Good afternoon.

I would like to call the regular meeting of the Board of Estimate Apportionment for the final vote out for approval of the fiscal year 2027 annual operating plan.

Today is Tuesday, April 28th, 2026.

Madam Clerk, would you please call the roll?

Mayor Spencer present.

Comptroller Bayanger.

President.

President Green?

President Aller Present.

Thank you.

We have just one item on the agenda presented for the first time today.

Item number one is a request from the budget director for approval of the fiscal year 2027 proposed budget and personnel schedules with proposed amendments.

And with this, we would submit a recommended board bill number one to the Board of Alderman as the budget for the city of St.

Louis for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2026.

With this item, an approval of the proposed budget and personnel schedules, we would send this to the Board of Aldermen for their approval.

I'd like to now, first of all, I'm going to hand it over to Paul, but I first want to thank you for all the work that's gone into this.

And we're really grateful for not only all the work that's gone into the proposed budget as discussed last week, but the enormous effort that's gone into preparing these amendments over the last several weeks.

And I want to thank you for doing that work.

And so Paul, I'd like to hand it over to you to introduce the budget and proposed amendments.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

And Madam Comptroller and Madam President, I'm going to share my screen.

And hopefully that's come up on every on everybody so you can see it.

And I'll try to enlarge it.

I hope this one says here.

As mayor indicated, I have four uh items.

And the uh first one is actually a two-parter.

Uh what it proposes is utilizing uh 1A, it's utilizing funds within the health care trust fund to support the uh health divisions over site the intimate medical care unit.

And by doing that's for a million and twenty-five thousand dollars by using those available funds within that uh fund that frees up funds within the excess use tax fund, which gets us to one B, and those funds are appropriated to the could be appropriated to the Department of Human Services, professional services for the right to counsel program.

So that's one A and B.

Uh item number two.

Uh I may have mentioned this in my presentation last week on the uh summer youth jobs.

Uh, this is part of the the use tax piece of the public safety sales tax that's appropriated each year for summer youth jobs and after-school programs there with the with the funds available there.

Um there are sufficient monies to allocate uh funds for that summer youth program under SLATE, and that's a million dollars.

Item number three, uh, to address uh concerns over the continuation of the tiny homes program.

Uh this item number three would be appropriated a million dollars from available ARPA interest uh monies for that program.

And then item number four uh is a change in the general fund for the forestry division.

Uh it is adding five positions, two construction equipment operators, two heavy equipment operators, and the government services analyst.

Uh, an offsetting that increase or reduction in the per performance employees, which are the seasonal employees, as well as some reduction in contractual services, such that they offset this is at a request of the forestry division itself and how it manages its um uh weed and debris program.

So overall in the general fund, there would be uh net zero change and and total changes from all funds would be an increase of four million and fifty thousand dollars.

And that is the extent of the proposed uh amendments to the proposed budget.

Thank you, Paul.

Um, I want to first just say um I, you know, we have I, you know, we had identified these areas of importance uh and priority uh weeks ago.

Um we heard from many members of the public last week that um their priorities in many ways overlapped ours.

Um President Green, I know has done um uh an enormous amount of work advocating for these as well, um, uh not just over the last several weeks, but for months, years.

Um these are programs that um I think will do a lot of public good.

Uh I also want to recognize that this budget uh does a few other things.

One, it really balances um, you know, uh the uh services that we need to keep providing our citizens while recognizing um the raises that the police department passed.

Um excuse me, the police board passed about six weeks ago.

It also for the first time provides $2 million in funding for Code Blue, uh, which is an enormous lift and something that we saw last with this past winter, uh, even though this is a fraction of what we were able to put last winter, um, I believe will be uh very very helpful going into this year as we look for additional sources of revenue to help provide emergency shelter and transportation to our most vulnerable members of our community.

The right to council and the tiny homes um uh funding.

Um I know these were enormous lifts for you to maneuver through the budget, Paul.

Uh and um I think that both of those will be enormously helpful in providing uh care for residents that um are very vulnerable in within our city.

And I'm excited to uh to consider the forestry initiative that our forestry director and policy director here in the mayor's office have been working on for some time.

All said and done.

Um this has been an enormously challenging year.

Um, and I just want to thank everybody as as we've put this budget together and move forward with it here today.

With that, I'd like to turn it over uh to my colleagues on the board of ENA for um any discussion on the amendments as presented by budget director Paul Payne.

Uh thank you, Madam Mayor.

Thank you, Director Payne.

Um I'm really glad to see the amendments to the budget.

Um, you know, as the mayor said, um, both her team, my team, um, director Payne have all been kind of working on this for weeks, um, and the if not months, actually, at this point in time.

And um, you know, it was I'm really glad that the community's priorities that they came up with in front on Friday really match what um, you know, some of the things that we had been working on behind the scenes already.

Um just to reiterate what the mayor says, you know, I think this is it's really great that this budget has two million dollars for code glue.

That's really historic, that we're actually putting some money into homeless services in some real ways.

Um I'm really excited that we have we now have a million dollars for right to counsel, so we will not have a lapse in that program.

And we also know that those prop S dollars will start to come in over the next few months, um, which will provide an additional long-term um you know funding source for that.

I'm glad to see the million dollars for tiny homes.

So again, we can continue that program that we know works.

Um, and we know that youth violence continues to be top of mind for a lot of folks in our community.

And so having that $1 million toward youth jobs, I think is really um integral for our community.

Um, you know, concerning the Office of Violence Prevention, which we heard a lot about on Friday, um, I want to make clear that we are allocating the same amount of general revenue that we did last year.

But I want to acknowledge that you know, we do have a slight deficit because there was also ARPA dollars initially that went into that as well.

Um, but then even though ARPA is non-renewable, um, you know, the city, I think should be looking long-term for other funding and grant opportunities for that.

And I'm counting on the Board of Alderman's um budget committee to continue doing some of that work and identifying what those sources are because we all know that these programs work in violence prevention is top of mind for so many of us.

Um also just want to reiterate that I share residents' concerns about the impacts of the state takeover of SLMPD.

And I'm encouraged by two things.

I want to make it clear that the budget we are adopting is not the budget that SLM or or that the police board asked us to adopt.

Um we are adopting our own budget for um the parameters that we think creates the best um outcomes for our city when it comes to both um public safety through a policing lens and through a social services lens.

And the mayor and I and community groups are continuing to actively challenge and Paul Payne as well, are continually continuing to actively challenge the state takeover bill.

And so I, you know, I think as a city, we are doing what we need to do to challenge this takeover.

But until we have a decision from the courts, I'm satisfied that we are following the law while working to overturn it in the future.

I also want the public to know that today's vote is not the last step in the process.

In some ways, it's the it's the beginning step.

Um after today's vote, the uh budget will head to the Board of Alderman's budget committee where they will meet daily to um have various departments come in front of them to um talk about their needs and um and explain their their budgets.

Those meetings will start next week on Monday, May 4th at 9 30 a.m.

And I want to encourage residents who have come out to have their voices heard to continue to be engaged in that process because it's often that the budget committee will come up with some ideas that they will then bring back to ENA and we continue um kind of those negotiations through the budget process.

So today's vote is not final, it's it's the next step in a long budget process.

And then I want to just close by thanking budget director Paul Payne, my colleagues on ENA for working on these amendments, and I particularly want to make sure that I um thank Mayor Spencer, who has been really integral in helping us uh track down how to get some of these funds for these programs that we know that so many residents really care about.

So with that, I'm happy to support this budget today and just want to thank everybody for their um work on making sure that we could uh you know put the the needs of residents at the forefront of this, even under some pretty challenging circumstances.

Thank you, President Green.

I appreciate your comments.

Comptroller Baringer, did you have any um comments you'd like to make?

Um just I just want some clarification, please.

Um I thought we took a vote first of the amendments, and then we take a second vote on the actual budget.

Is that accurate?

Yes, we're discussing the amendments at this time, Computer.

Okay.

All right.

So on the amendments, I also want a clarification is that um we have four amendments, but can we um separate at all any of the amendments?

Do they have to be voted on in bank or can we vote on them individually?

Or in my case, what I would like to do, and that's why I'm asking for clarification, is vote on the amendments one through three, and then separately vote on amendment four.

Okay.

I'm okay with that.

We can we can handle the vote that way, I'm okay with that.

Okay.

So that's that's all I have on the amendments.

I'll wait until we go back to vote on the full vote for the budget.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you with that.

Um with that, um, I will entertain so I will entertain a motion on amendments one, two, one A, one B, two, and three as proposed by Paul Payne.

I make a motion that we adopt amendments 1A, 1B, 2, and 3 to uh item number one is presented for the first time.

Second.

Madam Clerk, would you please call the roll?

Madam Clerk, you are aye.

Comptroller Baringer.

Aye.

President Green.

Aye.

All approved.

Thank you.

And now I will entertain a motion on item number four.

I make a motion that we adopt uh amendment number four to item number one as presented for the first time.

Second.

Madam Clerk, would you please call the roll?

Mayor Spencer.

Aye.

Comptroller Baringer.

No.

President Green.

I motion has passed.

Okay, thank you, Madam Clerk.

With that, we um have passed the four amendments presented by budget director Payne.

Um, and now uh we move on to discussion of the proposed budget as amended.

I want to make a couple of additional comments about this uh budget as as was clarified by President Green.

Um this finalization of the budget um means that we will be sending this budget over to the Board of Aldermen.

Um they will do a full deliberation on the budget as I'm confident that Board of Alderman is capable and directing uh dedicated time to do.

And so as President Green pointed out, there is a lot more work to be done.

But I do have a great deal of confidence in this budget.

This is which is just slightly exceeding the government finance officers association of best practice, which is a very, very financially stable position for the city to be in.

We've got our revenues are stabilizing, which is as well as our earnings and payroll tax funds, refunds have leveled off.

This is a great, great position for us to be in.

Excuse me, within 5% minimum of the regional salaries.

This has resulted in pay increases across many departments.

Many of our most underpaid city workers are getting a raise upwards of 45% because of that pay disparity that has existed for far too long.

This was an enormous body work, not just by everybody here on this screen, but our personnel department as well as many other stakeholders, including the unions and many other folks who are involved in negotiating this.

This is a huge lift, and I am very, very grateful that we've been able and proud that we've been able to accommodate this in this year's budget.

Many of our city employees that were not in that bucket outside of the minimum will receive all other employees will receive a 3% salary adjustment.

And as we've already discussed, our uniformed police and firefighters will see a 7% increase.

Emergency planning.

We've increased funding for our CEMA agency, the city emergency management agency will increase by $300,000 for additional staffing and emergency planning.

And as President Green mentioned, we continue to fund the Office of Violence Prevention with over $8 million to reduce crime and improve neighborhood safety through our general revenue while recognizing the ARPA funded projects across the board, including OVP have unfortunately sunset as that ARPA funding has done.

And we are continuing to allocate uh funding to demo demolishing derelict buildings, $4 million.

And that is an $4 million increase over last year.

So we're looking at a total of $9.3 million for that effort and uh $2 million, as I mentioned previously to Code Blue, which is the President Green mentioned is historic and something that is not only needed, but something that I think we can all uh join in being very proud of.

Paul, thank you for finding those funds.

We've also got additional funding for road and bridge projects and $10.7 million for ward-specific improvements in that area.

Our street department will receive a 1.3 million dollar increase for snow removal and salt and an additional $500,000 dedicated for street signage and striping inventory.

So we've got some great improvements in this budget despite some challenging circumstances.

And Paul, you've done a Herculaneum effort to get us here, and we really appreciate it.

With that, I'll turn it over to my colleagues for any comments now on the budget for fiscal year 2027 as proposed and as amended.

I'll keep it very brief.

I think I said you know, most of what I wanted to say earlier, but I um do also just want to highlight the fact that we are getting employee raises in here.

We are able to uh implement the recommendations from the pay study that were long overdue and getting implemented, which will hopefully help us with some attraction of new employees and retention of current employees.

Um so all in all, um, you know, while every line item isn't funded at the level that I think all of us ideally would love it to be funded at.

Um we have made sure that there are um that everything is funded at least at a at a basic level so that we can continue these programs and um and continue to have a budget that really reflects what uh residents in the city are asking us to do.

So again, um board of aldermen will start their process on Monday at 9 30 a.m.

So don't hesitate to become involved there as this continues.

But um thank you again to my colleagues and for Director Payne for um your work on this over this budget season.

Thank you, President Green.

Comptroller Barringer, did you want to add any comments on the budget as proposed and amended?

Yes, madam mayor.

Um, as the comptroller, my whole focus is my fiduciary responsibility.

And I need to look at the city's entire budget, and that means I have to carefully examine how we collect and how we spend, because that's the standard I have always adhered to in my entire career.

So what we have before us um makes me take pause, a little bit of pause about sustainability.

And I would like to look forward to a level of financial planning that ensures the success of everything that we are funding.

And the reason um it gives me pause is because I was here in 2008 when we had to furlough all the city employees, and I absolutely don't want to see that happen again.

I want us to plan for sustainability for all these projects like Cope Blue that are doing great things for our city.

Uh, but I have to make sure that we don't make that mistake again.

So I have been very much delving into not just the budget, but also income that should be coming into our city.

So as the budget stands, I'm neither opposed to it or in favor of it.

I'm in the process of what you all have said, which is this is just the beginning.

So I know that our board of aldermen, I know that it's going to come back to ENA.

I also know that um they have not had a chance to see it.

And I'm welcome to what's going to happen next.

Anyone has any questions for me, but um that's where I stand right now.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you, uh Comptroller Barringer.

Uh, would we have to do our job um as the board of ENA and uh in order uh we have to pass it out of ENA to get it over to the board of aldermen?

And so with that, I'll take a motion on uh uh on the budget as proposed and amended here today.

I move that we adopt uh item number one as amended as presented for the first time.

Second, Madam Clerk, would you please call the roll?

Mayor Spencer.

Aye.

Comptroller Barringer.

Abstain.

President Green.

Aye.

The motion has passed.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

And again, uh thank you all.

Um this has been just an enormous amount of work, um, and I'm very pleased and proud to send this to the Board of Aldermen for their consideration.

With that, um, are there any other items that members of the Board of ENA would like to discuss today?

No, just thank you to everyone.

I know it's been a lot of time and effort on everyone's part.

So thank you.

Thank you.

All right, with that, um, I'll take a motion to adjourn.

I move that we adjourn.

Second.

Previous roll.

All right, thank you all.

Thank you.

Thank you.