Good evening.

I'll go ahead and call our March 16th, 2026 Columbia City Council meeting to order on by all those who are able to please rise and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

And to the Republican, one nation.

All right, Holly, will you please call roll?

Mr.

Foster.

Here.

Mr.

Waterman.

Here.

Ms.

Peters.

Ms.

Buffalo.

Here.

Miss Carroll.

Here.

Miss Elwood.

Here.

Miss Sample.

Here.

All right, moving on.

Well, good evening for all those who are here to join us for our regular city council meeting.

Just a quick overview, especially if this is your first time for our council meeting agendas.

I'll just make a quick note of overviews of things that are on council agendas.

So the first is an items listed under consent agenda.

If council doesn't pull them from the consent agenda this evening, there's not normally a presentation on them.

And there's not usually opportunity for public comment.

For items listed under introduction and first read, if there's an asterisk, that means it would be on the consent agenda at the next council meeting.

Items that items that do not have an asterisk on it would either be a public hearing or they would go to old business at the next council meeting.

There are multiple opportunities to speak at City Columbia meeting or council meetings.

You can talk during public hearing, old business, new business.

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

I do ask that people uh respect the time limits we have, three minutes for individuals.

You can request five minutes if you're an organization affected by the legislation.

I do ask that you help me acknowledge that so I can let Peyton know to change the shot clock so you know how much time you have left on that.

Um we ask that people also avoid demonstrations that might intimidate a neighbor from speaking.

Uh we want to make sure that we're addressing issues, not individuals, and refraining from personal attacks, and that includes on city staff.

Uh disruptions would be addressed with a warning and if necessary, um, removal and recess.

So moving on, the first thing we have on our city council agenda this evening is approval of the minutes.

So I'll make a motion to approve the March 2nd, 2026 City Council meeting minutes.

Do I have a second?

Second.

Second for Vero.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

All right.

Moving on, we've had a couple of adjustments to our agenda.

So up first, um, the event organizer associated with um resolution 5326 has requested that this item uh not move forward.

So we're gonna remove resolution 50, or I will propose to remove resolution 5326 from the agenda.

I believe also council member Peters had a constituent ask um to that bill 5826 be moved from consent agenda to old business.

Um and then also resolution 4326.

Um, we'll need to move from consent agenda to new business because we have an amendment related to the cost of that.

Are there any other proposed agenda adjustments?

Okay, so I will make a motion uh to approve the agenda with Bill 5826 being moved to old business and resolution 4326 being moved to new business and resolution 5326 being removed completely from the agenda.

Do I have a second?

Second.

Second by Nick Foster.

All those in favor of approving the uh agenda with the amendment say aye.

Aye aye.

Any opposed?

All right.

All right, and then this evening we do not have any um special items.

So up first, we're gonna do appointments to boards and commissions.

I'll remind people that um there are multiple opportunities to serve the city of Columbia, and one of those is through our multitude of boards and commissions that advise city council.

So this evening we have a few applications to a few of our vacancies, and then later this week uh the next round of vacancies will be advertised.

And I encourage if you're interested in getting more involved in local government to look at those and consider that.

Um so up first, we'll need a roll call vote for the commission on human rights.

So Holly, I'll let you lead that.

Mr.

Waterman.

Jeffrey Cook.

Miss Peters.

Reese Holcomb.

Buffalo.

Julie Mollinkamp.

Miss Carroll.

Reese Holcomb.

Miss Elwood.

Reese Holcomb.

Miss Sample.

Okay.

All right, and then uh up next, we have we have um two applicants to the two uh vacancies or openings on the public transit advisory commission.

So if there's no concern, um both applicants, Gabby Jacobs and Connor Pinkley could be appointed.

There's no objection.

No objection objection.

Okay.

So again, keep an eye out for the next round of vacancies that will be posted usually on Wednesday of this week.

All right, so moving on to scheduled public comment.

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

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

So scheduled public comments cannot be on items.

They're on the same night's agenda.

Of note, it's been a typical practice to ask for additional follow-up of questions asked tonight of staff at the end of the meeting at Warranton.

So tonight we have three scheduled public comments.

So I'd like to first ask Devin Kareem Goines to please come forward to speak.

Yeah, yep, I think so.

All right.

Well, good evening, Mayor and members of council.

My name is Devin Kareem Goens.

Uh though many in the of the people in the community know me as Kareem.

Uh I'm a creative professional from the south side of Chicago, uh, but I'm based here in Chicago uh in Columbia.

Uh I work as a DJ video editor, uh, an event organizer, and I'm also a resident of Ward 4.

So council member uh Nick Foster.

Uh appreciate the opportunity to speak here tonight as one of your constituents.

So you'll probably hear uh or you probably heard a lot about V OS and what it's about.

So instead of repeating that, I want to share my personal example of how it uh has impacted my work and the community around me.

So for the past few years, I've organized uh creative events in Colombia that uh bring people together uh through music, poetry, and storytelling.

Uh one of these events that I put on in Columbia, uh it's called Cozy Sessions.

So Closy Sessions is a space where local artists, poets, musicians come together to share their work and uh build community.

Uh it's a space where local artists uh and poets and musicians come together, uh share their work, build this community, and uh when the people attend these events, uh they're experiencing art uh created right here in Columbia.

So what people not uh tend to not see uh are the the tools and the preparation behind all of this work.

Uh all of this tends to start in places like VidWest.

Uh so VidWest has given me access to tools needed for the productive creative work that I've done, such as cameras, uh audio equipment and lighting, uh just and just gives me a space to refine the ideas before they go out into the community.

Uh those resources have helped me turn these ideas into real projects.

Uh projects that people in Columbia uh tend to come out to and get it get to experience together.

Uh because of that access, events like Cozy Sessions don't just become a place to watch performances, they become a platform for local voices.

Uh they become a safe space, uh, many of which many people that that come here, uh some of them have stepped on the stage uh and share shared their art for the first time publicly.

So I think it's it's important to continue to do events like this.

Um that's why this conversation matters, you know, because uh access to spaces like VidWest, uh they directly affect the work that many of us in Columbia are doing uh to bring creative experiences into the community, right?

Um sometimes when we talk about infrastructure, we're thinking about the roads, we're thinking about the buildings, and sometimes I-70, not to start anything on that, right?

Uh but sometimes infrastructure looks like you know a microphone, right?

Or a camera or a studio that helps someone develop a skill or launch a project or share their voice with the community, right?

And I've seen uh firsthand how access to these tools can ripper uh ribble outward uh from one creator to an event or to an entire room of people experiencing something meaningful together, kind of like tonight.

Yeah.

Uh supporting a community media center means supporting the people in Columbia who are turning ideas into culture, uh connection and opportunity.

So I'm I'm just grateful for uh the role that these spaces have played in my journey and in the creative community here.

Um I encourage just the council to continue supporting access to resources like this that empower residents to create, collaborate, uh, and contribute to our city uh because I think it's truly important.

Okay.

So thank you.

Thank you, Kareem.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Yeah, for sure.

Uh now I'd like to ask Jim Windsor to come forward to speak.

All right.

Jim Windsor, 200 Manor Drive.

I had looked at the 2026 proposed budget and ways to make it more understandable.

But after reviewing it, I found that there and asked and asking for several other internal city documents.

It appears to me that over the past decade, city administrations have developed multiple ways to quietly take millions of dollars from enterprise funds, particularly the utilities to support the general fund.

A small example is that the five utilities pay for 65% of the deputy city manager position, even though, according to the organizational chart, that position is not in the utility department's chain of command.

The most outrageous charges are hidden in intergovernmental fees.

Neither the city council nor the public see the detail of the intergovernmental fees.

One fee is the general administration fee.

Of the 40 FOSS cost categories listed in the 2026 proposed budget, only 18 are charged the total of 13.9 million that supports law, finance, city council, city clerk, and city manager's office.

The five utilities paid 9.9 million, or 71% of that total.

Last year, the Water and Light Board was given a document explaining that the general administration fee was based on each division's share of the total budget.

The only justification for that method is to maximize the amount taken from the utilities, the largest budgets.

You would anticipate that electric would have the largest charge, followed by water.

Based on the detailed information I was provided, solid waste customers are paying $3.5 million this year, electric $2.5 million, sewer $2.4 million, water $1.3 million, and stormwater $93,000.

There are several other intergovernmental fees where I question why utilities pay most of the cost.

Currently, the two cent Columbia sales use tax is split between one cent to dedicated funds and one cent to the general fund.

In May, you will decide if you put forward a ballot proposal that would increase the amount of sales use tax that goes to the general fund by 100%, although it will be dedicated to public safety.

Also in May, you will be updated on the solid waste and sewer cost of service studies.

It is likely that you will be told that rate increases will be necessary for both sewer and solid waste.

You've already been told that water will need another 10% rate increase in FY27, followed by multiple 3% increases.

In addition, small electric rate increases are anticipated.

Currently, a residential customer with the smallest roll cart and the basic stormwater charge pays over $67 per month before using any water electricity or having any sewer discharge.

Now is the time for to correct past unfair charges to utility customers.

Fair intergovernmental charges would greatly reduce cost for utility customers.

For example, a general administration fee based on the number of FTEs and applied to all cost categories would reduce annual cost for solid waste by 2.5 million and sewer by 1.8 million.

I encourage you, the city council, to ask the utility department if rate increases for solid waste and sewer would be necessary in the coming year if those chart changes were made.

Five minutes is not enough time to fully explain this issue.

I will be sending you documents and a detailed explanation, what have I discussed?

And I will am willing to meet with each of you.

In addition, I will share this information with local media outlets as well as low-income advocates and those that keep telling you that there is a lack of transparency on the part of city administration.

I will finish by saying that I would normally vote for the proposal to dedicate funds to public safety.

However, until I see real effort to relieve the burden on utility ratepayers, I will vote no and explain to anyone willing to listen why.

I cannot justify continue to burden ratepayers with funding the general fund and at the same time doubling the amount of sales use tax that will go to the general fund operations.

Please take proactive steps to address this issue.

A sales use tax increase can provide for public safety and provide fairness for ratepayers if you, as the governing body require policy changes and transparency.

Thank you.

Thank you, Jim.

Now ask for Elizabeth Miller to please come forward.

And you can move that down.

Perfect.

Good evening.

My name is Elizabeth Miller, and I'm a resident of Columbia.

And I'm here today because I wanted to talk about safety in our community.

Recently, I had a very frightening experience at Stevens Lake Park.

A man chased us out of a park holding a crowbar, yelling threats and curse words, and we had to leave because we are very concerned for our safety.

Parks are supposed to be places where families and kids can relax and enjoy nature.

And that experience made me realize that not everyone feels safe there.

And this experience decreased his desire to bike in Colombia.

There was another incident where someone in Columbia caused a car crash and threatened to kill my father in front of me and my brother.

This also made me feel very scared and worried about my safety.

These experience like these had made me think a lot about safety in our community and how frightening it can be for families.

I understand that issues like homeless people and crime are complex and that many homeless people are struggling and need help and support.

But at the same time, families should be able to use public parks and spaces without feeling afraid.

I hope the city will continue working on solutions that both help struggling people and make sure that public spaces remain safe for families and children.

Thank you for listening to my concerns.

Thank you, Let's Beth.

All right, moving on in our agenda to public hearings.

Holly, will you please read public hearing 726 and resolution 5726?

Yes.

Policy, I'm sorry, public hearing 726 is to consider the consolidated annual performance evaluation report keeper.

And resolution 5726 is approving the 2025 consolidated annual performance and evaluation report keeper, authorizing the city manager to submit the document to the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Do we have a staff report?

We do.

Um advanced.

That's the secret I learned, yes.

Thank you very much.

Okay, good evening, Mayor, Council.

Uh my name is Bill Ranta, Director of Housing Neighborhood Services.

And I'd like to discuss our what we call the CAPER, our consolidated annual performance evaluation report.

Um annual report that we have to submit to HUD for the use of their funds.

So it includes the community development block grant and the community development block grant CV or coronavirus.

Uh that was funding that we received from the result of the pandemic.

And home ARP.

Home ARP was funding that was designated through the American Rescue Plan Act.

Uh and it was home funding.

So this CAPER report has to be submitted electronically through what HUD calls their integrated disbursement and reporting system, IDIS.

And uh we have to submit it by 90 days after the end of our program year.

Now we're on a calendar year for HUD, so the end of our program year was uh December 31st.

And then uh we are also required by HUD to issue a uh draft uh 15 days ahead of time and to solicit public comment, which we're doing here tonight, and then um incorporate those comments into our final submission of the report.

And again, the final report is due on March 30th.

So uh the CAPER report uh details the expenditures and accomplishments and our program year.

Again, it's a calendar year.

Um we also have to submit to HUD something called a consolidated plan, which is a five-year plan that the current one uh runs from 2025 through 2029.

So this is the first year that reporting accomplishments towards uh the objectives in those plans.

Uh so 2026, the year we're now is actually the second year of our plan, but we're still waiting to know what our allocation is from HUD uh for uh 2026 fiscal year.

And uh this slide will just show you some of the expenditures uh that we've had.

Um I will point out um that we've had significant increases in all categories except for the CDBG C V, and that's only because uh that funding is winding down.

Uh but we spent about 1.8 million in block grant funding, uh about 1.1 million in home funding, and a little over 2 million in home ARP funding.

Um other significant accomplishments are that we met our timely list goals for the expenditures of our block grant funding, and uh HUD only allows grantees to have one and a half times their annual uh allocation in their account by November 1st.

So for us that's roughly about 1.5 million dollars.

Um the fact that we met this accomplishment is very significant, and that most of the country does not meet this goal.

About two-thirds of the HUD grantees do not meet this goal, so this is a real uh credit to staff uh that they were able to achieve this.

And uh there are percent potentially serious consequences.

This is not meant on a continuous basis.

Uh you may have to provide uh weekly reports to HUD.

Uh you may be called to Washington DC to kind of explain, you know, why you're falling behind if it happens too many years in a row.

And uh worst case scenario is they can reduce the amount of year funding uh by the amount uh that you don't meet the time window school.

So some other significant accomplishments uh with the uh funding that we expended.

Um we have our homeownership assistance program, which helps uh first-time home buyers.

Uh we assisted eight first-time homebuyers under that program in 2025.

Uh the Columbia Housing Authority um assisted five households uh with total of 20 people uh living in those units through their tenant-based rental assistance program.

And they also completed uh the Kinney Point project, which is 34 uh units of affordable housing.

I'm sure many of you are familiar with that.

Um we spent two million in home ARP funding on that, and the HUD deadline to spend all those funds was 2030.

So we're well ahead of that uh that deadline.

Uh the services for independent living uh assisted 15 elderly and disabled homeowners uh by making repairs that allow them to stay in their homes and maintain their independence.

Uh CMCA constru uh they're continuing their construction on the Providence Landing Development, and they spent a significant amount of money uh towards that project.

And uh their women's business center assisted 190 business owners.

In addition, uh Woodhaven assisted 27 development developmentally disabled individuals with home rehabilitations again to kind of help them stay in their home.

Um and then job points uh facility uh rehabilitation uh provided vocational training to 29 students in various trades.

Uh the Columbia Housing Authority demolished 70 legacy units of public housing on Park Avenue, and uh these will be replaced uh by 79 new high quality affordable units, and they also spent uh a little over a million dollars in block grant funds towards the demolition of those units, which also helped us with our timeliness goals.

Um and then the city uh through an in-house program for rehabilitation energy efficiency.

We assisted six households uh with those projects.

Um but I also would like to point out that with ARPA funds, we assisted 129 additional homeowners uh with that funding, but since those aren't HUD funds, those are not officially part of the CAPER, but I thought it was important to uh note uh that our office uh was able to help a lot of folks with that funding.

And then um I will open it up to any comments, uh, but we are seeking approval of the CAPER and authorization to submit it to HUD.

Any questions for staff on this?

Yeah, Nick.

Um I can see where a lot of this money could be spent, uh such as at Kenny Point and uh and Providence Landing really quickly, and we can be way ahead of schedule on that.

On the other things like vocation vocational rehab or energy efficient and the energy efficiency projects.

Do you all keep in reserve money to spend over a period of time uh and sort of map that out year by year?

What I'm thinking of here is that you might have opportunity to spend it all in a single year or two years, but we have a five-year period in which to expend it.

Yeah, so we try and set aside an amount to spend annually on the program instead of just like let's fund it for five years and do it now, because we also want to leave room for other applications that may be received from the community and things that we would want to fund.

Because we also want to leave room for other applications that maybe receive from the community and things that we would want to fund.

Right.

Thanks.

Yeah, Betsy.

Hi.

Thanks for the report.

I have two questions.

When do you um learn uh about your head funding for this year?

Um probably it will be late summer, maybe early fall.

Um, we learned of our allocation for 2025.

Um officially it was late, it was late summer, and we actually didn't get the funding awarded to us until January of this year.

And then how long do you have to spend that?

So um as long as we have no less than one and a half times whatever our account, yeah.

So it could stretch over a number of years, depending.

And then if you go back a slide or two, you had something about tenant-based rental assistance, and I just wondered what that was.

So um that is funding for direct support for low-income tenants uh to help them with their rent.

Okay, so we were able to help five households?

Five households, right, just with the amount of funding that we had available.

Okay.

Thanks.

Any other questions for staff on this one?

Yeah, Valerie.

Yeah, um, sorry, yeah, I need to.

I'm looking at the answers from staff questions that we sent ahead.

There was a question, I actually think it was award two question, so I'm asking that.

If Vera, if you would like to, you're welcome to.

Um, it was about rental assistance and the numbers served um being much lower than what the goal is, even though um it seems like we've heard example for the utility assistance programs in other departments that exceeded expectations this year.

Um looking at the report, I actually wondered if there had been a transcription error.

Um, and then when I read the answers, it didn't quite make sense.

I can you comment to that a little bit just to clear up where we're at?

Yeah, so um first of all, um HUD requires that we establish five-year goals, and within those goals, uh we'll have an annual goal.

Now, some projects may not meet you know 25% of the goal or 20% of the goal in the first year.

Um, but by the end of the five years, they usually have met the goal.

Um, another thing also that plays into it is the funding available.

So we may not we may project this when the plan was put together that oh, we're gonna have enough money to deprive this many, you know, uh tenants with tenant-based rental assistance, but we may not actually have the funding available to do that.

I might be looking at a different space.

So this wasn't on the funding goal.

Um, it was table twelve number of households supported through rental insur assistance.

This is at least where I had the question.

The one year goal was 42 and actual was five, but one column below that one year goal was five for a different thing.

It is that a transcription error, or is was it actual five for a one-year goal 42?

It was actual five towards a one-year 42.

So and again, you know, in subsequent years towards the five-year plan, that goal may be met.

Okay.

Cumulatively.

So the one year goal is cumulative for no, what I'm saying is there's a one-year goal.

Um but there's a five-year plan, right?

So there's a goal each year.

So even though we may be behind in year one or year two or whatever, by the end of the five years, we'll hopefully be caught up.

And I'll also say that that there aren't any penalties from HUD if you don't meet the goals.

Um, we will have to explain, you know, in the final um caper on this uh consolidated plan why we did or why we didn't meet goals or why we may have exceeded goals.

Um I follow.

Thank you for clarifying.

Yeah, Vera.

Yeah, following up on the same question.

So was this was this an issue where uh it was just financial, we realized we needed to put that money somewhere else, or we realized we got a little less than we expected, or was it you know, we were surprised to not get as many applications as we had hoped?

You know, do we have a plan so that next year we're able to spread that rental assistance further?

Yeah, I mean, I think the goal was probably a little aggressive just because of the amount of funding that we have.

We fund it with home, we get a little less than half a million dollars in home funding.

So if we would have spent, you know, we could spend more than our home allocation assist those 42 households.

So other needs kind of come into play as well, other applications for funding, things like that.

So there's kind of all those things you suggested kind of play into that.

Can I I clarify on that too?

Um, to ask um, this is different than what um Columbia Housing Authority gets for housing choice vouchers, or is this yeah, this is through us?

This is right through home.

Okay.

Um so I assume it's probably similar to what we see from them is also lack of places that you can then get people assistance to because of last lack of um um opportunities, uh places to rent potentially, yeah.

And funding plays a big part in it.

Yep.

Any other questions for staff from this one?

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

Does anybody from the public wish to speak on um the consolidated annual performance and evaluation report for 2025?

Seeing none, I'll close the public hearing.

Uh any additional comments come.

Yeah, Nick.

I'll just make my annual appeal to read the Caper.

It's a it's a pretty substantial and comprehensive look, not just at what the city is doing, but what others are in the city are doing as well.

And uh gives a uh a terrific overview of all the services that are being provided in the city regarding housing and homelessness.

Any other um Holly, will you please call roll on resolution 5726?

Council Bill 5726, Mr.

Foster?

Yes, Mr.

Waterman?

Yes, Ms.

Peters?

Yes, Miss Buffalo?

Yes.

Ms.

Carroll?

Yes.

Ms.

Elwood?

Yes.

Ms.

Sample.

Yes.

All right, moving on to old business.

Um, Holly, will you please read Bill 5326?

Council Bill 5326 is amending chapter two of the city code to revise Article 10 relating to purchasing and fixing the time when this ordinance shall become effective.

Second reading.

Do we have a staff report?

Yes.

Matthew Lewitt of the Finance Director, and I'm Cale Turner.

I'm the purchasing agent for the city.

Um good evening, Mayor and Count members of council.

I am here to present council bill B 5326, which proposes essential updates to Article 10, Chapter 2 of the City Code.

The goal of this ordinance update is to is three threefold to modernize our procurement methods, increase operational efficiency, and strengthen our internal governance.

First, we are looking at a adjustment to our spending thresholds to reflect the current economic um landscape.

We propose increasing formal uh bidding thresholds from 15,000 to 25,000 to streamline smaller purchases.

We are also seeking an update to cost thresholds for utility infrastructure projects exempt from the public improvement process.

Specifically, this includes raising the threshold to 750,000 for electric distribution and 150,000 for water and utility projects, allowing our crews to respond to infrastructure needs more nimbly.

Next, we are to bring our procurement process into a digital age.

These updates will allow us to move away from uh outdated paper heavy requirements and fully embrace electronic bidding systems and procurement portals.

We also formalize um formalizing to use the request for proposal, request for qualification, and a request for expression of interest process for professional services, ensuring we get the best expertise for the City of Columbia.

Additionally, we're introducing flexibility for leasing and trade-ins up to five years for vehicles and technology, which helps us maintain a modern fleet without massive upfront capital outlays.

Finally, the bill strengthens our oversight and transparency.

We are introducing a cap of uh cumulative change orders of 15% of the original contract.

Any amount exceeding that will require written approval from the city manager.

We are clarifying the emergency purchasing authority does not bypass the need for proper documentation and written contracts.

And lastly, we are proposing a structured surplus technology sales program.

This allows city employees to purchase surplus tech at a fair market, provided there are adhered to our 24-month resale restriction to prevent any appearance of impropriety.

In summary, these changes allow the city to work faster and smarter while maintaining the high level of fiscal integrity our citizens expect.

Questions for staff on this one.

So I I have one.

Like how are we notified now?

And then also I'm wondering the um actual applicability of us enforcing you have to keep it for 24 months afterwards.

I'm just imagining you knocking on the door of somebody in 20 months and confirming that they have that iPad.

So I those are my questions.

Well, I mean, I'll just have to be more involved in looking to see if things are being sold at a you know to try to make money by citizens or are uh you know me and uh Nancy talked about also looking for instance where people um the same employees buying multiple technology making multiple technology purchases that could kind of raise the flag that we maybe need to look and make sure they're not uh going and reselling it and making money off of that.

Okay, so we're we're worried about a concern or just the potential for just the potential for it.

We just want to we've never had it in an ordinance where we would actually look for that kind of stuff, so just bringing that bringing that to the front to be looking at it, and actually to have a process for getting this uh material out to city employees.

It's really not even stated in ordinance right now that it would go to city employees.

Okay, I think I'll just probably be interested in monitoring that that 24 month following of that.

I'm not that you don't want to help me with that?

No, I mean no, I'm just trying to figure out for that one.

I think the idea, maybe it would be that that would have to be complaint driven at some point, it'd have to be some employee who is concerned about some other employees uh misuse of equipment.

I mean that the idea behind uh and the public purpose behind a program like this is to make sure that you have the opportunity to increase the skills of um existing city employees in as a part of kind of that soft those soft skills and professional development by being able to acquire technology that is no longer being used by the city, and it's the same technology we use in city hall, um, although it's outdated, there's still a lot of learning that can come from that.

Do we have any programs in place um that that technology, especially you have in here in case there's the person who is it currently is theirs, you know, it comes up to potentially then anyone that does.

Do we have any opportunities for people to donate to like shelters or you know, civic groups or nonprofits that you know could utilize it even though it's outdated?

Yeah, we can we we've currently done we've done that.

We've uh the STEM alliance has gotten some of the our smartphones throughout the years and and different different things, the Optimus Club.

I we've gave them some computers to do some of their work daily and uh stuff like that.

So yeah, we we look for as many opportunities as we can with that.

Okay, and and typically we have to be somewhat cautious about giving public funds to private organizations, so that has to go through a pretty significant process.

We wouldn't want individual employees out there determining and getting things and giving them in the private sector.

That needs to be a process.

Anyone else have any questions?

Yeah, Valerie.

Yeah.

Um, I had some concerns about um, I guess where purchasing has oversight for items that don't have to go through a bidding process if we change the levels that they go through a bidding process.

So if that moves to a departmental um process as opposed to going through directly through purchasing, where I know that you still ultimately have some oversight.

Where do you have that ability to give oversight and ensure that essentially we're spending our money wisely and getting the best value or a reasonable value?

Well, I mean, right now the thresholds up to from five to fifteen where the departments do their own procurement, and then once they then they do a requisition and P uh requisition process that comes to my staff, they review it, and then it comes to me to ultimately convert that requisition to a PO to make sure that the follow up the processes were followed according to ordinance.

So it's just raising that to 25.

Yeah.

Okay.

Any other questions for staff on this?

Yeah, Nick.

How long has it been at the current level?

Since 2013 is what it was the thousand for the open market threshold.

That was the only thing that was changed in 2013.

But before that, it was in the 90s.

Okay.

All right.

Any other questions for Kale or Matthew?

All right.

Does anyone from the public wish to speak on Bill 5326 updates to Article X, Chapter 2 of the City Code?

Seeing none.

Any additional council comments for this?

All right.

All right.

Holly, we please uh call roll on bill 5326.

Council Bill 5326, Mr.

Foster.

Yes.

Mr.

Waterman.

Yes.

Ms.

Peters?

Yes.

Ms.

Buffalo?

Yes.

Ms.

Carroll?

Yes.

Ms.

Elwood?

Yes.

Ms.

Sample.

Yes.

All right.

Uh we have one item pulled from consent for old business.

So I will ask Holly to please read Bill 5826.

Council Bill 5826 is an ordinance amending the FY2026 annual budget by appropriating funds in the amount of $750,000, authorizing an air service agreement with Air American Airlines Incorporated for round trip air service between Columbia Regional Airport and Charlotte Douglas International Airport and fixing the time when this ordinance shall become effective.

Second reading.

Good evening, Mayor and Councilman Mike Parks, Airport Manager.

Tonight I'm here for an air service agreement between American Airlines and the City of Columbia for daily service from Charlotte Douglas International Airport to Columbia.

After nearly nine years of discussions with American Airlines regarding the need for Charlotte service, I am extremely proud and excited for our region to bring this contract forward.

The City of Columbia has made a significant infest investment in our terminal, and the Columbia Regional Airport is seeing momentum that we have not seen in the past.

The agreement that I'm bringing forward this evening is for a period of one year.

If approved by council, the agreement would begin on May 21st of this year and would terminate on May 22nd, 2027.

This agreement is for up to 1.5 million dollars.

Of that, $750,000 is the city's responsibility and $750,000 would be the responsibility of Central Missouri Air Service Group.

The return on this investment receiving the flight benefits would be to the City of Columbia and mid-Missouri, both short term and long term.

For every passenger that flies out, we receive passenger facility charges and additional entitlement funding.

These funds are used for capital projects and improvements at the airport.

Based on the aircraft size, I anticipate that these funds fees could generate up to $250,000 per year that would be utilized for capital improvement projects at the airport.

We will also see additional revenue from fuel flowage fees and landing fees after the first uh first year of service.

This revenue is just the surface of the positive economic impact that this will make to Columbia in mid-Missouri.

Business expansion and attraction projects in mid-Missouri will be more attainable with improved air service.

Charlotte is the sixth largest hub in the United States with more than 180 destinations worldwide.

With nearly 4,500 weekly American departures from Charlotte, COU customers will also see a dramatic improvement in connection times for many East Coast and Southeast connections.

In addition to this, Charlotte will also add 30 new destinations that are not currently available through Chicago or Dallas.

Having direct flights to hubs such as Charlotte is vital to the economic growth, business development, and talent attraction across mid-Missouri.

Just short two short years ago, we had less than 100,000 in planments, and we're slowly but steadily increasing.

In 2025, we had the addition of United and for the last three months, and we ended the year with approximately 120,000 in planements.

In 2026, we have approximately 290,000 seats scheduled out of Columbia.

If our load factors remain consistent with what we have seen in the past year, we'll have well over 200,000 in planements in Columbia.

Meet and Hunt is our air service consultant and shared an exciting fact with me today that I wanted to share with you.

Mead and Hunt analyzed all U.S.

airports with 10,000 or more seats a month for the next six months.

And Columbia Regional Airport is the fastest growing airport in the United States with a 101% increase in seats.

Customers are already seeing the benefits of the additional capacity.

Many fares have continued to decline, creating opportunities for even more growth in the future.

Also spoken to the airport advisory board and received unanimous support and also unanimous support from the Central Missouri Air Service Group.

So with that, I'm happy to answer any questions you might have.

Any questions for staff?

Yeah, done.

More of just a clarification.

This is like you said, a revenue guarantee.

If American exceeds that through the additional business, would we how much of this would we be obligated to pay?

Sure.

So each route is calculated at $23,142 for a round trip.

So that's uh they're looking at that each leg of that trip uh for revenue, and then they're also looking at the average fuel price of $2.41.

So they're going to evaluate each route through the reporting period along with fuel costs.

And if they're if they don't have enough revenue to cover those costs, then this fund would be responsible for the the shortfall of that revenue.

Uh if they receive more revenue and fuel costs are that average or lower, uh, then we would not be responsible for any payment during that reporting period.

Okay, thank you.

Yes, sir.

Yeah, Betsy.

Mike, how many other um we've had other agreements similar to this, if I remember correctly.

And can you tell me um how well they've done or how well the the airports are the airlines have done?

Have we had to kick in $750,000, or do we get most of that money back after the first year?

Well, I think an interesting thing is American Airlines is here today because of a revenue guarantee, right?

So we received or we we offered American Airlines a revenue guarantee initially when they came to Columbia, uh, which I try to look back through the records of like 2012, the fall of 2012 we offered that revenue guarantee.

That was in the amount of two or two point five million dollars uh for Dallas, uh twice daily Dallas, and I believe once daily to Chicago.

With that, according to the the old memo that I found, it appears that we paid out 23,000 uh out of that $2.5 million revenue guarantee.

Uh so really the interest on that fund paid for that payment.

Of course, that was that that initial service, right?

So, you know, each route is going to be different.

Each one is going to be evaluated based on demand.

I will say, and I could go into a lot of details about air service attraction, but I'm always confident that an airline would never begin a route, even with an air service revenue guarantee without the confidence and knowing that that route should be or will be successful.

And so I think that all of the data that we receive from our air service consultant, all the information that we receive from higher education and customers in this area from our catchment area, tells us that this route would be successful.

And so the goal is each reporting period then that we receive enough revenue to either offset all costs or nearly all costs through this revenue guarantee as well.

But we have had we we've had several revenue guarantees over the years.

And can you speak to the fact that this is not just the city guaranteeing this?

Is that correct?

That's correct.

So $750,000 that we're asking to appropriate would be the half of the revenue guarantee.

The other half is uh is a combination of private businesses, other public entities, uh, county uh in other cities as well that put into this, and then multiple higher education uh facilities as well.

Also that takes care of the other 750,000.

So in the event that we draw down uh say 5,000 or 10,000, uh we would draw down $5,000 towards the city portion of $5,000 towards the uh other half is how we would draw that down.

So if half of the revenue guarantee is used, half of each would be used towards that guarantee.

Okay, thank you.

Yeah, Nick.

Going back to what you the previous answer you gave to one of Betsy's questions.

It sounds like, and is it fair to say that an airlines?

Unlike you say an airline is unlikely to come unless they believe the route is going to be successful.

So it really there's no benefit to them if it's not and they draw down on the on the guarantee, right?

They they probably are going to do no better than breaking even if that, if the route is not successful.

That's right.

I mean, it getting an airline to start a new route, definitely a new airline to uh community or starting a new route is highly competitive.

That airplane could go 300 other places, right?

That we all stand in line at air service conferences to meet with the airlines and to have discussions with them about the needs of our community.

I'm doing the exact same thing that every other community is doing is pitching the community or the region to the airline.

And so they have a major investment in starting air service into a community.

And so this 1.5 million dollars, although is a substantial amount of money to guarantee, the airlines also have a substantial investment in starting this up.

And so they do have a uh a they have a need to make that route successful because again, we're not looking at this route as a one-year route, daily service to sh to Charlotte.

We're looking at this as the beginning of a long-term uh advancement to air service in mid-Missouri.

It you know, this is something that we have to look at as one time a day is fantastic to Charlotte.

However, I already look at it as that's an opportunity for twice daily service because we need frequency, right?

It's no different than what we're looking at with Denver right now.

That's the same concept.

Denver is extremely uh it's doing well, and so I'm already looking at that second frequency to Denver as well.

And so we'll look at that the exact same way with this revenue guarantee.

Thanks.

Questions for staff on this?

Oh, Jackie.

I was just scanning my email trying to find it.

Um the question I have received was regarding, and this might be actually a question for DeCarlin.

When um the press release was put out, the revenue guarantee was not part of the press release.

I was looking for it.

I can't find it, so I can't verify that.

But that was I received two questions on that, that the why the revenue guarantee wasn't part of the press release.

There's a confidentiality agreement, uh confidentiality clause in the um air service agreement.

Um, and as a part of that, what we are required to do is notify American Airlines prior to release.

We have up to um three business days to respond to sunshine request.

And so we have up to three business, or we have um we notify them that we've made well that we have received a request, and they can, if they want to try to challenge that for uh proprietary reasons, they have that ability to do that.

But that was a non-negotiable term on their part was to include that confidentiality clause in the agreement.

Thank you.

Any other questions for staff on this?

Would anyone from the public wish to speak on Bill 5826?

Evening, my name is Randall Rollins.

I'm chair of the um airport advisory board.

As uh Mike mentioned, we do have unanimous approval uh to support the agreement, the air service agreement between American and the city.

Um and I I wrote in my notes today as I was writing these.

How many years have we been waiting on this?

And then I Mike answered that question uh nine years.

Uh interestingly, I mean, part of our job is to bring uh citizen input to you.

Um and so last year when we announced that United was gonna come back and that we were gonna have Denver and we were gonna have another Chicago flight.

Um, all of the people who I talked to, and I I can say almost all of them, say that's great.

What about Charlotte?

And you're like, okay, well, we really did this great thing.

Um, and the same thing happened when Allegiant announced that they were gonna be here and and come and provide the service to uh to Florida.

A lot of people who I talked to about that said that is really awesome.

We have another airline.

What about Charlotte?

It's just been um it's been something that our citizens have wanted for a long, long time, and they're aware that we've talked about it for a long time.

Um, a lot of businesses are excited about it.

Um, and you know, we've gotten all that input um through the airport board uh representation.

So I know there would be a lot of people, a lot of citizens and a lot of businesses that would be really disappointed if we did not approve this.

I was part of the delegation that went to American headquarters last year in Dallas with Mike and others, uh, where we spent a lot of time convincing them that we had great community support for this.

And that was part of their concern.

Do you have the support?

Do you have the ability to fill these planes?

I think we do.

Based on the questions that I've I've heard from people, I really hope that we can fill these planes and that we won't ever have to spend a dime of that guarantee.

And I think that I think there's every chance that that's gonna happen.

If it's anything like the flights that I've been on to Denver with United, they're all full.

And I think we can continue to do that.

So um I think if American gets win, gets win that there's some opposition to this, um, that you know, that could be really devastating uh to the agreement and the work that Mike has done for years and years to get this where we need it.

So we need to continue, and and so we would and on behalf of the board, I would ask for your approval of this.

Thank you.

Thank you, Randa.

Would anyone else from the public wish to speak?

Hi, Dr.

Les Gray.

I live in the first ward.

I was not gonna say anything, but I texted my dad uh in North Carolina, and just to bring a human element to this to scale, uh, you're gonna generate that revenue with just him because he does not realize that I am a full-grown adult.

He literally said he needs to visit his baby.

Um I would really appreciate uh your support in this, and to uh limit the number of flights flying from here to Chicago to Greensboro or elsewhere.

Um I've been on flights where there are multiple people that are doing similar things, so uh I can attest to the need for that personally.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And thank your dad.

Hello, Susan Hart, fourth ward.

I just want to I'm here tonight to encourage you to support the proposed $750,000 appropriation for the revenue guarantee fund.

This proposal represents a strategic investment in Columbia's connectivity, our economic competitiveness, and our long-term growth.

Um, for many travelers in our community, this matters a great deal to be able to get to the Southeast and the South based on the data that we have.

Air service is a key factor in economic development.

I don't want us to forget that.

I mean, the investments that you have made in the airport is really important to the economic growth.

When companies evaluate for expansion or relocation, one of the first questions that we see is how easily can their executives, employees, and clients reach our cities.

So strong reliable air connections, how position Columbia as a competitive regional center for business, health care, education, and innovative innovation.

Also, to Randa's point, it's important to recognize that this proposal reflects a true community partnership with the support of the private sector putting in half of the guarantee revenue guarantee fund.

That says a lot about how important this is.

Um, in short, this is a targeted investment that can deliver long-term benefits, better travel options, and stronger economic development opportunities and a more connected Columbia.

I also want to add the human factor.

My niece was in.

She's um an attorney in Raleigh Durham, and she came to visit this weekend and flew into Columbia Regional.

Um I promised her about 10 years ago that there would be a better terminal, and there is, and every time I pick her up, she's like, I know, it's great.

So just want to thank you for your support and hope that you will vote in favor of this.

Thank you.

Anyone else wish to speak on Bill 5826?

My name is Matt Jenny.

I'm one of the owners of Addison's and Sophia's restaurant.

I'm also the incoming chair of the Chamber of Commerce.

Um, I do want to speak positively about this.

Um, you know, first of all, I want to give Mike all the credit.

Mike has done a fabulous and incredible job as the airport manager.

And we cannot, I'm also on the airport board as well.

Can't say enough about the work that he's done.

Um we are seeing great momentum at our airport.

And I can speak to my time on the airport board when I started 15 years ago.

We had zero commercial flights in the month of July.

And uh to say that now we're talking about 200,000 plus people walking in and out of that airport uh means a lot.

And it means that we are going in the right direction.

As Susan Hart said, uh, it's so vital to our economic uh vitality that our airport is one of the ways that people can get here.

And I believe that if we continue to build, we will continue to see more growth.

We'll continue to see people coming.

Um so I'm very much in support of this revenue guarantee, and I hope that you guys vote thusly.

I'll leave it at that.

Matt anyone else from the public wish to speak on Bill 5826.

Good evening, Mayor, members of the city council.

My name is Mike Grounner.

I reside at 2905 East Nashville Church Road.

I can't promise that I'll deliver any relatives flying here as a result of this uh revenue guarantee.

I'm hopeful of that though, uh, like some of our other speakers did.

Uh I do first want to thank you all for your continued service, this community, the tireless hours you put in.

I'm here representing REDI regional economic development.

I am the current board chair.

I'm accompanied by our president Paul Eisenstein, who's in the audience with us tonight.

And we do want to speak in support of the guarantee for the uh American Airlines of uh revenue guarantee that you all are contemplating tonight.

Um REDI, our our core mission focuses on job attraction and growth in our region from living wage jobs to high-paying jobs.

Our members and the many companies that provide these jobs are dependent on a thriving local airport with expansive connectivity.

The additional flight connectivity to Charlotte supports Ready, the Ready mission in a number of ways, including providing COU with a hub that has a new unique geography, provides 180 unique destinations, including 30 that COU does not currently have.

Twenty-five percent of COU's customer decimate destinations are in the east and southeast, and this provides better connectivity to these areas.

And finally, the service to Charlotte has the support of one of COU's biggest customers, the University of Missouri.

Those are just a few of the more granular level points I wanted to make about the benefits of this connectivity.

From through the ready lens, um I want to say this much more than just about a new flight that connects to Charlotte.

Uh, but rather it's a continued investment and a critical community asset.

Uh this community asset has shown that when you make similar investments like the one you're contemplating tonight, uh there is a great payoff.

And we saw this many years ago uh for this community, the need to stabilize and maintain the growth and trajectory of our airport.

The public and private investments made years ago have paid dividends already in a short period of time.

We've seen our flight connectivity go from just St.

Louis and Kansas City to national and international connectivity.

And we have seen our terminal transition from a functionally obsolete structure and the logistical challenges that come with that to a vibrant new terminal that provides safe and efficient passage for all, as well as as a safe work environment for our employees.

We submit to you that the investments that led to these successes were much like the one that's before you tonight.

I reiterate that that is why this is important to the REDI organization.

Our membership clearly stated the importance of a thriving airport in order to grow and maintain local jobs, both high-paying technical jobs and those that are located our industrial corridors.

Happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, Mike.

Well, I know.

I was watching it.

Seeing none, I'll go to council comments.

Any comments from council?

Yeah, Nick.

I'll just say that I make an annual trip to Charlotte to see my grown-up baby boy.

And uh would love for that to be a direct flight from COU.

Yeah, Val.

Yeah, you know, I was contacted by a number of community constituents on this.

Um, and I do plan on supporting it for the purposes of transparency.

Um, even though I think it's clear from the questions that were already asked and answered, I I just want to make sure that I'm explaining my rationale well to constituents.

Um I don't think it's likely that we will need to draw on our revenue guarantee.

Um, but as they said before, this is a partnership where some of the funds came from MU and some of the funds came from our private um our private partners.

Um I really want to um take the moment to recognize those private partnerships that we made um and um appreciate them for what they are and um do our part in um continuing that partnership um going forward.

Um and I'm thankful to our partners for this joint venture um and for the advantages that it brings our city.

Yeah, Pira.

Uh I will also be taking strong advantage of this as my sister lives in Asheville.

Uh and I have to mention that because this is probably the first and only time she will ever watch one of these meetings live.

So love you, Caroline.

You're out there.

Um but I also wanted to comment to make sure that we are fully appreciating all the work that you have put into this, Mike, because I know that you said that you are at the conferences doing the same thing that every other airport is doing, but that is clearly not true, or we would not be the number one best growth airport right now.

Um, which if applause was allowable at council meetings, that was a moment where I was like having to prevent myself from applauding, because that is such an exciting statistic to hear.

So thank you so much.

I know this is a project that has had a ton of work behind it.

Um and it was also so cool to see at the community summit.

You and I stood in front of that map for a while and pointed at all.

So at the community summit, you could put pins in where you wanted to fly to from Columbia, and like half of the pins on the board are direct flights from Charlotte.

So if it wasn't a pen in Charlotte itself, it was a pin in somewhere that you can only get to through Charlotte.

Um so this is gonna be a huge expansion that our community is really excited for.

So thank you for all the work you put in to make this happen.

Any other council comments for this one?

Um I'll just say um just a quick note.

Um, my hope is is that all the improv uh improvements to I-70 help us even greater to get people to fill those 200 plus thousand seats because people won't want to drive to St.

Louis or Kansas City during construction.

So thank you, Modat, I guess, for that one.

Um and then I also want to acknowledge Tiranda's comment about what about Charlotte on our path on our flight down to Dallas to talk to them about Charlotte, or maybe it's on the way back, a person sat in the seat next to me and goes, but what about Charlotte?

And I was like, that's why we're here.

That's why we're doing this.

Yeah.

Uh yeah, Betsy, did you want to say?

Um Yeah, as I also got um a constituent request to take, you know, to take this off.

Um, and I appreciate the information because I think a lot of it was just wait a minute, how what are we doing with with public money going to support a private entity?

So um thank you for your report on it, and thank you for the support of the private part of the private public partnership that says, wait a minute, we are putting money into this, but it's part of a community effort to improve our connectivity.

So thank you to everyone.

Yeah, thanks again, Mike Parks for this.

Um Holly, will you please call roll on bill 5826?

Council Bill 5826, Mr.

Foster?

Yes, Mr.

Waterman?

Yes, Miss Peters?

Yes, Miss Buffalo, yes, Miss Carroll.

Yes.

Ms.

Elwood?

Yes.

Miss Sample, yes.

All right.

Um Holly, will you read the items under the consent agenda twice and call roll?

Items on the consent agenda include council bill 5426, 5526, 5626, 5726, 59, 26, 60, 26, 61, 26, and resolutions 3926, 40, 26, 41, 26, 42, 26, 44, 26, 45, 26, 46, 26, 47, 26, 48, 26, 49, 26, 50, 26, 51, 26, 52, 26, 54, 26, and 5526.

Council bills 54, 26, 55, 26, 56, 26, 57, 26, 59, 26, 60, 26, 61, 26, and resolutions 39, 26, 40, 26, 41, 26, 42, 26, 44, 26, 45, 26, 46, 26, 47, 26, 48, 26, 49, 26, 50, 26, 51, 26, 52, 26, 54, 26, and 5526.

Mr.

Foster.

Yes.

Mr.

Waterman.

Yes.

Miss Peters?

Yes.

Miss Buffalo?

Yes.

Miss Carroll.

Yes.

Miss Elwood?

Yes.

Ms.

Sample.

Yes.

All right.

Moving on to new business.

Um, we have a couple of items on new business.

So, Holly, will you please read um resolution 5626?

Resolution 5626 is adjusting stipends for city council members in accordance with Article 2, Section 7 of the Home Rule Charter for the City of Columbia, Missouri.

Do we have a staff report?

Yes.

This resolution adjusts council stipends.

Um, the amount of the stipends paid to the council is requested to be adjusted every three years.

Uh, but this adjustment does not take an effect until three years later.

So no council member um that is voting will receive the current increase.

Um this uh resolution has a is using the increases of 2% from 2024, 3.5% from 2025, and 3.5% increase for 2026.

And so these will go into effect on May 1st, 2029.

Any questions for staff on this?

Um, I appreciate the um inclusion of a little bit of a few of the legislative history.

I think it is useful to also ask the question, and Nancy, this might be to you.

This like the idea of revisiting um the stipend level was part of the original what went to the voters when they voted to give council member stipends.

Is that correct?

That's correct.

Okay.

This is a it's a charter requirement, and it was specifically set up, I think as Matthew mentioned, um, not to take effect for three years.

So you all have to go through another election cycle.

It doesn't necessarily mean that you won't necessarily receive it if you decide to run for re-election, but uh it's to keep you from basically voting an increase while you are in office during the existing term.

Yeah.

Any other questions for staff on this?

Would anyone from the public wish to speak on resolution 5626?

See none, I'll go to council comments.

Council comments, yeah, Nick.

Well, this is one of those times when going back into the legislative history is is uh educational, and it was interesting to me that I think the last time this was done, looking back at the three years previous on which these stipend increases were going to be based in 2018, nine and nineteen.

Employees received zero percent adjustment and in 2020.5.

So it the council didn't enrich themselves too much with our us, I guess, in that in that particular occasion.

But in the next in the next time it was done, those are significant, and I think that's uh just reflective of the value that we have for employees, and it's just interesting to look back and see that.

Any other council comments on this one?

All right.

Um Holly, we please call roll on 5626.

Council Bill 5626, Mr.

Foster?

Yes.

Mr.

Waterman?

Yes.

Ms.

Peters?

Yes.

Miss Buffalo?

Yes.

Miss Carroll?

Yes.

Miss Elwood?

Yes.

Miss Sample.

Yes.

All right.

Moving on.

We had one item pulled from consent.

Um we so Holly, will you please read resolution 4326?

Resolution 4326 is a resolution setting a public hearing, declaring the necessity for the proposed construction of the terminal building production kitchen at the Columbia Regional Airport, stating the nature of and the estimate of the cost of the proposed improvement, providing source of funds for payment for the proposed improvement, and providing for compliance with the prevailing wage law.

Do we have a staff report?

I believe this is coming to us also because of an update to some of the information.

It is.

So uh the purpose of this is uh as part of phase one, tailwind's market operates a just walk-out technology in the terminal.

That's a technology market that's open 365 days a year, uh, and is available for employees and customers 24 hours a day.

As part of that agreement with tailwinds, uh, we were really waiting until we had enough demand in the terminal to start working on phase two.

Phase two is the completion of the construction of the commercial kitchen as part of that.

That kitchen would serve both the public and the secure sides of the terminal.

When I originally entered this, I had a just an estimated cost of $375,000 for construction and $38,100 for design.

I'd received uh the probable cause or probable cost, probable cost estimate uh from Simon Oswald after the completion prior to my uh uh interested parties meeting.

That new cost was $790,006.

And so this really is to update that.

It was it was incorrect in the fiscal portion of the original council memo.

It still showed the original amount of 413,100.

And really my goal with this was to make sure that I give the latest uh updated numbers prior to uh requesting to set that public hearing.

So we're planning for a public hearing for April 6th, but again, this was just to update the total number with design $828,176.

Any questions for staff on this?

So I think I have a question more for Nancy for process of this.

Um this legislation before us is the setting of the public hearing, and it's having this information, but it's also having the resolution for it.

So are um we will be both doing amendment, we would be proposing to do an amendment to this, but then still passing this because we would still then vote about the actual contract at our April 6th meeting, correct?

Just process this is this is purely setting the public hearing, but we need the information.

Want to make sure the updated information is declaring the necessity for the public hearing to be accurate.

Okay, appreciate it.

And so then you'll have the public hearing and then you'll have a chance to approve and give a thumbs up or thumbs down on the thank you.

I just want to clarify on that one.

Any additional questions?

Anyone from the public wish to speak on resolution 4326 setting the public hearing come back to us?

Appreciate that.

And I realize this is probably should have mentioned it before.

You have like four public hearings about airport improvements at the April 6th meeting, these pass.

All right, Holly, we please uh all right.

I'll ask for um I'll make a motion to amend uh resolution 4326 per the amendment sheet uh that is updating the which would correct the estimated cost.

Do I have a second?

Second, second by Betsy.

All those in favor of um amending resolution 4326 say aye.

Aye aye.

Any opposed?

All right.

Uh Holly, we please call roll on resolution 4326 as amended.

Council Bill 4326 as amended, Mr.

Foster?

Yes.

Mr.

Waterman, yes, Ms.

Peters?

Yes.

Miss Buffalo?

Yes.

Miss Carroll?

Yes.

Miss Elwood?

Yes.

Ms.

Sample.

Yes.

All right.

Moving on.

Holly, we please read the under the items that are under introduction and first reading.

All bills are introduced by the mayor unless otherwise indicated.

Bills 6226, 6326, 64, 26, 65, 26, 66, 26, 67, 26, 68, 26, 69, 26, 70, 26, 71, 72, 26, 72, 26, 73, 26, 74, 26, 75, 26, 76, 26, 77, 26, 78, 26, and 7926 first reading.

All right, moving on.

We have one report this evening.

It's a report 1726.

This is our uh Board of Equalization City Representative appointments.

Uh I'll ask if there's a staff report, but I I know your intent really is to make sure that we have the official appointees uh to it.

So is there a staff report?

You want to say anything?

Yes, so last year I think we appointed uh council person peters uh and Jim as well as the uh BOE people to represent the city.

And so we would just we're do we have to come uh yearly basically to ask you all for recommendations and if you want to change something.

Yeah, I guess my question would be um are both still willing to serve.

I think it's useful to have that information of what is the board of equalization as you're serving on it and experience on it.

So Jim, are you uh are you willing to serve us?

I'm happy to do it again.

Yeah, and Betsy, are you okay serving as our counsel?

Um yes, I'm happy to do it again.

Okay.

If there's no objection, I'll I'll make a motion to appoint um uh the finance director or his designee in this case, Jim McDonald, um, and council member Betsy Peters uh to the our represent representatives on the Board of Equalization.

Do I have a second?

Second second, second by Vera.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

All right, good.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

All right.

Now we'll open up uh to general comments by the public.

Do would anyone from the public wish to speak.

Uh hello, council.

It's very nice to meet you.

My name is Matt.

Uh Mayor Buffalo, members of the council.

Uh I am a resident of Columbia.

I'm here because Missouri is left unprotected with our uh legislator stalls.

House Bill 2656 and 2388, the Clear Skies Act.

We're both read for the second time on January 8th.

These bills have been sitting in limbo for over 60 days without a final vote.

This is a failure of leadership.

I am handing, or I handed the clerk uh staple packets for each of you.

The legislative facts are on the front.

The visual evidence from Florida is on the back.

If you look at the back of the packet, you will see photos taken yesterday in Florida under Florida SB1632.

They have moved to prohibit unauthorized atmospheric disposal and require strict reporting.

Uh you see a defined sun in a natural blue sky.

This is what a protected atmosphere looks like in Missouri because these bills are being ignored.

We have no such protection.

We are seeing a persistent unnatural glare that matches the disposal of neurotoxic heavy metals like aluminum in barium.

We aren't here for a weather debate.

We are here to discuss why Missourians are being denied the same health protections of the people in Florida.

This is a direct threat to our public health.

These uh particulates are documented in neurotoxins that settle in our soil in the lungs of our children.

Tennessee passed HB 1112 because they realized the health of their next generation was at stake.

Children breathe more air per pound of uh body weight than adults, and their brains are still developing.

Uh they are breathing this while our representatives are doing nothing.

We are demanding the same biological sovereignty for the people of Columbia.

I demand that this council formally endorse H Speed 2656 in 2388 and initiate independent air quality tests testing for Columbia immediately.

I'm asking you to step out of the political script and ask act with moral courage.

You are here to protect the citizens of the city, not wait for a segment legislator to tell you it's safe to care.

Do your jobs.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Would anyone else from the public wish to speak?

Seeing none, I'll go to council comments.

Uh and Nick, we'll start with you.

Um I I want to draw attention to something that I think was actually on consent last time.

It was the my key, which is a way for people to make one application to all of the services that are provided by the city.

And uh, this is something that has been talked about for a long, long time.

It's one of the one of the main barriers that people have to receiving the services that are available to them is just being aware of them, and then all the time that it takes to to access those services.

So this is a really good uh move forward in terms of the our service to uh especially people who are struggling in the community and need the services that we provide.

I know that uh several of us are going to mention the community summit that took place on Saturday, so I don't want to be left out.

I really was encouraged by the kind of uh uh responses that we got.

We that the staff did a wonderful job of putting together questions for for the for the public.

Um and I was encouraged by seeing what appeared to be a lot of the answers that were given to those questions.

So I'm looking forward to seeing a report on that and and hearing more about it.

Um then I'll just draw attention to a couple of things that I think were pretty cool on the on the uh consent agenda, but uh are we're passed by and both of them have to do with the arts.

One is the uh sculpture on the move, which is something I'd never heard of before, but gives the opportunity for people to uh artists to put their sculptures in uh two of our parks for like a two-year period, if I'm not mistaken.

Gabe is nodding his head.

Uh I can't think of anything that uh that just sounds like a really fun and uh cool and educational kind of opportunity, and I'm glad that we're gonna be able to be a part of that.

And then the um artist laureate is a new program being funded by the by the state.

Uh and uh Audra Sergal is the first one to be selected to do this.

She already has plans for what she wants to do in the way of a musical piece.

Um again, another indication, I think, not only of the talent that's in our community, but our sensibilities about being uh attentive to the arts in our community, which enriches us all.

Uh just a couple of things.

One that as Nick mentioned, the community summit uh looked like we had a great turnout again.

Do we have final at least participation numbers, roughly approximately, maybe kind of sort of?

I'll give you an update.

Okay, sounds good.

Uh the other thing, and to Nick's point, I like you know, a lot of the questions, thoughtful questions, people could give their responses.

I also like the fact that they were color-coded by ward, so you know which ward what's important to each ward, and I'm looking forward to getting that information once we get it back.

Um again, a lot of great questions and a great turnout uh once again.

So thank you to everyone who came out uh and participated.

Thank you to the staff for giving up time on your weekend to help man the various stations.

Uh so it was a great event.

Um switch switching gears.

We met this last week with the county um working through our joint city-county housing survey.

Um and they gave several recommendations and identified uh streamlining the process and so on.

What I'm here to propose tonight, would like to propose tonight, uh whether it's the creation of a new board or commission or task force temporarily, or we task one of our existing boards and commissions to do this.

But I would like to see kind of in one place what their thoughts are regarding streamlining the process, um, costs associated, hidden costs that drive up the cost of construction.

Um what can the city do?

What are their thoughts on how the city can reduce these costs for new construction?

Uh and also what might the city do to encourage them as they're developing or with a project to either designate or build more lower lower income housing.

Also uh the focus of the discussion was primarily around new construction.

Um, but I would also like to see what do they have thoughts on renovating and upgrading existing structures.

Um, which is important as well because many of those that fall into the lower income category are older and need significant upgrades to become more efficient.

Uh so and people aren't spending as much on their utilities.

Um I mentioned this to DeCarlin when I met with him last week, um, and he mentioned that community development and other departments within the city regularly consult with the developers and the engineers for their input on proposals, and I think that's great.

But I think I would just like to see kind of all that data in one spot so that as we're working through the discussion, um, I just kind of I call it the raw data for directly from them uh as we're working through this discussion because housing is an issue in in Columbia, uh housing at all levels, but specifically lower income housing.

And I just as we're working through this, and it's going to take some time with uh because there's a lot in the survey, but I'd like to just kind of have that all in one spot.

So DeCarlin, do you want to respond to Actually?

I'm gonna have Clint come up and talk about that a little bit.

We we did have a little discussion today at staff.

Come here.

Is it good?

All right.

Yeah, uh no, I I appreciate it.

Um, I think I think there's a lot of interest in in housing initiatives.

Uh, you know, obviously at the at our our um joint meeting with the city council, a lot of things were discussed.

You know, staff's working on several initiatives now.

Uh I think we're probably gonna talk about some other housing uh type um initiatives that are really aimed at that at kind of all of that trying to enact the the the housing studies recommendations.

Um I would say that I I think uh going forward would be very helpful, I think for staff, right?

Is is we're trying to, I think, plan out our next 12 months, 16 months, 18 months.

Uh and it takes uh a certain amount of staff time to devote to to you know exploring any of these options.

Uh and we don't necessarily turn on a dime, and so I think uh what might be helpful is to be able to have kind of a list of prioritized recommendations that that staff should be working on so that we can make sure we're putting you know our best foot forward and and you know exploring all these options is as much as we can, uh, but also so we have a bit of a work program and we know what to expect's gonna be coming over the next six months.

Um and I think all these are worthwhile.

I think all of them should be explored uh to some degree.

Staff also had some ideas, I think, as our next steps, and I think some of the conversation at our joint meeting also was what are staff's next steps?

And we have had those discussions.

So there's things that we would like to internally prioritize.

Um, and I don't want to put those over, I think uh, you know, council's priorities.

So I think if if in terms of housing, it might be a good idea to sit down and say, okay, what does council other council members also have items in that in the housing study that they'd like us to see pursued and then have maybe a prioritized ranking for for staff to start working on?

So uh and and these could be some of the first ones, but that kind of helps us I think plan our workload.

Um a lot of this uh work gets done in our planning department right now, which is which is four people, um, and I'd say probably 6070% of the time is just given up to day-to-day tasks.

So we do have to make sure we're we're scheduling them and have a realistic, realistic expectation for what we can get done in a certain amount of time period.

And we don't want to overpromise, so we want to be able to deliver within a time frame.

Um, but having that plan helps us, I think, really prioritize our workload.

Clint, do you how long do you think it would take for staff to develop that plan?

Uh I I think uh, you know, if we had inputs, we could put something together, staff's got some ideas.

Uh I mean maybe a month or two.

I don't think it would take too long, uh, depending on if we're looking at a list and and and having ideas uh for I think council to react to and actually kind of prioritize.

Yeah, we I think we could do that.

Can I clarify?

Um looking at the recommendations in the housing study and kind of from the last two joint meetings, you're proposing or you're suggesting maybe to have something come back to council.

It'd be like a here's what staff thinks the prioritization of some of these actions could be to get response from council.

Is that is that what you were just recommending?

So yeah.

And then if there's other items that the council would like for us to look at, we can all put that into that one conversation so we can.

But at least us reacting rather than just randomly throwing out things right now, but reacting to a thing in front of us.

I I appreciate that rather because I I I appreciate that you had those questions, Don.

Um, but I I usually like to have something that I'm responding to you with on this one.

Uh yeah, clarifying on, yeah, Val, you had to hand up questions.

Yeah.

Um I had some questions and I had some thoughts.

This is an interesting um an interesting request.

And it sounds like it's kind of taken more shape since last time we talked about it.

Um some of the duties that you suggest for a potential new commission already fall under some other commissions.

Some of them were duties of planning and zoning, and that's something that you know, I kind of felt maybe we needed to spend some more effort um recruiting um people who come from the background that it honestly due to recent turnover, we're missing on planning and zoning.

Um, you know, you have some new perspectives now that you know are kind of spread spread out through at least three different commissions that I know of.

Um so you know, your suggestion about having it all in one space, that's well taken from my perspective.

I'm I guess like through this conversation right now, I'm kind of wondering from Clint's answer and from what you're saying, May.

Or are we looking at a new commission on the subjects?

Is this a commission, or is this a I don't know, summary from staff.

So the way that I just understood it was um maybe not forming a new commission or summaries from staff, but at least from staff's response to this was to come with us on maybe some of the recommendations that they're hearing from some of these same voices on some initiatives that we might prioritize.

Did I understand that correctly?

That is correct.

And it may lead to a new commission, but I think the first step is let us kind of talk about what the priorities are and what staff can kind of well, and I think to Valerie's point, that would then kind of lead on some of those things to then referring it to the housing and community development commission, the planning and zoning commission, like those who deal in that space.

Yes.

And you know, our boards and commissions can have joint meetings themselves.

Absolutely.

Yeah, in which we encourage them to all get together at one meeting rather than have three to react back.

Staff can compile the recommendations that are already coming from those three or more different commissions for us.

Yeah.

Yeah, my initial.

No, your initial thought on that, and and I agree.

I mean, and it's one of the reasons, you know, we've sent ordinances back to get input from commissions, various boards and commissions before.

Um so yeah, I understand that, but that's kind of what generated this is I I would like to hear directly from the people that are in the in the in the field, people that the experts that actually do it day to day.

I know we have our boards and commissions, and we ask for representatives.

Some of them we have, we have some vacancies.

Um I guess I just kind of want an unfiltered, you know, what when you you know, planning and zoning, yes, we have individuals to use that as an example, that are in the industry, but then there are other individuals as well.

And if we ask them to generate a report.

The phrase that comes to mind is watered down, and I'm not sure that's entirely appropriate or the right phrase.

But like I said, I just kind of want to hear directly from the experts.

Um, and that's you know, that's who I would like this, you know, commission to be made up of the builders, the engineers, the contractors that actually do the work.

You're listing the building construction codes commission roster right now.

So I'm thinking this could be a you know what I mean?

As I know they're doing the building codes right now, but I think that would be a really good question.

Yeah, but I think I think you're talking about the development community as a whole.

I I think it's broader too.

Um, you know, you have individuals on engineering firms and architectural firms and and the builders as well.

Uh I mean, maybe this is is a uh a multi-part kind of recommendation uh gathering, and that's staff's recommendations on how to move forward, council's recommendations, the relevant bodies uh of the commissions and committees the city makes up, and then and then the third party development group as well, and get their feedback and then kind of sift through that and say, all right, which which direction do we want to head on some of these?

Because we I think we do want input on on the next best steps.

Uh yeah, I mean it it's it's got to be a joint effort if we're gonna make if we're gonna actually do something with this, it needs to be a joint effort.

Um I think filtered would have been a better term than watered down, so filtered.

Um but anyway, I yeah, it it's got to be a joint effort.

So, you know, and that comes from hearing from all parties, and then we work with it, you know, your list of various topics that we can then prioritize um and you know mix all the ingredients together to bake this cake.

Yeah.

So we've got Nick and then Betsy and then Vera and then Oh my goodness.

Well, I I think we made some good progress and we heard some encouraging things at the last meeting we had with the commit with the county.

Uh and what I'm hearing Don say is we want to be sure that we're hearing from the practitioners, the people who are actually having to make application for uh uh for uh uh building permits and all that kind of thing to be sure.

And I've been doing this informally for a long time, even before I was on the council, just asking people I know who are in the business that what what keeps you from what are the barriers that keep you from doing the things that you want to do in the community in terms of building.

And and they do they're they are able to articulate that.

So for me, it's about being sure that we hear those voices wherever wherever we gather that information.

And I suspect we're already hearing that.

My guess is you get an earful from time to time, Claire.

Oh, yeah, I have those.

I mean, I regularly have those conversations too.

In fact, I I like to engage with people if they if they do have concerns, like what what what obstacles are you seeing with this?

Right.

But I just hate for us to put a whole lot of energy into a particular pro priority wherever it comes from and then hear from those folks.

Yeah, that isn't really very helpful.

You know what I'm saying, or that we miss an opportunity to hear those voices.

That's that's my interest and concern here.

Betsy.

Um I think, you know, when I read that initially about maybe another commission, it sounded like a good idea, but then I don't really I feel like they're disconnected.

If we have we have whether it's the board, the building commission, and then we have the housing commission.

I they're not speaking to each other.

So I would wonder whether we be would be better off.

Um I was impressed with the last housing meeting just that we are moving forward, or it sounds like the county and the city, you know, we are talking to each other that there are plans in the work.

So maybe it would be worthwhile to um ask you to come back in a couple months with uh recommendations of what we need to do to include the builders and the developers and whatnot, and to then ask them to to join us in a group meeting versus having one group talk and then talk to you, and then we get two different reports, but they're not really melded together, and perhaps we actually need to be in the same room and and talk to each other about what they can really do and what we're really asking them to do.

And that might be a way to include all the voices without having just extra meetings.

Yep, Vera.

Very much on the on the similar page to what Betsy was saying, which is I think there's kind of a a general hesitance to create a new commission, or at least use that that phrasing of commission, uh, which you might be regretting using that word at this point, Don.

No, but I did say temporar, I didn't say it here tonight, but when I wrote it, if you read it, it says temporary.

Yes, temporary, the key the key word.

Temporary is a key word.

I do not want to make this a permanent board or commission.

Yes.

I would say I almost wonder if we're looking at more of like because the the other piece with a with a commission is the time commitment needed.

Because as we look at all of these boards that were saying, well, pieces of this are on this board and pieces of it of it are on this board, and then hearing from you that that's still not quite the representation you're looking for.

It's likely because the people that you most want to hear from are so busy that they're not able to meet regularly on a board.

And so maybe what we're looking at more would be like interested parties meetings where we could invite the builders, the developers, we could also invite the board and commission members.

We could invite some of us who were at the housing study meetings and have it as more of like what Betsy was saying, more of an all in the same room open meeting, getting everyone's input, and also not expecting the people who are quite literally building the community to be then attending additional commission meetings constantly.

Um I wonder if that might be a good lens to look at it.

Yeah, I was no, and and I'm open to that.

I mean, this is kind of the initial initial thought.

I'm not asking for anything to be passed tonight.

Um, but the initial thoughts we can flesh it out.

Um, but you're right, talk about the interested parties.

I actually dropped in on the codes commission when they were doing an interested parties meeting talking about the 2024 building codes.

And it was eye-opening because you had the experts that are in the field, the practitioners, is as Nick said, you had those there speaking to the building codes and the potential effects, positive and negative, uh, of adopting of the codes.

And so this would kind of be the same in the same vein, um, so that we could hear from them and then say, okay, this is what a streamline process would look like for an application for whatever, you know, these are the obstacles.

Um, and I mentioned hidden costs because there's things that you know some of us are better experts than others, but sometimes um there's things that we miss.

They run into that.

The people assigned the checks run into those hidden costs much more than than we're aware of.

And so I just again wanted to hear, would like to hear directly from them.

Yeah.

Uh I'll go to Valerie, and then I think what we'll look to is something of recommendation from staff on kind of next steps on this, just as you hear these comments on what to do, and then we can go from there.

Yes.

Yeah, I I like this conversation and I like the turns that it's taken and the the opportunity that we have to kind of discuss through it and you know, understand the intent behind it.

Um I like the idea of having a group meeting and a joint perhaps something along the lines of joint work sessions.

Um I uh I know that the planning department has interested party meetings um all of these projects and meets with interested parties who are the design professionals constantly.

Um I can say there's been a handful of times where we had interested parties come speak at work sessions on planning and zoning, and I think that that's often helpful.

Um and it doesn't happen very often.

Um so maybe something along the lines of joint work sessions and inviting interested parties.

Um the hesitation that I had with formatting it as a commission, um, whether it's um building in construction codes or planning and zoning, I hate to form an additional commission that has the same charges, but not the same authority as an already existing commission, and I think that we are setting that might set us up for some um unwanted situations.

Working group.

Yeah, yeah.

All right.

Anything else on this one?

So for your um, you were gonna ask clarifying questions, I imagine, Clint.

Well, no, just a couple points uh, I think of note.

I would say just put it out there.

A lot of people in development, uh yes, we're we're also be working on the kind of plan soon, but a lot of individuals in the development community may prefer to offer suggestions less in a public avenue, right?

So just to put that out there, and there might be an opportunity there.

Uh, you know, I think we a lot of our staff and and and other staff too, probably know good representatives of the development community that would be willing to provide thoughtful uh feedback on that.

So if that was a route that council would prefer instead of having a full-blown commission or task force, we could kind of have a select group that we reach out to say provide us your feedback that that might be an option as well.

And it could be like using the Be Heard site as well for those who don't want to attend a public meeting you can encourage others to comment on.

All right.

Okay, so are we back to we'll hear from you and a couple of things?

We'll bring something back in some months.

Yep.

Okay.

Yeah.

Wonderful.

Yes, I appreciate that.

And I will acknowledge four members in the planning staff and about to start a full-blown comprehensive plan review.

So I think this is part of how do we do both at the same time.

Correct.

So yeah.

All right.

Betsy, anything from you?

Um, yeah, actually, just a couple quick things.

Um, I did also go to that housing meeting, or at least part of it.

Sorry, I couldn't stay for the whole thing, but um it was quite um interesting and and um I felt encouraged, I guess, and the fact that we are meeting every few months, and that um, you know, a lot of the things on that on the list of what we need to look at to me are pretty nebulous, but you guys are doing a pretty good job of making it a little more concrete and uh with some plans and and expectations of how to move forward.

So I appreciated that because when I look at it, I just think, oh my gosh, how do we even start?

So um that was good.

And then the city summit, um, as everyone else has said it was very um exciting, um, a lot more interesting than um I always anticipate.

There's a lot more um energy um and everyone uh from the city for sure is participating, but also the community, and I just need to tell a quick story about um a gentleman that I ran into on our way in to the city summit, and he is bopping along the street and he is moving rapidly because he can't wait to get to the city summit.

He is so excited, he learned so much last year.

The first year he came to it, he was excited to come.

Um he was anticipating learning a lot, and he just he just thought this was a great thing.

So he was like almost running across the street to be one of the first people in the door for the city summit on Saturday.

So I just wanted to let you know that um you guys must have done a good job last year because he was excited to come this year, and that's all I had.

Thank you, Betsy.

Uh Mallory.

Yeah.

Um I second the comments on the um housing joint work session.

That was a great work session.

I also want to acknowledge that um the addition of um both Bill Rita and Clint Smith as directors um for this meeting starting prior to and with this meeting, um they've really helped us um meet some of our goals.

Um and I noticed that change and your presence is felt very distinctly.

Um so thanks for joining us and thanks for setting us on the track.

Um I appreciate that work.

Um Saturday was a busy day.

Um I got to, I enjoyed the community summit tremendously.

Um I love to see so much so many community members in one place.

I also got to participate in a forum with Alpha Kappa Alpha and a um neighborhood, what do I want to call it?

And a um neighborhood, what do I want to call it?

Um gathering for Pi Day at Field Park with the North Central Neighborhood Association.

So I wanted to acknowledge I've gotten a number of concerned citizens who are worried about recent uptick in demolition permits on North Eighth Street.

There's four recent demolition permits that the Historic Preservation Commission decided to put their 45-day hold on.

In the previous month, there were two additional on both on North 8th Street, so that's six between February and now.

But that loss of housing really is felt rather dramatically when it's in such a concentrated way.

And it's very hard for us to replace housing like that in an area that's already built out.

I do have concerns about this, and I have concerns that we don't really have any mechanisms for oversight beyond a 45-day hold.

So are you requesting a report?

You're requesting council support to have a report sorry, council support for a report to come back to us on staff, or or I guess the question probably is decrying to you first is the is what is the lift from a staff if you need that.

Well, actually, since Clint's still here, I'll let them appreciate that.

And so I I would I would kind of almost roll that into that conversation too about trying to prioritize, I think uh the housing strategies and tools, and that kind of falls in that category.

I think I think I understand what you're talking about.

Demolition does have an impact on housing, especially that that kind of affordable type housing that we see in those areas.

Uh I I've worked in community that did have additional controls, so they did have a uh a demolition prohibition in some certain uh aspects, right?

So that that is something that's a tool that we could could bring on here.

I could tell you that was a that was a very there was a lot of heated opinions on both sides of that uh when you're telling a proper nearly they cannot demolish uh a particular building.

Uh, but the objectives on the other side was to preserve that was more from a historic preservation type viewpoint.

This is a little bit different, uh, but the mechanisms are probably similar.

Um so we could look at some of those things, but yes, I think the short answer is there are other tools that we could bring uh forward.

We do have the historic preservation uh, I'd say tools in the toolbox now.

We have a certificate of appropriateness process.

So if areas were designated as as historic districts, uh generally they would also uh be adopted that ordinance would would adopt certain um standards for buildings within that area, and they would have to meet certain criteria to change or demolish properties within that district.

So we have some of those tools now that a lot of cities I think do use.

I don't think a uh just a straight demolition prohibition is used very often.

It is very uh it it is a it's an extreme step, I think, in that regards.

Uh so I think I would ask a little bit more kind of uh information if you had a kind of what direction you you would like us to explore in that, but I I could say with some certainty that yes, we could do something like that.

Yeah, um, I mean I don't want a straight demolition prohibition um by the same token.

I'm not coming at this from a preservation um from a historic preservation angle.

Um I think our concerns are considerably different from historic preservation.

And I'm also concerned that in some of these areas, having a preservation district, a historic district would be virtually impossible given that we're looking at areas that are not primarily owner occupied.

We're looking at areas that have all different types of uses and all different types of housing.

Um I don't want to make it impossible to demolish.

I'm also acknowledging that some of these needed to be demolished, and some of these did not need to be demolished.

Um what I'm looking for is um a mechanism to evaluate the permits that gives a bit more oversight onto factors of affordability onto factors of um condition of housing.

Um I also think that um we need to be providing rehabilitation programs and opportunities to use those properties if this is our ask.

Um perhaps more information from staff on existing rehabilitation programs that are available to landlords and owners of rental properties would be helpful.

Um as well as potential mechanisms for oversight.

All right, so I've got Nick, Don, Betsy.

Just to point out that preservation is one of the goals that we have within the housing study and any any tools that we've got and that it can develop to to move toward that goal would be welcome and worthy of consideration.

Don, you had your hand up.

Yeah, so just to clarify and make sure I'm understanding it correctly as well.

So this is property that is owned by Columbia College.

Is that correct?

The four that are up right now.

Um what I'm asking for does not specifically weigh in on these four properties.

Right, I understand.

But the ones that are the ones that raise your question.

Yes, that is the case.

Okay.

And is are they are they currently occupied?

And how okay, how long has Columbia College owned a property?

And are they currently occupied or have they what's what's the process of that?

So I don't think we know that information.

And I I I want to I think you're trying to specifically stay away from for that those specific ones, because this wouldn't even apply to those positions anyway, if you were to come back with any recommendations.

Um to that point, I mean it does, you know, I think this is this is part of it wouldn't happen until later.

It kind of gets back to landowners' uh ability to use the land as they would like within restrictions.

I understand that.

So they're inside the city, yes.

Maybe that's something we can.

Um yeah, and I and I guess I'm just gonna put my two cents in of whoever owns it.

Um I think we run into a problem with what we call affordable housing, which means the rent might be affordable, but the utilities are not.

Um and so I think we need to be sort of careful.

The older homes are the ones that are quote, affordable, but you know, drafty windows, no insulation, you know, whatever.

There's there's a lot of that.

And and then the other thing is if you're gonna demo it, and I don't know whether the city can ask this kind of stuff or not, is like what are you planning to do with this?

Because if they're demoing older buildings that are not structurally sound or are not energy efficient, and they're planning to replace those with other multifamily, then I I think that would be helpful to know.

And I've said that certainly for the East Campus where everybody is irate whenever somebody knocks down a building, but it's like you know, the foundation, the house is falling into the basement and the whole thing's not you know really sound.

So I think maybe we need some nuances to this too, not just uh you know, keeping everything that's old at the same time, not just you know, if you own it, you can tear everything down.

So I don't know how to get to the nuance part, but uh I think we could look at that.

Can I say quick clarifying um potential and process?

So some of the projects you have coming up for some of these, not necessarily preservation of historic preservation, preservation of housing.

Would those come up in this review of our housing study to Nick's point for these sort of recommendations that you might be coming back to on potentially prioritizing?

Thinking back to our conversation Don just led on the housing.

Yeah, I think it kind of fits squarely into under that uh I think perspective is helping us try to make sure we're pointing our resources where where it's most needed, right?

And make sure we're prioritizing those things that are touching the housing.

And we touch a lot of things.

And so we tried to uh prioritize those, but housing is almost kind of its own separate category now.

And so we want to make sure we're we're focused on the right things.

And then with the central city overlay project that you're working on, when any of these conversations come up in it, do you think?

Um they haven't as of yet.

Um I understand the I think the scope of that was to uh look at the neighborhoods for potential design guidelines for new construction.

I haven't been there since the very beginning, but I that the demolition side of it, while a concern, I don't think there's been conversation about addressing or preventing demolition within these areas.

It's more about once there is uh growth and redevelopment in these areas, making sure it fits in the context of the neighborhood.

That's something that I think um my experience that the demolition uh was uh uh prohibition was part of an overlay type design guideline type uh historic preservation area.

This one I think is a little further down the road.

Um and I think if we were to shift gears to try to add that, it could I think um it it could disrupt, I think, that process.

And so while we could try to integrate it in now, uh I'd be I'd fear it.

I was just seeing if it was already in the scope.

Not you don't need to add my knowledge.

So there's a long way of saying I yeah, I don't think it is.

Okay.

So what is your request for a report then, Sally?

Like what do you want to be for a request for a report?

Yeah, I am gonna request a report.

And I wanna say um I understand that we're prioritizing, and I it's a pretty acute need for that area.

Um when we're talking about creation of new housing and we're simultaneously battling loss of housing, um it's difficult for us to meet our goals.

I also want to acknowledge that you know, I I'm talking about 11 houses in three years on like just like one very concentrated ratio, and the ones that have already been demolished to my knowledge are still vacant.

Um I I wanna say like I am in favor of building more housing, and it would be great if I saw multifamily um development there.

Um one of the asks that I think would be reasonable would be to say in an overlay region or in a region where property values meet this criteria.

Can you submit your future plans for the parcel when you ask for a demolition permit?

Um and these are things that just occurred to me.

I'm sure that staff after investigating could have better tools.

Um I I also want to say to Betsy's comment, I I feel the same pin that you do with your work with Benton Stevens.

I also think it's like it these situations are significantly different in that it's not solely focused on historic preservation.

Um while that's tied in there, you know, we're not saying, oh, that one cool old house, we really hate seeing it go.

We're saying we don't want to lose a city block.

And while some of those may be habitable and some of them may not, we don't have any conditions to evaluate that right now because I at least I don't understand that to be something that's reported in this application process.

Um, yeah.

You want to give clarification on what you're hoping to get back from in a report?

No, no, for direction for staff, and then we can vote on um giving staff that direction.

Direction from staff, what tools can be used to um preserve housing.

Um either by adding a layer of oversight on demolition permits, um or um rehabilitation um housing rehabilitation programs.

Do you have any clarifying questions on that, Clint?

No, I think I'm good.

Yeah.

So Carlin.

Do you have any clarifying?

No, uh, but I think um I think let's um let's staff kind of step back, kind of listen to what we have, and then we can send something out just to clarify just to make sure that we captured the right sentiment, and then we can bring back a report to kind of help us move forward.

Uh because I think there's twofold.

So the oversight and process for demolitions is one thing.

The support for how do you incentivize redevelopment is also it's it's kind of uh two different prongs.

And so we just want to make sure that we have the right um question so we know exactly what we're looking for.

Do you need consensus hog and council for that?

Or you're kind of coming back with like a mini report just to get clear about the right.

What I'm gonna come back is what I'm gonna do is send something out to you guys and say, okay, here's what we believe we heard, just to make sure this is correct, and then council can kind of give us direction from there.

But the thought is to bring back some kind of a report in a few months, but I want to make sure that we have exactly what we're looking for.

So you'll reach out like you do on the tracker where you like confirm with us and put it in the spreadsheet.

Yes, ma'am.

Does that work for you, Valerie?

That works for me.

That means though that we probably wouldn't be like getting a thing for a couple months, but that's I mean, or a month or whatever what is.

It's painful, but it's been years.

Okay.

All right, well, thank you.

Appreciate that.

All right, Vera.

Um so first of all, I wanted to say thank you, Betsy, for being willing to sit on the board of equalization.

Uh I can't imagine a board I would less want to sit on, so I appreciate you taking that on.

Uh, as many people have mentioned today, uh, we've had a few weeks with some incredible community meetings.

The housing study went so well.

Um my colleagues up here have mentioned a lot of fabulous things, but I also want to point out that we got to hear a very brief update on the homelessness strategic plan.

Uh and I am so excited to see that moving forward.

I know it's an incredibly capable hands.

The scope of work is gonna be fantastic, and I can't wait to see what we hear from that next.

Um the community summit was absolutely incredible.

Uh the buy-in that we got from the city, seeing the number of kids there carrying around all of their balloon animals and their bags of popcorn.

Um, thank you to all of our custodial staff that I'm sure have been cleaning up kernels for days.

Um the some of the data and information that we got just by looking at some of those charts was fascinating.

I can't wait to see some of the formal reports we get back from it.

Um and I also learned that if I ever need to categorically organize data, I am giving it to Paul because that was absolutely the most organized board of the day.

That's where organized.

The dots were beautiful, color-coded straight lines.

Um we also had the honor of attending the CPS Partners in Education Breakfast, uh, which was a really cool opportunity to see some of the partnerships in our community, um, both from the city, a ton of city departments got to be recognized, and also from private businesses supporting our students in their education through K-12 and the incredible ways that the community supports our kids and education.

Um I was also so excited to see the artist laureate on consent agenda.

Thank you, Nick, for bringing that up as well.

That was something that in my brief time on the commission on cultural affairs, I got to see it kind of a little bit from its inception.

So I was excited to see it um come to come to the end here, and I cannot wait to experience our first full year with an artist laureate.

Uh I was planning to ask tonight about um public comment at first read and requesting like a report on that.

Staff very helpfully let me know that we're going to be talking about that at our upcoming council retreat.

But I wanted to also bring it up here because I think one, I'm so excited to have that conversation.

And two, when we are talking about any potential changes to public comment, I want to make sure that the public are aware of that.

Um so if you have thoughts, if you have input on what you want to see for the process of public comment, um, please reach out.

I'm sure there's going to be plenty of time for input in the future, but please reach out because the earlier you get involved in that, the better it goes.

Um and then the last thing I wanted to say.

Um I know that this what I believe that tonight was the first night we got to try out having our budget amendments sent to us quarterly instead of getting a million different reports.

No, this was not the first quarterly one.

Um of this fiscal year.

No.

We we've been doing it for a few years.

Okay.

Just kidding.

I apologize.

Okay.

Never mind.

Uh still a good practice.

Yeah, still a great practice.

Love seeing that instead of having to um approve a million of them.

Um and so I wanted to appreciate the work that went into that.

Um I know that in some of the ones that we have seen separately.

Um I did miss in this one some of the information that we'll get about like the history, reasoning, and scope behind some of these budget decisions and other details that can help like flesh out why the decision is made.

Um and so I was just uh pausing that it would be nice to see somewhere more in the middle where we can get a little more detail on the specific decisions, the specific reallocations without having to request a million pages of a report.

Um just wanted to throw that out there for the future.

Jackie.

Just want to echo the thanks um for the community summit, for all of the citizens who came and for the countless hours that I know that our staff put into that.

So thank you so much for that.

Um wanted to talk about um the Near East No Cap group that has been meeting.

We are planning um an event on Saturday, March 21st from 11 a.m.

to 3 p.m.

It's called Spring Break jump off.

It's gonna be at the Indian Hills Park.

Um, and this group has come together to provide all kinds of free things for the um individuals in the around that neighborhood.

We're gonna have hamburgers and hot dogs, and then there's gonna be some barbecue, jabber walker's gonna be there.

I mean playing basketball.

Uh I think I'm missing, I'm missing all kinds of things.

Bounce houses, but can't can't forget the bounce houses.

Um, and then there's also going to be food boxes available.

So families who might be a little food insecure and their kids are gonna be home over spring break, they can come and they can pick up a food box and take that home and have a little bit of food to get them through spring break.

So Saturday, March 24th, 11 to 3, Indian Hills Park in Ward 3.

Um, also wanted to um I'm the the council lady's on for the youth advisory council.

I love this group of young people.

And so I've you're gonna hear this every month from me from now on.

Um if you know teenagers, freshmen to senior, well, freshmen to junior really, um, who would like to serve on this council, the boards and commission application is open.

Um we open next week.

We have six seniors graduating this year, so we will have some openings and need to get some other um high schoolers on that uh council.

So I'd love to see people apply.

And um the last thing I want to say is um in the next month and a half or so, we're gonna see a lot of interruptions in traffic uh with the changes and the construction with I-70.

Um my neighborhood is gonna be greatly impacted.

Um, a lot of Ward 3 is gonna be greatly impacted by the different closures.

So just want to ask people for patience and grace and to remind them that it is a MoDOT project.

It is not a city project.

So you can call and holler at us, but it's a MoDot project.

So anyway, we're in the same boat.

We don't get a special tunnel.

So um just have patience and on the other end of it, hopefully we'll have something better.

So that's it.

Thank you.

Um, just a couple of updates on my end.

Um, one quick comment.

Um public comment earlier, somebody commenting about their bill, and I was like, well, I have a small rule card how I logged into uh my bill and uh noticed that my auto pay had not gone through.

Uh and so I just want to give a I wanted to ask if staff wanted to provide an update.

We had a pay it issue that happened.

So I check you if you have auto pay set up for your utility, you might want to make sure that your bill is paid, is going through before you get a late fee.

So, Mattley, I don't know if you want to say anything to that.

Yes, so it is uh specifically for the bills of the autopsy were to draft last week.

So if you had an auto pay the four utility bills that would have drafted last week, uh there has been a postponement in that.

And so we would say that you can make a one-time payment or uh when the auto pay is caught up, uh, we'll send a notice out and let everyone know there should be some sort of notice going out this week too as to what happened.

Um I was informed that customers will still get a late text or email, even if on autopay with this issue.

So to not be alarmed if you were on last week's auto pay schedule.

All right.

Thank you for that.

Yeah, thank you.

I was a little bit worried that something had happened in my bank account.

Um, and then I just have uh one note I want to think she's hopefully home and in bed.

Um, but thanks, uh Elizabeth Miller for uh uh coming to council and making comments.

Uh that takes bravery.

I know she's working on a merit badge as well about this, and so to talk about tough issues, especially the young age uh is really inspiring.

And I believe I have a phone call already scheduled with her tomorrow.

So, like well done for local government involvement.

Looking forward to hearing more about that.

Uh and then I also just want to acknowledge um Saturday was the inauguration of the new president, the 25th president for Stevens College, Dr.

Shannon uh Lundine.

Uh, and it gave me pause to think we're halfway through women's history month.

Uh, and last week we had International Women's Day.

Uh, and to me, it's a time to celebrate uh the amazing women we have in Columbia, um, some up on this dais, some at city staff, many community members.

Um, they're doing tremendous work out there, whether or not they're business owners, healthcare workers, um, moms at home, sisters, whatever.

Um, women continue to play a vital role in making our city stronger and more connected.

And I just want to acknowledge that and my appreciation to everybody working in that space for their resilience and their leadership, especially when sometimes women are held to different standards than our male counterparts.

So just wanted to acknowledge that.

I'll kick it over to you, DeCarlin.

Wow, I gotta follow that one.

Yeah, sorry.

So uh just wanted to talk about the community summit.

So I think we had a little over a little over 200 uh citizens that came through to kind of visit with staff.

Uh I I am really appreciative of our staff members that gave up their day on uh Saturday.

Uh we had a lot of staff that were present to make sure that they were engaging with our residents so we can hear exactly some of their thoughts and some of their concerns to make sure that as we set priorities as we look at how we're using utilizing resources, we are responsive to our residents.

And so, you know, engagement is really something that this city has really tried to make sure that we've doubled down on.

We want to make sure that we're hearing from our residents because it is their community.

Uh one of the things that we were able to do on the summit was it was our first launch for our rebrand of our strategic plan.

So Barry Dunn was there, and they were taking comments from our residents.

Uh we're gonna have a portal on our website where they're gonna do a a quite a little bit of a survey to kind of gain residents' thoughts and concerns and ideas as we move forward with our strategic plan process.

So really want to make sure that residents are engaged with that, and so we'll make sure that's on our website and we'll send that out.

Uh there they have something called a my social point, but it's an idea for us to just kind of start getting input from residents.

Uh, one of the things that we the question was always asked so what do we do with some of the data that we hear from our residents?

And the the airport discussion was a great conversation on that.

Uh last year we had the similar question about where do you want to see us go?

It was Charlotte, Denver, and Orlando.

And all three will be going in June.

So we are listening to our residents, and actually it helps us when we go out as Mike talks about going out to the airport conference.

It's those things of here's what residents are saying, here's what they're looking for.

And so it does help us as we grow our airport.

So thank you for for that.

And I just want to thank the citizens who came out for the summit.

It was a great time.

It's one of those things that really energizes me because you know you hear a lot of negative stuff about the city on social media, but the people that come out to the summit, they were happy, they were energized, they really want to see Columbia do well.

And that really makes you proud of our residents and makes you proud of our employees.

So thank you all.

Anything else?

Anything Nancy?

Holly?

All right, I'll go ahead and adjourn us at 9 13.