City Council - Regular Meeting

I enjoy our time together.

I'm just going to mention the color-coded sheets before we start. Okay. Somebody's trying to figure out. Nice pastel.

Yeah. Thank you.

Good idea. That's where she wore the boots. That's right.

Adapted a good idea. Awesome. All I do is order paper.

Now you guys are going to read the draft. But they didn't prepare a book.

Because because of that, it's just a first hearing.

I just want you to just put it out there. That's what's yes. Yeah. Okay. That's fine. I appreciate that. Currently in place is a 4.5 passage. Yeah. Unless you don't basically the perpetual unless, but it has a clause in there. Like most of the.

But your price increases on January 4th. Okay. Sounds good. Yeah, this is because there's another one that says the price won't be selling. Yeah. I appreciate that. Good evening. Thank you for coming tonight.

I'm not going to check this in yet or start the meeting. I just want to tell you something that has changed due to something that we voted on, which is the sign-in sheets. If you notice the beautiful colors over there, we have a green, blue, and yellow. I'm going to explain to you what those are. But thank you, Jody and Council, for doing this. So if you want to speak tonight, make a public comment regarding matters listed on the agenda, which are back there. sign in on the green sheet like Tom did. If you have a public comment regarding matters not listed on the agenda, sign in on the blue sheet. and public hearing on fixing the annual rate or levy for taxes, general revenue fund, park fund, and service fund for the year, debt fund 2026, the yellow one. If you have any questions, you can ask Jody or myself. But anyway, that's why there's three colors back there in agenda. So thank you for doing that.

And with that, we will say the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America roll call, please. Right now. Here I was born here.

Latari Jones here. Euler here.

Approval of city council minutes. Motion to approve regular meeting minutes dated August 10th, 2026. So moved.

Ridenour.

Yes.

Osborne.

Yes.

Latari. Yes. Jones. Yes. Euler.

Yes. Thank you. Adoption of agenda.

Move to approve adoption of agenda as presented.

Ridenour?

Yes.

Osborne?

Yes.

Latari? Yes. Jones? Yes. Euler?

Yes.

Thank you.

Proclamations. There's a proclamation reading for Constitution Week 2026, which will be on September 11th, 2026. Proclamation will be read at the Warrensburg Chapter of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, DAR meeting on September 11th, 2026. Do you need to do anything else with that?

No.

Thank you. Item 6.1, presentation of the City of Warrensburg budget cover photo contest.

Good evening, Mayor, members of the City Council. So it's my honor for you tonight to present to you the winner of our fiscal year 27 budget cover contest. So as you all know, every year to encourage community involvement in our budget process, we host a contest for people to feature images on the cover of our budget book. So generously, the Warrensburg Arts Commission helped administer the contest this year and the theme was What's Your Warrensburg? So we had nine photo submissions from four participants and they submitted pictures of local buildings, personal landscapes, and just other things that showcase the unique character of our community and people's experiences within our community. So the winning photo was Fishing at Lions Lake by Tawanda Moore. We have a copy of the budget cover in your packet. Sorry, the photo got a little messed up at first. Another finalist is The Long Awaited Lions Lake by Penny Easterwood. So obviously Lions Lake was a popular subject this year. Everyone's very excited about the improvements. And Old Drum Solo by Tawanda Moore. So again, thank you for everyone that participated. And thank you to the Arts Commission for helping with this. Unfortunately, I don't think anyone's here tonight, but my gratitude goes to them. And thank you.

Thanks, Jessica. Item 7, public hearing 7.1, a public hearing on fixing the annual rate of levy for taxes for general revenue fund, park fund, and debt service fund for the year 2026. Presented by Jessica.

Okay. Let's see if you ask any tricky questions.

All right.

So again, good evening, Mayor, members of the City Council. So tonight you have three ordinances before you that would set the property tax levies for our general fund, our park fund, and the debt service fund. So in late summer, around August of every year, we get our pro forma statements from the state auditor. So what these are is they include information about our assessed valuation, which is the value of the property that's within our jurisdiction. And it also includes calculations that outline our maximum allowable levies that we can set. So via Hancock Amendment, we all are kind of aware of how that works. It caps how much revenue growth we're allowed to get in any given year. So based on this information, we calculate what our levies are going to be. We do a public notice, have a public hearing. You all give the attendance that are ordinances. So that's why we're all here tonight talking about property taxes, because we have to certify that information to the county clerk on September 1. So Caroline included a lot of wonderful information kind of breaking down our different categories of property and the growth we've seen across the last few years. But in summary, our levies are going to remain flat. So our levy in 2025 was 1.129, and that's what it's also going to be for 2026. because our base growth of property value increase was 0.1072%, so basically flat. If you factor in new construction, we have a total growth of about 1.5%, which is why we didn't have to roll back our levy, because that base stayed relatively flat. So with that, that gives us a levy for the general fund of 0.3453, a levy for the parks fund of 0.1876, and a debt service levy of 0.59. I quickly kind of want to touch on the debt service levy a little bit because a little bit different. It's not subject to Hancock in the same way that the general and parks levy is. So we voluntarily roll that back each year under Hancock. We're allowed to levy for the current year debt obligations as well as one year reserve. But since we made a promise and we issued our geo bonds for a no tax increase, we roll that back every year. It also doesn't apply to personal property, which general and parks do. It's only applied to real estate. So your personal property levy will be a little bit lower than that 1.1229, which is your real estate levy. So given that our levies are remaining flat, we can expect about $15,000 of additional revenue in the general fund, about $8,000 in the parks fund, and again, about $15,000 in our debt service fund. So we, of course, recommend holding a public hearing for any folks that want to talk on this tonight and approving the ordinances as submitted. You can get those certified.

Could you check the yellow sheet, I guess, right?

A question I did have real quick, and just make sure I'm on the same page. So we are not increasing the rate, but the valuations are going up. That's how we would bring in more money. Is that correct?

Yeah. The new construction allotment allows us to bring in a bit more because it's factored out first before then we set the limit.

Sounds great. Thank you.

I had some questions too, but does anyone else have questions? So I'm a person who loves letters and not numbers so much. So I always say, make me write a 10-page paper. Don't make me do financial analysis. So I have questions that are probably going to seem really super simple to you, but I'm going to try to understand. So in the counsel letter that Carol wrote, on the second page at the top, under the issue that assessed valuation, Can you help me understand? So at the very right is the growth column. How does 1.1296 plus 2.5227 equal 1.4335? What am I not getting there? Are those percentages actually being added together?

Because that number doesn't make sense. The 1.129 is 1% of $231 million. where the 2.5% is 2.5% of $65 million. So with those big variations in the base number that the percentage applies to, when you put those two together, then you end up at a total of $296 million and it gets out to the 1.4. So it's like, it's like, 10% of a million plus 2% of 100,000. Okay. You put it all together and you get a net percent.

I got you. So the growth percentages are not being added. No. Those are simply, I should be simply reading across the line. Okay, got you. Thank you. That helps.

If I may on that. So you're totaling the row, not the column.

Yeah. If you go across the row, real estate, you have the number 24, 25, 26. And that growth percentage is the growth from 25 to 26. So you see the percentage there for real estate, for personal property. And then when you put the total together, that's that 1.43. So it's the percentage growth of total real estate and personal from 25 to 26. But that far right column will not total up in that mathematical approach. Perfect.

Thank you.

Gotcha.

Okay. Okay, that answered my next question. Okay.

All right. I thought surely someone was going to ask about newly separated territory. I didn't know what that meant. Yeah, yeah. What is the newly separated? Jessica was able to discern that when we replant properties and we break them apart, that it isolates them. So it's not necessarily separated from our city limits, but it's properties that we have in split or flat. Okay. We had a few of those. I remember that. Yeah. Okay.

Okay, thank you. Next question. The next table, sources of assessed value under new construction. I've been trying to make sure I understand the difference between real estate, which is the land or things attached to the land, personal property, things that are not attached. So how do you have new construction that's personal property?

I believe it's property that comes into the city so someone buys a new car or a new piece of equipment and then they claim it. It's just new personal property that enters our jurisdiction. So the word construction is... Yeah, it's a bit funny the way they phrase it, but it's just property that didn't exist last year that now exists this year.

Okay. All right. Got it. Again, trying to get my head around this. The bottom paragraph that goes into the next page talks about the Hancock Amendment. It says that we can... We allows for the lesser of one of these three things right and you say, and this year, the actual assessment growth was the lesser of those three opportunities. And so. What is that actual assessment growth?

So our actual assessment growth is going to be that 0.1072%. We're allowed to gather the growth on the property that already existed. They take out new construction when they first calculate that. And then we add that back on at the end after our mill levy has been rolled back. If it gets rolled back. Okay. Gotcha.

That is what I guessed. I guessed right. Do I get a point for that? Okay.

Thank you. 1% is so small that we don't have an opportunity to adjust the mill rate. Yeah.

Okay. Okay. Thank you. And could you remind me, I know you mentioned it in your preface, when was that voluntary reduction of the debt service? When was that pledge made?

I believe when we issued the GEO bonds for McGuire, the way that it was marketed was it was a no tax increased GEO bond issue. Gotcha.

GEO being general obligation. Sorry. No, it's all right.

G dot O. Yeah.

Yeah. Thank you. GEO. Yeah. Okay. Um, Right. And can add another question that I printed out. Let me see.

There was something about that. Oh, okay.

And the public notice. Okay, which was also, frankly, very confusing to me, but I think I pretty much figured it out. I found what the property rate is, which is, like you said, a distant change, 1.1229. The last, I think these are rows, right? These are rows and not columns. I should be looking at, or maybe that's a question for that. Are these, again, these are rows, right? I'm looking at rows that each have three columns. Yes. Right. Okay. So that last row, can you explain what that is, the increased tax from dollar value reassessment and the percentage from reassessment?

I believe that is state auditor speak, and I will call upon Caroline if she has a small group of contacts about what that is.

Thank you.

Okay.

So the, I mean, I'm guessing that, so there's an estimated increase value, right, in the line right above. And so we're saying what we're estimating the increased tax is going to be.

Can I get back to you on this? Yeah, yeah.

Sure, absolutely. I don't have, just so we're clear, I don't have, I'm not questioning your calculations or anything. I'm just trying to get my head around it.

No, you're okay. Okay.

Okay, perfect. That's great. Thank you both. I appreciate your patience with my questions for someone who is not a math girl. That's all I had.

Okay, thank you. There were no one signed up for the public hearing. We looked at the sheet.

That's Caroline. No one signed up for the public hearing? No.

So with that, we'll close the public hearing. Item 8, public comment. Public comment on the fiscal year 2026-2027 annual budget presented by Jessica.

So if you would like, I can walk you through the final budget

He signed up.

So. Is it. The. It's just. We've been through the strategic funding process. We've been. You can tap on the right. Yeah. The closed public comment on the tax levy. We're on to the. The public comment on the fiscal year.

Yes.

Okay. Sorry. I want to make sure I'm not giving you the wrong information. So. This is the opportunity for the public to comment on the fiscal year 2027 budget. We've just gone through the tax levies, which we learned keep things pretty flat. So the 2027 budget, the capital improvement plan, and the 25 year financial number have all been something that we've been working on for quite some time. The budget reflects these tax levies that we just discussed. corporates them in for our revenue estimates on those applicable items. And then it carries forward the conversation that we had in the strategic planning as we discussed the overall approach that I tried to convey in my budget message was this is a multi-year conversation that we've been having. We spent last year looking at our fund balances, looking at our financial health and strategizing about how to be prepared this year to try to address the pay plan. So last year, our opportunities lie with capital improvement sales tax and the ability to really plan that, use that fund balance. And then we also took this intervening year to try to move as much as possible, particularly in the general fund, to capital improvement sales tax funding, capital improvement rather than the general fund, for the purpose then of bringing up funds in the general fund to see what we can do about the pay plan. So you've heard in strategic planning previously, conducted a salary survey, looked at about 35 communities, 38 job titles, used those as the benchmarking compared to our pay plan, presented to you what a modified pay plan would look like and how much it would cost after we tried to get ourselves to the midpoint of the data that we were seeing, and that was a $1.2 million price tag. This budget reflects incorporating that pay plan. It also reflects the department is towing the line in every other possible way to market expenditures as flat as possible. Certain things that are out of our control, whether that's insurance premium increases, inflationary increases, we try to limit any new initiatives, keep all of our discretionary spending as flat as possible to fund the pay plan. So a couple of things that I want to point out to you is, number one, in my counsel letter, I referred to my management letter multiple times, which is a portion of the budget. The budget documents that we gave you were just the reports, not the entirety of the documents. So that was my mistake at kind of increasing my message entirely into that. Absolutely. So I provided you a copy of my budget message. It's your seat. Essentially what I just described. The one other thing that I would call your attention to is my conclusion. Basically, this approach, the health improvement sales tax strategy, the pay plan, our 25-year comprehensive financial model, I feel like I now have a stabilized plan going forward communicated, articulated, implemented, the difficulty from this point forward is going to be keeping up with inflation. Now that we've kind of standardized everything, we've made our commitments, we've looked at our work plan, we're going to struggle like any other community does to see if revenue growth keeps up with inflationary growth as it relates to petroleum and asphalt and insurance and cost of living and merit reasons, but I do feel very proud of where we are. We've gotten ourselves organized, we've gotten ourselves positioned for using our finances and our reserves as strategically as we can for agreed upon purposes. So the budget that you have reflects all that strategic planning conversation you've had previously. The other thing that was pointed out to me is in addition to the budget picture format of you, apparently the table And the summary of notable changes just got skipped. It showed up blank on the line. And so the other item that's at your desk is the entire document with summary of notable changes from the July 14th budget discussion. And it itemizes them. I'll walk you through them kind of in categories. I'd be happy to answer any questions. But quite a few of these, the property tax, use tax, franchise, for telephone, cable, lodging, Our adjustments either for property tax assessment rates, we can dial that number in tighter, or we have a month's more of data in terms of current real-to-date numbers. So these have all been adjusted to just try to be more accurate in terms of budget rejection for fiscal year 27. Quite a few of those are decreases, property tax, use tax, franchise, telephone, cable television adjusted positively. taxes on lodging, contractual services. That is our agreement, which is on your agenda later this evening with the school district for us providing school resource officers, then providing this compensation. This reflects the final pay plan numbers, and it makes an adjustment to keep up with that. Community agreements, we adjusted the WCDB assumptions. Labor will move the demolition, anticipated demolition of 303 Moon Street into the budget. And we'll see how that process plays out in the end. Dues and memberships, community agreements is moving things around in light of our recent conversations categorizing them. Motor vehicle sales, an adjustment based on most recent year-to-date numbers in our projections. Interest on investments is an adjustment based on current projections. Clothing was split out, fire capital improvement expenses to be more specific. So that's a more detailed itemization of clothing, tools and equipment, building maintenance and repair, equipment maintenance and repair, software maintenance and repair, services not categorized for the fire department as well, equipment for the fire department, all kind of more detailed itemization of those Equipment for non-fanagoras and the CIP updated that based on my final adjustments to the comprehensive financial model. Rolled that into the budget debt service. That's also updated based on the comprehensive financial model. And there were transfers from the fund balance. That was adjusted to cover the projected cost. The CIP includes of that CIP fund balance. So we know that we're working towards that in that fund balance. Property taxes, we received the estimates from the county, so that's built in. Railroad tax, we received the estimates from the county, so that's built in. Capital non-categorized, we entered the most current transportation development district numbers there. And contractual non-categorized, of some new property to be accounted for. So that was an adjustment there. When all is said and done, the budget is balanced. The initiatives that we talked about are incorporated. I think Jessica said she had to make a $5,000 transfer on the reserve to finally get the budget to balance. But if everything holds, which I'm confident things will move around in years time, As proposed, we're spending $5,000 out of reserves to balance the budget. With that, I'd be happy to try to answer any questions that you have. It's been a culmination of a lot of conversation, a lot of work, and I can't thank Jessica and Carolyn enough for their knowledge, how they can turn things around, and their incredible patience with me as I come up with last year's requests and work.

to try to answer any questions yeah i do want to comment that i i like having the um unfunded needs listed i think that's good for us to see that we have things that we're fully aware that we need these things but they're not funded but we're showing them and they can next year when we start budgeting again we can look at that list and see if any of those can be included

Yeah, I think it helps us plan. I think it also helps give us perspective with the budget we have, with the fund balance we have. Before we start talking about new initiatives, here's what we're still trying to solve. Right.

So will we have a chance to speak on all the other budget items at the first reading? Sure. OK. I will wait till then.

But yeah, the intent of this particular item is public comment. Right, yes. So we need to give some context.

And again, I don't know how to ask this properly, but I have a question for Gary. Do you know, is this recording this time? We don't know that until afterwards because the last city council meeting tried to record it and it was not recorded. I tried to go back and look at something to answer somebody else's question about something that was discussed and it didn't get recorded. Is that something we can know now if it's being recorded?

It says it is. All right. Thank you. It's a free service. Yeah. So we never know.

Yeah. Right on. Got it. Thank you. Thanks for that.

Quick question I had regarding what you presented on with the notable changes. I noticed that community agreements was duplicated in there. Two separate accounts though, 110-611 and 110-642. And I was just wondering what the difference was between those two accounts.

So 110-611 is our community agreement with the WCVB. Essentially, that's the difference between the lodging tax you receive. We subtract out their personnel expenses and then transfer them to the amount that's on the merge. So that amount, which is $152, they're vouched as to what we send over to them.

Gotcha. Okay. So then the $116.42 is our partnership with nonprofits. Okay. Thank you.

Any other questions? Nope.

I can't find it right this minute, but I thought I saw a line item someplace for ARPA.

If you have an ARPA fund, then we will send it down December 26th. Yeah. Oh, okay. We're just kind of finishing out the projects that we've already discussed. We don't have any new initiatives.

Okay. I was just surprised that there was anything left.

Yeah, those all had to be earmarked and tagged, but you didn't necessarily.

There were a few lines, budget lines, that don't have any items in them, I noticed. So when I think that was a question I had to set, I'll wait for that. I'll wait for that question.

As far as the ARPA projects go, which ones are still out there that we haven't closed out? And are we on track to close them out before the end of the year?

Most of them might. Only little outs and anything, but the vast majority of them have been finished. I don't think a placeholder increases anything like that.

Gotcha. Okay.

Didn't we commit our remaining ARPA money to be used for wages and for that to be used by the end of a certain period of time so that that would free up the money to be that same amount of money to be used for the Lions Lake improvement? Correct.

We did a lump sum transfer essentially at the end of fiscal year 24. For about $1.2 million in that money. Since it went to general fund reserves, we didn't get to spend.

Okay. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. No one signed up for public comments on that item. Item 9, public comment regarding agenda items. That's the green sheet. Bring the green sheet up. Appreciate it. Thank you. Tom, you're the first one to do this and did it correctly. Thank you. Excellent. Good job. So he's on the green sheet. This is the green sheet of speaker registration, public comment regarding matters listed on the agenda. And under Tom's name, you also put the agenda item, which is community funding policy. Thank you, Tom.

It is confusing having three sheets, but I worked it out. I want to compliment and the city manager and the finance people on all the work you've done on the budget issue, I would tell you as an outside person, it's kind of confusing to try to find something. I went through it a little bit. It looks like in general, you're gonna spend more money on personnel next year which may mean that some people get pay raises. And that's a good thing because it's good to be competitive with the wage scales. Some of the stuff is very detailed. If you look at the fire department, you can find out what their estimate is for hose nozzles. Or with the police department for ammunition or safety vest or whatever it might be. So... but I need help drilling down and I may ask Carolyn some questions some other time, if I can. Is that allowed? Can I check your office sometime? Okay, all right. So I wanted, and this is a minor thing. I wanted to comment on, the office manager's letter on community funding policy ordinance. And so you go down to about the third paragraph and he says, you're developing a process and that you want to formalize how it's done, that organizations request Support funding support from the city. Which is city doesn't have a lot of money I usually help works out. But anyway, instead, there's going to be a process and maybe it already existed. I don't know. But if it's not formalized that it should be set up so that organizations know how to apply when to apply and essentially get on the list, saying, Hi. We're out here, we'd like to have $20,000 to paint the sidewalk red in front of our house or whatever it might be, but something like that. So that's my comment is that there needs to be a nice formal process and people need to know how to access it.

Thank you. I generally don't respond to public comments. That's a fair point. And I'll be the first to acknowledge I don't miss train is on down the tracks. I've gotten on a bus like in this one and worries and general approach. Wow. Once this ordinance is passed off, we'll have to build forms and process and communicate.

Okay, very good. Thank you.

Thanks, Tom.

Thank you. We're glad Heather's operation went well. Thanks. Public comment regarding matters not listed on the agenda.

No one tonight.

No one. Thank you. That was the blue sheet, right?

Uh-huh.

That was blue.

Item 11. Second reading of ordinance 11.1. An ordinance establishing the City of Warrensburg's policy regarding community funding, contractual service agreements, organizational memberships, trust distributions, and... Is that not there?

And legacy community appropriations.

All right, and legacy community appropriations presented by Mike Scrag, City Manager.

This is a second reading. We took up first reading in the last meeting, and the intent was to not take first and second reading in the same evening to create an opportunity for public comment, or also amending the public comment process to clear the front of the meeting. Nothing's changed from the ordinance that you saw previously, and we'll be happy to answer any questions that you have. With respect to process, the ordinance doesn't spell out the process in intricate detail, but it does include some provisions of a written agreement, clearly defined scope of services and identifiable public benefit, recognition of the city's financial in-kind contributions, appropriate reporting and accountability requirements, and annual appropriations approved through the budget process. The city attorney and I had a conversation about creating kind of a template agreement that covers to be able to flesh all that out once this is passed and get it communicated and back.

When do you expect we'll be able to have all the little specific details in place for our community organizations to go ahead and start the application process?

I think we should be able to put an application together and communicate that. pretty quickly following this action. I do anticipate conversations with community organizations, answering questions, trying to flesh out in greater detail what we need to know to draft a community agreement. My hope would be that we have the makings of the terms of the agreement for your consideration along with the application. At least In the first round, I think we anticipate a replication of what we have. In future years, we see a lot of requests. We may not draft agreements proactively for every request. But with our existing community organizations, I want to have a conversation with them and share a draft with them before we come back to you with an agreement.

I think this will be a good learning process of it.

I really appreciate all the work on this has been something that's been on my list since well before I was on Council was to have a process that was more transparent and equitable and

clear, and I really appreciate all of the many layers of the onion, as you've said before, that you've gone through, and I appreciate learning more about the history of some of our partnerships, and it's, you know, made me appreciate them even more than I already do, so thank you very, very, very much for all of the hours on this.

Myself and other staff have certainly learned a lot more about press funds and the endowments, the ins and outs of that, as well as some of these community things, so it was a good exercise. Thank you.

Motion to approve the second reading by title. Sorry.

This would be motion to approve or reject.

Is that okay? Is that what we want? Yes. Thank you. Sure. Ridenour?

Yes.

Osborne?

Yes.

Latari? Yes. Jones? Yes. Euler?

Yes.

Thank you.

Thank you. Item 12, 12.1, first reading of an ordinance adopting the fiscal year 2026-2027 annual budget. An ordinance adopting the annual operating budget for the fiscal year beginning October 1, 2026 for the City of Warrensburg, Missouri, presented by Mike Scrag, City Manager.

I won't repeat all the comments I gave for the public hearing portion of the budget, but this is first reading of the budget. I'd be happy to answer questions in the council letter and try to summarize that we've reviewed the state's financial position on our fund balances in detail over the last couple of years. We've concentrated eligible capital spending in the capital improvement fund. We've transferred eligible capital improvement expenses from the general fund to capital improvements. We've avoided increases in spending in the general fund, not in the number possible, directing those savings to wages and support the pay plan adjustments is our number one priority. And then the revised 25-year comprehensive financial model has been tweaked and updated to carry forward that long-term planning. We'll continue to look at that on a yearly basis and make adjustments, but that's intended to be the roadmap that we might shift lanes a little bit, but the intent is not to take the legacy of the ramp and do something dramatically different, trying to kind of lay a path for the future. So I'll be happy to answer any questions that you might have specific to the book.

Okay. Okay. I have several questions. No problem. All right.

I have to call on Jessica and Carolyn.

So typically, I believe, We've presented the draft like this once and then presented it again, had our second reading at a different meeting. Do I remember correctly that we typically have done that the past couple of years? And so what is your thought about not doing that this time?

That's what we're doing. Maybe I didn't word my counselor correctly.

It is presented on the agenda as a first reading.

Right.

So. Okay.

Yeah, I got it.

So that standpoint, since the agenda has been locked in, it would require an amendment to the agenda at this point to you to change that. Gotcha. So you can consider it pretty safely.

Okay, gotcha.

Thank you. And it made me wonder about the wording of my recommendation. And it could be confusing. The recommendation is approving the ordinance without getting anybody to sign the first reading. So the intent will be first reading this week and second reading the next week.

Thank you. Okay. Appreciate that. This is a minor thing for next time. All of the book tables, all of those wonderful and I think extremely easy to read and understand. Thank you so much. Just for next time, if it would be possible when there's a number at the top to have the name of that fund right next to the number so that I know what chart of funds it is I'm looking at. Just again, thank you. But so appreciate the detail. Like, like our speaker said, you can find out how much we're spending on those houses and hose dozzles. I did have a question for Chief Munstroman. Where does, or someone else, where does the SWAT vehicle itself land? I saw the equipment, but where does that land in the budget?

I'll take that one. So we show that as a lump sum purchase out of this fiscal, 26th fiscal year. The order is closed. We've not taken delivery. And so there's a number of things in this budget or any budget that can get budgeted and they don't actually transpire until later. We don't have a track record of encumbering funds and doing the accounting that formally. What we'll probably do on anything that Goals open from one year to the next where we bring it back for final action. We'll advise the council that this was planned last year. It's being spent this year. It'll necessitate a budget amendment in this fiscal year. But we'll provide you an accounting of the budget in the last year that we didn't spend it, the one in reserves, essentially, and now we're spending it. So we've

Right now, this budget doesn't include the vehicle. If you wanted to pay it back around this year, you can. It'll be in the capital outlay category in the police department general fund. We're using general funders for this project instead of CIP funds.

Capital outlay?

Yes. Gotcha. It's in the vehicles line. So there'll be one 10-622-6511 for the

I did recognize that carryover and built it in, sorry. No, that's right. It's a great piece of machinery. I just want to make sure it's in there somewhere. I didn't doubt that it was. I just wanted to make sure it was. And at one of the budget retreats, my goodness, I mentioned adding the Holden Street Bridge to our identified but unfunded. I don't think it's on there, on that list.

I thought that I didn't

Might just want to check that because it is, it is definitely a need. And this is just, I'm honestly just curious. Let's see if I can find in the water pollution control. There was something called a one-to-one program or one-slash-one program. I'm just curious what that is.

I think that's I&I.

Oh, I&I. I&I, sorry, yes. What is that?

Inflow and infiltration. So that is our pipes underground. As they get old, we need to line them or replace them or... Gotcha.

Just a joking question.

Again, don't question that. It's needed. Just wondered what it was.

Yeah. In. I mean, oh, no, Chris, the mcguire street is the mcguire street bridge in the budget as unfunded some place.

Yes. But which bridge. So we it breaks across different pages, but the wires. I've never seen that. I think the plan is to roll over the debt service. Once the debt service matures for City Hall, Hamilton Street, and AB, and that frees up funds from the wire. And fortunately, I could break these to a number of separate pronouns.

For those who don't have a packet for the evening, it's 337 pages of what we've delivered to ourselves. I just want you to know it's not like there's a couple of pages we're flipping through here.

I know, and I did not make a good note of my next question of what document it was on. I'm glad you're taking time to look for something because I am too.

Yeah, so in the capital improvement sales tax on half cent capital improvement sales tax, there is a line from McGuire Street overpass sitting shade of $1 million. Okay. And it assumes that it's financed and begins starting, this assumes starting in 2026, but it spreads that contribution over 20 years. And it's if we're again, could you say please under the capital improvement sales tax on half cent on movement sales tax. That channel. Is to see if the sales tax funds over expenses net positive or negative fund balance and it has a goal. That wire street overpassing share $5 million and it shows financing costs same time. follows public works. So it's in the fund balance calculation portion of the spreadsheet.

Okay, thank you. Okay, next question. This is in the, what's it called? The book tables again, page. Age 25, which is 110-810 non-departmental. Just curiosity. A couple things there. First, the line says transfer to VERF, V-E-R-F.

Yes, that is a $100,000 central startup loan to divert from the general fund as well as the transfer from the CIT fund. This year we no longer need it, so we'll just give it to the CIT fund. Funds certainly get little legs.

Sure, thank you. And then what is the neighborhood improvement line? What is that budget for?

That's the transfer the general fund makes to the NID, so the Hawthorne NID. That's for the assessments of the properties of the city.

Gotcha. Thank you. And then another time I don't want to take time to do it now, but at some future meeting or maybe at another planning meeting. I would love to get a little bit more detail about what's under the legislative budget that includes the city council and kind of what each of those lines are so that, again, I have a better understanding. Maybe no one will ever ask me, but if someone asked me, why is it, what's the city council spending this dollar amount on? I would like to just kind of have a little list of what that is. Again, I do not need that tonight or anytime urgently, but it would just be nice to have a little more detail about, what's under our area that we might need to know about.

So Jody might be able to give you just a quick overview of some of those things, like travel, MML.

Right. Some things are really obvious about what they must be, but others aren't as obvious to me.

There are also recording of plats and recording fees that are through that fund. And there are the MML costs. There are the elected official training certification that those costs are in there.

You've got in there costs for other boards and commissions. I know you're planning on zoning commission, board of adjustment, and historic preservation commission expenses all roll up under the legislative item.

Yeah, that makes sense.

that's it thank you i just want to double check these berf b-e-r-f you said vehicle equipment that was the i was looking for e so thank you

The other question I had was on the fiscal model for a street program at Hawthorne TDD. Since that TDD has been closed out, is it our intention to just keep that in its own fund until we have identified a project? Are we transferring that into a different fund eventually? What's kind of the idea with that? Just a chunk of money.

So, so the dollars you're seeing in that report are as a result of transportation down to the development district and those properties going for closure sale. So the city acquired some of them, not all of the properties. And as a result, we now pay transportation development district fees like a private property owner would. So The numbers that you're seeing here are projecting up the remaining payments that we would be making in those properties. The property itself, we now own, and it could be a redevelopment project. It could be something we market or work with a developer to redevelop. But these expenses basically represent the transportation development, just the fee validation and tip-on purchases. If we sell it sooner, we may not have to make all those payments. So in terms of it being a fund, we used to pay it as an expense out of the general fund for some of the same reasons we talked about. Paying for expenses to capital, we tried to take that expense and take it out of the general fund.

I think that... Oh, I'm sorry. Yes, maybe, yes.

I think this is the NID number.

Yes, so the TDD is part of the financial model that you have. It says that the remaining balance after the TDD was closed out is $600,000 there. Sorry.

No, it's all on me. That is remaining revenue. that was left after the TDD expenses were paid out. The state expects us to treat that separately and only use those remaining funds for purposes that are in keeping with the original intent of the transportation developments. So there are specified boundaries, there are things that we could do with that. The staff has not identified or proposed anything for the council's consideration. So that money is just an open pattern that we and agreed upon use. Possibly the intersection of Cooper and McGuire is part of that. So if we could apply that towards the corner street corridor improvement at some point, or we could apply somewhere else in that, the boundaries of that TDD. Perfect.

Otherwise, that was all my questions. Just want to say thank you again to staff for putting all this together. This is my first time going through the budget. You all made it super easy for me, so I do appreciate it.

We're very fortunate to have so many skilled, talented folks in the finance area, so thank you.

And you can see Jessica knows this backwards and forwards. Especially accountants. I know a few who need to cross-check on accountants.

Any other questions at this time?

We'd like to make a motion to approve the first reading by title only.

Ridenour?

Yes.

Osborne? Yes. Latari? Yes. Jones? Yes. Euler?

Yes.

Item 13-1, an ordinance fixing the annual rate of levy for taxes by the City of Warrensburg, County of Johnson, Missouri for general revenue fund purposes for the year 2026 and levying said taxes presented by Carolyn Two-Way.

I just wanted to pipe in real quick. I took a look at our pro-former so I can answer Councilman Latari's question. So the reassessment is how much money we are going to get because of that 0.1072% growth in the base. So this is just breaking out how much of our growth in tax revenue is coming from the reassessment of the property that already exists. Gotcha. Perfect. Thank you. Nothing additional. I recommend approval as presented.

Thank you. Move to a second reading by title only.

Ridenour?

Yes.

Osborne? Yes. Latari? Yes. Jones? Yes. Euler?

Yes.

An ordinance fixing the annual rate of levy for taxes by the City of Warrensburg County of Johnson, Missouri for general revenue fund purposes for the year 2026 and levying said taxes. This is for adoption or rejection. Ridenour?

Yes.

Osborne?

Yes.

Latari? Yes. Jones? Yes. Euler?

Yes. Thank you. Item 13.2, an ordinance fixing the annual rate of levy or taxes by the City of Warrensburg, County of Johnson, Missouri for debt service purposes for the year 2026 and levying said taxes. Presented by, okay.

Motion moved to second reading by title. Ridenour?

Yes.

Osborne? Yes. Latari? Yes. Jones? Yes. Euler?

Yes.

An ordinance fixing the annual rate of levy for taxes by the City of Warrensburg, County of Johnson, Missouri for debt service purposes for the year 2026 and levying said taxes. This is for adoption or rejection. Ridenour?

Yes.

Osborne? Yes. Latari? Yes. Jones? Yes. Euler?

Yes.

Thank you. Item 13.3, an ordinance fixing the annual rate of levy for taxes by the City of Warrensburg, County of Johnson, Missouri for park fund purposes for the year 2026 and levying said taxes. Move to second reading by title only.

Ridenour?

Yes.

Osborne?

Yes.

Latari? Yes. Jones? Yes. Euler?

Yes.

An ordinance fixing the annual rate of levy for taxes by the City of Warrensburg, County of Johnson, Missouri, for parks fund purposes for the year 2026 and levying said taxes. This is for adoption or rejection. Ridenour?

Yes.

Osborne?

Yes.

Latari? Yes. Jones?

Yes.

Euler?

Yes.

Thank you.

Thank you. Item 13.4, an ordinance authorizing the city manager and city clerk to execute a memorandum of understanding with Warrensburg R6 school district for the school resource officer program for the 2026-2027 school year presented by Andy Musbrun, police chief.

Good evening, Mayor, Councilmembers. This evening, bringing forward to you the MOU with the Warrensburg School District. It's one we sign every year. This year, we have reduced down from four positions to three for funding from the school district. They said they might revisit that next year. So at this time, we hadn't been able to build that fourth position in the years past anyway. It's just unfortunate that's where we moved to. They got the list of the cost of what we're projecting it will cost and their reimbursement for it. I stand for any questions if you wish. Same basic MOU. We changed a few things in there, but pretty well basic as the years passed.

I wanted to dig in on the financial side of it. The $284,000, that covers the three officers. Is that with the increased wages that we have set out?

So we have presented that to them, that those wages are going to be changing. And they had said initially with the fourth officer buffered in there that it should be a problem, but they are aware of it.

And it should be covered included in that 284.

Give or take, I believe it is give or take on there, but without having the projected cost of what the wages were going to be without letting that information get out to officers as well, because we weren't sure when we were.

Taking this forward, I can't say that exactly understood. Um, as far as the actual officers. So like you said, we weren't filling that fourth position for years past. So was that amount reduced? Are they paying per officer technically? And then this is just kind of...

Per officer on the reimbursement. Yeah. So per officer.

That language on page five in that last sentence actually says this amount will be an actual reimbursement to the city based upon the hours of the officers are assigned to SROV.

And we have a broke down line item in our ENCODE system of how many hours they work per week over time and everything as well.

Last question on the fiscal side. Are we paying anything during breaks and things like that, summer break, winter break? So we absorb that cost. We do, okay.

Possibly on the winter break as well, but that's still part of the school year. But when they're off during the summer, when they're not doing any school activities, because they still go to school resource training, so that the school will reimburse us for as well.

Gotcha. Okay.

It's a short period that they're not covered. In which case, they're out on the street? Yes. When they're not in school, they're on the street. Perfect. Thank you.

Can we just invoice... We invoice the school monthly.

So, yeah, we got that straightened out when Jessica and them came in because there was a little bit of billing discrepancy and we wanted to nail that down. They've been on top of it. You guys have been on top of that.

They handle that. And they wear our uniforms.

Yes, absolutely.

They're our police officers. Outside of the fiscal impact, I know it's been a big story over the past couple weeks using those electric shock gloves up in Nebraska schools. I guess we're not using anything like that around here. I haven't heard that we are.

I apologize. I have no recollection. I haven't seen it. I've been very busy. I don't know what you're talking about.

Well, I've seen all of the articles. I honestly didn't know if there were technology that was even available, let alone how much they cost. They're So they are gloves that they can apply like shock. We don't have any other.

We don't have anything regarding to that. That would be something I wouldn't. Yeah, I'd have to look that if that's actual police equipment or not. So I'm not aware of that. And we have none of that. Only thing we have are axon tasers that are stabbing anything with electrical current.

So just want to make sure I can share the message out there. So thank you.

One question I had on the MOU at the bottom of the page, it does say four commissioned police officers in the MOU. I don't know if that matters.

That changed about two or three different times. Yeah.

It's at the bottom of the first page, so the first line of administration. Mm-hmm.

Under administration.

Page one.

Oh, it does. Four commission officers. Yeah.

Three other place in the document is three, except for that one place. I think that type of graphical error would not change the document. Gotcha. The district did approve it with the way that it is.

Okay. Virgo.

Subject to the provisions of this agreement on staffing. So I think that covers it.

You said the school board already approved to this? Okay. So it will need to be approved as presented. If we want to make an amendment, they would have to re-vote on it.

Yeah, I would tell you that based on the wording of that paragraph, that remaining four, that got to be the only one that didn't get changed, that that remaining word four does not change the fact that it's only going to be three.

I think we can communicate with the cover, you know, by your lieutenant. If there's any confusion about the lieutenant, we'll bring him back. There's some meaning to the lines, but that's just a script.

Yeah. Well, if they're paying for her officer anyway, they would be paying for her. That's exactly right.

I don't want to speak for the school or the superintendent, but he has been very open in sharing their financial challenges. They are strongly just to balance the budget payroll and make adjustments to their budget challenge. I shouldn't say they're struggling to make payroll. Adjusted budget is challenging.

It's challenging time.

Sorry.

We appreciate the police department working with them. It says over 25 years now. I didn't know that.

Yeah, so I've been here going on 26, 27, and I've had two SROs whenever I first started, and we grew it to the, trying to grow it to the fourth, but so.

Any other questions? Thanks, Chief.

Thanks, Chief. We have two second reading by title only.

Ridenour?

Yes.

Osborne?

Yes.

Latari? Yes. Jones? Yes. Dueler?

Yes.

An ordinance authorizing the city manager and city clerk to execute a memorandum of understanding with the Warrensburg R6 school district for the school resource officer program for the 2026-2027 school year. This is for adoption or rejection. Ridenour?

Yes.

Osborne?

Yes.

Latari? Yes. Jones?

Yes.

Euler? Yes.

Thank you.

Thank you. Item 13.5, an ordinance authorizing the city manager and city clerk to execute a contract with Tinnock Construction. Is that how you pronounce it? Yes. Great. For the Hawthorne Park Century Garden Trail Construction Project in the city of Warrensburg, Missouri, presented by Chris Diehl, Parks and Recreation Director. Hello, Chris.

Thank you. Good evening, Mayor and members of the Council. The ordinance is a contract agreement with Tenuk and Construction Incorporated for the Hawthorne Park Sensory Garden Trail construction. As the Council may recall, this project has three phases. Phase one is completion of a concrete parking lot At Hawthorne Park, to make it ADA accessible, that grant funding amount was $25,000 by Johnson County Board of Services. Phase two was the design of the trail, completed by McClure Vision. And this was also funded by Johnson County Board of Services for $20,000. Phase three, the Parks and Recreation Department solicited sealed bids for the construction. of the trail. This includes site preparation, grading and earthwork, erosion control, tree protection, concrete trail construction, handrail installation, and turf establishment. The city received three bids. Tenant Construction Incorporated, submitted the apparent low bid of $126,756.70. J.C. Myers submitted a bid for $150,419.10. And Max Commercial Construction LLC submitted a bid for $163,448.06. Following review of the proposals, Tina Construction was identified as the apparent low bidder, as the qualified bidder, excuse me. Martinburg Parks and Recreation Board reviewed the bid results and also project funding and approved the contract award to be forwarded to the City Council for final authorization. This project supports a strategic plan by investment in infrastructure and also city goals of improving public facilities and expanding accessibility. Under fiscal impact, as stated, the total contract amount for this construction is 126,750,670. Confirmed grants and donations total $43,300. That's consisting of $25,000 from Johnson County Board of Services, $2,000 from the Lawrenceburg Parks for the 21st Century Foundation, $1,300 from West Central Electric Foundation, and again, additional $15,000 from the Warrensburg Parks for the 21st Century Foundation commitment payable upon request. So the remaining funding requirement is $83,456.70. to be provided from the $100,000 fiscal year 26-27 capital improvement allocation for trails and parking lots. This project has a deadline completion of December of this next year. Further grants and donations received for the project may offset the Parks and Recreation Department's contribution as permitted by the final funding and accounting plan. So as planned, this project will improve accessibility within Hawthorne Park and support recreational opportunities for varying ages and abilities. And a drawing of the trail is included in your packet. Therefore, staff and the park board recommends the approval of the contract with the Pinnock Construction Incorporate in the amount not to seed 126,756.70. And I will answer any questions that you may have.

I do have a question. Looking at the drawing, I had to drive out there so that I could get billing for. So the trail, this trail is inside of the fencing?

Yes, it is. It's inside the park.

Okay. And looking here, it says it's a standard 10 foot sidewalk and that sidewalk is asphalt or concrete?

It is concrete and four inches thick.

Okay, perfect. All right. Those are the only questions I had. Thank you.

Just curious. Park's looking great. This is very exciting in addition to what you did earlier this year. Do we think we might be able to try to look at getting parking on Hawthorne on that east side of the road in the future or something to allow parking? I know the parking lot's kind of small there.

I know.

I know. Just a thought. We did the last ribbon cutting and it gets crowded.

On the east side of Hawthorne.

There's no parking.

East side of Hawthorne.

East side.

Is there no parking on either side?

On Hawthorne.

Uh-huh. On Hawthorne. If there's a chance you can park there. People did for the ribbon cutting, but it says it's not a parking. It's not allowed at this time. Just something to look into in the future. Because the park's hitting a lot of... Okay. Yeah. Anyway, it looks great. Any other, any questions for Chris? Nope.

Motion to move the second reading by title only.

We got one in before Max, so there you go.

Right. Ridenour?

Yes.

Osborne?

Yes.

Lotari? Yes. Jones? Yes. Bueller?

Yes.

An ordinance authorizing the city manager and city clerk to execute a contract with Tanoc Construction Inc. for the Hawthorne Park Sensory Garden Trail construction project in the city of Warrensburg. This is for adoption or rejection. Ridenour?

Yes.

Osborne?

Yes.

Latari? Yes. Jones? Yes. Euler?

Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks, Chris. Item 13.6. An ordinance authorizing the city manager and city clerk to execute a contract agreement with Westport Construction Company for the 2026 fire station number two concrete improvements in the city of Warrensburg, Missouri, presented by Phil Adledge, public works director.

Good evening, city council members. So this is for the fire department station two concrete repair and replacement. We had a really strong, we had 18 plan holders request packets, nine responsive bids came back. Due to the fact that most of those bids were a little bit overpriced, the way we set up our bid packet, we can remove a line item, had to to get it. underneath the amount of money that we have for this project. So when we did that, the contract amount will be $205,706.20 to Westport Construction Company. This will replace the fire truck driveway onto corporate drive. It will replace deteriorated sidewalks, removing trip hazards and public safety. It'll add additional parking and sidewalk connecting that area. It'll support future development of that area as well. So we're happy that Westport construction company there. They've done the local projects as we should show them the pictures in the packet. We recommend that it is approved. I'll stand for any questions.

I have a question about the bidding process, which is related to this and other ones as well. Westport, where are they out of? I have to ask Joe Clinton. Do we have any... I understand we try for the lowest and best bids. Do we take into consideration local people?

Yes.

Even if it is the next person? Yes.

We had... We had Richter, we had J.C. Myers, we had...

In terms of the actual award, do we weight our local people a little bit higher?

No, because this is established...

And so we don't have anything in addition to statutory and anything to create a local programs and and you share with me real world first hand experiences. Purchasing preference that that actually harm the competition, I was in the Community to try that and vendors come to just won't be doing right.

Thank you. Thank you.

I had a question in the council letter. I just want to make sure I'm understanding numbers again. At one point it says the budgeted amount projected was the 205, 706, and then the budget amount lower down on that letter says 238, 300. So was 238, 300 the actual budget? And now what we think it's going to be is the 205, 706.

238 was the original number that we had at the max. All the bids came in over that. So we had to eliminate something out of the project. That's why we had to find 8-bond items.

So that piece out. Yeah. Okay, great. And then just curious, the strategic plan is referenced investing in infrastructure focus one. That makes total sense. But I don't understand how this is about developing career progression opportunities within departments and the organization.

Well, let's make things better. It gives people like upgraded cars that he is not using more people want to come to work here. So we make our facilities better. It's going to attract more people to Spend some more time.

Training. Okay, cool.

Anything else? That's it.

All right. Move to second reading by title only.

Back on track.

Brad Naur?

Yes.

Osborne? Yes. Latari? Yes. Jones? Yes. Euler?

Yes.

An ordinance authorizing the city manager and city clerk to execute a contract agreement with Westport Construction Company for the 2026 fire station number two concrete improvements in the city of Warrensburg, Missouri. This is for adoption or rejection. Ridenour?

Yes.

Osborne?

Yes.

Latari? Yes. Jones? Yes. Euler?

Yes.

Thank you.

Thank you. Item 13.7, an ordinance authorizing the mayor and city clerk to sign an amendment to the updated services agreement, city attorney and city councilor of the city of Warrensburg, Missouri, presented by Adam Sommer, city attorney and city councilor.

Good evening, mayor and city councilor. I don't come up to this microphone often. Actually, they're really good. So I provided you with an updated letter. It mirrors the previous letter for approval with the contract terms. That was what was in the packet. What I've just given you all in the handout is I went through and just did a quick comparison of what has been spent in 2026. at the current rates, averaged that out over the seven months that we have completed for billing purposes, and then took a look at what that change would look like compared to 2027 to give you all an idea of what I'm actually asking for in terms of a change. Some notes on that are the current rate is set at 150 an hour. I use that rate when I'm coming up with the prosecution flat fee. It's currently $4,150 a month. That comes out to about 28 hours. I track for my own purposes, actual time that I'm spending. I'm not spending 28 hours a month on prosecution. I'm spending more like 35 hours a month on prosecution. So I have considered that with the new rate as well. So moving the prosecution from 150 to 165, and then I budgeted it for 30 hours, not 28. So a two hour increase to what it was assuming before. comes out to $5,000 flat. So that's where that number comes from. That's the rationale behind it. Interestingly enough, as we move away from paper tickets and electronic tickets, some of the function and time changes and takes away some of the hand time that I'm doing, but it replaces that with the fact that now we have, frankly, longer and better reports. As a result of the technology changes, and video that is much more useful for review purposes. So time I would have spent maybe sitting there going through paper tickets, that time's kind of converted over to that. We also, for the first time in a while, have almost all the number of officers that you can actually have. More officers means more tickets, which means more time, which means more people. So you can kind of look at that number you know if there's three court dates in a month, you're talking about right there that's 20 ish hours just for being here physically in court. So trying to just, you know, do it as best I can and balance it as best I can. Non-prosecution work currently, based on the averages for 2026, that averaged out to about 22 hours a month in just non, totally unrelated to being a prosecutor. So whether it's being at a meeting or helping with ordinance preparation, anything like that. That number, based on everything that we have coming up in 2027, including recodification, which is a very, very hands-on project, I in the estimate to just to give you an idea, I put 32 hours a month of work there. The combination there is the recodification for sure. And also one of the things that I have picked up on in the last 18 months of or a little more than that, 18 months and change of getting to do this. is that one of the things that uh mike has brought as a city manager is one of my favorite questions which is why are we doing it that way and why are we doing it that way 100 of the time winds up with the lawyer being involved in some way shape or form so that's a good thing it also means probably a little bit more time that we're spending but we're looking at like we did tonight with the new policies right looking at Things we've been doing. Why are we doing it? How can we make that better, more efficient, more transparent, which is why I'm standing here in open session is transparency because legal fees and city legal fees are a big deal and are a big deal in a lot of places. And this is something we could do in closed session. I choose to do in an open session because. what the taxpayers are getting for my services and representing not just the city, but the citizens of the city. When I stand in court, I'm standing on their behalf to say the thing that the person has done needs to be dealt with. And so I think it's important that they know where their money's going and why. So what that gives you is a yearly estimate with the increasing, not just the rate, but increasing the literal number of hours that's expected. Takes the yearly estimate to just over $123,000. which is a pretty good chunk of money. So I, of course, compared to other places at 165 an hour, that would put my rates currently $50 an hour lower than the rate that is being paid in the city of Sedalia. So maybe it's not apples to oranges, but today it has, let's see, 2020 census since today was 21,725 people. Current estimate is a change in the positive of 900 people. So just over 22,500. Warrensburg's 2020 census was 19,337. It's 2025 estimated changes plus 1,900 people. You don't have to be an expert in housing to drive down DD and know there's more people now. So more people, more tickets, more everything. That has to be dealt with in general. So that is why I have brought that to you. And the other purpose of that is, you know, this is a $59 million corporation and you ought to have good legal representation. And one of the things that I should be able to do is spend the time and effort that is needed for a corporation of this size to run. And so since I have started doing this position, since I've taken this position over, I have made a concerted effort. And as of July 31st, 2026, I no longer carry any open domestic files at all. I am carrying a very limited amount of litigation files. That way I am not. Subject to the whim of many, many, many, many, many hearings that will keep me away from doing the duties and have been able to set up a schedule that allows me to be very nimble and accessible for not just Mike as the city manager, but for department heads.

And I think every department has at this point, they don't, they should.

So that is why I'm here asking for that. And I appreciate any questions you have.

When does this go into effect or possible? January 1, 2027.

That's what I thought. And to be clear, I would keep doing the work whether you give me more money or not. Oh, well, there you go. I'd like to pay my staff a little more money. Lisa and Caitlin and Alicia are the best. I mean, just the best. Any other questions?

No questions. I'll have you on board. Yeah, appreciate you. Thank you.

I did just have one comment for council. I think that we have a very competitive offer here. I think that it's great to continue on. Our counselor has been great to work with. And I do think that it is a good idea that we look at doing an RFP of some sort in the near future for legal services, just because I haven't seen that come through the council a long time. I think that that needs to be normalized to go through an RFP process every five years or so for all of our services. I think that legal counsel should be included in that. By no reflection of our current councillor, you know, I think that our current councillor is great, but I think just for the sake of it, make sure that we are not in all of our eyes crossing our T's and doing what's best for the citizens to do an RFP sometime soon. That being said, I don't think that should hold up our vote tonight on these increases. I think this is still very competitive.

It's very competitive. And if you do look at the city budget and what was just written this summer about what's going on down there, it's unbelievable. More than double. More than double as far as costs. Annual costs are almost triple. Good point, Max.

With respect to RFP, there's a number of services. We're doing banking RFPs, audit service RFPs. Currently, we've identified insurance, which is kind of a big ticket item. I think that in the near future, it's something we need to do RFPs for. Yeah.

Anything else?

No? Motion to remove the second reading by title only.

Ridenour?

Yes.

Osborne?

Yes.

Lattari? Yes. Jones? Yes. Duller?

Yes.

An ordinance authorizing the mayor and city clerk to sign an amendment to the updated services agreement for city attorney and city councilor of the city of Warrensburg, Missouri. This is for adoption or rejection. Ridenour?

Yes.

Osborne? Yes. Latari? Yes. Jones? Yes. Euler?

Yes.

Thank you.

Thank you. Item 14.1, May oral appointment. Motion to approve the following May oral recommendations. Appoint Jeffrey Rehm as a member for the Warrensburg Convention Visitors Bureau for an unexpired term through April 2027.

Move to approve the appointment as presented.

Ridenour?

Yes.

Osborne?

Yes.

Latari? Yes. Jones? Yes. Euler?

Yes. Thank you. Item 15, miscellaneous matters from the mayor and or city council.

I did want to mention just to the council that I have stepped down off the main street board. It has been my own decision. I was not coerced or anything like that, but I have truly enjoyed my time on the main street board. I just feel that it's best for me to move on. I've been with them for about five years now and want to dedicate my full efforts towards the city council and the citizens that voted for me to be here.

Thanks for your service with that organization, great organization.

Just a quick question, sorry, about when the community application, the community funding application is on the web page. Just would like to make it a fairly obvious place. I think right now it's not super easy to know where to find that Stevenson Fund request for a donation. One place I think it makes sense to do is put it under the how do I list. But there may be other places it would make sense to link it as well. Places that people might naturally think to ask to look for some sort of funding, like on the finance page, even though that's not where it's coming from. I just like it to be thought about and discussed about how to make it as clear as possible for folks to find that.

And is this our last meeting with the Star Journal reporter that we have in place?

What? Yeah.

You have done a great job. We've enjoyed you throwing yourself into the community, being so active, and living up our meetings. And you've done a great job covering everything in Warrensburg. So we appreciate your good work.

Thank you to everyone.

We hope you're staying around.

Fingers crossed.

Thank you. Anything else? City staff update, city manager.

Cranking out quite a bit of work product, but I don't think it was. I assume Jim will talk to you about the alternate meeting date. Happy to answer any questions.

Administrator services.

We've been working on a lot of budget, if you can believe it. Yeah.

I would have thought that.

It's part of the training. Thank you. Thanks for your hard work. Everybody finance. Appreciate it.

City clerk?

Thank you, Mayor and City Council. Just a reminder, our next regular meeting will be on a Wednesday, September 9th, due to the conflict with the MML. Missouri Municipal League Annual Conference. Missouri Municipal League Annual Conference. Thank you. For anybody listening. But isn't that conference after the 9th? Mm-hmm. So the first... The second meeting, the second Monday of every month we meet, that's in conflict. We will not be here for that. So we're moving it forward. We moved it forward. Gotcha. Okay. All right. I'm with you now. Okay. Thank you.

Anything else?

I don't have anything else.

Thank you. Community development.

It's just a one item. Cole let me know from Solid Waste last week that on August 7th, 10th, and 11th, Three service days in a row. It was a Friday, Monday, Tuesday. We had zero missed pickups reported for three days in a row, which earns from George. He treated the staff to a turkey sandwich lunch last week. Oh, that's great. Turkey sandwich. So George gets the turkey sandwiches for free. And Paul, which is our local foreman, He has been working for that for 18 months, so he was very excited they got it.

That's great.

Anything else? No, that's all right. Thank you. Fire Department, Chief. Parks Department. Thank you. Go ahead. Police Department.

Good evening, Mayor, Council. We've been pretty busy at the Police Department. We had the possible arson down south off DD. Investigators took that, ran with it, and was able to get an individual in custody on harassments and threats charges. That individual was back in St. Louis. It was a great investigative work and got him in custody and transported back here to Johnson County. putting together the arson part of the case and working through that. So then we also had two individuals taking counterfeit bills all over town and working that side of it. One of our sergeants and our new officer from KC who didn't get to work cases from start to finish up there was actually working that case and they identified An individual with old school police work without Phlox help. We were able to identify the individual through some camera systems and then working through one of the dispensaries. Got some good photos there and we did a certain warrant down south of the town and took them into custody and located a printer and paper they were printed on. So that was fantastic work from the patrol side all the way through the investigative side. And then we have three investigators up working the homicide, double homicide up in Carroll County, right? So that's all we have.

And that was $100 bills?

I saw the bills. I felt the bills, but I can't tell you the denominations at this time.

Well, I need to know what not to take.

These were good. The sergeant actually brought them to me and showed them to me, and I'm like, oh, them are good. The paper felt good, but I was able to identify some things on the outside border, but Yeah, I can't. I can't tell you what to take and not to take. Sometimes the credit card or sometimes the cashless, you'll be fine.

Two-party out-of-state counter check. Public Works.

Mayor, Council Members. So, well, if you notice, we've got some middle, or not some middle, some overlay going on. College Street, Railroad Street. All of it was milled out already. So that's going on. The sidewalk program has started on certain areas. I have to ask Jason exactly where. So they're all over certain spots, touching improvements that are needed. The enterprise lift station project has started. The phase two will that's opening on this Thursday. So we'll find out how much that's going to run and then we'll turn around and get that back in front of you. I don't know if it'll be back in front of the next meeting or the following meetings, but we'll get it back as soon as we can and hopefully get that project started in the spring due to the asphalt season will be closing out here in the near future. The plant expansion's going well. We will have a change order coming in front of you hopefully next council meeting. And we'll discuss that at that time. Fox runs storm drain repair. We have that going on at this time or it's going well. Fire station two or fire station one bunkhouse. It's coming along well. There's lots of construction going on here. And then of course you all just approved the fire station two. So thank you very much. I'll stand for any questions.

I wanted to see the lift stations. You put a picture of all the blue pipes that you're putting in the ground. And so I drove out to Cahill. All I saw was the bean field. So I need to go further north. What road do I have to go on to see all the equipment?

Well, so if you go into Stony Brook Drive, which is Stony Brook, You go into Cahill and you go into the first right if you're heading east and then down and then hit the Stony Brook. You'll head back to the west and look south. You'll see all the construction. Don't believe a lot of the pipe is there yet. It's Being delivered. We're right now. They were just clearing and getting prepped for the pipe to show up so they can dig and bury.

And that's city property that that is going to cities easement cities.

Yes, it's Roger Baldwin in the falls. Probably, but we have an easement on that plan for the survey.

Okay, so the Stony Brook dry and drive to the southwest corner of the cable side of the

Okay. All right. Thank you. Yeah, I know what that would be.

All right. I want to leave you hanging on the change order on the sewer line. So we're clearing the completion of the project. Numbers are getting finalized. There's enough project savings that we're bringing back a scope of expansion. So it's an addition of work that we initially didn't think we'd be able to afford. Okay. We're excited. Yeah, got through the project enough to be confident in the numbers.

Let's move forward to that. Additional expansion or so?

So it's an additional equipment improvement. Nice.

And blowers we replaced. We have four blowers per location and three of them are standardized and one was left. The old equipment and technology missed the opportunity to replace those as well. Good to know.

Thanks, Phil. Warrensburg Convention Visitors Bureau. Right. We're adjourned. Thank you.