Good morning.

It is May the 11th, 938.

This is a budget and public employees committee.

Madam Clerk, please call the room.

Alder Woman Sonier.

Vice Chair Browning.

Present.

Alder Woman Velasquez.

Alderman Devotee.

Chair Alger.

Here.

Alder Woman Sonier.

Audible Velasquez.

Three present.

With that, we have established a quorum.

The next item of the agenda will be item number five, board bills for review, which would be Board Bill, which is a FY27 fiscal year budget for the city of St.

Louis.

We're going to skip over to committee discussions.

We have no resolutions for review.

And the first item today will be the water division, followed by the collector revenue, the sheriff office, a small break, medical examiner, and then we'll end the day with information technology service agency.

So we'll get started and have our water department come on up, introduce themselves.

Anyone else you have here from your team.

We're pulling up the presentation, and then you can jump right into it.

All right, good morning.

Just make sure your mic is on, uh Director.

Good morning.

Uh Chair Aldridge and uh rest of the members of the committee.

Uh my name is Nirj Patel.

I'm the director of public public utilities.

Uh with me today here I have Perla Burke, our fiscal manager, and Spencer Gould, our special assistant to the water commissioner.

So we've got a presentation of our uh FY27 budget here.

Um the water division as an enterprise, uh, you know, obviously has a little bit different uh take on the budget process, but internally we do get requests from all of our sections, and then the admin section, you know, uh hears the the budgets that have been presented by those operating sections, uh, you know, deliberates on on the funding that's available, makes cuts uh, you know, just like any budget process that uh is happening by another city department that is looking to get funded out of the general fund.

So next slide, please.

All right, so I always like to start with our mission is to provide safe, reliable, and economical drinking water service for all who live, work, and play in the city of St.

Louis.

Um, you know, our mission drives everything we do, uh, you know, and our our values, our vision are all tied into that mission.

Next slide, please.

Next slide.

All right, so I mentioned that we're an enterprise fund of the city.

Um, you know, what that means is that you know our accounts cannot touch the accounts of other city departments.

Um, you know, the general fund is not accessible to us, but we do operate on the fees that we charge, the revenues that we have as an enterprise uh to do the services that we do uh to meet our mission.

Um, we cannot actually take money from the general fund.

Um, and as such, that all of our revenues are dedicated to the mission uh of providing safe, reliable economical water.

Uh there are no profits.

Uh, you know, all of the the revenues go right back into the cost to operate the system.

Next slide, please.

So that system that we have, uh, you know, it it does cover you know approximately 65 miles of St.

Louis.

Uh, you know, we have over 90,000 service connections that are active, uh, over 20,000 valves, over 15,000 fire hydrants, and over 1,300 miles of water mains.

Uh, we do operate uh on pressure zones in the city.

Um, this is to provide uh the level of service uh with water pressure, you know, amongst the the major elevation changes in the city.

You can see those highlighted in that map there.

Um, you know, we do have two water treatment plants as well.

Uh Chandra Rocks plant at the north side of the city and then Howard Bend plant uh out in Chesterfield that services the city from the west.

Uh we also have two storage reservoirs that have over 125 million gallons a day or a million gallons of of capacity, uh, approximately equal to one day's uh worth of of pumped water that we have today.

Next slide, please.

So I mentioned uh you know those two treatment plants, they produce 129 million gallons a day on average.

Um just for some context here, that's about one one thousandth of the flow of the Mississippi River.

And the flow in the river obviously varies throughout the day, but um, you know, enough water to provide for the city of St.

Louis passes by our intake at the Chain of Rocks treatment plant in about 80 seconds.

And so there is a massive quantity of water coming through the Mississippi River.

Similarly, the Missouri River water is you know, equally impressive uh and one of the largest in the country.

Uh, you know, we produce nearly 47 billion gallons of water annually.

Uh, you know, this is a huge quantity, over 70,000 swim Olympic size swimming pools.

I've put some fun facts in there, but um, you know, we do monitor and test that water from river all the way, you know, uh out into the distribution system with samples that we collect daily uh across the city.

Uh we test for over 150 potential contaminants, um, you know, approximately 27,000 tests performed annually by the two labs that are state certified uh for drinking water.

Next slide, please.

So we're gonna dive into some of the sections.

Um, our administrative commissioner's office, uh, you know, that's where I work out of.

Uh, you know, we have the overall direction of the utility and the HR along with some IT funds.

Um, and then our distribution system uh section is you know, the crews that work out in the streets, our meter and tap folks, our dispatch, uh, some of the engineering for our distribution spec uh section.

You know, they are responsible to maintain the water mains, the valves, the fire hydrants, they inspect for leaks, um, you know, they provide taps for new services.

Uh, they have to ensure that that system is ready to deliver that high quality drink to the customers.

Next slide, please.

Our finance section, because we're an enterprise uh performs a little bit larger role than uh, you know, in other city departments.

Um, you know, they are fiscal and budgetary structure and control.

Um, you know, they maintain all of the books, um, you know, they process invoices, uh, they ensure that the finances are being reported adequately too, um, and they have a huge role to play in the annual audit that we get through every year, uh, you know, usually without any findings of significant uh you know changes that need to be made.

So our supply and purification section, um, you know, that is the treatment plants.

They are the producers of the drinking water.

They take that river water, uh, you know, muddy, murky, uh, you know, full of potential harmful contaminants, and turn it into that high quality drinking water every day, you know, that we come to rely on when we turn the faucet on in the morning.

Um, you know, I mentioned again two treatment plants.

Uh, you know, there's a whole team of dedicated water professionals are making sure that that product, uh, the only you know utility that you ingest is safe for human consumption and exceeds actually all of the drinking water uh most of the time when it comes to the clarity of the water, our turbidity, our partnership for safe drinking water that we are uh you know, charter members of uh for over 20 years have received the director's award for for uh again our our process is good enough that we can get higher than that standard that's required for regulatory, uh and we're proud of that.

You know, uh we hear often and we like to hear often that the drinking water in the city of St.

Louis is some of the best they've ever tasted.

So next slide, please.

Our power and pumping section uh is at our treatment plants.

It's uh part of the the you know process to pressurize the water to pump it out to the city, but it also actually brings river water up to the treatment process.

Um, you know, these are the pump stations that we have, uh, some of the power systems that we have at the treatment plants.

Uh, you know, we buy power from Amon at 35,000 volts.

Uh, you know, they are responsible for that equipment in the substations, switch gears, the pump stations, and then our construction and maintenance group is another support staff for the plant operations, um, but also they go out in the distribution system sometimes and support those operations as well.

And so uh, you know, these are our construction trade laborers, the operators that we have of the uh heavy equipment and the the construction equipment that we use for repairs at the treatment plants.

Um, you know, they work every day to make sure that that water is leaving that plant, um, you know, and that they're supporting the maintenance activities at those treatment plants.

Next slide, please.

Our customer service uh staff is very important.

They are the ones that are outward facing, they deal with the customers every day.

Uh they man the phones, they man the uh pay window at the Kings Highway office, uh, and then of course, also kind of monitor the email uh coming in as well for issues that people may have, account changes that people may be trying to make, uh, questions on the bill, or lately some of the assistance programs that we have due to the ARPA funding, uh, you know, our temporary assistance program keeps them quite busy.

Um, and then as we are shutting water off now, uh, you know, we have a steady stream of people calling to try to get uh help uh to get into a repayment plan uh to get back on track, and they are receiving those payments and and processing those applications as well.

So you know, along with that group are the people who read the water meters, um, you know, who who do the shuts uh when necessary and assist with uh activities through the customer service process.

All right, so now we're gonna get into our budget.

Um next slide, please.

So uh again, you know, our our revenues support the operation.

And so the revenue estimate is very important in the budget process.

We do that early to try to anticipate how much money we may have available, uh, try to uh evaluate the requests from all the operating sections and then some of the uh more known costs that we project.

Um, you know, this year we have uh uh revenue estimate that is an increase uh from last year.

You know, this is largely due to the moratorium being lifted and our ability to uh start shutting and getting people uh paying again regularly, but also uh you know, we did have a CPIU adjustment of 3% uh that just uh went into effect January 1 of this year as part of the last rate ordinance that was passed.

Um, you know, even so uh, you know, that revenue estimate being higher, uh we have operating expenses that are you know higher as well.

And so uh one of the important things to remember is that to balance our budget, you know, we have to make sure that we're using the revenue and any uh you know funds that we may have in a reserve to meet that challenge.

Uh this year we were not able to uh approve a lot of the necessary things that we need to approve to operate the division uh for this year coming.

And so, you know, our our operating expenses uh sit at 84.2 million.

Uh, you know, this is uh lower than than in years in the past.

Next slide, please.

So this is uh, you know, small text, uh a little difficult to read, but uh what it shows is that we have a balance.

Um, you know, we have about 84.2 million uh, you know, both on the the revenue estimate side and the operating expense side.

Uh one of the big differences from years past that you'll see is that for over seven years we've been operating in a deficit.

We've been borrowing from the water contingent fund, borrowing from the reserve fund to make up that gap.

We do not have that that reserve fund available this year.

That is why the budget is smaller this year.

Um, you know, we have had to cut things out from the budget, defer um some known necessary things like uh you know, our our treatment chemicals, our uh emergency uh anticipated spend, uh even down to our electrical power that we know.

Um next slide, please.

So this is showing the actions that we've taken to achieve uh a balanced budget here.

Um, you know, we've deferred 11.4 million dollars in major projects, materials supplies, uh equipment and capital assets, uh, as well as some of the known contractual services that we know will need to make it through the fiscal year.

Um 3.8 million dollars in non-capital equipment that was also uh deferred out of this budget.

Uh again, you know, these are things that we will need if we want to continue the level of service that we've been providing in the past, uh, the reliable service that we aim to provide as part of our mission.

Um then amongst those, there's also quite a bit uh more smaller across the board deferrals.

In years past, you know, a lot of these things have been uh things that we've cut out that are you know certainly necessary but less necessary.

Uh I think what I'm trying to get at this year, we are cutting out things that are necessary uh in order to achieve a balanced budget because we do not have a reserve to pull from.

Next slide, please.

Uh this is a comparison year over year, uh just kind of showing some of the changes.

Uh you'll see that personnel services went up slightly.

Uh, of course, every year that there is a new pay plan that's being considered, uh, you know, raises that are going into effect uh for city employees.

Uh, you know, we have to anticipate that we'll have an increase in that uh expense for the personnel services.

Additionally, we've added a few positions uh that we know are gonna be necessary in order to continue providing our mission.

Uh so you see a uh 3.8% increase there.

Um, you know, we have cut money out, as I mentioned, uh, that we know we'll need uh to provide the level of service that we've been providing, but uh had to cut out in order to provide a balanced budget.

Um and so you can see 17% was cut out of materials and supplies that we will need uh to provide our services.

Uh you know, going down the line, um, we have other non-capital assets, capital assets, contractual services that we've cut as well out of the budget.

Uh, you know, in total, we're looking at a 5.7% decrease in our budget compared to last year.

Next slide, please.

So just to detail that a little bit more, um, you know, we do have an increase uh anticipated in the personnel services because of the positions that we've added.

We always fully budget for those as we're required to do.

And that's looking like $8.9 million anticipated in vacant positions.

Again, we're going to try to fill all those positions that added, certainly some of the other ones where we have vacancies, and we'll get into the vacancies a little bit later.

But that $8.9 million that may need to get reallocated for our treatment chemicals, for example, you know, which we have budgeted short.

$15.5 million is our anticipated need.

We've reduced it to $9.6 million.

I mentioned again that we have our electrical service that we've under budgeted for again to anticipate pulling that from our excess personnel services to the vacant positions.

And then again, the major projects and contracts that we have for services have decreased as well.

Next slide, please.

All right, so what this means is this is not a sustainable budget we're presenting today.

This is the budget that is balanced based on the revenues that we are projecting, but it will not uh you know have a component borrowed from a contingency fund that is depleted.

It will have reductions and deferrals of necessary work that we do to provide our core services.

Um, you know, it does not have enough money in there for emergency repair.

So if we don't have uh you know another revenue stream coming in after the fiscal year opens, um, you know, we will have to decide which water mains that are leaking or broken uh that we can go without repairing, or you know, what other expenses we can cut uh in order to make ends meet.

Um, you know, I mentioned the the treatment chemicals and the electrical power as well, um, and then if you know it doesn't leave a lot of room for proactive maintenance or uh you know repairs, replacements of equipment that we know we need to replace uh that we've been stringing along past their useful service life at an additional expense because of that aged asset.

Uh we do have a rates and efficiency study that had been conducted.

Uh, it's complete.

Uh you can find that on our website.

We'll talk a little bit more about that later as well.

Uh, and this is going to identify the the long-term funding needs uh, you know, to bridge this gap.

Next slide, please.

So uh, you know, this this uh line graph here shows our revenues and expenses.

Um, you know, when we had the rate increase that that passed, you know, uh in 2023, it certainly started bringing those two lines back together.

You can see the expenses just started growing.

Uh the gap was uh quite large in some years we were borrowing more than 10 million dollars from the contingent fund.

Uh, and over the years, we have not brought those two lines together.

Um, you know, you certainly would hope that our revenues are higher than our expenses, especially as we've run out of that contingent fund.

And you can see that our expense line uh you know projected, it dives down.

That is because we've reduced our budget here.

We've reduced what we know we'll need to continue operating, uh providing level service in order to have that meet our projected revenues.

Next slide.

Um this is just another way to look at it.

This is our reserve fund.

We had built it up over time, a little over uh 35 million dollars, close to 40 million dollars, and then we had those seven years of deficits that we borrowed and borrowed and borrowed from that fund.

Uh, there is no fund remaining anymore.

And so, you know, the emergency rate increase certainly did help uh in FY23, um, FY24.

You can see that those deficits started to shrink.

Um, but we also had impacts from inflationary actions, impacts from rising emergency expenses because of the failures that we had and the repairs that were necessary.

So you know, it just didn't do enough.

I think in hindsight, we can see that clearly uh at the time it was thought that it would stabilize things.

Uh, it just wasn't enough, and it was also reactive.

Uh, you know, that emergency increase was significant, two 20% increases, uh, effectively 44%.

Uh we knew we'd have to follow that with another set of increases if we were gonna become instead of reactive, proactive.

And that's what we're working through with our rate sufficiency study that we just completed and uh legislation that we're looking to put out there.

Next slide, please.

So the major categories we have personnel services, you can see in this chart.

Um, year over year, we have to spend more to keep the division uh you know staffed.

And we've been making some strides in reducing our vacancy.

Uh you can see this year there's a large excess in that personnel services.

That's where we anticipate having that $8.9 million to borrow from if we can't fill all those positions to make up for the gaps in the other categories.

Uh, but I will say the gaps in the other categories far exceed that excess that we have in the personnel services.

So materials and supplies you can see year over year continues to go up.

Um, you know, the equipment uh a lot of times we'll make do with what we have, uh string it out a little bit further, um, keep that down as low as we can.

But at some point you do have to buy new equipment to keep that service provided.

Uh and then our contractual services is where we've seen some of the biggest increases in our budget over the years.

Uh, you know, this is certainly due to the emergency failures that we've had, the main breaks, uh, issues at the treatment plants, uh, and then some of the staffing that we have just can't handle all that in house, so we have contracts uh, you know, to provide additional service there.

And then the project work has been a little inconsistent there.

It's really just what's uh absolutely necessary, uh, what we think we can try to achieve, uh, but we know we're continuing to have pressure from the inflationary actions from the emergencies, and so it's been difficult to do projects uh on an annual basis as well without an infrastructure fund, you know, that is uh capable of providing for multi-year projects, larger projects, and so you can see it's just down pretty low there.

Next slide.

Uh our chemical expenses are actually somewhat stabilizing.

Uh, you know, in our rate sufficiency study, we have uh you know, categories where we have uh you know anticipated increases, projections based on indices that uh you know those uh financial consultants use to project future expenses for the next five years, and in the chemical space, we have seen a little bit more uh stability where we had you know uh quite a bit of fluctuation in the past.

Next slide.

Um this just kind of dives into some of the the nuance of that.

Um but again the the big thing here is we've only budgeted for 9.6 million dollars, though the costs have started to stabilize.

Uh we have an anticipated 5.9 million dollars that will be short for the treatment chemicals that we know we'll need uh to treat that drinking water.

Um we plan on pulling some of that from the the personnel services excess that uh you know is in the vacancy uh there.

But you know, one of the things we know is that we really could achieve savings in this expense if we had more efficient treatment facilities, if we had less water that was being lost in the system due to the amount of leaks and breaks that we have.

Um, you know, that is a huge expense to treat that water to pump that water to use energy to get that water pressurized for the system and then just have it leak in the system.

All systems have non-revenue water, you know, that is leakage, but but ours is significantly higher due to the aging infrastructure and the distribution system.

Next slide, please.

Um so this is just a trend of of the personnel services.

Uh, you know, uh that bar chart that we saw before again, it just continues to uh you know go up, obviously with the the pay plans that get passed, but also we've been adding TO positions.

Um we'll have a slide later on that'll show that.

Next slide, please.

So this is one of our bigger expenses.

Um, our staff, 36 million dollars.

Uh, it takes a lot of people to operate the division.

Uh and over the years we've had a decline.

Um, you know, we're seeing so many emergencies now that we do need more staff, and we've been adding that staff.

Uh we'll break it out a little bit further down the line, but uh we have decreased our vacation our vacancy rate.

So uh you know, last year it was 26%.

We're down to 23%.

And this is actually um, you know, with us adding TO positions.

So I think we're making some headway there.

Uh, we're working very closely with the department of personnel to solve challenges with specific positions.

Uh, you know, certainly the the new pay plan uh will help that as well.

Uh but we continue to see um you know increases in some of our our contractual services, so hiring you know, uh city employees, civil servants uh certainly helps us in the long run here.

Uh our contractual expenses, again, we're decreasing that in our budget, not because we think we'll spend less, but because we know we have to provide a balanced budget here.

So it will be challenging to maintain our level of service with uh this amount of decrease in our contractual services.

Next slide, please.

All right.

So you know, we use these emergency contractors for uh emergency water main breaks, um, you know, equipment failures at the treatment plants, uh, pump repairs, our intake structures uh need constant maintenance and rehabilitation.

Uh, but you know, with the funding that we have, we do repairs on those.

So you know, we're budgeting 30 million, but this is smaller than we've had in the years past, and you know, we typically consider having to bring more money into that category uh, you know, with any excess that we may have in personnel services down the road uh based on the amount of usage that we have of contract services.

Um you can see our main breaks continue to fluctuate, but increase overall in trend.

Next slide, please.

So the bars on this chart are our PO positions, and as you can see, uh over the years from FY15, uh a little bit over 340.

Um in FY26, we are projecting uh or uh requesting 378 positions in our TO.

This is more than the 369 that we had last year.

Uh but even so we've been filling these positions.

We've been hiring at the water division.

Um, it's been very challenging with the competition that's out there.

Um it's been challenging to retain our employees, but we have been working with the department of personnel to make progress here.

And we've reduced from 26% vacancy to 23% vacancy, you know, through necessary adjustments to salaries to retain employees that are looking for uh you know other employment if they can't get a salary that is commensurate or competitive.

Um also the hires that we're seeing coming in, you know, in order to fill these positions, we are having to seek approval for increased starting salaries uh for seasoned professionals, people with experience in order to be competitive.

Next slide, please.

You know, this shows uh within our our programs, within our different uh operating sections where the the vacancies lie.

Um, you know, it does vary some.

We have higher vacancies in some of our trades positions, for example.

See 46%.

Um, it has been very difficult getting qualified tradespeople uh to come work for the water division.

These are the people that keep the treatment plants operational with the electricians, with the carpenters, uh, with the machinists, um, you know, the maintenance mechanics that work on our pumping units, um, and the people who help with the grounds, our water maintenance technicians who, for example, clean the the settling basins that that we rely on to settle out those solids in the Mississippi River.

Next slide, please.

I mentioned the TO changes that we've made.

Um, you know, again, we're taking a look, trying to right size our our staff, um, you know, uh make new positions where necessary.

We've added a new position in our water project management.

Um, you know, these are staff that will need if we are gonna do our water master plan, have a comprehensive, you know, uh capital improvement program, and start doing some of that renewal.

Uh, we'll need those engineers, we'll need those supervisors, we'll need those utility locators uh to go out there and mark the water mains, um, you know, to help assist in managing those projects and do reviews of the designs for those projects.

Um, we've also added um you know some technical positions uh in as well.

Um, you know, we're adding in more data processing manager uh with one addition there.

Uh you know, we are really driving towards tracking uh our metrics, uh, you know, developing uh good data sets that we can action you know uh changes on to improve our division.

Next slide, please.

So the ARPA and bill funding have been uh you know uh helpful, uh certainly not the amount of money that we would hope for, uh certainly not matching the need that we have, um, but we do have the million dollars for the customer assistance program that we're still working through.

Um, there is funding in that program.

We encourage anyone who's having trouble with their uh water bills to contact us, uh, you know, check their eligibility, apply for that program, and get into a repayment plan you know that can spread that cost uh of uh balance out over time so that they can pay that down and get back into good stand with us.

And then we were very grateful to receive a very necessary emergency infusion from board bills 160 and 161, 1.2 million dollars for water infrastructure repair and placement projects with the interest and $5.5 million for the same that is going to be applied to projects that we have done, completed to replace revenues that we lost due to the pandemic.

Next slide, please.

So the uh bipartisan infrastructure law, um, you know, the state of Missouri receives these federal funds.

We are applying uh aggressively for that.

We increased our application to 65 million dollars.

Uh, you know, that will be instrumental to get started into our capital improvement program that will uh you know get improved actually uh you know, probably comprehensively with the water master plan, but we know what we need to do to get started.

We know where the critical needs are.

Um, you know, this will be helpful to again get started there, but we do have to have water rates that can support that debt service.

It is debt.

Um, you know, we have to be lendable, so to speak.

Um, you know, we have been using some of the the ARPA funds through the state.

Uh, you know, we got that project completed for the lead service line inventory.

Um we have another project that we're in the process of completing with our field inventory, um, you know, where we've gone into uh approximately 1,400 homes, inspected those service lines uh to improve our inventory, and we'll be doing more uh you know visual inspection of that service line out in the tree lawn area with uh some uh hydro excavation uh activity that'll be kicking off very soon here.

Uh and I mentioned we are pursuing additional funds.

So the assistance program, uh, you know, that ARPA funded program, obviously uh, you know, this does have a date at which that this fund has to get drawn down.

Uh we intend to keep our temporary assistance program open as long as we can, as long as we have funding.

Uh, you know, we are continuing to receive applications as we've opened up eligibility uh you know from a lower income threshold to a higher income threshold.

We continue to try to make it easier to apply for, receive these funds uh, you know, to help pay down a delinquent water balance and get into a repayment program where we are out there shutting uh several hundred accounts a week.

Um, you know, we know that we need to have a solution to get people back on track with uh repayment plan and back on track with a little bit of assistance uh up front.

Next slide, please.

Uh this shows our delinquent balance.

Um, you know, over the the course of the last several months, uh, you know, certainly when we have uh new bills that go out, the quarterly billing structure, a new amount of people become delinquent, and so you see a little bit of a spike up.

Um but then as people start to pay their bills, you see that delinquent balance start to come down.

And so uh, you know, we did approach uh 14 and a half million dollars uh at the peak here, but we are on a downward trend here.

Um you know, we are starting to see some recovery of the balance that is owed.

Uh we're tracking this, we're tracking the repayment plan uh agreements that we have with our our customers.

Um, you know, this is uh combination of of all of the the types of delinquent balance, both residential and commercial and industrial.

Um, but overall we are starting to see improvements there, 11% decrease peak in February of 26.

Next slide, please.

All right, so uh in our distribution section, again, this is the the uh mains that are out in the the system.

Um to date, we have had over 200 uh repair activities for water mains.

Um, you know, we're not even uh but a third through the year, and we're starting to see this level of uh you know uh issue out in the system.

Um you know, it is not predictable to a to a hundred percent degree.

Uh it is seasonal, the water main breaks.

A huge portion of this was due to the winter storm that we had uh and the massive amount of of water main breaks that we had following that.

Um you know, we do have over 5,700 uh distribution work orders to date.

Uh you know, this is keeping our staff very busy.

Um we're not relying right now on our emergency contractors because we are able to keep up with it internally.

Um, you know, but as those seasonal uh events start to uh have the main breaks peak, we we start to rely on those contractors, and um it is expensive work.

Next slide, please.

So uh when it comes to the projects, um, you know, I mentioned earlier we had to make some cuts to balance the budget.

Um, you know, we only have 2.9 million dollars allocated for approved budgeted projects.

We had over a hundred million dollars worth of requests from all the departments, uh, you know, sections within our our our division, uh, you know, putting a budget out there.

Uh we had to make a lot of cuts this year.

Um, and you can see quite a bit of of the work, you know, at the top of this list is emergency only.

Um, you know, we like to do this stuff proactively.

They are projects on RCIP.

Uh, we just do not have the funds for them.

Um, a few of them we have supported.

Um, the water master plan is very important because of the work it's doing to quantify uh and assess the condition of the assets that we own and are responsible for.

Um, so it is uh you know, in there it did make the cut.

And then we have a lot of unfunded uh critical capital needs.

Um, you know, these are the highest level needs within the division.

Um, you know, it's significant, it's over 200 million dollars.

Next slide, please.

Uh this kind of shows the the impact of the winter storm.

Um, you know, you can see uh that we had a higher number in um you know peaking towards the end of November, December.

I don't think we have 2026 in here, but um it's the seasonality of the water main breaks.

You know, we certainly see a an increase in the winter, and we see an increase in the summer, depending on the the conditions of the year, the dryness in the summer um coupled with the heat uh you know causes the ground to shift and the the mains start to fail uh in the winter.

It is the extreme cold.

Um, you know, the water temperature is also very cold because it's surface water, uh, and that causes quite a bit of breaks with the the ground temperatures as well.

Next slide.

Um I mentioned that we have our rate sufficiency study posted on our website.

Uh you know, encourage anyone who is interested in seeing uh the recommendations of that study, uh, you know, the methodology that was used, um, you know, the the level of deficiency that we've had uh historically in the last five years, and then looking forward in the next five years, uh the recommendations you know, by a consultant, uh, you know, in a financial model.

This is data backed approach to determining a recommendation for setting your water rates if they are not sufficient to your expenses.

And so, you know, we have revenue projections built in relatively flat uh due to the the lack of growth of population or uh rate base in the city of St.

Louis.

Um and so it does recommend an increase uh you know, as a result of that study to meet the operating capital and financial obligations that we have.

Next slide, please.

Um, you know, one of the things that we know we'll have to do, um, you know, the amount of need um is great.

You know, we have over 700 million dollars worth of identified capital projects.

Uh we have a rate study that is recommending uh significant uh increases in water rates, double digit percentage increases uh in order to not just be reactive uh but be proactive.

And so, you know, this is not the the rate increases of the past that we're catching up, uh trying to catch up to the cost to operate the division.

Um, you know, this is looking forward at the amount of infrastructure work that we need to start doing uh in order to minimize the emergency cost in order to become more efficient with our treatment chemicals and our energy in order to have less non-revenue water leaking out of our system, uh just going into the ground that we're paying for uh collectively as a rate base.

And so we do know that we're gonna have you know potentially at risk customers.

We're raising the water rates.

There are going to be people who are already struggling who will continue to struggle more, even if we have some of the most affordable rates in the state now and continue to have uh, you know, not the lowest but not the highest rates in the state, uh certainly not for a system of our size, our age, um, you know, looking at other uh municipal water systems in the state, we will still be uh very affordable, but not for those who are uh at risk.

And so we're looking at uh working with the elected officials, you know, to if we are gonna pursue a rate increase and we are gonna pursue our rate increase, then it is gonna help the people who are at risk with an affordability rate.

We also still have the temporary assistance program, but this will act something more permanent to help those in need.

So uh that concludes the the presentation.

Again, safe, reliable economical drinking water for all of St.

Louis.

Uh that's what we're here to do.

That's our mission.

It drives us every day to continue uh you know to provide that service, that essential service.

And with that, I'll take any questions.

Thank you, Director.

Starting to order seniority with Vice Chair Browning.

Thank you, Director.

I really appreciate the detailed presentation.

I also appreciate the availability of the water division recently to take a number of us on tours of the Chain of Rocks treatment plant.

I believe it was my colleague Elderman Devotee who wrote in a recent social media post that it's like stepping back in time, the 1960s.

And it is in many ways, both in the neat ways and in the not so neat ways, and that some of the things that some of that equipment is from the 1960s and is clearly towards the end of its life.

And I have seen that things like the moratorium that was put in place, which wasn't the water division's fault, but you're doing the best you can under the circumstances.

And I think just what I've seen from your leadership, it's been excellent to pivot as much as you can, do what you can with what you have, uh, which is the story of a lot of our city departments.

But um, I think especially true of the water division.

Uh so my question, uh my first question for you is when was the last time your rates were sufficient to cover uh operation and capital improvement?

Yeah, there was some years when uh you know the contingent fund balance was growing.

But you know, when I started the water division, I was hired in to do significant project work.

And what year was that?

Uh 2008.

And you know, uh just before a few rate increases that we got passed there, we had the contingent fund growing.

But you know, the the order of magnitude of the projects that we were budgeting for uh, you know, it was ambitious for the time, but again, you have to ramp into that.

And so I don't think it it would have been sufficient uh at that time either, you know, with the increases that were passed then allowing us to continue to grow a contingent fund.

Um, you know, we had staffing issues that were happening at the time as well.

And so um certainly before my time here, uh, you know, I don't think the rates have been sufficient because they've been some of the lowest in the state for a system that has some of the worst infrastructure in the state.

And so that contrast, you know, it just goes to show you that we need to think ahead.

You know, the the level of increase that we just passed was another reactive one.

And I think that the level of increase that that we need uh in the rates to support a necessary rate that allows for us to do significant capital improvement um, you know, is gonna be higher than the increase that we just saw.

And that makes sense since you're having a budget for replacement of equipment for um really updating this really old system at this point.

And what the the average age of our water infrastructure right now, um, just the average age of our pipes is something like uh what is it right now?

Do you know off the top of your head?

Uh I don't know the the age of all of it, but we certainly have a lot of pipe that is around 100 years old.

Um, you know, what's the average lifetime of a pipe?

Uh typically you look at 50 to 100 years, but um, you know, some of it is cast iron pipe, uh, and it's installed in the way um and with the climate that we have and the surface water that we have where you're probably tending to, you know, somewhere in the lower end of that that scale.

So you were operating over seven years uh at a deficit, and then the moratorium was added on top of that, which which really puts you in a pickle.

Um, I want to talk a little bit about that repayment program.

So a million dollars.

So you have you had over one point almost 14,000 14 million dollars in unpaid uh uh rates that uh resulted in quite um the lack of revenue.

Uh but only a million dollars from ARPA was budgeted to help repay that amount.

Is that correct?

Correct.

And that and that's structured in a way that people actually have to go out and apply for it, and then it's a one-time $500 credit to their accountant.

And how much of that money has been uh applied to this uh as of today?

Uh it's somewhere just short of $300,000.

So missing $14 million in revenue, only given a million as an option, but only actually received around $300 or so thousand.

Yeah, the program remains uh funded.

You know, we have significant funds left, um, and we're continuing to support that program uh and and pushing people to apply for it, but correct.

We we haven't yet drawn that balance down uh in assistance that we have, and we still do have a significant amount of uh delinquent balance out there.

And if that money doesn't get expended, since that is American Rescue Plan Act money, it does have to be expended by the end of this year.

If that doesn't get expended, do you have a plan to sweep that into revenue replacement?

Like that?

Yeah, it would need to be reallocated.

And again, we're we're working with the city counselor's office, with the mayor's office, um, you know, on the time frame of you know when we would have to uh potentially reallocate that.

Um and revenue replacement uh you know is the category, the expense category that that all of our ARPA expenditures uh have on them.

And so it would be uh able to be rolled into you know pay for our payroll or pay for our past projects that we've completed.

And then switching gears just slightly, um you indicated that you've been reallocating money from personnel from vacant positions over to chemical costs, and that's because just we need to keep the water safe and clean for people.

But does that compromise in any way your ability to respond to things like emergency repairs, which then you have to contract out for in order to repair?

Uh this year, yes, it will.

Um, there is not enough money.

Um, you know, even if we freeze hiring and anticipate that we'll have some amount of remainder in our our vacant position budget and our personnel services uh to pay for the treatment chemicals, to pay for the electrical, and to pay for the emergencies that we have.

Um, you know, those three historically have required uh a transfer from our contingent fund, and that's just not uh there right now.

There's no balance there for us to transfer in from.

And so we will be short uh with this budget, and that's why I said it's unsustainable.

And and that's just an example of when you don't provide in one area, it starts to affect another area, which can cause cost overruns and category.

Uh, and it becomes this kind of cascading thing that then you run out of money in the contingency fund, and we're kind of all at a road to kick this can.

Uh so uh the rate sufficiency study has been done now, and it has uh turned out some results.

Um what do you think gets you to a place where you're doing um multiple repairs and replacements of critical equipment, being able to hire enough personnel to go out and address emergencies without having to contract out, which is more expensive, uh, and to be able to afford supplies and equipment, really just the day-to-day operation in addition to capital improvement.

What uh I know the rate increase, uh, the rate sufficiency study put out some numbers.

Does that by itself cover it?

It does.

It it covers anticipated future uh expenses based on cost indices uh rising.

And so it factors in inflation, it factors in uh the rising cost of our personnel services, it factors in the rising cost of contract services.

Um it also factors in uh a meaningful amount of capital renewal, you know, 440 million dollars worth of bonded and cash financed uh and and debt financed uh capital renewal.

Uh uh it also builds in a rate stabilization reserve fund uh to minimize the impact of future years worth of uh you know increases to maintain uh debt service coverage ratios and OM reserve uh that is required to to acquire this debt.

Um and so you know the increases are significant though.

It's recommending a 40% increase initially front loaded again to build the reserve back up, front loaded to uh offset that mismatch that we have in expenses and revenues, um, and then in following years, a continuation of increases to support uh, you know, again the OM reserve that we will need, but the capital work that we will need as we start to issue debt packages to do the capital renewal with the water mains, with the uh you know, pumping units, with the treatment equipment, um it it factors all of that in uh with you know three years of six percent uh increases and then two more years of five percent increases.

And so one of the only differences that that uh you know it it provides an approach instead of 40% up front to break that into you know two smaller increases just so that the ratepayers can absorb that plan for that.

Um, you know, so it does suggest two 18% increases, which is what we're seeking support for is the recommendations of that study.

And we've been recently moving money over to keep you all alive while we figure out the rates and uh any kind of other assistance.

But looking at this ARPA or the BIL funding, um, the most significant number there, and I've heard you say over and over again over 700 million dollars of needs.

The most significant number in this is the 5.5 million that we recently moved over.

Uh, and that was an ARPA reallocation uh when other places uh when other programs that we had funded failed to spend funds down.

So we've kind of moved the leftovers over to the water division to keep them alive.

But this rate increase is absolutely critical to not just making sure you continue to operate, but making sure that you can get on the path to financial solvency.

Yeah, the ARPA, you know, uh reallocations were certainly a lifeline for us.

Um, you know, we still project uh a deficit through the end of this fiscal year uh without an additional help.

Um but one of the things that we continue to do is take a look at our expenses, determine which of our projects again, we can defer.

Um, you know, we are not uh trying to run out of money, we're trying to make it through operating to provide the service uh you know that we need to provide.

You know, we have a hierarchy of of kind of you know critical needs, safety of the water, safety of our employees uh is at the top of that list, reliability uh, you know, comes next, and then you know, we certainly strive to be affordable.

But um, you know, we've deferred these projects in the past and we'll continue to to defer projects as necessary uh as able uh to make ends meet, uh to not run out of funds to continue operating so that we our staff uh you know keep water uh safe and reliable out of the tap.

Um but again, we may have service related issues uh with you know leaks that run that we will not be able to support addressing.

Um, you know, emergency water main breaks that are affecting service will have priority.

You you said you deferred a lot of projects in order to keep above water here.

Uh excuse the not meaning to make a pun there, but um the uh you deferred projects and and deferred maintenance.

I've always kind of uh I've more in the side of buildings, I always refer to this deferred maintenance is always a fancy word for neglect.

Uh not to say that you've neglected the water infrastructure, you just haven't had the money to keep up.

But what results when we defer a project is then we have a project that should have happened but didn't, and something else had to take priority.

We're used to that in the city, we have to prioritize all sorts of things all the time.

You know, that bridge may be failing, but that bridge might be actively falling apart.

So we have to fix that one before we can fix this one, you know, that kind of thing.

But I'm looking at the main breaks here and I'm looking at the numbers.

Um we're not quite finished with FY26 yet, but uh it's looking it's looking high.

Do you think we're gonna set a new record for breaks?

Uh it's tough to say, but uh, you know, we've been trending up, and so uh I'd say it's not unreasonable to expect that if we have a bad winter, um, you know, we'll have more breaks this year.

I know you're talking fiscal year.

Uh, so I I do think that you know it depends largely on the the weather the rest of the year here, and you know, to some extent, just if we uh have a run of them or or or get lucky.

But no, I I do think that over the years we've been experiencing more and more.

So yeah, we're continuing to have a lot of pressure uh due to the water main breaks.

And something really key there, you said I think is it the weather affects this.

Yes.

So the more extreme weather we have, the more breaks and problems with the system.

Yeah, the the you know uh year over year we've seen quite a bit more storms.

Um, you know, the winter storms certainly have a big impact.

This last one was one of the highest peaks that we've had in water main breaks, uh, you know, certainly in a short amount of time as well.

It really put a strain on our internal staff plus a multitude of emergency contractors to be able to address these.

Um, and this happens regionally as well.

I mean, you know, that there were certainly a lot of main breaks in the county, but with our aging infrastructure, with our lack of of water main replacements, uh, where we have a lot of breaks uh due to the age and conditions of that water main.

Um, you know, we certainly have a lot more than the national average, uh, you know, then maybe what some of the neighboring water utilities have, uh, you know, we think we're a little over double.

So the increased rates will help you hopefully uh reduce the number of breaks, but I always think I think of the increased rates as like maybe you or your spouse got a new job and they're starting in two weeks.

And so maybe they're gonna make some more money at that new job, but you still have things breaking around your house right now that you need to get to.

And so that future salary is great, and maybe you'll be able to take out some additional debt when that salary kicks in.

But until then, uh you're not really able to do those projects that that might be critical.

Um I know we're discussing sending some money to the water division from the Rams settlement funds.

What would that money be helpful with?

Uh, I think I thought I thought I heard you say $65 million just to get started, but maybe I misheard.

Um, can you share that?

Yeah, so uh right now the application we have uh into the state uh for a state revolving fund loan, uh which may have some grant component to it is $65 million.

Um, you know, that is $20 million for water mains.

Uh it supports uh you know the project to rehabilitate our intake structure at the Chain Rocks plant.

It supports a project to put in two new pumping units at our Howard Bend plant, um, you know, and then some other smaller improvements that are necessary as well.

Uh one of our uh chemical systems, our our Lime system, uh, you know, certainly can use uh uh a refresh, a new facility to you know, store process and deliver Lyme to our treatment process is not a cheap project, uh, probably in the order of 10 to 15 million dollars.

We have that in there as well.

Um and so you know, you're right that we don't have that right now because we don't have a reserve fund, uh, we don't have sufficient uh operating and maintenance reserves, um, you know, certainly don't have a capital fund.

And so what the Rams piece can do for us, um, you know, if there's Rams funding that comes to the water division is provide immediate cash in an infrastructure fund uh that can be leveraged to uh uh go after those loans and have uh you know a stable amount of of reserve in our system to continue operating as we're talking about uh you know, we won't be able to make it through this next fiscal year with the budget we presented.

And so uh, you know, it'll support potentially emergency repairs, but what we'd like to see it do is is support debt service for you know uh loans that are that are uh subsidized.

And so it it really can kind of extend and leverage uh you know in multiple layers the amount of capital funding and renewal that we can do.

Um that is our goal is to leverage any new funds that come in, especially uh in the form of Rams dollars to get projects done.

Because those Rams dollars are interest-free, uh, whereas other loans have varying degrees of interest.

And so not to mention if you sit the Rams funds, you can make interest off of them as well and you know, use that to spend uh so I I think when we talk about the Rams money, that the what's special about it is that it's just uh it's gotten no strings, it's got no requirements, uh unlike federal money, which comes with lots of little conditions or state money, which is controlled by the state.

We uh we can use this for whatever we need to.

And uh in addition, it it just comes without a with that without an interest rate.

Um I think that's uh I know that I I could ask a few questions all day, and I don't want to take up more time from my colleagues, but um, I'll just end by saying whenever something breaks in the city, we see water division employees out immediately addressing it.

Uh it can sometimes take time, sometimes several days to address it, but there's no doubt that there's employees on the scene doing that work.

And every time I talk to a constituent uh when uh when there is an issue with water, it's not uh, oh, there was a break and it went unaddressed.

It's there was a break and the city was out here immediately, you know, trying to fix it and working through the night if necessary or doing whatever it took.

Um, and I've I've heard nothing but good things uh good compliments from constituents uh when it comes to water division employees and um just how dutiful they are uh and how um really the public servant aspect.

Uh uh the other thing that I enjoyed about going on a tour of the plant was getting to talk to uh the the people at the division because I think when you talk to them, you understand that they're really their heart is really in this.

They they really take pride in delivering safe, clean water and having one of the one of the best water systems in the country if if we take care of it.

Uh so I really appreciate your time.

Uh and um thank you for everything you're doing to try to get the water division um back on track.

Thank you for the questions.

Yeah, they are you know extremely dedicated.

Uh they care a lot, and I can see the frustration.

I mean, I myself was frustrated there with you know the lack of funding, the lack of rates to to do the meaningful work that'll keep them making progress rather than being reactive and and keeping things going uh for far beyond what they should be.

Thank you.

Aldo Matsonier Thank you, Chairman.

Hello, director.

Hello.

Um I appreciate all of your work.

I didn't get a chance to make the very cool tour, but I hopefully do plan to, and I've enjoyed all the pictures, and it even has some residents ask me if they can get a tour.

And I'm like, I haven't went yet, but we'll see what we can do about that.

Um, but I think it is just cool in real time for folks to kind of see some of the inner workings that are um behind the scenes, and I would say I feel like water needing investment being one of the cities, um, I mean, really primarily left like public goods that still remain.

I think is something that is a you know a top priority and should be a top consideration of any city leader in my opinion at this time.

And so um I think your presentation just helps to highlight some of the very obvious common sense clear reasons of why you certainly um are in need of some some funds.

Um my questions at are really just about some like very specific things within your budget, um, and then I'll like come out and be a bit more general.

Um just in terms of the rental and non-capital leases.

Um I just had a specific question about the facility and grounds rental and leases.

Um, there's a couple of different amounts each year.

So is this for where the chain is and like who's over that contract, or just any details about that?

Because I see um it kind of increases and decreases pretty sharply each year.

Sure.

So that's tied to a lot of the emergency repair work we do, but also uh just kind of regular uh maintenance work at both the plants and the distribution system.

And so what happens is you know, we certainly have some construction equipment that we own that we procured um, you know, through uh uh a capital budget in the years past, but uh we've been pursuing some leases of some of this equipment uh moving forward here, and then the rentals as well.

Uh, you know, these are things that we'll have to rent to support um the the main repair activity.

Uh these are things that we may have to rent at the treatment plants uh that we don't have that's functioning uh by way of cranes or or equipment.

Um and so year over year we have seen an increased cost uh for that, and so it did go up slightly this year.

Um and I guess that kind of gets to what Ottawa McBrowning's question asks about just the increases in emergency incident.

Yeah, we continue to see uh a lot of water main breaks, the most we've had in in many years uh last year.

I do uh I I don't like to to project uh that we're gonna break that, but it's possible, right?

And so um that comes with a lot of costs, obviously the the contractual services, but the rental equipment and leases understood.

Um and then taxes and licenses.

Um could you just speak to what some of your taxes and licenses are that you have to maintain?

I see for FY27 that amount is for 7 million 915,690 dollars.

Yeah, actually, I'd like to call Perlaburkup to maybe speak to some of that uh taxes and licenses.

It was for FY26, it was eight million, FY25 is about four, FY24 is about three, and this year it's a little bit under eight.

Um before you begin, could you introduce yourself and your mission?

It's on page 208 in our budget book.

Okay, I don't think I have the whole book here.

We can also give you an answer to that afterwards right there.

Oh so the taxes and life.

You state your first and last name, ma'am.

Ms.

Burr, the difference have to say your name, your full name and your positioning, please.

Yeah.

So the difference is the name and your oh, I'm sorry.

My name is Pearl Lobberg, a fiscal manager for the city of St.

Louis.

So the um the difference is that in fiscal year um 2026, we originally have um a higher budget that for a budget um revenue estimate.

And we we restated it, we um did a revision, but this was not adjusted.

So it was like 86 million dollars, and now it got reduced to 75 million.

So that so the eight point the the 8 million um taxes was based upon the original um revenue estimate.

Whereas this one here, the 2027 is based on a uh a lesser uh uh revenue estimate for fiscal year 2027.

So that's the difference.

Okay.

Um and my last question is just around water maintenance technicians.

Uh obviously they're high in need right now.

Uh we just got done speaking of all of the uh water breaks, and I know you and I have had several conversations, and I can imagine it's like that with you out there, uh, given all the issues in it across the city.

Um but I just noticed specifically um for FY26, it looked like you were budgeted for 79 positions, you filled 68.

For FY27, you requested 79 positions, um, but there are 18 being proposed.

So um that gives you a plan to hopefully be able to add about 14.

Um and my question to you is just kind of about your confidence in filling these positions.

I did, you know, I've been as we go through this budget process also looking at our pay study, and I see that the pay study that the city did um kind of indicates that the low minimum is about 49,000, the medium is about 55,000, the top is 62,000, and it the city, it looks like we allow for a range between 46 to 56.

Um, so there's about a 13% difference in terms of the lowest starting salary.

And I just was curious about your confidence in getting those positions field since it looks like they have been uh granted, but also seeing just a little bit of disparity um between kind of the pay in the industry and what we're doing.

Sure.

No, that's a great question.

Uh it is our uh position that we have the most of in RTO.

Uh it really drives a lot of the work that you see happening both out in the streets with the emergency repairs, uh, but also at the treatment plants with operating uh those plants, you know, cleaning those basins, uh maintaining the grounds and the facilities that we have there.

Um, you know, it was not addressed in this pay plan.

Uh there is no adjustment to the the pay for water maintenance technicians.

Um, we continue to work with the department of personnel on specific positions in the water division, um, you know, that have water in the title typically um in the the pay ordinance.

Um, you know, we think there's a a continuation of work that needs to be done, maybe a uh you know, kind of a mini study, if you will, for our positions.

Um we have had high turnover in that position.

We've had difficulty um hiring that position in uh and are you saying a mini study because you um do you feel like the numbers I just said from the pay study are actually not accurate with the industry?

Uh so the pay study obviously looked at other municipalities in the region, um, but we are kind of a unique subset.

We are a uh water utility that is a municipal division, right?

And so uh when you have that uh the the uh number of people that you're looking at shrinks.

So yes, I I do think that we need to make some more progress with our water-specific positions um and and continue to to do that.

The study overall, you know, looked at all of the city uh departments and classifications, but uh I do see some gap there in pay that's needed to hire those in.

What do you think?

What's the gap?

Uh well, without the study, it's hard to say, but I can tell you this.

Um we have a contract uh to provide uh staff for us in difficult to fill positions.

Um you know, this is uh uh a recruiting staffing company effectively.

Uh we have been utilizing that most heavily for this position.

Um you know, obviously we do have 79 positions on our TO.

We have a number of them unfilled.

Uh we have difficulty hiring in qualified people with the pay, and so we are contracting a lot of people in for that position.

Um, you know, it they're they're not exactly temporary workers.

Uh, you know, they come in, they work for this contract company, uh, but they work alongside our crews.

Uh they get paid differently, they get paid by another company, and so that is a problem, a gap that I do think is they get paid a higher rate.

They get paid a market rate to hire them in, and so they're recruited and paid.

Market rate.

Uh it varies based on experience, right?

So, you know, we have a uh certainly a uh an interview process that occurs and we know what the market rate may be for.

Okay, let me ask you a different question.

Sure.

Okay, so I know the reality we live in, right?

We live in a world of just everything public is usually very underfunded.

I know all locals of government are having some unprecedented cuts right now.

But let's just strip that away.

Sure.

And if you had a magic wine and you got to set a magic starting salary for your water maintenance technicians, what is that range to you?

Um, I mean, I don't have it off the top of my head, but I can tell you it's it's we have a minimum.

Uh no, I don't.

Okay.

Yeah.

I I know it's higher than we are now, though, because again, we're having challenges there.

And, you know, one of the benefits of civil service too, you know, uh, this contract does bring uh you know qualified experienced people to come work for us in that role.

But you know, after five or six months, they can apply to become a civil servant, um, which makes it very interesting because you know, they're getting paid what they're getting paid by that contract vendor, but also they're not getting the benefits that come with it.

The pension, uh, the other benefits the city offers.

And so there's a little bit of a trade-off there, but uh I know we could have very long conversations about the the benefit of a pension versus you know an hourly wage, which way what you're mentioning with the folks who you bring in outside of your company is that in the professional services?

Is that yes?

Okay.

Yeah.

Okay.

Okay, and then this is just my very last very general question.

Um obviously we're talking about RAM settlement dollars going to the water division.

Um, I just thought it would be a good record to kind of a good idea to put on record what's kind of along your lines with your question with Brown and some of the things that um that fund would go to.

Something that I have an interesting time explaining to constituents is that you guys are enterprise fund, not a general fund.

And so that makes how you work a little bit different and like trying to explain to residents like what that actually uh means, and also in terms of your ability to uh unique ability to potentially leverage other bond bonds and take out other funds and pursue other grants, but that it's also very reliant upon uh the city's financial standing and our credit rating is specifically as an entity for you all as an enterprise fund.

It's got a lot of relationship with your you know, debt to service bond ratio.

Obviously, some of these things kind of get above the frail of kind of what uh you know, a lot of folks in the public on an everyday basis can uh tango, but I think it would be helpful if you could explain what the RAM settlement funds might be interested in.

And also when you talked about your water utility assistance help program, um you mentioned uh the sort of like kind of hinted at the requirements for assistance, if you could also say what that is.

Sure.

Um so to start, um, the Rams fund, you know, certainly can help with the reserve issue.

Um anytime you're going after debt, and the type of debt that we typically go after as an enterprise is a little different because we have revenues that support our operations, our expenses, including our debt service.

And so when you have revenue bonds going after, uh there are still requirements uh, you know, by that lender um to know that you're credit worthy.

And you know, some of those requirements are a debt coverage rate.

They want to make sure that you know your your net revenue um is able to cover that annual uh debt service plus uh uh an amount of padding.

And so, you know, the study, the rate sufficiency study we did looks at 1.5 uh as a debt service coverage ratio.

Um, you know, when we are looking at seven years of deficits, um, you know, net revenues doesn't exactly line up there, right?

And so we can't borrow money if we can't promise that we can pay it back with our revenues and our water rates.

So um, you know, that's one of the nuances, but you're right, it is tied to the city's credit worthiness too.

And so when it goes through underwriting, uh when you're trying to acquire that that uh you know debt financing, uh, they will take a look at your credit rating as well as a city.

Um, but also because we're enterprise, they'll look at the revenue piece because it's a different type of bond that we go after.

And so ultimately what that Rams fund does is it helps uh alleviate some of the concerns for the creditor in what's called you know, own and reserve.

And so we have to also have 90 days of cash on hand for operating and maintenance uh, you know, that shows that again uh we're good at saving money and have that uh for a rainy day if and when needed.

Um that is something that is not in place right now.

Uh, you know, so as lendability goes, we would need to make sure we have uh rates that cover uh the debt service plus uh a factor and also cash reserves that show that we can handle um you know some kind of gap in in uh in an expense that comes up, an emergency expense.

One of the things the sufficiency study also does is it uh goes beyond that to look at best practice to have a rate stabilization reserve so that not only can we meet uh gap in expense, but we could even meet a gap in revenue.

If for some reason we have a down year in revenue, um, you know, wholesale water is a great example of that.

We certainly try to project and budget what we're gonna get for wholesale water revenue, but any of those systems that draw water from us uh and purchase water from us, uh, you know, are also doing their own level of capital renewal uh treatment facilities they're building out.

Uh we know that you know many of these contracts uh you know, they're growing in their cities and they're working to maybe get uh a treatment facility that can handle their own needs.

Um so that is you know a risk in revenue down the road.

That rate stabilization reserve fund will address that to say that, hey, we can handle this down year without having an emergency rate increase that's necessary.

Um and actually for the assistance program, I am gonna call uh my special assistant water commissioner up here uh to talk to you about the eligibility requirements uh for that program.

Uh he can certainly answer some questions.

He's been helping tremendously in that space.

Sure.

Do you have a specific question about it?

I apologize.

I step out for a second.

My name is Spencer Gould.

I'm the deputy commissioner of water.

Hi, Mr.

Hi there, Ms.

Sonya.

Hi, Mr.

Good.

It's nice to see you in Pristine.

You're very responsive via email, and I appreciate that.

Um I just was just curious about the eligibility requirements for the assistance program specifically in terms of income in those types of considerations.

For the current assistance program, it currently is uh 60 or it's 80% of uh median household income.

Uh it is requires uh getting into a repayment contract with us to cover the rest of that debt.

You have to be a city resident.

You have to be uh let me go through it off the top of my head here.

Um I think yeah, that's the the big high-level swings.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

This other question is Jeremy.

And I think you guys got a flyer on that program.

So you just want to bump it to the budget committee.

Um, that was in partnership with the collector revenue, so the information out there if you want to send that on out.

Uh all the time.

Our website has the link to the application portal.

We have paper applications at the water division at 1640 South Kings Highway Boulevard.

Um, and also as uh Spencer mentioned, we have those requirements for eligibility, but um, you know, we're seeking to expand usership too.

Um, you know, delinquent balance is also another component to that.

And so you have to have a past due balance on your water account.

Um, and it's up to $500 per account.

So if you have a residential water account uh and you you know you had a $300 balance that you applied for in the past, uh, you still have $200 that you can apply for if you fell behind again and have that delinquent balance.

Old woman Velasquez.

Great.

Thank you, Chairman, and thank you, uh, Commissioner Patel and Mr.

Gould for being here.

I think my my colleagues have asked some great questions.

So I I don't have too much to uh to add on, but I did want to I did want you to talk about because I think one of the misconceptions for a lot of folks for consumers is you know, the water division is, and this is a high level thing, but the water division is of course part of the city of St.

Louis, and therefore, you know, whatever rate increases uh and other things that public utility utilities are typically regulated.

We do not uh we are not part of that process since it's a part of the city.

We're not regulated by the PSC.

Um, and we know that there's a need for water rates, water rate increases, but can you just talk about um what the three-year, five-year, and 10 look 10-year outlook is for you know our capital needs and also potential water rate increases and how um other utilities might do it since we are not regulated by the PSC.

Sure.

No, that's a great question.

So obviously, you know, we are uh a public utility, we're municipally owned utility, and that's the difference there.

Um private utilities, uh, you know, they're also known as monopoly utilities, uh, have a different rate making process.

They have a different regulatory um, you know, obviously we are uh to some extent regulated by elected officials and the Board of Aldermen, um, and we operate under the mayor's office.

Uh, but you know, a utility like Amran or Missouri American, uh Spire, they have to take their you know, their information, their operating plans, uh, their rate increase requests to the public service commission.

Um they have to go through a a very uh you know regulated rate making case, um, and they have teams of people, you know, within those utilities that support those rate cases.

Um and you know, it's not very different from what we're striving to do here.

Um, you know, we certainly have hosted a few town halls, um, you know, those are available on our website.

They were live streamed, uh, people could ask questions.

Um, you know, you can go to our website and submit a question now.

Um, but it is a little different because we are a uh municipal utility, not a private one that is for profit.

And so the for-profit piece is another aspect of it, um, you know, to that private utility, that monopoly utility that we don't have uh a profit or investors uh to pay back.

Hold on, you on mute.

Thank you.

Yeah, but uh and then can you just talk about?

I mean, you you mentioned that of course the two thousand the 2023 rate increase was reactive and sort of an emergency and was an emergency rate increase that we're looking at rate increases.

I mean, again, just to uh start to be sustainable.

Um, but can you talk about what that what that looks like three, five, and ten years out?

Or if you have two, five and ten years out.

I don't know how you're so uh the way our uh and I'm gonna start with the rate sufficient study because this is what we're basing off of.

Um you know, again, it's a it's a study that took a look at five years of historical revenues and expenses.

Um it identified if there was a need for an increased rate, if there was a gap there, and then it built a financial model based on that, and five years of projected future uh revenues and expenses.

And you know, the the future expenses did require uh a CIP, a capital improvement program uh that dictates when uh you know that maybe debt issuance or cash financing, uh, you know, bonds uh, you know, are gonna be released on what schedule to provide for what amount of project work uh in coming years.

And so looking at that, you know, CIP that we gave the consultant, um, the amount of work that we know we need to do and putting together a schedule of that work, our our internal capital improvement program effectively.

Um it is looking at a gap, a deficiency in existing rates to cover the cost of existing expenses.

And so it had to address that.

I'll call that bucket one.

Um, you know, stabilization solvency of the current operation.

Um, you know, secondly, it it was looking at uh things like an OM reserve that was non-existent and needs to be built back up.

Uh it's looking at uh a rate stabilization reserve that's non-existent and needs to be built back up, and then the future project work that I mentioned.

So what it's looking at uh is saying that we'll need a 40% increase initially, and then three, six percent increases uh each year following, and then two, five percent increases each year following that.

It has a about a five-year period.

Um, and what that looks like though is doing 440 million dollars worth of revenue bond, cash, uh, you know, other financing means, um, you know, including maybe a component from the RAM settlement funds to help uh you know minimize that impact.

But you know, 440 million dollars worth of projects is not going to be supported by by the Rams.

Um, these are bonds so that we can spread that cost out over time and it can be you know absorbed, paid for over time rather than all at once.

Um, but it is looking at bringing in an additional 60 million dollars into our budget to satisfy those three buckets that I mentioned.

Umgoing, that'll look like uh the ability to continue to do uh what we need to do to operate, but the difference there is that we will now be able to replace you know, a hundred and ten uh you know miles of water mains and replace pumping units that are well past their life and put in new treatment uh facilities that'll minimize our chemical expenses.

And so really what that CIP is gonna end up doing is you know, uh reinvesting back into the water system into assets that are past their useful service life and are expensive to continue to maintain and get those savings uh you know going down the road to ensure that we're sustainable for the next generation of St.

Louis.

Thank you.

That's helpful.

Um just a couple more quick questions.

Uh as far as you know what for utilities regulated by the PSC, for instance, are there is there a minimum percentage or amount that they're required to keep in reserves?

Uh you know, the industry standards, you know, sometimes uh talk about 90 days of of OM reserves.

Uh, you know, some more aggressive standards can go to six months, uh hundred and eighty days.

Um with where we are now, um, you know, the the rate sufficiency study projects initially with that 40 percent increase, trying to get to 45 days of ONM reserve.

Um, and then you know, the next iteration uh gets us to 90 days.

And all of that also annually takes a look to make sure that our debt service coverage ratio never drops below you know what any revenue bond uh is gonna ask for, which is a coverage ratio of 1.25 to 1.5.

And so certainly early on as we get that initial amount of money and start building a uh reserve fund, uh it'll look like a very high coverage ratio.

But towards the back end, once we started doing those uh you know debt issuances, uh it it drops back down to you know to cover the 150 percent threshold that that we need to cover.

Uh but it shows that all of the increases that it's recommending are necessary to do that level of capital work uh that is in the CIP.

And so, you know, we're not gonna uh ask for more than we need, uh, but we do need to ask for enough that we can get started on all of that and maintain uh those those uh indentures of trust uh with with those lenders that that are lending money to us for the work.

I appreciate your time and your uh your questions and your level of preparedness, and I have nothing else.

Thank you, thank you.

Thank you, Aldwam Altaman Al Altaman Devotee.

Yes, thank you, Chair, thank you, Director.

Uh I'll be very quick because I know we're about 35 minutes over right now.

Uh I think in 25 plus years of practice, I've learned that the most dangerous question in the world always starts with, I have one more question to ask.

Um real quick, uh, throughout your presentation, um you have used a term of art, T O.

For those folks who are watching, will you explain what a TO is?

Sure.

So that is our table of organization.

Um it is the roster of staff, uh, civil servants that we employ at the water division.

And you know, when we refer to the vacancy rate, it's the amount of positions that we have unfilled.

And so over the years, as as budget cycle goes through, we ask for more or less to right size the the division.

And you know, we are in a period of growth.

Uh we have a lot of work ahead of us.

We know we need to be ready for that with our staffing.

Um there has been a lot of discussion about the rate sufficiency study.

Again, for those folks at home, my memory uh is that you and Mr.

Gould are appearing before the public infrastructure and utilities committee on Wednesday afternoon at 3 30 in this room.

Are you not?

Yes, that's correct.

And and the focus of that particular hearing will be an in-depth discussion of the sufficiency study and how it affects the operation of the water department moving forward.

Is that fair?

Yes, it is.

Um I I have one, and I think this should be a brief uh response.

Uh I have gotten a a number of questions from constituents about if rate increase goes through, where do those funds go?

In other words, do they go to the city's general revenue or are they kept in the water division?

They are kept in the water division, are they not?

Correct.

They'll support our operations and our capital work that we need to do going forward.

Okay.

Um the the other comment I want to make, and and you made a uh I think a good presentation, which I very much appreciate with respect to the collection on delinquent accounts.

Thank you.

You know that's been in my craw for a long time.

I appreciate the the work of the division.

Uh and then finally, you made comment about uh various uh from a budgetary uh uh perspective, various reductions that wouldn't would need to be made, one of which are long-term uh not long term, but but essentially proactive work.

And I think if I picked up on any theme today, it's the idea that this division is moving from what for many, many, many years the active response to emergencies to the want to turn the corner and actually start to plan and and execute improvements on a proactive basis, correct?

Yes, that's the plan.

And and and looking back as far as mid-January, and I'm sorry to cut you off, but I'm again I'm trying to get done here.

Um, looking back to a discussion you and I had in mid-January, um, when we talk about the need to move from being reactive to proactive, that starts on a very basic level of dealing with uh projects that require the repla to the tune of $16.4 million to replace two pumps and uh uh uh additional work to the tune of about $28 million to deal with 63 of the worst of the worst of the worst of the worst mains.

Is that right?

Yes.

In my memory from our discussion in mid-January is when we talk about the worst of the worst of the worst, that we're talking about mains that are over a hundred years old, that nobody should be surprised when they break, correct?

Yes.

And and again, just to wrap this up when we talk about what it cost us, taxpayers every time one of those things breaks, and your crew is out there on an emergency basis.

That runs about $13,000 already, right?

Um that's actually just the the contract uh portion.

Internally, we have a lot more work that supports all of that, so probably over $20,000 if they're all said and done.

Wow.

Well, you you just helped make my point.

Okay.

So all the more reason to deal with this on a proactive basis, right?

Yes.

Thank you.

I appreciate it.

All right, thank you.

Thank you for being here, Director.

Um, a lot of my questions are around the uh the water main rate uh efficiency study and stuff.

So since that conversation will be had Wednesday and any time, um, I'll make sure we save that space uh or save my questions for that space, we will be going over that.

So thank you.

All right, thank you, Chair Aldridge.

No problem.

All right, next we will have collector of revenue.

Mr.

Greg Daly, if you want to come on up and present uh your budget and mention any staff that you may have with you.

Do you want fine?

Go ahead.

Good morning, Mr.

Chairman and members of the budget and public employees committee.

My name is Greg Daly.

I'm the collector of revenue for the City of St.

Louis.

With me this morning, I have our chief of staff, Mark Stoff, and also with us is uh the assistant collector for refuse and water, uh Rachel McClure.

She's in the back there.

So if I could, could I just make a presentation or how to is this the way it starts?

Yeah, yeah.

However, you want to make it.

The Office of the Collector of Revenue is a fee-based county office.

For reference, we run on a fiscal year beginning with the first Monday in March as prescribed by state statute, while the city's fiscal year begins on July the first and ends on June the 30th.

Collector of revenue is responsible for collecting real estate taxes, personal property taxes, earning and payroll expense taxes, water fees, and refuse fees.

Collections made by the collector of revenue are distributed throughout the city to support various public services, facilities, agencies, and funds.

The earnings tax is the biggest funding source for general revenue comprising over one-third of total dollars.

During the fiscal year ending March 1st, 2026, total collections were 978 million dollars, real estate and personal property, 545 million dollars, earnings and payroll expenses, 341 million dollars, water, 72 million dollars, trash, 16 million dollars, city disbursements breakdown, real estate and personal property, 525 million to designated agencies such as public schools, Zoom Museum District, MSD, sheltered workshop districts, plus payments to TIFFs and SBDs, et cetera.

Earnings and payroll expenses, $317 million to general revenue, water, $67 million to water to the water division, trash, $16 million to the refuse division.

As directed by state and local laws, the collector of revenue is funded by commissions on the fees and taxes the office collects, which ranges between $1.5% and 4%.

In June, any excess commissions after operating expenses are distributed to the appropriate agencies associated with the tax are fees from which those commissions were derived.

Excess commissions this year will be around $19.2 million.

And since 207 2007, my first year as collector of revenue, total excess commissions distributed exceeded $11 million.

Collector of revenue currently employs right at $86 full-time and four permanent performance employees located on three floors of City Hall.

We are hoping to bring on board an additional three or four additional ploys in the next couple weeks.

Like most city employees, salaries and benefits make up the largest expense of the collector of revenue at right around 65, 65% of total expenses.

Minimum salary, starting salaries for the collector of revenue is $41,600, and that should rise to about forty-two thousand eight hundred and forty-eight with the implementation of our new pay bill.

This year's assessment will be six hundred and eighty-five thousand dollars.

We assist other departments, including the assessor's office, license collector, health department, and operation bright side by offering our personnel and equipment for large mailings, informal inserts, and other projects at no cost.

The collector of revenue has received ARPA funds from this administration to allocate on behalf of RETAF for eligible and improved homeowners who are behind in their real estate taxes and in danger of having their home sold, as well as a water utility assistance program for those with outstanding water bills.

ARPA funds are not commingled with other funds, and any interest earned stays with those funds and their designated programs.

The real estate tax assistance fund, RETAF, is a partnership that includes Park Central Development, Prosperity Connection, Legal Services of Eastern Missouri, the Collector of Revenue, and the City of St.

Louis, and has saved some 21 owner-occupied homes from tax sales directly impacting 360 residents, preserving seven million dollars in home equity.

There have been some preliminary discussions with aldermen and other elected officials about the real estate tax assistance fund becoming a permanent program with a designated funding source with the collector of revenue, which we would love to continue in those conversations.

As we all know, family homes are the cornerstone of generational wealth, and we have all seen the devastating effects vacant properties can have on our neighborhoods.

For the water utility assistance program, we have partnered with the Water Department and United Way to provide up to $500 towards delinquent accounts for residents.

Additionally, the collector of revenue provides several repayment plans, options designated to ensure that residents emerge with a zero balance and a fresh start upon successful completion.

These are some of the items that uh that are involved in the collector of revenues budget.

And Mr.

Chairman, at this time, I'd be more than happy to discuss other assets, other facets of the collector of revenue or answer any questions in general.

Thank you, Mr.

Collector.

Starting with all the women's sonier.

Good morning, Mr.

Collect.

Good morning.

Nice to see you.

Thank you.

Actually, the only department I don't really have any questions for.

Um, your budget is pretty straightforward and to the point.

Your office is very efficient and collaborative.

I've enjoyed all of our conversations, legislation we've done together.

Um, I'm really happy, you know.

I always voice my appreciation for the RETAF program and other things that go in your office.

I don't have any questions.

I just appreciate your service to our city.

Well, thank you very much on behalf of the collector of revenue.

We very much appreciate those comments and I'll share them with our staff.

Alderwoman of Velasquez.

Thank you.

Thank you, collector revenue.

Uh, I don't have any other questions for you.

We saved all our questions for water, apparently.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Alderwoman.

And no questions myself.

Echo what Aldo Mitsonier said.

Thank you for uh one of the things I always appreciate about the office is how you guys are turning a lot of stuff to digital, so people don't have to come to City Hall and cut through all the red tape to try to, you know, get their uh business.

And I think if people want to pay their property tax or personal uh personal property tax or whatever other tax there is real estate tax, is it pay forward they can go to to be able to pay it online?

Is it pay it pay at St.

Louis?

The program uh the uh tool that we use is called Pay It St.

Louis, and we have had that in effect for seven years, ten years, I'm sorry, which has really uh really helped as far as collections go, but most importantly, it makes it so much easier for the people to pay their bills.

Uh you know, we all get lost every once in a while.

Pay it is something is a reminder, a constant reminder, giving the taxpayer a constant update on what they owe or what they what we expect as the collector of revenue.

So it works out extremely well.

Trying very hard to implement pay at St.

Louis and other departments throughout the city.

We have brought the uh a couple of departments to the table, licensed collector's office, building division, uh, the not the uh corner corner corner across the street.

So it is something that we have implemented with pay at St.

Louis, and again, uh we are working extremely hard to try to bring this to all city agencies.

I think it makes sense.

Thank you so much.

Again, thank you to you and your staff for all the great work that you guys do.

All right, Mr.

Chairman, thanks so much.

And to the members of the committee, thanks for the opportunity.

Thank you.

Moving along, trying to catch us up a little bit.

We have the sheriff department here.

Uh so if the interim sheriff would like to come on up and present uh this year's budget, mention any members you have with you, and you may proceed.

Uh thank you, Chairman Aldridge.

Um, this is to the budget and public employees committee.

My name is John Hayden.

I'm the interim sheriff for the city of St.

Louis.

I've uh brought with me my uh chief of staff, Mr.

Jack Giesekee, and I brought my uh uh Colonel of the under-sheriff, the technical term under sheriff, Colonel Yosef Yascherwallet with me to assist me in case there are other additional questions.

Um, certainly I want to thank the budget and public employees committee for the opportunity to present the fiscal year 2027 budget uh submission.

Uh the sheriff's office remains committed to fiscal responsibility and the ongoing work of rebuilding public trust in the agency and the budget before this committee reflects that commitment.

Uh, directing resources where operational need is clear and documented and ensuring full transparency in the stewardship of public funds.

Uh the personal services and I'm going to different categories.

Personal services subtotal is expected to increase upon the app the passage of um uh the fiscal year 2027 pay bill, which would raise the statutory minimum salary for the St.

Louis Deputy Sheriff's to 50,000 in accordance with state statute.

Uh the sheriff office is respectfully requesting one additional full-time equivalent for the cashier's office.

Uh that comes from a recent statutory change, transfer of the fee collection responsibilities from the circuit clerk's office to the sheriff's office.

The circus clerk's clerk, I'm sorry, the circuit clerk's office had previously staffed two employees to perform these functions.

The sheriff's office has absorbed these additional duties with a single employee, creating an operational imbalance that must be addressed to ensure accuracy accountability and continuity of public service.

Uh the most significant increase reflected in the 2027 preliminary estimates appear in account uh 55 uh 557 capital leases.

Uh basically what it occurred is um in August of 2025, um the sheriff's offered entered into a contract with Axon for the procurement of new tasers.

Um what that was what that was for, though, that was uh the total amount was um I think it was a half is that close to half a million.

And what what that was what they were wanting to do is come right out and get that full amount right away.

Well, we were able to talk to my chief of staff, was able to contact the agency, and what we're able to do is uh break that down over five year period.

The commitment initially was uh you know, payment upon demand, but uh we were able to talk with them, and so now the the fiscal year 2727, the first installment would be one uh 107, 150 dollars.

And so that's so that I think was very good for him to be able to do that because um uh again, what what was committed to was uh was a half million dollar commitment right up front.

Um the sheriff's office uh I'm sorry, what um talking about the tasers.

There's a we added an IT uh the professional services.

There's an IT response um availability right now.

Um the the services of our um electronic situation, uh all of our internet and what have you, all of our of our electronic responses has been committed by Regis.

However, there's a there's kind of they only they're they're only able to provide somebody basically once a week to come by, and what that would do is that would prevent things on a daily basis that that uh you know that for example onboarding somebody back on computer goes down or what have you.

We need to be able to contact somebody more often, and and we've asked for 10,000 for that so that we can uh you know, upon services as requested or as needed, we can call somebody to come and onboard uh additional computers or what have you, somebody just starting.

So that's just something that we've added this year.

But other than that, uh for the most part, this is this is uh very conservative budget compared to this time last year.

Um that's pretty much what I wanted to share.

Certainly, I'm open to any questions you may have about um this budget or the sheriff's department's um functions.

Gotcha, gotcha.

All the moment.

Hello, Mr.

Hayden, Sheriff Hayden, nice to see you.

Uh I only have one question uh that is just very straightforward about y'all's budget.

Um, for capital assets um for capital leases in FY24 through FY26, they were all around 160,000.

Uh but for FY27, it looks like you're requesting 307,500, um, but was only granted 166 160,000, which is the same amount as the previous years.

So my question is just about this line item.

Um, in general, what's it for?

Um, and what is the increase in request due to?

Yes, ma'am.

So that I I mentioned the taser, the contract.

So what happened before I before I got there in August?

Uh I I didn't arrive.

My first day on the job was November the third, but back in August of 2025, um, the previous Sheriff Montgomery had had contracted with uh Axon tasers for that.

We use the tasers for the not every single deputy has a taser, but the outside services in particular, they do use they use the, I'm sorry, I'm I'm confusing two different things.

The taser contract is for all of the, you know, the the a taser has an expiration date on it.

So the taser situation is for all deputies.

Okay.

And so um uh what had what what um all what Montgomery had signed up for was that payment to be um a five, you know, 500 500,000 dollars in total, but to be paid at the at the beginning of the fiscal year.

What the chief of staff has done is is got them to agree to modify that to allow us to pay 107 over five years.

And so that that's an increase of approximately 107,000.

Was it 1007?

Yeah, 107,000 year by year.

So that would that would account for that increase is axon tasers.

Thank you.

All the way of Velasquez.

Is she on line, Madam Clerk?

No.

All right.

It looks like the budget is straightforward from uh the previous year, it looks like uh, like you say, outside of maybe equipment, um, which has a little bit of increase, uh, makes sense.

Still looks like you guys are trying to hire uh senior deputies uh applied for 139, only occupied 121.

How many, I guess, deputies are you all down currently at the moment?

Yeah, we we're we're short, uh Alderman.

Uh we're short 30 deputies, 31 deputies at the current.

Okay.

And is it short uh two sergeants also senior, yes, sergeants?

Yes, that wouldn't include include the the sergeants as well.

And about four short on captains.

That's correct, sir.

Okay.

What uh how has the the the relationship and can you give us an update on the relationship between the CJC and the transfer of uh residents and the CJC, how has that um situation gone and has that been an impact on the budget?

I know that was some the previous sheriff uh in the previous administration had brought up.

Um could you like give an update on that?

Yes, sir.

So one thing that we've done is that we've had the we use utilize overtime, so we moved some monies from our general salaries fund and put it in an overtime budget to assist us with with the hospital detail.

You know, what we start off with 18 or so uh deputies on the detail and our ability to be able to call call other deputies in uh you know when they're calling them from off duty to come and assist us.

So that was a that was a hundred thousand dollar shift.

We've had that actually this budget, and that was from the from the current budget.

So we just shifted from one category to another and created uh a um an overtime budget.

What what we've done this time though is that we've asked for 50,000 ahead of time, kind of anticipating the ongoing need for being able to call people from home, uh, which which is which is uh you know, I think is something that that that's certainly worthwhile.

It makes it it it it it kind of adds a little south to a kind of a uh a pretty uh demanding situation.

The the relationship automatic ass is going, I would say going well.

I think you could um um uh commissioner haywell would agree with that that it's going well in that we're providing one for one for each hospital detail.

That does not include anybody that the uh the police department, so in other words, in order in order for us to be one for one, the plea the the uh a person has to be already um uh after the 24 warrants have to be issued.

So that there are occasions though when we are doing when we're providing the full service for the police department before warrants are issued.

And so uh example might be somebody that that was that was injured during the the intake of police officers.

We're we're gonna handle that hand that detail on our own until warrants issued, and if that person is is critically injured in some kind of way, we're gonna continue to have that until they're actually brought to the uh the the office of corrections until they actually brought to CJC.

So some of those details are ongoing.

We have we have three or so that we're providing uh all of the all of the the detail for um uh for in time so we so it at that of the at the at those situations, we're on a we're not able to do one for one.

The sheriff's department has to supply all of that until the person until warrants are issued.

But I again I would tell you that it's going well.

I think that uh commissioner haywood would agree with that.

Uh we're managing, I mean, there are times when it's really tough, but we're managing that.

Um we we we we we are willing to go down to the wire.

Um Colonel Yosuf uh Yasha Yasha has actually been there himself.

I've been on the way, and so we just we're doing whatever we can to manage that.

I I would ask for an opportunity to come before the Board of Alderman at some point with some different options.

I know that you know, I so at one point um South uh South City Hospital had a ward, that would cut down significantly the number of people that we signed.

Right now we're talking about two persons per person sick.

And that goes from anything from somebody needing insulin to somebody needing a few stitches because they cut themselves.

So, you know, the the it sounds pretty simplistic, but if you imagine if you got seven details and you have 14 personnel between between agencies out there, that's around that's until that person is released.

And so that's 42, 42 bodies a day assigned for for hospital details, where we would like to come up with us some opportunities for way less people to manage those hospital details.

Again there have been times when South South I think was South Point Hospital had a war where we can have maybe only six or so deputies maintaining that whole thing which would cut down the number of deputies or deputies and correction officers supplied the other thing that would be is that if the if the if the infirmary that they actually do have if that could be fully staffed for for example I know that doctors do not work there on the weekends.

And so those are things that could be done I think that really cut down on manpower to to imagine 42 people involved with with with um you know 14 you know round the clock is a lot of people and I I think that is you know what what we're doing right now although it's working it's probably a lot better we could do a lot more efficiently if we uh set aside some hospital space or some or increase the um the medical coverage at the current infirmary.

Gotcha I would say uh for those conversations either if it's you or your chief of staff may want to reach out to uh myself and uh Brent O'Reilly who's a chair of public safety I know we would definitely be willing to uh have those conversations alderman devotee uh sheriff I I don't have any questions because I missed your presentation I apologize step out uh I will say that um uh then since you becoming sheriff uh you I'm a baseball fan and and you you you remind me of a of a very good home plate umpire meaning that at the end of the ball game nobody knows your name okay because the game has been called so well yes sir you know what I mean I appreciate that so thank you for your service all right seeing no other questions thank you sheriff for being here on your team and uh being a little patient as we was uh catching up from uh the water conversation thank you all thank you uh uh chairman and I we appreciate the opportunity to come before you and like again we will be coming forth with some some additional um options for for the city I think it'll be much something that we can all appreciate.

Absolutely thank you.

All right with that I'll take a motion to go on break to uh 12 30 when we come back from the medical examiner second move by the all women from the seventh second by the all men from the fifth all in favor aye aye motion carries or all in favor no motion carries we are back from recess I will take a motion to uh come out of recess second all in favor aye any opposed motion carries we're back and we're continuing our conversation on the budget for FY27 uh we have medical examiner currently that will be presenting their budget and we will end the day with ITS which is the technology agency for the city of St.

Louis we have the medical examiner director here today please state your name and if you got anybody here with you and then you can go into your budget.

Good afternoon my name is Tara Rick I'm the director of operations St.

Louis City Medical Exam Office and here with me today is Jason Hutchins he's our assistant medical legal investigator supervisor.

So I want to thank the committee for having me here today.

I'm gonna provide um an overview of our office and our mission and then I'm gonna go and do some uh specific line items and any questions that you have for me along the way feel free to ask those so the mission um of the medical examiner's office is to investigate uh naturally unsuspicious and other dust that fall under our jurisdiction by law the um other part of our mission is to foster public awareness and support the advancement of professional medical legal and legal education and to protect the interests of deceased individuals their loved ones and the community we serve the majority of our budget is three contracts that I'm going to kind of go into the first being our professional services contract this is going to cover the salaries of the board certified forensic pathologists that perform every autopsy and certify every death certificate for every loved one that is in our jurisdiction this contract is also going to include any fees that are associated with additional services that we would for example forensic anthropology to look at any of our skeletal remains cases or forensic odontology which would cover any of our uh cases where we would need the forensic dentist to look at those for scientific identification the histology and toxicology contracts those are going to cover the fees associated with every laboratory um or histology which is microscopic studies testing that we do those are performed by the St.

The histology and toxicology contracts, those are going to cover the fees associated with every laboratory or histology, which is microscopic studies testing that we do.

Those are performed by the St.

Louis County toxicology laboratory.

That's part of that contract.

If the committee is interested, I can provide a fee schedule that breaks down just how the cost for each individual case.

I can say that roughly just an estimate, and every case is different depending on what type of testing that we're ordering.

And this is outside of the cost associated with autopsies.

It could be anywhere from around $700 to a couple thousand dollars per case.

Just bear that in mind as we talk through the amount of the contract.

And the third contract that we have is for livery, livery, and mortuary services.

That is going to cover the costs for the medical examiner's office dispatching that service to any call where we would need to have a loved one brought to the office.

So that could be a private residence, it could be a public place, a hospital, a skilled nursing facility.

And I don't have a crystal ball, so I can't predict how many cases we're going to be bringing, bring bringing in, so I'm going off of trends from prior years.

So with that amount, the 450,000 for this fiscal year and next fiscal year, that allows us to have about 60 to 70 decedents that are brought in that could go over.

So every month it looks a little bit different, if that if that helps at all.

So those are the primary three large contracts and an explanation of that.

In terms of any uh key changes compared to FY26 with what we're asking for for FY27.

In terms of our computer services account, which is 5600, this year we asked for 12,000.

That is just to support and maintain and renew the case management software that we launched in April of 2025.

It has been a significant asset to our office in terms of our case management and has really helped with our workflow.

So that is just the annual maintenance cost.

That's what that line item is.

And then for professional services, account 5660.

Last year the request was $10,000, and that account was primarily used for any type of repairs that we would need for our equipment.

You'll see an increase in FY27 to $87,124.

That is for a security guard that the medical examiner's office implemented in October of last year.

We did not have funding for it last year.

For several years, but this is through American Security, it is a city contract vendor.

It became necessary for our office to have security.

We're a 24-hour office, and oftentimes investigators on afternoon, night, and weekend shifts are there by themselves, and someone there for security for staff as they're coming and going.

So that is the explanation for that increase that you did not see in the prior year.

So, in terms of things that are, you know, kind of driving costs that go up.

We have seen again, like we had during the time of COVID, we're seeing a short, I hope it's a short term increase in PPE and things that the medical examiner uses every day.

Anything from gloves and masks all the way up to surgical instruments, we're seeing a cost increase in that.

So that's something that we have to worry about.

We do have, I am satisfied with the amount that's allocated this year, and that's stayed relatively constant.

There's one decrease that you will see, and that is going to be in that toxicology histology contract that I that I mentioned.

If you are looking at the line items, the request for this year was $600,000.

I had that prepared prior to being able to see half of this fiscal year through.

Again, we don't know what we're going to be spending because we don't know how many people we're going to bring in and what the cost of those tests are going to be.

So I went ahead and took the look at what our spend was so far, and so far we're about 350,000.

So I thought that that was fair to lower that request since we had not been spending that the previous year.

In terms of staffing, our current staffing levels are good.

We do not have any vacancies.

And the only change that we had this past April was moving one of our investigator two to investigator three.

And it was only a 10% increase in salary.

And that was primarily driven by our caseload being high, and one investigation supervisor not being able to handle the caseload and to move things through in a in a good manner.

So that's going to be very beneficial.

So we have 23 full-time, 23 staff.

We have 16 full-time and we have seven part-time.

We have six full-time death investigators.

We have five full-time autopsy technicians, the director.

We have an executive secretary who handles death certificates, and we have a records custodian who handles all of the requests from outside agencies, insurance companies, the public.

Thank you, Director.

And an order of seniority, uh Alderwoman Sanyer.

Thank you, Chairman.

Uh, your budget is seems pretty straightforward.

So just thank you to your for your service and what you do for our city.

Questions.

Thank you so much, and I will share that with our staff.

I know that would be much appreciated.

Is Alderwoman with Alaska still online?

Alderman to voting.

Yes, again.

Uh I would thank you for the is your mic on Alderman.

It is not, I apologize.

Uh I would echo the thanks.

Uh we appreciate the work your office does.

Um, from a budgetary perspective, if you could just educate us on caseload you referenced.

How many examinations does the office handle?

I know there's no such thing as a typical year, but but generally speaking.

Sure.

We're still in the middle of this this year, but to give you some numbers for our previous year, the medical examiner's office took under investigation roughly 3300 cases, and that may seem like a low number compared to the other offices in the region, but those are not, those are cases that were just investigated by us.

And roughly over a third of those were brought in for forensic autopsy.

So we did over, I think we did close to 1100 last year.

Thank you.

Thank you, Director.

This may be a I guess a silly question, but I'm just curious.

I know there's a lot of collaboration that you all probably do in line with the the police department.

Has the state control bill, even though that only has controlled police.

Police have that uh legislation interfered at all with like your relationship with our local law enforcement men and women at all or no sir.

Okay.

Um you say I think your budget's pretty pretty straightforward.

Uh it seems like you're happy with it in a perfect world.

There is no additional like employees or additional funds you will need for computer services or transportation or anything like that.

No.

Okay.

Well, uh, I do also echo the old woman from the seventh.

Thank you for coming.

Uh looking forward to bringing the uh paybill uh very soon for your office uh forward so we can uh help those hard-working men and women that do a great service in the medical examiner office with that 30% raise.

And uh thank you and thank you for your staff for all you do.

Thank you so much.

All right, with that, we will uh take a 10-minute recess to one o'clock.

Take a motion for two minute recess.

Move by the woman from the seventh, second by the alternative from the fifth.

All in favor, aye.

Any opposed, motion carries.

All right, we're returning for the last conversation of today's budget hearing.

Uh I'll take a motion to return.

Recess.

So moved.

Second.

Move by the all the woman from the seventh, second by the all man from the fifth.

All in favor aye.

Aye.

Any oppose?

Motion carries.

We will conclude uh with IT SA for uh their budget presentation.

And in front of us, we have the director uh here to present uh their budget.

Uh Madam Director, you may proceed whenever you're ready.

If you want to introduce yourself and introduce anybody you have here with you, you can jump straight to the budget.

I will do that.

Um, and I sent slides ahead of time.

Did you guys get those and are they going to be up on the screen?

Or do you need a hard copy?

I didn't know if I should wait for them to be on the screen.

No.

Okay.

Anybody need one?

Uh we can you pulled it up, Madam Clark.

There we go.

Oh, there we go.

Great.

Thanks.

So I'm Cindy Reardon, the director of ITSA.

Um, I have Walker Hamilton here from my development staff, the head of that division.

Um, the first slide up there is actually showing our two divisions, um, systems development, which Walker oversees um does all of our solution designs, configuration, web team, the website internet services support is under that branch.

And then our second branch is network support services, um, the desktop support, network design, all of our security, cybersecurity switches, servers, file folder management, and that more hardware side of the house.

So that's who we are.

Uh, next slide.

Uh the next one shows you some of our highlights from from this past fiscal year that our citizen facing and to some degree.

The launched the My City.

If you're ever on the city website now, I there's a little blurb there on the slide that I put that shows you a little bit about what it's a what it accomplishes bringing all of the different actions, transactions that a citizen might be doing with city government under one dashboard for them if they choose to log in.

Um, they can go to the MyCity drop down in the top right corner of our website, authenticate using an email address, and then other transactions that they've done using that email address, kind of brings it all in one place, one visible place for them.

And that is um we we soft launched it this year.

We're adding more and more services to that as we do more integrations with our back office systems so that the so that will only grow to give citizens a better view of their their activities, regardless of what city department they're working with.

Um we're increasing, of course, delivery cyber training, cybersecurity is always of course on the radar, and we're increasing our delivery of training to our city employees on that front.

And we've added more online payment options for citizens in our city departments that are if you're pulling permits like Board of Public Service, parks, forestry, street permits, places where you might have financial transactions happening.

We've added more online payment options.

Getting into my fiscal year 27 budget, um, personnel services.

We have a total of 54.5.

We share one position with the health department.

That's where the point five comes from.

Um we have a total, those are our total positions for fiscal year 27 in the draft budget.

Um the biggest change from prior fiscal year is adding the three data analytics team positions and um reorganizing our network support services division, which is that hardware server support side downstairs on the first floor.

Um the impact data analytics team is uh a team that was started under ARPA to do um data uh some data analytics, obviously data um analysis on things happening in city government, different city services.

Um they did a lot of stuff with the building division and and vacant building surveys or vacant building data.

Um they've transitioned into the mayor's tornado recovery office last year, and they are now expanding into the city stat program, which mayor spencer um launched last month to support using data to drive how operations align their resources, make decisions about their their business operations.

So that's a big need and a big gap to be filled and have them permanently part of our department.

Uh the restructuring of the network system services is just to flatten that organization a little bit, put some more middle management in the in the department and um prevent pre present some learning some growth opportunities, some career advancement for our staff and make that a stronger division.

Um on the non-personnel budget highlights, uh not a lot of changes from prior fiscal year.

Computer equipment you will see is lower than last year.

That's because we had an infusion of money last year to do our Windows 11 upgrades.

That project has completed now.

Um, computer services, a big um project that we have coming up under that line item is upgrading our city works software.

Some of you might be familiar with that's the Citizen Service Bureau service requests.

It also, once a service request comes in, it gets turned into maybe a work order or an inspection in the operating department to finish out that work.

We're upgrading that from an on-prem system to a cloud.

Trimble Unity is the same product, just a new rebranding of the same product and moving to the cloud.

So computer services is there's a line item for that under there.

And then under professional services, again, that same upgrade, there'll be some consultants that will help us with that implementation.

And under professional services, also our continued support for Oracle, the city's ERP system, and some savings as we decommission the mainframe this year.

And I think that's my last slide.

I'll take questions.

All right, thank you, Director.

Star and Seniority, Aldwoman Sonny.

Thank you, Director.

Um I um am a frequenter of IT more than I would like to admit, um, especially when I have first came because there was like an issue with the email that was, you know, uh City Hall.

Um, but so thank you because your office is always there, is also responsive, and I'm also the queen of like forgetting to change my password in time, unfortunately, and you I've not been locked out yet, thanks to you all.

So thank you for that.

You're welcome.

Um, in regards to your budget, I don't really have any like too specific questions.

I think that it is pretty um straightforward and to the point.

My only question is just kind of in general.

Um, I am curious just for you to speak to your interfacing with other departments and some of the technology technological, you know, something we talk about a lot is that City Hall may really be in terms of where we are technological wise and other like modern practices.

We are probably not even in a 2000s yet.

Um, and maybe you're starting to get into the 2000s, and so I am curious just about any of your experience kind of with different departments across the city and technical challenges or things you've noticed in your role.

Sure.

I think all the departments are very um excited to be moving to new technology, and we sometimes what what from our point of view, we're trying to manage a portfolio of products that can be scaled to more and more departments.

So I talked about the Citiworks to Trimble Cloud, um, the ERP system that um moved off the mainframe a couple of years ago.

We had other things moving off the mainframe, so in terms of modernizing, license collector has done a lot of work to modernize and move off the mainframe onto that same CityWorks platform for licensing.

Um as we've developed a portfolio that's sort of that has like you know, standard permits and licensing and work orders and service requests or standard ERP or standard um uh software for whether it's managing our virtual meetings or Gmail or Google workspace.

Um, as we have those solidified departments are hopping on board and um look at how we can move their business processes into those spaces.

That helps us scale faster than departments feeling like they have to go on their own and buy their own software completely niche and not um have us to support them, and then in a citywide sense, it's it's more uh easy to share data to integrate those systems when we all work from the same platforms.

So I would say departments are definitely reaching out to us and asking for that new technology.

I guess along those lines, I guess I do have one question.

You for computer software licenses, you have a zero um zero dollar request, but then I see for last year you had 301,000.

Um is that because most of those licenses are still in duration from last year's budget?

No, I think what you're looking at is an account that has a suffix at the end.

There's computer, let me see if I can computer software licenses.

There's computer software licenses, and then there's computer services above it.

So there's a 560 account, and then there's that 5600 one that was just one particular software license was in that sub-account.

And we just rolled it up into the main 560 computer services account.

It it just didn't make sense that it was a standalone on its own sub line.

Okay, I guess um auto min devoti is right.

I should have never said it.

It was my last question.

Um, your regist line for this is 566069.

Um, and Regis is uh what kind of provides the data processing um like services and online systems for the police and the sheriff's um department, prosecutors, courts, uh correctional institutions, that sort of thing.

Um but I see that FY26 is at 70,000 and FY27 is at 230,000.

Um so I was just curious about what the sharp increase was due to.

Yes, um, great question.

That is part of our network systems services reorganization that we're doing.

Um I mentioned that we were changing some of our positions to create some promotional opportunities for our network staff, but at the same time, we um lost a network services administrator, network services manager, and it pivoted to having Regis provide us that network support to augment the loss of a position.

So it gives us more depth because rather than having one person that is the only person that has that knowledge by partnering with Regis, we have more of a team that is supporting our network services.

Thank you.

That's all my questions.

Alderman Devote.

Uh Director Reardon, I don't uh I don't have any questions.

I just want to to thank you for your work.

I I I am one who has noticed over the last handful of years that our website specifically uh accessing information uh uh data, um uh making a request much, much easier today than it was.

And in fact, uh I'm a I'm always amazed at what I learn at these hearings, and I admit my ignorance with respect to my city.

I'm sure you saw me playing around with my phone.

I logged in and created an account and verified my email address in about I don't know, 50 seconds a minute.

And I think that's an example of the wonderful work that you folks are doing.

Um giving information accessible to our so thank you very much.

Thank you.

And I would like to give our web team a great shout out.

Thank you for noticing that.

They work very hard and are very diligent about making sure that what we present is the information people need and that it's both accessible to folks of um whose English maybe not be their first language, um, and also um that we comply with any kind of ADA um requirements so that anybody can access the information on our website.

Thank you for that.

Yes, ma'am, thank you.

Thank you.

Well, I'm curious.

So I know our mainframe is limited to certain stuff that uh can be like added or put on.

Is there are the better like mainframe options out there for the city and have those like big conversations of what it uh looks like to maybe change uh kind of our mainframe uh for the city of St.

Louis?

Yeah, so when I started in this position about eight years ago, we started taking a really hard look at all the different um business businesses that were operating with the mainframe as their technology hub.

Um, and we started to just one by one look at how do we move that business operation to something new.

So the the mainframe is just a platform.

You can put any kind of software on it, just like you can put any kind of software on different servers.

So the first the the really large one that came off a couple years ago, you've talked about Oracle a couple of times.

That was moving the finance HR systems off of the mainframe.

So what we've been doing is not looking at how do we is there a different platform for the mainframe, but just moving people off the mainframe altogether?

Because software companies now are moving, of course, to more hosted environments, cloud environments, um, more modern database structures that you can have APIs, which is a glorified way of saying integrate data from one system to the other.

So earnings tax just recently moved off.

Um collector daily recently um worked, his team worked very hard to find a new system and move earnings tax to something new.

License collector's office moved off this year.

Um we had some retirement system data still on the mainframe that has moved off.

So we are now planning in this coming fiscal year to decommission the mainframe, um, meaning everything's off.

We just need to sort of double check that we've got all of our data saved where it needs to belong, and that we're ready to turn it off.

Gotcha.

And it don't look like there's much of a change in the budget, but it seems like from what requested and proposed with salaries, was that due to trying to get a, I guess, additional position?

The increase in personnel expenses, yeah.

It's it's um besides just the natural increase of all city employees, you know, they're one and a half percent or three percent that um that they budgeted in.

Um, there's those three new data analytics positions that we brought over into our budget that were on the mayor's tornado recovery budget prior and ARPA prior to that.

And then there's some movement of positions where we took lower pay grades in that network systems side of the house and created some middle management pay grades.

So both all those combined.

And then the other, I guess, change, and I think maybe the Alderman brought this up was uh the computer licenses uh that was requested about five and received four.

Was that the Regis or was that a different no that the license that was in that 56001 account was actually the CityWorks software licenses for whatever reason, eight or ten years ago when we first bought CityWorks, they gave it its own subaccount, but all the other software licenses that we pay for citywide are in the the general 560 computer services.

So it just got rolled up to make accounting easier.

Gotcha.

All right.

So all the questions I have, thank you for being here, Director.

Thank you.

Thanks for your time.

Thank you.

All right, with that, that will conclude our presentation for today.

Madam Clerk, do we have any written testimony?

We have none.

Uh, any announcements from any members?

Everybody was present.

We're going to announcements tomorrow.

We will kick off at 9.30 with CEMA at 9 30.

Then we'll hear from BPS at 10 30.

The circuit attorney's office at 11 30, a short break, and then end the day at one with neighborhood stabilization and CSB.

With that, I'll take a motion to adjourn.

Move by the old woman from the seventh, second by the alderman from the fifth.

All in favor, aye.

No opposed.

Motion carries.

Have a good day, everybody.