St. Louis County Executive Sam Page pushes back on County Council wanting power to remove him from office

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ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - The St. Louis County Council wants to get the power to remove the county executive from office. How does their target Dr. Sam Page feel?

"I make a lot of difficult decisions," said Page. "Every executive makes a lot of difficult decisions."

Page pushed back on the County Council's plan to ask voters for the power to remove him, saying this bill is a power grab, by taking power away from the people and giving it to the council.

"It massively disenfranchises 750,000 voters in St. Louis County," said Page.

"There's a process in the charter to elect a county executive and there is a process in the charter to remove a county executive. That should not be taken away by members of council."

Page says taking this power from the people and giving it to a handful of Council members would make it difficult for the county to function.

"If our government is set up to remove a executive whether it's a governor, a county executive, or a president because they are mad at him, that's bad government," said Page.

Page said the Council needs to focus more on making St. Louis County better.

"We should all be working together. We should all sit down and talk about these things," said Page.

Page says he has asked each member of the council to meet with him individually.

St. Louis County Councilman Dennis Hancock was on 'Total Information A.M.' earlier this week to discuss the bill and says the bill is not 'necessarily aimed at the county executive as it is at the executive's staff'.

If passed, the bill would go to the voters for approval. The County Council hopes to have it on the upcoming spring ballot.

Page says if the legislation is passed and makes its way onto the spring ballot he will respect the will of the voters.

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