May 14, 2024 — Meeting Transcript

So welcome, welcome everyone. I'm so excited to do tonight's meeting because we'll be presenting some certificates and awards to some students who have just been amazing this entire school year, the Mayor's Youth Advisory Council. So it will be a fun meeting. And then, and we have some other stuff here too, obviously. So we will call the roll.

Alderman McAndrew, Alderman Buse, Alderman Patel, Alderman Gary Feder, Alderman Rick Hummell, Alderman Jeffery Yorg, Mayor Harris, City Manager David Gipson, City Attorney O'Keefe. Thank you.

Alderman McAndrew, Alderman Buse, Alderman Patel, Alderman Fader, Alderman Hummel, Alderman York, Mayor Harris, City Manager Gibson, City Attorney O'Keefe. Thank you.

Good. Now's the time in our agenda when we ask for public requests or petitions. If somebody has something they want to cover with us, a comment or question that is not on tonight's agenda, now is your chance. If you come up, make sure the microphone is on and state your name and your address. Hi, Jeannie.

My name is Jeanne Rose. I'm going to go ahead and

please remain silent.

The reason I think it's important tonight is I'm not certain where you are in this process. I have heard the outline. I know we're supposed to meet with WashU if WashU creates those meetings, but it's almost summer. So what I would like to say is that at our Hillcrest meeting, it was indicated that the Board of Aldermen is fully in support of the proposed rezoning program. with the overlay district. That was news to me, I'm not sure where that stands. My objection tonight is really the idea of the overlay district instead of the conditional use permit process that we have used historically. And I feel that we are headed towards doing this rezoning without fully considering the ways in which this might go wrong for us. I made a few brief notes. I didn't have time to write you a letter, and I apologize for that. That deluge hit my house. With the addition of Fontbonne into the mix, I feel strongly that this is too soon to be giving a green light to Washington University's proposal to move their athletic fields to the Big Bend overlay. There's going to be a lot of time to consider how Fontbonne can be divvied up in the future and WashU is not even ready to talk about that. So this is a little alarming to me because I'm surrounded on both sides. Currently, and I want to say too, I have nothing against WashU. I am only in Clayton, Missouri because my husband was recruited to WashU and he's still going strong. So this is not in opposition to Washington University or for that matter, Fontbonne or Concordia who have all been great neighbors. They've even taken the time to protect our tree canopy. Currently, however, the neighbors are usually not bothered by the events on the fields and our neighborhoods have been developed over decades. The sudden imposition of the noise levels, the lights and the traffic that have been described to this relatively small parcel cannot be consistent in my view with maintaining what's indicated by a residential nature of the area. In a sense, we're there first. And I believe in development in the community from the bottom up, not the top down. Our urban planners will probably know that I'm stealing from Jane Jacobs in that but I heart from Greenwich Village so that's my right. I believe it is up to WashU to develop their plans more fully and make their proposals to you more fully in order for you to evaluate. It should not be falling upon Clayton taxpayers to spend our resources, and I would include your time for a year so far, trying to figure out what the effects of these changes might be. I really do not think this is the time for us to be giving up the use of the conditional use permitting. There might come a time when it seems more reasonable. but I am alarmed because I don't know when you might be voting on that. I don't know if I'll be out of town visiting my grandchildren back on the East Coast, and I wanted to get a word in tonight. So thank you for what you have done. I think it was done in the right spirit. I really appreciate how open you've been with the neighborhood, and it has given us an opportunity we might not have had to see what in the world WashU is planning to bring to us. So that's about it. Thank

you very much. Thank you. All right. Um, just one clarification for you. I want to make sure it's understood that I think the remark was made at the meeting, the board of aldermen supports pursuing the investigation of the overlay, not necessarily everything that was listed in it that night. And I know there'll be some changes coming based on all of the, uh, comments that came in from the community yeah so just to clarify all right yes there will be yeah but not yet okay um great so now is time for the fun stuff Students, what I'm going to do is I'm going to try to do it this way. I know you each have a very brief little report about your work with your committee. And so I'm going to come around here and I'm going to have the certificates that I will give you. I'm going to call you up by name. You can give your report and I'll give you your certificate. How's that sound? All right. That's what I'm going So just for those who may not be aware, the Mayor's Youth Advisory Council goes through the whole year of learning about the city of Clayton. And kind of one of the goals of this is to have students... students learn what local government is all about and maybe be inspired to participate in their own local community someday. And this has been a really, really great group. I just want to say at the outset, I'm so proud of all you guys. So with that being said, let me try to juggle all of these things, the microphone and the certificates. So I'm just going to start off the top in the order that these were given to me, no particular order. Gavin Wickenhauser, would you come up and give your report? And they could use this microphone, right? Yeah, so turn this on. And there you go, and I'll step over here.

All right. Good evening to the Board of Aldermen and everyone else gathered here at the Clayton City Hall. My name is Gavin Wickenhauster, and I'm a junior from John Burroughs High School. Over the course of this year, I have been closely following the plan and architectural review board as they've orchestrated structural developments within our city. To be honest, I was a little confused coming out of my first meeting and I didn't understand a lot of the formal processes through which items presented to the board would be reviewed, accepted or potentially critiqued. As time went on, though, I realized that the board, along with all of its members, have their processes down to an exact method. Regardless of what kind of project is being assessed, whether that be a complete reconstruction of a building, such as the 726 and 734 Dumont Avenue, or something as simple as a new storefront sign on 8125 Forsyth Boulevard, the same steps are always followed. One of the more interesting ideas which I've taken away from both the plan and architectural review board has been the use of precedent to make decisions about current projects. In other words, committee members will often reflect back on decisions to inform approval for new ones. This just speaks to the complexity of the role for all seven members must have a solid understanding of both the key principles of architecture but also the history of the many neighborhoods and buildings which make up the city. As I've already mentioned, the plan ARB board is such an efficient way to manage the countless projects occurring throughout Clayton. That is why I found it hard to come up with a recommendation or another way to further improve the system. But then I thought back to my own experiences as a mayor's youth advisory council member and the discussions that we had about community engagement. There were many times when I came home to debrief my parents on the various plans which were discussed that day, only to hear that they had not heard about it. Therefore, my suggestion is to increase public awareness of these projects going through the plan and architectural review board. I believe this would not only increase awareness of Clayton's residents, but it would also increase the turnout at meetings, allowing for a greater diversity of perspectives going into decision-making. Before I conclude, I would like to thank all of those who have made the NYAC possible. Ms. Ablees, Ms. Carely, Mayor Harris, my fellow members of the council. And in addition, I would like thank Mr. Steve Lichtenfeld, the chairman of Plan ARB, who's been so kind and helpful throughout all of the meetings. Finally, to the Board of Aldermen, thank you for your support of the program and your time here today.

Hi, so as you heard, I'm loving your money. And I'm a junior at Clayton High School. So

Let me see if I can actually pull up what I wrote for this. So for this year, I've been following the plans of the Livable Community Committee, keeping up with a lot of their email correspondences as well as their Zoom meetings and when they spoke to the sustainability and equity committees. So my main impression, there have been two really big takeaways I've had. First of all, I was kind of amazed by how present they were. Like if I couldn't attend one of their meetings, I went to an equity commission meeting and they were there presenting to the equity commission. And then I went to a sustainability committee meeting and they were there too. And I was amazed by how much of an involvement this committee has in all the aspects of Clayton, making it a better place. And my other biggest impression was that this community, this... committee has been so focused on making Clayton more people centric, making it more walkable, more friendly to nature and to like people living in nature. And I think that the main goal has been and should continue to be making Clayton more than just a business district into a place where it is like a home where people enjoy themselves in their leisure time. So I have two main recommendations to the committee. My first recommendation is a little simpler, which is just have more meetings outside of school hours, because one of my biggest problems attending the meetings is they all happen to be Zoom meetings while I was in class, which If we're trying to encourage more young people to be involved, and I definitely think we should, we have to make it so they can actually attend the Zoom calls. And the other thing, which is a little more broad, was that the main goal of this committee moving forward should be making Clayton a more fun place to be in in our free time. I mean, Clayton is already a thriving business area when we look at the greater St. Louis area. But beyond our nine to fives, when we're out and about, when we're just enjoying ourselves, I think the biggest goal of the Livable Community Committee should be to encourage more events like the Art Fair, like the Open Streets events, to make sure that people are enjoying themselves because that's when I think the beauty of a community is the most beneficial to those that are there. So before I finish this, I want to thank everyone who has made this possible, specifically Matt Malek, who in the Livable Community Committee has been in charge on a lot of the correspondences. I want to thank Mayor Harris for obviously being a huge part of all of this. Miss Ablees and Miss Kearley for really organizing this, especially as a Clayton student, as them two being there. and to all of you as the Board of Aldermen for hearing us, being here, and for all you do for our community. So thank you.

Okay, next we want to have Audrey Aranha.

Hi, my name is Audrey Urbana and I'm a senior in Clayton High School. I will be attending St. Louis University this fall and will be majoring in biochemistry. I followed the Parks and Recreation Department over the course of the year and I learned about the amount of time and work the committee members spent accomplishing everything on their agenda. Like every time I attended a meeting, they began with like discussing everything they did on their old agenda before they started like talking about the things that they need to accomplish. And I learned that they plan all the community events taking place in Clayton, and they make sure everything is perfect from the beginning to the end. And attending these meetings also helped me learn about like the projects taking place in Claytoon because living in Clayton for so many years sometimes I'm not aware of what's happening but attending this meeting helped me learn that there is a Remembrance Park being built next to the St. Louis-Mitt County Library and There were also renovations for those flash pads in the Shaw Park and the tennis courts. One of my recommendations is one of the Parks and Recreation Committee members suggested an orchard near Anderson Park, and I thought it's really interesting, like people coming to grow and plant fruits, and people could later eat it. It's also fun, like, when families come with their kids and like the parents can like walk their dogs while the children are growing and like learning to plant fruits. And I feel like there should also be signs to explain the different types of fruits being planted so it's also like an educational opportunity while the kids are enjoying in the orchard. And another one of my suggestion is like rental bikes in Shaw Park because I feel like it snows do like most of the months. So during the summer, people can have like rental bikes to bike in the Shaw Park while also walking. And finally, I'd like to thank Mayor Harris, the Board of Aldermen and Miss Abeles and Miss Curley for giving me an opportunity to be part of MIAC. Thank you.

Hi, everyone. I'm Henry Rosenblum, and I'm a junior at Clayton High School. The committee I followed this year was the Mayor's Landscape Committee. And the biggest impression I got was I didn't realize how many factors went into play when... considering adding different plaques or memorials to clayton such as um the the placement of the plaque or the ideas of who it's dedicated to and one recommendation i have for the city of clayton is i think that we should add more outdoor basketball courts because i feel that we have a lot of um Other areas for sports, but I don't think we have many places for basketball. So I think it would be beneficial to the community. And thank you to everyone who's made this possible this year. Mayor Harris, Ms. Kearley, the Board of Aldermans, and Ms. Abeles. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Give me one moment. Hi, my name is Shiv Patel and I'm a junior at Clayton High School and this year I followed the Board of Aldermen Committee. So one key takeaway, the biggest of which I learned this year was a city's tending to its historic landmarks. So prior to being a part of MIAC, I had no idea about how cities are able to preserve the parts of Clayton that make Clayton, Clayton. I always thought that cities are always trying to modernize everything they can and move into the future in every aspect, but Over the course of these meetings, I was able to learn about how, for example, there was a building where we had to redo the roof and you had to go through different options as to what you were going to change the shingles to and go through different factors and see what was best for the city. But in the end, we ended up choosing the option that was preserving the historic property. as material on the roofing. And even something as small as that shows me that Clayton is able to always focus on what parts of Clayton have always been there so that we don't lose our roots. So that was something that stuck with me. As far as the proposal that I want to make for the city, I sat down to think about it a minute, and I wanted to approach it by first going way back to when I got to Clayton. So I want to tell a brief story about the fact that I moved to Clayton when I was four years old. And one way that my family got to know people is by going to block parties at Clayshire Park in Clayshire. That's where I've lived for the last 10 years. And so that was somewhere where my family and I got to know people, the first people that we met in Clayton. Something that stuck out to me was the fact that now, 10 years later, I had actually just come from pitching to the Board of Education on behalf of the Clayton Catalyst Program. And one of the parents there was speaking to me, she does real estate, about parents in our neighborhood and families in our neighborhood. And she said, do you know so-and-so? I said, no. Do you know so- and-so? I say, no. And it made me realize that in 10 years, I no longer know any of these families in my neighborhood. So it got me to thinking about the idea of community and Clayton and how we're gonna be stronger moving forward. A friend of mine lives on Kingsbury and growing up, he knew everyone in his neighborhood and they've all been super close friends. For me, it made me think about the fact that we need to be able to promote a sense of community in our smaller neighborhoods to be able to a greater sense of community as a city. So I mean, even one example I was thinking about is me who came to this city when I was four years old, that's the first chance that you get to make friends in a new city. So if I had moved into Kingsbury, maybe I would have had lifelong friends that I made there. And in turn, that makes us stronger as a city. So really my proposition is for the city of Clayton to be able to help in hosting events, maybe in parks near neighborhoods where kids and families are able to get to know each other because my question is how are we going to be able to grow stronger as a city if we first don't grow stronger in our connections with one another. So please hopefully adopt or entertain this idea and feel free to speak with me if you think we should move further with it. Thank you.

Tom. Yeah.

Hi, my name is Bridget Gustafson and I'm a junior at Clayton. And the committee that I followed over the course of this year was the Sustainable Action Committee or Sustainability Committee. And what I found most interesting was how many like aspects of Clayton they work with. Because sometimes we would spend like a whole meeting, they would be talking about like the benchmarking plan for buildings and business um which is more like downtown clayton and the business stuff but then also they would talk about like the open streets thing and interacting with the public more and like no mo april and all these like initiatives for native plants or more things that people do like individually and then also with the city itself like electrification um the fleet electric electrification and stuff with like the city. So I thought it was interesting how they crossover between the people, the business, the city and government. And yeah, that was pretty interesting to me. And also we, the three of us were in the sustainability committee and specifically Deb Grossman, Deborah Grossman, who leads that committee, she really made us get involved. And that was great to actually be able to work on a project. And she always asked us if we had questions to what they were talking about or anything like that. So I really liked how we got really involved and we weren't just like sitting there listening. um and then my main idea well this is more specific to the sustainability um because there's a lot of stuff with like the new uh livable communities plan and like what the 20 and 40 however many years plan for clayton and i think a big thing that could be implemented i'm not sure how difficult this is so i'm just saying it um like electric leaf blowers instead of or leaf blowers because that's a big thing like you know Saturday morning eight o'clock and you're like oh they're already going with the leaf blowers and there's a lot of stuff not just with like gas versus electric like the pollution that it makes but also the noise pollution is a big thing and there's like a lot of research and stuff how that is actually harmful to along with obviously gas powers bad. So that was just, I don't really know what goes into that like an ordinance or something, but I think that doesn't like it seems like a small step that would be really beneficial. And, yeah, that was my suggestion. And then, obviously, I just want to thank all of you guys, the Board of Aldermen, Alderwomen, and Mayor Harris, of course, being on the MIAC was super interesting, and Ms. Keeley, and Ms. Abley, whoever she went. Yeah. Yeah, so thank you, guys.

Hi,

everyone. I'm Adelaide Pollack. I'm a junior at Clayton High School this year, and I attended the Sustainability Advisory Committee meetings. And my biggest impression is that I was just really surprised at how much policy sustainability involves in Clayton. I was aware that in order to have a greener Clayton, different policies and rules and research had to go through multiple layers of people. But I wasn't really aware of like how much time they spend solely just getting different rules enacted and different things pushed to different people. And I found that Miss Grossman truly spent like a lot of time communicating to different people. And pushing out different stuff to different people because nothing can get put in place without going through like the proper review and approval processes. So I thought that that was really interesting because it kind of adds kind of a whole nother layer to just being sustainable, but you also have to have something to get it all happen. Yeah. And I was also really surprised with just like the level of detail that sustainability takes because when you think about a city, you just don't really think about like the small things that go into what they're talking about at these meetings. Like for example, they're talking about what materials we're making new roofs with, what salt we're icing the roads with when it's snowy, different fleet electrification vehicles. It's all that type of stuff that the average person doesn't really think about. And I thought that was really interesting. And I wasn't really aware at first before all of this happened at like the work that Clayton puts into building a more sustainable city. I wasn't aware of the different processes, the different things that were in place for this to happen. So I think like my top recommendation is just more like getting the word out there about the different research and events and measures people can take to help with the cause and also just become more educated themselves. Right now, the Sustainability Advisory Committee does have a website that they've utilized and they put a lot of stuff up. But I don't think many people know about that resource. And so I think not only building that, but also maybe another form of marketing that kind of targets maybe the youth because that's kind of the future of Clayton would really be helpful to help people. educate everybody on building a greener city and just kind of move the city towards the goals that it's striving towards. So I want to thank the Board of Aldermen, obviously, Miss Abelies, Miss Kearley, and Mayor Harris for making this all possible. Thank you.

So hello, my name is Kayla park and I am a junior at clayton high school for this year, the committee that I decided to attend the meeting of the meetings of sort of. Is the clayton Community foundation now they aren't really in. an integrated government committee compared to say Parks and Recreation. But nevertheless, they were extremely fascinating. And besides, they work a lot with the city of Clayton. So my first impression of them was the fact that Well, for starters, they are this nonprofit organization, and they deal a lot with donors, and they deal out with the community. So in meetings, there's always conversations about word of mouth and spreading information about all of these projects that need funding. And it's this open dialogue that I found really fascinating and was really captivating to me. And something that I would see in these meetings is the fact that for many of the people that would attend them, they would usually be people who aren't really doing anything for the Clayton Community Foundation. But nevertheless, they always just provide their input And it's with that I think is just absolutely great for not only this organization to be able to have open dialogue with much of the Community, but also just for city government. And the Clayton Community Foundation, they focus a lot on culture and livability. So usually they pour their funding from donors to things like historical site markers. I know recently for homes that were constructed about a century ago, they're now trying to push for plaques for those. They've gotten artwork loaned from the St. Louis Art Museum. And it's all of this that... that I could see that they're really invested in making place. And it's with this that I would like to talk about any recommendations I have for the Clayton Community Foundation. I can't really think of any because I think what they've done in terms of dialogue and in terms of really working with the community is, I think, excellent. All I would say is probably to really invest in, I guess, communication. Because unless you're caught up in word of mouth discussions or you happen to come across any of the projects that they've poured funding into, someone, a resident of Clayton may not really understand the impact that the Clayton Community Foundation really has in the local area. And it's with this that before I leave, I would like to thank, for starters, the Board of Aldermen for listening to us and for all of the hard work they really pour out for this community Mayor Harris, Ms. Abelis, and Ms. Curley for, of course, making the Mayor's Youth Advisory Council a thing. So thank you.

Hi, everyone. My name is Riley Zimmerman. I'm a junior at Clayton High School, and I am on the mayor's commemorative landscape. committee um I thought that everyone on this committee was really great and they really voice their opinions. Really well, I understood what everyone wanted with this especially since it's so important to hear their voices in these one thing I found really impressive through this, though, was that everyone. would reach out to for example mayor harris she reached out to the osage tribe and got their voice involved within the plaque that they were making which i thought was like really impactful because i would personally not think to reach out to them even though i know it's like a commemoration for them i just i would research about it and you know put my like heart into it but i would never like be like hey what do you think and i think it's really powerful that she reached out to them and um got their perspectives on it and asked, you know, what do you want to see? What is your voice? What do you want to do with this? And I thought that was really cool, along with the Philippine tribe. Yeah. And there was so much effort involved in everything, along with the photo of Mayor Clayton. He just got taken down from the city, the Sorry. Yeah, he just got taken out right there and figuring out where to put it has I never thought about how much effort it's taken into figuring out where to Put this picture because I don't know I've never thought about a photo that's just been hanging up here and I thought that was really cool just to kind of see a different perspective within the community. Along with this, because coming into this, I didn't really know what this committee was. And since it's about commemorating these different communities within the Clayton community, I think that having a social media presence would be much better for this committee because, you know, someone like me, I don't really know what's going on as like just through social Being a teenager, I don't hear as much from the adults and stuff. And I'm not really reading all the plaques around this place. So I think being on social media would be great just to let the younger kids of Clayton know what is going on and really help them understand their community and different parts of the community that used to live here and really help them understanding the history of what was, you know, what used to be here. So I think being on Instagram or maybe even TikTok, I don't know, that might be a bit stretch. But like, I think something like that would be really cool and just better for everyone in Clayton to know all the hard work that you guys put into it. Lastly, I want to thank Miss Avelies, Mayor Harris and Miss Keeley for allowing me to be a part of this. You know, it's really been cool to learn about local government and I really appreciate this opportunity. Thank you.

I'll have Ms. Abley send out my Instagram handle to all you guys because I actually do post very infrequently, but I do. How about we go first?

Hello, my name is Liam Ferguson and I'm a senior at Clayton High School, and I will be attending San Diego State University in the fall. So my committee this year was the Board of Aldermen, and I think my first impression was how I was going to deal with this whole school year not knowing what you guys were talking about with this complex vocabulary. And as the meetings progressed, I learned and learned more. And I was able to understand these like complex processes that you guys underwent, whether it was traffic laws or someone trying to build a house too big, all of them had the same lengthy process. So that surprised me. And moving forward as a senior who graduates next week, my biggest thing that I wish that I had throughout my entire academic career was likely a mentor who was there to guide me through different things. So what I would think something that would be beneficial to implement would be a mentorship group, whether it's held at the library, at the center, where students of any age can meet with adults or other students who are able to guide them through school assignments or college applications or even job resumes. So as someone who's done it, that's my suggestion as if I could do it again. And finally, I'd like to give a great thanks to the Board of Aldermen for having me this year. I really learned a lot. I'd like to thank Mayor Harris as well, Ms. Abelies and Ms. Kearley. So thank you guys for your time. Thank

you.

Hi, my name is Stella Whitney and I'm a senior at Clayton High School this year. I plan to attend University of Illinois next year and major in financial planning. This was my first year in MIAC and with any type of knowledge of like government at all besides like the class you take at school. And I was a little nervous initially coming in because I didn't know what to do. But I ended up following the Clayton Sports Rec and Wellness program committee with Bridget McAndrew. And I thought it was really interesting, especially because I was able to connect a lot with the things they were talking about and like make connections with my life at growing up. And even today, one of the things I found to be most interesting during my time was the amount of data and like specific things they had to know like all of those aspects that go into the decision making and um yeah basically just how they used all the data they collected to make decisions on the spot about how to like delegate funds and deal with advertising and whatnot just do what's best for the community i thought that was really interesting one suggestion i would have for the committee is this past meeting last Friday, we spent a lot of time talking about how we can get back to what we had like pre-COVID. And I would just like to just kind of throw out there that I think just focusing on like the future and like the goals for the future rather than trying to get back what you had like is more important in my opinion. And I would just like to thank all of the Board of Aldermen, Mayor Harris, Mrs. Abelies and Ms. Kearley for all the time and effort you guys put into making this a really fun and interesting program. Thank you.

Hello, my name is Naysa J. And I am a junior at Clayton High School. I followed the livable community group. And I was really impressed by how many strategies are needed to fulfill like one goal. And so the community or the committee had like six goals that were from feedback by the community. So like, for example, to make things more walkable or bikeable. there were like eight different plans that needed to be um finalized to make this happen and my top recommendation for the livable community committee would be to find more ways to involve the community past like just gathering feedback and this could be through ways like having volunteer opportunities for students to set up these events that they have voted on and um advocated for and also to organize things like drives for people who are in need. And I think that the more people are participating in setting up these events, the more that they'll talk about it with other people in the Clayton community. I would like to say thank you for all the guidance from Ms. Ablees and Ms. Curley, and a special thank you to Mayor Harris for continuing this council because I really had a lot of fun with it, as well as the Board of Aldermen. Thank you.

And Saeed, please.

Hi everyone, my name is Yehe Saeed. I'm a junior at Clayton High School and this past year I followed the Community Equity Commission. So my biggest takeaway from this was I was just incredibly impressed at how well all the members stayed closely in touch with what's going on in Clayton and aim to always like understand their community from the people who are actually in it. They always took the opportunity to send out the next survey to get their next like form of input to always understand what the community members actually need that they can stay sort of aware of what's needed and ensure that the policies that they're proposing and the things that they're implementing actually go to benefit our community. And so I have two major recommendations. The first is to continue to make our communication with our community more inclusive, whether that means implementation of more bilingual signs in Clayton, especially in terms of like Spanish and Chinese or just other general messaging. ensuring that every member of our community can access that and truly understand their government and understand sort of our community. And second, to keep our housing code updated and equitable to ensure that it stays sort of with the modern times, because oftentimes we talked a lot in this commission about how it can be extremely overbearing for certain families and certain individuals, and how sometimes it's a little too restrictive. So making sure that that stays up to date and with the current times is really important. And so lastly, I'd like to say thank you to all the advisors and adults who helped us out this year, the Board of Alderman, and of course, Mayor Harris, Ms. Kearley, and Ms. Ablees for making this all possible.

And. Hi everyone, my name is Jane Lin. I'm currently a junior at Clayton High School and I was part of the Parks and Recreational Committee. One very impactful impression that I had was how everyone works so independently and each month when we're at our meetings, people, our committee would have somebody representing each plan and presenting that plan to the rest of the committee. I was really impressed by how organized and professional that was. And then another impression that I had was they had a plan of expanding the pickleball courts because people that played pickleball were going on to the tennis courts. And their plan was to expand the pickleball courts. And I was really surprised because... personally, I would have prioritized tennis. But they were really thought out and had a really well thought out idea of instead of regulating and implementing rules, they would rather spend money and prioritize the community and the citizens of clayton's then one idea that i had was to install more street lamps in clayton to make clayton overall a safer and more bright place um i also had another idea that because our committee works really closely with the center of clayton about sports and programs and clubs um I was thinking if they wanted to promote their programs, they can work closely with elementary schools like Glenridge Clayton Merrimack. Sorry, Glenridge Captain Merrimack. And I know they send out emails, I think monthly emails to parents. So if they wanted to advocate for their programs, they can definitely work through the elementary schools for that. But other than that, I think the committee is doing a really well job of keeping everything fair, finding the most effective, sustainable and environmentally friendly solution. And then lastly, I would like to thank Mr. Eric Schneider, who always began our meetings with a positive attitude, funny jokes. And then the rest of the Parks and Rec members, Ms. Abley for organizing my act, Mayor Harrison for coping with us, putting up with us lovely high schoolers. And then just everyone else for their hard work. Thank you.

Hello, Board of Aldermen. So my name is Charlie Myers. I'm a junior at Clayton High School and I spent the duration of this year working on the Sustainability Advisory Committee with Bridget Gustafson and Addie Pollack. And I had a lot of big takeaways from this committee. I've never been directly involved in a sort of government committee or committee. program or service and so it was really interesting to be able to be immersed into this environment so i think it's really interesting that you know i kind of came into this committee with this preconceived notion that people in sustainability committees talk about you know the flowers in their city and like putting solar panels on everything but it's really not as much of a blanket job that they have as that. They talk a lot about things that I wouldn't even have thought that you'd talk about, from replacing carpet or like ceiling tiles in buildings, there's these certain standards that the city of Clayton sets these businesses and people that utilize their spaces to be able to, you know, follow certain sustainability, you know, like to be able to have a standard. Right. And I thought that was really interesting because there's this side of sustainability, this business side that no one really thinks about. And so I've become quite enlightened in that aspect. Additionally, I will note that the logistics side of the advisory committee was really interesting to see. There would be a couple meetings that I'm sure Addie and Bridget can agree with me where there would be a solid 20 minutes that we just did not know what was being said, just because there's a lot of, you know, refined diction and things that they talk about that are very specific to certain policies, right? They talk about the comprehensive plan, the Clayton Tomorrow, livable communities, soul smart, some of these terms that I had never really heard about until joining the committee. And so I think that was a very enlightening experience as well. Additionally, I will say that I have never seen a group of people with more sheer passion and dedication and devotion to a certain topic in my life. I think all of these people have such a passion to be able to make Clayton a more sustainable place and to honestly make our society a more sustainable community. And I think that it was really powerful powerful, honestly, to see how well these people work together. Even if there were discrepancies or conflicts, people worked really, really well together to be able to ensure that everyone's voices were heard and that the most active conversation and civil discourse in regards to. recommendations for the city, I will say and I know it's easier said than done that I think being able to have more outreach to the youth is pretty important. And I know how hard it is to get people to care about something that you care about and that maybe they don't care about if it's not directly affecting them. But I think being able to increase the outreach towards the youth, I know that throughout this year for context, I'm on my school newspaper, The Globe at Clayton High School. And I've written multiple articles about climate change. I wrote an article called The Heat Is On about climate change and how people in Clayton can do better themselves to be able to better our world. I just wrote an article for the last issue that came out called Turn Your Key, Be Idle Free about the anti-idling campaign that me and the other sustainability high school members have worked on throughout the past year on this committee. That's up in the center of Clayton if you guys want to go check it out. And I think that those efforts I've been pretty proud of, but I also don't know if there's going to be someone that's going to do that when I'm graduated next year. And so being able to increase the awareness, especially to high schoolers, whether that be through yard signs in the front of Clayton High School or through social media like Riley commented earlier, I think it'd be really important just to be able to increase awareness about this. Again, it's easier said than done. In regards to thank yous, I'd like to obviously thank Mayor Harris and Ms. Abeles and Ms. Curley and the Board of Aldermen. But specifically, I'd like Becky Patel and Susan Buse, because your works on the sustainability committee have been very inspiring the way that you're so involved in representing your words in the city of Clayton. Matt Malik and David Gipson for really just putting in so much work to be able to spread the word. Tina Murtha is the social media kind of outreach communications person. And she runs on the Clayton website the part about the Sustainability Committee, and she does an amazing job with that. Carol Klein, me and her, worked on an article about native yards for the committee, and her work is incredible. And I really just want to thank the city of Clayton, all the MIAC people that are here tonight, and the Board of Aldermen for really just caring about your community. So thank you all.

Hello, Board of Aldermen. So my name is Charlie Myers. I'm a junior at Clayton High School and I spent the duration of this year working on the Sustainability Advisory Committee with Bridget Gustafson and Addie Pollack. And I had a lot of big takeaways from this committee. I've never been directly involved in a sort of government committee or committee. program or service and so it was really interesting to be able to be immersed into this environment so i think it's really interesting that you know i kind of came into this committee with this preconceived notion that people in sustainability committees talk about you know the flowers in their city and like putting solar panels on everything but it's really not as much of a blanket job that they have as that. They talk a lot about things that I wouldn't even have thought that you'd talk about, from replacing carpet or like ceiling tiles in buildings, there's these certain standards that the city of Clayton sets these businesses and people that utilize their spaces to be able to, you know, follow certain sustainability, you know, like to be able to have a standard. Right. And I thought that was really interesting because there's this side of sustainability, this business side that no one really thinks about. And so I've become quite enlightened in that aspect. Additionally, I will note that the logistics side of the advisory committee was really interesting to see. There would be a couple meetings that I'm sure Addie and Bridget can agree with me where there would be a solid 20 minutes that we just did not know what was being said, just because there's a lot of, you know, refined diction and things that they talk about that are very specific to certain policies, right? They talk about the comprehensive plan, the Clayton Tomorrow, livable communities, soul smart, some of these terms that I had never really heard about until joining the committee. And so I think that was a very enlightening experience as well. Additionally, I will say that I have never seen a group of people with more sheer passion and dedication and devotion to a certain topic in my life. I think all of these people have such a passion to be able to make Clayton a more sustainable place and to honestly make our society a more sustainable community. And I think that it was really powerful powerful, honestly, to see how well these people work together. Even if there were discrepancies or conflicts, people worked really, really well together to be able to ensure that everyone's voices were heard and that the most active conversation and civil discourse in regards to. recommendations for the city, I will say and I know it's easier said than done that I think being able to have more outreach to the youth is pretty important. And I know how hard it is to get people to care about something that you care about and that maybe they don't care about if it's not directly affecting them. But I think being able to increase the outreach towards the youth, I know that throughout this year for context, I'm on my school newspaper, The Globe at Clayton High School. And I've written multiple articles about climate change. I wrote an article called The Heat Is On about climate change and how people in Clayton can do better themselves to be able to better our world. I just wrote an article for the last issue that came out called Turn Your Key, Be Idle Free about the anti-idling campaign that me and the other sustainability high school members have worked on throughout the past year on this committee. That's up in the center of Clayton if you guys want to go check it out. And I think that those efforts I've been pretty proud of, but I also don't know if there's going to be someone that's going to do that when I'm graduated next year. And so being able to increase the awareness, especially to high schoolers, whether that be through yard signs in the front of Clayton High School or through social media like Riley commented earlier, I think it'd be really important just to be able to increase awareness about this. Again, it's easier said than done. In regards to thank yous, I'd like to obviously thank Mayor Harris and Ms. Abeles and Ms. Curley and the Board of Aldermen. But specifically, I'd like Becky Patel and Susan Buse, because your works on the sustainability committee have been very inspiring the way that you're so involved in representing your words in the city of Clayton. Matt Malik and David Gibson for really just putting in so much work to be able to spread the word. Tina Murtha is the social media kind of outreach communications person. And she runs on the Clayton website the part about the Sustainability Committee, and she does an amazing job with that. Carol Klein, me and her, worked on an article about native yards for the committee, and her work is incredible. And I really just want to thank the city of Clayton, all the MIAC people that are here tonight, and the Board of Aldermen for really just caring about your community. So thank you all.

Hello, Board of Aldermen and Mayor Harris. I'm Story Coomer, and I'm a junior at John Burroughs High School. I've been attending plan commission and architectural review board meetings this past year. It's been interesting to hear about different properties represented by both architects and homeowners and hear what the board suggests. I've enjoyed following certain houses as they come in again after having made certain staff-recommended changes and then seeing them get passed. and approved in both the site plan and architectural review processes. I also appreciate how the meetings are open to the public because sometimes neighbors come in and give points of views that are interesting and different and wouldn't be considered through a strictly architectural point of view. So I have a couple observations from this past year. First, I found it fascinating how much time was spent trying to assess the fit of a particular house to a neighborhood. Every detail is reviewed to ensure that each house matches both the style and the size on the street to create unity, for example at the most recent meeting on may 12 they were looking at plans for a new construction on university drive. The council picked up on a detail that I would have missed, how many steps led up to the house just to make sure that it wouldn't overshadow neighboring houses, which was really interesting. So I think this balance of unique architectural styles with some commonality can be seen throughout Clayton, even just walking around. And it was cool to see where that stemmed from. Second, I didn't realize how big of an issue water was, specifically the buildup and runoff of water. During the meetings, I learned about permeable versus semi-permeable materials and what was best for specific locations, as well as plants that are designed to absorb more water. Because water continues to be a relevant issue, I believe if homeowners were educated about this, they may want to be part of the solution. So one idea could be giving small tax breaks to homeowners who plant a certain number of water absorbing plants. Another recommendation I have for the board is to make a larger effort to reach out to community members to inform them of the changes going on, specifically things being built, kind of echoing what Gavin said. I weren't about a new park being constructed through NYIC near the library, but a lot of adult residents of Clayton that I know didn't know about it. So I know there are many great plans for our future and there are surveys in open houses, but many residents didn't know those existed and they would love to be part of the conversation. In conclusion, it's been an honor to attend and occasionally participate in the plan ARB meetings, as well as to learn more about the local government of Clayton. I really enjoyed touring the police and fire departments and getting a closer look at the inner workings of where we live. Finally, I would like to thank the Board of Aldermen Mayor Harris, Miss able ease and Miss clearly for helping us with NYC. And thank you and I look forward to finding more ways to engage in my local community.

Okay, then just to top it off. Those were fantastic presentations. I know that we have this recorded so we can go back and and recapture all of those wonderful ideas that you guys came up with. Thank you for your time and your thoughts they're really nicely done at each year we We try really hard to identify one or two students that really kind of go above and beyond what the normal expectations are for MIAC. I think this year, honestly, I could say almost every one of you did this. You really, really shot the moon. But two students really stood out a little bit more. And so we're going to recognize them. And if they will come up here, I have a gift for each of them. And that will be Charlie and Story. Thank you to the advisors, Ms. Abeles and Darcy. Thank you so much. And we will get you your flowers for today. Thank you. Okay. okay um great all right well thank you to everyone else for being patient as we went through that um i i have to say this this is the this is my fifth marriage youth advisory council and this is definitely the best group in five years so they just all did a really really great job um and thank you to our directors who had them at their meetings tony anna Karen you didn't get to have them, because you don't really have those kind of meetings. board meetings okay chief you too okay very good Okay now we're going to move on and we have a presentation. On our audit report. And when yeah would you please step forward and. You have the floor.

Bailey with Sickich, and we're the auditors for the city of Clayton. So we have two reports to go over tonight. The big one is the annual comprehensive financial report. I will just try and summarize this as best as I can. And then if anybody has questions, feel free to interrupt me or I'll ask again at the end. The second one is our board report. I'll go over that second. So the first one is this large report, the annual comprehensive financial And first is a transmittal letter of the government. And one important thing to note is that the city was awarded the GFOA certificate for 2021. At the time that we issued this, the certificate for 2022 wasn't issued yet, but it has since been issued. um so that's great to know because that's um a distinguished honor kind of means that the city went above and beyond just a regular financial report um next uh this lists the principal officials on the city's org chart and then finally um on page one is our on our letterhead it states independent auditor's report and this is our report on the financial statements And the main part, the main important part of this report is just the opinion. And that is that everything's the financial statements of the governmental activities, each major fund and aggregate remaining fund information is presented fairly in all material respects. So that's a clean unmodified opinion. So that's important to know for the city. Finally, I'll go over the management's discussion and analysis on page five. So this provides a great summary and overview of what occurred during the year for the city's government-wide financial statements and the major funds. So I will hit more on this, and then I will kind of open it up for any questions on some more of the detailed information in the back. But regarding the statement of net position and then that statement of activities, so this is the city's government wide financial statements. These include all funds so all funds are blended together and then it's on a full cruel basis, so it includes the capital assets, the debt. on the pension liability and OPEB liability. So the total net position at the end of the year was 112.5 million, which was an increase from last year's 111 million. Um, on page nine, the statement of activities, this shows the revenues and expenses with all funds combined. Um, the revenues stayed consistent, but the overall changes within the categories. So, um, capital grants and contributions decreased approximately 107,000 that varies each year, just based on what the projects the city has going on. Um, Sales tax increased 670,000 or 6%, which is due to the increased activity in the area, the increased spending due to the recovering economy. Utility tax increased 1.1 million or 23%. And this is just mainly due to a charter settlement that came in during the year. It was approximately 650,000 or so. The ARPA funds that was received last year, so there was no ARPA funds received this year. And then investment income, that increased approximately 1.2 million, 181%, mainly just due to the state of the economy. Increased interest rates. So program expenses, those increased approximately 7.7%. And the majority of this increase is just due to the changes in the non-uniform and uniform pension plans. So that's the cause of those increases. Then on the city's funds, so the city has three major funds, the general fund, the capital improvement fund, and the equipment replacement fund. The city's total governmental funds at the end of the 2023 reported an ending fund balance of 44.9 million, which is an increase of 3.5 million from the prior year. All three of those funds showed increase in fund balances. So the general fund, which is the main operating fund of the city, had total fund balance of 23.4 million and unassigned fund balance of 23 point 2 million. So that unassigned fund balance represents 79% of total general fund expenditures. The city's policy is 25% of expenditures with a goal of 50 and a take action point of 40. So the city is well above that. Um, STD fiscal year fund balance increased 1.7 million. Uh, the largest increases was due to revenue from sales tax that charter, um, that we discussed earlier in investment income, uh, the capital improvement fund balance at 6.4 million, which is restricted for capital projects. Um, This increased $760,000, which is due to recurring revenue as well as grant and donation revenue exceeding expenditures. The Equipment Replacement Fund had an ending total fund balance of $9.4 million, which increased... uh by 421 000 which is mainly just due to the charge back to the capital improvement fund um and then some of the funding from the general fund and this uh fund balance can vary each year just depending upon the replacement schedule of capital items purchased The general fund, so some variances in the budget to actual and the general fund. The general funds, the total revenues were $272,000 more than budget, and the expenditures were $47,000 less than budget. So that's kind of the direction that you'd like to see in both of those items. The capital assets totaled 95.9 million as of the end of the year. It did decrease about 2.3 million, which is mainly due to one year's worth of depreciation expense greater than the capital asset additions for this particular year. Long-term debt decreased about $2.5 million, so it went from $27.7 million to $25.1 million, and that's due to the city having no additional debt and then the payment of principal on each of the city's debt issuances. So that is kind of a brief summary of the government-wide and then the major funds. The following pages shows more detailed information. So pages 14 and 15 shows more detailed information on the statement of net position, and that's the one that blends all the funds and is on a full accrual basis. So if you wanted to see line items for what makes up the assets, deferred outflows, liabilities, and deferred inflows in that position, that would show you that. The statement of activities is kind of like the income statement for the governments government-wide. And then following that are the fund statements. So this shows a column for each of the major funds and then one column for the total aggregate remaining funds, the non-major funds. On page 18, you can see a total fund balance of all the funds of that $44.9 million. And then on page 21 shows you the changes. So it shows you the revenues, expenditures, and then change in fund balance for all those funds as well. So the total fund balance increased $3.5 million. Following those statements is a statement of fiduciary net position on page 23, along with the statement of changes in fiduciary net condition on page 24. And this is for the city's pension trust funds. So this is a blended statement for the non-uniform and uniform pension trust funds. I guess it would be, it's important to note on page 24 that the net position increased about 4.2 million. So it went from 71 million to 75 million, and that's mainly due to the net appreciation and the fair value of the investments due to the economy, the interest rates. On pages 25 through 71 is the notes to financial statements. So this is part of the basic financial statements. It shows a lot of detailed information on the city's accounting policies, cash and investments, It states that the bank balances were fully secured. That's important for the city to know. It shows a lot of details on investments, so you can see the fair value of investments by investment type and maturities. capital assets. It shows more detailed information by capital asset type. Same with long-term debt. Long-term debt, you could see each of the city's bond issuances rather than it just being totaled up. There's a lot of pension and OPEB information on contributions, benefit payments, the changes in the liability amounts. I won't go over this. The layout of the notes don't really change from year to year, but the amounts, of course, are updated with the financial changes in the activity in the year. um anybody have any questions so far am i keeping

a

good time for you to ask

yeah

so there's a tremendous amount of information here there

is yeah

um and so i'm still way back on one of the first things that you

said

so and i just didn't understand it so on page nine of the report you were through the um the changes that had occurred. And one of the things I thought I heard you say was noting the significant increase in expenses for public safety, the $5 million or so, 5.1. And I thought what I heard you say that was largely due to pension costs. If so, please explain that. I'm not familiar why that would occur.

Yep. I can show you the note disclosure to that provides more information. So that would be for the uniform pension fund. And there were changes in benefit terms, so there was probably an increase in the service costs and the changes of benefit terms. me.

Rick, I had asked David that same question, and he said it was entirely related to the way we shifted pension costs. So yeah, I mean, it's a huge difference, but David did explain it to

me.

What page is this in?

The

question? So probably page 77 is a good page to look at. This is the uniformed detail of the Uniform Employees Pension Fund. This would at least provide more of an answer to the question, but you can see changes of benefit terms of $707,000.

We also changed the plan's valuation date from January 1st to October 1st, and that shift would have

Would that account for $5 million? That would

have made an impact. I'm not sure if it was the full $5 million.

Well, I don't know if it was this year or prior year, but we also changed the percentage. From 6.75% to

7%. We bumped that up some, but I think that change in date resulted in the biggest chunk of that.

It also looks like they updated the salary scale assumptions based on numbers of years of service, updated retirement, termination of disability rates, etc. They just did the amortization wage inflation. So that's the main cause of that increase.

So I certainly understand changing benefit terms and I understand that if we change the percentages, those kinds of things would have an impact. And so, but it also seemed to me, we also had some salary adjustments. And so all I'm trying to discern is the difference between what would have been current compensation versus pension compensation in that significant difference.

So if you looked at, let's see, the general funds... and go to the general funds budget to actual. So on page 72, this would show you the expenditures. So it would show you by department. So you could see, let's see, public safety. 13.7 million and it was budgeted to be 13.7 million so it was right on point with budget um I'm not exactly sure compared to last year's just because there's not comparative statements I'd have to look at. I have to go back and look at last year's but this actually this doesn't this like fund doesn't account for like the changes in the pension, so this would be more on like the basis that you would budget it's on the modified accrual. So it would have the employer contributions expended on here, but it wouldn't have the changes in the liability and the benefit terms included in there if that's

Right. So I serve on the non-uniform committee, so I'm familiar with the actuarial aspects and the funding. It's just that to see the magnitude of a $5 million change is just what I'd like to understand that better, especially in terms of looking to what the future is like. Is this a significantly increasing cost that we're going to face or is this a one time kind of a thing and then understand what the difference is?

My understanding is it's a one-time, but that might be a better question for the actuary. But that's my understanding from speaking with the actuary and finance.

Thank you.

Well, just to make sure, is that something, David, that we can follow up on and really clarify for the whole group at some point soon? Yes. Yes. Okay.

Yes, absolutely.

Okay, good question. You have more to say, I assume? Or do we have more questions right at the moment? Does anybody

have any more questions? I

just had one more on the notes. You list out some of the GASB adjustments that are coming out in Note 15. And at a high level, anything we should be concerned about? Anything we need to be thinking about going for the next couple years that could affect the way our audit looks and the way we need to do business?

The only one that is somewhat significant that's a change is compensated absences, and that just would require the city to look at the compensated absences policy for sick leave and vacation. And if there is some time that is, say it's not paid out, but it can be used for like accumulated time off, that would then have to be accrued on the government-wide statements rather than just like currently right now, the city just books a liability for any vacation or sick leave or any comp time. that would get paid out upon retirement or termination. But this requires you to actually book a liability for any time that could be used in the next couple years. It wouldn't have to necessarily be paid out. So that kind of changes the scope of how compensated absences are recorded.

And therefore, I assume, change the way our liabilities overall net out and the way our fund balance nets out and kind of all of that.

And that would mainly just be like government-wide entry. So it shouldn't affect the individual funds too much.

Very good.

All

right, that's it. Well, that's a lot of the big report. Yes, it's a very big report. Yes. Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Mm hmm. Mm hmm.

Yep. So this is the second report that I was going to go over and that's our report. No, no. You're you're it's a good intro to the second report. So the second report is our report to the board. So it kind of states any significant audit matters, the main estimates. So the main estimates of depreciation expense and then, of course, the net pension liability, OPEB liability. We would disclose if there were any difficulties encountered during the audit. There were none. Any corrected and uncorrected misstatements, which we can go over as well. and any other matters. There was one past adjustment and it was immaterial. And it was just to record the effect of the CRSWC portion of the non-uniform plan. So we record that on the city's financial statements rather than breaking it out on CRSWC in the city because it's immaterial. But it is above a certain amount that we start have to tracking immaterial adjustments just to make sure in total and aggregate that they're not material. So that was the one. It was similar to last year as well. The communication of deficiencies and internal control and other comments to management. So this would disclose if there were any material weaknesses. We did not discover any. And then we did note some kind of like operating comments for management of where they could improve. And... They're, yeah, they're called deficiencies, but it's not a significant deficiency. It's just kind of a control deficiency. So that's important to note in case you heard those terms and think of deficiency as a significant, but it's On page eight, you have the deposit liabilities. So these are the amounts that the city receives. And in order to pay them back when they're, when, you know, that's appropriate, the city should be tracking these amounts so they know who they're owed to and then when the project's complete and the status of that so that they can appropriately be refunded or the city can remit them to revenue if that's what should occur. Um, so I know that the city is working on this. Um, I think it's a, it was a big undertaking because I think, you know, it's years and years of, um, information that maybe wasn't always there. Um, so the city is working. Um, pulled cash. So the city's pulled cash is with, uh, CRS WC. And so since CRSWC had a negative balance, it's kind of like the city is effectively loaning them money. So our recommendation would be that the city could consider establishing a separate bank account for CRSWC in order to avoid this situation from reoccurring or that we recommend that the city have some kind of controls to prevent the CRSWC from overspending its share. And then the final comment is on the bank reconciliations. So the bank reconciliation was not reconciled timely and the reconciliation had a difference of approximately 40,000 as of our audit field work date. And it was later discovered and corrected in March 2024. So we just recommend that the city continue to improve its bank reconciliation process to ensure timely and accurate reconciliations And after speaking with finance, they've instituted some new procedures and some extra reviews too to make sure that that gets completed timely and accurately.

Very good. Any other questions?

Yeah, I just want to follow up. I know that we've had a, at least in the past, some either short, we were short staffed or we had new staff. In your observations, Any particular concerns other than the ones that you cited about separation of duties or controls at all? Are we adequately staffed to have that separation of duties?

Yes.

Okay, thank you.

I wanted to ask, because I think we've talked about the CRSWC account issue before, and I somewhat suspect it's by design almost that it works this way, because we know it's not adequately funded in general. And so what I can't remember from when we talked about this before is what, if any, Like penalty or problem this poses for the city like we have like I don't believe we actually incur any like fees or it doesn't hurt our rating or like, are there any adverse consequences of this.

It's just that the cash is commingled with the city's cash. So if they had a massive loss, that's hitting our account because we bill that deficit basically the next year. So we look at what that deficit is and then we split that amount the next fiscal year to make up that difference. So we're basically floating that from year to year. The way to get around it would be to set up a separate account that CRSWC would basically have their their own account that sits there but you almost have to pre-fund it knowing that they're going to run a deficit so that you have something to draw from until you can get those those payments the following fiscal year to shore that back up and they don't have the type of balance that would allow them to really float that so historically we've just co-mingled it with the city's cash and we floated that that deficit

yeah and so just it doesn't actually like have an opportunity cost to us or cost us anything. It was a

large amount or we were shorter on cash than it could potentially cause an issue.

Okay.

So I would just add in terms of my observation on that, it would be, um, you better have a good relationship with your joint venture partner.

Absolutely. And if for

whatever reason you didn't, and they said, this is a big surprise to us, we're not going to pay, then we're left holding the bag. And so I don't think that's the circumstances at all, but that would be a potential downside and then the loss of cash. So you want to make sure that the operation is adequately capitalized. And so, you know, we'd end up paying either part of it one way or the other. It's just that we're paying the school district's portion as we go forward, it seems to me.

And I'll just add to that too. I think that the amount that we're carrying, everything is approved prior to the expenditure by both parties, I would assume. If there's any way that, if there's any way it could be a surprise and we should change this procedure right away. But because the expenditures all are approved by the joint board prior to the expenditure, hopefully there is that. I would just add it. I

mean, I've served a couple of times. Bridget's been there all the time. But yes, we have regular meetings and go through the financials regularly. There should be no surprise. We have a very detailed financial report every time. So you're right. As long as they get

along well, I agree with you on

that.

And we have a legal agreement in place that obligates them we wouldn't want to have to, like...

We do. And again, they're approving those expenditures along the way. So the only thing that really would put you in bad shape is if there was some big unforeseen capital expense that might come up and you try to figure out how to fund that. But I think if it was going to be some sort of impairment to our accounts, then we would have that discussion up front about how we would tackle that particular charge.

Thank you. Okay, great. Thank you. Other comments or questions from anyone? Bader.

This is very quick, and this may be more for Kevin and David, but your report talks about tax abatement. And it talks about tax abetement, and I think this is all related to the Centene Project, Chapter 100 and Chapter 5353. that in total the amount of city property taxes abated by these arrangements during the year ended September 30th, 2023 was approximately $305,000. I just don't recall, and I would like to know, are we going to see that same number in this current fiscal year? Because I know there was some question as to when the tax abatement stopped being in effect. You will. The tax

abatement will go off. It's January 1st of 25th. So we still will have one more year of that.

I assume probably approximately the same amount. Okay, thank you.

very good um great job i i want to just say um i always find the most it's all interesting but the most interesting stuff to me is always the very last few pages in like the appendix that show the history of our debt and our different you know property tax sales tax um all the all the historical information is really helpful thank you

thanks for having me here tonight

yeah you're welcome thank you so much okay excuse me all right well without further ado um i will open the public hearing and request proof of publication for number four forest ridge thank you for your patience yeah

Yes, this is a public hearing and subsequent resolution to consider granting a conditional use permit to Josephine Weil revocable trust owner of four forest Ridge place to allow for the construction of a 588 square foot accessory structure containing an accessory dwelling unit. The property has a zoning designation of R1, large lot single family dwelling district. The plan commission and architectural review board considered the applications and associated architectural insight plans for the project on April 15th, 2024, and recommended approval of the CUP and approved the architectural insight plans. An accessory dwelling unit or ADU is a type of accessory structure, either attached or detached, which provides complete independent living facilities for one or more persons and is located on the same site as the principal residence. The plan commission unanimously recommended approval of the CUP with the following conditions. First, that all conditions of chapter 405 article two, which is section 405.330 shall be adhered to. Secondly, the applicant shall record a deed restriction pursuant to item number three under criteria for review and submit proof of the required deed restriction to the city prior to the issuance of a building permit. Staff recommends that the Board of Aldermen conduct a public hearing and consider approving the resolution granting a conditional use permit for a 588 square foot detached ADU for 4 Forest Ridge Place.

Very good. The applicants are here. Is there anything you would like to say or come to address the board? It's not necessary, but if you'd like to. Oh,

okay. I

have a question.

Very good.

Thank you. Would anyone like to hear from the architect? OK, very good. Any questions for the applicant? Comments there? Yes, Mr. Gary Feder.

Thank you. Would anyone like to hear from the architect? OK, very good. Any questions for the applicant? Comments there? Yes, Mr. Fader.

Just one question. I'm perfectly fine with the application. I think it's sort of implicit here, but it looks like it's the applicant's plan to sell the property at Three Forest Ridge once the new house at number four is available? No,

sir.

They do not?

There is no present plan to sell number three. Who knows what the future might bring, but there is no plan. I don't

think it's necessary for the application. I was just curious what the plan was.

Let me clarify one thing. This is not new construction. This is a renovation of probably 100-year-old existing carriage house garage. There's a garage, I think a three-car garage on the first level. There is an apartment, if you will, on the second level. nothing's been done to it as far back as we can tell. And it's in connection with the construction of a new house on number four that you heard about that we thought it was time to fix up the carriage house.

Very good. Thank you very

much.

All right. Any discussion? all right then i will close the public hearing alvin mcandrew

i will move to approve resolution number 2024-06 granting a conditional use permit for four forest ridge place to allow for an accessory dwelling unit

second any discussion all those in favor

aye

opposed congratulations and again thank you for your patience And I am going to come see your garden. Thank you. All right. Moving on, and we're going to move on with our agenda, so there's no further action on your item. If you would like to stay, you're welcome, but no need. Yeah. Moving on to our consent agenda. First thing is... I would like to actually, not part of the consent agenda, but I would like to take this opportunity to welcome our newest member, Jeff Yorg. Welcome to the Board of Aldermen. Thank you. I'm still learning how to use the mic. I'm a little hesitant with your thank you.

It's the best I

got. We weren't able to witness your swearing in, so, but we're. Glad you are here. Also in the consent agenda is the appointment of our new mayor pro tempore, older woman, Bridget McAndrew. And so we have this for you. I guess I'm making this

right. Well, we have an approved date. Yeah, it's a little premature.

Are we actually voting? Yes. I mean, we have to approve it. I need a

motion in a

second. We'll just do that with all the consent agenda then. Okay. And then, sorry, I gave it to you prematurely. We may be taking it back. I don't know. And then, just as a measure to fill these spots for the EDAC and also Parks and Rec that have been vacated by IRA's departure, I am recommending that we go ahead and appoint Alderman Jeff Jeffery Yorg to those positions. We know that those groups need somebody pretty quickly, and we will be revisiting all this again in like a month or two. So we can, again, we can always make changes at that time. So I'd like to recommend that. And last but not least, St. Louis County Council for the University of Missouri Extension Service, you know, they require us to appoint a representative to sit on that board and Alderwoman Buse has been doing that generously and now has found that she can't do it further. And I don't know if you want to say anything about that, but go ahead.

second. We'll just do that with all the consent agenda then. Okay. And then, sorry, I gave it to you prematurely. We may be taking it back. I don't know. And then, just as a measure to fill these spots for the EDAC and also Parks and Rec that have been vacated by IRA's departure, I am recommending that we go ahead and appoint Alderman Jeff York to those positions. We know that those groups need somebody pretty quickly, and we will be revisiting all this again in like a month or two. So we can, again, we can always make changes at that time. So I'd like to recommend that. And last but not least, St. Louis County Council for the University of Missouri Extension Service, you know, they require us to appoint a representative to sit on that board and Alderwoman Buse has been doing that generously and now has found that she can't do it further. And I don't know if you want to say anything about that, but go ahead.

Yeah, I was excited to learn that this was even out there and it's an exciting program that the university outreach into the communities. And then when it came time to get the paperwork in after i'd gone to a few meetings and i read the conflict of interest it talked about not serving on a board served by the extensions committee which i could you know recuse myself and all that but especially when we talk about the orchard possibly i'm part of our property which you know the extensions might be a good uh partner for that i thought it was probably appropriate to give somebody else in the community the opportunity to be on that and serve with the extensions and so I step down, and I think that this appointment will be a really good voice on that committee.

Very good. So the recommendation is to appoint Melissa Pilatt to replace Alderman Buse on that board. And then the last thing in our consent agenda, of course, is always our minutes. So we could have a motion to approve the consent agenda. I will move to approve the consent agenda.

If we could make one clarification on that discussion,

by the way.

On the mayor pro tem, the city attorney had looked it up and it's actually an election of the Board of Aldermen rather than a mayoral appointment. So we just need to be clear that

the motion would be a motion to elect

to elect

do we need

to pull it out it has to be pulled out if it has to be amended

consent agenda do it separately yeah okay okay let's do that first then um let's go ahead and um have that motion to you want to make a motion to make yourself the awesome

i will move to approve myself as the new mayor pro tem

Very good second all right all those in favor. imposed hey congratulations. And then we can vote on the rest of the consent agenda so we'll have a motion for that.

i will move to approve the remaining items on the consent agenda second

all those in favor

all right

yeah

bro oh it's a welcome go on we're doing all kinds of spanish hi auto abuse hi auto woman patel Aye. Alderman Gary Feder?

bro oh it's a welcome go on we're doing all kinds of spanish hi auto abuse hi auto woman patel Aye. Alderman Fader?

Aye.

Alderman Rick Hummell?

Alderman Hummel?

Aye.

Aldeman Jeffery Yorg?

Aldeman York?

I got a question that may be out of order.

No, it's okay. All over the place. Since I

actually wasn't here for the minutes, can I abstain from that vote but approve everything else? Or is that going

to

muck up the works?

Single vote.

Okay, then aye. We're fine.

But you have an opportunity to read them, but yeah, you weren't here. But you might have been listening online. Yeah,

that's fair.

Mayor Harris. Aye. Okay. Now on the City Manager's report.

Okay, first item is a condominium plat. This is an ordinance approving a condominium plant at 6601 Clayton Road. Subject property comprises one multifamily structure with four units. On May 13th, 2024, the applicant submitted a revised plat to address outstanding staff comments. The revised plat is in compliance with the applicable codes, ordinances, and standards of Article III condominiums and condominium building conversions. Staff recommends that the Board of Aldermen approve the plat with the following conditions. First, that the applicant provide a mylar for the appropriate City of Clayton signatures after Board of Aldermens approval. And secondly, that the applicant shall file the plat with the St. Louis County Recorder of Deeds Office and submit proof of filing to the City within 45 days of Board of Alderments approval.

Okay, thank you. I will open the discussion. No questions from the audience. Any comments, questions up here? All right. Go ahead.

I'll introduce Bill number 7024, approving a condominium plat for 6601 Clayton Road to be read for the first time by title only. Second.

Any discussion? Mr. City Attorney.

Bill number 70, excuse me, bill number 7024, first reading, an ordinance providing for the approval of a plat for the 6601 Clayton Road condominiums, a condominium located in the city of Clayton, Missouri. Madam Mayor, if I may note that the members of the board have received a printed copy of a revised draft of the ordinance. in light of the new plat that was submitted, solving all the comments of staff. So this is introduced in the revised version.

Very good. All those in favor? Aye. The opposed? Alderman McAndrew.

I move that the Board give unanimous consent to consideration for adoption of Bill No. 7024 on the day of its introduction. Second.

those in favor aye opposed okay let the minutes reflect the board is given unanimous consent

introduce bill number 7024 approving condominium plat for 6601 clayton road to be read for the second time by title only second

any discussion hey mr city attorney

Bill number 7024, second reading and consideration for adoption. An ordinance providing for the approval of a flat for the 6601 Clayton Road condominium, a condominium located in the city of Clayton, Missouri.

Alderman McAndrew? Aye. Alderman Buse? Aye. Alderwoman Patel? Aye. Aldeman Gary Feder?

Alderman McAndrew? Aye. Alderman Buse? Aye. Alderwoman Patel? Aye. Aldeman Fader?

Aye.

Aldermen Rick Hummell? Aye. Aldemann Jeffery Yorg?

Aldermen Hummel? Aye. Aldemann York?

Aye.

Mayor Harris? Aye. Thank you.

Okay. Continuing on with Shell Park.

Right. In 2003, Shell Park Aquatic Center underwent a major renovation, which included replacing the HVAC system and the guard office's first aid room and concession stand. The system is now over 20 years old and has required more frequent and increasingly costly repairs over the past five years. To avoid excessive maintenance costs, bid documents for HVAC replacement at Shaw Park Aquatic Center were issued on January 11th, 2024. Scope of work includes the replacement of the current HVAC system with units of similar capacity and function while providing improved efficiency. Unfortunately, we did not receive any responsive bids for that request. City staff then contacted four contractors to request quotes. And after repeated requests, the city has received one proposal for this work, which includes replacement of all HVAC units as originally requested. Staff recommends awarding the contract to Tri-State Mechanical Services as they are the low bid and perform the work quickly and have highly rated references. The whole project is expected to take approximately four to five weeks, and the concession stand unit shall be completed prior to Shaw Park Aquatic Center opening for the 2024 season on May 25th. Work on other units can continue while the facility is open for the season. Funding for the project has been included in the city's capital budget for fiscal year 24 in the amount of $75,000. The total cost of the project will be $42,416.50, We also recommend inclusion of a 5% contingency of $2,100 to be used to cover any unexpected expenditures. Staff recommends that the Board of Aldermen approve the ordinance authorizing a contract with Tri-State Mechanical Services Incorporated in the amount of $42,416.50 plus a $2,100 contingency to replace the HVAC system at Shaw Park Aquatic Center.

Very good. Thank you. Any discussion? Questions?

I mean, I'm glad, Tony, sorry to make you walk up here. I mean, I am glad we were able to get a bid. bad that it took us to actually we had to like solicit but it sounds like they do have references so you must have

yes they do have references we check those we've also used them for other projects in the past and I can report that they have not tried to oversell us probably about four years ago we had a problem with our walk-in freezer at Shaw Park Aquatic Center we thought we needed a whole new freezer and they said oh no we could sell you a whole new freezer if you want but it just needs a minor repair so we have not had the experience of having them try to oversell us for anything. And then we did also check their references and they were quite good.

And then it's so even though it says four to five weeks, and even though it's supposed we're supposed to open the pool in like a week and a half, they'll just like work on it. They can

work on it. Yeah, why the facilities open, especially at some of the smaller units, they are going to try to fast track that the unit for the concession stand because that's really the the unit that's most in need. And they can work on the other units, you know, earlier in the morning, like seven o'clock, eight o'clock in the morning when it's not really busy, they're not going to work on Saturday or Sunday, but they should be able to replace those one unit at a time. Thanks. Good question.

And I'm curious, why was it hard for us? Is there something about the nature of the work or is it the nature of the industry?

I think it's the nature of the we just, yeah, we've had a rough time this spring trying to get bids for some of our projects. So, yeah. And we had actually reached out to this company and two other companies to let them know that we had put the project out to bid as well. And I don't have an answer for why they did not bid on it when we actually posted the bid. And then the three other companies actually never replied to any of our requests for bids after

that.

I do think there's a lot of work going on right now.

I have one question, Toni. The staff report specifically mentions the guard office's first aid room and concession stand. And my impression is that the locker rooms are in between those aspects of the facility. So are they not? Heated or cool? Or they're

ventilated? They only have ventilation. They are not air conditioned. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. You're welcome.

I just have one. The memo mentions avoiding frequent increasing cost repairs and excessive maintenance costs. Is there some sense of what it cost us last year in

terms of

maintenance? I'm just trying to put it in perspective. Sure.

we've been spending five to ten thousand a year for the last i would say three to four three to five years to get them up and running and functioning functioning correctly

it's kind of just been all of them just periodic yes it'll be

one unit one year well yeah and and sometimes there's the same like i said the concession stand is really the unit that needs the most attention and that has required the most frequent maintenance

you're welcome Very good. Thanks. I think that'll do it. Okay. Alderman McAndrew.

I'll introduce bill number 7025, approving a contract with Tri-State Mechanical Services, Inc., for the Shaw Park Aquatic Center HVAC project to be read for the first time by title only. Second. Any discussion?

To the attorney. Okay.

Bill number 7025, first reading. An ordinance approving a contract with Tri-State Mechanical Services Incorporated for HVAC replacement at Shaw Park Aquatic Center.

All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed?

I'll move that the board give unanimous consent to consideration for adoption of bill number 7025 on the day of its introduction. Second.

All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Okay, let the minutes reflect. The board is given unanimous consent.

I'll introduce bill number 7025, approving a contract with Tri-State Mechanical Services Inc. for the Shaw Park Aquatic Center HVAC project to be read for the second time by title only. Second.

Any discussion? Mr. City Attorney.

Bill number 7025, second reading and consideration for adoption. An ordinance approving a contract with Tri-State Mechanical Services Incorporated for HVAC replacement at Shaw Park Aquatic Center.

Alderwoman McAndrew? Aye. Alderwoman Patel? Aye. Alderman Gary Feder?

Alderwoman McAndrew? Aye. Alderwoman Patel? Aye. Alderman Fader?

Aye.

Aldermen Rick Hummell?

Aldermen Hummel?

Aye.

Aldeman Jeffery Yorg?

Aldeman York?

Aye.

Mayor

Harris? Aye. Thank you. Okay, last thing here. The Oak Knoll Park Foundation Repair.

Right, the city of Clayton entered into a lease agreement with Clayton Early Childhood Center or CECC for the property at number one Oak Knoll Park effective January 1st, 2023 for a term of 10 years plus an option period for an additional 10 years. To address water intrusion issues that lease agreements specified that the city is required to make repairs to the foundation and the area of the CECC's playground prior to January 1st, 2025. The scope of work includes repairs to the north and west elevations of the building below grade, as well as repairs to the south elevation of the building around the playground. This includes applying a sealer to the foundation below grade and repairing any loose mortar so that waterproofing material can be applied to a sound wall. after two unsuccessful attempts to bid the project the city staff contacted three contractors to request quotes for the work the city received two proposals the results of which were detailed in the packet staff recommend awarding a contract to concrete strategies llc as they are the low bid and have a plan for the work that includes minimal disturbance to cec's playground uh surface uh surface The full project is expected to take approximately eight weeks and is expected to be completed prior to the end of summer. Funding for the project is included in the city's capital budget for fiscal year 24 in the amount of $175,000. The total cost of the project will be $149,506. It is also recommended that we include a 10% contingency of $15,000 to be used to cover any unknown expenditures. Staff recommends that the Board of Aldermen approve the ordinance authorizing a contract with Concrete Strategies LLC in the amount of $149,506 plus a $15,000 contingency for the number one Oak Knoll Park Foundation repair project.

Okay, thank you. I'll open the discussion. Any comments from the audience or online? Any questions up here?

I've got a question.

Oh, I'm sorry. Tony's coming up.

I'm just wondering, this is another substantial expense that we're incurring at Oak Knoll. Do we anticipate any more expenditures at Oak Knolls over the next year?

Not the next year. I would say within the next 10 years, we're going to have to replace the windows there as well too.

All buildings or both buildings or just one?

No, just number one.

Oh. Yeah. Any idea? I assume that's more than $100,000. It's

probably going to be closer to $200,000. At least our initial estimation would be unless there's another increasing... What's the word? I can't think of the word. Inflation, that's it. Unless inflation gets out of hand again.

And was that part of the lease agreement to replace the windows too, or is that something we would just do? No. The roof and the waterproofing. We could decide whether or not we wanted to replace the windows. That's correct.

Yes. I have a question as well. The foundation work, as I understand it, we were hoping... the entire foundation is going to need the same work, correct?

We were considering that when we first started this project and started meeting with contractors. We do believe that this should resolve the issues and not having to do the entire foundation. I think we need to do this first and see. At

this time. Correct. Getting the long-term costs. And what I expressed concern that this is deferred maintenance. We're having trouble getting bids, and so we're addressing an immediate problem. But am I correct that we anticipate the entire foundation? We're just not sure, to be honest with you.

I think we need to try this first. The Concrete Strategies LLC did provide, in our opinion, a little bit more of a substantial contract for the different areas, the three sides of the foundation that they wanted to address, again, with the minimal disruption to the playground servicing. our staff met quite extensively with both contractors to see what they would recommend, how to stop any water intrusion. So we feel comfortable that this, this is a good, I don't want to say place to start. We feel comfortable that this is a solid solution right now

or right now.

Correct. I mean, I guess we just need to see if it works. We really, there has not been any foundation work done there in quite some time. So I think we need to see, we're comfortable with this, with his recommendations.

Okay, and so the amount that was originally budgeted was simply for this area of it. Correct. It wasn't for the entirety.

Correct.

The idea is just to stop the water.

Correct, yes, because it's a licensing issue for the child care center, so yes. But we are confident that what they're going to do should work.

Is the project – let's say it doesn't work.

Will

they have to rip all that out to do the full wall, or can they just build on what they've done for the next?

I'm trying to think of

incremental cost changes.

Sure. They could build on what they're doing for the next. When we first started talking about this project, we thought it was going to be the entire – facility was going to have to require a whole new French drain system. We don't think the contractors, neither one of them expressed that that's what they thought they needed right now. So, we have to go with their recommendations, I guess, because they're the expert. But that's why the whole new French drain system was going to be significantly more expensive. The original contractor, when we first started talking about this, also wanted to remove all of the playgrounds surfacing in the child care center's playground. Not the Oak Knoll playground that the city owns, the one that they have that's fenced off. So then the childcare center would have had to pay for that surfacing to replace that. So this does disturb, he's only considering taking out like a 12 to 18 inch strip of that surfacing. So again, that was going to be much more invasive and that's why it was going to be a much more costly as well.

It sounds like you've come to a good solution.

We think we have, I think we really need to see if that works. I mean, he, We do feel like it's the better of the two options that we had.

Good.

I just have one more question. It's a similar question we could have asked earlier. When you don't get a bid, how do you settle on the folks you reach out to? Is there a list you all keep? Yes.

There's a list we keep of perhaps vendors we have worked with before, vendors that we've gotten other positive recommendations for. Sometimes we don't know anything about them and if they do waterproofing, which was the case this time, if they do waterproof work, we reach out to them and try to get them And this project in particular, we wanted them to visit the site, look everything over, and then give us a bid. And for some reason, neither one of these companies chose to bid when it was open, I guess eligible for bid. I know in particular Superior Waterproofing and Restoration, they've done other work for the city. They forgot. So they forgot to bid it. I think this one was bid out two times. So yeah. Yeah. Which, again, I think kind of goes back to they have a lot of work right now. Some of these companies do. So it's unfortunate, though.

Tony, do you reach out to other municipalities?

Yes. Yeah, we'll ask them who they use and, you know, obviously. Like

Brentwood.

Correct, yes. Yes.

Well, I imagine just like a lot of construction and other firms, they have a hard time getting people. Yes. And that can really impact it. Correct. Okay, very good. Thank you. Is that it for discussion, everyone? Okay. Alderwoman McAndrew.

I'll introduce Bill No. 7026, approving a contract with Concrete Strategies LLC for the No. 1 Oak Knoll Park Foundation Repair Project to be read for the first time by title only. Second.

Any discussion? Mr. City Attorney.

Bill number 7026, first reading. An ordinance approving a contract with Concrete Strategies LLC for the number one Oak Knoll Park Foundation repair project.

Okay. Yes. All those in favor?

Aye. Any opposed?

Aye.

I'll move that the board gives unanimous consent to consideration for adoption of bill number 7026 on the day of its introduction. Second.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? Okay, let the minutes reflect the board has given unanimous consent.

I'll introduce bill number 7026, approving a contract with Concrete Strategies LLC for the number one Oak Knoll Park Foundation repair project to be read for the second time by title only. Second.

Discussion? Mr. City Attorney.

Bill number 7026, second reading and consideration for adoption. An ordinance approving a contract with Concrete Strategies LLC for the number one Oak Dole Park Foundation repair project.

Alderman McAndrew? Aye. Alderman Buse? Aye. Alderwoman Patel? Aye. Aldermen Gary Feder?

Alderman McAndrew? Aye. Alderman Buse? Aye. Alderwoman Patel? Aye. Aldermen Fader?

Aye.

Aldeman Rick Hummell?

Aldeman Hummel?

Aye.

Aldemann Jeffery Yorg?

Aldemann York?

Aye.

mayor harris aye thank you

hey great all right unless there's any other business nope okay um we can do a little round table we can start with our senior elder woman

the last time we were here um we've had a number of crswc meetings um i guess the main thing we're talking about is increasing our fees next year so we had a big discussion at the finance meeting and then had a big discussion of the main crswc meeting i think we've settled on an amount that will increase kind of increase across the board which i think will kind of cover inflation and also increase an amount that you know i think everybody felt good about so um as everybody knows there'll be a joint meeting between ourselves and the school board um where we'll approve the budget um it's usually in september right september oh um yeah but that's those are really fruitful discussions and tony um Did a great job. Tony and her staff did a great job of kind of giving us different options to look at. So, yeah, they did a great job just kind of facilitating the discussion and providing a lot of data for us to look at. in addition to the CRSWC meeting, we had a plan commission meeting where we just talked about a house on university. And Gary and I also had another very, very well-attended word coffee on Saturday. Talked about a lot of different things, but nothing crazy that stood out.

Thank you very much. Alderman Buse, anything?

Yes. There was a parks and rec meeting, and I think some of the things that remembrance park is again delayed is another surprise with the utility line and at&t line this time. So waiting on that pool better news pool opens the 25th, which is exciting and. We also had the discussion about the difficulty in the bids for the HVAC systems, but that they were able, and Tony was able to get that taken care of. In the parks are some of the shelters and the outhouses, what we call them, the toilets, everything have been fixed up, everything.

Comfort stations.

Yes.

as i know from my time on parks

so some work has been done there so that's all good flash pads um being painted and we'll be ready and um so yeah so the parks parks are in good shape then the shelters that's the shelters have been updated and there's electronic doors on the comfort facilities um there was also we also had a um an IRF meeting on the pensions. And similar to you heard with the audit, there's a change in the calendar and the counting of that. Markets are strong. Most of our funds are beating the benchmarks by just enough. So everything is good. Economy is strong. And so we look good there. The other meeting I went to, I think was that just last night, was was our neighborhood Cloud Rock Park annual meeting and sat behind Mr. Harris. But one of the comments that came up that I thought about us is that there's a lot of concern with wanting to replace the neighborhood signs, the maps of the neighborhoods and things like that. So that's something that I think will be coming, a request of public works and seeing where we are on that. And it may be a time to start some of our bilingual efforts with signs. I don't know. That's all I got.

Thanks. I have a couple things I want to share. One is that I know someone who loves birds and spends a lot of time looking at birds and collecting them. and is active with the St. Louis Audubon. And I wanted to share with everyone here that the Audubon Society has chosen the city of Clayton this year for their BirdSafe program. And what that is, is a program where they have volunteers who go around like a handful, a few days a week early in the morning. They walk around the perimeter of buildings that are potential risks for bird strikes and observe whether there are stunned or dead birds that have been impacted by that. So I thought it was pretty cool that they're doing it in Clayton. They did it in downtown a few years. Similar programs have happened like on WashU's campus, the Danbury campus. But one of the reasons they talked about choosing the city of Clayton is because many of our buildings have local ownership, and they believe that the building owners and the city itself are likely to be receptive to any recommendations that they might make. So I thought that was nice. Anecdotally, they're not finding a ton of birds, but that's just based on very limited anecdotal evidence. Matt's

team is getting there first. So

I think it's cool. And then I wanted to also share that I'm going to be going to a meeting in Columbia of an organization called Local Progress, like the Missouri that's inviting local municipal leaders together. in Missouri to gather to talk about collaborative governance and options for combating preemption. So if anyone is interested in that, I'd be happy to share more about it and invite you to join, see what we can do. collaboratively. And I would like to commend you, Mayor, for the work that you have done to grow and improve the MIAC program. I think the presentations tonight were excellent, really interesting. And even more than that, I know, I think it was new this year to have them like follow a committee. And that felt like a really cool way for them to get a little more connected hands on experience so I think I don't know if that was your idea or someone else's but it was excellent. Yeah. So thank you for doing that. I know, I mean, Charlie and Addie and Bridget shared what they did with sustainability, but they were really like impressive active members of that committee and the stuff they did at the high school and the materials they put together that the city I think has been able to use also just really phenomenal. So I think that's great. Thank you for your work on that. I wanted to talk, I don't think we've met since we had, I don't I think we've done a roundtable since the last sustainability meeting. And the other thing I wanted to highlight from that is that committee's use of interns. So I'm sure Matt can talk more about it. And I believe it requires a fairly active involvement by staff and, or the committee chair to like set that up, get it in place and make it work. But it's been really, I believe transformative in terms of our ability to like make progress and complete activities. And yeah, things that we have wanted to do. Um, so that's awesome. Deb Grossman and Matt are, have made that possible. I believe, um, they are celebrating that we are now soul smart silver certified. Um, so we were already bronze. That one was like kind of easy to get based on what we had already done and silver required a few extra things that the city completed. So, um, Thanks to our staff for getting that done and prioritizing it. And they're also requesting a grant to establish funding to work on Green Dining Alliance stuff, which I think would be awesome. I would love to see us make progress on that. um last thing i'll share is that we've had a lot of time spent with our neighborhoods talking about the city's proposal to create overlays on the big bend concordia campus and the south 40 and i would love to share with the board that I am like everything that I know and believe leads me to be very supportive of the overlay process. And I really appreciate the extensive work that staff has put into it. And, and the many attempts to get public feedback to incorporate into it. I continue to be concerned about this, the resident perception that we are giving something away by going to it versus a conditional use permit. And it doesn't feel like an isolated thing perspective like there are many residents of like various demographics and like general personalities even and stuff who have who have continued to say to me that they believe we are giving something away by a bit by switching to the overlays versus a conditional use permit I don't see that. And so I'm like really struggling to like interrogate, like why does this continue to come up? I don't see it at all really. And so I just would encourage us to like continue to try to like wrestle with that and think about like the questions we can ask and the proposals we can make that ensure that we are taking that concern seriously, because I don't think it's isolated. And I want people to feel heard about it. And I want to make sure that we are actually addressing it. So thank you.

I heard those concerns too. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah. Okay, good. We will work on that. Great. That's what we need special PowerPoint. Yeah,

I think it will be instructed once washu has their meetings.

That would

help. Yeah, we start hearing because

there's, it's there's a lot of ambiguity right now on that end. And so that's just creating, you know, further concerns. alderman Gary Feder

there's, it's there's a lot of ambiguity right now on that end. And so that's just creating, you know, further concerns. alderman fader

I just want to comment. I appreciate the fact that David and June, I think, have continued to work on the handout that deals with our various committees. There's an expanded version of it, which I think helps. I still find it A little bit hard to decipher, but I'll work on it. But anyway, we're certainly moving in the right direction. I wanted to commend the mayor for something else, which is her work on behalf of the County Municipal League, since I will not be at the next meeting because it's the night of Clayton High School graduation. I think the mayor will make her last appearance there, but I did attend the meeting on April 25th, which she ran it, which was at the Armstrong Teasdale offices dealing with the problem of the unhoused, particularly the speaker was from the city of St. Louis. It turns out as a matter of fact that he went to Clayton high school. I found out his father was a art teacher at the high school. Anyway, he gave a very nice presentation again, not very positive in terms of easy solutions. It's obviously a very difficult problem, but the more we find out about it, the easier it is, I think, at some point to tell the community what we've learned and what we're doing about it. I did, by the way, attend one of the Wash U Concordia smaller meetings. My daughter lives on Alamo, and so I thought I would go to the DeMond meeting I thought David and Anna and Mal did an excellent job. I agree with the concern. I hear that as well in Ward 3. I hear it from people in Ward 1. But I think that's probably a topic for a larger discussion and probably not tonight. I've been going to a series of programs put on by the business journal, uh, about regional issues. The most recent one was essentially how we're not doing a great job marketing the St. Louis region. Um, it sort of boiled down to one of the speakers saying we need to stop blanking on ourselves and you can fit in the profanity. But his, his point was we're too negative. We don't promote enough about our own community. Um, Those programs tend to still be city oriented and not always a lot about the county, but they're instructive. And there's another one later in the month about sort of the economic outlook for the region. As Bridget mentioned, we seem to have 15 people who come every Saturday, every time we do this at Starbucks from board three. And they're good sessions. We always get some of the repeat customers, but we always get new people. And we also get Alderman Berger, ex-Alderman Berger and Steve Lichtenfeld always attend our meetings. So it makes it interesting. Let's see if I had anything else. I attended the Uniform Pension Board meeting yesterday. Sounds like generally things are going well. I did want to comment that I went to the Washington University Law School commencement exercises yesterday because it was my class's 50th anniversary, 50th reunion from law school. But my point was it was not only well attended, but it was without incident. And I think that was true of the undergraduate effort as well. And I think kudos to, I know David worked on it, obviously Chief Smith and a lot of the other professors police departments, uh, city, county, et cetera. And so I think that was part of the reason that those, uh, those things went off well yesterday. So appreciate that effort. Uh, I attended the, um, um, the Open Streets program on Sunday at around 1130. I thought it looked like a really neat program with a lot of neat stuff. Unfortunately, I didn't see many people there. And so I guess we have to evaluate perhaps why that was. But anyway, it looked like a neat effort and a lot of people from the staff participated. And somehow it still didn't, from what I heard, attract a lot of people. So I guess we need to think about that. Thank you.

I don't have a lot of unique things, so I'll just add on some of the things we've already addressed. And so regarding the CRSWC, Bridget mentioned the fee increase. And so at least from my perspective, the last time we met jointly with the school board, the school board members seem to be, in my opinion, very, very focused on financials, financial performance and how to manage mitigate the operating shortfalls. And so I just want to give credit to the staff that's been working very hard on implementing a marketing program that is seeing some success in terms of membership growth, that the board continues to encourage that marketing focus. And so the The increase that we did discuss is a combination of trying to address cost recovery, but also not to price ourselves out of the market so that there is a lot of competition from a variety of other centers. And so I thought we struck what I thought was a very important good strategy overall. So just a comment on that. The non-uniform pension fund had its meeting and similarly, this was primarily a focus on the economic and market assessment. Our overall funding continues to be consistent and strong. Regarding the overlay neighborhood meetings, we've had several of those And I guess my observation too, I agree with Becky's observations. And what I would add to that is that as I listened to the various presenters of the Mayor's Youth Advisory Council, almost without exception, every one of them talked about how generally unaware they were and how we need to do a better job of communicating. And so I've learned through life, you can never communicate enough, no matter how good you are at it. And so the thing that's been apparent to me in these meetings is that no matter how hard and how much David and Ana modify their presentations, we have to remember that our residents don't have that level of familiarity. And so no matter how basic we might think it is, we need to treat it, I think, very basically. And so just simple things like understanding what the alternative would be if we didn't try to address this proactively. I don't think they understand that. Understanding what the overall role is. So positively, there are people that get it, thankfully, and they are complimentary about it. Thanking the city and the staff and for engaging in this process on the front end, but it takes a lot of repetition and unfortunately we don't have. We get new people that show up at this from time to time that's good we're getting lots of public engagement. it's frustrating that we have to reinvent the wheel each time. So anyway, that's just a recurring theme. And so I just think we've got more to do there. And I hope David, that you'll make a comment a little bit about just in terms of what we'd expect from a calendar standpoint about this process as we go forward, because, and then kind of tie it all in, in terms of what that will be or how it'll affect us as a board.

My understanding is Washington University will be sending out those invitations hopefully tomorrow morning. They were saying this afternoon or tomorrow to get meetings set up as soon as next week. So we've got folds already on calendars for things, and they just need to get those letters out to the neighborhoods so that people can see that. So that's the next step because we're interested in hearing what WashU has to say as well. Concordia will be at those meetings, but I know folks are showing up to hear what Wash U has to say. So we're going to basically play the role Wash U played at our meetings. So we're gonna sit in the back and listen to what they had to say. There have been a lot of questions that have come up about their intentions with the font bond campus. Questions about pilots questions about their intentions on these particular sites. So those are all things they're going to have to address that, you know, we're really unwilling to to talk about because it's it's not our long term plan so That's going to be, I think, pretty informative for us. I also think there's going to be some degree hopefully of deal making at those meetings. between the residents and the university over the various things that we've talked about so you know sound limits, when can you actually turn lights off, can we cut that shorter. Can you cut down the number of people that will be attending events those types of things I think there's going to be a lot of conversation like that so that's going to be interesting to see. We have adjustments that we want to make to that overlay, and it doesn't actually take a lot of time to go in and make those changes. That's something Ana and I could come up with in a couple of hours and be done with the final draft. I agree that we need to find a way to simplify the message. We're already working on a table that kind of compares what they could do right now under a CUP versus what the overlay would do. When you stack those up side by side, you start to see that the overlay is much more restrictive. The city attorney just made a great point a little while ago about administrative versus legislative decisions and the fact that a conditional use permit, you're applying laws that are already on the books where if you're doing an overlay, you're actually legislating you know, the rules under which they'll operate. And you have a lot more authority that way. So finding a way to package that message as well with that table, I think will help to simplify the conversation or at least that portion of it that relates to CUP versus overlay and really driving home the point that the overlay is the city preempting all this. It's the city taking action. We're not responding to an application request from WashU to do this, we recognize that it's coming and we want to control what happens better than we can currently. And so it's continuing to work on that message for residents, but the changes and the adjustments themselves, it's not going to be difficult to put that together. So timeline, after observing the meetings with WashU, I'm sure we'll have another meeting with them. We've got a couple of residents that of represent other folks in their neighborhoods that have been in close contact with us i'm sure we'll have a few more conversations with them as well but we're still tracking towards early summer to get something in front of the plan commission and and have some formal overlays ready to be addressed Right.

And then we were, um, I know that there have been neighbors that have asked for special meetings. And so we just got another neighborhood association that asked to meet with Becky and I, and hopefully next week. And so we, they haven't told us what in particular, other than they're more worried about the South 40, um, than they are about the big bend overlay.

And we've accommodated those along the way as well. So as people have reached out to have separate meetings, we've, we've done that and, uh, we'll continue to, uh, Again, try to simplify the message it's not an intuitive thing to explain an overlay district and all of those parameters and what we're trying to achieve and it's. it's complicated takes us almost an hour just to get through what it is we're trying to accomplish in finding a way to shorten that up so that people understand it easily is difficult.

We had you know I had a resident email me I think it was mark bait he emailed me why don't you do a before and after. and i emailed you that so i'm glad to see that you guys are doing that that that i think if you can do here's now here's after the benefits of that are so clear when you put it side by side and that was a good idea on your one of your constituents parts okay uh alderman yorg

i don't have a lot as you probably can imagine but so there's a couple things that one um Thank you all for the warm welcome. And I've chatted with many of you and I will probably chat with all of you sooner than later. So I appreciate kind of the willingness and help kind of as we've done that, because I'm sure I will have more questions as I get my feet wet and I try to kind of understand all the issues that you all have talked about before me that I need to come up to speed on, on relatively fast order. So preemptively thank you for that. And then also thank you for the stuff before the only, the only thing I've got is I attended the sandwich municipal league, newly elected official dinner luncheon, which was, which was nice both to be able to meet some, some of the other elected officials in town, but also just get like the crash course on some of the basic stuff that you all, you know, just, kind of know in the practice that i wouldn't have known so it's kind of nice to have gone through that to at least have some of that base level so that was good and then as as we all voted on i look forward to reporting back moving forward on the on the two committees over the next couple weeks and whatnot so

Very good. He also got sworn in outside of a meeting, so you better tell us all that you really

got sworn

in. I mentioned it earlier.

June was nice enough to accommodate a May Day swearing-in ceremony, so I appreciate that as well. Otherwise, Ira, I told him he'd have to show back up tonight until I was able to be sworn in, so he was happy I got sworn in

I don't know. He stopped me on White Island when I was driving here. I figured he was there to stop my car and then your car heading this direction. Either

that or he was just on his way here because it was reflective at that point,

yeah. Oh, gosh. Okay. Well, I don't have a ton, so... This morning, it's just top of mind. I attended the police prayer breakfast put on by the, is it the Police Officers Association? Police Chiefs Association, sorry, of which our esteemed chief is the treasurer, I saw. Uh, but it was as always very inspiring. Um, luckily over the past year, there have been no, uh, fallen officers in our area. So that, that was good news, but, um, a couple of speakers that were very inspiring as well. And it's just a great event. And, um, and in connection with that, I know that you all probably already know this, that this is police week. Um, We started that on Sunday, correct? And today, I'm going to try to alert you guys ahead of time next time. But every year, we've had the privilege of hearing from Patty Bratcher playing her bagpipes at our own station. and so I went to that at noon today, and that is always fun. People know me. They know I love bagpipe music, so it was very fun. She's very kind to come and do that for us because I know she's a dispatcher and works night shifts. Is that correct? So police week, tell your friends, appreciate our officers. I attended Open Streets, and it was a... Profound effort by our staff, and thank you guys for that. Everybody was there with their booths and stuff, so we have to think about that again. The IRF meeting was good. All the indicators are great. Um, there is, um, a, a, uh, board of education breakfast tomorrow, which I'm sure I'll see most of you at. And that was really great of them to, to, uh, initiate that and host it. Uh, and, um, we talked about the Wash U meetings. Um, the other thing I can alert you to is that, uh, at our last Muni league board meeting, the County presented, they are now doing their own comprehensive plan. Um, it's kind of a mega plan and so i'll try to alert you when there's chances for you to hear about it um i know there's information on the county's website but um it's it's going to be a big hairy deal and we'll see how we might interrelate with that with our own um and there is the muni league installation dinner on the 23rd unfortunately high school graduation night but i will be going out as the president and the mayor florissant will be coming in I will continue to attend, though, after that. So it'll be a nice event. If you can make it, Jody Sowell from the Missouri History Museum is going to speak. He is a fantastic speaker, very inspiring, and he'll give his spiel on... This is St. Louis. I don't think we know each other. It's a really great presentation. So any other comments,

questions? I was going to congratulate Andrea on her wonderful award that she got. Congratulations. I didn't realize it had been announced. I wasn't saying anything.

So

OK, good.

yeah great all right um yeah thank you for all of your thank you very much for all of your hard work yeah well deserved any others any other comments questions okay we'll take a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn second all in favor

all right

hey we're done i'm gonna ask the two young ladies that are here what are you doing here