September 13, 2022 — Meeting Transcript

Very good. All right. Well, welcome to our September 13th meeting of the Board of Aldermen of Clayton. And I think we will start with the roll call. Ms. City Clerk.

Alderman Lynch. Here. Alderman Berkowitz.

Here.

Alderwoman McAndrew.

Here.

Alderawoman Buse.

Here.

Alderna woman Patel. Here. Aldermen Gary Feder.

Alderna woman Patel. Here. Aldermen Fader.

Here.

Mayor Harris? Here. City Manager David Gipson?

Mayor Harris? Here. City Manager Gibson?

Here.

City Attorney O'Keefe?

Here.

Thank you.

Very good. And now we'd like to get our minutes from August 23rd approved. Could I have a motion?

I will approve. I will move, make a motion to approve the minutes on August 23rd.

Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? All right. Now is the time on our agenda for public requests and petitions. I don't see anybody here other than our staff, et cetera. Gentleman in the way back, are you? Oh, Ben Paramba, okay. Well, do you have something for public requests and Petitions for us? Okay. And is there anybody online? Okay, very good. So we'll move on from that. All right, so the first thing on our agenda is exciting news. A CLIA presentation for our police force.

All right, good evening and thank you for having us here tonight. So the Clayton Police Department is accredited through the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, otherwise known as CALEA. Our initial accreditation occurred on July 29th in the year 2000. So we've been an accredited agency for 22 years. We were the second municipal agency in the state of Missouri to be accredited. And today there are 42 law enforcement agencies accredited in Missouri with nine more going through the initial process. Providing proof of compliance to CALEA standards is an ongoing effort, but every three years, assessors from CALEA visit our agency to interview our staff and members of the community to inspect our processes and ensure we are meeting their standards. This past April, we had our on-site assessment, which was actually completed virtually due to COVID-19. Based on the report from the assessors, we were recommended for accreditation for the eighth time. Our accreditation manager, Lieutenant Jack Gable, who's here with us as well. And I attended the CLIA conference in Chicago in July of this year to participate in a review hearing. and to finalize our accreditation. So today we're honored to have Kalia Commissioner with us tonight to present us with our certificate of accreditation and to talk about the benefits of accreditation. Dr. Joseph Schaefer is a professor of criminology and criminal justice and associate dean of research in the College of Public Health and Social Justice at St. Louis University. Dr. Schaefer's research focuses on policing, organizational change, leadership, citizen perceptions of police and future research in policing. So Dr. Schaffer, would you mind coming up? Thank you.

Good evening.

Welcome.

Mayor Harris, Mr. David Gipson, Board of Aldermen members, Clayton residents and guests. Again, my name is Joe Schaefer from St. Louis University and the Commission on Accreditation of Law Enforcement Agencies. On behalf of CALEA Commission Chair Chief Marcus Brown and Executive Director Mr. Craig Hartley, CALEA is honored to be here recognizing the tremendous effort and commitment put forth by Chief Smith and the Clayton Police Department. To provide a little background, CALEA was created in 1979 when the founding organizations, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the National Association of Black Law Enforcement Executives, the National Sheriff's Association and the Police Executive Research Forum recognized a need within the law enforcement community to develop a set of professional standards to enhance the delivery of police services to citizens throughout the community they serve. Since its inception, CALEA has accredited agencies under standards developed by public safety practitioners and leaders from across the country. The standards are reviewed continuously to ensure each is current and remains relevant. These standards cover a wide range of administrative, operational, and logistical issues and serve as a modern management model that provides the framework for recognizing professional excellence within public safety. The goals of CALEA are to strengthen crime prevention and control capabilities, to formalize essential management procedures, to establish fair and non-discriminatory personnel practices, to improve service delivery, to solidify interagency cooperation and coordination, and to increase community and staff confidence in the agency. In a time when public safety is being scrutinized, Clayton community leaders and citizens should take comfort in the fact that its police department has voluntarily committed to operate at the highest level and under a set of more than 450 rigorous standards. Importantly, the Clayton Police Department connected their recent review process with the six main pillars of the 21st century policing recommendations issued by the White House in 2015. The agency has gone above and beyond to ensure it is meeting the highest professional standards and is connecting its operations with the best contemporary practices in policing. Based on the goals and mission statement of Kalia, I can think of no better time or place to present this accreditation certificate to the agency than at a public meeting where all can share and recognize the hard work this agency has committed in remaining accredited. The certificate itself is a simple matted picture within a frame. It has a much broader symbolic meaning. It The certificate clearly represents the agency's efforts to achieve accredited status, thereby demonstrating the willingness to change in order to effectively address contemporary public safety concerns. It represents a commitment to doing the right thing and doing it the right way. Lastly, it represents an ongoing dedication to ensuring the agency's resources are appropriately developed, effectively deployed and constantly managed all in the name of a safer community for workers, visitors and customers. At the commission meeting held on July 23rd, 2022 in Chicago, Illinois, CALEA commissioners reviewed the assessor's report, concurred with the findings and unanimously approved the reaccreditation of the Clayton Police Department. This is the eighth time your police department has been granted accreditation status by CALEA. And as the chief indicated, Clayton is one of the first agencies in Missouri to achieve this accomplishment. If it's okay with you Madam Mayor and with the board at this time, I'd like to invite the Chief Executive Officer of the Clayton Police Department, Chief Mark Smith, his accreditation staff, Lieutenant Abel, and other staff members to present this certificate for CALEA Advanced Accreditation. Thank you sir. Congratulations on the job well done.

Mayor Harris, Mr. Gibson, Board of Aldermen members, Clayton residents and guests. Again, my name is Joe Schaefer from St. Louis University and the Commission on Accreditation of Law Enforcement Agencies. On behalf of CALEA Commission Chair Chief Marcus Brown and Executive Director Mr. Craig Hartley, CALEA is honored to be here recognizing the tremendous effort and commitment put forth by Chief Smith and the Clayton Police Department. To provide a little background, CALEA was created in 1979 when the founding organizations, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the National Association of Black Law Enforcement Executives, the National Sheriff's Association and the Police Executive Research Forum recognized a need within the law enforcement community to develop a set of professional standards to enhance the delivery of police services to citizens throughout the community they serve. Since its inception, CALEA has accredited agencies under standards developed by public safety practitioners and leaders from across the country. The standards are reviewed continuously to ensure each is current and remains relevant. These standards cover a wide range of administrative, operational, and logistical issues and serve as a modern management model that provides the framework for recognizing professional excellence within public safety. The goals of CALEA are to strengthen crime prevention and control capabilities, to formalize essential management procedures, to establish fair and non-discriminatory personnel practices, to improve service delivery, to solidify interagency cooperation and coordination, and to increase community and staff confidence in the agency. In a time when public safety is being scrutinized, Clayton community leaders and citizens should take comfort in the fact that its police department has voluntarily committed to operate at the highest level and under a set of more than 450 rigorous standards. Importantly, the Clayton Police Department connected their recent review process with the six main pillars of the 21st century policing recommendations issued by the White House in 2015. The agency has gone above and beyond to ensure it is meeting the highest professional standards and is connecting its operations with the best contemporary practices in policing. Based on the goals and mission statement of Kalia, I can think of no better time or place to present this accreditation certificate to the agency than at a public meeting where all can share and recognize the hard work this agency has committed in remaining accredited. The certificate itself is a simple matted picture within a frame. It has a much broader symbolic meaning. It The certificate clearly represents the agency's efforts to achieve accredited status, thereby demonstrating the willingness to change in order to effectively address contemporary public safety concerns. It represents a commitment to doing the right thing and doing it the right way. Lastly, it represents an ongoing dedication to ensuring the agency's resources are appropriately developed, effectively deployed and constantly managed all in the name of a safer community for workers, visitors and customers. At the commission meeting held on July 23rd, 2022 in Chicago, Illinois, CALEA commissioners reviewed the assessor's report, concurred with the findings and unanimously approved the reaccreditation of the Clayton Police Department. This is the eighth time your police department has been granted accreditation status by CALEA. And as the chief indicated, Clayton is one of the first agencies in Missouri to achieve this accomplishment. If it's okay with you Madam Mayor and with the board at this time, I'd like to invite the Chief Executive Officer of the Clayton Police Department, Chief Mark Smith, his accreditation staff, Lieutenant Abel, and other staff members to present this certificate for CALEA Advanced Accreditation. Thank you sir. Congratulations on the job well done.

Couple more things. I'd like to thank Lieutenant Jack Gable here. He's the one that designed the accreditation process to align it with the 21st century pillars of policing. We also had 16 members of our staff interviewed by the CLE assessors. So it was a really, it was a group effort as well as nine members of the community from various boards and commissions that we collaborate with. So I want to thank everybody in the community and our staff for getting this done.

And we want to thank you all for all of your hard work and your excellence. Absolutely.

In that.

No. No.

Okay, all right. Moving on, we are going into a public hearing. Actually, it's a public hearing that was remaining open from our last meeting regarding the redistricting for Clayton. Yes? Oh, yes, we can do that. Sure, thank you. Mr. Paramo, would you like to do yours first so you don't have to listen to this entire thing? I'm sorry that I did not think of that, but luckily I have team members that keep me straight. Okay, let me find this. So hang on a second, let me find that report. So I'm gonna skip down to the city manager report. Mr. City Manager, are you ready to give the conditional use permit report for Bar Morrow?

Yes, so this will be the public hearing, correct?

I'm sorry, say that again.

We're doing the public hearing for the conditional use permit at this time, correct?

Yes, and so I guess...

And then we'll do the liquor license. Okay,

I'm just turning the page. So I'll open the public hearing and request proof of publication.

Great, thank you.

All right, okay, very good.

This is a public hearing to consider an application for a conditional use permit transfer submitted by Ben Perimba, a Bar Morrow LLC restaurant owner to allow for the operation of an approximately 1,009 square foot restaurant to be known as Bar Morrow. The previous restaurant known as Billie Jean has been closed for an extended period of time and therefore staff has decided to present the transfer request to the Board of Aldermen for final approval in accord with the ordinance. The restaurant is proposing to operate in the same manner as the previous restaurant and is not requesting any modifications to the existing CUP. Bar Morrow will operate Tuesday through Saturday from 5 p.m. to 12 a.m. A liquor license is being requested, will be the next item on the agenda. The applicant also intends to obtain an outdoor dining permit. The restaurant is not required to provide off-street parking for patrons because it measures less than 3,000 square feet. The restaurant is located outside of the CBD and is therefore required to provide employee parking. The applicant has stated they will provide a minimum of two parking spaces that are required under the existing CUP. Staff recommends that a conditional use permit transfer for the operation of Bar Morrow, located at 7610 Wydown Boulevard, be approved per the conditions outlined in the resolution.

Very good. Would you like to tell us about the restaurant and introduce yourself? I don't

think we can hear

you. Sorry, I'll start. So I purchased the restaurant from Zoe Robinson. I'm

sorry, sir. Just for the record, could you identify yourself? Sure. This is

Ben Poremba. I'm the owner of Benjamin Hospitality Group, and we intend to open a bar moral on my down Avenue. So as I said, you know, I purchased a restaurant for my mentor Zoe Robinson, and we don't really intend to do a whole lot other than change a few things and make it a little more a little more mine, if that makes any sense. The restaurant is going to have a Spanish Iberian sort of bent in food and in the beverage program. It's a tiny space. So we're really, really excited to be back in Clayton after a period of time where I was gone. We previously owned Parigi right there on Brentwood Boulevard. So yeah, I mean, any questions you'd like to know about We're serving. I brought a copy of the menu with me. Wow. See it.

Well, when are you planning to open? That's the main

question.

October. Okay. Real

soon.

I have one question. Yeah. And actually having just come from your last wine dining. Okay. Where you stress the sustainability of the vineyard where the wines were from. I feel almost silly asking this, but we do value as a city sustainability and continuing to move forward with green dining and things like that. And I'm just wondering if you had any.

So our restaurant group is a member of the Green Restaurant Alliance. And yes, so to your question, we take that seriously ourselves. And we intend to do so here as well. Where would your outdoor dining be? Just right in front of the restaurant. Um, there's really not a whole lot of room for outdoor dining. We'll have a couple, you know, maybe two or three tables for actual dining. And we, uh, and I want to have some just kind of like waiting area, more of a lower seating out there. So people who wait for a table can drink out there. So.

Very good. Other comments, questions. Well, we're, we're super excited. Great. And, um, Thank you guys for having me move it up in the agenda.

Really

excited and a lot of people are anxiously awaiting your opening. So

welcome to Clayton. Thank you, thank you.

Welcome back to Clayton. Okay, all right. All right. You can sit down. All right, great, thank you. We don't have anyone from the public on the Zoom, correct? Okay, so, all right. Okay, then I will close the public hearing and Alderman Litz.

I'll move to approve resolution 2022-19 granting the transfer of a conditional use permit to Bar Morrow located at 7610 Y Down Boulevard.

Second. Any further discussion? Okay. All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? Very good. Shall we move right into the liquor license? Mr. City Manager?

Yes. Barb Morrow, LLC is requesting a liquor license to sell all kinds of intoxicating liquor at retail by the drink except Sundays at 7610 Wydown Boulevard. The police department has completed its review of the application and supports the issuance of the requested license. The Planning and Development Department will be submitting the conditional use permit on the same board agenda for approval, which was just done. The applicant has chosen not to submit a petition surrounding property owners and first floor tenants. As a result, they are aware that this application must have a supermajority vote of five board members in order to be approved. Staff has requested that a representative attend the meeting, and we have him here this evening. Staff recommends passing a motion to approve the liquor license to sell all kinds of intoxicating liquor at retail by the drink except Sundays.

Don't you love that description? All right, any discussion up here? No, and none online. Okay, so Mr. Lentz.

I move to approve a liquor license for Bar Morrow located at 7610 White Island Boulevard.

Second. Any discussion? Okay, all those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Thank you. You have your wishes granted. Go ahead. We'll look forward to your opening. Okay, so I will jump back to the beginning of our regular agenda here and state that the public hearing remains open for the redistricting proposal. And we will get a report from the city manager.

Yes, thank you, Mayor. During the meeting on August 23, 2022, the Board of Aldermen held a public hearing and discussed the recommendation from the Redistricting Commission. Another ward boundary map, known as Option E, was introduced during the meeting for review by the Board of Alderman and the public. COB, Steve Armstead & staff recommends that the board of aldermen conclude the public hearing and adopt a redistricting map in accordance with the city charter and I will put that option E up on the screen so i'll share that in just a moment here and turn it over to the board for

discussion in the hearing. Okay.

There it is, option E. I don't know if there was further discussion by the board. I will ask if there's anybody with their hands raised in the listening audience. No one's got their hand raised. Okay. Any discussion here about this option or others?

Yes. I guess I just want to make a statement that I do believe that first of all, again, as we stated last time, We thank the redistricting commission's work. And I think they were onto something. I think perhaps now we're not quite ready for it. Just like with a lot of things we do, there probably needs to be more communication put forward before we get into something that dramatic. And so I think we're going to get there. I think we're gonna be... looking at changes as all these other residences come in to Ward 3. So down the road, we'll probably end up with something looking more like what they proposed, but we're not there yet. It's going to take more communication. We should prepare for it in advance because I think we don't have to wait until 10 years until the census comes out, I don't think. So anyway, I support this particular option E, but I just think we need to be aware that it's going to change. Thank you.

Other comments? Questions? Okay. I agree, Rich, and we'll see how things unfold population-wise in the city. There will be changes in all wards, so. We'll see how it all works out in a few years. All right, so with that, I will close the public hearing and accept a motion from Alderman Lentz.

I'll introduce Bill 6908, an ordinance to accept the proposed boundary adjustment option E as recommended by, well...

As proposed.

As proposed to be read for the first time by title only.

Second. Okay. If I may, I think as currently written, there is no exhibit A on Bill 6908. So do I take it that the motion is to introduce Bill 6908 with option E, the map designated option E appended as exhibit A?

That

sounds

like a good idea. I'd like to amend my motion to suggest that we include an appendix A, which is option E as exhibit A.

Second the amended motion.

All right. Any further discussion? Okay. Mr. City Attorney.

I think I'd be ready by now. Bill number 6908, first reading an ordinance adopting new ward boundaries for the city of Clayton, Missouri and providing for an effective date for saying.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? Okay, Mr. Lentz.

I'll move that the board give unanimous consent to consideration for adoption of bill 6908 on the day of its introduction.

Second.

All those in

Aye.

Aye.

Let the minutes reflect the Board has given unanimous consent.

Then I'll introduce Bill 6908, amended with Appendix A as which includes Option E to be read for the second time by title only.

Second. Any further discussion? All right, Mr. City Attorney.

Bill number 6908, second reading and consideration for adoption, an ordinance adopting new ward boundaries for the city of Clayton, Missouri, and providing for an effective date for staying.

Alderman Lynch?

Aye.

Alderman Berkowitz? Aye. Alderwoman McAndrew?

Aye.

Aldermen Bills? Aye. Aldemann Patel? Aye. Aldeman Sater?

Aye.

And Mayor Harris. Aye. Thank you.

Okay. Moving on to property tax levies, Mr. I will open the public hearing and request proof of publication. And Mr. City Manager.

Yes, Mayor. This is a public hearing to receive public comments and input on the 2022 property tax levies. Each year, the city must approve property tax levies, which are then submitted to St. Louis County for billing. Calendar year 2022 is not a reassessment year, and therefore there's little change in continuing assessments. The city experienced significant new construction growth, increasing in residential assessed values by over $10 million and commercial assessed values by over 14 million dollars. Subject to the maximum voter approved rate of the tax levy, the city is allowed to receive additional revenue up to the lower of 5% or their consumer price index or CPI, which was 7% for this year and for the value of new construction. Per the fiscal year 2023 proposed budget, we are submitting the maximum allowable rates for your review. The levies as presented are still subject to change due to the County Board of Equalization process and the Missouri State Auditor Certification process. Therefore, there is still potential for these rates to change slightly. And I will put the rates up on the board so we can review those

together. All right, you should be able to see that now. So all

these rates are at... hundred dollars of assessed valuation and so in this column here you'll see the 2021 tax rate so that was last year's tax rate over here is 2022's uh tax rate as we have it this evening and then the the difference between the two is in this this far column on the right so for general revenue uh for residential we're looking at a decrease of um 0.001 cents. For commercial, we're looking at a decrease of 0.033 and no change on the personal property tax. For general obligation or debt service, you can see that there is a slight decrease there as well on both residential, commercial, and personal in the amount of 0.012. And then on the police building debt service, there's no change on residential, a 0.005 increase on commercial and no change on the personal property tax for that particular debt service. Moving on to the total tax rate. So this is all of those combined, the general and the two different debt levies that we have. You can see the total tax rate, there is a decrease there of 0.013 for residential, 0.026 for commercial, and 0.012 for the personal property tax. In addition to those standard rates, we do have the special business districts. So this is an additional levy that's collected within the downtown area. The funds that are received are then used for economic development and events to help downtown economically. And so you can see here, there's a slight increase to the residential and commercial rates within the special business district. And when I say slight, it's extremely 0.003 for residential, 0.001 for commercial. And then within the special business districts, when you add those SBD specific rates to those general rates, you can see for residential, you're looking at a 0.010 decrease overall and for commercial, a 0.027 increase. So we do recommend that the Board of Aldermen conduct the public hearing and have first reading of an ordinance setting the annual property tax rates for calendar year 22, which actually hits fiscal year 2023 at the rates referenced in the memorandum.

Okay, very good. Any discussion, questions or comments? Yes, Rich.

Um, since we didn't, uh, you didn't go over this and that, and just remind me, cause I, I know I used to know the answer to this, the recruitment recoupment process is outside of this, of setting rates. Is that correct? In other words, we can go back and recoup, um, some of the texts that we didn't get, but, um, but that doesn't have any effect on the rates that we agree on. That's correct. And we have done that in the last few years. I think we weren't doing it for a while, correct?

You know, I'll have to check with Karen to see if she has the answer. I believe Karen Dilber, our director of finances and the room there tonight,

You know, I'll have to check with Karen to see if she has the answer. I believe Karen Dilger, our director of finances and the room there tonight,

she may have a better idea of past recoupment.

just lit up as soon as I walked up here. Thank you.

We have been doing the recoupment for the last few years. We did the calculations for the recoupment this year, and it was so small that

there's really nothing

to

recoup.

Okay, thank you. Thank you, Karen.

All right, and are there any, does it look like there are any questions on Zoom? All right, then I will.

Oh, I'm sorry. Can you, so I understand in concept that we are limited in how our revenues can increase by the state of Missouri. And that's why, in fact, the tax rate often goes down. That's how I understand it, like the way we see the decrease on the residential side. Can you, is there an easy way to explain why the residential went down and the commercial went up?

So it all has to do with the valuations for those particular types of tax. So what we do is we look at the total valuation of all the residential and the property are in the city. And so when I say residential properties, we're talking about existing. So new construction is a totally different thing. So we look at the assessed valuation of all the existing residential in the city. that can only increase by 5%. That's our cap this year because CPI exceeds 5%, so that's the maximum that we can get. So we look at what that 5% increase works out to from a property tax basis, and then we have to roll it back. From a commercial standpoint, let me pull this up so I can take a look real quick. There is a very slight increase there, which means that the valuations would have gone down slightly to build a little more room in there for that rate to increase. So we are still well below our tax cap that was established by the voters back in the 90s. So you will see some fluctuation there, but it has to deal with the assessed valuation for that particular category or tax type. Does that make sense? I

think so. Is it fair to say that that means the assessed value of commercial real estate in Clayton has not increased as much as the residential has, for example, or as much as the CPI would allow us?

That's correct. I'm going to go back to a screen share here. OK, so you can see on the assessed valuation here, So for residential, the prior tax year, our valuation was 683 million. I'm really rounding here, but $683 million we'll call it. And you can see that it bumps up in the current tax year to $690. On the commercial side, you can see that the prior tax year was $451 million. That actually decreased to $443 million in change. So on the residential side, because we can only capture a 5% increase, we have to roll the rate back slightly. On the commercial site, since it decreased, we can actually increase the rate slightly to still capture that 5%.

Thank you.

I'm guessing that some of that decrease was the fact that they demolished a lot of real estate downtown and that essentially is no longer being valued until it gets rebuilt.

That's correct. So the family courts building, for instance, that was purchased by Enterprise would have hit the tax rolls at the time that closed. So that's a building that was demolished and that would change certainly. The area on Central may have factored into this as well that's recently been demolished. So that does change the valuation there. Some of these other changes could have been successful protests that entered the system. So a lot of times if these really... expensive properties downtown protests and they're successful and get the the valuation of their building down it does impact just a few of those buildings you know slight changes impacts the total force I think it's a combination of those

but the the family court was not on the tax rolls was it

enterprise would have closed on that before January 1 yes

And so then it became as soon as they bought it, it was on the rolls. That's

correct. It would have gone on the tax rolls as a commercial valuation.

I think just that site where you were. kind of showing us the different valuations, I think that would be an important slide to communicate to the public this fall. Like this is where, you know, residential valuations went up, but our tax rate went down and commercial went up. And, you know, so I just feel like because it's so counterintuitive that I just feel like it would be this might be a way to just get that data in front of the public and say, this is what's happening. So we realized that your house value went up, but our corresponding, our tax rate that what we can collect from the city came down. So yeah.

Okay. I agree. Sounds good. All right. Any other discussion? Okay. Alderman Lentz.

I'll introduce Bill 6911, an ordinance to approve the property tax levies for tax year 2022, fiscal year 2023, to be read for the first time by title.

And by the way, I will close the public hearing. Do we have a second? I

second, yeah.

Great, further discussion. All right, Mr. City Attorney.

Bill number 6911, first reading, an ordinance levying and establishing the rate of annual taxes for general municipal purposes, police building debt service, general obligation debt service, and special business district purposes to be collected by the city of Clayton, Missouri for the year 2022. All those

in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Very good. Now we will be looking at the operating capital improvement budget, and I will open that public hearing and request proof of publication. Mr. City Manager.

Thank you, Mayor. This is the fiscal year 23 budget public hearing. I'm going to start by going over a few of these slides. It's not going to be in as much detail as what we've gone through with the work session, but just wanted to give the public an idea of what's included in the budget this year. So I'll go through this briefly, and then we'll open up the slides hearing and take questions so on the general fund again just looking at this graph to look at trends you can see we're at that point again where expenditures which is the green line is certainly outpacing revenue which is the solid blue line we're talking again about the general fund here there is a dash line underneath it the dash line represents revenue without the operational transfer that comes from the capital improvement fund so you can see that if you eliminate that and you're just purely looking at general fund revenue versus general fund expenses, that gap is becoming quite large at this point. So for revenues, we did calculate these revenue projections based on the best information available as well as industry projections. For expenditures, we did have increases in our expenditures. The biggest were in contractual services. One reason for that is inflationary pressure. We'll talk about that quite a bit, I'm sure, leading to price increases. And there are two large one-time expenses that are included in the contractual services line. The first one being a compensation study that's roughly $45,000. and a comprehensive plan that's $350,000 to be found under planning and development services. For sources of revenue, this pie chart is always helpful to look at to see where the money comes from. So you can see property taxes we just discussed. It's 27% of our revenue. Utility taxes at 20%. Sales tax at 21%. Licenses, permits, and fees 11%. parking at seven parks and recreation. Again, this is the outdoor parks and recreation, not necessarily the center of Clayton is 3% fines, just 2%. And then you can see grants and miscellaneous. So this is a snapshot of where the money comes from. And then as far as where the money goes, the, the, The majority of it goes to personnel, 68% of the general fund goes to salaries, overtime, social security, Medicare benefits. So your payroll taxes, those sorts of things. So by far our biggest expense is personnel, which is common for really every municipality and private sector as well. Contractual services, 27%. That's things like waste collection, utilities, all of our software licenses, lifeguards, insurance, legal services, training, mowing, and all types of other professional services. And then commodities make up just 5% of our annual general fund expenditures. Those are things like uniforms, supplies, fuel, salt, and construction materials. This spreadsheet has been updated a little bit since the last time we met and I'm not going to go through this in line detail, but I did want to point out two changes. The last time you saw the budget, this deficit number was not as bad, I'll say, as it is now. It actually got a little bit worse. There were two items that changed. The first is the property tax was reduced by $135,000. The reason for that is the previous calculation used CPI for those existing properties. CPI, the state declared that at 7%. So we had used 7%. But then as we were reviewing the property taxes and took one more look at the Hancock Amendment, realized that there's a cap of 5% on increased valuation. So we reduced that amount by 2%, and that led to a reduction of roughly $135,000. So that change has been incorporated in here. I'm glad we caught that, certainly. I've not worked in any period of time over the last 18 years in local government where inflation has... outpaced that 5% cap, so it was never really an issue. But anyhow, we've made that adjustment. The second one would be the increased pension contribution. This relates to the change that was made in our long-term interest assumption. We had reduced that assumption from 7% down to 6.75%. So that's a change of about $165,000 and increased pension contributions for the uniformed plan. So all said, you know, I'm talking I'm speaking approximately here. We're looking at around $300,000 in increased deficit based on that reduction in revenue and increase in expenditure. So just looking at the bottom line here, 2.2 roughly million dollars for our deficit. You can see that our estimates here compared to the last fiscal year's approved budget, a 6% overall increase in revenues. an 8% overall increase in expenditures. When you look at the estimated number, you will see that it looks like revenue is decreasing. The reason for that is that the large federal grant that was received on this line right here of about $1.9 million between the initial payment and the supplemental through ARPA, we are not going to receive that in 23. So we would expect that the total number, the total revenue will go down in the current fiscal year. So any questions on the line items before I move on? Again, I know we discussed this in some detail. I received a few individual questions afterwards and we were sure to answer those promptly. Next is a little talk about- Yes.

I just want to point out and make sure that I'm seeing this clearly, which is that if we look back at 2022, we are estimating controlling our expenses to quite close to what we adopted in the budget. And our revenue ended up being higher than what we budgeted primarily because of that grant.

Correct. So revenue was quite a bit higher because of that grant. We didn't have it in the adopted budget, but we did make that adjustment when the money was received. So that's why the estimated number is higher. And you're absolutely right. Cost control is part of the reason that expenditure is lower. But really, the biggest driver is the fact that we had a lot of turnover, really record record turnover there. In those vacant positions, as they're vacant, you're saving money because you're budgeting as if every position will be filled and you'll be paying benefits to those employees. So, you know, we had times where we were 15 to 18 percent down as far as our total headcount. So at that time, we were realizing quite a bit of savings there. throughout the year. So it does lead to some increased overtime, especially in our public safety departments, fire in particular, where we have minimum staffing. But overall, it does lead to really a net savings. So I would say it's a mixture of cost control and vacant positions.

Just having said that, David, I suspect you would also say, having been down, as you said, 15% in staffing or whatever is not sustainable at our service levels.

That's

correct.

Um, and looking around town, I mean, you can, you can see some of that. So, you know, as, as far as the frequency of, of, uh, you know, how we can get to mowing and a lot of that's contractual, but we do a lot of that ourselves. Uh, you know, we've had to adjust things and, and, you know, I, I do think that some of that is noticeable. Uh, our turnaround time for different things has, has been slower. Uh, you That led to a slower turnaround time within planning and development services. So it is difficult to maintain service levels when you have reduced staffing. I feel like we've done a pretty good job to keep up, but long-term, no, that's not sustainable. I do think the compensation study and the implementation of that in the coming years is going to be important as far as being more competitive, especially with the private sector.

Well, I'll just pile on because we also froze salaries or froze increases at 1% for one year. We did a lot of things that we can't sustain over the long haul and maintain the current service levels. Other comments, by the way? Bridget, were you going to say something?

No, I think I just remembered. But David, the public works, the reason public works increase is like the 2023 proposed is substantially more than what 2022 is estimated. Is that because of that building, right? I was just, I can't remember.

So that's on the capital side. We're going to be doing the planning for, um, uh, the facility upgrades. Uh, a lot of that's being driven on the public works and a lot of that commodities. So like our fuel budget, for instance, uh, we blew that really early on in the year. Uh, so we had to increase that amount. Uh, salt went up dramatically. So, um, Those commodities, combined with some professional services that's what's driving the increase in public works. And if you look at it versus the estimated and you see that it's a 12% increase, which is a pretty big number public works had. A substantial amount of turnover, we still have a vacant engineering position that's been vacant for almost a year. We were just able to fill one here recently that had been vacant for a long time. And then keeping maintenance workers and mechanics has been extremely difficult. So they had a lot of personnel savings. So that's why you see the 12% to the estimated while it's just 5% when

you compare it to the adopted budget.

Any other discussion? All right, then I will close the public. Oh, I'm

sorry, Mary. I have a few more slides really

quick. I

just wanted to talk about the fund balance for just a minute. We do have a fund balance target every year. Of course, 25% is the floor. This is actually dated. I didn't update this slide. My apologies. 50% is our target. 40% is an action threshold where the city will immediately implement steps to prevent us to getting to 25%, which is our floor. But our unassigned fund balance, again, is the remaining amount in a single fund at the end of fiscal year, less commitments and restrictions. A lot of people view this basically like your savings account. So when expenditures exceed revenues like they do this year, we'll balance that budget using those reserves. So to give you an idea of the general fund balance and our projection there for the end of fiscal year 22, we believe we're going to be at about a 71% fund balance. And you can see as we draw down, we pull that $2.2 million out to balance. our fund balance would then drop to 60% at the end of fiscal year 2023. So obviously that's not sustainable. There are a couple of one-time expenses in there. Again, the comp plan and the compensation study So that's about $400,000 that isn't necessarily a recurring expense. But even if you subtract those out, if it's a $1.8 million deficit of recurring expenses, we can only do that a few more times before that 60% number really gets down into an undesirable area. So again, trends for the fund balance over time, really getting bailed out with the federal money that we received both in fiscal year 20 through the CARES Act and then in 21 and 22 through the ARPA funding. So we were able to kind of maintain and even build a little bit over that period with the federal money coming in. Of course, at the same time, we're freezing positions, giving small raises and experiencing turnover that led to some savings. But it's starting to widen again where without that other revenue source coming in, our expenses are certainly starting to run away from revenues. So that's the trend we're looking at. So that's the general fund. We do have a few other funds, I just want to remind the public of first is the sewer lateral fund. So for properties with six or fewer units you pay $20 a year it's paid with your property taxes you're reimbursed up to $2,000 if you have a sewer lateral failure. which certainly goes to help out on that expense. We do have a surplus right now in that particular fund, which is a good thing. That wasn't the case if you look back five years ago, we actually reduced that reimbursement amount because we were running an annual deficit. So we're able to build that fund back up, which is good. The special business district fund, you'll see this is basically a wash. So those special district funds that we talked about during the property tax portion, we receive those every year. We then transfer those and that's why it says that our financing uses over to the general fund and pay those out through economic development and the events that we host. For the equipment replacement fund, we did have the change that we talked about. So this is our revolving fund or a sinking fund for the planned replacement of vehicles, equipment and facility components. We did change that IRF criteria from $5,000 to $20,000. You also have to have an item with a life expectancy that's greater than two years. So if an item is between $20,000 and $25,000, we'll buy it out of the or the general fund contributes the amount for items over $25,000 that have five years of benefit. The capital fund makes that contribution to the IRF. In 2023, we're going to buy 24 items that are scheduled for replacement, 11 vehicles, four software systems, and then nine facility components. So 24 total items totaling just under $2.4 million. And the CIP, which is also a part of the budget, you can see how this breaks down as far as the various types of expenditures. you know, the majority going towards public works types projects. So here's your street resurfacing that's paid through bond construction funds. Street resurfacing that's out of capital funds is in the dark green next to it. We are paying for street lighting upgrades this year through those 2014 bonds. Pavement ceiling is a big chunk. Parks and Rec is bigger this year, not just because of the the extra pavilion that's being built, but also the parks master plan and the bike ped plan are within the capital fund. So that's why Parks and Rec looks like a bigger share this year. Monuments, we do have some bond funding that we're going to use to fix some of the neighborhood monuments, microsurfacing facility improvements. That slice of the pie is that study that will be done for the municipal garage, the start of the design there. And then you can see curbs and sidewalks is a smaller amount. Here's the list of funded capital projects that have been approved by the board. Again, $450,000 in there for municipal garage renovation, central business district resurfacing. So we were talking about the federal share of that a couple of meetings ago. You can see that that's a really large amount, just under $1.4 million. But a lot of that will be offset by federal contributions. And then up here you'll see Maryland Park, where we've applied for the additional municipal park grant. So those are some of the bigger items that you see within the capital fund. We do have three debt service funds. The 2019 bond issue. This was recently refinanced just a couple of years ago. This is a property tax levy so this was part of that previous discussion. This is for the police facility and then parks and stormwater sales tax for center renovation. That's what those funds went to. The 2021 special obligation bond refunding, again, we received some savings through that refunding last year. That is for police headquarters renovation and also parks and street improvements. And then the 2022 general obligation bond, This one was also refunded at the beginning of this past fiscal year, and that's for street and alley resurfacing and also street lighting. So you can see the outstanding amounts and the maturity dates for those. We have two going off in 2032, and the final bond issuance going off in 2034. Our outstanding debt related to those bonds is just under $26 million. So that's the annual budget in a nutshell. I'm happy to take any questions you may have, and we still need to hear from the public as well.

Okay, let's just say did not close the public hearing yet. So any questions or comments from our audience? Can you see? Hey, nothing there. And so, or do you have any other discussion for us?

Oh, yes. I think we had a couple questions. We asked for more information on the increases in city administration, which we got over email, right? So I want to verify my reading of that. Is that the only personnel ad was that an intern in communications budgeted at 8,000. I think it was.

That's correct. That's the only new expense. Now there were some expenses that were added in 2022 after the budget was adopted. So this was the change in responsibility for the assistant city manager. So that was an increase. Also the events position that we had previously in the budget And going into 2022. That was a position that was frozen, we replaced that position with the communications manager. So that was a zero. If you look at the 2022 adopted budget that has the full salary in there for 2023 so that position was unfrozen. And there was a little bit of an increase when we made that change. The other thing that happened in 2022 is there was the communication specialist position that split with CRSWC. That was moved from the parks budget into the city manager office. So while the overall amount doesn't change much to the general fund, it does change where it's accounted for from parks over to city manager. So that's what's driving that increase. Again, the only thing that's new this year, as you stated, is the marketing intern at 8,000.

Thank you. I believe, I thought that we asked for and if we were sent and I missed it, whether we could get the information on the property tax revenue, the value of the property tax revenue from new construction. Like what are we anticipating to come on the rolls in 2023 from new construction? I feel like that's a question we get a lot and it would really help me understand if it's like 10,000 or 100,000 or a million, right?

email between this meeting and the next one. So you're looking for revenue, property tax revenue attributed to new construction for fiscal year 23, correct?

We do have that estimate. So I'll get that out to you.

While you're at it, you might as well give any projections for like over three years or something.

Their timing? Yes. And this is something that Gary Carter and the finance department, they work together on every year to try to figure out what we should anticipate. So we will email that out.

Great. Thanks. Anything else that we need to follow up on? All right, so I think we have no comments from the at home audience and no further discussion here. So now I will close the public hearing and Alderman Lentz.

I'll introduce Bill 6912, an ordinance to approve fiscal year 2023 operating and capital improvement budget to be read for the first time by title only.

Second.

Any discussions? Okay. Mr. City Attorney.

Bill number 6912, first reading, an ordinance adopting an annual budget for fiscal year 2023, commencing on October 1, 2022, and appropriating funds pursuant thereto.

All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay. I just want to, you know, remind listening audience mainly that the property tax levies and the operating and capital improvement budgets only had first readings tonight. And so that'll give a lot of time for a thought and further questions. And we will have our second readings at our next Board of Aldermen meeting. Okay, next here we have the CRSWC budget, Mr. City Manager.

All right, thank you, Mayor. All right, let's see, get this here. All right, so the Board of Aldermen has been provided the proposed fiscal year 2023 CRSWC budget for the Center of Clayton. The budget includes revenues and expenses for the period October 1, 2022 through September 30, 2023 for the three CRSWC funds, which are operating, equipment replacement, and capital. The Clayton Recreation Sports and Wellness Commission, or CRSWC, considered this budget on August 26, 2022, and approved it as proposed. On September 7, 2022, the budget was presented at the joint meeting of the Board of Aldermen and the Board of Education. For Fund 80, which is the operating fund for CRSWC, the revenue projection targets an increase over fiscal year 2022 end of year estimates of 18.46%, which amounts to $2.9 million roughly. The significant sources of revenue, 91.2% of it will continue to be from the sale of memberships, daily passes and programs. Additional revenue and the amount of 8.8% of that is generated through rentals, food service and other miscellaneous income. Although the Center Clayton is still rebounding from the COVID-19 pandemic, a substantial membership fee increase for fiscal year 23 has been included in the budget. Membership fees were last raised in fiscal year 19. the CRSWC approved a 12% rate increase to membership and daily fees effective October 1st, 2022 at its May 20th meeting. Total expenses are projected to increase by 12.26%, amounting to $3,327,000 in fiscal year 2023 compared to the fiscal year 2022 estimated year end of just over $2.9 million. So again, a 12.2% increase 12.26% increase in expenditures. The increases are a result of increased personnel expenses related to full-time and part-time staff, as well as the increased cost of supplies and contractual services, lifeguards being included there. The fiscal year 23 budget includes raising the minimum pay rates for all part-time positions to $15 per hour on January 1st, 2023. The budget presented continues to hold on filling two full-time positions in CRSWC. One is a maintenance position, the other one a recreation position, and staff will continue to monitor those positions as operations return to pre-pandemic levels. Overall, the operating fund reflects an 18.46% increase in revenue over fiscal year 22 estimates and a 12.26% increase in expenditures over the fiscal year 2022 estimates. The operating fund is projected to end with a fund balance of negative $429,809 in fiscal year 2023. So for fund 81, which is the equipment replacement fund, The proposed budget includes cash payments for fitness equipment, including the annual replacement of cardio equipment for a total expense of $27,000. Additional equipment repairs and replacements are now included in Fund 81 that were previously included in the capital budget in the amount of $23,000 for fiscal year 23. Overall, the equipment replacement fund reflects $100,000 revenue, $50,000 in expenditures for fiscal year 23, and it ends with a fund balance of $50,000 at the end of fiscal year 23. For Fund 82, which is the capital fund, the capital fund reflects $200,000 in revenue and $100,000 in expenses for the fiscal year. The capital fund ends with a balance of $100,000 at the end of fiscal year 23. Contributions from the parent organizations have been budgeted at $300,000 each, and that was included in our budget in fiscal year 23, with $150,000 each budgeted for the operating fund, $50,000 towards the IRF, and $100,00 each towards the capital improvement fund. Overall, the fiscal year 23 CRSWC budget reflects $3,198,128 in revenue and $3,477,937 in expenditures with a total fund balance of negative $279,809 at the end of fiscal year 23. Staff recommends that the board approve the CRSWC budget as submitted. And Tony Searing, our Director of Parks and Recreation has joined us

remotely this evening.

All right, thank you. I'll open up the discussion. Any questions or comments from the audience? Okay, how about from our board, questions or comments? Tony, just one thing. Can you remind me? I should remember this, but do the contributions shown here reflect or include debt repayment for the remodel?

No, because the city and the district finance that on their own. So the CRSWC is not paying the debt, carrying the debt service.

But the total outlay from the city annually right now is including both things would be roughly. 240 440 440,000. All right. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. All right. Any any other comments? Questions? All right. Alderman Lentz. Is there a second?

Second.

Any further discussion? Second. All right, all those in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

Aye. All

right, Tony, you got your budget. Thank you, I appreciate it. Okay, I think that concludes our business and Mr. City Manager, is there anything else business-wise that we need to discuss?

Not this evening.

Okay, very good. We can go around. I'll start with Alderman Lentz, see if he has anything to share from the past two

weeks. I guess the only thing that occurred, well, other than the art fair, which I'm sure everybody had a great time at and was again, a wonderful, wonderful event. In our continuing effort to promote Revitalize Sustainability Committee. Becky and I have been each calling the members individually and getting ideas, listening to them as to what's working, what's not working, and in effect getting their commitment that they are committed to it. And so we've met with... TAB, Mark McIntyre:" The Chair and presented some ideas to him as to how we might be going forward so we're we're working on it, this is something that we keep talking about and hopefully we're we're getting. TAB, Mark MCIntyre:" Getting some ideas about how to how to move this forward in a little better fashion we've got a couple of action items. that we hope will be taken care of, that will get us involved in some work with WashU and some other things. So we're moving along. More to be continued though.

Well, thank you for your diligence. Alderman Berkowitz, do you have anything from the past couple of weeks that you'd like to share?

Well, we did have an ARB meeting early last week. We had about, gosh, 14 or 15 items on it. And I will say thank you to Steve Lichtenfeld for actually completing them in record speed since it only took about two and a half, three hours. But it wasn't anything of note for me to report. So I'm not going to report on that. I do want to report on one thing, though, and I want to make it clear and give a commendation to Toni Searing. I think Toni did a really wonderful job on the budget for the CRSWC. I think her presentation at the meeting last week I thought was outstanding. I think she hit all the good points, all the high points, all the important points for all of us to understand the budget. And so I'd like to just give a shout out to Tony for doing a really good job last week. Other than that, I don't have much to say.

Okay, very good. Bridget.

Um, I guess in the last couple weeks we did have a serious WC meeting. We didn't have an audit presentation and Ruben Brown issued an unmodified opinion so that's always good news for the center. We all just heard about the budget that's what we approved so I don't really need to go over that. We also had a parks and rec. meeting just yesterday, I guess. And Justin gave us just kind of a brief presentation on the new pavilion at Oak Knoll that they're gonna put in in the coming fiscal year. And then we also talked a lot. I think the commission really wanted some clarification on what was gonna happen with the commons, especially just related to the new study that we approved at the last meetings So we had some good discussion about that as well. So

yeah, great. Glad to hear. Alderman Buse.

Bridget covered that person very well. And we also had an equity commission meeting and the topics there again, looking through that slowly making, making our way to have all the restrictive covenants taken care of. There's some neighborhoods still that don't have anybody to act on it. Not sure what's quite there, but yeah. David and Gary, and everybody's been really great in working to get that done. The discussion primarily was on housing and diversity in housing stock. And a resolution was presented that will come to the board probably, I don't know when, maybe our next meeting. So there's still a lot of interest in that.

Okay, Becky. Thanks. Other than what has already happened been reported. I had something.

We can come back to you. Yeah. Okay, that's fine. Alderman Gary Feder, do you have anything for us?

We can come back to you. Yeah. Okay, that's fine. Alderman Fader, do you have anything for us?

Great art fair. And I agree with the comments about Tony's presentation at the The joint meeting was terrific. I thought one thing I might mention, sort of an unsung body in our city is the board of adjustment. I used to sit on it and I actually, because I was interested in one of the matters, I attended the last meeting of the board of adjustment and I just would throw out some praise to Gary Sewell, who's the chairman, because he does a great job As he has for many, many years, but not only does he make the people who apply feel very welcome, but he and the entire board make a really excellent effort to make sure everything is on the record. And so I really think they do a terrific job. And the other thing I would just observe is since it's been three weeks since our last meeting, I realized that during that period, T. was the first anniversary of my being sworn in to this board, because it was at the very end of August and. T. I just want to take the opportunity to to thank everyone I you know as you i've said before i'm sorry that it was Dan socles death that opened up this opportunity for me but. I appreciate the opportunity to be part of the city and hopefully do the kind of job that I think Dan was doing as a terrific alderman. So I want to thank Bridget, my counterpart, everybody else on the board and the staff. And just because I don't think half a term is probably enough, I am going to run again and hope I'll have the ability to continue to serve the board in the future. So thank you.

Very good. Well, congratulations on year one.

Thank you.

I remembered that I was just going to pile on commendations to the Parks and Recreation Department as we have begun youth soccer. And I'm an assistant coach on a seventh, eighth grade girls team. And both Patrick McGee and David Willie have been very present supporting the beginning of the practices and games. And I was especially thrilled to have two refs at our first game because last year we only ever had one ref and some games like of the younger ages had none. And so I know that's been a big improvement in terms of staffing and they're doing a great job. So thank you. Great.

Okay, I don't have a lot. I will say that I've heard some preliminary numbers around the art fair, which is that it's believed that it will be a record year for beverage sales, which is an indicator of all things. But I think their head count they're viewing is probably equal to a prior record year. And the artists I talked to, which were a lot of artists, I tried to visit almost every booth this last weekend. They seemed very, very happy with the results. And of course, the weather cooperated. So that was awesome. And I went to a groundbreaking today at the MC Marriott location. So they have made a lot of progress and are starting to build. Now they've got everything torn down. And so we had a big to do about with shovels and helmets and all that good stuff. And you may see it somewhere in the news, they were had a lot of media and they made a big deal out of it. Anyway, it was very exciting. They're very happy to be here. And Midas who's involved with some other projects here in Clayton is a big is a big part of that project as well. So they're really making, you know, putting a stake in the ground in Clayton here. And just a minor thing maybe, but I think it's important. The president of the board of education, Amy Rubin and myself have reinstituted the board of education board of Alderman breakfast. So you'll start seeing that pop up on your calendar. And if you know anyone who is not comfortable coming COVID wise or otherwise that's fine. So we'll just get the people that want to come and we'll start having them a more frequent communication between the two boards, which I'd always thought was very valuable and which kind of COVID kind of ended for us. So that is all I have. And I think we can take a motion to adjourn.

I'll move to adjourn.

Second.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? Okay. Thank you all.

Thank you.