Many attendees said they were open to the idea of consolidating the St. Louis region but could not support Better Together’s plan without more details.

“I remain as torn now as I was when I walked in,” Nichole Dawsey, of St. Louis, said after the town hall. “I don’t think there were any clear answers.” Dawsey said she was particularly disappointed the plan did not address schools.

“Schools are arguably one of the biggest points of disparity,” she said. “I don’t understand why that’s not addressed in the plan.”

Johnson-Malone said that while the Better Together plan wasn’t perfect, it was determined from research and public opinion that a new governmental system was necessary to address economic and racial inequities like those exemplified by municipal courts. Measures other than the statewide vote would delay addressing the issues, he said.

“To say let’s delay this even further is to not recognize that what we have is a system that is not benign,” he said.

The initiative, if approved by Missouri voters in November 2020, would combine the police departments, court systems, roadways, regional planning and zoning, and economic development arms of the city, county and county’s municipalities. One mayor would preside over the new city, with 33 council members. The county’s 88 municipalities would become “municipal districts” that could deliver a limited array of services, including parks and recreation and trash collection.

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