Board of Aldermen - Regular Meeting

meeting order. If you would please stand and join me in the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Pam, would you do a roll call, please? Mayor Kheim here. Alderwoman Dobs. Alderman Fehey here. Alderman Donovan. Alderman Huey here. Alderman here. Alderman Ross here. Alderman Prince here. Alderman Stiger. Mayor, we have a quorum.

Thank you very much. At this time, I will look for approval of tonight's agenda. Motion to approve. Second. Okay. I have a motion and a second. All in favor? Any opposed? All right, thank you very much. Uh, first up tonight we have a personal appearance. We have Jason Shot, Alan Wells, and Chuck Far from the St. Genevieve and St. Francis County 911. Welcome. Good evening, everybody. Good evening, everyone. So, sorry. And

Jerry, sorry. Jerry's Jerry's our treasurer for the local 911 uh tax board. So, I don't Did everybody get this in their packet? All righty. So, just kind of give you a brief update where we're at. Everything in green is done. Blue is where we're at. Uh, so we're to the point of all the equipment is uh pretty much installed and uh we're going through the process of uh connecting all that up, getting that running. And then the week of the April 6th and April 13th, they're going to be doing mobile testings all week long uh St. Jen County, St. Francis County, and testing out that radio equipment, making sure it's all functioning properly. And then our hope is by the 1st of May that official uh switch will be turned on and we will be switched over. Whoever can go to the digital program setup and uh whoever can't will still be on the analog uh side of things and then uh the project will be finished and then we will just be moving on with uh paying that note and taking care of business basically. questions

when this is all done like our police scanners that we have now. Mhm. That'll everything have to be digital. Right. So each agency uh will have to transition to radios that are digital capable that are P25 digital compatable. Right.

Any questions from board? Any questions for you guys? We appreciate the city still helping us out with the dispatching services because that actually has helped us pay off that uh that project faster without taking on a lot of that note. So, it is very much appreciated.

The the ultimate goal is uh you know, if you wish before your next budget session, we'd be happy to come on back and and uh I'm going to know a little bit more. Okay. Um, we're not quite finished. The building's not quite done. But our goal is like like Jason said is to get this thing as wrapped up and paid as fast as we can because we got an infrastructure now. It's going to last many several decades.

It' be nice to have it paid for. So, every entity including you and the city fire, county fire, all EMS and and uh every you guys, we'll be able to take care of it. All right. And you're off the hook. It's paid for. We don't have any bills on this thing cuz we can handle the maintenance for a long time. So, that's our goal. We We thank you cuz you're helping us uh to keep this flow, get this thing paid off. I'll have a I'll have a better idea probably by fall. Well, that'll be perfect for our budget time. Like August, September, make a note that put us on that right before that agenda and we'll come in and give you an update and we'll probably still plead for the support, but but I can give you a really great idea where we where we stand as far as getting it paid off. So, perfect. That sounds great.

Awesome. And real quick, I'm Alan Wells, your 911 director for the county of St. C sent you in and the city here. Um, and uh, some of you may have not have been involved with the city at the time. This project started about 4 and a half years ago. uh but uh the importance is because the the existing system is 1960s technology and that you've been working on in public safety and uh so the new system is is definitely much better and better equipping us for way into the future and uh with the critical infrastructures the buildings that are being built today are so much different than they were in the '60s and uh so metal roofs and more brick and mortar it's hard for us to get into our responders with these handhelds. So this that's why this this project is so big and so important but it it will last for the next 40 50 years 60 years.

Where is the building? Uh this is a technology. It's a radio communications infrastructure. We've built uh seven new towers. Correct.

Um to make it work and it's moving us to a a P25 digital if if the entities want to go to P25. But the system can still operate in its existing environment. If a department or we say a discipline all law enforcement, for example, the city and the sheriff here wanted to stay in a VHF environment, this system can function in that still function in that arena, but it's on a whole new uh type of a system. And uh with more towers, more transmitters and repeaters across the county of both San Genevie and San Francis uh because we're doing an upgrade over there as well. And uh but it's it's vital. It's vital to the safety of our responders. This this new system is we can better save life and property.

Yeah. Love it. Anything else from the board? Well, we'll just plan on seeing you all in the fall then. Perfect. Thank you all for anytime anyone wants to come and tour the United Center. It is in Park Hills, Missouri. 102 Industrial Drive. Okay. Park fields. Please come and tour. Perfect. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Next up tonight, uh we have our city administrators report. Uh good evening everyone. I first wanted to introduce uh in the audience Robert Soulen who's our new assistant city administrator. Started last Monday. We haven't chased him away yet. So welcome Robert.

Good evening alderman. Um it I want to thank all of you for bringing me on board here with the city. Um almost completed two weeks now and as David said, nobody scared me away yet for sure. Uh I look forward to uh serving the community for many years. And again, thank you very much for bringing me on board. And then a couple other items on my report. Uh I wanted to note we posted for bids for the Creston Cemetery expansion last week. Those bids will be received and open on April 16th. Uh there's a mandatory pre-bid meeting on Thursday, April 2nd at 1:00. If you jump down to number six, I just want to let you know I will not be in the office next Friday. Take a vacation day. And then in addition to what you have in my report, I did want to let you know we opened auditing service bids last week. We sent uh those auditing service RFPs out to six firms, posted it in the paper, put it online. We received two bids. Uh, we will have a recommendation for you at the April 9th meeting. That's all I have, sir. Perfect. Any questions for David regarding the city administrator's report?

Okay. Thank you, sir. Uh, moving along to staff reports. First up tonight, we have Cory Lis with Alliance Water. Good evening. You guys got a copy of my report. Um mowing season has begun. We started yesterday. Got everything mowed. Uh we did quite a bit of clean up around the water treatment plant, that creek that goes behind there to uh hopefully get that uh water flow through there better. And uh also found a sewer line on Market Street that u nobody ever knew existed. And uh so we got it flowing today, but Monday we'll be digging it up and replacing at least 20 foot section and maybe more. So that's kind of what we got going on. Street sweeper schedule.

Oh yeah. Um is that is the street sweeper? It's posted on street sweeper schedule's available on the city website under on the GI map. Yeah, I I get your copy if you want one, Jeff. Uh, any questions for Corey regarding his report? All right. Thanks. Thanks, Cy. And next up tonight, we have Police Chief H.

Good evening. Uh, everybody should have a copy of my report. I don't really have a whole bunch. Uh you can see what the traffic safety officer's been doing. Been pretty busy. He got a grant for some car seats. So we'll be donating those out here shortly. Uh I think our biggest thing is Officer Harris and K9 Kino have been in training. So they look to graduate April 18th. That's all I got. Chief, what do you do to to qualify for one of the free car seats?

Um, Bradford's got a he's got a a list of requirements for it. I don't think it's anything crazy. Just basically if you need one, you got a small kid that needs it. I think we got like 14 of them, right? But that'll be something once he gets that all squared away, I'll get with you. so we can put it on the city page and it'll be announced on Facebook and everything like that. So, sounds like a good deal. Any other questions for Chief regarding his report?

Thank you, Chief. Uh, go ahead and open up the floor to public comment tonight. Just a reminder, keep comments um to 5 minutes or less and make sure to state your name uh for the record so that we can log it in the minutes.

Bob Brownie, 498 Merchant. I just want to voice my opinion on something. In the recent weeks, the newspaper printed a lot of negative stuff that people were saying about ICE and the local police department. I spoke up and thanked ICE and thanked our local police department a couple weeks ago and what I'm about to say has no reflection on Mark cuz he's a good guy. He can only print what he's allowed to print. In my opinion, the people who bought our local newspaper and many many other newspapers have bought it for a reason of controlling newspapers. And and my opinion is the people that want to control the voice of people is the first sign of communism. And that's my opinion and that's all I have to say. Thank you for your time. Any other public comment at this time?

Hello, my name's Heidi Walker. Um, I would like to uh I do have a quick question. I know you can't address it right now, but um I was wondering about the chief's report and how it's broken down if there is a section for DHS related arrests. Um I didn't see it. So, um I would also like to address the mural under the railroad trestle. It's a beautiful addition to our city as it welcomes visitors in a multitude of languages. I would like to recommend some changes to the mural to reflect our values as a community. Benonito, welcome. Please have your citizenship papers in order. Welcome, Benito. If you are a victim of a crime here, please have proof of citizenship if you are not white before you rep report the crime or you will be picked up and detained if you do not have the proper citizenship papers. Huang Ning, welcome to our town where we are currently detaining 150 migrants and immigrants without charges at the county detention center. Please follow all local traffic ordinances or you too may be joining them. Benuto, welcome. 95% white here in St. Genevie. We have more people of color being detained without any criminal charges than we do have living in our town. Bambindo, welcome. We have almost zero immigrant crime here, but are detaining ICE prisoners, 87% of whom are currently being held here without any criminal charges. Many of these are mothers, pregnant women, nursing women, some of them will be deported without their babies. St. Genevie City is helping to facilitate this through the 287g contracts. While we may not be picking up immigrants and sending them to the

detention center very frequently, we are by by taking on this task, we are be we are a part of the pipeline and we are allowing ICE to do their dirty work in Minnesota, Vermont, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Illinois. So we are a part of that pi pipeline. Do not be mistaken. Welcome, Yokoso. We are a small community of descendants of French and German immigrants. But we seem to have forgotten about what America was built on. The hard work and dreams of immigrant people who come to seek a better life and contribute to the fabric of our society, just as our great-grandparents did. Welcome, Benvinda, immigrants and foreigners. We hope you come and spend your tourist dollars here or maybe help us with our roofs and gutters. But we also hope that you'll be detained here by ICE because St. Genevie County made 1.5 million from ICE detainees in two in 2025 alone. And we're projected to make 4.5 million in 2026 from the ICE detention uh center. that is ICE detainees not federal prisoners $4.5 million from DHS of that amount 3.7 million will be is budgeted to renovate the detention center I can only assume it's to hold more more more people because although I've asked over and over from the county not you guys through a sunshine request that information has not been granted to me apparently there are No plans for renovation, but there is 3.7 million budgeted for renovation of the detention center. Welcome to this town. This is the story

of St. Genevieve. History will remember this time and look back on this time and this is your moment in history to make a statement. That's all I have to say. And thank you. ANY other public comment at this time? Good evening. Thank you to everybody here tonight. My name is Asa Lemons and I'm a taxpaying resident of St. Genevie, Missouri. I wish I could come here today to speak in a more positive tone, but I'm once again deeply disappointed to hear that the 287G contract the city currently holds actively aiding in abetting ICE was not on today's agenda. So, I'm here once again to respectfully implore the board of alderman to rescend the 287G contract. I've praised this board for their transparency before, but let us not forget that this contract was signed in December without public input and remained in effect for nearly two entire months in secret to the public to the best of my knowledge. If a contract needs to be signed in secrecy, that might be indicative of the polit politically odious nature of said contract. Let me be perfectly clear. This contract we have with ICE is voluntary. Just as Mayor Kim noted, nothing is set in stone and to the best of my knowledge, we don't even have to give the money back upon terminating the contract. What I mean by saying all this is that our city police department and in effect our city is making the explicit decision to publicly aid and support ICE in their affairs unrelated to the traditional duties of our police officers that protect us on a day-to-day basis. So, let's talk about the agency we're currently partnering with.

to speak on the actions of ICE in Minneapolis. Mayor Kim was quoted on February 25th stating, "I don't think anybody sitting at this table or anybody sitting at any table can look at that and say that that's good." And in a separate quote, "Nobody here, chief, the board, I don't think anybody wants that for our community." End quote. That's reaffirming to hear, Mayor Kim, and I'm glad to hear that the chief and the board share those same views. Let me ask, however, given they're the literal agency we're partnering with, how do you think ICE feels about their actions in Minneapolis? You know, don't worry, I can clear that up for you. Following the killings in the street in broad daylight of former US citizens Alex Prey and Renee Good, the now former DHS secretary referred the late mother of three and ICU nurse as domestic terrorists. The DOJ and DHS are actively withholding evidence from the state of Minnesota for from investigating the ICE agents responsible for the killings. And ICE officials continue to frequently frame their actions in Minneapolis as necessary and justified despite most of the polls, including even a Fox News poll showing that nearly 60% of voters disapprove of ISIS's performance with many polls reflecting even more drastic numbers. And if you think ICE has had a change of heart regarding the firing of the former DHS secretary, the new current DHS secretary was quoted describing the late Alex Prey killed in the street by ICE agents, a deranged individual that came to cause max damage. The truth is, you can support the concept of immigration enforcement in America while simultaneously being fervently disgusted by the standards and practices of ICE. Those two principles are not mutually exclusive. We trust our city police department and local law enforcement to keep us safe. And by contractually extending their duties to

assisting ICE, it does nothing but harm that trust. Undocumented immigrants have resided in America practically since the inauguration of our country, and immigration enforcement has existed in some capacity since the 1800s. This agreement we have with ICE, as it exists right now, is voluntary. And by perpetuating this collaboration, we are stating to neighboring towns, to the world, to our own families, and to the our own history books that we, the city of St. Genevieve, support ISIS's behavior. And I find that absolutely despicable. Look, I don't intend to infer that I think you guys or the chief are bad people for engaging with this contract or that it was signed with malicious intentions. I think of you guys in higher regard, especially in juxtaposition to the county, but the facts remain the same. Our great town of St. Genevie is watching, and as every day goes on without voting to resend the contract, inaction starts to look a lot more like collaboration to our town of St. Genevieve. I again respectfully request that the board of aldermen vote to resend the 287G contract immediately. Thank you. MY NAME is Tommy Borgeltz. I am a resident of St. Genevieve. I was born and raised in this town. I've lived here my entire life. I would imagine most of you are familiar with the race riot that happened here in 1930. If you aren't, I would encourage you to look into it just to learn a little bit more about the history of our town. That happened almost 100 years ago, and I don't want to believe that represents our community anymore, but that's not the message we're sending when we align ourselves with a group of individuals that's made it clear that having black or brown skin or even an accent makes you a target. When we know better, we have to do

better. And signing this contract is not doing better. You've asked our community to trust our law enforcement, something I believe most of the community does. But when the community isn't trusted enough to be kept informed of these things, it erodess the trust and affects all of us negatively, including the officers of the city and the county. No one benefits from the sense of secrecy this contract was signed under. It was signed nearly 2 months before coming to the public's attention. And even then, it was discovered by a resident, not communicated by an official or representative of our community. That lack of transparency hurts us all. Mayor Kim, you made it clear on more than one occasion that our town and our law enforcement don't wish to behave the way ICE has been seen behaving across the nation. But the reality is whether our officers behave in the same manner or not, by signing this contract, it gives the appearance of approval of that behavior. The contract the city signed is the same one signed by all. And whether we utilize it to the full extent specified or not, it doesn't take away from those actions being allowed under our contract. It's been noted on several occasions that one of the benefits of signing this contract is that it gives our officers access to a federal f federal database. And in Mayor Kim's interview with Kathy Kryler, he stated the database access access wasn't isolated to immigration alone and that it was related to drug trafficking, sex trafficking, and human trafficking. And everything that I can find shows that the only access we gained by signing this 287g contract is immigration specific. The National Crime Information Center is accessible to all organizations, federal, state, and local, and it includes all criminal records. Prioritizing viewing immigration information on the small chance that someone may be undocumented, seems like a small reward for such a potentially large cost to our community. As it stands now, when any person is booked into a jail anywhere in the country, whether it's a detention center contracted with ICE or not, ICE is notified of the booking. This has been this case since 2003. This is information that negates the

need for access to any immigration database as the reason for signing this contract. If we're only looking to ensure people who have committed or are committing criminal offenses are detained, which is something none of us are against, then just being booked in our local jail would accomplish the same thing without the negative perception that comes with signing this contract. I know some people may argue if someone isn't booked, this meth method won't be a catch-all. But if someone doesn't commit an actual crime worthy of being booked, then are we really only concerned with the detainment of criminals? Or are we getting into a gray area that's more likely to lead to civil rights violations? I believe this was mentioned at another meeting, but it's worth repeating that our city and county are taking on a huge liability by signing this contract. Municipalities frequently face lawsuits alleging racial profiling and civil rights violations that can lead to high defense costs. And unlike ICE, local municipalities have no immunity immunity to these lawsuits. Even one suit for civil rights violations could lead to significant monetary loss for the city. Another factor I'm not sure has been discussed is that some communities have suffered a drop in tourism after signing these contracts. That's a real possibility for our town and it's not something any community wants to happen. This could lead to an overall loss of revenue even after factoring in any gains the city may have from signing this contract. if we have the potential not only to lose tourist business, but also to run the risk of losing prospective residents. The cons seem to far outweigh any pros the chief may have seen in entering into this contract. This is information the chief likely didn't have at the time the contract was signed, but now that we have more information and so many other factors to consider, I think it's necessary to re-evaluate. From what the mayor stated in his interview, there are two patrol vehicles purchased with the funding from this contract in addition to the database access. And I don't know if there's more monetary or material gain in the future, but are these things really worth taking the risk that we're taking on top of causing our members of our community to feel unsafe or afraid? We have to stop putting profits over

people. And I can't imagine that any of you would be opposed to sending the message that we care deeply for the members of our community and that we refuse to work with an agency that doesn't share that sentiment. I realize St. Genev is put in a dire situation because of the tax revenue that we've lost after the mining exemp operations were exempted from local tax, something that's still being fought. But the answer to the problems created by that shouldn't come at the cost of the peace of mind of our community members. The county is another battle, but it's separate from the city. And you have the opportunity to share what we really stand for as a community. I'm asking respectfully that this contract be canled. Thank you for your time. ANY other public comment at this time? Okay. Go ahead and close public comment. We'll move on to tonight's consent agenda. I do want to point out to you on the treasures report under rural fire fund the column for February 2026, there are numbers there. Those numbers are all meant to be zeros. Consent agenda.

Anybody? Sure. Anybody like a consent agenda? Okay. Motion to approve. Second. Okay, I got a motion and a second. All in favor? I. Any oppose? All right. Thank you very much. Move us along to some old business tonight. Uh first up, we have a second reading of bill number 4710. This is an ordinance authorizing the mayor to enter into an intergovernmental cooperation agreement between the city of St. Genevieve and the St. Genevieve County 911 tax emergency services board for the board to provide 911 dispatching services. Motion to approve. Second.

Okay. Have a motion and a second. Pam, would you do a roll call, please? Alderman Prince, yes. Alderman Ross, yes. Alderman, yes. Alderman Huy, yes. Alderman Fagy, yes. Five, yes. Zero nos, three absent. Bill number 4710 now becomes ordinance 4631. Thank you very much. Next up is a second reading of bill number 4711. This is an ordinance of the city of St. Genevieve authorizing the mayor to enter into a first amendment to the development agreement with McBride Land Growth LLC. Motion to approve. Second. Okay. I have a motion and a second. Pam, would you do a roll call, please? Alderman Fe.

Yes. Alderman Fuy. Yes. Alderman. Yes. Alderman Ross. Yes. Alderman Prince. Yes. Five yes. Zero nos, three absent. Bill number 4711 now becomes ordinance 4632. Thank you very much. And last up in old business is a second reading of bill number 4712. This is an ordinance approving a budget amendment to the city of St. Genevie for the fiscal year 2026 budget relating to the various revenue and expenditure increases. Motion to approve. Second. We have a motion and a second. Pam, would you do a roll call, please? Alderman Huey,

yes. Alderman Fagy, yes. Alderman Naiden, yes. Alderman Prince, yes. Alderman Ross, yes. Five yes, zero nos, three absent. Bill number 4712 now becomes ordinance 4633.

Thank you very much. Uh move along to some new business tonight. Uh we have uh approval of the lowest responsive responsible bidder for the citywide asphalt overlay 2026 and city of St. Genevieve concrete street and waterline improvements 2026 um as follows. asphalt uh Vern Bowman Contracting 1,420,316.37 and then Joker Inc. Concrete Street and Waterline Line $795,666.35. I included the uh recommendation of award letters with you. Those are also the lowest bids. I do have the bid tabulation sheets here if you'd like to see them, but those are the lowest bids.

Motion to approve. Second. Okay, have a motion and a second. All in favor? Any opposed? Okay, thank you very much. That'll take us to a first reading of bill number 4713. This is an ordinance of the city of St. Genevie, Missouri, vacating and discontinuing a portion of an unimproved alley on Maple Drive. Motion to approve second on it. Okay, I have a motion and a second. All in favor?

I any opposed? Thank you very much. Uh we have uh scheduled two readings for this next item. Uh first reading of bill number 4714. This is an ordinance approving the purchase of 11 Black Rain Bosespec 15 rifles from Black Rain Ordinance Incorporated in an amount not to exceed $12,92 for the St. Genevie Police Department. Motion to approve. Second. Okay, I have a motion and a second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion for a second reading. Second. Okay. We have a motion and a second for a second reading of bill number 4714. All in favor?

I. Any opposed? Okay. This will be a second reading of bill number 4714. This is an ordinance approving the purchase of 11 Black Rain Brospec 15 rifles from Black Rain Ordinance Incorporated in an amount not to exceed $12,92 for the St. Genevie Police Department. Motion. Oh, hold on. So in section three, there's only eight listed. Oh, the what we're surplusing. Yeah, cuz we're keep There's three of them. I'm keeping cuz you can't get anything out of them what they are. All right, motion. Second. Okay, I have a motion and a second. Pam, would you do a roll call, please? Alderman Ross, yes. Alderman Prince, yes. Alderman Nidman,

yes. Alderman Peggy, yes. Alderman Huy, yes. Five yes. Zero nose, three absent. Bill number 4714 now becomes ordinance 4634. Thank you very much. Next up, first reading of bill number 4715. This is an ordinance of the city of St. Genevie authorizing the mayor to enter into an agreement with Vern Bowman Contracting Company of St. Genevie, Missouri for the citywide asphalt overlay project in an amount of 1,420,316.37. Motion to approve. Second.

Okay, have a motion and a second. All in favor? Any opposed? Okay, thank you very much. Next up, first reading of bill number 4716. This is an ordinance of the city of St. Genevieve authorizing the mayor to enter into an agreement with Joker Incorporated of St. Genevie, Missouri for the concrete street and waterline improvements project in an amount of $795,666.35.

Motion to approve. Second. Okay, I have a motion and a second. All in favor? Any opposed? Thank you very much. Uh, and last up tonight, we have a first reading of bill number 4717. This is an ordinance approving the property transfer of a 2003 John Deere model 6605 tractor and tiger boom mower from Special Roads District A to the city of St. Genevie. I'm assuming this was based on the recommendations from

Yeah. Yes. Bob and I, Alderman Dunovan and I went and viewed the machine. It's uh it's it's in good shape. Any of the weaknesses in the boom have been repaired. It's actually stronger than buying one from who knows where. And we we recommended it's a good purchase. Motion to approve. Second. Okay. I have a motion and a second. All in favor? Any opposed? Okay, that concludes our schedule business. Any other business to bring forth at this time or any discussions between the board? Okay. If there is nothing else and that will conclude our meeting, we will adjourn.