Wessels voluntarily dismissed his lawsuit when former Mayor Francis Slay appointed him director of the city’s Community Development Administration. But his feelings on the matter haven’t changed.

“(Parking operations) should be under a city agency. The staff in that office should be under civil service,” he said. “It’s from a long gone era, the way it’s been operating and the way it operates now.”

Kistner argues that there’s also practical reason for invalidating the parking statutes, and not just a constitutional one: The city is strapped for cash.

Twice this year, St. Louis leaders raised the sales tax to pay for city needs. In crafting the city’s fiscal 2018 spending plan, budget writers grappled with a $17 million shortfall.

“Let’s get these monies in the hands of people who were elected by the city to craft its budget,” Kistner said. “The treasurer is not elected to make decisions with what to do with excess money.”

Jared Boyd, Jones’ chief of staff, who is not related to Jeffrey Boyd, said the nature of the lawsuit’s claims lacked merit, and that the office has consistently given the city the maximum 40 percent of the parking revenue under state law.