最新杏吧原创

Travis Brown has a secret.

Last fall, as he was directing a horde of highly paid consultants attempting to lease 最新杏吧原创 Lambert International Airport to the highest bidder, the man bankrolling the effort threatened to fire him.

The airport privatization effort was the brainchild of philanthropist and prolific political donor Rex Sinquefield. Brown, his top lobbyist, ran most of the effort through his company, Pelopidas LLC, which he jointly owns with his ex-wife, Rachel Keller.

At the time, Keller was suing Brown, accusing him of 鈥渓ooting the company鈥� for his personal benefit. In September, for the third time, I wrote about the lawsuit. That month, Sinquefield, who has always been Pelopidas鈥� biggest and most important client and funder, threatened to sever ties with his dueling partners.

鈥淩ex Sinquefield indicated that he was terminating his relationship with Pelopidas effective September 30, 2019,鈥� according to a new legal filing in the ongoing dispute between Brown and Keller. 鈥淎fter Sinquefield stated his intent to terminate his relationship with Pelopidas, Brown informed Keller that the company had insufficient reserves to make payroll in October shortly after Sinquefield terminated his relationship with the company.鈥�

After Sinquefield threatened to fire Pelopidas, Brown and Keller settled their dispute. Brown agreed to buy out Keller鈥檚 50% ownership in the company for $8.85 million. But in the process of finalizing the agreement, Brown and Keller continued to have differences.

So in February, a couple of months after Mayor Lyda Krewson had stopped the airport privatization process amid massive public criticism, Brown sued Keller, claiming she wasn鈥檛 fulfilling their agreement.

Brown doesn鈥檛 want you to know about that lawsuit. A 最新杏吧原创 County judge allowed Brown to file the lawsuit under seal. Keller鈥檚 attorneys argued such secrecy is against the public interest, and in violation of court rules. They have not filed their documents under seal, so the entire dispute is once again out in the public domain.

Secrecy is sort of a Brown specialty.

In January, a political nonprofit Brown helped found 鈥� Missourians for Patient Care 鈥� was forced by the Missouri Ethics Commission to reveal its secret donors, after running a medical marijuana ballot initiative in violation of state campaign disclosure laws. The biggest donor, of course, was Sinquefield.

Now, while embroiled in the latest lawsuit over the management of his company, in which Keller is accusing him of trying to 鈥渄eceive the Internal Revenue Service,鈥� Brown and Pelopidas have reinvented an airport privatization scheme that is even less transparent than the first one.

This time, amid the coronavirus pandemic, Pelopidas and others are trying to place an initiative on the November ballot that will ask city voters to create a new shadow government, bypassing the city charter鈥檚 checks and balances, to force a privatization of the airport.

The proposal creates new trust funds run by committees controlled by Krewson and Board of Aldermen President Lewis Reed, both supporters of privatization. There is no guarantee the money has to be spent where proponents are arguing it will go, such as to redevelop the city鈥檚 north side, only that if Krewson and Reed鈥檚 hand-picked committees can鈥檛 agree on how the money is spent, that the proceeds could be used to replace the city鈥檚 earnings tax, if voters ever approve getting rid of it.

Meanwhile, city Comptroller Darlene Green, who has been an opponent of privatization, is written out of the city charter鈥檚 traditional checks and balances, as is the Board of Aldermen.

Pelopidas has already made more than $300,000 in donations to the effort, but by making them 鈥渋n-kind鈥� donations, voters can鈥檛 know what 鈥� or who 鈥� the money went to.

That鈥檚 the way Brown likes things.

The previous airport privatization effort is still embroiled in a lawsuit brought by attorney Mark Pedroli over alleged violations of the Sunshine Law. Pedroli says if the latest Sinquefield/Pelopidas production actually makes it to the ballot, they should expect to end up in court again.

鈥淭he charter is the constitution of the city government,鈥� Pedroli says. 鈥淭he privatizers don鈥檛 want to abide by the constitution, so they drafted a radical exception. This exception not only removes the legislature from the process, but it also targets specific elected officials and removes them from the process, too. In essence, they鈥檙e privatizing the government in order to privatize the asset.鈥�

Only if voters let them get away with it.

Brown apparently thinks voters will be fooled by the involvement of the city branch of the NAACP, and the Carpenters Union, just like he thought they would be when he tried to pull a similar stunt while pushing the failed Better Together scheme that fell apart for many of the same reasons the airport privatization effort did, mostly a lack of transparency and failure to shoot straight with voters or taxpayers. The Carpenters Union was an investor in one of the bidders on the previous privatization effort that didn鈥檛 make the cut right before Krewson pulled the plug on the process. That bidder, Oaktree Capital, is back in the mix, according to the new ballot initiative. Both the NAACP and the Carpenters Union have been vocally supportive of privatization.

It鈥檚 not that difficult to connect the dots on what鈥檚 intended here. This time, there鈥檚 no outside consultant or pesky ethics rules to meddle with the plan.

Just Brown, his client鈥檚 money, and some politically connected consultants and investors who expect to get very rich if they ever get their hands on Lambert. In legal filings, Brown鈥檚 attorneys deny any effort to deceive the IRS. In a statement emailed by spokesman Ed Rhode, Brown did not respond to questions about the lawsuit. He said he was supporting the new airport privatization effort.

This is the man whom some city leaders trust to determine the future of their most prized public asset, a man who just a few months ago said he couldn鈥檛 make payroll because he was, according to his business partner, 鈥渇unneling hundreds of thousands of dollars away from Pelopidas as phony loans to his own secretly formed companies.鈥�

If this were a movie, the title would be easy: 鈥淭he Looting of Lambert, Part Deux.鈥�