I'm gonna go ahead and uh call us to order for the July 20th, 2026 Columbia City Council meeting.

Uh, I invite all those who are able to please rise and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Sheila, we please call roll.

Miss Hartman here, Miss Peters, here, Miss Buffalo, here, Miss Carroll, here, Miss Elwood, here, Miss Sample.

Here.

All right.

So welcome back to City Hall to Council Chambers.

This was recently renovated to improve the audio visual systems.

Our microphones, I feel like are very sensitive right now.

And apologies if you guys get banned on that.

I also do want to note the new podium.

So for those who are coming up first, go to a public comment or any of public speaking later.

Um if you need to adjust it, you can either move the microphone, but there's also a way that the podium itself adjust.

There's a six-second delay.

And I say that because you will realize it is the longest six seconds of your life if you're trying to adjust it, because but it will start moving if you go up or down.

Um so quick overview of council agendas.

Um, you know, items that are listed under consent agenda.

If there's no adjustment to our agenda, there's not normally a presentation for those items, uh, and there's no normally uh discussion on them.

They are kind of approved in bulk.

And if you're looking under intro and first read, those items that have an asterisk would be on consent at that next agenda.

I say that because people can always request uh to remove things from consent or for intro and first read to not be on consent the next time.

Um rules for public speaking.

The public has multiple opportunities to speak at Columbia City Council meetings.

Uh you can uh speak under old business or during public hearing, old business, new business.

I do remind people to get keep their remarks to the legislation being discussed at the end of the council meeting.

You can talk about whatever you want to talk about for the three minutes.

It can be on something on the agenda or nothing, whatever you want to do.

Um we do ask the people to state their name and their ward, and that is just so that she likes to make sure she has it correct for the minutes.

Individuals are allotted three minutes.

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

Please let me know that you're requesting it, and that way I can let Stephen know.

Because on the podium is a little timer that lets you know how much time you have.

It will turn green when you can talk, yellow when you're getting towards the end, and red when you've come to the end of your talk.

Um of the comments that will also encourage people is that we want to avoid demonstrations that might intimidate your neighbors from speaking at city council meetings.

We can address issues, please don't attack individuals, and that includes uh city staff.

Uh if we have major disruptions, they would be addressed with a warning, and if necessary, uh removal and recess.

All right, so moving on for our council agenda.

Um, up first, uh, we have uh the June 1st and June 15th regular meeting minutes, so I'll make a motion to approve both of those uh packets of minutes.

Do I have a second?

Second, second by Vera.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

All right, thank you.

Um and then as far as adjustments of the agenda, um, there was a request from the applicant for Bill 1762 that is currently under intro and first read to be removed from the agenda.

Um there any other changes to the agenda.

Seeing none, uh, I'll make a motion to approve the agenda with the removal of Bill 1762.

Do we have a second?

Second, second and by view.

Thank you.

Uh all those in favor of the agenda as amended say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

All right.

And then up first, we have a special item.

So I'd like to invite Christopher Ave to join the city clerk and the city manager at the podium to take his oath of office as our new communications director.

Just raise the right hand if you have to meet.

I state your name.

I Christopher Ave.

Do you solemnly swear?

Do you solemnly swear?

That I possess all qualifications.

That I possess all qualifications.

For the Office of Director of Communications.

For the Office of Director of Communications.

For the City of Columbia, Missouri.

For the City of Columbia, Missouri.

That I am not subject.

That I am not subject to any of the disqualifications.

To any of the disqualifications.

Set forth in the charter.

Set forth in the charter.

Of the City of Columbia.

Of the City of Columbia.

And I will support the Constitution.

That I will support the Constitution.

And laws of the United States.

And laws of the United States.

And of the state of Missouri.

And of the state of Missouri.

And the charter and ordinances.

And the charter and ordinances.

Of the City of Columbia.

And that I will faithfully discharge.

And that I will faithfully discharge.

The duties of my office.

The duties of my office.

So help me God.

So help me God.

Congratulations.

Welcome, Christopher.

Well, welcome to the team, Christopher.

Thank you for being here.

Yeah.

All right.

Moving on, because this is what we do.

We just get right back into work.

For our uh up the first thing we have, um, the City of Columbia have multiple boards and commissions where uh citizens can um give uh their guidance and feedback to members of the council of VODs.

Uh so we have a few uh applications to some of our vacancies.

So up first um for vacancies that have applications if agreeable, all three applicants for the bicycle pedestrian commission can be appointed in this there's any objections?

No objection, no objections.

Okay, moving on for the building construction codes commission.

We'll need to call role for the licensed architect regular member position first because there's three applicants and only one vacancy.

So Sheila, will you please call role on licensed architect regular member?

Miss Hartman sorry, I'm trying to pull the page up.

Okay, Vinilyn Powell, Miss Peters, Brian Connell, Miss Buffalo, Brian Connell, Miss Carroll, Brian Connell, Miss Elwood, Ryan Connell, Miss Sample, Brian Connell.

Brian's been appointed, and that was for the regular member.

Okay.

Can you please call roll then for the alternate member for licensed architect, please?

Miss Hartman.

Dylan Powell.

Miss Peters.

Jonathan Trunk.

Miss Buffalo.

Dylan Powell.

Miss Carroll.

Jonathan Trunk.

Miss Elwood.

Jonathan Trunk.

Miss Sample.

Jonathan Trunk.

Jonathan received four votes.

Okay.

And then if agreeable, Benjamin Dupree can be appointed as the regular vacancy if there's no objections.

No objection.

No objections.

And then similarly, Rick Schenker can be appointed as the regular person experience and fire prevention if there's no objections.

No objections.

Okay.

For the Citizens Police Review Board.

If agreeable, the two applicants, uh Christopher Hoff and Sandra Smith can be appointed if there's no objections.

No objections.

Objections.

Okay.

And then for Climate and Environment Commission, we'll need to have roll call because there are six applicants with only two vacancies.

First vacancy, Miss Hartman.

Leslie Frymere.

Miss Peters.

Martin Hyman.

Miss Buffalo.

Martin Hyman.

Miss Carroll.

Leslie Frymeur.

Miss Elwood.

Martin Hyman.

Miss Sample.

Martin Hyman.

Martin received four votes.

And now the next one.

Ms.

Hartman.

For the next vacancy.

Same same climate and environment commission.

Sorry.

I just closed it.

Thanks.

Leslie Frymer.

I don't know why I made that so hard.

Miss Peters.

Leslie Freimair.

Miss Buffalo.

Jackson Hoyfeld.

Miss Carroll.

Jackson Hunfeld.

Miss Elwood.

Jackson Hunfeld.

Miss Sample.

Jackson Hoonfeld.

Jackson received four votes.

Okay.

And then for the Commission on Cultural Affairs.

We have four applicants for one vacancy.

Can you please call roll, Sheila?

Miss Hartman.

Mick Brewer.

Miss Peters.

Peters.

Scott Velda.

Ms.

Buffalo.

Enola White.

Miss Carroll.

Inola White.

Ms.

Elwood?

Enola White.

Miss Sample.

Enola White.

Enola received four votes.

And then for the Commission on Cultural Affairs, unless there's any objection, we can appoint Michelle Curry to that.

The one applicant.

No objection.

Okay.

Similarly for public transit advisory commission.

We have one applicant.

So Oliver Swerringin can be appointed if there's no objection.

No objection.

Okay.

And I'll remind people that we have openings for boards and commissions usually post on uh the Wednesday following this meeting.

So to look and see and encourage you to consider applying.

So similarly when I talked about public comments at uh council meetings, there's also an opportunity to do scheduled public comments.

Um residents or members can reach out to the public, sorry, members of the public, you are already members of the public.

Can reach out to the city manager's office um by 5 p.m.

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

Scheduled public comment items cannot be on this same night's agenda topics except for um reports.

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

Uh so this evening we have a few scheduled public comments.

So I'd like to first ask uh for Luke Jensen andor Luke.

Is it Isn't Nakfe?

Or I'm sorry.

You can come up and tell me.

You can both come up and then you can say how to say your name.

Sorry, to come forward to speak.

Yeah, so uh Luke Jensen and Isanakvi.

Thank you.

And just a quick point of clarification.

This is my first time doing a scheduled public comment.

Do we each get three minutes or is it three minutes for the both?

You get five minutes total.

So you get two and a half minutes, you could say.

Okay, perfect.

And Luke, will you adjust your microphone a little taller?

Thank you.

Yeah, okay.

Can you hear me?

Okay, perfect.

Uh hello, Columbia City Council.

My name is Luke Jensen.

I'm a longtime resident of the fourth word and a current Mizzou student.

I come before you today with a deep concern over the recent installation of Flock safety cameras that have gone up across town and the massive privacy violations that come with them.

Flock safety cameras claim to be only licensed plate readers, but have also been shown to have the ability to scan faces and the way someone walks.

According to Flock's own website, this data is then stored in such a way that you can search orange hat plus camo jacket within the database, and it will pull up specific people wearing that exact outfit.

This is essentially a search function for police departments to use to search people and cars.

It has also been repeatedly demonstrated that the cameras are not secure in the slightest.

Tech YouTuber Ben Jordan made a video last year showing that he was able to find the administrative interfaces for Flock safety cameras in over 60 cities just using a Google search engine.

He then showed how he was able to access all of the recordings because there was no password and there was no encryption for any of the files.

He was able to watch the flock camera's AI software zoom in on a couple having an argument at a market.

Because the cameras are not anonymous, their faces were fully available to him.

After scanning their faces using open source intelligence, he was able to deduce that they had driven 45 minutes from their house in the suburbs of Atlanta to church that morning, found their debt to income ratio, some of their medical information, all of their social media, and so much more.

We have seen local police departments across the country abuse their access to these cameras.

Individual officers have used them to stock their partners, affairs, exes, and more.

On top of this, local police departments have also used these cameras to share data with ICE.

This is a massive invasion of privacy and is helping to move the country towards a surveillance state.

I implore the council to please bring this back up to a vote and vote to cancel the contract with Flock.

Cameras like these have no place in our city, especially with as many protected communities as we have living here.

Whether or not the city police department is using the data it is storing from Flock with complete innocence, they are still insecure, and other departments will have access to it.

We cannot trust that these cameras will not be used to target politicians, activists, trans people, immigrants, and so many more members of our community.

Additionally, these cameras have cost the city well over one million dollars and will continue to cost the city over $500,000 annually.

This money should be used to fund proven community safety programs such as housing first and community policing.

The positive impacts of forced surveillance will pale in comparison to the positive impacts of well-funded community programs.

The people of Columbia deserve a right to privacy, and I ask that the council do what they can to cancel the city's contract with Flock.

Thank you.

Additionally, I'd like oh, uh name is inukby again, uh long time resident of Ward 4 and then Ward 5 and current uh Missous student.

Um I just wanted to provide some additional context from other cities that have also um had flawed for a bit or refused flock that are of similar nature to Columbia.

Uh small city in uh uh just north of air uh Seneca, Missouri disaffiliated with Flock after being unable to be given basic privacy assurances reportedly their police chief said that they will not be part of a system unless they are a hundred percent certain uh they cannot be compromised.

The fact that they were not able to get flock is telling, and I think that we should have a similar standard here in Columbia in Coralville, Iowa.

They accepted Flock, which they did under D premise, similar to Columbia, that they would not provide DHS any information for immigration enforcement purposes.

Uh the state uh they're part of Iowa is a red state, and it forced the city to give this info anyways, causing the city to then get rid of flock afterwards, uh being a whole mess of and a waste of uh a waste of money for the city.

Uh in Columbia should avoid this as we sit in a similar position as the as a progressive city in a conservative state.

Uh and we we have no reason to waste valuable resources on what can easily be abused in the future.

And then finally, Flagstaff Arizona was a particularly famous example where the city council unanimously voted to remove flock representing the will of the people of the city despite their the police protest.

I urge the city council to also represent the interests of the people of Columbia and get rid of Flock in Columbia.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Moving on to Oh, thank you.

Um I believe that our next scheduled public comment um is not able to be here.

Um so we'll contact her office about rescheduling for that one.

Um so I'd like to now ask uh Philip.

Uh and Philip, I never remember Fraquica.

I'm just gonna say it really fine like that until it becomes true.

Philip, what do you say your last name?

Fresek.

You did get it right last month though.

Yeah, there's three or not.

Sorry.

Sorry, Philip.

Yes, please start.

You're good.

Uh Philip Fresico Ward 6.

Good evening, council members.

I'm here representing the Water and Light Advisory Board.

And I just wanted to briefly share an update from our last meeting regarding the proposed increase to pilot.

The board reviewed finance proposal to incrementally increase the pilot charge based on the increased value of the water treatment plant resulting from the ongoing improvements.

After discussion, we intend to recommend an alternative approach.

We haven't sent it yet.

We wanted to get a memo out, but we didn't get it in time for this meeting, but I think we'll be doing so next month.

Um, asking for you all to consider maintaining it at its current level.

We weren't able to see what the impact would be if it is increased at our meeting and the uh proposal to do an incremental increase instead of a freeze.

And since we are recommending that council consider staff's proposed utility rate adjustments for a 10% water rate increase and a six percent electric rate increase while holding the base rates constant and an increase to the power cost adjustment or PCA, PCA cap to 20%.

We thought it might be a little much to be doing all those things at once.

So given that we've already made these recommendations for you all to consider these adjustments, uh we thought it was appropriate to recommend uh a pause or to a freeze right now on additional increase to the pilot charge.

We recognize the important role that pilot plays in supporting the city's general fund.

However, without additional information, we didn't feel comfortable giving that a uh vote of support at this time.

So just want to let you know.

Thank you.

Thank you, Philip.

And last, and I apologize for not saying yeah, the two other ones that were scheduled public comment also said that they weren't able to come this evening.

So I'm not just skipping over names.

Um so now our final scheduled public comment is Jim Windsor.

Uh Jim Windsor, 200 Manor Drive.

Uh at one of the meetings where the sales tax was going to be put on the ballot.

Uh one of the council members, and I'm sorry, I don't remember who asked what hard decisions you all would have to make if the sales tax didn't pass.

Uh that was shifted to the fire and police chiefs.

But I think that is not the right person that should have answered it.

Uh, because you would have to make decisions regarding everything.

And you still have to make decisions regarding everything, I hope, going forward if it does pass.

Um, first of all, I have not seen other than there's going to be one cent dedicated for public safety, meaning fire and police, that there will be a public safety fund.

So in addition to the 38 million from the one cent, the 60 million would be in that fund.

And if it wasn't spent, it would accumulate for the purposes of fire and police.

If that is planned, I have not seen it in any of the information that has been put out.

I I certainly hope it is done.

And even if it doesn't pass, that it be set up and any anything not spent in a year by fire and police be uh kept and moved forward.

Um I would also hope that you look beyond the scope of report 3926, which is about the no fiscal impact annexation of the uh water plant in uh 2019, uh which now you see is going to impact the water utility at $870,000.

Um I agree that doing this abatement is not the right thing to do.

Uh a freeze possibly would be at the current level of which is probably around 300,000.

Um, so that the annexation that should never have happened stops impacting water rate customers so uh outrageously.

And you guys decide.

It took me months to get that information out of the administration to just say city council decides on what the rates will be.

So you guys can do anything you want.

Uh quite frankly, if the tax passes, I think it's time to do away with the pay all of the property tax for the water utility because there's a lot of infrastructure that has to be done, not just a water tower.

There's some pump stations, and the current capital projects, they can only replace mains once every hundred years.

And the fire chief said that having a water supply is one of the most important things, right?

Well, at some point they're going to fail.

And we need to be investing that money in capital projects, not giving it to the general fund, and this would be an opportunity to make different decisions.

And finally, the idea of taking money out of uh sewer and solid waste to give to the general fund.

Uh I talked to the former utility director.

He said he remembers quite clearly that started in 2021.

It's not something that has been done forever.

It is a very recent taking from those utilities.

And the claim is that the general fund plays 30 percent of the cost of the administrative departments.

That's true only if you include the 5.6 million that is transferred out 5 million to parks and recs, 600,000 to pay utility bills.

But those should be direct taxpayers' cost, in my view as a taxpayer, not a utility ratepayer cost.

And all of these are administrative costs to go directly to the base charges.

And right, you know, you're getting a proposal for solid waste to increase, except for the large solid waste thing.

Well, if you take out those administrative costs, and I think it can be reduced about a million dollars, and and then they would actually pay 30 percent of the administrative uh departments of the general fund.

So these are things that you should be looking at.

And I'd also encourage you to delay the decision on rate changes.

Uh it used to be that they went with the budget, and citizens had opportunities, multiple opportunities to make signals.

All right.

Thank you.

Yeah, I know the podium different.

The red light is a lot closer to people when you speak tonight.

We'll get used to this.

All right.

Wait, it's not very clarified.

All right.

So moving on to our public hearings.

We have a few this evening.

So I'll have Sheila call uh read public hearing 2026 and the accompanying Bill 1592.

Public hearing 2026 is the proposed replacement of bridge number nine on the MKT trail.

Council Bill 159-26 is an ordinance determining it is in the public interest to replace bridge nine on the MKT trail, approving and adopting plans and specifications determining that the work shall be done by contract, calling for bids through the purchasing division, providing for payment for the improvement, authorizing the city manager to obtain execute and record all documents necessary for the improvement, providing for compliance with the prevailing wage law and state mandated construction safety training, and fixing the time when this ordinance shall become effective.

Second reading.

Yes, thank you, Mayor Gabe Huffington, Parks and Regritian Director.

Tonight we talk and could like to talk a little bit about the replacement of bridge number nine on the MKT trail.

This bridge is approximately 120 years old.

Our project budget for this improvement is $640,000.

This includes $575,000 from the park sales tax, any donation from the Richard T.

Eiler Trust of $65,000.

We have completed the engineering work associated with this bridge, and that was done by McClare Engineering, and they are ready to proceed onto the bid package if this is approved by City Council.

Our anticipated construction for the bridge is between December of this year, so 2026 through March of 2027.

We have historically done bridge replacements on the MKT trail during the winter months to avoid as much traffic as possible on that trail.

Our construction does require this section of the MKT trail to be closed during the duration of this project.

And I'll show and talk about some slides here in just a little bit.

So in terms of bridge number nine from a geographic location, this sits directly next to A.

Augustin Golf Course.

And it also has three connectors that sit directly adjacent to it, which is the White Oak Connector, the Forum connector, and then also the MU Rec Trail connection is adjacent to this bridge.

We held an interested parties meeting on Thursday, April 30th, uh at the gentry building in downtown.

We had a number of citizens come look at the plans and discuss the project, including the closure and how we would go about that, and I'll kind of talk a little bit about the potential for a reroute to allow pedestrians through, and then ultimately the need to close that.

We also had B heard Como online comments from April 15th to May 19th.

Um so we collected online as well.

So this is the existing bridge.

Any of the older bridges that are on the MKT trail have support structures that sit inside the creek.

So this is a pretty good example, and I'll show you another one of log jams that consistently occur with all of our old bridges on the MKT trail.

What we propose to replace that with is a free spam bridge that eliminates that issue for us as we go along the trail.

Um so the creek will flow clearly through this area, um, and then that bridge will be placed on top of two support structures on either side.

So there's a couple reasons that we do this.

Obviously, longevity of the MKT trail and the need to replace these bridges will come up with every renewal of the park sales tax.

This bridge being 120 years old, we have some challenges with it.

The picture on the left is actually a log jam from about six years ago that occurred at the site.

This is a project that our forestry staff will have to move into.

They have to clear all of this out.

This typically has to happen in August when we get lowest water levels.

The new bridge is also graded HS20, which allows for 72,000 pounds to cross.

Right now we have a limit of 10,000 pounds.

So in terms of an EMS vehicle that would need to access the trail to get to somebody, they wouldn't be able to cross this bridge.

So by replacing them and putting in new bridges, we are able to have EMS and medical services travel up and down the trail.

We will also replace this with a concrete deck instead of a wood deck.

So all of our older trails and some trail bridges and some of our newer ones have wood decks.

We've moved to a concrete deck just for the sake of longevity and maintenance.

So as we've discussed, the challenging part of this project is that there isn't a clear route to allow for pedestrian bicycle traffic as we do this project.

We looked at a number of different examples.

Both of the connectors that we have take you up to Stadium Boulevard, so you're putting traffic out on a stadium if you connect it via that white oak connector.

And then also from forum, you would have to get on forum to stadium and to be able to go around.

So it is not the safest route for your standard park user, trail user that's going to be on there.

An experienced cyclist very much could probably travel these routes and be able to handle this type of closure.

So what we are anticipating is, and you can kind of see by the two orange triangles.

We'll close the bridge on either sides.

Um, this allows them when you're coming back towards downtown, it's a little bit tighter, but we need that extra space for the construction laydown area aspects of the project.

And so this is kind of the closure that you'll see.

The rest of the trail will remain open.

Again, we anticipate we will start sometime in December of 2026, uh, with our goal to be completed at the latest by March of 2027.

So as we talk about this, we have started to work on a communications plan to talk about the bridge closure.

Obviously, there'll be a lot of signage at the trail location.

There'll be a lot of signage at connectors, forum trailhead, MKT Stadium Trailhead, and then farther down the trail, we'll start to warn folks that the trail will be closed at this time.

We'll do a number of social media posts.

That's one of our best ways to communicate out project information to the public.

There'll be a press release that will go out anticipating usually a week before the closure to two weeks.

We also will do some extra notification of the bike and ped commission as well as notification and local bike shops, and then we have a number of Facebook groups that use the MKT trail quite a bit, and so we will make sure such groups, such as the Two Will Tuesday, they will be notified and they'll be aware of this as well.

And then we also have a listserv.

So we'll communicate this out as best as possible.

Um, and then some folks will still discover that we are under construction at that time during the winter months along the trail.

So at this point in time, staff is requesting approval of legislation that would authorize the department to replace bridge number nine on the MKT trail, and I'm happy to answer any questions you may have at this time.

Any questions for Gabe on a proposed uh replacement of bridge number nine?

Valerie.

Can I ask this question?

I'm not sure if this is a gape question.

Stadium is a Modot Street, correct?

Correct.

Um I'm looking to a future where we may have it safe for all transportation users on stadium.

I know we had a um at a CATSO last year, they brought up cost share program potentially.

Yeah, probably not a game question.

This might be a later question.

Yeah.

Later question.

Um let's open up the floor then.

And you have a question for Gabe on this one.

Yeah.

Uh for the long-term impact, the council mimill just said uh staff anticipates a small savings related to the required staff time for the removal of logs under the bridge.

The new concrete deck on the bridge will also eliminate wood plank maintenance.

What is the annual anticipated cost of maintaining the bridge?

So once we replace it, it's pretty minimal.

So, in terms of the trail, we don't plow the snow on this trail because of the gravel that goes on both sides.

So the only time that we would need any type of maintenance would be vandalism.

So if someone was to graffiti the metal structure of the trail, or if there was something that needed to be replaced, some signage, for instance, might need to be replaced or renewed that's on there.

But other than that, there would be very little maintenance when we put this bridge in.

Okay, well, what would be the next like how many years out before a major upgrade or something to know?

So it's gonna be a very long time.

Um I would anticipate 50 years at least.

Um the only thing we we wouldn't know about is that there was some kind of natural disaster that would happen that would uh cause us to lose that bridge.

But other than that, um there that bridge is going to be there for very long time at this point.

And so that's definitely um less frequent than what you would currently have to do to make sure that that bridge can get people can get across it safely.

Absolutely.

Any other questions for staff?

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

Does anybody from the public wish to speak on um the MKT trail bridge number nine replacement?

Hello, Renee Carter, uh Ward 2.

So I would ask that you vote yes for this as a member of Two Wheel Tuesday.

Uh we ride that area a lot.

And um, one of the things we ran into on the 4th of July was as we were coming back from the Stevens Park fireworks, one of our friends drove off the edge of the trail, and we had to call the EMTs out.

And so from talking with Gabe, this is a very important issue.

Is that they had to, yeah, they had to be able to access the area with heavier equipment in order to reach her.

Um, but another thing I would like to say is that you know, we have commuters that ride this trail in all kinds of weather.

And so I don't know if they've taken out the option.

I was trying to listen of for a while, people be able to drive go through the um creek bed.

I don't know if they're going to be able to do that or not, but it would be good if you also put information on your website because not everyone uses social media.

Um, but anyway, please vote yes.

Thank you.

And reminder to speakers to say your name in your ward, even though if you come up.

I I would say because I wasn't sure if you did, I think you did, but it was like with the new podium, I'm watching very much, it's different for me here.

Yeah, I can't always hear.

Yeah.

Mark Hiam, uh 1402 Richardson, third ward.

Very quickly, uh I support this.

This is a good thing to replace this bridge.

I would just ask that you try and keep the amount of time that it's shut down to a bare minimum rather than uh three or four months.

So if that could be you know prioritized, I think it would be very helpful.

I just got back a couple weeks ago from a 7-mile bike ride on the MKT in the KD.

And uh when you're coming back to town on the MKT, it's slightly uphill, but it's flat.

But if you go off on the MU rec trail, talking about going up some very steep hills and after 76 miles, I wouldn't want to have to do that.

That's it.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mark Peter Schneeperger, Ward 4.

Um, I also support this project.

I'm a regular user of MKT Trail, and what I want to bring to your attention is that this is not the only bridge that needs some attention.

Um bridges number two and bridges number 10 also desperately need attention right now.

Uh I would say both of them are worse than nine, and I would talk I went to the meeting, we talked about it.

Why is this nine and not two or ten or all of them?

And they said, well, this is the amount of funds we have.

But now I've just heard this is a 50-year bridge.

So this should be treated as a capital improvement project.

If we're bringing all this equipment in and spending all this money, why wouldn't we get all this done in one go and big upfront costs, no doubt, but then we'll pay it back over time.

So my suggestion is let's do two, nine, and ten all at the same time for a 50-year investment.

Thank you.

Thank you, Peter.

Guys, am I good?

Yeah, just say your name in Ward.

My name is uh Charles Cavanal, Ward 6.

Um, I do support the the bridge going in, but I do have one question if the legislation was approved.

When would the proposed bid opening be for the project?

I will ask that when public hearing is done and get you a response.

Do you have any other questions?

No, ma'am.

Okay.

Any other questions?

Or public comment?

Hello, Shane Lowe, Ward 4.

Uh, a couple of quick comments I had on this.

I didn't s uh um see, I didn't know either way, on the notification whether we'd also post notifications at places like the Como Bike Co-op and the uh opportunity center, just given that there's a high number of trail riders uh who frequent both those locations as well.

Um the other question I kind of had was uh is this the you know one kind of critical thing we're missing for EMS access up and down the trail, or as some people have already commented, do we also have other bridges that would need to be replaced to have acts uh EMS access on the trail?

Thank you.

Awesome.

Thank you, Shane.

Anyone else from the public wish to speak on the repo proposed MKT bridge number nine replacement?

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

Um Gabe, before we get to additional questions, would you mind speaking um a couple public hearings from now we're gonna be talking about the capital improvement plan that in you in it you mentioned bridges number nine and ten in that?

Can you speak to to those plans?

Yes.

So we had originally talked about the replacement of bridge nine and ten as part of a park sales tax project.

And one of the things that we have seen um with the inflating cost of infrastructure is a decision that we had to make to replace nine at this time.

Um while we will have engineering for ten, the engineer's estimate to replace bridge ten was about nine hundred thousand dollars.

So we would be looking more at like a 1.4 million dollar project to do both bridges.

So we did nine at this time, but we have a plan obviously to do bridge ten.

What we will do uh typically before we will get to a next park sales tax renewals, we will go hire an engineer to do a study of all the bridges that are on the MKT trail, and they will let us know one is the weight limits for each bridge, but then priority orders.

So as the gentleman said earlier, bridge two and bridge ten are kind of those next two in line.

Um but that's kind of that process that we have to go through.

If there's funding that we uh are able to acquire before we get to the next park sales tax, obviously these bridges are a priority.

Um it's just very difficult right now for us from a cost standpoint um to get more than one replaced at this time.

And then the question about um bid opening for the project.

So engineering work is done, and our team is working with the purchasing department on the RFP to put this out.

So probably anywhere between 30 to 45 days, uh, we will want to make sure we go kind of as quickly as possible on this so that we have enough time for the contractor um to order the bridge to get that into fabrication.

So that bridge is being fabricated before they actually get to the project site.

So in December when they're ready, they'll build the end walls.

That bridge is shipped to Columbia, and then they'll be able to install it.

So additional council questions.

Yeah, Valerie.

Yeah.

So I I did see the um bridge nine and ten in the CIP that we're hearing in a bit.

It has a completion date is 2027, so next year.

Um I'm curious, is there a reason why we wouldn't want to, especially since we can't provide a detour.

Is there a reason why we wouldn't want to hold on to this and do it at once?

So this is kind of the decision that we're making at this time is to proceed with bridge nine.

Um, and then bridge 10 has the engineering completed, but we would need to find the additional funding for that bridge.

So the funding that is appropriated part of the FY27 budget is to have enough money to replace bridge number nine.

And so what we'll have for bridge 10 is just the engineering completed at this time.

And I did real quickly to address one other comment.

The reason that we cannot do a detour right at the project site, like we have done for some similar bridges, um, is the steep slopes and the topography.

It is just it, I mean, it's it's definitely not ADA accessible, but it wouldn't even be accessible in terms of the the topography terrain and to get somebody up and down.

And so that's why we are talking more about a closure for this bridge construction compared to other projects in the past.

Yeah.

Appreciate that.

Yeah, Vera.

You may not know the answer to this yet, but will bridge 10 have a similar closure when we work on it, or will that be something where we are able to have a detour?

I would have to go back and look to see about a detour.

Um we have we we did not work on that at this time, knowing that we were gonna tackle this bridge first.

But it's possible that when we get to future bridges, it might not result in the type of closure that we're looking at for bridge nine.

You are correct.

So previous bridges, so when we did five, six, seven, we were able to have detours that were relatively close.

Um, this one is just very challenging due to location on the trail.

Yep.

And then I have just a comment, which is to say um this is one of the most detailed communication plans, I think has been presented to us on the dais.

Um, and I really appreciate seeing the efforts that you are going to to make sure people are aware of this ideally before they get on the trail.

Um, very much appreciate that.

Thank you very much.

Any other council questions or comments?

Comments.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Um I support this project.

I think it's a terrific project.

The bridges need to be replaced.

Um I want to speak to the roads.

Um we're doing highway 70 repair now and bridges are out and people have detours on roads.

I can't imagine a situation where we would tolerate bridges being out and people not having a detour for transportation for car-centric transportation.

Um this isn't a failing of Gabe's.

This isn't a failing of the cities.

Stadium is not our road.

Um, but I am looking forward to a future where we have Pedways available on stadium, where we have bike lanes available on stadium.

Stadium has quite a wide shoulder.

I do ride the section of stadium between forum and um Carrie Frankie Drive.

Um this used to be a daily commute for me.

Um it does have quite a steep slope.

Um I want to acknowledge that it's a daily commute for a lot of people and that we need to look at transportation equity for all of our road users.

Yeah, thank you.

All right, shall we please call roll on bill 159 26?

Council Bill 159-26, Ms.

Hartman.

Yes.

Ms.

Peters?

Yes.

Miss Buffalo?

Yes.

Ms.

Carroll?

Yes.

Ms.

Elwood?

Yes.

Ms.

Ample?

Yes.

All right, moving on.

Sheila, will you please read uh public hearing 2126?

Public hearing 2126 is the consideration of the water and light to 2026 renewable energy plan.

Do we have a staff report?

Yes.

Aaron Keys, Utilities Director with me tonight.

I have Todd McVicer, the utility services manager.

And we're here to talk about the renewable energy plan.

And I'm gonna let Todd do the talking.

Okay.

The City of Columbia Utilities publishes an annual renewable energy plan to comply with the City of Columbia's Renewable Energy Standard Ordinance.

The 2026 Renewable Energy Plan had a draft copy made publicly available on January 31st, 2026, while the utility received finalized numbers on energy purchases.

Numbers were finalized, and the final version of the report was made publicly available on May 15th, 2026.

The following points, the following are points of interest from the 2026 Renewable Energy Plan, which has been presented to the Water and Light Advisory Board and the Climate Environment Commission.

So this slide is from the renewable energy standard, the amount of energy that to be supplied by renewables in 2025, the standard was set at 25%.

This next slide is about the renewable energy supply.

In 2025, the City of Columbia utilities purchased or generated 22.57% of the total electric usage through renewable energy sources.

The standard for 2025 was 25%.

While the percentage dropped from 2024 of 22.82%, the actual amount of renewable energy was higher in 2025 than in 2024.

The breakdown of received renewable energy is 17.63% from wind, 2.68% from landfill gas, and 2.25% from solar.

If the existing renewable contract with Iron Starn wind was not delayed, the utility would have exceeded the 25% standard from the renewable energy ordinance.

Next slide is about the additional cost of renewables.

The cost of renewable energy was approximately 450,000 more in 2025 than in 2024.

This was predominantly due to congestion and transmission costs from the Crystal Lake Wind Farm contract.

The next slide is about the 3% rate impact for renewables.

On this chart, the blue represents the percentage of impacted by renewables, and the orange represents the balance of the 3% rate cap.

The rate impact for renewable energy compared to non-renewables was $3,463,900, which was 72% of the 3% rate impact limit for renewables.

Todd, before you go forward, would you like to explain 2022?

2022 was a uh high cost for renewables, and that was predominantly due to uh transmission congestion associated with our wind contracts in Iowa.

Uh that was thankfully we haven't seen that level of congestion and cost associated again.

But that was a one-time occurrence.

Can you also clarify what the blue versus the orange means on this chart?

So with the renewable energy, we have a 3% rate impact that can be associated cost of impact on the cost of rates for renewables compared to non-renewables.

And the blue is the how much of that 3% cap was used and a percentage, and the orange is the remainder of that that did not reach the 3%.

So for example, in this year we were at 72% of our 3% rate and cap of rate impact, and then we were at 28% below the 3%.

So that's what the orange is compared to the blue.

And to clarify, in 22, um, the increase above was because of renewables, but wasn't that also a year that we had also just an increase in cost of energy, like that was kind of when we had that big spike.

Was that that year?

Right.

But specifically the uh the wind energy we were receiving that year, there was a lot of congestion okay uh on the market, so that causes the prices to be a lot higher.

I guess I was clarifying because I think we had that congestion pricing on all of our contracts, correct?

On a lot of them, yes.

Okay, thank you.

And this next one is about the renewable energy forecast.

So in 2026, it's estimated that 23 and a half percent of the utilities total electric usage will be from renewable resources under current contracts.

The standard for 2026 is 25 percent.

Uh, per the developer, Iron Star transmission line, also known as the Grain Belt Express, is targeting a commencement of construction in 2026.

At this time, the anticipated delivery of electricity for Missouri is 2029.

And I'll reiterate again that if that contract had not been delayed, we would have exceeded our 25 percent for renewables.

And for the future of renewables, the utility is currently working with a solo developer on an agreement for a solar purchase power agreement.

The agreement is currently with the developer.

If the developer elects to move forward with the PPA, this agreement would require City Council approval.

This PPA agreement is not taken into account in this previous slides forecast.

Um, federal tax credits for solar have sunset for new solar projects.

However, incentives and financing for customers through the utility for the installation of solar on homes and businesses will remain.

And staff intends to provide a revision to renewable energy ordinance at a future work uh at a future work session with City Council.

At this time if City Council has any questions.

Questions from council to staff.

Um, can I ask in the report?

Um, the comment is made a couple of times about um uh for some of these go through as well as some of the additionals go through that we might be purchasing energy that we don't need because of existing contracts, and then we'll have to sell it back to the market and be open to market pricing.

Have we had to do that yet?

I would have to look into that, but it is a financial risk uh based on the power purchase agreements that we already have.

If we purchase too much or more energy than what we typically use, then we have to sell that back on the market, and it is a financial risk whether we'll make money or lose money on that additional purchase.

Okay.

I think it'd be useful to know, especially since there's the potential of like, you know, for like Sykes and if we end up not having that one, like how does this how does this mix work with us or those contracts that we have?

Um, but then yeah, if we've had to sell back, it'd be good information to know.

Any other questions?

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

Would anybody from the public wish to speak on the water and light 2026 renewable energy plan?

Renee Carter Second Ward.

Um, I do have one question.

So when I was at the NGF City at the Capitol, I heard a lot of resistance about the grain belt.

And so I'm just wondering if this is still a concern about people.

Um I guess I guess ask, you know, refusing to allow them to expand.

Anyway, I'm just curious if that's uh still an issue.

Thank you.

Thank you.

But anybody else from the public wish to speak on the water in light 2026.

I just keep talking until people come up to the podium.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Hi, my name is Abby Dickinson.

I am here as the chair of the Columbia Climate Environment Commission, as well as an employee of Renew Missouri.

Um, this is a memo that we submitted to City Council, but I also wanted to read it aloud for your consideration.

The City of Columbia Climate and Environment Commission is submitting this memo to the City Council in tandem with the Columbia Water and Light 2026 Renewable Energy Plan.

The purpose of this submission is to draw attention to some of the positive aspects of the city's continued investments and clean energy in addition to the utilities reporting.

The 2026 REP reported it is estimated 23.5% of Colombia's electric portfolio will come from existing renewable sources in 2026, amounting to 286,837 megawatt hours of energy use.

This means the City of Colombia is projected to divert 248,016 metric tons of carbon from going into the atmosphere this year, the equivalent of taking 57,851 gasoline-powered cars off the road for one year.

Furthermore, continued investments in clean energy help to offset future costs, both monetary and otherwise, accrued from the effects of climate change.

Hotter temperatures, heavy rain and flooding, vector-borne diseases, and poor air quality are expected to be the most drastic climate change symptoms Columbia will experience in the coming years.

Overwhelmed stormwater infrastructure can cause service disruptions, increased flooding, runoff into nearby waterways, severe property damage, transportation interruptions from flooded roads, and more.

Additionally, 8.2% of Colombia homes, or nearly one in 12 face flood risk in the next 30 years.

These symptoms also yield a variety of health risks.

Higher temperatures increase the risk of heat stroke, more mosquitoes mean an increase in vector-borne diseases, and poor air quality both causes and exacerbates existing respiratory issues.

Climate change is costing the average US household between 400 and 900 a year, largely from heating and cooling, insurance costs, and mortality risks.

This makes up a greater portion of poorer households income.

The cost of climate policy action may already be less than household costs of climate change, which will likely increase in years to come.

In conclusion, the City of Columbia stands to gain much from continuing to invest in clean sources of energy.

The Climate and Environment Commission, as well as Renew Missouri, applauds the steps that have been taken thus far towards the city's clean energy goals, and we look forward to the possibility of future clean energy opportunities.

Thank you.

Thank you, Abby.

Amanda Bender from Ward 4.

So I earned my PhD in Earth and Environmental Sciences at Wash U in St.

Louis.

So for years I studied the impacts of climate change and the importance of transitioning to renewable energy sources.

So I'm speaking today from my scientific background and more urgently from concern for my future and the future of my nieces, my nephew, as a younger citizen and this community.

I appreciate the setbacks that the city has faced in switching to renewable energies this year and appreciate the detail in the report.

And the 25% goal is applaudable, but I still think it's not really enough.

It's really insufficient because transitioning away from fossil fuels is really critical for our future.

So scientists agree the climate is changing.

Humans are responsible for a lot of it through burning fossil fuels like coal, natural gas, and oil.

When we burn fossil fuels, it's like poisoning our own bodies.

It changes our climate in devastating ways.

So I'm an earth history nerd, and uh when we study Earth fossil record, we learn about several ancient mass extinction events.

These are abrupt events, and they massively impact the climate and kill off tons of life forms.

It catastrophically alters life's trajectory on Earth.

Nowadays, scientists are observing increased extinction rates of plants and animals.

They warn us that we are now on the brink of another mass extinction event.

This is happening here, here in Colombia.

We face severe threats from climate change.

We already experience them, and they grow more severe each year.

Hotter temperatures, heavy rain and flooding, poor air quality, and increased vector-borne diseases as we have more mosquito days every year.

Average annual temperatures in Missouri have increased by over one and a half degrees since 1979.

If we continue to rely on fossil fuels and continue to poison our atmosphere, we can expect more warming in the future.

We'll have more very hot days, very warm nights, and fewer cold nights.

Increases to annual average temperatures here in Missouri could exceed 13 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century.

That's a lot.

That's a lot of warming.

So, what does this mean for the people in the future of Colombia?

It poses innumerable health concerns and puts undue burden on younger generations and low-income communities to adapt to living in an inhospitable environment.

Climate change is an existential threat to our communal survival.

But this is only one possible outcome.

There's hope and this hope for a more sustainable future if we take immediate action that's more decisive to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels.

So I commend the city's efforts for so far reducing our reliance on fossil fuels, but for future generations to thrive, we need to invest in more decisive climate action now and here.

Humans are changing the climate through our actions, and only our actions can change the course and stop the flow of poison into our precious home.

So I urge the city to continue replacing fossil fuel infrastructure, increasing the adoption of renewable energy and battery storage.

Thank you.

Hi, Carolyn Ompron speaking for a group.

I'm speaking for the Sierra Club Mid-Missouri group.

Can I get five minutes?

Okay.

This is hard to do.

Thank you.

All right.

The 2026 renewable energy plan reveals yet again that the utility electric staff is not working proactively to find the best ways to serve our electric needs and boldly reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.

Sierra Club is pleased that the utility is considering a solar and battery proposal.

The community needs this solar and battery storage to meet the renewable energy standard that the utility has not achieved for multiple years.

The utility department is not being proactive enough to find ways to meet community goals, including our greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals.

The staff recently missed a key opportunity to work with a consultant and a computer model to model how to address our energy and capacity needs with solar, wind, and battery storage.

They paid for multiple scenarios, yet there was no scenario to replace retiring coal and gas contracts with renewables and battery storage.

It is anticipated that the first fossil fuel contract will end in 2030, and local glass gas plants might retire in 2039.

These need to be replaced with clean, renewable, non-nuclear energy and battery storage.

The Columbia community supports doing our part to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and meet global goals to reduce climate change and its impacts.

The community indicated this by voting for the first renewable energy ordinance and by supporting the climate action and adaptation plan.

Climate change is here, but it can get much worse.

In one day in last week's news, the United States had extreme heat, wildfires, Canadian wildfire smoke, causing very bad air quality, mass flooding in multiple places, ticks in their diseases everywhere, and harmful algae blooms in Missouri as one day.

These are all climate change impacts that were predicted by the global consensus of scientists who write the United Nations reports on global warming and climate change.

According to the chair of the UN's International Panel on Climate Change, it is now almost inevitable that we will soon exceed global warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

The warming level beyond which risk start to accelerate.

Risk start to accelerate.

So far, Columbia has been spared the worst impacts, but our time may come may come soon to be like Lesterville, Missouri, who recently had 12 inches of rain in 12 hours.

Are we ready?

Are we doing everything we can to help fight this global and local disaster?

Sierra Club asked the City Council to make the commitment that all retiring fossil fuel resources be replaced with clean renewable energy and storage to achieve both energy and capacity needs.

Nuclear energy should not be considered renewable energy because it is not clean.

Sierra Club acknowledges and understands the trade-off to keep electricity affordable and that our electricity must be reliable.

Hotter temperatures are already raising electricity bills and making homes less affordable as residents try to stay cool.

This cost of climate change cannot be ignored.

Renewable energy is now the least expensive form of new energy generation in the United States.

Quoting PV magazine, Lazard's analysis of levelized cost of electricity across fuel types, finds that new build utility scale solar, even without subsidies, is less costly than new build natural gas and competes with already operating gas plants.

In addition, many of the challenges that have slowed renewable energy installations in the past are projected to be reduced or eliminated by 2030, including grid congestion and grid interconnection delays.

The utility should not waste time or our money looking to build a new gas power plant or even new gas purchase agreements, but invest their time and in energy and finding the energy and storage solutions that are needed for our time and to protect our climate future.

Well, everyone here who supports Columbia Water and Light, replacing retiring fossil fuel assets with renewable energy and storage.

Please stand to show your support.

Thank you, everyone who came, and thank you, City Council.

Thank you, Carolyn.

Oops, thank you.

Good evening.

I'm Mark Haim.

I'm speaking on behalf of our organization in Missouri Peaceworks.

Good evening.

I really appreciate the opportunity to share a few thoughts.

Some of you have been on the council for a longer time, and uh probably have heard much of this before, to be honest, because I've been coming here for years with the same message, and hopefully uh that will be addressed with a greater sense of urgency.

I've used that word before, but we really have failed to recognize, collectively failed to recognize the urgency.

I've indicated in previous um talks here that the scientific consensus is that we need to cut emissions in this decade by half.

And we need to do that if there's any chance of avoiding the catastrophic consequences of climate change.

Much of it sadly seems to have fallen on deaf ears.

It's clear that we are nowhere near achieving that 50% reduction.

This is overall greenhouse gas emissions, not just electric utility emissions.

And this seems to be of no great concern, unfortunately.

As I've mentioned repeatedly, I'm a father and a grandfather.

I'm deeply troubled by the world we're leaving for our collective progeny.

I must admit, it seems to me the city's been dragging our feet.

After attending many council and water and advisory board meetings, it seems like business as usual remains the order of the day.

And it's really unacceptable.

Speaking for peace works, we believe that the climate emergency requires us to get up off our dufts and press forward an emergency response.

I'm talking about action on the scale of the response to Pearl Harbor in 1941.

A large-scale mobilization.

Obviously, we would do that for our region, for our community, but it needs to happen everywhere, really.

This would include the following major investments in solar, wind, and batteries.

A crash program to get solar panels on the roofs of as many large buildings as possible, ASAP.

Establishing solar farms on city owned properties, including but not limited to Columbia Regional Airport.

Requiring no further investments be made in fossil fuels, including methane and natural gas, or nuclear, which is non-renewable.

There's a limited amount of uranium in this world.

Recognizing and accounting for externalized costs, not all costs are included in the price we pay for energy.

Health and environmental harms are costly, but we seem to have put on blinders, ignore these costs when we're addressing the economics of our choices.

We need our elected officials and our hired city staff to be bold and press forward, educating our fellow citizens as to the urgency of our situation.

We need immediate action.

We should be inspiring not just our community, but utilities and municipalities throughout the region, urging them to join us in co-creating a livable future for all.

I thank you for considering this.

I hope you'll recognize the urgency again that word is so important.

We are right now just sort of skating, and we need to make a big leap.

So thank you for considering this.

Thank you, Mark.

Would anyone else from the public wish to speak on the water and light 2026 renewable energy plan?

I'm Jack Meisenbach.

I live at 806 Sunstone Lane, and I'm a proud member of Ward 6 with Betsy, and I love your ad.

Thank you.

I agree with everything that everybody said here tonight.

And you people, you can pat yourself on the back and you can look at the numbers, but I would remind you that you started this in 2004.

That was before I ever moved here.

So you've dropped it by 22, 20.

You're averaging 1% a year.

Wow, 1% a year.

How long will it take us to get to 100% renewables?

How many years is that?

You're not moving fast enough.

You don't give this any priority.

We're going to talk about a capital plan.

How much capital is in there to transition to renewable energy?

A dollar?

Zero.

There's nothing.

Nothing.

You show me anything that you can get done without putting money towards it.

It's not going to happen.

But I'm going to give you some actionable goals or ideas that you can move out on without the miceo grid, without grain belt express, and all this other nonsense, okay.

What you need to do, every department should be held accountable to identify energy efficiency improvements and make a goal.

50%.

Have them cut their energy use by 50%.

Make them do it.

Prioritize annual funding.

Put something in the Capitol.

Put some money in there for this.

I mean, I like to have the bridge replaced on trail, you know, number nine, but Jesus, you know, if it's 115 out, I'm not going to go walk on that trail.

Approve and implement the 2024 IECC energy efficiency building codes.

If you do that, each household will save $31,000 over the next 10 or 15 years in energy bills.

31,000.

Okay.

Now you can put a lot of insulation and good windows and maybe even a ground source heat pump in for 31,000.

You gotta this is real big.

You need to have these people identify some public private partnerships for microgrids with solar to install at every one of your little base load grid locations with battery backup.

We've already had an outage this year.

Today we got an orange quality air alert for St.

Louis.

All right.

This is not going away.

This is gonna kill us.

I'm done.

Oh thank you, Jack.

I'm getting used to the new timer too.

All right.

Would anyone else um from the public wish to speak on the renewable energy plan?

Hello, I'm Adam Archbold.

I'm a resident of Ward 4.

Uh I've lived in Missouri for over a decade, but I've moved around a lot.

Uh I was born in California and I went to Chico State when the city of Paradise.

This was in 2008 when the city of Paradise burned, which then a decade later it burned yet again.

Uh while I was living there, though, it turned the sky just a bright orange and it rained ash and bees for weeks.

Um before moving to Columbia, I lived in Boulder, Colorado, where I was living there in uh 2021 when the Marshall Fire destroyed over a thousand homes.

We actually moved to Columbia because the pricing for homes went skyrocketing because when you lose a thousand, that's quite a bit.

And this seems like a safer place, especially away from fires.

Uh but the main point I wanted to get to is that uh we need to change quicker.

It's great, has uh as much work has been done, but we need to do more.

We need to do it faster.

I'm not that old, but we're in our third war in the Middle East over oil right now.

It's not gonna get any cheaper, maybe in the short run, but we are running out of time, and it's only gonna save us money in the long run.

Uh the unfortunately, some renewables they also take some resources of fossil fuels to make solar panels and whatnot.

So again, those prices will go up if we don't do this now.

So uh just wanna advocate just like so many others that please do what you're doing, but please do it faster.

And thank you.

Thank you.

And anyone else from the public wish to speak from the Water and Lights 2026 Renewable Energy Plan.

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

Um council comments.

I don't um one of the comments the question was about uh if we're worried about the risk over the gr um Greenbelt Express transmission line since we're reliant on that for the Iron Star contract.

Do we have concerns over that or we're just going long as usual?

Well, yeah, I mean we're we're reading the news like everybody else, so um that's that's not uh we have a contract with someone else who has the contract, so uh we're not in control, obviously that construction.

Okay, thank you.

Yeah, Melly.

I'm gonna ask, and I know this is something that you cover in your report and has been talked about at council.

I want to ask what would we need to do to move faster, and are we even positioned to make that choice at this point?

Well, we have a number of uh both gas and coal life of plant contracts, um, which means that we have that contract until that plant goes away.

Uh and so by purchasing more power than what we need, it is uh as I mentioned earlier, a significant financial risk.

So to move more quickly would mean uh a significant increase to rates in order to cover those costs.

And we're limiting ourselves to a three percent increase in rates.

The current ordinance, yes.

Correct.

Okay, thanks.

Uh Christina question oh question or let's go through questions if we have time for testing later.

So the fiscal impact statement on the council memo for short-term impact says NA, the long-term impact.

Says NA, is that standard or well, this is uh report.

Yeah, um, and so we're not uh we're not advocating any action at this time, so that's why it's not applicable.

So on page 13 of the um 2026 renewable energy plan, it says awarding additional power power purchase agreements would increase risk, which you guys were just talking about.

Like it's hard for me to um like I would like to see some sort of estimates or numbers around that kind of thing to help make that kind of decision of like does it should we move to from a three to a different percentage?

Whatever that looks like.

Does that make sense?

Risk numbers within the report.

Yeah.

Are there questions from council?

I think one um that would be of you well, I think it's probably more maybe it's more for comments, but just I think some of the comments that were made from the public.

Some are in relation to the renewable energy plan and some are probably more relevant to the climate action adaptation plan that's coming up at our next meeting.

Just note that some of the recommendations there would be repeated on August 3rd.

I I hope.

Yeah.

Some of my questions or some of my comments that I wanted to address, especially since this is budget season.

Um, and and we are talking about this on all kinds of fronts, um, even related to um proposed taxes, and that's where does our money come from?

And can we do this project versus that project?

And what are our priorities?

Um I want to say that um utilities is an enterprise fund.

Um its money is dedicated within its fund.

Um, park sales tax.

Um a lot of their funding comes from a sales tax that creates a dedicated fund.

Um we can't do one of these projects instead of one of those projects with that money because it's a dedicated fund, but that goes for many of our other projects and the types of things that we're pursuing.

Where the money comes from often dedicates what it can be used for.

Um and so we're not always choosing one priority over another priority.

Um we are following the legislation that um requires that money to be spent in a certain way.

Any other council comments on this?

All right.

Um if if agreeable, um I'll go ahead and make a motion to accept the 2026 renewable energy plan.

Do I have a second?

Second.

Second from Betsy.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

All right.

Moving on.

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

Public hearing twenty-two twenty-six is the consideration of the FY2027 capital improvement project plan for the City of Columbia, Missouri.

Do we have a staff report?

Yes, we do.

Uh-oh.

I'm sorry, we had a presentation.

Let me see real quick if we can get it pulled up.

Okay.

No.

No.

Keep going backwards.

Yeah.

Just say I don't know.

Okay, Megan.

Okay.

How are you tonight?

Good.

Okay, I can just bring it up on my own.

And we are here presenting the capital improvement plan for the fiscal year of 2027.

And so a little bit about what a capital improvement plan is.

It is a multi-year plan for capital improvements.

It provides a schedule with revenue plan that fits the available resources, and it is used as a tool to implement recommendations from the city master plans.

Some of the funding sources for the CIP are capital improvement sales tax, park sales tax, transportation sales tax, public improvement funds, bonds, general fund revenue, enterprise revenue, and grants.

March we finalize a request.

And then March-April timeline, we uh review those with the city manager and update our CIP dashboard, uh, which this year you will see a change with that CIP dashboard.

Um all of them should go through that map website this year.

And I believe that is up and running now.

Uh July, uh we meet and uh present the to the city council our uh CIP plan, which is what we're doing now.

Um in August is when we have that document prepared and it is approved in September along with the budget for the fiscal year.

So now we'll look at a list of completed projects for in fiscal year twenty-six.

So the next few slides are some projects that we anticipate being completed in FY26, and we kind of have one project that we've highlighted about every slide, um, just so that I'm not up here reading through everything.

But if you have specific questions about a project, the department directors are able to answer those.

Um so one project for streets that is close to being complete.

Um is the Route K and Old Plank roundabout in Ward 5.

Um for airport, we wanted to highlight the West parking lot construction, um, which was turning one of those gravel lots at the airport into a paved parking.

And then for parks and rack, we are highlighting the Albert Oakland Pickleball Court expansion.

There was a picture of that right at the beginning of this section.

Some more parks and rack and electric projects.

And then um for stormwater, we had a pretty big project, the Calvert Drive stormwater improvement project that used some ARPA funds.

And the last one we wanted to highlight as nearing completion or complete in 26 is the McBain Water Treatment Plant upgrade phase one, which we've talked about quite a bit.

So then moving on to our projects that are funded in FY27, these should be part of the packet that you all have and in the CIP book with funding for 27.

And again, we'll highlight one of these projects, but you can stop me if you want to talk about anything specific.

Um for airport, we have AP 157, which is a terminal expansion.

Um this will allow for a fifth passenger boarding bridge at the airport.

We've also got the additional assault storage building.

Um this is on the south side.

Southwest.

Um for parks and rack, we've got the Perty Treat Perchy Creek Trail Phase Two from Gillespie Bridge to Smith.

For public safety, we're higher highlighting the replacement of one of our fire engines.

For sewer, we have the I-70 sewer relocation phase one, which is a project that's being done in conjunction with the MODOT project to widen I-70.

Yeah, Jackie has a question.

Can you what are the acronyms?

The PCCE WWTP.

Private common collector elimination.

But you can come up and say what it is.

It's a very exciting thing to get rid of them.

Yeah.

Unexpectedly exciting, but it definitely makes a difference.

Everyone loves sewer.

That's right.

Yes.

Aaron Keyes, Director of Utility.

So these are private common collector elimination projects.

So these were sewers that were put in probably about a hundred years ago, where whoever was building the houses just kind of they built a private sewer.

And as many things private, they don't get maintained as well as the public system.

And so this is an effort to go back and put in a public sewer and can and reconnect those properties to the public sewer so that it can be maintained and it won't be quite as leaky and uh cause inflow and infiltration issues.

And what's the WWTP?

Wastewater treatment plant.

Oh wastewater treatment.

Yeah, wastewater treatment plant.

We use a lot of SC in the acronym.

Yeah, yeah.

Okay.

Thank you.

Sure.

Thank you.

All right.

For solid waste, we wanted to highlight the landfill cell number seven.

Um, this is a project that we've been funding for a while, um, and it'll still be a couple of years before we construct it, but I know we've talked about it quite a bit.

For streets, we're highlighting Sinclair Road and Naiphong South, which is a major collector that's currently unimproved.

So there will be two paved lanes and a sidewalk on one side.

So I have a question on this slide.

Um that I think is a confusion over the actual CIP document that's attached in the title of this.

So when we have Green Meadows Road, but then the project description in the plan says that it is the replacing the failed subgrade from on Veterans United Drive to Grindstrone Parkway.

Is it that this used to be called Green Meadows, or why is this titled Green Meadows?

Because it's not so there's there's two capital improvement sales tax projects in this area.

One is the way they were in the ballot project list was State Farm Parkway and Old Naiphong intersection, and then there was a major maintenance project on State Farm Parkway.

State farm parkway since the passage of the capital improvement sales tax.

That road is the name of that road has been changed to Green Meadows.

So the Green Meadows Road Project, we've combined those two, so we're gonna do them together.

So it's both a major maintenance project from Grindstone Parkway to Veterans United Drive and the intersection with old NIFO.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

Okay, I was very confused on that one right there.

Okay.

Uh and then also just as a side note on your last slide, the one you should have highlighted was the material recovery facilities expansion, because that's what everyone's very excited about.

But now that we're not excited about more cells of the landfill, I'm just saying what one should have been bolted.

Sorry, you can go forward.

Oh, I actually get it.

Yeah.

Can you talk about the 4159 traffic safety?

So that's one of the annual projects that Streets has that just deals with improving safety.

Feel free to go broad strokes.

Sure.

Um there are several annual funds in the project.

And so with traffic safety, I think there's three million dollars in the capital improvement sales tax for traffic safety.

And so typically you will see that each year split up one-tenth of a time.

So there's $300,000 that goes in each year.

The way we've used traffic safety in recent years is that's been our match money for safe streets for all grants.

We've had several of those.

So that's what we've used the majority of that for.

Um there was a switch between the past capital improvement sales tax and this one in the amount of money we're putting towards traffic calming projects versus traffic safety, but the total amount of those two things is exactly the same.

So the traffic safety a lot of times is match money, but it's also where we would do a mid-block crossing project or where we would do um a lot of our traffic related projects that we would do come from there.

Thank you.

Thanks, Jane.

All right.

And then the last one we decided to highlight was a water project to replace alluvial well number one.

I'm sorry, I have another question.

It was on, I think probably the slide prior to this.

Um this is for you, Shane, so you can just work on that.

How do we prioritize on some of these?

For instance, the roundabout at Discovery Parkway in New Haven.

Um how do we prioritize that over some other you know, major as far as what's happening this year?

Sure.

Um there's it's not a uh cut and dry answer, but I'll do my best.

Um if you remember when we put the ballot project list together, um we had several projects that we looked at, and we hired a consultant to um analyze each one of those projects using the highway safety manual.

And really what that looked at is the safety improvement associated with doing a road project.

And so that's how we prioritized all those.

And so it's in prior priority order, but only so much money comes in with the tax each year.

So I have a really boring spreadsheet, but it but it splits out how the money comes in.

I got about 10 million dollars a year to split up so that we can move some projects forward.

The intersections are some of the easier ones to do because most of those run between a million dollars and 1.5 million dollars.

So we can move those projects pretty forward and kind of spread them out.

But Sinclair that's on there is a 12 million dollar project.

So I've got to fund that over the next four years.

There's like 2.75 million dollars in this budget.

That would be enough to hire a consultant and get that project started, but I need all four years of that money before construction.

So it's kind of the forum boulevard of this capital improvement sales tax.

Okay, yeah, Christina, and speaking of um, you know, the Lord 5 Sinclair Road and Naifong.

Um is there I'm assuming, because this is the question I'm getting a lot, but uh make an assumption that any of those improvements to that road would happen not during the school year, it would happen during the summer, like kind of how the roundabouts in that area is happening now.

Sure.

Um so the actual project is Sinclair Road from Naiphong South, nine nine thousand feet.

So that project is a long linear project that's gonna take a couple years to do.

So we'll be conscious of school, but there's no way we can get the job done in the in the summer.

It's gonna run through a construction season.

So it's a matter of coordinating that with school to figure out how to best make that work.

Okay, thank you.

Thanks, Shane.

Yep.

Okay, so now we're we're looking at uh the project funding sources and where majority of the funding comes from for capital improvement projects, uh and about 28 million of the project funds this year it will be coming from enterprise revenue.

So a little over half of all of our um funding will come from enterprise revenue and to go to enterprise uh type activities.

The second biggest chunk is the CIP sales or the capital improvement sales tax at about 10 million dollars.

Sorry, yeah, Christina.

Okay, I've never seen this one.

We have a golf course improvement fund.

Dave, sorry, I just shine.

I just hadn't heard of it before.

I'm just curious.

Have you been playing with it?

For every round of golf that is played at one of the golf courses, a small percentage of the fee that someone plays goes into the golf course improvement fund.

We call it the GCIF, and that allows us to do capital improvement projects on the golf course.

So typically we don't use park sales tax funding for golf course improvements.

Um we use this fund.

So you'll see a larger project there.

We're gonna do some irrigation upgrades.

Um so we have this fund.

The ARC also has its own small percentage fund that allows us to replace equipment, um, fitness equipment.

And so, yeah, that's what that fund is for.

Thank you.

I just hadn't seen it before, so thanks.

So here's our uh fiscal year 27 overview.

And so for the airport, we have five projects totaling about 10.6 million.

Electric has two at 4.4 million.

Uh we have general at uh six million with three projects.

Parking has two at a little under a million dollars, parks and rick at 2.9 with 14 projects, and then we have one public safety project for 500,000.

Sewer at 8.5 with nine projects, solid waste at 3.5 with two projects.

And five projects.

Then we have 10 projects and streets at 6.8 million.

And water just under $5 million for five projects.

And so sewer and the stormwater are partially funded by reallocations from other projects.

So it's not all new money.

Yeah, Betsy has a question.

So the reallocations from other projects, these are other sewer projects or other stormwater projects.

That's correct.

Okay.

I just wanted to make sure we weren't moving money around from place to know that just efficient and we have extra money, maybe.

Well, sometimes for stormwater doesn't take as much as we thought.

That's correct.

So sometimes a project does not cost as much.

Uh or we need to rearrange and another project takes precedent over one that may have funding, and so then their money sometimes has to move.

Okay, thanks.

Oh, there it is.

So this is the CIP dashboard that I was referring to earlier.

Um this should be your landing page now when searching for CIP projects.

Um it has it's color-coded uh with projects.

I believe they're from different funds.

Um but right now you can click on one and you can see the the amount for their project.

I believe we've removed the zeros.

There was at one time there was like five zeros behind each number.

So I'm pretty sure that one got removed.

Um and so we'll continue to update this to make it better as we go along.

Appreciate that new dashboard.

Yeah.

Questions?

Did you have a question?

Yeah, yes.

So, like just a snapshot of this screen that you have here.

Um I can't help but notice my ward doesn't really have much going on there.

Obviously, we have a big roundabout going in or two, um, but I'm curious like if there's any effort or considerations in the next five years to maybe get a community space in that area because right now we're using a lot of HOAs places, but not every uh place has an HOA in the fifth ward.

So having a community space in in that area would be nice.

I think most of the words would also like that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Advocating for my ward.

Sorry, go quick.

All right.

Okay.

You can go.

Oh, that was it.

All right.

Any questions from council before we go to public hearing?

Yeah, Jackie.

So we've talked before about how we're working on updating our comp plan.

Can you talk a little bit about how these priorities are set with given that the current comprehensive plan is old for lack of a better word?

No, that's a you question or if that's a DeCarlin question.

Yeah, I'm I'm really can't answer that.

Yeah.

I mean, right now, most of those plans are plans that we've been talking about for a while, so they're part of ongoing capital plans that we that have been on the list.

You know, ideally, once we actually get our comp plan updated, it's readopting those plans to make sure they're aligned with growth of the city.

So that is our goal.

Right now, it's just look if these are previous plans that have been already moved along in those processes.

Okay.

I yeah, I was figured that they would be aligned, but I just wanted to make that point.

Thank you.

That that is our goal.

Thank you.

Any other council questions?

Yeah, Valerie.

I was saving this for comments, but it it could be a request.

Um just in lines with um the mayor's question about prioritization as well as Jackie's.

Um you know, I want to shout out that with our budget process, we made pretty big strides this year in having a work session where we look at what the requests were, what got cut, what didn't get cut.

Um and this has been something that I know that I have asked for in relation to the CIP before.

Um it would be so helpful if leading up to this in our work sessions, we could have that kind of here's the things that the departments asked for, and here's the things that ended up making this year's versus prioritizing later on.

Um we can we can understand a lot about the discussion about how we prioritize um, but seeing the projects from year to year, um, that really helps us.

So I guess my request would be for next year's process.

Could we have that in a work session?

I like how this one has bridge nine and ten, but bridge nine is probably the only one we're doing this year, but engineering of ten is there, yeah.

Any other council questions before we open up public hearing?

Great.

Go ahead and open up the public hearing.

Does anyone wish to speak to the fiscal year 27 proposed capital improvement plan?

Carolyn Amperon, Ward 4.

I want to follow up on uh comment that Jack Meisenbach made in that uh Miss Carroll's uh point comment about the sources of funding.

It seems perhaps like in the capital improvement plan that we're thinking too narrowly about the sources of funding, because for example, the parks and recreation funding, there's no reason that I mean the parks has significant electricity needs, and if they can build a building with a gymnasium in it, they could put solar on it.

If they can build a shelter, they can put solar on it.

So there are opportunities for many of these funding sources to be used to help address the needs for more solar energy for this community.

And it isn't just parks and rec.

I'm sure that it applies uh to uh the water treatment plant and some of the other um facilities.

So I think that we need to stop thinking so narrowly that parks and rec means just playgrounds and trails and and swimming pools and start thinking about how those um entities in various departments get their electricity and not just put all of it onto the electric utility to change our ways.

Thank you.

Thank you, Carolyn.

Anyone else wish to speak to the proposed capital improvement plan?

Mark, I am uh third ward.

I'm gonna speak heresy here, I guess.

Uh it's kind of bothered me.

I wasn't thinking I I would be speaking a third time tonight, but it's bothered me for a while that the city has put so much resources into uh improving and promoting the airport and encouraging people to fly out of Colombia and into Colombia.

And the reality is that air travel is uh pretty much the most carbon-intensive way of getting around that you have in terms of the uh CO2 emissions per passenger mile.

And I would just encourage people to start thinking about a different paradigm in which we do very little uh flying, that we minimize meetings uh by doing them in Zoom or some other uh platform that allows that and reduces the amount of carbon emissions substantially, but also that when we do travel, if it's not going like across the ocean to Europe or Asia or something, uh it seems to me it would uh make sense to encourage people uh to either use a train, be nice if we had a really good high-speed rail system in this country, and also to drive if it's not ridiculously far distance one's going.

And if you go with a full car, that will significantly reduce the emissions.

So just something to think about and shifting that paradigm would be really nice.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mark.

Anyone else wish to speak to the proposed um fiscal year 27 capital improvement plan?

Well hello, Shanlo, fourth word.

Um, one of the things I just want to comment on is I think in some of these documents that we're trying to communicate the ideas of like, hey, what's being funded by a capital improvements and so forth.

I think it can get real easy to get stuck in the mindset of hey, these are capital improvements, this is just for new things and so forth.

But I think maintenance always, always, always needs to be part of this conversation, and I would love to see those figures being highlighted in documents like this.

Um so when we're having improvements, even if it's something where it's like, hey, no worries, we got a grant, it's paying for the whole thing up front.

You know, it's just a tiny thing we're contributed.

Well, yeah, but how much are we on the hook for maintenance of those things and so forth?

Because every single capital improvement project we have here is something that we're committing to maintain to funds uh going forward, and I just want to make sure that's something that is always centered to the picture here when it comes to capital improvements.

Thanks, Shane.

Anyone else from the public wish to speak on the proposed fiscal year 27 capital improvement plan?

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

Council comments, bless you.

And into the microphone.

Valerie.

Um I want to acknowledge that I did have an opportunity to ask a number of questions ahead of this session.

Um, and I'm trying to find a good way to share it with the public because there's no good way to read off all that material.

Um I don't always find question and answer sessions the best way to get that amount of information either.

Um, but I did ask a lot of questions about maintenance as well.

Um where is it in the budget?

What is it for, which items do we use this for?

Um I wonder, Matthew, if you can um speak a little bit towards the the items that we have that accrue money for the purpose of maintenance.

Yes, so uh last year we began putting money away for um building maintenance improvement, and so that was one uh so we're we're starting a fund that is something like the vehicle and equipment replacement fund.

Um that one also the vehicle and equipment replacement fund also uh works as sort of a maintenance type of fund, uh but we will also have a building maintenance fund here.

Uh it's been established, but we have not created it in the way we we created the VERF.

Uh so uh I assume we'll probably do something like that in the next year or so.

Um some of the other maintenance projects that we have in the CIP are major maintenance and uh usually if it is not something that is um over the threshold that we have for maintenance, it won't make it or for CIP it won't make it into the CIP budget.

It'll just just be part of your uh operating budget as those are looked at as operating expenses.

Is that what you were looking for?

Well, the VERF and the building maintenance certainly touches on it.

I think I'm also seeing in the CIP report um annual maintenance for sidewalks, pedways for annual street reconstruction, yes, annual traffic calming, um I see all kinds of things throughout the CIP that I I think that perhaps in the larger document, and you can see it as one of the links.

Um we do have those funds throughout there.

Um they're not always the highlighted projects because it's not as exciting as the new thing that we're building.

Um but the money is there being put away slowly to maintain these.

Thank you.

Yeah, all right.

Any other council comments on this?

Uh I think I just had um one, and it was an observation that I appreciated the slide that shows the project funding sources and not just right, the enterprise is going to enterprise, but um, you know, when you look at the projects for, for instance, the airport, right?

It seems like oh, that's a lot, and then you see that it's offset a lot by a federal aviation grant.

So I just want to show appreciation for that sort of breakdown uh for it going forward.

So thank you for that.

All right.

Um, well, if there's uh no objection, I'll I'll say I'll make a motion uh to approve the capital improvement projects document and ask for a second.

Second, same by Betsy, all those in favor say aye.

Aye, any opposed?

All right, thank you for this.

All right, moving on to old business.

Sheila, will you please read Bill 15326?

Council Bill 1532 is an ordinance authorizing amending chapter 12a of the city code as it relates to stormwater waste disposal prohibitions and fixing the time when this ordinance shall become effective.

Second reading.

Do we have a staff report?

Aaron Keys, Utilities Director with me tonight.

I have Tom Rotterman, the assistant director for sewer and stormwater.

So this ordinance will amend Section 12a-178 of the city ordinances as shown on your screen.

The underlying portion is the new proposed portion.

Uh this just a little background.

The city has a municipal separate storm sewer system.

MS4.

And M and 4S.

Uh it's a permit issued by uh the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.

The city is co-permittees for this stormwater permit with Boone County and the University of Missouri.

As part of the application process for permit renewal, the three entities must provide an updated stormwater management plan in the permit renewal process.

Specifically, the MS4 partners and DNR had a number of meetings to discuss exactly what this looked like.

Along with the county, the city submitted our initial proposed ordinance revisions to DNR on November 14th.

The county had a proposal and the city had a proposal.

So that's what you're seeing here before you.

Staff recommends the council approve amending chapter 12A-178 of the city code, and I can attempt to answer any questions.

Questions from council to staff.

Yeah, Christina.

So the language says deposing or depositing or dumping any refuge rubbish, yard waste or paper litter.

Human waste or litter from encampment activities.

How does refuge like why does it need that additional piece of litter from encampment activities when refuge rubbish, yard waste, paper, litter seems like it would be inclusive in that?

DNR specifically said the original ordinance was overly broad in their opinion, and they wanted it to be more specific to uh human waste and encampment activities.

But do they do those other things not like what other things would be included there that isn't being identified as refuge uh rubbish yard waste paper litter?

Sorry, I'm trying to read sideways and look at you and also read the I don't know.

Yeah, it's just more specific.

Okay.

Are there questions from council?

I do have one more question.

Sorry.

I know you guys have had a I just haven't had a chance to talk to them.

The question is when we if we don't adopt this, what are the risks to that?

Uh DNR did as part of our renewal process for our permit.

Uh they wanted us to bring this forward to council.

Uh if we did not bring forward an ordinance, then our permit they implied that our permit would be in jeopardy.

If the council declines, will the permit be in jeopardy?

That I don't know.

I'd have to consult with legal okay.

Any other questions from council?

Yeah, Betsy.

No, I mean sorry, moved your micro.

It seems to me like there's fines involved.

Well, not having an active MS4 permit, I think.

Right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Is that right, Nancy?

Yes, I am not, I've not talked with them directly, so I don't know what their approach would be, but I would trust what the director is telling you.

Right.

Any other questions from council?

Yeah.

Sorry.

Yes, a question.

So it doesn't have a long-term impact or short-term impact.

Is that just because we don't know what will happen if we don't approve this?

Does that make sense what I'm asking?

For fiscal impact amendment.

Fiscal impact.

So I guess in my mind, uh the fiscal impact of this uh is not applicable because we'll continue to enforce the existing ordinance in the same way that we were.

Okay, and I have one more question.

Okay, I'm sorry.

And my other question would be how will this be enforced?

So uh there is uh any these prohibitions are considered a nuisance, and so there's language in the ordinance uh on how to abate a nuisance, but to get to the practicality of it, when we are notified of any sort of dumping uh we immediately well within a business day, we'll go out and investigate that.

If it's on private property, we notify the private property that they need to get it cleaned up.

If it doesn't get cleaned up, we have an abatement process to have it cleaned up and then tax bill that back to the property owner.

If it's on public property, then we notify whoever's public property it is, whether it's the University of Missouri, Modot, or our own city property.

Uh if it's our own city property, different departments sort of own different parcels, and so however, whichever department owns that parcel, uh they will uh be responsible for the cleanup.

Uh our staff will work with the uh Columbia Police Department homeless outreach team to remove anybody uh if it if it's an encampment specifically, uh our uh staff will work with CPD to uh help that person get the services they need and get them off the the public property, and then again the specific department will be responsible for the cleanup.

Do we have any idea of how much how often this currently occurs and how much that would cost to have officers going out there or people going out there to well that's specifically one of the reasons the homeless outreach team was set up was to work with individuals in these situations.

Okay, thank you.

You have a question, Betsy?

Okay, all right.

Would anyone from the public wish to speak on Bill 1532?

My name's Bill Djack, I'm from Como Mobile Aid Collective.

Um the city council ever once asked DNR for water quality samples above the camps, at the camps, below the camps to actually prove that this was an issue.

Well last time I found uh information from DNR, there was nothing resembling that.

Um the the amount of livestock in the headwaters of these streams provide lots and lots more fecal matter into that water system than human waste that these camps ever will.

And I I question DNR's enforcement without providing information that there was a problem.

They should have presented their results from water quality samples first before mandating compliance on something that's probably uh a blip on the uh water quality impacts of these streams.

Um that's about all I got to say.

Thanks, Bill.

Renee Carter uh for Race Matters Friends.

So you know, we've we've had a lot going on with encampments and movement of encampments, oftentimes um not by choice of those people who do not have homes.

And so we continue to develop ordinances that criminalize those people without offering the proper resources for them.

Umfortunately, we've come to think that opportunity campus will be a cure-all, and while it will help and it'll have resources, it won't solve all of the issues that we have.

So, you know, I think we need to stop thinking of ways that we can legislate our way out of homelessness rather than providing the resources that are necessary.

And sadly, as I've been sitting in the budget meetings, the very things that would be helpful to people without resources, our public health and our social services is one of the targets of defunding.

They're one of the least funded departments in our city.

And yet we continue to take away from them.

So I'm not exactly sure what we expect will happen.

In summary, this doesn't look like caring.

It doesn't look like love for our neighbors.

Instead, it feels like violence.

And when you pass these ordinances, you promote violence and harassment from other people in the community on people who have the least and who have the most burden in our community.

And I'm asking you to put a halt to creating ordinances rather than to supplying resources to people to help solve problems.

Thank you.

Thanks, Renee.

Would anyone else wish to speak on Bill 15326?

Seeing none, we'll go to council commons on this.

Yeah, Valerie.

I think the comments from the public are well taken.

I tend to agree, and I'm frustrated by this.

And it was rejected.

I don't know if we have a workaround.

And I regret that that's the situation that we're in.

Did they provide any water samples?

Did we provide any water samples or did they request no?

They cited that the department, meaning the Department of Natural Resources received and referred to the city for appropriate action since November 2022, approximately 30 water quality related concerns regarding homeless encampments.

And the concerns pertain primarily to solid waste, trash and litter, and human waste accumulating on property within the city limits near local streams.

So that's what they cited.

That's what we have.

It was not the language that was proposed initially by us, the language that we proposed was rejected, and this is the language that was requested by MDNR for us to bring forward in order to retain our permit.

I think that piece is incredibly important to remember and for us to hear.

Um I don't think that there is anyone up here that is thrilled to have this language in the ordinance or that would want it there.

Um we do want to be able to retain our permit.

Um just gonna go down.

Do we have and you may not know the answer to this question?

Do we have any evidence that DNR has required this language in other cities?

I don't know if that's more at the Carlin.

Anecdotally, I've been told that they will be requiring it from other cities.

So we're one of the first potentially that they're special.

Christina, yeah.

I think we should challenge this if it's not widespread.

I think that it's our responsibility to challenge things that we bill is not right, and I do not think that um just doing it because they told us to is the right approach that is our right within the city to challenge some of that stuff if they're putting rules on us that are not applicable to everyone.

I wonder if our attempt to originally give different things was our challenge because their request was a little bit more strict than this.

The letter that we received last fall was a lot more strict on what they were asking for us to do in relation to encampments.

It was a lot more extensive, yes.

Yeah.

What they were originally requesting.

Yeah.

I think we should continue to challenge it.

Yeah.

Um, I I wouldn't want to have an active permit for our stormwater so we can continue to work on the things.

And I'll say, you know, and to this is to Bill's point too.

One of my biggest frustrations with this conversation is the things that are regulated in the state of Missouri and the things that are not, and those impact on water quality.

And so I'm very much in agreement in the things that we've seen in our impaired waterways that are not related to the urban environment, encampments, or even just like my neighborhood.

Um, but the state of Missouri does not prioritize our some of our cities and the things that happen our cities over things that happen outside.

And so it's something that you know I think we continue to advocate for to help raise awareness for actually what impacts water quality in our community, especially when you look at other states that have better water quality because of the different regulations, the different industries that are regulated in that.

Yeah, yeah, fellow.

I want to ask, because I understand um the direction Christina's going.

Um what routes exist for challenging um decisions made by DNR?

So when they put the permit on public notice, there is a uh comment period um where we are allowed to comment and then once they issue the permit um if we have commented on it, then we can challenge it that way as well.

But if they do not issue or refuse to issue us, you know, and or rescind our permit, then I'm now I'm getting out of my league.

Um I'm looking at legal here, then what happens if they refuse to issue or rescind a permit?

And is there a route to challenge that decision?

I think I'm also gonna ask, do we have internal water samples to demonstrate so that's not something that we've looked at in advance?

It wasn't a question that we were aware was gonna come up tonight.

Um I would imagine um that there is some sort of appeals process um with with the denial of a permit by an agency at the state of Missouri, I'd be surprised if there wasn't.

So what that looks like, um what that process is, I don't know off the top of my head.

When do we need to have it to them?

Can we table and find out an appeals process?

This was part of the uh we communicated with DNR that we would present this to council in July.

I don't even sort of want to risk not having a water quality permit.

Um not at all.

Well it took benefits us.

And to clarify, we're currently aren't we?

It's not a um what's the the the stat it's administratively continued.

Right.

Right, we're operating under the previous permit at this time.

Which expired, which expired last July.

Yeah.

Um Betsy and then Vera.

I have to go.

I I appreciate what everyone has said.

And yes, this does seem to be more targeted.

I'm not willing to get into a fight with DNR over this.

It just seems like we'll be wasting money.

Um fighting them about this.

It has to do with how we enforce it and if we can provide other places for folks to live.

I mean, to me, that's more important than getting in a fight with DNR and a Republican state.

So it's not worth it.

Vera.

And then I'm probably gonna call it a question since I was just wondering, Aaron, uh, for those following along at home.

Can you explain why the stormwater permit is like what the stormwater permit does?

Sure.

So uh the whole purpose is to protect water quality.

Uh it so uh there it's part of the NPDS non-point discharge elimination system permit systems.

That's so uh I think so, like the wastewater treatment plant, it has a permit because it has a discharge.

Uh so and industries have a permit for their discharges.

The point of the stormwater permit is for all those non-point discharges.

Uh it was it's an attempt to clean up our creeks and streams.

It's to address uh those non-point discharges like from construction sites uh from urban runoff.

Uh so there's six minimum control measures in the stormwater permit, and each of those measures uh we identify in the stormwater management plan and what our plan is to address each of those minimum control measures.

Uh one of the big biggest ones is education and outreach, and it's telling people you know to pick up after your pet uh to make sure you do oil changes and you don't have a leaky uh leaky vehicle that's getting oil into the creeks and streams.

It's picking up trash and litter, which uh contributes to um unhealthy waterways.

Um and then it's public outreach and participation, it's uh the construction, um having the construction uh stormwater management, uh erosion control measures, uh post-construction stormwater erosion control or stormwater measures, which include like the bioretention basins and permeable pavement and detention in general.

Uh that's where that came about was for that.

And then the last one is good housekeeping, which just means that uh our own uh city, we make sure that we're maintaining our vehicles that uh if we see a problem we we notify people and make sure that that we are putting in the best management practices we need to to protect the environment as well.

Thank you.

Yeah, thank you.

All right, she's gonna have you call roll on bill 1532.

Council Bill 1532, Ms.

Hartman.

No.

Ms.

Peters?

Yes, Miss Buffalo, yes, Miss Carroll.

No.

Miss Elwood?

Yes.

Miss Sample.

Yes.

Passes four to two.

Okay, thank you.

Sheila, will you please read Bill 1582?

Council Bill 1582 is an ordinance authorizing a real estate contract with make holdings LLC to acquire a parcel of land located at West Gillespie Bridge Road to be used for green space purposes and fixing the time when this ordinance shall become effective.

Second reading.

Do we have a staff report?

Yes, thank you, Mayor Gabe Huffington, Parks Recreation Director.

Tonight we'd like to talk a little bit about a acquisition of property located off of West Gillespie Bridge Road.

Before we talk about the property and everything that deals with it, I did want to kind of update everyone on the Perchy Creek Trail because the acquisition of this property directly relates to our future construction of the trail.

So the plan trail is from the MKT um going north all the way to Cosmo Park with a major trailhead at Strong Park.

So this is our our trail that will connect the west side of Columbia as we go north and south.

Phase one of the trail opened in spring of 2025.

We currently have phase two funding in FY26 through FY28 as part of the 2021 park sales tax ballot issue.

Um and right now we are finalizing our engineering contract for phase two design.

So that kind of gives you an idea of where we are at when we start to talk about this acquisition of land.

So to start with, I just wanted to give everybody a geographic reference to where we are are discussing this acquisition.

This is off of Chapel Hill and Scott Boulevard.

So Scott Boulevard on the map runs north and south with my cursor, intersects with Chapel Hill Road.

Um this is directly in the fourth ward of Columbia.

You have Longview Park.

Um this is Daniel Boone Little League Fields.

Um Chapel Hill continues on becomes Gillespie Bridge Road as it enters into Boone County.

The property that we have discussed and are looking to acquire it with council approval is 29.9 acres of land that is directly adjacent to the City of Columbia that is kind of in this bottom area at the bottom of the hill that already encompasses some of phase one and then would allow us to do some additional work and planning for phase two.

This is currently owned by Make Holdings LLC.

We have agreed upon price of 194,000 for the acquisition of this property.

This matches the appraisal of the property that was done by Moran Schrock on behalf of the City of Columbia.

We would purchase this with the 2021 park sales tax land acquisition funding.

So on an annual basis, we have funding throughout this 10-year cycle of the park sales tax, um, totaling just over 2.5 million for the acquisition of land for park and green space purposes.

The reason that we have looked at this property, we have some challenges with the design of the Perchy Creek Trail and connecting to Chapel Hill.

And so we have started to work a little bit with our engineering team as we talked to this property.

Typically, we would be discussing with a property on a trail easement, for instance, in most scenarios.

So as we go north with the Perchy Creek Trail, we may only come back to council and talk about the acquisition of an easement that will allow.

The reason that we have looked at this for the purchase of this property is we need to number one design and connect to Chapel Hill sidewalks, and I'll show you a picture of where that terminates right now.

We also have talked a lot about a trail future trailhead at this location so that we can handle some of the traffic that will start to amass is the more we build out this trail system.

And then we also have to navigate under Gillespie Bridge Road so that we can connect phase one to phase two.

So we have two challenges that we are looking at right now in terms of this trail system.

Um the picture on the left is at the top of Chapel Hill Road.

This is the terminus of the sidewalk.

Uh so our goal is to be able to take pedestrian traffic, whether that be cyclist, runner, walker, um, from this terminus point um to be able to get down to the Perchy Creek Trail at this location.

As of right now, if someone wants to access phase one of the Perchy Creek Trail, they are going to get on Gillespie Bridge Road with the road traffic, and they're gonna go down that hill.

When they get to the bottom of the hill, the challenge that presents itself right now, we have guardrails that restrict the access to Purchy Creek Trail phase one.

We are currently looking at all options related to that, but also with the acquisition of this property, it would allow us to design the trail system to where we could have a turnoff on the right side.

So if I go back one slide, for instance, acquisition of this actually let me go back to this one.

If this property on the north side of the road, we have some flexibility to be able to have access with a right turn instead of a left turn to get on the trail.

So you're not crossing traffic as a pedestrian or a cyclist.

So there's these are kind of the two main.

Can you say that last part again?

Um just in charge, okay.

So our challenge right now is we have users of the Perchy Creek Trail.

They are gonna go down Gillespie Bridge Road.

Um, as of right now, and it's easiest to depict this picture.

If you want to access phase one of the Perchy Creek Trail, it is at this red arrow in the right photo.

So you have to stop, you would exit your bike, pick your bike up, put it over the guardrail, and then you would get back on the trail.

If you're a runner, you're just coming over.

Acquisition the property allows us to actually have a right turn into a trailhead or a parking lot, so you're not crossing traffic as a as a person that would be on Gillespie Bridge Road, for instance.

If we also have the Chapel Hill connector, we're gonna completely take that pedestrian or that bicyclist off of the roadway if they want, and they would be on that connection.

I guess I'm just feeling kind of down.

How do they not cross the road?

Do they go a little bit further down to the bridge?

I wasn't.

No, you're good.

Um if you can follow the cursor, so you're going down the hill as of right now.

If you are looking at this, you would have to turn south or left where it says proposed Gillespie Bridge Road under Past The Arrow.

If we are able to acquire the property, that gives us some design flexibility to put a parking lot or a trailhead or even just a trail connection off the road on the right hand side.

So no longer do you have to cross traffic if you're on the roadway.

Because you're building the underpass also.

Correct.

I feel like that lately, let's let's let's add that part on.

Yes, yeah, we're missing.

I'm sorry.

Maybe I was gonna get to that.

Okay.

Oh no, I'm just joking.

Um, so this is the hard part, and this is why like we're talking more about acquisition of property versus easement.

We do have the challenge of going under Gillespie Bridge to connect one and two.

We have the the parking lot, and then we also have a bridge that would be part of the Chapel Hill Connector.

So there's a lot happening in this section of the park um property if it's acquired.

Thank you.

As we go north, this is where you get into three miles of trail that would take you up to um kind of Smith Drive Strong Park area.

The the other portion of this project that we've talked about, if you can see on the right, it says Perchie Creek Trail Phase One.

Phase one was constructed primarily on City of Columbia property.

This was owned by the sewer treatment facility, city utilities.

And what we have done with the construction of the trail is also created a series of wetlands.

This was once mowed farm fields, and so we're trying to move away from that.

Also, because of the Perchy Creek Trail and potential flooding, we have an opportunity to make an investment in the repairing corridor with tree plantings.

We can help stabilize some of that stream bank.

Um, we improve some wildlife, and then obviously filter pollutants.

Anytime when we go from an agricultural style of area, um we can do this corridor, plant trees, we can eliminate some of that runoff that occurs.

So there's some environmental value to this acquisition as well.

So at this point in time, staff's requesting authorization for the city manager to sign a real estate contract to acquire the parcel of land located at West Gillespie Bridge Road for green space purposes, and I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.

Questions from council, yeah.

Betsy.

So uh this is a lot of um floodplain.

So we're expecting, and and I'm okay with that.

I'm just like we're expecting like some of the trailhead to flood sometimes, and the underpass to flood.

Yes.

So similar to J Dick Station, for instance, we have a trailhead.

Yeah, that one will go underwater if the Hinkson Creek will go out of its banks.

Um, and so we plan accordingly for that.

We will know there will be some maintenance associated with cleaning out the underpass below the bridge.

If we do end up with a parking lot at this location, there will be some cleaning there as well that has to be done.

Um, the difference uh what I would describe for you is we had flooding that happened about a month ago, Bear Creek Trail and MKT Trail, where those are gravel trails.

We have had to resurface a majority of both of those with the Perchy Creek Trail being a concrete trail.

The only thing that we've had to do, and we actually have it scheduled for tomorrow as well, is to power broom off the the dirt from the trail.

Um we have a little of that.

So that and kind of to pick up the flood debris, but it is because of where we build trails, they're typically close to waterways because that's the accessible points for trails that is planned for us, um, just in terms of our maintenance and what kind of schedules we have.

Okay, thank you.

Additional council questions.

See, now I'll go ahead and open up for um public comment.

Does anyone from the public wish to speak on the proposed land acquisition for the Gillespie Bridge?

Uh I'm just like talking Shane until you get up here.

Hello, Shane Low Word for uh I will say that the whole situation where it's like, yeah, if you ride down there and you you would have to lift your bike over to the guardrail, that that's one I've done with the big cargo bike.

It's not fun.

Uh and I was really fortunate some lovely Colombian helped me carry that thing over.

Uh, I would actually say right now, until we get more trail built out, it might be nice to have like some sort of sign saying, hey, there's not good access down to Perchy Creek right now.

Uh, because if you don't know that, it really feels like a fix to get down there and not have any, you know, roads or such.

So all that to say, I also am really for this.

Uh another thing too, I think the additional land acquisition opens up some other nice possibilities.

Like, there's not a potty on the trail uh very close to this at all.

I think it's like several miles.

Um, I also when I'm hearing like, hey, there's gonna be an underpass, and it's gonna flood pretty often.

Uh my wife and I are going down the um trail to Twin Lakes all the time, and we've got that under underpass under Chapel Hill there, and it floods all the time.

Having the option to be able to cross the road, even though it's not my first priority.

I'd always love to use an underpass, having the option to be able to cross the road uh in a crossing that's kind of set up for that, uh, is a huge game changer, because otherwise that trail would just be completely unusable after uh heavy rains.

And so I think having the option here on Birchy Creek would be a big deal.

Um, this is a trail that you know I'm really excited about.

Uh it gives connectivity to some of my friends.

Uh and uh yeah, really looking forward to seeing this.

Awesome.

Thank you, Shane.

Anyone else from the public wish to speak on the land acquisition for trail expansion?

Docinator for Agan Street.

Uh yeah, I think this is a great project.

I guess I'm naive about land prices, though, floodplain.

Probably wouldn't want to be developing on it.

$60,000 an acre.

Is that how much farmland is?

Are they getting a sweet deal on this?

Or I mean that's what the appraiser said.

I'm just a little shocked that it's that much money, but it's a good project.

Thanks.

Thanks, Dee.

Anyone else wish to speak on the proposed land acquisition?

See, none will come to council comments.

Council kind of clarifying questions.

Yeah, Betsy.

Isn't this 29 acres?

Yes.

29.9.

All right.

Thanks.

Um, and I think uh question just remind me because I apologize I had to step out.

So this is 100% using the park sales tax land acquisition funds.

Is that correct?

That is correct.

Okay.

Any other council questions?

All right.

Sheila, uh, we please call roll on bill 158 26.

Council Bill 158 26, Miss Hartman, yes.

Miss Peters?

Yes.

Miss Buffalo, yes.

Miss Carroll, yes, Miss Elwood?

Yes.

Miss Sample.

She's up.

Appreciate all right.

Moving on to the consent agenda.

Sheila, will you please read the items on the consent agenda twice and call roll?

Items on the consent agenda include bills 154 26, 155, 26, 156, 26, 157, 26, 160, 26, 161, 26, 162, 26, resolutions 122, 26, 123, 26, 124, 26, 125, 26, 126, 26, 127, 26, 128, 26, 129, 26, 130, 26, 131, 26, 132, 26, 133, 26, 134, 26, 135, 26, 136, 26, 137, 26, 138, 26, 139, 26, 140, 26, and 141, 26.

Bills 154, 26, 155, 26, 156, 26, 157, 26, 160, 26, 161, 26, 162, 26, resolutions 122, 26, 123, 26, 124, 26, 125, 26, 126, 26, 127, 26, 128, 26, 129, 26, 130, 26, 131, 26, 132, 26, 133, 26, 134, 26, 135, 26, 136, 26, 137, 26, 138, 26, 139, 26, 140, 26, and 141, 26.

Ms.

Hartman.

Yes.

Miss Peters.

Yes.

Miss Buffalo.

Yes.

Miss Carroll.

Yes.

Miss Elwood.

Yes.

Miss Sample.

Stepped out.

All right, moving on.

We have no items under new business.

So Sheila, you want to do it again and read the items that are under introduction and first reading.

But just once.

All bills are introduced by the mayor unless otherwise indicated.

Policy resolution 142 26.

Bills 163 26, 164, 26, 165, 26, 166, 26, 167, 26, 168, 26, 169, 26, 170, 26, 171, 26, 172, 26, 173, 26, 174, 26, 175, 26, 177, 26, 178, 26, 179, 26, 180, 26, 181, 26, 182, 26, 183, 26, 184, 26, 185, 26, 186, 26, 187, 26, 188, 26, 189, 26, 190, 26, 191, 26, 192, 26, 193, 26, 194, 26, 195, 26, 196, 26, 197, 26, 198, 26, 199, 26, 226, 201, 26, 2022, 26, 203, 26, 204, 26, and 20526 for streeting.

All right.

Thank you.

All right, moving on uh to reports.

The first one is report 3926.

And I appreciate this coming back to us so quickly.

This is about the discussion about um phasing in the pilot increase for the water utility after the water treatment plant improvements are done.

So, do we have a staff report?

Yeah, so um made a few slides just to uh talk about the report that we put together.

And so basically uh some background on this, the construction of the water treatment plant upgrades began in 24 and is scheduled to be complete in August of this year.

The dollar threshold and the length of time uh for the upgrades uh basically dictate that this must be a uh capital asset, and so the expenses for this asset uh will not be all taken at one time, the cost of spread over the useful life of the project or the useful life of the water treatment plant, and so we're estimating it to be either 40 or 50 years.

And so uh the conclusion of that is that the total cost of the upgrades represents basically a 40 million dollar injection into the water utilities fixed asset pool, and so under accounting guidelines, uh the project costs to the ledger will not usually would be all added at one time, uh, and that will be an increase of approximately eight hundred and seventy thousand dollars in pilot payments.

And so the proposal we've put together basically uh would incrementally introduce the pilot payments over a 10-year period.

Uh this is what that plan would look like, and so in the first year uh the pilot increase would be, and these are approximate numbers, even though they're they're very definite is based off decimal points, maybe yeah.

I'm sorry about that.

I try not to do that.

Um but uh we're looking at about 86, 87,000 uh pilot for the first year, which would be 27 and uh 780,000 abatement, and then uh it sort of goes on from there adding 10% each year.

And so this plan would offer protection from that immediate uh increase and sort of give a some uh root relief to the strain it will put on that fund by having to pay it all at one time if it was all implemented at once.

And I just want to clarify this is in addition to what it is already paying for the pilot transfer?

That's correct.

Thank you.

Um can I ask, and this might this might be for the utilities director.

Um we had a scheduled public comment that commented on the water night advisory board saying to freeze it for the full 10 years.

But I guess my concern is is and then year 11, they have an 870,000 all of a sudden increase.

Is that yes?

That that that will be the issue.

Uh even if you would uh delay it for 10 years, you're still gonna put all of that in.

There's gonna be a shock.

Right.

There's gonna be a shock at some point in time.

If either now or then unless we kind of phase it in and and this phase would would lessen that shock and would make it where uh you wouldn't need to say we need to do an uh rate increase because of it.

This yes.

Okay.

Any questions from council on this?

Yeah, Christina.

Maybe you guys have already explained this, and I apologize for asking it again, but why why did how did we end up to now having to make this decision?

What was a little bit of the background there?

This was always gonna happen once that uh the increase to or the water treatment plant upgrades uh were put into effect uh just because we uh all of all of that the capital assets are basically added to the water department, and so can I ask kind of a follow-up maybe?

Yes.

Um was that something that council was aware of when they voted on that previously?

Or was this after that?

Do we know?

I mean so pilot is all I mean the the assets we're always calculated, or calculated pilot on yeah, but I don't think that I don't think that when we think about the at least for me, my perspective.

I don't think of when I think about voting on the infrastructure improvements that there's going to be an increase to the value that will impact the pilot transfer.

And it was actually from a comment from the public that was like, hey, you know, once the water treatment plant is done, which is needed, it's going to add to the asset value of this, which will then impact the pilot transfers, which is what prompted us to have a council we request this report to see like what could we do to ease that um transition.

Yeah, that's how oh you're still putting okay.

How will we prevent that from happening in the future to where we don't feel maybe as like it's more of a forethought when we're making these decisions?

I I don't know that any council would have not approved of improvements to the water treatment plant.

I think you're thinking more of just about the kind of like the pilot relationship.

So basically, any time we improve or purchase uh capital assets for the utilities, it would have the same effect.

I guess I just some of the feedback I got, they felt surprised or shocked that this was happening, and so I guess I'm just wondering how we can improve the transparency there if needed.

But I know Betsy had a question, but Valerie, did you want to comment to the conversation right now?

Um not right now, sorry.

Yeah, but you had a question.

Um can you tell me what other city utilities pay pilot?

So pilot uh is defined by the city ordinance is only paid by water and light.

Okay, so just for the water plant, not for the elect not for any of our electric since we combust.

Water and electric and electric.

By saying it water and light, uh you're using the name of the department, not necessarily.

Yes, so water electric.

Water and electric, yes.

Okay, so I'm back to so we never talk about pilot for the electric part of the water and electric utility.

Why?

We so the the electric part is the biggest part of the of the pilot payment.

It is the biggest part, yes.

Yeah, they have a lot more ads.

And I think the reason why this one maybe would be viewed as a shock because it was probably one of the biggest dollar amount projects that we've done in like the last 10 years.

That's correct.

So I think that's that's a big part of why it probably didn't come up because normally it's just a pump replacement, a water main replacement, it's not a however many million dollar project.

400 million dollars.

Yeah, so 40 million.

I said, good Lord, it's not 400.

Aaron would love to have that dollar amount.

Yeah.

Valerie, did you think of what you're okay?

All right.

Um other conversation to this?

All right, so I'll um I'll I'll make a motion uh to for staff to move forward with the phased approach as described in this report um for the the pilot abatement.

Uh do I have a second second?

Second.

I think that was Vera first.

Sorry, so I saw yeah.

Um, all those in favor um of moving forward with this phased approach for the pilot for the water treatment plant say aye.

Aye, aye.

Any opposed?

No.

Okay.

Thank you.

All right, moving one now.

Correct.

And then one not here.

Yeah.

Um right.

Um, next up we have the business loops community um improvement district, uh, the fiscal year 2027 annual budget.

This is an informational report from the business loop CID that is required to be submitted to the city by the state statute.

Um, if council has any comments or questions, I know that their uh director is here if there are any questions or comments on this.

No, I appreciate it being filed in a timely manner.

Thank you.

All right, now we'll move on to uh general comments from the public.

Would anyone from the public wish to speak D dock and eight or poor again?

I just want to um apologize for my sloppy math, and it'd be like more like six thousand an acre, which seems reasonable.

So I was just happy that it was sloppy math, and then it wasn't really that much per acre.

Thanks, D.

Um, math is hard.

Would anyone else from the public wish to speak?

Eugene Ilkin, second ward.

Trying to get used to the sorry, yeah.

Uh tonight I have a whole different comment, but it's a continuation of what I've said in the past, and I kind of hope that you're really listening closely.

We're just celebrating 250 years as a nation as a proud American.

Americans need to be using their cash money more and more than they've ever done in their past.

Some of us still use cash as much as possible.

Others don't understand us that use cash.

We need to be saluting all those who have opposed the AI introduction.

You all put it on hold for a year.

You're looking for answers, and tonight I hope I'm presenting things that people need to understand.

I said before there are six people possibly behind the effort that we need to choose life over AI.

I'm now starting to understand why I said that.

I said it didn't make any sense.

AI is used by the Chinese to get the citizens to have a better life.

If they do not speak highly of the ones in charge, they will not be able to get alone nor live a higher standard of living.

What is crypto?

When I heard that statement, that really hit me.

I'm going, what?

We're getting ready to take all the water and electricity without any regard to lives.

That apparently is what I was trying to say when I spoke on this subject before.

What is lives got to do with the subject AI that you all put on hold?

I would suggest you really reconsider not even waiting the year.

You watch the TV as I spoke.

You'll see every day somebody else is opposing the AI effort.

Don't wait long enough to take up your all's time when right here it's clear as can be what is going on.

The use of our resources for something negative against life a hit.

Thank you.

Thank you, Gene.

Would anyone else from the public wish to speak?

Is it okay if I give you something?

Yeah, hand it to Sheila and she can pass it amount.

These are the same document, right?

Okay, just want to make sure before I do that.

Cool.

Welcome to our new podium.

I know, it's so fancy.

Um I'm here uh representing Vidwest.

Um I'm at 709 Lyons Street, apartment three, some new place.

Uh I think that's Ward 1.

Um Matt, do you want to say your name just for the record?

Matthew Sha.

Thank you.

So we're we've been talking to staff about community media center, and we've been talking to you guys for like 10 months.

And we're really happy with the conversation that's happened so far in the sense of we feel like you have had an opportunity to hear a lot of stories.

Staff have had an opportunity to realize that community media is actually not just an old cable channel, that it's active and alive.

But we're a little concerned at where the conversation is right now.

And the reason we're concerned is that as you can see, there's a letter there we got from staff.

It pretty much says the conversation is over.

We will let you know if we want to talk to you again, PS the staff.

And that's this idea that the communications department here might decide that they want to outsource some services.

But I think that misses the whole point.

Uh people have decided they want these services.

It shouldn't be one city staff member's decision, especially a new person here who's still getting the bearings, whether or not we should have community media.

Uh we would love to have a service contract that included videography, but if the whole enterprise of a community media center is dependent upon one department deciding they want some videographers, I'm afraid that we're putting too much burden on that one person when you've got hundreds of residents who are really saying this is a valuable service.

And I'm really concerned too about the idea that who is going to provide you, decision makers, with an understanding of what community media is, right?

Because I'm not supposed to even talk to city staff about this because there's a pending contract.

Every time I do, you know, uh, I'll talk to Shauna Johnson.

I'll talk to uh Vera Elwood at one of your town halls, and you'll be like, look, I can't talk about this.

This is an active contract.

But when that happens, it's closing the door on all the engagement.

And we have things we want to talk to you about.

We want to talk to you about the ways that community media can help with your homeless population because we're talking to Jessin McNear at the Opportunity Campus.

We want to talk to you about how uh community media is going to help with economic development because we're talking to the Missouri Film Office right now.

There is a feature film in Columbia, Missouri that's been shooting two weeks.

They have used Vidwest equipment and hired crew that Vidwest recommend.

They're spending tens of thousands of dollars in this city right now.

And we want people to know about that, and we want you guys to know that economic development is what community media does.

But if it all just comes down to the city communications manager who's like, ah, maybe I want some videographers, we're totally missing the boat on what community media can be.

And so we need a way to have this discussion, right?

Create a let's talk, create a town hall, you guys decide.

But if the conversation just becomes you can't talk to us because there's a pending contract, you're shutting the door in the face of your community.

It's really gonna make people irate.

I was just at Rag Tag the other day.

There was a hundred people there, and these were silver haired voter people who own their own properties, like stalwart members.

They booed.

They literally booed at what the city was doing.

Uh that's my time.

Thanks, Matt.

Bye.

Would anyone else from the public wish to speak?

You don't have to, Shane.

But it's the bird time, it's not like 11 o'clock.

I guess um just one quick kind of like question or thing that I like kind of considered just something, and I don't know if this is something we're able to do as a counsel or not with the rules of the chamber.

Um but I guess one of the things I've just observed a couple of times as far as just how um public comment gets uh conducted a lot of times.

There's like requests like, hey, everyone for this stand up together, and it's just something where it's like I feel like there's been a lot of cases where that's really served as a flash point for conversations really veering into um a less decorous sort of public comment.

Uh and I didn't know if that's something where it's like you know, there's been any consideration of that in terms of you know rules of the chamber or so forth.

And I know we don't want to be draconian as far as you know how people can interact with this dais.

Um but it's thinking about hey, what's most conducive to a good public comment period?

Thanks, Jane.

Anyone else from the public wish to speak?

Seeing none, we'll go to council comments.

Uh start, Christina, do you have any comments?

No comment.

Uh Betsy, anything for the public.

Uh no.

All right, thank you.

Valerie?

Yeah.

Um I feel like I want to speak some more on the uh DNR wastewater issue.

Um because that took a turn I did not expect as well.

Um I think Erin Keys did a great job on her work on this, and I want to thank her for that.

Um this took a long time and a lot of effort and a lot of thought.

Um this is something that I prepared to hold my nose and vote yes on.

Um, because I thought that that was the only route that that was the only possible answer.

Um I want to know what the content of these items are that are being complained about, and I want to know that we are prepared to fully understand the risks.

Um, and have the information to resist if we decide to or if we need to.

Um thinking of the types of nuisance complaints, and that a lot of the conversation focused on private property.

Um I'm okay with the result.

I don't want us to lose our license.

Um, I don't want us to risk that, but I do want to know that we are fully preparing ourselves um to appeal if we need to appeal.

Um, it's not the first time that I've had to vote yes and hold my nose.

Um, and one of the times that came up before ended up being the one vote that I regret most during my time on city council.

Um so I'm glad that I don't have that regret this time.

And I still want to thank staff for the time that they put in.

We discussed this for quite a long time before tonight.

Um, so perhaps those things should have been more anticipated on my part as well.

Mira, anything?

Um I don't I don't think so tonight.

Thank you.

Okay.

Um I'll just say I uh I had requested, and I think it's um scheduled to come to us in August, an update on our um Como to Zero kind of vision zero update, and uh staff let me know that that will come at an August meeting for that related to our pedestrian like what in addition to what we're doing, but for pedestrian safety, but the vision zero update.

Um and then it is late.

I was just gonna ask whether or not um I I was asked on the radio this morning, uh Boone County's response to the Cyclosphora uh conversations happening, and so I I didn't know if uh under for staff, if we could just kind of get an update to let know, and how would we be notified on the outbreaks that are happening?

And then while Michelle is walking up, I'll just point out that I have a Let's Talk local next Monday at 5 30.

But that's you guys can check that out on the website.

Yeah, so I can just give a a brief update.

Um right now, uh they are recalling Taylor Iceberg lettuce.

Um nationally, the investigation continues and it continues here locally as well.

We have 36 cases, about half of them have been investigated already.

Uh some of them we haven't been able to contact, so we're working on um tracking them down.

Uh our environmental health inspectors have been out to multiple locations to uh inspect uh to assure that the product is no longer being used.

Uh so they still have uh a few taffobells and and Walmarts to get to, but they've they've um made it to quite a few.

And um yeah, uh let's see.

Our local investigation will continue.

Um we are encouraging the public to continue to wash their produce, even if it's pre-washed and to cook uh their uh produce, even uh especially if they are immunocompromised.

And uh we'll continue to update the public as we know more.

It seems like you know, this is maybe one of the items we we might learn that there um are additional things that need to be recalled.

So yeah.

I appreciate the work of of your team and also um again showing the importance of public health, um, both for that, but then also your kind of messaging and investigations going for it.

So thank you, Michelle, for the update.

Yeah, welcome.

Any other staff update to Carlin?

No, only thing I have is uh August 3rd.

We will be presenting the budget for fiscal year 27.

So please uh tune in, participate or hear and understand exactly what we're working on.

Appreciate that.

Nancy, anything from you?

Anything, Sheila?

All right, I'll go ahead and you wanna remind everybody about oh yes, I have a reminder for those watching at home and those in room.

Our um council meetings for the next two council meetings, so the both the meetings in in August will begin at 6 p.m.

Because we know there will be longer meetings, so we're gonna start an hour earlier since we'll be having budget discussions along amongst other things.

So we will begin 6 p.m.

August 3rd.

All right, thank you.

I'll go ahead and adjourn.