in their pockets, because I think the people know how to spend their money more wisely than anybody in Jefferson City or Clayton does.
I think the root cause of inflation is too much government spending. What we've seen with the Cares Act funding and ARPA and all that money, where the federal government has basically just been borrowing money. That's what's been the biggest driver of inflation. So I think giving people tax relief, putting that money back in their hands instead of in the government hands is the best solution.
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?
Dogan: Well, I am proud to say that I supported fully funding Medicaid expansion, so that people have access to health care at the state level. And I think at the local level, one of the things I keep hearing is that people have a problem, just getting access to healthcare and to other resources because of transportation, lack of transportation. And we've had Metro funding cuts the last couple of years.
We've seen lines that have been just completely stopped where I'm at in West St. Louis County. And so I would fight to get Metro to restore some of the service that they've cut over the past couple of years, and not to be spending Metro funding and spending county funding on the loop trolley, which is what our current county executive is doing.
What is your favorite movie, most influential book, and go-to genre of music?
Dogan: Definitely on long flights, I'm mostly listening to R&B, so like Stevie Wonder, Al Green, that kind of music helps relax me. Most influential book? There's a lot of them, but I would definitely say the Bible first and foremost. And then favorite movie? That would be a tie between maybe... Pulp Fiction is a favorite. Most big great baseball movies. Field of Dreams, love that. So yeah, those would be probably top two.
