Well, good evening.

I'd like to call to order our Monday, October 6th, 2025 regular Columbia City Council meeting.

I invite all those who are able to please rise and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Sheila, will you please call roll?

Miss Buffalo here.

Miss Carroll?

Here.

Miss Elwood?

Here.

Miss Sample?

Here.

Mr.

Foster.

Here.

Mr.

Waterman.

Miss Peters.

Here.

Well, thank you for joining us this evening.

This is our first Columbia City Council meeting since the events of the weekend of homecoming from Mizzou.

So I'd like for all to please join me and uh a moment of silence in remembrance of Ayana Williams and her bright light.

Thank you.

Well, the public have multiple opportunities to engage and speak with at Columbia City Council meetings.

And at the end of the meeting.

If you're an individual commenting, you'll get three minutes.

If you're an organization that's affected by the legislation being discussed, you can request five minutes.

I do ask that you help me acknowledge that so that our fellows can change the shot clock there that will tell you your timer left for that.

I do ask also that people be respectful of both the time limits and one another.

We don't always have to agree on everything, but we will respect each other as individuals and humans and neighbors.

Demonstrations that might intimidate your neighbors from speaking are not allowed at council meetings.

I want people to address issues, not individuals, and refrain from personal attacks, including on city staff.

If there are disrupt disruptions, they'll be addressed with a warning, and if necessary, removal and recess.

Second.

Second by Betsy Peters.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

All right, next up for our agenda.

Um, does anyone have any changes to the agenda?

Seeing none, I'll make a motion to approve the agenda as posted.

Do we have a second?

Second.

Seconded by Betsy again.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Uh and then next, uh, as mayor, I'm gonna do uh point of personal privilege.

I'd like to invite police chief Schlute forward to discuss the recent shooting downtown and what efforts have been done already for improved safety and future actions expected.

Thank you, Chief.

Good evening.

So I'm gonna go over quite a bit of information.

I'll try to make it um as much in chronic chronological order as I possibly can.

So as far as downtown, and I'm gonna repeat myself probably a little bit, but that's okay.

We actually started pulling data points from what was going on downtown earlier this summer.

So we recognize we had had some issues with increased violence, specifically gun violence in the downtown area.

And we tracked those incidents and kind of that culminated into looking at what's going on primarily after bar close of the eleven incidents we recognized.

Um, the vast majority of those were after bar closing time.

We'd have it kind of a hot spot in the Broadway and 9th and 10th area that shifted over into the 800 block of Walnut Street.

Uh so June 8th, um, we started in earnest putting more officers downtown in response to this.

And we really tried to focus them on not only dealing with obviously big things, calls for service that normally come out, like fights and disturbances, but also trying to start doing lower level enforcement so that we can really kind of set the tone for what kind of behavior we should be having downtown.

So, we've been tracking enforcement actions.

We've had well over 300 since June 8th, between Friday and Saturday nights, 9 p.m.

to 4 a.m.

July 1st was kind of another watermark in this, in that we had some more folks get out of training and we were able to add an additional eight officers to our overnight efforts.

So that really helped our capacity to have more people downtown during these key times when we needed to have more presence.

So that really increased patrol staffing by about 12% just in June, and then it was a 20% increase from the prior year.

So we'd really 20% is a lot more officers on the street, uh obviously during that time.

Citywide total crime data right now, as we sit here, and if you're not familiar with the, we have a new uh data dashboard.

It's if you Google Columbia Police Transparency, there's a link that will take you right to it.

Um we our crime stats are on there.

They get updated every day based on what we upload into the system as reports get done.

So that's a great place for you to go and get accurate crime data.

It's really important that you go to us as the source.

And I even say that over the Highway Patrol website because they only update their data every 30 days where we do it every 24 hours.

So right now, total crime is up about 14.7%.

So what's total crime?

So that's crimes against persons.

It's crimes, property crimes, crimes against property, and crimes against society.

And breaking those down a little bit further, for the last 365 days, so from this day, 365 days backwards.

Uh crimes against persons are up 7%.

So that's your that's almost exclusively driven by assaults.

So assaults are the most common crimes against persons that we investigate, and that can run the gambit.

A first degree assault is somebody getting shot or stabbed.

Then you have clear down to like a fourth degree assault where it's just a threat.

So that is a huge group of offenses and assault.

Uh crimes against property are down 13.6%.

And crimes against society are up 37.2%, which you might ask yourself, like I did.

Why is that?

Well, crimes against society includes things like drug use and possession, trespassing, uh, weapons offenses where there's no victims, so if someone's just in possession of a weapon illegally, uh liquor law violations, things of that nature.

The lion's share of those types of crimes are driven by proactive police work.

So I believe at this point the reason that category is so significantly high so significantly higher over last year is because we have more officers on the street, which allows us to do more proactive policing.

So we're encountering these types of offensive more, finding more guns, drugs, being able to enforce some lower level crimes that fall under this category as well.

So moving down on from that, umparing the two-month period of July and August of 2024 to 2025, uh arrests are up 31%.

And next to that, we have also reduced our response time for calls for service by about 20%.

So that's a really big improvement, and that's all driven by increased capacity.

Then I'm gonna move on from kind of how all this started back in June to downtown staffing and how generally I get lots of questions about how many officers are where when that's a real moving target.

Um generally on a shift right now, we have about 16 officers assigned to a shift.

They're spread out between beats and sectors, um, but we pull more resources into the downtown district overnight, obviously on busier nights, because we just need more presence down there.

There's a lot more people down there.

So it's pretty common for supervisors to get on the radio and say, hey, guess what?

It's that time again, everybody come downtown, we got to manage bar close and everything that's going on.

Um we've been working with other departments uh prior to, so I I think some of you know this, but I came down and worked the night after the MUKU game and had made a lot of observations about a variety of things, honestly, the number and volume of people downtown, not only for the game, but long after the bars closed.

And it got me thinking about a lot of things I don't normally have to think about, like food trucks and parking and where we pick up people for ride share, and all of these things were kind of contributing to areas where we have pinch points with foot traffic and car traffic and lighting and a lot of other variety of things that really just made me think it was time to look at downtown overall and say, hey, let's look at this holistically and try to figure out where we can improve all of these different things with an overall view of just safety in general.

Obviously, those things then play into larger offenses, like when we have fights or we have shootings.

To that end, uh, public works and the health department have been a great asset helping us try to parse through some of our parking and traffic issues, and then Rebecca Roslitt and her team came down this last weekend, did some education with our food vendors and made sure they're where they're supposed to be, and we're not doing things like playing music from food trucks and other things that kind of contribute to this atmosphere that I think was drawing people in to stay downtown long after hours, kind of have street parties.

Um we had the incident on homecoming weekend.

Post that we had, I began conversations obviously in earnest with MUPD and Boone County, as well as the highway patrol about coming in to offer some extra assistance.

Uh they were very open to that, and we had 27 extra folks downtown this weekend, both nights to help.

Um that showed in the stats that we put out today.

But one of the things I said in the media that I think got a lot of attention was not being able to really in earnest and wholly staff a downtown unit until next May.

A lot of that has to do with the fact that currently, so I'm people are gonna I could get really down the weeds here, but since the budget got adopted, that changed our numbers a little bit.

So now we have some more positions added in and some things got moved around.

So we have 12 officer vacancies and a sergeant vacancy right now, but that's because we got some positions added and move some things around at the airport.

Um we have seven officers in field training right now.

We have 16 officers that currently in the academy.

So that makes it feel like more vacancies than there really are because they're not out functioning yet.

So that's why I said May, because that's when all those folks will presumably be out of training.

Our goal is to reconstitute what we all used to know as the downtown unit.

Um in the interim, we talked about what are the stop gaps we can try to fill in in between there.

So we actually pulled one of our patrol sergeants from Night Shift.

He's been assigned to really coordinate all of our downtown efforts.

Um, and that includes staffing, having extra people there, looking at all the different things I talked to him about.

Um I get a lot of questions about the downtown lights.

Um we do have those programmed and can control those now.

Um there is a city ordinance that governs when the lights are going to be at certain levels that we have to abide by, and so we have them programmed now to come on to their highest setting.

I think uh they told me at 12 30, those get turned up and then they stay that way until after bar close.

Um so they're on a timer that goes on every day.

And my observation being downtown has is they're very helpful.

It does illuminate a lot of the darker areas of the streets and sidewalks.

Um this weekend, there were a lot of great outcomes from this weekend.

Um did a lot of enforcement action, and I will tell you not only myself but two of my assistant chiefs worked downtown over the weekend.

And the remark that they made to me after the first night was they were absolutely shocked by the number of firearms that were being legally carried downtown.

Um Friday night alone, we located and returned firearms to approximately 20 individuals who were stopped by police and did not appear to be patronizing any businesses downtown.

Um I'm gonna read a little bit from the press release we just put out prior to the meeting starting because I think this is really important for people to know.

This is a couple of examples of what we're finding downtown.

So on October 3rd, one of our street crimes unit detectives conducted a traffic stop at Cherry and 8th Street for a vehicle failing to display two license plates.

Front seat passenger in the vehicle was identified as Damien Hunt, 32 of Columbia.

During the stop, a semi-automatic rifle was observed wrapped in a jacket between his feet.

Hunt is a convicted felon who is prohibited from possessing firearms.

The detective arrested Hunt on charges of unlawful possession of a firearm, armed criminal action, and tampering with physical evidence and a felony prosecution.

Hunt was involved in a shooting downtown in Columbia in 2019 in which he was arrested on original charges of first degree assault, unlawful use of a weapon, and armed criminal action.

These charges are reduced to a conviction of second degree assault, and Hunt was sentenced to seven years in the Missouri Department of Corrections that was set to begin on September 28th, 2020.

So that's one example of many.

I can tell you when I started, went out in the car Saturday night, the very first traffic stop we pulled up on the two officers were pulling people out of the car, and they were making a gun safe that they had found in the car.

So the number of weapons downtown that are being legally carried is an issue.

It's also an issue from the sense that officers are aware of this, and that makes every single interaction a heightened sense of they have to have a heightened sense of awareness and obviously concern because there are so many people armed downtown.

Over the two-day uh enforcement effort, we did 202 traffic stops, 83 check subjects.

We wrote 57 citations.

We made 27 custodial arrests, searched 19 vehicles, 49 people, frisk 17 people, and there were 39 non-criminal citations.

So those are things like parking tickets.

Um a group effort.

I'm so appreciative of our law enforcement partners that have been willing to help.

Um I think you know, we have spoken about some of the things we'd like to see changed in Jefferson City concerning some of the gun issues.

Um my staff and I met this morning and talked more in depth about that.

And besides the fact that there is nothing currently prohibiting a juvenile from possessing a gun.

Uh there's also this issue of um being able to anyone can conceal a weapon as long as they're legally allowed to be in possession of one.

Um that just has created this extra barrier for us.

Um and I'm by no means before all the people start posting on social media that I'm anti-second amendment.

That is not true at all.

I just think there's some common sense things that we could do here that would make our job a lot easier.

And and any and everyone being able to conceal a gun is um highly problematic for us.

So if there's anything I didn't cover, I'm happy to answer questions.

Well, I think we'll probably save some for the end on this.

Doctor Lane, I don't know if there's anything else that you would want to add to this update.

No, I I think it's no one of the questions that that we've had is no what resources have the city allocated toward public safety.

And so it's no, it's one of the things when we look at our budget, we look at our priorities.

No, public safety is one of our top priorities.

And we've been able to make move mountains in the last couple of years to actually hire police officers for the longest time.

We couldn't hire anybody.

And we had more of an exodus than we had in people coming on board.

And to be able to say that within two years we've been able to hire 50.

I know that's phenomenal in most cities.

That's a celebration.

We've also started an office to help address some of the community and social issues around community violence, so we can really understand the root cause and that we can be better prepared to address those things.

No, our goal is always to make sure that we have a safe community.

Our goal is to make sure that people in Columbia can walk and feel safe in the things that we do.

And so those are the then the actions that we've been trying to take for the last couple of years.

And you know, it it takes us a while to kind of turn this boat around.

I know I do see the light at the end of the tunnel.

It is going to take a lot of work.

No, it's not just staff, it's also the community.

It's all us working hand in hand to be successful.

And so those are the things I would like to say.

I appreciate that.

And I appreciate Let me, I'm happy to be at the beginning.

Most of you won't stay till the end, so I wanted her to give her an update at the beginning.

So thank you, Chief Schluoty.

Appreciate your work.

Really thankful for the brave men and women at CPD.

So thank you for that.

And thank you to Carlene for her support.

Thank you.

Thank you all.

Moving on to our special items.

Uh, we have a few special items this evening.

So up first, we have the presentation of our Capture Comal finalist.

Um, so these are the finalists for the fifth annual Capture Comal budget contest.

This contest began in 2021 for the fiscal year 22 budget document, and it's a goal of engaging our residents in the budget process while also showcasing the beauty of our community.

So each year, local photographers are invited to submit their work for consideration in the city's budget book.

For the fiscal year 26 budget, we had 48 outstanding photo submissions.

And based on the artistic quality, clarity, and how well they highlight Columbia, 12 photos advanced to public voting round on the city's Facebook page.

And from there, community members helped us select the top three finalists.

So when I call your name, I'm gonna ask you to come up.

You'll receive a framed copy of your photo, and then we'll have Josh take a group photo of everybody.

So I'm gonna list everybody's name, and if you want, um list everyone's name, and then and then I'll go come join you.

Um so we've got uh uh Sultana uh Afro wait, let's see, I got this Afro J.

Ani.

Uh this photo or in the top spot with 133 votes, and it's the one that's featured on the front of our budget document.

We've got Nathan Jesse.

Uh Nathan's vote received 96 votes, and it's highlighted inside the budget book.

And then last but not least, Megan Montesinos, who is actually part of the budget staff, but swear it is not rigged.

Um she received 67 votes and also proudly featured in the document.

So I want to ask everyone to please join me in thanking them for sharing their talent and creativity.

This is reading.

Well done.

All right, I think we have a new cover for next year, maybe.

All right, I want to thank everyone who did participate in that.

It's a way for our community to come together with what is really a boring budget process.

Sorry, Matthew Lou.

But thanks for everyone for participating.

Next, we have two very special items on us.

The swearing in of two new department directors.

So I'd like to ask Clint Smith to please join uh Sheila and the city manager at the podium for his oath.

You can come on this way.

And then move that microphone towards you.

Okay.

Do solemnly swear.

Do solemnly swear.

That I possess all qualifications.

That I possess all qualifications.

For the office of directors.

For the office of the director of the community development department.

For the city of Columbia, Missouri.

For the City of Columbia, Missouri.

That I am not subject.

That I am not subject.

To any of the disqualifications.

To any of the disqualifications.

Set forth in the charter.

Set forth in the charter.

Of the city of Columbia.

Of the City of Columbia.

That I will support the Constitution.

That I will support the Constitution.

And laws of the United States.

And laws of the United States.

And of the state of Missouri.

And of the state of Missouri.

And the charter and ordinance.

And the charter and the ordinances.

Of the city of Columbia.

Of the City of Columbia.

And that I will faithfully discharge.

And that I will faithfully discharge of my office.

The duties of my office.

So help me God.

Congratulations.

Well, congratulations and welcome, Clint.

Next, I would like to uh invite William Rata, the director of housing and neighborhood services to come forward for his oath.

I William Rata.

Do you solemnly swear?

Do solemnly swear.

That I possess all possess all qualifications.

For the office of the office of director.

Of the housing and neighborhood services.

For the city of Columbia, Missouri.

For the City of Columbia, Missouri.

That I am not subject.

That I am not subject.

To any of the disqualifications.

Set forth in a charter.

Of the City of Columbia.

The City of Columbia.

That will support the Constitution.

And laws of the United States.

And laws of the United States.

And of the state of Missouri.

And of the state of Missouri.

And the charter and ordinances.

And the charter and ordinances of the City of Columbia.

Of the City of Columbia.

And that I will faithfully discharge.

And I will faithfully discharge.

The duties of my office.

The duties of my office.

So help me God.

Welcome, Bill.

I think DeCarlin is overjoyed to have all of his department directors, like staff.

So thank you for that.

All right, so members of the public uh can contact the city manager's office by noon the Wednesday before a city council meeting to schedule a public comment.

So scheduled public comment cannot be on items that are on the same night's agenda.

And of note, it's been of typical practice of City Council to ask for additional follow-up of questions asked tonight of staff at the end of the meeting if it's warranted.

So tonight we have two scheduled public comments.

So I would first like to ask uh Matthew Shack to please come forward to speak.

Hello, thank you.

Um I do have a presentation.

Uh it will yeah, the magic happens.

And then you click on your PowerPoint.

Should I make the magic happen?

Yes, yes, sorry.

The magic is just that that came on.

Sorry.

And then just do it like yes, all the things.

Perfect.

Thank you.

My name is Matthew Shacht.

Uh I live at 211 North Ann Street, apartment 101, uh, right across from Stevens Lake Park.

I'm here representing Vidwest, which is Columbia's Community Media Center.

We are the inheritor of community media.

The original was Columbia Access Television, which was founded in 2004.

Uh we have over 240 members with many more hundreds supporters, donors, and volunteers.

We've come here today just to introduce ourselves and uh if you are a Vidwest member or supporter, could you please stand up right now?

And if this is your first time to a city council meeting, can you raise your hand?

We meet the first and third Mondays.

Thank you.

So I could give you numbers, but I thought it would be more impactful if we were here in person.

Um I want to be brief.

I know I only have a little bit of your time, uh, and I can't help but recognize the public safety circumstances that we find ourselves in while I'm here asking for funding for community media.

I'd like to point out that if people are shooting with cameras, they are not shooting with guns.

And if we provide them a safe, accessible space to learn and grow and connect, they are not seeking that downtown with people who may not have their best interests in mind.

So uh if you had breakfast this morning, uh you may have had a beverage.

Um perhaps it was coffee.

A barista may have poured that coffee for you.

Uh truck driver may have shipped it to the coffee shop.

Uh a warehouse owner may have stored it and prevented pets from eating it.

There was a whole chain of collaboration and participation that brought that cup of coffee to you.

So that one little good thing that made your morning bright came from many, many, many people.

I'd like you to look at your community in the same way.

So here are some snapshots of things that have happened recently in your community.

Let's ask how many people made this happen.

Here are this next generation of professional photographers getting a resume building professional experience at VidWest.

And look at their smiles.

A family of musicians performing together in real time for the ceremony with technical expertise and equipment provided by VidWest.

And here are a couple of dozen film apprentices who are taking advantage of Missouri's new tax credit, which is bringing feature films and pilots to the state of Missouri for the first time in 10 years, getting that training so that they can serve on productions that will then be able to take advantage of that tax credit with space and facilities provided by VidWest.

So you see a common factor in all of these is community media.

Now when I think of community media, these are the images that come to my mind because this is the less glamorous side.

This is our studio when we got it.

It was dusty.

It was an auto parts store, it had oil stains on the floor, the roof was leaking, the AV or the HVAC system did not work.

These are our volunteers in the snow rescuing equipment from CAT, which the city did not have a plan for.

This is us taking that equipment along with donations and pieces from MU surplus and making a studio.

And these are our numbers to date, going from zero members to at this point 240.

The numbers speak for themselves.

And so you can imagine when we got this letter from the city in June that said that they were no longer interested in funding us, that we were quite surprised.

In that letter, it was said that there's no more funding for Peg Channels, which is the legacy cable channel that was originally the backbone of community media.

And so we go into the budget, and yet the funding mechanism for community media still exists.

In 2024, it was over $300,000.

2025, it was over 460,000.

Thank you, Matt.

I would just like to thank you for your time, and we'll provide this PowerPoint to you so you can follow up with us.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I would now like to ask Bonnie Steinmetz to please come forward to speak.

Good evening.

And I am speaking on behalf of the Como Renewal Project.

I think to the right.

Yep.

And you might need to go to the top.

I think that might be your last slide.

Oh, Josh will help you.

Okay.

So this evening I am going to talk about money matters.

And so we are hearing that there will likely be an increase in sales tax, possibly property tax, parks and rec fees, and parking meters.

It is projected that expenditures will deplete reserves by FY27.

And there was a quote in the Como Buzz about Mr.

Cwood and Lou advising that operating expenses should not exceed operating revenues.

It's unsustainable.

And that using cash reserves to fund ongoing operations will cause a tax increase or a need to cut expenses.

So this is just a graph showing the increase in the number of employees within our city's government.

And just to keep in mind that the new minimum wage bump also increased the expense of wages for many city employees.

This is directly from Como.gov documents.

For example, salaries for part-time staff in parks and rec increase 240,000 overall this year.

And the next slide I'm going to show is that many salaries within the city government are over 90,000 a year.

This was kind of a surprise to me as I uh looked through it.

And not saying that that isn't justified, but when you look at some of the expenditures for the city and the number of employees, then it kind of makes sense why expenses is part of the reason for the expenses increasing.

So this is a little bit hard to see, but there these are the different job titles and what those salaries are.

Again, I'm just capturing those that were 90,000 or more.

And so what I found were these were approximately 90 positions that are at that salary rate.

And then we have an example of some expenditures.

So on here, um health and human services.

You can see it starts out, I think it was in 20 and goes through 24.

And so within that five years, um, expenses increased 61 percent, and from FY23 to FY24, expenses increased almost 33 percent.

Um, same type of graph uh you see for the city manager department.

Um but I will say for that one, when you look in the notes, and I didn't catch it right away.

This um department actually had IT services move in to the budget.

Um, so you have to kind of look at the notes to be able to decipher what those expenses are.

Public safety.

I thought this was interesting because we've uh spoken a lot um about increased um CPD positions, but when you look at the graph, they've actually been stagnant on what they've been able to fill over the last few years.

Uh so that really hasn't changed.

Um, hopefully, that is turning around.

The quote that you see there on the right-hand side is actually quotes from our two homeless outreach team officers, and this was in the Como magazine.

So, what they're speaking of, one says, I cannot help someone who is not willing to help themselves, so they're speaking about their work with the chronically homeless.

It is a vicious cycle.

We're running into the same subjects over and over again.

These individuals have tried to utilize the many services provided, but prefer to stay homeless because of independence.

And then Todd says it's challenging every time you're dealing with someone who is homeless and they don't want help but continue uh to violate the law.

That is the biggest challenge I've seen.

There are some who will use every excuse not to use the resources or services we have to offer them, but continue to do the things we ask them not to do.

So just keep this quote in mind, um, and I will talk a little bit more about it.

This is showing um one of the line items of expenses training and travel.

So for FY24, there was a significant increase in that line item.

Um, the prior year it had been 654,000, which was an increase year over year, and then in FY24, it didn't increase to almost a million.

So the question is, and I apologize, this is a little hard to read.

Were these expenses necessary?

So looking back, um, we spent a lot on a pedestrian safety survey.

Um we had travel outside of Columbia, and yet we have poverty in Colombia.

So we have significantly more a higher rate of poverty compared to Missouri overall, and unfortunately, a lot of those are children.

Thank you, Bonnie.

Thank you very much.

All right.

Moving on to our public hearings.

Um Shely, will you please read public hearing 2925?

Public hearing 2925 is the proposed construction of a sidewalk improvement project along the south side of West Bull Broadway between Maple Drive and West Boulevard.

Do we have a staff report?

Yes.

Good evening.

My name is Shane Creech and I'm the public works director.

This project will construct construct approximately 2100 feet of five-foot wide concrete sidewalk along the south side of Broadway between Maplewood Drive and West Boulevard.

The project also includes a substantial amount, about a thousand feet of new curb and gutter and some stormwater inlet work.

An interested parties meeting was held on July 14th, 2025.

Eight written comments were received, and 14 citizens attended the meeting.

The total project is estimated at 616, just over $616,000.

Modot will fund up to 80% of the project using TAP grant funds.

The city's capital improvement sales tax will fund the remainder.

Construction of the project is anticipated to begin in the fall of 2026.

Thank you, Shane.

Do we have any questions from uh the council at this point?

All right.

Um in that case, we'll open the public hearing.

Anyone wants to come and speak to this, please come to the podium.

Madam Mayor, uh members of the council and move the microphone a little closer to you.

You move the microphone a little closer.

Thank you.

May I have five minutes.

I'm sorry, are you an organization affected by the legislation?

I have two homes in the neighborhood, uh, one on Maplewood and one on West Broadway.

I think I'm more qualified than anyone you're going to find to speak on this.

You can do the three and then uh they'll add two at the end.

Go ahead.

Can you say your name and address, please?

My name is Mitchell Moore.

I have uh 57 years experience residing in the neighborhood.

I reside at 1210 West Broadway, where I maintain a home uh office for my law practice for the past 37 years.

My wife and I also have a residence at 500 Maplewood Drive in a house my parents built 57 years ago.

So I live between Maplewood Drive and Hillside where Hillside Drive comes out on West Broadway, and I can't imagine anyone more familiar with the neighborhood than me.

Uh I can tell you this proposal's been rushed.

One meeting, July 4th, middle of summer.

How does all get out?

Uh but the disappointing thing is uh in the conversations I've had, both with the city engineer Dr.

Hussein and the engineering supervisor Allison Anderson, they both told me the same thing when I asked them about three-foot-wide sidewalks.

They said, well, the ADA mandates five.

That's not true.

Uh I finally hit the law books uh uh Friday and found out that the ADA requires three-foot sidewalks.

And that's much more appropriate for this area because there's very little pedestrian trip traffic.

Uh there's some pedestrian traffic on the north side.

On the south side, uh it's almost non-existent.

Uh people can do walk on the grass and all that, but uh the people on uh on the south side of Broadway live in R1 and uh you know they go to work and and uh rarely have uh cause to go any further now.

They they do cross Broadway, and they do need a crossing because north is uh the Ark, the farmers market, and GURBS.

Um the thing that would be best would be a combination of a three-foot-wide sidewalk on the south side and traffic lights at the intersection of Pershing, Spring Valley, and West Broadway.

Spring Valley has only one outlet, and that is on West Broadway.

Those folks have a hard time uh getting out of Spring Valley, and they the pedestrians have a hard time crossing Spring Valley.

Uh I don't think a pedestrian study has been done.

I do know a traffic study was done some 20 years ago and and found that there are 15,000 cars a day on uh West that go on West Broadway.

It is not a walk in the park.

It's more like a walk on a racetrack.

It's loud, it's noisy, it's dusty.

Um I've walked it many a time.

And if you make five foot sidewalks in there, you're gonna ruin the residential character of the neighborhood.

Uh which not the worst thing for me.

I've got a home office.

If if all those houses uh east of me decide to rezone to uh some mixed use, office, commercial, whatever.

That's not the worst thing for me, but it is bad for the neighborhood.

And I do care about the neighborhood.

I really love that neighborhood.

That's why we've got two places there right now.

This project isn't ready.

It didn't get vetted well by the by the residents who were told that uh three foot sidewalks uh could not be had.

Well, they can't, and and they should be uh because uh the unique nature of uh this road, I uh be happy to answer any questions y'all have.

Thank you, Mr.

Moore.

Would anybody else from the public wish to speak on the proposed construction of the West Broadway sidebalk from Maplewood to West.

Are you going separately or are you gonna be reading together?

We don't have anything to read, but we'll go together.

We get three minutes then go.

Okay.

Uh we are Jim's and Annalise Bill.

We live at 1312 West Broadway.

Uh or you might know it as the big white house with blue shutters.

Um we have one of the oldest houses in all of Columbia.

Uh on that note, there's not all there's already just not a lot of space for us.

Uh we had a great experience with the city planners uh with the with the engineer in charge of the project.

They did an awesome job trying to change things, accommodate it to make it better for us.

But even at the end of that, uh it's better than the original plan, but just can't be better than what's there now.

Uh we have a very steep driveway, so turning on and off of Broadway is already kind of a challenge if we add any more to that.

It just doesn't really work for us.

Um had a lot more she wanted to say.

Yeah, I just uh one of the big things is our front door is so close to the road because it was built so long ago.

And this project would would require the city to buy two feet into everyone's yard sticks in the public easement.

And being we're trying to be good stewards of this old house.

Um we don't know if that's in the house's best um interest to lose some of the land.

It's just it's really scary as new homeowners to hear about some changes and losing some of our land.

Um just because we're so close to the road.

I think um what our neighbor said about just a study.

Um if it was for, you know, if it had such a great benefit to the community, I think we could deal with it a little bit more, but right now um the other side of the road makes more sense for people to walk on, and we don't see very much foot traffic um to justify the project.

That's gonna be a pretty big inconvenience for a lot of us who live on Broadway.

So if there could be more of a study going on to figure out how many people would actually use this, um that would be great because this will be big for us.

Um just it's really stressful buying a house a few months later, being like, oh, they want to put a sidewalk.

Oh, um, we only have so much room for parking and all this stuff.

It's just um be nice for a little bit more um research to be done on the front end.

Thank you.

Would anybody else from the public wish to speak?

Hello, McKenzie Ortiz.

I'm here with Local Motion tonight.

Um 201 West Broadway is our office.

Um I just wanted to say that we support this project.

We are often walking on West Broadway.

Um, and we think that anything that will connect people and increase accessibility is a win.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Kathy Barreto, I live on Two Spring Valley, which is on the corner of Broadway in Spring Valley.

My parents have owned that house since 1968.

I lived in it a while and then moved and was gone from Columbia for 39 years, came back to take care of my parents.

And I agree with Mitch, Mitch is my next door neighbor, and um we don't see very many people walking up in our area.

And um I think there's a lot that can happen already when it snows.

I get all the snow in my um front yard and sometimes can't even get out of my out of my neighborhood.

And I think if we could have more time to really give it a good study, we would find out that possibly we could do it with less space taken from each of the yards.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening.

My name is Danny Perez.

I'm in the first ward.

I am a full-time pedestrian.

I do not drive a car, and I've been doing this for over ten years since I lived in Columbia.

The reason why you do not see people walking on Broadway is because it's not designed to.

There are no visual buffers.

It's very dangerous.

I walk the streets at night because it's actually kind of safe to do so.

You do see people traveling at night because it's safer to do so.

There is a lot of concern.

I think it is a very valid concern if your doorway is getting closer to the road and it looks dangerous, so then we need to think about visual buffers to make sure it's not so dangerous.

I think this is something that's needed.

And people would start using it, would start cycling, would start skating if it was made accessible.

But of course it's not a heavy traffic area.

How could it be?

It's very dangerous, over stimulating, not very safe.

So I just want to shim in and tell you that's why.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Would anybody else from the public wish to speak about the proposed construction of the West Broadway sidewalk from Maplewood Drive to West Boulevard?

Seeing none, I'll close the public hearing.

Any staff?

Okay.

I got all of them.

Okay.

I'm a sorry.

Betsy.

Thanks.

Just because you looked to the left.

I did.

I'm sorry.

I'll start tweaking this way.

Is there a sidewalk on the north side of this area of Broadway?

Yes, there is.

So there is already a sidewalk.

I mean, if you cross the street, is that ADA compliant or not?

Do you know?

In theory it should be, whether it all is or not.

I couldn't I couldn't speak to that.

Um and then how close?

I mean, if we do a th was it a three-foot buffer and then a five-foot sidewalk that's eight feet out of people's front yards or what they perceive to be their front yard versus the road.

How close does that get the sidewalk to people's homes?

Do we know?

It's going to vary, especially along Broadway.

There's a there's a lot of houses that sit back um quite a bit from the road.

Um the folks that were up here at I think 1312, that that house is significantly closer than than the majority of them.

So it kind of varies.

We're talking West Boulevard West, though, right?

Correct.

Heading to Clingscale.

So those street those roads those houses are much closer to the road than the ones east of West Bull Road, right?

Generally, yes.

Because then I guess the question is if someone were building a new house, would we let them build it as close to the road as these houses are?

I don't know that you've got an answer for that because you're not planning in development.

In some cases, no, but I don't I don't know that.

You don't know that.

That's something that that's not something we had analyzed.

And then can you address the three-foot wide ADA sidewalk?

Because when I pulled it up on, you know, the old Google, um, it said three feet was enough for ADA.

So uh Mr.

Moore is correct.

The absolute minimum clear width of a continuous successful route is three feet in width.

However, the city's minimum sidewalk width is five feet in width, and it's been that way for quite some time.

Um when the sidewalk is required to be pushed up against the back of curb, we then increase that minimum width to six feet so as to provide a buffer from the adjacent roadway.

So in this particular location, there are utility poles.

So some of this has to do with, you know, dodging those.

So that green space that we're talking about in part gets us away from those utility poles.

So if we push it up against the back of curb, I'm gonna have to make that sidewalk wider where we've got utility poles.

So it's a you know it's but is this just I mean the three-foot wide I mean if you have two feet or three feet, whatever you need for your utilities, and I totally understand what you're talking about.

Why is a three-foot wide sidewalk not appropriate?

I mean, do we have an ordinance saying it has to be five feet, or we I mean why why the five foot wide if that's more than the ADA requires?

I could tell you one reason is that ADA um requires a passing space every 200 feet.

So any place that's less than five feet, we have to provide a five foot by five foot passing space.

Every like two hundred feet and this is like a thousand feet long piece of sidewalk, right?

So there are places where you could use the driveway for that, but it that five foot by five foot area has to be five foot wide and five foot long.

So you could have a passing space in in the driveway.

So I mean that's that's possible.

Um I I would tell you that the access board, the you know the folks that the ADA goes through also talk about model sidewalks.

And they typically say a four-foot minimum and a five-foot width is recommended, and that's what the city uses as a standard.

We do some four-foot sidewalks at time.

I can't tell you in my almost 18 years here we've ever built a three-foot sidewalk.

Okay.

Doesn't mean you can't.

Just doesn't mean we haven't built it.

Okay.

Thank you.

All right.

I've got Vera.

I was wondering a little more clarity on the ADA compliance of the sidewalk.

My understanding from both the access board and Modot is that three feet is only allowed when there is a geographic obstruction that would not allow construction of a wider sidewalk that four feet is the minimum and five feet is the suggestion, and then required every two hundred feet.

I don't have the exact quote in front of me.

Um I would tell you that the accessible path is listed as a minimum of 36 inches, those three feet.

Um, but and there's areas where you can duck below that, but it's it's it's very it's very small.

And so a three-foot-wide sidewalk would be difficult for you know, two people to share the sidewalk, obviously.

That's why the they require the passing space.

So I was wondering if you could tell us a little bit about um, I guess the impact of this project w how it was came forward, how it was ranked on the sidewalk master plan, um, what features were considered in its prioritization?

Sure.

Um this this project is listed on the city's sidewalk master plan.

There isn't a uh I I can't speak necessarily of the prioritization of that.

What I would tell you is that we only have a finite amount of sidewalk money.

So one of the things that we look at when it comes to um sidewalk projects are things that we think we can get a Modot tap grant for.

And this was a location that we felt like that was a strong possibility.

It was on the sidewalk master plans.

We pursued it and were able to receive it.

Um it's not that we couldn't build the project without those funds, but that makes our funds go farther.

And so that made this one attractive.

There's also when you have a road with the traffic volume that Broadway has, um, it makes a lot of sense to us.

We wouldn't build a brand new road like that that didn't have sidewalk on both sides.

So what made it attractive as a tap grant besides the piece of road that it was on?

I think that's the main thing.

There's probably some other things, but that's that's the one that sticks out to me is the um the functionality of the road.

It's uh I'm trying to remember what Broadway is.

It's a IP area.

Either a major collector or a minor arterial, and I can't remember which as I sit here.

Right.

But it connects to a MODOT road.

It also connects to a MODOT road.

That's a good point.

Um are there any um pedestrian attractors in the area of this sidewalk piece that were weighed?

I mean, we see it as the I mean we see it as the connection between, you know, downtown and the mall at some point.

Um there's obviously, you know, there's you know, there's schools, there's um all the all the normal attractors are are there in close proximity to this exact section of sidewalk, maybe not, but the idea of having sidewalk on both sides of Broadway, like I said before, is attractive at least to public works.

So Nick.

This will turn terminate at Maplewood, correct?

Yes.

And it does it connect to sidewalk beyond that point.

It it does not currently.

Um there's a there's another sidewalk section on the city's sidewalk master plan on the south side of Railway between Briarwood Lane and Manor Drive.

So that if when that section, if if and when that section is built, that pretty much fills in the gap everywhere east, what would it be east of east of stadium?

There's another gap west of west of stadium, um, but that section of Broadway is still maintained by Modot.

Well part of the reason I ask is that Clink Scales is right there, that's where there is a crosswalk.

And it is used by uh pedestrians to go uh north there, uh including um kids who go to school, people who go to the arc and so forth, and there is a good bit of traffic, uh foot traffic there during those times I know.

Uh I attended this uh uh interested parties meeting.

Um there were some concerns about grades on driveways.

Um have you been able to address those?

Sure.

Um I think the the folks that got up and spoke that live at 1312.

Um that one in particular is probably the most tricky.

I'll be the first to tell you.

Um they're close to the road.

Um and so we looked at modifying how both of their drive approaches work, sliding one, I I think the the west one further to the further to the west to help with side help with grade.

And then also kind of the angle of the one on the east side to help with um like turning movements in and out.

Um so we've we've looked at that at each one.

Um at this stage at a public hearing before we go into detailed design.

Um we've looked at them to make sure we didn't have any major problems there.

But any place where we need uh an easement of some sort, we're gonna have to have those discussions with with each of the property owners about what way to make this work for them as best we can with with obviously if what gets approved tonight is to build a sidewalk with still putting in a a sidewalk in this location.

Um I think that you I did send questions to you about this, and uh you responded something about what Modot anticipates when they support or when when the state supports through the LTAP grant uh the size of a sidewalk.

Sure.

It's I mean it's it's very typical for a you know at least a four-foot sidewalk, if not a five-foot sidewalk.

Um so obviously when we applied for a grant from Modot, we told them we were going to build a five-foot sidewalk.

And so if we went back to them and said we're only going to build a three-foot sidewalk, I I would I I can't say this for sure because I haven't asked that question, but I I wouldn't think that would meet the requirements of the TAP grant.

I think we'd have trouble keeping that, keeping that money.

And I know that you mentioned that you received comments about this, both at that meeting and otherwise uh in terms of opposition and support.

Can you give an idea about what you heard in that way?

Sure.

Um I think it was just what we put in the council memo.

Many comments were in favor of the project.

We received uh eight written comments, um, and we had 14 residents that attended the meeting.

Um the comments were attached to the to the agenda item tonight.

I think of those eight comments, I think six were six were in favor.

Um that's that's the information that we have to give you tonight with what we've done so far.

And if we um if we were to ask you to moderate uh modify this in terms of the size, the width of the sidewalk, you'd have to go back to address the grant again in order to hear that.

Yes, we would.

Um I can tell you that one thing, you know, one thing that we would look at is you know, areas where if we could get that five-foot wide passing space um, you know, within that 200 feet, and we could look at a four-foot-wide sidewalk, we could do that.

Um I'd be hesitant to to recommend that you have us move forward with a three-foot sidewalk for sure.

And that's and I think ideally it's a five-foot that we want.

I will say that I walked in my neighborhood today with a friend on three foot sidewalks, which pre- you know, yeah, you can't really do that side by side.

Or yeah, I certainly couldn't with him anyway.

So I I wouldn't support a three-foot sidewalk, I have to say that.

Uh I wonder what the process would be to look at a four-foot sidewalk and then provide the passing lanes as you as you described before.

Well, and I think another thing to consider would be whether that'd be something that you would want us to do through the entire length of the project.

You know, we've got you know, any any new subdivision that's built in town for as long as I've been at the city's got a five-foot wide sidewalk.

So is it is it a matter of wanting four foot wide on this particular project, or is it four foot wide in certain areas and what's that criteria to make that determination?

I think in my review of this, um my my my question was going to be for some of these tighter areas where especially you're looking at the grade of this, both for the distance away from the front door.

It's a similar conversation that we're having on Ash, right?

Too.

Is that for those ones that these historic these homes that are older that are really close?

I think the direction from council is kind of like, you know, staff understands the intent, right?

We want connectivity, people connected, but we also understand the space that we're given in the historical nature.

And so where possible, we want to stay with the best case standards.

And then but at the same time, knowledgeable over you have that flexibility in the design and in the conversations on these easements.

Can you tell me what is the size of the sidewalk on the north side of Broadway?

I'm I'm not sure.

There's some newer sections that are probably five feet.

There's some older sections that are probably closer to four.

That's a guess.

I I don't know that I have that right in front of me.

Yeah.

Okay.

I've got I've got Betsy, Valerie Vera.

We're circling it around again.

Sorry.

Beth, you had your hand up.

Um I did.

Um mainly because have we had any other discussion about widening Broadway?

I hate to put a sidewalk in if there's any chance that we're going to actually widen Broadway at some point, realizing we have we have houses way too close.

Right.

Sure.

West of West Boulevard.

But I mean, is there any discussion about that or is it?

What I would tell you is there's there's been no discussion of widening Broadway as it relates to what's in the 2025 capital improvement sales tax.

Um there's there's no doubt that I think there's there's some need there.

Um but in the next 10 years, it isn't something that public works anticipates having the funding to pursue.

So therefore we think 10, 15 years of sidewalk is you know worth it.

It's worth it in this particular occasion.

All right, thanks.

Vera than Mal.

Um you're expecting to do that.

I see.

I'm changing one of your names.

Allery.

No, I'm just kidding.

Bell.

No, I think I said Vera.

Sorry, Vera.

See?

It's your turn.

You are Vera.

Um Are we able to do comment or are we just in questions right now?

Um no, this is council comment, too.

Okay, perfect.

Um I just want to comment and say there is absolutely a reason that four and five foot sidewalks are preferred.

As someone who has used a mobility aid, was a full-time mobility aid user for three years and is now a part-time mobility aid user.

I've used canes, walkers, rollators, and wheelchairs at varying times to get around.

If you have ever tried to navigate a three-foot sidewalk in a wheelchair, whether it is manual or motorized, if you veer like a centimeter, you are falling sideways into the ditch to the point that I cannot power myself down a three-foot sidewalk in a wheelchair and instead have to be steered by someone else and have at times gone into the road because that was the safer option because I would not fall to my side.

Um so while I understand prioritizing land and prioritizing understanding the historic environment, just being aware that that bare minimum is a bare minimum for a reason, and that the preferences are preferences for a reason.

Um, and that by making a three-foot sidewalk, you are prioritizing pedestrians who are mobile on their two foot on their two feet without the uh aid of a mobility helper.

Um so wanted to make that comment and express my support for continuing with the plan as proposed.

Thank you, Vera.

Valerie.

Um I do have some statements I want to make as well.

But first I wanted to ask if you can give us any comparison.

Um we've had some comparisons to the Ast Street project.

Um and I think that stands out to me too, in that it's also an area where um some of the setbacks are different.

Um how do the setbacks along this road um compare to the setbacks along that other length just generally?

And how does the amount of easement needed for this project compare to Ash?

Um so when we're talking about the Ash Street project.

Yeah.

There was a desire for sidewalk on one side and a pedway on the other.

So the pedway side, it is you know, that's an eight-foot wide, you know, sidewalk, so to speak.

So there's additional three feet right there.

There were some locations where we were able to go on the back of curb and some places where we were not.

So if you weren't on the back of curb and you had an eight-foot pedway, you're significantly closer.

Um like I said, I I haven't really done an analysis on on the on the setbacks or the average setback on the two roads.

Um I would tell you that uh the major like you can see on the on the plan, and I can scroll back through it, you can see where we're proposing to tie in the you know, the driveways.

So while the houses are somewhat closer to the road, we're not chasing a driveway clear up to the garage door.

I mean, I've done projects like that, it's no fun, but that's not the case here.

Um will they get a little steeper?

Yeah, because I have to have a flat spot for a sidewalk that didn't exist today.

I'm not going to sugarcoat that.

But for the most part, um 1312 was the most tricky one.

Um the others, we feel pretty good about what we've got designed.

So as you do the plan, keeping five foot for the majority of the project.

Do you have flexibility in front of just the very most tricky points as opposed to doing four feet with passing every 20 feet?

Do you have flexibility to move that as needed?

Yes.

And we do that frequently.

We don't usually do it the whole length of a property.

That's pretty unusual.

Um I can tell you that uh, for instance, Mr.

Moore has, I think a three drive, you know, three drive approaches along his property.

And so one of the things that we could look at is doing a four-foot sidewalk through there and using the drive approaches as that, you know, as that passing space that that's doable.

It's somewhat unusual, I will tell you this.

It's it's somewhat unusual for us to say you get a four-foot sidewalk and the guy on either side he gets a five-foot sidewalk.

So that's a little bit, you know, you start to wonder about the utility of it when you do that, you know.

But that's it's not impossible.

And everybody when we get to the point where we have the ability to acquire easements if we move forward with this, that's kind of what's a typical discussion with each property owner.

Because I need the, I need that easement in order to be able to move forward.

So that's definitely a conversation we can have.

It's just not something we're usually able to get that far into the weeds before we come forward to get a public hearing and get permission to move forward.

So exactly.

And I having learned a lot about your processes by now, um, albeit painfully at times.

Um I appreciate the stage in the process that we are now and the flexibility that you have going forward.

Um the statement I want to make, um, I absolutely agree with Vera, the width of the project, it has a purpose.

Um I don't think this is all that similar to Ash.

We're not talking about a pedway, we're not talking about eight feet, we're talking about two feet.

Um I actually live very close to both of those projects and have walked both sections.

This is not in my ward, although it's right on the border of my road uh of my ward.

Um I disagree with the characterization that it's not commonly walked.

People don't want to walk in other people's yards.

Um of those yards have slopes.

Um so it's not easy to walk.

I can say that I have walked right up to where that sidewalk dead end by surprise with two small children, and then had to figure out how to get them to a place that was more safe.

Umilarly, it's not very easy to get to the church on the corner or to some of the neighborhoods to the west.

Um I also want to point out that there's several um plaths that are undeveloped adjacent to this.

Um this is close to GERBS, which is a shopping center.

Um people like to walk there.

It's close to the ark.

People like to walk there.

If you live in that area and you're trying to get to the bicycle boulevard, you're going south right through that section.

Um these are all pedestrian attractors.

There's a school in the area, there's a church in the area, there's grocery stores.

Um I think people will use it.

Um I worry about the delay in infrastructure when we have things that aren't built out yet, um, and the chances that they may become built out in the near future.

Um and I have um seen agenda items related to those properties, not too far in the distant past.

Um I suppose my next question would be would we expect those to be required to be built by a pedestrian and uh by a developer in the near future?

Um and I don't know the answer to that.

The largest swath of that is on the north side that's already built out.

Um it's the manor drive corner that is recently had interest.

Any other council comments quick?

I've got Betsy and then Nick.

Well, I just want to speak about what I would like and then what I will support.

I'll go ahead and say I wouldn't support a three-foot sidewalk.

I don't I don't think it's effective, and I think it would limit uh it would severely limit the use of of the sidewalk itself.

I think that in terms of people using this, I look at all of the all of the uh residential that's south of this area.

I can't help but imagine the people who would cross who would go from that southern near that southern neighborhood wouldn't enjoy having a sidewalk where they can make their way over to clean scales and then further north.

I mean, I'd like to see the sidewalk go to manor, actually, uh for that very reason.

But I think uh I think we also have the reality of uh of a historic neighborhood, a well-established neighborhood, and I think we do have to keep that in mind.

So uh what I would like to see is us to look at redesigning this so we have four foot sidewalks where we can put them, especially in those areas where we have houses that are close to the road, and then use the five-foot areas where we can.

Um I don't know what it would take to get to that.

And I know there's a lot of work that's already been in this, Shane.

I apologize, but that's that's what I'm wondering about.

Yeah, Betsy.

And I guess I'm just gonna speak to um we have a sidewalk on the north side, and rather than put a sidewalk on the south side, maybe we should look at pedestrian crossings to allow pedestrians to access the north sidewalk as opposed to putting an entire south sidewalk in.

I think it's too close to the houses that are there.

Um I don't think that we would let people build houses as close to the road as we're now going to meld sidewalks to their homes.

So I would be opposed to this because we just don't have that much space, and that's part of the problem with redesigning or trying to improve areas in the older part of the city.

Shane, do you want to speak to um any planned pedestrian crossings along Broadway?

I think the only one I know of that's not at a major intersection is the one there that's at um Green Clinton, what is that, McBain or not McVeigh, um?

Greenwood or something.

Um I can't right now.

We've got we've got a list of mid-block crossings that we'd like to look at.

I can't think of any that are on our list currently that are along Broadway.

That doesn't mean that there couldn't be something there, but that's not something we have planned.

It isn't imminent that we're going to put something like that in.

So next steps for this.

This is the public hearing uh to advise you to start the process on getting easements and doing the final designs.

So any of those kind of considerations on um the ones that are close to that might potentially warrant a four-foot rather than a five-foot.

Would that be taken into consideration?

Uh yeah, that's something we always take into consideration.

Um, I guess I what I would remind you of is this is just a public hearing to start that final design.

Right.

We'd have to come back with a with a typically we'd come back with a bid call and an ordinance to acquire those easements.

So at that stage, um, we'll have a lot more information as far as what the the detailed design looks like.

So I mean that would be that would be one way to take another look at it.

Uh for you all to take another look at it is what you know what's been designed.

Just understand though that we we would not have the ability to acquire easements yet, so it's so it could still change when I go to acquire easements and we're like, okay, let's let's make this modification still meet the requirements of the project and get us a sidewalk that runs from station to station.

See, I think Betsy, I appreciate that compromise because while there is a sidewalk on the north side, it is a very busy street.

And while we don't have plans for the pedestrian crosswalks, we still have lots of people walking along that I know because I I I knocked on some of these doors and I was walking through your fronts, and I apologize.

Um at least it wasn't raining, so I didn't add foot tip to it.

So with that, I'll make a motion uh to authorize staff to proceed with the construction of a sidewalk improvement project along the south side of West Broadway between Maplewood Drive and West Boulevard.

Do I have a second?

Second.

Second by Nick Foster.

Um, I'll have you call roll.

Sorry.

Yes.

Okay.

Um roll on the motion to proceed with the project.

Yes.

Ms.

Buffalo?

Yes.

Ms.

Carroll.

Yes.

Ms.

Elwood?

Yes.

Ms.

Sample?

Yes.

Mr.

Foster.

Yes.

Ms.

Peters.

No.

Great.

Thank you.

Moving on, Sheila, we please read public hearing 3025 and the accompanying Bill 24725.

Public hearing 3025 is the proposed construction of the Albert Oakland family aquatic center improvement project.

And Council Bill 24725 is an ordinance determining it is in the public interest to construct the Albert Oakland Family Aquatic Center Improvement Project.

Approving and adopting plans and specifications determined the portion of the work shall be done by contract.

Calling for bids through the purchasing division using a design build contract, authorizing a portion of the project may be done by city employees providing for payment for the improvement, authorizing the city manager manager to obtain, execute, and record all documents necessary for the improved improvement providing for compliance with the prevailing wage law and state mandated construction safety training and fixing the time when this ordinance shall become effective.

Second rating.

Yes, thank you, Mayor.

Gabe Huffington, Parks and Recreation Director.

Albert Oakland Family Aquatic Center is located at 1900 Blue Ridge Road in Columbia's second ward.

Our facility turned 50 years old in 2025.

And for this project, we have total funding as part of the FY 2026 budget of $4 million.

The focus of this project is to update our existing mechanical systems, replace a 50-year-old underground plumbing all throughout the area, and then address some of the pool shell cracking while we also try to increase our swim value and our patron satisfaction.

Albert Oakland Family Aquatic Center is our biggest swim outdoor swimming facility.

We average about 24,000 patrons each summer from Memorial Day to Labor Day at this facility throughout all hours.

So we do water aerobics to recreational swimming to private pool rentals.

We have a two-phased approach to the renovation project at Albert Oakland Family Aquatic Center.

We've been talking about this since about 2023 in terms of long-term plans to fix the facility, some of the issues that we have, and then also to renovate an existing facility as we look at our outdoor pools and what we have offering to the public.

Our first phase is obviously to address our pool structure, that mechanical room, patrons upgrades such as play features, shade, and zero entry.

Phase two, as we look down the road will be renovations to the bathhouse, and then also replacement of our existing water slide.

The water slide was installed as part of the only renovation that has also happened in 1999.

Um so we're pushing about 26 years old on that portion of this project.

So in terms of the public input process for the renovations, we held two public input meetings at the facility on June 26th and June 27th of 2025.

Our goal was to catch as many patrons that were visiting as well as talk to our lifeguards and other staff members about the potential renovation project.

We also had online public comment on Beeheard Como, and then we've had our public hearing in front of our parks and recreation commission on August 21st of 2025.

Our funding for this project is unique because we had not planned to do this extensive of a project when we passed the 2021 park sales tax.

So we have been working with the finance department, and so we want to talk through each portion of the funding with the council as we look at this project.

Um total cost is $4 million.

We'll have $300,000 will be from the park sales tax.

Um 1.2 million dollars of the project will come from the city's designated loan fund.

Um this is the same fund that we use to fund phase two of the Columbia Sports Field House as an example.

This is a 10-year loan.

The payments are approximately 140,000 each year, and we will pay for those through our park sales tax funding.

We will require as part of the legislation approval for uh the parks department to use the designated loan fund as part of the project.

The last portion of the funding, $2.5 million, is from the city's capital project interest account.

This is a one-time allocation of funds.

Um, this comes from the account that collects interest earned from ongoing capital projects funding throughout the city.

Um so this could be a parks and recreation project, this could be a water and light project or another department.

Um, but this funding would come from this account as a one-time allocation that's already been approved as part of the budget.

So our procurement process and project timeline.

So we are requesting authority to use the design build process as one option for the project design and construction.

Um we want to be able to evaluate design build, um, which is to have one contractor to work with to do both those aspects of the project versus our traditional concept, which is um we would go out and do design and engineering of the project first, and then we would bid out the construction of the project.

So we'll work with our purchasing department on this.

Um as we did the Lake of the Woods Pool project last winter, we use the design build process.

For this project, we want to just have the ability to evaluate both.

Um so we do need authority from city council to be able to move forward with that option.

We are anticipating full project completion by spring of 2027.

Um so our goal is with this entire process is to make sure that we don't have a major interruption to our 2026 aquatic season at Albert Oakland Family Aquatic Center.

And so as we start to work through this project, we'll update council um on our timeline.

We had originally thought we could have this project done by um what is May of 2026, um, but we want to make sure we have enough time to get the project done.

We're competitive through the bidding process.

We have some concerns that we'll have some extra costs if we do try to do this in an expative fashion.

But then also our biggest concern is making sure we don't interrupt that pool season.

Because what happens when you interrupt too much of that pool season, if we weren't to open until July, we're going to really struggle to be able to hire lifeguards because we haven't made that entire summer commitment.

And then also from a financial revenue aspect of recouping some of our cost for the pool, we're not going to see that as much.

So we'll evaluate this process once council gives us authorization to proceed with the project.

So our main priority with this pool project is to upgrade all of our mechanical systems and plumbing.

Our facility has 50-year-old components in some areas.

We have a leaking pool structure.

And then we have a lot of our plumbing is that original 50 years old as well.

So the first very part of this is replacement of our electrical panels, breakers, and controllers for the facility.

This is work that will be done by parks and recreation staff as part of the project and can actually be done before the contractor would start on the remainder of the project.

We will also look at the replacement of all the necessary our filtration and sanitation equipment.

This will be based on our age, efficiency, and wear and tear.

So as the contractor comes in that we'll work with on the aquatic facility, they'll do an evaluation of all these components.

Some of them are older and will need to be replaced, and then some things have been upgraded recently by our staff, and so those parts of this mechanical room will remain.

In terms of the pool shell, this is a priority for the department and the project.

The first is to install a PVC liner throughout the pool.

So all that structure that is in white in that photo will receive a pool liner.

This will help with the existing cracking that we have in the pool shell.

We've done this process with Douglas Family Aquatic Center and also Lake of the Woods pool.

Both received a PVC pool liner as part of the project renovations that we've done on those two.

We'll also install a new deck-level stainless steel gutter system.

So they'll remove the existing gutter system and we'll add that new system for capturing anything that is on the top level of that water.

One additional upgrade that we'll do as part of the pool structure is installation of starting blocks on both ends of the pool.

This is a request in terms of competitive swimming events so that we can have actual relays.

Another major part of this is replacement of all of the underground plumbing.

So when you go from that mechanical room out to the pool, everything from main drain to returns, all of that will be replaced as part of the project.

So we we will get rid of our 50-year-old plumbing system and we will upgrade that all to brand new plumbing.

We will also replace the majority of the concrete deck.

So as we are doing the plumbing replacement, we'll replace all of the pool deck.

This coincides also with placement of shade structures, which I'll talk about here in a minute.

But one of the main factors is this is also some very old concrete in many areas of the pool.

We've done some initial engineering work on this portion of the project with Crockett Engineering, so that'll be included in the RFP for the project.

The renovations to the pool also include some design aspects for the shallow area of the main pool.

This area has depths of water, which is about 18 inches to three feet.

This is a very populated area of the swimming pool based on the height of water.

So our goal is to expand this space.

And this is where we get more into the design of the pool as we move forward, but also increase our accessibility within the pool.

So one of the things that we did with Lake of the Woods pool was to add zero entry into that pool, and so we are going to propose to look at how we can do that at Albert Oakland Family Aquatic Center as well.

This creates a beach feel.

So as you enter the water, you are entering at a zero level, and then you're moving down into that three feet into the swimming lanes, which is four and a half to five feet of water.

This allows younger kids to be in this area.

We've have some splash sprays, there's a dumping bucket, but then also from an accessibility standpoint, um, this widens out this area of the pool.

There's a handrail that's not shown, but will be as part of this.

Um so it increases our accessibility as well.

Um so our one aspect we'll look at is to make sure we can enlarge this area because we have a lot of swimmers that occupy this space, so we'll make sure that we have this available and then make some improvements to it.

We also are looking at some new water plate features.

Um one of our biggest tasks is to entertain our teenagers that are at the swimming pool as well.

Um, one thing at Douglas Family Aquatic Center, we have a climbing wall that's approximately eight feet tall.

Um so if you look at it, it's essentially a little bit more than one panel.

Um you can go up to 15 to 20 feet at Albert Oakland Family Aquatic Center with the climbing wall because we have a deep end of the pool.

And so we'll be able to have two diving boards and then also be able to have a climbing wall for kids to be able to utilize.

There's another uh feature called an aqua zip.

Um so thank miniature zip line.

Um this is a facility uh feature that we've seen in some other facilities added recently.

Um so we will look at how we can incorporate these into the pool as well.

We also will look at a replacement of the existing water play structure in the Kiddie pool area.

Um this is not as old.

We replaced this about 11 years ago.

Um but as we look at a project that is going to be a year or two down the road, we're getting to 16 years.

We also have some some plumbing leaks under this area, so we want to be able to address this at the same time.

Number one request from the public to add to Albert Oakland Family Aquatic Center was shade, um, which was not surprising.

We had heard this before, but as we look at the pool deck um of the existing facility, uh we have zero patron shade throughout that structure.

So we will propose to add 10 different shade structures um throughout the pool in different areas, different sizes.

Um all of those will be for park or patrons of the swimming facility, um, and then also in the concession areas.

We also will need to add in a new eight-foot-tall chain link fence.

Um the picture in the top right, this is the fence with slats at Lake of the Woods pool that was recently installed, and so we will look at that same application at Albert Oakland Pool as well.

Additional improvements.

Um we will we will re-refurbish the existing water slides.

So this is a process of of painting and checking it to make sure that um we can continue to have that for as long as we need.

Um we'll put new lifeguard stands with shades out, uh, new ADA pool lift will have to be installed on the on the deeper parts of the pool.

Um, new LED pool deck lighting.

This will be done by our staff and electrician.

Um, and then we plan to have a new PA system, new security camera system, and then we'll replace diving boards as well.

This is the report I have.

Staff's requesting approval of legislation authorizing renovations to Albert Oakland Family Aquatics Center, along with this approval to use the designated loan fund to pay for a portion of the project, as well as authority to look at the design build process as one way of procurement for the project.

And I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.

Any questions for staff from council?

Seeing none, I'll go ahead and open up the public hearing.

Would anybody from the public wish to speak on the proposed improvements to the Albert Oakland Family Aquatic Center?

Uh thank you very much for that, Gabe.

I just want you to know I'm so happy to be able to go to the pool eventually, and there will be shade.

Um I do not go to that pool for that reason because there is no shade.

And my husband, who is uh super pale, cannot go either because there is no shade.

He has to be indoors.

So I'm looking forward to that.

Thanks.

Thank you, Tracy.

Anyone else from the public wish to speak about the proposed improvements to the aquatic center?

Hello, I am from Ward 3.

My name is Archie Kimbrell.

Um I would just like to speak in support of this.

This is not why I came here, but I am um very happy to see that we're working to make improvements at the pool.

I am from Springfield, Missouri.

Actually, I've been living in Columbia just for college, and we have uh a lot more facilities than you guys do.

I do realize there's a lot bigger budget in Springfield, Missouri.

Um, but it's really important to me and a lot of the other people that I have a place that I can swim safely because trying to swim in your creeks here.

Um there is a lot of debris and waste and things that I don't really want to be swimming in.

Um so if these facilities are up to par, I would go to them instead.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Anyone else want to speak uh to the proposed renovations to Albert Oakland Family Aquatic Center?

Seeing none, I'll close the public hearing.

Any council questions or comments?

You just cover such a so much amazing stuff.

Thank you, Gabe.

Thanks so much.

All right, Sheila, we please call roll on bill two forty-seven twenty-five.

Council Bill 24725, Miss Buffalo.

Yes.

Ms.

Carroll.

Yes.

Ms.

Elwood?

Yes.

Ms.

Sample?

Yes.

Mr.

Foster.

Yes.

Ms.

Peters.

Yes.

All right.

Going on to old business.

Sheila, will you please read policy resolution 13425?

Um Council Bill 13425 is a policy resolution adopting priorities for the 2026 legislative session.

Second reading.

Do we have a staff report?

Hi, good evening.

Stacey Whiteham, assistant to the city manager.

Um I've got some slides that just list um our priorities.

These are the general ones.

They've got two that cover the more specific priorities.

You'll remember that this is a brand new process for us.

So you've had the chance to look over these once or twice in the past, but I'm happy to uh answer any questions you might have.

Uh no, I'll just say thank you for that, Stacey.

I know this is something that makes it a lot easier for us to advocate for ourselves in Jefferson City.

Um I guess one question I have is um from here is is the thought that um if other things arise, like you would come back to council and see if priorities have shifted if any of these things get achieved.

I don't know if we've thought through the next steps on that.

Have you have staff?

Do you mean for uh once the legislation once the legislative year has started?

Is there, you know, once we see what bills are filed, uh is there kind of a touch point where you'll come back to council and be like, there's some of these things that actually didn't fall within, but we think would be.

I don't know, DeKarlin, you or Stacy have thoughts on that.

I think Porter, one one of the things that Stacy will be doing is tracking legislation.

And so as we track the legislation that are coming from our legislators, just making sure they they deal with our local priorities.

And so you'll get a report that will talk about what legislation fits within these priority areas.

Okay.

Any additional questions?

I I will say that um and before we open up for public comment is that I I will be um making one amendment to this based on the conversations that we've had with CPD.

Um do you have did you say you have any more detailed, do you have another detailed slide or is this one it?

Um so this is our you'll remember that we um are splitting our priorities general.

These are the really big broad areas where a lot of different um potential bills might fall within these.

Um we also have more specific priorities.

So these are items that we would of course we would be engaging with our lobbyists on all these, but these are items that we might try more specifically to achieve.

So I'll just make comment to that first one under public safety.

This is one that we heard this evening um from our police chief uh making the comment about that.

And I'd like to add, um I'll be making uh I'll I can motion this before we even open up, but like to add an additional one under this, because one of the conversations that um we've heard from um from the police are about the incidence of guns stolen from cars, and that the state of Missouri has no requirement to report them stolen.

Um so when I look at what other states have done on this issue, reporting lost or stolen guns to local law enforcement may reduce underground gun sales and illegal gun trafficking.

And so I think since this is one of the instances that um Columbia Police has brought up as being an issue, should be one.

It has been present, it has been introduced at the state a few times, but it should be one that the City of Columbia should advocate for.

And so the writing that I have is just the City of Columbia supports legislation requiring lost or stolen guns to be reported to local law enforcement within 72 hours after discovery of the loss.

Um so I'll make that motion to amend our priorities for exhibit A to include that one.

Do I have a second?

Second.

Second by Bureau.

Um all those in favor of that amendment say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Thank you for that.

And I'm sure there'll be more things that will come up from CPD.

Any other um questions from council on the legislative priorities we have before us?

Then I'll all right.

Would anyone from the public wish to speak on policy resolution 134-25, the 2026 legislative priorities?

If so, come up to the podium.

Hi, I'm Natalie Hampton, and I have been a first ward resident for 15 years.

Thank you to the council and the mayor.

I know that your job is difficult and you all are volunteers.

We really appreciate it.

Um my views I'm expressing tonight are my own.

I have recently been threatened by my employer with possible termination for speaking out on public issues.

Uh, but I wanted to say that I am very happy to see retaining local control as part of the um legislative priorities, particularly with the things that have been happening here.

I have some fears that some of the moves that mean choice has made recently could be paving the way for potential attempts to have a police takeover in Columbia, similar to what happened in St.

Louis.

This was a really well-funded effort, and there's still money there to support that effort.

So I I think that that's gonna be really important to keep an eye on.

Um, it is so important to me that we do maintain control of our city and don't have this kind of authoritarian effort to to take control of it from our citizenry.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Would anyone else from the public wish to speak on the policy resolution 134-25?

I want to concur with Natalie.

Tracy Wilson Cleekamp, I want to concur with Natalie about local control.

I don't want to say too much because too much has gone on in the past week, but I do think it's very important that we are able to delineate that Munchoy has his plantation that he takes care of.

And the mayor, you're in charge over here as our representative, and we do have an equal to Munchoy in Mr.

Seawood.

And so I would ask that in some ways that we be more proactive in our language in how we situate our power structure so that we're in front and not behind.

Thank you.

Would anyone else wish to speak on the proposed 2026 legislative priorities?

Seeing none, I'll come back to council comments.

Any council comments?

I'll look this way first.

Yeah, Valerie.

You know, I had planned, I had not expected for this to come up under legislative priorities.

Um had planned to say something during closing comments.

But I I do appreciate the input.

Um and I do share many of your concerns.

Thank you.

Vera, anything?

I'm coming up.

Think.

Well, just say this is one of those times when I appreciate that we have a we have a conversation this in a in a pre-council meeting, so that we can go through these things and and uh and feel good about where we are.

And so I do, but I think it also is significant to point out that the mayor is offered uh um an amendment to this, the support, and uh it's important that we recall it.

All of these things that we do are are living documents and and they are subject to uh change as as situations and circumstances change.

I see anything in.

I'll just add um to uh I was in a I was in a meeting recently uh where somebody said uh advocating for common sense gun legislation was a non-starter in the state of Missouri.

And and while I understand the political landscape that we're in, when I have my police chief telling me a couple of laws that would help them do their job to keep people safe, I'm gonna listen to her.

And so I was I was happy that the full all of council was supportive of those amendments because I think it makes it easier for them to do their jobs.

And I think I I reject the narrative that it's a lost cause uh and that we need to stop advocating for things when it comes to people's safety and especially for future generations.

So I'm just thankful to Council and Think Walt for staff for putting this together.

I appreciate it.

Thanks, Stacey.

Um Sheila, we please call roll on policy resolution 13425.

Council Bill 13425 as amended, Ms.

Buffalo?

Yes.

Ms.

Carroll?

Yes.

Ms.

Elwood?

Yes.

Ms.

Sample?

Yes.

Mr.

Foster?

Yes.

Ms.

Peters.

Yes.

Request didn't you're the one guy?

All right.

Sheila, will you please read uh Bill 24325?

Council Bill 24325 is an ordinance extending the corporate limits of the City of Columbia, Missouri by annexing property located on the northwest corner of Clark Lane and Lakewood Drive, directing the city clerk to give notice of the annexation, placing the annex placing the property annexed in District MC mixed use corridor and fixing the time when this ordinance shall become effective second reading.

Do we have a staff reports?

A new staff report.

Yes.

Thank you.

Mayor, Council.

Uh, we do have a staff report tonight.

Um Clint Smith, uh develop our community development director.

I I've uh had all of one week under my belt, so I have asked Mr.

Zinner, uh development services manager to come uh and give an overview of this case and help me answer any questions.

So with that, I'll turn it over to him.

Thank you.

Good evening, Council.

Pat Zenner, Development Service Manager.

So we are uh concluding uh the process uh this evening as it relates to the assignment of permanent zoning and annexation of a.89 acre piece of property at the northwest corner of Clark and Lakewood Drive.

Um the request by the applicant is to have this parcel annexed into the city.

That public hearing was held on uh the 15th of September.

Uh and they are seeking to have MC mixed-use corridor as the permanent zoning upon annexation, should council desire to make recommendation for that or approve that request.

Uh general locator map so you have an idea of where we are in the world uh here northwest of the roundabout of Clark Lane.

Um Lake of the Woods and St.

Charles going off to the east.

Uh, this is the vacant parcel that is immediately adjacent to the Lakewood shopping center.

Uh property to the northwest is in the county uh as is property to the immediate east on North Lakewood Drive.

All of the properties south of the roundabout is inside the city's corporate limits and is zoned MC as well.

So as indicated, we are applicant is seeking open MC zoning to allow for auto-oriented commercial development on this property and generally a more direct path towards development approvals.

This particular property is presently zoned Boone County RM, which is their moderate density residential zoning district.

However, was previously rezoned in 2004, which is now an expired request to county general commercial planned district.

So there was a plan associated with this property that restricted the uses on the vacant tract of land as well as the Lakewood shopping center to what is equivalent to our mixed use neighborhood zoning district, or in the county referred to as CN, neighborhood commercial.

Associated with that rezoning request was an approval by the county commission to allow for a 500 square foot coffee shack drive-thru restaurant, and that was a conditional use approval that was approved in addition to the development plan revisions made in 2004.

At our meeting when we were talking about this request on September 15th, a couple of questions were asked of me, and I have a couple of answers.

So first and foremost, the accesses to this particular property that are off of Clark Lane were intended to be utilized for both the parcels, the developed and the vacant parcel to the east.

I also made a statement during that public hearing that the applicant would only have to submit the final development plan in order to activate the actual development potential on the vacant parcel.

After conferring with my colleagues over at the county, that was an incorrect statement.

Given the fact that the plan has expired, and it expired two years after 2004, the zoning on this property would have to be reapproved fully by the county commissioner.

That would require going through the county's planning and zoning commission as well as going through the county commission themselves.

That process does create some potential uncertainties, which is partially why this request has been brought forward to the City of Columbia.

There is a more direct path to allowing for development to occur.

MC zoning is a straight zoning district.

The uses that are auto-oriented that have been expressed, a drive-thru specifically, is a by-right permitted use, meaning there would be limited review and the limited ability for the city to apply additional conditions such as buffering or access restrictions that a conditional use would potentially be able to approve apply or a planned district would be able to apply.

To give a little bit of additional context, this is the original review plan in 2004.

At that time, there was a 4,000 square foot building shown on the vacant lot.

There was no drive-thru or the coffee shack.

The image to your right is where the coffee shack was authorized.

If you think our city planning processes are difficult to follow, my reading of the board orders with the county are even more challenging.

I can't quite tell if the drive-thru canopy shown on that 4,000 square foot building was actually approved, but the best I can tell is no, it was not, and there was a requirement that the review plan be amended.

So the red circle represents the 500 square foot coffee shack that apparently their board order was the only drive-thru use on that land.

And the access to North Lakewood at that time was also contemplated.

That is the upper image.

At the time that the first phase of this project was approved, which is where the shopping center exists today, there was no cross access easement created in order to fully allow development opportunity for the adjacent vacant track to the east across access easement, still will be required.

And that would be regardless of whose jurisdiction this property does come into.

They are asking for an annexation.

So if this were not to be approved, the county would still have control over the property.

And they would also, from my conversations with my colleagues at the county indicated that there would be a requirement for that cross-access easement.

As we discussed as a part of the annexation, the comprehensive plan supports the nodal commercial development concept here that is being offered and requested by the applicant.

The Commission and the staff are both supportive of that.

The MC zoning, however, allows for more intense auto-centric uses such as drive-throughs, gas stations, higher levels of commercialized development, with limited review oversight.

And the intensity of those uses in the MC zoning district would be greater than that of the current uses that were permitted in the CGP, which were neighborhood restricted by the county, than would be otherwise allowed in our MC zoning district.

The MN zoning of the city would be consistent with the county authorization that was provided in 2004 and allows similar autocentric uses, however, would require that those autocentric uses be approved with a conditional use permit authorization.

Conditional use permits within the city structure require a site plan.

They require planning and zoning commission recommendation, and they ultimately require city council approval.

The MN through the public hearing process by our planning commission as well as by staff is viewed as the more appropriate transition for the neighboring residential development that is to the north of the subject site.

And the graphic you see in front of you here is a comparison basically of our zoning.

This is basically the yellow column represents our MN with conditional and permitted uses shown with the C and the P accordingly, and then the green column is basically all of the uses in the MC zoning district, either conditional or permitted.

This table does not represent all of the use comparisons across each of our land use categories.

This is where there was a disconnect.

One district allowed one use versus the other did not.

And what you will see in this table if you study it, which I understand that it may not be readable, there is a far greater number of permitted uses in the CP or in the MC zoning category than there is in the MN.

And most of the uses that are permitted by right in the MC are higher intensity auto-centric related.

So the MN CUP process, which would allow for the auto-centric uses that the applicant desires would provide greater development oversight, as we talked about during our annexation public hearing.

A CUP will allow additional conditions to be placed upon the future development of the site in order to mitigate possible land use and traffic impacts, which were expressed as concerns by the adjoining property owners as part of the public hearing.

And the CUP process is a more direct end result than going through the unknown outcome of a county full rezoning to apply basically planned development back to the property as it was previously approved in 2004.

MC zoning would be subject to neighborhood protections, which is many of you who have been around long enough, that is that deals with our buffering, our lighting, and other impacts that generally would occur on adjoining residential property.

However, the traffic impacts could be exempt, uh addressing traffic impacts could be exempt based upon the improvement size or the trip generation.

Now we did identify earlier today, again, as an oversight from what we originally presented to you that we do have use-specific standards that relate to drive-through uses.

The trip generation threshold generally within our code is at 100 trips in the peak hour.

The use-specific standards, however, that apply specifically to drive-through uses allows for the city's traffic engineer to require a traffic study even if the 100-trip threshold is not triggered.

That is to ensure that we would allow additional concerns to be taken into account.

That would apply in either the MC or the MN zoning district.

So should council desire to proceed forward with the request that the applicant has made, which is MC, there would be the ability through the use specific standards of a drive-through to be able to still require a more thorough investigation of the property from a traffic impacts perspective.

The buffering provisions are going to be the identical between both zoning districts, MN or MC.

Water is the only thing that we are currently providing this site today.

Electric is by Boone County Electric.

There is a 1992 sewer connection agreement that governs this site's availability or access to city sewer.

And within that 1992 agreement, there is no requirement for annexation.

Furthermore, per the 92 agreement, the recurring monthly rate that the user of this site would be charged is 80 percent of what we would typically charge a city resident, and that is governed by the 92 sewer agreement.

City public safety and solid waste services would transfer to uh our responsibility after annexation.

Uh, currently they are provided via the county and private hauler, and then we maintain all of the right of way that is currently within the roundabout.

So it is a city roundabout and it is city controlled uh from that perspective.

During the Planning Commission's public hearing with this request, there were three residents that spoke in opposition, and it should have been opposition, my apologies.

Um expressing concerns about the quality of life, uh traffic impacts in their residential development to the north, buffering and the possibility that improvements may be expanding off the current site.

Uh based on our review, it does not appear as though there are such improvements.

There is a utility easement that breaks basically the development area from the residential development to the north.

Also during the public hearing, the applicant's agent as well as design and real estate professionals addressed the Commission providing responses to public concerns as well as the rationale for the desired MC.

Applicant's uh agent is here this evening to provide uh counterpoint to staff's report this evening.

The commissioners expressed a concern as they discussed this project about MC going north of Clark Lane.

There is no MC today that is north of Clark.

All of that is contained to the interstate frontages and the intensity of the uses that will be allowed without general review, more detailed review in the MC zoning district versus MN.

After concluding their public hearing, the Planning and Zoning Commission recommended denial of the request 5.3 of the permanent MC zoning.

If you have questions, I'll be more than happy to try to answer them.

Any questions for staff on this?

I will go with Jackie.

Thank you for this information.

Um you know if the MC zoning is denied by counsel, will the developer or the applicants come back and request MC?

Uh I do not know that.

The applicant's agent may be able to explain that to you.

Okay.

Though they wouldn't be allowed to do so.

Okay.

That's only quite five comments, but anyway.

Yeah.

Questions on this, yeah, Bira.

Am I and apologies if you if you have already explained this, am I remembering correctly that the property owner or the person making this request was offered the MN and chose to continue with MC, or am I mixing that up with a different PZ presentation from the last meeting?

We did discuss uh the with the applicant's agent to convert the request to MN prior to publication of the staff report.

The planning and zoning commission did inquire of that as well during the public hearing, but the applicant chose to continue to move forward with the MC request and had the planning commission vote as it is turned out.

Thank you.

Yeah, Betsy and then Nick.

Um is there zoning, is there um screening required with MC zoning?

Yes, there would be, given the given the given the adjacency of the RM in the county, there would be a level three buffer if I am not incorrect.

And what is a level three buffer?

Level three buffer is a ten-foot wide buffer strip with an eight-foot-tall screening device.

Uh light standard heights would be limited to twenty feet maximum adjacent to the residential zone property to the north.

Thank you.

I knew you would know that information.

I just sleep with the code.

Of course he would.

Yeah, Nick.

Um you mentioned that uh you've changed your mind about part of the information you were you were providing to us before uh that you were incorrect about that.

The staff uh I know that the planning and zoning voted against, uh voted to deny this, but staff also recommended that, if I'm not mistaken.

And if is there anything that's changed in your mind about that from the staff perspective since you have gotten this other information that we have to do?

How do you see this?

There is not, Mr.

Foster.

Uh staff is still firmly uh in the camp that we believe MN is a more appropriate transition in this particular area.

Um we do not support commercial development here.

We believe, however, it is in the public's best interest that we have a little bit more of a methodical review of site-related issues, which is what the CUP process would allow.

Um, while a site plan will be required and a traffic study can be facilitated.

Uh we believe that it does not necessarily provide the same level of uh controls uh as a CUP would, uh, where we can do a little bit more, we can be a little bit more refined as it relates to placement of uh future structures and other aspects associated with the site.

We believe when you look at it from the county's perspective of a planned district, if they have to go back through a full reapproval for the planned district.

Uh the CP process in the MN zoning district is probably still going to be more efficient.

It's more of a direct procedure.

It's not as direct as MC, but it is more direct than going through the uncertainty of a rezoning process.

Um we are not moved based on the new information, even though that does provide some solace that we would still have the ability to get a traffic study.

We still believe MN is appropriate.

Any other council questions for this?

All right, would anybody from the public wish to speak on Bill 24325?

The magic will happen.

All right.

All right, good evening, Mayor, members of the council.

Caleb Colbert, attorney at 827 East Broadway, uh, and I'm here tonight on behalf of the applicant to ask for your support for MC zoning.

Um, to give you a little background about why we're here this evening, uh, you can blame the county.

Um we went to explore the possibility of developing this property or rezoning it in the county.

They suggested, pointed out that the city uh all of the property on the south side of this intersection is in the city limits.

So they suggested that the city would have an interest in having this property within the city limits.

Once that was suggested to us, we look at what commercial zoning districts are available.

And here in Columbia, we have MC corridor commercial or neighborhood commercial.

And when we look at the intent of those two districts, this site is located at a major intersection along a major roadway.

Um C zoning, again, is intended to be at sites that have high visibility, a lot of uh automotive uses.

So we felt like MC was appropriate.

Um you look at this particular intersection, again, everything to the south is zoned MC corridor commercial.

You look at the surrounding uses and what has actually been built out, it is automotive-oriented uses.

When you stand on this property and look to the east, you see a BP gas station, obviously drive up fuel pumps.

You look to the southeast, you see a sonic drive-in fast food restaurant, obviously with drive up menu boards, uh, food service, all automotive oriented.

You look to the southwest, you see a drive-in club car wash, and then in the background you can see the McDonald's sign.

All of those very automotive-oriented.

So when you look at this particular property, this would be the one site that is not improved with an auto-oriented type use.

Um to our west, you have the the shopping center again, but it's not located directly on this roundabout.

Staff's concerns with the MC zoning and some of the questions that came up at the annexation hearing were about transition and buffering.

You heard Mr.

Zinner talk about this property would trigger the most restrictive buffering that Columbia's adopted, and that is a level three screen, it requires a minimum of a 10-foot setback.

We put together a diagram that shows we're 134 feet from the nearest residential structure.

And the reason for that is this site has a lake, a common lot between it and the residential structure to the north.

And then when you transition to this property, there are 40 feet of drainage and utility easements before you even get into the site.

So this property it's exceeds the requirement uh the level three buffering requirement by 10 times.

Additionally, you might recall that in 2017, we adopted neighborhood protection standards.

And the neighborhood protection standards have this buffering requirement for the reason for the intention of allowing commercial next to residential.

So if we were never going to allow commercial next to residential, why did we adopt those neighborhood protection standards in the first place?

We adopted them for situations like this, and we go above and beyond what's required.

As far as what the residents uh to the north would see, that is the existing vegetative buffer between us and the property to the north.

The folks of the north will never see what's built on this particular site.

Here is standing at the residential property looking south.

Again, that's the existing vegetative buffer between these two properties.

Finally, uh, you know, the elephant in the room is the drive-thru.

Drive-thru is really why we're pursuing the MC because the drive-thru is a buy-right option.

If you consider a conditional use requires a site plan, I mean, that's the type of zoning that we've had for the last 20 years, and the site's never developed.

We've had a plan zoning that requires a site plan and um going through additional political processes.

That's what a conditional use permit is.

We would have to submit a site plan and go through additional political processes in order to build anything with a drive-thru on this particular site.

But back in 2017, when we adopted the Unified Development Code, we adopted use specific standards.

And there are use specific standards for drive-up facilities.

Those include requiring that all sound and light is directed inward so they don't shine onto the neighbor's property.

And additionally, the city built in a safeguard.

Any drive-thru, the city traffic engineer can require that we produce a traffic study.

If that traffic study says that there would be a problem with that drive-thru, the city can require traffic improvements or can deny the request.

So there is overviews, so or oversight.

I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, Caleb.

But anyone else from the public wish to speak on Bill 243 25.

My name is John John with offices at 1000 West Nyphong.

Um I am the real estate agent for this property.

Uh the reason we are really here is that for 20 years it sat and done nothing.

About five years ago, the city came to the commercial uh real estate agents and said, How can we get more jobs and more retail in the north side of town, the northeast corridor?

There was very little suggestions, truthfully, because most of us look at it and say that houses follow or retail follows houses.

Businesses follow the houses.

It's the rooftops account.

But over my many years, um, I became finally to realize that the planned zoning districts were holding a lot of districts back.

I would get inquiries and people would look at the thing and say, well, wait a minute, let me go to the planning department and ask them if I can have this use.

And they go, well, you got to present a plan.

You've got to hire an engineer, you've got to hire an attorney, you've got to spend six months.

And they would go, let me find another place.

Um there was a VA proposal.

I doubt if we'll ever get it under the current circumstances, but there was a VA proposal for a lab.

They came and looked at two places in the Northeast and said, Yeah, we we would like that spot.

Um, is it zoned properly?

I said, Well, you'd have to go through planning and zoning, city council, all these reviews and do all this.

We can't submit a bid that way.

It has to be entitled to do what we need to do.

And that gets down to the to the residential portion too.

So this is the last piece I have of I think seven pieces in the Northeast Corridor that I have worked hard to get through to the right zoning.

Um this intersection is a four-lane highway.

It's designed to be a four-lane interchange.

Clark Lane is designed out through there to be four lanes.

Um the other issue is what about traffic into the neighborhood?

If you've ever driven back into that neighborhood, you're not going back there unless you live back there because you can't get back out without knowing how to get back out.

I've you know, remember when I was first in real estate, I would turn around in there and be lost for almost forever.

It's and the third point that I just want to make real quick before I go, it's no longer a big lot.

A big hunk of it was taken off for the roundabout.

Most a lot of it is in that buffer zone, and there's actually an easement that may is maintained by the neighborhoods in that buffer zone.

So it's a very small lot, and about the only good use for it is a small coffee shop type drive-thru, maybe a Jimmy John type drive-thru, but anything else, it's probably never going to happen.

And if we have to wait six months, they'll probably find some place else to build.

So I appreciate your thoughts on this.

And if you've got any questions, I'm still here.

Thank you, John Dunn.

Does anybody else from the public wish to speak on bill 24325?

There's someone behind you, John.

Sit down.

Hi, good evening.

I'm Steve Spelman.

Live at 2312, Katie Lane and uh Columbia's beautiful fourth ward.

Um I'm not a lawyer, and I'm not the post-property owner.

I have no financial interest in this project whatsoever.

No, a couple of the fellows uh speaking about this, but just as a concerned citizen observations in the back here.

You know, before they even spoke looking at the maps, which I I I do appreciate the agenda and the maps and stuff, I can kind of digest some of that.

But this is a busy corner.

Uh you know, even noticing there's a pizza place and uh and a gas station there, and it's kind of well, what's supposed to go there?

Um, the everyday average citizen would assume, well, that seems like it's part of the city limits, isn't it already?

I mean, there's all this growth there.

It's this jagged area town where some's officially county and some old houses and stuff, but the every average citizen would assume that this is part of the city limits at this point.

At this point, with everything built around it, it is in fill, isn't it?

You know, this is a vacant lot.

I don't know what else they're gonna do with it.

Nobody's gonna build a house there.

I mean, the houses behind there are in the neighborhood, but every house like, well, I assume that's probably gonna be some kind of business.

And as they said, there's a bunch of rules about it.

You know, I'm I'm no lawyer either, but you know, if you'll I'll skip that part.

But you know, the uh the part of the description here that I learned from this is that the county suggested, well, look, why don't you become part of the city?

Uh sounds like you'd want to do this.

Uh you got a property owner coming here that they want to be part of our town.

And they want to be under our regulations and so forth.

Um that seems like seems like a decent thing.

I remember from either the budget cycle or from Ready, the Regional Economic Development Incorporated.

There's talk of uh additional tax revenue generation.

So they're talk of a store here that might generate uh tax revenue.

Um sales tax revenue, that seems like a decent thing.

And uh just uh a little bit of memory.

Um you might remember a former city councilman Jerry Wade.

I think he was second, fourth ward, fourth, yeah.

And um, good guy, uh you know, God bless his soul and everything.

We got to know each other a little bit.

And I remember he was advocate for something called smart growth, which I don't complete didn't completely understand at the time.

But I remember one thing from from that is you want traffic generating facilities to be on your busy roads.

You don't want a traffic generation, you know, like a store or daycare center he was concerned about at the end of a cul-de-sac or way off in a residential area.

Um I think it was was saying, this is a busy corner, it's designed to do that.

That's what our infrastructure is built to do.

And I think it's good that somebody's wanting to be part of our town, wanting to follow our regulations, and wanting to have sales tax generation to help our budget.

Thanks for your time.

Thanks, Steve.

Is anybody else from the public wish to speak on Bill 24325?

Good evening, Mayor and Council, Kevin Murphy with a civil group.

Um and welcome back, Clint.

I'd like to say that.

But uh so again, some of the same things are pointing out.

Um the the unknown outcomes here uh are is a CUP um process, um which which is covered basically under uh any other requirements to have a drive-thru.

Um but again, you're going to to a board you know again coming back and you're you you're requesting this, and and you don't know if you're gonna get it or not.

So if we do accept an end zoning that does not guarantee that we get that um we are gonna have to follow all the maximum screening requirements, we're gonna have to follow uh neighborhood protection requirements.

And so basically it comes down to is this property developing the city or does it develop in the county?

Um again, a major intersection, a gas station next door, drive facilities on either quarter across the street, uh directly next door, there's bars and restaurants, and uh it is quite fitting with the uh uh um with this the screening that we already have and the additional screening that we would have to provide.

So um it's all I'm gonna have and answer any questions.

Might come up later.

Thank you.

Anyone else from the public wish to speak none?

I'll come to uh council comments or council clarifying.

Yeah, Jackie.

Um yeah, so this is in my ward, and it's actually not too far from where I live.

Um so I drive by this location pretty much on a daily basis.

So I'm very familiar with this site.

I can tell you that it is it is just this empty space that's being not utilized with the exception of the month of June when there is a fireworks tent there.

So um there are probably a lot of residents who would appreciate that not being there.

Um I appreciate the input in the work on planning and zoning from this, but I'm in favor of MC.

Um I think it's appropriate for this area.

Um there is I want to validate the concerns of the traffic.

Um but the roundabout, people kind of whip through that pretty well.

So I'm not concerned about that as much as maybe others would be.

Um just the other, you know, it was mentioned, uh, but ward three is very short on revenue generation and available jobs, places to go.

Um, and when I think about Battle High School out in that area and the possibility of having some kind of drive-thru.

I'm not a coffee drinker, so I don't get it, but I'm sure a lot of people are, and they would really appreciate when I think about the staff and even the students if it's developed in that manner.

Um, I think they would see that as a real win for ward three.

Um I I this this is something I'm in favor of for Ward 3.

Yeah, figure out then.

Um, this is also a a roundabout that I am very familiar with that I utilize quite often.

Um and it's very true that on that road, if you go straight back, you're gonna get stuck into a neighborhood where there's not really an outlet out.

Um however, that roundabout serves some major roads.

Uh and just one direction on that roundabout, you are going to find uh multiple daycares, a fire station, battle high school, and a major MU doctor's office that includes family doctors, OBGYN, mental health practitioners, and physical therapists.

It's a very high traffic area.

This roundabout feeds into St.

Charles Road.

Um, and I have seen some of the other auto dense uh commercial properties where drivers are attempting to use back shipping entrances to divert the roundabout and nearly cause accidents directly across from this location.

Um so I would have major concerns because there's an equivalent access on this property as well in that same spot.

Um so I do have major concerns about safety and want to make sure that we are keeping that in mind.

And so at this point, I do not support the MC zoning.

Yeah.

Um I'm looking at this request, and I'm looking at the roundabout and the history of requests that I've seen during my time on planning and zoning and during my time here, um, and the trends in development around the area.

Um I do have a concern about the traffic.

I do see several um auto-centric uses around here.

Um I'm going to say the gas station.

That's county zoning.

That's this is a pre-existing nonconformity.

The things that I see that are auto-centric, I'm not sure would likely be permitted by our department.

And I do want to encourage development.

I think that's extremely important, and I do have a concern that this hasn't been developed.

I think some of the commentary that we've heard about the present zoning and the future processes needed on that parcel lead to some of the reasoning why it's not why it's not um being developed, because it would need an additional uncertain process through the county.

Um I do think it's appropriate for many commercial uses.

I think MN covers most of the uses they would seek, including drive-throughs.

And I do think that council needs to have oversight on drive-throughs.

When I look at the history of cases that came before me on planning and zoning, um, including most of them that would have gone to consent on council and may not have been seen by this body in the same way.

Um I can't recall very many at all that had an MC use abutting residential.

It's almost always MN.

Um and when I think about some of these doctor offices, the OBGYN, these are all permitted in MN.

Um so are several commercial uses.

Um I think that giving it a straight MN zoning, if that were sought, would still help it to be sold and developed.

Um I look at this area.

This area is rapidly changing and rapidly growing.

I know that it has been stalled for a while.

I still believe that an MN would likely get developed.

Um I think it needs certainty in zoning.

Um not necessarily specifically MC zoning.

Um I don't support MC on this roundabout location for the traffic constraints.

I agree with the need for um more oversight and careful handling.

I also don't support it in this location, abutting the residential.

I still believe in our um screening and our neighborhood protections.

We have screening and neighborhood protections for MN.

Um I still believe in smart growth and nodal development, um, and part of smart growth and noble nodal development is transitional zoning between neighborhood um residential uses and commercial uses.

Um so I think MN is perfectly appropriate in this location.

Um I know that's not what it is in front of us.

I hope that you would rethink that, reconsider for the future.

Um I do not think that MC is appropriate for this location.

I worry about the future of continuing to make our choices based on surroundings if we're making our choices based on nonconformities and then agreeing to them.

And then the next choice is based on the MC that we gave because it's abutting and nonconformity.

So that's where I come from on this one.

Yeah, Nick.

I see it all.

I will say that uh when when the planning and zoning uh says denial and staff says denial makes it harder for me to say uh to vote in approval.

Um, I'm I'm moved by a couple of things here.

One is while is the natural buff buffer that exists on this site.

Uh there's a good bit of distance between the property line and and residential.

Uh the other is the development of um commercial on the northern side of town.

We we really need for this to happen.

I have I have visions of it happening in other places on the northern side of town.

Uh so my tendency is to be supportive of it for those reasons.

That's anything.

Um I'll just say for mine um similar I see all the things.

And I think it's to very your point, right?

There are um some of those things that you're seeing on the other side where that county zoning that happened, which is why the safeguards are not in place.

Ours is different.

We're a little bit more strict on doing those things.

I also say um Pat, you mentioned methodical review for placement of uh future structures is a need why we want to do the CUP.

But what I see is less than an acre of a site with a lot of easements and a lot of setbacks requirements.

So I feel like we have a lot of restrictions in place as far as where you could put a structure on this site.

Um when I think about that, I'm also just thankful we have so many historical PUDs, especially in the second and third wards that need to be replaced into open zoning so that we can actually see development on it.

Uh and so I'm in favor of this one.

Um so I'll go forward and ask Sheila to please call roll on bill 24325.

Council Bill 24325, Miss Buffalo.

Yes.

No.

Miss Elwood?

No.

Ms.

Sample?

Yes.

Mr.

Foster?

Yes.

Miss Peters.

Yes.

Passes four to two.

All right.

Moving on.

Sheila, will you please read the items under uh consent agenda twice and call roll?

Items on the consent agenda include bills 242 25, 244, 25, 245, 25, 246, 25, 248, 25, 249, 25, 250, 25, 251, 25, 252, 25, 253, 25, 254, 25, 255, 25, and resolutions 135, 25, 136, 25, 137, 25, 138, 25, 139, 25.

Bills 242, 25, 244, 25, 245, 25, 246, 25, 248, 25, 249, 25, 250, 25, 251, 25, 252, 25, 253, 25, 254, 25, 255, 25, and resolutions 135, 25, 30, 136, 25, 137, 25, 138, 25, and 13925.

Ms.

Buffalo.

Yes.

Carroll.

Yes.

Miss Elwood.

Yes.

Ms.

Sample.

Yes.

Mr.

Foster.

Yes.

Miss Peters.

Yes.

Moving on.

We have no items under new business this evening.

So I'll ask Sheila to read the items that are under introduction and first read.

All bills are introduced by the mayor unless otherwise indicated bills 256, 25, 257, 25, 258, 25, 259, 25, 260, 25, 261, 25, 262, 25, 263, 25, and 26425 first reading.

All right.

Now we're on to our reports.

Um so the first one is um we had a resignation from the business loop community improvement district.

We had a membership change.

Um so if it's agreeable, um uh I would like to appoint Renee Hall to a term ending April 19th, 2027.

Um, can I have the consent of counsel for these appointments?

Any of no objection?

No objection.

All right.

So Renee Hall will be there.

Um and and I believe Renee is representing um MACC.

Is that correct?

Yeah.

Right.

All right.

Now moving on to our second and final report of the evening.

I'm gonna talk slow while DeMarcus Thomas Brown works his way into the room.

Uh this is a report from our Office of Violence Prevention.

Uh this was requested a couple meetings ago, uh, which works out well for the timing because we've been talking a lot about this.

So do we have a staff report from the Office of Violence Prevention?

We do have a report.

Good evening.

In have a report from the administrator of the Office of Violence Prevention, Demarcus Thomas Brown.

And so um I had slides.

If you sh um do a next button on your computer there, it might come up.

This might be something that someone in the back.

I don't um if you click on I think what it might be is uh Demarcus, while you if you want to start, do a kickoff.

Um I'm imagining that it's that from the agenda item.

Yeah, if we can pull up the agenda on that computer, um his slides are one of the attachments for this item on the agenda.

So I'll just kick off while we're doing that.

The sides, the slides give a pretty thing to look at while we talk about a lot of this information.

I am excited about this information and live in this world and dive into it quite often.

And so I don't suppose y'all might have that same enthusiasm, but so I want to give y'all something to look at.

Um so I'll just start out with the um the Office of Violence Prevention.

Obviously, we recognize the creation of it and um myself being hired into that um by the Carlin Seawood.

And so the first of that part.

Right next to the floor right there.

Yep.

Thank you, Lady.

Well done, Lacey.

Our fellows are so good.

Fantastic.

Next, we're going to wordsmith a document from the guy.

Subjected.

No.

So this shows really just the just a snapshot of what the purpose of an office of violence prevention is.

This is obviously not a new concept in our nation and an evidence-based practice of seeing impact into areas of violence.

The Office of Vice Prevention exists in many municipalities.

And so this is the this graphic shows the how the Office of Vice Prevention works with other entities.

And so I'll just go dive into that.

The Office of Violence Prevention is focused on coordinating the development, implementation, and the evaluation of prevention, intervention, and community enrichment, which community enrichment is full sale when we see transformation 15 to 20 years, right?

That's when we see we start to see the payoff of that community enrichment by collaborating with law enforcement, community organizations, which I will refer to as CBOs, community-based organizations, government agencies, which are county, state, federal, and other key stakeholders, um, like giving entities and philanthropic operations within our uh our orbit, and we will continue working to develop strategies that reduce violence and promote public safety and well-being.

So you see costs here, which is it's actually something I uh I borrowed, I don't steal, so I borrowed from the recovery community, and what we what we learned from a re recovery-oriented system of care is that this same premise overlaps into other ecosystems, if you will.

And so we have a trauma-informed community-oriented system of care, a holistic wraparound approach to both intervene and prevent that is informed by overarching framework that recognizes the widespread impact of trauma and understands how trauma can affect an individual's health, behavior, and overall well-being.

So the definition of trauma is a deeply distressing or disturbing event that significantly impacts a person's emotional, psychological, and physical well-being.

The effects of trauma vary widely from person to person, but may include emotional distress, psychophysical symptoms, cognitive difficulties, behavioral, you know, avoidance, SUD, risky, hazardous behaviors, and interpersonal relationship dysfunction.

Those are all can be uh called can be caused by trauma.

And acute, you can have acute trauma, chronic and complex trauma.

Collaborative efforts then help develop programs that deal with with a trauma-informed oriented system of care, right.

So what we are tasked with is developing and building ecosystems of change and enrichment that can lead to flourishing thriving individually and hopefully communally, right?

So our my job, uh, and it's uh a large one is to is to be able to impact communities that we can see equitable thriving, right?

In communities that may not be the case.

So it's something I I also borrowed, and I will I'll read this here.

I won't read the slides to anybody.

Well, yeah, y'all y'all can see that.

I won't read the slides to anyone.

I'm just gonna go off of what I have for the report.

Um, but the slides again are are nice.

So we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalable rights.

That among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, which I turn flourishing.

That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men deriving their just powers from from the consent of the governed, which comes from the Constitution.

And I can tell you there are communities that are not living in that reality.

And my job is to help influence and bring change in those communities.

So personally, I have known 54 individuals who died in Columbia, Missouri due to community violence.

54.

And and and the data that I'm gonna use for this report is not it's it's actually uh qualitative, not quantitative.

It's it's personal data that that I can tell you these people actually died.

We have documentable proof and all that.

So if you want that, I can get that afterwards.

But 54 individuals who died in Columbia, Missouri due to community violence.

Nine of them from the years 2002 to 2015.

Nine of them.

I started take keeping track in 2002, 2015.

That's 13 years, right?

44 of them from 2016 to 2025.

44 from 2016 to 2025.

That's nine years.

Half, 22 of them of the 44 between 2018 and 2020.

These were friends and family of mine.

So we see the issue, right, of community violence that that has occurred.

And so in the summer of 2016, there was a meeting called at Friendship Missionary Baptist Church by pastors David Ballinger and Pastor Carlos Taylor and Pastor Clyde Ruffin to intervene into gun violence.

Or agency called Community of Faith was born that day.

And the likes of Marcus Richardson, Jane Williams, Conrad Hake, Andy Griffith, Sophia Smith, Tori Stevens, Amonta Harris, CJ Talton, Pat McMurray, John Pringer, and Scott Claybrook were among that group.

The first meetings were hosted at Love Columbia that was on business loop at the time, and those were the first early meetings, and we began to work within the three identified strategic areas central, east, and north.

The reason I bring that up is because I'm not new to the work.

And the work has been going on, and we've been losing people, but there's been a payoff from the work that was started.

And so I I I think uh and I and I'm I I don't read the future, but I think Jill will be back probably before this council adjourns.

But I think the Columbia Police Department, in the in the in the nature of things that have happened in community-based organizations, really deserve an applause for where they 22 people, 2018 to 2020.

That's two years.

You lost 22 people to gun violence.

And I think Jill can talk about the homicide rates currently, and they're not 22 at or they're not even close.

And so violence prevention strategies are most effective in communities where residence engagement is high and where there's ongoing collaboration among residents, businesses, and other local stakeholders.

So community-based organizations, entities that operate within a specific community or geographical area, aiming to address local needs and improve the well-being of its residents.

These organizations specialize in the micro communal subsets versus the entire mic macro community.

This is important because of the various differentiated nuances of micro proponents that contribute to the macro issue, but must be distributed individually.

It's imperative that CBOs collaborate but stay in their lane.

Well, we talked about mission creep, or the spillover contributes to issues.

And so what we're also tasked with is to define and monitor the problem, identify risk and protect the factors, develop and test preventative strategies and assure widespread adoption.

So we're talking about gap analysis, right?

We got to figure out what's going on.

If everyone's doing the same thing, but we have an issue over here, then we got to figure out how can we entice CBOs and other entities to fill that gap so that we're not all focused here when we have the issue over here, right?

And so that's what this office is tasked with.

And so then the community-based organizations can be recipients of the data that we collect.

And so enough of that slide.

Community engagement, and I'm just gonna read the headings here if that's okay.

Um violence disruption, and we want to disrupt violence, right?

Violence is not something that you just jump in the middle of, you must disrupt the cycle of it.

Violence tends to be very cyclical, and this is not I'll I'll explain that.

This is not coming out of Demarcus' head.

Like I'll I'll explain that later.

And I'm not pleasurizing, so I have I have references.

But violence is not something that just you get it's cyclical and you must disrupt it, right, before you can intervene in it.

And so youth engagement is a huge piece of that and policy advocacy.

As Chief Schlute, sorry, we in professional sit sitting, I I know her as as Jill, but Chief Flutey said, we we have to do something about guns, right?

We there's too many guns, right?

So that's that's gonna be policy, right?

We gotta do something about landlord and tenant.

You go to some of these places and you want enrichment, but when someone lives in their doors don't shut to their houses, and they they they come out and and people are living on top of each other, and the leases ain't really legit.

We gotta do something about that if we want to have community enrichment, because that leads to those are proponents like to violence.

So we'll get into that later.

So policy advocacy.

And there's not a lot we can do, but that's like widespread, right?

Macro, that's Jeff City policy advocacy advocacy.

So core functions, community coordination, data informed strategies, program development and evaluation, and supported sustainable sustainability and capacity.

So and that supported sustainability and capacity is not just for the office, that's for community-based organizations and entities that are working in the work.

Because what we saw in from 20 from 2009 and onward is you had these things, these entities pop up and start doing good work, but they were not sustainable and they would just go away and we would lose all those gains.

We would have to restart, recreate the wheel.

This office is tasked with being able to sustain those and to make sure there's widespread adoption and that those that that work does not just go underground, but that there's sustaining power so that other CBOs can maybe pick that up or the city can sustain for a time to be able to hand that off because we're not here to to create and do services.

We're here to sustain those that are doing that are doing the services in our community.

And so we're not competing with those uh other services there.

And so the data informed piece uh there is we the initiatives that have already started in this office, and I will go through those.

While they are data, data informed, we've had to quick change and hit the ground running, and we're gonna have to even look and evaluate those those things that have been started because we've kind of did a quick tried to do a quick out the gate fix when we weren't even able to uh readily evaluate to the standards we would like to to uh measure those those initiatives.

So OP OVP strategic plan and outlook and timeline.

So I broke this out when I came into the office with three different phases have phase one, phase two, and phase three.

And so phase one is assessment and alignment.

There's a so just if anyone's wondering, we're in phase two.

I've been here 134 days.

No one's counting, no one's counting at all.

But you know, it's it's you know, we we uh I've been here for a little bit, and and what I can tell you is that each phase is designed to build upon itself, and we'll go through those.

So phase one, and I'll pick out some key things here.

Phase one was March 31st.

I started, it was uh Monday, March 31st, and that was orientation.

And uh I won't belabor the process of orientation, but Denise scared me deeply, and so I made sure I don't share nothing about what happens at the city.

Um, but you go through that orientation.

If anybody been through the orientation process, you know what I'm talking about.

So uh that was that was the first day.

But from March 31st to July 18th, my initial strategic plan was developed in order to assist in being able to hit the ground running so to speak and learn the process of the city in tandem.

So you'll notice some initiatives engaged in they're out of sequence, but I I can't say that I recommend the overarching strategy.

But when I came into the office, everyone kept asking, what are you going to do?

And and and and mainly, what is the Carlin doing?

And I'm like, okay, well, we're doing stuff, so we're gonna come in.

I'm gonna show y'all what we're about to do.

And so I have some of that here.

Uh but I I would not recommend another office advised prevention to do that, but we did because we're Columbia and uh and we take on our we take our initiative seriously.

And so, but I'm grateful to everyone assisting and educating me on the hows and the whys of city processes from Granicus and it to intranet.

Seriously, one of the I don't think the general populace gets to see the giftings and the and the the kindness we have in the city of Columbia and our directors and our staff.

They have been nothing.

Holly uh, she's uh a staff member has been nothing but gracious.

Uh Christina, I won't name names, I'm gonna leave somebody out.

Like they I I've made some blunders, right?

Because I'm coming from a whole different understanding of things, and and it's been fantastic.

So I hopefully um you know we appreciate them uh while while we have them.

So the current 240-day strategic plan initially runs on a timeline that would seemingly match the starting of the National Institute of Criminal Justice Reform Local Involvement and Further Development.

And so you see some of the key initiatives there.

So news chapter coaching was the entity that was hired in about 2014, 2016 to look at some of the the violence trends.

I was able to get that document that they completed.

Thank you, Carolyn Sullivan, um, and look that over and see is this still happening today, right?

Because it's not that we don't have the information, sometimes we forget about the information.

And so I took that document and was able to look at the strategic areas and all that and and kind of mirror some of the things we're doing.

Uh internal one-on-ones, I met with every director, and they were gracious with in the current departments with uh few collaborations, and I'll I'll talk about those.

Uh access to the stressors map and police call data, so we were able to overlay that.

So we didn't just pick areas out of the sky.

These the with the old inform uh is yeah, academically old, it's fairly new, but 2014.

Right.

So with that data and with the overlayers of the stressors and the police call data map, we were able to overlay and see areas that we were to impact, right?

Initially engage partners and stakeholders.

That was another initiative I did first coming in.

From the 31st on to today, I met with the Boone County Overdose Response Coalition, Central Missouri Recovery Coalition, Unity in the Community, League of Women Voters, Boone County Republican Women, Central Missouri Republican Council, Boone County Pacoderms, Mule Skinners, Boone County Race Onward, Moms Demand Action, M Moms Against Drunk Driving, Missouri Foundation for Health, Columbia Public Schools, Juvenile Justice Center, and Juvenile Office, Boone County Community Services Division.

I give a shout out, Boone County Coalition to End Sexual Violence, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Race Matters Friends, the NAACP, the Columbia Chapter, Como Supreme, Noble Court, Neighborhood Association, Boone County, Community Against Violence, United Community Builders, Jesus House, Columbia.

They have an allotment there in the first war that they're looking at doing a resource center there, Destiny of Hope, Dream Tree 573, North Stewart Learning Center, William Guitar Little Foundation, Job Point Connections to Success, the Reentry Opportunity Center, Fresh Start, Sober Living, Into Action Reentry Housing for a Change Turning Point, Moving Forward Sober Living, Love Columbia, Crime Stoppers Neighborhood Watch, the CIT, the District 13 Treatment Court, Boone County Prosecutors, STL Violence Prevention Coalition, that's St.

Louis, by the way.

These were actual meetings.

And some of them I had to actually talk to them and give a presentation.

And so those are actually literal meetings and people I met with.

OVP Advisory Committee formation, Near East Neighborhood Opportunity and Community Accountability Pro Council, affectionately known as NOCAP, was created to meet in the Hanover Village because of the data that we collected there.

So phase two, we had strategy and stakeholder mobilization, and that was July 21st to September 26th.

It's phase two.

We had the community mental health for practical community application trainings.

That was engagement, community education on community enrichment, social determinants of health, adverse childhood experiences, and positive childhood experiences as it relates to root causes of community violence because we talked about that trauma-informed lens.

We I also did the National Office of Violence Prevention convening in St.

Louis.

Also went to Pierce County, Washington with the National Association of Counties to focus on youth justice and innovation.

And then we had the uh I cannot say enough about the the PMO uh Project Management Office.

Their their data dashboard that they have been feverishly working on with Shreya leading that charge has been phenomenal.

Um and I don't just say that because I like the information.

I was able to to um actually have Dr.

Ruth Abaya, which if y'all don't know who Dr.

Ruth Debaya is, y'all ain't in the work.

She is out of Philadelphia.

She is the senior director of health systems and CVI integration at the Javi.

It's the health advisory violence intervention uh coalition they have there in Philadelphia.

If you ain't heard about Philadelphia, that numbers, their numbers plummeted.

She's the brainchild of actually being able to develop KPIs through metrics and applying it back to community violence initiatives.

And so Dr.

Ruth Dabai was able to look at this data thanks to the NO NOVP, and so was uh Joseph Mulson, who is out of uh the chief data analysis out of Baltimore, if you haven't seen what's going on in Baltimore, phenomenal.

And the two things they told us to do, measure process metrics and use geographic indicators for strategic plant programming and placement.

That's exactly what PMO did, right?

Don't create too many P uh KPIs so that you don't focus, so you don't so data focus doesn't keep you from your core function.

And that's when they looked at that, they said, hey, this looks this is beyond great.

How many thousands did you spend on this?

And I said, Well, it was just time because we have a um benevolent PMO office.

So community navigation liaisons for transit, there's an RFP out for that.

Uh I don't know how much I can talk about that, but that's a that's uh an initiative that we're doing through the city for for transit um through the office of honest provision and phase three.

I asked for a report.

I mean, look, I'm just this is I'm just giving a report.

So uh y'all, y'all think this is lengthy.

I'm just giving a report of what's going on so that when people want to know when we're talking about the city's focus on violence, we're not playing games.

We we are focused, and I can tell you, ask my wife and ask my family.

And so we want to make sure we're able to adequately and efficiently and effectively address root causes so that we can actually solve community violence, not placate it.

And so phase three is 131 days, 240 days, right?

We're in the middle of phase three.

I misspoke, I said phase two, we're in the middle of phase three.

September 29th, February 27th is phase three.

And so phase three, what we can look forward to, and we're in the midst of is the National Institute of Commit of Criminal Justice Reform.

They are we are in talks of the contract as we speak to kind of solidify things.

There was a contract drawn up.

I don't know how uh Mr.

Sea Wood was doing this, but he was trying to work this office and be the city manager.

Kudos to trying to do that, but there was a contract in place with them before it predated my existence in the office.

So you can imagine when I came in, the contract did not fit the landscape of what we're doing.

So I had to go back to NICJR and readjust what's going on in the landscape.

And so in that readjustment, we are looking at a violence reduction landscape analysis and a gun violence problem analysis, plus a violence reduction strategic plan development and support.

So they were gonna create a strategic plan, but the director there, Sean Tay, uh Jackson said, hey, you have a strategic plan.

How about we just help develop further the strategic plan be throughout the 240 days onward, and we bring support in that as we do these other analysis.

The reason for the analysis is because we need to clearly understand so that we know where clearly the gaps are, because you can imagine if 10 to 15 years is the payoff, we want to make sure in year six and seven, we're actually doing from year one that's gonna give us the payoff to 15, right?

And so that's what we're asking them to come in and do from us from an objective and a in an evidence-based peer review lens.

And so then there's another initiative we're talking about talking to the bullet bullet-related injury clinic.

This is a clinic in St.

Louis.

If you don't know what BRIC is, look it up.

It is fantastic.

They want to come to Columbia.

I think we have an appetite for this kind of innovation.

They don't only do the wellness of removing a bullet out of bullet-related injury, but they also do workforce develop upwork mobility, and they affect the whole community, and they are interested in in coming here.

We will see how that goes.

Y'all can hold me accountable.

So future growth, and this is um down to the end here.

Evidence-based practices, no one really cares about that.

Um, I'm being facetious, I'm sorry, y'all.

Uh, it's late, it's late.

So cognitive intervention, uh, obviously we have community mental health for practical community application trainings.

Uh, the council graciously signed off on that.

A focus deterrence, and this is so community navigation liaisons we talk about with transit, that is an aspect, but that's not full focus deterrence.

That is a partnership with law enforcement and that Chief Sludy and uh Deputy Chief uh Matt Um Stevens and I, as we as we as we collaborate, there's there's fuller um aspects to focus deterrence.

That's just the jump that we're able to do without you know a lot of research into that as we wanted to hit the ground running, the neighborhood-based outreach and investment, and that's obviously our no-cap groups or no cap pro councils, excuse me.

They're not groups, they have real authority.

They will tell you that too.

Come to a meeting.

Uh and so measuring success, key performance indicators are there.

So for future growth and capacity building, uh, it's a loan office.

As I talked about talk with the NICJR and other offices, depending on how we decide to move forward, is what our capacity needs will um will line out.

So two staffing positions in the Office of Arms Prevention by fiscal year 2027 would not be um just way out there.

And the NICJR recommends comms and data, but because of uh our collaboration in Columbia, and y'all is really special.

Um, I can tell you the community connectors, Department of Uh of Diversity and Equity, uh, PMO, sustainability, neighborhood services, parks and rec, PHHS, police department, and public works.

That the the collaboration has been just phenomenal.

And I've been in places where people wanted to have their fiefdom.

That is not here.

That is not at the city of Columbia, right?

In my experience, I don't know, others may experience something else.

So community violence intervention and continuity coordinator is what would what is is a is a staff position that would actually draw the continuity, help develop those programs, starve out and and bolster their offerings to to serve the gap and to make sure they're still in orbit because even these other agencies and community-based organizations can get sidetracked and need to help to come back to understand, okay, this is what we're doing, how can we help you and what's going on?

How can we help you and what's going on?

Oh, don't do that because this group's doing it, let's collaborate.

That's a full-time work, right?

They're at all the meetings.

They're they're meeting with these organizations.

So that would be one uh position.

And then the other would be something as a community violence specialist, the community viol violence interrupters, those who are out who know the landscape, know the people and can intervene, right?

And turn a fist fight to keep it a fist fight and not a gun fight, right?

Or to remove it and make sure that people are dispersed.

So that's that would be another position that we see the Office of Office Preventions have across the across the nation.

And then findings, this is last point here.

Reference, and I'll leave it at my thank you.

Um Columbia is special, but it's not unique, meaning we can take successful initiatives from other municipalities with similar challenges and employ them.

Um how do we support each other while holding each other accountable?

We want this if we have a growth mindset and a focus on excellence, evidence-based, peer-reviewed, and data informed.

And as it says, when I is replaced with we, even illness becomes wellness, and we all have a part to play in this.

So thank you, counsel, for the time for this report.

Thank you, DeMarcus.

Um, if you're okay, uh are there any questions from counsel for this?

Otherwise, we might do follow-up later.

Yeah, Jackie.

Thank you for your report.

I know this came after a request that I made, so I appreciate your time.

And I also just want to comment on I'm I'm sorry for the trauma that you've experienced in your life, and I commend you for turning that trauma into working proactively to try to protect other people from having the same experiences.

Um I'm glad you're here.

Thank you.

Um and I did just want to circle back around to discussions we'd had when we were talking about the budget and talking about creating a position for this office.

And I still very much feel that we should fast track that instead of waiting the usual kind of starting the job description in January process, which I believe is what we talked about the last time.

So I guess DeCarl, and it's a question I'm asking you.

Is there a precedent?

Can council say let's make this a priority to create this job position at this point.

I think the har the Yes, you can.

The hard part is we have to understand exactly what the job is going to be able to do so we can understand exactly what pay range would fit in.

And so building out that job description takes a little bit, it's more nuance.

I think one of the things that when talking to DeMarcus, I think ideally it would be I think we'd be better suited if we can get into some of the work with this through that strategic plan process to kind of help us understand exactly what we're looking at hiring for, and then we can start building that out.

Uh but so uh the question of what would be what will be budget for, I think that's the magic number.

We have to figure out exactly what that is, and so we have to do a little bit more work to say exactly what that salary range will be, and then we can come back to the council and say, okay, here's the salary range that we need in order to fill these positions.

And so I would say let us do a little work and then we can probably bring something back.

Um let me work with Demark to see exactly a time frame for doing that.

Yeah, that was gonna be my next question.

I think ideally what he would like not speaking for, but I think when we had our conversation, we like to start looking at positions for by 2027.

So fill in those positions for the 26th budget is important.

And so that would be our goal.

And so it would go into the next fiscal year, but we can try to figure out exactly when and where.

So just to clarify, I heard him mention two positions for fiscal year 2027.

So that's your vision as well.

Well, I think yes, I because talking about what he's looking for and talking about other because we've had like when we're in South Carolina, we had a conversation with uh the person who's running their office and looking at their staffing numbers, and that kind of helps us kind of get a look of exactly what they're working on.

And so we we had a program that they talked about, which was a um young men's young men's united.

Young men's united, and it was uh it was an awesome program.

But you're we're gonna need staffed in order to help make sure we facilitate those programs.

And so, yes, we do understand there's a need for staffing.

It's understanding exactly what those priorities are.

So that's something we can work on.

And so it's just you know, figuring out those processes.

Okay, so I'm hearing we won't have a timeline timeline on potential job description, because you guys need to put your heads together and figure that out.

Okay.

So do we have a timeline on when you'll be presenting the timeline?

I I I think it kind of talking about going back to Kathy when we look at the how we do for our new job, how we do for job just processes, and so we can fast track this and put this kind of ahead of some of the other ones because department directors haven't said, okay, here's the positions that we want to start looking at so we can start that process.

Let me talk to Kathy, get get exact time frame before I promise something that I can deliver on.

Okay.

Just now I'm gonna I'm gonna be asking about it.

All right, thank you.

Any other counsel questions on this one?

Yeah, Valerie.

I'm not sure that I have any questions.

I'm not sure that I can live with delay on this.

Um, and I just want to express a level of urgency that I'm sure everyone already feels.

Any other counsel comments for this?

Well, DeMarcus, I think I I know I speak for a lot of us, but I think we picked the right person for the job.

Your passion for this is obviously felt.

And so thank you for this and for connecting with your peers across the nation so that you're borrowing best practices that will work for us, but also within our community.

So thank you.

Appreciate it.

All right.

Would anyone from the public now we're up to the general comments of the public?

Would anyone from the public wish to speak?

Good evening.

I'm Danny from the first board.

I was suddenly reminded of a quote and I want to share it with you.

The hood made me realize that crime succeeds because crime does the one thing the government doesn't do.

Crime cares.

Crime is grassroots.

Crime looks for the young kid who needs support and a lifting hand.

Crime offers internship programs and part-time jobs and opportunities for advancement.

Crime gets involved in the community.

Crime doesn't discriminate.

Trevor Burrus Noah, born a crime.

To put in another way, crime doesn't pay when the government invests in its community, when it engages with its people.

I do hope that when we do move forward that we keep this in mind, that if we want to diminish crime and violence, we have to make investments.

Matt said it's better for people to shoot with cameras than it is with guns.

So we have to put funding in programs and internships and businesses that provide opportunities and advancements, especially when it comes to our youth.

We do need to build more infrastructure.

So we need to have more reliable, livable streets.

It does cost and it does ruffle some feathers, but it is so necessary right now.

And I'm glad to see some improvement along with finally talking about the guns.

I'm very happy to hear this, but I do think we need a lot more work to be done.

And I want us to remind ourselves that crime right now fills in the gaps when the government lacks.

Thank you.

Would anyone else from the public wish to speak?

Hi everybody doing.

That's the big root of it, but it's a deeper root going on.

Um and it starts with um trauma.

Like um, like I said, I come from St.

Louis and a lot of the things that are happening here have been happening there a long time.

You know, I grew up um in certain areas where you know there was a normal, you know.

And if you uh don't want this to become like normal, yeah, I have to like really dig deep down right now and get to the root of what's really going on with these people, these kids, these, you know, people that are, you know, committing these crimes because it's all it's it's mentally, they're mentally disturbed.

Um, and it's not gonna get any better if we don't tackle the the mental aspect of it first.

I know like you all have Burrell and you know, a couple um more uh like compass health, you know, to kind of like target those things, but um these people are coming from you know a place where you know they don't have nobody to like really key in on these certain things that's going on, like and I'm one of them, you know.

Um PTSD, you know, traumas growing up saying things, and you know, just it's it's a lie, you know.

So that's that's why I say like if y'all really, you know, want to key in on what's really going on in this city and help, you know, better these situations that's going on, yeah.

I gotta really key in on that aspect first.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Anyone else from the public wish to speak.

Um Tracy Wilson Cleekamp.

Um I was thinking about my daughter who graduated from high school in I think 2016, and I wrote down all the names of students that she went to school with.

It's about a dozen who die have died.

Half from drug overdose, um, suicide, um, bike gun and things like that.

And so um, yeah, root causes um from social issues, but also we have some deep trauma in this town from environmental choices that we chose through urban renewal, which um has created, I think, a serial decision not to invest in certain places and spaces in our town.

And uh I see those young people in our schools, and they shoot and kill each other because they don't feel there's a reason for living.

They don't care about dying.

And you don't just get that way because you're born that way.

You get that way because you're born into circumstances where you don't have any hope.

Um, I've brought this book up before.

It's called A Peculiar Indifference, um, the neglected toll of violence on black Americans by Elliot Carey.

Great book.

But it talks about what happens when we don't invest in people and we put land first and we put property first and we don't put people first.

So I my ears tingle a little bit when people come up and say, well, you're gonna take a piece of my driveway away or something like that.

Not that that's not important, but what does it take for us to develop practices where we put people first?

So if DEI is important to us, that's a people first practice.

It shouldn't take years and years for us to get it together.

If we're gonna have a strategic plan, we need to have measurable goals that align with DEI that align with our actions to intervene in violence.

These things all run together.

Um I understand from what um uh Marcus uh was saying that it's uh a long-term plan.

But I think in the short one, we need to work on our mindset and our mindset is we really have to have a deeper understanding about equity.

I know in the current strategic plan, it says everybody's gonna know how to define equity.

And I don't know how you measure that.

That's one of my problems with the strategic plan.

So what I would say is one of the things we have to do as a whole society is think about equity and what it means and what the challenges we are and the gaps that um DeMarcus talked about.

What are those gaps and what are ways we can think about filling them now in the immediate?

Your budget stuff's gonna come up again.

And so the challenge is will you really pay attention to those, or will you kick the can?

Good night.

Anyone else from the public wish to speak?

Ken Rice, Ward II.

President Choi came and brought some things to our attention this uh last week.

And um it showed his frustration with uh inaction.

And that inaction um created action.

And um I think what we need to see is an opportunity.

I think what happened was it created something that uh was disappointing.

We had a chance to get ahead of it.

We had a chance to uh step up and uh show leadership.

I think we need to say, hey, we have time now to still do that.

Um President Choi is a great leader in this town, but he's not running our city.

At this point, I think it'd be great to see a combined effort by our mayor, our city manager, and our police chief coming together and coming out a front in front of this issue.

The other thing I'd like to see is I saw a talk about forming another task force.

Task forces sound good on the surface.

But again, it's another chance to just get together, talk about issues, and do nothing.

Back in 2014, we had a task force.

They had a 30-page report.

I got some of the information right here.

And um I had a chance to talk with uh one of the council members, Jackie Sample.

And um we had a great conversation about there's a great number of things that are actionable in the 2014 task force.

Let's not reinvent the wheel.

Let's dust off the 2014 task force.

Let's get together.

Now, if you want to get community leaders together, which I'd love to be one because I run a um uh restaurant downtown that my son, Thursday, Friday, Saturday night, he closes there, leaves the place between three and four in the morning.

Every day, Thursday, Friday, Saturdays, their shots fired.

Every day he has to deal with that.

Every day I worry if he's gonna come home.

So there's a lot of people that are concerned, but I don't think we need to do new things.

I think we need to do the things that people have researched.

I think we need to maybe get the community together.

And I think we have an opportunity here to bring everyone together, put idealize out to the side.

We we don't need to be Republican, Democrat, progressive, conservative, black, white.

We need to come together as Colombians and work together to solve this.

And we can.

But we have to get together.

We don't need Dr.

Choi to do that.

But Dr.

Choi got us going.

Thank you.

Anyone else from the public wish to speak?

Hi, I'm Steve Spellman at 2312.

Uh Katie Lane, I appreciate your time and the effort.

Um it's just after 10, I guess.

Um I want to speak on one thing and maybe another if I've got a minute.

Um I remember, uh, Madam Mayor, when you announced the Office of Violence Prevention.

I thought, well, I don't exactly know what that is.

I'm not sure what that's gonna do.

It sounds pretty good.

Uh wait and see.

I heard some of the things that was come up, like, well, okay, that sounds like good things to do, but uh are we gonna talk about it or something, what's gonna become of that, I guess.

Um uh DeMarcus was uh about hired as that.

I didn't know him from Adam.

Um big community, I guess we didn't cross paths.

Um I've got to know the fellow um over the last few weeks or how many days he's been there, and I'm deeply impressed by his character.

Uh this is a fellow with experience, uh passion.

Um couldn't think of a better person for that position.

Still trying to figure out what all that is, but um deeply impressed by him.

Uh I've sat in at least two of the community presentations.

He listed a bunch of them.

I don't doubt that.

Um, you know, he has uh the uh gait of a pastor, I guess, is can be long-winded.

I I get that.

Um but you know, the confidence that he has there, the drive.

Um, an example that he gave in that that really helped cut through the jargon of some of the you know social work acronyms that I, you know, cognitive things and you know, I I don't know what that is, but uh I guess we'll learn.

You gave an example, I don't know if I'll do it justice, but uh he said, I guess soon after he was in there or or sometime there, tragic uh census killing of a three-year-old child.

And uh everyone's just like this doesn't even make any sense.

Like, how do you register that?

And he gets in there, and I guess he was the chaplain for the police department was the background, and those people in the community and helped usher the grieving parents, family members to see their dead child and to see that and tell them I as I understood or recall, um, I'm sorry you can't have the body yet because we've got to do an investigation.

Who do I know that's gonna step into that place?

And you know, that really did the light bulb for me to where, oh, okay, that's where we can meet this thing.

And you know, talking about you know what government does and community does and so forth.

I think bridging that gap is opportunity.

Um I look forward to actionable items and still trying to get my arms around that.

Um I look forward to actionable items and still trying to get my arms around that, and if uh public communications is a passion of mine.

So give me on the acronyms and like what that looks on the ground would help me.

Thanks for time.

Thanks, Steve.

Anyone else from the public wish to speak?

Hi, my name's Kristen Bowen.

I live in the fourth ward on Stewart Road, and I just want to say I moved to speak because I'm so grateful, first of all, to be here to hear the report from the Office of Violence Prevention and the work that's been done to connect our community is really powerful to hear about and it's early days, but it's so important.

As many of us already know in this room, Missouri currently ha experiences one of the highest rates of gun violence in our country.

We also simultaneously have some of the weakest gun laws in the country, which is why I also just want to say thank you so much for taking this effort and time that you've done today to spell out a legislative priority that the City of Columbia can be proactive about in Jefferson City.

Um I have had the experience of being in hearing rooms just this past legislative session, listening to truly extremist lobbyists and lawmakers who do not have the interests and values of Columbia in mind when they attempt to enact some uh further weakening of our gun laws.

Um I've been in the room when I I've heard testimony from some of our own law enforcement officers from Columbia talking specifically about how the work that's happening in Jefferson City makes us less safe.

It's just so important that we are in that conversation and at that table.

So I just want to say thank you for taking this step and continuing to commit to pay attention to what's happening in Jefferson City, because it's it's gonna take all of us to change those gun laws and to change those policies.

And it's just a fact that safer gun laws would make us all safer as a state.

And and we're just not there.

So thank you all.

And um I really appreciate this opportunity to and I hope to come back and hear more as you all continue to reevaluate what happens this uh coming session in 2026.

Thanks, Kristen.

Anyone else from the public wish to speak?

Oh, hi.

Oh, and tell.

I'm Paul Lahman.

I'm an organic farmer and an environmentalist, uh uh longtime environmentalist.

I happen to be the uh uh chairperson of the Missouri Green Party, but that's that's uh just a side uh piece of information.

Um I'm here to speak about the herbicide damage in um in Stevens Lake Park.

Uh it's uh if you've been out there recently, you it looks like a uh someone described it as uh uh uh a war zone where the life has been sucked out because of this herbicide damage.

I'd like to to pass out some uh uh a packet for each of you.

Is that okay if I do that?

Yeah, if you want to hand it to Sheila, she'll hand it to the rest of us.

These are numbered one through eleven.

Uh what that means is I had 33 pictures and so I had to divide them up among these.

So if you want to see more than what's in your packet, just uh you know, exchange with your neighbor.

So the numbers are irrelevant except to help you remember which packet you you looked at.

So I uh I brought a um I wanted to say that I'm also a victim of herbicide drift and uh volatilization on my farm.

Uh my neighbor uh sprayed his GMO soybeans, and that has drifted over and has stayed.

There's one of these kind of uh inversion situations where it doesn't go away.

It just stays in one place and uh uh uh has caused all kinds of damage, killed my clover crop, my my uh garden.

Uh these uh these samples are from my uh uh farm.

Um and you can see how the damage works.

Um it's supposed to go away according to the chemical people, uh, but it didn't.

It's been four months of endless siege of this uh dust that's always around, gets in my house, it gets uh it gets in everywhere.

And then I discovered it's in uh Stevens Lake Park.

The same kind of effect.

So uh I I of course I couldn't uh cut any trees at Stevens Lake.

So I brought uh an identical, and you'll see that you you start off with growth in the spring, then they spray, and then you uh get damage here.

Uh this is a kind of a uh shriveled up uh effect, and uh and then uh it dies down.

We get a kind of a clear day, the wind shifts and and comes out of the south instead of the north, and then so it allows the tree to grow some more, and then and then the Mr.

Lehman, you're at time.

Oh, okay.

Okay, but I might have a staff member come talk to you before you leave tonight.

Ma'am?

I might have a staff member reach out to you.

So I just wanted the council to uh to do uh local control uh measures because you can control this.

Thank you, Mr.

Lehman.

Appreciate it.

Would anybody else from the public wish to speak?

Eugene Elkin 3406 range line.

As the previous gentleman was talking about chemicals.

You know, for anybody who's gotten a little older and you think back, there was once a word called Times Beach, Missouri.

It evolved around too many chemicals.

We do not want that happening in the City of Columbia, let alone he had it in a rule setting.

Tonight I want to thank the gentleman that was talking on the mention of violence.

That gentleman earns his paycheck, sir.

When somebody can give out that much knowledge that he is truly meeting with people, communicating with people, I hope I can leave a message tonight that I don't get cut off because I was so upset last time.

President Moon Choi has suggested that the students now leave the downtown at midnight.

From my perspective, let's see businesses start their eight o'clock fun and shut down at midnight.

The children can all hang around till one, and hopefully on their way.

Because what we're talking about is the effects of alcohol.

In the last two years, I was in downtown, the exact same location.

The shots went off, and I had no idea where to go.

I returned the night of the killing.

And I was on the opposite corner at 11:30, which puts me about two hours before the actual shooting.

I want the old Columbia, as many people have said, we are a peaceful community.

We don't need to dread walking down the street of Columbia, even if it's dark.

Do the lights need to be brightened earlier than they have mentioned tonight.

We have to be educating those who are handling guns.

Our police need to be careful when handling those who are breaking the law.

Tonight's trauma subject has been very prominent.

Many different ones admission as well as Marcus.

The more we educate, the better off we'll be, for no one seems to educate the packer, the one carrying the gun legally.

Do you realize if you have to pull that thing?

What laws are not in your favor?

You have to go by the law when you're carrying.

Parking now and using gun.

I can't keep up my own notes.

The point is, please, please see that our officers are handling the public in the proper manner, for I am getting many reports of mishandling of our homeless.

God bless.

Thank you, Eugene.

Would anyone else from the public wish to speak?

Stephen and Demetrius Stevens.

I live in the third ward.

I want to speak to the violence prevention position.

That position is necessary.

Is what we've heard.

I believe that it is the city's position to lead, not University of Missouri.

Um, I go down and I watch, I observe.

Um, it's not a pretty sight.

What I see, um I'm saying all of this to say that it is very necessary for the position and the work that's being done for it to be done.

But again, I heard someone say on the mental health that is real.

You gotta start at the basics.

What you guys are doing is great, but it's the mental health.

I hear about guns.

I'm a registered responsible gun owner, and I will fight to the end for my rights to have that.

But a gun can't kill a person without the person.

A gun will do what it does.

It can sit on a shelf and it won't kill a person.

Um, but I said that to say that we gotta address the mental health.

That's the basics.

Then we can talk about the jobs, the homelessness, because until you hit the root of the issue of what's causing the problems, we're not gonna fix it.

I visited my grandson this weekend, and he said something to me.

And it broke my heart because I thought all the work that we're doing that it's making a difference, and it is.

But he said, Grandma, he said, the individuals on the street that's killing, they don't care about nobody.

He said, it's about street cred.

They just want to be able to say, I killed somebody.

That's sick.

But I'm saying to you guys, the work, that position is necessary.

Build on it if it needs assistance.

DeMarcus doing great work.

It's gonna take all of us.

When you see something, say something, I see a lot.

And it ain't always pretty.

Citizens, the police department.

I've watched, I've recorded.

We're not all acting accordingly.

Everybody got to be held responsible and accountable, but you gotta start at the basics because mental health is running rampant.

It's if y'all can get out there more than just here and on the weekends.

I'm telling you, it's so much going on that need to be addressed.

Thank you.

Thank you, Demetra.

Would anyone else from the public wish to speak?

Greetings, council and city leaders.

Um, I come up here with a very heavy heart.

You see, I have shades on um the young lady, Ayana, Yaya, whom was most recently gunned down by an act of gun violence with someone that I knew.

Um, she just celebrated her 21st birthday in May of this year.

Um, and she reminds me of myself.

I came here in 2009 from Springfield, Missouri, Green County, to attend the University of Missouri.

I've attended there in Columbia College.

I work for a local nonprofit.

I've even been able to start a small business here in Columbia that actually was incepted in downtown.

And I would just like to echo the sentiments of those that came before me.

Thank you all for your time.

DeMarcus for his time, but the sense of urgency has been here.

I think just the numbers that he's displayed, um, the sentiments from the chief earlier.

I was here earlier than I left.

Um we need something done.

Um, I feel as first ward Valerie feels, uh I don't feel like we need any more time to deliberate on the fact that we need more positions within the Office of Violence Prevention, but also something in the interim, some type of crisis intervention.

Um, and I think we need to take a full assessment of all of the citizens of our city to see what everyone really wants.

I frequent online, I frequent community public spaces like this, and there are a variety of opinions, and none of them are aligning.

And I would implore the council and the city management to start with the youth and start with our most vulnerable youth to really see what is valuable to them because yes, we are working on a long-term plan through the Office of Prevention, but as we can see, our youth are dying literally every day.

I think back to January when there was the large shooting at Cosmo Park, which mostly consisted of college students and young people between the ages of 17 and I'm 34, my age.

And so I would just say that all that to say that I just urge more funding, more support, and whatever timelines need to be set forth, like Jackie requested on giving us some type of in the now response to what we clearly are seeing.

I have to go to my friend's funeral this weekend.

She was about to graduate from Stevens College with nursing, and I would like to say I detest the actions that were displayed this past Saturday.

I personally didn't go downtown.

I appreciate the council members who spoke out about it but did not give their presence, and I respect that and I appreciate that, because those of us who frequent the community frequent these areas of concern know that what happened last Saturday is not even a first step into getting the issues resolved.

We have to come to the people, and I think even me being a millennial 34, we need to really re-assess what the youth want, because clearly there's a disconnect and we're not aligned with the measurable goals we're trying to achieve.

Thank you for your time.

Can you say your name for the record?

Sorry.

My name is Ernie Shaduk, and I live in the fifth ward.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Would anybody else from the public wish to speak?

Hey, Harry Castello, I'm in the fifth ward.

I'm speaking on uh behalf of Peaceworks, if I could get five minutes.

Okay.

Okay, thank you.

Um I'm here to speak uh on comments made by MU President Moon Choi on the horrific murder of the Bright Stevens college student Ayana Williams during homecoming weekend, where he sent an email to the MU campus community as well as the City Council and Mayor Buffalo.

He uh also held a press conference addressing what he felt were issues in downtown and heard from others using the tragic shooting as a catalyst for the comments.

Uh as is unfortunately typical in these kinds of situations today, his comments were made before more information about the accused shooter was known.

We know they were from Florida, but we were were they a student, a part of our unhoused community, um, a criminal from out of state, or a citizen who had a gun when they probably shouldn't have, but did due to lax gun laws.

The lack of information did not stop many from latching on to the situation and Choi's comments as a statement of political discontent and calls for officials to resign or be recalled.

Um this is in spite of the mother of the victim saying that the family does not want Ayana's murder to be used to drive political agendas.

President Choy stated rampant crime downtown is a crisis, even though violent crime downtown citywide uh is uh on a downward trend based off of uh Chief Sludy's uh reports.

Uh Choi praised CPD for doing an excellent job, all the while saying crime is out of control despite numbers, despite numbers painting a more complicated picture than that.

So I'm not sure how that quite works, but okay.

Um he states current policies and practices need to be examined because they attract criminals, but would not articulate any specific policy or practice doing such.

Um this vagueness when making dire claims about the state of Columbia, Columbia's downtown and the policies causing uh causing it serves no one and only leads to confusion and worry over what is implied here, especially with the state's penchant for trying to overturn the will and of uh local control of municipalities and in some cases the entire population of the state.

Passing a loitering orderance, uh clearing encampments for the unhoused congregate and enacting a youth curfew are some of the suggestions.

I'm not gonna have enough time uh that don't address the problem of gun violence, and each of these comes with their own logistical and constitutional enforcement concerns.

Choice comments to the city also includes what I would consider a not so veiled threat about possibly asking Governor Kehoe to get involved.

I think um the residents of Columbia understand that threat and what is meant by it.

Uh and we see how other progressive cities are treated by the Trump administration and red state governors.

Um not gonna be able to finish this, but I I appreciate your time.

Thank you so much.

Oh, Harry, you had two more minutes.

Now I appreciate it.

Well, now we'll stop talking about it.

I appreciate it.

Um let me see.

Uh I also heard count Councilman Waterman speak on the uh Wake Up Missouri radio show where he mentioned the unintended consequences of concealed and carry laws were less police confiscation of guns uh abuse uh carrying guns.

I think most people that want reasonable gun laws would say the expected consequences of concealed carry is that good or bad people will carry a gun wherever they wish, and when they feel threatened, um feel that they have a way out without feeling fully assessing their surroundings.

What also seems to indicate this are comments made by the accused shooter to officers and said he felt people ganged up on him in an altercation.

So he fired warning shots blindly into the crowd of people, injuring two and killing one.

None of them involved in the original altercation.

What I find glaring in Choi's comments at uh at least is that they never once addressed that we live in a state where you can lawfully carry a concealed weapon.

Also miss missing is a single mention about any sort of reasonable gun control.

So why were both of those things missing?

This tragedy is a situation where some political actors are attempting to assassin, uh, assign a scapegoat blame instead of blaming backward gun laws put in place by lawmakers in Jefferson City.

They pass laws giving virtually everyone the opportunity to carry a gun, then blame liberal policies they perceive as too permissive of crime when tragedy strikes and ignore the guns.

The comments from Moon Choi, which engage in this are are particularly alarmist in rhetoric, which is concerning.

Um what more would you expect from the MU president that doesn't pay many of its employees a living wage?

What more would you expect from the MU president who, when the opportunity arose, stop providing life-saving medical care for the trans community?

What more would you expect from the MU president that sends emails intended to chill the speech of employees and students to speak out about various causes?

Thank you, Gary.

Yes.

Now you are.

Thank you.

And anyone else from the public wish to speak.

Uh Danny Vardy talked on general comment, sorry.

But we're all around.

Hi, I'm Sebastian Montgomery.

Um, I'm originally from St.

Louis, but I've been living here uh for school for the past four years.

I'm a student at Mizzou.

Um kind of touching on uh what the last person just said.

Um I I want to state that um uh President President and Chancellor Munchoi's uh statements via the email he sent out to the campus community uh do not reflect the uh the views of the the student body at Mizou.

Um I'm sure there are probably some people that agree for him, but I know I speak for myself and many of my friends and my allies on campus.

Uh uh when we say we we don't want an anti-loadering ordinance passed, we don't want uh an anti-pan-panhandling ordinance passed.

Uh a curfew is uh frankly a silly idea, um, especially in a city like Colombia.

Um I don't think those things would make uh the lives of the average person in Colombia any better.

I actually think it would make it worse.

I think it will lead to possible like harassment of unhoused people.

I think it it doesn't do anything to make our community safer and better.

I think the kind of thing that does to make our community safer and better is the things that um we're being talked about with the Office of Violence Prevention.

Uh and I'm very glad that uh that uh sort of task force is uh being implemented and doing good work in our community.

Um I would also be hesitant to give uh Munchoy too much credit for uh starting us on the path of uh violence prevention because I know that the city has been working on that kind of thing for a while now.

Um and honestly, I'm very disappointed uh that Munchoi would uh seemingly from where I'm standing use the tragic killing of Ayana Williams, uh she rest in peace, uh, as uh an opportunity to push his uh very obvious obviously political rhetoric um and to characterize Colombia as an unsafe town.

Um I live downtown and I never feel unsafe walking alone at night.

Um I am a student and so sometimes my sleep schedule is a little uh late.

Um and I never I've never had any problems walking home late at night or walking alone.

Um and frankly, I would uh be much more I would feel much more uh worried about the dangers of uh certain people, people with certain political views that think that people like me shouldn't exist or think that people like me shouldn't be allowed to express ourselves.

I would be much more worried about people like that who are lawfully allowed to carry guns uh than I ever would be about an unhoused person asking for money or asking for food.

That doesn't bother me.

Um and so I'm glad that the city is proactively doing things, uh especially like affordable housing, um that actively address the root causes of homelessness and and are not putting a band-aid on the wound, so to speak, with more police presence.

Um so I I hope the city continues on that path and doesn't get uh too intimidated by Monchoi trying to push his political radic.

Rhetoric, thank you.

Thank you, Sebastian.

Would anyone else from the public wish to speak?

None will come.

Oh no, we're not done.

Just kidding.

You don't have to hustle, it's okay.

Hi, uh, my name is Dr.

Les Gray.

I live in the first ward.

Um I am here representing myself, not my employer.

I've been crying a lot in public recently, uh, and I'm just gonna use it as a political spectacle at this point.

Um I have so much grief that I am trying to hold in my body and alongside people that I care about, and I know that you are too.

And um I didn't come up here to catastrophize during catastrophic times or fearmonger.

I'm just trying to tell you that I am so grateful.

I see you uh trying to do right by people.

I see you uh treating people like they belong to us, to each other in a way that is um not about ownership or or discipline or all these things that uh historically have been true.

I really want to be able to tell my students, particularly my black female students that they are worth protecting and um that their actions sustainable actions uh that will illuminate that and not make me a liar.

So thank thank you.

I see what you're doing.

I I appreciate you.

Um I hope that you can sustain yourselves through this moment and the harder moments that are to come.

Thank you.

Would anybody else from the public wish to speak?

See none, I'll come to council comments.

We'll start with Councilmember Carroll.

That happened fast.

Okay.

Um I have a housekeeping item.

And I I also have some things that I wanted to say.

Um, so I'll get the housekeeping item out of the way first.

Um I've met with Adrian Stovic recently to discuss our ADU ordinance.

Um, this is something that we worked on during my time on planning and zoning twice.

Um and something that we actually expected to come back around to um but kind of lost that momentum.

Um I thought she had some good recommendations, and I'd like to recommend that the planning and zoning commission and planning staff revisit this again for code updates.

Um if we have a council consensus, I'd I'm happy to make a motion.

Um to Carlin let me know what you want me to do.

Do you have specific recommendations that we're sending to planning and zoning in relation to Adrian's recommendations or just to review?

I would say to review, and you know, I can read off the recommendations, but um she has come to speak with them directly.

Um and and I know that there were things that were on planning and zoning's list of items they wanted to review as well.

Um so perhaps I would suggest discussion to renew discussion, and they can determine what needs to be reviewed.

Yeah, we could just ask planning and zoning to look at the ADU regulations and um ask Adrian to forward that her email to them.

I think most of us have read that, and you don't need to read it to us again.

But I do agree it should go to planning and zoning, and they can objection to sending review.

Nope, no objection.

Okay.

And I feel like I should also remind all of our council members it's 1045.

So some of your additional things, we might just kind of okay.

Sorry, no, no, no, I'm not you, Valerie.

I'm I'm you're first of seven, not five.

So I'm first like six.

I will try to be timely, but I I will also say that I'm not we have some things to address as a council.

I think more extra things that maybe don't need today.

Ianna Williams tragically lost her life this week, and I don't think we can pass by that.

Um in the wake of this tragedy, um our public conversation turned to focus on homelessness and property crime.

Um I'm not saying we don't have a problem.

We have a problem.

I know we have a problem.

We need to work on that problem.

We're already working on that problem, and we're gonna continue working on that problem.

Um what worries me is the um politician in the wake of a tragedy and the harm that that does to the communities that are already affected by gun violence.

Um my fear is that it furthers the divide.

Um I can say one thing that President Choi and I share in common is the frustration with inaction.

Um I hear you.

And and to be honest, I think a lot of the public shares the same frustration.

Um I hear you too.

Um we don't have time to delay in our response to community violence and violence prevention.

Um I can say that um DeMarcus Thomas Brown, Chief Schlute.

Um, you two are the heroes of this conversation.

Um I've been so impressed with both of you.

Um of the positives that came from this.

Adding staffing downtown.

We've had some help from highway patrol working with Chief Schlute.

I tend to get good feedback when there are officers on the street on foot interacting with people.

And I think that that has been more positive.

This is a move towards community-oriented policing.

And we need to move towards that.

And I support discussions surrounding addition of a dedicated downtown unit because I think that also moves in that direction.

Police need to establish a relationship.

And I think they've worked to do that.

And I'm giving credit where credit's due.

Oh my gosh, I lost the wording.

It's helped diffuse the situations before fights break out.

And I have seen that be effective in the reports that we've received.

Discussions that we've had that are positive that do something specific to prevent violence.

Lighting, traffic flow.

This is crime prevention through environmental design.

We talked about it a whole lot not that long ago.

That's real, that's concrete, and it has effects.

Discouraging groups from forming after bar closing 1 p.m., 3 a.m., the discussions around food trucks and handling crowds, I think that's a common sense safety measure.

I can't give enough attention to our violence prevention methods.

Strengthening mental health, trauma-informed care, community engagement, youth programs to divert people from getting involved in violence.

And also investing in societal factors that lead to violence, providing economic opportunities, workforce training, job programs, improving housing, and making affordable housing available.

All of these things are things that we've struggled with.

I want to see investments there.

These are one of the few groups that I think could effectively respond to some of the calls that our police are having to deal with that may not involve our city ordinances and may not be well prioritized because it's not it's not a police matter.

And when they're dealing with crowd control on a football game weekend, someone in a mental health crisis is a different priority call, and we can't change that, especially if no laws have been violated.

What we need is to be able to dispatch people where they're needed and to serve as that frontline response for that need.

And I'd like to see that well funded.

Man, I've been hoping that would get attention for a long time.

I think this could really help put eyes on the ground and help make people feel more comfortable just knowing that there's someone else there who can walk you to the car or telephone a law enforcement officer.

So I I think that's a productive discussion.

Um and I hope we put our focus on productive proven um techniques to deter violence.

Um that's my piece.

Thank you.

Thank you, Valerie.

So I want to start by acknowledging a few of the wonderful things that have happened in our community between the last council meeting and this one before getting into some of the heavy topics to cover tonight.

Since the last council meeting, we started our newest round of the Civic Academy and have helped more of our residents of Columbia become educated and engaged with their community.

We welcomed United back to the Columbia Regional Airport and heard from the United Representative that he had never attended a celebration where the community showed as much support as we did here in Columbia.

We saw the Pride Fest and Pride Parade, which celebrated its 25th year in the community, see incredible support and attendance, which proved that our community loves supports and is accepted of the entire LGBTQ community.

I was really deeply touched to particularly see people showing additional support for LGBTQ kids in this moment of federal politics.

We also saw city departments, leaders, and outreach teams out and about all around town at festivals, at events, in hallways, sharing information about our resources, services, and engaging with the community.

I particularly enjoyed seeing the Office of Sustainability send notes about how they were participating in Week Without Driving and what that meant for their staff.

I also want to take a brief note away from Columbia for just a second to say that my thoughts, prayers, and grief have been with the community I lived in for three years in Hayes, Kansas, for this last week as well.

Sergeant Scott Hyman was shot and killed on duty on September 28th, becoming the first officer to be killed on duty in Hayes since the 1800s back in the Wild West.

I had the honor of knowing Scott and his family very well in my time in Hayes.

He was a great man, a wonderful officer, and an even better husband and father.

And his death was a loss to the community of Hayes, to the entire state of Kansas, where he has been represented and acknowledged on the legislative floor, and most importantly, to his wife and two young children, Beth, Victoria, and Patrick.

I am also mourning the death of Ayana Williams, a Columbia native.

Ayana was a beacon of light in Columbia and an absolute success story who knew she wanted to change and improve the world from an early age.

You'd be hard-pressed to find a local nonprofit, arts organization, or educator in our community who did not know and work with Ayana because she was everywhere in our community.

She was deeply involved.

And while I didn't know her myself, I have heard many stories of her life over the past week, and I can tell you that she loved and was loved very deeply by this community.

Her loss is an absolute tragedy for Columbia and deserves to stand on its own.

There have been recent conversations about violence and safety in our community, particularly in the downtown area.

And while these conversations I truly believe have been well intentioned, there are a few things that I like to keep in mind when talking both about the crisis in our community and potential solutions.

When we look at Safety Downtown, we are looking at multiple intertwined and interconnected issues.

We are looking at gun violence.

We are looking at our unhoused population.

We are looking at traffic and pedestrian safety.

In my undergraduate years at Mizzou, I often joked that causation day was just as predictably on my class schedule as syllabus day and stop day.

Whether it was communication, psychology, statistics, or anthropology, I would have at least one day devoted to my professor teaching the difference between causation and correlation.

These three issues are all seen downtown because of high population density and high traffic nightlife destinations.

That does not mean they in any way cause each other.

And it does not mean they can be fixed by the same solutions.

And the best way to do that is to work with experts.

We have incredible local experts in our community who specialize in their areas and their specific solutions, who use the best practices of the field, and who can build on successes in other communities, as we saw today in the presentation from the Office of Violence Prevention.

I also think it's incredibly important to acknowledge the work of people who have come before us and people who are actively doing the work every single day in our community.

I've been using the phrase quiet work a lot this week.

Solutions are not always loud and immediate.

Sometimes and most of the time, they are quiet and slow.

While it can sometimes be a piece of it, solutions don't always look like doubling or tripling the police footprint downtown.

Sometimes it means doing the work of creating and changing policies, putting in street lamps, offering social services, and having hard conversations with our neighbors.

These are the holistic solutions that Chief Schluti was talking about at the beginning of the meeting.

And none of this is new or revolutionary in Colombia.

We know that public safety is a priority for a community and our council for many years now.

We've heard a lot about the mayor's task force on community violence that led to the development of the Office of Violence Prevention.

Last meeting we heard about OVP and their upcoming ACEs and trauma-informed community education.

Tonight we heard about many more initiatives.

City staff from across a variety of departments are all working on projects that improve public safety.

With the police department, we see our community service aids and our homeless outreach teams.

With Parks and Rec, we see summer camps, basketball teams, and the care program that offer opportunities for youth and young adults to make safe and healthy choices.

Sustainability has outreach about high heat areas, tree planting, community gardens that increase mental and physical health and have immediate impact on public safety.

The municipal court has the community support docket.

Public health has mental health support, the commission to end sexual violence, the mental health task force, substance use prevention and intervention.

Even our complete streets policies, which are in the process of being updated, address many of the issues that we have heard about tonight, like lighting, parking, and pedestrian areas.

Community-based organizations that DeMarcus was talking about are working to reduce violence and are working to help our unhoused neighbors.

As DeMarcus said, we are not new to this work.

We want to support the active programs in our community and build on their success rather than reinventing the wheel and trying to figure it out all on our own.

If you are not seeing that work in our community every day, I encourage you, follow the city social medias, sign up to get the press releases emailed to you, talk to your city council representative, and volunteer with the city or a local organization because I promise this work is happening every day, and it takes more hands to see the success, and it takes more support.

Thank you.

Thank you, Pierre.

Okay.

One thing I'll say for the next meeting.

The 2014 mayor's task force and community violence recommendations.

I would like to request if other council members are in agreement, a report that discusses what suggestions were implemented.

I believe there was a report you told me earlier, 2020 November in 2016, there was an update from Stephanie Brown from Public Health and Human Services as a special item, but I don't know if there was an attachment with it or anything like that.

So there was an attachment with the report, and I would agree it'd be nice to get an update on that.

Yeah, so if we could just get an update from the suggestions that were made in the 2014 plan, um, just so we know if things were implemented or if there were barriers to them being implemented.

Um, that would be a request that I would like to make.

Um, and then additionally, I typed out what I want to say next because I wanted to make sure I was organized.

Um everybody else this evening.

Freedom of speech is a cherished right, uh, but as has been said often lately, there's no freedom from the consequences.

Right now, the consequences are being felt most by our children.

They are watching, learning, and absorbing how adults handle conflict.

Unfortunately, what they see too often is name-calling, superficial insults, and rhetoric that edges toward violence.

They cannot do better until we do better.

Words are no longer only words.

They do not disappear when spoken.

They linger, they echo, and too often they are weaponized long after they are stated or typed.

Every citizen carries the responsibility not only to condemn acts of physical community violence, but also to reject the language and behaviors and actions that fuel and incite that violence.

Call it out.

Do not allow it.

Grief expresses itself in many ways sorrow, despair, anger, and fear.

When people are scared, they sometimes act in survival mode.

But I urge our community to resist the pull to act on fear in ways that displace or project anger onto the wrong targets.

In my opinion, our anger belongs squarely with those who choose to commit crimes that harm our citizens.

If we direct that anger at our helpers, those who are working to solve problems and keep our community safe, we risk losing them.

And if we lose them, we create more danger for our city.

Let me be clear.

I'm not asking anyone to agree with everything their elected and appointed leaders say or do.

What I'm asking is that we step away from divisive rhetoric, that we have hard conversations without finger pointing and personal attacks, and that we support the team working on the very same concerns that our citizens hold.

Provide feedback, offer suggestions, but do not allow hate to drown out hope.

Our children deserve to see us modeling the kind of community we want them to build in the future.

Let's show them how to disagree without destruction, how to hold one another accountable without tearing each other down, and how to turn grief into progress instead of division.

Becky.

Nick Foster.

Well, sometimes I wonder, especially at this hour, how many people are still listening out there.

But I'm also reminded that this is a meeting of the City Council.

And at this point in the meeting, uh the leadership of the city in the in the uh form of our department heads is here for as long as we keep them.

Um I won't keep you long, but I do want to share a few words about uh how I see leadership tonight.

We swore in two new leaders as a part of our as a part of our um team here at the city.

Uh and I hear a few thoughts that I have about how we uh model leadership.

In a recent interview, former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was asked about how power is being used currently in the political realm.

In response, she asked, what is power?

In my mind, it's responsibility.

I very much appreciate her perspective, and I share it.

If a leader, elected, appointed or otherwise, sees their position as a place primarily of enforceable power, then they are made more like then they are more likely to act out of that power in service to their own self-interest or for the sake of power alone.

So if I take my role as an electorate as an elected leader seriously as being entrusted with the responsibility to act in the best interests of my constituents in my community, I will be more likely to act responsibly.

In this way, I'm less likely to act either impulsively or strategically in an exercise of power over others.

As a responsible leader, I must make a commitment to maintain trust and to act in good faith.

It is my responsibility to be honest in my assessments, to be as informed as possible, and to be as willing and to be a willing partner, both in finding and in moving forward toward progress and solutions.

If I break the trust of someone with whom I work, with those who are impacted by my decisions, or with partners with whom I share responsibility in this community.

If I act impulsively without doing my due diligence to being fully informed, and especially if I mislead anyone with faulty information, then I will have acted irresponsibly.

I'm not alone in this.

People who are far better prepared than I and who know more than I do about their areas of expertise and interest.

And it is reasonable not only to look to them for input, but to take their perspectives seriously.

It's the responsible thing to do.

We are all, of course, human, and we are often inclined to act in self-interest.

When we set a high bar for ourselves to act responsibly, each one of us will inevitably fall short.

This need not be the end of the story.

If and when trust is broken, it is imperative that there be a desire on the part of each person involved to seek repair.

That will require an additional level of outreach, honesty, and compassion.

I'm calling on us to recommit ourselves to the common good for our community, to acting in good faith, to maintaining honest relationships, and to being the responsible leaders needed in difficult times.

Okay, well, um, first I'd like to thank you all for being on the city council with me.

It's been an interesting experience to listen to all of you.

You're very articulate, and I think you've covered um every topic that I can think of.

So I'm not going to repeat anything.

Um I would like to thank the staff who um, as has been pointed out, does the work, the quiet work and the day-to-day work.

So thank you for that and for stepping up to the plate and just for continuing what we've been working on in the past.

Um and I have nothing else to say.

Thank you.

Thanks, Betsy.

Um, well, I I yes, I'm the one who's like, it's 11 o'clock at night.

We should stop talking because I know you all want to go home, and some of you have deadlines and needs to hit the presses.

That's not a thing anymore.

Um just say, as the recipient of a lot of the attention over the last uh few weeks, um, I have nothing but thanks to my fellow council members for checking on me.

Uh, for the city staff for informing me for making sure that I'm both protected and safe, but also um informed on what it is that we're already working on.

Um, I especially want to thank Chief Schlute, who has an amazing amount of patience for sitting in rooms with people telling her how to do her job, and then for just saying, yes, we're working on that.

And we've been working on that for the last few months.

I just want to say you show tremendous patience with that, and I appreciate that.

Also to your command staff for uh maybe biting your tongue, uh, Deputy Chief Steven, sometimes in meetings.

Um, but but showing that attention to detail uh and the data-informed decisions that you're making to change how it is we're responding to community issues, not just downtown issues.

And I just want to show my appreciation for that.

Uh for Demar DeMarcus Thomas Brown for his passion, uh, but also working with us and understanding um some of the ways that we can interject and as a council support.

I'll say, you know, we recently went to Columbia, South Carolina on on the Chamber of Commerce leadership trip, and it's just a fantastic opportunity to learn from a peer city who are going through a lot of the same issues.

They're just a few years ahead of us.

And some of those takeaways that I had were actually on my last day lunch.

Uh thanks to Lily and Matt for organizing.

The counterparts all got together.

It was the mayor, the mayor, the Office of Violence Prevention, the Office of Violence Prevention, the City Manager, City Manager, uh, deputy chief and the police chief, us all getting together to talk about these issues, or district director and district director, sorry, Nikki.

All talking about the issues that we're experiencing and what they're working on.

And it reminded me something that Fire Chief Brian Schaeffer told me.

He's like, you're a city now.

These are city problems.

You're no longer just a town.

And so to me, it's looking at what they've done and to learn from there.

They talk about as their growth has happened, they plan in a resource accordingly, whether that's staffing within police or office of violence prevention, it's having things like homeless outreach employees that are doing some of that groundwork to help people get people to services, and it's having the services for people to connect with.

We're right now in a time where um funding is being cut.

There's a slide earlier where it showed our budget for that public health and human services.

But what it didn't, what it failed to show was that the majority of that funding is grant funding that comes from the state and from the federal government.

And so while it might look really big, we rely a lot on those partners to help our community be healthy and safe.

And so as those fundings are being cut, it's important more now than ever to tell the story of the impact of what it is we're working on.

So I just want to say thank you to everyone.

Uh, you know, that weekend was uh a lot of um a lot was going on, and my heart was broken by the loss of a young woman.

Uh but for me, it's how do we then move forward and make sure it doesn't happen again.

Uh and so with that, you know, I was asked by President Choi to form a task force, and I was wanting to be responsive.

But then I don't want to do another task force.

Y'all, I'm one of the ones who's trying to cut boards and commissions so that we have like more efficient use of time.

So, but actually, coming back from South Carolina, you know, one thing I did realize, one voice that it that is missing, and that is the voice of our young, especially kind of university age students.

And the mayor of South Carolina has something called the collegiate council, which is representatives of the higher education institutions that he meets with monthly and is like, what's going on?

Um and so I've asked him for more information on that.

So I think that's the direction I'm going because we're already bringing together property owners, business owners, staff and the experts on this issue.

I don't want to have another meeting to have another report that in four years we maybe review and look at again.

It's more of how do we we're already working on the work, we're getting it done.

How do we communicate out what we're doing?

So I think the follow-up to what did we talk about last week in the press release with President Choi, what have we done since then?

We need to be preparing for that.

But then how are we then pushing forward so our future generations have hope that you all mentioned?

So I just want to say thanks for the support of everyone up here and for our community, because I think we do show up for one another.

So with that, I'll see is there any staff report to Carlin?

That's hard to follow.

No, uh so I I do want to thank the city council.

I mean, you said some things for about our staff that a lot of people don't recognize.

We sit down, we have true conversations about what are we working on.

We meet and meet and meet.

And I think sometimes they get tired of hearing me because we meet again, but we we look at what are true solutions and recognizing that there is a lot of work that's being done.

And while people may not see it because it's being done as we're as we're moving forward, it is being done.

When we talk about law enforcement, being able to start a our own academy to help us recruit and hire and retain police officers was a phenomenal process.

The fact that we invested in technology to update our processes so we have better camera systems, that our officers are better equipped.

No, those are important.

The fact that we stood up an office on violence prevention in a time when people were actually reducing our budgets, not looking at those processes.

The fact that, you know, we have a homeless outreach team, we have the divert program, we're really trying to work hard to improve our community.

When we looked at you know what's going on in our strategic plan and understanding that, yeah, it's probably time to redo it.

The idea was to really make sure that we made impacts for our community.

And so I I do want to thank you for recognizing that.

I want to thank our staff for the hard work that they do.

No, it's you know, tomorrow morning we'll start meeting again at nine o'clock to have our first meeting to talk about tonight.

And then we plan on how do we move forward.

And so it is a lot of work.

We don't do it because of pay.

We do it because we enjoy it.

We do it because we care about our community, we do it because we care about people.