Board of Aldermen - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everybody. This is the Corning Board of Aldermen meeting. Call the meeting to order.

We stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Sonny, have you had a chance to take roll?

David, is Lehman, Alderman Lehman online?

I see him there. Okay.

I have taken roll. Everyone is present with the exception of Alderman Lehman. You have a quorum.

Great, thank you. We'll move on to, we have no public hearings, no personal appearances, or no new employees to introduce this evening, so we'll move on to open public comments. Are there any residents that reside within the city of Kearney that would wish to address your elected board this evening? Seeing nobody move, we will move on to the consent agenda. Does anybody on the board have any questions or items of discussion on the consent agenda this evening? Seeing none, if we could entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented.

I'll make a motion to approve. I'll second that.

All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? consent agenda is approved as presented we'll move on to ordinances the first ordinance this evening is a motion approving bill number 36 2026 presented by our city administrator an ordinance establishing a procedure to disclose potential conflicts of interest and substantial interest for certain municipal officials of the city of carnegie missouri sheila

Good evening. This ordinance is something that is done. It's required to be done biannually. Typically, we try to do it annually just to make sure that we always get it done. And so this just is required because we have a budget in excess of $1 million. Great.

Thank you. Any questions from staff on the proposed ordinance? Seeing none, if we can read the ordinance in the first reading by title only, please.

An ordinance establishing a procedure to disclose potential conflicts of interest and substantial interest for certain municipal officials of the city of Kearney, Missouri.

I'll make a motion.

I'll second.

All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Second reading by title only, please.

An ordinance establishing a procedure to disclose potential conflicts of interest and substantial interest for certain municipal officials of the city of Kearney, Missouri. Motion to approve.

Hold the board, please.

Alderman King. Aye. Alderman Hull. Aye. Alderman Spencer.

Aye. The vote is unanimous and the ordinance is approved. Next item under resolutions is a motion approving resolution 50-2026 presented by our city administrator, a resolution authorizing the offering for sale of refunding and improvement certificates of participation for the benefit of the city of Kearny, Missouri. Sheila.

This evening, Todd Goffey from Piper Sandler and Company is actually here, and I'm going to just turn it over to him to give you a brief summary and answer any questions you might have.

Always good to see you, Todd. Thanks for being here.

Good to see everyone again. Todd Goffey with Piper Sandler. This action tonight is the first step towards the issuance of certificates of participation to three items. One is a renovation of City Hall. The second item is construction of a water line for the CID. And then the third item is to refinance the 2024 water tower lease that was done. By the time that was done, it was at a higher interest rate. We can refinance that at this time and save somewhere, based on current market estimates, $350 to maybe as much as $400 000 over the life of that lease so those are the three projects if you will we have a rating call set up assuming you approve the board to go to market resolution tonight we have a rating call set up for next friday july 17th the next action on the part of the board would be two weeks from tonight where you would approve the bond ordinance at that point we will take the bond rating that we get in place and then move forward with the sales certificates we think that'll happen the end of this month perhaps early august and then we would have a closing where you have money available for the projects and we'd get the old 2024 water tower lease paid off sometime in mid-august so those are kind of the steps uh always get questions about interest rates. I think for this financing, we're looking at probably something just a little bit more than 4%. So very favorable, not as good as what it was back during COVID. But on the water tower lease that I mentioned, it was done at 5.5%. So this will be a pretty meaningful reduction in that interest rate. So I'm glad to answer questions on what the plan is, timing, Any of the details Megan Miller will be here in 2 weeks. I've got a conflict, so I'm not able to be at the meeting in 2 weeks, but she'll be here. Can answer questions about the bond ordinance that will be on the agenda at that point.

Todd. So the. estimated savings by, so we're talking strictly just a rate and term refi, so no additional debt, just taking our existing debt, realizing the savings over the lower interest rate. Your estimated savings, I assume that can, you took into consideration any fees or anything associated with the transaction? Yes, sir. Yeah. Perfect. Thank you. Any other questions for Mr. Tagafi?

I like saving money.

Thank you very much for that report. Thank you, Mayor. If there are no other questions from the board, if the board can entertain a motion, a resolution authorizing the offering for the sale of refunding and improvement certificates of participation for the benefit of the city of Kearney, Missouri.

I make a motion to approve.

I'll second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Resolution is approved. Next item is a motion approving Resolution 51-2026 presented by our Parks Director, a resolution approving the notice of award and construction contract with Sands Construction Company, LLC, and appropriating additional funds from the park fund reserve account for the Hall Park project. Eric?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Alderman members, the resolution before you approving the notice of award to Sands Construction. Basically that they were the successful bidder along with the actual awarding of the construction contract again to Sands Construction. Those were approved by LWCF from the bid tabs that we sent them and we did receive permission from Patty Hubbard on June 10th that we could do that for the base bid of $896,000. $482 and thirdly approving the use of Park Reserve funds of $68,500 since the bids did come in higher than we expected. We've also asked for an increase of matching funds from LWCF and in an email dated from Patty on June 8th, we were told there should be no issue with us receiving budget increase, but that does take time, probably not until September or October, but that we can continue with the project. We will have to send the final signed document contracts to LWCF, and we are recommending approval so we can get started with construction on Hull Park. And if I may add, Larry Reynolds from Vario is in attendance if you might have any questions.

Excited to see Mr. Larry working on another project for us. Any questions from the board on staff's report? we can entertain a motion a resolution approving the notice of awarded construction contract with sands construction company llc and appropriating additional funds from the park fund reserve account for the hall park project i'll make a motion i'll second that all in favor all right oppose resolution is approved we'll move on to items for review and presentation we'll turn it over to our city administrator for our may monthly financial report

If you are looking in the packet beginning on page 322, I just want to point out that the general fund has a cash balance of approximately $3.4 million. And that is almost $840,000 more than last year at the same time. But that difference is really due to timing because of capital outlay purchases. So we did our capital outlay purchases early on last fiscal year. And when I was reviewing, I looked at that, and I thought that was interesting, and it caught my eye. And then on page 323, just making sure that you guys realize that we're only two months in our fiscal year, which is 16.7% of the year. Some of the things that are kind of affecting citywide, sales tax is actually about 11% higher than last year at the same time. I hope that trend continues because that is not what our budget anticipated, but a welcome change if it did continue like that. Marijuana sales tax is about 14% lower year-to-date, and interest income is trending less than... Less this year than it was last year, and that's really lower interest earnings, but also at the same time. We budgeted for lower interest earnings, so. Then our expenditures. On page 324 or 325, I want to point out the tornado that we had earlier this year. It has impacted our cemetery fund budget. We're already at 70.98% of the total year, and most of that, well, in large part, it's due to some trees that were damaged and had to be taken out. And those are the things that really jumped out at me when I was reviewing and doing the analytical review for this month. But if you have any other questions, I'd be happy to answer them.

Thank you for that report. Does anybody have any questions on the May financial month end report?

I think he's Zoom user. There he is.

Okay. Next item is the mural artist selection. We'll turn that over. Ryan, could you mute him, please? We're getting a lot of background noise. Thank you. Mural artist selection, we'll turn it over to Sundy.

This item is phase one of the Washington Walkway Mural Project, which staff anticipates funding with a grant. Before you for consideration this evening are two artists who responded to the open artist call posted by the city. Both artists have submitted sample items and answered profile questions. The samples and responses from each artist are provided. Tonight, the board is being asked to determine which artist will phase one, a single panel, of the multi-panel project. Following the board selection, staff will prepare the necessary agreement with the selected artist and bring back items needed to authorize the application for and acceptance of grant funding opportunities that support the project and the necessary agreement with the selected artist.

Great. Thank you. So staff provided both up here at the dais for each board member, packet labeled Artist A and a packet labeled Artist B with a little bit of background information, past experience. Does anybody have any comments or suggestions to staff on your preference on who we move forward with?

I like A also, I like the examples that they provided. I particularly like the welcome to Kearney. Yes, and the purple and gold. The bubbles I've seen in a variety of places, so those are kind of old hat.

It's just my thoughts.

I do enjoy the train. but I would need to see this a lot more fleshed out before I would say that was my choice.

Are you looking for just a simple consensus? Because I think you've already got that from the board, or do you need a formal motion? I'm sorry? I think you do need a motion.

Make a motion that we pick artist A for our... I move to select an artist A for phase one of the Washington Street Walkway Mural Project and direct staff to present the necessary resolution for consideration at a future meeting authorizing an agreement with the selected artist in authorizing the application for and acceptance of applicable grant funding.

Can we make that contingent on seeing a perspective drawing of what they plan to put on our wall, or we're just giving them carte blanche?

You will get an agreement with that attached at the next meeting before you officially approve. This is just giving us the ability to enter into an agreement or to draft an agreement and apply for the grant. Okay.

The motion is on the table.

Thank you for the clarification. So we had a first and a second. All in favor? all right motion is approved for the direction from the board to move forward with artist a all right next up is a presentation by our police chief chief mark thomas uh public safety technology assist chief uh good evening mayor and board baldwin i'm gonna talk pretty fast so we can get see a maybe a little soccer game

We've been very fortunate to have a number of success stories here in Cardiff. In the last 12 months, we have recovered over 15 stolen vehicles, but there are other success stories as well, and I'd like to share some of these with you tonight. We received a call from a distraught adult daughter of an elderly gentleman who was suffering from dementia. According to the daughter, her father had not driven in a number of years and recently had been talking about going to the store to pick up some whiskey. She said that she had taken away her dad's keys to his truck, but they still had his truck at their house and it was missing along with her dad. She was concerned that he may be endangering himself and other people on the street. She was very worried that he may end up getting to the interstate where he could get lost very easily. Our officers immediately entered license plate information on the truck and we received an alert at the intersection of 92 Highway and Flat Clay Way. Officers drove to the intersection and found dad at the convenience store. He was confused about where he was and we were able to contact him then give him a ride back home where he was returned to his very relieved daughter. The family was tremendously happy to have him home safe and sound. Another instance worked out great involved a case of a drive-by shooting into a residence at two in the morning. Shots were heard around Ada Street near Southbrook Parkway. When officers arrived at the scene, The only evidence found was empty shell casings in the middle of the road. After contacting the victims of the crime, officers were able to find a ring camera in the neighborhood, which documented the time of the shots. While the camera did not give a good view of the suspect's vehicle, it did provide a good timeframe for our officers to start their investigation. I can tell you back in the day, that case would have been dead. We would have never gotten anywhere further than finding shell casings in the middle of a road and damage to a house. They located a vehicle which came off the northbound I-35 exit ramp to 92 Highway. They continued their investigation and saw the vehicle driving through town in the direction of the suspect's house on Ada Street. A very short time later, the vehicles observed getting back on the interstate southbound. Investigators returned to the victim's house and provided them with a photograph of the registered owner of the car. The victims confirmed that the person was an estranged boyfriend of their daughter. The story gets a little better from there. Our detectives were able to locate the suspect vehicle in a residential area of Riverside, Missouri. We enlisted the assistance of the Riverside Police Department, and they located the suspect's car in his driveway. Our officers worked with RPD and were able to not only take the suspect into custody, but we were able to retrieve the handgun, which he admitted he had discarded in a field not too far from his house. Another case was when officers located vehicle with stolen license plates on it traveling northbound on i-35 from 291 highway officers found the vehicle and conducted a traffic stop during the traffic stop it was found the passenger had two felony warrants for possession of dangerous drugs and possession of a separate stolen vehicle she'd been able to run through numerous states officers located large quantities of fentanyl and methamphetamine inside the vehicle they were taken off the streets of carnegie The suspect's warrants were listed as having no bond, so she was taken immediately to the Clay County Detention Facility. Here's just a couple more success stories. Her officer stopped a vehicle southbound on I-35 that was associated with a person who was wanted from Jackson County with felony warrants. Officers located the vehicle were able to safely arrest the male driver who had been on the run from two felony warrants for sexual sodomy of a juvenile. The victim's family in this case expressed their gratitude to our officers for catching this person and bringing a small sense of peace to their family. This is a funny, well, there's a quirky part of this story. One of our former officers went back to work for the Livingston County Sheriff's Department. He knew how well we were able to work wonders by identifying wanted subjects. This deputy was able to secure multiple felony warrants for a Livingston County resident for felony sex offenses. After many failed attempts to locate the suspect at his home, the Livingston County detective learned that the suspect made routine trips with his tractor trailer to Kansas City on I-35. He reached out to his former compadres back at the Kearney Police Department, and our detectives provided assistance. Officers later located the semi-truck in the wanted person. This wanted person refused to exit the truck for a short time, leading to a brief standoff. Eventually, he was safely taken into custody and handed over to Livingston County deputies to answer for his crimes. I'm thinking that that Livingston County detective may still owe me a cup of coffee. I'm just figuring it out. Our officers found another vehicle southbound on I-35 from Holt regarding a wanted felon who escaped from a jail in Kansas. We found the vehicle located the wanted felon who was hiding in the passenger seat and took him into custody. So we're routinely notified of computer entries on criminal cases from the city of Kearney and surrounding police agencies. such as stolen vehicles, people with felony arrest warrants, burglary suspects, drug transporting suspects, human trafficking suspects, and even people suspected of homicide, to name a few. They travel on I-35 and local roads both. We're very proactive responding to this intelligence information in a legal, ethical fashion. We're dedicated to taking care of business so that we can keep our citizens safe utilizing this important law enforcement tool. It's like having 14 sets of detective eyes who work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, staring at a computer screen. And I'm talking about the flock camera system. We have 14 cameras that are placed around the city limits in specific locations. The total cost of the flock camera system is $35,000 a year. As a comparison, if we were just to pay four officers to cover 14 camera positions 24 hours a day, it would look something like this. I need $2,242 times 14 times 4, which is $18 million. I'm not going to go into the long version. It's a lot of money. That's just for the salary benefits. When you add in the amount it takes to outfit a police officer, it's getting up closer to $23 million. It's a lot of money to be able to have that kind of coverage, which we have 24 hours, 7 days a week. Thank you very much for your continuing support by providing us with One of the best tools to help us do our job of protecting our citizens in the city of Kearney to the best of our ability, and we appreciate it.

Thank you for that report, Chief. I appreciate all you and your staff do. We'll move on to Mayor's Communications. I have nothing on the agenda this evening. I do want to say a sincere thank you to all of our staff, our partners at the Kearney Fire and Rescue Protection District, all the volunteers, everybody that helped put on a wonderful 3rd of July celebration in Kearney. Thank you to Mr. Scholl as well. Him and his family put on an amazing display on the south part of our town as usual. And just thank you for, I heard nothing but rave reviews of a good time in Kearney Friday night. So thank you for everybody for your time and involvement there.

Do we have an estimated number of how many people are out there?

It was pretty dang full, I will say. Yeah. Is that, what's the soft place area? Can we maybe get some data from?

We cannot because that was one of the things we discontinued in the SHRS budget.

Okay.

unfortunately.

I would guess 4,000. I'll just say there was a lot of people and a lot of people were visiting our friends that had the food trucks which added a nice touch to it as well along with our concession partners the Lions Club serving and of course our Knights of Columbus partner continued support of that event as well.

Perfect. We'll move on to City Administrator's Report.

The only thing I have is just a reminder that the next meeting will be Monday, July 20th.

Alderman Keene. I don't have anything tonight. Alderman Spencer.

I would like to give a couple of shout-outs. The first one is to our retiring Economic Development Director, Carolyn Yatsik. Thank you for all your service to our community. You've managed to get some wonderful things going, and there's momentum. So thank you, Carolyn. And I also would like to give a big shout out to our Kearney Police Department, and in particular, Bryce Minter, our neighborhood, Greenfield. did a patriotic kids parade and we wanted the police there to help keep these kiddos safe. They were on scooters, tricycles, bikes, I believe there was one skateboard, there were some wagons, so a variety of modes of transportation and kudos to our police officer for all of his help and the kids adored having the policemen there and the lights going.

Great.

Alderman Holt. I really don't have anything. I just thought we had a great Fourth of July this year. My neighborhood blew themselves up like normal and it was quite exciting. However, I think at 1230 they were still going strong and I went to bed.

We do have an executive session notice up this evening, a closed session per RSMO 610-021, subsection 1 for legal actions or litigation involving a public governmental body and any confidential or privileged communications between a public governmental body and its representatives and attorneys and RSMO 610-021, subsection 12. to discuss matters pertaining to negotiated contracts. And our meeting will be adjourned from the closed session. So this does conclude our open public portion of the meeting. If we could consider a motion to enter into executive session. I'll make a motion.

I'll second.

Pull the board, please.

Alderman Holt. Aye. Alderwoman Spencer. Aye. Alderman King.

Aye.

Alderman Lehman.

He's muted. Aye.

The vote is unanimous, and at 6.57, we will enter into executive session. Everybody have a nice evening.