When a phone call from a former St. Louis Police Board member led to his nephew being given special treatment during an arrest, in return Police Chief Dan Isom called the board member on it. That move eventually led to the resignation of Commissioner Vincent J. Bommarito this week.

Bommarito, the board's treasurer, made a phone call to the police department to keep his 46-year-old nephew out of jail. The nephew was arrested Saturday night on suspicion of drunk driving in connection to the Mardi Gras celebration. Rather than being held in jail the nephew was taken to Tony's Restaurant, which is owned by

Vincent Bommarito. No charges were brought against the nephew. That upset Isom who wrote a letter Col. Todd Epsten, president of the police board, stating that he had "grave concern about the situation with respect to the leadership of our organization."

Isom urged Epsten to "find a timely resolution that ensures the current leadership that interference with our department's policies and procedures" won't be tolerated.

Bommarito has admitted that he called a police sergeant and asked that his nephew be released. Isom said it was not the first time Bommarito interfered with the department. During both instances, Isom said, "It is likely that he used his position as a ranking officer."

Isom said Bommarito's "interference has caused confusion, aggravated or influenced the outcome of an active investigation," Isom wrote.

Bommarito fired back saying, "I am disappointed that the person we chose to be chief of police would reach conclusions about me before any investigation could be completed. All citizens of this community expect their police chief to investigate a matter fully before making the kind of serious statements that are contained in his letter."

Bommarito said that as a board member he "is troubled that the chief's letter coupled with his decision to make that letter public, will compromise the integrity of any investigation regarding this matter.

"It will be difficult, if not impossible, to collect information from officers in a fair and impartial manner, when their chief has already passed judgment," Bommarito wrote.

Bommarito categorically denied any abuse of his position at any time."I have never requested any officer or other member of the department to ignore or violate his or her duties or to allow any member of my family to avoid prosecution under the law," Bommarito wrote.

He lashed out in the letter saying the chief's letter "impugns my integrity."
However, under increasing pressure and scrutiny, Vincent Bommarito resigned his post on Monday to Missouri Governor Jay Nixon and the governor accepted. In a statement the same day, Nixon said: “Today I accepted the resignation of Vincent Bommarito from the St. Louis Board of Police Commissioners. His resignation was appropriate given the circumstances surrounding recent events. My office will immediately begin the search process for filling this vacancy.”

Isom also said that early details "suggest factual inconsistency and cover-up."  The allegations against Bommarito come at a time when many are still reeling from the latest scandals involving former Police Chief Joe Mokwa and illegally towed cars.

At this time, too, there is a push for local control of the police department so citizens and local officials can monitor the department more closely.

State Rep. Jamilah Nasheed, D-St. Louis, said Governor Jay Nixon should    have removed Bommarito immediately after the incident instead of waiting for his resignation.

“If the governor would have taken an active role in his removal, that would have shown leadership and accountability,” she said. “I find this lack of leadership disheartening.”

Nasheed and State Rep. Tishaura Jones both had called for Bommarito to resign.Nasheed is the sponsor of a bill that if passed would remove the state’s more than 140 year control of the St. Louis Police Department and give it back to the city.

SPECIAL TO THE ARGUS

If the owners of Forest Park Hospital have their way, not only won't there be a hospital as the community has known it, but hundreds of jobs will be lost as well.

But, several members of the community are saying they are willing to fight to keep the hospital open for the under insured and uninsured.

The Rev. E. G. Shields, president of the St. Louis Clergy Coalition, said the coalition "has been very active" in its campaign to keep the hospital from closing.

"We're looking at losing 300-plus jobs if that hospital closes. We want all of the jobs saved and the services to remain there," he said. The hospital is scheduled to close April 11.

"Most of the people who will lose jobs are from our various congregations. We don't (want) anymore loss of jobs," Shields said. "Another concern we have is that 30 percent of the staff there are African-American doctors. Sixty-nine percent of the patients there are African-American. We don't want to see these people inconvenienced and have to travel to St. Alexus hospital rather than stay at Forest Park," Shields said.

Shields said he and supporters who want the hospital to remain "want the owners to sell it to an entity that is willing to keep it open as a full fledge hospital."

It's his contention that "If history is any indication, they're going to close the facility. In the Homer Phillips situation, they moved the laundry first. At Forest Park they have already moved out all of the patients. They've saved at least 10 medical beds and some of the psychiatric department," Shields said.

Especially disturbing to Shields is "Anytime a hospital, government agency, business or corporation gets ready to down size, they do it on the backs of poor and African-American people.

Sen. Robin Wright-Jones agrees that the current owners should sell the hospital to anyone who is interested in keeping the hospital open to service the needs of the community.

"I support encouraging the current owners to sell the hospital to one of the three teams that have expressed a desire to keep it open," Wright-Jones said.

The senator said she plans to file legislation in about a week that will block "anybody other than (a) 100 percent hospital management company from buying the hospital."

Wright-Jones said she started last fall when the state decided to reduce the Federal Reimbursement Assistance (FRA). These are the payments made for Medicaid patients.

"They said because of the reductions, they would have to close. I intervened with social service. We came up with a three-year program where they (Forest Park owners) would be able to absorb that hit. Then, they turned right around and decided they wanted to merge operations with St. Alexus and close Forest Park. (We've) already been through this in north St. Louis with Homer Phillips, Regional Connect Care and now Forest Park."

Wright-Jones said that for her the fight is about "access to health care." Forest Park Hospital sits in the middle of the city.

"From McCausland to Hampton to Kingshighway and down to Grand, this is where the hospitals are. Disabled, elderly and uninsured and underinsured resident can not afford to catch the MetroLink, a taxicab or the bus. Some don't even have cars or drive. And, it's just not convenient for them. Why are we continuing to be assaulted," Wright-Jones said.

"We're not going to tolerate it. I am a Senator. I am a leader. I can't sit back and watch that happen without some voice and action," said a very passionate Wright-Jones.

"We got their attention. The public needs to call the owner. Brian Dunn is the CEO. SUCCESS owns it and they're based in Florida."

NAACP Elects Roslyn Brock,
44, Youngest Board Chairman

By Jesse Washington

AP National Writer

The NAACP elected a health care executive as its youngest board chairman Saturday, continuing a youth movement for the nation's oldest civil rights organization.

Roslyn M. Brock, 44, was chosen to succeed Julian Bond. She had been vice chairman since 2001 and a member of the NAACP for 25 years.

Brock works for Bon Secours Health Systems in Maryland as vice president for advocacy and government relations, and spent 10 years working on health issues for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. She joins Benjamin Todd Jealous, the 37-year-old CEO of the NAACP, as leader of the 500,000-member organization.

Brock said she plans to focus on pushing for policy changes to eliminate inequality, strengthening the relationship between the national and local NAACP branches and holding people accountable.

"It's not always what someone is doing to us, but what we are doing for ourselves," Brock said in an interview.

The departure of Bond, 70, after 10 years as board chairman marks a turning point for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Pepole.

Bond came of age in the segregated South, helped found the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee and was on the front lines of the protests that led to the nation's landmark civil rights laws. He is a symbol and icon of "the movement," which was a defining experience for older generations.

In recent years the NAACP has endured criticism that it is old and out of touch. Then Bond brought in Jealous, then 34, as the NAACP's youngest CEO, and endorsed Brock's bid for board chairman.
The selection of young leaders "is deliberate, but it's also fortuitous," Bond said. "We are lucky to have had this confluence of a young CEO and a young chair. I don't think we plotted and planned that in 2010 the stars would align this way."

Jealous said he belongs to a generation "whose greatest accomplishments are in front of them ... who are even more hungry for change."
Bond said the board asked him to run for another one-year term, but he declined.

"Frankly, this is the most difficult nonpaying job I've ever had," said Bond, who has served in the Georgia state legislature, is a member of several corporate boards and a professor at American University and the University of Virginia.

Brock was selected in a vote by the 64-person NAACP board. Her opponent was Rev. Wendell Anthony, leader of the NAACP's Detroit chapter, who withdrew Friday after he was not re-elected to his seat on the board.

Brock graduated from Virginia Union University and has an MBA from Northwestern, as well as master's degrees in health care administration and divinity.
She described health care as her passion and said the current reform debate hinges on one fundamental question.

"Am I my brother's and my sister's keeper?" Brock asked. "That's the question that we've got to ask our legislators. Are we really, really concerned about our neighbors, and about their health, and their children's health?"

While acknowledging the need to "retool our front line" and develop young civil rights activists, Brock said the wisdom of the older generation is still needed.

"If it were not for that 'aging' membership, the NAACP would not be who it is and what it is today," she said.

Many conservatives question the need for an NAACP and say that an association for the advancement of white people would be considered racist.

Brock said the NAACP has erroneously been classified as a black group: "We are not. We are a multiracial, multiethnic organization. So as we move into our second century, our desire is to cast our net broader."

"'People of color' or 'colored people' really speaks to those who are falling through the cracks ... who feel locked out," she said.

She said the nation was at a pivotal moment after electing the first black president.
"I'd be the first to say that at the NAACP we have to acknowledge how far we've come as a nation in terms of race relations, but also in that acknowledgment, understanding that we're not where we ought to be, but we thank God we're not what we used to be.

"We need to draw a line in the sand and say thank you, America ... but also challenge America that we still have much more work to do."

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