Call us to order for the first meeting of uh this month.

City council, all who are able, please stand as we have the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States.

And to the Republic for which we're one nation under God.

May be seated.

Sheila, will you call the role?

Ms.

Elwood, here.

Ms.

Sample?

Here.

Mr.

Foster.

Here.

Mr.

Waterman.

Here.

Ms.

Peters.

Here.

Ms.

Buffalo.

Miss Carroll.

Here.

All right.

Again, just want to say a word of welcome and good to see everybody here tonight.

I just want to make several notes, take note of several things that will happen tonight.

The public has many opportunities to speak at a city council meeting.

Members of the public can speak during public hearings, which we won't have any of those tonight, as well as old business and new business portions of the agenda.

I will remind everyone to confine your remarks to the specific item being discussed when you do come to the microphone.

General comments on other topics will be allowed at the very end of the meeting.

You can talk about anything you want to.

Individuals are provided three minutes and representatives of organizations may ask for five minutes.

That's limited to one speaker per group.

I'm going to ask that everyone respect those time limits so that we're fair to everyone.

Avoid demonstrations that might intimidate your neighbors from speaking at council meetings.

Surprisingly, people do get to intimidated just to speak at all, so we need to be supportive in that way.

Please address the issues that you are concerned about and not individuals and refrain from personal attacks, including attacks on city staff.

If there are any disruptions, and I don't anticipate any, we'll they'll be addressed with a warning.

And if necessary, there will be removal.

I'll ask for removal of that person, and we will take a recess.

And so Sheila's assured us that we will get caught up the next time around.

So we'll move on to the agenda.

I understand that there's an interest in removing B 27925 from the consent agenda to old business.

Jackie, I think you had brought that and Stetsy as well.

Does anyone else have any other changes to the agenda?

Okay, if I have a motion of uh to um approve the agenda with B-279-25 being moved from the consent agenda to old business, I'll make that motion.

Do I have a second?

Second.

Seconded by uh Jackie.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Anyone opposed, say no.

All right.

We'll move on to special items.

We have one special item tonight, and it is the Ribbon of Meritorious Service Award.

And Chief Schlute is going to come to the microphone.

Mayor Pro Tim and Mr.

Seawood, if you join me down here, I appreciate it.

Jill, you're gonna have to speak into the mic.

Otherwise, nobody's gonna be able to hear at home.

You can turn come to the back if you want to like from the mic.

Yeah.

This feels much more natural.

Thank you.

So I want to point out before I start reading this that this uh ribbon of meritorious service was actually recommended by one of Officer Turner's peers.

Um, one of our detectives in our criminal investigations division wrote this up for Nate.

Nate has been with us now for 17-ish years.

He is one of our canine officers, also a field training officer.

That's what the insignia on his shirt sleeve means.

So this was what our detective wrote about these these incidents and Nate.

With 17 years of service, Officer Nate Turner has consistently demonstrated courage and sound judgment in dangerous situations.

Two incidents in 2025 stand out as defining examples of his exemplary service.

In April of 2025, Officer Turner responded to a downtown shooting and came under direct gunfire.

Unable to return fire due to the presence of civilians, Officer Turner maintained pursuit, apprehended one suspect, and recovered a discarded firearm.

His actions removed a dangerous weapon from the scene and neutralized an immediate threat to public safety.

On September 27, 2025, the Columbia Police Department responded to a shots fired call in the 800 block of Broadway.

As a result of this shooting, one person was killed and two others were wounded.

The investigation revealed the three victims were completely innocent and were not part of the disturbance.

Officer Turner located a shooting suspect responsible while checking the surrounding area.

His good intuition to travel outside of the initial location in the hopes to locate the suspect was key.

Upon locating the suspect and while facing the armed suspect, Officer Turner gave clear commands and warned that his canine partner, who was secured in the patrol car, would be released if compliance was refused.

The suspect submitted, and Officer Turner affected the arrest without further incident.

Justice depends on those who act with courage when it matters most.

Officer Turner's actions in these situations exemplify this truth.

When confronted with armed suspects, direct gunfire and the risk of further loss of life, he did not hesitate or contemplate retreating.

Instead, Officer Turner acted decisively, balancing restraint with bravery to protect innocent lives, secure dangerous offenders, and deliver justice to victims.

His courage under fire reminds us that true justice is upheld not only in the courtroom but also on the streets by those willing to risk everything in service of others.

Please join me in congratulating Officer Nate Turner.

Thank you all very much.

We do not have appointments to boards and commissions tonight, but we do have scheduled public comment.

Members of the public can contact the city manager's office by noon on Wednesday prior to a council meeting to schedule a public comment.

Scheduled public comment cannot be on items that are on that night's agenda.

But it is of note, it's been typical practice of city council to ask for additional follow-up if uh if there are questions that we want to ask as a result of those comments at the end of the meeting.

Tonight there are three scheduled public comments.

I'd like to ask Cathy Newton to come forward.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate your having me back again.

Let me see.

I have three items to present that grew out of the last meeting.

Communication, neighborhood character, and zoning.

First of all, communication.

Notifications should be given to all potentially affected residents when big impact changes are going to be made on an established street such as Meadow Lane.

Those of us who live on Meadow knew nothing about the planned duplexes near the bend in the meadow lane until a neighbor alerted us shortly before the last city council meeting.

We had little time to prepare or find out anything.

I have since talked with Pat Zinner, who's been very helpful, and he explained that only those within 185 feet of a proposed project are required to be informed.

That means just immediate neighbors.

Even though there were only maybe 15 other houses on Meadow, and we will be greatly impacted by all the construction and the extra problems.

So I have a proposal.

Because this would cost so much money and it's a problem.

Why don't we require the developers to notify all the neighbors who would be impacted during the construction and operation of additional housing with all within already densely developed neighborhoods?

Why not?

It should be their responsibility with city oversight, of course, and perhaps the city could continue to inform the immediate neighbors.

My second topic is character, which I think is important for neighborhoods as it is just as it is for people.

Meadow Lane and its neighboring streets have many historic buildings on quite small lots, and it is an affordable neighborhood with a much higher rate of owner occupancy than Columbia as a whole.

I think on Meadow, 14 of 16 single family homes are owner occupied.

If I'm correct, that gives us an owner occupancy rate of 87.5 percent.

I am very concerned that instead of applauding our neighborhood for our denseness and having single family homes that are owner occupied, developers have decided to try to turn it into a street overwhelmed by rental duplexes.

In 2006, this report, a historic survey, which all of you should have received this afternoon, of Gar's edition, was uh an area bounded by Broadway on the south, West Ash on the north, West on the east, and McBain, no, West on the West and McBain on the east was submitted to the City of Columbia.

I found reference to it when I was searching online for information, and I thank Stacey Wideman for sending me the full PDF, which all of you should have received this afternoon.

Apparently, despite spending $25,000 of taxpayer money on a historic survey of our neighborhood, City Council never saw the 2006 report, nor its recommendations, and no attempt was made to contact the homeowners.

I lived in my house then in 2006, but I never heard about this report.

Nor its recommendation.

The report apparently was just quietly filed away.

When I asked about it, Russell Palmer emailed me a note including the following statements.

Once survey work is completed, the duty shifts to educate the public on the findings of the surveys and the tools available.

With regards to Gar Sedition recommendation, I would have to speculate, and he emphasized speculate, the organizing and buy-in would have been very difficult just given the number of properties involved in the broader neighborhood.

That statement about difficulty puzzled me because the East Campus Historical neighborhood established in 1998 is 60 acres in size and has properties listed on 14 different streets.

So I don't understand that.

We just want protection from predatory developers who will stuff in relatively few extra dwellings, and they will be much less affordable.

They charge a lot for these duplexes while destroying the neighborhood character.

Traffic parking and other issues will become problems.

Pat Zenna told me there is a central city urban design project that began in 2024.

It involves an urban conservation overlay for our neighborhood.

I formally request that the City Council direct the city planners to use this report of the historic value of our neighborhood to inform the conservation overlay for our area.

And briefly, zoning changes, our homes were built on the equivalent of our ones today.

We were wholesale changed in our to R2, probably without notifying the homeowners.

And we would like to what's so sacred about rezoning in 1957.

Shouldn't we revisit this issue?

Thank you.

Thank you, Kathy.

Will Chris Kendrick come to the microphone?

Thank you for the opportunity to speak before you.

I would like to talk about how Abidwell Studios brings attention to Columbia by providing creators with studio resources and media that reach a wide audience.

I'll conclude by highlighting how volunteers are making the most of their time through automation.

Which has led to increased membership and improved efficiency.

These members in turn showcase Columbia to other artists, musicians, and collaborators belong uh beyond the Columbia area.

For instance, a video podcast titled.

There we go.

For instance, a video podcast titled Hidden in Plain Sight, supported by Missouri Humanities, is scheduled for release in March, and it will be part of the semi-quincentennial celebration of the United States.

Creators of the podcast from neighboring Callaway County and not neighboring State of Virginia are utilizing resources from Vidwood Studios to travel across the state, documenting 12 historical women figures in Missouri history.

Another example, going back to the pandemic, Columbia-based one-to-one print shop used gear from Video Studios to live stream their team shirt or T-shirt screen printing process, which at the time they were told was a risk.

They were told not to do it.

They were pleasantly surprised and delighted to have viewers from all over the country.

They were generating interest in their business.

They recall communicating with a viewer from Connecticut.

At a time when obtaining equipment for a live stream event was very unlikely, let alone knowing how to run one.

Vidwest Studios' resources and assistance enabled one-to-one print shop to stay in business during the pandemic at a time when they're weren't able to accept clients at their shop.

Their film and music video Afterglow has generated widespread acclaim and has received numerous awards.

To date, Borderline Entertainment is a recipient of a total of 27 film nominations and 15 award honors.

Without Vidwest Studios support and resources, their projects would have faced immense challenges.

They would have had to really relocate productions to, say, St.

Louis, resulting in higher cost, travel expenses, and additional effort.

For borderline entertainment, Vidwell Studios proximity was an obvious choice, leading to the production company's cast and crews spending their money with other businesses here in Columbia.

Fibersmith is a Columbia-based telecommunications software and engineering company providing support to internet providers across the United States and Puerto Rico in areas that have historically lacked reliable service.

Again across from the country, including Puerto Rico, showcasing their capabilities available in Columbia left a positive impression on the attendees.

The high quality production delivered delivered at the event demonstrated the importance of having reliable, creative, meeting resources here in Columbia.

Again, the event kept spending local, kept spending local, and showcased Columbia.

These are just a few examples of how film crews from Kansas City, St.

Louis, Cape Girardo, even as far as Los Angeles, have utilized equipment and space from Vidwest Studios.

Beyond providing these resources, Vidwest Studios also facilitates connections between these crews, which are offered from which are often from much much larger metropolitan areas.

And they collect and they connect these individuals from and they connect these individuals from Columbia.

Finally, I'd like to inform the council that with cities funding, the studio is actively working to automate processes whenever possible.

For instance, last August, we launched a new membership portal that is in a remarkable 16% in the last three months.

This new portals allow members to manage their accounts and even advertise their services by listing their services in what's called our Midmo Media Directory.

Additionally, the studio has successful implemented automation for pickup and return reminders, which has significantly reduced the workload by studio managers and following up with members and their orders.

Each success story.

Sorry.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And I'll ask Sutu Forte to come to the podium.

Good evening.

Mayor Pro Tim, City Council staff and audience.

My environmental colleague wanted to speak to you tonight, and I advise them not to, because their country of origin is categorized as evil by our national government.

I volunteered to read their words.

Entitled For the Love of Gans.

As a Columbia resident and cyclist who regularly uses the city's bike trails for commuting exercise and leisure.

I am deeply in love with Gans Creek watershed.

Gans Creek is a rare and wild natural sanctuary.

It shelters incredible diversity of wildlife, but many of whom are threatened and endangered.

Columbia is home to many parks, but Gans Creek is not just another scenic area.

It is a hidden gem, a magical treasure, the unicorn of Columbia.

Poorly designed mountain bike trails is causing severe erosion, washing away soil and sediment into Gans Creek.

This runoff pollutes the water, harms plant life along the banks, and disrupts the delicate balance of the creeks ecosystem.

Instead of preserving nature, we risk accelerating her decline.

I am from a country that once had rich untouched wildlife areas, very much like Gans Creek.

Sadly, many of those places were lost due to a lack of appreciation for nature's true value and the absence of long-term environmental care.

Witnessing that painful destruction has given me a deep awareness, and today, with utmost respect, I sincerely ask you to act wisely and protect the beautiful nature we have here before it's too late.

I am not calling for a complete ban on trail construction, but rather for a modification of current methods to ensure that new trails are designed responsibly and in harmony with the environment.

I urge that ongoing construction be halted until proper studies and sustainable designs are in place.

Thank you.

Gosh.

All that time left.

Thank you, Sutu.

All right.

Thank you.

We'll be back.

We have no public hearings tonight.

We do have one item of old business.

Two items of old business.

Sorry, we did add that other.

Let's start with B 26725.

And Sheila, will you read that bill?

Council Bill 26725 is an ordinance granting the issuance of a conditional use permit to the Germond Egner Fi family trust to allow the operation of a short-term rental on property located at 1506 Windsor Street, providing a severability clause and fixing the time when this ordinance shall become effective second reading.

I do believe we have a staff report.

Yes.

Thank you.

Mayor, Council, Clint Smith Community Development Director.

I have with me Pat Zinner, Development Services Manager.

The case we uh have in front of the council tonight is uh for the potential granting of a conditional use permit uh for short-term rental at property address at 1506 Windsor Street.

Uh just a little bit of background on this property, as you can see in the attached uh map there on the left, kind of the approximate location, south side of Windsor.

See Walnut to the south, William Street uh to the east.

Um it was required to go through uh public hearing and planning and zoning, and all proper notification was uh was uh was followed.

It was for a 210-night short-term rental uh with um four transient guests uh as a maximum request.

As you can see here a little aerial, also kind of the surrounding context.

Uh this is a uh a photo of the front of the property.

Um I'll point out one of the um slightly uh less common features of this short-term rental project uh was that they do not feature any on-site off-street parking.

As you can see here, really the property is from the stone wall on the left part of that uh picture, down to the right at the uh other edge where there's a stone wall, so no driveway, no garage.

Um just a little background, and I'll come back to why that part's important.

Uh property is zoned RMF.

Uh given the photo there, there's a little, I think you could see a little confusion on the on the zoning, but the RMF is really the similar zoning to everything to the east of that property.

To the west of that is an R1 zone property.

Um this property uh is surrounded by approximately 42 parcels, 35 of those are currently also used for rental uh purposes.

It was offered for 84 nights of rental in 2024, so it had been previously operated as short-term rental.

Um the only code violation would be for the operation of that short-term rental without a uh a without a license.

There's no other additional short-term rentals within 300 feet.

Uh the designated agent lives in Columbia.

Uh there was six letters uh received regarding this case.

Uh five of those were in support and one in opposition.

Um the property currently has no driveway access, like I said, so no on-site off-street parking.

Um so that was reviewed by Planning and Zoning Commission.

Um the recommendation there at the Plan and Zoning Commission after evaluation of this case was uh recommendation of approval 8 to 0 with the condition uh in addition to the the maximum transient guests and 210 nights was that in order to actually operate the short-term rental, they didn't need to provide the minimum amount of parking um off-street on site.

So essentially um they would be granted a short-term rental permit uh on the condition that they build the parking that's necessary.

Without that, they could not operate the the short-term rental.

Um be happy to go in a little more detail uh with any questions.

Um that's our presentation.

Thank you for the report.

Does council have a question?

Jackie.

Um, for the and I asked this earlier, but just to kind of talk about it out loud, the driveway or the parking to be what processes that have to the owners have to go through to um put that in place.

Uh to provide the parking?

Yes.

Like what is there a uh particular steps they need to follow so that it is um up to code with the city?

Sure.

Usually any type of construction like that would come in through our permitting department, and they'd review that to make sure it's compliant with all you know regulations and rules as far as uh setbacks and uh permits necessary for new curb cuts and that sort of thing.

So we we would evaluate it and make sure it is UDC compliant.

Thank you.

That's it.

That's all.

Anything else from council Betsy?

I understand that these owners agreed to do this, and they will do that before they're operated as a short-term rental?

Uh correct.

My understanding is that they did agree to that condition, and that was part of the recommendation of landing and zoning.

All right, thank you.

Could you go back to the slide uh picture of, and I'm assuming this is a picture of the property?

Correct.

You mentioned the stone wall.

Okay, so the corner, the corner, and then that is the end of the property.

Is that correct?

So the driveway to the left is not this property, is that correct?

Correct.

I think the property line is in that vicinity, but from our understanding of that property owner does not have complete access or control of that driveway.

Okay.

Thank you.

All right.

Is there anyone from the public that would like to speak to B 26725 to come to the podium?

My wife and I bought this house in 77.

Excuse me.

Can you give your name?

And uh Albert.

And the ward of your residence.

I can't hear you.

What ward do you live in?

I I actually live in the country, but I have another house I have an office in at 1512 Windsor.

Okay, thank you.

Can we start over?

Um I mean, I have taken away 15 minutes of my time.

You can go ahead and start again.

Okay.

We bought this house in 1977.

We sold it to the Eggners about eight years ago.

Um bought and rehabbed, eight of them in Benton Stevens, others elsewhere.

This has been my life work.

These houses are older and beautiful and well maintained.

This house, I built the wall.

You'd have to, in order to do this, you'd have to, there's a water meter in that stone wall, you have to take that out.

There's a water meter, a water line, a gas line, a shoreline.

You'd have to build concrete driveway over those lines.

You'd have to put the water meter in the driveway.

You'd have to put the clean out for the shore in the driveway.

You'd have to take out that 45-year-old tree and the bushes and the privacy fence.

There's only eight feet, three inches between the property and the gas meter.

So you have to put traffic past a gas meter when you only have eight feet roughly.

You'd have to have barriers there.

There has never been a problem with parking on this street.

I know you require it, but all these years I've been aware of this house.

I've never seen parking problems.

It's too far from Boone Hospital, Stevens College, or downtown to be useful for those people.

I do not oppose the people using this for a rental, but I don't think the city should tear up the yard, take out the trees, take out the bushes, and put in this driveway.

I'm opposed to that.

Any questions?

Not at this time.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Would anyone else like to speak to B 26725?

Chris Jones, second board.

Um so I pulled up what um this house on Google Maps.

And if you guys are pulling this up on Google Maps as well, we will see that there is no way in the world that there can be any off-street parking that goes in here.

But the more important thing that I want you to recognize is I want you to look at the this house.

We are talking about how affordable housing is not affordable in Columbia any longer.

And I want you to look at this house.

This is actually an affordable house.

And there are people like me who have been opposed to STRs.

And one of the reasons why that we are so opposed to STRs is because it is taking affordable housing out of the market for people who want to actually have affordable housing.

And so by granting this one, granted, it's already been operating and recently illegally as a SDR.

What you're doing is taking that housing away from people who need housing.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

Yes, ma'am.

Hello, I'm a little croaky, so I've got some water here.

Okay, so I need it.

Uh my name is Susan Egner, and my husband Ken Germond and I live at 1504 Windsor Street and have been owners of 1506 since 2017.

I've lived in Columbia for 27 years, 25 of those in Benton Stevens at in between these two addresses.

I raised my children on Windsor Street.

I was PTA president of Benton Elementary for 10 years.

The backyards of 1504 and 1506 are fenced in together.

Both houses measure fewer than 1,000 square feet and are 20 feet apart.

We spent six months renovating the kitchen and bathroom and replacing the knob and tube wiring in order to properly ensure the home as a non-primary residence rental.

Since March 2018, 1506 Windsor has had the following lifestyle, if you will.

We accommodate our four adult out of state children, two with families.

We put up traveling friends throughout the year.

I've held soap making classes, happy hours, movie nights, birthday parties, book clubs, and for eight years we've hosted the neighborhood Christmas party, and for eight years we've donated all of January and February to the True Falls Film Festival for visiting technicians and filmmakers.

In addition to these personal uses, we vet and rent to Airbnb participants for things like MU and Stevens events, downtown events and concerts and festivals, families of patients at Boone Hospital, local weddings, and the like.

In vetting guests, we turn down people without any Airbnb history.

We only accept up to four guests.

If we are not in town, 1506 is not rented.

We've never had a complaint about noise or parking or anything from any neighbor or any guest.

And as I mentioned, our homes are 20 feet apart.

We see the cars park, we see how many people come and go.

We see lights go on, we see lights go off.

If there's anything to hear, we hear it.

And until the public hearing sign was posted, uh Mr.

and Mrs.

Albert, who are present, were seemingly unaware that these events and rentals have been happening for eight years, and the reason for them not be noticing it is because A, there's nothing to notice, and because B, they don't live in Benton Stevens.

They live out by Pierpont.

They do own a house on Windsor Street, 1512 Windsor, which has been shuttered, unoccupied, and unrented for at least the 27 years that I've lived in Columbia.

We love and respect our homes.

We at 1506 Windsor have had approximately 200 stays over the eight years, that being an average of about two per month.

I'm asking the council to please vote yes to a conditional use permit for 1506 Windsor Street.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

This is regard to 1512 Windsor Street.

It has not been unfettered and unoccupied.

It's our central center second home.

We have an office there.

We go there regularly.

And it is true that we did not know that 1506 was being rented out, but we do know that there is a parking problem.

There is no way they can put that parking on that lot.

So what we are asking is not that you not approve that their application for the STR, but that you grant variants and just allow them to park on the street, as those tenants have been doing for a number of years.

It's not a parking issue at all.

As my husband said, there's not an excess demand for parking because of its prox non-proximity to downtown or any other place.

It's a very quiet residential neighborhood, and it should be kept as quiet, keep the trees, keep the rock walls, keep it as it has been for 50 years.

Thank you.

Is there anyone else from the public would like to speak?

The B26725.

All right, we'll close public comment.

Questions from Council Jackie will start with you again.

Could you talk about the possibility of a waiver or not regarding the off-street parking?

Yeah, absolutely.

So the minimum parking requirements are a zoning requirement.

That's not something that can be waived through the conditional use process.

That typically is reserved for the Board of Adjustment.

So that wouldn't be able to be waived tonight.

That we saw your hand.

Yeah.

I understand there have recently been code amendments considered for the STR code ordinance.

Is this something that's been considered the parking requirement?

Is this something that's been discussed with the Commission?

As a part of the amendment process that was discussed, yes, parking was considered.

It was not a belief of the planning commission that parking should have been waived.

These uses are considered commercial.

And it was a debate amongst the commissioners to leave the standards as they are.

And the ordinance amendment has proposed a situation in where parking would be retained.

However, a restriction on the nightly usage, if it could not be increased, would be applied.

And that's all part of the conditional part of a review process that would still require possibly coming before the Planning and Zoning Commission for conditional use approvals.

So it was discussed.

And that is the story that the planning commission and the process that they went through prior to June when they adopted or recommended adoption of these changes.

I was dismayed to find that we can't waive this in any way.

I'm not surprised by it based on how the code is written.

And I don't want the existing houses and parcels to be required to be changed to accommodate a commercial use because that makes it less appealing and harder to turn back for residential use.

There will always be a parking pad on a tiny lot where my knowledge of Bent and Stephen from past actions.

They prefer not to have permeable surface, non-permeable pavement.

They prefer to have parking located at rear of properties and the history on their on their parking wave.

And I don't see how it's in anyone's best interest.

And perhaps unlikely to be pursued.

I do think that this is a good example of an STR in that the managers live nearby.

But it is a use that we have that is approved in our code.

This meets the requirements.

I don't see a reason to disapprove this, uh disapprove this.

Well, what I would recommend is that we go ahead and pass this, which is what planning and zoning did as an STR.

Um and that certainly having talked to or listened to the um Albert's concerns about having to put a driveway in and all that parking, recommend that the owners go to the Board of Adjustment and get a variance, meaning that they can operate this short-term rental without having to do the parking, something that we cannot waive here, but can be waived at Board of Adjustment.

And that would take care of allowing them to run an STR without having to put parking pads on there, and they're perfectly capable of pursuing that if they want to.

And I think that would take care of this problem.

Don, you had your hand up.

Yeah, I think I think Betsy actually answered the one of my questions was that it would be approve this and then go to Board of Adjustment, not Board of Adjustment first.

Okay.

Thank you.

My other question, just to clarify, because I had asked the question: if this were a long-term rental, we wouldn't be talking about parking, they wouldn't even be here in front of us.

Um yet the argument was in part of the reason being because short-term rental is considered commercial.

We have to abide by those business license and so on.

Long-term rentals are not considered a commercial.

Is that correct?

And is that just because of the way it's been worded or it's whatever, because my understanding would be most long-term rentals are, you know, for the benefit of whoever owns them.

So why is that not considered beneficial and I or commercial?

And I understand that's kind of outside of this discussion, but I wanted to bring the point up.

No, I think it's a it's a good point to make.

Um we don't necessarily distinguish between a owner-occupied and a long-term rental occupied uh structure.

It is it is a residential use at that point.

When you take that step to then go through a short-term rental process, uh we consider that to be now you've converted into a commercial use.

Uh it has greater impacts necessarily than a residential use.

So that's the distinction between those uh those two uses.

There's uh generally, I think if you look through the ordinance, you can see that it's very emphasized that there are certain impacts that they want to make sure are mitigated and parking is one of those.

Okay.

I also want to add that uh the and the difference also is the transient guest.

So um a short-term rental is occupied transient guests, which um reside in the structure for less than 31 days.

So if you have someone that's residing more than 31 days, it's considered to be um a residential structure long-term.

But it's that it's that short-term rental for a period of less than 31 days that turns it into transient gas that turns it into the commercial.

Well, thank you for reminding me.

Like a hotel.

Right.

No, I I understand the distinction between short-term and long-term.

I guess my question is why is one considered commercial and one isn't?

Right.

Because once you meet that definition, it that is the same definition that our hotels are.

Is that in the UDC or our our codes?

It is and it's in the hotel uh motel has to do with your uh your tourism uh tax as well or your accommodation tax, whatever we call it, by whatever means it's called globally the accommodations tax that has to do with the number of nights that someone is staying in a facility, or and that's what gives it the commercial uh short-term rental aspect.

Or it's occupied more like or mean operated more like a hotel than a residential structure or a residential home.

A home.

Okay.

I I understand your argument.

And again, I'm still and again, the obviously I'm in a different discussion, but why a long-term rental is not commercial, short-term rental is when both are there for the benefit of the owner.

So I'll drop that for now, because like I said, that's a separate discussion, so we can move on.

I think I have to agree with Betsy.

I think we're identifying several separate uh conversations, uh, Bureham.

Yeah, I just wanted to clarify, because it sounds like we're talking not only about the aesthetics of the neighborhood, but also concerns have been brought up that it might not it might potentially not be possible to build a driveway on this plot of land because of utilities that run under it.

So what happens if like if we approve it and then they are not able to build additional parking, does that just mean it cannot be an STR?

Is that when they then go to the Board of Adjustments?

Do they have an ability to come back and try the process again?

To answer all those questions.

Sorry.

The first one is is yes, they cannot operate a short-term rental without providing that parking.

Uh they can go to the Board of Adjustment and seek relief.

There are certain standards the Board of Adjustment, though, will evaluate, and it is not necessarily a foregone conclusion that that would be granted.

Um then um I forgot the last one, if you can read that or if that answered your question.

Can they come back?

Is there a timeline at which if they have not built the driveway driveway by this point it has expired and they need to start again?

Yeah, I I think you know, I don't know if we have that formal process, but I think essentially they would amend their conditional use.

If they wanted to change the conditions, they would come back and go through that same process before uh again, essentially.

Thank you.

Valerie.

Is the same parking requirement in the code for Tier 1 STRs?

Do they have to provide off-street parking?

Sorry.

My memory is rusty.

No, they do not, ma'am.

Okay.

And a tier one, however, would limit the applicant to 30 nights.

That is it.

I'll just say about Board of Adjustment, they are known to be pretty stingy in providing those variances, and I think probably because of limitations they have on them.

So there's no there is no guarantee about that for sure.

Any other questions or comments from the council?

Yes, Betsy.

All right.

Um the Board of Adjustment, it's like if it's a hardship, having been on the Board of Adjustment before I shut up over here.

Um if it's a hardship, and it sounds like from what Mr.

Albert said, it would be a hardship to put this in because they're going to be going over all sorts of utilities.

But yes, the Board of Adjustment is stingy about what they do.

You are correct.

Okay.

We ready to vote?

Yes.

Council Bill 26725, Ms.

Elwood?

Yes.

Ms.

Sample?

Yes.

Mr.

Foster?

Yes.

Mr.

Waterman.

Yes.

Ms.

Peters.

Yes.

Ms.

Carroll.

Yes.

All right.

We do have a second item on old business mood from the consent agenda.

So she will you please read B27925?

Council Bill 27925 is an ordinance authorizing a consultant agreement with Avenue.

Yeah, Avenue Insights and Analytics LLC for short-term rental monitoring and identification services.

Amending the FY26 annual budget by appropriating funds and fixing the time when this ordinance shall become effective.

Second reading.

We have a staff report.

You guys haven't moved at all.

We get to stay put.

Yeah, so uh just kind of a little quick background on this as stated, this would authorize the execution of a contract to secure Avenue Insights and Analytics.

Um just a little background as I had stated.

Um in early 2024, um, the city uh began the process of adopting several ordinances that would uh essentially put in the short-term rental program that we have in front of us today.

Um during that time there was conversation uh about uh taking the step to secure a vendor that would specialize uh essentially in analysis of short-term rental uh data and also allow us uh and assist us with tracking compliance.

Uh and I think that was viewed as necessary given the limitations that we have with staffing to uh accurately and I think effectively and efficiency and efficiently address the expected potential of 500 short-term rentals within the community.

Uh so uh after I think uh mid-2024, we started the process of reaching out to these uh individual companies and uh securing some uh audiences with a few, uh and we received uh some presentations uh through the process.

At that time, we identified a need probably to go through a sole source uh procurement process.

Uh we identified uh the uh the identified consultant.

Um uh now we're bringing this forward after some evaluation with the with an expected contract that would be for uh essentially an initial five-year term.

Um as part of that contract, you know, what are we actually uh getting from that contractor?

So we identified, and this is in the staff report, really five key things that we think um are important process of actually uh uh you know effectively uh administering our short-term rental uh program.

Um right now, based on our estimates from the data we have available, we have almost 500 short-term rentals within the community, uh.

Approximately 150, I think, are maybe licensed currently.

So there's a there's certainly a gap there.

So having the this uh a uh group avenue insights come in, uh, what they would do is be able to bring to bear their software and their expertise that would allow them to more effectively basically identify uh existing operating short-term rentals, uh and it would assist staff with the identifying those locations and property owners uh that would be uh then contacted to bring them into compliance.

Uh they would also uh essentially monitor over 80 websites that list short-term rental data and they would monitor that on a weekly basis to provide updates and new identified short-term rentals, uh, thereby kind of collecting a database of ones that are not in compliance with city ordinances and that the city would then uh move to uh ensure compliance with.

Um another um factor in securing, I think this contractor uh would be we would also have a web portal that we would use for analysis and to ensure uh uh that there is compliance with the the listings and the postings that they have online.

As you can see tonight, we do have conditions associated with most of these short-term rentals.

There are limits on the number of transient guests, there are limits on the number of nights.

And so having them uh basically able to collect a lot of that data, uh basically monitor those websites and make sure the information they are putting out to the general public is in compliance with uh the permit that they have received from the city, in addition to ensuring they do have permits is another important component of that.

Uh they will also be providing a 24-hour, seven-day a week uh hotline for the community to contact if there are issues with short-term rentals.

Uh again, that is a service that would be difficult for staff to uh basically provide.

And so if you have a complaint uh and you suspect that it is a short-term rental, you would contact the company, and that will be part of our process of if this contract moves forward is making sure that information is is out there to the general public that this is the way you would file complaints or or issues or concerns.

Uh and Avenue would then be responsible for uh certain, I think, contact responsibilities for those that are responsible for maintaining these properties.

Uh and one of the last key things is to also potentially assist us with some of that outreach.

So some of that, you know, really kind of hard notification that we need to send out, and by that I mean you'll letters.

So notifying those property owners that they're not compliance and that there is a process for them to come into compliance.

Um the uh the expected cost for this, there's an initial setup fee, but initially it will be uh around that $31,000 per year for uh for the contract uh and over five years, obviously there is a slight uh increase in that cost each year.

Um I think the evaluation that we looked at was uh you know the $30,000 necessary for this contract, uh we would say that's roughly proportional to about a half FTE, so maybe half of an employee.

And we think uh the amount of information and the amount of work they would be doing that would probably exceed what half an FTE in our office would be able to accomplish uh with the same amount of resources or or with the resources that we have available to us, uh, which is much more limited than what uh the consultant would have access to.

Uh just as as a comparison, I think we received some information about uh the handful, well, shouldn't say handful of the dozens that we have right now that are registered and we have been collecting lodging tax revenue on.

I think there's about 33, and I think we've collected was it 27,000 in lodging tax uh for the six-month period.

Uh so we believe uh there would be a return on that lodging tax increase that would more than cover uh more than likely the cost of the annual contract over that five-year period.

So uh with that, we would be happy to answer any questions or go into any more of that in depth.

I will just ask one real quick.

Uh the lodging tax and where that will go.

You say will more than cover the cost of this.

Do we have an anticipation of how much more there might be?

Because I know that the balance will go to convention administrators bureau, correct?

Yeah, we did a we did a real rough analysis to provide a very top floor ceiling on what we would expect, and that's the $800,000 uh number that's in there.

And that's that's as every single one was identified in the community, and it and they were all taxed at approximately what we're seeing based on the data we have.

We would say that number is probably going to be lower, but that's uh that's yearly.

So even if we were at half that, you know, we would still be uh I think collecting, you know, almost 400,000 in lodging tax at that point.

Okay.

Thanks.

Uh I know there are other questions from Council Jackie.

Regarding the compliance, so two rounds of letters per noncompliant STR host per year.

So after those two letters are sent, are there are there copies sent to city staff or further enforcement?

Does that go, I think to municipal court for prosecution?

What happens after those two letters and they are still not compliant?

And who is responsible for those actions?

Yeah, I think that would be the expectation that after the two notices, that's the amount of notices they would receive at that point, then it may be referred to for prosecution.

I would expect that any notifications going out, staff would also be uh involved in that communication in some way, shape, or form.

So I don't have the exact details on how that is going to work, and that is part of the conversation we'll have with uh uh them when we start onboarding.

Okay.

And then will we get, as a council, will we get updates or reports on compliance uh rates and percentages like a couple times a year or something so we can monitor how it's working?

If if council is so requests, we can provide the data that we have that is available to be provided, yeah.

On the uh 247 uh live complaint hotline.

I notice that the word live is in quotation marks.

What does that actually mean for the the user experience of that hotline?

Based upon the based upon the interviewing that we have done with Avenue as well as our other vendors, they are one of the few that actually has a live U.S.

based call center uh that is available 24-7 with a real person.

And so they will be the point of contact to take in complaint information, and then they would be the outbound call to the designated agent through an established procedure that we will define as a part of the onboarding process to which that designated agent must take care of the issue, or then would be tracked as a verified uh it would be it would be added to a list of complaints that would then need to be verified.

Uh but the the concept uh as we went through the interviewing process was to assure that we had somebody live, not a voice recording.

Uh we wanted immediate action.

And this is one of the uh very few vendors that had U.S.

based customer service for that purpose.

Yeah, Valerie.

Yeah.

After the initial complaint is made at the hotline, um what are the next steps?

Um after it's verified, is this our own staff follow up?

Um does this go to code compliance or I guess potentially police depending on the complaint?

So there is an escalation process by the vendor uh depending on the responsiveness.

It is our understanding and the conversations again as we went through the interviewing process.

Uh designated agent will have a specified period of time to which to resolve the question uh to resolve the issue.

If I understand correctly, there would be a follow-up by the vendors uh call center to verify that it has been addressed and potentially back to the complaint.

And if it has not been at that point, then it would need to be potentially escalated either to appropriate enforcement agencies, depending on what the violation is, or it would be again logged uh to be further investigated the following business day uh by uh neighborhood services staff and then potentially uh become part of a public record for the purposes of future uh uh prosecution related matters.

Okay.

Over here, Don?

Yeah.

A couple of questions.

Um the complaint line, obviously, if it's loud or whatever, they can call the police and address it that way if it's an emergency situation.

But just a complaint about too many vehicles or litter or condition of the property.

Um, if I understand this correctly, that it's going to go through this company and not to the city directly.

Is that correct?

It would be logged into a database that we will have access to, but to resolve the problem, it would go through the company initially.

If the problem is unresolved, it then falls to the city staff.

This is more for immediate response to address the problem and the complaint that is coming in.

That is the purpose behind the call center is to try to do early intervention without having to wait on city staff to return to regular business hours.

And if it is a police related matter, such as a as an out of control party or other emergency, uh the way that the call center has been explained to us is that would be elevated to the appropriate authority as defined by the city staff.

Okay.

So if somebody wants to complain during the day and they call the the city's contact number, is that going to be then rerouted or are they going to be here to call this number instead?

And how would that be handled?

Because I just there's just something about this that says, oh, this is the city's ordinance, we're endorsing the city's ordinance, but you're going to call B over here.

I would imagine that as a part of the public outreach, which again we we are trying to secure the contract.

So as a part of defining when the call center would be the primary point of contact and when the city would be the primary point of contact, that will be resolved as a part of the overall onboarding process.

And I'm I would suggest that the outcome of that discussion will be if it's during regular business hours, 8 a.m.

to 5 p.m., it's going to be routed directly to the city, and we will address it according to our current processes.

If it is after before or after business hours, it will be routed through the vendor.

Okay.

And then lastly, on page three of the council memo, you specifically third pair, third full paragraph down that you found that there's and it says a portion of the 475 identified as being STRs are actually midterm or long term, and they're just advertising on Airbnb.

Do we have any idea as to what percentage that portion is?

Five, 10, 15, 10.

Not specifically, sir.

That's part of what the vendor services will help us to identify.

Okay.

And through neighborhood services contacts, and this is more anecdotal information, through neighborhood services contacts before the full enforcement deadline of June 1st, a number of the contacts that they were interacting with that were operators of short-term rentals had indicated to that to their to our staff that due to the nature of the short-term rental regulations, they were going to cease operations as a short-term rental after June 1st.

However, the opportunity to be able to book for a midterm to advertise and offer for midterm rentals.

Part of what the vendor service and the monitoring will be is to ensure that if it is truly a midterm or a long-term rental, that is stated within the listing information that is provided.

Because if it does not bear a short-term rental license number, that is a red flag.

And that again, part of the licensure process is the occupancy and the rental licensing number must be on the listing.

And so there's going to be a couple of telltale signs that it's either operating illegally due to the booking calendar that will be also being evaluated, which is a public-facing document, and then other features, all of which we are still, as a part of the onboarding process will determine what are the what are the metrics by which the vendor will be evaluating each of the uh listings to determine compliance or noncompliance.

Okay.

Thank you.

Valerie?

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah, I was going to say.

This is a data scraping software that pulls the details from public listing information and from matching to other databases such as data sessor websites.

Does this have the ability to scrape data from bookings calendars and register that with the listing itself?

Um, allowing you to verify the number, the length of bookings.

It is our understanding from what we have been told that is a service that this vendor does offer, and that is one of their specializations.

So that will assure when we do need to do auditing if auditing is necessary on the payment of accommodation taxes, uh, that we are we are receiving appropriate accommodation tax payments.

Excellent.

Um I don't know how we did this work without having this tool at all.

Um It's labor-intensive and onerous on our staff to comb through pages of listings to try and locate STRs, um, let alone locate who owns STRs.

Um there is no way to know how many nights something is being booked.

Um This is something that I asked for six years ago.

It's very hard to regulate this type of activity without having this data available because so much of it is speculative given that we don't know how many nights things are booked.

And we can get an idea from Air DNA.

But it's less specific than what comes from this kind of information.

Some of the things that I wanted to know here were what data can be shared with the public and how it will be accessed.

How will the public know about the hotline?

To me, I hadn't considered the hotline as part of this kind of data package.

So I guess that's cherries on top.

I I do have reservations about having the hotline, not with our own city staff.

But I I understand the 24-7 nature of it and the limitations on our staff as well.

It's important to me that we have some education outreach.

But we already have 150 approved ones, and no one knew that there was a hotline until now.

I'd like us to be able to re-engage with those people and let them know, hey, now you have this hotline available.

As far as the data goes, um, I think it would be extremely helpful to us to have access to mapped data as to where the STRs are located, which ones and by us I mean viewable to council.

Um what word they are in, where there's a concentration of STRs, um, and which ones have already been approved.

Um I am asking for that.

And that is something that's generated by this software.

Is that something that could be done then?

I I I would but you may need to talk to the vendor about that.

Yeah, I think maybe a conversation with the vendor.

I mean, I think you know the data is there, so however it's displayed.

I think we can probably accommodate some sort of sharing, but I I wouldn't warrant any specific way we're going to do it yet until we have a little more time.

That's fine.

Um, part of the dashboard again, just based on the conversations we've had.

The dashboard opportunities do allow for heat mapping uh as well as uh generalized uh mapping services that are built in for the purposes of our of our data analysis that will be provided through the portal itself.

Um creating more of an internal uh GIS related map that would be available to our internal staff, very similar to how we deal with our utility infrastructure mapping.

Those are things that we can further explore and be able to potentially link together with the vendor's software uh options or package.

We would have to discuss that.

Um public-facing map, however, uh does create several uh concerns as it relates to security.

Uh these are transient accommodations, and therefore uh having every location of those out does expose uh those properties potentially to enhanced uh vandalism rates due to the fact that they may be laying vacant uh unlike a long-term rental.

Um so those are the types of considerations that we would have to further investigate as to how we can interlace uh the vendors software and their mapping capabilities with our own internal GIS uh availability.

I have a couple of questions.

One about um this number 475.

It seems to me that's the number we started with.

We but we won't we really don't have a completely accurate number of how many are actually functioning this way, and we won't until we get this software.

Is that the same?

That is correct.

So the initial passes that all of the uh vendors that had contacted us, they did initial analyses.

Uh that number has been very consistent over the last five years.

Uh seasonally fluctuates, of course.

Uh, and until we really are able to get down to how many of the short-term rentals are actually midterm or long-term rentals using that platform.

Uh we will not know truly the total number.

And assuming this is approved tonight, when would this be actually deployed?

Do we have an idea about a timeline for that?

This is one of the things that I've been able to say to people, you're going to have this.

I don't know when.

So it is my understanding based on the onboarding process.

We are probably looking at six to eight weeks in order to be able to get all of the details of how we will actually be able to interlace current city processes along with what the vendor is offering.

It will take a couple months at least.

Yeah, two months probably.

Uh so it would be shortly after the beginning of the new year is what I would anticipate.

Okay, Don.

Yeah, just a couple more questions.

And they just occurred to me, so I apologize.

I probably should have asked them earlier.

But anyway.

Um in reviewing this, do we know how many other or did the vendor share how many other communities around the country are utilizing their services slash software?

Um I made I made actual uh RFP uh calls uh as it related to this particular vendor and made no less than a dozen.

Uh and most of the jurisdictions are double to triple our size.

So this particular vendor came highly recommended uh as uh a superior reputation and for the services that they provide.

Uh and that was confirmed through all of the uh uh background and uh checking that we performed.

Okay.

That was my second question.

Thank you.

Any other questions before we go to public comment?

All right.

Would anyone from the public like to speak to B275 27925?

Seeing none, we'll come back to the council.

Any other comments or questions from council?

Sheila, will you call the roll on B 27925?

Council Bill 27925.

Ms.

Elwood?

Yes.

Ms.

Sample?

Yes.

Mr.

Foster.

Yes.

Mr.

Waterman?

Yes.

Ms.

Peters?

Yes.

Ms.

Carroll.

Yes.

All right.

We'll move on to the consent agenda.

And Sheila, will you read the consent agenda twice and call the roll?

Items on the consent agenda include bills 266-25, 268, 25, 269, 25, 270, 25, 271, 25, 272, 25, 273, 25, 274, 25, 275, 25, 276, 25, 277, 25, 278, 25, and resolutions.

14725, 148, 25, 149, 25, 150, 25, 151, 25, 152, 25, 153, 25, 154, 25, 155, 25, 156, 25, 157, 25, and 158-25.

Bills 266-25, 268, 25, 269, 25, 270, 25, 271, 25, 272, 25, 273, 25, 274, 25, 275, 25, 276, 25, 277, 25, 278, 25, and resolutions, 147, 25, 148, 25, 149, 25, 15, 25, 151, 25, 152, 25, 153, 25, 154, 25, 155, 25, 156, 25, 157, 25, and 15825.

Ms.

Elwood.

Yes.

Ms.

Sample.

Yes.

Mr.

Foster.

Yes.

Mr.

Waterman.

Yes.

Ms.

Peters.

Yes.

Ms.

Carroll.

Yes.

All right.

There being no new business tonight.

Uh, we'll move on to introduction and first reading.

She'll please read the items under intro and first reading.

All items are introduced by the mayor unless otherwise indicated.

Bills 280 25, 281, 25, 282, 25, 283, 25, 284, 25, 285, 25, 286, 25, 287, 25, 288, 25, 289, 25, 290, 25, 291, 25, 292, 25, 293, 25, 294, 25, and 29525, first reading.

Thank you.

We have one report tonight, report 5325 about community engagement and an update from you all.

Uh we have a staff report, Sydney.

Good evening, Council.

I am Sydney Olson, our engagement and public communications manager.

Um, we just wanted to take this opportunity to give a brief update on the city's engagement efforts because we've introduced a lot of new things over the last year.

Um, what we will cover tonight, I'm going to talk about the community connectors program, Douglas Park discussions, let's talk local budget town halls, block parties, and community classroom sessions.

Um you guys are involved in some of these, so you'll be familiar with a number of these items.

But first I want to introduce you to the team.

So uh going clockwise, we have Shauna Johnson, who is our engagement coordinator.

And then the other four positions are our community connectors.

So we have Susie Avula, Chrisima Butler, Karina McKee, and uh Marcello.

So the community connectors program uh is designed to help bridge the gap between the city and residents and engage them to help increase trust.

Um they help us highlight arising issues and focus on fostering relationships in the community.

We hired three part-time temporary staff members in August of 2024 and then spent about four months really training them on city processes as a full service city.

We felt like it was appropriate to really educate them on the number of initiatives the city does because we do a lot.

A lot.

Some of the special projects they've worked on, we will cover as part of this.

But their next steps are to focus on specific neighborhoods, partnering with the Divert team and local organizations.

We'd really like them to help design an engagement newsletter to keep the residents who've been involved in some of these initiatives up to date on our latest projects and then exploring other communication channels.

So one project that they helped with was the ARPA funded home weatherization grant program.

That is a mouthful.

We partnered with housing and neighborhood services in October, and they helped door knock in areas where residents were eligible for assistance.

This program basically helped lower utility costs for homeowners through insulation and things.

So that is a shameless plug, but I think it's a good example of our departments working together to do something really great.

So just a few stats thus far.

We've connected 125 households to insulation, allocating over 396,000, and then 25 households to HVAC upgrades, which includes more than 300,000.

So you may have heard we had a tornado on Easter.

Following that, luckily, obviously there was minimal impact to residential areas, but uh they did canvas in the neighborhoods most impacted, and they were supplementing the efforts of the Red Cross and public health and human resources.

Uh I mean health services, health, you know what I'm saying, to ensure that people had the resources needed, access to food and other things following that event.

Douglas Park discussion.

So this was in response to community output to council, as you are aware.

Um we held three listening sessions in May and identified priorities that uh residents would like to see in that park, including honoring the history of the park itself.

And they played a big role in helping design those and host those meetings as well.

So next steps on that project, just briefly.

Um, this is really Gabe's thing to talk about, but staff and residents are going to meet regularly and continue to collaborate on solutions for that.

And then they've worked with a number of community partners, so they've been to multiple resource fairs to connect with both organizations and residents, including Unity in the Community, the Source Summit, etc.

And then we'd like to work with them to co-create solutions within neighborhoods that they bring forward.

Okay, let's talk local.

You may be familiar with this one.

Um Let's Talk Local is a monthly meeting hosted by our city council members.

Um, the goal is to encourage constituents to connect with city council representatives through open dialogue and really talk about the things that matter most to them.

I believe we have one coming up in a week or two, if I'm not mistaken.

And uh it really helps proactively address existing participation barriers.

So our goal is to meet people where they're at.

We try purposefully to avoid typically hosting those meetings in city buildings for that reason.

Topics we've covered many, um, but some examples include the Office of Violence Prevention, staffing and recruitment at the Columbia Police Department, the Love Your Block program, federal funding and the arts, recycling, housing, etc., and that continues, and um, I think it's going well.

We've had 10 Let's Talk Locals thus far with over 250 people participating.

Um next steps in that.

We'd really like to survey community members to define future topics for those who we can help narrow down what people are interested in hearing, and explore ways to expand conversations and empower residents.

Okay, this was a fun one.

Um, for the first time this year, we had budget town halls.

Yes, the budget can be fun.

I said that.

Um we hosted a series of budget town halls with our finance director.

So there were several sessions.

Each topic included a daytime session and then an evening session.

Those covered a budget overview, the budget priorities, capital improvement projects, and then ultimately what was proposed in the FY26 budget.

Our goal with this was to walk people through our budgeting process as it was happening and help them get engaged and involved.

We had 110 people participate in that.

We're now starting already to evaluate feedback to determine how to expand that program.

And we would really like to produce a video that explains our budget process to supplement that.

And I apologize, this is a little hard to see, but um just a few quotes we wanted to highlight from the feedback we got uh following those budget town halls.

We heard some really positive things that this was uh really a success in helping people understand that sometimes complex and intimidating process.

This summer, many of you attended our summer block parties.

So we scheduled um summer block parties in the parks that you can see listed here.

We tried to get uh into every single ward, and we saw quite a bit of participation from families.

Um just a few fun stats we wanted to highlight.

Douglas Park guest, we handed out the uh most food in the time allotted we had there.

We had staff dancing with people in attendance, um, kids playing Jenga, and a very intense cornhole match between CPD and uh CFD.

So it was really a great opportunity to get out in the community, talk to people in their local parks, just a casual way to introduce staff to residents, and we did this in response to feedback that we heard at the community summit where people over and over told us they wanted to see block parties.

So, next steps, we would like to tweak this process a little bit.

We want to build on the relationships that we fostered as part of that program, but we really want to pivot and support residents in hosting their own events in their own neighborhoods rather than having city hosted events.

Community classroom sessions.

So we are hosting community classroom sessions, uh trying to do that monthly.

This is a program to educate residents on a number of city services and resources, and we feed people because if you feed people, they will come.

So it's an interactive learning session over lunch.

Those topics have included snow removal, we're gonna do one on fire safety coming up on the holidays.

We've talked about the convention and visitors bureau, non-motorized transit, so just a number of things that we've heard that residents are interested in learning more about.

Um, this is our first year doing that program, so we're kind of gauging turnout, and then we'll pivot based on what people express interest in learning.

And then just to uh wrap things up quickly.

This is just a timeline on sort of the work our office has done over the last year, so you can see when we had the community survey and then the community summit and some of the work we did following that.

So we know that both city leadership, the city manager and council have expressed a desire for increase and improved engagement.

This is really all of these initiatives we talked about today were new this year.

Um, and I look forward to expanding on that and seeing what else people want to learn about.

All right, thank you, Sydney.

You open to a question or if you know.

I'm just kidding, yes, of course.

Does anyone have a uh question or like to make a comment about this report?

I just want to say that to see all of these programs be brand new and already have so much participation, so much engagement and knowledge and awareness for people to know the phrase let's talk local and know what that means.

Uh, that is huge, and that shows so much effort and dedication on the part of you and your department and all of the community connectors, and so thank you so much.

Thank you.

I also just want to note that uh I want to say thank you to both our city council and our city leadership, including department heads.

Um your participation has played a big role in this.

I'm sure our department heads run when they see us coming to ask them to talk about something again.

But we've seen the benefits of it, so I just want to thank staff and council as well.

I just wanted to echo Vera's comments about thank you to you and their team and city staff for helping get all of this together between the let's talk locals and the block parties.

Uh I know you were heavily involved with those, but then Matthew with finance for the budget town halls.

I mean, that was that was informative.

So the but all total quite a list of accomplishments, so thank you.

Good job.

I remember when I not long after I uh came on the council a little over three years ago, uh Be Heard started about that same time.

And I remember having a conversation with DeCarlin that I kind of uh feel bad about now.

I I was kind of critical.

I said it's awfully static.

And he said, Well, yeah.

And all these other things are not.

And I think you know, it's it's fascinating how Beeheard has become just an anticipated thing that people expect to be able to give feedback that way, which I think speaks to its success.

Uh we also didn't mention the Citizens Academy, which has been a huge way for people to uh to get in touch with the city and to understand what's going on.

Uh and so in addition to all these things.

So I think we've we've come a real long way.

I think it indicates a desire on the part of the city uh and the city leadership to to be available to the community, to reach out to the community.

That's one reason I love community connectors so much.

Uh so yeah, wonderful report.

Thank you very much, Sydney.

Thank you.

All right.

We move on to uh public comment.

Uh is there anyone from the public who would like to speak?

Please come to the podium.

Good evening, Tracy Wilson Cleekamp, uh Race Matters Friends.

Um there's a new report out from the Roosevelt Institute.

It's called Building a More Effective Responsive Government.

Lessons learned from the Biden Harris administration.

Um I want to preface this by saying we hold these truths to be self-evident that most of the things mentioned in this report don't have anything to do with being Republican or Democrat.

It has to do with good governance.

And so I wanted to say very quickly that I think it's great that we have community connectors, and I think it's great that you're doing outreach.

I think it's great that you're having these conversations.

We have 130,000 people in Columbia, and if you have 100 people show up for meetings, that ain't much.

Okay?

That's 130,000 people.

Are we reaching people who are experiencing the structural barriers that our governance produces?

That's what I'm interested in.

What does it look like to have meetings that deal with the structural barriers that inhibit our ability to think about policing differently?

For example, what should police be doing, what should they not be doing?

That should be the be the conversation we should have had recently instead of Munchoi inserting himself in a conversation that's not his business and not his prerogative.

What is policing supposed to do?

We have a whole campus full of social scientists who know what that is.

So I'm I'm curious about the ways that we are responding to challenges.

I recommend that you read this report.

The first chapter is relentlessly prioritize bold, resonant and timely policies.

And so what are those relentlessly prioritized resonant and timely policies that we could be discussing as a community, not snowmarule.

I don't think that counts as the top.

But I'm sure we could come up with some other things if we look more deeply at what are the structural barriers that we have that produce violence that produce poverty, and keep us in a segregated way of thinking.

Just food for thought.

I think the community correctors connectors are great.

But if we're not attacking structural barriers as a part of those conversations, it's performative.

Thanks.

Anyone else like to speak tonight?

Come to the podium.

Eugene Elkin 3406 rangeline.

Tonight, three different subjects.

I hope I am able to speak clearly that makes everyone understand what I'm trying to say.

The violence meetings were very important to you in the entire city of Columbia.

As I work with the disabled homeless, I think maybe we're going to have to address that area.

A police officer needs to know what empathy is.

A police officer needs to know how to handle the disabled.

I stand here as a disabled person, and I'm not sure if some individuals have been doing what they should be doing.

It's been said to me more than once, and I've kept my mouth shut.

But sometimes we have to speak some truths if there's any truth to what I'm saying.

There was a type of something on the computer.

It had reference to real Como.com.

And if you were a police officer, you could join this group, and I'm not sure what goes on from there.

But I don't like knowing we have a city chief.

I'm glad she's in the room.

And that she's listening closely.

I don't want to ever hear of a police group operating without the chief knowing what exactly is going on.

This is not good.

And if there's any truth in it, I want it stopped.

Because I've never talked negative about police.

We need them.

How many?

We I ain't pushing numbers.

I'm saying proper discipline will get you a long ways.

If we teach empathy how to handle the homeless, we might find less violence in our city.

These people live a very hard life.

We hope every one of them has success in getting off the street.

I didn't hear if the city gave the 50,000 that the uh county had given for the food.

Since I helped to participate in the bringing of food to Columbia in the 1970s with Ann Carlson who wanted to help the homeless here in the city.

I have over 50 years of reaching out.

I hope tonight that what I'm trying to say is being heard loud and clear.

I'm not accusing anyone of anything but repeating what I'm being told by an individual who opened up to me this week, and he was a person of childhood trauma, and now we have further trauma by the way of the police.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Would anyone else like to speak?

From the public.

Tracy was talking about barriers.

Um barrier I would like for you guys to think about is that I am a very frequent council goer.

I attend a lot of city meetings.

I was one of the 110 people who attended the city budget meetings that Matthew Lou and Sydney were at.

Um I would like to put that the statistics that were um in perspective a little bit.

Um that meant that out of um that one person in every 1,180 community members attended those.

That is not good statistics.

I know that Sydney said that she liked to toot her own horn, but that's not good.

Um just not great.

Um also um as somebody who does attend a lot of meetings.

Um, I have heard at some of the smaller um like the um uh city police review board and stuff like that, that the city staff person has reminded people it's like you've got to say your name, you've got to say your name, you've got to say your name every time you speak.

I remember Rose used to constantly preach that at CPRB.

And that is something that not a single one of you guys do.

Um last city council, pre-city council meeting um when it was being recorded.

That was something that I thought a lot about, and I was thinking a lot about the people at home who do not have your voices memorized, unlike myself, because I am at a lot of m meetings.

Like I can if one of you guys were to call me, I could tell you precisely who it was.

You wouldn't have to do that.

But I want to you to think about out of all the civilians in Columbia, the 130 some thousand of us.

If there's maybe even 200 that could do the same thing, when you guys are speaking and it's being recorded for posterity's sake, for people at home, for people even in the audience who may be blind or who are looking down at their laptop, like our reporters over here.

They, you know, some of them probably do have your voices memorized, but you should be saying every single time.

This is Vera Elward, second ward.

This is Betsy Peters, second or sixth ward.

You should be saying that every single time that you speak, whether it be here in City Council Chambers where there's cameras on you, or whether it be in pre-council chambers where there's only the recording, that should be an ADA accommodation without anybody having to state that it needs to be an ADA accommodation.

Because I need a nod that you guys understand that nods.

Do you understand why that's an ADA accommodation?

Why that's an accessibility issue.

So I want you guys to do better.

I want you to succeed.

I want my community succeeding to succeed.

And unfortunately, I am not seeing succeed, no matter what Sydney just said.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Would anyone else from the public like to speak?

Seeing none, we'll move to uh council comments, and we'll start with Vera.

Thank you.

Um, first I want to thank everyone who um came out to my Let's Talk Local this last week.

Uh it was a large engaged audience.

We had incredible conversation about the Office of Violence Prevention and particularly about the history of that department within Ward 2 and the work that they have done in the neighborhood that we were actively sitting in and speaking about.

Uh it was a great conversation, and it's already led to conversations outside of that event as well.

And a particular thank you to DeMarcus Thomas Brown and to Shauna Johnson for helping put that together and helping facilitate a great conversation.

I also want to point out that next week we have an event coming up in ward two on Thursday the 13th from 4 to 5.

We will have the dedication of a new public art piece, which is our Pollinator Art Pole project along Providence.

Um to attend, you'll park at Grace Bible Church and then kind of walk over to Providence where we will have the dedication for the art polls.

This is a project that hits really close to home, literally and figuratively for a lot of reasons.

The final approval came through the Cultural Affairs Commission while I was on that commission.

It's in Ward 2, it's literally in my neighborhood.

Um it was designed by a local artist, Adrian Luther, with the help of some local elementary school kids in ward two, I think at Parquade Elementary, but I'm not certain.

And so it's going to be a lovely event.

Um, and then finally, um, I wanted to just say how blown away I have been in the last few weeks by the outpouring of community engagement and community um uh excitement is the wrong term, but willing passion, willingness to speak up and raise their voices about how they are feeling about so many of the important issues that are coming in front of council at this meeting and at meetings to come.

I have received more emails in the last week than maybe the rest of my time on council combined.

Um so I apologize if my response is a little slow right now.

Uh your emails are being read, your messages are being read, and your passion and your dedication and your desire to help the neighbors in your community and to help create policies that you see as the best future for your community.

I am really, really taking that to heart.

So please continue reaching out.

Please continue engaging with this process because that is why it is built the way that it is, so we can continue getting that input from you all.

Um so thank you, and you'll get a response from me soon, I promise.

Thank you, Vera Jackie.

On the topic of Let's Talk Local, the next let the next Let's Talk Local is Ward 3, and it is scheduled for um November 18th from 5:30 to 7.

So be watching for information on um location and what that's gonna look like.

So that'll be just the day after our next council meeting, actually.

Um I wanted to give a shout out and uh word of thanks to our Near East No Cap group and DeMarcus who continue to meet in brainstorm on proactive ways.

Um it's basically a bunch of parents and grandparents who are getting together to try to figure out how to engage our youth in proactive ways and keep them safe.

And this last meeting, we actually had an officer join us for the meeting, which was a really great thing to see as being part of that collaborative and supportive effort.

So I'm really excited to see what comes out of this group.

I think it's a wonderful thing.

Um I also wanted to thank just CPD in general.

Um I completed a ride along this weekend on Saturday night from 10 p.m.

to 3 a.m.

And um just you know to see what goes on, it's a lot of things.

Um of the things I wanted to share, I think it's important for the public to be aware of.

Um there's been lots of talk about the jaywalking tickets and things like that.

Um I understand that this is a college town, and at night, sometimes college kids do not make the best decisions, um, but there really is a lot of people darting out in traffic in front of moving vehicles, and so it's happening.

So there is increased compliance, and there were lots of uh shout-outs and words of thank you to the people who did appropriately use crosswalks, so that was great to see and hear and witness.

But it's still an issue.

Um there are just as a word too, I've received some phone calls about the a helicopter or a plane circling around downtown, and people, some people were upset with the noise because it was keeping them awake, and other people were worried that something was happening happening.

And so just as an FYI, that is um support that is being provided by the Missouri Highway Patrol to help with observing the area.

So that's what that is.

Um of the other things, and this has come up before in different meetings, and it happened during my ride along, is there are several very young children who are downtown in the middle of the night, midnight, 1 a.m.

I'm talking 13, 14, 15-year-old, not with a parent.

And um, so I this is just a general request to the adults in the community to be thinking about other ways we can, or there are other opportunities for safe social agent socialization options for the children in our community because walking downtown at 1 a.m.

Um is not necessarily the safest place for these children to be because they are children.

Um additionally, we have been piloting the um reserved Uber Lyft pickup spots.

One thing I noticed this weekend is that people are parking in those spots, and so then Uber and Lyft can't actually utilize them, um, which makes it difficult, well, because they can't utilize them.

So that leads to Uber and Lyft stopping in the middle of the street and people running out into the street to get into their rides, which again creates some hazards.

So just a general ask for people to look for those red bags and signs on the parking meters that if it's mentioned for the Uber and Lyft, please don't park there because there's a reason those are blocked.

And to our drivers, thank you for getting people home safely, but please don't stop in the middle of the street and make people dart out.

Um and people using it, don't dart out, go to the pickup spot and stay on the sidewalks.

Um, that's my soapbox for this weekend.

Um of the things that we approved on consent was for an event at my house.

Um, which I again I'm I'm supportive of our community providing events.

Um that was an area again when establishments the bar, not your house.

No, not my house.

The bar downtown, not my house.

Nothing on consent about my house.

Thank you for that.

Um it's confusing.

It is confusing.

Um it closes, there is this throng of people.

And again, I feel like I've said sidewalks 15 times already.

They rush into the road and it takes a lot of attention from CPD.

They literally have to go park cars and direct traffic because people are not staying on the sidewalk.

So I guess that's my message tonight, really.

Um please stay on the sidewalks.

Um, and so along that vein, um, later this month, we are going to be the next meeting, we're going to be talking about the pedestrian safety ordinance.

And I know I've received a lot of emails on this.

I've received, I've had conversations and communication with people.

Um I have lots of questions.

Um, and I just wanted to talk, just introduce that because obviously we didn't talk about it tonight.

We're not voting on it.

Um, one of the things I want to make sure that as a council that we are considering when we're talking about the pedestrian safety ordinance, that we are addressing all parts of pedestrian safety.

It's not just about occupying medians.

It's about making sure that we are allocating money in our budget to fix and build sidewalks and repairing the well, I said fixing sidewalks, repairing the curb cuts and the crumbling maintenance on there, having accessible pedestrian signals and intersections, making sure that our uh police department is funded to the point where they can afford to have a traffic unit to enforce speed violations, which is a huge danger to pedestrians.

Um protected bike lanes, traffic calming measures, improved public transit.

So as we're talking about pedestrian safety, we do need to keep all of those things in mind.

And we do have public works respond or gave me some information today.

We are using $250,000 dedicated to traffic calming, three million dedicated to traffic safety, 4.1 million dedicated to sidewalks over 10 years.

Um but there's always more we can do.

So just keeping that in mind as we're talking about pedestrian safety.

It's not just about medians.

On that note, and I know that the pedestrian safety has been discussed long before I was on this council.

And I recognize that and I observed and listened to lots of those meetings.

But one of the questions I guess I had was a process issue.

Um like I said, we're getting comments and emails from the public.

I am unsure as to why we have not engaged formal formally with our commissions that directly address this.

Um and specifically, let me pull up my list here.

I have a separate folder.

Um I'm gonna take full ownership because the draft report came out in June and I didn't request it at that time.

So I I now recognize that that would have been a good time for me to request it, and I missed that opportunity.

But I do remain concerned that we haven't, as a council, asked for and received input from people who we have appointed to discuss these things, including PTAC, Disabilities Commission, Bike Ped, and even the Commission on Human Rights.

Um so my question is I don't want to delay a vote, but I also really want the endpoint for input from those commissions.

And so I'm wondering at this point if we can if it's possible for us to discuss that as a council on um asking for that input or moving forward without that input.

I want to ask this question now.

Yeah, if I can.

I'm looking at to Carlin to see.

I don't know whether you and or Nancy would want to respond to that.

Well, I think I think if the I mean that becomes part of the council discussion.

I mean, right now it's on the agenda for approval at the next council meeting.

But if the conversation is we'd like to get additional information or additional input, then uh all it takes is a vote of the council to do that.

It will table it until we get that input in.

But are you saying we need to vote for that at the next meeting, or is that something we can vote for now?

It would it wouldn't be at if you're gonna table it any further, it would come up the next meeting because it's not on your agenda tonight.

That has to occur at the time that it comes back up.

Um, we can vote to send it to commissions tonight and table it because we haven't gotten that response at the next meeting, correct?

You could take it up for tabling, but until the vote occurs, you won't know for sure if it's going to obviously be tabled.

And we won't be able to vote on that until the next meeting.

Correct.

Now the problem with your board and commissions is that they're not gonna all meet but in the next two weeks, obviously, and the ability to get a report back to you would be or turn one around that quickly would be um difficult.

Right.

Yeah, I recognize it would most likely delay the vote.

But I I do think this is an important discussion.

Um and I selfishly would like their input, but I that's why I wanted to kind of talk about it tonight so we could see the I saw your hand up.

I did I know I'm I'm sort of at a loss as to whether we're discussing it tonight or we're waiting to table it at the next meeting.

I guess the question is how urgent you think this is to do.

So if you want to delay it, we're talking about six months of delay, I think.

You know, maybe four months.

So it's just a matter of how much you want to delay it and if you think it's really gonna change the information that you've already gotten from the numerous emails we've all received.

I I value the input of our appointed commissioners.

And I think that each of those commissions that I have listed would bring um a perspective that's maybe the same as responses we've already received, but also allow them as appointed commissioners to do that deep dive into the information and advise us.

I think it's valuable input.

Well, I just want to be sure about what our options might be here.

I don't if I understand, Nancy, we really can't take action on this tonight because it's not this item is not on our agenda, but that could be done at the next meeting in between now and then, you know, there could be some groundwork done uh in terms of that individual council members could reach out or and get some of that input from some of the members of those commissions if you like, right?

And or reach out to one another in that case or speak to the city manager and but that would be members of the commission.

That wouldn't be a commission report.

That's right.

I'm not saying I'm saying just to get their input about what they might want to do.

Oh, I think.

In other words, there are conversations that can take place between now and when we meet next time that would that I think would uh uh help to move that conversation along when we get to council.

I had a brought it up, so I mean we can discuss it for a while, but it again we can't make a decision for two weeks.

So it gives us time to talk to your constituents or whatever.

I maybe I had a different interpretation of what you said, Nancy.

I thought we could move to request reports with the understanding that they might not be here in two weeks.

But we could go ahead and at least notify the boards and commissions we would like your input, and then in two weeks we can have the conversation of how that input and or the understanding that two weeks was not enough time for them to give us that input affects our ability to vote.

Just because if we can take that step, that eliminates two additional weeks of waiting at the end of the process.

You could.

Yeah, you could you could go ahead and vote to to send it to either our certain boards and commissions for for feedback and then in two weeks decide that you want to move forward and without that feedback as well.

I mean, I think it I think that's the challenge that you're facing is do you want to do that and then not know whether or not you are going to actually um table it.

So the reports would be contingent on the tabling of the issue, I think, right?

Pardon me?

Because it'd be the reports would be contingent on our uh tabling, but the um request to go to them and say in view of possible tabling of this, we would want to get these reports from you.

I would very much like to hear not only from the disabilities commission, but if they'll take it up to have a discussion at CATSO.

Um, several of the conclusions on the um pedestrian safety report um spoke about the construction of medians and of roadways and most of the intersections discussed are on um MODOT controlled roads.

Um I think a limitation that we have is that we need to bring attention to MODOT of the safety at these intersections.

Um I would like that to be discussed at that level as well.

Would CATSO be do you know if Catso would be willing to have that discussion?

I'm looking at the Trevor Burrus, we could ask them for any input they might want to put it in.

I think that I mean you know it's I mean Castle's um It's our regional planning body, and so they do the planning aspects.

Um looking at I I don't know what I don't know.

So I can ask the question.

I mean the biggest thing.

We can request it or I'm I'm the chair of the board of the council committee, so but really talking to staff to really talk about what you know what are some of the things that it's not something that we would normally discuss at CASL.

How do we bring up the need for projects because I have heard at CATSO meetings discussion of future projects with the city and with MODA.

For maintenance issues, CATSO is not the place to go.

So if you're talking about maintenance of MODOT roadways, it's actually having the conversation with MODOT Direct, and we meet with them on a regular basis.

And so those are conversations that we can have and that we do have.

So yeah, so I mean I'm in favor of requesting reports from boards.

Um if if this motion is not tabled, I understand we'd be asking them to do something that we're not necessarily going to be able to utilize.

But um, if it is tabled, that does cut two weeks off of our timeline.

I don't know if any of these are meeting before.

That was going to be my question.

I'm not sure if anybody's meeting before our next council meeting.

The disabilities commission does.

So that's probably the only one.

That's maybe the only one.

I know PTAP meets after I meeting, and I'm not sure about bike and pet.

Um The other was human rights.

Yeah, human rights.

Were we asking for a report from it in these groups, or are we just asking for their input?

Input.

Some might choose to do a report.

But I think any they could write a letter, they could choose not to give a report.

I think just saying we would like their professional input, act in their advisory capacity.

Okay.

Do we need to do I need to make a motion for that?

Or do we have a question?

Any guidance on what that motion might look like, Nancy?

Um I think you'd want to designate which boards and commissions specifically that you're looking at at.

But yes, it would take a motion.

Okay.

So I make a motion that we request reports in the advisory capacity from P TAC, Disabilities Commission, Bike Ped, and Commission on Human Rights regarding the pedestrian safety ordinance.

Right.

Oh.

Speaking to that, to that bill, right?

Because we're calling it this ordinance, and that's not even in the title of it.

So I just want to be specific.

Okay.

So we're requesting their input on B 26525.

I would second that.

All right.

Seconded by Bureau.

Sheila voice vote phone.

May I just clarify because I think your original motion said a report, and then you said then that at the end you said requesting their input.

So is the motion to request input in the sorry, I'm this debate tomorrow morning at the staff level.

Well, what would what would your recommendation be?

Well, I think from for most boards and commissions, uh some sort of input and leaving it more flexible is better.

Advised because a lot of them when they do a report will actually meet the first time and they'll discuss it.

They may bring folks in the next time and then they develop a report.

And you could be uh four to six months down the road before you actually get a report back because they want to bring it back for the entire board to to review and vote on the contents of the report.

So are we allowed to put timelines on report returning back to us?

You mean input?

Input.

Yes.

You can, but if they can't get it back or turn it around in that time period, then you just probably wouldn't get anything.

We can ask for it and see what.

I mean, I think you know they're they're independent of the you know, they they really report to us, but they're doing this, generating a lot of that on their own.

So I think just asking for their input on that in view of the potential um potential tabling of of the matter would be a good way to go.

And it really needs to be reflective of what their board and commission role is as a part of uh their assigned duties, not necessarily a global view.

So that like the Disabilities Commission should be providing their feedback on the ordinance as it relates to impact on the disabilities community.

If that makes sense.

Yeah, absolutely.

Okay.

Do we do we have the motion in a I think I need to amend it for based on the language?

I didn't have for word for word.

You don't have it, you don't have it.

Do you want to try again then, Jackie?

Let's be sure we're doing what we're asking for.

So I make a motion that we ask.

I make a motion that the following commissions provide us input on B 265-25.

The commissions would be P TAC, Disabilities Commission, Bike PED, and commission commission on human rights.

We want to say we request input, not that they have to give us input.

We request input.

Sheila, do you have it?

Yeah, that's fine.

Okay.

I second that.

All right.

I suppose a voice vote is enough.

All those in favor say aye.

I think.

Anyone of those say no?

No.

Okay.

Anything else, Jack?

No, I'm good.

Thank you very much.

Don.

No comments tonight.

Right.

Betsy.

No comments.

Well, that brings it to me.

I do want to mention a few things really quickly.

We saw at the beginning of the meeting tonight.

Oh.

Sorry.

Valerie.

I didn't know if you were going to let me go afterwards or if you were taking the last spot as pro tem.

You know what?

You're actually not in my list.

So there you go.

Oh my goodness.

But you're there.

So what do you have to tell us for the first time?

That's where we are.

Um I just wanted to draw attention to the agenda item.

We had allocating $50,000 to the food bank.

Um this is somewhat in response to the um government shutdown affecting SNAP programs.

I'd also like to identify that schools, CPS schools are out tomorrow.

And I have heard from at least my elementary school that there will be for elementary students, lunch sacks at Lincoln and Unity Park, as well as food available at food bank locations and markets.

And I I'm thankful that our city is able to allocate additional resources.

Thank you, Valerie.

My apologies.

And I'm glad you mentioned that about the ARPA money.

That's really important right now.

We at the beginning of the meeting tonight, we recognized one of our police officers for meritorious service, and I think that's uh really appropriate in light of this past week.

We recognize National First Responders Day on October the 28th.

There was a press release about this.

And when we think of first responders, we some of those some folks come to mind immediately, and police fire EMTs and so forth.

But the press release also mentioned public works, and uh I was glad that it did.

And in fact, as I was thinking about that and the fact that often the people in public works, especially in terms of uh storm damage and that kind of thing, they're they're among the first to show up, if not the first, and among the last to leave on those those kinds of occasions.

Uh beyond that, I think that everybody on sit in on the city staff could become a first responder, depending on what that what that is.

And I think that uh I would trust that they would whenever uh there is that need.

But I just wanted to draw uh attention to that.

Um then one other thing, I had the opportunity this week to um go to the opportunity campus and to get a preview look at what that's going to look like.

Um I was impressed and encouraged by what I saw there.

I also had a conversation, and and their anticipation is that they will open, they'll open the uh resource center for VAC in March and then they'll open the uh shelter in June.

Um I had a conversation this week with a friend who we were discussing what it looks like to have success among uh unsheltered people in particular, but homeless people uh overall.

And she suggested that there is a spectrum of success.

Uh success looks different for every individual person.

I think that's true for all of us, but for people who are homeless, especially those who are unsheltered.

Um at the end is their measuring success by the number of people they keep out of the cold overnight, and especially if they keep anyone from freezing to death overnight.

And the same kind of thing applying in the summer when the weather is really hot.

Uh but then all the way to everyone I know who works in this area has one goal in mind, and that is to uh stabilize people and then to get them into stable shelter in particular.

And there are successes in our community.

Over the last three months, according to Boone County Coalition and homelessness data for in during August, September, and October, there were at least 42 households that were housed.

Uh that's a significant number.

And it's a number that's especially impressive when you look at the lack of housing that we have and the limitations that we have in terms of what's available for folks.

So I'm encouraged by that, uh, encouraged by the work that's being done uh among those who are struggling in our community, and I think it's important to lift those people up from time to time.

Right.

It moves to staff comments.

Anything from Nancy or to Carlin tonight?

No.

Carlin?

No, I don't have anything.

Thank you.

Oh wow, I you had me teed up.

I thought you were also No, I think Sydney gave a presentation about you know what we've been doing for engagement.

And no, for the longest time, we really didn't engage our citizens.

We kind of talked to our citizens or talked at our citizens, but not to our citizens.

And in the last few years, I think we've really made an effort as a staff to actually talk to our citizens.

We want to hear people's thoughts.

We want to make sure that when we talk about our budget, people understand what's in our budget and why our budget is.

And the work that our Sydney staff has been doing to actually make those connections.

No, it's invaluable.

When we talk about the community connectors, the fact that they were able to go into a neighborhood and talk to people about how to better weatherize your house and provide that access to those funds is something that a lot of cities aren't able to do.

And that's the reason why we actually got the word from the from MML.

So I'll do another shameless plug.

And we now have a waiting list for people who want to be in that academy.

And we're trying to figure out different ways to actually expand that program.

So we expanded it with the OSHA program to make sure that we can talk to some of our older citizens so they understand our processes.

We had a youth academy, so we talked to young kids about the academy so we can help them understand how our government operates.

And so this mission of engagement is something that we take seriously.

And we want to make sure that we're creating processes where citizens feel like they're involved in what we do and they understand why we do it and what we do.

And so I just want to say that because I think there's a lot of, well, you're not doing enough, but we're doing more than we did last year.

And as we continue to grow our programs, we'll do even more next year.

Thank you to Carlin.

Anything, Sheila?

With that, good night.