City Council - Regular Meeting

We're live. Good evening everyone. I'd like to call the regular session of the University City Council to order at 6:33 p.m. on May 11th, 2026. Madam Clerk, would you please call the role? Council member Dancy present. Council member Teeman present. Council member McMahon here. Council member Briner present. Council member Fuller here. Council member Smotherson here. Mayor Crow here. Before you you have the agenda. Are there any changes to the agenda? Council member Smotherson.

Uh thank you Mayor Crow. Just uh just to recognize the fact that J2 is actually well K2 is actually J2. Yeah. Yeah. on. So we got that is that it

council member Fuller hearing none. Is there a motion to approve the agenda? Mot by council, excuse me. Motion made by council member McMahon. Seconded by council member Fuller. Is there discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. Opposed. The eyes have you have before you a proclamation which I think we all want to wish JB Graham a happy 100th birthday. And that proclamation will be provided out by the city clerk. Uh later this evening, you have before you the minutes from the draft study session of CBiz on April 13th. Is there a motion to approve? Motion made by council member McMahon. Is there a second? Seconded by council member Briner. Is there discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. Oppose. The eyes have it. Mr. Fuller.

Honorable mayor. Um, I'd like to uh reappoint Michael Hoganport to the board of adjustments.

Is there a second? Second by council member McMahon. Is there discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. Oppose. The eyes have it. No swearings in. We are now going to our first uh section of citizen participation. For those of you who've just walked in, there's there are signup sheets over by the door. Please feel free to fill them out on either an agenda or a non-aggenda item. Uh please put it in the basket then in front of the city clerk and you will be called on at the appropriate time. At this point in time, we have two requests to speak on non-aggenda items. The first is Tom Sullivan. Tom Sullivan 751 Syracuse. I have several things to mention, some not for the first time. There was hoped that some needed improvements would be addressed when spring came around and there was new management, but that does not seem to be the case. It's just business as usual. There are still four street lights out at Olive and Kingsland. They have been out now for nearly nine months. That causes a half block to be darkened, creating an unsafe situation at night. There's another street light out nearby on Chamberlain, right across from Shelley Welsh Park, which has no lighting. The fountain in Lewis Park is crumbling and a lip around the pond has been deteriorating with sections falling into the pond. The Rainman surrounding Rainman surroundings also need some work. These will likely end up same as the roof on number two firehouse. It leaked for 10 years before anything was done about it and then cost more than $100,000 to fix. There are still numerous dumpsters on the east end of the city that need covers. This presents a health hazard as it as it attracts rats and allows leakage from garbage when it rains. Where Heman Avenue runs into Medcave Park, there's a mess that's been there for weeks. Discarded furniture has been there and a dumpster is missing lids. How can anyone

not notice this? There are still utility wires hanging down in several places. There still needs attention to missing covers at the base of street light poles. Kingsland Avenue still needs a lot of attention. It's a mess from one end to the other. There used to be nice trees and shrubs on the side of parking lot number four, but not anymore. While so much is made over the new police station and the Costco development, many neighborhood problems in the city are ignored. Just recently, I spent time at the U City Library doing some research. Despite all the tax dollars spent to upgrade it, being in the library is not always a pleasant experience. People are loudly talking and those using the computers will sometimes loudly throw out Fbombs and MFbombs with no concern for who is around. Some patrons are eating and drinking while using the computers, mostly to watch videos. Some talk to the videos as they play. The other week, some woman was actually singing. The amount of ignorance and bad manners is pretty incredible. They have a police officer there in the library some of the time, but one is needed all the time. Thank you for listening to my comments. Thank you very much. Our next request to speak is Carla Brown.

Please give your name and address.

Good evening. My name is Carla Brown. I am a longtime resident of University City. My address is 941 Sworthmore Lane. It will be a year on March 19th that the tree that is in front of my that was in front of my house was destroyed by the storm. It will be a year May 19th. These are the pictures I want everyone to see. This was a huge tree. That's the first picture. Picture number two is May 21st. Picture number three is June 9th. This is June 9th through October 21st of 2025. Same picture, January 12th of 2026. This is across the street from Torah Prep. Parents walk their kids to school. They go through this crosswalk. Kids go over this thing like it's an amusement park. So do the runners. So do the other people walkers in the neighborhood. This is a very unsafe condition and it has been this way for way too long. Anytime I drive down persing and I see all the new sidewalk and it's so beautiful. I need four slabs of concrete. That's all. I don't know what what do I need to do? Is there anything I can do? Do I need to find You City a concrete contractor? I doubt it because certainly there's already one available. So, whatever it takes, if I have to come back every month with my same pictures, I will do that. But whatever it takes. Last time I said I was going to call Channel 4. I have not. I really don't want to. Don't make me. And I'm not threatening. I'm

just stating a fact. When people pass by, they look at this and say, "When is your city gonna fix it?" My response, "Call city hall." Thank you very much. And I hope that I don't have to come back in front of you guys again. And if I do, I will. Such is life. Thank you. Thank you very much. That concludes our citizen comments for this section of the the evening. Are there any council comments at this time? Council member Smotherson.

Thank you, Mayor Crow. I I just wanted to add to Miss Brown's um report about the sidewalk in front of her house and that is there is there are two schools, Tour Prep and Britney that are um in the area and this is and her her street is where students walk to both schools. So, I just wanted to make sure that was well known and uh we should have a priority to getting that fixed.

Thank you very much. We have no public hearings this evening. We have before you the consent agenda items K1 and two as best identification and approval for the city clerk to sign the seal of boundary adjustment for St. Louis County recorder deeds. Is there a motion to approve? Motion made by council member Fuller. Second seconded by council member McMahon. Is there discussion hearing? None. All those in favor please signify by saying I. Opposed. The eyes have it. Miss Sharp.

Honorable Mayor Crow, members of the city council, I have two updates uh for you under city manager updates. Uh the first one is regarding the budget, which as you all know, you received the draft budget on May 1st. Um in accordance with our charter, and I indicated that I would continue working on that draft, which I have. Uh I will be posting a draft online for the public to view on Friday. Uh after that I will we will have a public hearing on May 26th and then we will have our budget presentation on June 8th. Um we're continuing to work through the items in the budget every every single day. Um but I wanted to let you all know where we were with that. Uh, I will be reaching out tomorrow to each of you um to schedule meetings by ward. I did put that in my um I believe report when I sent out the the budget that we would meet by ward with our budget consultant. Those meetings can be in person or virtual up to you all. But I'll start uh once I get the schedule from her tomorrow, I will start contacting you all to set those up. Uh the next update is regarding the flood buyout and I'll ask uh economic development manager Becky Alvin to step forward and provide you all with a brief update on the flood buyout.

Thank you very much. We have no unfinished business. Oh, I'm sorry. Oh, I apologize. I moved right through. Becky,

that's okay. I'll speak quickly. SEMA has started sending over offers for the properties. Um, we've got offers for about half the properties right now and the remaining ones should come over in the next couple of weeks. Um, fingers crossed on that. Once we send those off, well, once we get those letters, we have to um create a letter and a form that go to the resident for them to to sign off and say they, you know, their next steps. And it outlines that the the following options. They have 21 days to choose to either accept the offer, appeal the appraised value by obtaining and submitting an independent appraisal at the property owner's expense, reject the offer and withdraw from the program, or dispute the duplication of benefits calculation and provide additional supporting document. Once we reach an acceptance from the property owner, we then um we then schedule closing for about 30 days later. Once closing happens, we have 90 days and these are these are um SEMA and FEMA rules. We have 90 days to demo, grade, and seed the property. Um and within those 90 days, we also have to do asbestous identification um testing in those houses. So, we're we're getting we're we're trying to schedule things right now so that we're not demoing one house at a time here and there. We're trying to get it all together so that it's least inconvenience for the people in the area. And um hopefully we can have a smooth smooth process. But

all right, any questions? Council member Fuller. Thank you. Thank you. Um, we just approved this asbestous mitigation situation. Is the cost on that just for the consulting part of that or would that include I mean you have no idea yet how much is identified. Correct. So that is just to identify the if the houses have asbestous in them. If they do then will there be further cost for because that's always a costlier.

It is costlier. So um if there is asbestous it um it changes how we have the demolish the demolition happen. They have to do a special um I I I think they wet it down or something. They have a special procedure for that. So my question was that class that we just approved is just for the consulting correct just the the identification.

Thank you very much. Anything else, Miss Sharp? Thank you. I apologize for that. You have before you resolution 20263 St. Louis County Waste Reduction Grant. Is there a motion to approve? A motion to approve. Motion made by council member Brener, seconded by council member McMahon. Is there discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor please signify by saying I. Oppose. The eyes have it. Yeah. Before you uh the council reports in business. Are there any reports from members of council at this time hearing? Madam clerk, do we have any further requests to speak from citizens?

There are none. Are there any council comments this evening? Council member McMahon.

Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to to comment um a little while ago there was some discussion about the street improvements and community block grants. And I just wanted to focus on the thought that I always looked at the city as as acting in one um for the benefit of of all the residents. And it's certainly appropriate for any council member to advocate for their ward. And I know that everybody streets the worst street in the city and it should get paved first. Um, but I I really I think that we don't want to slip into a situation where we're pitting one ward against another. And I really think that the the council together is always focused on what's best for the city. And I think one of the e examples that is is really highlighted in our minds right now is that um when the markets at Olive was introduced, there was a large portion of probably the largest single uh taxdirected city money to one ward at any time in the history of U City was directed to the third ward. And during that time, I didn't have one phone call, one resident walk up to me and ask or an email that said, "Steve, why isn't there more money going to the first ward?" Um, because it was the right thing to do to go to the third ward. And so when I listened to the uh discussion that there should be a third of our tax dollars to each ward, a third, a third, a third, and then all the community block grants go to the third ward. I I thought about that and on its face it sounds reasonable, but then you start to think about it and our wards aren't budgets. They're not budgetary lines. They're political lines. And it's easy to understand that if you think in 2020 there was a census and what happened? The third uh we had to redraw our lines. The third ward got a little bigger and the first wer. But if we do a third, a third, a third, that means a bigger area now has to be

funded by the same third. So you're actually trying to fund more area with less money. So we know that the wards aren't budget boundaries. They're political boundaries. So we want to try to get representation that's fair, but it's not broke out that way. And when you look at community block grants, I looked up what the HUD designations, they're not broken out by ward. There's actually a a a area that consists of the second and third ward that has 85% low and moderate income. Well, why wouldn't those residents be able to have community block grants, too? But that's not what was offered. And if we're going to do a third, a third, a third, I mean, look at the first ward. We've got large sections of private subdivisions who pay for their own streets. Do we have a third of the streets or would we get a third of the money but have less streets to pave than the third ward? In essence, if we go a third, a third, the third, you might be cutting the third ward short. But if we want to do a third, a third, a third. What about the parks? The first ward has two parks. I think the third ward has eight. Do we want to do a third, a third, a third? I don't know if that's the right thing to do for the third ward. You might be cutting the third ward short. What about storm water? We just had a presentation and most of our flooding issues are in the second and third ward. Does the first first w say where's our third of the storm water money or do we say as a city what's the right thing to do? Do we focus on where the worst streets are and fix those? And if all of them are in the third ward, let's fix them. If some are in John's ward, let's fix them. Some are in Lisa's world. Let's fix them. So, I don't think a third, a third, a third, and all the community block grants. I don't think uh that's what we should do. I think we should focus on not pitting one award

against the other, but what's doing right for the city. Thank you. Thank you very much, Council Member Briner.

Thank you, Mayor. Um I just want to follow up on the storm water um presentation. I think there are a number of um items within that which we could probably move quickly on and perhaps we need to consider you know like which ones are action actionable soon because I think sometimes we get a presentation and we've got so many priorities things get put aside and of course there's going to be some other ones that probably need more work or um more study that will come later or more money um but just to consider that for instance you know the policy changes things like that maybe we need to think about how do we schedule that soon so that we get moving soon on those things that's all

council member SM

thank you mayor Crow and and I do want to uh and I appreciate council member McMahon's statement and about the community block grant money and I do want to clarify something that uh I was not in fact making this about the political boundaries because I am well aware that the second ward also has areas that are probably equal to some of the areas in the third ward. My question is one thing to use the community development block grant money correctly and that is the question are we using it correctly and that's my question and I'm still looking for an answer to that. Anyone else? If there are no further comments, this is one of the few times we do not have a close session. I would welcome a motion to adjurnn. Is there such a motion? Motion by council member Te and seconded by council member Briner. Is there discussion hearing? None. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. Opposed. The eyes have it. Thank you very much for joining us this evening.