County Council - Regular Meeting

police have been called and right now there's really no way that we can we can control this. Uh we can't there's no permit that we can revoke. There's nothing we can do. So, um, and then the other area is is an area where it's shortterm, like in there's people with suitcases come two or three times or stay two or three nights and then they leave. And it's continually a rotation of of people coming and and I I use the barometer of would I want this in my next to me? I wouldn't. And and sure, I mean, uh, it's it's it's something that we got to keep a I think we need to control. We're at the point now where uh this is becoming an issue in in our county. Wasn't foreseen a few years ago when Airbnbs weren't a thing, but they are now. And I think we need to uh look at the matter and see how we can control it. I know uh Airbnb has the ability to to complain online, but I don't know what what what kind type of uh stick does that does that carry? So, um, and I know Mike Hurlbert and and Rory have worked on it. I think it's a it's a pretty good ordinance. I hope hopefully you've got a chance to review it. Um, one of the things that that I also asked was since these are essentially hotels, uh, people are are uh I mean serving this no different than a hotel except that it's in a it's in a residential house. How do these folks get away with not paying commercial commercial assessments on their property whereas uh hotels have to? So that's another thing. So I just, you know, wanted to bring it forward to the the councils and so we can begin the discussions.

Oh, there's Joe. Oh, hey. Yes, sir. Are you? Oh, okay. No, I just didn't know if I can leave early. Oh, okay. We weren't expecting you. That's why we were like, "Hey, that's okay. Always always good to see you though, Joe. Hello. Yeah. Um Mike, do you want to come up and talk about um the ordinance? Who's driving the bus on this one? I was going to talk about the ordinance. Yeah. Talk about the ordinance. Um we'll start with the attorney.

I think that there's a PowerPoint presentation in the back that can be queued up perhaps through it. No, I think he's good. Almost there. There we go.

Let me see if this will work. Nice. All right. So, there is, as uh Council Member Baker said, uh we have put together a draft um for a short-term rental uh regulation ordinance. Um the what essentially what this ordinance will do as again uh mentioned by council member Baker right now we don't have a way of regulating short-term rentals within unincorporated St. Charles County. So this establishes a new chapter of our ordinances um in chapter 660. It would create a licensing and inspection program for those short-term rental units. Um, and the purpose behind it, I think everybody would agree, is to ensure the public health, safety, and neighborhood compatibility to a certain extent as well. Um, so what qualifies as a short-term rental under our um proposed ordinance, it would be a dwelling unit that's being rented for fewer than 30 consecutive days. So, we're not talking about somebody that is, you know, leasing their um your property out to somebody on a month-to-month um basis. This is for those again shortterm stays of less than 30 consecutive days. In exchange for compensation, there has to be some sort of uh money that's changing hands. And then it would be typically aimed at those rentals that you find on platforms like Airbnb, VBO or similar. Um it excludes hotels, motel, bed and breakfast and lodgings as they're already regulated under our code in chapter 234. Um so they they would not be subject to these standards. They're subject to the ones that already exist in county ordinance. Um some other key definitions that we've got in the in the new proposed ordinance is that the owner is whoever is listed on the property tax records as the owner. Um, the operator is not necessarily the same person as

the owner, but it can be, but it's whoever is managing the day-to-day short-term rental operation. A guest, obviously, is somebody who is staying at the residence temporarily. Um, the local contact person is somebody that uh would basically be available within um 45 minutes to respond to the address of the short-term rental if there is an issue. So, if there is a tenant, one of the guests, excuse me, has a problem, um there's something going on, there's a complaint about it, then there would be this local contact person who would be expected to be able to be on premises within 45 minutes. Um, and then a dwelling unit. Again, that's an independent living space with sleeping, cooking, and sanitation facilities. Um, in order to operate a short-term rental within unincorporated St. Charles County, you would require a license. um this would be administered through the uh department of community development. The exception would be and this is obviously this is a draft so this is one of the propositions that came up in the midst of this drafting. Um, and so this is a probably a point for the council to discuss and consider is that this idea that there would be an exclusion that the STR regulation would apply within the unincorporated county, but it would exclude those uh short-term rentals that are within a onem radius of the 2030 master plan agricultural tourism overlay district. Um, I know that Mike has queued up a uh map of what that would look like, so we can talk about that a little more in depth. I'll I'll plan on just giving you a general overview of the whole thing and maybe we can come back and revisit that point, but just want to highlight that for you. I think that that would uh cover most of the the uh Defiance Augusta area where those wineries are in existence. Um so that

that's the reason why there was that um decision to try and exclude those particular short-term rentals. The license would be valid for two years is what we're proposing and it would end sooner obviously if there was any kind of suspension activity revocation or if the ownership of the underlying property changed. Um if at any point anybody has questions feel free to stop me as well. Um, in order to apply for that license, there's going to be certain things that the owners and operators of those short-term rentals would be required to provide to the county. That would include their legal name and mailing address, phone number and email, uh, that local contact person's information. Again, it might not be the same as the owner or the operator. You can designate somebody else as the local contact person as long as, again, they are going to be on premises within 45 minutes of a call. um they would have to demonstrate to the uh to the department that they have a number of compliant bedrooms. Um that they have a number of on-site parking spaces. Um and they would also have to agree to comply with all the requirements of our ordinance. Um and then there's also this requirement that they have a copy of required house rules. The idea behind the house rules, just very briefly, is, you know, if you're a guest that's coming to stay here and there are certain things about that particular premises, whether it's trash collection, you know, if there's if it's in a subdivision that has some kind of noise requirements, anything like that, that those would be set out for the guest. Again, it's a way of ensuring that the guest understands what the rules of the road are when they come in and stay in an STR in unincorporated county. Um any changes in ownership management or contact person are to be reported within 10 days. Fees and renewals. Um the department has been working on studying how to assess these fees or what the correct fee to establish would be. Um and I think that

they have a a handout on that as well. Um but the purpose the important thing about those fees, this isn't a profit generation. This is not any attempt to tax new um you know businesses that are within the county. This is all about recovering the county's administrative and inspection costs that are associated with this program. Um, and then the renewal would obviously have uh a a fee that goes along with that as well, but that fee is kind of TBD at the moment. Um, county inspection authority. So again, we we would require that there be inspections of these premises prior to the issuance of a license and periodically after the license has been issued. Um the inspection would focus on several key factors. One would be the presence of active working smoke detectors. Again, this gets into the public safety, the safety of those guests and the the neighbors of that particular property. Carbon monoxide detectors that are active and working. Um obvious safety hazards is how it is worded in the draft. Right now, the department is working on a list. I believe that they have um a pretty decent draft of what that list would look like of exactly what they would be coming in and examining. When they do come in and uh do that pre-lically thereafter, um if there is any kind of basement that's being offered as a bedroom, there would have to be some sort of egress included in that. Um and then again, the inspections are focused on health and safety compliance.

Um if I could stop you real quick. Absolutely. Yes, sir. where you have up there the third bullet point periodically uh after licensing. Yes. Can we be a little bit more specific on that? Uh I do I can get the ordinance and I can tell you we're using the one that was based off St. Charles City if I do believe.

Well, St. Charles City has one. I will tell you that it's not quite as indepth as this one. um it's much more limited and targeted in its focus because it's limited I think to that historic district. Um so it there we certainly looked at a lot of different ordinances from um localities in the area, not just within the state of Missouri either. We've looked elsewhere as well to try and take the the best parts of every ordinance that we could find and try and eliminate some of the stuff that might not be appropriate for unincorporated St. Charles County. Um so inspections are yeah we we right now the the inspections are not are would be again we haven't limited ourselves within the draft. We certainly can but we haven't limited ourselves to any specific time period. It's not like every six months they would have to be inspected. Um I think it's upon renewal there would be the ability to go back out and inspect if we so chose. And again, if we got any kind of complaints that the department would be able to inspect on that basis. Am I getting that right, Mike?

It's prior to license. Yeah, prior to license issuance is definitely covered. But again, after once once that license has been issued, again, it would probably be complaint driven, renewal driven. Um, but we can certainly talk again, that's another point that the council should be able to discuss freely. I think it's in here that if there are repeated problems, that might be a good time to go in. Maybe somebody calls and says, "Hey, you know, the electricity kept flashing." You know, then we could go in and inspect. But how would we know that if they're only complaining to the owner of the property? How would the county ever know that there is any issues?

Yeah, I think any kind of complaint driven process is going to require somebody to contact the county. That's true. Um, so if they're only complaining to the property owner, then the county might not ever know that. Yes. And I just think about stuff I've dealt with with rentals in the past, especially the city of Wentzville. We've had some deplorable homes that they never complain to the city because of other issues going on. So, I don't know if we can have a specific time frame. I understand what you're stating. We don't want to lock ourselves in. Um, but that's something for discussion. That's why we're having a work session. Yeah. But they're given they're they're being given a two-year is that

the two-year license. I can't see any problem with having an inspection at the oneear mark, you know. I mean, I I don't think we're talking about huge numbers here. Well, and I think I think that you're right about that. But I think that, you know, anytime that you're, you know, mandating inspections, I think that that's something that the department is going to be cognizant of because it obviously does take manpower to do those um inspections, especially if it is on a regimented basis as opposed to just being complaint driven or or any other aspect. But I'll I'll let Mike talk about his department.

Yeah. Um, you guys have to keep in mind that what we're doing this for is because of uh the folks who are not having a true VBO and the folks who are doing uh like weekly workers and and that sort of thing and and filling them the houses up in residential neighborhoods. A true VBO, you you don't want to overthink this and have to have come and come and inspect if a light's flickering and all this because they're going to get really bad ratings. I mean, if you guys had a VBO, you'd know people complain. You get graded. I'm on evolve. I have five RBOs and and we our property is so outstanding because you want to get you want it to pump up in in the in the ratings. And so you we don't want to get involved in these kind of businesses. The initial thing is is doing what we're doing, which I agree with as long as the wine district's excluded because they're legitimate BRBOs out there. But for what Bob's problem is, I completely get it, but I'm not one for overregulating, overt taxing and all that. And as Roy pointed out, there don't seem to be that high and it's it's administrative fees, but I don't think you want to overthink this because rental property, you got rental I mean, I rent property, too. And so you you don't Thank God our county doesn't have we don't have an occupancy permit, and it's just another hassle. We don't need them because it's it's you're you're running a business. So you got to take care of your properties and and the county will come by and when I'm in the cities they write me up on sometimes on the weeds but they're supposed to be the the property owners are supposed to be taking her yard but and which is legit. I agree with that. But we don't want to overthink this having more and more inspections more and more fees because we're doing it for one reason. We've had these verbs in the county a long time and there's one particular incident that's be become a problem and that's the only So you don't want to have

more than one. You got there's only one that I'm aware more than one. And I said more than maybe two or three or four. I don't know. But in my area, there's not. And so you don't want to create laws that that have unintended consequences. However, I I believe this is the right thing. But you I don't think you want to overthink it. I agree. I I do agree with that. Yeah, I agree too. Uh Rory, is there Okay. So, let's say we implement this and and we find out somebody's operating an Airbnb, but they haven't licenses. Do have we spelled out what the procedure is?

Yeah. So, if you'll let me I think I'm getting to that. So, um, the density limitation was an important thing that, uh, several of the council members brought up in the, uh, drafting process of this. Um, so the proposition is that we would not be permitting any new STRs to be approved within 600 ft of another licensed STR. Again, STR being that short-term rental. Um, the measurement would be property lineto property line, um, a straight line basis. And then those licenses would be issued on a first come first served basis. So that would mean that anybody's that is currently operating in STR would be basically first to the um you know to the admin building to get your license application on file. Um the purpose again at least that was communicated to my office from the council members was that they wanted to prevent overconentration of these short-term rentals in the neighborhoods. So in these residential um areas, these subdivisions um so is that the only way that you can do a density limitation? No. This is the way that I think community development feels comfortable in um trying to administer though because this is uh borrowed from the the same language that we use to uh regulate group homes. So again, there is that precedent that the county has put density limitations in place for for other types of uh housing within the county. So um occupancy and use restrictions. Uh we're talking about creating these occupancy limits of a max of two people per lawful bedroom um excluding infants under one year old obviously. And then there would also be event restrictions. So these short-term rentals cannot be used as party houses or event venues. any front yard and driveway gatherings would be expressly expressly, excuse me, prohibited. Um the required house rules we've already

talked about um providing the guests with that information on the occupancy, parking, trash, noise. It also has to include that current local contact person information because what we don't want to have is the guest runs into an issue and then they call the county to try and solve it. That's not what this is about. they need to contact the owner through their local contact person. Um the director may issue a standard template for compliance with this house rule. So um you'll see later on that this draft ordinance gives the director of community development the ability to create forms, templates, different processes and procedures to actually administer this. And that would include creating a template of what these house rules would look like. Um, again, the idea is not to be overly burdensome on people that are trying to operate short-term rentals. I think that the concept is that it would be made as easy as possible within certain limitations. Um, tax compliance. One of the obligations on an owner is to make sure that they are collecting any applicable hotel motel taxes and to remit all transient occupancy taxes to the correct taxing authority. Um compliance with that is going to be required for both your initial license approval as well as your license renewal. Um and again the purpose of that is just to make sure that they are paying paying their fair share in comparison to other licensed um short-term rentals, hotels, motel, etc. Um so getting to um council member Baker's question about enforcement tools. So the director can suspend a license if uh the person is violating the ordinance. if there are certain public safety issues with the address. Um, so that can occur immediately. So if we get enough complaints or if there's a serious enough complaint, then the director can tell them that they are to stop operating as a short-term rental immediately and then that'll kick into

the into operation this revocation procedure um which is used really for serious violations or repeated violations. um in order once you've done that revocation procedure um which includes you know being given written notice as well as an opportunity for hearing then there is uh after that hearing there's an appeal to the director of administration and then if the short-term rental owner operator doesn't like what decision they are given at the end of that then they can obviously go to court um it doesn't prevent them from seeking legal redress through the court system. If the license is revoked, the that owner operator is not allowed to apply for a new uh license for a year. Um conviction, so penalties for violation. So there is an ordinance violation component of this. So again, Council Member Baker, if somebody was to be operating without a license, then that would be a violation of the ordinance ordinance, excuse me, and they could be written up and prosecuted in our municipal court um with a fine of up to $500 and up to 30 days imprisonment or both. Every day that a violation continues is considered a separate offense. Um, in order to implement, again, this draft ordinance would give the director of community development the ability to complete, excuse me, create those internal procedures, to establish those forms and processes, and to administer inspections and to enforce the ordinance itself. The concept here is because this is kind of a radical um, you know, change in how we're going to be regulating short-term rentals, it hasn't happened before. We're going to put in place this delayed operational date which means that it would not become operational until six months after um passage by the council and you know it being fully adopted and enacted. Um and that would hopefully

give the department sufficient time to set up those administrative processes. Okay. So that's the general overview. Um again I know that um Mr. Herbert has a couple of pieces of information especially about that um overlay district um for the wine district. Um question is probably more from Mike. Do you know what the administrative cost is? Is this two employees one and a half or what are we?

So that's part of what we looked at as part of the fee structure looking at our the employee needs. Um Rick and I have determined that it would be uh we should would be able to do it within existing uh employee count. However, that was before somebody mentioned throwing more inspections in. So um we were thinking about one inspection every two years uh is what was our thought our thought process. We do have in the draft the ability to go into request permission to go in through a property to inspect some grievous issue that may be occurring or something like that. Um but no, that's we feel we can do it within existing staff.

Just to comment, I think it's a very good ordinance and I think you guys did a good job. So, thank you. Um I will say I I do want to mention a couple things. one. Uh, I don't know where the mouse is, so I can't open the Oh, I don't know where the actual mouse is. That's the mouse. Um, okay, here we go. There we go. Thank you. Uh, just ask and receive. Um, so how did you do that? This I you just you just asked very

you asked the the sky. Um, so what we did is we wanted to look and try to identify what we have in terms of unincorporated, the number of STRs that are out there. So we looked at advertising for BRBO and the all the different uh avenues and we also checked with the uh sports and convention authority to see who's paying tax. So we found this map. We mapped each one there. There's about 50 roughly. I think 46 to exactly that we found. So there probably is more out there, but these are the ones that are following the the current rules, if you will. So this kind of gives us an idea of where where they're at. They're spread out. Um you see a a large number within the unincorporated harvester area. Um and also down in in the wine district area. Uh but there's a few others spread out in other places as well.

So Mike, you're you're saying this map is based on what who are paying taxes with a sports with a what is it? the sports and convention author or convention sports. You do know that probably half the people don't pay that. Oh, I'm sure. Yeah, because I do, but there's a lot on here that have But but we we confirmed who's advertising and who's paying taxes? This is both. So, there may be more that aren't advertising regularly. Did you did you cross u like go on the VBO or evolve or any of that and you cross referenced and this is this is cross referenced with that and with the people who paid it the tax. Mhm. It just seemed this seems really short. I mean

no I I I wasn't going into it. I thought do we have 100? Do we have 100? I don't I don't know. No, I mean it's just because I have five I have four in the fiance and you only show five out in August. Do it my way. That's what I'm saying. It just don't look right cuz I know there's I know there's like 10 in the fines, right? So that proves my point. That's that's the point of this is that there are we know there's a lot more. Yeah. So this is what we found that are doing it that are paying taxes the tax. So um and that's part of this paid tax, but I'm not turning them because it's not there. There's going to be through this licensing process we will be we will be ensuring that people do.

Yeah. Right. So, um, so that's the first map. And then if we could go to the second map. There we go. So, this is the AT agricultural tourism district overlay. And what we did is we did the onem buffer. So, that's the gray area around it. You will see that there is approximately 12 short-term rentals that we identified that are in that location. Um, so they would be excluded from these requirements. Um there are most of the ones that are outside of that area obviously wouldn't have been caught by that either way, but we felt like the AT district and I'll let Robert explain that if if you want to have a better understanding of it. Mr. Brazzle is a big uh uh part of that, so he could probably explain it even better, but it it because it was set up for literally agricultural tourism and short-term rentals are a part of that. it made sense to use an existing map, existing boundary that's laid out by ordinance uh through the the adoption of the master plan as the the barrier as the buffer and do a onem uh around it. So that's why we went with this rather than trying to do a one mile, 5 mile, 10 mile radius around every single winery. Uh this is easier to to enforce, easier to to to control. So, so that's kind of what the the two maps that I wanted to show you all. Um, again, if you have more questions about the AT, I would defer to Robert on that. Um, if you have questions about the fees um or the fee schedule or the inspection checklist, that was Rick put that together. So, if you have any questions on that, you can ask him. Um, and then the biggest thing that I want to point out and illustrate to you all is this ordinance will not address in real time the problems that you're probably hearing. So when somebody complains about noise,

that doesn't go to community development, that goes to PD. Somebody complains about parties, we're we're not going to be able to respond to that uh immediately. What the way we work it is we send a notice of violation and we go through a process. So it takes a a time. It takes 10 days, 30 days. Sometimes it goes to court. So this provides a mechanism to kind of try to help control short-term rentals, but it will not address the immediate problem, the immediate immediiacy of the issue of some of the issues that you may be hearing. So I want to make sure that's understood. So, Michael, um, with Bob Bob's issue where the gentleman behind you,

if if that's a legitimate, is that a legitimate VBO? Do you know, Bob? Is it like on on a website or anything or It is on a website? Yes. So, from what I understand, if it's already in in service, it's grandfathered, so you can't No. No. Okay. No, we we did not do we did not put this in the zoning code. Oh, so that's why that's why we we it was going to be very difficult to enforce. So this is a licensing process, not a permitting proc. Oh, so then it it it is it is you you would be immediate. Okay.

And it's going to be first come first serve. So they got to meet that that 600 foot. So if there's three next to each other, one the first one in is going to be the the one that gives license the way it's currently. So but but but the instance that we're talking about, they got to come apply. Yes. And just because they've come by first, they may not qualify. I mean, who's going to determine if they if they if it's in the middle of a subdivision, which is what we're trying to prevent, where it's just not appropriate for having a uh we're not we're not worrying about being in the middle of a subdivision.

Well, I know I'm just using that their reference. So, so wherever it is, but how are you, if they fulfill the obligations on there, how can you still or is it a decision by administration? Like, is it a do you see what I'm saying? I mean, what if they qualify, but the neighbors don't like it? And so what what do you do? 600 ft. 600 ft. Oh, 600 feet from from another one. But they qualif. But what I'm saying if they're the first ones Oh, you don't know if they're 600. You know, we don't know about yet. No, we we we will once we they start applying, we'll be able to know if it's within 600 ft. If it is, then they would not be granted a license. Okay. They they have to meet all the application requirements. And as long as they do, then they would get the license.

Yeah. The scenario we were kind of going away from is like if you had a culde-sac of 10 homes and four of them were short-term rentals, you know, you don't want that if you're the other six homes, you know, right, Mr. Sponsor.

Yeah. And I think there's two distinctions here. And one that prov um relates more to you, Mr. Brazzle, is the at district when we're talking about that's what we want. We want people coming in there doing the tourism and everything else. These are the anomalies that are happening in other um non cities, the municipalities and everything else that are occurring that we can control within the county. Uh the one question I did have with relationship this and this may go back to Rory when you were talking about bathrooms. One bathroom for every two adult I said anything about bathrooms. I was talking about bedrooms. Correct. Oh, it was bedrooms. If I misspoke, I apologize. One bedroom for two people.

Excluding a infant. Because when it was bathrooms, like, well, I've done enough of the short-term rentals that that's going to be a problem for most family. I'm sorry. Maybe I've misunderstood. Yeah, if I misspoke, I apologize. It was probably the lightning and thunder. It should have at least one, though. Yeah, right. One bathroom's always a good thing. At least one indoors. I concur. Any other questions about this for anybody? Yeah, I do. Uh, will there be a way for people to apply online, do you think, or I mean, I'd just hate to burden everybody to have to come in here. So, we have all of our all of our permits currently available, applications are online, so I'm sure we'd be able to set it up through our system. I'm sure you could, too. Okay. Thank you.

But there would be an initial inspection that would have to be done with the license granted, right? Correct. So, you do the inspection first prior prior to the issuance. Yeah. And it sounds like what you were planning on to Mr. Swanson's point about inspections sounds like you were planning on at license renewal it would go back and be reinspected. So at that point you would have inspections at least every two years. Yeah. Um to your periodic question, I think yes,

I'm under the assumption if uh we have a situation where there's a party, police are called, okay, uh that this person that is supposed to be 45 minutes away that they will be contacted uh to come and I would guess that the police would have that information. Yes. Okay. Um, and then once that occurred, would the police then notify uh community development and go from there?

The the way I look at it is for potential suspension or revocation, I would need to have a list of complaints um or issues. We would investigate those issues, those complaints, and determine if they're they're valid or not. Um, and that would go a long way to knowing if there's a a revocation or suspension process necessary or preventing a reissue. Can we um I think it's good. Good job on that. All you guys um can we ask another question unrelated to this? Well, I'm not Yeah. Patty, did you have something? I don't want to

Well, I was just going to say you had asked about St. Charles. And I know there there's a lot of them, but they're like eight pages of documentation of you can't do this, you can't do this, you can't do this, you can't do this. That's one of the things we we didn't want to get into all of that right now. Let's let's try this. Let's see how it works. Um, as as you pointed out, there are some uh areas out there that, you know, just need some guidance. It's, you know, it's it's real easy now to say, I'm going to, you know, turn my my house into a air big bay and, you know, and do it. Uh, this way it's going to give people make them think about it. Uh, really appreciate you bring this up, Tim, and let me uh work on this too. Uh, because I think we want to keep it somewhat nebulous. In other words, we don't have all these specifics because then, you know, it can get too into the minutia. But I think we have this general good guidance that this is what we're going to do. This is how you're going to do it and together we'll make it work.

May I ask when do you guys would like to bring this up for introduction? That's my question. That was my question. Okay, perfect. Good segue. Next. So, when do you think can we have this on the May 11th? So, we have a couple blanks in the current draft. We can fill in those blanks. Um, there is one suggestion I'm going to make to the exhibit A um about parking. Sure. I want to add a little bit more wording there. So, other than that, I don't know if we'd have any I mean, I think that the bulk of the work is being done on this ordinance. So, I think that uh we can certainly target May 11th. I can't guarantee it sitting here today, but unless something

um completely untoward comes into, you know, understand. Uh one more question. Does the exhibit a does that become part of the ordinance as kind of like the template that we want to use? And you gave us some more information this evening. Was any of that going to be in there? Um, maybe not the maps. I don't know if the map is necessary. No, I don't think that that was going to be attached to the ordinance. I think that again it would be probably something that would be a working document that the department would have. Um but that that map is part of the master um the 2030 master envision plan. Yeah, it was approved by ordinance. So we have So that's all

posterity. Yeah, that's already in Okay. in place. Any other Well, I know it mentions in there that you have one. So like you said, any and all documents will be covered. Yep. So thank you. Thanks, Rick, too, for your work. Any other questions on short-term rentals? Seeing none. Thank you to all of you who worked on that. Mr. Brazzle has another question. I wouldn't run off yet. Okay. What's the status of the master plan? I haven't heard anything about it in months. Um the steering committee members probably they got an email a couple of weeks ago that we're working on the next steering committee meeting will be hopefully at the end of May. That's what we're shooting for. Um and that'll be the presentation of the draft plan.

The presentation to the committee or presentation to the council? To the committee. When does it get when's the rough draft get presented at council? It'll it'll probably go through a couple more iterations after that because it'll be further comments being received over that time. So some by the end of the summer is our our our goal. When does it go to does it go out to general does the draft go to the general public for like an open house so they can have make comments? We would have a public hearing openhouse meeting uh before it goes to council again. It'll be once we have the draft ready. So I I don't I don't have a time frame specific yet, but we're looking at end of summer. When was that supposed to be delivered? Isn't it the time running out on that? No, not really.

It it the the chart county charter says it shall be reviewed every 5 years and that's what we're doing. So any other questions? All right, with that, thank you. Thank you. We'll conclude the work session at this point. We'll take a break and we will meet back here in 22 minutes.

Hey.

So, thanks to everybody for being flexible. Thanks to the council members and administration and staff uh for all working around. Luckily, the storms were not what the weather service told us they were going to be. I like it when they're wrong in this way. Uh so, we moved our meeting to tonight. Unfortunately, our pastor who is going to pray for us uh last night could not make it tonight. Um so, uh Arie Dino is going to lead us in prayer tonight and Joe Brazzle is going to lead us in our pledge of allegiance. So, would you please stand and remove your cap? Thank you, God, for uh blessing us. Thank you for taking us through the storms and weathering the bad weather the last 24 hours. As you all know, this is a tornado season and please protect all of our citizens regardless where we're at, if we're out and about or in our homes and try to give us alert of any um major weather that's coming our way. Um just coming here from the meeting from our state capital. Um, I saw an accident uh in Wville and we pray that those individuals, there's about seven or eight vehicles, that uh everybody got out okay um unscathed and that uh you know that property can be replaced. But it's life that matters and the sanctity of our community. So please God protect us uh guard over us and uh bless us. Thank you very much.

Amen. Amen. Amen. I pledge allegiance 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. You may be seated. 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. Uh, I would entertain a motion to amend the current agenda and allow the county executive report to be next. Motion to amend the agenda and have the county executive report next. Second.

I have a motion and a second. All those in favor say I. Any oppose? Mr. County Executive, we've got some distinguished guests today, so we wanted to move them to the front of the order.

Yes, we do, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate that, and I'm sure they will as well. I don't know. There may be a NBA game on TV that they need to get get home to watch. I don't know. Uh but this is u I'll go ahead and start reading the proclamation and says, "Whereas St. Charles County government recognizes outstanding young Missouri athletes who have proven themselves to be fierce and determined competitors. And whereas the St. Charles County government would like to recognize the Emanuel Lutheran St. Charles basketball team who won the Lutheran Basketball Association America National Championship in Fort Wayne, Indiana on March 20th, 2026. And I'm going to ask the the uh the boys that are on the team to come up and line up in front of the uh council and I'll ask the coaching staff to come up here beside me. Okay. All right. And continuing the whereas the the Lutheran Basketball Association of American National Championship is an athletic competition consisting of 32 of the best Lutheran middle schools in the country. And whereas led by head coach Bob Derki and assistant coaches Brad Henderson and Matt Bowman, the Emanuel Lutheran St. Charles basketball team won the national championship with a score of 52 to 50.

And whereas ending with an impressive 37-1 season record, the Emanuel Lutheran St. Charles basketball team has won the good sheeperd invitational tournament, Christ Community Lutheran School Midwest Tipolf Tournament, Emanuel Lutheran St. Charles Holiday Classic Tournament, Trinity Jefferson City Tournament, the Emanuel Washington Tournament, the Good Sheeperd Invitational Tournament, and claimed the Lutheran Sports Association of Missouri State Championship in a final versus Lutheran North Middle School by a score of 48 to 46 on a three-point buzzer beater. Is a city championship in there? We won that, too.

Yeah, I know. I saw I saw I saw that game. That was an exciting one, too. And And what is it now? You you uh uh you beat uh Lutheran North three times. Three times. And those are the only three games that they lost. And the only game you lost was to them. Correct. So, you had two undefeated teams that only lost to each other. And uh it was an exciting game. Let me uh let me read out the names of the players and as I read your name just uh step forward and take a bow. Okay. Here. Here.

Um let's see. Jack Brand, Lucas Copelan, Reed Copelan, Bradley Drosssty, Blake Henderson, AJ O'Neal, EMTT Purle, Roman Standard, Cole Versman, Wesley Waphor, Eli Ward, and Luke Wagan. And whereas the teachers, students, and staff are exceedingly proud of the Emanuel Lutheran St. Charles basketball team for their impressive display of sportsmanship and unwavering unonymity while successful aspiring towards incredible goals. Therefore, now I, Steve Elman, proclaim uh on behalf of St. Charles County government to hereby extend my congratulations to the coaches and members of the Emanuel Luther and St. Charles basketball team. And I've got some highlights here. Now, this is the uh Is this the championship game?

This is This is the the final this is the final points of the of the championship game. Is that right, coach? Okay.

But what's the score? Down by two. Down by two. That's a pretty good way to win a national champ. Who made that shot?

Can uh can we go ahead and council get behind them and we'll get the coaches up here. Uh wait, wait a minute. Before we do that, coach, why don't you say a few words? Thank you for the opportunity to be here. Uh these young men are just incredible. Uh good citizens, good athletes, good people. Uh I've had the pleasure to watch him grow in class on the basketball court. uh and couldn't be prouder of any of them. I look forward to see what they become as they continue their journeys uh hopefully here in St. Charles. Hope if not somewhere where they can make an imprint because God has a plan. Look forward to seeing where it is here. HERE HERE'S Everybody get together as much as you can.

Put the guards up front. Hey. Hey. Are we going to hand out the at least one of them? Put it in the center. There you go.

Yeah. I just wait just to do one right now.

Thank you. Got it. Hang on. Parents are getting shots.

Okay. All right. Good job, boys. Then we have individual Yeah. And I got individual uh copies for each of you. The coaches will hand those out. So, gentlemen, you can go ahead and take your seats. And uh thank you. The only other thing I'll say, congrats.

Is that uh Mr. Hollander, several of these kids are going to be playing on the Terry Hollander court. And there and there's and there's a couple a couple more a few more that are going to be playing at your alma mater. and one that's going to be paying playing at your big rivalry from your alma mater and and another one at at uh at How Central. I think that covers just about everybody, but uh this is Lutheran, isn't it? D John Coleman's not recruiting for Lutheran High. Well, we got I'm sure we got some sure we got some going there, too. Okay. Thank you all very much.

Thank you, folks. We go from basketball to parks. Yeah. Can I yield the rest of my time, Mr. Chairman, to Ryan Graham to give a report on our parks?

Good afternoon or good evening. Good luck following that. Yeah, this is a tough one. I've never won a championship in anything. It's a parks championship and you have some people who have uh Yeah. Yeah. We actually have one of some maintenance rodeos. I wasn't on the team though, so it doesn't count. So, you're the coach.

Yeah. So, uh thank you uh for allowing me to have some time here to talk with you and just give you a state of uh our parks department. Um currently we have uh 23 open parks or 23 park properties. Uh 19 of them are open to the public. uh two are currently under construction, under development, and uh two are held in reserve uh for a grand total of 5,190 acres. Um one of the things that we use to compare our department uh to other departments and how much acreage and stuff that we have is comparing it to St. Louis County Parks, as you can see here in the comparison, um they have 75 parks with a grand total of 12 thou a little over 12,000 acres. We have 23 parks and a little over 5,000 acres. And our total acres per person is five I believe 10,000 of a percentage point there. Um so it is uh really close to meeting uh our price or per acre person u in terms of population. Uh as we've said in the past one of the things that we've we're trying to catch up to that but as our population continues to grow that goalpost continues to move a little bit. So um we're constantly trying to uh to fight that battle. Well, and their population continues to drop. That's unfair.

There's going to come a point, you think, where we'd meet in the middle, right? Yeah. Uh, so currently, here is a map showing all of our park locations. So, they're spread out all over St. Charles County. Um, so our first park was Quail Ridge, and our most recent one is the Jay and Carolyn Hinges wildlife uh area there um just uh near um Portage Doo area or not Portoru, but uh um Hust Road. Um, in terms of the department makeup, uh, we have a dedicated park use tax, as you know, that, uh, supports the operation and acquisition for parks. Our staffing levels, it says 95 here, but I did the math and it's actually 103. Um, that's a history degree for you. We don't do math very well. Um, our maintenance and natural resources divisions make up 60% of our workforce. Um so as you can see here the majority of our department is made in is um encumber I guess encumbered in our maintenance uh rangers and natural resources uh divisions. So we are a growing system um as you might expect our annual attendance I'll just give you some numbers here it's it's great to have all these parks but the question is who uses them and the answer is a lot of people. Uh so you'll see these numbers in 2015 we had 1 million people. I'm just going to start clicking through here. Here you can start seeing a little bit of a trend. Every year they start going up uh slightly. Um in 2019 we saw a big increase almost a million people. Um in 2020 we had this whole thing called CO where people decided to get out and find nature again. Um so we saw a huge increase in uh in our park user attendance in 2020. Uh so the question was whether that was going to be sustainable or if that was just a blimp on the radar. Uh so looking at our our numbers here, we had 4.3 uh in 2021, uh uh 4.3 in 2022, uh 3.9 in 2023, 4.2 again in 2024, and last year we had 4.9 million people come through our parks. Uh so those are

pretty good numbers every year kind of seeing an increase. So we're pretty excited to see everyone coming out to St. Charles County Parks. Um, so here's just a whole bunch of numbers that I'll be throwing at you. Just sort of giving you an idea of 422 programs that we do. Our annual program attendance is around almost 11,000 people. Uh, we've hosted 65 special events, over 480 birthday parties at Kinetic Park, 502 cabin rentals. Uh, 100 or 1,530 tent camping um area or reservations. Um, we've stocked fish, we've landscaped beds, we've planted trees, shelter rentals for everything from birthday parties, family reunions, uh, all sorts of things. Um, so it's a very active park system. Um, and our numbers support that. Um, so just give you kind of an idea of some of the major projects that we have going on. Uh, we are currently under construction. One of the parks that we had in, uh, development is Spring Bend Park, which is off Upper Bottom Road, uh, here in St. Charles. Um it's under construction. We hope to have that uh park complete um in uh the summer uh here in early July. Um it is was a complete donation by the Nolles family uh who wanted to make sure that it was preserved. So it's a na nature area um prairie uh area for um wildlife. It's going to be a really beautiful park here. Um just kind of give you an idea of some of the things that we have. Obviously with the conservation easement and the dedicated um natural areas there, we we're not developing it and putting in playgrounds and those sorts of things. So these are hiking trails um with nature areas. So we'll have a little area there shelter people to come in, be able to walk through the prairie, have some nice views of the river, and we're looking at trying to do some really cool things. Uh we're under a construction on phase one. Phase two should be coming here shortly. Uh which will include uh hopefully what we're calling the spring bend bend which will be an elevated platform which will allow you to kind of view prairie from a

different uh uh vantage point as well as potentially a suspension bridge across a goalie. Uh so it'll be a neat little way to interact with nature, something that's a little bit different. Um this is our some of our screenshots of phase two uh where you can see the spring bend coming in above the prairie there and then a suspension bridge going across the uh the goalie there. Uh so that's uh on our uh list of things that'll be coming here shortly. Um, one of the more exciting things happened towards the end of the year where we entered in into agreement uh with the Great River Habitat Alliance um to partner with them on the Jay and Carolyn Hinges Wildlife uh Park and Education Center uh which was about 785 acres of of property there that's going to be dedicated to wetland conservation um and and duck migr migration. Uh so we're really excited about uh kicking that project off. um we have some meetings I believe this week to kind of start that process. Um so it'll be uh a lot of work uh but it'll be a really neat project when it's all said and done and and a great partnership moving forward. Um we are also working on revamping the what we've been calling the heritage museum. Um this was a museum that opened in 2012. Um we saw attendance dropping and so we worked with the St. Charles City County Library District to look at creating what we're calling the heritage center uh which will be a place for people to come and uh research their family history genealogy um and then uh be able to kind of tell those stories of their family. So um looking at we're kicking that project off. We're under engineering and design right now and we hope to have that done sometime this year. Um we are under design right now for phase two of Oglesby Park which is out near Winsville. Uh so phase one opened um a couple years ago. Um we opened it up in about six months. So and so we are not under that strict of a timeline. Um but uh we are looking at trying to get that opened up uh with phase two which will include a

maintenance facility uh group uh shelter area and uh we're looking at uh possibly a archery range as a potential feature here which is something new that the parks department doesn't have. Um, one of the cool things to put on your calendar, we're really excited for, we spent a lot of time and energy revamping Kinetic Park. Uh, it used to be the youth activity park. Uh, so if you ever get out to Darden Prairie and go by Kinetic Park, it is amazing. Um, it is a really, really neat facility. Uh, now a whole bunch of things that we've developed, new playgrounds, our splash pad will be opening. And so on May 30th, uh, as a way to sort of kick off the, uh, rededication of the new park, um, we're hosting a grand opening or grand reopening, I guess, uh, on May 30th. So, there'll be all sorts of things to do, live music. I think I'm sitting in a dunk tank, so if you want to bring some dollar bills and and try to dunk me, um, you can more than welcome to come do that. Um, but, uh, it'll be a good time. So, a lot of kids have been coming out to KG Park and we're really excited about getting the new splash pad open. It is one of the coolest uh splash pads features that I have seen. Um so um staff have done a great job. Our engineering and design team have done amazing work out there. So we're really excited to open that up and uh get people out there. Um and that is my spiel. And they do six minutes.

Oh, I told him six minutes. Uh Mr. Baker, you're you're cutting yourself short. St. Louis County has had a little bit of a head start. Yeah. Yeah. Like a few decades, hundred years, something like that. So I think in a couple hundred more years we'll we'll beat that. Yeah. Um we we we started in 1997. So we're almost 30 years. So we're we're you've done a great job for the that the period you've been here. I think the parks is is is one of the pride of of St. Charles County. Appreciate it.

Yeah. I I think that so many folks just uh just don't know how great our parks really is. And you talked about the the pandemic. My wife and I uh we visited every single park just because we had time to kill. Uh and it was amazing. It really we you know these are things that you know we've been talking about voting on for years but to actually go there and to see the parks. So they're really something. So appreciate it. Thank you.

I just want to say I remember when we didn't have parks and that was a big thing is that we passed a use tax and had to go out and explain to people what a use tax is. That was the hardest part. But most of the time what they realize is that they weren't going to be paying the use tax. So yes, let's vote for it. So I know in over time that that has changed in the legislators how you how you're able to collect it, I guess, and and what you can do with it. But I think with with smart from the very beginning using that to uh to fund the barks, it's been good job. I appreciate it. And again, this none of this would be possible without the support of administration and support from you all. So, thank you for making all this possible. We just do the work. So,

Mr. Swanson, one last thing. I really appreciate you working with the library district creating that entire We've just never had anything like that in one location. It's going to be amazing. And also, MU Extension is promoting the walk in the park and everything else. And they're starting to go out there and promote these parks that a lot of people haven't heard of. Terry, you went out there and saw some amazing parks in St. Charles County. I don't think people realize how many parks we have and how awesome they are. Kinetic Park. I've been sneaking out there and spying on you. Um I just want to see what's happening out there and it is so cool to see so much excitement in that area and it's one of our few parks that's more of an active park versus a passive park. So it's a great jewel within our crown. Thank you. Appreciate it. It's really neat. It's awesome. Nice job.

Thank you. Thank you. All right. So, with that, let's return to our regularly scheduled agenda, and that gets us to our conditional use uh bill 5481. Bill number 5481 requested by Mike Herlbert, sponsored by Joe Brazzle, an ordinance create granting conditional use permit, CUP 26-02 for a riding stable to Grey Stoke Farms LLC property owner and Jenna Butler, applicant. We did our hearing at the last meeting. This is for final passage. So, any questions or comments? Seeing none, please call the role.

Bill number 5481, an ordinance granting conditional use permit cup26-02 for a riding stable to Grey Stoke Farms LLC property owner and Jenna Butler, applicant. Councilman Swanson, yes, ma'am. Councilman Brazzle. Councilman Hammond, yes. Councilman Elim, yes. Councilman Hollander, yes. Councilwoman York, yes. Councilman Baker. Yes.

Uh, bill 5481 passes. That gets us to our public comment. So, public comment is limited to 343 against on every issue. You have three minutes in which to speak. The clock in front of Mr. Swanson will count you down. Once you get to zero, we will thank you for your time and move on to the next speaker. Our first speaker tonight is

Bob Eno regarding short-term rentals. Hello, my name is Bob. You know, I live in uh Council District 7. Uh I brought the and I mentioned to you earlier, that's the reason I come up here. I mentioned earlier was about 6 months. It's really been five months since I've been here and that was in January. I brought it to your attention. Um I was kind of fired up, aggravated at the time. Uh but you all are getting a lot done, Rory and Mike and everybody else. This is uh really going well. I It's more than I expected. I've got an email string of um probably 60 80 people on it talking about this issue and uh it'll be nice to be able to go home this evening or early tomorrow and send out something that says action is being taken. So I had a couple questions more logistical kind of backend stuff and uh Tim asked me to send them to him and then he'll address them or or forward them or whatever. So but anyway I just want to tell you thanks appreciate it very much. So I know you all hear a lot of bad things, negative things. This is positive. Thank you all.

Thank you. Next speaker, David Verzano regarding the 287 agreement.

Hello, my name is David Venetiano. I'm a resident of District 7 and I'm also a Democratic candidate for the St. Charles County Executive. One month ago, this body passed a 287G agreement. U and that is the agreement with ICE and the Immigrations and Custom Enforcement. So two weeks ago, Monica Balisteri came up here and she asked for evidence and thought process as to why we passed this agreement as a county. As far as I know, we still haven't seen that. And I stand before you today to to remind you that we are still upset about it as a community. We would still like to see it pulled back. But my focus today is going to be on the police officers that we as St. Charles County were saying that we are here to support. And we were claiming to support them, but I think that we've put them in a very difficult position. So Ryan Schwank, a former ICE trainer, testified before Congress in February of this year. He testified that they were teaching cadets to violate the Constitution. He was forced to train on controlled documents that were encouraging violations of our liberties, and he was not allowed to retain copies for fear that they'd be distributed to the public. He also testified that the training department was being dismantled. It was being cut apart, and the training hours that were required of new ICE trainees was cut in half. This is the same training department that we are asking to provide our officers with valuable tools and lessons. And I will ask exactly what those lessons are. So the primary outcomes of most 287g agreements in counties and municipalities around the country has been increased racial profiling. Uh it is been taken to an extreme by our current administration, but it is by no means new. Uh it's not a Democrat or Republican problem because the UN asked Obama in 2014 to repeal 287gs. and they also asked again in 2022 during the Biden administration. The results to police forces has been a decrease in trust from the public, less cooperation when reporting crimes by minorities or from minorities, and police departments going millions over budget supporting this free program. This has been seen in departments across the country, and I do have the research

to back that up if you'd like to discuss it afterward. Our officers have worked very hard to build trust in our communities. we're not doing them any favors by supporting this program and we're putting them on the on their heels. So, one thing that I will remind you of is that a 287 agreement does not have to wait until expiration. It can be repealed at any time by either party for any reason. It's written right into the contract. So, I will ask that the county and the council please consider pulling that back. U I am available to talk longer. I did promise myself that I had time. I'd also give a little bit of awareness. There's a woman named Armanderia. She was from St. Charles. She was here on asylum. She was following all the rules. She was following every single guideline. They still picked her up under a false accusation of shoplifting. She's currently in Texas. She is awaiting deportation to a country she's never been to before. So, even if you don't pull back the 287g in the near future, I'd ask that you please look into her case and maybe we've garnered some favor with ICE and we can bring her back home. Thanks for time.

Next, Speaker, Jeff Tale, regarding bill number 5482, Guttermouth Road Rezoning.

Hi, Jeff Taylor with Mckelby Homes. Uh, representing the Cortina development. Um, it's up for final passage on the resoning today. Um, happy to answer any questions that you all have later on. Um, and thank you for your time. Thank you. Next speaker, Don T-ire, regarding bill number 5482.

Good evening, members of council. My name is Don T-ire. I'm the president of the homeowners association for the estates of Timberleaf which is the adjoining uh subdivision to the property that uh McKlly McKelie seeks to develop. Our opposition to this is based upon uh essentially water, which we're not going to get into tonight, but water is tied into whether or not you approve reszoning from one acre to R1D, which would permit uh I think McKelie seeks to build 19 residences, homes on nine and a half acres of property. Our concern is that when our subdivision was built by Lombardo, our subdivision sewer system is flows into one main detention pond which is on um Shortleaf Pine and Zadok Woods. You wouldn't necessarily know those, but there's one main water detention pond. It was not designed to accept water from any other development tying into that which is exactly what the McKelie plan wants to do. So the question I think you'll hear the the problem with this is that the detention pond which McKelie um is proposing is sits higher than the homes in our subdivision below it behind it. I think it's about eight feet. They can address it, but I mean there's So you got all this water running off and if you have 19 homes versus maybe seven or eight if you had 1 acre lots, you've got a lot more water coming into this detention pond. And since that water ultimately flows into our

detention pond, our detention pond or basin fills up pretty much to the top on a heavy uh rain. We don't we can't handle any more water coming in. So as as their engineer might tell you that he's designed it so that well the water will be held back up top. Well, seems to me one of two things are going to happen. If it's not correctly done and the water that all that water comes into ours at the same time our system is trying to handle it, you're going to have overflow to the homes that are in our subdivision at the bottom of by around this detention pond on either Zadok Woods and the end of Shortleaf Pine. If the if it's designed and the water's actually held back more than normal, then you got the problem of water overflowing to the homes in our subdivision. The next speaker will speak that her home is right below it. That sits, you know, you got it'll come and flood it that way. So, our concern is don't permit R1D. Leave it at R1. We think you could probably handle seven. So, thank you.

Thank you, sir. Next speaker, Sher Hickeyi regarding bill number 5482.

Hi, thank you everyone. My name is Sheri Hickeyi. I am also a resident of Estates of Timberleaf and I'm on the HOA board and we are here as the subdivision HOA to represent us to say that we are opposed to this plan of changing from a 1acre lot to 10,000 square foot lots because of the increased concrete roof surface amount of flow in the water and how this retention pond is being designed is quite abnormal. I would say to have a retention pond in my backyard that's going to be almost as high as my roof line and that's what's going to be in my backyard. We've asked u Mckelvie on three times now to please give us some examples of where they've built similar type of situations like this where the retention ponds are high and they've not been able to provide us with any uh examples of that as of yet. So, it is our opinion that we would like to see this stay as 1acre lots where there's more ground, more ability to take in the water and then just running it all off into our subdivision, into our uh retention ponds and our yards. Thank you.

Thank you, Arino. regarding elector sign up, state legislation, bills, and agenda items.

Thank you very much, uh, Mr. Chairman, members of the commission, members of the council. My name is Ronnie C. AC Dinov, uh, county public advocate running for county executive in August's primary election. Couple things on the agenda that I would like to go through are on the consent agenda, the roofing systems maintenance and repair and uh for $50,000 over 5 years. That's a $10,000 a year. Why are we not doing that with staff already in existence in the facilities department lawn care and tree services in the amount of $210,000? Why are we not doing that inhouse? parks uh department, highways and roads has the equipment and personnel and also facilities has some personnel. Why are they not doing the in-house mowing or why are we not having prisoners uh working off some of their debt to soc uh to society to try to get some of those uh yard work done? Uh bill number 5483 authorizing a memorandum of of agreement for drones for first responders. Well, I want to I said this at the last meeting, but the city of Ofallen already has three to four locations already in existence and up and running. It's a 30-cond response time anywhere in the city. I want to make sure that there's no duplication of services and I believe St. Charles City has also signed on with the fallen to use the same drone program, the same frequencies. Let's make sure that we're not duplicating and re reinventing the um uh drone program. Sign up for electronically. Um, I'd like to see an electronic sign up. Um, we the city of Wville, the city of Darden Prairie, uh, has an electronic sign up. You can do it the week before a council meeting or a board of alderman meeting. And I think that's apppropo for here with people people's busy schedules, etc. I also under chapter 610.021 and

610.022, I'm sure I'll get a nice letter from our county counselor who doesn't even live in our county. According to the charter, he has to be a resident. He's not. But I'd like to see reports from our $100,000 lobbyist, Mike Gibbons. I've been asked that all season of the general assembly and $100,000 lobbyist Tom Dempsey. I'd like to see the weekly reports that are given to the administration, the county executive. Let's make it public. This is all public bills. And that's what I want to talk about is state legislation. I have 36 seconds. Utility re relocation seems like it's rearing its head up in the uh state legislature. Taxes was discussed this afternoon in Senate bills 919, Senate Bill uh I'm sorry, I think it's uh 140. Um and then annexation was discussed yesterday in House Bill 2818. An amendment was snuck on at the last minute for Senator Black's bill for St. Charles County at a 25% contingency to a municipality. There's a current riff with Ofallen with that issue. HB 1736 Representative Walling Cap is park uh sales tax that has to do with storm water management control.

Thank you, sir. Thanks for praying for us tonight. That'll We already had the county executive report. So, that'll move us to the consent agenda. Any items to be removed from the consent agenda? Seeing none, I would entertain a motion. Motion to accept the consent agenda. Second. Motion and a second. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Consent agenda is approved. And that will get us to bills for final passage. Going to bill 5482. Bill number 5482, an ordinance amending the zoning district map of the county of St. Charles, Missouri, by reszoning land from R1A, single family residential district to R1D, Single Family Residential District, per application RZ26-01.

Councilman Hollander. Yes. I'd like to make a motion to amend bill number 5482 and replace it with substitute bill 50 uh 5482. Uh I have a motion. Do I have a second? Second. Uh all those all those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Uh discussion. Mr. Chair.

Yes, sir. Sorry, Mr. Hammond. It's okay. Uh I the the county has pretty stringent storm water retention requirements for for new development. So, I think it's important that people know that uh that go before the the county staff and they'll review the differential runoff from before the development and and that has to be dealt with by the by the developer. So, I I think you're all worried about something you really shouldn't be honest with you.

Any other discussion on this bill? Uh, so ju just want to make it clear that as as we're voting for this, we're not voting for the site plan. We're we're just voting for the reasonzoning. Is that correct? Correct. So this what the bill is before us has nothing to do with what uh the residents are talking about. To Mr. Hammond's point, that has to go back to staff and all of that has to be reviewed. So this is just changing the zoning uh to R1D. That is all that is before us right now. Um, no other comments. We have to accept the bill. All those substitution.

Sorry. Go ahead. You need to accept the proposed substitute. Yes, that's what I was in the middle of doing. So, all those in favor say I. Any opposed? That bill is accepted. Would you please read the bill and call the role? Substitute bill number 5482, an ordinance amending the zoning district map of the county of St. Charles, Missouri by reszoning land from R1A single family residential district to R1D single family residential district per application RZ26-01. Councilman Brazzle. Councilman Hammond, yes. Councilman Elim, yes. Councilman Hollander, yes. Councilwoman York, yes. Councilman Baker, yes. Councilman Swanson, yes, ma'am.

Bill 5482 passes. That gets us to Bill 5483. Bill number 5483, an ordinance authorizing the county executive to enter into a memorandum of agreement between the county of St. Charles on behalf of the police department and selected private and public entities. Councilwoman York.

Yes. I just wanted to say nicely done uh for Ethan when he wrote a a really nice article um that I think explained all of this. Uh, I think a lot of people the same way don't quite understand or are very concerned about what could happen with drones. You know, are we going to be flying them all over the, you know, the cities and, you know, looking at people, things like that. And then, uh, the Post today came out with a really nice, uh, editorial on, um, finding balance on police drone use, and it mentioned us again that we were doing that. So I think it was uh we appreciate the fact that we're we're looking at it from all the right directions and that we're we've been real yeah people are realizing that's exactly what we're doing.

Thank you. Chief, if you don't mind, would you mind coming up and just explaining real quick to everybody? I know Mr. Deanoff talked about has a similar uh program, but to his concern, this is not overlapping. It actually is uh giving us more coverage. Is that fair to say?

Yeah, nobody's up and running yet. There's no department out here that has a program up and running. Well, is standing there up. We're probably about the same pace as far as going live with it. Uh we've sat down with we've compared our overlay map. Uh some some overlapping is not bad. Uh we've talked about how we deconlict airspace if we're on a call and uh so we'll continue to work with Fallon and any other jurisdiction that stands up in operation. But uh you know we're our map was done with a heat map based on our calls for service. Uh it's laid out from pretty much from east to west uh with uh where where our call highest call volumes are and we try to put them in the center of those zones. So there is some overlapping but that's a good thing. Any questions for chief?

See none. Okay. Just real quick. Would will they be uh what I want to say? Will there be more say in the rural areas? We have a lot of rural area or I do in in my uh area that's you know long ways before between farms and things like that. Those five are pretty much in our densely populated areas where we went with the highest call volumes of service we have. Okay.

So from harvester area through darding prairie and then we put one out in Wsville uh as a it's an all first responder uh response tool. So we thought it was important to put one out there on the west end. I know the county executive is really advocate for that because of all the construction that's been going on out there for years. Well, I saw that that's I think stage number two is we're going to try to do a little more of the rural areas and yeah, as the program grows, our goal is to have the entire county covered. Okay. Yes. Great. Thank you. Go ahead. And just one final, this will all be run through which group is it? Through the Rick. Yeah, through the Rick. Correct. Okay. And for people who don't know what the Rick is.

So the Rick is the regional information intelligence center. We're in partnership with St. Louis County Police. Had the ribbon cutting yesterday for the new facilities. It's fantastic. If you get an opportunity to go over there and tour, I encourage you to do it. But, uh, we have a sergeant and a detective over there that have been doing a great job for the past three years, and this is going to greatly enhance their capabilities of what they can do for our officers and our our citizens out here. Thank you, sir. Chief, we appreciate you. Thanks very much. Thank you. Any other questions or comments on this? Seeing none, please call the role. Bill number 5483, an ordinance authorizing the county executive to enter into a memorandum of agreement between the county of St. Charles on behalf of the police department and selected private and public entities. Councilman Hammond,

yes. Councilman Elum, yes. Councilman Hollander, yes. Councilwoman York, yes. Councilman Baker, yes. Councilman Swanson, yes, ma'am. Councilman Brazzle. Bill 5483 passes. That gets us to 5484. Speaking of fighting crime, bill number 5484, an ordinance amending the 2026 budget adopted in ordinance 25-082 to convert an intermittent computer forensic investigator to full-time status.

Any questions or comments on this bill? Seeing none, please call the role. Bill number 5484, an ordinance amending the 2026 budget adopted in ordinance 25-082 to convert an intermittent computer forensic investigator to full-time status. Councilman Elim, yes. Councilman Hollander, yes. Councilwoman York, yes. Councilman Baker, yes. Councilman Swanson, yes, ma'am. Councilman Brazzle. Councilman Hammond, yes.

Bill 5484 passes. We're up to bill 5485. Bill number 5485, an ordinance amending the 2026 budget adopted as ordinance 25-082 as amended by transferring unencumbered appropriations between line items in the general fund budgets of the St. Charles County Public Health Department.

Questions or comments on this bill? Seeing none, please call the role. Bill number 5484, an ordinance amending the 2026 budget adopted as ordinance 25-082 is amended by transferring unencumbered appropriations between line items in the general fund budgets of the St. Charles County Public Health Department. You meant I'm sorry, you said 54.84. You meant 5485. 5485. Thank you. Councilman Hollander. Yes. Councilwoman York. Yes. Councilman Baker. Yes. Councilman Swanson. Yes, ma'am. Councilman Brazzle. Councilman Hammond. Yes. Councilman Elum. Yes.

That wraps up Oh, sorry. We have one more. That is bill I'm I'm off now, too. That's bill 5485 passes. We're up to 5486. Bill number 5486, an ordinance authorizing the county executive or his designate to execute amendment number one of program services contract KQ260058058 with the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services for violent death and overdose death surveillance reimbursement. Any questions or comments on this bill?

Seeing none, please call the role. Bill number 5486, an ordinance authorizing the county executive or his designate to execute amendment amendment one of program services contract KQ260058058 with the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services for Violent Death and Overdose Death Surveillance Reimbursement. Councilman York, yes. Councilman Baker, yes. Councilman Swanson, yes, ma'am. Coun Councilman Brazzle. Councilman Hammond, yes. Councilman Elum, yes. Councilman Hollander, yes.

Bill 5486 passes. That wraps up bills for final passage. We have two bills for introduction, starting with 5487. Bill number 5487 requested by Chief Kurt FZ, sponsored by Mike Elum. An ordinance amending the 2026 budget adopted in ordinance 25-082 to move a training coordinator position from Bureau 8 8100 to Bureau 8400 to reflect the St. Charles County Police Department's current organizational structure.

Any questions or comments on that bill? Seeing none, that'll get us to 5488. Bill number 5488 requested by Ryan Graham, sponsored by Mike Gillum, an ordinance authorizing the county executive or his design to execute a temporary construction easement with the city of St. Peters for a portion of property located in Lone Wolf Park. Any questions or comments on this bill? Anybody want to call Ryan back up and make him talk for a little while longer?

You know, real comment on this because it wasn't real clear in here. This is dealing with the blue way. So, it's getting another dock to put in. So, you were able to navigate the blue ways all the way through. This is something that the county has been working on for a long time. It's another jewel within the crown of the parks department that a lot of people aren't utilizing yet, but I can see in the future this is going to be something that a lot of people are going to grab their kayaks and just get out on the water and go.

Nice job. So, the kudos for Mr. Graham continue tonight. I'm looking forward to uh Kinetic Park when you do that grand reopening. I remember when you and John Reichu called me and said, "Hey, we're thinking about changing the name of the youth activity park." I went, "Thank God. That's a horrible name. Let's let's go." Kinetic Park was great. So, that'll get us to announcements and miscellaneous. Uh Miss Short,

I just wanted to thank our police department. Uh this past weekend at the convention center was the anime, if I'm pronouncing that correctly, uh anime convention, which is one of the largest we have every year. It brings people from all over. Um I got a an email from one of our officers, Miles. Correct me chief. What's it? Anyway, he he was saying that we're going to have extra people out there and would I send out something reminding people to put their permits on so that you know we're well in control. We did have one gentleman um contacted me and there were people parking on um in people's front yards and so I you know passed it on and we we took care of it right away. And since then, I think the whole council has gotten at least one. I've gotten three or four letters of congratulations to to say you're you finally took care of it. You know, we've been working on this for a long time. And um so I really just want to thank everybody that uh that we got kudos on on something that we did um and kept it under control for for the residents. That's what everybody said. You took care of our residents. So, thank you all. We really appreciate it.

Mr. Swanson,

speaking about taking care of our residents, um I contact the executive staff. I have a constituent that was having problems with animals coming onto his farm field. Um they got a hold of our director, Sarah Evers. Animal control went out there and I cannot be happier. That resident is so pleased. We were able to round up over 40 birds, three dogs. It was animal control, fire department, um police department, a little bit of everything. And the post you guys did on social media was epic. Having them all lined up there, I had so many people respond saying, "Thank you so much." And then the number of people that want to adopt these ducks that I thought were the ugliest ducks in the world, but people want them. Great job. Customer service at its finest. And then to go more of a somber note after that, u we did bring Tommy Shine back home. The weather wasn't great. Wentzville people showed up, lined all the parkway. It was a true honor to bring them back home.

Good job. Excellent. Uh any other comments? Um I'd just like to uh thank Joanne and the staff at the emergency operations center. Anytime you have the weather that um we thought we were getting, thank goodness it didn't turn out to be as bad as it was. But um the the guy at Channel 4, I don't I don't know what his Steve Templeton.

Steve Templeton. I can't believe I would forget his name after being on TV for like 12 hours yesterday. Um but I remember um not very long ago when the tornado blew through in St. Louis and the uh uh sirens didn't work. And we learned yesterday the sirens worked. Yes.

And they went off time and time again. And I had some people who were commenting on social media about, "Hey, I've heard it. I don't think we need to keep sending these sirens and setting them off again." I would tell you if there is bad weather coming, I would prefer to hear that siren way too much than not enough. And uh I just hope people uh appreciate that fact. And our staff worked very hard. They were staffing uh the EOC and working with the National Weather Service. Joanne and I were talking yesterday. I appreciate the council responding right away because they were talking about baseball size hail that we could possibly have and the last thing we wanted was for our residents to come out to a meeting and put everybody in harm's way unnecessarily. So, thanks to county staff, thanks to our staff, and thanks to you guys for being flexible. Um, we'll have to get a standby pastor uh to make sure that that they can actually make it. Or Arie, you just became our our standby prayer for something like that. Who knows? Chairman, if I if I could, it was nice of you to acknowledge I was out there, but I was out there because our emergency management director, Janie Albbright had talked to me. Um, she's a phenomenal director. She's worked for us for a while, been director for a few years now. And, uh, she was implementing in the very first week some brand new software

that, as I understand it, follows the National Weather Service, Polygon, as it changes. That's why you heard some of the blows happening a second time that they would widen or narrow the polygon. The software automatically evaluates that and reblows it if there's more people. And she was not happy, nor were her key staff with um the feedback they were getting. So they actually did also manually blow them once to make sure everybody had gotten that first notice. So they were on it. um they were working with the software company as the time went by. They were getting all the feedback coming in, but they did a phenomenal job and they were up and running until that whole storm had cleared out of the out of the area.

Well, they did a great job and so kudos to them. Uh lastly, I'd like to thank the county executive for your proclamation tonight. Uh I love the fact of when we can celebrate success and we don't get to do it nearly enough. Uh I appreciate the public comment earlier of saying thanks for moving that 5 months may seem really slow to a lot of people but at the speed of government that's that's mindblowing uh that you can actually get something done from start to finish from a time a constituent brings it up. But uh it's not often you have national champions at any level. But it's just exciting seeing young people who are excelling in our county and I love the fact when we get an opportunity to celebrate success like that. So thank you for taking the time and doing that.

With that I would entertain a motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn. Second. Motion and second. We are ajourned. Boom. So it's like see