City Council - Regular Meeting

calling to order the December 3rd, 2025 city council meeting. Please stand and we'll 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. The clerk will call the role. Council member Wesi here. Council member Hood here. Council member Iwanu here. Council member Luke here. Council member Luther here. Council member Norris here. Council member Patel here. Council member Satel

here. We have all eight council members. Next item on the agenda is agenda approval. Motion for approval. Second motion made by Council Member Luke, seconded by Council Member Luther to approve tonight's agenda. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Any changes? Tonight's agenda is approved. Next item, public comments. I don't see any cards this evening. So, we'll move on to the approval of the minutes from November the 19th. Make a motion for approval. Second.

Motion's made by Council Member Luke, seconded by Council Member Luther to approve the amendments from November the 19th. Any changes? Council member Luke. Thank you, Mayor. In addition to the minor changes that Council Member Luther emailed, um lines 36 and 37 need to be deleted. I think I had one more and line 291 should read council member Luke moves

and that's all I have. All in favor of the amendments as proposed by council member Luke say I. I. Any opposed? I see none. Any others? All right. All in favor of the minutes as amended from November the 19th, 2025, say I. I. Any opposed? I hear none. The minutes for November the 19th, 2025 are approved. Next item on the agenda, we do have a public hearing coming up. Um, city administrator, Mr. for book out.

Thank you, mayor. Uh before I get started, I just wanted to uh thank all of the the uh department heads and their departments for all their work on preparing their budgets. They started this process back in July and I know there's been a lot of work put in by the departments and uh Christine putting all this together. I know the mayor and I met with all the departments. So, uh, again, thanks thank the departments and I also wanted to thank the council for the two budget meetings that we had. I know there were was a lot of discussion and some of that I'll get into a little bit, but uh, I just wanted to thank you all before I get started. Uh, the proposed annual budget for the city of Bridgton for 2026 is 32,733,585. of that 32 million. Um the proposed operating budget for expenditures for the general fund is 23.9 million. The planned expenditures include a 3.8% cost of living cost of living adjustment for full-time employees and 2.1 million in pension contributions and this is across all full-time employees. of this approximately 1.35 million is for the maintenance contributions for the legacy plan which is our older employee pension plan and approximately 733,000 is for loggers. The anticipated unreserved fund balance at the end of 2026 will be 10 million. This equates to a 46% um of the general fund operating expenditures for 2026. Uh this budget includes a decrease in the number of full-time positions for the 2026 fiscal year from 130 to 129. This is a result of the net reduction in

the police department from 62 to 61 employees which was recommended by Chief MSA. The proposal for capital outlay from the capital improvements fund is 1,751,225 and this is over all departments within the city. The tax on residential property decrease to 12.9 per $100 of assessed value and 19.1 cents for um per $100 for commercial property. And again, there is no um tax on personal property within the city of Bridgton. Um during the first budget meeting, we had a discussion on the general fund transfers. Um and in an effort to uh reduce that transfer and also reduce expenditures from the general fund, I met with the parks director and we went through his budget and um he identified another 50,000 that that we were able to cut. um which included the the departments that are taken from the parks and storm water tax. As part of that uh second budget meeting, um I also recommended that we uh cut 150,000 from the 200,000 that was budgeted for storm water and a 100,000 from the 200,000 that was budgeted for the accounting uh software for next year. Um, I understand that some of this the some of these uh recommendations the the city council may um want to reconsider and I would just ask that you discuss that with the other council members and consider that at the uh second reading and the perfection of the bill two weeks from now. I'll entertain any questions that you may have. Council,

I don't see any questions. All righty. Thank you. Thank you very much.

All right. Next item on the agenda, we have bid approvals. Council member Hood. All right. Motion to approve bids for asphalt concrete mix. Second. Motion. Motion's made by council member Hood, seconded by council member Norris to approve the bid for asphaltic concrete mix. All in favor say I. I.

I. Any opposed? Please continue. I move to approve Bridgefield Asphalt LLC as the primary supplier, Missouri Asphalt Products as the secondary supplier and New Frontier Materials LLC as the tertiary supplier for Asphalt Concrete Mix. and New Frontier Materials LLC is the supplier of polymer modified cold mix for the year 2026 2027 in accordance with their bids of November 6th, 2025.

Second. Okay. Motion's made by Council Member Hood, seconded by Council Member Norris to approve the bid. All in favor say I. I I opposed. I hear none. The bid is approved for the asphaltic concrete mix. Mr. Hood, calcium chloride. Motion to approve bids for calcium chloride. Second. Second. Motion's made by council member Hood, seconded by council member Norris to approve the bid for calcium chloride. Please continue. All in favor say I. I. Any oppose? None. Please continue.

I move to approve. So, Calco Limited as the primary supplier and Scottwood Industries Incorporated as a secondary supplier of calcium chloride for 2026 2027 in accordance with their bids of November the 6th, 2025. Second. Motion's made by Council Member Hood, seconded by Council Member Norris to approve this bid. All in favor say I. I. Any oppose? It is approved. Council member Hood. Bids for gas, oils, and lubricants. Motion to approve bids for gas, oil, and lubricants.

Second. Just as a just as a point point of order. Sorry. Uh so all you need to do is move to and then read this and then you'll get a second and then we just vote once. Okay. Okay. Thank you.

Yep. Certainly. I move to approve Heritage Petroleum as the primary supplier and Energy Petroleum as a secondary supplier of gasoline, diesel fuel and kerosene and energy petroleum as the primary supplier and Heritage Petroleum as a secondary supplier of motor oils and lubricants for 2026 2027 in accordance with their bid November 6th. 2025. Second. Motion's made by council member Hood, seconded by council member Norris to approve the western ready mix concrete bid. All in favor say I. I.

Any opposed? This wasn't ready mix concrete. Point of order. I'm sorry. We need to re rephrase it. The the This is to approve Western Ready Mix Concrete. Heritage Patrol. Okay, he is heritage. Nonetheless, the motion that was read passed 8 to zero. Okay,

we're good to go. We're on to K4, I think. Ready mix contract or now we're on to ready mix concrete. Yep. Council member Hood. I move to approve Western Readymix Concrete Incorporated as the primary supplier and Kinstra Concrete Incorporated as the secondary supplier of readymix concrete for 2026 2027 in accordance with their bids of November 6, 2025. Second motion made by council member Hood, seconded by council member Norris to approve Western Mix Ready Mix Concrete as primary supplier and Kinster Concrete as secondary supplier. All in favor say I.

I. Any opposed? I hear none. The bid is approved. Council member Hood. Bid for traffic marking paint. I move to approve Nis Flint Incorporated as the primary supplier and the Sherwin Williams Company as the secondary supplier of traffic marking paint and the Sherwin Williams Company is the supplier of glass spheres for 2026 2027 in accordance with their bids of November 6, 2025.

Second. Motions made by council member Hood, seconded by council member Norris to approve Anus Flint Inc. as the primary supplier and Sherwin Williams Company as a secondary supplier traffic marking paint. All in favor say I. I. Any oppose? I hear none. The bid for traffic marking paint is approved. Next item on the agenda, consideration of new bills, bill number 6518. Council member Luke. Thank you, Mayor. Move for first reading of bill 6518. Second. Motion's made by Council Member Luke, seconded by Council Member Luther for first reading of bill number 6518. All in favor say I.

I. Any opposed? Please continue. Thank you. An ordinance of the city council of the city of Bridton, Missouri, amending and restating chapter 510.030 International Property Maintenance Code, chapter 3, section 302.10 and section 410.060D of the city's code of ordinance. Move to table bill 6518. Second. Motion is made to table bill number 6518. Seconded by council member Luther. All in favor say I. I.

Any oppose? Bill number 6518 is tabled. Next item on the agenda, first consideration of bill number 6519. Council member Patel. Thank you, mayor. Move for first reading of bill 6519. Second. Motion is made by council member Patel, seconded by council memberu for first reading of bill number 6519. All in favor say I. I.

I. Any oppose? Please continue. An ordinance of the city council of the city of Bridton, Missouri, adopting a budget for the 12 12-month period commencing January 1st, 2026 and ending December 31st, 2026 in the amount of 32,733,585 for all funds with operational expenditures of 26,76,65 debt service expenditures of 2,337,7 755 and capital improvement and tax increment financing expenditures of 4,319,225. Move to table bill 6519.

Second. Motion's made by council member Patel, seconded by council member to table bill number 6519. All in favor say I. I. Any oppose? Bill number 6519 is tabled. Next item on the agenda, first consideration of bill number 6520. Council member Patel again. Thank you, mayor. Move for first reading of bill 6520. Second. Motion is made for first reading of bill number 6520 by council member Patel, seconded by council member. All in favor say I.

I. Any opposed? I hear none. Please continue. an ordinance of the city council of the city of Bridton, Missouri, repealing ordinance number 24-55 and adopting a new ordinance fixing the salaries and other compensation of the classified employees of the city as provided for in section 8.04 of the chapter in section 115 of the code of the city of Bridton, Missouri for the fiscal year of 2026. Move to table bill number 6520. Second. Motions made by council member Patel, seconded by council member Iano to table bill number 6520. All in favor say I. I.

Opposed? I hear none. Bill number 6520 is tabled. Next item on the agenda, first consideration of bill number 6521. Again, council member Patel. Thank you, mayor. Move for first reading of bill 6521. Second. Motion is made by council member Patel. Seconded by council member Iwanu for first reading of bill number 6521. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? I hear none. Please continue.

An ordinance repealing ordinance 24-54 and adopting a new ordinance fixing the salaries of certain special service and salaried employees as denoted in the city charter for fiscal year 2026. Move to table bill number 6521. I'll second. Motion made by council member Patel, seconded by council member Ewano to table bill number 6521. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? I hear none. Bill number 6521 is tabled. Next item, attorney's report. I have nothing, mayor. Thank you. Council communications. I'll start with Council Member Wesy.

Thank you, Mayor. Um, thanks for everybody for coming out. Thanks everybody for watching. looking forward to the tree lighting on Friday and um I hope everybody had a happy Thanksgiving. Back to you, Mayor. Council member Satel.

Yes, thank you, Mayor. Uh I did get a chance to read that 121 pages for the uh you know, you know, the the commission uh report. Uh took about five and a half hours to get through it all and a lot of really nice pictures. I know there's previous ones made comments on it. Uh I really did like what I read. There was multiple things in there uh especially for bicycles and bicycling that I thought was uh I wasn't sure they'd put that in there, but they did and I'm glad they did. Uh addition, I think you if we just pulled up our comprehensive plan that we actually passed quite a few years ago. We have a bicycle pedestrian kind of a a plan there too that could be also incorporated into that. But at least they showed that. I like the ones they talked about on on possible Lindberg and some other areas on that there. So, I just thought that was really worthwhile and it took a while to read, but yesterday in the with the snow on the ground, couldn't do much else sitting there reading, but that worked out really good. Thank you very much,

Council Member Awanu. Thank you, Mayor. I have nothing at this time. Council member Patel. Thank you, Mayor. Um, the only thing I have is I want to say congratulations to the Patentville Varsity football team for making it to the quarterfinals. Um this is the first time they've done that since 2017 and I think that um they made it really far considering they played the uh number two team in the state for those quarterfinals. So congratulations to them. So thank you Council Member Hood.

Okay. I just want to thank everyone that's been associated with the Cove committee. We're finishing out 2025 and I think we've made an awful lot of progress. There's a lot of things that we need to address and we're starting to address one of them that we had been talking about relative to the inspections in homes. And I also want to thank the street department for the wonderful job they did with this last uh little snowfall. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Norris.

Yes. Thank you, sir. Uh I I also want to thank the staff. I was watching my road from my window. Um, and uh, they kept waiting. I thought, "Oh my goodness, they're not going to clear me." Uh, but they did. They did an excellent job. They, you know, they always do. I appreciate uh, uh, all the staff in clearing the roads and keeping us safe. And I appreciate your dedication to our city. Uh, and I also appreciate the staff and changing and updating this budget for 2026. And then just don't forget uh 12:14 is an open house at the room at the inn uh from 3 to 6. That is our shelter for women and children. So I'm glad you know of course everyone always says do something do something. Uh so Bridton is supporting this uh room at the end. They've added bedrooms, so they will be able to do overnight up to 20 people, and they have to reserve through 211, which is the United Ways reservation, so no walk-ins. Uh, and also, we have breakfast with the badges tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. I'm sorry, Chief, taking your thunder at the new Bridged Chick-fil-A. So, please be there. There's going to be multiple fire departments. And, uh, so I think that'll be a great time to thank your firemen and our police. Uh, and also tomorrow the tree lighting at our rec center from 6:00 to 8. So, Santa Claus, I've heard, is coming in on the fire truck is the last I've heard. So, come and greet him.

I think it's on Friday though. Firet truck Friday. Friday. Oh, tomorrow night. I'm sorry. 125. That's all. Thank you, Council Member Luke.

Thank you, Mayor. Um, I just want to give one update and that is to say thank you to everybody who supported the community Thanksgiving lunch. I estimate we served about 150 people between dining in delivery and next day delivery to Loaves and Fishes uh that they said was going to serve about 10 families uh businesses, restaurants, individuals. The Salvation Army um donated time, food, financial support. It was I think it was a great success. the leftover blessing bag items that we had, the hygiene items and the consumable household goods um were all able to go to community helping ministries pantry. Thank you to Pastor Tiffany of Church of the Nazarene on Old St. Charles for hosting us and really making sure that everything came together. Uh it was a really good event. So looking forward to next year where we get to that goal of serving 200 people. And then we just had a storm water subcommittee meeting and our next meeting so that it goes on the calendar so that there's no subcommittee overlap is January 21st at 6 p.m.

Thank you, Council Member Luther.

Thank you, Mayor. So again, thank you to everyone who's here and who's listening and also for the clean roads. Uh, unfortunately, you know, when you're on a state road when you turn on the rock road, right? That wasn't looking so pretty. But all the roads in our neighborhood look great. I have a few things I want to cover. We can call these my Christmas wish list or New Year's resolutions. Either way, here goes. One is that regarding the budget, I have a a suggestion that we set budget review dates early in the year, much like we set council dates. We know that we'll be voting on the budget a year from now. We know that we need to review the budget in Janu in November of 2026. Set those dates now well in advance so that everyone has an opportunity to put those in their calendar as quickly as possible and be able to attend. The other Christmas wish list is I strongly urge and recommend that staff and leadership present a balanced budget for 2027. Related to that, I mentioned this earlier. It's related to the audit. We need to pay attention to the audit recommendations which are commonly called dings. And really, I've I think I've been on council. I've read three of those. And we seem to have the same recommendations. So, we need to pay attention to those. Those are uh many of them I think are quite doable with some effort and attention. and also want to revisit the idea of regular monthly financial reports in a timely manner to council. And last is that I mentioned this I' I've circulated something to council and I'm going to suggest it tonight that we consider including a council code of conduct in at least our new council member onboarding checklist which is a very informal document perhaps something more formal. Such guidelines would cover

three main areas that I believe are critical and assumed to be core duties in of public officials and they are being present, attending meetings, being professional, adhering to Robert's rules of order and engaging in respectful, relevant and intentional comments during public meetings and being prepared, providing and reviewing information in a timely manner. I believe we owe our constituents a standard of expectation in our roles as their elected representatives and I also think we owe it to ourselves.

Thank you staff Brendan Parks and Rec Director. The uh feed the masses food drive just ended at the end of November. We uh collected a total of 6,48 items of food, which is really a really, really positive number. Uh we should have the final standings information later this week, and as soon as I have that, I'll provide a report. Uh hoping for top three. Tree lighting is Friday night, 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. Um as it was mentioned, Santa will be there potentially on a fire truck. That's that's the hope. That's the plan. Uh we'll light the tree around 6:20, 6:30ish. So, please be there by then. We've got a choir singing. Uh we'll have bonfires, s'mores, hot chocolate, crafts, games, snacks, all kinds of stuff. So, hope to see everybody there.

Thank you. Public works director Robert Gun. All right. Just for some information, the snow we had on Saturday was real heavy, wet snow. So, unfortunately, because of the way the snow comes off the plows, we might have knocked down a few mailboxes. So, when you get those calls, don't worry about it. We'll fix them. We'll put them back up. Uh, we pretty much bought every mailbox Lowe's had the last two days. So, we're putting them up the last hopefully by Friday, we have them all up. Um, but as residents might call and complain to you, just have them give give me a call. We'll get them on the list and we'll get them fixed. Thank you.

Any questions? Mr. Gun from council. Okay. He didn't hit nine. Police Chief Mark Msati.

Thank you, Mayor. Um, as mentioned, the breakfast with badges is going to be tomorrow morning at the Chick-fil-A on Cypress Village, 10897, the Rock Road. Um, we're looking forward to that event. Um, also wanted to let everyone know that we're doing the shop with a cop at Target. That's scheduled for December the 16th at 5:00 pm. um donations if uh officer Swopee's taking donations to buy gift cards or if you want to provide a gift card to that event. We have um four or five kids that we're going to be shopping with on that day. So, that'll be split up. We're excited about doing that again. Also, the uh snow event, uh we were extremely busy at both of them. The big one was really Monday when the snow hit early. Um, we ended up having to close 370 down uh early uh because we had the ramps that froze over and uh it was quite a mess, but everybody did really well. Nobody seriously injured in any of the accidents, but we had quite a few that we worked that afternoon. Also, kudos to the uh street department as well. They they always do a fantastic job. And just a note, um a former police employee that's now a bus driver said in St. Charles County that the streets over there were not bridged and clean. So, uh, just another shout out to our street department. A fantastic job that they do. So, thank you.

All right, council. Any questions of Chief Madi? I see none. All right, next item on the agenda, mayor's report. I, too, want to cover the community Thanksgiving dinner. Hope everybody had a happy Thanksgiving. I especially want to uh thank Pastor Tiffany Ross of Gateway Church of the Nazarene for offering her church facilities for the first community Thanksgiving celebration. The kitchen was perfect for cooking those items not already cooked and preparing various other dishes for serving. And the gymnasium was perfect to host up to 280 guests. Thank you to Council Member Luke for your hard work over the past several months in helping and also helping um arrange the event and for your table uh centerpieces that you made. Very nice. Want to thank our executive assistant Crystal Hilton for keeping track of food donations and volunteers. And thank you to the various other churches of in Bridton that contributed food, finances, and volunteers, especially Pastor Mark Bedet from Bridgeway Assembly of God, the Bridton Police Department. He is also Bridton Police Department chaplain, pastor from Bridgeway Assembly. Um, and then Russ Clanky, pastor from Simple Church, and he's also chaplain for the Patentville Fire Protection District, which also contributed time and volunteers. And then Pastor Aaron Bachelor, pastor from New Life Church. I especially want to thank those who picked up guests in need of transportation. One was Ken Luke, um, and another, uh, Tiffany Ross's husband, Mike, uh, from the church. And then also we had several uh Bridton employees that came. Officer Officer Sappy came with his wife and three children. And then

our assistant parks director Vicky Ventrella Meyer came with her daughter. What a great event. And also thank you to the Salvation Army. Uh Council Member Luther, I'm glad you uh covered your uh email that you sent out after the last council meeting. I was going to bring that up. Um, I want to bring up um a subject. There's there's a lot of times that um that we get a lot of grief from various residents, but there's very few times that we get thank yous. Uh, in this case, I got a thank you from a resident. I want to read this to you. Mayor Hine, I love the new Bridton Street signs. Living in the older section of Avery Lane since 1960, I can well remember when Harmony Lane was a single gravel road. The potholes were so numerous the postal service would not deliver mail to our homes. There were only 10 at that time because the ride was so rough. We had it delivered to our hardware store on St. Charles Rock Road. The neighborhood collected money periodically to buy rock for road improvements. And now Harmony Lane has an official very classy new sign to identify the also fairly new four-lane street. I smile each time I turn onto Harmony. Thank you, Beverly Branicki. I wanted to share that with council and administration. Um don't forget next Tuesday the Municipal League of Metropolitan St. Louis has their uh membership uh meeting over in Maryland Heights at the Maryland Heights Community Center. It's also for vendors that will be uh displaying um some of their goods and you're you're welcome to come and partake in u in the gifts that they have. This is for council members. And don't forget the Christmas uh lighting tours of Paint Gentry House coming up uh on Saturday and Sunday from 4 to 8:00 p.m. Uh they should be nice once again. Uh they're done every year. And then I want to back

up here and go back to uh city administrator Kevin Book. I just wanted to echo the comments regarding the uh the public works crew. They did a great job being one that drives around St. Louis County out in West County. Um the Bridgeston streets were in great great condition when I did drive here. So kudos to them. That's all I have. Mayor, thank you. Thank you. That's all I have. Thank you everybody for being here and motion for adjournment. So moved. Second. Second. Motion's made by council member Hood, seconded by council member Patel to adjurnn. All in favor say I. I. I. Any oppose? I hear none. We're adjourned.