City of Joplin 2025-2026 Budget Work Session - Night Two - September 23, 2025
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City of Joplin 2025-2026 Budget Work Session - Night Two
On September 23, 2025, the Joplin City Council continued its budget work session for the 2025-2026 fiscal year. The meeting included presentations and discussions on several issues and options, followed by votes on funding requests, policy changes, and future studies. The session lasted approximately two hours and concluded with a motion to adjourn.
Chamber of Commerce Contract and Request
- Council heard from John Hunter (incoming board chair) and Amy from MoCAN. They highlighted economic development efforts, including population growth, labor force statistics (unemployment at 4.6%), and the expansion of Eagle Pitcher. A request was made for $247,000 for the chamber and $65,000 for MoCAN (regional economic development), plus an additional $25,000 for a five-year strategic economic development plan.
- Discussion ensued about the need for a strategic plan, concerns about leadership stability, and the city's investment compared to other stakeholders. Councilman Jackson questioned why no other organization contributes at half the city's level ($247,000). City Manager Nick Edwards supported the plan as long overdue.
- Motion: To approve the total request of $312,000 ($247,000 + $65,000). Passed 9-0.
Joplin Sports Authority Reserve Account Request
- Jan Hearn, chairperson of JSA, presented a request for a one-time allocation of $100,000 from the lodging tax excess account to establish a reserve fund. This would address cash flow issues caused by upfront costs for large events (e.g., $100,000 for a national junior college basketball tournament). The fund would be used exclusively for operational expenses (facility rentals, referees, bid fees) and not for staff. A line of credit had been used previously, incurring $1,227 in interest.
- Council discussed whether the amount was sufficient and whether it would be repaid. JSA intends to repay when feasible, but Councilman Koppel noted that building reserves naturally is difficult due to fine margins.
- Motion: To approve the one-time $100,000 interest-free line of credit from the CVB fund. Passed 9-0.
Compensation Study Update
- Michelle DuCree presented the biennial compensation study. The city's compensation philosophy aims to be above local market and at least 90% of regional market. Out of 48 benchmarked positions, 18 are below the regional market median. Specific positions include court assistant, admin assistant, firefighter, police officer, and others. Compression issues were highlighted—new hires nearing pay of experienced employees. A professional market study may be needed.
- Councilman Koppel noted that fire department compression affects about 34 of 107 firefighters. Councilman Jackson advocated for investing more in people than projects.
- No formal vote was taken on the study itself; staff will continue to work on addressing compression.
Minimum Wage Implementation (Short-Term Solution)
- City Manager Nick Edwards presented a proposal to eliminate pay steps below the new $15/hour state minimum wage (effective January 1, 2026). The city had already raised minimum to $13.75 in August 2025. The proposal also applied a 2% COLA, bringing seasonal pay to $15.33/hour. The short-term fix would cause further compression but was necessary to comply.
- Discussion included concerns about lifeguard pay being higher than firefighters ($15.33 vs. firefighter starting wage). Councilman Koppel pointed out the city had struggled to staff pools until paying above minimum wage. Councilman Jackson emphasized the need for long-term solutions.
- Motion: To approve the recommended short-term solution for minimum wage implementation. Passed 9-0.
Tuition Reimbursement Policy Revisions
- Leslie (HR) presented revisions to the Education Assistance Program (tuition reimbursement). The policy was adopted in 2023 and had worked well, but clarifications were needed for class start/end dates. Changes included eliminating the 30-day prior approval requirement and adjusting submission deadlines.
- Motion: To adopt the recommended revisions. Passed 9-0.
Facility Security Improvement Plan
- Tony (facilities) presented a prioritized list of safety and security improvements across city facilities, totaling about $1.3 million. The annual budget includes $400,000 for building maintenance from the capital improvement sales tax fund. Staff sought council direction on which items to fund first.
- Councilman Koppel expressed concerns about using maintenance funds for security, and questioned specific items (e.g., $200,000 for HR ceiling, $55,000 for station fencing). Councilman Jackson suggested separating items fundable by the transportation sales tax. City Manager Edwards noted that using the $400,000 for security would delay other maintenance. Councilman Koppel moved to deny the recommended implementation plan and send to a work session for prioritization.
- Motion: To deny the recommended implementation plan and move to a work session. Passed 7-2 (opposed: Mrs. Carlin? Check transcript—vote was 7-2, but unclear who opposed).
Electric Feasibility Study
- Nick Edwards presented an issue and option for a feasibility study on municipal electric generation. The study would cost about $100,000 (budgeted from use tax) and explore regulatory, cost, and funding aspects. It was noted that Joplin has missed economic development opportunities due to limited electricity capacity. Councilman Lawson and others supported it as critical for future growth.
- Councilman Koppel argued the timing was bad due to staff workload (ARPA, sales tax renewal). Councilman Jackson emphasized the need to act now. City Manager Edwards acknowledged workload but said council priorities drive staff allocation.
- Motion: To approve the electric feasibility study. Passed 7-2 (opposed: Mr. Koppel and Mrs. Carlin?—transcript says 7-2, but names not specified).
Murphy's Burg Historic District Street Marker Policy
- Tony presented a proposed policy for decorative street markers in historic districts, starting with a pilot in Murphy's Burg. Two sign examples were shown—a basic version (nominal cost) and a more decorative version (cost shared with neighborhood). The policy would allow other neighborhoods to follow.
- Councilman Ditar and Koppel criticized the basic sign as unattractive but supported the concept. The council agreed to move forward with the policy and pilot.
- Motion: To approve the district street marker policy and Murphy's Burg as a pilot project. Passed 9-0.
User Fee Review (Biennial)
- AJ presented the biennial review of user fees set by ordinance. Recommended increases across multiple departments: building (none), fire (land clearing permit from $50 to $150, hood/sprinkler inspections to $150, fireworks stand to $250), finance (new EV charging station business license at $30 minimum), cemeteries (lot space and opening/closing from $100 to $750, cremains increases, columbarium increases), health (risk establishment permits up to $420, pool inspections up to $370, tattoo parlor to $140), parks (pool season passes up by $25, admission up by $1, museum admission up by $1), planning and zoning (zoning applications from $600 to $625, new encroachment application at $625, sign permit increases), golf course (green fees up $1 weekday/$3 weekend, cart fees up $2, annual passes up, elimination of twilight pass).
- Councilman Farnum commented on the need for public communication about fee comparisons and cost recovery.
- Motion: To adopt the fee recommendation changes as presented. Passed 9-0. Also, a separate motion to approve the future fee study recommendation (to hire an outside firm in 2027) passed 9-0.
Key Outcomes
- Approved: Chamber/MoCAN funding ($312,000), JSA reserve ($100,000), minimum wage short-term solution, tuition reimbursement revisions, user fee increases (including future study), Murphy's Burg pilot, electric feasibility study.
- Denied/Sent to Work Session: Facility security improvement plan implementation (sent to future work session).
- No Vote: Compensation study update (staff will continue work).
- Next Steps: Final budget adoption scheduled for October 20, 2025.
Note: This summary is based on the raw transcript. No agenda or minutes were provided. All votes are recorded as stated in the transcript.
Meeting Transcript
Good evening, everyone, and welcome to night two of the 2025-2026 proposed budget uh for the city of Joplin. We are going to get started this evening. We are going to work through books, uh issues and options. Am I correct in that? Uh Leslie. All right, outstanding. And looks like City Manager Nick Edwards is up first. Yeah, good evening, Mayor, Council. Uh excited to get tonight too. Uh we have a lot of important stuff to discuss. Uh our first part of the meeting will go over what we call issues and options. Uh, those are things that we need your feedback on. And then uh following issues and options, we have additional budget information, which we typically haven't gone through page by page. Uh we'd be happy to answer questions that you might have uh from that material, but uh not a lot of uh presentation on that unless you want to dig deeper. So uh we have an agenda for issues and uh issues and options. Our first one is uh the uh chamber of commerce uh contract and request. Uh I see our chamber uh representatives here, they have a small presentation to go over with you, and then uh we'll be uh happy to answer any questions that you might thanks, sir. All right, Joplin Area Chamber of Commerce, come on down here and the next contestant on issues and options hello, hello every hello everybody. Uh and I have Amy here with me, so she's gonna cover the mocam portion of uh our presentation. And so before I just wanted to, for those of you who don't know me, I'm I'm John Hunter. I'm uh president CEO of American Ramp Company, Atlas Safe Rooms, got a little pizza place in Duquesne, not Joplin, uh Gusana. But uh we're also building X. Um, but uh Yeah, but but but one of the things I wanted I want to do something really quick as my my uh American ramp company role before my uh chamber role, which I'm the incoming board chair and the president of the chamber foundation. Uh and and uh ex-council person said this was okay, and I cleared it by Nick. But we're building this really, really cool bike park, American ramp company. Thank you all for that. And if you haven't um captured how much momentum that project is generating through in the community, outside the community, uh really, really uh at a national scale, we're getting feedback like where the heck's Joplin, this thing looks amazing. I want to go here. Like we're getting that feedback from BMX uh uh community in uh as far as California. So the bike park now has a name which most of you guys know, and it's very fitting with what I think the next era of uh our current era and the continuing area uh era of Joplin, and that's momentum. So I have a hat for uh all the council people because you guys made this happen. Sorry, I only have enough for council members. I'm gonna I'm gonna hand them to the mayor and then he can distribute. Okay, so I got nine new hats, is what you're saying. Wait a minute. In no way does it have anything to do with the next part of uh the evening. So uh, but but seriously, thank you for that. And and what what is what is uh what is cool, um that name momentum, and and I've been in a couple different meetings that the mayor's been in, and he's just talked about uh the importance of uh where the city's going and how the lens at which we look through things, and he said momentum a couple times. Uh this was already kind of rolling and and but uh but mayor, you were right on right on track with the development of this bike park. Um so we're just gonna go through uh some slides and also re leave some room open uh for some questions. Uh there's a lot of exciting things going at the chamber, uh, as you all know. The economic development in the business in the chamber has continued. Uh the chamber has an amazing staff uh that's dedicated, and I believe that it has a has an amazing board that's probably more focused now uh than it has been a long time. Um and that's that's been necessary to get us through this next step, but that's also a really good time to uh you know take uh you know collect where we're at, create a vision for where we're going, and and so that's where we're at now. And so uh the just just to go over a few a few things, highlights, just demographic information. Uh the Joplin population is growing, which is which is good. Uh and one of those things, not just we're seeing people move into the community um through growth and expansion, but we're also uh the birth rate in this area is above replacement, which is not normal for the state, and it's not normal um really for the country. So, whatever causes that, good work, everybody. Um I mean, really just making this a good you know, a nice place to live makes people want to come here, raise families here. That's really important.
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