ST. LOUIS — The regional tourism bureau’s board of directors discussed the possible resignation of embattled director Kitty Ratcliffe on Tuesday.
During a private virtual meeting that was accidentally made public, Dave Robert, vice chairman of the St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission, spoke of ongoing issues with sales and operations, staff morale problems and the need for a change at the top.
“Changes have to happen for the good of the organization and for the good of the employees on the ground,” he said. “This is not a good culture.”
Roberts said Ratcliffe has done a good job over the years, including handling the fight to keep the Rams football team and raising $250 million for the ongoing convention center expansion.
But Ratcliffe also said he had been spending so much time on the expansion that he had not had time to focus on “operational matters.”
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“We have operational and sales issues,” he said.
Key members of the team have tried to quit but are not allowed to do so, he added.
“Honestly, there are morale issues on our team and people have real trouble speaking up,” he said. “This is not an acceptable culture in any of our businesses.”
Kitty Ratcliffe, president of Explore St. Louis. Photo courtesy of Barlow Productions.
Roberts declined to comment after the meeting, and Ratcliffe couldn’t immediately be reached.
The CVC board meeting on Tuesday morning was held virtually; a Post-Dispatch reporter subscribed via phone using a provided link, but was ultimately told the meeting was planned to be closed to the public.
Commission spokesman Brian Hall later said he did not know whether Ratcliffe planned to resign and that his contract finishes in June next year.
“At this point, these discussions are about succession planning,” he said.
The discussion comes amid a tough few years for Ratcliffe and the commission, who have struggled with a difficult expansion of America’s Center, built in 1977 on the north edge of downtown.
In 2018, St. Louis-area leaders unveiled plans for the $175 million project, which would add 92,000 square feet of new exhibit space on the center’s northwest corner along Cole Street; build a new 65,000-square-foot banquet hall along Ninth Avenue and a new kitchen to serve it; replace an unsightly parking lot with a public plaza and green space; and build a new loading dock to accommodate larger conventions.
But it’s faced one obstacle after another since then: The city took months longer than expected to issue bonds to cover half the cost as leaders weighed the pandemic’s impact on the city’s finances, and then county officials waited until April 2022 to approve their own bond issue.
Meanwhile, construction market inflation has sent costs soaring: When the city’s Public Service Commission, which oversees the project, called for bids for the expansion, the first round of bids was about $40 million over budget and the second round received no bids at all.
Ratcliffe said in April 2022 that the excess would be reduced by at least $8 million.
But that never happened: By the end of April, change orders for the first phase had reached $7 million, nearly depleting the city’s reserve fund, according to city records.
City records also show officials pumped about $20 million more into the first phase, at least in part because they were concerned there wouldn’t be enough money for the second phase.
The news prompted renewed calls for Ratcliffe’s removal from his position, including from critics St. Louis County Councilman Ernie Trakas and Clayco founder Bob Clark.
The recent record marks the latest sign of struggles for a project important to downtown St. Louis and the region.
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