John Griesheimer, the presiding commissioner of Franklin County, is the new chairman of the East-West Gateway Council of Governments Board of Directors.
Griesheimer, 64, will be the chairman of the board for the remainder of 2017. The new vice chairman of the board is Mark Kern, chairman of the St. Clair County Board. St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger is the new second vice chairman.
Prior to being presiding commissioner in Franklin County, Greisheimer was a s
tate senator from 2002 to 2012. He also served in the Missouri House of Representatives from 1992 to 2002. He is a native of St. Clair, Mo., and lives in Washington, Mo.
The East-West Gateway Board of Directors has 24 voting members, including the mayor of the city of St. Louis, and the top elected officials of the surrounding seven counties. There are five non-voting members on the board in addition to the 24 voting members. The East-West Gateway region consists of the city of St. Louis, and Franklin, Jefferson, St. Charles and St. Louis counties in Missouri, and Madison, Monroe, and St. Clair county in Illinois.
As the region’s federally designated metropolitan planning organization, East-West Gateway plans and approves federal funding for major regional transportation and homeland security projects.
East-West Gateway was formed in 1965 as part of a national policy to more equitably distribute federal funding in metropolitan areas by involving municipal and county jurisdictions in the decision making process.
The board meets at 10 a.m. on the last Wednesday of each month at the East-West Gateway offices on the 16th floor of the Gateway Tower, One Memorial Drive in downtown St. Louis.