The transportation and commerce committee meeting will come to order.

Madam Kirk, please call the role.

Alderman Ryan.

Here.

Alder Woman Swip, sir.

Alder Woman Cox and Twee.

Chair Cone.

Present.

Auto Woman Cox and Tweet.

For present.

We have quorum.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

First item on the agenda is the approval of our meeting minutes from Tuesday, February 10th.

I'll entertain a motion.

Thank you here, Mike's.

Move that we approve the minutes of Tuesday, February 10th, 2026.

Second.

It's been moved by the Alderman from the fourth, seconded by the Alder Woman from the first, that we approve our meeting minutes from February 10th, 2026.

Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Altman Oldenburg.

All right.

Alderman Ryan.

Alder Woman Switzer.

I Auto Woman Cox and Twee.

Chair Comb.

Alder Woman Cox and Tweet.

Four I votes.

Thank you.

With that, you have sustained the motion from the Alderman from the fourth to approve our meeting minutes.

We have one item on the agenda for today, which is Board Bill 167, sponsored by Alderman Aldridge.

Alderman.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Madam Clerk, could you read the summary of Board Bill 167?

Board bill number 167 introduced by Alderman Rashim Aldrick and Jamie Cox Antwey.

An ordinance amending ordinance number 68481 to create a limited exemption for convention facilities within the city of St.

Louis for certain private events or trade shows.

The exemption applies only under specified circumstances, and it's intended to allow flexibility for convention related activities while maintaining the overall purpose and enforceability of existing regulations, including a cerebrality clause.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Thank you, members of the Transportation and Commerce Committee for hearing Board Bill 167.

So Board Bill 167 is a board bill I'm uh really excited about.

Um and it would amend the Clean Air Act, uh just one section of it where there's an exemption for the convention center.

Uh most of the language on Board Bill 167 is again coming from ordinance 68481.

Majority of the changes that we are mainly changing in this ordinance is on page two and continues on page three, starting in the middle at uh line eight, where it talks about a can the convention center as defined in this ordinance.

And what we're doing is in the previous ordinance, it had the a convention center not allowed uh to be able to uh be able to partake in smoking as very also as various other locations.

And what we're asking and attempting to do uh with this is to exempt out the convention center.

So a really cool um opportunity at least came to my front desk uh a few weeks ago, or about honestly about a few months ago now.

Apparently, this is been something that kind of has been in the works for a while, but we couldn't get it there.

But uh an opportunity to bring and a convention to uh the convention center uh that I think would be something that St.

Louis would uh really benefit from.

Uh bringing a cigar convention to uh the St.

Louis region.

Uh this convention is only able to be hosted in a few cities due to uh some regulations that other cities have.

Again, this has been kind of in the works for a very long time, and uh we feel really hopeful uh that this convention would come to St.

Louis if we can make kind of this exception.

And when we're talking about this convention coming, we're talking about 1200 uh jobs that would be supported.

Uh we're talking about 4.2 of an economic impact in our region as well as 600 or 264,000 just in the St.

Louis uh revenue tax base.

Um I know there may be concerns of you know the convention center and smoking in it.

I will have Mr.

Brad uh Dean come up, who is the CEO of Explore St.

Louis to talk about some of the protocols uh that will be taken to make sure that uh this one-time event, so just want to be very clear, even in the language.

We're talking of very about a very limited one-time event that would come to St.

Louis.

Not saying we wouldn't be open to more, but right now we're just looking at this one convention.

This isn't an ongoing uh monthly thing where the convention is gonna have uh events where smoking would be happening uh in the convention center, but we're taking all precautions if we do get this convention's fingers crossed because St.

Louis needs every penny and dime we can get, especially with crazy stuff happening with like state takeover and uh other departments that just need support.

So I think this would be a a huge uh economic um kind of help to St.

Louis.

Um I was gonna talk about the uh protocols that are going to be taken, but I'll leave that to uh Mr.

Brad Dean from the uh convention center.

Uh Mr.

Chair, I have two, three, three expert speakers that will be speaking today if that's okay with you.

Yes.

All right, Mr.

Barrat, you can come on up and whoever you invite, you can uh invite them up.

And when you do come up, just state your first and last.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good morning, Mr.

Chair, members of the Board of Alderman.

I want to thank uh Alderman Aldridge and also Alder Woman Cox Antoine for their leadership on we are here today to speak in support of Bill 167, but but let me make clear we don't disavow or do anything less than acknowledge the importance of the Clean Air Act and the work that this board has done for more than a decade to protect the people of St.

Louis.

But we recognize the importance of that.

We don't come today to suggest anything otherwise.

We do support this bill, and we encourage your support uh because of the unique nature of this one particular event.

And as Alderman Aldrich has mentioned, this has a huge economic impact.

As as conventions go, this is a big one.

Uh, it would sustain over 2,000 jobs while they're here, and the direct economic impact and the tax revenue to the city would be significant.

We would, as an employer, we would not require anyone to work the event.

So this would only be an event that you would volunteer to work for just based on uh an informal survey of our staff.

Uh, we would not have any trouble staffing this event.

We also think it's important because the facility itself is well prepared to manage this.

Uh Mr.

Buchanan can speak to this specifically, but there are measures in place today and measures we would put in place in partnership with the rights holder that would protect the facility and the people, both those at the event, but also those who will come for the next event, which would be a few days later.

And we would also work with local businesses.

Stanley Cigar Bar is a great example of a business that would be a part of this and would benefit from this.

So this is not an effort to allow smoking at all conventions or meetings.

We don't see a cigar lounge at future conventions.

Uh, this is just simply an opportunity for St.

Louis to compete and win or a piece of business that won't otherwise come here.

And so we would take the appropriate precautions, both in terms of health and safety and facility management to make this a win-win for the community.

Again, we thank you for your consideration.

We recognize the delicate balance uh that the board must adhere to in terms of managing health and safety as well as the vibrancy and health of our economy.

We believe this is a great opportunity for St.

Louis.

We would like to bring it here, but of course, we can only do that with your support.

And I'll leave it to my colleague, Mr.

Atchison and Mr.

Buchanan to talk more specifically about some of the nuances of this event and particularly how we would manage this from a facility standpoint.

Thank you again.

Appreciate your consideration.

I'm sorry, sir.

Could you introduce yourself to the public so they know who you are?

I'm sorry, Brad Dean, president and CEO of the St.

Louis CBC.

Thank you.

Brad, do you have others?

Okay.

Come on up.

Good morning.

My name is Brian Atchison.

I'm the chief sales officer at Explore St.

Louis.

And my sales team has been pursuing this opportunity for a long time.

However, with uh the current statute in place, we're unable to effectively compete for it.

Um the convention is the international trade show of the premium cigar association.

It's currently rotating between New Orleans and Las Vegas.

And as Brad said, it generates $8 million in direct spending, another 550,000 in tax benefits, 12.5 million in overall economic impact to the community.

These dollars will support local hotels, restaurants, transportation providers, union labor, event services, and small businesses throughout the region.

Um without a narrowly structured event specific accommodation that we're requesting today, our city cannot this opportunity and the economic of impact or the economic benefits will continue to flow elsewhere.

Um we appreciate your consideration today.

Hopefully, we'll have that opportunity to bring 5,000 attendees from Premium Cigar Association to town soon.

Brett Good morning, Brent Buchanan, uh director of facilities for the convention center right now.

And as uh my role as VP of operations, uh uh run the air conditioning and engineering departments at the facility.

And one unique feature of the building is the way it's I'm sorry, Mr.

Buchanan.

Could you speak into the mic?

Or you can pick it up if you want to.

Okay.

Thank you.

Uh the one of the features of the way the building was built is that it is built with halls that can be separated, and the air conditioning can also be separated by hall.

So we can actually zone the air conditioning for one or two or more halls separate from the rest of the facility.

We would do a charcoal air filter uh for the event and then do a full filter change with MER 14 filter filtration to reduce the smoke uh uh lingering after the event.

Um we'd also use a positive negative pressure uh to evacuate the smoke during the event to keep it from the other areas of the building.

Any questions on that?

We'll do your questions in a moment.

Okay.

That's all I have.

Do you have anything further, Alderman?

I have a public speaker.

What's that?

Public speaker.

Okay.

Before we get into public's uh remarks, I'll entertain any questions from members of the committee on the speaker we've had so far.

Uh Alderman Oldenburg.

No questions at the moment, thank you, Chairman.

Alderman O'Ryan.

I do have a couple of questions.

So uh you indicated that no employees would have to work this event, that everyone would be volunteering, no one would be put into uh smoky situation.

Alderman is right had to have the jobs or is that directed towards some of the I can answer a little bit of about how Mr.

Brad also come up from what uh I believe it would be an opt-in opt-out.

So uh for folks that uh may not want to uh be there because they're fan of smoking, or maybe they have asthma or any health conditions.

This wouldn't be like a forced convention that they would have to uh work.

There'll be an option for employees to say no, I don't you know want to work these for whatever uh reason it is to them.

So it will be an opt-in or opt-out app option if I'm correct.

And is that in the actual uh ordinance?

Uh no, because we didn't this is just to put a limitation on or exempt the convention center from the clean air act.

We didn't put the opt-in opt-out in there.

Uh if that makes you feel comfortable, we could, but we didn't want to, I guess.

We we can discuss that further.

I guess I'm curious.

I just didn't see it in there, and I was like, um so is the would the hope then be that this turned into like an annual event, or you said there were two other cities, so would we hope to get in the mix to do it every third year?

I can't speak to the convention center, but I will say, you know, uh I would hope that at least over time that more of these events could come.

You know, we have a really big uh cigar kind of community here.

I know uh one individual that would be speaking, uh, Mr.

Stanley's.

I think they just recently celebrated 150 years.

Uh this Aldman pass uh that resolution, but um you know it's a a crowd in revenue, especially when the city is in need of every penny and dollar.

I think you know, can get uh maybe there's future opportunities, but I'll definitely let uh Mr.

Brass speak to that.

Sure.

Yes, we would target every three to five years.

It's currently contracted in Las Vegas next year, New Orleans in 2028.

And I think back to Vegas in 29.

We're looking for 2030, 29 or 2030, either more.

Okay.

Great.

And are there any kind of similar trade shows to this?

I I know this is the you said premium cigar industry, is are there other uh no?

It's it's not that that's really the the one of its kind that's it's large enough rotate and and go to a convention city like ours or New Orleans or Vegas.

But uh the only other opportunities I can think of that that smoking is really a part of the convention.

And in Premium Cigar Association, this is like business to business transactions and and you know, examples and smoking on the trade so trade show floor, not necessarily out in the corridors or walking around in the breakout rooms, but just isolated to the trade show.

Um the only th other thing I can think of are the tobacco companies have historically requested their venues to allow smoking, and but I don't know if that's recent because vaping is big now, and I I don't know what's current.

Um years ago when I worked for Hyatt Hotels, um Philip Morris and RJ Reynolds used to request that we allowed smoking in the general session.

Um but I think they've even gone to where it's it's not uh a requirement to host their conventions, and usually their larger sales meetings are 500 to 800 people.

This this will have about 5,000 people and it would be on, you know, we would have a full-scale trade show with booths and and the premium cigar manufacturers throughout the world.

Perfect.

Um I guess one last question.

This one may be more appropriate for uh for Sweeney or for my colleague uh Alderman Oldenburg.

I know that uh the backstoppers does a cigar dinner at uh the Missouri Athletic Club.

And from what I've been told, you know, even even though that room is pretty filled up with smoke uh at the at the end of that dinner in in just a day or two, uh, you could host a wedding there and people wouldn't know that uh there was a cigar dinner going on.

Um are are we intending to use similar uh I guess remediation methods as as the Mac or how long do we anticipate after this event that we'd be able to kind of turn around and use the use the center for say something healthcare related?

Uh I would say not similar but better.

I mean the the MAC's significantly more dated um um David Sweeney, Lewis Rice.

Um and yes, Alderman within a day or two.

It the weddings are held two to three days later at that site.

Okay, perfect.

Thank you all so much.

Alderwoman Schweitzer.

Thank you so much for being here.

I got to ask you some of our uh my questions over the last several days, and uh Alderman Nrian brought up the one that was my main concern, which was just how soon does it you know, um not smell like smoke anymore.

So I I'm glad that that's being thought of.

I think that would be a concern for other conventions coming, but as long as it's handled, then I have no issue.

So thank you.

Thank you, Odawama.

Alder Woman Coxantwee.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair, and Alderman Aldridge for bringing this bill before us today.

Uh obviously I'm a proud co-sponsor of the bill.

I know you and I share the convention, um, and I share your uh eager support for this as it would bring a great opportunity for our city to be able to fully compete for this convention.

Um I did just want to ask one question of uh our uh director of operations uh sales, excuse me, for explore St.

Louis, uh, to just speak more about the economic impact uh that our broader downtown community could see from something like this.

I know you mentioned New Orleans and Las Vegas share this, and it potentially generates about eight million um in revenue for that convention, but could you speak more to what they've been seeing, the scale of the vendors that are attending and more travel um related things for maybe our hotels and adjacent businesses that they could see from this.

Of course.

Um it would generate anywhere from 1,500 to 2,000 hotel rooms occupied at night.

Um 2,000 jobs supported, direct spending, a little over 8 million dollars in the community, and uh 550,000 in local tax revenue.

Um you're supporting anywhere, you know, you're you're supporting union labor setting up the the meeting space and in the convention space.

You're you're supporting hotel workers, you're supporting transportation, you're supporting uh local restaurants, your uh you're supporting local cigar lounges and you're supporting um what else attractions.

Uh so you know, this the these kinds of events are are are vital to what we're doing.

Um we we we need more conventions that are of this size to be honest, and and um we we we think that you know I I've got my team going after we're targeting about 350 conventions a year.

Um these are 350 conventions that meet in comp cities to St.

Louis, um, you know, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, Baltimore.

Um can you speak up?

Yes, of course.

Uh Baltimore, New Orleans, um, you know, Salt Lake City even competes for a lot of the same conventions that we compete for um Milwaukee.

But um 350 of these conventions exist out there that we go after on an annual basis.

And um the the more of these that we can commit to our city the the the better off we are, the more successful our team's going to be in bringing economic impact to the city.

So thank you very much for your consideration.

Perfect.

Thank you very much for adding that color.

I think it is really great to hear, especially for our businesses, restaurants, and hotels that are in the surrounding footprint that this would be of benefit, not just for the convention center, but for the surrounding areas as we're able to bring more foot traffic.

So I appreciate that.

Um one other comment that I wanted to make, uh, not necessarily for you, so you're welcome to have your seat.

Um as it relates to uh Alderman Ryan's question.

I know we did speak very much about the worker protections as uh we were working together on this alderman.

And I did want to mention, um, I believe that section is actually in the text.

Um uh page four, line three.

Um so we did make sure that we put that in the bill because I do know that's really important for folks to know that that's going to be priority.

So I wanted to let you know that was there.

Um, and with that, I have no further comments.

To my downtown tag team partner, I appreciate you.

It's a partnership.

Wonderful.

Um, Madam Clerk, are there folks that are signed up to testify on this either for or against that uh we have not had the opportunity to hear from at this juncture?

Yes, we have one person, Patrick Stanley in support.

Will you be sharing him in the country?

Well, thank you all very much for allowing me to be here today.

Uh Rashim, thanks for the invite, and thanks.

Thanks you all for uh thanks you all.

Thanks everyone for taking the time out to take a look at this uh convention that I'm extremely passionate about.

Uh when I thought about coming in here today, I thought uh uh I love the city of St.

Louis and I love the cigar business.

And now we're unifying the two of them together.

And having been to eight of these uh conventions in Orlando, Las Vegas, New Orleans, uh we've been trying to get it here for the last 10 years.

Uh now that we're on the doorstep of this and we've talked about all the nuts and bolts of all the economic impact that's sizable.

I just wanted to talk about these fabulous people that come to St.

Louis.

All this these people come from all around the world.

The cigar business uh, you know, is is a very small uh group of people.

It's a maybe one percent of the population smokes cigars.

But these uh people that I've gotten to know over the last 15 years of being in the business have become some of my closest friends.

And I joke with people when I say when we go to these cigar conventions, it's like going on vacation with eight, nine hundred of your fate of your friends and uh spending time with them because there's just really nothing like this convention when these when these folks arrive in St.

Louis, they're so hospitable.

And I would I've been excited to see all of my people friends in the cigar business meet all my friends in St.

Louis and how hospitable the St.

Louis people are.

And getting those two people together, uh it just gets me excited about bringing bringing them to St.

Louis and uh and uh this is a well a chance that we finally have in front of us that has taken a long time to get to any kind of uh culmination, and I'm really excited about it.

So thanks for your time.

Thank you, Mr.

Stanley.

That will be all.

That's uh okay, thank you, Madam Clerk.

Um, I just uh since I appear to be the lone no vote on the committee uh this morning.

I just uh from my two cents and Alderman, you and I chatted very briefly about this on Friday, but uh also is probably the only person on the committee that was here when we passed the smoke free air act.

Uh it was probably one of the most contentious debates that we've had down here at the Board of Aldermen.

Uh I'd rank it in probably my top five uh in terms of just the length of time that that uh measure was debated.

Um I want to say we were on the floor for probably five hours that day uh on this singular topic.

Um, and it is a grave public health uh concern.

Um, you know uh I think many of you know my mother passed from lung cancer.

Uh it's something that I've always I think uh my mom used to joke that my first words were stop smoking.

Um and uh I certainly uh during the time that we were debating the smoke-free St.

Louis measure was a very vocal advocate for it.

Um of my concerns with this that I've you know spoken with you know the CBC folks and the attorney about is just the slippery slope that this opens the door for other folks that wanted to be exempted from the law when we were going through this, you know, back in what 2010 or so.

Um we had various businesses and interests that that you know wanted exemptions, and at the time we basically grandfathered bars in under a certain square footage for several years.

Um they ended up suing the city, you know, to try and get that extended.

Uh we also exempted the casinos, and we also exempted uh uh the MAC.

Uh you know, and then naturally any businesses in the city that you know were tobacconists and you know that was their sole p you know business and primary purpose, uh they were also exempted from the bill.

So you know, I do have my concerns uh around that.

Uh it looks like it's going to pass out of committee.

Um, Mr.

Dean, if we're both around in 2030 and the conferences here in town, I'll be walking through the halls of there the day after the convention to see how those filtration systems worked.

Uh but uh you know, I I just had to go on the record here uh and say my two bits, but um alderman without further ado, I'll turn it over to the thank you, uh Mr.

Chairman.

Uh first also want to give a plug to uh came out today, one of public speakers, Stanley Cigar.

For the ones who do um smoking and having a good drink, uh I recommend you go in.

You may find me there, especially on Thursdays.

It's a good time.

And uh even if you're not partaking in the cigar, they've been there 150 years.

You always walk into Stanley's and you you meet a new friend.

Uh you you meet somebody that you didn't know, and it's just always a good time.

So just a soft plug.

Uh one of the greatest businesses that we have in the downtown area right off of Wash Av.

Uh, I do want to thank Alderoman Cox Antweet, who is not just a co-sponsor, but has been championing with me on this legislation as we've been working to figure out ways to uh just create new innovative uh things for downtown and to continue to support our downtown.

So I appreciate her leadership.

I appreciate uh appreciate her for being at the table working with me, Mr.

Sweeney, and Brad from uh the convention center, as well as I want to thank Mr.

Brad and his whole team uh for coming and you know bringing this idea to me and the Alder uh woman from the eighth.

Uh especially when you talk about I think the Alder Woman brought it up, the economic impact that this is gonna have for our uh region, I think is really going to be uh a major opportunity, not just an opportunity for dollars going into our tax base, but also especially supporting uh the small businesses and the restaurants and the hotels uh in our downtown area, creating more foot traffic that we desperately need uh in downtown to create a more vibrant uh innovative downtown.

So uh I do appreciate all the committee members that I've reached out to over the last several days that either had questions or concern and brought them forward, and I totally understand uh where you're coming from, uh Mr.

Chairman.

Uh and with that, I would ask for a do pass recommendation on Board Bill 167.

I move a motion on board bill 167.

Yes, I move that we pass uh board bill 167 with a due pass recommendation out of committee.

Second.

It's been moved by the Alder Woman from the eighth, seconded by the Alderman from the fourth.

That we pass Board Bill Sixty Seven out of committee with a due pass recommendation.

Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Alderman Oldenburg.

All right, Alderman Ryan.

Alder Woman Switzer.

I Alderwoman Cox and Twee.

I chair Cone.

No.

We have four I votes and one no.

With that motion, you sustain the or with that vote, you sustain the motion from the Alder Woman from the eighth to pass board bill one sixty seven out with a due pass recommendation.

We have no further items for review on our agenda today.

And it appears as though all members are present.

Any announcements from members of the committee.

Seeing none, I'll entertain a motion to adjourn.

Um we did have public testimony written comments.

We had three in the drive.

Okay in support.

I did ask earlier if there was any further uh testimony.

I thank you for sharing.

Um we probably should do that while we're still on the discussion of the board bill.

With that, uh I'll entertain a motion to adjourn.

So move.

Second.

It's been moved by the alderman from the fourth, seconded by the alder woman from the eighth that we adjourn.

All those in favor signify by saying aye.

I all opposed.

We stand.

Thank you.