City Council - Regular Meeting

Yes. Nancy here. Everybody everybody gets everybody. Here you go. Share the napkin. My god. Where'd you get these from? Shakes's putting them out. Really? Oh. the one in Sunset Hills. Okay. I'd like to call this meeting to order. Would everyone please stand for the pledge of allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag, United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Roll call, please. Mayor Gibbons here. Council member Jedetic here. Council member Litzo here. Council member Mlan is absent. Council member Ricker is absent. Council member Schaefer here. Council member Zimmer here. Thank you. We have no presentations tonight, so we'll start with public comments. Lori, is there anyone that wishing to make a public comment? Yes, your honor. Tom Moer. We'll be tired of seeing me up here now, but thank you for allowing hearing from you.

At our I think it was our last water committee meeting, there was one person in the audience that was adamantly opposed to Kirkwood keeping Kirkwood water. He said that American Water was in business longer than Kirkwood Water was and that they know water better than we do. Well, I did a little bit of research and I found that American Water was founded in 1866 in Camden, New Jersey. Kirkwood Water was founded in 1853 here in Kirkwood. I think we're a little older now. During my research, I found that u Charles Stewart Mott owned County Water for a period of time. I'm not sure when he obtained it. But I know that he left it to his sons upon his death in 1973. During his tenure at America at County Water, his motto was service first. His motto was let our let us be known by our deeds. And that's the way he conducted business. And that is the way I see our Kirkwood water department operating from the top to the bottom. They're serviceoriented. They're Kirkwood first and they know our system better than anybody. And Kirkwood and American Water doesn't even know county water very well. There's a couple of mains that they don't even know about and they're in places they'll never find until they see a gusher coming up and they're going to wonder what it is. And I know because my wife worked at American Water and she had some very

good friends in the managerial positions there and they said that they'll never find those mains because they never asked where they were. They never asked about them. So, I hope that you will find a way to keep Kirkwood Water Kirkwood Water. Thank you very much. Thank you, Tom. That's all, your honor. Thank you. We'll now move to the consent agenda. Is there a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda? Motion. Second. Thank you. Are there any questions or comments? No. All in favor say of approval of the consent agenda say I.

I oppos nay. Consent agenda passes. We will now move to unfinished business. Do I have a motion and a second to bring substitute bill 1120 to the floor for consideration? Motion. Second. Okay. All in favor say I. I. Opposed? Nay. Can we ask questions? Vote for bringing it. Don't Gina, are you asking to ask questions about bringing it to the floor or on the substitute? This This motion is just to bring it to the floor. Gotcha. I was jumping ahead. Nope. That's good. Okay, good. Um, all in favor of the substitute bill say I.

I. I oppose. Nay. Okay, the substitute bill is um brought to the floor. Um, now are there any questions or um, Mayor uh, David will need to read the title. Oh, sorry, David. Please, have you missed? Yes, you did.

Mayor and council, this is an ordinance adopting and approving the operating capital budgets for the city of Kirkwood for the fiscal year April 1st, 2026 through March 31st, 2027. In appropriating such such sums as are set forth herein for all departments and the accounts therein specified for all expenditures of the city of such year which appropriations total $123,614,765 capital projects of $22,680,955 appropriating the sum of $782,350 for the payment interf loan or for payment interfund loans and reappropri operating $3,142 14 3,14295 for previously approved projects that will be incomplete as of March 31st 2026.

Thank you, David. And could you give us an explanation on the substitution?

Yes, mayor. Um really there are two items that changed uh from the previous bill to this bill. Um the appropriations total uh changed from $123,554,765 to $123,614,765. This really accounts for um a $60,000 transfer from Fleet Freleet services to the general fund. Um and that is reflective of additional revenues put in by the general fund into fleet services. um and then moving that money back to the the general fund.

The other item is the reappropriations amount is going from one $1,363,235 to 3,142,095. And this is really to encompass where we're currently at on the Swamp Pump Station project and rolling that uh project into the next year. Um all of it hasn't been completed in this fiscal year. Okay. Can you give me that number again, David? I'm sorry. 3 million uh $3,142,95. Thank you. Number one. Okay. Thank you very much. Um Oh, the park number one pub station, not Swan. Sorry, I was thinking Swan from

Uhhuh. Okay. All right. Um I just want to talk for a second about uh Moody's and the importance of our rating with with Moody's and getting this budget passed. Um, you know, as most folks know, we did have a downgrade from double A1 to double A3. That leaves Kirkwood in the top 25% of all municipalities. Moody says we are in the highest classification as a high rate investment indicator and a low rate in low rate of default possibility of low rate. We are not going to default. That's where the classification that they've put us in. Um, we've we've taken all kinds of measures. Um, we've changed staff. We've done a rate increase for our electric department that um was responsible for getting us downgraded, but again, we're still in this the highest classification there is. So, we'll keep working at this um to get back where we were to get back to double A one. Um we've stabilized. We're in a good place and it's important for us all to get this budget passed. Any other comments?

I have a few questions just to kind of follow up from our last um week meeting and and just to ask you and Mary might have to answer this. So, if you can explain that there's the reappropriations jumped up, but there are projects that we approved this year and are going weren't completed and are going to be um completed next year, but they're not in the reappropriation list. Can you talk to why some show up there and and some don't? And I'm referencing there's a electric capacity contract. It's an 8-year contract at 1.6 million. Um there is another 1.2 million in the water department. And so just so that we understand why and Mary's answer some of my questions, but I do want to just kind of put it out there um why some things are reappropriated and some are just embedded in the um department expenditures.

Yes. Uh there are some items such as our capacity contract. Our capacity contract is budgeted because it's a um we have multi-year agreements that are budgeted for on an annualized basis that are captured within our budget. Um there are also some projects that are uh specifically rebudgeted into the next year. So it's not appropriation. It is a brand new accounting of those projects. Um is there anything you would like to add, Mary? The only thing I would add is um the items that are normally like for bigger projects that are rebudgeted are usually items that um the department heads um that are kind of known that um at the time when we're doing the budget that um they already know that project is going to go into the next year. So, it's a multi-year project and they can somewhat reasonably estimate what that amount's going to be. Um, reappropriations are items that normally are more towards the end of the year that um they don't like a truck might not come in or um like in this case the park pump station. um at the time when we completed the budget or when during the budget process more of that project was estimated to be completed. So it wasn't rebudgeted with the normal budget. So then um a reappropriation is something more at the end where okay well we need to go ahead and put that reappropriation in there. So it's more like towards the end of the budget it's okay here's the projects and we need to get it in there. So if a department head knows about um multi-year projects, it's normally more

included in that in the normal 27 budget at the during the budget process. So I guess that's how I would kind of look at those differences. Okay, great. So you kind of work that at the budget time and year end and figure out how you're going to account for already approved projects that are in the works but not completed. Correct.

Okay, great. Thank you. Um, another question. So, David, at the last meeting, you mentioned there's an additional position for the finance department in this budget. Is that can you talk a little bit about what that position is? And then I would ask the mayor if we need to do a separate legislation to approve that, but if talk a little bit about what that position is.

Actually, Mary, do you want to talk about it because we went over this here yesterday. Um well, we're still kind of in the process of deciding exactly what that would be. David asked me to evaluate all the positions in the department. Um we've had a couple recent resignations. So, um right now what I'm currently doing is looking back over everybody's job descriptions. um kind of outlining and um looking at um looking at everybody's job descriptions and um deciding um how that new position will fit in. Um so I guess we're still kind of deciding like what that title might might be. So we're still kind of in that process.

The current budget actually has an accounting technician, an additional accounting technician. Currently the city has two. This would be adding in a third. But uh with some of the recent uh changes in our finance department, it's actually going to allow us the opportunity to explore some restructuring. So that is something that we'll bring to the council in the future. But essentially, this would just be the addition of uh an already classified base position for the time being.

Classified. Um, in the future though, we will most likely have recommendations for the council to change either just or the actual duties of one of the positions um and actually broaden it out from where it currently is at or you know that might be or sorry not brought out more it might be more specialized, right? So you don't have an actual additional position. You're just looking at recclassing. There's not a placehold you didn't put a placeholder in there. you just start re looking at existing positions and if you actually recclass or additional that'll come back to the council. Yeah.

So we have budgeted in it. We do have budget in an additional position but it is an accounting technician. So it would be going from two to three accounting technicians. So they're already classified. Okay. So those were already in there and we just the third accounting technician is the new one. So, it's already a pre-existing classification and uh description for that position. What we may be recommending is to tailor one of those in the future and that will come to council for review. But again, is that a new position or is that already in there? I mean, it's in the budget, but is that a new additional position? The third accounting technician is a new position and and that's but it's already in the classification. So

no that one again have we approved additional position in accounting as a city council. Um it would be coinciding with this budget the approval of the budget would approve that additional position. If we want to pull that position out we could pull that position out and decide upon it at a later date. Well that's what I'm just kind of asking. if we need a formal process to approve an additional position, not just in the budget that not just the dollars amount but the actual division.

Yeah. So, so part of that and again because I know we're it's so we're all over you're doing exactly what you need to do. Obviously, we have two vacancies in there. I know you're advertising for one accountant position. And so I'm glad to see that you're not holding up what you need to get the job done, but just trying to figure out um you know, it's nice to know if we're not just approving a dollar amount, but what we're approving in terms of a position, additional position, which some of us advocated from very early on and was told we're not we didn't have in the budget. Now it's in the budget. So I'm just trying to figure out it's in the budget. It's a a classification we already have according

but it's not a position we've already had. It's not an FTE. It's an additional FTE, right? So it's in the budget and that is the way that we have done it previously is it would be added to the budget like it is today. Um and by approving the financial backing for the position you're approving that that position we add that position is fully funded. So it it that's what we've used in the past to approve that position is by approving it through the budget. Okay. We could bud we could do it separately though if that is the desire of council. If the budget if if the we would have to amend the budget then you will come back to us. Yes. So if if if there is a different organization for finance

um that we find more optimal, we would bring that to you for a change and that would be a change in the pay classification would come to you. um whether or not it dictates a change in the salary grade it would be in. So where it's ranked at for how much money it is. If it stays the same or if it would move, it would still come to you if it's a change in title. We will only hire the titles that are in that pay classification.

Well, for future reference, I mean, I would have liked to have known that we added a position, not just that we had money in there. So, I mean, I think that's a transparency issue. um if we're adding new FTEES. I know you work the money side on part-time or temp, but I didn't realize that a full-time addition would not be highlighted in a budget um information. So, I'm a little surprised, but I I hear what you're saying, and I do hope that we have when we add staff of of FTE that we know that we're adding it. But we did talk about we did talk about adding if David talk

we did at the very first meeting and David said I took it out because it was recommended and I made comments about well we're spending hundreds of thousands of dollars with legal fees getting us kind of out of trouble and I rather we put that money into um accounting support and that was the last conversation I remember but if there was others I'd love to see the minutes of our meetings where we discussed FTE addition in finance. I don't have a problem with approving the budget and this this piece we talked about a

financial a budget analyst or whatever. I'm I I don't have a problem with it. I just wish I knew about it. I mean again I I was an advocate and C CFC said it everybody said it. I'm just That's right. I'm just an advocate for us knowing about it. So, I will stop the debate. In the future years, I'm sure that we can put a section within the budget that kind of declares the position. That way, it's readily apparent, you know, and that could go along with the CAO budget message.

I I would appreciate that. I mean, we did talk about the ones you eliminating. I would love to talk about the ones you're adding as well. So, thank you, David. I think you understand. Um the other thing um is a question just for clarification on the water and sanitation rate increases. Are those on a billing cycle? It's not like everybody gets it April 1. Is there Can you explain kind of how those might show up for those who are going to get their bills starting in April? Yeah. So it will be on your April bills. The city of Kirkwood does not bill everybody on a pure monthly basis. All the bills don't go out on the first. They go out daily. So it'll be on the bills that you have post April 1st. Those bills will recognize the new rate.

So it'll be kind of phased in. So not you'll you won't see it the same. Okay. Right.

And then just to you know again I appreciate this is minimal changes but it is the fifth draft we got this week. So, um I am delighted to see that this is wrapping up and that we did not get another huge book um for this minor changes, but it it still shows as we go into this year that we are going to continue to draw down reserves. I do believe that Mary and David have a good handle on that we've got to monitor it closely this year. We've gone to overall 20 million in reserves to 18 million to just a little under 13 million. So, it's going to be a tough year. It's going to be a transition year, but I think we have good solid numbers um to help us go forward. So, I appreciate Mary and David's um work on this in a very short period of time. And I'm delighted we are wrapping this up.

Me, too. And we've all been working hard on this. Okay. Anybody else comments? Have a quick question. We we just got an email from me. I wanted to verify the reappropriation amount that changed from 1363 235 to 3142095. That encompasses everything basically in your email and it's covered in this amount. Yes. And this dollar amount reflects that. Okay. That's what I wanted to confirm. Thank you. Thanks, Mary. Questions over here. Okay. Mayor. All right. Um, roll call, please. Mayor Given. Yes. Council member Jedetic. Yes. Council member Litzo. Yes. Council member Schaefer. Yes. Council member Zimmer.

Yes. Um the bill has passed final reading. Uh bill 11121. Mayor and council. This is an ordinance approving the budget of the special business district for the fiscal year April 1st, 2026 through March 31st, 2027. Thank you. Are there any questions or comments? Um, wait, wait. Do we need to Okay. Questions, comments? Yes, Gina.

Um, just to verify, when we, um, first, um, discussed this, there was the kind of process problems with the business license renewal, and I just wanted to double check and see if you all were comfortable um, where you are in the planning to move forward to capture that. Okay, I take the nods. is a yes. I know it's not probably totally refined, but just to make sure that we don't lose sight of that revenue that we've lost over the years. Okay, great. Thanks. Any other comments or questions? Roll call, please. Mayor Gibbons, yes. Council member Jacked, yes. Council member Litzo, yes. Council member Schaefer,

yes. Council member Zimmer, yes. The bill has passed final reading. We will move to new business. Bill 1123. Mayor and council, this is an ordinance granting a special use permit for outdoor use and outdoor dining at 612 West Woodbine Avenue, Lonas Little Eats, subject to certain conditions. Do I have a motion and accept bill 1123 for first reading approval? So moved. Second.

Thank you. Are there questions or comments? I'd like to make the motion to postpone this to the next general meeting. Uh, and the reasoning for that is I'd like to talk with uh Jonathan about possibly a fence around the property and cleaning up the honeysuckle that's around there before we move for approval for this or the liquor license. I'll second. Okay. So, that was a motion and a second. Is there any comments on the motion? Um I This is first reading. So if you wanted to talk about offense with staff, correct? That's

you could do it before. You could do it before the second reading. Did that or if you're trying to hold this up to make sure that they comply. I'm I'm just following what I was recommended. Okay. So staff recommended that you that we continue this. Okay. So, okay. I mean, in the past, I know what it's been in the past. I understand. We want to uh Robert's suspend Robert's rules of order. Is there second? Okay. Who? All

in favor? I I Okay. Nay. Okay. Yeah. Please come on up. We have to make sure that we um I'm Craig with uh Camel. Um

I was going to put some two cents in on the fence. You know, I was trying to, you know, with a bar there, a full bar before. There was never a fence. To my knowledge, there was never any issues in the area. You guys have public cutthroughs from the back of our property to the neighborhoods behind us. So if you're were bringing a family restaurant in eliminating bars, you're cutting off the whole southside. So I was just trying to see if that was in consideration of this. Yeah, I think that that the issue um council members,

so it's on me. So just look at me. I'm I'm the bad guy. So I I have no problem with a with a there already is and was from years back and a cross cut through there. There's stairs there. Uh my proposal was going to be remove all the honeysuckle, keep the trees that are viable that are there. Put up a fence and keep that open in between there so that the people that are because I talked to some of the residents that are in the apartments behind there. Correct. And they would like to keep a path through there so they can walk through to Quickie Mart and so forth. So, I wasn't opposed wasn't going to be opposed to just making a blank wall there. I just needed the honeysuckle cleaned up that looks like

Did have you walked I'm not Go ahead. I'm not saying anything bad here. Have you walked that south property line there to see all that honeysuckle is growing up through the asphalt? So we actually have probably five foot of the overgrowth is going to be peeled back. So a lot of that honeysuckle with the re asphalt that's been recommended by the city. So we're already having the added cost to put all asphalt in. All that's going to get peeled back to where that's going to be removed because it's growing up through the asphalt. Correct. So majority of that's going to be removed already.

Okay. So, what I was going to do is just put this on hold for one meeting, sit down with our city planner, which is Jonathan, and have a discussion on Is he here? Amy, Amy, there we go. And I think council member Schaefer, our from our discussion, it's the honeysuckle that and you don't want it just cleaned up. You want the honeysuckle removed and eradicated and gone. And our urban forestry people over here would be very in in favor of that as well, right? Honeysuckle is a is an invasive species. Yeah.

Yeah. Most of the honeysuckles grow up through the asphalt. So already with what you already have asked us to do is going to be most of it's going to be taken out already. So can that be done before our next meeting? No. Okay. So I can't see what you're proposing. I can walk you through the site and you can see okay the honeysuckle coming through the asphalt and you No, I saw it. But show me where the property line is and how we're going to eradicate. That would be great. Okay. Thank you, Craig. Thank you. Okay, let's see. Where are we? We're back to the con the motion to continue.

Okay. Motion to continue. Any other comments on motion to continue? Okay. All those in favor say I. I oppose. Nay. N. Okay. So, it passes. Um, now, uh, no, it doesn't. Mayor, did you vote? I did. Oh, okay. So, who was I'm sorry. So, who was Can I just get clarification of who was in favor of continuation? Okay. And then Lo and Zimmer are opposed. Okay. Thank you. So, now where are we? We're back to the is still on the MOT. or it did not pass. No, the mayor voted in favor of continuation to ap the first reading to April 2nd.

So, are you saying that it did get continued? It did get continued. Don't you need four votes to continue? There's three three there's three positive and two negative. It was for the emotion. A quorum is four regardless how many people are here, right? Okay. Okay. Yeah, that's what I impressions. Okay. Okay. That's news to me. Okay. All right. So,

yes. Bill 1124. Mayor and council. This is an ordinance amending chapter 24 tree code by deleting it in its entirety and inserting a new chapter 24 tree code. Do I have a motion and a second to um accept bill 1124 for first reading approval? Council member justic. So move. Second.

Okay. Um, and I know that uh, Council Member Jessek, um, who is the leazison to the Urban Forestry Commission, has been very involved with this rewriting of our tree code. Um, she also has said publicly that I have created a tree hugger out of her. So, I think that's pretty fun. Um, but I know we've got um the chairman here and we've got our urban forester here. Um, and um, one of the members as well. That member, as a matter of fact, I met sitting at Spencer's Grill counter and he ended up on the urban forestry commission. I think that's a fun story to tell. They have worked so hard, so hard at redoing this code. And I think that the citizens of Kirkwood are going to be so happy. Um, we've all felt like we're losing our urban forestry and our urban forest and uh, this code is going to help stabilize that and I know Gina has some things she wants to say. Well, and I just, you know, would ditto what you said, but I also think it's noteworthy that two of the commission members are here to um support Brandon and um you don't see that a lot, you know, for the commission members who spend a lot of time and effort on something like this come on a Thursday night at 7 to be here to support it as well. So, I appreciate those efforts and appreciate um all the work that Brandon did and it's been a delight um to to be a part of this uh commission.

Very good. Any more comments? All righty. All in favor of first reading approval of Bill 1124, please say I. I. Opposed? Nay. Great. The bill has passed for first reading approval. Congratulations. All right. Um, now we are moving to city council reports. Um, and I just want to say um something about transformers that came up last time. Um, and we apparently have a lot of transformers. I did talk to the um head of electric in um, Springfield to find out what the deal was with transformers. And I know that our interim CEO is is has the electric park department really inventorying and he will be giving us a report on that. Um but the um the gentleman from Springfield said that transformers are not losing value but are actually hard to get delayed p because of the pandemic because of um tariffs. the tariffs are the big thing. So anyway, I just wanted to let our citizens know that we are going to have a complete evaluation and we will find out where we are and how we should move forward. Okay, other council reports. Council member Bletza.

Thank you, Mayor. Um, so the Kirkwood Parks and Recreation Master Plan, the draft is now completed. City Council members received all three different sections in emails and um an email from the parks and wreck um director Kyle Hanky that um there will be a public hearing on the proposed parks and wreck master plan held Monday, April 20th at 700 p.m. at the Kirkwood Community Center. Um the master plan provides uh guidance for future decisions but does not obligate the city to implement any specific project or recommendation. This basically I believe is uh at least a 15-year document takes at least a 2035 as far as our parks as well as recreation programs. So residents are encouraged to review the draft uh materials. They I believe they're online on the parks department website. Um and provide comments during the public hearing or in writing to uh Kyle Hanky. Um and I just wanted to give everybody a heads up and hope that you'll turn out Monday, April 20th, uh 7 p.m. at the Kirkwood Community Center.

Thank you.

Thank you, mayor. I'm I want to clarify a statement that I made when I was up here before about uh and have repeatedly said that the city never received an appraisal for the Morasic property. U I've been informed that I'm incorrect that there actually was an appraisal done for the Morzic property back in 23. So, I'm publicly saying that there is one out there. Uh, if somebody wants to go look it up, uh, we did pay $2,000 for that appraisal. Um, but that wasn't what was followed, so I'll just leave it at that.

Thank you. Any additional I did check our city website. Um, the drafts are there online for the parks. Okay, great. Great. Good. Great. Okay. Um, city administrator interim city administrator report. Uh, mayor and council, the city received a liquor license application to sell intoxicating drink or toxic linker by the drink excluding Sundays from Lonas Eats at 62 West Woodbine Avenue. This would uh this request would require a city council approval by voice vote. Do I have a motion and a second to approve the application? Motion.

Second. Thank you. Questions like comments. I'm going back to again I'd like to put this on hold to the next meeting when full council's here to discuss the liquor license to so that they mirror each other as we go forward. Are you making a motion? I'm making that motion. Sorry. You're fine. That's a motion. Okay. Is there a second? Okay. Okay. So, comments and questions on the motion. Just to kind of is your intention just to kind of get everything on the same cleaned up agenda?

Yep. Okay. All right. Um, all in favor of approval of the motion say I of continue. Yeah. A motion to continue. Motion to continue say I. I oppose. Nay. Okay. So, it'll go next council meeting. Correct. Very good. Thank you. City attorney report. I have nothing to report. Okay. City clerk report. Yes, your honor. I have one thing to report on is the scheduled upcoming public hearing on April 2nd, 2026 for a request for a special use permit for outdoor use and outdoor dining for Fox's finest at 159 West Argon Drive. That's all I have.

Thank you. Seeing no further business, our next regular meeting will be held Thursday, April 2nd, 2026. This meeting is adjourned. Thank you. That's a record. I love it. Started seven out before 8. I want to know the background. So you just