Joplin City Council Informal Meeting - February 3, 2025
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Joplin City Council Informal Meeting - February 3, 2025
The Joplin City Council held an informal meeting on February 3, 2025, receiving quarterly updates from the Joplin Sports Authority (JSA), the Human Resources department, and the Planning and Neighborhood Services department. Presentations covered financial audits, economic impact data, personnel turnover, workers' compensation trends, and departmental initiatives. The meeting concluded with no formal votes.
Joplin Sports Authority Quarterly Update
- JSA presented its annual financial audit, conducted by Ben Miller for the seventh consecutive year. The audit found no findings—an unusual clean bill of health—and reported no long-term liabilities. Net position decreased by $20,000 to $97,000, attributed to PPP loan adjustments from COVID. JSA stated it is in strong financial health.
- Year-in-review economic impact data: 27 events (down from 31) generated 15,636 room nights (up from 13,898), with an average daily hotel rate of $108.04 (up from $101.86). Total market room revenue reached approximately $1.7 million (up from $1.4 million). Average incidental spending per guest rose to $116 (from $99), and total tax revenue generated reached $649,000. The total economic impact was $8.9 million (up from $6.9 million), supporting 37 full-time jobs (up from 33). JSA’s total expense was $411,000; net revenue was $8.516 million, yielding an ROI of $20.70 per dollar spent (using participant-only multipliers). JSA noted that spectator data is not yet included but a new SQL system is being implemented.
- Future events: 30 events are scheduled, including the Missouri Christian Schools winter championship (starting February 6) and several national championships (e.g., KCAC Women’s Golf, MIAA baseball, NCAA Division II cross country regional championship, NCCAA cross country national championship—first of a four-year bid). JSA reported challenges with facility availability, particularly for the upcoming basketball championship, citing difficulty scheduling school gyms during school hours.
- Council member Dr. Farnham asked about remaining facility needs after the Prospect Village development. JSA responded that baseball and pickleball are notable areas of need, but the indoor facility at OCC may suffice for growth. Council member Ditarr commented on the high quality of the D2 volleyball tournament held at OCC, noting it impressed his family.
Human Resource Department Update
- The HR department reported on hiring and turnover: 1,300 applicants in 2024 (up from 997 in 2022), with 128 hires (down from 328 in 2023). Turnover was 107 exits in 2024 (up from 78 in 2023 and 84 in 2022), including 12 retirements, 12 disciplinary terminations, and 28 probationary departures. Reasons included job mismatch, ghosting, higher pay elsewhere, and family health issues. HR acknowledged the need to improve retention.
- Workers’ compensation and liability claims saw significant reductions. Workers’ comp claims: 74 claims at $151,000 paid in 2024 (down from $6.68 million in 2022 and $680,000 in 2023) with no lost time or TTD payments. Liability claims: 23 claims at $46,000 in 2024 (down from $1.5 million in 2022 and $767,000 in 2023). HR attributed these decreases to improved risk management and light-duty partnerships.
- Key initiatives for 2025 include: succession planning (approximately 60 employees eligible to retire within five years, with action plans due by first quarter 2026), continued safety improvements with third-party partners, staff development through the Mazoo Leadership Training Institute, a compensation study (third quarter 2025) to benchmark positions and address pay compression, and updates to the employee handbook and job descriptions.
- Council member Kabul requested periodic reports on turnover breakdown and suggested revisiting the longevity pay system for long-tenured employees to improve retention. HR agreed to provide more detailed reports.
Planning and Neighborhood Services Department Update
- The department provides planning, development, community development, building inspection, and code enforcement. Statistics for 2024 showed improvement: building permits issued rose from ~9,600 in 2023 to 10,000, while neighborhood services complaints decreased (attributed to proactive code enforcement). The department highlighted its experienced staff, some with over 20 years.
- Key initiatives include: minor zoning code revisions (to be brought to council in 2025), a five-year Consolidated Plan update for HUD funds, stormwater and sanitary sewer projects in Easttown using $3.3 million in CDBG-DR funds (presented that evening), transportation plan updates, and implementation of the International Property Maintenance Code. A windshield survey of 6,000 properties in low-to-moderate income tracts was completed.
- ARPA-funded programs: The Home Assistance Fund (JHAF) expended $3 million, assisting 87 families with down payment and closing costs (average $35,000 per family). The rehab program, in partnership with ESC, received 112 applications with 9 completed projects (HVAC, roofs, etc.). The demolition program (area benefit, not income-based) is ongoing. A new $3.5 million lead hazard reduction program (four-year timeline) is being developed.
- Succession planning: Assistant Director Joanne Bowlington and other staff are being trained to manage the department, following the example of former director Dick Largent.
Key Outcomes
- No formal votes or decisions were taken during the informal session. The council received the reports and directed HR to provide turnover breakdowns and explore longevity pay adjustments. The JSA and Planning departments will continue their work and bring future proposals (zoning amendments, ARPA program updates, facility needs) to formal council meetings. The informal session adjourned with a two-minute recess before the formal session.
Meeting Transcript
Good evening, where everyone, and welcome to the Jumpham City Council Informal Meeting. Got a couple items on the agenda this evening, and we will get started with the Jumplin Sports Authority quarterly update. Good evening, Mr. Burnaman. Good evening. Thank you for having me. I was told to be pretty brief since there are three things today, so I will do my best to accommodate that. There's basically just a couple things I'm gonna hit on. I'm gonna give a year in review and also I'll just go over the audit, which you guys should have a copy of that as well as we sent some to Leslie and a digital copy, I believe, on Sunday. So I'll skip through uh most of that stuff. So again, I'll go over the audit, final numbers, a synopsis of a few events, and then uh as always, it's important to give shout-outs when it comes to people that we work with and deal with in the community. Um we always want to give credit where credit is due. So as far as the financial audit, if you recall, um this is the I believe it's the seventh year, might be the eighth, um, of the um auditor, which is Ben Miller, he specializes in not for profits. And again, I've worked with Ben before when I was at Missouri Southern there when I was the athletic director and the vice president. So I'm familiar with his work. Yes, it's the seventh year. Um the process again is we give them all the information basically starting around Thanksgiving. Uh he gives us a preliminary report. Uh from there, it goes to our budget and audit committee. Um, and then after that point, the budget audit committee votes on it to approve the audit. He is there for that. From that point, it goes to our full board, and then we also send a copy to Leslie. Uh so that is the process for it. Uh the fundamentally, the answer to the question, which always when you have an audit is are there any findings? And the answer is no, there were no findings. This is uh uh I don't know if it's just we're not that sophisticated of an organization or or what it is, but it is very unusual not to have some sort of findings in an audit. And you know, again, when I was at Southern when Athletics got audited twice, the NCAA audits us, uh the city, I'm not sorry, this the state audits us. Uh it's very unusual for that to happen. So again, we have no long-term uh liabilities. Net position was down by 20,000 compared to previous of 97,000. Again, some of that's related to PPP loans back from COVID issues, uh, and the final comments there, and you can read the executive report as well. Um JSA is in a strong financial health and good job done by JSA Financial Leadership, which is really our board, our budget and audit committee, uh Steve, uh everyone involved in that, uh, as well as the checks and balances in place. Steve is our does our financials, but also there's a backup to that, who's our office manager who double checks the work. And so um it it's a it's good. Whenever you can get a clean bill of health, and there's no issues, that's fantastic. And again, we do share that information with the city and then um with whoever whoever would request such information. So round of applause, thanks. Um, you know, great. So uh the next thing is here um the year in review. So and it took a little while to get this. The star report is a changing mechanism. It's been purchased, so it's a little bit differently, and and there's a lot of a lot of ways that works. So we were waiting on some data to re be recovered for the average daily rates and so forth. So this is a comparison. So the parentheses is the previous year and the first number is this current year. So you can see the number of events this year was 27 versus 31 last year. The room nights generated this year is actually up several thousand, 15,636 compared to 13,898. And so that just goes to show you the significance of what you have. Um the NJCA national championship, 440 athletes in town for eight days, up to eight days. Uh most of them are here for seven.
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