No microphones working.

2026 uh Columbia City Council meeting to order.

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

And to the Republic for what we should say.

One nation under liberty and justice for we please call roll.

Miss Elwood.

Here.

Ms.

Sample?

Here.

Mr.

Foster.

Here.

Mr.

Waterman.

Here.

Miss Peters.

Here.

Miss Buffalo.

Here.

Miss Carroll.

Here.

All right.

Well, good evening.

Just a quick introduction to Columbia City Council meetings.

Our council agendas, items that are currently listed under consent agenda.

There's not normally a presentation on those items, and there's not opportunity for public comment.

For items that are listed under introduction and first read, if they have an asterisk, they would be on consent agenda at the next one unless they are polled.

Items that do not have a consent or an asterisk on them under intro and first read would be on old business at the next council meeting.

I ask that because sometimes we've had people sit in the audience until the very end, not knowing that they weren't going to talk on an issue.

So pay attention to that point now.

Now the public have multiple opportunities to speak at Columbia City Council meetings.

You can speak under public hearing, old business, new business portions of the agenda.

I do remind people to keep their remarks to the legislation being discussed, because at the end of the council meeting, you can talk about whatever you want to talk about within decencies for three minutes.

So three minutes if you're an individual in the legislation, you can request five minutes if you're a business or organization affected by the legislation.

I do ask for you to make contact with me so that I can make sure that Lacey and Peyton set the right timer for you to know how long you're left.

I do ask people that we respect this.

We respect we ah, sorry, we would do these rules so that as many people can speak that want to speak.

I ask that people avoid demonstrations that can intimidate your neighbors from speaking at council meetings.

We can address issues, not individuals, and that includes no attacks on staff or each other.

Disruptions would be addressed with a warning and if necessary, removal.

Now, up next on our agenda, we have our minutes.

So I'll make a motion for um the January 20th, 26 regular meeting minutes to be approved.

Do I have a second?

Second.

I'm gonna say Vera on that one.

Uh all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

All those opposed?

All right.

And we're still working on the February 2nd, which was a five-hour meeting.

So thank you, Sheila, for doing those minutes.

Um there is a typographical error on our agenda that B 3926 was listed as R 3926 under intro and first read.

Um, so we are going to correct that.

So I'll make a motion um to correct the agenda so that R 3926 is changed to B3926.

Uh, do I have a second?

Okay.

Seconded by Betsy.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

All right.

Are there any other changes to the agenda?

Seeing none, I'll make a motion to approve the agenda with your correction uh to the build number listed under intro and first read from R 3926 to Bill 3926.

Do I have a second?

Second.

Seconded by Nick Foster.

All those in favor as the agenda is amended, say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

All right.

Special item.

So up next we have a special item, so I'll ask police chief Jill Schlute to please join me at the podium.

That'd be great.

Would the officers who are receiving awards if you're present, would you come up here and stand with us, please?

I'll start a hand in the air.

Actually, I'll read this and then we'll handle it.

So this is one of my favorite things that I get to do as the chief.

And um, you know, we encounter a lot of situations every day that require good decision making on the part of a lot of people.

Um sometimes some divine intervention and then just good old-fashioned police work.

And I think all three were probably apparent in this case.

So many of you might have seen that back on December 24th of 2025.

Uh, we were requested to help search for a missing four-year-old boy in Sturgeon, Missouri.

So extremely cold this particular night, uh, 18 to 14 degrees, there was actually snow on the ground at this time.

And we became aware that the Sheriff's Department was looking for this boy in Sturgeon.

And so although he's not getting a specific award, I'm gonna brag on Lieutenant Bound if he would go ahead and come up here so I can publicly embarrass him as well.

You know, Anthony got promoted just this past year, and so if you don't know how we view things, lieutenants of the police department are kind of like the mini police chief.

So Lieutenant Bound's responsible for the entire city of Columbia's police operations when he's on shift at night.

And that's a pretty big job sometimes.

And so as a new lieutenant, we're asking him to make a lot of resource allocation decisions, call balls and strikes.

He's kind of a uh air traffic controller at times with calls, and so on this particular night, uh, he and the sergeants there made the correct decision to go ahead and send almost all the resources in the city up to Sturgeon.

Um, and that was because we thought that this was such a dire situation.

I a person, an adult can't survive outside for too awful long in those conditions, must just a four-year-old.

So we arrived in Sturgeon, all these folks up here with me, and they began searching.

And so they knew where the boy had left from the residents, but he had a decent head start on everyone, and the sheriff's department and other surrounding agencies have been looking for some time.

And if you haven't seen the video, I would encourage you to go find it.

It's on our uh Facebook page.

Uh it actually got, I think the most views of anything we've ever posted on social media because people were just so I think encouraged by seeing some good news and the fact that it was such great police work and such a great outcome.

So I'm happy to say when we go viral for those reasons, it it makes my job a lot easier and makes me very proud.

Uh eventually, specifically, um, I'm gonna call out Officer Alvarado, if you would come up and stand here closer to me.

So this is Officer Tristan Alvarado, and he was involved in the search heavily and actually of all places found this young boy in hiding in the bottom of a stroller uh in front of the daycare that he attended.

Um if you watch the video, I it's very emotional to watch.

I'm gonna warn you.

I I've watched a lot of police videos and I got emotional watching it.

Um he calls out that he found the boy, several officers come over.

They actually have to kind of cut him out of the bottom of the stroller because he's just huddled in there uh cold, just trying to take refuge in there.

And then as they they get him out, you just see the officers just without missing a beat, just start taking their coats off, wrapping him up, trying to get him warm to make sure they can get him to some medical attention, and he does go to the hospital.

So I want to express my appreciation to Officer Alvarado, he's actually re receiving the life saving award tonight.

Here is your plaque and your pen.

And all these other folks up here that assisted are receiving a commendable performance ribbon.

And and that's because all of the folks up here helped with this search.

They didn't give up.

This went on for several hours.

They didn't give up, they're out in the cold looking for him, and they all worked really well together to try to have a good outcome.

And so for that reason, all the other officers up here are receiving a commendable firms of ribbon.

Officer Alvy, Officer Doster, Officer Hammond, Officer Landrit, Officer Payne, Officer Robertson, Officer Sayre, Officer Simmons, Colin Simmons, and Officer Jake Waldrop.

Thank you so much for being here.

Thanks to these officers for the screen.

Thank you so much.

And Jill, thank you for making the time to make sure that we could recognize.

Appreciate that.

All right, moving on in the city council agenda.

Up next, we have appointments to boards and commissions.

Members of the public have multiple opportunities to serve the City of Columbia.

We have over 50 boards and commissions and appreciate their input into civic organization.

So moving on, we have a few applicants and a few appointments to make.

So up first for the Building Construction Codes Commission, F agreeable, we have one applicant, Joseph Kirby that can be appointed as the alternate professional engineer, uh, experienced and structural civil member, unless there's any objections.

No objections.

All right.

Moving on.

For the Commission on Cultural Affairs, we have two applicants for one vacancy.

So Sheila, will you please call roll?

Miss Elwood.

Jamie Sheppers.

Ms.

Sample.

Jamie Shepard's.

Mr.

Foster.

Jamie Shepard's.

Mr.

Waterman.

Jamie Shepherds.

Ms.

Peters.

Jamie Shepers.

Miss Buffalo.

Jamie Shepers.

Miss Carroll.

Jamie Sheppers.

All right.

Thank you and appointed.

All right.

And then for the Human Rights Commission, we have two, we have three vacancies and two applicants.

So if there's no objection, both Mary Davis and Joseph Jeffries can be appointed if there's no objection.

No objection.

Okay.

Up next for the Food Council.

We do have four applicants for three openings.

So Sheila, we please call roll on the first opening.

They'll all have the same term expiration of February 2029.

Ms.

Elwood.

Adam Saunders.

Ms.

Sample.

Adam Saunders.

Mr.

Foster.

Adam Saunders.

Mr.

Waterman.

Adam Saunders.

Ms.

Peters.

Adam Saunders.

Mr.

Bu or Miss Buffalo.

Adam Saunders.

Miss Carroll.

Adam Saunders.

Adam's been appointed.

For the next vacancy?

Ms.

Elwood.

Shannon Daly.

Ms.

Sample.

Shannon Daly.

Mr.

Foster.

Shannon Daly.

Mr.

Waterman.

Shannon Daly.

Ms.

Peters.

Michael Heavener.

Ms.

Buffalo.

Shannon Daly.

Miss Carroll.

Shannon Daly.

Shannon's been reappointed.

And the third and final vacancy.

Ms.

Elwood.

Tish Johnson.

Ms.

Sample.

Tish Johnson.

Mr.

Foster.

Ms.

Johnson.

Mr.

Waterman.

Tish Johnson.

Ms.

Peters.

Michael Havner.

Miss Buffalo.

Fish Johnson.

Miss Carroll.

Ms.

Johnson.

She has been reappointed.

All right.

Moving on to parking advisory commission.

We have one vacancy and one applicant.

So if there's no objection, uh William Moyes can be appointed.

No objection.

All right.

And then similarly for the Public Transit Advisory Commission, we have four vacancies and two applicants.

So if there's no objection, uh Joseph Facto and Bri Mink will be appointed.

No objection.

All right.

Yeah, and as a reminder, on Wednesday, you should see the openings for additional vacancies available.

So if you're interested in serving on our board or commission, I encourage you to check those out.

All right, now on to the rest of the agenda.

Scheduled public comment.

So members of the public can contact the city manager's office by 5 p.m.

on the Monday, one week one week prior to today tonight's city council meeting to schedule five-minute public comments.

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

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

So tonight we have two scheduled public comments, so I'd like to first ask Rhanda Rollins to please come forward to speak.

Good evening.

My name is Randa Rollins.

I'm a proud resident of the City of Columbia Ward 5.

I am also the chair of the Airport Advisory Board.

I just started my third term on the board.

Thank you for your approval of that.

And my second year as the chair of the board.

That report was sent to you, and then a corrected report was emailed to you by May by email.

So I'm not going to repeat the items that are in the report, but just make a couple of comments.

First, we have an engaged board who adds value to the operation of the airport by meeting regularly, hearing reports from the airport manager, and providing input as we represent a variety of interests in the city.

So when we talk about boards and commissions, if you want to use ours as an example, it would be a good one.

We have a small yet dedicated staff that operates the airport.

They do an incredible job, particularly in the winter when the weather conditions are really challenging.

As the airport continues the growth that we already know about, and hope that we will continue to have uh staff will need to be increased, and I know that the city manager and the airport manager are working on that.

I have come to learn in the last few years that airlines are very difficult to work with.

They can string us along without making commitments, and then expect that we can magically handle whatever they decide on their timeline.

Our airport manager is very patient and has developed incredibly helpful relationships with the network planners at the various airlines.

I am certain that I would not be as patient as he has been.

I share this because it requires you as the city council to be flexible and sometimes act on short notice at times, not because of our side, but because of the unexpected and sometimes last-minute announcements and requirements by the airlines.

So what I really wanted to say to you tonight was thank you to the council and to the city manager for being willing to be flexible with the support that you have provided with the many changes that have occurred in the last year and the many changes that will come in 2026.

Please continue to work collaboratively collaboratively with the city manager and the airport manager as the growth of our airport continues.

It is an economic driver for our city as well as providing great services to our citizens and the surrounding area.

I've used it a couple of times myself in the last few days.

Lastly, I would I would be remiss if I did not put in a plug for Mike Parks, our airport manager.

I observe his work on a regular base basis, and it is a pleasure to work with him.

I have worked with many people uh in my career over the years, and he is one of the best.

He is smart, he is organized, he is patient, and most importantly, he gets things done.

We would not be where we are with our airport without him.

Thank you for your time this evening.

Your report that I provided ends with my email address.

I'd be happy to have any questions or comments that you would like to send to me.

Thank you.

Thank you, Randy.

Thank you for your service too.

I now I'd like to ask Jordan Lundy to come forward to speak.

Thank you, Mayor.

Greetings, esteemed representatives.

My name is Jordan Lundy.

I've been living here in Columbia for 20 years.

I work as a video and lighting professional and have been paying my bills doing that.

Uh it's taken some work sometimes.

I've worked for CBS, ESPN, MSNBC, Fox Sports, Ridezillas, George Strait and Reba, the Columbia Business Times, and Ross Production Services, as well as over 100 other independent film and media projects.

I've taught at both Mizzou and Stevens College.

All that to say, I've gained a little experience over the years.

Vidwest Studios is an open door to small businesses to build their brand and to build their model.

Almost nothing exists without video and graphic content these days.

That includes books, music, and recorded audio.

Word of mouth is great and beneficial, but it doesn't have the reach that websites and reels do.

This isn't going to change.

This is a requirement for businesses.

If a small business adds the cost of a camera, lenses, a subscription to be able to manipulate the video, audio, microphones, all of that, and their regular business needs, that business is not going to be successful.

If a not-for-profit has to spend their grant money on all of those things instead of fulfilling their vision, it is not going to succeed.

Midwest offers training, professional help, connections, space to grow, and support to small businesses and not for profits.

Since then, we've done live streams at many different places, encouraging the local art scene, encouraging those places to be able to show off their talents and show off their benefits to the community.

We've done broadcast fundraisers for Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture, Access Arts, and the Missouri Symphony.

We helped Rag Tag figure out how to safely have films for the public to see during lockdown.

We worked with the law school at Mizzou and with the Holiday Inn Executive Center to figure out how to have symposiums for professional development that people were not allowed to attend.

At request, we live stream the Missouri bicentennial outside the Capitol building.

We took all our gear down there and plugged it in and got it done.

We live streamed a panel for the Missouri Supreme Court justices of the Missouri Historical Society.

We were very early on the scene during the pandemic when a lot of not-for-profits and a lot of small businesses were trying to figure out how to get their story to a locked down crowd.

They couldn't meet in public.

But they could have video and audio to tell their story.

There's a lot of technical knowledge that is needed in terms of signals, resolutions, cameras, lenses, settings, cabling, setup, angles, human interest, audio, microphones, you name it, it's got to get plugged in for that signal to get through.

We teach workshops on all of those.

We provide support for all of those things.

We answer questions to educate those around us.

We help guide for the best solutions for resources and energy on crafting the best option for engagement on our community.

What I tell people is the work we do is creative problem solving.

Stories never going away.

It's part of our species.

It is our history, and it's our legacy.

Midwest commitment to help the community should not be overlooked.

Thank you for your time tonight.

Thank you, Jordan.

All right, moving on to public hearing.

Our first one is public hearing two twenty-six.

So, Sheila, will you please read public hearing two twenty-six?

Public hearing 226 is the proposed construction of the old plank road culvert structure project.

Do we have a staff report?

Yes.

Uh good evening.

Uh my name is Shane Creech, and I'm the public works director.

Lee White, the assistant director of public works, is with me tonight.

Um there we go.

Uh this project would replace three 66-inch corrugated metal culverts near the intersection of Old Plank Road, Forum Boulevard, and Plank Way with a single opening arch structure.

The existing culverts were built in 1986, and uh 2020 um structural inspection determined that the culverts were approximately 90 percent rusted through.

The city applied for MODOC grant funds through their regional bridge program and have received a little over 280,000 for the project.

The culverts will be replaced with a single opening 24-foot by six-foot arch structure.

This provides modern flow capacity better than what is out there today.

An interested parties meeting was held on November 13th.

10 residents attended the meeting, and one comment was received, which was included in your packet.

The total project cost estimate is $620,000.

The city's portion of that cost is expected to be approximately $337,000 with funding coming from the capital improvement sales tax.

We're happy to answer any questions you might have.

Any questions from council of staff of the project?

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

Would anyone from the public wish to speak on the proposed construction of the old plank road culvert?

You can come up to the podium here, please.

And ask the question of us, and then we can ask it of staff if it's of them.

Um I'm from Creek Ridge, which is the closest subdivision to that.

Do you mind saying your name?

I'm Paul Wagner, sorry.

Thank you.

And um the question we have is um uh where would they park?

Because it's real hard to get into our subdivision if they start parking near it.

Second is uh is there any collateral damage?

And the third one is how long is it gonna take?

All right, we will ask those questions.

Thank you.

Anyone else from the public wish to ask questions or speak to on the proposed construction of Old Plank Road?

Seeing none, I'll go ahead and close the public comment.

Shane, I think you heard the questions, but if you want to speak to, I can repeat what I heard.

I will attempt to respond and you tell me if I missed something.

Thank you.

Um first I'll kind of tell you a little bit about uh schedule from here if you were to approve tonight.

Um we're currently going through um the NEPA process.

That's the um the clearances that we need to do work basically in the in the in the stream itself.

We hope to clear through that in April.

Um we have to submit plan final plans to MODOT and get their approval.

So that'll probably happen in May.

And so we would probably attempt to bid the project in June.

Um and so we're looking at a notice to proceed probably sometime in October or November.

Um the project will would require a temporary road closure.

Um we would detour down Route K.

Um.

And then but the plank way, which you see on your screen there, um would be open from the forum side at all times.

So that just kind of gives you an idea of how the how the project would work.

As far as as far as parking, um there would there would be a closure.

We'd make sure there was no impact to people getting in and out.

Um he's a hundred percent correct.

The where the culverts are is awfully close to well, it's right where you see it on the screen.

Um as far as collateral damage, um we don't we don't anticipate anything, anything that was negatively impacted as part of the project that we didn't anticipate would be our responsibility to uh to correct.

Um I think that was it.

Time frame.

October time uh yeah, once it starts in October, how long would that be?

That was what I meant to do five months.

Four to five months total, but we'll have about two to three months there where we'll we'll probably have it closed so we can we can do that work and we'll and we'll have a detour down Route K.

Okay.

And if anyone has any additional questions, you can probably take emails if they wanted to send it to you for the public works.

Most certainly.

Okay.

Other questions that came to council on this one.

Okay.

All right.

Um Sheila.

Would you guys not look at this?

Um I'll make a motion to approve the construction of the old plank road culvert.

Do I have a second?

Second.

From Betsy.

Um, all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Okay.

Great.

Thank you.

All right.

All right, moving on.

Our next public hearing, public hearing three.

So public hearing three twenty-six, she will you please read that and the accompanying Bill 3526.

Public hearing 326 is in consideration of approval of a rev revised plan for basketball court improvements associated with phase two construction at Douglas Park.

Council Bill 3526 is an ordinance approving a revised plan for construction of basketball court improvements associated with phase two construction at Douglas Park and fixing the time when this ordinance shall become effective second reading.

Do we have a staff report?

Yes, thank you, Mayor.

Gabe Huffington, Parks and Recreation Director.

Tonight we'll talk a little bit about a revised plan for the Douglas basketball courts associated with our phase two construction project that has been ongoing.

Um a little bit of project history as we have a couple new city council members.

In uh November of 2023, City Council approved a capital project at Douglas Park to proceed um through the parks and recreation department.

This included skate park expansion, pool improvements, and then also basketball court renovations.

The basketball court improvements included painting two of the courts with the University of Missouri Tiger theme and recognition for Coach Willie Cox on one of the courts.

The approved project in 2023 included this rendering of the courts.

So one court was black with the Mizzou Tiger logo, the other court was gold with Mizzou Tiger logo.

When staff was getting ready to proceed with this project in spring of 2025, we posted on social media about the court closure.

This generated significant feedback from our community related to the courts.

And so at the February 17th, 2025 meeting, uh multiple citizens spoke about the project, and staff and city council discussed um some next steps.

Council directed staff to um review the project, look at how we can gather additional public input, and then evaluate alternate court designs.

So at the May 5th, 2025 City Council meeting, staff provided City Council with a report outlining our next steps and how we look at the court design and then also some engagement related to Douglas Park.

So our plan that we conducted throughout the month of May included three meetings about specifically the basketball court project, but it also um kind of went into Douglas Park and a lot of different infrastructure questions, programming, um, public safety, different things that um we needed to speak about Douglas Park.

We held three meetings um during the last week of May, one in the evening, one during the day, and one on a Saturday uh at the Ark in City Hall.

And then also as we went through this process of gathering this feedback, our community connectors passed out questionnaires at the park and other locations to gather some additional citizen feedback.

And I will also say we had a couple of citizens participate with collecting questionnaires from the public, so we appreciate that as well.

So after we went through this engagement process and we talked about the court design, staff returned to Douglas Park in September of last year to propose an alternate plan for the final court design.

Staff were at the amphitheater, conduct a public input meeting, and then also had the project on Beeheard Como for additional online public comment.

And then lastly, the Parks and Recreation Commission voted to recommend the revised project plan at their January 15th meeting.

So our proposed plan for the revisions to the Douglas basketball courts focus on three main items.

Number one was the color blue.

That was the predominant color that the public provided input on in terms of representation of the courts in Douglas Park.

And then as you can also see, one of the courts will represent Douglas Bulldogs, which was important as the high school next door.

And then the other court will actually recognize Moonlight Hoops, which was the program that was established in 1989 as a parks and recreation recreational program.

So those two naming of the courts kind of represent the two main themes that we heard from lots of the public.

All other facets of this project remain the same from basketball hoops, lighting, shelter, um, player benches, scoreboards.

The one addition that did come from public feedback was a water fountain, and it's hard to see in this rendering, but we will add that as part of this project as we move forward.

So there are a couple additional steps with this project.

So we would like City Council to discuss and vote to approve the revised plan.

Um but we've also found was some additional public engagement needs to happen related to the park.

So that and we've been working with Shauna Johnson, our engagement coordinator, and how we move forward with this after we get this basketball court project moving forward.

The first is some type of public art representing the history of the park and important individuals and organizations that impacted the park and patrons.

Um we heard this often about people in all aspects of Douglas Park that from the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s played a role in uh what happened at that park and played key roles in terms of the the Moonlight Hoops program, but then also Douglas Park and the swimming pool.

And so we need to take some additional time to kind of go through that process with some of our citizens and our neighbors and talk about how we recognize those individuals that impacted the park through some type of public art to play display.

That could be a mural, that could be some type of different type of art that we put within the park.

The second uh public engagement session that we'll have relates to the recreational programming.

Um so a lot of this is focused on the Moonlight Hoops program that we had for many, many years.

And so we want to make sure we have some dedicated time and engagement with citizens to talk about recreational programming that happens at the park and Central Columbia as well as we talk about um different things that can happen from all different facets of recreation.

And then the last, and one thing that got brought often was park infrastructure maintenance, long-term planning.

So understanding how the parks and recreation department goes through a process for all different types of projects, but then also specifically at Douglas Park, um talking about projects that need to happen in the future.

So um the restroom renovations or replacement came up multiple times.

Additional playground equipment came up as one item, um, and then also some additional sidewalks and infrastructure that gets you from one side of the park to the other.

So we'll host those meetings in 2026.

Um we'll start those um sometime after we get this going, and then there's a different ending point for each one of these engagement sessions.

Some of them could go on a long time, but like for instance, the public art, there's an end point when we feel like we've gathered enough information about um those individuals and those groups and to be able to recognize them in some type of capacity through public art.

Our other part of this project is we still have a commitment to the University of Missouri to identify an alternate location for that court that was originally proposed for Douglas Park.

We will start that process once we get moving with the the rest of the phases of Douglas Park, um, and we'll return to staff at some point in time after we complete a public input process to discuss that alternate location.

So tonight, staff's requesting approval of legislation authorizing construction of a revised plan for the basketball courts at Douglas Park, and I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.

Great.

Questions for staff, reminding us we can save our comments because I know we have a lot of comments about the project for afterwards.

So questions for Gabe right now.

Yeah, Nick.

Where is the water fountain?

Yeah, strategic.

It is directly to the east of the hoop.

Um if you can see my cursor, it's on the far side.

Uh-huh.

Um, this allows us to pull a water line straight down from the restroom.

Um and this is a new kind of improved walkway.

There's an existing walkway, we'll make some improvements.

Um, but yeah, it allows us to pull that water line straight down and it'll be at the end of that court.

Yes.

Yep, bottle filler, ADA accessible level of bowl as well.

Questions?

Yeah, Jackie.

Um, when I was going through the public comments, I noted there was lots of requests for increased security um in the park.

And do you have any has that been discussed?

Any plans on that?

Yep.

So that will be part of those three engagement sessions that we go through, not as much on the first one with public hist the history of the park and public art, but as we talk about recreational programming and we talk about infrastructure.

Um our goal is to have some member of the Columbia Police Department with us to be able to kind of talk about security, um, improvements at the park, things that we can do long term.

So as we talk about bringing programming back and we talk about additional infrastructure, that's one of the comments and the kind of the discussion items that will occur.

Other questions for staff on this?

All right, I'll go ahead and open up the public hearing.

Does anyone from the public wish to speak on public hearing 326 and the accompanying bill 3526?

I wanted to thank uh Gabe, um, Tracy Wilson, Cleek Camp Gabe and staff for how much growth they made in this project.

I know there were a lot of difficult uh moments.

I think learning about the history of the park and how it served the community as a very important asset of our public spaces.

So I I really appreciate that you leaned into that.

Also that you didn't get defensive.

And you kind of took and strode with it.

I also appreciated the work that the community connectors did.

And I think sort of a model for if we do something and it's not working right for people that you step back and you listen and and you keep running with it.

So I want you to know I really appreciate that.

Thanks very much.

Thank you.

Anyone else from the public wish to speak?

And I just want to thank Gabe for taking the time to listen and Shauna, who has been great at engaging with the community to hear our concerns.

And lastly, I do want to express the need for security, being that my brother was murdered there at Douglas Park.

And I'm okay to say that.

So thank you for considering that.

Thank you for sharing.

Would anyone else from the public wish to speak on the proposed uh plan for renovations to the basketball courts at Douglas Park?

I'll just keep talking until you get up here.

I'm just gonna read your battle.

Anthony.

Um I'm Anthony.

I'm Anthony Johnson.

Um the main thing for me is just to say thank you.

Obviously, um I'm happy with the change of the basketball courts.

Um definitely want to say thank you to Valerie who went out of her way to make sure everything went uh gay, the community connectors.

I think it's a lot bigger because what you always hear in the community is people's reasons for not voting for not showing up is that they're not gonna listen anyway.

So this is a process that pretty much was done.

And you guys listened and you guys made a change.

Um so one, I'm thankful because the courts mean a lot to me, but that also is it allows me to say, see, like they will listen to show up.

So that's a great step in the right direction.

So I appreciate you guys.

Thank you, Anthony.

I wish.

Uh Alphea Hightower, I live in the second ward.

Um, lifelong Columbia resident, born and raised in Columbia, and spent a lot of my time at Douglas Park.

Um, I asked some of some of uh the mentors that they were gonna speak and say I get so emotional, and I'm like, ah, I shouldn't okay.

But I'm going to anyway, I'm gonna take the risk.

Um obviously I want to echo the thanks.

Uh I want to thank Gabe.

I want to thank the Carlin.

I want to thank Valerie.

I cannot even begin to tell you how grateful.

Um coming to these city council meetings, getting to see city government at work has been a real like learning process for me and seeing specifically how Valerie represented her constituency of her ward.

Um when this first came up and we were just talking about it in our peer group, the first thing I said was you need to reach out to Valerie, that's her ward.

And I've seen her.

Whatever you want to call it, you can say filibuster, you could say stand on business, but I've seen her make sure that the public interest was put first.

It was prioritized.

And if there's ever a time where that's where we get a chance to show everybody and to see for ourselves um how much is this current city government actually engaging with us?

How much do they actually want to know about what we want to know?

And it was it was I think the ultimate testimony and testament to all of you being and standing on that word of that's what you want this to be.

And this has been absolutely a collaborative process.

And I feel like it was really important for me to say that from the staff, from all the staff as well as you elected officials that were sitting up here when we came up here the first time because absolutely that was a thought process.

It's it doesn't matter, it's over.

In fact, it's over, it's done.

They've they gave all the public hearings they have to give.

They did all the things they're supposed to do.

There's nothing you can do.

And I'm going, I just don't think that's true.

And I've heard a lot from a lot of you up here that that's not what how you want things to be, and that you really want a collaborative process and you want to be partners with the citizens, and that you are yourself citizens of Columbia.

And so it is with deep gratitude and a lot of excitement.

It's kind of overwhelming and amazing how this worked, and it worked the way that it's supposed to work.

And also the work's not done.

We have more things.

Um as far as the park, as far as just you know, across the community and across the city.

But I look forward to getting to continue to have these kinds of um conversations and interactions.

And again, like I thank you all, because I think this is the Columbia that I always thought it was, and that I want it to be, and that I want it to be for my kids and the kids that come after them.

So I look forward to the work that we have in front of us.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Would anyone else from the public wish to speak on the proposed improvements to the if everyone from that back is going to come up one at a time?

Come up closer.

What are you doing?

You're just trying to make the walk.

I'll take it.

Bring it up.

Right.

Better do this.

I'm Deborah Wilkerson, as um a lot of people in the community call me the mouth.

When I first heard about what was taking place down at Douglas, I couldn't stand for it.

And I'm gonna try to get through this without getting emotional because it means so much to me.

I'm born and raised here, my family's born and raised here.

I went through the community and all the programs that they had down there.

I either went through them or I worked with them.

My sons went through them and worked with them.

I was a foster parent for 20 something years.

I put a lot of kids through a lot of those programs down there.

And uh it's too much history for Columbia.

So I want to thank Gabe for working with me.

I know you got tired of hearing by my algebra.

Please, I thank y'all.

Give us back to the community and let us continue on and bring some of these programs back for these young kids.

Thank you very much.

Anyone else from the public wish to speak on the proposed uh improvements to the Douglas Park basketball courts.

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

Council questions or comments.

Valerie, I'm gonna go to you first, yeah.

Yeah, I'll give some comments.

I feel a bit sentimental about this one too.

Um yeah, I want to thank the community because I acknowledge that there's a history here, and I acknowledge that it's it's hard to speak up when you're not sure if your voice would be heard.

Um, and I am humbled that people trusted us enough to speak up.

Um I'm thankful to Gabe because people trusted us enough to speak up, and we did something, and could have gone really wrong, and it did not.

Um we lived up to our ideals here.

Um it was a lot of work.

I know it was a lot of work, and I know it affected you.

Um, there was an opportunity to um dig in and be defensive, and a lot of people would have done that because we followed our procedures.

Um, but you didn't.

You took the opportunity to pivot and do something better and grow um and build an opportunity um and build future-looking opportunities.

Um I didn't have a lot of questions on this one.

I feel like I should have.

I I benefited from going to some of these meetings and hearing some of the conversations.

Um, the thing that I like best about this are the additional action items, the future-looking things that you built in that you know, we don't always do and we don't usually do or have to do.

Um, but you know, there's a commitment here for ongoing meetings and building into the park for the future and really building into the community beyond the park.

It's not just a place to the people who were there.

Um, you know, the commitment to um continuing to engage in conversations about safety, continuing to um talk about programming and what that should look like and how to bring those programs back to the park that you know some of them people are missing now.

Um and you know, that continued dialogue on um capital projects for the park and maintenance for the park.

Um I think this is a great development.

I get a lot of emails.

I used to get a lot of emails about, you know, here's a maintenance issue on the park.

And you know, knowing that we've um made the um dialogue bridge so that you know people can talk to their representatives and people can talk to parks.

And that conversation is gonna keep going and be generative and um build back in and equip the community to achieve the things that they've been doing in this park for so long and acknowledge the fact that that history pre-existed.

Um, I also want to thank um.

I want to thank the donors and Willie Cox's family.

Um I'm sure this kind of pivot is a tough pill to swallow.

Um, and I appreciate that they stuck with us and they were flexible.

I I think that the Mizzou Court is a great project, and it would be treasured in the right context and the right place.

Um I look forward to seeing that in the right context and the right place.

Um I'm excited that we're treasuring the history of this place as well.

Um so uh Shauna.

Thank you.

Thank you.

You did a great job.

You organized all the meetings, you connected with people.

Um I I think this speaks directly to your talents and your mission, and I liked seeing you work on this.

Um I'm glad that the right connections were made.

I agree this is a good model to move forward.

And I don't filibuster, I really do talk that much.

I'd say I'm sorry.

I'm not saying I'm not sorry.

I'm I'm sorry that I'm not sorry.

Thank you, Valerie.

I think you spoke for a lot of us in that.

But yeah, if you're did you want to say something?

Yeah, I just uh obviously uh agreeing with everything that Valerie said.

Um just wanted to add two points.

Um first to Shauna.

I don't think there is a better portrait of our community connectors program than you sitting in the back row with the people who first raised this problem to the city who now love and adore the work that you have done to make this change happen.

Like that is what we wanted this to be.

As you're making her sit on the floor to hover down.

Um and then also just very grateful to hear Valerie get her flowers as someone who always stands on business for her community and makes sure that that the change that she believes in happens.

Any other comments to this one or questions?

Yeah, Nick.

Well, it's Black History Month.

And uh who would have thought that the council meeting tonight would have fit really well into anybody's calendar of events in that regard.

But I'm very excited about this project too, and for a lot of the reasons have already meant been mentioned with thanks to those who who've been thanked already, and and we could continue to do that.

But I look forward to the day when we see the lights come on at that court again.

Uh I'm struck by the fact that um that this is in the center of our city, and we talk a lot about the central part of our city being important to us, largely in terms of downtown and uh the retail that's there and restaurants and so forth.

This park is essential to the life of our community.

Um and it's right in the middle of our community.

So this is gonna be the kind of thing that people are gonna drive by and they that's cool.

That's really nice.

This is a cool community.

And also contextualize it in what other things that are going on at Douglas Park, the swimming pool is going to open with new renovations this summer.

And um I'm very confident about what about what lies ahead.

So feel good moment for us, right?

Any other council comments, questions?

I'll just echo it to those who spoke up and to have not given up.

Often people will come to a council meeting and they'll speak once and then they'll never come back.

Because they didn't think they were heard.

And I want to just show my appreciation for continuing to come.

And to be actually engaged in listening and thanks to the staff for being open to making changes.

I think that takes a level of bravery that you don't often see in government because it's a lot easier just to stay behind your desk or behind your computer.

So thank you to that.

And Sean, I'm sorry that they embarrassed you, but you deserved it.

So all right.

I'll ask Sheila to call roll then on Bill 3526.

Council Bill 3526, Ms.

Elwood.

Yes.

Ms.

Sample?

Yes.

Mr.

Foster?

Yes.

Mr.

Waterman.

Yes.

Ms.

Peters.

Yes.

Ms.

Buffalo.

Yes.

Ms.

Carroll.

Yes.

All right.

We'll look forward to September when it opens.

Moving on, we have one more public hearing this evening.

So Sheila, will you please read public hearing 426?

Public hearing 426 is a proposed annexation of property located on the southeast corner of Highway WW and L Chaparral Avenue, 1020 South L Chaparral Avenue.

Do we have a staff report?

Yes, thank you, Mayor and Council.

I'm Clint Smith, Director of Community Development.

As a clerk had read, this is a uh what we're actually at this moment is uh conducting a public hearing for an annexation is associated uh with a separate bill uh that is on the agenda tonight for first reading.

So this would just be conduct the the public hearing, which is a a required by state statute process uh to conduct that uh approximately 15 days prior to it being considered um for uh full approval.

Um the uh the property uh itself is owned by the city.

So we are requesting for ourselves to approve the annexation and the permanent zoning of this property.

Uh southeast corner of El Chaparral and Highway WW, about four and a half acres.

Um the uh Bill 40-26 is also on the agenda uh would be for second reading March 2nd.

Uh a little context for that site, as you can see, currently improved.

Um previously uh utilized as a church.

Uh the city did um purchase that property uh with the intent to improve it uh with administrative offices for the fire department and future site for a fire station.

Uh surrounding property, kind of across WW to the north right ish of northeast of the screen, that's the Brooks subdivision uh to the south, uh some additional single family and some other uh two family uh developments and to the west, uh some con commercial development, um, most of to the west and south uh currently within the county.

Uh this is just kind of a view again, kind of looking north towards on Isle Chaparral, looking towards WW.

You can see the building kind of obscured by the trees there.

Uh just to give you a little context for that site, does have an associated parking lot.

Um we are uh as a city uh uh requesting to assign R1, which is a one-family dwelling district.

Um this does permit fire stations and accessory uses that go along with uh that type of use.

Uh it's currently zoned RS and CG in the county, which is uh general commercial.

That's the majority of the site as it is kind of in a commercial area right along WW and L Chaparral.

There's a small portion that's that RS, which is single family.

Uh again, the adjacent zoning.

Uh there is some agriculture residential city R1, again, you can see on your screen to the north and east with some county uh single family and commercial to the south uh and west.

Um annexing this and zoning R1 would not uh create any nonconformities.

We typically look at that when we annex property, make sure there's something that would be automatically nonconforming.

Uh it is served um by utilities.

It's uh public uh water uh district number nine.

Um Boone Electric for Electric and City provides a sewer service since it is in the in the county, it is uh you know, it is a the response uh is from the Boone County Emergency Services.

Uh we did receive one letter um with concerns about the traffic at the intersection of El Chaparel and Broadway at this site.

Um so at this point there's no council action being requested uh other than to conduct the uh state mandated public hearing prior to the vote on the annexation.

Uh again, bill uh 4026 is on the agenda uh and would be second reading at the next meeting.

Oops, excuse me.

Uh that I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Any questions on um public hearing for twenty-six?

Yeah, Valerie.

Yeah.

Um, I was gonna ask if you can pull up the zoning map, but you have it a different version of it up here on this slide.

Um so first I'll ask this is unique because we're the applicant here.

Is the fire station intended to take up the whole lot?

That's my understanding.

Yes.

There is a design that's going to utilize the existing building for this offices.

That would be the administrative side of it.

And then future construction of a new firehouse fire station would be on that site as well.

So we will take up the majority of that four-acre site, yes.

Thanks.

Fire chief is here as well if you had any questions for him.

Thanks, Brian.

Yeah, I have a few questions.

So I can see that the surrounding zoning adjacent to the south and the east of this lot.

There's both County RS that's presently has single family structures on it, and County RM that's improved with duplexes would be similar to our R2 and our R1, both adjacent.

Given the city's long-term goals for housing density, I'm wondering if you can speak towards the decision to go with R1 versus R2 for this parcel.

Sure.

And it's really kind of a straightforward answer.

And that's generally one, it's it's I think that's common practice uh with the city is that is the zone our property, kind of that lowest potential zoning district here, R1 uh allows fire stations, but honestly, almost every district does allow fire stations.

So we we could have zoned it commercial, uh, but I think it's the intent is kind of low kind of zone it that that lowest common denominator per se.

There's no intent at this point to redevelopment.

And I think it kind of sets the precedent that the city is is zoning it to that lowest intensity zoning designation, and if there was any intent to redevelop in the future, there'd probably have to be a rezoning at that point, in which residents could come and participate in the hearing process at that point.

So I'm gonna speak a little bit towards that precedent, or at least ask towards that precedent.

I know we're on the question section.

Um hypothetically, if another property owner on an adjacent property to the north or um east of that were to ask for rezoning or for an annexation with permanent zoning, how would you approach the decision as to what zoning would be compatible for them?

So I think you're looking at it as if if there's a little bit of a mismatch between the use and the zoning.

I think if if on the north of somebody who was annexed, I think we could take into context that it's a city-owned property, even though zoned R1, its use is not necessarily uh consistent with that R1 uh that you would look at as far as a single family development.

So you we would be able to look at it and say if they wanted to zone it commercial, and I'm not suggesting we would support any particular zoning to this point, but if if I think if the question was how would you rezone something to a higher R1 standard when you have R1 across the street, I think the question the answer is well, we would take context of the land use, not just the zoning.

That's encouraging.

Thanks.

Yeah, I think what I'm trying to push on here is the concept of the lowest common denominator, the lowest zoning use being the most appropriate to pick on an annexation, especially on a city-owned property.

Um I'm not sure if that is still best supporting our goals.

Um I worry about I worry about that practice broadly as it contributes to sprawl and low density sprawl.

Um I worry about that practice from the city as we could be leading in this way, as well as um future zoning.

We have a tendency to pull up the zoning map and say all your neighbors are R1, so you should be R12.

Um that makes it hard to ever have change to ever have nodes to ever have neighborhood services.

Um I'm spilling over into comments.

So I will sense me like getting the gavel out.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Any other questions for staff on the annexation?

Yeah, done.

Just a quick clarification.

Um the council memo long-term impacts mentioned recurring payments for services, electric water and sewer.

The question was asked and the response that was provided earlier, subject parcel not served by city electric water or sewer services.

You know, on your slide you said city sewer.

So just a quick clarification.

Yeah, so it's it's a little of a nuance.

I think the the facilities running there are Boone County sewer, but that uh through a I think believe through a connection agreement flows back through the city.

So it it probably both of us are correct, but there could have been a better answer.

Uh I think it kind of incorporates both of those things.

Okay.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Yeah, if I may, Madam Mayor.

Um I did have an additional question that I forgot um that I think clarifies.

Um if we were to select to restart with an R2 request as an R as opposed to R 1, what process would that have to take?

Would there be any delay?

Would there be any additional cost?

Uh yes, we would have to um conduct an additional public hearing at planning and zoning.

Uh and there's a um publication deadline for that.

So we would we would probably be at least three to four weeks out if we made that decision uh from the point we made that decision, and that depends on timing, so it could be longer.

And then there's the cost of uh re-advertising that and sending out notifications to the surrounding property owners and conducting that public hearing.

Does it change anything about the use on this parcel?

It would not, no.

Okay.

Thanks.

Any other questions for staff on the proposed annexation of 1020 South El Chaparral Avenue?

I'll go ahead and open up the public comment or public hearing.

Does anybody from the public wish to speak on the proposed annexation?

Seeing none, I will close the public hearing.

Any additional comments, questions come to this?

I'll make my summary comment.

All right.

Um I do plan to support this.

I'm making zoning comments.

This is an annexation.

Um we need the fire.

We need the fire station.

Um so the annexation is a foregone conclusion.

Um as far as zoning goes, um.

I want to push back on the we need to seek the lowest um permissible zoning, especially when there's adjacent R2.

Um I think that the city could lead on that.

Um I'm encouraged by the statement that we'll take into account the land use and not the zoning.

Um that makes me feel like we would have flexibility for future cases that may or may not come up.

Um but we're certainly a growing city, so it's I would expect to see more growth consistently.

Um this gets my support um even though I will continue to push for changes in how we view um residential zoning.

Any other comments on this one?

Well, as a reminder, this is uh the public hearing with the annexation as required by state law.

And so the annexation along with the zoning will be considered at the March 2nd, 2026 council meeting.

So no voting or roll call on this one.

All right.

Thank you.

Thank you, Clint.

Thank you, Chief.

All right, moving on.

We have no items under old business this evening.

So we'll skip ahead to the consent agenda and ask Sheila to read the items on the consent agenda twice and call roll.

Items on the consent agenda include bills 24, 26, 25, 26, 26, 26, 27, 26, 28, 26, 29, 26, 30, 26, 31, 26, 32, 26, 33, 26, 34, 26, and 36, 26.

Resolutions 20 8, 26, 29, 26, 30, 26, 31, 26, 32, 26, 33, 26, 34, 26, and 35, 26.

Bills 24, 26, 25, 26, 26, 26, 27, 26, 28, 26, 29, 26, 30, 26, 31, 26, 32, 26, 33, 26, 34, 26, and 36, 26, and resolutions 28, 26, 29, 26, 30, 26, 31, 26, 32, 26, 33, 26, 34, 26, and 35, 26.

Ms.

Elwin.

Yes.

Ms.

Sample.

Yes.

Mr.

Foster.

Yes.

Mr.

Waterman.

Yes.

Ms.

Peters.

Yes.

Ms.

Buffalo.

Yes.

Ms.

Carroll.

Yes.

All right, moving on.

Uh no items are under new business.

And so we'll go to the introduction and first read items.

Sheila, will you please read those items?

All bills are introduced by the mayor unless otherwise indicated.

Bills 37, 26, 38, 26, 39, 26, 40, 26, 41, 26, 42, 26, 43, 26, 44, 26, 45, 26, 46, 26, 47, 26, 48, 26, 49, 26, 50, 26, 51, 26, and 52 26 first reading.

Thank you for that.

And I'm gonna do uh a point of privilege before we go into reports and and ask um de Carlin to speak to the an item under introduction and first read that is Bill 5226.

I understand there's a chance he might not be at the next meeting because of uh a conference.

And we have already been getting questions on the proposed uh reorganization and new departments.

So would you like to speak to your proposal for the communications department?

Yes, ma'am.

Thank you.

I think uh so today when we talked about the Douglas Park engagement, that can really give an impetus to that we really need to start looking at things differently.

And so the city has taken different approaches to how we've handled communications and engagement throughout the years.

Now we've had centralized processes, we've had decentralized process.

I think in 2016, uh we created the um community relations department as a way to try to centralize our communications efforts.

Uh it combined the uh city channels, city source, news media relations, uh meeting services, legislative affairs, public records requests, and the city contact center, all in a all in the guise of trying to streamline our communications efforts.

In that adoption, I don't think we really engage the departments in how that looked and how that worked.

And so we saw is while communications was centralized, we really still weren't reaching the goal of actually communicating out to our residents.

Um in 2021, the communications, the community relations department was dissolved, and then those processes were pushed back out into the different departments as a way of decentralizing communications, and what we've seen is our communications efforts have stalled.

Uh we haven't built trust in our community.

We've created processes where other people are telling our story.

And so we've had a few resignations in the last few months.

And trying to look at how do you take some negative and to make it into a positive.

I think it gives us an opportunity to kind of refocus and re-look at what we're doing and why we're doing it.

And so what I'm proposing is a new department and to take a hybrid approach.

So when I look at a hybrid approach for our communications, our public information specialists, which are currently in departments, will remain in those departments.

Our communications department will manage the city's overall branding and messaging.

And so it's taking a step back and creating a collaborative approach that will enable cross-departmental meetings, shared messaging, and a coordinated storytelling.

And that's where the different PISs will come together and kind of pitch stories and kind of work collaboratively to make sure that we're creating a narrative where our messages is moving forward.

Um the proposed department will consist of 25 full-time employees and four part-time temporary employees.

Those four part-times are our connectors.

And so it only creates one new position, that's the communications director.

Uh the department will take already established divisions and combine them under one umbrella.

So it's taking our communications and engagement, our creative services and marketing, the contact center, and then a position that was in the neighborhood services, which was a neighborhood communications coordinator, all into this one department.

Ideally, what I want to do is create a nexus for how do we engage our residents.

And so at one point, what we have to realize is that contact center is our first place where residents hear from the city.

It's where they ask questions, it's where they get responses, and it should be part of our communication efforts.

It should also show us exactly what we should be engaging on because residents have called in and they've said, here's the things that we're concerned about, or if they've gone on be heard, or if they've gone on what's the our our our site that takes in requests.

The idea is that we create this process that will better engage and better inform our residents.

Uh with the new director coming on board, the idea would be that we would actually work with the departments to actually make sure that we are creating a true brand that is Columbia, that we create processes to make sure that we are not just talking to our residents, not just telling our residents, but actually engaging our residents and having their input into how we make our decisions.

Uh primary goals for the department are that we would enhance internal communications, we'd have a better process for media and public relations.

We'd have a better process for media and public relations.

We have a better way of responding to crisis.

Crisis management is something I think sometimes we struggle with.

But it's if we can create this nexus that we now have a place to actually do those things and make sure that we can actually develop our responses and develop our templates ahead of time.

So we're not chasing ourselves, we're already in front of all these things.

It's to have content strategy.

It's actually to build a brand that we can utilize that say this is who Columbia is.

And so that's my goal.

I know uh you've asked for me to kind of give more of how our communications will operate.

And so I do plan on at the uh off Monday work session to actually bring the communications plan as a whole.

But right now, this is establishing the department.

Okay.

Questions for DeCurlin on this?

I understand this is on intro and first read.

We're not voting on it tonight, but just wanted to give you an opportunity to speak to that.

So I imagine there'll be questions coming up afterwards and things.

And then you said the March 9th will be a work session on communications plan.

Absolutely.

Okay.

Any questions come to anyone right now, or we'll move on to reports.

Okay.

I appreciate that.

Thank you, DeCartlin.

Thank you.

All right, moving on to reports.

Um our first one is report 526.

Uh, the City Council requested update on the mayor's task force on community violence 2014 recommendations.

I don't know if we have kind of a staff response to that, or if um if Jackie is your requested, if you wanted to kind of start off the conversation on it.

I think we'll start.

Yeah, if you want to.

Um so I've asked a lot of questions about this, and I appreciate staff trying to answer my questions.

Um I think it is important that we do reflect on the work that the city has done and appreciate those efforts and and review what we have done based on the recommendations of the team that we pulled together to address community violence at that time.

Um I do think it's also important to recognize those successes with this task, excuse me, tax force recommendations, and noting that um those recommendations were instrumental in developing the priority areas for the strategic plan, because it's the strategic plan came after the task force recommendations, correct?

Right.

Right.

So those so those recommendations were folded into creating those strategic priority areas for our strategic plan.

I'm saying the word strategic a lot.

Um but then also directly led to the creation of the Office of Violence Prevention, which is still very new, and I'm very excited for all the things that are going to be coming out of that particular office.

Um through some of the discussions we've had, I know that not every single recommendation has been addressed by the city, and there's been some um discussion about how some of the things that were relevant in 2014 are not necessarily relevant today and also or may not may not be the most up-to-date recommendations based on the data and the science that we have, because enforcement, just the enforcement piece, the science behind enforcement has changed a whole lot since 2014.

And um so keeping that in mind as we review these historical documents.

Um just to clarify that as we continue ahead as a city to address the community violence, one of the things that I think when we're looking at the report and reflecting on how we responded to those recommendations, that it was difficult to identify if any measurements were provided or what the actual deliverable deliverals were deliverables would be.

So as we're moving forward with plans to address community violence, making sure that as a city we are working hard to make sure that we have those really specific objectives and the explanation explanation of the deliverables, so that we can actually monitor how we're been how these plans are benefiting the community moving forward.

And um so I appreciate the reflection in staff answering my questions and recognizing that you know, moving forward, we can take some things from that document, but not everything is is still is evidence-based at this point.

So that's basically my summary.

Thank you.

Yeah.

No, I appreciate that.

And I think it's a good point to make, and we had talked about this is that you know, often we'll have um uh kind of a report come to us, whether it's an annual report from a board or commission or a task force we put together.

And I think we could should probably be working on as we look to work with our boards and commissions on what is that standard sort of expectation of what it is, which would have then what is the feedback loop, the key performance indicators, just to have consistency for that.

So I agree.

I appreciate that.

Any other comments on this one?

Yeah, Nick.

I was interested in the presentation that was done in 2021 and um to see where we were then, what what some of the reflections were at that time, and then some of the looking forward.

And one of the things that stood out for me was um the possibility of using ARPA money to address this.

And in fact, we did.

Uh we it was uh when just reminding everyone, when we when it came to the ARPA money, we reached out to the community and asked what do you want to do with it.

And this was one of the things that that the community responded they wanted to do, and we did.

We funded uh several different groups within the city who were addressing uh violence prevention.

And then subsequently the Office of Violence Prevention was begun.

So we've we've seen some movement forward on that, and I just wanted to note that in light of the presentation that was made a few years ago.

Yeah, appreciate that.

Any comments on this one?

All right, we'll move on to report 626.

This is the City Council requested summary of communication strategies for public works, community development, and city utilities.

Um I don't know if you had plans to do a report, or I can just get into our council questions on it.

Um I think just council questions.

Um Aaron Keys, Clint Smith, and I are all here, so we can't.

Okay.

Yeah, Valerie, I know this was a requested one of yours, so do you want to lead?

Sure.

This did um I do have a lot of questions.

This came up over the summer um after I guess the active season when we have a lot of um public works and utilities projects.

And I received a lot of um questions from um businesses and from um constituents where you know there's road work and they didn't know when, and now they're stuck in their driveway or they can't get into their place of work, or a business owner um now has unable to access parking.

Um the metered parking in front of them is gone and they weren't aware.

Um I realize that there's coming communication issues on both ends sometimes.

Um through those discussions, it seemed like we were really identifying areas that um we could communicate better.

Um so I was you know hoping to hear back details about what the notification procedures were.

Um and I do have those details.

Um I cycled those around citizens who complained.

Um for the most part, what I hear back is we're happy we're happy with the procedure that's here, but what happens when it doesn't happen if for some reason it's not followed if people weren't able to receive their notification.

Uh and there were some more things that we discussed as a council.

I think DeCarlin just left.

Um there were some things that we discussed as a council that didn't quite make it into the report.

Um that was something DeKarlin brought up, um, potential future IT project for um text alerts with geofencing.

Um I was hoping we could get an update on um where that is, when that's anticipated.

I think with the IT kind of response, and I don't see if Mark Neckerman is around.

Oh, Sydney Olson can come up and provide.

She's still with us.

Of course, she does.

Thank you, Sydney.

Sorry.

Um Sydney Olsen engagement and public communications manager.

Um we have identified a vendor that we would like to go with and are in the process of reaching out to some cities uh and organizations who utilize them to do our due diligence there.

And then we are um getting ready to set up a meeting with them after we uh actually purchase the product.

So I anticipate that being set up and implemented within the next two months.

My goal is to get it done before I leave.

Hopefully.

And this would be the geofencing and notification systems.

Yes, so this would allow us to build lists and um have people opt in to receive notifications in different areas.

I do want to clarify that that is important.

They do have to opt in.

We cannot spam people, but we can build lists based on the information people would like to receive and notify them that way.

Yeah.

Um can we update our procedures to maybe not reference the specific technology but reference that we have we will make some attempt to contact opt-in lists?

Absolutely, because that's like one of the things that Shane and I talked about, and it's one of the things he's concerned about that this new process would allow for a better streamlined process.

So Shane, can you talk about the change that you'd like to make?

Sure.

Well, I mean, I can't promise there isn't something else, but one of the things if you look through our public improvement process as it's as it's written in ordinance today, it talks quite a bit about phone calls to affected property owners.

And you can imagine on a on a long roadway project, that's that's a lot of phone phone calls.

And the feedback that we get a lot of times, we get those phone numbers from city utilities, and a lot of times we have difficulty getting people on the phone.

People want to know how the how I got their phone number.

You know, they aren't necessarily happy that they got the phone call.

And so I really think the opt-in text message process, not that we wouldn't send, still send letters like we do about um major events in the project and things like that.

It would really free up some staff time that um that process of having to make all those phone calls with what seems to us like pretty limited gain at times.

So you can see what's up in an unintrusive way.

Um I think I think Vera had just a clarification just on that point and then back to Valley.

On the on the opt-in texting, and this might be too specific for where we're at in the process, but is it are people able is it just based on where they live or are they able to mark where they work?

A lot of Ward 2 does not work in Ward 2.

So construction projects in Ward 6 are going to impact them heavily.

Okay.

That is a great clarifying question because we have staff has been discussing that.

It's my understanding that it is based on their location at the time we send the alert.

So it's probably not gonna it won't be the catch-all to be able to say all of these people live in Ward 2, for example, and we're gonna it might depend on where they're at at the time that we send those.

So when we talk with that vendor and get some more specific clarification on that, we will have to take that into consideration when identifying our processes, such as would it make sense to reach out or send those alerts at a different time of day, for example, when people are home or more likely to be home.

That's smart.

I think it would yeah.

One of my hopes is that we'll be able to catch business owners.

Um I suppose it depends on the street and the location.

Um as well as utilities, um, a lot of these came up from um utilities and um tie-ins and connections for other developments.

Um Aaron, I'm assuming that we can also reference this in your um notification procedures.

Um The next question I had was about signage.

Um so there was some discussion about uh I think the main alerts that people get that people noticed are signage.

Um and that's usually a no parking sign.

But that doesn't necessarily alert people to what's happening.

Um can we update like are there any procedures that you would recommend to change how we do that signage?

Um for example, the people who saw the no parking signs moved their cars to their driveways and then were stuck in their driveways.

Well, and I want to address that just a little bit.

When it comes to a mill and overlay process, at no point is anyone stuck in their driveway.

There might be a pay there might be a milling machine, but a simple conversation.

It's a very quick process.

They could have gotten in and out at any time.

And that's how we communicate it to folks when we talk about the project.

I think it was a uh water main break project.

Was that the example you had?

Was not a mill in overlay?

Or maybe I'll be able to do that.

Yeah, I do I don't think it was a water main.

Oh people complained about the mill and overlay.

Um people also complained about a it could have been a stormwater or a sewer um connection.

Um and that was uh development um it was because of new development, I believe, over on Sanford.

Um these are two very specific scenarios, but um kind of reminiscent of a category of issues that I've received, and I think other people have as well.

I guess what I'm wondering is if besides just no parking signs, we can put either on the sign or a sign in the utility strip that says what we're doing.

Well, I will I will speak for the road stuff.

Yeah.

If if it's just a matter of putting down that we're going to be milling overlaying that road, that's that's not that doesn't bother me too much.

We can put that down.

We the the timing is a little bit trickier, and there's a variety of reasons for that.

Um just the the world of contracting currently.

Um when it comes to our mill and overlay process for the last two, maybe three years, we've had one bidder, and uh the bidder that we've received does the bulk of the state's asphalt um work.

And so we benefit from allowing them to work our schedule, because we're kind of small potatoes compared to the state when it comes to that around their state work.

And so when they come in, we try to allow them to do that work.

If we put too many more restraints on them, we run the risk of either one of two things.

One is the our costs will go up, which means we can do less streets each year, or they don't bid at all, at which point I would have trouble getting someone to do that work.

And so that's a factor in that.

So telling them what we're doing, I've got no issue with.

A lot of times we will mark the road in advance, but to tell them what night, depending on weather and what actually happens with that contractor and things like that, that becomes a little bit more difficult.

And that'd be the part that would concern me is if we wanted to tighten down the amount of time we've posted, that gets harder.

Telling them what we're doing, I don't have any issue with that.

I think we address that.

We've discussed that during comments previously.

Um I understand those limitations.

I'm hopeful that um text alerts can help with that.

Um you could send out alert tomorrow's the day.

Yep.

Um that was a particular problem for our businesses, as I recall, because meters were flagged for a relatively long period of time.

Um I mean, just when it comes to downtown, that's a little bit even more special case.

Um because the last thing we want to do is tow a vehicle.

Because it takes it takes a long time, even if it's been posted correctly to get the vehicle removed.

So there are times where when you're in a downtown area and there's roads close by, if we've marked a decent area and there's a road that doesn't have any cars, they might do that road on a different night than they were originally planning to.

Because if you got three cars to tow, you're gonna lose half your night waiting to tow those cars.

And so there's just a lot of factors that play into that.

Um we tried and we tried to communicate to the district on a couple of occasions that this is what we're gonna do this year.

This is about the time frame we anticipate.

Um we were working hard to get it done before the students got back.

Um and we were pretty successful in doing a lot of those things.

But what gets retained in some of those communications is part of the issue as well.

So I look forward to the text alerts.

That will help a lot to agree.

So I'm wondering if we are able to contract within, I think you said the next two months within very soon.

Could this be possibly implemented before our heavy project season?

Or is that too much of a stretch?

I mean, if it's in the next two months, yeah.

I mean, I uh I would think as far as the opting in, it it how many people actually opt in before this coming construction season versus maybe next construction season could be a factor, but uh you know, based on that timeline, I think it's at least available, it sounds like to me.

I was gonna add as well, in addition to geofencing, we're also looking at the capability of building out lists.

So for example, if we're looking at downtown, we know that's a high traffic area for both traffic and pedestrians.

We could look at building a list where business owners could opt in to say, I want to receive alerts about all road work, for example, um taking place downtown.

So I think it will just uh take staff time to get together and kind of identify those lists we think we know we'll need and then add to that as we get requests from uh residents and constituents.

Um I see Nikki Davis here.

I I would say maybe um you're probably on it, but let's engage with the CID, um, engage with her and um make sure that you know perhaps she can help you um get that information for hey, if you if you want alerts, opt in to this thing that's coming.

Um because I do anticipate that's going to help us out a lot.

Um the next question I had was about planning.

Um so I guess I'm gonna pick on Clint next.

Thank you, and sorry.

This one I am sorry about.

I mean Yeah.

Um I think there's been perhaps years of confusion on this issue.

Um if someone had a development request and they needed a um plan adjustment or a CUP.

Um typically you send out postcards ahead of the meeting.

You would send those to property owners.

The way I remember it worded, it was property owners within however many feet.

185 feet of the parcel.

Um the questions I asked, um it was not clear to me today.

Would someone living adjacent to the parcel who is a renter receive a notification?

Yes.

So that was revised a number of years ago.

So we send notification to all property owners.

So those that are listed within uh Boone County Assessor Records is the owner of that property.

Uh but then the address points that we have for each property, we will also send a notification to current resident of that address.

So if you are a tenant to that property, you will receive that.

Uh and and it was worded a little differently in our report because um I didn't want to necessarily state that we will send it to tenants.

We do not identify a specific tenant.

We send it to addresses that we have records for.

So if it is a apartment building, we will send a notification to every single address, apartment one, apartment two, apartment three that we have in our system.

Excellent.

That is effective enough for me.

Um did we do that?

It uh it was before I started here, um, but I know it's been within the last few years that that change was made.

Okay.

And I think public works did a similar thing because when we talked about cybork closures, it used to just go to the property owners and it goes to the tenants as well, to or the addresses that are affected.

I think I knew that for public works.

Yeah.

Um I've got a question.

I very much appreciate the report.

Do you have more questions?

I think the other there's a couple other questions before comments.

That's okay.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Nick your question and then Betsy.

Oh no, sorry, not a handout.

My question is also about notifications.

And from time to time, I hear concern about who is included in terms of how far away from a particular project that is and how far ahead.

Now I know that we may never be able to solve the issue of people wanting to be notified earlier.

But are staff considered looking at this and expanding uh instead of 185 feet moving out to I don't know, 200 um to expand the footprint for where notifications go and or to um review the length of time previous to whatever the project is, uh those notifications being in other words, those notifications being sent earlier.

Um so I'll I'll start with um the uh the distance.

And and uh I'll be frank, are we honest?

And the answer is is no, we have not considered expanding that.

Um it's something we could if there was, I think, uh a concerted uh direction given to us uh in that uh in that direction.

Uh the reason that we use 185 feet, um one of the reasons is that there is state statute that does mention 185 feet as being the notification uh distance.

I I don't think that we are necessarily relegated to only 185 feet, but I think it is good practice to match state statute in terms of public notice.

Um I will divulge uh a little bit of a secret, and that is we do go a little further than 185.

Right.

So we we like to cover our bases.

I'm sorry.

So we we um so we do try to go out a little further.

Um but uh you know if I am asked, the the the ordinance that we have on on uh within the municipal code is 185 feet.

Um as far as timing goes, uh again, we have not looked at any uh additional uh notification, and I'll say that because we have a a public hearing for a lot of our processes.

So from the date that we receive an application to the date of that public hearing is about two months.

So really that first week that we receive an application in our office, we start preparing a public notice.

And it's usually out within a week.

So that is the the postcard that we refer to in the report.

So it is a early notification.

We we refer to it as early notification to let residents know there's something coming, you're gonna get a notice of the public hearing.

Uh so be on on the lookout, right?

And and what that does does two things.

One, it lets them know to be prepared to see that letter, but it also tells us, hey, if if my neighbor had gotten something and and he's telling his neighbors, hey, I've I've got something that's coming in the mail, so I'm going to be on the lookout.

If for some reason there was someone that didn't receive a notification, we might hear about it that way.

It doesn't happen very often.

But then uh usually within two to three weeks after that.

So they have to typically we send it out so that they receive it about two weeks ahead of that public hearing.

Uh an actual formal letter in the mail that says there will be a public hearing on an item.

So in addition to that, we have concept meetings.

Uh it's a service we provide to developers and and property owners that occurs way before you actually submit a formal application.

And so as a courtesy to the surrounding property owners after those meetings, we will send out uh an additional postcard.

Uh and that doesn't necessarily have a timing corresponding to when they submit application, but if they are ready to go, they may send an application out shortly after that.

So in a sequence of maybe eight weeks, uh a property owner could get three notifications for us about a particular project coming in front of planning zoning for a public hearing.

So just kind of lay out our current notification schedule.

I don't know if there's a lot of room in there to uh get earlier notification because we do start preparing that first postcard almost immediately once we receive an application into our office.

We don't want to delay the interested person who's has a project or organization any further than is necessary.

No, and and that's that's the kind of uh kind of twofold things we're trying to accomplish.

And that's one is have a very efficient process.

So when somebody submits an application, we we try to review it quickly and get that on a public hearing schedule.

And there's notification deadlines we have to hit.

So we are we are preparing the ad that goes to the paper, which is actually is a required notification about a month ahead of time.

And so there's a lot of timing that goes into these notifications.

Um what we would hear from the other side is they they don't want a lot of additional delay in getting to planning and zoning.

Uh because even with kind of that short frame we have, it's going to be three months before council actually has it in front of them for a final vote.

So that's that's kind of our our our our window uh of opportunity there, if you will.

Can I ask a question?

Uh in in this is for you, Clayton, community development public notice process.

Um you talk about reaching out to um city recognize neighborhood associations.

And this has been a conversation for a while is that often our homeowners associations and neighborhood associations are managed by another group, maybe not necessarily a neighbor.

How often do we update the list of contacts and is there plans to kind of call and improve upon the neighborhood association homeowners and this I guess this can be for any of you, but I feel you're probably the one that reaches out to neighborhood associations the most.

Yes, and we um we did have an individual who is responsible for those.

Um we you know I don't have an answer, I think, on when that gets done.

So I'd have to look into that.

Um I do think we try to keep that up to date.

A lot of our homeowners associations are managed by kind of more institutional organizations now, so that that is easier to keep up to date.

They actually do the updating for us.

The neighborhood associations, um we I I'd like to think we reach out maybe once a year, but a lot of times if we just start getting return mail, then we'll know to reach out and say, hey, we need a new Were you gonna comment on this de Carlin?

Is that part of the communications plan?

It is.

Okay.

Oh, but wait, there's more.

So uh it's actually taking that position and turn it into a neighborhood engagement coordinator.

And the idea would be that they would help establish and work with our neighborhood association and our homeowners associations.

So ideally we would be able to keep a record of what's going on and who's who's where.

And so that's part of what this uh plan would be is to actually develop that out a little bit better.

Okay.

Thank you for that.

Additional questions or comments?

Yeah, Valerie.

Well, hold on.

Anyone else and then Valerie?

All right, yep, Val.

Fair enough.

Um, I was gonna say um this bit about notifications to um neighborhood associations as well.

Um I presume that that's something else that could go with this new um application um where you could send a text notification.

I I know that one of the hurdles is that there's frequent changes in who's responding and which email address is most active.

Um covers spaces because they self-identify who receives these emails as well as our new communications position.

Um so I hope that's something that we can use and um communicate through our neighborhood organizations as well.

All right.

Well, I don't I don't think I have this has been an expansive report because we have three departments here at least.

Um I don't think I have anything that I have a problem with in our procedures.

Our procedures sound good, even the thing that I thought was an issue has already been corrected.

Um, and we have things on the horizon to improve.

I appreciate that.

Um if you'd be willing to write a one word on your no parking signs, what's happening?

I know that the residential folks would appreciate a what's happening, um, especially the ones who don't email.

Thanks.

Any other console comments on this?

All right, I appreciate the update and putting it all in one space.

Yeah.

Yeah.

All right, moving up now on to report 1326.

This is the annual report of our disabilities commission uh talking about what they've done over the last year and looking forward to 2026.

Um I don't see any members here, but do appreciate the update and information from that.

Uh, and looking forward to see who gets the Donzi awards this year.

Yeah.

All right, and then um we already received our update from the airport advisory annual report during our um scheduled public comment.

I will acknowledge that there is a correction to one of the members' names, so we will make sure that the official report in the records have the correct version of the person's last name.

And so now we'll go on to general comments of the public.

Would anybody from the public wish to speak?

Good evening, Tracy Wilson, Clee Camp Raised Matters Friends.

I forget the name of the gentleman that was just talking from so several years ago I was on a committee for with planning and zoning, it's called a policies and procedures committee.

And one of the issues that came up a lot was the notification for neighborhood associations.

So I've been a neighborhood association president for a long time, and so this is a constant source of irritation.

Yes.

So just a few things that happen.

Sometimes we get the postcard and the meetings already happened.

Uh sometimes the postcard goes to the what doesn't get there or something, you know, or gets there too close to when the meeting's gonna happen.

So the person who gets the postcard doesn't have enough time to turn around and say, hey, neighbors, we're having a meeting.

The other thing that happens is that we have a um, you know, it's Greenborough Trail Ridge Neighborhood Association, then a and then an HOA was built on next to it, a little bit of stuff there.

And then there's another sort of HOA next to us, but the city doesn't recognize them, right?

Because they're not neighborhood associations, but we include them as part of our neighborhood association notification because they're our neighbors.

So I think there's some weird some things we need to iron out, because to me it's like, why won't you recognize Hollywood, Holly Ridge neighborhood association?

Like they've been here for a long time.

So it makes for a little bit of mischief of keeping people in the loop.

Some of them are ticked off.

Well, the city doesn't recognize us, so we're, you know, this thing is going on and we don't know anything about it.

So that was a long time ago that I was on that committee, and it was a big deal.

This space that we say that we want for giving notification, 180 feet was never enough, right?

So I like the ideas about texting and all that.

Um I had to call the city manager recently because we had a water main break in my neighborhood, and of course, nobody even knew why they were out there digging up the yard again for the 20th time.

But in this case, they came around and they put door hangers up and let people know that what there was a boil advisory and the door hangers worked pretty good.

I took the door hangers and then I could email my neighbors and all that.

We all can keep in touch.

But we actually do a better job in our neighborhood communicating with each other than the city does with us.

So um I think it's great that they have these ideas about communicating.

I do think we need to iron out if we're gonna recognize neighborhood associations or HOAs.

Me personally, I think you should recognize everybody because it's a communication opportunity.

So whether they're HOA or neighborhood association, just communicate with everybody.

Um I think I've said this before in Long Beach, we had a neighborhood resource center.

It was a place where we could go and do newsletters, use computers and share information.

Um, and then twice uh a year we would get together as neighborhoods and talk about issues that are going on in our respective neighbors and neighborhoods.

And we had a liaison like Shauna who would go back to the city and say, hey, these are the things that are going on in these neighborhoods, and she'd also talk to the police department.

So we had a flow of communication, but they also always knew who was who with respect to neighborhood associations because they kept track.

So anyway, however, you keep track, as long as you can do it consistently, um, and also find ways to bring can bring people together from those neighborhood groups so that you know who they are, whether they're an HOA or neighborhood association or somebody.

We have people that actually their properties are have a huge piece of land around it, and so a notice goes out and they get nothing.

So I mean, we can do better than that.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Would anyone else from the public wish to speak?

Hey, Nikki Davis, the district, um, downtown CAD.

11 South 10th Street.

Um I just figured I'd stick around since this last piece I was kind of here for.

Um and we talked about it earlier uh personally with my staff that you guys are blowing it out of the water with this C click fix thing that you have on your website.

Um I am very much I'm just gonna go to the top and just get it done real fast.

And now it's faster for us to just put it on your C clicks fix um link that you have on your website.

So uh I just wanted to throw that out there and let you guys know and save you an email for later.

Appreciate that.

Thank you.

One less email.

Would anyone else from the public wish to speak?

Eugene Elkin, second ward.

I'm gonna cover several areas.

To my surprise is what I did not know some things were going on.

Barbara, if you could possibly say when the electric power line meeting on that particular item will bring it up at the end, when it's gonna be, because I thought that's tonight's meeting.

Um I understand now we have around five thousand utility customers that are behind on their bills.

When I stood up here and told you we got renter issues that us in mobile homes are getting overwhelmed with bills, could it be that people are choosing to keep their home and not pay the city until they can't stand to go any longer?

The renters union that was formed here recently, and I attended along with Jackie Sample.

I will not be able to go tomorrow.

They will be going to Jeff City.

If any of you others could possibly attend, I was with a group who started the first law on mobile homes, and that was to give notice of up to 120 days before a mobile home park can be closed.

Hopefully more of you will attend.

Okay.

I found this paper here very, very interesting.

I hope we continue to see more of these.

These are telling you how to understand money and terminology.

The airport is showing some shorts.

We know there's several areas that are gonna be coming up short.

Why not start to discuss the dollar parking at the Columbia Airport effective end of this year?

You recently had the increase of car parking in downtown, then it's time to begin.

And I didn't say any more than a dollar, I just said start at a dollar.

For I heard a radio announcement this morning, there will be a public restaurant as well as hot food served on that side.

You will have the person aboarding the airplane, that's a different setting, but once you realize you have public option, this could really turn into a money-making deal.

The city, oh that's what that was.

Need low, oh, we need a law in the city or state that possibly we could have an annual percentage I'm gonna say 5% or less.

The idea that rent cannot go up in your mobile home setting more than 5% or less, which would greatly help the low-income and fixed income people in our society.

As I often say, God bless you.

Thank you, Eugene.

Would anyone else from the public wish to speak?

So Renee Carter, second ward.

And when you were speaking about the geofencing, I was interested.

I've been reading some things about safety and wanting to know if that technology either was capable of or in the future would be extended to using it to regulate speeds in different areas.

Because that might be helpful with your safety for pedestrians and drivers.

Anyway, thank you.

Would anyone else from the public wish to speak?

Evening, Demetrius Stevens.

I live in Ward 3.

Um I am here as a concerned citizen trying to follow what you guys have going on with the crime.

I sat in the last meeting, and um I'm glad we were you guys came to a resolution for the median thing, but spent those three hours.

But I'm asking you to put it as much time that you put on that top that particular issue that we were dealing with on crime.

The third ward, we are tired.

We are sick and tired of being sick and tired of being sick and tired of the crime.

The break-ins and cars.

Um I spoke with my best friend um today.

And the individual that broke into that car, he's the same person that's breaking into cars on the east side of town.

Boyd, Hanover, Rice Road.

Um, her daughter lives on one of the streets in that neighborhood between Boyd and McKee.

Um she lives on Sparrows.

He's made it to Sparrows.

He broke into her other daughters.

Coincidence, same person breaking in cars, two different locations.

This is a concern for me.

Because my concern is he's gonna get killed if y'all can't somebody can't get a hold to him.

I heard that they kinda knew who this kid is.

I don't know if that's true.

I don't know if Jill can speak to that.

Um something needs to be done.

I know it may be happening all over.

I'm not sure how often it's happening in other wards, but I know on the east side of a town where I just happen to live when I'm I'm about to move because I'm I'm over it.

I'm over it.

But I'm really concerned that this kid is breaking into things.

He has been chased down by the police department.

Um I don't know if it's gonna be the police or if it's gonna be street justice that's gonna get a hold of him, but someone needs to do something.

I know there are some things planned.

I saw an email about some stuff for spring break.

Spring break is too long.

This is like a fire.

Something needs to happen now.

Um I'm starting to have anxiety because of it, because I worry when I come out into the complex.

I'm I'm in and out of my house early and late.

And every time I come out of the house, my hand is on my nine millimeter.

Every time.

Because it's someone coming through the parking lot in the lengths.

When I'm coming down the street on Clark Lane.

It's certain streets I don't even drive because I have to worry.

I'm on defense like I'm in the military and I'm not, but I'm just this is immediate.

So the time y'all spent, like you did on that median situation and the safety, y'all gotta get this.

This is urgent.

Thank you, Tamita.

Anyone else from the public wish to speak?

See none, I'll come to council comments.

Uh and then we do have a few staff uh kind of follow-ups that we're expected to do today.

Um Vera, before I go to you, I'll just real quickly respond to one and just say I'm probably not gonna text someone while they're driving because I don't want them to look at their phone, but I do like the idea of them.

Oh, okay, near my okay, sorry.

I was like, I don't want to text anyone slow down.

I mean, I do think it in my head.

Now I understand you more.

That makes more sense.

Sorry.

Sorry, Renee.

I was like, I don't want to text anyone.

All right, sorry.

Vera.

Yeah.

I think uh we had a really interesting meeting tonight.

It's not often that it feels like every single thing that we are talking about covers one cohesive theme.

But tonight really deeply had a theme of communication in everything that we talked about, from postcards to geolocated texting to our community connectors, our reorganized departments or potentially reorganized departments, the contact center, public information meetings, street closure signs.

We covered every conceivable aspect of communication and then some in every single issue that we talked about tonight.

And we heard about so many incredible wins and victories, including a victory that our residents, our our constituents made happen at a point in the process where they thought all hope was lost.

They thought it was done and over.

They didn't find out about it until they heard that the park was closing, and they still managed to fight for the change and to make it happen.

And in response to that, we heard about an entire department facing a mistake and choosing to not only rectify that mistake to but to go above and beyond, engage with the community and remedy problems, find solutions to problems that at the start of the process they didn't know existed.

It's a process that's gonna continue ongoing with more community engagement and more problem solving.

And I hope that along with everything else, including conversations about parking signs and conversations about opt-in texting.

I hope that tonight you got to hear that when you bring up concerns to the city, to any person in any level in the city, you are not just shouting into the void.

Um everyone from the people up on the dais to the people that you interact with in our city every day is taking your concerns very seriously.

And you have an incredible opportunity coming up for our community summit on March 14th.

Um we are going to have a great opportunity to disc to talk about issues in the community, to talk about what you want to see in the community.

Um please engage with this process.

We as a council are still discussing and prioritizing and basing decisions off of the responses and feedback that we got at the last community summit.

We truly do take that feedback so seriously.

Um I just encourage everyone to engage with that.

Thanks, Vera.

Jackie.

Sure.

Um I do want to comment um building off of communications, but also the violence the discussion we had earlier on the violence task force.

Um I agree with Ms.

Stevens, you know, Ward 3 sees a heavy share of the community violence in the city.

And um so building on that communication piece, it's not only important to be communicating with the city but with your neighbors and with your actual community and the people who are there and looking out for each other.

And so I appreciate people who are making those efforts.

Um and I wanted just to mention um that board three does have the no cap group.

And for those of you who don't know what no cap is, it's a basically a gathering of adults in that in neighborhoods who are seeing that increased violence, trying to figure out how we can reach out and engage with our youth to redirect or offer them opportunities that will allow them to redirect uh away from violence.

And so if you are interested in um in Ward 3 gathering together, reach out to me, reach out to DeMarcus, and we can add you to that list um and be part of that meeting and those solutions.

It's you know, everything takes a while to build, but um I have a lot of faith in the group of people and in this core group of people who have formed, I attend those meetings as well, um, trying to help figure out what we can do to support those neighborhoods.

So anybody can can attend, so I would encourage you to do that.

Um I think that's it.

Thank you.

Thanks, Jackie.

Nick.

Well, I'll just echo the uh interest in communications.

It it is it is so central to everything that we do, and I I'm pleased about uh Carlin presenting this idea of a department.

Um there are a lot of people who would be involved in that and already are, but really if we're not communicating to the to our residents well about everything that's going on, then we're kind of lost in its effectiveness.

So I'm really pleased about that.

I'm also made aware again about how difficult it is, not only because of the report, but because of some of the responses people, all of us expect to know everything all the time and really quickly these days.

And it and there are so many different avenues for learning information that it's it makes it all the more challenging.

So I think the department will be good for that.

And among the challenges are how people want to be communicated with, and that varies and how they don't.

You know, uh I receive a few texts that I'm not interested in receiving uh and phone calls that I don't really want to receive either.

And I can remember when I was uh knocking doors the last time, I'd knock on some doors, and I knew somebody was there, but they were not going to come to the door.

They didn't want me to be there.

So there are challenges that are that are relatively new to us as a society, and so I'm grateful for that for that.

And for the successful uh things we've heard tonight.

One other thing I just want to point to, and that was from the airport uh advisory group.

That within that of all the successes that um that the airport has had, it's been really inspiring and kind of amazing.

They're also saying we need more people to work out there.

And we had a conversation in pre-council about the need to increase fire and police and uh the question around how many FTEs we have now and whether we can support them.

Here's another plea coming saying we need more people to work in our airport.

So these challenges are going to continue as we grow as a community, I think, and the services that people want to receive, we're able to offer them and to offer them well.

So just kind of a note of awareness, I think, in that regard.

Don't yeah, just to echo some great examples and ideas and plans around the theme of communication tonight.

I also wanted to take a moment to acknowledge again and say thank you to the officers that were recognized at the beginning of the meeting tonight.

Um great work and uh just an excellent example.

Uh you know, the the new lieutenant happened to make that call, and like you said, it was a right call.

So but again, kudos to them and uh keep up the good work.

Betsy The only thing I have to comment on is um aside from Parks and Rec, of course, and the job they did of saying, okay, we're going the wrong way, we need to back up and reorganize this, is um I actually reported a pothole uh problem over on the East Campus.

Um I reported it, I fell into it on Wednesday, I reported on Thursday.

Somebody else apparently had reported it was already fixed by the time I drove by later Thursday afternoon.

So really good street work there.

Um so far I've received four emails regarding my um uh my one C click fix email to the city.

So um there's a lot of communication, but most of it already was fixed.

So thank you for that.

And I don't have anything else.

Right.

Valerie.

Yeah, this has been a really encouraging meeting.

Um it's not often that we have a meeting full of things that went right and progress.

It feels often that we don't get a lot of progress.

Um things move slowly.

Um but it's great to see things resolved, um, see reports coming back in, granted we tabled them.

Um I'm thankful for the progress for the future-mindedness of parks, um, not only in addressing the problem, but in looking to long-live solutions that outlive just this one improvement.

Um and that the future-mindedness of investing in new IT software to alert our citizens better.

Um we can't always know who wants to know things.

Um, but people will ask to know things and they will opt in if they want them.

Um I'm glad that we'll have those tools available and hopeful that we'll have them available before the busy project season that usually occurs in the summer.

Um the topic of um communication, I have my Let's Talk Local event this Monday on February 23rd that's been rescheduled.

Um our topic is building strong communities.

Um talking to our neighborhood um associations and our other neighborhood organizations.

Ummunication really is what makes us strong as a city.

Um and our ability to advocate for our neighbors on a ground level is what builds this community.

Um I'm thankful for any tools we have to help equip you all with the ability to do that in every way that you would like to.

So thanks for that.

All right.

Uh I'll and before I get to our staff comments, which we have a few um speaking for Betsy.

Uh Betsy's Let's Talk Local is tomorrow.

Uh she was so excited about the pothole.

She forgot to say the biggest thing she has going on this weekend.

So Shane, that shows you public works impact on everybody.

Um so Betsy's is tomorrow at the Sports Field House, February 17th from 5.30 to 7.

And the conversation is around the electric integrated resource plan as well as anything else that comes up within the six board.

So there you go, Betsy.

Thanks.

All right.

So I've got a couple of things.

The the first off is one of our biggest uh contracts that we have for energy is with the Sykeston municipal electric utilities, which are doing their strategic plan right now to shut down their coal-fired power plant.

And so uh with council's consent, um I know that they've been expressing interest in looking at both gas generation as well as solar um solar fields there.

So with council's consent, I'll send a letter on behalf of us expressing our support for them exploring that since we would like to um potentially have more renewable energy, especially in Missouri.

So there's no concern over that, we'll send a letter of support for that.

Um and then the other one is just um there was a question about the transmission line, which is uh was our work session last Monday.

Uh it was one of our off session work sessions.

But at that work session, uh council um when asking for sort of next steps in transmission line development asked, you know, what would Water and Light Advisory Board say, and then what is the next steps for the public improvement process.

So DeKarly and I'm gonna either kick this to you or if you want just Aaron Keys to come up.

Um I think that's our first of our staff report questions to have.

And so Aaron's prepared to talk about that a little bit.

Appreciate that.

Aaron Keys Utilities Director.

Uh yes, the Water and Line Advisory Board met uh this last Wednesday uh after the work session that we had with you on Monday.

Uh they voted unanimously to move forward with the VAT school transmission road uh transmission route.

They believe that city council action is necessary given the need for the transmission line and the time it will take to construct, and they urge council to start the public input process.

And so with that, what we were what we requested at the work session was that you direct us to move forward with the public improvement process.

And what that includes is public meetings.

We will have more than one IP meeting for this, of course.

Uh we'll probably have multiple public meetings about it, and then we will move towards a public hearing.

And at the public hearing is when you get to decide whether or not to direct us to move forward with the design and construction of the transmission line route.

What we will bring to the public meetings is the route that you recommend us to move forward with tonight.

And so we will show uh possible alignment.

That won't necessarily be the final alignment, but it would it would be a proposed alignment.

And that's what we will take comments on is that proposed alignment uh in the public meetings and then at the public hearing.

Does that make sense of the process going forward?

Yeah, so your your direction you're looking for staff is to pursue the public improvement process along the VATR school road and night on all that conversation there.

Can I ask you some of the feedback that we received from the first time round was about where notifications were sent?

Can you remind us um for these interested parties meetings how notifications will be sent out?

Sure.

And that's why I say we'll have multiple different meetings.

Uh so opportunities for people who may have missed it, uh they can go to another location.

Uh typically our normal process is those people that are directly affected.

So the people immediately adjacent to the project are the ones that are uh directly contacted.

Uh I know for this one we're probably gonna plan on contacting those neighborhoods that are adjacent.

Uh I'm not sure exactly how we'll move forward with that, whether it'll be through homeowners association or direct mail or what.

Um we haven't dialed into that the complete communication plan yet.

Obviously, we'll do you know, city source, we'll have it on the website.

We'll, you know, do all those different communication techniques that the that we use, because like we said, everybody wants to know in a different way.

So we'll we'll attempt what we can.

And what's the estimated timeline that you have thought of?

Uh that's what we're working on right now.

Uh we're trying to to lay out how long each of these things are going to take so that we are sure we can get that information uh out in our newsletter.

Um, you know, it it's a couple months.

The the lead time is about two months to get something in a city source.

So we've we've got to kind of plan out uh how long that's going to take.

So uh we're gonna take the next number of weeks just to figure that out.

Yeah.

Questions for yeah, Betsy.

Um, can the last time 10 years ago when we were looking at this, we had interested parties meeting, and then we had a public hearing.

Had there been any design work done on that line before that, or was that all dependent upon the public hearing?

There was design work that it was done previously, yes.

Okay.

Quite a bit of design work.

Yeah, that what I remember was uh it came to a head when they realized that you were asking what kind of utility polls.

Right.

So referred and all of a sudden people realized we were talking about an electric line.

Right.

My understanding was the the original public hearing where it was approved, they directed staff to proceed with design uh of the project.

So part of that design uh is doing survey work, doing geotechnical investigation, which includes bringing a drill rig out and drilling where you think those poll locations are going to go.

And it's my understanding that that was the point when people realized, oh, there's a poll that's gonna go there.

And that's when it came back to the to the next public hearing where the project got paused.

Okay.

All right.

Thanks.

Additional questions for Aaron on this.

Um the direction that um Aaron is looking for is to start the public improvement process for um the Voder school route, the route that we saw last week.

Um is there any objection to starting that process?

No objection?

Objection?

And this will come back to us before anything is formal done.

You'll do multiple interested parties meeting and we'll have a public hearing before anything happens, correct?

Correct.

Is there any questions from staff from council?

Do you counsel?

Yeah, Don.

No, I was going to say that given and I understand you know we have to notify the people along the proposed route.

Given the feedback from last time, I think we can pretty much guess what the their input is going to be.

Um but given that this is something that has an impact on all of Columbia, and I'm not sure I don't mean don't mean send a postcard to the entire city.

But a way to expand the outreach and the notification, whether it's, you know, like I said, we've got the newsletter, we've got other avenues to say, hey, this is something that affects the entire city.

Um we're having a part we're having an interested parties meeting.

Here they are, and please attend.

Right.

Yes.

And and I wasn't very clear on that.

That uh typically, yes, we generally advertise widely to those directly adjacent.

But for this one, yes, I would like to make it more of a citywide type uh invitation for people to attend the interested parties meetings.

Um like I said, I'm not sure it will be a direct mail to everybody, other than it'll be in their utility bill, you know, that insert or the uh city source, that sort of thing.

Um but uh we haven't fleshed out what that's gonna look like.

But yes, we we definitely want to invite the entire city to whatever interested parties meeting.

And I'll probably I'll keep track of it, but please make sure I'm invited to those as well, because better or worse, I'll be there.

Yeah, and I think so and I don't know, you know, obviously following along with the um engagement manual that was on tonight's report section.

It's my understanding that Nancy, I'll look to you or Carlin, like this is basically like they start the interested parties meetings and then they come to council for the public hearing for directing them to start the official designs.

Is that correct for the next steps?

I think I think the question is how much design do you have to do before you begin your interested parties meeting?

Right.

Well, we we have enough information for this one, you know, past design work that uh like I said, we'll have an alignment.

We won't have exact poll locations, um, but we'll have you know a generalized alignment that we can that citizens can look at.

Okay.

Any additional questions on this one?

No, I appreciate the additional information now.

I assume there will also be a bee heard sites and multiple opportunities.

Yeah, Nick raise his hand.

Well, uh since there has been some design work done previously, then that those gives a little bit of a shortcut to getting into the process, I assume.

Is that right?

So I I guess I'm wondering about when we can anticipate that we might have these meetings scheduled and so forth.

How soon might we have an interested parties meeting?

Right.

Uh it'll be a couple months probably, just so we can make sure that we have all the information ready for the meeting and we're not rushing at the last minute.

And we get it into the newsletter and all that sort of thing.

So it it'll be a number of months before we have the first meeting.

Probably May then.

I don't want to promise anything.

I know.

That's why we're asking.

Yeah.

Well, just look forward to having updates on when we have an estimated time.

And I know it's two months out to get in the city source, but as soon as it's put together, if it can be sent to us and put online, that'd be appreciated.

Yeah.

Yes.

All right.

Any other staff reports?

Not a whole lot.

So just in conjunction with the community summit, we've actually selected our vendor for our strategic plan, so that's very done.

They will be present at the community summit to take some input from our residents to help us start the process for developing out the strategic plan.

Great to hear.

All right.

Anything, Nancy?

Anything from you?

No.

You know voice anyway.

Sheila, anything from you?

No.

All right.

I'll go ahead and close at nine, join us at 9.16.

Cool.