In January, when the Blues announced their proposal to ask the city to pay part of the renovation costs on the city-owned Scottrade Center, Reed was front and center as the sponsor of the bill. He became the proposal’s chief cheerleader as various aldermen questioned the amount of money the proposal would take from general revenue at a time when the city’s finances are in tough shape.

The bill struggled to get out of committee but was finally poised for its big debate in front of the full Board of Aldermen last Friday. Just three days before that meeting, Reed received an additional $100,000 donation from Steward. On the morning of the meeting, reporters from the Post-Dispatch and elsewhere were asking questions about the Steward donation. Then the St. Louis Business Journal posted an article online connecting the donation to that day’s debate.

Here’s where it gets weird.

Some aldermen, led by Cara Spencer of the 20th Ward, wanted the board to slow down on passing the Scottrade subsidies, coming so quickly on the heels of the approval of two measures for the April 4 ballot on a sales-tax increase for MetroLink and a $60 million subsidy for a new Major League Soccer stadium downtown. Spencer asked for the bill to be sent back to committee for further study.