The St. Louis Board of Aldermen met on June 17, 2026, for a full board meeting. The meeting opened with a reflection by City Poet Laureate Patia Anderson honoring Juneteenth. Key actions included the perfection of Board Bill 22, which allocates $255 million in Rams settlement funds for tornado recovery, water infrastructure, downtown revitalization, and vacancy reduction; the perfection of Board Bill 28, requiring water meter installation on new and major rehabilitation connections; and the third reading and final passage of Board Bill 25, increasing water rates. Several amendments were debated and voted upon.
The board will now come to order. Madam Clerk, please call the roll. Alder Woman Schweitzer. Alderman Oldenburg. Alderman Cone. Alderman Narayan. Alderman Devotee. Alder Woman Velasquez. Alder Woman Sanye. Alder Woman Cox and Tweed. Alderman Browning. Alder Woman Clore Hubbard. Alder Woman Keys. Alder Woman Tyus. Present. Alder Woman Boyd. Alderman Aldrick. President Green. Present. Alder Woman Cox and Twee. Alder Woman Boyd. Alderman Aldrick. 13 present. Accorum being present, we will be led in an opening reflection by City of St. Louis Poet Laureate Patia Anderson. Good morning. In honor of Juneteenth. We salute you. For those whose lifeblood became the lifeblood of this place. For those whose bodies became nutrients for the soil that grew the towering landscapes. For those who endeavored and toiled to ensure that we freed ourselves. Who moved with muskets and side arms, rifles and carbines and formations that form the foundation of this republic, we give honor. We salute you. To those who remain captive after the free, for those whose beings became legend, whose spirits move through history via tongue and the oral keeping, whose names remain blank in the books written by those who claim the spoils, still venerated by we who have descended, whose names remain if not upon our tongues, but in our bones and our cellular structures and our dreams and our goings forth. For those whom, regardless of the story that lives on, the ones who by the time they saddled up on those horses, they rode in on the ones who by that time had already been gone, for the ones who star charted and pace counted, quartermastered and signaled, lobbied and congressed, smuggled, mended, tracked, and cooked for those who did not rest, making it possible for us to free ourselves in our vibrancy. They called us colored, their enemies becoming their infantry, a heaven-cent regiment that turned the tide of war, tipped the scales in favor of a nation that favored us dead, knowing that without us, they all too soon would be. Knowing without us, there would be no victory for Susie King Taylor with her healing of injuries for Harriet Tubman and her stealthy deliveries for Moses Dixon and the Knights of Liberty for every unnamed who dug trenches and quells for everybody unclaimed who sacrificed made it possible for liberation to excel for every single breath captured in the rings of our century old pine groves and elms for every single ancestor who helped us free ourselves from Galveston to Gravoy, Williamsburg to Walnut Park, Baton Rouge to Baden, Manassas to Mill Creek, we give honor, we salute you for those whose lives and blood became the lifeblood of this place for those whose bodies became nutrients for the soil that grew these towering landscapes from the then to the right here and the right now. We give thanks. We honor and we salute you. Thank you. Is there any introduction of honored guests? Any introduction of honored guests, alder woman from the 11th. There I am. Good morning, everyone. And it truly is a beautiful and colorful day. And so if you'll notice the little green ribbon that I am wearing. So this week, you know, if you have an opportunity to dress your body in some green and somehow, um, in remembrance of all of those who have lost their lives and so posthumously, all of the names that we read yesterday are my honored guests. Additionally, I'm gonna take everybody who's up in the gallery are my honored guests today. Please stand. Thank you.