Stenger declined to answer a question about how many former employees the county has been able to recruit since it eliminated the rule.

That proposal was first made in 2014, but the council rejected it on the advice of the St. Louis County Retirement Board. In a letter dated Feb. 27, 2015, board chair Thomas Wright wrote that 31 employees would benefit from that change, which would have a $1.5 million cost.

When Stenger wrote to the council last year asking for both retirement system changes, he told them that he was acting on the recommendation of the retirement board. He did not tell the council that he had suggested the idea to the retirement board in the first place.

Stenger’s recent request to improve benefits came as the board was looking for ways to keep the county’s pension plan from becoming chronically underfunded like others across the nation.

“I have to admit that it was a bit surprising that on the one hand we hadn’t acted on that, but on the other, we were looking to make benefit plan improvements, too,” said Kirk McCarley, the county’s former personnel director who retired a few months ago. “I had a lot of questions about that.”

Forging an alliance