Board of Aldermen - Regular Meeting

Pledge 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. Alder member Star here. Member Flappy here. Member Wit here. Member Pollson here. Member Carrian. Mayor Barner here. Okay, we have a corn. Very good. Welcome to all the visitors. I see some people out there. It's wonderful. Um all would like to make a motion to amend the agenda to include the presentation from Tree Service. Good. Take a second.

A motion and a second Wood. All in favor? 5 Z. We will have the presentation. Thank you. All right. First up, mayor's report. Just a couple of things. Um, consent agenda. The consent agenda. Oh, yes. Consent agenda. Uh we all

I believe that we anything to go over in the in the minutes or anything since you want uh previous if there's anything to go on the previous one. Fine. No. Okay. Very good. Take a motion to approve the consent agenda. I move approve the consent agenda.

Second. Got got a motion and second. All in favor consent agenda is approved. Now the mayor's report. A couple of things. One, I want to remind everybody out there that filing begins tomorrow at 8:00 a.m. at city hall. Hope you're interested in being a candidate for either boards one, two, three, or the mayor's seat. I encourage all the anybody that's interested in running, please file for competition's good. It's healthy. Give citizens options, choices. It's a good healthy thing. So that starts uh tomorrow morning at 9 8:00 and runs through December 30th 30th

30th at 5 till 5:00 meal. And the other thing I wanted to mention again was a congratulations once again to the Spar family and the Odesscent celebrating 65 years of service to this town. That's quite a feat today's in today's world. Um, a lot of newspapers around are they're not able to make it. The spar families uh they're making it and they serve the community well and just wanted to say I really appreciated the open house the other day. It was very well done and congratulations again to Anna and her family. That's it. Um, [clears throat] alderman target.

Uh, just thanks to everybody on utilities and service committee had some snow had some ice force was out. Everybody was trying to to my knowledge. We had a good turnout with everybody helping. I know we've had some lot of utility problems lately that you guys hopped on worked in the cold. So just thank you from people on board three for doing a good job and trying to keep us warm, safe, and healthy and happy. So appreciate it. Pollson,

I had a resident reach out to me. They're concerned about the flags in the yard. When the utilities get done, are they going to pick up the flags so the residents know? that they're done or do they just leave the flags? Um, I don't personally know what the policy is on that, but I think it's regulated by Missouri One Call on how long you can leave them there, but I don't believe they come back and remove them. I didn't know. They asked me and I have Yeah, they do not come back and remove them. I think there's a specific amount of time you have to leave them in there, though. I'd have to look that up to find out. Okay. I didn't know. So, I said I'll ask.

Okay. I'll look into it. Okay. Thank you. I had six kids come over a few people here old enough to remember what was in my office. Old enough to Yeah. [laughter] Very glad I don't remember. All right. Very good. Um, there was no director's meeting today. Uh, so there will be no city administrative report. So, we want any public comments tonight?

None. All right. No old business. Moving on to new business. We'll start with the presentation from 12 boys tree service. Greetings. Greetings. You are going to What can I answer? Well, that's first of all, uh, we are my name is Ty with four boy tree and you're about to from all the trees in Odessa around power line. We're going to prune them. Going to prune them and deliver that.

All right. I I guess basically if you could just explain what the expectations are for for the residents and everybody what they can expect as you do this go through this process. We're going to uh bring some utility arborist crews in. Uh these these folks are all Ller certified. Uh we have a three-year apprentichip program through the Department of Labor. Uh everybody goes through it. We have certified applicators that are we put product out to control regrowth. If we make a mess, we clean the mess up. We uh cut the stumps close to the ground as we can. Uh we like to remove trees that need removed. Um they're hazard. Let's let's see if we can mitigate the hazard before it before it does a lot of damage and stuff up. Um chip there's a question that was asked of mulch. Uh not sure where that will be dumped at, but we'll put it wherever you all say to put it if we can get there. whether you know you got to have some flat ground and solid ground chips are heavy, you know, takes a lot to get them in and out. So, they make great mulch for gardens. They make great fill for ditches if you got a low spot and they won't erode will not inher. [snorts] [clears throat]

Any questions? I'd be glad to answer any questions. So the arborous mulch will be placed in a [clears throat] someplace where the residents can come out and just pick up. Wherever you tell us to put it, we'll put it there. Pick up for free. It's going to be 14 15 yards per load. Okay. And we're coming with lift trucks and chippers and you expect it to be about the size of your thumb. That's what you're expecting. Some mulch is not very conducive to mulching plants with walnut mulch is not very conducive, but I don't think we're going to have a lot of that. Most of it will be your maples and your elms, that kind of stuff. Be glad to answer any questions if you got them, guys.

So, we can coordinate with uh the company to make sure that we have a designated place for the mulch and then we'll communicate out to the community that they're able to collect it. nice option.

Another another point too might be it is winter firewood. There's going to be a lot of firewood maker here. So when we prune some stuff off stuff the size your arm, we tend to cut it into firewood. We can chip some of that but it's nonproductive. It's best to cut it into firewood. And if y'all want to coordinate picking up firewood out of certain people's yards that don't use it or want it, it does have some value. It's better than a snowball. You want to burn it. So, uh, um, we have press release stuff we can send you that we've done for many, we work, excuse me, work for many other entities. So, we have press releases we can gladly send you to help communicate to everybody what what we're going to do or not going to do. That would be great.

We're not going to be back in the yard making rats. We can reach 50 foot sideways to prune a tree. We're going to properly prune all trees. Lateral pruning per ISA standards, international Society of Archelic standards. Uh, and that's designed to for the health of the tree and to prevent regrowth toward the power line. You can make a bad pruning cut or trim [clears throat] and it'll grow toward the power line toward your target or you can make a proper pruning cut. So, we're going to make proper ones and you'll start trimming. Sorry, pruning. You said that badly. I said that. Uh we're on some projects right now that we anticipate will wrap up next couple weeks.

Okay. We've got a lot of resources on a big uh herbicide project over on the western side of the state and soon we'll get that wrapped up. We'll get some freed up. We're going to come in with three to four crews.

Um it's not going to take us long. you know, just start moving, make a lot of progress. But stuff that's not been pruned regularly or properly takes more time than stuff that has been proven lately. Once um if we have a power line or or a target and let's just use an example of $100, if it take if it's $100 to prune it, it's not over or through the power line, it's a 3x to wait on it. So if you wait for it to get over or through, cost you three times as much time, energy, you're not making things trip off friendly. So when you prune a limb that's 10t long off, or you prune one that's 6 in, takes longer to pick up 6 in a 10ft piece, you can expect your trees to grow somewhere between 15 and 20% per year more. So if you have a tree that makes a thousand pounds of debris, next year it's going to make more.

So is the intent with the firewood to place it in the same place with chips or to leave it where it was created? Leave it lay is our normal. Okay. We'll do whatever you tell us to do with it. They're going to have they potentially could have a pile of firewood. Yeah. Yeah. Sitting in their front yard until someone comes into and that would be discussed with with the land owner or land owner discretion. There's no secrets here. We're going to be wearing orange and everybody's going to know we're here. It will be highly visible. And so we're we're going to communicate. We're going to talk to anybody that wants to visit with us about in front of this. We we don't want any misunderstandings. Yeah. Best way to have not have misunderstand.

That's all I want to ask. You have questions. Do we know where the project will start? Have you lost when it will start? Where? Uh just Johnson Drive might be a good [laughter] That's a place where everybody wants to draw. Anybody heard that before? [laughter] We go from zero to zero at the speed of light. Johnson's [laughter] a nice storm or a bad storm. As soon as we get the power on, you know, they're done with us.

Move on, guys. Any other questions for the board? Thank you so much for your time. I appreciate you coming out. That was very helpful. We look forward to seeing you guys. We'll see you in the in the near near future, you'll start seeing white trucks with lizards on them and a lot of guys dressed in orange. Okay, we're not looking to be invisible here. All right, you guys have a blessed day and merry Christmas and thank you guys for doing what you do. It's hard to do what you do sometimes. People kind of chew on you for no reason, but thank you for doing Thank you, sir. Thank you, Ty. All right. Now, uh Chief Thompson with staff introductions.

[clears throat]

show and tell today. So, they're the the show and tell today.

I haven't introduced both of them tonight. Um you guys have seen me do this uh these types of introductions before. Uh this truly is one of my favorite parts of my job is to show off and share some of the good things that our staff is doing. And uh I'm excited to introduce uh our two newest staff members. Uh I'm going to start with Ben because Ben actually started with Odessa uh this past summer. He you might have seen him at Puddle Jumpers. He was in our dunk tank and did some other uh cool things during the Puddle Jumper Fair. U but he is one of our newest school resource officers assigned to the upper elementary school. Um Ben started August. Is that July?

July. Okay. I didn't want to start that u July. And um one of the neatest things that uh I've learned about Ben is he's a hobby farmer, right? So yeah, he's got uh he's got animals on farm and uh you do crops. No. Okay. Just animals. But you have uh cows and cows and pigs and chickens, right? Some peasants. Okay. So, I really liked uh hearing that part of uh

Ben's hobties and upbringing. Uh he's a law boy and we have some fun stories sharing about his time uh growing up with Lawson. Ben has a master's degree in criminal justice. Um you know, I have some staff that that have bachelor's degrees or other um certifications, but Ben then has a master's degree, double bachelor's degree. Correct. Uh uh one of the other cool things that I learned about Ben is that uh he's a professor at UCM. Uh he uses his degree to also teach um college kids. Um and I thought that that was just a really neat aspect of his career. Then worked for 16 years

uh with the University of Central Missouri Police Department. um corporal firearms instructor. As I said, he is an advent professor with UCM's criminal justice department. He does carry some certifications. He's a crisis intervention team. All of my staff have CIT. Ben comes to us with CIT training. Um he's a firearms armor, which means he can take them apart, put them back together. Um he is a firearms and shooter. U ballistic shield operator. Um he can do background investigations for police employees uh new applicants. That is uh did I miss anything?

Recently he went to uh he he uh was uh certified as a basic school resource officer. We sent him through that program this summer uh to get him kickstarted into the school year. He is assigned at the upper elementary school and I can tell you that he's doing a wonderful job in that. not only the building but with the school district. Um I'm gonna I hope it doesn't embarrass him at all. Cops love donuts, right? You guys know this. But uh Ben Ben worked on a project to uh w with a private individual in town who who helped us uh bring donuts to all the kids at the school. and and the reason we did that that that I was really grateful for Ben to do that. But um it helps build relationships and bond trust and you know being a new police officer in the school district I I just thought that was a wonderful idea and uh we just did that last week, didn't we?

We did. Yeah. So um I'm super proud of what he's been able to do um and looking forward to all the great things that he will continue to do for the city of Odess. Now, Alexis Parrot with two T's, right? Alexis, [laughter] um, she started working for in September. Uh, Alexis has a bachelor's of science degree, criminal justice. Um, one of the cool things that, um, I learned about Alexis is uh, she can fly airplanes, right?

You can fly an airplane. And uh I she hasn't promised me a ride in the airplane yet, but u uh you know I think that that kind of is going to catapult her into some really cool things that uh her law enforcement career can bring. Um before law enforcement, uh you got into the emergency medical service. And so as an EMT, she worked for uh some fire departments and ambulance districts, um ambulance departments. Um, she is a certified EMT. She is also a crisis intervention trained, but she's also peer support. And I've I've talked to you guys a little bit about uh officer well-being uh public uh public safety well-being. And um she brings a lot of credentials to to assist me in that program. Matter of fact, we just had a really good discussion tonight about peer support and officer wellness within our own department. and she'll be really I'm I'm happy of her passion in that. Um, one of the other things that I'm excited about the law enforcement side of our job is, uh, Alexis is passionate in uh, making sure that our roadways are safe. And I don't mean just, you know, stopping cars for expired tags or speeding, but impaired driving. You and I have had conversations, Cara, about impaired driving. and uh she's highly certified in not only DWI um alcohol aide and some of these other programs for cannabis um you know the legalization of marijuana does bring impaired drivers through that and she's making a dent she already has made a dent just a short amount of time and so um and many of you maybe haven't seen her but she is kind of my uh my bat girl right so she she works at night a lot of times weekends, evenings.

U but if you see her, make sure you wave, say hi to her. Did I miss anything? I'm not sure going down my list here. Anyway, uh thank you to these two for um you know, their service coming to work for us and their continued service of Odessa and uh would love if you see them at some point. We've got the shop with cop program coming up this next weekend. They'll be great um greatly involved in that program. Uh and so if you you know see them in the community just say hi. They would love to visit and learn about you guys. This is good. Thank you. Okay. Three of you stand together.

Thank you. Now we go on to the introduction and readings of bill number 2025-26.

No, not tonight. There was a director meeting there will be notice of a city administrator. All right. Introduction and readings of bill number 2025-26 approving the redemption of the city's outstanding sewage system revenue bonds state revolving fund- direct loan program series 20005 and authorizing certain actions in connections therewith. I'll take a motion to approve the first reading of the bill. I'll make a motion to approve first reading of bill number 2025-26.

Have a motion and a second. All in favor? 5 zero discussion. I think this what we talked about last week. This is what we talked about last week. Yes. You have any questions? I'll be happy to update you on it. It just need to be put [clears throat] into an ordinance. An ordinance that'll release it. Yeah. Okay. Okay.

All right. Then we'll go on to the second reading. Introduction and readings of bill number 2025-26 approving the rejection of the city's outstanding sewage system revenue bonds state revolving bond-direct loan program series 2005 and authorizing certain actions in connection there with sector. I will take a motion for the second reading as in words. Make a motion to approve bill number 2025 as an ordinance uh redemption code of sew. Got a motion and a second. Roll call. Alder member what's it? I yes. Pollson yes. Carrian. Yep. Pl. Yes. Star.

Yes. Motion carried given ordinance number 3165. Right. I move on to proposed resolution number 2025-30 and approving the donation of an easement and memorandum of understanding between the city of Odessa and the US Army Corps of Engine regarding land owned by the city of Odessa. I would take a motion to approve. We will not vote on them take an actual vote before we have discussion. We do have uh members from Army Corps of Engineers here to to speak during the discussion. Okay, very good. So I take a motion to approve.

Make a motion to approve resolution number 2025 understanding of the farm board of engineers. Thank you. Need a second. We got a motion and a second. All right. We have discussion. You guys want to come up and introduce themselves?

So uh I have members from Army Corps of Engineers who have been working on the project with us. Um, I did, like I mentioned before, I did meet with them to discuss the memorandum of understanding and we came to that agreement collectively. Um, I did feel like it was probably best for you guys to hear from Army Corps of Engineers to better understand their program and their intent behind um, both the easement and theou push button. It might die again though.

John Skelman with Missouri River I work at the Missouri River project office for the Missouri River project. Hi, I'm Rachel and I work for the real estate division. I work in the real estate division district office. Questions from Has anything changed in the since we last talked about it? No.

No. Although one of the things I I've got two real issues with it. One of the things that I noticed in the board action report, [clears throat] it says that the form will implement measures to divert water flow away from the city's existing wells, reducing potential erosion and protecting water resources. That's not stated in the MOU. If you would like that in theou, I can put it in there. We ran theou through your guys' legals. So, um, that wasn't something that was brought to our attention that they would like in there. We can do that.

That definitely would need to be.

Yeah. The the second issue that I have in your um information on your website about the program, it explains under your frequently asked questions on easements that the core also has approvement also has approval to obtain sloughing easements from willing private land owners for those lands generally within 50 ft of the roof. A sloughing easement allows the owner to maintain title to the land. [clears throat] However, the intent of this easement is to erode the land to away. Is that the kind of easement that we're talking about?

No, sir. We're using a fish and wildlife ement has nothing to do with

the BNSP manages the fish and wildlife as well. Part of the same program, isn't it? It is so the 1986 the water resource development act which I will say is ward us. So if I say word, that's what I'm referring to. Water 1986 was the first BSNP. Um it was to uh redo the channel and alignment. And with that we found out that there was about 522,000 acres of loss of habitat due to us realigning the the river. So in 1996 we had a second borta and then in 2007 we had a third borta and those two were specifically to mitigate the loss of that habitat um both aquatic and terrestrial so in land on land and in the the river. So that's what we're doing here. This is part of the Missouri River recovery program. um it's to try to gain back some of that 522,000 acres of loss of habitat. So they might do something for like bank stabilization to stop the erosion of of the river going in like planting trees, vegetation, stuff of that nature. Um but this is so this is purely a fish and wildlife ement.

So it's not just fish and wildlife though, is it? I think there's BSP and fish and wildlife. So the core head has the ement. That is correct. So the BSNP is the Missouri River Bank stabilization navigation project. The mitigation project is mitigating for the habitat loss. We also have part of that would be the endangered species aspect of that project which was MRP. Right. So there's two parts to the program.

So we're looking at a mitig this is a mitigation. I mean it's it is overarching MRP and mitigation is a subset of that. So this easement that we're talking about would be consistent with a terrestrial as a you know the aquatic portion would be well it's not a in channel type of activity where we're actively uh designing or impacting the channel to slough off. Uh so it's to maintain the natural water flow part of this program.

This program right actually it's to um enhance wet to enhance and develop wetlands that aren't necessarily already on the landscape and it allows you to access the area for inspection conservation and flood control work. That's correct. a reading distance [clears throat] and it prevents the land owner from altering the property. No, we have no filling, building or redirecting water. Prohibits us from doing that. Correct. Without I think without permission or or without contact I shouldn't say permission without contacting the the preserves wildlife habitat or wetlands.

Yes. And it allows seasonal flooding. Correct. without liability. That's a slough easement. Well, in my mind, a fluff easement. I mean, I think that would be something in my mind that we have the natural high bank in the Missouri River and that that is allowed to either purposely or just by no maintenance of the Missouri River structures, we would allow the river to come in and remove material to So, by granting the slough easement,

sir, if I may, this is not a sleing easement There is like standard estate language for a sloughing easement. This is the definition of sloughing. I understand not to argue with that. We've got our attorney here and maybe he can can help us with defining whether or not it is a sele. My concern is once we give away these rights to our property, we lose the the ability of being compensated for an inverse con condemnation because we've given you permission to do this with our property.

Correct. So, whatever is in the fish and wildlife easement that I I have sent through Sean, Miss Davis, and Mr. Dean, and um the other attorney, Miss I can't say her last name, so I'll say Lindsay. Um and they, it's my understanding that they are aware of what the rights that we gain and what you guys rights remain in that easement is so the question is whether or not we're willing to give away those rights

right I guess what I was uh so there is an actual sloughing easement with its own language and then there's this easement that we have provided your guys's attorney which is the fish and wildlife easements they're two different we got that

you I've I I provided did the the fish and wildlife easement. So, like this one that is right right here. Um I don't know if it's the same one that you're that you're looking at. I'm assuming that it is. There is an a a separate easement that we hold in Missouri or in the core of engineers that is specifically for sloughing. This is not that easement.

Okay. This says no defoliation to any extent whatsoever there of any trees, brush or other vegetation in its natural state by any cause, purpose or means or any trim, felling and cutting thereon or removal there from of any trees, brush or other vegetation in its natural state. No removal, shifting, or altering the living manner of gravel deposits as they are now or may hereafter exist on said land. No explor exploration for or removal or mining of any oil, gas, coal, or other minerals of any nature whatsoever. No construction of new structures or improvements or expansion of any existing structures or improvements on said land

without coordination with the core of engineers. Right. [clears throat] Yeah. So we have a thing called a consent to easement which is are we assured of approval when we need to do something. Coordination is not approval. Coordination just means we talk to you about it and give you a chance to tell us.

Right. So, we have um I don't even know how many um easements, honestly. A lot. 8 900 at least. Um and I I know this I don't know if it probably doesn't make you feel any better, but I've never seen a consent to easement get denied for any reason. Um we've been talking with our attorneys, your guys' attorneys. The expansion of your well is not going to be an issue. We're not going to leave the city of Odessa and the residents without the ability to get water now or in the future. Um, can we get that in writing? Say that in contract.

I mean, hopefully you see our our you guys can can say that now, but 20 years down the road, you'll still put your eye. I can't put it in the the easement language because the easement language is pre-approved language from um headquarters. It's standard regardless if you're the city of Odessa or Mr. or Mrs. Smith. Um so that's why we kind of went to the theou to try to like let you guys know that like we're not trying to stand in the way of your guys' water supply. Um, so

and that really makes my point. Our only recourse is a legal one. If if it changes and we're not allowed to do what we need to do or our property becomes unusable to us, our only recourse is a legal one. And if we grant this easement, we've given away that right.

Yeah. I I I understand. I I [clears throat] I feel like it it does address what they're saying in a way because it says um that the government the government referring to Army Corps of Engineers will make reasonable efforts to ensure that its activities do not interfere with the city's continued operations, repair and maintenance of existing wells or the development of future wells on the property. such provided uh activities do not conflict with the government's men's mission or easement rights.

So when water crosses the two properties next to us and meets in the middle and crosses our property and makes our property unreachable, what's our recourse? What do you mean by unreachable? I'm sorry. What do you mean by unreachable? If we're unable to get to it, like just like the forums, we couldn't reach our Well, we could by boat, we can reach them still.

So, our activities that would be part of this easement, you know. So, what we normally do, what the activities that we would do would be vegetation management. Then we we'd also have u we also are trying to keep unauthorized use like off-roading, illegal dumping, uh illegal shoot, you know, off shooting, target shooting, those type of activities. Um and then also some limited amount of dirt work, right? So we would have we have the ability to do that. Um, so we also currently share a boundary with the city of Hodes government own. Um, so when you say about water and cutting off the city of those desks probably specifically, what physical or what what manner do you are you address? What you trying to

we would have to cross water to get to our well our well become underwater. Correct. So I mean we're not we're not breaching any levies at this point. I understand that's not your intent. Okay. And it may be something that happens 20 30 40 years down the road. Are you worried that we're not going to give you access to the land like at all? like I'm

No, it's just we're giving away our right to have legal recourse to recoup the value for our property. You're you're effectively doing an inverse condemnation. You're taking our property away from us if something would happen that would prevent us access or damage our property. Is there is there ways that you think that the uhou can be improved upon to to better accommodate

you know we're because of the program itself we're between a rocket iron place because you know you're talking about the government's going to do what the government's going to do. So eventually Missouri River is going to flood again and you've got property on both sides of it that we don't know if if the government is going to maintain that property forever. Okay. There's a levy that that I guess is behind our property. We're between the levy and the river itself. Um but we don't know if the the government's going to always keep that land dry. So, we don't know what's going to happen to our wells. So, do we just hope for the best and go with it? Do we develop a second source for our water so that we're protected? You know, do we give our rights to recoup some kind of money in the future if something would happen? You know, I personally I'm not willing to give away that right to recover some money that we've invested in that property.

It may flood and that land may may soaked away in a year. It may be a hundred years. It may never soaked away. We don't know. Contract specifically says we can't do any flood mitigation as soon as you sign us over. So even if we wanted to try to put our own levy or anything about it to protect it, we can't. Well, if they could go in now and raise the road and build a ring and run, well, they could do that for us, but 20 years down the road, governments change, leadership changed,

and mentioned talking about they still haven't fixed the levy that they said they fixed years ago. So, so I think we're we're being asked to give up a lot. Pretty risky. Although we I think most of us would agree with what the intent of your program is. Yeah. But it's very risky for the Vessa to give away our water rights with so much at stake. Right. We don't we that's not our intent is to take away your water rights. We just want to restore the land, make some some habitat, wetland, otherwise plant vegetation, dump a bunch of federal funds into it.

Understand? It wouldn't, right? Like so we wouldn't like just abandon the land like we're investing federal dollars in into this program to fix kind of you know maybe what we inadvertently broke long before I was even you know born. So if you could dig us a pipeline to a new well we f [laughter]

I don't know if we can get federal dollars for that. Um maybe under a section 14. Uh just getting kind of [laughter] awkward program. I I just we have good intentions and I understand that I'm not going to be here in 30 years. I'll be around for at least the next 15 because that's when I can retire. I don't plan on going anywhere until then. So, I can almost guarantee at least the next 15 years, you know, but outside of outside of that, the only thing I can tell you is that I've never seen a consent to easement denied. I've been with for eight years. Um, I've written many, many consent to easements for fences, coverts, um, intake structures, stuff like that, sidewalks, handrails. Um, as long as it's not going to be

we're going to come in and bulldoze, you know, every single vegetation tree that you have planted. It's not, it would not be denied. I can't see any reason why it would be. And I know the one is probably not doing you much good right now, but

I think I think I agree with what you're saying where the intent was 100% there. you know, they approached us with um a need on on their end, their their need to or want to purchase our property. We kind of, you know, created a boundary there by going the easement route where their intent is to restore the land and to conserve the the the land. And from our perspective, there's there's little harm in preservation of that land when it's it's a high flood area that has such a um important asset of ours on it. So, the intent was there to create a relationship between city of Odessa and the Army Corps of Engineers to create a program that was both mutually beneficial to us both. Um, I understand your legal concerns and I think that there's there I don't think that there's um um a need to completely scrap this opportunity, but I think that there's an opportunity to to maybe strengthen the the legal um language that's in here to maybe protect the city a little bit further. I'm willing to make that effort and work with you to to get your concerns on paper and get those to Lindsay and Joe or not. But you it's your decision if that's an avenue that you want me to take it. If if not, then that's fine, too. Um, but I think that there's an opportunity to to uh take this another step further. And I I do want to clarify, too. I know this is this is the second time this has been brought to you. So, a third time being brought to you would be extensive, but my understanding previously was that um you were wanting a little bit more background from me. So, I didn't make any changes necessarily to theou or even um reach out to to seek any changes. So, we haven't done that step. So, I'm I'm

open to doing that if that's if that's what the board wishes. Um, we can either even take a stab at it and then, you know, work with the mayor to determine if we feel like that was sufficient and it needs to be brought back to the board or we can not bring it back to the board. Legal counsel. Does anou ever trump contract?

Um, not necessarily. I mean, they're they're it's kind of like the second cousin to a contract, if you will. Um so um but I mean the easement is is yet another uh legal instrument, right? Um and so anyway, I was kind of conversing uh with Miss Davis. I mean I think I will tell you like I haven't been directly involved in this. I was covering it tonight because one of our attorneys couldn't be here and so we wanted to make sure that you had somebody here. I'm not as familiar with this as I would, you know, would hope to be on it, but I do see it. It appears to me based on the the background that I've heard, what I've talked with Miss Davies about that you are making progress if this is an option, you know, to just have that opportunity to address some of the concerns that Alderman Witet brought up this evening and that you were kind of seconding and and see if we can still come up with some language that would help uh you know, they you know, you guys have concerns, they have an interest. let's see if there's a a way that we can make those work but in a in a way that you're comfortable with it going forward and you know we you know we've dealt with you know like mod or you know whatever sometimes they just say headquarters said this is the contract and that's it and and if we can't strike a deal we can't strike a deal but if there's a way to you know to get it done then you know we'd give you that opportunity if you're interested right I mean I guess that's really what Miss Davis was saying was you know If you if you're not interested, there's no sense spending additional resources on it, but we're we we think we can help you get closer.

Bruce, so let me just wrap up. So, in your opinion, a memor of anou would not trump contract if they didn't change the contract. If we had to go to court?

No. Because I mean, again, I I don't know if contract's the right word, but you know, a contract, you look to the four corners of the contract. If there if you have a contract and there are documents outside of it, you have to find a way to draw those in. I'm not seeing that connect on on this. So, you know, it is I think theou is designed to outline, you know, on on, you know, the four corners of the paper what it is that that the parties were trying to achieve. Um, but in the end, if the words don't line up or they don't they're not they don't have a strong connection, then you know it'll you're going to have the fight now or you're going to have the fight in court, but you're still going to have a fight. So,

does the city have fifth amendment rights for just compensation?

Um, that is an interesting question. I've been doing this for 23 years. I have never had to answer that question before. I don't know. You can't. So someone cannot take the a private party cannot take the city's property. I don't know exactly how that would work between the federal government and the city itself. Each of you know the city or the state or the federal government can take obviously from a private party. I'm not I I just don't know the answer to the question with respect to whether they can take from each other. That would be one thing I'd like to know if we look at it again is if the granting the easement would take away any right for uh that we would have to sue for inverse confirmation.

Yep. I actually wrote that right in my notes here as you were talking as far as all the things to address. So uh um it'll be that that's you know I I wrote the question down. I just don't know the answer to it. The other other thing would be there was the radius uh that Mr. Lamb had talked about that he had asked about before. There was no interest in protecting that radius around the well. That would be something to negotiate if we're going to take another look at.

Yes, sir. We we are completely amunable to that. I think when we were talking of thisou through to begin with, um, nobody could give us really like exactly where you guys might expand to. I think the most I got was like 400 ft north of the current well. Um, we would definitely take that into consideration. Then again are are you saying protection of the existing wells or an addition of a future and also management of the terrestrial or the vegetation out to a distance of at least 300 now that now that you asked I think he was talking about an additional in like 300 ft of our current

so I think have to talk to him to clarify it your current wells might be about 350 50 feet apart. So, I went with 300. I kind of measured out 300 to see what that look like. Well, if we could do those things, I'd be willing to look at it again. When you say inverse condemnation, you're saying that we would do actions that would be harmful. No. No. Inverse condemnation is something where you could do an act on your own property that would cause us to lose value in our property. Okay? You wouldn't have to do anything directly by ours. Correct.

But you could do something on your own property like allow water to flow through your properties that ends up running on ours. So you therefore devalued ours or caused us to not be use ours caused our soil to wash away where we still land but unfortunately it's all all underwater.

Yeah. Yeah. And I I believe when we met in in the law offices down in Lee Summit, John was talking about how we were going to try to plant vegetation and maybe move some dirt around so that we would actually try to reduce the flooding near your guys' wells. Um we're not going to strip the land and let you guys flood or purposely like, you know, break down the levy. We'll make [clears throat] we'll do our best to provide as much protection to you guys as well with the measures that at this point we can't promise

we can't promise you yeah we're going to build a levy around existing coming

um do we have intent you know some kind of idea that we want to do some dirt work to provide for maybe some wetland creation that so that would be a burnt right so we're moving dirt I mean we would move dirt I mean if we're going to move dirt we would do it. We probably let them know, hey, we're going to be moving dirt. Do you have any concerns, questions? Uh we also don't want our property washing into the river either. We have enough of government everybody has enough there's enough property uh eroding to the Missouri River enough as we you know right now. So our intent is not to continue is to try to do something to mitigate that on our property. Okay.

Thank you. Anything else? Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you for coming. Appreciate it very much. Well, we've got a motion in a second. Joe, we're in charge of territory. Go ahead and take the want to postpone to another. We just take another vote. So, we can make the motion and then we get a second and we can postpone it to the next next meeting or motion sir without having to take a vote even though we got a second. Yeah, this would be a secondary motion on the existing motion based on your discussion.

Whatever you choose, whatever you We don't have to set a date. So you could essentially you could do a a motion to postpone uh indefinitely to allow staff and the uh uh the United States government to uh further address the concerns. So essentially it's a motion to postpone indefinitely. I'm what chose [laughter] I make notion um until staff and the Army Corps of Engineers can consult and come together with some some more information how we can move forward. All right, I got a motion. Got a second Mickey. Sure.

Okay, got a motion and a second. All in favor? 5. That motion passes. All right. Next up is a motion of approval. Approval to authorize a city administrator to establish a part-time public information coordinator position. Go ahead and start with discussion. I can add context if you'd like. Yes, please do. Sure.

Okay. So just to give a little bit of context to why and how this position came to be um the start of it would be through the uh strategic plan. One of the items in the strategic plan was to add a public information of communications intern to help us uh facilitate the goals of that se that priority area of the strategic plan. So, some of those items being that um we're working to build trust, we're working to increase our social media presence and things like that. So, this position would 100% be responsible for um taking on some of the social media presence and kind of helping build our online platform brand, leaving that on the social media pages or on the website, whatever that may be. Um so, there's a couple different things. As of right now, the urgent topics and urgent reason or you know topics of communication that we have that the position could assist with would be the uh tax initiatives and the sidewalk project. So, we know that there's going to be an increase in um communication efforts and communication means once the sidewalk project starts to kick off. It'll be as simple as you know this street is closed or this sidewalk is closed or a portion of the sidewalk is closed or the northeast whatever area is closed or open or whatever it may be. So there will be a lot of communication efforts needed for that. Those are some of our immediate communication needs that we have between the really for the next six to nine months. Um on top of that though and in regards to the strategic plan and some of the efforts that we're trying to achieve, there's a lot more communication needs that we have within the strategic plan. Um one of those being the community development priority

or uh priority area of focus. So, uh, we know that we need to increase our communications, whether that be through our website, through the processes, um, better understanding the processes for those that are the enduser of the community development department. So, we have experienced uh, some change in that area. We have a new employee who's doing a great job. Um but overall we're trying to see how can we best achieve our end goal which is creating a clear and concise uh process that can be communicated to those developers. Right now one of our biggest problems in that department is that there's not enough information for the applicants when they start the process. So how can we make that more readily available uh whether that's on the website tangible in their hands whatever it may be. uh this person could work with myself, work with Jane to accomplish some of those goals that are very lofty goals at this. Another area of um operations that's recently taken a shift in how we've been doing things is economic development. So, we've actually had more economic development opportunities in the past three to four months than I've seen in my time in this position. Uh but with that comes an urgency of trying to get information, communication information, not only you know for our internal residents but out to those businesses that are interested in coming to us. We've seen it, we've practiced it, we've done it a few times now where we have say five dates to get an entire communications platform or marketing platform to these businesses that could be interested in moving to Odessa. Um, and that's a it's it's it's a lot of work. Um, the ability to kind of build

our repertoire of marketing material. Um, even as little as having pictures of Odessa from, you know, highlights of things that are attraction to what make Odessa great, having that in a in a format that is able to be put into marketing materials to really sell our team. Um, those are all things that a communications position could uh very much so assist with. Um, I do have in the in the uh board action report, my intent behind this would be to fully budget the position by uh or by the time we're working on the 2027 2028 budget. So that would be the last few months, three and a half months of this fiscal year and then at the next fiscal year we would want to use reserves for that time frame to give us some time one to be able to get that into the budget. It's not something that operationally we have the funds for but when you look at our fund balance that's somewhat of a different story. Uh the the fund estimates that I have for the fiscal year that was just audited were estimated numbers, but I show 86% fund balance with our goal being uh $20,000 does not reduce that number um hardly at all, if at even 1%. So um using fund balance for one-time expenses is ideal. using fund balances for uh salaries is um somewhat of a no no. This in this scenario, I'm treating this as a one-time expense to give us time to incorporate it into our into our operating budget. Not something that I feel comfortable with doing in the next month or two for the 2026 2027 budget. I'm confident in that.

Any questions? Question for Sean. So, if we hire this person today and we go through our budget process and we combine that position with another position that this person we hired today isn't qualified for and we just let them go. Uh I am treating it as a temporary position. I would I wouldn't want to do that. But if if the budget brought us to that decision, that would be the decision. It's a temporary position at this time. This person that you would hire today would need to understand that it is temporary based on we had the budget discussion that things may change.

Correct. We can easily say we can say on the job posting that it's a temporary position based on funding available. You've not included on the action report how much it would be for the current fiscal year. Um, I don't have those calculations. I just looked at it on an annual basis and then we have about a quarter of the year left. So, it would be about 5,000. Oh, thank you.

Personally, I love this idea. I love it. There needs to be a liaison between the city and people like my husband. I'll use him as an example who doesn't we don't take the paper. He does not he's not on Facebook. He tried to get on the city website and he got frustrated. I hear that a lot. So he so he gave up.

So he doesn't have any idea what's going on in the city except for what I tell him. And then when he says he needs to talk to his alderman, I tell him to go talk to Carla. [laughter] But I I love this idea and I and $20,000

to me that that is like a drop in a bucket. You know, I I think it would be well worth the expense. I think that if we had a liaison that could speak to the people, you know, and give them give them these I tell them, all right, like you said, this sidewalk's going to be closed. This part of the road is going to be closed, the tree trimmers are coming, you know, I I I just think this is a great idea. That's just

the other the other side of it, too, is us more of a social media comment, but us telling our story. We talk about it a lot in Rotary that we have to tell our story or no one knows what we're what we're doing and why we're here. And I think we have the same problem with City of Odessa where just just because of the word love that we have overall the communication that does get put out is tends to be negative. So, not only do we need to increase our participation and to build our brand and things like that, but we also need to pay attention to how we're telling our story, how we, you know, talk about each of our employees and the work that they do and highlight some of those positives as opposed to just we have a power outage or water may break or just the necessities that have to go out. We need to turn it on its head and tell our story as well. Yeah, I I just I for this complete I

So, um I think with a with it presented as a temporary position, it would give time to to kind of test it out per se to see is this going to how is it going to benefit us? Um, you know, is it going to bring potentially more business? I think it's a good a good way to test it out. So, we need to an ongoing budget, a full-time position, benefits, and all that because it says 10 to 15 hours a week and non benefits.

I agree with both of them. I think it's a great thing. I think it's needed. I think it is a a small investment, but I have two concerns. One, 10 15 hours a week, pay $5,000 for the next couple months. This is a heavy lift of someone who needs to be qualified. This is not a high schooler. This is not someone that you're going to pay minimum wage to.

So, if we want to get our money's worth out, $20,000 is not. So if we're going to throw $12,000 somebody, we're not going to get what we want. The experiment is going to fail. And so on the second thing, we I'm concerned that so I asked Troy a couple weeks ago or a couple meetings ago, what's holding us back with our electrical grid of changing over to the new substation? And it's money. But yet we had $2.5 million loan from ourselves sidewalks. We had $50,000 for this, $50,000 that $20,000 for this. And you say we're 86% over on our reserves or 80 86% fund balance. We have money for these other things, but we don't want to invest that money on something like that that could potentially lower utilities or get a better power grid that we've argued we need.

Arguably, a new substation would be 4 to5 million, which we do not. But he said we don't need a new substation. We just need to transfer over to the what? And I was told we had the parts. We just need the time to do it. We have to to move over to the 1240 or whatever. That that is the uh conversion. Sorry, the conversion. Yeah, we budgeted 250 for that this this year. Yeah, but it's not done. Right. Correct. And 250 wasn't enough. 250 is enough for that. And we were waiting to go out for bid for that until we had engineers. So, we made sure that we didn't have to duplicate any work and we had someone to kind of cross reference what we were planning to do.

Okay. Well, the year's almost over, so we will not make it. So, that's the concern I have as well as we're spending money on things that are worthwhile and I agree. I think this is a great thing that we need to do.

I I understand your concerns. I will say uh we we budgeted to use reserves and I think that it's it's makes sense to have the reserves that we have right now with general fund because we have some of these un unknowns that are coming down the pipe being a sidewalk project. So yes, we've allocated from other areas, but this sidewalk project is a liability to us at this time. Quite frankly, it's a liability. Um the costs continue to increase. We keep kind of running circles and that's a big question mark that we need to know that we have the funds available for. But also the funds that we need versus the funds that this this $20,000 investment will get us are are very different apples and oranges in my opinion. the $20,000 for this investment helps us achieve a lot of the other investments that are included in the strategic plan where um having the reserves for something like the side project is is something that the way I perceive it is that we don't have a choice. We are too far into this. We have to complete it and we have to have money to complete it. So having an 86% fund balance when we have a project like that is fiscally responsible and 20,000 is a minimal investment. Sure.

I think if you want to I agree with you and I disagree with you. If you want to look at the negative on everything, that's always what you're going to see. This is a this is something that we we've needed for a long time.

Uh it's the m is the amount of money that they're they're going to pay them enough to get whatever. I work with people who make six figures and they ain't worth $20,000. Um, this this is something that's very much needed because we no matter what we do, we always get bad publicity. We need someone who who can be a PR positive person.

Great. I do think this salary also aligns with our current salary schedule and with the um hourly rates that are being currently being paid for um similar grade levels within city hall and other departments. To clarify for myself and and I think to address some of your concerns, Colin, we're not making a $20,000 decision if we agree to this. We're really making a $5,000 decision to the rest of it will be made in the budget. I don't

No, I'm proposing to use reserves for the next fiscal year as well. I understand. But what I asked you the question a while ago, what if the budget combines it with another position and we may decide in the budget process that no, we don't have the money to do that. you know, the board's free to change its mind when we put the budget together and and okay.

So, the only decision we're really making tonight is to allow you to hire this person. Tell them that, hey, it's a temporary job. I'm going to try to keep you for the next year. But that decision really isn't made until the budget's done. It'd be wholly inappropriate for this board to sit here and make the budget decision by uh just a motion to agree to you to what you want as opposed to the budget resolution. I don't know that it would be legal to make a budget decision for the next year with this kind of method.

What's being proposed though is not to use operational dollars. to use reserve dollars which is outside of the budget that would be approved in April. Every dollar spent is a budget whether it comes from the reserve or something else that's budgeted. The budget spends your reserve plus your actual I understand budget. I do not I do not feel confident in the ability to get this within the operating budget for the upcoming fiscal year. I'm sorry. You don't feel confident what to be able to fit the 20,000 into the next year's operating budget. I don't think it's possible.

So, you're going to commit $20,000 plus $5,000 out of this year's reserves and say you want to spend it next year. No, I would like to do 5,000 from this fiscal year and 20,000 from the next fiscal year. Okay. and 20,000 for next year will be spent out of next year's budget which we will approve prior to April 1st 2026. Sure. And that's a decision that the board of alderman agreed by resolution in the spring. We can't make that decision to approve the budget today. I

mean, I can put in the budget that we're going the use of of reserve dollars. I can do it that way, but I cannot get it in the operational budget is my problem. You can put it in the budget as a request, but what I'm saying the board's going to approve a budget expenditure for next year tonight. Are are they able to move reserve dollars for the next fiscal year?

It would be similar to like a long-term contract where you say, you know, we're going to enter into a contract for five years. you're going to pay $100,000 a year. You know, what Alderman Wit is saying essentially is even if we say yes tonight, when the budget comes up, if they decide differently, you know, before April 1st, then that's their prerogative to decide differently. So, and if you if you do a five-year contract for $100,000 payments and you do it the first year and you say that was a terrible idea, you don't appropriate and and you just don't spend the money then. And that is true.

Yeah. So that that's why I said the best we can do is tell this person, yeah, we'll hire you from now 10, but but we would still be approving the use of reserve dollars for the next fiscal year just like a contract, but we wouldn't have contracted like hypothetically like a contract. I I guess I don't follow the distinction of that you don't count reserve dollars in the I mean the bud the budget is whatever you had from the prior year

whatever you know whatever you're going to spend in the in the coming year or what whatever you think is going to come in in the coming year is what you have to spend at that point. So you still when you start the new budget year it starts then not not now. So okay, everybody got some questions to answer. So I mean maybe if I could finish one thing, one thought on that is, you know, again,

if the board tonight decides that they would like this position and you would like to fund it as Miss Davis has suggested, you can do that. You can go forward and then you'll have you'll still have your decision to make in April. But if it doesn't get funded, then at that point in time, we'll have to tell if you hire that person, we'll have to tell them, "Sorry, your your position didn't get funded." And right, we'll send you out. Okay. Makes it makes it hard to recruit people, but yeah.

Okay. Any qu more question for Sean? I would take a motion for the motion approval for the part-time public information. Make a motion to give SH authorization to hire the um part-time public information coordinator position.

That's got a motion and a second. All in favor? one motion to approve goes forward. All right. Now we have the mobile food vendor [clears throat] sum summary u just run this and we do have we have ter here and here. Yeah.

Oh there you are. So if you have any questions for them um they can come forward and answer any questions you want. So go ahead. Um I included a cover letter in the agenda for you to kind of uh um point out the discussion or go over the discussions we had. There's just a few items in the ordinance that we couldn't come to a consensus as what we needed to do. Um, I went through the color and identified those items in brackets for you. Um, and if we can just jump in and go down to the first item, license required. It was discussed that the city and its business license application should require liability insurance with the city as an additional names insured in a manner similar to the city of Oak Grove for all business applicants, food trucks and brick and mortar. Oak Grove does this. I know um Odessa does not require the city as an additional insurer, do they?

We do not. No, we do require a food establishment permit from the county, but I would also like to um add I mean even for brick and mortar, we don't require for brick and mortar. No additional name, I'm sure. No. What kind of implications if we were to do that? What would that do? What what would that they would just supply us with a certificate of liability insurance, which a lot of a lot of the businesses already do that they already give it to me. Um, if they have five or more employees, then they add the workman's comp with that certificate of liabilities all on one sheet.

What would that do for sle proprie or, you know, small people that don't make a bunch of money that don't technically have insurance for some of the stuff that it would be an added cost. Yeah. For that costwise, it used to not cost very much to add an additional named insurance. 10 bucks. But if you don't have insurance at all, Virginia, they have to have to get some kind of liability insurance. Yes,

I would hope that brick and mortar would have some kind of liability insurance [clears throat] policy. I'm just thinking about the people who aren't necessarily part of this discussion that are going to be affected if we go something like that but now have to do and cost more money to sell and drink instead of just getting a business license to have insurance and all that a lot of it but isn't justified to what they're I can't does not have

what would be the advantage to the city to have be name additional named insured

I don't think there's any advantage at all alderman wit you know cities enjoy sovereign immunity in Missouri and the exceptions to sovereign immunity are when you buy insurance then you create liability that is then the hole is filled by by the insurance coverage in these circumstances. If I understand correctly, we're talking about a food truck and a comparison of that to a brick and mortar. I don't to me it doesn't make the city wouldn't be liable for a trip and fall at a brick and mortar or someone, you know, necessarily, you know, even a trip and fall at a food truck. Uh I I'm not certain the context as far as whether these would be parked on public property or if they would be on private property. um you know, but it wouldn't be any different than the the liability you'd have for someone just walking down the street anyway, right? So, um I don't know that the I you know,

no really Yeah, it's not I don't think so. And if it's it's not a known dangerous condition, then that's not something we're going to have liability for anyway. So, okay, it would I see where it would make sense if the food truck were to be parked on or at railroad park or any other city property, but overall this ordinance is for food trucks in Odessa city limits and not just on city property. So, we'd have to be careful to not put a blanket statement out. So, it would require it for all all food trucks in Odessa. What would you be okay? I don't know. It would be difficult.

Okay, I missed what you just said. You said leave. So, no liability insurance. Okay. Section 1278A. City. Question was asked where in the city food trucks could operate at if they were limited to railroad park as stated in the ordinance above and below. They can operate in other places where the ordinance allows. Consensus was the ordinance is okay.

Um I think the ordinance says they can park in any city righted way where they basically are out of the way of the traffic. So we had consensus there. No reason for any change from our discussion. Then we go back to uh number of vehicles allowed. Discussion was had on a simple reservation system and whether the four vendor limit was a problem. It was acknowledged that it was not really a problem, but the reservation system would give the city a method of tracking who is in the city to ensure collection of sales tax revenue. A simple sign in list would accomplish that task. Board discussion to establish a call-in check-in system for mobile vendors would be needed. Further discussion was held regarding fee for use of railroad park. Well, let's talk about the reservation system first.

How would that work? It'd be kind of cumbersome. Is this a thing like just go to city hall and say, "Hey, I want the sign up sheet." Go to city hall, but what if city hall's closed? To me, that kind of relegates it to the police station. They could call the police station and say, "Hey, I'm here." police station could keep a list. This is related to how many can be at Railroad Park at once. Is that what we're talking about? Yeah. Some kind of checkin system just to know that they're there, not necessarily to limit the number. Oh, I see. But you also stated in there it's so that the city can follow and make sure they're paying their sales tax,

right? Which you do that for any other business in the city? Well, we can at the end of the end of the year or periodically contact the state and get a list of who's paid sales tax, right, Kathy? Yes. I don't believe that. Tell me. Yes, we do get receipts. I know that Blue Springs in years past, I don't know if they currently do, but in years past, if you go to their fall funfest and you don't pay sales tax, they will write you a letter and say, "Hey, so they're verifying this. Are we willing to do that for all businesses? Because I don't think it's fair to single out food trucks. Yeah, that would be something that that definitely should be included.

Everybody at Puddle Tempers, every popup event, second Saturdays on second, you know, that's everybody that sells anything period. We'd have to verify it for everybody, not just food trucks that has a business license. Yeah. And if they don't have a business license, are they legally allowed to even sell at pop? We have over 300 business licenses in town currently. So it'd be very difficult. [sighs] I don't know if we want to go down that road. Be cumbersome, but you also have lost revenue.

Yeah, it might generate revenue. Correct. It might generate revenue, but is the return on investment for the labor invested in it worth it? I don't know. We wouldn't know unless we did and saw what it was.

This fall under the sign up sheet reservation where you'd know who who is you say just a popup somebody coming in if you don't have permission if you've not registered. That gives us a list of who's here. But that would also potentially limit the people who are willing to come to popup events that don't have business licenses. But now know that if a vendor, for example, at second Saturday on 2nd doesn't have a business license in Odessa, knows that Odessa is going to say, "What did you sell? Did you pay your sales tax for all the sales that you did at that event or at any other pop-up event anywhere else?" Now, I'm not saying we should or shouldn't do that, but that that enters that risk that everybody has to be liable for it, not just food trucks. Now, it would increase revenue if those people decide to get a business license. It does. It would increase revenue if you caught them not paying and they paid sales tax and then you they end up having to pay figure out. It does increase revenue

potentially, but what cost to city staff to follow up on all those and for codes enforcement to go and make sure every popup event everybody has business license and then to sign up everybody at every pop-up event to make sure you know who you're following up on for everybody to make sure they're paying. Are we interested in doing that? So my question to you would be um so you do all of this and you find out they haven't paid their sales tax. What's the city's recourse and how much time does that how many resources have

I don't rec to state that hey we've got this person we we know they were here on this day this day this day um they need to be audited whether or not the state would audit them advantage and that would be there for I mean there's kind of if if you if I

just give some input just on some experience I have is that you know whether they're a food truck or whether they're a brick and mortar I mean there's still a risk that someone doesn't pay collect their sales tax and remit it right I mean I you know used to represent a C community improvement district that imposed a sales tax and so we went around to kind of just see it was like you know the barber shop, for example, you know, it's a service. You're cutting hair, but they also sell, you know, beard wax and, you know, like whatever. Combs, they're not collecting the sales tax on that. So, I mean, I think it's it's it's a similar enforcement issue that you deal with with every ordinance that you write. Right. I mean, you know, the the the police department is not,

you know, they have to have probable cause. They can't, you know, like they're they're monitoring what's going on, but, you know, you can't stop everybody. you can't know exactly whether someone is is violating the law or not violating the law or whatever. But if you've got an ordinance, you know, I assume that there's a a display requirement that if they've got their [clears throat] city, you know, license that that's at least displayed, you know, someplace where a customer can see it or someone want to walk up, you know, I don't know how many, you know, sites we're talking about. I'm guessing it's not 50 food trucks, you know. So, I mean, if you've got a pop-up event, you got five food trucks there, it takes you 20 minutes to to check them all if you wanted to do that. You know, you could certainly spot check it so that they know, hey, Odessa's on it. They're going to send a secret shopper out and they're going to buy something and if they don't see that sales tax remittance on your receipt, that gets turned in. And it's the same way, you know, again, that you know, we enforce other ordinances. you know, if you actually see something, you know, as a code enforcement officer or whatever the case may be, or it might be complaint driven. If a, you know, if there's a competitor out there who, you know, didn't get their first come, first- serve slot and they don't think the person's collecting taxes, well, they can go buy a coney dog and and and see whether they're getting charged tax or not, and then that might cut out some competition. But, you know, complaint driven is is a lot of how our municipal ordinances get enforced, you know, in in many cases anyway. So, I I think it's there. I mean, I think it it it kind of kind of self- enforces and you know, people people want the opportunity to sell in your community, so they'll follow your rules and if they don't, you'll toss them.

Kyo, either of you want to say anything. [clears throat] Anybody else there?

Yes, please. Um, so as far as having like a sign up process and stuff like that to keep track of any sales tax that need to be paid or anything like that, you're right. You guys are all correct in saying they are making more additional steps to come to a resolution that's probably not going to get resolved. Um because like you just said, you have to have something become odd to somebody. Um as far as if if a food [clears throat] trucks paying their sales tax, sometimes they'll hike their prices up and just leave like a flat rate. Um and they pay from that in my business more complicated than it needs to be. Um,

well, portions of it, the way the ordinance is now with first come, first serve, I still think it should stay that way. Um, for trucks in that area is kind of much anyways because you're going to actually violate fire code most likely unless like they're very small units. Um, because food trucks need to have 10 feet between them in between each other. So, There's no real need for what's already there to be changed. Okay.

If you guys have a sign up reservation thing, so you guys could keep track of that. Other cities, usually when we do stuff with them, they're trying to keep track of that, they'll bring us a tax forms uh when they go around, they do their inspections. um kind of just to help know that like we're that that we're aware that they keep track of that stuff. Um from my business it's never been considered. I just throw it in the trash because we already have all stuff that stuff all taken care of. So it really just depends on what you guys have already said. How far do we want to pay somebody to go in and keep accountability for all this stuff? So uh that's my input on it. just leave it because

make more responsibility for themselves. You're probably not going to get the results you want out of. So, I you I was just going to add we do Oh, we do um we do collect the uh Missouri sales tax ID and then we also have the um no sales tax due letter. No sales tax due. So, they have to prove that they've paid their back taxes, which I know is different than reporting, but from from our perspective, that's all that we can do is make sure that they're registered with the state and have been paying what they they owe historically to monitor that

and then the state verifies it and gives us a report periodically. Do we have many that would just come into town and park for a day and just they may if I see them and they don't have a business license I'll approach them and ask them to get one and then they typically will do that. So there no there's also we've not had any conflicts with um the capacity limit at Railroad Park either.

I express to people they do call and I express to them that it's first come first serve. So, um, you know, and make sure that they're not impeding traffic or, you know, parking outside on the roads, you know, where the people are walking through the road to get to the the food truck. So, food establishment permit, fire extinguishers, things like that.

Thank you. So, in regards to the um the process of securing a spot, what my suggestion was is since it is a park, Railroad Park, that it should be probably seen by Parks and Rex the same way that you would reserve a shelter house, you could reserve a spot at Railroad Park as a food truck. And at that point, parks and reccks would be able to collect a fee if there was a fee to be charged for uh parking at Railroads Park. And then at that point, the city would also have um of who was parked when at Railroad Park. And that is a process that parks and reccks already has developed and is already using for other um permits and for other reservations. whenever it comes to parks in Odessa.

Okay, you brought up fees. Let's get into fees.

Further discussion was held regarding the fee for use of railroad parks. It was acknowledged that there is a cost to the city for maintenance of the area. The city does provide trash cans which are being used and as we know with the downtown sidewalks, there is an eventual cost to concrete maintenance. There's an unseen cost in city insurance and infrastructure. Personal property taxes not paid to the city from out of town mobile food vendors for those costs, but vendors based within the city limits do pay personal property tax for those costs. The time requirement for collection of a fee may end up costing more than the fee collected. More discussions required to establish a fee or modify business license or wave any change for mobile food vi. So I have I have a question trash. I've looked multiple times. We don't have trash cans there.

We just added one a couple months ago. All right. Well, so that's a cost that is now there that wasn't there before. And the ordinance, the ordinance requires that they have their own they truck it in, truck it out. They have their It's in the ordinance that they require their own trash receptacle. We added one for more so park attendees to be able to utilize as a resident. While it is I don't think that's a justifiable argument.

While it is existing in the ordinance during our discussion, Tai was completely unaware of and said that he does not provide receptacle. So I don't think that it's the case that everyone's aware that that is a requirement and that it is happening. And I think that's another thing with permitting it through parks and Rex where parks and Rex would be able to say where can I send confirmation of your reservation? send an email that has a quick list of these are the requirements to be there and this is proof of your reservation if someone from the city were to approach you and ask if you've done that. Um, and those kind of quick notes like providing your own receptacle and just like a quick glance of the ordinance itself could be provided that [clears throat]

I would agree on that copy of the ordinance and I think it's um all business responsibility the ordinance for the business too. Hi. You want to address the fee? Address the fee. [clears throat]

Um, as far as the fee goes, none of the food trucks that operate regularly that I spoke to in Odessa are on board for it. The market to serve here is very low compared to other places. If we have more to pay to actually serve here, then it just builds up business expenses that are unnecessary to us. Even though we're all just go wherever makes the most money whereas the most return investment, I completely understand um the reasons for having a fee. Um just know that you may drive away some business if you do that, including the locals that live here and that operate here regularly. Um, I've been given feedback that a lot of that have no interest in serving in the railroad park that they have to pay a fee. Um, and a lot of us work together anyways with the other local businesses. We have no problem with just working within a business and setting up there instead. So, um, if you guys do that, you probably see less food trucks there. Um, same thing with like a reservation. uh just more step you're adding more steps that aren't going to get the results you want as far as the trash service goes. Now uh an ordinance with it if what I would say is you're if you're setting up a seating area for someone to sit there and eat some trucks do then have a trash receptacle. If you're not just carry out go home there's no reason to be worried about that. You already got to clean up the area around you anyways. Make sure you're not leaving trash laying around. So, that's one way to put that. There's no real need to have a trash providing a trash service uh when nobody's going to be hanging around. It's not really a big deal to me because I keep an extra trash can in my back of my truck for venues

that require that stuff. But, um that's just mine. But on it, honestly, it really just needs to be left the way that it is. uh his businesses are on wheels that will sc where where the return on investment is best. So trying to keep food trucks in the city as much as possible to provide variety to Odessa. It needs to honestly be the main focus. That's how I look at it. I could I address the parks and wreck um you know aspect of I'm on the park board. So could I maybe address that?

Oh, sure. Come in. Okay. So, it'll be quick. So, um the parks and wreck department um in this town is is basically one person and that's Lindsay Adams. Um there's other employees that do maintenance and such, but um I will say veently that this isn't something she's going to want uh participate in. She's already overworked in my opinion. Um, so a reservation system that involves calling her, which their office is only open three days a week for for limited hours and their website isn't doesn't have any, you know, capabilities for anything, you know, like this online. So asking her, you know, to have another thing put on her. Um when my understanding is the railroad park is is for lack of a better term, you know, um a nonfunctioning park, you know, it's it's it's the least maintenance, you know, it's it's not

and and and that was a question is the concrete part of the park because we've never talked about like maintenance or anything like that. We talked about maintenance in our parks or meetings towards the, you know, flowers and the grass, but we've never talked about maintaining the concrete pad. So, I, you know, I don't want to speak for Lindsay, but just knowing her well enough, I know this really isn't something that's going to fall in her purview, and she's not really going to want to direct, you know, hours to to these reservations. So, thank you.

Note this too, uh, with a reservation system, if you are paying a balance, a lot of trucks it's in their interest to follow up with those balances afterwards because affected by weather. So like let's say rain comes in, I already have to reserve that spot and I already got to pay for it. Then yes, you've already got skin in the game, but uh they might not come back. It's like, well, I already got paid to use that space versus I use that space now and follow and pay my due. So that's one way to look at it. pay after the use.

If you're going to enforce like that, then it needs to be a follow up pay balance. Um that's the only feasible way in this line of work that somebody would consider that as well too. Is it common for cities to provide property for food trucks to park at no cost of food trucks? At no cost. Um, do you experience that in any other cities?

No. And but a lot of a lot of other cities have have more uh have more events and stuff like that going on that bring in food truck traffic. Um, between businesses working together and the city hosting things. Um, sometimes they do. I know like Blue Springs when they have events uh that are using parks, uh, sometimes there will be a a vendor fee needs to be paid, stuff like that. I'll retract what I said. Yes, it's a pretty common thing. It's not a general space that's provided all the time, but they provide more events that true trucks can work in, and you have to pay that fee if there is a fee. Um, it's really there's no consistency to it. I'll say that. I mean, I did an event with uh it was considered Jackson County Parks and Wreck at um at least on the way and for Christmas in the sky and we had to pay for that. Uh but we paid on the spot. We didn't pay leading up to it. So each each event is a fee or a flat fee like

it's no each event would have a fee and it would either be the fee would either be a flat rate of it each event that does have a fee would either be a flat rate or um a percentage of your sales. Um most mobile vendors would prefer a percentage of your sales. uh does then you know what your business expenses are going to be totally for the day versus oh I had paid you know $500 and I only that's basically 30% of my sales for the day on top of my business expenses they're not going to come back so that that would sum up that answer

I know this isn't what anybody gonna want to hear but [clears throat] I don't think there should be a fee. I realize it's city property. I don't think there should be a fee for these guys. I think they're doing us a service by giving giving us a variety. And it's fun to go to a food truck, you know. I just I just

on that I'll note I'll note there's some miscommunication because a lot of people think that you are only allowed to serve at Railroad Park when the ordinance we've been over this in our meeting too. The ordinance explains that as long as you're not impinged traffic at a right away, you're not closer within 50 feet to the uh entry to a restaurant and you have uh um permission if you're park in front of a business or in a business's parking lot. Um there's so many places uh still in Odessa where people can park and not to worry about all this stuff even on on Second Street and stuff like that. Um and it isn't there there's more places than just railroad park but there's a mis miscommunication. A lot of people think that's the only place but the communication is more so that is the only space provided by the city and so that's why a lot of people have set up because there's miscommunication about that. They think that that's where the old days they're allowed to serve

and it's pretty convenient. It is convenient. It's a convenience. Yeah. So, I'll note that that's probably why a lot a lot of this happens at Railroad Park because of that miscommunication. I also think that I I agree this making a reservation and like he said rains nobody's going to go to a food truck and if you've already made a reservation you feel like you have to you got skin in the game. You already invested now you have to go and then you're not gonna make the sales that you want. Yeah. I I I I think we just let them do what they do. Go on.

So I will counter that. Although I do agree it should be, but I will counter that on behalf of the brick and mortars. They have skin the game no matter what because of their investment. And so I I don't know whether that's a decent argument against but I don't think there's been a food truck put a brick and motor out of correct agree but the bricks do have a lot in well as well that they can't control and they lose out for certain things as well just like a food truck having to pay a fee and then not being able to sell. But the brick and mortars, most of them are open every day depend no matter what the weather is.

Exactly. They they don't have to worry about the weather. They don't have to worry about making a reservation. All they got to do is worry about whether they can give their customer a coffee with it. That's that's the some respect. What's the nuance there? I don't. And I will say too that um food trucks still have to provide a business license which is a $60 expense. So it's equal to the brick and mortar. They each have to pay the $60 business license fee. And they're not in town near as often, you know, and if you charge them,

they're going to quit coming to town. They're we're going to lose money that way. But you don't have to charge them if they're going to park at like Level Up Foundation. They can park there for free. They can park at Waters for free with Waters permission or at Nerds for free. We're talking about city property being used for profit at no expense to other businesses. Whenever other businesses, brick and mortars are paying an extravagant amount and contributing to jobs all year long. They're contributing to sales tax all year long. They're there on the rainy days whenever people aren't coming to the food trucks because they don't want to get out in the rain. They're still there. Their employees are still there. Your utilities are on. They're paying property taxes for those days. They're contributing to infrastructure. They're doing all of those things all year round.

I understand that. Yeah. And so it's not we're not going to run food trucks out of Odessa by telling them they can't park on city property for free. We're not going to That's not what's going to happen. They're going to go somewhere else in Odessa, but they're not going to say, "Oh, well, they won't let us park for free, so we're going to go." That's not what's going to happen. And if it if that is what happens, and that's pretty childish. There's other places. That's what he said. There's other places, even long, that they can park for free. So, it's not going to run up their costs and run them out of Odessa.

So, what would be the difference? I mean other than it's city property that someone parking on a city street which the ordinance allows me to as long as they have a beating traffic. Yeah. I mean it's it's it's a city street and you're not going to charge them to park on the city street, right? Like I could park in the sidewalk literally right in front of railroad park a non-re park park property. I avoid that. You can't because you have you can only take up one parking spot and you have to be marked there and you have to be facing the sidewalk. Okay. Facing the sidewalk. There's no problem with that. Mayor, what's the resolution that we're seeking

from the board? Yeah. Yeah. We need to move along. So, I need to decide whether it's going to be, you know, or seriously we're going to look at each. And I would say that if we're gonna this is just something to consider is if you do fees for the food trucks down the road, we're gonna have to put fees on the farmers market. Anybody that use the city's propert about selling corn, selling melons, selling Christmas. So you got you got to consider that all that too. Um

pick out everybody. So there's one more item after these. If is there any interest in changing either the number of trucks at Rail River Park starting a fee or establishing a wherever kind of reservation system? I think the other thing we spoke about was distance. I'm sorry. I think the other thing we spoke about was distance from current. That's the next option. Oh, and we said they had 10 feet apart. Food trucks need to be 10 ft apart from each other. The units do for fire code. Fire code.

Is this is this the only discussion and meeting that you Mr. Is this going to continue? No. This this board's going to decide here from hearing this hopefully whether or not it wants to change the question the board could decide we want a further discussion too if we deem that's appropriate so it doesn't have to further discussion if there was a further discussion it would just have to be whatever whatever the fee would be

I think we can handle that I think that might be why it's just put, you know, have a further discussion and talk about fees, how much is reasonable, if there's a fee, how it affects other people using Mayor, I'm comfortable with staff can do the research on what the fee should need to be just to simplify things. But before you do that, none of us said we wanted a fee. We need to determine we want to be. Yeah. If the fee should be established, you can talk about and direct city administrator to do that work. So, is that what you want to do? I'm a no. Okay.

I'm a no. No fe. So, we got a no and a no and a no. I think that's the majority. So, we just move along. That's a no. So just for clarification, are we making no changes to the ordinance or are there some changes that still have a couple things that topic? Oh,

and the last item, the 50oot rule. Discussion was held on keeping the 50 foot limit or increasing it to 100 or 200 feet. We discussed the impact of competition and our limitations on protecting against competition and the differences of investment and operating cost between uh business types. Consensus could not be achieved [clears throat] in board discussion is necessary. The 50-foot rule is that mobile vendors selling food or drink may not park within 50 feet of the main entrance of a restaurant during the hours in which food or drink is sold within such restaurant without permission. So 50 now.

So those that park at railroad park, how far away are they? Where are they? Parked from the nearest

If you go through diagonally from what's the store on the corner? Pardon? Hartland from Hartland measure diagonally to Railroad Park across the intersection. That would be your closest. Okay.

I would think, but Railroad Park is not the only place that a truck can be located. Correct. Correct. Yeah. But they still they're still not 50 ft. I mean, they can park anywhere as long as 50 ft isn't very far. It really didn't. The length of the house basically not questioning. Does that 50 foot rule apply only

for railroad park or did does it apply for all restaurant?

So can a railroad park or can a food truck connect? Does Hartland sell food? I don't like this twice a week as long as she wasn't open.

It would say the what I'm reading the ordinance just off of the the staff report and it says mobile vendors selling food or drink may not park within 50 ft of the main entrance of a restaurant during the hours in which food or drink is sold. So the business would have to be open uh within such restaurant without express written permission from the restaurant. All measurements are made from the closest point on the mobile food unit to the main entrance of the restaurant. Well, to answer your question, they could not park there when she's open because that would be 50, right? But if she was closed, they could park there without permission.

So the differences were questioning is should that So I'm interested. It says consensus could not be achieved in more discussion. What was some of that discussion pro that it should be ignored the distance? I think 200 ft was what Terica had recommended when she first spoke to the board.

Yeah. So I'm happy to speak to that. I um I looked up regulations for several cities. Buffner instance it's 200 ft from another restaurant. Richmond it's 60 feet. Um Casey Mo it's 50 to 100 depending on the zone. Uh Lee Summit it's 60. Higginsville it's 150. Harrisonville 100. Oak Grove 100. Um Pacific Missouri it's 150. Some Sunsetville 120. Pleasant Hill 100. Carney 150. O 150. So it's 50 is very very minimal whenever it comes to the state of Missouri and what it usually is. And there's most of these cities also have an additional um that is like 100 feet from crosswalks or intersections or 15 feet from an entrance or a driveway in addition to the distance that they have to be parked from um brick and mortar restaurants. Uh, and I know that during our discussions, a lot of what I heard back from that was that brick and mortars are afraid of competition, and that's not the case. Um, for instance, Casey's, the old Casey's building, there is a, let me tell you the exact word for it. Um, there's verbiage on the deed. Okay. Um,

two years,

right? it's 15 years from the date that it's sold that no one can that owns that property can sell pizza, gasoline, a stick of gum. So, there's large corporations that see value in this. Um, it's it's not just like brick and mortars that are scared of competition from food trucks. It's something that's very normal in other cities um and with larger corporations. [laughter] on 150 ft or 200 f feet isn't going to impact competition. If the choice is is between someone uh just take the coffee shop as an example, if someone uh has a choice between parking in front of the coffee house or going to a coffee truck 200 feet away, if they want to go to the coffee truck, they're going to go to the coffee truck. you know, whether it's 200 feet that they have to go to get the coffee wherever they want to get it. That 250 isn't going to make a difference to them. I I'm saying 200 ft isn't going to change anything other than it's going to spread them out. So 50 ft is pretty close. Yeah. Very close.

Yeah. Make everybody happy. I mean, is that is that what you're asking? 100 ft. I think we we think that it should increase for sure. Does everybody go to 100t? I'd like to know something first.

Sure. So what the information that she brought to you guys that may be their ordinances [clears throat] that's fine. Those are not competitive markets at all. Kansas City is the most competitive market. Um I have not seen 100 ft within any of my experience with doing this for five years now out there. I've seen 50 feet. Uh I would go off that measure based off of competition. Um the other cities that she mentions half them I don't even see food trucks in um and if they are it's because I'm working with another business that they're paying rent to use their space. Um changing the ordinance from 50 ft to 100 ft to direct it and may not affect anything. Um, but if you're trying to keep the field level with the who these businesses that are on wheels can go, um, I would want to stick with who the competing most competing market is. Um, I would advise mobile businesses to expand as much as possible, not just stay in one city or stay in one county. Um, that's the way that I look at that. The cities that she listed, most of them, they don't even have a competitive market for food cups to come there unless it's anything that's hosted by the city. So,

I'll note that. I think it's important to remember [clears throat] to um I I like food trucks too, but I think um remembering our brick and mortar and the fact that um they've expressed some concern and I think we should listen to that make our decisions based on excuse me some of their concerns and that um some concessions could be made in both directions. So, you know, we we need the brick and mortars, we need food trucks, but we have to have it. So, I would be fine with

So, I also want to make it important to know one thing I got in trouble with the downtown collective does not on all brick and mortars and there are many brick and mortars that are not in agreement with the downtown collective on this topic. They may have their own opinions, but they are not being backed by the downtown collective, nor are they endorsing the downtown collective in their effort to do this. This in my opinion, h how many downtown businesses are you actually recommending for the downtown collective? We represent all of the whole downtown for revitalization. But how many actually paid into your organization that you're lobbying for? Because it's a paid organization, right?

It's not a paid organization. We don't have membership fees. Okay. But I I know I've had multiple downtown brick and mortars say we do not agree with what they're saying that that we want. So I just want everybody to know that that not all downtown brick and mortars are not being represented today by the downtown. Even though intentions are good, it's not widespread with all downtown. That being said, any spider representing booth shows up. No, he is not. Agreed. Sure. Agreed. He is not.

I don't know that that's necessarily important calling to me that 50 foot limit has more to do with parking space particularly with our downtown. But, you know, I when we have things downtown that eats up my parking space during tax season and I really appreciate one year when someone wanted to have a special event in the middle of tax season, the board of alderman asked, well, have you checked with Bruce?

Yeah, I really appreciate them thinking about how that impacts a business when something's going on during a crucial time of the year. Um, you know, so to me that distance has more to do with parking spaces available than competition or anything else. People are going to go where they want to go. So I don't think it has any impact on competition. I don't think that that amount of feet has anything to do with someone being afraid of competition. parking spaces where the competition is agreed in downtown.

I have no problem with 100 foot or 200. So, anybody else have a number in mind? I'll reply to I was going to go with 75 because because it's currently 50. You want 100. You said let's try to compromise and keep people in mind. Okay. Let's basically split it 95.

All right. I can be on board with that. I do agree with the safety issue department. I don't think it's going to make any difference to competition. And the reason why I brought that up is because we do want to remember our brick and mortars, but we also need to remember the downtown collective is not being supported in this effort, this specific effort by all the downtown. That's why we think of an impact, but that's not a suggestion. That's the number 175. Well, let's show a hands. 100 23 75 two 32 change orders to 100.

What's next, Bruce? That's it. I want to thank Terica and Tai for the simple discussions they've had to get this summer put together. A lot of time went into this on both parts is extremely appreciated and very grateful to be there. Thank you. Okay. All right. Next schedule meeting is Monday, December 22nd. Now is the time for alderman requests for the agenda. None. All right. Mayor, can you before you close the meeting, can you just remind people that we do have bathrooms available? Just not they're out the back.

Oh, okay. Um plumbing issues in the building. There are um ports. That's the I was going to say out of the outside building. on the cleaning center until it get till that inside gets fixed and we're not that for sure when that's going to be. Tomorrow tomorrow by our water and wastewater department. All right. Should it be fixed by tomorrow evening? Thank you. Very good. And with that I would take a motion to adjurnn. Second. Cut them.