蜜柚直播

Editor's note: This editorial was originally published on June 17.

There are official duties for which St. Louis city Sheriff Alfred Montgomery is responsible, such as providing court security and transporting jail detainees for medical treatment, that he has failed to adequately carry out and has even publicly balked at.

There are many other things the sheriff is very much not supposed to do that Montgomery has done during his short time in office: handcuffing the city鈥檚 top corrections official, making deputies drive his kids to school, draining his budget with lavish spending on unnecessary things like golf carts and new badges, summarily firing more than a dozen deputies for no reason beyond politics 鈥� and forcing one deputy to literally to determine whether he could keep his job.

Enough is enough. 蜜柚直播 statutes contain a provision that allows the court system to remove city officials for malfeasance or failure to do their jobs. Montgomery has more than met both those thresholds. It鈥檚 time for him to go.

Montgomery, 28, took office in January after unseating former Sheriff Vernon Betts with a campaign painting the incumbent as power hungry and politically corrupt. Upon taking office, Montgomery quickly demonstrated that Betts鈥� brand of self-serving fiefdom politics was nothing compared with what the new sheriff had in mind.

Under St. Louis鈥� unusual structure as a stand-alone city outside of any county, Montgomery鈥檚 duties are more limited than those of a typical county sheriff. His duties include providing court room security, transporting jail detainees and serving court documents. The city sheriff is not a law enforcement officer in the sense of investigating crimes and making arrests; that falls to the city police department.

Montgomery has never appeared to understand that. This was evidenced by his handcuffing in February of city Corrections Commissioner Tammy Ross for what Montgomery claimed was interference in a criminal investigation by 鈥渢he top law enforcement officer in the county.鈥�

Again: St. Louis city 颈蝉苍鈥檛 a county, the sheriff 颈蝉苍鈥檛 the city鈥檚 top law enforcement officer (that would be the city police chief) and the sheriff 诲辞别蝉苍鈥檛 conduct criminal investigations.

By late May, Montgomery still hadn鈥檛 gotten that through his head, judging from a letter he sent to Mayor Cara Spencer balking at transporting jail detainees for medical appointments (his job) in part because it interfered with his 鈥渃ore law enforcement duties鈥� (not his job).

Under pressure from the Board of Aldermen, Montgomery had appeared to back off from that stance and agreed to continue transporting detainees. But as the Post-Dispatch鈥檚 Austin Huguelet reported last week, the city鈥檚 Department of Public Safety later alleged Montgomery鈥檚 office was in fact failing to provide full transport services. Montgomery鈥檚 office has denied the allegation, saying any lapses were due to staffing problems.

Then there is Montgomery鈥檚 mishandling of his department鈥檚 budget. Part of it stems from his summary firings of more than a dozen deputies, resulting in about a half-million dollars in benefit payouts, says the city comptroller.

Yet even as Montgomery pleads departmental poverty to the Board of Aldermen, he has had the department purchase for him a take-home 2025 Chevrolet Tahoe SUV, which typically sells for around $60,000 (Montgomery has refused to divulge what his department actually paid). He has also purchased around $10,000 worth of golf carts and more than $28,000 worth of new badges.

Montgomery has tried to address his budgetary shortfalls in part by hiring a team of high-profile, presumably high-priced lobbyists tasked with trying to get him a bigger outlay. As with the new SUV, Montgomery鈥檚 office 颈蝉苍鈥檛 revealing what it鈥檚 paying the lobbyists.

Did we already say enough is enough? How about enough is enough is enough?

蜜柚直播 law contains a provision () that allows the court system to remove certain classes of local elected officials who engage in 鈥渁ny willful or fraudulent violation or neglect of any official duty.鈥� It鈥檚 the same statute 蜜柚直播 Attorney General Andrew Bailey cited in suing to remove former St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner from office in 2023. Gardner 鈥� who, like Montgomery, failed to carry out basic functions of her office 鈥� resigned before that suit could play out.

Local government reform organization last month sent a to Bailey, St. Louis Circuit Attorney Gabe Gore and St. Louis City Counselor Michael Garvin urging them to invoke the same statute to oust Montgomery, citing some of the above-outlined abuses and failures.

They should.

And as we鈥檝e said before, St. Louis should rethink the whole concept of having an elected sheriff whose job could just as easily be absorbed by the city court system. Montgomery is walking evidence of the need to get fiefdom politics out of these routine duties.