Lee said he used no special connection to get hired, but had quit driving a cab for a living and applied at a number of places.

Lee was last in the news in November, when he announced he would not run for mayor of St. Louis.

On his way out of the race, Lee wrote on a blog that the Gateway Arch was a "monument to genocide" and should be blown up, and that any parent "who loves their child needs to be telling their children to get the hell out of St. Louis."

He also wrote: "It doesn’t matter who is mayor of St. Louis. Mayor Francis Slay in his fifth term, Antonio French, Tishaura Jones, this city has an incurable cancer."

When asked about working for a city for which he expressed so much contempt, Lee compared it to a marriage.

"People complain about their spouse, but they still love them," Lee said. "At the end of the day, I'm from St. Louis. I'm a St. Louis guy."

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