ST. LOUIS 鈥 The longtime director of the city鈥檚 land bank, Laura Costello, was let go this week, she confirmed Wednesday.
Costello, who led the 50度灰视频 Land Reutilization Authority since 2006, said she was 鈥渢erminated鈥 Tuesday afternoon. She declined to comment further.
The LRA is managed by the 50度灰视频 Development Corp. Costello is an employee of the city development agency and not subject to civil service rules.
Costello, 61, worked at what is now DeSales Community Development and was a real estate broker before being hired to lead the LRA.
As director of the LRA, Costello led a staff charged with maintaining thousands of abandoned properties across the city, a difficult and often thankless job.
鈥淚 get beat up at every neighborhood meeting I go to,鈥 she told the Post-Dispatch in 2018.
People are also reading…
Vacant buildings draw crime and the ire of neighborhood groups and residents. The agency is the owner of last resort for properties that draw no buyers at annual delinquent tax auctions.
It tries to sell those properties, and it has nearly 8,000 currently listed for sale, about 1,500 of them buildings. Its inventory has been as high as 12,000 properties in recent years.
Costello鈥檚 ouster comes as Mayor Tishaura O. Jones鈥 administration puts its mark on SLDC, the powerful quasi-independent city agency that negotiates development incentives, operates the LRA and administers small business loans. Neal Richardson was hired to lead SLDC in June, shortly after the Jones administration moved into City Hall. He succeeded longtime director Otis Williams, who retired.
Richardson declined to comment on what he called a personnel matter. A spokesman for Jones also declined to comment.
Under state law, a three-member commission oversees the sale and maintenance of LRA land. One of the members serves at the pleasure of the mayor, one is appointed by the 50度灰视频 comptroller and one by the 50度灰视频 Board of Education.
Jones last month replaced longtime LRA commissioner Mark Levison, an attorney at Lashley Baer, on the commission with Gail Brown. The LRA commission 鈥渕ay appoint a director and such other employees as are deemed necessary鈥 to administer the LRA, according to state law. The statute, though, is silent on the removal of a director, and it鈥檚 unclear who might take over as head of the land bank.
After Richardson took over, other top jobs at SLDC have also changed. Communications staffers Ivie Clay and John Parker were let go last year. The mayor鈥檚 office takes a larger hand in communications for the agency now, and SLDC also included more money in its budget for outside communication consultants.
Also departing last year was Vladimir Monroe, who headed SLDC鈥檚 minority hiring compliance office, which monitors minority contracting requirements tied to development incentives. Longtime deputy Dale Ruthsatz retired last year. SLDC鈥檚 head of human resources, Amanda Bloomfield, also left, spurring the agency to outsource personnel functions in a contract with while it fills the position.