STL Consolidation: Political Consultant Rosetta Okohson

This was written by Claire, one of our summer interns. The opinions expressed herein do not reflect those of Civitas other than respect for the value of open dialogue.

Rosetta Okohson is a native St. Louisan and passionate Missourian. She is the Founder & Principal Fundraising and Political Consultant at MO Political Consulting, LLC.; board member of the Gateway Regional YMCA; and former Secretary of the Saint Louis Young Democrats. Our interview was conducted in the MO Political Consulting office located in Maplewood. Throughout the interview, Rosetta was very comfortable discussing city/county consolidation, but I expected that considering that her job mainly deals with STL politics.

Speaking of Rosetta’s job, her position requires her to be professionally involved with STL C&C issues through working for candidates in the city and the county that are constantly having to answer questions from constituents regarding both city and county issues. She works to make sure people have enough info available to understand consolidation because she says it is difficult for people to understand something when you can’t visualize it. Generally, she is in favor of consolidating St. Louis City and St. Louis County. She believes that St. Charles County should also be included in the consolidation plan because she thinks people would be able to utilize the benefits of the metro area since there are casinos and hotels there providing business. Additionally, Rosetta is in favor of consolidating the individual municipalities of St. Charles County because she believes that we need to get rid of the “bureaucratic red tape” that exists within the divided municipalities. In regard to Metrolink expansion, Rosetta is in favor of Metrolink expanding to St. Charles County.

In regard to St. Louis City, Rosetta is not afraid to go into the city. In fact, she just bought a house there, and she says that she was very intentional with where she decided to spend her money. She believes that STL city isn’t any more unsafe than any other parts of the region. As for places outside of the city, she finds herself often visiting West County Mall for shopping purposes, the Manchester and Ballwin areas for clients, and other places in the county to visit her family. She travels to other counties on a weekly basis.

On a somewhat unrelated note, Rosetta accepts scientific evidence of climate change. Interestingly enough, she hasn’t been alarmed by the recent flooding in the St. Louis area because she thinks it’s to be expected since she believes that it is our fault for building communities in flood plains and putting levees in places where they shouldn’t be.

In the end, Rosetta believes that in any consolidation plan, a willingness to compromise from both sides of the political spectrum is essential in order to make sure that everything is done for the betterment of the people.