After a nearly two hour long closed door meeting, the SLDC board voted to replace Neal Richardson as CEO by a man who formerly held his position, Otis Williams. Richardson says it was an honor to serve the city, saying his staff is his proudest achievement.
"My staff has bought into the vision of the economic justice action plan," said Richardson, adding "we've rebranded SLDC to be more community centric, raising the voices of our community organizations."
He particularly praised his staff and the work they did, particularly with ARPA funded programs.
"We stood up over 15 new programs through the American Rescue Plan Act in a matter of really two years."
Some of those programs drew criticism for Richardson and SLDC particularly newly elected Mayor Cara Spencer, most notably the North City Grant Program. Last month Spencer replaced Richardson as the Chair of the SLDC board with her Chief of Staff, Nancy Hawes. Despite being the one who forced him out, Richardson wished Mayor Spencer the best success.
"I'll say this publicly, the City of St. Louis cannot succeed if our Mayor is not successful."