Housing, Urban Development and Zoning - Regular Meeting

good morning we'll call today's housing Urban Development and Zoning Comm order Madam clerk please call the RO Alderman con aloman schwitzer Vice chair son Alderman brownie present Alderman Aldridge present chair Clark Hubbert here Alman con Vice chair son we have four present we have a corn thank you uh with that I'll accept a motion to approve the minutes from January 7 2025 it was moved by otoman swier and seconded by otan Browning that we approve the minutes from Tuesday January 7 2025 Madam clerk please call the rooll autan con awoman swier hi Vice chair son Alderman brownie hi Alderman Aldridge I chair Clark hovert I autman con Vice chair son we have four I votes thank you with that we successfully approved the minutes um the agenda is going to be altered out of respect for people's time is all the women's Spencer here okay we'll go ahead I'm going to turn it over to uh awoman swier please um for board Bill 157 thank you madam chairwoman you are recogniz board Bill 157

Madam clerk um when you can please read the summary of board Bill 157 board Bill 157 introduced by alderwoman shamim Clark hbert an ordinance recommended by the Planning Commission on December 11 2024 to one adjust the boundary of the current Danforth C Campus Community unit plan to include the property adjacent to the current cup area with parsel identif identification number 55989 d5.1 and two set forth certain development and youth standards for the cup expansion thank you so much Madam clerk uh with me today I have Joanna schooler from wasu and Stacy Wade I also have the planning uh Department here as well as this has already been through uh the Planning Commission and other boards as well so what I'll do is pass it over for wasu's presentation and then um take it from there to see if any of my colleagues have any additional questions thank you respectfully I think um plan commissionable we get to hear from Miss Miriam first thank you welcome yes good morning um Miriam Keller with the city of St Louis planning Urban Design agency joined uh this morning by my colleague James Fister who's going to um lead the presentation about the community unit plan Amendment um it's it's a a simple Amendment and James will describe it fully they're also members of the uh zoning section here available to answer your questions should they arise great thank you Mariam good morning everybody uh as Miriam said my name is

James Fister I am do you want me closer or fur perfect okay great uh I'm a senior planner with the planning Urban Design agency uh I wrote the staff report for the recommendation for the uh cup Amendment so I'm just going to go over sort of high level what the cup Amendment contains and hopefully answer any questions you might have and hopefully move quickly thank you please proceed all right thank you so much let's go to the next slide first just a quick rundown of what I'm covering today um defining what a community unit plan is I'm going to describe the existing cup that uh Washington University operates on the Danforth Campus I'll describe the additional regulations included in the cup Amendment um I will briefly compare the uh added regulations to the existing underlying zoning code and then sort of explain uh why this cup sort of makes sense uh based on the Strategic land use plan next slide please so a community unit plan is an overlay zoning District it's been established in our code um it is a tool that lets large sort of institutional developers uh have more flexibility in as that pertains to scale and use for their developments there are only two active cups in the city right now they are both uh managed by Washington University there's one at the Danforth Campus which we're talking about today and there's one at the Washington University Medical Campus next slide briefly describe the the layout right now the existing cup at the

Danforth Campus contains the entirety of the Danforth Campus within the city limits so that's from skinker to the city limits Forest Park Parkway at the north for South to the South this amendment would add one parcel that is directly south of the Danforth Campus at foresight and skinker it used to be two Parcels Washington University B both of them and Consolidated them the goal of this cup amendment is to facilitate Redevelopment of the parcel and add specific area standards for the new parcel next slide just wanted to give a a snapshot um the Danforth Campus cup was adopted in the year 2000 this is an aerial view of the portion of the Cup in 2000 only two buildings lots of surface is parking lots of Green Space let's go to the next slide in the years since oh no oh no we lost our aerial imagery but you can trust me that there are those of you who are familiar with this uh piece of the Danforth Campus uh there are eight plus mixed use buildings there's also a very large underground uh parking garage 790 spaces its entrance is outside of the cup but a portion of its footprint is within the cup itself next slide oh uh the cup expansion area as I said is one parcel directly across from foresight it's about 1.13 Acres uh it was two Parcels the one at 6214 foresight has been used by the university since 2009 for administrative offices um 6200 foresight there was a former church that wasu uh purchased in 2022 that church has since moved out wasu has Consolidated the parcels and

will be facilitating Redevelopment here as a part of the expansion area next Slide the underlying Zoning for both the existing Cup and the expansion area are both is both a the single family dwelling District next slide this is just a a snapshot of the current conditions as you can see on the left of the zoom in image is the existing washu office building on the right is the church that will be demolished and a new Washington University Building will go in there next slide let's talk about those expansion area standards because this is key to the cup um it is a new overlay that goes over the existing zoning code and it gives uh very specific uh guidelines for what the development is going to be there these expansion area standards I'm not going to go through all of them in detail but I did highlight some of the spefic ones but these pertain to permitted uses lot coverage height screening access to the parcel setbacks parking architectural standards landscaping and signage next slide please um as I said I'm not going to go through all of these but they're here in the slide in case we have specific questions so let's go maybe two or three more slides Bingo right here I I wanted to highlight some of the differences between underlying zoning District and the area standards um so in the a dwelling District by right single family and two family dwellings are permitted also home occupations Parks accessory structures babysitting centers and churches there are a handful of conditional uses as well this area standards uh add new newly defined byright uses so that's all of the uses I just stated in a and also specifically offices for the University Administration purposes Student Services

office space and then a handful of accessory uses accessory to the primary University uses food kitchens communication media facilities parking and solar energy systems next slide uh also defined in the uh new area standards is access access to the parcel is not addressed in the a single family dwelling District but this area standard adds regulations that there will be one vehicle access point along for fory only one vehicle access point along skinker and specifies that pedestrian and bicycle access points will be provided along fory next slide also wanted to address uh parking um regulating parking for the types of proposed uses would be difficult in the a single family dwelling District uh as many of you know one parking space for every housing unit but also there it's the code says one parking space for every three seats in a gather in space one parking space for every classroom and office uh it it it's complicated for the a district to describe exactly what the parking regulation would be for this type of use so the area standards address it by stating that there a minimum of eight parking spaces will be provided in the expansion area which will include Ada accessible spots and E ready parking spaces specifically in the cup Amendment application it states all other parking shall be provided in existing parking structures on the Danforth Campus this is a use that will primarily serve the university and University staff so we anticipate that um parking will not be that large of an issue the very large underground parking garage that I indicated on a previous slide is about 250 ft away from the parcel so we think it'll be adequate next

slide oh did we lose one that's all right um I wanted to give you a an image of the site plan intended site plan for development so that you can see uh what Washington University is planning to put there and also see that you know the parking is included on the site the access points are there as outlined in the area standards next slide just a fun little rendering that Joanna could explain more about if you have any questions next slide uh in in response to uh an astute question from one of our planning Commissioners uh which was why are they amending their cup to include this parcel rather than just a rezoning for the parcel a rezoning that would fit this development better well we we found that the most sort of workable zoning district for this type of development might be much less restrictive and therefore would not align as nicely with the Strategic land use plan we wouldn't want to up Zone to a district that might eventually allow something like a gas station on this parcel so this is a good way for the University to get the level of specificity that it wants and for the community to get you know the restrictions that it wants and regardless whatever Zone we would you know rezone this parcel to variants would have been needed for parking for height for set packs and coverage next slide because I I mentioned our our deer strategic land use plan I wanted to show you that uh this cup is perfectly in keeping with the Strategic land use plan this parcel along with the rest of the Danforth Campus is already designated an Institutional preservation and Development Area this is exactly the style of Redevelopment the style of uses

that we want to see in these areas and that's all uh I've got for you unless you've got any questions for us thank you I'll go through the committee uh to see if there are any questions before moving on to your next speaker uh Alderman con Alderman Aldridge Alderman Browning no questions thank you thank you for the presentation I appreciate it it's very thorough thank you all good morning my name good morning all the woman morning my name is Joanna schooler I'm the assistant Vice Chancellor for local government community relations Washington University um as uh we mentioned before Stacy way of Krishner Architects is well who's our consultant on this Pro on our project I want to first thank alderwoman Clark hubard for introducing the board build and the members of the committee for um considering this request and and um acknowledge the building Division and the planning and Urban Design Agency for their work here Mr fister's presentation um effectively covered um and summarized The Proposal um regarding the amendment for the community unit plan uh the amendment really pertains to an expansion area that is um uh that is in an area that is zon as um Zone a single family there are two pieces of land 6200 foresight and 6214 fores sites which have been

Consolidated um into uh a single parcel they're near the intersections of skinker and uh fory Boulevard and I think we have a slide with a rendering of of the potential project here the proposed project um the the single family home that is on the site was acquired by the university in 2009 the church was acquired by the university in uh 2021 when the church decided that it was no longer going to operate in that location 2022 excuse me and um the purpose of this amendment is uh as we've talked about for a new building the existing single family home which we operate as the tech Den today will be retained as is um with the driveway overhang removed to allow for accessibility for emergency vehicles and and the like and there's no changes to the occupancy there um the preservation board in October preliminarily approved approved the um demolition of the former Church where we are proposing to build this uh new 25,000 square foot facility um for office space for administrative offices and student services and as we talked about there'll be limited parking for on-site visitors parking in the garage across the street and then there's shuttle stops that are ample and around um The Proposal involves maintaining our current um curb cuts for Ingress and egress and there's institutional uses

all around um this this this property so um happy to answer any additional questions once again appreciate your time and your consideration thank you I'll go through members of the committee for questions Alderman con uh just for my clarification there's kind of two Church Parcels right at that intersection so does this include the uh 7eventh Adventist Church or is this just the Unity Church it's this just the unity okay so like that mid-century modern building that's right there at forite and skinker it is okay all right thank you for the clarification Alderman brownie uh no questions really that make sense to me that those parking restrictions are uh pretty crazy for that zingle a zoning so uh this makes sense to need this change and uh I don't really have any other questions for you thank you Alderman Alderman Aldridge thank you thank you for coming my questions would have been what the use would have been for the property and what the the plan was and you explained it so I appreciate um I have no further questions uh Alderman do you Alderman do you have any public comment on this bill Madam clerk while we're checking on that I did want to also reference that Mr Winkler is here from the zoning department if you have any zoning specific questions thank you for being here this morning we have uh two people okay signed up great if they online they're here okay please proceed Madam Clerk and call them we have Stacy Wade in support okay um Elaine

Laura undecided okay Miss Lara please approach and I'll when you get up there I'll have you raise your right hand to swear you in do you swear to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes okay please proceed you have three minutes Madam clerk if you could be in charge of time go ahead I'm very excited about this bill excuse me ma'am you just need to say your name and and all that stuff too well please proceed elain 12 I I'm very excited about this bill I think that wash you uh footprint thank you I'm very excited about this bill I think that washu footprint and through out the city we're very conscious of I I am concerned that sometimes in my personal experience washuu does not follow all of the principles highlighted in the sustainability plan and the climate action plan I was a member of the College Hill peace Park project which was led by washu and um our leader Dr Michael brownie exposed us to a lot of things we had bus tours of other Parks uh comparisons he the students shared uh Park rions from across the world and and we had faith in Dr Brownie and then when peace Park was was uh presented uh to to the

community I was flabbergasted concrete everywhere and the sustainability plan had highlighted that uh surfaces were a key part of the installation and I was completely let down by wash you because I think it is very important to teach our young early that the type of surfaces that we have are very important and uh when you approach peace Park from Highway 70 down Grand we had wanted an eye catcher and we have an eye-catcher a beautiful uh wooden structure I think it might be bamboo very sustainable but then everywhere in the park where there's not dirt there's concrete thank you thank you for your testimony seeing no other public comment alderan you're welcome to [Music] proceed thank you for your public comment and for always showing up and representing your community it's inspiring uh with that uh I don't know if my colleagues have any additional questions if not I'm ready to just ask for your favorable consideration and a new pass recommendation for board Bill 157 I move that we pass board Bill 15 with a due pass recommendation

second it's been moved by the alderman from the third seconded by the Alder woman from the seventh uh to move board Bill 157 from committee with a due pass recommendation Madame clerk please call the role autom h i aloman schwier i Vice chair son I Alman brownie I Alderman Aldridge I Sher Clark Hubbert I we have SE we have seven I votes by your vote you have sustained the motion of the alderman from the third and we have passed board bill7 from committee with the due pass recommendation chairwoman I'll pass it back to you thank you awoman Spencer you're recognized on board Bill 166 good morning Madam chair members of the Huds committee thank you for hearing 166 board Bill 166 here this morning board Bill 166 is a board that first was presented to me by the folks over as you can see from the summary over at Anders accounting uh Anders is an accounting firm that has been downtown since 1965 they've grown from just a couple of folks to over 200 uh downtown employees and um you know as we all know downtown is severely challenged right now we're seeing a lot of business interests and businesses leaving our downtown area at this point weekly basis and I'm excited that Anders wants to double down and make an investment uh in downtown business Community um and so what they've asked for here we put together a package that would allow us to um provide them with an expansion incentive package um they're looking grow their Workforce uh by doubling it

essentially from 200 to uh over 400 50 employees if all goes well uh over the next 10 years and so excuse me what board Bill 166 would do is allow us to rebate um uh 85% of the earnings tax that would be the result only new employees recognizing just how important our earnings tax is to our city and this would only impact new employees uh we have a committee substitute that I'd like to put before the committee um that is okay with you madam Clerk or excuse me Madam chair I believe we sent that out in advance and I'll just take a moment to recognize both the com controller's office the president of the board Megan Green's office as well as our financial analyst Ryan Coleman who brought up a couple of of I think really important uh helpful amendments to the bill uh the committee sub essentially um which you should have before you um uh I can speak to it now uh Madam chair or or or wait until we have it before us but essentially just make sure that we're not uh including any paths for growth that would include buying up a new firm so want them to grow by kind of gobbling up an existing city law uh uh um accounting firm but rather uh making sure that that's true uh organic and and and U growth for our business Community here in the city so um that um Madam chair I also have some speakers here Mr Craig Campbell who's the partner at Ander Maggie cost uh who is with the Greater St Louis Inc and then Greater St Louis Inc excuse me and Dave Sweeney who's their attorney on the matter uh to speak about the bill want to the committee I moved to adopt the committee substitute for board Bill 166 second second previous

role it was moved by awoman swier and seconded by Alderman Aldridge with an objection to previous Madam clerk please call the r Alderman con I Alder woman swier I Vice chair son I Alderman brownie hi Alderman aldrid I Sher clar hubber I we have six I votes all right with that we have the committee sub before us and we'll go ahead with your speakers thank you madam chair um with that if you don't mind I'd like to first uh Mr Campbell to the podium um maybe give a short presentation answer questions hi Mr Campbell good morning good morning is it Campbell with a c Campbell like Campbell suit that's right all right thank you thank you for being here this morning can you raise your right hand It's s to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth I do thank you please proceed thanks for having me wanted to give a little bit of background uh about myself and and the firm I've been uh a member of the anders firm since 1986 so have worked uh downtown almost 39 years and um our firm has been a great partner for the city in the sense that we've been here since 1965 uh we started in the railway Exchange building and then uh in the early 80s moved over to the 705 Olive building at 7 ol which is now the St Louis Hotel about 10 years ago uh we partnered with the city to uh to expand significantly into the building that we're in now at uh the Bank of America Plaza which is 800 market and so we were about

120 accountants and Consultants back then and we we brought 50 jobs Downtown and expanded back in 2014 uh since then as the uh aler woman mentioned we've grown to about 225 employees and we'd like to continue that partnership to be uh part of a Revival of downtown and we're in the process of continuing to hire new graduates to join our firm so part of that process entails uh making sure that the office space is state-of-the-art and is attractive for young people and Technical uh careers so ultimately I think some of the the struggles we' had are typical in the sense that our building is uh has lost quite a bit of occupancy over the past 10 years so although we started with 40,000 square feet and uh We've grown to 65,000 square feet a lot of the other occupants have left and so it's been a difficult process to get to a point where we can uh recommit to the city so we're looking for a partnership to continue our growth I think that's the primary message that I have today U we see our firm succeeding in the city and uh we'd like to continue that partnership thank you I'll see if any of my colleagues have any questions for you utum I'm sorry otoman con I don't have any questions at this time thank you a Miss Weiser thank thank you chairwoman um my question is more about the the bill in general so might be appropriate to ask the sponsor would you back up there thank you okay utan brownie uh similarly have questions about but thank you aan alridge thank you madam uh chairwoman and members of the committee uh I want to Mr Campbell like sup right

yes yes uh I just want to thank you uh and the firm's commitment to uh wanting to stay downtown knowing that downtown is you know the kind of economic engine of the city a lot of times we continue to talk bad about what's not good for downtown business leaving but there is a a lot of businesses that are uh coming to downtown and trying to expand so um you know I look forward to supporting this and I just want to thank you for your commitment to uh know you guys have 200 something employees now uh and looking to expand to have an additional 200 employees that can work and play downtown and enjoy a lot of our great food down there so thank you for your commitment you're welcome Vice chair than okay all right thank you so much Mr Campbell thank you [Music] good morning good morning what I'm sorry can't you st your name Maggie Coast I'm with Greater St Louis Inc right thank you for being here miss Coast can you raise your right hand swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth I do thank you please proceed thank you so much Madam chair members of the committee for your time and consideration today as I mentioned I'm Maggie Coast I'm the chief business attraction officer for Greater St Louis Inc I wanted to before I get into some of the specifics of of the tool that we're sort of working on today I wanted to talk a little bit about the office climate downtown and our business attraction pipeline so the types of projects that we're seeing nationally uh in the job creation space so office vacancy down down toown sits right about 22% we'll probably have some new numbers come out this quarter but I don't expect that that'll change significantly that's extremely high

compared to the rest of the country and certainly compared to the rest of our region regionally we sit at about 16% so downtown is significantly higher when it comes to vacancies in our office spaces than the rest of our region and the rest of the country I also wanted to mention that when we are looking at attracting businesses we're seeing a lot of industrial projects we're seeing some lab projects but we are not seeing a lot of office projects and so when we do have an employer especially an office tenant we want to make sure that we're really fighting for that job creation that's happening here in particular Craig didn't mention earlier but this particular building that that they are located in is actually in receivership so it currently doesn't have a building owner they're negotiating their lease with the courts and we're hopeful that if we can keep them in this building we can keep that building alive and potentially find an owner for that building going forward it certainly would not be a positive thing if we were to see them leave that building and see that building go further into to dead into um sort of a negative balance sheet so with that I wanted wanted to talk a little bit about our ask of you this morning in the bill as was mentioned by alderwoman Spencer we are asking for 85% of tax on the new jobs that would be created as a result of ander's growth again this does not impact any existing Revenue that's something that as an economic developer I always want to see because you want to make sure that you are making fiscally responsible decisions as you're supporting the growth of companies within your region it also would help the company to invest in their current

space so they're planning a capital investment office of about $2.2 million and we certainly want to see them do that a part of why we have such high vacancy is because we have a lot of Class B office space in our area and we want to make sure that our companies our employers our developers and building owners are investing in their space and bringing that up to the Quality that our employers need in order to retain and to recruit new employees in this is a fantastic project they're going to be creating 234 new jobs over the course of 10 years you're looking at about 23.4 million in new payroll as a right result of that job creation and you're going to retain that existing footprint as Craig mentioned which is about 20.8 million in payroll every single year so when you add that up over 10 years you're looking at a significant impact to not just the city but downtown and that's something that certainly we want to see when you look at the the benefit the 85% every year over those 10 years it adds up only to about a million dollars so when you look at the impact all of that payroll that's going to be retained all of that new payroll that's generated the city is really only putting forward a million dollars and it's not impacting existing Revenue so this in my mind is an is a great decision it's a great project and we certainly appreciate your support thank you uh utum and con any question can you just reiterate the vacancy number that you quoted earlier yep downtown vacancy sits at 22% okay I I just did like a quick Google

search the national vacancy rate is around 20% right now you know so that doesn't seem statistically significant in terms of a difference from what we're seeing nationally 2% is is a pretty significant amount whenever you're looking at office space and again when you look at the rest of the region which sits at 16% I mean we're underperforming relative to the rest of the region I understand that I just you know if we're going to start talking statistics there's a lot of influencing factors in those well certainly you know and when you're looking at National Trends commercial office space in particular is something that's been discussed since even before the pandemic happened and you know before employers started work you know migrating over to more work from home model which some of them are starting to reverse at this point in time but there's a lot of factors that come into play there you know even when we get into a more micro situation with the city of St Louis we're often competing with Clayton Clayton is a wealthy municipality in St Louis County that offered a $40 million tax abatement to s a Fortune 500 company so you know there's a lot of different factors that play there and cinen has been reducing its office footprint throughout the entire St Louis you know since they had a new CEO take over so there's a I'm just saying that for you know the reason of providing some context and Clarity around those numbers and what that looks like not just from a downtown perspective but also regionally and nationally but I I agree you know 20% is not ath number and you know we should be looking at ways to deal with that I'm supportive of this but I think that we need to be you know very open and transparent with how we're kind of putting numbers out there thank you ad Miss ler ottoman brownie uh no questions thank you ottoman Aldridge Vice Chair say

I don't have any um any questions I didn't uh speak to the last person I'm sure someone will be up in front of us I just did want to um you know commend the business for wanting to um stay and for wanting to grow in downtown St Louis um I I do agree with ottman con and I think you know I just think it's really important because the city of St Louis we get honestly over criminalized I think the narrative around the city of St Louis is very negative and people try to make it seem some outlier and so I think we can still acknowledge our struggles and say but these are struggles that are happening across the country um and so I just I think that is a part important part of the narrative but it doesn't mean that it's okay and it doesn't mean that that that means that there's a problem with keeping that type of economic development in your downtown areas in your Urban cities across the country that's not good but I just think it's really important especially because some of the other things that that can lead to in a negative perception sense to just make sure we're putting it in proper context but I do appreciate you and everyone who's worked on the project and done the work for this and do greatly appreciate the business for wanting to grow and stay here and I look forward to having you all's voice you and hopefully another 200 employees to say you know hey I've been in the city it's not this crimer written you know negative place where you walk down the street and you're dodging bullets actually that's not the narrative I love a stadium game there's so many good restaurant um so I'm I'm I'm I'm looking forward to this conversation but I just think the The Narrative is important because if you don't say the narrative right sometimes you are buying into some of the quiet parts of those things which do have a lot to do with racism do have a lot to do with classism don't tell the truth about that disinvestment that has happened in t um but again I just think these are all just you know can be held at the same time we PR we create these binaries it's like no this is bad it's bad all across the country but let's fix this in our city and let's acknowledge the ways that yeah this is an economic engine for our city and this will help us with population sustainment and we need more businesses to come to the

table and want to grow and want to do things to encourage that thank you thank you good morning Mr Sweeny raise your right hand you swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth I do please proceed uh Dave Sweeney I live in downtown and work downtown and and to follow up on older woman Sony a I'm very proud to represent this client and that they're committed to staying downtown and want to um as somebody that works downtown and lives downtown as well um I see the importance of it as well and the narrative is false I I wouldn't stay downtown with three kids that stay with me that wouldn't make any sense and um I'm very proud to do that um as far as questions about the bill that's kind of why I'm here older woman schwi and Oldman brownie mentioned some things so I'm here to answer any questions for the sponsor uh Automan Spencer did you want to see if there was any public comment and go first so would you like to proceed with questioning for you for you and Mr Sweeny I will say um I I do have the benefit of being the height of the microphone here as opposed to the lawyer in the room who's clearly got to bend over here so we'll do our best to tag team uh the questions here from the committee Madam chair Alam Mone I don't have any uh questions pertaining to the board Bill specifically um you know I think that you know we have these economic Tools in place in order to be able to you know utilize them and you know this is certainly one of those circumstances in situations where we should be utilizing them um and uh you know as I mentioned earlier you know supportive and appreciative of your willingness to you know continue you know investing in the city and being present here in the city and um you know just to kind of piggy back off of what my colleague from the Seventh Ward was mentioning earlier you

know there was a pretty prominent restaurant downtown that left downtown and said you know all sorts of not great things about downtown when they moved to Clayton and they just announced that they're closing they're you know locationing Clayton here but no one's saying you know that Clayton is a bad place to invest bad place to do business bad place to you know have a restaurant or anything like that you know the media says that they're you know longtime St Louis Restaurant closing well you know in my eyes it's actually a short-term Clayton restaurant that's closing it's not a you know St Louis restaurant you know it's a St Louis restaurant when things go bad but you know when things go well you know they're it's just you know again kind of feeding into that narrative you know about you know downtown about the city of St Louis um there's hundreds of restaurants downtown and you know many of them are doing very well um and you know happy to have them and more business investing in our community so appreciative of that and uh you know supportive of the Bill thank you AWA miss weison you mad thank you madam chairwoman members of the committee uh I have concern about any removal of anyone having to pay the earnings tax that is just such a big part of how the city of St Louis pays its bills I know you're very concerned about that Alder woman um and so for just for the public I I would be interested in hearing the perspective on on why this bill and this tool is the right one thank you uh Alder woman and I share your concerns when this project first presented to um I mean it was this was my first question and my first concern um I think there's a unique set of circumstances here with Anders the building and downtown um uh Alderman I hear you know that it's similar the 22%

vacancy um but the numbers I've been more familiar with is closer to 18% vacancy wide in our downtown town office space and having that 4% difference is essentially 20% higher and for me than the national average and I don't want the city of St Louis to take the national averages okay and I certainly don't want to take less than the national averages being okay I want us to shoot for a lot higher and we deserve higher our building stack our downtown having a national monument and the infrastructure in the city of St Louis's downtown deserves far better than the national average certainly to hit it so um I think in the case of their building being in receivership and the large amount of vacancy in that particular building and its prominence and its location within the downtown being so Central I think is key we have a business of accountants that are negotiating with the courts because they don't have an owner to negotiate if they leave if they cannot make these numbers work for them and leave that receivership process is going to plummet and the value of that building could plummet and you know further Decay the overall property values for our downtown um and so um I think given the unique set of circumstances we are only abating new employees um when you look at the nitty-gritty of the bill uh subse to pull it up here just to note it um you know this is not going to be just new employees that come on board it has to be a net increase so so when you look down on page nine uh section two here it says if the calculation form submitted okay has less than 224 or less jobs with an average wave of

wage of at least $100,000 then their benefit is zero and so we are making sure that these are high paid positions payroll tax goes to the city of St Louis we do get a portion of the additional earnings tax and I think importantly what we also get is a professional body of people that are downtown during the day working downtown and participating in the economy and hopefully providing a uh a high income consumer base to be able to go out to eat support our local restaurants and support the downtown economy in a way uh that will uh provide some economic benefit on top of the payroll tax and small and the percentage of the you get from these it was with heavy heart you know that I considered this um you know we did have some tough conversations to this as everyone's shaking their heads I uh was fighting on behalf of the city of St Louis and I'll continue to do that but I think the unique set of circumstances aler woman um was what led me to really come to the conclusion that we had to do this um you know in those NE I can't imagine negot netia with the courts on a lease I mean these are tough things that I'm grateful that that Andrew to do right now thank you Al romman and I know it's in the bill but can you point out how long this will be in effect sure it's going to be in effect for 10 years okay and this is the first time I've had something like this in front of me is this a tool that you think should be used more for downtown oh that's a good question it's a tough conversation that we we also had um you know I don't I I share your deep concerns and deep reverence for the earnings tax and if we start debating all new earnings tax earners uh we're going to find ourselves in a position where we have to provide additional Services downtown and we don't have the additional Revenue source to support that so no I don't think it's something that we should be using lately and using often again you know those

unique set of circumstances um you know where you have a building in receivership um I think uh really sets a different uh unique set of of of conditions here that make it a a tool that we we should be considering in this instance but I do think moving forward I do not want to set um a president that this is something that we're doing across the board U because we we do need additional earnings tax dollars so there needs to be some judicious uh uh caution when when this tool but it is of course a tool that we should consider at some at some unprecedented times with that 10-year uh time frame does that also Pro prohibit them from living downtown during that time if they leave downtown this the the value of this me is nothing um urement or we we're not going to uh chain them to the desks but um I would if I could just to be clear uh but no but to be to be fair uh I mean to to be honest if they do leave um this really has no value because they're they're not they're going to take their dollars somewhere else right okay well thank you so much for answering my questions no they're very good and I think they're spoton and ones should be ask as we move forward so I appreciate your due diligence there adman brownie uh thank you I I absolutely see the need here um you know you point about people working downtown and patronizing businesses downtown and being available I think that's a big problem right now with a lot of The Exodus that we've seen from downtown um it's lost a stunning amount of assessed value I look at the buildings surrounding this building uh KSDK just moved out of their or they're out of their offices the at& building the largest office building in the state I think is sitting completely empty um and and it's it's stunning uh so I I I don't want to you know diminish the need that that's there and I think that this tool is uh as you say one of

the tools we have available all of our tools should be used with discretion uh but uh just to clarify for those who don't know the earnings tax only affects the city of St Louis correct I'm not sure what you mean by that but um we're not affecting any other tax taxing districts with this correct correct this is the earnings tax 1% we have a fairly simple approach to earnings taxes 1% across the board and it's just for the city yeah okay well thank you uh I don't see um I don't see a problem with with the use of this bill I think uh there's a benefit to be brought to the city and while you know we should use this sparingly I I think this is good use of it and appreciate you bringing this forward I appreciate your due diligence on it Adam alri thank you madam chair members of the committee actually have a question for Mr uh Campbell if he can uh come back up you mentioned it in your uh your opening remarks how long has your firm like you say been in St Louis and uh particularly in this building so we moved or we started our firm in 1965 in the railway Exchange building moved to the 705 Olive building and then in 2014 we moved to Bank of America Plaza so we've been in the building about 10 years we started with 40,000 square feet we've grown started with about 110 people we've grown to 225 so we've got a pretty good track record gotcha I have the uh the um pleasure of uh serving part of downtown with the Alder woman of the eth where the two Alder folks I have downtown I'm uh unique in having downtown and the only one that have downtown in north side so uh you know when we look at these tools I do think um it's important that we use these tools to help uh you

know um continue to have the economic growth in downtown and hopefully at some point maybe not this to of earning sex and look at how we use a lot of these abatements that downtown and north but you know these are decisions um and like the alderw woman from the first said you know this is the first time in which I'll come back to Mr Sweeney first time I think this board has done a uh a batement um 85% KN I've talked with GSL was start at 100 so sounds like negotiation appreciate you know all understanding this could be a uh a a tough appeal to swallow for some of us are you committed to not trying to change you to the desk but are you committed to staying uh if this pass staying downtown hopefully for the next 10 20 years uh as as long as you can stay uh in the area to actually stay in the downtown area we are we see a big Advantage we uh we recruit 35 new grads a year we're a very young firm uh and a lot of our young people love working downtown I'm one of those like Alderman con I'm out walking downtown for lunch every day yeah and uh we see we see the same support gotcha thank you so much my next question is uh for Mr Sweeny so I know you've been around for a while you used to be like the cler at the board and and all the uh some other positions is this the first time that the board has done a uh like a earnings tax abatement in in this way or have not saying we should continue to do this but is this the first type of tax abatement or earnings tax abatement that the board's done it it's not it it was done as far as I remember back in TW uh 20 2012 2013 with about three or four different companies most recently it was used for Build-A-Bear in around

2018 um but you know it and I recognize that this is not something that nor is any incentive or development just a a given I mean there was to your point there was negotiation um this is a unique set of circumstances and um but yes it has been done before and I see there's some new language that was added to the agree agement so not the board bill but the agreement which probably makes it even stronger just in the ordinance uh they kind of talk about a merger if new employees were to come on that was like merged um would they pay the earnings tax can you explain that a little well hopefully they come from the county and we can get that so this is a merger for existing City accounting firms and such um but no they would not they would not count toward that number it was a great Point brought up by the president's office her staff uh Mr Coleman um bringing that issue up and that thus the amendment gotcha so the sponsor um wholeheartly agreed as she stated just a plug to the county we are open for business and willing to take those employees but day every day and if those employees just to so I'm clear if those employees 60 of them from the county come in they would then be paying that or they would pay that earnings tax they would not they would not because that's exactly what we want to have okay want to get now they would it's a it's not a it's not an a a batement it's a rebate so the money's paid and then it's paid back I mean it's just structural but you know that would be 60 new people hopefully living in the city less of a commute they would still get that 15% change but um that's the whole we want to bring any and all gotcha and is is this the second time with the abatement for this project for is it it it is okay um when they came in 2014 and have doubled uh as they did this time but it was at 50% okay and they had several other tools too I want to point out that

we're not using at this point um so there were other things on the table Anders and the sponsor we just focused on that we didn't we wanted to get what we needed and not do more yeah and that 50% and that 50% in 14 I'm assuming now that 10 year was it a 10 year so it dropped off yeah okay okay no other questions uh just want to uh thank uh the allw from the eth GSL Mr Sweeny explaining all of this as a new person to me and and also Anders again to uh you know stand committed to downtown I also live downtown as well so you know I enjoy walking uh to Chris is on the docket especially uh to get some good uh breakfast but you know just echoing what the alderman from the third and the seventh said is you know we have to control our and all one from the 10th always say it the narrative and the message and I think you know while we want to bring that vacancy down I think today is a a good day to talk about the positive of a building all the news media here I hope youall run it about a building that is you know committed to staying and not constantly seeing uh articles and uh stories about buildings leaving or individuals leaving this is I think a really good day and I appreciate the commitment from Anders to not only stay but expand so thank you Vice chair Sonia hi Mr Sweeney good a afternoon I have to say start out by saying I'm a little disappointed I was hoping for some brighter pants today but that's okay there's always spring maybe you're trying to be more business like since year you know but I like color I think we can be versatile um but uh thank you for you know we spent some time on the phone we also had a a meeting and I just want thank you um

because to me I just think when these things happen they have to be a conversation and sometimes we get to these meetings and that's the first time we're talking about it it's so much more helpful if you know if I find that the person who is trying to bring it before us is responsive can answer questions can provide context I just want to thank you first for just being responsive and um having those conversations with me absolutely um I did just want to clarify these are things you'll bear with because we spoke with but I know members of the public and Folks at home do not hear the conversation so some of them information I got I just want to make sure it's on the record as well um could you just talk about just make sure that we're clear that there is if should the business decide to leave or merge I mean should they decide to merge or transfer ownership that this um earnings tax abatement I'm not sure what we're calling it that's how I'll describe it that that will not transfer over that this is specifically for this this specific entity it would be for this entity so yes it would be if they if they brought in someone but that entity continue to be Anders so Anders proper would have to take that in and be that entity that's who the agreement's with correct thank you and also that this doesn't you know again there are 200 employees who are playing Earnest tax and that this is actually only for the new employees that would be attracted correct for if they don't grow there were no with new employees it would be zero and the city the city only gives back like they're taking everything and they would continue to take that so worst case scenario they don't grow and they stay stagnant or even go lower the city's out zero um and just also be uh clarify what the funds that are what this is being used to find um I think that's important too it it is and thank you for bringing up that point they're investing over dollars in infrastructure within the building so if for some reason they grow by 10x they could it's only it's capped at that amount so right now we don't have that we only have a million but if they were to go through the door which would be fantastic for everybody and what we want it would be

by their investment so we're not just willy-nilly giving them this earnings tax back they are investing within it and that's what the document refer thank you for bringing up that point thank you so much um that's really all my questions I did just want to say on the record I uh don't know how I feel about this as a tool in general I would encourage us to be uh very skeptical um with the use of this tool um for me some of the things that I just asked you are things that um help it to land and I think too having such an ambitious growth goal of employees I think that's also something that has been there being a business that has some history you didn't just come and ask for this right away being the fact that you're trying to expand and make some infrastructure Investments you know I don't I think sometimes it's a it's a label of like anti-development I'm Pro development but I think like some of these specific things are how they're catalytic tools as opposed to you know if you are too if you are too easy with them with no type of Merit no type of consideration no type of Standards it can work to the detriment but I think um you know this particular particular uh piece of legislation and I know it's the I guess it's kind of the first of its kind I think it's the full package that does make it work you know I think when you say an ambitious growth goal of 200 employees when you're going to invest that money that you would be missing out you know it's not going to investors or stakeholders or shareholders is going back into um infrastructure that will benefit the city even if you should decide to go to another location you know I think that those are things that okay that's the type of way we want to do these things and make these Investments and just should be considered as we're having these um these conversations thank you all right thank you okay um with that I mean I just want to thank the committee for the thoughtful uh questions the due diligence here that we're doing this is an exciting project um but one that um really deserves some scrutiny and I'm

grateful for the opportunity to come in present to the Huds committee Madam chair um and with that um if there's any further questions I'm here for them but I would ask for the Committees favorable consideration of board Bill 166 I make a motion that we pass we have public speakers oh on this bill sorry we have additional public speakers besides those oh okay my apologies we have one on online and one in person um Miss Ellen Laura is in person now no secrets right wouldn't divulge I am a speed reader though you're fine well thank you for this invaluable information I am uh I my dog died about two three years ago but we he owned that Plaza she owned she owned that Plaza she loved it I'm very concerned about the ratio of of giving St my daughter uh told me the other day St Louis is the poor City we're losing population we don't have anything that the young people want to do other than Sports she told me that the entertainment centers are out in St

Peters St Charles and there on she took me to The Foundry to see Patty Lael way out there but I grooved I don't think we can afford 85% I need to look at your books and see if the CEO got a reduction I mean Boeing was paying their leaders hundreds of millions of dollars we're poor City we're unmetered water we don't have the revenue to offer 85% we're unmetered water we don't have anything for the young people to come down here to move to St Louis they're not going to move to unmetered water this whole idea that we want you to stay it's true but not at 85% not without us looking at to see what type of uh increases the CEO got that's not reasonable that's all I got to say we're a poor City unmetered water thank you Miss Lord the next online you said we have Denise Chism Butler online

Miss Butler if you can turn your camera on good afternoon Miss Butler can you raise your right hand swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes thank you for being here this morning please proceed uh first thank you for allowing me the opportunity uh as I listened um and I reflect on being a lifelong uh resident of the city of St Louis and also an employee one question that I did have for the gentleman was that the even if they're station in the city um the company if anyone is working from home now they also are allowed to get a refund for the taxes the city earning taxes because they're not really working in their office they're working wherever say Chesterfield because that's where they live uh then they too qualify for the reimbursement even though they may their job may be down there they're not working physically down there they don't have to pay the city's earning tax to my knowledge and just being a government employee who worked for the federal government those of us that was domiciled in the city uh if we work down there we had to pay it but if we didn't didn't matter that 1720 Market was the address address the United States Postal Service we were working somewhere else we we got our refund from the city's uh tax I that was one question but then the other I want to uh piggy back on what the young lady the my the lady before me just said the city is in a horrible situation it seems

financially a bad I won't say horrible but um I think one of the main things people or not not want to come back to the city because of the businesses are leaving your residents are leaving I have residents in my community who have left who have left their family home and won't even move back even though we have blue collar works I mean the honorable Judge Jimmy Edwards lived a block or so over from it a block over uh so we have working bluecollar workers who we afraid I'm afraid of coming downtown I'm glad somebody can walk around because just walking around picking up trash is kind of a challenge because I see no police officers it's like it's we've been readed line over there in Kings Highway East so I think if in order to attract businesses and keep them the main thing you need to do is start trying to keep your residence and giving us some of the things that we need give us some of the things we need and I guarantee you the business will come but until you stabilize what's the core what's holding the city up those of us who are residents who are staying and who are doing until we can get somebody to hey can we just get a regular run you know police to just drive down when the kids getting off the bus I mean you know what time school is out we lost our schools we're losing our residence talking about businesses but I'mma leave it there God bless thank you so much Miss Butler thank you madam chair for the we have one more speaker sorry we do have one more speaker okay dalen Brown undecided hi Mr Brown there raise your right hand swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes ma'am I do

please proceed all right thank you members of the chair and the anders minkler hover uh company uh for your um bringing of board uh Bill 166 to the attention of St Louis city and the general population in speaking for the general population of St Louis city and as the lady prior to me has requested um for something to there and come into our neighborhood for the young people to do um with the 60,500 approximately square foot off space there in the Bank of America building uh we do believe that there in the Redevelopment would be a great asset to our earnings tax incentives here in the city of St Louis for things such as a new mall to be set in place we are speaking a lot about the famous SAR building that's uh gone and there was a mall downtown St Louis there's no longer a mall downtown St Louis and we have redeveloped the area there in at Bush Stadium for people to come during baseball games and we have redeveloped that area for people to come in Itali and have a great time there in at the Bank of America building if you all are seeking Redevelopment ideas the city of St Louis is in fact requesting that something such as an indoor mall at that building be something where people people can come in and buy things um from companies like builda bear and other companies that they're in are requesting for sales to happen there in the city of St Louis they in the area of ballpark Square thank you for your time thank you Mr Brown did you want to respond to something first and then I have comments on that because I think the points that

were made by the the public speakers were ones that were are worth just offering a little bit of perspective on uh for one I think um clear to us we are losing population at an unprecedent rate and I think um that the middle speaker there really did speak to the need to addressing resident needs um and Miss Elaine I know I will say um you know as far as the abatement goes I I'll address two pieces of this one is that um I firmly believe in order to keep them here negotiating with a non-existent building owner uh that in order to keep the earnings taxes here uh we we we have to do something to to to to to make the numbers work for their expansion they don't have the ability to negotiate with a property owner because they don't have a property owner so this is the way that we're enabling them to stay beyond the lease that is up frankly uh imminently here so um we are enabled to keep all the earnings tax from the existing employees as well as the payroll tax for new employees that this will help incentivize them downtown so we will be receiving a chunk of that to the pre the second uh uh uh speaker questions about the existing abatements what I'll say is because of the way is structured we are not we cannot Abate taxes that don't come in so we have a fund set up for the earnings taxes that are paid to come in and then there is a rebate offered as a portion of the new percentage of those that are paid in so if you're not paying those earnings tax in there's nothing to uh rebate back to business own so there's some protections there but I think those points are are well founded um and those concerns are grounded in some Stark realities for the city and that's why uh to the alderman from the first points negotiating on this walking into this not as a no-brainer but as

really uh with some scrutiny here was a key component to making sure that I felt comfortable with it um I wouldn't want to put my name on this unless I felt like it was we really really had to do um I appreciate the opportunity here and Madam uh chair uh I'll ask for a favorable consideration of the Huds committee uh on board Bill 160 six six 166 yes 166 so I just also had a a few final remarks uh I'll I'll play Jerry Springer for the the afternoon here um very valid you know feedback and comments here but I just want to make sure that we're very clear in terms of how this is working so this is a payroll and earnings tax reimbursement this is not uh eliminating the earnings tax or payroll tax what it is is those employees and that employer would still be paying those taxes they're still paying those taxes and on the incremental amount above what they're already paying there will be a fund that is available for reimbursement up to 85% of the amount that's paid for new employees that are added to their payroll so there's the Baseline that's existing now that will not change and they it it's 8 okay ma'am you had your opportunity to talk uh so the the uh fund that is there is going to be for only new employees the employees are going to continue paying the full earnings tax I think that that's important for clarification purposes because we don't want people thinking that just because the pass is that those employees are no longer responsible for paying that tax they will still pay that tax it's just that a portion of that will then be reimbursed for the purposes of keeping the employer in the city also since it was brought up and this has been a topic that I've brought up many

many times before metered water it's not Germaine to the board bill but I'm going to talk about it because it was brought up public conversation we have attempted to do metered water across the city before there have been studies preliminary studies that have been done it costs about $10,000 per household to install a meter so that's a cost that would go to the customers who are our citizens our residents that would have to pay for that the money doesn't come from anywhere so you know metered water is generally also more expensive we have some of the lowest water rates in the entire country and we do that you know based off of the number of water faucets bathtubs you know Etc that are in a house to be clear businesses do have metered water so if you're a commercial property in the city of St Louis you do have metered water new houses new buildings that are built also have meters on them so generally speaking the folks that don't have metered water are going to be uh the older homes mostly you know east of King's Highway so Residential Properties East of Kings Highway for the most part um anything really predating the 1980s so I just want to throw that out there it is something that we've looked into it is something that we continue to have conversations about um and we'll probably also continue into the future to have those conversations around how we can do that and how we can make that work but also how do we pay for it water clubs all right I'd like to make a motion that we pass board Bill 166 committee sub to do pass recommendations previous role motion was made byman a seconded by Vice chair s with a previous congratulations a miss miss thank you madam chairman aan boy you're Rec who who

called for a previous role UT otman Aldridge thank you aan boy you're recognized on board Bill 131 you was this close almost PQ Shan almost PQ Shan a meter water we got ramille talk about that water um thank you madam chair for allowing me to come speak before the hus committee today and thank the committee for listening to our bill uh we do have a PowerPoint presentation that she's going to put up and while we are waiting for that to be pulled up I just wanted to make one uh comment before I start my script because you know I'm just kind of hor with scripts here so I just want to make one comment so this bill is not about one side or the other it's about the city of St and this bill is about 30,000 people that have left this city and so that's why this bill is coming before you because we have talked to our colleagues and we have made sure that we listen to what their concerns was and so we made some amendments to it but I didn't know if you wanted us to do the Amendments first or me do the presentation it's up to you so you want

me to do the Amendments first okay because Al Al alri said do the amend first just in case if it's part of the presentation so we got this s okay all right so our uh did you um want to ask they want to make put a motion to put it in front of us yeah I will make a motion that we adopt the committee subtitute to board Bill 131 was moved by adman Aldridge seconded by Vice chair s that we put the committee sub for board Bill 131 before us the call for previous role with no objection we have the committee said before right thank you so our first committee substitute was I'm trying so is it an amendment or a committee substitute uh the Amendments do we got amendments to the you guys should all have it you should have it in your Google Drive we got committee sub yeah committee substitutes yeah so it's a committee substitute yes so does everybody have them okay ready okay this okay okay so uh on behalf of the St Louis since I represent I am proud to propose a committee substitute for Bill

131 which will use funds from the ram settlement make transformative transformative and long overdue investment in St Louis disinvested neighborhoods and downtown I originally introduced bull Bill 131 in November 2024 co-sponsors of the bill are my colleagues alderwoman Laura Keys alterman Tom oldenberg and alderwoman Carris Spencer represent neighborhoods in all parts of the city I'll just mention um I guess the clicker on these slides is not there's not a working clicker in the room but somebody watching on video in the other room will will move once you say next slide so that's good so so next slide okay what I want to do today is provide an overview of the bill and discuss the changes we made in this committee substitute as originally introduced board Bill 131 invested 130 million in Rams funds into disinvested neighborhoods in north and Southeast St Louis into and into downtown this committee substitute keeps those Investments as $50 million for Citywide water infrastructure this addition was something Automan schwitzer and others including a a man Browning have called for and the need has been has been made more critical by recent problems with our water infrastructure that have occurred the total investment of 277 million in Rams funds will be broken down into four categories 140 6 million for infrastructure including the new 50 million for water 81 million for high

impact catalytic building projects 35 million for housing and 15 million for retail revitalization funds from each of these different categories will be designated for downtown or disinvested neighborhoods in amount I will discuss momentarily and defining disinfest Ed neighborhoods we use the city economic Justice index so the neighborhoods we are talking about or census tracks with a composite economic Justice index composite score greater than 40.6 as you can see on the map that encompasses most of North St LS as well as neighborhoods in the Southeastern part of the city looking at the four categories for investment I will start with investments into infrastructure I want to break out the funding originally in boore Bill 131 and the funding we've added to the to this committee substitute for water infrastructure our city especially neighborhoods like mine in North St Louis and downtown have major infrastructure Needs Board Bill 131 will invest 96 million in critical Street and sidewalk infrastructure needs like Street and sidewalk maintenance and repair pedestrian and bike friendly Street design landscape and aesthetic improvements this 96 million will be divided evenly between disinvested neighborhoods and downtown and would Target significant funding to a smaller area for a big bigger

impact in this committee substitute we have added $50 million in Rams funds for critical repairs to our water infrastructure as otoman swier has called out our in water infrastructure is in bad shape and investing in critical repairs and upgrades to the system that delivers one of our Region's most important resources is our investment in our future These funds will be used Citywide for repairs upgrades and would help the Water Division leverage financing for other critical Bard Bill 131 also invest 85 million in high impact building projects the goal is to redevelop key neighborhoods anchor buildings and disinvested neighborhoods and downtown buildings that will help support resurging and attract additional investment the images highlighted are a few examples of the type of buildings projects we are talking about Cleveland High School the railroad Exchange building and the club Imperial Building at West floron and Goodell These funds will be used for things like the rehabilitation of vacant buildings preventing blight and de demolishing problem properties and invest investing and catalystic building projects 33 million of these funds will go to North St Louis 18 million will go to Southeast St Louis and 30 million will go downtown slot um the 35 million for Bill 131 would invest in housing is focused an expanding pathway for residence to access access high quality Housing Home

Ownership which was stabilize disinvested neighborhoods in downtown 25 million of these funds will go to disinvested neighborhoods and 10 million would go to downtown to support the development of new and market rate housing down payment assistant and a revolving Loan program for residential conversion of vacant properties the next category is for retail revitalization supporting the growth of retail establish ments and quarters in neighborhoods where they are solely need this will help increase vibrancy and disinvested neighborhoods and broaden the tax base for the entire city These funds will go forward attracting ril establishments making improvements to commercial quarters and for events and act act activations at street level disinvested neighborhoods will get 5 million of these funds with 10 million going downtown to ensure we are storing These funds to ensure the longevity B Bill 131 would invest the funds in interest bearing accounts until projects or programs are ready for implementation require City agencies to seek Financial returns in addition to repayment of funds on high impact building projects requir the approval of the board of utman and Ena in addition to the addition of funding for water infrastructure another change I want to highlight in this committee substitute is the format of the bill and speaking with colleagues on the board of Alman

one thing that came up was that they liked format used in board Bill 153 introduced by Al woman son we've borrowed that format so that this substitute now lists uses and restrictions on these Investments and explicitly states that the funds are subject to audit in addition to formatting changes there are other elements of board Bill 153 that we and other otter people were consulted like and have Incorporated in this substitute the these updates include expanding permitted uses of funds for housing investment increasing the amount for Housing Initiative and disinvested neighborhoods from 10 million to 25 million adding a preference for city employees in the housing investment program I want to thank the chairwoman and members of this committee for the opportunity to discuss this substitute bill for decades my constituents and the res of North and part of Southeast St Louis have been promised Investments promise that never came to Fu position and for decades we have watched as buildings in our downtown and the heartbeating economic engine of our city have fallen in disrepair as vacant buildings provided Safe Harbor for crime and infrastructure has fallen into level of disrepair that has driven away investment yes we have challenges across our entire city but the neighborhoods I represent and our downtown need to be focused investing proposed in board Bill 131 will have impact and drive growth in places that need the most critical and

most IM need transition to whatever whoever speaks okay and now I'm going ask Kurt to come and speak for [Music] me well thank you alderw woman Boyd uh this has truly been a partnership uh with the older woman and with the other sponsors and I want to thank I oh I'm sorry first state your name yep and then raise your right hand St your name Wile thank you Mr wiler you swear to to the whole truth and nothing but the truth I do thank you please receed thank you I remember to pick up the mic but not to say my name um now as I was saying I I just wanted to thank uh alderwoman Boyd and the other sponsors of the bill uh it's been a true pleasure it's been a true partnership and uh we at Greater St Louis Inc are grateful for that uh just for the record uh my name is Kurt wiel um I'm a chief downtown office officer for Greater St Louis Inc um I just wanted to end the presentation with a note uh I think alderwoman Boyd did as you would expect a fantastic job describing some of the needs in disinvested neighborhoods across the city I just want to note the importance of downtown to the city as a whole uh We've sometimes described it as the economic engine we described it as the Heart of the City it is both those things but some numbers to go along with that um downtown produces 20% of all the general fund Revenue that's more than $100 million uh per year 27% of All City employment um that amounts to 57,000 people who work in in downtown St Louis and $4.1 billion dollar of wages

annually um so downtown has been important um it punches above its weight class in terms of its Geographic size to how much it contributes in taxes and uh this is this is this explains uh the focus in this bill on downtown as well as disinvested neighborhoods I will just note um we may have uh you may have noticed the slide on the screen a moment ago um the the the uh status of the assessed value of property downtown that produces that tax revenue that I was just referring to is a challenge um and that may be uh not a strong enough word um if you were to go back to that slide you'd see that our assess value downtown in 2019 was 1 Point more than 1.1 billion as of 2024 it had fallen to just over 700 million that is a precipitous drop I can give you the number it's almost 38% drop um a substantial portion of that accelerated during uh covid um and there's been a small rebound but of a small rebound I'll just give you the numbers during Co it dropped to 641 million of assessed value and now is up to 708 million so um this just goes to say that downtown can produce more for the city uh the the types of funds that can be used to fix infrastructure across the city um to pay for services across the city um but we need downtown as well as the disinvested neighborhood words to be strong so thank you for your time

sorry okay if the committee would allow I wanted to ask one of my co-sponsors to come up to say a few words absolutely okay Tom odenberg Alman odenberg absolutely out Al good afternoon everyone um as a co-sponsor I just wanted to speak in support of this bill clearly there are components of this bill that are very important um but I don't want to speak necessarily as uh a public official I would like to speak as my experience in Community Development Finance throughout the country for the past 20 years I've worked for the fifth largest Commercial Bank in the country we make investments all over in major markets throughout the city in in disinvested uh low-income census tracks and downtowns throughout the nation um having done that for the past 20 years I see the vehicles and the models and the methodology that works concentrating resources whereby you can leverage those with more resources investing in downtowns and distressed communities is the answer there are components of this bill that obviously lead with that methodology and I would suggest that I know there is a competing bill and we will get to that I want to leave you all with one word compromise I think that major components of alderwoman Boyds bill um and the competing bill um can find Salvation that do Target downtown and distressed communities thank you all very much for allowing me to speak thank you uh I have arrey Elman she wanted to have a few words think she may be digital she's

online so what's her name again because I don't see her on here arrey El okay and she's not available at the moment um oh no I'm I'm moving her over okay you moving her over okay thank you Miss Elman could you please turn on your camera and your mic please okay uh can you hear me yes' hi Miss Elman can you raise your right hand you swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth I will please proceed uh my name is rre Elman I am the President uh of the board of Covenant blue Grand Center neighborhood association and I'm serving as the first president the north brickline uh Community Development Corporation which will be supporting the brickline north CDC um and the brick line Greenway um as I was listening to um the presentation uh I just wanted to share on a personal note because I did have the opportunity to speak to the community of the whole hearing uh back in October and how the infrastructure and investment can help with the private dollarss without a doubt and it's important that we must invest to build up our na neighborhoods and also downtown I lived all over the city so I claimed the city and what was exciting

to me about downtown I worked down there for 10 years I had we had several uh retail stores that we could go to we had a market where we can also have uh fruits and veget Veges and downtown just had a plethora of activity all the time we had also U movie theaters so and in the in the in my neighborhoods we had my last neighborhood we had um movie theater we had FW Woolworth we had YMCA we had DMV we had some positive neighborhood supporting businesses the plan and proposal that Cur and greater St Louis and Alder woman Bill Bo 131 is crucial to be able to reinvest in the neighborhoods in downtown I thank the Tabernacle Community Development for uplifting JVL my old neighborhood it's just in like I said I just can't talk about the investment is crucial we have our North Central plan and we have plans to really start reinvesting through private donorship so we could use some additional funding thank you very much thank you hey when we move forward I'm just for clarity um Al woman my boy so so we'll know how to do the agenda they are this are we into your public comment your people that want to do public comment these are your speakers okay at least one more speaker oh no I can who I think is on digital too a business owner downtown

excuse me when you speak could you speak into the mic so we can get you on record um aloman Boyd had another speaker Ono Aon owner of a business uh and also just for cl for the record we probably need to separate when you're speaking and when all the woman boy speak so we'll go ahead and swear you go ahead your name for the record and then Tim O now you swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes okay so miss um all the woman boy what's who was your next speaker no oh no i a n o n I'm not GNA try to pronounce that I don't mess up people names can hear you could you speak into the mic please I couldn't hear you i k a n o n oh no and they're online uhhuh questions okay he he must have to leave I'm I'm willing to take questions okay okay uh are there public comments signed up for this we do we have um people online and in person okay colleagues would you do you want to do you have questions that you want to ask now or hold till after we hear from the public okay all right so what we'll do um everyone we everyone that's in the room that's signed up to speak if you could raise your right hand you swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth well I didn't hear any

yeses okay uh Madame clerk if you could go ahead and call uh begin the call for the public speakers you um have all been this morning in you have three minutes to speak our first speaker is Jared host and please that front of a microphone State your full name and title board if you live in the city sure uh Jared Hol um I don't know if I really have a title I'm a real estate developer in the city I've developed over a 100 projects uh Liv in Lafayette Square absolutely love living in the city um so I'm speaking today on behalf of you know Bill 131 um and I'd like to take you guys back about 175 years ago to May 17th 1849 so on that date there was a steamboat that's very similar to the one that's on that seal right there that broke loose from its Moorings and was on fire and caused all these other boats to get on fire and destroyed over 15 blocks in the city of St Louis over 400 buildings and in the wake of that fire a body just like this passed an ordinance that said that all structures going forward had to be made out of brick and masonry so that's why we have all these beautiful structures that we do today in addition to that they put funding in there to make sure the infrastructure that was being put into water and sewer would also stand the test of time which is also why we have a lot of the sewers and pipes that are still working today some that are not but you know we're working on that I I bring that up because this bill in my opinion is one of the most important bills to ever come before for this board I think it's critically

important because our city is metaphorically on fire like it was in 1849 and we have an opportunity to turn it around we have an opportunity to Rise From the Ashes again like we did before and I believe you guys can do it I totally believe it you know this weekend I'm taking my boys uh one of them recently had its birthday and we're going to a water park in Cincinnati and I've had the pleasure of Not only living but traveling to all these different rust Bel cities Kansas City Cincinnati Pittsburgh you know Indianapolis and I will tell you there's nothing like St Louis there really isn't you know but the things that separate those cities from the city of St Louis are their downtowns their downtowns are blowing us away and we have an opportunity now to help turn that around our neighborhoods are amazing and these other cities do not compare to what we have but we have to turn around our downtown and this is our chance to do it so I appreciate you letting me speak I appreciate you know the sponsors of the bill and the people speaking today thank you thank you we have two uh the first speaker is Karen Johnson Miss Johnson can you raise your right hand s to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth I do thank you please proceed it's Karan Johnson please call me CJ I am president of aft Missouri and I'm just here in support of this bill I thank um aor and Boyd for trying to actually connect with the communities whereas a lot of our um leaders elected officials sit up there and act like they're trying to really support the neighborhoods when they're really just trying to support um neighborhoods that they can maybe Thrive off of um personally so I appreciate you taking the time to build the community and really get in the community and so I believe that this bill will help our

community support um um stability in a super unorganized and crime field Community I think this will help reduce crimes in certain areas because it'll give our families and our our babies something to do and this will also bring back the village that supports the community schools with the public education so once again I thank you so much for working on this bill and thank you for letting me speak I you thank you CJ our next speaker is Alex Oliver in support hi there hi there uh I'm Alex Oliver a resident of the city for 17 years business owner in the city I also invested in real estate in the city for the last 17 years um and I'm in support of board Bill 131 what I see it is our City's got real challenges uh a lot of this was talked about in the last uh bill as well well you know we've got momentum against us residents are moving out businesses are moving out just in downtown uh we were talking about kind of the occupancy of downtown versus Clayton according to kushman Wakefield in the first three quarters of this year downtown St Louis lost 270,000 square feet of occupied office that turned into vacancy in that same Three Quarters downtown Clayton increased their occupancy by 207,000 so we can see almost a direct correlation of that migration out that's capital migrating out that's tax based is migrating out there's a narrative challenge we're all dealing with of is our city safe is it have good streets does it have crime so we're fighting narrative and we're fighting competition we're competing the city is competing with the county competing with the region competing with the state competing with other states and cities all over the place and I think this bill is a real chance and a real opportunity for the city to act with urgency and act with Clarity that we're trying to be impactful really impact the disinvested neighborhoods that have had Decades of

disinvestment an opportunity to really impact them an impact downtown where that impact will have scale because there's 7.6 million square feet of occupied office space in downtown right now we'd really like to keep that because that's payroll taxes that's property taxes that's employees that are going to businesses and restaurants and shops and looking for places to live and our residents on the nearest South side at the near North Side have commutable jobs when those jobs exist in the city and it's a whole lot harder for them to get to those jobs if they're out in St Charles County and the leveraged impact I think on this is really huge the ability to get private Capital private investment because we've countered that momentum we've countered that narrative and we've countered the story of why we shouldn't invest in the city with look the city is investing in the city why don't you join us why don't you invest along with us so that's why I'm in support of the bill our next speaker is Ellen Laura undecided I'm sorry Elaine Laura undecided hi I'm willing to tell the truth hi I'm willing to tell the truth all right I wish I had been given three minutes to respond to Alder uh Cohen but I had with me the table of objectives and strategies from the sustainability plan and I wanted to highlight some things that they said said about water conduct ongoing energy performance measurement and tracking promote Energy Efficiency and utilize cleaner forms of energy we Track by

metering minimize landfill bound waste offer recycling through throughout the city support materials and Equipment repurposing programs raise awareness of storm Wastewater impacts through education and Outreach programs because you gave a lot of incorrect information Advanced responsible water use make data on water use usage available by property flat rate billing does not do that because we're unmetered water and I'd like to give some Reflections by our incomparable James be e on page 10 of the East bridge and his G chip wellway let me get up I was going to memorize it but I started watching TV here it is addressing the St students uh at St Louis trade school ease in it doesn't say he said to the students the man who can by his own inventive

genius reduce the cost of light Heat or the disly a water for the masses he's talked about water Lord that's your time thank you our next speaker is Ryan McLure hello thank you for the opportunity to be here today uh my name is Ryan McClure and I'm the executive director of Gateway Arch Park found I'm also a city resident residing in ward 6 and nearly half of our staff also live in the city of St Louis Gateway Arch Park Foundation was formed in 2009 with a specific mission of En living Gateway Arch National Park and its surrounding areas in downtown including kener Plaza and the St Louis riverfront over the last 15 years our foundation has raised more than 300 million in private funding for downtown St Louis initiative we continue that mission and effort through matching Federal investment uh in the renovation of the Old Courthouse which will reopen this spring which we're very excited about we are also trying to do our part to solve daunting vacancy challenges in downtown St Louis by going under contract to purchase the Millennium Hotel Site to make that site something that St Louis can be proud of again Gateway Arch Park Foundation strongly supports board Bill 131 and the generational impact it will have on downtown St Louis North St Louis and neighborhoods in southeast St

Louis Downtown is the undeniable economic core of not just the city of St Louis but the entire St Louis Metropolitan region and we have an opportunity to make a c catalytic investment with with these funds in that core downtown needs the investment of these public do dollars now and think of what can be accomplished if we match those funds and they're leveraged against private funding brought by organizations like ours Gator Greater St Louis Inc and many others and the beauty of this bill is that it will also serve north city and Southeast St Louis neighborhoods where these funds help reverse historic dis disinvestment as a nonprofit working daily to improve downtown St Louis and as a St louison I urge the board of alderman to pass this legislation to make a generation generational investment in neighborhoods where this will make a lasting impact thank you our next speaker is sherad Hitchens online good for do everyone Hi is it Miss Hutchins or Miss Hitchens uh it's Hutchins is Dr Hutchins Hutchins Dr Hutchins thank you can you raise your right hand yes you swear to tell the whole truth in nothing but the truth correct yes thank you Dr Hut please proceed I'm sorry for the misunderstanding no understanding hi my name is shered Hutchins I am a special special education teacher of the St L public schools for the last 19 years I'm also vice president of membership for aft Local 420 the reason I'm here today is in support of a bill

131 this bill will help reduce crime in our areas by bringing by bringing back those resources our kids and families need to thrive this would be instrumental to our city thank you thank you our next speaker is Anita pal Anita pool undecided hi my name is Anita Louise P I'm speaking simply on behalf of a member of the public and as a resident of the city uh really just two points of clarification if I may uh I was I didn't catch the total amount of the ask on this bill and the other point was um please define better if you would uh what is meant by disinvested neighborhoods thank you next speaker is James pagee my name is James page and I humbly serve as the executive director of the St Louis Downtown neighborhood association uh Madam chair members of the Huds committee I rise in full support of board Bell 131 uh you have heard the numbers which I am not going to repeat but I just wanted to let you know that as a former Alderman of the fabulous Fifth

Ward and as a 22 plus year resident downtown St Louis I have seen the needs of our area downtown and north city and specific areas of South City I've seen these needs up close and personal we have before us you have before for you a once in a-lifetime opportunity to make a difference to help with these needs uh so I am going to ask that you the Huds committee and the full Board of alderman vote in favor of board Bill 131 you will be doing the city of St Louis immeasurable good from mult multiple Generations you will by voting in favor of board Bill 131 affect generational positive change in the city of St Louis thank you for your time next speaker is Clarence online Clans could you turn on your mic and camera please okay I'll go to the next speaker online levette Thomas Martin hello everyone Hi um Miss leet Miss Thomas Mar how you doing can you raise your right

hand and swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth I swear to tell the whole truth we nothing but the whole truth thank you ma'am please receive hello everyone uh my name is l Thomas I'm an educator for St Louis Public Schools and I'm also a member of Al Local 420 um I'm calling I'm I'm I'm actually on here to support the bill for 131 um it'll bring resources to our neighborhoods to support our kids uh it will actually bring more students back to our community for our St Louis Public School so that's all I have to say thank you hey our next speaker I'll just do Mr Thomas since he's online Mr Thomas can you raise your right hand Mr Thomas is it time Thomas or our next speaker in the building is Roger simp s maker simmer maker hello my name is Roger simmermaker and um I'm rising in support of the bill I'm a fairly new Resident to St Louis uh my wife and I just moved here in April of last year year and um I grew up and was born and went to high school in uh West Central Illinois in the 1980s and when I grew up there I always knew everybody knew pretty much that St Louis was a special place and I've always wanted to live here and now I'm able to live here and when I go into shops or bars or restaurants talk to neighbors owners of the

establishments workers that work there I hear of years ago a few years ago about what it used to be like here with more hustle and bustle more activity more going on more things to do a better economic Outlook and I want to see that I want to experience that I want that to come back so I can witness that too living here as a resident of downtown St Louis and I think this bill and this investment would go a long way to make that happen so again I urge your support of the bill our next speaker is Charlie hind Hinderer hello I'm Mr hinder liner can you raise your right hand swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes please proceed I'm Charlie Hinderer and I'm here on behalf of St Louis Realtors good afternoon thank you to aloman Boyd and her co-sponsors for their work on this legislation St Louis realtor supports board Bill 131 and in particular the housing provisions of the legislation housing is a Cornerstone for the future of our city it's vital for population growth for stabilizing disinvested neighborhoods and ensuring all residents have access to Affordable and attainable living options as we know housing Supply and housing prices are directly linked expanding and maintaining our housing stock is essential to address affordability while also attracting and retaining residents investing in the housing stock of our city is critical one idea we would encourage you to consider is a pilot program for a rental Improvement fund this program could provide financial assistance to Property Owners to improve their rental housing stock in areas where investment has been scarce helping to ensure safe quality housing for tenants while strengthening neighborhood stability by prioritizing

housing we invest not just in buildings but in people communities and the long-term viability of our city thank you for your time Mercedes Jacobs need to be sworn in or just proceed yeah was okay thank you okay okay hi my name is Mercedes Jacobs I'm here to represent revitalization of baiton Association okay my name is Mercedes Jacobs I'm here to represent revitalization of baiton Association also acronymed as Roba we're very passionate and thankful uh to hear more about Bill 131 and thank you again Alderman Boyd for inviting us to this meeting um in reviewing the the details that was presented we're excited for an opport Unity to create additional stabilization of the economy and infrastructure in the city of St Louis but more so focused for me personally on the city of the north city one of our goals for Roba is to invest today for a better tomorrow and buy accepting this bill that does promote promote and Propel us forward for that stability that we're seeking also includes being more inclusive across the city uh for allocation of funding so that we can build one city not just a north city and a South City again if there's any way that we could support you miss Boyd and continuing to um build out and and support your vial plan that and thank you again for that plan to approach this for North City other regions around we're here and looking for a better tomorrow for St Louis

city we have um Ray Cummings online good afternoon Mr cummies good afternoon you raise your right hand swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth I do thank you please proceed I want to thank God for being here today um and I'm going to thank God for U virtual because if not I would have had this is so important that I would have come on a gurnie if necessary my older woman in the first W I agree with her about the water infrastructure but I remember something when uh the Biden one of those Bill back better one of them they had a lot of money in there as a result of what happened to Flint for the infrastructure cities and I haven't heard anyone talk about how much we got for that the the second thing is uh uh our one of our previous speakers spoke about housing in these areas well housing in these areas uh to repopulate the city has to do with families with children children and I want everyone to understand that we commissioned a report that says over the last seven years St Louis Public Schools has lost over $200 million and it's primarily because of

disparities for poor and black children with this windfall from the uh Rams we have an opportunity now to not only uh uh make The Ledger more to the positive side but to also be prepared for those children when they come uh we propose in these particular areas the model of the most successful schools are the community school model I'm urging uh uh all the woman boy to consider making uh a partnership part of this bill for the full service Community Schools in these areas she is well acquainted with that because she's worked with us in Community Schools over the years also uh we have folks that have talked about closing down schools in those same areas that we're talking about revitalizing with parents and I think it's critical that since uh previous boards down there have whatever they did with downtown and other areas and they had uh as I said $200 million that the school district could have operated this on its own the school district presently has uh uh structures in those areas that could be uh a very good infrastructure to start full service Community Schools with wraparound

Services I just think it's very important to have a schools available for parents if you don't have any schools there what are the parents going to say when they get ready to come for this new housing stock and all that and they saywell where's the school and there's no school Mr Cummings that's your time thank you very much for uh being able to testify before this committee I urge you to vote for uh board Bill 11 131 thank you m speaker is Mr Clarence okay that would be me hello my name is Clarence Jackson H Mr Jackson we got to wait to your video on I'm sorry Mr Cummings I we were made aware we can see your surroundings so I just want to say we're praying for you take care of yourself okay Mr Jackson You Ready for Me M can you raise your right hand it's swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes I do please proceed okay yes my name is Clarence Jackson I happen to serve is the executive director of The ecumenical Leadership Council that is a large body of clergy leaders and unions and elected officials and other individuals uh with the goal of enhancing and advancing the African-American position uh considering that last year there was 149 homicides in St Louis I believe 90 plus perent were African-Americans I believe 60 some odd per of that came from what you would Define Loosely as North St Louis city this injection of of 13 ofx millions of dollars would be 13 1 would be just absolutely needed desperately needed and it can actually revolutionize the PO the ingrain poverty over there the sense of

hopelessness and begin to build and construct the lives that will be equal in in a value uh as we all deserve so yes The ecumenical Leadership Council strongly strongly endorses and is thankful to Alman Pam boy um Local 420 and other and other entities that were forceful for this we like to vote this girl in and hope it God bless thank you okay we have one more speaker and she's in here Andy G hi it's Amy Gil no worries um I know all of you I think you know me I am a longtime lifetime City resident developer it's my home I pay attention to it I call you people I talk to you I ask you to do things and I'm asking you today to pass this bill because what I know is that if you concentrate money in an area it moves the ball forward for that area when we started in the Grove it was the highest um crime rate in the city of St Louis it had the most amount of vacant buildings of any neighborhood in the city of St Louis when we concentrated our money in that neighborhood neighborhood it changed the trajectory for that neighborhood I know this I can prove it I did it in the Grove we did it next to slooh we did it at skinker to Oliver I know it can be done I know that we can make that happen what I would say to you is that some of the other proposals by other leaderships saying we need to save our money in a account that earns 4% is like you would tell your kids that I would tell my kids that you need to save money I would not tell my kids that if they had a home where the roof was falling in and that's the situation that

we're in in the city of St Louis right now we need to spend our money on water infrastructure on the streets on downtown on North St Louis on Dutchtown get some of these large projects going so that they expand exponentially out it's so important it's so important to all of us and I really hope that you guys are hearing this and listening because it's been done I did it I was a part of it I know works please do what works I appreciate your time we have Dan pis online Mr P excuse me Mr piser hello can you raise your right hand and swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth I do thank you please proceed yeah thank you for allowing me the opportunity to speak um my name is Dan pis I'm a uh over 20 year resident in the city of St Louis and I've been living downtown for about 17 years I'm also the chair of the downtown neighborhood association and I uh am highly in supportive of of Bard Bill 131 investments in our infrastructure uh rehabbing building housing and uh and and other critical needs downtown will help Advance downtown and and and help with our perception and help with our um help compete with some of the other cities in in the Midwest and throughout the country um also we've had you know several companies that have unfortunately left downtown for for other areas and uh by investing this type of money in our downtown will hopefully provide a boost of confidence and in others maybe thinking to leave or maybe other thinking about relocating to

downtown so it could have significant impacts throughout uh years to come and uh and and those impacts will be long lasting and very favorable for the city of St Louis if we grow the Revenue Downtown will have more funds to spend throughout the rest of the city on other critical needs so I ask the committee to please uh pass four Bill 131 thank you that's not fine fin speaker all right a boy thank you uh Madam chair I don't know if you anyone has any questions at this time Alman com okay I don't slier thank you so much and thank you to everyone who spoke today I've heard from a lot of the public on this bill and spoken at length with everyone involved so I appreciate all the time that we're putting into this it's certainly a um something we should be putting this much time into it's incredibly important uh I have a few questions one is the Board of Public Service is identified throughout the bill as the uh location a lot of the funds with structure and would be housed uh and for housing as well and I'm just interested in hearing why the Board of Public Service and the conversations that have happened with that department if any I'll let uh Tim M take alderwoman thanks for your uh question I think it's fair to say that um in talking to the sponsors of this bill and then also uh a lot of you and

your colleagues um you know there's not there's not a a clear consensus of where different baskets whether it's this bill or the bill written by old woman son should go I think there's a lot of disagreement and a lot of different feelings about it in in my talks with aloman Boyd I think she and the other sponsors are very interested in hearing about other ideas or directions or where you'd want to take it I think one of the reasons why the Board of Public Service works is that of course it's made up of several cabinet level offices and I think that there's a level of trust in sending it there given given that you've got the the leaders of a whole bunch of operative departments it's also sort of the one key kind of executive board um that you know all of those directors really report up to the mayor so the other thing that was added to the committee sub was language to make it clear that the board should reach out to and coordinate with any City agen Department uh whose experience and expertise would be relevant to any one of these um any one of the initiatives or any one of the Appropriations or programs number one and number two those agencies are directed to provide any and all expertise and help as needed to to BPS so that's where it's at today but I think very welcome I'm sure I'm sure the sponsors are would be very interested to hear if there's specific ideas about specific thank you I appreciate that I've had a few bills over the last few months where we specified the Board of Public Service and then there's the conversation of well are you talking about the board making up of all of those different departments filling out the the board or are you talking about the president's office of the Board of Public Service so I appreciate that that

you all are referring more to the board meaning multiple heads of departments and multiple departments that work together on infrastructure issues the housing piece is the one that it just seems like that was an interesting place to to consider uh the Board of Public Service as a facil um but you know as I've talked with you all about we've had some some programs that are similar around Business Development around housing that have been administered by the city through American Rescue plan act funds that have had issues uh and you know I think we're all trying to avoid putting money in the same place the same pot that is has these issues and you know that is is as you know we've discussed uh uh figuring out the right program the right leadership the right safeguards all of that needs to be built out and and whether or not it's in the the bill allocating funds isn't necessarily clear to me you know it's going to be a lot more a lot more work to do before a dollar goes out the door um so I will keep talking with the sponsor about that question uh to the point about the disinvested neighborhoods definition I know that you showed the map and that was very helpful showing that you're looking at the the um is it EJ1 2 and three or is it is it a a Community Development Administration score card Community the Community Development yeah um and I I appreciate that um I that report I did have to do some digging to to find it so I think you know more and having the map was hugely helpful uh so that may change in time I could imagine there could be changes with the boundaries of that um so perhaps designating a specific uh report or you know score that allows it to you know in terms of you're drawing lines on a map what that line might change one way or another over the time

of getting these funds out the door so that's an interesting point for me um for the piece about that we've talked about and I think Miss Gill's testimony was um very interesting about how how these funds could grow over over time uh would you imagine that if the funds are placed in these sort of distinct funds as those take some time to get spent and get out the door those funds grow in that location so yes it's an original $50 million uh investment into a water fund but if it's not all spent there could be more is that is that the anticipation it's currently drafted that way okay uh thank you very much I think this sponsors would be open to other as i' as we've had conversations they would be open to yeah alderan Boyd has been incredible working with Bill we've had long conversations about all these topics and I know we care about a lot of the same things so I appreciate that um okay well I'm I'm sure I'll have more questions you know one of the things that I think is interesting as I look at the committee substitutes that are in front of us today for this bill and board bill um 153 right um yeah they seem to be coming closer together and I think that is a reflection of the conversations that the aldermen are having with all the sponsors and all of the community uh that is giving us feedback I the number of times my constituents have asked about this bill they want to see water roads they want to see development downtown they want to see development in the um parts of of my ward that just need more uh investment so I appreciate the efforts from you know everyone involved to move towards more consensus there so thank you for your time and I'll yield my the rest of mine aan brownie thank you um I I had a s a lot of similar questions about the use of BPS uh specifically funds having to do

with Housing and Development um I understand a lot of departments fall under BPS but CDA is not one of them uh so could you speak to why we're not putting things especially when it comes to like really something that seems like it's in cda's wheelhouse um why we're not putting that to CDA um you know consistent with what I was saying before really in talking to the sponsors and in talking to some other colleagues you know there was there was a sense that BPS had a you know touched on more than one Department it had perhaps a little bit broader perspective and had the U had the positive of being able to maybe feed yield input from multiple departments that being said there's a recognition and an expectation that those who have the most experience building out housing would be involved in the discussion but likely under the EES of Andor direction of BPS that's the concept here that being said I think the sponsors are very open to sending it somewhere else particularly if there's a consensus but we really didn't see a consensus in our conversations we didn't see agreement ment among among you and your colleagues on where it should go but if that can emerge I think I you know my understanding as the sponsor would would like to would like to you know accommodate that oh thank you and you know to that point about not seeing a lot of agreement I think part of that is because we are currently discussing two separate bills in two separate rooms and that I don't think is helpful towards creating an actual good bill that addresses the needs of our City so at some point in the future I'd like to make sure that we move forward with one bill and uh kind of work on that um I I would like to say I do really appreciate

the intentionality in this bill uh the focus on disinvested neighborhoods uh places in our city that have not received proper care uh when it comes to their infrastructure places that have lost a great amount of housing um you know I heard the statistics you talked about with downtown uh by my calculations and I happy to be wrong about this but by my calculations downtown has lost $330 million in assessed value in a 5year period since 2019 that affects that affects our tax base and our ability to provide city services for everybody in our city um I keep hearing downtown is first and foremost a neighborhood it's not it's a commercial it's a commercial District it's something that really power our city economically and so I appreciate that this money in this bill is treated like the amount of money that it is and is trying to intentionally put it into very specific places that will catalyze additional investment speaking of additional investment uh I've heard that there's an offer of matching funds of $100 million could you speak a little bit more to that uh C yes older thank you for the question um yes um I think everyone should have in their hands now a letter um from our CEO Dustin Allison uh that represents a commitment made um by our investors to not a 100 million but $2 million um for downtown if the city uh uh agrees to the $100 million that is in this bill um we believe just to your point that we've got to get downtown on track to be a generator of tax revenue for this entire city uh we think the city to be quite candid uh the future of

the city really depends on this um and so uh that commitment is real um we think that how that gets spent um needs to be come out of conversations between our investors between City officials um but that commitment is real thank you um on another note can you explain the difference between the dis invested neighborhood infrastructure repair and disinvested neighborhood infrastructure beautification funds sure have to well I I think that it it's um it's it's it's a fairly simple once you get past all the words and I apologize there are a lot of words in in the bill um the the first category is meant to repair what is already in place so we know you walk through disinvested neighborhoods you walk through downtown there are curbs that are broken sidewalks that are broken um the Alder woman has talked to us probably a dozen or more times about kids not being able to walk down sidewalks in North St Louis in similar sorts of situations the elderly so the first category is to address that sort of Maintenance and and uh uh fixing what is broken the second category is to start to reimagine our city as a place that comprehensively is more pedestrian friendly is more bike friendly where we start to in some cases uh uh decrease the capacity for automobiles on streets and give that that space to people um so the second one is meant to be more of a redesign and rebuild the first is for maintenance thank you and so just to be clear when we're spending money on this infrastructure there's notes in the bill and I do I think I appreciate this but um notes in the bill that we're following plans that have been passed by our Planning Commission here at the city uh things like Project Connect uh and

the downtown plan could you speak a little more to uh you know the specificity that this plan has and uh just a little bit about more about where those plans came from yes thank you Alderman so I I think generally speaking this bill is about focused investment to your point you you've made before it's about more money in a smaller area to have have impact that then affects the entire city um by increasing tax base and quality of life across the city thereby um so so I'm sorry I forget the core of the question now if you could repeat just the oh just the plans that this outlines such as project conect in the downtown yes yeah yes so so we know that they're already good plans designed downtown STL plan that was adopted by this body just a few years ago uh we know that their their the economic Justice action plan calls out specific areas the Martin Luther King Corridor for instance that is this has opportunity but needs impactful focused investment so we think that those plans are good plans that we should we should uh respect those plans as we make the specific uh projects and priorities that come out of this bill does that answer your question yeah yeah I think so um just looking at um Are there specific projects that you have in mind so those plans do point to certain things especially streetscape and other plans like that when I think of downtown I think of a big problem with downtown is the infrastructure um as you mentioned crack you know broken sidewalks and um a generally very inhospitable environment to pedestrians uh I also think of roads like Broadway and forth which I think By Design encourage things like reckless driving

uh and just the abundance of one-way streets that I think we at one time thought was a good idea but now in retrospect and with fewer cars on the road have become dangerous Speedways are those things that would be addressed by this plan yes and I'm happy to say that forth Broadway andon are already underway those have been in planning for the last two years um um and um are very very close to starting construction um so yes I think you're pointing to exactly the issues we have streets that do not need to operate as uh apologize for the term ahead of term traffic sewers as some planers call them we need to build city streets for people not just for cars we need to accommodate cars but we need to do both and so those are projects that are already in the pipeline um what is anticipated for downtown in particular and you know I would defer to the Alder woman to talk more about what some of her priorities would be would be to do more like we are doing fourth Broadway in Washington and do you have uh specific projects in mind when it comes to the language surrounding uh large square footage buildings I think the limit there was 200,000 square feet that's a very large number um the presentation had some pictures of some buildings uh buildings some of which are my some of my favorites in the city uh like like Cleveland High School it's a gorgeous building it occupies two square city blocks it's massive it's a huge detriment to the neighborhood it's in and it's current condition is that something that uh even though it's not specifically named in the bill is that something that is like kind of in your sites yeah I think you can read something into the pictures that were in the presentation we think that those are possibilities we think that they're good candidates but once again the final decision has to come out of decisions um with City officials and with the public about the best way to use these dollars in the way that's going to create the

the the quality of life we're after and the tax base that we need okay and the last question I have is uh there's a timetable in this bill uh that kind of denotes how much money should be spent each year why is that in there um and I'm just asking the question because I have some concerns we saw some difficulty spending the American Rescue plan act dollars uh what I am afraid will happen is we're going to get into a situation where we have legislatively on paper a requirement to spend money by a certain St but that we're in reality not able to meet that and uh that would I'm assuming require extra Movement by the board in in the future to then have to reallocate that so why and then that's a chance for things to go arai too right so why is there a timetable I will answer part of that question and ask the older woman and M and uh Mr McConnell to answer the second part that has to do more with the the legal and Technical aspects we think it's important to spend these funds in a short period of time in targeted areas so that table represents that to a degree right so from a planning and a city building standpoint we believe that we need to spend these dollars quickly but but wisely right not not to the detriment of doing making wise decisions but we need to put these funds into the ground into buildings in a way that's going to create the future that the city deserves as to as to the if there are any legal um hurdles that are related to that I'll ask Tim I'll just mention um you know it it really came from some conversations from a number of your colleagues who wanted to be sure that we were being financially and fiscally prudent about uh the funds in the meantime while they're waiting to be deployed and it

was thought that it would be good to give direction and some kind of sense on when we would expect those funds to be needed to be deployed and so that was written in there with that in mind um you know it does not as I read it require that a certain amount be spent by a certain time um we drafted it in a way that we thought was ambitious um but we what we didn't want to do was make sure that funds were tied up in funds that couldn't be you know easily deployed so it's where we tried to strike the balance on what we thought the sort of appropriate time frame would be but again I think in speaking with the sponsors they're very eager to get input on that if if there's a difference of opinion on when those should be available and there's an urgency it's meditative on the mic and I think my thinking is and all of you ought to know me the two words that I always Ed accountability and communication so we put that in there because we felt strongly that it needs to be accountability and so you may also see in the Bild where we're doing audits we're asking them to come back to give us updates to like to your committee for instance they will have to give you a update on where these dollars are what has happened what projects have been addressed because we can't keep putting stuff on paper and then don't have a way for checks and balances so that's why we did it also okay thank you uh really appreciate those answers um I don't have any more questions at this time but uh we did get the committee substitute for both of these bills addressing the settlement about 24 hours ago so um I understand we're going to have additional hearings and just appreciate your time today and um Alder and Boyd I appreciate you

bringing this forward and uh just facilitating this discussion thank you sir Adam Aldridge thank you madam uh chairwoman and members of the committee uh first I want to um kind of step back it's been words saying competing bills one or the other I think what we have in front of us for to all two visions of how we can use these one time uh and a lifetime opportunity the only city have sued the nfo and one to use these funds and look at how they could be generational so we're talking about 131 I want to commend you all the woman Boyd for starting a conversation having a conversation about how do we invest these dollars I think in a critical way oh I heard a clap or something okay I got thank you Alman boy how we you know how we invest these dollars in a critical way you know I've continued to say um you know when I look at your bill you're talking about investing in north side and downtown there is one war in the city of St Louis that touch both of those so I'm hearing from both sides I'm hearing from downtown folks and I'm also hearing from North Side individuals because I have that war and war that do that but I do want to just say thank you for raising the issue of making sure that we invest in those and later on I will bring some forward to make sure that whatever the Avenue is uh that we do that in both pieces of legislation I think you already sawed the com uh conversation on that also I'm loving the collaboration of you know more of both bills are coming together there's still maybe you know some eyes or tees that aren't similar in the legislation but as you said you know some of the things you know with the audit and the oversight uh that was in 153 implementing that the way that the funds would be used and monies and stuff I am glad there's more

uh conversations happening I appreciate uh you've taken on this uh large task is one thing when you're talking about legislation but when you talking about legislation and money's involved that's a whole another conversation because everybody want to look piece of the pie so I do appreciate your leadership on it some of my questions was already brought up by some of my other colleagues I do think the timetable is uh unreasonable you know um coming from state government to city government one thing we know is city government don't move fast uh we've seen that with arpa funds we can all have the grandest ideas and you know at this board of alderman we've passed legislation where we had to come back and amend it because we seen that it didn't work out the right way so I think by putting that timetable in there you you tie uh the hands of the board to actually make sure that these projects are going to be executed if you're talking about revitalizing north side that ain't goingon to happen in 10 years so you know it's going to take time it's going to take more money it's going to take more investment so I think that that timetable uh isn't necessarily uh as you guys are taking input back uh a smart thing to do especially uh Tim as you know city government do not move quick as a former uh employee down at the board second one is you know my concern definitely with BPS um when you're talking about development and housing and you're talking about um stuff that really just isn't BPS responsibility uh if you going to use those funds you know it probably make more sense for housing for you know the the agency in the city of St Louis that actually does that also my fear with BPS is it almost looks like that we are privatizing our funds because what BP s does is a contract out so instead of um you know the decisions kind of being made uh with like more input around like City agencies BPS a lot of times

contract those out when you Contracting out that is privatization and using public funds to privatize ideas which we got past that with the airport you know we not trying to use our money uh to privatization to make anybody more richer so that is my concern with uh BPS also my concern with BPS as an Al the person you know we just had this conversation at the board you know they they don't move as quickly sometimes on projects you know we Wards are waiting for infrastructure um I'm sure all the women boy you probably put in some sidewalk repairs that still haven't got done that's been over a year because of not only the Manpower of the city but just the timeline that BPS move as my question also with that I'm saying a lot of BPS I think hammering that in I want to really hit the nail has BPS been uh part of the conversations because what I see is BPS is being handed Rams money I mean not Rams money uh they're being handed arpa fund a lot of those funds have deadlines to get out and I want to be very clear I think whichever bill passed I want to get nobody hopes up I don't see either bill of these funds being spent in the next year or two years because the priority of the city of St Louis is we have to spend all the arpa funds first we appropriated them but we have a deadline by 20 like 26 to actually spend them that is going to be the city main priority it will not be Rams money I think maybe probably some concerns of colleagues are why are we doing this right now when we need to fiscally focus on making sure that we spend our arpa funds that being said with BPS if we are giving them more money and they are trying to as you said Tim get projects out the door for Paving all these corridors and streets that are already arify I think giving them more money and

less Manpower which is through a budget process will be putting ourselves in a situation where then as Alders we have to come back and answer to people when they say like right now why the arpa funds ain't being moved and we pass this they' be like well why the Rams funds ain't being moved and understanding that arer has to be done first have you uh older woman Boyd or uh GSL Representatives talked with BPS to make sure that they can actually house this money and get these projects out the door and some of these projects they don't specialize in has BPS been communicated with being the holder of these funds and so uh as you probably know we're not voting this out right today what we're doing is in discussions and we want to bring our substitutions before the committee because this is not money that we're going to rush and get out the door because we're trying to make sure one we have a large amount of money for a small area so it's not like we have all this money for the whole city we have a small areas north quarter Southeast town so that's a smaller area area and so it'll move faster so no we haven't had the conversation and that's the next step so we have to talk to them and we still have dialogue that are having with other people in regards to our bill yes and to that I do appreciate I know Al the woman me and you talked uh about this legislation the other day I appreciate the conversation GSL I know we have uh had conversations uh about it so appreciate that and also glad to know that there are ongoing conversations that BPS was not uh part of the original conversation when drafting this but it's a committee sub we'll have more hearings

maybe as we come in the future it be somebody else I think BPS is uh absolutely the wrong Avenue to just as input the wrong Avenue to house his money uh for a multitude of reasons um I'm trying to figure out how to say this so how much money is if I'm looking at the slideshow that I'm I'm a fan of a good slideshow by the way too I appreciate the additional uh money for water infrastructure I think that's critical um just in the last few months I mean I'm dealing with it right now water main break at 20th in soubry you know a 6 in deep manhole uh that has just been problematic we've had had over probably three in the last few months in downtown so I appreciate that intentionality which wasn't originally in the Bill of adding money to water I think the champion uh Madam chairwoman of Pew public infrastructure utilities that meet on Wednesdays at 3:30 have been leading to charge with water and also the alate from the 9th I'm looking at the slideshow I just want to be clear 130 million is going to what we say quote unquote disinvested communities correct and then a 100 is going to downtown correct right to be honest if somebody who have both of those Wards I would absolutely love money going to disinvested Neighborhood because my fear with and understanding that we have to invest in both i w to be clear I think it is critical we invest in downtown and North Side however my fear of seeing 130 knowing that sa north side as we always talk about as North Side Alders have seen Decades of

disinvestment is going to take a lot of money to revitalize that but also north side is extremely bigger than downtown so if we talk about bang for our buck what I see is a smaller and projects are different downtown you're talking about maybe trying to revitalize building so you you need that you also for downtown there's private investors I don't see that in the north side part which I find to be problematic I get GSL y focus is downtown revitalizing that if you're working with uh Alders all woman of the 13th and you know wanting to invest in North St Lew I hope that those private funds and Partnerships that you all talk about also will come up north because 130 million for a large chunk and you also talking about Southwest uh or South yeah Southwest St Louis Southeast Southeast east Southeast St Louis thank you all the woman it is not the same greater impact with 130 that downtown will be getting with 100 million and what I've been asked in GSL is who are those private investors or do you guys actually have a commitment and never have got that answer so I'm glad with the new CEO that we are that you all have that commitment sounds like it's not just 100% 100 to 100 it sound like it's a two to one which is even better keep that same energy in North St Louis because if you're going to say you care about the disinvestment in North St Louis I know the Alder woman does and um I know she has been caring about it way before she served at this body but looking at this piece of legislation I'm not seeing the greatest bang for North St Louis with 130 in downtown having a 100 million that's going to get private investors that can bring in about 200 million it is not as Fair and I would as the bill move on always willing to have conversations

and communicate and work with my colleague but um if you bringing private money to the table uh I think maybe we can start to have conversations of how some of those downtown funds can go more into disinvested neighborhood if we are talking about truly trying to help disinvested which just won't be north of delmare from the scorecard you're also talking about parts of South St Louis yes well thank you for the question the comment Alderman um ju I'll note a couple things I think you're right I think costs of doing things downtown construction for instance are substantially higher than it's a different type of construction uh than in other parts of the city that accounts for some of it but also note that GSL has worked with great intention because we know that the core not just downtown but the core of the city is important to the metro area success right we've worked worked with intention to focus Economic Development efforts um over the last number of years since we've been in existence right amch for instance is a major investment in North St Louis that we think will continue to pay dividends for Generations the ICL deal on the North Riverfront is another of those it's a $500 million investment in North St Louis something that GSL was was in the middle of uh making happen um projects like that we will continue to talk to the city about how we can partner on those and new projects along that line um but we have a strong commitment to North St Louis um our investors to my point before believe that because of the economic generation uh impact of downtown the downtown needs that that additional boost but we are fully committed to in the just as I've described continue to drive forward investment in North St Louis as well yeah and like I said I want to double down and say there is no doubt that we

must in invest in downtown we must put funds in downtown because downtown as I've been getting all the emails to all the folks that also are here as advocates thank youall for showing up and showing out an email continue to do that because that's how you know we're held accountable and get information but within some of those one of the facts that you guys mentioned is 20% of uh I think what is it the the General Revenue from the city comes from downtown so there is no argument there that we need to uh bring back and I think GSL and other partners and elected officials have been working collaboratively to you know bring some of those positive things back to St Louis uh making sure that uh Public Safety with the the neighborhood Walkers the ambassadors the ambassadors you know uh that are down there there's there are some positive things going on to be clear um are you guys committed or maybe you have to go back to your investors and talk is is there a commitment to also ensure that Norths side if a project happened that there can be matching funds also our commitment is to match two to one the money for downtown that is today that and you've got you should have and I apologize if for some reason it did not get fully distributed everybody but we transmitted a letter yesterday putting and writing that commitment $200 million to match $100 million uh from the Rams funds I I hear you Kurt but I'm saying so what you saying is the commitment is just a match to downtown I'm sorry could you repeat you're saying the commitment is just to only match to downtown that's what our investors agreed to when they met last year to make that commitment yes and this Avenue of the bill is being used as that process of matching this money if you get a 100 million from the Rams because that's what's in the legislation is being

used as an opportunity for downtown to get matching funds correct correct yes and what I'm saying is I would love for 130 as we're using One funds let's be intentional let's be honest let's be respectful and also try to make sure that if we're going to use one to get something and then I'm not saying yall going to forget about the other part but I've seen how legislation get done and once people get what they want they walk away I know that is not GSL to be clear but you're using this Avenue of this bill to get matching funds with 100 million and you're putting aside the 130 saying they ideally what I see is they figure out how that investment happens not having maybe the organization of North like downtown has would be a few steps back on some investment and development I don't want North Side to get forgot about because and I know the all the wom's not but I know there's movers and shakers that are on both of these legislations that North Side do not get played and that we only just match for downtown and we leveraging this bill for both parts of the city and then say Okay St Louis or North St Louis and south east or Southwest we doing our thing and you know y'all do y thing the well I I will just note you know the ICL deal that just a moment ago happened within the last few months right so this is very recent demonstrating gsl's and the business community's commitment to North St Louis that will continue that is not going to go away um so that commitment is there um but I I I would just I would

reframe slightly what you said I think that our investors believe so much that downtown is important that they want to sweeten the pot right with the 200 million for downtown yeah um they want to make this an easy decision they once again we've seen the numbers on on the assessors we we had a huge drop we're barely starting to grow again we need to get back to be to where we were before in 2019 and beyond that and it's going to take a lot of investment to do that and that in turn impacts the rest of the city right I think I think you understand our argument about that that gives us more resources to provide services and infrastructure all through uh St Louis and I will I will digress from my my questioning but I just want to really double down that that same energy of private investors and I know you all have relationships and reaches and arms and networks and uh businesses community and all those uh great uh organizations that want to see downtown Thrive and I am appreciative of the work that GSL does go ahead well no I will just note um maybe I should have said this at the beginning we are grateful for the partnership with you being one to downtown Al um you know uh you can back me up on this it's been a great working relationship we just worked on the food truck Bill together yeah yeah um so we understand that I understand you know um where you're coming from on that I'm just trying to describe why we think that downtown investment is so important not just for downtown but for the whole city and again I I get that and I'm here for it and I won't be redundant because probably I'm being redundant is it would be great that North Side can also get that same love of like private investors and so the question that you asked was asked of them already and what

I explain to them I'm a Layman when it comes to development and I'm I'm just that's not my strength but I did tell them I said so if you're telling me that we have developed velopments in North St Louis you will work with us to match and they will say yeah that's what we're trying to do that we're not putting money in the bank we're trying to match to help get the developments going am I correct so that's what they're looking to do but what I'm hearing from and I hear you all the women what I'm hearing from GSL is that they just said they don't right have that match so that is my problem they are saying yes they will but what they got cash in the bank right now is 200 million for downtown right and they have nothing for north side and what I'm hearing correctly from Kurt and Tim is that that is not the plan to match and that's why we're not voting on it and we're still in discussions got it so as I live this long just to go along okay gotcha and I'm just as a colleague and a a Committee Member raising these concerns uh so that as we are in discussion and we not voting on neither bill today for the record that it is raised clear to individuals who have the power to match to keep that same Energy North and I know all the woman that you going to fight for it that's why I am not my energy a really ain't at you because I know you're going to go hard for your neighborhood as you've been since like I said' been in office but is important for the powers to be know that that energy around matching downtown which I support can and should also be replicated up north and it sounds like you having those conversations and willing to help and support whatever way I can I appreciate your leadership on it I look forward to continuing to work

with you talk with you work with GSL to try to figure out uh how do we get to a place of compromise so thank you all the woman for bringing this bill forward you're welcome Vice chair thank you madam chair um I just want to first start by uh thanking the bill sponsor um and acknowledging the work that I mean as the sponsor of the other Bill we're discussing today I have an idea of how much work goes into it and I can only imagine how meetings and you know all the work all the research all the things that have to go into you know putting this together so I just want to you know start by acknowledging Al the woman boy for your leadership and um you know also said that I think that conversation is a good thing I think that dialogue is a good thing I think that ideas and visions and perspectives um being on the table is a good thing and I think that's our job is we're here to discuss leaders uh I mean discuss ideas and discuss things and and bring them forward um so I just want to start by just thanking you for the work that you've done on this um this question um may be probably more for Greater St Louis than um aloman Boyd um but which members of the board of alen besides the bill sponsors have you all engaged in um conversations with so you said what members on the board so we had conversation with Al woman swier Al Alderman brownie Alderman Brett Ryan uh aldrid cover Clark har they conversation bommer they committed committee as a

whole but in the in the development like I know me personally we kind of just had our first meeting so was there was that just for me as the chair of Committee of the whole and other sponsor or were were other alers engaged you know like I imagine obviously the bill sponsors usually those folks are engaged throughout the develop of legislation were there other colleagues of mine outside of Bill sponsors that were thoroughly I only have my seat of knowing I wasn't so I'm asking who were there others that kind of were also not engaged or did you attempt to engage everyone else Alderman along with the sponsors and uh those of us who work for GSL we had conversations with uh we intended to have conversations with every member of the board of alderman uh you and I have had we had conversations last week in which you corrected our misapprehension and suggested that we hadn't spoken with you um I would say that we presented our idea at the very start of the public engagement process you know asked for hearings had hearings but uh we are very sorry that we didn't sit down with you uh to talk about the bill while it was getting developed now and I feel like already been public on that I'm not even getting engaged so I was just honestly asking a question uh you know I've already said it's it's a it is it's very interesting to not engage the person who's chairing the process but I wasn't really talking about me I was just asking was I the only one that had not like that had been engaged in that manner where it was kind of like after the bill was filed after you you know engaged with media and did the interviews was I kind of the only one or were was everyone else pretty thoroughly engaged as you all as you all went I'm sorry when uh I guess if we need starting point um when did you all have the press conference was that in November or October so I guess I'm asking about the timeline of Engagement

was I only know from my seats I'm trying to get an idea of like for all of us outside of me I know we just met last week but for other colleagues were they all given an opportunity to be engaged as we win and I'm not talking about Committee of the whole I chair that I know you guys came and presented and I was happy all that invitation I'm asking did you send since October not like in the last few weeks but what was the actual engagement like with others who were not the bill sponsor well I believe counting the sponsors I believe we probably talked to every member of the board of all have sponsors talked to you about it um any of the four sponsors had any conversations with you about it we've we've had conversations um I mean and obviously I heard when you guys had the bill and we're trying to originally still in the process of searching for sponsors that's why I'm asking because most of my communication has been for my colleagues it has not been from you so I really don't know I'm always going to talk to my colleagues I work with them every day I'm asking as someone who's backing this bill and who's bringing it Forward what has your communication been like with all of my colleagues I communicate with them and work with them on a daily basis so I we are in communication but that's fine I think I kind of we we can we can leave it um I think that a lot of my other questions have been asked I did have a question just specifically to the housing portion of you all bills um it talks about just the substantial sums for rehabilitation of high impact building and projects to eliminate blight and I did like the different uh pictures and specific projects that you all picked out um I was just curious how does your bill Define blight or you going to be going have you are you going to be going with the Missouri State definition or how how would you go about identifying you know which buildings are blighted and which ones are not and I think especially when we talk about um when you you only right now at the moment have matching funds for downtown um but we know that there's a lot of disinvestment that happens on a North St

Louis in North St Louis but we know that blight um has been used for parking lots in the city of St Louis before so it's a very flexible uh kind of loose definition so I'm just curious what are you all thinking of when you when you say blight and do you plan on going with the Missouri definition I I could I could take a that at that first thank you for the thank you for the question allom and I'll probably have uh Cur Kurt speak to it as well you know really it's not meant to cite a certain a certain legal definition because in fact there are some different ones there's not just one Missouri there are different statutes for different programs it's meant to invoke the statutory requirements for different types of development and to be open for different types of development Vehicles when it comes to you know statutes that that uh you know a lot of the development bills that you get they'll actually be under a certain statute and so it's not meant to be exclusive of any of those it's meant to be inclusive of all of them number one number two I'll let Kirk talk to this but I don't think there's any interest in or requirement that something be blighted to be included it doesn't need to be blighted necessarily in an official legal capacity it's meant to be a more general term so but we also would expect that the city and its development agencies and advisers would have recommendations on what projects would be put forward and those projects would go through the normal course it would they would come before you etc etc so it's not it's meant to be more General and not specific or or or nor is it supposed to be limited only to those that have actually gone through an official but if but if if the pro if the project needs that then we're saying these funds could be

used for that yeah if I me oldw woman uh I will just add to that that uh I agree with what Tim said I'll take an example there's there's a vacant lot and a parking lot in a section of Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard right um that may not qualify as a blight as blight by itself under Federal other standards however that's where the catalytic kicks in right if there is a project there that is going to be a catalyst for that neighborhood then it would be eligible for the use of these funds in other cases you would really be depending more on the fact that this building is is causing the entire neighborhood around it to deteriorate and would focus more on the on the blading influence but to Tim's point this is more to invoke this sense that we need to remove blight and create cat catac clyc investment in these communities and I think you know how that happens where it happens like we've talked about before needs to be part of a robust conversation between the city officials us where it makes sense and others in order to make those decisions um I just so uh I serve as Vice chair hoods I'm very into Housing Development I think it's important to have some definition of of blight even if it's the federal one or the state definition just because I think that gives a clearer picture of like other things that we've done in a city and identified as blight and it actually is a very flexible you know loose things it it it's been used all across so it's actually very open um by the state definition a lot of places within the city of St Louis could could count as blight we've seen it used on different types of projects in all type of geographical areas but I'm really not I I think it's better to be specific so that it's a little bit clear on like where the intended goals are for like investment with something that's been identified as as flight um and do you all

I know that you said you're referencing the economic Justice Center at EJ1 kind of that plan when you say disinvested areas but um are you are there considerations and conversations of kind of adding some more specific identification um within the bill that specifically pools identifies like the economic Justice tracks or kind of just making a little bit clear of what you mean by disinvested areas sure so what what the original Bill and what um what the committee sub both refer to is a uh talks about the composite index of 40.6 which is a figure that CDA has used for a number of uh projects uh you are um eligible if you're within those tracks um so we referenced that in the committee sub we realized that it wasn't necessarily so easy for people to get a picture of that that includes eji 1 eji 2 and some parcels in E3 so we started with the with a c CDA standard that they had used for a number of projects that I think had been associated with arpa used 40.6 of The Benchmark and then the committee sub we actually Ed the uh mapping tools that the city has to actually list every census track that is actually above that index so but again you know I think the sponsors would be open to other possibilities and other definitions if if there's a consensus or an agreement that they should be changed yeah and just I think it's kind of along the lines of what other colleagues flag with the composite score being used and that just being so specific to like 40.6 I just think um which again is legislation but just kind of getting a little bit clearer on like what specific things are because you know I think a lot of people would look and see a composite school or not because that's very specific to that one project that CDA did it's just not like widely known of what necessarily people are referencing and that's the same thing like when you use the word blight I don't think that gives a clear if you're not pointing to a specific definition it doesn't let people know exactly what you mean especially because the city of St Louis has used black quite a bit I think people get kind of

almost instant pictures of you know what could qualify and where it could go um and then I also had a question and maybe this is you guys might still be in discussion on this piece and a boy might be able to speak to this um because I'm sure I know she's probably been a leader of those conversations um I was curious about we had a nice amount of folks show up and ask about kind of community schools and uh wraparound Services um is that something that you all are I know it's not currently in the build now but is that something that maybe is a part of the conversation or is I'm just trying to figure out is that something you guys maybe have discussing or is that something that kind of community is asking for yeah that's something we've been I've been in communication with them in regards to that because I do feel strongly that if we don't have those Community Schools we don't build those communities and so what people have to understand and no offense to the people that are half my age I put it that way for 70 years North St Louis has been told they're going to fix it and for 70 years it hasn't happened and I keep saying you keep pushing us on the back burner so this bill is it has North St Louis in it it has Southeast St Louis in it but this bill is about a city of rebuilding a whole city we lost 30,000 people in three years and so my vision is to rebuild the city if I if we rebuild North St Louis and Alman Aldridge is correct it won't happen in two years but it has to be a holistic package and so Community Schools building homes with three and four

bedrooms into those communities so those kids can walk to those schools that's how you start building the tax base so it's not about technically Greater St Louis it's not about North St Louis it's not about St St Southeast it's about St Louis city that's on fire and we got gas on the Flames so I have to push for area that has been neglected for 70 years and so that's what this bill is about and so it's more conversation that's going to happen as we go on down the road but Greater St Louis knows where I stand and I can't settle for anything less than to build North St Louis and Southeast St Louis so I can help downtown build their tax base thank you yeah AB absolutely I think um you know like I said in the beginning I started by acknowledging your work and uh you know for me even in my short two years and seeing just kind of the interesting role that we have as alers you know I have not served as long as you I am less than half your age um but understanding your like reading the bill you know we're just in committee and I actually used to serve on the board of education so I actually even though I'm not your age I actually have learned in depth and got a lot of presentations on how wraparound uh Community Schools used to work and the wraparound services that they had and the type of resources so I was just asking specifically about that component because I'm actually very interested in that and think that's like a great idea um and again I think we're all here because we have visions for our city I don't think we're all I don't think there's any disagreement on the idea that our city needs help and we need to

move forward I think we're just here to discuss how and I think that's our our job so there's no slight there I just would you know look forward to seeing this the first time I heard the mention of like Community Schools or wraparound schools because it's not in the legislation I'm excited to hear it I'm glad the community is coming and rallying for that and that's something that yeah used to be very big in a district the city actually used to help to fund and pay for those schools um they can have a lot of impact on communi so I was just interested in like what has a conversation been like and what might the incorporation of that look like since it's not actually in a legislation but with such a point of of public comment um my other point my other question was I know the brick line Greenway to the arch was mentioned um and actually have had some been having some conversations um with the brick line Greenway um is that are you all it was it was mentioned and I know they're you know they've kind of gotten funded they' started they're in the process of pursuing some federal funding so are you thinking potentially with this bill being helping to fill those gaps that may be left if there's if they don't get Federal funding that they're that they're seeking um potentially I think it's not off the table I think that uh that's an important project for downtown it's unfunded downtown except for what's already occurred at at city park from there on to the east it's unfunded we know it needs to be funded and so I think this is you know what this bill is about I've said this before is public private partnership us coming together to figure those problems out together and so you know the answer is perhaps um I can tell you that that we understand at GSL from a city building and urban planning point of view that we need to create communities that are built for people I've mentioned this before in the bike uh infrastructure The Pedestrian infrastructure parks are an important part of that and so we know that we as a community have to fund that project and

uh the rest of the Gateway Mall that is adjacent to it which is underperforming we've talked about that a lot at GSL um so I think those decisions are yet to be made but um that kind of amenity for for the city is important to us so just to clarify you haven't exactly identif those projects in the presentation were just potential things that could be funded because my concern was like I think the brick line Greenway may have a lot of their funding already and from my recent conversation think they will actually be receiving the rest of the funding that they needed but it was in a presentation but you're saying that those were examples not necessarily that you guys have pinpointed specific things you'd like to find the catalytic projects on that slide you're asking about yes none of that is in stone um you know I I have to say both things it's not in stone but we you know um um that that those pictures of those three came to discussions that we had with Alders and with with others in the community and so we know that those are priorities um they very well could be um um uh projects on which These funds are used but no this bill does not say that um it does reference um certain projects of certain sizes as was mentioned before which we think certainly points in that direction and so I think we need to take that into consideration but we think that those projects are critical um for their various parts of downtown or for I should say for the city Railway exchange critical for the future of downtown there is not um a way forward in terms of development of the core of downtown that does not uh involve the Redevelopment of Railway exchange it is an incredibly important cultural and emotional asset for this whole city we've got to find a way to get that done and these funds absolutely um um could be a an excellent vehicle to make that

happen Okay and taking us back to uh kind of the earlier point do you uh knowing that we in session February 8th uh for the board of alderan and there's conversations about you know there's no matching funds right now for north city but potentially they may be do you all think I guess have you started those conversations with your investors about the idea of getting matching funds for North City we've had the conversations that I've described which is that we know that there is investment that is required in north city we have not included that as part of this conversation as a particular match um I want to be clear about that but we continue to have conversations about how our investors can help to drive I'm having a decipher a lot I'm just trying to get to my answer you you have not had a conversation specifically in reference to this bill about what it might look like to have match INF funds for North City no there's no I can say there's no commitment to that right now okay that I think that was clear in the letter that we transmit okay thank you that's my questions Madam chair all righty I I just I need to correct something I said there is actually language I recall now in the bill that does um direct some of the funds particularly for Southeast St Louis and for downtown toward projects like Railway exchange and Cleveland school um I we have similar language uh in there for for uh North St Louis I think it may not be as restrictive I would have to ask Tim to weigh in on that but um but anyway we think that so there there are square footage um uh elements to this bill that basically speak to the fact that we need to take on big catalytic projects it goes back to our conversation before um it does not make sense to do a bunch of 30,000 foot

projects in most cases we need to do things that are going to help change the direction of communities whether that be North downtown or Southeast and so that is that is something I think we need and that's why we use the word catalytic is these projects need to be big enough to make an impact and to change the direction of the communities in which they uh stand I guess uh my final comment would just more so be something that I know we're in conversation about um you know I think what is clear today and obviously I'm you know there's another bill for discussion today is that the bills are getting closer and closer to each other they are starting to mirror each other I heard several references where you all uh you know said well we like this about the bill we like that about the bill I think all of us have been in communication with our colleagues and I think they've been very clear that they like certain components of this they like certain components of that um so I just just want to make sure on the record and while folks are here that I'm making it perfectly clear that I think it would be possible for all of us to get together in a room and figure out if there is something we can land on I really strongly dislike the false narrative that's been painted and I think the position that some of us are in unfairly is there's a narrative either downtown or this and I actually think that that's so unfortunate because all of these things are interconnected and if you really look at the text of these bills they really are getting closer and closer and I think what we owe to the city of St Louis as leaders in the public and private sector is to you know take our put our big girl big you know I'm say big girl I just default to woman but put be adults let's be leaders let's get in a room and let's have a conversation because we have mutual interest there is possible that these bills could merge obviously no bill will look like what it looked like when it was filed but we could show the city of St Louis what they deserve we're in such a point of Crisis and there's such a need and there's such an opportunity there's no need for her to be adversarial I don't believe that some of the binaries that have been C created you know exist I don't even care about how any previous communication um has been you know for me whatever I could do

on my end to open up that door and to say hey it seems like we have something here it seems like we're getting closer and closer to interest we're being able to identify people's perspective we've gotten a lot of community input we did have a committee of the whole process that has 16,000 residents engaged and you all were here every month for those hearings it is possible and I think we are looking at the opportunity to come together and have this conversation and I think that is like when you're talking about transformative for the city city of St Louis that's transformative there's a lot of silos there's a lot of clicks there's a lot of competition that's unnecessary and I think as Leaders it should just be more about collaboration and we should just get in a room all of us both Bill sponsors all of the interested parties the investors you guys have matching funds that can make some of the things in these bills really reach far and go wide you know I think there are some excellent components of you all's bills and I think that's the Democratic process and so you know whatever may have come across to you all on my end that might have sent a message that I'm not open to communic that's not true I'm 100% open to communication I welcome us to get in the room I would love for us to be able to come together and say hey we' got something that this is hey we we can get we can all get behind this and I think that's what our people and our city deserves and I think that that is transformative behavior that will also help us to transform systems because this is how the city of St Louis have functioned with the decision making too long and I'm just truly not you know interested in that I think this is a stylid bill I appreciate the way that some things are framed in this bill I appreciate the adding the water infrastructure component clearly we're taking things from each other's bills and incorporating them let's just get in a room and figure out what it looks like to put all these things together and I think that overall everybody in this room people at home you know opposers and supporters would support that so I just want to make sure that I do you know put that on the table to you all that I think um they're getting closer and there's probably a way that we could come up with something that could best work for everyone hi I on boy thank you madam

chair uh I appreciate everyone for listening to us today and as we said we have more work to do and but at the end of the day that we have to make sure that we focus on improving our city and so on that I'll close thank you Vice Chair say on board bill3 for okay you all know I have a presentation for you as I always do and of course it's purple as it always is um I just first want to thank my colleagues we are it's 2:30 we started at 11:00 you guys are hanging in here um so I just want to thank you all for being here and also

everyone else who's in attendance I know Folks at home have many responsibilities many folks you could be people are watching at home and you know I think it's tremendous that we are having this conversation in a public and transparent way so I just want to start by extending my gratitude um for that piece of it um and so um this is going to be a very sweet simple presentation because we've already had a presentation before when I'm rank to kind of go in depth but with this knowing that you all did get the committee substitute um not that long ago I just want to walk through basically some of the major the major changes that are in the committee substitute so as we have discussion today you guys are clear and on the same page with what with what you know is in the committee substitute um and we can go to the next slide and as that is pulled up um we are just basically aen just understanding the general gist of board Bill 153 that basically establishes three large pools of funds the Citywide infrastructure fund that is broken down between water and infrastructure and other infrastructure needs and then a Community Development Innovation fund and a St Louis Futures fund so just uh regrounding us and kind of like General structure of the bill and I'll wait because we're going to get into the text of the committee substitute um now um but the first big change that is in the bill is on page seven lines one through five um we've been in communication with colleagues as well as the Water Division and we we want us would you like for us to adopt it okay yes um yes I would like to for someone to make the motion I'd like to

make a motion that we adopt the committee substitute to board Bill 153 it was moved by Alderman alge seconded by Alan slicer previous RO with a call for previous role we've adopted committee substitute please proceed um they just made a motion to adopt the committee substitute and seconded and so that's been adopted now and so um next slide please next slide thank you um the first change that we made in the committee substitute is for the Water Division um we've been having having some subsequent consequence conversations with the Water Division and with Alders um and there was a desire to make sure that the budgetary process of how funding from that fund would work and so we just wanted to clarify that um the way that that would work and you'll see a couple of things added um around some of the funds is we would be following the bard of alman's budgetary process so that Charter uh section that's outlined is the city's budget process and so the Water Division would essentially recommend Appropriations to us uh via the board of estimate and a portion and then they would then send those through the board of alderman um in some in my conversations with colleagues it was just to ask to make a lot of questions about well what are alers roles on these on these funds how will we continue to be made aware of of the process that is made um and how transparent will that process will be and so I know some of us Ser home budget together will go through that process and that will kind of be how we make decisions and that will allow every to have a say in those process and be aware as Appropriations are made we do with other funds and then it will also allow for um um for a public process so that also members of the public can and know as that's happening next slide um the other section um so this bill has been on the Citywide has been

on the portal and so residents have had the chance to give comments and we've also had conversations with colleagues again and there has been a lot of feedback about the mobility fund and so the committee substitute add some language that clarifies that we want to incorporate the findings of the transportation and Mobility plan um they've just got done doing a a lot of work um there will be a little bit longer before the TMP report comes out um but we certainly want to make sure that there is room as you know these whether it's the complete streets committee the city's Capital committee the um you know the Mobil transportation and Mobility fund we want to make sure that all of these things that the city already has as very uniquely engaged are a part of this decision making and then we also um found a really helpful tool that was in another piece of legislation that referenced the high Injury Network and if you go on the high Injury Network there's actually a map where you can see where the most accidents and fatalities happen throughout the city of St Louis and so wanting to make sure that these funds are targeted to where there is um and then I believe there'll be um you know I'm happy to send you all a link to the little to the map where it shows but the the highest incidents are um really in downtown and in uh north city but there's a very cool mapping tool that maps that out as well next slide um this is also just for a further clarification on the timeline line and the process again there was a lot of questions about specifics of how this work this would work so this is just being clear that the capital committee would be the one to develop and recommend those Appropriations and then um it would go through the Capital Improvements planning and the budgeting process as you know I know most of my colleagues and I are familiar with next

[Music] slide um this is to add clarification at the last hearing that we had um Automan schweer um really did a good job of saying hey I see that you're saying that you're prioritizing city workers but what does that really look like it's not really clear and so like H how exactly would that work and so this is meant to clarify that point of you know when you're saying that you're going to start and prioritize city workers that that would look like giving them first priority and access to benefit from the programs next slide um this is a um again um made to clarify the process and the timeline for the children and families fund so just making sure that there's an understanding that these things will fall in line with our budgetary process um so that we don't have to duplicate anything and it can work within a process that we are all familiar with next slide um again this is more clarification langage on what it means for first priority um and uh we kind of each I'm just breaking it down for you all as you move throughout the bill and so for each fund that gave prioritization just wanted to make sure we were clear on what that looked like and that the timeline is clear as well next slide again more clarification language this is for the Community Development um Innovation fund just outlining that again the expectation is that these thing will go through our budget process and we will all be um decision makers that are involved and so my part of the presentation was um very clear but we do have Department here who are very excited to speak today and I know you guys are very uh busy and have a lot going on so I appreciate you for being involved in this bill um and being here um today but we will uh uh start with I

think we're starting with water we're starting with water yes I think we're going to start with water yes okay so um I'm going to just because you are new so just G give you the opportunity to kind of intro yourself um and then you can go ahead and begin and I think they're working on getting that pulled up now perfect hi there good afternoon uh Madam chair rest of the committee I do have some slides that are coming up here I wanted to thank you all for the opportunity to speak um been following this process along for a long time really appreciate the the way it was put together thought out the input offered to the community uh and also to uh the consideration for the Departments so uh wanted to talk about the Citywide water infrastructure fund uh next slide please so this is uh little bit of an overview of what I'm going to talk about uh a little bit of background and history on the Water Division uh and then also uh to define the needs for the Water Division currently today uh go into uh some planning that we've been doing ongoing planning that we work on uh identifying these needs uh refining them uh putting uh dollars in costs to them uh then also the value of having a fund like this how we can leverage those dollars maximize the the benefits to the city um and then a little bit on the board Bill uh you know how it's structured how it works uh as it pertains to water and then the impacts to the city of St Louis Water

Division uh customers next slide please so I know the text is small but uh I wanted to to highlight that there's a lot of history to the Waterworks in the city of St Louis um you know we're coming up on 190 years of Municipal ownership of the water utility uh you know it started back in 1831 uh when the city contracted with a private entity to build a Waterworks for the city the population uh in 1831 was 6,000 people um what happened around then uh the the funding ran out for the private entity so the city took it over uh we actually purchased uh the rights to it for $188,000 pretty good deal um going uh forward to 1871 the City's population was growing uh 3 people uh we built the first uh major upgrade which was Bissell Point Waterworks uh you know that cost $3 million at the time uh had a rated capacity of 40 million gallons a day um fast forward a little bit to today and you see the the population continuing to kind of increase Through The Years uh until it starts to decline but uh effectively were designed for a million people um you know the city footprint all of the water mains the treatment plants you know it it's certainly got some capacity but also some age and along with that comes some higher costs so um you see our customer base over there uh the flat rate the metered our average daily pumping um and you know what that uh equates to is is uh you know a cost for the service right right so we are an Enterprise fund uh we operate on the revenues uh one of the benefits of that is that uh we can

actually leverage uh bonding authority to to go out for loans uh to do some of this Capital work that is uh costly but is part of the planning process renewal process in order to go out for for those bonds though we have to have revenues supported um the need is is pretty great so the amount of of loan funding that's out there for this the amount of of bonding that we would have to to put out there um it would have a great impact to the rate pairs so one of the huge benefits of this infrastructure fund and this infusion of of money potentially for the the Water Division is that we could minimize the impacts of those rate increases to the customer base um we can leverage these dollars for for some time to come it can keep our projects going and we don't have to go out for a major rate increase to to to get started here so um a little bit about the footprint I talked about the the scale of of the water system but basically it was designed uh you know for a million people and we do have 1300 miles of main uh over 26,000 vals over 15,000 fire hydrants um and the redundancy in the way it's designed has benefited us time and time again um you know we have multiple plants um we have this capacity which is great it benefits the Reon region uh it generates Revenue for the city uh and also uh you know affords expandability um having said all that we need to take care of it uh we need to invest in it um you know this is not a problem unique to St Louis water infrastructure is sorely needed across the country uh the EPA estimates a very big price tag uh yeah that's the right side so $625 billion for uh drinking water upgrades nationally um you know what that amounts to is approximately

the amount of need that we've identified uh so far but there's uh need to to refine that that cost estimate but it's over $500 million of capital investment needed uh that works out to approximately the same per capita as that estimate by the EPA which is probably not enough because it doesn't include some of the newer uh things that are out there emerging contaminants uh LED uh so uh that cost will be a little bit higher as we move forward here um I mentioned that the city is an older City so uh that does increase the the price tag sum uh we do have a lot of older infrastructure um but basically we need to to be doing this work and looking at this now so this is very timely that we're talking about uh a fund to to be able to get started on this uh next slide so uh the Water master plan is is something we've been working on we've talked about before uh we're actually getting really close to to starting that agreement and getting into core work um you know in anticipation of receiving some funding we have talked about increasing the scope of that to actually be more comprehensive um and what it'll do is it'll provide a road map uh there's key aspects that'll look at demand projections uh there's some potential for expansion or growth obviously uh with the City's population having been declining but uh we can support a lot more use cases for water so we do sit at the Confluence of two major rivers we don't have some of the source water problems uh exist out west so um it's something that's economically attractive for the region um this will provide a long-term uh plan uh that will take a look at at at least a 20-year Horizon for uh providing a cost associated with the capital work required to to meet the needs of

modernizing renewing upgrading the infrastructure and it'll do conditional assessments of the the water treatment plants the distribution system uh and then also take a look at some of the regulatory Finance funding uh but ultimately the deliverable will be a renewal and capital Plan cost figures associated with that next slide please yeah oh this is correct yeah so um um you know this board Bill 153 the Citywide water infrastructure plan um you know it's going to be used to establish a capital fund if it a bill comes to fruition and this will separate the the capital emergency fund um contingency fund that we currently utilize for uh attempting to use for for long-term capital projects to leverage to go after these these low interest loans uh one of the things is as you all know we've had struggles keeping up with the rising costs due to covid um you know for for public health and safety supplies for water treatment so we haven't been able to go after some of those dollars uh for the capital work that we've needed so we've been doing the planning but we haven't had access to some of the funding that's out there uh that looks like the bipartisan infrastructure law or state revolving funds these are highly subsidized uh you know loan products so there is a requirement to pray pay back the principal um one of the huge benefits of of this though is you can spread the cost out over time 20 or 30y year term uh and the interest rate is again subsidized uh at 30% of the market rate so as we're paying principal on these loans that we can obtain uh that fund does sit there growing uh so you're actually just pulling out a small amount at a time but this you know is one of those things

that requires Revenue uh to support that loan uh so this would allow for that um an example if we were to go after a $40 million loan uh to start uh which we've applied for approximately that amount uh been put on a fundable list um you know at the end of 20 years depending on the the interest rates that we're earning on the in the fund uh we may be sitting at over $20 million at the end of that so there is some benefit there uh to letting it grow while you're spending it down over time uh again I want to commend the process you know that this bill uh you know is just a step along the way of uh there's been a lot of talk about utilizing the growth aspect of a large fund like this uh you know we want to take every opportunity for for this money to do that so uh that's where that that benefit of the subsidize rate and leveraging the the growth compound uh potenti is the public input aspect uh you know we heard uh alongside with with all the rest of the public that this was going to happen the way it did and uh we were following along all the way and I think the the public spoke so um and then the community engagement um the committee of the whole uh all those meetings uh we followed along closely with that as well and then the co Coalition that's being built right now with all these uh players so the onetime funding source um it's really well suited for infrastructure um you know there's been investment in the water uh system over time it happens in Cycles it hasn't happened for a long time and I think we owe it to the Future generations to uh do that now um you know this isn't really an

option um water is critical uh to Public Health to safety uh to community and also to economic growth as I mentioned so uh we talked about the benefits uh for this funding for the Water Division uh and the customer base um you know it'll help us uh fulfill our Mi Mission better so there's been a few Decades of deferred Investments uh heard the term kicking and can down the road um it's been challenging to get rate increases to support the needs for a long time because of that uh we understand that uh and right now we do have some of the lowest rates uh in the country especially for a a city as old as ours of the same size as ours uh I've highlighted that you know our average quarterly bill is $104 in the city of St Louis um in Kansas City it's over $160 and St Louis County it's over $170 and they've got a rate increase on the books right now that they're trying to go after that would actually bring it over $236 for the quarter so uh we're less than half of that um you know every dollar that we receive we put back into the system we don't have profit to make so um we want to focus on uh our customers we want to you know maintain the high quality we want to improve the reliability of service um we want to improve the resilience against extreme weather events there's been a lot of news surrounding water crises uh even the past couple of weeks here I've heard of a large system serving 2 million people uh up near Baltimore and DC that put everyone on restricted use uh it it's due to main breaks basically they can't keep pressure in the system and so they've asked everyone to reduce their usage

consumption to essential use only um you know big cities are not immune this has happened in Houston Richmond uh Jackson and of course back to Flint so the dollars that we spend today um and we do need to spend the dollars today uh to to gain the the full benefit here um you know construction costs are just continuing to rise if we wait then we're losing money so uh we do intend to put these dollars to use immediately going to let it sit there and going unused uh we're going to leverage it to get uh you know the the federal funding that's subsidized uh that were owed um at this point I would entertain any questions uh but that's the the end of my presentation is a we go a Miss slicer thank you so much for being here director I I appreciate the update and you know I'm a a supporter of the the Water Division and and really glad to see that both of the bills we're considering for Rams funding have such a sizable investment in our water infrastructure I uh have very familiar with the information you presented today the one thing I will continue to advocate for along with the master plan is a rate sufficiency in equity study we know that we have customers that are metered that are unmetered we know we have businesses nonprofits that are paying different rates we know that even with this investment of capital we are depending on the rate payers in the city of St Louis to handle emergency repairs and just the everyday uh happenings of the Water Division and you know we're we're raising our rates on um really old

numbers from a really long time ago and then we just keep up increasing them as a really knowing what each type of customer should pay and I think that is just crucial especially as we make investments in the Water Division especially as we have these Capital Investments to make sure that the billing that is uh occurring to our to our residents in the city of St Louis fair for them as well so anytime I have an opportunity to say that out loud I'll take it so I appreciate all the work that you're doing and how you've been I really appreciate your leadership thank you thank you adman brownie director I I appreciate you being here today and and speaking to this um like my colleague said I appreciate that both of these bills have money for water uh because it is I think the one thing we can all agree on uh and at the end of the day I hope that we are able to support that um hold on can't be hurt someone okay that's better um so to that end uh you said there's about a $500 million list of needs in our city is that accurate uh that's what we've calculated internally we've been keeping track but again this is premaster plan so they're going to take a fresh look at it uh it's a comprehensive Consulting team that that has expertise in this area um and can bring a fresh perspective to to actually come up with the the com comprehensive list and when we were discussing raising the water rate last session uh I think we were given a list or maybe it was this session during one of the committee the holes I can't remember we were given a list of um about 130 million of what we're deemed like critical needs yes uh is that something that we that would be prioritized if this money was was given

to the Water Division sure that's the that is the the critical list um it's it's shorter term look uh at what we need now um it involves a lot of water main related projects water plant related projects uh but that would be something that we would prioritize that's good to hear I also I know the list includes like restaur ation of the water intake towers that kind of make our city special and unique um helping repair some of those really unique water towers that we have there's like three of them in the city and it's like there's only seven Nationwide so it makes St Louis rather special um I just have to ask those those would be on that list as well correct we're going to uh take a look at at all of that priority uh you know critical need list um I don't believe the water towers are there but we're actually doing some work towards uh you know having them evaluated now um you know I think it would be a little bit uh you know wrong of us not to consider some of the the activities related to the water master plan uh what that initial assessment looks like to try to spend uh money towards some of those projects on that list uh but certainly the the critical water main needs and and we do have funding uh for Capital work that we utilize we have some dollars that we're utilizing so it's not that we're at a standstill here it's just that this will really jump start uh some major projects which we haven't been able to approach due to the costs this bill has 40 million I think the bill we last heard had 50 million obviously that's not enough to pay for all these needs but can you speak a little bit to how you seek to leverage that money sure so um you know the way the bills are set up um we would have to to do an and budget process right so we would seek uh these

low interest loans uh we would take a look at at how much we could get um and you know that's where that kind of comes into play I mentioned a potentially a $40 million loan but I think you can leverage it for a lot more than that especially with uh the fact that we did just get the rate increase so uh you know that's a a consideration that the state uh would would uh take in as far as the amount that we would be approved for um you know there's a a debt coverage ratio requirement associated with that uh we wouldn't want to Max that out um but we would take a look at at how much would be meaningful to to start as an approach um and you know the way it would be set up we would not take uh or appropriate annually out of the budget more than we would need for the principal payments uh associated with that it does allow for some emergency Provisions um it did run run out of contingent funding um and we didn't have enough uh to to meet the need for a particular emergency we could consider um you know doing an emergency appropriation to to be able to to fund that um but as far as as as that goes you know we know that that 40 million is not enough but it can defer a rate increase uh you know and and allow us to get started and we would be looking to to leverage that for for more than the $40 million or the $50 million whichever the Imp is so that's good to hear and so can you speak to your Readiness to utilize this money is because we're speaking of some pretty critical needs it sounds like and there's some urgency you mentioned Rising construction costs uh what is the water division's Readiness to take this money and put it to work so we have some projects that are designed uh you know shov ready if you will they haven't been bid um part of that is is exactly what we're talking about we didn't have the

revenue base uh to apply for loan funding we certainly couldn't do it out of our annual capital budget um and so uh they're ready to go but they are sorely needed this is intake related work at at chain rocks treatment plant uh we have other needs such as uh pumping unit Replacements um those projects are almost complete uh in design we would be again ready to to bid that um and you know these are contracted projects they don't require uh Staffing that we don't have uh at the moment so we could uh move on these relatively quickly one of the other benefits of this funding is it's not tied uh specifically to to Federal funding that has uh a number of of requirements uh they call them Federal Cross Cutters uh that can greatly inflate the price of a project uh you know right off the bat so um we would take a look look at actually maximizing the benefit of utilizing either the the Citywide water infrastructure fund versus um you know a federally funded uh loan that would come with those Cross Cutters uh based on the the estimates of uh impact to the cost total cost of the project so uh that's another way we intend to to take a look at this excellent well I really appreciate that I hope that uh no matter what happens with these bills we're able to get you some of that money so that we you get these critical projects done for our city and I just as always appreciate the work that you do thank you an audre okay questions yeah so um I I I think I mentioned this earlier but um you know the the engagement portion the Coalition portion you know this board bill is something that we've been working on uh you know with multiple City leadership

um you know from the mayor's office to the board of alderman the president's office uh you know we put in some engagement and input that uh enhanced the language in the bill uh actually prevented um some some issues with uh Charter impacts uh and and and really added it uh to it to to make it be flexible the needs of the Water Division as we you know are in a critical time here we've been doing this planning for many many years but this funding hasn't been available so having a seat at the table before uh you know this this was introduced uh having input uh was critical thank you so much all right thank you no will sorry director feifer good afternoon my name is Noel feffer I lead the city's Community Development administr Madam clerk oh perfect you read my mind and then uh our team is going to distribute some folders here um which uh include both today's presentation as well as uh Maps detailing uh some of our investments by Ward uh and uh I want to start by commenting on the title of the presentation here the Rams housing and neighborhood Development Fund prospectus and the use of the term prospectus is intentional here because what we're doing is proposing an investment to prospective investors and those prospective investors are you the members of the board of alderman but more broadly the people of the city of St Louis who you represent uh and so what we'll be going over today as we move to the next slide uh is uh a proposed investment fund uh into housing uh and neighborhood uh development uh in covering the purpose and principles of these Investments the products and

Partnerships uh which we will leverage uh the processes uh and prior ities uh that we will use to deploy These funds and the objectives uh and outcomes uh of this fund if you'll indulge me though going back for a moment um if you'll indulge me I'd like to go back nearly 10 years to 2015 when this committee was considering the city's proposed $150 million investment in the ram Stadium I'd recently started in mayor slay's office and was charged with calculating the Project's direct and indirect return on investment I found that the City's investment was being leveraged over sixfold for a billion dollar project and the city would break even on direct tax returns at the stadium and win on indirect returns development of the north riverfront property tax revenues and intangible benefits of being in an NFL City I wound up testifying five times the bill passed and the Rams broke their contract in order to leave St Louis and that's why we're here today I'm proud of my work on the bill but I also had a realization a few years later when I was in law school our analysis in many ways had not gone far enough it's not enough to demonstrate that a given investment generates a return we actually need to demonstrate that the proposed investment is the highest and best use that it's a better investment than the Alternatives of course this can be extremely difficult because cities generate returns in a wide variety of different ways direct and indirect some of which I'll discuss today that's why I'm so grateful that so much of the hard work of prioritization has already largely been done by a community-driven planning process and that we're here today to really talk nuts and bolts of implementation uh I I think we can see the product of that community-driven planning process in the large degree of overlap that we saw between the two bills today and so I feel very fortunate to have an opportunity to contribute to this conversation regarding how best to

deploy These funds that we won from the NFL and to be working for a mayor who recognizes that we need to invest these funds towards the cities long long-term growth and transformation through a diversified portfolio of Investments including housing including water including Transit includ luding Our Youth and Workforce Development and more so with that uh if we turn the page or go to the next slide I want to talk about the purpose and principles of this uh housing and neighborhood Development Fund and its mission is simple it's economic and housing Justice um we've had a series of planning processes focused on our economic Justice action plan on the Myriad housing challenges facing City residents um and it's fundamentally about empowering Grassroots organizations across the city to drive neighborhood transformation our approach here and what I'll talk about today is really rooted in investing in what's working uh in finding the programs that we've been able to stand up over the past few years that have demonstrated results and scaling them and so we'll talk about six concrete programs that we could use these Rams funds to scale um and that's not to say that it's comprehensive it's a menu of options and there's a lot of work to be done to expand that um but that's not necessarily work that this bill needs to hold on either uh and then we also have several commitments for how we're going to manage these funds first and foremost is transparency and accountability publishing funding recommendations for public comment before bringing them to the fund oversight committee for approval and of course ALS CDA contracts go to the board of estimate abortion and I'll expand on that just to say that the more I go through funding Cycles the more I conclude that the best way to run them is more or less in public they're all public processes anyway second is responsible stewardship where we will contract with underwriting and Loan

Servicing providers and establish strong internal controls to prevent fraud waste and abuse and at recent hearings I've gone over in excruciating detail all the steps that it takes uh to turn a CDA funding reservation uh into a contract and and into a home uh or whatever the public good may be we'll also seek to maximize the return to the city and leverage public funds with private and philanthropic Capital but here I want to be really clear what's written there is maximizing the return to the city not necessarily the return to the fund I think there's been a theme in the discussion today about the extent to which we should invest funds to generate direct Financial Returns versus to generate returns for our communities today uh and and there's a spectrum here there's no ideal Point uh and frankly the Spectrum will vary by project there are certain projects that will generate public goods where we may be willing to take a loss and there's certain projects that we require a financial return to but the key thing to bear in mind is that the city's return is not just Financial if we act like a bank and merely strive to maximize the return to the fund we're going to replicate all the same inequities that the market currently shows we were talking earlier today about Cleveland High School and a lot of other large vacant buildings there's a reason they're currently vacant because those deals don't currently pencil unless someone's willing to take some sort of loss and in the case of the city that loss in turn can be outweighed by property tax returns or other sorts of uh indirect return so I think we need to go in Eyes Wide Open about that and that's why the principle and commitment that we're putting forth here is maximizing the return to the city not necessarily to the fund and finally equity and community at the center this has been a community-driven process it should

remain a community-driven process as we shift to implementation uh and we have historically over the last four years awarded more firsttime recipients than ever before of CDA or federal funds and that's because of our commitment to technical assistance uh and and uh partnering with Community stakeholders next slide so a key part of the prospectus is why invest making the case and in this case we have a dual moral and economic imperative um and and we see the history of our city from 1950 to 2000 the city lost about half a million residents uh averaging over a 100,000 a decade that uh decline has slowed pretty dramatic ially over the last 20 years and in many ways it feels like we are at a turning point where we can shift gears from managing decline to guiding growth uh and that's what the hope of this fund is is to uh reverse the generations of racial segregation restrictive covenants redlining and discriminatory appraisal practices in order to transform the city's real estate market um and the reality as we turn actually one more Point here some images of puid IO uh here and and there's a reason for that and it's that it's so fascinating and tragic to me that in the 1950s and 60s as thousands of beautiful brick homes were being vacated in North St Louis the city chose to invest in concentrated poverty and high rises and we obviously can't replicate these mistakes again we have an opportunity to invest and we need to do so wisely next slide so the key and core of our economic jus action plan is the recognition that Equity is a precondition to and there's a lot of strong data across the country and the

world to back this up that growth uh is held back by segregation and fragmentation uh and so in order to grow we believe that we have to heal those scars of segregation heal that delmare divide uh and invest uh but it's let me be clear it's not an either or between downtown and north city it's absolutely true that downtown is the heart of our region and that our region cannot Thrive while downtown is struggling but at the same time it is equally true that down town will not Thrive so long as it is surrounded by the three highest concentrations of poverty in our region the near North side near downtown Clinton PE buddies Frenchtown High concentration of public housing as well as East St Louis and so we really need to have a both and approach here uh to investing uh across the city um next slide so what we propose here is building on success and we've really put the economic Justice action plan into practice you can see here City Grants and Investments since 2021 uh if you go on our website and there'll be a link at the end of the presentation you can click around this map and learn about the Investments that we are making uh in your neighborhood uh and you can see that uh there is an intentional focus on reversing generations of disinvestment but also strong investment uh in South St Louis particularly in and around Dutchtown uh are one of our most dense and young neighborhoods next slide um so what have we done over the past few years we've dedicated over $75 million towards building stabilization and demolition over $75 million towards beautification proactive development and green infrastructure and over $135 million towards housing production and preservation and the next slides are going to detail some of those outputs but we've also been lowering barriers to development through our strategic land use plan and Zoning code update and I

have some very exciting news that it was just announced today by Hud that we won uh a $7 million Grant it's called the pro housing Grant um to continue that zoning code update and also fund uh $4 million of additional Housing Development and also create a um housing design book A book of pre-approved designs that can accelerate development further um so we've been lowering barriers to development um we've we uh we've been uh uh doing strategic code enforcement uh in order to hold problem Property Owners accountable uh we've been planning with residents across the city as the planning department ramps up and scales their neighborhood planning activities um we've submitted our five-year Consolidated plan to HUD uh we are uh investing uh in transformative infrastructure including the brick line Greenway and north south metr link and working with the vacancy collaborative to expand revenue streams for vacant property interventions and uh to Advocate at the state level to expand the City's power to hold these problem Property Owners accountable next slide so I mentioned earlier that we've invested about $75 million towards Demolition and stabilization since 2020 that includes over 1,200 buildings demolished uh over 200 uh buildings stabilized including 180 private publicly owned buildings lra properties and 50 privately owned buildings and we haven't been doing this scattershot either we are prioritizing these Investments uh with Community input and data uh looking in particular at the economic investment potential of these uh Properties by looking at whether they're in historic districts if there's market-based activity if they're near Commercial Corridor looking at the public safety impact are there calls for service are there 911 calls are there violent crime uh reports is it near

school is it next to occupied home and also working again uh to uh ensure that problem property owners are held accountable and seeing if the owner owns multiple vacant buildings if critically they are an outof Town owner if there's tax delinquency Etc next slide uh we are also dramatically expanding our housing work we've dramatically expanded our home repair program in 2022 we did a little under uh about 150 home repairs and spent about 2 million uh the past two years we've done about 300 home repairs and this past year invested over $6 million and so that's been an incredible amount of work by our home repair team our partners and over 70 contractors across the city who are part of that program and that was accomplished through the infusion of 15 million in arpa funds we've also worked with the Department of Human Services to provide uh property tax forgiveness to over a 100 uh owner occupied homes that would have been foreclosed on uh worked with sldc to establish a home ownership assistance program that has already awarded over 25 borrowers 1.2 million in home buyer assistance leveraging $4.8 million in Bank mortgages originated for firsttime home buyers and uh perhaps most importantly although it's all important um we've dramatically expanded and diversified the city's housing production pipeline between 2015 and 2019 the city subsidized the development of about 1,200 homes currently we're subsidizing development of over 3500 uh and that's not just larger Housing Development pipeline it's also more Diversified with more permanent Supportive Housing more for sale homes uh and that's also leveraging about $100 million in Grant funds Federal grant funds uh to more than $800 million in development next slide um and this is the last slide on on what what we've done uh but it covers a smattering of other projects including Partnerships with Community

organizations across the city to build community gardens po Parks Farmers Markets Urban agriculture uh as well as uh working in partnership with sldc on a variety of stabilization and development projects including uh various schools Baden School Marshall School Simmons School uh Cleveland High School and others uh investments in green infrastructure and Partnerships with four federally qualified Health Centers the painting of 28 murals in partnership with the regional Arts commission funding over 50 Early Child Care Centers uh standing up free public Wi-Fi and currently it's eight Parks but there will ultimately be well over a dozen um establishing the Monarch campus for economic mobility and awarding over 1,000 small business and nonprofit grants and the purpose of all this is to fund a regenerative ecosystem in which the whole is more than the parts uh and that's what we're talking about with this Rams Development Fund more broadly next slide and the purpose also here um is to catalyze Market driven development as well um here we're focused on uh Natural Bridge and Grand we know this is a critical geography for the city it's the proposed Terminus of both the brickline greenway and the Norths South metr link and that's also why we decided to invest in partnership with sldc 5 million of arpa funds towards the development of 20 homes few of which are already occupied uh a few of which remain under construction um but these were the first mortgages originated on these blocks uh in over a decade uh and so the goal here uh is that that will unlock the market establish CS through which other builders uh can start rehabbing homes for sale next slide so this brings us finally um to uh the actual proposed uh funding uh uses of the Rams housing and neighborhood

Development Fund which we really split into six programmatic buckets and again this is conceptual um and there's a lot of work to be done um with Community uh with stakeholders cdc's developers uh to refine this further but at a high level uh the housing funds would go towards construction of affordable housing leveraging private capital and tax credits as well as City Grants and in incentives towards uh continuing to expand our Healthy Home Repair program and I've advocated at this body repeatedly about the need to establish a uh nonfederal funding source for home repair um and and we think this is a absolutely essential and high impact use uh and we'll talk more about it each of these six uses is going to have their own slide as well as uh home ownership uh and scaling the work we're doing with home ownership assistance on the neighborhood development side those funds would go to support small businesses uh against scaling programs that are already in place with sldc with mobilize and scale UPL as well as to fund proactive site assembly and development work uh in partnership with sld and then finally uh to provide pre-development loans and so we'll dig into each of these further in term but the goal with all of these is to leverage both private capital and philanthropic contributions and really to invite investors the public and philanthropy to invest alongside the city and again that's a menu of options it's it's not meant to be exhaustive so uh as we dig deeper into what the construction program would look like I've uh put up here four kind of illustrative Investments uh that we could make and now in practice all of these Investments uh would go through the CDA NOA process and we'll talk more about that process um on a later slide um but these serve as examples of how these funds could be deployed uh the

first one is a neighborhood transformation program and you'll note that that says partially forgivable and that brings us back to the point I made initially about how if we are working and trying to C cataly depressed residential markets we have to accept that there will be some degree of loss because that's the reason why the market is not currently investing there and that loss could be structured in different ways the first example involves a $10 million construction loan that we generate a $7.5 million return on the second example imagines a fully forgivable $5 million loan uh that leverages $15 million of private Capital uh in both cases the the ratio of losses the same uh but the question is how much we want to frontload versus uh revolve the investment and the loss uh the other piece here that I'll I'll emphasize is that the entire ball game here is shrinking the Delta the gap between the sale value of the home and the construction cost of the home and that completely determines and defines how far we're able to leverage These funds and revolve these funds and that's why currently we are really working to get these costs down through a design competition and partnership with sldc uh and that's going to do a few things first of all instead of each developer choosing their own site and and proposing that development proposal uh we're going to have developers compete and try to bid the lowest cost on a specific site right and so just harness that power of competition it's also an Innovative construction design competition so we've actually selected a short list uh of devel developers and construction uh companies have experience in 3D printing and modular housing in container homes again trying to get that construction cost down another essential way to get cost down is velocity if we can reduce barriers if

we can reduce zoning regulatory other barriers and finally scale uh scale when we are able to do larger deals we can reduce those accounting legal and other costs per capita the next one is these major rehabilitations that Leverage Lite and historic tax credits uh and these should be structured depending on the degree of of tax credit uh Capital as fully repayable um and the perfect example of this is the railway exchange which we've been talking about over the course of the day and I I can express our complete alignment with respect to that building is the second largest building in the state's indispensable uh nature and the fact that we do need to partner public and private in order to bring it back online uh and we know for that fact that doing so would leverage over $100 million in historic tax credits over 75 million in low-income housing tax credits and potentially up to a $90 million mortgage that's assuming a $5 million noi to develop 500 units there is a path on the railway Exchange building but it does require including affordable housing and leveraging litech I know that's not a popular thing to say but that's how I see it um and so uh here we can see how a bridge or mezzanine loan uh could leverage hundreds of millions of dollars uh in tax credit and private Capital uh there's also a mixed income model uh where we essentially and this could be done through a ground lease or otherwise but we use market rate units to cross subsidize affordable units Atlanta's doing a lot of this frankly in St Louis it would only work in certain neighborhoods that are especially strong markets uh where those market rate units generate enough income to uh cross subsidize the affordability but I do think it's possible in neighborhoods like the Central West End and could certainly leverage significant private capital and then finally a need that we see is litec Preservation um we know that thanks to mhdc Asset Management

that there's well over a thousand units um which are currently under litech restrictions but not online there's no one occupying them and that's because uh they they need FFN they need to be turned they need painting they need minor carpentry um and in fact we've already funded several developers in doing these vacant unit turns uh averages about 20,000 per unit um and it's a very high impact way to invest These funds but of course it's also highly risky and that's where a guaranteed loan loss uh a loan loss guarantee fund becomes essential and that's work that we're doing with uh sldc and the Community Foundation to raise that capital and create that guarantee fund of course the the number of potential deal structures here is infinite and each deal each project will be its own uh structure um but I I share this to kind of illustrate uh how these funds could be leveraged other uses include low interest below Market interest construction loans as well as uh uh insurance for second mortgages to really unlock the capital uh where a home buyer has the income to take out a larger mortgage but doesn't have that collateral because of the so there's a lot of potential here uh and I'll move on to the next slide in general the St Louis Real Estate Investment Trust would be guided by the following principles first of all we would be Mission driven we would recognize that housing is a human right and that all St louisans deserves safe stable and affordable housing we know that our city has 140,000 households of which about 55% are tenant households uh about 45,000 tenants are cost burdened collectively they pay more than $175 million a year more in rent than they can afford about 5,000 are evicted each year and 1 to 2,000 are unhoused we also know that the struggle extends to our homeowners we have over 15,000 homeowners who cannot afford to keep up

with the cost of insurance mortgage property taxes not to mention maintenance and so the mission of this uh Investment Trust would be to support uh housing as diverse as our city and the full spectrum of housing needs it would also be focused and asset based uh we would rely on our market value analysis economic Justice index qualified census tracks and community assets map in order to Target Investments for maximum transformative impact what that means is that we fully agree that we need to concentrate funds but not only on downtown also along key commercial corridors Transit routes new schools grocery stores health clinics and more it would also be leveraged as we've talked through previously we want to leverage funds with private philanthropic federal state and local resources um and it'll also be inclusive and resilient by which we mean that while we will lower regulatory standards uh including environmental review and certain other standards we still will require projects to follow Universal design standards fair housing practices and certain building energy performance standards and of course and critically high quality construction standards because uh it there's just nothing worse than seeing a home that the city funded 15 years ago come back through a home repair program the vinyl home or what have you and then finally it's going to be Community Driven um and funding Cycles will include technical assistance for Grassroots developers and prioritize projects which can demonstrate Community Support next slide so next we move to the Home Ownership assistance prong of the Housing Development Fund if we could move to the next slide and what it details is simply scaling uh the home STL program which we've worked with sldc to establish uh it's already helped as I mentioned more than 20 first-time home buyers it's leveraging uh fivefold uh the the

investment in down payment assistance into mortgages being originated and I want to talk just for a little and this might be uh a little too much detail but all the documents that had to be created for this to exist and that includes the subrecipient agreement between CBA and sldc the Professional Services agreement between sldc and steel a number probably around eight or nine lender agreements between LDC and over half a dozen and Banks selected pursuing to request for participating lenders detailed program guidelines an application portal term sheet pre-approval form eligibility verification form home bu a recapture agreement promisory note and deed of trust and the point is that we' spent the last two years doing this work so that now we can scale it without having to recreate it and we don't have to recreate that wheel and we've learned these best practices from cities across the country including Denver Minneapolis and others um and of course uh the objective is to support firsttime home buyers the uses include down payment assistance closing costs permanent interest rate reduction prepaids or principal reduction the eligible recipients are these first-time home buyers and we do require them to go through financial literacy and Home Ownership counseling we want to provide a particular focus on city employees and also on residents who are going through job training programs to really get them through uh access to these opportunities the key difference between the product that I'm describing here today and what we do currently with arpa funds is is that arpa funds are structured as a forgivable loan and that's because of complex program income requirements that we didn't want to trigger but this would be structured because these are private funds as a second advertising mortgage um that's only partially forgivable to the extent that philanthropic contribution can be secured and so the example here we would make a $10 million City commitment uh and secure a $5 million philanthropic commitment in order to provide 500 second mortgage of which 20,000 would be repayable was a second advertising mortgage and revolve

and 10,000 would be forgivable next slide we also proposed to scale our Healthy Home Repair program and so similarly this is a program that's currently in place uh and structured really as a four-legged stool between the eligible homeowner the city the nonprofit construction manager and the contractor uh I'm not going to get into the de degree of detail because we've talked about it so many times before uh at this body um but I will say that we've managed to dramatically scale the program again from about 150 homes in 2022 to over 300 in 2023 and 2024 and we will spend down the 15 million in arpa funds in full um they're already obviously uh fully committed um but we do need a source of local funds because federal funds do trigger especially once arpa funds uh run out these environmental review requirements that really slow down this this process uh and really prevent it from being an urgent need uh process us being able to address uh collapse roofs or sewer laterals or water lines um as quickly as we would like to in this case again uh the key difference between the way that our program is currently structured the arpa program is a grant program um here due to the desire to revolve These funds we propose structuring it as a repayable loan with 0% interest and no monthly doe upon sale transfer of title or cash out refinancing what that means and the reason why this case is that frankly and we've got over a thousand households in our que these households for the most part cannot afford to make additional monthly payments um instead we would design it such that it is due upon sale of the home transfer of title or cash out refinancing what that means is that the funds will revolve they won't be lost but they will revolve very slowly over the coming years or decades next slide

next uh so that covered what I just talked about covered the $70 million Housing Development Fund uh laid out in uh board Bill 153 next I'll talk more briefly about the ne $30 million neighborhood Development Fund um that's also set forth in board Bill 153 and we propose uh three programmatic C categories first is the pre-development Loan Fund um this is really designed to support cdc's nonprofit developers and neighborhood associations because it fills a gap because it currently costs a lot to apply for litech or historic tax credits um among or take on major development projects of other sorts um and cdc's and Grassroots developers often don't have that liquidity and so the vision here is to establish provide these predevelopment loans that get paid back upon closing of the overall deal structure but can support preliminary architectural design and and and related counting legal and other development costs uh next we have small business loans uh and oh and I should mention uh that we are doing this with arpa funds we are providing predevelopment loans a great example is that picture on the right of Elliot school um where we are providing uh actually it is a pre-development grant because again arpa has program income issues um but uh we are providing Elliot school and Jubilee Development Corporation um with a 500,000 uh predevelopment grant that is allowing them to go after the historic tax credits uh that they need in order to rehab and Revitalize Elliot school um we are also uh proposing to scale uh two programs uh managed through sldc scale up St Louis and mobilize St Louis um the first is a partnership between CD sldc St Louis Community Credit Union and the small business Empowerment Center and it provides operating lines of credit

expansion uh loans and real estate loans uh the second is uh mobilize St Louis uh they both provide below market rate loans to be clear uh below Market interest and that's a partnership with rise uh which provides Bridge loans for construction contractors and suppliers and again we are filling gaps here uh because there's a lot of contractors that may have the capacity to win a large bid but don't have the liquidity to mobilize uh in order to fulfill it uh unless uh that uh developer uh is willing to provide some Innovative dispersing um structures that that provide Advanced funding and so that solves for that Gap uh and critically uh the information on both these programs is public uh the city has committed 2.5 million in arpa funds to each for a total of 5 million which are serving as a it's not quite a loan loss Reserve but they are covering the subsidy cost of the loans uh and uh leveraging significant amounts of private Capital finally uh we have a site assembly fund here and this has been a a of the city's development Agency for a long time and something that we are funding with arpa where CDA has entered into a 13.5 million subrecipient agreement with LC the city's land clearance Redevelopment authority to allow them to acquire and improve strategic vacant and underutilized properties with significant Redevelopment potential and so the idea here is that we would use these funds for LC to purchase and remediate property in areas where the city anticipates significant property appraisal and it's worth noting that in our market value analysis uh it showed that from 2017 to 2019 from the period between 2017 and 2019 to the period between 2021 and 2023 the average median sales price across the city grew more than 50% and so we know that there's a lot of potential value to unlock there

by acquiring holding improving and reselling property especially if we can uh partner uh with sldc to attract large manufacturers or other commercial uses uh an ideal would be an electric car manufacturer on the North Riverfront next slide um next turning to processes and priorities um each of these uh programs would follow their own kind of application process uh and again the idea here is let's not reinvent the wheel uh for housing production and predevelopment Loans uh we proposed that it would go through the CDA annual NOA uh which we release every uh February or March uh and what we would do is we would publish that draft NOA including funding priorities and eligibility and evaluation criteria for public comment and hold uh receive and and solicit that public comment and incorporate that input prior to issuing the NOA we also hold each year an application workshop and conduct neighborhood Outreach to solicit applications uh and then we conduct intake we review applications for completeness uh and in this case the additional step is that we would contract with an underwriter to evaluate applications uh and make final lending decisions um and as I mentioned before the the commitment here is to in so far as it's feasible and and recognizing also the rights uh to to privacy of of our applicants as well hold this uh selection process in public uh with public input at every step of the way um the one note that I would offer here the only way in which this NOA May differ from our traditional CDA NOA is that I do feel that our cdaa is somewhat reactive in that uh it takes uh priorities from developers uh a and while we have priorities we we don't

have very clear Geographic priorities something that we've learned as best practices from other cities both here in the United States and in Europe among others is that it does make sense to identify Target sites and and as I mentioned before make developers compete to see who will develop that Target site so that for ex is an approach that I could imagine us taking with the railway exchange where we might say we are setting aside this amount of funding for the railway exchange but we want developers to compete in terms of putting forward a development proposal uh next uh the other uses would for the most part go through online application portals um well actually in the case of home repair there's a option for online online or paper application um for home ownership assistance and small business uh those portals are already in place on the sldc website for home STL mobilize and scale up St Louis and then finally for site assembly there wouldn't be an application process uh because the city would be taking the initiative in terms of identifying which properties to acquire um but we do require LC to go through a competitive disposition process and request for proposals in order to sell assembled properties next slide and so when you put it all together and again this is uh conceptual and a lot is subject to change and in fact everything will change as we receive concrete proposals um but we see how we can leverage this $70 million in funding for the Housing Development Fund into more than $400 million in development again the final ratio of City investment to leverage depends on how much we're willing to take a loss and how much we want to revolve uh and for example as I mentioned earlier currently we're investing $100 million in forgivable loans which we're fully taking a loss on to leverage nearly a billion dollar in development but if we want to revolve it the leverage also goes down as well and so this is a balanced approach that we

are putting forward here and I foresee us working in collaboration with the oversight committee to calibrate this further but it would result in US serving over 3,000 households including a th000 repaired homes 1,000 rehabed rental units the production of over 750 units and supporting 500 first-time home buyers so finally and I believe this is the second to last slide uh as we go to the next slide um what are some next steps um obviously we need Clarity from the board of alderman uh as to the path forward um but we are ready to move forward um one of the key decisions facing us is uh the section 108 loan um we came before you a few months ago and the board of all authorized a resolution for us to apply um we've been working with HUD on that application we've published it for public comment and HUD has told us that we're ready to apply what that means is that we could in theory and there's a few different ways that this could work um but we could use $50 million of the fund as collateral uh in order to because we do need collateral that's the key element of the section 108 loan and it could be this fund or it could be reserves or it could be something else and the pro is that we could basically take 50 Mill ion of this fund and turn it into $50 million section 108 loan that can be invested at a loss right because we have the cdbg repayment at this point and so we can now invest at a loss with while protecting the city's investment that's comfortably being invested somewhere else and growing at a low interest rate right so the idea here is you could take the 100 million take 50 million Let It Grow and take that 50 million and turn it into 50 million of section 108 capital of which we invest at a loss with $15 million being forgivable that's an option alternatively uh I should flag that HUD funds are sticky and subject to additional rules and regulations so I I I'm not actually that excited about the

prospect of turning very flexible money into much stickier money um but uh the other alternative of course is using uh $50 million in City reserves or other collateral and therefore by immediately taking this 100 million and turning it into 150 million so there's a lot of options with the section 108 loans that we need to make decisions on second we need to continue to solicit feedback and expand our menu of options um and I foresee focus groups with Community stakeholders and subject matter experts like cdcs to inform the priorities of how do we balance these different programs that we set out here uh how do we balance the priority of for sale versus rental housing rehab versus new construction and Geographic priorities for what it's worth my instinct is that it doesn't make sense to put a lot of these parameters into the board itself uh and rather to trust in the oversight structures that are created in the board Bill uh and the oversight committee uh to calibrate uh and uh find that right balance but then there's also a bunch of other uses that I haven't talked about today ranging from vacant building stabilization a rental Improvement fund uh which was proposed by one of the public commenters a green infrastructure maintenance fund and many others uh we certainly do need to build capacity and that includes issuing an RFP for investing underwriting and financial advisory Services as well as for legal services and bond counsel and then I do want to take this upcoming NOA that we have as an opportunity to solicit interest and invite applicants to tell us what kind of lending products they're looking for that that could fill gaps in their projects and then finally we need to raise capital and invite investors philanthropic partners and the public to invest or donate alongside the city next slide so uh the last point to make here is simply that this work isn't going on in a vacuum it actually Builds on a foundation that we've been building over

the past four years that includes the economic Justice action plan it includes the affordable housing report it includes the city's market value analysis which was just recently completed as well as the Consolidated plan that was submitted to HUD and finally again as I mentioned earlier you can learn more about the city's grants and impact that we're making um at the link there where you can interact with that map and and learn more about Investments across the city thank you for your time happy to answer any questions otan con OT Miss Weiser uh no questions at this time thank you Adam and brownie uh hello director feffer and thank you for that presentation I really appreciate uh all the good work that the CDA does I I um as a side note I on my birthday I went up and just kind of tour parts of North City that I don't get to visit very often and I went to hide Park and saw some of the stabilization efforts that have been done around the park there uh some truly beautiful structures that don't currently have an occupant but that doesn't mean they should fall down and uh I I appreciate that there was work to put in to save those structures because one day someone will make that their home right there on that beautiful park and they'll be able to bring that back to its full Glory which wouldn't have been done possible had we not used those funds so um just calling out that in particular because it was really nice to see um I do have a question for you about uh the text of the the bill that multiple times refers to uh providing loans or money for affordable housing it said over and over again affordable housing my understanding of the issues that especially North St Louis faces is not necessarily affordability it's habitability and

vacancy why are we only reserving funds for affordable housing when what I think North City really needs is market rate housing yeah I'll share my thoughts or do you want to answer I can start if you want um great question utman Browning um we if you look into the bill we were particular about the definition of affordable housing that we did not use the Ami um we did not use the Federal fedal like Ami 80% definition usually of affordable housing intentionally when we were discussing the bill um because we wanted to have a format that fit kind of what affordability looks like in our city and so um some of the typical restraints that we have when we talk about affordable housing because we typically are referring to the federal definition would not exist around this one but I'll let you follow up if you would like know just you know I think we don't really need the word in there I I this is legislation so I'm concerned that what we put on the page is going to be guiding and you know should someone try to Define that later or should a Court decide that we're going to define something I just don't want to get into that situation uh I really do think that you know housing in general is what is needed uh we we see a real need to just really create more homes for people and yes different neighborhoods have different needs and I'd like to see that kind of flexibility um on this I I I noticed you you mentioned philanthropic funds a lot uh private donations and referenced in the text here too are we do we currently get a lot of philanthropic donations to the city uh no we don't and and the city is not particularly well set up to administer philanthropic funds either for that matter so the work that we've been doing in partnership with SDC and the Community Foundation is establish a economic transformation fund at the Community Foundation where philanthropic donors will be able to park those funds so so what I just heard from you is that

this These funds would be managed by the Community Foundation uh pursuant to oversight through an Advisory board that includes uh City and other subject matter expert and that's the um I wrote the names of all these boards down somewhere here that's the Community Development Innovation fund board no um so the Community Development inovation Fund board would uh oversee the full $100 million in Ram settlement funds that are being appropriated to CDA uh the board that I just referenced uh is the one that would oversee the Community foundations's Management of philanthropic funds uh donated to match the city's investment so as a place to put if we were to get philanthropic Partners at the at at the table they would need a place to put their funds before it got to City administration because it has to go through the process that's outlined in the bill so we're saying that we would need an entity where private donors and philan donors could put their you know their funds like they don't have an account like a GSL or something we're talking about other partners who would need a place to put their money to come partner for this understood um so yeah that was just my question because I don't I don't know of a situation right now where the city where someone donates to the city I mean I don't think people wake up in the morning are like gee I wish I could help this fund but I'm to trust the city to manage it um not that we're terrible at managing money but like a lot of I think private donations are going to just rather go direct to the cause well I would say too the city typically doesn't have almost $300 million in funds to invest so certainly that has an impact with who's at the table so I don't know that you could exactly you know compare this situation to that I think over and over again we've talked about the idea of endowment funds and setting up these things to strategically leverage other dollars that because the city doesn't usually have large sums like this we're not in position to sometimes attract those philanthropic and private donors but but

you're also completely right that the city does not have the infrastructure in place to manage philanthropic funds and uh there's a lot of good reasons why this partnership with the Community Foundation is a really important operational piece of uh the intent to leverage philanthropic funds right thank you for that City all right all right thank you director faer we got Mr Ogie from streets we're almost there his is much shorter thank you director Viper and I know that this is cumbersome for us to sit through but I think think it's important that we are publicly demonstrating again um that this bill has had so much input and so much work from these departments who have been very involved in the detail and structure development so we wanted to make sure that they had an opportunity to present to you exactly kind of what we've been been discussing along the way we as we develop the legislation thank you good afternoon all I will be abbreviated so as to free up the bulk of conversation with Mr Ogie for the record Casey milberg policy director in the mayor's office um as folks on this committee are well aware and reiterating for awareness and public awareness the current proposal for the mobility infrastructure Fund in board Bill 153 proposes leveraging $60 million of the ram settlement funds and to a new fund known as the Citywide Mobility infrastructure fund to be used for uh city streets and cybox infrastructure maintenance improvements accessibility um some safety related initiatives thanks to the committee substitute that was incorporated today it also would reflect streets priorities as well um in compliance with the ordinance that passed earlier uh I guess late last year um there would also be

matching funds to leverage federal and state funds grants and whatnot for Street sidewalks uh infrastructure and um uh to also leverage dollars for private funding sources as along those lines uh the committee that is currently proposed to help recommend that funding is the capital committee so nothing new there and with that I will turn it over to Scott oie for some higher level conversation about how these funds are anticipated to be leveraged for more dollars how we might think about the landscape of these funds moving forward good afternoon uh my name is Scott Ogie I work for the city's planning and Urban Design agency um and I am very excited uh to speak to the committee about section B of this bill Citywide mobility and infrastructure fund um I'm very excited because this is a a huge opportunity for the city of St Louis funding available for transportation infrastructure and this bill will lead to better streets in our city safer streets for our residents and real people's lives will be improved by these Investments um real people who won't be injured or killed in crashes we event with a more systematic investment in our streets real people who will be able to better navigate their neighborhoods safely and comfortably as you know um the city is currently working on the development of a city-wide Transportation Mobility plan the first such plan for the city in decades and we're about halfway through that process um what residents tell us they are interested in through that process is safety across the city Equitable investment and maintenance across the city better maintained more accessible streets and sidewalks for all of our residents the work that's happening in the TMP particularly in the Safety Action Plan and the high Injury Network

will provide affirmative specific guidance on where we need to invest in order to achieve better safety outcomes for St Louis residents as the Board of Public Service the streets department and in the future the Department of Transportation decide and of course the capital committee as well decide on where to make these Investments they will be able to do so with a base of knowledge related to safety data and public sentiment that we have not had access to in the past they'll be able to plan ahead and set priorities for which locations have the most need and be able to do so with a predictable funding source something that is often lacking year toe at the moment because of this the city will be able to better communicate which projects are on the horizon where Investments are being made and why those are the selected projects the funding in this bill will be turned into millions more in Street improvements um through being able to maximize existing Transportation Grant programs um these existing programs through ewest Gateway and at the federal level most Grant programs provide $4 to every $1 we put in at the local level over the course of um investing the $60 million in this bill we could easily see more than $200 million in Street and sidewalk improvements by leveraging these local Investments with external grant funding this will mean more projects like the recent investments in Jefferson and Parnell where a deficient poorly maintained and overly wide Street was rebuilt to be safer and more accessible for all users these are the types of projects across the city where we can imagine improvements being made the timing of this funding coming online is ideal for the city we already have many ambitious projects moving into construction these are projects like the

brick line Greenway the arpa arterial corridors and other projects the city is managing um where improvements or Transformations are being made in some of our streets that current have the most need this new funding will allow us to maintain this momentum into future years and to continue to build out a network of safer better maintained streets later this year we'll have the completed Transportation Mobility plan which provide guidance and priorities for future Investments as you know city of St Louis has a lot of Transportation infrastructure to maintain and many streets today are in need of significant Investments this funding will get us much closer to a sustainable level of investment in our streets over the next decade thank you very much and happy to answer any questions if there are some h m uh thank you um and thank you for keeping that brief um I uh want to emphasize this is one of the topics that we've continually gotten feedback on um with respect to the Rams funds and would also like to just call out because I feel like I've had this conversation at least half a dozen times last week um that we're not just using like high crash sites for the you know model where we should be deploying resources I think often times those are going to be our higher volume streets and we have already been paying attention to those using arpa funds you know whether that's gr Jefferson Union Etc and so um we literally have residential streets that are falling in on themselves and so one of the things that I recommended to the president's office and to the mayor's office was that we develop language somewhere around critical infrastructure or emergency infrastructure repairs um to have that listed and called out

specifically in this legislation um you know I'll give an example from my ward and you know that was very recent but you know there's literally on the 3200 block of palaski a huge crater that has developed and it's not a poth hole it you can put your whole arm down there and it's a huge problem and it's only going to continue to get exacerbated City still hasn't put up barriers hasn't put a plate over it uh I've reported it myself a few times here you know I know my neighbors have reported it a csb literally went out the middle of December painted a huge bright pink spray painted circle around it to draw the attention of our departments that are responsible for taking care of those things so that they know where it was um after I had reported it to them still there with the snow the ice everything else a car fell into it uh that 3200 block of palaski uh doesn't have a lot of traffic you know it's a residential street it's a one-way Street uh most people probably don't even know that it exists but having that dangerous infrastructure there is hugely problematic um for our residents and should be addressed um another one uh and my colleague from the 14th uh Wards uh area um which I've called out for the better part of a year and a half now Monroe Street between first and second street is literally missing the whole damn street is missing there's no asphalt the Cobblestone is gone MSD and the Water Division have been out there clearly because they've left their cones there for God knows how long uh the businesses that operate along there have told me that it's been like that for over a decade it's literally missing the street not going to have a lot of

crashes on that street because it's not existing anymore so you know we need to be mindful that those situations exist in our city and that we need to take care of them so I'm just going to call that out here publicly because I've been having that conversation for a a little while now uh and would like to make sure that we're considering that as we're developing these bills sure a couple quick thoughts um not necessarily specific to those specific locations but I I do think there the language of the bill is flexible enough to help us you know maximize these big projects but not to spend all of the money on you know Grant applications because this funding is you know within the control of the Departments it can also it can also do smaller sort of local funding projects and I would recommend some of the things we would do with the funding would be those kind of local projects that aren't don't fit into the transportation Grant you know Paradigm essentially um there are also so I make this mistake frequently when we talk about kind of the high Injury Network or Safety Action Plan a lot of time you start focusing on corridors that have um poor crash records there are also systematic things that can be done across the city that can make safety improvements right so we could we could be you know making sure all the stop signs are visible making sure they're reflective we could you know trimming you know those types of um it's not a it's not a big project somewhere but it's more a systematic approach to maintaining infrastructure those things could pay safety benefits as well and I think maybe that's like a little bit closer to the the types of um you know the the types of Maintenance and care that you're sort of referencing with the

comments sorry I thank you Alderman I 100% agree with that you know I think an even more recent example are snow routes that aren't clearly marked or delineated anywhere you know we have a you know major snow every several years it doesn't happen every year or every winter but you know it happens from time to time and we are woke hopefully and inadequately prepared for that it's not the responsibility of this Administration they shouldn't take the blame for it because it's been several administrations where my battery is dead I think uh it's been several administrations where this has been kind of slowly ignored and so uh at this point though you know I drove every single snow route in my ward multiple times over the past you know a week and a half and I can probably count on one hand the number of snow route signs that are still posted along those routes and the ones that are still there there was only one that even still was Blue the mo most of them are grayed out or almost non-existent invisible ink kind of a thing and so um I think that those types of you know safety measures are also really critical I mean we've talked about downtown ad nauseum today you know there's so many one-way streets downtown but sometimes you don't even see the one-way street signs for them and I've been a lifelong resident town and I still end up going down the wrong way from time to time and downtown streets you know because there's no clear directional signage that's posted down there you know you and I had lengthy discussions about closing Washington Avenue when they readed the you know uh Arch City River Project back in the day and um you know I think some of the words of wisdom that we shared back then were you know the complications around you know getting to places and connectivity and things of that nature I joke with folks I still end up in East

St Louis trying to make my way down to lad's Landing from time to time you know um so I think you know signage is certainly a really important component to Traffic Safety it's something that we're really slacking on right now so I appreciate you calling that out thank you yeah thank you for making that point AWA Miss Weiser thank you this is an issue I care about a lot and I'm I'm very happy that both bills were talking about today have such a large amount of money set aside for Street infrastructure and work and I appreciate the um change in this committee substitute version to incorporate compl streets language and the work around safety that's being done so thank you very much adaman brownie uh echo my colleague's thoughts this is a issue that I think is really important and and glad to see money going towards it um you know making sure that we're addressing some of the the city's needs and and to Alderman con's Point uh what is going on I realize this is not a a PDA issue but um what is going on with our sign shop it's been out of commission since the flood uh two years ago and I'm told we have signs on order I'm waiting for signs all over the ward uh on a number of different kinds of signs and I'm told they're on order they're on order and then yet they never arrive uh and it's kind of crazy that a city this size does not have an operating sign sh so why are we not taking some of this you know free money we've got and getting the sign shop back in order I think that would be a great thing to do um so you know to to Alman con's point like I think the reason that so many of the snow route signs are missing is because we just can't produce them um I do think that this money that's being put towards this is one of the best things I see in this bill it's one of my favorite parts of this bill uh that in the water I think this is a critical need it was clearly very high

up there in the feedback we got from people uh during the process I would even argue that it was undercounted because I think it got split into multiple different categories and if you add them all together it would have surpassed even water infrastructure in the final vote tallies so uh I I don't really have any questions because I I am pretty happy with how this is written already uh I just want to say that I do think we should give a little more attention to the sign shop because you cannot have good roads without signage alridge thank you madam chair members of the committee no questions is it sounds like uh I also agree this is a good uh part of the portion sounds like some of the questions that came up will uh glad we have the chair and the vice chair of public call a meeting to have conversations about signs of snow plows uh but I do think this is a good uh part of the bill thank you thank you thank you very much thank you Miss thank you I'll do that I'll kick it hi again Casey milberg policy director for the mayor's office I'm going to do a highlevel overview of two fund components um on behalf of others who could not be here today just due to the length of the hearing the first is going

to be an overview of the workforce fund fund bucket and then the second is going to be an overview of the mechanics of how um the money would move be deployed for the child care bucket so again we'll keep this pretty high level and quick on behalf of slate director mlan uh who regrets she couldnot be here this afternoon due to some other commments wanted to run through what the proposed $20 million use for Workforce fund would be there's also a community facing component for training as well as a city worker Focus for training currently uh slate is envisioning those as about a 5050 split so about 10 million for Community facing programs and 10 million for city worker facing programs I suspect everyone on this committee is pretty familiar and on board with the ideas and of uh the importance of supporting our city workers as well as our community Workforce so I will skip the uh the reasons and rationals for those instead get into some of the details of the wson house for the community facing training programs the expansion of current Community Workforce offerings this $10 million we used to leverage additional funds for our ound youth jobs program to serve 1,000 additional youth youth build St Louis city uh to serve 120 additional individuals Community campus Workforce Development program to serve 250 individuals scale up St Louis CDL Edition to serve 100 50 different individuals in terms of the career Pathways focused um whether for City Workforce or Community um pardon me I'll start with a community facing Workforce Focus um there would be an enhanced targeting of advanced manufacturing construction Educational Services entrepreneurship and startups Financial Services Healthcare and biosciences

Hospitality Leisure and culinary arts Information Technology clerical and administrative support and trans transportation and Logistics so that's the community uh facing portion of these funds on the um the city Workforce City employee uh bucket there would be creating new initiatives for city employees including tuition reimbursement potential Transportation cost vouchers um assistance uh for getting to work additional training courses to enhance skills employee Awards and recognition leadership development mentoring and training programs uh software for training modules to enhance departmental leadership and work towards certification and accreditation professional development and uh potentially continued attendance um uh to achieve certain uh certification available through attendance at conferences professional education and development uh training sessions as well so that's a pretty high level run through of the buckets and the focus areas I'll be happy to take any questions and anything I'm not able to speak to I will be happy to send over to director I want misser thank you no questions this time Adan brownie are we just covering work for right now yeah okay no questions okay Adan all right and the director asked uh me to pass along her things um I know many here today attended the information session she put on last week so she wanted to say thank you for making uh time and for your staff for making time for those as well moving on to uh the people another bucket of the people bucket sub bucket rather talking about the mechanics of the child care portion

of this um we had some questions raised in Prior committee hearings about how much of our Workforce would potentially use anything that supports or focuses more on providing benefits for children we have been able to pull data from the city's Insurance modeling showing that 22% of our city Workforce um currently elects for the um uh individual employee plus child or the employee plus family category of insurance which means they have children in addition to a partner so 22% of our City's Workforce currently elects um to for that coverage so um that's a nice Benchmark data point that we we can use to really focus in on how many folks would benefit from this in the city Workforce um when we look at the child care bucket the custodial Department managing those funds is a city Treasures Office they would Place those into a new account designed to crew interest and perpetuity with the purpose for uh defraying a portion of child care costs initially for city workers um to be given first priority for Access as alderwoman Sonia mentioned some additional clarifying language clarifying that that means they get first access before this is expanded to anybody in the community was added into the committee substitute the way that these would go out into the community would be um through uh the Treasures Office through the annual Appropriations process whether within the treasur office or whether they would RFP out for services a firm that would look at um Child Care uh cost receipts that would be submitted verified and then whatever the portion determined that the city would cover that would be what would be then provided to the employees so again there's um the language is pretty broad within the bill but it could either be house within the treasures office or they could RFP it out to a firm du the verification services and um uh the monies would then be um

appropriated through the budgeting process so that's a bit about the nuts and bolts um so happy to answer any questions as best I can out any question we just talked about sorry aable Miss weisser thank you I appreciate it um this this whole section of the the bill is really interesting because it's I I support the general idea of it it's just you know we've talked so much about how limited These funds are and the need to spend the money on on infrastructure and you know development and so many of the things we've seen in both bills and agree on so those are still the parts that I'm the most supportive of and and hopeful that there's still room for movement on and um to make sure we can get people together on these issues so thanks for your time Alderman brownie couple questions about um we'll start with child care so estimate how much would be able to go per year you mentioned we're basically living off interest here and that's going towards applying and it sounds like people apply for it they they submit their receipts and then they get reimbursed uh so how how much do we think would be available each year for that based off of the amount being allocated here sure um so it sounds like just to make sure I'm answering the question what you're ultimately asking about how much interest would we expect to ACW on this is that correct yes okay um you know I believe Within looking at the initial pool of money where it's uh you 37.2 specifically dedicated to affordable child care right now with interest rates and flux we've been seeing about five six% on many of the investment funds the past few years those are hovering around

4% right now I think most reasonable parties would agree that within the next year or two we could see those hovering somewhere you know between 4% um so it will be a little bit different return on investment than say what we've seen with the ram settlement fund um in terms of overall amounts because it's in fluctuation it's hard to pin down exactly my suspicion is with these funds with that initial I mean with the interest it would acrew we would probably be able to expend most of these funds uh on city workers um who any c of workers who would take advantage of this um and my suspicion is at least in the early few years of that that that would mean that there would be a smaller portion that would in theory be available for additional public roll out but again while the amount is influx I suspect that the initial you know amount of Interest would probably be tapped Out by city workers in the first few years and can you kind of clarify what what's the theory behind why why this instead of some other offer that the city could provide sure um not everybody wants to have children it's a very personal decision you know in the city of St Louis you know we welcome you regardless of whether you want to have a family we respect that that's your choice no matter where you're coming from what you're viewing that is we are also dealing with significant population loss we are also more importantly dealing with a lot of feedbacks separate from populations which is a loss of families from the area there are a lot of different reasons for that included in the many different reasons which you and I talked about the schools um I think was last week as being one of the driving factors of concern there right so there's no hiding that um included among the other you know costs that we know are of concern to families is affordability and as well as do they

have support to um if they have children to have economic Mobility to be able to you know maintain a home here so that is another piece that we're aware of um from the simple cost standpoint to Target that if you able to help alleviate a port cost whether it's for our city workers especially or a member of the community that does help it inarguably helps Child Care is so very expensive um there's so many factors for it I think the good news is the state's really honing in that this year but the house and the Senate leadership really want to make it a priority through tax credits reforms red tape lifting um you know a little bit of additional Monies to help folks get off the ground and finally deploying a lot of the monies that we're supposed to so it's not as if this would stand alone but the reason the state's focusing on this is the same reason we're focusing on this is because we want people who have families to be able to work and live in the communities and in particular for the city of St Louis we want you to come work for us well thank you I I think I I totally agree I I want people with families to want to live here and be able to live here and afford that child care is ridiculously expensive and that is obviously yes a personal choice to people and that's a cost you have to figure out but uh when I look at you know the loss of families with especially small children in St Louis what I'm actually seeing is that and I think we discussed this that we actually have a relatively we actually have a higher percentage of our population of children under five uh than the county does which would suggest that they're not actually fleeing the city to the county uh but we also saw a decrease and kids under 18 but we saw that decrease really begin there was pretty much it

settled out and it it just crashed after 2007 which is when the schools lost their accreditation so I continue to think that like one of the big things holding back our city in terms of being able to attract families is those schools uh I have a question about the you know putting money towards helping individual families afford daycare or Child Care is important but what does this do towards creating more seats in daycare towards creating more providers towards creating more workers um so one of your questions earlier specifically around the interest sorry I did want to say that um from conversations we've had 37.2 million would probably mean about a million dollars um in in interest that was kind of the the projection um you can kind of estimate it's my is uh but you can kind of estimate around it um um and so I wanted to put that on record and then I think um in terms of the um how what does this bill do um one of the things that was really we were really mindful of when we were crafting the bill if you look at the um the the Innovation fund and The Economic Development Fund you'll see some specific language in there that actually says that child care facilities would be eligible um as would any other business or nonprofit um in order to qualify to expand their services and you know if you you were there for the committee of the whole meeting we've had consistent uh meetings with uh providers all over and they've really indicated that that is something that they're really interested in that they struggle um I think also um you know director mberg mentioned the state interest um we had some early early conversations but actually when they were uh swearing in

our new Representatives last week at Jefferson City the protemp got on the floor and actually mentioned child care and both Democrats and Republicans overwhelmingly um stood up and there was a lot of interest too at the state level and he actually said in his speech that child care is something that he would like to see facilitated and so I think to your point about you know why is this a specific method for supporting families I think we see an opportunity here um given the many disagreements we have with our state it looks like childcare may not be one of them and there's been interest that they'll be doing that in specific when you're talking about the city's Workforce one of the things that departments have said and I know that we see is we have a aging Workforce and so we're also thinking of not just the City's population in general but in terms of our Workforce if that's a benefit that we're able to offer that's an incentive that would you know people who are childbearing age are usually younger and so I think a a program like that has multiple benefits where not only you know you saw the amendment that c what the priority looks like but not only are you helping to sustain you know youth you're also offering an incentive that might help with the demographic within our Workforce that we are um really really short on and many of the department heads would would speak to that that struggle of being able to attract um those folks and then again wages are not directly in this bill but when you also think of for a worker of that age of birthing age um how what other ways could you support them the ability to potentially save anywhere from two two to $1,000 a month on child $200 to $1,000 on Child Care might help like you know obviously city government jobs don't pay the best they're public jobs but being able to offer unique incentives and unique packages sort of I mean we saw an interesting model today with doing development a little bit different I think we're being a little bit Innovative also with our Workforce benefits and figuring out how we can be Innovative with them to attract and sustain our our workers as well okay and I I appreciate that and I

think um you know my my issue comes down to that I'm not sure that's the the make or break decision when someone's trying to decide whether to move to St Louis or to uh come work for St Louis there's a lot that goes into deciding again whether to have a child or where to live with that child I think when it comes down to it when I hear from families a lot is the schools again their their choice of where they can send their child to school if they live in the city having to Shell out an extra $50,000 a year because you want to send your kid out in the county to school uh is going to be a pretty big determining factor in where you live um and that's why people pay premium to live in Clayton right because they get to go to that Clayton School District uh so I I think there's a lot that goes kind of goes into this but you know when I see other places other countries have tried this to try to offer incentives for people to come and have kids there and they found that it's not really the deciding factor in what actually drives people to do that um I would say that there are you know there's probably not one thing you know we heard some residents say today that choosing to keep a business downtown is not going to a reason I stay in the city so there probably not one thing that's going to have someone say but I do think what might be interesting and there's actually some data that's public on St Louis Public Schools website The Early Child Care Program that they have that starts at three there is always a waiting list it is one of the most successful programs in the district it is the thing that I've heard parents teachers and staff alike say we cannot do we can't offer you know enough spots in and one of the things that also increases Children and Families staying in cities is creating that Pipeline and so right now we're starting at three and I think this legislation is trying to offer an opportunity for us to actually start at Birth and again we're not you don't even have to reference other cities the success of that Child Care Program is on their website if you were

to call the department at the public school they would tell you we have a weit list right now so I think know that there are many families in our city that are in need of child care and that are trying to figure out how to subsidize that and I think the more in relationship we can be with them and the earlier we can be not only are there a lot of benefits that we know for those children ler on in life because of the Early Education exposure but you're also putting them in relationship with the city and making it more likely that they will stay here as they go throughout their educational Journey again from zero all the way up to we get to the college promise you know part and that's very much kind of the thinking of of the bill gotcha okay well you know and this is what it comes down to for me is that this is a new thing that the city is offering uh and what what it comes down to is that this money that we have available with the ram settlement funds is a very limited amount of money not even a quarter of our City's annual budget uh so I'm I'm a little resistant to trying to start new programs with these funds when we're already struggling to do basic city services here in the city uh you know moving on to the um youth opportunities account this was not one of the priority challenges was it we actually have some people here to present on that if we could bring them up first and then happy to direct those questions to that unless you do you have other questions on the other two funds um no the last thing I'll say on on Child Care is just um that I think this is something that a city Department should do if like we were going to do it then it should be a city Department doing it like I said I recognize the need I see benefits to it I think a city Department could get into really the details of it I like that that I hearing that um the state government is ised in helping with this they do have an office of the child so they might be particularly more well equipped to for that issue and provide assistance um certainly we need to when they're discussing population loss

figure out how to get people here no matter what age they are right um and and kids tend to come with parents and so that's a that's a bonus for us if we can make this a good City for kids to grow up in I just think it's a really big conversation it's a really complicated conversation and at the end of the day you know these funds are limited in scope and I'd like to see it really applied towards um things that we we have experience in things that we know will work and and where we know that it'll help build our tax base so that we can deliver for our our residents uh so and with that I'm happy to hear more about the uh I would receive that I would just add that I do think it's important we did do a committee of the whole process and ask for Community engagement and there was many new ideas that were submitted there so I think we also have to get Merit to you know what people are asking for and what they're saying and it is something I hear in community all of the time of the struggle for child care and I think this specific legislation is interesting especially when you're talking about for city workers because you're not just addressing a issue with child care you're hopefully using that as a subsidy to help with your Workforce if we're going to do basic city services we have to get Staffing up and I think we have to start to get Innovative and think a little bit outside the box and if we don't do it when we have almost $300 million to do it I'm not sure when we would do it but I think that we could use a little bit Innovation and think creatively about how to support our our Workforce and childcare as an opportunity to to do that and I'll go ahead and go to the next section if we still on childcare am I able to talk child or are we we're taking questions so okay because I know Youth Opportunity be a different it's different part of the bill so um I guess on the Chalker I you know I want to say if I'm not mistaken you know we laid out a process um at the board where I think many you know many of us attended those uh virtual meetings to hear on you know how to spend those Rams money and

you know I know Rams I mean not Rams childcare was also as we talk about infrastructure and development childcare was also in the top five uh of those ideas and you know this is something I I definitely understand the sentiments of the alderman uh that just spoke because I also had concerns of how do we make sure this work especially doing you know new programs a new program that you know the city hasn't embarked on you know but then I thought you know we've passed a lot of legislation that created new programs or put things on the ballot that like created new things um so you know I I can I get where there is a um a little bit of hesitation to make sure it's ran you know properly but I you know you know I was also up there the first day where it was the speaker said president protim you on the Senate side but the speaker on the house side basically you know the state is about to start leading the way on child care I know the city has always Tred to take a proactive approach of like you know we not going to wait on the state to save us we GNA save ourselves and I do think you know with this initiative you know I think there's I mean at all the members on this committee there's only one person who has a child so I can't speak to um Madam chairwoman has a few of them and probably went through the process of living in the city and you know trying to pay for child care and I'm sure that's absolutely well you're not a Committee Member johathan but far as you know legislators that are here today you know it's only one person that have went through that hurdle and I think you know what save City population we can be going back and forth some will crime some will say not investing north side so I left so I went to North County I absolutely agree that schools are part of that conversation unfortunately there's not much the board can do you know that's why we have uh the the Public School Board elections are coming up you know that's we can't really um

you know do legislation around public schools and I totally agree that you know when parents think about you know staying in the city come to City Schools is important I think there are a lot of factors but I do think you know by starting again you know we're not going to spend these funds in the next year or probably two these funds will be uh gaining interest and um you know being able to start with city workers uh I think is something that is crucial to show our city workers that you know if you do have a child that like we it's it's it's an incentive for folks to want to come work for the city if we're not at least keeping people in theity city of St Louis what we also know is we have a staffing problem and I'm sure if a lot of parents knew that you know I can tap into this incentives within the city of St Louis have to have some type of rebate or you know cut off of my child care it probably could bring people at least back to working for the city to address a lot of these city services that we all talk about like all these things go hand in hand I don't think it's just one thing that um will bring population back or address the infrastructure needs if you don't have the employees like we have to start building a puzzle I do think Child Care can be a interesting um part of the puzzle of trying to uh help St Louis uh either bring population or bring a Workforce back um and I think starting with city employees on this is uh that would just be my make a break on it I do think we need to start with city employees on this fund before you know opening up to the whole city of St Louis I do think it's something that res didn't spoke on we got to be very clear as we say they spoke on infrastructure they spoke on water main breaks they spoke on Housing and Development they also spoke on child care and I think um I would love to see

this part of the bill um whatever looks like hopefully get to the Finish Line I think we and that's all I have to say I think we're about to talk about something that may cause more of a heartburn Hiccup and headache thank you all right my name is John to strong of the chief Equity inclusion officer for the city of St Louis out of the mayor's office um I'm here to speak on just the college promise if you think of their Early Childhood as being the beginning the college promise would be the Capstone um what a college promise or St Louis promise program it's a bold initiative design that ensures that um the students in the city of St Louis have access to free and high quality post-secondary education um this transformational program will provide substantial scholarships for all student residents who graduate um who graduate high school uh right now we're looking at student who live in the city of St Louis and by doing this we partnership with um higher education institutes we've we've currently we have sat down with haris sto we've sat down with Rankin we've sat down with St Louis University we sat down with St Louis Community College we sat down with UMO and wasu to really talk and to really build out this program and we they're all in agreement of a program such as this um the St Louis the St Louis prence program is more than just scholarships it's a CommunityWide investment for the future in design to eliminate barriers of Education and Inspire academic achievement and create higher brighter students for families um so if you so if you think about it over the next couple of years the St Louis has graduating probably about 800 students roughly who live in the city every year so we're looking at at his Max and at his Peak supporting 3,300 students to go to one of these um one of the universities that I mentioned uh for tuition free um a a brief background like I know we mentioned about starting new programs I think this program the only thing new is that it's new to St Louis this program College PR programs are located Nationwide currently there're 337 and located in rly around 40 different states so it's just new

coming to St Louis um the effective of the program it so it supports the structure of in uh I'm sorry it supports the structure of secondary education so parents know once they AR from birth um enrolling their students in their Early Childhood programs they know exactly where their child is going to go and they have also have choices from from again from a community college to a technical school to from a community college to a technical school to a four-year um to a four-year University um what are the key some of the key components of a college program it is a place-based scholarship and just the way it said so we're looking at city of St Louis um it's non-competitive every single student who's eligible regardless of academic performance Financial need um will be able to will be able to succeed and have access to this program um the renewable scholarships are annual ongoing supporting students to their whole journey through their college tuition um then the holistic so beyond scholarship we're providing wraparound services for the students and the family we know that sometime in some families this college um some of these students may be firsttime firsttime students from their family going to college and we know that this college the college arena is confusing and even the fasta I don't know if anybody's looked at a FASA lately but there is some kind of quadratic formula you need to actually fill it out and we know this can be scary and this can be intimidating for multiple families and also our program again we're looking at just Community funding that partnership between um St Louis city and community and also Community we will be looking at um philan cont say it philanthropic cont contributions and also getting tuition du discounts from the universities in order to support this program um we've kind of mentioned it already the program like this it supports the again it supports the community by um it boers what we've seen in other cities um kalamazo and Toledo that also it boosts the K2 academic so now these teachers truly understand like where these kids are um a lot of the a lot of the feedback that they received especially from the education and teachers is that you know

right now they teach just to graduate kids from high school but now they actually have a place to where they're sing students and then there's a stronger relationship between our educ our K2 education and these college universities um it ALS again increased access and graduation rate because it's one thing to send a student it's one thing to send a student to college but what we're really focusing on is getting these students to graduate through college that shows the actual success of the program and another thing as far as the city it retains our own population we talk about having to work on streets we talk about having to work on just development of the city so now what we've done we've taken our own children and we've trained them and we've educated them to meet the Workforce Development that we were talking about and the workforce needs of the city and we can speak of with ranking with the technical and the streets and the certificated programs but also we can speak of using utilizing slooh wasu for these design and engineering programs that that require that require a college degree or higher degree um strengthens local economy we know that business is looking to move here they look for an educated Workforce do they have an educated Workforce that they can drive and they can pull from from our talent um it Fosters Equity from opportunity but it removes Financial barriers from our students and from our families we know we know that there are many scholarships for families from lowincome from low income families for them to go to school but then we also have to think about that gray area family to where yes I make too much money to qualify this but I don't make enough money to really send my child to St to send my child to post-secondary education and then um so right now as we continue to build and design the program we're focused on really just going deeper with sustaining these relationships with the um College access programs and also um our outside philanthropy um what we're looking for what we're looking for is roughly the $20 million for this part to go towards um where we looking at roughly 70% to go directly to schools I'm sorry directly to the students as far as the um as far as in far as the scholarship and then um another portion to go to for Supportive

Services as far as our um College access programs and just helping with support how do we get the making sure these students have this have support and the wraparound Services starting deeper within their K12 education all the way throughout College um so thank you are there any questions a m Adam Brown uh thank you uh so this was not one of the priority challenges is that correct I believe education was education in general came up but the specific idea no okay so just education and big sense um the you mentioned families would apply and it would follow them throughout it would follow the child throughout or I guess they're not a child anymore they're in college but you know what I mean the teenager the young adult the young adult all the way through their college career yes is there any kind of academic requirement that they have to fulfill so right now we're still we're working on that but also we're still working on it but also I want to cautious people and I always tell the story of myself to where like I literally graduated with a 2.0 so I had have missed a lot of scholarships but yet here I am now three degrees later been a principal for years so I'm always very cautious when people put academic concern academic strains on stuff because sometimes it measures a child's it measures a student's work ethic and not their academic effort fair I just I think there's not a lot of money uh available and that's what I'm I think most the time when there's scholarships people want to make sure that they're going to theing of students the ones where it will make impact uh and that's that's why you know we T to see this it's not to say there aren't exceptions you know of course and and we I would like it if we could give every child a chance but when we have a limited amount of money uh it it that's I think where people are are generally thinking um the

and I would add that there obviously in the bill it kind of outlines that there would have to be specific academic criteria would have to be developed it's just not done in the legislation that would be more of an operational piece sure um so this is starting with 20 million and I heard that there's a need for philanthropic donations yes my actual my partner J harmit from the St Louis Community he had to leave to pick up his children um we've already we've been in contact and meeting with different people people from that you know from that Arena who are actually ready and willing to um to begin sitting down to talk about actual numbers and Jay who's also representing the St Louis Community Foundation and they're ready and willing to start fundraising um yes we wanted to bring someone who had kind of been in the conversations with multiple different institutions today they had to go but we'll try to get them again when you hear it so that you can kind of I'm I'm sure we would all like more information on like what specific questions have been there what institutions are interested but that was kind of the purpose of having him here but he had to go get his child is the thought that institutions themselves would be filling in some of this yes so there's a part so for all college provin especially St Lou PRS the ask is for an institution is a discounted tuition rate for um our cities don't slooh and wasu already provide discounted tuition for uh as an Alum of slooh no they do not I mean they have different scholarships and different programs but right now a program like this where automatically poti potentially as a graduate of a St Louis City High School as I was that you would get a scholarship um would be what would be interesting right now the funding I mean and I certainly had scholarships to go to college that's the only way it was possible but I didn't necessarily have anything within the city of St Louis that was specific to me at SLO and then also what we've realized from just research with different universities it's almost like buying the car we we raised the sticker price just so we can give you and which really goes

back to not too far off f ah okay um and is there anything guaranteeing that that young adults who take advantage of this are going to stay in the city um we have had conversations but the conversations that the institutions have raised is that it they would like to probably model this after some of the programs they have um for their workers to go and get school where it's probably not the best to oblige a child or a young adult to stay but instead um identifying an adult beneficiary in some cases who could do it because we were thinking of um you know something that some of the institions raises like if a kid goes to medical school or law school we don't want them to you know have to stay here so they kind of want more room to figure out like what would that language look like but we have had conversations about you know similar to other programs the institutions have how will we submit that but they're just want to make sure that there's um process to develop the Alle leeny so that we're not locking a person having to stay here should they get an opportunity post um you know undergraduate that they don't have to deny that in order to be eligible for the program and and also developing deeper and creating pipelines from these universities directly into our local Workforce sorry you say that again with so also I'm sorry I don't know why I hold it down so also developing just stronger pipelines from universities into our local Workforce and businesses entities that are located based here in St Louis okay and you mentioned wraparound Services can you explain a little more about that so so the one thing we've seen just from just University is like it's it's one thing just to go to college but then if you start if you're dealing with um first generation college students we know that there's more there's more to the College culture and college lifestyle than is than just attending going to class so sometimes students are sometimes students and we see they we students have different social emotional needs that they need they um as far as you know burnout or we've seen students that you know they're the top of their class in high school now they're the little fish in a biger pond but how do we still

support those students with the same thing that they need also we know that some students are going to college that actually have children so how can we really um provide services and have give make sure they have access to um child care I think too um if you think of like when you do fasta how it asks you like what is your family of index and then when they calculate what you need they take in whether like what would your housing needs be and things like that so the STL promise program would necessarily just be for tuition but it would be able to be a gap and be able to cover gaps that are left within their funding which you know can for students include hous and include food because you usually a lot of students especially if they're going fresh out of high school are going to stay on campus and are going to need those things as well and I think there's one thing that I'm think thank you for saying that I think there's one thing said this is also a last dollar program so it's so the first dollar is that you know what you're going to this University we pay it we're last dollar so this is after the fasta after the pale after all the scholarships that your program we are covering that's what we're looking to cover is there an idea of how many families this could help so as far as families no but we're we're averaging looking at around 800 students per year until the max running with the four-year kind of loop we're looking at about 36 to 30 I'm sorry 33 to 36 and it all depends on if they decide to go the two-year route or a ranking or certificated program route sorry can you say again you're I think uh the 800 is the number of students on on average that that we're looking at graduating from within the St Louis City to take there and he was saying that that might break down specifically into about 33 or 36 family um but part of the information that would be needed is families have multiple children there needs to be you know if you're talking about partnering with the institutions and they have matching funds that might change some of those numbers so this is just based off of like what the seed money is but the conversations are you know with the

institutions who will also be putting things forward and you would need to see some applicants and see like some of the sizes of the family who apply and things like that but the goal or the idea is about 800 individuals um on average sorry so I just heard you say seed money so what's the total amount of money that would be needed to send these kids no we're saying that that with the money that we have with 20 million that could get you about 800 but we're saying it's seed money because you're hoping that the institutions that you're in conversation with will also be bringing money but we're saying C because that's the city money but we don't want this to just be yes okay um who looking at this looking at the bill it it feels like the treasures office is in charge implementation is that correct um they would have a lot of responsibility on the operational side yes and I'm noticing that you know that that's a lot of work it sounds like a lot of work to administer sounds like several employees at the very least to interact with all these different families um who who's Staffing this is that coming from the treasur office so that is one of the parts that still just working with you guys and working with the treasure office that can be built out there are multiple different mod there multiple different models from various cities that we've seen and that we're drawing from to where yes some fall 100% in the Treasure office some is a hybrid with another um a partnership with an outside Community organization maybe like such as the Community Foundation de I don't know but with the outside Community Foundation that kind of works in Tangent with the Treasures Office there's also satellite model uh satellite office models where the Staffing is actually within the institutions that you are partner with and when the children are going through the the process they're dealing with staff and and in those models there's a partnership between the city and those institutions so I don't think they've landed at a model to to pick um but they

could do a satellite model you could hire a coordinator as we have for other programs within the city I don't think they've landed at a specific um one one specific model just yet okay that get that gets back to what I was saying about the last thing with child care is that this this feels like we're trying to set up a brand new program that we we don't even have real solid evidence is going to contribute to our tax base or anything that would really push things forward in the future it it feels like we're creating a system where we hope there's more money down the line to finish this out the way it needs to be but for now we have 20 Mill and it gets split out in different ways I'm noticing too that there's in all the other funds that get created in this bill there's language that says that 5% is allowed to be used every year for admin type stuff that language is missing from the youth opportunities account why thank you hi Casey milberg again for the record the way that portion of the funding is structured is creating an endowment fund right so that's the language that's within the bill to I think that the way to answer that question is also tied into one of your ear questions so the intent is for this program to become an independent program that is up and running and perpetuity that in other words the city Taps out at some point that's the intent this is to get it going this is to be able to show the philanthropic partners that John has been working with who were here earlier today and excited to talk about their interest in this fortunately

we're not able to for them to be able to match that money and then sustain in perpetuity and independent entity moving forward so this kickstarts that process that's relevant and important to your question about administrative cost for a few reasons one yes there is flexibility within this bill for the city treasur to similar to how we talked about with that child care funding piece to RFP out to the Community Foundation just for administrative costs we can't give them appropriate them money for them to invest because of our state constitution and City Charter we can create an RFP to cover administrative costs and management of the program so in terms of who's going to be starting to do that due diligence that Staffing piece it is a very similar answer to who would perform the due diligence in compliance like the child care piece so there's that um and in terms of why the administrative costs were not included in there again for the Youth opportunities program it's because there is that intent to do that very upfront delegation out to that Community partner that will ultimately take this over assume it from you know any City involvement this is to kickart so that's why it's not included because there's I mean there's really only going to be you know one entity really administering it and then the role of the city Treasures Office is going to be receiving the information from The Entity saying here's how many students we verified here's what you should put in your annual budget let us know what questions you have meet and then that money goes into the annual budget it's then appropriated and then it's administered uh to be provided to City students that's the operational side of how that money moves so more than 5% could be used initially to staff this up and get it

moving is that accurate yeah but I don't think that's anyone's intent is to have this be just funding you know administrative right out the gate is that your way of saying that you would feel more comfortable with this if that language is included I I'm I'm rather uncomfortable with the whole idea because again I think it's just going Way Beyond the what this city is capable of of offering right now I I think that we're failing to provide basic city services on a number of fronts and you know while this sounds lovely I I wish we could make every kid go to college for free I wish we could give child care to every single person that needs it but when I'm looking at what this city is struggling with right now you know I it just doesn't seem like something that like we should be using a limited amount again the ram settlement funds are less than a quarter of our annual City budget and we're just it feels like this is yet another thing that this bill is trying to do um and and I don't doubt the the the Merit of it that's that's the thing but there's just a lot of things I wish we could provide everyone Health Care too but like we're not we're not trying to do that well either so I I I don't know how to answer that question because I just think I think I'd like to see you know a little more focus on on the things that our city currently does um I don't have any more questions about the youth opportunities account I do have a few more questions about the the setup of the bill but I think we're going to move past that so thank you H my aldrid thank you thank you madam chair members of the committee you know I will say the people's bucket as I know I've talked to my some of my colleagues and I think all them from ninth make a good point I know the people bucket bucket gives people the most um

heartburn you know I am trying to look at uh this Rams bill as again the process that we laid out when we uh took a whole year to hear from Community we had online meetings we you know um got uh information from residents you know folks went out and knock doors I know I had the packets at my neighborhood association to figure out what folks priority were in north side because maybe they didn't have access to uh the internet to be able to do uh kind of the the the priority of some of these ideas so you know that's why when it comes to the people bucket I lean towards Sher I I lean towards that something that if you know we start with city employees I think it can be done I think we can uh imple ment some type of program for that to help with um our city employees get child care now when it comes to this idea I also think it is a little unfair that I will have to go back in the portal and we say education but I know what came to the top five was child care as far as education was that this idea of this Youth Opportunity and already having a program laid out and let me back up and say Mr strong I know you have been persistent and actually reaching out to the board to try to explain this to us and work with us uh about the program I know uh you kind of came in at the like the last meeting that the board had around Rams it presented an idea about this and then later on it was in a bill with $20 million and that was never talked about during our committee process so I do think you know I think this part of I I kind of echo the alderman of the 9th when it you know we shouldn't be

starting up too many new programs I think we can absolutely start up the childcare one but I think you know eventually as she always does a fabulous job Miss mbrook said you know eventually we're going to use this 20 million dollars those taxpayer dollars they then eventually like tap out and give it away to a entity to run I think this part of this bill being honest kind of Tanks the bill and brings it down because it is it's a lot of questions that as the alderman from the ninth was asking like how many kids what's The Wrap around like a lot of that's like we still got to figure that out and that can happen on the side but $20 million you know is a large chunk of the Rams money I mean I think childcare got 32 and that was actually an idea that like folks had a hearing on and we kind of came last minute with this Youth Opportunity that to be I do not support it you know I lean towards other ideas in the bill but this idea is just something I think is it we didn't have probably enough time at the board to digest and have conversation so it's not like the Alman said it's not that I don't support helping our young people and also agree with you go to school who may not been like you know working hard but actually you know like yourself uh landed here I landed here uh it wasn't like the best kid in school so I get how this can help our young adults I just think this one came at the 9th hour with no conversations about like this program that does exist in other states and say we just going to put it in Bill uh I I think honestly like I said I think if this part of it brings 153 down and I would love to see it out um and maybe figure out how do we do it in the future um but it's it just wasn't enough time

to digest uh this part of the idea so that's all guys that I appreciate you and a Brown's feedback I think that's what this process is for yeah all right thank you Dr Strong okay all right so um I think we have completed all of our presentations thank you to all the Departments I feel like we just ran a marathon um I do have some amendments um I mean I think there are some amendments in the drive so I wanted to make sure that we got to those while you all were here and honestly I've been standing up here for a while but I think aan con your am first oh okay Alman alri I think yours is first okay yes we're GNA take public comment maam this all in the same bill all of those presenters and speakers will offer one board Bill 153 that we're about to take amendments for and then public com me thank you Miss Laura all right thank you uh Madam chairwoman and members of the uh committee uh I have an amendment that is in front of us and before I take it up I just want to explain it to uh the committee and also uh for folks that are at home so what amendment one does is do you want to read it first oh you ask I to read the summary yeah yeah like maybe she just kind of explain it and then you can explain it more no I could just oh I'll just

explain it that was loud uh trying to also make sure we're going to be having them work after 5 so quicker we get out so what amendment one does is you know U some of the uh you know things that were in all the wom's board Bill 131 you know with that investment in North sign downtown again you know I think it is crucial that we do that you know we're just figuring out how we get there when it comes to uh the development um fund and or the housing fund uh I'm making sure that we prioritize uh that North St Louis and downtown would be uh kind of in the top priority when it comes to development and housing and what we're doing we're using the egi 1 egi 2i3 opportunity zoning index as well as uh it will be the central business district I which is downtown also tying that to the city market value uh analysis that again when it comes to the Development Fund I think when you look at the infrastructure in your committee sub uh alderw woman you are prioritizing those areas in the infrastructure and what we're doing is just also prioritizing that in the community development uh fund that uh those individuals in egi 1 egi 2 and egi 3 will kind of become a first priority whatever their scorecards looks like and and I will I like to make a motion that we adopt Amendment one to board Bill 153 can I ask you a question you want to ask me a question I guess after we just first we we're in the middle of motion so um I see President green has joined us so we'll probably not do a um previous Ro we'll do a roll call it was moved by Alderman Aldridge and seconded

by Alderman con to adopt amendment number one okay okay okay Madam clerk please call a r Alman con Alman con Al thewoman schwitzer Vice chair son I Alderman brownie Alderman Aldridge I Sher Clark Hub I president green all right with white one miss weon we have six I votes thank you then we've accepted um I'm sorry adopted amendment number one you I just wanted to clarify Alderman that you because you that is includes Southeast city that was it I'm sorry I just because you said this preference language for north city and downtown but it um Southeast city is in South East City would also be in egi 1 egi well mainly in egi 3 so yes okay that would be part of it too thank you I just wasn't trying to give all the con any love that's all okay amendment to is next uh Second Amendment to the bill uh which I'd like to offer is to include language that uh funds that are provided from the opportunities account would be uh specific for uh licensed uh Care Professionals and so um I think it's important that if we're spending public money that we're doing so in a manner that's consistent with the intended outcome of this which is

Raising um our kids in a healthy and learned environment and so um want to make sure that the folks that we are providing funds to are licensed to do so all right any discussion Adam and brownie um I'm just curious what in the child care space how many places are unlicensed uh we have a very large number of homebased dayc careers in the city of St Louis that would not be considered licensed facilities not all of them are right I I I'm sensitive to that I just want to make sure that like obviously we want to make sure everyone has the proper credentials and whatnot I just want to make sure that often when we talk about licensing and and things like that sometimes it can have effect of of locking out people who maybe don't have the resources or often have been you know disenfranchised and so I just want to make sure and may maybe maybe president green could help answer this because she might be more familiar with this but uh just that this wouldn't be adversely affecting you know providers that are say in predominant black areas or or other disadvantaged areas in our city yeah um Al um I just wanted to make sure to ottoman con's credit that um it's on the record that um providers have been talked to about added this requirement that they've been engaged and you also see some specific language that makes sure that the um the uh childcare facilities that are within churches are not exempt um so I definitely want to let president green speak on it but I want to make sure to otoman comes credit that that engagement and that conversation has

happened with them to make sure that licensing would not uh block them out um and typically um licensing is just I think a way especially given like he mentioned with public dollars that we are making sure that the funding is going to facilities that are going to provide the quality of uh child care that we seek for children to get but absolutely happy to also let president green um add to the discussion sure I um thank you Alder woman son Alderman Browning Alderman con um what I'll add to it is there so there's kind of this spectrum um there's facilities that are registered which is basically they exist but they are not uh subjecting themselves to any kind of oversight um then you have your license facilities a lot of are your inhome daycares all the way up to your um you know your Center based that have a license but in Missouri um the the standards to get licensed are very very low um and then there's this third tier which is accreditation accreditation is what's really hard to get and um and like the ultimate goal for our community should be to move folks from being licensed to being accredited um but lure makes sure that um there's at least a meeting of some very minimal government standards uh in place for what we're giving resources for and the reasons it uh license uh non-exempt is also in there is because that's a lot of your like church dayc carees um they still abide by state regulations in forms of like ratio like student uh teacher ratios and things like that um but they are but they still sort of operate outside of that system because they're religiously Affiliated um but there is

still some regulation there so it was basically tailored um only to exclude the folks that are kind of operating completely outside of any kind of government standards or regulation okay thank you for that clarification I just wanted to double check since this the first time i' had seen this language so I I do appreciate that no more question a problem all right any other okay I'd enter or I'd like to make a motion that we adopt amendment number two to board Bill 153 committee sub previous second it was moved by ottoman uh I thought it was move by ottoman con and then okay long I know right it it was moved by otoman con and second by otoman a the previous we've uh adopted amendment number two to board Bill 153 committee sub okay and Amendment Three Amendment Three I guess I'm up um so amendment number three is has I think come out of a lot of uh listening and efforts to you know build consensus um around this bill and listening to you know some of the concerns and and things like that that um that have uh been prevalent across the Early Childhood um Child Care space so essentially um what it's doing is first tightening up the language to uh to indicate that um the start with city workers and uh and then adding an additional step that um in order for this program to be expanded Beyond city

workers uh we would have to um uh that that basically the an an operational plan and the Eva and an evaluation of the program as it relates to city workers would have to take place and then the board of aldermen would have to approve the operational plan um I think you know alderwoman son and myself and the mayor's office have heard a lot of concern about new programs and what does that look like and um and so we tried to structure this in a way of recognizing that the board of alderman is the oversight body for the city it it is our job to um provide oversight for the executive branch so by saying that um this program could not um has to remain with city workers and cannot be expanded unless this body um a sees an evaluation plan um of the the current program as it relates to city workers and then two uh um has to approve the operational plan um for expansion before it moves forward um and this this is an amendment that has the support of uh myself of alderwoman s of the mayor's office um as a as I will say an olive branch to try to reach some consensus to alleviate some concerns put some additional checks and balances in there um so you know rather than saying like we're just not going to do new things let's add in all of those step STS that need to take place um so that those new things have proper oversight um that those new things can't move forward until um there's been some basic um uh metrics that are met by uh by that program so with that I'm happy to take

questions or um I'll entertain a motion any discussion to make a motion that like to make a motion that we adopt amendment number three to board Bill 153 Committee of as amended second pre okay it was the motion was made by ottoman Audrey seconded by Vice chair s with a previous role we've adopted amendment number three to board Bill 153 committee sub okay well with that I'm actually finally ready to close um again I just want to make sure I thank everyone paying have public comment I'm I'm just wrapping up my part I'm sorry I'm saying I'm going to go take a seat no worries there's still people online I think too I'm just said I wrap it up by part so that once you guys finished could just close out the hearing um I just wanted to thank again the Departments and folks who were here that took their time to come I know uh some of them have indicated that they're still watching so I wanted to thank them before they have to get on with the rest of their day um no not trying to cut off public comment but just want to make sure I thank them for um hanging in there and for you all's um you know contributions to today's uh today's Committee hearing okay um Madam cler can you begin the how many people are online that at want to see we have three people online and five PE and five people in the chamber in the comme room the people that are here have can you raise your right hand just in case you weren't in the first call okay you swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth great thank you our first the people that are online we'll do them like we did earlier as they come I think all of them are here are they all here okay everyone that's online that signed up to speak can you go ahead and turn

your camera on and raise your right hand that way I can swear you all in at the same time and it can move a little smoother okay so it's the three okay four four people yes all right everyone swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth all right all right thank you okay our first speaker is Sandra C Sandra Keeley when you come up to speak you could just uh state your name state your name if you live city what um what what w you live in thank you can you all hear me I'm trying to wake you all up okay my name is Sandra Keeley and I'm in support of board Bill 153 I consider myself a Optimist and a futurist as an optimist I started my company sk2 Enterprise in 1982 when the interest rates were 19 and a half and I've lived to see them come down to the level that they are also I'm very optimistic I got a call from a reporter for the St Louis Post Dispatch I have applied for a grant to do 10 manufactured homes in behalf of the Justice impacted his goal was to hear me cursing and going off about how poorly that program had rolled out but I wasn't going to give him the benefit of that by the time I got him out the phone he was like you're very passionate I say yes I am and I sent him a video of conco cavco industries that is a national uh leader in affordable housing manufactured housing so I'm excited about being able to go to their uh trade

show tomorrow that's being held in Louisville Kentucky more than 3,000 professionals that are elevating this manufactured home model to the level that it should be it's no longer your trailer home anymore more and so HUD has gone all in uh director Mara fudge when they do that once a year manufactured homes on the lawn was doing cartwheels when she went to through one of the two family flats that cavco has uh created so I'm hopeful that since my application is in reconsideration for the 10 manufacturers home that I'll get some good news but you won't read in the paper that I said anything negative about the Norths side uh small business nonprofit Grant roll out so I'm also optimistic as the executive director of three daughters and 1000 Sons I uh have been given a green light to operate my bimonthly criminal record expungement clinics at the ne woo woo I'm so excited about that I'm also optimistic that we have a convicted f that's about to be elected as I mean sworn in as the president so my hope is that now this whole thing about mass incarceration will come up with a whole different vibe that this can be in our rearview mirror and so I'm very optimistic that my grant will get approved and these 10 Hut homes will be made available for my clients so I'm futuristic because I've sat here and heard so much about infrastructure that's buildings that's roads that's water could we kind of consider our children as infrastructure can we do that please I'm

begging it's almost like the Justice impacted they're in the shadows they're uh voiceless so when it comes to the kids they can't speak for themselves who's going to speak for the children so I'm really begging that 153 would be considered the especially if you're not going to do the other one for 20 M million add that to the 37 million they asked for a 100 so I think that was a good compromise so in my closing I just want people to think in terms of our great griot Marvin Gay his legendary song what's going on what's going on and at the end he's begging save the babies save the babies y'all I'm begging you so thank you for your time [Applause] our next speaker is Elaine Laura undecided I'm sorry in opposition yeah she she's in I have one opposition so I just want to get her out all right okay great all right thank you young folks um as you well know oh thank you as you well know I'm a

member of the American Water Works Association and our recent better utilized by both MSD and the water Enterprise are inacurate in many cases I don't know hardly anybody and I know of 20 homes that have inacurate attributes you know what that means that means for in my case 30 years of inacurate charges I love the city of St Louis my daughters try to encourage me to move out we're unmetered water but I say no I'm going to stay here and convince you folks that we deserve metered water we have to make ethical decisions the American Water workor Association recommends that every water utility accurately meter all water taken into his system and all water distributed from his system at its customers point of service it's simple we're not going to attract anybody to St Louis once they hear that we're unmated water I did visit the Dominican Republic

uh this summer my only granddaughter our grandchild turned 21 the Dominican we took the ship uh Excursion to the country part of the Dominican Republic it brought tears to my eyes they're unmetered water they had rain barel where they were scooping out the water I said I never want to go there again but we are unmetered water here in St Louis now I don't have a wearing Barrel you've made that much progress but we're not making any progress no improvements no upgrades no meeting of Miss Laura that's your time I know my time is always up but other people but thank you I have Charlie hinder Ritter online hello I'm Charlie hinder letter and with st L realtor and I will be brief um thank you to alderan son and president Green for their work on this legislation St L realtor supports board Bill 153 particularly its housing Provisions the Realtors still think housing is super neat um as as I mentioned before we'd encourage you to consider a pilot program for rental Improvement fund thank you to the board of Alderman and the mayor for prioritizing housing and for Huds for digging deeply into this legislation today I sincerely hope someone snuck all the committee members snacks today hope you guys have a lovely evening thank you for your time Laura

Barrett dalen Brown undecided there on board of Allan uh in response to uh board Bill 153 the transform St Louis act uh I have seen uh quite a few uh requests for housing to uh be uh in development with uh allocated funds uh and I do believe the first8 70ish million dollars was already uh put in request but I do see that there's a new 277 million that's uh being uh requested for allocation and uh in regards to the transform St Louis act I did see the Missouri uh sewer water department here in St Louis uh was there in even a few meetings ago uh notifying St Louis of costs and things of that nature so uh I would propose in uh addition to uh our St Louis Science Center and uh assist assisting in allocating funds because uh the department of uh sewer uh and water here in uh St Louis did notify us that they are a nonprofit that we there and add an attachment to the St Louis Science Center in Annex at where the medium security uh jail once was uh having a museum there allowing individuals to understand the structures of how in fact we there put together our sewer system because we do get quite a few uh compliments on how clean our water is um how in fact hydroelectricity can power our city um in the fundamentals of science technology engineering and Mathematics and I do understand that the uh neighborhood there in benen has requested a few times for the water spigots there in is at the Riverview Circle to be returned on I do understand

that the city has notified their neighborhood whether they know it or not that it's pretty dangerous for children to be right there at that Circle so if we are indeed going to request that the transform St Louis act in partnership with the Missouri Sewer District there in move some type of Museum to where that Correctional Facility once was the park or that area itself return the spigot for children at play and they in have borders up around the park area or around the museum area for them to do so I would like i' like to thank you all for your time and have a good day Paula bioni Vickers online hi I um thank you Alicia son or alderwoman Alicia son and everyone that carried forth uh this bill of listening to the residents of St Louis city um I have had different thoughts as this six and a half hour meeting has G on right now I'm happily paying a late fee um for my children to be cared for but to involve the city in a process to ask them what they need and they answer and they say we need help and the response be not only will we not give you help we're going to create more work for you so all of these jobs all of these businesses who are going to care for the children who will watch the children I have now a space where I'm aging out of the need of child care but I'll forever be committed to the Child Care Community because I would not been able to rebuild my life without them and so now in aging out of this struggle and so many of us age out of the struggle and we forget it I have one child that has a seat at public school which I'm grateful for my other child is on the weight list and so that still exists of this space of families needing help and for the idea of saying uh well families they they aren't leaving the city for that reason

I'm on a St Lewis mom's uh Facebook group 16,000 members often I see posts of like I don't want to take a raise because if I take a raise I won't be able to keep my subsidy or if I go back to work then all of my paycheck will have to go to child care or I can't even find child care and I can afford it and so now I'm on the internet finding strangers to care for my children like this idea of like oh well the city doesn't have as many as the county people are leaving the state I'm in the age I'm half the age of 70 or whatever it was people are leaving the state they're not maving to the county they're leaving the state and so I've been a part of that conversation of when the resources are not there for your children it's really hard to stay you have to leave the city in order to find resources and we want to stay in our city this idea of like the past being promised all these things my grandmother was in the community lived in St Louis city her entire life I inherited her home and so she was promised things but now she's not here anymore but her grandchildren are her great-grandchildren and they need opportunities to be able to stay and flourish in this city if we are investing in our children then everything else benefits like this idea of like oh well child doesn't cost me crime cost you businesses leaving the city cost you our school shutting down cost us if we are preparing our children to be more prepared everyone benefits and so I'm so worked up because literally you all asked what people want and they told you child care and so not only are we not giving you child care we're gonna work you harder we're gonna work you harder and so I don't know I'm just at a place of now that my children are aging out I joke all the time that I wish that the Child Care Community would boycott um and so now that my children are aging out maybe that'll be the thing that I stopped joking about and really push for because there is so much work being done so many people were able to be in the room with you all today because someone else was caring for their children and so I'm just going to leave it with that um I hope that we continue to listen to our residents Al woman Son thank you uh president green thank you thank you to

everyone that has continued to have conversations about children this has been a six and a half hour meeting the topic of children has been the most rushed over thing that has been coming that has come up and it's just it's very disappointing our next speaker is Ray com I'll go to the next speaker our next speaker is CJ good afternoon well good evening now good morning we've been together all day I think he's trying to unmute with that little fat finger he has um but I just kind of want to discuss um I see a lot of people talking about child care I have a child that's 18 now and child care finding a good daycare ain't gonna make me want to move to the city or even stay in the city if that for that matter but I hear people saying the wrap around services yeah I hear people saying to wraparound services and things like that so when you say wraparound Services why why would we want them to start in college they should be starting now love you more we have so many things that other other districts are doing and I love all of you all please don't take this personal um but I work with you all and I'm GNA also be against you all on some things so I say that in order for all of our babies to invest we need to I mean all of our babies to thrive we need to invest in those um things that are already happening I heard my homie uh otan rashen say we can't privatize public housing but he supports privatizing of public education then I heard him say we can't um we can't uh

support education on this platform all type of different things when we really we can because that's where it starts at with the leaders right here that that are elected to serve the people that they're trying to serve so if we provide those wrap around services like St already does it with the day curse thank you yeah probably was honey that wasn't that's that wasn't us J you can finish your comment that wasn't us that said time oh okay thank okay so um but yeah that that would help if we already have those things in place that would help to already just support that funding so that we can get our babies to those these these prog these different programs in the schools that already happening those that don't want to be doctors maybe they want to own their own dentist practice dentist practice maybe they want to um build the next school they don't all want to go to college so that shouldn't have to be always on the table but um I wanted to reiterate that it's programs already done we don't need these uh more of these programs but by investing in these schools excuse me I'm sick we ensure that every child has a fair um start and equitable education we at a place where our baby see books that looks like that look like them leaders that look like them in places that they can be in one day I urge you to please just invest in this public education invest in slps early childhood as they already are training professional development giving these day curs that opportunity already right now why not fully invest in them so they can continue to thrive and that we all can see our city Thrive as I keep hearing you all talk about Community underserved that's how you help support underserved not by helping the privatizers win but helping the underserved win thank you all so much you all have a good night I'm out of here tonight I didn't work y whole shift I'm finally unmuted me I speak

now this is Ray coming yes sir can you hear me yes sir good evening everyone um I I pay my full share taxes in my little two bed Bungalow over on the south side and I'm just always aall that we look to everyone we can look to except to the St Louis Public Schools which is a public entity just like you the taxpayers that voted for you they vote those are the people who pay to keep the lights on in the school for example I have told people anybody that and listen that we have lost over $200 million in the last s years to the St Louis Public School and people act like you don't even say that as far as wash you was you has an endowment of probably uh uh a billion dollars over there yet they could pay for the programs they don't need any boost to money from the city last time they did something for folks in the city they had a second class College on their campus called Tokyo and people uh couldn't couldn't even pay it as far as Early Childhood we have tried to put things on the table with Early Childhood that would involve the St Louis Public School and be able to bring down the health care I'm sorry bring down the child care uh car through that way last time when we had the committee of the whole uh the one young man was talking about building parking lots and all that they built a

charter school and a lot of this is designed to funnel kids in the charter schools and undercut our Public School Community Foundation and and the philanthropic Community Helping and people like to talk about that now that is just another uh word for privatization privatizing our public institution next thing you know there'll be folks out there getting ready to privatize you guys so I cannot support this bill in its present form it needs some modifications and uh I thank you for your time thank you that was our last speaker all right well thank I thought you didn't sign to speak thought you had your hand raised when we SAR in okay oh okay did you sign the sign in sheet yes ma'am okay you can come on now B you ready yes ma'am dear dedicated Huds uh members of the Huds committee it's lovely to be with you this late right now thank you though it's really important my name is Lindsay Baker and I'm a resident of the six board in St Louis city and I've lived in the city for almost 11 years yes ma'am I work at Southside Early

Childhood Center as the Director of advocacy and Community Partnerships Southside Early Childhood Center has been in the city of St Louis since 1886 we're the oldest child care facility West in the Mississippi if you haven't been by for a tour there's Babies there you can hold one if you want and they're pretty cute we um serve close to 200 children we are atbs in our field along with all the many child care providers in this community that work very very hard every day we serve a large immigrant and Refugee population at Southside um we also have intensive wraparound services for our children and our because we know how important not just it how important high quality Child Care is for kiddos but making sure that we support families too being a parent is really difficult I implore you to prioritize early childhood education in board Bill 153 city workers and residents deserve access to highquality Early Childhood edication I know our lovely city of St Louis uh workers can cons can succeed but we need to make sure that the operations around the city like trash pickups safe and making sure our sidewalks are safe and making sure our fun splash pads are running smoothly it would be great to allow city workers to have subsidized child care so we could have that this unique familyfriendly benefit not only seeks to incentivize more city workers to join Jo the workforce but also has huge benefits for their children 0 to 5 when children are in

safe hands their parents can work with the soless they deserve to work more efficiently and effectively for our city I ask you to allocate 50 million for Early Childhood into board Bill 153 Child Care is Workforce Development and is fundamental to building a robust infrastructure in our city thank you so much all right so we do have some final you have some comments right okay Alderman Brown his so first I just want to say thank you to everyone who's still in the room with us um you all are are marathoners and it's incredible that you stuck through this all it's our jobs to do this but you all chose to be here appreciate you all for um participating in this process uh the the last couple things I just wanted to ask about the bill I don't think we kind of we we ran through each kind of bucket and I want to make sure we cover overall how this bill is set up there are three new boards being set up in this bill uh there are uh the city Workforce fund board The Children and Families endowment fund board and the Community Development Innovation fund board um my question is are these boards staffed

I'll let director mberg respond first and then I follow up Casey milberg mayor's office again um they are not explicitly delegated Staffing in the bill but there's nothing prohibiting um any individual from Staffing them at the same time the the only thing I would add is I just know when we were discussing the bill that's why we put in an admin cost with the knowing that they may end up needing some support staff that uh 5% cap is because we you know we knew that that might come up operationally and we wanted to make sure they didn't exceed what was in the fund or exceed the interest but they did have some support if they should need it in that manner okay thank you I I I think Staffing for first of all I think this is creating bureaucracy on top of bureaucracy uh which I am concerned about uh I think at the end of the day it is departments that are going to be doing a lot of this bill's work and the the money should be put to departments um such as like we got a nice presentation from director feffer about the work the CDA is doing let's just give the money to CDA directly instead of running it through a special board um I think we've seen at our city what happens when we have commissions and and boards that are not well staffed uh recent history I'm going to cite two examples the charter commission and the reparations commission both of which really suffer from from a lack of administrative support uh and both of those legislations that authorize those did not specifically denote staff this bill I will admit is a little better in allowing for 5% of the used but if we're living off of interest and 5% of the fund is being used can we do the math there this the fund is going to shrink and run out of money eventually uh so I want to call attention to the board members not receiving compensation and that that is in the text of the bill that the board members would not receive compensation those board members are

current city employees in a lot of cases which means we're giving our own employees more work without compensating them which feels very anti-worker to me uh i' would like to make sure that we are not burdening uh the heads of our departments or their delegates with extra responsibilities uh rather we're giving them funds to do projects but not necessarily requiring extra time to sit on these boards uh so if I could make a recommendation I'd like to see these boards removed and and a different structure be set up uh in order to administer These funds just to make sure that we are uh fully compensating people for their work uh I will take that feedback in I will also add though that some of the Departments themselves have been advocates for this board and were engaged heavily in a setup of each fund and had um a lot of input on how they wanted to see it and a lot of them expressed um even Noel and CDA I think some of what you see and some of our programs is a disconnect between the program operational operationally wise and then you know the folks who are making the decisions on a day-to-day and actually working in that field and Industry so um when we set up the board we certainly did try to search through all the boards and commissions that exist at the city um but we did listen to the input of many of the department heads um and kind of looked at the structure and asked them kind of how they would fill and in some cases um they were supporters and honestly gave us direct feedback on how they would like things um these things structured and again are also advocates for these things in the bill and so they have not um expressed like an unwelcomed workload it would be a workload but I mean Department of Transportation there's many things we've done that like may end up requiring a little additional work or change the way that the work is done but I think that they think that the overall benefit and the outcome could be something that makes the city stronger and makes their departments stronger in the long run but I think we can certainly take another look at our boards and just see if there's anything we could scam and I would love to know

if there's any specific changes you would like to um you know see in the board or if maybe you're saying you want to see specific Staffing things that are in mind like just kind of along those lines so that we could go back and engage the department heads in those conversations because they were involved in the structure of the board well and I think we we we've covered extensively how these funds cannot be used to City salaries so it does feel a little bit like the other side of that coin where we then turn around and say but we can give them extra work um I you know I think the purpose of these funds again given how few funds there are again 277 million is 21% of our current City's annual budget so really not a ton of money when it comes down to it and if we can't use it to you know bolster City staff uh salaries or even raise salaries to attract workers in some of these complet very understaffed departments it feels wrong to me to then be splitting it between all these different ideas some of which are brand new some of which our current our city does not currently do and so I I want to be wary that in structuring this we again look at plans that already exist and fund them we look at things that the city is currently underperforming on and fund them but that we don't create new obligations that the city even while the city is currently trying not not succeeding in U meeting our current obligations and we've been here for a very long time so I I I apologize I just wanted to cover the bill and its totality since that's what we're here to hear um and that's that's the end of my comments for tonight so really appreciate everyone all right do you have any closing I just thank you all for staying the entirety of the time being here um I did want to just um uh just walk like some of the Amendments that were made today that I

think were really critical or really good steps forward requiring the licensing component putting in Prior prioritization language for Downtown North City and Southeast Southeast city which again reflects what we discussed earlier that um you can see uh the bill is is kind of is evolving and taking in input and taking in feedback and um also that now we also have tailored our city worker program I mean tailored the childcare program just to city workers and put in some um language that will also involve Us in the operations and allow us to to address concerns um I also want to remind us that tomorrow at 5:00 there is a hearing as well for public comment it will strictly be public comment uh we will not there would not be like an in-depth presentations or anything it is strictly just to obviously these are big decisions that are being made and we want to make sure you know we're ending at five but there are many people who are just now getting off work right now are able to tune in and so that will be the purpose of tomorrow and thank you again for you all's time all right do we have any resolutions for review no we have none okay we definitely are past committee discussions we know that there is um plethora of written testimony I'm sure in the drive I've gotten text about written testimony so we will all so be able to um read and and follow up on those the one announcement was made here about the um about the meeting the hearing for tomorrow uh uh I also want to announce that uh Miss milberg has parking tickets for those of you all that are here present in the room and if you're leaving the when you're leaving the parking lot this evening you do have to go north on 14th Street due to the Blues game we will not be able to go left not be able to go south so you will be able to only go uh North all right with that

um all members were present oh you want to me you want to you want me to remind you about a email that you received earlier you wanted to speak on today yes that that was just a thank you so much Miss R we did uh and he was on here today one of them was on here today um Mr Cummings we're going to keep you lifted up in prayer and then the other email sent there was questions that were sent that we wanted to make sure that when we get those in the emails we will send them to the respective sponsors and then hopefully they can answer and address your questions we had a specific email come that referenced not only our sponsors but the mayor Administration with a question so just wanted to track that we are receiving those written comments and we will be responding thank you so much r with that I'll accept a motion to adjourn move second moved by moved by Alderman brownie seconded by Vice chair s with a previous role we are adjourned everyone night for