Commissioner Nelson pushes for greater representation on ARC board

It looks like Commissioner Nelson is wrong about the level of funding from St. Louis County, unless he’s adding the state’s funding to his county’s. From the article, it appears that St. Louis County contributes around 62%, not 80%. We can probably assume that St. Louis County also gets most of the benefit of jobs from NERCC and ARC through the facilities’ location and a much larger population.

This is beside the point from a governance perspective, though. I assume the directors get paid for their service on the board, and their fiduciary responsibility is to ensure the organization is running smoothly, not to ensure that one county has all the control. Their fiduciary responsibility comes first.

I can think of no reason the directors from the other counties would vote in favor of the resolution for St. Louis County to withdraw. However… if Commissioner Nelson is too disruptive to the board, the board can always put forward a proposal to remove him or vote him out at the next election. Even directors from his own county have responsibility to the organization first.

It doesn’t sound like he really understands the precariousness of his position. He has 12.5% influence.