Okay, well, um good afternoon, everyone.

Um I want to thank you uh and my fellow members of the Board of Estimate Apportionment.

Elected official attorney in members of the CAP and core members of the public who are here today.

I want you all for joining for the public hearing of the scale of the budget for fiscally 2027.

Create a possible sustain it is one of foundation or city.

We all know budget budget events, and difficulties.

I can think of real important I can provide more sources to others than even more good already doing today.

And this year has been so challenging given the roll off of so many uh in panel of projects uh that are getting funded, but have been uh there hasn't been a term funding uh for which I know that in many ways um additional ways but the art of the top.

Uh they're also art of ties.

I do want to praise and Paul Payne.

We're having a hard time.

Uh this is President Green.

I'm really sorry, we're having a really hard time hearing you.

It's kind of uh garbled, and I also think um we need to call the meeting to order still.

Can you hear me, President Green?

It's very choppy.

Very unfortunate.

So sorry.

Would like to call the budget you for a could you please roll?

I think the mayor asked if uh Crystal, if you could please call the roll.

Mayor Spencer.

Comptroller Barringer present.

President Green?

Present.

All are present.

If you want to try talking about it, as I was saying, Mayor, and see if we can hear you a little better.

And Green, can you hear me now?

It's very choppy.

Let me try this.

And Green, can you hear me?

That's worse.

Mayor Spencer, are you able to hear um those of us that are speaking here?

President Green, I perfectly so I can hear you.

Okay, then what I might suggest is if um what was the plan to have uh budget director Paul Payne start uh are Paul?

Are you starting with a little presentation or not today?

Um I meant the presentation was on Wednesday.

Today is set aside for the public to speak, so that's what the plan was.

Okay, then might I suggest that maybe we go straight to public comment since we're it well, we maybe work on your audio since we're having a really hard time hearing you at this moment.

President Green, I really appreciate your thoughtfulness here.

Um my statements were about the hard work that uh that um budget director Payne has done going into this and a host of other things I'll say to the end.

I think really what we all want to do here is hear from the public.

I can hear you and everybody else, crystal clear, and so I really look forward to hearing from the public here today.

Great.

Thank you, Madam Mayor Crystal.

Um, if you want to start by um calling in, I think the plan today is we will call people in the order that they signed up.

And um, and so Crystal will call your name.

Um, and you have three minutes to be able to testify.

Okay, everyone will have three minutes at the one mining one minute mark.

I will present a yellow card at 30 seconds mark.

I will ask you to please wrap up and at the end, I will put up a writ sign saying thanking everyone for their time.

The very first speaker is Mr.

Jerry Connolly.

Could you please unmute yourself?

I do not see Jerry listed.

So we will move on to the next speaker.

Elizabeth McDermott Mott.

Uh I'm here.

Thank you.

You may begin.

Uh okay.

Uh I am a resident of Ward 9, and I'm a social worker serving our unhoused neighbors.

And I wanted to talk about the proposed cuts to the tiny homes and code blue.

Um, it's no secret that we are in a housing crisis, not just as a city, but as a nation.

And I personally see so many people entering homelessness for the first time in their lives.

Um, people who never thought it would happen to them, and people who did everything right.

Um, and I've seen those same people suffer immense consequences for sleeping outside, especially in the winter.

Um, there's something indescribable about looking at someone's face and telling them that you can't find anywhere for them to sleep that night, even though it's freezing.

And I've had to do that more times than I can count.

Um, and despite what the general public may think, emergency shelter is not easy to find.

Um, so this winter, when I heard about code blue, I was incredibly relieved.

Um, this was the first winter as a social worker that I didn't have to tell a single person that I had no options for them.

Um the value of that goes far beyond dollars and cents.

And that was real concrete change for the city, change that I was hoping for when I voted for Mayor Spencer.

Um that's what it looks like for us to acknowledge our unhoused neighbors as part of our community that are worthy of our respect.

And um, you know, everyone says that a society's strength is measured by how they treat their most vulnerable.

So my question is when cuts have to be made, and I understand that they do have to be made.

Why are our most vulnerable the first that we're putting on the chopping block?

Um, could we make cuts somewhere else?

And do we have to go backward on this issue?

And um, I won't mention specifics, I'm sure others will, uh especially about the disrespect to the residents of Ward 9 specifically, but we all know that right now would be a great time for the city to have some good press.

And I just feel like you know, caring for our unhoused neighbors would be a really great place to start thank you.

Thank you.

Next, we will have Danny Kahn.

Crystal, is it possible that um you let folks know you call the next speaker and then you let them know who's on deck?

A couple of folks have asked for that in the chat.

That's a good idea.

No problem.

Let me know on your if you can hear me and President Green, thank you for that suggestion.

And if we could, I know Jerry Connelly was no longer on, but if we could allow for anybody who has kind of dropped off for the interim to come back on at the end, um I would appreciate I would appreciate that.

I'm sure Jerry will rejoin.

It's cool if I go now.

Yes.

All right.

My name is Danny Kahn, and I live in second ward.

I'm testifying um to be clear that this budget is criminally neglectful to the needs of voices of St.

Louisans.

I demand this budget draft be sent back to the drawing board entirely and begin with the demands of St.

Louis and who are most in need of public funds.

I do not care about your timelines.

Whatever crisis has been caused by such a rush on this draft of the budget, such that we had 48 hours to digest and testify in a is a crisis caused by the Missouri Board of Police Commissioners and has resulted in the utter disregard to public input.

You must consider our needs and provide another opportunity for feedback such that people can move and digest a budget proposal and be able to testify on the details of the budget.

The following I have ranked as the five most egregious problems with the matter at hand, and based on what I have had time to digest in the fiscal year 2027 budget, all of which indicate a complete lack of representation in the budget of priorities which actually keep us safe, housed, fed, and able to build as a community.

Number five, the Office of Violence Prevention is an obvious choice as we should be prioritizing the root of violence, the cause rather than treating the symptoms with police.

Number four, Code Blue was insufficient last winter and is not properly funded in this budget, neglecting unhoused and displaced folks in the code in the cold is state murder.

Number three, right to counsel is a need that has been fought and won, but needs fully funded so that we can hold delinquent delinquent landlords accountable and prevent lend uh prevent sorry, protect renters from eviction, which strains the services previously mentioned.

Number two, tornado relief is the city's most urgent and popular rallying cry, and not just prioritize and not prioritizing it in the budget serves to further displace Northside residents and gentrify even continue to ethnically cleanse half of the city and uh enrich developers.

Number one, giving the police a raise after multiple in custody deaths this year.

Um footage of murder at the hands of SLMPD surfacing, police racially profiling at traffic stops leading to ICE detentions and violently arresting protesters exercising their first amendment last Friday at City Hall, showing the city that not only do we not have local control of the SLMPD, but the mayor can't control them either.

Passing this budget will mean that St.

Louis needs to take the matters into our own hands, and we have zero confidence in elected city officials and leadership.

This has led many to believe that we are governed by puppets to developers, the Missouri Board of Police Commissioners and fascists.

Thank you.

Next we have Monique Buchanan.

Hi.

Can you see me?

Yes.

Hi, I'm Monique Buchanan.

I have been a realtor in St.

Louis, Missouri, for the last 19 years.

I'm the owner of the Eagles Nest facility located in North City.

I am here to stress the importance of keeping Code Blue.

Cold Blue is a life saver.

Um we have over 2,057 homeless individuals in St.

Louis City.

Um we've had over 37 deaths related to cold weather since 2023.

50.4% of the homeless individuals in the city in the state of Missouri live in the city of St.

Louis.

But I would like to speak for those that don't have a voice that were affected by cold blue.

Cold Blue saved lives.

Just this week, I had people pulling up saying, can they just park on my lot with their children?

Can you imagine having to turn away families with children because you have nowhere for them to stay?

But cold blue did house over 200 additional families during the winter months to keep people from freezing.

Um I would just like to give a few examples.

We had senior citizens that had been living homeless that under Peter and Paul with the mayor's approval, thank you, Kara Spencer, Mayor Kara Spencer.

Under Peter and Paul, um, I was able to house 15 families for four months under the Cold Blue program.

These families came in.

Um, some came in freezing cold.

Some came in with psychotic breaks that the police were bringing to the facility.

And I just want to stress to everyone on this call that um not only should we be looking at just dollars, and I do understand the hardship of the economic um hardship of it, but these are people when you pass by those tents, when you pass by those tiny homes, those are somebody's daughter, son, brother, father, mother.

So just have compassion and cold blue is a lifesaver.

And I thought it was just uh it was great.

Thank you.

Next, we have Audrey Kidwell.

Good afternoon.

My name is Audrey Kidwell, and I'm a resident of Ward Six.

Thank you for this opportunity to speak.

The Board of Police Commissioners has said they are entitled to increase the SLMPD budget to total 330 million dollars, which is absurd.

At their current budget of 189 million, St.

Louis already spends more on policing than 85% of U.S.

cities, and SLMPD already receives 25% of the city's general fund.

SLMPD also kills more people per capita than any other police department in the country.

In recent months, they have begun cooperating closely with ICE to arrest immigrants with no criminal record and have done nothing wrong other than their lack of immigration status, and they're tearing families apart in the process.

And just last week, SLMPD responded with disproportionate force against protesters exercising their right to free speech at the mayor's state of the city address, resulting in the hospitalization of civilians.

Such egregious behavior is clearly not in the interest of public safety and should certainly not be rewarded with additional funding.

The Board of Police Commissioners does not represent us.

They are unelected appointees, and the majority of them have conflicts of interest in that they are businessmen who profit from the deals with who profit from deals with the police.

None of them live north of Delmar, leaving northern neighborhoods without a commissioner from their area.

We cannot allow the Board of Police Commissioners to bankrupt our city just because their attorney told them they could.

The proposed budget increase would take funds away from departments and services that actually do keep St.

Louis and safe.

Some other examples are violence prevention, renter protection, youth programs, support for the unhoused, and tornado recovery, to name just a few.

And given the deplorable state of the city's aging infrastructure, it's unconscionable that we would allocate more funding to police rather than fixing potholes and water mains.

When these critical services don't receive funding, when their money goes to police instead, the police become the solution to all the problems facing our city.

They become the solution to poverty, to homelessness, to poor youth outcomes.

And what solution do the police offer to these problems?

Prison.

That's the only solution our police force is currently equipped to provide.

They put our vulnerable citizens, disproportionately black and brown citizens, in prison.

They don't keep us safe.

And until SLMPD can prove it has more tools in its tool belt that actually help our most vulnerable that actually keep our communities safe, they don't deserve a penny's worth of additional funding.

For all these reasons, I demand that the Board of ENA and the entire board of Alderman stand up against the Board of Police Commissioners and reject this egregious budget.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next, we have Keith Rose.

Thank you.

And if I might say, I think it would be helpful for folks if you put maybe a list of five or so names at a time in the chat because our hardworking people are probably doing other things at this time.

It'd be easier to follow.

But again, um, my name is Keith Rose.

Uh good afternoon, Madam Mayor, uh, Madam Comptroller, Madam President.

I am the sixth ward committeeman.

And as you all know, I have also been an advocate for transparency within the St.

Louis Metropolitan Police Department for at least 15 years now.

And that's time that goes back to even before we were winning the fight for local control.

And I can say, as someone who has watched this department from both the outside and then as well now as a member of the Civilian Oversight Board, that I have never seen a time where the St.

Louis Metropolitan Police Department has been less accountable to the people of St.

Louis and to our elected officials than these past three months.

And this is happening in all different ways.

For example, last night I spent time down in Dutchtown where people from the neighborhoods of Dutchtown, Marine Villa, and Gravity Park came together to talk about a police shooting range that has recently been inundating their neighborhoods with gunfire.

And although the police and their spokespeople were invited to come, they chose not to.

And we had, I think, 30 or so members of the public there wanting to know what's going on.

And instead, they were met with silence.

I do not think that that would happen if the police did not feel that they have no other bosses than right now.

We're also seeing right now on the civilian oversight board that the police new state appointed police board of commissioners is completely uninterested in oversight.

Our oversight board has not been able to review even completed cases for months now.

And we are at a time when the SLMPD thinks they they can run RevShot over this town.

And instead of answering to people like me or elected officials like you, they now have this governor appointed board of cronies who are making all of the decisions.

I think that it would be a horrible signal to them if you were to give in to their budget demands.

And instead of allowing them to stake this far right budget and ask you to compromise somewhere in the middle, this is a time where we actually need to stand our grounds and hold on to where we are and not cave into and try to compromise with this radical hostage taking situation of our budget.

So I encourage all of you to send a clear message and not only not cave in to the demands, but actually reduce the SLMPD budget to show them that the people of St.

Louis have priorities.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next, we are gonna go back to Jerry Connelly.

And after that, we will have Nat Daniel King.

Are you there, Jerry?

There you are.

Yes, Am.

Can you hear me okay?

Yes.

Okay, very good.

Um unfortunately, I'm looking back and I found my notes from like five or six years ago.

And some of the things I'm about to say haven't changed since then.

Um, one area is the Affordable Housing Commission funding.

You know, we're still funding there's five million new allocation, which is the bare minimum required by the ordinance.

That ordinance is over 20 years old.

So I think in terms of adjusting for inflation, um, we need to be expanding that dramatically.

And I also think the city needs to look at the staffing for the Affordable Housing Commission.

I think it's understaffed, under-resourced and linking through to other housing opportunities.

1520 Market Street that is SLDC's HQ, lots of other city departments are housed there.

And some of those departments, like CDA and the Affordable Housing Commission, pay rent to SLDC.

I don't think city entities should be paying a dime to SLDC for rent.

And although a separate entity, the Port Authority budget does fall within the city budget.

And over the last few years, SLDC have been tapping the development boards for larger fees.

And this year, they're again boosting the fee they're getting from the Fort Authority.

So it basically means we, as St.

Louis and through the city budget, are funding the most unaccountable entity in city government.

And I think, you know, the mayor resigned from that board a year and a half ago for reasons about trans, you know, supposedly circulating around uh centering on transparency and trust.

I still don't think the agency has earned the trust of the public.

And when it comes to authorizing incentives, we've made some progress in terms of um the review process and financial analysis, but the St.

Louis Development Corp is still not following the notification procedures laid out in ordinance 71620 in terms of notification of other taxing districts, including the public schools.

The Board of Alderman procedures with incentives.

We're still in a scenario where we have one hearing, generally speaking, for projects.

And so many times in the last couple of years, we hear from developers, we hear from staff, we hear from lobbyists for Greater St.

Louis at a hearing.

And some of the information shed is, you know, it's either incomplete, it's you know, it's incomplete, it's misleading, or sometimes, and I'm gonna point the finger at Greater St.

Louis, and I have receipts, just outright false information that the board's committees are then making decisions on.

And I think we need at least we need two hearings for all these projects so that the public and the media have the opportunity to come and you know refute the false information that's being presented.

And finally, I'd just like to urge the mayor on Board Bill 197, the revamp tax abatement for the Midas Hotel.

Spencer I ask that you veto this bill.

There's a needless increase of that tax abatement.

And the analysis was very weak from SLDC, and they totally omitted the fact that you're uh thank you.

Your time is up.

Next we have Nathaniel King.

After Nathaniel, we will have Emma Burroughs, Krista Schatz in Iborough De Hann.

Good afternoon.

My name is Dr.

Nathaniel King, and I'm a resident of the Sixth Lord.

I'm here today to speak against the Board of Police Commissioners' budget and to urge you to resist the state's attempt to force an unfunded mandate on our city.

I was glad to see you, Mayor Spencer, take legal action against this board, but now it's time to hold the line.

Let's be clear.

Even before this mandate, the police budget was bloated.

Last year, SLM PD received 184 million dollars, more than 12% of our city's budget, and that included funds for over a hundred vacant positions.

In this year's budget, we've cut 78 vacant positions, and none of them came from the police department.

That budget last year represented a $5 million slush fund sitting unused while programs that actually serve St.

Louis were cut to the bone.

And now a board of police commissioners is demanding 330 million dollars, nearly doubling its budget in a single year.

That's not a request.

That's a seizure of our city's finances.

Real public safety doesn't come from big police budgets.

Real public safety comes from violence prevention.

Four years ago, the violence prevention unit received almost 13 million dollars, but this year they're under eight or under 9 million.

That disinvestment is happening at the same moment that we're being asked to nearly double the police budget.

We are defunding what prevents violence while inflating the response to it.

Real public safety comes from stable housing.

Tenants' right to counsel keeps our fellow citizens in their homes, delivering meaningful protection at less than 1% of the city's police budget.

This board knows how to invest in vulnerable residents.

We see that because there is actually funding for uh code blue.

And I ask you to bring that same wisdom to the right to counsel.

The people of the city are watching you, not because they follow this budget meeting, but because they feel the decisions in their daily lives.

They feel it when they face eviction court alone.

They feel it when violence rips through their communities.

This board has the authority and the responsibility to refuse the state board's dictates.

You set our budget, not them.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next we have Emma Burrows.

Good afternoon.

My name is Emma Burrows, and I'm a resident of Ward 3 in Dutchtown, Southside.

I'm here to tell you about my neighbors.

On both sides of my house right now, two families are facing eviction.

One family is a family with an 11-year-old daughter, and the other side is an elderly woman with her 10-year-old grandson.

Both were one illness or injury away from falling behind on rent.

And you know what?

Life happened.

Uh, one illness, one injury, the families got behind, late fees piled up, penalties compounded, and catching up became completely impossible for them.

On my birthday just last week, I accompanied one of those families to their eviction summons.

Now, this wasn't exactly my plan for the morning of my birthday, uh, but they asked me last minute because they didn't know where else to turn and they knew me as being a good neighbor.

The landlord showed up with an attorney, and my neighbors showed up with me.

Me.

No experience, minimal knowledge, just trying to figure things out.

Um it was really sad.

Uh, I later found out that they were pressured into signing a biased agreement, a very biased agreement.

Uh, not because their case wasn't valid, but because the playing field wasn't level.

So just for a moment, I ask you, put yourself in their shoes.

If you were facing eviction tonight, if your kids were hungry and you had nowhere to turn, no money to afford to move, and no landlords willing to accept you.

How or what would you do?

I'm sorry, what would you do to keep your family safe and housed?

And what lines might you cross?

And let me just pause for a second because I also really don't want you to be like, oh, I would call 211.

Uh, without proper support, that's a complete dismissal dressed up as a solution.

211 is great, but only as great as the services that it can refer to.

The truth is safety and violence prevention doesn't come from more police.

It comes from programs and support that address why people reach a point of desperation in the first place.

Let me be clear.

Every dollar beyond the 203 million already allocated to our police department is a dollar taken away from the social services and support that your constituents, my neighbors, and maybe your neighbors, depending on where you live, actually need.

It's the programs that actually keep your constituents and all of us safe.

That's why I'm urging this board to fund right to counsel so that the next family walking into an eviction hearing doesn't have to walk in alone.

I also urge you to continue funding Code Blue, the Office of Violence Prevention, Tornado Recovery, Affordable Housing, Public Health Services, and other crisis supports.

Please, I urge you go back to this budget, fight for the programs and supports that keep our most vulnerable neighbors stable and reject any increase to the police budget that comes at their expense.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Next we have Krista Schätz.

Okay, we will move on to Abra Dihan.

Hi, my name is Ibora Dehan, and I'm a resident of the fifth ward.

I work in the city as a birth doula.

Almost half of the moms I supported in the past year have dealt with housing instability in the May 16th tornado worsened circumstances for these families.

This stress puts black moms who are already at higher risk of health complications in a more more vulnerable state mentally and physically.

In 2021, 13% of babies in St.

Louis City had a low birth weight, according to Think Health STL, compared to 8% nationally.

And studies show that being unhoused increases this risk.

I am demanding that the mayor and the board of EA fully fund the right to counsel program, which provides legal counsel for St.

Louis families facing eviction at 2.5 million dollars.

According to the city's website, eviction in St.

Louis is twice as prevalent among renters and majority black census tricks than among renters and majority white census tricks.

Getting this program directly impacts North Six North St.

Louis and removes protections to ensure black families stay housed.

I'm here today because I wholeheartedly reject this inflated police budget.

St.

Louis is legally required to fund the police department at 24% of the city's general revenue, which is 184 million dollars.

So why then is the mayor proposing almost 30 million more than what is required?

I'm rejecting the over 200 million dollated to SLMPD, which leaves the nation if police involved killings per capita, as another mentioned earlier.

That funding is needed to keep people housed and to support people on the north side, many of whom have not seen a penny of relief from the city.

The future of this city is in our babies, not our police department.

And it relies on their parents having a safe place to lay their heads at night.

This board has the responsibility of ensuring their safety and health over the interests of corporations and the unelected board of police commissioners.

Thank you for your time today and for listening.

Thank you.

Next we have Enis Burdeaux.

My apologies.

Okay, we'll move on to Mitchell Gig.

Hello.

My name is Mitchell Geg.

I am a resident of the fourth ward.

I'm here to testify on the 2027 budget.

It is appalling that the city would stop funding the housing eviction law program, aka right to counsel for those facing eviction in the city, while giving the police a budget of over 200 million dollars, including a 7% raise, whereas the rest of the city's employees are only getting 3%.

The housing eviction law program provides legal counsel and assistance to tenants in the city facing eviction and having legal representation drastically improves someone's likelihood to be able to stay housed.

Last year, while nationwide median rent slightly decreased in St.

Louis, median rent went up 4%, the third largest year-over-year increase for a city in the country, and wages did not rise to meet it.

Additionally, the tornado last spring caused many to lose their housing.

And for those not renting their home insurance policies were canceled if they were even insured in the first place.

Regarding the unhoused in our city, St.

Louis currently operates under a continuum of care model, meaning the unhoused need to earn supportive housing.

The continuum of care model has been shown time and time again to be inferior to a housing first model, meaning giving a roof over someone's head without means testing or other strings attached, the resulting stability, making it much easier to get sober, find a job, etc.

Housing first has seen success in states like Utah and Virginia and in countries like Finland.

The solution to homelessness and housing insecurity is not giving more money to the police.

To quote the end of policing by Alex Vitale, while the police force people to move along, drive people into the shadows, or involve them in the criminal justice system.

They do nothing to reduce the number of homeless people.

Police actions merely serve to further isolate and emmiserate them at huge expense.

It is worth repeating that St.

Louis has the deadliest police department per capita in the nation and nationwide U.S.

police kill more than more people than mass shooters by the hundreds.

I want the board of ENA and the board of Alderman to stand with the people of St.

Louis and reject this excessive police budget and fund the housing eviction law program, aka right to counsel.

And I find it uh disrespectful that our mayor has chosen to be on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean for this meeting.

Thank you for your time and attention.

Thank you.

Inez has joined.

Inez Bordeaux.

Uh thank you.

I am rescinding my request to testify.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next we have Bertie Jackson.

Hi, yes, thank you.

Uh, my name is Bertie Jackson Babel, and I'm a resident of the third ward.

I'm urging this board to reject the budget with the bloated increase given to the police department.

There are numerous reasons why you should reject giving this insane increase of our budget to the cops.

Our city would be better served investing in the egregiously neglected north side in tornado relief and in right to counsel into investments that actually keep our city safe, such as violence prevention, youth programs, functional city services, mental health services, and assisted for unhoused family and increased access to affordable housing.

It's diabolical that the board that demanding this made this um increase is made up of folks that have massive conflicts of interest and ties to the police department, and that there's no representation of the North City or West City or West City representation.

Further, it's irresponsible to be funding the police even at their current level, given recent information that came out in an article detailing them committing financial fraud to the tune of 25 million dollars in overtime.

How dare they demand more funding while actively committing fraud?

It is our elected officials' duty to stand 10 toes down with all the people of St.

Louis and not just their donors.

Looking at you, Mayor, I am a mental health professional, and I've spent years working in community mental health.

I've seen firsthand how the current deficit of access to housing, mental health services, legal services, and city resources have resulted in deaths and harmed our community members, as well as if this budget is approved, more people will die.

Lastly, I'd like to talk about lacking trauma.

The police have historically and consistently been a source of trauma for members of our community as recent as last Friday as the police brought violence to protesters exercising their First Amendment rights.

Trauma like this lives in the body for individuals and the community for decades, and our taxes are paying for it.

Honestly, I reject my tax dollars paying for my community to continue being traumatized.

I ask you to please reject this budget with the police commission's demands.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Next we have Daniel Pett.

Pete, sorry.

Thank you much.

Pate, it's it's English, but looks like it's French.

Um I I first want to object to the premise that this is an okay meeting to have, and this qualifies as the public being able to testify without all the members of VA on camera and interacting with us.

Um this is not, this doesn't qualify and meet the minimum standard that's necessary for public engagement.

Uh, with that, um, my name is Dan Pate.

I'm a ward six resident, and uh I want to talk about some of the audited financial statements and the um the ACFR that was just published a few weeks ago.

It's really hard to connect uh for regular people, the data in the ACFR and the new budget.

And it's it what isn't hard to connect though is in 1950, the city had 857,000 people, and today we're about 280,000.

That's about a 67% decline.

Um, in that same to just in the past like 10 years from uh fiscal year 2016, our our revenues and and everything have gone up double digits, anywhere between probably 30 to 50 percent.

Um, payroll taxes up, you know, 30 to 40 percent, sales tax is up about 50 to 60 percent.

Um, and the population continues to decline.

We went from 2010 to 2020 from over 319,000 down to about 280,000.

So our revenue has been increasing, no problem.

We're still collecting all, but we're collecting more from less people.

We are extracting more from the people that have chosen to remain in our city and making it tougher for us to be able to remain in our city.

I would like to ask that we do a couple of things.

That we go uh first publish alongside every future budget per capita spending and revenue comparison adjusted for inflation, going back 20 years.

Um, this can be in the net the net change data and tables in the ACFRs.

We can easily translate it to how much are we extracting from every person who's left here as a resident.

I think it's really important to take a look at that.

Um, the the city, it seems to me, has a choice.

Um, and I only have one minute, so I can't go over all of them.

But man, um we we need to make some really tough structural decisions about our government.

The population has decreased by 67% from its peak.

The government has not gotten smaller.

The spending has not gotten smaller.

The way we manage the money has not changed in 67 years.

Um, we can make some tough structural decisions now.

We have uh a few hundred million in the bank.

Um, we can make those choices for ourselves, or we can face a bankruptcy judge making those chase choices for us later.

Thank you.

Next, we have Chris Wilcox.

Good afternoon.

My name is Chris Will Cox, and I live in the 14th ward.

I urge the Board of Estimate Apportionment to reject the proposed budget for fiscal year 2027 because it redoubles St.

Louis City as investment in the already bloated St.

Louis Metropolitan Police Department and fails to invest in vital public services, including hard-won reforms like the tenant right to counsel.

People fought long and hard to secure that program.

It is required, not optional.

Repeatedly, the city acts in overt contempt to the people it represents, but that's approving a data center overwhelmingly rejected by city residents in violation of its own process or deploys police against people like the residents of Concord apartments who are only living in the terrible conditions created by their landlords and a collect.

It's small wonder that the mayor and the state alike want these massive increases in police to deploy against dissidents and poor people in St.

Louis.

One week ago, the mayor closed a public address for the state of the city when residents expressed their rightful outrage anyway.

The city sicked its thugs and SLMPD on them because it could not tolerate even this small display of frustration with the failures of the mayor's administration.

This demonstrates that the people lack confidence in their government's priorities, particularly its complicity in the state and federal government's growing investment and police repression and abject failure to do right by North City residents.

People are sleeping in tents in the front yards of their own home, and the best that has been able to muster is belated demolitions to clear the way for investors they want to displace people who used to live here.

The average, the advantage of budgets is that they put cold numbers to the to the priorities of government that no creative narrative can fully obscure.

According to the mayor's own lawsuit, the city owes 184 million dollars to the Board of Police Commissioners or the police department.

This would be actually be a massive improvement if it was realized in our budget.

Instead, the proposed budget funds police and their pensions at 245 million dollars, almost 40 million dollar increase from last year, where it cost 29% of the general fund.

Complying in advance with our fascist state government's thirst to grow the police state didn't work for the last mayor, and it won't work for this one.

They will only take more.

We should assume this massive increase in the police budget is what the mayor actually wants.

SLMPD is the deadliest police partner in the United States.

It collaborates with ICE and already has more cops per capita than 92% in cities, but over double the national average.

Cops on average spent less than 4% of their time on violence of any kind.

None of this makes us safer.

Imagine if the salaries of cops guarding corporate retail and businesses of their BOPC bosses like Chris Cerracino can instead provide vital services a fraction of the cost.

The values presented in this budget demonstrate a growth in the police state at the expense of less than bare minimum services.

If the mayor truly believes it owes at 184 million, it should fund it at that level.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next we have Sarah Feltz.

Okay, we will move on to Mary Beth McHugh.

Hello, my name is Mary Beth McHugh.

I live in Ward 5.

I'm here today to voice my concerns about the FY27 budget, namely the negative effect that the proposed police budget would have on vital city services.

My primary concern to echo what others have said, um, funding towards Code Blue and Right to Council.

Um, these are programs that literally save lives and keep people housed.

Um, this proposed police budget also means under resourced youth programming, public health services, parks and forestry, the list goes on and on.

These are the programs that keep us safe and improve quality of life.

This is where our money should be going.

I want my neighbors to have shelter from the bitter cold.

I want us to have access to legal representation to maintain housing.

I want us to have clean water and streets free of trash.

I don't want people being profiled, arrested, and reported to ICE by SLMPD.

And I don't want people in North City who are displaced and are still struggling to recover from the May tornado to be continually dismissed by the city, or worse, violently arrested by police when voicing their concerns to the mayor.

I urge the board of ENA to listen to the people of St.

Louis, listen to North City, reject this proposal and instead fund tornado recovery violence prevention programs and meet the basic needs of city residents.

Thank you.

Next, we will have Mike Milton.

After Mike Milton, we will have Jason Watson, Kristen Simpson, and Jeremy Brock.

Thank you.

Again, my name is Mike Milton.

Good afternoon.

I'm a resident at the 7th ward.

I'm also a planner in a litigation to end the state takeover of the police.

And I also serve as the founder and executive director of Freedom Community Center.

Um, we are a member of the Office of Violence Prevention Network, and we represent what real safety looks like in practice.

Crime in St.

Louis is at a 12-year-old low.

In 2020, 263 people were killed in the city.

Last year, that number was 140.

That's a 40% reduction in homicides.

This the administration would have you to believe the police and drove that change.

The data does not support that.

An analysis of crime trends from expert criminologist, Dr.

Janet Larison from Umsel found that the full investment into the Office of Allen's prevention was a key factor in the decline of crime.

Put plainly, the progress over the last five years is ties to OVP's work, responding to harm without relying on the criminal legal system.

When a city invested in alternatives, people got what they actually needed.

Support, stability, and intervention before violence escalated.

That's the work we do at FCC.

We intervene before conflicts turns into shootings.

We support survivors of violence so they can stabilize and rebuild.

We work with people who have caused harm to take accountability and change behavior so the harm does not happen again.

And the outcomes are clear.

We've worked with 274 people and move nearly a million dollars in direct support to survivors.

90% report feeling safety after working with us.

Let me say that again.

90% of survivors report feeling safer after working with the alternative incarceration process.

72% report feeling healing from trauma.

And in the last two years, we've conducted over 122 violence interventions, stopping harm before it happens.

That's real measurable impact.

Our work has also saved the city money.

Through alternative incarceration work, we've saved over $2 million in a pretrial incarceration cost alone.

That exceeds what the city invested in us during the same period.

So the question is not whether it works.

The question is whether the city is willing to fund what works.

For decades, St.

Louis has tried one approach to violence.

The result of police department that murders the most people per capita in this country.

A police department that uses force three times more likely against black people than white people.

A police department that increases the likelihood of violence rather than creating more safety.

The budget in front of you today defunds what works and doubles down on what doesn't work.

That's not real public safety strategy.

That is political racism dressed up as a budget line that is not aligned with the data and it's not aligned with the outcomes we're seeing on the ground.

We're asking you to relocate, reallocate $3 million to the Office of Arms Prevention, which is 1% of the police of the proposed police budget to fund these organizations that scale so we can continue our work.

That is a straightforward decision, and we have evidence of what reduces violence.

We have programs delivering results, and we have a clear return on investment.

The request is simple.

Fund the strategies that are producing safety and ensure that survivors of violence have the resources that they need to heal and recover.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next, we have Jason Watson.

Jason Watson, please unmute yourself.

Mike Check.

Are you hearing me now?

Yes, yeah.

Okay.

My name is Jason Watson.

I'm a senior VP of engagement with Mission St.

Louis.

I also have the pleasure to oversee Show Me Peace, which is a violence intervention team that's funded by the Office of Violence Prevention.

Number one, I want to start by saying the proposed police budget not only does it destroy the progress that we have been making, but it also harms the work that is currently being done as well.

When we start to think about the work that's done in violence intervention, what we begin to understand is that hiring individuals that were once the problem and then using them to go in to interact with individuals who are the problem is the greatest way for us to see reductions in violence.

We've seen it over the last few years.

One point that I want to make is when we start to talk about the police budget and we start to talk about how that looks in relation to the OVP and the work that's being done.

We start to understand that the ecosystem that we've seen, whether it's Mike Milton and his work at FCC, whether it's Diamond Devons and the work that they're doing around individuals that are dealing with uh domestic violence in situations, or if it show me peace that's in the mix, making sure that we focus directly on gun violence.

Those are the things that have brought down the numbers that we've seen in our particular city.

That ecosystem, those individuals that are committed.

I also want to remind us when the tornado took place, it was those exact grassroots organizations that were on the ground making sure that the support for our city was actually happening and take place.

I beg and I plead that we understand that the same ones that we depended on when the tornado hit us that were on the ground every day, would not be the very ones that we defund now as we recognize that they're the ones that are willing and committed to doing that particular work.

When we thought when we think about the interventions that have taken place, as I sit here in a room with a full of individuals that are not only committed to this work, but individuals that we also work with on a day-to-day basis to show that this work is more than us just being in a space, it's us spending time with people.

I want us to understand that the work that's done, the violence reductions that we've seen has come from individuals putting our lives on the line on a day-to-day basis.

The one piece that I think is important for us to understand is that when we start to talk about how the police budget has been spent, we start to talk about fraudulent things that have taken place.

When I think about the scrutiny that comes along with the violence intervention work that we do, and the fact that we receive a deeper scrutiny than even the police department does is ridiculous to me.

If we look at the police budget and say this is something that's done, obviously what we're saying is that the work that has been happening isn't good enough.

We see 40% reductions, 32% reductions around homicide.

That helps and it tells us with data and it tells us with proof that these are the things that we should be investing in.

So the Office of Violence Prevention, the ecosystem that's centered around it, or the things that have been driving the work that we've seen in our city.

And I'll try that we would continue to invest in those things directly because it's that ecosystem is like in our city of psychological thank you.

Next, we have Kristen Simpson.

Thank you.

My name is Kristen Simpson.

I'm a family nurse practitioner.

I was born and raised in Ward 13.

Currently work in Ward 9 at the Bullet Related Injury Clinic.

Today I am representing the chair of the Board of Health and Hospitals.

And so I'm here today to talk to the Board of Estimate and Apportionment on behalf of the joint board of health and hospitals.

We write to express the urgent concern regarding the city of St.

Louis, FY227, budget priorities, and their impact on health and stability of our residents.

May 16th, tornado and ongoing conditions at places like Concord Apartments highlight a shared reality.

Housing instability in St.

Louis is a public health crisis.

Displacement, whether sudden or ongoing, undermines safety, health, and well-being.

Housing alone is not enough.

Making sure that housing is safe, stable, and health conscious is extremely important.

Despite the growing needs, funding to support recovery and long-term stability for impacted residents remain highly insufficient.

Meanwhile, recent funding requests from the Board of Police Commissioners within a department that already receives the largest share of the city's budget will divert critical resources away from the very services that sustain community health and stability.

Public health remains one of the most underfunded, yes, yet essential functions of city government.

The Department of Health provides services that every resident depends on, yet its importance is routinely overlooked until moments of crisis as seen during the pandemic of COVID-19.

A reactive approach to public health is not only ineffective, but it's also dangerous.

We must also honor the trust of voters who approve the continuation of the 1% earnings tax with the expectation that funding that's received to the city would be reinvested into services and infrastructure that support the well-being of our communities, not redirected in ways that are destabilize them.

Failure to adequately fund public health and other priority missions, community-based services puts our city at risk, including increased health hazard due to reduced sanitation and trash services, decreased investment in violence prevention pro violence prevention, despite its formal designation as a public health issue through Board Bill 105 in 2019.

Limited access to mental and behavioral health services, continued housing instability and prolonged displacement, and erosion of neighborhood level supports that are essential to our community's heartbeat.

Our public health infrastructure has already endured substantial cuts to critical community-centered programs without intentional and sustained reinvestment.

We risk further loss of essential services that allow our city to thrive.

We urge the board to take clear and accountable stance by prioritizing equitable investment in public health and community-led safety strategies.

The continued underinvestment is not compatible with healthy living.

Public health is not optional, it's foundational.

We must protect and sustain these programs as life-saving services that ensure that health safety and future of all our residents in the city.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next, we have Jeremy Brock.

After Jeremy, we have Haley Black, Jonathan Bletcher, LJ Punch, and Toby Tobaya.

Hello.

My name is Jeremy Brock, and I'm here to express my strong opposition to the proposed increase to the St.

Louis Metropolitan Police Department budget.

And in the strongest terms possible, as the Board of Apportionment and Estimate to listen to the St.

Louis City community it represents.

I'm not originally from St.

Louis, but I've been a resident here for nearly 20 years.

I currently live in Tower Grove in Ward 6.

I moved to St.

Louis to serve as an American member.

And since then, I've striven to continue serving the St.

Louis community.

In that time, I've learned a simple truth.

You cannot hope to serve the community without first understanding it.

You cannot serve a community without listening to its people.

The notion that an outsider, as an outsider, you can simply tell a community what it needs because you think you know better, because you think that they can't be trusted with their own decisions, is wrong.

It's wrong despite best intentions.

It's wrong despite feeling like it might be the luster of two evils.

It's just always wrong.

The state appointed Board of Police Commissioners is not an elected board.

Therefore, it's not representative of St.

Louis City and its people.

For all intents and purposes, they are outsiders to our community who should be adhering to what the people say they need.

And what the people and what we what we need is clear.

We need public services that will actually serve our community.

Services like the Office of Violence Prevention and Right to Council support for residents facing eviction.

Services that are reducing crime and protecting everyone.

We need effective tornado recovery relief for North City, including rental assistance, home repair assistance, and a plan to ensure residents can not only remain in their community but thrive there for years to come.

We need services like street repair, refuse removal, the Department of Parks Recreation and Forestry, Department of Health and Behavior Services Health.

We need all these services that could that will probably be cut or at least severely diminished if the police department budget is increased.

That's not to mention the many city employees who will also lose their jobs if those services are lost.

I am proud to be part of the St.

Louis City community, but that didn't happen just because I've been here for a while.

I'm part of this community because I listened to my neighbors, my neighbors all across the city, not just in Tower Grove, and strive to work with them to create a better one, one centered in equity and ensuring that everyone has what they need to succeed, because that is what a true community is.

So I ask you, the members of the board of uh apportionment and estimate, each of you elected by the people to represent the people, to listen to the people and to stand up for our community's needs.

I ask you to block out the noise from the outsiders who do not truly understand this community and reject this proposal to increase the police department budget.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next we have Haley Black.

Hi, my name is Haley Black.

I'm a resident of Ward 6 in the city of St.

Louis, and I reject the buzz uh budget proposed by the city of St.

Louis.

Um, I find it interesting that in the guidelines presented to all testifying today, you ask for family friendly language.

When what you will do to the city with this budget is far from family friendly.

Our city was devastated by a tornado last May.

North City is in dire need of funds for basic needs.

People within North City have been left without housing through a brutal winter with no hope or support to live and work in the city.

Approving this budget approves the death of black residents.

This budget is violent and will be detrimental to your constituents.

Police don't make cities thrive.

It is the support structures within a city that does.

This budget does not meet the needs of our city in terms of supporting our unhoused neighbors.

The code blue only hits a semi-appropriate level of funding and support once temperatures hit 10 degrees, with the exponential increase in cost of living and the utter lack of support for those who lost homes in the tornado, homes support community, their friends that have homes that could support them, whole neighborhoods and huge massive parts of our city, completely detrimented and left alone.

This is unacceptable, as is the limited funding for right to counsel.

An increase in the city police funding is egregious based on their ongoing violence, state oversight, ICE collaboration, and the disruption of the rights of people, specifically our black and brown residents, as seen in Kara Spencer's state of the city last week.

A reduction in police funding, not an increase, will allow us to advocate or allocate funds for crime prevention with an edited 2027 city budget.

On this Zoom to testify that in the future, a 370-page document is not given out less than 24 hours before people can sign up to speak to these, that there is a hybrid of virtual and in person, and that you do listen to your constituents and residents because we are the ones that make up your community that you're supposed to be so and proud of and engaged with.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next, we have Jonathan Belcher.

Thank you.

Uh good afternoon.

My name is Jonathan Belcher.

I am the continuum care director at Peter and Ball Community Services.

Peter and Paul is the lead agency and collaborative applicant for homeless services in the city of St.

Louis, and I am also a resident of Ward 7.

I want to advocate for the continued funding for Code Blue and Tiny Homes.

First, thank you to Mayor Spencer, President Green, Otterwood, Otterwoman Sonia, and many others for Code Blue coming to a reality this past winter.

Code Blue was a game changer this winter.

We had reliable funding that set up over 300 emergency shelter beds on the coldest nights.

Along with shelter beds, we had centralized places for our unhoused neighbors to get out of the weather and get transportation to the available shelter beds.

These were critical.

I'm sorry, these were reliable and safe spaces for our unhoused neighbors to get rest and get connected to services.

Code Blue saved lives.

On the night of our annual point in time count that counts everyone who is unhoused in the city of St.

Louis, our Code Blue shelters housed almost 400 people.

Compared to our winter response in 2025, we had an additional 315 emergency shelter beds.

Code Blue supported a coordinated response system for our community and most vulnerable community members in crisis.

Having set aside funding for Code Blue will support homeless service providers and volunteers to plan for our response, make improvements from last winter, and be ready and be ready when the cold weather hits.

We continue to have more St.

Louisans seeking services, and we have less services to provide.

As everyone knows, we are in an affordable housing crisis with rents rising 41% over five years.

Without affordable housing options and homelessness increasing, St.

Louis needs more solutions and places for people to go when they're in a housing crisis.

The Tiny Homes Project helps 100 unhoused neighbors get off the street, engage in services, and give them time to work towards their goals.

In a time where we have less shelter, affordable housing options, potential HUD funding reductions, and less services available.

It is vital to our city to have shelter and housing options for everybody in need.

Thank you for the time.

Thank you.

Next we have LJ Punch.

Hello, I'm Dr.

LJ Punch.

I'm a resident of the Eighth Ward.

I work throughout North St.

Louis.

Um, and I'm here with a plea for genuine leadership and a call for profound accountability.

It is simple to me right now that at a time when crime and homicide are going down.

It makes absolutely no sense for the police budget to go up.

And yet we are in this moment at a time when the efforts already well described here have dramatically increased true and real public safety.

Questioning whether or not those efforts should continue.

The research, the data, and the study show.

Everything we are currently planning to divest in housing, economic ability for movement, deep investment in divested areas is exactly the recipe for the need for more police.

It's almost as if there's been so much success from the community itself.

We want to now be sure that success is undone by hyperfunding the police.

Amputated the frozen body parts and the frostbite.

Every spring, I see people who need that kind of care.

I've been there when people coughed and exhaled because of the mold, because of the dust, because of the virus, and all the things that threaten their lives.

And I have also been a police commissioner myself serving for a year in the county.

And I am sure of one thing that what we pay for is exactly what we get.

And this budget is nothing more than a plan to pay for death.

Plain, simple, and clear.

Fund human services, fund real public safety, fund housing, and keep us all better because here's the real thing.

You know what is cheaper.

It's cheaper to pay for it up front and invest in the people than to wait for death to come.

Thank you so much for your time.

Let's do the right thing.

Thank you.

Next, we have Toby Matava.

After we have Rosa Parks, Daniel Barrain, and Gabby Eisner.

Okay, I want to thank you today for hearing me.

I want to thank everyone who's gone before me because all of the points have been made are wonderful.

My name is Toby Matava, and I'm a resident of downtown, just a few blocks away.

I live near 9th and Olive Street.

And I want to strongly urge the Board of Estimate and Apportionment and the Board of Alders to reject this budget as it's currently constituted.

A vibrant downtown is not achieved by increasing the SLMPD budget.

Instead, long-term safety and growth require investing in our community.

I ask that you redirect these funds towards essential services that address the root causes of crime, such as youth programs, affordable housing, health care, and violence prevention.

And more specifically, my experience as a court monitor.

I've witnessed the dysfunction of the tenants' court.

Currently, landlords' attorneys negotiate directly with tenants who may not be aware of their right to counsel or the illegal or the legal intricacies of the options the attorneys are presenting to them.

I request that you fully fund the right to counsel program to protect our residents from losing their homes.

Furthermore, it's unacceptable that North City continues to suffer from systemic disinvestment, especially considering the minimal recovery assistance that's been provided since the tornado in May.

A successful downtown relies on residents who feel supported in their own neighborhoods, and the city government must be more actively engaged in the recovery of North Kansas City, of North City.

Sorry.

Please reject this budget.

Prioritize community investment.

Budgets reflect who we are.

Are we going to invest in police and special interests?

Or are we going to invest in our people in our neighborhoods?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next we have Rosa Parks.

My name is Rosa Parks.

I live in Ward 6, and I'm a staff member at Action St.

Louis.

I've lived in St.

Louis my whole life, from the city to the county to the north side to the south side.

And there have been many times I wanted to desperately leave, escape the city and never come back.

I know it's not the city, that's bad.

It's the government.

I love the people here.

I love the city, and I want better for this city.

I want to take a moment for the three of you to dream with me.

When I dream of a reimagined St.

Louis, I dream of a city that people are proud to be from and want to come back to.

I see Paul McKees and other city-owned vacant properties returned to black residents who have been displaced or forcibly erased.

I see community gardens, grocery stores, working libraries, and local businesses thriving, and I see tornado impacted residents creating new family memories in their rebuilt homes.

I see empty prisons.

I see no more headlines that say another person has died inside the CJC.

I see us destigmatizing and prioritizing mental health addiction support and real resources for those dealing with poverty.

I see a community that is invested in equitably, a community that is for the people and not for corporate greed.

I wonder what you see when you dream of St.

Louis.

Is it data centers that make our water turn to dirt?

Is it a violent police force that brutalizes your residents?

Is it a downtown that only the rich can afford?

Is it a city that is just a sea of rightness and status quo?

This is the reality you are creating right now.

There is still time to change the future of our city, still time to dream up a more diverse, inclusive, and equitable city.

But you must act now, and here's how you can start.

First, do not increase SM SLMPD's budget and do not approve their budget increase request.

Second, provide dedicated funding to North City tornado impacted residents and businesses.

Third, provide funding to the Office of Violence Prevention and Youth Programming Services.

Fourth, fund the right to counsel program, like y'all said you would.

And fifth, fund services for our homeless community members.

And Samair Spencer, if you're listening, please sit with this.

I hope you feel shame.

I hope you feel guilt.

As you get richer from your corporate donors, real people and families continue to suffer.

I thank you for your time.

And I encourage you to help us create a St.

Louis that we all can be proud of.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Daniel Baran, you're next.

Thank you for having me.

I was invited by the Board of EA to testify about right to counsel.

My name is Daniel Buran.

I'm an attorney for Legal Services of Eastern Missouri.

I'm also the program director of the much spoken about right to counsel program, the Housing Inviction Law Program for St.

Louis City.

We have been tracking our data for almost 20 months.

We have 19 reports that we've submitted to the City of St.

Louis under our contract through the Right to Council program.

During those 19 months, we have taken 491 new legal cases.

We have served a total of 2,052 people.

I can tell you that to date we have had a direct financial impact for our clients of 833,000.

Those are renters that are at risk of facing eviction.

This money includes monetary judgments, attorneys' fees, late fees, back rent, an illegal charges avoided, negotiated reductions in amount of rent or fees owed, cash for key settlements, damages obtained, the value of future rent savings because we keep housing subsidies and don't let them get terminated and defend against terminations.

And this is also financial assistance obtained from third-party resources and return security deposit.

For those uh who are concerned about landlords, we fight against the bad landlords.

The good landlords like seeing us enter.

We can help get them paid.

We can help negotiate settlement and work out payment plans that work for our client and for the plaintiff's client.

I can tell you that the city uh you know has an issue with losing residents.

Our clients stay in the city of St.

Louis, whether that's because we're they're staying in the home that they're already renting or we're rehousing them.

The vast majority of them stay in the city of St.

Louis and don't leave the area.

Um, you know, right to counsel was not something that legal services invented.

This was an ordinance that was pushed by the public that was passed successfully by the public, and that I'm hearing today from my family members, friends, allies, and neighbors that they want it funded.

A fully funded right to counsel program of 2.5 million would allow us to hire 13 additional attorneys.

So far, it has been me and one other attorney for the past 19 months with another halftime attorney helping out that is really an amalgamation.

So if if we could if we could have 13 attorneys, I mean, that would be millions of dollars that would be directly impacted for our for our uh neighbors.

Um, but even if you don't want to do 2.5 million, right now, our money we we are we are defunded as of the end of September of this year, okay.

Um, to keep us going, it is only going to cost the city at our current staffing.

This is not uh uh with scaling it up.

Um, it would only cost the city around 43,500,000 for next fiscal year.

We estimated that at our current staffing levels for another two-year contract would be roughly $870,000.

So for the next fiscal year, that would only be $435,000 to keep this program going.

Without this program, we're gonna see more homelessness.

We're gonna see more child homelessness because 40% of our clients have children of the age of 18.

This is a vital program that the city needs to keep funded.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next, we have Gabby Eisner.

Hello, good afternoon.

My name is Gabby.

I live in Ward 2, and I'm here today on behalf of the migrant and immigrant community action project, the MECA project, which is located in Ward 7.

And we are here today to urge the Board of Estimate and Abortionment to reject the egregious police budget.

Contact with the police is the main way that immigrants in our community are being arrested and detained through racial profiling.

Police are making traffic stops that unnecessarily escalate to arrest, and then people are being held in police custody until ICE arrives.

This, of course, puts families who are just trying to get to work, to school, to the grocery store at grave risk.

82% of people detained in the region are detained after an interaction with the police.

And of those interactions, 90% are at a traffic stop.

SLMPD is saying they don't collaborate with ICE, but just last week, an SLMPD officer called the rapid response line to report someone, thinking it was the ICE hotline rather than a community support line.

With this massive influx of funding to the police, there will be more unnecessary patrols and surveillance that lead to the detention and deportation of our neighbors.

There will also be more aggressive suppression of public protests and political opposition, like we saw on Friday at the mayor's state of the city.

You've already heard how this budget would take away resources from so many things that we need from tornado recovery, right to council, the Office of Violence Prevention.

And I'm here to add another resource that could be taken away if they pass this budget, and that is the Office of New Americans.

The Office of New Americans has done critical work to expand language access and help immigrant families connect to resources.

And with this budget, that SLMPD and the Board of Police Commissioners is demanding the future of this resource and all of the resources that have been named today hangs in balance.

We want a St.

Louis that prioritizes the language access needs of its residents.

We want a St.

Louis where immigrant families feel safe.

We want a St.

Louis where all of our neighbors can thrive, and that means no more money for the police.

Thank you.

Next we have Tyler Peters.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, everyone.

I was going to extend, excuse me.

My name is Tyler Peters.

I'm a resident of the Eighth Ward.

And I was going to extend my appreciation for the board members that are on camera.

But just like funding Code Blue and Right to Council, that is your job.

I will, however, extend my disappointment for those not on camera.

So I'm testifying today.

Much of what I was going to testify on has already been said, but I will echo what continues to be St.

Louis's true priorities, which is demonstrated by the innumerable reiterations of the exact same concerns here today.

Specifically, though, I demand that the mayor, as well as the board members on this call, to reject the state board of police commissioners' budget.

Policing belongs to the people who live here, not to outsiders.

Several members of the state board don't even live in St.

Louis.

They don't understand what our neighborhoods or our workers' lives look like.

And we know that local policing requires local leadership.

Putting more police more money into police means cutting the programs that actually keep our neighborhoods safe, like the tenants' rights to council program, the Office of Violence Prevention, youth programs, and so much more.

Every dollar we spend on more cops is a dollar we take away from the services that support our workers and families.

We cannot let the police budget destroy the things that hold our community together.

To save the budget, the city will be forced to fire the workers, stripping our community of skilled jobs and sending local wages out the door.

Losing these workers means losing the expertise and skills that keep our city services operating.

Our city service, excuse me, our city's workers are already paid too little, as demonstrated by the uh conversation study in conjunction with the city last year.

Um, this budget would freeze their pay, making it impossible for us to hire or retain the skilled people our community needs.

And without fair wages, we lose the talent that keeps our city running.

Since we took back control of local police in 2013, we built safer streets by letting our community lead the way.

And by October 2025, homicides dropped to their lowest level in over a decade.

Local leadership works because it listens to residents and creates real solutions that actually protect our families.

St.

Louis and Kansas City are the only two cities in the nation where the state has stolen our right to manage our own police.

The Missouri legislature is forcing this power grab based on racist, outdated myths about our city, not on the real data showing our neighborhoods are getting safer.

By ignoring our success, they are trying to take away the local control that has already proven to reduce violence and build trust.

I implore you all to reject the budget, and it will leave our city in a state of disrepair, will only hurt St.

Louisans, and we deserve better.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next, we have Gwen Smith Moore.

Hello and thank you.

My name is Gwen Smith Moore.

I'm a resident of the Sixth Ward, as well as a policy manager with Empower Missouri, an anti-poverty policy advocacy organization.

We fought against the state takeover of the SLMPD at every step of the way.

So we're dismayed but not surprised at the budget that's been forward, but been put forward by the Board of Commissioners.

This bloated budget request would reduce our city's ability to provide social services and address public safety through community programs that address the root causes of poverty and crime.

In hearings in floor debate at the state capitol, St.

Louis City is a frequent scapegoat used by lawmakers to justify the need for harsher sentencing and other punitive criminal justice policies.

The fact is that crime in St.

Louis has been on the decline, but that's not stopped our city from being the punching bag for the same elected officials who brought forward the legislation that led to the state takeover of the police.

This continued prejudice that we face at a state level is why it's more critical than ever that local leaders protect our interest as city residents.

Because the people in Jefferson City are certainly not going to.

In the city of St.

Louis, over 20% of our residents live below the federal poverty line.

Our communities need investment and innovation, not heightened police presence.

True public safety is about so much more than policing.

It's about supporting our youth with opportunities, not curfews, maintenance of community spaces, including our beautiful city parks, support for low-income renters through right to counsel, and programs aimed at community healing and crime prevention, such as those within the Office of Violence Prevention.

If we want to continue to see decreases in crime, our city shouldn't invest in crime prevention and public safety by supporting the people of St.

Louis.

In closing, I just want to say decreases in poverty will mean decreases in crime.

Decreases in homelessness will mean decreases in crime.

Increases in mental health services and addiction treatment will mean decreases in crime.

And these efforts need to go hand in hand and be managed by local leaders.

The answer to addressing crime is to address poverty.

I urge the board to reject the proposed budget.

St.

Louis cannot afford to cut essential services in the name of an outsized police budget, and doing so is counterproductive to our public safety interests.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next we have Sean Carruzzo.

Hello.

Over the last two years, I think I can safely say I've represented the most tenants in housing court in the past two years.

Last year, I testified before this board and warned that property owners think they can get away with charging excessive rent and illegal fees while providing substandard housing.

I think it's now clear to us all that they are getting away with it.

Even out-of-state and sometimes out of country property owners practice rampant wealth extraction in the city, sucking resources from our residents while refusing to maintain their properties.

Articles about entire apartment complexes being condemned have become all too common lately.

The May 16th tornado highlighted our already present housing crisis.

The way to stop this calculated divestment of resources is to hold property owners accountable in a court of law through efforts like right to counsel.

Well over 5,000 eviction lawsuits were filed in the city of St.

Louis last year.

Mayor Spencer, thank you for coming to watch an eviction docket.

At least 10 of our neighbors lost their home that morning in court.

So I ask, did what you watch look like justice and accountability during one of the most impactful legal cases of a person's life.

Even murderers get a guaranteed right to trial and an attorney.

But hardworking mothers and cancer-ridden seniors get silenced, charged exorbitant fees, and thrown out of their dilapidated home.

The owner applies a new half-coat of paint, signs a lease with their next mark, and starts the process again.

Wealth extraction.

We know this isn't all landlords or even most, but we know this is happening.

And we know the judicial system is the only way to stop it.

Donna Barringer, my favorite fiscal hawk.

I know you might be saying, Attorney Caruso, I agree with you.

This is a problem, but the city just can't afford to pay for right to counsel.

Well, we are paying for it.

We are paying for it in lost property tax revenue from properties where the extraction is completed and the windows are boarded.

We pay for it through the immense cost of addressing homelessness.

We pay for it in the uncaptured earnings tax from able-bodied people who can't keep steady employment after an improper eviction.

We pay for it by not investing in solutions.

Funding for eviction defense attorneys puts a bad land or practices under a microscope and helps set the standard for a decent, safe rental housing market, which directly impacts the ability of our citizens to maintain the health and safety of their families and contribute to our society society.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next we have Jess Boyer.

And after Jess Boyer, we have Michael Meyer, Erica Hallman, Carl Griner, and Caleb Bauti.

My name is Jess.

I'm sorry, we cannot hear you.

I don't know how to fix that.

Is this any better?

When I come closer, yes, that's a lot better.

Okay.

All right, sorry about that.

Um, on February 18th of last year, 36-year-old Jennifer Pendleton was found dead by a manhole outside City Hall after losing battle and lived in many places in family when you're death.

Despite widespread awareness of the harm and lethality caused by SLMPD for years, the city, including this board has continued to give them the largest share of the budget.

As we move through another season of this annual process, it's hard to dismiss the feeling that more is at stake now than before.

I'm not sure who that was.

Um as I was saying, her death and the many winter deaths related uh that preceded it are preventable yet disproportionately common in the city of St.

Louis.

Their response to the need late last year, in response to the need late last year, um Mayor Care Spencer launched Code Blue Activation Program that expanded winter shelter bed capacity and created a shuttle system to roam the streets on cold nights looking for folks to bring into shelter.

Um it uh scaled up based on capacity based on temperature, meaning that on the coldest nights we had as many as 791 additional beds, almost tripling the bed availability in previous winters.

And with that data confirming over 90% of the occupancy of both emergency and year-round shelters, it's clear that code blue was a fact in meeting this unmet urgent need year-round shelters couldn't.

As a result, there were no reported deaths from hypothermia last winter.

But the impact is even greater than preventing deaths.

This critical intervention reduces incidences, city fires, trespassing, overwhelming hospital ERs that are typically burdened.

Really, the longest lasting impact COBLE has is the opportunity focus from blankets and hot food to longer-term housing focused solutions, because no one can think about getting a job while they freeze outside.

As for the impact this had on me, I slept better last winter than any winter before.

Even as the freezing rain came pouring down, I knew my neighbors were no longer enduring it.

I knew they were fed and warm and safe.

I ask that we prioritize giving everyone the opportunity to be warm enough to consider their next steps towards safe housing.

I asked that we prevent preventable winter deaths.

I asked that we keep code blue in the fiscal year 27 budget to preserve peace of mind, knowing our neighbors won't be sleepable.

Thank you.

Next we have Michael Meyer Good afternoon, everyone.

My name is Michael Meyer.

I live in Ward 2.

I work at Freedom Community Center.

We are a member of the Office of Violence Prevention Network.

Remarkable, outstanding, transformed.

These are the words used to describe one of our participants here at Freedom Community Center.

Those are not my words.

Those are the words used by a judge overseeing our participants' criminal case.

I was in the room, I heard it myself.

The Office of Violence Prevention understands violence spreads like a virus.

The more a person is exposed to it, exposed to it, the more likely they are to transmit it.

The vast majority of our participants at Freedom Community Center are on the receiving end of violence.

We provide therapy, connect them with resources for employment, food, housing, connect them with family, community, and through pod mapping.

We sit with them in circle.

We set goals with them and plan for a better future.

Over the weeks and months we work with them, I see our people move towards stability, safety, and healing.

They graduate our program more safe, more whole, more healed than when we first receive them.

Little by little, they're transformed.

Trauma is not trauma that is not transformed, is transferred.

Cutting funding that supports our neighbors when they experience violence comes at a great cost.

Many of our participants, for instance, are parents.

They heal not only for themselves, they heal on behalf of their children.

In their families and in their neighborhood, our participants break the cycle of violence.

If our healing work were to be defunded, our participants and their family members would lose a lifeline.

They will stay in their isolation.

They will suffer quietly.

They will be more likely to transmit violence.

The cycle of violence breaks them.

Dr.

Martin Luther King Jr.

said a budget is a moral document.

It reflects our priorities, it reflects our values.

Would we tell our neighbors we have nothing for you when you're hurting, when you lose a loved one to violence, when you flee your home because of domestic violence?

But if, in your desperation, you steal some food, sleep in a park, we will arrest you, jail you, convict you, imprison you.

While in prison, you may be violated.

While in prison, you may be killed.

I'm a parent.

That is not a city budget for my children.

Judges recognize the revolving door of the carceral system.

Judges see people returned to society more traumatized and broken by the carceral system.

They are worse off when they when they first get involved.

When judges see one of our participants standing in their commitment to their healing, their growth, their family, and the common good, they recognize good work.

This budget is immoral.

This budget is also reckless.

This budget guarantees an increase in poverty, crime, and broken individuals, families, and communities.

Please do not defund the vital work of the Office of Violence Prevention.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next we have Erica Hallman.

Hello.

My name is Erica Hallman, and I am a resident and business owner in the Seventh Ward of St.

Louis City.

The state and its board of police commissioners have blackmailed the city, the mayor, the Board of EA, and the Alders in a blatant power grab meant to exterminate our people and depopulate our city of its Black and Latinx residents and the working class people that have made the city great for generations.

To turn it into a playground for the Missouri legislature and their developer buddies.

As the elected board, I expect each of you not to negotiate with terrorists and to refuse to pay the $60 million blackmail from the Board of Police Commissioners that was handed to you, plus the threat to come back for another 140 million.

I expect you to fund what has actually made the city safer.

That means investing at least 15 million in the Office of Violence Prevention and the programs it funds like street violence intervention, restorative and transformative justice solutions, mental and behavioral health crisis responders.

These programs cause crime to drop over 40% since it was funded, and murders have fallen from 263 murders per year in 2020 to 139 last year.

St.

Louis Metro Police Department is the deadliest police department in the country and the deadliest country in the world.

For their violence, the State Board of Police Commissioners wishes to reward the police by doubling officers' salaries, up to 60 63.5 million and more than doubling their vehicle purchases from their fellow Board Police Commissioner Don Brown.

St.

Louis Justice Center is the deadliest jail in our state and the largest mental health warehouse in the state and an indefinite holding site for our unhoused neighbors.

While we cry no more jail deaths, the state board of police wants to reward the jail by funding 17 new positions to book more people into this deadly jail.

If the city can find 60 million plus dollars in the budget, all of those funds should go to fund the north side impacted by the tornado.

If CARA and budget director Payne are offering an additional 24 million dollars to the police over the state's mandate, those funds should go to right to counsel, OVP, Code Blue, and housing.

A budget is a moral document, and you, the board of ENA, yours are on display.

If any of you pass any increase to the police board over the minimum mandate, you will not see re-election.

If you do not fund OVP at $15 million or more, crime will increase in the city.

If you give any additional funding to this police, crime will increase in this city.

That's not a threat.

It's the reality of the data and a promise you can bank on.

Because while the city is still struggling to deploy tornado funds, the people self-deployed under the leadership of organizations like Action STL, Freedom Community Center, and so many others repaired roofs, cleared limbs, and put food, water, and supplies in people's hands on May 17th while the city was still frozen.

That makes your mandate simple.

Fund the people, fuck the police.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Next, we have Carl Griner.

Thank you.

My name is Carl.

I'm a citizen of Ward 5 and a lifelong citizen of the Saint City of St.

Louis.

I come here today as I'm very frustrated with the demands of our state of Missouri is continuing to push down on our city.

We need to take a stand against the takeover of our city by the state of Missouri.

And that begins with a moral document of our budget and standing up against the funding being demanded for the SLMP.

Too often we get fooled by a narrative being spread that we are safer with more police officers.

In reality, we are much safer when we as a community have our needs met.

Public safety is not more police people.

Public safety is our community having affordable quality housing.

Public safety is access to quality jobs.

Public safety is quality education for our children.

Public safety is places and programs for a youth to gather to socialize to interact.

Public safety is access to food, to groceries, to health care.

Public safety's access to basic services.

Our budget is better served by providing monies to support these aspects of public safety, not by spending money on police incarceration.

The reality is police actually show up after the harm has already been done.

To prevent harm, we would benefit from more funds for the Office of Violence Prevention for youth programming, for right to console, for code blue, and hopefully some form of code red.

And we also must stop delaying the help for our neighbors in North St.

Louis.

We need to help rebuild after the tornado of nearly a year ago.

We must not give in to the demands of Mike Keo.

We must not give in to the demands of the state of Missouri.

We must not give in to the demands of the Board of Police Commissioners.

Let's use our budget for true public safety.

Let's address the needs of our citizens and stop the harm.

We will be a better city when all of our citizens, especially our black and brown brothers and sisters in North St.

Louis thrive.

We can be better.

And now is the time with this budget to allocate funds to these needs and not continue supporting the police and incarcerate model.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next we have Kayla Bouchi.

Good afternoon.

My name is Kayla Boucher, and I am a resident of the second ward.

I've lived in St.

Louis for 10 years now.

And I also work with the Freedom Community Center, where we intervene in serious violence in North St.

Louis.

First, I do want to point out how disrespectful it was to start this meeting.

Okay.

Looking for something a little bit ahead of the track.

Mute yourselves, please.

Yeah, please.

That would be great.

Okay.

So, like I said, I want to point out how disrespectful it was to start this meeting 30 minutes late, and how disrespectful it is that the mayor is on the other side of the world.

And we aren't even sure if she's here and listening.

Um, but I'm gonna act like she is.

So every day we work with survivors of serious harm as well as those who have caused harm, and we try and help them change in meaningful ways by showing up and doing public health things.

Many choose to not contact the police and instead reach out to us because we actually provide immediate safety support and healing.

We provide case management, we offer we offer other essential services because survivors deserve options beyond the legal system.

And I'm sure most of us know that if survivors had a choice, they wouldn't go through the legal system.

They know it's not there to serve them.

Um, so with all of this being said, we work with the Office of Violence Prevention.

We deliver wraparound services and support.

Reducing this budget would take critical life-saving resources away from the survivors and limit our ability to prevent harm before it happens.

This is why we cannot increase funding for police at the expense of prevention.

We should fully fund the Office of Violence Prevention with at least $7 million, so that we can continue helping survivors recover and support.

We are trying to make real change in our community.

We're the ones who keep us safe, and we need to focus on an upstream approach instead of funding something, somebody who shows up after the harm has already happened and thus causes more harm.

I'm advocating for increased funding for the Office of Violence Prevention so that we can meaningfully reduce violence in St.

Louis.

I am asking for funding for the for all of the housing options, tiny houses, code blue.

We have to have one for red, code red as well.

And we need to fund the north side for tornado support.

Thank you for your time.

I pray, Mayor, that you were listening.

Thank you.

Next is going to be Mike Reed.

Thank you.

Um, I stand before you to uh advocate.

Oh, my name, sorry, my name is Mike Reed, and I am a lifelong resident of St.

Louis, Missouri.

I'm also known as Coach Mike.

I stand before you to advocate for sustained and expanded investment in violence intervention programs, including the Office of Violence Prevention and Community Centered organizations like Freedom Community Center.

In our city and across the nation, these programs are not only humane and just, they are smarter public safety.

You may ask why these programs matter to St.

Louis residents.

Intervention programs that engage youth and at-risk youth adults address root causes of violence, poverty, trauma, lack of opportunity, and weak social supports before they escalate into criminal activities.

These programs emphasize mentorship, conflict resolution, job readiness, mental health support, and safe community spaces.

Research consistently shows that early intervention and community-based strategies reduce violent crime and recidivism more cost effectively than simply expanding police presence or response capacity.

I know that's been repeated over and over again, but I just need to put my two cents in.

When resources are directed towards prevention, they need the need for reactive policing and costly criminal justice interventions decline over time.

Programs led by credible community organizations, foster trust between residents and institutions.

That improves reporting, cooperation, and compliance with laws.

Those are critical ingredients for reducing violence and improving public safety overall.

There are also national examples of comprehensive violence prevention investments in cities like Philadelphia, Chicago, Baltimore, and San Antonio have demonstrated lower gun violence trajectories with wraparound supports, trauma-informed like trauma-informed care, employment pathways, education supports, accompany policing strategies.

Communities that prioritize and prevention, I'm sorry, prioritize prevention in tandem with policing saw larger declines in shooting with shootings than those that invest in with police alone.

And I'm personally, I am also a comrade, a partner with Freedom Community Center.

And in closing, I would like to say we just had a circle, uh, a restorative justice circle.

And where some serious harm was done.

That's why while I was sent to see him.

Um he could he didn't trust anyone.

At the end, when we did an evaluation to ask how does this circle work.

Whatever you do, don't stop doing this.

And I'm asking you for this participant who's on his way to Sunny Hawaii to get away to learn how to be on his own.

Whatever you do, whatever you do, don't get rid of this.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Mr.

Reed.

Next, we're gonna have Aha Se Deju.

Aha, sir.

Much love, Kayla, peace and power family.

My name's Ahasa Jadu, and I'm a resident of the 11th ward here in St.

Louis City.

And I'm here to advocate for increased and sustained funding for the Office of Violence Prevention.

I work with Freedom Community Center.

It's a transformative and restorative justice organization, working directly with serious violence in North St.

Louis City.

Um, it's been said it can't be said too many times because we're still having this needing to have this conversation that many in our community do not turn to police and policing systems in moments of crises.

They truly turn to us.

Um they come seeking immediate help, safety, care, and um discussions about pathways forward that don't deepen the harm.

And so literally every day we are standing with those who have experienced harm and with those who have caused harm.

And we walk and guide both of them towards healing and accountability and change.

We offer case management, individual and group therapy, clinical support, and and in total, we just ensure that survivors have access to options that that honor their humanity and go beyond what are considered these solely like legal responses.

And so to reduce the funding of the Office of OVP is to remove life-giving resources from those most impacted and to weaken our collective ability to prevent violence before it manifests.

In truth, our city is constantly revealing itself by what it chooses to invest and nurture.

And if we're being honest about what it reproduces, we recognize that policing does not respond to harm.

It deepens the conditions that give rise to harm.

It isolates people in the community.

It reinforces cycles of shame and it creates barriers for people to meet their basic needs like housing, like employment, and like stability.

And so these are the very conditions where violence takes root and grows.

And I don't think we should be investing as a city in violence.

And so if the city is serious about building a safer St.

Louis, then our investment must reflect a different intention.

We should invest in prevention, invest in healing, and invest in conditions that make violence unnecessary.

The Board of Police Commissioners' desires shouldn't sway the truth about our reality.

We do not need them at all.

We certainly don't need more policing.

We need to significantly reduce the funding of policing, which is just a reactionary force in the city and fully fund and then increase the investment of the Office of Violence Prevention.

Right?

We must invest in the systems that are already doing the work, healing and stabilizing and ultimately transforming our communities if we want to live in a safe and a dignified city.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Next, we have James Ozier.

After James, we have Phyllis Troop, Jamar Peary, and David Rodriguez.

Do we have James?

Okay, Phyllis Troop.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

My name is Phyllis Troop.

I'm a resident of the 13th ward.

I am here to testify that the Board of Estimate and Appointment reject this budget.

I am a survivor support specialist at commun at Freedom Community Center.

While I work with survivors and responsible parties of serious violence, we provide case management therapy and healing services through communal through a communal lens rooted in transformative and restorative justice practices.

We coordinate with OVP for outreach to community members and for collaboration with other organizations doing the important work to help prevent violence in St.

Louis.

Since its establishment in 2022, violence has been on the downtrend.

I'm advocating for the defunding of the City Justice Center, where community members are held pretrial for months and years while not being provided competent medical or mental health care nor lawful legal support.

22 community members have died there since 2020.

In fiscal year 2026, the CJC was allocated 33 million dollars and spent only 22 million.

I'm advocating for the reduced funding of the St.

Louis Police Department, where the budget has increased the past two years, but the St.

Louis Police Department was allocated 21.7 million dollars and expended 128.4 million.

I'm also advocating for the reduced funding of the sheriff's department, which was allocated 12.4 million dollars and expended eight.

I am advocating for the D for the um reduced funding of the juvenile court, which was allocated 24 million dollars and expended 16.

Uh I am a doula.

I am a childbirth educator and I am a Navy veteran.

I've committed my life to mothers, to the service of mothers, to the service of this community and this country.

And it disappoints me and disgusts me the city's government uh response to supporting this most vulnerable population and the community.

I am advocating for the funding of recreational centers, which were only allocated three million.

Um, and I'm also advocating for the funding of the CDA neighborhood revitalization, the fully funding of the OVP uh Office of Violence Prevention, Rental Assistance, the Seulard Market, Recreation Services, and Services for the Unhoused.

Uh also for tenant services and for uh the right to counsel.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you, comrades, for coming, and I appreciate you all.

Thank you.

Next, we have Jamar Perry.

Good afternoon, everyone.

My name is Jamar Perry, and I'm a resident of the Sixth Ward.

I am also a mental health professional within the city of St.

Louis in several spaces that we impacted by this budget.

The first space I would like to talk about is Freedom Community Center, an organization that intervenes in serious cases of violence.

We work with those who uh caused harm and those who have been impacted by harm.

I get to listen to the stories of domestic violence survivors as well as family members who've been murdered in CJC.

I get to provide these folks spaces to heal to cry and to be seen.

I also work at the bullet related injury clinic where I see black men who've been impacted deeply by the violence of a bullet.

I watch them heal physically, mentally, and emotionally and provide them space.

I'm also the executive director of the Village Path, where we're able to provide resources to students in one of our programs when they were hit by a tree during a tornado last year.

The police aren't trained to de-escalate as we saw last Friday as they violently arrested protesters.

The police aren't trained to provide spaces for healing as we see all the time, or to deal with mental health crisis.

I'm advocating for an increased funding for the Office of Violence or Prevention so we could magnificently become a better city and reduce violence as we have been doing with the funding so far.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next, we have David Rodriguez.

Good afternoon.

My name is Dave Rodriguez, and I serve as a Secretary Treasurer for St.

Louis Firefighters Local 73.

I represent the firefighters, EMS providers, and dispatchers of the city of St.

Louis.

In addition to all that, I'm also a city resident, and I am deeply concerned about the future of EMS services in this city.

EMS is a small but highly trained and skilled segment of our workforce.

They don't just transport patients, they deliver medicine in motion.

They service the critical link between your living room and the emergency room.

EMS pay remains low, and we are growing more and more concerned that this is going to lead us toward a different public safety crisis.

Separate from what so many others have spoken on today.

We're already seeing the impact as trained providers flee the city.

We've lost 10 providers so far this year alone.

Those shortage shortages are being backfilled by private for-profit services.

Consider how that impacts the most vulnerable citizens who often utilize EMS as their primary care, whether they're sick, injured, or experiencing a mental health emergency.

We firmly believe that our EMS service can provide better care and a better value for the people of St.

Louis.

If pay and working conditions don't improve, we risk losing the very professionals our citizens depend on.

They don't have to pick up and move.

All they have to do is change the name on the back of their department t-shirt, and they can drastically improve their lives.

Our responders are also dealing with payroll issues.

The people we trust to show up on our worst days should be able to count on something as basic as a fair and accurate paycheck.

To the board of EA, if you're looking for opportunities within the budget, we encourage you to invite labor to the table prior to any large capital improvements or large purchases by any department.

After all, no one understands what's needed most for our workforce better than the people who use it every single day.

To be clear, we're not asking for the purse strings here.

We're just asking for a platform for our voices to be heard and for the citizens to be represented.

Local 73 remains wholeheartedly committed to serving our citizens in their time of need.

But we need the support to sustain the service.

I know that you have many competing priorities here today, and I just hope that EMS is among them.

Thank you for your time.

Hello, thank you.

One moment.

Good afternoon.

My name is Sophia Zamudio, and I live in the fourth ward.

I'm here to talk about the proposed police budget, but first I'd like to point out a few things I'm grateful for here in St.

Louis.

I am grateful for the new municipal ID program, which offers the most vulnerable in our community a small facet of stability.

I am grateful for the Office of New American, which aids the new members of the St.

Louis area with transitioning to our lovely community.

I'm grateful for the way I continue to see my neighbors show up with determination and confidence in their morals.

I wish that our elected officials would hear the plates and priorities of their constituents.

I am fearful of a St.

Louis that not only allows but encourages the racial profiling of an already marginalized community.

And if you believe I'm wrong, then please tell me how these arrests are happening.

Cite the reason that 82% of ISTA teammates here begin at mainly unwarranted traffic stops.

I am fearful of the St.

Louis that does not identify with its citizens and protect its constituents.

Instead, rounding up vital members of the community like fathers of newly postpartum mothers.

But how?

How could I ever do this when you demonize and wrongfully arrest our members?

When you make targets out of the people I love when you further an already dangerous rhetoric.

These are our community members, whether you like it or not.

These are the children your kids go to school with.

These are the students of our universities, these are the people we count on.

I want safety and support from my community, and we will never get there with more distrust in the police, more distrust in our elected officials, more desperate of circumstances, and more isolated individuals.

We are hurting our community members.

How can we ask anyone to be good to us when we are nothing but cruel to them?

I am tired of using our resources to break us down instead of build us up.

I am here telling you St.

Louis does not want this.

We want money for tornado relief, for the Office of New Americans, and for the flourishing of our community, not for higher vigilance, not for further alienation and oppression, and certainly not to violate the liberties that make this country great.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next we have James O here.

Can you hear me now?

Yes.

Okay.

All right.

Yeah, to get in, but uh wanted to say in regards to this that Governor Kehoe denied the voters of St.

Louis to elect our own police uh commissioners, which is done in towns and cities throughout the state and country.

And to pour and to pour salt on the womb.

The St.

Louis police commissioners want to rip off the people.

They meet in secret with no oversight or transparency.

And our question, where is their hemedity?

And they should receive no uh increase.

We need dollars, uh, we need the dollars for water breaks, infrastructure, assistance, assistance to our most vulnerable, our seniors, our future, the youth, unhoused, and homeless people, renters and home owners needing repairs to their homes, including before and after the tornado.

We need these funds for public education, living wage with paid sick leave, health care, and a woman's right to control their own bodies, which our state officials are blocking.

I we need local control of our police department, the bordermen and proportion, as well as the border of all the meat needs to stop this ripoff now of our hard-earned money.

The governor's state legislators have created a mandate without funds.

If this is not illegal, what is and on top of this, a police officer recently shot a young man in the back of a head.

That's a cow.

Coward.

And now we're faced with a lawsuit that may result in millions of dollars in damages for the young man's life.

It appears that the officer involved has not gained any insight from the tragic tragic events surrounding Michael Brown, George Taylor, and others.

No respect for life.

We would be foolish to provide them with money that we need for the people.

This undemocratic method that the governor, state legislatures, and the commissioners are using, is denying us our democratic rights.

Don't be fooled by this devious behavior and the tipped itself.

Those responsible for this should face legal action themselves.

And I say we may day, May Day Strong, Mayday St.

Louis.

May Day.

Stand up, fight back.

Thank you.

Next, we have Brandy Jilks.

After Brandy, we have Lee John Gray, Keisha Blanchard.

Thank you.

Go ahead.

Can you guys hear me?

Yes.

Okay.

Good morning.

My name is Brandy Jelks.

I am the program director at Diamond Diva Empowerment Foundation.

Here we work with survivors of domestic violence as they are fleeing those relationships and looking for healing and stability.

So the main thing today, we would like to oppose and reject the proposal of the police budget.

Those funds, it's just excessively.

It's a success.

It's excessive.

And we are actually requesting that those funds be put to the Office of Violence Prevention.

We have been funded by the Office of Violence Prevention in the last four years, and we have built out a significant program that helps individuals and survivors of domestic violence as they're fleeing those situations with emergency housing stabilization, healing, and support in various areas.

With the violence of the Office of Violence Prevention, we have also created an ecosystem of organizations that are grassroots and have a great connection with the um with our community.

That actually can be a pro that has been a proactive stance in stopping the violence.

As Mike Milton stated, there's 40% of the crime has been reduced.

The numbers have been reduced since OVP has been in place.

So we're able to stabilize them longer and get them to a point of independence, is the main thing.

A lot of these organizations will work multifaceted, not just addressing violence, but we're addressing homelessness, stability, and working with the children to stop that generational generational cycle that might continue on.

So with that being said, we cannot do it.

It's not about Diamond Diva, it's about the entire ecosystem.

We are all needed in order for us to continue the work.

With that being said, also we have been gap fillers.

I think Jason Watson has spoken about that.

We have been boots on the ground since the tornado in May on May 16th.

We've been boots on the ground responding, and we still are boots on the ground with the logistical system that's in place with the city of St.

Louis as well.

So the main thing is we just need to continue this ecosystem, continue to help the individuals as they heal and grow through the process and then things that they're being faced with, the barriers that our community is looking at daily.

With that being said, I just wanted to go over a few numbers.

Um just stating some of the work that we've done.

So I can imagine if my numbers are like this, I'm sure they're just as extreme.

Um, and the work that we're doing is very um detrimental if it ends.

We could actually have a castrophile, um we could have a uh castrophic fallout in our city if we do not continue to fund these organizations.

Last year, just in 2025, with the funding, we received over 195 applications.

So that definitely shows you the need in the domestic violence realm and just individuals, victims of crime or facing some type of victimization.

Um, as well as um we have served over 527 children and their clients last year.

We have provided 8,160 bed nights of shelter to ensure that they were in a safe space.

We have um provided emergency shelter for seven days or more to 52 families.

57 individuals have been placed into a new safe place of their own, a home to call their to call their own.

Um, we have completed 234 safety plans, teaching individuals how to stay safe when they are not in a safe area or the different signs that they might.

Your time is now uh thank you.

We miss Sarah Phelps.

Are you here now?

Yes, I am.

Can you hear me?

Yes, go ahead.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um, so my name is Sarah Phelps and I live in the sixth ward.

Um, I want to thank um President Green and Mayor Spencer and Councillor Baringer for hearing my testimony today, and also really thank everybody else who's testified before me and for using your voices to make our community a better place for all of us.

Um to the Board of Estimate Apportion, I am imploring you to reject this budget.

Um mentioned SLMPD already receives the biggest chunk of our budget.

Um, crime rates are going down, and reams and reams of data show that pouring more money in the policing doesn't make us safer.

Um, SLMPD is the most violent police department in the country.

And um, we saw that on display last Friday at the State of the City address last week when SLNPD was verbally and physically very violent when removing St.

Louisans who are demanding funding for North City for right to counsel for the Office of Violent Prevention and more.

Um rejecting this budget means you also have an opportunity, and I think the responsibility to fund programs that truly support St.

Louisans, um, especially black and brown St.

Louisans who continue to face discrimination in the form of decades of disinvestment and ongoing policies that disproportionately focus on the interests often white uh business owners who are focusing on um downtown have a pretty narrow lens of things that they uh at least publicly talk about caring about.

Um this is an opportunity to invest first and foremost in North City.

Um for tornado recovery, including housing stability, debris removal, social services, rebuilding housing, um, but also beyond tornado recovery um to address the the decades of disinvestment and um neglect and poor policies uh governing North City and and our neighbors who live there.

Um this is also an opportunity to invest in the right to counsel program that keeps people in their homes.

Um folks have mentioned this is saving money on the front end, um, which is important, but even more important than that, right to counsel I'm sure St.

Louis and Lives Aren't disrupted by displacement and potential homelessness.

Um again is an opportunity to invest in the successful and life-changing Office of Violence Prevention and all the incredible organizations that it funds.

Um finally I'll end with this is rejecting this budget as an opportunity to invest in the successful Code Blue program um that serves our in-house community members and um really has been a success this past year.

And I hope that um not only can we invest in that, but also um increase the amount of funding allocated to the Code of Blue program to save lives.

So, in closing, um thank you again for taking the time to take my testimony.

Um, and I implore you to reject this budget and fund uh what St.

Louisans um truly need.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next, we have Lee John Gray Good afternoon.

My name is Leijong Gray, and I come before you today as a mother, a survivor, a client, and an advocate.

I come before you carry both truth and loss.

Domestic violence is not just a statistic for me, it is my reality.

On December 23rd, 2019, two days before her 21st birthday on Christmas, my daughter Destiny Nicole Gray lost her life to domestic violence, of which she was in the 194 murders in that year in St.

Louis City, of who you see picture behind me.

She was not just a name, she was not just a number.

She was my child.

Her life mattered, and her death should have never happened.

Destiny did what we tell victims to do.

She reached out for help.

She contacted the police department numerous times while she was experiencing abuse.

And yet no one connected her to domestic violence advocates.

No one placed life-saving resources in her hands.

Those were missed opportunities.

And today, I live with the weight of knowing those missed opportunities may have cost my daughter her life.

As a grieving mother, I was left to navigate unimaginable pain alone.

No immediate support, no outreach, no guidance from victim services to help me process the trauma, the loss, or the long road towards justice.

And to this day, the person responsible for taking my daughter's life has not been charged.

But this did not begin with my daughter.

23 years ago, I too was a victim of domestic violence.

And at that time, I did not know what a domestic violence advocate was.

I did not know help existed.

I did not know there were people and programs designed to help me escape, plan, and survive.

That lack of knowledge delayed my safety.

And that is exactly why funding advocacy organization is not optional, it's critical.

Because when victims do not know where to turn, they remain in danger.

And when they remain in danger, the danger often becomes fatal.

And Missouri lives are lost every year to domestic violence.

Across the state, tens of thousands of cases are reported annually.

And here in St.

Louis, we continue to see those numbers rise.

This is not just a crisis, this is an emergency.

But there is another truth we must acknowledge.

When advocacy organizations are funded, lives are safe.

For every life lost, there are lives that are protected, restored, and rebuilt because someone answered the call, because resources were available because advocacy existed.

I know this because I'm one of those lives.

After the loss of my daughter, Diamond Power and Diamond D empowerment became a lifeline for me and my family.

For Pathways to Brightness, I found support.

The pathways to housing, I found stability.

Through pathways to the healing program, I found strength when I thought I had none left.

They did not just assist me, they stood with me.

Those are they also helped protect my family by connecting us to the Missouri Safety Home Program.

After I was attacked at my property, was damaged for speaking out for justice for my daughter.

Let me be very clear.

They can respond, they can document, they can enforce, but they cannot rebuild lives, they cannot provide long-term safety, and they cannot walk with victims through healing recovery.

That is the work of advocates.

So if my daughter's name, Destiny Cole Gray, cannot, she could not be safe, then let her name be the reason someone else's is.

Thank you.

And thank you for your time.

Thank you so much.

Sorry for your loss.

Next, we have Keisha Blanchard.

Good afternoon.

My name is Keisha Blancher, and on January the 5th of 2024, I decided to take a walk at 12 in the afternoon with a neighbor in our Mount Pleasant neighborhood, War 3, where I was shot in the back by a random stranger.

I thought that when St.

Louis Police showed up to the scene that they would have an urgency to gather evidence, find the person that did this, but there was no urgency.

I thought that when I got to the emergency room that the doctor would remove my bullet, but I was told that they were not in the business of removing bullets.

I was given a technical shot and a band-aid and sent home.

The next morning, after much prayer and crying, I reached out to the Freedom Community Center, who within 24 hours called me and instantly built protection and community around me.

The team at FCC helped me create a safety plan, went on walks with me so that the fear of walking outside would subside.

Gifted me my big dog Robbie, who shows me love daily.

Um helped pay for my moving expenses when I was able to purchase my first home and invited me to partake in a restorative justice circle that gave me the ultimate justice after receiving none from the St.

Louis Police Department.

In conversations with Carissa, the current director of Dutchtown South Community Corporation, I was given the number to the BRIC, the bullet-related injury clinic.

Within 24 hours of texting the BRIC, I had an appointment where I was given a plan that took 11 months of therapy, somatic body work, grounding, drumming, prayer, and ultimately my bullet was removed by the hands of Dr.

LJ Punch.

Today I place a demand on everyone on the board to ensure that there is money available for organizations like the Freedom Community Center and the BRIC that provide real medicine, care, protection, and healing for our community.

It was the community and organizations like FCC and the BRIC that showed up for the North Side when the tornado ripped through our neighborhood.

The residents of St.

Louis deserve a city government that takes our wellness and joy serious.

Do what is morally right and fair and keep the heartbeat of our city pumping.

Rebuild the North Side, restore her back to her original glory, keep community nonprofit organizations like the Freedom Community Center and the BRIC open because they are necessary.

I stand before you today, a hill woman who does not live in fear.

I am living data that the blood, sweat, and energy that the people at the Freedom Community Center and the BRIC put into their work works.

Thank you so much for your time and for listening.

Thank you.

Next, we have her dossier Benton.

After we have Mark Herham, Nathan Williams, and Kamori Walker.

Good afternoon.

My name is Herdosha Columbay Bentham.

And I am I lived in St.

Louis my whole life, born and raised.

They have been impacted by every various system that we are on this call talking about.

I have buried my two brothers from horizontal and violence and all these things.

Today I am the director at Freedom Community Center of Organizing.

I have had the privilege and the honor to be able to be what I did not have in 1997 in 1995.

Like so many people on this call, we fought for this.

All these organizations that we talking about, like Freedom Community Center, they get to sit with people that have loved ones that's dying in a jail that our community are continue offer cages and not care.

This is more than just a conversation about a budget.

That's what's happening.

That is what's going on here.

This that's what this conversation is about.

So I'm here to remind us that we fought and we are not going backwards.

And we're letting you know everybody on this call is the proof that we're not going backwards.

We're going forward.

And whoever stands in our way, we will move all over you.

We will organize, we will continue to fight.

We the people, we keep us safe, not police.

They cause all kind of chaos.

No one set with my family, no one did anything on any side of the proof.

From the person that murdered my brothers from my family that was um the victim, regardless of what side you own, the state don't have the answers.

The people do.

So invest in the north side, and it's just clear to me, and I'm gonna end right here.

Whose side are you on?

What side are you on?

This is very clear.

Clear message.

We have the answers.

Invest in our community by investing in the things that promote healing, not harm.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next, we have Mark Perham.

He's coming up.

I'm taking getting them ready.

Um, can you turn the video on for the toy Wilson?

Mark Perhan.

It's here.

You gotta start our video, Jason.

They gave they gave it to me.

Okay.

Can you hear him?

Hello.

Yes, we can hear you.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

They can hear you.

You can hear.

Y'all can hear me.

Yeah, they can hear you.

I'm like Mark Perham.

I'm a participant with show me peace.

Uh I also come every Monday to Man on Mission.

So I get a uh both angles.

Uh I'm also a victim of the tornado that happened last year.

We lost our house, caused pretty much everything we owned.

Um, I was actually told to come get into a see what show me peace had going on uh around that time, but I I didn't I got into it recently when I came home from some little time I had ended up doing for a situation that's passed now.

Um show me peace.

I uh I I feel like I feel like they're for the community, you know.

Like it's it's it's different when you actually in the community when you actually heard and seeing it front row.

Like, I don't know.

I ain't I ain't really a speed person, like they they do a lot for me, man.

Like not money wide, not financially, not not just mentally and emotionally, they there for me.

I got brothers in there uh with a team, I got sisters with a team.

I'll put my money towards them before I put my money towards the police.

Police don't do nothing for us, they ain't they don't do nothing for us.

Like, like I don't know, I forgot the lady's name that was on her, but she was like, uh what they say, only thing they got to offer is jail.

It's the only thing they got to offer is handcuffs.

They don't have is there's nothing, there's nothing they have to offer.

Um I don't really know, but like they they um they programs and stuff.

It helps.

I come every class they got, I come to everything that they do.

It don't just help me, not just me though, I got brothers.

I got four blood brothers that also come as well.

So yeah, thank you.

Next, we have Nathan Williams.

Hey, I wish I could uh my name is Nathan Williams.

I'm uh uh violence interrupter in uh peabody area, and uh what brought me to this organization.

I seen several times on TV, Jason Watson and a good friend of mine, Smuck Hookins on TV, and I want to be a part of the organization, you know.

While I was in prison, uh serving 24 years sentence, federal sentence, and all of us said woke up several times, you know, asking myself how did I get myself in this predicament.

I mean, I knew I got there, but uh said to myself with priority some guidance of some kind, or some kind of mentor, you know.

Could this have been prevented?

And uh not on point of uh show me peace.

Uh I said, you know, these guys doing an outstanding job, an awesome job.

Uh prevent a project.

Let me get it out.

And uh we need more organizations like this here in St.

Louis, and as we have heard repeatedly repetitively on this here, uh soon that uh prevention is the key, not incarceration.

That's pretty much what we're hearing all day.

What we have heard all day is uh prevention.

Well, nobody wants to see all our youth incarcerated, locked up through throwing away the key.

Uh and uh again, show me peace is the prevention.

Office of uh violence prevention is the is the key.

Cost of rating our youth is not the answer.

That's all I got.

Thank you.

Next, we have Kamori Walker.

Here you come now.

Welcome to show me peace.

Speak up the living work.

Yeah, man, my group don't got nowhere to go.

Show me peace, step up, they make sure we cool, or somebody having a bad day, they talk to us, show you all crash out, they take us places so we can see more than just the streets.

Take us play, so we get more than just the streets, and what's somebody don't got it all to help out with dance?

That's all I like that love.

Thank you.

Next, we have Z Gorley.

And after Z Gorley, we have Shantasha Love, Angel Louis, Jim Roose, and Demarco Moore.

Hi, everyone.

Uh, my name is Zeke Orley.

I live in the third ward.

Despite widespread awareness of the harm and lethality caused by SLMPD for years, the city, including this board, has continued to give them the largest share of the budget.

And as we move through another season of this annual process, it's hard to dismiss the feeling that more is at stake now than before.

Last Friday, outside of City Hall, over 100 people, including myself, called on the city to invest in services that promote public safety, like violence and eviction prevention and tornado recovery.

When some went inside City Hall, constituents were met with dangerous aggression from SLMPD, SWAT, and city marshals simply for using our voices inside of City Hall at the state of the city address.

What does it signal when people calling for the city to meaningfully respond to St.

Louis's, particularly those in North City impacted by the tornado are the very ones targeted, forcibly removed, and arrested.

What's further?

What does it signal when the police and mayor justify their actions?

This um this violence unfolded in broad daylight in front of media and witnesses, and for some was a source of applause.

And while that all remains beyond reproach, another source of concern is the violence carried out by police in places where cameras and coverage are not because even when there are cameras like police body cams, police fight to release what they don't want seen for over a year.

For over a year, SLMPD resisted releasing body cam footage that laid bare their role in murdering Meshion Wilkins.

It also laid bare the lies they told and their justification for killing this 17-year-old.

If it weren't for a mesh parents and their attorneys, it's doubtful that the footage would have come to light.

And once again, we see how surviving loved ones have to struggle to get police to provide basic transparency in the aftermath of the heinous uh heinous acts that they commit.

And this sequence of events is not new.

And the concerns here go beyond transparency.

The police aggression last Friday night and a mesh on Wilkins killings killing are not isolated incidents.

They are part of a longer history of police targeting and harming black communities and people of color, of the state misrepresenting and lying about the harm and then justifying it.

And this pattern is perpetuated by those who uphold the mantle of white supremacy through silence and inaction and behind closed door deals.

There is real danger in what the state, the police, government jails, prosecutors can do.

And there is real danger in what the state has done.

There's also real danger in normalizing, justifying, and continuing to bankroll these harms.

I join those who are calling on you, members of ENA to reject the Board of Police Commissioners' uh budget that would further embolden the blue line that underscores the terrorizing and murderous nature of SLMPD.

About a year before the tornado struck North City, Meshion Wilkins was killed by SLMPD in the ville, a neighborhood that I've previously lived in an area where SLMPD has murdered several people.

This is the same area that last Friday, numerous people called the city and the mayor to actually invest in before we were forcibly removed by police.

Fund right to counsel, fund violence prevention, fund tornado recovery, fund code blue and services for the unhoused, fund safe and affordable housing, and fund our parks.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next we have Chantasha Love.

Okay, can you hear me?

Yes.

Okay.

My name is Dr.

Chantasha Love, and I'm the director of business and program development with Diamond Diva Empowerment Foundation.

I'm also the director of data and compliance for the St.

Louis Emergency Disaster Distribution Center.

I wanted to address a system at a systematic issue that has placed uh significant strain on organizations like ours, which is the delay in reimbursement of funds.

Uh while we are here requesting funds to continue vital programs, it is equally important to emphasize that timely reimbursement is not optional.

It is essential to extend sustaining these programs.

As it stands, agencies and contractors are reporting, waiting anywhere from 60 to 90 days for reimbursements, even after all invoices, receipts, uh supporting documentations and verifications have been properly submitted.

And during that time, small businesses like ourselves are forced to carry the financial burden, floating costs through private donations, personal funds, and even lines of credit just to ensure services are not interrupted.

Now, this model isn't sustainable.

When reimbursement is delayed, it directly impacts our ability to pay staff, maintain operations, and continue delivering services to the communities that the city has charged us to support.

Now, doing the door uh the tornado, Diamondiva Empowerment Foundation was uniquely positioned to respond due to years of our successful mass distribution of household supplies, food, and personal hygiene projects.

Um, we did not, we did not do this work alone, however.

We were joined with an ecosystem of about 46 other grass group organizations to get this job done.

I don't want to call out names because I don't want to miss anyone, but we had the warehouse capacity, the transportation infrastructure, and the established partnership necessary to receive and manage and distribute over 12 million dollars in donated emergency goods.

We acted decisively, responsibly, and without delay.

However, to date, we have yet to receive full payment of reimbursement for those efforts.

And although our contract was originally supposed to be for two years, we were recently notified that the contract will now end in December in September without any explanation as to why.

Now, Diamond Empowerment Foundation has honored its commitment.

We received an executed contract on December the 3rd, and within our contract, the St.

Louis Emergency Distribution Center has made over 137 deliveries to clients' homes and to 25 registered community agencies, serving over 30 disaster partners, and we deployed over 19,000 volunteer hours with over 319 volunteers.

Since we've done that since August, we've served over 115,000 individuals and provided over 712,000 in emergency supplies.

To be clear, true stewardship is not just in awarding funds.

It is ensuring that those funds move when and where they're needed.

Without timely, efficient, reliable reimbursement, the burden shifts then to the provider and the system breaks.

So stewardship must not only be how funds are awarded, but they must also be on how they are released.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next, we have Angel Flores.

Thank you so much.

Good afternoon.

My name is Angel Flores, Party for Socialism and Liberation.

I live on Ward Two and work at Ward 10 on the North Side with 314 Oasis and Dr.

Punch.

The state controlled police of St.

Louis, a police department no longer controlled by the residents.

It claims to protect.

It's the man in the city, gives it 30 million more dollars more than it is required by law.

I ask a couple of questions.

Why does this state controlled police need more money?

Is it about safety?

It cannot be because homicides dropped 50% last year under local control.

Has Governor Kehoe run out of money sources to fund this police that he now controls?

It cannot be because he clearly has money for new football and baseball stadiums in Kansas City.

Finally, will this help the tens of thousands whose houses are still not being repaired after last year's tornado?

Evidently, it won't.

This is about the state artificially creating a crisis to defund the city, strip people's power, and justify their narrative that progressive cities cannot lead themselves.

If this budget is approved, tornado victims won't get to fix their homes.

Code Blue won't be enforced in the winter, and on house people will continue to live in the street.

The city won't be able to provide the services that ensure quality of life and safety.

I demand that this budget be rejected and that its revision actually funds safety by giving more money to schools, housing, safety net programs, and the Office of Violence Prevention.

Finally, the city government of St.

Louis is sitting on top of a pile of money, better known as the Rams Settlement Funds.

I advocate this money is given to the people of North St.

Louis as they continue to recover from the tornado.

Just give them the checks, and they will take care of themselves.

They know what they need.

Vote no on this budget.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Next, we have Jim Roos.

Next we have DeMarco Moore, Anthony Weatherspoon, and Latoya Wilson.

Jim Roose.

We will move on to DeMarco Moore.

Can you hear me?

Can you hear me?

Yeah.

Okay.

How are you doing?

My name is uh DeMarco Moore.

I go by Marco Polo from the South Side.

I'm a uh VI for Dutch Tower catchment.

What I want to say is show me peace, change my life, to be honest with you.

When I met these people, I was it's not a drug I wasn't doing.

It wasn't a gun I wouldn't hold.

It wasn't a crime I wouldn't do.

You know what I'm saying?

It's like all the way from the beginning to the end stages, the classes they put me through, like the counseling that they basically was giving me.

Everything about this program is the way to save the community.

If not this, everybody else from the crash and burn, go to jail, be killed by the police.

That's how I look at it because all my experiences with the police is been wrongful convictions, wrongful convictions, sit on there, do this, do that.

It's like no mental health like programs they set me up with.

All of it was just like it was forced for me like to crash and burn.

It was like the system is set up for me to lose or for me to fail.

But once I ran into them, it's like they put stepping stones in place that was showing like that would help these people, they're giving them the ways that showing I'm an advocate of it.

I'm a perfect example.

I beat my murder cases, I beat those assaults.

I just at the beginning of 2025, I just had two assaults on the police officers.

They came and showed their hands and the basically police amended, like, okay, we're going to drop the case because they beat me up.

So it's it's like we need this program.

We need these type of people involved, or else we ain't got nothing good coming for the community.

I don't see no good funding any police officers going through the communities doing what they do.

But funding this, right here with this group of people right here, is no other way than this.

Thank y'all for hearing me.

Thank you.

Next we have Anthony Weatherspoon.

Come on, you pull it off.

You know how we're on it off.

Hey, how y'all doing?

My name is Anthony Weatherspoon.

I'm a VI for Dutch Town.

I'm a real life evidence that showed me peace reduced gun violence by targeting the root causes and individuals at the high risk because I was once the high-risk individual.

I was shot four times and incarcerated due to gun violence and unexpressed emotions.

As I was healing up from the incident and been released from jail, Wes, who was a VI is now the supervisor of the VIs, got me involved with Show Me Peace and showed me their method and the love they have for the community.

That alone changed my mindset to do what's right and get back to my community.

I'll cause her to and the surrounding communities.

Show me peace also target the risk individuals because they're not doing violence because the gun, they're doing it because unexpressed emotions and they don't know how to use it.

So they not only do we de-escalate and mediate, we also change our way of thinking.

We use tools to create a different mindset when it comes to the violence.

Since I've been a participant and not a VI, I witnessed that the program and goal focused on preventing reducing gun violence through relationships and consistency engagement with the communities we serve.

Because our relationships with the high risk individual and the respect we earned, it changed our lives as well.

We use intervention, de-escalations, and community engagements to decrease the gun violence, and it's worked.

I was born on the South Side from Dutchtown, and I'm very involved.

So I use my street credit.

I use the things I've learned.

I use the things that I'm still learning to actually change, and it's working, and I see the work, and I feel like funding the police is gonna make another high-risk individual.

And I think that's the goal they're trying to hit.

And I'm against it, and I'm just very thankful for y'all listening to us.

And thank you.

Thank you.

Next, we have Latoya Wilson.

Afternoon, everyone.

My name is Latoya Wilson, and I am a program manager at Show Me Peace.

And I am here to insist on increased funding for the Office of Violence Prevention.

We've talked a lot about the work we do, but I want to clarify something.

We serve specific neighborhoods.

I am a resident of Ward 9 of the city of St.

Louis.

Right now we serve Wells Good Fellow, Hamilton Heights, Walnut Park East, Walnut Park West, the Ville, Dutchtown, Grav Voice Park, and Mount Pleasant, and the Peabody.

And the reason why that is so important is because I know that data and numbers is what matters, right?

I want to talk facts.

We're talking about what's happened last year, but I want to give you some information on year to date.

Currently, year to date, the city of St.

Louis has a 14% increase in murder citywide.

The city of St.

Louis has a 4% increase in shooting incidents.

The city of St.

Louis has a 10% increase in shooting victims year to day.

Why does that matter?

Because I want to point out to you that the work we are doing actually worked.

Because I want to compare that to the neighborhoods that we serve.

These men and women that you see around the room, their numbers matter.

In Dutch Town, we have a 75% decrease in murders.

We have a hundred percent decrease in shooting incidents.

Gravloys Park, no murders, no increases.

Hamilton Heights, no murders, no increases.

Peabody had an increase, one murder in the past year today.

The veil, no murder.

100% decrease in incidents and victims.

Walnut Park East, no murders, no increases.

Walnut Park West, no murders.

100% decrease in incidents and victims.

Wells good fellow, no murders.

The reason why that matters is because we can talk hypothetically whether the work is working, but these numbers, and these are City of St.

Louis's numbers that you can find at CrimStats.com that verify that the work that we are doing specifically the medicine works.

And the reason why it is working is because we use credible individuals from those neighborhoods to utilize their relationships to gain access to people.

Through our practice informed and data-informed model, we have created a framework that recognizes that oftentimes in our communities, violence is an expression of love or protection.

So we utilize that knowledge to help under individuals understand how they can express that love in a different way.

This is not a quick fix.

We are talking long-term change because we are dealing with core value.

So we have to help individuals change the way that they think about how they express the love that they have.

So defunding that means you are defunding change, investing in the Office of Violence Prevention, increasing that means a safer St.

Louis for the people who work here, serve here, and live here, and that's what we deserve.

Thank you so much.

Next we have police McClendon.

Oh, we go.

Okay.

Okay.

And I serve St.

Louis places for people.

People is the key.

Which is agree.

Let's start where we can agree, right?

Um, our number of vacancies.

We got to do something about that.

I think that's something we can agree on.

We also have to agree that we can't afford to lose any more population.

So I don't know if you know Delmar Main Street is across three and a half narrow from the city.

They live surrounded by eight neighborhoods, nine and four, two hundred and fifty businesses.

Sam, you're breaking historically.

Your connection, your breaking.

Okay, let me switch.

Can I switch internet and you just come back to me?

Yes.

Um okay.

I'm gonna next we have Kathleen Logan Smith after we have Carrie McCullin, Ellen Souple, and KB Domain.

There we go.

Okay.

And I appreciate this conversation today.

Um, I don't need to add any more facts to this conversation.

There are so many already on the table.

I'm very proud of everyone who's spoken up because uh what they have envisioned is a city where we restore and thrive and heal.

And they've expressed that this budget doesn't do any of those things.

And I think we need to understand that we can talk about the morality of this budget a lot.

What we also need to understand is that it is seeds that we plant.

So even if you don't have any idea about the morality of it, understand that every seed you plant will bear that fruit.

And when you plant an extra 40 million seeds into police violence, you're gonna get a harvest that we don't want.

And I think we need to understand that the context that we're in.

I am a lot of people are afraid right now, and they're not just afraid because life is hard, and they're trying to make rent.

They're afraid right now because Project 2025 is what's driving the governor and this plan.

What's driving some of the policies that have endangered our neighbors and are choosing cruelty and violence and detention over restoration, healing, and wholeness is a white supremacy agenda being pushed by a few people at the top that happen to have billions of dollars at their disposal.

So that's not that's the context in which we're having this conversation.

This isn't just a budget.

Okay.

This is our survival.

And it's also bullied.

This the cop, this this police board, this budget, the governor, this is bullying, and you don't give in to bullies because then they just come and take more.

What we need to do is go back to the bare minimum or less.

And not so that they can have better, faster guns to shoot unarmed people in the back, because that's not a good use of our budget.

Because then we have to pay for the lawsuits.

And that's not a good use of our budget.

And what we need to do is look at all those dollars and put them back into people.

What we do not need to do is spend three more million dollars tearing down the old famous bar garage, which is just offensive when people can't live in their homes.

That's just gonna benefit an out of state developer who owns stuff from a guy some unit from Florida.

We've got to look at these people extracting wealth from our community, these speculators, these investors, these uh venture capitalists and vultures, and we need to stand strong for the people who live here.

We need to put our seeds in this soil with these people, and we need to show them real, real, real investment in what really matters.

And it's not police, it is the Office of Violence Prevention, it is rental assistance, it is uh right to council.

We desperately need these programs right now because of the context of the world we're in today.

And we need to understand who we are, and we need to be the best that we are and not try to placate a bunch of bullies and thugs in Jefferson City who do not understand and do not even care because it they're playing their cards the way they want to play them, and we cannot play their game.

Thank you.

Thank you, Felice.

Are you ready?

Yes, ma'am.

Sorry about that interruption.

Um again, my name is Felice McClendon with Delmar Main Street, and I serve St.

Louis by building places for people.

People is the key word of the day, right?

And uh, but I want to start where we can actually agree.

I think that's important.

I think we can agree we have too many vacancies.

Uh in 24, we had the reclaiming bacon properties conference.

This is not like getting World Cup in Kansas City.

You have reclaiming vacant properties because you have too many vacancies.

Mother of Crime is not good.

I think we also can agree we can't afford to lose any more people.

And after the tornado, we were all hit.

Many of us were very hard.

Del Mar Main Street sits on three and a half linear miles of our central corridor.

People come to the city at all, it's through our central corridor many times, and we are surrounded by eight neighborhoods in the ninth and tenth ward, including 250 businesses and pre-tornado, that was 37,000 people.

That's more than 10% of St.

Louis's shrinking population as we know it today.

We again cannot afford to lose any more people.

So what does that mean?

We've got to be vigilant about how we populate our empty storefronts with businesses and not just any business, but businesses that have the best interest of our neighborhoods in mind.

We also have to be strategic about how we populate putting cheeks in seat and feet on the street, like it's a real thing.

People are not gonna come here if it's vacant.

When our business is shut down, we're all shut down.

So it's imperative that we populate our city with in our story with economic development.

That's why we went out to win the Levitt Award.

You see the sign behind my head, it's a national competition to put St.

Louis on the map for the right reasons, not the wrong reasons.

And with that, we will do 10 free concerts a year.

So whether you're a businessman or the person on the block, you can come out and gather because we still got to convene people because people are still hurting when the tornado hit Delmar Main Street, went out and raised a hundred thousand dollars to put money directly into the hands of our small businesses because we realize that is the front door to our neighborhoods.

If they're not there, none of us are here, and so that is who provides jobs.

That is what provides stability and make sure that we don't have food deserts.

Del Mar Main Street is one of three main streets.

There's also Dutch Town and uh LaCleed's Landing, where there are 55 main streets in the state of Missouri, and we're all a part of this national network of over 2,000 main streets.

They use this model because it works.

How do I know it works?

I just got back from Black Wall Street and Tulsa, uh, where we were at our national conference.

I learned two things I want to leave you with.

One is 90% of the main streets across the country, all 2,000 are put into their city's budget.

Number two, the state of Georgia, um, they made 1.6, I'm sorry, 1.2 billion in redevelopment and new economic dollars.

Don't ask me, ask their governor.

It works.

So if we got a juxtaposition, 1.6 billion in losses, but we got states like Georgia's get jealous.

We could make that kind of money if we come together and prioritize the people and the places that need to be rebuilt.

We're serving as front uh front first responders, and we need to be in the budget just like every other main street that's making the city flourish.

Thank you.

Next we have Emily Seipel.

Oops.

Hi, my name's Emily Seipel.

I live in Ward 9.

Um, I'm against this budget draft and any budget that increases a dollar for the police.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

Okay, great.

Um, and I'm here instead to speak in support of funding programs that actually work, specifically the right to counsel program.

And I also um, from the bottom of my heart, agree with everyone's support for the Office of Violence Prevention.

Um I am a renter and I have been a renter every year.

I've lived in St.

Louis.

That means for five years, my rent has increased.

That's a power imbalance.

Um, I'm also a housing advocate and urban planner.

I learned about the right to counsel program through a renter's group, we the tenants.

And to me, it's the most powerful common sense program I've ever seen to provide stability and security for renters and reduce demand for more resource intensive programs like shelters.

St.

Louis evictions were around 5,000 a year before the tornado.

90% of landlords have legal representation, 3% of renters do.

That's about as dark a power imbalance as you can get.

That means in real in real time, someone has only a few weeks or even less between a notice and their court date.

If they can't get off work that day, they leave the court unhoused, which costs and deserves significant public resources.

In contrast, the right to counsel program has not only prevented evictions, but it has won thousands in some cases.

Um, on average, a thousand dollars, I believe from the presentation in December.

That money is going back to tenants who are being harassed and illegally fined by predatory landlords.

So instead of the city paying for shelter, hundreds of people are remaining in their homes and they have additional discretionary money for things like groceries for rent.

And that is coming out of bad landlords' pockets, not mine.

The numbers show a significant portion of people who access the program have young children, as many others have shared specific stories about today.

This program is worth every penny, and it deserves full sustained funding of 2.5 million dollars.

This was put in the budget after our testimonies and an evidence-rich presentation last year, and it deserves to be back in the budget this year and forever.

This program is security, housing is public safety.

Uh, we know as renters in the city, we're facing um a lot of things that the city expects us to budget for.

Hyperscale data center that will increase utilities.

Uh, 18% or greater hikes in water bills.

I don't pretend that developers and landlords will do right by me.

Instead, I expect my elected officials to fully fund legislation that will actually protect me.

Pass the budget for right to counsel.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Next, we have KB Doming.

Hello, my name is KB Dillman.

I live in the seventh board, and I'm an attorney that works with unhoused individuals and families facing eviction.

I'm testifying today to ask the board of ENA to fund right to counsel, fund Tonado response in North City, fund the Office of Violence Prevention, fund code Blue, and fund the tiny home shelters, um, as well as other vital social services to keep our community safe.

I'm also asking the board to cut funding to the police who terrorize our community.

In the past few weeks alone, the police have made it clear what they will do with any additional money.

St.

Louis police brutalized protesters at the mayor's request, including leaders of the Trinado response who showed up strong when the mayor failed to show up for North City.

Um we don't have funding to repair North City after a major disaster, but we have funding to jail, brutalize, and arrest the volunteers who showed up to help.

Uh many on this board need to get their priorities.

Before that, St.

Louis police arrested and trashed belongings of over 35 families at the Concord apartments simply for being a victim of a slum lord that the city failed to regulate.

As police screamed at the families lined up in the streets, our city officials openly acknowledged that no shelter was available.

An entire apartment complex where the families went from house to unhoused overnight.

Um, and our city acknowledges that there's no social services to help them.

There's no eviction defense, there's not enough shelter, and there's no accessible impacted tenants fund.

Meanwhile, St.

Louis police are some of the most deadly in the nation per capita.

They lie about their overtime, they crash into queer bars and arrest the owners, and they hurt our community.

St.

St.

Louis police use their massive budget to regularly create emergencies, which are deeply underfunded social services, or then left to repair.

St.

Louis deserves so much more.

As our elected officials, we are calling on you to fund the programs you promised and invest in St.

Louis's people, not the police.

Fund Code Blue, fund the Office of Violence Prevention, fund right to counsel, fund Tornado Recovery North City, and fund the tiny homes.

Stop giving millions to the police.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next, we have Will Kruger.

Hello, my name is Will Kruger.

I live in the Seventh Ward.

I'm here to testify about the need to fund right to counsel and ask the Board of Essen and Apportionment a simple question.

According to the lawsuit that Mayor Spencer just filed, the state takeover bill requires the city to fund the police at about 180.4 million dollars.

So that's their own admission in a court document made under perjury of law.

Instead of meeting that funding requirement, the city offered the police who has opposed the city services and attacked and treated the city as an adversary, 210.5 million dollars, 30 million more than they say that they are required to spend.

I'm here to demand that the Board of ENA reject any additional penny to the state takeover of the police and instead use that 30 million dollars for extremely vital city programs.

There's been so much talk about restoring competency and basic services to the residents of St.

Louis.

And I'd like to testify that there is nothing more basic than keeping a vulnerable person in their home and protected from the elements.

$30 million is more than enough to fully fund right to council, fully fund Code Blue, fully fund the Office of Violence Prevention, and have about 20 million dollars left over to invest in North City as the beginning of a long-term sustainable tornado recovery.

This is the bare minimum.

This is exactly what the city should be doing to both comply with the state law and serve the basic needs of our residents as they've repeatedly promised to do.

I'll end my testimony by saying that I am extremely disappointed in city leadership and particularly the mayor for not even making a gesture towards public accountability or listening to the public and instead going to vacation in Italy and making this an IT fiasco.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Next we have Kim Jane.

Kim Jane.

Next we will have Clintic McBride.

After we will have Anaya Wilkes, Valencia Alvarez, and Rachel Hernando.

Hey, Clinton McBride here.

Good afternoon, and thank you for the opportunity to address the Board of Esmin Apportionment.

We'll try to be relatively quick here.

I have something different I'd like to address.

And this really relies uh relates to compliance in the city of St.

Louis.

Uh we have several different departments, um, several different requirements that need to be enforced by different departments.

And those requirements might be living wage, prevailing wage, um MWBE requirements, boots on the ground, city resident participation, apprentice participation, and frankly, monitoring projects to make sure that we're actually collecting the earnings tax where we're supposed to be collecting the earnings tax because I know that um we've had some issues here recently, I think with Jefferson Arms, for example, where the earnings taxes haven't been um collected as required.

So I think that you know, in terms of figuring out a way to manage the compliance better in a more centralized way, um, the city could also realize cost savings from money that we are currently leaving on the table while also um taking away the bad actors from the equation.

Um, you know, the current process, like I said, is is very decentralized.

And really, I think the left hand and the right hand don't always know what what they're each each of them are doing, frankly.

Um, you know, we have bad actors that uh get contracts from one department only to be then you know rewarded from contracts from another department.

And I think that's something we really need to be looking at.

Uh oh, I apologize.

Clinton McBride, first ward.

I should have started off with that.

Um, you know, and some of the other the other laws that we have, you know, on the books that really need to be looked at in a uh, you know, under a microscope, I think at this point, specifically with the tornado are lead and asbestos laws.

We have laws on the books for remediating those toxic substances to make sure that um, you know, we're doing that in a safe way that is not contaminating neighborhoods.

So anyway, I just think that you know, if there is a way that we can look for some money in the budget, and I know it's tight, and I know that you know there are a ton of competing interests, but if there's a way that we can find some money in the budget to enforce the laws that we've got on the books, I think that would go a long way because the laws that we have don't matter if we're not policing them.

So uh with that, thank you.

Thank you.

Next we have Anaya Wilkes.

Okay.

We will next have Carrie McCullin.

Hello, my name is Terry McCollin.

I'm a resident of Word Two.

I'm an organizer with the Eco Socialist Screen Party of Eastern Missouri.

Um, I'm also multitasking work right now, so please bear with me.

Um police don't prevent violence, they perpetuate violence.

I saw this unnecessary violence with my own eyes last Friday at the mayor's state of the city address at City Hall.

It was terrible, shameful, and extremely traumatizing.

Programs that prevent violence prevent violence.

Housing prevents violence.

Communities of care prevent violence.

People are dying on the streets because they don't have shelter.

This is murder.

People are losing limbs on the street from frostbite and amputations in the weather, and no matter what weather, this is violence.

Our city budget needs to allocate funds towards housing, code blue, the Office of Violence Prevention and tenants' right to counsel, youth programs and tornado recovery for the north side.

Our crime has decreased in recent years because of programs, not police.

Defunding these programs by giving excessive money from our budget to police will cause more violence and crime.

We need programs to keep people safe.

We need communities of care to keep us safe.

Police don't keep us safe.

We keep us safe.

St.

Louis Metro Police Department is the deadliest police department in the country.

Our jail is one of the deadliest jails in the country.

Allowing the inflated budget, the Missouri police board commissioners, police are requesting will only cause more violence and deaths.

That is murder.

That is crime.

I have little faith that my testimony today or any other day for that matter will make a difference at all, seeing that the city government and the mayor doesn't listen to represent nor protect the people who live here, but the interests and the greed of the billionaire investors like Bob Clark.

Prove me wrong by investing resources back into the community of residents who live here.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next we have Valencia Alvarez.

Hello everyone.

Good afternoon.

My name is Valencia, and I live in Ward 6.

Um I'm here as an individual who works closely with asylum seeker and immigrant community in St.

Louis across many wards.

Um I urge the board of Estimate and Appointment to reject this police budget.

Um I actually read the SLMPD summary um of their proposed budget, and they claim in there that this budget is for the people.

Um I'm not sure who they're talking about when they say that because it's not for my people.

It's not for our people.

Everyone in this room that has testified so far.

It's just clearly not for the people that we are serving and working with.

Never once have I heard a positive experience from my people when it comes to the police.

In fact, I um take calls for the Rapid Response Coalition and Hotline for immigrants here in St.

Louis, and we know of at least eight instances in which a victim of a car accident is turned into ice.

So let me phrase this.

Rephrase this.

Someone got into an car accident, many people.

It wasn't their fault, and they were taken to jail because they were flagged as an immigrant by a police officer and then picked up by IC.

That is what the police is doing.

I manned the rapid response hein for the first call that we got.

And there was a woman that called who was a social worker.

She called, um, trying to get resources for a client, an immigrant, who was trapped in her home in a domestic abuse situation.

She did not speak English, and her partner had called the police on her to report her suicidal, which was not true.

So she couldn't tell the police that she wasn't suicidal.

The police took her from her baby, they took her to the hospital and left her to figure out how to get herself home.

And that's where we had to come in to figure out how to get her home, how to get her out of the situation, how to get her child from her partner, which is a very complex complicated situation, right?

But the police did this.

Like they they were actively playing a part in this.

So the org that helped this caller and her baby, these are the ones that deserve and need more funding, not the police.

They're addressing the needs that we're seeing in the community.

The orgs we've heard from today, they need more money to do the work that is working.

I'm sitting here in awe, honestly, from all the people that have testified today, because this is actually what we mean when we say solo el pueblo salva el pueblo, only the people will save the people.

Because it's clear that we're picking up the the slack of the city.

We're picking up the slack of where the funding is actually going.

And and I I'm honestly just tired.

I'm really tired because I've been fighting.

We've been fighting constantly for the past couple years.

And clearly you all are not listening to us.

So we don't have to look far to see what is actually working for our people.

It already exists.

Literally, we've heard it.

The police budget would tell our city that they don't actually prioritize our needs, which we already know, right?

Prove me wrong, like the last speaker said.

Again, it would tell us once more that they do not care about us.

The police and interactions with the police are literally dangerous for my people.

I read again, I read the budget summary.

Um, they want to do they want to use this money to do things like offer competitive salaries.

Why aren't we offering competitive salaries to people who actually address the needs?

Oh, are we done?

Yes, your time is now up.

Thank you.

Next, we have Rachel, her title.

After we have Caroline Henry in Brittany Britney Lurimore in clear Antoine.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

Okay.

My name is Rachel Hurtado.

I live in Ward 7.

This board should reject the budget and fund real public safety, not SLMPD.

There are over five million dollars in this proposed budget, for example, just for expected lawsuits for SLMPD misconduct and violence.

That is planning for black death and wasting taxpayer dollars on killer cops.

The city has spent over 400,000 just since this January on pay for Chris Greyville, the Board of Police Commissioners' attorney.

Not the state's money, the city.

Where's that line item in the budget, by the way?

Um, in just three months, more taxpayer cash went to Greyville's pockets than what St.

Louis spent on the eviction defense program for all of 2025.

What a shameful waste.

Just two weeks ago, we saw the impact of police over housing and what that does at Concord Apartments.

Criminal activity was only located in a couple units, but SLMPD and our city SWAT raided and destroyed every single apartment and arrested or otherwise charged over 75 people.

And then the city boarded up everyone's doors that day when the mayor and DHS confirmed there were no shelter beds available.

Know that the majority of 60 folks are now living on the street.

That is not public safety.

The right to counsel program must be included in the general budget and funded at at least two and a half million dollars a year.

Not one-time funds that dry up, like what happened with ARPA, or a stagnant, unenforced, unreliable funding source like Prop B, or pennies under couch cushions this year because there's political pressure.

The mayor joined us in eviction court this year, saw the crisis, and still didn't include one penny for right to counsel in this proposed budget because she ran her campaign on calling eviction defense a waste of money.

But the data and the research is clear.

Investing in eviction prevention and housing first solutions saves cities' money.

Y'all say you care about population loss in the city, but this budget clearly funds the loss and death of certain populations.

Black families and elders, people on the north side, working class people who are one crisis away from being unhoused.

It shows who y'all really want in the city and who you want to throw away.

Year after year, the staff and supporters of the Show Me Peace program and other transformative justice advocates have shown up to demand the city fund resources to expand their critical violence prevention work.

These programs are the reason gun violence and homicides are down in the city point blank.

Reject this irresponsible and wasteful budget, reduce the egregiously bloated SLMPD budget now, fully fund the right to counsel program, show me peace, more violence prevention and housing resources like rental assistance and code blue.

Fund DHS and tornado recovery.

The departments that struggle to implement the bills passed to improve our city because there's no funding behind them.

2% of this of the police budget could fund right to counsel in the Office of Violence Prevention this year, and that is still crumbs.

Imagine a St.

Louis that invests in these strategies beyond that.

We are demanding the bare minimum of what really keeps us safe.

So reject this trash ass budget.

Thank you.

Next, we have Carolyn Henry.

Caroline Henry.

Hi, uh, my name is Caroline.

I'm a resident in Ward 7.

Um, testifying in opposition to the proposed 2027 budget.

I vehemently disagree with the proposed increases to the police related line items.

Our community is not made safer by SLMPD, the single deadliest police department in the U.S.

You were over four times as likely to be killed by police here in St.

Louis, Missouri, than by police in Columbia, Missouri.

Once you get to jail in St.

Louis City, you're three times as likely to die there than if you were in jail in St.

Louis County.

This is a department that is so racist.

There's a white police union and a black police union.

Empirically speaking, I personally know dozens of people who have been affected by the police, from family members' lives being upended on trumped up charges to watching my friends be brutalized by officers since I was a teenager to helping unhoused community members or placed belonging, stolen encampment sweeps, to being tackled and arrested on my own college campus.

These are statistics and anecdotes of a failing institution.

Every year we give disproportionate salary increases to police officers that prevent sufficient funding of vital services.

And every year they show us why they don't deserve it.

Excessive funding, excessively funding an organization that is famous for murdering its own citizens is regressive and despotic.

These budget increases proposed by the city set concerning precedent for future sums requested by the unelected Board of Commissioners.

We do not want our city government to bend at the knee of the state and federal governments, both of which St.

Louis City voted overwhelmingly against.

We do not we do want to divert funds to services that translate to tangible benefits for St.

Louis citizens.

For example, despite increases in police, court and corrections budgets, the money allocated for Code Blue, the network that activates during cold weather to present prevent deaths of those living outside is set to decrease.

This program has been extremely popular, and those involved in outreach recognize that more funding and more boots on the ground are necessary.

On many nights, and that people seeking shelter for the night who turned down the ride in bed when they learn the location was miles from their home base.

They can get into morning shifts or appointments impossible.

More funding, care, and research are required to ensure that there are enough shelters and they're in locations people need them.

Such a popular program should receive the funding requested to maintain and expand operations.

Yet the proposed fund for 2027 is over a million dollars less than 2026.

Tennis Right to Council is being cut.

North City is still decimated from a tornado that happened a year ago.

Public schools are being left behind in favor of for-profit ventures, and nearly one in five residents is food insecure.

Before I close, I want to iterate how unacceptable it is that there is only one hearing on this budget that will take public testimony.

I have the privilege of paid sick days, one of which I use today to testify at this meeting.

I have the privilege of a high-speed internet connection that allows me to reliably join a video call, a privilege that 50% of 56% of black households and 22% of white households here in St.

Louis do not have.

Not only are you limiting your residents' access to you, but you're doing so at an alarmingly disparate rate.

Mayor Spencer, President Green, Comptroller Barringer.

We demand that you reject this budget in favor of redistributing the proposed increases in police and corrections budgets, the social services that will actually improve our city.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next we have Brittany Learymore after we have Claire Antoine, Marcus Haskin, Evan Pardue, Caitlin Kilgo, and August Kelly.

Do we have Brittany Learrymore?

Okay, we will move on to Claire Antoine.

Do we have Claire and do we have Marcus Haskin?

Even Pardeo.

I think Marcus raised his hand from OVP.

Please unmute yourself.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Can you hear me?

Yes, thank you.

Yes, again, good afternoon.

Um I'm actually the program manager for Show Me Peace.

My name is Vivian Slayer Betty Hit Morgan to step away yet of family emergency.

And so I'll I will use this time respectfully.

Um just to simply say that in our line of word, you know, we get a lot of criticism about things that happened in the city, right?

With regards to crime and violence and things like that.

But what we don't get a chance to really talk about is the quantitative value of what doesn't happen.

So every time we're able to intercede into a situation, mediate violence, intervene in violence, and deescalate violence, we are preventing a possibility of three retaliatory shootings of possibly one or two homicides and then one de-escalation.

So then that saves the city about 1.3 per incident that would have happened as a result of us not being involved.

So again, how do you quantify what didn't happen?

What we're telling you is if you if we're not getting appropriate funding to keep what we're doing um alive and well and viable in these communities, if you look at the vacuum that it'll create with the relationships that we've already been able to establish, you want to see an uptick, a dramatic uptick in violence.

As my counter Paul Latoya spoke, we are year to date, we have none of those numbers in the areas that we service.

So when we look at the uptick in the violence in the city outside of those areas that was the incline and have occurred in terms of gun violence and homicide.

But in the areas that we service, we're down year to date in all of our areas.

So again, what I'm saying to you is don't think about the things that we can't control.

Let's think about the things that we we've been able to control.

And when I say again, anytime we stop one incident, we are potentially stopping three um retaliatory incidents as a result of one incident that's de-escalated.

So again, I just wanted to be very clear and cut to the point.

Like we are our team, we are putting ourselves in harm's way for the safety of our communities.

So I would again ask that the funded is increased so we can expand to other communities that need these same services, but we're limited by contract to the areas that we serve.

So when we talk about reallocation and refunding and doing things of that nature, please consider showing me peace in the work that we've already done.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next, we have Evan Pardu.

Hey, can you all hear me all right?

Yes.

All right.

Uh good afternoon, everyone.

My name is uh Dr.

Evan Pardue.

I'm the co-chair of the political education committee of black men build.

I'm a 10th ward resident.

Um, and I just wanted to say here today that you know, in light of the May 16th tornado, um, I feel like the Board of EA had an opportunity here to affirm the sentiments put out by many of our elected officials, um, where they've been saying that they want to see North City made whole.

Um, but when I reviewed this proposed budget, um, they've made no serious efforts towards this aim.

In the current budget, majority of the funds allocated are primarily for debris cleanup and building demolition.

And while those two key services are needed, nothing significant has been set aside in order to help the people and businesses rebuild after the devastation of the tornado.

And I believe that this is precisely the point.

Um black St.

Louisans have been historically disinvested in for decades.

Um, and here in St.

Louis.

And this is predominant, this is precisely the point here with the tornado, because when we talk about population loss in the city, where is the majority of the population loss coming from?

It's coming from these North St.

Louis neighborhoods.

And so when there are these disasters in North St.

Louis, like the tornadoes, what do our elected officials come out and do?

They come out and say, Oh, we want to make them whole, we want to give them all the funding that they need, this, that, and the third.

But then what do they do?

They take forever, they don't fund the proper institutions and community organizations that are actually doing the work, and they just take so long with this that what do people do at the end of the day?

They can't sustain themselves, they can't sustain themselves in the neighborhood that they've been damaging and forces them to leave.

I have experienced this personally because last year after the tornado, I've been working in tandem with Black Men Build, Action St.

Louis and other organizations.

We've deployed two countless neighborhoods in North St.

Louis, and I personally spent a lot of time, you know, with one woman whose home was damaged.

Um in the aftermath of the storm, and I literally spent my own money and time, you know, going to take her to like doctor's appointments, take her to services that were offered by the cities to try to get them rehoused, you know, taking them to the grocery store to the doctor's office.

But like at the end of the day, you know, it spent my own money as well.

Spent almost 10,000 last year trying to help people in doing tornado relief, and I only made like 40,000 last year.

These things are really important, you know.

And I know I'm running out of time.

But like when the city doesn't find groups like Action St.

Louis, like the Office of Violence Prevention, where they don't find you know, the right to counsel program, when they don't find, you know, um, the healthy home repair program, the neighborhood restabilization programs.

This just makes it impossible for people to recover in these areas and just creates literally just exacerbates the problems that have already been created by this storm, and so I'm gonna leave it at that.

Thank you.

Next, we have Caitlin Kilgo.

Hi, you can see me.

It's Caitlin Kilgo.

I am a proud respite of the seventh ward.

I really love my neighbors and my neighborhood, and that's why I'm here today.

Um I just want to say, Kara, I do not accept your apology for being late.

That was really rude.

That was disrespectful of our time.

The fact that I know you didn't buy those plane tickets yesterday, like, and this meeting was definitely not planned yesterday.

I think both these have been on the calendar for a while.

And the fact that you are not here right now in the city listening to these stories, the fact that this meeting is not accessible in a way that people that don't have access to the internet and computers cannot be able to get here and testify.

Um, there's extreme limiting of access to this meeting, and so no, I don't accept your apology, and I think you're rude.

Um a lot of people have said incredible things, and I think you need to go back and re-listen to all of these testimonies a couple times, but I want to find um summarize a few things.

Um right to counsel needs to be funded because landlords will always care more about the money in their wallets than about the people in their homes.

Whose side are you on?

Um, right to council keeps people in their homes, and the police tear people out of them.

So, whose side are you on?

The people or the police?

I don't I don't know.

Um, I also want to point out that there is a hiring event going on.

Um, I heard the police describe that they are taking a three-month um onboarding training process, um, and shortening it into a half-day session that they are doing two of.

So in one day they plan on hiring 250 officers with the intention of hiring people from out of town because well, it's really difficult for them to come to training because they live so far away.

Well, why the fuck do they live so far away?

Why are you hiring police from outside of our city?

And why are you trying to shorten a three-month process into a one-day window?

Less than a day.

It is unacceptable.

So, no, I don't accept any of your apologies.

Um, another thing, the Office of Violence Prevention prevents violence.

Why is there funding at zero?

And you're giving more money to the police, unacceptable.

Shame on you, Kara Spencer.

Shame on you for being late.

Shame on you for not being in our our country, shame on you for not being in our state, shame on you for not being in our city and actually listen being here to listen to all these.

I know you weren't on the call whole time, so just in case you meant it, missed it.

And I mean, I know you missed it.

Uh, not one person has testified and and pro giving the police more money.

Um, so this is the legacy you're leaving.

This is the history that is being written right now of your legacy as mayor.

What are you going to do with it?

And I'm also talking to you, Donna Barringer.

I'm talking to you, Paul Payne, and I'm talking to you too, Megan Green.

All of you, this is your legacy.

What are you doing with our city?

Are you going to listen to the people who actually live here?

Or are you going to arrest us and beat us for speaking up?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next, we have August Kelly.

August Kelly.

Next, we have Damon Starks.

Yes.

Good afternoon.

My name is Damon.

I live in the 11th ward.

And I also work for uh Action St.

Louis as the housing justice organizer for Action St.

Louis.

I just want to start off by saying I reject and oppose this budget, uh, dealing with the police.

And I just want to say it is absolutely sickening that we still have to fight this fight for right to counsel.

It's sickening.

I'm actually tired of it.

Y'all need to fund right to council.

I don't care how the money gets imposed, fund it.

This is a bill that's been sitting for three years.

5,000 families get evicted each year in the city of St.

Louis.

And yet, y'all do nothing.

Fund right the council.

Our city will look greater if you fund right the council, put resources in North St.

Louis instead of turn down houses, put money to fund to rebuild North St.

Louis.

Put money to fund youth programs.

But yet we dealing here, we sitting here dealing with this police budget.

Reject the budget.

Fund right the council, fund programming, and fund money for uh find money to rebuild North St.

Louis.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next we have Giovanni L'Oriello.

After we have Helen Bailey, Donald DeVivo, Lex Guffey, David Morse.

Do we have Giovanni?

Do we have Helen Bailey?

You do have Helen Bailey.

Peace and Revolution.

This is Helen Bailey for an 11th Ward resident.

It's widely known, grossly accepted, overly calculated, and previously stated that the St.

Louis Metropolitan Police Department is more numerous per capita than the NYPD, and that the civilian murder rate is the highest in the country per capita, beating out that same notorious police department.

And we know that the city of St.

Louis hosts the deadliest pretrial detention plantation in the entirety of the United States.

Some people believe that increasing police budgets ensure that there is less crime.

However, we have seen that crime reduction in St.

Louis has been led by the Office of Violence Prevention with no close seconds outside of similarly underfunded programming.

Increased investment in the police department is a tenfold decrease, or rather, an evisceration in budgets for programming like the aforementioned city funded programming.

Others believe that an investment into downtown is what will revitalize the city.

We know it's a lie because nothing has ever come to fruition.

Year after year, downtown projects fail, and decade after decade, the blame is put on the homeless and residents of North City who pay into the city's budget with their income, property, hiked up sales tax, as well as the blood and life forces of their friends, relatives, and neighbors who are disproportionately represented in the officer-involved murder statistics, both on the street and in the CJC.

Another investment into downtown and away from the children and their families of the city who live on the north side is another investment into St.

Louis's failure and poor reputation across the country and across the world.

On a spiritual level, as a Bible believer, I can zoom out on a macro level and see the nationwide investment in children and overemphasis on jailing and harming them in general.

And we see what the implications are.

Widespread infertility.

And when I zoom back in on St.

Louis, I see a downtown that can never give birth to prosperity as long as its city kills its children through trauma, illiteracy, malnutrition, homelessness, disdain, and divestment.

The uterine walls of our city can only be strengthened to give birth to affluence and security by investment in North City.

Release the funds to North City now.

If you're saying it's not enough, then do what you've done with the excess committed funds to SLMPD and make it enough.

Free the land, free those enslaved at the CJC.

Abandon the insanity of doing what's always been done and embrace the possibility of true repentance and investment in what actually works.

In the judgment, we won't be tested on how well we followed the orders of others or how well we stuck to the code and budget of the St.

Louis City um government.

Tax abatements and kickbacks cannot be used to buy our way into heaven.

We are grossly, grossly negligent to the city and the people of this region, and we are continuing to fail.

And if you pass this budget, you have written a death sentence for the city of St.

Louis, which, as I've testified before, is older than the United States of America.

This is egregious.

This is sick and sadistic.

You must turn to reason.

You must fund the city of St.

Louis in an equitable way that will prosper the city and all of its residents.

Prosperity for a few is death for all.

Thank you.

Next, we have Donald De Vivo.

Do we have Lex Guffy?

David Morse?

Hi.

I just texted Lex.

They might be able to hop on, but not for a minute.

Okay, I'll be really fast.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

Okay.

Hi from Ward Six.

I'm David Morris.

At this point, I think it's just best for me to echo the voices urging for the city to minimize police funding and diverting the savings into social services, including rebuilding from the tornado, code blue, violence prevention, and right to counsel.

I can possibly say it better than the many elephant speakers we've had.

So with that, I yield my time.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Next, we have Alvania Creighton.

Do we have Zoe Cruz?

Yes, I'm here.

Go ahead.

Hi, I'm Zoe Krause.

I am a seventh ward resident.

And I would echo what everyone else has.

Many other people have said today.

So many of our neighbors have spoken today about the work that they are doing, work that is underfunded by the city, scraping together pennies in the gap of the city's priorities, work that is deeply needed.

Whether it's in the Office of Violence Prevention through Code Blue and Winter Outreach, direct outreach following the tornado, people are making our city safer, more livable, and more likely to have a future.

And unfortunately, the government of our city seems to be directly working against these efforts.

Not only is every dollar of $30 million more than is required, and 200 million dollars more than the police have proven to be useful to our neighbors or to our community safety too much.

It is simply past time to change the priorities of the city and to change the priorities in this budget.

As many other people have said, the budget is a moral document.

It shows us what the city values, particularly when times are tough and cuts are needed.

And this budget is at best morally bankrupt.

It is preparing us for future, it is planting seeds for violence, for death when so many people are doing work that is getting us closer to safety, closer to a future and closer to imagining what our community and our city could be.

I hope that the members of the Board of Estimate and Porchments who are listening today will consider strongly that every single person here has testified against the current budget.

Hope that they will consider that we cannot uh satisfy the demands of a police board that will always ask for more money, that will always ask to do more violence, and that will not make us safer.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next we have Tracy Stanton.

Do we have Tracy Stanson?

Jackie Freed.

Hello, I'm here.

Go ahead.

Okay.

I'm sorry, that I'm just a minute.

I was not expecting to go yet.

Okay, here we go.

All right.

Hello, my name is Jackie Freed, and I am a resident of the city's 10th ward.

I reject this budget.

And I'm demanding that you, Mayor Spencer, Van Green as well.

I relocated here from Los Angeles for Masters of Social Work, and my program emphasizes using evidence-based practice to inform interventions and policies.

I also want to thank everybody who's testified so far.

As you can see, a lot of these organizations have stepped in to fill the void that the city has left, particularly when it came to tornado relief.

Specifically here, though, I want to talk about the effect this budget would have on right to counsel.

There's two things that I want to highlight.

First is that unlike in criminal court in civil court, the defendants are not guaranteed representation.

And second, unlike many of our peer nations, most jurisdictions in the United States do not have any guaranteed right to shelter laws.

Mayor Spencer, I recently heard you say that you spent a day in eviction court watching the proceedings.

There's a lot of statistics that we can throw out there.

But as somebody mentioned earlier, over 80% of landlords are represented in eviction court compared to 3% of tenants.

And lastly, um recent surges in evictions serves a potential threat to population health during the emergent adult period in particular, with especially devastating consequences for low-income individuals and communities of color.

Beyond directly causing homelessness, evictions can disqualify tenants from many sources of government housing assistance, affect the educational outcomes of displaced children, and result in negative health outcomes for tenants of all ages.

These are also just like people's lives.

You know, I feel like we're talking about all of these statistics, but these are real life people who are experiencing like the hardest things they've ever gone through.

Um, I live just south of Delmar.

I entered in downtown, and I've made efforts to get out into every neighborhood in the city during my short time here.

There's so much potential.

So I want the city to fund less police activity and spend more money on programs like Right to Council, the Office of Violence Prevention, and the city services that enable us to have driveable trash-free streets.

I want to fund emergency responses like the Code Blue program where Mayor Spencer emphasized nobody was turned away this past winter, but was still not uh funded as much as needed.

I also want to keep our city in place and their jobs so we can continue to celebrate them like we did last week for their heroic winter storm response effort.

The city's recent lawsuit against the police board suggests that we are more aligned in our health space city than readjusting our budget priorities and our money or your and thank you for the thing.

Thank you.

Can we have Tracy Stanton?

Yeah, uh peace and power, everybody.

My name is Tracy T Spear Santa.

I am a resident of the uh first war and a survivor of systemic violence.

And I just want to honor, uplift, and affirm everything that everybody already said.

Period point blank, reject the budget.

SLMPD kills more people per capita than any other department in the US.

And that's not just a saying, it's actual factuals.

And not only does the police, the budget propose that we give them the majority of the funding, but we give them a 7% raise.

It's apparent that the violence caught on camera the other day, don't phase y'all one bit, or the release footage of the bullets that went through the back of the head of a 17-year-old kid, his name is Emma Sean Wilkins, or when they left Mr.

Rodriguez for dead at Forest Park because they needed to end their shift.

But that's right.

That's okay because the proposed budget sets aside millions for judgments under the assumption that they will kill.

And that's okay, KK, because Kara Spencer sicked them on the concerned citizens the other day.

And how can you sit in this?

While the North Side just withers and rots away, how many millions?

How many millions do you have for debris removal and demolishing buildings, but no funding to rebuild them?

Now you zero out of budget for measures and programs that actually are preventative.

If you don't want to want black people or black children to live, then just say that.

The budget is an attack that is attached and backed by corporate interests.

How is your trip to London?

How does that land in your soul didn't know that that denied would go viral, spending 500,000 on youth programming because of the arrest and incarcerate model with the city upholds?

Kara Spencer, how you look in the mirror, knowing that you spending the city's revenue with Bob Puck Mom and Paul McKiss, so y'all and the other leeches can get a better view.

Top flights and enforced police curfews.

We cracking Chris on the document and Maggie O'Brien, border police commissioner rather turn this down this town than protect so they could protect downtown.

The only concern would lie in their pockets.

We watch it and we not stopping.

And I'm also talking talking to the controller because we already know her motive.

When they own you, you owe them.

You strip the office of violence prevention to give the money to the water division.

Then water rates increase.

Now we have new data centers on the lease.

You expect that we didn't see the connection.

The ignorance is just as disrespectful and negligence as your refusal to address the jail desk.

And if you don't know, you also have a residence, and this is not a threat, just a reminder that we all want a safe place to live and to make it home to our kids.

How you in for pretrial detention then go missing?

Meanwhile, you provoked you propose to give the CJC investigator a 200,000 salary, and he is the police.

Do you really think they're going to incriminate their friends?

Our patients is warrant thin and this budget gotta go.

We want you to fund the things that we know work.

Period.

Right to counsel, community-based programs.

There is no way.

And then, and then we know the police trainer will not stop them from killing black people because you only put $50,000 in there for police training.

So y'all don't even care if they do kill black people.

You don't care if there's zero dollars for court grants for treatment court, for juvenile court, for career violence, for some approved programs, but you have four million 380 dollars for police grants.

It's unacceptable.

Fund what works, period.

Thank you.

Next we have Christy Griffin.

I'm here.

I'm trying to get things together here.

Okay, good afternoon, and thank you for this opportunity to share my comments.

My name is Christy Griffin.

I'm the founder of the Ethics Project, a member of the East West Gateway Coordinating Council, Save Lives Now Initiative, and a member of the city's detention facilities oversight board.

I spent years in courtrooms in the community and inside systems that respond to violence after it has occurred.

I have researched and written on the subject and have witnessed firsthand how misconduct misconduct within the department erodes the very safety we are trying to build.

Increasing the police budget by tens of millions of dollars rather than investing in what actually interrupts violence, will not make our city safer.

The state controlled Kansas City Police Department and its budget decades ago has produced no proven public benefit to the city taxpayers.

Residents who foot the bill for policing have no say in policy or control.

More money, more policing is not the answer.

With the exception of white collar crime that is seldom policed, crime is often driven by poverty, by lack of opportunity and disinvestment.

Violent crimes are often driven by unaddressed trauma.

If we continue to direct funds to a policing response, quibbling the city's budget rather than funding healing, we will continue to cycle the same individuals through the same failed systems at a higher cost to us all.

There is another path that the Ethics Project has initiated to equip educators, counselors, law enforcement, and nonprofit staff with tools to build trust, de-escalate violence before it happens.

I am asking this body to consider not just how much we spend to increase public safety, but where we spend it, even a fraction of this proposed increase invested in the nonprofit work we've heard about from so many today.

Trauma informed training and compute community-based intervention would yield a far greater impact.

Investing more in policing will get us more of the same.

A neglected, angry, and over police community that will continue to respond with crime and violence.

If we're serious about public safety, it's imperative that we invest in what prevents harm, not just response to it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next we have Tiffany Palmer.

Do we have Tiffany Palmer?

Next, we have Candice Everst.

Hello.

Hi, my name is Candice Evers.

I'm a resident of the Seventh Ward.

Uh, like many of uh the beloved community members who have spoken before me, I take issue with the gutting of essential city services in order to subsidize the lifestyles of some of our most troubled violent and unpredictable city workers, the St.

Louis Metropolitan Police Department.

Like many of my neighbors who have spoken so far, I am disturbed by the massive and ever increasing amounts of money allocated to the police budget year after year, especially when year after year it is the scrappiest and most thinly funded people groups and services that do the most good for our city.

Um do the most good for our city.

Um, and in particular for the most vulnerable members of our communities.

There are a lot of city workers and programs that do a lot more than roughing up protesters or showing up two hours later and shrugging their shoulders or flipping a vehicle and crashing or crashing into a bar.

Uh, you've heard about many of them today.

I want the funding to go to them.

Um, and when it comes to addressing the city's biggest problems, I want our city budget to emphasize the people and programs that have community trust problem-solving skills and critical thinking skills and the ability to de-escalate conflict.

Uh, deep in their hearts, even the most ardent defenders of policing know that those things are not found in the St.

Louis Metropolitan Police Department.

Given the number of tornadoes we saw in the area last year and the number of 90-degree days we've had so far this year.

Uh, there are some tough, heartbreaking uh days to come.

Uh, there will be more tests to our basic infrastructure and threats to the livelihood of our residents.

I feel brave about meeting those challenges because I know I also know who my neighbors are, and I know how capable they are.

My neighbors are so great, and I love this community.

I invite you to do a better job at loving this community too.

Please reject this budget.

Thank you.

Next, we have Scott Ross.

Do we have Scott Ross?

Do we have Christopher Sedlik?

Is there anybody I missed?

Uh yeah, I'm here.

Go ahead.

I'm Christopher Sudlick.

I live in Northwoods, uh, just outside the city line.

Uh I've lived within a few blocks here for basically half of my life now.

Uh I want to say the testimony today has been brilliant, amazing, and beautiful.

And there's so many stories about exactly how effective and impactful the budget is when it's used in the right ways for the right programs that we see the effects of this whole city is speaking in unison.

We don't want this.

So I think the bigger question that I want to dive a little bit into with my short time is why is this happening?

Right.

And the reason this is happening is because people uh outside of the city and the county and the outs parts of the state are getting a lot of media that says something that's very much not true.

And to illustrate this, I want to take you back to uh Black Wall Street, Tulsa, Oklahoma, 1921.

A bunch of racists burned down uh a thriving area of Black Wall Street, you know, and you think what did the newspapers say about that thriving community in the decade leading up to it?

Were they talking about its successes, its growth, it's thriving?

No.

They were talking about crime with increased urgency and increased anger, the better things got there.

And just like here, if you go around and ask people outside of the city, what's the trajectory of crime?

They think it's getting so much worse everywhere.

Meanwhile, it's dropping.

These myths are not sustainable.

You can't base policy on myths.

And if you do, you're gonna destroy the city.

We need policy that's based on reality.

We need policy that's based on the hard work and the statistics and what we see from people here, what we see from people on the street, not what corporations owned by billionaires are telling people to believe.

So that's what I've got.

Thank you.

Did I miss any speakers?

I believe that is everyone.

Secretary Hurst, um Do you have the list of testimony that we received from individuals who were unable to attend here today?

Yes, we have six written testimonies that I will share with the board, and I will also post to the site.

Excellent.

Thank you so much for doing that.

Um I'd now like to um first call on my uh colleagues, my members of the board of ENA.

Um President Green, uh, would you like to comment on the public testimony that we heard today?

Yes.

Uh first I want to thank everybody for coming out today.

I um don't think that I have ever seen this many people show up to an ENA meeting to testify.

Um, which is actually really sad.

Um, that you know, we had just shy of a hundred people who signed up today, and typically it's about 15 to 20.

And so I want to first really thank members of the community for coming today and spending your hours with us.

Um I also want to make sure that I reiterate some of the things that I heard today.

Um, you know, I I heard an ever-growing concern about um state takeover of police and the impact that it's having on our budget and our city and on governance.

Uh those are all concerns I shared.

That's why I filed a lawsuit almost a year ago um over this out of concern that this is where we were going to get here.

And that um we have a hearing on May 6th, along with uh Mike Milton and Jamala Rogers and their lawsuit as well.

Um, and so I'm I'm hopeful that as we have you know three different lawsuits now uh in the works that we can be combating this because unfortunately I think a lot of these challenges we're facing are going to have to get figured out in the courts.

And um, but I'm optimistic that the legal challenges that we are all waging will eventually get us to a place where um we regain local control for um for our city because it it is about control.

It is about taking away autonomy from residents in our city, and um, and I think even just in this past year, we have seen kind of a police department run amok in a way that is um threatening to create even greater divisions between police and our community.

Um other thing I will say as it pertains to to the police is right now um the allocation in this current budget gives 25.3% of our general operating revenue to SLMP.

Um the requirement under state law is 24% for this next budget year, and so this current budget does provide about 1.3% more than um is necessary under state law.

And I have said from the beginning that I am concerned about setting a precedent where we are giving more than is required under state law, especially when we have a police board that is not cooperating with the city in any way, shape, or form.

Um we just got notification yesterday that the police board of commissioners has declined to come in front of the board of aldermen to present on their budget this year, and I will tell you we have never had a situation before where a department has declined to come in front of the board to justify their budget expenditures, and I think that is a huge, huge problem.

Um that uh difference between 24% and 25.3% is about 10 million dollars.

And that 10 million dollars, I think is we have heard um can go to a lot of uses that work to prevent crime in our city.

Um we know from all of the reports that have been done over the last few years that the Office of Violence Prevention works, that I think we can point to a lot of those interventions as the reason for our crime rates decreasing.

And um, and I I want to make sure that we continue to um at minimum hold the status quo on funding and at maximum be increasing that funding because as um we heard the folks from Show Me Peace testify, you know, the neighborhoods where they are working is really working.

And we also know that there are other neighborhoods in the city that could greatly benefit from the types of interventions that they're doing.

I also said at the meeting on um Wednesday that you know the the hill I'm going to die on this year is for right to counsel um because it is you know a program that I you know fought for at the Board of Alderman for many years and want to make sure that it is funded in this year's budget, and that um is and will remain my number one priority is to make sure that we have funding in the budget for uh right to counsel, as um the gentleman from legal services of eastern Missouri made clear today that with a shoestring budget, they have been able to do some pretty phenomenal work.

And so if we were able to actually fund them at the level that they do in Kansas City or some other cities, um the work that we could really be doing to make sure that folks are not displaced, not um do not become unhoused, I think is is really important and necessary work.

And I know it's a program that a lot of people in our community organized for um many years.

Um I also you know want to make sure that I acknowledge some, you know, I know most of the testimony today was about OVP, the police budget, um, right to counsel, uh code blue, all of all of those which I support.

Um I think we also heard from a couple folks about enforcement and you know, enforcement of laws either around vacancy or around um uh prevailing wage, living wage, and how if you know, if we could get better at enforcement in some of these areas, it could it could pay for itself.

And um, and while I I don't necessarily think that is a budget conversation, I think that is a conversation that we need to have because if if we can use vacancy fees and fines to pay for better um enforcement of vacancy against you know problematic property owners, we should be doing that.

And um, and if you know going after developers who aren't you know abiding by prevailing wage, MWBE, whatever laws um that we have set, um that also help you know pays for itself.

Um, and then I want to also just recognize the um uh you know, David Rodriguez coming from local 73 and talking about EMS and making sure that we don't leave our EMS um uh drivers behind and recognizing that um if we if the city were to be able to build our capacity for ambulance services, that's also a revenue positive um, you know, for our city and um and something that would keep us from passing service calls over to private providers that are then making money off of it when the the city could.

But I think those are bigger kind of operations questions, not necessarily budget questions at this point in time.

Um, but just want to say, you know, thank you to um you know, Paul Payne for all of your work this budget season.

Um thank you to um the members of ENA for and your teams, your staff um for what has been a pretty difficult, I think, budget season.

And um and like I I said, I uh my priority is to make sure that right to counsel gets some funding this year.

And I appreciate you know, Madam Mayer on Wednesday saying, you know, you agreed with that as well.

And so I think we are committed to finding some budget or some money in the budget for that.

And I would also just caution us to not give the state more than we need to um because of the precedence that it sets, especially um given the inability of the police board to work with the city in good faith or even be willing to come and testify in front of our legislative body about their reason that they need uh additional funding.

Um and with that I will give um I will yield to whoever would like to speak next.

Thank you, President Green.

UmTroller Baringer, would you like to speak?

Yes, I I just want to thank everybody for hanging in there today.

Uh we had uh unfortunate news in my office.

So I was if you saw me texting, it's because we're trying to handle uh something that occurred.

So I do want to say um I appreciate hearing everyone.

I know that uh the Alderman also probably should hear from you so you can let everybody know uh what you are looking for in the budget.

And so I just want to say thank you.

Thank you for your time and have a very safe weekend.

Thank you, Comptroller.

Um, I too want to thank everybody who came out.

I know um, you know, taking time out of your schedule uh to uh no matter what you're doing in in the daytime, uh, to provide thoughtful feedback.

It's a it's appreciated um to the president's point.

Um this is a fairly unprecedented uh number of people to come out.

Um, but I think it's important into Comptroller Baringer's point.

Um I know uh from serving on the budget committee and just being an older person who uh participated in budget hearings for many, many years.

Um the testimony that citizens give is um is a priority.

It's important and it is um it makes an impact.

Um so I thank you all for participating here today.

Um I heard every minute, although um for many minutes, lots of minutes, I was unable to be visible due to some connectivity issues.

Uh Secretary Hearst, I also want to thank you for all your work and support in facilitating this.

Um I know this was a ton of work.

You're new to this position.

You've done a phenomenal job.

I know we've had to change the date several times uh because of police issues and other issues as we've pushed the budget back.

So I really really appreciate um the facilitation of this and other uh ENA hearings that have also had to be jockeyed because of those unforeseen circumstances.

And you've done a phenomenal job here uh of dealing with that and dealing with everybody's schedule to make this uh accommodated.

So hats off to you and your new role.

Um and to the public, thank you again for your uh your advocacy here.

Um I uh share the frustration.

Um, you know, I agree with many of the uh testimonies that um the mayor and all members of the board of ENA should uh listen intently.

I I can assure you that I did listen to every word um and that it's important and I appreciate it.