County Council - Regular Meeting

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I mean I don't know. Frankenstein. I think it's great.

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Good evening everybody. Welcome to the St. Charles County Council meeting for Monday, February 23rd. We will start tonight with an invocation from Pastor Jeremy Mount from First Assembly Church in St. Peters and our pledge of allegiance from Councilman Terry Hollander. If you please rise and remove your caps. Almighty God, we ask your blessings to be upon tonight and all who have gathered here and especially upon those who have been called to lead this county and the communities in which they represent. We give you thanks for this event and we pray tonight that your will be done through this count council meeting and take what's been prepared and multiply the council's efforts as only you can. We thank you for those who have been called to be involved in this useful work of overseeing this community, our county, and granting them the strength and the wisdom to be able to appropriately handle the responsibilities of leadership. I ask Almighty God that you would graciously grant our council members wisdom to govern. Give them a sense of the welfare of the needs of our people and give them the ability to work together in harmony. We pray that you would blanket this meeting with your peace as we proceed through the night. And we give you all the glory in the name of your son Jesus Christ. Amen.

Amen. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Please be seated. Would you please call the role? Councilman Swanson here, ma'am. Councilman Brazzle, here. Councilman Hammond here. Councilman Elim here. Councilman Hollander here. Councilwoman York here. Councilman Baker

here. We'll start off tonight with public comments. The clock in front of Mr. Swanson um will show you three minutes. It will countdown after those three minutes. I will thank you for your time and we will move on with our next speaker. Lori, our first speaker is

is Vivian Gars regarding resolution 262. County council members, my name is Vivian Gars. I was so happy and proud to hear that my St. Charles County Council was going to issue a resolution to support Senate Bill 839, which would move all schoolboard elections to the November general election and which would require the candidates for schoolboard elections to announce the party ticket to which they are affiliated. Although I have worked on issues in Frances Hall School District, this is a countywide issue. County voters just are not aware of the issues in their public schools. Nor are they aware of the true stances of the candidates. All candidates say that they are for good academics and teachers and sound fiscal management regardless of their party affiliation. But the candidates supported by the teachers union have proposed or allowed the following. Elimination of math challenge courses for the sake of equity. the establishment of black history and literature curricula created with the guidance of a self-professed CRT professor, a one-third increase in the floor plan of Francis Hall North without going back to the board for approval, causing a $78 million overrun, boys and girls bathrooms and vice versa so as not to hurt the feelings of a few trans students. Age inappropriate books that they keep buying even though they are removed costing the district thousands. student protests during instruction time and apparently they had a hundred of them today and now purchase of $4 million worth of Chromebooks for the very youngest students even though the district admits that there is no data that shows they improve academics. Universities in the area tell us that entering students need remedial classes or tutors in math because they really

cannot do the work that the high school claims they completed. All this continues because the public does not vote. Please support this resolution to move the election to November's general election. Thank you. Thank you, [applause] Amy Robertson regarding resolution 2602. Evening. Good evening.

Um, I also want to speak on the same resolution. I've emailed every one of you, so I'm sure you've already read my comments and kind of know where I stand on this. I am actually a former school board candidate. I did in fact lose my race. Um and I actually have no regrets about that. I lost to some highly highly qualified individuals who belong on the school board. The one concern I have, the one big regret that I would say that I have is that in the year that I ran, I did in fact accept funds from a central committee to uh the Democrats. I do align with them. I'm proud to say that I align with them. My concern is the message that that would have sent to the students had I been elected. Would they have had to wonder if I was representing every student in the district or if I was only being a voice for students whose family aligned with me? And my role as a school board member, as any school board member, should be to be a voice for every student regardless of where they stand on the political spectrum, their background, their ability, their socioeconomic status. The role of a school board member is to represent every student in the school district. The students don't get to have a voice in the election, but they are the ones that bear the brunt of the majority of the decisions that are made. They have to live with our decisions. I know there are some who will say, "Oh, the majority doesn't show up in April, and that's the reason why we need to move it to November." But perhaps the issue isn't so much that the majority doesn't show up, but perhaps those who aren't elected don't have good enough candidates that are high quality, or perhaps their messaging is a problem. It may not necessarily be a transparency issue or an issue of people not wanting to show up. There's a million in one resolutions that we could as a county decide that we are going to put forward to benefit schools and public education. We could put forward resolutions guaranteeing fully funding our public educations. We could put forth resolutions wanting to work on the acquisition and retention of exemplary educators. We could put forth a resolution guaranteeing that we want to

protect IDA and all of the students who fall underneath it. We could put forth resolutions guaranteeing the safety of our students within our school or resolutions about anti-bullying. We could put forth resolutions guaranteeing robust curriculum, including the trades. There's a million different things that we could do, but if we really wanted to put forth a resolution as a county that would make a difference and send our students the message that we care about them as individuals and not using them as political bargaining chips, that resolution would be the one opposing SB839 and calling it out for exactly what it is. It is an opportunity for politicians to use our students as stepping stones and to represent political parties instead of children. Thank you.

Thank you. Kin Ganteras resolution 2602 county executive man and county county [clears throat] council and good evening I'm Ken Gaz the president of Francis Howell Families an organization whose goal is to elect common sense reasonable schoolboard candidates [snorts] whose commitment is to academic excellence and to ensure that Francis Howell schools remain tops in the state. We are about education and not about advancing or promoting social agendas such as boys and girls bathrooms or boys and women's sports or transgender normalization or allowing inappropriate sexually explicit content in our school libraries or permitting student walkouts during school hours. If our opposition wants to support such positions, so be it. If the intent of having April school board elections was to insulate communities from partisan and/or political influences, then I am here to tell you that that ship has sailed. Go to a schoolboard meeting and see for yourself how partisan and political and how vicious they've become. Ask yourself, is St. Charles County being well served by conducting schoolboard elections in April where only 15 to 16% of the voters turn out. Much is at stake by electing school boards that represent the majority of its voters. Prudent spending of hundreds of millions of dollars each year. Keeping taxes in check. Protecting parental rights. and of course providing the very best education for our

students. Why wouldn't you have elections in November if greater representation of our voters would be realized? It's time to begin leveling the playing field for schoolboard education in elections. If there are any questions that April elections benefit powerful liberal interest groups like the NEA, teachers unions, and progressive packs, just look who opposes SB 389. By adopting council resolution 2602 and moving schoolboard elections to November, St. in Charles County will benefit. Our five school districts will benefit. More representative school elections will take place and likely cost savings cost savings will occur. Thank you.

Thank you [applause] Jane PCAR resolution 2602.

Good evening council and members. Uh my name is Jane Pushkar and I am currently sitting on the Francis House School Board. 13% turnout last in last year's April school board election. In 2023, I won by 1,723 votes. That's a very small number in a school district. 89,500 voters. 13% is not going to get the job done for us. This is what happened since the majority went to the left during the April elections. There has been a very strong push to keep pornography in our school libraries in it. We passed a policy in 2024 which supported parents that don't want their kids expose exposed to pornography. It's not just my opinion that it's porn. It's defined by Missouri statute 573.0. The left changed the policy to increase the total time taken to conclude the challenge from 11 to 21 weeks. That's almost an entire school year. They changed the number of committee from 9 to 7 and took away two patron parent seats on the committee. The left brought back a librarian to sit on the committee. Note, librarians at Francis Hall have never willfully taken a book porn book out of the library. FHEA, which France Hall Education Association is pushing for the district to pay for full-time release. That's where our district pays an FHEA president their teaching salary to f work full-time on union business. Let me say that again. The district pays the union president's teacher salary to work full-time on union business. Make that make sense. And lastly, if we don't move these elections to November, every high schooler in Francis How will sit in front of a Chromebook all day. Every elementary and middle school ch student will sit in front of an iPad all day. That is not how children learn. For more info, read the digital delusion. Our kids are not developing cognitively and test scores are down. If that wasn't enough, it's going to cost 5 million

alone for the infrastructure, another four million for the hardware, not to mention IT support and insurance. And today, a hundred of our high school students walked out in protest device with teacher supervision. Of course, the consequences that they faced were minimal. No extra time to take a test. Uh can't no extra lunch, can't play sports that day. That's all that that's the only consequences. And also under left rule, the overspend of 78 million on Francis Haln North. Don't forget the $230,000 spent on a superintendent that never worked a day. It was the I was the only one on the school board of against hiring him in the first place. The Francis House School District cannot and will not survive with this low turnout. The union backed candidates will win from now on. And if we don't do something to move these elections to November, um I I truly appreciate the county council for making this resolution and passing this resolution number 2602. By the way, I'm running again in April, so please vote pushcard Greenwood and Jarski on April the 7th. Thank you, [applause]

Bob Eno regarding resolution 2602 and short-term rentals. Hello, County Council. Thank you for uh letting us speak this way. My name is Bob Eno. I live in County Council District number seven. I was here a few weeks ago and we talked about short-term rentals, Airbnbs, Verbo, and so on and so forth. We have one on our street. Um it it is an issue on the street in the neighborhood. Uh today we hired an attorney and uh he's getting ready to fight this. He says our indentures work. I'm curious where it's at with the council. You don't have to obviously not going to address it now. You can address it in a few minutes at the end of the meeting, but I am curious what's going on. And if it is moving and progressing, you know, there's something the county needs to have some regulations on these uh short-term rentals. Number one would be the taxes. It's lodging. They are lodging people. They advertise it. They lodge people there. They pay a rent, you know, overnight. They're charged by the night. They're not charged by the week. Same as a motel. I don't know what that tax is. Someone told me it was 39% of the total. I I'm not sure about that, but that's what needs to happen. The next thing I like to talk about, I'm also the chairman of the St. Charles County Republican Party and uh as a party, as individuals on the party, uh we do support this resolution 2602 and we do support Senate Bill number 839. There's some very uh simple issues there. Number one is the turnout. It's already been talked about other people 13% last year. The other thing is the cost of the city to run this election. I'm sure Kurt Bar can uh can discuss that and we need more participation. The participation is very low in April. All of us know that and this is a way to turn it around. It would be great if this county council would stand up and say we do support that. We do support

our schools and we think this is a way to support those schools and help them move forward. You've heard all the issues. You've heard all the people talking about it. They live it firsthand. Jane, for one, she's in the fight. She's in the fight. She's in the fight every day. She takes care, you know, is is out there in front. You all are out there in front. You're in the fight. If you don't stay in the fight, there's only one other thing to do, and that's to surrender. And I don't think any of you want to do that. I know she doesn't want to do that. I know the candidates that are running on that ticket for Francis South families, they don't want to do that either. There is no surrender. They have to stay in the fight. I hope you do too. That's all I have. Thank you, [applause] Jose Lerabel. Hello. Good evening everyone. I am in a nice hat and a suit. Please take me seriously. My name is Jose Sarmento. I am also known as Aaron Times or Dalek Keter. Uh last time you saw me, I was in the St. Charles Martigraph, fully clothed and unsupervised. I am against resolution number 26-02 because it would be very disruptive to our schools and bring school board elections out of sync with the school year. For those of you who didn't know, the school year is from August to May with some allowance into early June for makeup days. in case of bad weather. Schoolboard elections are held in April. So that means incoming school board members get to learn on the job for the last month and a half of the school year to better prepare for the next one. Having school board elections in November means that the school board could change three months into the school year before the first semester is even over. This will also have ripple effects in the community. For example, the O ofallon, Missouri City Council

starts budget discussions in June and votes on them in December. Uh changing when schoolboard elections happen would mean that incoming school board school board members would be beholden to budget issues that they had no say in. Basically, school boards do not operate in a vacuum. They coordinate with the county and the various cities that make up St. Charles County. Speaking of cities, there are 15 cities in St. Charles County. This resolution will cause a ripple effect that will disrupt operations in and I admit I looked it up because I didn't memorize them. Augusta, Connellville, Dardine Prairie, Flint Hill, Forestell, Lake St. Louis, New Melallon, Portage Doo, St. Charles, St. Paul, St. Peters, Welen Spring, Wentzville, and West Alton. Changing the schoolboard elections to November would cause disruption in the city council operations of all 15 of our constituent cities. So I ask you to please leave it the way it is. The way we do things right now ensures that school board elections are in sync with the actual school year. And also uh regarding recent events, I for one support our students first amendment right to protest. That is what this country was built on. That is our godgiven right to speak our minds. And also we need to actually not ban books. We are getting left behind by the people in China who let their students read whatever they need in order to better counter our ideology. We should not be banning books. We should be reading the books of our enemies to better learn from them and to better learn how to counter them. So anyway, let's do our part to make school boards boring again. Thank you. I'm going to put my HAT BACK ON.

[applause] CHRIS ROTH. Regarding bill number 5463,

Chris Roth. My name is Chris Roth. I represent the property at 2546 South Highway 94. Went through uh was here at the last one. I think you guys tabled it. It's about the reasoning from uh A to C1. Uh I am I represent the property that is probably closest to this proposed resoning which is right across which would be 50 60 ft across from Highway 94. So I'm coming here tonight talk about a little fact some real facts. So it's uh you all probably a broken record to you. It's a 2030 plan. Nobody it's not on there. The planning and zoning I believe Mr. breakers on it. Uh 8 nothing against reszoning this to C1. Okay. Uh looked at the uh uh fact that commercial properties bring down the the property values of residential properties. I I I I don't want that to go down for mine. Just telling that the other thing was is the applicant in the P&Z meetings was talking about uh the availability. Man, we have a need. We got a need. We got a need. So, I ended up simply googling all this commercial property. I didn't know that there was so much available. We've got stuff that's open lots in a 5mi radius. Open lots. Uh some structures are built, some aren't. I I I don't see and they're vacant. And there's a tile a pile that are rentals that are vacant. There's some that's even been pulled off the market. So, I don't understand what the need actual need is for. And then last but not least is the residents. Majority of the residents. I'm sure you guys got notorized letters. I'm sure you guys it bore you to death. Uh,

no one wants it. It We got an eyesore now. I got a picture here. What What the There's a small commercial park that you guys passed a few years ago. It's all grown up. I'm sure you don't have that in front of your house. We do. This is the ice that we have and now we're going to add to it and no one wants it. I mean, essentially it's it's the uh data centers that everybody hates. We're you guys are giving us a data center and we didn't want that. So, anyway, hope you guys vote against that. [applause] Drew Weber, bill number 5464. Bill number 5465 and bill number 5467. That's our agenda, Drew.

Yes. Good evening, members of the council. I am here for multiple things tonight. Uh first I'd like to talk about bill 5467 amending the conditional use permit for Defiance Ridge Vineyards. Uh this was unanimously recommended for approval at the planning and zoning commission. Uh Defiance Ridge Vineyards is a winery and event center out in Defiance. Um currently it does host weddings in the main uh traditional building on the property, weddings and other special events. And so the proposal before you uh for a first reading tonight is a new building a little further north on the property. Uh operationally there's there's not going to be uh that much of a change really. There's competition. There's nicer event venues throughout the county and so this new event venue will allow them to be more competitive. We're not really talking about additional events. It's providing a better facility for people who currently um have events uh there at Defiance Ridge. I know there's been questions about lights and parking areas. Uh the the proposed parking lot is substantially in the same location that parking is right now. Um there's going to be a fence at the northern part of the parking area to help diminish any any light impact as well as uh any parking lot lights will be cast down and not spill over on the property. Uh, I want you to know I have a whole team of people here tonight, the engineer and the the contractor as well as the applicant to answer any questions you may have about that project. So, now I'd like to switch uh to my other topics which are 5464 and 5465, the bills for final passage for Trailside Farms. Uh, there's been nothing that's changed since the last meeting. Uh, I'm mainly here just to tell you that I'm here to answer any questions about the project. uh you have the traffic study and you have the application PNZ recommendation. You have all of that. Um so I'm here along with the engineer Dave Vol and then one of

the uh applicant representatives Michael Cole. So excuse me again. So during any of those bills we're happy to answer any questions, ask for your approval and uh thank you for your time.

Rose Zuck bill number 5464 and 5465. Hi, my name is Rose Zuk and I want to echo what one of the other guys just said. I oppose the commercial resoning at 110 highway F, but I'm going to talk about Menture Farms or the Trailside development in 2025. They did not mention a C. It appeared that the amenities that they were going to provide, the skating rink, the playground, the baseball diamond, the war memorial, that nobody's going to know what it was for, not anybody who's 20 years old or 30. Um, it appeared that this was something they were doing for the land owner. Um, this year it appears that oh, they want to be paid for it. So now this is going to be added to a separate charge for anybody buying a home in that development. So not only do they pay an HOA, they'll also be paying off something that they were going to provide for free last year. This is Perry Kate. Right here is the Boone Trail um access from the school when their buses come out. But that is what was recommended by the traffic study from CBB and it's only going to be a ride in right out. It's less than a quarter mile from that stoplight that's already there. So I don't know why they want to put a new stoplight and

keep talking about getting a new stoplight. It's already there. Here's the amenities. Here is the war memorial. Down here in the bogggy area, the swampy area because of the creek and everything else that down there is a skating rink, the baseball diamond, things that are only going to get used part of the year. A walking trail, if you can see it in the blue, I don't know if that's all of it. It's hard to to look at the drawing, but why are anybody who's in the future going to buy this? Are they going to know that they're going to be paying extra above HOA? And I totally still disagree with this. I disagree with the density that four to four and a half homes are considered low density. Low density really is two. two houses per acre or one house per acre or because it's agricultural three acres to five acres for a lot and they would still make money.

Thank you. Thank you. Paul Rena [applause] on bill number 5467. Paul Rena.

Good evening. Um, I hope all of you have been able to have a chance to review the planning and zoning meeting notes and the letters of opposition to the CUP 2510. There were also 65 signatures of petitions against this expansion. Um, this slide shows the recommended PNZ fence uh length in the yellow and the length I would like to see it in the red. I would please ask this council to include in the cup of past a 440 foot 6ft pence sight foot pence sight proof fence along the northern property line before building begins. Planning and zoning recommended 120 foot fence to keep headlights from glaring into the neighboring property along with a type two buffer. I've heard this event center will cost $6 million. It seems to me that Defiance Ridge LLC owners and financial backers of this project will be be able to afford this six-foot fence along with along the northern property line to help buffer the dust, noise, and car lights. This is important to me because I don't want a visual eyesore and an audible new nuisance destroying the enjoyment of my property. And I ask a good neighbor that Defiance Ridge agree to it. Um the lights um uh looking towards Defiance Ridge uh will be in that general area there. Um I will please ask this council to include in the cop have passed the installation of the least imposing dark sky parking lot lights that and have them on only when there is an event and have them turned off when the events are over. This is important to me because I have an apiary where the bees require dark night sky and I like the darkness of the country. Um, this slide shows the area where the uh gravel will be. Um, I would please ask this council to to include in the cup of pass that the parking lot and the road along the northern property line be paved per the county ordinance stated by

Mr. Myers in the PNZ. This is important to me because it will decrease the dust that this increased amount of gravel will produce and I asked Defiance Ridge to agree to this please. At the last planning and zoning meeting um there was a mention of construction entrance off of Holden Road. This was not in the initial submitted plan. This is important to me because I want to be assured that this will not remain a permanent entrance to the event center and I want to know who will follow up to require this entrance is is you know closed up afterwards. The CUP is allowing amplified music during certain hours. If if there is amplified music on the event center deck, it's going to be 400 ft from my house. This noise will be even more annoying than it already is. I would please ask this council uh to um I would please ask council not to approve this amendment. Defiance Ridge is very much expanding its and exploiting its original CUP 1714. I will fear I fear it will set a a um a precedent for future developments. Thank you for your attention. [applause] Renee Renee Rena, bill number 5467. Good evening. I live 400 ft from the planned uh Defiance Ridge Vineyard Event Center in the new parking lot. I am concerned about the environmental impact of the light pollution and dust from the location of the lighted 180 space car lot in relation to the closeness of our property and my beehives. This is a new parking lot. It doesn't exist. Missouri statutes recognize apiaries or beekeeping as a legitimate agricultural use on our 10 acres. Because of potential safety risk, I would hope the applicant and the council would not want to have a parking

lot next to our property line, which is about 75 ft from my apiary. You may be putting someone at risk of having an allergic reaction to a beasting. A dark night sky is a resource integral to many natural resources. Bees need to sleep at night and research is showing that artificial light at night may disrupt the bees circadium rhythm which may then threaten their essential role as pollinators. There are many farms and crops and fruit trees in defiance that require pollinators. We ask that the parking lots be turned off at night and when there are no events if this is passed. My understanding is the Missouri right to farm law provides that an agricultural operation like beekeeping cannot be deemed a nuisance due to changed conditions in the area after it has operated for more than one year which I have had this apiary in our corner property for about 5 years. If you place the parking lot close to my apiary now and you later complain the bees are a nuisance, my apiary cannot be deemed a nuisance. For safety reasons and for the issue of artificial lights affecting the bees at night, we're asking the participant to move their lot southwest since it doesn't exist. The requested amended cup goes way beyond the applicant's use and representations and findings for why the current cup was granted in 2018. This amended cup significantly departs from the factors that led to approving the original CUP. The applicant does not follow their current cup. Now, so why would this council approve this new request knowing they violated their current cup? On September 7th, the Mammoth Marchwalk PA announcer awakened me at 6:45 a.m. For the past several years, this event has been hosted by Defiance Ridge. So,

they're starting before their 11:00 start time, which has been starting at 7 a.m. It is also already advertised for September of 26 to begin at 7. The Sunshine request showed that Defiance Ridge never had firework permits for the last three years. Why didn't anyone at the county inquire about these unpaid permits until now after a complaint was made? This will negatively impact neighbors and traffic in the area. Thank you very much. Thank you, ma'am. [applause] Norm Keller. Norm Keller, bill number 5467.

Good evening, board. Uh my name is Norm Keller. Uh I live in Defiance, Missouri. I've been there for 19 years. I own a bed and breakfast that's less than half mile away from this proposed project. I have not encountered any kind of problems with regard to traffic, noise, fireworks. Um and I think there's something really important to understand about the 30-year master plan that nobody wants to talk about. Okay, the 30-year master plan that you guys have been involved in in designing this proposed project falls right in line with that. Um, there's also [clears throat] uh some state interest in creating a wine trail much like they have in Napa Valley uh and also the southern Illinois wine trail. So, this project falls right in line with state views and county views. Um, I see no problem with it. I am in 100 support in favor of this project. Thank you very much. [applause]

Roger Manning. Roger Manning, bill number 5467. Good evening. My name is Roger Manning. I live at 10 Walnut Springs Road in Defiance. Roger, hang on a second. Now, Bill go.

Okay. Thank you for yielding the uh floors with me. By the way, I've attended both the December and January PNZ meetings regarding Defiance Ridge Cup 25-10. I as well as my neighbors are pretty disappointed, dismayed, and now at some point angry that our voice is not being taken very seriously. Yes, the PNZ committee made some concessions, some concessions to help mitigate the concerns like noise and light, which you've heard a lot about. However, the concessions are not what we really wanted. We don't mind the the business being there. We don't want it to double in size. We have clearly painted the picture for the committee that the DRW is a nuisance to our quiet country life. Unlike what Norm said, he's way in the other side of town. We live next door and some of the other people. It affects our way of life every weekend. So the question is that we've asked oursel as neighbors. Why isn't anybody listening to us taxpayers and the voters in district 2? It has this feel, smell, and taste that there may be something else going on, such as a conflict of interest and potential ethics issues. Our district 2 councilman is Joe Brazzle, who himself lives in Defiance. Brazzle owns several small businesses in Defiance. He sits on the Defiance Merchants Association, and he has made close friendships with business owners like Chuck Killantine at Defiance Ridge Winery. Brazil, we feel, sees his job primarily now to make promises and satisfy his business friends. We, the people, don't feel that we're being represented anymore, and certainly our voice is not being heard. So, with that said, each of your mailboxes today, you received a letter from me. I represent the 65 people that have sent petitions in on the last time uh about their voice agreeing with us that we don't want this to happen. And the letter basically says, I am submitting a statement on behalf of the citizens of Defiance for inclusion in the public record regarding the conditional use permit 25-10 and the

proposed expansion of Defiance Ridge Winery. A matter of serious concern to many residents involve District 2, Councilman Joe Brazzle's sponsorship and involvement in this application. Councilman Brazzle resides in defiance blah blah blah. The project proposes significant increases in event capacity, parking, nighttime operations. Residents have raised concerns about amplified music announcements, fireworks, traffic congestion, and overh over overall neighborhood impact. I'm going to get down to the end of it. Accordingly, I respect requests from the council to formally clarify for the record the following four things. Whether Councilman Brazzle has disclosed all relevant financial interest as required by law for this position, whether determination has been made regarding substantial personal or financial interest in CUP 25-10, or the possibility that he may indirectly receive income from the increased tourism into the city, whether he intends to reuse or recuse himself from deliberation or voting on this matter, and lastly, whether written conflict of entrance guidance Conflict of interest guidance has been issued by the county councelor.

Thank you. Thank you, [applause] Dan Trip. Dan Trip, bill number 5467.

Hello, my name is Dan Trip. Uh I am a representative of St. Charles County for uh the aggra for tourism for historic Missouri wine country appointed uh by you all. Um my my goal I also um own good news brewing company and I'm also a resident of Defiance. I'm here to share my support for the event venue at Defiance Ridge. Uh my role and responsibilities for being on the CVB is to support tourism. Defiance Ridge is one of the cornerstones of historic Missouri wine country. It is one of the first places that people see uh the county and the city uh is blessed by having people from all over the region and area to do this. Um our job is to support hotel stays. Our job is to increase economic vitality of historic Missouri wine country. And I believe that this project does exactly that. Thank you. [applause]

Michael Wadawa, bill number 5467.

Good evening. I'm getting to know this place pretty well. I was at both of the planning and zoning meetings and I'm here once again tonight uh against the proposal the cup cup cons uh conditional use permit. What does that mean? Does that mean that uh if we pass this they can do different things or what they want to do? It's not really defined, is it? Uh Defiance Ridge Winery is zoned agricultural. So they grow some grapes and they got a cup agreement. so that they could sell some wine and have some people drink there and maybe have, you know, something to eat. No big problem for me and my neighbors that live close to that. Okay. But I live about 3/4 of a mile from the winery up the hill. As the crow flies, I mention that because every time there's music and loud noise and attractions, the crows fly up, the deer come up. uh all the different animals don't want to be in Defiance Ridge Winery anymore. So, it really does change the neighborhood. Okay. Uh my buddy Norm, who lives downtown in town, he lives a half mile away. I have signatures from all petitions about the noise level. So, I don't know what Norm's doing and he doesn't hear that. My other friend proposed for it. I don't know how far away you live from the the winery, but uh sir, can you face us that way we can hear you? It is a uh is a nuisance. There's noise. There's a lot of traffic. It really doesn't fit with the neighborhood. Now, I mentioned it's uh you know agriculturally defined or zone, but this is the a couple months of events that happen at the winery. Every Saturday and Sunday they have music. Not too bad, 1 to 4. But they also have events at night. They are starting to have things like trivia movie night.

They charge people $25 to participate in this trivia movie. They also have um different things like concerts. They have a a band will come out and they charge people $10, $20 just to see the band. These people don't have to buy any wine or anything like that. Uh so there's events. So this place has turned from a nice little winery that has some wine and some drinks into an event center. So, pages and pages of different types of events. And we want this, my neighbors and I, to stop. We don't want it to expand. We don't want it in event center. As a matter of fact, on the cup, the the conditional use permit, it says event center. Okay? It doesn't say agriculture. It's events. And that's what we're opposed to. We don't want this to snowball and grow and things like that. Maybe the next cup that I come up here for, they're going to want to put a casino or maybe demolition derby up there. I don't know. You know, let's keep it the way it is. It's residential agriculture. We have agriculture and farms and different things right by it. So, let's leave it like it is. We don't need this cup. [applause]

One last one last comment I want to make. Time's up. Thank you,

Trenton. Trenton Bureau Land bill number 5467. Uh hello board. Thank you for having me speak to you guys and I hope we're having a good night. Um, the main thing I just wanted to address is seems like there's been maybe some misconceptions against people who are speaking out against this event center, but you know, I just wanted to get up here and stand for the staff who who work this place. Um, our ownership and our leadership has done a great job of supporting us, but I've been working there for about eight years and the property that they, you know, inherited from the previous business just has a lot of work that was left to be done on it when we got it. So the event center that we're proposing, the main place we have our events at now is just not in the right state it needs to be to provide the services that we need to. So, you know, I think it's really important that we're able to get done what we need to get done. But um as far as the 2030 master plan goes, you know, zoning everything for agricultural and agricultural tourism, it's young people like myself and my staff who's here tonight that are going to be, you know, involved in that. We're the people who are there every night and doing everything. So, I think it's just important for someone who's going to be a part of that to come up and and speak on our behalf. But, you know, me and some of the other staff there, we're here working those events and as far as the lights go, you know, we make sure everything's turned off when we leave, you know, and we understand, you know, what needs to be done and there's never been a moment where we have, you know, large lights that are on all night long and stuff like that. So, um, I just kind of wanted to come up and speak my piece on that. So, thank you guys very much.

Appreciate it. [applause] Amanda Woods, bill number 5464 and 5465.

Good evening. I'm Amanda Woods. I live in Stone Meadows, so not too far from Menure or Trailside where this development has been proposed. As you guys probably already know, I have an issue with the traffic that we already encounter significantly on Highway N. In the traffic study that I traffic study that was conducted, um, personally, I feel like it was nothing but a light traffic light study that was done that basically showed that we need a better entrance and exit strategy for the church and the neighborhood. But my biggest concern today is that you were seeing Joe Brazzle talking about how if if we didn't if you guys didn't approve it, then it would get annexed by Oallon or Wville. And then you were seen the other day talking about how well the city has or the county has already basically said this was a done deal. So my question is how? Why? I know back in 2010 you guys say this was approved but ordinance back in 2007 shows that procedure for review of planned PUD final plat section 405.225 that it a final plat needs to be submitted within two years of approval of the preliminary plat 405.2440 states review of abandoned projects. A preliminary and final development plan must be submitted within one year of zoning approval and a final plat must be submitted within that the time frames established in sections 410.140 paragraph 1. An extension of time may be requested in writing by the de by the developer for approval by the director of community development. So was there a final plot back in 2010? That's my question. And if so, where where is it? I would like to see that. I think it

before you decide to approve anything tonight, that needs to be shown to us. And finally, um I'm asking that you you remove this from the table, send this back to the drawing board, and start this process over the correct way with no cutting corners. [applause] Arie Dino regarding agenda items.

Good evening, Mr. Chairman, members of the county council. My name is Arie C. Acino, county public advocate. We'll be filing for county executive in this coming primary election. The first issue that I'd like to bring to the attention of voters is election filing begins tomorrow, the first day, and goes through March 31st, Tuesday, March 31st. All countywide offices, four evenumbered county council seats, 14 township committeemen and committee women, and you file with the county election authority on uh Turner Boulevard in St. Peters off of Missouri 79. Now, I believe about transparency and fairness. I'm glad that the election authority director is here, Mr. Bar. Um, there is unfairness with the picking of the lottery system on the first day. There are 75 bingo balls supposedly supposed to be in a bingo set, but he has an incomplete set of bingo balls missing numbers from the lottery on the first day. Can someone in our three over $300 million county budget like Mike Summers, the director of finance, appropriate monies, or can the county executive, who's currently making $182,000, the salary jumps to $225,000 next year, donate to the county election authority a proper set of 75 bingo balls? It should be fairness of the process. We want total fairness, honesty, and transparency of our elections in each and every election cycle. Stop the political interference and protecting uh political office holders uh with power and control. It's about political turf because two issues came up. Chapter 52.10 and chapter 59.021 021 govern two county offices for recorder of deeds and county collector revenue in which bonds are are supposed to be approved and you can't

get clear answers from our county election authority staff. Here's a bond in my name that I would qualify for the bond from two different agencies and those agencies will back me in any office that I decide to run for for our county or the state of Missouri. And I think our county election authority needs to be transparent about that. Now, when it comes to the county planning zoning commission appointment process, Mr. Elman, why didn't you appoint me? I go to the majority of P&Z meetings, but you have to appoint somebody who donated your campaign treasury. And when it comes to bill 5464, send it back to planning and zoning on uh Menchi Farms. And when it comes to bill 5465, it's highway robbery, corporate developer welfare. They're going to have an annual tax of $1,500 per parcel per residence. And they're creating that CI, which also has taxing authority of 1% sales tax. It's twisting, abusing chapter 6167 of the revised state statutes.

Harvest provide these amenities and didn't ask for corporate welfare. This is pure political payback for somebody's uh pocketbook. Thank you, Wade Schmidt. [applause] That was the final speaker. All right. Um, that gets us to the oral report from the county executive. Mr. Chairman, U. Amanda Brower is going to give a report on on roadboard today. But before she gets up there, uh, can I inquire about a procedural matter? When I send uh when I send when I get ordinances from community development, yes,

they already have a sponsor uh listed and that sponsor is whoever whoever's district the resoning or or uh proposal is in. and and and it's my understanding that that that's just kind of automatic and we send them down and then if you want to go ahead and sign on or whatever, you can you can sign on. I mean, that's that's that's still the way we do it, right?

Okay. So, you know, Mr. Brazzle's his name's on most of these things because most of the proposals are in his district. I don't know where he is on this thing tonight. He may be for it or maybe against it, but his name gets on it. Okay. just as a procedural matter because it isn't it is in his district. So, I just want to make sure that's still the way we did it because that's the way I understand it's supposed to work. You are correct, sir. Okay. Thank you. Hello, Amanda. Hello. Welcome back.

Thank you. Thank you. Um I'm just going to go over kind of what my office does tonight. Um, usually I come talk to you guys every November, December about the tip, but we're going to get into a little more detail about um the roadboard and kind of just everything that we do [music] in our office. And oh, there we go. Okay, so um All right, hang on. [cough and clears throat] I got it to go one time and that's all I got. Corey, we going forward or [laughter] backwards? Somebody. Somebody.

Okay. So, um, our mission is obviously to effectively and efficiently utilize the sales tax um to improve and enhance the transportation system. Perfect. That'll work great. Okay.

That's okay. Okay. So, can I just do this? Yes. Okay. Um, so anyway, the transportation sales tax has [clears throat] been in in acted by the voters since 1985, reauthorized four times. Um, it generates $40 million a year that we use for improvements to enhance the mobility and safety of roadways throughout the county. And these improvements are included in the three-year TIP. Um my office in consists of myself managing director. I have two full-time and one um 30-hour a week project managers. One is focused on Gateway Greenlight. He was a consultant um when way back when and I got him to come work for the county full-time because he was amazing. And um he has done everything Gateway Greenlight for the last six years now. Um, I have another PM who is kind of jack of all trades, Gateway Greenlight Safety. He helps out with a lot of MDOT projects and then anything that we do construction in our um office, he'll kind of oversee those inspections and getting all that paperwork taken care of. And then I have um one more, the part-time 30-hour week. She does um all the plan review for every project that the cities or county highway has. She coordinates um meetings. We have meetings every other month with every city as well as county highway to keep track of their projects. Um she's also looking at bike ped facilities because we built a lot of side paths along roadways throughout the years and we've realized that they don't all connect for whatever reason because nobody was really looking at um municipality to municipality or like county in the middle and making sure that things lined up. So, she does that and then she also keeps our website and GIS mapping updated. Um, and then I also have an

administrative assistant who takes care of all of our minutes and um reimbursing the cities and taking care of all of our finance stuff that we deal with on a very regular basis. Um, I also oversee the roadboard. They meet the third Wednesday of every month at least quarterly. We are in person in the county admin room 116 and virtual. All are welcome anytime if anybody ever wants to come join us. Um they are a 12 member board. Um we meet in January, February and or March discuss just miscellaneous items that come up. April, May, and June. We'll be looking at new project presentations from the cities and county highway. Um and then in July we have a work session where we discuss the project scoring and kind of talk about each of the projects that was applied for that year. In August they will make a recommendation and then in September, October, November, um they'll get updates from the cities on all of the ongoing projects that were already funded. So um we keep up with everything that's going on. Important dates in our calendar. Project applications are submitted via an online portal survey 123 on March 31st and um on November 1st I must submit or the county executive must submit the three-year tip to you guys and all of this is on the website link there. Um project funding. So when the cities do their application, they fill out this um project financials and project schedules. So you'll see that sometimes they'll have a federal component. Um, other can be developers. Sometimes if it's on a state route, they'll have state funding as well. So, they fill in every other funding source they have as well as what they want from us, a schedule, and then um they have this full sheet that tells what year they're putting those funds in. So, the three-year project spans to usually

construction and the third year out, but sometimes that varies. The scoring like I talked about before we discuss how we score the projects and um I go through that with the roadboard to to make selections. The um scoring is data and plan driven. So we have a lot of data crash data. We have a safety plan. We have travel times and delays. We have the thoroughfare plan that we work on with um community development. And we have a travel demand model that tells us how much traffic a certain road might generate if it's a new road. Um, we have pavement condition data, like I said, the bike ped plan and then gateway green light network and anything that can be added there. [snorts] The, um, TIP currently has 100 active projects on the nose. Don't know how that happened, but I actually counted them off our website. Um, they're sponsored by 11 jurisdictions throughout the county, and they range in cost from 250,000 to up to 30 million for David Hoka Parkway. So we have all sizes of projects, all types of projects. 86 are currently in design or rideway acquisition phase. Um 14 are in construction. Of the 100, 59 have federal funding as well as the roadboard and um sponsor funds. Only three are on the MDOT system, which is a big change from five or six years ago before the gas tax was implemented. Um two right now include developer participation and these are not economic development projects. These are just regular roadway projects. And then um in 2026 there are $98.5 million obligated to these projects and that's because there's been delays for various reasons. But I do think we're starting to catch up on that. So hopefully we'll get that number down in future years. Um, this is our web map that my PM Sarah

works so hard on. Um, we have all of the projects. The pink are the new projects, the blue are in design, green are in con or gold are in construction, and green are completed. And if you click on any of those, you get this nice little popup and it brings you a little summary of everything about the project, including funding. So, you can look up any project on the website. It's out there for the public to see. Um, MODOT partnerships. Again, we, you guys know, we work really closely with MODOT on the work they're doing. Um, sometimes we're participating funding wise, sometimes we're not. But these are two big ones right now. US61 corridor, MDOT did just do a really nice study. They are funding an interchange at W, but as you can see, there's a whole lot of other unfunded needs that go with that. Um, I anticipate that Bill will be working with them in Wsville on outer roads in the coming years to try to make that corridor as safe as we possibly can, as soon as we possibly can. And then route in obviously you know what's going on route route in and we are working to get that funded um as soon as we possibly can and under construction. Gateway Greenlight, like I mentioned, we um have Gateway Greenlight. this was getting started or just kind of getting getting going when I started 10 years ago and um and it's coming a long way. We have a lot of smart infrastructure out there and just continue to find new technologies to use and bring to the public. If anybody has a traffic signal concern, there's a number and an email. Do call us. You are our eyes and ears. We cannot be everywhere. We have no idea when a signal is malfunctioning um other than like really malfunctioning which means it just goes out or turns to all red flash. But if it has some sensor off, we don't know. So we want you to call us and tell us. Highway safety action plan. This is old um this is the

2017 to 2021 fatal and serious injuries. As you can see, these are mostly on interstates and state routes. Um, but we did kind of look at more of the local information and you can see that there are some corridors that um are hit more. Mexico Road I think is one a lot of intersections in this local um roadway only category. We are at one fatality in 2024 on the local roadways and 15 serious injuries, but we definitely want to get those down to um less. I mean, every time somebody's hurt on our roadways, we we don't want to see that. So, we are working to do things to um improve that. The crash data, this is just a snapshot from MDOT's dashboards. They have some really nice stuff out there on crashes. If anybody, again, public, you can look. Um and then the countywide serious injuries and fatalities for the last 10 years. You can see we've kind of we're very flat. we really need to kind of make a push to figure out what's going on on those interstate crashes, but we are also growing. So, our volume per our vehicle miles traveled is going up as this is occurring. So, our rate is likely down um but we definitely still want to see lower lower fatalities and injuries. Overall, however, our crashes are going down um on the entire network. So again, that's really good considering that we have higher vehicle miles traveled. Gateway Bike Plan. Last but not least, um this is a GIS map that we put together just showing everything that's already out there based on what we've done with road projects and then kind of connecting all of that and working with the cities to determine what they would

like to connect. Um again there's a link to this I can anybody can look at it. Um and we also along with working with the cities to coordinate that we work with GRG to coordinate their greenway. Um we did a lot of work with them on Baltic Creek Greenway which is kind of just getting started and then Darden Greenway has had a lot of success in the past few years getting funding and is really starting to get connected throughout the county and it's a great great greenway. Finally, that's everything. Um, if anybody has any questions, there's my contact information. And thank you for having me. Any questions for Amanda? Yeah, I do. Hit that button.

Oh, sorry, Mr. Baker. [laughter] So, um, can you explain federal funds? I mean, we apply for federal funds and I've been driving down Guttermouth and you know, I I'm sure that's because there's federal funds in there. There's like a 10ft. It looks like a third lane that's offset. I mean, it kind of looks kind of crazy. Guttermouth. So, Guttermouth was originally going to have a 10-ft path. Um, that's kind of the standard width. What they have is 14 ft. And the reason is that they want to allow the golf carts on the path. To safely have a golf cart on a path with bikes and pads, it needs to be 14 ft. The city paid the difference to us for that additional 4T. What? That's a federal requirement?

No, it was a requirement. It was something that we looked into and we want people to be safe and able to use that path as a bike ped connection too. So we asked that they have that or add that cost. High county highway did the project. Okay. But we asked that it be widened so that everybody could use it. C and can you give me an update on I know at one time we had the public hearing on Dingle Dine and and I'm I'm sure it's because the federal government got involved and they figured there need to be not just one bike path bike lane but two which I don't see a lot of people biking on Dingle Dine. So where where does that sit? Dingle dine itself or just

Yeah. Where does the road project are we still putting bike lanes on there? Um no county highway is um I think paving later this year. Yeah, John's nodding. Um, and it'll just go back the way it is. A little bit narrowed lanes and and striping. Are we losing federal funds for not putting in the bike lanes? No. Okay. Same thing for towers are we're not doing the same thing towers. We will do another public um we'll do a public meeting to kind of see what people want and then we'll kind of figure out where to go from there. Well, that you don't will does that include bike lanes like it. It included bike um bike accommodations which could be a shared bike lane or something like that. Okay. Yeah. 10 feet or five? 10 just seems

so bike lanes are on the road and go each direction. So they're generally a 5 foot wide with a little bit of a buffer. Okay. But they go with traffic versus a path that's 10 ft and off. [laughter] And another question. Y you know during the budget talks we we we talked about the economic development money. Yep. How much is in that account right now? Um, right now there's 10 million in there. Okay. If it's 10 million, I assume we're getting interest on that money. The everything that rolls over every year is in an account with finance that gets interest. It's not just like sitting out in space, not

so. Do you have an idea? Maybe Mike knows this, but how much interest are we getting a month on the money that's sitting? And I know road projects are delayed right away and everything. So we're we're making money on on on the interest. Do you have an idea of what we what we make uh monthly on that interest? I I don't know. Um and and it depend you know I think it depends on how much is sitting there and how much is so each year I get at the end of the year somebody tells me how much money I got in interest like a couple years ago. Um budget time they just let me know. I don't

I mean $10 million sitting there. It seems like we we we've we're getting some money every month and and that's that's kind of been my point when we came to budget. I know before us we have another bill to to try to forward fund a a bike not a bike lane uh a sidewalk along Upper bottom. So and again that's been my point is that we have the money. I mean, we're getting the money monthly from interest and I think we ought to be spending it on transportation and well, and we are we're putting it into other projects. It always comes like it stays with me and if it's not spent in economic development, it either just rolls over to the next year or it's divvied somewhere else as needed, but we're we're not not spending any money and it's not going to anybody else.

But are so when you're planning projects, you're also taking in account the interest we're making. It Yeah, it I mean it comes back to me. So, it's in my budget and we know that we have that and we'll have projects that go over as well like overruns from um construction that are usually approved by roadboard and come to you guys as addendums and you know so things change throughout the year and we try to we have flexibility to move to just kind of make sure that we have what we need. And one final question on the forward funding for the the highway end project that we're doing. you know, obviously we we we've talked about it tonight with the traffic.

Are we getting reimbursed from MDOT for that money? [clears throat]

So, we have um we have done a lot of work over the last 8 10 years on that project. We have spent $6.5 million so far. That will be included in our cost share request as credit. Um they go 50/50. However, they have a max that's really $10 million. Um, but it's we're guessing we're hoping we're going to get more than that for this project. So, there's a chance that we we will need to put in more than what we would get out. So, I mean, I don't know that we're only going to need to put in another 13 and a half to get 20. I don't know that that's going to be enough to do the whole project.

Okay. But so you anticipate us getting uh some money back from MDOT and what year would we be getting that money? Um I believe 27 and 28 they said they have availability. It it I assume that money right now is not in your budget. No. Okay. Thank you. Yep. All right. Thank you guys. Anything else from the county executive? No sir. That gets us to the consent agenda. Any items to be removed from the consent agenda? I would entertain a motion. Mr. Baker, Mr. Baker, kind of quick on the draw there. Uh I'm going to talk about the uh change order for u I guess for perrick on uh under miscellaneous if I could. All those in favor?

I. Any other items to be removed? Now I would entertain a motion. Motion to accept the uh consent agenda as amended. Amended. Second. Second. And all those in favor? I I Any oppose? Uh, with that, Mr. Elman? Caught my attention too, but I think we have a explanation. Joanne, you want to explain that? I don't know who did I talk to. Oh, Robert, yeah, your microphone. I think Jo, it's on Steve.

Um, well, Robert, explained to me. I don't know. Christine, can you explain this? This is money that's been approved and they call it a uh a what is the what is the word for it? We're about to find out. General conditions. Uh oh. No. No. They called it a change order, but it's not really a change order. It's evidence of money that's been approved and now it's being spent. Is that correct? This is a little complicated. All right.

So, actually technically it is a change order. So it is a change order but the reason it's a change order when we've initially hired per to do the CM at risk for the overall project for phase one and phase two we did not have phase three outlined we have phase three outlined and we are in that process of of doing the design work with H for that and that's where we are starting to make some decisions on the design that we'd like to get the contractor's opinion on what the cost is going to be what the impact is going to be to help us further refine that sign. So what this change order is and it is a council update number three because the the previous contract the original cementit risk contract that we brought to you was the uh the same type of fees as what we're proposing here but for phase one and two. Then we had council update number one which outlined the subcontractors that were assigned after per did the bid work for that first phase. Update number two was refining the list. Again, m sharing with you who we who Perrick bid the the work to. That one actually did change the value of the contract to 42 million from the original 33 million. Now we're on this particular phase. There is funding for this phase of work that has been identified and was part of the the budget for 2026. So this is to acquire and get Perrick on board for helping us refine the design and do the same construction. They will still bid all the subcontractors do the same things they've done for phase one and phase two. This secures them. They are actually the last piece of the pie for phase three. We've already got the owners rep. We have the the architect and engineering team. And now this is to extend their contract.

I I guess my question, how do we know this is a good price if we're not competitively bidding? I mean, is there some type of due diligence that you and your staff is doing to make sure that, you know, $2 million of the change order? I mean, yes. You know, per it is it's something that that I'm looking at as well as our owners rep and we're really drawing a comparison to the competitive bid that we had initially and what the fees were and what they charged at that point. Is this in alignment with that? And it is. Okay. And there's definitely competitive bid. Did multiple contractors bid on just well not phase three but the original contract we had multiple biders. So phase three what's the budget for phase three? Um how much?

Seven. Seven. Okay. So was phase three bid out? Phase three was not bid out. Okay. So you said that the original contract was 32 million when it came in 30 33 million was the the original identified funding for the the original contract it was 42 million

when we went to do the bidding the subcontractor bidding the amount of work that we were bidding did change and it affected the scope to where it increased the value of that contract. So we were getting competitive bids on phase two. We actually had increased from the moment we did design initially to where we landed on design. Keeping a focus on trying to improve the quantity of beds in the three housing units that we're building. It would increase the scope. Jump 10 million. Did we already have a contractor chosen? We had we had Perrick chosen. Their fees did not change. It was strictly with the subcontractor fees that changed. Mr. Elman.

Yes. Just again, you know, just just to be clear when you say change order, I'm that I think of that normally that means somebody is asking to be paid more money than their contract uh said they were entitled to. That's not what this is. That is not what this is. Yeah. Okay. A change order can also change when you say change order again uh in my my mind uh which is not attuned to all this construction lingo. Um you know with change order I thought okay this is somebody wants to be paid more than the the contract and of course $2 million raised a flag but I understand it. I just

I just you know hate for the public to think it's a change order and somehow we're paying somebody two billion more than their contract allowed. No, we're definitely not doing that. Yeah, it sounds like the money was earmarked just not allocated and now it's being allocated. Mhm. Okay, that's good. Yep. So, with that, yeah, I'll make a motion to approve. Motion and second. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed?

Thank you, Patty. Sorry about that. Um, that gets us to resolutions and resolution 2602. Resolution 2602, sponsored by Tim Baker and Joe Brazzle. A resolution supporting the efforts of the Missouri legislature and urging the passage of Senate Bill 839 2026 concerning the date of school board elections. Whereas under current law, elections for schoolboard members are held on either the general municipal election day or such day as is specified in the county charter. And whereas under current law, school board members [snorts] serve terms of office ranging from 3 years to 6 years depending on the district. And whereas Senate Bill 839, if passed, would require all such elections to be held at the November general election and make all such terms four years. And whereas additionally, Senate Bill 839 would require a candidate for school board me for school board member to state his or her resident's address, office for which such candidate proposes to be a candidate, the party ticket on which he or she wishes to be a candidate, and that if elected, he or she will qualify on the declaration of candidacy. And whereas Senate Bill has a delayed effective date of January 1st, 2028. Now therefore, be it resolved by the County Council of St. Charles County, Missouri, as follows. Section one, the county council hereby strongly expresses its support for the passage of Senate Bill 839.

Mr. Brazil, pull that microphone close if you would.

Okay. Um, there's some uh some of the few the very few emails that we got that it you're making school boards political. Well, that's really a funny statement because school boards are political. Unfortunately, they weren't so years ago they really weren't so much. But now they are. Now they don't care so much about well certain sides don't care so much about the education of children, test scores, and things like that. And they're getting to the social nonsense and the lunacy of the leftists. And so when you have the DEA or the NEA picking and choosing and putting in millions of dollars in the school board elections on in April and only the the the teachers and the uh and the folks that are supporting the NEA are voting for the most part part because people are busy in their lives, you're not getting a full scope of the voters or you're not getting a full scope of uh of the real uh beliefs in St. Charles County. And so this is important to move to November and it is sponsored by our senators and most legislators in St. Charles County. So, this is important. And on the Republican platform we had in Springfield, this was the main topic and it did pass 100%. So, um, if you're going to say that it's you can't politicize school boards, they already did when they started putting, uh, boys and girls sports, having boys go in the bathroom. I have a girl in the school and it scares them when they have boys going into the bathrooms, which they do in France. How it's a fact. And so, if we want if we believe in all that lunacy, uh, it's it's an American thing. It's American traditions. We don't want that kind of stuff. We want our school boards to be run based on the quality of the education and educating the children and that's it. We want the social politics out of it. And that's what's happening now when these elections are in April.

Councilwoman York. Yes. Is my microphone on? Okay. Yes, ma'am. We can.

Thank you. Um I'm I'm voting no on this. I I understand a lot of the sides, a lot of people and what they are saying. Um I've always believed that, you know, it they should be um stay with uh not be nonpartisan that they don't you don't have to go in and say I want to run under this party or that party. Um I I all of our um I should not all of them but our mayor's races, city council races, board of alderman races, school boards races, even the community college, they all run um nonpartisan and it works. Um I know people say, "Well, you'd have more voters if you come in no in November." Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Um I lost one time by 13 votes. Uh so I know how important it is to get the vote out. Um so I I just kind of believe the local boards it uh school board is more like the local effect u u elections, the mayor's races, city council, things like that. I've talked to five or six school board members who they're just not sure why this came up. um they're good people in in smaller school districts and you know all of a sudden they're they're coming having to they're not political at this point in time. They're not uh with a party. They just run because they really want to do a good job and they really believe that now I they have to go out and choose which which uh party affiliation they want even though they've never had to do that before. So, my own personal opinion is I I just need to vote no on this. Thank you,

Mr. Baker.

Yeah, I I think that with uh with with the school board elections is, in my opinion, one of the most important elections in our county. I mean, it's dealing with our our our kids and our future. And to have 14% of the population only participate in the election, I think it's shameful. I mean, people are, you know, when we have uh we have midterms this year and we have general elections in November. I've been to them. The lines are great and I would rather go there and do it all at one time since I'm already there. And yeah, I don't want politics in our schools, but that's where we're at in society today. They're there. I mean, they're in I mean, the uh unfortunately there's there we politics have seemed to taken a a a front row as opposed to uh educating our children. And I think it's it's it's important to get more people out there and understand what's going on and and vote on on issues related to the school. So, that's why I'm going to support this. Councilman Hollander.

Yeah. My thoughts on this are uh you know, going back April has always been a period of time for municipal elections. We elect mayors, boards of aldermen, city councils, obviously school boards, which is concerning. And I I think the people that do, and again, I I think the 13% 16% is is very low, but the people that are showing up are the people that are truly concerned about those issues. Now, my real fear here is that if we move them to November and let's say that it's a a regular election year and we're voting for president, Senate, Congress, Governor, that we're going to have a ballot that's three or four pages long and school board's going to be at the very very very back and it's going to be swamped by all of these other, you know, in most people's minds much more important elections. So, that's that's my thought. I, you know, I understand the politicization of of just about everything in this day and age, but mine is my I've always thought that April was a period of time for local and municipal elections to take the forefront and the center. OKAY. [applause] I just have um one question about that. There's a number of bills that are going through the House and the Senate this year looking at moving April elections to November. I'm just curious, why did you pick uh Senate Bill 839 and not Senate Bill 102? Uh 839 is Senator Seerott's bill and our senator Senator Schnely is Senator is bill SB 10002 and that one went through committee already with due pass. So why why this bill over that bill?

That might have been a mistake. I thought we we did do Senate Schnor's bill. If we if we need to change it, we can or reconsider at the next meeting, but I would agree with you. I thought it was it's it's not Senator Schwar's bill. Well, Tim, that's what I thought we were doing. So, yeah. Senator Shore's bill. Motion to table. Yeah. Motion to have a second. I thought if you're right, Mike, is it I don't know that Senator Does Senator Shore have a bill? Yes. I talked to him today. Yeah. It's 1342. Can you explain his the bill that Schnelings? It's pretty much what the resolution says is it goes in November with partisanship elections. So, Senator Schmelting's bill. I know. motion. Sure.

Okay. Cuz Senator Schmelting's bill pass is due pass out of committee and is going to perfection. I don't know where Senator Shorer's bill is in the process. I believe um Representative West has a bill as well. So, I'm just curious, what is it about the bill that you like? Because Senator Schmelting's bill is not partisan. Senator Schmelting's bill is moving to So are we doing are we looking for Schnelting Schroer West? If you if you have more if if it's more if it's out of committee. I was going with Tim. I

What was the What was it about the bill that you like? The bill that I liked was not really the uh is to move move it to to November to get more people involved in our elections. That's and take the partisansship out. I I'm fine with taking the part partisanship out of it. If if Senator Schmelting's bill does that, I' I'd let withdraw this one and we'll present that one. I mean, the biggest issue to me is getting more people the ability to participate in the elections. So, I agree with that. Okay. So, we have a motion and a second to table. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed.

All right. C can I say something? No, ma'am. Sorry. We're sorry. We're we're past that part of the program, but I welcome you back in two weeks where we can do this whole exercise all over again. And maybe we'll have a better idea of what we're actually voting on. So, let's do bills for final passage. Starting with bill 5463. Bill number 5463, an ordinance amending the zoning district map of the county of St. Charles, Missouri by reszoning land from a agricultural district to C1 neighborhood commercial district per application RZ25-14. Mr. Braz,

that's okay. Can you pull that mic in front of you? Uh, this this uh I'm absolutely 100% opposed to this. Um, this is a a plan with no plan. They just want to build some commercial ground on the corner without any specified use or anything. And there is no commercial in that corner. We did it. We did pass commercial uh piece five or six years ago. However, it was going to be a farm stand and they never did it. So, there's nothing there. This is not a good plan. It's it's not going to work for editor and I I don't support it at all. No one really wants it out there. Any other questions? With that, I would actually call the role.

Bill number 546. Bill number 5463, an ordinance amending the zoning district map of the county of St. Charles, Missouri by reasonzoning land from Agricultural District to C1 Neighborhood Commercial District per application RZ25-14. Councilman Swanson, no ma'am. Councilman Brazzle, no. Councilman Hammond, no. Councilman Elum, no. Councilman Hollander, no. Councilwoman York, no. Councilman Baker, no. Um, bill 5463 fails. That gets us to bill 5464.

Bill number 5464, an ordinance of the county of St. Charles, Missouri, approving the preliminary plat and final development plan for Menure Farms. Mr. Brazzle. Okay. Um, so we have a lot of people concerned about this overdevelopment, which it is. Um, do I like the subdivision? No. I hate the fact that we're exploding like this at the county. Um, but um, what I'm told is Robert, can you come up here a minute? Robert Meyer? He's coming. All right. So, uh, Miss Wood, you had some good questions and I want to ask you, Robert, on the time frame because you and I I asked you this and I was microb three times

cuz I don't like this subdivision. I don't like this the growth. Um, but there are some concerns we have. I'm told by staff multiple times that they can do this regardless. That's what I'm told. and the time frame that what you're talking about are good questions, but they say that that's not true. That's what they tell me. So, for this reason, they had this zoned in 2010. Bad or good. Back then, the gross was nothing like it was now. And it passed. And so, from what I'm told, they can build 550 units no matter what we do. That's what I'm told by staff. And I have to listen to them because they that's what they do for a living. And so, they they've brought it down to 580 units. They redesigned it, put trails and lakes in it. Now you guys were talking about this SID comm community improvement district. What that is, it's a choice of the developer to choose a like a HOA to collect money to do improvements and that improvements are outside of sidewalks and no common ground, no lakes, no historic barns. So what this does, it's it's like the developer has a right to choose to do that. We just started this because it does make the subdivisions better just like collecting a HOA. And if you're a homeowner, you don't have to buy in a subdivision. If you don't want to pay $500 a year is about what I'm told is for like a $700,000 house, then you don't do it. It's a choice. So, would I do it? I don't know. But if you like those amenities, then maybe you'll do it. If they think they can sell it, then it's up to them. It's capitalism. Let them do what they want to do. But what I want you to do, Robert, is explain to me what you explained to me three times.

Yeah. On what the situation is.

Okay. What we have before us tonight is a preliminary plat. It does not involve zoning whatsoever. The zoning was approved in 2010 by the St. Charles County Council with up to 531 dwellings um at that time. So there was a development right set in 2010 for up to 531 dwellings. What you have before you tonight is 470 dwellings on 236 acres. It includes commercial, includes some uh attached town homes and a single family residential, almost 60 acres of common ground that protects uh the tree stands, [snorts] flood plane, uh a cemetery. There's also amenities like a skating rink and etc. those are proposed for amenities for in this development. I would add that St. Charles County is in competition with places like city of Oallen and on the city of Fallon's um their their city council agendas, you'll see community improvement districts, multiple ones that have been uh come about and transportation development districts as well. So it is a tool that's being used by cities like city of roof fallon. Um if this tract, let's just say pretend that the plan unit development zoning does not exist and it still had the R1B single family residential district zoning. By my calculations by right they could build 438 homes. So again the what's before you tonight is not have to do with zoning. It's a plat and the plat dictates how the lots are laid out and what improvements are made. And that's really what this is about tonight. How

the lots are laid out and how the improvements are made. And you could say yes or you could say no to how the lots laid out. Improvements are made. Um and that's really what's before you. Mr. Baker. Yeah. There's been some uh questions about whether this is valid, that the zoning is valid, that the process with the PUD was properly followed and and right

and maybe this is a question for Rory, but just to to put a button on this, is this valid that we can that this zoning the the zoning that was done in 2010, is it valid today? That was the first question that uh county staff asked when we received the preliminary plat and final development plan. We reviewed the ordinance carefully. We contacted the county counselor's office. They reviewed it and they provided us with uh legal advice that yes, it could move forward as long as they did certain things which they have uh they've committed to and they've completed now. Thank you. Any other questions?

Yeah, Mike. Uh just a couple more points. Um we did meet several council members, met with the traffic engineers and um trying to figure out, you know, um reasons why we could not vote for it. Um in my view, um but uh by them adding traffic light, developers are adding two traffic lights at the schools or one is it one or two? I can't remember. Tim, do you know? Um but they're going to add traffic lights because they're going to help the flow better. Um and and we did funnel, we canceled the Lake St. Louis Boulevard project. I don't know if you guys know this. And we're forward fronting the money into that. What's that like 10 million or 8 million or something like that? How much money that is?

Our So, we're putting money into that county money. So, we're trying to fix a problem. MDOT's slow. Our annexation laws are bad. Four counties in the state of Missouri have poor annexation laws and we're one of them. We need to get them changed because I'll tell you right now, which Mike just told me, Of Allen has just bought 100 acres off of Gallagher Lane. Is that right, Mike? Gallop plane. Gallop plane. Yeah.

And they can sneak in around on this ground and annex it. And if a Fallon like they keep doing keep growing with these annexations over and over and over again, they're just going to put in smaller lots than what we have on this plan. And so we have and I don't want to crawl down Highway Z and Newelli and keep putting all these houses in. So we don't really have much of a choice at this point since we passed it in 2010. But if we didn't pass it, then it would get annexed into another city. So, we have to work on our annexation laws, which we are. We are. I'm just telling you, it's a chess game. We got to figure out how to win. Any other questions? I'll just comment. There's just one. Hang on. Hang on. I'm sorry.

Yes. I just want to make one comment. Um, a lot of people think that once this is approved, this is going to be finished immediately. You can't pour water over this land and and this all comes about. I suspect it's going to be somewhere between what I I think I was told 5 to 8 years before this is completed. So it's I I think that gives us time to get the roads done in the meantime. Thank you, Mr. Baker.

No, I was just answering Joe. There's the one signal at Perry Kate and and one thing that and I did go through the traffic study. You know, we're pulling a lot. When you have a two-lane road that has cars probably traveling 60 miles an hour and people are stopping to make a left turn into that school, that's a dangerous situation. And what they're adding with this signal is the ability for that left turn movement to make that left at a signalized intersection, which is a lot safer than stopping traffic on a two-lane road where people are driving 60 m hour. I mean, like Mr. Brazzle said, this development was approved back in 2010. There are some positives to it. One of the main positives in my opinion as a civil engineer is the traffic impact and the improvements that is being done to make this uh make the situation it's it's it's not a good situation because the traffic's bad, but it's making it better from at least taking that dangerous traffic off the highway end. So,

any other questions or comments on this? Mr. Swanson? Yes. Um within the packet, the Wville Fire Department had a concern about one entrance. uh per their policy they like to have two entrances in the subdivision. Was that resolved? Yes. In that uh the fire district always wants to have if you have more than 100 homes

uh there really needs to be two ways in and out. So what's would happen is [clears throat] they could not build the first phase of more than 100 homes until they have a second entrance. So as as I understand it uh the developers have been working with St. Giani Church to take access from that direction and then there's a sort of a back road that would allow secondary access to the lower portion and that's what um they've been working on with the uh fire district. All right. So that was not included in the uh packet. Okay.

I because I didn't see any of that because that is a concern because when I was in Wville that was one of our number one issues we had is access points in case of emergencies. Right. So, um, the way it works is subdivision plast have to get approval from the county and as well from the fire districts. You can't just have one or the other. So, even if we completely approved everything, the fire district's still going to dictate that more than 100 homes. You can't build the 101st until you have that secondary access. And it's, as I understand it from their engineer, they've been looking at that St. Gianis as secondary access. Okay. Thank you, sir. Mr. Elman, may I acquire? You may.

Uh, I think the last meeting, didn't the didn't the people from the Catholic Church say they would welcome that use of their parking lot as an access and put an accent? That's my understanding. Um, they really need a traffic light to help direct traffic in and out of the

the two churches and the school there. And by the extension of Perry Kate Boulevard and that traffic light and tying into this ex street extension, that would allow that traffic to go to the traffic light and do it just as you said, take a take a turn to the I guess it would be towards the west at a a protected signalized intersection. Um there with the cluster of schools there, there's three public schools, two private schools. There's just there the peak time hours the traffic is not good now. It's not good. And if you look at the traffic study in 2030 and 2050 um the the roadway improvements will help but there will always be um those peak time hours will always be uh difficult in terms of traffic with the schools I'm talking about. Second thing, Robert, uh, and correct me if I'm wrong, and Rory can can correct me as well, but my understanding, I mean, this is a, uh, the CI of course is is is what it is, and they can, if they don't think that's a good idea, they could vote against it,

but with regard to the plat, the plat, that's administrative in nature, uh, as opposed to the reasonzoning. with the resoning. When they gave them the resoning, they could vote whether they thought it was a good idea or a bad idea. Okay? And they made that decision 10 years ago. Isn't it isn't the question now whether or not this plat is consistent with the zoning? And isn't and and and is isn't that administrative in nature? And isn't that what they're supposed to look at as opposed to whether they think there's you know, that's my understanding. uh the the way I've operated for years is that the the resoning is a legislative um act, right?

And that there's much more discretion a lot of discretion to do what they think is right. Right. And when you get to a plat, it's more of an administrative act. And if as long as it meets all the technical requirements to a then you're basically required to approve it. And

that decision is like the Supreme Court decision on tariff this past week. All right. The Supreme Court wasn't deciding whether the tariffs were a good idea or bad idea. They were looking at the language of the Constitution that that talks about tax and tariffs and they had to decide whether it was it met that language. They they may have loved tariff. They may have wanted to see tariffs, but they had to look at the language just like these gentlemen and lady uh needs need to look at at the ordinance and if it's consistent with it, I think, you know, they need to go along with it. Any other questions? Seeing none, thank you, Robert. Please call the role.

Bill number 5464, an ordinance of the county of St. Charles, Missouri, approving the preliminary plat and final development plan for Menure Farms. Councilman Brazzle, yes. Councilman Hammond, yes. Councilman Elim, yes. Councilman Hollander, yes. Councilwoman York, yes. Councilman Baker, yes. Councilman Swanson, no. Bill 5464 passes. That gets us to 5465.

Bill number 5465, an ordinance accepting the verified petition setting forth the findings of the St. Charles County Council and providing for the creation of a community improvement district to be known as the Trailside Farm Community Improvement District. The purpose of said district being to fund and build community improvements within the district such as lakes, trails, parks, playgrounds, a memorial, traffic and road improvements, utilities, and other infrastructure. Mr. President, I'm No, I'm good. Oh, sorry. Yeah, Mr. [clears throat] Highlander.

Yeah, I I I see this and again, we we do not uh we don't deal with these very often in on the 18 years I've been on the council. I can't remember more than four or five of these. Uh obviously they're talking about they're becoming more common. But as I look at this, I I don't uh you know I I heard Mr. Brazzle earlier talking about free enterprise. It's you know if if the these folks that are the builders and the construction people if they feel that this is the way to go about it then they have a right to give it a whirl. Now, whether it works or not, that's totally up to the buyers of the homes once it gets to that point. So, I I don't see where where we would have a problem with this.

Any other questions or comments? Seeing none, please call the role. Bill number 5465, an ordinance accepting the verified petition setting forth the findings of the St. Charles County Council and providing for the creation of a community improve improvement district to be known as the Trailside Farm Community Improvement District. The purpose of said district being to fund and build community improvements within the district such as lakes, trails, parks, playgrounds or a memorial, traffic and road improvements, utilities and other infrastructure. Councilman Hammond, yes. Councilman Elim, yes. Councilman Hollander, yes. Councilwoman York, yes. Councilman Baker, yes. Councilman Swanson,

yes, ma'am. Councilman Brass, yes. Uh 5465 passes. That wraps up bills for final passage. We move on to bills for introduction. Bill 5467. Bill 5467 requested by Mike Hurlebert, sponsored by Joe Brazzle. An ordinance amending ordinance number 18-08 granting conditional use permit cup 17-14 for one a winery and two building structures or open spaces for conducting weddings and or wedding receptions or other private parties to Defiance Ridge Vineyards LLC property owner and Chuck Gillantine applicant. Mr. Razle.

Yeah. I'd like to start with um how this thing started several the application for several months ago, but let's keep in mind that Bill and Chris Shaw had this as a winery way before uh Defiance Ridges. So, it's been a winery a long time. And so, just to get on to how some of this stuff that some of the neighbor supposedly my neighbors um they live on the same street as me, but um

are your neighbors? Well, you're not neighborly, but um so [laughter] so let me Hey, you guys got to talk. Let me finish. Let No, let me talk. Mr. Manning, let's talk about this. You put on face. He puts on on I I'm going to get this over real quick. On neighbor next door, you're criticizing me on how I don't care about the neighbors. That shocks me. Who plows the road when it snows for free? Who brought dirt down to your front yard and graded it? Who? Hey, let me talk. Who brings the trash cans down to the end of Highway 94 when a trash can can't get up the hill? Who fills the potholes? I do. I do it for our neighbors. I do. No. No, you don't.

All right, that's it, though. Listen, I live just as close to that winery as you guys do. I back up to the property. I'm a neighbor of them, too. And for you to say that I'm friends with all the businesses. Yes, I am. But you're not friends with anyone. So, I don't know why that's a criticism. And so the thing is is all you guys do is complain. You complain about our parades. Do you guys know what our parades is for? Our parades is for raising money for the town. It raises money. It pays for the volunteer fire department. You talk, ma'am. Let me finish. It's my turn. You blasted me on Facebook. You blasted me on neighborhood next door. Let me finish.

You guys criticize uh you don't criticize the praise. The parade pays for the flags. It pays for the street lights. It pays for maintaining our town parks and you criticize our prs. I don't get it. You put up your no parking signs. That's not your selfish. Put up no parking signs. Okay. No. Maybe in front of in front of your house. In front of your house. Oh, come on. All right. All right. That's enough. I'm done with that part. I'm done with that part. I'm done with that part. Now, let's move on to the project. You guys talk about You guys talk about uh the lights. The lights all have shades on them. Okay. And they're all shaded on the top and the sides. The parking lot's been in that that's been a parking lot for quite some time, probably 10, 15 years.

We'll talk we'll talk to uh we'll talk to the Fence Ridge about the request of the extended fence. We'll talk to them about the asphalt. Some of those things those requests might be realistic. So, we have to have conversations with them about that. Um the uh time frames are all the same. Um to find back up on a minute too. Let's talk about traffic. Just so everybody knows, including you guys and everybody else. You talk about more traffic. Well, since Hoffman bought into the wineries, the ones up in Augusta, the traffic has been reduced because the volume of patrons been reduced significantly. The wedding venue that was being on Fa 94 never had happened. We did approve that. The hotel and venue in Augusta, we approved that. That got cancelled.

So, the traffic has not been increased at all. has actually decreased in in defiance. And so what the Defiance Ridge is doing is following uh the plan of what the wine district is, what the historic wine district is, and it's about a 250 person venue. And so they run a good operation. The music shut off when they're supposed to shut off. And um and I never hear the music. I live right next door to you. And so and if I do, I go out and enjoy it. that I I'm not intolerant and hateful, okay? So, I put up with it, okay? So, anyway, there's a few people there's a lot more people in town that are in favor of this than there are that aren't.

And the people the people who are not in favor of are the people who don't contribute anything to fights anyway. So, please be quiet. Yeah. See, it's funny. You know, when you guys were talking, I didn't interrupt you. And so, I am I'm trying to waw in front of everybody. You insulted me on Facebook, Roger. Okay. I mean, yeah, wrap it up. Anyway, this is a good project. Sorry. I I'm sorry to you guys and you guys and I got into that, but it's been set. It's been at my crawl for a long time. So, any go ahead. No, go ahead. Wrap up.

No, we'll talk we'll talk we'll talk. We'll talk to the finance bridge about some of those requests and see where that goes on that where that may land and then have those conversations. Any other questions or comments? Recuse yourself. Please stop. Have them removed. Any other questions or comments about this particular bill? None.

Seeing none, we move on to bill 5468. Bill number 5468 requested by Kurt Bar, sponsored by Mike Elim, an ordinance authorizing execution of documents for receipt of funds in the amount of 57,382.33 from the Secretary of State for a grant awarded to the election authority for an election efficiency grant to assist with election activities, systems, and equipment maintenance, maintaining voter lists and polling place accessibility, and further amending ordinance 25-082 by providing supplemental appropriations to the election services fund. budget. Any questions or comments about this bill?

Seeing none, that gives us to our last bill for introduction 5469. Bill number 5469 requested by Kurt Bar, sponsored by Mike Elim, an ordinance authorizing execution of documents for receipt of funds in the amount of $3,000 from the Secretary of State for a grant awarded to the election authority to assist with the expense of employee training and further amending ordinance 25-082 by providing supplemental appropriations to the election services fund budget. Any questions or comments about this bill? Seeing none, that gets us to tabled bills. Any action to be taken on a tabled bill? Yeah, I'd like to make a motion to remove bill number 5466 from the table. Second. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor say I.

I. Any opposed? Mr. Baker. I'd like to make a motion to amend Bill 5466 and replace it with substitute bill 5466. After Let me read the bill. That's good. Do I have a second? Can I read the bill first? I have I have a motion and a second. Please read the bill. Bill number 5466, an ordinance amending the 2026 budget adopted as ordinance 25-082 as amended by providing supplemental appropriations to the budget of the transportation planning fund. Uh any discussion on this bill, Mr. Baker?

So just for everyone's sake, I amended the bill because I took out the soundwall that we talked about adnauseium at the budget talk. Uh cuz since that time we received a letter from just about every municipality in the city other or in the county other than I think St. Peters, Flint Hill, and Port Doo Newelli. We got one from St. Peters. Did we? I may have missed that one. So, uh I do still think that this area I mean the it's shameful what the what these folks have to deal with with regards to the noise. And I have a hard time to believe that there's an area in this county that has

Hang on a second, folks. If you're going to talk, can you do it outside, please? Anyway, Mr. Baker, I just have a hard time believing that there's many areas as bad as this. And I'll just final comment on this. If there are areas as bad as this, then something needs to be done. So, that's why I amended this bill. At least we we're talking about a sidewalk that's much needed for safety on Upper Bottom Road and that's that's why I amended this bill. So, thank you. Any questions or comments about this bill? Seeing none, please call the role. No. All in favor of the substitute first. They tabled it after the first.

Oh, they tabled after the first. Yeah, correct. They tabled last. Sorry. Is there? No. No. We're good. Yep. All in favor of the substitute. All in favor of the substitute say I. I. Any oppose? Now, please call the RO. Substitute bill number 5466, an ordinance amending the 2026 budget adopted is ordinance 25-082 as amended by providing supplemental appropriations to the budget of the transportation planning fund. Councilman Elim. No. Councilman Hollander, no. Councilman York, no. Councilman Baker, yes.

Councilman Swanson, no. Ma'am. Councilman Brazzle? Yes. Councilman Hammond? Yes. Bill 54 substitute bill 5466 fails. That gets us to announcements and miscellaneous. Mr. Elman,

Mr. Chairman, uh, we've got to do something about what happened here tonight. I mean, uh, as we all found out, you know, filing opens tomorrow. And I can't imagine anybody that's thinking about running for office here or anywhere else that saw what what you all had to listen to tonight after you sat there and listened to everything that you listened to. I I I can't believe anybody would want to run for your job. And I You got that right. And uh and personally, I think uh you know,

it's a shame. I mean, I think you all are very uh very kind to let it to let people go as far as they have, but I think it's going way too far. And I think it's going to be a real problem if if this becomes the norm. Uh, you know, I I served in Jefferson City for 12 years in the in the minority. Believe me, I know what it's like to lose a vote. Okay. But, you know, did did I get up and criticize and yell and scream when we lost? No. We went to work and tried to tried to win the next one. So, I I don't know what's what's happened that people think that, you know, cat calls from the audience and everything are kind of the normal way of business. It certainly shouldn't be. Any other comments, Mr. Swanson?

Yes. Uh, I've been working with staff on the uh, legislation that Arie, please stop. Come on. This is an important bill for me, Arie, and you know this with dealing with them. We are moving forward with it. The attorney, chief, executive branch, um, looks like we have a pretty good outline. Just to give you an update, we're moving more towards the age of 21 and behind the counter. So, you'll have to see ID to purchase it. So, we're not outlining it or anything else, but that's where we're moving towards it. I do believe Rory, you think by next meeting we should have a draft? I I believe that you have a draft right now, right? I mean, for the rest of the council. Yeah, that's yours to share with council as you

I'll get over to you guys so you can see it. But it's really moving. Um the halo that uh I put forth. We did a little research. The Missouri law does meet all the criteria. Chief and the executive branch and Roy are all good with that. So, I'm dropping that one off and we're just going to go with the Missouri statute that's currently in place. So, those are the two big ones. And then, uh, way to go to USA hockey, men's and women's. Great to be Canada about that. Any other comments? Most of your

Well, hang on a second. I I want to make a comment. So, um, last meeting we honored the young lady who did our I voted stickers. So, um Kurt, would you come up here real quick just to confirm, um when you go vote, you're going to have the opportunity to wear one of these good-looking stickers when you walk out of the polling locations. Correct. Correct. Uh and early voting starts tomorrow at 8:30 a.m.

And if folks want to file for uh August elections, they do that. Uh for county office, it will be at the election authority office at 397 Turner Boulevard starting at 8 am till 5:00 pm. And you do pick a bingo ball that was uh spent with uh personal funds at a garage sale many years ago

at at a Catholic church near you. Those used bingo balls. Uh so I think this was a great thing uh to you and your staff. Congrats on doing this. Uh, as I said to the young lady last week, her artwork is going to be seen by more people than almost any artist that you're going to find in America cuz you're going to have a whole bunch of folks who are walking around with these stickers. And I hope that's one of you by the time we get to uh end of election. I hope you've had a chance to wear one of these cuz 14% in April elections is way too low as we talked about. Thank you very much and uh congratulations to the young lady again for doing that. With that

motion to adjourn. Motion motion and second. All those in favor. Be careful going home.