Joplin City Council Informal Meeting: Finance and Little League Fields Update (August 18, 2025)
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Joplin City Council Informal Meeting – August 18, 2025
The Joplin City Council held an informal meeting on August 18, 2025, to discuss two agenda items: a finance update from the finance director and a presentation on the deteriorating condition of the Little League North Fields at Landwork Park. Council members discussed the city's revenue and expenditure trends and debated the future of the little league fields, ultimately directing the city manager to arrange meetings with stakeholders to explore preservation options.
Discussion Items
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Finance Update (Mrs. Haas):
- Sales Tax: August collections were up about 1% from August 2024, but year-to-date are essentially flat and still under budget with two months remaining.
- Use Tax: August collections were down 12% from August 2024, though year-to-date is up 4.2%.
- Marijuana Tax: Collections returned to expected levels after a prior timing issue.
- General Fund (through July 31, nine months, 75% of year): Operating revenue exceeded budget by $785,000; operating expenditures were $1.8 million under budget (some due to timing of capital expenditures, notably fire trucks still on order). One-time revenue is on budget; one-time expenditures (capital) are below budget. The net gain/loss is better than budgeted.
- Projections: The 2026 budget forecast was revised from a 2% sales tax growth assumption to 1.5%. The graph indicates that if projections hold, the city will need one-time revenue to balance the budget, as expenses are expected to grow faster than 1.5% revenue growth.
- Council questions: Mrs. Carlin asked about the graph showing spending outpacing revenue; Mrs. Haas confirmed it assumes a 1.5% sales tax increase. Councilmember asked about fire trucks on order; Ms. Haas stated two fire trucks are on order, costing about $1–1.2 million each.
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Little League Fields Update (Paul Bloomberg, Parks Director):
- The Little League North Fields at Landwork Park are in severe disrepair. The lease expired in 2023 and was not renewed, with Little League continuing to use the fields informally. Volunteers have dwindled.
- Conditions: vagrancy, vandalism, flooding from Joplin Creek, failing fences, creek erosion, non-functional lights (north field pole down), and unsafe facilities. The fields are now only used for practice; games are played at the Athletic Complex (softball fields prepped by city staff) and Wendell Redden Park.
- Staff proposal: Convert the fields to green space, which would require cutting power (Liberty Utilities), leveling, and seeding (likely in September, taking about a month). To compensate for lost practice space, staff proposed Little League continue using Gene Bassman and Wendell Redden fields, plus two new softball practice fields (skinned with backstops and bleachers) west of the softball complex, and the Will Norton Miracle Field (city property, maintained by city, used by Rotary on Saturdays only – suitable for T-ball practice).
- Staff noted the city cannot maintain the fields with current resources; any maintenance would require additional staff/equipment.
- Councilmember Jackson expressed a desire to give Little League another opportunity to renew the lease or propose a new plan, noting that a former board member (Mr. Snodgrass) has personal financial stake and passion for the fields. Councilmember Shaw echoed that the fields have deep community history and that volunteer burnout is a concern, but he wants to explore revival before demolition. Councilmember Ditor acknowledged the history (his father played Babe Ruth League there) but raised concerns about long-term maintenance, flood mitigation, and security, and questioned whether volunteerism could be sustained.
Key Outcomes
- No formal vote taken. Council consensus (as expressed by the Mayor): The City Manager will arrange meetings with Joplin Little League, the Parks Director, and interested citizens (including Mr. Snodgrass) to explore options to save and revitalize the North Fields rather than converting them to green space. The city will also investigate the expired lease and city maintenance responsibilities. The Mayor charged the City Manager to facilitate these discussions.
- The informal meeting concluded at approximately 6:00 p.m., and the formal session began shortly after.
Meeting Transcript
Good evening, everyone, and welcome to the Joplin City Council informal meeting for Monday, August the 18th, 2025. Two items on the agenda. Item number one is finance update. Good evening, Mrs. Haas. Good evening, Mayor. Council. Tonight I will present to you the August sales use tax and marijuana sales tax. For regular sales tax, we're up about one percent from August of last year, which brings us just about flat on collections compared to last year. You can see we're still running under budget, uh, just a little bit uh with just two months remaining. Use tax. Uh August was down 12% uh from August of last year, so we're up 4.2% for the year. And marijuana uh does it did seem to be a timing issue from last month. Uh so we're back up where we would anticipate collections. Any questions on sales and use tax? Council. If not, I'll look at the general fund operating um revenues and expenditures. Uh so this is through July 31st, so nine months, uh, 75% of the year. We are running on operating revenue where we've collected more than what we budgeted uh by 785,000 dollars. On operating expenditures, we've spent less than what we budgeted by uh just over 1.8 million dollars. Some of that's timing of capital expenditures. Uh the fire trucks are still still on order. Uh one-time revenue, we're just about on budget. One time expenditures, uh we are below budget. Uh actually, that's the capital. And then you'll see our our total net gain or loss. We're doing better than what we budgeted at this point in time. And then the graph, I have updated that for uh what is reflected in our 2026 proposed budget, and then revised the projections, especially for sales tax. So with that, I would be happy to answer any questions. Council, Mrs. Carlin. On this last slide, Leslie. So spending more than we're bringing in projected is if sales tax diminish. Is that correct? Am I understanding that correctly? Uh it's is let me see what I revised that to. If we stayed the same, so that's decreasing. So I was using a two percent increase in sales tax assumption. I decreased that to one and a half percent. So that's if sales tax increases one and a half percent. Uh so essentially what this graph tells you is if um our projections are correct, we will need our one-time revenue in order to balance our budget. The expenses are gonna grow faster than that 1.5 percent intake. Lizzie, I you you said fire trucks on order. How many do we have total on order? Do is it two? I think it's two right now. About a million each. Higher than that, maybe maybe 1.2 million each. No. Okay, thank you.
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