Board of Aldermen - Regular Meeting

order. If you would please stand and join me in the pledge. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [clears throat] Hey, would you do a roll call, please? Mayor Pine, here. Alderwoman Do here. Alderman Fagi here. Alderman Donovan here. Alderman Huy here. Alderman Idman here. Alderman Stiger here. Alderman Prince here. Alderman Ross. Mayor, we have a quorum.

Thank you very much. At this time, I will look for approval of tonight's agenda. Motion to approve. Slow down. Second. Okay, I have a motion and a second. All in favor? I.

Any opposed? Wonderful. Um so to kick off tonight's meeting um Alderman Fehee had approached me I want to say last year uh in discussion to kind of highlight either people or multiple people entities anybody that's um going above and beyond to um obviously improve and make our community what it is. and we are calling this the mayoral merit award and we're seeking to recognize people throughout the community for their achievements and their contributions and this will be our first and um we could think of nobody better than Mr. Bill Nagger. [applause] So, uh Bill, we thank you. This is a way of thanking you. I know it's it's a nice p like I said it's a piece of paper and a frame but I'm going to read all of the things that you've done and obviously there's many more but we're going to go through a few of them. Okay. I'm going to skip some of the wherees. All right. This is an official proclamation of the office of mayor of the city of St. Genevieve. Whereas the city of St. Genevieve takes great pride in recognizing individuals whose dedication, service, and leadership strengthen the community and exemplify the highest ideals of civic responsibility. Local son Bill Nagger has spent much of his life chronicling St. Genevieve and giving back to his community. And Bill served as staff photographer and reporter for the St. Genevieve Herald in the early 1980s. I didn't know that.

Very cool. Bill operated Bill's photo lab from 1990 to 2004 and the Merchant Street Gallery from 2009 to the present. Bill provides the historical photographs that are displayed in many businesses throughout St. Genevie. Bill also photographed and videotaped the 1993 flood and produced the film, excuse me, Saving St. Genevie. Bill co-authored the 1999 book, A Leisurely Stroll Through History, which beautifully highlights St. Genevie's history, architecture, festivals, local traditions, and people. Phil has promoted the humanities in St. Genevie throughout his participation in plays, creating films, authoring books, photographing our town, and portraying famous characters such as Mark Twain, Henry Brackenidge, and Ferdinand Roger. Bill gave back to the community by serving on the SGCA TV board and as president of the Performing Arts Council. Bill has served community youth as troop 404 scoutmaster and by assisting his wife Patty, teaching children to sing and perform French and German songs in the community and throughout Missouri. Bill has served as the master of ceremonies for the opening of Jeret Kings Ball and the French Heritage Festival. Bill was a leading force in celebrating St. Genevieve's German heritage organizing the Deutsch Deutsch Tagg sorry festivals liver dumpling cookoffs and development of the mascot Oliver Dumpling. Bill and his wife Patty received the Chamber Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011. Bill was also crowned the king at the King's Ball in 2008 and 2016 and named Chevier. Is that right? Chevalier. I they me we're [clears throat] going German to French stuff.

Uh Shioalier of St. Genevieve in 1999. The Foundation for Restoration of St. Genevieve awarded Bill and Patty the Distinguished Service Award in 2009, stating that their dedication to the community and its history provides an outstanding example of giving back to your town. The editor of the Herald described Bill and Patty as natural ambassadors of goodwill for St. Genevieve and are two of our famous faces in the world at large.

Now therefore be resolved by the mayor and board of alderman of the city of St. Genevie, Missouri. This hereby confer upon Bill Nagger the mayoral merit award in recognition of his outstanding service, dedication and contributions to our community. And be it further resolved that his resolution become official record of the city of St. Genevieve and that a copy be presented to Bill Nagger as a symbol of the city's sincere appreciation and gratitude. Bill [applause] over here, gentlemen. Let's see. 3 2 1 Sorry. SURE. [applause]

WOW. I'm glad you left a warehouse. I don't see how many there are. I've forgotten some of this stuff. [laughter] Thank you all. Thank you. Thanks, Bill.

That's the best part of this job. Hello. Yeah. Well done. Well done here. All right, let's move along to more good things, right? An audit. Have a personal appearance tonight. We have Jeffrey Stroer, uh, CPA with BCNK Row and Stroer, uh, to present the annual audit report. How we doing?

Just fine. Uh thank you very much. Uh appreciate the opportunity to come visit with you. Uh that was very interesting to hear though and I'm afraid all I've got government finance moving here is interesting but I'll try to make the best of it. Um now we like I said want to thank you for the opportunity to do the audit for the city again this year. We appreciate that. Um, I think some of you may not have heard my uh discussion before, but I I I see some faces I recognize. So, I'll try to I'll try to hit all the points, but I'll try to also be as brief as possible and not make you have to be here any longer than you have to be. Um, what we've got is uh two reports that we issue about your financial statements uh for our audit. The first report that we issue, it starts out by explaining that it is our opinion that the financial statements of the governmental activities, business type activities, each major fund and the aggregate remaining funds present fairly in all material respects the assets, liabilities, revenues, and expenses of the city in accordance with modified cash basis of accounting. I promise you I will not read any more to you out of this report, but I wanted to get that sentence right because that sentence is what makes this an unmodified opinion or clean opinion on your financial statements.

Is this the first time you've done audited this city? No. No, sir. How many time how many years have you done it?

Oh, that's a good question. And I think we first performed the audit probably around 1997 or so and we did the audit up until 2018 2019 and then another firm was doing it for a while and I think this is our fourth year back third or fourth year back. So, but uh the the report it's fascinating read. It goes on to explain the standards that I adhere to while I conducted the audit, the city's responsibilities for the financial statements, my responsibilities as the auditor. I won't bore you with all those pages of that information, but it's in there. Um it it it finishes up by explaining that whenever I conduct an audit in accordance with government auditing standards, I'm responsible for another report. Now, this report has to do with the city's internal controls over how we record transactions and process the information to be able to put it together and make financial statements. Uh the report also has to do with the city's compliance with various laws and regulations, contracts, grant agreements, things of that nature that we're going to test for compliance. The first part, like I said, has to do with the internal controls. it. Uh we don't actually give an opinion on those internal controls, but to be able to conduct the audit, we have to understand what controls are in place, how they're designed, and whether or not they're working. So, while we're finding that out, if we would find anything that we would consider to be a deficiency, this is where we would report that. And it explains that we found no deficiencies uh with the design or the operation of the internal controls. Um the second part of that report had to do with compliance. So we are testing a variety of different u uh compliance with different laws. Like I mentioned, we had one thing that we had to point out this

year with the area of compliance. Now in in the overall scheme of things, I'll let you decide how big of a deal this is. In my opinion, this is kind of a technicality, but it was a statute, so we had to we had to make mention of it. the the city had deficit budgeted for three different funds. Now, deficit spending is perfectly fine to do um as long as you've got enough balances left over from the previous year, you can spend as much as you bring in plus what you had left over. Deficit spending is perfectly fine. Deficit budgeting is when you prepare your budget and you plan to spend, you can plan to spend everything that you're going to bring in plus what you had left over from the previous year. For three funds, what we actually budgeted for was more than what we had available in those three. So, I believe this was probably just a a technicality. I think it was overlooked when we were making budget amendments at the end of the year. What uh what I believe happened what appears from our perspective it looks like that we were amending the budget because we had additional money come in during the year that was available. We had projects we wanted to spend it on. We amended the budget to add those additional expenditures. Looks like we forgot to amend the revenues. So we had the original amount of money on hand at the beginning of the year. we had a smaller amount of of money budgeted for revenues. It turns out we got more than that. We increased the expenditures. We spent what we had. We didn't go in the hole. We we didn't bounce checks or anything like that. But that that budget, if you look back at that, now it's it's a negative number uh for the end of the year. And that's a violation of one of the parts of the statute. So

that's what I wanted to explain to you what happened. Like I said, it it wasn't that money was missing or money was spent where it wasn't supposed to be or or monies that weren't supposed to be spent were spent. It was nothing like that. It was more just the the mathematical process of the budget amendments. So, that was the only instance of non-compliance that we found with all of the tests that we performed. So, the rest of the information is the actual financial statements themselves. Um, you know, I normally don't spend a lot of time going back over the numbers. Um I know you're familiar with your numbers. You you get the reports. Um one of the things that I uh do normally offer uh about the numbers that you might find this more useful information is that uh I started out by explaining that is our opinion the financial statements are fairly stated in all material respects. Sometimes when I'm [clears throat] working on an audit, before I can get there, we might have to recommend a lot of adjustments be made to the financial statements. So, what I wanted to offer you was that we did not recommend significant adjustments to the numbers. So, to me, that would be important because that would tell me if I were in your position that the numbers I was relying on to make decisions uh were materially fairly stated. Um, like I said, they didn't require a lot of adjustment to be able to put the put the opinion on it. So, uh, that's one thing I wanted to share with you. Um, that that's that's a pretty good thing. Um, this year there were no new standards that would significantly impact the financial statements. They're going to be consistent comparative to the previous years. Um, the uh um the actual financial condition, I generally don't make a lot of judgment calls on that. That's what you're elected for. Uh but to let you know that the information that you do have is reliable uh and like we said fairly stated. The uh um

probably the most significant activity that jumped out to us was uh obviously uh the activity in the capital projects funds. You issued bonds during the year the money had come in. We were just kind of getting started at September uh on [clears throat] making the expenditure. So that's kind of that's the the one area where things look kind of different from uh the previous year. But otherwise, uh, modest and continued growth in the water and sewer funds. Um, nothing really jumped out at us to cause any concern. So, I just wanted to pass that along with you, uh, as kind of a byproduct of the audit. [clears throat] So, that tried to make kind of a a quick version of what we what we've got in the report. Uh, you know, if anybody has any questions for me about what we did or how we went about doing what we were doing or what we found, I'd be more than happy to try to answer any questions.

I just u um want to check when you talk about controls are in in place with all that. You know, I uh I live not far from Dixon, Illinois, and that it's a nightmare scenario that I encourage. What's the name of the movie? All the horses. All the queen horse alderman would be well worth looking at that on Netflix. That's wild. So that's required viewing at our office. Yeah. [laughter] Um so that we have the controls meaning there's not one person can write a check or is in charge. So we

Exactly. That's uh one of the one of the the biggest controls that we look for in any audit that we're working on is is there an adequate segregation of duties. And what we're concerned with is if one person can physically handle money and record transactions in the books or they do either one of those duties and have the oversight responsibility for reviewing the financial statements or uh checking bank reconciliations. You know, we we believe that those duties need to be at least segregated. So, you know, it doesn't completely eliminate the risk that something could happen, but by making it to where two people would have to clue together greatly reduces your risk.

Uh so we look at the segregation of duties not only on expenditures and money going out but we look at the the the controls over how money is handled coming in and uh we felt that the u the controls were appropriately designed

and then do you go to the bank and look and see that indeed the money is in the bank as described. We do the next best thing. We send a request to the bank asking them to fill out what the balances are on every single account uh that the city has in their name. We send that to every bank that the city has deposits with and uh ask them to to list for us what the balances are on every account that they have associated with your federal ID number. I found the information that um you had talked about the three funds and stuff, but right underneath that condition of the transportation, park and recreation on downtown TIFF, but you also talk about the water fund. Um the actual expenditure exceeded the approved budget in the water fund by 42,000. So why is that different? Uh that's there's two things that we're testing there. Whenever we're testing budgets, we're testing the was there deficit budgeting and we're also looking to see if there was uh excess [clears throat] spending. And I'm so glad you brought that up because I I failed to get that in my notes and I apologize for that. I should have mentioned that. Um wasn't trying to hide it from you. I just overlooked it. um the for that fund the actual expenditures were greater than what the um uh the budget had provided for and I believe the reason for that was there was some adjustments made during the audit where some expenditures had been paid for in one fund should have been paid for in the uh or recognized in the water fund. So we re um actually we didn't we were in the preparations for the audit and we were having discussions with the um the treasurer and we found that those expenditures had been

recorded in one fund. We recommended they ought to be moved over to the other fund. I believe the budget amendments had already been done at that point. Okay. Yep. Thanks. Any other questions, comments?

All right. Well, a lot of times at this point, I think some of you have heard me say this before and it is the case. A lot [clears throat] of times if it's not the case, I just thank everybody and and excuse myself from the meeting. But when it is the case, I like to pass along to you uh that we get the opportunity to be here for several days while we're conducting our audit working directly with a lot of people uh within the city to uh that that are responsible. And I just want to pass along that our experience working with these people has been that everybody we work with is very professional uh very helpful very courteous courteous. It's obvious that people are um intentional about trying to do things the right way and that's our experience with the people that you've put in place to be responsible for things. I just wanted to share that with you that that that was our experience. So

who are the people that are the most hands-on with our monies? Sue first. I was say probably the the person that we um aggravate the most would be Sue. So [clears throat] Miss Pam's responsible for a lot of the compliance things that we're testing. So um uh yeah, Mr. David, uh we um get a lot of the information from you. So that's it. We run the whole finances run with Sue and doing most of it and a little Pam and there's nobody outside or anybody.

That's mostly where our contacts are, but I know that there's uh uh people involved in the internal controls, department heads, uh approving expenditures, uh you know, we're we're seeing documentation of uh a lot of people uh being involved. Great. Well, it's wonderful to hear as always, but thank you again for all the work you do. Appreciate it. Oh, well, thank you all very much. Appreciate it. Thank [clears throat] you. Thanks, Joe. All right. And then next up tonight, uh, we have Ashley Krider from the St. Genevie Housing Authority. She is going to present their annual report. Welcome, Ashley.

Thank you. Hello.

Okay, I'm going to try really hard. Last year I talked really fast and I felt like I just got nervous so I'm more prepared. Good evening. My name is Ashlin. I've been the director at St. Jen Housing Authority for the past three years. I would like to start off by thanking everybody who has assisted the housing authority and myself so that we were able to continue our mission. Our housing mission is to ensure a safe, decent, and affordable housing for all eligible families and individuals. In hopes we can continue to provide this. We we are creating opportunities for low-income families to have the basic necessity of life, a stable home that they can afford. Our goals for this previous year, we were able to install um all new bathtubs and a couple showers for the uh handicap units in each unit. We replaced five roofs. And then for the upcoming and future years, we will continue to replace roofs. And we are looking into expanding some parking options and hopefully finding a home for a basketball court. Hopefully. um statistics. There is approximately 124 housing authorities in the state of Missouri. Don't quote me on that. I counted that list like three times and came up with different numbers. So approximately 124. Um here in St. Jen, we have 30 units. Two um 22b and 10 3bedroom. Our units are filled. We currently house 85 total residents with 44 of them being minors. So, we have a lot of kiddos running around at all times. Um, income and rental statistics. At the end of December 2025, our flat rent study expired. For those that don't know what a flat rent study is, is we we gather some data from surrounding areas like Perry Fesus, anything that's budding up to us and we compare how much they charge for rent versus like what's going for rent in St. Jen. And um last year was a pretty big jump from what HUD said that our what our flat rent should be.

So we applied for it. It was approved, but it is expiring as of December 25. Starting [clears throat] in 2026, flat rent is set for 565 for a two-bedroom and 6.88 for a 3bedroom. Um, and I know some people might want to know why we did not conduct another flat rent study because and that was kind of a [clears throat] more so a need. It wasn't a need for us. We only have six families that qualify for flat rent and the six families that we do have are close to being over income. So, they were they're close to losing eligibility anyway. So, um, we decided not to pursue that weight list management. We are I'm always accepting applications. I always encourage applications to be put in. In 2025, I moved in nine families. Seven of those nine were under the extremely low income limit. HUD does require us to be 40% of all families admitted to the housing authority must be extremely low income limits. So right now based on our statistically 78% of the families that we moved in were below that threshold. Housing inspections. Um, SGHA was inspected by Real Estate Assessment Center in 2022. We received a score of 81 and that classified us as a high performer. Um, we were due for an inspection in 2025 which was completed in November of 2025 by it changed. It went from React to Inspire. So, it was by national standards for physical inspection of real estate. The housing authority received a score of 98. So, with that being said, we are al we're still classified as a high performer, which is great. Um, they will not be back to reinspect us again until 2028. Housing information. I kind of threw a couple little extra statistics in here. Just I don't know, just get the feels. Like se several other organizations, we are faced with decreased in funding and tenant rents. 2025's revenue was

[clears throat] decreased by 17% in our operating funds and 6.7% in our tenant rental. The loss in tenant rental was largely due to rent possessions or unexpected moveouts, coupled with the fact that majority of our tenants are now income based and do not have to pay flat rent. Despite these decreases, the housing authority still plans to util utilize our funding we will receive for 2026 and continue to improve the best we can. We we will have a contract to complete at least four more roofs. I'm hoping for [clears throat] one more flooring, maybe two. And we're working on replacing and repairing sidewalks and parking lots and moderizing US units as funding allows. At this time, if anybody has any questions, I'd be happy to answer.

It says you collected um $83,000 from render. That's what we should have collected. Unfortunately, it was about I think it was like $12,000 short. That's what it was supposed to collected for 83,000 it said. So that that's what it should have been if we were able to retrieve all the rent. I see. So for 30 units that comes out to about $2500 a unit per year. $200 a month. Is that the roughly average? Yeah, roughly. And what percentage of people can afford the $200 a month?

Well, it's income based. So what it is is HUD comes up with this formula where it's um their rent is 30% of their income. So a lot of my families are on fixed incomes. Yeah. So it's I I could not tell you the math problem because I have help. [laughter] Okay. But yeah, they it's this is like the whole point of income base is to ensure that they can afford it. Sure. [clears throat] Where are these 30 units? Um, do you know where O'Reilly's is? O'Reilly's? Mhm. Yeah. So, right across the street from O'Reilly's, if you go down the hill, that's where St. John Housing Authority is. Oh, I I've never been. It's one big building. No, it's spread out. It's a dead end street. It's spread out. 16.

It's like a little brick. Okay. You can come see me Monday through Friday, 8 to 3. We love to have guests. And what's the turnover rate? Um, I don't have like a statistical turnover rate in my opinion. Once people get in, they stay. So, the turnover rate I don't want to say is very high. I've seen a lot of turnover though within the last couple years simply because people are having a harder time affording to live. And it's not because of rent. It's, you know, cars and groceries and they just can't keep up. And we don't typically take them to court to get possession until they're 3 months behind, which that puts a damper on us as well. And these are not seniors. These are

Nope. They can be. You know, they can be. Yep. I do have some. This flat red exception thing with HUD and stuff, I noticed just looking at the increases, you know, one went up 20% and the other one went up 15%. So how does that actually come into play with the actual rent they pay? I mean it's income based but where does this number?

So that is what HUD tells us. So they put out something called uh fair market rent. So that is what the value of rent based on our area is that's that's completely distributed by HUD for all housing authorities. So what happens whenever they post the fair [clears throat] market rent we take it's I think it's 80% of whatever that number is that they post and that's how we identify flat rent. So the 80% is I can't remember exactly but they also have a utility credit with that as well. So that raises the people's rent accordingly

for those that are that are flat rent based. Yes. But it's not they have an entire so it's effective as of January 1st but their rent does not go up just because it's posted once they have their annual resertification which they have more than a 60-day notice. I'm like hey for your annual income's changed so I let them know and then they can choose to stay and most of them do. So

so keep in mind there's 30 units [clears throat] six of those have flat rent. The other 24 are income based. So those six their income is determined that they can pay the flat rent and it is an increase. That's why we did the flat rent study in 204 25. It was completed in 2023 and it was good for 2 years

but that has now expired and these rents as Ashley was saying are comparable to 80% of rents in town. Those folks are also eligible for utility subsidies. So we do a utility study every year, gas, electric, water, sewer, and then they can have that credited towards their rent so that they're have an easier time paying their utilities. So sorry, Ashley. That's okay. Perfect. Well said. Thank you.

Ashley does a tremendous job at the housing authority. This is her third year. um you know and before her Gina also has done a great job. Um things weren't always great at the housing authority and it's a really nice community. Now she mentioned the 44 kids. It's it's you know it's like a little village down there. So it really is. It really is. There's not always great days. Uh she handles a lot of issues. Uh but she does a great job. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions? Okay. Well, thank you for allowing me to report on behalf of Saint and Housing Authority. It's been a pleasure working with this community. Thank you, Ashley. Thanks, Ashley.

Okay, next up tonight, we have the city administrators report. Good evening. So, you have a uh update at your seat. Uh, I wanted to mention number one that um, Kimes contracted basically completed the sidewalk today when I was down there at about 3:00. They were installing sod and watering sod. Uh, there'll still be a punch list to complete. Uh, but basically the sidewalk um, portion of St. Mary's uh, and this tap project is complete. Um, down to number four. I want to let you all know I'm planning to attend the uh Missouri Municipal League Legislative Conference on the 17th and 18th. Uh I placed this at each of your seats. If any of you are interested in attending, I'll probably drive up early on the 17th. Um I'll be meeting with Representative Wolfen and Senator Henderson that day. Uh spending the day at the conference the next morning and then coming home on the 18th. Uh if you're interested, please let AMI know and we'll get you uh registered. Uh I added a couple items. [clears throat] Number five, I just wanted to bring to your attention that there's currently a bill in the Missouri House to eliminate solid waste management districts. So Happy used to head that for the Southeast uh solid waste management district. Um that group gives out about $500,000 in grants to southeast Missouri each year. This bill would give that $500,000 back to the Department of Natural Resources and eliminate solid waste management districts. Those grants over the course of the past 10 years have uh paid for multiple updates at the recycling center. Uh they also helped pay for the annual wholesome recycling event. So,

who's lobbying to have those districts removed? I do not know that answer, sir, but I know I'll be lobbying to keep them. So, you mean the money goes away? It's not just they're getting the money would go to DNR, uh their solid waste division, and then they would they would determine determine how it gets spent. Mhm. Yeah. Um so they would uh it allocates 5 million from the solid [clears throat] waste fund to DNR for assessing, investigating, testing, remediating and managing abandoned solid waste disposal areas. Um it dissolves the solid waste management districts effective August 28th and DNR would then take over oversight of all of the grants as of August 28th.

So it when they dissolve solid solid waste I don't like dissolved solid waste either. Uh, keep in mind we give $5,000 annually to the county for [clears throat] the recycling center. Um, and those grants have helped supplement that money by purchasing a new trailer, a new BOR, a new forklift, and multiple other updates. Uh, if you go skip down to number six, wanted to let you know I met with National Park Service this week regarding the welcome center. Uh the documentation to hand over the welcome center to NPS is all complete except they're waiting on a phase 2 result uh that's very close to done. And then the paperwork is on the governor's desk uh awaiting sign off. If your question is why does the governor of Missouri have to sign off on a transaction between the city and the federal government? I don't know that answer um but we are waiting on his signature. Um until that time, we're going to extend the current memorandum of understanding uh with them, but anticipate handover this year.

I think it was an executive order uh recently because there's a private residence um here in town that's also being sold to the national park uh that had to have the governor, county commissioners, and a few other people sign off u on that uh purchase between national park. I think it's directed towards national park so they can't purchase. So they can't just [clears throat] willy-nilly purchase. Yeah. Gotcha. Well, yeah. Um Yeah.

Uh Dave, uh one of the people that lives in Ward 2, uh Rick Figgy, uh who's been employed for Slooh for a while, has put me in touch with a uh a company and a lady that works there, and they're basically, uh working through the Metropolitan Sewer District in St. Louis Forest Slooh. Um, and she's brought up a lot of information uh about funding and options that are out there uh for storm water runoff and stuff and all the different things. She actually has offered to come down back a while, but with the change over in the CA and stuff, I didn't bring this up and stuff, but I'd like to contact her again and uh see if that invitation is still possible. Uh I don't know if we want to bring it to an actual board meeting or to some type of committee meeting, but u there's a lot of information out there that um of areas even within the state, you know, to contact and stuff like that. But I'd like to take that into consideration and see how you'd like to approach that.

Yeah, I'd like to talk with her about what information she has. I mean, we know we have those issues over there. So, if she's got some suggestions, a lot of different opportunities out there, she said, and she's pretty much an expert in it, but uh yeah, I'll contact her and just see what'll work out then. Thank you, sir. Mhm. [clears throat] Hey, we um moved over number two on your list. Are we going to have some I'm just curious about if you've had any more thought about assistant CA or community development administrator? I think it's work session. Are we going to have some discussion about that in the work session about when we have that code enforcement or

I think we're going to have a discussion about code enforcement and seeing where that's going to fall or what you all would like to see. Um I just hiring I think it depends on the the background of the person I end up hiring. Yeah. Um what are we going to base that on? What are we going to I think you're going to hire the best person, but the title of that person might matter. and how are we going to have that discussion as far as what title that person carries.

The takeaway from the work session that I got was post for both. Hire the person that best fits whichever role possible. Uh so depending on the applicants, we might not have someone who has enough experience to be assistant CA. We do have some. So I've interviewed them. I've had uh five interviews this week. We had nine applicants. Trying to pair that down to two or three. and then the mayor or I will do those interviews and make an offer. I'm still unclear though how are we going to decide if they're going I think that's if they're going to be an assistant administrator or CDA.

I think based on their experience if if we didn't have someone with enough experience to be assistant CA we would have hired a CDA.

Okay. So, you're leaning towards a system? [clears throat] I am, but I mean based off what you have so far. Yes. Okay. And and then my next question is how that ties in with the change in code enforcement that you might be suggesting that that the hybrid situation. Yep. And I think we'll cover that. Okay. Fair. Any other questions regarding uh the city administrator report?

Okay. Thank you, David. Uh we'll move along to staff reports tonight. First up tonight, we have Cory Leis from Alliance Walk. [clears throat] Good evening. You got a copy of my report in front of you. Uh couple of things to touch on today. We had our uh the DNR uh inspection of the water um plant and [clears throat] um distribution. Um it happens every 3 years. Um everything went well with it. We'll be getting a report be probably three to four weeks or be sent here addressed to Mayor K. Um this month we were able to do uh some asphalt patching on uh Chadwell Fourth Street Market. Kind of get some holes closed up that way uh before winter. And then snow coming in, trucks, plows, equipment, everything is outfitted. We have plenty of, you know, material, salt, sand, [clears throat] um, calcium, all stuff on hand. So, guess we'll see what the weather brings and go from there.

You're all locked and loaded and ready. You cut anybody loose early tomorrow then. Well, once we get everything done, possibly if not, we'll we'll have it shifts on Saturday. So, I'll come in first thing and as we'll bring some people in, but we'll we'll have people out uh constantly. through the night or whatever we need. How's the street sweeper? It's put away for the winter right now. It's winterized, but everything's running good. Upgraded bearings.

Upgrade bearing. I've just got the quote on it. It's um TMT [clears throat] apologize. About 3 weeks to get the bid, but it's been almost like under $300. So, I think we'll go and get that and then uh once we get away from the snow, hopefully we'll uh get that bearing put on and everything that we geared up for the spring ready to go. What is a DR3900? DR3900 is a piece of testing equipment for the water treatment plant. It's a chlorine pH stuff. Wasn't sure.

Yeah. No, you're No, I'm asking. Yeah, that's that's a vital piece going down. actually entered a contract with Hawk. So, it'll be it's service and everything. So, it's it was going to cost about $2,000 to get Solen fixed and this two-year agreements 960 a year. So, uh and that includes getting it fixed and shipping and and we get a loaner which we're waiting right now. So with the combination this coming weekend with the uh real low temperatures, usually we have water main issues with the snow uh removal. I mean are we staffed and

Yeah. The water side will be separate. So I mean they they won't work unless we need them to come in the plow. Yep. But we hopefully get some snow on the ground that way it acts as insulation. So with the cold temperatures, it actually benefits the water pipes. Usually when it's that cold cold, it's usually pretty powdery and stuff. So hopefully that'll help. Yep. And we'll And we'll uh we'll treat as necessary. We if it's just powder, we'll kind of plow. We won't put any snow or salt or material down cuz then it melts and then it'll refreeze and then we'll create a bigger issue than what we start off with. So play by ear, you know, goes.

So we still continue in a drought. They're telling us I mean very little snow up until maybe this weekend and stuff. So the well situation I mean are we still Yeah, we we we push about usually around 1,100 gallons a minute. We're about 970. So not I mean we're only down about 30 gallons per minute. So And I mean the levels in the wells are still Yeah. We just we just had them tested last week. Uh Flynn comes down and does a yearly test and everything look good on it.

Any other questions for Corey? I just got one more. Has Aaron Smith gotten with you as far as any um signage for out on the building? Those big white windows? No, sir. All right. Good. Okay. All right. Thank you, Cord. And next up tonight, we have Chief Alec. Good evening, everyone. So, you guys got two reports for me. Uh, the first one you should have is for December's totals. You look like you'd have two reports.

Oh, yeah.

That's It's a book. did some work for you guys. Uh there's really not a whole lot to really talk about for December. Uh if you look, Aussie K9 Aussie had some good deployments. Uh got a large amount of drugs, some firearms. Uh you know, we're we're still fully staffed, so it's always a plus. Uh some new equipment. You know, we had some new desktops put in. Uh we got six new MVTs which we got from a grant are on the road right now and Justin delivers hope confirmed that we get full funding for a new K9 at the end of the month which that's something we'll also be talking about later. U so that's just for December.

Where does domestic disturbance show up? How do you categorize that? the domestics. That's what comes out over our radio. So, household stuff. What What's it What's it under here? Under how do I tell how many domestic Oh, so if you look at the calls for service, uh should be just labeled as domestic. I don't see it. Hold on. Let me see. No, they haven't. Disturbance.

Some of it will fall under disturbance. That could be a bar. This is just one that dispatch gave me. So, [snorts] it's not We don't have any on here. So, maybe we didn't have any for December really. So, what's a If it's not labeled on here, that means we didn't have a call for it. What's a long fall? Uh, usually off someone's falling off a ladder or something. Jesus. Yeah,

Christmas lights. Yep. That's for December there. So, if you don't have any questions, I can move on to the next one. So, this one is my year uh full year as the chief. So, I gave you guys some 2024 stats prior to me coming. I took over December 9th of 24. So, it has a breakdown of our calls for service, shows how much calls we're getting. It also shows it's increasing every year. Um the traffic stops, the proactivity of all the officers out here. Uh drug cases are up 100%. Wow. Uh, is he on my

not that it's like just become super big, but I've also been teaching the officers things to look for and bringing my experience in. So, with that, that's that proactivity that they're getting out. They're stopping these cars. They're finding drugs in cars, which increases our stuff. So, um, I like to see that number because that means they're out there getting it. If to me if it's low either someone's not doing their job or we just conveniently don't have drugs here. So that number probably should never be low in my opinion. They should be out there finding it all the time. Uh you got K9 Aussies uh stats from 24 to 25. They're super high, but at safe tide officer is grease didn't hit the road with K9 Aussie until closer to the end of the year. So his numbers are a little bit lower over 24, but [snorts] in 25 the dog had 29 arrest. I mean that that's pretty good. He had 76 deployments, 25 drug drug cases, and he did one track. So those are very good numbers for the dog. And this dog is only on one squad.

So uh with this other dog we're trying to get, it's going to be on another squad. So that means that's two squads. they're going to have a dog and hopefully both aren't producing the same numbers. So, this is like you said, this is just one dog on one squad. Half the PD is not even getting used to this dog. So, those are really good numbers for him. Um, a little breakdown of kind of some of the stuff he got. You know, he's for 2025 he had 171.48 g of methamphetamine, 1.5 g of fentanyl, and 29 g of cocaine. That's what he found on the roads. So dog is very useful around here.

So he's trained separately in all of those. Yes. So the the canines are trained to identify all these drugs. Well, they don't know which they know it's a drug. They that's when they give you an alert. They're not certified marijuana. So it's all marijuana. It got dropped as a reward for him. So yeah. Yeah. It's it's they they don't don't smell out marijuana. They don't. It's all your meth, fentanyl, heroin, everything like that. So when he alerts on a car, it's for this. Marijuana is now I mean it's legal. So there's you can't use it anymore. Retire our last dog because he was trained to sniff that out.

I believe the last dog was Mario

that was certified marijuana. So, so the dog was very busy last year. Uh, and then just a few other things. These are I I wrote down a good list of grants that we've applied for and we've received. Uh, you can see we've gotten quite a bit of stuff. Got MDTs, uh, window tent meters. The blue shield was a $50,000 grant we got. That's, you know, we got brand new side by side, taking the burden off a lot of the city's funds, trying to get stuff ahead of time. Um, the K9's been awarded a new vest and some Narcan. Uh, and actually when I finished this, we actually got approved for another grant. So, it was all for some more radios. So, that's more stuff we're taking off. Uh there's some work officer from the the PD. Uh this is not all my doing. This is actually the work of the officers. They're the ones that make me look good cuz they get out there and crush it. But uh part has been fully staffed since I've when I first took over. There was two vacancies. Then we had two more. So we had four vacancies we had to fill. We filled those in within 6 months and they've been full ever since. Um, we're going on 7 months now from the youngest officer that started. We haven't had a turnover. Uh, we did new uniforms. As you can see, all the officers, they look more professional, more squared away. I think they look way better. Um,

we have a detective. Yep. So, what's the qualifications for a detective? Uh, years of experience and experience as a detective. Um, and the one we have right now has been an officer for 20 plus years who has been a detective in St. Francis County. Uh, since he's taken over, we've closed out several cases very quickly. He works very very hard. Interesting. Mhm. [clears throat] Yeah. He's he's helped recover three stolen vehicles, which actually some of the officers help with that. Uh, he works multiple sex cases, uh, thefts. We've he's helped uh one of the old buildings had a bunch of copper taken out of it. He solved that case within probably about 2 weeks.

Really? Mhm. And got charges and everything. Oh no. Uh so yeah, it's it's a crucial crucial role to fill and you don't want just anybody and they want to make sure the stuff's getting done. A lot of people like it cuz it's an administrative job. It's Monday through Friday,

but he works Saturdays even. So, you know, he'll go to Kentucky and do interviews on somebody that stole a vehicle or money or whatever. Very good. Um, uniform upgrades. We got we have an actual FTO program. It's right now we got three officers in this that run this FTO program. It's a 12-week program. So, any new hire we get, they have to complete this program. Um, this ensures that they know their job, they know the streets, uh, they know what the city expects, they know the ordinances, they meet the judge, the prosecutors, they go to the school, tour the school, it's a it's a structured thing, and if they can't pass it, they don't do good, we don't we don't keep them moving. We'll we'll place them. And that's what we've done. It's worked out great. Uh we got an accident review board we've established. So any officers that get into an accident for we got a board. It's myself, Lieutenant Pollock, city administrator and I believe it's just a regular slick sleeve and of course me. If you guys want to do it, let me know. Um but the reason for this board is not to micromanage anybody. gets to keep it open and showing, hey, they strike a deer. They have to turn their lights on, case the body, the dash cam on so we can see if they were driving too fast, what the situation was, why if it was if the accident would have been preventable or it just wasn't preventable. And then we have different measures we take was preventable, what they need to be done. And since we've actually incorporated that, we haven't had any issues yet. So, it's been pretty nice.

Uh, some of you can probably tell that we've uh our social media we've been updating quite a bit, letting the public know what we got going on and actually it's helped us locate people. Um, our last incident we have on there you guys probably seen. Uh, we get good feedback on that and also have some of the basement warriors. Facebook or what? And it's it's what? St. Jen PD. Yeah, St. J Police Department. Do you write those posts? Uh, no. I was going to say there's some there's some good humor in some of those. Uh, no. I have there's two people that are kind of run it. Um, Lieutenant Pollock and Corpal Bradford. Yeah. You can kind of guess where one of them is doing it.

Um, but we we try to keep that up to date as much as possible. Kind of let everybody know things, what's going on. Um, and we get a lot of good feedback from it. Uh we implemented an officer of the year program. Uh December was our first one we issued out. Kind of give the officers a little recognition for some of the stuff they do. Um I'm very fortunate. I got a great group of officers. It's hard to pick one. So, uh all our patrol cars are outfitted with pepper ball. So, we got a non-lethal option. Uh we did away with shotguns. Now we have pepper ball. So, and morale is at an alltime high. So, the officers help each other out. They fix their schedules to help one another out. And they come in and work happy. So, as long as we keep that moving, I'm quite content. And that's really about all I've got. I notice it's not a real big uh thing. We've only had like four trespassing, but I noticed uh Missouri passed a law this year I thought was kind of interesting that you can actually trespass across somebody's property line now 10 ft uh and not be illegal. And I actually talked to one of the legislators about it and stuff and I said, "Why why in the world are we concentrating on something like that?" Well, one of the legislators had an instance on his property and brought it up and then it it got passed. But yeah, you can cross whether there's a fence, you can cross that by 10 ft, you know, and not be breaking the law. And I thought what a waste of

I think some of that's just what's going on with it. Yeah. I think if someone jumps your fence, I think there's a little bit more of an issue than just trespassing. So yeah, but yeah, 10 ft. Yeah. that a lot of our trespassing actually comes from maybe a shoplifter from the grocery store or something and they've been in trouble for and they're not allowed back on the property and they show up again to steal. So that's usually where most of our trespassing is. Any other questions, comments for Chief? [clears throat]

Thank you, sir. Keep up the good work. At this time, we will open up the floor to public comment. We need a uh 911 center report. I think it's in there. It's in there. No, I mean from from the um 911. Yeah. Allan um Wells. What is it? Alan Wells. Yeah. Wells. Do we get a report? He used to come every couple of years. I don't think so. He used to come every couple years. It We've had him here several times. I don't know how often it was. I maybe we'll find out. I can reach out to him and find out if he can produce a report or show off. We spent a lot of money.

Okay. It does not appear that we will have any public comment tonight. So, we will move along to tonight's consent agenda. Motion to approve. Second. Okay. I have a motion and a second. All in favor? I I Any opposed? No old business to discuss. Only new business tonight. Uh we'll start with resolution 2026-11. This is a resolution reappointing Don Schmemellsley to the St. Genevie Parks and Recreation Board. Move to approve. Second.

Okay. Have a motion and a second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Thank you. Next up, resolution 2026-12. This is a resolution reappointing Lawrence Smothers to the St. Genevie Parks and Recreation Board. Motion to approve. Second. Okay, I have a motion and a second. All in favor? Any opposed? Thank you very much. We have resolution 2026-13. This is a resolution reappointing Gary Roth to the St. Genevieve Parks and Recreation Board. Motion to approve. Second.

Okay. I have a motion and a second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Okay. Thank you very much. Then we have scheduled for uh two readings tonight. Bill number 4704. This is an ordinance authorizing the mayor to enter into a revised co uh cooperative agreement with St. Genevie County for the collection of city taxes. Second. Okay. Have a motion and a second. All in favor? Any opposed? Motion for a second reading. Okay. Second.

Okay. I have a motion and a second for a second reading of bill number. Yes. Uh what's the hurry on this one? They have been asking for us to pass this uh since Happy left, but they wanted to wait until there was an official CA. So now they're ready for it. And what is the fee they are charging us? I believe it's 3%. 3%. Thank for a second reading. All in favor?

Any opposed? Okay, this will be a second reading of bill number 4704. This is an ordinance authorizing the mayor to enter into a revised cooperative agreement with St. Genevie County for the collection of city taxes. Motion to approve. Second. Second. Okay. I have a motion and a second. Pam, would you do a roll call, please? Alderman Stiger. Yes. Alderman Prince. Yes. Alderman Einman. Yes. Alderman Huie. Yes. Alderman Donovan. Yes. Alderman Fagy. Yes. Alderwoman Dobs. Yes.

Seven yes, zero nos, one absent. Bill number 4704 now becomes [clears throat] ordinance 4625. Thank you very much. Uh that concludes uh the new business for tonight. Any other business to discuss at this time? Okay. Uh we do have a close session agenda item on the [clears throat] um agenda. So I will entertain a motion to go into close session. Motion to go into close session. What's what's the topic? Yeah. Leg legal action, causes of action or litigation and documents related to a negotiated contract.

Second. Okay. I have a motion and a second to move into close session. Pam, would you do a roll call, please? Alderman Prince. Yes. Alderman Stiger. Yes. Alderman. Alderman Huy. Yes. Alderman Donovan. Yes. Alderman Fehey. Yes. Alderwoman Dobs. Yes. Motion carries. There [music] topics to discuss. Okay. If not, then we will go ahead and adjourn and move into work session.

Work session to order. At this time, uh we will look for approval of the work session agenda. Motion Ch. motion and a second. All in favor? I I

Any opposed? Okay. Uh first item of tonight in our work session uh is an update on the sewer study in the in Point Base. So I was hopeful that Cochran would have it. They told me Thursday or Friday. Um I probably should have not stuck it on the agenda, but I was hopeful that they would have it. Uh but I do not. So it'll be next meeting. Uh but I do want to share a few things with you. one. Of course, the report is coming. Uh should be here either tomorrow or uh Monday at the latest, I would imagine. Uh I want you want you to know I've stayed in touch with McBride and the two homeowners. Um that were affected by the backup. Uh talked with both yesterday to let them know. Each meeting I reach out to them to tell them they can come if they would like, but I I give them the update that I'm going to give you over the phone. Um a couple things. If you remember early on, we talked about some equipment that might help with this problem. Uh we're still looking at a crawler camera, but Corey and I have talked about more to come, but we may only need a crawler camera maybe three or four times a year. If you remember, that's a $60,000 item. We were looking at a 20 to $30,000 credit for the water uh trailer. Um I'm not so sure if we need to spend that $30,000, but more to come. Uh Cory's checking into a few other things uh on what we do when there is a backup uh and whether we get phone calls from people who think they might have a backup uh and whether we get calls from local plumbers and what we do and how we could supplement that and perhaps pay for the camera. Again, more to come. Uh one of the other pieces of equipment we talked about were water flow meters. I want to let you know Corey got uh three bids. We're going to go ahead and purchase one of those. Uh one is about uh the best bid is 3,400. So we're going to go ahead and

purchase one of those. So that's going to measure we're going to put that one in point base. It'll measure the height of the water through the pipe and then we'll we'll uh you know compare that to rain events uh things of that nature. Um, so I wanted to let you know that uh I do think [clears throat] that when we get the report, it's going to tell us that one of our largest customers we need to have a conversation with. Um, so I want to prepare you for that. So if you think upstream who the largest customer is, we're going to have to have a conversation with that. That's really my report on the sewer study. Who is that customer?

St. Geneva County Detention Center. Remind me again the two individual houses that have been affected by this have they refused to put in backup valves? One has. The other is going to do it and that would solve the problem. It would solve the majority of the problem. Majority problem. Yes, sir. And the reason you wouldn't put one in is what? I think the individual answered that a plumber told her not to. They they do occasionally. They do. They It's a mechanical component. So, can it fail? Yes. So, if you put it in, can it fail? Yes. But not having it will flood your basement every time. But can it work?

Yes. And we provide the backflow pre. That's a I wish Cory were still here for that answer. Four,5 $600 item. Dave, you know, back up to this camera thing and stuff like that. One of the things I would like to know is how many of those are around our area and crawler cams. Yes, I'll get that answer for you. You know, whether just through Reliance are, you know, other municipalities. I mean, why doesn't Alliance buy one corporate? That's what I said earlier in a meeting and stuff. I think they need to buy one. Us renting it three times a year. What's it cost us to rent it three times a year?

I'm meeting with Erica in the morning. We're starting our conversation about their contract. So, I'll ask her that question. Okay. And that's the whole point. I mean, I I still believe they should own one. And it makes more sense for them to own one. Absolutely. Theoretically, if it if we our flood events are during rain events, so they got one camera and they have multiple jurisdictions that are probably getting rain events the same time we are, chances that camera down from them when they got other ones to take care of too is slim. Well, the instance that we used it was in nothing other than a normal ordinary day. I mean, we were researching a rain event, right?

But I mean, we couldn't have stuck it down there in a rain's [clears throat] hard rain, right? Correct.

Flow meter will help us a lot. 3.7% into the sink hole. Yeah. Okay. Keep in mind they gave us back 17,000. I know. Wasn't 3.7%. It's floating. No, but it probably have to. Was it that much? I'll let you know. All right. Yeah.

All right. Um Okay. So, we'll look for that report uh next month's meeting. Any other questions on that topic for now? Okay. Uh moving along to work session item number two. This is in regards to the code enforcement duties. maybe a solution here. So, you have a staff report from myself and from chief. We've talked about this since the uh I think it's come up in previous meetings, but we on obviously talked about it um when you all were talking about hiring a new uh uh city administrator. Um chief has given some really good uh points of how they could perhaps do this role better. Uh I think you know there needs to be a transition because um some of the ordinances that are violated and which ones we you know use um when we go out on a u a visit to a property and how we communicate that um is different than they're going to do it. And we've had some of those conversations already. Um but my point here also is and we talked about this u couple meetings ago. If we hand over code enforcement and that would not be building code, okay, that's nuisance code and other type violations um to PD that would loosen up um the assistant CA or CDA to do perhaps more economic development focused job uh job duties. Um, and I think the three candidates that I'm going to do second interviews with would all have those capabilities. So, um, questions or questions for Chief.

Do you want to Well, I my first question, why do you why do you want to take this on? [laughter]

Well, so [sighs and gasps] I mean, we like to stay busy anyways. that's kind of helping out with everybody else. But so when we get a lot of this stuff and Dave attest to this is, you know, when he's dealing with stuff, he's kind of got it on his end and we don't really know what's on going on until it's time to enforce action on it. So when we can handle it, you know, we keep everything in our system. So I could pull up an address and say, "Hey, we've given them warnings this time, this time at this time. it's time to give give a ticket or whatever else we need to do. Um it it just keeps everything organized and when it comes down to have to do something, we can do it. We have everything in play um when it has to when it if a ticket's issued and it has to go to the prosecutor, we have everything already. Um it's not having things in two different places. U obviously we're still have to work hand in hand. There's stuff that we don't know to do that we'd still have to help, but it just it frees things up and it makes things easier for us and we know what's going on. Plus, we could stay on top of something. You know, we've we've already took care of one issue because we were able to handle and keep on top of it. Um, and also, you know, we we get calls from everybody about different things. We're here seven days a week versus five days a week.

Yes. So, it gives us more time to handle things. And, you know, if you give somebody 10 days to do something, it falls on a Saturday, we can go over there, take a look at it, say, "Hey, you you might need to get it done by Monday or we're coming back." You know, we we can do more things with it during time frames. So, it ideally I already I I plan on having my supervisors enforcing this. this is a nice little role for them and to kind of get to know more of the city stuff. So, that's just my recommendation is we can just handle it and take care of a lot of stuff and have it organized. And the goal is still compliance, not punishment. Yes.

The less times they have to show up possibly in court. I mean, there have been two people in my seven years doing that that want a jury want a jury trial for their nuisance ticket and that's allowed but kind of extreme. uh you know they have the ability to kind of uh do those things better than and if we can work it out with we don't have to go to court that's what we're going to do because of the job when you were doing it was building code assessment versus nuisance

it's much more nuisance folk when we're talking code enforcement it's much more nuisance and offense violations so I don't mean offense offense so like Um, I'm trying to think of one like, uh, no water comes to mind. You could consider that a building code, but every month when we shut off those folks who haven't paid for 2 months. Yeah. And keep in mind, those folks are getting phone calls and reminders. We're doing due diligence. Um, particularly this time of year.

Would that be the police then? Well, what I'm saying is those kinds of offenses would be the police. All I do is go to the door. Actually, Jean does it right now. Knock on the door and tell them they have 10 days to get their water turned back on or they have to get out of the building cuz they don't have water. And if they're not there, I put a letter on the door. That would fall to an officer. Building code would fall to Jean. Yeah. So what would be the most common three or four nuisance things that would go to code in the summer? Grass. Uh second would be junk and third would be dilapidated vehicles. Okay.

So now we have somebody with grass taller than 7 in. We have to call the police department to you still call city hall. Still call. We also have report of concern on our website and that's available to anyone that when you tap that report of concern, you type something in, it's going to ask for your name. Uh it goes to Susan and David. They then route it to the appropriate person

there. This so this could still be you know if you see Dave or something you can say hey we got this issue and he can talk to us and say hey this is an issue. This this is just basically to where we can keep everything organized cuz we have a reporting system so we keep everything in our system. So if we if we've been dealing with a resident multiple times, we've been given multiple chances, we can pull it up and say, "Yeah, we've given you 20 chances to cut your grass." Well, now it's time to start taking action. and and we'll still have to coordinate because you know unless Chief wants to take it on there are many times where I hire someone to go cut the grass and then send the billass

um and if they don't pay the bill we apply a special tax bill not see the officers cutting grass a nice push mower what is that so is there going to be well I guess that make me mad sometimes I guess they can do that between nuisance building code and I think why he uses a word term transition here is that's the piece where I think we need to transition slowly.

Yeah. But yes, in the end I would think chief's talking about using his supervisors right now and I don't know that he's headed this way or it'll come to this but when I talk to the other municipalities that have this setup they have a code enforcement officer. Um, but he's using his supervisors at this point. Um, we would slowly transition to yes, they would handle nuisance calls, but for the beginning, people are going to call Gene, they're going to call me, they're going to text me. Uh, yeah. [clears throat] And also, we already get calls too on a lot of things. Uh, whether it's illegal burning and everything like that, too. So, here's another one. I mean, this is, like I said, this is not us just taking over it all. I mean, obviously, we still got to work with each other and

figure out a lot of other things. This is a nice just organized way of keeping track of everything and who we're dealing with constantly and what actions need to be taken. Uh just cuz we're taking it over doesn't mean we're just going to go write tickets every time we turn around to somebody. That's not the case. This is so we can make sure everything's being stayed upon and being looked at when it needs to be addressed. Just like I said, you know, we're here 7 days a week, 24/7. So, do you think it's going to have a a change in your perception or the image of the police department now that you're doing more? I I don't believe so. Um, you know, the officers are very professional anyway. So, if [clears throat] they're going to a residence, say, "Hey, you know,

that person's probably never been pulled over for a speeding ticket. This might be their first encounter with an officer." Yep. Well, have you had any bad encounters with my officers yet? Haven't got pulled over yet. But when you talk to them, I mean, are they do they do they do they look terrible? No, I think that I that's why I'm saying right now I think you have you have a perception uh from the community that you have a very professional group of officers and now their first encounter a lot of these nuisance tall grass that person probably hasn't been pulled over for a speeding or running a stop sign. This is probably their first encounter with one of your officers.

This is also going to show the other side of an officer when they go up there and say, "Hey, you need to cut your grass." you know, it's it's a little tall. We'll work with you and make sure you get it done. You're supposed to have this amount of days, you know, say it's super hot and like, hey, just get it done maybe later the next day because it's too hot. So, they're going to see another side of an officer. They're not just going to see an officer just out there stopping cars and sitting around eating lunch or whatever. They're the city's going to see them actively in the community doing other things. I mean, you would walk up and say, "Your neighbors had a complaint. There has been a complaint that your grass is on. There's been a complaint there. There will be a complaint or hey, we notice it. We don't say who gives complaints. No, you wouldn't say who. Yeah. But it usually starts with a complaint or Yes. If you drive by and

say, hey, we we see you have all this out here. This is a this is an issue. Uh you know, a lot of it's cars, the big day of cars with build plates and everything like that. Usually we address it if we find it or sometimes somebody calls us and we go there and we just we just say, "Hey, you can go turn the lights on. Make a big deal out of it." march them out of their house. I mean, we could. We got some new pet ball guns. Spread them. Do you think they'll lend more weight to you requesting them to do that? You're the one making those contacts as opposed to I I believe so because it's always an officer coming over there,

you know. So, I think, you know, usually if you're going there and we've had it with a vehicle, we said, "Hey, there's this vehicle needs to be taken care of. It's doesn't have license." We're personal about it. We don't go up there and say, "Hey, you need to move this thing out of the way. It's a piece of junk." We don't do that. Um, we've said it and it it was moved, you know, and we got to keep in mind part of why I recommended or asked for us to look into this was a few years ago we did have an incident over in St. Jude that I don't remember if it wasn't you. Was it your predecessor? You talking about Officer Underst. No, no, no, no. This is down by Kenny's across the street. Oh. Where?

That was that was me. Yeah. Uh that could have turned into a bad situation. It could have. And I think that individual um we had conversations finally in the office and I think this could work the same way. But

but I think and I just didn't like like or no matter who the CDA or assistant I mean it wasn't against the person doing the job. It's a civilian doing a job that a commissioned officer should be doing in uniform to um you know not let that situation escalate cuz that one when he contacted me he he was pretty unhinged about you know just people walking around his yard. Um you know if somebody's walking around his yard in uniform he he would have respected that more than somebody in plain clothes. And there have been times where I've called an officer to go with me or had an officer present when we have to do something. They're rare. Um, but I think most people will cooperate. But the instances that you're talking about, they would hold a little more sway walking up to the door.

Took care of the problem down in W too, though. Which one? Trash can. Yes. You're welcome. Yep. Thank you. Um, number of calls. This will change your number of calls in your reports. I uh I can always separate the ordinance violations if [clears throat] you guys want to see that. I think we should track it just to see

because it already so it will already if you look at them cuz so when my officers go out somewhere, they let dispatch know they're out for, you know, whatever address ordinance violation and it registers as an ordinance violation. Whether we're just there giving them a warning or whether we're there to write tickets or whatever we do, they still go out for an ordinance violation and it's always documented in there. So, usually if you look at my reports, you probably look at previous ones, it'll say ordinance violations in there and it'll say how many times we were out for them.

So, we've always got track of it. I think there's a piece of this we don't talk about too much and that is uh when we do have to issue a citation a lot depends on for the judge and the prosecutor what that citation says and chief [clears throat] has been working with his officers cuz the more information that arrives on the judges uh in front of the judge the better he or she is to make a decision uh and they will get even better at that. Mhm. So, what do you need from us now? Just you know that you're on board with uh giving this a shot.

Do I feel good about that? Oh, I could see what happens. Meditate. See what see what it looks like and we need to reevaluate. Absolutely. Yeah. I think keeping track of that volume I think will be good. I think just to just to know. [clears throat] Okay, cool. Thank you guys for putting that together. How do you describe the new position that?

So, yeah, I did want to address what Alderman Stiger uh brought up, and that is um I would probably still keep code enforcement in the job description, but say work with PD. Um but PD would pick up the majority of duties. Building code enforcement would still stay there. And then we would add some economic uh development duties. Um we've talked about this either through the assistant CA or the tourism position. Um, and I think Aaron is doing some of this and I was picking up small pieces of it. Uh, we could formalize that uh, and add it to the job description of the assistant CA. Uh, I'm sorry, the CDA. And of course, the assistant CA, if you've looked at that job description, is basically just the CDA job description plus helping the CA with budgeting and projects. Does that kind of answer your question?

Um, yes. I I think it does. Um, I'm trying to think the pros and cons between the their title as a CDA or assistant CA. I don't know if anybody else has any thoughts or questions about Thanks, Chief. Thanks. Great job. Thank you. Have a good night. I can certainly bring some uh revised job descriptions back to to look at in a future work session.

I mean, I think it's going to be dependent on the person, too. I mean, that's that's um I think we're definitely hiring for a CDA. Um unless they qualify as an assistant Ca. Yes. So, how do we get to that point? What's the threshold that we [clears throat] say, "Hey, this person's not a CDA. This person is pancakes,

an assistant CA, because we now have that job description and that in our salary schedule and we've kind of changed. [clears throat] We have those two positions. So, how are we going to decide how I mean I don't want to I'm trying to protect our budget, but I'm also trying to get uh some things accomplished for the city, including that business development, economic development. So, I mean that you've hit some of my hot buds there. So, I mean, you're you're speaking my language, but I also don't want to hire somebody that we don't need.

So, keep in mind the CDA, the assistant CDA are the same job grade, same pay range. Uh, so whoever we bring in will be based on experience where they're placed in that range. Um, and my answer to that is if the applicants had some had a lot of municipal experience, they're going to cost a little bit more. Uh, and some didn't have as much municipal experience, but had experience with project management or um nonprofit kind [clears throat] of experience. So, they're still dealing with planning and zoning, but kind of from a participant instead of an administrator role. I think if we bring on [snorts] folks with more municipal experience, um, and it's significant, that should be an assistant CA. And even if I brought them on as a CDA, they still would move up the pay scale because of the level of experience.

Now we're gonna have two bigers. Good. Sounds good. So staggers.

I'm just trying to process it. Um Okay. It's nothing we have to do tonight. All right, last item on our work session agenda is loss prevention policy. Murma wants us to do something. They do. So, you also have a staff report from me. You got this document digitally. Um, but there I only printed two hard copies cuz I didn't feel like all eight of you would want to read through this 60-page document. Um, but I wanted to bring it to you to see if you had any questions before I bring it up for adoption at a meeting because it is a 60-page document. But within it, we do a lot of what's in there. So, safety committee, we meet with the department heads every month. That will also duplicate as a safety committee. Uh, you just heard chief talk about accident uh review committee. There's an accident review committee in there. You talk about a safety coordinator. Uh we'll have a safety coordinator. Uh it will require us to probably use a few more of Merma's forms. It probably will require us to make some small purchases like uh like a Bloodborne pathogen kit for cleanup, things like that. Uh I'm talking maybe under $500 worth of items. Um

Dave, who are the people this applies to? Is it just the people in this building? Really, it is besides the two that we have working at the welcome center. Yeah. Um, it's us and in this building, correct? So, you're just trying to avoid Yeah. Police department slips and falls and that's a piece of it. It's also driving correctly and climbing a ladder correctly and assessing accidents when they happen. Um, so police violence, whacking your fellow employees, taking a hammer and hitting No, I'm just kidding. Um, so Merma's rate is based on a I won't call it an audit, an inspection.

So our rate with Murma is determined by several things. One of them is an inspection where they come and they make sure that we're doing the appropriate things that we need to do. Adopting this is helpful on that inspection. We already do 75% of what's in there. Uh, so we're going to do a few more things and then hopefully our rate will go down with merma. I will tell you there's one insurance policy for a workrelated injury. Is that what it is? This would be just general liability. We have workers comp also, right? Not workers comp, but just general liability for a slip and fall for by an employee. Correct. Yeah. Yes.

U there are general liability weekly playground equipment inspections in here. So, that one I may get a little push back, but I've actually talked to Lory and he's fine with it. And it's actually a good run over during the summer, not during. Yes, sir. You're talking about the playground equipment inspection. Would that would that mean that the people that that come in here and put bounce houses and the like up that those would be inspected that you're anchored securely? No. And and they should have separate policy. They should have their own event insurance policy. A topic you and I have talked about. Okay. Okay. Yeah. I was just wondering about as far as a safety

point if there's, you know what I mean? Even though they have an insurance, is their equipment up up up to safety standard to be here? It's not something we would inspect. We wouldn't inspect that. No, sir. Cuz we're not ensuring that. Okay. So, what I'm looking for is are you okay with this? Do you have questions? If Murma approves it, I mean, this is Murma's document, right? It's got to be pretty. Did Mark have any [clears throat] problems with it or did you did he see it? He did. So, this is insurance lingo. Okay, I'm fine with it. Everybody good with that? Yeah. All right. Any other business to bring forth at this time?

Free snacks. Sewer rates. Free snacks. Okay. I didn't hear what you said. Sewer rates. We want to bring them back. Can I bring him back? Carl Brown. Oh, no. Get great rates. Huh? No. I'm a No. Very calculating sewer rates right now. Are they up to January, February? February. February. Yes. Isn't that nice? Or January, March. January, February, March. In April, they'll be reevaluated. Adjust a lot of schedules. Thinking about that. I'm going to lower. All right. If there is No other business to conduct. We will go ahead and adjourn. Thank you all very much.