Ways & Means Committee - Regular Meeting

recording in progress. Good evening and welcome to the special Ways and Means Committee meeting on October 28th, 2025. Uh, a roll call, please. Alderwoman Gold traveling. She's online, so I don't know if she'll be able to show um her face through the meeting, but she did say she would listen in. Okay. Oh, here she I can Sorry to interrupt. Um I can talk. I won't be able to do video. I'm sorry. Ottoman Gold here. Urgger here. Andwoman Ty

here. Uh that brings us to the approval or amendment of the agenda. Does anyone have any changes or uh to the agenda? Seeing none, it will be so approved. That takes us to the next part of the agenda, citizen comment. Is there anyone I don't see anyone in the gallery, but is there anyone online who would like to address the committee? We don't have anyone online. Okay, great. Uh then next is the report of committee chair and alderwoman. I have no uh report. Uh, Alderwoman Go, no report. Alderman Gould, no report. Alderman Urgger, no report.

That brings us to item five, the city administrator report. Um, in the packet, uh, there is an outline of the um budget discussion. So, I'll just quickly say as a reminder at the next regular meeting on the 6th, we'll talk about police and fire and then hopefully have a recommendation to go to the full board of aldermen and then it will proceed from there at the at the full board. Um, any other comments, Eric, from you about the budget? Okay. Not this time.

Okay. Uh, then next is the citizen budget forum. So, we've done this at all the uh budget meetings this year. It's a little bit of a change for us, but if there's um anyone who has an a thought about what should be in the budget or uh what we should do uh as a city, uh now is a good opportunity to make some comments unless someone's joined online then. Okay. So, that moves us on to item six, department reports, and Michelle, uh the financial statements. Hi, good evening. Um, in your packet you'll find the September financial statements, revenues, and expenditures. Um, I did update the revenue statement to sort of in to include the calculation as if the adjustments were in there. So, you can see that we're holding at a plus 5% um in sales tax. Um, all of the other categories seem to be holding well. I don't have anything that's super alarming unless you have any questions on revenues at the moment. Um expenditure- wise, I don't think there's anything that that we didn't kind of expect. Legal fees are running high. We sort of knew that. Um and we'll make that adjustment accordingly. Um and then some of the other ones that were running high were due to the um previous storms from this year. Um but other than that, once again, nothing alarming on the expenditures either as opposed to the things we haven't already talked about. Any questions on expenditures of any any

Great Perfect. Thank you. Thank you. Um that takes us on to item seven, the consent agenda. The minutes from the October 2nd meeting are here for your approval. Are there is there a motion to approve them? So moved. Second. All in favor? I

I Sounds like the eyes have it and the minutes are approved. Uh then moving on to old business, the vehicle replacement policy. Uh Dan Hopefully I won't need all these notes. Um, since our last meeting, I tried to make some changes and I put it in the memo as a summary. So from our September meeting, uh some of the takeaways that we had from that meeting that we wanted to see possibly an increase in the life cycle and mileage for the police vehicles, uh investigate possible warranty extensions with some of those vehicles, add text to the plan such that the plan uh would be revised every 5 years or so. Um also wanted to point out that from that meeting we were supposed to contact comparators, which we did. So I have 12 comparators that are in a table that's included. Those 12 are listed there. So you've got, you know, Bowwin, Maplewood, Richmond Heights, Webster Groves, Chesterfield, Depar, Kirkwood, Maryland Heights, St. Peters, Clayton, Leoo, and Ofallon. Uh, those are also in the um south or the uh compensation policy, those 12. So um there's basically four responses I got from those 12 comparators. Uh Maplewood and Clayton, I didn't get any information or any emails back even after uh writing back to them again. Uh the next category would be they responded to the inquiry but they don't have a written policy. So Richmond Heights Depair, Maryland Heights, Webster Groves and Leoo fall into that category. Uh the next one that they responded to the inquiry and they do have a written policy and they did actually send it to me. So that's and Chesterfield. Those two use a point guideline system similar to what we have. Uh and then the last category which would be responded to the inquiry but they only use fleet software. They

don't have anything written, but they use um fleet software that's out there and it scores it. But the software talking to St. Peters, it's more or less u based on when you should trade it in as well. So, it's before the maintenance starts peaking, but you still have decent amount of value in the vehicle. And that's kind of like what we don't want to do. We want to keep it a little bit longer and start incurring some of that maintenance, but not so long that, you know, we can't work on it. And then I just wanted to point out Leoo, Depair, Webster Groves, they aren't involved with the replacement decisions for their police. The police are. So they don't even get involved with that. And then Webster does send their fire and EMS, you know, ambulance to the city of Kirkwood for evaluations. And I know we send our stuff to Kirkwood as well. And then none of the competitors uh that were queried responded that they have extended warranties. I know if you wanted to, like on certain Fords, you can get an extended warranty. Of course, you're going to pay for that. Um, and that would cover major components on most Fords for like 8 years, 150,000 miles. So, if it's a transmission, you know, condenser, compressor, whatever, certain large components are covered under that extended warranty, you know, but we do have budget, you know, under 6215 for fleet repairs. So, I don't know that you're really going to get much benefit out of that. Uh some of the other stuff I included in the packet this time around. There's a uh flow chart to help make sense of the policy. So that colored flowchart, I know there were some questions about, you know, do you get to replace something if it meets a certain criterion, whether it's years or miles. And the short answer is no. You don't get to replace it. It goes through the overall process. So just because you've met one criterion uh doesn't mean that you get to replace it. just means it moves to the next appropriate step. So for instance, if you had a patrol car

and it met the years and the mileage, you know, it would meet one of those criterion. So you would or criteria since it's two. So you would move to step two and then you would ask us to evaluate that asset. We would complete the evaluation form and report. Then the next question to a ask would be does the point range meet the replacement action? If the answer is no, then the process stops and you review whatever action it is. If it's for the next budget cycle or whatever. If it's yes, then you move to step three, which still gives the ability uh to take those reports to the city administrator, the finance uh director, review that against the ERRM, and then see if replacement is still recommended. If the answer coming from them is no, then the process stops. Requests is tabled. If the answer is yes, then you've made it all the way through from left to right and then you should be able to end this process and it should go into the next budget cycle. So try to take the the text that's in your um policy and boil it down into just a nice graphic or at least that helps me. And then if you um look at the um policy and look at the comparator table, the only substantial changes that I made would be for the patrol vehicles and the non-p patrol. I added a little bit based on what I got back from the comparators. So for the patrol vehicle, it was 3 years 75,000 mi. And I thought, well, it looks like it should be more like four years, 82,500. And then for the non- patrol, instead of five years, it bumped it to like seven and from 75,000 mi to 100,000. When I did look at the uh fire, I know the fire chief shared with me some information that they had in addition to the stuff that I did online. Um they fall well within the range that their comparators

are. So the comparators for say like the fire engine or the ambulance for the engine it's you know most keep theirs 10 years and then I don't know if they move theirs to reserve or not but I know we keep ours 10 years and then move ours into reserve up until about age 20. I did look at NFPA uh 1900 1901 and 1912 those sections and they don't recommend that you keep any fire engine more than 25 years. So I think we fall within the normal range for the engine, the ambulance. We actually keep ours longer than a lot of our competitors. Uh seven years for the front line and 14 years for the backup or reserve versus say like Crestwood, Depair, Front Neck, they keep theirs 10 years. Leoo's eight. I know nationally I saw where it was like five to seven years for an ambulance. So I don't think you need to make changes there. That's just my opinion. I don't know if you have specific questions for the policy. If there's any page or section you want to key in on and consider revisions, changes, or if you like it the way it is, if we would take it to the board, it's entirely up to you.

Questions, comments? I mean, I just [clears throat] one, thank you for the flowchart. I'm a visual person, so that helps me identify those steps pretty nicely, nice and clearly. Um, I mean, I I I appreciate all of the um diligence that's gone into this report. I mean I I think it's reasonable to take take it up um for the police u vehicles based on the comparator summaries. Um so I mean I would make a recommendation to uh forward this recommendation on to the board of alderman for consideration. There a second? Yep. Second.

No, I just thank you for the work and thank you for looking at the comparators. sort of seems to be my question I ask on almost everything and it's it's um actually remarkable to me that not everyone has such policy. It's just seems sort of logical that one would h that a city should have this. So kudos to us for um for having this policy and forwarding it on. Um I guess I just had one question of clarification on for Maplewood. They it says that enter they use enterprise. Do they do they lease all of their vehicles? Uh for public works I don't know about fire or police. I didn't ask. Okay. But I definitely know public works and parks does. Okay. But it just started, so I don't know that they really have any good

I mean, it'd be good to follow up with them and see how that goes. Um, you know, I know that it's it's a an outlier, but even even like the uh you know, some of the other things that we we asked you to look into, even though somebody nobody else does it, it's it's still good to look into it and and just see. So I just for future make a note to see how that program works for them questions. We need a roll call vote do you think or a voice vote? Roll call please.

Oh I don't think she can vote because we can't see her or is that different at a committee? Um it's the same but I didn't know if she was going to turn if she was going to be able to turn her camera on so I didn't want to not call her. Perfect. Sorry. Yeah. So, Michelle, if you can hear that, if if we can see you, then you can vote, but if we can't see you, then um Oh, there you are. So, yes. [laughter] Okay. Ottoman Ottoman G. Yes. Urgger. Yes. Ty, yes.

Great. Thank you for all that work, Dan. Uh, and the second issue is the fiscal year 2026 budget. So, we have parks and public works is looks like Eric's going first. As I'm getting this ready, I did take a little bit of offense to issue and talking about our presentations. I mean, not that bad, are we? Here we go. Does

All right, we'll see how long this works. Uh, so, uh, just basic, you've kind of been through this whole presentation before from all the other departments. We'll go through the basics, accomplishments, goals, objectives, revenue, expenditures. Um, I have a couple other things to kind of talk about. So talk about what we've kind of accomplished in last year. Um yeah, we start off with the goats, the picture of the goats. I mean that was uh something that I think really people really loved. Um and again now that Octavia is back, I can say how 10 years ago I I told Bola we should do it in a staff meeting and she said no. Then five years ago she said why don't we do goats Eric? Um and she's also not here so I can say that. Um, so you know, it it was a lot of fun and and they did a heck of a job clearing out everything and our staff has kind of already gone back through uh kind of gotten through the rest of the um root base and pulled up some big things and then are going to be planting stuff here in the near future. Bramwell Park uh has shown to be a regional destination. We saw almost 300,000 visitors last year and I'll talk more about that here in a second. Uh we did uh what was our last uh Brentwoodbound uh grand opening celebration with the GRG connector. Uh did that back in the spring. Uh hosted sustainable September uh which was our our monthlong initiative focusing on uh eco-friendly practices promoting sustainability. The goats are part of that. Some of the stuff we did at Brentwood Days was part of that. Um so had a lot of fun there. The the the tree giveaway was part of that. Uh if you've been looking at our social media, we made a a push this year, really talked to our marketing person, say, "Hey, we want to talk about things that we're offering to try to get people to come to our programs and events, but we also want to showcase parks, uh flora, uh you know, animals, things like that." And and I think she did a nice job running with that and kind of really kind of increased our visibility throughout um social media. Uh and then just a couple small things, uh $90,000 million rentals at Brentwood Park. That was something we um thought we might be

able to do but never really thought we'd get there and we got there after year one. So that that's good. And then uh we obviously we host a couple blood drives each year. And so we're always happy to help out the American Red Cross collecting 159 units of blood. So just a couple things that we uh as we talk about place and how we use data and things like that. Got scared for a second that it went away. Um you'll you'll see kind of thing. The first thing is just the daily visitor trends. And what you'll see is it it's popular. I mean 300,000 it's about 800 people a day on average. Uh you'll see obviously in the winter time it goes it goes down but you'll see in a warm day in January we'll get 2,000 people. Um you'll see throughout the summer we're right right between that or right near that 10,00 uh mark basically spring summer into the fall. So it is a heavily utilized park. Uh you'll see obviously weekends are most are our busiest days, but you'll see kind of that it's it's not all the other days aren't so much aren't off, you know, aren't a whole lot off. Um but it kind of gau like we can probably do some programming on Wednesday and Thursday if we want to look at when we program in the park to see we don't obviously want to do a whole lot on Saturday, although we'll do some big things, but um you know those type of things. audience profile I think is interesting too when you look at where people are coming from for 70% of the visits of the park come from everything in in those darker shaded areas and so you'll see we have reach from Belleville Illinois all the way down to almost union uh west to New Haven I do like to point out that this if you zoom in on this that's my house so obviously I go to the park a lot uh it's really kind of freaky that I am like my house is listed as that bubble so uh it's amazing what technology can do and so it kind of gives you a range that it is truly a regional destination of where people are coming from and we'll try to make sure we continue to kind of keep that moving. And then another fun thing I just kind of threw in there, if you look uh through all the national rankings in the

leisure category, so if you look at leisure, it can be anything, and you'll sort of see some of the things they have, uh we're in the 90th percentile of all uh leisure activities in the country. So we're obviously not anywhere close to the 93 million people that Walt Disney World brings in. But it is kind of interesting that if you look down where we're at, uh we're kind of similar to a a movie theater in Wisconsin and a golf course in Greensboro, North Carolina. And it's kind of interesting to see how we rank up uh across the country. And then if you look, the next column to the right is statewide. So, uh yeah, I mean, we are we bring in more people than are the Springfield Minor League Baseball Stadium. And that's not just the Springfield Cardinals. They obviously rent that thing out all throughout the year. So, we feel good about that. Uh, and then if you look, the next one is locally. And so we're 21st, which is still in the I think the 75th percentile. A lot of good things in St. Louis, but if you look, we're right right behind Kener Plaza, right above Vago Park in Maryland Heights. So we bring in more people than the Esquire movie theater. So that makes me feel good. Uh, and if you actually the one thing I like, if you look further down, right there in 39th is Memorial Park. So even though we have a big a big push in Brentwood Park, Memorial Park is still getting a lot of use as well. So that's kind of nice to see as well. So just some things that we're using with data and we'll we'll talk about how we use data more and more. So goals and objectives. Uh one of the things we want to do is continue to program. Um I'll talk about programming here in a minute, but our staff does such a great job coming up with new programming ideas. Uh a lot of times I come my office with these ideas and I'm like sounds good and I'm like we'll see if it works and then it'll be a tremendous event and then or a great program and so they've done a really nice job with that. We'll continue with sustainability and we continue working through that through the sustainability commission. Uh we just kind of talked about last night about some toolkits that we're looking for families and for homeowners that we're excited about and we'll talk about that in the next public works meeting.

And then one of the big things that you'll hear me talk about uh specifically today is is um our overall budget and how it's getting tight and we know it was going to be tight for a few years. And so we need to work on ways to build alternate funding than just sales tax and just fees and charges. So um really to kind of support our programs, support our capital projects, and then even maybe help out with that Bruntwood Park liquidity fund. So, that's going to be a priority of mine specifically this year to continue to look for grants, continue to look for partners and try to kind of building in some of that alternate funding to help out our budget as well. And then finally, it's kind of just working with our uh social media presence and making sure the community is informed and engaged, not just what we do, but you know, trying to get them more involved through our social media. Uh I think we've done a nice job and hopefully we'll continue to do so. So some basic revenue highlights uh for the the budget and not to make you guys go through every line by line so hopefully is is a nice B breakdown is we saw a 7% increase in revenue over last year's adopted budget. Big thing of that there's two main reasons for that is we did uh increase fees and charges in a lot of our areas our pavilions our eye shrink our meeting rooms um and and a lot of that is to make sure we keep up with expenditure costs that are continue to rise. And so that's kind of what one of the things we did. And then the second thing is we were closed for six weeks this year for ice rink and having that back into a full year of operation obviously helps uh when you go year-over-year uh and you look at the ice rink we break the hundred millund the million uh dollar mark in revenue and that'll be the first time that the rink is estimated to bring in that much money. Uh knock on wood that we'll we'll hit that. Uh we feel pretty confident with those numbers. We're always a little bit conservative. Uh we've been a little bit more realistic lately. Uh but we really think that that million dollar for Ice Rink is um is achievable. We see 14% increase in rental revenue and that's two things that is an

increase in fees and charges like we talked about and secondarily that our especially our pavilions, our outdoor event pavilion as well as the playground pavilion continue to be uh very popular. And then our staff person does a great job of taking people who call who want one of those pavilions that are invariably booked and then moving them to either Memorial Park or Oak Tree Park. And that that helps out as well. Uh programming, we I know that someone asked uh at the last meeting when we did the overall and we see a 5.33% increase overall in programming revenue and that's typical because we're somewhere in that 2 to 4% increase year-over-year. Uh and some of that is that increase in sports. Our our sports supervisor is really trying to bring in some new things like volleyball tournaments, pickle ball tournaments. He ran a couple this year successfully and so he's excited to kind of move forward with that. Uh fitness, you see that go down from last year and that's because we lost a contractor. We had a third party contractor who did uh taekwond do uh did a lot of kids stuff. He was wonderful. Uh he wound up um moving to his own facility and that is unfortunate. Sometimes the uh the challenge with working with independent contractors, if they're successful, they go they move on to their own facility, but they do a great job and so we can't can't really be too upset with them. Uh general programming, that increase really comes from camp growth. So we're trying to do a few more week long camps. We've done a couple done two over the past couple years and we feel like we can pump that up for another two and try to almost do a full month and say, "Hey, the month of August is going to be camp month in Brentwood if you want to come by and do some camps." Special events. The big change in that is that we reclassified some programs. So, our wine and whiskey walk was uh in the general programming uh but that event has grown so much that that really is a special event. So, we moved it from the general programming budget to the special event budget. So, that's why you see that increase there.

And we kind of already talked about the rink fees, which is a full year of operation. Uh we do see some grant revenue, $410,000. And and the big thing, as I say, is that I I won't put in grant money unless I feel pretty confident we're going to get it. Uh this one I was right on teetering on because this is a very uh competitive grant. Uh and that white paperwork is our uh acceptance of that grant. So we we did receive that grant for the Hanley Park pavilion and parking lot project. So, we just got that and hopefully Bull and the mayor will get to sign that this week and we can start moving forward. And last is uh we added money or not added but we have that money in there for OCMI and Prop S revenue. Uh and then you see that uh in the expenditure side as well. So that's kind of the revenue there. How about programming? Again, uh we we do a lot in programming and and my staff, it's Cheryl, it's Nick, it's Lynn, it's uh Holly is our new person. They do such a great job with their programming and and I can't praise them enough for the work they do. And you see like when we're 2017 that 77,000 was primarily ice rink. Uh so our skate program, our hockey program, and you kind of see, you know, obviously everyone took that dip in 2020, but you've seen that kind of steadily increase. A lot of that was the influx of bringing on Cheryl and all the programs she brought in and then continuing that with our sports programming and continuing that now with our seniors and our adult programming. when we brought Holly uh when she started. So, uh we're confident that we'll we'll get there. We see that leveling out. I'm not sure how much more we can continue to do. Uh we continue to uh engage staff and and challenge staff and and they they love it. I mean, they don't they don't do this for fame. They do it because they love programming and and they are such wonderful people at doing it. So, I always kind of like to highlight the work that they do. Going to the fun part, the expenditures. Uh so there's a 6% increase in all personnel services and that's obviously

primarily due to salary increases the step increase and then the CPI total is 6 04 total 0.94 CPI. So 6

6.45 total if you do the step increase and that so we're a little below that. Uh some of that is new staff coming on board. Some of that's part-time staff don't don't get a six the CPI or SEP increase. So, some of that's based on that. Uh the 5% increase supplies materials is basically the cost of doing business. Uh everyone has feel that pain. Uh we continue to allocate 250,000 to the Bruntwood Park maintenance and liquidity fund. This would be year two of that. Uh we have fully funded the equipment replacement reserve. Uh we have talked about that a lot. So, we're happy to say that we know that by the end of 2028, our our equipment replacement reserve is completely funded and then is managing that year after year as as those uh balances eb and flow. And then obviously, as we talked about, there's that funding to complete the storm water master projects through that storm water uh the props si. So, quick highlights and then as we get to capital, capital's the um the one sort of kind of questionable area in our budget. So, we've we've talked about this a long time throughout the whole budget and through departments is that our budgets are going to be tight over the next few years uh because we're still paying off Brentwood bound and and we still have other debt service obligations. And so if you look at fund 50, you'll see uh our capital expenditure line decrease uh as you see what we're doing. We're meeting that Brentwood bound obligation. Uh the funding for the equipment replacement reserve that is kind of the new entering into this year. That kind of added more funding that took away from just capital funding. And then um we prioritize money for the Brentwood Park maintenance liquidity fund. Uh and I feel like that's so critically important to do that make sure that we have that in place. five ten years from now when we have to start capital projects. So it's almost like an err just for Brentwood Park is the way I kind of look at it. Um and so that really takes us down, you know, next year we have a healthy increase and that's because we had

grants. We had that grant that allowed us to spend more money and so in 27 and 28 we are down to about 90,000. Can't do a whole lot with 90,000. So what we're going to do is kind of place them in reserve for future master plan projects. And that's why the goal of finding alternate funding becomes even more critical. I don't feel confident that have any of that funding yet, which is why we don't see those numbers increase. My hope is by next year we can increase some of that through additional grants, additional alternate funding opportunities uh that will allow that to increase a little bit more and uh be able to kind of continue with the master plan. So that's kind of what that last bullet point is. So, so Ford capital, the one thing that we'll do every year is we'll always follow the ERR. So, we'll even though that we don't have much money, that 90,000 is in addition to the money we're paying out for the equipment that has to be replaced. And so, for next year, that is a mower, the magic bus, and then a truck 64 replacement. Um, our capital includes all of our IT devices and contractual expenditures and projects. Uh, so that's where our IT expenditures are. it's not in um fund 40. Uh we continue with the Brentwood wetland arburedum project phase one and that's maintenance of that area that was built into the contract. So we have that the big thing the big project is the Hanley Park conversation and parking lot expansion which is great that we had that in place uh that we received the grant for that so we can do that project and we do include um the money for the public works and park maintenance facility design. So we do include all that this year and able to kind of get that all in. That's my my presentation and happy to answer any questions.

I'll I'll kick off with uh one question. So can you talk a little about the um the Brentwood Park uh reserve fund that you're building? This is year we're currently in year one. Next year will be year two. uh can you just sort of for the public talk about what your goal is and then how that money will be spent in the outy years?

Yeah, I mean the easiest way to think about is an endowment is what we can't technically call an endowment. That's why it's a Brentwood Park maintenance liquidity fund. Um, and the idea is to build up some some um capital uh build up some money so that we can start investing it and then hopefully the earnings that we earn off those investments, the revenue we earn off those investments will be the money we use to make those uh replacements in the fund. So, we're trying to get to a million dollars. Uh, and so I'm trying to do that as quickly as possible because the more time I have to invest that, the more money we bring in in interest revenue and the more money we'll be able to have when those projects come up. So, um, it doesn't mean that once we get to a million, we'll feel like we we'll probably readjust and say, "Hey, how do we feel once we get here?" Um, but I know that like that first 250,000, I believe Michelle, she better be nodding her, has invested that already and keeping track of that interest already. So, we're already building some interest in that fund. Um, so that we can when we get to that million, our thought process is once we get to the million, maybe we move it into a different fund. So, it's kind of separated and it doesn't become another Brentwood bound in my in that fund 50. It's hard to kind of navigate um but we need to get probably to a good starting point before we do that.

Thank you. Other questions to to build on that. Can you when you say four projects um can you specify what that means?

Yeah, so we obviously worked with our contractors because we wanted to make sure we knew going into this what we'd be looking at. So, we have a uh operations and maintenance manual that was developed by all the contractors. And there's things in there that everything from, you know, vacuuming out the the parking lot because it's a perous parking lot. So, you have to kind of vacuum that out and and put new sand in it. Uh dredging the lake is something we're going to have to do every seven to 10 years. Um and then from that pieces of equipment on the playground, replacement of those pieces of equipment. So, it's kind of all those things all together uh that we're really kind of making sure that we don't come back to you guys in 10 years, 12 years and say, "Hey, we have a $750,000 X that needs to be done and we don't know how we're going to pay for that.

It won't be that much. I promise." Uh but still $75,000. I mean, that's still a general a good chunk of chain. and we want to make sure that we are good stewards of that park and of the finances that we have and making sure that we don't put the city in a bad position later on. And then um does that also extend to when we have transfer of um uh care of the rest of the parkland that is is the flood mitigation area. does your as far as like the cost that your staff will have to to care for the trees and the um

not yet. Uh it's it's more for projects. Um if we get to the point where we're doing a good job with our investments and we feel like we might be able to pull some operating expenditures from that fund. Um again, I was worried that that happened again. Uh maybe we can have that cons discussion, but I want to make sure that we're in the position where we feel good about everything in our O andM manuals and those costs that we're making sure we kind of plan out from year to year. Okay. So, so park park maintenance, not not the playground or the pavilion, but the rest of the park maintenance, you feel longterm wise you you can cover that in your operating expenditures? Yes.

Okay. Um, I I had some questions and this this this will probably bleed over to Dan's stuff, too. I was confused a little bit by the new building um uh the new parks and and uh public works building design. So there's 125,000 set aside for each one of your budgets and but one of them's not necessarily doesn't seem to be in it's in fund 40 but then so so I'm kind of what's the total spend on the on the design and how's that being funded? We expect that right now we we put in $250,000 and for that design

we obviously when we usually put in design we go a little bit high because you never know what that cost is going to be until you go out for an RFP RFQ. Um, so the idea is since it's both our buildings, half of it comes from fund 50, which is my fund. The other half comes from the capital fund. So that's fund 40. That's why you see the same amount in each budget. Okay. So if it turns out that the cost is only $100,000 for the design, it'll be $50,000 each. Okay. We just split that right down the middle. Got it. And then and then in the just staying on that for the five-year plan um I didn't see anywhere for either of the budgets like that's just the design but how do we intend to pay for the construction of that?

That is a and where does that come from?

That is a very good question. Uh I will defer to Michelle. [laughter] I'm just kidding. Um obviously uh you know the idea is that we when we've to talk with the board and with with um as we've talked about that facility the the question was when are we going to do that when are we going to do the construction? And the honest answer is we don't know yet. And so that's why you don't see it. If we determine that, hey, something has to be done in three months. Well, that will never happen because that's impossible. But, uh, if it turns out like, hey, we really need to be out of our building by 2028, then we start looking at our budgets and readjusting and when we come to this this time next year, you'll see it in the proper year it needs to be and other things will be adjusted.

Okay. And then just looking back, so I know last year we had budgeted to do Mount Calvary design and and all of that. Did that get did that get done? And then same thing for um the Henley Industrial. We we budgeted 150,000 this year to spend toward that. But that I'm sure is now That's probably a Dan question. Probably the Hanley Industrial. Well, no, the Hanley Sorry. Hanley Park Comfort Station.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Sorry. Yes. The whole idea of the I I'll take both those. The whole idea in the Hanley Park comfort station was hopefully be able to get the uh notification about the grant soon enough to where we could start getting it out to bid and start getting everything ready to go um this year so we can spend some of that money this year. Uh it appears we just got the notification that came a little bit later than we thought and because it' been more than 12 months since we did the design, we have to repermit with MSD. So we're in that process right now. We're permitting with MSD trying to make sure that they're okay with the plans. Soon as I get that, okay, we'll put that out to bid and we'll get moving on that as quickly as possible. Do I think we'll be able to spend 150,000 this year? It's going to be it's going to be close,

but regardless, there'd be a budget adjustment to the our year-end budget of 150,000 because we wouldn't have not have spent that and maybe then we can do a budget adjustment next year to then spend it. Uh, sorry, I thought I heard Michelle say something like wrong. [laughter] Um the the the uh Mount Calvary is still underway. We actually have a meeting um with um ST to kind of go over the first designs. So my hope is that we're going to be able to bring uh some of that to public works here in the near future, either November, December. Um it'll probably be December. So again, that might bleed a little bit into 2025. Um but we're still moving right along on that. So we're 26. You mean?

Yes. Jeez, I almost said 24. was like, "Thank goodness I said 25." Um, but yes, it might bleed a little bit more into next year as well. And then just for clarity, thank you for that explanation. Just for clarity on the the wetland arboritum project, we we're only budgeting 25,000 because because I noticed in the five-year plan for last year, it it had it had projected about 728 850. So, I'm guessing that with the grant we received that covers the full 75 that we expect to Yeah, we'll we'll see be putting toward the

correct. We'll see some revenue come in for um the 319 grant for the wetland arboritum. And then what we really have over the next two years is just um the um uh maintenance and it's not maintenance, it's uh care. I forget the proper word for it. I apologize. um but rid of invasives and stuff.

Yeah. So, we have them on to for two more years to help go through making sure everything comes in. Okay. And the biggest thing in that area is invasives. So, it's it was heavily inv uh fortified with invasives. And then anytime we get rain or a flood event in there, invasives wind up in there. So, until we get the um the natural plantings come in to basically choke out all the invasives, we're going to have to make sure we're pretty diligent about that. And that's why we wanted to make sure we worked with that contractor for the next two years. Okay. Sorry to take up all Oh, no. Other questions. Great.

Um I see one alderman in the gallery. Any questions from Lock Miller? No. And then Michelle, are if you're I know you're mainly here to listen, but if you have questions for Eric, we'd love to hear them. Uh, none. Thank you. Okay, thank you. Great. Uh, thank you, Eric. Thank you. Move on to public works.

I'd find the right adapter here eventually. U like Eric's presentation, there's the six basic things that we have gone through in the past. So accomplishments, streets, capital improvement, sanitation, sewer lateral, and then questions. So, as far as our accomplishments in public works, we completed the uh pilot program that was for the uh sidewalk cutting. That's that picture on the left. And that was on both sides of Ule from Brentwood Boulevard to Rosalie. I'd like that. We'll probably do that next year if we have budget. Uh we completed the roof and the gutter replacements here at city hall on the entire roof. Uh we completed the installation of a second cart tipper for the sanitation truck, the uh new plow blade and salt spreader that was on that FEMA purchase dump truck. That's what you see over on the right. And then we completed some slabs in Hanley Industrial near Straner. And then the last bullet, uh, we leased a portion of the warehouse and office at 288 Hanley Industrial, which we'll eventually move over to. Other accomplishments, we purchased a pavement roller with FEMA funds. I know that came about earlier this year. Uh we're still uh coordinating the pilot program for the enhanced uh crosswalk that's over on Mcnite just south of Sonora. That's the other picture on the page. And it looks like probably 33 sewer laterals this year. I know I counted them this morning. It's like 29. We still have November, December, and there's one pending in October. So I think we'll hit 33 35 uh for the year. Uh we completed a few traffic calming requests, one of which resulted in a speed cushion installation on high school near Powell. Uh we did receive the final reimbursement and did the close out for Russell STP. So that was tied to Brentwood bound as well. Uh we assisted parks with storm damage cleanup that was back in May along with some other cities. So that was pretty

significant. We usually don't have anything of that severity. Uh some other items here in 2025 that are still in progress, working towards completion of the RFQ for the traffic engineering services. Uh revisions to the fleet replacement policy we just talked about, which I'll take to the board. Uh repairs on the Rose Avenue bridge. We've got MDOT taking a look at that next week to see if there's additional repairs we need to do. Uh coordinator repairs. There's a retaining wall we've put in the budget and that's between 2228 and 2832 Manderly trying to get agreement on that. And then there's the bid package one for the storm water improvements. MSD approved uh their piece and we're trying to get this bid out and those are the five projects that are listed in uh bid package one. Uh used to have six projects. The one that's been excluded is 2217 Parkridge, but it's rolled into MSD's CSO Mary project. So, it will be done shortly. Uh, for 2026, we didn't put any projects in there for design. However, I got u notification from MSD there's a grant that we can apply for. Uh, Brentwood could qualify for up to $100,000. Uh, that grant becomes available after January 12th of 2026. So, I'll figure out what we can submit for that. Ideally, I'd like to submit for design package uh costs for what we could possibly construct in 2027. So, for 2027, if we combine our OMCI and Prop S funds, high school, the construction estimate was around 484,000. So, I can't help but think it'll go up from there. But, if we can get a grant at least for the design and then, you know, basically acrew our monies for the uh construction, that would be great. Uh if you go to pages 158 through 161, that's where we talk about streets. Uh nothing too monumental there. The

staffing remains the same. 15 full-time employees. Uh the salaries and benefits, those experienced decreases uh for the department. So like -6 and 11% respectively year-over-year. And some of that's because some staff are capped at step 12 and we've had turnover. So the folks that have moved into those positions either didn't get an increase yet or they started out at a lower wage than the people that were replaced. Uh and then lastly, forestry is within the uh public works budget. I know that parks manages it. There is an increase um year-over-year and that's primarily due to it's ward one for next year. Ward four is in this year. So I know there's way more ward one trees. That's why you saw almost 84% increase. On the capital side, it starts around page 162 and then there's some information on 180. But, uh, repairs and maintenance like for fleet that did increase about 4%. So, it went from 115,000 to 120. That takes care of all the different departments. Uh, computers, that cost went down around 99,00 being replaced this time, an iPad and two desktops. the big printer that everyone shares including parks. Um that was replaced this year. So that went down. Other capital improvements under subcategory 6530. We're wanting to purchase a pavement saw, replace the HVAC and the admin hallway. And then that would also cover like any speed cushions, street signs, um other small equipment, you know, hand tools, things of that nature. And that's at 150,000 for uh 2026. And that's a $70,000 decrease from 25 streets and sidewalks. That's subcategory 6535. That would be any sidewalk work. Uh street assessment reports if we had to do a traffic study for some particular thing. Uh pavement

repair projects, uh we bid those out. So if it's, you know, concrete or asphalt, that's 873,000ish. Um so some of the street projects that are included in next year would be Kier at Pendleton intersection. There's another small section on Kier just north of Russell. uh Eager Road from basically the county city dividing line there just west of Brentwood Boulevard all the way over to Babalink uh in Brentwood Forest and then Ule Avenue from Mary Kay Court to Rosalie and then a section that's concrete um that would be a portion on Straner and Hanley Industrial and then some of our other capital uh we've got some labor costs under building maintenance and that's for the police department their renovation of their locker room. I know they're paying for the materials out of asset forfeite. Just wanted to make you aware that there's a split there. Uh we do have four vehicles that meet the ERR and the fleet policy valuations. Uh that totals 331,000. So of that total, I broke down the four vehicles. The most significant is truck 56. That's a big truck that you see up in the upper right corner. So it's a 2008 GMC. Um it's a little over a two-tonon truck and that's fully outfitted. So that's the new plow blade, spreader, all the lights, everything all ends 170,000. The other ones, you know, they're about normal, you know, 40, 50, 60,000. One of them has the uh Tommy gate, that's truck 54. So combined it's, you know, closer to 50. Uh public works also included, which we just discussed, 50% of the design costs for the proposed building that's being straddled with the parks department. Ours is 125,000 as well. And then for sanitation, there is some um the staffing levels are the same. It's four full-time. Uh there's modest increases year-over-year associated with salaries for full-time. It's about 4% or

a little over $13,000 increase. Uh overtime, no change. So, we're at zero. And then the benefits that you know, it only increased by 3/10en of a percent. So, that's pretty insignificant as well. Uh solid waste disposal we left the same at 240,000. So that gets rid of your yard waste refuse and it processes recyclables. And then the sanitation capital, it only increased by $500. So that would be for recycle cards, dumpsters, and specialty receptacles at city facilities. On the sewer lateral side on page 177, um miscellaneous contractual expenses, those are the same, 126,000. Uh the current reimbursement claim limit stayed the same, 3,500 per property per calendar year. Uh just wanted to point out, we pointed this out before, but the debt to the program was repaid in fiscal year 2023. So right now, I looked at it earlier today, uh the expenses were like $44,000 below for our overall, you know, the 126 we're still below it. Even if you had four, five, six more claims, you're still going to be below that, which is good. So that'll just build the reserve up a little more. Uh the capital equipment that stayed the same, $1,000. Streets and sidewalks, if we had to repair, you know, someone's sidewalk slab associated with the sewer lateral, that's $1,000 for the material. And just wanted to point out the revenues remain flat since the cost or not the cost, but the assessment is $50 per property. That has not changed and can't change unless the statute changes. And then usually we do around 35 sewer laterals per calendar year. Um and then you know there's a graphic that shows different sewer lateral defects whether it's a belly or roots or you know separation things of that nature. And that's pretty much it. It kind of went through it fast. I don't know if

you have any specific questions on any pages. I've got copy of my budget book as well.

So I'll start. I have a a comment and a question. So, first of all, the the prospect of an OMCI grant uh next year and that we could actually potentially tackle some of those larger or one of those larger uh projects in our storm water plan um is is sort of remarkable. I never thought we'd get to any of those. So, certainly in our lifetime. So, um I know there's a lot it's a grant and there's a lot to to that, but that's pretty exciting. Uh and then um on this the streets uh I'm looking at page 185 um line uh fund 40416535. So um this year there's a good amount uh in that uh budget but then in the outy years uh there is less money. So, can you talk about your comfort level of these outyear um numbers of one this year? I guess the total for streets and sidewalks is 873 and then next year we're like 370 um 320 uh going forward. So, are you comfortable with those dollars uh in future years uh for our streets?

Yeah, I looked at the uh spreadsheets that I have. I know we can do most of the street projects that are in there from, you know, 27, 28, 29, and 30 because I projected out five years. Uh the things that I would probably hold off on, uh, you know, I would do the definite repair. So, like, for example, in 2027, I've got area A4, which doesn't mean a whole lot, but it's actually 603 Hanley Industrial to 645 Hanley Industrial. It's near Hanley Park, so several of those slabs need to be replaced next to the park, and that's at like 291,000. So, I still would have money left over to do other street projects, but it probably won't be to the extent of the sealants. Some of those have aged out. Other streets I marked off because MSD with CSO Mary, there's so many streets that they're going to, you know, not destroy, but they're they're going to impact. Um, so I know, you know, some of it they'll be replacing with new concrete slabs. So I know like Covington, Radley, Kentland, those streets, you know, you already had Luth come through there with Missouri America. Now you're going to have MSD and it's over a three and a half year timeline. Um, but I know that their impact over by the school would be high school, Stratford, like all of Stratford's going to be disturbed. So why would you even seal it? I just mark it off. And then high school, same thing. Uh, St. Clair for the most part is impacted. Yeah, chunks of pine parking

because Litzinger I'd like to, you know, possibly do a ceiling or mill and overlay in areas, but I'm like, well, I would just hold off and see what they do over the next few years. Same thing with Missouri American Inspire. They're supposed to send us a list of streets that have facilities that are going to be upgraded. Um, it seems like a lot of times they just decide at the last minute and it doesn't catch up to our budget. I know I went to a a APWA roundt and there's beta testing right now that's between Spire and certain cities. If it works out well, it'll let us look at their maps and then what their five-year is and then we'd be able to conversely like draw a polygon around our street that's going to be milled and overlaid or something. So there's coordination between the agencies. So that looks promising for not next year but probably 27.

That's all I had. Other questions from the committee? Um, so on the on the street improvements, can you just explain like last last year you budgeted or you you projected that it was going to be about 750,000 almost? Um, and and now it's it's gone. Was there is that cost of materials labor or is that just I know there's more money changed available. Um I know is it a tiff or something's coming offline TDD? Yeah. So there's more money available. So my job from management was to look at other streets that maybe we deferred and bring back streets. Correct. That's that's what I wanted to

Yes.

Hope hoping to hear. Um, and then as far as the uh [sighs] some of the trucks um like like truck 56 wasn't even in the capital plan from last year and and then some were moved up. Is that because of the e the now being part of the err or um I guess you know just kind of the the shifts in in some of these truck replacements that maybe weren't on the radar. Yeah, 56. I know when it it's scored, it's just like we say, it meets one of the criteria, but then when you went through the score, the score wasn't enough under the current policy to justify replacing it just yet where it scored more points this goound was the fact that it's a 2008 and we can't find parts for it. You know, it's 17 year old vehicle. Some stuff I know we bought on eBay

because the OEM stuff that you would normally get from GMC is not available. you know, certain major components you can still get, you know, or the basics, you know, tires and rims and headlights. A lot of that you can still find, but you know, my biggest fear is if it really stops functioning for whatever reason, there's no way I would put that kind of money into it to get it to work again as No, I guess I guess what what I'm wondering though is it wasn't on the list from last year. I see. At all. Um, and now it now it is. So I just was it just maybe an oversight from last year and or we just are evaluating it and

yeah it could be I don't know I'd have to look at last years and look at each one of those which I can and then figure out maybe it was an oversight. It is a pretty big purchase. So

yeah and it is a snow plow truck. We do keep it as it's either on a crew or b crew but then when it isn't being used for snow plowing it's used for you know hauling asphalt or broken sidewalks or things of that nature. Okay. And then um the only other question I had was regarding the sewer lateral program. I know we had a you know we did we did have one citizen come up and ask to have that considered to be an increase. Um and I I know the the chair of public works is here. So if you have any comments on that as well. But I know there has been some discussion about what would it do to the budget? What would it do to the long-term liquidity of that fund? um if we were to consider increasing it say to like four 4,000

um just knowing that the cost to do these repairs has gone up and and it's not really covering as much as it used to. So I just Yeah, I did start that process. I planned on bringing that to public works. Okay. So, I went back through my files, which I've had since I think 27. Yeah, 2017 was the first year I had like full access because I started in middle of 16. So, I went through and figured out like what we paid, you know, for the repairs versus what the city reimbursed. Um, you know, initially we had no ceiling, you know, when I first started here. Then it was

7,250, [clears throat] I believe, and then we lowered it again to 3500. the 3500. The reason why we lowered it so much was so that we would pay back the funds. We did pay back those funds. And then to your point, it's like, well, now we can do 3536 at 3500 without going upside down. It's like if we're staying below that threshold, we're building up reserve. Could we use some of that to increase it? And you know, the short answer, I believe, is yes. But, you know, I need you need time to vet that for the budget process. You don't want to change for this. I would leave it unchanged, but I think we can definitely consider it with public works and possibly make a change. So, so, okay,

the last time the policy was updated uh was 2019, and that eliminated home sale contingencies and a lot of other things that snuck in there and then took away money, you know, from the fund. But like I said, it's like it's truly for defects. You know, if you just have minor cracking, it's we're not going to approve it. So if we if we budget if we keep it you know status quo for a budget this year but then within the next couple of months public works committee decides they want to make re make a recommendation to increase it um we'll just have to adjust the budget I guess is that the plan? Yeah, I plan on looking at the reserve and seeing like, well, if you did make it hypothetically $4,000 a year, what would that do? Like, by what year would it start to erode,

you know, that reserve? Or does it carry out five years and there's no impact and you would just leave it alone? Okay. All right. Thank you. Y uh I don't see Alderwoman Go anymore. Alderman Lock Miller, any questions? Okay. Great. Thank you. Well, thanks presentation. So, um, moving on from the budget, we have one item of new business about, uh, the payroll schedule for 2026. Tangula,

good afternoon. Um, hopefully you've had a chance to review the memo. It is very straight for straightforward. It'sformational only. And if there's any questions, I am happy to answer those regarding the 27 pay cycles present for 2026.

Good memo. Very well. [laughter] Very well presented. Well written. Yes. Easy to understand. Thank you. Um so that takes us to our next item of business which is citizen comment. This is a chance for anyone any citizen to speak to the committee. Is anyone joined online? I have anyone online now. Great. Uh well with that there being no further business this meeting is adjourned.