City Council - Regular Meeting

Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I aliance 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. Pall, please. Kushner here. Osborne here. Latari here. Uh Jones here. Uer here. Thank you. Approval of city council minutes. Move to approve. Kushner.

Yes. Osborne. Yes. Latari. Yes. Jones. Yes. Uler. Yes. Item 3.2 corrected city council minutes dated February 12th, 2024. Motion to approve the corrected minutes dated February 12th. I move. Thank you. Kushner. Yes. Osourne. Yes. Latari. Yes. Jones. Yes. Uer. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. I'm glad our meetings are taped. M. Adoption of agenda. Move to adopt. Kushner. Yes. Osborne.

Yes. Latari. Yes. Jones. Yes. Huer. Yes. Thank you.

Hey. Item 5.1, recognition of heroic act by Tony Baron. And we're very happy the family could be here with us. if you come up front and we'll do a proclamation. And the officers, please come over here. Thank you very much again for coming. Appreciate it very much and our officers for all you did very much. Recognition of the bravery and honor of Tony Baron. Whereas we honor the memory of Tony Baron who bravely and without hesitation gave the ultimate sacrifice to save the life of another in our community. And whereas Tony was 39 years old and a father of two beloved children. And whereas Tony had served the United States Army 101st Airborne Division, the Screaming Eagles, as a combat infantry infantry man in Iraq, returned home decorated with many achievement and service medals. And whereas Tony held strong biblical beliefs and said his faith delivered him from the scars of war. Whereas on November 12th, 2025, the Johnson County Central Dispatch received calls regarding a domestic disturbance in progress. Warrenburg officers were immediately dispatched and located the

suspect armed with a weapon running on foot. The suspect fired the weapon multiple times in the area of the officers as they arrived on scene. Whereas Tony Baron, an innocent bystander, attempted to intervene prior to officer's arriv arrival and was subsequently shot and killed by the suspect. And whereas Tony Baron, an innocent bystander, attempted to intervene and and was shot, whereas the female victim involved was treated for injuries and released from Western Missouri Medical Center. Whereas through Tony Baron's heroic action, he not only protected the initial victim, but likely prevented further harm to others in the community. Now therefore, be it resolved, I, Mayor Bruce D. Buler along with the city council of Warrenburg, Missouri. In solemn remembrance, deepest gratitude, highest respect, we honor the memory of Tony Baron as a true hero and recognize his selfless, courageous act dated this 12th day of January, 2026. Don't get me up here for too long.

Thank you. Sorry. Do you want to take pictures with us up here or did you get some? You're welcome.

One more time. Item 6.1, an ordinance established traffic control in the Copper Ridge First Plat subdivision of the city of Warrenburg, Missouri. Presented by Phil Adl, interim public works director.

Good evening, mayor, city council members. So, I bring before you a ordinance establishing traffic control at Copper Ridge, the subdivision out on DD. Uh it's going to establish speed limit, parking restrictions, stop signs, and we recommend that with our ordinance is approved. I'll stand for questions or any questions, Susie? No. No. Move to approve ordinance by second reading by title. Kushner, yes. Osborne, yes. Lati, yes. Jones,

yes. Uler, yes. An ordinance establishing traffic control in the Copper Ridge First Plat subdivision in the city of Warrenburg, Missouri. This is for adoption or rejection. Kushner, yes. Osborne, yes. Latari, yes. Jones, yes. Uler, yes. Thank you. Thank you.

Item 6.2, an ordinance authorizing the city manager and the city clerk to execute change order number two, agreement with advanced asphalt paving and concrete LLC for the 2026 street maintenance program hot mix overlay in the city of Warrenburg, Missouri. presented by none other than Phil Adlich. Goes up here a second.

Evening. Um so this is our 2026 street maintenance that we're planning on doing. We have or in contact with the previous contractor felt they did a great job. The price was well or appropriate. Um, we come to this paint order so that we can extend their contract and get the street other streets that would prefer done um on the beginning of their schedule and not towards the end like we did this last year. Hoping to get this to make it look a lot better. We've concentrated more on so our streets that we're wanting to do are fluid. You know, I know that previous map had some other streets on there, but we've gone back, reconsidered. We wanted to concentrate around McGuire with a lot of those streets that needed to be up, you know, upkept or updated. Uh we're still looking at doing about 4.25 miles of street overlay with this program. Uh $895,000. the asphalt index or the API asphalt I can't remember what the index

pavement index u through the contractor we have negotiated that if it goes up we're going to cover that price so it might bring the streets down but if it goes down we might add some more streets so because the asphalt payment index fluctuates due the oil is see what we can get done there. Uh we're excited about getting this done early and we're hoping that we can get this change order approved so we can move forward with it.

Yeah, mayor and council. I'd just elaborate a little bit that we felt like this was a way to take advantage of the competitive bids that we solicited in 2025, make use of same contractor. you know, we struggled with uh actually owning a different contractor that that ultimately didn't get us on their schedule. We had to call back to to a different vendor. This will allow that work to be done at a negotiated competitive price, be done early in the year, and then we use the API as kind of a reference point the market shouldn't change. I was just going to say I've had a lot of people compliment how much you did this past year that you did double what you thought you would be able to do. So a lot of people come up and just said thank you so much for that good work and feels like we're starting to catch up maybe this year we start to get ahead of the game. So

there lots of streets out there but yes we're moving forward trying to get it done. Any question? Yes, a couple of questions. Okay.

So, um I had to look up the asphalt index and I I uh from what I understand that's something that each state manages. And so, in our case, MODOT manages that kind of according like you said um Phil about what the contractors are are charging. My question though is actually about the the pavement condition index. Can you or Mike remind me who did that index for us the first time or the this most recent time?

Well, so we just released uh RP for a request for proposal for a new pavement condition index that is going to be happening this year. I don't remember the exact company name that that pavement condition index happened five years ago. So, those are, you know, they recommend that you update them every 5 years. So, we're going out this year to get a new one so that we can help us uh, you know, plan for the future and have the new updated streets. The Maguire hopefully have a better index number, you know, have a better index number on

Yeah, it better be near 100 or one or whatever the best is. But we'll have a better index on all of our streets so that we can plan and put those streets that are worse in the beginning. Sure. Yeah, that makes total sense. It's got to got to know what you have to know what you need to work on first. Um, and then I wanted to to ask if do you have any sense or the folks who were, you know, real connected with kind of overseeing the work done on Hawthorne, do we have a sense that some of that bumpiness happened because of the speed at which they were trying to get done or some change in the weather or

mechanical malfunction on their part that they were claiming was a major issue to that. Uh we have communicated with the contractor. We've got a letter coming that has come back stating that they are they have three uh resolutions or problem solving things that they're going to try. First uh the third one is they will re mill it out and overlay it if we're not satisfied. So yeah, I saw that letter. That's that's good to know. I appreciate them.

Additional expense to us. So, they are going to stand good to their quality of work and redo it if they need to. But hopefully they'll be able to bring in the roller or you know the heat will help flatten it out some. But if we're not satisfied, they will make it right. And his staff met them on site um a few months ago. So brought them out after the the work had been completed and the concern was identified and that then uh resulted in the assessment and that agreed upon um three item punch list of possible fixes. That's great. Thank you both. I appreciate that.

Y anything else for Phil? No. Thank you Phil. Motion to move to second reading by title only. Kushner, yes. Osborne, yes. Latari, yes. Jones, yes. Uler, yes. An ordinance authorizing the city manager and the city clerk to execute change order number two agreement with advanced asphalt paving and concrete LLC for the 2026 street maintenance program hotmix overlay in the city of Warrenburg, Missouri. This is for adoption or rejection. Kushner, yes. Osborne, yes. Latari, yes.

Jones, yes. Uler, yes. Thank you. Thank you. Item 6.3, an ordinance declaring the results of the canvas of statements of candidacy and establishing a general election to be held on April 7th, 2026, presented by Jodie L. Schneider, city clerk.

Thank you, mayor and city council. as we um every year we do a public notice. We publish a public public notice in the journal. We also uh place it at city hall and on our social media pages um accepting declarations of candidacy for the general municipal election which will be held April 7th, 2026. We had two city council member positions available uh elected for a three-year term as a result of um and that's for a 3-week period in December. December 9th through December 30th would be the end date. As of the deadline passing, there were two candidate qualified candidate filings received. Those candidates were Max Riddenhower and Jan Jones. The required candidate forms are within your packet. Um I've also attached the ordinance calling up the notice of general election and the sample ballot for your consideration um and approval. Once approved, once considered and approved, then it will be filed with the Johnson County Clerk's Office prior to their deadline of January 27th, 2026. There's any questions? I'll be happy to answer. Motion to move to second reading by title only.

Kushner, yes. Osborne, yes. Latari, yes. Jones, yes. Mueller, yes. An ordinance declaring the results of the canvas of statements of candidacy and establishing a general election to be held on April 7th, 2026. This is for adoption or rejection. Kushner, yes. Osborne, yes. Latari, yes. Jones, yes. Heler, yes. Thank you.

Item seven, a motion to approve mayoral appointments as follows. Appoint Michael D. Scragg, Jessica Vinlo, Jod Schneider as commi committee members for the Nancy J. Anderson, Charles W. Stevenson Education Scholarship for a one-year term through December 31, 2026. Move to approve mayoral appointments. Kushner, yes. Osborne, yes. Latari, yes. Jones, yes. Uler, yes. Thank you.

Thank you. We're breezing through this meeting. Set a record if we can. Okay. Appearances of the council not listed on the agenda. There are none. Item nine, miscellaneous matters from the mayor andor city council. Thanks, Susie. Yes, I do have one thing. Okay.

Um, thank you. Um and again I just want to thank uh Gary and everyone for making it possible for me to be here virtually. I appreciate that. Um so this is regarding uh a topic that I think some of us have been hearing a lot about related to the u increase in fees at the community center. And I know um I've heard from a wide variety of folks about that one way or the other. Um, and I want to first of all really acknowledge and make clear how much I appreciate all of the weeks and months, possibly years really worth of work that park staff, especially Chris um, and his staff put into, but also the parks board put into this decision. Um, it was really a series of decisions. Um, very complex budget. Um, not an easy decision. I am sure. Um, and I want to acknowledge that all of that data was given to us, me included, um, back in um, June, I think on June 9th was the city council meeting that all of that data was presented regarding the differences in fees from one year to the next and that kind of thing. Um, and that we also had a joint meeting, another obviously public meeting about that. I just want to say that I feel like for me, and I'm not speaking on behalf of anybody else on the council, but I feel like I didn't think deeply and longingly long enough about the impact on certain populations related to that change in fee, even though it was very clearly it was clearly set out in all of that documentation. That's nothing to do with staff or or the board. Um I would like to know if it's possible just to get sort of a recclarification

about the specific impact of those certain populations who used to use the community center for free who are now not able to do that um because we approved that. Um, I know that there was a lot of research done about that. And so I'm wondering if there's some way to know partly for, you know, for my own edification, but I think also partly for the public to make it really clear, here's why we came to that decision. um sort of what what is the what was the fiscal impact of those populations who used to use the services for free who are now not able to use those services for free because there certainly was an impact just like you know using even though folks might have only walked the track um you know there's wear and tear for that and they certainly probably use a restroom sometimes and they some folks use the elevator which is not inex expensive piece of equipment to upkeep and repair. And so I'm wondering if it's possible to know of what that fiscal impact was that was one of or two or three pieces of the data of many thousands of pieces of data that went into making that decision about the fees. Um, I don't know if that's something that's possible, but I'm assuming that that data exists because it was part of the decision, right? So, um, is that a clear enough request? Do I need to clarify anything more about what I'm looking for?

So, this is my Let me kind of reiterate what I think I heard. You tell me if I've got it right, but I was typing along and you spoke. But what I picked up was what was the stat fiscal impact of those populations that used to use those services for free that was then factored into this decision. Is that what you're asking for?

Yeah. Yeah. I I think it would help to just have that set out clearly as yet another piece of data that has been publicly available for people for months to show that there really is a fiscal impact to allowing someone to use the facility for free. um even if they're just plugging in their phone and uh you know playing games for the afternoon in the in the lobby, there is there is still an impact um regardless of whether those folks are seniors or the unhoused or middle school kids or whoever they are. Um because I ultimately I wish that I had done a better job frankly. I feel like I didn't do what I could and should have done at the time to really think more deeply about those populations that are affected now. And I that's again that's on me. That has that's nobody else's fault but mine. Um so yes, that is what I'm looking for.

So as a staff homework item, I think that it we could between now and and a future meeting go back and gather the information that was previously provided. go through any quantifications that were done before. I think Chris De and I can have a conversation about are there other quantifications that are relatively easy to to pull together? I think at a staff level certainly willing to commit to do all of that and then if if it turns into more homework or it turns into more of a task then we might come back and say how much how much does the entirety of the council want this information? how much more time should we put into it? But as a first pass, I think the three things that uh seem like just a run-of-the-mill request that staff would take up is the information previously provided, what quantifications there were, what quantifications we might be able to easily put together if that's responsive to your question.

Yes, that would be great. I appreciate that. Thank you. And thank you to Chris as well. Thank you, Susie. Any other discussions? Anything else coming up? Nope. All right. Item 10, city staff update. City staff update. City manager. One thing of particular note for those of you that are planning to go to the MML session in Sidelia on the 21st about 70 or gas station um drugs for lack of a better term. Um that is still on but the location has changed to the First United Methodist Church in Sidelia. So I I'll forward information to you if you plan to travel separately but date and time haven't changed just the location. I do know that it was limited attendance to I believe the first 50 and we did have a handful of staff and and elected officials interested in going given the topic. So we've had some other conversations here locally interested to see how much information ML can provide on that topic. Then also we're in the middle of year end financial audit. Um, and uh, this is that time of year that the auditor comes in and works with us on closing out the books and journal entries and we'll put the the audit together. Uh, those are probably the two big ticket items. Um, stealing a little bit of Phil's thunder, but senior court work is ongoing. Went by there today and and was telling Phil tonight. I'm very impressed with how that's turning out. Looks really good. Um staff is tearing out the concrete sections and prepping it and then our contractors installing them at considerable savings over what was originally budgeted about one pad building

on seed core the circle in the middle of the culde-sac are you going to fill that in there is a manhole right in the middle so we will go up to the manhole and we're filling in a lot of it but you'll still have but the manhole still be right there. Okay. But as part of the neighborhood meeting, we had a conversation with the residents about how they felt about that that landscaped area and there was consensus and not unonymity that go ahead and con it' been backed over numerous times, right? We heard that. So I think one person fessed up used they finally took it down because it kept getting hit

kept getting knocked over. All right. Anything else, Mike? Other than that, we're uh taken to saying we planned our work. Now we're working our plans. Well, thank you very much. Item 10.2, city staff update, administrative services department. As Mike mentioned, the audit and we're in the middle of that. So, they'll be there be here for their fieldwork next week. We're taking that off. So, we're expecting the report late February, mid-Marchch there. And then we'll be in contact about when we'll come and present council. Um, the legend came out a couple weeks ago. That's a wonderful thing I get to be a part of and so I'm really glad to see that out there and looking forward to it. So,

and I guess we should our gratitude to Kristen Dorman for the great job she did here. U we're not going to see her back here, I guess. So, she she was in last week, touch base with staff. Um, for those that that aren't aware, um, she had worked in Pleasant Hill previously as assistant and opportunity to go back there as city administrator and certainly wish her well. um with with their family growing and taking on that new responsibility. I have a lot of respect for it. Going to take a lot of energy. So, weren't we filling a position?

We will. Yes. So, we we got some vacancies. We're uh I'm currently working on salary survey. I gather some of that information so we kind of have our thoughts collected and then So, we were filling an HR position. Yeah. So we were fulfilling the HR position and now the assistant position which Jessica has stepped in as interim over administrative services and she and I are kind of dividing up assistant duties and holding things together but we want to get this salary survey component done get a sense of where we're at before we go to market try to and that will cover all management that survey the intent is to cover all employees.

Okay. Mid America Regional Council has historically done a survey and I'm learning that the response to that survey is has dwindled over the years which makes me wonder how much luck we'll have in and trying to conduct our own survey. We may just have to put in the hard work of requesting all the documents and tallying information ourselves. Is my mail still? They do. um they just recently sent out a a link to fill out the survey and so we can kind of work with them to get there as well.

Will we be using uh the same company that we used uh for you to help fill the other two? Well, we're using them on an as needed basis to support Jessica and myself on the HR side of things. they are helping a little bit with the um um salary survey preparation and haven't really made any decisions on the search. I don't remember the name of the company. Ever. Thank you. So they they actually hired um Megan Megan Dodge I'm sorry Megan Dodge

Megan Dodge former HR director in Lawrence join their team and Megan is uh working with us as Okay, thank you. Any else? Nope. Thanks again, Mike. Uh item 10.3, city staff update. city clerk. Um there is a report in your council packet. Um nothing's transpired since then. I'm happy to answer any questions if you have them. Nothing for me. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Jody. City staff update. Item 10.4, community development.

Nothing additional from the written report. Thanks. Item 10.5, fire department chief. Okay. Uh item 10.6, parks department. Chris. Yes. Thank you. Good evening, mayor and council members. Uh first I would like to uh introduce our new assistant parks and recreation director, Tony Alina. Tony, you can say hello to everybody. Hi Tony.

Very very happy to have Tony here. He's from Decatur, Illinois and uh where he worked for a park system of over a 100 park employees. Very jealous of that. And um he has been uh working over 15 years plus experience in master's degree in public administration and very well versed in parks and recreation services. So we're pleased to have him join our staff. Also this evening uh here is Jason Duffy, our parkboard president and Carrie Battle as the recreation superintendent. Just a couple updates this evening. Um I hope that all of you have had uh received the winter spring activity guide and also Morsburg Legend in the mail. If not, I brought a few copies um if if you need one. I wanted to point out the message from the director in the front of the activity guide which has a list of our capital improvements this year such as six additional pickle ball courts uh with partial donation for the Blaine Whitworth Foundation, new outdoor basketball court, added sports lighting and refurbished tennis courts. And with all these features uh being located at Grober Park, um this park is our featured park for the winter spring brochure. Also included is the update on the front desk and lobby project at the community center. As previously reported, um this project was funded through Mary and Glazber Foundation matching funds from the park's capital and also um money from the park fund balance. And as an update on this project, uh the demolition of the old front desk is taking place at this time and um they are on schedule and next week they will be removing the old carpet in the senior center area. Also next week they're going to start on the locker room area renovation of that with rust removal and prevention uh for future rust with their new type of electrostatic paint that they use. And

the final phase will then will be the reconstruction of the front desk with the project being completed by April 1st. Um, regarding the policy of the entrance fee at the community center, staff at the park board is very aware of public comments and that have been expressed. And similar to the city council meeting format um at the park board on the parkboard agenda is appearances to the park board not listed. And um during this time uh it will be open for public comment. And the next park board meeting is on Wednesday, January 28th at 7 p.m. at the community center. And as always, our agendas are posted in advance, website, press locations, and at the community center physically. And that is all I have for this evening. I'll answer any questions you may have.

No questions. Tony, welcome to Warrenburg and glad you're here. Thank you, Jason Carrie. Thank you for coming tonight. Appreciate it.

He knows already. City staff update. Police department chief knows everything. Evening, mayor, council. I don't know everything. I try to stay on top of things. We have uh three in our field training process. Uh we have five applicants being ready to be interviewed. Um we'll see how that goes. Um our ticket printers are in. Um we had to order a cable for hooking them up. Um we'll look and see whether or not we can install them easily in vehicles now or wait till the new fleet comes in. Um all of our axon equipment's in. waiting on vehicles on that stuff as well. And our red dots for the pistols have all come in with our new holsters. We had uh our training, our qualifications and training uh approximately two weeks before Christmas time and all of our qualifications went up drastically. So

fantastic. That uh definitely improves. Everybody seems to really like them. So that's all I have.

For the council's benefit and the public, you might want to explain red dot. It's not a laser. What's a dot on? No, it's uh it's funny you say that. So, uh on the red dot, it's got a square um square that you look through and then there's a dot. Ours is actually green due to we went with green because of tail lights. Um you got the red reflection and working at nighttime. I think that could interfere a little bit. But you look through the window and wherever that dot appears, that's where it's going to hit. So now you're not having to find that with your sights. the sight picture. It's just one dot. They can't see it. We only see it through our window of sight, line of line of sight. I'm a little concerned about them because batteries go bad, right? We got plans. We're going to replace some batteries every year, but they'll last hours on ours end. They'll outlast uh probably five years, but we're going to replace them every year. Um little area in that aspect just because of failure. However, during our qualification courses, uh our uh firearms instructors uh taught us different ways to fire the weapon and uh without this without the red dot site if it malfunctions. It's pretty neat. You can look over top of it. But one I never knew and I've been doing this for 27 years altogether. Um there's a rail site along the side of the Glock that you don't even need a site. you can use that rail slide and it drives tax. It just is amazing how good that actually shoots. So anyway, um pretty neat stuff on the training side.

That's great. Any other questions? All right. Thanks. Have a good evening. City staff update item 10.8. Bill, what do you got for us? Good evening, mayor, city council members. Mike stole my thumb. No. Uh C Cedar Court was one of the things I was going to mention, but also I've got Magguire Street corridor. It's getting so close to being done. We're still working on uh Grover, the signal poles, the sidewalk, getting all that touched up. Uh watering the turf or the

sod. Thank you. So, you know, they'll out there spraying water in the mornings or during the day so that the grass will continue to grow hopefully. uh Lion's Lake. I don't know if you've driven by, but there's concrete u spots for the floating bridges to connect. When the water rises up enough and fills in that area, the floating dock bridge will be installed. So then over on the norththeast side, they're put down some concrete for the deck portions, the bumpouts on that bridge. They're still working on the for bay a little bit, but it's coming along. Hopefully you're liking it.

It looks real good. Great.

Um the solar project I've met with contractor today. They were doing some measuring over at the PD and uh that project will start here shortly probably within the end towards the end of the month and we'll start seeing some movement on that. They've got the equipment and we're just getting into final design and measurements. And then the plant expansion's going well over at the west plant. Uh they're starting to fill up the tank so they can do the leak testing, make sure it doesn't leak. The east plant has the last pore of concrete, I believe, is scheduled this week. And then they'll be scheduling to put leak test, put water in it and leak test. And then uh the reed bed piping is all made down and they're going to be testing that. So lot of stuff's happening and that's just the major project. So no questions. All right. City staff update item 10.9 Warrensburg Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Okay, we're we're ajourned.