City Council - Regular Meeting

[laughter] Thank you. You too. Trying to get my son's basketball. Yeah. I didn't want to be anywhere near [laughter]

you say January 20th, 2026 regular schedule city council meeting is now called to order. Would you please rise and stand the pledge of allegiance with me?

I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, [clears throat] with liberty and justice for all. Shelley, roll call. Becky Curtis here. John Becker here. John Ber here. Mark here. Ros here.

All right, that brings us to our first public participation. Please, if you want to say talk to us about something, you're very welcome to please come up. Put your address and your phone number and your name and you have five minutes. And who's our timer tonight?

I have two here. I included one for the city manager and one for chief. Okay. So that we don't get one.

You also do, sir. There are eight copies in total. I've left one here for the record, one for each city council member, city manager, and one for chief. Okay. Uh, of course I am he under Missouri revised statute 1622 and5 school districts may establish police departments and I'm quoting here only upon the execution of a memorandum of understanding for each municipal law enforcement agency and county sheriff office which has law enforcement jurisdiction over the school district premises only upon and each this is mandatory language not optional and based on public records obtained through sunshine law request Missouri or the Cameron school district as operated from police department was originally established withus from all five required law enforcement agencies when the originalou was expiring and needed to be renewed with expanded terms two of the five agencies refused to sign the renewal those two agencies specifically cited the school district's failure to honor the terms of the originalou. I believe Chief Miller can verify this as I understand that he was involved in those conversations. This is not just non-compliance, it's a pattern. Two law enforcement agencies that originally agreed to work with the district withdrew the cooperation because the district wasn't honoring its obligations. The question is, can a school district police department lawfully operate when it's failed to secure with from all of the required jurisdictions? And if the district won't honor obligations to law enforcement partners, [clears throat] will they honor other legal obligations?

I have additional concerns about the district. I talked to you previously about the fentanyl in the school. I have a transcript here from an audio that I have in your packet. I'm going to read them. I have redacted names. This is another example of my concern of the school district having the ability to investigate itself. Can I ask real quick, Pete? I'm sorry. And I'll I'll give you the extra 30 seconds, but this really sounds like it's more of a schoolboard issue than a city of Cameron issue. I can't do anything to help you with the school district. So, I'm just trying to figure out

my question in there is are they unlawfully operating a law enforcement agency that should be within and under the jurisdiction of the city of Cameron? Where's Patrick? Is is that because of two didn't sign off on it? Is that that is my concern except Okay. So, are you So, the question is because we're going to talk with Patrick about this. So, the question is out of the five, two didn't sign off. That is correct. And you want to know if that's legal or if that creates that they can actually run it with only three signing on. Correct. The sure understood

the language in the law says only upon and each and that's pretty specific language and there is my concern. Can you check with Patrick on that to see if there's any precedence? I I don't even know if that's still going to be where you city or if that's going to be the stat right back to it's at the beginning at the very top. Okay. Under Missouri 162.215. Yes. And that is a law that allows them to create it. But again, they don't have every law enforcement agency that's following. Okay. May I continue? Yeah, please. Sorry. I just was Could you give him that want to figure out I'll give him 30 seconds. Okay. Give him some extra time.

Thank you. The pattern continuing my concern with the school district. This is of course from that transcript. I just want to call you and make you aware of a situation that occurred today involving students. I did have to pull him into the office along with several other students to search them for potentially having in their possession marijuana of some or some kind of THC pin. And during third hour during a time that student was in the bathroom and this is this is confirmed with a video surveillance video the bathroom smelled heavily of marijuana. I went back and watched video and I interviewed and searched all the students that were in the bathroom during that time. I did not find anything on the students other than the students or the students that were also in the bathroom. So they are all currently back in class. All right, I'm not going to read all of that. I'm short on time here. Marijuana use on school property during school hours. RSMO167.117 requires this to be reported to law enforcement immediately. I submitted a Sunshine Law request to both the school district and the Cameron Police Department asking for a copy of that report. It does not exist. It either the school district or the Cameron Police Department. So again, my concern either administrators at the school and I have this recording. I know who it is. He's not reporting the drug use and I don't believe that's what's going on. It's not being investigated. They have these kids on video. Before the boys went in the bathroom, it didn't smell of marijuana. When they left the bathroom, it smelled of marijuana. No police report was written. And I do not believe that if the Cameron Police Department had been involved that there would be no

one minute. [clears throat] [cough] Repeat that last thing. I do not believe if the Cameron Police Department were involved, if they were doing the investigation, that there would have been no report written. If the Cameron Police Department had been called, I believe that there would be a police report. Okay. That's what I thought you were saying.

Yes, ma'am. I'm happy to clarify. And again, I'm not an attorney, but Post, Missouri Post and the Mur Missouri Attorney General would likely be able to answer those questions for you. Dicab County and Davies County refused to sign because there were incidents that happened in their jurisdiction that the school was required under theirou to report to those agencies. They did not do it. It's documented. They know what happened and that's why they refuse to support it and thank you. Thank you. Anyone else?

Next is a consent agenda. Item A, motion to approve the minutes of the January 5th, 2026 regular session. [clears throat] I will I will entertain a motion to pass the uh the one. We don't have really consent. It's just one a motion to approve the minutes. Um second move. All those in favor? I

I opposed. It passes. Five in favor. Zero opposed. Next, that takes us to appointments. We have no appointments. Um, we do still have openings on the park board [clears throat] and the code board of appeal. And I told you wrong last time we do have two openings on the park board. But I have advertised that recently. Good. Thank you. All right. City manager report.

So, um, we reached out to PST last week. We kind of were told that they would be getting together today or getting back to us this afternoon or tomorrow that I haven't heard from them today. So, so um we'll reach back out. I sent emails this morning. Um the third street demolition driving up. You probably saw that the cleanup is almost completed and the receding and vegetation is done. Um we are going to schedule a meeting uh with the owners at 112 East 3rd Street. Um, Lance is back today. He wanted [clears throat] to know if council would desire to be involved in the meeting with those building owners. It's it's up to you, but we can meet with them or if you prefer to schedule and have a joint.

I don't see a need to Lance can take care of it. He's a big boy. Okay.

Um, and then, um, the city hall lease, I did provide the details. We reached out. they are not they're willing to do a monthto monthth but they want to charge $10,000 a month to do that. So the recommendation would be to go with the 24 month lease [clears throat] at the cheap price and then we could end the agreement with notice. I think that we'll execute that upon receiving it. Mrma will be here on Thursday. So staff's been working to coordinate with that for our our visitation and review. It's our annual checkup. And then I just wanted to let you know I'll be out on Friday um doing closing and if you need to please reach out to me. [cough and clears throat]

Is that it? Does anybody have any questions for Scott? I do. I got two.

Okay. Um, one with the existing lease that we have now at the bank, normal leases have after you've been there for your contractual period, then you've got month-to-month by itself. It doesn't have you don't restructure the numbers. You don't do any debt. It's just month-to-month. Um, so we would still be paying the 7500 or whatever it is, 7,200. Um it it would at least be my understanding unless the contract was written written poorly for us which wouldn't surprise me there either. Um so can you find that out as well just to to see? I don't know that it's going to be a short amount of time anyway and that and and doing the 24 month may be the smartest move but even 18 months I mean we have spent so much freaking money out there. We should have done the the community center like like the people wanted way back in the beginning and we wouldn't have wasted all this money between that and we're still going to have to lease the furniture on top of the 6,000. So,

um it it's just something we need to look into. I I do know that the current lease terminates at the end of this month, right? Um, so but is there a month a month on that? Because most the time you have a lease, you have a month a month. You said that to Patrick and I believe that it said in there that staff could renew the lease for another term as long as the the lease stayed the same or got or went down. So it it is an end of the lease and they are requiring a new lease to go forward.

Makes sense. I would just be curious to see the lease on that because that's just not normal in leasing. But okay. Um the second you guys tomorrow, if you don't mind, I'd appreciate that.

Um I've just been involved with a lot of those and very very large companies and that's kind of weird. Um, the other thing I would like to put forth a emergency resolution tonight. Already talked to Tad. I want to get bids and complete city hall the city hall roof immediately. We're we're almost at spring. We're going to sit there and we're going to flip it around again and we're going to have water leaking in there and then it's going to cost us more money and we're going to have to wait again and this and that. We're not changing anything on that roof. [clears throat] We need to get it taken care of. So again, under the emergency uh statement that that Patrick gave us last time, we can do this. So, I would like to get that voted on and get that thing get the bid started and and get this thing fixed or we're going to we're going to sit there and deal with the same crap.

It doesn't need to have any engineering done on it. Right. Right. Since we decided to go with the same flat roof, let's just get it fixed. So, um, how about the question we had before was how about those drains, the sopet, the drains. Yes, they were on the side. That has to be changed. They just have to be lowered. Right now, the guttering is up above the roof. So, that's why the water's pooling on the roof. So, they just need to drop the guttering down. And that's not a structural change. Just

just just moving the guttering. Spencer and I, we've been working on the the bid and Spencer got the final touches on it and I'm I will look at it tomorrow and we should be So, do we need to vote? I mean, should we just go ahead and get this voted on to get it done? What you'll vote on is is for agreement with the contractor. So, we'll get the bid out as soon as we can. And then as soon as that happens and we have bids, then we'll you guys will vote on which bid to go with. All right. Do we vote on getting the bid out? That's what I was Yeah, that's what I was just needed.

Perfect. Do we want to run it for two or three weeks? Yeah, I'm going to say probably three weeks. That way they better. Whatever you think is best. That would be mid um [clears throat] midFebruary and we still you guys could vote on it on the second meeting in February especially if we're talking about possibly moving that meeting back another Monday. Okay. From where it was going to be on a Tuesday. That would be my suggestion. We for three weeks. All right. That way everybody's got a chance to look at the plan. Great. That's it for me. Thank you. [clears throat]

City Hall update. Did we just have that? Yeah. [laughter] You're welcome. You want it again? No. No. Thanks. Um, we are um Shelley, second and final reading of bill 2026-2. Bill 2026-2, an ordinance for the city of Cameron, Missouri, authorizing the general election to be held on 7 April 2026, fixing the polling places of said election and directing the city clerk to cause ballots to be printed and election supplies procured for set election three-year terms. I will entertain a motion to pass bill 2026-2 on a second reading by roll call. Second,

discussion. John Breenidge, yes. John Fer, yes. Mark Carr, yes. Ross Worth, yes. Becky Bernett, yes. That takes us to new business. None. And that takes us to our second participation. Does anyone else want to come up and talk to us? [clears throat] Yes, it's a different topic.

Okay. Few months ago when the water tower was leaking, I'm a customer of city water and I had some questions about the water tower and I went into the Cameron community forum and I had council members to chime in and answer my question. It's fantastic. I love and applaud the interaction. Recently, there were council members in the Cameron community forum that were discussing their vote as a sitting city council member. I believe that that created a designated public forum on a camera community forum. A sitting city council member discussing their vote and explaining why they voted for something opens it up to where first amendment applies to that particular form. So that means that in a designated public forum that time, place, and manner restrictions are able to be applied. But it's a forum that's always open and you only get a comment in the forms of the time and the place restrictions are set out. They're not important. The manner restrictions is what I'm here to speak about. So, I have previously shared video that involved the Cameron Police Department and other law enforcement agencies at the school district. I was critical of them and those comments were deleted because there was foul language in there and I agree. I don't like foul language either. I've got three years of public speaking and I don't use foul language. However, it is protected speech. I don't like it either, but it is protected. And to delete my comment that is critical of the law enforcement that were there that day that don't understand that a public body that gets to set a tax rate and gets to collect money from us is not

private property. That building is public. The Cameron Police Department had a hand in running those men off that day. two guys that go around suing institutions because they violate their rights. The Cameron Police Department showed up in support of them. Now, comments that were positive of the law enforcement were left on the form. Mine that were negative because there was a video attached that were negative were were removed. That is considered viewpoint discrimination. And again, there was protected speech in there. When the city council started going into that group to talk about city business, particularly discussing a vote, it created a designated public forum and all first amendment rights apply. I don't like the language either. I'm with all of you. It's not necessary. But those people that choose to come in there and use that language, it's their right to do so. the same as somebody coming in here with a shirt that says support uh team Dan. That's their right to wear those shirts. And to tell them that they shouldn't wear those shirts, it's wrong. The Cameron school just got into trouble with this and they just deleted all of their social media. But when they did that, they deleted a whole bunch of comments. So they have created more of a problem. I don't have a fight with the city of Cameron. I have had great experiences when dealing with people in the that work for the city. I've had a couple people that I didn't appreciate, but overall, the majority of them are fantastic. I get to come in here and I don't have to jump through hoops to talk to you. I wish

that I had this at the city or at the school. I wish that they would do the same thing. My fight is not good to see. It is not one minute. A first amendment is important. Thank you. [snorts]

Anyone else? [clears throat] Well, I hope there's not a age regulation on this, but I'm here to Well, I'm glad about him hoping that school stuff goes well. As I am at Cameron Public School, I do feel like those are some problems and that I shouldn't have to worry about drugs in our schools. And I would like to thank the people that have taken the time to talk with me, meet me, be up here. Mark Carr has had [clears throat] a meeting with me, great thoughts, same as Ross and Mayor Curtis and we have great city council and what I've heard is that most of the people I've talked to at least which I assume the rest are going to have same point is cleaning. Their end goal or what they need for the end goal is cleaning county. You cannot have poor like Mayor Curtis says without having a clean town. You can't improve transportation like Mark Car says about having a clean town. You can't have um better safety like Ross says without having a clean town. So I motivate you to reach out or listen to me when I reach out talk to you about this. Um it's really all I had didn't come up. So

yeah,

thank you. By the way, I really enjoyed visiting with him. I didn't know what to expect. Yeah, we had we had a good talk. Yeah, we just he made an appointment and I [clears throat] invited Ross to join us with two birds. So, we had a good visit with he and his dad. Same here. It was fun. Very intelligent. [clears throat] Anyone else? Well, that brings us to miscellaneous comments from the staff. [clears throat] Do

you have anything to say? Amen. No, mayor. [clears throat] I was just gonna let you guys know that uh the 22nd, which is Thursday, Thursday, uh we will be having the hay and the crap crop ground [laughter] bid openings. [clears throat] And uh just to let you know, the street crews are they're out patching right now. Depending on what the weather talk like, maybe snow. So, they will be getting all the snow equipment ready by the end of the end of this week. Hope not, but it could happen. Well, it is January. Thank you, T.

Uh, electric crews are doing maintenance on equipment right now. Guys, I'm sure you've all seen them working trying to find a a lead on Second Street out here. Turned out there's an abandoned lean in there that in the past was never disconnected from the system. It just shut a valve off and left it. And somewhere along the line that valve got turned back on and broke and thrown in a storm drain. So they've been working the last week or so here trying to get that capped and get that whole system disconnected off of there. So hopefully they got that finished today and that whole get closed up here in the next couple days.

Surprise. And then I've been working on our annual evaluation for Murma as well as renewing our annual our renewals for all of our property and all that kind of stuff. That's tedious, isn't it? Doing a lot of good work. We're working a lot of property, a lot of equipment, a lot of vehicles. And you know, when I asked you for ice skating rink, I didn't mean on the road. And [laughter] if it freezes, yeah, I mean, we could froze this morning. I bet it did. Looked like a mess. Thank you for doing that. [clears throat]

Zach's not here, so I'm not asking anything. The only thing I have is that that the second um meeting in February is also slated for a Tuesday, the day of President's Day, and that's the day of the MML legislative conference. So if you guys would be amendable, we could move that meeting back to the following Monday and that way those council members that did want to attend the legislative conference could do so. So we'd meet Monday and then Monday back to back Mondays or would that would be back toback Mondays. It' be one at the end of February and then one at the first of March. How many people are going to the legislation?

I wanted to go this year. again. So instead of the 17th, it' be the 23rd. And then again on March, [groaning] what is he on? Hey, I think she wants to know we're going to be okay with that. I'm fine. And and did I have three of you say that you were interested or just two? Not many. I can't on Tuesdays. Not much.

I'd like to, but um we get a two sleep. We go down and spend the night or something. No gives you no gifts. No, it's a slimy place to be. Yeah, I know. I can only imagine. All right. Thank you. Councilman card. Congressman Cart. I know. Nice. You just got to step up, but you ain't getting paid very much. I didn't wear my name tag. I'm going have to get a new one now. [clears throat] No, I don't have anything. Nope.

Oh, I guess we always circle around. Oh, me? You're last? Okay.

Yeah. No. Um, I I talked with Scott a little bit about uh this just before the meeting briefly, but I know on social media there [clears throat] was some concern about the the water main lake being left open, the hole that was left open there um all weekend. So, I had talked with Tad as well if um about they had left the work place all open on Third Street when those when that hole was there. So, um, it was just something for me I think be nice to keep in mind about, you know, some safety there for our citizens. There were some people online that noticed that as well. Um, and then I don't know, I know the communication's usually pretty good uh with businesses and stuff in town if if something like that is happening, but I know that there were several businesses disrupted today that claimed that they didn't have any notice about it about the water getting shut off. So understand emergencies. I get that. But just communication would be good. So nothing further.

Okay. Zach's not here, so this may not work, but I had a question about the waste wastewater treatment plant operation. Zach's here. He's here, but I didn't know if you could answer that. I didn't see you back there. All right. Um, what is BOD? What does it stand for? It's a biochemical oxygen demand.

Okay. So, it says the removal efficiency was 9696. Now, I'm a six sigma guy. So, if you've ever dealt with six sigma, you know it's like a lot of 99.999s. So, we're looking at a maybe a three and a half sigma on this.

Um, that seems really low. A three and a half sigma on a flight, we'd be looking at like over like 40ome accidents for every flight that took off. So I guess my question is how dangerous is this treatment? The BOD? Nothing. Oh, there's no danger in it. Okay. All that is is taking the oxygen out of the water. That's all we're doing. The activity of the bacteria in the water. That's that's the bacteria. That's what they use up in the water. We want to It comes in at a high rate. We want to take as much out as we can before it hits the stream.

Before you put it right back in. Okay. Okay. fish for fish. How about the TSS? What's TSS stand for? Total suspended solid. Okay, that's just whatever's left in the water. That's what's hanging around that you see in the water and all this stuff. The solids that are inside that water, we take that's what we take out. So, you take out as much as you can. And so, 95 almost 96% was taken out. Yes. So like plastic. I mean I'm not that's just on solid. That's just grit.

Oh, okay. So not the plastics are already come out. They That's what I thought from being out there. They get out there the plant is all the plastics out. Okay. Okay. I got you. All right. That's good enough for me. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. I've just saw that and I was like, man, that seems really low. from that's 95% [snorts] is a good one. Okay. No, we still haven't got water even though I've been promised since May. Guaranteed since May.

Tired of excuses. They need to do They need to do I don't care. They need to do their freaking job. We're still paying for the water. True. But it's if we need that money to pay for that. Well, or we just shouldn't had it. Do they know how long permits usually take or I believe 30 days and that's it for me. Thanks for bringing it up. Just [clears throat]

Oh, um I don't have much either. Uh really appreciated the uh camera lights in action coming. That was really nice. I appreciated that. I appreciated the young gentlemen that came up and I just wish we and thank you all for coming because you guys care and that helps us do our jobs better and it's always good to challenge us. Um I had my exit meeting with the big state this morning and they didn't budge too well either. [laughter] So I I know it's like it's not much fun. So with that, I will entertain a motion to exit our our meeting and go into executive for client communications, real estate personnel, and negotiating contract.

Second, John Fer, yes. Mark Carr, yes. Ross W. Yes. Thank you. Yes. Good night, guys. Thanks for having You're good.