Mayor Holmes Leaves City Hall When the Time is Right

Maybe country singer Kenny Rogers was right? “You just have to know when to show ‘em and when to fold ‘em.” and that seems to work just fine for Ladue’s outgoing mayor, Irene S. Holmes.

“It’s been a privilege serving as the mayor for Ladue. I took this job seriously, and I gave it a lot of effort,” she said. An unpaid but elected position, Holmes usually is behind her desk at City Hall two to three hours a day, in addition to attending countless meetings and planning sessions.

“But you have to know when it’s time to get out, and that time is now,” she said. “My husband died last August, and I need to just move on.”

Holmes runs a flower sales operation. Petals by Irene is based out of her son Jack's home on Oak Ben Drive and will be on Thornwood Drive in Ladue very soon. The phone is answered 24 hours a day.

How can there be an emergency in the flower business? “When it’s two in the morning and a husband forgot his wife’s birthday, flowers can save the moment,” she said. She’s rescued more than one marriage that way.

Holmes proudly boasts that Ladue is one of the wealthiest and most established enclaves anywhere in America. She says Ladue stands shoulder-to-shoulder with places like Palm Beach, FL. and Greenwich, CT. She calls Ladue "Camelot," and wants it to remain just that way. Ladue will celebrate its 75th anniversary in September. “We are perfectly positioned for that,” she said.

“We made it through the recession with a surplus in our treasury. The boutiques along Clayton Road don’t deliver a significant amount of sales tax to city coffers. The private schools in Ladue are all tax-exempt.”

“Ninety nine percent of the people in Ladue are better off than the rest of the country. But they have their problems just like anyone else. However, most have enough money to deal with their problems,” she said.

Holmes was first elected to public office as a city council member in 1998. She became mayor in 2003 and served four, two-year terms.

Her proudest legislative accomplishments were the first serious repair of Ladue’s infrastructure in 20 years and the passage of a one-fourth-of-a-penny sales tax for storm water relief. Ladue neighborhoods have been plagued by streams rising out of their banks, and the storm-water tax deals with that significant issue. She was at the helm when Interstate 64 was rebuilt, rerouting endless traffic over Ladue’s major arteries of Clayton, Ladue, Price, McKnight, Warson and Litzsinger roads.

The newly installed traffic lights that helped move traffic during reconstruction was a pet project of the mayor's.

Holmes has seen Ladue tilt slightly from a country, gentrified community to a little more urbane, like Clayton. “We’ve added sidewalks everywhere. Ladue has become a walking community, and we have tons of joggers,” she said.

She is aggrieved by the loss of Busch’s Grove. I talked to Lester Miller, the developer and owner during the planning stages. He is a big hearted, generous man. He does so much for BackStoppers, the relief agency for police and firemen stricken in the line of duty, she said. Holmes would like to see that abandoned white elephant function once more. After all, it represented some 111 years of continuous use.

Holmes describes the power structure in Ladue this way. “We have a mayoral style of government. By that, everyone answers to the mayor," she said. But really, all of the workers answer to their department heads. It’s better to be structured that way, she said.

"It's so darn hard to get rid of a bad city employee. Our mayor is elected for just two years, and if they do a bad job, the people simply vote the mayor out of office. The mayor merely runs the (council) meetings and breaks tie votes," she said.

So what’s the future hold for this 56-year-old, soon-to-be retired mayor and businesswomen? First thing, she’ll sharpen her golf game at St. Louis Country Club. She will continue to travel abroad on her favorite liner, the Crystal Symphony and will remain with the St. Louis Garden Club. She will continue to read volumes of books and write a column, "The Ladue Dirty Gardner" for Patch.

Although she's well educated and has studied abroad in Switzerland and Italy, she didn’t always have it so easy.”When I was in college, I waited tables and cleaned houses. I grew up on Litzsinger Road, and my mother was amazing. When she didn’t have so much money, she painted the whole house herself and built brick garden walls.”

Holmes will depart the mayor’s seat at the high point of her career. “It has been an absolute privilege serving as mayor. I loved the attention. But it’s time to go,” she said.