3 weeks Ago By By Jacob Barker St. Louis Post-Dispatch
ST. LOUIS — As a new comptroller was sworn in for the first time in 30 years, the sound of bagpipes echoed through the City Hall rotunda. It was a nod to new Comptroller Donna Baringer’s Irish heritage in St.
Louis, which she said stretches back to the Kerry Patch neighborhood north of downtown where refugees from the famine settled in the mid-19th century. “My roots run deep in this city,” Baringer told the audience gathered in the rotunda of City Hall for her inauguration and that of Mayor-elect Cara Spencer. Baringer defeated Darlene Green a week ago, ousting an incumbent who had held the job since 1995 and faced few serious challengers for the office in that time.
The comptroller runs the city’s finance division, internal audit section and has one of three votes, along with the mayor and board of aldermen president, on the Board of Estimate and Apportionment, which approves all city spending. In the wake of a troubled rollout of a new accounting system and reports that Green often was absent from the office, Baringer ran on a promise to run the office more efficiently and energetically. “I became very upset with what was happening in the city of St.
Louis, so upset that I said I’m too frustrated, I need to run for comptroller,” Baringer said. Baringer, 62, said she has spent the past 20 years — first as an alderman and then as a state representative representing southwest St. Louis — learning “everything I could about how I could best represent this city.
” Flanked by her husband of 34 years and one of her two sons, Baringer told the audience she wanted to make her ancestors, many of them buried in Calvary Cemetry, proud. And in a nod to an election marked by a stark divide between residents of north St. Louis who largely supported Green, who is Black, and south St.
Louisans who supported Baringer, who is white, the new comptroller called for unity. “I want to make it the best it can be, from the east to the west to the north to the south,” Baringer said. “We are one St.
Louis.” After her speech, an entourage of Hibernians playing bagpipes marched her to a reception, where dozens of supporters spent the afternoon waiting to congratulate Baringer and take a picture with the new comptroller. Unlike the mayor, who can make immediate hires of department heads, the comptroller’s office is staffed by civil servants, limiting how quickly it can staff up or rearrange top leaders.
Baringer said former deputy comptroller Jim Garavaglia, fired by Green in 2019, would help oversee the transition, and she has also brought on her former legislative aide from Jefferson City. Baringer said she plans to quickly meet with existing staff, many of whom have had one boss for decades. She said she expects most employees should stay on, and she plans to do what she can to help.
“I don’t think it’s about loyalty,” Baringer said. “We’re talking about people who do finance. So, I think it’s more about do they like their job? Have they been trained? Do they have what they need to do their job? How can I help them do their job?”.
