County Council - Regular Meeting

You sent me a thing earlier and I said we'll call you up when we talk about the films. So yeah.

We've got that. So I've got to offer this as an amendment to the emergency bill. You made it.

All you have to do is go down there and count them. That's where I need to come out. No, you can go down there and count them. I've heard the heat as well. All right. they're gonna imagine if they i wouldn't get to them on it but they have to if they don't okay I'm sure that's what it is.

Good evening everyone welcome to the chief what is our date today. June 29. So it's been 3 weeks since we've been here thanks to everybody for taking a break from the World Cup to make time for county government we appreciate that tonight. Our invocation tonight is Barry Bales, who's a public information officer for St. Charles County Police Department. Councilman Brazel was supposed to do our Pledge of Allegiance. Councilman Swanson, you want to lead us in the pledge after that? Absolutely, sir. Barry, if you would, please. Come pray for us, get us started.

Let us pray. God, we thank you for the opportunity to gather, God, the freedom, God, to express, God, ourselves in government, God, and in our nation. We thank you, Lord, that we're coming up on the 250th celebration as a nation. We know it is by your grace, by your favor, that, God, we have our existence. We ask you, God, just to keep us as a nation, guide us, draw us to you. In Jesus' name we pray. 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 roll.

Councilman Swanson. Here, ma'am. Councilman Brazel. Councilman Hammond. Here. Councilman Elam. Here. Councilman Hollander. Here.

Councilwoman York here Councilman Baker here we'll start off tonight with a public presentation who is doing our lead on the presentation the chief. It's always good to have you here.

Tonight we're departments receiving it's a Rick reaccreditation for internationally. accredited body of Kalia so I'm one of the commissioners here to make this presentation I'd like to do a quick introduction. Dr. Hibdon is a professor of criminology and criminal justice at the School of Justice and Public Safety at Southern Illinois University. She's an accomplished researcher whose work has focused extensively on evidence-based policing, criminology, and public safety practices. Prior to her academic appointments, she served as a research associate with the Center of Evidence-Based Crime Policy at George Mason University. She authored numerous scholarly articles, books, and research reports addressing a wide range of issues in criminology and criminal justice. Dr. Hibdon earned her Ph.D. in criminology from George Mason University, a Master of Science in Administration of Justice from Southern Illinois University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Administration of Justice and Political Science from Southern Illinois University. effective January 1st 2025 doctor had been appointed to the 21 member board of commissioners for the Commission on accreditation for law enforcement agencies where she helps guide the nation's premier public safety accreditation programs. We're also pleased that effective July 1st doctor had been will return to Missouri as a member of the faculty at the University of Missouri bring her extensive experience in research evidence based policing accreditation back to our state so I'm pleased to introduce doctor had been. And I'd also like to give credit to our accreditation manager, Tom Persage, who works on this full time year around. So, Dr. Hiddens. Welcome.

Thank you for the introduction, Chief. And it's my honor and pleasure to be here to present the third accreditation award for Charles County Police Department. My apologies. I was all over St. Louis today and got a little turned around with where I was. for St. Charles County Police Department. With that,

It's all good.

I thought it was a paper certificate, actually. It's a big paper. Congratulations. This takes tremendous work. I know on your behalf, as well as your accreditation manager, it's a four-year process each time. A lot of manpower, a lot of hours, a lot of attention to detail. The standards are changing all the time. It is a great accomplishment. Congratulations. Thank you very much.

Could we get a picture up here?

We'll put you all right here in the middle and let Mary get her picture.

Kevin, do you want to come back up?

You're good. All right. Thank you very much.

And Mr. Chairman, may I say that? Well, um, the chief and Tom and others deserve it. Every member of that police department deserves congratulations because Tom will tell you in order to convince the commissioners who come out, he has to pull what the officers do on a daily basis. and prove that they are meeting every standard. Everyone requires proof, and he has voluminous files full of pulling this, or there was a use of force here, and did they follow the policy? So every officer is on a daily basis meeting those standards. So they really all deserve congratulations.

Fantastic. Thank you very much.

Yeah, everybody should be very proud of our think Charles County Police Department, they are incredible.

Well said with that that will move us on to. Public comments so public comments last 3 minutes. The clock will happen in front of Mister Swanson tonight thanks to Claire for doing double duty tonight she is running solo normally there's she and Lori so Lori's out this week so Claire thanks for doing that let's start with our first speaker.

Thomas and Mary minor.

Welcome back. I take it not a lot has changed since we've last seen you a little bit okay, yeah, this is just kind of an update. You're becoming regulars that yeah, they're going to set it down on the table show hopefully show up in the come up. We don't have our screen drop. We show up on the wall should.

Here comes help. The clock. He was asking where the clock was. It's broken.

It's 7.07.

Warming up.

There we go this is the way it was before yes, just showing the trees the bushes the grass landscape.

Basically the reason we're we're back here to tonight is to show that that this is this is the way that it was and the way that it is now.

And this is the side and the see that was placed a week and a half ago the seed was and that dried because it wasn't being watered. So then today they took up, okay, then last week they put down new sod, brand new over the old stuff.

Over the old stuff? Yes. Right.

Here it is today, what's going on. They took out all the new today that was just placed last week, and then they're digging up the old dried up sod today, removed that, and put the new sod down from last week. And we hope to God it gets watered.

basically we've been told this is supposed to get water to 3 times a week. And last week we had all the rain but it needs to be water and maintain by the end of this week.

This new side is going to be burned up sure everything's over there so this is the only stop right here the rest of the I don't know how he's going to grow with no water when it's a 100 degrees out. Yeah, we had rain last week but what much. But what we need for them.

But the other the other question was with the with the liquidated damages was mentioned the things like that we're just saying that there might be some money in there that we could probably tap into to maybe replace some of these trees and bushes and return this site to the way it was basically I mean is it going to be a parking lot or is it going to be it's a park like setting down there were we live our neighbors live. I mean it's probably one of the best Watson in all heritage. And we'd like to make like to get it back that way so. I didn't want to I didn't want to forget to thank a few people too and that would be Tim Baker. Rob Wiley and also Julian like them. I think I think things got rolling not too long ago with meetings and different things that I mean to tell you people are out there and things were getting done. So it's good to thank everybody that's involved. Thank you. And making this thing happen.

And can we have a water truck that comes with a hose instead of getting it from the creek and holding your finger on a hose and squirting it on the side? I just want to get it fixed.

I appreciate that. Appreciate your time. Thank you. Thank you.

Steve Randall.

Hello. Hi Steve. Hi. So my name is Steve Randall. I'm with Horner and Schifrin. I am the design engineer and engineer of record for the Heritage Subdivision Erosion Control Project. And so I'm here to give a little insight to what my role is, what my role isn't necessarily in this whole thing. And then to answer any questions, not necessarily now, because I know that's not the point of this, but I'm willing to stick around and talk for as long as you guys want or as long as anybody wants about it. to go over any particular details that I can help with. So if anybody does have any questions, feel free. I just wanted to say again, I work with Horner and Schifrin. I'm a design engineer. I am not a contractor. I do not have any contracting ability or ability to dictate what the contractor does. I relay information. So in a sense, I'm like a liaison between the county, Horner and Schifrin, and the contractor and the homeowners. So my contract is with you all, with the county that is, and GroundWorks, who is the contractor, also has an independent contract with you. So mine's more service related as far as design goes, and then theirs is more contracting. So they're the ones building and installing these items. A couple other things, I think that there were a few pieces not necessarily misinformation. I think that probably covers any misinformation that was thought about because it's not what everybody does every day, right? They think engineers, contractors kind of all flow together and we do and we don't in a lot of ways, right? But what I do also want to say is I've tried to be open with my communication with as many homeowners as I can. So I'm the one that went out there, walked the sites, knocked door to door for easements, have been the point of contact, whether it be text, email, phone calls. I've attempted to make myself as available as possible. And that's not to say that there's not times where it took longer than it probably should have to get to somebody or something got lost in translation with the thousands of pieces of communication back and forth. So I'm not perfect. I'm not going to say that I, you know, next day got back to everybody right when I could. Another piece of information that's probably pretty prudent to this is when someone, as far as homeowners or the county themselves ask me, what's the schedule to get this piece done, you know, this particular piece? I go to the contractor, I get the information given to me, hey, it's going to be done in two weeks, a month, two months, whatever that date is, right? And I pass that on. If that's not met, obviously I get some calls and I try to get more and better information, up-to-date information, and pass that on again. And so I can only relay the information that I'm given and again I don't do the contract and I do the design and so I try to be a good steward of that with the liaison aspect of this with communication. With that again, I'm free to stay and speak to anyone about any details you may have. Great, thank you very much.

Erica bridges.

Good evening Mr. Chairman and members of the council. My name is Erica Bridges and I'm here tonight to express my support for emergency bill number 5497 which extends the deadline for the senior property tax relief program as well as bill number 5501 which eliminates the annual renewal requirement for the program. Eliminating the renewal requirement is something I've advocated for for the past several years and is a common sense improvement that I believe is necessary. This is now the third year of the senior tax relief program and our seniors deserve a process that is easy to navigate. Once a senior has qualified for the program, requiring them to complete the same paperwork year after year creates unnecessary burdens for both residents and county staff. If a participant's eligibility changes, I believe there are more efficient ways to verify that information without asking thousands of seniors to repeatedly complete the same application. Removing the renewal requirement would simplify the process, reduce administrative costs, and lessen the impact of futures technology failures and most importantly, provide a sense of peace of mind to thousands of seniors who have already qualified for this benefit. I'm glad this conversation is finally taking place. While I wish these concerns had been addressed sooner, I am encouraged that we're moving in the right direction. Extending the deadline helps seniors today, but eliminating the renewal requirement I believe is a long-term solution. The recent outage of the application website demonstrates exactly why that change is needed. If returning participants who have not moved were not required to renew every year, a technology issue like the one that we are experiencing now would not place so many seniors at risk of missing the deadline. Because the application website has been unavailable by no fault of our seniors, I believe that extending the deadline is absolutely the right decision. I also hope that the council would encourage the collector's office to reach out to those who have expressed having difficulty with the website to provide guidance so that our seniors do not miss out on enrollment. Thank you for your time and consideration, and I respectfully encourage you to support both the emergency bill and bill number 5501 to improve the senior tax relief program and better serve our senior residents. Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening members of the County Council. My name is Ernie C. AC Deanoff, County Public Advocate and running to be the next County Executive August 4th. A couple of issues I want to talk about are the security checkpoint. There's a problem downstairs with the Sheriff's Department making people, in my opinion, get halfway undressed. Belts are setting off the automotor and isn't it a given that most people wear belts? So let's use some common sense. I talked to the administration this few years ago. I thought we had it squared away and now it's becoming a problem again. And I think it needs to be addressed by the sheriff or county police chief. ADA accessibility. I'm a big, huge proponent of ADA. Americans with Disabilities Act, one of the doors coming into the entrance is locked. You cannot get a wheelchair through that entrance. And so it needs to be fixed by Christine Ramsdale, our County Director of Facilities. Also the elevator that development unfortunately was stuck before the last County Council meeting has facilities fix that once and for all we want to make sure that nobody gets stuck in the elevator again. Air conditioning needs on meeting minutes and I come from Baker can back me up on this. I almost passed out I'm sure Mister Baker most passed out of the cleaning and zoning commission meeting because the temperatures in this room. skyrocketed and everybody was totally uncomfortable. Somebody made a big boo boo in the programming for the facilities department and that also needs to be fixed. We need to check on our elderly throughout our county. We need to be vigilant for our neighbors. Parking plans at the election authority and arguing with the county Council or Mister of solvent who is a Saint Louis City resident does not comply with our County charter rules and regulations, he's not a resident of our County as a matter of fact he supports the economy of Saint Louis City and he wants to charge me a $168 look at the plans to make sure that 88 being complied with and the prep proper directional at the election authority all I do or is one of the plans let me into the office. to see the plans rather than charging me a lot of taxpayer or a lot of money, which is really wrong. Kinetic Park debacle with the splash pad slippery pavement injuries were caused. There's so many experts, consultants, studies, specialists throughout the country. And we have a bond. I know that Mr Baker is big on bonds. We should not pay a dime to correct that issue not one dime should come from the taxpayer dollars to fix that issue because we have spent millions and it needs to be under the warranty. Kurt for is our County police chief we have a lawsuit that many of you don't even know about versus Christopher hunt the fired police deputy police chief and captain called number 2611 CC 0 0 0 5, 0, 6, 1, and I think you need to look at that and finally Kaliya your time has expired what is the cost of Kaliya that we got the recognition we had to pay for that I like a disclosure under chapter 6, 21, 0, 2, 1, thank you.

It's our final speaker final speaker that will wrap up public comments get us to or report from the county executive. He's back. Now it's nice when we have once but to have an encore presentation. Good to see you what's up.

I present the overview of the police department and some of our data. Staffing for a good shape. We're authorized 222 employees with 179 of those being sworn police officers. We started our sponsorship program in the academy last year. We've sponsored seven recruits. One more started today. They're all out of the academy working on the street, all but the one that started today. And we currently have three vacancies in the department.

Awesome.

So or chart to give you an overview of the police probably up by bureaus. The Bureau of the chief that's all the administrative stuff professional standards accreditation. And then the Bureau of administration which is all the kind of things work to make things happen make things run criminal investigation, the full complement of detective Bureau. I feel operations is patrol and operational support all of our special operations. A SWAT bomb air support or intelligence unit. And so we're in good shape with our org chart, and it's a very functional force. Crime stats for the last year, we're still trending down in every category except for rape was slightly up. So that's been trending like that for the last five years. This is the patrol functions. Over 42,000 calls for directed patrol activities. Over 4,300 calls for service. 7100 police reports written 398 fugitive felonies arrest a 190 the wise 25,000 traffic stops and 435 one applications that was just for patrol not counting the detective Bureau. We're part of the regional information intelligence center Rick over with a partner with St. Louis County. It's a real-time crime center and it was awarded the real-time crime center of the year for 2025 that's across the nation. We have over 35 cameras. It's a regional asset has over the access to 3500 cameras traffic in the license plate readers supports nearly a 100 agencies in the eastern district of Missouri Midwest region director is our sergeant assigned to it was elected Midwest region director for the national real time crime Center Association. Uh, 1300 investigative request, 113 felony arrest, 23 weapon seized, 51 stolen vehicles recovered and 41 LPR hits to relate to law enforcement. They were actually dispatched out to officers. A criminal edition task force initiative we started in 2020 due to the auto thefts. I started off without a tough task force involved in this criminal addiction because we're running a lot of other things guns dope and all the good stuff. Last year we activated 11 times includes Metro support our drone resources. made 95 felony arrest, 83 misdemeanor arrest, 11 recovered stolen autos, 24 stolen firearms. It's been so successful the governor made this part of his safer Missouri crime plan as a model for task force operations. Our air support, Metro air support has flown over 1600 hours last year, 255 vehicle pursuits with 285 arrests they assisted on. Our aerial intelligence unit has 17 pilots, which is our drone operation. 410 calls for service in support of patrol, SWAT and emergency management. These are our federal regional partners, FBI, DEA, U.S. Marshals and Secret Service and as well as immigration customs enforcement along with we also oversee the I can't grant for the state of Missouri to cybercrime unit and of course that were part of the record drug task force in a regional SWAT team. So these are all the partnerships that we have within the police department. You know reach. These are the different events that we do every year walk talks coffee, the cops special Olympics, we do have a pretty big way last year we set a record for a team in the polar plunge for fundraising which is great. Crime stoppers. We're active in that we attend numerous H a other community organization means we have to say it's a 10 week since the police Academy every year and this year this summer we're getting ready to have our second annual summer youth camp which was very successful last year. I have to answer any questions.

Questions we have for G. We're not going to set on the or part of the medical exam or there's not going to be a medical exam report.

Everybody move back as we missed a couple earlier so they're coming to not tonight I think they're not.

Does anybody have anything.

I just wanted to comment on the Special Olympics. Good job on all of that. And maybe next year let us know. I would have loved to be there that time, and I didn't know anything about it.

For the polar plunge?

I want to ask you a little bit what are your expectations of the drone program and with the new sites that we're going to have how do you expect that.

So we'll obviously keep the drones we have with patrol emergency management swat and all that active like they are because those are Deployed as we need of their their kind of a force multiplier force the DFR Jones first upon a program as it evolves. They will be a 5 different locations throughout the county which pretty much is going to cover the core of the county from from East to West. And it's going to be once something comes out that's in progress right like that, it could be launched from the RIC and get their eyes on before the officers arrive on scene and start talking to the officer about what they see or don't see. So it enhances officer safety, enhances public safety. So it's a great tool that other departments have been using.

I've heard some great stories about this type of program that's happened around the region. what they've seen what they expected they were going to see when they got on site when they got the call and when the drone got there within a minute in some of the things that I've heard it completely changed what they thought yeah talking about accidents that they when they first got the report they heard about the accident there were no injuries. But when the drone got there, found out there were injuries on site. So they were able to get medical attention there so much faster. So it sounds like there's a lot of positives that are going to come from the drone.

Yeah, it could also de-escalate activities. Like if it sounds more critical than it is, the drone gets eyes on it. I saw a great example when I was at the IACP conference a couple years ago. They had a report of a man with a gun sitting outside McDonald's. And they ended up being suicidal, homicidal. The DFR got there first, advised. They zoomed in on it. They could see it was not a gun. Slowed the officer's response down. Obviously, they didn't play it cheap, but it changed their whole approach, which made the whole response safer. Excellent.

Will you be expanding the program in the near future?

Yeah, so we'll hopefully be live late July, early August. And then, yeah, next year they're coming out with some better technologies. So we're hoping to step into the better technology meetings. longer flight time and an increase in radius in which they can fly.

And are we getting grants are there grants out there for these programs.

This this round is not covered by grants so yeah.

Is there get cheap. I'm sorry so if I'm how many I think we had several murders in Saint Louis County this past weekend. So they had more murders is that the comment they had more murders in a week and then we had all year so I think that's fantastic. Yeah, so whatever job you're doing you guys keep doing it.

We are fortunate out here to have the perfect lineup a great deal community support. Our elected officials are prosecutors office and our judges so it's the perfect lineup.

Chief, I know the air arm that we do with St. Louis County and City is close to your heart and I thought that that flyover at the at the golf tournament this morning was the best I've ever seen by a vehicle not built by Boeing. So congratulations on that. Would you tell them a little bit about the money that was raised today by the 505?

So yeah, hopefully in a couple months we'll have a check presentation here, but the 505 Foundation was stood up by the Sergeant John C. Bush family in honor of his legacy of what he did for his training what he built in St. Charles County, starting the first SWAT team. And it was really the passion of his career and his heart because he saw a couple of his fellow officers killed in the line of duty in the late 60s and early 70s. So he dedicated the rest of his career to that. And that's, if you recall, we named the firearms training center the John C. Bush, Sergeant John C. Bush Training Center. And the family puts together, and it's the second year in a row it's sold out on foursomes. And all that money comes back to the police department for us to buy training equipment. So it's a big help.

Congrats. Chief, thank you very much. I appreciate the presentation. That'll get us to the consent agenda. Any items to be removed from the consent agenda? Seeing none, I'd entertain a motion to approve. Motion to approve, sir. Second. Motion is second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? I understand that the table bill with the roof is going to stay tabled for this week. That'll get us to emergency bills, bills 5497.

Emergency bill number 5, 4, 9, 7 requested by Michelle McBride sponsored by my kill him an emergency ordinance authorizing an extension of the 2026 senior citizen real estate property tax relief program enrollment period by the number of days the online portal was unavailable to taxpayers.

I do have an amendment to that bill. That instead of in section 2. It currently says automatically extended by a number of calendar days equal to the number of calendar days during which the county's online application system was unavailable for use that is going to be changed to that filing deadline shall be automatically extended to July 6. So that is going to be that is the amendment that I would offer do I have a second second all those In favor say aye aye any opposed. All right so with that that is the bill that we have on the table I would ask the collector to come up and talk a little bit about. The situation that we're in and how we're moving forward.

So the reason I requested this bill is because our County ordinance makes the enrollment period. from March 1st through June 30th for the senior tax relief program. Our county ordinance also states that it will be available on paper and online. So when we discovered Saturday that it wasn't working properly and the IS department worked with the underlying vendor who is in charge of, our IS department is in charge of the software, they use an underlying vendor for the program. After working with that vendor for two solid days, They discovered, the vendor and our IS department, that there was a bug in that software that was loaded June 16th here at the county. So because our county deadline is June 30th and our county ordinance provides for the online being available, I thought it was only fair to ask for an extension so we could leave that portal, the online portal, open for the number of days it was down which It was down Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. It was back online Wednesday. It is back online and stable since Wednesday, excuse me, Wednesday afternoon. So by extending it to July 6th, anyone who is trying to do it online during that time period will be able to still get that done. The service centers were not disrupted. We still had the in-person service centers, walk-in services available during that time. We will still accept paper applications through the drop boxes and stuff through July 6th. So we're just making it fair because that avenue of applying that's provided for in our county ordinance can be adjusted through another county ordinance by extending it to July 6th. So we want to keep everything in accordance to law and make sure that we give the taxpayers what is fair and right for them, the opportunity to apply online if that's how they so choose.

Any questions for the collector on this?

This one to get so it was down June 20th through June 24th is that correct. You were saying Saturday, I don't know if you're talking.

It went down about 1.30 Saturday afternoon, the senior tax team members and I were working to be caught up as much as we could before the deadline coming up on this week and we got kicked out of the system we couldn't do anything. So then we immediately notified is and being a weekend they start working on Monday morning. They were done Monday Tuesday It was back online about 1.30 Wednesday afternoon. So Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, part of Wednesday. We're just basically given six more days because.

So this is getting into the weeds a little bit. When you say the bug, is this something that was getting information, that was a breach of information or anything else?

There was no breach of information. Okay. Because you went to the weeds, I'm going to go to the weeds because I'm always told to stay out of the weeds. But there's a program called ESRI that is underneath what our IS department has written. They use that kind of like we use Excel to write a spreadsheet. So ESRI was used to write the senior tax relief program that we utilize. And ESRI had a bug in the release that they gave to our IS department and said it was good software. So our IS department loaded that patch on June 16th. We had a little ups and downs, ups and downs, but nothing that was longer than maybe 15, 30 minutes, and we were able to work through that, and people didn't lose entire days. Saturday it went down about 1.30, it did not really come back up until Wednesday afternoon. So because our ordinance calls for the June 30th deadline, by ordinance we can extend that, so that's why I'm here today, because I think it's only fair to the taxpayers to give them that extra time. and will there be some type of media push out letting everybody know or email sent to people who tried to get in were kicked out what's the protocol we had put up I contact communications department as soon as I knew on Tuesday morning that we still weren't back up I said we got this situation the communications department recommended putting an update right at where people apply online and at that we put that this ordinance would be on tonight and I'm sure that our communications department will push out some social media tomorrow, and we will get this word out as far and wide as we can. Actually, I had a TV channel earlier today stop by the office. They're going to be on the 10 o'clock news sharing this news. I hope Fox is going to share this news that we're extending the deadline to July 6th. So we will get that word out as far and wide and fast as we can to everybody once you pass that.

Mr. Bradford. What's the purpose of having a January 30th stop.

The purpose of June 30th hard stop is because all of the verifications have to be done we actually start working on the billing we start testing billing into July August we have tax sale in August that has to be done by state law I was granted a team of 3 people for 38,000 applications so We chose June 30th when they were writing the ordinance back in 2023 as a reasonable time to stop it at that point in time, you know.

Should we consider extending that permanently to the end of, to a different date?

Well, that's going to depend on what you do with the other bill that I asked to have opened and introduced tonight.

Okay.

Yeah. I mean, if we.

So it's a conversation.

It's definitely a conversation worth having. Definitely.

Any other questions. Any other discussion. Thank you show you. With that I would ask you call the roll.

Substitute emergency bill number 5, 4, 9, 7, an emergency ordinance authorizing an extension of the 2026. senior citizen real estate property tax relief program enrollment period by the number of days the online portal was unavailable to taxpayers. Councilman Swanson, yes, ma'am. Councilman Brazel, yes, I'm in Hammond, yeah, come to me on yes, come in hollander, yes, come to New York, yes, come in Baker, yes.

Emergency bill 5, 4, 9, 7, passes we only have one bill for final passage tonight that is 54 96.

Bill number 5, 4, 9, 6, an ordinance establishing a temporary moratorium on multifamily residential zoning applications within unincorporated Saint Charles County Missouri.

Questions or comments on this bill.

I pull that might be a sure thank you I got a couple questions on this. This does seem kind of like a political ploy. I agree with it, though. I would have agreed with it a year ago or two years ago or three years ago. But I still don't agree with the six-month. I heard what Rory said, but I believe that you have to be challenged. If we want to extend it to unlimited, we have to be challenged legally. So I think that as leadership role, we would take the date off is what I think we would do. The other thing that's kind of shocking is the if you might look at the 2030 draft on the master plan. We got high density and urban areas all over the place on that plan and so what's the purpose of this if we're going to turn out a master plan like that because they got highway. The organization going all the way to happy deal with one County. I don't know who this consultant is I don't know I made a huge mistake vote in favor of them, but That master plan draft is a disgrace to this county, a disgrace. Even where the equestrian center is, that's slated for high density. So people are questioning the sale or sale, not the sale, which of course that's all up to us, but why would they have it slated as high density? I don't know it's just so we're doing this okay, so we're going to do this and why are we doing that that's kind of. So I mean I would make a motion to eliminate the day. So it's not 6 months and then see what happens.

That's what I would like to do to you want to make a motion to eliminate the day.

Yes, so it's just open just open and then we have to revisit as a council when the time comes. Any other discussion on that.

We've only had one apartment complex approved in the county for 18 years. They're building these apartments in the city because they have utilities. They have the water, the sewer. The county doesn't have an MSD like St. Louis County does. So I doubt that any are going to come before the county council, which I would probably vote no on

Well, then you made a point because we shouldn't be doing this. We either do it or we don't do it. That's your point.

Yeah. You know, the whole term moratorium, you know, the first thing that pops into your mind is that you're doing something and now you're not going to be doing it. Well since we've only done it one time in 18 years. It's not like something we've been doing OK one time in 18 years is not doing nice. I support the idea of a mature moratorium because we're in the process of the master plan which Mr. Bassel brought up which obviously the points that he made have to come before us. to in order to for us to prove all those points. So I think it's a good idea to have the moratorium certainly support that especially while we're in the process of doing that.

Yeah, kept me quiet. Mister Brown you may. Joe, you mentioned we were talking about apartments and then you talked about high density. But that high density lots is not the same as apartments. I just want to make sure I understood what you said and you understand the difference.

But the small lots produces the same result. Put in a sewer district. Yeah, I know.

But this isn't about the small lots. This is about apartments. And I don't think, correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think there's anything in there about actually recommending apartments. But if there is, I'm sure somebody will take it out. I just, again, there's cases that say six months is the longest you can do a moratorium. So the point here is, I support this bill because it's an opportunity for us to tell everybody we've only done one apartment in the last 19 years. But what it also is is an opportunity for us to look at why there's this market or there was this market for apartments about 5 years ago and remember it was it was 2020 2021 2022 where the percentage of apartments went from 15 to 20 all the way up to 40 for 3 years in a row. It's been coming down since but my question is you know I don't think people would be building them if people didn't want to live in them and my question is are people living in them because they want to Or do we have a lot of young people living in them because they can't afford to buy a starter home because they can't find anything that they can afford in St. Charles County? And if that's the case, is there anything we can do? I had somebody talking to a realtor a couple of weeks ago, and she said one of the biggest problems with young people buying a home now is if they have college debt, if they've borrowed a lot of money, even if they're not paying it back. They still have to report it, and it affects their ability to get a loan. So there may be nothing we can do about it. It may just be the world we live in today. But if there's a reason that people are living in apartments when they don't really want to, I'd like to see if there's anything we can do about it.

I think six months is fine. I'll be honest with you. 6 months come will revisit it. I think we're still going to have the same opinion we probably should continue to look at. You know the moratorium.

So legally we were told before that you can only do a moratorium for up to 6 months. I understand you disagree with that but Mister Brazil has a motion on the table asking us to get rid of the wording do we have a second on that motion. Can we just revisit this in 6 months, I mean that that that that would be my suggestion, I mean so I believe Mister Swanson brought up at the last meeting that in 6 months we can do another moratorium so it's not like you can't keep it going but it gives you the opportunity to do it again so. So seeing the same thing that from the same thing, but yeah, I mean yeah, so legally it's not well, but legally you have to have a day in their governing to our attorneys so I for one don't want to meaningfully pass a bill that our attorney tells us is illegal to pass. I'm a no on that. But I think it's good to do a pause on these things to put them in be able to understand them better as part of our master plan with that is there any of the discussion. Seeing none please call the roll.

Bill number 5, 4, 9, 6, an ordinance establishing a temporary moratorium on multifamily residential zoning applications with an unincorporated Saint Charles County, Missouri. Councilman Brazel.

Yes.

Councilman Hammond.

Yes.

Councilman Elam.

Yes.

Councilman Hollander. Yes. Councilwoman York. Yes. Councilman Baker. Yes. Councilman Swanson. Yes ma'am.

Bill 5496 passes. Now we get to bills for introduction starting with 5498.

Bill number 5498 requested by Michael Hallbert sponsored by Mike Elam. An ordinance authorizing the professional administrative services and program and administration agreement between Saint Charles County in the city of Saint Charles for the city's operation of the urban counties. 2026 through 2030 community development block grant programs and services.

Any questions or comments on this bill. Seeing none that gets us to 5, 4, 9, 9.

Bill number 5, 4, 9, 9, an ordinance approving a supplemental agreement with the Missouri Department of Transportation and the NSF railway company for highway rail crossing improvements at Wiggins road.

Any questions or comments about this response to them because we have to these 5, 4, 9, 9, 5, 5, 0, 0, what actual improvements are going to be done is it just the drop arms or is it site distance what's going to happen on these 2 improvements.

haven't seen the railroads plans yet but my understanding is it will include signals and drop arms whereas now they're just you know just have the cross box and that's it so okay that's what i saw the one schematic that was in there but i didn't know if that was permanent or not yeah originally the request was to upgrade one of each location and close the other one but because those are areas that flood i didn't want to leave people stranded so we decided to go ahead and leave

all four of the locations open and just do the two upgrades so i appreciate it a lot of people travel those areas and they are quite a ways away from each other when you head down those country roads so thank you that's all i had hey john did we get federal funds for that work uh

we're not paying anything for that work okay all we're doing is is providing the traffic control okay perfect thank you yes sir yeah this is uh is this that state funding that they put in a couple years ago for rural rural crossings remember we were talking to the railroad about the bridge out in woodsville yeah it could be related i don't know for sure where the funding is coming from because this i know they put some money in a couple years ago for rural rural crossings yeah and i know we looked at it for um

noise pollution of things like that we tried to tap into some of that but yeah this it was brought to us from moda at the request of the railroad so I'm not exactly sure what funding they're using I just know they asked us for traffic control.

Any other questions. I think show that gives us to build 5500.

Bill number 5, 5, 0, 0 requested by John Lyons sponsored by Matt Swanson and ordinance approving a supplemental agreement with the Missouri Department of Transportation and BNSF Railway Company for highway rail crossing improvements at Peruke Creek Road.

Any questions or comments? Seeing none, let's go to 5501.

Bill number 5, 5, 0, 1 requested by Michelle McBride sponsored by my killing and ordinance amending section 1, 4, 0.1, 2, 0, of the ordinances of Saint Charles County, Missouri to remove the annual renewal requirement for the senior citizen real estate property tax relief program Michelle you want to come back up and talk about this one.

I know we alluded to it earlier so.

Well, yes. So in 2023, if you all remember, Senate Bill 190 was passed by the Missouri General Assembly, giving the county councils, the county commissions the authority to create a senior tax relief program. You all took that charge up, and in September of 2023, you passed a bill creating the St. Charles County Senior Tax Relief Program. And 2024 was the first year we took applications. The application and the process was developed pretty much with the attorney's office, the counselor's office, collector's office and some other players in the field. And so that was 24 was the first year of any type of application at all. 25 then was the first year of renewals. 26 as we started getting ready for it, we're like, you know, We could probably do this without the renewal, but it was too late into the year. We had just come out of tax season and we had our own headaches with senior tax relief on the bills. So I thought it was very important at the beginning of February. I contacted my county counselor and I said, hey, I'd like to look at getting a bill written to eliminate senior tax relief. And so here we are tonight. We've got that bill in front of you. We have the various means to address change of ownerships because we do on a weekly basis a name address update from the assessor's office. We have an interface that we run. We have the ability because I've been in touch with the State Department of Vital Records and we're having the ability then to make sure that if people pass away we know about that. The main reason the renewal was put in place and rightfully so is it was a brand new program. We were going from ground zero and we wanted to make sure there was minimal ability for fraud And that's why renewal was put there originally and where we're at today having the resources tools we have and the experience we've had with the program we feel it's time to eliminate that headache for the seniors just today I had several of them say that would be so great, I'm not getting any younger and so I know they would all appreciate it. The 3 person staff would appreciate it we still would retain as the bill says the right to audit and we would still be doing that verifying that you know there isn't fraud happening because Unfortunately, there are attempts at it. People show up with a non-state driver's license that they just renewed last month and think they should have a St. Charles County senior tax relief. So we do have to be on alert for that, and we do need to watch for that. I just feel that it's time, and the conversation is now, so let's get that eliminated for everybody.

Thank you. Yes, sir.

I'm probably going to catch you off guard here. I got in town early this morning, so I didn't get a chance to call you. Out of the number who applied for senior tax really what percentage has offered like to go through the renewal process and everything else you know a percentage are we looking at 95% of people are renewing or did they just get tired of the process and just that forget.

Oh no, they're renewing we had 26,000 in 24 that qualified originally and we had Of that we had 28,000 in the program totally for 25 and only 1500 about 1500 of those were new applications. So the bulk of them were renewals and we figure probably it's more than 90 percent when you're looking at 1500 versus 30,000. So the bulk is renewals now. So it was great to be able to collect all the information get that all all the supporting documentation on our records because you know when you're taking money from somebody that's not done lightly so we need to make sure we had all that supporting documentation but the bulk of the work is renewals and then it will be also you know internal audits on those sorts of things.

And as we get into this with this renewal process one of the biggest concerns I have is the fraud portion of it of if it's in a trust both of them the parents are gone how we're going to catch that. So later on, different presentation, everything else, if you want to address some of those safeguards we will have, I'd appreciate that.

Well, and I can give you a quick response to that right now. The way senior tax relief was designed is it is a credit for a person, the applicant, a person at a specific address. And that's why when people whose property is held in a trust apply for senior tax relief they have to bring their trust documentation in so when the applicant the person who was approved it's not dependent on just how it's titled it's not dependent on the trust owning that's dependent on that person who was approved for the credit and so if we get a death record on that person out goes the parcel from the program.

Any other questions. Seeing none, thank you, Michelle.

Thank you.

That'll get us to 5502.

Bill number 5502, requested by Chief Kirk Frizz, sponsored by Mike Elam. An ordinance authorizing the St. Charles County Executive to execute grant award documents with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for participation in the BioWatch program, and further by amending ordinance 25-082 of St. Charles County, Missouri, by providing a supplemental appropriation to the budget of the police department in the amount of $467,982 and by adding one program manager position and 6 intermittent technical positions within the office of the chief of police and authorizing the purchase of vehicles and related expenditures as funded by a grant council in New York.

Yes, I asked the chief. I emailed him today and asked him to come up and explain this. Is it a permanent position? Kind of what this program is and where we go with it.

So this program came out after the anthrax attack in 2001. The Bush administration launched this program in 2003. It's federally funded. Most in the major metropolitan areas throughout the United States and I think there's about 18 locations in St. Louis City County and St. Charles County and basically the program manager and then the six intermittents. The six intermittents will go out, they're part-time employees and they'll go out and collect these filters that are at designated locations. They bag them up, they bring them back, they put a fresh filter in, they bring it back and then that gets transported to the state lab in Jefferson City every day, 365 days a year. So it's been going on for years. St. Louis County's had the program for the last several years, probably since its inception, and they're no longer going to participate, so it was an opportunity for us to come into the program. Okay.

And the grant will pay for everybody for one year, right? And then what are we going to do from there?

It'll be renewed.

The grant is renewed every year? Yeah, it'll be renewed, yes. Okay.

It'll cover the vehicles, the cost for the employees. It's 100% funded.

Okay, great.

Thank you. Any other questions? Thank you we appreciate it bill 50503.

Bill number 5, 5, 0, 3 requested by doctor Mary case sponsored by my feeling an ordinance authorizing the county executive or his designee to execute amendment number 2 of program services contracts number K Q 2, 6, 0, 0, 5, 8, 0, 5, 8, but the Missouri Department of Health and senior services for violent death and overdose death surveillance reimbursement.

Any questions or comments about this bill. Seeing none that will go to 5504.

Bill number 5504 requested by Steve Ellman sponsored by Mike Elam. An ordinance amending section 304.012 of the ordinances of St. Charles County, Missouri concerning careful and prudent driving.

Any questions or comments on this bill?

What's this one for? Exactly?

Yes.

I was in the city of St. Louis last week and going down Broadway and I had two NASCAR drivers pass me going 90 miles an hour. And it's certainly not the first time it's happened down there and it's happening even in our county. Okay. And I'm just You know, I mean, you know, speeding is one thing, but this is reckless and imprudent. So I called Rory and I said, Rory, do an amendment and let's double our fine for reckless and imprudent driving. And he called me back a little bit later, said we're already doing the max. I don't know. These people just they just think they can get away with it. And I guess I guess they figure if they if they get pulled over, they can, you know,

What, pay a $5,000, is it $1,000 fine? Yeah, it's actually limited to $225, including court costs, thanks to Senate Bill 5.

Oh, so they can pay $225 in court costs? So that's all that they're risking by driving recklessly. They get points on their life.

Yeah, yeah.

So I don't know. I mean, I just, by doing this, I'm not sure. We're just sending a message to our folks. and the police department asking them, please, let's get these folks to slow down or let's get them out of St. Charles County. Let them know that if they want to drive like that in St. Louis County or St. Louis City, we can't do anything about it. But we certainly can here. And, you know, when you pull these people over, I'm sure a lot of them don't even have a license or they don't have a license on their car. They probably never took a test.

and and i just think uh i think they're just a real danger and um i don't know that explains oh yeah no i don't disagree i i just um do we have to have because the motorcycles are real bad out in southwest they race and go fast i'm like 100 miles an hour fast and so i just wonder do we have a do we do we need uh to have what the definition is i mean i'm just asking like

What is kerosene prove why don't why don't I talk when I talk to the chief about it because I had I had to get to get to send to meet the deadline. I will love it will have an answer that question and have more information before you vote on the final bill.

Yeah, just so you don't get it for going 50 miles, but if it's 30 or whatever the definition is helpful. The short did you have a question, yes.

Steve is there a way that we can go to the Legislature next year and boy you know we come on for years and years.

I don't know Joanne what that that whole Senate Bill 5 I mean they went way too far in one direction and I think you know it's it's it's it's however bad it is out here it's 10 times worse in the city of St. Louis and people just run red lights they just And yeah, if the worst is going to happen to you is a $225 fine if you get caught. I don't know how you stop it, but it's just really, really dangerous.

I've seen them come across the river and head down Highway 70, and it's just a raceway.

I saw it going to the baseball game on Sunday. I mean, there was 90 degrees like this. I mean, or excuse me, 90 miles per hour in and out, just weaving like they're on a racetrack.

Yeah, I I've noticed the same thing it in all honesty I when I go to Cardinal game I used to go 70, you know that to downtown now I always go 40 simply because from the airport in the St. Louis almost every time you're going to find somebody speeding and driving crazy. And if I remember correctly it used to be just the opposite when you got over there by the airport they were stopping people left and right constantly you know speed traps and whatever and you know because of certain things that occurred. They not only quit doing that, it's totally reversed. I've never seen anyone stopped on Highway 70 between the airport and the city of St. Louis in 10 years, probably.

I believe the Senate bill that you're talking about was

In your response to that have passed in response to to the you know people using the municipal court over there raise money.

I believe that those municipalities were raising 70% of their annual funding from I stories of sitting in the actual motel room and clocking from the motel room of getting people who were speeding on I 70 and I

And I don't want to go back to that, and I don't care about people doing 10, 15, maybe even 20, but boy, when they're, you know, and it's not just how fast they're going, it's the way they're driving.

So we'll probably have an amended bill, it sounds like, in two weeks when we get back. That'll get us to our last bill for introduction, 5505.

Bill number 5505, requested by Steve Ellman, sponsored by Mike Elam and Patty York. An ordinance establishing a temporary moratorium on the approval construction expansion or operation of certain large scale data centers within Saint Charles County Missouri for the purpose of allowing the county to study and evaluate potential impacts on public health water resources electric utility infrastructure environmental quality noise conditions and the health safety and welfare of county residents questions or comments on this bill.

Again I'd like to see it, but I understand, but I like my name on the bill as well.

Okay, yeah, if anybody else would like to name on the bill bill and probably counsel the whole yeah, yeah, okay, we can definitely do that. That takes care of bills for introduction any items to any action to be taken on the table bills.

Well, just comment on hopefully you got my e-mail about the the the changes and hopefully you'll support I think you know one of the one of the things that I didn't consider was people that are been fixing up some of these these dilapidated homes that may be within the 600 foot and we certainly don't want to punish that because if they're going to spend the money to fix up homes and I support that so hope that'll be I guess. for approval at the next council meeting so weeks in 2 weeks so hopefully you guys all get chance to review that and I look hopefully you guys are supportive of it so I I assume that to mean that in 2 weeks will have an amended bill on that before that that's correct.

Any other. Comments I guess not so. Announcements and miscellaneous.

I have one yes. I just want to invite everybody in the county. I know that O'Fallon says they have the biggest and best fireworks show in the county. I will argue that. I'll arm wrestle you on that. I think when you see the fireworks shooting out over the river and watching it all come down and seeing it reflected, it's quite magnificent. So please come on down to St. Charles Riverfront. on July 4th and July 3rd we're having a drone show down there so it's going to be the first drone show that I know of in the county and so that's going to be on July 3rd and both of those I want to say is like 840 p.m. they have it's not 8.30 and it's not 9 o'clock it's like in between there but I'm sure you can see it in the newspaper or go online but hopefully you come on down to the riverfront it's a great time and it'll take you a while to get home but just know that once you get there it'll be fun.

Yes, so I've been driving down good remove road a lot and they just killed the subdivision and they just placed a bunch of side. Now if you get a chance to drive it is beautiful and the difference between the side that I'm seeing there in the side and heritage is there actually water and I've seen road with the water truck going down and there one it looks beautiful. So I'm sure we have in our contracts that when we place that there's got to be a maintenance procedure and if they're not doing that then please whether it's one or different or or the county we need to make sure that they're doing what's required and also I want to make sure that we're starting the area behind summit station because they play seed and it looks it looks horrible we need to get that side also. I have seen movement out there by the contractor and that's great and I do also want to mention that I want to recognize the highway departments done a great job with dingle died looks awesome so I hope it looks really good. No bike lanes which is fine and and towers, I think is next hopefully so I look forward to seeing that and and the curb replacement and it's it's really nice to drive around and see all these nice improvements that your department is doing John so thank you.

This one, yeah, 2 big things this week Wednesday 7 p.m. USA soccer versus Bosnia. Hopefully our team does well they'll have their starter and look forward to that on Wednesday and of course Friday 250 so for July 4th should be a celebration and everything happened in Washington DC be proud of America.

Anyone else. Well so you did the plug for Saint Charles, so I'll do the plug for O'Fallon because I am emceeing the O'Fallon parade. So looking forward, Caroline Hecker, who used to be at Channel 4, she and I are going to emcee the O'Fallon parade. So you can come out and go to the O'Fallon parade and then go enjoy the Saint Charles fireworks. How's that? We have a parade too. We're working together. Seriously, I hope everybody has a great 4th of July that we're going to celebrate or 250th in between this meeting in the next meeting please be safe. If you're going to shoot off fireworks please be careful and please be mindful of when and how you shoot off fireworks. There's a lot of folks that have a problem with fireworks, especially animals, especially down Mister Brazos area forces. That is a very big deal so just be mindful of other people we want you to celebrate which have a great time celebrate 250 years, it's an amazing accomplishment just be mindful of other folks with that I would entertain a motion.

I just say watch out for the wind, I don't know it's been very windy in this county are this whole area for a while now so watch out for the wind as you're setting off fireworks we also have to get advisory in effect for the rest of this week so right.

please drink a lot of fluids and be careful with that i'd entertain a motion motion second all those in favor all right happy fourth of july