St. Louis Legislation Rules Committee Meeting – July 28, 2026 (Transcript Discrepancy: July 21)
St. Louis Legislation Rules Committee Meeting – July 28, 2026
Note: The meeting transcript indicates Tuesday, July 21, 2026 at 2:15 PM, but the provided metadata states the meeting took place on July 28, 2026. This summary uses the instructed date but highlights the discrepancy.
The Legislation Rules Committee of the St. Louis Board of Aldermen met on July 28, 2026. Chair Velasquez presided. The committee discussed improvements to the engrossment process and considered Resolution 59, which calls for a state performance audit of the city.
Consent Calendar
- The committee unanimously approved the minutes from the July 15, 2026 meeting. Roll call: Aldermen Cole, Orion, Keys, Son Yang, sharing voting, Chair Velasquez, and Alderman Cole (all ayes).
Public Comments & Testimony
- Tamika Steggers (citizen petitioner) testified in support of Resolution 59. She explained that a citizen-led petition drive collected signatures to request a performance audit by the Missouri State Auditor, citing concerns over transparency and accountability for funds from the Rams settlement, COVID relief, and other sources. She noted that some signatures were invalidated by the Board of Election Commissioners, leading to a judicial challenge. She clarified that a performance audit differs from a financial audit and would cover 22 city departments. The city would bear the cost, initially estimated at $2 million but potentially less since an audit of the Building Division is already underway. She emphasized that the resolution is another route to compel the audit and called on the board to support transparency.
Discussion Items
- Engrossment Process (Discussion Item #1): Clerk Sharita Rogers presented a new multi-step quality control process for engrossing bills to ensure amendments are correctly incorporated. The process includes: (1) a team member incorporates amendments, (2) deputy clerk reviews numbering and accuracy, (3) financial analyst and legal counsel review, and (4) the clerk performs a final review. A checklist and attestation form will be provided for each bill, and a redline version (showing changes) will be uploaded 24 hours in advance. Committee members expressed appreciation for the improved process. Alderman Devotee and others emphasized the need for clear redline versions, preferably in Word format.
- Resolution 59 (Introduced by Alderwoman Boyd): The resolution calls upon Missouri State Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick to promptly commence a performance audit of the City of St. Louis. Alderwoman Boyd stated the request originated from residents who collected signatures citywide. The proposed audit would examine spending of Rams money, COVID funds, and other dollars since 2021, covering 22 departments. Committee members raised questions about the cost (estimated $2 million, city to pay), the scope, and the need to include explicit language in the resolution acknowledging city payment. Vice Chair Devotey noted that the resolution currently lacks such language, which might be a technical requirement. Alderwoman Boyd agreed to work with residents and legal staff to amend the resolution. The committee decided to hold the resolution in committee for further research.
Key Outcomes
- Approved minutes from July 15, 2026.
- Engrossment process improvements were presented and discussed; no formal vote was taken but the process will be implemented for future meetings.
- Resolution 59 was held in committee (no vote) to allow Alderwoman Boyd to research and amend the resolution to address financial and legal concerns. The committee will revisit once ready.
- The meeting adjourned at 3:07 PM.
Meeting Transcript
All right, we will now call to order uh the legislation rules committee for Tuesday uh July 21st at 214 July 21st, 2026. Uh at 215 p.m. Madam Clerk, can you please call the roll? Alderman Cole. Alderman Orion. Older woman Keys. Here. Alder Woman Son Yang. Present. I share the voting. Here. Chair Velasquez. Present. Alderman Cole. Alderman O'Ryan. For present. Yeah, of course. Thank you, Madam Clerk. I will now enter, seeing that we have quorum. I will now entertain a motion for the approval of the minutes on Wednesday, July 15th, 2026. Moved. Second. Second. You can take devotees second. Alderman Cole. Alderman Orion. Alder Woman Keys. Alder Woman Sanye. All right. Let's share the voting. All right. Chair Velasquez. Aye. Alderman Cole. Thank you, Madam Clerk. And with that, we have approved the minutes from Wednesday, July 15th, 2026. Today we don't have any board bills to review. Resolution 59, but before that, we are going to start off with our committee discussion. We have one item for discussion. And that is discussion item number one. And the committee will discuss the engrossment process. So with that, I will virtually hand the mic over to Madam Clerk Sharita Rogers to walk us through that. And after she walks through, I'll obviously we'll take any questions from the committee. Good afternoon, Chairwoman, Velazquez, and the entire legislation and rules committee. As you know, during some recent, we had recent issues where amendments were not incorporated in the bill. So my staff and I develop a multi-quality control process, if you will, um, to ensure that all the bills are the amendments are included. We are ensuring that uh if it's any amendments that were passed, only the past the amendments are uh passed by the committee will be uploaded into the drive, passed by the full board, will be uploaded in the drive instead of confusing them and putting all the amendments that were put forth, right? So we're now only adding the amendments that were recently passed. Um we're adding a red line. Let me go through.
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