August 22, 2023 — Meeting Transcript

Okay, well, welcome to our discussion session tonight. If there's anyone online, welcome to you as well. And the first item of business is a presentation on our special events and maybe a little discussion on future events. Okay.

Great. Thank you, Mayor. So we've done this for the last several years now. This is the first year we haven't had talked about cancellation. So I'm excited to get through that. So So these are the events that we're doing this year or have done already. So the Blues Home Opener, which is always in October, and then we do two restaurant weeks throughout the year, one in the winter and one in the summer, which is hopefully timing with the restaurant's slow time of year. Then this new this year was the SC Home Opener, followed by the Cardinals Home Opener and Music and Wine. and then the summer restaurant week, and then upcoming at the end of September will be our Clayton Jazz Festival. This is the proposed calendar for next year, starting with the Blues Home Opener and then running through those same events that I just mentioned with the dates. This is the original Board of Aldermen event goals that staff was handed in 2013. So predates some of you, I think. And I don't think, to my knowledge, has been revisited since. But back then, staff was handed the goals of increasing retail and restaurant sales. having good pedestrian traffic with well-attended events, having events that branded and made a place for Clayton was engaging to the participants and drew benefits to the special business district. So the first planned event for next year, next fiscal year later, a couple months from now, again, will be the Blues Home Opener. Same format in Firebase there, free lunch for the participants. We have changed that over the years. I think a few of you participated in the cooking of hot dogs and hamburgers. We've moved away from that and utilized food trucks, which is a lot easier for all of us involved. Then we'll be in January, February timeframe will be the Clayton Restaurant Week again. We've had good participation. A slight change this year was that staff internally handled the event where we've been contracting out with a marketing firm in the past to do that simply because they told us they were no longer interested. interested and we had a hard time replacing them with another professional firm to do so but both Gabby and Kristen have done a great job with that and we've received really good feedback from the restaurants that they did enjoy participating in it and and did find a benefit to the to the event itself. The SC home opener, again, will happen next year once they send out their schedule. But, again, the same format as the Blues and Cardinals home openers. Again, here's the Cardinal home opener. Music and Wine is on the table again this year. I had a conversation with the mayor earlier this year. I just want to point out that originally projects started out at about $50,000 and both Abby and Kristen have been able to bring those expenses down with the experience and a little bit more efficiency. So we're proposing $36,000 for next year. Something I do want to bring up and we'll come to later is the location of this. I think we are experiencing growing pains in this area, and we have talked about that in a few slides. And then again, the second restaurant week for the summer time frame. And again, the same Clayton Jazz Festival that has been successful so far. And then we also budget for a special occasion event. One year, a few years back when the Blues won the Stanley Cup, we were caught without funds to do anything about that. And so we don't necessarily use these funds. We just sandbag them in case something does come up both regionally or with a sports team that we want to participate in. This is the overall event budget here in front of you. So it is a slight increase from the past year, a little over $5,000. So a couple of things I wanted to bring up with you is the location of the Music and Wine and Clayton Jazz Festival. Carondelet is an excellent location for it, but we have simply outgrown it with the number of vendors and food trucks. And the median is a very challenging issue for participants. Some instances of tripping and people walking through and destroying the flowers and so forth. So we are... examining some different locations for it. Two that we have identified so far is either the north block of Brentwood, there in front of Oceano, or also the north block of Merrimack, which with the new Commerce Building provides ample shade for everyone involved. So sometimes that event, with being the time in September, can be very warm with the sun angle there so we are exploring those two unfortunately i think we do have to move it is

the street is merrimack the same as wide as brentwood uh brentwood's wider it just seems like

it's a lot wider

yeah

it is but we don't have the median on north merrimack like we do on carondelet which is a

No, right. But we don't have it on Brentwood either. I'm talking Brentwood versus Merrimack.

Yeah. Brentwood is a very big street though, width-wise and length-wise. And it's just, I don't know if we'll fill it that first year, but I don't have a problem with moving it down the block if that's the growth pattern either. It's not that we're moving it completely to a different part of the region where someone couldn't find it. And then the next item I wanted to talk about was we've received a couple or two or three suggestions for different events from Alderman. One of them, I think, dates back a few years. Alderman Patel suggested an open streets. And most recently, the mayor has suggested some kind of cultural event and longest table event. And so we wanted to talk about that tonight, if that's something that the group wants to add and if we should start planning for those in the future phases.

Well, and correct me if I'm wrong, but I think maybe the decision here tonight or what we need to give tonight is just feedback on whether or not we want to add something. And picking between these or agreeing on a specific event tonight I mean, we can talk about these kinds of events. I'm happy to talk about what I'm thinking personally on the cultural event or the longest table. And I'm sure Becky's happy to share her thoughts on open streets. But I think tonight, if I'm right, we just want to give the staff the indication of whether or not we would go ahead and spend a little bit extra money to do some more things. And then Gary can research more. you know, about these different kinds of ideas.

And I think there may be a conversation from Friday, which I wasn't involved with, but I think there was some discussion about the special business district budget and the actions of the EDAC or the Economic Development Advisory Committee. So in that budget, I think David went through this Friday or Karen may have Originally I had proposed $60,000 of the SBD funds to offset downtown street resurfacing next year. And the committee felt that a better use of that funds would be in a couple different places. One of them was they are recommending to you to spend $10,000 on professional services to help us identify what events we should be doing in the future I'm a little hesitant of that, just because one I don't know if $10,000 would be enough and I'm not sure what we would really gain from such of an endeavor. The other move that they suggested was $50,000 from that 60 to general streetscape, but with the caveat that they wanted to express to this group that they had interest in entertainment and events also.

Can I add something? When you had that toward the beginning of your slides, it was the goals that these were trying to accomplish. I wonder if we want to revisit that as we look at adding another event because I think something that we may be doing but it's not stated in there is trying to get know cross-section of of appeal to our businesses downtown to our residents to different ages to um more regional and also supporting different parts of the mission whether it be uh you know the arts or sustainability or something else or you know equity and if we kind of knew where existing events always seem to be really successful are falling it might help us come together on what events might be working you know, going forward with and furthering the mission. I'm also really impressed that even as the wine festival gets bigger and bigger, that we're able to do it on less and less of a budget. That's great.

My intent was to spur some kind of conversation around the event goals by putting the date on it because, you know, 2013 was several boards ago. And from a staff perspective, it's easier to shoot for a target when you know what your what you're aiming at um so that would be helpful to rediscuss that well that's a conversation we

can begin right now if you want to flip back to that slide

sure

i agree with you susan and i think in my mind one of the big goals is it falls under the um you know embellishing our brand but it would be making us more welcoming i mean I think that the two festivals, the Wine and Music and the Jazz Festival, definitely accomplish that when I look at the crowd when I'm there. And that's the evidence. And so I think that something about that could be one of the goals to make... Brand building is good, but what is it we're building? What is it we're trying to say about

ourselves? Our brand is really what's in our mission statement, right? Yeah, it is. And so there's diversity in there.

Well, maybe if we look at it that way, then we don't have to change these words that much.

I think we've talked about in the past, the retail and restaurant sales. And I think that it makes sense to have that as a goal. I think especially in this business district because it generates revenue based on how much people spend there. I seem to recall that we struggle to be able to quantify that at all. Can you clarify, like, do we have any is it is our impression of whether that happens even like anecdotal? Because I mean, a lot of cases, these special events are actually the events that we have now are like providing food at them. Right. And so. We may get tax revenue from that if people are buying food from a food truck at the festival. But it isn't necessarily helping our brick-and-mortar stores, restaurants, which may be just fine. But it would seem like that one, I think, is questionable whether we can measure it and whether it's actually what we're doing or what we mean by it.

Yeah, I mean, to actually measure the retail sales is a difficult... tasks to undertake. In the past, with music and wine and jazz festival, it was simply staff going into the retailers during and after the event and asking them how they were doing, but there's no There's no way to identify a single night sale number. I mean, we can ask them for it like we do ask for numbers from restaurant week. But when someone from the city starts asking you about your sales and your numbers, it gets a little wonky.

I wonder if we get that same type of information and we're doing it to boost sales. restaurant recognition and business. And so maybe a question here afterwards, is this something that's fitting and supporting your business?

Yeah. And that's more of the informal conversation during and after the event is, you know, because, uh, Going back to 2013, we were doing all kinds of events and some of them, unfortunately, were not making the businesses happy. So that's how this part of it came about. And then the follow-up during and after the conference or events to make sure that what we're trying to help people with was actually helping people.

It's not so much quantitative as it is qualitative. to get that, that feedback. And I think just getting more people into our business district to see what restaurants we have, what hotels we have, you know, how great it is, what, what our parks are like. It's gotta be good.

Yeah. I mean, I think that we can, we can measure that actually more effectively through the second goal, pedestrian traffic and attendance. Right. So, I mean, you can actually kind of measure that and you can, like you said, kind of pull the businesses on whether they felt it. So that, you know, and I agree. I mean, I want people to come here and feel like it's like there's a reason to be here. Like there's something to do here sometimes at least, right? So they like come back or hang out or whatever. So yeah, I'm very interested in like, seeing an actual proposal for open streets and understanding what that would look like. And I think it has, depending on how it's structured, it has the potential to actually meet all of these goals. And it's the kind of thing where I think the way it's typically done, you would not bring in food trucks, right? And people would figure out that they can bike and walk to downtown Clayton or whatever area we do it in, like people would figure out that they can do that. And then they would like eat and shop in our shops, just like we thought they would from all the research we did building up to doing the bike lane, right? Like the data shows that people do that. And when they're there, like on foot or on bike, they often engage with the businesses that are

there. You know, Gary definitely can provide us with more info next time we talk about it. One question I had is, you know, during this comprehensive planning process, not sure what part of it is using this, but we're using the PACER data. So the tracking of individuals, it can go back in time and we can see, We can see, can we not? What kind of numbers of people are in our downtown when we have these events?

Yeah, I'm not quite sure what's in the contract. But yeah, place or data, if the consultant, I know the consultant has it. It's just a simple matter of geofencing whatever area you're looking at. So if it was music and wine or jazz, we would geofence that Carondelet Avenue. And then they can do it by time and date. So you can get a more accurate number. as long as people have those apps that track you might be

interesting just to see that one time you know i think we know those events are successful but if they might wouldn't mind showing sharing that with us for last year oh okay oh good already working on it good any of these other um performance measures that we would like to adjust or change?

Just a comment. I like the idea of it benefiting the Special Business District And I think the things like the restaurant week, it caters directly to the businesses. I think bringing events that our businesses can use as marketing events, the art fair, even though it isn't ours, but the art fair or maybe these other festivals where a bank or somebody else can host a reception for their VIP customers or whatever it is. The point is, We should be asking perhaps some of our bigger businesses, are there some events that they would like us to see that they could build a marketing event around? And then the thing that I wonder about is we don't see really residents in here at all. And I understand that in terms of trying to cater to the business district. But we have made a very conscious effort to bring lots of new apartment dwellers into our city. And so what might they say about this? Is there something they either would like to see or would make sure that we don't see or see it, but in a different place? Are we engaging them to see whether that should in some way shape our goals?

I think that's a good point. We're definitely about asking the businesses. I think that's the great idea. the idea of whether or not these events that we're doing will benefit, provide some benefit to our new residents. I think that's sort of a given in my mind that all of these things would be, I mean, like you said, we need to provide things for people to do. And so, but I don't know if we can actually, you know, like go out and survey the apartment dwellers. We probably could through their management, see what kind of things they would like to see us doing. I think that they're, you know, the people that manage, you know, Park Tower, those are condos, but the various new buildings that were like the 212, And I guess Clayton on the Park could be served. Most

of them are managed by the same company, so it's not going

to be. All right. Some of our buildings aren't built yet, but you know, the Ceylon.

And what I'm thinking there is that there might be the obvious one, like what would you like? But there might be others that would be, what would you want to sponsor? What would be good for you as a building owner, perhaps? So it's maybe indirectly benefiting the residents because the owner thinks it's great to or the owner of a office building thinks it's great because he's taking care of his tenants. So in some made view, that's where I'm thinking where, well, if the jazz festival was a great idea when it was on Carondelet, but if I had a business on Merrimack, I might think it's not such a great idea. If you just asked me, I'd tell you why. I'm not suggesting it is. I'm just saying having a conversation is important so we don't do something unintendedly.

No, I think the idea, you already sold it. Good, yeah.

And it may be with all the surveys we have going out with all the planning we're doing that it could fold into something that people are already looking at. Maybe something additional after that, but versus just one more standalone effort. I'd also suggest that, I mean, that does feel a little dated to me. I don't know if everybody else, but it may be the committee or you'd want to propose what people think we might want what will you think we might want as our goals because I do think hitting that cross section bringing different people in serving residents as well as businesses because it all works together to make Clayton the business district and the rest of Clayton stronger you know and perhaps that could be updated because right now I there may be data on who comes in how much is local how much is far away how much is whatever or who who it is but that I still think a little more information like that and what we're trying to do and are we doing it and how we adjust going forward might help us in funding these things. And I do like the idea of getting the businesses involved and what they would want to sponsor and fund as well, yeah.

So are you suggesting we add a bullet point or a goal saying increase diversification of attendance or... What do you suggest? I don't know.

When I look at this, it looks like we're doing a lot of things really, really well. Yes. And I don't know that we have, I mean, are those goals helping us do those things or is it just a feeling of the people in charge of it who are getting it done so well? Are the goals really guiding us like they should? And maybe they are. Maybe they need some tweaking or Or if we know that this is what we intended to do with it and look how great it's worked in getting us there. I

mean, just

something to kind of put it on a

grid. The only thing that's not really spelled out here in detail is the things that are in our mission. And we could spell that out. But I guess that was my first question when we started discussing this. Do we need to do that or are we just able to say brand building and we know that our brand is really based on our mission and we know what's in that I don't think that communicates as well as if we spell it out

okay yeah I'm not sure brand building okay I mean I just think it's an extra step I think saying it more directly I think would be beneficial

so maybe you can make some recommendations there

I'm also, oh, go ahead. Oh, that's okay. Uh,

well, I was just going to say, I, it seems, it seems like the, we, what we want the most is that, is we want to draw people in, um, to whatever it is we're having. We wanna make sure it brings people in and then if it brings people in, hopefully they'll come and spend their dollars in Clayton. I think that's really as simple as it really is. And I think that in doing that, I know Susan is talking about the idea of bringing in diverse people. I'm thinking of diverse events. If we have music and we have free food, Okay, what else is there? Well, there's stage performances. There's other things I think you might have been looking to suggest in terms of cultural arts. But I think each of our events, and this is just based on my eight years being on the board and talking to people and talking to restaurant people about our events. There's a difference of opinion from some people who think that our events actually get in the way. There's the owner of Avenue, as I'm sure you've spoken to him, and he thinks that he'd just as soon not have any of the events. Certainly none that would close the streets down anywhere near his restaurant. There goes

Merriman.

Right.

but have you talked to him recently though i mean i don't that was before i don't i just feel like he might i don't know

yeah i mean brian's always been no he's always been uh open with his feelings about things and that dates back to the farmer's market back to that

And I've talked to him about other events, maybe helping him and he's decided that that's just not going to be the case. But at the same time, you have free lunch. Does that help our restaurants? If we're giving away free lunch, is that something that restaurateurs are happy about gee that's great you guys are giving out hot dogs and hamburgers and I'm sitting here you know with my thumb you know so it's just something to think about that we can't like you said we can't quantify things but we can also use our common sense to figure out is this really going to help or people, you know, downtown. So what I'm thinking is, yeah, if we could have events that are different than the ones we already have, I think it would help bring other and different people than what we're bringing in now. So that would be my suggestion at this point.

And, you know, the home opener lunches, those really... You know, they really are just kind of benefiting people who work in the offices. And we have residents that come to those. There are regulars that come to those every single year.

There are

some. But, you know, to that end, I mean, it's not on this chart, but we want to make Clayton an appealing place to come to work because we want our office buildings to fill up. Yeah. where we may not think those events either benefit residents or, you know, bring a lot of extra people into downtown. It does have a benefit really now, especially since we are having some, you know, empty offices. Yeah.

Bad sports teams.

What?

I also think, oh God, I thought you were going to say bad sports teams.

Oh no, I'm not going to say that. I would never say anything like that.

I think it's also nice. I mean, our, you know, members of our members of the staff come, you know, I think it's nice to give people lunch and I'm glad it is people who come down from the office, but it's great to see like our public works department or people come over from the center. So, I mean, there's certainly like plenty of

workers building the buildings. Yeah.

No, it's a good event. I wasn't saying we shouldn't do it. I'm just saying that if we, we need to figure out, okay, what really does help and add to our events in a way that That answers those questions, how do we, how do we really help our restaurant people and how do we really. You know, bring more and different people in it's a challenge, but I think, you know, we have the music, we have the free food and now what else can we do?

i'm sorry um a question i think i know the answer to this but you know everything we're talking about here is um in the central business district and i suspect that's because that's where the money to fund this comes from i'm wondering if we're looking at expanding more events though and this is maybe more of a parks and rec issue than than economic development but um Is there something to be said about looking at some of our other parks in other neighborhoods if we're going to add events as a city? I'm thinking of when the Bumblebee mural was dedicated at a park over on DeMunn. There was a huge turnout and it's a neighborhood event and it gets people involved from a residential standpoint that might not come to these kinds of events. So whether it's using Concordia Park or Acorn Park on Y-Down or Pick Your Park. If we're going to look at adding some other events, maybe there's something that either can tie into that or maybe it has nothing to do with this, but just something to think about.

You're right. The mayor and I had this conversation earlier today about her longest table concept, and the parks came up in that conversation too. Oak Knoll, DeMond, Shaw Park, and so forth. So it is something we've been looking at. But you're right. Historically, it's been concentrated in the Central Business District just because of the SPD funding.

The other thing... puts on the turkey trot every year that's a great event and it doesn't help i don't know if it helps our restaurants if there was a coffee shop at that corner why down hanley would help them but uh you know but it's still just a great event that makes us want to add to the personality of our city you know so but the residents do that on their own so we don't have to pay for that

I'm just thinking too about like some of the data that we're learning from the comprehensive plan. And especially the one that I think was really surprising in terms of how millennials are overrepresented in our population right we have this like 40% of the people in Clayton are millennials. uh, millennials and what it's like 27 to 42, I think is the age range. So, you know, and I don't think we know yet. And I don't know if we're going to be able to know like, are those what, um, what number of those are like parents of children or like have, or childless or living alone or in a larger family group or whatever, um, which could help, um, imagine the kinds of events that would bring them out and into parts of the city that they might not normally visit. So I don't have a specific event suggestion that I think I know millennials would like, because I'm not going to pretend to know that. But I think if we have any ability to try to imagine that and think about that aspect of it, I think that would be really great. Because I think that was surprising. Yeah. I think it's surprising. I mean, it's surprising to everyone I know who I've talked to who saw it. And so figuring out like how do we help those people like be seen and like be recognized as part of Clayton too.

All right. I think that's good. Do you have? So it seems like we're willing to add a couple of events. What I'm picking up here. Okay. Okay. was the main objective of this discussion and so gary you can

yeah we'll take those concepts that you've given us and look at some others and and do a future presentation on some options i do have one other item after david cheers i

have one other thing for for the event portion that we'll talk about sponsorship real quick uh one question i would have since we're finalizing the budget we'll have that on at the next regular meeting is as far as these transfers are concerned do we need to redirect any of these transfers that are going to the capital fund or the IRF to keep that money in the general fund to use it for events so the recommendation to send $55,000 to the capital improvement fund for streetscape or the $40,000 that's going to the equipment replacement fund for the parking kiosks is the What would the board like to consider diverting either of those to the general fund to fund a new event? And do we want to incorporate that in the budget? And we can always do this later through a budget amendment if we have further event discussions. But this is the way it's set up right now.

But the streetscape was it could be it was potentially like beautification too right flowers is that what they were thinking of in terms of

it was there wasn't a lot of detail associated with the $50,000 transfer the decorative lighting was one of the issues flowers flower pots I don't necessarily remember everything off to my head right now but they didn't have a detailed list they were just you I think their overall theme was that the resurfacing wasn't an extra. Since this is an extra tax that the businesses pay, they were looking to put it into something that was above and beyond normal services is what I think the rationale of the group was.

I think that's a good idea. I mean, so, I mean, I would certainly support taking some part of that money if we decide to have another event because you said that group was supportive of using some of that money for an event, right? That was some, so I don't know how much, I love the idea of having lights around downtown, but I have no idea how much that is.

I was talking about doing it through a budget amendment, but if we were going to divert that, we probably need to do it now because once it goes into the capital fund, you won't be able to send it back over for a general purpose.

What were the amounts again? The two separate

amounts? It's $55,000 that's going to the Capital Improvement Fund, and that's for Streetscape generally, and then $40,000 to the IRF or Equipment Replacement Fund for Parkeon's.

David, you also had the 10 for professional

stores. Right. But that's already in the general funds.

I think we should liquidate that for another

purpose.

And we've got one parklet, I used to call them. Parkion, is that the parklet?

No, it's the

parking

kiosks.

Oh,

everyone hates those anyway. They're starting to come due for replacement.

oh no um well i think we should divert as much as we can to sponsor some new new events i mean again it's 50 000 plus 55 plus

that's 95 total

total so

so at

least the 55

The streetscape, I think streetscape, we use that word for a lot of different things. And so I think of the public works term or whatever we talk about. And in my mind, it's like a specific design of how curbs are laid and lights. And I don't know where there's bricks and where there's concrete. I don't really know all that. But it's like the infrastructure of the street and how it's built. Yeah. which is also like really expensive as far as I know.

It's also lighting in the fixtures. Initially, again, it was, as Gary had mentioned, that money was going to be transferred to Capital Fund for inclusion in the Central Business District resurfacing project. And there are decorative or streetscape elements within that. So for instance, the brick inlaid crosswalks would qualify as streetscape. The reason we changed it from resurfacing to streetscape generally is if the board decided down the road that rather than putting it into the central business district resurfacing project, we wanted to use it for anything that Gary listed there, you know, lights, flower baskets, whatever it may be. Calling it streetscape generally gives us that flexibility, where if we would have said central business district resurfacing, it would have gone straight to that project. So it just kind of widened the

possibilities. I have the idea that we have a map that tells us which sections of street have our desired updated streetscape in place. Is that accurate or not?

Yes, we have that mapped out.

So do we... And so I guess what I would think is if we're going to do something like this to say that we know there are certain areas in downtown that still need that upgrade and that that... like that's a decent use of those funds i'm not um but to be like i guess more clear about it

it just it doesn't go very far so

well that's the other thing i thought it was like really expensive so it's like we do like 50 feet

yeah you get a few well what you do is you would probably buy fixtures with it so uh you would buy some flower baskets or this maybe gets you two decorative light poles uh for replacement that sort of thing but it's 55 000 just doesn't go far when we're talking about

Most of the streetscape standard, I think what you're talking, the brick banding, tree grates and stuff like that. Most of that in modern Clayton history has been achieved through new development where it's a requirement of the developer.

Absolutely.

Yeah, I

just didn't know if we had any areas that have been overlooked that aren't likely to be developed that we do want to pay attention to, I guess.

So I guess that's the question. Do we send it to the general fund where it could be used for any purpose or do we want to uphold their recommendation from the EDAC and send it to these two other

funds within the budget. So I have an opinion on that. Yes. So as Gary knows, I served on the committee for a long, long time. And so I... have a little bit of an issue with diverting money to the general fund. I don't know that you meant it exactly like that, but that just sort of sounds like we're taxing people and then using it the way we want to, as opposed to using it in the district who is paying the tax. And so I know they benefit from it, and I'm not suggesting there's anything nefarious. What I'm saying is having something that looks like it is a monument to doing something that's very specific and unique to that particular district, even if it's relatively modest, sends a signal that yes, there's something you can look at for a long time. And clearly the events are something that people can touch and feel and understand. General maintenance, you don't generally feel. So I would like, if there's something that this group felt like it was a visible display of using some of the money for, then I would support that.

Just to clarify, when I say diverted, it has to go to the general fund to be spent. So we don't spend anything out of special business district. And then when I say general purposes, if it comes from SPD, it has to be spent downtown. So we couldn't take it in.

Right. And I didn't mean to suggest otherwise, but I just appreciate you clarifying that. But what I am saying is... when we use it to support general salaries that support the central business district, when we use it support general ongoing capital improvements, there's nothing wrong with that. It's just not very visible. So

I think it would be nice if we could, you know, I would like to divert the 55 to the general funds so that we can use it for events and activities in the CBD. Um, And if we can, I mean, I think if somehow it can still show as something that's driven by the EDAC that we are doing that, that is, you know, the main discussion at that EDAC meeting was, hey, let's put the money into something that, into events or something that creates more vitality. And so why is it going to street paving? You know, that was it. And I don't know if, I never, I don't remember any discussion about the Parkions or any general feeling about what everybody thought about that. Do you? So I don't know about the Parkions, but I think at least the 55,000, if we can put it somewhere where we can use it for events and activities, and we can later figure out what those are, that would be great. If, if we really have to give 40,000 to buy more Parkions, I guess we have to, but Are they really breaking down or, I mean.

Time to replace. We have incremental replacements and that's why we put it in the equipment replacement. We have some that are due.

And that. is a viable expense i mean that is

yes under the expense under the state statute

so that's that that's where i kind of come out 55 to spend and 40 back to the park put the

55 in the event line which brings it up just north of 200 000 for events

yeah yeah i think that would be

205 and some change

But if we had money left over, could we string lights across central or something? Or is that, yeah. So that could be used. We can still

figure out a way to do it.

It just might be, you know, like a year from now when Beams in Place apartments are being completed and maybe they'll get some retail in there. Wouldn't it be nice to have lights strung across central for the fall? I don't know. Who knows?

If it's in the general fund and it's being spent downtown, we

can do it. Where like retail and stuff is collected. I am huge on the lights.

And we took a lot of those lights down or they broke because of all the construction. Right. And I know I had a conversation with someone at Venus in Place about replacing those. So I don't know if we can get that done, but I think they should help us with that. Right. Yeah. And they might be in favor of, you know, I mean, they just want things to

look.

First year as mayor, I talked Janet Watson and Matt into putting those lights up on Central. And it was an expense that was unbudgeted, but it was like I was on a mission. Anyway, they were great. They just make it look so appealing. So anyway. Yep.

I think we're coming out is it can go on the general fund to be very clear that it's earmarked or whatever tour for the central business district, whether through a festival or improvement of the streets.

So what we'll do is we'll just put an additional $55,000 in the event account. So that'll be a $205,112 that the board decides at some point to use for a purpose other than that. And we can always transfer that money within the general fund later on. The decision we need to make now is just what fund generally is that money getting sent to? Because we don't spend anything again out of the special business district. We have to send that money to either the general fund, the capital fund or equipment replacement in order to be spent. So we'll move $55,000 unless there's an objection to that account.

I just want to say in deference to Rick's comment though, I mean, if this was money coming from the taxing of of our you know downtown business district people there should be something about that that's where it should be that's where the event should be without that's where

that's that's correct it would it would have to be to be eligible for that expenditure anyhow

right okay i just want to make sure absolutely we talked about parks in other areas that there would be a venue for some events and i'm thinking that that would not be appropriate yeah those funds

will be earmarked for events that take place in downtown in downtown that's correct

that's what i'm saying

So it's good to show the total in the event line. Correct. Okay. Excellent.

Can I ask one more question? I thought I remembered, and I don't know if this is my second or third year going through this presentation, but do we not – can you talk to me about – Because we offer support to other events that are not listed here. Like the art fair wasn't in there, right?

Yeah.

And can you talk about that? Is it because it's not considered part of economic development? It's just something that we partner with and then we have like overtime for police and public works and stuff or-

It doesn't come out of the EDAC, Special Business District budget. It certainly benefits downtown.

It does. We pay a portion out. If you look at the sheet that I passed out, with those expenses, we have event staff time. So a lot of that is over time. It's related to the art fair.

Okay, so yeah, so it is in here.

It just

wasn't on the table.

It's all built into this budget. This budget here is from EDAC, so it's a little bit separate than what you have on the screen that's event-specific, if that makes sense. So what you have in your hand here, yeah, is

just all

the SBD money.

Yeah, so as far as Art Fair goes, so there is the city... does a cash sponsorship to cultural festivals for $15,000. And then we provide the meals to our staff that's working overtime during the event. And then the actual overtime cost is something that the city absorbs through the special business district budget. Okay. but the art fair wasn't listed as an event because as David was explaining, the events are just what we produce in economic development. But the budget for the SBD is inclusive of that, not only art fair, but you'll see a sponsorship for parties in the park up there too. Okay.

Any other discussion about the events?

I have one question. And I just noticed when you're mentioning the art fair, there's a line item in the budget for meals for $2,500. Is that the VIP tent that's at the art fair? No,

that's for meals for staff.

Staff meals. That's

working. Our staff that's working the event over to them. Who

pays for the VIP tent?

Art fair. I assume they get a sponsor for it.

A sponsor, yeah. Okay, all right.

Yeah, we don't have anything to...

I don't know. I went in there once. I was like, okay, why are we doing this? Why'd

they let you in? Oh, I know you're a VIP.

I had a badge. Somebody sent me a badge. I said, okay, I'll use my badge. Just

kidding you. Okay. Do you have one more thing for us? I

do. I just... This is something we just wanted to clarify before we proceed with anything, is that sometimes we're approached by businesses. We have attempted to approach businesses in the past about sponsorship. I think it ties into something that Rick said a little while ago. We just wanted to you know, get some direction on this. We as staff believe it should be open to all Clayton businesses. So meaning like Avenue could sponsor, but a restaurant in Maplewood could not, but we would extend it to, uh, national brands, Anheuser-Busch, um, Procter & Gamble, whatever. We just wanted to make sure that we were clear with you on that, given that any Clayton business could sponsor an event, keeping in mind that we have wine stores, cigar stores, and future dispensary.

So this is a new thing or is this sort of revisiting the guidelines that you're visiting? So

like Chipotle could come in and have an event on Central? Is that...

No, they would be allowed to sponsor an event.

Right. That's what I mean. So they would host...

No, no, no. They would provide in-kind or monetary contribution for music and wine.

And

so... Music and wine stage presented by Chipotle.

Got

it.

Okay. Yeah.

No, not for them to have events. It's a totally different process.

Got it. So, I mean... I don't, to the extent that we have any national, yeah, so it is open to national brands as long as they are beer or something like that. But what about a national restaurant chain that would be in Clayton? they're in Clayton, we

would... If

they were located in Clayton,

yes. Like Fresh Watch or First Watch, I mean.

Yeah. The thought process is we didn't want to open sponsorship up to competitors of our businesses. We don't have another Anheuser-Busch locally in Clayton. If they did want to sponsor, it does no harm to Clayton businesses.

is building Clayton community. It makes sense to leave it to Clayton community.

What about something like Schnucks? They're not in Clayton. They

are not included because they compete with Straubs and they are not included.

That's what I was going to say. Would we consider them a competitor to Straubs? Okay. They sponsor a lot of local events.

You know, they do. What if they had a location in Clayton? I think we would have to, you know, then be okay with it. Okay. I think we're done. Are we done with the topic? Yeah. Okay, very good. Thank you very much, Gary. Thank you, Gary. Okay. It's five till seven, so we can just take a quick break and go into our regular meeting at seven.

Okay.

Okay, welcome to our seven o'clock meeting. I'm glad to see that we have at least one visitor. Well, we have two visitors. I will just introduce the one though. Right now, as I emailed most of you, we have the Mayor's Youth Advisory Council assigned to various committees, boards and commissions, and a couple of them have chosen to attend our board meetings. And in our audience tonight is William Ferguson. Just wave and welcome, William. And we hope to not bore you too much. In fact, you're going to get out early tonight.

Yeah. Okay. Will the city clerk call the roll? Alderman Berkowitz. Here. Alderwoman McAndrew. Here. Alderman Buse. Here. Aldermen Patel. Here. Alderon Gary Feder. Alderman Rick Hummell.

Yeah. Okay. Will the city clerk call the roll? Alderman Berkowitz. Here. Alderwoman McAndrew. Here. Alderman Buse. Here. Aldermen Patel. Here. Alderon Fader. Alderman Hummel.

Here.

Mayor Harris. Here. City Manager David Gipson. Here. City Attorney O'Keefe. Here. Thank you.

Mayor Harris. Here. City Manager Gibson. Here. City Attorney O'Keefe. Here. Thank you.

All right, now is the time for public requests and petitions. So if anyone in our listening audience or in our in-person audience has a comment about something that's not on our agenda tonight, will you please raise your hand or step forward? Mr. Bliss, don't forget to give us your name and address.

Good evening, I'm Rick Bliss. I live at 7515 Westmoreland Avenue down the street from Bridget. Thank you for listening. The city of Clayton has embarked on a new comprehensive plan calling it Engage Clayton. I've spoken with numerous residents who are extremely skeptical, their opinions matter and will make a difference. There is a common belief that this is just another exercise to make it appear like the city really is engaging the citizenry when in fact the ultimate conclusions are already largely determined. I started to take the online survey on the website, and what struck me, as it has struck others, is there is a very clear and definite agenda that's being pursued. As an example, the survey asks me to, quote, number your current top three priorities for the city of Clayton, unquote. Here are four of the options presented that I could choose from. Number one, building a broad diversity of cultures and populations. Two, openly addressing issues of racial inequity. Three, housing options affordable across a range of incomes. And four, jobs that provide a real living wage. I won't dismiss the importance of these things, but in terms of priorities, they would be far down the list on my list. Let me tell you my top three priorities for the city of Clayton. Number one is safety, a great police department which we have to help prevent and solve crime, assaults, burglaries, robberies, rape, trying to keep automobile drivers from going too fast and recklessly. Number two, security, a fire department and qualified EMS personnel who come quickly when needed who advise and counsel on preventive measures, and who operate efficiently. Number three, public works. I want good streets. I want proper lighting. I want my trash picked up when it is supposed to be. I'll give you a fourth priority, a government that is fiscally responsible and doesn't try to be all things to all people, and one that respects the taxpayers' pocketbooks. There is little wonder many people are turned off by the survey and by the whole process with foregone conclusions. As of August 20th, when I last looked, there were only 21 ideas, really comments, from fewer than 18 people on the website. Are people apathetic? Too busy? Incredibly trusting? Or just resigned to the fact that their input doesn't really matter? You can tell me the committee is open-minded and wanting to better understand what citizens want, but until changes in attitude and agenda are made, many citizens will remain skeptical, if not totally detached. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Yeah, thank you. Want me to

turn this on?

Yes, we take your comments and everyone's comments to heart. So thank you for taking the time to bring those to us. All right, so with that, I think we do have a very short agenda tonight. I wish that we could have put some stuff from the next meeting onto this meeting, but, you know, so we can't. So anyway, we will proceed and the first thing on the agenda is just, and the only thing on the agenda, is the consent agenda. I'll let the city manager report.

That's it, just two items on the, I'm sorry, let me flip back to that. three items because we have the minutes on there, but we have the property tax levy to set the date for that public hearing and then also the fiscal year 2024 operating budget and CIP. And then we have a ground lease and bylaw ratification for Central Core Fire Training Center. That's it.

Is there any discussion on any of these items? We're all good. Okay. Are we?

I move to approve the consent agenda with the items listed.

Second.

Any discussion?

Alderman Berkowitz. Aye. Alderwoman McAndrew. Aye. Alderman Buse. Aye. Aldermen Patel. Aye. Aldeman Rick Hummell.

Alderman Berkowitz. Aye. Alderwoman McAndrew. Aye. Alderman Buse. Aye. Aldermen Patel. Aye. Aldeman Hummel.

Aye.

Mayor Harris. Aye. Thank you.

All right. I think that that is Our business for tonight. So you really should come to another meeting because we really do more than that usually. Okay? Sorry about that. Unheard of. I didn't notice, but did you come at 6 also or did you come just at 7? No, that's fine. So we have discussion sessions at 6 p.m. or 6.30 p.m. often and it'll show on the agenda if you sign up to receive it or And sometimes that's where the most interesting topics are discussed, just so you know. So you might want to just check that each time. And like tonight, we did have a nice, a fun discussion about events. So anyway, really appreciate you taking your time to come and be part of MIAC and be part of this. So we can have a round table and I'll start with our most senior alderman, Ira. What have you been doing?

I did absolutely nothing for the city this past week because I was out of town. So it was a Parks and Rec Commission meeting, and I'm assuming Susan was there, but I don't know for sure. And I hope that she will report on that. But yeah, I have nothing to report. Thanks.

All right. Very good. Alderwoman McAndrew. I have

been doing stuff for this. We had a CRSWC finance committee meeting where just a smaller subset of the CRSWC meet and talk about the budget. which will be presented at the whole wide CRSWC meeting on Friday. So there's not too much to report. We're still going to be putting in a good chunk of money to keep the center going next year, but a lot of that is related to the fact that we are paying people more Due to, you know, our compensation study lifting up, you know, are hourly wage to $15 an hour and also just because commodities, you know, utilities are just so much more, you know, that's all up 30 or 40%. So that's a lot of the reason despite the fact that the center really is doing well in terms of membership. everything else is just costing more, which is not news to any of us. So I also was present at the steering committee meeting and they kind of presented, kind of did a deep dive into more of the data, which I think you can all observe on the website now. So you can take a look at that. And I guess maybe it was just those two things. Yeah. Oh no. And I had a, we had a plan commission meeting last night, which we also had two students, Gavin and story were there last night, which was great. So they were there. The big thing that happened last night was that we did approve the new hotel at the world news site. So that will come to us. I would think the 12th. Yep. So, yeah. So, I mean, really the plan commission largely was very much in favor of it. So I think it'll be a good project. So I look forward to hearing what you guys think about it. And as you look at it, obviously the points discussion is always a big one. I would welcome anybody, you know, if you have questions about how the points came about, please feel free. So,

yeah. And did you tell me this, was it last night that you all discussed the entertainment ordinance?

Oh yes. And we also did that. yes that was yep very well received we got a

positive recommendation that's an expansion of the district boundaries and then the um addition of entertainment venues

yep yep so that yeah basically what we discussed at the retreat okay

very good all right yeah i was hoping you should keep talking after iris said because i don't have recollection or down that there was a parks and rec meeting between the last meeting and now so um i don't have it on that okay um any other There was a Carlton Bank event. They hosted a wonderful art fair kickoff event. Bridget, you were there because you gave the remarks, right?

Yes, I

made great remarks and it was very enjoyable and it was really fun to walk down and see all the different prints from every year. That's all I have.

Okay, very good. Thank you.

I'm afraid I have nothing to report.

Wow, we're really striking out tonight. It's summertime. It's August.

We had a Clayton Community Foundation meeting, but I was on vacation, so I did not attend.

We are giving our student a terrible impression of

us. But my fellow alderman, Gary Feder was there. So I'd let him report, but he is obviously not here to do so. We did have a non-uniformed employee retirement fund meeting and we welcomed two new citizen members to that. And so it was a good review of what the requirements are and what our investment policy is. And we had generally good financial results to discuss. So that's all that I have.

us. But my fellow alderman, Gary Fader was there. So I'd let him report, but he is obviously not here to do so. We did have a non-uniformed employee retirement fund meeting and we welcomed two new citizen members to that. And so it was a good review of what the requirements are and what our investment policy is. And we had generally good financial results to discuss. So that's all that I have.

Well, I might have you guys beat this time. So we had a uniform pension meeting and that went really smoothly uneventful and things are in good shape. And so I don't have a lot to tell you about that business as usual. And I don't know if I've mentioned this to any of you or not, but last week, David and the chief and I met with the heads of the department chairs for social work and nursing from font bond to discuss how we might collaborate to better serve. the unhoused persons that are hanging out in Clayton to do some kind of collaborative effort. That would be a win-win for both the students and our officers to have someone to go with them to kind of, kind of on a scheduled basis, talk to these folks and see if they can guide them to any services that might, that might improve their situation. And so we had a really great discussion. I think the, the two folks are going away to, talk to their superiors and kind of brainstorm about what can work. The students would need to be supervised, but I think they have a person that the specialty is unhoused. So I think there's a shot that something might work here and that would be really good. I think it'd be really helpful to our officers to have some backup there. The other thing that I can share with you is that in my role on the Muny League, we are, I was interested in not just doing the usual, but actually going out into the different parts of the county and gathering together, Some of the mayors from sort of the sort of North County and South County and the central area and whatever and, and really getting them together in small groups with their legislators from Jeff city to talk about the issues because there is a lot going on in Jeff city that is really detrimental to cities. And so you were there this morning. And so, um, it, I thought it was a really good discussion. Um, there wasn't a balance of party representation there and that's something we need to work on, but it still was a very good discussion. And I think our, these legislators from, uh, this is from like the central, from the, I guess it would call the central area Kirkwood and the surrounding communities, um, they heard a lot of stories about how these potential pieces of legislation can really hurt the city's ability to provide the services that we're supposed to provide. So I think that helps them carry forward on trying to fight those things, and so that was really good. So those are my three things I think most important that I've been working on. So anyway, thank you all for All you're doing all the time. Do you have any other business to report?

No report this evening. We just have a need for a closed session.

Oh, yeah, that's right. So let's have our motion.

I move that the Board of Aldermen hold a closed meeting with a closed vote and a record as authorized by Section 610.021, Parts 1, 2, and 3, Revised Statutes of the State of Missouri relating to legal issues, real estate, and or personnel negotiation of a contract pursuant to Section 610.01, Part 12. and or proprietary information pursuant to Section 610.021, Part 15, and or information related to public safety and security measures pursuant to Sections 610.0 2118 and 19 of the revised Statutes of Missouri.

Very good.

Second. Sorry.

Oh, yeah.

Now we can call the roll.

Alderman Berkowitz. Aye. Alderwoman McAndrew. Aye. Alderman Buse. Aye. Alderon Patel. Aye. Aldermen Rick Hummell. Aye. Aye. Thank you.

Alderman Berkowitz. Aye. Alderwoman McAndrew. Aye. Alderman Buse. Aye. Alderon Patel. Aye. Aldermen Hummel. Aye. Aye. Thank you.

Okay. We are going to go into closed session. We're going to stay in here? Okay. So, here, everybody. Thank you.