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Steve Stenger will not be the first unelected mayor of a reconfigured St. Louis.

On Monday, the organizers of nonprofit Better Together plan to refile the statewide ballot initiative that would unite St. Louis County and the city of St. Louis into one new government entity of about 1.3 million residents. The new petition Better Together plans to file would remove the section that would make the St. Louis County executive, currently Stenger, the first mayor until an election in 2024.

“We are doing this in response to heartfelt and widespread feedback that the citizens of St. Louis wanted to see an election (for their new mayor) sooner rather than later,” said Nancy Rice, the executive director of Better Together.

There has been a massive “hue and cry” against the original language that would have elected the new 33-member city council in 2022, Rice said, but would have suspended the election for mayor, as well as for St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell and Assessor Jake Zimmerman, who all would have continued in their positions until new elections in 2024.