Mayor Francis Slay was in Washington with Travis H. Brown, president of Grow Missouri Inc., an organization funded by retired St. Louis investor Rex Sinquefield, to apply for one of five open slots in the Federal Aviation Administration’s Airport Privatization Pilot Program. But the firm, Grow Missouri, is both connected to billionaire financier Rex Sinquefield and the employer of Jeff Rainford, who previously served a former Mayor Francis Slay's powerful chief of staff.