Housing, Urban Development and Zoning - Regular Meeting

Good morning. We'll call today's Housing, Urban Development and Zoning Committee meeting to order. Madam Clerk, please call the roll. Alderman Cohn.

Alderwoman Switzer. Vice Chair Sonnier. Alderman Browning. Alderman Aldridge.

Present.

Chair Clark Hubbard. Here. Alderman Cohn. Vice Chair Sonnier, we have four present.

President Green is here.

I'm sorry, President Green.

All right, with that, I'll accept a motion to approve the minutes from Tuesday, June 2nd, and Wednesday, June 3rd, 2026.

I move that we approve the minutes from Tuesday, June 2nd, 2026 and Wednesday, June 3rd, 2026.

Second.

It was moved by Alderman Aldridge and seconded by Alderman Browning that we approve the minutes from Tuesday, June 2nd and Wednesday, June 3rd, 2026. Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Alderman Cohn. Alderman Weiser. Aye. Vice Chair Sonnier. Aye. Alderman Browning. Aye. Alderman Aldridge.

Aye.

Chair Clark Hubbard. Aye. President Green. Aye. Alderman Cohn. Vice Chair Sonnier. We have five aye votes.

All right, with that, we've officially approved the minutes. So let's talk about how this meeting is going to go. First, if you are here and you want to speak, please make sure that you signed up on the sign-in sheet. What we're going to do, as I spoke at the last HUD's hearing, is hear from the Zoom comments first, because they were not able to access that meeting at all. And we want to give them that opportunity. Then we will hear from public comment in the room. And then we will go forward with the deliberations that we do here in our role as members of the HUD's committee. Now, I have heard that there are people that want to speak after the amendments. I did get that call. So if you would like to sit and go through that process with us and then speak, I'm absolutely going to open the mic back up for you all for that. keeping my word that I said last meeting and any meeting for that matter, knowing that this is the space that's dedicated to hear from the public, I want us to be able to hear from the public first. So with that, Madam President Green, you're recognized on Board Bill 22. And then Madam Clerk, we'll start with swearing in everyone in the room and on Zoom. And then we're going to start with the Zoom comments first. Thank you.

Madam Chair, given that we've already gone through the presentation twice and kind of stopped at public comment on Wednesday night, I think we can go right into public comment. Great. For today.

Thank you so much. All right. Everyone in on Zoom that signed up to speak, if you can turn on your cameras and raise your right hand.

I need to move them over. They're just raising their hands now. Okay.

We're gonna get as many of you can on here so that we can save on time with swearing individually in, and we can go ahead and do you all at once. That goes for you all in the room too. Whether you wanna speak now or if you're waiting till after amendments, just wanna go ahead and get that done so that we're not held up with that in the process.

Okay, that's all the raised hands. Okay.

And everyone in the room that signed up to speak, can you raise your right hand and swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth? All right. All right. Madam Clerk, please proceed.

Online, I have Audrey Kidwell, Ward 6.

Hi. All right. uh hi my name is audrey kidwell i am a resident of ward six uh thanks for the opportunity to speak today um i was not expecting to be the first to give testimony but i have been at um prior uh committee hearings for the rams uh settlement board bill 22 um and i've been really impressed by everything that I've heard. And so just want to reiterate for this committee that I'm opposed to Board Bill 22 as it is currently written. I'm really hoping today to see an amendment that would increase funding for North City, specifically home repair and tornado recovery. Last time we met at Julia Davis Library, a couple of folks mentioned things like triage and hierarchy of needs with housing being way at the top of that list of needs. So just would really urge the committee to keep those points in mind. It's not that our city doesn't have other needs, we absolutely do. We really need to focus on those folks whose basic needs aren't being met right now, which is the people who experienced the devastation of the tornado in North City who have not, you know, had, you know, they've not received the assistance that they need to repair and rebuild. So, yeah, we should treat this as a triage situation. that needs to be given top priority. And the other thing I wanna say is that the 150 million figure that the community is asking for, that comes directly from the calculations that the Board of Aldermen and this committee did to figure out how much was needed to repair North City. It's not a number that came out of nowhere. It's based on the per building estimate times the number of applications received. It's really basic math. And so the fact that the $150 million wasn't allocated from the get-go is honestly a little bit baffling and insulting. That should have been it's your own numbers, right? Like it's your own numbers and you're still lowballing the amount that's being allocated in the Rams fund. And I know that the argument is, well, you know, once we have a pot of money ready to go, we can look for additional grant funding. We don't have time for that. These people don't have the luxury of sitting around and waiting for grant funding. We need to give $150 million to Immediately, so that repair can commence on buildings that haven't even been touched yet for a year. So, you know, again, triage, hierarchy of needs. We need to focus on those concepts. We cannot afford to wait around to hopefully receive more funds that we, you know, we don't even know where those are going to come from. Meanwhile, we have 150 million that we could allocate to North City. So that's what I'm asking for. I think that's what a lot of these other folks are going to ask for. And I really hope we see an amendment to that effect today. Thank you.

The next speaker, Evan P. Mr. Evan, could you give me the last your last name, please?

Hey, can I speak later? I'm at work right now. And I can't really stop right now.

Okay, Linda long. My cousin.

Yes. i'm ready to go ahead and speak okay thank you my name is mike konzin and i've been a city resident since 1989 i'm currently a resident of ward 9. i'm also an owner of pgav which is a planning and design firm located in downtown st louis where we employ about 100 people we care deeply about downtown which is why we've maintained our presence here for 54 years and and we're going to keep doing that we're going to continue to be downtown because it's the right thing to do. I'm here today to speak in favor of the $55 million allocation for downtown, and in particular, the $2.5 million for events. The case for this is pretty simple. Events like these are almost all upside. For a proportionately small investment, they attract visitors who use some of our biggest assets, our sports venues, and fill our hotels, dine at our restaurants, explore our neighborhoods, and visit other attractions, and then they go home saying good things about us. As a member of the Sports Commission, I've been able to see this firsthand. The recent U.S. Figure Skating Championships, the NCAA Basketball Tournament, and the NCAA Hockey Frozen Four generated $35 million in visitor spending and more than $1.5 million in city sales tax revenue. Just last week, we announced the 2028 Olympic Marathon Trials, which are going to be amazing. and there are more opportunities to come. These events have a huge beneficial impact on downtown and our whole city, including great media exposure and support for local businesses. They help create jobs and grow our tax base, and they make us proud. But the competition for these events is fierce and gets more so every day. The event allocation is necessary to help us compete nationally and build on this momentum. As a city resident, I know that all of the allocated uses in the bill are very important, including the funds for tornado relief. Now is the time to move forward with the Rams settlement and secure St. Louis' future and with it, the allocations for downtown and especially the 2.5 million for events. This is a very smart use of these funds and I'm grateful that this is part of the bill. Thank you for your time.

OUR NEXT SPEAKER IS MELINDA LONG. .

MS. LONG, CAN YOU TURN YOUR CAMERA ON, PLEASE? . We have three minutes. Oh, here it is.

Ms. Long, you have three minutes.

I understand. Here we go. There you go. Hello, everyone. I understand at this hearing the merit this board bill, the mayor on one campus 30 on the north side, which is good. My concern is for sure we just want to make sure that those funds are distributed properly. Because it is not just given to some of the bigger The more well known social agencies 110 really won't really won't do a lot for the North side because one building to rebuild a one building comparable to how it was originally put together. Would be like three or 400,000 for one building, so I'm just hoping that the plan to with this 110 and the extra 30 can be. distributed and and allocated to programs that can really assist individuals if the homeowner if his or her house is already gone if a wall or two is out i do have compassion which i'm sure you guys do as well but maybe fifty thousand dollars would not be enough but yet i mean we'll not we'll won't do the project but if there are other types of underlying social programs that could help him or her get in a better position, that would be great. Yeah, that's my concern. That's my concern.

Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Cynthia Jordan.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. I do need to raise my hand and be sworn in.

You swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth?

Absolutely.

Please proceed, Ms. Joyce.

Thank you. Good morning, Madam Clerk and Madam Chair, members of the committee, as well as the community at large. I just wanted to go on record showing my support IN REFERENCE TO BOARD 22 WITH AN AMENDMENT TO RAISE THE 110 MILLION TO 150 MILLION TO HELP RESTORE THE NORTH SIDE AND TO ALL OF THOSE THAT WERE IN THE TORNADO. I THINK THAT'S SO INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT. AND LET ME ALSO ADD, WHILE I AM AN EMPLOYEE OF U.S. BANK, THESE ARE MY OPINIONS AND NOT THAT OF MY EMPLOYER. It is important for us to really focus on restoring the north side and really making certain that we help everyone that was impacted by the tornado. I wholeheartedly agree that our city was not given the right hand in terms of being left by itself. And we are working externally to try to put some things in place to help under the burden of this that our city is under. really the best thing that we can do at this time to really use this as a politic moment is to make sure that the 150 million that really is needed for all of those that did apply for assistance, that we can start with that and really start leveraging it to bring in other funds. So I just wanted to go on record and continually to show my support for the North side and all of those that were in the tornado. And that's all I have to say. And let me just add, I am a resident of St. Louis County, the city of Creve Coeur. But I do live and work with a lot of people in the city of St. Louis, born and raised in the city of St. Louis. And this is home. So I want to make sure that I'm doing everything that I can to support my city as we need to rebuild and just come together. Thank you. Thank you back the rest of my time.

Haley black.

I also need to be sworn in. Thank you. Do you swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth and Madam Clerk? Are there any others online that are way big so we can go ahead and swear them all into?

I'm sorry.

Are there any others that need to be moved over to be sworn in to speak?

No, no one else. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Please proceed. There's two more, three more people raised their hand on the other side.

Okay. Can you, we wanted to try to go ahead and save time on this. So we're trying to swear you all in. So if you can please turn on your camera and then I swear you guys all in so they can roll. We can keep.

And if there's anyone else who would like to speak, please raise your hand so I can move you over.

Are we good, Madam Clerk?

I'm trying to get two more people over.

Thank you. This is our intention to make sure we heard from you all since we couldn't hear from you all last time via Zoom. So we're just trying to get it worked out so that we can.

Okay. We're ready. Great.

You all swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth?

I do.

Thank you. Please proceed. Madam Clerk will call your name. Haley Black.

Hi, my name is Haley Black, and I am a resident of the sixth ward. I have been to many of these council meetings repeating the same things as other people. The $110 million going to tornado recovery in Northside is not enough. We request $150 million at least. When you look at the entire city, that this is looking at the entire city. If we had South City, where I live, and there was this tornado damage and people spending a year outside of their homes, homeless, out in the cold, freezing weather, then it would not be an issue to get the homes there. We would not be taking funds outside of our, that are outside of what is the typical budget to give money so that our downtown can be revitalized. There are many things that we can do with downtown, certainly, but right now we have residents in dire need and that with a slush fund, that's where that money goes. So it needs to also have make sure that the residents, it's not just the the activists like they were saying before, we need those to be funded and also residents on the ground to be able to be able to rebuild their homes, rebuild their lives. This is a big deal. I'm a little confused that there hasn't been more movement after there's been hours of testimony on and ongoing from people like me asking for this. The survey results that you sent out to the entire All residents showed that this is where that money should go. And that's what your constituents would like. A lot of it came from my ward, the sixth ward. And these are people that were not affected by the tornado recovery or not affected by the tornado. And they realized that you would want that for us if that had happened to our people. in our neighborhoods. I am confused as to why there hasn't been movement after this much testimony and this much response from constituents of those on the board. So I hope you do the right thing by your constituents. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Simon Bailey.

hi uh thank you chair members committee uh thank you to testify uh my name is simon bailey i'm ceo of t carter usa and we are located uh in the globe building downtown um i am here in support of the downtown because this is not abstract for us our businesses here our employees work here and our ability to grow depends in part on whether downtown st louis is safe active and functional Like everyone else, public sector makes target investments in a downtown core. It lowers risk. When risk goes down, private investment for jobs, more activity, more tax base, confidence in the city as a whole. This is not speculation. In Denver, public investment around Union Station helped drive more than $3.5 billion in surrounding private development. In Oklahoma City, there was a MAPS initiative that associated with more than $5 billion in combined public and private investment. In Cincinnati, coordinated downtown redevelopment has been tied to more than $2.1 billion in development projects. The record from the other cities is clear. When cities invest strategically in their downtown core, investment follows. It is not only reasonable, It is necessary that part of the settlement be invested in generating the greatest long-term economic return, and that means rebuilding strength in downtown. This is a necessary investment in long-term growth. The evidence is clear from facts of other cities, and it will extend far beyond downtown and strengthen the city and region as a whole. Thank you.

Thank you.

madam clerk or madam chair point of order we have a very long hearing ahead of us we need decorum we need everyone to be respecting folks opinions i get that people are frustrated and disagree but we need to make sure that we have time to get through today's testimony so and again madam madam chair all right

Because it will. Thank you, Ariane. The fact of the matter is that if it escalates to that where we can't be respectful and we want to hear from everybody, then it will end. And that doesn't help anybody. So please, Madam Clerk, proceed with calling the names so that we, as soon as we get through this, then we, the online, I'm sorry, the Zoom testimonies we can get to hearing from the people in the room. Our next speaker is Andrew Davidson.

Good morning. Thank you. Good morning, Chairman Hubbard and members of the committee. Thank you for the opportunity to speak today. My name is Andrew Davidson. I serve as the office managing partner for KPMG here in St. Louis. We have approximately 450 employees based in downtown and have been downtown for over 100 years. I spent the past 30 years of my career with the firm, so I've had the privilege of seeing the city through multiple cycles of growth, challenge and opportunity. I'm here today to express my strong support for Board Bill 22 and specifically the proposed investment in downtown and the creation of the Sports Event Attraction Fund. From where I sit, this is not just about events. It's about competitiveness. As a business leader responsible for attracting talent, clients, and investment to St. Louis, I can tell you that perception matters. Vibrancy matters. Momentum matters. When people choose where to live, where to build careers, and where to invest, They look for cities that are active, visible, and on the rise. Major sporting events play a meaningful role in shaping that perception. They bring people into our city, they showcase St. Louis on a national and global stage, and they create an environment that signals energy, confidence, and forward progress. Things that directly influence whether companies like ours can grow and retain talent here. We've already seen the impact. Events hosted over the past year have generated significant visitor spending, tax revenue and economic activity for St. Louis. But the reality is we are competing against cities that are making deliberate public investment to win these opportunities. Quite simply, if we want St. Louis to compete, we have to act like a competitive city. This fund gives us the ability to do that in a disciplined and accountable way. What makes this proposal compelling and, in my view, responsible is that it is designed as an investment, not a subsidy. The fund helps us compete for events we would otherwise lose, and importantly, it is structured to be replenished by the very tax revenues those events generate. That is a disciplined, performance-orientated approach, one that aligns with how we think about capital allocation in the private sector. It's also a strategic use of a relatively small portion of the RAMS settlement funds, reinvesting in an area that has already demonstrated measurable return and positions us for future growth. Looking forward, this creates the opportunity to attract events like Olympic trials, NCAA championships, and international competitions. Events that bring not only economic benefit, but civic pride, national visibility, and long-term momentum for our city. And I want to be clear, supporting this fund is not in conflict with other priorities, investments in downtown, infrastructure, and our communities that are all interconnected. A stronger, more vibrant city makes everything else more effective. In closing, as someone who has invested 30 years in building a business and a team in St. Louis, I view this as exactly the kind of smart, targeted, and forward-looking investment our city needs. I respectfully encourage you to support Board Bill 22. Thank you for your time, your leadership, and your service to St. Louis.

Austin?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My name is Austin Blankenship. I'm a downtown president and business owner for the two over the last 18 years, and I'm here to support Board Bill 22. Without continued investment in downtown St. Louis, the city is not going to be able to move forward in the way that it needs to. Do you understand the need to invest in North City and helping those that were affected by the tornadoes? But we do need to, for the long term, invest in downtown to fix the perception of the country on what St. Louis is and what St. Louis has to offer. Without this investment, we won't be able to turn this around and help continue to grow the city of St. Louis. Thank you.

Marty Burch.

Marty? Do you mean Marty Mathis or Max Burch?

Oh, okay, I see you.

Okay.

I'm sorry, Marty, what's your last name? Mathis. Okay, well, we're ready for you to speak.

Thank you. My name is Marty Mathis. I'm the Chief Operating Officer for SIG Management. We own and operate chain hotels. We recently purchased and are reopening the last hotel in Saint Louis to convert it to a Hyatt Centric. We've done this completely without government funds, loans or grants. Will eventually have 100 full time employees located on the Washington Ave corridor, an area hardest hit with the exit. One of the areas hardest hit from the exit of the Rams. As an outsider, I see Saint Louis is a storied history, incredible architecture, and it deserves a vibrant downtown. As a hospitality professional, I've watched the effective investments in downtown contributing to complete resurrection of that market. Boston's Faneuil Hall was once abandoned buildings when I started working there. Now it's the center of Boston tourism. More recently, Greenville, South Carolina is a textbook example of a government investment creating an environment that was ripe for economic development. City growth of any downtown leads the city. It's just a fact, and it's been shown time and time again. We need help in the improvement of simple things like sidewalks and streetscapes, helping develop street-level small businesses and storefronts to encourage walking. And everything done to encourage visitors and events to the riverfront is poised to help the community. St. Louis needs to invest money to make this growth a reality. And it is an investment with returns that will benefit the community at large from beginning, from businesses and property owners to visitors, both local and out of town, for years to come. I do recognize the need for tornado relief. I can't imagine what they're going through, but the downtown serves as the core of Saint Louis, tying together the neighborhoods, the schools, the hospitals, the offices, and investing in all these things that make downtown a place to be benefits everyone economically, creates jobs, creates city pride, and creates a better place to live. I appreciate your time and I support Bill 22.

Thank you. Dan Haag. Dan Haag. Kami Lewis-Holiday. C. Zimberman. S. T. L. A. G. M. Okay. That concludes the online commentary.

Good morning. I'm so sorry I had to unmute myself.

Can you hear me? Yes, ma'am. You may proceed.

Hello, I'm sorry. My name is Makia Hicks. And by the way, thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak. I represent Hotel St. Louis. I independently own and operate Autograph Marriott in the heart of downtown. We're located at 7th and Olive. While we fully support the efforts to assist the communities impacted by the recent tornadoes, we are concerned about the long-term sustainability of downtown St. Louis. We have visitors arriving expecting a vibrant downtown experience, yet they're encountered with a lot of vacant buildings, empty storefronts, and deteriorating infrastructure. and a lack of public safety presence. These conditions directly impact the perception, our satisfaction scores, and ultimately their decision to return to St. Louis. This not only affects us, but all the businesses, small businesses around us as we are independently owned and operated. And a lot of us do not have the resources as large corporations and chains. We rely on a healthy downtown environment to remain competitive, create jobs, and continually to invest in our property and the community. We currently have about 85 employees and most of them are residents of the city of St. Louis and some of them even staying in North, residing in North St. Louis where the tornado hit. So we fully support this bill. It is very important that there is investment into the city of St. Louis. So we remain relevant in this competitive market. Thank you.

Okay, that's our last speaker, Lily's iPhone, I tried to move you over and you decline to be moved over.

Madam Clerk, I'm not sure who that is up in the far right corner, but he did get sworn in. If you can unmute so you can say your name.

Are you thinking about me, Max? Yes.

Thank you.

Oh, awesome. Thank you. Thank you for giving me the opportunity and hearing out. Yes, my name is Max Brooke. I'm a resident of Ward 1. I'm tuning in today to... Joseph Baeta, Supt of Schools & Testify in support of requesting priorities prioritization and increase in tornado funding and. You know there there is, we are you know, grateful for this windfall. And this once in a lifetime kind of opportunity for this funds, but also just sadly because of the tornado and the national or excuse me natural disaster that occurred. a year ago, I believe that there needs to be a shift in some of the funds, at least at minimum, the reserves to put towards that effort of restoring and stabilizing that neighborhood and those families. The North City is where the city is occurring the largest concentration of population loss. And we are struggling to attract families with children. St. Louis is actually attracting families with our households with no children at a fairly consistent rate, but we are struggling to attract families with. children and so I think by focusing on the north city neighborhoods we are showing neighborhoods families which are our tax base that they are priorities and we can address hopefully to stop that population loss through the prioritization of tornado recovery thank you thank you

We're going to our speakers in the room. Just making sure, again, that everyone that wants to speak now in the public testimony portion of this hearing is signed up and sworn in. I'm so excited for these youth in the room and this being their first time. So let's be respectful and set a good example for them. With that being said, we'll go ahead and move forward in public comment in the room.

Our first speaker, Camilla Jackson.

Did you sign up on the sign-in sheet, sir, in the front? Sir, with the hat on that keep looking at me. Did you sign up? Okay, I want to make sure because you keep pointing.

Can you make sure the turned on?

It's a green button or green light.

Sorry.

Good morning. My name is Camille Jackson. I'm a small business owner on the Cleaves Landing and I'm in support of Bill 22. I actually came here this morning just to truly to share my personal experience. sorry y'all i have a baby that's i don't want a squisher um okay thank you so much apologies my name is camille jackson and i am in support of bill 22. as a small business owner on the cleeds landing i really just share my personality and what i've seen over the past two and a half years since i've been on the landing While I do want to recognize the priority for tornado recovery, and I am definitely for that as everyone else is, I do think that it's important that we are really investing on the riverfront to continue the viability of our downtown St. Louis area. Two and a half years ago, I was brought with an opportunity to invest on the landing. And to be perfectly honest, I said no in the very beginning. I said, nope, that's insane. Nothing's there. And then I ended up going down and walking it. And I saw the potential. I saw where it was going. And I saw what the riverfront could be again. I remember personally I remember going down from the county coming down to the city and parking on the cobblestones of the riverfront. When it was insanely busy and there was always something to do for families, which is one of the reasons that I actually named my business, the cobblestone. It's important that we continue to invest in downtown St. Louis, especially with the riverfront. As a person who has personally and professionally seen this, tourism is growing. We have a lot to offer. but it's just not there yet i will tell you personally we have people that have come back two years in a row to see the growth of the city to come back and tell us personally hey camille guess what we we came back we were really excited we had a great time we're excited to see more but we get a lot of butts But it's not quite there yet. But there is not a lot to do yet. We walked the riverfront, but there wasn't much to do. The archgrounds are beautiful, but, right?

Ms. Camille, your time is winding up.

Thank you. But personally, I think that it's important that we invest and that we continue to build out the viability. Thank you.

Thank you. I want to make sure that people know in the room that don't forget. So if you hear your name here and you wanted to speak after we go through all the deliberations of the amendments, you wanted to stay for all that and then speak, I will still open up the mic for you then. So don't think if you hear your name now and you don't come up that you've missed your chance because I know that some of you want to speak after the amendments. Thank you.

Mr. Andrew Davison.

If you hear your name, please, and you don't want to speak now, please make sure you specify that so that you don't not get called on afterwards as well. You can also go up to the clerk and tell her now that you signed up, but you want to speak after President Green's presentation and all of the amendments. Thank you.

Marty Matheis. simon bailey casey fowler flynn hi i'm casey feller finn ward 6.

Comptroller Donna Beringer excused the Board of Police Commissioner's absence at recent budget hearings. She said, quote, these are people who know what might happen if they came down to City Hall so I can understand their concerns for safety. If I were on the committee, I would want them, the police there, and maybe that would make it a safer environment. Donna stood right back there two weeks ago behind the very people that she was disparaging. This racially coded language and dangerous rhetoric delegitimizes the people fighting against racial injustices this city created itself. It echoes a long history of labeling black activists as dangerous and threatening. It was the same when Mayor Kara Spencer watched as police brutalized peaceful protesters as they bid for the most immediate need this city has to rebuild North City. It's the same as every person online and in this room who says downtown is dangerous. Well, you can't fix racism with investments. The fact that there was not immediate and public backlash to Donna's statement, which frankly signaled that she is not fit for office, leads me to believe that you all are not holding these hearings in good faith. Stop discrediting the arguments of black activists and instead engage with them. They are here ready and willing to talk with you all. They're the ones who have been on the ground working tirelessly for over a year since the tornado and a desperate push to hold North City together when the city failed to act swiftly and in proportion to the magnitude of the disaster. What the city needs right now to survive and thrive is to rebuild North City and to fix our failing water infrastructure. To put that money anywhere else, particularly into downtown, which has private investors, is to completely fail the people. I don't know what game you all are playing, but if you have spent any time learning the history of this city, or you spent any time on the ground in North City interacting with tornado survivors, this would literally not be up for debate. Fix North City and the decades of harm that we as white people have caused and we as white people have benefited from. Without North City, St. Louis cannot thrive. Thank you.

Mr. Abdul Hakim. Mr. Abdul Hakim. Undecided.

Excuse me. Yes. Okay. Good afternoon. Good morning, everyone. I hadn't really prepared anything to present. I was invited down. I do have concerns about what we do with the monies allocated from the stadium monies. I would hope that we could encourage the faith base initiatives throughout this city to come together and present and have an intelligentsia to see what we can do about our youth, the homeless. Because as long as we have homeless people in this city, as long as we have youth running rapidly in our cities, I'm speaking of male and female, especially in the so-called black community of North St. Louis. It's unfortunate that we, to this day and time, we have leaders still encouraging our people to consider us as black people. That's a sad commentary on us as a people. We should not be considering ourselves black people. I think that's one of the detriments of our demise that we see in North St. Louis. We have to have the courage and take the initiative to encourage faith-based organizations throughout this city to come together and see what we can do collectively, whether you're so-called black, so-called white. We have to get away from these terms, because I think this is keeping us in this quagmire where we find ourselves. And if we don't have the courage to address these issues, you take like the so-called black people. at the bottom of the poll when it comes to economics, marriage, and other concerns. We're at the bottom run. And we have to have the courage as faith-based communities. And I'm hoping that those that are in the position of authority can hopefully encourage this to come about. Have an intelligence here. bring something to the table so that we can collectively come up with a strategy, a plan. The first thing we need to do is address the downtrodden, sad situation that we find ourselves in our behaviors. There's no excuse for certain behaviors to continuously go on in this city amongst our people. whether you're black, so-called black, or so-called white. The first thing we have to do is have the courage to get away from these terms. It does not address human quality to consider ourselves as a color.

We have to have the courage to address it. Mr. Hakeem, that's your time. Thank you, sir.

I can stop right there. I think you get the message, right?

Our next speaker is Michael McLemore.

good morning michael mack one more ward 12. all right um so one of the things that i believe this board of auto men should consider when deciding how this ram settlement money is ultimately allocated to the north side for tornado recovery is which side of history they would like to be on There'll come a time in the next 40 or 50 years when the decisions made here today are analyzed and studied about how the city of St. Louis chose how to respond to this tornado. And here we are, more than a year post-tornado, and still there are potentially thousands of St. Louis residents either displaced or living in very dangerous conditions, if even in a natural building at all. For me, there's been very little to no progress made by the city of St. Louis in recovering from this tornado. But what has become clear to me is that my idea of progress differs from what the city sees as progress. While I measure progress in how many impacted residents have been able to return home or have been rehoused within their community, the city sees progress in the amount of structures demolished and weight of debris hauled away. So while the city's recovery team pats itself on the back for the tons of debris removed, remember that at some point the contents of that debris was once all someone had. At this rate, future generations will wonder why this city chose not to fully fund the recovery efforts to the best of its ability when it had funds available to do so. This will be looked at the same way other dark chapters of this region's history are looked at, like the Team 4 Plan in 74, Harlan Bartholomew's Comprehensive City Plan in 47, or the erasure of other majority black communities in the metro area, like Mill Creek Valley, Kinlot, Meacham Park, Evans Howard Place, and Laclede Town. We are currently at risk of adding neighborhoods like The Ville, Academy Sherman Park, Fountain Park, Fairgrounds, and O'Fallon amongst others to that list. The current amount for repairs at only $70 million means that roughly half of the people that apply for repairs through STL recoveries will get any assistance, while the others will remain on the wait list with zero timetable for assistance if it ever comes at all. The mayor has stated previously that she wants her legacy to be judged by the amount of people that chose to stay in the city of St. Louis. To the mayor, I say now is the time to put your money where your mouth is. So I ask again, what side of history do you want to be on? Do the right thing and allocate $150 million towards home repairs on the north side, and let's bring our folks back home. Thank you.

Our next speaker is Angel Flores.

Good morning. My name is Angel Flores. I'm from Ward 2. I'm with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, and I oppose this bill as redacted and demand a million dollars for North St. Louis. Let's be clear. There have always been two competing interests to receive the RAMS funds. It comes down to two groups. On the one hand, the working class victims of the tornado, and the business vultures that have flown over this city for years on the other hand. These are some of the same charlatan CEOs that make 350 times the salary of their employees, that tell us that trickle-down economics are real while we starve, and that the Rams' money should support their bank accounts while we continue to suffer. They abandon North City to its luck, delay the recovery efforts, and continue to ask the government to fund their private gain efforts while people have no roofs. I mean, these CEOs claim they can't pay for their lights and sidewalks, but they expect tornado victims to do so while also repairing their houses. They are waiting for North City people to give up and move away so they can buy the land and make more money. I ask you, what will bring more money and common good to the city of St. Louis in the long run? Thousands of people repairing and remaining in their homes and investing in North St. Louis or private contractors and vendors working temporary projects in downtown, which will flee the city like the Rams at their soonest convenience. You are putting the money in the wrong horse if you choose private business. The CEOs of these companies will fill their bank accounts and will leave town when they have to. The people will stay. St. Louis has no hope of maintaining its population and growing socially if North St. Louis is abandoned to its fate. Everyone knows that the disinvestment that characterizes North St. Louis has been the result of intentional racist policies for more than 100 years. The tornado simply gave more visibility to these abuses. You have the chance to uplift an area of the city which has been put down for too long. But you have to put your money in the winning horse, which again, is the people, not big business. Since May 16, it's been the people of North City who have cleared the debris, shared the food, and filled the gaps, led by inadequate government responses. North City has given an example of what a socialist society can look like, one guided by solidarity and not greed. North St. Louis is the winning horse. Cut us the check. Give us the $150 million. Thank you.

Our next speaker is Ahun Ashe.

My name is and I'm a resident of the 14th ward and I'm testifying today because I don't trust y'all to do the right thing. North City residents are suffering and you've heard it and you know it. We've heard hours of testimony from tornado impacted residents sharing their most vulnerable times with you. I remember a month after the tornado seeing a video of a woman desperately pleading for support and resources. I've seen people share stories that they've had to sleep with people and risk being sexually assaulted to have a roof over their heads because they lost their house during the storm. Community members are having health issues like strokes and they named the tornado and the lack of support as the reason. I could not imagine hearing what North City is going through and still give money to downtown or just some of the reserves when North City needs at least $150 million from your own data. And I wonder why GSL and downtown are so invested in a lot of money when they already have their own and matches for it. How could you even desire to take money away from people who desperately need it? But I wouldn't expect too much humanity from the same people who decided to still host the city social the day the tornado hit. Downtown partied as people died under the rubble, as people lost everything. Now GSL is demanding money from a pot that can make people whole? Downtown doesn't need it. If they want to revitalize so bad, let them sacrifice their own money to do so. Downtown attractions don't build a city. People having housing and stability do. Especially when the only small businesses downtown supports is white businesses. Because you know what they do to small black businesses? They end their contract early, kick them out, and leave them without a business. Also, is downtown only white men in suits? Think about it. We're comparing rebuilding lives to revitalizing buildings. And water is nice if you have a home for it. All these other allocations, buckets, have departments, programs, investments, and other ways to get money that North City does not. And that's due to the decades of racist disinvestment and redlining intentionally making life hard for black people in this city. You are about to do the same thing. If you all decide not to invest $150 million in North City, you will be standing on the same racist shoulders of those before you. This moment will define your legacy. Will it be corporations or the people? One day, we'll all be gone. Decades from now, historians will be studying our time. They will see the racism black people in the city had to face. They will see the decades of divestment from North City. Then they will see a natural disaster hit that same community, which left them even more devastated. They would have known of a Donald Trump, Mike Kehoe, and seen MAGA Republicans, Democrats, and white hoods did nothing. Then they'll turn to local government. They will see your names and what you did. And guess what? There won't be a video or status that you can make to explain why you too failed North City. All there will be is your name next to this avoidable failure. You each have a decision to make. What will future generations learn about you? What will your future family members say? That downtown interest meant more than people? That painting roads was more emergent than kids without housing? You have the opportunity to do something nobody else in your position has done. Choose North City. Choose black people. Choose community. If you have to risk relationships, risk them. If you have to sacrifice being comfortable, sacrifice it. If your job is on the line, then damn it, put it there. There is nothing more worthy to lose it all for than protecting the people who are traditionally neglected. The soul of St. Louis isn't the only thing on the line. Megan, Michael, Ann, Shane, Shamim, Rasheen, Alicia, yours is too and we will fucking remember.

Our next speaker is Rosa Parks.

I mean, she kind of just said it all. My name is Rosa Parks, and I live in the sixth ward. I'm devastated that you all might choose profit over people today. Absolutely devastated. Our neighbors whose lives have breathed life into the city are in need of real support. Y'all know that this area is an area that this city government has continuously and intentionally disinvested in and over criminalized since black people were forced to move there after being displaced and redlined from other areas in the city. North City is an area that your predecessors deemed unprofitable to purposefully drain resources from a primarily black area, further emboldening the inability for North City families to grow into wealth and resources like predominantly white areas. When I saw how hard the tornado hit North City, my heart broke because I knew, I knew you all weren't going to do your jobs. And do you know what happens when someone can't do their job? They get fired. You all have chosen to provide $55 million in funding towards downtown revitalization while North City families are displaced. $55 million that will be used to invest in making downtown St. Louis visually attractive for rich, Urban renewal has always been racist in practice and in intent, and we can clearly see here that downtown revitalization is this generation's urban renewal. People are living in tents in North City as they wait for help from anyone to help them rebuild, and y'all are more concerned about riverfront cafes and bringing Fortune 500 companies here? It's giving gentrification. It's giving racism. Greater STL Inc. has never been for the people, and for this group to be the main group backing downtown revitalization, I'm very worried. They are pro-data centers, and what does that mean for our city when they begin to sell us out to even more tech companies that pray off our city's water? That doesn't sound like a city that cares about water. what happens to the homeless encampments on the riverbank when greater sel inc begins to justify their neighborhoods will they also be displaced like and discarded like the families on the north side it should go without saying that you all have further to find who your alliances are with and that you share bread with the oppressor not the oppressed your stance on this bill on whether or not you reallocate funding from downtown to north city will be remembered by us by your voters, by your friends. It will be remembered in 20 years when your children are grown up and ask you why your name is on the people who supported corporate greed over displaced families. There's not much more we can say that you all don't already know. And somewhere deep inside every single one of you, I know that you feel it. I know that that feeling doesn't go away. It keeps you up in the middle of the night when it's just you and your conscience and you feel it, the guilt. And there must be a lot of guilt that comes with being a sellout. I don't know, because I've never sold out. Ms. Parks, that's your time. I ask you for once in your professional career to have a backbone and reallocate $55 million from downtown to invest in rebuilding tornado impacted homes. Because if we don't get it, shut it down.

Our next speaker is Micah Hicks. Austin Blankenship. Michael, Michelle Woodhouse.

Good afternoon. My name's Michelle Woodhouse. I'm a resident of the Sixth Ward in Tower Grove South.

I'm also a representative of InvestSTL, which is a local nonprofit.

I'm here today to urge this committee to amend Board Bill 22 to allocate at least $150 million of the RAMS Settlement Fund to North St. Louis. The state of North St. Louis and its people is the barometer for how great and inclusive of a city we really are. Our city has more people exiting than moving in.

You all know that.

And that is overwhelmingly demonstrated by the troves of black families fleeing the city because of decades of living in neighborhoods that the city and others have chosen to bypass for substantive investment, opportunity, and care. And no one seems to care that they're leaving. The tornado has only accelerated this exodus from North St. Louis. From our own experience at InvestSTL with immediate response work and deploying direct cash assistance through the Northside Resilience Fund to over 1400 families, we saw how residents were left with little choice but to leave. They relocated outside the city and in many instances outside of the state. Yet there was a shared hope from the vast majority of them that they want to return. North City is their home. They want to be there. But that is wholly dependent on how this city shows up for our displaced neighbors in both sentiment and real dollars. Per the terms of the city's own property repair program for every million committed to long-term recovery, that's our greatest chance of keeping 20 families, not only in North St. Louis, but in the city as a whole. Underfunding long-term recovery and the very program that you as elected officials authorized as the leading recovery effort is fundamentally denying the return of our own people to their community. What many people who have testified in support of downtown don't understand because they don't live here, they just play here, they play city on the weekends, or they play city when they drive to work, is that no amount of Topgolfs, Whole Foods, stadiums, or hotels is going to save us. In the 31 years that I have been a city resident, I've seen numerous attempts to revitalize downtown. It started with the landing, and then it was Wash Ave, and then it was East Wash Ave, and then it was the stadium. I may be missing something, but we have invested over and over and over in downtown in 31 years, and yet we want to do it again. It is not the silver bullet. It is not going to save us. Our residents are going to save us. Investment in our residents are going to save us. Every family that leaves... Really? Okay.

You can finish your thought.

Okay.

You can finish your thought, and we can move to the next part.

When people continue to leave It will be the fault of our city government for failing to act, for failing to stand up, and for doing what every previous generation of politicians has failed to do, and that's prioritize North St. Louis as the vital piece of our city that it is, and to prioritize the people who live there. You have a chance to change that pattern, and that's what we're asking you to do. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Woodhouse. Madam Clerk, before we move to the next person, I heard that Ms. Bailey might be in the room. Is Ms. Bailey in the room? Ms. Bailey, I'm going to bring her up if she wants to speak now because she so graciously at Julia Davis Library when we... said that she will wait and save her comment. I thank you for that cooperation, and I'm going to open the mic to you now, unless you wanted to speak after amendment. Okay, please proceed. I'll swear you right in when you get up to the mic. Thank you again, Ms. Bailey. You swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

So help me God.

Please proceed.

Thank you, Madam Alderwoman. I am very appreciative of this opportunity to address this esteemed body. Having been a member in 1991 through 1997, I enjoyed a gracious reign in my community, supported by the people who we all want to serve and do better in this community. I'd like to tell you a little bit about myself for some of you who are a little younger and still have baby formula and baby powder smell on you. Some of you who may not know the history, the rich, strong history of electoral politics in the city of St. Louis. When I was approximately 32 years old, I served as the alderwoman. I was elected, and little did I know that things were not as though they appeared to be. You know, when you go into the bowels of the belly of the beast, you have a whole different approach and outlook on things that happen. Just to fast forward a little bit, I'd like to tell you that I served in office for six years. And I thought I was doing a lot of good. We built a lot of houses around Grand North Market. People were buying new constructed homes next to junkyards, bacon lots, because they wanted a place to live and they wanted to be with their community. They wanted to celebrate their life in their own culture. They weren't trying to be prejudiced. They weren't trying to be hateful. They just wanted to be with people like them. They wanted to live out their life with people like them. The other people that wanted to go, they left and went to the county, and they enjoyed their lives where they were. But this city has an obligation. You swear as an older person, an elected official, to be able to have a quality of life in this community that has people to give, people can have lifelong success. And it's not happening. So we need to reassess, we need to re-look, and there needs to be some more training and some opportunities for all of you to learn. I didn't know a hill of beans about what I was doing. I had read, I had watched television, I had looked at books, I had worked in campaigns, but The real rubber on the ground came from doing the job, and then we had some people in our city, one of which was Kate Shea, who I understand is now deceased, who gave us some training in housing. Kate Shea was so committed to this city that she had a series of workshops, about 20 workshops at our church, on Grand North Market to get people information about housing. She took us on tours of the city so we could see different kind of housing. We met with the people from Habitat for Humanity to talk about housing. We went and visited their new project in the Ville. The St. Louis Development Corporation, who now has become more like a villain to this community, had a series of workshops in that church so that we could get all the businesses in our community to understand what it took to be a business contributor to the housing project. So what happened was they had about 10 workshops and they came and they showed people how to fill out the applications, how to bid, how to do everything that was necessary. And we had four or five businesses that were in our community Becker Paint and B Cabinet, they actually got contracts in those houses that we built. So I also want to say this. I thought I was doing a lot of good. We wrote down the price of those houses from $150,000 to less than $100,000 for home ownership. Bailey, that's your time. The developer that worked with me asked for us to, it took us about 18 months. We recruited people. We first met with the churches and we asked them, who do you have at your church that you'd like to live in your community? Then, that was a series of meetings, and they started looking for people who would like to walk to church. Then we started meeting with the residents, and we said, who would you like to have as your neighbor? Your cousin, your friends, your coworker, who would you like to have there? Then the people had credit problems. So the developers started, while we were doing all the work to build the houses, started getting their credit straightened out. So we had people ready to move in houses when they were built. In addition to that, we started a neighborhood association. People were meeting every month. I'd like to thank you for this opportunity because I'm not going to stop until I'm finished. So this is where we're going next. I was doing a lot of good work. And then you know what the president of St. Louis University said to me? He said, you black bee, we're going to run you out of this city. You're going to never work here again. So then we went through that. The police on election day tried to arrest me. They sent three white shirts and a blue shirt and one of those little Malibu cars came to my headquarters and told me to get in the car. Ma'am, they showed me no papers, they showed me nothing. but little do I know they were trying to get me off the street because they had contracted all of this, I don't know what it was, to get me out of office because we were building houses. I refused to let Cardinal Ritter be built on the location where it was because St. Louis University was trying to buy people's property at 10 cents on the dollar. That's the kind of stance I want you to take for these people. Ma'am, I'm not new to this, I'm true to this. I gave up my life, I gave up my career for my people. And I have not stopped. And I don't want you to stop. You are the stance. You are the barrier. You are the wall between the people and corruption and impropriety. It's you. It's not anybody else. You raised your right hand. You went out and campaigned. You said you wanted to protect the people. So that's what you need to do. This Rams money that they're working on needs to be more evenly distributed. As a matter of fact, the people in the city need to know where every pot of money is. There is money for the homeless shelter program. There are money to help people have nice, safe places during the day when they're not at a shelter. There's the housing money. There's the business money. We have to stop looking at, and I'm repeating some language I heard from the Board of Aldermen. We have to stop looking at silos. Take all that money and figure out how you can do the best and good and impact a community and keep moving out, keep spreading. Start at the schools. Those schools are valuable places where kids can live. They want to cut the budget for transportation, build some housing in those vacant schools, then you'll have all the kids at one place where you can move them out. You won't have to be going around block to block picking up these kids, cross-referencing. We have community resources after school for kids. The Matthew Dickey Pool has been closed for five years. Nobody's doing anything about it. I will say something about the President of the Board of Aldermen. She has been listening and trying. But the rest of you all need to join her. We need a comprehensive plan. We don't need any more wards fighting wards. We need one comprehensive ward which is the city of St. Louis and we need to start working together the second thing we need to do is we need to rescind the city residency requirement all those police and those white shirts that want to raise move your body back to the city and help pay it rescind the residency requirement they need to come back the next thing that we need to do is The ultimate need to be an example. This is not supposed to be a full-time job. You need to cut your salary by 50% back to what it was before it became 70%. They use the NSO officers, I'm not sure what their title is now, to be their assistants. You don't need a legislative assistant working full-time because believe it or not, none of you are doing full-time work. The members of the Board of Aldermen had a job. They worked. They did something in support of them being a member of the Board of Aldermen. It was an honor. It wasn't a privilege, and it wasn't a full-time job. So that's the third thing I'd like to say. And lastly, I'd like to ask you to talk to Vincent Shamal. The Board of Aldermen class of 1991 had a great introduction to city government by him. He told us what's going to happen to the city and is happening right now. You might want to ask him what the efforts were to change the city of St. Louis. He might be a little concerned because you know what the police used to do to him when he ran for governor? They used to chase him all over the state. They went to every place that he had a meeting. They picketed in front of it. They hired balloons at the football game at Mizzou and Columbia and flew these balloons all over the stadium. condemning him and assassinating his character. Now, do you think he would have been any worse governor than any of the rest of these people? That at least we had a hometown advantage? Maybe he would have done something. But you can't play with the police. We need to tell them right now, no means no. No is a complete sentence, and no, I don't want to talk about it anymore. No. That's what we need to do for them. So I'm going to close out by saying my tenure in public office was short. I enjoyed every moment of it, but it could not have happened by demise as an alderman if it hadn't been for a bunch of black people. cooperating with those people. On election day, they had two school buses of people following me around the ward. Every time I went somewhere, they would get out of these school buses, and they would surround me. They would push me in this circle. They wouldn't let me reach the voters. The police were nowhere to be found. And I personally will say Joe Moqua and Ron Henderson were part of it, because I saw them at the polling places. The people who are at the Urban League and those leadership positions were behind it too. They got a false election going on right now where they're trying to take over the Federation of Block Units so that whatever this effort is, is going to diminish the number of people in the city of St. Louis. All those people out there who are not being part of helping you or providing you with services, they're the people who are the problem. So I want to say to you, I wish you well. I'm always available. I can tell you about our housing project and how well it did and continues to do. How happy the people were with two, three, and four bedroom apartments. We brought families back together. Some of them had to connect to be able to get those houses and pay for them. But they were happy families. They were working. And if you come down to our neighborhood, you'll also see the partnership with the Rockwood School District. They built four tiny houses and put them in our community. We're working together, but we need you guys to stand up for us, stand in for us. And little lady with the new baby, I appreciate you. And all the women, I love you. I would do anything I could to help you. And I was glad at that moment there was something I could do for all the things you've done.

Our next speaker is Corey James. Dwight Fitzgerald. Chris Wilcox.

Good afternoon. My name is Chris Wilcox and I live in the 14th ward. I'm going to echo the sentiment that my comrades here have been putting forward that a minimum of $150 million of the RAM settlement fund needs to go to North City. I'd also say that not one cent, not one cent should go to downtown. It's truly an insult that we'll go up and make these presentations about these bloodless prognostications about, oh, what are the businesses going to be generated by this money we're getting into downtown? Meanwhile, people are living in tents in their front yard in North City. North City still looks like the tornado hit yesterday. And it is profoundly insulting that people would come in here and say, we need this money instead to give it to the most privileged, the most pampered, the most entitled part of the city that has ever existed. There is nothing that downtown does not get prioritized for. Listening to them whine about sidewalks, look at the sidewalks anywhere else in the city. Look at the roads. Look at the potholes. You know where the potholes get filled? They get filled downtown. And they also go around and they treat, you know, the robber barons and their gangster army in the St. Louis Metropolitan Department always get their way. They dictate where the surveillance goes. They buy their own surveillance. If they're so strapped for cash for their businesses, they should spend a lot less time policing black children out of downtown and more on the businesses they say need so much investment. And I'm tired of the most entitled part of the city continuing to say, we need even more of our money. Spend your own money. You have it. North St. Louis needs it. North St. Louis has yet to recover from the tornado and has been disinvested for decades and decades and decades. It needs to stop. And if we've gone cycle after cycle, revitalizing downtown, revitalizing downtown, it never works. If the most privileged part of the city can't make it work, maybe we should stop trying. How about for a change, we make North City the destination that downtown seems to think it deserves to be? And further, like, it's... The part that boils me the most is the fact that they talk about the perception, the unsafety. These are the same people that created that perception. They're catering to the very people who most hate this perception. And it will never be enough. And none of this money that's going to come out of the investments in downtown are going to go to any other part of the city. They're going to go to more and more of the cost, because that's what they wanted in the first place. They are responsible for the state taking over the police department, the police department raiding more and more of the treasury. It's not going to stop. And so this all needs to go to North City. This is the main chance we have to finally change priorities, and it needs to happen now. Thank you.

Ashlyn Nicole.

I'm Ashley Nicole. I was born and raised in what is now Ward 7 over 35 years, and specifically where some of our now city leaders moved into, built their community, and came up from. And what I keep hearing in these conversations is people talking about North St. Louis as if it's a problem to manage instead of our community to continue to invest in. The people rebuilding these neighborhoods are not waiting for someone to save them. They never have. You can tell when someone has never had to build something from nothing because they speak about investment as if it's a risk. the people of north st louis have been building something from nothing for generations as they continue to be taken from the community has been creating small businesses that could grow if there weren't setback after setback These businesses are and can just be as amazing as the hypothetical gentrified communities that are trying to come in. If you stop setting them back, the community here and have been here, raising their families, supporting their neighbors, preserving culture and rebuilding setback after setback. What I'm asking today is a simple allocate of at least 150 million funds immediately, the way you would if they were your own neighborhood, because they are. This is all of our city. That's why you're here. The tornado did not create the need, it exposed it again. We have a rare opportunity, sad to call it rare, to direct what can be meaningful resources towards the people in the neighborhoods carrying the greatest burden, not as a charity, not as a temporary fix, as an investment in the future of St. Louis that shouldn't even be a station. The city received the settlement funds as compassionate for the loss of the team and the economic harm they already caused. Why make the facts a hard conversation? People are waiting to play football in the front yards of people who are rebuilding their lives for generations. If we truly believe North St. Louis matters, then our budget should reflect that belief. The people already are doing the work. The question is whether the city is willing to stand beside them and invest accordingly as they did to you to get an office.

Our next speaker is Zion Lee.

Zion is part of my program, so I'm going to introduce them here. My name is Erion Johnson, probably named Johnson. I'm with the Youth Builders. I'm part of the 10th ward. Our program is in the 10th ward. We're here because I'm opposed to the bill, 1,000%. I went through it. I watched it. There's nothing there for the youth. The youth, I got a slice of my phone, I ain't gonna have to read it, but the youth is the future. The youth got the next vote. This 2026 and me sitting in this meeting, it was more hurtful because we making it a black and white thing and it's just not what it is. It's a human thing, a right or wrong thing. A lot of people, it's not a black and white thing at all. I understand it's looking like that, I tell my youth, no matter what color they is, if they get skillful and they know what they're doing, they can make money and be successful in St. Louis. A lot of them might have wanted to be football stars, but they never got a chance to go to a Rams game because the Rams left. So what we did, we fought, we got money for the rounds, right? And now we ain't putting no money from that rounds money into the youth. We got a Monarch building out there that we can make a top of the line training facility. Honestly, they sent me to the Monarch last year and they showed me the Monarch building and it was, I don't know why we didn't get it, but we didn't get it. But we can take 0.3% of this money and put it into the Monarch and make a facility where the youth be able to train at. Why train the youth? Because right now we don't have enough skilled people to rebuild St. Louis. We can release every dime to North St. Louis right now. And we're going to be exposed because we ain't got enough skilled people to rebuild. They're going to come here and they're going to take the money. I'm not saying color, but it's going to be outside companies coming. They're going to take the money. And then what? He not going to be able to afford to stay in North St. Louis no more. Why? But if he rebuild North St. Louis, he better afford to stay there. And the money getting recycled. So my biggest thing is the youth. Like we have to allocate something for the youth. We don't, we don't, I know it's other programs out there. I know it's things going on, but the youth ain't trouble. The answer is the youth. Like everybody here, y'all ain't got to, and I appreciate Audubon Green and Ms. Clark because y'all gave us a resolution last year. My kids love it. You know what I mean? So y'all recognize it, but we have to allocate something for the youth. We can sit here and we can ignore it. You're going to, Paying to the youth now, you're going to pay for it later. You know what I mean? We can talk about, I've seen people talk about downtown and how other states improved their downtown, and then it looked good. But I want to talk about Baltimore. Baltimore put so much money into their youth program, and now their crime rate dropped. Their youth got so much stuff to do. Our youth don't have anything to do. They got a future as well. Like, we're here talking about this RAMS money, When the Rams left, they took dreams from the youth. So what could we do to help put them dreams back into the youth? We need to show them that it's the future. We need to get them survivor skills. They don't have survivor skills. I don't care what we're talking about, $50,000 a house or $3 million to North St. Louis, if we release every dime, we don't have enough skilled people to keep the money into St. Louis. The money is going to go and recycle, and we're going to look back 50 years from now, we ain't do nothing to St. Louis. So like they said, let's be on the right side of history. we don't have a plan right now no one came up here with a plan i promise a real plan that's going to work mr johnson that's your last i do apologize but i got 15 youth that's on there for three minutes y'all can let me talk a couple more minutes or we can sit here and have to go through all of them so talk a couple more minutes because it's about the youth we are being ignored out here We're being ignored to the fact where it's not funny. I've been to so many meetings. I've been to the mayor's office. I'm not beefing with nobody. I appreciate everything. I appreciate the donations. I appreciate everything y'all do. But we have to focus on the youth more. That money is going to, no one in this room is going to touch any of that money personally. It's going to go to big corporations, even right now with the SLS. I'm a homeowner. They got a sign in front of my front yard, and they ain't did nothing in my house yet. They talking about $50,000 a house. That's not it. They going there and doing a bare minimum. I got at least $82,000 worth of damages in my house, and they did only $13,000. They're going to do the minimum. They want to come in, turn the room out, and then just put drywall up, no floor. It's a waste of time, and I promise y'all, if we can stop that right now and come up with a real plan, we'll be good. My plan ain't got to work, but I can promise y'all, if we invest it to these 14, 15, 16-year-olds now, while y'all sit here and plan on how y'all going to do rebuild St. Louis, by the time we get to the rebuilding process, we're going to have skilled people here, skilled carpenters. They're ready to rebuild. They're ready to learn. They're ready to live. They don't want to die out here in the summer streets because there's nothing to do. They want to live. So I'm asking the board of auditors, I don't care what y'all do with the bill, but if you can allocate a small, small portion For the youth, for training. Not money just going to be, OK, you can put money into like they got. Y'all didn't allocate a lot of money to violence prevention. Not one of them programs doing nothing for the youth for real this summer. It was just a lot of money wasted. Millions of dollars wasted. Our program, we got 63 youth. Not one penny that we got from the St. Louis City. Not one dime, the people took care of it. So I'm not asking y'all for a dime, because the people are going to take care of this program. But I'm telling y'all, stop putting barriers up where we can't get to the next level. Help us out in a way where y'all can be on the good side of history. The Monarch building's sitting. Everybody in here, we're paying the bills on the minority. I'm not here to talk about another organization, but it's a facility that can be put money into. Because I went to a SLDC meeting, and I was sat on a panel, and they had a plan to redo it the way that we talked about. Put money into that for the youth. Let's train them. They don't want to have the guns like this. I get them real too. So if you want them to put the guns down, help us out. I'm not, I'm not, I ain't a lot to talk about and I'm gonna go, but this is my, y'all stand up. We got, we got.

Keep standing up.

We got a summer program over at 950 Goodfellas over in the 10th Ward. It's an 11-week pre-apprenticeship program where we got 45 kids at their program. And then I'm doing another one at 12th and Park. I got 10. So I only brought like 13 kids from the program this morning. We got to get back for lunch. We got to get back because there's a situation. But this is the future, y'all. One thing about them, I'm going to tell y'all, they got the next vote. If y'all don't come and help them out, I'm not coming down here no more. I'm not harassing the mayor. I'm not doing that no more. My focus is the youth. You see, they looking good. They got still toes. They looking good. Hey, how you feel? They ready to build. How you feel? They ready to learn. How you feel? They ready to live. They don't want to die this summer. They need help. We need help. We ask y'all to allocate some dime in this bill for the youth. It ain't got to be my program, but something for the youth to rebuild St. Louis. And from here on, we're going to leave. I appreciate everybody here, but I got a question. They need to hear y'all with y'all chest. How you feel? How you feel? How you feel? Thank you.

Ariane, can you make sure they have their names crossed out on the thing so that we don't call them? Thank you all for being here. I was looking forward to hearing from you all, from at least one of you, but that's okay. Yeah, I got you, I understand. I'll come over and hear it.

Our next speaker is Bob Williams. Our next speaker is LaKayla Flakes.

She called Bob Williams and we didn't see anyone get up. So making sure that person, okay.

I'm Brother Bob. To come behind a beautiful black queen and a martyr they haven't told me, like Sister Velma Bailey, a devout Christian elder, she came up with some solutions. It's not too many problems that money can't solve. We have money coming to St. Louis. We've had a lot of money to come to St. Louis. It did not get to North St. Louis. And you say, why? If you study the 10-4 plan, it was deliberately designed. It did not pass that legislation, though. But the seed was planted to neglect North St. Louis. But you want to build the Central West End. The Central West End looked damn good. Downtown is still a building. We've got to come up with solutions. We keep treating the symptoms and our babies keep dying. Look, God willing, I'll be 80 years old next month. God got me here for a reason. And part of this reason is to come up with solutions. Once the money comes, have you closed the loopholes where the other money have came and we saw a lot like they done up in Minnesota? Look at the money that came to St. Louis. In the loopholes, it went to people that had only a vacant building or only a vacant house. And no one raised the issues about that. This is not solving our problems. It is important now we have to use the RAM money, all the taxes that we pay, and make sure that the money gets into the hands of the right people. Who's going to have that check and balance on that? And we set up in the community this type of organization that can monitor the money, where it's going to go, and make sure it get into the hands of the right people. I worked down here with the first black mayor. My budget was $10 million. Former state senator J.B. Jetbanks, I was his secretary. I traveled back and forth all over Jefferson City. I know the politics. If you control the politics, you control where the money go. Young people, you've got to get elected. You've got to be true public servants. We do not need the most selfish, greedy politicians. It's important that you listen to us elders. We messed up along the way, but at least we survived. Our babies are not surviving that well at all, all across the country. I want to thank you all.

Our next speaker, Ebony Harvey. Brittany. Lance Levine. Melanie Marie.

I want to go after after amendments, so you want to just OK, she's yielding her time.

Drew Foley.

My name is Drew Falvey, and I'm from the Ninth Ward. How can we say you're for the people when the people can't even believe what you said? I remember being in the loop when the tornado hit, and it touched me, let's not forget that. Seeing destruction from the loop to my area of the Central West End to North City has been etched in my brain. I've been on the ground zero since day one, and nothing has been done. It still looks the same. For years, North City has been reduced and overlooked time and time again, probably since 2001, even further than that. Now that a tornado hit, we demand to put an end to the suppression of the black community and those who are fighting alongside us. We have a mayor, well, do I want to call her a mayor? No, because she's not, who refuses to talk to organizers and everyday concerned citizens about code blue, tornado recovery, and of course, the fucking police. As one who has devoted life and fucking blood to a city I love, I'm asking that we not think as city leaders, because you ain't. Think of yourselves as residents. What would you do? What would you want? Do you want North City to be whole? It don't look like it. I want a renewed community. I want a community where black people can thrive for fucking once. We've been fucking drowning forever and it needs to stop. And if you want us to thrive, then actually fucking make the moves necessary to do so. Don't sit around and wait till we start to riot. We've been telling you the answer for a whole year and then some, and you say you listen? You don't. I find y'all a joke. much more or less a failure in my eyes. So let's, not to mention, let's also fund Code Blue, because that's what I do. I fight for my people, not like you. Again, you can't be for the people if we can't trust what you say. Year after year, y'all have said we have money for homeless shelters. We have money to rebuild the north side. We have money to do all these things. Where is it? What money? Y'all ain't proved that yet, and still you fail to do that. What blueprint do you need for us to get started? Get things in gear, because it's taking too much and too long for things to change. Y'all are responsible for talking with the people on the ground who are having proper conversations with people who live in North City, who are homeless, and who know better than you do. I would have brought a client today, but unfortunately, he said people like you don't care about the lives of him and others. He feels abandoned by a city that talks big game and has money in their mouth, but can't feed the people who need it. I refuse to believe that these requests are not impossible to achieve. We voted you in. We can for sure damn vote you out. What game do you want to play? What time you got? What cards do you want to pull? Pull them wisely. You're my alderman. We worked together at Kennelly Shelter. We ran it together. I am not finished. You have responsibility. It's homeless people on streets of Euclid begging for people for a place to stay, begging for food. It's getting worse by the day and I see it. Change it. Stop waiting and do fucking something now.

Thank you.

Ms. Amelia Zahara.

Good afternoon. My name is Amelia Zahra. I'm 17 years old and a Ward 8 resident, and I have the privilege of serving as the president of the St. Louis City Youth Council. Over the past two months, the council has worked to develop a proposal for how the city should invest the RAM settlement money in ways that would most benefit youth in St. Louis. And while Board Bill 22 reflects some of our requests, like improved infrastructure and much-needed housing support for tornado victims, our ideas go farther than that. Within our proposal, we identified the three top priorities we believe the city should take into account when allocating funds. Number one, community spaces. Number two, youth-centered initiatives. And number three, growing the city. First, community spaces requests both the addition of new and improvement of existing third spaces for young people. This includes the revitalization of rec centers, parks, pools, and libraries, and investment into businesses like grocery stores and local organizations that our neighborhoods actually need. Next, youth-centered initiatives calls for programs that invest directly into young people. That means expanding awareness and access to career readiness programs and internships, funding the youth council so youth voices can stay in conversations like these, and putting further resources toward mental health support. Finally, Growing the City requests that the money be utilized to develop and restore St. Louis with housing assistance for tornado impacted families and neighborhood development, including street and sidewalk improvements. When young people have community spaces, we stay connected to this city. When we have access to programs and support, it becomes easier to build futures here. And when the city grows, we are motivated to grow with it. St. Louis is losing more and more young people than ever before. This settlement is a rare opportunity to invest in the generation that will determine whether this city will thrive. We urge you to consider our proposal and to keep youth at the table as these decisions are made. Thank you.

Jasmine Franks.

I think it's disrespectful that we have to keep coming to these meetings to essentially beg you. When someone said it perfectly at the last meeting, y'all worked for us. Yet it doesn't seem that way in reality. Y'all had us give testimonies for hours on why we felt the police board didn't deserve more money. Not only did they laugh in y'all face and basically say, we ain't got to do shit we don't want, but y'all gave sanctioned killers 200 mil despite the blatant disrespect.

Y'all also went on to say a warrant wouldn't even be your first move.

Stand up because y'all look so fucking weak. I have not seen a single one of you advocate or release a statement for the very people they call dangerous. When we basically wasted our days coming up here to explain our grievances with you, whether it be about the police board or tornado recovery, etc. Y'all have shown us that the police board can piss on you and you'll just go and wipe it off without a single word. Y'all hold us citizens to a higher standard than you do yourselves. The fact that the residents have to convince you of some data y'all fucking dropped when it comes to the 150 mil is sick when you think about it. Proposing 55 mil to downtown when the surrounding areas are suffering is peak stupidity. But hey, this ain't the first time this government has moved in such a way. downtown has money and saying but we want more what the trolls say online stop expecting the city to bail y'all out keeping 25 million reserves also gives the city will never see those funds because y'all know y'all be stealing and mismanaging clearly we need mom donnie to come give pointers because he's done so much in such a short time yet y'all drag y'all feet as if y'all are incompetent saying all y'all are doing everything y'all can y'all aren't Y'all are, in my eyes, in support of a white supremacist agenda. I don't care how pretty y'all make shit look. Elections are coming up. I'm talking to you, Shane. And everyone wants to use the north side for talking points. So after they get the positions they want, you won't see them advocate in the way they are right now. Elected officials will use the north and black people as tactics to get what they want and then neglect it. Look at Wesley Bell. You, the board of aldermen... You, the Board of Aldermen, alongside Kara and her administration, Wesley and Kehoe, are all collectively responsible for the state of neglect in this city. This is a land grab that y'all are attempting to help our city government complete until you can prove us otherwise. CARA already bringing in contractors from other cities, giving them millions, and for what? Because there are so many of us in the city who are ready to work. Mike Avery and PropMan and even people I know who are amazing at what they do. Why not funnel some of these funds back into the community? Why not collaborate closely with nonprofit organizations to get the ball rolling faster? It's because y'all don't want to see us win, y'all don't want to rebuild, y'all want money, and y'all are self-serving. For those of you who walk around in fear because of us, even though we have never physically threatened or done anything to anyone, I hope it's debilitating. To the police board, Donna Barringer, thin-lipped ass, and Kara Spencer's lying ass, I hope you wake up every fucking day and fear, and I hope you have to look over your shoulders. I hope you have to wonder what will happen to you, because even though I don't feel, because even then, I don't feel that y'all feel even an ounce of stress or anxiety that these residents do. So disrespectfully, fuck y'all if y'all don't do right by the residents of the city.

Grace DeJordans.

Good morning. My name is Grace Desjardins, and I'm a resident of the Ville. I'm someone who loves my neighborhood, and I'm someone who watched my neighborhood get destroyed. On Friday, May 16th of 2025, I was supposed to be celebrating. The very next day, I was supposed to graduate from a St. Louis institution with a degree in political science. Instead, I was in a campus basement and was told that my home was no longer there. When I finally reached my street, the street that I have lived on for years, years, the street that I knew better than any street in this huge city, I could not recognize it. What I could see was a school bus right outside of what was my apartment. All of the windows were shattered, and there were children inside, inside of a school bus, knowing they had no home to go back to. And I drove that street every day, and I still do. And the funny thing is, I remember those children more than I remember a single meaningful act from our city regarding this disaster in a year. A year. because at least the children were there? How many of you stood in the Ville or parts of North St. Louis and actually saw what happened? How many of you actually talked to residents and not because you had to in a meeting, because you stand behind microphones and tell us that you care? I don't wanna hear that you care, you're not proving it. You say you care, that's the easy part. Showing up is what's hard. And I refuse to believe, I refuse to believe if you had actually been there, we would not be having this conversation a year later. There would be no briefs, no presentations, and you wouldn't be looking at kids and a shattered school bus as a budget line items. You'd see them as kids. So I'll leave with this. Mayor Spencer says that St. Louis could be heaven on earth. There is no segregation in heaven. $150 million to the people of St. Louis, the people who are the backbone, the historic predominantly black community of the Ville that you have neglected for years before a tornado. Thank you.

Dwight St. Louis. Dwight St. Louis. Stephanie, Stephanie Thomas. Stephanie Thomas. Jamila Michelle. Annie Rice. All right.

Hello, my name is Jamela Mitchell. I'm displaced from the 12th ward. All right, I'm going to be real cute with this. So everybody keeps talking about attracting tourists. And I'm actually just really thinking about why we're not investing in our residents. And to be honest, it's frustrating to sit here and listen to conversations about what will make St. Louis more attractive to visitors while so many residents are still waiting for the investment they've been promised for decades. The people who stayed through the investment, disinvestment, violent school closures, vacant buildings, and disaster should not be pushed to the back of the line so downtown can get another round of investment. St. Louis cannot heal from the problems it refuses to acknowledge. The legacy of racism and disinvestment is not history for many of our communities. It's a present day reality. If St. Louis wants to show the world what kind of city it is, then show us how it treats the people who have been here waiting the longest. But I'm no budget expert. But what I can tell you is what it feels like when you're trying to rebuild your life and the resources don't match the reality on the ground. After the tornado, during housing crisis, and through countless hardships, I learned that when people are hurting, the people show up. the neighbors show up the community organizers show up the residents show up the people became the recovery the people of north st louis have already shown you what we can do with very little we've organized we've advocated we've helped our neighbors we stayed the people have done their part now that i'm asking the city to do its part fund the neighborhoods, fund the people, fund the communities that have carried the city on their backs for generations. Thank you.

Annie Rice.

Y'all. Ooh.

We didn't have these. All right, we're just going to hold it for right now. Good afternoon. My name is Annie Rice. I'm resident of the fourth ward. So hopefully Brett and Ryan is somewhere. I am also the former final alder person of the prior eighth board. And I want to highlight that my predecessor in that position was there for 27 years. And one of the things he said in his retirement speech was that he was proud. The thing he was the most proudest of was the Team 4 plan. And that was in 2018 that he said that. So the legacy of this, sure, the Team 4 plan didn't pass as policy, but it actually did in reality. And you have a community of people who have been suffering under all of that for all of these years. And now the tornado has hit. And they have been surviving. They've been trying to thrive. And they deserve as much of this money as we can possibly give them. Every dollar invested in the people who want to return home is more money for our economy that downtown can benefit from. Let's flip their script. They say downtown can benefit the rest of the city, but I think it's people that are going to benefit downtown. Because if there's no one to work, if there's no one to shop, if there's no one to spend time here, then what is downtown for? Is it just for visitors? Is it just for people who work? I worked in downtown for 10 years. Downtown is safe. Downtown is safe. And we have invested more money in downtown already than we've ever thought to spend on the north side. We purposely disinvested the north side to spend money downtown. So they have a brand new taxing district that was just passed by this legislature. Removing the two to one match for their entertainment fund is insane because thank you, Mike, for highlighting how many world class events we are already without that seed money. They don't need that seed money. They're doing it already. They're showing us that they can be successful with, I guess, the scraps and pennies that they've pulled together to make this work. They have private cops. They have further taxing districts. They have TIFs and tax abatements. If these aren't working for downtown, then demand that these boards, the boards that control these funds, do more. So how much more does downtown need when people want to return to their homes, generational homes, where they want to pass their homes to their families. And these are people who are invested in the lifeblood of St. Louis. We need people. We are losing people left and right. Our population keeps dropping. And this state is trying to take advantage of that. The county is trying to take advantage of that. This police takeover is absolutely precursor to unification and the demolishing further of black political power in the region. And we just have to think outside the box. Give people the cash that they need to get home. Get it to them quickly. I wish the building trades unions were here in this room and just as invested in rebuilding North St. Louis as they are in data centers. And I support the work that they do, but y'all get in this room, train up these children, find a way to rebuild their homes, rebuild their legacy, and the people who want to live here. So also, guys, these admin funds, why does the North State Admin Fund have a set dollar amount and others a percentage of available funds? Why are we taking more money out of that? And the RAMS employed people, not just folks who are visiting, all of those people need jobs as well. And about this pier, Ask the port authority about this downtown pier, this riverfront pier. If they have a private operator, why not privately funded? Thanks.

Darren? Huto? Darren? Helen Bailey? H-U-T-O-E.

It's Darion Hutton.

Appreciate you.

While I did write something, I would like to pivot for a moment for 30 seconds. So I was sitting in the back at first, in the back left. So it's a couple guys that's not my skin tone that think everybody in this room are morons. They think you guys are stupid. They think this meeting is stupid. People that come in and show support with their banners and their shirt, they shouldn't be here. They don't represent St. Louis. That's what they feel like back in that corner. But all that hushing, all that kiki, all that laughing, all that disrespect, it stopped. It stopped when one singular man with my skin color came in. So does that tell you one thing, or does that not tell you one thing? OK. Can I, let me pivot back to my letter. Yesterday I got a call from Weasley, I mean Wesley Bell's office. I called his office approximately nine days ago and I'm just now getting a response. When I called and left that message nine days ago, his answering machine said he was in Washington. Cool. Nine days too long. But then again, that seems to be the rhetoric around here. How long? Too long? Just long and period? How long do you think these people have waited to see their community restored to a piece of its former beauty? How long do you think we've had to sit and watch as justice has passed us by without a care in the world? How long do you think it took for me or people, let alone all the people in the room, to garner the strength to come and just speak? How long do you think we should take the disrespect, the oppression, the overall abuse and excuses until we just throw it all in the trash? I'm not here to speak about the allocation of the funds, because if they were going to the right place, they would have already went there. They would have already been delegated there, and we wouldn't be here. We wouldn't have to be crammed in a small library with no AC and camera jammed in our face. I just rebuilt to show some community support. We will be on the ground getting houses built, streets and sidewalks repaved, schools re-sculpted and structured to survive and thrive. So no, not the mayor, not the Board of Aldermen, not Representative Weasley or anyone else can gaslight me into speaking about anything but action, not planning Not thinking, not neglect of time, but pure, unprecedented, unscripted, untelevised, well-documented, well-endowed, and moral for those who weren't there last week. Action. Silence feeds their agenda. Anger without action feeds their agenda. And most importantly, ignorance feeds their agenda. So let's not do those things. Thank you.

Helen Bailey.

Helen Bailey, Third Precinct, 11th Ward. For 250 years, certain citizens of this city have been trying to avoid the pain and truth that the degradation and brutality that operate this city against those who currently reside in the north and west has caused true prosperity to turn her back on St. Louis. Many people testified in favor of the downtown neighborhood plan implementation saying that they're hoping to attract investors and businesses to the city because nationwide it has a poor reputation. This city's personality is what makes it unattractive, and a downtown BBL is not going to save it. The redlining, racism, and insidious divestment is the abhorrence that keeps prosperity from flooding our city. The treachery and betrayal from our elected officials is what keeps this city from being great. If the fix for this stillbirth economy was investment in any location besides North St. Louis, then the last 70 years of investment would have paid off. Money has flowed to this city from the federal government from before the time of Ben Shamal. Much of it actually allocated for North St. Louis, but it went to the Central West End, it went to the South Side, it went downtown, and a lot of it went back to the federal government for non-youth. The misery we live in in this city has been manufactured through propaganda and greed. This city is cannibalizing itself and wondering why every generation is less successful than the one before. You cannot shoot children in the back and believe God will bless you. You cannot starve children and believe you can positively multiply the work of your hands. You cannot leave people destitute in the street and hope to build storehouses for yourselves. Even the man at the gate called Beautiful got dropped off every morning by his relatives, implying that he had a home. Even the paraplegic man had a bed and a community to bring him to a place of healing. For what reason should this city eat itself alive like an Ouroboros when there's plenty of food and money for everyone? What reason must fat cats downtown engorge themselves on the literal lifeblood of those they've already redlined and maligned? For what reason must this city continue to spend money recycling the same projects decade after decade? But then again, the cost for transformation is high, much higher than the sum of money we're asking for here today. Free up the $110 million you've already allocated from the Rams money for North St. Louis, plus the $55 million for BB22. Free up the ARPA money and whatever other money that the sister testified at Julia Davis. Free the land held captive by the LRA and nefarious unchecked property owners and business owners. Free those enslaved at the CJC. Fund a resident-led development of the Northside. Invest in our children. and the positive, successful future of our city.

Elisa Forgerman.

Hey, how you doing? My name's Elisa Forgerman. I'm a resident of the Sixth Ward. Everybody said everything, and said it well, and we said it, we've been here, and we've been here, and we've been here. And I'm here again, we're here again, to work the democratic process, to give testimony. And I gotta tell you, I appreciate all the opportunities to give testimony, and I notice the more we talk, the more frustration and the more anger and the more everything gets up and gets raised, and it points out that the democracy is not a democracy. Because when we're raising our voices, we should be heard, we should be respected, we should be listened to, and it's not happening, all right? I love this city. I wasn't born here. I love this city, and I love cities. And I'm in opposition to board 22, board bill 22. Send 150 million minimum to the north side. It needs more. We need to prioritize tornado relief. I don't know what to say. There's not enough money. Throw it at it anyway. We got the 25 million that's supposed to go in the reserves. I had in my notes to put that towards tornado. Do that. But what about put it towards the youth service? Put it to those folks that were here. Every time I come to a meeting, I get so many ideas and so many creative thoughts. I'm not getting it from up here. I'm getting it from y'all, and I appreciate you. We gotta make North City whole. I believe in cities. I'm a city person. I have a warm feeling about downtowns. I believe they should be good places. I believe they do uplift. But all those shirts we saw on the Zoom, all those suits, they just sucked the life out of me. And they realized those stakeholders, they don't care about the whole city. They care about their bottom line. They care about their needs. so all right let's pull the 55 million let's work on our infrastructure it would build trust it would build maybe it build a little trust and we need that right now we're at a moment we have to honor the moment when the tornado came through it exposed everything we racism disenfranchisement all of it now's the time downtown money maybe work on infrastructure water it's a human right let's have clean water let's start there i don't know what else um i believe in the process and i want to thank you for your work your public servants and i'm not sitting up there and you're taking it on the chops but at the same time you're not standing for us get brave stand up to all the bs going on and i know some of you we'll have your backs we've had your backs we'll do it again i mean i live in a dream world i'm a creative person i want a time where we stand together but we can't do that right now but in the future maybe anyway i'm gonna give my time to whoever wants it thank you so much

Thomas Carew. Gloria Nolan.

Good afternoon, everyone. I rise to go on record. My name is Gloria Nolan and I am from the 11th ward. Thanks for having this conversation. Today is very important. I rise to go on record in support of the 150 million going to North city and and i also encourage the city to use an approach that is strategic and goes into the future of truly rebuilding north city block by block i believe that we should take investment in north city to the next level by creating and dedicating consistent funds to restoring homes. I urge you to consider investing accrued interest from generated monies from the city's reserves and or any remaining RAMS settlement funds. Approximately $6 million per year could be generated to repairing 24 to 30 homes per year at 200 to $250,000 each. Also, dedicated staff members should be assigned to ensure that these houses are stored in concentrated areas. So not like one house in each community, 10 houses on a block. My family and I lost our home in the tornado. We are still displaced today. We are fortunate enough to work with our insurance company and we are building a brand new home across the street from our damaged home. In addition, we are rehabbing that tornado damaged home. And I can say from experience that $50,000 is not enough to restore a home to completion. I was born and raised in North City. My family and I are committed to staying in North City, and we want to see it thriving. Now is the time to make this happen. One of my favorite educators, Williams Middle School, St. Louis Public Schools, she would always say to me, if you always do what you've always done, you will always get what you've always gotten. in this case we've always done nothing for north city so let's do something different let's restore north city let's be intentional about restoring north city let's allocate funds we need to earmark funds and concentrate on rebuilding north city block by block thank you bertie jackson babel

Hello, my name is Bertie Jackson Babel, and I'm a resident of the Third Ward. I'm here today to ask this committee to reallocate the proposed distribution of the Ram settlement fund to give $150 million of those funds to the north side and Tornado Recovery. Per the city's own data, at least $150 million is needed to fund the 3,000 impacted residents that applied for assistance at the $50,000 cap per household. The $70 million allotted for rebuilding is not nearly enough. This allotment can come from the $55 million in the downtown bucket, which should just all go there anyway. Administrations before have tried to focus on downtown for dealing with the dwindling population and bringing in businesses to renew the city to no avail. If the concern is population retention, how about helping the people that live here and need the help instead of catering to the idea of this mythical unicorn that people are chomping at the bit to get to St. Louis to move downtown, if only downtown was better. It's magical thinking. You want people to come here, show them you take care of all the people here. If you want more tax revenues from businesses, help rebuild the hundreds of businesses on the north side that were negatively affected by the tornado. Furthermore, downtown already has resources from the state and private organizations and has been invested in. Downtown doesn't need the Rams money. They have plenty of money from other places, especially if the organizations or the businesses that are down there pay their taxes. the north city doesn't have that also if we show through this funding that the north city is worth investing in it can attract more investing into the community not just the clayco at all pariahs that want to usurp the land for greater exploit exploitation and gentrification Also reallocate the 25 million in reserves. If these are for emergencies and a tornado is not an emergency, I don't know what qualifies for an emergency. And the only justification can be that you don't value the people that live there or value the lives of North City or the people and believe in the continued institutional racism, neglect, legislative oppression, and that it's okay. And I haven't seen any of you run on that on any of your platforms. So where's the cognitive dissonance there? The Northside has been failed on the federal, state, and city level, and this is an opportunity for the city to not fail the people again. The people have spoken through your own survey that tornado recovery is the number one priority. Why are you going against the will of the people that you represent? Finally, if your values and your voting do not align, I'm confused. I'll speak to my alderman, Shane, on your campaign site. You say you have a focus on helping tornado impacted families and protecting families. how can that be if it doesn't translate to moving money from not dire needs to dire needs it's just empty words where again is the cognitive dissonance finally their tornado has caused serious health issues death and generational trauma we need to triage north city is bleeding out and you have a tourniquet in the ram's money and you're offering a band-aid for a gunshot wound and it's insufficient

James Kingston.

Pretty serious, huh? So there's something called Greater St. Louis Bank, and then it had a thing called 21st Century St. Louis Bank. How many of you took money from that? Are you gonna raise any hands? You took money from Andrew Taylor, you took money from Andrew Taylor, you, you, right? So how is that gonna, if you're gonna make a decision on $150 million that benefits the hand that feeds you, how are you going to clarify to the public that you didn't make that in a conflict of interest that could also be actionable? The thing is that, as you know, I have to investigate legal issues in St. Louis. And I've sent you numerous notices of laws being violated by the city of St. Louis, by Andrew Taylor, through all of this organized crime that has been going on, that he leads. The soccer stadium is not lawfully standing. If you want to get more than $150 million for people in North St. Louis, enforce the law. It's in violation of City Code Chapter 3.91. It'll be treble damages. Even just on your Jefferson Connector, where you gave a $150 million bond in a loan that was not lawful, that's treble damages. That's $450 million. So there's lots of money. It takes billions and billions of dollars to fix North St. Louis. I've been here for 10 years. I was born here. I was in Los Angeles working for Capitol Records in Hollywood, got into a big fight, came back. And I've been here for 10 years trying to talk to you about how to fix all of this. And not one of you would even speak to me. I further went to Kara Spencer's soiree at the Union Station Hotel to talk to her about us having to speak about this problem and all the laws being violated and all the people have the ability to sue, including individuals who've been exploited by STL-MADE, the Gateway Arch Park Foundation. Ryan McClure is sitting right here. And other organizations like the Missouri History Museum that has been whitewashing history and publishing lies inside of its exhibitions for years. And I know that because I'm really good friends with Gwen Moore and, you know, Percy Green. They're friends of mine. And Gwen tells me a lot of stuff. And so do many other people inside there. But what's being covered up? But instead of Mayor Spencer promising me that we would speak, when I then sent notice to each of you that the laws are being violated, what did you do? Oh, they did more than nothing. They called the police and filed a false police report against me. for telling them the laws that were being violated. Megan Green, Chief Marketing Officer of CitySC, right there. In any event, there's a lot more that, Racheen, you're laughing. You were sitting next to me or behind me the other night when we were out to dinner, weren't we?

Not you.

So anyway, no, they don't want me to stop. They want to know the truth. Honestly, there is not enough time for me to go through this. But I can tell you, see this man? He went running away from me when I introduced myself to him. His name is Ryan McClure. When Ryan talks, he's got Andrew Taylor's hands all the way up his puppet ass. because that's all that he does is represent that now who's andrew taylor and you wait wait shimmy hold on a second let me just make it just make one point i'm gonna be done in two seconds if you don't i'm gonna have to call it out please okay one quick point and then we'll move on because it's going to be a lot i just want you to realize that when when we talk about andrew taylor and we talk about city sc and this tire orchestration that is going on here we're talking about the royal klu klux klan okay and andrew taylor is the head of it okay this will all be litigated don't worry we're not done we're gonna help everybody

Dana K. Goodert. Dana K. Goodert. Xavier Phillips.

Hello, board. Y'all give me a second. I'll make this brief. Most of you know who I am. If you don't, you should ask somebody. But I'm running for US Congress in this district. I funded my campaign myself. I'm a brick mason. I've been laying bricks since the tornado happened, which I've completely embarrassed. So you, I need to talk to you later, for sure. Absolutely. And in the same vein, let me explain how this really should go. You should raise the funds to $150 million. Commit political suicide if you have to. The people behind you will support you. Do it. I actually understand. I really do understand the pressure you guys are under. I do. I know you don't think I do. And you're smiling. I know what that smile means. But it's fine because you don't really know the type of people I know. I'm a brick mason. I know all the developers. Okay, while we're worried about the youth, I launched a youth program. I've been giving away summer programs. Y'all ain't heard about it on the news because I don't want you to hear about news. That's why I'm doing this to prove a point. If this does not happen, we will contest all of your elections, every single one of them. Friend or foe? I'm not friends with any of you, personally. So there's that. Cara? Cara shouldn't have been there in the first place. I don't know if y'all know who she paid to get the black vote, but she paid for the black vote. And Bob cut that check. So what's going to happen next is we're going to vote against all of you. completely from the bottom up. Wesley doesn't know. He doesn't understand. He thinks a million dollars is going to convince people that he's done something. And he thinks a million dollars is going to send enough text messages to people in North County to get them to vote for him. But it's not going like that this time. So while I still have some time, I want to say, make the right choice. Always stand with the people, because they literally vote you into power. I understand the politics, but that time is coming to an end. And if you want to survive and continue to serve the public, you must stand with the people here, today, now. Thank you.

Karen Yang.

My name was called before. It just took me a second. I'm Dana Kay Goddard.

I've been a people's person my entire life.

And I'm going to use words with intention here. I didn't say people. I said peoples. And you don't have to be a wordsmith or wordsmithess to know that when you spell it with an S and without an apostrophe, it means everybody. I'm a city person through and through. I'm a downtown gal through and through. I'm raising my children a few blocks from here. And it's been disheartening to see. It's been disheartening to see. I mean, I know a lot of people over here I know a lot of people here, and I feel hearts, and I want to believe that the hearts are still working and still beating and still caring for everyone. But the fact that we are even in this position with our community members and our fellow humans and citizens going without... as they have been for many decades. But then again, insult to injury. Ryan, I know your heart. And I know that you believe in what you're doing every day. And there's other people that I know that too. But that doesn't mean that they haven't gotten caught up with old money. There are some other names I could say over here. They're not looking at me right now. Can I have some eyes? Thank you. They know who they are. Just like we each know who we are. Some of us have spines that we remember. Some of us have hearts that we remember. Some of us, even as there's been no shortage of attacks from every angle, certainly since 2020, whatever the F that was. But we remember what brings us together, regardless of our opinions on robots or AI or technology. The world has never not had enough for everyone on this planet, period. But we have a hoarding problem, and that wealth gap exists on every continent, in every country, in every city, including the very rich in history, St. Louis, aka Mound City. This is a time in history where we are going to decide individually, our individual heart, on committees, on boards and wards. I'm done with wards. Maybe it's because it's spelled W-A-R and R for peace. But if we're going to be a community, we're going to be a community. And there are human beings. There are human beings. that ought not be begging for their basic human rights, all while their voices and activists and advocates, family, blood or otherwise. I'll just say this and then I'm out. We do not need major media outlets like we do not need big government to take care of peoples. And the real ones are able to recognize who the real ones are regardless of who they give their praise to and who they give their glory to. And this is a time after years of being pretty quiet, you know, in the nest with some little ones. This is the time that real ones are rising and we're feeling who's who and we're going to use our voices and we're going to continue to because we're about to recirculate some resources. Whether it's 150 from the Ram Settlement Fund or anywhere else, the attitude needs to be whatever it takes. not what do I want for my project or my organization or the person who paid me. Thank you. Karen Yang.

My name is Karen Jalian Yang. I'm a resident of Ward 7. To be a St. Louisan, you need to have a heart that is shattered or frozen, it feels like. I met a man yesterday. I'm going to call him Joe. And he arrived at my workplace stopping what? He wanted an XL t-shirt. We are not a place that gives out clothes, but I found one. And my friend found pants in the back of his car. I'm telling you this because he told me that he also eventually in our conversation said that he has schizophrenia. He's been mentally ill ever since he could remember. He is not from St. Louis. But he remembers a home here. He said he's been living on the streets, but it doesn't mean he doesn't have a home. And he said when he arrived and went to North City, he couldn't believe his eyes. His jaw dropped open because the place that he felt that he could find home, where he could be safe, where he could find people who would take care of him in his time of need, they were nowhere. I called 211 to try to get shelter for him. He said he wanted a place to lay his head. He did not feel safe being outside. He's not used to the city. It is pouring rain. This whole week will be pouring rain. It is so muggy. And I got him put on hold for several hours and then did the thing where I left my number, said they could call me back. They have still not called me. I called every shelter in the city and behavioral health service, and all of them, with the exception of one, had voicemails that were full. There are no walk-up shelters in St. Louis that are 24-7, and it's been that way the whole time I've ever lived here. The people who are talking about Code Blue, the people who volunteer for winter outreach and summer outreach, I'm part of them. And I'm tired of telling people, I'm so sorry. I cannot do anything for you. Here's three cups of coffee because you haven't had coffee in a very long time. There is a casket covered in shattered mirrors at the Smithsonian. It is from the Ferguson uprising. And I'm thinking about the fact that this moment is so uncomfortable because it is holding up a mirror to all of us about who we really are, What is our soul? What is our heart? What are our values? And I don't want a casket to be the symbol of St. Louis. We're talking about prosperity. We're talking about how the city can grow. I think we mistake being rich for being abundant. We are looking at people who look at a mirror as a tool for greed and vanity. They want to see their appearance shine. But what if it was a two-way mirror? I can see you. You can see me. We can see each other back and understand each other. What if that mirror came? That's the choice we have to make today.

Torrin Taylor.

Tyron Taylor, Seventh Ward. And I just want to say, like I've said before, North City remembers. And you've heard it today. They have told you that they remember and that they will remember. They will always remember. They will not forget. And I just want to ask you, are y'all sleeping well right now? Are you getting enough rest? Rasheen, what's so important on that phone, brother? What is so important on that phone? I find this funny. So since they don't want to listen, I'm going to talk to the people. I hear you. And with all the things I have going on in my personal life, I promise you that I will not let you go unheard. I will not let them forget what they have done to you. I will not let these people in this corner that people were talking about who I don't know who are irrelevant and who need to go lay down and take a nap, I will not allow them to destroy you. I will stand with you. I will stand for you. And we need to be ready to put our foot on their necks. They need to feel that pressure that Lyda felt before she left. They need to feel that pressure that they put on Tashara before she left. They need to feel that pressure that they put on every single one of us when they sit on their phones or they sit on their laptops or they walk out there to do whatever thumb twiddling things that they do out in that hallway that are more important than listening to the people who they say they want to serve. Who do you serve? I like that name that was on the list earlier. They serve Dwight St. Louis. That's who they serve. We know it's true. And so I'm going to close with this.

If we don't get it.

If we don't get it. If we don't get it.

Next we have Windsor McKnight.

Good afternoon. My name is Winsor McKnight. I'm a former contractor to work on the North Sarah project in the city of St. Louis where they went block by block and fixed things. I have ideas that work basically the same as they did, basically how to get the money out the door. It's simple. You draw a triangle at the top, you put money. On one side of the triangle, you put projects. On the other side of the triangle, you put completed projects. That's money out the door. Now, draw another triangle upside down. Applications have to be made. Permits have to be issued on the other side. And inspection has to be done. If you look at all that, it creates equity in the city because you have completed projects. Now, how you get it accomplished? You use things that doesn't exist right now. You use things called guilds. And these guilds will be represented by people that live in the city of St. Louis for manpower. You know, just be a voter, have an ID, whatever. You show up, do work, manual labor, you get paid through the guilds, through the ramps, sell them in money. Now, these projects need to be allocated to North St. Louis first. You take care of that, which is the biggest eyesore, then potholes, you get it accomplished. Now, the application has to have some real... you know, provabilities. Like real owners have to apply for applications with an address. There are certain waivers need to be given. You know, like the waivers I suggest is like you let surveillance cameras be put on the houses so that vandalism doesn't occur as you rebuild them. And you also have what I say is a no sale for five years after these houses are built. Don't flip them. Make the owner stay in them for five years to build equities. live there. Now on the other side, the ward council members know the people in their communities so they can help them with the application they need to fill out. Records have to be proven that you are the owner and not the tenant trying to get your house fixed up. You have to be the owner because your name is not on the title. records have to be proven through court and that means like you can only have one owner fix one home i'm not talking about the california people that come in and buy 10 12 houses trying to get them all fixed at the same time but one one owner per application now yes they do have 10 homes that are destroyed but eventually they have to cycle through as everybody else gets cycled through they don't have to be In a group of 25, they don't have to be the first 25 yet. Get take care of 25 and then they can come in the next group of 25 and taking care of. Now these applications. Are permitted by let's say we had employment. You have a guild. The guild is consistent with construction workers that know how to do the work. They don't have to be really. in the trade but they know how to be carpenters how to do landscaping they know how to do other things that debris removal and anything like that but you also have another deal for the trades now these trades are made up from disenfranchised like myself contractors that had permits and i mean had license but through bureaucracy and unfairness disenfranchising the word i want to use we lost our license because we couldn't keep up with the ever-changing requirements that was dictated to us from the county through the city to the government but we did quality work now also like i'm saying inspections have to be done that's the city of st louis so you're not going to get no shoddy work when it's completed now you also have to have inspectors from the contracting guild to make sure that the customer mcknight that is your time that the contractors that are doing the work are not doing shoddy work. Because I used to be inspectors, and I saw good quality work, and I saw poor quality work. But they all passed inspections. So we want to have good quality work through inspectors and inspections done by the city of St. Louis. And also, like I said, Some of the money you need to buy equipment for these gills so that they can shadow the street repair people and know how to do street repairs that help with the broken parts of the city that can shadow landscaping where you know all the property is going to have to have landscape and other things. But all I want to say is let the money go to the city north side first before it goes anywhere else. Thank you.

sir can you um give us those comments in written form too so that we can if you don't have them you don't have to be today but there was a lot of good context and i want to make sure that our entire board not just us here are able to receive that thank you next we have caitlyn kilgore

You're the shirt that they call stupid. I just want you to know that. Oh, my shirt? Yes, ma'am. Oh, I made it myself. It's not stupid.

It's so rude. I love my shirt. I made it myself. I'm an artist. My name is Kate Kilgo. I live in the 7th Ward. I'm a proud resident of St. Louis. I love it here. I have no intention of leaving. I don't know if the same can be said for the paid lobbyists. But I... You said to hold you accountable, and so I'm here to hold all of y'all accountable. I was watching Ms. Clark Hubbard's live Instagram this morning, and she mentioned that there's a lot of things that go on behind the scenes before these amendments are presented. Why? Because there's a lot in front of the scenes right here in front of all these cameras and a lot of things that are being said that seem to not be present in whatever these meetings are behind the scenes to get all of y'all on the same page as this entire fucking room. Why? Why are we still here hours and hours and hours later saying the same thing, 150 million minimum to the Northside tornado recovery? We've been saying it over and over and over again. We know y'all hear us because you said that... I know you were hearing comments. You repeated some of them in your live this morning. I know y'all hear us, so why aren't you doing anything about it? It just... It makes no sense. Where did it go from y'all being humans, being our neighbors, being the people that we hug and say I love you and say we got this together and we're our neighbors, where did it go from that to making decisions and not putting things on the record that you know are right? You said an amendment that wouldn't get passed is performative. But what happened to speaking truth to power? I don't understand any of y'all. I really don't. I thought I knew you. I thought you were on our side. You say things on the record, and then your actions don't back it up. And it doesn't make sense. It doesn't compute. So I'm just really shamed, honestly. I think St. Louis is one of the greatest cities in the world because of its people. um because of the residents that for generations have built this city um and it's really sad that our elected officials are kind of trash in the way they all operate it's really disappointing because like i thought y'all were one of us and it's like all of a sudden you get on the other side of this microphone and something changes and i don't i don't get it i'd love to have a conversation with any of you afterwards you know in person to to figure out why and what needs how We can get y'all back on the same page as us because it just doesn't make any sense. We want $150 million minimum for Northside. If that amendment doesn't come up today, y'all can quit your jobs, okay? Because we've been begging for it, and we're done. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, we have Jean Galinsky of the Second Ward.

Hi, I'm Jen Galinsky, part of the second ward. I'm really glad to be here. This is my first time ever doing something like this before, and this fucking matters. So I am not originally from St. Louis. I am a transplant. I moved here at 14 years old from New Jersey. And within the first couple of weeks, my family and I experienced a whole lot of culture shock. For one, St. Louis pizza. I don't know what that is. And for two, St. Louis is racist. It is racist. And this is nationwide, but it does not look like this everywhere. 29 years later i can appreciate st louis pizza and this racism is still unpalatable we are in a system that requires day by day by day that we cut ourselves off from our humanity and i am cutting myself off from my humanity and your humanity every day to exist And as I've started to try and find ways to claw that humanity back by listening to black and brown organizers who have taught me that my humanity is my greatest strength and that being able to recognize all of your humanity is what is going to save all of us. Like I am here to reclaim my humanity with both fucking hands. These people have nothing. St. Louis has taken from them for St. Louis' entire history. I remember being 10 years old and learning that Missouri was a purple state in the Civil War. What is a purple state? These people have nothing. We have a pot of money. The people have said they want this pot of money to go to those who have nothing. For some reason, these hearings keep going on and on. I keep watching them live streamed and I knew this was the last one and I was like, I'm gonna go up. I'm gonna reclaim my humanity. People keep saying this is what they want you to do with the money. I'm here reclaiming my humanity and imploring you to please do the same. Give North City the $150 million. It's not going to fix it, but it is giving us an opportunity, St. Louis, for the first time to do something that is loud and clear to save black people because they deserve that. That's all. Thank you for listening.

Thank you, next we have Blake Strode, or Blake Strahd of the 10th Ward.

Hi, good afternoon. They're doing that because I don't do this very often anymore. My name is Blake Strode. Let me take the mic. My name is Blake Strode. I'm a resident of Ward 10 and executive director of Arch City Defenders and also co-anchor a space with Action St. Louis in the 13th Ward called the Northside Movement Center. And you've heard a lot today. And I don't want to repeat what you've heard. But part of what frames all of our work at ArchCity is we understand ourselves to be a social justice organization, a racial justice and economic justice organization. So the question for me that is always is whether something is just. And when I look at this bill, the question is whether this is a just allocation of these resources. And that's a different.

Could you hold the mic to you so the public can be able to hear you?

Yeah, no problem.

Thank you.

The question to me is whether it's a just allocation of resources. And that's a different question than whether it's valid, whether these are real needs. I trust they're all real needs. I know they're all real needs. I mean, even downtown, the one that I have the biggest issue with, it's not that people don't care at all about downtown. We're downtown right now. People have to come downtown. We come to games. We come to concerts too. But we're in a moment a year out from the worst natural disaster we have seen, the people who are living today have seen in our lifetimes in this city. It struck a part of this city that was already devastated. People were already struggling to survive. That's the context for this bill. And is this a just allocation when we look at it, less than half of that money being allocated to North St. Louis? There's nothing just about that. I don't know what this is, but that's not the word we would use to describe it. So I think we have to ask a different set of questions than whether you can make an economic case for it, whether there are real people that will benefit from it. There are people that are fighting to survive. The reason you hear people so angry, so upset, so righteous is because there are people fighting to survive. And some folks are seeing that every single day. Some people are not. So I just wanna pose a few questions that really came to me while I was just sitting, listening to testimony today. And one of them is this question about the downtown match. And a couple of people have posed this already, but we've been hearing about it for years that the corporate community in St. Louis will match funds that are spent downtown. What does that tell you? It tells you they don't need that money. You all aren't in control of corporate money, but you are in control of these public dollars. And if they have it to spend, then let them spend it. I have no problem with GSL or anybody else putting money downtown if that's what they want. If that's where they see benefit, let them do it. But it means they don't need this money. What does it mean that we heard from a few, not that many, to be honest, but a few people today who are proponents of money going downtown? What does it mean that we heard from those people? I'm sorry, I lost my train of thought. Give me one moment. What does it mean that those who are in favor of downtown are all in support of this plan, while those who are supporting North City are opposed? What does that say about this plan? That's the question. Because to me it says this is a plan that favors people downtown. We can spin it any way we want, and I'm sure we'll hear lots of justifications for it. But to me, if all the people on one side are saying, yeah, go ahead and pass this bill, and all the people who actually have been fighting for social justice, fighting for black folks in St. Louis, fighting for North City are saying, this ain't it, then that tells you all you need to know about this bill. And the last thing I'll ask is, what does it mean that the few people we heard from in favor of downtown were mostly remote? They're literally not here. They're not here. And you've heard people talk over and over. A lot of these folks, some of them live here. I don't know that none of them, some of them, but a lot of them don't. A lot of them don't really spend that much time in this city. A lot of them see this as a sort of live, play, work. They don't see it as their community. They don't see it as their people in the same way as the folks who show up to these hearings time and time and time again. I was at the hearing last week in North City. People show up time and time and time again because it's life or death for them, because it matters for them in a different kind of way. And what I think is true for the folks who are in favor of this $55 million going downtown, I think they don't believe they need to show up. They don't believe they have to be here because they believe that the outcome is predetermined. So the question really is whether it's predetermined. You actually get that.

Thank you, Mr. Stroll. That is your time.

Next, we have Tiff Poe, or I think Kareem Jackson of the 21st.

What's up, y'all? Man, it's really kind of humiliating to be up here because I know the white boys don't really give a damn. But we got to do what we got to do.

State your name and your award for me.

21st Ward, everybody in here know me. When you're dealing with St. Louis, you got to use the archives of history talking about politics. And that's important because we didn't start out originally as a slave settlement, contrary to popular opinion. And In the midst of what we're dealing with now, we have just a simple continuation of the same shit that's always been going on, a covert white supremacist agenda that's using a few good people, quote unquote, to get it done. To the brother, the young brother that came up here I want to say keep organizing, keep fighting, keep supporting these sisters, keep supporting the women. And also I want to say this is a generational fight. I've been coming down here since before I was your age. If they got an issue with it, tell them they can meet my grown ass outside and we can mix it up. Many years ago, a mulatto man named Francis McIntosh was hung on a tree in downtown St. Louis. He was from Philadelphia, I mean Pittsburgh. He was took to jail because the police was chasing a black man on a Mississippi riverbed, and he didn't intervene to help them catch that black man. So they took him to the old courthouse, and they were about to just skip the whole due process and throw him under the jail. He asked, how much time would I be serving? And one of the police officers said, shit, I don't know. You're going to be in jail for a long time. He got freaked out, took the club, and they say he either killed the police officer or stabbed him. A mob of 300 white men went to the damn old courthouse, dragged that brother out the old courthouse, took him exactly to where Kenan Plaza is, hung him to a tree, burned him alive. And while he was burning alive in the center of downtown St. Louis, he said, I curse this city to hell. Y'all are the aftermath of that curse. I saw the lack of enthusiasm from you, my brother, when them young brothers was clapping about, you know, going into the trades. And I wasn't going to say nothing about it because I said, man, it's tripping. Like, maybe it's just me. Then other people start saying it because they saw it too. And I think it's a shame because you're the first openly gay altar we got. And you know people in the community rally behind your ass, man. You know that. And to sit up here and betray us and to play games and just play these computer games with this motherfucker that look like he from goddamn Avatar. This shit is ridiculous, man. And y'all are waking up the wrong people, bro. Y'all waking up the wrong people, bro. I don't even want to damn be down here. I think that, I'm going to get off the mic because all this shit is non-consequential anyway. But I often wonder why the white populace in Missouri doesn't celebrate their real history. Because after Francis McIntosh was hung on that tree, there was a white man by the name of Elijah Lovejoy who wrote a scathing article condemning slavery, condemning white supremacy. But another mob of 300 went to his house, dragged out his printing press, burnt down his house. He had to move to Alton. He moved to Alton. Another mob came out there. He said, this time, y'all going to have to kill me. They shot him in the head in his front lawn. Today, these people ain't considered the heroes. We see y'all working with goddamn Bob Clark and all these goddamn poo-putt niggas that Percy Green and them was still fighting. Percy Green, 80 years old. Why the fuck I'm fighting the same people he was fighting?

Mr. Jackson, it is your time.

I'm reclaiming my time. Maxine Clark. Read about her. Uh... In closing, I wanna say, man, we gotta invest in education. A lot of us are outside dealing with these shooters for real while y'all kinda walking around it. When people like Jay-Z and Beyonce come here, they gotta drive around or through the north side. There ain't nothing we can do about that. We can't go outside and just hang up banners and beautify the shit by ourselves. And it's an embarrassing thing to live in a city that just thinks that black dilapidation is a natural way of life. I'm here because I know y'all don't know a lot about the history. I know you don't even know that Charles Sumner was an abolitionist who preached about civil rights 100 years before Martin Luther King. And we started the oldest black high school west of the Mississippi in honor of that man. When he died, his last parting words were, make sure you pass my civil rights bill. Put the 50 million in the summer.

And especially to the queer people. Recently, I had an experience with the St. Louis Police Department, and many people heard of the murder of my close friend and spiritual nephew, Ross Harris Jr., who was murdered by his partner and thrown into the Mississippi River. What many don't know is that I was the one to make those first calls to the police department. That reason being, many were unaware of where to transfer my call. Clear negligence in our police department. Then myself and others of Ross's loved ones found evidence that a gun was purchased the same day he was murdered, and we informed police immediately. They still moved at not an urgent pace. I say all that to say, even after they discovered the multiple 911 calls from Ross about his ex-partner, they did not move with any urgency with his case. I named the police department as the direct reason I do not have my loved one's body right now. The first search on the house took all of four minutes, and they said they found nothing. But then on their second search, over a week later, found blood both in the house and the car. There is a good chance that that Monday, when I first called the police, that Ross's body was in that house, and we don't have it due to the police department's negligence. especially when they already did not take young black queer people seriously enough when these situations happen. We have no body today, and I named the police department again in failing to getting my loved one back. One thing to remember about Ross's case is that Ross's killer on text message admitted to being diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and he was currently unmedicated. These types of cases is exact reason institutions like the Office of Violence Prevention is essential to this city. The detective handling the case told myself and Ross's aunt that it was our actions that made his case solvable. So in short, the police department credited myself and another community member with solving with our own murder. And I have to remind them it's because that we can take care of us. As we speak, after a conversation with my colleague Jordan Braxton at the Vivant Health, I've learned in my role as regional organizer that over half the black population in St. Louis City is HIV positive. And half of those individuals are not virally suppressed. With Donald Trump's strip funding from the CDC, almost every public health org in the city of St. Louis who were serving the black, trans, and queer community lost funding overnight. I was literally on the phone with direct service providers crying because I don't know, one, they no longer had a job, and two, they weren't getting any city funding. So people overnight lost their case managers. They lost access to testing. They lost access to HIV medication. They also lost access to their own, to receiving affordable medications, many of those who are positive. If the president makes this move again, I would not be able to organize community. Because at that point, I'll only be organizing burials. My community is in severe crisis. And I learned this, none of these orgs, again, are receiving city funding. We are your responsibility. As those that ran for office and claimed to care about this city, this leadership will be the face of the next wave of HIV-related deaths if we don't act now. Spending this money again on that BBL for downtown is a waste of money when half of the people will be dead. And yes, most of the community members that I'm advocating for who lost those services were also North City residents and no longer had housing. The blood of every black trans and queer person is on this government's head. You have sacrificed our bodies so white corporations can move into our village with many of those men attempting to use our bodies for their pleasure and leave with no regard to our quality of life. With that being said, I know you all are going to make the decision you're going to make. And the queer people here, you will probably get a call or email from me, because I think you all know that I have the reach to every queer person in the city to make sure you lose your seat. I vow today that I will personally make sure that the narratives and the history And that the narrative in history identifying the direct cause of our suffering will be this city's leadership. Today, in the midst of all this, I don't ask for prayers or condolences or wishes. We just need y'all to give us the check. Fund North State City Now.

Thank you. Next, we have Kayla Reed.

Yeah, I do want to say that that comes across really rude. It really does.

Like, from the audience, that feels like you can't give us that time.

That's rude. My name is Kayla Reed. I'm a resident of the 7th Ward. Spent a lot of my time in 13 Ward at the Northside Movement Center. I'm also the executive director of Action St. Louis and Action St. Louis Power Project. I'm going to testify from the Action St. Louis Power Project. I also want a name. I was supposed to be on vacation this week. It's my first one since the tornado. Here I am. I also had an appointment this morning to get an iron infusion because my iron is low, but I had to schedule that because I needed to be here. And those are the choices that we as organizers have been making for over 365 days. I have sacrificed my well-being, my organization's finances, our time, our reputation. We're being called dangerous now. We're on security lists. We're being called stupid, that we don't understand things. This board has disappointed me to the point that I could cry. And the reason that I have shown up so much for North City is because I grew up at 830 East DeSoto. That entire block that I grew up on filled with grandmas and grandkids and people is completely gone. No one lives on the 100 block that I grew up on as a kid. There wasn't a tornado that took that neighborhood away. It was disinvestment in public policy. And we're setting up to do it again. And I'm looking at the faces of the people who call themselves progressives, who say they are movement candidates, betray, prepare to vote out a bill that you know is insufficient. There is no champion of North City in this room, on this board. And I'm confused about what we all saw together. You all came to the people's response. You saw people suffering. You had this hearing across from homes that still have not been repaired. I'm disappointed. And I'm actually hurt. And what you feel from this room is trying to release energy that doesn't have to just be rage because it's not good on our bodies. The trauma of politicians not responding to the needs of people is not good on our bodies. And I'm having dreams about the people who call my organization a non-service organization, crying for support. And y'all are about to screw them over for what? Downtown? They don't need it. They don't need it. But let's talk about the amendments. Because I want to talk about transparency. Because I was supposed to be on vacation starting last Thursday. Instead, I spent most of my time talking to members of this committee about these amendments. You are about to propose amendments that will send only $10 million more to North City in principle. To 11 amendments, only one sends principal dollars to North City. Rasheen, you're going to introduce that one. Coverage for the fact that you could do more, but that's what you're going to introduce. Don't put that on your lit next year when you ask for re-election because it's not enough. There are more amendments addressing downtown than north. We believe in water. We agree with water. We need water. In negotiation for that, why can't we send more principal from downtown to North City? We spent the weekend talking about interest. Let's front load North City so we can send 150 there and let the interest from North City, because it will take the city forever to spend it, go back to downtown. Downtown does not have shovel-ready projects. You can talk about the riverfront all day. It requires state and federal matching that have not yet been allocated. So why not send the money north where it's absolutely needed now and let the interest go back downtown? We have been reasonable because we wanted it all. And North City deserves it all. And for the last 15 years, this city has talked about equity. This city has picked up conversations about reparations, this conversation about racial justice, this conversation about equality. And this is the most that we can do for North City. People who asked us for support, people I have spent my getting investigated for, endorsing for, this is personal. Relationships will end behind this because what we have asked of you is fair. It's fair. I'm not stupid. I'm not unreasonable. I'm not emotional. I'm not dangerous. I'm a person who has spent the last year of my life and opened up my organization, my $2 million organization. And we have spent at least a million on North City. Every dollar we raised while we had a building that needs to be funded. While we talk about competing interests, Action had a building with a $15 million bill that we still open. And I still made sure every dollar we brought in, we gave to North City. Thousands of dollars that we didn't have to give, we gave. Hours of our time, we gave. And all you can give us in an amendment is $10 million? We asked. We asked for interest from downtown because they're not shovel ready. It's going to sit. It's going to sit in those buckets for years. Why can't interest go to North City? What I keep hearing is a phrase, political will. Political will. There's no political will for it, Kayla. There's no political will. It's a non-starter. No votes. No votes for people who are homeless. No votes for people who are starving. At Julia Davis, we set up food trucks next door to you all to just educate people about the hearing. We've had 250 people in two hours. And I had to tell dozens of families, dozens of families that showed up after 6.30 that we couldn't feed them. And a woman told me she lived in North City because that's all she could afford. And she was driving around with three babies in her car looking for food. They are hungry and they are in need. And all you have is $10 million and two years of interest. Make that amendment in perpetuity. It needs to be continuous interest from downtown. They want the money now. Where's their match and investment in North City? You all are better than this. This is the most progressive committee on the Board of Aldermen. It is. And this is what y'all are going to give people? This is what y'all are going to say to black people? Is that this is the best we can do? That is not true. It is not honest. And I'm disgusted. I am disgusted. Don't you lift up that boy's name again. Don't you talk about black people again. Don't you talk about racial justice again. Don't you interview as saying what you can do for black power. running for higher office, wanting to be reelected, aspirations that you'll come and talk to us about as movement when you need us. But when movement has said that we need you, this is the best you got? You ought to be ashamed. You ought to be ashamed. I have talked to more North City residents than any of you, probably except for me. And this is the best we can get. I got to go back and tell these people after they turned out to testify, after they signed the letter that we handed you, after they filled out your survey, after they showed up to testify again, after they called you and your voicemails are full, after they met with you in your hearings and your office hours, that this, after all of that, people who are suffering the most made time to give you all of that time. All of that energy, and this is the best you will give them? You don't deserve to leave this city. You are more of the same, and you ought to be ashamed.

Next speaker is Yolanda Owens. Yes.

Hey, everybody.

Hey, my name is Yolanda Owens, and I'm so, so happy to be here. I was sitting at home watching on TV, and I said I wouldn't be remiss if I didn't come down here. I saw the children here. I saw the older people here who are fighting for us. Don't kill me. We have some people up here that are doing a good job, a great job. You might not know everything they're doing, but we appreciate you. It's my time. And I appreciate y'all, I really do. But I am for the 150. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for fighting for us. But I want to take y'all down a day in North City. You come out your house. You pass derelict LRA properties. You pass grass that's above stop signs. You give out money to countless people because they need something. I live in the 11th Ward. It's not elevated. It's really not. Not North City side. You see gas stations that house drug addicts. We've just had two babies, children, young adults killed at one gas station and one corner store. It's not cool. I pass all of that to go to U City, to go to Costco, New Target, three or four new coffee shops, everything. The only thing I have in my neighborhood is White Castles, Taco Bell, Some of the most wonderful brick and mortar restaurants that our people are trying to hold on to. It's not a black and white thing for me. It's an equity thing. This is before the tornado. We were a mess before the tornado. And a lot of people have gotten up here and they've said some good things. We depend on y'all. Blueprint is already there. I am in love with Central West End, but I refuse to move over there because I was born and raised in North City. Every school, and I've said this before, that I went to is closed. Scullin, Stevens, Beaumont. It's ridiculous. So please, please, please consider what our children have to see when they get on a bus At least, Mayor Spencer, get our grass cut. Do it the right way. Tear these LRA houses down. Give us 150 like we're asking for. Let's level set a little bit, just like the young lady said. It's going to be a long time before you even spend that money. Let's use that interest for downtown. We love downtown. I love games and concerts, all those things. I love all people. But I don't feel loved by the city the way that we're being treated. Drive through North City. If you don't live in North City, drive through North City and take a look at what we're dealing with. Yeah, walk through North City. It's not nice. It really isn't. We just had two people killed. We're not elevated. We're underground. Thank you.

Eddie Logan.

Hello, hello, hello, hello. My name is Eddie Logan. And I've been coming down here for a couple of years now.

Mr. Logan, could you speak into the mic?

My name is Eddie Logan. I've been coming down here for a couple of years. I talked to Mr. Rashid one day, his secretary. I told them that I was involved in a federal scam that Orchard City Defenders took care of. Investment properties. You know, this stuff been going on for a while and the people who's all involved in this, one of the older men is still working here. When I told Cori Bush and I gave her the five files, One of the files Arch City Defenders took care of, that's the one that went to the Supreme Court, stopped the housing moratorium that was going on here in St. Louis. Yeah, they taught me how to do this shit. Now, the other four files is stuck down at Cori Bush office. The files was names, everybody who was involved in this shit. It's been going on. Investment properties, black jobs. Put it this way. The two billionaires who had something to do with this was in with the politics. And I put their damn names on that file too. See, but what happened Cory Bush lost a seat, but the file still ended up in the file. I called Wesley Bell. Mr. Bell said he don't know shit about it. But the attorney general, not attorney general, federal judge Goldstein, he asked me, why didn't he get them files? And I was trying to find out. Because I already know who down here is crooked. Mr. Aldrich, like I told you who I was, my cousin is Pastor Mike Tyson. Like I know you, I don't know you directly, but I know your family, Kevin, Sumner Bulldog. So I say I'm representing Sumner and Vashon because I don't give a fuck about the rest of the city. That black community, my father was called Delmore Devine. So all that other stuff y'all talk about, I don't know nothing about. But you know what? I know who's all involved that worked down here in City Hall. The building maintenance guy who got charged over there. Oh, it's more than just him. It's a whole group of them. It's a whole group of them who work upstairs and building maintenance. That's why I was laid back looking. That's why I said, I'm not in no rush to rush this too, but like I see the politicians and everybody around, or city defenders, they got the files already. They processed half of it for me. So that's all I got to say. I'm gonna get them files to Judge Goldstein. And I don't give a fuck who go to jail. I don't. That's all I got to say. Grace Costello.

Did you start? That's what I was asking you earlier. Okay, well, come on up because I think that was the last person so. Oh, okay. Yes, ma'am, please.

Yeah.

This is my first time here. Yes, I love it. I love it. Also, a family, one of the families that was victimized May the 16th. We knew we were supposed to be here, me and my husband. But we didn't know what room. So the security downstairs, the parking lot, all them in the parking lot. I said, oh. Because I had a long walk. And I said, oh, OK. So I was trying to figure out the initials on the parking lot. I said, oh, all them in the parking lot, OK. I said, we're supposed to be at a meeting, but we don't know what room. And he said, probably the Kennedy and I said, oh, Kennedy. And they said, all politics is local. So I thought about the guy with the 34 convicted felony, how he was trying to change the Kennedy to his name. So I said, how appropriate that we're going to have you guys had this meeting in the Kennedy. So I just wanted to say that I've been here all my life, St. Louis. Born in the home of Phillips 77 years ago.

My name is Grace.

So when I meet you, I always come to you as a sister because they know I'm known as Sister Grace. So if you do anything to mess a sister relationship, it ain't going to be on me because I'm coming to you like a sister, a big sister. So if God keep blessing me, I'll be 78 next month. And I think that wherever, and I've been, like I said, all my life, and every time any resource come to this town, Northside always be shortchanged. And we need to cut that out. And this is real. This is real. Me and my husband been married going on 38 years. It's the first time I never thought I'll witness what I witnessed May the 16th last year. It was this place. We just got temporary housing from this organization. It was so beautiful. I had a card in my pocket. We just got temporary housing April, I won't forget it because it was income tax day, April the 16th at Westminster Place. So still in the city, been in the city all my life. I used to always say, I could visit the county, but I couldn't live in the county. I've always been a city person all my life. So I just hope that whatever you guys do, it ain't a white thing. It ain't a black thing. It's a right thing. And it's a wrong thing. And it's up to us to do the right thing. And that's all I got to say.

First of all, I want to tell y'all, welcome to St. Louis misery. My daddy, he's a contractor. He said this, I'm 68. I'm 60 with each of them. Downtown won't take care of themselves. They always have. So don't say what they need. They saw their money wanted. Things you got to realize, Harry S. Truman said this, the white president, we all, you know, we only had one black president. Harris Truman said, if you want the black people to be happy, throw them a bone. For once, don't take a bone. Take it all. That's what they do. I'm not telling you how to run your business because I'm not in your shoes. I stay in Graterville. I'm not even going to call it a ward. I'm going to say I stay in the Graterville area. Take your high-heeled shoes off, your pretty shoes, get your jeans on, walk through there. Y'all show our street, not our street, y'all show our area and say, we need help. But you send the money somewhere else. The most devastated parts. I stay on a street called Whittier. I'm not afraid to say it. Guess what? You know, that's Chuck Berry Street. We're going to do something. You do what you're doing, walking right past, no, riding past because ain't nobody stopping. And this is what we need to do. We're sugarcoating stuff. We're grown people. We need kids to do things, but we're grown people talking. I don't have to cuss. I'm trying not to. I'm trying not to be mad. But I'm not going to tell you what to do with the money, but you got resources that you don't use. I heard a lady say, cut the grass, not run over the grass, cut the grass. Downtown, they keep it clean. Y'all got forestry. Cut the grass, trim the grass. You got police. Now, this is our money. We paid for this, right? Ain't no police over there. They got people running junkyards because nobody's going down there. These are the resources that we pay for. So we know we're not tying up any money that we need for the houses that are not being taken. LRA, that's a joke. They're holding money for they said we can buy them. The restrictions you have for them, nobody can meet. The houses are falling down. LRA is a joke. Live run what? Again? Take them down. Close the LRA down. Clean the lots so downtown can see. We got some stuff down there you can build on. They said, what the city do? Who's going to be able to afford to go downtown if they have nowhere to go? What they want to do is expand downtown? No. They want to do some street work down in our area. They want more convenient way to get downtown. I'm telling you, the $150 million, it's not going to help for real if you're not going to put no money or thought or heart into what you're doing. You know, that's all I'm saying. We got resources. Use the resources. Maybe y'all might want to do it. New City, they cut their grass. They even have a rough area, but they cut the grass. Cut the grass. Start there. Tell the police, show up. He said, harass them. They love to do that. Show up. So the other people, I'm not going to call them undesirable, but the people that not desire like to go somewhere else. We can start bending them. You can't get rid of them, but you can bend them. You can disperse them. You have crime everywhere. Don't just say it's north St. Louis. You got crime in south St. Louis. You got crime in your city. You got crime everywhere. Oh yeah, I forgot about West County.

Sir, that's your time.

That's my time, and I'm sorry.

Can you make sure you say your name, too, so we can make sure that we make sure that we say your name for the record? We know where you live.

My name is Henry Sims. Thank you. I probably wrote my signature name.

Oh, OK. That's what I was asking you earlier. OK. Thank you. Thank you for speaking.

OK, that's all I'm really saying.

Start with your regular funding, and then you got your other money ready.

And thank y'all for letting me do that.

A final speaker in the building is Ahasa.

My name is Ahasa Jadu. I'm a member of or a president of the 11th ward and just want to speak and share my deep disappointment for this bill as written as well as what the possible amendments might be if that is all that is given. For generations, North St. Louis has lived with the consequences of the Team 4 plan, which was a vision that designated black neighborhoods as depletion zones rather than investment zones. And today, after a tornado has devastated communities already carrying the weight of decades to disinvestment, this bill presents us with a very troubling message. if blake's not still in here blake i appreciate you and the questions that you offered this board and unfortunately i think it's time we take moments like these as answers to what the city believes is worthy of restoration more than just asking them more questions to think about When a community has endured generations of public abandonment and then suffers a destructive disaster, recovery shouldn't even be competing with downtown revitalization. Recovery should just simply be the priority. The RAM settlement is a rare opportunity to demonstrate that St. Louis is prepared to break from the Team 4 logics that it holds dear to, Instead, this bill communicates that even in the face of more historic harm, North St. Louis is not viewed as worthy of the level of investment and recovery that it is deserving of. This bill is disappointing. It's unacceptable, and it's a sign to the community not only that St. Louis City still considers North St. Louis to be a depletion zone, but that the city also has no intention of making right generations of livelihoods destroyed by the past. Thank you.

The next four speakers are online. And these are the final four speakers online. Can you all raise your right hands and turn your cameras on? You all swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth?

I do.

Okay. Thank you.

First speaker is Evan P. Evan, could you give your last name, please?

Hey everyone, my name is Doctor Evan Pardue. I'm a resident of the 10th Ward. I'm coming here today. You know I've been testifying at a lot of these hearings for a few years now, including multiple times this year regarding the fiscal year 2027 budget. You know we're back here today to discuss the allocation of the RAM settlement funding. For those who know me, you already know what I'm allocating, what I'm advocating for. I'm calling for the HUD's committee and the Board of Aldermen to increase funding for tornado recovery and stabilization of communities in North St. Louis. I'm calling for you all to zero out the $55 million of proposed downtown revitalization funds and send these funds to North St. Louis to help people stay in their homes and stabilize these communities. $150 million is truly the bare minimum requirement for recovery. And the fact that you all didn't even do that says a lot about this board. The city and especially North St. Louis is currently in an existential crisis and we have some easy decisions to make, but our elected officials have done everything in their power to make things seem complicated. And just think about this and just think about this here. I just have a little scenario for y'all. If one of you had to pay bills uh replace appliances in your home and fix your car you likely wouldn't forgo all those things for a night at the club and an ounce of weed but that is effectively what our elected officials elected officials have been doing since the may 16 tornado and that has been emphasized by these hearings on the rams funding and the disaster that just occurred with the fiscal year 2027 budget According to the city's own polls and one that was just put out by Action St. Louis, the number one priority by far amongst city residents for the use of these funds is north side tornado recovery. However, this disconnect that we see in city policy is precisely why we are gathered here today. at the hearing last week many north side residents came out pleading to this body for support because they are still living in homes without brooms and those and those in need of significant repair and many people are still displaced and unable to return to their homes people shouldn't have to beg and plead with their elected officials to help them recover from a catastrophe and then it's inhumane and degrading to make people prove their worthiness of aid but this same scrutiny is never applied to large corporations and their interests. In capitalist society, that is the most blatant way that political corruption takes place. And just for a second, I just want to take some time to address the Northside Alders and those in the Board of Aldermen that claim to care about the future of North City and Black people in St. Louis and say that y'all are complicit in your institutions of salt on our communities. This is insidious because for better or worse, many Black residents trust you all. What do we get in return? Ward's 11 and 12 sustained the worst damage in the city from the tornado, and Lauren Keyes and Sharon Tice were functionally absent when it comes to advocating for these neighborhoods and the recovery efforts. In addition, during the budget hearings, I would see Alder Saunier and Aldridge speak about how the proposed Board of Police Commissioners budget for SLMPD would negatively impact city services, but neither of them but neither of them proposed any amendments to decrease the police's already inflated budget. And these funds that were allocated away- Mr. Pardue, that's your time. Let me just finish my thought real quick. When politicians say one thing and do another or are unresponsive, to their constituents needs. They are engaged in corruption. I want you all to discard the propaganda from downtown business owners because we need to build this city for the people who live there and not folks in the county, out of state visitors and sports fans. All those people care about downtown is money and tax incentives for themselves. And that should not be tolerated in this city.

The next speaker is Margaret Williams.

Good afternoon. I am a former resident of the 10th Ward. Our home was destroyed in the tornado. We still have our business in the 10th Ward. I'm currently a resident of the 7th Ward. Thank you for this opportunity to come again before you. I'm speaking with the consideration of small businesses in the St. Louis area who were directly or indirectly affected by the May tornado. First, let me just say that when the tornado hit, many of the businesses, and I've listened to the stories, many of the businesses were opened. So they experienced the shaking, the destruction of their buildings, the investments that they had made in their businesses falling around them and in various degrees of chaos just within those few minutes that the tornado hit. But that didn't stop them from taking their time out, not just to look for themselves and their businesses, but instead they went out into the community. They set up tents in Fountain Park and gave away food. They gave away clothing. They gave away the various items that would be helpful to people who were hurt by the tornado. These same people, however, by the city of St. Louis and that were overlooked. Now, it's understandable that the first thing we have to do is take care of our families and our homes and seniors and individuals who are now, especially those who are now homeless, as well as those who were homeless before. But these are the business people in our communities who sacrificed what they had, did the best they could. And the city did not set up any plans, did not do anything, except I understand they did a drive around.

To see what businesses were still open or not.

As I spoke with the business with small business people, one of the things they said is undoubtedly 150 million or more needs to be spent with homes with the rebuilding of homes through building and helping families to return to the city. Secondly, Our city not only did not set up any plans to help support black businesses, but there is a publication that I'm looking at right now called the Property Tax Assistance is Available for Uninhabitable Tornado Damaged Properties. And it has the office number and other things in this particular black and white and red document. But the fourth or fifth line down, it says commercial real estate and personal property do not qualify. Commercial real estate. So those people who are small business people who experienced their personal property buildings that failed, they were not offered by our city. The city where they pay taxes, and by the way, for those of you who don't know, and I'm sure most do know, that to be in business in St. Louis, you pay a higher tax than people who are residents only. But they weren't even offered an opportunity by the city to receive some kind of tax assistance, even if they lost parts or all of their properties. When there are neighborhood activities, The small business people are the ones who support the sports teams, buy the uniforms, support activities in the park, whether it be a thing in our various community parks, in our neighborhood parks, whether it be things like nights out or other special activities that are there. Ms. Williams, it's your time. Okay, President Barack Obama said that small businesses are the foundations of our nation, and he is correct. we small business people are the foundation of our communities as well as our whole city my request here on the part of small businesses is that hear us lord set aside monies that can be used for small businesses and give them the grants that they need in order to get help The reason I can't give you a specific number is because the city of St. Louis is not investigated to find out what these people even need. I've listened to people who need a few thousand, to people who need several thousand. And nothing, nothing in that order has happened to the city. That's disgraceful. Our city is better than this. You all are individually better than this. the monies that they uh the mayor said is to be used for small businesses is included in that other monies for the neighborhood plans the neighborhood plans need every single dime that they have and they still might not be able to carry out their plan so in closing let me just say this to you stop leaving out the foundations of our city the foundation of our neighborhoods whether they were hit by the tornado or not, are still our small businesses, our restaurants, our beauty shops, our barber shops, our repair shops, our grocery stores, our convenience stores, our service stations that serve our community. And North St. Louis needs 150 million. Thank you.

Ms. Aliyah Lyons-Una.

Hi, my name is Alia Lyons-Umana. I live in Ward 2. I'm a homeowner, taxpayer, and I'm requesting that the Board of Aldermen revise the bill to give North St. Louis $150 million of that RAM settlement money. If the goal is to strengthen our city and drive economic development, then you must invest in the people and in North St. Louis. People need their basic needs met before they will spend their discretionary money. This is literally economic theory that I've learned at St. Louis MBA's program. The economic and financial theory does not support what the actions of the Board of Aldermen are doing. Trying to create social hubs when your constituents are not whole and are fighting to survive, and they're actually fighting to stay in the city to continue to pay taxes and participate in this system is putting the cart before the horse, and it does not make logical sense. I grew up in New York City, but the south side of St. Louis has been my home for the past 10 years. it would north side would be an option had the city not divested and made it a food desert travel tourism and discretionary spending are the first things to stop when people are in crisis and our city the north side of the city particularly in west side are in crisis still a year later after this tornado People coming from St. Charles, Columbia, Belleville, Illinois, Edwardsville, the list goes on, once a quarter to go to a baseball game or to have dinner downtown are not going to save the city. If we need more money, then tax more people. The city residents approved the 1% interest tax this year, but if we keep losing residents because they're displaced and we're not giving the supports to maintain their property and their home and communities and making these communities unlivable, But it's not going to get any better. So we need to start taxing people who live on the edge of the city, who conveniently think it's safe enough when they want to have their fine dining experiences, they want to have their paint and sip, they want to go to Topgolf, but all of a sudden, outside of those convenient times, they're repeating racist propaganda. I got married in St. Louis to show my family that it is a great city, to show them that this is a place that I love to call my home. Let's have action to continue to support that. Even my relatives from the East Coast or everyone's people coming here for tourism, that's not going to save it. A visit once a year is not going to do enough. You have to take care of the people, your base, in order to have a sustainable, thriving city. If you let one big section of the city deteriorate, that does not, it does not bode well. To echo those who spoke before, we must also invest in youth specifically to support North City. So whether it's St. Louis public schools, the charter schools won't save us either. Look at New Orleans as an example. We need to have a robust public school system creating young minds that can give back and help to rebuild and lead trade certificates, making sure that we're not taking the money out of state to build things. Corporate developers are not going to save us either. We need our own people to be credentialed and have inspections and crews. And that takes time. The committee, the communities that you all committed to serve are an economic crisis. The answer cannot be building more restaurants and riverfront promenades. in golf courses if people have to choose between groceries phone bills and a date night downtown guess what they're going to choose groceries and the phone bill so the downtown spending is not going to happen it's like we're talking about stuff that's not this we're in crisis we have to stop the bleeding it's just not making sense in new york city everybody said mom donnie wouldn't win they said socialist policies don't work they said there's no money but guess what they're exceeding everything that they've committed to because it is possible socialist policies do work If you're not in support of that, I'm like, you've been bought. So I mean, I'd love for people to prove to us that you haven't been bought. We're seeing that the fear mongers were wrong. They disparaged him. Why don't we give it a shot? Why don't we see if we give 150 to North St. Louis? Let's see what happens. We have nothing to lose by making the investment. Let's change. Let's do something different for once instead of repeating the historical record that has been racist and disenfranchised the heart of St. Louis City. So, I mean, lose my place of thought. I can acknowledge that having a riverfront would be nice. I live in Bevo Mill. I would love to take my bike.

That's your time.

I'm going to finish my thought because I've waited for over two hours to speak. I'll be brief. If we need more money, start charging the county and other Missouri residents flat rates to come to the zoo, the history museum, the art museum. People who live in the city should be able to enjoy these things for free and everybody else in the surrounding areas that rips the benefits of what we pay for should have to pay to rebuild that pot of money so we can actually support our city. if we have the data we already have the data on how to make things better an overloaded police budget is not going to do it public safety improves when people have their basic needs met healthy food access to health care safe streets have safe housing so if we don't have those things we're not going to see an improvement the police getting all that money is not going to do it random developers getting all that money is not going to do it what's going to do it is rebuilding the north side of the city giving those children something to do in the summer free enrichment So I'm asking that you all do better, revise this bill, because what we're seeing is not acceptable. And saying that there's no money is also an unacceptable answer. Find the money. Go to DC. Compel people to take a bus and make public action. FEMA is not doing it. OK, we'll find somebody else. That's unacceptable. Do better, please. You've been elected. If not, you'll be replaced. So thank you for the time.

The next speaker is Dallas Adams.

Hello, thank you to the committee for the opportunity to speak today. My name is Dallas Adams. I am a proud resident of the Third Ward in the Dutchtown neighborhood, and I have the privilege of working in disaster case management, directly working with people over the age of 60 years old. I also have the fortunate blessing of being one of the lead organizers of the largest self-organized committee for organizations and individuals across industries that are working in different capacities to stabilize tornado impacted communities. And today we had our bi-monthly in-person meeting. We spent most of our time talking about the ways that our organizations will be able to continue to say yes to stepping in the gap of tornado recovery. And as it should be a surprise to no one, money was the number one thing that we talked about. We need to find money beyond fundraising and federal grants. And we hate to think of the idea of when many of our contracts end with the first allocation of RAM settlement dollars, when that work ends, ceases to exist because the funding will run out at the end of our contract period, which will be the end of August, what happens to all of the programs and the ways that we are stepping in the gap? And that is outlined in the RAM settlement dollars. I want to be really clear here to mention that when we look at the current allocation for home repair and recovery for people in the impacted communities, this is truly the bare minimum of what people need. I think people think if we just support housing, if we just support home repair, that people will be made whole. But we have a large amount of needs that we're going to have to find out how to fund. There are organizations that you've never heard of that are raising the call for this, that have stepped into their capacity, that have stepped beyond their scope of work to be able to step in the gap. And honestly, this is what happens when there is not a clear advocacy plan from the people who are elected to represent us. When I think of the work that has been done for foundations to come, for the Carnegie Foundation to come in and knowing that a filmmaker who has stepped into her purpose of organizing had to organize the funds to bring people in to do an assessment on how we can or have not advocated properly to our federal government, that breaks my heart and it makes me realize that we have a huge culture problem that is pervasive in the city of St. Louis into whose voices are recognized and whose aren't. And that trickles all the way up to and down to downtown. I'm very disheartened to hear people get up and testify and say in rooms behind closed doors that if they don't get the money from the RAMP settlement dollars, then they'll just take their two to one match and they will go do something else with it. I'm here to tell you that most of the work that I get to do as a disaster case manager is out of a direct result of philanthropic unrestricted investment. And so when we think about the cultural problem, downtown is not a money problem. Downtown is a cultural problem. There are so many small businesses to the point of Miss Williams that are begging to do business downtown. that get met with hostility when they go to neighborhood associations, when they go to look for letters of support because they don't fit the culture of what downtown should look like. Meanwhile, downtown is crumbling and vacant and they need to be using their own assets, their own ways that they're already attracting businesses and start thinking bigger about how they can generate revenue with what they have. And so with the rest of my time, what I'll say is without these Rams dollars being properly allocated to not only supporting the organizations and the people who are doing case management and recovery work, to supporting the contractors who are going to be stepping in to do home stabilization and repair, to be able to support renters and people who have historically had a housing payment of zero dollars that now need to spend over twelve hundred dollars for a one bedroom apartment in some of the most deplorable living conditions. We need every single dollar that we can get to go to tornado recovery in impacted communities. But what I will say is if we do not receive the amount of money that we need from our RAMS dollars, knowing that FEMA's not coming to help us, knowing that the state is stretched thin, knowing that our overly stretched city budget is being demanded on more, then we will have to turn to our philanthropic partners. who are already feeling the stretch of having to support programs beyond the programmatic missions that they are already willing to give to. So what I will leave us with is this, if there's anybody who is going to be taken off of the two to one matching fund from downtown because they didn't get the money that they needed, I know many organizations that you can give directly to that will be moving the needle and have continued to move the needle, have continued to stand in the gap. Organizations you've never heard of that you can give your money directly to and make an impact in the city of St. Louis. Because if we lose what we have, if we lose the ground that we currently have in the city of St. Louis, we are barreling head forward. into a unification that none of us asked for. We want the city of St. Louis to thrive. We want the city of St. Louis to stand on its own. We want to regain our population and our housing back. And our RAM settlement dollars look like the only opportunity if we do not get a organized advocacy plan for every single one of our representatives on every level of government to fight for the city of St. Louis. And I thank you for your time today.

Our last speaker is E. Taylor, and he needs to be sworn in.

You swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth? We can't hear you. Make sure your volume is on because we can't hear you.

I do, sorry.

Thank you.

Excuse me. My name is Eda Taylor. My pronouns are she, her. I live in the 7th Ward. I am opposed to this bill for all of the reasons that all these amazing speakers have said today. I think that the north side needs $150 million minimum for tornado recovery. If we want to revitalize downtown, I bet there's a lot of people who lost businesses in North City who could use a spot to put their business back into. If we need to put people in buildings there, if we have empty buildings, we can put people in buildings. If it's faster to fix the buildings downtown, that we could put businesses and people in temporarily while we fix up North City, let's do that. Let's let the North City revitalization be what revitalizes downtown. We can't ignore North City and let it just keep getting worse. There's no logic to that. There's no, I mean, there's no logic, you know, not just like as people in morality and all that stuff that we say, you know, we're civil. that's what civilization is but like i'm just saying like there's no logic financially um nothing's going to get cheaper no situation is going to get better because we let it just bleed um if downtown wants to be better we have to fix north city period north city like downtown is down of what like it wouldn't be downtown if North City is not there, it would be uptown. And we don't call it that because North City matters and we need to make it matter. Like make sure that they know that they matter, that we want them in this city, that we can bring people back, that we can right the wrongs of the past hundreds of years a little bit. Like it's not even gonna be really the thing, but like even just a little bit is better than this stupid... debating everything now. We know they need help. We know that there are experts literally in the room at City Hall. I saw them. They testified. They are the people who can do the job. Mamdani's success isn't just that the people of New York is behind him and that he's trying to help all five boroughs, not just the ones that other people tend to like. It's that he's also pulling from experts in their fields. His team behind him are like the top of their field in this type of work. And we have education like that in St. Louis. We have credentials like that. Not just the people on the ground, people, you know, the doctors that are sitting in the room at city hall right now, those people turn to them and it's pride month. And, uh, I'm gay, so I'm going to end by saying, uh, a quote from stormy. De la de Valerie. I'm bad at the names. Can you check your camera?

Cause we can't see you and I want to make sure your comments are finished. Okay. There we go.

Sorry. Um, anyway, in the words of stormy la Valerie, why don't you guys do something, do something, stop debating. Give them the money they need. Get things moving. This is stupid. Thanks for your time.

OK, as we call President Green up to speak, and I'm going to run out to the bathroom and turn it over to Vice Chair Sanjie. I do want to touch on some things, because I'm not dismissive on some of the things that have been said and the comments that have been shared. And I know that earlier today on my life, I absolutely got on there and said that there's work that's done for amendments, but I was talking about in committee. And this is all transparent. It's all videoed. It's all air live. And this is the only opportunity for committee to hear from people. And if anybody is speaking to you all and telling you all that they can just drop an amendment and it's going to happen, then yes. I said it's performative. It's divisive. It's misleading. Because just saying you're going to do an amendment and it doesn't pass That's what it is. We have to work together down here. We have to be respectful of each other's positions. We have to respect who we were elected in our wars to serve and who we hear from. And so with that, it is performative to not want to be able to pass an amendment to just announce an amendment. It is performative to not want to be able to get something done that's going to work, something that we can get done for the people. People are absolutely trying to work together for the greater good. And each one of these meetings, I thought, We were doing the right thing to creating these opportunities. Because listen, if we would have went with the amendments that were the first meeting that are absolutely different from these amendments, then that wouldn't have been fair to you all. So I'm sorry. And I'm going to hate to lose some of the friendships and the relationships that I was threatened with, that I feel like I'm being threatened with losing. But if it's for me telling you the truth, if it's for me not playing in your face, then that's what it's going to have to be. because just like you all stand up for the things that you stand up for i'm i want to be in position to stand up for you all as well and it has to be communicative it has to be honest please don't let people play in your face i tell y'all this all the time it's not that you taking the opportunity and I'm sorry. I'm sorry that you, that's not, that's not what I'm saying. That's why I continue to open the door. That's not what I'm saying. And I want to be respectful of President Green's time, but I just want to be reflective since my comments were shared earlier today. I did say that. Now, nobody might not want to say it, but I'm going to say it because that's what I stand on. And I'm not afraid to be honest with people in these kind of situations or anything else. This is not about political will or not having political will. It's about telling you the truth of how the process and how the system work. And I'm not saying something might not happen that way or it might never happen, but this is the pathway. This is the committee hearing. This is where we work together to get closer. into closest to where we can get it done. So the comments that were made about work that gets done, that's not it. This is the work that gets done. These are the amendments that have changed. I'm going to step out to use the bathroom. I'm turning the mic over to Vice Chair Sangay, President Green. And again, if me being honest is going to be the problem with you all, then I understand that. I respect anyone in their position in that, and I will absolutely honor it moving forward.

Thank you, Madam Chair and members of the committee. Before we take up any amendments, I want to first thank members of the committee for working closely with my office, the mayor's office, the comptroller's office, and most of all working with each other to put these amendments forward. I also want to make sure that I'm thanking residents, members of the community, and advocates for all of the testimony throughout this process because of your advocacy that we are able to get the bill to this point and are able to bring forth some of these amendments today that we are from the beginning i've had three goals for this bill one to make sure we can get as much funding as possible for tornado recovery Two, to make sure that our Water Department has the critical funding they need to protect our greatest public asset. And three, to put together a bill that can pass the Board of Aldermen quickly, because we know people on the north side have been waiting for resources for too long, and we know that our Water Department is on the verge of not having any more money. Today I look forward to supporting a number of amendments that get us closer to reaching these goals. These include allocating the $25 million from the reserve fund to support tornado recovery water infrastructure and addressing vacancy. Specifically, we'll be bringing forth amendments to allocate 10 million to the Fund for Tornado Recovery and Northside Rebuilding, as we cannot leave any money on the table when folks are recovering from a devastating natural disaster. In addition, I'm looking forward to $10 million to the water department being brought forth to ensure that our water department has what they need to be able to leverage other funds for our water infrastructure and to start to address the $700 million in needs that our department has. And last, we know that vacant housing causes blight on our neighborhoods throughout our city, and that even before the tornado, a disproportionate number of vacant properties plagued the north side and parts of southeast. An additional $5 million to the vacancy fund will build the long-term infrastructure that we need in order to hold absentee owners accountable for their properties. So we have fewer of these vacant properties that are a blight on our neighborhood. Additionally, I was proud to work with Alderwoman Saunier on amendment to be brought forward to direct two years worth of interest money from the Downtown Fund to the Northside Tornado Fund, which has the possibility of generating another one to $3 million for tornado recovery. along with the interest accrued by the tornado recovery north side fund that will sit in that fund an additional four to eight million could be used for long-term recovery as that money generates interest over time To be clear, these are also conservative estimates based on how the overall fund is performing currently, and those numbers will be heavily influenced by how rapidly recovery funds and funds for downtown are used. The longer those funds sit, the more interest is gained, but at the same time, we wanna make sure that we are getting funds out the door quickly. Last, I am looking forward to supporting a number of technical amendments today that strengthen the bill purpose more clear. I want to acknowledge that this is an imperfect bill and that no piece of legislation alone can address the extraordinary level of needs that we have in our city. We're not fully addressing tornado recovery, and I will own that. We are not fully addressing our water department crisis, and I will own that. But what I will also own is that from the beginning, I've said that this isn't a first step or a final step, but rather one of the many steps that we have to take to address all of these crises. So even though the Northside Fund will gain additional funding through accrued interest and FEMA reimbursements for recovery, the city must also continue to seek additional funding through philanthropic, corporate, and intergovernmental partnerships. And I have said since the very beginning that our corporate and philanthropic community does need to stand up and do more for Northside recovery than so far. And so let it, So let it be known that as we are putting forth our money as a city, I hope that this encourages our corporate and philanthropic money to see the investment that we are making on the north side and rise to the well. The success of North St. Louis and the success of the entire city will rely on our sustained effort on the city's part to unlock additional funding in order to address what is a $2 billion crisis. recovery effort. And with that, I'm happy to answer questions from the committee, or we can just move right on to amendments if you would like to do that.

Do you have any additional speakers for your bill?

For what the amendment on the vacancy fund, I'm going to bring up Peter Hoffman, but we can wait till that amendment to bring him up.

Okay. I think that we can begin to start our amendment process unless there are committee members who want to weigh in before we go through amendments. If I don't see a hand raised, I'm assuming we're good with that. Okay. Alderwoman Schweitzer, you are recognized to speak to amendment number one.

Thank you, Vice Chairwoman. I really appreciate you giving me the time to speak today and I appreciate everyone who came today. I had really good conversations with folks after our last hearing and just appreciate the feedback and the information. um i know a lot of you already you know everyone here on the committee you heard me say it if once if not a million times that we need to make sure that we have safe clean reliable drinking water in the city of st louis i think that is a bare necessity for us and that is why i would like to bring forward amendment number one which takes 10 million dollars from the 25 million dollars of reserves and put it towards puts it towards water infrastructure, which is just so crucial. So I've been in front of you since the first day. We've been talking about this. I wanted to be really up front with what I thought needed to happen there. And with that, I would move to adopt Amendment Number 1 to Board Bill 22.

Second.

And then we'll go to discussion. Alderman Cohn? No question. Excuse me, who seconded? Alderman Cohn seconded. Alderman Browning.

Thank you. I don't have any questions, but I just want to express my support for this amendment. It's important that we give, I think the Water Division described this as a shield to protect rate payers, who is everybody in this city that pays for water. This is a shield to make sure that we don't have to raise rates even higher. So this is really crucial to get to the Water Division, and we have to keep our municipally owned water owned by the people. Thank you.

Alderman Aldridge. President Green? Excuse me, I didn't hear you, Alderman Aldridge. No questions.

Okay. I support the amendment.

Alderman Cox-Antwee, I know that you are not a member of the committee, but do you have any commentary?

Thank you, Madam Vice Chair. No questions. I support the amendment and appreciate you acknowledging that.

Thank you. With commentary being done, I believe Alderman Schwartz, they're back to you, and we can call the roll.

Thank you. Just... I again move to readopt amendment number one to board bill 22.

Madam Clerk, may you please call the roll?

Alderman Cohn?

Aye.

Alderwoman Schweitzer?

Aye.

Vice Chair Sonnier? Aye. Alderman Browning?

Aye.

Alderman Aldridge?

Aye.

Chair Clark Hubbard? Aye. President Green? Aye. We have six aye votes.

By your votes, you sustain a motion to adopt Amendment Number 1 to Board Bill 22. Thank you. We will now move to Amendment Number 2. Alderman Aldridge, you are recognized to speak to Amendment 2.

Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the committee. Amendment Number 2 is another increase in amendment from the reserves. When we had our first hearing maybe a week ago, it started at $5 million, and working with Alderman Sonnier and other colleagues, I was able to push it up to $10 million. So this would change the tornado relief fund from $110 million to $120 million. Some of that additional funds of that 10, eight will go to tornado housing and two will go to the recovery support fund. We recently just got word that there is additional need for rental assistance. and those funds are running out as a lot of people still need housing to be able to get in. We're adding those additional funds as we break down that $10 million. Two will go to the tornado resident support, and then eight will go to tornado housing. And with that, I will open up for any questions.

Thank you. We will go down the committee in order. Alderman Cohn?

No questions.

Alderman Aldridge. I'm sorry, Alderman Browning.

Alderman, you said this was $8 million.

I'm sorry. One second. We'll wait. We'll just wait. OK. Alderman Browning.

Just asking if you could repeat, it was 8 million towards is it home repair specifically and then 2 million towards support? Correct. Okay, thank you. No more questions. Happy to support this.

Thank you. Alderman Schweitzer, did I skip you? I'm sorry.

No questions and I'm happy to support it.

Excellent. President Green.

No questions. I support the amendment. Thank you, Alderman Aldridge.

Alderwoman Cox-Antwi, do you have any commentary? No questions. I also support the amendment. Thank you. Excellent. I have no questions. So I think with that, we can go back to Alderman Aldridge for a closing.

I renew my motion. I'll make a motion to pass amendment number two to board bill one or 22 as amended. Second.

Madam Clerk, may you please call the roll?

Alderman, Alderman Cohn.

Aye.

Alderman Switzer. Aye. Vice Chair Sonnier. Aye. Alderman Browning. Aye. Alderman Aldridge. Aye. Chair Clark Hubbard. Aye. President Green. Aye. I have seven aye votes.

Thank you. We will move on to amendment number three. Alderman Cohn, you're recognized to speak to amendment number three to board bill 22.

Thank you, Madam President, Madam Chair, Vice Chair. I gave you a little promotion there. So Amendment Number 3 is something that we've discussed since before the bill was even introduced. One of the issues that I know faces many communities across the city is vacancy. Particularly in wards such as mine and also across North St. Louis, vacancy has been a plague upon many of the neighborhoods. We have communities that are working actively to address vacancy in our community. I think the city should be stepping up and supporting them with those efforts. This is an appropriation of additional $5 million. The $5 million that was in the bill as it was originally proposed was to create somewhat of an enabling framework to support the vacancy litigation work that's happening across the city. I was just in Baden last night and talking with them about some of the efforts that they're undertaking in their community and similarly in the neighborhoods, Crandallet, Dutchtown that I represent. These are vital activities that we need to sustain our communities moving forward. So the additional five would be coming from reserve and would be supported specifically for a vacancy litigation trust fund to address the vacant property issue that we have throughout our communities.

Thank you, Alderman.

So I would move to adopt amendment number three, the board bill number 22.

So just for clarity for the record, Alderman Cohn.

Amendment number three, as it's currently written.

And maybe if you can move your mic a little.

Amendment number three, as it's currently written, would move $5 million from the reserve to the vacancy. It would create a vacancy litigation trust fund, but would essentially move $5 million from reserve to the vacancy reduction fund, as it's currently described in the board bill.

Excellent. Um, and we can go down the committee as we did previously. There wasn't a motion to adopt. Did I hear a second?

I made the motion to adopt amendment three to board bill 20.

Yes. I didn't hear a second. Okay. Seconded by Alderman Browning and um, Mr. Hoffman, I know you're here to speak to this amendment, but actually I'm going to just go on a glyph and say that all my colleagues are familiar, and because the public cannot comment at this point, I think we'll just leave it here. I think we all understand what this is for and what vacancy litigation does. Alderwoman Schweitzer.

Thank you. This is about the sort of the text of the amendment and I didn't notice this with the previous one and I apologize for that. The part of it that talks about the amount of the reserves is at 25,000 in the amendment number two and amendment number three. So assuming, I know amendment number two passed, but for amendment two and three, we should note We might need another amendment that says the reserves are going to zero because they both go from 25 to 15 and then 25 to 20, which the reserves won't have been at. Does that make sense?

so we didn't make that same amendment on the or change the previous amendment either that's what i'm saying but i generally speaking when you know these things are happening and the amendments are rolling down it automatically updates you know as uh you know the previous amendments changed those allocations okay so as long as that's for the record i make sure that

understood yeah um so i i think in general you know and it does say in the plain text version that this is taking five million from the reserve and putting it towards the vacancy fund okay um thank you for this i i appreciate this a lot i know how much vacancy affects places in in my ward and when When there are vacant properties, they tend to spread and neighborhoods really get hit. So I think this is a thoughtful way to make sure that one of the city's biggest issues, which is vacant properties, vacant housing, has more resources, which it desperately needs. So thank you very much and I appreciate this amendment.

Alderman Browning.

Thank you. I'd second those comments. I think vacancy is one of the biggest issues in the city, and it's hard to have a neighborhood without neighbors. So I really appreciate this amendment, Alderman Cohn, and happy to support the work to really fight vacancy in the city. I think that's going to be very helpful.

Alderman Aldridge.

No questions. I support the amendment.

Vice Chair Sangay. No questions. President Gray?

No questions. I will say that I do think that this is a very important amendment that as all of us know, we have a lot of that working we have a lot of slum landlords unfortunately in our city who sit on these properties for years and years and years and what this fund allows us to do is actually have this city have a litigation fund to be able to go after these bad actors these bad actors like paul mckee that we need to be going after but we need resources to do that And so I think this is a really important infrastructure for our city to build. Kansas City has had a fund like this for a very long time, and it has made great strides in addressing their housing vacancy issues. And so I'm looking forward to supporting this amendment today.

All right, with that, Alderman Conway, you're welcome to close. Is she on the committee? Okay. Jamie, I know you're not on the committee, but you're here. So, Alderman Cox-Antwee, if you wanted to ever speak, please just raise your hand or whatever.

Thank you, Madam Chairwoman. I don't have anything to add, but I do think this is a very important amendment, Alderman Cohn, so I appreciate you bringing it forward. Thank you.

uh thank you madam chair uh president green touched on some of my closing remarks but i think just you know for context it's really important to note that kansas city has been doing this for a while now they actually appropriate a million dollars a year out of their general revenue we've been able to using 250 000 the last two years from arpa be able to provide some supportive services to communities that are dealing with the the vacancy litigation in their neighborhoods. You know, Kansas City had a fraction of the vacant property that the city of St. Louis has. So this is just putting a dent in the bucket, like everything else that we're doing, trying to tackle some of these really critical issues for our city moving forward. So I would ask for your favorable consideration on the amendment.

Madam Clerk, you can call the roll. Alderman Cohn.

Aye.

Alderwoman Switzer.

Aye.

Vice Chair Sonnier. Aye. Alderman Browning. Aye. Alderman Aldridge. Aye. Chair Clark Hubbard. Aye. President Green. Aye. We have seven aye votes.

Alderman Browning, you're recognized for four.

Thank you. So amendment number four is eliminating the language in the bill under the Water Infrastructure Fund that describes it as an interdepartmental loan. This is the only place in the bill that something is described as a loan. And speaking with the Water Division, their plan is to use this money in order to leverage debt. and you cannot leverage debt off of a loan especially one that might be due by 2036 and if the plan is to forgive this loan in the end it doesn't make sense to really put it out as a loan so this will enable the water division to use the now 40 million dollars that they're getting to leverage that to create more debt, really take out loans and do a majority of the over $700 million of capital improvement needs they have. So this is a crucial step, but we do have to do some language change to make sure that they can use, take out that debt. So I move that we pass or that we amend Board Bill 22 as amended with amendment number four. Second.

All right. Moved by Alderman Browning, seconded by Alderman Swicer. We'll go, Alderman Cohn is speaking now, so we'll go to, okay, thank you. So Alderman Swicer?

No.

Okay. Alderman Aldridge?

No questions.

Vice Chair Sayeh? No questions. President Green?

No questions. I support the amendment.

Thank you. Okay. Madam Clerk, please call the roll. Alderman Cohn?

Aye. Alderman Switzer. Aye. Vice Chair Sonnier.

Aye.

Alderman Browning.

Aye.

Alderman Aldridge.

Aye.

Chair Clark Hubbard. Aye. President Green. Aye. We have seven aye votes.

All right. Let's see. Alderman Aldridge, you are recognized on Amendment Number 5.

Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the committee. I move that we adopt amendment number five to board bill 22.

Moved by Alderman Aldridge, seconded by Alderman Browning that we amend for number, I'm sorry, amendment number five. Please proceed.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm going to actually have the Alderman from the 8th speak on this. This is restructuring section five of the bill when it comes to the downtown bucket. So I'm going to yield my time to Alderman Cox and Tweet, Madam Chair.

Okay. Thank you, Alderman. Madam Chair, if I'm able to proceed, I appreciate you allowing me to come today to speak on this particular amendment. And I want to start by acknowledging, I know it's been mentioned many times that even though I don't sit on this committee, I understand that the downtown bucket in particular has garnered a number of questions from the community. And I wanted to take this time not only to speak to those, but also to address some of the comments that have been made and the questions that the community reasonably asked about this amendment in some of the details. So I wanna start by saying a couple of things. One, I do agree with a lot of what has been said from the community. I fully recognize that 150 million is not enough to address the scope of the work that needs to be done on the north side. Really truthfully, we're talking about $2 billion worth of work. And I think that this is a small drop in a long-term project that I know we all have to work on together. In the same vein, I know this bill doesn't do enough to address the needs that we have for the water department as well. In terms of the question of the 55 million for downtown, I want to talk about a couple of things. And I want to speak directly to some of my residents and my community members that have asked why downtown isn't getting more, why we haven't had more allocated to downtown. I think the community has answered that question for a number of people today. And that is why the number is at the 55 million. So I want to speak and acknowledge that as well. This amendment seeks to do three things. This amendment... Sure, I appreciate that. This committee needs transparency. That's what we're trying to do, sir. Yes, that's what I'm doing. That's exactly what we're trying to do.

This amendment seeks to do three things. Sheila explained it. Let me make sure I'm clear. So we make sure that everybody hears us. We want to hear what they're saying. That's what she's trying to explain. Then we're going to ask questions. This is the amendment process, and that's why I wanted to have the public process prior to this.

Yes. So this amendment seeks to do three things. The first thing that it does is it changes the name of the fund from Downtown Revitalization Fund to the Downtown Plan Fund. The reason that we're changing the name of the fund is in order to be able to speak to a lot of the projects that have already been pre-planned and pre-allocated under this bucket. The Downtown Plan was created with the community in mind, with the residents in mind. And I think one thing that has been really important to acknowledge is that downtown is not just for corporations and corporate partners. downtown is a neighborhood downtown is a place where the community is supposed to be able to come and address and experience all the things that we have and so that is part of the reason why we wanted to change the name of the fund to speak and tie to a particular downtown plan the second thing the amendment does is it streamlines the sub accounts from five to three aligning the downtown fund with the structure of a number of the other funds in this bill the reason we want to streamline the sub accounts is because one i think it addresses for the community a lot of the questions about what the sub accounts are supposed to be allowed for and it also allows us to bring clarity to align the downtown bucket with the other buckets in this bill i want to talk through each of the items in the sub accounts The first sub-account would be the Strategic Major Capitals Fund. It would combine two separate previous allocations in the bill, the first $15 million to address long-term vacancy, and the second $15 million to address streetscape. Again, combining them is intentional. The Design Downtown STL Plan identifies specific strategic areas where target investment could be made, and by putting them together, it allows us to be able to implement some of the strategic targeting that was allowed in the Downtown Plan itself. By combining the vacancy with the infrastructure, we can not only go and address some of the vacant buildings, but we can also bring in the strategic infrastructure needs we need to make, like streetscape and pedestrian access, so that we can activate some of the vacant buildings that we have and bring in and allow people to come and adapt them. That is why we want to bring those together. Other cities have done this really well by doing strategic targeting of vacant buildings in order to allow us to activate them downtown. So that is why we're bringing those together. The third sub-account is the Riverfront Fund. That is $15 million. That will be retained at $15 million. Again, the items outlined in the Riverfront Fund are addressing connectivity, addressing infrastructure needs, and doing catalytic investment. And one of the things I want to acknowledge about the Riverfront is there is a lot of immediate activation need that could be addressed. with the downtown fund in the short term. Just to give an example, there's things like Street Heat 200 happening on Lenore K. Sullivan, which is a city-owned street. We have a beautiful national park and arch grounds, but a city-owned street below it that hasn't had paving, doesn't even have half the streetlights working. That is one of the examples of the riverfront projects that could be addressed. That is what that sub-account is for. The third subaccount is the downtown retail and events fund. This one is combining the previous sports and attraction fund within the retail events fund. That one combines two separate funds because, again, if we think about what brings downtown energy, sports bring people downtown, but restaurants and retail retain people downtown. some of the community members spoke about that and i think that is a good comment to make which is why if we're able to combine these funds we'll be better able to deploy those dollars so this amendment seeks to clarify each sub account and its attended use it hopefully makes the language tighter the purpose clear and accountability clear and it also structures the downtown fund in the same way a lot of the other bills are structured so that we can attract and leverage the private investment um The other thing, you know, that I want to be very clear about is I know that the downtown fund is set to target and attract private investment. And I want to publicly echo something that actually President Green said that I think is really true. The downtown fund is not the only fund in this bill that is set up to be able to leverage and attract private investment. And that's intentional. And I don't think the downtown fund should be the only fund that is getting... I want to be very clear on that from the public. I think that we do need to call on our philanthropic partners to support other aspects of the bill, and I want to say that publicly. That being said, I think it's very important that if we are going to invest in downtown, we invest in downtown the right way. I think we've made previous attempts to put resources in downtown before, and that hasn't worked. And the reason it hasn't worked is because we haven't grounded our investments in downtown from a perspective that focuses on the people. of our city. We focus on targeting corporations and things like that, but we haven't focused on the people. And so I think that is what this does. And that's why I wanted to bring this amendment forward. So I hope the committee will consider it.

OK. All right. We want to.

All right.

Okay, Madam Chair, can I say one more thing? Yeah, I want to acknowledge something that I think Audubon Clark Hubbard that she said is very important, which is that we're all elected here to represent certain constituencies and certain people. I represent the Eighth Ward and that is the reason that I wanted to make sure we brought this bill to be able to bring clarity to the community. But just because I represent the Eighth Ward, it doesn't mean I don't care. what is being said here. It doesn't mean I don't believe in a lot of the work that needs to be done. And so again, I'm bringing this amendment forward because I think people wanted to see changes within the downtown bucket to be able to best address this question so that the bill can be deployed in the right way. And that is the only reason that I'm speaking specifically to this bucket. So thank you Alderman for letting me come speak today.

All right, we'll go ahead and move.

We don't get in.

Shut it down. We don't get in. Shut it down.

Downtown been doing what they been doing for us.

Alderman Cone, did you have any? We'll go ahead and move forward in questions. The residents that are paid downtown. Alderman Cone. Did not have heat over the winter.

They asked you to come to our tent meeting.

Alderman Browning. You were not there. I'm sorry. Alderman Slicer.

Thank you. We talked about this a little bit, all the women, about the precision. The current bill has $15 million laid out for it specifically to address things in the infrastructure of downtown, especially around pedestrian access, sidewalks, ADA plan. These are things that I know just are really important in the city's responsibility. uh i have a concern about coupling the strategic investments in downtown that are largely privately owned buildings with the sidewalks and street improvements that i think was to me the strongest part of the downtown bucket which I think I've made clear to anybody who cares about downtown that the thing that I think is most important for the city to fund downtown is the part that the city is really responsible for, which I think is making sure pedestrians walking around are safe and that the streets are well maintained. So I guess my concern with the amendment as it's written is that by coupling the sort of large scale long-term vacant buildings which we all know could end up draining the entire fund without having any amount specifically to make sure that streets and sidewalk improvements happen I don't think that's a great idea. So I know we've been talking about that back and forth. And I'd be interested in just hearing more from you on that, how to make sure that the streets and sidewalks pedestrian infrastructure is prioritized.

certainly um what i will say is that infrastructure is a major priority of a lot of the downtown improvements i think again the reason that we're trying to couple some of the buckets in the bill is to streamline and simplify what is being addressed i would view infrastructure investment in the same way that i view strategic capital as a whole so taking the city's dollars and putting them toward projects that otherwise wouldn't funding i think when it comes to large vacant buildings as you said the purpose of that portion of the bill is to allow the city if it should need to acquire a vacant building to be able to acquire it so then it would be come into public property and public domain it wouldn't be going toward private buildings so i want to make sure to be clear about that i also agree with you that i think infrastructure is something that is a major priority. Part of the goal of what we want to do is be able to target that infrastructure investment in holistic areas so that the infrastructure investment can be paired with maybe the private acquisition of a vacant building or doing things like environmental sustaining improvements to make the building more appealing to someone to be able to acquire it from the city. So I don't think they would have to operate separately, and I don't think that it would take away from the general infrastructure use of the fund. I think the reason we're trying to couple it is just to streamline that use and better explain what we're trying to do with that.

In another part of the amendment, it does have a clause allowing, you know, with no less than a certain amount for a portion of the third bucket here within... Is this a situation where we could put in some sort of amount that would go to these street projects that we could try to get to?

Yeah, so I know we've discussed that, and again, I'm not opposed to that. I think part of, again, the reason we're trying to keep things a little bit more simple, but if you wanted to potentially allocate a certain amount to be spoken to for infrastructure in that section, I'm not opposed to that idea. However, I think that section in itself and the way it's written would accomplish that.

Okay, yeah, I guess I... Alderman Schwatzer, let me just provide some clarity for the public really quickly. You all will get a chance to comment again after the amendments. So this is not, we're not expecting this to finish, but you all will get a chance to talk before the amendment is officially adopted. I'll just wait. Okay, Alderman Schwatzer. I don't have attitude. My tone is very neutral. If it came across as attitude, that's not my intention. I'm just trying to navigate the community.

Give him a chance now.

Go ahead, Alderwoman Schweitzer.

Yeah. We're going to go.

I make a motion to go into recess.

It's second. It was moved by Alderman Aldridge and seconded by Chair Clark-Hubbard that we go.

We have to vote. Previous role.

All in favor. Aye. Aye. Okay, we're coming back from recess. We'll pick up where we left off.

Alderwoman Schweitzer, you were- Madam Chair, you want me to take a motion to bring us back from recess? I'll make a motion we come back from recess.

Second previous role. Right. It was a motion made for us to come back to recess. I was so ready to get back. By Alderman Aldridge, seconded by Alderman Swizer with a call for previous role with no objection. So we'll go back into the conversation between Alderman Swizer and Alderman Cox-Anthony.

thank you so much um madam chairwoman so we had been talking about um having some sort of um specification in this bill for the downtown funding that a certain amount would be going to uh streets sidewalk uh park type infrastructure uh so that it wouldn't be part of the the major strategic capital fund i apologize

convincing the words there.

But it would still be part of that, but would have a clause about having no less than a certain amount. So the recess is helpful, and that Alderman Cox and Tree and I were able to talk about this a little bit more. And I think that we're at a good place with it. And we have some language, if it's all right with the sponsor of the amendment, too, to add in some language that says, and I apologize.

I left my amendments in my office during recess, I think so.

Thank you. Thank you for sharing this. So amendment number five, section A, wait, see, section B, number one, after line C, That's what we're talking about adding it, right, Alderman?

Yes, that's correct. And just to follow up, Alderman Schweitzer, if you're finished with your comments, I am happy to submit that to the clerk. I think it would add clarity to the component about how infrastructure will be utilized within that section. And so I'm happy to receive with that and continue to take the question. The clerk adds that clarification. Thank you.

I'll wait to come back.

Adam Browning.

Thank you. Other woman Cox and tweet. Similarly, I'm I am concerned I want to make sure that the infrastructure portion of these funds still get spent. I think downtown infrastructure is especially important that we accommodate people with disabilities. And I was wondering just what what portion of the infrastructure is meant to go towards making downtown accessible?

Yes, certainly. I think accommodating ADA accessibility was certainly a priority when we were discussing putting together this car route for the downtown portion. And just to be clear, the infrastructure bucket for downtown is specifically called out because downtown is not eligible for the other portion of the infrastructure bucket. And so I want to make sure to specify that. That being said, I know we have a number of ADA ramps within downtown that are not up to current compliance or nonexistent. And so as we have more people and seek to attract more people, we also have to make sure that the downtown community is accessible to everyone with all mediums of transportation. And so I know the president's office outlined this as a priority as well, and there is a component of that infrastructure component outlined in the downtown build that speaks specifically to ADA support and infrastructure that is outlined in the section that Alderwoman Schweitzer just referenced, which is section one, and it's specifically outlined. While the bill does not outline a number I certainly commit to if we do the $10 million carve out as Alderwoman Schweitzer just outlined, that component would come from that $10 million.

okay thank you i i would be in support of a carve out just to make sure that the money does get spent on infrastructure as as we noted that is a city responsibility uh and you know i want to make sure i know that there's a lot of vacant buildings and it's important to secure those as well but i want to make sure that we're spending the money on how people get around good downtowns have good infrastructure where people can walk bike and you know push a stroller or operate a wheelchair uh it if everyone can use downtown safely then that's that is how it's going to thrive so i appreciate that and would uh be supportive of that change to the language

Yep, and I certainly agree with that. And I think that is, again, part of why we want to make sure that that level of detail is specified within the capital projects component. We are not only wanting to revitalize vacant buildings, we're wanting to make sure that they can be utilized to the ability and be sex accessible with all modes of public transit. So certainly happy to consider that along with Alderman Schweitzer's committee sub to the amendment. Alderman Aldridge.

Thank you, Madam Chair and members of the committee. So this amendment was some in collaboration with myself and Alderwoman Cox-Antuit, her really taking the lead on it. I'm fine with the change that Alderwoman Switzer and Alderwoman Jamie has mentioned. I would just say that it's actually put in an amendment format because it is several words that I did get the email on that I wouldn't be in support of a friendly amendment. So if there's clearly still more amendments to be made, so if you all, I don't think we could do an amendment to a committee sub or amendment to an amendment, but if we can get that amendment in so that it's actually in time like the rest of the amendments that we have been doing, I would support that.

So just to be clear, and I know we're all kind of doing this live, I think the compromise that Alderman Schweitzer and I propose is adding an additional line subsection D to specify the call out. And so could that be considered a friendly amendment or will we need to resubmit the entire one? I guess that's a question for the chairwoman.

I would absolutely accept it as a friendly amendment, but if my colleagues are not comfortable with that, then I would respect, I'm comfortable with that.

I guess I'll be fine, but the email that I got I think is also just I'm assuming these amendments going to drive they for like the public the email that I got It says and I guess I inquire of the Alderman from the 8th the email that I just receives not only it addressed it says section B number one after C and

Yes, that's correct. So in the current amendment form, under the infrastructure component, it says the eligible uses, and then that's Section 1. And then Section A is the same as the original amendment text. Section B is the same as the original amendment text. Section C is the same as the original amendment text. And then it would replace Section D with the specificity to carve out the $10 million. no less than for infrastructure. And then I guess we would need to add Section E, which I omitted in the email. So we would need to change Section D and Section E of the original section.

So that sounds like more than just a word change. I want to make sure that there's no E in the email.

Okay, so I guess we can work to get that added to the drive as an additional full amendment substitute to the current version.

Okay, we have several here, so we can get that done probably in real time. Did you have any questions, Vice Chair Simeon?

I don't have any questions. I think the infrastructure components are really important, so I think it's good to protect those and make sure there's some clarity there.

President Granger.

Thank you, Madam Chairwoman. I want to thank the alderman from the 14th and the alderman for alder woman from the eighth for in particular, making sure that the ADA accessibility component is included in there. This is something that is really important to my office and myself and something that we have long delayed putting into effect. I also just just want to say as this goes through, you know, this this portion of the bill has changed a lot over two years when we first started this conversation two years ago and had a bill that was not too dissimilar to this there was a hundred million dollars in the downtown bucket that was then amended down to 75 million and at that time we only had 40 million in that bill for north side and so the fact that we're at 55 today i think does show a lot of progress of this body in the way that we have organized our priorities in this bill. And I know Alderwoman Cox-Antwee and Alderman Aldridge, we've all had to have some very tough conversations and I appreciate that in the way that we have gotten to where we are on this bill. So I support this amendment.

All right, so what we'll do is table that one for now while you work on that and move now to Alderman Cohn. You're recognized on Amendment 6.

All right. Amendment 5 addresses Amendment 6, so I'm just going to allow them to make the updates and you can move on to the next amendment, Madam Chair.

Alderman Cohn, we can't hear you.

He asked to hold on that one until after 5. So we move to recognize the woman signed yay on Amendment 7.

Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the committee. Amendment number seven essentially proposes that we take the interest funds from the downtown fund that would be generated and that we move that to the tornado impacted fund. I think we've had a number of conversations and been talking about this for a long time, that it's important that every dollar that we can, I've spoken to you know, every member on this committee about this. And I've been very vocal that I think when it comes to the RAMP settlement dollars, the difference between the downtown bucket and the water bucket versus the tornado recovery bucket and North City bucket is that there are other economic opportunities for these other buckets. For the tornado impacted bucket, we really cannot guarantee that there will be, we know what's going on with FEMA that is actively being dismantled. We know that we're in a process of trying to get state funds to trickle down, but it is a long process. We're not sure what's going to happen. ram settlement dollars are really the only dollars that we kind of have direct control over and know what's going to happen i know that there are a lot of um interest and a lot of desires in these dollars and so i think as opposed to other options that were on the table from talking to my colleagues it just seemed like the best way to try to get whatever additional money we could would be to essentially take the interest that is in the downtown pocket and move it to the tornado impacted bucket and again i'm certainly open to questions but My primary reason for doing so is, again, that we are not sure how other funds will go, but we know that we have thousands of folks who are displaced right now who are in need of every dollar that they can get. We know that as far as the downtown, there are some other economic opportunities. There are several pieces of legislation that have moved up the state. There are several SIDS. There are special business districts and things of that nature that can help to fund downtown, and those economic opportunities simply do not exist in North City and in the tornado-impacted area. What I did want to say is a question for the chairs right now. The amendment in front of us says it would be from July 1st, 2020, that this would go until July 1st, 2028 for two years. I would like to do a friendly amendment to make it to 2030 for four years, pending that that is okay with the committee. If the committee is uncomfortable with that, I do have an amendment in the drive that has 2030, and I can certainly send that to the clerk and we can come back and revisit it at the end.

I'm okay with going ahead and talking about that now. Alderman Cohn.

You're not on the mic.

thank you i i don't have any questions but i know the alderman and i had previously discussed the uh two periods we had previously discussed the you know period that's on the amendment the text of the amendment um you know i would just need to have more time to you know discuss and deliberate with respect to you know the potential impact of that it's not that i'm opposed to it but you know i think that that's something that I think we could take up on the floor after committee, but I'm certainly supportive of the amendment as it's currently written.

In response to that, I would say like my preference, I think that it is committee is where the work happens. And I would prefer for this change to be made here. If the committee would like to vote down the amendment that were proposed for four years, and perhaps I would be willing to bring it back up. But I do prefer for us to go ahead and have the four year conversation right now. I think we just amended an entire bucket for downtown and made some changes. language changes there and kind of did in a friendly fashion if this amendment form as far as doing a friendly amendment is not welcomed by the committee that's fine but i do prefer for us to have this four-year conversation um you know right now and again i think there are they're being asked for other things to be touched like the actual bucket of 50 50 of 55 million dollars and so just going for the interest i think is as fair as a needle that can be threaded here So I do want to have the conversation, Madam Chairwoman, about the four years. And if the committee wants to vote down four years, then I can bring up the two years.

Just a point of clarification. We have not yet taken a vote on the downtown amendment.

Yeah, I think he needed to do a motion to withdraw his amendment and withdraw the second. And then I think Alderwoman from the seventh needs to make a motion on her amendment.

So, yeah, before I make a motion, yeah, I want to echo what Alderman Cohn said. The changes that was made, one of the downtown one, one hasn't been adopted, and two, those conversations happened prior, ahead of time. That's, we're in the drive, and... But yes, we have not adopted amendment number five because it won't be a friendly amendment. All the women from the first and all the women from the eighth are working on the actual language to then make sure that that encompass amendment number five. But I would draw my motion to adopt amendment number five.

So another. Madam Clerk, do you remember who seconded that motion? Alderman Browning. Okay. So now we're back on amendment number seven.

Okay.

I think the first point of clarification would be just from the committee, do you all prefer for me to send in the other amendment that would, you know, formally have July 1st, 2030 to make this four years and discuss the two year and the four year options separately? Or are you all comfortable with a friendly amendment to make 2028, 2030? I think that's the first point that has to be committee consensus on.

I'm comfortable with a friendly amendment or any, with discussing rather the friendly amendment. Are you all, is anybody opposed to that so we can continue discussion? Okay. So right now we are, with the Friendly Amendment, Madam Clerk, make sure you state how you're changing it on the record.

Yes. So with the Friendly Amendment that will be happening, there's specifically a line that says, all interest earned on funds held in the Downtown Revitalization Fund shall be allocated annually to the Long-Term Tornado Recovery Fund until July 1, 2028. The Friendly Amendment will be to change that to 2030. It further says all interest earned on or after July 1st, 2028 and all repayments made on loans from passage of the ordinance shall be retained in its original sub account within a downtown revitalization fund until appropriated according to the provisions of this ordinance. So that 2028 number will also be changed to 2030.

I don't want to slice them.

Thank you. Thank you so much for this amendment. I think President Green spoke a little bit about it at the podium, but how much are you all anticipating additional this would bring in or could bring in?

If we make the friendly, then we anticipate that it will bring in at least another $5 million, which is my interest for moving from two years to four years. We have one amendment that proposed 10 years that would take us from 110 to 120, and this amendment will hopefully take us from 120 to 125. Again, it is contingent because this is based upon the interest that the fund draws, and so it will follow the pace that the downtown pace moves, and obviously the more things that are moved out of that fund, the less interest that are acute. But my interest in wanting to do that friendly amendment is hopefully to at least get us to a $125 million point for the tornado recovery fund.

Okay. Those are my questions. Thank you.

Alderman Aldridge.

Alderman Browning first.

Oh, I'm sorry. Alderman Browning.

Thank you. I guess I don't think I have any questions.

Back to Alderman Aldridge.

Thank you, Madam Chair. No, I will support the four years. I would say if this committee vote on it, if we're doing like that, I mean, I don't see why not then, you know, have an amendment afterwards that make it just indefinite for the funds, which I was kind of asked in the call. So I support the four years. And if that's the appetite, I think, you know, let's just do indefinite. It does not TAKE AWAY FROM THE 55 MILLION BUT IT WILL MAKE ALL THE INTERESTS THAT ARE ON THE DOWNTOWN BUCKET GO TO NORTH SIDE I AM FULLY OPEN TO THAT CONVERSATION THE COMMITTEE IS OPEN FOR THAT PRESIDENT GREEN I'M GOOD WITH THE AMENDMENT ALL RIGHT DO WE MOVE YOU WANT TO MAKE THE MOTION

I would like to make a motion that we pass amendment number seven with the friendly of changing first to 30 to board bill 22 as amended. Second.

Madam Clark, please call the roll. Alderman Cohn.

Aye.

Alderman Schweitzer.

Aye.

Vice Chair Sonnier. Aye. Alderman Browning.

Aye.

Alderman Aldrich.

Aye.

Chair Clark Hubbard.

Aye.

President Green?

Aye.

We have seven aye votes.

All right. Let's move forward to Alderman Aldridge on Amendment 8.

So Amendment 8 would not touch the Amendment 5 part. So Amendment 8 on page 7 of 21 is in section 6. What it does is strikes out a revitalization fund and just insert the downtown neighborhood plan fund because once we adopt Amendment 5, those name changes. So we want to make sure that reflects in the rest of the bill and open up for any questions.

Alderman Cohn. Alderman Weiser. No questions. Alderman Browning.

No questions.

Vice Chair Sayeh. No questions. President Green. No questions. All right. You're welcome, folks.

I renew my motion. I make a motion we adopt Amendment 8 to Board Bill 22 as amended.

Second. It was moved by Alderman Aldridge, seconded by Vice Chair Sonnier that we adopt Amendment Number 8. Madam Clerk, please call the roll. Alderman Cohn.

Aye.

Alderman Switzer. Aye. Vice Chair Sonnier. Aye. Alderman Browning.

Aye.

Alderman Aldridge.

Aye.

Chair Clark Hubbard. Aye. President Green. Aye. You have seven aye votes.

All right. Moving now to Amendment nine, Alderman Switzer.

Thank you so much. Amendment 9 is regarding the recreation centers and the public infrastructure section of the bill. Right now the recreation centers that are allowed because of their location within EJI 1, 2, and 3 leaves out the 12th and Park Recreation Center and the Crandallet Park Recreation Center. Out of all the recreation centers in the city, it makes it so those ones are not eligible to receive any of this funding. You know, I think people who go to recreation centers in the city of St. Louis come from all over the city and go to the recreation center that's, you know, usually closest to their home or where they happen to be. And I know both of those recreation centers do serve many people who live in EJI areas. 1, 2, and 3. So I just want to make sure that the city-owned buildings, the city-owned recreation centers all have access to these funds and are not limited based on whether they're on one side of a line or another. So with that, I would move to adopt amendment number 9 to board bill 22.

Second.

As amended. Thank you.

Second. We'll go ahead and go down the line. Alderman Cohn.

Yeah, I'm... not really supportive of the amendment as it's written i i don't believe that that should be stricken out i do think that we can amend it so that it prioritizes funding and eji1 eji2 but just removing that all together i i think is problematic um you know traditionally those are areas that have seen the largest amount of disinvestment, so we should try to prioritize our public funding as much as possible using the Economic Justice Index. So I would be opposed to the amendment as it's currently written.

Alderman Browning.

Thank you. I'm in favor of this amendment. I think Alderman Schweitzer is right that rec centers are used by everyone in the city. I mean, maybe you go to school near it. Maybe you work near it. Like you end up at a rec center. I can't count how many times I've ended up at the O'Fallon Rec Center. uh like it's important to uh make sure that every single one of these centers is supported and um i don't know that the egi takes into account the condition of each rec center and so i want to make sure this money goes towards supporting i mean this this is literally the part that's supporting our youth so i'd like to make sure that we do that for everyone adam and aldrich

Thank you. Will the Aldo woman be here for questions?

Please.

So by removing this language, what are the ones that are barred from this?

The 12th and Park Rec Center and the Crandallette Park Rec Center.

Okay. And I know 12th and Park may be like Southside, but it is in an area where a lot of residents in Peabody, which majority black would not be able to tap into this funds with the current language. And I think we had somebody here from the public talk about how young people are at 12th and Park right now. So with this language that is in 12th and Park in a predominantly black neighborhood would not be prioritized for being able to get funds, correct?

it would not be able to access it at all.

Okay, well, I support it. Thank you.

Vice Chair Sayeh.

I guess for clarity, Alderwoman Schweitzer, can you speak to what this changes as far as the eligibility wouldn't be prohibited from getting the funds? And can you clarify that my understanding is correct that one of those recreation centers are across from the P-Body, the Clinton P-Body?

Yeah, the 12th and 12th and Park.

I guess because of the way the EGI map is designed that that is cut out. I do tend to lean towards Alderman Cohn's viewing of the importance of the EGI language when we're given resources, but I'm also, I know that that recreation center is kind of in bad shape and it's right across from, you know, the public housing and it's definitely important to our city. So I just wanted to make sure that we had on record how that would actually impact the bill is that it would basically allow the two recreation centers that are carved out based on EGI to be allowed in and make sure that it was on record that one of those are across

from um you know a place that is definitely in the eji center but i guess because across the street it doesn't quite fit within the metrics and the ajai plan so thank you for that clarity on the woman thank you president green thank you i do just want to clarify that the language in the bill before this does say shall be prioritized by the following criteria so it's not that other places couldn't get funding as it's written right now it's that we would PRIORITIZED BASED UPON EJI 1, 2, AND 3. I JUST WANTED TO CLARIFY THAT. I DO SUPPORT THIS AMENDMENT. I DON'T THINK IT MAKES SENSE TO LEAVE TWO REC CENTERS OUT OF THE ENTIRETY OF REC CENTERS IN OUR CITY OUT OF ELIGIBILITY. or out of prioritization, especially 12th and Park, we know is right across from Peabody and a lot of kids use that and it definitely needs some repairs. So I do support this.

Thank you. Did anybody have any follow-up questions about that?

Go ahead, Adam McCall. Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to make sure that I'm reading the same language here. And Board Bill 22, page 18. So the way that, Madam President, you just said that it's written so that its recreation centers are prioritized. But the way the bill is currently written says that it would only be recreation centers that are located in high need areas, as indicated and measured by the EJI. So one of the suggestions that I was hoping for was that we could, instead of removing the EJI altogether, was to do exactly what you were asking or stating was in the bill, which is not, but adding language saying that we should be prioritizing the funding for those areas that are on the EJI that are listed as high need. So instead of striking it all together, which is what this amendment would do, I was hoping that we could do the amendment so that it would simply say that it would prioritize rec centers that are in those EGI areas that are of most need.

Can I respond to that real fast? If you look at page 18, line 9 and 10, it says fund prioritization capital projects shall be prioritized by the following relevant criteria. And then it goes to D, recreation centers located in the EJI. So it is prioritized. right now, we would just be striking out the EJI-123 because it only leaves out, it leaves out just two rec centers right now.

So if that's... If that's the way it's written, then I think I would still remain opposed to the amendment because we still have the opportunity to fund those other two rec centers. This would just be prioritizing rec centers based off of the disinvestment that those communities around them have also seen. So I would be opposed to the amendment as it's currently written, remain opposed.

Yeah, I appreciate that, Alderman Cohn, and I see what you're saying and what the argument you're making is that the available in page 17, line one, it says available monies within the public infrastructure fund shall be used exclusively for the purposes of, and then it lists many things, but seven is supporting the redevelopment of recreation centers. And then it goes into fund prioritization. So that's section four. And then that talks about recreation centers, which are located in high need areas. So I guess there's two things here.

I don't know if you're listening to me.

Okay. One is that rec centers in general are listed as eligible use, which is important. But then the fund prioritization, I don't want to unintentionally remove recreation centers from the number four thing listed on the fund prioritization. So earlier, you recommended something specific in terms of line number four, number D. So taking the amendment that I have, how would you have that read? I don't have it in front of me.

I believe I recommended doing a friendly amendment. So on your amendment number nine, it would say beginning on page 18, line 19, And it would strike out the term strike out and I would say include the following words and figures and then after recreation project recreation Center projects insert the language. which should be prioritized based off of their location on high need areas so like.

So it's because I guess, I would say that it's. I want to keep recreation centers as one of the priorities of the fund. Because if we strike that whole section, it takes it out as one of the priorities of the fund, which is not what I want to do. So I appreciate you flagging that. I guess because of the use of these recreation centers across the city, I don't know the conditions of all of them to know how it should be prioritized based on an infrastructure need. So I don't know if I'd want to keep the EJI language and perhaps it should just have the recreation center projects and that's it. so that it's still a priority of the fund, but it gets to the point that I'm trying to make that I don't want these two recreation centers to not be included, if that's sort of a kind of mid-level compromise.

Yeah. Sorry, Alderwoman. I've always agreed that all rec centers should be applicable for the funding. City Council Chambers, But I do remain firm that I think that we should be right, you know prioritizing the off of the ej I the economic justice index. City Council Chambers, So you know i'm happy to work on a an amendment with you, if you want to continue the conversation with the other amendments for the bill as well.

sure i think that alderman cohen has made some good points and i want to be respectful of of that um while still making sure that um just recreation centers in general are prioritized within this fund um so madam thank you so i guess for my amendment madam clerk um is to strike out every uh everything do you mind if i um so on the amendment Instead of where it says strike out the following words and figures, recreation center projects, striking out after that so that I can bring it over and show it to you, but that it would allow all recreation centers to be listed as item D in fund prioritization instead of having anything clarifying that certain recreation centers would not be able to be funded. Yeah. I don't know if you can hear me. Thank you. . yeah I would open it up to I guess members of the committee with whether or not I think there's definitely reason to specifically just allow recreation center projects period and I understand my colleagues desire to have some prioritization language so since we're talking this through I'd love to hear from other people if you all have preferences I think

Madam Chair, can I offer commentary on this amendment since 12th and Park Center was raised?

Go ahead.

Thank you. I just want to add the commentary. I do think having special prioritization for high needs areas would be beneficial, especially for some of the rec centers. Just to add context for some of the alders that aren't familiar, 12th and Park is technically located in the LaSalle Park neighborhood, which is covered in the EGI Index 2. So under the current language, 12th and Park would be covered. I would also say that because it attracts a lot of individuals from Clinton Peabody, LaSalle Park, King Louis Square, I would equate the need in terms of the disinvestment of the center itself to be just as strong as some of the high needs areas. And so I would advocate for having that priority in the bill. because I do think even though it's located on the south side, it is a predominantly black community. There is a lot of disinvestment in the current conditions of the rec center. And so I think it would benefit from a lot of the infrastructure allocation that's currently in the bill. I can't speak to Carondelet, Alderwoman Schweitzer, but I know that EJI 2 and EJI 4 are in that area. So maybe an expansion of just including EJI 4 would address some of the things that you raised as well.

Anyone else? Oh, Alderman Browning.

I might be in the minority here, but I feel like... egi is not the proper measure here i think it's already out of date uh and we're really not talking about some static things here people from different areas to point out use these rec centers i i think we would actually be benefited here by having a depart the the parks department here to talk about this because we could then discuss what are the measured needs of each rec center I mean, it might be that there's a rec center in EGI one area that is fine, but there are other things that need to be done in something that doesn't qualify. And it would, you know, if we had, you know, Director Hayes here or Commissioner Hayes or anybody under a staff here to talk about it, it might be very beneficial to knowing what's needed at each rec center and how they would prioritize some of the funds. So I think we're having a conversation in the dark here and not really speaking to the needs that it

Yeah, well, to his credit, say he was here earlier. And then, you know, so the safest part for that then I think would be to do what you said, I don't know, with keeping it flexible enough with recreation center projects, unless you're not comfortable with that. And then if we hear back on something different, knowing that now all the recreation centers absolutely can access um this funding and it'll be left up um to their direction uh anyway right then we if he if he calls back and says that that's that we should maybe do something to think about that differently to your point then we can work on that on the floor okay ottoman aldridge

And to that, I mean, I would also say maybe we need to look at the EGI language, because I do believe that it is separated on Tucker Street, so 12th and Park actually fits in EIJ 5. instead of two. So there could be a possibility with Peabody being on the north side is in two, but the rec center is on the south side, which will fall it in five. So in my opinion, I think what the Alderman is trying to do is, Alderman from the 8th, if you probably look at the map by the parcel, you'll see that that rec center may fall at five, which would not be considered EGI 2.

I believe that is correct. Right.

I guess now I'm kind of confused. I would like some clarity. Can we pull up a map and look at the EJI index? Does the specific recreation center that is near the Peabody housing, which economic justice index is it in?

My understanding is it is not an EJI 1, 2, or 3. Yeah, I think, are you finished?

Yeah, I mean, for me, I would love to hear from the alderwoman of the 8th again, given that this is within her area and given that I would assume you're probably the one that maybe is the most familiar maybe with the current state, given that the staff is not here to speak to it. I would be very curious on what your specific thoughts are. I would say off the top of my head, I definitely feel like that recreation center should be included because there are so many children that live within that housing project, but I think you might be able to speak better to the current state and condition of that recreation center in a way that I can. So I would be curious to that, but I will say just in terms of the conversation, that is an area where there are primarily black families, black children that are lower income that use that recreation center. So I definitely would want to see something that would make sure they do it. Then again, to Alderman Cohn's point, from my understanding, the current language does not disqualify that recreation center and so I would say like with the clarity from the Alderman of the 8th if she feels that the current condition is okay and the current language would allow for it to be eligible for investment then I would probably lean with Alderman Cohn on this particular matter.

Thank you. I appreciate that. I think and I appreciate the ultimate and the 14th clarification. As I read the current EJI index, when they name specific neighborhoods that are referenced, they name LaSalle Park under EJI too. So that is where I pulled that reference from. But again, I would be happy to see clarity on that from one of the department experts. That being said, having been in the recreation center recently, I do think it hasn't seen any major improvements in a very, very long time. It has a deteriorated gym, which a lot of children use for practices, things of that nature. It also has the playground within the LaSalle Park area itself that could use improvements. I think there's a lot of maintenance issues that need to be addressed in some of plumbing and piping. And so I do think it would certainly benefit from some of the allocation from the settlement funds. That being said, I think your instinct is right. Since this is a prioritization, maybe Alderman Cohn's recommendation is the best current path for now. because it does not preclude it. But I think striking it all together would eliminate the actual prioritizations of areas that maybe need more need. And so I don't want to get rid of that consideration altogether as the department heads prioritize how funding is, because I do think this rec center would rise to the top in terms of current improvement needs that it has.

Thank you.

Yes. I appreciate the conversation. I just keep coming back to I don't want to let any rec center that needs the improvements not be eligible or be less likely to receive the funds. So I would like the amendment to leave in the words recreation center projects and then strike the words after that on Line 19. So it would just say in the prioritization language that recreation centers would be prioritized.

Any other discussion?

Oh, I'm sorry. Taking everybody's stuff.

Madam Clerk, you can call the roll.

Alderman Cohn?

No.

Alderman Switzer? Aye. Vice Chair Sonnier? No. Alderman Browning?

Aye.

Alderman Aldridge? Aye. Chair Clark Hubbard?

Aye.

President Green?

Aye.

Five aye votes, two no votes.

All right. With that, we are going to amendment number 10. Alderman Ms. Weiser.

Thank you. This amendment is adding a section seven regarding the private partnership reporting. One of the things we've heard a lot about the match language for the downtown funds is that there isn't really anything in the bill that talks about what the matches will be and where this information is coming from. I think we've all heard it in testimony and we've heard it in our inbox and we've received letters affirming that, but it's not in the specific bill. And I think that would be really important to have it in the specific bill. So section seven, It adds private partnership reporting that the chair of the Board of Aldermen Budget and Public Employees Committee would request that any private non-governmental entity facilitating an agreement to match the funds for any of the purposes in the ordinance. they would be required to develop or they would be asked to develop and share an annual report detailing the progress of the match and the use of the funds and would present it to that committee. I would also attach as an exhibit the letter that we received from Greater St. Louis Managing Partner Ron Kitchens that goes through the $55 million in the downtown fund and what they are committing to match. so that it would be something that is in the bill and something viewable by the public and part of a sort of Enshrining of the commitment that's been made.

So with that I would move that we adopt amendment number 10 Moved by Alderman Slicer, seconded by Alderman Aldridge. We'll go through Alderman Cohn No questions at this time We don't need Alderman Schweitzer, so Alderman Browning.