Board of Aldermen - Regular Meeting

Good evening and welcome to the December 8th, 2025 board of alder meeting. I now have the pleasure of calling this meeting to order. I would ask everyone to rise and join me in 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. Thank you. I would ask the clerk city clerk to call a role for attendance. Alderman Friedman here. Alderman Gerber here. Alderman Harter here. Alderman Hughes here. Alderman Canella present. Alderman Murphy

present and Alderman Square here. I have Alderman Schwear as absent. Barry is presiding. We do have a quorum.

Thank you very much. There's a couple things I want to talk about and we'll get to the minutes and on to the rest of the meeting. Obviously, we're at the end of the year. Um, and I always think it's a good idea once in a while to say thanks to the board, thanks to our commissions, um, thanks to our city staff, thanks to our the brave men and women of our police, fire, and EMS for making our city the kind of place that it is. And, and I mean that sincerely. I I appreciate the fact that obviously we're not going to always agree on everything, but I think we have high integrity of people on board. I say that because Ben's not here. [laughter] Ben's a great guy. I'm just kidding. But um and I want to thank all those folks who work on all of our commissions. They are they do outstanding work for us and and they take that you know I serve on P&Z as does Joe and whether it's that or police and meetings our parks and recreation you put in a lot of effort. So I just want to say for my for me thanks to all these entities for all you do to make this city a special a special city. Um, I want to also just and I know that Alderman Murphy will expound on it, but um, Winterfest was a huge success. Fortunately, a nice day, relatively speaking, from center and actually kind of mild, but her group and the committee that ran this under Dave's opaces did a wonderful job. I know Dave will go into more detail, but I wanted to point that out. And finally, I'm gonna ask the chief to come forward for a second. Um, a couple of people were apprehended in our city uh recently and the very

good news is none of our officers, none of our citizens and the two people apprehended, no one was injured, which is tremendous. So, you just give a little background on J. I just I just think it's another example of the great work your department's doing.

Sure. Mayor and Lord, thank you for the opportunity to to uh really thank the public. We probably would have had a much more difficult time appreciating these people at the time of occurrence without their timely phone calls. Uh resident who was out of the area uh made a phone call to our dispatch center uh that their house was was being burglarized. They could see on their uh live feed video camera the the the incident taking place. uh they were able to tell us that they left out the back door in a general um direction help from several surrounding agencies uh saturated the area. We received numerous phone calls from from uh residents, homeowners telling us about people running through their yards and through common ground. And so many times we we get this information, but two hours later or days later, uh the fact that they called when it was happening was was paramount to us being able to uh take these people into custody, which we were able to a short time later. Uh and one one was apprehended inside of Stros and the other was apprehended in a small wooded area right behind Sts. Great,

great, great work. Congratulations. couldn't have done it without the help of our of our surrounding organizations and of course the public and we really appreciate that. Thank you sir. And then u we will move on to the minutes from the November 24th 2025 meeting. I take a motion and second to approve. Any discussion or amendment on the minutes? All in favor of accepting the minutes as I say I. Anyone opposed? That carries. Um, have any citizens asked to speak? No, sir. Okay. Thank you.

All right. Well, next we will move on to a public hearing. A public hearing on the proposed 2026 budget for the city of town and country. I now declare the public hearing open. I would ask the city clerk to enter exhibits.

Exhibit number one is affidavit of publication of notice of hearing published in the St. Louis County on November 20th, 2025. Exhibit number two is typewritten notice of hearing posted at the municipal center at the firehouse and at Long View Farm Park House on the city's website and sent via notify me. Exhibit number three is bill number 2554. Exhibit number four is presentation by finance director Joanne Jadali at the board of alderman meeting on Monday, November 24th, 2025. Exhibit number five is presentation by finance director Joanne Jadali at tonight's board of alderman meeting that you'll get in just a moment. And exhibit number six is email in support of bill number 2554 from Alderman Ben Schwear dated December 8th that was distributed to the board in advance of this meeting.

Thank you. Before I ask anyone to come up um I do want to um [snorts] thank Alman Sawyer for heading ways and means and the thorough job they did in analyzing that budget and making their recommendations. Just like all the other commissions, the people on that commission are very they're not just there to have a coffee and a donut. We don't really have donuts anywhere. It's obvious marginal, but they really are very intent on on that on on analyzing the budget every which way. So, I I really appreciate the job that the people on that committee do and I appreciate before you, you know, Sue Allen and now you they do a great job of running these meetings. Um, so I just want to say thanks for that. I also just want to make a general comment that I doubt there's many bills in Congress or budgets that everybody loves. I think a lot of the bills that get passed in Congress have writers attached to them helps some guy in some state and there's parts you don't like. I feel like it's reasonable to say, you know, I got some problems with this budget, but overall I agree with it. I mean, I just it's just me and I everybody needs to do what they need to do in terms of that. That's kind of how I look at it. Michelle, did you want to say a comment first before Joan?

Just briefly while Joanne comes up, mayor, uh I just want to thank the board. Uh as a followup to our November meeting, we asked for questions. We've received questions. Majority of this presentation tonight is in response to those questions from the board. Uh obviously, as I think Joanne will say, if you have any other questions that come up while she's going, raise your hand. [clears throat] Mayor will recognize you and you could go ahead and ask any other questions. But this is largely in response to questions from the board that we've received since the November presentation.

Well, thank you so much for the opportunity. So, the first slide that I'm going to share with you is with regard to the the public hearing and the comparison between the public hearing numbers and um the document that you received, the proposed recommended budget for 2026. And I just wanted to note there was only one difference between those two items and that 25,000 is was actually in that proposed recommended budget document. The 25,000 is in that item right below which is for the engineering study for infill sidewalk on Mason Road from Conway to I64. And so that was budgeted in the parks and stormwater fund in the trail construction and improvement account. also wanted you to know this is a project for which we hope to partner with St. Louis County on and so that was the reason that it got put in at that time. So that's the only item on there. So let's start with questions. So this is with regard to all funds revenues and expenditures. And one of the first questions was what actually why does miscellaneous revenue fluctuate so much between 24 25 and 26. And because uh miscellaneous revenue is often a one-time and unpredictable revenue source, I listed what those were for 2026 that we anticipate receipt of. So the sale of assets, that would be the sale vehicles. So, of course, that's just a a a good guess, I think. And then, um other parks programs. So, the various ones that they have such as the concert series, the fire and ice, turkey trot, and the outdoor winter market we have budgeted for 34,000. And then there are some other smaller items that make up the total uh 156,000 that I didn't note here. Another very good question was the fact

that I have so many different numbers presented. uh regarding budget. What are these numbers? Where do they come from? So that first number at the bottom, the 19 million number is one of the proposed budget numbers from 2025 on the expenditure side for all funds. The adapted budget that I didn't present on here is slightly less than that by like $50,000. it was 19,219 I'm sorry 19,219,564. The second number uh below or the number below that is uh slightly over $20 million. So that's the amended budget for fiscal year 2025, but that is just for the four major funds. So it was pulled from that one slide that just showed the four major funds. There isn't much more in that number. That would just be like the the safety funds that were in there as well. So, what I wanted to explain with this one though is what is an amended budget. So, first of all, you will if you approve the budget tonight, that becomes the original budget for 2026. But shortly thereafter, if there are any carryovers or encumbered funds from 2025 that need to roll over into 2026 for continued projects, those funds will roll over into the 2026 budget and that's part of the budget uh the ordinance that you'll hopefully approve tonight. So then those monies roll over. So that that becomes then the amended budget. But then there is one more part to that. And throughout the year, if there are projects that we bring before you and they're over budget for what you

had previously approved, then we have to ask you to amend the budget and take to income number of the funds, take the money from fund balance in order to expand that uh item. And so that's the other portion. And we have a few of those that we did. one happened um where we had to amend the budget early in 2025 and that was to due to the dispatch services agreement in the general fund. Um that was whereby there was a misreading of how that was set up with regard to the agreement with West County EMS the car protection district and that number was double counted and so we had to amend the budget for that. There is another item uh as an example vehicle purchase. We had one where a vehicle was wrecked. We needed to replace that vehicle. We got money from insurance to pay for most of it but not for the whole portion. So we needed to amend the budget to receive money to pay for that. So then the number on the bottom um is the estimated fiscal year 2025 expenditures. What that means is what we think we're actually going to spend. So it might sound silly that well but you have $20 million of an amended budget but you're only what is the 17? Well, we're saying we're only going to spend even though we were authorized as much as $20 million. We're only going to spend the 17,600,000. So we're not going to spend 2.2 million this current year. It's okay to come in under budget. [laughter]

Thank you very much. So I hope that is that the numbers are clear, but if you'd have a Sure. Sure. Sure. Joan, if you don't mind. No. This was the question that I had because I looked at these three numbers and was confused that it looked as though the budget number was less clear to me than it should be. But having said that now if you look at the 19 million269 the first number is the 2025 budget [clears throat] we think it's going to land on which is the number on the bottom 17851. Yes.

That leaves a substantial gap about 1.4 million. Those are projects that were not we're just not finished this year. Isn't that correct? So the Long View Farm parking lot is a substantial cost of $410,000. That'll get moved to being done in 2026. So we will eventually recognize that work and the work will be completed. It just isn't going to be done for 2025

for some projects. But let me show this next slide to you. For the general fund, actually we have operational savings. So, we didn't spend all of the budget for or we don't plan to spend all of the budget, the amended budget for fiscal year 2025. As a matter of fact, um we plan to collect more in revenues than we budgeted. So, we believe we'll collect about $530,000 in revenues, more than what we planned. And on the expenditure side, we're going to spend less by about 3%. So, that would be 355,000. So, um, 886,000 of that number is savings that we aren't going to be spending. I mean, I I didn't comment on on the expenditure part. Um, I continue to be amazed at how diligently every single staff member works to squeeze every dime and every nickel as far as it will go in the city. I mean there there is when I sometimes hear people say we don't need the property tax just cut the waist my answer is come show it to me show me the waste this place is run extraordinarily lean and if I remember the last couple of audits that we've had not that the big statement but the ones that we pay for have basically said you're under man by one or two positions um and the city staff has been like okay fine we can handle that we don't you know So I I just it doesn't it doesn't surprise me our expenditures are on less than we thought because that's just the way the city staff operates. It just isn't true.

If you don't mind one more there was there's also and Joan you and I spoke about this on the phone. I just want to make sure it's clear to everybody that there's also the preservation park work that represents $564,000 of work that'll be supported substantially by a grant. But when you take the 564,000 for Preservation Park and the $410,000 for Long View Park uh network, combine them, it's 900,000 plus dollars. And so that comes out of 2025 and moves to 2026 where it will be spent then. Isn't that So it won't come out of 20. You mean we won't count it in 2025? Is that what you're saying? Well, I also mean to say that we will never miss doing the work.

Correct. It's not like we we had some budget at 199 million and we just somehow lost $2 million of work to be done. It's actually still happen. It was budgeted in 2025. We didn't spend the money in 2025 and we're rebudgeting it in 2026. But you are correct. Absolutely. We're not putting off. We just put off you know delayed the project but it will be completed both. Thank you. Very good. Thank you.

So more questions on revenues. Uh again uh another one this is the with regard to the fines and forfeitures with court and you can see how these numbers fluctuate a bit. Um so we researched this a little bit is the reason that the number is as it is is first of all we are almost fully staffed in the police department. So that helps with um having more officers out on the roads. Another one is that um infractions um are more costly at higher speeds. Now, um, also the real ID requirement is now in place that place a it places a hold on a person's license. So, of course, the result is people are more likely to pay more timely because they want to get that hold off of their licenses. Uh the court clerk and the court administrator are cleaning up court files, reorganizing, putting them in a a better situation and um they're also implementing ongoing maintenance of attorney cases which provides us an opportunity or them an opportunity to bring the cases to closure sooner. So that's the reasons for those adjustments in 2026. Uh with regard to licenses and permits, this category actually um includes business licenses, building permits, various types of permits and then the video franchise fees that I mentioned before. So there is a lot of fluctuation between um the fund or these line items from year to year. Um and so that is uh pointed out in the question about why those numbers change so tremendously. Um we will say that um when we have larger commercial projects of course that

number is a lot higher. Um as as is when we have uh larger numbers of residential projects. Uh, another question was about the incentive being offered and it we believe that it has weighed $27,000 so far. Um, but it does have offsetting revenue of $47,000. So, it actually [cough and clears throat] um is a positive um initiative. There are more uh things I could explain on this part, but unless there are further questions with regard to this, I'll move on. Nope.

Thank you. Uh with regard to sales tax revenues, um the there was a question brought to us with regard to our top five retailers, how much they contributed um to sales tax revenues and it is 44%. That's a very large number. Um and there is concern uh if we lost one of those top five a huge concern. um with regard to how that would impact uh the city of town and country and the services and we've communicated that a number of over a number of years with regard to how that would impact us. I will say that thank you for providing us the property tax. I think that helps provide a nice stable revenue source. is much um it is much more stable than what we rely on when we have sales tax which is quite a volatile situation. Yes.

Just off the top of your head I I actually posed this question as well. Um [clears throat] any idea how many retailers we have in town country ballpark? I don't know that number off the top of my head. I'm sorry. Do you know on the license?

I think Brian knows the answer. I was just curious but obviously Tom relying so much on just five is a concern so I appreciate the comment. [clears throat] Um, of the retailers, do we uh get any indication as far as when they're about to expire or the leases are coming due to know that if by chance they could be pulling out a particular time or not doing there are times so we get we'll of course pay attention to the newspapers or other media because it gets communicated [clears throat] in that fashion. Some do reach out to us. Unfortunately, there are circumstances where we don't know until it's actually in the paper and then it's a little too late.

Yeah. I mean, God forbid Target would leave, but I think that decision is made at Target headquarters and they announced a press release one day and they don't I'm virtually certain they wouldn't call us up a month ahead of time and say this is coming. Well, I was more inquiring more about the smaller retailers like some of the ones um in the smaller shops that you know are more fluid in their businesses. So, I'd be curious if we know any idea as far as um their term limits are or not term limits but their term as far as leases, you know, when they're coming to or expiring. We don't have that information. Okay. Um we do um with business license renewals those are on an annual basis and this morning does a great job of keeping track of that information for us.

Thank you.

So another expenditure two separate questions one was with regard to the city newsletter. How frequently is it budgeted for distribution in 2026? And that is the answer right there that um it is budgeted for distribution of an assortment of three newsletters mail mail mailers postcards and postage for 2020. And if I could ask a question at least on the newsletter, isn't that roughly 14,000 for the postage? I don't think so. just for postage is about 1,500.

Okay. But but what to put out, you know, the high glossy, what what did that cost us? And I'm sorry, not just the post, but the whole price, I guess I meant to say. Um the postcard that you all received just as an example for the ecycle and paper shred event. It was just a little 5 by8 postcard. Um all in was about 3500. Okay. So going up from there, if you're doing a four-page newsletter, that would probably cost you around 5,000 depending on glossy versus non- glossy there. I mean, there's a lot of factors that go into the final cost of it that I will that's actually.

Yeah. Yeah. But typically postage is around 1,500. Okay. Obviously, if it's a larger newsletter and it's heavier, it goes up.

All right. Got it. Thanks. Then the next item is with regard to branch chipping and late collections. And um the question was with regard to uh there were questions about why it was not rebudgeted into in 2026 and we did not rebudget it because the board voted against it in 2025 and there were various um thoughts about why it shouldn't be in place. One reason was because we already have these large capital expenditures for which we have to fund. So why do we want to spend money on something that's a less substantial cost when we really need to take care of the larger capital projects? And then there was also a concern that we had limited biders for which to complete that. Um there was also a question asked about leaf collection. Oh, and I didn't mention the cost for branch dipping. Um the bid last year was $55,500. There was also a question about leaf collections and we did some research and estimated it to be over a half million dollars. So that's a little startling.

So for the growth fund expenditures, there are three um items that we have questions about on here. One, the first question was with regard to deer management asking if it is competitively bid. And I'm just going to read this so I don't miss any details. Uh, White Buffalo has been the city's provider since inception of the program. They are a 501c3 nonprofit dedicated to ecology and the only provider in the area. Their staff of urban biologists meet the qualifications, compliance, and reporting required by the Missouri Department of Conservation. They have proven to be safe and professional working with our residents and staff and other area communities. and they also have share the harvest in place. The next item, Clayton Road, why is it missing from the five-year CIP? And the reason for that is we didn't have an estimated timeline for resurfing phase three of Clayton Road. So, we will review and make a recommendation on that. And then finally uh the the third question on here with is with regard to snow removal and tree management and asking if there will be additional adjustments to budget line items. Um and that depends if we get too much snow we may need to do that for the ending uh the budget for 2025. Um what generally happens is I will put together a number of budget adjustments for fiscal year 2025 and bring it to the board of alderman uh around February, the end of February and then this would be one of those items in there. Um hopefully we won't have to do that. We will not need to worry about

that till maybe 2026, but we will see. Uh with regard to tree management, um it's in the rightway m uh maintenance account. Uh it has increased. Um we have removed many trees and disease trees in the rideway in recent years. The next fund, capital improvement fund. There are a couple questions on expenditures here. One has to do with the Salt Mill Road facility and it asks um if some of our staff will be housed at the Salt Mill Road facility, do we want to scale back some of the requirements for the municipal center project? Um and we are not planning on scaling back the municipal center project because we're just wishing to renovate existing space here at City Hall. We're not planning on doing anything besides that. Um only two staff members are planning to be housed at the news facility. One is u moving out of the basement and that's where the jail cells and other items are going to be located. And the other is um his office will become the building department clerk's office. We want to make that an intake window to increase customer service and security. Another question is, please advise on penalties or incentives to the contracted providers for staying on time and or on budget for the above name project. And I'm just going to read this. The design phase we're in now with fixed fees puts the incentive on the contractors to stay on schedule because their time is money. Part of our agreement is for them to design until we meet budget. Okay. parks and storm water fund. I just have

one question. This is with regard to the tunnel ceiling repair questions. Um I will read it and then if um would you like to give an update that read? Okay. This says the tunnel under Clayton Road into Town Square was designed to be installed by boring under the roadway due to clay soil. The design had to be altered and Clayton Road was open cut and holes were drilled into the structure to drop it in. Early leaks were patched, but they have continued causing safety issues. The general contractor warranty expired in 2020.

So, I think one of the reasons this question came up was the large number that's in there, which is $200,000. And Miss Nixon and our new public works director, Mr. Gray, have been working with uh looking into this. We think it's going to be significantly less. It's not going to be cheap, but to actually waterproof and get a some type of warranty, not a forever warranty, but we do think it's going to be much less than the $200,000. This agreement will come to the board once we get a bid, assuming it's approved in the budget. But just to kind of give a little update on that.

And my final slide has to do with expenditures in the security and training funds. There was a question because the budget for 2026 is much higher than in prior years, particularly the prior year. There is a $30,000 increase. I wanted to just point out that 25,000 of that is tied to the opioid remediation fund. So that was um a settlement that the city of town and country is part or participated in and we've been receiving monies for the past few years with regard to that. We must spend the money on particular projects as allowed by the state attorney the state's attorney general. Um and so for the 25,000 we're planning to spend that on automated external defibrillators, 10 of them. um and some of our patrol powers and city facilities. And then um the other monies we have like an inmate fund which we spend some of the money on and then uh some money on training of our patrol officers. So that's all I have for the presentation and I'm happy to answer any questions.

Number one, thank you. And number two, I can't think of money better spent than AEDs. That's coming from an older man. [laughter]

Yeah, it's amazing how they do save lives. Um, but we open it up to the board if they have any other specific questions for Mr. And if not, are there any members of the public that wish to comment on the budget? But then I want to thank you so much for the attention to detail. And now the public hearing close. Uh we do not have any appointments, Mr. N. Okay. Now recognize the uh the board's opportunity to provide reports a little bit harder uh from the police fire and uh the police were invited to Winterfest to have provide their public outreach thing and they wanted to thank them for doing that. apparently went extremely well and I know we'll hear a lot more from that from Alderman and Murphy. Um they recently also put up a wall display in the hallway inside and has since been taken down for working it out but it uh basically a display of their mission vision and values and it's going to be in the hallway probably next week or so very shortly in the police department. And I also wanted to remind people that in the midst of the holiday and cold weather season, please keep uh valuables outside when you're shopping, be aware of your surroundings, lock your vehicles, and um just have a safe time. So that was it from that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor. First of all, let me let me say thank you to to the staff for the budget preparation. A lot of work went into that and and it's it's six months of work that starts uh immediately I guess in in January again for next year. But uh outstanding job and Ways and Means Commission uh uh when they reviewed the budget, it was uh I think met with a great deal of um appreciation from from all of the commission members. Um our next Ways and Means Commission meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, January 28th at 8:30 a.m. in the community room here in the municipal center. Of [clears throat] course, all board members and the public are invited to attend. The tenative agenda for that meeting will include our annual review of the city's investment policy as well as a review of recommended updates of the city's credit card policy. The staff is also planning to have a review and recommendation of brokerage services provider for ancillary employee benefits to be shared with the commission at that time. full full full schedule. We want to give you plenty of advanced notice.

And if I'm not mistaken, can South P is cancelled for this summer? It is. That's right. Thanks, Murphy.

Thank you, Chairman. Um, it's been talked about a little bit already, so I'll just go uh full force on it. Uh, parks and trails commission as well as the Winterfest committee are really appreciative and want to express their gratitude to the community at large. um to the volunteers as well for supporting not only winterfest but also the th Thanksgiving day turkey trot. The turkey trot saw substantial increase in uh registrance. We actually had 110% increase year-over-year. Uh so about 437 people actually registered. So that's uh significant. And um even with that influx of more people, the staff of town did a tremendous job of kind of managing flow and keeping everyone on the trail, not going off, you know, off wheels or anything of that. So really appreciate that. Um as mentioned, we did have Winterfest this past Saturday. We had approximately 2,000 attendees uh throughout the day. Everyone enjoyed the food, beverages, music, um shopping opportunities. There was a dance troop as well. So, um, great great event and a great way to wrap up our 75th, uh, anniversary. And I will kind of echo what Aldwin harder mentioned, uh, that the police, uh, uh, booth at Winterfest was a hit. Um, I never thought I'd see so many little kids wanting to get their mug shots, but [laughter] I don't know what that says about the candy, but it doesn't say anything at all. Um, I uh and I did speak to the officers on hand there and publicly I'll I'll I'll acknowledge Chief Loki and just say thank you for creating this environment of a community-based police force. That's obviously something that's incredibly important these days and um you've done a tremendous job of making that happen, instilling that characteristic in there. Um, as I mentioned, we did wrap up the 75th anniversary. We have a time capsule now buried in Town Square Park and that will be opened um probably past my lifetime to be honest, but it [clears throat] will be open in a future date. And I

will share with the uh board that some of the memorable things from uh life here today include obviously a lot of our 75th anniversary celebration activity or materials. the uh turkey trot shirt, which uh was a big hit obviously. Um the 75th anniversary blanket, menus from restaurants, photos, and something that is no longer going to be around, pennies. We actually need to pennies inside the time capsule. So So [clears throat] anyway, again, [laughter] thank you all. Thank you.

I just wanted to congratulate you, Alderman Murphy, and the staff for doing a wonderful job at the Winterfest. We had a couple of people that were there for the first time and they raved how wonderful it was. Um, also to the police as well. Um, my children enjoyed the um the uh what is it? The wall of shame that you stand up the line in the line with their photo taken like they were guilty of something. And we also did our photo booth with the Globe and Santa. So, it was a really well attended event and people enjoyed it. It was the first time. So, thank you.

You know, actually I I would just second that. I probably didn't hit every single vendor, but hit almost every single vendor. Um, and they were actually very happy to be there. And I I asked them just a practical question. How did you do financially? And pretty much to a person, they this was a good day. This was a good day. It was a good day. Mr. Sh, do you have anything else I want to say? While we're on the time capsule, I'll turn it over to Miss McNamera for some information on the recording of that information.

Uh, just to piggyback on Alder Murphy's report about that time capsule. Um, today I was provided with a brief report on the 2025 time capsule that includes the contents, the dedication date, and the GPS location ordinance so that we can find it at some [laughter] point in the future. Yeah, I'll be entering that upon the record for this evening and attaching it to the minutes for permanent retention so somebody can find it later. Thank you very much. Thank you. In digital format [laughter] floppy disc.

Now, next under the payable report, I would recognize the board's opportunity to ask questions on the November payable report. And on that I would ask the city clerk attorney to moving on to unfinished business. Um bill number 2554 by the board as without objection. The city clerk read the bill for the second time. Bill number 2554 is an ordinance approving the budget and authorizing budgeted expenditures for the budget year beginning January 1, 2026. Thank you. I seek a motion and second to approve. So move. Second.

Great. Any discussion? Amen. Thank you, mayor. Um, I'm going to vote in support of the budget, but I do not support the current deer management program. And I think it's time for the city to review the existing program and review any new methods of deer management that may be out there and set some new goals. So, I just wanted to bring that up.

No, I think that's fine. Just as an aside, just happened to be watching the news before I came over and I did not realize that um there's some discussion in Bollywood right now about the same thing, but this year they harvested 400 deer, 600 deer, correct, 600 deer at a cost of 400,000 and they're considering another six figure to do another 120 or 30 something like that. It was I mean I thought those are big [clears throat] numbers 600 here but anyway they they are um but they're also going to take a look at things there too. I just thought I'd throw it out. Thank you. Any other comments [clears throat] and I would ask the city clerk for a roll call vote.

Alderman Sawyer. Hi. Alderman Murphy. Hi. Alderman Harter. Hi. Alderman Canella. Hi. Alderman Friedman. Hi. Alderman Hughes. Hi. And Alderman G. Hi. That bill passes unanimously and becomes ordinance number 4725.

And I would actually like to thank the board for that unanimous vote. Um because if if just barely passes or doesn't pass, I think it sometimes can send a message to our constituents and more importantly to me, it sort of sends a message to our city staff. You don't like the job you're doing. and it just has a lot of implications that I think are pretty negative. So, I think I much appreciate the fact that it went unanimously. I think it's it's it's a good look at the city and and I appreciate that. Yeah, there's parts of that that, you know, I was actually glad to hear that that was going to get fixed for less than 200,000. And I really would like it if we didn't have to harvest any deer, you know. I mean that you know I although I mean I'm in favor of our program I I do want to have car tier interactions at a low level. Can we look at it a little differently? Perhaps we can take a look and see and talk about but I want to thank the board for that unanimous. So thank you. Next bill number 2555 sponsored by the board as a whole. Without objection will the city clerk read the bill for the second time. Bill number 2555 is an ordinance regarding the rate of compensation for employees of the city of town of country and repealing ordinance number 4666.

Thank you. I seek a motion and second to approve. Second. Thank you. Any discussion? Alderman canal. Thank you, mayor. Just a quick question. There's another role that's been added to the list of city employees. I was just curious what does the role entail? What's the part-time building official? Yes. Excellent question. We have a building official who was full-time uh of retirement age. He decided he wanted to stay on. So, we created a part-time position. So, that individual uh contributes tremendously to the community and so that allowed him to retire but continue to work and provide service.

Thank you. Yep. Great question. I would ask the city clerk for roll call vote. Alderman Hughes. Hi. Alderman Murphy. Hi. Alderman Canella. Hi. Alderman Friedman. Hi. Alderman [clears throat] Harter. Hi. Alderman Gerber. Hi. And Alderman Sawyer. Hi. The bill passes unanimously. Becomes ordinance number 4726.

Thank you. Next bill number 25-56 sponsored by Fox 6 alderman. I kind of let get and use off of that. And without objection, would the city clerg the bill for the second? Bill [clears throat] number 2556 is an ordinance approving a deer management plan and authorizing a wildlife management service agreement between the city of Town of Country, Missouri, and White Buffalo, Inc. for professional deer management services. Thank you. I seek a motion and second to approve. Salute. Second. Thank you,

Alder Ber.

Okay. I I have some concerns about this bill and I want to explain explain the reason. Um but first, I'd like to say I'm very gratified to see that there's no consideration of bow hunting in this bill. Although the solution seems cheaper because amateur hunters are used, no one I've spoken to wants arrows flying around town and country, and no one wants to find dead deer in their yard. The deer hunter who spoke to us last meeting was not correct when he said arrows are more merciful or more humane than sharpshooters. Um I have pictures given to me by a town and country resident who was walking in Queenie Park during the bow hunt a couple years ago. They show a wounded deer lying by the path. The hunter who had messed up came up but he could not dispatch the creature with all the people standing around. Police were called that before they arrived the deer stumbled back into the deeper woods. So, I don't ever believe our deer hunting friend when he makes statements like that to this body. Um, when I was on the board of alderman 15 years ago, the deer management program was just getting started. I remember we had about 600 deer or about 60 per square mile back then. That time we were told that the generally accepted socially acceptable number was 40 per square mile. That's the number where the residents stop complaining about it. And it seems that in the years I've been off the board, we've kind of overshot that goal. Now we're down in the area of getting 20 deer per square mile. And I believe we may have way uh we may be overspending on this program. A figures from our staff indicate we have spent over $960,000 since the program started. uh what we are voting on here would put us over the $1 million mark. I propose that we pause the program perhaps starting next year

um and concentrate and concentrate change our emphasis to limiting the growth of the herd. One way to do this would be to investigate new developments in non-lethal methods as was mentioned before. Another way would be to specify that our vendor targets more females than males. Last year, the ratio was 55% males and 45% females. When fewer doe's are killed than bucks, the population tends to tends to shoot right back up and we get into this yo-yo situation where we going to need to spend money every year adding that. So, I'm going to vote against this bill and I hope we do more for investigating this issue a little more deeply. Thank you. Thank you. Any other discussion? Only thing I would add, I think it might be reasonable, Mr. Shelton. Um, I've enjoyed when the lady from from Missouri Department of Conservation comes and goes over their approach to it, their idea about densities. Um, I think a refresher on that for the board would I think be a really good idea.

Yep. Aaron Shank would be glad to come and sometime in the next several months. [clears throat]

I would ask the city clerk for roll call vote. Alderman Harter. Hi. Alderman Freriedman. Hi. Alderman Hughes. Nay. Alderman Sawyer. Hi. Alderman Gerber. Nay. Alderman Canella. Hi. And Alderman Murphy. Hi. The bill passes 5 to2 and becomes ordinance number 4727. Thank you. Uh, next bill number 25-57 and sponsored by the board of all. Without objection, would the city clerk read the bill for the second time, please?

Bill number 2557 is an ordinance authorizing supplement number two to the professional services agreement work order with HR Green, Inc. for additional engineering design services related to the Long View Farm parking lot resurfacing project. Thank you. I see a motion and second to approve. So move. Second. Thank you. Any discussion on that? Alderman Canal. Thank you, Mayor. Bob, do we know was there a change in personnel at MSD that prompted such a dramatic change in the requirements?

My understanding, and uh Mr. Ray may know more. Um Tim Randic from our staff has dealt with a variety of people at MSD and I think that's more what has happened is it get every time they'd have revised plans a new plan reviewer would have something else to add and and was involved as well but the the goalpost seemed to move clearly. So, it was a variety of personnel, not even just one personnel change. It was probably more than one that that caused such confusion. And now we're with one person and trying to stay with that person as we move into Preservation Park. Okay. Frustrating.

Yeah. Thank you. City clerk for roll call vote. Alderman Hughes. Hi. Alderman Gerber. Hi. Alderman Canella. Hi. Alderman Murphy. Hi. Alderman Sawyer. Hi. Alderman Harter. Hi. And Alderman. Hi. The bill passes unanimously and becomes ordinance number 4728. Thank you. Moving on to new business. Resolution number R13-125 that I hardily endorse. A resolution cancelling the scheduled board of all meeting for the December 22nd meeting. Seek a motion and second to approve. So move. Second.

Any discussion? All in favor say I. Hi. [laughter] I don't know. Can I resolution number R14- 2025? A resolution approving an amendment to the declaration of trust, covenants, conditions, and restrictions of village and Conway subdivision in the city of Town Country, Missouri. Take a motion and second to approve. Second. Any discussion? Mayor, I'll just note for the record that a trustee did show. We appreciate that a Thank you. All in favor say I.

Probably could have done this earlier in the meeting. I'm sorry about that. It's all good. [clears throat] I do not have any other um items to bring up and opens to the board if they have any. If not, I would seek a motion and second to adjourn. So, I assume there's no discussion. All in favor say I. Thank you for your attention. Have a nice Christmas. [clears throat] All night. Yeah.