City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the August 19, 2026 City Council meeting. Please rise, and we will say the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge 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.

Thank you. The clerk will call the roll.

Councilmember Norris.

Here.

Councilmember Patel?

Here.

Councilmember Sattel? Here. Councilmember Thornburg? Here. Councilmember Weschy?

Here.

Councilmember Bezada? Here. Councilmember Shear?

Here.

Councilmember Luther?

Here.

Thank you. We have all eight councilmembers this evening. Next item on the agenda. Agenda approval?

So moved. Second.

Motion's made by Councilmember Luther, seconded by Councilmember Bezada. for the approval of tonight's agenda. Any changes, deletions? I see none. All in favor of tonight's agenda, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? I hear none. Tonight's agenda is approved. Next item on the agenda is our public comment portion. I have Diane Chewy. Please come forward, state your name and address for the city clerk.

I'm Diane Shuey. I live at 11760 Archerton Court in Harmon Estates. I just wanted to talk to you tonight a little bit about our preparedness for climate change, because I don't think we have any. And I'm afraid it's here. We have extreme heat events. We have extreme rainfall. And I don't see the city being prepared, not that it's your fault, because nobody is. Across the country, people are just waking up. But there are a lot of things that the city can do that wouldn't take a lot of money, which I'm sure you'd be happy to hear. We need to upgrade our green spaces so that we have a lot more shade than we have now. We need to think about the power grid. We need to think about drainage. All of these mundane things that if we attend to them now for disastrous consequences, This is not your normal stuff. This is a very different world we're going to be living in. And I'd like to help. I think there's a lot the city can do with its parks. Just in taking a little inventory, we have a lot of dying trees. We have a lot of upkeep to do. I know it's expensive, but I think we could round up some volunteers to help. and get things cleaned up and prepared for at least being a central green space in an area. You can keep the city temperatures down if you improve the green space. And that includes we need to think about how much pavement we got and where the runoff is going. If you're interested, I'd be happy to be on a commission to study these things and report back to you, but we really need to work on it, and I'm very concerned. My phone number is up there on the mayor's desk, and if you need to call me or talk to me, I'd love to talk to you. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments, and we will take them under advisement. Next item on the agenda, the approval of the August 5th, 2026 City Council Minutes.

Do I have enough motions? So moved.

Second. Motions made by Council Member Luther, seconded by Council Member Bezzata for the approval of the August 5th, 2026 Council Minutes. Any changes? Deletions? I see none. All in favor of the August 5th, 2026 minutes, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? I hear none. The August 5th, 2026 council minutes are approved. Next item on the agenda, we do have a consideration of a resolution, 26-03. Council Member Luther.

Thank you, Mayor. A resolution of the Mayor and City Council of the City of Bridgeton, Missouri, supporting the Parks and Recreation Department's application for Municipal Park Grant Commission funds for Phase 2 of Park Improvements at Hellebush Park, moved to approve Resolution 26-03. Second.

Motion is made by councilmember Luther seconded by councilmember Bazzara to approve resolution number 26-03 Do you have any interest in reading the entire resolution?

I can if you would like I Think I just read the entire resolution Oh, thank you. It's not in there. whereas the city of bridgeton desires to continue the park improvements of the 55 year old hellebush park and whereas the contract for financial grant assistance will impose certain obligations upon the applicant including the provision by it of the local share of project costs and whereas the city of bridgeton's ultimate goal is to provide and maintain high quality outdoor recreation facilities for the enjoyment of its residents. Now, therefore, be it resolved by the Mayor and City Council of the City of Bridgeton, Missouri, as follows. An application be made to the Municipal Park Grant Commission in the County of St. Louis for a grant in aid for a majority of the cost of the project, reimbursable by the Commission upon completion by the City, Section 2, that a project proposal be prepared and submitted to the Municipal Parks Grant Commission. Section 3, the governing body hereby authorizes the mayor and city clerk to sign and execute the necessary documents for forwarding the project proposal application and later execute an agreement for a grant in aid from the Municipal Park Grant Commission regarding said grant. Section 4 that this resolution shall become a permanent part of the records of the city of Bridgeton upon its passage and approval.

Very good. Any further discussion? I see none. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? I hear none. Resolution number 26-03 is approved. Thank you very much. Next item on the agenda, we do have perfection of bills. First bill and only bill for perfection is 6558. Council Member Norris.

Thank you, Mayor. I'm playing with my toy over here, so bear with me. Move for second reading of bill number 6558. Second.

Motion's made by Councilmember Norris, seconded by Councilmember Shearer for second reading of bill number 6558. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? If I hear none, please continue.

An ordinance of the City Council of the City of Bridgeton, Missouri authorizing the Mayor and City Clerk to execute an agreement substantially in the form attached here to with Motorola's solutions for drone as first responder DFR program. Move that bill number 6558 become ordinance number 26. Dash 36.

Second. MOTIONS MADE BY COUNCILMEMBER NORRIS SECONDED BY COUNCILMEMBER SATIL THE BILL NUMBER 6558 BECOME ORDINANCE 26-36 DISCUSSION COUNCILMEMBER NORRIS CAN YOU TURN YOUR MICROPHONE ON PLEASE OH I'M SORRY I WILL DEFER IF CHIEF DID THE CHIEF GIVE YOU ANY INFORMATION TO ALL RIGHT

All right, so if you could defer to that, I would defer to the chief, I mean. Major Dick Herber, please. I'm sorry. So, you know, it does go on, and I mean, I'll just briefly say that, you know, it's not going to cost us anything, but you can continue.

Yes, ma'am. So it would be a one-year trial. That final period, we're going to be testing the effectiveness of it, the usefulness of it. Cities that have employed these cities, counties, jurisdictions, all the way out to just short of . So it covers almost our entire jurisdiction with just that one device. The biggest concerns that we hear and obviously that we look into are privacy concerns with the drones and with this type of technology.

One of the things that is so impressive about this technology is they're sent specifically to calls for service. That is it.

So we will have a licensed pilot that is part of that decision-making matrix at all times.

dangerous incidents as before.

Discussion continues. Council Member Sotel.

Thank you, Mayor. As a pilot myself, I'm kind of concerned now since you have our airport so close and we're actually on a no-fly zone. Do we have to mean we have to contact the tower every time we just lift off the top of the roof or what? Can you explain that a little bit here?

Absolutely.

So part of this contract is actually

So kind of want a helicopter flying through our zone area, the same thing, going to a hospital or something like that then. All right, thank you. All right.

Thank you. Council, any further discussion? If not, the clerk will call the roll.

Council Member Patel.

Aye.

Council Member Sattel. Aye. Council Member Thornburg.

Aye.

Council Member Weshe.

Aye.

Council Member Bezada.

Aye.

Council Member Shearer.

Aye.

Council Member Luther. Aye. Council Member Norris. Aye.

By a vote of eight to nothing, ordinance, bill number 6558 becomes ordinance 26-36. Next item on the agenda, consideration of new bills. Bill number 6559, Council Member Norris.

Yes, sir, thank you. Move for first reading of bill number 6559. Second.

Motions made by Councilmember Norris, seconded by Councilmember Shearer for first reading of bill number 6559. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? I hear none. Please continue.

An ordinance of the City Council of the City of Bridgeton, Missouri amending chapter 205 offenses, article 6 offenses against public order, section 205.330 harassment in the City of Bridgeton code of ordinance moved to table.

Second.

Motion is made to table bill number 6559 by Councilmember Norris, seconded by Councilmember Shearer. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Bill number 6559 is tabled. Next item consideration, first consideration of bill number 6560, Councilmember Shearer.

I move for a first reading of bill number 6560.

Second. Motion's made by council member Shearer, seconded by council member Norris for first reading of bill number 6560. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? I hear none. Please continue.

An ordinance with the City Council of the City of Bridgeton, Missouri authorizing the mayor and the city clerk to execute a surface transportation block grant agreement substantially in the form attached hereto with the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission Association with the replacement of the existing natural bridge road bridge.

Move the table.

I move the table. Any second?

Second.

Motions made by Council Member Shearer, seconded by Council Member Norris to table bill number 6560. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Bill number 6560 is tabled. We don't have any discussion items. Attorneys report?

Just one thing to report, Mayor. The Still on the Rocks lawsuit was dismissed by the plaintiff this week, so that has come to a conclusion.

Good. Thank you. Council Communications. Council Member Wessie.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you all for coming out. I always like seeing people in the room, and there's quite a few of you tonight. So I actually don't really have anything. So back to you, Mayor. Council Member Shearer.

Thank you, Mayor.

I have nothing tonight. Council Member Sotil. Thank you, Mayor. I want to thank those that attended tonight's Cove meeting. The hot topic really was about e-motos and e-bikes and stuff like that. So I think the city and the police department's moving forward graciously on that to try to see what other municipalities and the state of Missouri is doing to make our city safer for the youth that are driving under 16 and the adults that are driving over 16 as well. Thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Norris.

Thank you, Mayor. Of course, I do have something. I attended the police promotion ceremony on August the 10th. It was a great honor. to attend with these officers and their families. I did appreciate that. This has been a busy week. Thanks to staff in preparing the 2026 budget review. Bridgeton is looking good. I said we're moving off the, of course we have to still be careful, just like all of us have to be careful with our budget. And I want to thank Director Kane of the Parks Division for providing more information regarding improvements at BMAC. I do appreciate the support that we're giving for this additional technology for the drones. Our main concern is the safety of our police officers, and I feel this will help them before they get into a dangerous situation. This equipment will give them some help and warning. So I do appreciate this technology. Of course congratulations to the city manager and staff and working with the Savoy properties to have a second shopping center in Bridgeton This is the great news. We we for our growth. And I appreciate having local ownership. I said that it is nice to have that. We can contact them if we see anything. It's hard when you have to call Chicago or New York. So time-wise, they're in Brentwood and Chesterfield. So that is great news for us. So I do appreciate all the hard work. And take care to everyone. Thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Thornburg. Thank you, Mayor. I also attended the police promotion ceremony, and it was great to see that the council chamber was filled that evening with family, friends, and city officials. The promotions were well-deserved, and it was a special evening to see all the officers recognized for their work. So thank you for that. I attended the dive-in movie with my granddaughter at the outdoor pool last week. And the Parks Department and the Pattonville Fire District put that on, and we thank them for that, for doing that for the kids. And lastly, I also attended the Concert in the Park at Gentry Park, and that was attended by over 200 people. It was a nice crowd, a beautiful evening, and I'd like to thank the Parks Department for all they do for the residents. So thank you very much. That's all, Mayor.

Thank you. Council Member Bozzano.

I'll second Ms. Norris and Mr. Thornburg. August 10th, the promotion ceremony. There's nothing like seeing officers getting to be admired in front of their families. It's a great first-time ceremony, and I hope we do it time and time again. Thanks, Mr. Kane, for the BMAC presentation. I thought the second meeting was needed, and I think that got a lot of information to Anybody who had more questions. Lastly, thanks to all the department heads for putting together the mid-year budget session. We appreciate that. We need it and look forward to more information as the year goes on. That's all.

Thank you. Council Member Patel.

Thank you, Mayor. I think pretty much everybody has said everything that I would want to say, so.

Council Member Luther.

Thank you. Gave me some time to write a few things down. So I just want to say congratulations to St. John's Bank, 100 years. It was one of the hottest days of the year to attend, but that's in my neighborhood and Ward 2's neighborhood, so it was great to stop by and see other council members and see so many people there. And what a great celebration. They've been here a long time. the other pieces that we did have the cove our court ordinance violation enforcement committee tonight we've set a schedule of meetings every other month through june our next meeting will be october 21st at 6 p.m and there are a lot of people to thank we were crowded in there I want to thank Major Dick Herber. Thank you very much for all of the information that you provided to us. I'll talk about that in just a minute. To Public Works Director Gunn and to Ordinance Officer Stone, to City Administrator Kevin Bookout, the Mayor, and I think Bill from your team was there as well. And also to members of our community, our friends and neighbors who came. to speak out on a variety of issues. The topic tonight, oh, and also Council Member Norris for coming, thank you. And so, the topic was, I hesitate to call them e-bikes, we'll call them non-e-bikes. car vehicles on the road. I don't know. Somebody needs to come up with a better name. And this was lifted up to us by the chief, our former chief, Masadi. And we are just exploring this. I know that there's concern. I've heard people talk about bans. We're not talking about anything. We're exploring this. And thanks to the major, we have some information about surrounding communities. And as he said, why reinvent the wheel when we've got some good templates to use? So this is a conversation, the first start of a conversation. It's very likely we'll have something to share with our attorney and also to share with council and other members of the community. But it seems to be something that we need to address proactively. And that's what we will do, and we will follow our role as the legislative body on that. So look for maybe another meeting just about this once we get a little more information. But I just wanted to thank everyone for coming. It was a big meeting. That's not all that COBE is going to do, but it seemed like a good way to start the year, sort of the school year, our new year too. So thank everybody for coming. And then I assume that the mayor's going to talk about Savoy's purchase of additional property. I think what they had to say about Bridgeton was very nice to hear. They're very much invested in Bridgeton. It sounds like they're going to be doing even more. So it's very nice to hear good things about the city, particularly along that important retail corridor. I wondered if someone could mention our award that we will be receiving next month from MML, the Missouri Municipal League. It's in print now, so I think we can talk about it with a terrific partner. And I would ask our city administrator if he could give us just a very brief overview or a brief summary of our mid-year budget report and the status of the finance office staffing. So that's it for me.

Thank you. Staff reports, I'll start with Mister gun public works director.

This week we had a quick meeting with bluegrass, they're the ones that are cutting those 4 properties on that mode at sometimes doesn't cut. We have 6 more moments to go and it will be finished for the year so falls right around the corner, I was kind of surprised that they've done so much already. We've had a lot of compliments on those 4 areas. So I think it is going nice there. Pin your questions. That's all I have.

Mister gun, I noticed here on one of the hillsides going north on to 70. There was some work done on some I guess brush it was clear there was a rock went down.

Correct the bluegrass do that for know that was no doubt because he had a huge erosion. We're getting ready to clear that area. That's the last part that we had that was kind of what it if you remember 2 years ago right across from Olive Garden, there was a huge brush pile. And it took us a little while, but we cleaned that up. We've been working with MoDOT. We cleaned up the area around the Old Circuit City. We've been spraying that with some herbicide to keep it from growing back. And the last part was that one little area on the hillside. When we started to tackle that, we noticed that there was a lot of erosion. Some areas were as deep as six feet. So we realized, hey, this is well beyond what I wanted to do. I needed to call MoDOT. It took mode out a little while, but once the right person saw it He had I think 12 guys out there and took him two days and they fixed it all so They took him a little while. They had to take all the brush off and then fill it full of rock.

So I'm fortunate that happened Thank you any further questions or mr. Gunn I see none Major dicker burr police Thank you

Brendan Cain, Parks and Rec Director. I just want to thank the council for passing the resolution tonight. That is a requirement of our grant application that's due next week for the municipal park grant. And that'll be for Hellebush Park Phase 2, which will be for a new playground, which is needed out there. A little background on the grant. So we can apply every year. Bridgeton is eligible for $465,000. based on our population For a long time it was like every other year we would get it because we score low in the area of Park inventory per capita So we have I think first or second park inventory compared to our population in the st Louis County So what that shows in the scoring is that we don't have the need I disagree with the scoring system But that's a different conversation Um, so we're hopefully to get it. We've gotten three in a row. So if we get four in a row, that'd be, that'd be amazing. But, uh, we'll see what happens. Fingers crossed. Uh, we have the annual SSM EMS tournament, softball tournament BMAC today. It's our largest one day event of the year. And, uh, we already had to reschedule it once. And today we were, everybody was nervous with the weather, but we got lucky. So, uh, they were able to finish it and went well.

Thank you. Any questions, Council of Mr. Kane? I see none. City Administrator Kevin Bookout.

Thank you, Mayor. A real brief summary of the midyear budget meeting. Again, I wanted to thank Don. He's stepped in and done a great job. The meeting really focused on where we are at this point in the year. I think the highlight is that we're always pretty conservative with our revenue projections on sales tax. It's shown that we're up a little bit in revenue, which has not been the case over the last five or six years. It's It's grown very, very slowly, but we're up over last year, which is a good sign. I think each one of the department heads gave a presentation on where they are with their spending, and I think at this point in the year, we're right in line with where we expect to be, and I think the upside was the increase in sales tax revenue at this point in 26 over this point from 25. The staffing position, we have made an offer. The offer was accepted. We're in the contingency phase, so I don't want to share much more information, but things look great, and we should have more to share probably next week.

Thank you. That's great news.

Absolutely. On the award that the City of Bridgeton is going to be getting from the MML, this was submitted to the MML this spring and the City of Bridgeton was chosen. I know sometimes incentive packages for developments have a bad name, but I think this was one that we were very creative and the council approved back in 2019. Mayor Briggs and I met with Leonardo DRS that was wanting to come to the area and of course they were asking for real property tax abatement. We had made it a practice to always go to the school district and talk with them because it affects them. They had talked about how creative they want to be in STEM programs, engineering, internships, and one of the things that jumped out to Mayor Briggs and I when we met with Leonardo DRS is they had indicated that two-thirds of their employees are engineers. So as part of the incentive package, we required Leonardo DRS to have a community engagement agreement with the school district to work with them with engineering and different STEM programs, whether it's judging competitions, internships, shadowings, some over at Leonardo DRS, and it's turned out to be a great program. Pattonville speaks highly of it. I think Leonardo DRS really enjoys being part of the community so i think it was a win i think it was creative and i think i appreciate the council approving that in 2019 and just appreciate the attention that the city of bridgen will get next month thank you that's all i have mayor uh mr book out and i discussed this i think this is the first time that we've submitted and also the first time that this

Obviously, the city was given an award.

So thank you for all your efforts. My suggestion when we were talking about submitting was Gentry Park, Terry Briggs' playground. But maybe we can do that next year. We'll see what happens.

Thank you.

Any questions of Mr. Booker?

I see none.

I was going to try and get us out of here by 7.30, Councilmember Patel, so just give me like four or five minutes and we'll be finished. First of all, thank you all for being here and also to those who will be viewing the meeting at a later time. Congratulations again to our police officers that received their promotions and participated in the pinning ceremony August the 10th. I'm going to name them off real quick. Major Ryan Dickerber, Captain Matt Black, Lieutenant John Tendera, Lieutenant Clay Dean, Sergeant Brad Cash, and Sergeant Matt Paxton. While on the police, I received a copy of an exceptionally well-written commendation letter from a Texas resident who has an aging parent residing here in Bridgeton regarding four of our officers. I don't want to steal Chief Loveall's thunder since he probably hasn't received the letter yet and read it due to his schedule because I just got it today. The point I want to make, though, is that none of us here are looking for praise and thank yous. They are very few and far between the complaints, but this commendation letter is one of the most, if not the most, sincere, thoughtful, and touching four-page letter that I've ever seen. Once you learn more from Chief Lovell, I'm sure you'll agree that kudos for these four officers will be well-deserved. On the subject of drones, I don't know if you saw in the news last night, but Walmart is considering delivery of smaller packages by drones, particularly in St. Charles and Maplewood. Keep that in mind. The Finance Commission met last Thursday and they were presented with the unaudited financial statements for year ending December 31st, 2025 and the first six months of 2026. Several members of the Finance Commission recommended to administration that department heads should be made aware now that probably a minimum of 10% reduction in expenses should be made based on the 2026 budget when considering the 2027 budget so that reserves will not be used for four years in a row. I attended the St. Louis Metro Mayor's meeting last Thursday. Our guest speaker was Emily Romines from the St. Louis Zoo. The topic of her presentation was Wild Care Park, the 425 acre golf course and property purchased from pipefitters and Plumbers Local 562 in 2018. I've left some information back there on the table in case you want some more information on that. Tomorrow I'll be attending the Municipal League of Metropolitan St. Louis Special Executive Board Meeting. Topics to be covered at this time are the St. Louis County's recent changes in the process and policies with respect to the one cent and quarter cent sales tax distribution letter requesting an audit by the State Auditor's Office and also the Board of Freeholders update. Also, the league will be sponsoring our annual golf tournament in conjunction with St. Louis Area Police Chiefs Association and also the St. Louis City Management Association. That will be Thursday, October 1st at 8 a.m. at the Florissant Golf Club. This tournament will benefit Project 1078, which provides assistance and support to police officers and their families during times of crisis and need. I've left information back there on the table as well if you're interested. I'll be attending the quarterly clergy meeting and luncheon next Tuesday at New Life Church on Mark Twain Lane. Speaking about Savoy Properties, we hope to see some new development over there starting within the next 18 to 24 months, depending on the timing of the leases that are currently in place. involved over there. I also want to say St. John's Bank, they're having their big celebration at their home office on St. Charles Rock Road right near Brown Road in October, and I will be presenting a proclamation for Council's consideration to present to them uh later on this year beat the heat visit our outdoor pool gentry park during the reduced scheduled hours through labor day and also don't forget if you're a golfer please make your golf reservations at barry hill golf course by calling direct or through barryhillgolf.com or golfnow.com that's all i have unless council has any questions of me

I see none.

Let's take a motion for adjournment. So moved. Second. Motion is made by Council Member Luther, seconded by Council Member Wessie. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed?

We're adjourned. Thank you.