City Council - Regular Meeting

Okay, good evening everyone and welcome to our city council work session for Monday, December 8th. Uh it is now 5:32. We'll get started with the work session. So again, uh we move on to the U roll call, please. Mayor Geritano, present. [clears throat] Council member Farmer here. Council member Dodwell here. Council member Nyan. Council member Attenburg here. Council member Tradier here. Council member Mabberry. Council member Roblooski here. Council member Preston here. Council member Marshall present. Council member McCutchen. Council member Rambo here. Council member Bckert present. Council member Crayons here.

Council member Vanic here. Council member Alers. Council member Galani.

Great. Thank you very much. Now we'll move on to mayor's comments and announcements. So, welcome to everyone for tonight's meeting, our last city council and work session meeting of the year that's scheduled. So, uh we will have our legislative consultant, Jake Silverman, was with Olympus Capital Strategies. Uh okay. I uh I did get a request from our city administrator that we also have other guests that are uh speaking to an item tonight uh that is on the agenda and that is under for information. So again for information actions for information items under the work session agenda do not require a vote. This isformational, but we do have item D under for information, which is city council item number one, review of the deer population density analysis for northeast one map area using thermal drone SAS technology, the Steuart Green report. So, uh, if there is no objection, because we have these folks that are joining us via Zoom, they will be providing an update on the request that was made by the council to conduct a um drone survey of the deer population. So, we'll have Stuart Green um present their findings. Uh again, this was a request by the council based on the input and feedback we had received to confirm um that city and population counts. So, if we're ready, we'll uh hand it over to our city administrator who'll introduce the topic and then bring in our guest.

Thank you, mayor. Uh just wanted to give a quick note and have uh Stuart Green available for any questions tonight. Uh what you'll see on the screen here, they are up doing some work in a mountainous area. So we might not get a visual, but they uh were sure to get on the call. Um but this is Jean and Colin. Colin was actually the UA uh US pilot that uh piloted the craft that took this the data. But the idea tonight uh the reports in front of everyone and it was found that about 41 deer per square miles, a conservative estimate based off their findings. Uh tonight though, we wanted to have them available to explain their methodology, how they went about conducting the survey, and just some more findings um for how to conduct a uh drone survey for deer population purposes. And just as another note too for question and answer purposes, we do have a representative here from for a site visit, uh Ryan Roaches with White Buffalo in the back there. Um so he could be available for questions, too. So I guess I'll pass it over. Jean and Colin, if you can hear us, uh we'll pass it over to you. Sure. Yep. Um, this is Jean Huntington and, uh, Colin, are you on? Right.

Uh, yes, I'm here. Can you guys hear me? All right. Yep. All right. Good. I let Colin lead us through this report. Yeah, sure. So, uh, I know you guys have in front of you. Is there anywhere you wanted me to start specifically or go over, uh, from the top? Uh, would you like me to read it over? How would you like me to go about this, Toms? Thank you, Mayor. Um, yes, either way would work. Uh, more so just maybe going into the science behind drone surveying for deer and how the technologies come along and then what you found here in Wildwood. Thank you.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, Jean can attest more to the history and his experience dating back to 2012 with uh using UAS for monitoring deer populations, but you know, this was a tricky one because of the airspace in the northern uh section. So, it took a little longer. It was a bit more tedious. Uh, and I wanted to clarify. I know we said this over email for for to you guys separately, but we did find an estimate of 41 deer per square mile conservatively, but you know there is areas in the northern section of the city of Wildwood that were showing 100 to 150 deer per square mile. And if you uh look at the report, that's the last two density maps um that you'll see. And it's interesting because as you go further south, it just seems to more to dissipate. And then towards the bottom where all the uh suburban communities are, we really didn't see any deer. And there might be some reasons for that, but for the most part, we had great coverage. The weather was perfect and it was really cold. So, we had great visuals and uh just due to the airspace conflicts, it took us a little bit more time uh because we had to fly at a lower altitude to abide by the FAA uh clear clearance for UAS operations. Um so, yeah, so we counted 20 276 individual deer uh conservative estimate throughout the entire survey area of 6.84 84 square miles. Um, a total of 102 herds. We like to call that observations. How many times we plugged in an observation on the map. So, we like to call it a herd, but that might be one deer. It might be five deer. But just so you're you're uh clear on that, 1002 observations just roughly means 102 herds. Um, with the mean herd size of 2.74 or three deer per herd and the herd uh size ranged from one to 10 deer. So, that means the largest herd that we saw in the city of Wildwood was 10. Um, now we provided several maps and this is just a basic brief until we provide the full report to you guys. Uh, we just wanted to make sure you had something tangible for this meeting so that people could look at and go along with us. But it'll be a little more comprehensive

with more land use, land cover statistical data sets and representations of more of the habitat classifications within the city of Wildwood and maybe some relationships that might be uh playing in into that with the deer and what their preferences are. But what for anecdotally what I noticed while flying was that there was a lot of deer in backyards and a lot of deer in the small wood lots that I don't think would be hunted um per se. Now, that's not to say that they aren't hunted, but it was just they were in a lot of tight corridors and the larger herds, as you can see, were in the northern section. And um it just seemed like as you went south, they were just ending up more and more in backyards. And that might be a reason that, you know, the hunting is difficult or that the depradation numbers might not be where they're they want where you guys want them to be. But, um yeah, overall, I don't think we ran into any issues besides the uh charging and using our inverter for charging the drone batteries. I want to thank you guys for letting us use the building and and having uh that access and working with Jared uh the officer, the law enforcement officer. He was a great help. And besides that, I think it went pretty smoothly. Um I hope you guys felt the same. And I guess I can open it for any question, specific questions on how you know survey and um whether or not you guys want to hear more about specific uh methodologies.

Right. Well, thank you for that. I know that uh we're going to be sharing on the screen um the report that is published on the city website uh since Friday. So uh I'll open it up right now to see if there are any questions or comments from the council regarding this survey that took place. Uh if you do have any questions, uh please raise your hand. Council member Farmer.

Yeah. Um, I'm not sure if you guys will be able to fully answer this, but one of the key reasons that we um opted to do a drone survey was to um either confirm or adjust or disisconfirm or whatever our um distance sampling that had been done. It sounds very much like that fell in an appropriate space. So, as you guys are kind of the experts and do this all the time, um if it's possible, can you kind of briefly um walk through the difference between obviously a drone study where you guys are up using thermal cam cameras and then just kind of the standard distance surveying that we've done for several years which both resulted in relatively the same number.

Yeah. So, I think that comes specifically into the temporal side of things, right? like how we can get this done in one night as opposed to however many nights you guys are doing it across however many weeks. Uh we've had some clients use game cameras as their method of identifying a deer per square mile estimate. Um but as you can see when you can get this done in one night, deer are not, you know, we're counting them and they're moving creatures. They're not stationary. So using this as a methodology where we can get a certain area done and use certain landmarks such as rivers or highways as a block so that we know that's usually when we cut it off for the night. But because there was no dignified geolog geographic landmark such as a major highway or a major river crossing through this uh city of Wildwood uh parcel, we made sure that we knew that we had to get this done in in one night to give you the most accurate um report possible. And that that just is another testament to how these operations go. you know, we know that they're moving and we know that we're going to be counting and using somewhat of a transsect methodology, hovering, using the oblique view on our on our drones to look around certain objects, whether it be trees, houses, uh, light competition such as transformers. This is a great way to do it. We're seeing full access. We have an eye in the sky the entire time and we're able to count basically at that moment of the night across a six-hour time span what are is within these boundaries that night as opposed to where you do uh the sampling on boots on the ground which can take much longer. Overounting is much more prevalent because of the length of time. And that really is seems to be what it comes down to is how fast you can get it done. And the faster you can get it done in a thorough manner, the more accurate your results will be and there'll be less of a chance of overounting uh individuals.

Oh yeah. And uh this is Jean. I just want to add that uh so we did we perform sometimes we do both like the week before we did distance sampling and an aerial survey for a client for comparison to them. And it's just um sometimes depending on the sites like if you have really good access road access into being able to see I think the distance sampling and and spotlight surveys are pretty accurate and and they're always you know fairly reliable at a minimum. Um, but they're not as reliable when we can't see into certain spaces as far and u so sometimes uh the drone surveys are just, you know, way better. In this case, I would say the the drone survey was uh really good because we got really good coverage and like uh Colin said, we had really great contrast with the heat signatures that night. However, uh you know, keep in mind we're giving a minimum. So like we when we confirm deer uh four deer that's four deer but like um there could be more because you do have some patches of uh scrub brush and evergreens and sometimes heat signatures can show up but they're kind of foggy and not confirmed as deer. Hope that makes sense. And Ryan, you might want to jump in here too. So, if uh maybe perhaps you could zoom in uh I'll ask Travis on this map here because we do see here maybe you can kind of explain what this map exactly shows. I see we've got several spots that are marked uh kind of in red dots but I understand there's also this the one with the numbers on it.

Yes. Oh, there's another one. Okay. So perhaps you can just uh explain how to read this map accordingly and then I I think you explained this part right now by conducting it all in one night. Then is that uh safe to assume that then you're not duplicating counts because you're doing it uh all at the same time.

Correct. Yes. So what you're looking That's yes that what you said is a fair assessment. So to your first question, those each one of those dots is a herd that we counted and the number above it is corresponding to how many deer that were observed within that herd. Um it's very hard because this is a large area to condense all those numbers or the map and and ArcGIS just how it how it works is if you zoom out too far, if you zoom in too far, some of those numbers will be scrunched. So, I I apologize for the size, but that was the only way I was able to get the whole map in and uh reduce the font so that you guys could all see relatively every herd that that is on that map and the associated individuals within that herd. Um, so those are what we just call a deer observation map. And that is what it looks like when I'm flying holding, you know, we have the uh data recording going and we have the iPad next to us. If we see a deer, and you can zoom in there, you'll see behind, you know, wherever it might be. If we see two deer behind a house, I'll hold it down and right in that moment, we're locating with XY coordinates where those deer were uh within I would say like 30 feet generally depending on how zoomed I am. And on the if you see on the right corner there, that buffer is really what we give ourselves as a general buffer so that you know if there are deer slightly outside of the the the parcel boundary that you provided, we're still going to be able to count it and not just say, "Oh, it's, you know, 20 feet over the line here." We're not going to count it because that's just, you know, that's not how we want to do this. We want to make sure that we're including all these numbers so that you guys know with the buffer, without the buffer, if there were deer on the edge, and if we do see a herd of 10 slightly on the edge of the property lines, then we can include it, not have to worry or ask if you guys want to include it or not, so that you know how many buffer deer there were. But we all know they're part of the same herd. They're moving. They might be there one day, they might be, you know, a mile north, half a mile north the next day. So, that's another reason why doing these in one night is key because you might go out two days in a row for distance sampling and count the same deer and have no idea if you have a really large area that you're trying to cover, which is why these large uh sects of property, it's it's very beneficial

to be using the drone technology and making sure you're getting it done in one night.

Good. Uh and and this map represents in real time where the where the deer were. So, we are out there Right. Uh let me see if there any any others that have questions or comments uh pertaining to the survey that was completed here and tell us a little bit just about your uh credentials, your background, you know, how many of these have you done? Do you do these for municipalities? I know our city administrator uh when he was researching who would be able to provide this service given the time crunch that we had selected you uh for your background but just for the uh for the council and folks in the public to be aware of.

Sure. Sure. So, uh, this is Jean again. Um, I've been doing the heat signature work, um, specifically deer studies, but other studies since 2001. At that time we were using uh uh helicopters first and then airplanes and um capturing you know flying transexs at a very high altitude and then uh going through VHS tapes you know stack of VHS tapes probably some in the crowd that don't even know what that is and um kind of painstakingly going through and seeing not really good contrast at that time. you know, the technology wasn't as good um in 2012. So, we just kept perfecting the methodology and then uh wrote a few papers on it and then in 2012 we switched over to drones and um it just was it just made a lot of sense that the tech was safer. Uh the thermal technology was getting better. um you know we kept improving upon how we were doing it and um and so uh you know we since then we've been so we t we tallied up how many miles just just uh uh me as a pilot but Colin's a pilot we've got other pilots on staff um have flown just with drones at night and uh you know it's enough to get from Portland to Portland and halfway back across the country you know, we've flown a lot and for a lot of clients, uh, we've, you know, Princeton University is one of our continuous clients and a lot of work done in uh, Arlington, Virginia. You can imagine what it's like getting the FAA permits down there and [snorts] and a lot of areas in Maryland,

Virginia, and the northeast of Detroit. Um, we're working in Illinois now. So, uh, Rhode Island and Connecticut, those are all official. So, yeah, we've been doing it for a while. And, uh, and we provide, uh, the minimum that we saved and can confirm so that if it ever has to go be defended even in court, it's just fit the data. Does that make sense? Anybody have anything else that they're council member Vanic?

So, I mean, I'm looking at the the map with the uh with the purple

contours and blobs and u I'm, you know, obviously not trained in this, but obviously there seems to be an overpopulation in the northern portion of anyone. Okay. So perhaps uh uh I guess one question I have is if we limited ourselves or white buffalo just to the northern portion of any one in order to get those two dark purple areas uh uh reduced. Uh how many deer is that? Uh is that consistent with what the contract uh is calling for? um you know um do we have to devast not devastate but reduce the lower portion of any one any further uh speak you know to get to our goals. Uh that's the type of questions you know that kind of rallying around in my brain.

Gotcha. And thank you mayor. Um and we do have the experts here to answer on this as well. But that said, you do typically want to have even distribution u just so you don't have localized population like we're seeing here in the in the bubbles where the contours are on page seven. Um that said, this is I want to emphasize too that this is a snapshot in time. Oh, sure. Um, and we actually have just for sampling reasons and anecdotal, not as backed by science as this is, but uh just for example, the villages of Bright Leaf, originally they were not wanting to participate a couple years ago, but their HOA did reach back out this year. And if you look at the map, you don't actually see all too many deer um noted from the aerial survey, but they say they're there. So really how it works on the back end um it doesn't necessarily get discussed at the meetings is uh residents submit to us and say hey we have a problem we've got you know 10 deer in my backyard and I really you know they they're eating all my flowers or I always hit them when I drive home and that's typically how we're going to situate is based off who's who's responding who is complaining about the issue and then to be able to get in that's going to lead to access but typically even distribution is the best way to do it and if they have any answer to that if I'm wrong please correct No, that's definitely that's correct. Yeah,

go ahead, Jean. Sorry. I was just gonna say I will let Ryan speak to that.

Can Ryan come speak with your permission? Well, sure. Ryan, if you don't mind joining us up here, appreciate it. council. Um, yeah, generally we're we're looking at access that's provided to us by members of the community that are interested in having deer harvested from their property. Um, when we look at what the home range is of a deer, you know, generally in suburbia, you're looking at somewhere between 160 acres and maybe half a square mile, right? So, they're traversing a pretty large area. Um, as Stuart Green had said, you know, this is a snapshot in time. Just because there's a dot there on the map doesn't mean that you're going to go out there tomorrow and that dot's going to be in exactly the same play. It's going to be approximately in the same general area, you know, covering that 160 acres to a half a square mile roughly for female deer. Um, males territory will be a little bit larger than that, especially during the rut, which would have happened last year in nove or last month in November. you know, it might be up to two square miles. So, um, you know, when you think about a five square mile area, you know, the doe's are using about 20% of that, the bucks are using almost half of that during rut. So, you know, they're going to be covering a larger area. And, uh, one of the difficulties in working in an environment like this is that you just don't get all the access that you want. I mean, if you look at where those um, really dark purple areas are, they're likely areas that we don't have access. We would love to have access there. We've worked on it for two years. Uh we just haven't been able to secure that. So, um you know, we do the best we can to work on properties that are approximate to that where we can gain access where um community members are providing that or complaining. So, that from my standpoint, that's that's kind of what it looks like as a practitioner. Thank you.

If I may continue just a moment. Uh are these purple areas are these areas that have been denied access to White Buffalo? The area on the top north side, yes, that is a large large. Um and we have not been able to secure access there. Um the area kind of in the center there has we've had had some access and there has been some coing that's taken place. Uh the majority has somewhat been evenly distributed, but I would say that the most northern portion has been without access. Not for that specific property.

Council member Dodwell. Um, having worked with White Buffalo with other council members on this program since onset, um, as this started, I live off of Strucker Road in Timber Ridge Estates. Uh, if you look at the map that has the little orange dots on it with the numbers above it, I think it was the one that was on prior to this one. Um, and you look And where my subdivision is, there's six deer back in that subdivision now. Um when White Buffalo went in, um the first year that next spring, I had two dos coming through. They had two kids each year. And just this evening before I came over here, I had eight dough who walked through the backyard again and they'll have babies this spring. So any of you who are looking at these numbers and thinking that, oh, it'll only be two deer, so we don't need to worry about them here. Um I think you need to understand the biology of what mother nature does which is procreates recreates as much as it can. So, uh, while these numbers might look, um, a little low at this particular time, you'll also see, um, those female deer during rut time be moving in large herds away from where they normally would be because they want to get away from the male who's been chasing them

all day long. So, um, there's there's a lot of variables here, guys, and I just I think we need to continue to support this effort and look at additional alternatives going forward, such as possibly bow hunting. Um, if that's helpful or how we can engage the community. But um to turn this spigot off, you're only going to get more deer back and then we'll have new clients, new residents complaining and mass once again.

Do we have any other council members? They either have a question or any additional comment. Joe, I got something. Council member Barber. Yeah, just uh real quick, Tom, I don't know if if you can do this or the White Buffalo guys or whatever, but um I think it's important for people to understand how we've been moving through this program, like how it has worked. So, we started in N1, which is the area we're talking about tonight where we did our drone survey. That was year one. Year two was then NE2 with a little bit back in NE1. And now year three is being it would be SE1. And if you could remind everybody where that is generally. Yeah, certainly. So, uh, northeast, do you want to go through all three?

Sure.

Yeah. Northeast one, uh, what we're seeing here, that's the map. It's, you know, bounded on the south end by 100 and really bound by Shephard and Shreker on the east and 109. NE2 goes up a little bit further north, goes all the way to the city limit, Wild Horse Creek Road area, and then follows that line along 109, where we try to have a special almost like a special calling zone along 109 as well to help reduce car accidents. Now, we're moving in 2025 to the SC1 region, which is bounded by the town center here south of 100 going south to Old State Road. Um the idea though is also to include some residents that are within a quarter mile of Old State uh because we have seen a decent number of deer vehicle collisions on Old State itself. But one thing just uh to point back to as well and this was actually asked by uh Mr. Vanic of what the operational plan is for these other areas that are not the primary focus for 2026 or even before. Um it is really more so maintenance. So right now in the N1 and any two regions, there's only about 50 deer that are planned for those two spots. Um, so then the other little component of this that I think that's uh important to understand is even in some of our areas that we saw the really dark spots on the map here, there are areas that uh we as a city in White Buffalo have would very much like to do something in. We've gone you guys have gone and looked at them. It's just not feasibly safe or however you want to for really anything. And so those areas are going to consistently probably when we do these studies appear heavier because we're just not it it's not feasible to conduct these kind of operations with the tightness of the homes and and all of the other things. Even when we have uh agreeable HOAs and spaces, we found that we still aren't able to get in and do that appropriately, I guess, would be the best way to say it.

Yeah. Yeah, and I think just to piggyback off that exact point, I mean the the key feature here and and it's safety, you know, and with these dense subdivisions, even when you do get a an HOA to sign off on it, it is found unless it's a massive property and you have someone that's willing to provide access that gets you access to the common ground itself. Um, unless you have that, it's very difficult to find that because then the only only other option is to almost request from 14 different residents to combine their parcels to make one property, which even if that were done, it would be there's a there's a very high likelihood that there's going to be some type of obstruction or there's just too many variables. When you've got that many homes or property owners involved, it just becomes a lot more tricky. So, it really does depend on some of the more um widescale uh areas that have, you know, a little bit more than two acres per lot are usually helpful. And then also the HOA common ground.

Thanks. Okay. Any anyone else that have any other questions or comments? All right. And I was trying to capture some of those statistics that you started off with. If you don't mind, would you just share those again? what you guys uh determined from your findings of the survey.

Yeah, sure. So, if you it's at the top in the results section and I can read it from there. Uh the most recent deer surveillance of city of Wildwood counted 276 individuals throughout the entire study area of 6.84 square miles, equating to a conservative overall density of 41 deer per square mile. A total of 102 observations or deer herd sightings were made during the survey with a mean herd size of three or 2.7 deer per herd and each herd ranged from 1 to 10 deer. Um, and like we mentioned earlier, the conservative estimate was 41 deer per square mile, but if you go back to the density map, you will see that there's areas of 0 to 15 and as well as 100 to 150. So, uh, quite some variability there. And let's see here, what else? Um, I think uh I don't know how it is in Missouri if you guys have the number. In the northeast where we're from, 10 to 15 is usually considered a healthy herd size. I don't know if that was mentioned earlier or if you guys agree with that, but that seems to be what it would be in suburban areas. And I'm sure it's it'll be roughly the same for Missouri and what the local professionals would probably agree. It's probably around 10 to 15 per square mile is a healthy average uh you should be aiming for. But that seems to be it from us. I don't think we missed anything there. Um, yeah, I guess that's it.

All right. Well, thank you for that information providing that report. Yeah.

Thank you, Mayor. And I just wanted to add in um some background data for where the NE1 region was. Uh back when we first did our analysis back in 2020, the any one region actually had 94.5 deer per square mile. Um and that rate that range could have been anywhere between 60 to 145 deer. Um in 2024 after the first year, we had recorded it at 73.5 deer per square mile and then in 2025 it was calculated from the distance sampling at 58.8. One important note was when you took into account the uh the Manche property, the large property on the northern end, that number actually was reduced down to 37.1 deer per square mile. So the data that was suggested by uh Stuart Green was largely consistent and did fall within the range of the confidence interval showing that uh the distance sampling is is effective and working.

Right, Mr. Mayor? Yeah. Uh council member Bann.

Yeah. I guess my concern is that uh reference anyone uh that um we're looking back at going back in there taking more deer out. Correct. But as you said previously, we've already well, we can't get into some of these areas where there's high population currently because the HO HOAS or homeowners or land owners won't let us. But I'm I guess I'm concerned that my concern is that we give white buffalo kind of a vague contract saying we want this many deer to be removed and they they can't get into the areas that we want them to get into and they take the deer out of the lower areas on the map which is reducing those herds even further. That's my concern

and we can cap that. But I will say that at 40 41 deer per square mile, that's still double what MDC is recommending as a sustainable population. But we I get you. Yeah. Anyone else? Uh otherwise, uh we'll thank our Oh, council member CR. [clears throat] My voice isn't the best here, but uh so this calling of the herd, it's supposed to reduce the deer car collisions. Do you have some kind of an estimate what that will be?

Yes. So the first year we're going to have our crash analysis will be very helpful coming up here for the 2025 calendar year. Um where this is going to have its most largest impact is going to be the northeastern section of the city. So along 109 on those bends and also along 100 and Shepard and Shreker Road, you're not really necessarily going to see much of an impact in areas that haven't had work completed. Uh that said, in 2024 alone, we saw approximately 20 deer accidents less than what we typically do in that northeast quadrant. I would like to count point out though that with deer vehicle collisions, they do spike. They go up, they go down. Um but for that first year, it was it was showing a positive sign. And what we're really going to need to do is just follow the trend data and be able to keep watching it year-over-year.

Okay. Uh thank you very much for that uh report presentation. Uh seeing that there are no other questions from the council, we'll move on to the remainder of the agenda for this evening's work session. Thank you again to our guest speakers. Um, could we have White Buffalo come up and explain to those the newer council members how they do this hunt and the tools that they bring and the process that they do. Is that okay?

Yeah. Unless there's any objection from council, uh, Council Member Dodwell's request, uh, can we have the gentleman uh, please come forward? Thank you. Yeah, as Tom had mentioned, you know, the first priority in any of this is safety, right? And so, um, we go out and if we're established in a contract, we go out visit residents who have reached out to us and have inquired whether or not we'd be able to work on their property. Um, generally the way that it's worked in Wildwood is we have a police officer do the initial site visit to determine from their standpoint whether or not it's a safe location for us to operate. Once we get that okay, then I go out and do a boots on the ground assessment to make sure that it meets our standards to be able to remove the deer in efficient manner. Um, we use bait to lure the deer to the to the place that we want to be able to remove them, which enhances our safety and efficiency. Right. And I think one point of confusion is is that what we do is not sporting, right? We're trying to remove animals as humanely as possible, as efficiently as possible, right? And so we hold oursel to a very high standard. Um, all the deer on your project, they're euthanized by AVMA standards, right? So that means they're either shot in the center of the brain or upper cervical spine. So, you know, by the American Veterinary Medical Association, that is considered a form of euthanasia. So, um once we've established that the site works, uh we have a pre-bait period to to lure the deer into the sites that we're going to use. And then over the course of the project duration, which here it's typically been about four weeks, um we may work on each property three to four times, so roughly once a week. Um, we're dictated by the weather events on which sites that we can use. So, um, you know,

if deer see you and don't smell or if they smell you and don't see you, that's problematic. Even in suburbia, right? It's like, um, it's interesting to watch homeowners who they're a nuisance in the yard. You know, they're throwing rocks at them and the deer won't leave. Um, but if I'm there trying to operate and they smell me and don't see me, that's a big problem, right? uh deer are very resilient. They've done very well adapting to um our landscapes and neighborhoods and so [cough and clears throat] we have to do everything we can to be able to manipulate them in a way to be able to remove them safely and some of the areas within town. Um yeah, it's going to be challenging to remove deer, right? It's so built out that there's very little open space left to be able to operate safely no matter what technique that you use. Um what we've done in some other places is we've used sterilization. Right? So if you look we've got um a large scale project going on on Staten Island in New York where literally we're giving vasectomies to every single male deer. Right? And um we also conduct female-based sterilization. So that's one option. um if the if the community decides to go down that route, the hope is is that you can remove those animals in proximate areas and you don't have to go down any of the sterilization route or euthanize. So, does that answer the questions? Okay, thank you.

Okay, thank you very much and uh we'll move forward with the uh remainder of the agenda since there are no other further questions at this time. All right, back to um our section three of the mayor's comments and announcements. We do have our legislative consultant, Jake Silverman from Olympus Capital Strategies. I'd like to ask Mr. Sman to come forward and provide an update on uh what's going on at the capital. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um yeah, so uh legislative session will be starting on January 7th, um right around the corner and pre-filing of legislation has already started. Um there's been over uh over 1500 bills filed in 7 days and in a week that I've spent sifting through each bill, um I've seen about 106 pieces of legislation that could potentially impact the city of Wildwood. I just want to bring up um several different ones that that I found that really pertain to the city and are very important. One is something that we've seen the last several sessions, which is a uh a food sales tax exemption. Um myself along with the Missouri Municipal League and other uh other cities that have legislative consultants have fought this for about 3 years now. Um it's back again. There's three bills uh on the docket so far, which one is from Representative Ben Keithley, and then there's two from senators on the Republican side and the Democrat side. Um Senator Mary Elizabeth Coleman and Senator Patty Lewis from Kansas City. Um so hopefully, you know, we're be successful again fighting this. Um it's a very big importance for the city of Wildwood to be to be at the table. Um, the Missouri Municipal League actually uses the city of Wildwood as kind of the the gold standard of why it's important not to pass this legislation due to the importance of we don't have the amount of businesses that pull in sales tax revenue similar to Chesterfield or Kirkwood and things like that. So, it's very important that the city of Wildwood speaks to the importance of keeping this bill uh, you know, from from getting passed. Um there's some other uh legislation that's coming up around the corner that's erosion erosion legislation. There's some that focus on uh HOAs being able to access a loan to the state uh state treasury um or state treasur and

um that would be invested by the state treasur and this is just an HOA thing. I do think that there might be some sort of uh you know amendment that we might be able to add where the city might be able to have access to that as well. um that is sponsored by Representative Colin Wellingamp out of St. Peters. Um and then Senator uh Adam Schnelting as well. Um and then there is a uh there's some other legislation that allows counties that share a state park that pull in sales tax revenue. They can use that to um to add or fix some of the erosion issues that that they have in their uh in their counties. Um I don't know if that pertains to uh St. Louis County specifically, but it's always a conversation I plan on having with uh with Representative Wellingamp. He's also the sponsor of that. Um and then there was one that Council Member Farmer you uh you mentioned in the uh public works uh session um about relocation of utilities and whether municipalities are going to have to pay for something like that. Uh there is a bill that just popped up recently from Senator Ben Brown um that would force cities that that have utilities of non- rate utilities if they move their their infrastructure that the city would have to would have to reimburse them. So um that's something else that is right around the corner. Um there was something that passed last year. I don't know. I I need to kind of look at the difference in the bills and see what's you know what's different in that situation. But uh yes, it's we're we're back again with it. Um and then the last thing that uh is important to note is some legislation focused on governing bodies for the city um and public comment. Kind of the state dictating what is appropriate for cities to uh to allow for public comment. And so um that's uh Representative West. He sponsored that. I don't know what that entails. I mean, there's some there's

some things such as like a 3minut requirement per person speaking to the public body. Um, I don't know, you know, I'm not so sure what the likelihood of that is passing, but my job is to is to track these pieces of legislation and stop the ones and prevent the ones from passing that we care about deeply. And if we need to pass something, we uh we'll work on on doing that. So, those are some of the biggest bills and most important bills that I saw out of the 1500 that have already been uh pre-filed. Great. Thank you, Mr. Silverman. Uh let me see if there's any questions or comments from the council. Uh Council Member Banick.

Yeah. Uh it seems like the governor is uh hot on removing the income tax. Um the gentleman that's running for U St. Charles uh Igel um he's wants to remove the property tax. Uh we got state legislators who are want to remove um the grocery tax. We understand that the grocery tax affects us greatly,

but looking at it right now prior to the session, which one of those three do you think personally has the best chance of making it to the goal line?

I would most likely say the income tax. um as a governor's priority. It's it that's you know when the governor speaks most legislators listen. Not sitting there saying that the sales tax um issue it it doesn't have a you know possibility. Uh I think this is the first year actually on the sales tax side of things um for the the exemption where there's a Democrat and a Republican uh sponsoring it in the Senate which is unlike previous years it's just been a Republican. So when you have a bipartisan, you know, bill in the upper chamber, it can be a big concern. So, um, but I would say that most likely the income tax for the sole purpose that it's the governor's priority.

Uh, Mr. Silverman, I do have a question as related to that item there, uh, which is the income tax, but I know also the question would apply to the efforts to remove, for example, the, um, the tax on groceries. Do they propose alternatives when they say they're taking removing taxes? Do they do they then say what is the alternative that they will use to fund the government? Are you with sales tax exemption? First question, the income tax. Yeah, because I believe income tax is used for a wide variety of uh state services.

So, if they're removing that, then how do they plan to fund it?

It's a great question. Um, you know, there's there's always the theory, um, that, you know, if you lower the income tax or you cut the income tax completely that, you know, you can look at other states like Florida or Texas or or whatever, Tennessee, um, and look at the boom that they're having in their state and everyone's moving there. Um, I I'm not the I'm not the governor, so I, you know, I can't speculate as to what he thinks and what his reasoning is. I'm assuming that's what it is is he's hoping that more uh more businesses will will show up to St. Louis and Kansas City specifically for that sole purpose that there is no income tax there, you know, their employees are going to want to move there and things like that. Um so I'm assuming that's probably how he sees the tax revenue being, you know, uh coming back to to the state. Um I don't know if it'll be successful or not. That's uh that's for I guess later down the road. And then with regards to the the sales tax exemption, I don't, you know, I don't know. There's I I don't see how, you know, we would be able to do that as the city of Wildwood. Obviously, Chesterfield, Kirkwood, Webster, you know, places they have, you know, a lot more businesses and things like that, they have probably a better access to pulling that tax revenue in. Um, so in in my opinion, the the the best thing to do is just kill the bill.

Yeah. I I know we've dealt with the issue regarding the grocery tax because I believe the county and municipal governments would have a difficult time providing services if there's no replacement offered that these governments used to provide basic services such as snow plowing, you know, maintenance of the roads and so forth. So, fire Yeah, fire as well was a was a big thing that everyone talked about. The these are uh some serious concerns. Okay. Anyone else have any other questions or any comments? Council member Marshall. Um, Mr. Silverman, when you're working on the food sales tax portion, who's working with you from St. Louis County?

In the past, they did a lot of lobbyist for lobbying for us because they had a lot of unincorporated um population that was being affected the same way the city wall would be. Are you working with their lobbyists?

Yeah. So, uh, obviously the Missouri Municipal League um, you know, they represent a multitude of of cities, but with regard to St. county. If I remember correctly last year, um we testified in uh in opposition to the bill. Um city of Kirkwood did Florescent I believe uh was another one that did um maybe Chesterfield. Sometimes they don't necessarily testify and they work more behind the scenes. Um, you know, like I said, we've been doing this now for three sessions. And so, um, it's amazing when, uh, you know, when a bill starts to get movement, the the cities will all start kind of appearing and and working behind the scenes or testifying. But, uh, from what I remember, uh, Florescent, um, City Wildwood, Kirkwood were ones that I just off the top of the mind testified against it publicly.

Okay. Anyone else? Council member Danny, one quick question for you. Are you you're working for other mun municipalities other than Wildwood? Only Wildwood. Only Wildwood. Yeah. Okay. That's what I want to know. Right. Anyone else? All right. Well, Mr. Silman, thank you so much for coming tonight and uh keep us informed of any major updates and we'll certainly keep you aware of what issues are priorities for the city. So, thank you. Thank you very much.

All right, moving on then. Uh we've got uh for information. Are there any questions from the members of the council regarding any of the before information items um that you wish to raise at this time? Most of these will have reports attached to them. So you may have already gotten answers to your questions. Uh so if there are none, we'll proceed and keep moving forward. All right, moving on for action. The first item under the department administration, I think this one should be a straightforward one. Uh approval of the 2026 city calendar. City administrator Lee, you want to share a quick update on that and what you're seeking?

Yes, thank you, Mayor. And just wanted to give a quick update here. Uh this was discussed at the administration public works committee but also was briefly touched on uh at the time when we had planning and parks. But we are the overall city calendar is pretty routine, pretty basic considering the last couple years. It's it's in line with what we've had before. Um I did want to have a slight note added in. Uh we do specifically call out the budget work session in October last year. It was just listed as a council meeting. We're going to go ahead and give it a little bit of an extra uh emphasis and title. Um but the other major thing I wanted to bring up was at the committee level of both planning and parks and the administration public works committee uh discussions are there's going to be an analysis and it was part of theformational items uh where we're at thus far an analysis of all of our boards commissions and committees and the motion out of that uh that that grouping last week was that we would have the city calendar you know approved at this point but after this analysis there could be recommended changes from the committee and then the the department would go ahead and bring those back uh for consideration. So wanted to we need to have something approved for 2026 and this will definitely give us a great template to work from but just understanding the notion unless anybody objects that there may be um a revised calendar coming forth after that analysis has been completed. Thank you. Yeah. And if we could get a motion to approve the 2026 city calendar.

Okay. made by council member Farmer, seconded by council member Attenburg. Um we have a motion on the floor for approval of the 2026 calendar. Is there any discussion? Right. Seeing none. All those in favor please say I. I. Anyone oppose or abstain? All right. We'll move forward to the next item which is uh number two administration and public works committee a the proposed amendment to city council rules of procedure.

All right. Thank you mayor. Um, this one should be pretty quick uh as well, but we also had a discussion at the administration public works committee where uh there is one slight section of um of our rules and procedures that are established per city code. Uh, and the big difference in what's being requested tonight, what was talked about at the meeting was the difference between prevailing and the majority side. So, right now it currently uh says with if you voted with the majority, you can introduce a motion to reconsider. Back in 2018, we had uh introduced um originally an ordinance that would change this to the prevailing side, which is consistent with Robert's rules of order and other parliamentary procedures across the country. That said, uh we've had it the way it is currently in the in the code for, you know, since since incorporation. So, this is just the way that we had we had put it. Um it does have some real world implications where uh if you have a a couple individuals absent and an ordin it's really a big problem with ordinances and supermajorities but uh where technically the the side that loses a vote uh say there's eight votes in favor of an ordinance and um you know maybe there's and but you still have more that are opposed to it. Technically, under our current rules of procedure, the individuals that had voted against it are with the majority. Um, sorry, I'm getting this wrong. It always sidetracks me. Uh, technically, it it would show if you had a split, if you didn't get the nine, they could technically not have the bill approved, but they would still be with the majority. And what the prevailing sides does is that if you that vote loses, so say you're passing an ordinance and it doesn't pass, the prevailing side is the side that voted not to pass that ordinance. So it's a little bit more in line with um what the vote with the council member voting uh given the reconsideration power back to the individuals that are voting uh with in a sense the majority. I think I would almost turn to our city attorney to to give a little bit more of a clear

explanation here, but the difference between prevailing and majority and how it how it uh I know you're an expert in this field, so I'll pass it to you.

So, in the 10 years I've been city attorney, this issue has come up twice and it's happened in the last three months of those two times. Uh but like uh Thomas said, we had looked at a possible revision back in 2018 uh to be consistent with Robert's rules. Uh and that's what's being proposed is to bring this to be consistent with Robert's rules to be the prevailing side as opposed to the majority. The concept being that if you've got a majority uh a super, for example, if you have a supermajority requirement, you could have a majority of the people voting in favor of it, but it not pass. And currently, the city code allows for someone on the failing side to make a motion to reconsider. This would prohibit that.

Great. Thank you very much, city attorney. Um, so yes, uh, if you don't mind, mayor.

Uh, thank you. Uh, and the only other thing, so that's the direct change and the the request from the department tonight would be to move forth. There's actually an example of what the legislation will look like with some minor updates just to make sure it's in tone with uh, our current code and also uh, just giving a quick look at it. But really bringing that back as legislation, introducing it. But there was also discussion. There was two motions that came out of the committee meeting from last Tuesday. uh one was to make this change and effectuate it and the other was to review uh the city council's rules of procedure and then identify any other inconsistencies that may exist um that are possibly okay they contradict what is currently listed in Robert's rules. So the idea would be to go through both that side come back with any recommendations hopefully there's not too many but and then the more immediate impact would be to have legislation drafted to effectuate the change.

Thank you. All right. Thank you for that. Is there anyone that wishes to make a motion? Made by Council Member Marshall. Is there a second? Made by Council Member Bocker. Uh any discussion on the motion? All those in favor, please say I. Anyone oppose or abstain? All right. The motion passes. Uh okay. We're coming up uh at 6:30, which is when we will start our regular city council meeting. So, out of respect for uh everyone here in the room that's here for that 6:30 meeting, I'd like to see if we can uh uh pause the work session and then we will continue it after the main meeting is completed. So, um yes, council member Paul,

I was going to make a motion to pause it till the end of the meeting. So, we'll make a motion to um what is that to recess for or a motion for recess made by council member Farmer, seconded by Council Member Mabberry. All those in favor, please say I. I. I. Anyone oppose or abstain? All right. Thank you very much. So, at this time right now, it is 6:29. Uh like to just give a couple of minutes for folks uh to stretch. So, we will begin our main meeting at 6:35. Thank you.

All right. Good evening everyone and welcome to our city council meeting for Monday, December 8th. It is now 6:36 and we'll get started with our meeting. So, uh I will ask our city clerk to begin with the roll call. Mayor Geritano present. Council member Farmer here. Council member Dodwell here. Council member Nyan. Council member Utenberg here. Council member Trier here. Council member Mabberry here. Council member Roblooski here. Council member Preston here. Council member Marshall present. Council member McCutchen. Council member Rambo here. Council member Bockart present. Council member Crayons here. Council member Vanic here. Council member Alers

here. Council member Galani. Okay. Thank you very much. If I can ask you now to please stand and join me with the ple for the pledge of allegiance. Thank you. I pledge allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to do the stand indivisibley and for all.

All right. Thank you very much and I appreciate uh everyone's participation here. So, we're going to move into mayor's announcements and appointments. The first item under announcements will present a proclamation to Travis Newberry on his 10year anniversary. So, I will come down to present that to Travis. Well, thank you, Travis. Uh, you're the one who usually hands over the microphone for these, and now we're presenting you with one. So, Travis, I'm going to read uh excerpts from this uh proclamation here uh just to highlight your contributions to our city here. Whereas in 2015, the Department of Planning and Parks engaged Travis Newberry as its principal planner to assist in all aspects of its assigned responsibilities in association with this position including supporting the Wildwood Planning and Zoning Commission, the major land use authority within this community that pro promotes planning tomorrow today. And whereas within weeks of Mr. Newberry's engagement, he became an integral part of the department and the overall city hall team and accepted additional responsibilities by assisting in recreational events beyond normal working hours and supporting other meetings of different boards, commissions, and committees serving the community. And whereas in the confusion of the pandemic and subsequent stay-at-home orders, Mr. Newberry became the city's expert on virtual meetings, managing their setup, production, retention, and broadcast to the community, which allowed the city to maintain communications with its

residents during this extremely difficult time while also allowing the city to continue to hold its required meetings and complete other responsibilities and managing its day-to-day operations. Whereas over the course of his tenure with the city, Mr. The Newberry began also assisting it by participating in outside roles with supporting agencies and professional organizations such as the Marramac Recreation Association and the American Planning Association. Whereas this participation in these outside agencies and professional organizations led to his selection to be a part of a cohort to participate in Focus St. Louis emerging leaders program which he successfully completed and graduated from in 2023. Whereas during his 10-year period of time, Mr. Newberry accepted the role as the city's social media coordinator and managed the production and posting on its different platforms while creating content and ensuring that residents and others were in the community were informed about Wildwood government and ensuring a connection to the city relative to questions, concerns, upcoming activities, their scheduling and emergencies of all types. Whereas Mr. Newberry's interest in the planning field and other communities within the St. Louis region has made him a resource and asset to the city of Wildwood and others in the departments of administration, planning and parks and public works through sharing his experiences and knowledge of municipal government governance. Whereas it is at this time, the mayor and the city council of the city of Wildwood hereby notes their gratitude to Travis Snubberry for his 10 years of excellent service to the residents, property owners, businesses, and elected and appointed officials and acknowledges his major part in making Wildwood a great place to live, work, and play. And therefore, it is hereby proclaimed by the mayor and city council of the city of Wildwood that this action do hereby state proclaim its appreciation and

sincere gratitude to Travis Newberry, senior planner, for his 10 years of dedicated service to the community and its residents. Congratulations, Travis. Looking for Dr. that you're right. Thank you, Travis. Okay. uh in mayor's announcements and appointments. We do have some appointment uh we have that under the consent agenda that topic. I just want to again uh wish everyone uh best of the holiday season. This is our last scheduled city council meeting for this year in the month of December. So if we don't get the opportunity to wish you at the end of the meeting, we want to wish

you all a very happy holiday season. We'll move on. Approval of the minutes will be part of the consent agenda. And now we'll move into section six, which is public participation. I'd like to read just a couple of reminders when it comes to public participation. Public comment is a valuable component of our meeting. Anyone who wishes to speak must complete a speaker card and provide it to the city clerk who is seated to your left of the podium. When your name is called, please approach your podium and state your name and your ward number. If you do not know your ward number, then state your full address. To ensure that all who wish to speak have the opportunity to do so, there is a fiveinut time limitation. I will let you know as you approach that time limit. If you have any questions for us, please mention that during your remarks. Identify the official you would like to respond and the official make note of it. And at the conclusion of public participation, any official who chooses to respond will have three minutes to do so. That official may also choose to respond to your questions after tonight's meeting. And just again a friendly reminder, public participation is for the public so that there is no u questions that are entertained at that time. It is for you to be able to make your comments. Lastly, please be respectful to others in making your remarks. Interrupting others or using any profane or abusive language are prohibited. And I want to thank everyone in advance for following these guidelines. Lastly, because we do have an extensive number of speakers, I'd like to kindly ask if you do have comments, especially if these are comments that have been said by a previous speaker, please refer to that previous speaker's comments for the sake of efficiency. That will help in going through this list of speakers here for tonight's meeting. So, we'll move forward. Uh now with the first speaker for tonight,

Lou Salomon wants to speak on sharpshooting. Thank you, mayor, council members. L Salimony, 319 Quinn Moore in Bowwin. Uh I operate Suburban Bow Hunters, Nuisance Deer Control Group. Uh that's ground zero in the United States for wild uh for nuisance deer control. Um I should be at Apple Fest 3 tonight at St. Clair. It's tonight where you teach young kids how to shoot. I volunteered there the last two years, but I'm here. You're important to us, so we're here tonight. We appreciate your time. I'll go fast. Uh, tonight I don't have any paperwork, but in the past, last month, I had a lot of paperwork for you. And two years ago, when you're doing the ordinance, I had a lot of paperwork for you. All facts, facts about town and country, their results, and how it is going to affect your future. Uh, suburban bow hunters. Uh, again, we respect your time. We I have a management group like Mr. Brad Atinson. He runs the whole, uh, Manchester area. He does really good with management. That's why we got the letters of approval from the mayor and the alderman that we do good work there. Um, so, um, Town and Country has done sharpshooting since 2011, 14 out of 15 years. Um, and I talked to Bob, the city administrator today. Queeny Park has a 21-day hunt with 30 hunters and he's like, they only got 11 deer where they're hunting in big woods and they've hunted around Queenie for the last 14 out of 15 years. So, there's not many deer to kill. but he still thinks it's inefficient. It's the narrative that they put out there that makes you think that bow hunting is inefficient. There's 50,000 archery kills, over 50,000 in Missouri every year. Um, so it's it's really pretty efficient. Uh, we hunt in neighborhoods, which is totally different than hunting big woods areas where you don't get to understand them. You get local knowledge, you could use cameras, you get feedback from residents, so you know where to hunt,

you know how to control the deer. Um, Town and Country did a distance sampling this winter. They saw 37, 18, 58, and then 40 deer. Four different routes. They do a a 12 mile, 21 mile radius. Uh, yet their goal is 75 deer again this year. So, where are these deer coming from? Well, it's the inefficiency of white buffalo. There's too many does still. They kill 50% doe's, 50% bucks. And so, there's too many doese's left over. It's what it's called. It's called uh um that is called job security. Um because they're inefficient in what they do. Um they have job security over in town and country. I I want the best for you. I don't want you to go down the same route and think that you need to have white buffalo. If you do, this is what they do. They kill every buck over bait piles. The bucks dominate the bait piles, so they kill all of them. This is the incentive for hunters in general. and bow hunters especially. You kill a buck like Mr. Brad Atinson in Manchester. He killed a buck on opening evening. He killed his trophy and then he's already killed 11 more deer. That is what would help the city to not have white buffalo do this to your community cuz once they start doing this like in Dep well even though there's no hunting in town and country but there is in Deper participation. the hunters will want the city will let the deer get back to a level where they could manage them properly and they don't want that. Now my plan is for $250 a deer. Now if you understand that it cost a set put up a tree stand that at the minimum it's $350. somebody had a plan or said that $100, give $100 uh to the property owner and or 50 to the property owner and 50 to the hunter. That that's not going to

work when it cost the hunter $350 minimum to put a stand up. There's a lot of money involved in doing this. That's why it's our plan would be for $250 a dollar. 250 a deer that will I have 53 seconds left. um that will really help you with the deer management. It's a sound plan and it will work. We will utilize every resource, not just the guys in my group, every resource to call the deer properly, not like white buffalo. Our our records are 80% dough, mature dough. We don't shoot the fawns, we shoot the mature doess. That's a three deer future reduction right there when you kill mature deer. Not fawns, not bucks. That's what our group does year in and year out. We have a Facebook page. We post them on the Facebook page and that's proof of what we do. That's the only way to get the real proof.

15 seconds. I got nine. Thank you. Um, so we value your city. We want to help your city. But if you understand you go down the path with white buffalo, you will lose the participation of hunters that want to m reduce the deer for you and maintain them. Thank you, mayor. Thank please. Jason Oaks, White Buffalo. All right. Please come forward again. State your name, your ward number, or your address.

My name is Jason Oaks, Ward Six. I'm a longtime member of Suburban Bow Hunters and current manager of the Wildwood area. I am also a small business owner with over 23 years experience setting up hunting properties all over the Midwest, something which includes managing the population. There was an overpopulation issue in Wildwood, but if you're not careful, you will decimate this natural resource. There are always there are ways to control the population without sending any more money out of state. Our mayor talks about shopping local and supporting our small businesses. But then our city turns around and spends hundreds of thousands of tax dollars on bringing in white buffalo, a group from out of state to unethically harvest hundreds of our deer, potentially decimating this natural resource. I am a small business owner in Wildwood. If you want to throw money at the deer issue, let's work together with the support of suburban bow hunters and local hunters in Wildwood to control the deer population. White Buffalo puts out large piles of corn, shoots the deer with high-powered rifles behind behind the ear to immobilize them, and then uses bags if they do not die. The deer that are not shot can have health issues from overconumption of corn, which has little to no nutritional value. The Missouri Department of Conservation does not allow the feeding of corn because they say it causes the spread of CWD. So, why is white buffalo an exception? On average, I kill 10 to 15 deer per season, mostly in Wildwood. In the last two seasons, my numbers are way down. I rely on this resource to feed my family and friends. I also donate deer to needy families. Some years, that's the only protein these families had for Thanksgiving. Do not let white buffalo continue to take the wildlife out of Wildwood. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker, please. James Schunamire, deer management. Again, you state your name and your ward number or your address.

James Unimire, Pacific, Missouri. Uh 70 Cedar Brook. I don't have a ward cuz I don't live around here, but um I do live close though. So though I don't live in Wildwood, it's 20 minutes from where I do live. And um the this year has been different for me. So I'm the sole provider for a family of four. And um I've been hunting for two decades now. And my experience with hunting has been spend thousands of dollars a year on farm equipment, on food plots, on hotels. You got to, you know, you're going to get in your Jeep and you're going to drive or truck, whatever you drive, but you're going to go two hours, you know, to go find a spot where you can actually hunt and have an effective hunting experience. Uh this year has been completely different. This year I joined the Suburban Bow Hunters and it changed my life and my family's life. So now my hunting experience is no longer spending all that money and time and taking all that time off work. I can get off work and in 20 minutes be in a tree and that evening harvest a deer and be home for supper. It's given me my time back with my children and it gives me really healthy protein to feed them and they're two young boys and uh you know it doesn't hurt that I have a couple extra thousand bucks in my pocket to to spend on stuff they don't need. You know they're they're happier because of that. It's it's honestly been a life-changing experience and but I'm not unique. I'm one of thousands of bow hunters that are in the St. loose area and they all would be chopping at the bit for an opportunity to help you out with this problem. Uh, White Buffalo, they do provide a service and that service is as good as long as you intend to pay for it. Uh, the second that they quit sharpshooting these deer, you can set a watch by within 2 to 5 years, you're going to have a rebound of these deer. The only case that that doesn't happen is when there's isolated pockets and

topography prohibits that. But that is not the case. You have 68 square miles of mixed urban and woods. There's no walls when they shoot those deer at night over corn piles. What they're doing is effectively in a spot taking that population down. But there's nothing to stop other deer from filling the vacuum that's created by that. The food's still there and deer follow their bellies. They're going to fill in that area and they're going to continue to breed and you'll have that population right back. Now, if you continue to pay each year and have them come out each year, yes, they can continue to knock down the population, but eventually you're going to want to get not just these areas because there's a lot of area to cover. You're going to need to spread your your resources out. The second they bounce from that spot again, you can expect in just a few short years, you're going to have that rebound effect. What they can't do is be everywhere at once. They're only going to send out a few guys and they'll be there for a short amount of time, maybe a few weeks, and they'll knock down deers in those areas. But conversely, the citizens that live in this area, they can be in all those places. You know, there's there's no threshold for how many we can deploy to it. And the Spurbo owners is a large group. So we could be in 50 different areas at one time, not only taking down the deer in the area that you need that there might be large traffic jams or a large population in that spot. Not traffic jams, but accidents in that spot. So you've identified it's a key area that you need to attack. But we can also get the ancillary spots around that, target the doe's, which are the main producer of deer population, not these bucks. And what we can do is knock down that herd in a sustainable way. We live here. We work here. We train here. We make sure our skills are on point so we can harvest these deer ethically. And then

we drive hours away or sometimes states away to go harvest them. They're already here. You have not just St. Louis County, but Franklin County. They they harvest more deer in Franklin County than anywhere else in Missouri. And they do it every single year. And it's right there. One minute.

Be and I'm from Franklin County, so I can tell you this. you know, before we learn how to the alphabet, before we learn how to spell or ride a bike, they we have a bow in our hands. We learn how to hunt. There's fantastic hunters. They're right here and they would love to be a part of this and love to help you out. Um, again, if you invest in the local hunting community, I promise you, they won't let you down. They can be here not just for a weekend, but they can be here four months a year hunting every day. That's something that White Buffalo can never compete with. And we're not leaving next year. We're going to be here. We're not going anywhere. So hopefully uh you make that decision to let us do it for you. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker, please. Luke Schumacher, White Buffalo. Okay. And please state your name, ward number, or address.

Uh good evening. My name is Luke Schumacher. I live at 1311 Top of the Hill. Uh it I don't know the ward. We just moved there. My wife and I just got done building our dream home. So, um, yeah, I'm here to talk about the White Buffalo Group. I'm going to try to refrain from what everybody else has already said. Uh, basically, my wife and I, we've grown up in Wildwood our whole lives. We're both Rockwood teachers. Um, we all everything we live and breathe is Wildwood. Uh, we actually both teach at Wildwood Rockwood schools. Um, so like I said, everything's here, our house, our home, our kids, our family, our work. Um, I got to see you, mayor, at Green Pines, where you cut the ribbon for our new playground. So, it it means a lot. And other than, you know, my job and my family, uh, my kids, uh, my biggest thing is bow hunting. I've been bow hunting Wildwood since I was a kid. Um, and yes, I I'm going to try to refrain from what stuff other people said, but we did and do still have a deer problem. However, if you like um some of them just said is you focus all on one area, you're only taking out those deer. Um which brings me to my last point is if we're going to continue with white buffalo or if we don't continue with white buffalo, my main goal here is to talk about uh the acreage rule. Um you know, we hunt Bowwin and Chesterfield, which is all lower. Okay, so in Wildwood, you can rifle hunt and bow hunt on three acres. um that kind of defeats the purpose because they're rifle hunting over corn piles to kill deer. And what I want to do is I want to be able to use my bow and go hunt, you know, smaller acre properties. You know, if if uh if if we're bow hunting the same spots that everybody's rifle hunting and the sharpshooters are rifle hunting, I'm not seeing any deer. And over the past two or two or three years, the spots that I hunt are surrounded by the properties that White Buffalo is hunting. I'm barely seeing any. The property owners aren't seeing any. Um

I'm not able to bring home food for my family because yes, we do. I mean, especially at deer season, we live off the deer meat. Um so, just myself and my own personal opinion is I've I've struggled to find deer. I've struggled to harvest them. Um and the areas that I'm seeing the most deer and wildwood are spots that you cannot hunt because they're not three acres. Um and so be it. If it has to be three acres, I get that. But if we can't go under that, then let us uh combine to try to make three acres. Um I think that would help out a lot in order for us to get away from the sharpshooters. Um so that's pretty much all I got. Thank you. Great. Thank you. Uh next speaker, please,

Eric Varnador. He wants to speak on Dear Colleine.

Thank you. And uh please state your name, your word number, or your address. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Eric Varnador. I live in Ward 3. I'd like to respond point by point to several statements on Wildwood's public website being used to justify the continued large-scale deer culling program. Much of the language presented to the public is a gross misrep representation not based on Wildwood's actual data or wildlife science. Point number one, public [snorts] safety and deer vehicle collisions. It is stated on the city's website that deer vehicle collisions have become an increasing concern. The city's own crash reports do not support this. For the fifth year reporting period of 2015 through 2019, an annual average of 240 deer collisions were reported. for the following five-year period 2020 through 2024 it was 237 only a 1.3% differential. So basically the numbers are flat not rising as has been stated by the city to the media in public comment and strongly implied on its website. It is true that 40 to 50% of deer vehicle collisions may go unreported to law enforcement, but that does not affect this numbers. There there is no increasing basis for an increasing concern. However, we agree 100% that deer collisions need to be reduced. They're too high. We agree with that.

But science does not support herd reduction as the primary tool for reducing accidents. Our own MDC research, published studies, and just common sense show that accident reduction comes from driver awareness, roadside vegetation management, signage, and not irresponsible eradication of our deer population to unsustainable levels. Number two, aesthetics and carcass disposal. The language on the city's website claims that deer carcasses become too fragile to remove after 48 to 72 hours. This is simply just isn't true. Deer carcasses are usually removed before that time frame. I live here, I know. And can be it and can be removed well after that. The issue is not fragility, it's a response time issue. The statement also suggests health risk to people and pets. The Missouri Department of Health and the CDC are clear. Decomposing deer carcasses are not a public health hazard. They are an odor and an aesthetic issue, but not a disease issue or a pet issue. And the and the idea that carcasses attract unwanted scavengers ignores the fact that coyotes, hawks, crows, vultures are a part of every healthy ecosystem. Their presence is not abnormal and not a public safety risk. They are a part of nature.

Three, animal welfare. It is suggested that Wildwood's herd was suffering and and and causing suffering of other animals. What other animals? What other animals? There's no evidence of that. Before this recent overculling program began, there was no documented or validated signs of malnutrition, starvation, or abnormal parasite loads. None. Four, environmental damage. The claim that our deer population caused decline in biodiversity or invasive plant spread is not supported by ecological facts.

One minute.

Invasive species like honeysuckle, autumn olive spread because of birds and lack of forest management, not because of deer. Deer browsing does not cause invasives. Invasives often thrive because they are resistant to browsing. Y'all hear me? They're resistant to browsing. That's why they thrive. And saying deer are harming agriculture, frankly, is irrelevant. Our dear farmers, our great farmers, they get depradation tags to kill deer by the dozens, out of season. And deer feeding on ornamentals is not strong enough rationale to spend a million dollars to overkill them.

15 seconds. Wildlife is a city with wildlife. Number five, disease transmission. It has been stated publicly that deer transmit Lyme disease, besiosis, and even COVID 19. This is scientifically false. Can you uh There has never been a single confirmed. We're We're at time. Sorry. Yeah, we're at uh time. If you can conclude your remarks. I have just a little bit more. Thank you.

I just There has not been one single confirmed case of COVID 19 anywhere worldwide. Obesiosis is extremely rare in Missouri. The rate of transmission is 0.0. 01 per 100,000. Okay, we are uh at time already. Thank you. Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Terry Kaly on Dear Colleen.

Okay, thank you. And uh please state your name, board number, or your address. Thank you.

Uh thank you. Uh Terry Kley, ward three. Um, I've been here before. Most of you know who I am, but I come before you tonight as a member of the Wildwood Conservation Alliance that has really been the ones that's tried to kick this movement off, I guess I would call it, to try to keep our deer from being destroyed. I started to come to you tonight to talk to you about the numbers that either are up or they're down or whatever in all the areas. We've done that. I think we're past that point to where there needs to be a decision made by the board on what we're going to do for the future so we don't have to keep spending all this money. From my understanding, I think I think that our city is in trouble financially that if something don't happen down the road, we're even going to be in more trouble. So I think it's the responsibility of the board which I believe that you try to do is to look at every dollar that you can save and that needs to be put forth for the betterment of the community. And I guess the thing that I heard tonight so far the uh it amazed me that the deer numbers the collisions have only went down 20 deer per year. But look at all the money you've spent. So really deer are being killed, but the root of the problem is not being solved. And as some of the guys said, I think that the problem is not having access to the smaller areas. Those deer are going to get in those areas. They're going to stay there. They're not going to move. So that's that's just one of the problems that we have.

I've got a group of guys here tonight that I've known for years. I've lived here my whole life. There's a group of guys here tonight and I'd like to ask each and every one of them to raise their hand who is willing to help tonight to stop the city or to help the city, I'm sorry, in spending all this money. A lot of these guys that I know I've known for 40 years with all of our experience and I call us experienced professional hunters. We not be we might not be able to travel and go out state and pay the big fees where other so-called professional hunters go. I can say without a doubt that over the 40 years, we've got a combined total of over 1,000 kills with not one hunting accident. So, I feel that we know what we're doing. So, I would just like to say tonight that one thing that I'm seeing in these areas that even myself that where I was seeing deer, I'm not seeing deer now. So, I'm not hunting this area. the areas that have been cold because there's no deer there. You need us in the areas that have not been cold yet so we can get the herd down. We can manage it. We've got a group of guys that can do this. You know, we're good guys. We want to work for you. We want to work with you. So, I'm just afraid if you continue on the track that you're on now using white buffalo, you're not going to have any hunters down the road and you're going to continue every year having to have white buffalo come in. I don't blame white buffalo. It's a business for them. But I do blame the city that they're not

using the bow hunters. I had one board member say to me, "I wish that I would have known about you two years ago, that we could have used you two years ago." One minute. Well, we can't we can't take back what's already been done, but we can to the future. So, here we are. We're willing to step forward and work with you. It'll be a benefit to you. It'll be a benefit to us and especially to the taxpayers so we don't have to spend all this money. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Rick Dank on Deer Calling.

Okay, Mr. Dank, if you can come forward, uh, state your name and your ward number or your address.

Uh, Rick Dana, uh, Ward 3, 477 Steeple Lane. Uh, first off, good evening everyone. I'm going to make this quick because a lot of my points have already been made. Uh I do uh represent the uh Wildwood Conservation Alliance. Um and the biggest thing to me is budget and the money we're spending on these deer. Um I'm just going to make one quick statement and last week, you know, I'm on the Wildwood uh Facebook and I see an basically an ad for um the Village Green um asking for donations for the Village Green, right? The new playground, the all-inclusive playground. Awesome. I mean, something to be proud of. I mean, everyone can get behind that, right? Um, but I think it was maybe uh you could go anywhere from $25 to $5,000, a onetime payment or monthly payment was was what was being asked for. Um, you have an opportunity tonight, right now, tonight, for the city council to donate at least $216,000 for 2026 and not call the deer. And if you want to go beyond that, $600,000 to something that we can all really get behind and be proud of for children. Um, you have a group of men in this room that are capable, are willing. This is the strongest group of guys ever to come forth and want to do something like that. Um, there are members in this group, including myself, that shoot bow and arrows professionally, um, that will get the job done and want to get the job done. Basically, um, to help the city and get access and be able to do what we love to do. I've lived in Wildwood my entire life. I grew up here. Um, I've watched uh the bob white quail go away um from, you know, growth and lack of uh pred uh predator harvesting or getting rid of the predators. And I

don't want to see that happen to the deer um with white buffalo. And they've definitely taken too many deer out in any one in any especially in E2. Um and I don't understand um why we're not doing a drone survey in NE2. Um, but uh really that's that's about it. But you guys have a real opportunity here um with a good group of people that want to help and I don't want any money. I don't want any money. I'll help you for nothing. Just give me access. Let's work together to get access to hunt in the small areas. I'll kill them. You know, let's just All these guys will kill them. Let's get it done as a group. All right. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker, please. Tom Mitchell. Dear Eradication,

thank you. Please come forward and uh state your name, ward number, or address. Thank you. My name is Tom Mitchell. I live in Ward 6, number one ward. First of all, I want to say that tonight is one of the proudest nights that I have as being an American. Thank you for being here because this is an American God-given freedom opportunity. And I'm going to be gravely disappointed in this council. If you turn these men away that are offering what Rick just said to cut your budget by over 600,000 right now, you can make that decision. Are you going to make that decision tonight to cut your budget to cut and increase your your spending in other areas for these people in this city by 600,000? Are you going to sit there and ignore the consent that we're giving you to govern us and continue to overspend on something that is not necessary? I don't get involved in politics except to vote. I don't comment on politics on social media. I block people that go to right or two left. But I would be extremely disappointed if you don't listen to us. And I'm curious, and this is a rhetorical question because I know you won't answer. When is the last time you had a crowd like this ready to volunteer to help this city? Think about that. When is the last time, Miss Dodwell? When was it? And to turn us away tonight would be seriously the biggest mistake this city will ever make. It will be the biggest mistake you make if you want a political career. Because we will support the candidates who support wildlife and who support

freedom in this country and listen to the consent of the governed because it is in fact our right to abolish and to diminish any government that does not listen to we the people. And I am just baffled by the motivation. I don't understand it. I want to finish what one of my colleagues from the Wildwood Conservation Alliance stated regarding Lyme disease and this website that you guys post. I don't know who comes up with that language, but they need to delete it right now because it is misrepresentation and quite frankly a lie. Deer do not spread Lyme disease. Deer do not spread COVID. There's never been a record of it ever. The blood in a deer system kills Lyme disease. Ticks spread Lyme disease. And you know what actually spreads Lyme disease the most? Mice. Do you want to put forth forth a mice culling program to stop Lyme disease? This website needs to be changed. Please be honest with the people because you're misleading them to achieve a goal for an out ofstate contractor is going to make millions and millions of dollars off the city over the next 17 years. Every community around Wildwood has a deer hunting program. All of them. But you don't. And I don't mean this disrespectful, but that's stupid. Don't be stupid. use the men here who are ready and there's three times more and they're professionals and we will vet them and you'll hear from Lieutenant Colonel Mike Sherman about that in a minute. I'm going to close with the budget

and I know people can pick this apart but I challenge you to do the numbers yourself. You're 122% over budget right now tonight. actually more than that. You're 122% over your budget in April. You're going to be 160% 170% over your budget on this program. You're over budget already, Tom Lee, on the maintenance. 100% over budget. I forecasted this as many models in as many ways as I can. And I have forecasted things for 30 years, including publicly traded companies. And when you model things in a forecast, you look at it from different angles. And I keep coming up with the same forecast. And the forecast is mind-boggling. You're not going to believe it because when you're killing all these deer, you're killing these hunters. They are not going to hunt here. That's going to create a bigger problem for you just like it has in fact created for other areas of this country.

15 cents, including Arlington, Virginia. and town and country. You'd be ready over the next 17 years to spend $8 million on deer killing. I hope you find that money. It's not going to come from me. I can guarantee you that. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Michael Sherman, Wildwood Deer Management Program. Please come forward. Uh state your name, board number, or address. And uh just a reminder, if uh if there are remarks that have been previously said, you feel free to refer to those as well. Yes, sir. Uh would it be possible to hand these out to the committee members?

Um I would say just hand them to our city clerk and then she can make sure she uh the council gets them. Thank you.

Thank you, Michael Sherman, W 6. Uh so I too come before you with the concerns of where our taxpayer dollars are going and how they're being spent, especially for something that I do for free. So, I lead a group of bow hunters called Certified Bow Hunters of St. Louis County. And I've been consulting and working with the Wildwood um uh conservation alliance on proposing a solution, a long-term solution that would save the city money. That's what I have here to share with you. A lot of that information has been shared already, so I'm just going to cover a couple highlights. Um, I've got over 40 years experience as an archer and I've been bow hunting most of my adult life and I started out doing urban deer management when I was stationed in Philadelphia. When I came to the St. Louis area, I got in touch with the Missouri Department of Conservation and linked up with a group that I now lead. Um, we have very experienced bow hunters. We're professionals. we're out in our communities that we're supporting uh 40 plus properties um over 400 acres and we're building relationships with those homeowners and that's something that you know I know White Buffalo has a purpose but uh we're there working with them sometimes helping them throughout the year not just during our fourmonth archery season and we're very successful at what we do all of as mentioned earlier the municipalities and townships around us have some type of program. And one of the things that makes Wildwood very challenging for us archers is your 3 acre minimum requirement. And I live on just over 3 acres. So fortunate I can hunt on my own property and I also hunt my neighbors. But all of the other communities have much less than that. In a lot of cases, they're either one acre and are able to combine to get the minimum and in some cases they're as low as a half an acre. And they're tighter, more urban in areas. And that is a

proposal that we need if we're going to make this successful for our archers. We're white buffalo talked. It's very difficult to get into some of those tight communities. We have been doing it, my team has been doing it safely for 22 plus years. 22 plus years. Not a single claim on our insurance. Not a single injury. Nobody's been hurt. Nobody's been shot. No pets have been killed. Completely safe. But as always, you're going to see on this some of our safety and risk management items. Um, we always encourage if you have any suggestions, we'll be happy to take those under advisement. There's a couple other callouts I want to talk about is the hunters. Who do we have out there representing our groups? You heard from suburban bow hunters. Um, all of us have a lot of experience. We would vet those hunters to make sure they are good upstanding citizens. There's ways to do that. our police departments assist us in other communities. There's websites where we can look them up to see if they have any criminal activity. Um, obviously in this world, you cannot always just trust what they say. We go to the extra measures to ensure the people that are representing my group are people that I want representing my group. We have a lot of community members that are archers and bow hunters in this group. We have a lot that are out there that I have talked to. we could easily pull together a sizable number of men and women to make this happen for the city at no cost to you. Now, on the right side of the first slide that you'll see later on, there's some proposed numbers. The numbers are very flexible. 330 deer to harvest in 2026, uh 260 to harvest, 280 to harvest in 2027. Those obviously can be adjusted based on surveys. Whether you want to do them with a spotlight or you want to fly a drone, it doesn't matter to us. We're happy to help solve the problem. We're going to be flexible. Conservatively, if that's 40 hunters,

that's um 8.5 deer per year. My group today, as of this morning, are at 10.4 deer per hunter, and we still have five weeks left of the archery season. We're not asking for additional tags at this point. Um, we always have flexibility to go that route, but we're doing it just by following the Missouri Department of Conservation guidelines, their licensing processes, and their procedures. So, again, Wildwood's very restrictive. We ask that you consider opening that up to help facilitate archery hunting and helping you manage the deer. And through our citizens and and our friends in our neighboring cities and townships, our experienced bow hunters, we can help you solve this problem. and we're here to help. Mr. Mayor, council members, thank you very much.

Hey, thank you. Next speaker, please. Bob Murray, Turnberry Place Drive. Please come forward. State your name and ward number or address.

My name is Bob Murray, Ward Two. Switching topics. Uh, I'm going to speak about the response and request for score review that was submitted by the Turnberry Place subdivision in early October. We've asked for a meeting with the director and city administrator to go over our response. I don't know why that hasn't happened yet, but it's the least that should happen before any final decisions are made. If he hasn't done so already, I'd ask the city administrator to share our response with all the council members because I can't go over the whole thing in 5 minutes. And in accordance with the policy's limited scope of review, our response focuses on new information received after the July evaluation and additional information regarding some incomplete or incorrect facts. Our response shows why our score should be substantially reduced from 75 points to a range of 0 to 25 points. The message delivered by the council at the June council meeting was that the actions that were taken then to deal with new developments were forward-looking and not retroactive, but we were warned that the intersection was in danger of being reopened because it didn't look good and we had to dress it up. We did that immediately. Replacing the delineators took a little more time, but they were all replaced by mid August. As a result, we were assessed only five points under physical condition and maintenance based on the council's clear message from June. That should have been the end of it. But how did we get assessed 75 points? We hit the maximum for 30 points for emergency services and 25 points for public connectivity. The purpose of the emergency services function factors

obvious. You can't close off emergency access access. However, no evidence or documentation was cited to support a maximum 30point score and we are not aware of any problems or incidents in the last 29 years with emergency services. So, we went straight to the source and members of the subdivision have talked with both the fire chief and the fire marshal and confirmed that while they no longer approve of a gate, the current configuration is acceptable. The same was true when we spoke to the police department. The current configuration is acceptable. So, think about it. Because the intersection is open to emergency vehicles. By definition, this score should be zero. Based on this new information, the score should be reduced from 30 points to zero. Now, the purpose of the public connectivity factor is to assess how severely the closure affects traffic flow in the city. For example, as much as some would like to, we probably can't restrict traffic on Old State Road. Again, no evidence or documentation was was supplied to support the maximum 25point score. Now, Turnberry Place Drive does not serve a public connectivity function. It is a wholly intra subdivision street. No other subdivisions or parcels are served by Turnberry Place Drive. Nor is it designed or platted or intended to function as a through connection of Strucker and Clayton. rather Streker and Clayton themselves intersect just down the way. So while Turnberry Place Drive may connect Clayton and Structure Shreker in a strictly literal sense, it does not serve a public connectivity function as such. Yes, it's a public road. However,

as approve approved and platted by St. Louis County, not Wildwood in the late 1980s. It is a non-compliant, dangerous public road. Our response includes data and facts showing that the street is too narrow, too hilly, and too curvy. It doesn't meet grade and sight distance standards. And importantly, leaving the street as it is will not detract from your goal to fend off unreasonable requests from developers of new subdivisions. This city and this council would never allow such a dangerous, non-compliant road in the first place. This is not some attempt to privatize the subdivision. The street and the subdivision are open and accessible to everyone at Clayton Road. This is all about safety. Since access is already available seconds,

the only purpose that would be served by opening up the road would be to allow drivers to cut through from Striker from Striker to Clayton and vice versa. Notwithstanding the improvements to those roads, the perception of drivers is that it's shorter and faster to cut off the corner and avoid the intersection and stop lights at Treker and Clayton. History shows that these drivers were notorious for speeding and ignoring the stop sign. Your time is up. Can you uh conclude your remark?

Yes. I would just add that the scoring matrix does not include any reduction in the score due to safety which I believe is a flaw in the method. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Next speaker please. Monica Wilmsson Turnberry. Please please state your name, board number, or address. Thank you.

Good evening. My name is Monica Wilson and I live at 310 Turnberry Place Drive. If you would be so kind as to consider that in 1996, the Wildwood City Council chose the safety of Turnberry Place residents, their visitors, and service providers over their own wishes, desires, and those of developers and contractors, and decided to close the entrance at the intersection of Turnberry Place Drive and Striker Road 29 years ago. Precedent was set. Consequently, the entrance should remain closed. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker, please. Bill Gent, Bill 3019. And please state your name, ward number, or address.

Uh, Bill Gentz. I've been a Wildwood resident since 1997. Currently live in Ward 6. Uh, prior to that, I lived in Ward One, uh, off a pond road for, uh, 15 years. I became interested in the deer management program two years ago. I'm not affiliated with any of the um, groups here. I'm also not a hunter, but I don't have a problem with the rules and regulations that the Missouri Department of Conservation have set up for hunting. Um, what I wanted to do today is uh provide the council with some numbers that Missouri Department of Conservation just recently released for 2025. They released the preliminary numbers for both the managed hunts and for the November 15-25 uh open hunt season. The managed hunts are permit issued uh a combination of archery and gun and they vary on I guess length of open. The archery hunts are open anywhere from 15 to 20 days and the gun hunt which one was held in Babler is usually a shorter period two or three days. The managed hunts took place in St. Louis County AC across a minimum of 10 different uh locations. Columbia Bottoms, Creve Core, Forest 44, uh JB, Powder Valley, Queeny Park, and then in the Wildwood area, Greens, uh Felder, uh County Park, Rockwood Range, Rockwood Reservation, and Babler State

Park. To put this into perspective, those 10 areas had 17,500 acres or 27 square miles. The total deer harvested in that area was 325. Last year, White Buffalo in their second session in a 10 square mile area took 361. The November 15-25 deer season, the open season for all St. Louis County, the total harvest was 325. But I'd ask the city council to review the upcoming arrangement with white buffalo as the above numbers don't support additional harvesting. Or if you decide less harvesting is necessary, I'd like to hold have them hold to the 40 deer per square mile number that you originally came up with last year. Activity didn't follow the guidelines and you ended up with, as Tom Mitchell stated last meeting, with 10 deer per square mile. Thank you. All

right. Next speaker, please. Leon Whitner, White Buffalo. Please come forward. State your name, ward number, or address.

Good evening. Leon Whitner, Heather Cross Drive, Testerfield, Missouri. Uh, first and foremost, I want to thank all of you for taking your time to listen to the issues that are brought before you this evening. Um, I've been a hunter since I was the age of five. when my father took me on my first squirrel hunting trip. I harvested my first deer at the age of 14. I've been archery hunting this Wildwood area now for about 14 years. Um, and we have a room full of hunters here who are willing to assist you with your fiscal responsibility to the city. My passion won't cost you anything. I have friends here. I hunt here. My my license fees go to the department of uh conservation here in the uh state of Missouri. And the deer that I've taken out of Wildwood have cost you absolutely nothing. I enjoy hunting. I've hunted here, like I say, for about 14 years without incident. Um and I'm sure that if the hunters behind me just had access to some of the smaller parcels, I do have access to several areas in the the Wildwood in the Wildwood area um to the smaller parcels. I harvest there. And like I said, it it doesn't cost you anything. So to spend this kind of money with uh White Buffalo, uh I would hate to use the word irresponsible, but I do think it needs to be re-evaluated. Okay. Um so I just want to stand here in solidarity. I will not be before you long because I think that my peers have said a lot of things very eloquently. But uh I would really like your consideration in this issue to uh just give us hunters uh access. If you can create a registry that uh like I say, I'm already here in Wildwood. I have a place I can register my deer with you so you know how many deer are being taken out of Wildwood. I'm sure these hunters will do that as well. If we can create a registry for that, I think that would help you uh quite a bit. So, thank you for your time and thank you for your ear.

Thank you. Next speaker, please. Gary Wigert, House District 110. Please come forward. State your name, Ward, or address. [snorts]

Uh Gary Wigger, W three. Gosh, I feel kind of out of place here. Everyone's discussing the deer uh the deer shooting. Um my name is Gary Wigard. I'm a former city police officer, 35 years. I was also ward uh seven committeemen in St. Louis City. I'm the current uh committeeman in Chesterfield. Um I am running for House Seat 110 on the Republican ticket to replace Justin Sparks who just resigned. I seek not only your support but seek your input to guide me in future legislation that aids Wildwood. Uh if elected, I plan to meet with this body once before session and uh receive your uh collective once and meet and meet after session to report to you the outcome and explanations relevant to Wowwood. Um I have known your lobbyist Jake Silverman for a number of years and I have a good working relationship with him and I look forward to working with him next year. Last year, I testified in uh Jefferson City for Ben Keithley's bill requesting the tariff uh traffic barriers on Clarkson be removed. I too believe in the consent of the governed and I don't think that the state should come in and put those traffic barriers in here when we in fact did not want them. Um I hope that my testimony in Jefferson City uh aid it in the curb barriers removal. I believe the state should not impress its will upon the citizens without the residents of Wildwood's approval. Uh thank you and I could address any of questions uh you may have after this meeting. Uh one thing about this I I tell you what this is a real good uh education for me because I grew up in the city. I never went deer hunting, but uh this was a good education for me and I do believe in fiscal responsibility and I I hope any decisions are made are fiscally responsible. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Next speaker, please. Lauren Jordan Turnberry, please. Please come forward. State your name, ward number, or address.

Lauren Jordan, uh w number two. Thanks for the opportunity to speak before you again. Same issue of Turnberry Place barrier that's uh slated for removal. Um I think you're all are aware of that. We have a few notes. Uh this council emphasized that the June meeting that the ordinance affecting our safety would uh be a forward-looking ordinance. Uh it turned out to not be that and I think that's on the record. Just wanted to point that out. There are better ways to spend 30k or greater than 30k as our um hunters have pointed out. Appreciate that point. I won't belabor it. Other than the ordinance, there is no motivation to remove the 30-year-old emergency access point. Additionally, there are other emergency access points in other neighborhoods. if that's an option. I'm unsure why that wasn't made available to us um by any uh of the people on the public uh public works uh committee or our two ward members, Mr. Troutier or Trudier and Mr. Mabberry. The ordinance requires that obstructions be removed and that no new safety measures be installed in the road. That's widely understood by our residents. However, outside of the removal, no additional options have been offered to date. Information provided to date has not uh well, it's done little to allay the safety concerns of our residents, which I represent. We were informed that no new bumpouts or any speed reduction devices could be added. Mr. Farmer responded to one of my messages to the director of public works, inviting our community to consider moving forward with the opening of our emergency access point. I certainly appreciate that invitation and I look forward to some sort of option to

actually work with this with this council. Um so maybe that's forthcoming, right? Uh what I do stand here today for is to ask the as a Wildwood resident, a voter and a taxpayer that we are made aware of and aware of and engaged on media uh meaningful options to ensure Turnberry Place residents, the community that I represent and serve remains safe. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Claire Heinrich, candidate for House District 110. Please come forward. State your name, ward number, or address.

Good evening, mayor, council members. I'm Claire Heinrich, Ward 4. I'm also going to be running for our seat in the Missouri House of Representatives. That's District 110. And most of you have probably already heard from me or met me and we've spoken about this campaign and what Wildwood might need at the state level, but I just wanted to come up here and kind of formally introduce myself. and please invite you if we have not spoken, please reach out. I would love your input on what our state could be doing better for Wildwood. I'm running because I love Wildwood so much. So, it would be an honor to be able to serve us in Jeff City. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker, please. Gary Roland, Wildwood Deer Herd calling program.

Please come forward. State your name, board number, or address. Hi everyone, Gary Roland, Ward 2. Um, I come before you today just to um express my concern over the calling program and the amount of money that's been spent uh on this program and what you're potentially going to spend moving forward. Um, I I really question how we got to this point as a city. How was a conservationminded approach not taken into account and accepted and moved forward with over this type of program where we're paying someone from out of state, way overpaying someone from out of state to kill deer in our community. I live in NE2 and I can tell you it's noticeable. I do not see near as many deer as I used to. My kids don't see as many deer and none of my neighbors do. And we live in Wildwood. It's in the name. So, we should have deer. We shouldn't be funding a company from out of state, sending our tax dollars out of state to a company that is overkilling and plans to, this is their business model, that plans to keep doing this year-over-year. when you have uh organizations like certified bow hunters and suburban bow hunters who have members that are ready to help and at a much less or no cost to the city. So I urge you all council members to

take the step and take the action to reverse your course and go with a more conservation-minded approach. The uh and just the way that the trajectory we're on right now is not sustainable. And if we really are overbudget, then it's fiscally irresponsible. I will say it because these are tax dollars. These are hard-earned tax dollars that we're paying to run this city. And we you guys all should be fiscally responsible in your decisions. And uh I just urge you all to take that vote and reverse course. and let's, you know, let's go with the name in the of the city, Wildwood. Let's go with a more conservation-minded approach. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Next speaker, please. Bridget Fiser, Turnberry, please. Please come forward. State your name, Ward number, or address. Thank you.

Good evening. Bridget Fischer, w 2. I'm here to speak on Turnberry Place Neighborhood. At the October 14th meeting, the road and bridge fund for the public works, excuse me, the road and bridge fund was stated to pass with the inclusion of the Turnberry Place intersection. Going back, we have had multiple discussions about this. We have sent multiple emails. All of our emails have gone unanswered. We have asked for meetings to discuss our score assessment. Again, unanswered. Um, there was one gentleman from our neighborhood that wanted to be here this evening, but unfortunately fell ill and was unable to. I have an email from him that I'd like to read a few things from since he couldn't be here. He planned to speak and discuss Chester's fence. If you're not familiar with that, JK Chester, J GK Chester, excuse me, Chesterton was an early 20th century English Christian writer who is famous for a number of things, but his concept of decision-m and reforming movements has been known as Chester Chesterton's fence. Simply stated, it says if you encounter a fence, don't tear it down until you understand why it was erected in the first place. That doesn't mean that change is always bad. It means that we should always consider change in a spirit of humility. There was a reason why someone built that fence. And if it's removed without considering the original intent and any subsequent changes in circumstances, we risk causing greater problems than if we'd left it alone. I think it applies to the striker entrance issue. The benefits of this city council enacting a city-wide policy to remove all such obstructions on public roads may not be taking into account that not every street in Wildwood is identical. Turnberry Place Drive has steep descents at both ends and both slopes are sharp curves with limited visibility for drivers, which increases the risks for children playing near the street or riding their bicycles

or even older folks just walking in the neighborhood. before the entrance was closed. I can still picture drivers zooming down the hill near the striker entrance and narrowly missing hitting children in the neighborhood. I thanked God when Wildwood understood the risks and erected the barriers. Obviously, neighborhood residents can also speed down those hills, but their numbers are limited and if they live in the area, they are familiar with the slop and curves. Out of neighborhood citizens are less likely to anticipate the terrain and much less likely to take proper degree of caution. I am skeptical that the city council members are sufficiently aware of the unique risks of Turnberry Place Drive and are choosing to overlook the individual characteristics of certain streets in Wildwood. If they open that entrance despite the protests of Turnberry Place residents and a driver hits or kills a child in our subdivision, blood will be squarely on your all's hands. The other thing I would like to bring up is a few items from the June meeting in which we had multiple residents attend and speak on. We were told at that meeting multiple times by Mr. Farmer, this is a forwardthinking plan in terms of new developments. The ordinance is not specifically directed at you. It is future planning, not rearfacing. Those are direct quotes. Mr. Mabberry used the term forward-looking. He also told us that we had a choice. Dress it up or they'll reopen the road. Mr. Galani suggested putting forward-looking into the bill language. He did not use the term grandfathered, but he did say that Turnberry he did want Turnberry Place to be excluded. None of that has happened. Also to quote from that meeting, Miss Dodwell

spoke generally of the unsightly look of the whole area and recommend seeking a proper end to the street in which she then stated it quite literally looks like a third world country. Frankly, nowhere in the city of Wildwood looks like a third world country. And that is a terrible, terrible remark to make because there are third world countries out here. We care about the safety of our residents and we will not stand down until we know that the residents of our neighborhood are safe. I have four young children that live at the bottom of that hill. And yes, if one of my children or any child in that neighborhood is hurt, the blood will be on your hands.

Thank you. Next speaker. Dan Lei. Dear Colleen, please come forward. State your name, board number, address, and again, if there are any points that have been made from prior speakers, greatly appreciate if you refer to those. Thank you.

Sure. Uh my name is Dan Lelay. My address is 3829 Lexington Drive. And uh as you mentioned, um as previously stated, um I am representing the Wildwood Conservation Alliance. Um, so many of the points that I was going to make uh have already been stated. Um, one thing I did want to say though really quickly though is I think if you all take a look at the other, um, municipalities inside of St. Louis County who have implemented implemented um, bow hunting uh, local hunter um, programs to help with the deer management. I think you guys would see that those have been extremely successful and highly effective and Wildwood could easily do the same. And again, as easily, as uh already stated, um that would just that would cut the budget $600,000 upwards of that. Uh and that's just the start, as you've already heard. So, I would ask you guys to all please seriously consider not making the same mistake of reinstating the White Buffalo contract and uh taking advantage of of all the people who have shown up here who are willing to do this for nothing or next to nothing and help you all out. I think um not doing so would really be a huge mistake. Um it' be really regrettable. And if I could again, I know this has been done already, but uh get a showing of all the bow hunters who are here who are willing to help out with this. make sure that this isn't going to be an ongoing thing that White Buffalo needs to take care of. I think you know that the numbers speak for themselves. So that's all I have. Thank you very much for your time.

Thank you. Next speaker. Okay, we don't we don't have any more speakers. So uh thank you all to all the speakers and thank you to everyone uh for um participating this evening. Uh we have several public hearings for tonight. So, uh, we'll go into the public hearing. Um, Director Voonage, do you wish to hold these separately or will you be, uh, able to do these all together? Mr. Mayor, the city clerk and I discussed this this morning, and we would like to treat the three as a single request.

That would be great. So, uh, therefore, we'll, uh, go ahead and, uh, have you, uh, introduce this and then open up the public hearing. Go ahead.

PZ77A and 7B-25, West Mill, Whan Custom Homes and Care of Mike Whan, 338 South Kirkwood Road, Sweet 103, Kirkwood, Missouri 6312112. PZ7-25, a request for a change in the zoning district res designations of three properties that form attractive land that is 1.74 acres in area from the R-6A 4,000 ft residence district town center neighborhood general district to the R-47500 ft resident district. PZ7A-25, a request for a change in the zoning district designation of two properties that form attractive land that is 6 acres in area from the NU non-urban residence district suburban residential area to an R-1A 22,000 ft residence district PZ7B-25. A request for the application of a planned residential development overlay district PRD in the R-1A 22,000 foot residence district in R-4 7500 ft² residence district for an overall and combined tracks of land totaling a size 8.05 acres in area. The proposed use is a total of 17 detached single family dwellings on ind individual lots of record with common ground area access accommodations, required public spaces and storm water facilities.

Okay, we have the me uh public hearing open now. So, director would please go right ahead.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Mayor and members of city council, the planning and zoning commission has provided for your consideration tonight its letter of recommendation regarding this series of reasonzoning request. As noted by the city clerk, as part of the reading of the request into the record, there are two resonings. And then if the resonings are approved, there would be an overlay district to accommodate the specific design that's proposed on this approximately 8 acre site. The planning and zoning commission considered the request and is recommending the two zonings be authorized by city council along with the overlay district. The property is somewhat unique in that part of it is in town center and part of it is in the suburban suburban residential area. This is one of the first where we've had two different master plan conceptual land use categories involved on a single parcel of ground and project. The town center area will have different units those consistent with the new urbanism principles and the design standards and architectural guidelines of the city's plan. and the others will be consistent with the suburban residential area and that they will be more traditional lots and homes consistent with Stonemill which is to the east of the subject property and Westridge Oaks which is to the west and south. Again, the planning and zoning commission is recommending approval of the three requests. There are sets of conditions relative to all aspects of the development from infrastructure to storm water management and they are contained in the recommendation report as well. After public comment, the department will be available to answer

any questions and I would note again Mr. Marshall and the mayor are part of a planning and zoning commission and certainly can participate in discussion as well. Thank you. All right. Thank you, director Vonage. Do we have any speakers for the public hearing tonight? All right, we do not. Do we have anyone that wishes to speak on the public hearing? All right. Seeing none, uh then director Vunich, if there are no questions of the city council, there is a bill that's been prepared for first reading and that is later on in tonight's agenda. Thank you.

Okay. So, as you heard, we do have this uh later in the agenda, first reading. You have an opportunity to ask questions if you'd like at that time. Uh there's no debate on the first reading. All right. Uh seeing none then uh can I get a motion then uh to close the public hearing at this time? Made by council member Farmer, seconded by Council Member Marshall. All those in favor please say I. I.

Anyone oppose or abstain. Right. Public hearing is now closed. We'll continue on the agenda. Moving on uh into legislation. We have several items under unfinished business. And for the sake of expediency, I'd like to propose uh the following bills. if we could read them in mass and again I'll cite the specific bills that I am requesting to read in mass. If any council member uh would like to uh remove one of the items to u discuss separately we certainly can do that. I'd like to suggest bills number 3016. Number two, bill 3017. Number three on the agenda, bill 3018. Then moving on to number nine listed on the agenda, bill 3023. Number 10 on the agenda, bill 3024. And number 11, bill 3025. Do we have any objections to reading the bills and mass? Okay, seeing none. And then again, we'll come back and do the second reading for the other bills that were not called out. All right. So, therefore, um, we have these bills before the council. And is there a motion for the second reading of the bills made by council member Bert, a second made by council member Nyan. All those in favor, please say I. I. Any oppose or abstain? All right, Colleen, you have several bills that you'll have to read. Do you need those numbers or you got them all?

Okay, great. Thank you. Bill 3016, an ordinance of the city of Wildwood, Missouri, authorizing the mayor to negotiate and execute a city contractor agreement on behalf of the city of Wildwood with Tehill Construction Incorporated for the construction of the Old State Road Shared use path project, including traffic control and other incidental items as shown on the construction drawings and specifications. Bill 3017, an ordinance of the city of Wildwood, Missouri, authorizing the mayor to negotiate and execute a consultant services agreement with CB Engineering Incorporated doing business as Cochran for construction engineering on the Old State Road Shared Youth Pass Path project. Bill 3018, an ordinance of the city of Wildwood, Missouri, amending chapter 390, traffic schedule 9, parking restrictions of the code of ordinances of the city of Wildwood, by enacting new parking regulations on West Glenn Farms Drive, and authorizing and directing the city traffic engineer to erect appropriate signage reflecting such parking regulations. Bill 3023, an ordinance of the city of Wildwood, Missouri, authorizing the mayor to negotiate and execute a maintenance agreement with the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District to maintain storm water management facilities to be located within permanent easement areas acquired at 909 Old State Road adjacent to the Old State Road shared use path which is planned to be constructed along the west side of Old Straight Road between Old Fairway Drive and Old State Place within the city. Bill 3024, an ordinance of the city of Wildwood, excuse me, an ordinance of the city council of the city of Wildwood,

Missouri, authorizing certain recommended changes to the zoning ordinances regulations relating to definitions, sign requirements for wall and temporary types of them and creating a new set of parameters for electronic message centers, EMC, that will be limited in application to only government entities and others having federal ederal, state, or local taxing authorities. Bill 3025, an ordinance of the city council of the city of Wildwood, Missouri, that hereby endorses and ratifies the approved changes to the workplace district of the town cent's regulating plan as duly acted upon by the planning and zoning commission, which thereby adds allowances for drive-thru facilities on locations designated by such that Abut or join State Route 109 or State Route 100, further set forth by the addresses and locator numbers provided herein while authorizing the department of planning and and the planning and zoning commission to undertake and complete a prezoning process for these identified locations to accommodate this allowance supported herein.

All right, thank you very much. Uh the bills are now on the floor and uh director Voonage or Director Brown, do you have anything else you wish to add regarding these bills? U Thank you, Mayor. I have nothing further. The bills at least 316 316 17 18 and 23 I believe are ready for final passage. I'm available for any questions from the council if there are some.

Okay. Uh council member Marshall. Yeah, I think this is just a typo, but in bill 30 uh18, the signs are actually in W five side of the street, not W 4. So, they're up. They look great, but that should state W five for that side of Westland is W five. Thank you for that correction. Great. Thank you. Anyone else? All right. Uh, Director Vernon, you wish to come up here and is there anything else that you wish to add?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Mayor, members of city council, the bills that have been read that have been um created by the department of planning have not changed since their introduction. I would just note that bill 3024 will add a new type of signage in the city of Waldwood and those are electronic message centers and those have been through approximately nine months of review with a lighting consultant to ensure that if we do have them in the city they are appropriate and will not affect the dark sky that we're trying to preserve. If there's any questions the department be glad to answer them. Any questions for Director Boonage?

Thank you. All right. Seeing none, then uh we'll have a roll call for these bills. Uh Colleen, Council Member Farmer, yes. Council member Dodwell, yes. Council member Nyan, Council Member Attenburg, yes. Council member Trier, yes. Council member Mabberry, yes. Council member Roblooski, yes. Council member Preston, yes. Council member Marshall, yes. Council member Rambo, yes. Council member Bockard, yes. Council member Crayons, yes. Council member Vanic, yes. Council member Alers, yes.

All right, those pass. Now we'll move on to number four on the agenda under unfinished business, bill 3019. Is there a motion for the second reading of the bill of 3019? Made by council member Farmer. Is there a second? Made by council member Rambo. All those in favor, please say I. I. Anyone oppose or abstain? Right, Colleen, please go ahead and read bill 3019. Bill 3019, an ordinance of the city of Wildwood, Missouri, authorizing the mayor to negotiate and execute an agreement with White Buffalo Incorporated for reduction of the deer population within the city of Wildwood.

Okay. Uh, city administrator Lee, do you have anything else you wish to add? Um just one quick note that uh you'll see on two attachments if you're looking on the online agenda at this was mentioned at last meeting but bill 3019A if the council wishes to to approve this ordinance. Uh we ask that it's adopted considering the site visit was not included within the the first one. So it does result in an expenditure change. And if you see in the direct budgetary impact it's about $8,000. So, just wanted to call out to accept 3019A versus 3019, but the department's available for any questions. Yes. Yes. Okay. Therefore, uh, city attorney, please go ahead.

Yeah. Mayor, in light of that change, the appropriate motion at this time, if we want to proceed with this, is to amend, uh, the bill consistent amend the bill as presented. Okay. hearing the city attorney. Is there anyone that wishes to make a motion to for that amendment? Anybody by council member Bockard? Is there a second? Made by council member Dodwell. All those in favor, please say I. I. Anyone opposed or abstain?

All right. The amendment is now on the floor for discussion. We have anyone that wishes to discuss or have any questions? Okay. Uh, council member Alers program

uh we are contractually obligated if we were to approve the contract tonight. So we are on the hook for the site visit at least but that is under my purchasing authority could be approved and be open with future years to look in what have beened here in addition to what we're Um there's I haven't been writing down I mean there just so many for us to get through and do something like that but it would take a lot of it.

All right. Thank you. Anyone else wishes to comment? Council member Autenberg. Um so just to clarify right now we are just um discussing and then voting on the proposed amendment correct to the legislation amendment. Yeah the amendment is on the floor. We do we did get a motion for the amendment and therefore that was approved. Okay. Yeah. So but there there there could be potentially additional amendments made to this legislation. Correct. So would this be the time to bring those up?

Yes. Ju just to clarify for everyone's sake, the bill was amended. So right now before you is the A version of the bill. Uh and yes, a a secondary or an additional motion for an amendment would be appropriate at this time.

Okay, perfect. So So I have two potential amendments that I would like to offer to this legislation. And um the first amendment was presented to me uh a few minutes prior to the beginning of the um council meeting. This comes from a number of residents of Ward 3 who are also affiliated with the um Wildwood Conservation Alliance. And uh what they are proposing is a compromise or a change to the existing legislation. There's been a lot of great discussion on this topic of deer management. A lot of passions from all sides. Uh there's been great input from the Wildwood Conservation Alliance. There's been great input from St. Louis County Bow Hunters. Uh there's been a lot of hard work done by some of the legislators on this uh council. So I appreciate everyone's work. So, the compromise uh amendment, I'll call it a compromise amendment, but the amendment is that there be no more deer calling in any one done for this next cycle of deer calling. There be no more calling in NE2. uh they are requesting that we cut the deer targeted for culling in SE1 from 140 down to 70. Another point that's being requested is to conduct a full drone survey by March 31st with a company that is an independent company that can differentiate bonds, doese's bucks and with public oversight. And then they are also asking for to implement wildwood hunts through bow hunters that have been certified to do this type of work where the city lead where the city leads in land owner recruitment starting immediately with the same level of involvement as it did with white buffalo. And then finally

they're asking for public oversight with the committee of five member residents to agree on quotas policy and budgets. So that is the proposed amendment. So there's a lot there and I'll be happy to repeat any of this should any council member wish me to. Okay. So you're making a motion for this amendment as you stated here. And do you have a second? Made by council member Vanic. So now um we have uh the amendment on the floor here. Um any discussion on the amendment?

Made by council member Farmer. So, I appreciate everybody's enthusiasm on the topic. I've had several email exchanges with um a number of our bow hunting people here and I want to make it very clear uh there was a handful of us that are here this evening that were on the council when the deer program went into effect. So there is a whole lot of information that is just patently incorrect that is being put out there. Aside from that, personally, I just think it's wildly inappropriate to try to authorize funds to a company that didn't respond to any bid. They didn't respond to any RFP. We have no understanding other than well I'm certain you gentlemen are excellent hunters. You are doing it great but this is not something we just get to like wave a magic wand and do. I think if we want to put a bow hunting program in place which has long been the concept of this moving into a maintenance phase once we figure out all of the other intric intricacies that go along with it. There's a right way to do it, but getting a piece of paper from somebody that walks up here and making a motion to do that program as they wrote is just wildly inappropriate in my opinion.

Um, I'm sorry. This is discussion for the council. So, um, we can't we can't take any, uh, you know, uh, distractions from the council. This, uh, right now the council has to speak in debate. Go ahead. I mean, that's it. I think if we're going to if we want to amend this bill and we want to try to include how we want to incorporate our local bow hunters, I think that's a great idea. We've got spaces that need help. The program is enormous. The deers are enormous. Um, we as a council committed funds to have a very professionally done drone survey come in to validate the data that we've gotten over the last several years. So, um, I don't have any problem at all if we want to try to figure out the best way to put the bow hunters into play and figure out how logistically we do that. But this is not something we do in one meeting in December. That's nuts. Do we have anyone else that wishes to speak? Council member Dodwell.

I too agree with uh Council Member Farmer and I really appreciate all the enthusiasm that came from the hunters, etc. But I think we need to vote on this tonight. Then we need to make a commitment after the start of the year to engage individuals from the groups who have spoken tonight in a methodology that would allow us to clearly understand what they can provide to the city and what kind of insurance they have, what kind of process they will go through, what kind of recovery they will go through. I have a husband that loves hunting deer, so I'm not against hunting the deer. Uh but I think we are at a point this evening that we cannot pull in outside parties to try to head out and go hunt in the next couple of weeks. So, let's put together a plan that would allow us to engage individuals who are willing to do so, but complete this year's plan that had been put on our budget for the 2025 2026 year. Council number nine. And again, this is on the amendment that is on the floor.

Well, um, your options are, I mean, you could certainly make an amendment that would be on top of this one or city attorney, correct me if I'm wrong, but maybe wait to see how this amendment, whether it passes or fails, and then you can come in with your amendment as well, so that it would be attached to the main uh motion. Is that correct, city attorney, or how would you recommend we do that?

Yeah. So, the mayor's correct vote on this motion up or down or this amendment up or down. But in terms of what you're referring to, I don't think that has to be done in this ordinance. I wouldn't recommend it be done in this ordinance. What I would recommend is that there be a referral to one of the committees for proper processing of this and that would then initiate the process. Uh, that would be after revolving this bill. Well, you could say you want to remove your possible adjustment and refer it, I believe. Right. Well, whoever I mean, whoever made the motion could alter that motion.

Well, [clears throat] we're on the bill now, and that would actually refer the amendment with the bill. So, the bill would be delayed. Okay. So, we have the amendment on the floor that was made by uh Council Member Attenburg. Is there anyone else that wishes to speak on the amendment? Council member Bo, just a point of information. The gentleman from White Buffalo, do you work in any other communities with volunteers in tandem where it's or does it just have to be an all or nothing? Um, council member, at this time uh yeah, the the opportunity for uh speakers uh outside of the council has concluded. So, uh, unless, uh, the council wishes to, I guess, suspend the rules, but city attorney, how would you recommend?

Yeah, at this time, this is really debate amongst the council members. I would not advise having anyone provide additional input during the debate. All right. Um, Council Member Crayons, uh, I'm not sure. Excuse me. I'm not sure I understand all the amendments, but basically, we're allowing the, uh, bow hunters to step into this current plan that we have on hand here, this bill that we're going to vote on. Um, it is a compromise. It is an amendment that is meant to be a compromise to address the concerns that people have with the existing legislation. How are you going to do that right now? How are you going to implement the bow hunters.

Okay. So that that's a different topic. So okay, right now what we do what we have here is we have an amendment to the to the proposed legislation for going forward with white buffalo. Now if that amendment fails, um my second amendment was going to address the issue of trying to incorporate bow hunters in our plans going forward. So, we're we're going to vote on the Buffalo bill right now and then we'll go to the amendment. Yeah,

the amendment is now on the floor. So, so he has proposed an amendment that would basically make some modifications to the bill that we have on the floor and he had specified there about certain uh zones that would not be uh pursued and so forth. He if you wish him to have to restate the details, we can have him do that. I'm going to vote, but I'm going to vote no if the bow hunters are not included in this current bill. So, I want to make sure I vote correctly. That's all. So, that I don't believe was in your amendment on the floor, is there?

Um, that is correct. This amendment deals only with the existing piece of legislation. uh depending upon what happens with this amendment. My second amendment was going to propose something along the lines that the acidity attorney suggested, which was to make a referral to immediately begin putting together an assessment of what is required to utilize the talents of the bow hunters in this room and our deer calling efforts going forward. because we've talked about doing this for quite some time, but we really haven't taken any action to actually do it or to start to put something together.

So again, we have the amendment on the floor. So discussion is on the amendment made by council member Attenburgg, council member Mabberry, and then Triier at the expense of the time it's going to take to try to clarify what's being thrown in last second. actually after last second.

No mind, please. I I would like to ask that we take the time to have uh council member read that entire thing again start to finish so that we'd get a better than the first time read ever which we got only 5 minutes ago and that this afterlast second proposal to change what we've been planning for a year can be heard legitimately and clearly a second time and we might pick up another double digit percentage of what's being proposed. Um, is is is that acceptable? Yes, we can have them go ahead and reread the amendment.

All right, I will be happy to do that. So, here we go. So this is the compromise or this is the amendment that is meant to be a compromise and um uh the amendment to the existing legislation involves number one no more calling in NE1 for the upcoming cycle. No more calling in NE2 for the upcoming cycle. Number three cut the deer target for SE1 from 140 down to 70. Number four, conduct a full drone survey by March 31st with a company that is independent from White Buffalo that can differentiate bonds, doe's, bucks, and with public oversight. Number five, implement Wildwood um deer hunts using certified bow hunters where the city takes the lead in landowner recruitment starting immediately with the same level of involvement as it did with White Buffalo. And then number six, public oversight with a committee of five member residents to agree on quotas, policy, and budget. So there's a lot there. I feel a little bit like Colleen reading five or six bills.

Okay. So that's that's the amendment that we have on the floor right now. So again, discussion is on the amendment and then if the amendment um passes, it'll be attached to the main bill. If the amendment fails, then we're just back to the main bill and anyone can go ahead and make any other amendment they would like. Sure. So, uh, Council Member Mabberry on the amendment.

Important point. Uh, council member, when you read the verbiage first time, you said no more calling in anyone for the seat. Then you stated no more calling in any two period. Uh, can I get a clarification whether the NE1 for this season and the NE2 for this season is what's intended or Yes. Uh, no more deer calling in anyone and any two for this upcoming season. Thank you. Council member Trier.

Um, Mr. Lee, can you identify what the proposal is? I think it'd be for the benefit of council members and those in the audience. Um what is the proposed number of calling or any one any two and SE1 for the upcoming season? Thank you Mr. Troutier with your permission mayor. I guess um it is to go in and remove approximately 140 deer within the SE1 region. So the region right here where it goes down south old state and then about 50 in each of one and any two. That is what's currently proposed and included in this legislation. Thank you. All right. Any other uh council member Rambo on the amendment?

Um yeah, it it's a documented fact that from the very first deer management discussions, I've been an advocate of a post call archery maintenance program. I even volunteered my valuable time to get it off the ground because uh in areas with favor favorable conditions like a campus or a cooperative uh cooperative neighborhood of threeacre parcels, a committed group of hunters can keep the population in check. Um while other areas are called program could be designed that draws from similar programs and experiences elsewhere um but surrounding communities have other conditions that make them different from us. So I think officials are compelled to reflect the broad scientific and administrative consensus uh especially when that reflects the will of threearters of Wildwood residents. And so I think uh a number of residents and non-residents are here. They really want a bohut. And I say great, let them help. We're community, not a conglomeration of individuals. And there are lots of competing opinions among residents. But that does include the 3 to one margin of folks that resp that um support a cult program. So it seems to me that that the tail is wagging the dog here. We have a we uh we have a a position well a position that favors population density of a single species that is several times the recommendation by MDC Missouri conservation department to the clear detriment of most of the other plant and animal species in the area including residents is exactly the opposite of conservation. So, I I will say it again, bow hunters can help us out, but th this amendment is essentially killing the program because you don't call you don't finish the call

in the first two areas and you you kind of back off on the planned call for the third area. I don't even know if white buffalo would agree to come um if you know if they because they still have to be here for x number of days to do all the baiting and so forth before they cull. But they can cull um you know many deer in a single night and they're in and out of a neighborhood in in in um three days after the after they you know two weeks two weeks of feeding and then a couple of days or three days of culling and they're gone. Meanwhile, not a single deer leaves that cull area if it's a half a acre or it's an acre or whatever it is. Whereas bow hunting, we have to be real careful because there are a lot of folks out there that don't want uh their kids to see Bambi dying in their yard and a deer can run a few hundred feet, a few thousand feet, a few miles. I mean, um they they show up on my property all the time. I got 50 acres and and and you know there's I don't know of anybody around that hunts deer but I see um the occasional buttshot deer. I had one last Sunday and um and so um we have to be careful accommodate as many interests as we can and um I think the um the idea of a deer culling uh program with bow hunting assistance is great. But two different counts now showed minimum of 37 to 41 deer per square mile. And that's twice as many deer as experts recommend. But the hunters, many of these hunters

40 40

Please would like to just ask uh for everyone to be respectful here. Uh the council is debating at this time. 40 was the um actually stated clearly stated as the interim goal. The conservation department has has said that um 10 to 20 deer per square mile. The experts that just did our count have done made the same recommendation and um uh you you the the hunters are having trouble complaining about not enough deer in the area and um uh what happened to all the deer and so on and so forth. I don't see how they're going to succeed in a in a post call area, but I'm willing to to experiment next year with um giving them a pre-all area of their own, six miles. Go out there. There are 80 deer per square mile. See what you can do. We'll count them and we'll see how many deer. If you can kill 300 deer in an area that has eight that has um six square miles, that's wonderful. I don't think you can do it, but um I would love to do that experiment. So, I think that probably should be the that probably should be the recommendation. Uh and it's probably going to be Scott's recommendation if this one gets uh voted down. But the fact is if we vote um for this amendment, we will be killing the program.

Okay. Thank you. um on the amendment. Anyone else that wishes to speak? Council member Cray. Yeah, I experts are usually wrong anyway, so I I use my common sense here. $224,000 for the calling. And what concerns me, we we argue this is about safety and the accident vehicle collisions with deer is flat. So what what is really the benefit other than just killing the deer if if it's not really safety in my my opinion? I mean that that's all I have.

Okay. And again on the amendment. So we have the amendment on the floor. Any other any other discussion? Council member Alers. Mr. aren't areas where the culling is happening, accidents are down where maybe the overall Yeah, there's a slight decrease in the area that there is a slight decrease in the area that's the northeast portion of the city, but we only have data from 2024, not 2025.

All right. Uh, Council Member Rambo. Yeah, I just want to add that um my vet told me that that heirliosis is going around like like cake at a birthday party. I have had heirliosis and mziosis myself. I've been treated. I got I have the records to to show that. Um there are other safety issues beyond the um beyond the uh the deer vehicle collisions which have been reduced. But remember, we've only called in um less than 10% of Wildwoods area. And guess what? DVC's, they go up and down, but they seem to have been reduced by about 10%. So, we're going in the right direction. We don't need to be arguing this because I think we ought to let the bow hunters do what they can do. If we can develop a program that um adequately considers safety and and efficacy and they prove themselves, then hey, okay, great, wonderful. We save a bunch of money. But there are there are other reasons for um for doing this program. There's a lot of folks that that we've had calls I believe we've had calls from ladies that are afraid to go out in their yard because there's a big buck standing there. We've had a lot of people, right? We've had a lot of people that um

Council Council member Rainbow uh just let's just keep it on the amendment that council member Well, I'm I'm suggesting that if we kill the if we vote in favor of this amendment, then we're killing the program. And and the question was the question was raised as to whether um safety was being improved by the program. And I'm I'm contending that it is. And there are other benefits like um uh habitat improvement and those kinds of things. That's it. All right. Anyone else on the amendment? You have

I just do want to clarify that if we do adopt the amendment um this would be something that would need to go back and most likely renegotiate with uh White Buffalo. Um this this would change the contract pretty significantly. So I would say, you know, whatever you guys want us to do, we'll we'll go at for it and we'll we'll execute it. But I'm just saying that that we may not be able to get things done in time to to bait at the right time if we make some changes. Just wanted to add that. Okay. Seeing none, then at this time we have the amendment on the floor. Um we'll try this uh let's see if we can try this with the voice vote. If it's uh we're not able to determine, we'll do a roll call. This is amendment.

This is the amendment. The amendment. So, um, you know what? For for clarity sake, we'll just go ahead and do the roll call. Uh, Colleen, and this is on his compromise, right? That is correct. That is what he read out. Yes. Okay. Council member Farmer, no. Council member Dodwell, no. Council member Nyan. Council member Atenberg, yes. Council member Traier, yes. Council member Mabberry, no. Council member Roblooski, no. Council member Preston, no. Council member Marshall, no. Council member Rambo, no. Council member Bockard, yes. Council member Crayons, no. Council member Vanic, yes. Council member Alers,

no.

Okay. Uh, the amendment fails. So, now we're back to the uh motion that's on the floor, the amended bill. And does anyone else have an amendment that they wish to make? Council member Attenburg. So, I know everyone's tired of hearing from me tonight, but um I I do have another amendment, but I think um this one already has the support of some of the council members uh based on what I've heard so far this evening. And it's to and it doesn't cost anything. It doesn't require us, I don't think, to really re uh rewrite the legislation, but it's to uh and the city attorney can advise if this is the right way to do it, but it's to make a referral to a committee to formally start to make an assessment of what is required for the city to start incorporating the talents of the bow hunters in this room in future deer calling efforts. So, I'll ask a city attorney for the proper way to do this. I would suggest because the bill is on the table and this wouldn't necessarily amend the bill that the a vote occur on the bill and depending on the result make the motion to make that referral and I think it would be the edund public works committee the appropriate committee for that.

All right that's fine. All right so uh back again we have the amended bill on the floor. Is there anyone else that wishes to make any amendment or have any other discussion now on the main bill that's on the floor? Main bill. There is no amendment. There is no amendment. No, based on the city attorney's advice, uh it's something that would be done separately from this legislation. Okay. Clarification. And that's when could we make that motion? Would it be immediately after the next vote? Yes, sir. Okay. Thank you.

All right. Discussion. Otherwise, uh we still have uh the amended bill on the floor, which is 3019, the amended version. Um anyone? 3019A. That is correct. All right. Well, seeing that there isn't any other then at this point, then we'll do a roll call. Council member Farmer, yes. Council member Dodwell, yes. Council member Nyan. Council member Atenberg, no. Council member Traier, no. Council member Mabberry, yes. Council member Roblooski, no. Council member Preston, yes. Council member Marshall, yes. Council member Rambo, yes. Council member Bockart,

no. Council member Crayons, no. Council member Vanic, no. Council member Alers, yes. So, the motion the bill passes, right? Is that correct? What's the totals? Yes. There's eight yes. Wait, say that again. Could you state that one more time? Eight people voted yes. Okay. And six voted no. Okay. According to the city attorney, uh, that fails. You want to explain that?

An ordinance requires nine votes to pass. Okay. So, the ordinance requires nine votes to pass according to the city attorney and there are only eight yeses. Okay. All right. Then we're moving on. All right. We're going to move on to the next item on the agenda. Um, Mr. Mayor. Yeah.

I think the city attorney advised that this would be the time to make a motion to make a referral to the committee. I guess it would be admin and PW to start the assessment process for putting together a plan to incorporate the talents of the bow hunters in this room and elsewhere within the city in future deer calling efforts possibly. Uh I don't know all the details that would go into it, but let's at least get that process started. It would be nice if we could see something back from admin and PW regarding the basic outline of a plan in maybe uh 90 days. That'll be my motion. All right. So, if you're making a motion, do we have a second on that motion? Made by council member nine. We have a second on that motion for the referral to the committee. Any other discussion on the motion on the floor? Made by council member Marsh. A mot a discussion by council member Marshall.

Yeah, I just I understand the motion, but I think 90 days to do something this massive is way over ex estimating how you're going to get the coordination on the properties. Prior to this years ago, we had people shoot the deer, get in somebody else's yard, then they called for trespass. So, there's a lot of work that will be done. I just I have a real challenge with the 90day thinking you're going to wrap something up because that's really So, um I guess I would say to Mr. Marshall, if you would uh if you have a different date in mind or a different time period, um what would it be? No date. No date.

We need a deadline in order to provide a next year anyway. Pardon? You're not going to be able to do the hunting till next year anyway. Well, that's fine, but we need a place to at least start. So, with no date, go with your motion. That's fine. I'm fine. I'm just right. Share with you what? I'm going to vote no. Okay. No, that's fine. Do you wish to change the motion, Council Member Utenberg, or do you want to keep it as is? So, um, I'm going to keep it as is. Okay. All right. Um, we have the motion on the floor. Discussion on the motion. Council member Mry.

Thank you, Chair Mayor. I've been remember I've been uh on the admin public works committee this last year and what I've learned is the the procedure and there's no reason I see why a change in the procedure for this particular um motion is that a a topic is raised as a new issue a new item for under consideration and discussion for a motion of the admin public works committee to act on and then they establish the parameters of what the recommendations will come from staff and then they will set a schedule and they will set the parameters. They will do that on the procedures that we've established for the city for the admin and public works department to act on things that are new like this. Um any other different way of doing it than that needs whatever whatever outside conditions that you take to merit that. I don't see that those conditions for even close. I don't I don't understand why the motion would be made now and not carry the normal procedure of having it go through the route of the admin public works on the procedures that they use, not that we use before they get to it. We get to act on it after they've done their magic.

The council does have the power of referral to the committee. Um, and that would be what this motion is asking. Once it lands in the committee, then it'll be the committee's decision on how to proceed forward with that. Council member Hottenberg. So, just um to clarify, you know, I I suggested I think I'm 120 days if I'm not mistaken. And uh but if somebody's got a different date in mind or a different time period, I just want some type of a date where we can start to get some initial results back or an initial recommendation. So, if somebody wants to throw a different time period out there, um I'm open to that.

Well, if there any member of the council that wishes to make a suggestion for council member, otherwise um I believe you said you had 90 days in your motion, right? Okay. I I'm going to make it 120 days since um uh several council members mentioned that 90 days was just too short a time period and I'll be happy to even revise that further. I think 120 though because there's gonna be uh new people. Okay. There's an election in May or April. So, I'm good with 120. If I can change my initial motion, I'll I'll

Since you made the motion, as long as the second does not object, uh I'm fine with then uh entertaining that change. Uh so, you're saying change it to 120 days. Uh second is, uh Council Member Nine. Are you okay with that? All right. That's have an answer definitive whole plan in place or are we just saying in process you know in process in process is yeah at least get some initial feedback so maybe a report back to the council within 120 days right yeah that's good yeah

all right since you both uh made and seconded the motion you have no objection to that so we report back to the council in 120 days The motion is on the floor. Any other discussion on the motion for the referral. All right, seeing none. All those in favor, please say I. I. I. Anyone opposed or abstain? No. Opposed? Opposed. Um, let's uh we're going to do a roll call. Council member Farmer, no. Council member Dodwell, no. Council member Nyan, Council Member Utenberg, yes. Council member Trier, yes. Council member Mabberry, no. Council member Roblooski, yes. Council member Preston, yes. Council member Marshall, no.

Council member Rambo, no. Council member Bocker, yes. Council member Crayons, yes. Council member Vanic, yes. Council member Alers, what are the uh totals? I believe it passed or eight yes and six no. Eight yes, six no. That motion passes. So be referred back to the admin and public works committee. Why is that? Wait, that's that's just a motion.

Just a majority. Okay. Well, I think at this point we'll move forward with the remainder of the agenda here and we'll proceed with number five on the agenda, bill 3020, uh, which is on the floor. Can we get a motion for the second reading of the bill? Made by council member Preston. Is there a second for the reading of bill 3020? Made by council member Bocker. All those in favor, please say I. Anyone oppose or abstain? Okay. Um, we u go ahead and please read bill 3020.

Bill 3020, an ordinance of the city of Wildwood. Just uh can I just ask if you could please take the discussion outside the council chambers that would help us tremendously. Thank you. Okay, please go ahead and proceed with reading it. Bill 3020, an ordinance of the city of Wildwood, Missouri, approving the 2026 police services cost sheet as an addendum to the police service agreement by and between St. Louis County and the city of Wildwood.

Okay, we have bill 3020 on the floor. Uh, city administrator Lee, do you have anything else that you wish to add? Yes. Thank you, mayor. So, just wanted to add in um this was uh read last last month. We do this each year. It's to approve the annual increase. It's an addendum. Uh the agreement is technically a 10-year agreement and we are it's up to it's to go up in 2031. Uh but each year the council does have to appropriate funds, which it's doing through the budget. Uh this is budgeted in the proposed 2026 municipal budget. And then the secondary component is that we do have to approve an addendum to the current service agreement with the police which this is what that is today. It's just added in and we track it each year to see what that in changing cost is based off their annual costs. Thank you. Okay. Question.

Thank you. Uh there are any questions for the city administrator regarding bill 3020. All right. Seeing none, then we'll proceed with roll call. Council member Farmer. Sure. Council member Dodwell, yes. Council member Nyan, Council Member Utenberg, yes. Council member Traier, yes. Council member Mabberry, yes. Council member Roblooski, yes. Council member Preston, yes. Council member Marshall, yes. Council member Rambo, yes. Council member Bockart, yes. Council member Crayons, yes. Council member Vanic, yes. Council member Alers, yes.

Okay, the bill passes. Um, so we'll move on. Next item uh for second reading is bill 3021 number six on the agenda. Is there a motion for the reading of bill 3021? Made by council member Attenburg. Is there a second? Made by council member Press. All those in favor of second reading of bill 3021, please say I. I. Anyone oppose or abstain? All right. Please go ahead and read read bill bill 3021 an ordinance of the city of Wildwood Missouri adopting the municipal budget and capital capital improvement program for the city of Wildwood for fiscal year 2026.

Right. City administrator uh Lee or director uh do you want to go ahead? Yeah, not a problem. Thank you, mayor. Um so I will say that nothing has necessarily changed in the budget from what was presented in the uh what was proposed at the public hearing. That said, uh we do have to have a budget on file for 2026, but with the changes given tonight for the deer management program, uh the department would recommend making some changes to that fund, um the department would request approval tonight on the budget, but with the anticipation that we'll be coming back after that discussion with whatever changes may come from it because right now we do have monies budgeted for uh that that agreement.

Okay. And yes, we can come back and do an adjustment on that. All right. So, any discussion on bill 3021? Council member Marshian. I think procedurally, um, you can run on January's numbers and then do this in January based on an approved budget. We have to have it done by December 31st. If you don't have an approved budget at that point, then you run on last January's financials. That's only what the charter says. Sorry. Yeah. or we can approve and make an make an adjustment. Um I know we usually do midear adjustment on the budget but would we be able to do an adjustment sooner than midyear? Yes, we'd be able to do it whenever the council desired.

Okay. Yeah. So given that you know we don't have much information based on tonight's vote regarding the deer item. Yeah. Yeah. And then you would vote to amend the budget that was previously done at whatever time. But then it would require another public hearing and amendment. So well it John city attorney do you have a and what what's the I'm sorry.

So the question is uh we are um we're looking at bill 3021 which is the municipal budget and capital improvement program for the city. Uh given that there was a vote that was not uh successful regarding the deer item um and based on the u motion to refer to committee uh we would likely be making changes um based on the output of that committee. So therefore this uh budget would need to be updated. So the discussion is do we um so we can either approve it and amend it next year once we know more information of what is the go forward path uh regarding deer management and I know that's one option there. Uh council member Marshall mentioned we may uh we would have to hold a public hearing if we're doing an amendment uh mid year or at any time during the year. So we're just looking for confirmation of that approach. The other approach would be um you're saying just defer approving it until January.

We could also and I was just thinking about this mayor with this being as straightforward if we were to say you know if the council were to give specific direction to reduce the amount for the deer management firm whatever it might be. If it's just that change, that's something we could most likely accomplish if the city attorney is comfortable with it. If it's a like just the contract amount, then the council could rebudget that at midyear once a plan has been established.

There's various provisions in the city code about reductions of appropriations and transfers of appropriations that can be made for the charter. So, all of that is available after adoption of the budget. and you're going to want to leave it in because you got to pay your amendment. You got to pay the fees they've already incurred. So, I' I'd leave it all in and then do an adjustment spend under that. But I wouldn't try to modify the final budget. I I just Google not at all. Okay. Any other discussion on bill 3021, [snorts] right? Seeing none, then roll call. Council member Farmer. Yeah. Council member Dodwell. Sure. Council member Nyian. Council member Atenberg.

Yes. Council member Traier. Yes. Council member Mabberry. Yes. Council member Rablooski. Yes. Council member Preston. Yes. Council member Marshall. Yes. Council member Rambo. Yes. Council member Bockart. Yes. Council member Crayons. Yes. Council member Vanic. Yes. Council member Alers. Abstain. Okay. That passes. We'll move on to bill 3022. Is there a motion for the reading of bill 3022 made by council member Preston, seconded by council member Bockard. All those in favor, please say I. I.

I. Any oppose or abstain? All right. Please go ahead and read bill 3022. Bill 3022, an ordinance of the city of Wildwood, Missouri, authorizing the mayor to negotiate and execute certain public roads, rights of way, and parks maintenance agreements on behalf of the city with certain contractors for public roads, rights of way, and parks maintenance within the city. Director Brand, do you have anything you wish to add? Um, thank you. Um, the bill is ready for final passage and the department is bill for any questions. This will authorize our annual uh road ride rightway and parks maintenance contracts with 19 contractors throughout the city of Wallwood.

Right. Thank you, Director Brown. And do we have any discussion or any questions uh city administratively? I just wanted to add in that we will be doing uh this is this doesn't include um rates for grass cutting and mowing and landscaping, but we will also be publishing an RFP later in right at the beginning of 2026 um to kind of set that flat rate. So, just wanted to point that out and that'll be coming up for consideration and we'll go to its respective committees for consideration as well. So, just wanted to add that in. Okay. Any other discussion from the council on bill 3022? Seeing none, roll call vote. Council member Farmer, yes. Council member Dodwell, yes. Council member Nyan. Council member Attenburg. Yes. Council member Tier, yes. Council member Mabberry,

yes. Council member Rablooi, yes. Council member Preston, yes. Council member Marsha, yes. Council member Rambo, yes. Council member Bockart, yes. Council member Cray, yes. Council member Vanic, yes. Council member Alers, yes. All right. Thank you. Now, we'll move on to new business. So, do we do we have Oh, do we have that? No, we have we are on new business. So, uh, if there's no objection, I would like to propose we read bills 3026, 3027, and 3028 of mass. Is there any objection from the council? Council member,

um, I may not necessarily have an objection, but I just have a a question to clarify something, and that's on um 3026 regarding the demolition. It talks about a temporary moratorum. So there's no time period there. I wonder if director Vunich could clarify please withdrew. Yes, please go ahead.

Mr. Odburn, the ordinance that has been prepared for consideration tonight limits the moratorum to no more than 12 months. Information prepared by the historic preservation commission as well as the planning and zoning commission anticipates anywhere from 6 to 8 months. So, we have the time if necessary, but we actually are premising it on the adoption of the city's first historic preservation plan, which has to be completed to obtain the grant that was awarded to the city by the state historic preservation office. All right. Perfect. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Okay. Um, do we have any objection then going ahead reading bills 3026, 3027, and 3028 mass? All right. Seeing uh none, then uh these bills are before the council for first reading. Is there a motion for the first reading of these bills? Made by council member Utenberg, seconded by council member Dodwell. All those in favor, please say I. I.

Anyone oppose or abstain? Right. Colleen, please go ahead and read the bills. Bill 3026, an ordinance of the city of Wildwood, Missouri, imposing a temporary moratorum on the processing and issuance of demolition permits during the pendency of the Historic Preservation Commission's survey of historic property within the city. Bill 3027, an ordinance of the city of Wildwood, Missouri, authorizing the mayor to negotiate and execute an extension of an existing license agreement with the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission for a city trail and pedestrian tunnel within the state ride ofway on Route 109 at Woods Avenue. Bill 3028, an ordinance of the city of Wildwood, Missouri, authorizing the mayor to negotiate and execute an agreement with Olympus Capital Strategies LLC, doing business as Olympus Political Consulting LLC for legislative consulting services.

Um, we have any questions regarding these bills? Otherwise, they will be back for second reading next month. And director um director Brown, did you want one? Did you have uh Go ahead.

Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to uh request respectively from the council a second reading for bill 3000 30027, the license agreement with MDOT. That the current agreement will expire at the end of this month. So, the second agreement will allow us to move forward quickly to get the new agreement in place that extends the license agreement for another 10 years. Okay. All right. Uh, Council Member Marshall. Okay. Uh, since we read those bills for the first time, Council Member Marshall would like to make a motion for a second reading of Bill 3027 for a second reading. Is there a second? Made by Council Member Bachard. All those in favor, please say I. I.

I. Oppose or abstain. All right. Uh, go ahead and please read bill 3027 for a second reading. Bill 3027, an ordinance of the city of Wildwood, Missouri, authorizing the mayor to negotiate and execute an extension of an existing license agreement with the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission for a city trail and pedestrian tunnel within the state right ofway on Route 109 at Woods Avenue. Okay. Any other discussion on the second reading here? Otherwise, we'll do roll call. Roll call, please. Council member Farmer, yes. Council member Dodwell, yes. Council member Nyan. Council member Utenberg, yes. Council member Tradier, yes. Council member Mabberry, yes.

Council member Robooski, yes. Council member Preston, yes. Council member Marshall, yes. Council member Rambo, yes. Council member Bockart, yes. Council member Crayons, yes. Council member Vanic, yes. Council member Alers. Yes. Okay. Bill passes. We'll move on to the next section of the agenda. First readings from hearings with the favorable city recommendation. Is there a motion for the first reading of bill 3029? Made by council member Bockard. Is there a second? Made by council member Attenburg. All those in favor, please say I. I. I.

Anyone oppose or abstain? All right. Please go ahead and read bill 3029. Bill 3029, an ordinance by the city council of the city of Wildwood, Missouri, approving the resoning of an 8.05 05 acre tract of land to the R-1A 22,000q ft² residence district in the R-475 7500 square foot residence district with a planned residential development overlay district PRD which is located at the terminus of West Avenue at its intersection with New College Avenue thereby authorizing a total of 16 single family dwellings on individual lots with common ground areas, access accommodations, required public spaces, and storm water management facilities. All being consistent with the planning and zoning commission's letter of recommendation on this matter dated November 3rd, 2025.

Right. Director Vunage, please go right ahead.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Mayor, members of city council, obviously the public hearing was held under some duress with a room full of people hoping to discuss the bill that was up for final passage. If there are any questions regarding this particular development and the set of reasonzoning requests, certainly the department would be glad to answer them at this time. I would note that the petitioner did propose 17 lots. One of those lots had to be removed because of the density calculation relating to the larger of the two tracks of land, the six acres. The planning and zoning commission did offer to the developer opportunity to do a six lot in the non- urban portion which could be accommodated but that has yet to be finalized. So, just to let you know, there may be an opportunity to do an additional lot in the new college avenue portion of the property and return the request back to 17. There's a lot of steps in that, but I just wanted to advise.

Okay. Thank you, director Voyage. Any questions from the council? Otherwise, we'll see this one come back. Council member Mabry. I need a wire with a shocker. Um, is there anything uh seasonal or climate wise that the developer um could benefit from a second reading or would that be contrived?

No, I appreciate the offer and I'm sure Mr. Whan does, but given the steps in the process even it received a second reading tonight. There's the site development plan, there's the improvement plans, the record plan. So the the difference in a few weeks at this stage is um would not probably have much impact. Thank you. Thank you, Doug. Thank you, Director Vunage. All right, we're going to move on then. Uh we have um the consent agenda, which is the next part that requires action. If there's no objection to the consent agenda being the way it is, can we get a motion for approval of the consent agenda? Made by council member Utenberg, seconded by council member Crayons. All those in favor, please say I. I.

Anyone oppose or abstain? All right. The motion uh consent agenda is approved. Do we have anything under miscellaneous? Okay. Seeing none, can we get a motion to adjourn the main council meeting? Then I'll come back to the mayor. I got I have one miscellaneous thing. Please go ahead. Um, I just wanted to uh thank the staff for all the work they did for the tree lighting, which was very fun as it always is. And I also wanted to uh thank the Caner family uh at Warm Fuzzy Toys. They donated a bunch of bozo buckets that seem to go over quite well.

All right. Wonderful. All right. Uh we we are going to come back to the work session to get that done here. So, we're not leaving just quite yet. Uh but can I get a motion to adjourn the main council meeting made by council member Cran? Is there a second made by council member Dodwell? Motion is non-debatable. All all those in favor please say I. I. Anyone oppose or abstain. All right we're going to resume back to our uh work session and I believe we had the item on the for action which was number three the planning and parks committee basin retro retrofit study. Director Vunich.

Thank you Mr. Mayor. Mr. Mayor, members of city council, as you know, the city of Wildwood is blessed with nine different watersheds. Those wersheds are in the developed areas of the community as well as in the rural locations as well. In 2020, the city council established the watershed erosion task force and charged it with finding solutions to the erosion problems that are plaguing many of those nine different watersheds. One in particular is Cox Creek. It is the most developed watershed of the nine and obviously many of the decisions regarding development were made by St. Louis County many years ago. That plays a major role in that. Those development decisions also included basins that were installed um I should say engineered and installed with a very poor standard. A standard that was in place but now we know better that it isn't a very good standard. One of the outcomes of the watershed erosion test for this effort is that more storage or runoff will certainly start addressing the problem and allow us not to necessarily spend great deal of money on fixes. So the planning and parks committee heard a presentation from Todd Wagner consultant engaged by the city relative to seven basins and the retrofit and the benefits associated with it. Also, Mr. Wagner identified a potential option of creating inch channel basins and that requires additional study. That presentation was also then presented to the administration and public works committee and in both instances the committees unanimously endorsed proceeding forward with both parts of the proposal analysis done by Mr. Wagner. So tonight, the department is respectfully requesting authorization

for the department of public works, department administration, and department of planning to proceed forward with the next steps. Thank you. Is there anyone uh for a motion then to move forward made by council member Dodwell? There a second made by council member Bockard. Any other discussion on the motion? All those in favor, please say I. I. Anyone opposed or abstain? All right, we're going to move into miscellaneous. Uh we have receive and file. Just again a friendly reminder, uh unless the council specifies, these would just be receive and filed. So, uh Director Vunich, you want to just briefly summarize those three items?

Certainly. The first item relates to the planning and zoning commission's meeting schedule. I know you've all been waiting for it, so you could plug it into your calendars. You now have it as adopted. The second item is just an update on the work program that the planning and zoning commission had for 2025. And I would just note it spent a great deal of time on electronic message centers and that is reflected in the legislation that was just passed tonight. And then finally, planning zoning commission adopted its work program for 2026 and principle amongst those items on the work program is to complete the update of our master plan. There are any questions regarding those items? Mr. Newberry and I glad to answer them at this time.

Anyone wish to debate them? Nope. Okay. Don't forget, put them in your calendars. We'll be glad to see you there.

All right. Great. Thank you, uh, Director Vunage. Well, uh, we are just coming up on the adjournment. So, uh, as part of miscellaneous, thank you to everyone for a wonderful year. We've gotten a lot of, uh, a lot done in our city, and I want to wish you all the very best this holiday season. enjoy the time with family, friends, and look forward to seeing you next year. And uh just I want to highlight uh that the West News Magazine just recently published uh the results of the best of the West contest which was uh voted on by readers of West News Magazine. And Wildwood had an impressive number of businesses and entities including the the city as well from the city's uh farmers market to the community park. Um we we had quite a bit of representation in those results. It just shows uh how engaged our community is. So congratulations to everyone in Wildwood and uh and again best of luck uh best best wishes this holiday season. Council member Crayons,

who was the I mean who was the best mayor of the year? I don't know. I don't know. So all right. Well, thank you. Uh couldn't earn that without your support, without all your work. Thank you. and and I think that's just a reflection on our city. So, uh, all right. Motion to adjourn the work session made by Council Member Preston, seconded by Council Mabberry. Uh, all those in favor, please say I. Anyone want to oppose or abstain? All right. Thank you. have.