City Council - Regular Meeting

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands

the appointment of Tucker Ovaling to the Housing Authority for a four-year term. Are there any questions, comments, or concerns from City Council on the recommended appointment? Seeing that there are none, I now need a motion and a second to approve the Mayor's appointments to the Enhanced Enterprise Board. my apologies let me back that up just a little bit so i now need a motion and a second to approve the mayor's appointments to the housing authority commission as presented got a motion from mr harter and a second from opportunity for citizens to speak directly to city council on matters that are not listed on tonight's agenda do we have anyone in the audience this evening that would like to participate in citizens participation Okay, seeing that there are none, I will close citizens participation at this time and we will move on to the consent agenda. I welcome the city council to ask any questions or comments about item number two on our agenda. Seeing that there are none, I need a motion and a second for approval of the consent agenda, please. got a motion from council member harder in the second from council member shaw all those in favor twenty six has been canceled we have a planning and zoning meeting on june the eighth two thousand and twenty six our next city council meeting will be on june the sixteenth two thousand and twenty six and we have an additional city council meeting on july the twenty first two thousand and twenty six Moving on to old business and table items. Item number three. I now need a motion and a second for the second reading of Bill 26-18 by title only, please. Motion. Second. Got a motion from Harder and a second from Fields. All of those in favor? Aye. All of those opposed? Are there any abstentions? Motion carries. 8-0-8-26-001. Thank you, Laura. Does City Council have any questions, comments, discussion before moving forward? Okay, seeing that there is none, we will move on to final passage. I now need a motion and a second for the final passage of Bill 26-18, please. Second. Who is the motion? Got a motion from Council Member Harder and a second from Council Member Neal. So we will now take a vote on our computers. Motion carries, 8-0-0. Moving on to item number four. All of those in favor? All of those opposed? Are there any abstentions? Motion carries, 8-0-0. And Laura, will you please read the ordinance by title?

An ordinance of the city council approving a special use permit for Rescue One to operate a veterinary facility on real property located at 3155 East Sawyer Road.

Thank you, Laura. And does City Council have any questions, comments, or discussion before moving forward? Okay, seeing that there is none, we will move on to final passage. I now need a motion and a second for final passage of Bill 26-19, please. motion carries eight zero zero moving on to other business and resolutions item number five twenty six dash r dash one three a resolution of the city council receiving and accepting the independent audit report for the fiscal year ending december thirty first two thousand and twenty five i now need a motion and a second to take up resolution twenty six dash r dash one two please Who was the second? I've got a motion from Councilmember Neal and a second from Councilmember Wilson. Welcome back.

Thank you. It's good to be back. And it seems like time has passed very quickly. So thank you for having me this evening. My name is John Cummings. I'm with KPMC PAs. And I'm presenting the Independent Auditor's Report and Audited Financial Statements for the year ended December 31st, 2025. uh it's minor saying that you have the bound booklets and so we're going to start on page three of that i will keep the comments very brief and kind of high level because i know that a lot of this information has been with you for quite a while and you get a lot of information throughout the year so i don't want to bore you with too many numbers but The whole point of this exercise is to be able to render an opinion on the quality and completeness of your financial of the city of Republic as of December 31st, 2025. That is a clean or unmodified opinion and the best possible result. So good job. For those that may have forgotten, the city did undergo a pretty large change in the accounting system during this year that was under audit. And so it was a learning experience for all. And so we appreciate all of the patience on the part of the people at the city for all the different things we asked for that was maybe different than the past. And all of their help in getting us all the information that we needed to complete this particular exercise. So they also did a very nice job of implementing. So that's just my view of it. So good job on all of that. The basis for our opinion was that we conduct our audit in accordance with and accepted by management and have become the cities. And so with that, we'll turn over to page seven. I just want to draw your attention really quick to the management's discussion and analysis section of this report. And I do that because this is kind of a, nice summary of the year's financial information and the audited financials, and it's a little bit more condensed than maybe what you'll find throughout the rest of the report. It is prepared by management, as the title would denote, but it does contain information that basically ties through to all the financial statements and also gives you some information about why things changed and kind of the good and the bad. And then also, the things that are upcoming. There's a whole section on that as well. So with that, we'll turn over to page 27, look at a few numbers. And on page 27, what you'll see is the statement of revenues, expenditures, and changes in fund balances for your governmental funds. And your governmental funds are the general fund, the street fund, the fire fund, the police fund, parks and rec fund, and the capital improvement sales tax fund. And to get an idea of what a governmental fund is all about, it's not a business enterprise. So profit is not really a motive. It's more about resource utilization and resource allocation. And so when you look at this, it's based on what resources do you have to work with and how did you go ahead and use them. And so what we see here on this particular page is a snapshot of what came in on revenue and what went out on expense. So it's pretty straightforward. On the general fund, total revenue On the expense side total expenditures were nine million five hundred ninety two thousand seven hundred thirty dollars That is up about six point six million dollars, and I think we're standing in the bulk of the reason why? that expenditure happened but overall The net decrease for the year on this before other items was one million two hundred thirty nine thousand five hundred eighty two dollars and If you kind of skip across to the total on this, the total for all governmental funds on revenue was $24,948,147. That's down about $34,000, which is what I would consider to be nothing. That's immaterial as it relates to a $24 million. The bulk of that, I think, was capital related. So I was thinking about, you know, the point of governmental fund, which is resource allocation and kind of when you see these decreases like across on the bottom total on the far right, the total decrease before other items is $5,735,366. But if you back up and think about what's actually going on on these governmental funds, on your general fund, if you take off the effect of capital and debt service related cost, the city would have had a surplus to work with for capital and debt service of 5,000,000.38. So that's pretty solid. On the total for all your governmental funds, your total revenue minus grants, which would be kind of one time over a year, Outside of the capital and debt service items that happen so the city has a lot of resources to work with and I think that's a testament to all of the efforts that have gone into economic development and just overall development of the city and then budgeting as well, so Kudos and good job on all of that any questions On the next page, this kind of finishes up those same funds. There's other financing sources and uses, which amount to proceeds from issuance of debt, insurance recovery, proceeds from sale of assets, and then transfers between funds. And so after all of those things, the general fund had a decrease for the year of $4,883,178, and ends the year with fund balance ended at $4,457,905. The fire fund was up $741,025 at a total ending fund balance of $3,521,151. The police fund increased by $138,361 and had a ending fund balance of $418,334. Parks and Rec decreased by $994,115 and has fund balance of $1,639,140. and the capital improvement sales tax fund increased by $322,314 and ended the year with $1,366,591 in total fund balance. For a total governmental funds fund balance change of a decrease of $5 million, and a ending or sitting in in your case a very nice asset that is reflecting how that happened and where that went so this is going to serve the city and its citizens for years and years to come and i might just say very well done i like it it's very nice so any questions on governmental funds Okay, well if not, we'll flip over to page 32. It's a similar statement, but for proprietary funds, the Water Fund and the Wastewater Fund are your enterprise funds, and the motive of these funds is a business motive, so profit does matter. And because profit is what actually makes the operations of the utility possible. And so with that in mind, in the Water Fund, total operating revenues were $4 million. We're up about $534,000 from last year at $3,608,574. This left an operating income of $821,935. You had non-operating items of a decrease of $36,742. capital contributions transfers of $140,000 and $213,000 respectively. And that left an increase for the year in the water fund of $1,138,802 and ending that position of $12,058,326. So good year for the water fund. On the wastewater fund, total operating revenues were $7,607,020. That's up $729,000 from last year. Total operating expenses were $5,073,401, which is down about 647,000 from last year. And that left an income from operations of $2,533,619. You had net non-operating expense of $870,943, state grant contributions of $11,956,216, and then developer donated infrastructure of $549,000. 521 dollars that left a increase for the year of 14 million 168 thousand four hundred thirteen dollars and ending that position of eighty two million forty eight thousand six hundred and forty seven dollars so good year in the wastewater fund as well a lot of that was converted into assets in the ground as far as system assets Across both of these funds, you had a net increase of $15,307,215 and the ending net position of $94,106,973. So a good year there for the utilities of the city. So any questions on those? seeing none we'll flip over to the management recommendation letter and kind of go over some things that are inbound from an accounting standpoint and throughout time the government accounting standards board issues statements on how they want things accounted for for governments and they've issued statement 103 which relates to financial reporting model improvements and it basically changes your management's discussion and analysis and then your notes to your budgetary comparison schedules to include really the why of, on basically why things changed. So why did things happen? In your MD&A section, which I kind of showed you there, it's been historically what changed and how much did it change by. They have added with this standard, well, what changed, how much did it change, and why did it change? So that's kind of a conceptual difference in this standard that will take a little bit of time to adapt to. Also on your budget to actuals, there's a note to those budget to actual schedules, and it has always been driven by what changed and by how much. Now they want to know why the budget changed. And there was a new variance column that'll go on to the budget to actual schedule, but it's really not that impactful of a change. So nothing really to be overly concerned about on this particular standard, but it is effective for the year you're in now. Gatsby Statement 104 deals with disclosure of certain capital assets and basically it causes us to break out assets that are traditional capital assets from leased assets or leased subscription-based arrangement assets, and then assets that are held for sale. And then there's a note disclosure if you have assets that are held for sale. So if you bought attractive land and decided, you know what, we're gonna sell that to some developer at some point in the future, and the city's gonna do a good deal off of it COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT, WHATEVER. THERE WOULD BE A SPECIAL NOTE THAT GETS PUT IN THE FOOTNOTES. IT'S NOT ALL THAT IMPACTFUL TO DO, BUT IT WOULD BE THERE. WHERE IN THE CURRENT SET OF CIRCUMSTANCES AND CURRENT STANDARDS, IT WOULDN'T BE. SO THAT IS ALSO APPLICABLE AS A STANDARD FOR THE YEAR THAT YOU'RE IN, 2026. Gatsby statement one of 5 deals with subsequent events and clarifies what subsequent events time frames and basically what all will be considered to be a subsequent event that would be required to be disclosed and kind of limits backward from where we currently stand so gets a little bit more restrictive. But that is applicable for basically your 2027 fiscal year so. On the next page there is a project that they're working on that's the revenue and expense recognition project and it deals with Determining how a government should exceptions, but that's the bulk of it This is going to change some of that potentially, but there's nothing that's definitive yet It's just inbound and we're waiting on exposure draft to see exactly what the Gatsby is wanting to do because there were three different ideas about it So we'll see which one boils up With that, that's what I have for you this evening. There is another letter attached to your stuff that's a letter to those charged with governance. It's required communication from us auditors to those on the Board of Governance, and it's our last chance to tattle. It's a good nighttime reading tool if you're needing to sleep, because it will be boring. It just has the very basic things that have to be in there. There's no excitement to report, so I hate to spoil it for you, but everybody here tried really hard did a good job and put a lot of effort into making sure this is a good result and comes out right. So that's more than half of the battle in what we do. And so we do appreciate all of their effort to make all of this possible and their help in getting through the audit process. because they don't, I don't think, get a break from their normal jobs while we're here asking for things. So their patience and good-natured attitudes were much appreciated. So with that, any questions? We have Mr. Gerke.

Is it typical just kind of curious? I've looked a lot of financial not city as much but very into the final budget looks like privilege all the funds we Exceed expectations. Is that a typical? I don't say strategy that you see where you'd better be conservative or I'm just kind of curious what you see in regards to variants of final budget compared to other cities well

Cities vary by the city almost, because different ones have different traditions and different things that drive them, different motivations. i would say the bulk of them actually just amend actual so there's no variance and so uh basically sticking to what your final plan is and showing like this is what we want to do that's kind of unique to republic in some ways but i would say that your budget's pretty normal-ish i would say compared to other cities as far as what the variances come out to The biggest thing we're looking for as auditors is that you do not spend more than you budgeted to spend and that you didn't spend a fund into a negative position. So that's our big concern.

Excellent. Thank you, Mr. Gerke. Do we have any additional questions from city council? Okay. Mr. Cummings, thank you very much for coming here this evening. It sounds like staff did a wonderful job, so it's great to hear. It's what our experience is as well with them, so it's great to hear everything went good. Great to hear that report. Is City Council sure we don't have any more questions for Mr. Cummings before moving forward? This is a resolution, so we will move forward.

Okay, Mr. Cummings, thank you very much. All right, thank you for your time this evening. If any questions do arise, feel free to contact me. Absolutely. Thank you, have a good night.

Thank you. So as this is a resolution, we can call this immediately to a vote. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Are there any abstentions? Motion carries 8-0-0. Moving on to reports from staff. Mr. Harris.

Thank you, Mayor. I just have a few highlights from my report and then some additional comments. First, I want to mention I had the opportunity yesterday to attend the library ribbon cutting, and it was truly a great event. It's exciting to to see that come to life. And, you know, we got to watch a presentation from the Historical Society there. We mentioned it earlier in today's workshop, and part of their presentation was showing all the different iterations of the library and so the first library was in a barn and then there's even over the years different members of the community would would step in and be the librarian for parts of the day so to go from that to what we have now which truly is state-of-the-art I mean there's what everybody's talking about it is a really cool feature of it is the creator space which Now there's laser engraving, 3D printing. There's all these capabilities that this library has. So pretty interesting to see that evolution over time. And it's really great to be a part of. So I wanted to mention that. Also, speaking of the Historical Society, I do want to thank them today for their workshop. Look forward to our continued partnership with them. And I certainly look forward to them being able to complete their goals as they pursue their museum. I also want to thank John with KPM to come presenting our city's audit. Completing this annual audit is an important milestone for the city. We appreciate the time and professionalism that goes into that process and so we're certainly proud of the results and as always I want to mention that that report will be available online for anyone who'd like to review it. Looking ahead, a few comments. I want to remind everyone of the ribbon cutting for the Loop at J.R. Martin. It'll take place June 12th at 6. This is a highly anticipated project. We're excited to officially open another amenity that will enhance our recreational opportunities in our community, and we encourage everyone to come out and join us for that celebration. I also want to mention that Animal Control will be hosting an adoption day on June 13th. This is a great opportunity to meet some wonderful animals. They're looking for permanent homes, and if anyone's considering a pet, please stop by and participate. And then lastly, I'll just mention that June is National Safety Month. And so internally in our organization, we're focusing on this for the entire month. This week, the focus is moving safety forward. So trying to make sure it's not something that we're just reacting to, but actually part of our culture. as you know we have people whether that's in the field operating equipment driving serving the public every day there's certainly danger around every corner so we want to make sure it's at the forefront of our minds that's all I have mr. Harris does anyone on City Council have anything to report for this evening

Mr. Gerke.

I just want to reiterate what Colton said, too. Appreciate all the staff. No, the audit, it doesn't. We get a nice summary of it. It's a lot of work, and appreciate the staff and KPM and doing a good job. I know it's a lot of work, and I just want to say thanks for all the work everyone put in on that.

Thank you, Mr. Gerke. Do we have any additional comments from City Council or anything to report? uh... and again thank you mister for bringing that up and and colton had mentioned as well as for the sort of report is available online for the public uh... that's a little bit bulky fresh to carry around on those council members of the mayor but uh... we always have this as well to share with people as we're meeting with coffee or anything else uh... it's certainly nothing that we keep hidden from the public uh... very accessible it's out there ask us for it so uh... Thank you very much for all of the work that went into that, and again, John, for being here this evening. I appreciate everyone that is here this evening. I didn't get around to say hello to everyone here tonight, so I appreciate you being here as well. I'm pretty sure I know why you're here, but hopefully I get to say goodbye before we get out of here. June is already a very incredibly busy month. I was looking through my calendar for last month, and it's just a scribble mess. So I think June is going to be the same thing. We've had some incredible moments here lately. I know Colton had talked about the library. Last was a memorial day. I had an opportunity to go over to our Veterans Memorial and witness firsthand a beautiful flag retirement ceremony that was hosted by the scouts of Troop 174 which is a scout troop here locally in Republic. And it was on Memorial Day. It was one of those deeply touching ceremonies. I got to see the scouts. I got to see their parents and just a whole lot of people. It was very touching. But it's something, retiring that flag, it's not just a, a piece of fabric. It's a living symbol and it's something that so many people have led themselves to sacrifice everything that they had so that all of us can enjoy the freedoms that we have. And to see those young adults sitting there and recognizing that sacrifice, it was just an honor to be there with them and part of that sacred symbol of our freedom. So a great job to them. Wonderful time participating in that I also had the opportunity to meet James Coatney Which is Eagle Scout project was the very burn pit that was being utilized that evening for the flag retirement ceremony So there was a lot of full circle moments. It's great time with the community. There was a very good turnout I was very impressed But I just wanted to give them a shout out because that's so incredible very thankful for them and the invitation out there to that ceremony the other milestones I know colton had mentioned it about the library that is such an inspirational place when i say library i feel like that's not doing it justice because there's so many things in there that i learned about just on taking that tour if you haven't been there i highly recommend that and colton touched on it a few things but there's even stuff you can make a hat so you can make yourself a tiger hat you can make yourself a tiger t-shirt and all kinds of things between that maker space it's not the traditional library that i grew up with and being there yesterday seeing that excitement and seeing the kids going through there seeing the adults going through there and and there's there's so much there to look at that i couldn't sit here and describe all of it but please visit i know they would love to see us and they would love to give anyone a tour that asks for one they're incredibly excited to share that building Colton had mentioned the loop. I hope everyone gets to make it to that. That's going to be a really fun time. It's always fun with the Parks and Rec's department, so we're always looking forward to that. I know the public is looking forward to that as well, and I was able to share that at the chamber. And so I got a few comments, and hopefully we get a good turnout. And I think it's going to be a great evening. The weather's going to be perfect. So I'm just saying that right now. The Chamber of Commerce meeting today was wonderful. The reasoning behind my tiger tie for this evening was for Dr. Matt Pierce on Dr. Matt Pierce Day. Today is the actual day, June 2nd, that is Dr. Matt Pierce Day. And although I haven't had a chance to see him today, I know he was very involved with the school. The school had a very great program for him, so I'm very proud of what he did. Very proud of the school district and everyone that gave that support for him on his retirement and I'm thankful for everyone that wore black and orange today. That's my black and orange tie. I had a better showing at lunch, but it was a little bit too loud for this evening, so we'll have another time to debut that one as well. Looking ahead, one day I wanted to make sure everyone was aware of is Ozarks Transportation Organization legislative breakfast is gonna be on October the 20th. And I know RSVP will be sent out once we get closer to the date, but just make sure you have that on your calendar. That's a wonderful event for us to attend. To meet our legislators to meet all the people that work on this regional process of our transportation network There's plenty of different opportunities I guarantee you if I've been going for eight years now And I always meet someone new and of course always get to strengthen those relationships for those people that we get to work outside of here and Other than that, I know I've been talking a lot. I told everyone for my 30 minutes of exercise today, the Pierce Protocol, I was going to run my mouth for 30 minutes, and I believe that I have well excelled that today. So with that being said, we are not quite done working yet. We have an executive session this evening, so no further action other than announcing adjournment by the mayor shall take place after an executive session that is scheduled as the last matter on the agenda unless otherwise stated on the agenda or as allowed per RSMO 610.021. Tonight, we will be going into a closed session under RSMO 610.021.13, individually identifiable personal records, performance ratings or records pertaining to employees or applicants or employment. Closed session, closed vote, closed record. I now need a motion and a second to go into closed session. Got a motion from Councilmember Harder and a second from Councilmember Neal. We are now going to take a roll call vote.

Councilmember Shaw. Aye. Councilmember Harder. Aye. Councilmember Campbell. Aye. Councilmember Wilson. Aye. Councilmember Gerke. Aye. Councilmember Neal. Aye. Councilmember Updike. Aye. Councilmember Fields.

Motion carries 8-0-0. We'll take a quick break just so we can say some goodbyes real quick. But other than that, let's get back here as prompt as we can so we can go into closed session, get things on the road, and hopefully get out of here at a decent time this evening. With that, this meeting is adjourned.