By KWMU
St. Louis, MO – Former St. Louis mayor and school board member Vince Schoemehl will serve on the board that runs the region's mass transit agency.
Gov. Matt Blunt announced Wednesday that he's naming Schoemehl to Metro's board, for a term that would last until 2011. His nomination needs state Senate confirmation.
"As a former mayor, Vince Schoemehl has a unique understanding of the St. Louis region and its public transportation infrastructure needs," said Gov. Blunt, in a statement.
Schoemehl, 60, lives in the Skinker-DeBaliviere neighborhood of St. Louis City and is president and CEO of the arts district Grand Center.
He served as mayor from 1981-1993 and was involved in the development of Metrolink during that time.
In 2003, Schoemehl was elected to the St. Louis School Board and resigned in Nov. 2005, just shy of completing his three-year term.
Schoemehl was part of a four-person slate that Mayor Francis Slay had endorsed and that tended to vote as a bloc, recruiting a firm to run the district, closing more than a dozen schools and laying off staff.
Schoemehl was once accused of threatening a fellow school board member and making comments that compared district parents to Nazis. He later apologized.