Board of Aldermen - Regular Meeting

Welcome, everyone, to the July 20th, 2026 regular Board of Aldermen meeting. Would everybody please join with me in saying the Pledge of Allegiance. Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Roll call, please.

Here. Alderman Tice? Here. Alderman Gould? Here. Alderman Sims?

Here.

Alderman Lockmiller?

Here.

Alderman Gould?

Here.

Alderman Harder? Here. Alderman Meyer?

Here.

Mayor Demich, you have a quorum.

Thank you. Next up is approval of the agenda. Do we have any changes to the agenda? If not, any objection to approve? I'm sorry, yes.

I would like to remove one item from the warrants list from the consent agenda.

Okay. Which one is that?

Um... Consent agenda item number 9B, due to a conflict of interest. We're moving it? Moving it out of the consent agenda.

I think what An appropriate motion would be at the time we get to the consent agenda, make a motion to approve the consent agenda, withholding that item, and then take a separate motion for approval of that item, and you'll recuse yourself from that one. Okay. Okay?

So we'll have a separate vote on 9B or whatever that is. Okay.

All right.

Seeing there are no objections or any objections to approve the same proclamation, I see now we're so approved on the agenda. Thank you. All right, next up are announcements, appointments, proclamations, and recognitions. We have two things. First up are some appointments to a couple of different boards. First up is we have an opening on the Board of Adjustment, and I am making the recommendation that we appoint Jason Lee to the Board of Adjustment. Can I get a motion to that effect?

Moved.

Second. Any objection? All in favor, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. And thank you, Mr. Lee. Secondly, our newly created visual identity project committee. We have threw out an application. Michelle handled that. And we had a lot of folks responding. And Michelle helped us go through all these. And we have come up with the following individuals that I'm going to request that you all approve to the appointment of this committee. David Kramer, who's the business owner of Carl's Drive-In, Dan Fitzgerald, a resident of Ward 3, Marion Moore, resident of Ward 4, Tom Strait, a resident of Ward 3, Kelly Weithutcher, resident of Ward 1, Eileen Gressel, resident of Ward 3, and Kim Murphy, resident of Ward 2. I'd prefer just taking this all on the block if you're okay with that, and if so, I'll take a motion to that effect.

Motion to that effect.

Okay, a motion to approve those individuals to the new committee. Any discussion?

Yes. One clarification question maybe for Michelle. If there are others that come forward, could they also be added to this, or is this one time only? I know we talked about maybe a school board representative or something along those lines as well.

So the committee, we've reached kind of the number we're comfortable with. And we would probably also look at adding an elected official to that as well. But there are other opportunities for public engagement. We're going to have some focus groups and different opportunities like that. So if there are still people that you think would be a good fit or people who are interested, I'm going to continue advertising for those opportunities. So you're welcome to direct those people to me. I will reach out and kind of keep them in mind for those other various opportunities as they become available. Thank you.

Okay. So all those in favor, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you so much, everybody. Second item is a proclamation. That's the Parks and Recreation Month. Since 1985, America has celebrated July as Parks and Recreation Month. A program of the National Recreation and Parks Association The goal is to raise awareness of the vital impact that parks and recreation has on communities across the U.S. Accordingly, I am going to be issuing this proclamation today. A designation of July is Parks and Recreation Month. Whereas parks and recreation programs are an integral part of communities throughout this country, including the city of Brentwood, Missouri, and whereas our parks and recreation are vitally important to establishing and maintaining the quality of life in our communities, ensuring the health of all citizens and contributing to the economic and environmental well-being of a community and region and whereas parks and recreation programs build healthy active communities and that aid in the prevention of chronic disease, provide therapeutic recreation services for those who are intellectually or physically disabled, and also improve the mental and emotional health of all citizens. And whereas parks and recreation programs increase a community's economic prosperity through increased property values, expansion of the local tax base, increased tourism, the attraction and retention of businesses, and crime reduction, and whereas parks and recreation areas are fundamental to the environmental well-being of our community, and whereas parks and natural recreation areas improve water quality, protect groundwater, prevent flooding, improve the quality of the air we breathe, provide vegetative buffers to development and produce habitat for wildlife, and whereas the U.S. House of Representatives has designated July as Parks and Recreation Month, and whereas the City of Brentwood, Missouri recognizes the benefits derived from Parks and Recreation resources, now therefore I, Mayor David A. Dimmitt, by the authority vested in me as Mayor of the City of Brentwood, Missouri, and on behalf of the Board of Aldermen, do hereby recognize the month of July as Parks and Recreation Month in the City of Brentwood. All right. That will move us on down to item five, public hearing. We have none. Citizen comments. Anybody in the public care to address the board? Now is the time to do so. All we ask is that you go to that little podium right there, state your name and your address, and you'll be given up to three minutes.

Thank you all for your time this evening. My name is Jeremy Strassner. I live at 2528 High School Drive. So I'd like to just tell you, I was born in Brentwood. I grew up here, as did one of my parents and their parents. So I've been in Brentwood a long time. And I love this community. I love my neighbors. And that's why I'm here tonight. For my professional life, I've been an embedded software engineer for over 25 years. And I've been working on complex interconnected systems, just like the ones that I would like to talk about this evening. So I recently learned that Brentwood has a contract with Flock Security. Just let me do the question, why? Why do we need these cameras? And the answer is probably to deter crime. But do we need, in Brentwood, AI cameras tracking citizens around 24 hours a day? Is that really needed? I don't think crime's that bad here. While addressing the Pennsylvania Assembly in 1755, Benjamin Franklin famously said, Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. What our founding father was trying to relay in that was that short-sighted solutions for complex issues frequently are a bad idea. I'm not here to criticize the police or our local government. This actually has very little to do with that. It's about a company that demonstrably lies to customers and changes agreements after the fact. It's about a company that shares user data without consent and then tells police departments they're doing the exact opposite. This is about a private company that we're subsidizing to the tune of $25,000 a year with our tax dollars. And I say subsidizing because they are then taking this data that we are paying them to collect and then selling it to pretty much anybody that will buy it. This includes private investigators, federal governments, pretty much anybody that's willing to pay for it. So this is more than just a camera. This isn't just a camera that's out there. This is an enormous platform. that includes many different services, such as Freeform, which is an AI search for people by physical description. Raven, which was originally sold for gunshot detection, but now listens for human voices. They have a patent to classify people by race, gender, height, weight into a searchable database. They're now pairing the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi fingerprints from your phone to your car, so they know who you're going around the entire country with. And they also know if you're riding in the car with somebody else. They have more patents to classify people and make it searchable database across the whole country. And since it's a private company, there's very little oversight. And local police departments are losing control of their cameras. Flock enabled nationwide setting without police knowledge in Mountain View, California. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Flock installed cameras after the city council ordered they be deactivated. In Washington, Border Patrol agents accessed 10 departments data that they never agreed to share. LA, one in three hot list Reports were incorrect, leading to a waste of police time and resources. Illinois found that Flock was illegally sharing their data and are now suing them. San Francisco found that the federal government illegally accessed Flock data hundreds of times, and that was just a month ago. Security researchers on the internet have shown that these cameras can be broken into in under 30 seconds. I personally don't understand how this isn't violated in law. The Supreme Court found that bulk collection of citizens' cell phone data was against the Fourth Amendment. But now, since this is a private company collecting almost the exact same data, it's allowed. And the federal government has said that they are now going to start buying this data.

Mr. Stroessner, are you about ready to wrap it up? I will, yes.

Okay, thank you. So we wouldn't approve a water plant without an environmental assessment, and I don't think we should approve these surveillance infrastructure without government controls and citizen input. So I realize we're spending about $100,000 every four years on these cameras. While overall that's not a huge hit to the budget, for normal folks that's a lot of money, and I think we could spend it in building our community instead of surveilling citizens. Thank you.

Thank you. Anybody else? Anyone online? Okay, great. Thank you so much, Mr. Strassner. Next up, our mayor and aldermen reports. First up is the mayor. I just have a few things. Every Wednesday this month, Urban Chestnut has been holding a pop-up event down at our Brentwood Park, and it runs from 4 to 8, and we will have a total of 5 this month, and I would say... to classify it as being a resounding success, I think, be somewhat of an understatement. We've had three of them so far. Very, very well attended, and we have two more still in this month. And on the agenda tonight is a request to go into August, continuing that. So if you have not been, I would encourage you to swing by this Wednesday or the following Wednesday. I think this Wednesday they're going to continue. Last Wednesday they had trivia, and they're going to do trivia again this Wednesday. It's a lot of fun, a great chance to meet folks and just enjoy our brand-new park. So again, that's this Wednesday from four to eight. Secondly, we will be having coffee with the mayor next week on Thursday, the last Thursday of the month. And we are going to be. Holding it at the park, at the Brentwood Park, and this will be the second time that we've held it down there, but we're going to be actually having the jazz group, which is comprised primarily, if not exclusively, of our high school students. If any of you have heard them play, we probably have by now, but they do a phenomenal job. So if you're looking for something to do on the last Thursday of the month from 9 to 10, come on down to Brentwood Park. And, uh, free donuts, uh, listen to some great music and again, have a chance to meet some of your, um, your fellow residents. Finally, uh, this is the last meeting we'll have before the election of August the 4th, 2026, just a reminder that we do have another election. So I would encourage everybody to attend that and, uh, exercise your constitutionally protected, right? Uh, Alderman Plufka.

Thank you. I would, um, say the same with regard to voting. Not only candidates representing us in Jeff City, but several constitutional amendments on a variety of subjects. Please learn about the candidates and issues and vote on or before August 4th. Also, public safety will meet on July 22nd, which is a Wednesday, referred to by the mayor. And as chairman of public safety, I'm going to just say this. I think we're going to meet at the pavilion in Brentwood Park at 530 and conduct our public safety meeting there. Unless that changes, we'll give everybody notice. If it changes, we'll give you at least 24 hours notice. It's normally here in this chamber, but I'm really inclined to move it to the pavilion in Brentwood Park. So anyway, those are my two announcements.

And Eric is saying, wait a minute, I've got it booked solid for that night. Yeah, and you know what?

I didn't even think about that.

Okay, thank you very much. Alderman Tice.

The August Ways and Means meeting, which is currently scheduled for the 6th, bullet indicated we may need to push it to after the Public Works Committee meeting. So if you're on Ways and Means, we probably won't be meeting the 6th and likely we'll be meeting later in the month. So watch your email.

Thank you. Alderman Gould. No report. Alderman Sims. No report. Alderman Gould.

Yes, we are canceling the Communications Committee meeting that was scheduled for tomorrow night because we're just getting everything going, so nothing really to address the committee on. And then we do have our Ward 3 meeting, let's see, the last Tuesday, which is next Tuesday, the 28th, at 6.30 at the Rec Center, so please join Steve and I for that.

Thank you. Alderman Lockmuller? No report. Alderman Harder?

Yes. Brentwood Forest has their meeting on Tuesday, July 28th at 6 p.m.

Thank you. And Alderman Meyer? No report. All right. Move on down to city administrator report. We have nothing. All right. Drop us down to the consent agenda. And we are going to, can I get a motion to approve the consent agenda with all items except item 9B?

So moved. Second. Second. Okay.

Can we get a roll call, please?

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Thank you. And the remaining item, item nine B, which are the warrant lists.

Can we get a motion to approve, please?

First, Alderman Goad, do you want to indicate that you are recusing yourself from this? I do. Okay.

Now can we get a motion to approve? Motion to approve. Second. Okay. All those in favor? Roll call, please.

Alderman Poliska?

Yes.

Alderman Tice? Yes. Alderman Goad? Yes. Oh, I'm sorry. I don't miss him. Yes. I mean, like Miller. Yes. I mean, yes. I don't mean harder. Yes. I don't admire. Yes. Motion passes.

Thank you. That drops us down to old business. We have, I think, just two items under that. First up is bill number 6613, which we took up first at the last meeting. Can we get a second read by title only, please?

Yes, bill number 6613, an ordinance approving the OMCI reimbursement program agreement with Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District for the stormwater master plan project.

Thank you. Chair, entertain a motion to approve bill number 6613, an ordinance form? So moved. Any discussion? Roll call, please.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Bill number 6613 now becomes ordinance number 5237. Thank you. Next up is item.

That's bill number 6614. This is listed under old business. It is old business because it's a continuation of the parking lot issue. It keeps coming up every six months, but we are having a first read. So could we get a first read by title only, please?

Yes, sir. Bill number 6614, an ordinance enacting emergency measures to extend the continued use of temporary parking lots for Brentwood Park.

We would like to have a second read on this tonight, if we can get a motion to that effect. So moved.

Second.

Any discussion on that? All in favor of there being a second read, please indicate by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Motion carries. Mr. City Attorney, can we get a second read by title only, please?

Bill number 6614, an ordinance enacting emergency measures to extend the continued use of temporary parking lots for Brentwood Park.

Thank you. Chair would entertain a motion to perfect bill number 6614 in ordinance form.

moved second Any discussion Yes, but I just have Dan if you wouldn't mind just given an update I know there was some work done and just kind of an update on on the changes and the impact of those changes, please The parking lot on the north side was the one that we made the changes so I

Northside parking lot just east of Mary, the eastern edge of that, we graded, I'd say, 10 or 12 feet back, took the rock out, dug down below the rock level, put fresh dirt back, seed and straw the area, feathered that slope so that drains both to the north and south inlets that are there. And then the last thing is to put the ground glue down. We tried that out. It actually works really well around the shop, so we ordered more of that, and then Parks will apply that. I know they've redone the parking stalls, the striping, so everything seems to be in order. I know we've gone out there multiple times during the June rains and even July, the few rain events that we've had, and haven't noticed any runoff. Everything looks great.

Great. Thank you. Thank you for the update.

Any other questions?

Roll call, please.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Bill number 66, 14 now becomes ordinance number 52, 38.

Thank you. That brings us into new business. First up is resolution number 1597, which is a resolution approving a naming rights agreement with the Brentwood school district. Eric, are you presenting on this?

So the city received a request from the Brentwood School District to name the home dugout at the Brentwood Sports Complex, field number one, in honor of Coach Mike Emmergut. Per the naming section of the city's donation of sponsorships and facility naming policy, all naming of facilities has to be done with approval by the Board of Aldermen. That's why a resolution is for you this evening. uh naming for a facility for a specific individual or corporation only being considered if that individual has made significant contribution to the city of brentwood could be inform outstanding civic service prolonged period of time those type of things names honoring living individuals must be supported by extraordinary compelling reasons along with a thorough background review so And then one of the other items is, although it might not be appropriate to name a permanent facility after an individual, a associate and amenity associated with the facility could be named for that person. And so field number one's already named after Coach Jim Taylor. And so this would kind of fall into that realm of not naming the full facility, but naming the dugout. So according to the request we received, Coach Emmergut dedicated 32 years to mentoring players and fellow coaches at Brentwood High School. and they believe he's deserving this honor and has probably spent the most time in that dugout of anyone in the city of Brentwood. So that was the request. It is our responsibility to bring it to the board for discussion.

To approve resolution 1597.

All right, we have a motion. Do we have a second to approve resolution 1597? Thank you. Any discussion? Yes, Alderman Locke-Muller.

Eric, is there any type of signage that would be posted on that?

Yeah, the signage would be posted, and that would be the responsibility of the school district. That is part of the agreement that has been prepared and approved by the city attorney. He looked it over and gave a lot of good edits for me. But part of it is that they would be responsible for the plaque and for installation costs of that. We would then be responsible for maintaining it. But if the plaque was damaged, they'd have to replace it. Thank you.

Yes. Okay. All those in favor, please indicate by saying aye.

Aye. Any opposed?

Resolution 1597 is approved. Thank you. Next up is resolution number 1600, which is a resolution approving the architectural services agreement for the public works and parks maintenance facility project between H design group and the city of Brentwood. Dan.

This is the RFQ that was brought up at the Public Works Committee. So we had a total of 11 submittals, paired that down to a group of three, did interviews with those three, and then narrowed that group down to each design group, which is presented to the Board here tonight. If this is approved, I put together the rough schedule. If we started with the agreement being approved during this week, then we could start with design and permitting as early as August. And that would go through February 2027. And then project bidding would be in February 27. Most of the construction would take place in 27. anticipated construction would wind down around February of 28, that would be substantial completion, and then final completion March of 28, assuming that this is approved. I did put the compensation table there so you can kind of see what we would be expensing in 2026 and then in future budget cycles. So the three main phases in 26 with H design is roughly 213,512. We do have a budget of 250,000, 125 from public works, 125,000 from parks. So what we're looking for is a motion to approve the agreement and move forward with H design.

Can we get a motion to that effect?

So moved.

Second. Okay, any discussion? Okay, all those in favor, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Resolution 1600 is approved. Thanks. Thanks. That brings us down to Bill number 6615. Can we get a first read by title only, please?

Yes, Bill number 6615, an ordinance approving an amended and restated intergovernmental cooperation agreement for the provision of technology services with the City of Clayton, Missouri, on behalf of the City of Brentwood, Missouri, commencing on August 1, 2026, for a duration of three years. OK. Who's presenting on that? Troy?

Oh, hi, Troy. Good evening, Mayor and Council. I'm here to present the intergovernmental agreement. As you know, we brought in the city of Maplewood into the agreement, which lowered all the city's cost. Your realized savings was 9% off your contract. We cannot change contract cost in midterm in a contract. So this will start a new three-year contract. You will realize that 9% savings, all the terms and conditions in the contract have stayed the same. There will be no changes besides the cost and the dates.

Okay.

Thank you. And just by way of background for those who might be watching, and this is just another example of Brentwood working with other cities. to collaborate and cooperate in sharing of services. I think this started maybe in 2017 when the city partnered with the city of Clayton and Richmond Heights for Clayton to provide our IT services, which is all encompassing, includes budgeting and maintenance and setting things up and making sure we don't have any problems with our phones, our computers. It's been an absolute success and a model for other municipalities on how to work together to lower their costs and providing the services to their residents and as Troy indicated where Maplewood is now joining this as well. So are we wanting to have a second read? We are wanting to have a second read on this so can we get a motion to that effect please? So moved.

Second.

Any discussion on the motion for a second read? All those in favor please indicate by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Motion carries. Mr. City Attorney can we get a second read by title only please?

Bill number 6615, an ordinance approving an amended and restated intergovernmental cooperation agreement for the provision of technology services with the City of Clayton, Missouri, on behalf of the City of Brentwood, Missouri, commencing on August 1, 2026, and continuing in effect for a duration of three years.

Thank you. Chair would entertain a motion to perfect bill number 6615 into ordinance form.

Second.

Thank you. Any discussion? Roll call, please.

Alderman Plufka? Yes. Alderman Tice? Yes. Alderman Gold? Yes. Alderman Sims? Yes. Alderman Lockmiller? Yes. Alderman Gould? Yes. Alderman Harder? Yes. Alderman Meyer?

Yes.

Bill number 6615 now becomes ordinance number 5239.

Thank you. Next up is Bill No. 6616. Can we get a first read by title only, please?

Yes. Bill No. 6616, an ordinance granting site development plan approval for a new nine-unit townhome development at 8815 Madge Avenue. Thank you. Whitney. Whitney.

Good evening. Aaron Lushmi is here to present his request. But this received approval at the June meeting of planning and zoning by a seven to zero vote. It does meet with all of the zoning requirements. What more can I answer?

Okay.

If you want to just give a brief synopsis of what this is all about. I mean, we know, but the audience might not.

This is a nine-unit townhome development. There will be three units in three buildings with a little separation between each of the buildings. the applicant has indicated that they would be condo development so he'll have to come back through for the condo plat when he's closer to the time frame but it meets with the stormwater requirements and all of the zoning requirements the building is 50 feet from the adjacent property where adjacent to residential and there's a 25 foot landscape buffer for the drive aisle and

Where is this?

Oh, I'm sorry, 8815 Madge. Okay. Just behind the little commercial development on South Brentwood Boulevard. Okay. Yeah.

Wonderful. All right. Have any questions? Alderman Lockmuller.

Whitney, I know they're meeting their parking requirement by having the parking underneath each townhouse of two spaces. I KNOW THAT CITIZENS ATTENDED SEVERAL OF THESE MEETINGS, AND I WILL SAY THE APPLICANTS HAVE BEEN VERY ACCOMMODATING TO SOME OF THEIR CONCERNS, BUT WHEN IT COMES TO VISITOR PARKING, I DON'T SEE ANY CONDITION THAT WAS ORIGINALLY DISCUSSED ON POSSIBLY SETTING UP SOME SPACING ALONG THAT DRIVE AISLE FOR MAYBE SOME VISITOR PARKING.

Yes, as was discussed at the Planning and Zoning Commission, the drive aisle is 25 feet wide. Any alley or one-way drive aisle is 11 feet, so they felt there was sufficient parking to provide a sufficient space that should a visitor want to park along that drive aisle, there's sufficient room. The applicant has also indicated that he would work with the commercial development in front of them to see about overnight parking should a resident require such. Do you want to address that?

Ashim Lamichane, 11 Deer Creek Woods. I am one of the applicants. So in terms of parking, the plan is to allow parallel parking because of the driveway's 25 feet, as well as we are in discussion or trying to connect with the owner of the commercial property to see if they will allow any visitors parking after hours. I think that's the plan. And then the 25-feet drive aisle, if there are visitors, it would be enough for any visitors to park in that section.

OK. Wendy, do we need to make that a condition that they supply that type of parking? Can we?

We can. We can include that for the second reading is to include a condition that parallel parking be provided along the drive aisle, that it be striped for that.

I'd like to kind of just think that over and maybe talk to staff and maybe the applicant and see if that could be made a permanent fixture there somehow designating those areas as additional parking.

Thank you. Alderman Plowka. Thank you. How close is it between the eastern fence and the eastern facade of the building?

Yeah.

It's 14 feet.

Yeah. And all of the units, the way I'm looking at the pictures, all of the units are oriented to the east. I mean, the front door is, they face east. Yes. So the western elevation is the back of the unit.

That is correct. But what we have done, just to add there, the western elevation, because of the input from the planning and zoning council members, we've also enhanced the west elevation to match the east elevation. So it kind of blends in, the design.

Okay. And what's the distance between the three units going north? Ten feet.

Ten feet.

Okay, and given structures this tall that didn't run afoul of our fire department, they didn't think that those are too close together?

No, the requirements under the new adopted 2024 code will be that they have to be sprinkled. We had discussions with the fire department. They are including a new fire hydrant on that drive aisle because of the distance to the existing fire hydrant to provide additional fire protection.

For the unit that's farthest to the north there?

Yeah, for all of the units that are there, yeah.

So the fire hydrant will be along Madge or somewhere?

No, it will be along the drive aisle for this development, yeah.

Oh, I see. How far up into the development do you know?

About 20 feet? No, it's about.

I'll say about 35 feet in. And does positioning around that interrupt any of the parallel parking that we just talked about with Steve?

Yeah.

So there's plenty of space on the west side to park so we can avoid those and still be able to accommodate parking.

Yeah, but we'll have to measure for the parallel parking to ensure the distance from a fire hydrant.

Right.

Yeah.

Okay.

Okay. Thank you. So the floor plan is the same for all nine of these? Yes. And what's the square footage?

1,800 square foot. Thank you. Any other questions? Two car attached garage, and then it also will be EV ready in each of the garages.

Alderman Lachmuller. I think I heard you say they were condos. So there'll be a condo association form when it's finished made up of who?

So when we build it and send it to permitting, it will have to be given or submitted to the city prior to, I believe, submitting or getting the approval for the building permit. So we will work, the condo would be Initially, it would be managed by a third party, but once it starts to be occupied, the owner will be part of the condo members.

They would be allowed to start construction, but they do have to come back for a condo plat approval, which would then include provisions on maintenance of all of the common ground areas and things like that.

That was going to be my next question on maintenance. Okay.

Thank you. Anyone else? All right, thank you. We will see you at the next meeting then for the second read.

All right, next up is bill number 6617.

Can we get a first read by title only, please?

Bill number 6617, an ordinance providing for the adoption of the third amendment to the fifth amended and restated police and firefighters pension plan, providing for the repeal of all conflicting ordinances and providing for the effective date of this ordinance. Thank you.

State your name, please, Mr. Lane.

Good evening. I'm Mike Lane. I'm with the Thompson Coburn Law Firm, and I represent the Board of Trustees of the Police and Firefighter Pension Plan, who are recommending some changes to the plan. And the purpose of these changes is to save some time and money for the city and for the pension plan relating to determination of disability. Currently, the way the pension plan is structured under the ordinances, an individual who requests a pension based on disability must be determined by a medical board appointed by the trustees of the pension fund. To be permanently disabled, that requires a lot of time from both the pension board and the city staff to figure out which kind of medical experts must be appointed. And it takes a lot of time from the city staff to organize the billing situation. As you know, the folks who work in the medical system in this country are used to billing insurance rather than billing a pension plan for the cost of that. and it takes quite a bit of effort on behalf of both the pension board and city staff to do that. What we are asking for in this ordinance is for the ability for the trustees of the pension board to be able to hire a third party administrator to do this. There are plenty of companies out there that determine whether someone is disabled on behalf of companies cities organizations uh without having to individually appoint certain medical providers each year they've got a stable of people to do it so the idea here is that we would have the ability to hire a third-party contractor to handle that for us and save a lot of city staff time, save a lot of money, and save a lot of stress on the individual employees who are applying for a disability pension. Happy to answer any further questions that you all may have. Yes, Alderman Tice.

So I've talked to Captain Niemeyer about this, but I just want to make sure that the police and the fire departments are comfortable with this change for their staff.

From what I understand, it was a unanimous decision of the pension board to recommend this. Okay, great. Thank you.

Anybody else? The request is to go ahead and get this enacted tonight, or at least have the board vote on it tonight. So to that extent, can we get a motion for a second read?

So moved. Second.

Any discussion? All those in favor, please indicate by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Motion carries. Mr. City Attorney, can we get a second read by title only, please?

Bill number 6617, an ordinance providing for the adoption of the third amendment to the fifth amended and restated police and firefighters pension plan. providing for the repeal of all conflicting ordinances and providing for the effective date of this ordinance.

Thank you. Chair, we'd entertain a motion to perfect bill number 6617 in the ordinance form.

So moved. Second.

Any discussion? Roll call, please.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Bill number 6617 now becomes ordinance number 5240. Thank you. Thanks, Mike. Next up is bill number 6618. Can we get a first read by title only, please?

Bill number 6618, an ordinance authorizing and approving the amendment of the City of Brentwood's current employee handbook updating the education benefits policy and tuition reimbursement request form. Thank you. Angela?

Good afternoon. So this bill is to update the handbook to include the procedure for to remove oversight for approving the education benefits when employees submit for tuition reimbursement requests.

Kind of oversight.

Just ensuring that, A, we're looking at the policy, ensuring that we're looking at the credit hours that we have written in the handbook, ensuring that the dollar amount reflects that particular credit hours and that we're not submitting for more or less than what the handbook currently states that the employees are entitled to.

Okay. Do we have any questions? Yes.

How many employees take advantage of this?

It varies year to year. Right now I think we have six, but it does vary.

Any other questions? And like the prior bill, we would like to get this going as soon as possible. So we would like to have a vote on this tonight. Can we get a motion to that effect, please? So moved.

Second.

Any discussion? All those in favor of a second read, please indicate by saying aye.

Aye. Any opposed?

Motion carries. Mr. City Attorney, can we get a second read by title only, please?

Bill number 6618, an ordinance authorizing and approving the amendment of the City of Brentwood's current employee handbook updating the education benefits policy and tuition reimbursement request form.

Can we get a motion to perfect bill number 6618 in the ordinance form?

Go moved. Second.

All right. Okay, any discussion? Roll call, please.

Alderman Plufka? Yes. Alderman Tice? Yes. Alderman Gold? Yes. Alderman Sims? Yes. Alderman Lockmiller?

Yes.

Alderman Gould?

Yes.

Alderman Harder? Yes. Alderman Meyer?

Yes.

Bill number 6618 now becomes ordinance number 5241.

Okay, thank you. That brings us down to citizen comments once again. Anybody in the public care to address the board, now is the time to do so. You will be given up to three minutes. All we ask is that you come to the podium, state your name and address. Anyone online? All right. We do have a request to go into closed session following this meeting and to adjourn therefrom pursuant to RSMO 610.021 subsections one, two, and 12. Can we get a motion to that effect, please?

So moved. Second.

Any discussion? Roll call, please.

Yes. Thank you.