Master Plan Citizen Oversight Group - 2026 - Regular Meeting

Can you unmute?

Great. We start with roll call. Yeah, absolutely. Mayor Gana here. Um, chair routin chair here. Uh, member Avery, member Baker here, member Batty here, member Bmergel here, member Borne, member Clark here, member Clayton here, member Coleman here, member Deller. Member Hellfrey here. Member Hman here. Member Rubis here. Member Jackson. Member Con

here. Um, council member here, member Mets, member pick, council member Rambo, member men or rain, I'm sorry, member sh and we have a quorum.

Great. Thank you. If you're able, would you please rise and join me in the country, please?

Thank you. Like to invite the mayor to open up any comments you may have. Mayor Gardano, thank you. Uh, Vice Chair Loyal, I I heard a little bit of what you said there. Were you asking if I had any remarks? Yes, just go for that, sir. You're welcome.

Oh, well, thank you. Thank you very much. Well, I I don't have anything specific or intentional here, but just want to [snorts] say thank you again to everyone for being a part of this group and certainly always open to feedback uh about the process to see if we can improve it. Um always open for that. I also want to wish everyone a very happy Thanksgiving coming up. But that's all I've got. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Next on the agenda, this October 2nd, 2025 meeting comments. Is there a motion to approve the Octo? All in favor? I thank you. Moving on. I'm gonna loop on. Thank you from Chief Mayor here at city hall making. I've said this in the last meeting and progress hasn't necessarily been as fast as but the product is excellent we have concurrence on that plan process plan we have a few snacks drinks refrigerators like pretty yourself if you get first take a snack as we go through. So just to kind of give you a rundown environmental element has been completed and so is being put to bed. uh the planning element as part of your packet tonight that has been completed for all purposes and tonight not for discussion purposes but if you'd like to go through

to make sure any of the comments you made that were part of a vote and adopted or accurately described or included then let us know if we've not done that and we make the corrections as for the project to repeat. So again, it's there or you missed something or you can say you did everyone know forward with that turn it all to you eventually find action tonight. Our intent is to complete the community. We got started on that as a leader three of the five and also have transportation ready for discussion our director of public in the department status. Great observation that was really helpion and the narratives mentioned this October meeting that the narrative has kind of been put aside not forgotten aside the department is focusing on death take supplements Third, you have fourth space and recreation has been completed passed around internally at city hall economic

is next and that's the one that we're working on right now. All those are done have four properties changed. So as I mentioned at our last meeting first three goals service and the first related to appropriate police fire EMS agreed that this goal is essential and necessary to safe neighborhoods retain with no change. The third goal development interesting development expressing city service levels that are offered by the city for service providers partners utilities. This goal which was very original 1996 how we serve in business we did a change this was something that generated I think the most discussion

relates to internet based communication services before we have a place that's still here to federal money service to 2100 households. There's about 400 that remain. Our city administrator has been monitoring state efforts to address the underserved unserved properties in which number about 400 and it appears that AT&T is capturing most of those. So our goal is to finish without sending the table out that may be completed or we finish the doc. The remaining two goals we we stop looking for those. Um for residents and businesses need to be informed about all government activities condition by continuing always improving multidia social media outlets. So like mostly we have Facebook, we have Instagram, we have we have a website and we have our I think the thing that came out of the last 10 years [clears throat] after and I've had a lot of collective moment for that time

to be opening participation could be here as city hall I think everyone effort to communicate with them. And so tonight the department is basically saying let's reinforce again the fifth and final preservation and the department is recommending it. Obviously, you want to always protect our resident through maintaining housing, theirs, their neighbors, and then everything around them. was free to leave the city county through the reoccupancy program for rental units both the traditional kind apartments condominiums and also single family country venture capital and other entities started buying up home now for the first time actually require an effect and the exteriors are kept up so they don't become a drag instruction.

You just want to hear Sure. Absolutely. Um, as far as the inspection itself, the St. Louis County does the inspection and basically public health safety. We do require the actual occupancy permit here. And so once people get the inspection and it's approved, they bring that to the city and the city will issue the actual occup permit so that we have the information of the residents that are

uh yeah, the it's just St. Louis County's normal inspection fee. I think it's $125 for the inspection and then we charge $25 to just to process the permit. You mentioned condos. So owner occupied condos are they that was a big distinction city council I believe council and the feeling was that community that now 30 years old 1970s early 1980s who are approaching that fifth year. But the feeling wise do a very good job. Those few that paint on we have problem we can never get into the interior but the most part we try to keep the obser is there any mechanism to deter I mean obviously with the traditional rental units it's probably pretty obvious if someone just has owner decides to start renting it is there any mechanism for the city to become aware of that or for the owner occupant to be aware of it or is it just by blood Well, it's uh more challenging than if it were for allies. Um another space I worked at where we've done all inspections, we've gone up Amron list so that we can see the turnover. Um it it a lot of it is is you know self-reporting. Um but there are ways the am list um you know works for apartments and for no rentals but otherwise it's challenging or online. Um, we get the a lot of the rentals that are on those have people not

my concern is regulator inspection fire codes and safety is that possibility or is that being done? The living expired protection history is it's just another layer obviously the Find another possibility in the bedroom. So it's just things that the end of the day that I think could be expensive job. You mentioned the property maintenance codes that do the exterior. Does that go for every resident or just the ones the subdivisions like the streets are maintained and stuff by the city? Does it also apply to the private subdivision? streets. Those are the two new goals.

Um on number four, um could we add into your list close captioning?

Yes. And I had um something that came up before and he said to bring it up during time. Um the emergency if you have an emergency and wild and It's outlined that we are to have a minimum I'm sorry to have regular drills earweed drills um simulations or pavement pop exercises to prepare for any emergency. And um that brought up some questions that I had and I assessed this with with Captain Mandel and with Thomas. And Captain Mandel said that there are classes that um would be appropriate for all of the elected officials to have every year and to re um introduce them to what they need to do and the staff to do during an emergency situation. So it's more of a emergency contingency plan than the operations plan because the operations plan you would have to go back and read the whole thing again and it's quite involved if um it was an emergency. So, this NIMS training and probably most people know what that is that um it's it's a one day class that they give me gifts and it is going to be offered is already setting that up for this um council that's here now and the

staff but I think it should we should have a a goal to do that every year so that it doesn't get brought by the wayside. side and we need to meet those N standards and

is first is emergency operation plan addressed anywhere else in the M perhaps see if not then I think it's an excellent idea incorporated my unfortunately emergency operation plans have wonderful intent they're created they look lovely and they sit on the shelves and it's difficult because of everyone's time constraints to take the time review update as necessary it's even more difficult the tabletop exercise of the world effort but I think it's unfortunately more often than not it's postevent that you realize oh we need to revise our 1975 emergency operation So I would agree with you that a development development or not review developation on a that can be determined annual basis and maybe good we get input from the board of public safety as far as the recommendation but it should be

well I believe that we do update it even though it's takes that on. I don't recall. I think to point I think it excellent idea to incorporate it in the master plan so that future generations don't forget to

Yes. I started and um went through the Yeah. Yeah. And we I went right through that. So I don't think it had been updated at that time. We thought it was time for a regular document that had been updated. So, I think that that yearly would be a good time because we hit the um probability of having new council members every year. So, maybe after the April election, if I could just just based my background, I conceptually we're here. I think we I don't think at this meeting we want to hash off the frequency the depth of it but I think we can defer to internal experts here to say okay what what scope do we need to put within have it in here that needs to be is that or trying to hash up the oper

I suggest that we safety take it up. I'm a public official in the event of a disaster. I ought to be have to show up somewhere do something and I do when I first you know the community emergency respon get a get a backpack um there's simple things that we could do to make those much more responsive the board to some sort of disaster and so maybe it [clears throat] just you know maybe it's time to to find suggest

I think it's wonderful I think we meet in two weeks I think if nothing else just bug in Marshall's ear that hey we need to and it may be that we evaluated and to point was updated when she and went down it and we don't need to do anything other than make people familiar you know the important thing about EOC plan is that emergency part of it is handled by people that generally had these emergencies every day. It's the one step back from that where continuity of government [clears throat] continuing public services after the initial event. Those are the things that really are in depth and and a lot of the elected officials and civilian population get involved with making it work.

Yeah. I taught us how to shut up guessing so they gave us a tool to do it and you know there's a you know 500 we can be useful that should be if there's a better place for it to fit in the tax but very again I don't something better as long as it's in there we don't care if it's on page six or Just to um you know emphasize this point um Captain Mandel told me about uh an event that happened in the recent past that a city had um did not have the elected officials um updated on what should happen and the the staff and the police force all had decided on a direction to go and then the mayor announced a different direction to the public which caused a lot of chaos. And so just having that come together I think is really important whether we do it at I think it should be yearly just because so many changeovers of people but um I just think that that should be in here that we have training happened for all of the elected officials.

Do you need a motion for that? Yeah, I just wanted to see comments about the fact that conceptually we got the idea and um we kind of hand it off of put on the board of safety's agenda and Mary Garano. Okay, I can make a motion to add something that in here and then defer to the city on how to word it.

Mayor, any discussion? Yeah, I I just wanted to comment um that I do think emergency preparedness is important for a city to make sure that it does have a plan in place and we do work with St. County Police and they have a role in this and drafting a document that is coordinated or done in partnership with the office of emergency management. But I do believe it's important for our officials and I think that's the key thing is we have officials and then we have staff or employees at city hall. The officials are uh the governing body legislatively. So obviously our primary role is is legislation uh with the mayor having slightly broader role there. Um but the I think it is important because I believe that in the time of crisis or emergency there has to be a very good strong need for role clarity uh because there are people who are in roles that may be required to make decisions and there may be people in roles who who do not have decision-making authority and the same also goes when it comes to communication. um you know there there is a specific role for the mayor when it comes to communicating out to the public and um we I've I've had to coordinate that with St. County Police. Uh when we've had some incidents uh in recent memory where we make sure that we're we have a plan in place of how to handle inquiries or if we have to

proactively communicate information. So, uh there there is a training or some kind of overview for the elected officials is is a good thing and it's also good for staff because the staff are the full-time employees. They are the ones who operate and and that and as an official as an elected official we have to respect that because our role is to primarily legislation. So um we we have to make sure that they're the ones primarily too that are doing a lot of the executing. So u I'm in support of that. And Vince uh I think you're ab absolutely right on. I I don't think we need to be getting into the extreme details tonight uh regarding the specifics. I I think we can defer that to either board of public safety or um the appropriate folks on staff where we have to respect their level of decision making and the ability to uh you know carry some of those items. So uh I I do think we don't have to get into those details tonight. Thank you, mayor. Do we have a motion, a second on the floor? All in favor? Any opposed to abstain?

Thank you. You have what you need. I do. We have six goals. Just a comment on goal number four. The mayor is excellent job out going forward. Should we kind of encourage that here or should we just rely on on the future any future mayor we might have to take on that task?

I know the mayor mayo does some wonderful job [clears throat] or the neighbor. So keeping That's a tough question for me to answer because each bear is a little different. Yeah, heard that three kids a full-time job. You have a bear that's jogger. Kids are out and I think that we should exercise. I uh

Yeah. And I don't know if maybe there's a setting that could be adjusted. Uh the microphone isn't picking up almost isn't picking up all the words. So I don't know if the volume could be adjusted for the microphone, but I if I if I believe what I heard. Um I I think yeah, I mean we we have all different we've had all different kinds of mayors. Uh and each one has their own style. You know, that's the interesting part of being elected official. There's no um you know specific description or requirements. Everyone does things a their way. Um and they're held accountable by the public. So we can't always count that we're, you know, you know, we'll have um you know, like I understand you you said something about my communication. That's my style. And but you know, someone could step in and they may not be as communicative or um or hands-on, right? I mean, some of us have limitations with other commitments and there might be others who have more time. So, I think that's a variable that will always be there. Um just like I have 16 council members, some I'm sure spend more time on some issues than others. So, um I think a lot of that continuity, that stability or consistency, I think we have to rely on the staff to continue to carry that out.

Yeah, we're not here to write your plan, but I this is very because I've been involved in response plans. It's important that any information that's going to leave the confines. So the group go through one person and there ought to be a communications director that is the voice of of the group and any information has to be cleared through there because you don't want and the media will do this. They'll talk to you and then they'll go to you and they'll go to you and then pretty soon you got a real furball. I think that can be a component of the plan.

That's what I'm saying. It's important. Yeah. The communications director, they're trained to deal with media or should be. Yeah. I was just going to bring communications director. Um, we got in Anything else?

Objective. Objective one, the allocation of future capital investments by planning. ordinary tonight's discussion. This Suburban are those are doing this The conraints on development related parties recommend that be retained and a certain degree department suggestion. Remember we took out environment

currency very similar to actually $360,000 $60,000 So current and here components of the So this can explain if your home's not worth 350 years ago. Doesn't matter.

So if you don't do that, what you have to Because so years ago, Grand Parkway with their wide lives detriment. than other parts of the city where you save the city and I had you all It's kind of been years and years has been recogniz

older subition and wider half acre left. Common theme I see in all of these reach [laughter] to be in that calendar like under Hopefully you can keep it up with it. I work for

to that point is TN when they get on proposal do they consider the impact will have on the other resources the school district the utilities sewer system is data have on public raised his head about what is the burden of something that they disagree Mr. Where did you see I was just talking in the meeting?

Well, as every utility district, MSC water. So, a lot of a lot of that out there. I think we should leave that sound a good thing.

I guess they get no matter which side feel. Master number I tell this is First government turns office contractor. Have we ever had or have we had are there any contractors haven't been able to industry is there for us my experience? Yes. very well. My question is my own I think this um but my question you know when you when it says in here that um uh

that uh the highest level of services is the most competitive cost. I'm just curious how that works with governments because you know like Highway 40 um east of 270 where they knocked that out. They did a great job. Shut it down, poured down, rebuilt everything. They did really great. They actually finished part of it earlier than I thought. But Highway 70 going west won't be done before my grandkids are. I'm convinced. Um, you know, like at Forest Bell, they built this overpass. Walls were literally touching the sides to the highway and now they're knocking it down to build an overpass. So, I guess my question is, you know, when you look at this stuff and it's just for my own curiosity, how does how does do you determine that what is the best uh highest level of service and the most competitive costs? Does that make sense? You know, like Why is it never always as easy as it was having 40? Why is there always something that seems like goes forever and how does that work? [laughter] the other plan. Well, I'm going to say that when I 64 was rebuilt, there was a lot of work that went into that a lot to make that success, but it larention

I think that's a lot of I think in government often times so they can't always provide that high projectation, budgets, resources, and

I was really more directing my anger, not anger, my curiosity at more concern. I'm curious about that. It just doesn't seem like they have continuity and on the record. My name is Vicki Alvary. Um, I was just curious,

right?

They got to do that. They shut Yeah, I didn't mean to take all that down, but my final com to you is they've been talking about this 70 thing forever and they knew that something was going to come and yet they still said, "Well, we'll go ahead and build this stuff right up to the highway and we'll go ahead and we'll do this." And it seemed like they didn't have any for thought. They just said, "Yeah, we'll just do what we're going to do and um see what happens." Kind of like with those concrete meetings they put down at Clark, right? that they that they spent the money to put in they spent the money to take out and then they put out an advertisement and said that they're going to have a public meeting they're thinking about putting it back in. So I just I'm just curious it was not any directed at any

I mean my main com Yeah, sorry.

Um, I would add into that that um also environmental considerations that are created either Oh, so what [clears throat] I'm going back to various current regulation. We have the music which is most enforcable property. treat things. So from the perspective department here is revised with the potential for the discussion occupants later. I noticed you recommend that

some occur throughout the document. The only reason I suggested is it's been part of the plan for 20 plus years. Recently discussion city council was having that occupancy. Had it ever previously been

but we did we have had to address enforcement and it ends up final step. We have refuge. This is just days. In the second part of or in the third paragraph, we talked about to protect housing stock from decay or disinvestment that and it's St. Louis County. Do they have more teeth than we have or are they about the same boat? They they can't really

actually state legislation that was passed in 2014 after missile of course reviews generation revenue for the most part and pass. So, we'll actually let them pursue it because they can so we aren't like handic Yes, that's the beauty of the US legislation. We will share That time you feel just underground. associated with other providers underground utility line

standard Athens finding and a lot of other projects

in the utility in between. Yeah,

and so I think I'm not a But I was reading as I'm sure everybody sits around but um the other day and the latest one was talking about this newless technology. You probably know all about this but examples were the horizontal dripal drilling by being to place and micro tunneling. that was talking about the benefit cost ratio of um trai compared to traditional methods of underground or others and um it was there was a lot of very interesting comments about some new technology that's so maybe add in this something about new technology

underground Excellent example has a lot of flaws. It's like came out and I had everything. Yeah. Exactly. Because um when we were doing the park and working on the trail, amo underground part of and I it was a weird thing the way they did it and then over here at le parkway and 100 they won't move the light across the street so that you can actually see if you go down uh for parkway. So they're not always best part. I'll say another mod's not always best. I think we are concerned with the ground.

Is there any need to address environmental concerns that may come potentially? I don't know what they would be, but

during the process of during the process of going underground, could there ever be any environmental impact as a result of that? I don't give a utility. So those are the areas that are graded out where you're driving. So often times underground isn't perspective because quite frankly you've got some residential historically utility companies right away to place their facilities layer generally disturb areas already for the purpose of the roadway. So you're combining those two into one portal essentially. So from that perspective I think it does limit the potential general And so on the plat city of times we have so we

so to speak laws with ements which to President do that future Sign your parents Christious I think that's good. And not only that, but I'm sure along areas where we have wershed issues, they disturb the ease. So that might be a component to add environmental and should be issues that There's no objective that essentially everything could be environmental as well as the overlapping technological improvements. for enhancements that occur. Yeah, we only been putting in old technology if we know that blood grades are going to have to disturb it again in three years to put the new technology

to add that in into one of the existing ones or to create a new one because we wanted to cover all of policies. Wouldn't it be looking at the objectives of the policies? I guess that's the third question. Okay. Because so if you're doing an objective but you want it to cover all shouldn't it be a goal? higher up. Our goal is to to have the with our community services to have the least environmental impact and then from there that broad state and then go down to the objectives further on down or is that being too is that being too broad?

That's what I'm saying. So it would be better to have a goal that said to be to uh be cognizant of the environmental impact on all of our when performing all of our community services and then going from then you have having that goal then going down objectives getting them more specific. But but you said that that well maybe I misunderstood but I thought that also that that we wanted this uh the the being cognizant of the environmental impact to also apply to these other things as well. So I if it was a goal you wouldn't necessarily make it easements right? You say regarding any uh community service that we provide in the city that we are cognizant of maintaining the low environmental impact as a goal then

yeah I think there's probably a presumption the banner for 30th annies all these I think if we're following Yeah,

I can. I'm one No, no, no. I I'm saying exactly the opposite. I'm saying that with all of these things we've done, we started with the goals and very broad statement and then we've done the objectives to support the goals and then we've done the policy and support the objectives that the goals and I maybe I misunderstood that I thought the comment was made that when we were regarding the environmental impact trying to be cognizant of that smallest index as possible. I thought someone made the comment that we could apply that to all of these. So my response is if we're going to apply to all these, I think that following suit and everything else we've done, we should have that broad goal stated first and then we are following suit with each one of these. Does that make sense? My brain is a little scary. Am I making sense? Okay. because they kind of do. They kind of are stating that policies.

on policies. Policies service agreement programs. Republics very

follow policy considering new develop I'll create procedures that process requests for the city. These are gifts and TVs transportation development now. We have a policy I will tell you relative to recent experiences not recent experiences were bad just think very well each year there's potential for something for a period of time change that's why we need to look at that more regular I think we need to retain Well, definitely a lot stronger. Something that's more of a benefit to the city, you know,

if I may. Um, it appears they're having a hard time hearing you online. So, if we could talk a little louder so that they can hear you as much anecdotally possibility change in council two years because I've had the opportunity to sit in on the council. Anybody that wants to be system always references the master plan and how they're going to follow the master. So what we do with this and the heat we take out of it will in fact either support or hopefully dampen a little bit some of the efforts to change the the ideas that we have visible. Maybe this doesn't apply here, but in the last 10 years we've added inc. So um that would maybe if we add that in just to note that we have that now um because it has been very just from a point of background is the development years ago there was fishing curriculite fishing curricul spend two years going through our process, residents, they got the elected official officials, etc. Ultimately, the planning and commission authoriz,000

point so instead of a as a whole thought that there should be a kind of first sid of all development may be the two council people that represent the property located and the city council very posted on the side one side is just as simple as can be developer says here's what I'm thinking terms that's been very beneficial for five and I'm sure probably other as well but they have worked exceptionally well and our case especially with that change just that bridge that was that was all in three. What failed city council. They wanted so much go ac

Thank you. Is that the property that I heard got council that purchased and maybe I should wait for the end of this but this this take of the in the last planning and parks meeting and in the last meeting there was a lot about um standardizing and commonizing looking at the different meetings that are available and committee to find out what is the most efficient way of doing things and looking that um qualitatively and quantitatively the how we can streamline things. Does that sort of fit in here where we're speaks to developments? Okay. So all encompassing and there's probably some created yet some whatever. So we probably need to be a general enough to consider future They're really bringing that up. So policy three.

Well, it says please continue rebuilding or I know every year the blessing and is there ever is there a regular rebuilding of the contract? Mr. Le.

Yes, you. Did you say my name, Joe? Yes, I did. The audio is not coming through very well. Um, if you if you wouldn't mind, could you try sitting at this or even Mr. loyal specifically on the side of the table there to the right and repeat the question more than happy to help but the last little bit was trailing off.

Our comment was regarding the police services contract and I had asked the question if that is ever rebed. I know every year we the board of public safety at least makes a recommendation for approval but is it ever on a five 10 threeyear basis reitated?

Yes, certainly. Thank you. Um it is and the last time it was approved for the full 10-year term is the entirety of it was back in 2022 and the time where that'll be back up for discussion. How it works now is 2031 just the short answer there. So in theory would reenter a full negotiation. Um one thing to consider is each year they do have a clause in there and what was reviewed at the last meeting if if nothing changes within the agreement. It does have to be budgeted for there is an annual appropriation clause. Um that said they have the ability to increase their amount of the cost for their actual police services. As long as the services maintain uh in this case for the level of staffing then they're able to increase up to 5%. That did not occur this year. it was at 3% but that calls for the inclusion of an addendum to the agreement. So right now we're currently projected to have that agreement sunset in 2031. Um there are provisions obviously to exit the agreement before that it is subject to each annual appropriation. So it' be at the time of the budget.

Thank you. You're welcome.

So again the recommendation is to retain what we have and Obviously, as Mr. Lee just mentioned, visit 2021 are the allocation of police resources increased based on population or how does that work? We're at a five beat model now. So, prior to incorporation, there were two beats, an officer for each beat. So, there were two police officers that incorporated St. Louis County. Got five a single officer. I'm gonna let Mr.

Did you hear that, Tom? No, I did not hear the last little bit there, Joe. I heard the f the question about the the the beats in general and also the question about how many how our policing servicing the level of policing has increased. You provided a history then it trailed off. So could you explain what the five beats be?

Yes, not a problem. Uh the five beats for the city there, that means there's five different quadrants of the city. I won't exactly tell you where they're at at every given time, but it means that any time of the day, 24 hours a day, there are five officers that are running um tradition, it's they're either responding to a call, filling out reports that are following up on police reports, or they're actually just sitting there, you know, catching speeders, etc. Uh the other side of that, and that consists of the majority of the police officers we have, we also have the assignment of one neighborhood police officer. that individual is more so is officer Fischer, but he's associated with uh different of community events. He kind of leads the effort of organizing those items and then also goes out and well does things that we the city staff doesn't necessarily always see. There's like a trunk or treat that they the police participate in each Halloween. Those types of things that help build community. Um we have a precinct detective which is a new addition. that individual does also serve as somewhat of a a neighborhood police officer as well. Um, and then we have two park officers and then eight sergeants that oversee the beats. So, that's that's kind of the the breakdown of how day-to-day operations run. They run on 12-hour shifts. They then work typically three days a week and then they have a day where they fill in that to get to 40 hours. Uh but overall we did in 2024 have a decrease of two police officers overall uh due to a a recommendation that came in from St. Louis County Police because they found some efficiencies with uh the change from going from a eight the uh 8 hour shift to a 12-h hour shift.

Yeah.

So in terms of polic retain as is. Four, um, infrastructure for new or upgraded telecommunication service should be consistent with parents of the community, but pre-existing structures. This actually not necessarily the fiber. So, and I think if you kind of evolved to college very restrictive college share existing obviously every les to flexible. We still requis now as often as it was last 10 years ago isn't conceptually for the future whatever the next great idea that we always

wanted to you know the infrastructure of it would be upgraded uh with the rural are the community I know that towers may be losing favor just because they evolved I don't know what that'll always be something that could impact the nature.

So, first of all, I thought that we the state of Missouri said you can't tell somebody they can't put a tower in, right? That's state legislature purposes of municipal government basically. Yeah. Argu You can't ask or to see if there service exists. All we can do. So yes, we've been very much So my question then would be following on that if we remove this here because because of what you just said this kind of doesn't necessarily apply except that if we remove this here is that take away the teeth the planning and zoning or anyone has to control the the CP that that deal with the aesthetics. So does you know does one rely on the other? There's two things going. I don't want I want that

community very different if we remove it though we have it your point by going to PNC is there any council would be after the fact. This would be at least addressed prior to communications traditional use permits are actually by commission and be reviewed by cited.

So then do we need something to to give that more teeth or no? I mean I to I'm just asking I totally defer to you on this. your spirit.

Um I I feel like telecommunications are hard. I don't it would hurt to keep something in here just so that there are the aesthetics. But um again, there's only so much that we can regulate as it is.

Yeah. I I think keeping it in shows intent to your point. Um technologies are changing. right now is 5G which small cell you got to have more to be short but go to 6G but he take a second because it's probably going to be because you have it's hard but so even though we are handsome at this juncture we may not always be so and five years from now we may need the kind of leverage or the kind of direction that a bullet point generic income says would be held.

I I would simply concur that having language um can only protect and help time removing it and then not having anything to go on. Um if if it came down to a particular issue that that we're going to be trying to solve. Um, but I don't have any case studies from my past experience with the author. So, can we ask you would you reook at that and we're thinking I think the direction from the group is retained to

because it's likely regarding your recommendation. Should we vote on that one individually or because at some point today we're going to prove everything we except that seems to be the one policy foster incentives household businesses. basically says you're paying as an interim staff city program. So I think this needs to be I think we should actually just be generic satellite services there are geocynchronous satellites that um in addition to my expert opinion is we also have geocyn Other than spectrum have have we are looking to step in help these people sign could you talk about a 1010 stock Yes. Um,

so yes, we currently have socket telecommunications and AT&T, well, AT&T, I'm sorry, already completed its work. It has work scheduled. Uh, the city had also identified 395 addresses that still needed access. Typically, there were a little bit east of 109 in the northeastern portion of the city along Orville. That was a large pocket. There's some on the southern side as well. Um overall socket right now they're actually going to places where AT&T had already serviced but they are looking to expand to over 6,000 houses in Wildwood. U that's going to take some time. So that is almost project one over on the side. Right now the city is is aware of going through Turnberry Place. Those places have already gotten service. Uh the more interesting of the two is the provisional awards that have been granted by the bead program within the state. So right now uh if you go on to these these different addresses and you look at each one individually, you'll see a little indication that says provisionally awarded. Um what that does mean and the department has followed up with we've been staying in touch throughout this process. Um is that uh AT&T has been awarded these contracts. That said, they have to come to an agreement on the final terms and conditions. So, right now, the state uh is in negotiations and we've been told to, you know, play uh do not go out there and say it's a done deal, but as of right now, they have been awarded the addresses and the idea would be that they would be receiving them and that would get all about all of them except about 30 or 40 homes that would be without internet after that project. And those ones are scattered almost throughout the city. Uh and there the idea from the department's perspective and concurred from the city council is that we would almost let this bead program proceed. Uh let them come in expedite the permitting process, have them provide this service to those addresses that are highly impacted on the northeastern side of the city and

then reassess and if there's any lingering households that may still need it after the fact. At that point, we could either urge our partners within the telecommunication companies to service them because at that point, you'll have infrastructure nearby or the city could potentially put together a special smaller project which will not result in the same expenditures that were projected for the initial phase two. But happy to more than happy to elaborate on that. I just wanted to kind of give a run of the land. Thank you.

If I understand this correctly, as long as one driver company and puts fiber in your neighborhood, you're considered that you have access to that fiber. So it doesn't So for example, I'm just going to use my house for an example. I I I know that my neighbors has spectrum. So there I know that spectrum has fiber, but in my neighborhood to my knowledge, nobody else has come in committing fiber. So at the end of the day, the only service that that provides fiber, that's the only option you have then is spectrum that so when we install this throughout the whole area of the city is it whoever lays the wire that's the only option you have then for share they don't share that correct?

Yeah. So there's there's two sides of that coin. So one is technically when it when the definition from the federal uh the federal government under broadband um being underserved or unserved is not necessarily tied directly to fiber even though fiber is the overall goal because that futurep proofs the the the service delivery if you will because right now uh you're selling packages that may be one gig of service but in the future you especially with the growing technology sector it's very easy to see that there may be a need for a personal home to possibly have five gigs, you know, 10 years down the line. So, the idea would be to use fiber technology, but that's not how the federal government defines it and that's not how the bead program uh has laid it out either. They have laid it out as if you have less than 100 megabits per second, whether that be, you know, you have access not, you know, maybe you're running on a copper wire, you're running on coax, that's all fine. Um but you are if you have say let's say you have 300 megabits per second on coax you're not going to get uh awarded through the be program. So just a clarification on the first side of that is that it's based off the speeds that are currently available, not the delivery mechanism, but fiber is the overall goal. For the the second side of that, and I'd have to look at your specific instance with your neighbor. Um, Spectrum, uh, they have provided fiber to, you know, plethora of homes here, and the idea would be to have AT&T with these homes that are outstanding. They would be putting fiber in from the this provisional award as well. Uh but right now a lot of homes are serviced only by one provider and most likely unless there was some type of deal and this isn't this is atypical where and I think your question was more so addressing the fact that you could possibly lease the line if you will and be able to run another service off it that would be ideal because that's less invasive and there are ways to do that.

That said, a lot of these internet service providers, especially the larger ones like AT&T and Spectrum, they won't allow that from some of these smaller providers, uh, just because they don't want to have to deal with, um, maintaining someone else's network and providing the competition. So, right now, you would almost think one line is in u, you're going to be tied to one provider. If there's two lines, it's most likely two providers, etc. You're not going to have two providers sharing the same line. the way things are going currently. to your point if if that's if it's there yes have access right

that's what I was asking one more question and it's only because we're talking about internet and that is you know back when all that stuff was going on they had to hit this is big news this when they had um the the UN they were going to have all the world leaders there and they found this little place in New Jersey that somebody had set up all these little interrupterss to interrupt all the internet. So, since we're talking about internet and we're talking about community services and we spoke earlier about emergency preparedness, all I want is I just a yes or no. I don't need details, but is do we have an answer for or if something happened to the internet in our area that we would be able to communicate or deal with emergency preparedness

for staff? for staff specifically. That's just a yes or no question. Yes, staff. And yes. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome.

The department wants to retain policy. It also encourages competition. Competition explain as part of the library facility has been since day one. Sax property sold

the question was still I'm clear on everything we just heard. So the air the 400 households that are currently underserved or not served at all and AT&T are they all being contracted to be underground is is that what I'm hearing or there is the other they're also satellite too I'm just curious long term satellite yes so so it is going underground I was just curious

yeah so the the Bad program should be going underground. If it's fiber, they will be projecting underground. They will most likely if there's u an Amron line that is adjacent that's existing currently. They typically will find uh a way to get it up on the Amron line if Amron's willing to let them. Most of the time Amron's a little hesitant to let that happen these days because there's been issues in the past with uh lines being too low, having to make repairs to lines because of someone else being hanging there. So, they will most likely be burying it. The thing I want to be careful on is that they are still Amron I mean the state and AT&T are currently negotiating it and it's still subject to approval by the NTIA. Uh so the specific provisions and we haven't received an applica a permit application from AT&T for the work uh because they're still doing that negotiation. So once that's all affirmed and the NTIA's approved it at that point we'll know a lot more about are they going above ground below ground. The idea though would be to underground it as much as they could u and then in some instances they probably will find some cost savings by going along current Amron lines that are above ground.

Thank you. Thank you. So we're going to try and keep the library. Well, we're going to do our best to see. How often do we actually occasionally mention it? Occasion mayors and city Don't recall the last time we had three years ago.

Joe, I can I can answer that a little bit there. We back in it was around three years ago. It was probably 2020, early 2024, 2023, late 2023. We had reached out to the library uh asking for the same request. And the idea wasn't necessarily to add a large branch. It was actually a revised request that would ask for more of hey we have some at that time we had a lot more vacant space within the village plaza area of the city uh shopping center and then also the shopping center. It still does have a few vacancies. So the idea would be uh that they would lease out a space and have almost like a satellite location and they had denied that request. The idea that they passed on to try to fulfill it was to have possibly one of those more mobile libraries. Uh they said they would have to look into it, but then they got back to us and said it was they could not they could not carry it out. So at this time there's no intention from the library to do it. But I think it is important to keep the keep a a pulse on it considering if there's ever a time where they would come back and want to do it uh would be a great opportunity for the city. I think a lot of residents would still very much like to have a library in Wildwood. Pardon was when they were um redoing all the libraries. So they didn't want to you know collaborate with Wildwood because they was doing a lot of money upgrading the just so it's clear.

So You said that they own property where the dog park was. So when did they was Daniel open? So Daniel was It seems weird that they think this area.

Yeah, I know where it is. Yeah.

Community college ever be able to to get to with the county librarian and like a library comment just in partnerships that there's no objection that's something like that because there's there's library small there 15 minutes left out. Submit all publicly funded project. We do that treat everybody the same. Something bad. city council is changes to all of this. So there may be some changes. I think this is a core value. Next number residents business owners by government activities. about this commentary manager development manager. So number

five years they ask for plans. Don't file an ext. always gentle years ago. programs that are awarded to St. Louis County. So again,

but in this area we discuss the recreation center. Okay. Establish last week. We have back. You can bring up another one to add. Um so April of 2024, the um the Department of Justice released a final ADA title regarding content or um even for Republicans and that is to um to make sure that our web content is accessible to everyone and that is

called the web content accessibility guidelines and it's also approved by ISO 4500. So you might want to include that. I'm not sure if it's done policy or she But um because that had increased so much over the last few years and especially over the last year on what we need to do with web content because you know people have different needs. Some people use a a stick to use the computer or they use a screen reader or maybe they have a hearing a within even the city hall. Some things that might need to be upgraded, reducing the glare on the computer screen or the screens that you see or maybe the mouse option is not a good has trimmers just there's so many different things that um are covered in that in that element. We've addressed this come back or policy.

Well, I didn't have a comment about any of this stuff, but I was looking at the clock and I know that getting getting ready to wind things down. I just wanted to re re bring up again data centers. I don't know where they're going to fit in here. I don't necessarily think they fit in this, but maybe but I don't know where they fit, but I really hope that while we're doing this that we address data centers, make sure that we don't let them come in here in our city. Um, so I don't know where that fits in here, but I just want to make sure that I bring it up again so that we don't crack

right next to the river. I also think current master plan. One thing I'm thinking about um former council member Remy, he um often brought up the need for arts and culture um policy about that with film festivals and different things because we haven't really focused so much on the arts. I know when I was living the high talent in their area. Transportation

regarding regarding our group this evening. Subject item number second. All in favor? I think thank you so much services. So get that. I brought this transport. Well, I got confirmation so heavy. We'll leave that open. Thank you so much.

I sent that in. was even

I think I did try to respond that back to me at one point but Any couple comments wasn't