Good afternoon.

The public safety committee will now come to order.

Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Alderman Larayan.

Here.

Alderwoman Clark Hubbard.

Alder Woman Sanyer.

Alderwoman Velasquez.

Vice Chair Aldrick.

Let me text them real quick.

Alderwoman Sanyer.

Alderman Aldric.

Chair Narayan.

Here.

We have three present.

All right.

Um yep.

Alderman Oldenberg just uh indicated that he could not hear us.

And here.

Okay.

So he is here.

So that's the question.

So Alderman Oldenberg.

Yeah.

Gotcha.

Gotcha now.

I'm here.

So now we have at least four present, which gives us quorum.

So at this time.

That's only three.

Ms.

Oldenburg, Clark Hubbard.

Chair Lara Ryan.

Velasquez is not here.

Sanye and Alden.

Sonia is on, right?

Alderwoman Sonier.

Yes, I'm here.

Okay.

Vice Chair Aldrick.

Four I votes.

All right.

Uh with that, I'll entertain a motion to approve the minutes from Thursday, October 16th, 2025.

I'll second that.

You made the motion and you moved.

Alderman Alderwoman Clark Hubbard made the motion.

I seconded it.

Alderman Oldenberg.

Aye.

Alderwoman Clark Hubbard.

Alderwoman Velasquez.

Alderwoman Sanyer.

Aye.

Vice Chair Aldrich.

Chair Narayan.

Aye.

Alder Woman Velasquez.

Vice Chair Aldrich, four eye votes.

All right.

With that, we've approved the minutes of Thursday, October 2nd, 2025.

We don't have any board bills for review in front of us.

We uh do have a committee discussion.

Uh the Prop S funds.

Uh we have the Office of Violence Prevention here to give a presentation on uh the programming.

Uh so please proceed uh at your at your convenience.

Good afternoon.

My name is Brett Delaria.

I am public information officer for the Office of Violence Prevention.

Uh before we begin today, I do want to take a moment to introduce our new uh commissioner for the violence prevention, Commissioner Marvin Tier, who began with us on November 3rd.

Well, Commissioner Tier offer a few words.

Um don't have a lot to say.

Many of you I know, so uh sort of like sorry about that.

Um procedures for me.

Um I know it's uh uh both a privilege and a pleasure to be here, and I look forward to meeting with each of you at your earliest opportunities just to introduce myself and to see whatever concerns or cares that you would with that.

I'm gonna turn it over to Brett.

And uh again, it's a I'm really excited to be here.

Thank you.

All right.

So we are here today.

Um we began the Prop S conversation with opening the RFP back on October 6th, and on November 6th, the RFP closed, uh, and we began to do the review and have discussions.

So today we're here just to represent um our findings regarding the review of the applications that were submitted along with some recommendations to allow a conversation with the public safety committee uh before next week, I believe, is when we have scheduled that you'll actually make votes upon actual uh definitive grants that are going to be made.

Let me see.

I don't think I tap this in.

Let me give me one second.

All right.

So today the Prop S is as it stands is that we're looking to seek organizations that are doing prime convention programs among youth, specifically ages 11 to 24.

The RFP made that bid uh out to the public.

It was sent out via email as well as published on the city website, published in the St.

Louis Post Dispatch, the St.

Louis American and the City Journal for calls for proposals.

What we're looking for in the proposals, we're looking for programs that were held within the city limits of City of St.

Louis, really focusing around centering equity for black and brown communities.

The second qualification we were looking for is that we're looking for experience in programming in a specific specialty area, including public safety intervention, summer or after school programming, recreational programming, violence interruption, mentorship, therapeutic services, social supports, or community engagement.

And finally, we're looking for demonstration of close links to health, mental health, vocational and educational opportunities, as well as services for participant referrals.

OVP primarily gives preference to these 14 neighborhoods, specifically that are most impacted by violence in the was it required for every proposal to be focused in these neighborhoods, but preference was given to ones that focused in Dutchtown, Wells Goodfellow, Hamilton Heights, Walnut Park, Columbus Square, Carr Square, Peabody LaSalle, O'Fallon, Penrose, Fountain Park, College Hill, and Baton.

With those specialty areas, we're looking for experience in academic construction, academic supports, health and wellness, social uh arts and culture, postsecondary success, transportation for youth to programming, and other innovative ideas.

It should be noted that there are five areas that the proposals were ranked on as it was outlined in the RFP.

First being the record of successful delivery rated at a 20% rate.

Second, evidence of applying equity centered lens ranked at a 20% rate, description of proposed programming ranked at a 40% rate, and data collection ranked at 10%, and finally budget and fiscal management at 10%.

Awards were allowed to be up to 100,000.

They are for a term of one year for the 26, 2027 year.

Overall, there were 62 proposals that were received.

Of those 62 proposals, a little over 15 million dollars was requested.

The budget available this year for Prop S is 890,426.

So upon the review by the reviewers of this, there were nine proposals that were recommended based upon the weighted percentage of those five categories that I mentioned earlier.

The categories were scored on a scale of one to five, with five being successful demonstration, and one being needs improvement.

Overall, those categories were ranked in the one to five score with a maximum of 25 and then weighted out by the percentages of the specific uh criteria as outlined in the RFP.

Overall, this will award $881,302 with roughly a little less than 10,000 remaining in the budget.

53 proposals altogether were not recommended, not because of the uh nature of their character, but because there was not enough financing to fund the full 15 million dollars of request.

I do want to note that the uh RFP closed on November 6th.

On November 7th, the applications were shared with reviewers as well as with the public safety committee.

Based on the weighted scale and the scoring, the following organizations were recommended for funding.

Communities first, Mission St.

Louis Beyond Schools, Chad's Coalition for Mental Health, Harambi Youth Training, Boys and Girls Club, the Doctor's Touch, Heal Center for the Arts, William and Associates, Criminal Justice Ministry.

With that, there was a request for each organization.

Communities first had requested 100,000.

Mission St.

Louis had a request of 100,000.

Chads had a request of 100,000 budget.

Haramby Youth Training had an $83,000 budget request.

Boys and Girls Club asked for 100,000.

Doctor's Touch asked for 100,000.

Heel Center asks for 99.5.

William and Associates, 100,000, and Criminal Justice Ministry, 98,707 and 20 cents.

Of these organizations that are recommended, there are four organizations that have had prior funding from Prop S dating back to 2023.

Of that, two organizations have received uh funding prior in 2023 and 2024.

Uh the only organization, there's one organization that received funding in the 2025 cycle.

Uh other than that, all organizations are new to the request.

Overall, these for these proposals, there was a strength in solid goals and objectives.

Uh demonstration of a high return on investment, meaning high impact in uh areas that most need it.

They were innovative and unique programs and their specific categories.

Youth were involved in the creation and development of the programs that are being proposed.

Partnerships and collaborations allowed for expanded reach and impact on neighborhoods and youth that are engaged.

There also demonstrated impact and good track record based upon their successful delivery requirement in the RFP proposal.

The focus on targeted neighborhoods was also highlighted.

And they also had good evaluate evaluation measures of outputs, inputs, and outcomes were all demonstrated.

With that, I'll yield if there are any questions that I can provide.

Um, I do want to let you know that uh the individual in our office who was in charge of overseeing the program um took on a different opportunity.

So I'm standing here today with as best information as I can to provide to you.

Um and I'm happy to go back and get any information that I'm not able to speak to today for you.

Thank you.

Thank you for that.

Uh at this point, I'll just go through the committee and see if anyone has any questions.

Umderman Oldenburg.

No questions, Chairman.

Thank you.

Alder Woman Clark Hubbard.

I'm looking through.

Um, thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

I'm looking through my things to see.

Did we get write-ups on these organizations or any background on these organizations?

I just sent something over.

Oh, okay.

So, Brett, um, I'm sorry.

Not you, Brett.

Uh I I'm not sure if you'll be able to answer the questions I have because I have some, I do have some questions about the process and you know, a lot of the things that we talked and touched on the last time about the the follow-up, the capacity building, the the relationship um building with a lot of the organizations that were present um and spoke and then to um I know that some of them did reapply and did do the follow the recommendations that you all gave um to reapply this year.

So I guess I just I do have some questions about this, but I'm not sure if you like was there follow-up there that for applicants that of these 93 that you said were there uh what was the process like?

Do they even know that they didn't get it?

Or do they don't know where are they in?

Because there has not been an official vote by the public safety committee.

We have not sent out what was recommended at this point.

That's what this meeting primarily was to be able to have that conversation.

So the review of the applications went through, but there has no been additional follow-up or questions.

We wanted to allow the committee to review it and then allow us to go back this next week to do any follow-up questions that you may like us to dig into or reach.

So we're open to conversation on how you'd like to proceed moving forward since these will not be held to consideration until next Thursday.

So since they won't be held to consideration until next Thursday, and you're saying there's there likely has been no follow-up with the with the organizations in any kind of follow-up from what I'm hearing.

Like, for instance, if someone if an application just was missing something.

So in need of something.

So with that, we safeguarded missing pieces of the application this year by doing an online form with all required fields.

Um, so the documents that were sent in, there would be no missing documents, so we made sure we did audit when we went through to make sure those documents were there, but we had that uh fail-safe there by the requirement of the form, so those documents had to be uploaded so there weren't missing pieces.

Okay, that's good to know.

So that means though, if I'm hearing correctly, that means if an organization had put in their application in the safeguard, it would have prompted them to tell them that they were missing before it initially got correct.

Yes, it would now let them to continue forward in the application until they had at the required field.

Um there were specific things.

I think there was a question about having an audit.

Um, if they answered no to that, there was a follow-up question that was required that basically asked what are the safeguards that you have in place if you don't have an external audit.

Okay.

Brett, I don't see what you sent that has I I guess because of course some of these names are very familiar, but some aren't.

And I know there's some again, some of the organizations that um were present and tried to reapply this year after taking the feedback excuse me that you all gave and had uh deliverables and measurements that we could really go by that I could honestly give my word and um support on.

And so um if we don't do we have did you send anything okay I'll come back to my questions.

I'll try to look at the documents in here to see um the Google folder with all 62 applications should be able to review as well as there was a summary spreadsheet of the reviewer form okay with the feedback as well as with the score and the weighted score overall.

Okay and then before I let you go so it is there room for is there any opportunity in here for any other kind of recommendation or is this just what you're what you recommend in your this is just recommended based upon scoring in terms of that had the highest percentage based application.

So if there is discussion regarding room that's what I kind of leave up to the committee okay want us to go back and have conversations with certain applicants regarding funding you know that's that's the opportunity that we're seeking here today is your feedback on how you'd like us to proceed before we meet next week.

Okay.

All right thank you so much.

It would also be important to note that if you do come up with some questions in between that time excuse me if you do have some questions that you want to that you come up with at a later date and you want to submit it to us we'll be happy to do and pursue whatever information you need.

Thank you so much.

Alderwoman Sony Alderman Sonye well can you all see and hear me yes we can alder woman okay thank you Chairman Ryan I you know always appreciate you all's work um I would definitely echo the sentiments of the Alderman from the tent uh my first question is this that I didn't see Graveway Park listed as a neighborhood did I miss that is the list not fully correct because I know um usually that's a part of these conversations and is one of the priority neighborhoods and I didn't see that listed um I did not so when the presentation was created for me I guess that detail was not included but I'm happy to go back this afternoon and let you know what neighborhoods the recommended proposals were targeting.

As that was part of the RFP in the question we just did not delineate out on those recommended which neighborhoods they were operating in but I'm happy to provide that information.

Okay yeah I definitely would appreciate that information and then if for any reason Gravel Park neighborhood is not in there that definitely needs to be a larger conversation about redoing the RFP.

I actually just went to a funeral last week uh for a 13 year old and it has a lot of crime and a lot of issues there.

So I don't know you know if Dutchtown is counting Gravel Park and Dutchtown usually go in the same bandwidth and so I would just uplift that that I would I need that to be looked into and I would like the list update and if for some reason grabway park is not there I wouldn't understand because a lot of the same data that's decided to decide if priorities applies there.

So that's just kind of my question and flag for this I think we obviously have a lot of larger conversations to have about the process process but that definitely jumps out to me first right now.

Do you have anything further alder woman?

No thank you.

All right so I I really don't have anything uh for you uh as far as questions go uh I've been through this process sorry Mr.

is your mic on for some barley yeah the light's green at least it's not try the next one how about now so yes uh thank you for the presentation I've been through this process I guess this will be the sixth time um and uh I'm a pretty big proponent of the idea that we should uh listen to experts on this um you guys have done your research on it um and I'm uh happy to move forward with your recommendations of course the the committee will have to uh come back next week uh with any uh any specific uh questions um but hopefully uh we'll all have a week to noodle it over and uh and figure it all out next week absolutely and we appreciate any feedback on the process so once this round has been determined um we'd welcome the opportunity to sit down to discuss what next year would look like to address any concerns that the committee may have or to review I think it's been a couple of years since we've used this process to review with you is this the best uh operational efficiency moving forward or how we can tweak the process to meet any concerns or needs.

Absolutely.

Did you have something, Alder One?

Yeah, thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

I just want to just piggyback off something that was said, and I hope that it wasn't taken this way.

It was no question on anybody's expertise.

Yes.

It's just about people that spend time in their community and see what happens in their community every day and know the real impact and impetus and the spirit and the mission of this funding and what it can do when it's in the right hands.

And so for me, I just want to make sure that we uplift that.

I know some of the things I'm looking through here, some of the negative scores don't have to do with the work, it has to do with administrative things.

So again, I know that again, I don't want this conversation to change, especially with comments that have been made.

I'm not stepping out of my role here.

I just have a passion for this violence prevention in my community that I see that I'm in every day and lived experiences speak for the fact that I want to advocate to make sure that we make the most out of this funding.

Um, so with that though, I'll be I mean, I'm in position to make sure that I'm we move it forward.

Thank you for that, older woman, and certainly uh my comment was not meant as uh any slight.

Um so with that, do we have uh public comment today, madam clerk?

Yes, we do.

First, we have uh Miss Lauren Ming.

Good afternoon.

Could you state your name and the ward that you live in, please?

Well, my name is Lauren Ming.

I actually don't live in the city.

I live in Creep Core.

Um I'm president of the Archway Missouri Chapter of the Lynx Incorporated, and uh we did submit a proposal for grant funding.

So I thank you for allowing me to speak on that, although I thought we weren't on the list.

Um seeking funding on behalf of our enrichment programs at Marion Middle School, but I want to tell you first a little bit about our organization.

Uh the Lynx Incorporated is a volunteer service organization with over 17,000 members in 299 chapters around the country.

Also uh the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth of the Bahamas.

We are one of the nation's oldest and largest volunteer service organizations of extraordinary women committed to enriching, sustaining, and ensuring the culture and economic survival of African Americans and other persons of African ancestry.

Our chapter, the Archway Missouri chapter, has been serving the St.

Louis community for over 30 years.

Our 55 members log over 3,000 service hours annually.

We deliver programs that focus on education, particularly STEAM education to middle school students at Marion Middle School and Jennings Junior High School, as well as scholarships to college students.

We conduct initiatives that address health disparities in the African American community, kidney disease, heart disease, prostate cancer, and breast cancer, to name a few.

We promote African American arts and culture with programs for children and adults across all forms of art.

We provide voter education, registration and advocacy events.

We support communities in Africa and other parts of the African diaspora with partners in Ghana and in St.

Louis, we focus on African immigrants and students.

We support economic mobility for women.

Last month in partnership with Rung for Women, we hosted an economic empowerment summit, offering workshops on careers, career strategies, health and wellness, and are developing a mentoring program for women.

So we do all that, but what I we're specifically asking for was our program at Mary and Middle School.

We've been pouring into the girls at Marion Middle School for 10 years now with a vision to develop future leaders and global citizens by expanding their awareness, education, and exposure to STEAM fields and broadening their worldview to enable them to achieve their full potential.

Our outreach has included mentorship, career exploration, and career readiness through our speed linking program, HBCU awareness, hands-on STEAM programming, a NESBY Junior chapter, NESBY is the National Society of Black Engineers, which that meets monthly.

We include enrichment activities at the St.

Louis Art Museum, the Missouri History Museum, and other cultural institutions in the area.

We have leveraged our relationships to develop unique and impactful programming for the girls at Mary in Middle School.

These activities have a proven track record of enrichment and engagement for the girls and serve to prepare them for the next phase of their educational journey.

We believe that if they can see it, they can be it.

And representation matters.

So much of this effort is a volunteer effort by our members who represent many professional fields.

However, we do need some financial support.

This grant, if if offered, would help fund the existing programs that we offer and enhance and extend them to include expanded career and college exploration through exposure to local subject matter experts and steam careers, as well as exposure to local BIPOC artists, exhibits, film, dance, or theater.

We seek funding for honoraria for external subject matter experts, transportation to local cultural institutions and supplies for STEAM programming.

We are excited to work with the girls and families at Mary Middle School and would appreciate your approval of this funding request to help us continue and expand our programming.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next we have, I believe this is Anne Louise Schmidt.

Hi, I'm Ann.

Raise my right hand.

Yeah, if you could just state your name and uh the board that you live in.

Uh yes.

I'm Anne Louise Schmidt.

I work in the city in Central West End.

I reside just over the border in Maplewood in the county.

And I am here, I know this is the public safety meeting about Prop S about violence prevention, especially specifically for youth programs.

I read the packet.

And I'm also here because this is the first public safety meeting after the most recent jail death.

And I just want to speak on that for a minute because it's been a little bit silent for a while.

I don't see things changing at the jail.

I see people keep dying.

Dr.

Motty, when she was here in January, specifically said that people are gonna die in life.

So in that a number of people that reside at the jail, you would typically have one to two deaths a year.

And we've now had the 21st death in less than five years.

So that is like five times the rate or something like that.

Four times the rate.

It's a lot more than we should be having at that deal.

We know that we've heard about no time out of your cell.

We know that we've heard about understaffing.

We know we've heard about the very high rates of the mentally ill at the jail.

Um we have talked about doing something, and people have talked about doing something, and we had Doug Burris come in and make all these recommendations, and we have a new um Nate Hayward, the new commissioner.

But things aren't changing at the jail.

And I feel like that you guys have power in this area.

Um, y'all and the mayor and the commissioner, those are some of the people who have power.

Um this, I mean, I also I also feel like I so I oh, I didn't say this, but I work for the Freedom Community Center, and I coordinate the court watch program.

So I'm in court all the time, about once a week, but I'm looking at court data really all the time.

And I hear about the conditions from the inmates, and I see the judges say, please give this person their life-saving medicine, and then that person comes back a week later, and they haven't had their life-saving medicine, and they're again begging the judge before whatever happens, and then we know we've heard about people who die from diabetes, and I'm about to run out of time, but um people dying from dehydration, and these things can be changed and they can be fixed.

Really, it just makes me go back to I don't understand how locking human beings in a cage benefits society.

I think that there are so much better ways to deal with those kind of things.

And I would like to encourage us to think about that again.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Schmidt.

Next, we have Samantha Hayes.

Good afternoon.

My name is Samantha Hayes.

And I'm the sister of Samuel My Hayes Jr.

who was wrongfully murdered in St.

Louis City Justice Center, July 19, 2025.

Today I stand here with the pain that no family should ever have to carry.

My brother was wrongfully murdered.

And it's just really an unbearable pain.

And I don't think that no family should have to endure this pain.

And St.

Louis should not have to be burying this 22nd murder inside that.

Everything about it is just, I feel like it's a violation from the city.

It's no support, no compassion.

It's just been it's just been a time to understand that my brother was tortured inside of protective custody.

And it's quiet.

It's like you guys just sweeping it under the rug.

And if I don't speak on it, then it won't get noticed.

And I mean and my family, we demand transparency, we demand support.

And we also demand justice for Samuel and my Hayes.

Oh Jesus.

Instead, we receive a graphic video of us watching my brother take his last breath.

With the medical providers just watching over him, everyone just watching like he meant nothing, and he meant something to us.

He was a provider, he was a protector.

He was an awesome father.

And no one in office really care.

It's like everyone is just there and treating the inmates like they're nothing.

And I feel that all inmates' lives matter no matter what they're incarcerated for.

Everyone's lives matter.

Okay.

I just leave it brief and I'm gonna just leave it at that.

But my family and I, we demand justice.

We demand transparency.

And we feel that something should be done.

This cannot keep happening to our people that's incorporated.

Something has to be done, and there's a leadership that can set an example, get things done that no more jail deaths should occur.

And no family should have to endure this pain that my family and I is going through.

So I stand here to try to make a change in St.

Louis City Justice Center so that this could not happen to anyone else's family.

But unfortunately, it happened to two other families after my brother within a three-month time span.

And that is very unacceptable.

No one's talking about it.

No one having even came to my family and even suggested a type of change, what could be done, not even an apology.

And I feel that that is very unacceptable for a beautiful soul to lose his life with no explanation to our family.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Hayes.

Next, we have Joy Smith online.

Hi.

Hi.

Hi, my name is Joy Smith, and I have the organization believe it youth organization.

Um, I'm just calling to, I'm just coming to tell you a little bit about our organization and what we are doing now.

Um we have um started um partnership with some of the schools here, uh, especially Roosevelt High School, and what we're teaching our young people is how to get out here in our community and give back to our community.

Um, our new cohort has started.

Um we have students that are in our barber program that are in our sewing program and also in our line care program.

Our line care program is going throughout the uh neighborhoods of Dutchtown, and we're going into the alleys where they're not up kept, and these young people are going out here and they are maintaining um these alleys.

At the end of our program, these young people are able to receive all of their equipment, their tools that they use in this program.

Those things are given to them, and not only are those things given to them, they are actually giving a stipend at the end of the program also, and we also help them create um their own LLC so that they can become a business of their own.

And so we've been in uh um partnership with Roosevelt.

This is our second year of doing it with Roosevelt High School, and we're also reaching out to Vershawn and Sumner High School, and we are in the process of getting that MOU to partner with those schools.

These children look forward to this program.

We are happy to do this program.

We have uh grown since our first year because last year was our first year, and sometimes you have a little bit of stumbling blocks, but this year uh we have really grown.

The children are looking forward to this.

We also provide them a meal uh once they finish their class, and um it's a 12-week class, and we partner with some of the local organizations in our neighborhood to give them a skill that they can take with them outside of school.

So we just want you to think about what believe it youth is doing for our children in our neighborhood, what they're doing to keep make them productive citizens in our neighborhood and giving them something to look forward to.

So I just wanted to come and get a little background on believe it youth organization, and we don't want you to see what we are putting in our communities and how we are trying to make sure that our young people stay out of the streets of St.

Louis and give them something productive to do and to look forward to doing uh later on, and we hope that you would reconsider um believe it youth organization and um take a look deeper look at what we're doing for our community.

Thank you, Miss Smith.

That will be all right.

So the thank you to everyone who who came out uh to discuss uh prep us and the the jails.

Um at this point, um I'll move that we excuse Alderman Velazquez and Alderman Aldridge for necessary absence.

Are you there or oldenberg to get second second?

All right, it's been moved and second, madam clerk.

I please call the roll.

Sanye second, correct?

Yes, yes, to excuse alder women, the lesquez in and aldridge and aldrick.

You want me to call the role on this?

Yes, please.

Alderman Oldenberg.

All right, alder woman Clark Hubbard, Alder Woman Sanye.

Aye, Chairman Orion.

Hi.

So with that, we've excused uh the older woman, and I move that we adjourn.

Second previous role.

There's been a request for previous roles.

No objection, we stand adjourned.