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Good evening, and welcome to the regular meeting of the Joplin City Council. From Monday, October 20th, 2025, Mrs. Naush.

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Eternal God, as we begin another meeting of the Joplin City Council, we ask that you invest in this body, your strength and wisdom, to fortify us and guide us, so that we may enhance the prosperity of our community and improve the quality of life for those we serve. Amen.

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Mr.

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Carlin, I believe you have some guests with us this evening.

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I do, but if you all like to come up to the podium, we have guests this evening from Vita Nova Village to lead us in the pledge.

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Vita Nova Village is not, is a not for profit organization committed to fighting homelessness in our area by providing a planned community of safe and dignified housing.

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Their mission is to give people a hand up, not a hand out, and by creating this foundation

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of a home where they can rebuild their lives and contribute back to their community.

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Vita Nova is about hope, restoration, and long-term solutions to homelessness in our city.

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and Ronda Thompson will you please lead us in the pledge of allegiance.

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I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands,

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one nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

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Thank you.

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Thank you.

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But

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a round of applause for the efforts of being in a village.

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I was speaking with Rhonda briefly before the meeting began and she was kind of updating me on where there are on the construction front.

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And when I drove by there today, I seen some new dirt on the side and we're getting ready to have some foundations poured out there.

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Walls are being built off site.

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We're going to look up one day and there's going to be a village of tiny homes over there that's going to be able to have.

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I help a lot with our homeless community in the near future.

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So keep praying for them, and I am sure.

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I am absolutely positive if you are moved by what they're doing over a beating of a village, they will take your check.

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I just feel really good about being able to say that and it being true.

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Roe call.

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Mr. Bard.

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President.

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Mr. Carlin.

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President.

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Mr. Coppel.

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President.

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Mr. Detar.

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President.

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Dr. Farnham, Mr. Jackson, Mr. Lawson, Mr. Shaw, Mayor Cortez.

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Present, presentations.

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AOPP Transit Grant Planning Update.

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Good evening, Tony.

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Thank you, Mayor.

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Good evening, Council.

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So, if you recall last year about this time we were awarded the Areas of Persistent Poverty Federal Transportation Administration Grant.

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that was intended to help us look at a more sustainable transit system, perhaps a transportation type authority, and also look into expansion ability.

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So we went through a typical RFP process, as you know, we brought on Transpro, David Johnson and his colleague Sarah Frost and team to start a process of analysis.

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So over the last year, they've gone through a whole series of assessments and surveys which you'll see in front of this evening.

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They looked at assessment and goal setting.

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We went through public engagement process which included public outreach surveys, a series of meetings with area community leaders.

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They've done feasibility analyses, various governance models, different types of service deliveries and funding options and structures.

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measures. They've looked at revenue planning and looked at some of those funding structures

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and scenarios and cost some of those out and looked at revenue potential and then scalability

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of each one of those. So, David this evening is going to go through

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a presentation which you'll see before you and we'll answer some questions at the end.

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Thank you.

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Good evening and welcome.

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Thank you, bear, council. Glad to be in front of you and present

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an update on the Joplin Regional Transit Study. I believe you can see the slides and I'll

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I'll be following long in front here.

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So bear with us as we work through that.

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So wanted to give you a next slide,

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a quick background on the project.

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Tony set that up a little bit, so I'll be brief.

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But of course, this is a federally funded project.

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It is focused on public transportation.

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Of course, the city runs two different services

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within that program and we'll talk about that in just a minute.

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So our team is here tonight to give you an update on that study.

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And we're leveraging a study that was also conducted

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in 2020, also by our friends and trans-systems now GFT that kind of did a much larger look at

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the transit system, but only for the city of Joplin, and this is, of course, a regional look,

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and really focused on the structure to make that a regional entity. So next slide for the schedule,

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we're almost at the end here, and our final deliverables will be an implementation plan, so hopefully

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Hopefully there's some input tonight for the team on the direction that we're headed so

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that we can deliver an implementation plan that the city will actually use.

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That is our goal.

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So actionable plans is what we're about and we're hoping to deliver that by the end of the year.

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Next slide.

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So we start every project at TransPro with a discussion about what's the success look

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like at the end, right?

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We want to make sure we have sort of a guiding principle, something that helps us keep the whole thing in check as we go along and so that's what you see here on slide five is the goal is for Joplin, the Joplin area to have a regionally governed and operated transit system that is operationally sustainable, connects people to destinations and promotes economic development. So those three pillars are what we're trying to stay true to.

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So we'll move in and talk a little bit about the existing conditions of the service you currently provide, starting on slide seven, and then a little bit about the engagement we've done with the public and other regional leaders.

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So the three bullets on slide seven are really just, you know, there is a need for transit in Joplin.

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That's demonstrated in sort of the basic data we use as transit planners.

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And of course, the region and that's the grants that was provided was to look at specifically a low income households.

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But Joplin as a region has more low income households and people with disabilities on average compared to the state of Missouri as a whole.

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So there is a need just based on those two inputs.

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You're probably familiar with the operator shortage that resulted in the suspension of the trolley.

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And so creating something that's operationally sustainable in the long term is really important and a lot of that has to do with the simple aspect of driver pay operator pay and lifting that out of the city, which is one of the goals of this study would allow you to do that.

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And also the limited services that are offered today limits access to jobs so people who don't have reliable transportation or can't afford it are limited in how they can help participate in a local economy.

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Next slide please.

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So just very briefly on some of the engagement we did we did a two surveys so I'll try to make it clear why one and the other one we did two different ones.

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And then also did some general outreach on Thursday and then of course we also convened

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a steering committee made up of some of your peers in the region to bring them along

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and course correct where needed.

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So on slide nine, the online project survey, which was sort of the general public, anybody

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could answer this throughout the region, we received about 241 responses through the summer.

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For 82% of the response to that survey agree with a statement that we put in front of them

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that the Metro needs regional transit that connects people with destinations in communities

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outside of Joplin.

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So there's a service today within the city of Joplin and so everyone or 82% agree that

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it should look beyond that to the whole region.

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And some of the other responses from that, the challenges in making transit better include

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the frequency and reliability of the current system.

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Again, there's that financial sustainability and, of course, being more regional in nature.

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Because that is how people move around the region, right?

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Some key destinations we heard from that survey, education, recreation,

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some of the industrial parks that aren't served today.

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And, of course, you're nearby communities, such as Carl Junction and

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and they agreed with the priorities for a new system to be operationally sustainable to provide more access to destinations throughout the region and of course promoting economic development.

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Now on slide 10, the phone survey is a statistically valid phone survey that we can save with 5% of margin of error and

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and weighted towards Jasper and Newton County populations that, you know, these percentages

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are, you know, accurate, right?

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As opposed to the opt-in of the online survey.

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So this is a representative sample of both counties and going into this survey, we made

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an assumption that we would be looking at the whole of both counties for either an entity

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that would drive this new regional system and the funding mechanism to make it happen.

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So, 391 people answered the phone, which is the challenge these days, with 265 in Jasper and 126 being in Newton County.

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And it was conducted at the end of May.

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And only 12% reported using some kind of service that we offered up to them in the last six months.

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But again, here a very high number of people finding value in transit, even if they don't use it 82%.

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So on slide 11, we have a couple of call outs from the phone survey results.

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Again, 85%, which is slightly higher than the overall value.

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Investing in transit is good for the community.

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So these are wide swath of the community here against statistically valid results.

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And access and providing transportation for people with special mobility needs and

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low household incomes are most important with that.

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So we take these results and we use that to determine what services a new entity and a

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new funding mechanism could provide.

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So beyond again what the city is offering today.

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And again most important is connecting people where they want to go, providing again transportation

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for people with special mobility needs, and then low income households making it affordable.

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probably know this, but a lot of surface transportation doesn't pay for itself even

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with fares and user fees, and then of course creating job opportunities, which is not

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something we see a lot of in these surveys. We do these with transit agencies across

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the United States, but we think people were well aware of the staffing challenges that resulted

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in the suspension of the trolley program. That's a unique scenario that you dealt with here

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and we think that's more and out of those results.

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And then our final step in the engagement for the project was convening a steering committee.

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You can see on the left in the box who was invited and who we followed up with who couldn't attend in person.

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We've had two of these meetings, one where we helped to define success and

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then one where we tested the recommendations that you're going to hear tonight.

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And we hope to have a third one with this same group where we say okay look we've got direction from the council.

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we've had additional conversations with leaders in the region, elected officials like yourself,

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we've said, okay, we can buy off on these recommendations and help advance them to the next phase.

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All right, starting on page, I think it'll be 14. The first issue we took up in this study was on

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governance. So as you are all aware as a governing body, you have a structure that, you know,

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certain checks in place how legislation moves throughout and how funding is handled and budgets

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and everything. So setting up a new entity would require us to define a governance model for this

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new regional entity. So we scoured Missouri statutes hoping to find something that didn't require you

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to make a special visit to Jeff City and ask for something unique. That was a challenge we kind of

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set for ourselves. That still is an option you have if you choose to forego these recommendations. But

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But at the top of the list is a transportation development district, which is a, it's not

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unique to Missouri, other structures like it exists in many states, but it's essentially

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a special district that you create new, almost like a school district, a sub-unit or a sub-component

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of state government where the statutes enable this, and it provides the most flexibility and

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control for you as decision-makers on what the revenue sources are and

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then who you put on the board to govern this, provide that flexibility.

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And we'll talk more about that option because that is our recommendation to you tonight.

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A couple of other options that exist again, existing in state statute,

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a county transportation authority, which is a little less flexible and

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does require to be a county of the first class to advance that.

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And then transportation corporation, which is essentially functionally a non-profit that is essentially controlled by the Missouri Highway and Transportation Commission, and it provides the least flexibility.

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And also a call back to the survey results that people are generally supportive of creating a new entity to resolve this regional goal.

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So

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a little bit more detail on slide 15 about the governance model that we're recommending,

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the TDD plus the addition of a nonprofit.

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So a little bit of background on why you would do both of those, is number one, the TDD is a creature of state statute. So as those statutes change, change the entity itself would need to adapt. So creating a nonprofit gives you that stability of saying the transit operations and the owner of the assets in the sponsor, which would be this sort of designation to receive federal funds, would sit with the nonprofit. And that the TDD

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It's self would simply act as a conduit of funds and this model actually exists elsewhere in Missouri, so you wouldn't be the first to use it.

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Also, the TDD board is sort of defined by statute and a nonprofit, you can kind of make it up as you go along, making sure you have regional representation the way you see fit.

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that the TDD does not allow that.

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And then of course the proposed boundary

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would be the entirety of the city of Joplin,

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which is where you have the services today,

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plus the entirety of Jasper County.

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So pretty big area, and that area would be covered

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with services that we're proposing as well.

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In the table below, we have some steps we think

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that you would need to take as a governing body.

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So this is where you actually would need to act

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to advance this plan if it's advanced beyond the study phase you would probably need to authorize staff to create the nonprofit that would operate the system and then allow those assets that are currently all city owned, so vehicles, staff, things like that, to the nonprofit so that it could begin to operate regionally.

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You would probably also need to come up with an agreement so that this new nonprofit that would then take the city owned assets and make sure you have clear cooperation guidelines.

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You're probably in these arrangements with other local governments or other nonprofits that you do business with or exchange revenue with and this would be the same.

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You also need to formally pass a resolution as one of the formation partners if you advance

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that recommendation of a TDD to form the TDD itself.

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I think there are other TDDs in this region pretty sure, so if you're not familiar with it

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essentially goes to the circuit court.

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They treat it like a civil case and then advances through there and then the outcome is, oh,

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you can have an election, you can form the TDD, it's legal and can advance.

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So, but the step for that starts with this governing body and whoever is the other governing

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body that would be your pair up for the TDD, has to take, it takes two of those entities.

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And we are all recommending that other body be Jasper County.

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Also the transfer of FTA status, so you are the recipient of federal funds for transit and

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that process takes some time, so we would recommend that you, if you advance these other recommendations

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to initiate that transfer process.

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They don't have a checklist, unfortunately we asked.

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And so we just take some time to prove the new entity,

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the new nonprofit has the financial, legal,

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and technical capacity to receive federal funds,

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as the city does today.

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And then finally, as you are probably aware,

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the transit system today is funded by a portion

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of your transportation sales tax that's collected citywide.

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The goal for this is to reduce the transit program's reliance on that sales tax revenue,

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but you wouldn't probably want to shut it off right away.

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You would probably want to decrement that contribution down over time to allow the new entity to receive TDD revenue sources or funds.

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And then to help acquire vehicles as the system expands to serve the entire region.

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Any comments or questions on those, because those are very specific to you all.

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Council, Mr. Carlin.

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You would said you, and listed visiting the surrounding community leaders,

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have we talked to them about sharing in the financing of this project?

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And what was their response, if you will?

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So, yeah, those members made up the steering committee and yes, we had the conversation about funding and

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And the recommendation to do a sales tax and we'll get to the revenue, I think that's the next slide.

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Would that be like the general Jasper County sales tax?

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Is that what we're talking about?

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Yes, so currently, again, the city is funding it through the TST portion of that.

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This would then grow that sort of coverage of a new sales tax to include all of Jasper and all of Joplin.

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And then you would serve that new region.

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And so the service would expand to meet where the revenue is being collected.

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So yes, they were part of the conversation and we put several options in front of them.

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There's an option in the TDD Act to do a property tax.

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So they said, don't do that.

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Also, special assessments, don't do that.

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And here's the various increments of sales tax you can do in the 8th of a cent increment all the way up to 1% and they said, let's cut it off at a half set.

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That Mr. Coppall.

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Yes sir, is there an opportunity, so I'll use a fire protection district as an example to have a defined area that's not the entire county.

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More or less where it divides it up into a east and a west side because I think we could keep a transit system, pretty busy servicing.

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from Joplin, Duquesne, Dunnewig, Web City, Orinogo.

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That's in a fairly tight area, but not have to go all the way out to Carthage, Sarcoxie.

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And a lot of those other areas that are considerably further away on the east side of the county.

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Split the county in half and do an east and a west, is that a possibility?

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The boundary for the district is completely within the cities or whoever the two entities that created within that decision making authority.

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So if you did not want to cover all of Jasper County or Jasper County chooses not to participate as the other formation partner you could absolutely bring that in or splitting it up I wouldn't necessarily recommend because the TDD needs to be contiguous according to state law.

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So if you take that recommendation, it needs to be one sort of boundary and as a result, one revenue source

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But you could bring it in so that you're not covering all of Jasper County and perhaps just include the cities that are interested

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And I will say that part of our follow-up outreach is to have those more specific conversations

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Taking the direction from you tonight as the owner of the current system and say, okay, well the job in city council said well

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Well, it shouldn't really maybe cover all of Jasper County.

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Let's bring that in.

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So then we would instead of talking to the Jasper County government,

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talk to the local municipalities instead and see what kind of boundary makes sense based on that.

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So what my proposal was would be contiguous.

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It just wouldn't be all encompassing of the entire county.

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And it would still have its own operating board, which would be able to levy attacks.

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for something of that nature, is that would that be accurate?

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Yes, you have complete control over the boundary.

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It's creating a new political subdivision from scratch with a TDD when you do a sales tax.

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So you have total control over the size, which then also determines where the revenue is collected.

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Perfect, thank you.

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Thanks, sir.

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Anyone else?

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Please continue.

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Okay, so on to that end, on slide 16, you'll see that district does look large.

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And so we are anticipating a proposed, you know, a recommended change to what we're

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proposing.

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This is just really comes down to, quite frankly, the math.

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So you may know, but if not, sales tax is not granular.

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You need to really a jurisdiction level view.

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And then once you get within that jurisdiction,

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it's really hard to estimate.

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And so that's why we just picked all of Jasper County

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and all of Joplin.

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It's easy to do an estimate or estimate the revenue for you.

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Once you start bringing it in and maybe not using a municipal boundary

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completely, it's a little tougher in this early analysis.

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But absolutely we can bring that boundary in.

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I will note on Carthage,

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It did come up in the, both of the surveys quite often as a destination and just on a pure demographic level, it has a lot of the same factors that we noted that Joplin has as a city.

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So we did include that in there for that reason.

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And I think they have attempted to operate some sort of subsidized, I think it's taxing service on and off to me address some of those needs.

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using, I believe, the city's general fund.

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It's a hike to cart the trim here, as you know though.

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So on slide 17, we'll talk a little bit about the rest of the revenue picture.

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The revenue today, your 2024 transit budget was just $2.6 million funded through a combination

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of federal and state grants, federal being the line share their customer fares, and a portion

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again of the TST.

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Again, the revenue options for this new TDD is sales tax, a property tax, a special assessment,

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and of course, all of the options would have fares and the existing federal and state grants.

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And I will note, and you'll see in the asterisk, that as the region spends more locally,

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it is able to attract more federal annual funds for operating service.

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So take Carthage, for example, it is outside of your urbanized area.

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It is considered rural by the Federal Transit Administration.

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You are not currently tapping into rural transportation dollars as a city.

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And this new entity could tap into those funds, which are programmed through the state of Missouri.

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And grow the amount of federal funding you're bringing into the region.

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And that's true of both the urbanized funds as well, because you're currently only serving the city of Chopin.

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Okay,

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so that's the revenue picture, a couple of supporting comments of statistics from

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the survey.

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Again, this is the statistically valid phone survey that people are 57 percent willing

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to pay more in local taxes to support transit and very limited support for the other revenue

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options which of course are steering committee also steered us away from.

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And within that, the things that would improve their support for that are having performance measures and good public reporting of the spending on transit, a sunset or expiration day, which is not required in the TDD act, but is often the case.

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This listing specific projects to be funded and then perhaps directly electing a board of directors.

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In the case of a TDD, if you form it with the county, for example, electing them directly is not an option.

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So again, the nonprofit gives you that option to expand your representation beyond what the TDD itself allows.

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You could have a representative from county government, all of the municipalities within Jasper County could all have a seat on that nonprofit.

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As an example,

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and of course the survey results there shown graphically onto the right slide 19 shows what a sales tax would estimate again, we're talking the city of Joplin and the entirety of Jasper County. So please take that into account. We're looking at the numbers.

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The rates range from an eighth of a cent all the way up to three quarters.

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We're including three quarters because there is an opportunity to be transformational with transit.

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A half set gives you a noticeable improvement that could be regional.

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So there's two big improvements there, noticeable improvement for city residents.

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And then of course, the region being served for the first time.

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And then the numbers that reflect that.

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On the third column, this is a recommendation, it's not required by law.

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But having a capital revenue carve out that's codified into this program would ensure that your system remains operationally sustainable from a capital perspective.

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So agencies often get in the habit and it's very good nature to put all their money out on the street, as they say, into operations service service service.

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But sometimes that comes at the expense of your fleet and the things you need to get service out on the street.

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And so this would essentially force that entity to be good stewards of the assets, which

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are also federally funded.

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So you have obligations there to keep them in what's called a state of good repair.

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This would sort of force that into being.

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And I go, of course, all of this is based on assumptions that we're using 2024 data that

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the first year revenue would be generated from a district would be 2027, and no estimated

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increase in sales tax to be very, very conservative.

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So sales tax fluctuates as you're all aware, as elected officials.

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And so a system based entirely on that probably has to account for zero growth in the long term.

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All right, so our recommendation slide 20 is half-sales tax.

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Again, the property tax and special assessments were not popular both in the survey.

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And with the steering committee and the steering committee says, you know, 1% is too much.

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Let's shoot for a little bit lower and we can still be transformative.

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The half cent would allow expansion throughout the city and improve frequency.

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So that's how often the bus arrives in the case of trolley and also adds Saturday service for the first time.

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So thinking about the population that the transit system serves here and in many cities.

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It's really become more of a seven-day need because of the jobs, right?

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So these are not typical office jobs, eight to five Monday through Friday, like a lot of us enjoy.

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The jobs are more retail, light industrial, and they tend to have sort of a seven-day look

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on shifts and things like that.

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So Saturday and Sunday service, which we're not actually right.

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Meeting, yes, Sunday, but that becomes more critical. And again, the 10% capital set aside to maintain that state of good repair.

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All right, so on to what you would be buying if you advance that recommendation. So slide 22. Kind of breaks down between the two services you provide today, which in transit speak, we call them fixed route. So a fixed route line on a map and a fixed schedule. You call it the trolley, which is great.

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They love that nod to history, the existing service and then what's recommended.

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And then demand response, which literally means if there's no trip requested, the vehicle

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isn't moving.

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So very different than fixed route.

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And that service is called maps.

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And when certain eligibility factors are met, it's also called pair transit.

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So again, the existing service is pretty limited.

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And it operates in loops, which most people don't travel in loops.

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you tend to go in one direction so we would propose changing that and increasing the number of

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lines from 3 to 7. So a significant increase in just what it looks like on a map. And we would be

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including service to Dunnowig, Duquesne, and Carthage and increasing the frequency on some routes

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to every 30 minutes instead of every hour. So imagine if you're subjecting yourself to a bus

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schedule and the bus that you miss the bus that's coming every hour, when you increase that to every

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330 minutes, the chances you're going to get somewhere on time improve pretty dramatically.

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And we're not proposing any change to your current fair structure, which is $2 for trip for

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a base fair, and then a reduced fair for seniors disabled, who qualify in military medicare.

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And on the map side, it would grow from currently serving the city, and

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then other cities by request where they reimburse you for those trips, not the full amount by the way.

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to a countywide service or whatever the district boundary becomes, leaving the fair structure in place and then then providing a what we call a complimentary ADA pair transit to the fixed route system.

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Consultants speak that's essentially required by the Americans with disability act so you can't really control it. It's sort of an unfunded mandate but when you grow that system you have to grow that service with it.

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And then, and it's kind of in the same style as maps, and that would also extend to

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Saturdays is our recommendation as well for all the same reasons we listed.

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So that was a lot.

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So feel free if you have any questions to at the end because the service, you know, it's

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important to understand why we do certain services in certain places and at certain levels.

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So these are our technical recommendations, but every transit system in America has a political

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consideration where the lines on the map go who get served because not everyone can be served equally

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unlike fire and trash, which tend to kind of get everybody. Transit only goes to certain places

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because there's never enough money to go around to everybody. On slide 23 you'll see the comparison

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of both the funding area and the services themselves so growing quite a bit. The shaded blue area is

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your map service so that's again picking people up where they are and taking them where

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they want to go and then the green and then red lines are your trolley routes proposed

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or current and then recommended and then how frequent they will run according to the

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legend up top and then so you're seeing quite a bit of coverage growth here in correspondence

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on its to the size of the district.

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Slide 24, again, the trade-off here is always between what we call coverage and frequency.

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So you can make the trolley run more often, but if you're given X amount of money, if

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you make it run more often, that's more money.

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If you make it go more places, that's more money.

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So that's a balance that every agency including yours has to make all the time, including with

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your current service.

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So, as we grow the districts or grow the service area, we have to think about how often those buses are running as well because it's all coming from the same bucket.

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Serving more locations in the region with a trolley route was something we heard loud and clear from the surveys.

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And it will require more people will use the service and that will contribute to the traction of federal funds into the region as well since it's partially based on ridership.

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But increasing the sales tax is also an option to add additional services if you see something

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that you think should be covered but then those are also the trade-off again of coverage

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and frequency.

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But increasing that sales tax again would probably run a file of some of the political feedback

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we've received from both the steering committee and the survey.

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So finally, our next steps, we put a lot in front of you tonight, but here's what the project

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is doing to finish out by the end of the year that we plan to convene the steering committee

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a third time, perhaps with some more work to do, then a session tonight to get guidance

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from you. Then we'll be doing immediately after tonight some additional elected official

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outreach, some people that we didn't get in the room for the steering committee. You'll see

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them listed there. And then we will deliver, again, an actionable implementation plan for

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city staff and whoever your partner is, if you choose to advance a TDD to get that across

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the finish line. And we know you have other things on the docket as far as elections

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and things like that, so that'll be a completely up to you. We're putting this forward as sort

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of date, agnostic and can be implemented whenever you're ready. And that's a plan, that implementation

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plan would be ready for you and the team to advance by the end of December this year.

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with that I'll take additional questions.

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All right, Mr. Dittor, we'll let you get it going.

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Thank you, Mayor.

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Thanks for the information, obviously a lot,

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and I know you guys put a lot of hard work in to it

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and appreciate that.

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But just throw down a couple of questions

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and really looking at the service.

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What was the deciding factor of the steering committee

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when they were looking at this,

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and they were looking at the fixed routes, right?

401
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So we've got the 30-minute routes and a job one.

402
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But then we're going all the way over to Carthage,

403
00:36:35,520 --> 00:36:42,340
And not really hitting like Web City card to build some of these closer areas to me and I'm obviously I'm not wasn't a part of this

404
00:36:42,340 --> 00:36:46,260
Kind of seems like you would we'd want to start closer and expand out

405
00:36:46,260 --> 00:36:52,340
But I don't know what this is what was the factors that determine that decision if you would expand on that

406
00:36:52,340 --> 00:36:54,220
I'm sure a lot of people absolutely councilman

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00:36:54,220 --> 00:37:00,500
So again, you're seeing the technical analysis and as I mentioned earlier every transit system takes into account

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political you know considerations and so often that comes

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in with coverage, right?

410
00:37:06,780 --> 00:37:08,480
So the line on the map doesn't go to my community.

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I'm contributing to the cost of the system.

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Those communities are getting maps service.

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So that's a given, but it doesn't show up

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as a line on a map.

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So if asked the technical perspective would be,

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we're looking at demographics,

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the drive transit use and need.

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And that's more need, there's more of a need

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in Carthage than say Web City, right?

420
00:37:32,320 --> 00:37:34,100
And that probably doesn't need a lot of explanation,

421
00:37:34,100 --> 00:37:39,580
But when you just look at the data, household incomes, you know, access.

422
00:37:39,660 --> 00:37:40,820
I'm manufacturing jobs, I'm imagining.

423
00:37:40,960 --> 00:37:41,060
Yes.

424
00:37:41,060 --> 00:37:44,740
I'm a little bit more in Carthage than maybe there are in Web City or Carterville.

425
00:37:44,940 --> 00:37:46,980
That's kind of some of the reasons why.

426
00:37:47,240 --> 00:37:52,220
And then the need, maybe the demographic of the population was a little bit different in those areas.

427
00:37:53,220 --> 00:37:54,780
Another question I've got a couple more.

428
00:37:54,960 --> 00:37:56,720
So we brought up maps.

429
00:37:57,360 --> 00:37:59,200
We're talking about maps when we're doing that.

430
00:37:59,440 --> 00:38:02,660
How many more maps vehicles were we would be part of?

431
00:38:03,100 --> 00:38:06,800
Because I imagine we don't have enough that you do not.

432
00:38:07,280 --> 00:38:07,380
Right.

433
00:38:07,620 --> 00:38:11,120
So growing the service, that will be part of the implementation plan.

434
00:38:11,260 --> 00:38:21,240
So once we have clarity on the size of the district, which will then provide clarity on the revenue that comes in and then the level of service you can provide, then you can calculate the number of vehicles you need.

435
00:38:21,560 --> 00:38:28,960
So it's really just a math problem and we need those inputs to be kind of answered first before we say you need 20 more vehicles or whatever it is.

436
00:38:28,960 --> 00:38:34,000
The good news with vehicles is that the federal government is very generous, 80% match.

437
00:38:34,420 --> 00:38:38,740
The state of Missouri has a vehicle contract where you can save some money by ordering through them.

438
00:38:39,300 --> 00:38:46,120
Your options reduce, but that's pretty much a small consideration when you realize how much easier it is to do.

439
00:38:46,860 --> 00:38:50,760
Staff is already actually looking at that, by the way, because they hadn't been done historically.

440
00:38:51,780 --> 00:38:56,440
And so, yeah, it's the capital part is generous, less so operating, but

441
00:38:56,440 --> 00:39:00,980
But because of Joplin's size, you do get 50% match for operations.

442
00:39:01,340 --> 00:39:04,720
So again, growing service will attract, even if you don't buy more vehicles,

443
00:39:04,900 --> 00:39:06,480
growing the service would attract more federal funds.

444
00:39:06,660 --> 00:39:09,380
So yes, so if the need is there, it's the demand is there,

445
00:39:09,400 --> 00:39:13,220
then we're going to get some more funding for capacity on that, right?

446
00:39:13,720 --> 00:39:14,600
We're going to meet that capacity.

447
00:39:15,280 --> 00:39:19,540
But, you know, and then kind of where everything hits the road is dollars, right?

448
00:39:19,640 --> 00:39:21,820
We do anything we want, it just takes the money to do it, right?

449
00:39:22,580 --> 00:39:25,760
When we talk, when you guys are mentioning that sales tax, is that just a brick and

450
00:39:25,760 --> 00:39:28,160
What are tax or is that retail sales?

451
00:39:28,660 --> 00:39:29,220
That's what's allowed.

452
00:39:29,380 --> 00:39:30,580
No use tax money in there.

453
00:39:30,580 --> 00:39:33,260
No, unfortunately use tax, well, I shouldn't say that.

454
00:39:33,600 --> 00:39:36,100
The use tax is not allowed in the TDD statute.

455
00:39:36,360 --> 00:39:39,720
Okay, yes, I know different communities do don't have

456
00:39:39,720 --> 00:39:41,380
and say that's why it's kind of one and all.

457
00:39:41,380 --> 00:39:44,620
I think it's allowed in the CID act, but not the TDD act,

458
00:39:44,700 --> 00:39:46,760
but it doesn't matter because that's not what we're

459
00:39:46,760 --> 00:39:47,020
recommending.

460
00:39:47,540 --> 00:39:48,220
Okay, that's fine.

461
00:39:48,420 --> 00:39:50,020
Thank you, that was those were my questions.

462
00:39:50,500 --> 00:39:50,800
Thank you, Mayor.

463
00:39:52,620 --> 00:39:53,420
Mr. Carpone.

464
00:39:53,420 --> 00:39:57,300
Can we go to slide 19, please?

465
00:40:03,130 --> 00:40:08,590
So you sounded when you were talking about the estimated revenue that you're kind of unsure

466
00:40:09,730 --> 00:40:15,410
what it would bring in and that this was just purely estimated, correct?

467
00:40:15,970 --> 00:40:23,310
So it is confident when you use a existing jurisdictional boundary, right?

468
00:40:23,310 --> 00:40:26,010
So, again, that's from the Missouri Department of Revenue.

469
00:40:26,130 --> 00:40:31,030
They know exactly how much sales tax, Jasper County, for example, in the City of Joplin, collect.

470
00:40:31,450 --> 00:40:34,450
When you change the boundary to be less than or different than it?

471
00:40:34,610 --> 00:40:35,110
Sure, yeah.

472
00:40:35,530 --> 00:40:46,550
I'm just wondering, it'd be pretty simple to make one phone call to Jasco, because they do a half cent sales tax, which includes the City of Joplin and the rest of Jasper County.

473
00:40:46,810 --> 00:40:49,450
Now, it doesn't get the Newton County portion, but that's not very much.

474
00:40:51,650 --> 00:40:58,490
You just seem like you were stretching to, you know, for an accurate accomplishment of this number.

475
00:40:59,010 --> 00:41:00,330
Back to slide 18, please.

476
00:41:03,170 --> 00:41:12,790
So your statement, 57% of community survey respondents would be willing to pay more in local taxes than to get down to the blue slide.

477
00:41:13,530 --> 00:41:21,710
44% say not supported of any new tax which already defeats the 57 number then to

478
00:41:21,710 --> 00:41:32,130
my math 34 plus 8 plus 4 is 46 not 57 with 10% being unsure or refused to

479
00:41:32,130 --> 00:41:37,110
answer so I don't think you could include them in that number so I question your

480
00:41:37,110 --> 00:41:40,170
your slides there. 22, please.

481
00:41:45,620 --> 00:41:50,060
On your recommendation of 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.

482
00:41:51,280 --> 00:41:57,560
Joblin is a very manufacturing, job, centric, entity, carthage as well. You even

483
00:41:57,560 --> 00:42:04,000
mentioned trying to provide services for manufacturing type jobs and that

484
00:42:04,000 --> 00:42:10,240
carthage would be more in tune with that than others. An awful lot of our

485
00:42:10,240 --> 00:42:12,920
manufacturing jobs in this area, work 12-hour shifts.

486
00:42:13,780 --> 00:42:18,220
So ending a trolley at 6 p.m., yeah, the 6 a.m.

487
00:42:18,380 --> 00:42:21,180
may be able to get them to work, but ending the trolley at 6 p.m.

488
00:42:21,220 --> 00:42:22,060
It's not going to get them home.

489
00:42:22,560 --> 00:42:30,020
So what good is this going to do if we don't look at our businesses or even go into maybe

490
00:42:30,020 --> 00:42:37,760
a partnership with our businesses and say, hey, if you can do 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. shifts,

491
00:42:39,120 --> 00:42:47,220
We will run the trolley from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. or whatever to encompass that.

492
00:42:47,360 --> 00:42:51,880
If you can line up your shift schedules that way, we can do that.

493
00:42:52,280 --> 00:43:01,320
But doing a 12 hour system, when our jobs work, 12 hour shifts and schedules, doesn't work.

494
00:43:02,080 --> 00:43:03,660
That math ain't math in there.

495
00:43:03,660 --> 00:43:10,120
So I do have a little bit of a problem with that aspect of it.

496
00:43:11,000 --> 00:43:11,600
Thanks, sir.

497
00:43:14,080 --> 00:43:17,160
I would note on the hours are, again, this is our recommendation.

498
00:43:17,620 --> 00:43:21,260
So if you want to advance where we cover more hours,

499
00:43:21,800 --> 00:43:24,640
it just needs to come at the expense of something else within the

500
00:43:24,640 --> 00:43:26,580
amount of revenue coming in.

501
00:43:26,760 --> 00:43:30,420
So it is a lever you can move absolutely,

502
00:43:30,700 --> 00:43:33,260
just like the lines on the map in the days of the week.

503
00:43:33,260 --> 00:43:36,960
Okay, so did you consider that whenever you put together these recommendations?

504
00:43:37,560 --> 00:43:38,360
Yes, absolutely.

505
00:43:38,560 --> 00:43:43,580
I mean, you know, that is one of the job types that we've mentioned, but there's also retail.

506
00:43:44,560 --> 00:43:46,680
Then there are people that do actually work a traditional schedule.

507
00:43:47,780 --> 00:43:52,560
And that is just the challenge with expanding transit throughout the schedule.

508
00:43:52,560 --> 00:43:59,180
Because as you get later in the day, a ridership almost always drops off even if people do need it to get to ship.

509
00:43:59,180 --> 00:44:04,380
So you try to just it's just a balancing act of so how many of our

510
00:44:05,960 --> 00:44:10,480
Major job suppliers, especially in the manufacturing and entities

511
00:44:10,480 --> 00:44:12,300
Did you make contact with

512
00:44:13,620 --> 00:44:17,060
We actually didn't reach out to any employers yet. So that's not it

513
00:44:21,060 --> 00:44:22,100
Anyone else

514
00:44:25,750 --> 00:44:29,570
Council I think that I've seen in this presentation

515
00:44:29,570 --> 00:44:32,030
Drew can we get to the last slide, please?

516
00:44:35,560 --> 00:44:40,080
I think where we are here on October 20th is looking for guidance in the next steps confirmation.

517
00:44:40,580 --> 00:44:45,000
So any discussion on guidance that we're willing to give here,

518
00:44:47,100 --> 00:44:48,080
Mr. Jackson?

519
00:44:48,620 --> 00:44:51,740
Yes, I think something he mentioned right at the end of his conversation.

520
00:44:52,040 --> 00:44:55,040
Mr. Coppel is some of the next steps will probably be talking to the employers.

521
00:44:55,600 --> 00:44:59,700
And I can remember probably about two years ago there was an economic forum that was held here in town.

522
00:45:00,000 --> 00:45:27,860
Transportation was one of the identified needs from some of those major employers in the community, so I think if we could start looking at what these other pieces of data are, what those needs are, you know, outside of the government entities that are involved, just start looking at the operational business entities, maybe that could help us, you know, make a more informed decision. Anyone else?

523
00:45:29,970 --> 00:45:30,730
Mrs. Carlton.

524
00:45:30,730 --> 00:45:48,250
I'd like to look at what other communities be at Web City, Carthage, Carterville certainly are more rural areas and qualify for more rural funding as opposed to Joplin, the more urban area.

525
00:45:48,890 --> 00:45:53,910
So is there a potential this thing can really support itself, if you will?

526
00:45:55,130 --> 00:46:01,190
So the rural funding is similar to the funding the city already receives today, so it's a 50% match for operations.

527
00:46:01,630 --> 00:46:07,050
So by now there are no local contributions for rural service in the region we're looking at.

528
00:46:07,250 --> 00:46:13,330
I guess what we'd need to look at is Web City or Carthage, let's say we know Carthage is a rural area.

529
00:46:13,950 --> 00:46:20,930
Is Carthage willing to match the 50% in order to get the rural funding to help pay for the service?

530
00:46:20,930 --> 00:46:23,790
Those are the kind of questions I would ask.

531
00:46:24,490 --> 00:46:30,810
So the recommendation is to include those cities in the collection of the transportation development district sales tax.

532
00:46:31,330 --> 00:46:37,150
So they would be contributing through that mechanism, rather than from their general fund or some other.

533
00:46:37,730 --> 00:46:41,070
And mechanism like a transportation sales tax or something.

534
00:46:41,470 --> 00:46:43,650
Would that necessarily be 50%?

535
00:46:44,570 --> 00:46:50,250
We can certainly do the calculation if the final decision is to include those communities in the district boundary.

536
00:46:50,250 --> 00:46:54,970
to determine how much money they're generating, and does it match up with the cost of service they're getting?

537
00:46:55,370 --> 00:47:02,330
Right now we haven't done that analysis because we're still trying to make sure we have direction from everyone on the boundary and the revenue source.

538
00:47:02,670 --> 00:47:09,830
I just think we need to know that before we can really make a commitment and move forward.

539
00:47:09,990 --> 00:47:18,650
As well as we would have to know that we had a tax, a sales tax coming in, but I would need to know that

540
00:47:18,650 --> 00:47:26,270
And those communities we're talking about servicing would really help in the support of the transit system.

541
00:47:27,790 --> 00:47:29,590
It is information that can be known.

542
00:47:29,890 --> 00:47:34,590
So we will take that as a note and make sure that's calculated in the updated plan.

543
00:47:36,280 --> 00:47:36,990
Mr. D. Tar.

544
00:47:39,640 --> 00:47:40,440
Thank you, Mayor.

545
00:47:41,480 --> 00:47:47,460
I thought we're looking at the recommendation proposed next steps, but

546
00:47:47,460 --> 00:47:52,200
you said earlier when we first started like this is something that could be way down the

547
00:47:52,200 --> 00:47:57,700
future right this can be five six years from now you know we're gonna be sure I don't

548
00:47:57,700 --> 00:48:01,700
know but it's so I just don't know I'm like are we are we looking at doing something getting

549
00:48:01,700 --> 00:48:06,440
some taking these next steps that then this is going to get to a point where we're like

550
00:48:06,440 --> 00:48:13,720
we're not ready to do this yet so let's put it on the shelf so at what point are we I got

551
00:48:13,720 --> 00:48:17,900
figured my bourbon here and I don't want to say it wrong but other than a lack of better

552
00:48:17,900 --> 00:48:20,520
or words, is it wasting people's time to get together

553
00:48:20,520 --> 00:48:21,580
and move forward at this point?

554
00:48:22,060 --> 00:48:23,720
I don't know, so maybe that's the discussion

555
00:48:23,720 --> 00:48:26,280
we should be having, or is it makes sense

556
00:48:26,280 --> 00:48:28,440
to kind of move forward, get to a certain point,

557
00:48:28,600 --> 00:48:30,900
like the implementation point, like get to that point,

558
00:48:31,300 --> 00:48:33,080
and then we're like, yeah, we're going to shelf this,

559
00:48:33,520 --> 00:48:35,800
or do we just kind of nip it in the mud now?

560
00:48:35,940 --> 00:48:38,780
That's kind of my concern is that we go do all this work,

561
00:48:38,860 --> 00:48:40,380
we get all these people together to do all this thing,

562
00:48:40,440 --> 00:48:41,420
take the time, and then we're like,

563
00:48:41,600 --> 00:48:43,080
hey, we're going to hold off forever.

564
00:48:43,580 --> 00:48:44,860
Yeah, and we've had these discussions,

565
00:48:44,860 --> 00:48:47,060
so we're trying to gather as much information

566
00:48:47,060 --> 00:48:53,720
As we can now inform what an implementation plan might look like look like in the future

567
00:48:53,720 --> 00:48:56,680
Okay, whatever that is. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, too

568
00:48:58,470 --> 00:48:59,770
Mr. Shaw

569
00:49:02,080 --> 00:49:06,820
On the page here where it shows all the mayors of all those different organizations

570
00:49:06,820 --> 00:49:11,300
Did we just list these or did these people actually participate?

571
00:49:12,760 --> 00:49:17,640
So I believe they're listed as invitees and then I think at the bottom of that

572
00:49:17,640 --> 00:49:27,380
That box we indicated who actually was in the room in person, and then we had some follow-up discussions with people who agreed to meet with us that weren't in the room.

573
00:49:27,600 --> 00:49:31,000
So it's a much smaller group than the invitee list to your point.

574
00:49:32,040 --> 00:49:35,440
Not everybody agreed to participate in the discussion.

575
00:49:35,440 --> 00:49:47,600
I'm not concerned as in looking at that list because history shows that it's hard to get all those people to agree on things together, so I just want to thank you.

576
00:49:47,680 --> 00:49:52,280
That's all I would also add that, you know, that was the original invite list.

577
00:49:52,680 --> 00:49:59,660
We're trying to land on dates to meet on people in the case they could be there, weren't there, others came, so that was part of it.

578
00:49:59,880 --> 00:50:03,020
That's where we had a follow up meeting and we're going to have a third one as well.

579
00:50:03,020 --> 00:50:09,420
And then what's not shown on here is we also went and met separately, which each of the county commissions to gather there and put.

580
00:50:12,990 --> 00:50:13,770
Mr. Lawson.

581
00:50:16,270 --> 00:50:25,540
I'm mindful of the time when you could get on a trolley in Carthage and make your way all the way to picture Oklahoma.

582
00:50:27,320 --> 00:50:33,540
Gary may have been here then, I wasn't, but anyway,

583
00:50:35,760 --> 00:50:39,520
I think we're trying to attract more industry to jobless.

584
00:50:39,520 --> 00:50:46,080
And one of the big challenges is finding employees to work those businesses.

585
00:50:47,220 --> 00:50:54,860
And I also think that Joplin is not just within the confines of our city limits.

586
00:50:55,560 --> 00:51:03,280
Joplin is part of the broader community and what's good for the broader community is good for Joplin.

587
00:51:03,740 --> 00:51:07,740
And that's just my way of saying I think we should pursue this.

588
00:51:07,740 --> 00:51:08,460
anyone

589
00:51:11,730 --> 00:51:18,530
else? I think taking a look at these opportunities to expand public

590
00:51:18,530 --> 00:51:23,990
transportation in our community is worthwhile. Take a look at. I think tonight's

591
00:51:23,990 --> 00:51:28,330
presentation is also let us take a look at, you know, what's that going to cost

592
00:51:28,330 --> 00:51:33,130
and what is all going to entail and, you know, this isn't as simple as flipping a

593
00:51:33,130 --> 00:51:38,950
switch and everything is there. So I'm definitely willing to continue having the

594
00:51:38,950 --> 00:51:44,950
conversation but what I'm hearing from the council tonight as far as next steps and guidance

595
00:51:45,670 --> 00:51:51,990
is let's go talk to those employers let's get as many of these people in the room as possible

596
00:51:51,990 --> 00:51:58,430
get their take on things and and and then we come back and maybe have some more

597
00:51:59,690 --> 00:52:05,990
meat to put on the bone if you will to try to get in a better spot to make a more informed and

598
00:52:05,990 --> 00:52:15,210
complete decision. So, would that be accurate council? Okay, sounds good. Thank you, gentlemen.

599
00:52:15,790 --> 00:52:16,930
Appreciate you very much.

600
00:52:19,300 --> 00:52:20,140
Next item, please.

601
00:52:20,720 --> 00:52:23,460
Winter weather preparedness, snow and ice control.

602
00:52:27,310 --> 00:52:28,090
Good evening, sir.

603
00:52:28,770 --> 00:52:34,330
Good evening, Mayor. Good evening, council. So, I'm going to speak a little tonight on our winter

604
00:52:34,330 --> 00:52:42,310
Under whether preparedness and snow and ice control program before I get going here or introduce a couple of gentlemen.

605
00:52:42,670 --> 00:52:47,970
I have Scott Boofer, he's our infrastructure superintendent, he's standing there.

606
00:52:48,790 --> 00:52:53,170
And then also I have Cody Marty, he's our streets and stormwater infrastructure maintenance supervisor.

607
00:52:53,930 --> 00:53:00,710
These are the two gentlemen that I depend on heavily during winter storms or ice events.

608
00:53:01,290 --> 00:53:05,110
Between the two of them, they have over 25 years of combined experience.

609
00:53:05,730 --> 00:53:11,590
So they're a wealth of knowledge, and they make a lot of important decisions when it comes to the safety and

610
00:53:11,590 --> 00:53:13,530
well-being of the citizens, we're

611
00:53:17,430 --> 00:53:17,830
on them up here.

612
00:53:21,270 --> 00:53:22,790
So I'm going to do a little overview here.

613
00:53:23,710 --> 00:53:27,570
The Public Works Infrastructure Maintenance Division performs snow and

614
00:53:27,570 --> 00:53:32,510
ice control on all bridges, arterial streets and collector streets.

615
00:53:32,510 --> 00:53:45,250
The Infrastructure Maintenance Division leaders annually attend the American Public Works Association's snow conference for insight and training and snow and ice control best practices.

616
00:53:45,690 --> 00:53:55,730
The goal of the snow and ice control program is to provide adequate mobility and safety for citizens and emergency services.

617
00:53:57,150 --> 00:54:20,650
In addition to bridges and streets, the infrastructure maintenance division treats and clears trolley stops, but you're familiar with those from the last presentation sidewalks adjacent to city owned facilities, trouble areas which are historically steep grades and intersections that we deal with year after year and public parking lots.

618
00:54:21,970 --> 00:54:27,550
So, event preparation begins way before the start of an event.

619
00:54:28,310 --> 00:54:34,110
So it begins when extended forecast, predict possibility of winter weather for the area.

620
00:54:34,910 --> 00:54:39,450
And then as the weather system approaches, our staff begins to monitor the national

621
00:54:39,450 --> 00:54:45,470
weather service, hazardous weather outlook, we monitor short range forecast from local media.

622
00:54:46,050 --> 00:54:51,090
And then we always consult with emergency management to get a handle on everything that's

623
00:54:51,090 --> 00:54:51,570
going on.

624
00:54:51,690 --> 00:54:57,290
And then when winter weather is imminent, and we know it's coming, our crews are staged

625
00:54:57,290 --> 00:54:58,530
and we get ready for the event.

626
00:55:04,110 --> 00:55:05,270
So winter weather preparedness.

627
00:55:07,090 --> 00:55:12,250
We basically use three categories when we're preparing for a winter weather event.

628
00:55:13,230 --> 00:55:17,590
There's material and inventory purchases that we're having very early on.

629
00:55:17,590 --> 00:55:22,630
equipment preparation and operator training, and then event priorities.

630
00:55:26,960 --> 00:55:34,560
As far as materials, the materials that we use, we purchase those in bulk during the

631
00:55:34,560 --> 00:55:41,880
off season, we typically do that in late summer, and it basically depends on the quantities

632
00:55:41,880 --> 00:55:49,420
that we get that we purchase based on historic usage and our current inventory.

633
00:55:49,420 --> 00:56:01,200
So, going into this season, as far as road salt, we purchased 1,200 tons of road salt and 4,500 gallons of beet juice.

634
00:56:06,560 --> 00:56:12,160
Equipment operations or equipment preparation and operator training, this is a really important aspect.

635
00:56:12,880 --> 00:56:19,160
So, our preseason preparations, which is right now, late October, early November.

636
00:56:19,160 --> 00:56:22,560
Remember, we have some new operators every year.

637
00:56:22,660 --> 00:56:28,300
We have new operators this year, about 20% of our operators are new.

638
00:56:28,420 --> 00:56:30,900
They've never driven a snow route in the City of Joplin.

639
00:56:33,140 --> 00:56:41,880
Out of the remainder of our staff, about 30% have five plus seasons under their belt, which is good.

640
00:56:41,980 --> 00:56:46,240
You always want that experience, and then the remaining 50% have between one and four seasons.

641
00:56:46,940 --> 00:56:50,780
So, compared to years past, we have a lot of experience on the plows.

642
00:56:52,320 --> 00:56:57,120
To prepare for the season coming up, we do a lot of inspections.

643
00:56:57,380 --> 00:56:59,920
We get a lot of help from the garage. They do a lot of these.

644
00:57:00,980 --> 00:57:05,260
Our snow boxes are inspected. Our snow plows and the blades are inspected

645
00:57:05,260 --> 00:57:07,920
to make sure they operate like they should.

646
00:57:08,920 --> 00:57:14,180
And then we go through all of the lights on the trucks and the snow boxes

647
00:57:14,180 --> 00:57:17,700
to verify that they're working in proper order.

648
00:57:18,380 --> 00:57:27,840
One note I'd like to make for this year, we just got done installing brand new LED lights on all of our snow plows and all of our trucks.

649
00:57:28,880 --> 00:57:38,660
So we noticed last year during the heavy snow we got in February that the difference between Modot's trucks and our trucks was significant.

650
00:57:38,660 --> 00:57:48,440
So we made the decision to go ahead and put LED lights on our trucks, and it's going to make a big difference for safety for our drivers and for the public.

651
00:57:50,480 --> 00:57:56,700
So pre-event preparations, this is the 24 to 48 hours before the actual event happens.

652
00:57:57,980 --> 00:58:05,980
Our crews, they start to mix the brine, which is a solution of salt and water, that's mixed to 23.3% salinity.

653
00:58:06,780 --> 00:58:16,200
We make drier runs with our operators on the routes, and during those drier runs, they're checking for things like obstacles and

654
00:58:16,200 --> 00:58:22,740
obstructions, work zones, utility cuts, if you think it could be an issue once they're covered with snow.

655
00:58:23,920 --> 00:58:25,940
And they make mental notes of those.

656
00:58:26,900 --> 00:58:31,080
And then we do when they come in, we do a final pre-event equipment inspection.

657
00:58:38,320 --> 00:58:41,940
So snow and ice control priorities during an event.

658
00:58:42,940 --> 00:58:44,780
Number one is bridges.

659
00:58:45,220 --> 00:58:50,940
Everybody knows you've seen the signs of bridges ice before the roads, so we keep it really close.

660
00:58:51,580 --> 00:58:57,480
Close watch on those streets are number two, very close second.

661
00:58:58,120 --> 00:59:04,980
And then we have trolley stops, sidewalks adjacent to city owned facilities, these two items.

662
00:59:04,980 --> 00:59:11,080
We typically use our crew members who don't have a CDL to do these tasks.

663
00:59:11,480 --> 00:59:17,480
So while the CDL drivers are out treating the bridges in the streets,

664
00:59:18,340 --> 00:59:22,480
our other crew members without CDLs are doing the trolley stops and the sidewalks.

665
00:59:23,580 --> 00:59:29,300
And then we have the trouble areas that I spoke about earlier, public parking lots, and then medical centers in schools.

666
00:59:31,020 --> 00:59:46,420
The medical centers in schools, Freeman and Mercy, they take care of everything within their medical center, but the roads around those centers, Freeman, for instance, 32nd Street, Macintosh Circle, we make sure those are cleared.

667
00:59:47,220 --> 00:59:56,340
And then Mercy, you have Indiana Avenue on the east side and the 50th Street on the south, we make sure those are cleared, they're actually part of our routes.

668
00:59:56,340 --> 00:59:59,200
and then schools

669
01:00:00,940 --> 01:00:10,400
Typically, they're out of school when we have a big snow. So, we don't worry about those too much. But if we get a big one, we'll help them out and try to get it cleared so they can come back.

670
01:00:12,830 --> 01:00:29,090
Next slide, please, true. So, we'll talk a little bit of bridges here. Bridges are prone to ice formation when air temperature is slightly below freezing. And bridges are monitored and treated with assault, brine, combination, prior to freezing temperatures.

671
01:00:30,010 --> 01:00:47,750
Scott and Cody keep a very close watch on the bridges as as a storm is moving in those are the first things we go out and we tackle typically we have eight bridges that we monitor throughout the city and

672
01:00:47,750 --> 01:00:51,250
And to treat those bridges, it takes

673
01:00:52,750 --> 01:00:58,090
hour and a half, two hours, about two hours to do those from start to finish.

674
01:00:59,470 --> 01:01:01,450
We don't send out an entire fleet of trucks.

675
01:01:01,830 --> 01:01:05,830
Typically, we have one or two trucks that do that because it's really early on in the event.

676
01:01:08,980 --> 01:01:14,040
As far as the streets go, we only plow arterial and collector streets.

677
01:01:15,280 --> 01:01:17,720
Streets are treated with a combination of salt and

678
01:01:17,720 --> 01:01:20,460
and Brian before and during plowing.

679
01:01:22,060 --> 01:01:25,620
Trucks are used in tandem during plowing operations.

680
01:01:26,300 --> 01:01:29,320
You can see these slides, the bottom slide there.

681
01:01:29,840 --> 01:01:32,320
That shows our trucks working in tandem.

682
01:01:32,900 --> 01:01:35,220
Now we also on our larger arterials

683
01:01:35,220 --> 01:01:39,680
like 20th street, streets like that,

684
01:01:39,880 --> 01:01:41,440
the really widens of five lanes.

685
01:01:42,220 --> 01:01:45,020
We'll use three vehicles, three trucks.

686
01:01:45,860 --> 01:01:53,560
You'll have the two with the big plows pushing the stuff to the side, and then we have another truck that follows that does the intricate work along the curb.

687
01:01:54,540 --> 01:02:01,460
Herbs can wreak havoc on the snow plow, so usually the operators in the third truck, those are the guys that have a lot of experience.

688
01:02:04,040 --> 01:02:14,800
We have four fixed routes, and we run those routes simultaneously, and each route takes approximately four hours, so we can run all of our routes in a four hour timeframe.

689
01:02:17,720 --> 01:02:21,180
These next slides are our snow route maps.

690
01:02:23,040 --> 01:02:27,180
You can kind of see how it's laid out here, four different areas.

691
01:02:30,260 --> 01:02:35,700
These have been developed over time for efficiency and safety.

692
01:02:36,360 --> 01:02:44,000
These trucks are big, visibility is not the best, so these routes, they're situated toward

693
01:02:44,000 --> 01:02:48,820
they can make their turnarounds and be fishing at that and safe.

694
01:02:50,400 --> 01:02:53,440
You will notice you can go through those in your own pace there.

695
01:02:56,540 --> 01:03:01,600
There's a slide at the end that has everything combined just to give you an idea of the amount

696
01:03:01,600 --> 01:03:03,380
of area that we cover.

697
01:03:05,120 --> 01:03:12,940
You will notice that some familiar streets aren't included on our snow routes like 32nd

698
01:03:12,940 --> 01:03:20,740
Street, East of Maine, 7th Street, Range Line, North Maine, North of Murphy Boulevard,

699
01:03:21,400 --> 01:03:24,620
Newman Road, that's East of Range Line that goes out towards Missouri Southern.

700
01:03:25,260 --> 01:03:31,540
Those are all state highways, so we don't maintain those during snowstorms,

701
01:03:31,940 --> 01:03:33,520
Mo.Maintains those.

702
01:03:34,620 --> 01:03:37,400
We get a lot of calls on those streets.

703
01:03:38,240 --> 01:03:40,040
Not that they don't do a good job, they do a great job.

704
01:03:40,520 --> 01:03:41,940
But our schedules don't align.

705
01:03:41,940 --> 01:03:49,460
So we could have main street plowed and look in really good up to Murphy and then as soon as you cross Murphy Boulevard

706
01:03:50,180 --> 01:03:53,280
You'll see a huge difference. That's why their priorities are

707
01:03:53,280 --> 01:03:54,680
I-44

708
01:03:56,880 --> 01:03:57,480
So

709
01:04:04,590 --> 01:04:10,830
anti-ice pre-treatment. This is always a subject people are interested in so this is an alternative method to

710
01:04:11,430 --> 01:04:16,050
pre-treat our streets before a storm comes in

711
01:04:16,050 --> 01:04:31,570
So, anti-ice can be applied to dry roads and bridge services up to 12 hours prior to a winter weather event if conditions allow and we would prefer to do this overnight.

712
01:04:32,370 --> 01:04:44,130
That allows the mixture to soak into the pavement and in the evening and at night in the winter time, there's not as much traffic on these streets.

713
01:04:44,130 --> 01:04:49,410
rates, so it's not being spread out by car tires, it's actually soaking into the pavement.

714
01:04:50,830 --> 01:04:58,510
It consists of 90% brine and 10% beet juice, and what it does is it forms a barrier between

715
01:04:58,970 --> 01:05:05,510
the roadway surface and the snow or the ice, whichever is coming down, and it helps to prevent

716
01:05:05,510 --> 01:05:07,410
bonding between those.

717
01:05:08,970 --> 01:05:12,330
Pre-treating all four of our routes takes approximately nine hours.

718
01:05:12,330 --> 01:05:14,290
So, you can do the math there.

719
01:05:15,090 --> 01:05:21,810
We have a 12-hour window, takes nine hours to pretreat these routes, so we have a very

720
01:05:21,810 --> 01:05:25,170
short window there to get this done.

721
01:05:25,710 --> 01:05:32,690
We have two trucks, the slide or the pictures there on the left, that's one of our trucks.

722
01:05:32,690 --> 01:05:35,430
We have two trucks that are outfitted for an IIS application.

723
01:05:37,150 --> 01:05:42,910
We did request another truck in the 26 budget.

724
01:05:43,610 --> 01:05:44,870
Thank you for approving that.

725
01:05:45,530 --> 01:05:52,630
We're hopeful that we can at least get the tank and the application apparatus in before January.

726
01:05:53,030 --> 01:05:55,370
And we can use these in any truck that we have.

727
01:05:56,110 --> 01:06:01,170
As a matter of fact, the ones we have now, we go out and apply this.

728
01:06:01,450 --> 01:06:04,070
And then when we're done, those trucks go back.

729
01:06:04,070 --> 01:06:09,470
We take the tanks out, and then we put the snow boxes in because they're also used to plow.

730
01:06:12,140 --> 01:06:20,420
Unfortunately, NIIs is not an option if pavement temperatures are below 15 degrees or if rain or freezing rain occurs prior to or

731
01:06:20,420 --> 01:06:24,940
Be expected to be during an event. So which happens a lot around here?

732
01:06:25,540 --> 01:06:30,960
You go from rain to freezing rain to snow, but we do have a lot of opportunities to use it.

733
01:06:30,960 --> 01:06:39,480
If weather conditions prevent an IIS application, then the standard treatment methods are used for snow and ice, which is dissolved in brine combination.

734
01:06:44,140 --> 01:06:46,660
So I have a few highlights here from 2025.

735
01:06:47,860 --> 01:06:55,160
We actually had four winter weather events last year from I think maybe late December through February.

736
01:06:56,140 --> 01:06:59,320
Two of those events, they really didn't amount to much.

737
01:06:59,320 --> 01:07:08,040
We did treat the bridges and the roads, but we didn't even drop a plow on either one of those.

738
01:07:09,280 --> 01:07:14,100
But we did have to that we push some snow January 9th and 10th.

739
01:07:15,460 --> 01:07:16,980
We had three to five inches.

740
01:07:18,860 --> 01:07:22,000
We worked from the first snowfall.

741
01:07:22,360 --> 01:07:25,580
It took us about 24 hours to get all of our routes cleared.

742
01:07:26,760 --> 01:07:53,460
and then February 18th and 19th. Everyone might remember this one. This is the 6 to 10 inch winter storm that shut down I-44, rerouted traffic onto range line. We had a lot of a lot of issues, but we worked with the Fire Department, the emergency responders, MoDOT, and within 36 hours from the beginning of that storm.

743
01:07:53,460 --> 01:08:00,600
We had our roads passable and both of those storms we were able to pre-treat with the

744
01:08:00,600 --> 01:08:01,240
anti-eyes.

745
01:08:01,660 --> 01:08:08,340
So we made a tremendous difference within here's some totals from after from those from the

746
01:08:08,340 --> 01:08:08,780
whole season.

747
01:08:09,340 --> 01:08:18,320
We used just a little over 1,000 tons of road salt, 6,625 gallons of brine and 2,700 gallons

748
01:08:18,320 --> 01:08:19,100
of beaches.

749
01:08:21,280 --> 01:08:24,400
So, there's a short video I'd like you guys to watch.

750
01:08:24,620 --> 01:08:25,920
You may have seen this already.

751
01:08:26,320 --> 01:08:31,800
It's a show me Joplin video that Drew and his communications department, friends Wallace,

752
01:08:32,380 --> 01:08:33,880
produced this, put it together.

753
01:08:35,340 --> 01:08:40,460
It will touch on almost everything I just talked about, but it'll do it in about two minutes.

754
01:08:41,740 --> 01:08:41,760
So.

755
01:08:50,060 --> 01:08:54,140
Before the first snow of the season, the streets crew and the Joplin public works department

756
01:08:54,140 --> 01:08:59,940
is planning and getting ready for the worst winter weather. We start planning in early

757
01:09:00,740 --> 01:09:06,320
fall or even in the summertime. We start purchasing our salt and summer time. Then when fall comes

758
01:09:06,320 --> 01:09:11,400
you know we'll start preparing our guys on the droughts and training on equipment. Connecting

759
01:09:11,400 --> 01:09:16,420
foul blades to trucks, loading and filling salt blotches and spreaders and preparing a mixture of

760
01:09:16,420 --> 01:09:20,920
beet juice and brine which is salty water used as a pre-treatment or weather conditions allow.

761
01:09:20,920 --> 01:09:25,460
That mixture creates a barrier between snow and the street making it easier to

762
01:09:25,460 --> 01:09:29,240
clear away snow before it sticks and reeds. When it comes up to an actual snow

763
01:09:29,240 --> 01:09:34,940
event we'll have certain guys designated certain trucks and routes and they

764
01:09:34,940 --> 01:09:38,600
know ahead of time where they're going. Running two different shifts a day and

765
01:09:38,600 --> 01:09:42,600
night shift. The crews will focus first on bridges, primary and secondary or

766
01:09:42,600 --> 01:09:47,660
trivial streets, then work their way towards collector streets, and finally known

767
01:09:47,660 --> 01:09:51,740
problem areas such as hills and curses which are dangerous with sling. We don't

768
01:09:51,740 --> 01:09:55,700
plow in residential areas. Joplin, like many cities in the west, can't afford to

769
01:09:55,700 --> 01:09:59,400
have the number of cloud trucks and drivers who would take to plow every mile of

770
01:09:59,400 --> 01:10:03,460
every neighborhood street. Finally, narrow neighborhood streets with cars,

771
01:10:03,740 --> 01:10:07,640
parked alone, and could also very beautiful. We'd be plowing in their driveways,

772
01:10:07,880 --> 01:10:10,920
covering driveways up, and it actually makes it harder to get out. With the

773
01:10:10,920 --> 01:10:14,720
resources we have, it's hard enough to keep the top priority areas clear of snow

774
01:10:14,720 --> 01:10:19,720
If you can make it to that main road, that's where the plowing and the material happens.

775
01:10:19,940 --> 01:10:24,720
Cody Marty's team in the public works department takes part in following best practices for snow removal

776
01:10:24,720 --> 01:10:28,200
and getting streets back to safe driving conditions as fast as possible.

777
01:10:28,700 --> 01:10:34,020
Just know that we're trying our best and that we do have your best interest in mind to take care of you guys.

778
01:10:43,080 --> 01:11:10,660
Before I take questions, I would like to acknowledge four guys that really worked their tails off during these events and that's Matt Clark and his three mechanics at Central Garage, they don't get a lot of glory, but they, they're there during the day shift, they're there all day and during the night shift, they typically have one person there.

779
01:11:10,660 --> 01:11:12,020
depending on the size of the storm.

780
01:11:12,960 --> 01:11:15,840
Without them, unfortunately, during snow storms,

781
01:11:16,020 --> 01:11:19,120
what can happen will happen and we tear things up

782
01:11:20,100 --> 01:11:21,760
and they try to get that back,

783
01:11:21,760 --> 01:11:23,440
that stuff back out there on the road

784
01:11:23,440 --> 01:11:24,240
as quick as they can.

785
01:11:24,960 --> 01:11:27,360
So, some unsung heroes there, the guys in the garage.

786
01:11:31,670 --> 01:11:37,010
I know a lot of times snow events, you know,

787
01:11:37,250 --> 01:11:38,910
kids like it because they get out of school

788
01:11:38,910 --> 01:11:41,990
and it's fun to watch.

789
01:11:43,230 --> 01:11:45,210
We don't get a lot of snow around here.

790
01:11:45,970 --> 01:11:50,130
So when we do have these events, people get excited.

791
01:11:51,190 --> 01:11:56,650
But one thing I can tell you, typically at least a week

792
01:11:57,370 --> 01:12:00,050
before people even start talking about this stuff,

793
01:12:01,730 --> 01:12:03,750
we've been watching the weather forecast,

794
01:12:04,330 --> 01:12:07,050
and we've already started preparing for that.

795
01:12:07,050 --> 01:12:22,850
I can't stress that enough, you know, the safety of the citizens and everyone out there on the roads when they can get out there, that's always at the top of our minds.

796
01:12:22,850 --> 01:12:26,470
And so these guys in the recruiters do a wonderful job.

797
01:12:27,010 --> 01:12:31,610
We can be more proud of the way they handle the snows we had last year, the one in February.

798
01:12:32,690 --> 01:12:38,050
We don't very many like that and they did a great job getting the streets ready.

799
01:12:39,150 --> 01:12:41,990
So with that, I can take any questions if you have any.

800
01:12:42,730 --> 01:12:43,850
Council, any questions?

801
01:12:46,310 --> 01:12:46,730
It's a couple.

802
01:12:47,690 --> 01:12:53,030
Yes, sir, I concur the job your team did last year was exemplary.

803
01:12:54,510 --> 01:13:10,370
Question, though, on the preparedness side of things, the last couple of years we have had to Mr. Johnson's vernacular, a toolbox contract with a construction company that way we had backup equipment operators.

804
01:13:11,050 --> 01:13:20,230
I don't know if that's something necessary or that wouldn't be a bad, you know, ace and the whole kind of thing to have in place.

805
01:13:20,230 --> 01:13:24,510
I would be very supportive of having something done well ahead of time.

806
01:13:24,750 --> 01:13:30,750
So they could be trained on our equipment beforehand in case we do need them.

807
01:13:30,890 --> 01:13:37,390
Or if you all feel our staffing is more than adequate, then I'll defer to your judgment.

808
01:13:37,710 --> 01:13:44,430
But if it's even in question, I'm not opposed to having that toolbox contract in place and

809
01:13:45,110 --> 01:13:48,670
their operators trained on our equipment so they're ready to go.

810
01:13:48,670 --> 01:13:51,290
That's a good question, thanks for the input.

811
01:13:52,290 --> 01:13:57,910
I know in the past a few years ago, and we were having a hard time with our staffing, we did do something similar to that.

812
01:13:58,510 --> 01:14:03,610
Right now as it stands, we're basically at full staff, just regular turnover.

813
01:14:04,430 --> 01:14:15,950
We have 25 operators right now, and when we run a shift, it's a 12 hour shift, and we have 13 trucks, 13 plows.

814
01:14:15,950 --> 01:14:21,870
We run 12 of those at a time, so we have enough staff to cover both shifts.

815
01:14:22,650 --> 01:14:27,050
And that doesn't include these guys when they, if they need to, they can jump on a plow.

816
01:14:27,750 --> 01:14:35,290
So we have 28 total, but if we ever got to the point where we, we thought we needed to bring in a contractor to help us out.

817
01:14:35,570 --> 01:14:41,610
We've been down that road before and definitely be a consideration, but for this season, I think we're looking good.

818
01:14:41,610 --> 01:14:51,410
Okay, I'm a preparedness guy, so I'd rather have them in place and not need them than need them and not have them or have to wait to get them spun up.

819
01:14:51,890 --> 01:14:52,530
Thank you, sir.

820
01:14:52,770 --> 01:14:53,810
Thank you.

821
01:14:54,110 --> 01:14:54,910
Mr. Dieter.

822
01:14:55,330 --> 01:14:55,890
Thank you, man.

823
01:14:56,070 --> 01:14:58,330
Mine is really just echo what Mr. Comple said.

824
01:14:58,450 --> 01:14:59,230
I just want to compliment.

825
01:15:00,000 --> 01:15:29,160
We all in your department because I don't know that I've ever seen roads cleared so fast so that pre-treatment of the bribe, I remember we presented this last year and I was like, this is cool stuff. Beach you seriously? But no, I thought you guys did awesome and so I have like all the confidence. I love this presentation. Yeah, they did it last year exceptionally well. And so I expect that you raised the standard. So, you know, say up there. But no, you guys did great job. So I just want you. I know I said that after the last storm we had.

826
01:15:29,160 --> 01:15:31,460
But man, just pass along to your team, yes.

827
01:15:31,860 --> 01:15:32,880
Yeah, kicking that out.

828
01:15:32,900 --> 01:15:35,280
Scott and his guys, Scott makes a lot of decisions out there.

829
01:15:36,160 --> 01:15:39,080
I'm always kind of pressing them, hey, when are we doing this?

830
01:15:39,240 --> 01:15:39,900
When are we doing that?

831
01:15:41,300 --> 01:15:43,860
And between him and Cody, they make a lot of the decisions

832
01:15:43,860 --> 01:15:46,220
to the no one that's go time it.

833
01:15:46,320 --> 01:15:47,460
They have a lot of experience doing it,

834
01:15:47,480 --> 01:15:48,760
and I trust them 100%.

835
01:15:48,760 --> 01:15:49,900
Well, I'll thank them, thanks Scott.

836
01:15:50,060 --> 01:15:50,920
Cody, appreciate it.

837
01:15:51,440 --> 01:15:51,940
Thank you, man.

838
01:15:53,300 --> 01:15:57,580
We have, we have routinely, I have,

839
01:15:57,580 --> 01:16:02,680
of routinely and I think some other council members up here have in the past couple of years.

840
01:16:03,060 --> 01:16:07,860
We occasionally receive a phone call from a resident wanting to know when we're going to plow their street.

841
01:16:09,080 --> 01:16:17,380
So could you briefly speak as to why we don't plow residential streets in the winter time when we're having events like this?

842
01:16:17,700 --> 01:16:18,840
Yeah, I can speak on that a little bit.

843
01:16:19,000 --> 01:16:26,400
So residential street plowing, that presents a logistical issue and

844
01:16:26,400 --> 01:16:33,340
the safety issue for us, along with, we kind of talked about staffing, you know, we have 12 trucks,

845
01:16:34,300 --> 01:16:40,560
city this size, if we were to go to residential street plowing, we probably have to double

846
01:16:41,200 --> 01:16:45,720
our fleet, and we don't even have enough operators to run that many trucks.

847
01:16:47,840 --> 01:16:49,060
Most of us have lived,

848
01:16:49,240 --> 01:16:54,540
well, I don't know about most of us, but I've lived here long enough to know that very rarely,

849
01:16:54,540 --> 01:16:59,900
three days later is that snow is still around especially on the roads. Now you will get an event

850
01:17:00,440 --> 01:17:08,980
that's out of the ordinary. But as far as residential streets, I don't know if any of you have

851
01:17:08,980 --> 01:17:11,280
ever lived in an area where they do get a lot of snow.

852
01:17:14,840 --> 01:17:17,740
Those residents understand the importance of

853
01:17:18,200 --> 01:17:19,640
getting your car off the street.

854
01:17:22,320 --> 01:17:25,980
I don't know that we could message that enough around here. We would

855
01:17:25,980 --> 01:17:31,320
be plowing in so many vehicles, I think you would probably get more calls if people can't

856
01:17:31,320 --> 01:17:32,720
get out because we plow them in.

857
01:17:33,640 --> 01:17:35,740
And then our streets are pretty narrow in the residential neighborhoods.

858
01:17:36,060 --> 01:17:44,160
So I know it's been discussed, but in general, I mean, last year, the February storm, most

859
01:17:44,160 --> 01:17:46,580
roads were passable within a week, I would say.

860
01:17:47,840 --> 01:17:53,820
But the main roads, our goal is to get the main roads passable so if you can get to those,

861
01:17:53,820 --> 01:17:55,260
So you can get where you need to go.

862
01:17:55,920 --> 01:18:02,500
The other phone call that I get often is you guys do such a fantastic job of plowing

863
01:18:02,500 --> 01:18:10,820
the main thoroughfares, the arteries, and the main roads that you block in my street.

864
01:18:11,280 --> 01:18:17,180
There's so much snow piled up at the intersection of my street where I can get on, say, 20th street

865
01:18:17,180 --> 01:18:25,240
that I can't get my car through that snow bank to get out to the main road where it is clear and I can go somewhere.

866
01:18:25,740 --> 01:18:27,080
Speak to that for just a moment, please.

867
01:18:27,360 --> 01:18:28,500
I'm glad you brought that up.

868
01:18:28,780 --> 01:18:37,780
So you may have noticed through the budget work sessions that we put some snow plows in there to put on the front of pickups, pick up trucks.

869
01:18:38,720 --> 01:18:44,120
And when we're replacing these trucks, we're buying larger trucks than we have in the past set of a half time.

870
01:18:44,120 --> 01:18:47,720
I mean, we're going to three quarter times, every three quarter, maybe boned up to one time.

871
01:18:48,040 --> 01:18:50,780
Those trucks are designed to have snow plows on them.

872
01:18:51,340 --> 01:18:56,440
And the goal is to use those to take care of those issues when they arise.

873
01:18:56,940 --> 01:18:58,920
Now, we won't have that issue with every storm.

874
01:18:59,660 --> 01:19:03,040
But the ones that have significant snowfall, we know that's a problem.

875
01:19:03,660 --> 01:19:08,180
And our crews will be using those vehicles to try to alleviate that issue.

876
01:19:08,940 --> 01:19:13,000
I think the overall message that I hear you putting out today is

877
01:19:13,000 --> 01:19:28,260
We know the snow was coming, we knew it, we've been watching it for a while, we've been paying attention, we've done a lot of work to prepare for it, and we're out there getting things taken care of, so if you are having issues, it's okay for you to make a phone call or

878
01:19:28,260 --> 01:19:34,920
share the text and everything, but we are working to get to you, and we're going to make sure that everybody can move around this community safely.

879
01:19:40,580 --> 01:19:42,820
Thank you very much. Great job.

880
01:19:46,400 --> 01:19:52,420
Finalization of consent agenda. Council, anybody up here need to speak to the consent agenda?

881
01:19:53,420 --> 01:20:01,820
Is there anyone in the audience needing to speak to the consent agenda? I deem the consent agenda finalized. Reports and communications.

882
01:20:01,820 --> 01:20:04,500
News from the public information office.

883
01:20:10,620 --> 01:20:11,580
Even to Mr. Douglas.

884
01:20:12,160 --> 01:20:15,080
I mean, this is going to be tough for me because I did not print these slides.

885
01:20:15,600 --> 01:20:17,960
We're going to have to kind of look over my shoulder here so let me get a little awkward.

886
01:20:19,700 --> 01:20:25,200
First, we've got a charter review commission meeting coming up October 22nd at four o'clock

887
01:20:25,200 --> 01:20:27,960
here in the City Council chambers of City Hall.

888
01:20:30,560 --> 01:20:34,020
The public is invited to come to this event in order to.

889
01:20:36,080 --> 01:20:38,440
Oh, thank you. That is a little bit easier to read.

890
01:20:42,940 --> 01:20:47,580
So the folks welcome to come and give some input on the proposed changes to the city

891
01:20:47,580 --> 01:20:53,240
charter. Some of those topics are going to be council rate pay, the nominating petition

892
01:20:53,240 --> 01:21:00,240
signature requirements, renaming the emergency ordinance potentially to expedited ordinance.

893
01:21:00,840 --> 01:21:06,360
Public Works Director, a licensure requirement, and then publication requirements.

894
01:21:07,140 --> 01:21:10,900
And then the next steps are going to be that the charter review commission will gather all that feedback.

895
01:21:11,400 --> 01:21:14,860
Finally, I have some recommendations and then bring them back to you, the council.

896
01:21:16,200 --> 01:21:20,380
We're going to Evert Park, groundbreaking coming up, Tuesday, October 22nd at 1 p.m.

897
01:21:20,620 --> 01:21:24,180
At Evert Park, we're exciting to finally get this project underway.

898
01:21:24,960 --> 01:21:30,000
So we're going to be having some year round amenities coming available.

899
01:21:30,000 --> 01:21:32,020
in that historic neighborhood park.

900
01:21:32,480 --> 01:21:37,820
The new splash park has been planned for summer with an ice ribbon that will be active in the winter.

901
01:21:38,480 --> 01:21:43,120
An amphitheater, a new playground, covered basketball courts, historical markers.

902
01:21:43,660 --> 01:21:48,240
There's been a lot of thoughtful work gone into planning all of this and

903
01:21:48,240 --> 01:21:55,620
we're really excited to get started on that project and the park department plans to build a cuter

904
01:21:55,620 --> 01:21:57,760
We've been on that in the summer time, is that right Paul?

905
01:22:02,070 --> 01:22:05,070
Yeah, don't forget to get your tickets for the State of the Community event.

906
01:22:05,550 --> 01:22:09,290
That's going to be on January 14th at the Cornell Complex.

907
01:22:09,490 --> 01:22:14,470
You can scan that QR code, just point your camera at it, and click the link.

908
01:22:14,570 --> 01:22:19,350
And it'll take you to sign up through our park registration system.

909
01:22:19,870 --> 01:22:21,790
And then you can buy as many tickets as you'd like.

910
01:22:23,010 --> 01:22:24,970
There's $25 per person.

911
01:22:25,710 --> 01:22:35,510
And there's going to be, there's a breakfast involved there and you'll get a little bit of swag, little teas are pouring on, little j-con, lapel pin, everybody who attends will get one of those.

912
01:22:38,750 --> 01:22:43,950
And dresses business casual, but seating is limited to only 250 people.

913
01:22:44,190 --> 01:22:49,670
So tickets are available, first come first served, when we sell out of tickets, we sell out of tickets and there's no refunds.

914
01:22:49,770 --> 01:22:51,970
So for you open, give your tickets today.

915
01:22:52,850 --> 01:23:21,050
And be sure that you subscribe to our monthly email newsletter, the citizen, there's a little video with a message from the mayor at the top of that every month that kind of goes into in depth topic and then there's information throughout that newsletter about project updates and events that are coming up in our community and all kinds of things, spotlights on our staff like our like our snow cloud drivers, there's spotlights there to kind of shine a light on the good work being done by our public servants across the organization.

916
01:23:22,050 --> 01:23:26,290
You can follow us on social media, we've got lots of Facebook pages, and that's it.

917
01:23:26,670 --> 01:23:27,350
Any questions for me?

918
01:23:28,250 --> 01:23:31,650
Any questions for Drew Douglas, Councilor?

919
01:23:33,070 --> 01:23:33,630
Drew, I see none.

920
01:23:33,810 --> 01:23:34,130
Thank you.

921
01:23:34,690 --> 01:23:34,970
Thank you.

922
01:23:37,320 --> 01:23:38,920
Citizens, request and petitions.

923
01:23:39,300 --> 01:23:40,140
Amanda Bearden.

924
01:23:40,520 --> 01:23:40,940
Evening

925
01:23:58,630 --> 01:24:02,710
Amanda, I will need you to speak your name into the microphone for the record,

926
01:24:02,710 --> 01:24:04,010
and you will have five minutes.

927
01:24:04,490 --> 01:24:07,190
You can pull that microphone down a little bit if you need to.

928
01:24:07,630 --> 01:24:09,290
You saying I'm short, Dr.?

929
01:24:10,470 --> 01:24:11,570
I didn't say that.

930
01:24:13,990 --> 01:24:15,850
My name is Amanda Bearden.

931
01:24:16,190 --> 01:24:21,070
I am a member of the next step, Joplin Board, and also a Board of Access Healthcare, but

932
01:24:21,070 --> 01:24:26,730
I am here representing one of the, as an advocate for the homeless community.

933
01:24:27,190 --> 01:24:30,410
So I'm going to get started so I can finish up and then my friend Tiffany is going to end

934
01:24:30,410 --> 01:24:31,550
up our speech here today.

935
01:24:32,110 --> 01:24:36,830
So first I'd like to start with asking that the council, please remember that recently a

936
01:24:36,830 --> 01:24:42,190
leader of this city was quoted in the Joplin Globe as saying people who don't want to live

937
01:24:42,190 --> 01:24:44,490
on the street can get housing if they want.

938
01:24:45,050 --> 01:24:50,170
That is demonstrably incorrect, and over the next several meetings our group of advocates

939
01:24:50,170 --> 01:24:52,910
will share information with you to explain this.

940
01:24:53,450 --> 01:24:59,030
I'm here today to discuss evidence-based approaches to help those members of our community experiencing

941
01:24:59,030 --> 01:25:04,510
homelessness and the information I'm sharing comes from federal guidance, peer-reviewed research,

942
01:25:04,510 --> 01:25:07,090
and proven programs nationwide.

943
01:25:07,550 --> 01:25:12,570
Most of the information I'm going to share with you will be from the National Alliance and

944
01:25:12,570 --> 01:25:17,090
homelessness, the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, and

945
01:25:17,090 --> 01:25:20,170
a thesis case analysis from the Ohio State University.

946
01:25:21,430 --> 01:25:26,190
Housing first, the foundation of success, housing first is the approach that prioritizes

947
01:25:26,700 --> 01:25:31,290
providing semi-permanent to permanent housing to people experiencing homelessness.

948
01:25:31,290 --> 01:25:41,850
Thus, ending their homelessness and serving as a platform from which they can pursue personal goals and improve their quality of life as stated in the national alliance in homelessness.

949
01:25:42,490 --> 01:26:00,270
A few key points, this approach is guided by research that people need basic necessities like food and a place to live before attending to anything else that's less critical, like getting a job, learning how to budget and attending substance use issues.

950
01:26:00,270 --> 01:26:04,810
Services have been found to be more effective when a person chooses to engage.

951
01:26:05,330 --> 01:26:12,030
When housing is offered with voluntary services, up to nine out of ten people will remain

952
01:26:12,030 --> 01:26:14,870
stably housed a year later.

953
01:26:15,350 --> 01:26:22,030
And that is directly from the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness published just in 2024.

954
01:26:23,030 --> 01:26:28,390
One study published in the National Alliance in Homelessness found an average cost savings

955
01:26:28,390 --> 01:26:37,570
of on the emergency services of $31,545 per person housed in the course of two years.

956
01:26:38,090 --> 01:26:46,730
Meaning because they had housing, their emergency service location saved $31,545

957
01:26:46,730 --> 01:26:51,430
in the cost of providing those emergency services because they had stable housing.

958
01:26:51,430 --> 01:27:03,090
Another study showed that housing first approach can cost up to $23,000 less per consumer per year than a shelter program.

959
01:27:03,690 --> 01:27:11,510
So first we want to approach the idea of an interim solution while the job link community establishes better resources.

960
01:27:11,510 --> 01:27:16,850
That interim solution is very well reflected in many cities.

961
01:27:17,090 --> 01:27:22,790
It's a permitted village or a transitional encampment.

962
01:27:23,470 --> 01:27:29,730
So while we build permanent housing solutions, we need to main interim options.

963
01:27:30,330 --> 01:27:37,670
Clearing an encampment without offering housing or support does not solve homelessness in the short or long term.

964
01:27:37,670 --> 01:27:43,850
Instead, it simply moves people experiencing homelessness from block to block or street to jail.

965
01:27:44,610 --> 01:28:02,350
Rather than viewing tent cities as a threat to public safety, communities should view self-organization by those experiencing homelessness as an opportunity to provide services and to address the root cause of the homelessness and guarantee the human rights of all of those residents.

966
01:28:03,050 --> 01:28:09,490
There are several examples that are referenced in the documentation I provided her of successful

967
01:28:10,150 --> 01:28:18,350
tinted cities or permitted villages in Seattle and in Finland as well.

968
01:28:19,110 --> 01:28:20,850
I'm going to end my time today.

969
01:28:21,070 --> 01:28:23,150
We have several opportunities to speak to you.

970
01:28:23,390 --> 01:28:28,570
You're going to see me a whole lot between now and March or by the time we find successful

971
01:28:28,570 --> 01:28:30,370
and humane solutions.

972
01:28:30,370 --> 01:28:40,150
But as I leave you, I'm going to let Tiffany, who's a member of our community currently struggling with permanent stable housing to read a poem to you.

973
01:28:42,450 --> 01:28:58,170
Amanda, Amanda, excuse me guys, when you signed up to request to speak to us, you were given a set of rules and regulations regarding addressing the City Council and sharing your time with other citizens is not allowed.

974
01:28:58,170 --> 01:29:03,250
Okay, then I will if I can collect back those like last ten seconds and I'll read her poem for us

975
01:29:03,250 --> 01:29:05,970
Who protects us from the protectors?

976
01:29:06,550 --> 01:29:12,910
They say serve and protect but out here all I see ever see are the lights red blue

977
01:29:12,910 --> 01:29:16,650
Red blue like they're warning the world that I exist

978
01:29:16,650 --> 01:29:22,830
They make me wake me up with flashlights in my eyes boots kicking at my blanket

979
01:29:23,410 --> 01:29:26,890
Voices barking move along you can't sleep here

980
01:29:26,890 --> 01:29:33,730
I want to ask, then where can I sleep officer? Where do you go when every inch of

981
01:29:33,730 --> 01:29:39,490
ground is already owned by someone richer than hope? They call it transgress

982
01:29:39,490 --> 01:29:45,230
passing as if I broke into heaven. They call it loitering as if I could afford to

983
01:29:45,230 --> 01:29:51,870
go anywhere else. They call my blanking blanket camping contraband. My tent

984
01:29:51,870 --> 01:29:56,230
light illegal, my bike trailer suspicious, my bags too many.

985
01:29:56,890 --> 01:29:59,890
When the sun comes up, the bulldozers come too.

986
01:30:00,590 --> 01:30:19,610
Steal, jaws, grinding through everything I've built. My ten. I'm sure it's your time. Of course, I did. Thank you. Mr. Coppel. I move that we give her an extra minute to finish her speech. Second. Motion's been made and properly seconded to give a man to time. Thank you very much, Mr. Coppel. Vote.

987
01:30:21,740 --> 01:30:22,280
Please vote.

988
01:30:29,570 --> 01:30:37,790
Council, please vote. Motion passes, eight in favor. One opposed. Mrs. Bearden, you have exactly 60 more seconds.

989
01:30:37,790 --> 01:30:38,850
Thank you sir.

990
01:30:42,180 --> 01:30:50,820
When the sun comes up the bulldozers come to steal jaws grinding through everything I built my tent my clothes my last piece of piece they'd burn it all flames

991
01:30:50,820 --> 01:31:01,720
licking at the edge of my memories like they're cleansing the city of the sight of me. I stand there watching smoke rise from my life and I think they call it clean up but all I see is a

992
01:31:01,720 --> 01:31:07,000
They say it's for public safety, but for who's public, for who's safety.

993
01:31:07,440 --> 01:31:13,020
Not mine, not the woman clutching her dog like it's the last piece of family she's got.

994
01:31:13,680 --> 01:31:19,580
Not the man coughing up blood in the shadows of law that only loves you if you can pay rent.

995
01:31:20,280 --> 01:31:21,960
They say justice wears a badge.

996
01:31:22,420 --> 01:31:23,960
I've seen it wear a smirk.

997
01:31:24,760 --> 01:31:29,040
I've seen it hand out tickets for the crime of simply surviving.

998
01:31:29,780 --> 01:31:33,560
So tell me, who protects us from the ones that are supposed to protect us?

999
01:31:33,680 --> 01:31:37,160
Who do we call when the sirens are the ones chasing us away?

1000
01:31:38,960 --> 01:31:40,200
We will see you next month.

1001
01:31:40,860 --> 01:31:41,740
Thank you, Mayor.

1002
01:31:43,690 --> 01:31:44,410
I have a question.

1003
01:31:44,790 --> 01:31:45,270
Mr. Jackson?

1004
01:31:45,690 --> 01:31:45,770
Yes.

1005
01:31:46,290 --> 01:31:47,810
Mr. Speaker, I had a question.

1006
01:31:50,790 --> 01:31:56,590
During some of this outrage with the situation that happened, there was a post that was made trying to

1007
01:31:56,590 --> 01:31:58,050
to dox the job and police officer.

1008
01:31:58,330 --> 01:32:00,690
Is your organization condone that sort of behavior?

1009
01:32:01,190 --> 01:32:03,450
I'm not here to speak about the citation.

1010
01:32:03,850 --> 01:32:05,310
We spoke to the police chief about that.

1011
01:32:05,750 --> 01:32:07,510
I'm here to speak about changes in the ordinance

1012
01:32:07,510 --> 01:32:08,010
and the rules.

1013
01:32:08,270 --> 01:32:09,890
Does your organization support the doxing

1014
01:32:09,890 --> 01:32:10,430
and police officers?

1015
01:32:10,810 --> 01:32:12,770
I told you I'm not here representing an organization.

1016
01:32:12,770 --> 01:32:14,790
I'm here as an advocate for homelessness

1017
01:32:15,450 --> 01:32:18,630
and posting public information is not considered doxing.

1018
01:32:19,390 --> 01:32:21,390
Next time I come, I can look up that definition

1019
01:32:21,390 --> 01:32:22,230
for you and bring it.

1020
01:32:22,650 --> 01:32:24,250
Providing someone's contact information,

1021
01:32:24,250 --> 01:32:28,310
I believe would be trying to get people to reach out to them and possibly harass them.

1022
01:32:28,430 --> 01:32:29,270
I think it's very unbecoming.

1023
01:32:29,550 --> 01:32:34,170
I think you're assuming the intent and also again, I didn't do that and I'm here as an

1024
01:32:34,170 --> 01:32:36,610
advocate for homeless and I'm here to talk about the ordinance.

1025
01:32:36,810 --> 01:32:40,270
Yes, but you gave it a nice little love, Carimoji, so you did support it.

1026
01:32:40,630 --> 01:32:41,390
I gave it a what?

1027
01:32:41,550 --> 01:32:42,630
A little Carimoji to love it.

1028
01:32:42,970 --> 01:32:46,070
If we would like to have a conversation about what people have done on Facebook,

1029
01:32:46,130 --> 01:32:48,810
I would like to share what you've done and said to me on Facebook.

1030
01:32:48,870 --> 01:32:49,930
So we could do that.

1031
01:32:52,030 --> 01:32:56,750
I'm going to call for decorum in the chambers at this time.

1032
01:32:57,710 --> 01:33:13,050
We are simply letting the process play out where citizens have requested to address council, and we're going to hear them out because they've done the proper thing, they've addressed the clerk, they filled out the required documents to address council.

1033
01:33:13,270 --> 01:33:19,070
We're going to allow that to happen, but while we do, we are going to maintain decorum.

1034
01:33:19,070 --> 01:33:27,710
We are going to speak civilly, we are not going to raise our voice, and we're going to hear each other out, and we're not going to try to talk over each other.

1035
01:33:28,110 --> 01:33:30,710
Mr. Jackson, I'll give you a moment to finish making your point.

1036
01:33:31,050 --> 01:33:38,850
Yes, sir. Part of what I'm concerned about is there's a lot of remarks from me about this that unless you work with this community, you don't have a right to have a voice in what's going on.

1037
01:33:38,850 --> 01:33:44,810
You don't have the right to endorse these ordinances or changes for them, whatever it may be.

1038
01:33:45,270 --> 01:33:50,090
But yet I have some people in my zone, just blocks from my house, who are dealing with a homeless situation next to them,

1039
01:33:50,150 --> 01:33:55,690
where squatters have entered a home and has created a safety situation right next to them.

1040
01:33:56,010 --> 01:34:00,550
I think they have a right to voice their concerns about things that happen with the homeless community.

1041
01:34:01,150 --> 01:34:04,670
They've had raw sewage dump down the storm drains outside their house.

1042
01:34:04,670 --> 01:34:09,070
They've had bug-infested mattresses thrown in their evac yards.

1043
01:34:09,290 --> 01:34:13,490
These people have a right to have a voice about what's going on with the homeless situation in the community.

1044
01:34:13,970 --> 01:34:18,710
I have business owners contacting me about they have a line item on their quick books for

1045
01:34:18,710 --> 01:34:23,070
someone to go out and pick up drug needles, clean up human fecal matter, pick up broken prophylactics,

1046
01:34:23,490 --> 01:34:25,850
many disgusting biological hazard things.

1047
01:34:26,570 --> 01:34:29,250
They have a right to have a voice in this conversation, and

1048
01:34:29,250 --> 01:34:35,830
And they have some very legitimate concerns about safety, and we have to consider those things.

1049
01:34:35,990 --> 01:34:38,010
And that is the reason we have these ordinances.

1050
01:34:38,350 --> 01:34:39,650
It's to provide safety.

1051
01:34:39,770 --> 01:34:45,310
It is to provide a framework for our community that keeps order, that keeps structure.

1052
01:34:45,710 --> 01:34:46,650
It's not to be mean.

1053
01:34:47,530 --> 01:34:51,050
It's to make sure that things are safe.

1054
01:34:51,390 --> 01:34:53,390
It's not sanitary to let people camp in parks.

1055
01:34:53,390 --> 01:34:58,490
there's not the amenities there for them to shower and use restrooms in the evenings.

1056
01:34:59,430 --> 01:35:04,670
It's a sanitary issue. If I go camping at, say, stocked in lake, those campsites have rules

1057
01:35:04,670 --> 01:35:09,190
and regulations. We don't have that set up for our parks. That's not what they're made for. They're

1058
01:35:09,190 --> 01:35:14,970
made for recreation. It's not to be mean that we're having these things, but it's to have structure

1059
01:35:14,970 --> 01:35:20,430
order and safety of the community, and have a community that people will go out and participate

1060
01:35:20,430 --> 01:35:23,970
in our parks. We'll go out downtown Japlen and feel safe. We'll go out and not have to

1061
01:35:23,970 --> 01:35:29,030
worry about what they may step in. It's not to be me. And I want people to understand

1062
01:35:29,030 --> 01:35:34,190
that. And people come to us saying, what will you do about these challenges and these problems?

1063
01:35:34,710 --> 01:35:38,750
What else can we do? We cannot afford to just, you know, make free housing for people.

1064
01:35:39,830 --> 01:35:44,770
That's just not an option. So that's why these ordinances exist. It's not to pick on somebody.

1065
01:35:45,530 --> 01:35:48,530
And I've seen I've been on a ride along with the police department. They do the pedestrian

1066
01:35:48,530 --> 01:35:51,950
safety stops, you'd be surprised some of the people who are stopped.

1067
01:35:52,210 --> 01:35:55,770
And usually it's someone who's walking down the middle of the street and sometimes there's a sidewalk right next to them.

1068
01:35:56,110 --> 01:35:57,950
And the officers will tell them, hey, use the sidewalk.

1069
01:35:58,310 --> 01:36:01,790
But if there is no sidewalk, they tell them, look, make sure you're walking against the flow of traffic.

1070
01:36:02,190 --> 01:36:05,170
We've had many fatalities in this community from people doing that.

1071
01:36:05,610 --> 01:36:08,910
We've had many structure fires from people breaking into abandoned houses.

1072
01:36:09,510 --> 01:36:10,750
That's why these things are in place.

1073
01:36:10,970 --> 01:36:14,890
And I'm concerned for citizens on all levels of this community and

1074
01:36:14,890 --> 01:36:18,210
I'm not going to tell people just because you have not volunteered with some

1075
01:36:18,210 --> 01:36:19,890
one organization, you don't have a voice in the matter.

1076
01:36:20,830 --> 01:36:21,490
Thank you.

1077
01:36:22,810 --> 01:36:25,930
Is there an opportunity to respond, or am I required to sit down?

1078
01:36:26,410 --> 01:36:28,750
I'll give you a brief opportunity, Mrs. Bearden.

1079
01:36:29,090 --> 01:36:35,850
So I would appreciate if you would have listened to some of the things I said in the beginning, because we're not asking you to build a bunch of random houses.

1080
01:36:36,390 --> 01:36:40,930
And also I'm not going to address the citations and the enforcement.

1081
01:36:41,130 --> 01:36:46,510
That was for the law enforcement that we visited with yesterday and had an extremely amazing conversation with Chief Pearson.

1082
01:36:46,510 --> 01:36:52,030
What I am going to say is those of us that have done the research, if you'd like to see

1083
01:36:52,030 --> 01:36:54,630
any of it, you can see the references on the document I handed you.

1084
01:36:54,890 --> 01:36:57,770
There are other options besides you putting up a bunch of housing.

1085
01:36:58,950 --> 01:37:04,970
What I am going to say is that the way that this ordinance is worded is challenging for any

1086
01:37:04,970 --> 01:37:09,150
individual without stable housing to be successful in not violating it.

1087
01:37:09,810 --> 01:37:15,210
What I am going to say is we have ideas, but I have five minutes to prepare it for it

1088
01:37:15,210 --> 01:37:21,830
presented to you. So, you know what? Next week, next month, next time, there's going to be some more presentations, there's going to be some more presentation.

1089
01:37:22,390 --> 01:37:34,230
I do not believe that someone that has not done the work and just wants to say, oh, I'm upset because I see dirty things that they get to just say, throw them out with the garbage.

1090
01:37:34,630 --> 01:37:42,110
What they should be saying is, what can we do and what have other cities and countries done to end homelessness?

1091
01:37:42,110 --> 01:37:46,190
And that's what I have here for you, and that's what I prepared for you on the document.

1092
01:37:46,490 --> 01:37:53,070
So if you really do want to learn about best practice and some ways that we can help eliminate

1093
01:37:53,530 --> 01:37:58,490
the challenges that are being experienced by the city, by those advocating for those

1094
01:37:58,490 --> 01:38:04,990
homeless, and for those experiencing homelessness, please take the time to do some real research

1095
01:38:04,990 --> 01:38:07,250
and look at the information we're providing you.

1096
01:38:07,830 --> 01:38:10,450
Yes, sir, I did bring you a bleeding heart story.

1097
01:38:10,450 --> 01:38:20,090
But I also brought you data and you know what in three weeks, four weeks when I come back, I'm gonna bring you some more and again, and again, I am signed up through Mars.

1098
01:38:20,310 --> 01:38:21,310
Thank you, Mrs. Spiridon.

1099
01:38:21,450 --> 01:38:21,790
Thank you.

1100
01:38:22,070 --> 01:38:22,830
Please take your seat.

1101
01:38:27,070 --> 01:38:27,690
Thank you, Mayor.

1102
01:38:28,150 --> 01:38:33,690
I would just like to say that Portland, Oregon has seen a 29% increase in homelessness since last year, so there's your data.

1103
01:38:34,910 --> 01:38:36,110
Next presenter, please.

1104
01:38:36,710 --> 01:38:37,430
Chris Stockton.

1105
01:38:42,210 --> 01:38:45,590
Chris Stockton, you've been called to approach the podium. Are you in the chambers?

1106
01:38:45,590 --> 01:38:49,950
Members, Chris Stockton, next presenter, please.

1107
01:38:50,270 --> 01:38:53,750
Mary Price has withdrawn her request to speak this evening.

1108
01:38:54,090 --> 01:38:55,110
Next presenter, please.

1109
01:38:55,410 --> 01:38:56,070
Frank Thompson.

1110
01:38:56,390 --> 01:38:56,910
Mr.

1111
01:39:06,330 --> 01:39:09,330
Thompson, you state your name for the record you'll have five minutes.

1112
01:39:21,350 --> 01:39:22,090
Frank Thompson,

1113
01:39:25,180 --> 01:39:28,480
I'm here tonight, not with rumor or speculation, but with facts.

1114
01:39:29,540 --> 01:39:34,360
Facts taken directly from the Missouri State Auders official report on the city of Joplin.

1115
01:39:35,060 --> 01:39:40,240
And while some in leadership including our city manager and our unelected mayor have tried

1116
01:39:40,240 --> 01:39:45,300
to downplay this audit as not that bad, the truth tells a very different story.

1117
01:39:46,500 --> 01:39:50,300
Recently, the city manager made a comment suggesting that the citizens who pushed for

1118
01:39:50,300 --> 01:39:53,760
this audit have cost the city a quarter of a million dollars.

1119
01:39:54,540 --> 01:39:56,460
I want to address this directly.

1120
01:39:56,740 --> 01:40:02,900
Yes, I am one of the several citizens who pushed for this audit and I stand behind that without

1121
01:40:02,900 --> 01:40:09,500
wavering because accountability is never a waste of money. Our city will spend that much and

1122
01:40:09,500 --> 01:40:16,460
more on the next study. It commissions to justify a decision it already plans to make.

1123
01:40:17,260 --> 01:40:22,520
The difference is this audit exposed the truth and that's worth every penny that we spent.

1124
01:40:23,860 --> 01:40:29,440
The state auditor rated Joplin's performance fair. That's not a passing grade.

1125
01:40:29,440 --> 01:40:35,920
It means serious weakness, poor oversight, and repeated failures in transparency and accountability.

1126
01:40:37,760 --> 01:40:39,220
Let's start with transparency.

1127
01:40:39,860 --> 01:40:46,140
The audit revealed that 80% of the city ordinances in 2023 were pushed through as emergency ordinances.

1128
01:40:47,180 --> 01:40:55,640
When an ordinance is declared emergency ordinance, it bypasses the normal waiting period and limits public comment.

1129
01:40:55,640 --> 01:41:01,620
that the auditor stated clearly that this practice reduces transparency and prevents

1130
01:41:01,620 --> 01:41:03,100
citizens from being heard.

1131
01:41:04,460 --> 01:41:11,060
The city's response was they always allow public comment, but the auditor corrected them.

1132
01:41:11,820 --> 01:41:13,760
The charter does not require it.

1133
01:41:14,220 --> 01:41:20,860
That means they can ignore public input whenever it suits them and they have to meet before.

1134
01:41:22,160 --> 01:41:29,160
And after citizens started paying attention, those so-called emergency suddenly dropped from 80% to 40%.

1135
01:41:29,800 --> 01:41:33,180
That's not improvement. That's proof the process was being abused.

1136
01:41:34,640 --> 01:41:41,280
Now, instead of fixing the problem, city leadership wants to change the charter to make the abuse look legitimate.

1137
01:41:41,960 --> 01:41:50,300
They want to swap the words emergency for expedited, but expedited is already in the charter and it means the exact same thing.

1138
01:41:50,880 --> 01:41:56,400
It's a word game. It's it's cosmetic changement to make it appear different

1139
01:41:57,020 --> 01:42:02,600
when it's really not. If anything, it exposes just how far they will go to

1140
01:42:02,600 --> 01:42:03,960
manipulate the public record.

1141
01:42:08,950 --> 01:42:12,030
The audit also uncovered $12.7 million in

1142
01:42:12,030 --> 01:42:17,650
expenditures that were never shown in the approved budget. Those funds were

1143
01:42:17,650 --> 01:42:19,790
were quietly added after the budget passed.

1144
01:42:20,290 --> 01:42:24,730
The city's explanation was the amounts weren't known yet.

1145
01:42:25,110 --> 01:42:33,750
But the auditor called that misleading because the state law requires a complete financial plan before the year begins.

1146
01:42:34,190 --> 01:42:38,470
Citizens deserve to know where every dollar is going before it's spent.

1147
01:42:41,420 --> 01:42:45,180
And that's what, that wasn't the only concern.

1148
01:42:45,180 --> 01:42:51,740
The auditor found that the individuals had, that certain individuals had unrestricted access to the city's financial system.

1149
01:42:52,320 --> 01:42:54,640
Credit card payments weren't fully reconciled.

1150
01:42:54,940 --> 01:43:04,200
There were $2.7 million in unpaid accounts, and the city could not provide documentation to prove that reconciliations or oversight even occurred.

1151
01:43:05,100 --> 01:43:07,120
Those aren't minor oversights.

1152
01:43:07,680 --> 01:43:09,460
Those are major control failures.

1153
01:43:09,460 --> 01:43:15,240
measures. Instead of correcting those failures, our leadership seems to be more focused on

1154
01:43:15,240 --> 01:43:20,480
changing the rules that expose them. They are rewriting the charter, not to improve it,

1155
01:43:20,700 --> 01:43:26,360
but to shield their actions. And let's be honest, the citizens of Javelin have been very

1156
01:43:26,360 --> 01:43:32,820
clear about what change we do want. If anything in this charter needs to be changed, it's that

1157
01:43:32,820 --> 01:43:38,160
the people should elect a mayor. The citizens have said it repeatedly. We want a mayor chosen

1158
01:43:38,160 --> 01:43:45,260
by the voters. Someone accountable to the public whose vote only breaks a tie or acts in a

1159
01:43:45,260 --> 01:43:52,000
supermajority situation. That's change we've asked for but that's not what the council is doing.

1160
01:43:53,300 --> 01:43:59,260
Changing the charter to make wrongs appear right is not leadership, it's manipulation and in my opinion

1161
01:43:59,260 --> 01:44:06,920
it's disgusting. This audit paints a clear picture, a city operating on loopholes instead of guardrails,

1162
01:44:06,920 --> 01:44:30,380
No independent internal audit since 2022, unverified vehicle stipends, dangerous buildings ignored until the ordinance was written to excuse it, tax money directed to outside boards with little to no review, the auditors didn't have to use the word corruption, the facts speech for themselves, and I continue.

1163
01:44:30,380 --> 01:44:31,180
Here's

1164
01:44:39,790 --> 01:44:40,890
your time's up, Mr. Thompson.

1165
01:44:42,490 --> 01:44:43,790
That goes to prove more.

1166
01:44:48,210 --> 01:44:49,330
Next presenter, please.

1167
01:44:49,870 --> 01:44:53,690
Mr. Shackles has requested to speak during new business.

1168
01:44:59,110 --> 01:44:59,890
Public hearing.

1169
01:45:00,400 --> 01:45:14,640
We have none. Consent, agenda. Mayor, Mr. Dittar. I move for the approval of the consent agenda is finalized, motion's been made and properly seconded to approve the consent agenda is finalized. Please vote.

1170
01:45:17,600 --> 01:45:32,400
Motion carries nine in favor. Resolutions. We have none. Ordinance is emergency. Council Bill number 2025-455. In ordinance emitting chapter 18, animals of the Joplin City Code by emitting certain fees found in section 18,

1171
01:45:32,400 --> 01:45:35,280
144 and containing an emergency clause.

1172
01:45:36,760 --> 01:45:37,640
Good evening, sir.

1173
01:45:38,180 --> 01:45:38,800
Good evening.

1174
01:45:39,320 --> 01:45:46,720
Mayor, if I may, may I present on 455 and 456 at the same time?

1175
01:45:47,060 --> 01:45:47,720
Please proceed.

1176
01:45:48,240 --> 01:45:48,620
Thank you.

1177
01:45:49,580 --> 01:45:55,140
So I bring tonight the yearly contract renewal for

1178
01:45:55,140 --> 01:45:59,780
the update and for sheltering services.

1179
01:45:59,780 --> 01:46:12,780
So, this is on emergency agenda tonight, it coincides with the fiscal year and the approval of the fiscal year budget.

1180
01:46:12,980 --> 01:46:15,820
So, this is tied with that.

1181
01:46:16,920 --> 01:46:25,320
So, we have a price increase this year, the price increase is based on the consumer price index, it's at 3.1%.

1182
01:46:25,320 --> 01:46:35,040
That's the standard index that we use from year to year, last year, sheltering.

1183
01:46:35,200 --> 01:46:49,500
We took in, 2024, 2,645 animals were taken to the shelter and anything else on here

1184
01:46:49,500 --> 01:46:50,120
I need to cover.

1185
01:46:50,360 --> 01:46:51,260
Guess what that is?

1186
01:46:51,260 --> 01:46:52,320
I'm taking a question.

1187
01:46:52,320 --> 01:46:55,360
Council, Mrs. Carlin.

1188
01:47:00,400 --> 01:47:09,840
Once again, if we re-up our contract every year on November 1st and that corresponds

1189
01:47:09,840 --> 01:47:17,840
with the budget for next year, why aren't we doing this in a timely manner so that it's

1190
01:47:17,840 --> 01:47:18,900
not an emergency?

1191
01:47:19,480 --> 01:47:26,240
Did we not know that there was an increase or I don't understand why we don't do it

1192
01:47:26,240 --> 01:47:31,820
So in advance, so it doesn't have to be an emergency issue.

1193
01:47:33,620 --> 01:47:41,500
So my understanding of that is to ensure that the line item within the budget,

1194
01:47:41,500 --> 01:47:46,040
that there is a budget line item that coincides with us that matches the amount.

1195
01:47:48,520 --> 01:47:50,560
That's my understanding.

1196
01:47:59,920 --> 01:48:04,600
I think to Ms. Carlin's point is we couldn't have done that two weeks ago and then finished it tonight.

1197
01:48:05,920 --> 01:48:08,480
We can look into that in the future.

1198
01:48:09,200 --> 01:48:17,540
I don't know the answer to that, to be honest with you as far as how it all fits in with the budgeting process.

1199
01:48:18,300 --> 01:48:25,740
But, absolutely, we can look into it and I'm not trying to be overly obtuse here, but excuse me, I'm sorry.

1200
01:48:25,740 --> 01:48:32,920
Mr. City Manager, I'm not trying to be overly obtuse here, but if our department heads don't know who does.

1201
01:48:33,840 --> 01:48:39,820
Mr. Coppola, I remember correctly we did the schedule of fees presentation during our budget work sessions.

1202
01:48:39,820 --> 01:48:47,320
And the next regularly available council meeting to get that approved would have been that October 4th.

1203
01:48:47,320 --> 01:48:53,780
I don't think there was turnaround time that allowed us to get all that stuff packaged up and ready for tonight.

1204
01:48:53,780 --> 01:48:57,180
That's why the budget adoption stuff is coming to you tonight.

1205
01:48:59,640 --> 01:49:09,640
For budget approval, purposes, we could maybe move back our meeting dates even further.

1206
01:49:12,120 --> 01:49:15,240
We're already starting in August, perhaps July, so that we could.

1207
01:49:15,900 --> 01:49:23,180
I don't so much have an issue with the overall budget because we do public hearings going over the budget.

1208
01:49:23,180 --> 01:49:30,140
So that provides plenty of opportunity for people to attend and question items in the budget.

1209
01:49:30,140 --> 01:49:44,820
But when we come to the ordinance of this nature, and especially the next one where we are renewing the contract with the Humane Society, I don't understand why that couldn't be done two weeks ago.

1210
01:49:45,080 --> 01:49:49,700
And then we finish it up this week and it's still be ready to go by November 1st.

1211
01:49:51,300 --> 01:49:55,400
I hear you Ryan and I will discuss and I make an improvement there.

1212
01:49:55,600 --> 01:49:56,080
Fantastic.

1213
01:49:56,300 --> 01:49:56,600
Thank you, sir.

1214
01:49:57,500 --> 01:49:58,360
Anyone else?

1215
01:50:00,610 --> 01:50:01,730
Thank you, Mr. Talking.

1216
01:50:02,410 --> 01:50:02,670
Thank you.

1217
01:50:02,990 --> 01:50:09,230
Council, we've heard testing on the council bill 2025-455 Chair will entertain a motion.

1218
01:50:09,750 --> 01:50:09,930
Mayor.

1219
01:50:10,790 --> 01:50:11,650
Mr. Lawson.

1220
01:50:11,790 --> 01:50:17,430
I move the council bill number 25-455 be passed on emergency basis.

1221
01:50:17,430 --> 01:50:25,450
The motion has been made and probably segmented further approval of Council Bill 2025-455 on emergency basis, please vote.

1222
01:50:27,560 --> 01:50:30,200
That motion passes nine in favor.

1223
01:50:30,780 --> 01:50:31,560
Next item, please.

1224
01:50:31,920 --> 01:50:47,460
Council Bill number 2025-456, an ordinance of proving an agreement by and between the Joplin Humane Society Inc., and the City of Joplin, Missouri, providing for the animal sheltering services for the City Animal Control Program, authorizing the City Manager to execute, set agreement by and on behalf of the City of Joplin, Missouri, and containing an emergency clause.

1225
01:50:47,460 --> 01:50:52,720
Council, we've heard testimony on this council bill already, is there any discussion?

1226
01:50:54,300 --> 01:50:55,400
Chair, we'll entertain a motion.

1227
01:50:55,760 --> 01:50:56,900
I'm sorry, excuse me.

1228
01:50:57,380 --> 01:50:57,920
Mrs. Carlin?

1229
01:50:58,240 --> 01:51:03,380
Well, once again, I'm just going to say that if we know that every single year we're going

1230
01:51:03,380 --> 01:51:10,960
to renew our contract with the Humane Society on November 1st, then it should, the very

1231
01:51:10,960 --> 01:51:16,420
thing we've been criticized for is emergency ordinances and then the very next meeting,

1232
01:51:16,420 --> 01:51:22,800
When we know a year in advance that we're going to renew a contract, we're doing an emergency ordinance.

1233
01:51:23,200 --> 01:51:24,220
That's my point.

1234
01:51:25,280 --> 01:51:34,820
I would agree with you, Mrs. Carlin, but I would also offer up this for just for anybody that may be listening and maybe see the other side of the coin.

1235
01:51:35,740 --> 01:51:40,780
This is our last official city council meeting in this fiscal year.

1236
01:51:40,780 --> 01:51:46,540
The next time that we meet is going to be the 2026 fiscal year.

1237
01:51:46,700 --> 01:51:53,480
November 1st is a few days out, 11 days out, 12, maybe 11 now it's 8 o'clock at night.

1238
01:51:54,180 --> 01:52:00,240
So this is the last opportunity that we're going to have to get things on the books for

1239
01:52:00,240 --> 01:52:01,320
the next year.

1240
01:52:01,840 --> 01:52:10,000
I would also add that in the spirit of dialing back the emergency ordinances which I get

1241
01:52:10,000 --> 01:52:15,460
But completely, I do believe that we've done a good job of dialing those back from where

1242
01:52:15,460 --> 01:52:17,220
they used to be all the time.

1243
01:52:18,580 --> 01:52:24,400
But in concerning these particular ordinances that are on here tonight, as emergency ordinances,

1244
01:52:24,980 --> 01:52:30,240
I would just like to add that there is nothing nefarious about renewing our contract with

1245
01:52:30,240 --> 01:52:31,480
the job on the main society.

1246
01:52:32,000 --> 01:52:39,980
And there's nothing nefarious about increasing the fees for some of our pet related things

1247
01:52:39,980 --> 01:52:46,180
that we've got going on in our community, but it is the last meeting of the Chaplain City Council in this fiscal year.

1248
01:52:46,880 --> 01:52:51,800
So, with all that being said, I'm sure I was out of line somewhere.

1249
01:52:52,800 --> 01:52:57,300
The Chair will entertain a motion on Council Bill 2025-456.

1250
01:52:57,620 --> 01:52:58,160
Mr. Mayor.

1251
01:52:59,200 --> 01:52:59,880
Mr. Detar.

1252
01:53:01,080 --> 01:53:05,260
I move to the approval of Council Bill 2025-456 on emergency basis.

1253
01:53:05,620 --> 01:53:05,840
Second.

1254
01:53:05,840 --> 01:53:12,860
Motion has been made and probably seconded for the approval of Council Bill 2025-456 on the emergency basis, please vote.

1255
01:53:13,860 --> 01:53:19,340
Motion carries nine in favor with none absent or with no opposed.

1256
01:53:19,920 --> 01:53:20,860
I'm okay, I really am.

1257
01:53:20,960 --> 01:53:22,040
It might be time for a break.

1258
01:53:22,840 --> 01:53:25,440
I think we'll take one after emergency ordinances are completed.

1259
01:53:26,120 --> 01:53:27,360
Next item, please, Madam Clerk.

1260
01:53:27,360 --> 01:53:40,800
Council Bill number 2025-537, in ordinance emitting the annual budget of the City of Joplin for the fiscal year 2024-2025, as adopted by ordinance 2024-151 on October 21st, 2024 to adjust appropriations and containing an emergency clause.

1261
01:53:41,560 --> 01:53:43,040
Good evening, Mrs. Haas.

1262
01:53:43,320 --> 01:53:44,240
Good evening, Mayor Council.

1263
01:53:48,080 --> 01:53:52,100
This council bill omens the adopted 2025 budget of the City of Joplin.

1264
01:53:52,740 --> 01:53:58,640
In compliance with charter regulations and accounting principles, the proposed adjustment is required to ensure that departments

1265
01:53:58,640 --> 01:54:02,160
Expenditures do not exceed approved budget appropriations.

1266
01:54:04,950 --> 01:54:09,330
There is a list that you all have of the items that are being amended.

1267
01:54:10,070 --> 01:54:14,730
But as a summary, we're emitting the City Council budget for the estimated cost of the state audit.

1268
01:54:15,350 --> 01:54:21,310
We're emitting various departments for utilities such as electric charges, water charges, waste water, and sanitation.

1269
01:54:22,230 --> 01:54:26,950
Emitting various departments for fuel costs, central garage repairs, and other vehicle repairs.

1270
01:54:28,310 --> 01:54:30,990
Minning various departments for repairs and contracts.

1271
01:54:31,690 --> 01:54:33,230
Minning various payroll accounts.

1272
01:54:33,790 --> 01:54:38,510
Minning the auctioneer fee due to the size of the auction this year.

1273
01:54:39,030 --> 01:54:40,890
Minning various grant accounts.

1274
01:54:41,110 --> 01:54:44,210
Minning the pension sales tax gap cost expenditure.

1275
01:54:45,270 --> 01:54:47,010
Minning the utility cuts account.

1276
01:54:47,490 --> 01:54:51,350
Minning the engineering fee transfer from certain funds to the general fund.

1277
01:54:52,090 --> 01:55:00,230
Amending the sewer shutoff, reconnect fees and bad debt expense, and finally amending the health insurance in general liability claims expenses.

1278
01:55:00,910 --> 01:55:05,750
The purpose of the budget amendment is to recognize changes that have occurred since the annual budget was adopted.

1279
01:55:06,390 --> 01:55:14,410
This budget amendment increases expenditures across all funds by $6,500, $11,800.

1280
01:55:15,930 --> 01:55:20,130
This is a budget amendment based on expected expenditures for the year.

1281
01:55:20,690 --> 01:55:24,770
However, expenditures for the fiscal year will continue through December, while revenue

1282
01:55:24,770 --> 01:55:28,450
cruells will also continue to be booked through the same time period.

1283
01:55:28,950 --> 01:55:33,930
This is not a projection of ending fund balance in the various funds, but merely budgeted expenditures

1284
01:55:33,930 --> 01:55:37,650
compared to actual expenditures to ensure compliance with the charter.

1285
01:55:38,470 --> 01:55:42,470
The actual increase or decrease of various fund balances will not be known until the accrual

1286
01:55:42,470 --> 01:55:44,210
entries are completed for the annual audit.

1287
01:55:45,550 --> 01:55:48,550
Staff recommends approval of this council bill on an emergency basis.

1288
01:55:48,550 --> 01:55:52,330
We do have to amend the budget before the year end.

1289
01:55:53,270 --> 01:56:01,990
I do want to draw your attention to a few items, because this is across all funds.

1290
01:56:03,450 --> 01:56:08,810
So one of the larger items is the logger's gap cost for the pension sales tax.

1291
01:56:09,490 --> 01:56:14,030
I presented that to you a few months ago, I gave you that update.

1292
01:56:15,110 --> 01:56:18,350
which was just came in higher than what was anticipated.

1293
01:56:24,170 --> 01:56:25,230
We have a large item.

1294
01:56:25,750 --> 01:56:29,150
We're amending stormwater projects in the parks and stormwater sales tax.

1295
01:56:29,850 --> 01:56:38,710
That is just because projects are happening faster than what we realized when we put the 2025 budget together.

1296
01:56:39,130 --> 01:56:49,170
Along, a long time ago at this point, we're amending engineering fees and that's actually just a transfer from capital improvement sales tax to the general fund.

1297
01:56:49,170 --> 01:56:57,760
And in the sewer fund, we are amending for a bad debt expense, so that's just writing

1298
01:56:57,760 --> 01:56:58,580
off bad debt.

1299
01:56:59,480 --> 01:57:01,160
So that is a book entry.

1300
01:57:02,840 --> 01:57:07,160
Also you'll remember the water company increased the shut off, reconnect fees.

1301
01:57:07,940 --> 01:57:10,020
And so that item is being amended.

1302
01:57:12,460 --> 01:57:17,800
And then finally, a large ticket item in the General Liability Insurance Fund.

1303
01:57:17,800 --> 01:57:21,980
And so those are the major items that are being amended.

1304
01:57:22,760 --> 01:57:29,040
As a reminder, we try not to them in the budget after year end.

1305
01:57:29,740 --> 01:57:39,560
And so there is some, so we also cannot have a charter violation where our expenditures exceed our budget.

1306
01:57:40,480 --> 01:57:43,660
So this is just budget, it is not actual.

1307
01:57:43,660 --> 01:57:50,240
It's not actual expenditures, it's just ensuring that budget covers our actual expenditures.

1308
01:57:51,300 --> 01:57:53,580
So at that, I would be happy to answer any questions.

1309
01:57:54,760 --> 01:57:57,820
Council, any questions for our city finance director?

1310
01:57:58,640 --> 01:57:59,240
Mrs. Carlin.

1311
01:58:00,900 --> 01:58:12,040
If I understand correctly, we still have some expected funds coming in that have not been paid to the city for the year 2025.

1312
01:58:14,500 --> 01:58:25,100
Yes ma'am those will still continue to come in and if you will recall from the presentation I made in the informal our revenues at this point our CD NAR expenditures.

1313
01:58:25,800 --> 01:58:25,920
Right.

1314
01:58:26,640 --> 01:58:34,840
So we won't really know until we're in fiscal year 2026 if we've spent more than we brought in.

1315
01:58:35,000 --> 01:58:36,320
Is that a correct statement?

1316
01:58:36,580 --> 01:58:37,140
That is correct.

1317
01:58:37,140 --> 01:58:40,300
Right now, in the general fund, that is not how it's trendy.

1318
01:58:41,400 --> 01:58:45,700
Okay, so if we have spent more than we have brought in,

1319
01:58:46,420 --> 01:58:56,620
then that money would be funded through the various funds for, say, that department, or that category.

1320
01:58:57,340 --> 01:58:58,560
Fund balances?

1321
01:58:59,060 --> 01:59:00,340
Fund balance, yes.

1322
01:59:00,540 --> 01:59:00,740
Okay.

1323
01:59:00,740 --> 01:59:07,420
But again, this is across all of our 25 issues, it's not just a general.

1324
01:59:07,460 --> 01:59:08,360
No, I understand that.

1325
01:59:08,920 --> 01:59:16,520
So, will there be a time when we will actually see those final, final, final numbers?

1326
01:59:16,960 --> 01:59:17,440
Yes, ma'am.

1327
01:59:17,740 --> 01:59:26,220
Okay, so we do final, financial statements, but it also is in our annual audit that gets presented to you all.

1328
01:59:26,640 --> 01:59:27,700
Okay, thank you.

1329
01:59:29,920 --> 01:59:38,250
Anyone else, Leslie, is what we're doing tonight different than what we've done in the past?

1330
01:59:40,400 --> 01:59:44,400
No, sir, other than I always try to sharpen my crystal ball.

1331
01:59:47,830 --> 01:59:49,410
Sometimes they're cloudy, too.

1332
01:59:50,010 --> 01:59:50,330
Yes, sir.

1333
01:59:50,670 --> 01:59:51,550
And sometimes they're clear.

1334
01:59:52,190 --> 01:59:52,510
Yes, sir.

1335
01:59:54,470 --> 01:59:55,810
Any other discussion?

1336
01:59:56,130 --> 01:59:57,850
Any other questions for Mrs. Haas?

1337
02:00:00,000 --> 02:00:06,400
Thank you. Council, we've heard discussion on council bill 2025-537, chair will entertain a motion.

1338
02:00:07,260 --> 02:00:14,440
Mayor, Mr. Bard, I'm going to have that council bill 2025-537 be approved on an emergency basis.

1339
02:00:14,880 --> 02:00:22,220
Second, motion is made and properly seconded for the approval. Council bill 2025-537, on an emergency basis, please vote.

1340
02:00:22,220 --> 02:00:27,490
So that motion passes nine in favor next item, please.

1341
02:00:27,750 --> 02:00:42,550
Council Bill number 2025-538 in ordinance provided for the budget of the City of Joplin for the period from November 1st, 2025 to October 31st, 2026, estimating the revenues for said period and appropriating the purposes stated the sum set forth therein and containing an emergency cost.

1342
02:00:43,070 --> 02:00:45,730
I got a fill and I will see you for the next couple of these.

1343
02:00:46,210 --> 02:00:50,150
Yes, Mayor, I would like to present 538 and 539 together.

1344
02:00:50,150 --> 02:00:51,010
Please proceed.

1345
02:00:51,450 --> 02:00:55,930
So both of these council bills approve the fiscal year 26 budget.

1346
02:00:56,550 --> 02:01:03,410
538 excludes the fire department expenditures and 539 is adopting the fire department budget.

1347
02:01:04,950 --> 02:01:18,910
So in total, this budget estimates 167,735,758 dollars in revenue, including transfers, but excluding component units.

1348
02:01:18,910 --> 02:01:30,750
a total amount of $185,222,300 and $222,301 in appropriations, including transfers, but excluding component units.

1349
02:01:33,240 --> 02:01:42,000
There were some changes from the proposed budget to the adopted, that has been included for your reference.

1350
02:01:42,900 --> 02:01:54,980
And then this ordinance does include rolling approved incumbrances, which will be brought back to you in November to show the

1351
02:01:55,980 --> 02:02:02,520
budget that you're adopting, so the original budget, and then those incumbrances to come up to the final budget.

1352
02:02:02,680 --> 02:02:06,920
So I will bring that back most likely at the second meeting in November.

1353
02:02:08,160 --> 02:02:12,920
Both of these council bills do need to be approved before the end of the fiscal year.

1354
02:02:13,120 --> 02:02:17,920
So they are emergencies because our fiscal year starts on November 1st.

1355
02:02:18,860 --> 02:02:20,840
With that, I would be happy to answer any questions.

1356
02:02:21,700 --> 02:02:22,040
Council.

1357
02:02:23,600 --> 02:02:24,320
Mr. Coppel.

1358
02:02:25,140 --> 02:02:35,460
Ms. Halls, 538 includes the payroll adjustments and the 2% COLA for all employees, correct?

1359
02:02:35,760 --> 02:02:36,160
Yes, sir.

1360
02:02:36,160 --> 02:02:42,920
Okay, thank you. Mr. Mayor, I will be abstaining from 538 and 539 due to a conflict of interest

1361
02:02:43,800 --> 02:02:47,040
Thank you councilman couple anyone else

1362
02:02:49,960 --> 02:02:54,350
Council we've heard testimony on council bill 2025-538 charitable entertainer motion

1363
02:02:54,350 --> 02:02:54,950
Mr.

1364
02:02:58,720 --> 02:03:04,960
Detar I move the approval of council bill number 2025-538 on emergency basis

1365
02:03:06,380 --> 02:03:11,680
Motion is made and probably seconded for the approval of Council Bill 2025-538 on emergency basis.

1366
02:03:11,840 --> 02:03:12,220
Please vote.

1367
02:03:14,020 --> 02:03:16,600
Motion carries eight in favor with one abstention.

1368
02:03:16,780 --> 02:03:17,400
Next item, please.

1369
02:03:17,940 --> 02:03:26,080
Council Bill number 2025-539 in ordinance providing for the budget of the city of Japan for the period from November 1st, 2025 to October 31st, 2026.

1370
02:03:26,460 --> 02:03:33,020
Estimating the revenues for said period and appropriating for the purposes stated for the sums set forth therein and containing an emergency clause.

1371
02:03:33,020 --> 02:03:35,460
Council, we've heard testimony on this council bill.

1372
02:03:35,620 --> 02:03:36,520
Chair, we'll entertain a motion.

1373
02:03:37,720 --> 02:03:38,540
Mr. Jackson.

1374
02:03:38,940 --> 02:03:39,460
I make a motion.

1375
02:03:39,560 --> 02:03:42,060
Approved council bill 2025-539 on emergency basis.

1376
02:03:42,520 --> 02:03:49,040
Second, motion's been made and probably seconded for their approval of council bill 2025-539 on emergency basis.

1377
02:03:49,200 --> 02:03:49,540
Please vote.

1378
02:03:50,880 --> 02:03:53,180
Motion carries eight in favor with one abstention.

1379
02:03:53,420 --> 02:03:54,060
Next item, please.

1380
02:03:54,420 --> 02:04:02,860
Council bill number 2025-540, an ordinance adopting a new step paid plan by reference the city salary administration plan establishing the annual salary of certain classified

1381
02:04:02,860 --> 02:04:07,660
in unclassified positions, and part-time seasonal positions for fiscal year 2025, 2026,

1382
02:04:08,060 --> 02:04:14,420
adopting a new step paid plan by reference police salary administration plan, establishing the annual salary of certain police positions.

1383
02:04:14,800 --> 02:04:22,600
Adafting a new step paid plan by reference fire salary administration plan, establishing the annual salary of certain fire positions and containing in the emergency clause.

1384
02:04:22,840 --> 02:04:23,480
Mr. Toss.

1385
02:04:24,140 --> 02:04:32,160
During the budget work session, City Council informally approved a 2% inflation adjustment to the salary administration for general police and

1386
02:04:32,160 --> 02:04:37,340
and fire employees, part time seasonal position positions, as well as created two new positions,

1387
02:04:37,600 --> 02:04:38,940
effective November 1st.

1388
02:04:39,600 --> 02:04:44,140
The new positions are assistant IT director and wastewater biosolids program supervisor.

1389
02:04:44,660 --> 02:04:48,860
These changes have been reflected on the various salary administration plans.

1390
02:04:49,800 --> 02:04:57,700
And, again, this is an emergency so that these raises can go into effect on November 1st.

1391
02:04:57,960 --> 02:04:59,740
And this was discussed during the budget.

1392
02:05:00,240 --> 02:05:04,120
So, staff recommends approval of this council bill on our emergency basis.

1393
02:05:04,460 --> 02:05:06,220
I'd be happy to answer any questions.

1394
02:05:07,280 --> 02:05:09,140
Council, questions from Mrs. Haas.

1395
02:05:11,780 --> 02:05:12,300
Leslie, I see none.

1396
02:05:13,740 --> 02:05:19,200
Council, we've heard testimony on council bill 2025-540, Chair, we'll entertain a motion.

1397
02:05:19,640 --> 02:05:19,660
Mayor.

1398
02:05:20,300 --> 02:05:21,220
Mr. G. Tar.

1399
02:05:22,840 --> 02:05:27,120
I've moved for the approval of council bill 2025-540 on emergency basis.

1400
02:05:27,740 --> 02:05:27,840
Second.

1401
02:05:27,840 --> 02:05:33,580
Second, motions made and probably seconded for the approval of Council Bill 2025-540 on

1402
02:05:33,580 --> 02:05:34,280
emergency basis.

1403
02:05:34,480 --> 02:05:34,840
Please vote.

1404
02:05:38,120 --> 02:05:38,960
Motion carries.

1405
02:05:39,640 --> 02:05:41,620
Eight in favor with one abstention.

1406
02:05:42,900 --> 02:05:44,880
Council, we are going to take a break.

1407
02:05:45,420 --> 02:05:47,300
We will see you back in just a few minutes.

1408
02:06:46,060 --> 02:06:46,520
Council,

1409
02:10:41,370 --> 02:10:42,930
let's make our way back to our seats, please.

1410
02:10:43,310 --> 02:10:45,070
Council, let's make our way back to our seats.

1411
02:11:48,560 --> 02:11:49,120
Clerk, you ready?

1412
02:11:50,340 --> 02:11:51,560
Ordinance is first reading.

1413
02:11:53,180 --> 02:12:11,140
Council Bill number 2025-01-2, an ordinance emitting the criminal code of the city of Joplin, chapter 82, offensive and miscellaneous provisions, article 5, offenses against health and safety by enacting a new section, prohibiting the displacement of transient individuals in establishing a time for this ordinance to become effective.

1414
02:12:11,980 --> 02:12:15,520
Mayors, members of Council, I'll be presenting this ordinance tonight.

1415
02:12:16,320 --> 02:12:24,640
Summary of this bill, it imposes a penalty, punishable under Section 1-5 for any individual entity or agent,

1416
02:12:25,260 --> 02:12:29,520
causing the unsanctioned displacement of a transient individual within the city of Joplin.

1417
02:12:29,980 --> 02:12:38,080
This bill includes specific language that describes the prohibition, it includes definitions as well as a number of legitimate exceptions.

1418
02:12:38,080 --> 02:12:51,820
The background here is that over the last few years, the city, by and through its police department and co-responder units has been able to confirm several instances of the prohibited conduct addressed within the ordinance.

1419
02:12:53,960 --> 02:13:08,060
There have been a number of displaced transient individuals and to name a few of them, Oklahoma police department or sorry, Oklahoma highway patrol has displaced that we know of to persons within the city of the city.

1420
02:13:08,080 --> 02:13:16,660
of Joplin, a medical center from Oklahoma as well, a medical center about an hour to the north.

1421
02:13:17,340 --> 02:13:22,860
Out of Nevada has displaced two individuals within the city of Joplin, and

1422
02:13:22,860 --> 02:13:29,240
we also have some regional police departments committing the same type of behavior.

1423
02:13:29,700 --> 02:13:32,500
This is placed to strain on public resources and

1424
02:13:32,500 --> 02:13:34,740
and created certain health and safety concerns

1425
02:13:34,980 --> 02:13:35,960
for the community.

1426
02:13:37,320 --> 02:13:40,120
It leaves the depletion of already limited resources

1427
02:13:40,120 --> 02:13:43,320
for local residents experiencing homelessness

1428
02:13:43,820 --> 02:13:45,180
in the community.

1429
02:13:45,980 --> 02:13:47,960
And this is an ordinance that's been designed

1430
02:13:47,960 --> 02:13:51,380
to prioritize citizens, resources, community health

1431
02:13:51,380 --> 02:13:53,700
and safety, and to deter other jurisdictions

1432
02:13:53,700 --> 02:13:57,040
from reckless displacement of transient individuals.

1433
02:13:58,680 --> 02:14:05,180
If there are any questions about the language within the ordinance, I'll do a brief overview.

1434
02:14:06,540 --> 02:14:14,660
The first section lists no person, and see or government agent from outside the city shall

1435
02:14:14,660 --> 02:14:19,160
knowingly cause a displacement of any non-local transit individual within the city of Japlin,

1436
02:14:19,460 --> 02:14:25,320
either directly or indirectly, by providing one way transport and drop off of said individual on

1437
02:14:25,320 --> 02:14:30,480
one public property or private property that is accessible to the public within the city of Droplin.

1438
02:14:31,640 --> 02:14:38,640
And when the person being transported and dropped off lacks a fixed regular and adequate nighttime residence,

1439
02:14:39,260 --> 02:14:44,020
it then provides a rather lengthy definition that I won't read out loud.

1440
02:14:44,260 --> 02:14:47,480
But I'm sure you've all had the time to review and I can answer questions.

1441
02:14:49,180 --> 02:14:53,700
Importantly, this does include a number of exceptions.

1442
02:14:53,700 --> 02:14:59,860
of this would not apply to any person being transported for the purposes of saving book.

1443
02:15:00,000 --> 02:15:29,980
In addition to a jail, it would not apply to any person being transported for emergency medical services or treatment at a hospital, it would not apply to a person being transported to reside at a shelter, temporary housing, permanent housing, when the officer agent employee has independently verified that that individual being transported has been accepted to reside at the facility. It would not apply to a person being transported to a hospital.

1444
02:15:29,980 --> 02:15:39,040
a verified medical appointment or government non-profit social service or a court hearing.

1445
02:15:39,900 --> 02:15:45,560
Okay, and so there are a number of legitimate exceptions listed with that I will take any questions.

1446
02:15:46,520 --> 02:15:50,240
Council questions for Assistant City Attorney.

1447
02:15:51,220 --> 02:15:52,280
This is not much, Mr. Copper.

1448
02:15:53,240 --> 02:16:03,170
Yes ma'am, is this going to be a city charge or is this going to be handled through county?

1449
02:16:03,910 --> 02:16:08,610
This would be a municipal ordinance in our city code under chapter 82.

1450
02:16:09,230 --> 02:16:13,870
Okay, is this going to be considered an extra valuable offense?

1451
02:16:14,930 --> 02:16:17,310
Our municipal charges are not extra valuable.

1452
02:16:17,710 --> 02:16:18,670
I really didn't think so.

1453
02:16:18,670 --> 02:16:47,410
So, as much as I applaud the concept behind the ordinance, it doesn't really have any teeth because we're talking about somebody from outside the city, sending somebody into the city, but because by nature, there are outside the city, unless they're caught actively driving them into town and dropping them off at that specific time.

1454
02:16:48,290 --> 02:16:52,750
There's really not a whole lot we're going to do about these people other than having

1455
02:16:52,750 --> 02:16:53,830
charges sitting on the books.

1456
02:16:54,770 --> 02:16:58,950
And I would say that applies to any criminal charge.

1457
02:16:58,950 --> 02:17:00,930
You get a speeding ticket in City of Joplin.

1458
02:17:00,970 --> 02:17:06,350
You might not live in City of Joplin, but you still have a speeding ticket or anything.

1459
02:17:06,810 --> 02:17:10,050
It just simply because you're not a resident of Joplin.

1460
02:17:10,050 --> 02:17:16,130
And you still are subject to these penalties.

1461
02:17:17,330 --> 02:17:21,650
Will you be arrested on a warrant, unlikely?

1462
02:17:22,830 --> 02:17:33,570
Well, you can't be held to penalties until you prove and guilty in a court of law and we can't get him to stand in front of a court of law unless they're in town and presented for such.

1463
02:17:34,370 --> 02:17:42,670
Yes, and that is the court process where if the person fails to appear, then a summons is issued.

1464
02:17:42,770 --> 02:17:48,010
That is a court order, failing to appear for a court order, is yet again another offense.

1465
02:17:49,650 --> 02:17:51,470
So we're going to mail them tickets?

1466
02:17:52,450 --> 02:17:59,910
And that is sometimes the service that is served to people that just come to court.

1467
02:18:00,650 --> 02:18:07,150
I'm just trying to play this out like I said, I understand and I like the concept behind it.

1468
02:18:07,470 --> 02:18:17,370
I'm trying to visualize where the rubber meets the road is, how is this going to be put into play and into practice?

1469
02:18:17,830 --> 02:18:21,110
And I agree with you that enforcement will be difficult.

1470
02:18:21,970 --> 02:18:22,870
Okay, thank you.

1471
02:18:23,670 --> 02:18:24,610
Mr. Lawson.

1472
02:18:25,650 --> 02:18:27,410
Who is the offender?

1473
02:18:29,790 --> 02:18:32,610
the person entity or agent.

1474
02:18:33,630 --> 02:18:44,810
I mean, is that like my experience when I worked at the hospital and such was they were sent to job and they weren't brought to job on all the time, you know.

1475
02:18:45,310 --> 02:18:48,650
So did somebody commit an offensive?

1476
02:18:48,650 --> 02:18:50,190
They just sent the person here?

1477
02:18:51,570 --> 02:18:56,050
And I would have to look at a specific factual scenario to give you an answer.

1478
02:18:56,050 --> 02:19:02,330
where the idea is to hold other jurisdictions responsible for the drinks.

1479
02:19:02,390 --> 02:19:03,390
Well, we've got to start somewhere.

1480
02:19:04,050 --> 02:19:12,470
So I agree with Mr. Coffle that's probably going to be re-limited on how well we can enforce it, but I'm willing to.

1481
02:19:13,610 --> 02:19:20,930
I think we should say, hey, if you're not supposed to do this and put a little teeth we can into it.

1482
02:19:21,630 --> 02:19:22,410
So thank you.

1483
02:19:23,130 --> 02:19:31,170
Mr. Jackson, I was just going to kind of ask the hypothetical, I mean, so in the instance, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol did this we knew who that was.

1484
02:19:31,170 --> 02:19:39,990
I mean, how well does that look for that individual's record whenever they go for their promotion or whatever they may do in their job that you have outstanding charges sitting in some other city and state?

1485
02:19:40,510 --> 02:19:44,490
These things actually will have repercussions in their professional lives if you don't take care of them.

1486
02:19:44,650 --> 02:19:49,550
And certainly for any peace officer cannot incur a criminal charge.

1487
02:19:49,550 --> 02:20:02,910
So, you know, it's, there's teeth to it in another way than just, you know, the criminal penalty, the fact that, you know, some people you have a professional job, you cannot have any blemishes on, you know, can make a difference.

1488
02:20:03,070 --> 02:20:13,430
As well as healthcare facilities are dropping off patients that cannot care for themselves, that is certainly tarnishing the reputation of the healthcare facility.

1489
02:20:13,430 --> 02:20:16,670
So I, is it perfect?

1490
02:20:17,010 --> 02:20:19,010
No, but I think it's got some really good framework to it.

1491
02:20:19,110 --> 02:20:27,230
And I appreciate, you know, the legal team here at the city working on that with Councilman Bard, and I'm a supporter of this, so thank you.

1492
02:20:28,330 --> 02:20:30,610
Mr. Bard, thank you, Mayor.

1493
02:20:31,070 --> 02:20:40,650
Well, this also include any entity or agency inside the city that will knowingly bring in an individual with no purpose of

1494
02:20:40,650 --> 02:20:43,770
giving him bedding or an overnight?

1495
02:20:44,570 --> 02:20:47,370
No, this is meant for.

1496
02:20:48,070 --> 02:20:49,470
Outside agencies only.

1497
02:20:49,510 --> 02:20:53,250
Really to hold outside jurisdictions responsible.

1498
02:20:54,120 --> 02:21:02,910
This is really not directed toward any entity operating within the city.

1499
02:21:03,670 --> 02:21:04,710
Thank you.

1500
02:21:06,520 --> 02:21:07,460
Anyone else?

1501
02:21:07,460 --> 02:21:08,340
I

1502
02:21:10,780 --> 02:21:31,700
think what I'm hearing, and I like things, you know, kind of country boy language to me, we don't want, and we're putting our foot down and saying, if you violate this ordinance, we're going to try to hold you to account.

1503
02:21:31,700 --> 02:21:39,320
You can not knowingly just put somebody in a vehicle and bring them to the streets of Joplin and drop them off and say, good luck.

1504
02:21:40,480 --> 02:21:42,120
That's not how this is going to work.

1505
02:21:42,760 --> 02:21:56,600
I think, without going into gory details, that the city of Joplin has adequate evidence to be able to present that this has occurred in our city in the past.

1506
02:21:56,600 --> 02:22:08,980
Without sitting up here in naming names, we know of some reputable organizations that have violated the spirit of this ordinance.

1507
02:22:09,700 --> 02:22:23,300
And I think what we're saying is we love our neighbors, but you cannot bring people and just drop them on the streets of this community without good reason for that.

1508
02:22:23,300 --> 02:22:31,480
And you should be responsible for that if you in fact do do that and we're putting in an ordinance in place

1509
02:22:31,480 --> 02:22:35,140
It's going to help us hold you responsible for that

1510
02:22:37,120 --> 02:22:39,980
So council we have heard testimony on

1511
02:22:40,960 --> 02:22:44,780
Council bill 2025-012 chair will entertain a motion

1512
02:22:44,780 --> 02:22:45,780
Mr.

1513
02:22:49,610 --> 02:22:55,590
Barrett I move that council bill 2025-01 to be passed on first reading advanced second third

1514
02:22:55,590 --> 02:22:56,110
Second.

1515
02:22:56,790 --> 02:23:02,730
Motion's been made and properly seconded for the approval of Council Bill 2025-012 on first

1516
02:23:02,730 --> 02:23:05,190
reading and advance the second and third, please vote.

1517
02:23:06,730 --> 02:23:08,930
Motion carries nine in favor.

1518
02:23:09,970 --> 02:23:10,730
Next item, please.

1519
02:23:11,390 --> 02:23:12,910
Council Bill number 2025-279.

1520
02:23:13,590 --> 02:23:18,690
In ordinance emitting the Joplin Development Code, ordinance number 2022-119 passed by the

1521
02:23:18,690 --> 02:23:23,570
Council of the City of Joplin, Missouri, August 1st, 2022, being appendix 29A of the Joplin

1522
02:23:23,570 --> 02:23:24,230
municipal code.

1523
02:23:24,770 --> 02:23:31,130
Mr. Bolander. Good evening. Good evening. And I won't be up here too long. As you know, we've held two public

1524
02:23:31,130 --> 02:23:37,110
hearings on this in the work session. Hopefully you guys have a understanding of what we're proposing

1525
02:23:37,110 --> 02:23:44,090
to amendments to our zoning code. Most of them are just corrections. We've moved some language over

1526
02:23:44,090 --> 02:23:51,270
from our previous code. And we did add a few new things to it that just here to answer any last questions

1527
02:23:51,270 --> 02:23:54,550
you may have it, have of it, but we recommend approval of the code.

1528
02:23:56,270 --> 02:23:56,710
Council,

1529
02:23:58,920 --> 02:24:00,420
thank you, Troy. I see no questions.

1530
02:24:02,040 --> 02:24:06,840
Council, we've heard testimony on Council Bill 2025-279, Chair, we'll entertain a motion.

1531
02:24:07,320 --> 02:24:08,780
Mr. Mayor. Mr. Comple.

1532
02:24:09,300 --> 02:24:14,240
I move for the passage of Council Bill 2025-279 on first reading,

1533
02:24:14,380 --> 02:24:16,000
advance the second and third. Second.

1534
02:24:16,300 --> 02:24:18,620
Motion is made and properly seconded for the approval.

1535
02:24:18,620 --> 02:24:24,940
Council Bill 2025-279 on first reading, advanced second and third, please vote.

1536
02:24:28,510 --> 02:24:29,270
Please vote.

1537
02:24:29,790 --> 02:24:31,990
Motion carries nine in favor.

1538
02:24:32,450 --> 02:24:33,090
Next item, please.

1539
02:24:33,630 --> 02:24:40,290
Council Bill number 2025-286, an ordinance approving a purchase order to be issued to Coral and Ford Republic.

1540
02:24:40,570 --> 02:24:48,230
To cover the cost of three, 2025 Ford Ranger 4x4 crew cabs, for the total of $113,168.

1541
02:24:48,230 --> 02:24:52,050
$100 and $0.88, within the approved city of Joblin, fiscal year 2024,

1542
02:24:52,370 --> 02:24:56,170
2025, budget with an effective date of November 4th, 2025.

1543
02:24:58,590 --> 02:25:04,230
Just to be my last one for tonight, so this is a administrative request as you are aware.

1544
02:25:05,150 --> 02:25:10,550
Anything, any purchase orders, over $100,000 we have to bring before this body for approval.

1545
02:25:11,110 --> 02:25:14,770
This was actually in our current budget, so we're not amending anything.

1546
02:25:15,750 --> 02:25:22,430
your last budget approval, you allocated $120,000 to purchase three vehicles for

1547
02:25:22,430 --> 02:25:24,750
neighborhood services as replacement vehicles.

1548
02:25:25,690 --> 02:25:32,130
What we are replacing, or like I said, three vehicles, two of them are 20, 10,

1549
02:25:32,310 --> 02:25:36,330
four to rangers, and one of them is a 2009 four to ranger.

1550
02:25:36,590 --> 02:25:38,930
So those are the vehicles replacing the neighborhood services.

1551
02:25:38,930 --> 02:25:41,290
because we did put out a bid.

1552
02:25:42,010 --> 02:25:44,450
The lowest bid was submitted by Quorum Ford,

1553
02:25:45,490 --> 02:25:48,530
other republic for $113,200.

1554
02:25:49,570 --> 02:25:51,070
So we are a little bit under budget.

1555
02:25:51,470 --> 02:25:54,410
So we recommend that you use up this bid,

1556
02:25:54,890 --> 02:25:58,730
and we'll proceed with putting together a purchase order.

1557
02:26:01,250 --> 02:26:02,070
Questions, council?

1558
02:26:03,650 --> 02:26:04,170
Mr. Copeland?

1559
02:26:06,180 --> 02:26:09,180
Just because of all of the budget conversations we've had

1560
02:26:09,180 --> 02:26:16,360
before. I'm curious, Mr. City Manager, so we're going to approve this, but this will end

1561
02:26:16,360 --> 02:26:24,660
up being a, I'm sorry, I can't remember the term, but we're going to carry it over in

1562
02:26:24,660 --> 02:26:29,860
an incumbrance going on to the next budget because it won't be approved until after the

1563
02:26:29,860 --> 02:26:35,320
next meeting and then so many days after that. So we'll actually be in the 26th budget,

1564
02:26:35,320 --> 02:26:37,500
but we're approving it here and it'll just be

1565
02:26:37,500 --> 02:26:38,900
encumbered into the following budget.

1566
02:26:40,420 --> 02:26:41,620
That's correct, sir.

1567
02:26:41,820 --> 02:26:43,940
Unless we were to take approval before,

1568
02:26:46,620 --> 02:26:48,900
take, receive them before the 31st,

1569
02:26:48,900 --> 02:26:51,360
which I don't think is likely to have a date

1570
02:26:51,360 --> 02:26:52,700
when you'd receive those, Troy.

1571
02:26:53,060 --> 02:26:53,980
How can we take a,

1572
02:26:54,200 --> 02:26:56,000
how can we take possession of them

1573
02:26:56,000 --> 02:26:58,180
when we haven't approved the purchase of them?

1574
02:26:58,540 --> 02:26:59,700
That's what I'm saying.

1575
02:26:59,940 --> 02:27:02,360
It's, yeah, highly likely it'll be an error.

1576
02:27:03,000 --> 02:27:09,880
I just wanted to make sure I was clear on how I was going to play out and make sure everybody understands it's being

1577
02:27:09,880 --> 02:27:13,280
encumbered into. It's approved in this budget that will be encumbered into the next one.

1578
02:27:13,440 --> 02:27:15,140
They will get the next one. Thank you.

1579
02:27:16,220 --> 02:27:20,940
At a $6,800 savings to what we originally budgeted as well.

1580
02:27:21,460 --> 02:27:22,820
Yes. Any other questions?

1581
02:27:24,020 --> 02:27:25,020
Thank you, Mr. Bolander.

1582
02:27:26,160 --> 02:27:27,580
Council, we've heard testimony on this.

1583
02:27:27,720 --> 02:27:31,200
Council Bill 2025-286. Chair, we'll entertain a motion.

1584
02:27:33,200 --> 02:27:43,580
Mr. Farnham, Dr. Farnham, Mayor, I move that Council Bill number 2025-286 be passed on first reading in advance of second and third.

1585
02:27:43,940 --> 02:27:44,460
Second.

1586
02:27:45,100 --> 02:27:47,480
Motion's been made and properly seconded for the approval.

1587
02:27:48,020 --> 02:27:51,840
Council Bill 2025-286 on first reading, advance second and third, please vote.

1588
02:27:52,800 --> 02:27:55,440
Motion carries nine in favor, next item please.

1589
02:27:55,440 --> 02:28:22,760
Council Bill number 2025-541, an ordinance adopting a new step pay plan by reference, the City Salary Administration Plan, establishing the annual salary of certain classified and unclassified positions, and part-time seasonal positions, effective January 1st, 2026, adopting the new step pay plan by reference, the fire salary administration plan, establishing the annual salary of certain fire positions, effective January 1st, 2026, and setting the date when this ordinance shall become effective.

1590
02:28:22,760 --> 02:28:23,920
Ms. Haas.

1591
02:28:24,420 --> 02:28:25,040
Thank you, Mayor.

1592
02:28:25,920 --> 02:28:30,400
This council bill approves an updated general employee salary administration plan.

1593
02:28:30,860 --> 02:28:35,320
Fort time seasonal salary administration plan and the fire or salary administration plan.

1594
02:28:35,740 --> 02:28:38,420
By complying with House Bill 567,

1595
02:28:39,360 --> 02:28:44,860
pursuant to revised statute 290.500 through 290.502,

1596
02:28:45,020 --> 02:28:49,420
making the minimum wage $15 affected January 1, 2026,

1597
02:28:49,420 --> 02:28:52,460
which is now applicable to public employers.

1598
02:28:53,980 --> 02:29:01,400
Governor recently signed this House Bill and beginning August 28th, 2025.

1599
02:29:01,400 --> 02:29:07,100
Public employers in the state were required to pay non-exempt employees a minimum of 1375 per hour.

1600
02:29:07,660 --> 02:29:11,020
And starting January 1st, 2026, $15 per hour.

1601
02:29:12,360 --> 02:29:17,960
Prior to the passage of this bill, public employers were exempted from Missouri's minimum wage law.

1602
02:29:17,960 --> 02:29:20,860
And we're only required to follow the federal minimum wage.

1603
02:29:21,760 --> 02:29:30,660
In early September, City Council approved a modification to the Fire Pay Plan to address the firefighter EMT position that started below 1375 an hour.

1604
02:29:31,160 --> 02:29:41,240
On January 1st, 2026, there will be certain general employees, fire and part-time seasonal positions below the required minimum wage of $15 per hour.

1605
02:29:43,580 --> 02:29:56,850
So the new pay plans will be making adjustments for general employees, steps one through three of grade N1 and step one of grade N2 will be removed.

1606
02:29:56,850 --> 02:29:59,290
This will make the starting paper in 115.

1607
02:30:00,000 --> 02:30:10,960
29 per hour, which is $31,810 annually, and for in 2, 15, 72 an hour, which is $32,700 annually.

1608
02:30:11,580 --> 02:30:19,380
Or fire employee steps 4 through 6 will be removed from grade F2, while steps 1 through 3 will be removed from grade F4.

1609
02:30:19,920 --> 02:30:27,360
This will make the starting paper F2, 15, 36 per hour, which is $44,723 annually.

1610
02:30:27,360 --> 02:30:33,500
and 1583 per hour or $46,106 annually for F4.

1611
02:30:34,000 --> 02:30:39,500
The first grade on the part-time seasonal pay plan will be removed and combined with the second grade.

1612
02:30:40,040 --> 02:30:45,820
This will make the starting pay for those positions, $15.34 per hour.

1613
02:30:46,380 --> 02:30:50,180
There are six general plan employees impacted by the minimum wage change.

1614
02:30:50,840 --> 02:30:55,100
The total cost for implementing this short-term resolution is $18,000.

1615
02:30:55,100 --> 02:31:09,960
of which 15,000 is the estimated 2026 fiscal year cost of this amount, 8,300 represents the general fund cost with the remainder occurring in solid waste park storm, our sales tax and TST funds.

1616
02:31:10,840 --> 02:31:13,920
These amounts are included in the 2026 budget.

1617
02:31:14,580 --> 02:31:20,460
There are 34 fire plan employees impacted by this minimum wage change, so it will estimated cost for

1618
02:31:20,460 --> 02:31:27,920
For implementing the short-term resolution is $147,000, while the fiscal year cost is $122,500.

1619
02:31:28,380 --> 02:31:35,260
The amount is split approximately $57,500 to the general fund and $65,000 to the public safety sales tax fund.

1620
02:31:35,780 --> 02:31:38,500
And again, these are included in the 26th budget.

1621
02:31:39,740 --> 02:31:43,860
It is more difficult to project the impact of the seasonal pay plan.

1622
02:31:44,500 --> 02:31:51,340
However, we're projecting 56,000 in the parks fund for 2026, which has been included in the budget.

1623
02:31:52,780 --> 02:31:57,160
Removing steps from the current pay plans to meet the state mandate is a short term solution.

1624
02:31:57,300 --> 02:32:01,580
The short term solution does create compression for the general employee and fire pay plans.

1625
02:32:01,960 --> 02:32:06,700
This compression doesn't retain the internal equity that has been previously established.

1626
02:32:07,340 --> 02:32:10,820
This will certainly need to be addressed through a long term solution,

1627
02:32:10,820 --> 02:32:25,040
which we are currently working on, however, the long term solution to address compression and internal equity caused by the unfunded state minimum wage mandate, as well as overall wages will require a new funding source.

1628
02:32:25,780 --> 02:32:35,120
We did discuss this during the budget work sessions, and this will not go into effect until January 1st, but staff recommends approval of this council bill on first reading.

1629
02:32:37,480 --> 02:32:40,560
Council, any questions for City Finance, Director?

1630
02:32:43,370 --> 02:32:44,870
Seeing none, Chair, we'll entertain a motion.

1631
02:32:45,070 --> 02:32:45,450
Mr. Mayor.

1632
02:32:45,970 --> 02:32:46,610
Mr. Dittar.

1633
02:32:46,730 --> 02:32:50,890
I move for the approval of Council Bill 2025-41 on first reading.

1634
02:32:50,890 --> 02:32:52,010
Advance the second and third.

1635
02:32:52,210 --> 02:32:52,490
The second.

1636
02:32:53,070 --> 02:32:55,270
Motion is made and probably seconded for the approval.

1637
02:32:55,490 --> 02:32:55,630
I've found.

1638
02:32:58,190 --> 02:33:03,750
Council Bill 2025-541 on first reading, advance the second and third, please vote.

1639
02:33:05,430 --> 02:33:08,250
Motion carries eight in favor with one abstention.

1640
02:33:08,250 --> 02:33:09,630
and next item, please.

1641
02:33:10,710 --> 02:33:15,350
Council Bill number 2025-619, in order to prevent a memorandum of understanding and

1642
02:33:15,350 --> 02:33:19,170
an agreement by and between the City of Joplin, Missouri, a municipal corporation and

1643
02:33:19,170 --> 02:33:23,570
Joplin family YMCA, response or ship rights on the premises of the 10 cup trail,

1644
02:33:23,710 --> 02:33:28,030
authorizing the city manager to execute said memorandum of understanding and

1645
02:33:28,030 --> 02:33:32,250
agreement, and such other documents as may be necessary, by and on behalf of the City of Joplin, Missouri.

1646
02:33:32,250 --> 02:33:33,970
Any more?

1647
02:33:34,270 --> 02:33:34,770
Any more?

1648
02:33:37,490 --> 02:33:38,330
A little bit of background.

1649
02:33:38,730 --> 02:33:45,050
If you remember in January of 2024, our public works director, Dan Johnson presented

1650
02:33:45,050 --> 02:33:51,190
to City Council, the potential agreement between the Joplin Family YMCA and the City of Joplin

1651
02:33:51,190 --> 02:33:59,410
for dedicating easements for the construction of the Tinkup Trail, which was valued at that time of $130,000.

1652
02:34:00,230 --> 02:34:10,910
In turn, the city would enter into this agreement, allowing the job and family why, the sponsorship rights at the bridge, trailhead, and the other two trailheads on the team cup trail.

1653
02:34:11,530 --> 02:34:21,250
Those two other trailheads would be the one off a 30 second street in front of the Y and then off of Glendale down there by Mac and

1654
02:34:21,250 --> 02:34:25,190
in Doe Park, that was included in your packet, a map.

1655
02:34:26,390 --> 02:34:36,190
All the sponsorship rights, naming rights, or assignments would be approved in riding by the city prior to any placement on any signage on the premises.

1656
02:34:37,790 --> 02:34:39,390
Also a little bit of background.

1657
02:34:39,830 --> 02:34:50,490
The total project expense for the 10 cup trail, including the bridge is just under $3.3 million, the 10 cup trail and bridge is funded from two separate funds.

1658
02:34:50,490 --> 02:34:57,070
We have a contract with Hartman in the amount of 1.6 million for the trail, which is funded by parks and

1659
02:34:57,070 --> 02:35:08,430
storm our sales tax, and Elements has the contract for the bridge, which is just under, it's that 1.6 million funded from the ARPA and TST.

1660
02:35:09,130 --> 02:35:14,050
Funding source is not apical in this, and staff recommends this on first reading.

1661
02:35:15,920 --> 02:35:18,220
Council, any questions for Mr. Bloomberg?

1662
02:35:21,540 --> 02:35:22,580
Paul Cena, thank you.

1663
02:35:23,620 --> 02:35:26,000
We've heard testimony, Council Chair, we'll entertain a motion.

1664
02:35:26,900 --> 02:35:27,600
Mr. Mayor.

1665
02:35:28,260 --> 02:35:28,840
Mr. Lawson.

1666
02:35:29,140 --> 02:35:40,120
In honor of Mr. Estrada, who has spent the night with us, I move that council bill number of 2025-619 be approved on first reading.

1667
02:35:40,500 --> 02:35:40,660
Second.

1668
02:35:41,240 --> 02:35:42,020
Second.

1669
02:35:42,500 --> 02:35:50,460
The motion is made and properly seconded for the approval of Council Bill 2025-619 on 1st Street in advance of 2nd and 3rd.

1670
02:35:50,460 --> 02:35:50,920
Please vote.

1671
02:35:52,460 --> 02:35:55,020
That motion passes 9 in favor.

1672
02:35:55,400 --> 02:35:56,160
Next item, please.

1673
02:35:56,480 --> 02:35:58,660
Council Bill, number 2025-620.

1674
02:35:58,900 --> 02:36:10,780
In order to prove in a contract by and between the City of Joplin and Joplin industrial electric company in the amount of $1,698,100 for park security lighting installation authorizing the city manager to execute.

1675
02:36:10,780 --> 02:36:20,840
You said contract by on behalf of the City of Joplin and amending the annual budget of the City of Joplin for fiscal year 2025, 2026 as adopted by an ordinance 2025-145 on October 20th, 2025.

1676
02:36:21,340 --> 02:36:22,020
You're back.

1677
02:36:22,340 --> 02:36:22,660
I'm back.

1678
02:36:23,140 --> 02:36:23,500
All right.

1679
02:36:23,960 --> 02:36:26,580
It's weird to see having up here twice, isn't it, in one night.

1680
02:36:26,940 --> 02:36:27,540
Usually it's just one.

1681
02:36:29,240 --> 02:36:36,060
Again, I like to give a little bit of background in my ordinance's security lighting and security cameras.

1682
02:36:36,060 --> 02:36:41,680
As our voter approved projects through the phase three of the quarter cent parks and

1683
02:36:41,680 --> 02:36:47,720
stormwater sales tax, the security lighting will make our parks safer, which was a high priority

1684
02:36:47,720 --> 02:36:54,520
based on the comments from our citizens during our parks master plan process, also during

1685
02:36:54,520 --> 02:36:56,040
the city manager's listening tour.

1686
02:36:57,140 --> 02:37:03,280
The parks that will be included in this project are Leonard E. Wirt, Landruth, Humphrey,

1687
02:37:03,280 --> 02:37:05,420
Garvin, Cunningham, and Parhill.

1688
02:37:06,160 --> 02:37:10,480
Mercy Park has already been done, has already been completed.

1689
02:37:11,740 --> 02:37:16,400
Both of these projects were originally included in the fiscal year 2025 approved budget.

1690
02:37:16,760 --> 02:37:24,880
However, because this ordinance will not be effective until November, this item includes a fiscal year 2026 budget amendment for

1691
02:37:24,880 --> 02:37:34,060
parks and stormwater sales tax fund an amount of $1.6 million, $1.1 million, $698,100.

1692
02:37:35,140 --> 02:37:40,320
The security camera RFP is being advertised this week and will be brought to the City Council

1693
02:37:40,320 --> 02:37:41,240
in the near future.

1694
02:37:43,180 --> 02:37:53,360
The original security ligand estimate came in, well, was $1,510 million while the security

1695
02:37:53,360 --> 02:37:56,040
a camera estimate was 300 million.

1696
02:37:56,580 --> 02:38:09,400
This item includes $1,568,000 for the Security Liding Project while there is 130,000 included

1697
02:38:09,400 --> 02:38:11,980
for the conduit for the Security Camera Project.

1698
02:38:12,760 --> 02:38:17,900
Additionally, Security Liding at Mercy Park has already been installed as part of the overall

1699
02:38:17,900 --> 02:38:29,920
security lighting project in the amount of $122,271 on the back side that you all

1700
02:38:29,920 --> 02:38:36,220
receive is a breakdown of the budget. It kind of explains it a little bit

1701
02:38:36,220 --> 02:38:45,020
better. So you can see the security lighting original budget was $1,510,000 less

1702
02:38:45,020 --> 02:38:52,160
the mercy park security lighting, which was 122,000 less than the Joplin Industrial Electric

1703
02:38:52,160 --> 02:38:58,860
Actual Security Lighting Contract, which was 1,568,000.

1704
02:38:58,860 --> 02:39:02,780
So we have a total over original budget of 180,000.

1705
02:39:03,560 --> 02:39:12,320
The security camera budget, original budgets 300,000 less, the actual bid for the conduit

1706
02:39:12,320 --> 02:39:15,940
of 130,000 in this security camera lighting.

1707
02:39:16,720 --> 02:39:20,520
So the remaining balance, we have 170,000.

1708
02:39:21,140 --> 02:39:23,920
So with all those numbers thrown at you,

1709
02:39:24,680 --> 02:39:26,420
the overrun on the security lighting,

1710
02:39:26,840 --> 02:39:31,720
original budget will be funded by the combination of three ways.

1711
02:39:32,240 --> 02:39:35,340
Either one, some approved projects coming in under budget,

1712
02:39:35,700 --> 02:39:37,300
such as the Mercy Electrical,

1713
02:39:37,440 --> 02:39:41,040
which we did come in under that project, $56,000.

1714
02:39:43,020 --> 02:39:54,820
two rolled funding from phase two of the parks and stormwater sales tax or three higher than projected sales tax revenue over the next ten years, ten year life of the tax.

1715
02:39:55,740 --> 02:40:08,600
The funding source for this project includes a budget amendment for the fiscal year of 2026 parks and stormwater sales tax fund and staff recommends this approval on council bill first reading.

1716
02:40:09,920 --> 02:40:10,600
That was a lot.

1717
02:40:11,580 --> 02:40:12,800
You did talk a lot.

1718
02:40:13,120 --> 02:40:13,440
A lot.

1719
02:40:14,400 --> 02:40:15,220
Councilor Mr. Jackson.

1720
02:40:17,200 --> 02:40:20,620
I imagine this is probably more of a question for Mr. Edwards than he'll probably have to let us leave it.

1721
02:40:22,140 --> 02:40:31,080
Without the funding being certain as to what we're going to finance this, I mean, why not look at an option of the parks department through the parks and storm water sales tax will.

1722
02:40:31,840 --> 02:40:36,180
You know, far from the reserves and pay that back with the parks and storm water sales tax funds.

1723
02:40:36,180 --> 02:40:43,600
I think we need to have a defined funding mechanism before we just execute a check for almost $1.7 million as my concern.

1724
02:40:45,240 --> 02:40:48,860
Mr. Jackson, I think that's exactly what Paul laid out.

1725
02:40:49,020 --> 02:40:51,700
We already know we have savings from one of our projects.

1726
02:40:52,860 --> 02:41:02,840
And then revenue due to the parks and stormwater, the parks fund from the parks and stormwater sales tax over 10 year period.

1727
02:41:03,720 --> 02:41:08,720
We feel really confident in that being over and above the estimate.

1728
02:41:09,180 --> 02:41:13,300
And then there's still room for cost savings within the projects themselves.

1729
02:41:13,700 --> 02:41:21,780
So we feel confident that we can absorb this cost within the parks fund using the parks storm on our sales tax.

1730
02:41:22,960 --> 02:41:28,400
But just to make it more clean when it be better to say, let's borrow the funds from the reserves and then over time pay that back.

1731
02:41:28,960 --> 02:41:34,210
I mean, I don't think that's necessary.

1732
02:41:34,210 --> 02:41:38,850
Secretary, Mr. Jackson, but Leslie, do you have a cleaner way of doing it?

1733
02:41:39,790 --> 02:41:47,090
One of the comments during my evaluation was to have greater understanding of the finance,

1734
02:41:47,410 --> 02:41:52,250
the total picture, as was mentioned, and so we're trying to include as much of that information

1735
02:41:52,250 --> 02:41:53,850
as we can in these council bells.

1736
02:41:54,730 --> 02:41:59,030
Yeah, so essentially that is what we're doing, Mr. Jackson, and the fact that March 12,

1737
02:41:59,030 --> 02:42:06,090
From our sales tax, we collect that money for a long time period and then we do the project.

1738
02:42:06,350 --> 02:42:07,890
So the money is sitting there in reserves.

1739
02:42:09,190 --> 02:42:19,310
What we're showing on this council bill, as Nick has said, is what you all have asked for to see the whole picture, but the money is there.

1740
02:42:19,890 --> 02:42:26,730
The only reason the budget is being a minute is because it was actually included in 2025 just didn't quite get done.

1741
02:42:26,730 --> 02:42:28,770
So we need to amend 2026.

1742
02:42:32,310 --> 02:42:34,030
Mr. St. Andrew County, crack at this?

1743
02:42:36,360 --> 02:42:37,880
Mr. Mayor, can I take a crack at this?

1744
02:42:38,720 --> 02:42:39,760
Yes, go right ahead.

1745
02:42:39,760 --> 02:42:41,180
I'm going to point it at you, so I'm going to go ahead.

1746
02:42:42,120 --> 02:42:46,120
You said Parks and Stormwater Phase 2, which is the one

1747
02:42:46,120 --> 02:42:47,400
that's wrapping up right now.

1748
02:42:47,820 --> 02:42:50,340
It's not Phase 3, which we're getting ready to go into.

1749
02:42:50,900 --> 02:42:54,240
So between what we saved at St. John's,

1750
02:42:54,360 --> 02:43:00,900
plus the fund balances in the Parks and Stormwater

1751
02:43:00,900 --> 02:43:07,580
phase two because we always keep contingency money plus cost saving so we will have that

1752
02:43:07,580 --> 02:43:12,220
money left over in phase two. Once it finally is complete we have one or two more projects

1753
02:43:12,720 --> 02:43:18,340
left to finish out of phase two. So once that's done we'll know exactly what's there but

1754
02:43:18,340 --> 02:43:24,180
we are talking about taking it out of the reserve balances from parks and storm water phase

1755
02:43:24,180 --> 02:43:30,700
two to pay for that which will already be there. We just have to let everything finish

1756
02:43:30,700 --> 02:43:32,180
before we know exactly what's there.

1757
02:43:33,080 --> 02:43:33,540
Is that it?

1758
02:43:33,680 --> 02:43:34,280
Is that appropriate?

1759
02:43:34,740 --> 02:43:34,860
Yes.

1760
02:43:38,440 --> 02:43:39,400
You're good, Mr. Jackson.

1761
02:43:40,080 --> 02:43:40,760
Anyone else?

1762
02:43:41,060 --> 02:43:41,580
Mr. Copp?

1763
02:43:42,820 --> 02:43:45,440
Mr. Bloomberg, just so everybody's clear,

1764
02:43:46,340 --> 02:43:49,540
we lined out this project in 2024.

1765
02:43:50,100 --> 02:43:51,260
We put it together.

1766
02:43:51,520 --> 02:43:54,060
We said this is what the engineers asked us

1767
02:43:54,060 --> 02:43:55,640
is what we thought it was gonna cost.

1768
02:43:56,140 --> 02:43:57,700
We're prior to 2024 maybe.

1769
02:43:58,000 --> 02:43:58,700
Prior to 2021.

1770
02:43:59,320 --> 02:44:02,260
Okay, so 2021, we said this project should cost.

1771
02:44:03,740 --> 02:44:11,400
$1.5 million, $1.510 million, and fast forward four years later, costs have gone up.

1772
02:44:11,600 --> 02:44:21,640
We didn't calculate the interest rates and supply chain issues to force prices up quite as high as what they did.

1773
02:44:22,220 --> 02:44:25,080
So that's where that project is.

1774
02:44:25,280 --> 02:44:30,280
This project wasn't specifically said in the budget that hey, this is what it's going to cost.

1775
02:44:30,280 --> 02:44:36,920
And then, okay, magically, six months later, we're off by a couple hundred thousand dollars.

1776
02:44:37,180 --> 02:44:40,920
It's, we're basing this off of a 2021 price.

1777
02:44:41,440 --> 02:44:47,140
That was adjusted for inflation, but our adjustment calculations weren't exactly right.

1778
02:44:47,540 --> 02:44:54,140
But that's the budget that we had, and this is reality, so that's why there's the numbers don't exactly line up.

1779
02:44:54,140 --> 02:44:54,760
Is that a fair assessment?

1780
02:44:55,340 --> 02:44:55,880
Yes, absolutely.

1781
02:44:55,880 --> 02:44:56,080
Absolutely.

1782
02:44:56,520 --> 02:44:56,960
Thanks, sir.

1783
02:45:00,910 --> 02:45:25,830
I see no other concerns, Mr. Bloomberg. Council, we've heard testimony on Council Bill 2025-620, Chair will entertain a motion. Mr. Mayor. Mr. Coppel. I move for the passage of Council Bill 2025-620 on first reading and advance the second and third. Second. Motion is made and probably seconded for the approval. Council Bill 2025-620 on first reading, advance second and third. Please vote.

1784
02:45:28,050 --> 02:45:29,810
Motion carries nine in favor.

1785
02:45:29,810 --> 02:45:32,570
Ordinance's second reading and third reading.

1786
02:45:32,830 --> 02:45:42,650
Council Bill number 2025-142, an ordinance approving amendment one to work authorization, OLS, two fours, OC, 001, was Olsen for

1787
02:45:42,650 --> 02:45:55,230
professional engineering consultation services and not take seat amount of $61,150 for the seventh street sanitary sewer relocation project in authorizing the city manager to

1788
02:45:56,450 --> 02:46:02,390
Or his designated execute the same by on behalf of the City of Chaplin and setting a date when this ordinance shall become effective.

1789
02:46:04,240 --> 02:46:04,840
All right.

1790
02:46:05,060 --> 02:46:07,720
Council, we've heard previous testimony on this council bill.

1791
02:46:07,880 --> 02:46:08,580
Is there any discussion?

1792
02:46:10,670 --> 02:46:12,310
Seeing none, Chair, we'll entertain a motion.

1793
02:46:12,730 --> 02:46:13,110
Mr. Mayor.

1794
02:46:13,590 --> 02:46:14,150
Mr. G. Tar.

1795
02:46:14,790 --> 02:46:18,010
The music council bill, 2025-142.

1796
02:46:18,190 --> 02:46:20,810
We passed on second reading, advance to third reading and passed.

1797
02:46:21,450 --> 02:46:21,570
Second.

1798
02:46:22,590 --> 02:46:26,030
Motion's been made and probably segreded for the approval of council bill 2025.

1799
02:46:26,030 --> 02:46:31,510
5-1-4-2 on second read and advance the third reading in the past, please vote.

1800
02:46:32,930 --> 02:46:34,970
Motion carries nine in favor.

1801
02:46:35,490 --> 02:46:36,470
Unfinished business.

1802
02:46:36,690 --> 02:46:37,310
We have none.

1803
02:46:37,610 --> 02:46:38,110
New business.

1804
02:46:38,570 --> 02:46:41,370
We have four residents that would like to address council.

1805
02:46:44,150 --> 02:46:44,890
Katie Callahan.

1806
02:46:46,510 --> 02:46:47,630
Say the name again.

1807
02:46:48,250 --> 02:46:49,350
Katie Callahan.

1808
02:46:49,910 --> 02:46:52,730
Katie Callahan, you've been called to the podium.

1809
02:46:52,730 --> 02:46:54,150
If you're in a building, please approach.

1810
02:46:56,500 --> 02:46:57,420
Next presenter, please.

1811
02:46:57,420 --> 02:46:57,560
Thanks.

1812
02:46:57,700 --> 02:46:58,660
Taylor Stewart.

1813
02:47:00,340 --> 02:47:01,140
Taylor Stewart.

1814
02:47:01,300 --> 02:47:03,120
You've been called to the podium and council chambers.

1815
02:47:03,720 --> 02:47:04,700
Please approach the podium.

1816
02:47:06,220 --> 02:47:07,360
Next presenter, please.

1817
02:47:08,400 --> 02:47:09,220
Shawna Fisher.

1818
02:47:09,740 --> 02:47:10,000
Do

1819
02:47:18,000 --> 02:47:18,760
you need Mrs. Fisher?

1820
02:47:19,160 --> 02:47:20,440
Please state your name for the record.

1821
02:47:20,560 --> 02:47:21,300
You'll have five minutes.

1822
02:47:21,880 --> 02:47:22,320
Yes, ma'am.

1823
02:47:22,540 --> 02:47:23,120
Yes, sir.

1824
02:47:23,320 --> 02:47:24,220
My name is Shawna Fisher.

1825
02:47:24,640 --> 02:47:25,900
Good evening, councilor.

1826
02:47:25,900 --> 02:47:26,500
Good evening, Mayor.

1827
02:47:27,220 --> 02:47:32,200
I'm here today to explain to you guys what has happened in the city of Joplin.

1828
02:47:32,200 --> 02:47:33,300
I

1829
02:47:35,350 --> 02:47:37,410
can't see well, so I'm going to have to take close to my paper.

1830
02:47:38,030 --> 02:47:43,530
I'm a resident and a mother and a grandmother, and here tonight to speak, not just for myself,

1831
02:47:43,870 --> 02:47:50,550
but for other citizens who have, who deserve justice, fairness, and accountability in this city.

1832
02:47:51,230 --> 02:47:52,230
For several years,

1833
02:47:56,250 --> 02:48:04,670
several years, I have witnessed and been subject to systematic and coordinated

1834
02:48:04,670 --> 02:48:09,310
efforts by certain Joplin City officials, police officers, prosecutors, judges, and courts

1835
02:48:09,310 --> 02:48:15,230
deny me due process, target me with retaliation, and violate my constitutional rights, simply

1836
02:48:15,230 --> 02:48:20,330
because I refuse to be silent about wrongdoing. Here's what I like to experience. I had been

1837
02:48:20,330 --> 02:48:26,050
unlawfully arrested multiple times, most recently just last week, often for minor or pretractual

1838
02:48:26,590 --> 02:48:31,850
reasons, such as protesting peacefully or allegedly having an expired driver's license.

1839
02:48:31,850 --> 02:48:38,150
In these incidents, incidents, I was subjected to excessive force and humiliating restraint,

1840
02:48:38,450 --> 02:48:43,230
including being placed in a restraining chair, denied medical care for hours, and mocked

1841
02:48:43,230 --> 02:48:44,010
by jail staff.

1842
02:48:44,790 --> 02:48:51,950
I am aware of a 2016 incident where the City of Joplin's tax payed out $250,000 for a

1843
02:48:51,950 --> 02:48:54,230
similar incident as to what just happened to me.

1844
02:48:55,670 --> 02:49:00,250
I have been denied my right to access court records, denied the ability to file motions,

1845
02:49:00,250 --> 02:49:02,850
or to intervene in cases affecting my family

1846
02:49:02,850 --> 02:49:04,430
and barred from attending hearings,

1847
02:49:04,930 --> 02:49:07,090
can starting my own grandchildren and my property.

1848
02:49:07,790 --> 02:49:11,110
Court clerks and judges have refused to accept

1849
02:49:11,570 --> 02:49:11,890
the

1850
02:49:17,870 --> 02:49:18,530
other page.

1851
02:49:20,130 --> 02:49:23,330
You can use the other side motions

1852
02:49:23,330 --> 02:49:25,250
and other things filed in their courts.

1853
02:49:29,020 --> 02:49:31,260
Now, when I was arrested this last week,

1854
02:49:31,800 --> 02:49:34,320
I was taken into custody the protesting

1855
02:49:34,620 --> 02:49:36,780
and they made allegations that I had

1856
02:49:36,780 --> 02:49:38,720
They inspired drivers license, I wasn't driving.

1857
02:49:39,240 --> 02:49:40,180
I was drove there.

1858
02:49:40,840 --> 02:49:43,580
Joplin City prosecutors office and the code enforcement

1859
02:49:43,580 --> 02:49:45,500
have repeatedly issued ordinance violations,

1860
02:49:46,090 --> 02:49:47,940
not just to me, but to my landlords

1861
02:49:48,410 --> 02:49:51,140
with the threat that they must pursue an addiction against me

1862
02:49:51,140 --> 02:49:53,040
or face prosecution themselves.

1863
02:49:53,740 --> 02:49:55,340
After my landlords agreed to evict me

1864
02:49:55,340 --> 02:49:57,900
the city dropped their charges, that's a piece of process.

1865
02:49:58,860 --> 02:50:02,620
When my grandchildren were taken in to protect the custody,

1866
02:50:03,340 --> 02:50:04,940
it was based on false allegations

1867
02:50:04,940 --> 02:50:20,000
Despite my lifelong relationship with them, I was denied the chance to be placement option to even see or speak with them for three years. I have not had any contact with my grandchildren or be able to participate in their hearings or anything that's decided for their faith.

1868
02:50:20,000 --> 02:50:26,280
When I have spoken that file sunshine and way of request and protested I have been met with

1869
02:50:26,280 --> 02:50:31,480
recalculation more false charges and origin from the city officials who believe they are

1870
02:50:31,480 --> 02:50:32,280
above accountability.

1871
02:50:32,820 --> 02:50:37,680
I have been laughed at and told that nothing will happen and that they are protected because

1872
02:50:37,680 --> 02:50:38,340
of politics.

1873
02:50:39,020 --> 02:50:43,540
I have video and audio evidence of export taking indications between judges and court clerks

1874
02:50:43,540 --> 02:50:49,280
violating proper procedure officers using excessive force and city employees mocking my attempts

1875
02:50:49,280 --> 02:50:54,500
to suggest this. This issue has been addressed several times with the chief in person and

1876
02:50:54,500 --> 02:51:02,860
in many messages in e-mail since April. Many times through e-mailed a message, my concerns

1877
02:51:02,860 --> 02:51:07,540
have been completely ignored, which has directly led to this most recent incident, while I was

1878
02:51:07,540 --> 02:51:13,700
physically assaulted by an officer overseeing jail facilities. It's this kind of thing, it's

1879
02:51:13,700 --> 02:51:18,600
kind of thing can happen to us this and has broken no law and no violence, not to myself

1880
02:51:18,600 --> 02:51:21,180
or to anyone else, I can only imagine the things

1881
02:51:21,180 --> 02:51:23,480
of these people are capable of doing to someone

1882
02:51:23,480 --> 02:51:24,820
who has actually broken the law.

1883
02:51:27,160 --> 02:51:30,560
Okay, so basically in 2016 the city was sued

1884
02:51:30,560 --> 02:51:34,180
and paid out $250,000 for leaving a man in a chair,

1885
02:51:34,560 --> 02:51:36,840
the same restrained chair, they had me left in for hours,

1886
02:51:37,260 --> 02:51:38,720
for 20 hours causing his debt.

1887
02:51:40,480 --> 02:51:43,160
Now as they can do what they have done to me,

1888
02:51:43,620 --> 02:51:45,700
for calling the names, because that's all I did,

1889
02:51:45,820 --> 02:51:46,540
was called the names,

1890
02:51:47,080 --> 02:51:54,560
And not these were having me locked up for nothing or protesting against their corruption, but they can do that to me. They can do it to any

1891
02:51:54,560 --> 02:51:55,000
citizens.

1892
02:51:58,920 --> 02:52:08,140
And they're so thin skinned and they can't take a little bit of name call and maybe they need to go down to the flower shop or the local bakery and work instead of being carrying around badges and having that kind of power.

1893
02:52:08,420 --> 02:52:09,440
Seriously, that's really good.

1894
02:52:11,080 --> 02:52:14,320
Okay, so they have no business where wearing a badge.

1895
02:52:14,320 --> 02:52:21,920
We have no business in police officers and putting their violent hands on citizens who have no reason whatsoever other than they are

1896
02:52:21,920 --> 02:52:26,900
Tavable and have nobody stopping them and nobody holding them accountable. So

1897
02:52:30,260 --> 02:52:32,900
actually what happens to me? I was put into it. I was a

1898
02:52:32,900 --> 02:52:39,640
Prima- Shana. Shana hang on. Your time's up for just a moment. We're gonna see if any council members has any questions for you

1899
02:52:40,300 --> 02:52:40,780
Council.

1900
02:52:45,640 --> 02:52:46,980
I have a question. Are you done?

1901
02:52:47,840 --> 02:52:51,380
I just had one more statement. I would like her to

1902
02:52:52,360 --> 02:52:54,660
I would like to hear her for a statement.

1903
02:52:55,740 --> 02:52:57,860
Are you making a motion, Mr. Alza?

1904
02:53:00,510 --> 02:53:06,790
Motion is made in probably a second to give the presenter another 60 seconds to make her motion, make her point.

1905
02:53:07,410 --> 02:53:07,630
Yes, sir.

1906
02:53:07,730 --> 02:53:08,050
Please vote.

1907
02:53:08,670 --> 02:53:09,050
Yes, sir.

1908
02:53:09,450 --> 02:53:10,430
I was not playing motion.

1909
02:53:10,690 --> 02:53:12,990
Motion carries seven in favor with two opposed.

1910
02:53:13,330 --> 02:53:15,310
You have 60 seconds to finish up.

1911
02:53:15,730 --> 02:53:16,010
Yes, sir.

1912
02:53:16,570 --> 02:53:20,550
I would pre-state that I wasn't put into the chair.

1913
02:53:20,850 --> 02:53:23,250
I walked into the chair willingly and sat down in it.

1914
02:53:23,250 --> 02:53:24,510
Nobody put me anywhere.

1915
02:53:24,770 --> 02:53:26,310
I was not threatening anybody with any violence.

1916
02:53:27,050 --> 02:53:28,470
And while I was being strapped in,

1917
02:53:28,870 --> 02:53:31,170
I think what was done to me, my skin was ripped off of me,

1918
02:53:31,470 --> 02:53:33,010
my skin was pulling it so tight,

1919
02:53:33,570 --> 02:53:37,070
ripped my arms up above my, above this,

1920
02:53:37,330 --> 02:53:38,690
and kept me tied that way for hours.

1921
02:53:39,110 --> 02:53:42,330
While they were doing that, the lady in charge tilted my head

1922
02:53:42,330 --> 02:53:43,950
back, I didn't fight her, I let her do it.

1923
02:53:44,390 --> 02:53:46,430
It put both of her hands on the sides of my jaw

1924
02:53:46,430 --> 02:53:50,650
and applied as much pressure as she could to dislocate my jaw.

1925
02:53:50,650 --> 02:53:55,470
That's what this lady Jailor did to me with no violence whatsoever.

1926
02:53:55,790 --> 02:54:00,510
I've never threatened to police officer any violence, and that's all I have to say today, thank you.

1927
02:54:00,690 --> 02:54:01,370
Thank you, please.

1928
02:54:01,470 --> 02:54:06,530
I do have a copy of a letter of intent to file a civil rights lawsuit.

1929
02:54:06,830 --> 02:54:08,330
So I'll begin that to your court clerk.

1930
02:54:09,050 --> 02:54:10,250
All right, thank you, ma'am.

1931
02:54:12,340 --> 02:54:12,920
Thank you.

1932
02:54:17,160 --> 02:54:18,920
Mrs. Naush, next presenter, please.

1933
02:54:19,440 --> 02:54:20,320
Joe Shackles.

1934
02:54:31,620 --> 02:54:35,760
Evening, Mr. Shackles, I'll need you to state your name for the record and then you'll have five minutes.

1935
02:54:35,760 --> 02:54:43,140
Hello, my name is Josh Shackles, and I will try to keep my comments brief. I know it's been a long evening for everybody.

1936
02:54:43,600 --> 02:54:49,680
I did have a prepared statement. I'm going to throw that out the window, and I just kind of want to talk to you guys for just a second.

1937
02:54:50,200 --> 02:54:57,720
So I wear many hats in this community, and one of those hats is with our Convention and Visitors Bureau.

1938
02:54:57,720 --> 02:55:04,820
and I regularly ask the hoteliers what what problems are you facing in your

1939
02:55:04,820 --> 02:55:10,400
area and about a year ago we discussed that they may hire a private security

1940
02:55:10,400 --> 02:55:18,100
force to come and help remove trespassers from hotel properties. At our last

1941
02:55:18,100 --> 02:55:23,440
meeting I asked them the same question and they said Josh I don't know what you've

1942
02:55:23,440 --> 02:55:30,420
done, but you've solved the problem. Our hotels are safe. They're clean. Things are going well

1943
02:55:30,420 --> 02:55:40,280
for us. We're making money. So I feel like that's probably not me and probably a lot of other

1944
02:55:40,280 --> 02:55:47,020
people that are in this room that actually deserve that credit that they gave me. Another hat that I

1945
02:55:47,020 --> 02:55:53,740
aware is to care for our homeless population. And we did

1946
02:55:53,740 --> 02:55:58,020
recently have an issue where a lot of people did not really

1947
02:55:58,020 --> 02:56:02,220
understand what the camping ordinance means in practical

1948
02:56:02,220 --> 02:56:05,840
application. And we had a person that received

1949
02:56:05,840 --> 02:56:10,920
a citation. Of course, there were quite a few people as you may

1950
02:56:10,920 --> 02:56:15,960
have seen on social media that were upset by that. And I had

1951
02:56:15,960 --> 02:56:22,580
the opportunity to sit down with our chief of police and discuss that situation so that

1952
02:56:22,580 --> 02:56:28,500
I, as someone advocating for them, could actually understand what it was that that young woman

1953
02:56:29,400 --> 02:56:35,280
actually got in trouble for because I couldn't figure it out. She had only been on our bench

1954
02:56:35,280 --> 02:56:37,740
for a few moments to

1955
02:56:42,480 --> 02:56:50,040
help educate some of the volunteers and providers and people that were

1956
02:56:50,040 --> 02:56:56,540
interested in this situation, our mayor, Mr. Cortez, and our chief of police came and sat

1957
02:56:56,540 --> 02:57:03,320
down with many of those people. And I'm very thankful for the time that they spent to help explain

1958
02:57:03,320 --> 02:57:11,520
that. And I feel like I understand that ordinance a little better. But many of the people that

1959
02:57:11,520 --> 02:57:19,720
that ordinance might affect the most may not understand it very well. And so one of the things that

1960
02:57:19,720 --> 02:57:27,700
that I would like to see this council consider is to add signage near those benches that explains

1961
02:57:27,700 --> 02:57:35,580
the ordinance. That way, if somebody is to violate that ordinance, they know they're

1962
02:57:35,580 --> 02:57:41,700
about to violate an ordinance. It's not a surprise to them. Another thing that I would like

1963
02:57:41,700 --> 02:57:49,360
to see this council consider is perhaps open up the parking lot just across the street from

1964
02:57:49,360 --> 02:57:55,220
the police station as a safe to park location for people that are sleeping in their cars.

1965
02:57:55,980 --> 02:58:02,600
This would allow those people a safe place to be. It would allow public safety to keep an eye

1966
02:58:02,600 --> 02:58:08,520
on them to make sure that they are safe in our community. And it would allow providers a place

1967
02:58:08,520 --> 02:58:19,990
that we could know that we may encounter those people. Another potential solution that would

1968
02:58:19,990 --> 02:58:28,090
not cost a lot of money would be to find a location where we can add lockers to our

1969
02:58:28,090 --> 02:58:34,310
downtown perhaps even at our police station where officers can keep an eye on people's

1970
02:58:34,310 --> 02:58:38,890
public or personal belongings if they have nowhere else to keep them.

1971
02:58:40,090 --> 02:58:44,510
And then those belongings are not with them as they travel around our town.

1972
02:58:44,510 --> 02:58:56,830
And I think all of these things would mitigate some of the charges that people are seeing and help everybody live together in a little bit better harmony.

1973
02:58:57,510 --> 02:58:58,890
Thank you guys so much for your time.

1974
02:58:59,390 --> 02:59:01,790
I would answer any questions that anyone may have.

1975
02:59:02,870 --> 02:59:04,390
Thank you, Mr. Shackles.

1976
02:59:05,350 --> 02:59:05,970
Mr. Coppel.

1977
02:59:07,730 --> 02:59:11,770
Okay, so a couple of questions that I'm just going to play devil's advocate here for a minute.

1978
02:59:12,350 --> 02:59:20,450
So, we use a city lot and make it a safe space for people to stay in their cars and either

1979
02:59:20,450 --> 02:59:26,050
A, something happens to their vehicle or something happens to that person on that lot.

1980
02:59:28,450 --> 02:59:33,090
I could be wrong but I would think that would open the city up for some liability to that.

1981
02:59:34,570 --> 02:59:39,770
And you mentioned a couple of times that having it by the police station, you know, police

1982
02:59:39,770 --> 02:59:58,650
Police officers could keep an eye on things, but our police officers are out on the go, especially in the evenings there's not police officers assigned to the station because they're out patrolling and doing other things.

1983
03:00:00,000 --> 03:00:28,460
What happened to be in there for paperwork or they may happen to be processing a, you know, somebody to bring into the jail, but it's not a staffed location. So I don't know that that would have the desired effect that you're looking for. I personally feel like I would like to see a public restroom downtown, which could house, you know, lockers who, you know,

1984
03:00:28,460 --> 03:00:36,260
You know, like you're talking about, you know, maybe like bus station ones that are, you know, pay as you go, something to that effect.

1985
03:00:36,660 --> 03:00:51,140
So I'm not in disagreement with the concept, it's, you know, where, you know, where we can put those things or put those locations or put those amenities and a funding source for doing those.

1986
03:00:51,140 --> 03:00:59,900
Absolutely excellent questions and and I don't have all the right answers but as you guys said earlier we have to start somewhere.

1987
03:01:00,060 --> 03:01:17,320
And and hopefully these give you some ideas that we can dream about and come back to and maybe find some inexpensive ways to make life a little bit easier for the most vulnerable in our community.

1988
03:01:17,320 --> 03:01:27,720
and for business owners that then no longer have considerable amount of property left on their doorsteps.

1989
03:01:28,380 --> 03:01:30,400
And just good for everybody.

1990
03:01:32,300 --> 03:01:37,240
Mr. Bard, thank you, thank you, Josh, for coming and speaking tonight.

1991
03:01:38,080 --> 03:01:45,960
I would like to publicly or see if we could explore the idea of putting up some no-camping warning signs around certain areas.

1992
03:01:47,540 --> 03:01:58,440
If anything, it might give the idea that we're not, it's for everybody, the ordinances for everybody and it's on display for everyone to see.

1993
03:02:03,550 --> 03:02:12,350
I think we've struggled with that ordinance a little bit this year because while it is an ordinance and there's no excuse for ignorance of the law,

1994
03:02:12,350 --> 03:02:20,850
Many of the people that it most often affects don't have the ability to watch the news or

1995
03:02:20,850 --> 03:02:24,470
a phone to look up what the ordinances might be.

1996
03:02:24,770 --> 03:02:29,730
And when the encounter of police officer, they're left going, what did I do?

1997
03:02:31,730 --> 03:02:35,230
So hopefully that might help mitigate some of that problem.

1998
03:02:36,410 --> 03:02:37,350
Mr. Jackson.

1999
03:02:38,410 --> 03:02:54,370
Mr. Shackle, I do want to tell you thank you for your approach to the subject and trying to be more intentional with conversations and solutions and try to mitigate some of the emotion that came into this last week.

2000
03:02:55,510 --> 03:03:04,690
I appreciate your efforts to try to calm some of the personalities that we're doing things that could have been essentially been harmful to some of our police department officers.

2001
03:03:07,350 --> 03:03:09,650
I kind of, you know, you and I talked about this a little bit.

2002
03:03:09,750 --> 03:03:12,930
I've definitely shared some of your comments and ideas with the City Manager.

2003
03:03:14,570 --> 03:03:19,150
But I really kind of thought a little bit about the people didn't know part.

2004
03:03:19,710 --> 03:03:23,590
And I'm not saying this to put you on the spot in any way.

2005
03:03:25,790 --> 03:03:30,290
At the same time we enacted this ordinance, we enacted an ordinance regarding, you know, the shopping carts.

2006
03:03:31,670 --> 03:03:36,330
that came across a lot of clear, and we didn't see shopping carts all over town like we used to.

2007
03:03:37,850 --> 03:03:50,040
So I don't know if it's people didn't take it seriously, people didn't think well what are they going to do because they got nowhere else to go, but I think we did get the message out.

2008
03:03:50,140 --> 03:03:59,860
I just think that the warning probably was not heated, and I do know there was conversations between council members and city staff like hey, why is this ordinance not being enforced?

2009
03:03:59,860 --> 03:04:08,860
First, and there was a very prolonged approach of them just giving warnings and not really enacting the penalties that came with it.

2010
03:04:09,380 --> 03:04:14,320
So I think it might have just been a lack of people taking a serious, and I could be wrong.

2011
03:04:14,680 --> 03:04:22,540
But we enacted two things at the same time, and one seemed to resonate in the other one, now it's kind of a big deal.

2012
03:04:22,540 --> 03:04:32,160
I think it was heard loud and clear in the parks, but many people did not maybe understand that it applied to all city property.

2013
03:04:32,940 --> 03:04:33,020
Okay.

2014
03:04:33,640 --> 03:04:34,920
That's my thought.

2015
03:04:35,140 --> 03:04:36,140
It could be, and I appreciate that.

2016
03:04:37,040 --> 03:04:38,120
Mr. Carpley.

2017
03:04:38,940 --> 03:04:50,020
Mr. Shackles, and I know not all houseless individuals end up at the shelters, but I don't know if I want a whole bunch of signs downtown.

2018
03:04:50,020 --> 03:04:57,580
down, but do you think we could help get the word out by either talking with the shelters

2019
03:04:57,580 --> 03:05:02,620
and seeing if we could post some informational signs there or have, you know, handouts

2020
03:05:02,620 --> 03:05:14,320
that they could help distribute and maybe the clinics and the economic security and wherever

2021
03:05:14,320 --> 03:05:20,200
Whatever else that the coalition thinks might help to get that information out.

2022
03:05:20,540 --> 03:05:27,760
I do believe that many of the providers are going to try to enhance our education efforts for people.

2023
03:05:28,460 --> 03:05:34,880
Our chief of police has agreed to help with some PSAs that we will show during meal times as well.

2024
03:05:35,440 --> 03:05:39,280
To help, make sure that people understand what that ordinance is.

2025
03:05:40,220 --> 03:05:41,220
Okay, fantastic, thank you.

2026
03:05:41,220 --> 03:05:42,400
Thank you sir.

2027
03:05:43,540 --> 03:05:44,160
Anyone else?

2028
03:05:44,860 --> 03:05:51,360
Josh, I'll just finish by, first of all, thanking you for the efforts that you make in our community.

2029
03:05:51,960 --> 03:05:59,180
You do a lot of things uncompensated and unrecognized in our community.

2030
03:05:59,420 --> 03:06:00,980
And that doesn't go unnoticed.

2031
03:06:02,040 --> 03:06:03,160
Definitely appreciate.

2032
03:06:03,560 --> 03:06:07,400
I will definitely stand on what Mr. Jackson said.

2033
03:06:07,400 --> 03:06:12,580
and we appreciate your approach to this conversation this evening.

2034
03:06:13,300 --> 03:06:18,200
It's not going to do anybody any good to get to that podium and scream at us.

2035
03:06:18,900 --> 03:06:25,100
And like I told you yesterday, it's not going to be us that solves the problem either.

2036
03:06:25,400 --> 03:06:28,280
It's going to be all of us that solves the problem.

2037
03:06:28,280 --> 03:06:33,560
It's going to take every single person in our community to take a little bit of responsibility

2038
03:06:33,560 --> 03:06:39,800
for our unhoused community and put forth any effort that we can to make life better for them.

2039
03:06:40,320 --> 03:06:47,140
But I will also stand on what I've said previously that it's not on just this body up here.

2040
03:06:47,240 --> 03:06:48,740
It's not on the city administration.

2041
03:06:49,260 --> 03:06:50,280
It's not on the community.

2042
03:06:50,620 --> 03:06:56,460
It is on that unhoused individual as well to want to seek the help that they need to get.

2043
03:06:57,120 --> 03:07:01,900
And I think this community over the last several years has really stepped its game up.

2044
03:07:02,380 --> 03:07:08,780
And that resonated well yesterday, that we've stepped our game up a lot over the last couple of years.

2045
03:07:08,960 --> 03:07:12,700
We've got a lot of entities together. We've got them all in the same room.

2046
03:07:13,000 --> 03:07:20,840
We've got a lot of people talking the same language. And we've got providers willing to step up and handle situations that maybe five years ago

2047
03:07:20,840 --> 03:07:26,760
we weren't necessarily all on the same page. So we've done a lot and we have more things coming down the pike.

2048
03:07:26,760 --> 03:07:52,560
I think we had Vita Nova Village here earlier this evening, what they're doing and what they're going to bring to this community is going to be a tremendous help to a lot of people in getting them where they need to be to get back on their feet and become a productive members of society, so I encourage you to keep up the good work that you are doing and I appreciate you coming to this body and offering reasonable recommendations and things that we could tangibly put our hands around and do.

2049
03:07:53,220 --> 03:07:55,040
Please keep doing what you're doing for community.

2050
03:07:55,180 --> 03:07:57,660
Every community needs a Josh shackles in it.

2051
03:07:57,820 --> 03:07:59,440
Thank you so much for your kind words.

2052
03:07:59,800 --> 03:08:07,140
If anybody out there that is listening to this council meeting would like to be recognized as the next Charles Shiverdecker, please reach out to me.

2053
03:08:07,620 --> 03:08:09,860
I have several opportunities for you.

2054
03:08:10,240 --> 03:08:10,920
All right, thank you.

2055
03:08:10,920 --> 03:08:11,420
Thank you Josh.

2056
03:08:11,620 --> 03:08:12,040
Have a good night.

2057
03:08:13,300 --> 03:08:14,820
Madam Clerk, last item, please.

2058
03:08:15,360 --> 03:08:16,460
Won't you go into close-

2059
03:08:16,460 --> 03:08:16,980
Mr. Mayor.

2060
03:08:18,930 --> 03:08:19,730
Excuse me.

2061
03:08:20,030 --> 03:08:20,610
Mr. Comple.

2062
03:08:20,750 --> 03:08:21,590
I have a new business item.

2063
03:08:21,690 --> 03:08:23,010
All right, Mr. Comple has new business.

2064
03:08:25,870 --> 03:08:35,110
First off, as I introduced this, I would like to personally apologize to our dispatch staff.

2065
03:08:36,170 --> 03:08:41,510
I was gone when the presentation was made about the issues that we're having with dispatch.

2066
03:08:42,630 --> 03:08:50,090
And it took me about three weeks to get up to speed and review the material because we're

2067
03:08:50,090 --> 03:08:52,610
in the middle of budget recommendations.

2068
03:08:53,310 --> 03:09:02,710
One of the most major glaring items from that that I saw was out of a department of 20 people.

2069
03:09:03,350 --> 03:09:06,710
We were seven people short, that's over a third.

2070
03:09:07,690 --> 03:09:13,630
Since that presentation we've had three more people that were in training leave, so that

2071
03:09:13,630 --> 03:09:14,630
puts us at 10 short.

2072
03:09:15,490 --> 03:09:20,190
So that's out of a group of 20 people, so that's approximately half.

2073
03:09:20,190 --> 03:09:38,590
And I think that is a critical juncture, also looking at the information that was provided, the normal work schedule for those individuals is 5-12 a week.

2074
03:09:39,210 --> 03:09:46,710
So 60 hours a week, what they're working in an incredibly stressful job, very nerve-wracking job.

2075
03:09:48,050 --> 03:09:55,110
Most of them are working 612s because of the shortages and just rumor but that we had

2076
03:09:55,110 --> 03:09:58,870
one individual do approximately 20 consecutive 12-hour shifts.

2077
03:09:59,750 --> 03:10:02,710
None of those statistics are tenable.

2078
03:10:03,510 --> 03:10:09,830
That doesn't include burning out people and them just leaving that doesn't include anybody

2079
03:10:09,830 --> 03:10:18,850
getting sick and off on FMLA, that is it include anybody that happens to be part of our military getting deployed for 30 days.

2080
03:10:20,110 --> 03:10:29,550
I do not think our system can handle that with the other aid of yours agreement.

2081
03:10:30,470 --> 03:10:38,330
I would like to direct the city manager to put together a work group to look at the problem in a very,

2082
03:10:38,330 --> 03:10:56,910
We very expedited fashion and bring us back some possible solutions and some possible ways on how we can address this and move forward with this.

2083
03:11:00,410 --> 03:11:01,290
Discussion, council?

2084
03:11:04,610 --> 03:11:16,130
Well, for expedited I think that, and maybe as I understand it, the city manager has been working on some of the issues that I'd like to see some information as well, so, to thumbs up for me, we can get that.

2085
03:11:18,810 --> 03:11:19,330
Mr. Jackson.

2086
03:11:20,050 --> 03:11:28,870
Yeah, I mean, I didn't take it as though it was finalized and it seemed like HR was going to be going back and trying to find, you know, some other things to possibly do.

2087
03:11:28,870 --> 03:11:37,810
If I'm wrong, I mean, our city manager could speak up, but I didn't feel like it was just kind of left as what do we do?

2088
03:11:38,410 --> 03:11:44,090
I think there is a proactive approach of, you know, trying to figure out some solutions and chart is given.

2089
03:11:44,610 --> 03:11:52,390
Sir, the number one listed item on solutions was to create a staff for a not emergency call taker position.

2090
03:11:52,990 --> 03:11:57,290
So we're going to increase staffing by creating another position that we can't staff.

2091
03:11:57,290 --> 03:12:00,710
The second one was hiring part-time positions.

2092
03:12:01,170 --> 03:12:04,570
My conversation with Mr. Edwards, I don't have an issue with that.

2093
03:12:05,270 --> 03:12:10,410
I've advocated for part-time positions, for multiple jobs.

2094
03:12:10,850 --> 03:12:16,150
One of the other ones was going to our medical facilities and trying to get,

2095
03:12:16,830 --> 03:12:24,990
have them put it out but trying to get nurses or EMTs or firefighters or police officers to come do this job.

2096
03:12:24,990 --> 03:12:29,950
when a lot of those positions already pay more than what this pays,

2097
03:12:32,170 --> 03:12:35,310
and adding into a stressful situation.

2098
03:12:35,950 --> 03:12:40,970
Another thing that was on that list was putting together a training program

2099
03:12:40,970 --> 03:12:45,270
through Franklin Tech or some of our other trade schools to do that.

2100
03:12:45,890 --> 03:12:48,210
I think that is a great alternative,

2101
03:12:48,690 --> 03:12:51,930
but the problem with that is you have to write the curriculum,

2102
03:12:52,290 --> 03:12:54,090
you have to get it approved through the school district,

2103
03:12:54,090 --> 03:12:55,470
you have to put it in place.

2104
03:12:56,490 --> 03:13:02,150
So that's on the long-term fix items of one to two years out, if not more.

2105
03:13:03,590 --> 03:13:10,850
But I don't think our dispatch will stand for one to two years while we wait for that to happen.

2106
03:13:11,210 --> 03:13:17,130
So that's why I'm asking for some more short-term, expedited

2107
03:13:19,310 --> 03:13:21,750
research or options to be presented to us.

2108
03:13:21,750 --> 03:13:22,550
Yeah,

2109
03:13:28,290 --> 03:13:28,670
thank you, Mayor.

2110
03:13:29,210 --> 03:13:37,050
I'm happy to bring back some more expedited options I have met with our public safety

2111
03:13:37,050 --> 03:13:41,930
chiefs, Leslie and Michelle, we did some brainstorming today.

2112
03:13:42,670 --> 03:13:49,110
I could bring back to this group kind of a recap of our brainstorming ideas and see where

2113
03:13:49,110 --> 03:13:49,670
that goes.

2114
03:13:50,190 --> 03:13:54,010
So I'd be happy to work on this mayor if that's the council's direction.

2115
03:13:57,950 --> 03:14:01,710
Thank you, if it could also kind of start to work on the long term as well.

2116
03:14:02,710 --> 03:14:07,250
I mean, the expedited is great, but we still need a long term solution for even the short-term fix.

2117
03:14:08,790 --> 03:14:10,170
Mayor, if I might, yes, sir.

2118
03:14:10,430 --> 03:14:12,090
Mr. Barter, I appreciate you bringing that up.

2119
03:14:12,190 --> 03:14:22,410
I want to make it clear, our long-term solution for me is improving our pay, improving our staffing.

2120
03:14:23,430 --> 03:14:28,750
And the next big opportunity to address that issue is in August.

2121
03:14:29,310 --> 03:14:34,570
I'm not saying there can't be other options along the way, but for

2122
03:14:34,570 --> 03:14:39,050
the big significant substantial changes that will be in August.

2123
03:14:39,490 --> 03:14:43,350
But I want a well functioning dispatch.

2124
03:14:43,790 --> 03:14:48,510
I know the chiefs spoke up for it pretty strongly today and

2125
03:14:48,510 --> 03:14:52,470
And we'll bring back some options that we think might work from now until then.

2126
03:14:53,740 --> 03:14:54,470
Perfect, thank you, Mr.

2127
03:14:58,000 --> 03:14:58,540
Ditar.

2128
03:15:01,100 --> 03:15:29,940
I just want to kind of report back to you all that the mayor and I had went last week, last Thursday, and participated in the one job on poverty simulation. And I think that for me it was a surprise. I couldn't believe how stressed that I got during that time. I thought I could, I thought I'd deal a little bit better, but one job on did an economic security and all the other entities that are a part of that, did a great job of really, I think, distressing

2129
03:15:29,940 --> 03:15:41,680
I've seen everybody out making people realize what it's like for some of our citizens to live on the threshold of you know in poverty, but on the threshold of becoming unhoused and how scary and how fast it can happen.

2130
03:15:42,340 --> 03:15:53,740
And so I wanted to thank them publicly to putting that on making me sweat a little bit, but the mayor and I participated in that I would recommend it to anybody that hasn't done it to take part in that.

2131
03:15:53,740 --> 03:15:57,440
And I think you'll see it from a different perspective, right?

2132
03:15:57,620 --> 03:16:01,800
To be in and somebody else's shoes for just an hour, even, was very powerful.

2133
03:16:02,340 --> 03:16:06,700
And anybody listening, anybody here on this council, I would recommend going through it so

2134
03:16:06,700 --> 03:16:13,140
that you can see the perspective from somebody else's, or see the point of view from somebody else's perspective.

2135
03:16:13,400 --> 03:16:15,420
So thank you, as it.

2136
03:16:16,820 --> 03:16:42,800
I'll finish that off by saying, I did learn a few things at that poverty simulation, and I think the biggest thing that hit home for me was during the simulation, you had to go to different places to get services that you needed, you had to go pay your range, you had to go pay your utilities, you had to go to the bank and cash your check.

2137
03:16:42,800 --> 03:16:46,460
like you had to go to economic security and receive services.

2138
03:16:47,580 --> 03:16:50,340
And when things got really tough, you needed to go to the pawn shop and

2139
03:16:50,340 --> 03:16:52,320
pawn some things so you could afford to eat.

2140
03:16:53,180 --> 03:17:03,280
And I know they set it up this way, but it was shocking to me how rude the people giving those services were to the people that were down on their luck.

2141
03:17:04,400 --> 03:17:05,800
They were downright rude.

2142
03:17:06,360 --> 03:17:12,400
And I would hope that any service provider that's in our community listening to this right now.

2143
03:17:12,400 --> 03:17:27,980
would know that it is frustrating, and it's overwhelming to deal with some of the problems that we have in our community, but there's never an excuse, never an excuse to be rude to another human being.

2144
03:17:30,230 --> 03:17:31,870
Madam Clerk, last item, please.

2145
03:17:32,530 --> 03:17:51,550
Both to go into closed session, which shall pertain to hiring, firing, disciplining, or promotion of an employee or particular employees of a governmental body, involving personal information to set forth in Section 610-021-Subsection 3 of the right statutes of Missouri as amended 2020, more specifically for the purpose of evaluating certain council employees.

2146
03:17:51,870 --> 03:17:57,250
This meeting record and vote to be close to the extent provided by law. The City Council shall adjourn at the end of the session.

2147
03:17:59,250 --> 03:18:00,110
Mr. D. Tarr.

2148
03:18:00,330 --> 03:18:03,350
I will make a motion to go into closed sessions for all the things the city clerk said.

2149
03:18:03,590 --> 03:18:03,850
Second.

2150
03:18:04,210 --> 03:18:04,510
Second.

2151
03:18:05,350 --> 03:18:08,370
Motion is made in probably a second to adjourn the closed session, please vote.

2152
03:18:09,230 --> 03:18:11,570
Motion carries nine in favor, we are adjourned.