City of St. Louis Pauses Police Chief’s Pay Increase Due to Legal Concerns

City's Law Department today notified the Board of legal deficiencies in its process; City to pause the raise, which it has discovered was made retroactively effective to a date before the vote was made, pending the state's investigation.

ST. LOUIS, MO - Today, Mayor Cara Spencer announced that the City's Law Department provided formal notice to the St. Louis Board of Police Commissioners, via the Board attorney, of the legal deficiencies in its secretive and improper process to approve a salary increase for Police Chief Robert Tracy. As a result of those legal concerns and a pending state investigation announced today, the City is pausing the salary increase until the investigation concludes and the Board's actions are determined to have been proper.

The Board approved Chief Tracy's request for a contract extension to his existing three-year contract through 2030 in closed-door proceedings held on October 15 and October 17, 2026. The agreement raised the Chief's annual base salary to $295,000, an increase of roughly $110,000. The agreement also provided for annual guaranteed salary increases each October; a two-year payout provision where he will continue to receive this salary in the event he is terminated as police chief; and the creation of a new fund to provide compensation to cover his employee contributions for health, dental, and prescription insurance.

The City has learned Chief Tracy was paid at the increased rate retroactively starting October 11. Standard processes provide that even if the pay raise was properly approved, it should not have been submitted to take effect until the pay period following the approval. As a result, the paycheck issued today contained an extra week's salary at the increased rate.

Earlier today, Governor Mike Kehoe asked Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway to open an investigation into potential violations of Missouri's Sunshine Law during those meetings. State law (Section 610.011, RSMo) declares that the meetings, votes and deliberations of public bodies, including the Board, are open to the public unless the law specifically provides otherwise.

The City Counselor's notice today outlines the deficiencies in how the Board considered and approved this proposed contract, including its decision to act behind closed doors in apparent violation of state open records laws. Because the Board's process does not appear to have met those requirements, and because of the pending state investigation, the City must pause the increase to the Chief's salary.

The City will not process one more dollar of this improperly-effected increase until the state's investigation is complete. The City will revisit the matter only after the Attorney General's investigation concludes and the Board's actions are determined with legal certainty to have been proper.

"I am outraged by how this was done," said Mayor Spencer. "The Police Board went behind closed doors and handed out a significant raise that, with pension and other costs, will end up costing taxpayers well over a million dollars. It's as if they believe the people of St. Louis have no right to know how their own money is being spent. This is deeply disrespectful to the residents who pay for this department, and to the City that is expected to cover the cost. St. Louisans deserve a police board that does the public's business in public."

Mayor Spencer has raised concerns as the Board's decision to approve an increase of this size draws from a finite police budget that could otherwise go toward hiring more rank-and-file officers. She has also noted that she and the Board of Estimate and Apportionment have not met to consider the related fire chief salary increase, given how quickly the Board acted.