“Everybody wants me to answer that question. I don’t know what that legislation would look like. I don’t know how it would affect the cities,” he said. “We don’t want to have high crime rates. Whatever I can do to help these two mayors, I want to try to assist.”

Krewson led Parson and James through a packed itinerary that included visits to Roosevelt High School, Ranken Technical College, and MADE, a working space for artists. They were joined by Linda McMahon, administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration, for stops at the downtown T-Rex Incubator and GeoData IT LLC, a small veteran-owned business on Washington Avenue.

“We’re not going to agree on some things. I’m not going to agree on some of the things you do here, you’re not going to agree on some of the things I do,” Parson told the chamber. “But I will tell you this: If we will be open-minded with one another, there will be many, many things we will agree on, that will be the best thing in the world for the state of Missouri. And we should all focus on that.”