Good morning, everyone.

It is uh Thursday, June 25th at 1004 a.m.

The Transportation and Commerce Committee meeting will now come to order.

Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Alderman Oldenburg.

Alderman Norayan.

Here Alder Woman Sweitzer.

Present.

Alder Woman Cox and Tweet.

Here.

Chair Cone.

Present.

Alderman Aldenburg.

For present.

We have four.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

The first item on our agenda is the approval of the meeting minutes from Friday, June 5th, 2026.

I'll entertain a motion.

I move that we approve the minutes from uh Friday, June 6th.

Fifth.

Fifth.

Thank you.

Second.

It was moved by the Alder Woman from the 8th, seconded by the Alderman from the 4th that we approve our meeting minutes from Friday, June 5th, 2026.

Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Alderman Aldenberg.

Alderman Narayan.

I Alder Woman Switzer.

Aye.

Alder Woman Cox and Tweet.

Hi.

Chair Cone.

Aye.

Alderman Aldenberg.

Four I votes.

By your vote.

You have sustained the motion from the Alder Woman from the 8th and approved our meeting minutes.

We have a couple board bills on the agenda for discussion today.

Do we have the alderman from the 14th on the line?

I do not see him.

I think the alder woman from the first just went to check to see if he's in his office.

We have uh I believe Talby Roach.

Uh I'm not sure who else, Talby.

James Morrow, maybe.

That sounds right.

Would you like for me to transfer the bank?

Well, James would be here for Rasheen's bill, uh, Alderman Aldridge's bill.

Um Chairman.

Yes, Alder Alman.

I just spoke with Alderman Aldridge and he said he didn't ask for a bill to be heard, so I don't know if he's expecting to present today.

It's the I'll text him, but it's the Port Authority lease agreement.

I'm not saying that.

No, I yeah, I I'll uh I'll shoot him a message.

Um but uh we'll go ahead and just proceed with the uh public transit sales tax bills.

So uh if you could move all of the panelists over, Madam Clerk.

Did you want me to still move over um James Morrill?

Uh you can and we'll see if we take up that that issue this morning.

I see Audrick is online.

Good morning, Talby.

No, we're live.

We are live, Alderman.

Uh I I apologize.

I I generally try to put any of the bills that are pending before the committee on the agenda.

Uh you know, I I wasn't aware uh did you have any concerns with the uh port lease agreement.

No, Alderman.

I actually appreciate you being proactive on it, especially when we're going down on break.

Uh we can definitely hear it.

It's a simple lease agreement, and maybe James can talk about it.

Um, that we're doing uh uh on a property not think James is online.

I will uh if you don't mind, I'll go ahead and take that up now since uh I kind of put you on the spot.

So uh just to be respectful of your time.

Um we'll handle that first.

And um so we'll take up board bill number 46, Alderman Aldridge.

Uh please proceed.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair, appreciate it.

Uh, like I say, Board Bill 46 is amending ordinance 71302 uh and it's executing a uh lease agreement with the city of St.

Louis, a united fruit and produce uh company.

It'd be a term of five years at a rate of uh 1,192 uh for the first year and an increase to 3% over the uh several years.

Uh and again, like I said, I do have Mr.

James here uh online that could be able to uh speak a little bit more about uh the agreement between the city and then uh United Fruit and Produce.

Mr.

Morrow.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair, and good morning uh committee.

Why are you swearing anyone in today?

I'm not swearing anyone in.

Alrighty.

Uh as Alderman Aldridge indicated.

This is the um first auction term of a uh lease between the City of St.

Louis United Fruit and Produce Company.

Um United Fruit and Produce is an organization that packages and distributes fresh produce.

Uh they operate a distribution location in the near North River front, close to the city's warehouse at number five Clinton Street.

They do lease from the city a small sliver of land for uh parking their trucks.

It's a relatively small footprints.

Um, you know, we were we did have them under uh BPS permits for several years until we can negotiate this this lease agreement.

The lease agreement itself is is for about twelve hundred dollars a year um and will be increasing by three percent for the duration of the five-year option term.

And at the end of the option term, there will be three additional opportunities to extend for five years each.

So uh with that, I'm happy to answer any questions from the committee.

Wonderful.

Uh we'll go through the committee in order of seniority, Alderman Oldenburg.

Uh I have no questions.

Thanks, Chairman.

Alderman Narayan.

No questions.

Thank you.

Alderwoman Schweitzer.

Thank you.

So to clarify, the um, because it was a board of public service permit in the past, was it not a paid permit?

You know, I'm I'm actually not sure if it was if they paid in to the Board of Public Service or not, but we wanted to secure a consistent revenue stream from them and not have to go back through the administrative process every year to get a BPS permit since they're only valid for a you know one year term.

So we were able to negotiate the lease agreement here.

And when you say a small sliver, can you give me a little bit more information about how much space we're talking about?

Um I do not have the actual square footage in front of me.

Um I can try and find that out for you though.

I I do have a map, but the resolution on it is not great.

I'm not sure how it would how it would appear if I were to share a screen, but I can also send that.

Yeah, I'm I appreciate that.

I'm looking at the um, you know, the map on um my computer here.

And it is it right against the railroad or where yeah, it's it should be near the railroad.

Um my copy as well.

Yeah, it looks like there's yeah different trucks parked on kind of a sliver between the railroad and warehouses.

Is that what we're talking about?

Correct.

Yes.

Yeah, it's on the on the bottom left of the uh uh of the exhibit that's attached to the original lease.

If you have that.

Yeah, one second.

Um I'm not sure I have that in my board bill.

Um, but it it looks like it's um the section between First Street and the railroad, and it is a relatively small parking lot space that probably would not be appropriate for anything else and is likely in the floodplain and not something the city could build on anyway or could be built on.

Um, I don't know if it's in the floodplain.

I do know that the property is so small, it's probably not conducive to development and has been utilized as parking even before we had this lease agreement.

So I'm not sure to the extent that there would need to be any remediation or anything done to it to do that.

That is all helpful information about you know why the price is set as it is and the goal of the um you know lease, and so I appreciate some of that information and uh thank you so much.

Alderwoman Coxian tweet.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Um, I do have one quick comment.

Uh I'm seeing what Alderwoman Schweitzer was referencing that there is an exhibit B referenced in the bill, but it's not attached.

Uh so I would just recommend before moving this bill forward that we get that cleaned up within the bill.

But no further questions for you, Mr.

Morrow.

Thank you.

Uh Mr.

Morrow.

Do you have a response?

I believe you were probably the one that drafted the bill.

Yes.

Um, Alderwoman, are you seeing a reference to exhibit B in the board bill itself or in the or in the draft lease agreement?

So in the draft lease agreement, there is a reference, and I'm not sure if that was the map you were referencing that we could review.

So I just wanted to call that out if that was something that was originally meant to be included.

Okay.

Um yeah, the exhibit B is not, but the referenced exhibit A is, and I don't see that's attached to the uh to the draft.

So we can we I can submit that to the clerk to be added to the uh to the board bill.

Okay, thank you.

Could you go ahead and uh take care of that before we take a vote on it, Mr.

Morrow?

Yes.

And then uh do you think you could do that quickly or uh should I move on to the other items of business?

Um it might take me a few minutes to pull it up.

I don't want to, I don't want to consume the committee's time if it'd be appropriate to move.

Sure.

We'll go ahead and uh move on to the other board bills.

Uh Alderman, if you're fine, I will uh go ahead and take that up on my own.

I know you have another meeting that you have to get to.

Yeah, no, I would appreciate that, Mr.

Chair.

If uh you can once the exhibit is attached, if you can uh recommend you pass uh recommendation on this board for me.

Will do.

Thank you for your time.

Sorry to cut you off guard.

And thank you to the members of the committee.

Okay.

Uh so while we're uh waiting on that uh update to board bill 46, we'll go ahead and move forward with uh I know we have representatives from Metro here, um, including their CEO, Mr.

Roach, and um we do have uh board bills 52 and 53, which are the um public transit sales tax uh related uh bills for funding of Metro and uh importantly our uh by state bus operations.

And so um, Mr.

Roach, if you'd like to um I I don't know if you have a presentation or not.

I think we we talked about potentially that.

Yeah, yeah.

Hi, Chairman Cohn.

Uh thank you very much, sir.

And thank you.

Thanks for the time of the committee.

So um I do have a brief presentation that actually uh Tammy Peris, my CFO is prepared to give.

So uh and I did just ask the uh very good.

The um clerk is is sending her the correct uh link, so she'll be on very shortly.

But I wanted to give the committee just a couple of very, very important updates that I think are relevant to the overall consideration, especially with policy initiatives that that this uh aldermatic committee has asked us to move on.

And so one of those is I'm very happy to report that on the uh BRT alternative that we have been working with the community on that passed in the locally preferred alternative through East West Gateway yesterday.

All right.

That's a huge victory for us.

Very, very good.

Additionally, we got an extension from the Federal Transit Administration on what is called project development.

That is also an excellent uh move forward for us in slotting this project.

I will just tell you that uh we have uh gotten great support out of our local local district representatives um from federal transit administration with this pivot to BRT.

Um so I know a lot of the members of the committee are very interested in that.

We really appreciate all the consideration.

I want to tell you on this budget first.

Of course, we go through all of the um uh executive decision making.

We have made the presentation to the mayor's office, we've made the presentation to the president's office and so on.

So we will of course go through that and now we're moving to committee and really do appreciate this timing.

I know the committee has been extremely busy on other hearings, uh, so I very much appreciate everybody getting us through.

Uh we're very, very proud of where we are.

We have maintained a average annual growth rate through eight fiscal years of 1.62%.

Now, letting ladies and gentlemen, let me just explain why that is very, very important.

And it is because we have to keep our um essentially our operations in line with where sales tax growth is.

Otherwise, it's just not gonna work.

Um so we have been working very, very hard to keep that over multiple uh fiscal years, albeit with then trying to be innovative with what our products are.

Look at, you know, uh BRT alternatives, look at on-demand pricing, et cetera.

And we will be uh contemplating those things, including reviewing um some of our uh pricing as it moves forward.

Um we ex we haven't raised prices specifically fares um since 2014.

We will be looking at that in the next year.

We'll probably likely come in front of the aldermen and we will have multiple public meetings about that.

But we wanted to see that after we get through the secure platform plan, which I'm very excited to tell you is gonna start an implementation on July the 9th.

Um I'm sorry.

Uh July the 6th, which is a Monday.

We're gonna do it after the 4th of July hot holiday, but the gates will start closing.

We're gonna start with 13 stations at a time.

It will move on a phased implement and we'll move all through the summer because it's really important.

This includes all completely new ticket vending machines and brand new technology, where for instance all of our riders will be able to use open loop um fair uh uh access to the system, use your cell phone to get on the system.

What's really important to that and important to the budget consideration, and that'll allow us to move uh essentially our um uh fair revenue up.

And we have to look at all of our revenue uh buckets, whether it's from the city, whether it's from the county, whether it's from St.

Clair County, but also federal resources, and of course, what we're doing as far as our fair media is is important.

So we're very excited about about that, and it is as a bit very big um uh impact.

So I want to pause there before I pivot to Tammy's specific um uh presentation, uh, Chairman.

Are there any specific questions that you wanted me to address?

Uh I'll just go through the committee, Mr.

Roach, to see if there's any uh Alderman Oldenburg.

None at this time.

Thanks, Chairman.

Alderman Narayan.

No questions.

Thank you.

Alderwoman Schweitzer.

I'm looking forward to hearing more about the BRT progress that you all have been talking about, um, whether or not we've decided that a vote is needed or not needed, and who's making that decision.

Um raising fares is definitely a um a red flag to me.

We just spent a lot of money on um gates at the uh at many stations, which I don't I don't personally think was the right use of money.

So it's frustrating to see that passed on to the consumer who really can't take uh on uh more increases of of that.

Um yeah, I'm I'm here to listen and learn as always.

So thank you for for the presentation and being here today.

Well, and if I can comment as a great question, um Alder Woman on the on the fair revenue.

So remember, we haven't raised fares since 2014.

And one of the things that we have to do, we have to do a full Title VI analysis of, for instance, the affordability of uh fundamentally what goes through our entire system.

So we we have to go through those details and uh very, very um important component.

We will have to then go out to the public and solicit their opinion, and we have to get uh to be sure that it follows the Title VI analysis and and and sees exactly where we are associated with that fair media.

It will also um majority of our customers, and you're absolutely right, our past customers.

You know, they are the ones who use who have a monthly pass or a weekly pass.

Those very typical are the ones who are most need of our of uh our mobility.

But one of the things that the fair media allows us to do, especially with the as I referenced the the cell phones and the smartphones, is that when I do get the uh discretionary user and move in, we have them pay for convenience, which of course helps the whole milieu of how we make a system work.

Um and you have that convenient right convenience right now in Chicago's New Yorks.

Um, and what we want to do is be sure we're being very modern uh associated with with that um piece.

Um so it's a great question.

It it requires a lot of vetting.

I'll have to come to you and get your and let you see that.

Um obviously the Aldermanic committee, uh, we will do a presentation on all of those issues and well, the why and what it means.

Obviously, what I'm doing is running a vast transit system with tens of thousands of riders, including um uh what are the effects and the bottom line.

But we will take those riders into effect is really the is the really important conclusion of my comment.

So I'm I'm with you in supporting, you know, what is their consideration in this.

Okay, Alderwoman Coxian Twee.

Thank you.

Um I just want to echo my colleagues and thank you for coming here before us today and and sharing these updates.

I do think this uh constant communication is important as you outlined it.

I know um you all have been doing uh a great job in my ward and many wards and educating the public, especially about as we begin to have the discussions about bus rapid transit.

So I appreciate today.

Um and also appreciate you addressing the question about the potential fare increases uh that we will uh maybe be discussing when you bring that information forward.

And I look forward to you guys engaging the community in that.

So thank you.

Thank you, Alderwoman.

Well, what you have is a commitment to me uh uh a commitment from me that we will always lean out to the public.

This is the public's system.

Um no matter what, we have to see that.

And remember my our fundamental riders.

Um, I was just looking at some really important data about what our fundamental ridership.

And a really interesting point that I would like to bring to the committee is that nearly 60% of our riders show, you know, we do make under 40,000 in annual income.

And really, really key statistic.

And what that is telling you is that we are the folks who are the fundamental frontline workers are being moved by our system.

The folks who are working in grocery stores, who are working in hospitals and so on.

And therefore, it is a very, very key component to the economic mobility within the city and the county.

And we're seeing a lot of that mobility.

We are experiencing a significant reverse commute right now in our system.

And what that means is we're seeing much more folks who are living in the city, but going to the county or to St.

Clair County for their jobs.

Honestly, part of that is a sign of economic health in our region.

But what we need to do is to be sure that we're responsive to that movement so that we're supporting what those individuals are.

Look, they live in, they live in our neighborhoods, and we need to be sure that that access is there.

So being very cognizant and careful, being sure that we are absolutely detailed as far as the access is concerned, um, is a really, really key component.

Mr.

Chairman, I have one other um update I wanted to give as a uh regarding collaride.

May I move forward on that as well?

Yeah, please.

Yeah.

Um I'm sorry, it just hit me this committee had asked me to be sure to keep them up on where we are on calleride.

And as you may recall, a couple of years ago, we were really struggling with our frontline workforce and moving paratransit um through the system.

And we had to do some investments in our frontline employees.

We changed our represented employees' contract and so on.

Here's the good news, folks.

We have we are right now in the seventh month of zero denials on uh call a ride service.

So we've we've had a tremendous improvement is that parallel to these budget processes, as I was doing a budget presentation in St.

Louis County yes yesterday, and I was really pleased that actually we had eight members of the disabled community, and they were there not to yell at me, but actually to give us support.

Um they were very pleased, and I I don't want to speak for them, but that in included paraquad, included RAIS.

Look, these are great folks that we are moving every single day.

Um they are absolutely critical to their to our process, and they were very complimentary over my team's work to increase service.

And we are increasing service.

Let me tell you, we move from an average ride of 5,000 per week on caller ride.

We are exceeding 8,000.

So that's nearly a 33% increase in service.

What that's telling you is that we have an embedded need.

There is a social need for mobility within the disabled community.

It means that we'll be challenged, you and I, through budget and and design, um, and it becomes a more dominant part of our budget.

But I would suggest to the committee that it is one of the very highest value from a social good standpoint.

When we are able to put members of the disabled community out and into productive jobs and so on and getting out, uh, it means great things for the community, and I'm really uh very happy to have strengthened that partnership.

You all challenged us to do that as in fact, uh, demanded that it be done when I come in and ask for this money.

And I'm very proud to report and I encourage you to talk to uh the parakeets and the rays and so on, and let them tell you how we're doing because we're doing a lot better.

Um, and that partnership has continued to strengthen.

Um my gosh, I'm super encouraged to also see my CFO has made it online.

So I'm going to ask her to try to be very brief, uh Chairman, and go directly to the important uh slides on cost.

Is that acceptable?

Thank you.

Uh more than acceptable.

I appreciate it.

All right.

Tammy Paris is my uh uh CFO.

She does an excellent job.

Um she's happy to be available if there's any specific drill down questions.

So I'm gonna ask um Terry to uh uh I'm sorry, Tammy, to uh share her screen and move forward.

Tammy, if you will.

Yes, and I'm I'm sorry, um, I think we are having a little bit of um technical difficulties, um, but I'll get started and I will um try to be quick about uh going through this.

Um so this first slide um you guys are familiar with, we um present this every year.

This really talks about us as an agency, and um our goal is obviously fiscal responsibility, and so it um highlights the fact that we really have a goal, we try to make a goal of operating cost growth of one and a half percent.

Um what you'll see um when we see other increases.

Um, so for this year, looking at eight budget years, you'll see our average growth is 1.62%.

So as you see that, um what we experience sometimes is growth in our um wages, you know, when we do our contract negotiation.

So in those years, we'll see bump ups and what that percent is overall because it's an average of all years.

Um, but 1.62 is a good um rate.

It's very it is very hard to accomplish, but we work here to find efficiencies and and do the best we can to control our costs.

So this slide shows um the green line is really our budget request.

Okay, so that is every year what we've actually asked in our request to operate our budget.

The blue line is the uh a 2% growth rate, and the red line is a 3% growth rate.

So as you can see, overall, that would there's a 40 million dollar uh difference between those two.

Um, the highest in the and where we actually are.

So over the last eight years, we are at an average growth of 1.62%.

This next slide is really important because it is really comparing the two budget years.

And so when you look at revenue, you'll see passenger revenue, and you'll see that from 26 to 27, we have almost a $3.6 million increase or 18.4%.

Um, and that is really strictly based on uh the secure platform project and having 11 stations in place.

So we've already seen in this current year about 1.2, 1.3 through April million dollars of increase there.

So the 3.6 is really based on what we think we will see as the secure platform is implemented, and we have all the stations moving.

Um, so that is where we are for um our growth on that line item.

The next one is our big line item.

It's grants, sales tax, and contractual revenue.

So what you'll see here is that um it's the city and the counties uh um sales tax, it's also St.

Clair County's contract, and we do get some federal money for federal vehicle maintenance, um, about 16 million a year in on that line item.

So here this is looking strictly at our operational growth.

So you'll see it's 1.2%.

But when you take into account capital and um the principal on the bonds, it really does push it up to 1.5%.

So for our funding partners, what we're asking this year is a 1.5% increase, which um is equal to the 3.6 million change that you see.

So for interest income, you'll see we're pretty steady there.

Um so we are moving projects, but this is about the capital funds we have in house and the amount of uh money that we can earn on the money that we have available.

So we do that, put that back to use um in our operating budget.

Um we've also, you know, I know the Fed held rates uh studied last time, but um, you know, they have declined since last year some, and so that is impacting the amount of interest that we can earn.

The following line is other, and that makes up some other um revenue align items that we have in our budget that we can um bring in also to help with the budget.

So advertising, uh rental that we have.

We also do ATS, which is similar to call ride maintenance for St.

Clair County.

For the most part, that's an in-in and out, but that revenue shows up there.

Um, then we also have some pass-through grants that the revenue comes in, and also you'll see within the expense side that we we will note that too.

Um looking at so in total that gives us a revenue amount of 351.5 million, so up about 7.3 from the prior year.

Uh looking at expenses, you'll see that we are going from almost 211 million to about 208.9 million, so down 2 million dollars.

Um, what this really um has entailed is us really looking to be efficient, looking at vacancies, um, relieving the budget where we can of those, looking structurally of how we are um how we work and how we can find deficiencies in that manner.

And then those um uh reductions have been offset in some ways by different medical expenses, uh, mainly related to GO GLP ones, which uh I know everybody is struggling with at self-insured currently.

Um the next line item services, you'll see a small increase there, so almost a million dollars.

And that's really focused on labor in our contracts, and these contracts are things more like contracts that we have for cleaning or maintenance.

What we've seen is there's some increases there because their labor costs have increased also.

And so that's reflected on that line item.

Looking at fuel, you'll see that there's an increase there of almost 750,000.

And we do have a fuel hedge program here.

So we do really try to manage any stress that that could put on the budget.

We go out 18 months with contracts on that.

So that is helped us maintain where we are today.

If we continue to see increased pricing, that may be a struggle in the future years, but we are really trying to manage that here with our fuel hedge program.

Looking at the next line item is parts.

So you can see that's probably one of our bigger line item increases, so almost 2.9 million.

So we had been holding the team kind of back in some ways, or the budget back, I should say, as we were having some supply chain issues.

We also were having some issues, and we still are with hiring mechanics.

And so we're optimistic that we can put some more of that work through in the upcoming year.

And so you're seeing that reflected here.

So for casualty insurance, you'll see that is about a 1.3 million dollar increase.

So some of that's claims, but some of it's related to yes, we're self-insured, but we also have some excess liability insurance that we carry, and we've seen some increases there due to the market over the last couple years.

And so that that we feel like it's kind of leveling out though now.

So maybe that won't be an issue in the next budget year, but it is causing some in this uh next budget year.

So utilities, you can see there's some increase there of almost 300,000, and then other operating um that's really focused on uh taxes, dues and subscriptions, travel meetings, training, things of those nature.

You'll see that's up about a million.

So, in order to maintain that one and a half percent growth in the past budget year, we really um tried to reduce um some of those areas, and now we're trying to pull some of that back in, um, really specifically focused to training.

Um, so that that's what a lot of that um changes from 26 to 27.

So for operating expense, we see a growth of about 5 million 1.5%, so $339 million.

Uh the next line item under that is interest expense.

So that's the interest on our debt.

So we um in the past we've done some refundings and we've really tried to control how that has impacted our budget.

So as you can see there, we have some reduction of about um almost 800,000.

And then the other non-operating expenses, um, that is really our pass-through grant.

So, as I mentioned on the revenue side, that's just that coming back through this line item, and then our work shelters are shown there.

Um, so the the decrease is probably related to the pass-through grants.

And so that shows a loss of 1.5 million.

Um, so so what we do with that is we really do continue to try to find those efficiencies, and that's where we left it for this year.

Um, and we've been successful at doing that in the past, so I'm comfortable with the number that we're showing there.

Um then going uh to the next line, depreciation, you'll see that's up about 24.7 million.

Um, that is a big number.

Our depreciation, so when we look at that, that's really our um capital.

So um 80% of that is generally um FTA covered, and then the 20% comes from our funding partners as the local match.

But in this year, in the change from the last budget year to this year, that's really the extension that St.

Clair County is doing in the Mid-Americas extension that they're doing.

So we don't have that in our books yet, but it will be coming.

So that is us projecting what that change will be for depreciation.

And then net transfers, you'll see that in 26 we had nothing shown there.

In 27, we are showing 6.8 million.

This is just a change in how we're accounting for this.

Um, that's really um the costs associated with our uh self-insurance, and so that's us just moving that in the different um enterprises that we have there.

So in total, you'll see that we have a deficit of about 95.5 million.

And I can keep going or I can stop here if you guys have questions specific to this.

Hey, Tammy, uh why don't you uh go ahead and continue and we'll just questions or comments at the end.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Um so this next one is really just the pie that's really just showing our funding again.

So we kind of went through that in the last slide, but sometimes people like to see it this way.

So as you can see, um again, this is just the operating side.

So St.

Louis County um at the 184.4 million.

We have St.

Louis City at 42.7 and St.

Clair County at 65.2.

Um, our passenger revenue, I think was being uh talked about a little bit before I got on.

Um, so that is currently is that 23.2 million that we talked about just a minute ago, too.

And then um also our investment income.

Uh the federal is also worth mentioning because again, uh that's the 16 million we get for uh vehicle maintenance, and it's also the pass-through grant money that we get there uh there.

And then finally, other miscellaneous is really focused on some state funding um that comes in through that line item from Missouri, um, advertising rental, you know, the ATS and pass-through uh grants coming through there too.

And then finally um is the appropriation request.

So um you can see that in 26 we are at 47.6 million, and in 27, we're at 48.3 million, which is about a 700,000 dollar increase or 1.5% increase for the year.

And I am happy to answer any questions you might have.

Wonderful.

Uh I'll go through the committee.

Um, Alderman Oldenberg.

No questions.

Thank you for that.

Alderman Norian.

No questions, thank you.

Alder Woman Schweitzer.

Thank you.

Uh for the revenues by each.

Can you go back a slide, please?

Sure.

Uh can you talk a little bit about um so this is the tax revenue from each of the St.

Louis County, St.

Louis City, St.

Clair County.

Okay.

And this in today we're talking about a total of about 26 million.

Um bills for 13 each or yes.

So what we do, um, and we so we've done this for a while.

So um what this entails is the 42.7 million is the actual operating part of the appropriation request.

Then in addition, there's a request for principal.

I think that's close to 2 million.

I can get you the actual details on that.

And I'm sorry, I'm a little bit flustered this morning.

Um, and then also the um there's about three, probably about 3.8 close to 3.8 million dollars in capital.

It's like three million seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

So that is the total, including those other two items.

And when you actually look at the ordinances, so where you're seeing the difference, and you're saying the 26 million and 13 million for the two taxes.

So what we have done is we generally will put like a 10% increase on that.

So that what will happen is if the taxes come in greater, then they will flow into by state and through our um trustee just naturally.

Um, and we have seen increase on the city side in the past.

Um, I know last year was a diff, I think it was a difficult year across the board in sales tax um for Missouri.

Um, but we are uh we feel pretty comfortable that we'll see an increase in in the coming year.

Okay, and you said that's reflected in the bill and in Yes.

And that so it's actually probably closer to 30.

Um so it's 26, and I have them right in front of me.

So I will do the math really quick for you.

And I'm sorry I should have already done this.

Um I just the numbers weren't lining up and what I was looking at in the bills and what you're showing on the screen, and I just wanted to understand for myself, you know, why that was and and just get some more clarity.

Yes.

So it has a um, so it has that increase of 10%.

So yes, um, on the 73 tax, it's uh 26, almost 27 million dollars, and then approximately 13.5 million on the other two bills.

Um, so I'm just gonna do the math because I'm old and I uh should be able to do this.

Yes.

Um so whoops.

So it's about 53.1 million.

Okay, so you're actually expecting it to be even more than what's shown on the screen.

Yes, and and this is strictly the operating piece of it.

Um yes.

Okay.

Um the collaride, um you said that the service has increased from you know 5,000 to 8,000, I believe is what Mr.

Roach said.

Um so can you show me again show us again just where we're seeing that increase in the in the in the um in the budget?

Yeah.

Yeah, so so primarily that's gonna come across in your wages and benefits because it's mainly people that we're paying for.

So this is a consolidation of um all of our modes of transportation.

So it's bus, um, you know, the metrolink and collaride being all pulled together in our expenses.

Um, but I will tell you most of it, um, as he probably mentioned, you know, between 60 and 65% of our budget is people, and so that that's our heaviest hit expense, and then also some of the you know the medical expense and that sort of thing, so our benefits that we offer.

And then also some of the, you know, the medical expense and that sort of thing.

So our benefits that we offer.

Um, in collaride, we did add 20 positions in this budget.

So we added 20 back.

Um, so that's where you're seeing in then that line item.

Now I know it looks a little bit strange because overall that line item is a reduction of two million, and that's primarily because we have tried to find other efficiencies in different areas, mainly related to overhead to try to control our costs.

And so that's what we've been really focused on.

Well, in the last few years, I remember a lot of different advertisements from buy state of you know, bonuses, paying, you know, sign ons and all of those things.

Um, you know, and then to see a reduction in the budget this year, are those the sorts of things that you're feeling like just more consistency with staff that is kind of um getting a little bit more consistent.

Yeah.

So um so in the last contract year, yes, we, you know, we made we needed, I think at that time we were short 100 positions.

So we were really focused on benefits and doing what we needed to do, as that's our primary business is to really focus on getting those filled.

So we um invested a lot of money there.

But on the other side of it, we had to find some efficiencies because the sales tax doesn't um it just doesn't hold for what we need to do sometimes.

And so we've made other reductions um in vacancies and actually structurally within positions to try to bring that um in line so that we can really pay for those operational costs.

If I can comment on that from a policy standpoint, uh Alder Woman Schweitzer.

So because it it sounds like we're saying two different things.

Uh so we have really actually increased in positions on frontline employees, right?

So on bus operators, train operators, right?

Moving those things, call ride uh employers.

We we had that.

So we made a lot of investments, for instance, in our represented employees' contract, and that's been hard to manage.

But we have made more layoffs on the overhead side, and you've certainly seen that.

And that's just like uh any organization, we have to kind of look at it overhead and be that's what you all pay me to do, is to be as efficient as possible and be sure that we were making our investments in that front line.

And one of the things that Tammy's talking about is the philosophy as a company, and and we we have much greater efficiencies than obviously we did in 1995 and 2005.

We have the ability to move our overhead down, reduce some of our positions in, for instance, the office, and make those investments in the frontline employees.

And that's what we had to do, especially in this last represented contract.

So we you saw those, and thank you for bringing it up in the form of but sign on bonuses and so on.

So not only did we do the sign-on bonus and to get new employees, and that program is now over because we've gotten most of our butt for the represented employees.

What we did is we did a bonus on their 401k um so that they didn't feel left out of the mix because retention is also a really key component on keeping our employment numbers up.

Um so I know it's kind of a nuanced story, um, but I wanted to be sure you had that context.

It's really interesting, and something the city of St.

Louis is, you know, deals with as well, with both retention and um signing on folks, and it's been a tough last several years, especially for um getting people who can have these kind of commercial licenses and things that I'm sure that you also need for for your drivers to have you know special licenses and things.

Um I appreciate that.

You mentioned also um depreciation of assets, uh so uh and and perhaps that increasing in a in a way that is unusual and that affecting I believe the insurance line.

Um so when an asset uh becomes less valuable, the insurance, can you explain the insurance goes up?

Can you explain how that how that relates?

I think I might have been um running through this too quickly.

So um, so the depreciation, so I'm sorry, like I think I'm confusing too.

So the depreciation um is really going up, primarily related.

I mean, it will make fluctuations um generally if if you know we're buying new buses and we do that regularly, but the big change this year, that 24.7 is really related more to the mid-America extension.

Okay.

And so that's why we're seeing it.

Um the other item, so it is separate is the net transfer item, which is really our self-insurance line item.

So that's us transferring in expenses because we actually show them as separate enterprises.

So we have a workers' comp enterprise, uh casualty enterprise, and it's really just an accounting thing, and it was recommended as an audit item to just help us better see things.

Um that 6.8 million you see there is us changing how we show that in our budget.

So that's why you don't see it in the prior year.

So we changed how we were recording that.

So it's seen on that line item this year.

So they are two different kind of changes that are happening in this current budget year.

So next year, you won't see any kind of differential in the net transfers other than um if the dollar amount changes.

And probably on the depreciation line, it'll probably be somewhat consistent, but we'll probably see some fluctuation, just not 24.7 million, which is way higher than normal.

If that makes sense, hopefully.

Yeah, it does.

It is, it is a big difference, a big change in the budget from one year to another.

Um so uh I appreciate that and and that explanation of some of those bigger numbers and how how you got there.

Um those are my questions.

Thank you for answering them.

Sure.

Can I add to one very quickly?

I'm I apologize, all the woman Schweitcher, but I but I know that uh a lot of you are going through this.

Um Tammy mentioned the GLP one issue.

Um, so a lot of this does have to do relate to you know what our essential workforce is, and I would consider our our workforce essential.

Um most of our frontline workers happen to be African American, and we have been struggling with the health consequences and for instance investing in the overall health of our frontline employees, and that has been a challenge over the years.

We've done a lot of things with trying to work through the benefits side and be sure that we're getting as healthy as employees as possible.

The GLP ones create a very tough challenge.

Let me tell you, um, Tammy and I really uh man, you grit your teeth when you have an almost six million dollar hit to your bottom line budget.

On the other side, from a public policy standpoint, the positive health outcomes to our employees are unquestionable, right?

With these are these are the kind of increases in overall health outcomes that we have been struggling to get with our frontline population.

So I would say from an overall population standpoint, it's really very positive.

What we've heard from health professionals is that we'll realize this, the gain in having a healthier workforce down the line in two or three years.

But it has been a tough um hit on our budget, and I'm sure the city has probably seen a similar kind of consequence.

But I just wanted to be sure that uh we put a little bit of that context um and when I get talking about budget, I I get a little out of control.

So thank you for allowing me that.

Uh alder woman Cox Antwee.

Thank you, uh Tammy, for the presentation.

And and certainly I appreciate uh the Alder Woman from the first questions.

She highlighted a couple of things that jumped out to me as well.

Um, one understanding, you know, the the proportion of what we're discussing today in the subsequent board bills as it makes up revenue was really helpful.

So I'm glad you guys clarified that.

The other thing that stood out was certainly the expense items that you highlighted, uh, both the efficiencies that you guys noted that you're doing in terms of employee retention and wages, which it's good to hear that you guys are finding those efficiencies, and that's not having a negative um impact on the overall workforce and their compensation.

That was certainly a concern to me.

And the other thing, uh, Mr.

Roofs that you just noted as it relates to um expenses with insurance um and the workforce.

Certainly I know in the African American community, but in many communities, you know, health costs are rising for employers, and it's always good to make sure that you're prioritizing the positive impact and the health outcomes for your workers.

And so I appreciate you know that comment and certainly note that that is you know what you were trying to share say to the public here and appreciate you letting them know that's a priority.

Um that being said, I I did have one outstanding question uh just with some of the the notice on fuel parts expenses.

Obviously, I know costs are going up in industries um nationwide in those areas, and that is taking a big portion of your expense budget.

Um, can you just you talked about ways that you have um to mitigate fuel cost, and obviously we know for a variety of reasons why those are going up, um, but other areas as it relates to just parts and maintenance quickly.

Um so you're asking how are we trying to uh resolve some of those costs?

Yeah, if if there's anything in addition to the fuel program you mentioned.

Um, yeah.

So I so the other thing that our team actually does a really good job at is that you know, some of these struggles that we've had in the past of actually getting parts, they have been creative in um in ways and sometimes to actually help create some of the things that they needed, um, you know, with when it made sense.

Okay.

So they um so that was something where they did, and we're they're constantly looking, obviously, we always are um at pricing and different things we can do.

Um, so they are I I would say our maintenance team is extremely efficient at doing that and looking ahead and trying to manage those costs.

Um, so I I think those are some of the items that we have done.

So I would I if I if you don't mind, there's two things that I would highlight on.

Great question.

Um of the things that we have done really well with is we have a very homogeneous fleet.

So it's very uh almost all of our bus equipment is by Gillig USA.

Um and uh they they have Cummings turbo diesel engines with Allison transmissions, and having a very um uh uh a fleet that is consistent and repetitive means that we are able to get the maintenance outcomes that have been very, very uh positive.

And as a matter of fact, nationally leading.

Um we have had uh folks from coming to uh engines in uh bringing their clients in, showing how we do things to try to be as efficient as possible.

Well, so there's other technology things that have been going.

I never thought it would make sense for my maintenance team to have a uh uh uh one of those printing machines, the the you know thank you, a 3D printer.

I never thought that would make sense.

However, what is very interesting is that team has figured out, for instance, how to recreate things like a seat clamp, a plastic seat clamp that where you would normally ask for that comes from Korea or China that cost and no, they will charge you 56, 60 dollars.

Whereas my team's been really creative at figuring out look, if we make one and do it on a 3D printer, actually it's only gonna cost us 10 bucks.

So we have uh my team's been very, very aggressive about kind of looking at some of those things.

It also makes our jobs more interesting, um, quite frankly, is to try to create a creative environment within uh maintenance.

Um, and we've uh worked very hard.

As a matter of fact, one of the things my CFO, I will brag on her a little bit.

She actually goes into the garages and has meetings with our maintenance team, and we talk about some of those ideas, whether those are, for instance, order ahead on diesel engines and some of those things.

So we're always trying to look at some of those creative ideas and sharing some of those ideas.

As a matter of fact, we've shared some of those with some of the maintenance with um with our city city partners sometimes in the fire department because we have very similar rolling stack when it comes to the diesel engines.

So very interesting dynamic, and we're always leaning forward uh on those issues.

Perfect.

Thank you both for that.

It's very helpful to Nellan and very interesting as well.

Thank you.

And no further questions for me, Mr.

Chairman.

Thank you, Alder Woman.

Um, I don't have any further uh questions or comments or conversation that I'd like to impart on the uh board bills at this point in time.

Um any further discussion.

Seeing none, um, I would entertain a motion on board bill.

52.

I move that we pass board bill 52 out with a due pass recommendation.

Second.

It's been moved by the alderman from the fourth, seconded by the alder woman from the first that we pass board bill 52 out of committee with a do pass recommendation.

Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

But I also think if there was something that she wants to uh as uh as a practice before that, one on one, uh I had the opportunity.

I'm gonna be brief on this, but uh Alderman Orion.

I alder woman Sweitzer.

I alder woman coxantui.

I chair Cone.

I votes by your vote, you have sustained the motion of the alderman from the fourth uh uh pass Board Bill 52 out with a due pass recommendation.

Next on the agenda is Board Bill 53.

Um Mr.

Roach, uh Miss Paris, do you have any further presentation or uh you know items that you'd like to share with respect to Board Bill 53?

No, Chairman, thank you.

These are related bills.

Madam Clerk, I uh the open mic kind of uh presented it.

Did we have any public testimony for either of these bills?

We have none.

Okay.

I didn't see anyone online, but I just want to make sure.

Okay.

Uh so uh any questions or comments from the committee with respect to board bill number 53, the related public transit uh sales tax.

Alderman Oldenburg.

Nope.

Alderman Narayan.

No questions.

Alderwoman Schweitzer.

No.

Alderwoman Cox and Twee.

No questions.

I will entertain a motion on board bill number 53.

I move that we pass board bill 53 out with a due pass recommendation.

Second previous rule.

It's been moved by the Alder Woman from the first, seconded by the Alder, or I'm sorry, Alderman of the fourth, and uh seconded by the Alder Woman from the eighth.

Uh that we pass board bill 53 out with a due pass recommendation.

There's been a request for previous role.

Is there any objection to previous role?

Hearing and seeing none.

Uh Board Bill 53 passes out with a due pass recommendation.

Um, Madam Clerk, for your records, the request for previous role came from the alder woman of the eighth.

Okay, group.

And uh without further ado, we'll get back to board bill number 46.

Uh thank you, Mr.

Roach and uh Miss Paris for your time and efforts this morning.

Thank you, Chairman and the entire committee.

Thank you.

Mr.

Morrow, are you still with us?

I am.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Uh so the committee should be receiving shortly uh as well as the clerk a copy of the exhibit A attachment to the draft lease that is the um the map of the leasehold that reflects the the small portion of city owned land adjacent to number five planton uh warehouse that that we're leasing.

It's around 6,000 square feet, Alderman Schweitzer to your earlier question.

Um I've also been conferring with port staff over the request from United Fruit and Produce to exercise the first option term.

They are, however, both out in the field right now with limited access to their email.

Um so I would have to supplement the uh the board bill with that documentation later.

I don't think it's feasible that we'll get it um during this committee hearing.

Okay, uh any conversation questions from the committee.

Alderman Oldenberg.

I'll take that silence as uh No, sorry, Chairman.

Do not all good.

Uh Alderman Narayan.

No questions, thank you.

Alderwoman Schweitzer.

No further questions.

Thank you for doing that that work to make sure that that board bill is in correct order before these committee.

No questions.

Thank you as well.

Uh I am just going through the uh email here.

That does appear to be in order and submitted to the clerk.

So we do have the uh additional information.

Uh I don't believe we need to do any amendment to it since it is an exhibit to the existing bill.

Um we just have it before us now.

So uh I know the alderman from the 14th had to uh step away for a previous meeting.

Um so I will uh go ahead and entertain a motion on board bill number 46.

I move that we pass board bill 46 out with a due pass recommendation.

Second previous role.

It's been moved by the alderman from the fourth, seconded by the alder woman from the first that we pass board bill 46 out with a due pack pass recommendation.

There's been a request for previous role by the alder woman from the first.

Is there any objection to previous role?

I'll give the alderman from the second an opportunity to just kidding.

Uh no objection to previous roll.

Board bill 46 passes out with a due pass recommendation.

We do have um board bill 51 on the agenda for today.

Um that is an airport revenue bond uh board bill that uh I've been working with the comp troller and the uh airport staff on.

Um I don't believe that we're in a position to vote on that today.

Um I believe the comptroller's office has some recommendations for amendments to the bill.

So I'm going to go ahead and hold that for now and uh see if we can schedule another meeting probably before summer recess if possible to um have discussion on that.

Um I've been told by the CompTroller's office that we don't need to have it voted out before the summer recess.

Um, but um, I do want to try and make sure that we've at least uh you know address some of the the concerns and get those amendments taken up before we do take uh further action on it.

So I will keep you all posted with respect to that.

And um I believe that is the end of our agenda for today's meeting.

Madam Clerk, are there any resolutions for review?

We have none.

Uh any further committee discussions or written testimony?

We have not.

Does any member of the committee have any announcements that they would like to make?

Seeing none, uh, Madam Clerk, can you also note that all members were present?

So noted.

And with that, I'll entertain a motion to adjourn.

Move that we adjourn.

Second previous role.

It's been moved by the alderman from the fourth, seconded by the alder woman from the eighth with a request for previous role by the alder woman from the eighth.

Is there any objection to previous role?

Hearing and seeing none, we stand adjourn.

Thank you, everyone, for your time this morning.