Crestwood Point TDD audit request - What are the benefits for Crestwood Swim Club?

Transportation district audit is sought in Crestwood
By Phil Sutin Of the Post-Dispatch
02/10/2005

Residents allege public funds are being used improperly
Two Crestwood residents have asked the state auditor's office to audit a transportation development district that assisted in the development of a Kohl's department store at the northwest corner of Watson and Sappington roads.

Plans for the district call for it to spend $3,036,719. It imposed a 1 percent sales tax on stores in the district to retire bonds that could have a life of up to 40 years.

The state auditor's office this year will audit such districts throughout the state, said Glenn Campbell, a spokesman for the office. He would not say whether the district in Crestwood would be among those studied. The staff is working on a scope of work for the statewide audit, he said. State law requires the office to audit transportation development districts every three years, he said.

Requesting the audit in Crestwood were Roger Anderson, who has been seeking a state audit of that city's government, and Catherine Barrett, a resident who lives near the project area.
In a letter they sent to State Auditor Clare McCaskill last December, the two claimed public funds have been used improperly.

"We believe these matters are serious enough to require an audit and an investigation by the appropriate authorities," they said in the letter.

The two also want the auditor's office look into tax increment financing and a community improvement district that mainly financed water and sewer improvements related to the Kohl's project.

Crestwood City Administrator Don Greer said the transportation development district is not part of the city government. He referred a reporter to James Mello, an attorney who was involved in establishing the district. Mello said he could not comment because he had not seen the letter.

Barrett provided copies of documents that showed the transportation development district had expected to spend $800,000 to help the Crestwood Swim Club relocate from the Kohl site a short distance to a site north of City Hall. The department store needed some of the swim club property for parking.

She also pointed out that the district set aside up to $30,000 to lend to Crestwood to help it and Sunset Hills establish a transportation development district to beautify Watson Road from Sappington Road to South Lindbergh Boulevard if the two cities decided to undertake such a project. The loan has not been made. Neither of the expenditures was in the district plan when St. Louis County Circuit Judge Barbara Ann Crancer established the district on May 15, 2003.

"We question the need for the purchase of a 'private' swim club and the excessive payment," the letter said.

Greer said officials had "a flash of a discussion" about the Watson Road project two years ago when the state Legislature authorized large-scale, multi-municipality transportation development districts. Officials have not discussed the idea since then, he said.

The swim club opened the pool at its new location last July. Barrett said she lives downhill from the club's new site, and that people there shout at her when she is in her yard.
"I can't go in my back yard," she said. "I have no privacy. I feel like an animal at the zoo."
Anderson and Barrett also questioned the validity of two items in the transportation development district plan.

One is spending up to $635,000 to rebuild a parking lot at City Hall. That building is within the district. The second is a payment to G.J. Grewe Inc., developer of the Watson Plaza shopping center, for access between it and Kohl's.

Greer said the district has spent no money on the parking lot.
Reporter Phil Sutin E-mail: psutin@post-dispatch.com Phone: 314-863-2812