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ST. LOUIS — For weeks, a private nonprofit has been quietly working behind the scenes to help the city’s new mayor pick top lieutenants — and tackle top priorities — in her nascent administration.

Two high-powered consultancies are already working for the nonprofit. They helped coordinate the early days of Mayor Cara Spencer’s transition. They’re preparing to staff advisory committees tasked with telling Spencer how best to attack her priorities. They’re building a pool of candidates to help her deliver on promises to overhaul underperforming city departments. And they’re raising money — $50,000 so far.

Two well-known board members are directing the work. One is Jerry Schlichter, an attorney with a national profile earned suing big companies and a local reputation as one of the city’s biggest boosters. The other, Celeste Vossmeyer, has been a top corporate and public sector lawyer here.

Both have supported Spencer’s campaigns for years.

Spencer says the nonprofit is playing a key role.

“We’re trying to do searches for key staff,� she said in a brief interview last week. “The goal is to help us.�

Vossmeyer said the nonprofit is working with Spencer to help as much as it can.

“We hope to be supportive and address needs as they arise,� Vossmeyer said.

Schlichter declined comment for this story.

In some ways, it’s only the latest move to bring the flexibility of the private sector to City Hall. Years ago, the city created a nonprofit to oversee its slew of economic development boards. A couple of years ago, the city asked the Regional Business Council to pay a consultant to help find a new police chief. And for the past couple of years, a private foundation has even been paying part of that new police chief’s salary.

But the new nonprofit backing Spencer, called Change for STL, is a novel approach to a mayoral transition. In the past, those tasks have generally been handled by people already working for the mayor, either on their campaigns or in their previous offices.

Nonprofits are not required to disclose as much information as city government or even political campaigns, making it easier to take in money that might draw notice.

David Stokes, director of municipal policy at the conservative Show-Me Institute, said private headhunters are probably easier to work with than the city’s notoriously bureaucratic Personnel Department, which has been in a state of chaos in recent months.

But Stokes said close scrutiny is warranted.

“If they want to hide stuff,� Stokes said, “it’s going to be much easier to do through a nonprofit.�

Change for STL leaders say they plan to be open about who is donating — they said the first two checks came from local Laborers unions, at $25,000 each — and where that money is going.

“We will be making this very transparent,� said Vossmeyer, the nonprofit’s treasurer.

How to find high-end talent

Several key campaign staffers for Mayor Francis Slay came with him into Room 200, and led the transition.

“We just did it ourselves,� said Jeff Rainford, who managed Slay’s campaign and became his chief of staff. They kept some key directors in place. And they had already developed Slay’s policy “action plan� in the campaign.

Nancy Rice, a longtime political operative who worked on Mayor Lyda Krewson’s transition, described it similarly. Volunteers and friends of the mayor-elect got together, made plans and put the word out that they were looking for résumés.

“It was kind of old school,� Rice said. Krewson also didn’t have to hire as many people: She kept Slay directors at key posts like the airport, the parks department, the water department, and the city’s development arm.

Mayor Tishaura O. Jones brought Jared Boyd, her chief of staff, with her from the Treasurer’s office, and he ran her transition, along with other allies.

“I led the transition,� he said. “The transition team sourced the talent. And then the mayor’s office ultimately made the hires.�

Spencer’s camp is looking to upend business as usual. She was elected on April 8 on a wave of frustration from residents. ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ were tired of potholes, overflowing dumpsters, and a stubborn sense of lawlessness. Spencer promised to fix all of those things and more.

She said it would take a big coalition of supporters, better execution — and high-end talent.

To that end, the nonprofit’s consultants are, right now, hunting for job candidates — and not just around here.

“We’re really trying to find a pool of individuals that would be interested in moving to St. Louis,� said Joni Wickham, one of the consultants.

They also want to use advisory committees to put more heads together on plans to tackle the city’s challenges.

And they say City Hall by itself doesn’t have the budget or manpower for those things.

Enter consultancy Wickham James — led by former Kansas City Mayor Sly James and Wickham, James’ former chief of staff — and St. Louis-based Mazur & Co.

Spencer started working with them before the election on potential hires and other preparations to govern. For instance, James, who worked with a state-controlled police department in Kansas City, offered Spencer advice on how to deal with renewed state control in St. Louis.

Wickham declined to say exactly who Spencer was looking to replace.

Some needs are obvious, though: Spencer wants a new chief in the Streets Department, which manages trash pickup, street maintenance and snow clearance, and new leadership at the St. Louis Development Corp. She still needs a permanent operations chief. And the health department director under Jones just resigned.

Meanwhile, the committees — tasked with helping improve city services, attract new businesses, improve neighborhoods, tackle homelessness, attract immigrants, improve schools and make the city safer — are set to begin meeting in the coming weeks.

A report from the committees is due to Spencer by the end of July.

‘A lot of things that haven’t been done’

After that, the nonprofit’s plan is less clear.

It is filing with the IRS as a 501(c)(3) entity, which generally cannot participate in political campaign activity.

Neither Vossmeyer nor Schlichter would talk specific plans for the future.

Vossmeyer was a top executive at Charter Communications and general counsel at Bi-State Development, which runs the Metro light rail and bus services. She worked as an attorney at heavyweight firm Thompson Coburn, and as a public health administrator for St. Louis County. She currently teaches at St. Louis University’s law school.

Schlichter is known nationally for successfully suing companies over employee retirement plans with hidden or excessive fees. He’s also one of the city’s most prominent civic boosters: He is credited with helping pass the state historic tax credit, which helped revitalize historic neighborhoods around the city. He is the founder and chairman of Arch Grants, which offers money to startups willing to move operations to St. Louis. He funded a major effort to lure more Afghan refugees to the area in recent years.

He has also backed both of Spencer’s mayoral campaigns, and she has mirrored his thinking that the city should use the Rams settlement money to boost homeownership in downtown and north St. Louis.

The new mayor’s allies like the sound of the nonprofit’s help.

“It’s a great idea,� said Alderman Tom Oldenburg, of St. Louis Hills. “A private organization can be more nimble than city government.�

“I think the mayor’s doing a lot of things that haven’t been done before,� said Clint McBride, a lobbyist for Laborers Local 110. “I think you’ll see a lot of people contribute to that.�