ST. LOUIS — When former Mayor Tishaura O. Jones used an emergency rule to appoint John Unnerstall as chief of the city’s powerful personnel department, the appointment was supposed to end this week, just in time for Jones’ successor to tap a director.

But, unless a court says otherwise, Unnerstall could be sticking around for months into Mayor Cara Spencer’s term.

Jones’ parting move keeps Spencer from appointing an ally to lead the Personnel Department, one of the most important in city government, as she staffs up her administration.

The city’s personnel director has broad power over hiring, firing and promotions across the 5,000-employee bureaucracy and is largely independent of mayoral control.

Unnerstall on Tuesday confirmed that Jones had appointed him as provisional director, meaning he can stay on for as long as six months unless the St. Louis Civil Service Commission extends the term.

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To get that appointment, Unnerstall had to cancel a “reemployment” list that gave Rick Frank, who led the personnel department from 2004 to 2021, first dibs on a longer-term appointment to the position. Unnerstall confirmed to the newspaper he had cancelled the “reemployment” list, a power directors have but one it was unclear Unnerstall would use after Jones gave him the emergency appointment.

Unlike most cabinet positions, the mayor cannot pick a new personnel director after taking office. And before a mayor chooses a permanent director — a job that can last for decades — the Civil Service Commission vets candidates and narrows them down to a list of three, which the mayor chooses from.

That process can take months. In the interim, the rules allow a mayor to appoint anyone to lead the department, which controls staffing decisions critical for the new administration.

Frank and the local firefighters union, one of Spencer’s key allies in her lopsided victory over Jones last Tuesday, already sued last month to keep the three-member Civil Service Commission, made up of Jones appointees, from changing its rules so that the commission could cancel Frank’s reemployment list. They alleged Jones wanted to install a “crony.” Lawyers for the Jones administration said Frank would be the firefighters union’s crony.

Two different judges each blocked two Civil Service Commission attempts to amend rules that would have allowed Jones to name a temporary personnel director. The position was vacant after Jones took the unprecedented step in March of firing her hire for the job, former director Sonya Jenkins-Gray , who last year had a subordinate use a city car to drive her to Jefferson City for a personal matter. Jenkins-Gray later approved a promotion for that employee.

Jenkins-Gray earlier this month filed an expected lawsuit against the city over her firing, arguing the hearings violated city rules, the Missouri Sunshine Law and limited her ability to mount a complete defense by calling the mayor and other top officials as witnesses. The lawsuit asks a court to reinstate her as head of the city's personnel department.

In November, as Jenkins-Gray was facing disciplinary hearings, the former director left a speedbump for Jones: she approved Frank’s request , more than a year old at that point, to be added to a reemployment list for his old job.

Unnerstall's move was a surprise to both Frank and the new Spencer administration. Frank said Tuesday he was unaware Unnerstall had cancelled his reemployment list but said the action may “usurp” the two court orders from his lawsuit.

“I believe this is another attempt by the outgoing administration to politicize the civil service system and weaken its integrity,” Frank said.

During a scheduled court hearing Wednesday morning, a lawyer for the city, Nathan Puckett, acknowledged that Frank’s reemployment rights had been cancelled. And he also asked Judge Joan Moriarty to lift her restraining order that blocked the Civil Service Commission from passing rules Frank and the firefighters union argued would have stripped him of his reemployment rights.

Puckett warned the court was entering “dangerous territory” by preemptively blocking a city commission’s rulemaking authority and said the city would seek a higher court opinion if the Circuit Court did not dissolve the restraining order.

“That’s not how judicial review works — we don’t do judicial preview,” Puckett said. “We’re talking about trying to get the court involved in hiring decisions of the city before they happen.”

Emily Perez, a lawyer for Frank and the firefighters union, said her client shouldn’t have had to wait until he was harmed, and case law allows the court to step in to prevent rules from impacting a plaintiff. She called Unnerstall’s move “more monkey business” in the city’s personnel department.

Unnerstall, however, was not considered a Jones loyalist. He’s an 18-year veteran of the department and a deputy director who Jones passed over for the top job in 2022. He has pushed back at least once on a request from the Jones administration to create a new position in the public safety department.

Unnerstall said he has gotten along fine with the firefighters union and other unions when he has represented the city at the bargaining table. He wasn’t sure whether he would apply for the permanent position yet, but he said he hopes to bring some calm to the department and get it out of the headlines after months of public hearings on Jenkins-Gray.

Updated Wednesday with testimony from a court hearing.