Excellent.

Good morning.

I would like to call the regular meeting of the Board of Estimate Apportionment for Thursday, June 18th, 2026 to our to order.

Madam Clerk, would you please call the roll?

Mayor Spencer present.

Controller Baringer.

Present.

President Green.

Present.

All are present.

Thank you.

We have seven items presented for the first time here this morning.

I'd like to handle items one through five first.

Item number one is a request from the Comptroller's Office for EA approval of contracts and leases from various city departments as listed in exhibit A.

Item number two is a request from the Comptroller's Office for ENA approval of contract of a contract as listed on exhibit A attachment.

Item number three is a request from the Comptroller's Office for ENA approval of transfers between projects for capital improvement funds as listed on exhibit C.

Item number four is a request from the Office of the President of the Board of Alderman for approval of board bill number 32, which would authorize the office of the president of the board of aldermen to accept a sub award from the Bloomberg Philanthropies Youth Climate Action Fund to activate youth and leadership roles for local climate solutions.

And item number five is a request for approval of board bill number 27 and emergency ordinance granting the city's consent to assign the five, excuse me, $50,000 per year lease for the Homer G.

Phillips Senior Apartments at 2601 Whittier Street from EPV to Dignity House LLC to CIG House 1 LLC.

With that, I'll accept a motion on items one through five.

Second.

Seeing done, uh Ms.

Hearst, would you please call the roll?

Mayor Spencer.

Aye.

Controller Barringer.

Aye.

President Green.

Aye.

All approved.

Thank you.

Item number six is a request for approval of board bill number 43.

The proposed ordinance requests the reappropriation and unspent American Rescue Plan Act ARPA funds from various previous city programs to be used instead for water infrastructure replacement and repair and with an emergency clause.

Seeing that, uh the board of alderman HUDS Committee considered and passed this bill out of committee this uh past week with amendments.

I'd like to propose that we amend item number six to reflect the amendments as considered and passed by the Board of Aldermen uh earlier this week in the HUDS Committee.

And so therefore the uh item would read request for approval of board bill number 43 as amended as opposed to the current wording.

So I'd like to introduce that uh proposed uh uh um I move that we propose that we uh amend uh item number six second is there any discussion on the amendment okay um miss hearst would you call the roll uh on the amending of item number six mayor spincer aye president green aye all approved thank you and with that um i'll accept a motion on item number six is amended i move that we adopt item number six as amended second ms hearst would you please call the roll mayor spincer aye aye president green aye all approved excellent item number seven is uh a continuation of our last conversation uh ENA response to the budget and public employee committee and other proposed changes to board bill number one and fiscal year 27 personnel schedules continued and I'd like to hand it over to budget director Paul Payne uh for uh discussion on it seven thank you mayor I'm going to share my screen now see all that right what I've brought before you is what we did last week so these are the third there were 13 items of amendments uh regarding the budget and that's what was approved now coming into today as you are well aware um the police board uh approved raises uh for their budget uh for their officers and uh members of the department and uh while they uh have stated that that they fit that within their budget it has an impact on the fire department's budget which cannot be uh maintained with the existing appropriation so what we're proposing here is a

Now coming into today, as you are well aware, um the police board uh approved raises uh for their budget uh for their officers and members of the department.

And uh while they uh have stated that that they fit that within their budget, it has an impact on the fire department's budget, which cannot be uh maintained with the existing appropriation.

So what we're proposing here is a uh set of additional uh changes.

Uh this would be item 14, adding to last week's uh amendments to address an estimated 1.4 million dollars in cost, additional cost to the fire department's salaries resulting from the pay increases approved by the board by the police board yesterday.

And I'll go through each one of these.

Um the first is in the general funds, about a million dollar increase uh uh allocating um uh funds to the salaries and overtime accounts of the fire department, um as well as an increase in the charge off to the GEMT fund, which has which is basically a special fund of the fire department that reimburses the city for EMS uh costs.

Uh and and that so that would result in a million dollar increase in the general funds fire department budget.

Uh of course the corresponding uh decrease in the special fund of GEMT fund would be uh that's coming from fleet capital asset line, uh, which was budgeted 2.6 million dollars and is gonna be reduced to 2.2 million, and that 445 that you see there on your screen would be allocated to the salary offset.

So between those two, you you have the million four going to the fire department and the uh so uh that's 400,000 of the uh million four.

The additional million dollars would be coming from the third item here, 14 C, which is the judgment internal services of the police department itself.

That would be a reduction that was uh put in the budget with the anticipation of ongoing judgments going forward for the that would the department would be incurring.

Uh the uh the police department has indicated that as it is underspending this in the current fiscal year intends to set aside five million dollars in funds uh in the current fiscal year, uh, which would indicate that perhaps these funds are not needed in FY27.

So that would uh be reduced to uh by the million dollars, and by those three changes, that would provide the 1.4 million dollars in salary increase and related benefit increases to the fire department to offset the cost of the pay raises next year.

And so in essence, basically you uh this is the summary with items 14A, B, and C, uh, which would be added to what the previously uh ENA proposed.

Thank you.

Uh thank you, Paul.

Um, you know, I just um I really appreciate uh the work that's gone into this uh in finding these funds for this year.

Uh we have been, as we all know, in such an unfortunate position having to at the very last minute try to find these funds uh for raises that we were blindsided by uh just a few just two weeks ago.

And so Paul, I know this was a considerable uh uh work effort uh to get this together.

I'll also point out that while we were able to put pull these funds together out of these, uh as you just itemized here, um, these are not long-term funding sources.

And so uh as we go into next year's fiscal year, we're gonna have to find an ongoing revenue source to be able to accommodate uh the uh raises for the fire department as required uh by the raises for the police department.

Um this is not a long-term solution, it gets us through one year, um, but uh does not set us up for uh anything other than having to find uh cuts in the budget for next year to be able to accommodate the ongoing salary request, uh salary needs to fulfill uh these new salaries.

Um and so that work will be forthcoming.

Do we have any discussion on item number seven uh or the work Paul has just described here?

Um yes, madam mayor.

I would um just like to say again thank you to Paul for all of his you know work often on the fly with this budget this past season.

The you know, seeing the amount of rapid changes that were often outside of our control has been pretty frustrating.

Um I know on our end, and so I can't imagine what it's been like for Director Payne, who's uh you know, keeps thinking that he has a final budget and then you know get some some curve balls.

Um, you know, I listened to the public testimony at the police board yesterday, and you know, it's there was a very broad swath of St.

Louisans who all turned out to ask the police board to please not look at their job in a silo and recognize how their actions uh impact the entirety of our city budget.

And I really hope that the commissioners take that to heart because it does have implications on other um you know programs and and worker wages throughout our city.

Um I think ultimately we got to a good place with the budget this year, and I just want to reiterate that you know, through this budget, we've been able to fund right to council, we've been able to fund Code Blue, we've been able to fund tiny homes and do that work that the community asked us to do.

Um, and also this will not be sustainable long term if year after year um the police board is coming back to us with raises of this magnitude.

Um, it will impact all of these other city departments and wages for other city workers.

And um, and so with that, I you know, I just want to thank um my colleagues on ENA and Director Payne for all of the work on this over this past uh budget season and look forward to finally getting this budget passed.

The Board of Alderman has called a special meeting for Monday to make sure that uh we can get this passed through the Board of Alderman in time to meet the uh July 1st deadline.

Thank you, Madam President.

Um there any other comments on item number seven.

I would I would just uh like to also reiterate I know uh Paul has a lot of work to do and I always know it's a tough night for Paul because he'll get here before me and his car doesn't is still here when I leave.

So I know you put in long hours, Paul.

And I know you did it the best you could to balance the budget and next year is gonna be a really difficult year, and we need to start thinking about that now.

Thank you.

Thank you, Comptroller.

Uh and uh we will start working on that now and recognizing as we all know this is a short-term solution to a long-term problem.

With that, um, I'll take a motion on item number seven.

I move that we adopt uh item number seven.

Second.

Ms.

Hurst, would you please call the roll?

Mayor Spencer.

All right.

Comptroller Banger.

Aye.

President Green.

I.

All approved.

All right.

Uh are there any uh other we have a um, excuse me, um, do we have any uh need for closed session today?

I don't believe we do.

Um do we have any other items that the board would like to discuss today?

No.

Seeing none, um I want to recognize tomorrow as Juneteenth.

Um, and uh uh celebration uh of that in earn in earnest.

So uh we will have the day off.

Um and I hope that um everybody takes the opportunity to reflect on our nation's history um and um and um participate in some sort of service uh for the community.

Um and with that, uh take a motion to adjourn.

I move that we adjourn.

Second.

Previous roll.

Excellent.

Thank you, everyone.

Um