May 9, 2023 — Meeting Transcript

All right. Well, welcome to our

May 9th discussion session for the Board of Aldermen. And we have a presentation on our citizen survey study. And I think we're ready to begin that. Do you have any further? Okay, we're getting it pulled together.

No. Jason, can you hear us? Yes, I can hear you.

All right. Well, welcome to our meeting, Jason. If you're ready, we're ready to go through the survey.

Okay, great. Let me pull up. presentation. Can everyone see this okay?

Yep.

Okay, great. My name is Jason Murado. I'm with ETC Institute and we're a marketing research firm that specializes in conducting community surveys for local governments. And we just finished for the 10th time conducting a community survey for the city of Clayton. So today I'm going to walk through the key findings from the survey. I just have one slide about ETC Institute. We're based in the Kansas City area, but we're a national leader in providing market research for local governments. We've been doing this type of work for over 40 years and we've conducted surveys in more than a thousand communities across the country. So this is really the type of work that we specialize in. This is just a quick rundown of what we'll go through today. I'll go over, or this is really the, reasons for conducting a survey like this. One is to get an objective assessment of how satisfied residents are with major city services, and also to determine what residents feel are the top priorities for the community. We're also able to measure these results against your previous surveys, and then compare your results with other communities across the country. So I mentioned this is the 10th community survey we've conducted for the City of Clayton. The survey was administered by a combination of mail and online to randomly selected residents throughout the city. And that's our standard methodology for these types of surveys. We received 401 completed surveys. Our goal was to get at least 400, so we accomplished that. And the results of the 401 surveys at the 95% level as a margin of error, plus or minus 4.7%. So essentially that means that if we conducted this survey the same way 100 times, 95 times the results would be plus or minus 4.7% from what we reported. So even for a statistically valid survey, the results are not perfect, but the margin of error is very small. Here we have a map of the city. The red dots are households that completed the survey. So we had a good distribution throughout the city. Here are our main conclusions from the survey. We found that residents, just like in your previous surveys, have a very positive perception of the city. 96% of respondents rated the overall quality of life in this city as excellent or good. And 88% of respondents were either very satisfied or satisfied with the overall quality of city services. And those are some of the very highest ratings anywhere in the country. Once again, just like your previous surveys, satisfaction with city services is much higher in Clayton than other communities. You're rated above the national average in all 42 areas that we compared. And what especially stands out is that you're rated significantly higher. So in other words, 5% or more above the national average and 40 of those areas. And the top overall priorities for improvement were traffic flow, TAB, Mark McIntyre:" value received received tax dollars and fees and the maintenance of city streets, this is based on what we call the important satisfaction rating which will look at in just a little bit. TAB, Mark MCIntyre:" These were also the top three priorities on your last survey in 2021 but the order is switched a little bit last time streets was a top priority traffic flow seconds then value for tax dollars and thesis third. TAB, So first we'll look at some general perceptions that residents have the city. So here we ask residents to rate their perception of Clayton in many different ways. The dark blue are ratings of excellence, the light blue is good, the gray is neutral, and we interpret neutral as average or meeting expectations. It's a rating of a three on the five point scale. And then the pink are ratings of below average or poor. So one of the things that stands out is that overall the positive ratings far outweigh the negative, even for the lowest, Rated areas, there are far more positive than negative responses. If you look at the top of this chart, well over 90% of respondents rate the overall quality of life and the overall image of the city as excellent or good. Most residents also feel safe in the city and residents also gave very positive ratings to recreational opportunities and then the overall cleanliness city. So here we again have a map of the city And we broke the results out by census block. So these are fairly small areas. And this tells us of residents in different parts of the city rate services differently or have different perceptions of the city. This map is for the overall quality of life. And the entire map is dark blue, which is the highest possible rating. So this means that residents in all parts of the city gave very, very positive ratings to the overall quality of the city. Here we ask residents how safe they feel in various situations. The one thing that really stands out here is how few residents feel unsafe in any of these scenarios, even when they're walking alone after dark, whether it be in their neighborhood or business areas, very, very few residents feel unsafe. And then, of course, if you look at this top of the chart, nearly all respondents feel very safe walking in their neighborhood during the day as well as in business areas during the day. So here again, we have a map of the city. Again, we broke the results out by census block group. This is for the overall feeling of safety in the city and the entire map is blue. The dark blue areas, the ratings are a little higher than light blue, but the entire map is being that residents in all parts of the city overall feel safe. This was the very first question on the survey. Here we asked residents how satisfied they are with major categories of city services. So for this question, we're asking residents to rate these areas at the big picture departmental level. And then later on in the survey, we asked about some more specific areas within some of these categories. So again, overall, the positive ratings far outweigh the negative. I mentioned earlier that the top overall priorities for improvement are maintenance of streets, value for tax dollars, and traffic flow. We'll look at that in more detail in a little bit. And you can see those three areas have slightly elevated levels of dissatisfaction compared to the other items. But even for those, there are far more positive ratings than there are negative. So here again, map of the city, results broken out by census block group. This is for traffic flow and congestion. We do have the one area in yellow where the ratings are a little bit lower, but the rest of the map is blue. So even though this is one of the lower rated items on your survey, and it is one of the highest priorities for improvement, residents still are generally pretty satisfied throughout the city. A lot of times when we create a map for this type of question, you'll see a lot more yellow and even some orange areas where residents are not as satisfied with traffic flow congestion. This map is for the overall value received for city tax dollars and fees, and it is very unusual for this map to be completely blue. Almost in every community, there are at least some areas with yellow or even orange where residents don't feel like they're getting as good value for their city tax dollars and fees as people in other parts of the city. So this is very, very unusual for this to be completely blue, and there's even an area in dark blue, which is the highest possible. This map is for the maintenance of city streets. Here you can see a couple areas in yellow where the ratings are a little bit lower, a couple areas in dark blue, which is very positive ratings, but then most of it is light blue, which residents are generally satisfied. This is one of the lower rated areas on your survey, but still compared to other cities, these results are very positive. This is another category, just like traffic flow, where a lot of times there are yellow and even some orange or possibly even red areas for residents are not satisfied with streets in their area.

Is it possible to say, David or Matt, does this highlight for us the areas that we know we're getting to next or not? I was just curious whether that might show up here. Like, well, yeah, those are the streets we're resurfacing this next year. So of course they're low.

I'm trying to pull up the map right now. Unfortunately, I guess we've got the issues right here. Usually that's what it'll be. The survey was done prior to the next overlay coming in or treatment, or if you're close to the downtown, there's development that's going on and sometimes cause additional damage until that's restored. Yeah. But yeah, usually I don't have, unfortunately, the map right in Funry right now, but a lot of times that is what we see. It'll chase it around, which is good because that means they should be slightly dissatisfied before we come with a treatment. Otherwise, we shouldn't be coming with a treatment.

Well, that would be because Clayton Gardens, like the area, because that's like kind of, I always call it like the, you know, the west side of Forsyth. Aren't we redoing that, some of those areas? Yeah.

Yeah, I was trying to pull that. I'm pretty sure that's on the microsurface.

The other part of the eastern side of Clayton Gardens, I think, has been done relatively recently. But the western part, I don't think.

That's right. That is on our list for microsurfacing this year. And that is an area that Missouri American tore up a few of those streets as well.

Also, we've got some construction going on on Gay Avenue. Right. Yeah, there you go.

Makes sense.

Thanks. If I can just tag in a little bit. I also wondered looking at the surveys because of the small size of our city, how many, I mean, how close were they? One flipped yellow, one flip light blue, but were they really just like within a couple check marks of the respondents or was there, I don't know if somebody can look at it. Was there really a significant difference in the responses?

i'm really there's not a significant difference between just one shade of color you know we've got the five levels here dark blue light blue yellowish orange and red. So if they're just one shade difference that there really isn't.

hugely significant difference. Thanks. Okay, um.

So now we'll look at the trends compared to your previous survey. Overall, the level of satisfaction on this year's survey is similar to 2021, and that's a good thing for a couple of reasons. For one thing, the satisfaction ratings were very high in 2021, some of the highest ratings anywhere in the country. And then also, most cities we've surveyed recently, especially over the last six to eight months or so, have seen an overall decrease in satisfaction compared to where they've been over the past two to three years. And I think there really are a lot of different reasons for that. So the fact that your ratings overall are similar to what they were a couple of years ago, really goes against the trend of what we've been seeing. Now here are the areas with the biggest changes in satisfaction since your last survey. The areas on the left are the items that had an increase of 5% or more. satisfaction since 2021. The items on the right have had a decrease of 5% or more. On the left, this covers a variety of different types of service, but a lot of it is related to public safety. And on the right, the decreases cover a number of different areas as well. Some of the biggest decreases are related to traffic, traffic flow, ease of east-west travel, crossing and walking along streets in downtown Clayton, Now in the next section, we'll look at the benchmarking results that compare your results to other communities. And you'll see that even for these areas that have had a decrease in satisfaction, your ratings are still significantly higher than other cities pretty much across the board. So that leads right into the benchmarking section. I mentioned earlier that satisfaction ratings for Clayton are much higher than other communities. For these next few charts, the dark blue are Clayton residents who are either very satisfied or satisfied. The light blue are the satisfaction ratings for residents in the Plains region. So that includes the state of Missouri as well as some surrounding states. And then the gray are the satisfaction ratings of residents from all across the country. And this is based on a national survey that ETC Institute conducts with nearly 10,000 randomly selected residents all across the country, and we update this survey So this first chart's for major categories of city services. You can see your ratings are significantly higher than other cities in all of these areas. I mentioned earlier that streets, value for taxes and fees and traffic flow are the highest priorities, but even for those which are higher priorities and where the satisfaction is a little bit lower, your satisfaction ratings are still much higher than other communities in those areas. Here are comparisons for perceptions of the city You can see your ratings are much higher than other communities, especially when it comes to the overall quality of life, overall image of the city, and overall feeling of safety. Here are comparisons for public safety. Again, your ratings are much high than other cities in all of these areas. And this covers a wide variety of services, everything from the overall quality of the fire department to more specific things such as visibility of police in neighborhoods and how quickly police respond to emergencies. These comparisons are for the overall feeling of safety, and you can see that Clayton residents feel safer than residents in other cities in all of these different situations, their neighborhood during the day as well as after dark, in parks, and then in crossing and walking along streets downtown. Here are comparisons for maintenance and public works. Again, your ratings are much higher overall than other communities. This also includes a variety of services such as street lighting, street repair services and sidewalks. And for parks and recreation, you have very high ratings for some of these areas. 94% of respondents are satisfied with the maintenance of city parks. 92% satisfied with outdoor athletic fields. and nearly 90% satisfied with the maintenance and cleanliness of recreation facilities, which can see those numbers are much higher than other cities. And then when it comes to enforcing codes, your satisfaction ratings are a little bit lower in these areas, but that's the case all across the country because in each of these areas your satisfaction ratings are still significantly higher than other cities Now we did see a decrease compared to last year when it comes to maintenance of business and residential properties, but you can see even with that your ratings are still much higher than the regional and national. So now we'll look at top priority for investment. We saw earlier how satisfied residents are with major categories of city services. As a follow-up question, we asked which of these services should receive the most emphasis from city leaders over the next two years. And the areas residents feel should receive the most emphasis are public safety, city streets, value for taxes and fees, and traffic flow. Now that leads to what we call the important satisfaction rating. You might remember this from previous surveys. This analysis is based on two types of data. First, we asked residents how satisfied they are with city services Then we asked which of these services should receive the most emphasis. So in other words, which are the most important? So the idea behind this is those areas that have a combination of lower levels of satisfaction, but at the same time where the most important should be the highest priorities. So the highest priorities are traffic flow, value for tax dollars and fees, streets. The reason public safety is a lower priority on this list, even though residents said it's important, these satisfaction ratings are so high, which means you should still continue to emphasize it, but it's not quite as high of a priority for improvement as some of the others. Last time, traffic flow, value for taxes and maintenance were also the top three priorities, but that order was just a little different. Streets was one, traffic flow was two, value for taxes was third. This is really just a different way of looking at the same information If you start at the right-hand side, those are the areas that respond to this rate as the most important. And as you move left, the level of importance gets less and less. If you look at the top, those are the area's residents are most satisfied with. As you move down, the level of satisfaction is less and less. So those areas in that bottom right-hand quadrant works as opportunities for improvements. Those are the items that have that combination of lower levels of satisfaction and also high levels of importance. So again, streets, traffic flow, and then value for taxes, dollars. So we also had several questions related to communication. We asked respondents how much effort they feel the city makes to keep them informed about current news events and services. So you can see almost half of respondents feel the city makes significant efforts Another 46% say some effort. No respondents at all said that the city makes no effort to keep residents informed. On the last survey, there were two respondents who felt like the city made no effort. So a little improvement there. But overall, these ratings are very positive and very similar to your last survey. We asked respondents if they subscribe to the city's email communications. Little over half said that they do. Of the 48% who don't subscribe to the city's email communications, 70% of those say they didn't know it was being offered. Only 8% say they're not interested. So for those who don't subscribe, it's really more about lack of awareness than it is just simply not being interested. We also asked respondents how much they use various types of communication. One thing that stands out here is that direct communication from the city are the type of communication used most often by residents. So city newsletters and magazines, direct mail from the city, parks recreation activity guide, the weekly newsletter. And then we also ask residents how effective they feel these communications are and the types of communications that residents use the most are also the ones that they feel the most effective, that they're the most satisfied. So again, that includes direct communication from the city, a direct mail, parks and recreation activity guide, city newsletter, city website, weekly newsletter, even calling the city over the phone. So that's everything that I had. Just a quick recap. We saw that residents have a very positive perception of the city. There are a lot of examples of that throughout the report. Once again, satisfaction with city services is much higher in Clayton than other communities. And the top overall priorities based on that important satisfaction analysis is traffic flow, value for tax dollars and fees, and then maintenance of city streets. So with that, I'd be happy to answer any questions if anyone has any.

Okay, maybe I'll go in order of seniority. Bridget, what about you? Questions, comments?

No, I don't. I mean, I was kind of glancing at some of the comments, you know, that, you know, do you guys just kind of verbatim write those in? Is that?

Yeah, that's right. Those comments are just provided verbatim, exactly.

And then we just kind of, I guess, take them. You know, some of them are pretty negative. And given the results you just gave us, I guess, you know, they need to be kind of weighed accordingly.

Yeah. And that's always what happens in every community. The open-ended comments always tend to skew more negative. If you read just that, you would think the results were not very good at all. But you can see, obviously, they're very, very positive overall. So that's typical. any place we can go to these surveys.

Thanks. That's because when people are happy, they're quiet for some reason. Yeah,

I don't really have much. I wish the survey gave us the answer on how to stop traffic congestion, things like that. And I do think it's interesting that the small business promotion, what, 28% felt that it wasn't sufficient. So as we try to attract retail, I think it's something that we need to look at. But yeah, the survey, I mean, your presentation was great and it's really, really informative. So thank you.

Thanks.

Yeah, it's great to see our survey results like stay so positive and even increase in a lot of areas. I noticed in particular, a number of the areas of increased satisfaction in our police department, and I think that's a lot of to do with how the chief is leading the department and the quality of the officers we have. I just think we have such a presence in the, I've had two examples just in the last few weeks in my area, but like in a really positive way, like positive community focused events and stuff. And I just think that's been really phenomenal. So, you know, even in those areas where we, um, have the opportunity to improve based on the importance, it seems like they aren't dramatic issues, I guess, kind of, right? And so then when we think about like, oh, folks are concerned about the flow of traffic and congestion management. Well, we all know we've just had a number and still have a number of really significant development issues projects impacting that in the most noticeable way? And is it like, is that it, right? Or is there actually like a problem that we need to solve in a different way? I don't know. Obviously, that's always kind of the thing for us to try to figure out and whether we need to dig deeper into that. But it's a great, great information. Kudos to all of our staff who keep doing an amazing job delivering all these services

absolutely alderman Gary Feder anything

absolutely alderman fader anything

uh i want to ask when to the extent that you surveyed households or residents do you have any sort of breakdown between how many of those were single family and how many were multi-family or is there any any way of knowing what group is represented primarily by the responses

We did have a question on the survey that asked respondents to indicate the ages of members of their household. So that's one of the charts that's in the report in the demographic section where you can see the breakout of the ages of households. So different types of households, households with kids, households with seniors, households with teenagers.

Okay. And I want to ask this term that's used throughout for the question, the value received for city tax dollars or fees. I was trying to figure out if I didn't answer that question, but if I had, does that mean that for what I pay, I don't think I get enough or does that mean I pay too much? Or do you have any insight as to how people interpret that particular question?

Yeah, I think at least the way I would interpret it is, um, I mean, there's separate questions that ask how satisfied you are with city services just overall, not considering the taxes you paid. This to me is more about what do you pay versus what you get for what you're paying. So I think that's the way I would interpret this. And it is a broad question. It's just about kind of general perceptions. But that's the way that

I would look at it. And one final one is, and it's already been remarked, but if you look at the whole report, everything looks great until you get to the final section, open-ended responses. And then you go, oh my God. And so it's a little hard to put that in perspective. And I wonder if you know statistically, is this to some extent the same person who has eight different negative comments about the city. I mean, there's quite a few pages here of negatives, so it's a little hard to put it in perspective again as is this 100 people who have something negative to say? Or do you have any way of knowing when you look at this whole composite, you know, where where this sort of comes from, how many people are really unhappy about things?

Yeah. Well, I would just keep in mind that 401 people took the survey Um, so let's say you have 10 negative comments, which I'm looking at the report that some of these comments are fairly long, so that can take up almost a whole page, you know, this report. Um, but that would only be 10 comments would only be, you know, two and a half percent of survey respondents. Um, so just keep that in mind that there's over just over 400 responses. So, um, the comments are interesting, but I wouldn't be too concerned about a small number of, of

and of negative comments. Okay, thank you. I appreciate your comments.

Rick, any questions?

Yeah. Jason, I'm a new alderman, so I've got some questions just about survey construction that you may have gone over in the past, but I just don't know anything about them. So how many surveys were sent?

Surveys were mailed to about 3,000 randomly selected households. And the reason for that number is our goal was to get at least 400 completed surveys. And a typical response rate for a survey of this length is around 12 to 15%.

Okay, so and how does the response compare to prior surveys, either in percentage or in absolute numbers?

It's similar to previous years. Trying to see how many completed surveys we had last time, but it's, yeah, the response was similar. to the last survey.

Okay and then I'm wondering if this may be statistically difficult to determine but um if you think there is any correlation between the demographics of our community and the very positive responses and what I'm getting at there is the um the average age in our survey, the years of residency. We've got a relatively old population and we have people that have lived here for a long time. So just wonder if that is unusual relative to other communities.

You know, that's something we can definitely do is run a crosstab and break the results out by those questions. By age of the person filling out the survey, by how long residents have lived in the city. um so you can run that cross them and then see how big of a difference there is um if there is a difference that's yeah that would be a great thing to look look more into

um and then i guess the other things i would say aren't really necessarily the survey per se but opportunities for us um when i read through this you know i'm obviously very pleased at um the overall response the relative uh response to other communities um and we're doing so many things really really well which is terrific um That said, we're going through lots of change. And so change often can be negative for some people and positive for others and negative people talk about it and positive people don't. And so that's where we are. So anyway, we have just, I guess, I'm gonna emphasize the obvious that we're going through the city master plan again, where we have opportunities for engagement So I want to make sure that, um, you know, we are reaching out to all of those people. And I think every time we do send things out, we should make sure that we somehow indicate that people can get, um, more information from the city, what our email, um, opportunities are not only how to get them, but then what's available. I, in the past, I knew we had agendas available and, um, but I really didn't know that there were other things available until I happen upon them sometimes. And so I think we have an opportunity to be more proactive to engage people. The other thing I find somewhat amusing, and that is that our average population is in my opinion, relatively old. So it's no surprise that there's hardly any use of Twitter and Instagram and Facebook. And at least for me, it's consistent. I don't look at those things either. But with our changing population or at least bringing in new residents, I'm guessing that demographic will be different. So maybe we need to do a better job of that. And maybe we're doing a great job. Maybe we just have to do a better of telling people about it. as we go forward. So that might be an opportunity for us.

Great. Oh, great. Great comments, everybody. Yeah, I think it was your presentation was great, but the deck was great. I enjoyed digging into it myself. I think there's a lot of fodder there for our upcoming retreat, things that we might think about doing. I actually would like to see if we can break out some of these more important questions by age just so we can see kind of where, because we are trying to integrate younger families. We've always had our school families, but now we're building lots of apartments and the assumption is we're going to have a lot of young 20 and 30 somethings moving in. And so be interesting to see if those, if there's some responses in that regard that we would need to pay attention to. Also again, just to, be redundant, the need to capture these emails. You know, we talked today a little bit about the idea that when we have our trash, I don't want to steal your thunder, but when we send out the trash bills, we're going to try really hard to get people to sign up. That's a way of repeatedly getting to people and reminding them to sign up. So that's a brilliant suggestion of David's. And then I was interested in one sort of overarching question, which is, I know we've had a little bit of a decline in some of the you know, a little bit of decline on somehow people feel safe or at least we've had some if people don't feel safe at night walking and stuff like that. I just wondered if and our results are stellar. I get that but there have been so much so much publicity over the last few years about you know crime in our in our region and And I wonder, is that affecting our city's results? Is that affecting other cities that you do in the region, the perception of crime versus actual crime? Because quite literally we have almost no crime in Clayton. But I think still people are concerned and I know that there's a lot of conversation about it in general and chief is constantly talking to people with questions. So do you see anything on that in our area? Yeah. or in the whole area?

Yeah, I think people's perceptions absolutely have an impact on that. Not just that, but really a lot of these items on the survey. Now your results are much better than most other cities. And really there were very few residents that feel unsafe, even at night. I mean, I believe the number was around 5% or so. So it's very, very small numbers, but yes, absolutely. Perceptions could be affected by news and the media or by anything, talking to neighbors, talking to friends, all kinds of different things. These really are perceptions, questions, giving people's perceptions of these.

And then a couple of the things that I was kind of excited about that I'm sure you guys noticed, but either in the trends or just the general data People are liking our cultural events. There's an increase in quantity of cultural events and opportunities. I don't know if we've actually increased our events, but we have changed them up a little bit. And I think our wine and music festival and jazz festivals are, and of course there's always the art fair, but I think people are really kind of digging into that. And this other topic, which was heartened by more than half of residents, with an opinion, support the city using financial incentives to attract and expand arts and culture venues. And I'm not saying we have to use incentives or anything, but I'm just glad that I'm glad to know that people are really looking for this. And because I think we can, we can, try to provide a lot of that. We can try to do some collaborations and really get more, even more of that going. And that just goes more to supporting our big picture quality of life, which

is our main goal. I think too, adding to that, the cultural events, citizens, residents of Clayton seem very happy with it. And the recent events, I think, have had a much more, a broader draw, which helps our perception regionally and diversity and inclusion, all those different things. And yet we're still getting that higher resident satisfaction as well. So that's all great.

Yeah. Okay, good. All right. Any other comments? Do you have anything to say about it all, David? JoAnne Hanrahan, All right, well, I think that wraps up our survey you're going to follow up with some demographics or age demographics by question, you know my for some of these questions. JoAnne Hanrana, get back to us on that.

Dave Kuntz, yeah absolutely we can do that, we can run a cross tab that breaks results out for all the questions on the survey by age number of years lived in the city sounds like there was at least interest in those couple. Dave KuntZ, there's anything else, let me know we can we can. run it by other demographic questions as well.

Well, as long as we're asking, and you've asked to ask more, can you run it by multi-family and single family?

Yeah, we can do that. Yeah, yep, absolutely.

just be interesting to know because we have some some sort of major cohorts especially in our towers condo towers those are kind of neighborhoods in and of themselves and it'd be interesting to know what they value and what their concerns are etc okay great thank you yeah

thank

you very much all right well that concludes everyone enjoy the rest of your night we'll keep meeting um i think we can take a break mill about and then come back at seven. Thank you. All right, well, welcome to our main ninth Board of Alderman meeting. Welcome to our visitors as well. And if we can go ahead and get started, I will ask our city clerk to call the roll.

Alderman Berkowitz. Alderman McAndrew. Here. Alderman Buse. Here. Alderman Patel. Here. Alderman Gary Feder.

Alderman Berkowitz. Alderman McAndrew. Here. Alderman Buse. Here. Alderman Patel. Here. Alderman Fader.

Here.

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

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

Okay, now's the time on our agenda when we ask for public requests and petitions. So if there's anyone here or online that has a topic for us that is not on our agenda tonight, now's a good chance for you to speak up. And I don't see any hands. So we'll move on. We have a proclamation for building safety month and is there someone here to receive the proclamation? Do we know?

be Anna Krane

be anna crane

that would be anna okay i'll read it to you then here um are you ready to hear it okay proclamation um whereas the city of clayton is committed to recognizing that our growth and strength depends on the safety and essential role of our homes buildings and infrastructure play both in everyday life and when disasters strike Whereas our confidence and the resilience of these buildings that make up our community is achieved through the devotion of vigilant guardians, building safety and fire prevention officials, tradespeople, design professionals, laborers, and others in the construction industry who work year-round to ensure the safe construction of buildings. And whereas modern building and fire codes include safeguards to protect the public from hazards such as hurricanes, snowstorms, tornadoes, fires, floods and earthquakes. And whereas Building Safety Month is sponsored by the International Code Council to remind the public about the critical role of our community's largely unknown protectors, like Anna, of public safety, our local code officials who assure us of safe, sustainable and affordable buildings that are essential to our prosperity. And whereas it starts with you, the theme for Building Safety Month 2023 encourages us all to raise awareness about building safety on a personal, local and global scale. And whereas here in Observe Building Safety Month, people all over the world are asked to consider the commitment to improve building safety, resilience and economic investment at home and in the community, and to acknowledge the essential service provided to all of us by local and state building departments. fire prevention bureaus, and federal agencies in protecting lives and property. Now, therefore, be it resolved, I, Michelle Harris, Mayor of Clayton, Missouri, hereby proclaim May 2023 as Building Safety Month in the City of Clayton. Thank you to all of our public safety folks that are mentioned in this, but also your team who's not here, but our inspectors who really do a lot of heavy lifting in terms of trying to keep us all safe from things that are falling down stairs and different things. Thank you, Anna. All right. In that case, we'll move on to our public hearing. And if the city manager can report on renewable energy systems, I will open the public hearing.

All right, this is a public hearing to consider amending article 28 renewable energy systems, the city's zoning regulations to revise the location requirements and create an administrative review process. Recently, there have been multiple inquiries about modifying the edge of roof setback requirement for roof mounted solar panels on sloped roofs. Under the building and fire codes adopted by the city, there are circumstances that allow for a setback of less than two feet from roof eaves, ridges and edges. The city's zoning regulations do not allow for the same setback reductions. Staff has drafted a text amendment that would align building-mounted solar panel setbacks with adopted building and fire codes. The amendment would also modify the administrative approval process to allow for modifications to regulations that comply with adopted codes and do not have potential negative impacts to public safety, health, and welfare. The plan commission considered this request at its meeting on May 1st, 2023 and voted unanimously to recommend approval. Staff recommends that the Board of Aldermen approve the amendment as proposed.

I just want to say that I

appreciate this continued effort to make our provide more options for renewable energy and appreciate you guys identifying these and

bringing them to us. Thank you.

I'll introduce bill number 6972 approving amendment to chapter 405 article 28 renewable energy systems to be read for the first time by title only. Second.

And I'll go ahead and close the public hearing as well. Any further discussion? Okay. Mr. City Attorney.

All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay.

I'll move that the board give unanimous consent to consideration for adoption of bill number 6971 on the day of its introduction. Second. All those in

favor?

Aye.

Opposed? All right, let the minutes reflect. The board has given

unanimous consent. I'll introduce bill number 6972, approving an amendment to chapter 405, article 28, renewable energy systems to be read for the second time by title only. Second. City Attorney.

Bill number 6972 second reading

consideration for adoption in ordinance of any chapter 405 zoning regulations article 48 renewable energy systems of the Clayton city code to revise rooftop setbacks for energy systems modify the administrative

that by the way is the Clayton city.

Alderman McAndrew. Aye. Alderman Buse. Aye. Alderman Patel. Aye. Aldeman Gary Feder. Aye. Aldermen Rick Hummell. Aye. Mayor Harris. Aye. Thank you.

Alderman McAndrew. Aye. Alderman Buse. Aye. Alderman Patel. Aye. Aldeman Fader. Aye. Aldermen Hummel. Aye. Mayor Harris. Aye. Thank you.

Okay, now we have resolution. Yeah, resolution number 2023 for a CUP for number 19 Carswall. I will open the public hearing and request proof. How come I'm not requesting proof of publication? I should be okay. You're doing the right thing. I thought maybe something changed.

Oh, you've got it.

There we go. Okay, Mr. City Manager.

Great, this is a public hearing and subsequent resolution to consider granting a conditional use permit to Scott and Carrie. Okay. Sottle bin? Okay, there we go. Thank you very much for the help there. Owners of 19 Cars Fall Drive to allow for the construction of a 2,711 square foot accessory structure containing a 917 square foot detached 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 and site plans for the project on May 1st, 2023. and recommended approval of the CUP and approved the architectural and site plans. The 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 voted 5-0 to recommend approval of the CUP with the following conditions. First, all conditions of Chapter 405, Article 2, Section 405.330 shall be adhered to. And 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 issuance of a building permit. Staff recommends that the Board of Aldermen conduct a public hearing, consider approving the resolution granting a conditional use permit for a 917 square foot detached ADU for 19 cars while drive. Thanks.

Any questions or comments, either from the audience or from our board? Okay. I don't see any, so I

will close the public hearing. I'll move to approve resolution number 2023-15, granting a conditional use permit for 19 Carswold. Second. Any discussion?

All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Very good. You're done. Yeah. yeah they should all right next on the agenda is our consent agenda and do you want to report on it or do you want to say anything

no there's a motion and a vote we can approve it

okay um if nobody has any questions about anything on that consent agenda um we can move ahead to uh approve it

i'll move to approve the consent agenda with the items listed second

any discussion Alderman McAndrew. Aye. Alderman Buse. Aye. Alderwoman Patel. Aye. Aldeman Gary Feder.

any discussion Alderman McAndrew. Aye. Alderman Buse. Aye. Alderwoman Patel. Aye. Aldeman Fader.

Aye.

Aldermen Rick Hummell.

Aldermen Hummel.

Aye.

Mayor Harris. Aye.

Thank you.

Okay, now it's time again for your report, Mr. City Manager, and we're on to the marijuana offenses.

Yes, and we have two ordinances on the agenda tonight. This report will cover both of those. The passage of Amendment 3 to the Missouri Constitution by voters in November 2022 legalizes and regulates specific activity regarding the use, possession, distribution, and processing of marijuana products and related paraphernalia. The ordinances before the board this evening update the city's regulations to conform with Amendment 3. Ordinance 215.685 restricts the smoking of marijuana to the same regulations applied to tobacco products and the Code of Ordinances of the City of Clayton. The second ordinance on the agenda creates six new sections to the Code of Ordenances to incorporate the prohibitions and allowances of marijuana activity established in Amendment 3. Staff recommends approval of both proposed ordinances.

Okay, thank you. Any discussion? Anything from our audience? I'll ask first. Yes, if you want to come on up and we know you but go ahead and state your name and your address for the record. I

was chatting with you before this and

multiple newspaper articles, not just any here except for the Post briefly, about how marijuana sales are dipping radically after a certain amount of time from it being allowed to be sold legally in a certain area because it's still more expensive than buying it illegally. So I'm just hoping that the city of Clayton is not going to get real excited about marijuana sales in Clayton and have a lot of said shops. That's number one. Number two, I have a concern because at no, and perhaps our captain can address this. I do not know and have not read of any kind of test that can let us know whether anybody is driving impaired from the use of marijuana. And I'm a little concerned that the county is trying to open or make it appropriate to open marijuana bars or whatever, where it's going to be legal to utilize and buy and utilize the product there. What kind of legal ramification might that have? for the city of Clayton if number one, the county does do that. Number two, we have an accident in Clayton from somebody who is impaired but could not be tested for it that was imbibing in some place other than Clayton. And number three, if we do allow the usage or have marijuana lounges and allow the usage here in clayton if somebody leaves that lounge and then has an accident or causes injury what kind of responsibility would we the city of clayton have toward that and so i would kind of like the uh chief to be able to address some of the legalities of that, if that's possible, please.

I think that's possible. He's sitting right there in the back of the room.

Yeah, I'd be happy to

assist. I think some of this is a little bit outside the chief's wheelhouse. With regard to the last question, just as with alcohol sales, the city has no liability if a licensed alcohol, somebody with a liquor license over-serves a customer and that's a dram shopper's liability on the part of the operator or the licensee. It's no liability on the part the city. Second, with regard to marijuana lounges, which newspapers are touting as a county consideration, This ordinance would not allow the smoking of marijuana or cigarettes cannot be smoked and cigarettes cannot be smoked at places of employment or restaurants in indoor restaurants under our current ordinances so this would not allow that type of use in the county would not their zoning ordinances wouldn't apply to the city. Other questions, I think. If someone's driving and is in impaired condition, that's a science question. And as far as I know, there is no ready test.

That's correct. There's no chemical test similar to the breathalyzer test for marijuana. However, we could do a very thorough investigation at the scene using statements. There are field sobriety tests we can use at the scene as well to determine if somebody's impaired. But it would take a very thorough investigation to complete that.

And the same as we, you know, over time we've developed methods to identify alcohol and the level of alcohol. I'm sure sooner or later there'll be some method to do that. But that, of course, it's still an offense under these ordinances. It's an offense to drive impaired. And that continues to be the case no matter the source of the impairment. So I believe that addresses the question. Okay, very good.

All right. Any questions from you all, from the board? Yes,

Rick. Oh, I'll be real quick. It is such an evolving field. We're going to be learning along the way. And I think the other thing we need to keep in mind as well is we had our neighbor, a gentleman come in and talk about the concerns and the odors with growing and whether it was in the current restrictions of COVID you know, Missouri law. So I think we need to be aware of that and stay on top of it to the extent we can. And I appreciate your comments.

Thanks. I might add, if I may, in response, one of the other questions was about what does this have to do with sale of marijuana? The constitution the voters approve prohibits the city from prohibiting sales of marijuana. So we will deal with that as we have in the zoning code already. But, you know, we are not unless You wish to submit a proposition in November 2024 and get 60% of the people to say it's illegal to sell marijuana in town, in which case it only applies to recreational marijuana, not medical. Short of

that, we are not allowed to do that.

If I could ask one follow-up question. Yeah. I believe we have two locations in Clayton where folks that are like cigar bars or where people can smoke cigars indoors. Whether I'm precise on that, you can let me know. But how does that, like, do they also allow the smoking of cigarettes? And would they, could they? Like, could an establishment operate in that way and allow the use of marijuana.

I'll pull up that provision. It is specific to tobacco shops, and I know it says tobacco all over that, so I'm not sure that marijuana would apply to that particular situation. We're not

necessarily adjusting that. Correct. I'll

pull that up and take another look at it. At this point. Right.

Okay.

Thank you. That's a good question.

Yeah. And I'm sorry. And can I ask just one to what you said? So I know it's on the city council's agenda tonight about these marijuana lounges and whether or not county council, county council, I'm sorry. Is that what I meant to say that the county council's agenda, I think tonight, and they're talking about it. So if they were to pass it and allow it, are we saying tonight, we would not allow that in the city of Clayton or is that a different.

I have not seen the ordinance.

Okay.

But it. absent a countywide health regulation, the county's ordinances in general apply to the unincorporated areas of the county. Got it.

Okay. So it's not really applicable to us. Right.

And the ordinances proposed here tonight treat smoking marijuana the same way we treat smoking tobacco.

Right. I just didn't know if they were trying to carve out something different.

Thanks. I have clarification on Becky's question then. David, if you're going back to look at that, what are we approving tonight if there's cigar bars? Are we allowing the non-tobacco product to be included in that or not?

I have to look at to answer that specificity.

It's in a section that specifically deals with tobacco, not smoking generally.

So whatever... What we're proposing tonight would not allow.

If I want to put my colleague on the spot.

Sorry, he showed up.

Yes, he is going to be sorry he showed up. Mr. Cronin was far more than an amanuensis in the preparation of this legislation. Kyle, do you have an answer to these questions?

OK, thank you.

Rick, I think you had a question, then I have a question.

Yeah, and City Attorney O'Keefe addressed it somewhat, but I was unaware that there was a provision to go to the voters in November of 2024 if your community didn't want these. And so my question simply was, was that discussed by the board in the past, and was it... contemplated that that was something that we had no interest in. And the reason I brought up is just the city of De Pere, it's been in the news lately. And so that is a community that seems to be very active about that. And I don't have a position on this. I'm just more curious if we had contemplated that.

As far as I know, we have not contemplated it. I think we've been aware of that opportunity, but we have not really fully discussed it. So no one has suggested that they're interested in discussing it. If you are, we can put it on an agenda, an upcoming agenda. We could even perhaps bring it up at a retreat or something.

Yeah, it was more if a resident said something to me, then I wanted to know how to respond. And so at this point, I have no idea how any resident feels about it.

I mean, I think that as a board, we haven't taken a statement or a position on whether we like support or don't support whether we want to like fight the constitutional amendment and I interpreted some of our esteemed attorney's comments with a hint of sarcasm sarcasm which may or may not have been inappropriate on my part. Certainly, we would have the ability to do that, but it's not something that we've discussed at all and either said we would be interested in or not.

I, of course, have no opinion on the merits of any ideas. But the voters of Missouri strongly supported adopting Amendment 3. I believe it got a very positive vote in St. Louis County. I can't speak to Clayton itself, but I wouldn't be surprised that it fared rather well in Clayton. It did. It's intentionally designed to make it very difficult for a city to opt out. You can only do it during a gubernatorial slash presidential election. So you've got time to think about it if you want, because the deadline for getting on the November 2024 ballot is in August of 2024. And if I recall the amendment correctly, if you pass it, it only applies to the adult use that is recreational marijuana option And the dispensary sales for medical marijuana would still not be blocked because presumably they're medical service. So it, I think, gains you relatively little. But those are judgment calls that you all are in a far better position to make an informed choice on than not.

Well, we can think about it if we want to discuss it. That's fair game. I have one question. I think I mentioned it to you, David, earlier today, but I just want to clarify this. This might be well, this could be for you or for chief. But so right now. if I'm driving down the street and Chief drives by and he sees me sucking down a giant cocktail of some sort, and it's obvious, and he might pull me over and say, what's in the glass? But because the idea is that I'm consuming this while I'm driving, I could potentially become uh intoxicated and so while we don't we're not allowing smoking of marijuana in public places or restaurants you know it's more of a smoker's thing a smoke thing what are we what's our How are we going to kind of police, you know, because I can tell you very frequently I drive by cars and the smell is just coming out. It's, you know, obvious what's going on. Are you going to be stopping people or is that something we legitimately do or what?

I will point out as chiefs walking up. There is a provision in this ordinance. It specifically states no person shall smoke marijuana within a motor vehicle or other motorized form of transportation while it's being operated within the city. So we did pull that directly from the amendment. However, just so I don't know if I should be pointing it out, but If you violate that section of the code, the civil penalty does not exceed $100. Yeah. So we can pull people over. It's probably probable cause to pull somebody over. Somebody smoking and you smell it for sure. Right.

Sure. So you will pull people over and...

Yeah, if we observe it, I suppose. We haven't been there yet. I know. In the past, before it was pretty cut and dry, but now things have changed. But yeah, if people were... doing something that would create a public safety hazard, we definitely address it.

Okay. All right. Very good. Thank you.

I was just going to comment. We had a resident who was here a couple of weeks ago who was concerned that His neighbor was growing marijuana plants, I think on the maybe on the deck of their house and I know I think the chief sent somebody over there but I noticed it sort of embodied now in our ordinance, how difficult it is actually to complain about that because first of all it has to be the amount of marijuana. has to be in excess of the amount that's authorized by law. And it's a certain number of plants that is permissible. And then it has to be visible from a public place. So I think this neighbor said, well, you can go in my second house floor bedroom and you can see the plants, but you couldn't see them from the street. And so, and on that top of that, even if that neighbor was violating it, they'd only be subject to a $250 fine. Although it does say forfeiture the marijuana so maybe the stakes are a little higher but but nonetheless it points out how difficult it will be if this sort of thing becomes more of a pattern to enforce.

And I might add, we didn't left it that way to take it easy. That's what you have to do. That's what the people of Missouri adopted.

Okay. And I did want to mention, I pulled up that section that deals with retail establishments that have more than 70% of the volume of trade of the business is in the sale of tobacco and tobacco related products. Then you can smoke in that establishment. Everything in that particular ordinance is specific to tobacco. So nothing we're doing tonight would allow you to sell or smoke marijuana, that particular.

So like the Ritz-Carlton had a cigar bar. How does that relate to what you just talked about? I'm reading

one particular section. There's another one that talks about private clubs and it does specifically have cigar bars in there. So that's how the Ritz-Carleton is able to have theirs.

So, and just what you're saying is that what we're doing tonight is not going to make it legal to smoke marijuana, either in the Ritz Carlton cigar bar or the cigar shop on the far side.

Correct.

Yeah. I'm just going to say that one more different way because so even though we modeled our ordinance on our smoking ordinance, our smoking ban. which includes cigar bars and John's Pipe Shop or whatever. This will not include cigar bars or John's Pipe shop.

That's correct, but they're only allowed to smoke tobacco products specifically

the way this

ordinance is written. They can only smoke tobacco products in those particular establishments.

That does not include wacky tobacco then. Okay. I'm sorry, I just wanted to clarify one other way because you know we have the ordinance so similar but okay very good. Thank you very much.

I would add that with respect to the cigar bar issue. they're not licensed dispensaries to sell or purvey marijuana. So people at best could only bring their own. Yeah, I agree. Which I think generally in the cigar bars, it is they sell the cigars for consumption there or store them there on premises, which would be illegal as to marijuana.

And the sale is what allows you to smoke inside the

building. Good point. All right, so any other discussion? All right,

Alderman McAndrew. I'll introduce bill number 6973 to approve an amendment to chapter 215 relating to offenses involving marijuana and marijuana accessories to be read for the first time by title only.

Second.

Any discussion?

Okay, Mr. City Attorney.

Bill number 6973, first reading an ordinance amending chapter 215 of the Clayton City Code relating to offenses involving marijuana and marijuana accessories.

All those in favor?

Aye. Opposed? I'll move that the board gives unanimous consent to consideration for adoption of bill number 6973 on the Davidson introduction. Second.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? Okay, let the minutes reflect. The board has given unanimous consent.

I'll introduce Bill No. 6973 to approve an amendment to Chapter 215 relating to offenses involving marijuana and marijuana accessories to be read for the second time by title only.

Second.

Any discussion?

Hey, Mr. City Attorney.

Bill number 6973, second reading and consideration for adoption. An ordinance amending Chapter 215 of the Clayton City Code relating to offenses involving marijuana and marijuana accessories.

Alderwoman McAndrew. Aye. Alderwoman Buse. Aye. Alderman Patel. Aye. Aldermen Gary Feder. Aye. Aldernman Rick Hummell. Aye. Mayor Harris. Aye. Thank you.

Alderwoman McAndrew. Aye. Alderwoman Buse. Aye. Alderman Patel. Aye. Aldermen Fader. Aye. Aldernman Hummel. Aye. Mayor Harris. Aye. Thank you.

Okay. Now we're getting on to the restrictions on smoking marijuana in certain places. Maybe we just covered some of this

in our discussion. That's correct. There's one report for both

ordinances. Okay, no report. All right. You want to go

ahead and introduce it? I'll introduce Bill No. 6974 to approve an amendment to Chapter 215, Restrictions on Smoking Marijuana in Certain Places, to be read for the first time by title only. Second. Any discussion?

Okay, Mr. City

Attorney. Bill number 6974, first reading and ordinance of any chapter 215, article 13 of the Clayton City Code relating to restrictions on smoking marijuana in certain places.

All those in favor?

Aye. Opposed? I'll move that the board gives unanimous consent to consideration for adoption of bill number 6974 on the day of its introduction.

Second.

All

those in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? Let the minutes reflect. The board is giving unanimous consent. I'll introduce Bill No. 6974 to approve an amendment to Chapter 215, Restrictions on Smoking Marijuana in Certain Places, to be read for the second time by title only. Second. Discussion? To

the attorney.

Bill No. 6974, second reading and consideration for adoption. An ordinance amending Chapter 215, Article 13 of the Clayton City Code relating to restrictions on smoking marijuana in certain places.

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

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

Aye.

Aldemann Hunt? Aye. Mayor Harris? Aye. Thank you.

Okay. The moment some of us have been waiting for. We're going to talk trash. Mr. City Manager.

All right, the City of Clayton's current contract with Republic Services for the collection, removal and disposal Disposal of municipal and residential solid waste, yard waste, and recyclable waste expires on September 30th, 2023. On March 7th, 2023, two invitation for bids were released for the single family solid waste management project and the multifamily solid waste management project. Single family is defined as two or fewer units per building and multifamily is defined as three or more units per building. Each project includes the collection, removal and disposal of solid waste, yard waste, compostable material and recycling waste within the City of Clayton for the period October 1st, 2023 through September 30th, 2026 with two mutually optional one-year extensions. Each bid package contain add alternate bid items for city services which include facilities, events and street waste containers. Additionally, each bid package provided opportunities for bidders to include a percentage reduction if submitting for both contracts and an opportunity to attach value-add items for consideration. A mandatory pre-bid meeting was held on March 28th, and three waste haulers participated. Bids were opened on April 9th, 2023. The City received one bid from Republic Services for single-family service and two bids for multi-family service from Republic Services and Meridian Waste. Analysis of the bids used estimates of the existing containers in use and costs from each bid submittal. Republic Services submitted the lowest most responsive and responsible total base bid for both projects. The aggregate annual rate for single family and multifamily services for the first year is estimated to be $1,603,998 and $985,164 respectively. The next lowest bidder for the multifamily project Meridian was approximately 18% higher. Republic Services was the only submission to offer value add items for consideration. They included the use of CNG trucks for four of the six vehicles servicing Clayton, the Republic Services app for customer service and recycling education by way of their website, recyclingsimplified.com, which includes K through 12 curriculum. And they were working with Clayton schools to implement their curriculum at no charge. Rates for container rental and other services or container sizes were established as part of the bid process and can be found in the attached bid tab. As required by each contract, the selected hauler will establish accounts with property owners for direct payment of service and any charges to service or containers can be made directly through the hauler. The cost information will be accessible through the city website for residents to reference. For year one of single-family rear yard service, Republic Services' amount is $1,603,998. That is a rate of $53.19 per month for that first year of service. And then we have 4.5% annual increases after the first year. For multifamily, Meridian had a year one rate of $1.161 million. Republic Services was at $985,164. There is a 4.7% annual increase in the Republic bid. The total cost for add alternate bid items for city services was $184,831 from Republic Services and $183,644 from Meridian for year one with both haulers increasing approximately 4 to 4.5% each year. Republic Services was $1,187 higher for the service but were much lower on the base bids. Rates for this service will be billed directly to the city. Staff recommends that the Board of Aldermen approve ordinances authorizing the execution of contracts with Allied Services LLC doing business as Republic Services of Bridgeton for both the single family solid waste management contract and the multifamily solid waste management contract. including the add alternate option for city services on the single-family solid waste management contract for the period October 1st, 2023 through September 30th, 2026 with mutual options for two one-year extensions. We do have representatives from Republic Waste here this evening as well as Matt Malik, our Director of Public Works, who I'd like to thank for his work on this particular project. And I also received one question just asking, what's the general increase in price overall? If the city were to pay this particular amount, what kind of increase would that have worked out to? The city's current contract is budgeted as $2,757, so $2.25 million. This would increase to $2.77 million, which is a total increase of 23%. If you remember when we were talking about the potential increases that we thought we would get, we thought we would be somewhere in that 25 to 40% range. We've used 30% in our projections. So you can see the overall increase of 23% isn't quite as high as we had thought. So I just wanted to point that out as well. But let's open it up for questions.

Yes. Okay. Any discussion? Any discussion from our audience or our online audience? Okay, any discussion from the board? Yeah, Bridget.

I'll just say, I think, you know, this has kind of been a long process. I think for our staff and certainly for all of us, I think we have discussed it many, many times. I think it was a hard decision. I think for all of us to at least a hard decision in the sense that knowing we had to tell our residents that they were going to have to stomach this cost. I don't think it was a deficit, um, and be able to recover it. Um, but I think we have found a really good result here. I think it's still hard. Um, I still, you know, I still feel bad for, especially some of our residents who, you know, a $636 increase, approximately six 40, 650 per year, um, is to, and for people that are on fixed budgets, you know, It's a good chunk of change. But, you know, I think as we talked to all of our residents, we couldn't really give them an idea of what this was going to cost them. And I think this is better than, you know, who knows what the number could have been. I think we all really struggled with that. So I think looking at this number, I could at least say to my neighbors, this is what the number is going to be for a while. And I think they all kind of took a sigh of relief. while also feeling my service isn't gonna change. I think as I was talking earlier to some of our representatives from Republic, my neighbors love the people that come and get their trash and recycling. So I'm grateful that Republic came back with a good number and that we're able to move forward with this contract.

Yeah, totally agree. And just if I could interject one thing before I forget, but based on your comments, I think we talked a while back about perhaps trying to make some accommodation for those on really severely fixed incomes and who would this would present a true hardship for probably some of our older residents, et cetera. So I know that we're going to work on that.

Yes, so that was on the item of potential retreat topics. It didn't make the final agenda. But I had talked to Alderman Berkowitz earlier today. And at the next meeting, so May 23, we'll talk about a potential rebate program for low income households. And we'll need to do some research. There aren't a lot of programs out there like that. But it's separate from this contract. It isn't anything that the hauler would need to do. But it would be a potential rebate on the city side. So that's a discussion that will be upcoming and We'll keep the public informed as we go on

that. Also, I'm excited to see also the education too, you know, to be able to get those younger kids informed and excited about recycling, I think is great. And also the electric or the trucks that aren't quite as diesel consuming, the CNG trucks, I think is a great and the app. I would like to hear and maybe you guys will talk about this just so that when people say to me okay what happens next I'm kind of, I'd love to kind of hear from you to hear kind of when will when they will start when you will start communicating with them and so.

Yes. Sure, that would be fine. And as Susan walks up to the mic, I will say that the first thing that will happen is we've got a letter that we've drafted internally. We'll also share that with Republic that will go out with the mayor's signature on it and really close the loop. We've been, you know, educating the public on this for over a year talking about finances and talking about potential options and then walking them through the decision. to turn waste billing over to residents. So the next correspondence that they get will be from the city that explains kind of, you know, this process where we ended up and then inform them that they'll be receiving correspondence from Republic regarding the actual counts.

And I think, correct, and David and I just had some communication last couple hours about this. We want to make sure, first of all, we want to make sure they get, they know how to, I don't want to say read the bill but they can understand how. I don't know why we make our invoicing so difficult and we use terms that nobody under, you know, like general public that know what a lift is right and. But anyway, we've learned through experience we go from a city built to an individually build contract which we've done many times. that it's good to educate the resident ahead of time before they get that first invoice, what it's going to look like and what it mean. So I intend to do that. The billing, technically we'll start billing residents for the October, November, we bill quarterly, October, November, December. I don't know what kind of bill cycle we'll set up on. It'll probably go out like either... september 15th or october 15th so either a bit in arrears or or a bit ahead but prior to that time so like later this summer we'll do a mailer to residents to explain in addition to what the city has explained what we do want to do is try to keep those just questions like keep either a website a city website page, you know, reference somewhere they can go and just find their own answers. So they just don't start blowing up our call center with 4,000 phone calls, you know, that, you know, would be better answered probably laid out on a webpage. So, but we'll do a mailer prior to the first invoice.

And that app is that? The

app we have right now. I've just really never promoted it because it's great for payment.

Right.

um your your residents tend to go through public works to report misses so but the app you can like if you have a cart that needs exchanged if you need to report a miss if you want to schedule a bulk something like that um you can do that on our app which is uh uniquely named republic services so um just go to the app store download that so once they get there and i'll include that in the in the uh educational piece once they get their first invoice they can go and set up auto pay because they'll have an account number then so you know we're really going to focus on that education and as far as education on recycling again that's something i've always been able to do i just i just uh if somebody wants to connect me or send my contact information to somebody with the clayton schools you know i'd be happy to to get going on that most likely right next fall not anything before summer break here so

All right, very good. Thank you. Thank you. Okay.

Susan, any comments, questions? I think you all just took them all. First, I know very few communities where people actually smile when it's the day for waste collection because they enjoy seeing the people coming down the driveway. And that's very, very true here. And I did have a sigh of relief when I saw where your contract was coming in. So thank you for that. And I was going to channel Alderman Berkowitz because there was concern for those for whom it is a financial hardship. And I was wondering, I shouldn't have let you sit down. Have you seen, have you either provided or have you seen what other communities have done in helping people for whom it's a true financial hardship?

Actually, we manage, we have contracts with four of the county's eight districts, unincorporated districts. St. Louis County has a hardship program based on a financial need. So I could connect you with Jamil Franklin who's with the waste department. he takes the applications for those again based on income and then he just sends us the info and we build a county for that person's in this case for that person's service trash and recycle no optional services or anything but there is a program set up with the county that you may be able to mimic pretty easily so

great yeah i also have to commend you on the educational piece as well and the ability pieces that continues to evolve so

yeah yeah we have a We have a strong sustainability program. It's a nice fit here. So I'm excited as well to stay in Clayton and to continue, you know, serving the residents. And I'd be remiss if I didn't introduce Albert Lee. He's our new route supervisor. So he's been with the company several years in this role more recently, but he inherited a good team. He knows that, right? And he's keeping them happy. So, and then my boss, Joey Dunlap, our general manager, who is again, not new to the company, new to St. Louis. So new work, almost a year.

Thank you.

Thanks. I

might have a couple more questions just to save your steps. Thanks. So yeah, it's really good to just have the information and be ready to communicate it. I have a couple things I want to clarify. Can you just talk in like plain language about container usage? So presumably the containers folks are using today will work because it's no

change in service.

Yeah. And then we sometimes have confusion when people feel like they need a new container about whether they're supposed to get that from you or on their own, or whether they can get it from you or on your own. Can you just,

so we've allowed the bid that went out allowed for pricing for a cart rental. I believe it's $5 a month. Year one, that's just an additional, just added to the quarterly bill. If that cart should become defective, a wheel break, a lid, whatever, crack, that's replaced at no additional cost once you're renting a cart. But residents, since it's still backdoor service, et cetera, they're still allowed to use the current containers they have. They can either buy their own. If they need to replace their own, they can buy their own or they can rent a cart with us.

Great, thanks for clarifying that. Sure. And I think... that the single family service that's set to be $53.19 a month at the start, is that cost does include the trash pickup, the recycling pickup and the yard waste pickup in the single cost. And then the multifamily is harder to read. And I know that's like the nature of it. can you, is there any way to kind of like summarize what folks like, is Is multifamily similarly a single cost for all three services, or how can we think about how to tell people about that? Depends.

I think it's best described as a menu of options. So each one of these buildings is going to have a different need, both container size and the number of times it's picked up or lifted per week. um so each one of these buildings is going to need to determine what that service looks like and then if you look at the bid tabulation we actually have it priced out or there's a number of different container types with the number of pickups that you would have per week and so you can look at that that grid essentially almost like a menu select the service you want and so that's going to vary uh you know between all of these buildings but That's why it's so much to look at because you're not just looking at one particular number for each container type. It's also the number of pickups per

week. And as you're aware, right, with Clayton multifamily, there's space limitations. So we may have, I'm a speed caller, but I mean, we may have six carts, you know, six trash carts and six recycle carts where it'd be better to have a dumpster but there's no room to navigate, you know? So sometimes they're, they're pushed into, into what they can have, you know? Um, but right. The service is priced out just like any other, what we would call a commercial service for, uh, dumpsters, uh, two yards, four yards, et cetera. Um, based on the container size and then the number of days per week it's serviced.

Okay, so that's what the number CY means, the number of cubic yards. Two cubic yards or six, eight. And so that may or may not be represented through a variety of containers also based on how you can access the facility. Right. Some

have more two yards instead of an eight yard because again, space we can pull out. A lot of times the driver is pulling out the dumpster to service it. Well, I mean, it's enough to have a driver pulling out a two yard or four yard on wheels, but

eight

yards aren't practical, right? For a driver to physically pull out. Am I good so far?

Thank you. That's helpful. And then it doesn't look like we have the yard waste option in multifamily. Am I missing? There is,

but... There is. It's the... We're still using the laminated green tag. Yeah. And then for multifamily, don't we... We still offer it.

Yeah. Matt, I'm looking at this

Oh, it is. I see it there. There's one line for it. And that would be the option. So folks can choose that option if they want a yard waste pickup at a multi.

Okay. one unit for the basic core building.

Yeah, that's right.

Yep, that's right, that's what that was.

Thanks. That

discussion

was going on. All right, correct. That feels very helpful, thank you. And then my last question is about the curriculum and whether it does or could include compost and yard waste education.

There's probably some... curriculum on there already for that. So yeah, we can pull that in. Yes. Cool. Yes. Thanks. We can make that happen. we can make that happen. You can check out the, the recycling simplified. It's a resource tab and it's kind of a well-kept secret. So it needs to be out right. And

yeah. Yeah. I mean, I've seen folks from Republic talk about the, what you're doing here and it really is great. So helping people know that like our recycling and like it is going somewhere. Yeah. That's the best part. It's not, it's not going into the trash. Yeah. Yeah. So thank you. Very good.

Alderman Gary Feder, anything?

Alderman Fader, anything?

A couple of questions. I am, by the way, I'm very pleased with the result, with the price. I think at the end of the day, the residents wanted status quo. They probably didn't necessarily want to pay for it. But I think in that respect, it makes this whole process a lot easier because people will continue to get what they've received in the past. um i think your prior contract was was a fixed five years but maybe you can clarify that or at least i was just trying to understand why it's three years with two options for the year four and five is that sort of a joint city republic preference

that was for the bid spec the three plus the two

that's correct

mutually agreeable yeah right so no reason other than that's how it was written so

And in terms of the increase, it's pretty straightforward with single family. I mean, it's a set percentage and I realized that multifamily is much more complicated but to the extent it says at least in the summary that the multifamily would be increased from 4.5 to 4.7%, is that to say that each building when you get to year four you know, where is, how does that building know where their increase is going to fall in year four? Because the

pricing's lined out, including for the optional years of the

contract. It's whatever the specific number is. That's correct.

It's already priced.

All right. So it's already

priced.

Okay. I was

just going to add... I just

saw you on the screen. I'm like... Because I

created those percentages. I just wanted to add what we did is we looked at the... the number of containers currently in use and receive that total. So it's just an increase on the aggregate, not an individual container. So it's pretty representative, but one container might be slightly different than another. So

it's, it's pretty predictable, which is, which is helpful.

My bid submitted was pretty much four and a half percent across the board. There might be rounding differences or something like that, but yeah, essentially four and a half.

Thank you.

Annual on the anniversary date. Sure.

Anything else? Okay. Rick,

anything? At the risk of going backwards a little bit, I just had a question. Were we the last city or the only city that paid for trash? Or are there any other communities that still pay for trash?

There are still communities that pay. Through my book of business, I know the city of Richmond Heights pays on their own and city of Maryland Heights pays

to pair and creep core both

those are joel's well at creep core is joelle's kind of my counterpart joelle aguirre so I think creep core is also yes city city pay still

are a handful of cities that pay for it just not for there aren't any cities that pay for a rear yard service right it's the distinction

all right um and then um I guess I'd like David just to weigh in on this. My understanding is that while this may have been a painful process, it probably was excellent discipline in that we probably are better correlating costs with services received and then probably providing a better overall value at the end of the day. But what I'm trying to come up with are things to communicate to our residents. And so I want to make sure that's a true statement.

Yes, and I would say that's probably more true on the multifamily side. So if you look at the current contract, the way it's structured, we pay a rate that's per unit per month. So if you're in a big building with with 200 units and you're paying $20 per unit per month, you're actually paying way more than what it would cost to rent a dumpster and put it in the bottom of that building. So that shift alone going from per unit per month to going to the actual container cost to me is like you just said an accurate reflection of the service they're actually getting. Great.

Thank you. Um, Just a couple of minor questions, and this is maybe getting too much in the weeds. But my perception is that when there's missed pickups, our process of going through the city website is an advantage in that Public Works is aware when there are missed pickups. And so we can see if there's a trend problem. If they went through the app, would that still be the case? Is there any notification or that would just be information you have? It

would be information we have. Like our dispatchers currently have access to QAlert Is that going to stay in, Matt? It'll still be around, but the process won't be the same thing. So no, anything that comes through our app or is called to our CRC will not hit the city, but there's a way to report back. That's okay, you don't need to fix it right

now. I just-

Yeah, no, no.

And although we can't see that to verify those misses, there is a provision in here on page 12 of the single family contract that requires a monthly report of misses to come from Republic to the city. Okay,

all right, great. And then I'm wondering if you can explain what your process is if a household fails to pay or is delinquent in paying.

So the invoice is mailed out and is due within 30 days. After 30 days, we do our own internal collection calls. We don't, now I'm going to have my boss correct me if I'm wrong on this. And after 30 days, they would be notified via call to pay their bill. At 60 days, they go on suspend. We suspend service. that usually gets their attention and they'll say, why was I missed? And we'll say, because you owe us money. And there are late fees attached to that as well as suspend the fees. So there is a set process. It's universal across all of our contracts where we do the billing to residents. So, and I can provide that information in writing just so you have, you know, Dave and Matt, so it's available for reference. I've never really written it all out, so I can come up with something.

And so, just because I want to be clear on this, you don't have any rights to lien a residence like some utilities do if they fail to pay? No,

we don't. We don't do any leaves now. That sounds like a big waste of time for trash. And then

have we thought about as a city, if we have a residence that has, let's say they vacated it or they're not here, yet there's, well, maybe that wouldn't be a problem. Maybe there's a renter or whatever. The point is that there becomes an accumulation of trash and the bill is not being paid. Then what? I mean, I understand what the response there is, but what do we do? We still

have our typical code enforcement or property maintenance code enforcement mechanism. So that would fall under honest department. So if we had an accumulation of trash, if we had that today, trash or debris on a property, we would send an inspector over. They would have a short window to remedy that. And if not, we would issue a summons.

And so I'm just trying to play this out. I hope it never happens. But if that does, ultimately, does somebody actually still pick up the trash so it doesn't become a hazard for neighbors or does it become a legal thing and it could go on for a long

time? With a true hazard as far as public safety is concerned, then we can remedy that and try to go back and collect those monies.

It's not an easy process, but it's possible. And how often do you have delinquency issues after the suspension of

service? We don't have a lot of what we would say bad debt. I mean, it really depends. You know, we're all over the place. Well, I mean, Republican 41 states, but even just here out of St. Louis, we're covering three to four counties today. So it really depends. In a city with a higher rental ratio, it's an issue. You know, when you're getting into 60 or 70% rentals on single family homes, then it really, you got a lot of moving parts. So that's where it's really an issue.

Great. Thank you. That's all.

Okay, great. Great questions, everyone. Go ahead, Susan. I will eventually say something, but go ahead.

This is really quick. I know we had talked about with recycling doing the oops tag.

Yeah.

And where did that, are we doing? I

mean, we have oops tags available today for the drivers. We can make sure that they use them. You know, your recycling's pretty clean here. I get contamination reports daily from our recycle center. As the truck comes in and dumps, we record the truck number, where is it from, talk to the driver. They dump the truck, they audit the contents. If I get a contamination report from Clayton, It might be once every eight weeks. And that's if it exceeds 20% or more because then we ourselves charge ourselves for contamination. So with the way the collection is by hand with the drivers, it helps decrease contamination too because they usually see what they're dumping. Okay.

And the other part of that, I have had neighbors say, look how much recycling doesn't happen. And so I think it would be great when we roll this out if we say that Clayton Recycling actually is clean and this much actually gets recycled. I think that's important information.

Yeah, it is. And just so much out in the media about recycling and so much is assumed correct and it isn't. It doesn't apply to everything, right? So a lot of calls. But yeah, we landfilled the contaminated stuff, you know,

so. And I do want to clarify, we do have the oops tag program in the contract. So it is a contractual requirement.

Okay. There are no further comments. I think it's all been covered. But just to say, thank you. It's a great comprehensive service that you're going to provide for us. Our residents don't have to adjust to anything new. And I think, yeah, there've been a lot of friendships developed along the routes and a lot of dog friendships too. And so it's really good. It's really great to work with your team. I appreciate your service. I know I've had to call you a couple of times about some resident and you- jumped into action really appreciate that personal service um i think in terms of communications i just want to ask our perhaps we need to send different letters to single family and multi-family when we do our letter and and stuff just we can we're

talking about doing a combined that

i don't know if it

gets into it but

too much and then and then also

yeah we were going to keep it pretty general. On the multifamily, again, you've got this massive menu that's a

Right. So I would, so yeah. So I don't know, maybe it's separate. And then, you know, wondering if we want to put together some talking points for our, because there've been a lot of interesting benefits and questions answered here tonight. If we want to do an FAQ to give to our elected officials so that, you know, they can either distribute it or they can, or we can put it on a website and also they can have it in their pocket. And the last thing is, and I know you're going to talk about this with Republic, but we really want your help in capturing contact information, emails from our residents and encouraging them to sign up for our communications because we can help you in terms of educating about recycling and all that stuff. And also... You know, we have a lot of other communication needs that, you know, aren't fulfilled because we just learned half our residents don't even know that we send out communications electronically.

And we, like with our district contracts, we have to send postcards to those residents. Like the county will put their QR code on our postcard, you know, to take away survey or whatever. So happy to kind of co-brand.

yeah

whatever needs to go out and i know i'm gonna look at what you're doing and then i'll have you look you know uh look at what we create um and make sure it's it's cohesive right we don't want two separate messages we don't want different taglines or different you know but i really want to say um at the end of the day, your service is staying the same. And that's going to make a lot of deep breaths, right? Because when you go into a contract, either with changes or a new provider, anything, if the service has changed and that's what really gets people on edge. And so I know the billing is different. But at the end of day, the service is the same. Your drivers are still here. And I think that's really going to help with some of the typical headwind we would see in a situation like this. So it's a good thing.

Thank you very much. Thank you, Mary. Thank you all for your patience. All right. Alderman McAndrew.

I'll introduce bill number 6975 to approve contracts with Republic Services of Bridgeton for single family solid waste management and multifamily solid waste management to be read for the first time by title only. Second. Second.

Any discussion? Okay, Mr. City Attorney.

Bill number 6975, first reading, an ordinance approving contracts with Allied Services LLC doing business as Republic Services of Bridgeton for the single family and multifamily solid waste management services.

All those in favor?

Aye. Opposed? All right. I'll move that the board gives unanimous consent to consideration for adoption of bill number 6975 on the date of its introduction.

Second. All those in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? Let the minutes reflect. The board is giving unanimous consent.

I'll introduce Bill No. 6975 to approve contracts with Republic Services of Bridgeton for single-family solid waste management and multi-family solid waste to be read for the second time by title only. Second.

Any discussion? Okay, Mr. City Attorney.

Bill number 6975, second reading in consideration for adoption, an ordinance approving contracts with Allied Services, LLC, doing business as Republic Services of Bridgeton with a single family and multifamily solid waste management services.

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

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

Aye.

Aldeman Rick Hummell.

Aldeman Hummel.

Aye.

Mayor Harris. Aye. Thank you.

Okay. I think that concludes our main business. We a lot of times like to go around the room and see if anybody's got anything that they want to share what they've been up to. And so I'll just start with Bridget.

We had a plan commission last week, but a lot of it was covered in our meeting tonight. So there's not too much to report. So that's about it.

Yeah, there was a executive committee for CCF met and they talked about both kind of an update on the ice rink and the, you know, getting back to us by June one in the

comments and

the comments and getting back to us. By June one on that with a current price tag, including continuance of around 24 million is a very similar what you've told us Michelle. And the other topic that came up that night was the focus on the public art projects where there's a lot of energy and they have a consultant that's really great. And about how to start the fundraising and kick that off. I also just wanted to share that last Sunday night at the invitation of some neighbors, I went to the Whitney Strong gun safety. It was really a fundraiser and she was actually a victim at one of the, it was a third, fifth bank or whatever it was, one of the shootings in Cincinnati. And when she came out of it, started this to raise really bipartisan. She even had a picture of herself with Mitch McConnell to raise a bipartisan awareness of ways to protect us all and increase gun safety through education and some of the, again, shared values that a lot of people have. And it was really interesting as well because I would say maybe almost half the people there were Clayton residents. She had been a mom here in Clayton when her families, when her kids were at the WashU childcare, the nursery. And so it was a lot of people that we knew from the school district and from our neighborhoods who are at this and hoping that there'd be legislative action and more community actions to make things happen. So it's really worthwhile.

Interesting. Yeah, Becky.

Thanks. In the last few weeks, we had Hillcrest Homeowners Association meeting. I want to thank David, Matt Malick, Corporal Schwartz, and Captain Thuit who attended that and represented the city expertly and answered questions from residents. And then there was a coffee with a cop at Caldeas on Demand. So that was like, it was a beautiful day. It was last Thursday, I think, and a really nice experience with all of the officers who were able to be there and a number of residents coming through and talking about it. So that was great. There was a uniformed pension board meeting just yesterday. And the bottom line is that we continue to be well-funded and our assets are performing well against the market in spite of volatility and all of that. That was my takeaway. So thanks, that's all. Alderman Gary Feder.

Thanks. In the last few weeks, we had Hillcrest Homeowners Association meeting. I want to thank David, Matt Malick, Corporal Schwartz, and Captain Thuit who attended that and represented the city expertly and answered questions from residents. And then there was a coffee with a cop at Caldeas on Demand. So that was like, it was a beautiful day. It was last Thursday, I think, and a really nice experience with all of the officers who were able to be there and a number of residents coming through and talking about it. So that was great. There was a uniformed pension board meeting just yesterday. And the bottom line is that we continue to be well-funded and our assets are performing well against the market in spite of volatility and all of that. That was my takeaway. So thanks, that's all. Alderman Fader.

I attended the the non-uniform pension board. And instead of sitting next to our former colleague and copying off of his answers and questions, I sat next to our new alderman who is the expert on all these pension materials. And again, we seem to be doing well. We changed a couple of managers on a couple of funds, but that seems to be going well. I tuned into a webinar on a topic we're going to be talking about at the retreat, which is code enforcement. St. Louis County Municipal League had a program, Stephanie Carr from Kevin's office was the speaker and reminded me how those damn lawyers make this so tough on us. But anyway, there's a lot of law that makes code enforcement very difficult. And I know all of us hear from neighbors who are frustrated with condition of some properties and but it points out how difficult a subject this is. And finally, it's hard to believe, but A young man, I don't think I'll embarrass him by saying this, Andrew Conradi, who's a seventh grader at Wydown, sent me an email wanting to have answered some questions about PUD zoning, which is frankly hard to believe.

Right?

But sure enough, I said, Andrew, why don't we get together for coffee, except you probably don't drink coffee. So we but we in fact his father and Andrew and I were at Starbucks last Saturday and he went through his questions with me about PUD zoning. And hopefully I satisfied he's writing an article for the Y down newsletter. And if you're wondering how this happened, it was because I think Chris Holmes, who was at Y down on the faculty, used to be at the high school, who I know when I was on the Board of Education. Apparently, Andrew said, I'd like to write this article about zoning. And he said, well, why don't you ask Gary Feder? Because he's on the board. He knows something about zoning. anyway it was it was it was neat he he nodded his head a lot everything I told him about zoning I think he already knew and so he probably knows more than I do so in any rate it was it was a fun experience on a Saturday afternoon at at Colby's.

But sure enough, I said, Andrew, why don't we get together for coffee, except you probably don't drink coffee. So we but we in fact his father and Andrew and I were at Starbucks last Saturday and he went through his questions with me about PUD zoning. And hopefully I satisfied he's writing an article for the Y down newsletter. And if you're wondering how this happened, it was because I think Chris Holmes, who was at Y down on the faculty, used to be at the high school, who I know when I was on the Board of Education. Apparently, Andrew said, I'd like to write this article about zoning. And he said, well, why don't you ask Fader? Because he's on the board. He knows something about zoning. anyway it was it was it was neat he he nodded his head a lot everything I told him about zoning I think he already knew and so he probably knows more than I do so in any rate it was it was a fun experience on a Saturday afternoon at at Colby's.

So I haven't had lots of opportunities to have meetings but I did have one today so and I know I met with um J.D. Burton and Joanna Schooler from Washington University. J.D.' 's the new vice chancellor of government relations, and I know that he intends to meet with Becky, and I think he's meeting with you tomorrow, Mayor. But just in big picture, this is largely just relationship building. chancellor martin i guess has given him a charge to become more engaging with the clayton well all communities in terms of what their plans are um and where they're heading so they're trying to become more um assertive in that pursuit, including things like student life and how the students are either using city services or could they be more engaged in city government. And that includes all the governments through their Gephardt Institute. And then finally, they appreciate their participation in the Equity Commission and just want to affirm how important they believe that is part of developing a positive relationship with the city. And then regarding the NERF meeting, which we did have yesterday as Gary cited, I would note that we had the bare minimum of four people for the required quorum. And so I know you sent out a notice about new appointments. And so my question is, just help me understand what's the process for making those appointments? What's the calendar for that?

So this Friday, we will post applications for open board and commission spots. And we will also at the same time post in the county and the positions for judge and prosecutor. So all of those applications will go out Friday. The judge and prosecutor will have a two-week window to apply boards and commissions as well.

We leave it more open, right? So two weeks... So June

is when we do the appointments. So at one of our, do we, so again, this is getting into the details, but do we do it at a meeting or is it simply communicated? How does that work?

So ultimately the, yeah, ultimately the board will approve all of those appointments. Now, if you're a liaison on a particular board or commission, if you have somebody whose term may be up, it's probably time to ask them, Hey, do you, do you, seek reappointment for this, or if it's going to be open. I know that we have some commissions that are set up where things are ward-specific to some extent as far as the makeup of those particular commissions. So in that particular case, I think historically the practice has been the aldermen or the representatives from that ward will go and perhaps advertise it.

June has done this already, but probably... I think before you came on board, so maybe send him another one. But June has sent out a magnificent matrix of all of the terms and when people are up for renewal or not. And then it's our job as alderman, alder persons to go with everybody in your ward, ward one, look at all those folks and either figure out, like David said, do they want to do it again? Or do they want to drop? And if there's a vacancy, You know, we will take applications but also you can encourage people to apply because oftentimes we don't get enough applications for certain things so and then and then at some point we'll you know when we cut that off. Pretty much we just kind of figure out who's who can go where. and we'll approve it in a resolution

right

does that make sense

well yeah it does and a little

cumbersome

and i got the information from june it's more just um i'm going to be a nitpicker here but because i had quorum issues i want to make sure that i understand the calendar so that i can comply with it going forward that's i want to make

Yeah, so appointments in June should mean that we should be able to fill positions, assuming we have applicants, which we know we have at least one for the position you're highlighting. So we should have that position filled before the next quarterly meeting. That's a reasonable expectation.

Talking about those commissions, is there any way to find out people who have applied in the past and not been placed with the commission who might still have interest?

So we don't go

back beyond that. Okay,

okay.

So people should generally reapply if they,

yeah. Thanks. All right.

Um, well, I will just say, uh, I had a really inspiring morning. I went with chief and David and some of our officers to the slack mob, the, the police officers, uh, prayer breakfast as it's called. I'm probably butchering the name of it. Uh, but, um, It was inspiring. The purpose of it is to recognize those people who have given their lives in the line of duty, and there's a lot of ceremony to it, a lot of remembrances talked about, and some music, some bagpipes, some singing. It was really, really meaningful, I thought. I don't know how many people we think were there, but it was a huge crowd. And I said earlier tonight, a sea of blue. It was really, it really left me sort of in awe of what sacrifices have been made. So many people that have died in terms of keeping and trying to keep us all safe. So Chief, appreciate you and your team very much. And, you know, I'm looking forward to going to that again because I thought it was terrific. I and some other mayors, well, East West Gateway, if you've heard of them, it's an agency. It tries to address regional issues and they are holding a crime summit on May 17th and a bunch of us mayors will be attending. And so I will let you know how that goes. I have no idea what they're going to do there. I don't have an agenda yet, but I think it'll be very, very interesting. It's kind of almost an all day thing. And I wanted to remind everyone that Parties in the Park is tomorrow night, the season opener. And it's going to be on Brentwood, you know, near Oceano. And so I think we try to go. I'm going to probably take my daughter as my date. Pardon? It's closing the street. And so I, I think it's going to a nice day and I, you know, it's this Parties in the park used to be such an amazing thing. I remember going when I was younger. And, you know, it's kind of dwindled and COVID really knocked it back. And so I know they're trying really hard to get it going. And I think it's a great thing for community spirit and also all the people that work in Clayton, we hope will show up and work in Clayton and come to their offices and if we can start getting them there, I think, I think we have a lot of young people working in Clayton. We, I think they would enjoy it. So, and it supports our chamber, which supports us. So try to go or try to tell some people about it, et cetera. Anyway, that's, that's all from here. So, yeah.

I have one item. So Alderman Berkowitz couldn't be with us this evening. He did bring up the low income program when we were talking about the solid waste contract earlier, but we were also talking about the city correspondence. So he was gonna try to log on tonight and basically ask the question, when this first correspondence goes out from the city, do we want to say anything in that letter that the board is considering some type of program? I don't know how everyone feels about that as far as do we want people to see that and not be alarmed that if you're in that position, hey, here's a new bill I'm going to have to deal with. But at the same time, you could be setting an expectation that a program is put in place and we don't really have any kind of details on what that might be and nothing's been approved at this point. So I know that was a question he wanted to ask this evening. The reason I'm asking it is we've got to get that letter out and we really don't have time to have a conversation with the entire board with Alderman Berkowitz here to discuss that, but he did want to make sure that it was brought up this evening.

I think we should include it in the letter and just kind of say, you know, we, we, it's a little bit of an, you know, however we want to phrase it. It's not a definite, but we are seeking information and trying to see if we can provide something like that. I would put it in, but it doesn't apply to that many people. And I don't think so. It's those people that might get really stressed out worrying about this, that we'll be paying attention to that little one sentence.

And it is just on the single-family side. So in multifamily, there's going to be one bill that goes to these buildings, be it the property owner, the property manager, the HOA, in the case of condo buildings. So really you're talking about low-income single-family residents that would be targeted with this program.

So a question, so I'm just thinking through. So if I remember right, single family was defined as two family or smaller, right? And so some, I'm trying to think the way we do it now, the taxpayer pays for trash through their taxes. But when a, now who is going to pay the, in the case of a rental property, let's say a two families got two renters in it. Will the bill go to the owner of the two family or will the bill go to renters? The

bill will initially go to the owner the property and those are the records that Republic will be able to access. Now, the owner may work out some deal with the renters that they're the ones that received the bill for it. And that's something that's gonna play out with these individual properties for two family properties, like you mentioned,

or

single

family rental properties. Yeah, so it seems to me that certainly letting people know that there's such a program is a good idea. but the people that are likely to need it aren't going to get the letter. They're going to be a renter and probably won't get the letter. So the letter will go to the

property itself. So the owner, we'll have an owner of record that will be in the county system. So they're going to look at that, I think for billing purposes, the letters that we've been sending out though, we send to the actual physical address. So if the owner's in Florida, we've been letting people know what's going on with the service by sending it to the the actual property so the renter would be receiving the letter you think

correct they're opening it not just forwarding it right

and so really i'm in the end it's do we do we want to put it out there that there's potentially going to be a program um which again may give people some comfort but it may also upset some people if if the program doesn't ultimately materialize

It would seem to me there's a way to word it. That's like we're researching what programs are available. Certainly. And because it might even be not that we organize it, but that we direct people to a program that could assist them. Like, right. We don't know at this point what that's going to look like, but we do intend to research it to try to give people options. And that's it. Like we'll share more when we know it.

we are looking into

yeah we're like yeah

i

like yeah i like researching better than considering say we're considering then that's

we're researching options for residents on a fixed or low income and like that may be us like i said directing a resource or it may be us having some provision of assistance

david when were when were you thinking we would have a more thorough discussion i mean where we'd know more about what else is out there and we could respond to on the 23rd. Since we're going to discuss it on the 23rd, I still think it probably would be smarter to have the discussion rather than put it in a letter. If we were talking about, well, we're not going to have a discussion until July 1st, I get it. But if we're talking about discussing it and having you do some research or the city staff do some research, having a serious discussion on the 23rd I still think it would be much smarter to wait until we have a little more information rather than put something out there because there is the realistic, not even because we don't want to do it because it becomes very impractical or hard to do. And then we've set people up with an expectation. So given the short window of time, I'd rather see us have a discussion first.

Well, and I, although I think it, I mean, I think it really matters ultimately because the phone calls and the emails are going to go to you and matt and so being able to say i don't know you know like so like you you know like alderman Gary Feder said do we want to put information out there where I think if you're deliberately vague, I'd be okay with it. But I think ultimately you have to be comfortable about people emailing you and calling you and saying, I heard about that program. Tell me about it. So, you know, that's, I guess, kind of your call in a way.

Well, and I, although I think it, I mean, I think it really matters ultimately because the phone calls and the emails are going to go to you and matt and so being able to say i don't know you know like so like you you know like alderman fader said do we want to put information out there where I think if you're deliberately vague, I'd be okay with it. But I think ultimately you have to be comfortable about people emailing you and calling you and saying, I heard about that program. Tell me about it. So, you know, that's, I guess, kind of your call in a way.

That's why I wouldn't want to go. I wouldn't be comfortable going any further than researching.

Right. I mean, if it's a very simple one-liner. Yeah. Right.

So if we can tell that meeting. I don't know if it would be possible for us to come to some agreement on what the program would be so we could specify it in the letter. Probably not. Then we'd wait another two weeks to get that done. I don't know. I mean, I know we want to get the letter out. It seems like we want to get it out by the end of May maybe or early June.

We were talking about getting that letter out by the end or first part of next week. Now that this has been approved, we owe some people some updates on this I know for instance, when we talked to the condo board or association, we were going to try to get something out as soon as we had information that a contract was out there and available. So the question is going to be asked. So we just wanted to be quick and get ahead of that.

Well, are we going to have more communication after the end of this month? There will be lots. And

billing won't even start as soon Republic said until late September. So we've got time.

Yeah, it would seem to me we should address that point when it's more timely. I don't think we have to address everything right now.

No, I just I just worry about I mean, and again, it's not going to affect I mean, maybe it'll affect 5% of people. I

mean, it's public that we are asking you to research this. So like in the interest of transparency, it seems to me a simple statement to that effect. is reasonable. And then if people have questions, like if people are immediately like interested in it and they call, you can tell them we'll be talking about it in the public meeting on May 23rd. Like, please feel free to join us or check back after that period. It's not

good.

That's it.

I was first thinking it was crazy to say it until we knew something, but then again, it is because then

people can engage if they are stressed about it.

Yeah. It does release a stress that we're looking into it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah,

Yeah, I mean, you know, I've been accosted by a couple of more, I would say, elderly people who are very, very worried about this. And even though I've said, hey, it's just going to be around 50 bucks or something, they're like, well, I can't afford that. And so I just want to sort of try to alleviate their worries. And if we can make a general statement, say we're researching it and there'll be more information coming forward way before you have to pay your first bill. their options you know i don't know okay are you okay with that yeah

we'll play with some language and we'll keep it vague at this point yeah and uh sorry to prolong the meeting i just want to make sure everybody's comfortable with the letter that goes out and

appreciate it

great

yeah no i think that's good

excellent thank you um

yeah all right that's the end somebody want to make a motion to adjourn

i'll move to adjourn

second all those in favor aye aye

all

right thank you guys good meeting