City Council - Regular Meeting

We're live. Good evening, everyone. I'd like to call the June 22nd, 2026 meeting of the University City Council to order. Madam Clerk, would you please call the roll?

Council Member Dancy. Present. Council Member Tiemann.

Present.

Council Member McMahon.

Here.

Council Member... Fuller?

Here.

Council Member Smotherson?

Here.

Mayor Crowe?

Here. Thank you very much. Before you, you have the agenda to my colleagues. Is there a motion to approve the agenda as presented? Motion made by Council Member McMahon. Is there a second? Seconded by Council Member Tiemann. Is there a discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? The ayes have it. We have no proclamations this evening. You have before you the May 26th, 2026 draft study session minutes. Is there a motion to approve? Motion made by Council Member McMahon. Is there a second? Seconded by Council Member Dancy. Is there a discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor please signify by saying aye. Opposed? The ayes have it. You have before you the May 26th, 2026 regular meeting minutes. Is there a motion to approve? Motion made by Council Member McMahon. Is there a second? Seconded by Council Member Tiemann. Is there discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? The ayes have it. We have no appointments this evening. You will please note that Beverly Brant was sworn into the Historic Preservation Commission on June 8th, 2026 in the clerk's office. We will now move to our first section of citizen participation. If anyone would like to speak this evening, there are signup sheets over by the door. Please complete the signup sheet. You have the opportunity to speak on agenda items or on non-agenda items. This section of the agenda is for those who want to speak on non-agenda items. Each person is asked when they come to the microphone to please state their name and address. Your comments are limited to five minutes. The first request to speak this evening is Joshua Beeks. And when you come to the microphone, you can push the button at the bottom and the light will come on.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council. My name is Joshua Beeks. My address is 5036 Parker Avenue, St. Louis, Missouri, 63139. And I wanted to address a couple of items. The first item is a Sunshine Law request that I submitted to the City Clerk. the city clerk did inform me that the city was not able to approve my Sunshine Law request due to certain Missouri statutes related to employee confidentiality. And really, I wanted to see if there was someone who could follow up with me who could maybe explain in detail why maybe my request was not approved. more so than maybe discussing it here right now. In fact, I even emailed the council some documentation regarding this particular subject. So I guess that's my first item I'd like to address. I don't know if there are any questions or comments, or is there something perhaps of resolution we could come up with? Really, I would just like to talk to someone, maybe at a later date.

Thank you. This is not an interactive opportunity, so if you'd like to make your comments, then someone can follow up with you afterwards.

Okay, excellent. My second issue, I guess, really was about the budget meeting last week. I actually had some questions, so I don't know if the council or anybody can speak on that, if I bring up questions here or not, or should I potentially follow up with someone? Does that make sense when I'm

You may ask any questions you like, and then someone from staff can reply to you, but it won't be during the session.

Got it. Okay. If that's the case, I could email the staff. That seems a little more suitable, I think. Okay, that's it.

Okay.

All right. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Our next request to speak is Carl Sabulka.

Hi, my name is Carl Saboka. I live at 1421 Coolidge Drive, which is real far out west, right up against the river that runs... the River De Pere that runs through Hafner Court and Heeman Park, and also real up close next to the Interbelt 170. I would like to express my appreciation to be allowed to speak to you all, given the opportunity to address my government. I also like to express my appreciation for the upkeep and protection that you all provide to the parks that are in my neighborhood, namely Fogarty Park, Greensfeller Park, and Ruth Park Golf Course and Nature Center. I use all three of them, and I'm very appreciative that I have them. I would like to... My main point that I would... like to address the council is fireworks noise. And I know you all know that fireworks are a noise hazard, an explosion hazard, a fire hazard, air pollution, ground pollution, and also The amount of money I just saw, I don't go into the tent to buy. I just saw on TV that they sell fireworks $399 for, I guess, a box or whatever. That is all money going to China. So I have to use two hands to count the number of things that are wrong with fireworks. And I would just like to say that I know that fireworks are illegal in U City and in St. Louis County, but I don't think there's any enforcement. At least there's no enforcement. in my neighborhood, and that's what I'm bringing up. I would like to say that I value safety in my neighborhood, but also peace and quiet. They are very, very valuable to me, and that is why I have chosen to come to speak to you all today. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much. Our next request to speak is David Sendell.

Good evening Council do sandal 6910 Washington. I hadn't heard anything about a Caleb application form seen or received one I was curious what the status of the Caleb program is.

And David, this is not an interactive Q&A. I'm sure someone will get back to you if that's your question for the evening.

Okay, thank you. The second thing is a week ago last Monday at the Starlight concert, we tested and evaluated our Starlight concert Starlink intelligent community Wi-Fi. We had 100 megabits of downlink into the park. We were running different video cameras that can accommodate panoramic wide angle cameras. We were forwarding cellular calls from people in the park and made an estimate of the crowd size at 160 people. And we uplinked the video through the Starlink satellite to our phones. And if you flip your phone, you can see the concert fill your entire TV screen. worked really well. And it's just an update from my neck of the woods. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Madam Clerk, are there any further requests to speak?

There are none.

Thank you very much. We'll now move forward to council comments. This is the first section on council comments. Are there any council comments at this section?

Council Member Smotherson. Thank you, Mayor Crowe. I just wanted to bring this to the attention of the council simply because this is a subject that comes up regularly during council meeting and just wanted to happily let everyone know that I did go by Kingsland Avenue in Olive and I reported to Ameren UE that there is a light out. at that corner and intersection i also went to the intersection of olive and pennsylvania and reported two lights being out at that intersection uh this was something that i checked on last night around 12 midnight and also wanted to ask the city manager if she would let me know at a later time who actually is in charge of the decorative lights that we have that line olive and whose responsibility is it to repair those lights, if you could give me that information. But again, just wanted to make that report that those lights have been reported to Ameren UE. Thank you.

Any other comments? Hearing none, you have before you the consent agenda item with the voluntary acquisition program agreement for purchase and sale for flood buyout program properties 1075 Wilson, 1131 Wilson, 1149 Wilson, and 1157 Wilson. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? Motion made by Councilmember Tiemann, seconded by Councilmember McMahon. Is there a discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor please signify by saying aye. Opposed? The ayes have it. Ms. Sharpe.

Honorable Mayor Crowe, no updates at this time.

Thank you very much. We have, let's see, before us, bill number 9582. Madam Clerk, may we have the second reading?

Bill 9582, an ordinance authorizing the execution of an employment agreement for the position of city manager.

We have the third reading.

Bill 9582, an ordinance authorizing the execution of an employment agreement with the, I'm sorry, for the position of city manager.

Thank you very much. Is there a motion to approve? Motion made by Councilmember Tiemann, seconded by Councilmember McMahon. Is there discussion on bill number 9582? If there is not, Madam Clerk, would you please call the roll? Council Member Tiemann? Aye.

Council Member McMahon?

Aye.

Council Member Brenner? Aye. Council Member Fuller? Aye. Council Member Smotherson? Aye. Council Member Dancy? Aye. Mayor Crowe?

Aye. The ordinance is passed. We'll now move forward to new business. We have resolution number 2026. Oh five. Is there a motion to approve a supporting an application to the green streets program for the olive Boulevard corridor improvements and authorize the city manager to execute documents related there too. Is it motion made by council member Brenner? Is there a second executive by council member Dancy? Is there a discussion? Council member Brenner.

Um, thank you, mayor. Um, I just had a question on how This will interface with the state and the county since they're responsible for Olive Boulevard.

Good evening, City Council. Craig Chandler, Planning and Zoning Director for the record. Olive Boulevard is a MoDOT road, but the majority of that corridor is MoDOT. There's a small portion that is St. Louis County. Both of those jurisdictions would be notified. They'd have to join as partners, but not sponsors of the grant application. So certainly they'd be invited to participate in the process, but would not be responsible for match funding, for example.

Thank you.

Any other questions on this resolution? Any further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Opposed? The ayes have it. We now have Resolution 202606, Fiscal Year 2026-27, Proposed Budget and Capital Improvement Program. Is there a motion to approve? Motion made by Councilmember McMahon. Is there a second? Seconded by Councilmember Fuller. Is there a discussion? Are there requests to speak?

There are none.

Hearing none. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. All opposed? The ayes have it. Now, Bill number 9583. Who would like to introduce? Council Member McMahon. Madam Clerk, may we have the first reading?

Bill 9583, an ordinance fixing the compensation to be paid to city officials and employees as enumerated herein from and after July 13th, 2026 and repealing ordinance number 7384.

Thank you very much. Council reports in business. Are there any reports from members of council on this section of the agenda? Hearing none, we will move forward with the swearing-in ceremony for Brooke Sharp as City Manager of University City.

Would you please raise your right hand and repeat after me? I. I, Brooke Sharp. Do solemnly swear that I possess all of the qualifications and am not subject to any of the disqualifications named in the charter for the office I am about to assume.

Do solemnly swear that I possess all of the qualifications and am not subject to any of the disqualifications named in the charter for the office I am about to assume.

That I will support the Constitution and the laws of the United States and of the state of Missouri and the charter and ordinances of University City.

That I will support the Constitution and the laws of the United States and the state of Missouri and the charter and ordinances of University City.

That I will faithfully and conscientiously discharge the duties of the office I am about to assume with impartiality and justice.

That I will faithfully and conscientiously discharge the duties of the office I am about to assume with impartiality and justice.

As Ms. Sharp makes her way back up to the desk, we are joined by several members of Ms. Sharp's family and friend network. We would like everyone to know that they're welcome to stay after the meeting, which should conclude tomorrow. relatively quickly, that there are food and drink in the back. We hope that those of you who live in University City will take the opportunity to introduce yourselves to those who do not and make all of Brooke's family feel welcome here because we are very pleased. In whatever relationship she is to you, we are very pleased to have her guiding our city as we move forward. With that, Madam Clerk, are the... Madam Clerk, are there any further comments from citizens?

There are none.

To my colleagues, are there any council comments this evening? The only brief comment I would make, and I think some of you may have seen this on social media, is this past weekend we did lose one of our U-City business owners, Jill Siegel. Jill Siegel was the owner of Jilly's Cupcake. And Jilly's Cupcake, she passed away on June the 20th. As you know, the Julie's Cupcake is at the corner of 170 and Del Mar. She is a two-time winner of National Cupcake Wars and has been in business since 2007. So we are sorry to her and to her family for their loss. We are so pleased to have been and continue to be the home of Julie's Cupcake, but that was a little bit of a surprise over the weekend. With that being said, if there are no further comments, I would welcome a motion to adjourn. Motion made by Councilmember McMahon. Is there a second? Seconded by Councilmember Fuller. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor be certified by saying aye. Opposed? The ayes have it. To all of you, this is the fastest we've closed in a little while. You must be hungry. You must be hungry. So please head to the back and enjoy your time with Brooke. Thank you very much for coming.