Ways & Means Committee - Regular Meeting

Recording in progress. Good evening and welcome to the January 21st, 2026 Ways and Means Committee meeting. Roll call, please. Vote present. Autumn G here. Arger here. And I'm here. Um, does anyone have any changes to the agenda? Seeing no changes, we will be approved by acclamation. Uh, citizen comment. I don't see any citizens in the room. Is there anyone online who looks like Okay, great. Uh, moving right along to report of committee chair and alderman. I have no report. Alderwoman Go, no report. Uh, Alderman Gould, no report. Alderman Urgger,

no report. It doesn't appear that there's a city administrator report. So, we are clipping right along to department reports and the investment report. And I see Brad up in the square. Hello. Happy New Year. Happy New Year.

Thank you for having me. Uh yes. So in uh so I just uh to give you a review of everything um in total all interest earnings from our the beginning of our relationship to the end of the year are $4,182,000. In 2025 they were 78,131 and uh that is comprised of the 2017 18 and 19 bond debt service reserve funds and a general fund account for excess uh uh uh city funds. So uh so that's generated 78,000 and that equates to roughly $60,000 a month in interest earnings. That was page one. Um, if we go to page two on your packet, you just see the uh the the bar chart of everything um all every month throughout uh 2025. And you kind of see how it kind of es and flows based off of market conditions or amount of money that's available to invest. Uh, and there is your $78,000 and it comes to an average of uh $59,000 per month. So, uh, uh, that's all done and performed well for you last year and, uh, continues to do so in 2026.

Great. I have one question, Brad. Um so the the in September through December uh the numbers are down a little bit which is still nothing to sneeze at that we are um making that that kind of money but is that because we have less invested or are there market conditions that um are leading to that decrease? uh there have been some withdrawals so there's a little bit less invested but I will say that um the the bond market in general has declined a little bit um over the last ye year solid year u so we've we've seen some interest rates decline some of that has to do with short-term rates declining uh because of the Fed the Fed lowering the Fed funds rate which puts some downward pressure on short-term investments Um, so it's kind of a mix between the two.

Okay, great. Other questions from other members of the committee? Alderman Gould, just a just a followup on that, but you know, have have you looked at the years that we've been doing this and and as far as I think last year was a little bit of an anomaly from what I can recall in that the beginning half of the year seemed to be performing ex extraordinarily well. Um whereas what we see is maybe a dip at the end is is maybe a little bit more comparable to what we had been seeing prior to last year. Is that accurate?

Well, it's been a unique market. Uh since June of 2022, the Fed raised the Fed funds rate which caused upward pressure for those shorter term rates. Uh and then in September of 24, they started to lower them. So they were just at unprecedented highs uh anything that you could invest during that time period. And because um interest because the Fed has started to lower the Fed funds rate um it's caused more money that's been sitting idle in cash because the rate has been so attractive. When when that rate becomes less and less attractive, people are buying they're moving their money elsewhere. So if if it can take on risk, they're moving it to the stock market, right? We've seen

we've seen the stock market do very well, right? If it if that money can't take risk, it's going into the bond market, right?

And that makes yields decline. So because short-term rates decline, that pushes money out of money market into other types of investments. some of those some of that money goes into longer term bonds, all of which affect uh reinvestment returns. So, um so you've seen that's why you've seen um maybe some earnings a little bit higher over the last year or so uh than you're seeing now. But in addition to that, there's a uh um I I believe there's a little bit less money to be invested because it's been it's been needed for other um expenditures,

right? Yeah. And I I I understand that. And just we've talked about it in previous meetings, but just for public that might be listening, what they're seeing here is not losses, it's just not this the um you know, we have a we're in a protected um fund, I guess, is Can you explain?

Absolutely. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Yes. Uh, thank you for bringing that up. Uh, any of the securities that the city is allowed to invest in is protected by a couple of measures. Number one is the state. The state has an investment policy that uh is an umbrella policy over all municipalities and it will not allow you as a mun municipality to invest in any type of security uh that you could lose any of your principal. So, that's number one. In addition to that, the city has its own investment policy that falls underneath that umbrella. And so the types of securities that you all are allowed to invest in are the safe safest types of securities in the world. US Treasury bonds, US government agency bonds. I call it boring and safe. So

and commercial can we do commercial paper? You can do commercial paper up to 180 days, six months. Um, so, uh, the only thing that it can affect the earnings in your account is the amount of money that you have invested and the yield that the bond market is paying at the time. And that's a market driven type of thing. Um, and if money if money is not able to be reinvested, then that just means that it's needed and being used for other uh expenditures to make improvements for the city. Thank you. Well said. Other questions? Amazing. Thank you, Brad. We'll see you next month.

Okay. Absolutely. All right. Thank you very much. Have a good evening. You too. Uh second under department report is the financial statements. Michelle,

hi. Good evening. I'll sort of piggyback on the back of what Brad said just for clarification. We did take some funds out last year to do um alternate projects. That's exactly what it's called. To do alternate projects to the tune about $1.8 million. Um and then we are we did get those funds back. I'm holding those in cash in a money market because we are preparing to take delivery of our fire truck. And I'm just making sure that cashwise and cash flow-wise before we decide to do further investments for the year that we are prepared to make some of the bigger payments we knew were coming. So, um, and I believe we're still waiting on another bigger payment from FEMA and SEMA that we have yet to get. So, there was some cash flow needs in order to do the alternate projects and purchase those items ahead of time. Um, and we discussed that. So, we did sort of take some of those funds out. I did also sort of want to clarify that he speaks about these large interest earnings 4.1 million um also 708,000 within the year. Um a lot of those are attributed to the debt service monies. So those are those are um restricted monies. Um general fund as of November had interest earnings of 225,000 I believe. Um so that's really where the core of it sits. So when they talk about that way if we're all thinking oh look at all the interest we earned and it's sort of everywhere it's not it's not core of that 708 is restricted. Um we do have interest earnings among the other funds and they're kind of lower just depending on their cash flow and their cash needs. Um so we really probably run about 300 350 within our operating accounts of interest earned. So hopefully that helps clarify some of these things. So, we'll move on to November. We'll kind of touch on um we're getting towards the end of the year, and I say

the end of the year, but the year for 2025 will sort of roll into January and February as we continue to move expenditures back and wait on the auditors to assist with revenue entries. So, when we look at November, there still is there still are items that will change for December. Um but we can continue to track the mechanisms and sort of talk through some of this. The advalorum taxes are starting to come in. Um we're waiting to sort of see what what is the impact of the senior citizen tax freeze. Um and so we'll continue to watch that, but you can start to see it start to climb. Um and by the time we get to December, it's up to like 340. So we are seeing that impact. Um and like I said, the January deposit that we get from St. Louis County is actually December collections. So parts of that will come back as well. So that's why we wait to sort of close our books till about February. sales tax continues to look low. Um there is that 415,000 that's sitting down in the insurance and adjustments once again and that's part of that 1% adjustment from the the tiffs that were closed. Um so it closes that gap a little more. We do continue to remain um just skeptical on it. We are talking we're watching the um information come out of St. Louisis County and they are delayed between software issues and staffing issues. Um and then the Missouri do is also sort of indicating that we have our top nine um that major retailers within the city of Brentwood and their um tax deposits were not processed by November. So their November processing they are indicating that there is delays on the me and the MDOR side as well. They keep indicating that it could be 30 to 60 days for this catch-up period. Um, if it lags too long, they will actually start to be $26 and not $25. I know I keep standing up here since October saying I'm not

worried. They continue to indicate that there is a delay in the processing at the Missouri DLR. Um, I'm continuing to hold my head on that. Um, let's see. Use tax. Use tax continues to hold and hold well. um by the time we get to December, which you don't have in front of you, but we've continued to monitor. We actually exceed the budgeted amount. So, that sort of does indicate that we've got strong shopping. Um I don't think it's anything to sort of think that we're going to kill it, but we we we're not necessarily too far off on some of our assumptions. Um cable vision. Internally, we've had conversations about this. We will definitely lower this for the 2027 budget. Um, internally we were talking that that the charter payments we've been expecting are not going to come and that the legislation is not attaching on to the streaming services. So, some of those dollars are not going to be available. We'll make those adjustments um as we watch 26 and definitely for the 27 budget. Um, fines have increased and we did increase those for the 26 budget. Um, and then we'll continue to monitor those. Um, ambulance fees, I do want to sort of touch on those. We've reconciled 22, 23, and 24 with the ambulance billing company. There is a $23,000 payment that's pending, but they did indicate that it would probably be closer to first quarter of 26 before we got it. So, our assumptions weren't far off. We are once again in a timing delay. Part of that delay was with the government shutdown. Um so um those were some of the highlights and lowlights in the revenue for the general fund. Um if you go to page two, we have the insurance and settlements. We sort of earmarked what some of those were. We had the 415,000 which were part of the TIFF. We have about 78,000 which was a slate refund from 2015. And then we had

an AXA which was a lawsuit deductible returned about 250 returned us. So that makes that up. That sort of has helped carrying us through to definitely meet this budget number by December. Um one of couple of the expenses just to sort of point out is um in utilities and we're on page three um under municipal operations. Some of these utilities are running high. We are in conversations with Missouri American Water about water usage at the fountain. Um and we currently have this in a claim status. So there was was some high usage. They're indicating they think it may be a leak. We are indicating we don't find a leak and but we are definitely in a claim status for high billing and high usage. So and then the legal fees which everybody is fully aware of that one is going to be one that's um will just sort of impact overall for 25 as we continue to monitor this. Um no major highlights or low lightss. I mean I think everything's kind of holding steady. If you end up in park stormwater, you know, the park permits and the pavilion, I mean, the pavilion far exceeded its expectations for its budget, but I think we knew with traffic and foot traffic and its success that that may be the case. Any questions?

Yeah, I will start. I have a question about the sales tax revenue. So, um, say it comes it really does come in January, February. So at that point if we can attribute it how do the mechanics work? If we can attribute it to 25 do we

the mechanics work is this we we are on what's called a modified acral basis and by that we means we acrew expenses back if they were a December expense and we get the bill in January we acrew it back to December and the same sort of goes for revenue received the revenue received in January and February if it's actually associated with December revenue or 25 revenue we have 60-day window to bring it back to acrue it back to the previous year so basically we have through February. Basically, we have through February. So, if these lags happen, then our revenue for last year will be

lower and then potentially hopefully the revenue for then 26 might be artificially high because it is correct counting part of the money that we should have received in 25. that we have to be part of the conversation in the notes that we make internally and for staff as we go through our 26 prep for the 27 budget. Yes. Try to make sure that we're understanding the data that we're reading and that way we can project accordingly. Okay, great. I just want to we can't overspend in 27 just because 26 is already

Yeah, there is we continue like I said to get these updates that they're 30 60 days behind and they're processing and that very well could be 26 funds or 25 funds. right now it's it's a timing issue. Other questions from other members of the committee? Alderwoman Oh. Oh, yeah. Alderwoman go. So, um there I saw in the notes that 20% increase in our use tax or use tax collections. Um it was in the I believe the analysis portion. Yes.

Um so that's been significantly overperforming. That's 20% over what the 2024 audited number was. So when I look at this exact same time last year, we're 20% over. We adjusted our 25 budget to actually sort of match where we thought we would be. Our 25 budget is 1.6 million. We're 2% left to sort of collect. We do get there by December. But when I talk about 20%, we are 20% over where we were in 24 at this exact same time. Okay. And that's is If I'm seeing the numbers correctly, that's slightly offsetting our drop in sales.

Yeah, it sort of lets me know that the market still is strong, right? Like there they're there. So, I'm assuming that these there are these top nine 15 um big vendors that have not been processed like the big stores that that I I'm that I would be hopeful that they have big dollars that should hit our sales tax number that the processing of those is important hopefully. So, Okay. Um, no other questions. Thank you, Michelle. That's perfect. Thank you. Okay. Uh, next we have the consent agenda. There's one item on the consent agenda, the minutes from the November 6th meeting. Um, were there any changes to those minutes?

Motion to approve consent agenda. Second. I think all in favor say I. I. Eyes have it. Minutes are approved. Um, old business. So the um first item of old business is a proposed uh amendment to the vehicle commuting policy and I think Bola you have this.

Yes I do. Thank you. Vice can you hear me? Is it so the ways and means committee spent a lot of time last year reviewing uh the vehicle commuting policy and asked staff to uh make some significant changes to bring it up to date. and we consulted with the um city's labor council. And so what you have before you are um a the categories that have been removed um because these positions either a no longer receive a monthly vehicle allowance or um those positions no longer exist in the city um and um or those the city no longer participates in in such program. For instance, the drug enforcement administration So those changes have been reflected in the policy document before you. Um there are different categories in the actual policy. Um insurance requirements. Um individuals who are allowed or will be allowed to use city vehicles for business or when they use their own vehicles for work during for city paid work time. um insurance requirements and the fact that they have to provide on an annual basis a copy of their driver's license so that we ensure that they're still licensed and allowed to drive on the roadway. Um what they do when they're in those vehicles um in terms of radio communication system or cellular use um what the requirements are for operations and just general operating policies. fact that the city will inspect these vehicles um on a regular basis through the public works department, ensure that we are compliant with the IRS regulations and and when individuals are

not, what are some of the disciplinary penalties that the city levy u on those? So exhibit A lists all those positions that have take-home vehicles and then exhibit B is the vehicle policy employee acknowledgement. Once this policy is adopted by the board of alderman then HR manager will ensure that all those employees find this document. Well, I'll just say um thank you to um you and Tangela and I guess outside council for uh working so hard to take our comments from the last meeting and it they you seem to really have incorporated them and it seems like a very thorough um and thoughtful policy. Are there questions from members of the committee? Alderman goat.

Um first of all, very nicely done. I love the some of the streamlining especially where you call out like only city employees and then go on to define that including like the role of temporary or seasonal interns. I thought that was very nicely done to help define who's allowed to drive. Um my only question is it looks like we're self-insured. Is there any benefit? I know in other policies um employees it's usually done at time of employment if they would be at time of employment if they were to be issued a city vehicle. They're looked historically to see if they have any um driving report or anything.

And we would check that. We would check that once they are hired if they would be um individuals in positions that are either a allowed a take-home vehicle or to allowed to drive a city vehicle and then randomly they are selected um just to just to test you know for drug use and alcohol use and you know different things like that. But we would check annually their driving record. And also this policy indicates that if there are infractions on their driver's license that it would be nice of them to notify the city first before we find out. Okay. So how far I'm assuming five year is it a fiveyear look back a seven-year look back or

I I don't know what the look back is. I can ask Tangela to look into that and then we'll send you a response. It doesn't benefit. Is there any benefit to us as far as insurance or costs of doing business by that look back the number of years look back? It's also a question for um Thomas McGee. Okay. So, I will ask them as well. Okay. And I'm just thinking I know of other policies where they do that for insurance purposes for the organization and if there is a five-year look back and they find something then they

then it becomes a different HR conversation. They might not be able if it if it's a five it depends. Are they looking at time of hire in their issued a vehicle and that would impact our insurance rates in such a way or impact our our ability or our need for self insurance in a different way? Really, it's looking at risk.

When we do the insurance, um I don't recall them asking for driver's license information. They just look for the number of vehicles, um model, year, how long we have it, things like that. Um and then they also have a list of all the employees as well. Okay. Um, but I I don't know if there's any correlation with I'm pretty certain that they're not checking driver's license because that would be an exhaustive task for them to do for all the 27 members of SLE. Okay. But we'll ask the question and it's really around, you know, new hires and making sure we're protected for a liability purpose if needed.

Other questions? No. Okay. Questions from anyone else? Okay. Uh well uh the chair would entertain a motion to forward uh the vehicle commuting policy on to the board of alderman and recommend approval. So moved. Second. Uh do we need a vote here or do you think boy? Okay. Or do you go is fine. What did you just say? Okay, there you go. Roll call, please. Go. Yes. Ottoman, yes. U T Yes. Motion.

Great. Uh second item of old business is a FEMA SEMA reimbursement update. After the budget conversations, we we do need money back.

It is uh time for my what appears to be annual FEMA and SEMA reimbursement update. Um as you know, we've been working with FEMA and SEMA since 2022 from the flood in July and then uh we added the tornado from last year. And so um for any new members who might not know uh we are eligible for reimbursement for both those disasters uh FEMA will cover 75% FEMA 10% and then the city's responsible for the last 15%. So the good news is last month we did receive a payment from FEMA which was the FEMA payment of $1.3 million related to 218 uh 2818 Breen Ridge which is all the alternate projects. So uh we did get that back and that's wonderful. that leaves uh the Lee Wind Trail uh repairs. And when I talked to SEMA, they said that the uh basically FEMA is doing their final review and that they should be anticipating closing out in the near future. They said that about 2018 for about 3 to four months. So, while they're close uh close in FEMA and SEMA terms are a little bit different than what I consider close and definitely what the finance director considers close. Uh but the good news is that we we continue to plug along. I know there was concerns uh last year that would we receive this money back and at least we did get the 1.3 back from that. Uh for the tornado is we were able to get all the FEMA money back. And so that means that we're waiting for SEMA to close out the project completely which means then we get the SEMA reimbursement because SEMA requires all the FEMA reimbursement be uh recognized first before they give their money back. So, what I did was kind of put together a couple charts and kind of give you the the rundown, which is basically for the 2022 flood. Uh, we're still expecting a little under $1.4 million. And I kind of break it down by fund. Uh, primarily most of that is going into fund 40 with uh a little

bit of dollars still going into fund 10 and then some in fund 50. And then in 2025, we're still expecting about $12,600. And that's almost evenly split between fund 10 and fund 50. So, uh, we continue to work with them. I continue to pester them. Uh, my contact in SEMA when I usually email her is like, "Oh, it's my two week reminder that I need to tell you that nothing's changed." And I'm like, "Yes, please." Uh, so we continue to work on it. SEMA's been actually I mean, they've been really nice. Uh, they they put up with my uh my annoyance of them on a regular basis, but uh my hope is that we will get this done uh in the first second quarter of this year so I can finally stop bringing this uh update to you guys. So, I'll just say thank you for uh staying on this. This is um you've been working on this for years and years and um it's important revenue for our city and important changes that um we have been able to accomplish because of these reimbursements. So, thank you. And then it's a little of a question for Michelle, but I think you can probably answer it just for the um general knowledge. This uh because we have these amounts of money, we have to do a slightly different audit. Is that

Yes. Uh we'll have to do anytime we receive federal dollars of over a million dollars, we have to do a single audit. Uh we're hoping that we would uh this would be our last single audit of 25. Uh thankfully for Michelle, I let her have to do another one in 26 because we'll receive more than that with uh this year's reimbursements hopefully. So we're looking at single audits in 25 and 26 and and then hopefully we'll get a nice SDT grant in 27. So she'll have to do another one. So keep making sure that she has to do single audits every year. Well, if if the money comes in, then that's a that's a price to pay. Yeah, exactly. Good. Other are there questions from the committee for Eric? Thank you for the Thank you. Thank you for the update.

Uh we have one item of new business. It's the agenda management system. So, um which we love so much. Uh Octavia.

Yes. So, um we are seeking approval to enter into an agreement with Civic Plus for the implementation of agenda management system. Um so the city previously implemented board docks for this service. Um however last year they transitioned to the diligent community platform and since that time um staff has experienced some uh challenges we'll say with the their functionality and you know our processes and workflow. So one of my first projects since rejoining the team was to research an alternative. Um and as a result of that research um we are presenting to you uh Civic Plus. Uh we currently use Civic Plus though for our website management and so um we're hopeful you know that this would allow a more uh efficient transition. Um and after undergoing you know multiple demonstrations uh staff also believes it aligns with the city's workflow and processes. Uh there was a request for uh the board to undergo some demonstrations. Um and I have confirmed that that opportunity is available. Um I couldn't get it done today of course and it was kind of short notice when it was asked. Um but I will coordinate timing of everything with that. Um and with that we are recommending uh we are recommending today just a motion to forward to the board of alderman for approval uh contingent on the successful uh outcome of a demonstration to the board of alderman.

Um are there questions? I know Alderman Gould was the I think the instigator of the of the request for the demonstration. Sorry for the the the late request of that yesterday, but um um I do the reason that the request I made the request was you know having known that you know we didn't we didn't love board docs but there were you know there were some functions that we got used to and worked out we certainly have had some challenges with with diligent if we go to a new platform I I don't want to just move frustrations and challenges to something you know we just want to make sure that it's I know there's no perfect system out there and there's always going to be some challenges that aren't um aren't going to be met. But I just on the whole if we are change making a change I I just wanted to make sure that the demonstration is there that it meets the the needs. Um I'm less concerned with the fact that they also manage our website. I I I think it's nice if there's some continuity there, but knowing that in the future maybe we'd look at other website management if if if there's so I I don't want to get tied too much to a a system that is we make a decision just because they they they're the ones that manage our website. So just future proofing want to make sure that

and I don't think that's the reason they were just the ones out of the three is it three that we tested um that we got recommendations from as well where um others seem to like it. So in terms of workflow and um access for you all when you pull up items we we think this will work better. Um but there there are so many others out there. It's it's just what we seem to like.

Yeah. No and and that's great. I just I would I as a as the board making a decision on it, I'd love to I'd love to at least see a a short demonstration and and and some examples of of the interface so that we because that's kind of the challenge that we all have with Diligent is is not easy to to work with. Um um and and then so to me that's more important and then the fact that it does maybe connect or communicate with the website management that's a an add-on. That's a plus, right? So, okay. Thank you. There other questions? Alderwoman Gold. I was going to get through the whole meeting. Alderwoman go.

Um, are any other um neighboring municipalities using the system and have they expressed um positive reviews of it? Actually, did who did you talk to?

Um, so I did talk to a couple of them and I can get you a list of the different u municipalities. Uh, but one of the things that I did was I reached out to the different city clerks to find out which system that they were using. Um, and that's kind of how I started my search. Uh, which is where, you know, like I said, where I got the three that I did, um, tests from. Uh, there's another system that I was familiar with. Um, I didn't bring that one into the fold just because I wasn't all that happy with that one myself. Um, so, you know, why test that one again if I already know the outcome of it? So to your question, neighboring communities, I think when we started using this agenda management system, we were probably um one of the first in our immediate area that was using this. Um I I think there's a neighboring city that um used Google Docs, so it's it's a little different from what we use. Um I don't know what the other neighboring cities are using, but when we did the survey, we didn't get a response from them um that helped us, you know, with our research. So, some of the cities that we're looking at are in St. Charles County. Um, some are in uh North County, some some are in Illinois, actually. So, and some are other agencies like uh the Missouri Historical Society. Um, school districts. So, there's a variety of users out there and

others in the greater metro who can give you a firsthand a lived experience. Even the city attorney weighed in. Okay. Okay. Cool. Well, and that's important for the city attorney to be able to That's true. That is very important. Find the documents and read them. So, I guess I'll I'll make a recommendation to approve the um the the recommendation to enter an agreement with Civic Plus um as the implementation of the agenda management system contingent on to the full board uh contingent on the um demonstration results. Is there a second? Sure, I'll second. Uh all in this doesn't seem like this seems like. All in favor?

I I roll call at the last one. So I don't we'll do a roll call. You want a roll call? Okay, we'll do a roll call. Alderwoman Gold. Yes. Al Alderman Gold. Yes. Alderman Urgger. Yes. Alderwoman Ty. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Uh moves us along to citizen comments. No one has joined us in the room. Is there anyone online with the hand? Great. Uh well, seeing no further business, this meeting is adjourned. Thank you.