Housing, Urban Development and Zoning - Regular Meeting

Good morning. This is the budget and public employees committee. Today is May 5th, 9:34. Madam clerk, please call the role. Alderwoman Sier, Vice Chair Browning, present. Alderwoman Velasquez, Alderman Devote, here. Chair Aldrich, present. Alderwoman Sier present. We have quorum.

All right. With that, we have established a quorum. Uh there's no approval of the minutes. There's no board bills for review. Uh besides budget bill number one, which is being held as we go through discussions on each department. Uh there's no resolutions for review. Uh item number six, committee discussion. Today, the budget committee will hear from the mayor's office. Then followed after that, we will hear from the board of alderman, the comproller recorder deeds. Then we will take a quick break and we will come back and hear from planning urban design. We will wrap the day up with hearing the department of public safety. To kick things right on off, we are going to have our madame mayor come up and present her budget. And if you have any other folks that you want to introduce or add to it, it's up to you.

Good morning. Make sure your mic is on. Madam Mayor, there we go. Can you hear me now? Yeah.

Good morning uh Mr. Chair uh and the budget and public employees committee. Thank you for the opportunity to present the fiscal year 2027 budget for the mayor's office. Uh we uh uh as you can see here, I've brought many members of my team um as well as the budget director, M. Paul Payne. Thank you for your work here over the last several months. um and as well the entire mayor's uh team for working with the budget director to put together the entirety of the budget for this year's fiscal year upcoming year. Big picture, I thought I would offer just a few thoughts on that. The entire budget, um as a whole, uh prior to presenting the mayor's office budget, um as you all know, uh this year's 1.41 41 million, excuse me, billion dollar budget, uh, reflects a fairly modest increase of 0.2% over last year's budget. That's a pretty modest increase. Um, as you well know, uh, the 0.2% is obviously not keeping up with the cost of living or inflation or other things. So um you know it remains a challenging environment to produce a annual budget um that largely is able to accomplish what the city was able to accomplish the year before. Budgets of course are the art of the possible. Um and certainly are always an exercise in compromise and this is a budget that is both responsible in doing those things but ensuring that our city financial fiscal stability is intact while investing in our hardworking staff uh improving basic city services and of course maintaining uh good trends in public safety. As a city, it is our duty to provide a budget that delivers and improves quality

public services, lifts up our communities, and is sustainable in those efforts. This proposal is also deeply informed by crucial conversations um of course with feedback from the community and of course feedback from the board of alderman. And I uh recognize that the many many hearings that you're embarking upon with uh the budget and public employees committees uh committee here uh will be long, arduous, and very thorough. And we welcome your feedback as we go through this uh process over the next several weeks. We know you're going to put in very long hours here uh looking ahead to provide quality services. Um, you know, as I mentioned, we must be investing in our city staff. You all know, um, we have come to the culmination of a pay study. Um, that compensation study for the, uh, was long overdue, but the culmination of that, uh, was just in time for this budget. With that, uh, we are have proposed several things for our staff, including a 3% raise. Many of our most underpaid city employees will be brought up to within 5% of the regional minimum uh, for a job of their likeness. $18 million was allocated for those pay adjustments. We also uh uh have included pay increases for our uniformed police and firefighters of 7%. As well, uh my staff worked with our city workers uh to ensure that we provided a 1,000 lump sum payment. Uh we'll be able to do that on June 18th. That was a uh important endeavor considering that we were not able to get

the raises done um you know sooner. Um but recognizing that our staff deserve uh recognition um and additional money for the hard work that they've done over this last year. So to each of my staff um I want to thank you. Thank you for being here today um but for supporting legislation um to um make sure that we are implementing those critical overdue investments. And Chair Aldrich, I want to thank you for sponsoring the legislation um enabling us to do that. These measures are vital for attracting and retaining staff um to uh maintaining and uh increasing morale um in our city workforces and enabling our department to improve the services that we deliver to our citizens on a daily basis. I want to point out a few key things um that the budget um does do. Uh one, lifting up communities um in public safety. We recognize that public safety is obviously one of the most critical pieces that a municipal government provides its communities. We must prioritize new approaches. We are concerned about the state's control um uh and the impact of the state controlled police board and our ability to fund vital city services. And um as mayor, I am working very hard to protect our other city departments while investing in public safety. So, the budget as we know it, the police funding carefully funds raises um as uh passed by the board of police commissioners um while making sure that we have that $18 million set aside acute across the board raises. The police portion of that is 8.6 million, which it represents um a 4.3% increase for salary and operations across the police department. It's also important to recognize that we are continuing to fund the office of

violence prevention. The office and this proposed budget would receive 8.8 million, a slight increase over last year's funding. While we also know the ARPA funds for the office of violence prevention are rolling off, we are in uh continuing to invest in that office with this budget with $ 8.8 8 million. Housing uh is and and serving the unhoused is and remains an important piece of serving our community. Uh you all know last year uh we implemented Code Blue. While Alderwoman Sonier is not here, um I also want to recognize her efforts in being a champion for Code Blue and for the unhoused um over many years. That's not something new. It's something she's been working on. um since she started as an alder person. And you know, last year we were able to um with with Alderwoman Sonier uh and with many other members of the board, we were able to fund $13.7 million uh to support our code blue efforts. Um while that's was a one-time slug from the interest funds from the ramp settlement dollars, um this budget does allocate $2 million for Code Blue. And that's important because the city has not historically invested in CodeBlue or in serving the unhoused from its general fund. And we do believe um that this is an important investment and one that um um will help us be able to continue some of those efforts this year. We've also allocated $6.7 million from the local use fund tax funds for affordable housing. Uh we also in the amendments that were most recently discussed at the board of ENA included $1 million investment in right to council. Um, I want to thank many of you here as well

as President Megan Green for advocating for those funds and working with us to ensure we got that amendment across the finish line as well as an additional million dollars to tiny homes and $1 million uh for uh summer youth programming uh with Slate. Those are important investments that uh we recognize uh that the ad community uh also was advocating for. And um I want to thank Paul for working make sure making sure over the last several weeks we were able to get those amendments included in uh the budget as presented to the board of alderman here. Recovery in North St. Louis following the tornado remains a top priority. Um, this budget includes a $4 million increase for Derelik building demolition, including uh so that brings the total to $9.3 million. It also includes $2 million additional for forestry division cleanup. Um, and on the infrastructure side, we are committing $6.8 million for road and bridge projects and $10.7 million for Ward specific improvements. The street department will receive a $1.3 million increase for snow and salt. um snow removal I should say and salt plus an additional half a million dollars for street signage and striping inventory. Well um you know I want to just say a few things on sort of um sustainability side of things. Uh we know that ARPA is run rolling off not just for um the office of violence prevention but across the board we do have a fairly strong fiscal standing here uh with the general fund reserve at 54.1 million or roughly 24% of fiscal year 2027 operating budget. This is um in line with what are generally considered best

practices and it's something our city should be proud of. It does allow us to borrow money at a reasonable rate and it allows us to have a strong financial footing. The revenues uh are stabilizing generally speaking. I know Paul's going to go into a lot of these general uh has uh aspects of the budget, but we feel pretty good about the fact that our general fund portion of the budget is projected to grow by about 1.7%. I know that's higher than that 2% overall growth that I talked about earlier, but we're also recognizing a lot of other things are rolling off, including grant funding. Um, our pension system due to improved market performance, budgeted pension contributions decrease by a fairly healthy amount, a $6.5 million. The pension systems do remain fairly well funded um at around 80% and that's a good thing for all of us working uh today. Um recognizing that our pensions uh uh are important to our city staff. Um, having that a fairly wellunded system is important. Specific to the mayor's office, um, for fiscal year 2027, we are requesting a budget of 3.1 million. This represents a very modest increase of about $3.6% over the fiscal year 2026 adopted budget of $2.98 million. The majority of this budget is the same as last year with the changes largely in personnel um staffing lines. So, uh it's similar to how our office approached the budget last year. You can see that our largest expenditure is in staffing, $2.8 million, $2,847,198 up from,753,797 in fiscal year 26. Um this is a 3 this includes the 3% increase provided to

city staff um excluding myself. The staffing um total positions does increase from 21 to 29. It's a little bit confusing there because we do include the tornado recovery staff in the mayor's office staffing line, but we're not paying for them out of the general fund. Um we're going to be putting that before you all with the RAM settlement dollars. Um um and so while the total staffing is increasing from 21 to 29, please just keep in mind that those are going to be funded out of a different pool of funds than we're looking at here today. Um a couple of other highlights. Um we've got some increases in materials and supplies, some contractual services. Um uh but largely speaking, the budget is largely the same. So, in summary, um you know, we're h we're pretty much on rinse and repeat from last year. You've probably seen from the to we've switched some things around as you all know, uh but kept many of the positions the same. And um of course, alderman mr. Chair, I'm happy to take questions um from you or from the committee on any of these items.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Starting in order of seniority, Vice Chair Browning.

Thank you, Madame Mayor. Um, first let me just say thank you. I appreciate you being here in front of us today. I know you're very busy. Uh, and it means a lot that you're here in person. Uh, I also want to commend you recently on sticking up for our city when it comes to our budget. Uh, I've watched the board of police commissioners hearings and uh, the latest meeting where you rightfully pointed out that they were trying to transfer money that didn't even exist yet. Uh, was really really important and it it was kind of horrifying to see them just run over that and just say, "Anyway, we disagree and just keep moving." As if we could disagree on what exists and what doesn't. Uh, we're living in two different realities when it comes to our budget. And I'm I'm confident that sticking with you and our city, uh, we are living in the right reality and trying to make sure that we can continue to provide public safety in the full spectrum as that exists in our city. So, I really appreciate your efforts there. Uh, I just have a couple questions about this budget. It looks like, uh, you you rightfully pointed out that the office of recovery is missing. You said that's going to be paid out of a Rams package. uh are they do they have enough money to finish through the end of this year and and depending on how long it takes us to pass a RAMs package, will they remain funded?

Thank you for that question. Um Alderman and first of all, thank you for taking time to watch the uh board of police commissioners hearings. Um I'm really grateful to STL's TV for being present and ensuring that anybody and everybody regardless of availability during those meetings can watch them and they're recorded. Um, and you're right, it is very frustrating um to uh see the disregard for our city laws as it relates to budget transfers um in that body. Um the bud the uh office of the recovery team does have funding through the end of this year. Um but we do need to fund that office and the staff that are working very hard, not just uh uh uh lead recovery officer Julian Nicks, but his entire team. And so, um, that is going to be an important aspect of funding through the RAM settlement dollars.

Thank you. I appreciate that. As you know, this committee has been seeing a lot of that office and, uh, we definitely appreciate the work they're doing and want to make sure that they're continuing to be able to do that. Um, I don't have any more questions at this time. Again, I just really appreciate you coming in front of us and, uh, we'll pass it on to my colleagues.

I'm gonna, uh, skip over Aldwoman Tany. I will make note of as as you as your computers getting together um the mayor did in her opening uh remarks just thank you and the partnership that you both have had when it comes to code blue and getting that um across the finish line. Um I know that was an amendment that was also made in this budget cycle. I'm sure with your support and uh talking with the mayor and the president, the comproller, but you did give your flowers for um working on cobble blue together in the collaboration. Aldo Velasquez.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you. Thank you, Madame Mayor, for being here. Um, and I think putting together or working with everyone in city hall to put together a a thoughtful, pragmatic budget, especially one that um brings our employees up to within 5% of the minimum of the minimum. My question, my first question is a little bit beyond this year's budget, but just I know this is momentous effort to try and get our staff up to the to the level that you know to be competitive in their pay, but as you look toward FY28 and the future, what does that where do you see us how many years do you think it's going to take for us to at least meet the minimum or maybe a little bit above? I'm just curious about that.

Uh thank you, Alderwoman. And I mean that that's this is a challenge. Um in order for us to get our staff across the board paid what they within average, we have to have a tax base that looks like what the region has. Um and so we've got to increase our tax base. We've got to have more residents living in the city of St. Louis and we have to have income earners that can pay into um our city coffers such that we can pay those salaries. Um, and so for me, it's important to make sure first and foremost that we're doing everything we can to keep every resident that was a resident of the city of St. Louis on May 16th um, back in the city of St. Louis. Those are taxpayers that help contribute to the overall income of our city. Um, and then we've got to figure out how to grow that. Um, an important underutilized resource in living quarters is downtown. um and making sure that uh we have robust neighborhoods across the city, but we have a a um downtown that can subsidize the rest of our city. And so when we look at the RAM settlement dollars, it's important that we invest in North St. us. So, we have a path back home for everybody who lived here on May 16th and a path to new living for new residents hopefully as we look to increase uh the population of um that sort of of that entire portion of our city, but also look to um downtown. I think North St. Louis and downtown are two the two areas where we really need to um investment and we need to see population growth to sustain the infrastructure that our city has to pay for uh with our city budget and that our city workforce are working on a daily basis support. That looks like of course our water department, it looks like our parks, it looks like our roads, it looks like the infrastructure across the city. And so in order to support infrastructure and have a well- paid workforce, we have to have a a set of

taxpayers that pay for that. So it's my ambition to um provide um um paths for uh that population increase um and the tax base um including real estate taxes uh to make sure that we can they are have have competitive salaries.

Thank you. I know that's a longer term question um but I appreciate you answer. I think we're starting, you know, I mean, in large part by proposing to invest those dollars in areas, um, particularly North St. Louis. Um, and I think you'll see that. Um, I I want to lift up the conversations that you all are having with our staff to get alignment, um, and investing those dollars in in a way that can position our city to not only better pay our city workforce, but to have a long-term sustainable growth pattern. Um and um you know that that is the way forward for our city.

Well, this next question might dovetail into that. Um I noticed that the capital improvement funds dropped. I think it's 17.9%. So this might be a part you part Rich Bradley question, but can you talk about um a little bit about the drop in this? What if projects are not going to be funded or if some of those are going other funding? Um and then you know just why that why you made that decision.

Um on the capital improvements funds um I think I will defer a little bit to Rich Bradley on that. We are still investing uh we've got the ward capital funds have the capital improvement funds that comes from the excess budget. Um, and we are going to be looking investing a good chunk of the RAM settlement dollars in capital improvements across the board. Um, and with the support of the alderman, um, I I appreciate that you recognize the importance of investing those in capital improvements and I'm hopeful that we can deploy a good chunk of those dollars in those ways.

Great. Last question for you. Um, and I think I'm making an assumption that this is because of federal funds, but I mean overall grant funding was down. So, can you just talk about that and what it means for us and how how you had to adjust or how the budget had to adjust because of that?

Sure. Um, you know, and some of that is still up in the air. um you know uh grant funding for we we've seen um a decrease in federal funding AC you know and and that is going to hit our departments um across the board particularly in human services and other areas um that the the current federal administration is not prioritizing. And so while some of that is still unknown, um you know, we're bracing for disinvestment in um communities. Um and that's why it's important to us that we are uh ekking out uh the $2 million for code blue. We're continuing to invest that $6.7 million in affordable housing and other areas that uh we're seeing disinvestment on the national level.

Thank you. And thank you again for being here this morning. Of course, Alderman Devote. Uh good morning, mayor. Uh morning.

First, I just want to say thank you for your leadership over the last 15 months. Uh it has been a pleasure to work with you and your staff. Uh I have been uh frankly uh positively surprised at the amount of collaboration and communication and I think that says a lot about you and how you're leading the city. So, thank you very much. Um I I have just a and this is kind of a I guess more of a broad question. Uh I realized that putting together this budget is in many ways a very collaborative process. You've talked about various amendments to this year's budget from past budgets, whether it's allocations for Code Blue or the Office of Violence Prevention, uh various uh street department uh things such as snow removal, that kind of thing. Um, from your perspective and and you know we have the ability to suggest amendments to this this budget after our three weeks of hearings, is there something from your chair that if you were sitting on this side,

you would be focusing on and looking at with respect to potential amendments to this document as it as it sits today?

Well, uh, Alderman, that's a a a good question. Um, you know, we did take a first pass at that and include those three amendments I discussed uh at the at the beginning of this, but I think one of the most important things that you all do is really go in deep with the operational departments and understand uh what they have to operate with and what they need. Um, you know, we're not able to meet all the needs of our departments. Um, and that is in part because we have a set of infrastructure that is designed and to serve a population that is almost three times our current tax base. And that presents some real serious challenges. We have phenomenal parks in almost every neighborhood in the city. And unfortunately, many of those neighborhoods are depopulated and don't have the tax base to support the parks in them. And so um you know I think this work that this uh that this committee does I am always surprised and have been as a member of this committee and then as chair of this committee what the conversations uh evolve into. Um they're exploratory. They're collaborative. They help establish good working relationships with you all as alder person and the hard work that our department and chairs do. Um and so I would say um you know en endeavor upon this work earnestly um collaboratively um and be assured that our office and our team is interested in what you find out and what you learn. Um you know we have had very constructive conversations with all of our department heads and even still um some things can be missing. I mean, you know, I I in the past, you know, discussing with department heads about street lights and

specific challenges that specific older persons are having in their ward have unearthed possibilities for citywide appropriations of tire removal and other things. So, um you know, there's a lot of uh positive that comes out of these meetings. I wouldn't say that there's anything in particular other than understanding the operational um challenges that each of our departments have um and go this is an opportunity to really explore what is further possible uh within the constraints of this the current uh the current budget. So I wouldn't leave anything off the table um but uh would um go through this as a exploratory opportunity. You'll learn so much about how the departments operate.

Um, it's a it's a it's just a phenomenally educational opportunity. Every year I participated in that seat, I learned there's something new to learn about the budget every single year.

No matter how many years you serve, I mean, I can attest to that. Um, and as our departments evolve, we're continuing to invest in new technology and other things that should be making our departments more effective and more efficient. Um on the front end you know we I'm I failed to mention city stat that program the program that we are deploying across city departments to uh hold our account hold our departments accountable to establish KPIs key performance indicators to deliver that data and that information that insight to the public and to encourage and demand our departments implement changes to their operating procedures to improve outcomes for our citizens. And we're very proud of that work. It's nent, it's new. Um, and it is ever evolving. Um, but that should help drive this year's budget process, certainly next year's as those uh KPIs and the work that we're doing, the improvements become more visible um and more explored by you all, the public and the departments and the folks who are doing that work.

Thank you. Thank you, Madame Mayor, for coming and again echo the uh the collaboration that happened with yourself and President Green and uh comproller Behringer of um the additional funds for code blue um making sure that there was more funds added to right to council as we love to see that fully funded. Maybe that's something that look into and of course work with our budget director to find those dollars to fully fund right to council and uh the extreme importance of the tiny home uh project that sits in my ward. Getting that uh back up is important. I do have one question. Uh yes, I do have one question. Um when we talk about the office of recovery

uh I know you say in the budget they are positioned um far as the positions are there but the the funding will be coming from the Rams dollars. What does that look like I guess long-term? Um do you see a point where we would need to use general revenue funds? I I know during the um ARPA situation um before I was here and under the previous administration, a lot of those ARPA dollars created new offices such as the office of violence prevention and now we're figuring out how that's funded post ARPA. I think it's coming out of the special use tax. Well, what does that look like long term of, you know, we won't have Rams money forever unless we save some um of making sure that that office is still funded. Do you see that constantly coming out of Rams dollars or will there be a transition to revenue fund?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I what we're we're really hoping to land with the Rams dollars is to provide a funding source to get us through the next couple of years. And you know, the bulk of the work that we're going to be proposing through the RAM settlement dollars, the deployment of funds for home repair, for neighborhood uh plan implementation, for infrastructure will be deployable and deployed in the next couple of years. And so the office of recovery is something um that is really um the I is is positioned to be staffed for a finite period of time um but uh several years period of time. And so the RAM settlement dollars is an opportunity set aside enough funding to staff that office for um um a couple of years um and then that would sunset um at some point.

And just roughly how much I guess of uh since it's not in this book, how much does the the seven or eight or nine employees I guess cost in total? Um I don't have those figures before me and I don't want to miss alderman. So um we'll make sure to follow up with you on the cost of those employees. They were included in the package that uh went through this committee I want to say right after the tornado when we funded that office. Um but I would be I I just don't have the figures um immediately available. Okay. Uh Aldwoman. Thank you, chairman. Good morning, Madame Mayor. Morning.

Um, I would uh certainly echo some of the comments that have come. Um, I think it's been uh I think honestly I feel like the tornado has just caused like an unusual amount of collaboration since I've become Alder where we, you know, talk a lot about things on the front end. I know a number of us have like reached out to your office with an idea and done it. I would definitely give a special shout out to Caitlyn and Dan who are usually my first go-tos and point of contacts who are extremely um responsive. Um in regards to policy, I found Caitlyn to be very thorough and on point. Um very great follow through. Um very clear, consistent communication. And with Dan, who's been my man, but you know, especially now, um he's been very excellent specifically when there's emergency crisises. Um, even recently we had a double shooting on Jefferson and I was able to call um, you know, Chief Milberg and get a response and get the building division out and get the building boarded up that same night. I've had shootings and been able to call Dan and been like, "Hey, can I get some help with this?" So, I just wanted to start by just, you know, thanking your team and thanking your departments and your cabinets and their leaderships for um, their work in this very unusual non 9to-5 unprecedented time. Um, some of my questions are like specific to the budget are general things. I think one of the things that is sitting on my mind as we go through budget is just obviously it's a challenge for um just leadership and I know that we're missing some some positions right now specifically the health department. Um so kind of my first question is just around some of your thoughts um and processes or timelines have in mind for the health department um and for CDA and for the building division because they either have no director or have directors.

Thank you. Um and I echo your flowers for our staff. We have I I mean I'm every day just impressed more impressed with the team um that makes up the mayor's office. Well, I get to serve as the mayor. It's really a team sport. Um and it's the team that makes um this work work. Um with regards to the department heads, you mentioned several. Um I'll speak to a couple of those and more broadly about hiring. Uh, you know, we've recently brought in a new personnel director, Brian Light, who I think is doing an excellent job. He did a phenomenal job um after following the leadership of John Hunterall to fully uh finalize that pay study um and put that into practice. And we are hearing overwhelmingly positive feedback from our department heads about uh Mr. Light's leadership um and ability and work to overhaul the department, streamline the hiring process. And I would encourage you all to talk to your department heads to the department heads about that process the process of hiring and staffing up their departments and getting their feedback whether it's budgetary or processoriented that um we're unearthing any you know challenges that remain and we are developing uh solutions for them. Uh CDA for example is one where um as you all know former director Feffer um has left this the region and left that uh vacancy and we brought in Mr. Matt Moch who previously runs CD ran CDA to serve in the interim. Our ambition for that role uh given that there is just an enormous amount of ARPA funds that are tied up in that position now that he's gotten up to speed with the collaboration of Mr. Feffer. There was some overlap there that was very constructive in passing the baton so to speak. So our ambition is to keep Mr. smoke there uh through the full deployment of the ARPA funds

and he has agreed to do that. So, we're really grateful that he is stepping over taking um a break from his career in the office to do this. Um and we will be looking for a full-time replacement after the full deployment of ARPA funds. With regards to the building division, uh we have that job posted um with the help of Mr. Light. Um and we are looking to fill that role right as we speak. We've got an interim uh director there. The same is true of our health department, health director. Um Commissioner, interim commissioner Unwar is doing an excellent job filling that role in the interim, but we do have that position open. We did get several um applications in. We are looking at what that looks like. So, we don't have a concrete um specific plan for that, but we will be conducting interviews on the health director. Um, and once we get the applications in from building division, we'll be doing the same. So, our our hope is to those positions for the long term. As you can imagine, juggling several positions open and filling my staff has been a challenge over the last year, particularly because of the tornado and the many other challenges, unprecedented that the administration has juggle in just one year. So, um, so we're making headway and we're making progress on those. Um, and we'll hopefully have some more information soon. But I do think um, particularly with Brian Light's leadership, we're able to accelerate some of those.

Thank you. I think that's um, helpful and I think that timeline makes sense and it's good to put out there as we have these conversations, but I certainly understand the importance of continuity as we get our funds out the door. Um, you mentioned the personnel process. Um, and so my next question is kind of specific to personnel and um, vacancies. I think something that is no stranger even from um when you were sitting on this side with us as an alder is a lot of the conversations that I have had with departments in regard to that has been um the process of them um getting applicants you know their process of going through personnel that they have folks who are waiting but actually get personnel has to supply the department with the list folks and that um I've heard you know that that's just a process that can come sometimes move as slow as molasses as my grandmother would say. Um, so I'm wondering about um is that a part of like Ryan's conversations or do you have any larger picture ideas about kind of going through personnel processes and hiring and getting things staffed and accelerating that?

Yes, Alderwoman. Um, that has been a problem for many years and you're so right on that. There are several components of that. One thing um with that and with the what we've uh kind of brought in something we're calling operational cabinet which is um so we've accelerated the number of times our department heads come and meet with mayor's office um under uh uh the Bri the leadership of Ben Johnson director of operations under whom all these departments really uh report and um as part of that Brian Light uh we've done what we're calling process process mapping the sort of system where we're understanding where the breakdown is. You know, we know from the time a person puts in an application to getting hired has been too long. There are several things that happen in that time. One, getting the applications to the departments, then the departments take on and do the um interviews, etc. And there's a whole host of challenges in that. And we're really breaking that down. So, our goal is to reduce the time from an application to hire. Mr. Light has already made great strides in reducing that in the short period of time he's been here and we're going to continue to accelerate that and um you know we know from this committee that that has been a challenge and so I really do encourage you to talk to our department heads about their experience with that what that looks like and what those continued challenges are as we to identify them and address them.

Understood. Um I would also thank you for your collaboration on our procurement legislation that we're able to do and some of the other conversations we're having right now. Um I don't I want to just for this next set of questions I understand are like a broader context. So you may or may not be able to say something um but it's about just the office of new Americans um which is one of my favorite um areas of the city um and one that I've had to tap and me and Mr. Gberto I often am like are you stalking me because we see each other a lot. um very present. Um so obviously there's a lot of things uh going on now and a lot of ch uh challenges in that space right now because of our larger um political climate. I know there just are a lot of conversations about just making sure how that we stay a welcoming place for um those folks who are in fear. I've had several conversations with Mr. Gilbert Gilberto off the record. Um, but I guess for the sake of like residents who might be watching and it's probably one of the questions I get most often from um just residents in the city who ask me general questions about the issues and what we're doing as a city. So, anything that you just want to say um to that and I again with me just prerequisite that you know I do think Mr. Gilberto excellent job and is very present is very responsive. I never have to wait long for a phone call. um we've dealt with some situation. Obviously, there are some conversations that should happen on the record and some that should be off. And so, whatever makes the most sense for you to share here in that regard. Uh first of all, Alderwoman, thank you for recognizing um some of these conversations need happen off the record on the record um and for recognizing uh Gilberto's leadership. Um I think uh one of the smartest things did as mayor was Alberto on staff in that role that previous mayor Tishara Jones had appointed that role building out those relationships and establishing that position within the mayor's office. Um you know particularly as we've had some very tumultuous times when it relates to new Americans and new residents and

residents uh that are foreignb born in the city of St. Louis. So I really view um um that work in two main buckets. one to protect those that are here um and making sure that we're running down um any threats to our communities of foreignb born um residents. And Gilberto has done an excellent job of doing that. when we see um issues on Reddit or Facebook or or social media or we get direct complaints or concerns um Gilberto takes those very personally and runs down whether it's sightings of ICE or activity or things of that nature and so we're actively trying to act very actively triaging real concerns within the on the other hand it's important to be proactive and being welcoming um and so Gilberto is um always leading the effort to ensure that whether it's um um communications about emergency weather um scenarios are translated into multiple languages or anytime the city is communicating that we're doing it in a way that is inclusive and can reach the broadest audience to not only communicate important information but communicate that we care about how we are communicating to people and that we are showing um through our communication ation channels that we um care about all of our all of our community um and that we are communicating in native languages when possible. Thank you. I think that's an excellent summary. Um you know I try to explain to residents that a lot of my work with Mr. Gberto is really like kind of responding to situations in real time and you know taking issues and I try to be very cautious of what I might write in an email or what I might say. So I don't know that you know the public may ever know the full extent of Mr. about those uh work, but I can certainly be a testament that um he's never failed to give me a response in real time. And obviously there's a lot of suspicions and rightful paranoia right now. He's um

just been a huge help in helping me to quail some of those anxieties and at least being able to demonstrate that we're still a city who wantsbody to be here. My last question um is just about uh something that I have to ask on behalf of residents. Um, I know that tied to what Alderman Aldridge mentioned, Chairman Aldridge, around the I know you guys were having some conversations around the process of moving money and the police board commission was trying to move some money. Um, I know their mechanisms may not be the way that we go about moving, but there is a been raised by many residents in South St. Louis. They even had a town hall about the uh shooting range that the police department has in South City that doesn't have any of the um dampening walls to kind of block the sound or any other mechanisms to help with that. So I just wondered if you might um you know for residents who may be watching obviously there was a conversation on police board of commission but this is our budgetary process and we have our own process for maybe doesn't align with what they were suggesting but are there conversations about a pathway for of getting that addressed or any conversations around um some kind of sound bearing mechanisms going in place to kind of help with residents in South City that are hearing those you know very loud gunfires consistently.

Yes. So, the sound coming out of the shooting range is um an enormous challenge. It's a lived reality for residents around that area. Um you know, there's always been sound associated with the shooting range. Um but there's two things that are going on simultaneously that have made the shooting noise just frankly unbearable uh for our many members of our community. one is as you mentioned the what was the barrier for bullets also did act as a sound barrier um and that was an important sound barrier. Um and number two, the police department is shifting its uh guns from one type of gun rifle to another. And as a shift, it there's a required set of training that each officer has to do both daytime shooting and nighttime shooting. And so that is happening right now. So there's an unprecedented unusual amount of usage of the shooting um as a required component of shifting from one uh gun to another gun in the police department. Um and so the old sound the old uh bullet barrier has been replaced with a different type of bullet barrier that does not

muffle sound anywhere near where it was and that has been expressed. It is an important piece. So um um you know as you mentioned um as as we discussed very very briefly the board of police commissioners has recognized that there's a need to address that. Um in the proposed set of transfers that was approved by the board of police commissioners last week. There were $5 million worth of transfers approved. $3.5 million uh were uh proposed from prior year incumbrances, which is not a legal way of transferring funds and a prior year's budget. If you have a an incumbrance um an allocation, it is for that specific purpose. If that specific purpose no longer exists, those funds are no longer appropriated and can no longer be reappropriated because they're from a prior year incumbrance. Mhm.

And so unfortunately um the vast majority of funds I think all of the funds allocated for that sound barrier came from transfers that were not uh legal. Um there are no there's no legal way to do that. So uh we've expressed that to them. Um and um I will continue as mayor to push for investments um in real do from real dollars to make sure that we can invest in that. I'll also say with regards to the shooting range right now we're up against a time clock with regards to um working with our port district and our port authority. We have ARPA funds on the table as well as from the state as well as some state port funds uh several million dollars uh specifically to move the trash transfer station that the city owns which is right there at Gaskan um at essentially where the shooting range is just east of there. Moved that transfer station up in front of the shooting range in property that the city owns. It will do two things. One, clear up that port district property for redevelopment. And Susan Taylor, who is of the port district, um um and Mary Lamey, who runs the port, excuse me, the freightway district, has identified several interested parties who want to invest along the river front and want port capacity on the Mississippi in the St. Louis. And so moving the trash transfer station up would free that up for much needed development, utilize several million dollars of ARPA and port district funds that are going to run out here very soon, and allow us to build a new trash transfer station that will make the transfer of trash four times

more efficient for our refuge department. And a failure from the police board of commissioners to agree with our port district on doing this work will result in losing several million dollars of grant funding and the opportunity to develop that port and the opportunity to make our trash department that serves the entire southside of St. Louis more efficient in transferring the trash. So, uh, we're up in this is a very, very important discussion component with regards to the shooting range that has to be addressed in the next couple weeks and failure to do so will leave millions of dollars on the table. And so, um, it's my ambition to do two things. One, to make sure that the funds are available to put in that sound barrier, and number two, that we agree we come to an agreement with the city of St. Louis to do that important work to utilize those funds.

Thank you so much. Um that really does that concludes my um questions. I would just definitely give you a final thank you for uh making sure that we have a budget from the police department. Um all the members of ENA making sure we have a budget police department that still includes our park rangers. I know you've come to my neighborhood organizations and we've had those conversations. Um I'm so glad that we're still going to have our park rangers and our marshals. They're really important and I really appreciate us making sure that OBP and Right to Council and Code Blue are funded in our budget. So, thank you. Thank you, Alderwoman. All right, I think that concludes the questions from all members. Thank you, Madam Mayor, and your team for being here today.

Yeah, thank you. I just want to make mention just I'll just recognize as well several of you have um louded our team for being collaborative and communicative. Um, and that's a two-way street. So, I have to really give flowers to you all for being willing to reach out to our office and collaborate. And I hope that you continue to do that. That collaboration uh makes our work better um and certainly makes us as a city serve our citizens better. So, thank you for that opportunity to work with you.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. All right. Next up, we have the board of alderman uh office. That one took some time. Uh we have acting president Mr. Shane Con who will be presenting the board of alderman's budget since madame president just had a baby last week. So Mr. Con whenever you're ready you may present the board of almonds budget. Thank you Madam Chair. Uh Mr. Chair that's a

it's a lot of title change. It's a little uh turn from Friday when you call me Madam President. Uh good morning, Chairman Ald Aldridge. I have a few prepared remarks uh for the members of the budget committee here. Um as you know, I'm Alderman Shane Conn, acting president of the board of alderman. I'll begin with an overview of the board of alderman budget uh or board of alderman for public awareness followed by a brief review of the fiscal year 2027 budget which remains largely flat from last year. The board of alderman, as you know, is the legislative body for the city of St. Louis. The board creates, passes, amends local laws, reviews policy matters, and passes the city's annual budget each year. City residents elect one alder person from each ward in the city, as well as the president of the board of aldermen citywide. The board is made up of 15 elected members, 14 members representing individual wards, and the president who is elected at large. During the 2025 through 2026 legislative session, the board introduced 175 board bills and passed over 120 pieces of legislation, including several related to tornado relief and recovery appropriation bills, which as you know is a priority focus for the board of alderman during the uh FY26 and will be a priority during FY27. We also made progress on foundational issues for most residents. the need for more affordable housing options. During the fiscal year 2026, the board of alderman passed several bills that prioritized new housing construction and density. By raising occupancy limits, reducing lot size requirements, and legalizing accessory dwelling units, we're making it easier to build housing options that residents can afford. Moreover, amendments to the city's PropNS program, which rehabs city- owned properties, will allow us to bring more homes to the market for future buyers. And after a year of researching ways to

modernize our city's charter, voters will be asked to weigh in on modernizing the city charter. And this list is only a sampling of some of the pieces of legislation that have crossed the finish line. For the third consecutive year, we've delivered a balanced budget to the mayor's desk on time. I'm confident that with the work of this budget committee and the full board of aldermen, we can do it again this year. Today the budget of the president's office uh is what I will be presenting and uh as I mentioned earlier it's about the same amount of money for fiscal year 27 as it was in with no rising costs. The overall budget for fiscal year 2027 is proposed at 5,500,38,498, which is an increase of roughly $45,000 from the fiscal year 2026 adopted budget. Personal services is the largest segment of the budget. Uh it's proposed at 5,23 and $346 for fiscal year 2027. A small increase from the 5,141,335 adopted in fiscal year 26. This is the category that includes salaries, benefits, and other employee related expenditure. Salaries for regular employees are budgeted at $3,670,89 which is an increase from 300 or $3,598,210 in fiscal year 206. The board of alderman's FTE full-time employees are budgeted for 51 employees and we currently have one vacant position. The budget for materials and supplies for fiscal year 2027 is unchanged from fiscal year 2026 at $38,000.

Contractual and other services uh has declined for the second consecutive year, falling from $288,484 to $271,000 in fiscal year 2027. A new line item was added back to the board's uh legal services contingency fund which is budgeted at 25,000. Um and that is mandated by ordinance. In conclusion, the fiscal year 2027 proposal reflects a steady sensible course for the board of alderman. The uh highlights illustrate thoughtful investment in our people with the bulk of our resources supporting personal services and salaries, ensuring that our dedicated staff remain capable to deliver quality governance and responsive constituent services as we move into fiscal year 2027. The board remains committed to fiscal responsibility, transparency, and accountability for all residents. Uh, chief of staff Jay Nelson is here with me and we are both happy to take any questions that you might.

Thank you, Mr. Acting President. In line is in order of seniority. Uh, Vice Chair Browning. I'm going to pass if you could come back to me. Aldwoman Tany. Thank you, Chairman. Uh, hello, sir President. Um, you look good up there with that podium. Nice to see you this morning. Um, looking good and feeling gorgeous.

Um, I feel like this budget is pretty straightforward, so I really don't have um any significant questions. Um, this is actually sort of a troll question for you because you've been on budget for us. How are you coming with those phones? I know usually when you're on this side, you ask about the phone. So, I'm going to do you a salad and ask about the phones and communications.

That's a great question, older woman. Uh, that is a conversation that is still ongoing in the Um, as you may have noticed though, we did finally get some landlines installed in the office. Um, that was a partnership with the comprollers office that manages telecom for the city of St. Louis. Um, so we were finally able to get some of those landlines reinstalled in the office. Still working on cell phones though uh for the staff and um, deputy chief of staffing Gracia and I continue to have those conversations.

Okay. Yeah, I don't really have any questions. I just want to note for the public that the border ottoman budget is actually decreasing from what it was last year. So, I just want to give us a gold star and give a shout out to Chief Nelson and um the rest of the PBLA staff and director uh Payne for um you know, I feel like we're usually every year we kind of do do the best with getting our budget in stuff first and um or one of the areas that actually decrease. So, I just wanted to put that on record that our budget for FY27 is 5,538,498, which is a decrease um from 5,000 um for uh 615 615,876. I won't get into the nuances because I think the budget is pretty straightforward. So, I don't really have any questions and obviously I'm very familiar with our budget and how it works. Thank you for standing in the gap and thank you for everyone that has done the work to work on this budget and a gold star to the board of honor for decreasing.

Oh, if I may, Mr. Chair, uh, you know, I I'm particularly proud of that as well, alderwoman, and I would say that the board has done its best uh through the personnel administration committee and the president's office. um when we do uh have opportunities to invest in our staff or invest in our offices and trying to be mindful of that without having any type of request for budget increase. Um so we do use the you know surplus from you know vacancies in our office and things of that nature to um fund those types of improvements and invest in our staff. So we have been very mindful of that um the past few years as well. Thank you Alderwoman Velasquez.

Thank you Mr. chairman and good morning acting president Conn. Uh this question actually dubtales into what Alderon se was saying. First of all, I just want to thank the president's office for coming in under budget. That's kind of an awkward sentence. Uh and all the hard work that you all do. Um just speaking of that, it it looks like that we budgeted 51 positions for the board in FY26, but only 48 were uh occupied. And um can you just talk about you just mentioned that sometimes you use the leftover budget from vacancies to fund any other things. Can you talk about the policy about managing vacancies and decision?

Yeah, so uh as you know the personal administration committee is the uh committee that's responsible for working with the president's office on managing both the budget and staffing at the board of aldermen. Um so this is also just as a reminder a snapshot in time. As you know, uh we just recently approved filling one of the uh vacant positions at the board, the deputy clerk role. Um and so as we have um positions that are open that haven't been filled, um I'll use myself as an example. Um you know, my legislative assistant was recruited by the mayor's office when she uh was sworn in. Um so we had a a fairly lengthy uh recruitment process made three offers that uh ended up finally uh having a successful candidate who started um but for a period of roughly about 9 months you know those monies were not being expended because there was an open budgeted for. So um you know what the personnel administration committee did uh at at that point in time was to evaluate you know how much money we did have in our budget due to open positions and you know where could we invest those funds either in our people through you know training and development or um you know software updates or uh you know as you know we've been doing some you know minor renovations uh at the board of alderman as well. So you essentially just use it as not quite discretionary but I mean to just go toward other projects.

It it depends on you know the source of funds but everything would have to get approved through the personnel administration committee. So um you know we start with our as any you know departmental budget you know you have the opportunity to use those funds through well and we're a little bit special because we are the legislative body that sets the budget as well. Um but we do uh you know try to stay within those line items as best we can. um you know if there's uh you know excess and you know personal services things of that nature then we can try to find you know projects for funding um that are worthy of that.

Thank you. And this question might be for chief of staff Nelson or you acting president. Uh I know again overall down uh computer services increased. Uh can you talk about why what's the plan for that increase and why? Yeah for the record Jay Nelson chief of staff to President Green. So when we look at computer services and I do want to clarify our budget did not decrease it's a slight increase to the budget but when we look at uh the computer services that's moving money around based off of where we have to pay um out different software contracts. So a lot of our software contracts come out of this line item based off of in the past it was budgeted for communication services which is not how we pay those bills.

Thank you. So we don't we are we adding any new software? The plan that personnel committee has been discussing is to potentially look at uh constituent service management platform and also potentially taking our performance reviews electronic. Currently we do them by paper. Um but that's something that the personnel committee has been looking into. Great. I and I have no further questions

and I am personally very excited about having a constituent management tool uh that is online. We all I think struggle and uh with managing those uh differently and so having a consistent process and tool available especially since many of those records are uh public record as well and we should have a a consistent process for managing them. Alderman Devote, acting president, good morning. Thank you for uh coming this morning and uh and making your presentation. I don't have any questions. Alderman Browning, I have a very similar blazer, Alderman. I should have worn it today. You should have. I would like to see it maybe one day on Friday.

Alderman Browning.

Uh thank you, Acting President Conn. Uh I really appreciate you coming before us today. Uh you probably didn't expect to have to present the budget for the president's office this year. Uh but you're doing a great job and um I I know it's hard to turn around on a quick uh basis like this. Um I I noticed, you know, this seems like a a fairly responsible budget. Uh I see that our LAS are getting a small salary boost, which is good. That's necessary to uh retain and attract good talent. Um I I'm curious and I know this is something that it's completely under our control but has there been any discussion about increasing alder salaries considering I think we all know everything keeps getting more expensive every year. Uh we actually make less money every year because we're paying more money for groceries for especially for gas right now. Not that I'm paying for gas but others are. Um, I think it's it's a little weird to value our employees and say we're going to keep salaries going for our employees to make sure we can continue to attract good talent, but then not apply the same thing to our elected representatives. Uh, so I'm curious if there's been any discussion about um looking at that and making sure that it stays even relative to inflation.

There to my knowledge has not been any discussion around uh alder manic salaries. Uh I don't know about you alderman, but having just freshly come off a reelection last year, um I was probably one of the few alder people that voted against increasing or didn't vote for increasing uh the alder manic salaries when we did the reduction. But uh you know it is a topic that comes up fairly regularly. Um the process that that has to go through though just for you know uh public edification here um it would have to be done legislatively through a board bill. Um and when we did go through that process the last time that was handled by the predecessor to this committee. It was handled by the um public employees committee uh chairwoman uh which was Alderwoman Carol Howard at the time. Um and so public employees which merged into uh budget and public employees, the committee that you're serving on now was the committee that held those conversations and did a review of uh what the alder manic pay should be. They did comparisons to what other cities of our size uh paid their elected representatives. They did uh comparisons locally to other municipalities in the St. Louis region. Um so there was a lot of thoughtful discussion around that. Um, elected official pay is interesting in that it can't happen without an election. Increases in pay cannot happen without an election. You can't pass a bill to give yourself a pay increase while you're serving in office. So any increases that would go into effect passed by this board would not actually affect those elected representatives until after their next election cycle. Um so you know there there's some nuance to that conversation as well. Um in terms of you know benchmarking it to you

know GDP CPI etc. Uh you know I don't recall conversations about that and the legality of it. Um but you know I think that if any member of the body is interested in pursuing that you know this certainly would be the committee to bring that forward to and it would require a board bill to do so.

Thank you. You know, that's just a really it's an it's an important question, I think, because at a certain point, I mean, if we keep giving our LA's raises, they're going to make more than the elected representatives at some point. Uh, and I I think it's just a conversation about talent in city government that I think the older salaries previously were dreadfully low. Uh, any I know it's not a popular political thing to say this that I think we should all be paid more, but here's the thing. You want professional people in politics without conflicts of interest, you have to pay them a living wage. You have to pay them competitively. Otherwise, you're they're going to go off to private industry and do that job somewhere where it doesn't benefit the people. And so I'm not arguing for a ridiculous salary amount, but I think it ought to at least keep up with the cost of living every day uh because uh I think it's it's incumbent upon us to try to make sure that we don't have to require secondary employment uh in order to make ends meet. Uh so I think that's worth a conversation. I do understand the restrictions you're talking about and I'm I'm open to exploring that further because I think ultimately at the end of the day I want to make sure that we have a good group of people down here at the board and and I know that right now we we do uh and I think that the salary increase between from I think 2023 is when it happened is a big part of that. Uh so I appreciate you answering those questions. As far as anything else goes, um I I do see uh like I said, some effort here to keep cost down. Um I was curious, there was a request for about 126,000 in computer services, but uh most amount is 90,000. uh what was the what were the requests for and what's going to have to be cut because that full amount wasn't uh granted.

That's a great question, Alderman. That goes back to the constituent service platform uh received the quote from Salesforce of $52,000. So, because that's cut, um the personnel committee will need to re-evaluate what a platform would look like that probably is not that cost. Okay, that that's helpful. Um, otherwise I know that a lot of thoughtful upgrades have been made to um the uh offices to the um to the platforms we use to even down to the microphones that we use. Uh I noticed though we do continue to have a problem with mics cutting out. Is that something that the office is looking into?

Yeah, I I actually just brought that up two Fridays ago uh when we had to go into recess uh because the equipment in the chambers wasn't working. Um, so you know, I I think part of that is equipment, but also part of that is, you know, ensuring that our staff is, you know, working with St. Louis TV and, you know, ensuring that everything is set up properly and that, you know, we do test runs before we go live with our meetings. Um because uh all of this technology is still relatively new to the board of aldermen and so we need to make sure that in preparation of our meetings that we are you know running the traps on all of these you know meetings before we go into the meeting live and so I think it's a multiffold you know concern um but you know I think you probably noticed that the first meeting that we had half the microphones were not working and so um I'm still waiting on an answer as to why that was, you know, were they not charged? Were they just broken? You know, uh so we're we are having that conversation, alderman, bless you.

Uh alderwoman. Um so we are having that conversation, but um also Oh, so I do have an answer to that uh question because he's he's correct. He has asked us about that. So in the chambers, we have two panels uh kind of like in here, you have a panel right here that's connected. Um, in the chambers we have one that the clerk managed and in the back STL TV managed. So, what we figured out was the panel in the back had half of the microphone. So, we uh when we have board meetings to Alman um acting president Con's point, we need to make sure we're checking things like that. Something that small should be checked so that we don't have issues like that.

I appreciate that and um I hope we can make progress on that. I think it's really important when when dialogue gets dropped, we're not providing a a accurate public record. So, it's a matter of transparency and it's important. Um, and maybe in your short time as acting president, you can dig further into it. I I really do appreciate you stepping up, Alderman Cohen. Um, and of course, congratulations to uh President Green for her recent arrival. Very happy that all went well. Um, and now we have a little more population in the city. So, uh, we're getting there slowly but surely. Um, I don't have any more questions. Thank you so much for your time today.

Thank you, Alderman. Thank you, Acting President Con. Just a brief view overview again of the budget. It looks like uh I know that Chief Nelson mentioned there's only a small increase. Last year there was 5,493,651 that uh was adopted and this year it is uh 5,538,498. So just a small increase. Um FTEES as I think the old woman had brought up we are scheduled to have 51. I know we recently um just hired two. So I think that would put us at 50. uh have to pat us on the back at the board. We usually spend not only all our money, but we also make sure that FTEEs uh within our department or field. When you look at other departments, um there are a lot of open vacancies and we're doing a good job. Outside of the board of alderman budget, also want to uh thank our staff here at the board of alderman because uh if it w if it's not for them, I think they're the one who make us look good on a regular basis. there always can be stuff done better of course like with microphones that was brought up but they're the hardworking individuals that make meetings run the documents are uh printed for us um and I would be remissed if I didn't thank uh the staff here uh at the board of alderman who work extremely hard there's a lot of personalities and they have to deal with all of them um everyone's not as sweet as I am so uh thank you and also thank you to uh the the president's staff that has been very helpful when it comes to legislation and other items. So, uh Paul, as we um clearly we're a good department, so continue to treat us as such in the future. Uh no more questions.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, members of the committee. All righty, moving right along. Trying to catch up a little bit to see, but doesn't doesn't mean that we have to rush at all. We have Madame Comproller here to present her budget. Uh madame clerk, if you can pull up that presentation that was provided to us. Um, madame comproller, just state your first and last name. If you want to mention who's here with your from with your team, um, please feel free to and whenever you're ready. It looks like we're getting that presentation pulled on up. Is it the correct one? Whenever you're ready, you may proceed.

All right. Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. I am Donna Behinger, the comproller of the city of St. Leis and I brought with me today my deputy controller of finance Jason Fletcher my deputy uh deputy controller of real estate Ryan Coleman my right-hand person her name does her role would just be she's there when I need her McKenzie Looney and then Jim Geravaglia who has uh brought a wealth of information of being here for many many years so that's who I have with me today and um I just wanted to cover a couple things uh before I go into the exact numbers here and that is because it's been one year. So last year when I was up here I wasn't as well verssed on what I should have been and knowing that what everyone asks me no matter where I go is what does a comproller do? That is the number one question. And so what I tell them is that we are the watchdog of the city of St. Louis finances. We cover and see the flow of funds. However, we do not control any department's expenditures and while we run the payroll for the entire city, we play no role in the calculation of each one's paycheck. The lens in our office functions so to ensure there is no waste, fraud, or abuse, which is why the office is all civil service employees because we oversee all the city finances. We see the contracts, the accounts payable, the bonding, the tiffs. We also oversee all of our city assets. The largest departments tend to be the in the office accounting and auditing because that is one of our key functions. Also during this past year, our office did play an integral role in what would happen with FEMA funds. When the tornado struck, we had been had FEMA once before and we wanted to make sure that we were going to get all allowable reimbursement

through the FEMA rules. So, we had dedicated accountants who were there every single day when it first happened. They were there on weekends. They never asked for overtime. They felt that they owed it to the citizens of the city of St. Louis. And to this day, we still meet and oversee and make sure that the finances are done in a manner that makes sure that our citizens and our city gets reimbursed by FEMA. Our other challenge when I came here last year was modernizing the office. When I took office, there were two stacks of paper contracts that needed wet signatures that were almost as tall as I was. You see, the city of St. Louis, the comprollers's office, we pay all the vendors. There are over 10,000 vendors that we work with. Every department submits a contract to the comprollers's office in order to have vendors. And then once the contracts are set up, then invoices are input by the departments and our office then sends a check to reimburse them. What people don't realize is that before we were able to do what's called Oracle that that process could take in order to set up a contract up to four to five months and if we were going to write checks it could take up to two to three months. So that was a big lag and it was also done manually. So if those contracts came to the controller's office and they were not set up correctly, the process had to start all over. So we set up to we set up Oracle. We started last August and what it is is that every department submits contracts and invoices. So every department needed to get up on Oracle. We made sure that we talked to all the people who actually input the work in each department so that we could set the module up so they understood it. We understood how it should be set up so that we could roll this out very seamlessly. We had a couple bumps in the road. We didn't realize that we did have some departments that either didn't have computers available to those who would

be inputting them nor did they know actually how to use Oracle. So we spent all this time making sure that it rolled out seamlessly. And then in December when we did roll it out, we spent the first two weeks doing it paper and electronically. So if there were any glitches, any problems, we could fix it on either end. I can tell you this is a big deal for the city of St. Louis, especially if you talk to the vendors. And that is because right now if you submit a contract to the compellers's office, it will go through five offices and then get to us. It is now set up so that we can have a contract set up for any department within seven business days. The next process is the invoicing. So once you have a contract with the city of St. Louis and you are to be paid, then it goes through all the process gets to us and once it is approved, we can have that check cut in 1.5 days. So we have actually brought the office up into this century when it comes to electronics. What I can tell you though is in doing the the checks, I was noticing that we had one more issue that was happening. And this had to do with the fact that the checks are printed. And I don't know about you, but I my mail is not coming. We've got weeks where we only were getting it twice a week. And I received something that was mailed to me February 1st, just last Saturday. So we mailed the checks out to these vendors and they were coming back. They were coming back undeliverable. I was taking stacks looking at the addresses and realizing these were valid addresses. So that is why some of our vendors were not receiving their pay. What we have started and hopefully a year from today I'll be able to say it's all done is that we're setting up an Oracle module so that we can start what's called AC or what most people know automatic deposit.

so that if you're a vendor with the city of St. Louis and you do your work, instead of us mailing you a check, you will have it automatically deposited into your account. It will come at no cost to the vendors. What I also need everyone to know is that this is a big deal. And that is because if you were a vendor and you couldn't find your check and then we couldn't find it, it has to be reissued. Same with when they came back undeliverable. We had to cancel the current check. We had to reissue a check and we had to mail again at first class. This will save the city of St. Louis $100,000 a year just doing this effort. The next thing I wanted to uh talk to you about was I apologize um was that another key area of the comprollers's office is bonding. Our job is to be vigilant with our debt versus our income and our assets. We have to make sure we keep our bond rating high. Each time a bond rating is lowered, it costs us higher interest rates. When we do the city, which you all are familiar with, go bond, which is government operation bonds, we want to make sure most of our money comes back to us and we can spend it for the citizens. So watching our reserves, watching our debt is a very important thing. The other part was um I need to make sure that everyone knows that this office has some very dedicated employees. They go above and beyond what is expected and I need to make sure I give you all a shout out that was sent to me. Otis Williams wrote, "I was excited to learn today that the city has met the match requirement for the $15 million regional crime commission LRA ARPA funds. The building de demolition project documenting the match would not have happened without the extraor extraordinary assistance of Donald Nice and Bernardet Davis of the comprollers's

office. I want to thank you both, Don and Bernardet, for researching the ledgers and documents and finding $7.5 million worth of qualifying expenditures that was deemed acceptable by the Department of Economic Development. Results on their efforts will allow the city to expend the full $15 million for the building demog demo. Great job. I just needed everyone to know that we have some very uh hardworking people in the office and they do a great job and I can't thank them enough. Um we also I see you all have the printout that had to do with our what is going on with our budget which is why we're here today. So, I don't want to go on any longer, but I do want to let you know that um I'm gonna go ahead and let Jason, who is the deputy of finance, come up and just do an overview quick overview with you on what we handed out. And then, Mr. Chair, I'm assuming then you'll want to open it up to questions.

I'll stay right there. Well, hey everybody. Um I'm Jason Fletcher. I'm the deputy comproller. um specifically over the uh accounting and auditing sections of the controllers's office. Um I don't know if you got the second hand out. Did you guys get second hand out? Nope. I think it was sent along, but um maybe it was sent along later. Um Okay, she's gonna for the second handout, could you also um Was that emails? Uh no it wasn't. Could you email that to me so I can email it to the clerk so we can have it on uh record so it's in the drive? Is it different than what you

So and it's just because I'm going to uh just be pulling from there just a little bit of information. So um in FY26 the comprollers's budget for all funds was about 18.9 million. In FY27 the comprollers's budget for all funds is 19.3 million. So, it's about a three point it's about $386,000 increase. So, it's a very modest 2% increase year-over-year for all funds. Um, so it's a very modest increase. Um, that that modest increase is primarily driven by personnel related costs which include staff adjustments and cost of living increases. So, the raises are also included in there, as well as um a one-time budget correction for the removal of five security guards from GTC, the Gateway Transportation Center, uh and including them in our contractual services budget instead. Um this allows the city to have more flexibility and coverage that we need specifically for arm security. uh we were having some issues here and there getting armed security and it's required to have um at the train station uh throughout the day. Uh so that taking off five security guards off of the comprollers's budget and increasing contractual services did cost the controllers about $213,000 extra above what it would have costed had we kept the security guards on staff. But again, it's very hard to um hire the security guards and it's hard, if not impossible, for them to be with the police issues that are going on for them to be armed um because that has to run through the police. So, so yeah, we we pulled it out and put them in contractual services. So again, this very modest 2% increase year-over-year is just a reflection of salary increases, very, you know, modest salary increases, uh, raises, in other words, as well as an increase in the contractual budget for, um, Gateway

Transportation Center. So, so, so that's the the the dollar side of our budget. Again, our budget for FY27 for all funds and centers is $19,343,727. Our staffing level is as you noticed on what you were just handed um did was reduced from 118 employees full-time equivalent to 113 employees. Now that easy to see that's the reduction of five um GTC security guards. In reality behind the scenes we actually added some we actually I think we added I think we added five and deleted 10. So it was actually a myriad of adjustments worked with uh the budget division on to really um adjust our budget. It was just adding and deleting but the net result was a reduction of staff by five. So we actually reduced our staffing level by five but again it wasn't an operational adjustment or reduction but rather outsourcing it. That's not the right word but having we need more flexibility for the armed security side. So it's bringing on a contractor to help us in the security side. Um, so you'll see that there. Um, uh, the final thing I'll mention are the vacancies. So, right now we have 31 vacancies in the controllers's office, but when we remove the five security guards, we'll be down to 26. Um, this is largely transient. And what I mean by that is that these these uh positions are largely um you know every one to three years um our accountants and auditors and other professional staff um it's hard to keep staff longer with the salaries that we have if I could be frank. Uh and so you know at any given time when we have 40 or 50 accountants and auditors combined we're going to have you know 8 10 12 vacant in any given time because they leave and we

get some new grads and stuff like that. So, it's very um it fluctuates year-over-year, but roughly in between 10 and 15 just in the accounting and auditor sections alone. Uh and then the rest of the 10 or 12 would just come from other operations around the city, whether it could be the municipal garage could have a few. They do have a few couple um as well as Gateway Transportation Center still has one security guard open and uh maybe a transportation specialist and then some of our other departments have a couple as well. So with the the number of funds and cost centers that we have and the full salaried staff of 113 um with the vacancy rate we have is pretty reasonable when you consider um that some of our more professional positions because we are a professional office. Largely our staff are very highly degreed, highly professional staff members. Um, and if the pay sometimes gets in our way uh to keep them long term. Um, so I and I I put down below that you know some of the key priorities for fiscal year 27 that this budget um directly supports all core services of the controllers's office. Our focus is going to continue to maintain core service delivery, strengthen workforce stability and improve the operational efficiency through investing in staff and training and technology. as the controller mentioned. Um, this directly supports those priorities by sustaining the essential personnel as well as the technology that the controller mentioned. And then FY27 and beyond, I I wrote here that I wanted you guys to know that we really are looking forward to in the coming years to prioritize competitive employee compensation. I know that compensation study was passed and the and the director of personnel is working on some adjustments there. Um, and actually I just saw some yesterday that are coming through. But in general, um, we've got to continue to prioritize competitive

employee compensation in future budgets to reduce the reliance on transitional and interim staffing. Um, the strengthening the base pay helps improve recruitment and retention and it reduces turnover driven vacancies and lowers admin and operational costs. So I think that's some of the things we should look forward to in the future and we're hoping to help uh the budget director as well as department of personnel help develop that over the future. So um that's all I prepared for today. You guys have any questions in order seniority starting with alderman v or vice chair alderman brownie.

Uh thank you uh thank you to Tom Cher for being here today and also uh all her staff. Um, I, you know, it never ceases to amaze me all the things that fall under the controllers's office. I appreciate the efforts you made to save money, uh, in your year in office. Uh, it's really cool when you can just instantly identify things that really save the taxpayers money. That's I think a big part of the job. uh even if it's not specifically under your duties, the the finance nature of the compour's office requires a keen eye to where we can actually make improvements. So, uh I think that people should feel good about uh the comour being a watchdog for uh the um efficiency of their taxpayer money. Uh I I don't have any questions. These seem like very modest uh budget uh numbers. the the small increase in

uh salary makes complete sense like I was just talking about we have to increase salaries good talent so um I don't really have any questions I just want to express my appreciation for the work done so far and and keep it up great alderman sier

thank you chairman hello to the controllers's office um I always start by giving thanks to the staff I know all of you all's faces um so you know it's been I've just enjoyed working with you all. Mr. Coleman, I've always loved working with you and I do still have a bone to pick with comproller over um you know your transition. I'm leaning into accepting it um very resistantly, but um McKenzie, you've been great to work with. I think you're an excellent right hand. You and I have had so many conversations and I know um we're still very much kind of discussing our procurement processes and selection committees and things that hopefully we'll see some legislation on soon. And it's been a pleasure to even work with you on legislation and our processes. I know, you know, as a newly citywide elected official, it can be a lot coming into the office. Department is struggling to bring us into um I would say 2026, but that's probably too ambitious. I think we're actually just trying to bring the departments into the 2000s. Um and I think we're we're getting there. Um so I always start with gratitude. I only have a few um questions about just you all's um budget and and processes. Um, my first one is very biased. Um, you know, McKenzie, I always say that I love your service and I look forward to you elevating in the department. Um, both by title and name because I think you do a lot of work um, behind and on the scene are the one that I go to outside of business hours for things and kind of tap. So, definitely want to thank you for your work and look forward to you kind of rising in the area. um for you all specific budget. I only really had a question about the municipal garage um budget request. This is something I've been learning about um taking interest in. Our city loves to talk about parking. Um the request is for $481,553. Um and my questions are really just general over like this fund and if it brings in any revenue. Um and if so,

where does that revenue go? Um the municipal garage does charge for parking. Um so there is some revenue. The revenue would just go back into the general fund. Um and it would yeah it goes back into the general fund. Okay. These next questions are again just very general education um questions just for clarity for my sake. the neighborhood stabilization general obligation bond. Um that is on page 80 if you're looking um for FY27 it is budgeted for $50,121. Um I'm just curious, can you tell us like what that is and what that's in regards to?

Yeah, sure. So the controllers's office by board bill as well as a cooperation agreement have with SLDC is required to help with the roll out and maintenance of the props program. And so it's actually under uh Ryan Coleman, the deputy comproller um of of finance and development. It's it's under his purview that some of his staff it's actually one staff member I think I put it at 50%. Um so 50% of one of his staff members works directly with SLDC to roll out the additional um you know $6 million as we um uh you know uh issue more bonds and then throughout the year we he maintains and his staff maintains the budget um for the proponent program as a whole. So in the ordinance it actually in the cooperation agreement it states the comprollers's office creates the budget the administrative cost budget for the program itself. So Ryan's staff would work with SLDC to determine what is your budget going to be for the year, what are you guys going to spend administratively, and um so all of that work that Ryan's staff does is what we budget for in that um props program.

Okay. Um and my last one is it's a on page because mine doesn't align with the book. There's it's a GOB debt service. It's page 85. It may be similar to what you just talked about because it's neighborhood stabilization, but it's bond debts, but this one is for the bond debt service. So, I would assume it's similar things, but this one is just for the debt portion of it. Yeah, this is the GO debt. It's it's fund 1301. So, that is our debt service that we set aside for um GOB bonds. So, general obligation bonds.

Okay. I think that's a great question. This one might be for Madame Comproller. It's not directly budget related, but I think some of the questions folks have mentioned are kind of in regards to uh bonds specifically for tornado uh recovery impacted areas or things along that lines. So, my general question is just um has your have you or your office taken a look into any of those conversations or taken a look into what any pathways possible even if you're at the beginning of those conversations? I'm very curious to your thoughts as many members of the public have mentioned it to me um and I'm still fleshing out about like what that could look like or any of your thoughts on possibilities there if it could be a helpful analyzing it that kind of thing. Uh specifically any bonding towards the tornado funds

or towards tornado recovery in general.

Okay. Yes. Um we always look at bonding for everything that's needed. But the key is you look at what the bonding you need, you know, right now if that makes sense. Because in the world of bonding, they need to know what specifically it's for and if we don't spend it down. So the example will be the G geob bonds that we do for the board of alderman so that you can do the work in your wards. Each of you are giving given a certain dollar amount that needs to be spent down before we go out for more bonding. And so that's why it's one of those things where it's like a spreadsheet. We look at who needs the bonds right now. Can we issue them? you know, what is our our bond rating? If our bond rating lowers, then the interest rate, the cost to bond goes up. So, we're always looking at every avenue of where do we need if we need bonding at this time and can we take bonding because our bond rating will go down if we have too much debt. And that's what we have to stay away from. We have to make sure we have the capital assets to cover us for the bonds. That's what bond holders look for. So, you're saying that it is definitely a possibility, but needs to be explored and kind of ironed out some more as far as the fiscal details and how to kind of make it make sense and make sure it doesn't take the debt service beyond a level that would decrease, you know, our buying rate into a level where it wouldn't be good to leverage.

Correct. We have financial adviserss who sit down with us and tell us this is what your city should or should not do because they'd either lose money or you would be able to reissue them and get money. Right. So that's why we have the adviserss and they let us know what is your next best, you know, or what is your emergency? What is your emergency right now? And then then we look at what would it cost us to go out for a bond.

Okay. Thank you. Um my last question, this one might be for you. It's just very general about the budget. Um subsidy sister city is 567802. It's for $75,000. It's on page 87. I just same question of clarity of what that's in regards to. Uh what's the account again? 567802. And and is that for uh which that for the general fund sub city sister city? It's on page 87. Yeah, I don't have my budget book on me. Um I'm sorry. Yeah, I don't I don't actually have That's from the CNT fund. Okay. Um convention and tourism.

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. convention in tourism. It would be to pay the sister city, I guess, expenses for the the coming from the convention and tourism fund. I don't have my budget book on me. Sorry. Like sort of a fee or um Yes. Paul, would you do you mind? Okay. That's a that's the annual subsidy we uh budget each year for from that particular fund. And that particular fund for convention and tourism is for those type of related activities, but that's specifically it's the only one we do uh outside of supporting the convention center debt. So is that for specifically like what does that look like in use? Is that for any like delegation related subsidies since their cities?

I I I would have to look and see what what that particular organization uh is and what they what the annual de fees are and all that type of thing, but I I off the top of my head I could Okay. I can get back to you on it. I I I didn't know that was going to be a question. Sorry about that. No, it's okay. It's just a you know, I like to comb through it and when I see things I'm like, what's this? I just No, that's great. Yeah, no worries. Okay. Thank you. Sure. Hold on. Have a last guest.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, sir. And thank you, Madam Controller, for being here. I've got two different questions, two different type of questions. One similar to my colleague, Alderman Sier, just kind of an overview education question. uh we get a lot of there's a lot of feels about tiffs in general. So can you talk about uh your work in with in the tiff administration office and how many you currently uh manage or oversee.

Right now we have about 180 tiff districts. Um what's unique about the comprollers tiff office is that uh the office is actually funded by a subsidy from the tiff management the debt of the man the management of the debt itself we get I think it's 02% of all debt that's uh tiff debt that's managed that is actually what funds the tiff office salaries um so right now we have about 180 tiff districts around they have actually been closing ing, you know, winding down 23 years they're required to close. So either it's paid off before 23 years or if in 20 not paid off, then they automatically they close. So we, you know, you guys issue a board bill um to uh resolve the tip district. Um so they're actually closing now, winding down at a higher rate than we're opening them. So it actually in the coming years, I just talked to the staff about this and the compro and I have had se several discussions about this is that in the coming years we have to be mindful that that office is funded entirely by the subsidy provided by tiff debt management and then if we continue in the tiff district's declining in number and in of course debt managed that will also impact the revenues that we receive in order to fund those positions. So now we're many years away, but the last I looked and I looked just recently, I think within the next 7 years, we will probably close 50% of the tiffs that we currently have open. So we could go drop below 100 in the next seven years um of tiff of tiff districts that we manage. Now, there are some tiffs that are actually poised to be um opened. They happened before the current administration, so I think they just haven't been opened yet. They're still pulling their boards of directors together or whatever the case may be. So, we do have some that are going to open up soon, but um I don't think it's

to the same level as what we're closing. So, over time um that philosophy on tiff um development can have an impact on and and maybe should depending on how the administrations uh want to work that, but it can have an impact on the controllers's office budget specifically on the TIFF section. You have about 14 employees, is that right for that? Um in the TIFF section, we have

Yeah, 14. Yep. And then I think second question is for both of you obviously or however you want to answer it. I know we've had a lot of conversations today. Also I feel like Mr. Payne we should just get you a special chair and section with snacks for the duration of of the month. Um but obviously the need for competitive salaries is really important thing we talked about yesterday talking about today. I'm sure we about it every other day this month. Can you talk about um the mayor mentioned that the raises are within 5% of the regional minimum city employees. Can you talk about uh what the additional compensation where that is in the range for your employees and how we're stacking up in the region andor with other municipalities as far as where we are and um perhaps where we need to go to be competitive.

All right. a big question, but um I'll try to let you all know what I have learned about the city of St. Louis. Um which I'm kind of embarrassed no one told me as an alderman that we have different pay scales based on how you are uh what category you're in. So the only people who have to comply with the rules are civil service employees. if you are a county office or if you are exempt or if you are patronage, you don't have to comply with those rules. So, the civil service employees, and that's what I'm speaking to, the civil service employees um can't get raises unless the personnel department says they can. We don't know what they base it on, right? And sometimes they do, but in our our case, it doesn't. It's very difficult. um when it comes to looking at market rate pay, the one thing that um has been left out is our benefits because when they did the study, all they said was, "Oh my gosh, the benefits are great here. In fact, they're better than anything in the region." But they didn't talk about the fact that if if you aren't aware, and I can get you that calculation, for a civil service employee in the city of St. if they make 52,000 a year that's actually 95,000 a year. So when you're looking at paying someone 100,000 you're actually paying them 140,000 with benefits. So that's why that has to be calculated and um I use that calculation when I was an alderman because um it people are across in the regular world say what is a pension because they used to exist in the old days then they got rid of them because they're expensive but it is the carrot at the end of the stick. It's one of the one of the reasons that our teachers they have one of the best the state of Missouri's teachers retirement pension plan is one of the best in the entire country and

they do um they do that because they don't make a whole lot of money right but when they retire they have something that no one else has across the entire country that they get so that's why I I I hesitate to say that it should be market rate when civil service has very clear guidelines that we must follow and they are some of the lowest paid of all the employees in the city. And I also want to preface by saying people are now starting to see the value of a pension and we should be celebrating that we do take care. I will say two more things that you didn't ask me about, but I do want to make sure I'm sure you saw this by reading everyone's payroll. We're getting clobbered with uh the healthcare. It went up 38%. That's huge. So, we're all absorbing it, right? But we do take care of our employees. The next thing I'd like us to see is to help them get HSAs. We do not offer HSAs, and I think that's a huge benefit uh that we should start looking towards. I've looked into what it would cost. It's not It costs us the city. It will cost us money upfront, but at the end of the day, I think it's a great benefit for employees. Did I answer? I apologize if I didn't.

You did. It's a hard question. Um, I do want to just say, uh, thank you for all the work that you've done. I know that, uh, your staff, you and your staff have been very collaborative and, uh, both trying to solve the the near-term problems and think about ways we can make, uh, the city run better. And I very much appreciate your collaboration and your staff's collaboration in that. So, thank you and thank you for being here. And can I say one more thing? I apologize. Absolutely. Um, I've had a great uh, work eth uh, work working with our new director personnel. He has been fantastic to work with. He's heard all my concerns and he also agrees with these as well. Great. And now you've just given us given us some questions for him for when he appear. Thank you. Thank you,

Alman Devote. Madame Controller, it's always good to see you. Uh modernization seems to be a uh kind of a catch word around city hall. I don't know that I used the word modernization until about a year ago. And now it seems like very few days go by without it leaving my lips. Uh I think you and your staff, your entire crew should be congratulated on the the steps you have taken to modernize the office. Uh you mentioned a couple of things. The the idea of being able to execute a contract within seven days or getting a check cut or payment issued within one and a half days. Those are the kinds of things that that when we hear from our uh our departments about some of their frustrations, what they hear from vendors. Those were the hang-ups that made it difficult for for us to get work done at at city hall. So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Uh I do want to follow up on on that particular aspect that you brought up and that is with respect to the contracts or the language. Uh I know on and I'll use an example for instance uh getting uh new sidewalks uh paved, right? That that a lot of times when I talk or I ask the street department, where do we stand with respect to laying our 5050 sidewalks in the fifth ward, one of the the the the questions or the statement is our contracts don't have any priority in them. In other words, if a contractor we're working with has a has a gig with Webster or Shrewberry and it's got a priority, that's what they handle first before tackling uh a city contract. And that's just one example. What, if any, involvement does your office have in that? And from your perspective, what can we do

uh to make things move a little smoother, whatever it might be? Uh, interesting question because that came up in our talks this morning waiting to come in here and that has to do with the different types of contracts, how they're handled within each department and how we need to as a city start keeping an eye on revenue that's not coming in. So, I'll give you an example. You you gave the 50/50 sidewalk. I can give you a specific with uh when we issue u fines that should be done by let's say someone doesn't mow their lawn uh don't cut the trees uh that's done at the department level. We never see that. But then we start going out and we try try to figure out how much money should be coming into the city. Uh we're not able to track where that is. And so my suggestion this morning had been then maybe we should meet with some of those departments and see if there's some way we can figure out how to calculate that because we don't see those. We don't see that this particular person on this street got their got their sidewalk supposed to be part of the 50/50. Did the city ever get their 50 on that 5050? Right. We don't see it that level. So I'll let Am I incorrect Jason? Well, no. In that

Could you speak in the mic? I'm sorry. Could you speak into the mic? Sure. Yeah. There currently is an outstanding list of 5050 sidewalk revenues that are due to the city. It is maintained access by the street department. Kent Flake last spoke to this a couple years ago and I reviewed it. Um so yeah, comproller is right. We don't know in any given day what is on that access database and what is currently outstanding um at any given point in time during the day which makes me uncomfortable.

Sure. It is from a budgetary perspective is that something that can be handled within your office within individual departments offices or is it a combination of all of the above or something else? My personal opinion and I'll let Jason chime in would be that we need that individual department to like have a module in Oracle that has a clear guideline and tracks it and I don't think that's happened and it could be because of that famous word modernization right and that that's something that needs to be looked into and on that same note it was given to our our advice to us we paid a lot of money for the consultants uh to do Oracle for our city a lot of money one of the things they came up with was the controller's office should have someone in charge of Oracle. So it doesn't matter whether it's a street department, it doesn't matter who contacts us for the end user and to understand how to use it. Maybe we should create new modules would be the best thing to be looking at and that we did put that in our budget this year because that was recommended and we're getting ready to do that because that is the ultimate goal. We want to get everyone up on Oracle. We want to figure out how to run this city efficiently when it comes to the finances. And this is the perfect example of us sitting down with maybe the streets department, the forestry and say, "Hey, Oracle, can you you can feed this into Oracle so you can track it because we have we need to collect our revenue in the city."

Thank you very much. And then I want to follow up on a a question Alderman Sier asked, and this is my ignorance, so I would just appreciate the education. And that goes to the municipal garage. Um, can you can you educate us or educate me on what is the municipal garage? What uh role does it play in the operation of the city and how does your office manage it? I cannot speak to the historically why it's under us, but I can tell you the sign. It's very old. How old is that? I don't know. Decades.

Decades. Well, 1900. and it's unfortunately it's it's crumbling. Okay, so it is deteriorating to the point where there's a bunch of spaces that can't even be used. However, the municipal garage also keeps our fleet and the reason that's important is because when you heard about the code blue, we played a role in that. What that meant was when they say code blue and they needed vehicles, right? They went to the municipal garage. Our people would come in whether it was, you know, 5 in of snow 2:00 in the morning. They would meet them down there and they would give them the vehicle that they needed. For the streets department, it was trucks. For the neighborhood stabilization officers, it was vehicles that go through snow. So we we are the ones that give people vehicles to use. It's called the fleet. So that's on the main level and that's the first thing they do. Then we do actually charge for spots in the garage, but it's getting more and more difficult because of the age and it's crumbling. And so that's why we've been looking into upgrading it. In the old days, they used to actually rent it during Cardinals games and hockey games. We can't do that now because number one, we can't we don't have the staff, but number two, the amount of spots that aren't usable is not very good. And so that's our first goal is to get that safe. That that needs to be safe.

So interesting then that that for this next fiscal year, we're talking about a difference with respect to operation of the garage of about $40,000. So recognizing what you've just said about the need to provide some very basic maintenance and upkeep, can you explain to us the difference in the proposed budgetary amount on just the what you have or or what we're doing to upgrade the

Well, I I guess help me or help us understand it. It sounds like on one hand your office needs to spend more money to maintain the garage, but on the other hand with respect to the next fiscal year, the ask or the budget is actually less. Is that something we need to be considering? Well, that's because we have one less person. Yeah. Yeah. It's because we have one less employee over there. That's what that 40,000 is. But I do want you all to know that if you go to your capital books that we do have upgrading that garage in there. Understood. Thank you for the explanation. So the difference in the number is goes to the the personnel issue that you described during presentation. Yes.

Is that fair? Okay. Good. Thank you both.

Thank you comproller. Uh I will say alderman the 50/50 will be a good conversation to have when uh the streets department come because I think that's an outdated um kind of process that we use. Me personally I just use my war capital to pay for it. Uh maybe because you know sidewalks are expensive and yeah but we definitely should talk about that 50/50 program because I think it's outdated. I just have one question because I know we have our next presentation here and I want us to try to sneak in a break before our afternoon one. I think a lot of my colleagues cover the some of the budget questions with you being a member of ENA. The budget starts with uh Paul and he goes through departments and you being a member of ENA. You see the budget then you guys have public testimony and then you vote on it and then it comes to the board for us to evaluate. I think it was yeah last week when the vote was taken you voted to abstain. So as almost as if you're not there are some concerns within the budget that you're sending to the board of alderman. Can you talk more about what those are? What should we be on the lookout for? Because typically and it, you know, ENA all agrees, but if one member is a no or abstain and it gets to us, it could you talk more about why you abstained or what should we be paying attention to to make sure that it's a strong budget that you felt comfortable comfortable in voting in?

Um, thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, I spent eight years on Ways and Means, so I did this to myself. And what I mean by that is I tried to read the entire line item budget before this meeting or before we voted, right? That was not possible. But I did go through and I was looking at the line item budget and I had a few things that I felt needed to be addressed and and one of those which I've already brought up is that um the health care costs for employees um no one has talked about that and that we need to figure out it's going to cost them more cost us more is 3% enough and what who is receiving that 3%. remember we have different we have different categories of employees. I don't have that answer but I couldn't get that answer in time. I also saw that there were some departments that had this much budgeted for let's say travel but then your people that should be traveling had very little budgeted and I couldn't come to sorts with it. So I didn't have enough time to get all the answers I wanted because they weren't there. And it's probably what I would say my worst best attribute. I dive down deep and I look and I go through and I'll go say well why did that happen? Why did that happen? And then I also was concerned at the fact that we keep looking at budgets but we don't look at revenues and that if we do want to continue to spend money on certain projects, where's the stream of revenue we're going to get from it? And there are places we could be getting our streams of revenue and we're not going after them. So that was really the topic I wanted to bring up. I think our problem is our lack of being able to collect revenue and it's not anyone's fault. That's not the issue. The issue is like you said with the 50/50 program and we have to start addressing that and and how do we address that? So it was more to open conversation to looking at the line item budget and comparing it

and what's here. And I also had concerns about some overtime. And not because I don't think people should get overtime, but is the overtime being used because we can't pay our employees enough, right? Because they just don't make enough money. But if we add overtime into the budget, does that put them where they should be? And I would prefer they make the money versus us trying to figure out how to give them overtime. So that's it was multiple things. And I told people, I said, I should have just started listing it when I was going through the budget. And I and I'm not all the way through it. And so I knew that you all would have to be doing exactly what I was doing, which is through everyone's budget and trying to figure and sort through what's going on here. So it was um even on my own budget when I looked at things, I was like when I caught that 40,000 on the on the garage, I was like, "Oh, that's right. We have one less person." So that's it was a multitude of things. There was not one thing. So that's why And I'm more than happy to sit down with anybody and go through my book. I'm not done with it reading line item.

Yeah. Well, we'll be doing that over the next few days is going line item. I would say if there are something that you want this budget committee to be aware of because we do have the ability to decrease and increase or make changes and send it back to ENA so that I think you know everybody's comfortable on the budget. We're definitely always open to hear some of those suggestions or input that you have. Absolutely. I will have that conversation. Thank you. Thank you. Seeing no more questions for my colleagues, we will thank you comproller for being here and thank you for your staff for also coming with you. All right. Thank you.

All right. We will move on in order of the next department. We have recorder deeds. If Mr. Butler want to come on up and present his budget, may proceed and can also let us know who you have with you. Thank you. Good morning. Good morning.

Bill morning. try to get you guys out here before lunch. I'm Michael Butler. I serve as a recorder of deeds for the city of St. Louis and I'm glad to be here with a few staff members. We have deputy recorder of deeds Frasier, our human resource manager, Mr. Tim Pson, uh my administrative assistant, well, our administrative assistant in the city uh for the office, Robin Davis, and our recording manager, Patty Ellison Brown. I also want to acknowledge uh members of the committee. Thank you all for for your work and for the chair for squeezing us in on single day mayo uh for us to get our budget as I I'll be traveling next week. And and lastly, I want to acknowledge uh the chairman's staff uh if Matt is here, man. He's he's been very good at keeping us in touch and what we need and what what the expectations were for for this budget hearing and that's something that has uh been very welcome, that professionalism. So, I'll start with a summary of our office. Our office handles all of the uh important documents for individuals and citizens of our city. That includes birth certificates, death certificates, marriage licenses, and land deeds. And we have archives dating back to the uh mid 1800s for all those documents in the basement of city hall, which we keep for safekeeping for when uh our citizens need them. Because of that, uh, our budget summary totals about, uh, a little over $3 million, a total of $3.4 million. Um, a summary of our budget can be, um, dialed down to one thing. I I've had a strategy over the last eight years to stay within the budget director's allocation of mine. And I want to acknowledge if he's still here, Paul Payne as a as a budget director, has been very helpful and very um very helpful to our office. Um I I don't rock the boat too much for you guys and I'm not asking for any kind of increase over

our budget allocation and we have for the past eight years stayed within uh that amount. Uh since the last hearing since last year we have done quite a bit of things to um to utilize those funds in a positive manner. Uh for one uh since uh the May 16th tornado occurred, our office has given o away about 2500 free documents to people within the tornado recovery zone. 2500 at no cost. And yet the biggest the biggest takeaway we've gotten from that is that our incre our revenue has increased. What we found is that as we've uh catered to the community and taken care of the community, they have come back and then purchased more documents that they may need for their family or themselves. Uh on top of that as well, our office has taken this year to try to overhaul some of our software systems. Uh we've taken a project to um try to in in-house build our our software system that we pay about $240,000 a year for. Because of that, our software provider took note and we and I successfully negotiated a 25% decrease of our software costs. Um that is reflected on our budget on uh page 189 of the budget for our office services. We have uh went from our FY26 budget allocation was 235,000. We decreased that budget line item to 180,000. Um, and what that what that does is uh pretty much frees up some some funding for us to continue to offer services at a at a at a great level. I want to also add that um um of course our our budget a small budget change for us is the increase in salaries that that all of our budgets are reflecting across the city. um about 70% of our budget is is

budget salary. So that has a big impact on our budget. And last and then everything that comes along with those with those salaries. Um FICA, medical insurance, retirement plan totals uh about $3.1 million. So that that then adds to about 90% of our budget is just employees. As we're dealing dialing into employees, I want to uh note one small change that is going to reflect our desire for improvement of technology is our only small change we have at our our full-time employees. if you're looking at our our personnel schedule uh is that we last year came to this uh this committee with the same amount of FTEES but we reduced a uh an FTE for a information systems administrator and then uh increased uh a customerf facing clerk uh position within our office. This year, uh, I am restoring that information system administrator, but reducing a supervisor position. That all still falls within our allocation, but that allows us to, uh, increase the amount of internal programming and technology improvements we can make ourselves. Uh, last part about that is that we are decreasing the amount of recorder clerk twos we have, but increasing the amount of recorder clerk one threes by the same amount. That allows for upper mobility of our employees. It's a way um for us to give our our employees uh to retain our employees and keep and and and keep them paid at a very high level while not increasing the amount of costs for uh for the city. At this time, we have 33 full-time employees budgeted. We have no vacancies. We've not had a vacancy in years. uh we we use the uh I I use the

strategy of quality over quantity and we've been able to uh decrease the amount of of employees we've had in our office by 20% over the past 8 years while increasing revenue by 50%. Um this is um going to be my last budget hearing with you all as many of you know and I want to take a note to talk about the fact that our office has increased revenue ballooned it by 50% over eight years. When I first presented to this committee 8 years ago our revenue uh actual revenue receipts are about $2.6 million a year. Now they are $3.9 million a year. Uh and at that and at that same time we uh our office was uh getting receiving $2.6 million and spending $2.9 million. Now our office receives 3.9 million only spends 3.4 which we are happy that we are returning money to the general revenue budget and at the same time decreasing FTEES and decreasing that medical uh medical and FICA cost to the city. Uh it's been my honor to serve as the recorder deeds for our city and to serve with each and every one of you for small projects or big projects. And with that, I'll take any questions.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Starting in order of seniority, Aldwoman or Mr. Recorder.

Thank you, Chairman. Um, Ricardo Butler, um, I am, uh, sadly, uh, going to accept that this is your last year in front of us. Um, I'm really grateful for your service to our city. Um, I during the tornado times, I dealt with your office twice and I actually never had to contact you. I thought I would have to, but the two residents that I was helping out, um, when we would get to your office, they were helped uh, quickly, very efficiently. I've always found your staff to be extremely um responsive and honestly um truly like caring and compassionate. Um they were situations that were quite nuanced and complicated and um I would say like once I came back to check on them and they weren't my constituents, I was kind of helping out. They live in a tornado impacted area. Um but I came back and every time they would follow up and be like, I don't need anything else from you. I've got everything I need. So I would give a big shout out to your office and Minda and um everyone for the work that they're doing. even um it looks like he had to step away, but Mr. Pearson um I've seen him in a couple of meetings and conversations and things that I would hope whoever will um assume the office next will continue. Um you know, obviously a lot of your work is on the record, but I've seen your office do very impressive things even off the record to help folks out. So, I hope that that spirit can continue. Um my first question is you said maybe you have a secret sauce you can give us. one of your departments is the only ones that is fully staffed and you have been able to do that for a number of years um and one of the few departments that has. So I'm really impressed by that. Do you think that is because maybe you're allowed a different level of autonomy or independence as a county office or is there something specifically that you would point to that you've focused on since becoming a leader of that office to get to a point where you're fully staffed and on a consistent sustainable basis? I think the thank you for the comments and thank you to our staff for that for doing well. Um our our secret sauce is that quality over quantity but one you want to simplify each of our uh

positions their tasks in each of the positions. I can go deeper into how to simplify but simplify those tasks increase salaries um and while decreasing the amount of FTEs. Uh what you find is that typically employees in 2026 are having a second job to make ends meet and when they no longer need a second job they tend to give you more productivity. So um our office also has about 120% productivity which means we are doing more with less. We're doing more birth certificates, more land deeds and yet we're doing more with less. The fourth prong with that is technology improvements. There's I've told my staff since 2019, there's no amount of money I won't spend.

There there's no ask they can't have that we won't invest in technology and that technology improvements have allowed folks to work smarter, faster, and for us to do. Thank you. Um that really could is the end of my question. And I just send a thank you to your office and to your staff for doing a great job and thank you for um your leadership here and I look forward to continuing whoever goes next to still allow me to use the conference room. Yes. Thank you very much. That was an on the record commitment. You got it from me. Thank you. Alderman and Vice Chair Browning.

Thank you. Uh no questions. Appreciate you being here today and uh thank you for the good work you're doing. All the woman, thank you for being here. recorder deeds questions for you this time and of course we are uh grateful for all your service and for all the productivity that you've put into the office and uh we'll be sad to see you go this election cycle but uh wish you the best on your next thank you all alderman devote

uh I join the sentiments uh that were just mentioned I don't have any questions but I would also like to say thank you for your service uh looking at the development of the office over the last eight years. Your leadership is absolutely clear and your fingerprints are all over everything. So again, thank you for the uh your service to this city that we all love very much and best of luck in what whatever is next for you. Thank you so much, Alman. Thank you all.

And I echo everything uh that the alderman from the fifth and my colleagues have said, you know, uh Mr. recorder. I think this is a a loss to the city by not having you continue on uh regardless whoever come after you got some big shoes to fill. I've had the opportunity to work in the office and have seen how uh you have modernized it. How uh you you've really made that office not just modern to the 21st century but also have made it more uh user friendly for people to be able to come in and access documents and use computers. uh you took the office to the next level by even acknowledging and having these heritage months uh which I believe the pride one is coming up uh and acknowledging different uh individuals and communities in the city of St. Louis just being creative. The first millennial uh to be elected in city hall. It is uh unfortunate that sorry for the ones that may hear this whoever may come after will not be that. you know, we need as many young people in office, but um you have, I think, really turned this office around. So, whoever comes after you have a opportunity to continue to do the great work. Uh thank you for your service, not only to the city of St. Louis, to the state of Missouri, I hope this is just a break and not the end. But when it comes to your budget, as the alderwoman said, u impeccable budget, you know, uh all staff is full-time or you don't have any vacancies as well as more revenue coming in. So, thank you and thank you to your team which I've worked with many of them uh for the work you're doing for the city of St. Louis.

Thank you, chairman. Thank you for all your support over the years. No problem. All right, see you all. Thank y'all. All right, with that we will sneak in a recess uh to about 12:05. Uh we'll take a motion for recess to 12:05. So moved. Second. Moved by all the woman from the seventh, second by the alderwoman of the six that we recess to 12:05. All in favor say I. I. Opposed? Motion carries. All right, the budget and public employees is back. I'll take a motion to return from recess. So moved. Second.

Second by the motion by the alderman from the ninth. Second by all the one from the 7th. All in favor? I I. Any oppose? Motion carries. We're back and we have planning and urban design agency who is here to present their budget. It looks like Mr. Don will be presenting it. uh just say your first and last name and you may jump into the budget

please. Thank you. I'm Don Row, the executive director of the planning urban design agency. Scott Oggovy of my staff is also here uh and look forward to having a discussion and a presentation to you. Do concern a little bit with your wisdom that you've given me an hour. You have as much time you are scheduled for an hour but we end up asking a lot of questions and this is a a important department so no rush.

Cool. So uh let's just look at this first slide. We're going to have a couple introductory things really about budget and then go into some things that remind you what we uh and one of the biggest reminders I want to give everybody is we're located on the second floor of 1520 market. So we're co-located with the community development a St. Louis Development uh Agency Corporation and we did that purposely years ago uh and you can go to one reception area but employees can go from one of our office spaces another uh without going through a closed door and that's to help produce our cooperation and cleverness in being able to do and solve problems. The planning and urban design agency is pretty small. Um we have really 27 employees. Um SLDC has increased their number of employees by more than 27 since when Otis was the last full-time director. Um and CDA has gotten pretty large also. But here we are. Uh within the department we have the planning division uh which includes general planning, neighborhood planning, transportation, mobility. Scott is in charge of transportation mobility. Uh the three people that manage those departments are all called city planning executives. Uh they're very talented, they're well paid, and they work like crazy. Uh the general planning person is Miriam Keller. She is currently at a ULI conference in Louisville, Kentucky. So, we like to have our folks and have funds to go and be and network with other planning. Uh Jonathan Roer is also a

city planning executive. Scott's uh transportation mobility city planning executive participates with NACTO and others. The cultural resources office is a separate section within us and remember the planning department has the formal body called the planning commission. Scott supervises a body called the complete streets advisory committee. Planning commission meets at least once a month and then the cultural resources office. And when we created all this in 1999, we changed the office to instead of historic preservation, the c cultural resources uh because we want to have it be that in our city, we're helping preserve more things than just bricks and mortar, but cultural aspects. They have a board, a preservation board. The sustainability office is also headed by a city planning executive. Um, and Alicia is the head of that and she is currently in Cambridge with our SEMA director at a conference. Uh, so we're out there about doing that. Bob Bettis uh runs the cultural resources office. GIS in Afric uh is also within us. Uh and we're doing much of the of what has become the really dominant things for city government is to know where things are and have how to do it. Sustainability our sustainability plan. I was just talking about it in a national conference and one of the things I said we had adopted it and uh uh I'll be polite in my language. Hm. Maybe what Washington does they can do or not do but with our sustainability plan we

can do things related to sustainability at the local level that GISS I mentioned and then we have a research person. So next slide back one that's a that's an organizational chart uh just talked about the broad categories uh our 27 employees remember none of them are opera funded so they will be with us going forward that's a big thing our other colleagues we faced with that. Um, and I'm happy to be the executive director of it for some time. Another slide, please. Yeah. So, this you you've asked for this, of course, a sort of a comparison and summary and key changes. Um we have our funding comes from Ecodo, comes from general revenue and comes from community development block. So we get it from those three city sources. Ecodo a few years ago was kind of robust because of rollover money. Uh remember the block grant money actually works on a on a fiscal year that's the calendar year. So it's all a little bit to juggle. Uh, as I can take a deep breath, our difference between fiscal year 26 and 27 is a little less, but I can emphasize it's really a little yet less, and that's uh that's pleasing. Uh, that's a good thing. Uh, we did just filled a

vacant position in sustainability. We had great candidates. Uh and the new person will begin on May 16th. Uh and that's a good thing for our mission to do. We have two positions in our to that are not filled. Um thankfully just got the the one that's filled u with sustainability which is a big deal. And we have two positions that are not budget. Uh that's in a way okay uh because we're going after a grant with CDA called the pro housing grant and by having those positions on our to uh we'll use and to fund at least in part those uh from that grant. So um that's comforting for what we're doing. Uh and now I really like to just show a bunch of slides to remind everybody of what we do. Um, and we'll do these quickly, but they're visuals. Um, and we'll go to the next one. And that's just a reminder that the planning commission is a legal body. Um, and what we do when we adopt plans, we do adopt all our plans. They may call themselves neighborhood plans. we do, but they're all elements of the city's comprehensive plan under state law, meaning they are a legal document when uh when we adopt them by the planning commission. We've been busy. We did the strategic land use plan. That's a check. We've done a number of neighborhood plans uh that have been done and completed. Um another slide. Um the strategic land use plan. Ding ding ding. We did that first time. Uh long long long overdue without something that really documented as a fully legal

foundation. Uh we did uh at the beginning of May's term. We just did an overall update of that. Uh Miam led it. We had great consultants and as you see and we remind you, it replaces the previous one. It's the legal foundation for land use and zoning decisions. Helps guide physical development. Gives character to to our stuff. And I'll remind you that every plan that I say we adopt as part of the comprehensive plan, a redevelopment plan must be found to be in compliance with it. So their base documents. Uh go to the next slide. The sustainability and climate plan. Um, we first did one of those in 2013. Uh, kind of leading edge at the time. Um, uh, we've now just updated that. It adopted and over just over a year ago. Uh, and it highlights critical risks to us as a city. It has a five-year strategic road map focusing on what the city as a jurisiction can do. And, um, I'm really pleased when I talk to my colleagues around the country that we have this. Um, and speaking of that, as I mentioned that we have two folks at a conference now, uh, Jonathan Roer and two members of his team, meaning uh, neighborhood planning were at the National Planning Conference in Detroit. Um, that was great. Uh, it's a conference that people come from all over and this year it exceeded any other annual. There were 4700 people there. Usually it's about 4,000. Um I went I have multiple duties uh at at that conference. Um and regarding that one of the things in that is I have an annual tradition where I co-host a breakfast for about 80 concert 80

participants at the conference pay to feed breakfast but we host it by having the local planning director come make a presentation and bring their staff to sit around the tables. It's great networking. We go another one transportation the mobility plan and I can do a lot of editorializing but it's not called the engineering in bricks and mortar plan or the streets and highway plan. It's we've done it under Scott's guidance in conjunction with BPS and using BPS funding and it's really the first citywide transportation plan since 1948. Um and it was adopted by the planning commission board of public service and establishes a lot of profiles and values and goals uh and policy recommendations to give us to be thinking about all ways of getting people moved from sidewalks to to uh the things that we do for the disabled uh to different means of transport for parts of the city that don't have access to cars. Um, and then if we go one more, um, I will just say, oh boy, um, zoning. Okay, many of you know that I'm 72 years old. Our zoning really last work on it is older than I. Yeah.

So, uh, this is when we say the first comprehensive overhaul. Ding, ding, ding. Uh it's pretty expensive for what we're doing. We're aiming for adoption in 2027. So that's going forward. We need to have the budget this year to be going through it. And it's a partnership between the zoning office, PDA, and the building division. Um and who have great consultants. We're doing a tremendous amount of outreach. And what I tell you and you know, we do lots of community all that we do. U I had a brochure of this uh when I was at the meeting not this past one which included this group called the big city planning directors of 25 big cities we meet also in October and during a lunch break I handed out our community flyer that we're doing for the zoning plan put it on the tables that were my colleagues and they and several people came this planning director of New York tells us hey can we get to keep this wow it looks great so yes you get to keep it next would be neighborhood planning. We're doing that uh it's funded by Ecoovo primarily. Um and you can see we're we're doing it by geography. We have consultants that will be doing multiple neighborhoods together that the planning commission blessed. Uh and coming up uh in uh October or 26 between October, we'll be adopting some. So we get more um in 2027. It's headed by Jonathan Roer and of course some of those plans are in areas that were impacted by the tornado. So we've been revising them and helping them be guidance. Um this next slide really we just put up there that um we do go out and have meetings in the neighborhoods

multiple multiple times with excellent people of helping facilitate. We hire neighborhood ambassadors in these neighborhoods to help help go doortodoor. We have committees and next week we will have u a meeting in the Ben neighborhood where at night the planning commission will meet not in city hall not in 1520 but out in the neighborhood we'll have a formal public hearing and adopt the plan at that place in front of um let's go to the next cultural resources office you know they get kicked in the shins a lot they get praised a Um I can't say that they drink a lot because they don't allow that during the day. Um but it is uh with the historic districts around the city. You can see a little bit table little bit of the data of how many permits we review. Uh demolition permits are a big thing. U preservation board items heard. Remember that's where some things can't be decided by staff go to the preservation board. And one of the things that we're really doing and hope to do this year is uh we want to use this coming grant, the pro housing grant, my fingers are crossed, it's a federal grant, uh to do a widespread architectural survey of next North St. Louis, um and look at areas that can be eligible from the National Register and and and uh historic tax credits. So that's on the program for this coming year. Um the next one uh slide gets to be okay. It's a little geeky. Um remember I said I'm old. So my first planning related job was as a rook study student in my senior year of high school where I worked for an engineering firm that was doing things in eastern

Massachusetts with small towns. And I drew a map of the towns on the island of Martha's Vineyard as part of their assessor's map on linen with a pen ink ink pen. Hallelujah. The days of GIS are here. Uh Ezri is our primary service provider for our for our software. that's institutionalized into it and into the Cindy Rean's department, but my department also does it specifically to help with these planning efforts make available toolbox. And here's the big punch line. Ezri, which is the premier provider of this stuff, really has adopted us. We go to conferences that they pay for with them and it's a good thing and a key professional tool. Uh related to that is the next slide is really just uh cgraphy type things. Um is you know we get to know where the people in place are, the issues are and this particular slide also says as opposed to it being geeky um and all on your computer. The lower left is of these two printers that can print out something this wide and 7 ft or taller. And then haha communication that map to the right certainly detail the really one to print it is one that's 4 ft by 7 ft wide because it shows on the city the everywhere there's some type of historic point that's restored historically or we use um have a historic district some site. So it's a visual option for that. Um we can go to the next one and then we'll be done with a little bit of background. Next one is PDA research and design. Uh we've been pleased to be able to have re recruited people uh into our

research department that are now elsewhere in in in city government uh helping and doing research. But we do do research um and we also have a uh research that's kind of analytical. Uh, one of the things they'll just start doing is some um home mortgage disclosure information um for the city as a whole. And you can see that's and then just going to this last real visual um it's the the timeline of these processes uh just in general meaning as 27 people we have a lot on our plate and um if I was to be concerned about things I'm glad that I've been able to recruit them. Uh I'm glad that been able when they've done good things to be able to increase their pay. Um, and one of my priorities for the coming year is to help make sure we keep them so they get to go to conferences and network, but also help make sure we don't push so much that they burn out because we want the creativity, we want the talent, uh, and don't want people to burn out. Uh and so certainly one of the things that Scott's been working on big time is we do things relationship with other agencies uh like by state for the bus rapid transit. Uh Scott's very much involved in that. And then you know uh flooding is something that we need to be concerned of both from the Mississippi River but also within the within the city with rainfall hits. Uh, and we have a state grant, a small state grant from the Department of Conservation that helps pays for one of our employees to does that. So, with that, there's three more slides and all they are budget. So,

let's go to those and I'll take any questions. All right. Thank you, Mr. Don. And starting in order of seniority, uh, Vice Chair Browning,

thank you. Uh really really appreciate the work um that planning and urban design agency does. Uh just this comprehensive slideshow. Uh number of things, the strategic land use plan, the zoning update, the transportation mobility plan, the sustainability plan, uh data center regulations that are going to be finalized uh soon. uh neighborhood plans and those neighborhood plans were going on well before the tornado hit some of those neighborhoods, but they're going to be instrumental in moving those neighborhoods past uh that horrible event and into place where they can grow and grow in a way that uh includes the people there. Uh, I know how good the community engagement your office does is because I have gone to several of the events and seen it for myself and so I really want to commend you for that. I think it's really important that these plans be made with the people in our city and uh knowing that they will not be accepted if they're not. Uh so all that work that people do and you know it's it's so good but then if it's rejected by the people it it has no purpose. Uh and so that's I think been really good to see. Um I am concerned like you just mentioned about burnout. Uh the immense workload and looking at some of these um some of these salaries they

they strike me as a little bit on the low end for the professionals we have. I I really appreciate the staff we have, whether it's Miss Russell or Mr. Roer or um can't say enough good things about Miss Keller. Um you know that they're consumate professionals. They're just incredibly smart people. Uh do you do you think that there's a challenge in retaining this kind of talent at the the salary levels that we current offer?

All three of them recently. That's good to hear. They deserve it. Yeah. Uh but you know, in general, are are you finding that the salaries are keeping up with the with the field?

Yes, with the field. Um I mentioned at the second floor we have two city agencies and we have the St. Louis Development Corporation. Um the St. Louis Development Corporation are not civil service employees and their shelter and range for salaries is not in the same system or lock that I have. Um so they have a little bit more flexibility. Uh and I can see that some are paid with their salaries more than mine. I get concerned about that kind of juggle. uh they're not members of our pension system. Uh but that is at times a concern. Um, so when I can have the power to do raises and we have money, I've been doing it quite strenuously in the last two years with all that in mind with my hutbar to be able to make the pitch that they deserve rages or um and so um that's something we sometimes are conscious about that sometimes the grass looks a little greener just down the street in our place. So related to that is how I talk about the morale and you mentioned that these are professionals. So getting to go uh to these conferences are a joy to them. Uh and we fund them. A while back we didn't have fun as much. Yeah. Um go sorry. Go ahead.

Oh, I'm I'm interested in whatever you have to say, but I I agree. I think that the conferences is not I wouldn't even think of it as a perk of the job so much as it's requirement of the job to stay up to date with the uh latest information and the uh latest uh concepts in city planning. Uh obviously we don't have to look too long ago to when there was some pretty terrible city planning practices. uh which I think continues to get brought up in a way of saying that there's distrust in the community because of some of those decisions. My my prime example of that is the highways. You know, highways are the the ultimate mistake of of urban environments and we we know the names of the people who did that and think of them

spoken nationally about what he's done with other people.

Yeah. But the the thing is is that in order to avoid those things, we have to go learn about the the new uh ideas that are out there, the proven ideas that other cities have tried and and conferences are a big part of that. So I understand that that's to be frank, I wish other departments had more people went to learn the current best practices. We crave it. I crave it. I'm on a national many national committees about that. I do mentoring for three people that are else we're outside the city of St. Louis. Uh and that's a good point. It's really something we should do and then if we can do it with a little extra pizzazz that uh where it is uh it's all the better for the employees themselves, but more agencies should send people out to learn the best practices. Uh and in some cases we invite people here to explain things. We we have a 112y old charter in our city. Uh and I think that if more departments went out and saw how other cities operate, they might come back with some great ideas on update that. So, um I think little by little uh or maybe one day we'll we'll have the courage to do it all at once. Um I do have just a couple more questions. Uh looking at this uh slide about the cultural re office, I noticed a a pretty big drop off in the preservation board items being heard uh from the past two years, 2025. And obviously this year is not uh even close to being over, but we're off to a very slow start. Um do you know why that might be?

Scott kept it. Um yeah, Alderman, thanks for the question. Scott Oglevy, Planning and Urban Design Agency. Um so when we were putting these slides together, um some of these are from a a presentation we did a few weeks ago. We asked ourselves that question. Um so one answer is this is just the first few months of the year, so it's not the complete year. Um, another part of that answer is that the staff in the cultural resources office, I think, has redoubled their efforts to work with applicants, whether those or new building permits um, and in some cases demolitions to try to get the applicant, if they're close, to comply with historic district standards so that they don't have to go to a preservation board hearing. um one that speeds up the issuance of the building permit. Two, it adds certainty to the process and three um if you're complying with the you know the local historic district standards, you're kind of meeting the expectations of the community. So I think that's been um that's been an area where there's been a little bit of an internal policy shift in how they engage with uh prospective builders and that accounts for some of that change in the numbers.

So just to summarize, there's been an effort to resolve things before they get to that what is more or less an appeal process. Exactly. If a building permit comes in and it's 95% there instead of just saying it doesn't comply, you know, go to the preservation board, there's been additional effort to get it to that 100% level where it complies um at the permit stage.

Excellent. add add to that is you know there's the uh the whole program with zoning is about making things more predictable that overall processing examination of how hard is it to get through city processes cultural resources is participating in that and it's a big priority of the tire kick all that and I I hope that when we adopt the zoning code that we'll see a reduction and uh people going to the board of adjustment, people going to the preservation board, just any kind of uh any of these civilian staffed boards that uh don't get paid, by the way. Uh they're volunteer. Um

some get paid. Some You're right. Some do get paid. Yeah. Um but generally, you know, it's it's not an efficient way to do things and it's not a predictable way that I think can hurt our ability to uh to build new things in the city. Um I I really really appreciate like I said all the all the different things that are going on. I think um a number of these like the like the sloop and the zoop uh were ARPA funded. Is that correct? In part. So

uh the the um the consultants for the zoup have a component of their work uh that's funded with ARPA and that component uh will be fully the billing has been increased and there's a small amount left they will complete the work we will get the bills and we will pay it by September that it's an example le I often cite when people ask about how we've spent the ARPA money. Uh that's one of the examples I use of one of the best uses of that ARPA money because it updated something as you said that a zoning code that is older than you are

uh and continues to hold our city back. So um this is the kind of forward thinking we need to be doing. Uh and it's not enough just to update um you know processes and procedures when you have an underlying code that uh relates to a time when a city was much different than it is today. City was much different. And the other part is we too often do sort of nickel and dime trying to fix and we appreciate the opera money because it made us be able to do this overall comprehensive redo.

Well, I I really appreciate um the planning and urban design agency. It's it's one of the departments that I think um can only help make this city better. Uh, and so I just want to express my appreciation for you and all the staff uh, because the work you do uh, really does um, give me a brighter outlook for our future. Oh, well, thank you. Thank you. Hold Sier.

Thank you, Chairman. Hello, Director Row. Um, you know, I'm really grateful for your service in the city. I have the honor of being one of elders who get the pleasure of serving on the planning commission. So, um, very aware of the work that you all do. Um, I would honestly echo a lot of Alderman Brownin's, uh, sentiments. I definitely am incredibly impressed at you all's ability to manage kind of some workloads that were set based off us knowing we were going to work on ZUP, knowing we're going to do transportation mobility plans, but then also like uh, in this time there's also a need quickly adapt and discuss data center regulations and whatever else may appear. So, I have been very very um impressed by just you guys ability to holistically manage all of these projects in real time, both the ones that are preset and kind of focus having a clear agenda and ability to respond to our community um as things emerge. Um my questions um are a lot a lot more specific. I think as a result of serving on a commission, I'm just very um I've had the opportunity to get pretty educated on a lot of the inner workings. Um there my first question is just clarifying a budget question that it looks like for the community development planner position two planner level two that is in the budget it looks like it's budgeted for one full-time employee to be here but then the dollar amount is not

the rest of the rest of that is paid for from a grant from state department of conservation. Okay, thank you. And um could you this is something we talk about often that the economic devo uh sales tax which is uh C14001. Um I wanted to kind of just put on record a little bit of uh explanation about this and specifically its relationship to the neighborhood planning um initiatives just for the public that is watching. uh plan area 7 is in the seventh ward and so I'm beginning to kind of have these conversations with residents and explain it. It's a question I've gotten pretty consistently.

So, two things. One, um thank you for that. And as neighborhood planning came up, it's a good thing for me to just tell you something that recently happened is in our solicitations for consultants to do the neighborhood planning. And remember, I'll mention it's it's this is multiple neighborhoods in the general Dutchtown area and we did a specific RFP for the for the overall consultants. We got 13 responses nationally, some that have already worked for us, some that know know about this. But we also went and we added two more things. One is we've been doing in this community engagement things called popups and it might just be at a busy intersection or street and there's a park over here and there hasn't been a pedestrian crosswalk to to fake paint that out and have a discussion. Uh we're doing that. We've hired a sub consultant that we'll manage that will help with the Dutchtown stuff. The big thing is the office of new Americans, Gilberto helped us uh and served as an advisor on our selection committee. do a formal selection committee for this. Uh for a second opportunity that we're doing is that we've hired a separate consultant to be able to help do the short answer is do trans uh translation services for the variety of immigrants that have come to these neighborhoods. The more important thing is, and Gilberto was helping us with all this, was also to be culturally respectful and know how not just to use AI to translate something, but how to be out in the community, how to have the right act action, the right people

working with older folks, male and female kids. It was really a joy to re reruit them and we have such under consult under contract and uh we've been slowly getting ready to do the work in that area and now that we'll soon have them approved by ENA all the better and we're pretty proud of the staff to realize and Gilberto to say and help us make sure we're matching for that area. Thank you. Um, this next question is about the EcoDVO tax, but specifically the subsidy that we provide to SLDC. Um, if you could talk about that and what it is. I know you knew I was going to ask that question. Yep.

Yes.

So, um, I'm I'm going to give you a short answer. That money is now going to be used in starting the next budget for funding SLDC to do and I have the job description in front of me. Neighborhood implementation managers, neighborhood plan implementation management. So we've done the community engagement, we've done the planning, we've got to find the resources. The idea is SLDC and they have staff that's been doing auto leaison stuff that they will get money this year through Ecodo actually not from us not from PDA uh but from CDA because PDA our purpose for Ecodo is doing the planning CDA is in the realm to helping with implementation. So they some grants but the SODC subsidy will be in the allocation from that goes to CDA goes to SODC for the same thing I just described to you. The implementation managers which John Roer wrote the first draft of what their job descriptions will be

is the idea for implementation manager that they would help with some of the like development spec like what does that tangibly look like? So I'll I'll finish up one more thing. Okay. that 500,000 that you saw there uh when the EcoDVO board meets it will end up being in the line item above it which our consultant line on neighborhood planning. Yeah. And uh repeat what you just asked just tangibly what will be the roles of a neighborhood implementation plan manager? What are their tasks? What will they be focusing on?

They will market priority projects. They will coordinate and advance approvals and permitting including zoning board of adjustment conditional uses align projects with city, state and philanthropic banking and private funding sources. Uh which also means working with the alderman. Remember when we were in the bill and you were talking about we're talking about implementation and you were mentioned you know there are a lot of pieces of that including the alderman. Uh they will also facilitate the strategic transfer and assembly of LRA properties in these neighborhoods and benefit of the neighborhood plan uh and serve as a single point of coordination not the multi- stuff that we do uh among developers, residents, city agencies and elected officials. um and then monitor project uh process results and then identify the strengths or uh constraints that implementation priorities have had. So they're there. They're doing all that. And

how will you evaluate like what their outcomes, their metrics, their performance if a person was successfully performant? You know, there's just such a broad list as Y. That's a work in progress. Okay. Yeah. We'll do that in conjunction with SLDC.

Okay. Um my last question is just about the city's historic district standards. Um I know there's kind of been some conversations around uh changing or adjusting certain guidelines. Um especially with the increased cost um for rehab work. I know within the seventh ward I see a lot of times folks struggle with the requirements for the windows for example. Um so I just wondered if you could shed any thoughts you had on that. Um it's tough to get that right and it's tough to make sure that economic hardship has the legitimate play in the role. One of the things we did do and just completed say 6 months ago. It probably was 11 months ago uh with a national firm analyzing our historic district codes to try to come up with some new general standards that we can apply that are clear and uh clear in their definition and clear what they mean and they're not so much customized to the ultimate specific stuff. So when we revise existing areas code, we're going to use that input.

Okay. Thank you so much. Sure, Aldwoman Velasquez.

Thank you, Chairman, and good. Good to see just want to say thank you for all the really impressive work that you've done. Um, as you've shown in our presentation, a lot of the plans that we've been making are um seems like a long time overdue. Uh so can and then I I'm excited about uh what you're going to undertake with the cultural resource uh office like the audit but can you just talk just broadly about um because you've been other cities sort of how we compare in our planning process and and and where it needs to go back to that our modernization question which is kind of our

so uh yeah I'm going to give a little context to that that um for the last 20 years I've been annually invited it's invitation only uh by a consortium of Harvard Graduate School of Design my professional organization the American Planning Association and the Lincoln Institute for Land Policy. Um Harvard and the Lincoln Institute are both in Boston and Cambridge. Um, and the Lincoln Institute, uh, was founded from a concern about Cleveland, uh, the the founding corporation that donated the um, and they bring us all together uh, for three days every fall and we set up priorities as to what we want to learn about. And it's amazing what they have. Uh, we have a consensus on on having them present to us. Um, and that's extremely valuable. One of the things as I've been u, and unfortunately St. Louis is no longer eligible from the math requirements they use, but they've grandfathered me in as long as I was the director. Uh, which is great. what I see from the groups is uh and so it's about 30 people uh 30 cities and includes the really big guys uh but it also at the moment includes Riverside California u but it um is there is in some about 5050 where the planning appointed official meaning the the cabinet member underneath them has all the things that I have and about half of them have those those things. The other half also have

the building division and zoning and the day-to-day stuff. And it's interesting to talk to them um and how that dynamic gets to be played. uh they seem not to be schizophrenic, but I sometimes sense a sense that they don't have the freedom to do the forward-looking stuff that we do without having that day-to-day stuff. That's something that I' I've found and and think is uh u u something to be explored. And it may very well be in our case when we finish the zoo there may be a merging of some things with zoning uh and us together. Um but that's one of the big takeaways I have from other cities.

Thank you. I have a couple of very uh more specific budget questions and maybe I missed this in your presentation. Uh but it looked like the budget for stabilization and marketing was zeroed out for this for FY27. Um did it was can you just tell us why? Yeah, because it was to pay SLDC for L. Okay. And then uh just talking about the cultural resources director position even your position it looks like they're split between that it's paid for partial am I reading if I'm looking at it right part grant and part general fun is that correct

for cultural resources um it may be split between something I can't pull off the top of it may be coming partly from block grant and partly from general revenue in some ways it seems like that builds capacity for your department but it also may if things change it also may put things at risk. So can you just talk a little bit about why you've you know why the department has set has split the funding that way.

Uh I wish we didn't have to do that. I wish that, you know, in the the planning and urban design agency was created um in 1999 because things had gotten so chaotic and Mike Jones came to me and said, I was actually working at SLTC. We got to have a standalone. Um and then Barb Gman with Francis Slay, U Mike Jones was with uh Clarence Harmon. um really up the up the the role of what we're doing. Um money was hard to come and come from. So some of that was we at one time almost completely funded by block grant. And so as the block grant volume each year for the city dropped down, ours dropped down. But we're still holding on to that, supplementing it with general revenue and opera money. Great. Well, thank you. I appreciate your presentation and I appreciate all the work you do.

Thank you, Alderman Devote. Yes, Mr. Row, uh, just a couple questions follow up, Mr. Row. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Um, you uh you discussed the the neighborhood planning that was done uh specifically on the north side and then you just uh talk to us about the the work being done around Dutchtown. Is there any plan to do that neighborhood planning outside of those areas? In other words, sure. Yes.

So each year um we only do so much each time and it does uh one um there's different types of planning in needed in some of our distinct differences between places with a whole bunch of vacancy abandoned buildings. uh a little lack of hope with place where there's more community, more development, investment, uh more folks understanding and raising kids in the cultural institution. So each year we have a prioritation by the planning commission. We don't pick it. Uh we present to the planning commission where will we use our consulting funds next year? And that's an annual process and we're about ready to do it again. Do it with the planning commission this year. The the the the there is a chant at the end of the ones that we have in progress and first we're starting but our next trunch of where we're going to do picked by the planning commission in the next two months. Sure. Well, I I'm I'm guessing based upon the neighborhoods in the fifth ward, one of our good problems is that we are probably my four neighborhoods are probably on the low end of that priority scale. Having said that, there's a fair amount of hand ringing as I'm talking to them about the ZOUP process and the the overhaul, which I know you are hoping to to wrap up, the office is hoping to wrap up this next fiscal year or sometime in 2027. What is the message to folks that live in places like the Hill neighborhood or Southampton that have certain zoning concerns or building concerns, cultural concerns, but yet that neighborhood planning is extremely low on the

priority list.

So, two things. Uh, one, I live in the adjacent neighborhood of Clifton Heights. Uh, um, and the um the zoning. So the strategic land use plan part of the element of the comprehensive plan is a little bit like sort of about the two two the 20,000 foot level. the neighborhood planning will drill down and yes, uh we're we're in our process of getting to everybody. All of them are being done and that's why we're doing them in clusters to be able to do them done do them. Um but the zoning code will be a very important thing to participate in because the zoning so the neighborhood plans may get some more specific about about uh uh than the comprehensive plan does but the zoning zoning code um now I mentioned something earlier but is that uh the zoning code will be examining and thinking about neighborhoods with very little vacant land, with corner commercial, with not much really traditional place where you want to put parking lots. That's a big sort of focus. So that we need to have our community participation for the zoning code in neighborhoods like the one you describe.

Yes. And and I just want to say and I want to be respectful of everybody's time. So I'll turn it over that uh the folks that you work with uh specifically Bob and Miriam have been wonderful and Scott have been wonderful. Uh there hasn't been a time where I've had a question or a concern that I didn't get a extremely prompt phone call back. So thank you very much. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Sound like that was a mot. Yeah.

Um uh thank you director Mr. Director D for being here today and uh uh Mr. Oggov and uh I want to also echo uh your team is uh always truly amazing not only just engaging the community but they work very hard with engaging the board also uh among the process and make sure our voices uh updated and or our voices is heard in the process. Echo everything that the alman from the ninth has said. You guys have been busy working on a lot of things to uh word of the day here at this budget committee modernize uh government. There's just a few questions I got with uh the budget. So you talked a lot about um the some traveling that takes place. I think that's always good for uh departments to travel to other cities to not only build relationships but to see what works in their cities and see if we can uh tweak it to make sure it work in our cities. When I look at the budget, um, not and some in the EcoDVO area, but just in the general revenue fund, I see that there's been a cut to the travel out of town, not only in the general revenue budget, but also in the Eco DVO um, uh, budget and also I see a cut in like membership fees and the general revenue, but also in the Eco um, DVO. Will that I guess have an effect for you all? Less in general revenue you proposed uh 10 for travel 10,000 you got four the year before you received 10 and then this year you uh requested 7.5 for membership fees and only was allocated four then ecovo it looks like what you requested seven you got a membership you requested got so I guess going more back

to general revenue fund of seeing a little bit of a a decrease in that

two things. One, we've known over the last few years we've had a little up in our preaching and getting the those travel monies. So, we've been sending more people in the last few years than we might otherwise to do to get them experienced. So then in coming years as we have these reductions uh we may have to then well it's your turn this year and then somebody else goes the next year is some of the things we're thinking about. The other things we're fortunate is we do a lot of things um with Bloomberg and uh for instance Alicia who has gone to Harvard uh this week um that travel is being funded by Bloomberg.

Okay. Yeah. uh love to have more, but the other thing is we've anticipated this. There's a foundation or two that might help us fund some things. Uh some of our our staff becomes, you know, officers. Jonathan Rober has been an officer in in the regional American Planning Association. So, he gets some funding from that. Um ding ding ding. love for it to be more um but we've sort of anticipated this with something. So, got if anybody wanted to be a squeaky wheel and get us some more.

Gotcha. And then one last question on the uh education and training. See, there was a request there, but it was zeroed out. Also looked like there was a zero from the year before. Uh how would that I guess kind of I think there's sort of overlapping over overlapping categories. Okay. Yeah.

All right. Well, that's all I have. Uh, thank you uh for being here and and thank you, Mr. Scott, and thank you for your commitment and years of service. It's always a pleasure as being a new alder to take the uh director road tour across the city of St. Louis. Hopefully, they'll continue on uh in the in the near future. Hopefully, the alderman from the fifth got to do the the Mr. Row tour. If not, uh you should definitely check it out because it's a I have not. We need to do that. Yeah, I'll be in touch.

Good. Um, good. Yeah. And so I'll just close with um lived in Massachusetts, Boston, Colorado. Um, Boston even before the COVID and the pandemic was known for something called Boston Drivers. Um, so that's where I learned to drive. Um, so you know, if you want to take a sedative or anything, Thank you. See you. Thank you. All right. Caught up on time, team. Moving on to the next department. The last one for the day. Oh, you just don't want to leave, huh?

Oh, my parking validation is

uh next department we have the director of public safety office. Uh Mr. Director, come up, state your name, you can introduce individuals here with you, and then you can dive right into your budget. I will. Thank you so much. I'm Sean Dace. Uh, good afternoon everyone. Um, I serve as director of public safety for the city of St. Louis. I want to thank the committee for allowing me to appear today and spend time spend some time discussing the FY27 budget for the Department of Public Safety. As we go through my presentation today, I hope that we'll leave with a better you'll leave with a better understanding of the Department of Public Safety, its works, how the FY27 budget will enable us to continue to build a momentum in our work to make the city of uh the city community safe and successful. With me today though, I want to introduce my fiscal manager uh Miss Coletta Fielder. Uh my PIO, Mr. Brettton Delorea and uh my s to my surprise, one of my commissioners showed up to so show support uh former judge Marvin Tier. So uh thank you so much Marvin for that.

I guess he came early. We'll see him tomorrow too. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Uh the department's work is driven by a mission to serve the citizens and visitors uh to the city. Safety is the core of what we do and it is interwoven in every aspect of work and interaction and every plan. Our goal is to ensure people who live, work and play in St. Louis are able to traverse and complete their day without incident which will continue for them to keep coming back and elevate uh the image of the city of St. Louis. Thank you so much for changing that slide. Uh next slide please. The director's office oversee eight key positions. Building division, SEMA, civilian oversight, division of corrections, excise fire department, neighborhood stabilization, and office of violence prevention. The director's office provides operational directives for key functions and activities of the city. setting and monitoring strategic direction of the department and each division. Responding to false alarm appeals, handling dance hall license requests, issuing brick permits, setting and implementing safety protocols for the city, and disseminating and communication of DPS activities, initiatives, and messages. I'm also a voting member of the board of public service. Public safety department is the largest department in the city. With those eight divisions I mentioned, we have over we oversee over a thousand employees. Next slide, please. As we look to the upcoming fiscal year, it is imperative that we properly fund and support the department in order to

meet the mission and operational capacity. Funding public safely directly correlates to ensuring the people of St. Louis and its visitors have a safe functioning city that is nimble to respond to the needs as they arise. For FY27, we have asked for funding for four key cost centers. The requested and proposed amounts remains largely unchanged. The cost centers are general fund, Prop S, antiviolence youth program, Prop P youth Job Program, and the DPS grants. In the subsequent slides, I'll break down for you the key cost centers and highlight the main initiatives proposed to be funded by the budget. Next slide, please. Thank you. The requested amount was to cover two strategic priorities. First, to fund an executive assistant to position within the director's office. This is needed to increase the focus of operational excellence, improve services, provide managerial oversight and monitor implementation of our goals. The EA2 will increase responsiveness and flexibility to emerging needs in the community. and the program management will allow us to measure the success of the initiatives. Uh the second position is the public safety point also known as P PAP uh consultant services originally was funded through ARPA dollars. Public safety is assuming the cost related to this service and is now the uh the uh coordinating body for the PAP. PAP is to be completed in 2027. So support is still needed for consulting consulting.

Uh the PAP services provide consulting and advising ensures objectives of the of the project are met with appropriate standards and to have conversations and assessments to provide strategic guidance. Next slide please. Next is Prop S. Prop S was approved by St. Louis voters in 2008 with ordinance number 67794 which allocates funding for antiviolence youth program. The funding for Prop S funds a contract compliance officer, funds for RF, RFP advertising, and the remaining budget funds vendor service for vendor services for youth programming. Uh, next slide, please. Next is Prop P. Prop P also provides funding for youth programs with a focus on youth jobs. The funding is done through a RFP process that a that awards contracts to community vendors. The Propri programming focuses on programs for youth ages 14 to 24 that address job training, job readiness skills, mentoring, financial literacy, and supportive wraparound service. Next slide, please. Uh the final cost center being funded for FR27 is the DPS grant. The main item I'd like to highlight in this cost center will be uh will fund the executive director of criminal justice coordinating council. The executive director of CJCC coordinates the justice process for the department of public safety. It serves as a leazison

for various departments including DPS, the courts, division of corrections, sheriff's office, and the mayor's office. Position was ARPA funded. This position was an ARPA funded position in a different department since moved to the director's office and will be funded through DPS grants. Next slide, please. In FY206, we had a various we had various accomplishments, but I want to highlight just a few key ones from the list you see on the slides today. Excuse me. We had cross divisional collaboration. We would we meet weekly. All eight of my uh divisions would meet to discuss issues within their respective uh divisions providing resources and advice to each other and working together. Uh the regular weekly meetings of the divisions have increased communication to improve operations within our division within the divisions. We launched the winter weather unified command cold blue to ensure that citizens were safe during inclement weather conditions. What I'm really really proud of though is some was the hirings I made. The commissioners I hired. We hired Commissioner Greg Favor to oversee the uh SEMA. um clo a good friend of mine, commissioner and judge o of uh judge um Marvin Tier and now headed over office of violence permission violence prevention, excuse me, commissioner of corrections. We hired Nate Haywood. Nate was the former commissioner of the uh St. Louis County

uh detention center. We were able to uh we were able to persuade him to come and work for us. Really proud of that. really happy about that. We promoted executive assistant one to the director's office, Jamila Brown. Uh promoted a PIO to the director's office, Brettton Delorea. And for the first time in DPS, we hired a safety officer. We hired a safety officer. His name is Luke Brunson. Luke has created and distributed emergency reference guides throughout city hall. He's conducted Alice active shooter training for city hall employees, conducted safety checks and evaluations for city buildings, and distributed AE devices for for city hall here. Uh he will continue to develop and provide safety protocols um to help make sure that we are safe here in this building. Um another thing I'm really proud of is the hiring. We've hired 50 corrections officers uh at the justice center. This will allow us the ability to provide more programs and keep not only the detainees safe, but it'll keep the staff safe. Uh I'm also proud to say, not including the 50 officers that we've hired, we've got a class of 14 uh 17 graduating tomorrow. Uh so the ceremony being tomorrow under retundra, you're all invited to join. Um, we've made 50 promotions in the fire department. Uh, uh, historic promotions in the fire department. We promoted six black females to the position of captain to fire captain. That's never been done. Um, next slide, please. Modernization of processes. We've developed an online building permit portal. The launch of the on online

permits revolutionizes how the city does business. It saves valuable time for those applying for permits by removing the need to come to the city to city hall and being able to submit, monitor, and receive their permit all from their home or work computer. This new portal increases the transparency, communication, efficiency, and the ease of the process. We've launched a pay it system. This allows customers to pay with credit cards, something not available until recently. This helpful This is helpful for those businesses and citizens who prefer not to use cash. Uh, next slide, please. So our objectives and focus for FY27 will center around three key areas. Strategic hiring, technology advancement, and elevating public facing potential. Strategic hiring. We will be hiring an executive director of CJCC. We're going to have a national search to hire to locate and hire a NSD commissioner and a buildings commissioner. We want to continue to recruit and increase personnel in corrections. As I previously mentioned, the ability and the uh the luxury we have when we have adequate staff, it allows us to not only provide more freedom for those detainees that are being detained with additional programs, but again, it provides uh safety for both staff and the detainees. Uh we're going to we want to strengthen SEMA by adding different uh additional personnel technology advancement. Um we're going

to continue to modernize the building division. We're going to leverage technology to make NSD more efficient and continue to work on the PAP. We also want to elevate public facing potential. We're prioritizing all public safety issues within the tornado zone and we're improving customer service within public safety division throughout public safety. Thank you. Next slide. Lastly, I want to thank you for your time today. As previously mentioned, I oversee eight different divisions and over a thousand employees. I will attempt to answer any questions I can, but I would encourage you to hold your more in-depth questions for my commissioners who will all be appearing in front of you sometime this week or next week. Again, thank you so much for your time. Um, and I appreciate any questions I can answer right now.

Thank you, director. Order of seniority. I'll start with Vice Chair Brownie. Thank you, director. always good to see you and appreciate the work you do for our city. Thank you. Um

I I'm gonna have to miss the hearing for SEMA next week. And so I I I'm going to ask you one question about it because I think something that I've noticed after the tornado last year is that there's been some different expectations for that tiny tiny department at our city. Um, and it strikes me that a four person, five person staff uh could never be expected to deal with the kind of coordinated effort that could occur after a disaster of that scale. Um, I do appreciate the effort to add more staff to them to be able to help. I've participated in that effort myself. I think it's very important that they be staffed. But I'm curious from your perspective uh at the top, what do you see as SEMA's responsibility uh in uh the case where either a disaster happens or when there's even a threat of disaster as we've undergone several tornado warnings this year already and it seems I don't know if you've read recently it seems that tornado alley is shifting uh and so we might expect to see more. Um, what do you think the responsibility and where do you see SEMA going in and being a part of that effort and disaster response as we move into what seems to be an uncertain future?

Yeah, it's a good question. I've had several conversations uh because that's not my although I was a policeman for 35 years, that was never my expertise when it comes to uh SEMA. But um I think we got off to a good start hiring Greg Faber who has been in the business for years. Um he has relayed to me that uh the main focus of SEMA is basically to be a facilitator to acquire the resources needed uh whether it be from the police department, from fire department, from u buildings division, just act as a leazison and be this focal point to uh distribute and um and help oversee uh whatever catastrophe may may have occurred. Thank you for that. I think it's um it's really important. We obviously we saw room to improve, but I also again I come back to people were unfairly blamed for uh a disaster that they could never have been equipped to respond to. Uh and certainly certain things needed to happen and I think they did happen. Uh, one place I don't see enough praise is that when when the tornado hit the city and I don't think you were you were in place yet at that point, but um I do want to put praise to the office because I think the the main thoroughfairs were cleared very quickly which is always really important after a disaster. I have the Barnes Jewish uh hospital complex in my ward and when I first started exploring literally the hour after the tornado, Kings Highway was impassible. But that quickly changed and that's important that that quickly changed in case we did have a mass casualty event where we get people to the hospital. So I think that um there was a level of coordination and action at the city level that was very successful that day. Uh, and I want to just put that out there. Um,

well, let me just I was here. Yeah. And I had been on a month. Uh, I think I started April 7th. Oh, wow.

But yeah, uh, you know, there was there was some good things came out, but we learned a lot. We learned some of our def a lot of our deficiencies and we're working toward that. Um, you know, we we've got some u we've got some really talented people here in in in St. Louis. Um we did get a lot of support though from um state SE SEMA. Um we've now be a been able to have a really well-coordinated relationship with the National Weather Service, which I'm proud of. We meet with them anytime there is in climate weather uh forthcoming. We meet with them. So we are in a better position now than we were, but we still got a lot long way to go. Uh Alderman uh as I'm sure you already know. I I'm I'm I think we always have room to improve. I I think that everything is a a work in progress, at least if you're being honest about it, right? Uh that we should always be looking to improve. But uh as I noted, it just seems like the threat is growing. And so I think continued focus on that is going to be important going forward.

I agree. On a different note, uh our building division has been struggling recent. Uh that falls under your office as well.

It does. What are you looking to accomplish as we um as we're looking to really look at the deficiencies in building division? Whether it's lack of inspectors or in recent news articles, we've seen uh some corruption scandals that certainly shake people's confidence in um whether or not we're able to go out and and do inspections honestly. U I think building safety is one of the more important issues and especially in a city with so much vacancy uh where we really need to hold negligent owners accountable but we also need to have honest inspectors who are going to be dependable. Uh so I'm just curious what are your plans uh as we go into this year? The division is under audit. Um there's a lot going on but what is the focus going to be forward with the building division? get them in the place that that we need to be for the city.

Well, the first thing we're going to do is is um try to locate a commissioner. That's so we got a nationwide search out for that. I I mean, as a former policeman, I welcome law and order and I don't tolerate uh I don't I don't I don't tolerate tolerate illegal activity. So, I I welcome the audit. I welcome any investigation because I want the bad apples out of there. I'm hoping and I believe that most of those folks are out of there. um and we can move forward. Uh we we we still got some strong um employees there and I'm I'm really proud of the work they did during the uh disaster uh the tornado disaster and I'm really excited about the opportunity to bring in my own commissioner, somebody with, you know, with the with with the high morals and somebody that's going to uh be um is not going to tolerate any uh shortcuts. Uh, also, um, I want to I want to also, um, say that I want to focus on, uh, customer service. I want to make sure our citizens are treated with respect. Um, that's important to me. Um, I I think we are a, you know, the building building division is is is just a lot like my NSD division. They're a a beacon. They're they're the face of this the city. So, uh, but I'm going to start with hire hiring or or trying to locate a strong, um, commissioner in bills.

That that would be great. I I often talk to constituents about the building division, and I'm sure to mention to them that it exists under the Department of Public Safety for a reason. Uh, because the building division is really at the end of the day about safety. Uh and so I I think that confidence, that trust that can be put into these uh divisions always comes to who's at the top. So I think you're right. Uh we do need a good building commissioner. I'm glad to hear that's your focus, but I also really appreciate you um because I think we have a strong leader at the top of public safety and uh I really look forward to seeing uh how you can just continue to improve the the divisions that are underneath your department. Uh so really appreciate you being here today and just thank you for your service to our

That's kind of you to say thank you so much Aldo and Velasquez.

Thank you chairman. Thank you Director Dace for being here. You I'm sure it's no surprise when I say this probably have one of the hardest jobs here or have one of the most everybody's talking about public safety or you know insert uh an adjective thereof of what they think. So, um I know it's a lot and I appreciate the work that you do. Uh like Alderman Browning, uh I know we've kind of gone back and forth, but I've I think we're all concerned about the building division, but also it's really linked into the daily life of residents, right? And then if you've got a vacancy on one block, it, you know, can create havoc for the whole block. So, um can you tell me how you're prioritizing? You mentioned customer service. I know we talked about hiring that office manager position for the building which I'm excited about. Um but how uh filling the positions for um getting some of those fines and fees is going and uh I think that's one of the few places where if we fill those positions and collect those fines and fees from absentee landlords, we can get some return on investment, get some money back to hopefully boost other parts of the department. But just curious how that process is is going. I I think it's going I think it's going first of all let me address what you started with that I do have a lot and I was I'm I was really stunned this when I took this position I didn't know what I what I was taking but

you thought you knew and then

yeah and after a while and then tornado hits and now I really didn't know what I was taking but uh no to answer your question I I think the the increase in pay is going to help. We're really searching and and you know, we've got a um kudos to uh director light. He works with us really well in regards to, you know, searching for um qualified qualified applicants. We, you know, we're in competition with every municipality, every city, every, you know, with in this region on the east side and north and south counties. So, we just got to make these jobs attractive and we're trying to do that. And uh but it it also starts with our employees and and synergy and and and getting people excited about being a uh city employee. Um I was happy to say and I I think the biggest thing I've done since I've been here is the recruitment of my commissioners. We've really got some good commissioners. I want to keep that momentum going with the building commissioner and with the uh NSD commissioner. So, um, again, like the Alderman Browning said, it starts at the top. So, I it's going to start once we get a strong, uh, commissioner in there, um, to to to change the whole attitude and the whole, um, the whole environment in the buildings division.

And I will save some of my detailed questions for the building division, but I do want to just say thank you. I know that I've uh I don't know how excited they are about doing inspections, but I know the past couple times I've reached out about getting a building or a house inspected. It's been super quick. Uh and I very much appreciate that. Um I appreciate that because what's very important, I didn't mean to cut you off, but a responsiveness. Uh that's very responsive. And that's one of the things that I've um I've emphasized um with all my commissioners. We we got to be responsive. You got to be uh you got to be available to our our citizens. So,

just switching gears a little bit since you do have so many divisions. Um, can you just talk a little bit about what having uh about the impact of having somebody to coordinate kind of all the the parts of the criminal justice, you know, um the nexus that we have here and how that would maybe change some things or make them better hopefully.

Yeah. No, it would make it better because, you know, we we we work in silos, right? Um, but if we got somebody that can coordinate all those different entities, that would be so helpful because a lot of times we don't we don't talk to each other. Uh, we've been fortunate now with corrections that we got a man who who I worked for as a as a major police department. Um, um, John Hayden is the sheriff as a sheriff now. So, we got a good relationship with with uh uh with Sheriff Hayden. And that's an example of what I'm talking about. If we we just had somebody in there that can coordinate all of the all of the stakeholders uh together um and have a have them have a voice with all of the stakeholders. That would get us out our silos and it would make things much smoother for the detainees in there. We have a lot of detainees in there that if I'm being honest are are are need mental health more so than you know than than incarceration. But these are the things that I think a CJCC person would be able to help us identify, evaluate and and show avenues of how we can uh how we could move the process faster for these folks that are detained.

You just led into my next question is what are the gaps you're seeing in in what we currently have, you know, right now? Yeah, I'm sorry. What are the gaps? You kind of described them, but are there any particularly if we, you know, I guess I'm stressing the need to fill this position, but what are the gaps we have now and why it's so imperative that we're seeing between the different um services and areas?

Yeah. those that's that I think if I had to point out the biggest gap, it would be the gap that um those some of those folks need uh different types of um um help. Uh incarceration may not be what they're needed and they may be needing some mental helps, counseling, that type of thing. I I know a young man who I mentored when I coached I coached him. He was he was incarcerated for his first incarceration, college graduate, but he had a he had a problem with he had an anger problem and he beat up his girlfriend. And this was a young man that probably needed more counseling that he needed needed incarceration. you know, um there are times when I do know that um that people are people are held there um because the attorney the sometimes the attorneys may hope that the victims or witnesses will change their mind and they're hoping that that would strengthen their case. So, it's things like that that happen that um prolongs justice from being served. if I if I'm making sense.

Well, thank you. Those are all the questions I have. Alderman Devote. Uh, director, I don't have any questions, but I do appreciate you coming here today, and I look forward to speaking uh talking with your your commissioners down the line. So, thank you, sir. Thank you, sir. All right. Thank you also for coming. I do want to give a shout out to Miss Caretta. It was always great working with her being on uh public safety when the uh Prop P money comes or is it S S

Prop S money comes she's always very helpful that is a a process that um is important to help a lot of these community organizations. She's a big help with that. Only question that I have and I know a lot of residents uh have you know asked because it has uh kind of inconvenience them a little bit in their neighborhood. Could you give a little bit more of an update on the uh PAP? Um like where are we with how the construction of like percentage and what is maybe the the funding gaps that still are needed for uh the completion of the PAP center. Um so right now we are I think the total cost to complete it will be right around 12 million and um I spoke with um director Paul Payne just recently and that money has been located um I have a breakdown here if you're interested um five million will be uh funded by ARPA capital fund will be 950K a GO bond for 4.5 million economic um development save sales tax 1.5 million that totals with my math 1 122,250,000 uh the PAP is supposed to be scheduled to be completed by uh late 27.

Okay. So, are all the funds committed to uh the completion of the PAP? Yes, there's no gaps. No, the the money has been identified. The 12 million that's remaining has been identified. And is that just for the the outside building? Cuz I know that the No, no. Uh the um the um Motorola, the the the um the radio system and all that is due. The money is due for that uh I think September of this year and all the money for all the money for the entire project has been identified as $12 million and with this money we're a little bit over $12 million so we should be okay with that.

Okay. All right. Well, that's all the questions I got. Uh like my other colleagues said, thank you for the work you do. It is uh extremely important. Um and thank you for coming today. Thank you for your support. And uh we're not there yet, but we're going to get there, man. Oh yeah. Always uh always room for improvement like the alderman from the night said. Yeah. All right. Have a good afternoon. You do same. And uh Judge T, we'll see you tomorrow. I look forward to it. All righty. That concludes our presentation for today. Um we will be back at it tomorrow at 9:30 hearing from various departments. Uh madame clerk, do we have any uh acknowledgement of any written testimony?

We have none. Any announcements from any members? Seeing none, uh everybody was present, so no need to excuse anybody. I'll take a motion to adjurnn. So moved. Second. Moved by the alderman from the sixth, second by the alderman from the ninth that we adjourn. All in favor? I. I. All oppose. Motion carries.