Board of Aldermen - Regular Meeting

The United States of America and it's a very public for which it stands one nation under all indivisible with liberty and justice for. I'll remember star. Here. Member Plackey. Here. Member Bench.

Here.

Member Poulsen.

Here.

Member Wren.

Here.

Member Palmer.

Here.

Mayor Whitsitt. Here. We have a quorum. Thank you.

Welcome to the visitors. It's a warm day today. So warm if you had to work outside. Thank you. So warm if you had to work outside being sold by your neighbor inside. 72 degrees all day long.

A form of testing.

We have a long it's wrong to continue it. Motion or are there any changes or additions. If you can. We had no way to be over. I will take a motion to accept the consent. And I make a motion to accept the consent. We have a second. We have a motion and a second. All in favor? 6-0. Mayor reports. Well, I had a wonderful Memorial Day. I hope everyone else did also. One thing I'd like to point out, to me, it's important to not only remember those who sacrificed their lives, but also those people who went before us, and also the people who are still here with us. There are a lot of senior citizens and a lot of young people who have no one in their lives that sometimes is so forgotten. Sometimes there are next-door neighbors that we don't even think about. So it's important to remember everyone that's surrounded you. I learned in the last couple of weeks that we're going to have a new ice cream store in town. We have a new plumber that moved into town. I'm excited that we have Blue Smoke Barbecue attending their ribbon cutting. I've been there a couple of times. If you haven't been there, please do go. It's a great barbecue, and I'm looking forward to

A couple weeks ago, we had a planning and zoning meeting. They talked about the vacating of the street of Marlow for advanced industries. They voted to approve it. And then the never-ending discussion on parking was talked in it. That is in our books.

I don't have anything to report.

I don't really have anything to report, but just getting excited about the 4th of July events that are coming up and being played on, so everybody watch the paper, the Facebook, all of that. There's lots of good things happening.

Nothing to report. I always came to. Awesome. It's going to be here. No, it's much way here there.

I've had a couple of calls on Lake Bonita.

I do believe that conservation was out there last week. I'm not sure what they were doing, though. But we're at their liberty.

It looks terrible. And that's the first thing you see when you come here, so.

We're going to put in a new generator with a metal covering over the water.

Yes, we just, that requires the work of the electric department and they're a little occupied right now with the downtown project. So as soon as they have time to help, they'll get those installed.

Do I need to get my scuba gear?

If you want to. Might get it done faster.

That's a lot.

Good evening, Mayor and Board of Aldermen. I'll start with the Parks Department. The Park Board has a special Park Board meeting this week where they do their annual walkthrough of all of the parks. It is a public meeting if anyone wants to or witness that process that they go through, but each year they go through each park and document the things that are in need of maintenance or repair. And then that creates the kind of workload for the parks department for the upcoming year. So they'll walk through the parks this week and then their next meeting they'll go over all of those items. We are all caught up on the rain delay and makeup game for baseball and softball. June 22nd starts their tournaments. We started swim lessons today. We have four sessions every two weeks in the evening and in the mornings. We also started our water aerobics, or they're starting this week on Tuesday, Thursday in the morning and Wednesdays in the evenings. And the shade structures were officially installed at the ball fields. We'll still have the shade structures to install the other parks and locations, but again, Some assistance from the electric department is needed, and they're very busy at this time of the downtown project. So the street department and the deaf health and the park department get the ball field change structures installed for our gates that we hold here. Wastewater department, normal operations. For finance, we had the auditors in-house last week. That went very well, so they're continuing to work on our audit at this point, but they've got the bulk of everything that they need from us. Working on the ECA credits, we've issued 639 credits at this point, which equals $191,000. The business licenses are due by July 1st, so those applications have been coming in Our system sends out 60-day reminders and 30-day reminders to those who previously had an application or a license. The side-off project is moving along very well. We have, so as you obviously can see there on that northeast quadrant, And they're chomping at the bit to get started on the Northwest Quadrant, but they're trying to wait for concrete to get a little bit further down because we insisted that they do not close parking on both sides at all possible. So they're trying really hard to keep as much parking available and open to our downtown businesses and to our residents that visit as much as they can, but they get excited and just want to keep going, so... We're monitoring that. And for street water, today they tore down the pavilion back then. So the pavilion, the older pavilion at Dyer Park by the purple swing set or purple playground, that was torn down today because it was a little bit of a safety hazard. Got some kids and comments about that. So that didn't come down today. It was very, very old. All the prep work from our public works departments in preparation for the rodeo has been done. And we are still working on road prep to get ready for the micro seal for this year for the 2026 street plan. And that work is the goal is to get all of that done by August 1st. Mowing continues. So we continue to focus on getting everything mowed for this season. We're working on installing water meters in the mill. And we did some boring. We get across the installed roads. I do have one new employee and one vacant position in the street department. So we're still working to fill the one vacant position. And the footings have gone in for the street shack first street. So putting along on that. For the police department, we fired a new officer and she's currently in for onboarding and training phase. Her name was Abby Walker. We hope to have her at the next meeting for a formal introduction to you all or for you all. We also plan to have our Bob Kinder Award recipient at the next meeting as well for you. The department did some continued education this week. They did some active shooter building and building clearing training for all employees in the police department. Chief Thompson is still working through and Chief Thompson and Captain Lacey are working to coordinate the regional RMS system with the different jurisdictions in the county. So they're still working hard on that to bring that to fruition. We've had two bags for the animal control building. So they're also working through potentially putting together the contract and getting that in front of you guys as soon as they can. We have everything scheduled and ready to go for the BIFA mutual aid. So that's a total of seven officers that's going to be participating in that program. We also have security scheduled for the rodeo event and the all day work with July event. For code enforcement, she has been working with different landlords in town to make sure their properties are properly maintained. And the SROs have started their summer programming. So we have a few different summer school tours scheduled of the police department and some reading events and visits at the different daycare facilities scheduled for this summer. We recently learned that the current police facility building that they're in, we had assumed that it was built in the 1940s. And we learned that it was actually built in 1929.

And it was a barn used for animal storage for educational purposes. So it's a little older than we thought.

For the electric department, as you know, they're working very hard on getting downtown where it should be. So they worked to take down all the old infrastructure. Now they're going through, they were out there all day long in the beaches, trying to get the wire pulled from baller to baller to baller to baller. And so they're working very hard on that. We do have lights, new lights are turned on. So if you drive through at night, The new lights are on for the street lights. Working, we're very excited, and they look wonderful. So we're almost at the point where we'll have ballers turn on too in that quadrant. For community development, we have currently three commercial buildings under construction, one being Taco Bell, which is very, very, very, very, very close to being complete. And we have seven single-family buildings under construction and three multifamily. Administratively, we have, obviously, the sidewalk project is a very high number one priority. I've also been planning for myself being out for the back half of the month, so trying to get as much stuff accomplished as I can before that happens. Working on the parking draft ordinance for... for planning and zoning and working on the final stages of negotiations with CPKC for the water line. And we had a few meetings with MODOC today that went very well, just updating us on their projects that they have going on in the area, including their repaving of, or resurfacing of 131 that's scheduled for construction in 2031.

So planning ahead. So that's all I have.

Questions? Yeah. Public comments. We'll have no one signing us for public comments. Steve, did you sign up? No. I'll leave it up to the Alderman if he'd like to allow Steve to go ahead and speak. Thank you. Steve Lockhart, 106 North Wells Street.

I'm here to comment on the closing of the Morrow Street. I rent a garage over there that's right next door to Advanced Industries. I have two box trucks that I use daily and back into that driveway to that shed to get supplies. Also inside there, I have a little boy trailer and a boat that I absolutely need that load to be able to pack my trucks up in there. They did mark some lines on the drive out there to show how far their fence was going to be. And if I back my truck up, if I'm real cautious, my rear bumper is right on that paint line. I talked to Shauna and she said that I could use the alley to make my turnarounds. Well, I drove through the alley and it's covered with trees. that they just come straight to vehicles and they come through there. Coming down the north alley, it needs to be re-graveled. And I'm wondering if the city is going to re-gravel that alley to make it accessible. Because I know the alley between Connor and Russell is graveled. I know it's the alley behind your house that's graveled as well.

I don't have an alley behind my house.

I'm wrong. I'm sorry. But anyhow, if I can get gravel on the alley and I can back, pull down one alley, pull into the other alley and make my turns. I'm not against progress, you know that, except that I also need convenience for my equipment as well. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay. Staff recognition. Recognition of Jennifer LeBlanc, Administrator for achieving the MNC&A Advanced Certified Court Administrator certification.

That's a mouthful, isn't it? Okay. We're very proud of Jennifer LeBlanc for her certification. She just keeps getting them, keeps moving hard towards her goals. And just a little bit about the certification. So it requires, obviously, extreme dedication and commitment to municipal court and to the organization. A recipient of this certification must be a member of MACA, the Missouri Association for Court Administration, for at least six years. We have all been in Eight years. She must perform court-related duties for a minimum of six years, hold a CCA designation, Certified Court Administrator designation for at least three years, which she recently did get that one, and then adhere to the strict MACA Code of Ethics, secure a letter of recommendation, serve a full term on the MACA Executive Board. and or serve on a MACA committee for at least two years and accumulate 50 continuing education hours. So she's done a really great job of just staying focused on her achievements and her goals that she's working towards. And as a result, we have a great board of administrators.

Congratulations.

Yes, of course.

Well, I just want to thank the city for providing a means for this continuing education. I feel like it's been a really good thing for me. Kind of brings me out of my shell a little bit. Our last conference we had, 300 people and I had to get up and talk to them, stop music, sing something. But it's been, it's been actually a really fun experience. This whole court, when I started, I've never done anything with the court before. And so I just kind of was dropped into it and learned as I went, but going to these trainings that are provided by the state, by the state office, of the office anyway the state whatever and then MACA this our statewide organization it's been really very important to help us keep on top of like the changing laws and the changing protocols you know as things go they certainly aren't the same as they used to be 5 or 10 or 15 years ago so it's been really good to keep abreast of that situation. And I just really, I appreciate the city for this because there are cities out there with their court clerks who do not let them go to the conferences because I don't know, they don't think it's important or something. And I just think it's really important. And every year on my evaluation, when they ask, you know, what, what can the city do to help you improve? My answer is always just keep letting you go to these, these trains and these conferences. And now, I'm on the board, so I'm helping other newer clerks come in and learn some of this stuff, too. So it's all around just been a really good experience for me, I think, and helps me bring a better court to our court, better processes, a better way to run things. I get to communicate with other courts and see how they do stuff and what their judges think and how you know, how we can improve ours. And anyway, I just happy to be here. Thank you.

So the presentation is going to be put on by the Odessa Little League Football Association. I didn't put football on the agenda, so I just want to clarify that.

So I'm Katrina Manning. I'm the fundraising manager for the Odessa Little League Football.

I'm Andrew Williams. I'm the board president.

So we have proposed a project on the southwest corner of the high school grounds of the grass field that's over there off of 00 Highway. And this project would include the installation of four light poles that would be on a control switch, which I know is important considering there's residential homes behind those fields. This will allow our program as well as the high school and other activities to thrive because come September, we're cut short on practice time and the ability to utilize those fields, which is our only really grass or fields to utilize for our little league program practices. And then it will also give us the ability to have flag games out there as well, band, soccer, all the other activities at the high school will be able to utilize that. We're requesting the city's help in the installation of the project. We have the means to source and supply most of the materials. We've talked with Troy, Shauna, and Bruce, and we've all come to an understanding that the city power plant has four poles, and that the manpower to help us get this installed. However, we would handle the excavation, and that would be of the trenching and the boring of the conduit wire to connect all the poles.

um they are led lights so they pull very very very little power and we have the ability to pull power from i'll let you kind of leave them here you don't want a power portion on this so there's a sub panel in the equipment shed where actually they have an irrigation control that that's where we store all of our heating equipment and all that so we'll be able to utilize that sub panel pull from there and then we're going to come out um head towards the west and then so you'll be on the east side west side like she said there's going to be four poles there um we have an official trauma should be in your practice so we went to the school district first um and got their blessing um and then they came to you folks after uh So, like Katrina was saying, that we're able to provide the material we're looking for by birth, essentially.

But in the skill set, literally, that has the ability to do what we've done. I mean, we've exhausted some efforts with local... Or like different businesses and stuff. And unfortunately, there are a lot of the hands that we were asking for a bus to work on our downtown project. So there goes that one. And then a couple of the other ones are willing to help with different things, but it just wasn't what we needed. And then whenever we talked to the power plant and Shauna and Troy, we all met together. It just really kind of, it was just kind of came together. It seemed like the pieces were all kind of coming together, so to speak. So yeah. That is our proposal for that. We've provided a full summary of the project as well. So for those that don't have any questions, we're willing to answer those if you have any.

Yes.

So what you're asking from the city to provide, from what I read, make sure I'm correct, is the labor and then only four fulls? Yeah. Four fulls.

Yeah. So as we discussed with Troy during our meeting, it would be kind of digging the trenches or digging the holes where the poles would be set. And then they would help us kind of get, they would supply the holes. We would supply concrete and the skill set to set concrete installation of the holes, because it's not just a pour concrete in a hole instead of a hole. It's more intricate than that. So we'll obviously work on that, which we have a couple different options there we're working on. We're just kind of trying to solidify that. So correct, it would be the pour holes and the manpower to dig the holes, put the holes in place, wire them up, and then set them initially. And then we would supply the the manpower to excavate and trench the conduit wire and the property.

So you're supplying the actual wire, the lines.

Yep. And all the extremities that would go with the poles. So that's the bull horns, the different connectors or anchors for the poles. And it's kind of been on what the poles are. Like I said, poles a lot. Yeah, but an approximate cost

for the city, what it would cost for the city, just a dollar amount, polls and labor. I mean, I know you don't know how long he's going to pay.

I haven't figured. I can. The polls are something that we purchased to use a long time ago. And we have notes. So to see the cost of that labor, we could come up with.

What do you think your estimated time would be?

It would be... I think in our meeting, you know, just digging the holes, 30 minutes tops on digging the holes and placing the lights, setting the light, 15, I mean, an hour per, we're talking four hours probably of work.

Still half day of labor.

yeah most of the most of the labor hours comes with the excavation of the the trenching of the conduit wire connecting it all because it's a large surface it's a it's approximately 60 600 linear feet of conduit so yeah i'm totally personally i'm totally not opposed i just know that our guys are pretty stretched exactly and they're very gracious so i don't want them to feel like

They want to do this, but if it's not in the best interest, then that's where I'm. So, I mean, it's in the best interest of sports and all that. I get it. But yet, sometimes it's easy to say yes. When am I going to squeeze this in?

With that, I think our time, the timing that he's going to work to. It looks like when we met. that their need is going to be pretty close, but it would be right after when you get that down and all those things should work.

And then my only other question. So then this would be billed to the school.

Yeah, so we've talked with the school district, which they're having their meeting tomorrow, and our agreement with Dr. Fagan was that we would work with the school and kind of make, like, we would buy the bulb, they would install it, kind of thing. So the light bulb goes out, like, we help them purchase the materials, they help us maintain it, because it is on school grounds, and they have the benefits to do so. Right.

Well, and, you know, just to back that, you're a little league tonight. Yeah, I was. Yeah, go ahead. Taxpayers pay this 100% taxes. Yeah. You know, we're taxpayers all over for funding that. So that's something to look at too. Yeah. Okay. I don't know if my question is in.

Yeah, I'm going off the electricity adults are willing to be schooled, correct?

Correct. Yes. And they're, you know more about the wattages, but they don't pool, they're LE bulbs. They don't pool a lot. And then the use that we'd be using them would be very minimal. I mean, very minimal.

Well, for little league purposes, it would be from end of July to October, three times a week, two hours. So, I mean... LED technology is very inexpensive around. I'm sure you're probably going to talk about that.

And they'll have like an on and off switch when they're being inside the equipment.

Yeah. Either the school district or little league will have access to it.

So, you know, the public can't just go on there and turn off. Yeah. Yeah.

However, I say this is going to sound bad. To go with what Alderman Olson just said about the taxpayers. We as the Board of Aldermen are under very close scrutiny at the moment, I feel like. This is something, as a city, we should do. Any city that wouldn't do this, I'm going to go with Hasbro. This is community betterment. This is everything good. We are also a city who has now found itself going to be getting an audit that we have to come up with a lot of money to pay for because the taxpayers don't feel we handle things correctly. I'm not saying no. I think this is something we should do. I'm just saying this is something we should keep in mind. We are now, as we have been told before, put under notice. I think it's a good idea. I think we should do it. But

So to speak to that, what better time to get good publicity? I mean, you're giving back to the community.

Yep. And I think it's great to do some sort of like dedication, whether it be to the Board of Aldermen or the City of Odessa or the power plant, however it would best work. I mean, I know you said it was necessary, but we do want to show some sort of appreciation and some sort of thing that will remain there with the lights as a, you know, as a monument to who put the work in to do this, whether it be initials on the concrete or whatever it may be. We want to do something with people that are the labor and the time to dedicate this. So because we've been we really have tried all. all efforts as far as, I'm sorry, as far as entities in Odessa and around. And unfortunately, the city of Odessa was actually the first to be most receptive. So thank you.

Any more discussion? I'll take a motion to approve. I'll take a motion to approve. Thank you. Second. Second for Baldwin. Baldwin to start. Baldwin in favor? Thank you. Thank you. Administrator Davis, would you like to explain the vacation of East Marlowe?

Yes, so for the vacation of East Marlowe, in your packet you'll see the approximate location of where it would be but it's between the two advanced buildings and then between First Street and the alley, before the alley between First and Russell Street. So this is in order to allow for advanced industries to be able to use that space for material storage and allow for additional employee parking as they continue to grow. To Mr. Lockhart's comments, I don't see any reason why we couldn't pay or not pay Why are we going to gravel that alley? I do know what he's talking about. The north alley has like hardly any rock and it's very grown over. We would be able to trim the trees back and put in new gravel. But anyway, this is for that purpose. And then the next item on the agenda put together of a contract or a right of refusal of agreement between the city of Odessa and Advanced Industries to ensure that the city's able to acquire that property back or that land back once it's no longer useful to Advanced Industries or just a $10 investment. And put some stipulations like we talked about in the last time we reviewed that, but that's a next time. But they do go hand in hand.

They do have to be discussed together. Any questions?

Is the gravel something we can turn around quickly?

That's a question for Darren.

You're welcome. Is the gravel in that alley something we can turn around quickly? Or is that length?

Potentially, would that be something maybe advanced to help pay for the tube since it's healthy enough?

Yes, I could ask that. Working together here to make it better for all. Okay. I will do the first reading of the ordinance, bill number 2046-22.

in the ordinance of the city of Philadelphia during the clearing of the vacation of East Carmel Street right away between block one and block two with various additions such as the decision versus landing. Is there a motion to accept the first agreement?

I can't see it. I make a motion to accept it. Bill number 2026-22. That's right. First variant, vacation. That's me. I'm seeing that's one. That's two.

motion and a second roll call all in favor all okay six of any further discussion on the ordinance so i i wouldn't have thought about um what mr brought up brought up so are we sure before we do this that we're not locking anyone else in or, you know, that would be my only concern. I think it's a great thing, but.

His would, his would mostly, most definitely be the closest driveway to this. The next driveways are on down on Marlowe. So his is, Adjacent to the alley. So he had a legitimate concern there.

And is this something that would require notice to go out so that everyone would know about it?

No, not per statute requirements.

That would just be my understanding.

Are there any members of the public that came to the

You have a question?

Okay, I'm going to do the second reading, Bill number 2026-22, an ordinance of the City of Modesto, Missouri, declaring the vacation of East Marlowe Street right of way between Block 1 and Block 2 of McBurney's Addition Subdivision. Second reading as an ordinance. I have a motion to accept.

I have a motion to accept the second reading, bill number 2026-22, Vacation on Peterson-Marlowe Street, Intercepted as an Ordinance.

I have a second. A motion and a second. All in favor?

No.

We're all in favor.

Alderman Plachty? Yes. Wren?

Yes.

Paulson?

Yes.

Finch? Yes. Palmer? Yes. Starr? Yes, the motion carries given ordinance number 3186. Thank you.

Now we have a resolution over 2020 number 2026 to 19 run first refusal of the green. Proposed resolution number 2026 19, including the mayor to authorize right first refusal agreement between the city of Odessa and base industries on C. second this motion.

I don't have anything to add unless there's further discussion or questions of me.

I have a motion to accept resolution. I make a motion to accept resolution of number 2026-19 right of the feasible agreement.

I accept it. We'll motion in a second. I'll hold with Palmer. Discussion? Sweet.

I just would like to thank the city attorneys and city staff for taking our comments into consideration and also representatives from the streets to work into that and bring all the things that we felt more comfortable with. I did read through it. I also appreciate the pictures that kind of document the road condition after that and that's a big fan of maps and pictures, but I just want to say thank you to everyone that worked together to get all of those items included in there.

Any more discussion? All in favor? So, thank you. Resolution number 2026-21, master rail agreement proposed resolution number 2026-21, approving mayor to authorize the paying master rail agreement between the city of Odessa, Murphy, Tractor, and John Deere Financial for the lease of a mini excavator. Baron, would you like to explain that?

Yeah, same thing with you every year. We rent our excavator, but we don't have any maintenance on our net. All of it on over Each year we get a brand new.

Especially since it's paid for out of the transportation fund, it's competing with our street plan each year, the dollars for that. So if we were to purchase one, it would cut into our annual street budget.

This is reading, I think, correctly, that the annual increase is only $120.

Yes. Thank you. Yes. And I put in the board action report. Previously, we were with Foley Equipment for six years, and we saw some pretty significant price increases from them. So we switched to John Deere, and it has continuously shown to be a good decision financially.

Hey, may I have a motion to accept and second? We can further discuss and vote.

I'm going to make a motion to accept resolution number 20 26 dash 21 master. In John. Second, any further discussion.

Very none all in favor. Six. Thank you.

G.L.A. No discussion item with the sale hours for business always be active. G.L.A. For more.

G.L.A. Well. G.L.A. Based on this. G.L.A. In looking looking up okay i'm gonna start. G.L.A. So we have three we have three on premise account record on the phone. on-premise accounts. One of them has come here and very much let us know their opinion. The other two, I personally went to and talked to. El Camino Real, he said if you did an 11 o'clock, that would not affect him one bit. He said the only time anybody's really there until 11.30 is if he has a customer who just I went to a broken dollar, had an in-depth discussion with Tina, who stated that the majority of the time, 11, 11.30 was no problem. She very much made clear that she did not feel it was right activities. She said that she has events and her license, her liquor license says she can close at 1.30 and she feels that that is what we should stick with. If you research this according to AI, which I would not recommend anyone going to, A is is we can we as a municipality have all the right to to enforce a mandate ordinance, whatever time we so choose. There is another one called study by a law that says we have all the right to do that. The book. is State of Missouri Alcohol and Tobacco Laws and Tobacco Regulations. Chapter number 311 is the Liquor Control Chapter. Quite a desk. I called the liquor control agent and talked to him. And according to him, municipalities have the right to set different hours than the 1.30 that is stated on the license, if we so choose. I am not saying that this is what we should do. I brought it up because, as it was stated on Facebook, I wanted to bring up a 40-year-old ordinance that was in the city, which I think if you looked it up, it's probably older than 40 years old. That's how it was when I was younger. It was 10 o'clock. I'm not saying 10 o'clock is what it should be. I'm just saying that's what it was. I didn't realize until we discussed the World Cup stuff that it wasn't 10 o'clock. I thought it was. One of the topics when I was talking to Tina was brought up was I had mentioned, when I mentioned this, that Bob Begum ran the best SPAR that I've ever been in. And she agreed. And she also stated that the days of the people who went to Bob Begum SPAR are long gone. The world is now different. This is the first one of these, as far as the Fahlerman I just feel it should be discussed. I'm not saying this is what we should do. I'm just saying this is that we should discuss it. If this is a public safety issue, then we, as the Board of Aldermen, have the public to answer to.

Any other discussion? I'd like to say something.

I don't think it's perfectly reasonable if it's something you think is important to bring up for all of us to discuss. In my years in public service, I have been the person always that says be careful not to set policy based on exception. And that should be part of our discussion today. Is it a citywide issue for all of those entities holding that type of license? Or is it issues that we were considering for one license holder? So I would appreciate if that was part of our discussion today. As far as I know, I think the issues we've discussed have been limited to one license holder, and I would hate to change of policy or develop a policy that would hamper our other businesses in town that are following the rules and, you know, being good community partners or future event spaces or restaurants that might come in that would be holding the same type of license. But I'm open and I hope to hear everyone else's opinion as well. Thank you.

Are all of them? I agree with Alderman Finch. I think if there's an issue and nothing wrong with it, I think it's a great discussion item. But I do think if there's a problem with one establishment, we should deal with that problem and not punish others, which it sounds like for an accord. And I felt that way. So I agree with Alderman Finch.

I actually had quite a bit of people reach out to me about this because they kind of I think panic, thinking of discussion, was more than it was. But I mean, the only thing I want to clarify is that it's essentially a talk. We're having a conversation about it. This isn't something the city's even put work into. No, not at all. It's just a conversation. In fact, I'm assuming that not only is that your stance, but also, you're not necessarily sold one way or another. You're just trying to... So, I want to make that clear to the residents. But, you know, my opinion lines up to all your guys. I don't think we... at least some of the people that reached out were at paper.

So I like that. Okay. Next slide. Discussion of parking on the right.

Three liquor by Burlington.

I don't have any new information on that. I don't have any new information. The last time this was on the agenda, I believe we kind of landed where the board needed a little bit of time to be able to observe the area and then take it all in and go from there. So I'll just allow discussion to continue, unless you have questions.

I talked to a few residents of Bonne with Action Carolina that live on Drone. And the people that did reach back out essentially just said, as long as there's parking on one side or the other, but they don't really have anything to stand against. I will say, I don't know that limiting parking to one side will necessarily help too much because then you just make the, you guys, you know, so you have thin roads in some places and you have to pull off so that this person can come through. It just really makes that jump longer, in my opinion, but none of the residents that live on the hill to make it back to BC to,

Darren and I were calling, you admitted that one time your crutch had a problem with your voice.

It's a little tight whenever they park a trailer down there and stuff. Right now, sometimes you get it on both sides. It does get tight down through there. I mean, if it was on one side, it would be a little easier to get through. But as I was telling Aiden earlier, if you're going to eliminate the parking, So, man, I don't really, and Amy has me earlier, and I don't really have a preference whether we, you know, cut off or not. Sometimes, like I said, when it's on both sides, it gets a little tight to get our equipment through there, especially pulling a trailer or something based through there, you know, dump trucks. But I agree with Palmer that it's not really, it's still going to be tight if we're just parking on one side. So... And so this is totally correct. Most of my crew will go over to Mason and come down and quickly see a lot of clocked out. We'll drive 8th Street to Mason.

It's just about to get to where it's going to be driving. Troy, do you have a prologue film? I do. The biggest there were several excavations that happened out of homes. When that happens, then it gets pretty tight. But we've got one block or so that we can build and make some things around. And most usually that's what we do. Just to stay out of there. Guys are going to trucks and everything. So it's really not that big of a deal. And I think as soon as construction's over with, it's really not that big of a deal.

No, there's, uh, there's usually a couple of cars parked down there that everybody's all around. And generally they do park on the same side. They'll double the park on the South side. And, uh, you know, it's fairly easy to get around. And, uh, every once in a while, you'll get one park on the North, one park on the South side. I would think, uh, one thing to think about more than anything, maybe advanced, you know, uh, is built, so that might be pretty tight for them guys. I don't know. I haven't talked to them, but I know I could get that.

I could tell you a story about somebody who could science-wise get parked far on the wrong side of the street on a crane. About 53 years ago. Anyone we know. So do we need to, it's not on the agenda to take any action. Do we need to use our consensus? Or do we want to come up with an ordinance to do something that might be over the next couple of weeks?

Yep, it would be the same ordinance that we did for Lakeview Drive and Cobb. It's just adding, we'll just be adding Dryden from this block to this block on one side or the other to that ordinance. So just be a revision of that ordinance. Just consensus if you want me to go ahead and bring that to you. I'll also just add too, I think at the top of the hill, the mail is delivered by vehicle to one side of the street, but from the electric plant down, it's the mailboxes are on the homes. So they have to, I'm assuming they walk that. Just for clarification.

Hearing their, hearing their feedback and talking to the residents that they provide, I wouldn't say any action is really needed. Obviously, you guys don't feel that, but it doesn't sound like it's a big issue for those trucks that were operated. So I don't have that necessarily on the board, I suppose.

If we can get them to just, if we can get them to just park on one side of the street, I mean, if they would agree to that, then maybe we don't have to go all out. But it would have to be in ordinance for that street?

Yep.

Ordinance? I guess that's what they have to do.

All the wrong experiences. Mm-hmm.

I kind of echo Alderman Palmer. I do think there could be, especially with advances that get built, if the issue does become pressing, I think it's something we should consider. I'm not sure right now that we need to, but I'm not used to it. The majority of the board wants to go back to it.

I would go as we're good for the moment.

I agree. It doesn't sound like it's an urgent issue. Awesome.

On the, what was the other street?

Lakeview. Yes, Lakeview. I'm in that area. One of the concerns was emergency vehicles, fire trucks. So, we round up that. Makes a difference. We take

because that was what was brought up and then because that was too big, right? Yeah. So his equipment and fire. So that would be my answer.

I mean, do you have any concerns from the police department's perspective of access on driving?

No other than I would be part there because it is a public street. You know, if your vehicle is registered, it's not going to populate on the city. But you all were told. So we wouldn't regret it. For emergency vehicles, my vehicles can fit, but the fire trucks are a larger vehicle. So I got to, you know, get their opinion on it if you want that.

Does that consideration change any? No, it's convinced.

So if we did make it an ordinance, we would want them to just park on the south side?

That would be my suggestion, but I don't know. That's up to you guys.

You just look at it logically. The mailboxes are on the north side, so as Darren stated, you're prohibiting parking on the north side. You assist the mail delivery system, but it can prohibit it on the

And if they parked on the south side, then that would make it more accessible.

It wouldn't inhibit the trucks going in. Also, Dryden, if you look at Dryden on them, it in the near future but um maybe eventually widen that road through there where you didn't park you still got you know a lot older to get back so something about it the sidewalk on the south side goes nowhere it's just in front of the storage and it stops so it's right up against the fence yeah It'd be another discussion.

That's a big discussion. I think our finance director would probably say we don't have the funds for that at this time.

Thank you, everybody. Discussion for extension of ECA application deadline. Are we more than the right children in?

I know this is the subject at times, but the deadline's coming up in the June or the 28th, something like that, for the ECA refund. And tonight there was, what, 639 refunds issued. That doesn't seem like when our Kathy told me. We're probably probably in about 45 minutes. 15%, you know, are dispersed. I feel like that's really low. I think people are hesitant to sign the waiver before the office. It would be, you know, it would be good and build some trust with the rate payers if, you know, we extended that, like, for a significant time. At least get us through the audit. That's my belief. Right. I mean, it's nice to watch you every day. I've been thinking a lot. My suggestion is. Leave it open until March 31st.

of 2027, that's the physical year, for out-of-town holders. That gives them nine months. Go ahead and pay the current accounts, forget the waiver, battle the lawyers. I mean, I just feel like I just think that if we don't you know, I just feel like that's what we need to do. I agree, 100%. And I know that Joe is sitting over there crawling inside thinking no, but I just feel like the constituents think we are holding their money hostage, which is totally true. You know, and so that's my secretion.

I also agree. And I would even go a step further and say just apply the credits to the accounts, phrase them into active accounts, and then we can figure out how to handle the people. I can tell you from just my time working at the city, most customers had an email address tied to their account from their online work. I resolved a lot of return mail issues that way. If we get the credits applied and transfer to active account, we can even working on attempting to contact the people that don't live here anymore. I'm not super comfortable with just holding that money in an account that we know is set aside for a certain reason with such a low application rate.

I didn't know we could waive the waiver. Well, I have a question for you. Is that a thing, waiving the waiver itself, or losing the waiver?

So, I mean, so the point of the, well, you don't have to do any of this, so you don't have to do the waiver. You don't have, I mean, so you guys can do whatever you feel is in the best interest of the citizens, do it, so.

with the...

It's not without risk or consequence, but... Yeah, absolutely.

But right now, we're not getting any.

So once there is, I guess, there's no way... That is a question for a closed session. I would not want to give that legal advice in an open meeting.

I would say, I think we all agree, we know... I don't think the sentiment is that the city would not have been allowed to collect that portion of the ECA had it been outlined in the ordinance. It's not an unreasonable charge to pass through. It wasn't documented correctly and authorized by ordinance. We know what the money is. We know who it belongs to. Title technologies can tell you exactly what dollar amount goes to what account. If the board sits and only 25% apply for refunds, at some point we have to decide what happens to that money. It's not really responsible just to leave it in the Cal Vest Road till the end of time because we're not brave enough to discuss the right way to either distribute it back or direct it back somehow to the library club. But Items like this tend to fall off and we're going to have a million dollars sitting in an escrow account until we direct as a board, as a majority of the board, what happens to it.

Or a future board when they're like, why do we have this random a million dollars sitting here and no one can remember why? Because we're all gone.

I think we've gone a long way in gaining trust. Because everyone seems to be concerned that it's a way to go a long way in gaining trust. I understand there's risk with that. Hopefully the residents would see our intent and our effort there and meet us halfway by building a little bit more trust. But I think what you're saying is that there's... financial risk on the back end of that without going into the defense of it.

I think that waiver is like it seems like it's the big obstacle that people can't get past and I think they're getting rid of it or completely rewriting it one or the other like we go a long way.

I would say staff's recommendation if we're going to move away from the waiver, then we move away from the waiver completely. And we just issue the refunds for everyone with an active account.

Yes.

It's hard for us to be able to issue refunds for those who no longer have an account with the city. We don't know where they are, if their forwarding address that they provided is still accurate, but we do know all of the people who currently have an account. The problem is, is we wouldn't know if they moved over seven years, um,

Would you be able to tell if you were only to find those with active accounts, you would also have to look at closed accounts if someone had an active account?

I'm not suggesting... That just hit me right now.

I'm not suggesting that this is going to be an easy feat, and I don't think any of us should make a commitment that by the end of July... Well, I understand the administrative lift on that, but I think being transparent, whatever decision you go with, being transparent and continuing with updates on where we are and what people can expect goes along.

Can I add stuff? It's the one doing this. This is a giant. It has been from day one. The amount of hours that I've personally put into it, my staff have put into it. I shudder in the thought of trying to keep track of what those hours have been. The more we drag this out, the more my hair is going to turn gray. We're getting there. If you choose to do something different, I recommend that we do all of the active accounts. We have to physically touch each of those accounts and research them individually as we go through them. It's not going to be a quick turnaround.

And I think it would We would have to keep it open for the application itself. We'd remove the waiver, keep the application open for those who have left Odessa, but also those who have moved within Odessa. They would be responsible for still applying for their refund if they lived in a different house seven years ago or five years ago or whatever the time frame is, or if they've lived in six different houses, but they still live in Odessa today and have an active account. We could really only refund their current active account.

I disagree with that, but I think you can apply the credits.

We just wouldn't have any way of knowing that they lived in that account.

Collect social security numbers and identifying information. There is a way to do it. Again, I'm not suggesting it's easy. No one planned for this. It's not something that the board thought of as a fun exercise, but the board has to decide what comes to level and what level of service delivery and customer service. No suggestion. I don't think anyone thinks it will be an easy thing to do or fast. But there are ways to do it. There's identifying information collected on all accounts that is going to take some manpower on the ones that are not open active accounts.

Great. If the ultimate plan is to refund the money to the people who originally paid it. There's two ways, as far as I know, that that can be accomplished. One is to give it to them directly, either with a check or a refund to their account, offset to their account. And two would be using the Missouri State Treasury program. And it's their responsibility then to give it to them. Because people who we don't know We know who it belongs to, but we don't know where they're at. How do we fight them? So along with making this decision, if the intent is to give it to whoever it belongs to, how do you give it to those people that you can't fight? What are you going to do with the rest of them?

My suggestion, again, I've worked in public service for many cities. If you issue a credit to an account that's closed after a certain amount of time, it does become unclaimed property and you can submit it, not suggesting you should or shouldn't do that. If you don't do that, you still probably need to have a record of whose money is sitting in that escrow account. If we decided to hold it in our own account, we still would need to know what amounts are allocated to what individuals, I think.

We have that already. We did an ENCODE report and pulled every account from that timeframe and calculated their ECA. So we have each one. It's just how to implement it and apply it.

Well, I think that with everybody that lives here, anybody that's left knows somebody that's lived here. Somehow, word of mouth is going to help get some of those back. I mean, they put everything else on Facebook. I'm sure that somebody will do this on Facebook. You know, if you've got something coming back from the city of Odessa, go find it. And at the end of the fiscal year, if we still got quite a bit of money in there, Then we discussed what to do with the wars. And even people like my mom, she said, you know, she's going to be in America. So if you've lost someone, take a test certificate. That's the process. My personal senior, we've got to do something better. I know it's not going to be easy on you guys. To be true.

DCA extension to compensation of a waiver now?

It's all under one. It's all under one category.

So kind of extension and no waiver, if that's the direction we go.

And then, so what do we do? Is the ordinance rewritten?

Yeah, so, or possibly a new one created. But we adopted the process, the refund process by ordinance. So we would revise that or repeal it and adopt a new one. So we would need to bring you guys an ordinance again.

For me, and I don't get to vote with you guys unless it's a tie. But for me, it's important to do due diligence and understand Joe's perspective and the rest of the finances of the city in waiving the orsons, waiving the labor also.

I understand that.

And I'm all in favor of refunding every penny of the overpayment to the people who paid that money. So it makes a lot of time for you to say that.

No.

But it's important to me to make the right decisions with full knowledge of every part of it. I mean, I'm not super prepared, but I can talk to him.

I think it's good for us to hear your risks. There's risks. It's good for us to hear those and take those and .

How is the deadline? Was it adopted by resolution motion? So we can't even extend. We'd have to at least then extend the deadline next week to hear

or repeal the ordinance.

We can also, because the items are listed on the agenda for closed session, so we could do closed session tonight and then propose an ordinance at the next or it'd have to be the next meeting.

Thank you, Dr. Law. Are we okay to do closed session tonight?

Yes, you're noticed up for legal.

Yes, it's on the agenda. Which item? Subsection 1. 610.021, section 1. Okay. Any further discussion on that item?

Do we give you some sort of guidance on the extension part? I think go to closed session and discuss, or just discussion.

I think I have enough information. If anyone wants to summarize what they think, that would be helpful.

So for summary, we want to extend the deadline to March 31st, 2027, for anybody who does not currently have an account, then for all the current account holders, we want to get rid of the waiver and just go ahead and refund all those, right? Can I just say anything?

What I was understanding about the risk, right now, it would be

We might propose some different draft ordinances at the next meeting. Different options.

You don't have to make a decision after this discussion. No, I didn't make a decision.

I thought it was for next meeting.

At minimum, at the next meeting, we'll have an extension ordinance.

Yeah, that's what I was going to say. Or the review. One of those.

Okay, ready to move on? I think so. Members of the Board of Aldermen, we have the opportunity to propose items of consideration to be added to the agenda for the next regular busy scheduled meeting. This vote will be held to determine whether to include an item on the agenda. Therefore, debate and discussion should be limited to determining the Board's interest in further discussion at the upcoming Board of Aldermen meeting. TO ANY VOLUNTEERS OR OTHERS WHO WISH TO ADD ANYTHING TO THE NEXT AGENDA. HEARING NONE, THE NEXT STAGGERED MEETING IS JUNE 22, 2026 AT 6 PM. WE WILL NOW EARN TO CLOSE SESSION OR I WILL ACCEPT A MOTION TO ENJOY THE CLOSED SESSION PERFORMING TO THE RISE STATUTES OF MISSOURI 610.021 LEGAL ACTION call for action, litigation, or confidential attorney-client communication. Roll call. We need a motion. We need a motion.

I move that we close the session. A jury closed session on RSMO 610-021, Legalizing Cause and Action in Litigation and Competent Attorney-Client Communication. Motion to have a second.

Second.

All in favor? Rome culture. I'll remember Placty. Yep. Bench. Yes. Star.

Yes.

Olsen. Yes. Wren. Yes. Palmer. Yes.