[0:03] June Frazier: Good evening. We're here for our September 8th City Council meeting. We're gonna start with a presentation by Deb Grossman, who is the wonderful chairperson of our Sustainability Committee.
[0:16] June Frazier: All right, we're gonna make… Welcome. Thank you. We're gonna make this pretty quick, because my understanding is Grace Worley-Bross, who is… has been our intern from WashU for the past, I guess, since January. You were with us in the spring and all through the summer, is going to do the, proposal on the waste
[0:35] June Frazier: compost waste grant. But for my part, I'd like to just run through most of it, and we're going to kind of treat this like speed dating.
[0:44] June Frazier: Many of you already know a lot of what we've done, because we've come in and asked for your help, assistance, and past resolutions during the course
[0:53] June Frazier: of the months since I last was here. All of you should have in front of you something that looks kind of like this, and you're thinking, why did Deb give me her highlighted homework? The reason for that is because if you want to take this and have something that's quick and easy when you go out and meet with your ward constituents.
[1:13] June Frazier: The yellow things are what we've done since last year, okay? So it doesn't make any sense if it's not in the framework of why we do what we do. So this kind of puts it in the framework, and the things that are highlighted are what's new for this year. If you want a clean one because you want to do your own highlighting, I have those too, so let me know.
[1:31] June Frazier: Alright, so let's tick through this real fast, and since June already passed these out, I won't have to do that.
[1:37] June Frazier: This really overall is our report card
[1:41] June Frazier: for the City of Clayton, it is not the sustainability report card, it's the work that's been done by everybody. So, this is trying to, if you will, just look at what's been accomplished, and so much of it has come from some of the other committees and commissions. So,
[2:00] June Frazier: I think this will work if I click. It will not work if I click, can you…
[2:04] June Frazier: Click me forward.
[2:10] June Frazier: There we go. Okay. And again, on the charts, I did… I used the same mechanism of trying to highlight what was different last year, to this year. So, we've had some change in our representation. Used to be that we wanted to go ward by ward, now we have a preference for that. That's been super helpful to us, I think, especially to set out there the expectation of attendance. We can't get
[2:34] June Frazier: Minutes passed if we don't have everybody.
[2:37] June Frazier: in place. So, thank you very much for tackling that and getting us the updated revision. The MIAC system is changing. My understanding, we're going to have a different
[2:48] June Frazier: situation than we did last year, in that we've got something like 25 MIAC students this year, including… Couples that are… 3 that are here already. So that's terrific, and we've had a different way of approaching our WashU interns, and also we had an intern from St. Louis Community College.
[3:05] June Frazier: Forestry, who you've seen present as well. Our Living Strategic Direction Document is one we set up in 2023 when I was new on this committee.
[3:15] June Frazier: Or a few months into that, where we really sort of decided what was the most important thing for us to work on. The decision was that it was to reduce our carbon footprint. You can see that in the third bullet, the second subsection of that. But we're going to work on, I think, updating that
[3:34] June Frazier: Either in this fall or early next year, but I'm hoping it will be either October or November. Our main focus is on projects that,
[3:43] June Frazier: address our footprint, but also things that we can kind of knock out pretty quickly, and by that, pretty quickly, sometimes equals a few months, but we need to keep that momentum going and addressing the things that are more easily done. So our challenge… if I could go to the next slide, please.
[4:00] June Frazier: clicking away and nothing's happening. On the reducing greenhouse gas, primarily through, stationary buildings.
[4:10] June Frazier: They emit about 26% of our greenhouse gas emissions, so we're trying to tackle those, even though residential buildings are a little bit more. The big change in this year is that we had done a whole toolkit for rolling out the big buildings, the 100,000 square foot or more, and their first benchmarking report is going to be due in January of 27, so that's coming up.
[4:35] June Frazier: So far, what I'm hearing is we haven't had a lot of,
[4:39] June Frazier: comments, concerns, other than maybe some people thinking that it wasn't them. It's not me, I'm not 100,000 square feet.
[4:45] June Frazier: So that's… that's coming along pretty well. Next slide. We don't have any changes, so much in our SoulSmart. We have just been… I asked Ana earlier today how many, applications we'd had for
[5:00] June Frazier: Solar panels on rooftops. In 23, we had 6. In 24, we had 2. In 25, we had 11. So far this year, we don't have any.
[5:09] June Frazier: So, how much of that is tornado repair related? I don't know, but that seems to be the cause of a lot of things to be just slightly different this year. On to the next one. The next slide is going to be about transportation and what that does to our carbon footprint. This is trying to reduce vehicle contribution to our greenhouse gas emissions.
[5:28] June Frazier: We have in place a vehicle electrification assessment for our fleet in Clayton, but we're going to get after that as our vehicles come to their natural life. So that's not a this year thing, but we continue to check in on that.
[5:43] June Frazier: One thing that we were able to successfully, and I will say finally get done, is the school district has placed signs at all of the schools, including the Family Center, all three grade schools, Y-Down Middle and Clayton High, as well as distributing information about why idling is so bad, especially for our littlest children.
[6:03] June Frazier: I know you've heard me preach that before, so I'm gonna save you that, but if you are dying to hear me say that one more time.
[6:09] June Frazier: call me up, text me, whatever, love to talk about why no idling is a good thing. In fact, I just want to give a shout out. We had MIACT students
[6:17] June Frazier: two years ago, working on this project, and it just now is finished. So,
[6:23] June Frazier: you know, when you're working with our group, which I know it's going to be different this year, but you're gonna do some real work that gets
[6:29] June Frazier: good things done. So you can read about the articles that got printed, etc. We also, in the transportation area, we approached Washington University, and Jim Dwyer in particular, to talk about the expansion of the route
[6:45] June Frazier: for the circulator. So it comes out as far as West Campus, which we all know is the old, famous bar building.
[6:51] June Frazier: At least if you're of a certain age. And trying to get it to come just a little bit further west, so that all those students who are living in the downtown apartments, maybe they would do that instead of jumping in their cars. Just pick up the circulator, it reduces the parking issue on campus, which is very real.
[7:09] June Frazier: Okay, next slide, real quick, you can see a picture of our no idling signs. Next slide, we're turning over to green spaces. I love this chart, because in one simple chart, you can see all the reasons why urban tree canopies are so very important. So I'm going to flip to the next one, because you've seen that before.
[7:28] June Frazier: This is something you are all intimately familiar with. The whole chart should be yellow, because it's pretty much everything that you worked on last year. Tree removal, pruning, stump grinding, starting to plant new trees.
[7:41] June Frazier: and working on the Y-down median. So much of that is underway already, or will be soon. We're excited to see some of that come through.
[7:52] June Frazier: Let's go to the next slide.
[7:55] June Frazier: In the tree canopy.
[7:57] June Frazier: I think you're all familiar that we just got, Level 1 Arboretum designation from ARBNET, which is part of the Morton Arboretum up in Chicago. They are the international standard for Arboretum. So, getting that Level 1 is our first step.
[8:12] June Frazier: You probably won't have heard the last of this, because I think it'd be really easy for us to get to Level 2, and…
[8:18] June Frazier: I have some other things I want. That is largely due to Tony, Searing and her whole team, Justin Whipple and Andrew Whitaker, took real big lead roles on that, together with Thomas Gordon, and I think, Rachel Gable worked on that. Probably others I don't even know about.
[8:37] June Frazier: But I'm delighted, because instead of everybody looking around thinking there's just this big green haze over me, by identifying what those trees are and labeling them, including with the Indigenous names, is a great thing for everybody that walks through the park. Not just our littles, but everybody.
[8:53] June Frazier: Our tree ordinances were reviewed against best practices. This is something Brad Goss did. I know he presented it to all of you, so I'm not going to go into detail on that. Ana and her team are working that up right now, I think, yes?
[9:09] June Frazier: Yeah, I think so.
[9:10] June Frazier: Okay. Our first honeysuckle hack was hosted in Oak Knoll Park, earlier this year. That is Amy Jennings, who came up with that idea and ran with it, so big shout out to Amy. Talked with her earlier today. We are going to do it again this fall, probably in November, so that we can get listed in with the Missouri Botanical Garden, several of others that they do.
[9:32] June Frazier: I'm gonna skip the last two things. We've had those ongoing for a long time, I think you already know about it. Landscaping and parks, I just finished talking about invasive species with the honeysuckle hack.
[9:43] June Frazier: But a lot of times, the invasive species that come into Clayton come from other places. Seed pods travel. They're devoured by birds and whatever, and the droppings end up planting a new invasive species. So, there was a group that… I think a couple of you, at least Cami and I think Susan, you were at, the Missouri stewardship event where they proposed this resolution.
[10:06] June Frazier: encouraging, the control of invasive plant species on state public rights-of-way. So thank you all for passing that. I know that was done not so long ago. Let's go to the next slide.
[10:19] June Frazier: Night sky continues to be an important issue for us. We are a building partner with them. This is, I think, I don't know how many years we've done it now. We've been…
[10:30] June Frazier: Doing this since 20…
[10:32] June Frazier: We've sent out letters again to some of our largest building owners. Centene has joined us in turning off their lights in September and May. The county also turns off their lights. We've reached out to a few other folks, and I don't know, I think next week I'll take a drive around when it's dark and see who's on and who's off.
[10:51] June Frazier: Just to do a reality check. Yeah, so we've made some good, good progress there. We're ex…
[10:57] June Frazier: installing new light fixtures that are dark sky lighting compliant in Oak Knoll Park, and that is in support of our application to be an urban night sky location. That, certification comes out of London, and they are really picky.
[11:14] June Frazier: So, our first application went over a year ago. Grace worked on updating it this summer, and that's pretty well in place. We're gonna have to do some additional sky quality measurements, to get that ready to go, and then we'll file that. We've also hosted, again, thanks to Parks and Rec.
[11:33] June Frazier: a couple of star parties. Our first one was modestly attended. Our second one, we had nearly 100 people and about 5 telescopes, and I went, and it was a whole lot of fun. If you turn to the next page, you'll see what the
[11:44] June Frazier: people who came out for it. I would encourage you to come out for it. It's a great time to shake hands with your constituents. Come join us. It's amazing what you can see. And I hope you all didn't miss the lunar eclipse that was last week. Next slide.
[11:57] June Frazier: We did a lot of work, to receive the Bird City designation. Myron wrote up the application. Thank you to Myron. Our MIAC students organized and held the World Migratory Bird Day, which kind of clinched
[12:12] June Frazier: clinched the designation for us. It was one of the things that they had that was mandatory.
[12:17] June Frazier: We continue to work with the Audubon Society, where they go around 14 different buildings and track how many bird… fatal bird collisions we've had. Unfortunately, in the spring, they haven't produced or published their numbers yet, but Matt tells me, we had over 100 in the spring. And that's just on the buildings we're measuring, so we know we still have a problem.
[12:38] June Frazier: Just disappointing, but we are doing a little bit better. We had an application, proposed the application of bird-safe glass on, City Hall, on our arch windows. Grace brought that to you earlier this year.
[12:54] June Frazier: And the last thing is you passed the resolution supporting the Mayors for Monarch Pledge, so for that, we thank Susan and Bridget. That's gonna go up in,
[13:03] June Frazier: December, I think, is when that opens again, and September 1st was Monarch Day, and you should be seeing a lot more of them now. Peak migration is the 20th of September, so start looking. I saw a bunch of them up north when I was in Chicago this weekend.
[13:16] June Frazier: That's a picture of Bird City. You can see Susan's there. Kylie Wolfo, who was in the bottom, she was our main liaison.
[13:24] June Frazier: Myron was there, Jeffrey, you were there, and then Lucinda Lloyd and Jaron were our two MIAC students that were there when the picture was taken. Next slide is just showing you what those archway windows are. Let's flip over to waste.
[13:37] June Frazier: It matters because methane is created when food waste is put into landfills, and it's more toxic and more potent than carbon dioxide. So if we could get rid of one thing, it would be great for us to do that. To that end, you're going to hear in a few minutes Grace's presentation
[13:55] June Frazier: On composting, grant that we are
[13:59] June Frazier: proposing, and the… even though we offer composting to Clayton residents, they don't all pick up on it, and a lot of people… I know even in our neighborhood, they go, did you know they could do that? And I go, no, I didn't know that.
[14:11] June Frazier: So, we're hoping to get that word out a little bit more, through the grant that she'll spend more time talking to you about. You guys passed the Skip the Stuff resolution, if you weren't here, the Skip the Stuff.
[14:23] June Frazier: Is really trying to encourage restaurants not to pass out things their patrons don't want, like straws and extra plastic utensils and condiment packs, etc, etc.
[14:33] June Frazier: So we've got a little… we've got a lot more follow-up work to really make that
[14:38] June Frazier: live, and make sure people are aware of it. That's coming. E-cycling, event took place, campaign sign recycling, that took place. Let's go on to the next slide.
[14:51] June Frazier: That's what the compost banner looks like.
[14:54] June Frazier: You'll see more of that and hear more about it. Next slide. It's always important for us to keep up our communications and working with other groups. Most of the things you see on the top have been ongoing.
[15:06] June Frazier: The one-pager that you have in front of you has been updated, and the Climate Herald, reaching out to them to make sure they know all the things that Clayton has been doing.
[15:15] June Frazier: has happened. Grace also was involved with both of those, took a laboring oar. Next slide.
[15:23] June Frazier: These scorecards you've seen before, our building footprint. I think one of the key things here is just that Clayton as a whole, our city hall, greenhouse gas emissions are down 60% since 2018, and our cost of energy is, is down 15% since about the same time.
[15:41] June Frazier: Most everything else that's in these charts, I've already talked to you. These charts are, available if you want them as just, like, single pieces, if you just wanted to show it to somebody and say, here it is, if you want to see it visually versus hearing the words.
[15:55] June Frazier: Same thing on the next page, where we talk about waste collection. I think our waste collection numbers are somewhat skewed, because we had all the big, huge containers for the,
[16:06] June Frazier: leaf litter, the tree debris, everything else that got sucked up after the tornado. So, so that's… that's a little off, but you can still see that number is up.
[16:17] June Frazier: The green spaces, the three main bullets there are things I've already talked about, the arboretum, the dark sky designation, and the tree ordinance best practice. The last thing that I would say, next slide.
[16:32] June Frazier: is sort of like the partners and who we work with. We work with a lot of people to make this happen.
[16:39] June Frazier: So I just wanted to call some of them out, like Ameren, Audubon, and Brain Conservation Home. That's Matt Barton, the Clayton School District, Jim Brunel worked with us actively, as does Jenny Abels. Cool Cities, Susan and Kami are, are, like, huge on that. You are our representations for that event.
[16:57] June Frazier: WashU, we work with a lot of different people at WashU, and that's a long list. I'm not going to take the time for it. We work with all of you, and I'm very thankful for the support of the Council. I'm thankful for the staff that continually helps us. I'm thankful for all the volunteer members on our committee. It's a lot of work, and it's all volunteer work, and I especially want to thank
[17:21] June Frazier: match.
[17:21] June Frazier: Who just, like, every time I go, Matt, what do you think about this? He doesn't shoot me down, and I love that. Thank you, Matt. He's over there, yeah. I'm almost done.
[17:33] June Frazier: Well, I'm late. Okay, so I'm gonna just close with this piece. I reached out to, Matt Kupkick, who's the… he's in charge of Enterprise.
[17:43] June Frazier: all their environmental and sustainability stuff.
[17:46] June Frazier: And they're headquartered here in Clayton, so I think they should turn off their lights for Lights Out Heartland, so I figured I would, and Matt reached out to their facilities people, so we're trying to… trying to get in as many places as we can. But he wrote up something on his LinkedIn that I just want to leave you with, and it's… I'm making it shorter, because it went on for, like, a page and a half, and I don't want to take that time.
[18:06] June Frazier: But he said, sustainability's next challenge is transformation. Defining what needs to change and changing it are not the same
[18:14] June Frazier: thing.
[18:15] June Frazier: Many organizations have announced ambitious commitments only to later revise timelines and adjust goals, and that's rarely a failure of intent. More often, it's an underestimation of the transformation that's needed.
[18:27] June Frazier: Because reducing emissions isn't primarily a reporting challenge, it's a governance challenge, it's a people challenge, it's an operational challenge.
[18:36] June Frazier: Organizations that are making the most progress aren't doing it because they're the most ambitious. Rather, they're doing it because they learn.
[18:43] June Frazier: They adapt, they engage, they solve problems at the source, they establish accountability, and most important, they build cultures that are capable of turning strategy into action. And I think that's what we're doing here.
[18:57] June Frazier: So, transformation doesn't happen to people, it happens through people. So, all those people I just thanked, they're really critical to the work that Clayton's doing. That, I'm done.
[19:08] June Frazier: Thank you. If you have questions, see me, because I know we're already into 7 o'clock, which is your point. Well, but first, Deb, I think, we certainly owe you a debt of thanks. I mean, I, you know, talk about turning strategy into action, like, the way you've…
[19:21] June Frazier: really taken this committee, and you've just done unbelievable things. So, thank you so much for all the work that you do on a monthly basis. I mean, on a daily basis, but for all the meetings, like, month after month, and I know you go to more than just one meeting a month, for our sustainability committee. So.
[19:39] June Frazier: Thank you so much for all your efforts, thank you for the presentation. I love getting handouts. It's just so great to see everything that's accomplished in a year, and that is… that is a credit to you. It is certainly a credit to Matt, and many others, and many other volunteers that…
[19:55] June Frazier: But I think your leadership on the committee and really inspiring people to do the work and get it done is… is… we thank you very much for it. I'm so glad you feel that way, because we'll be back with more things. Matt will be thrilled.
[20:14] June Frazier: Hello! So, as Deb said, I'm going to… Do we… yeah. Oh.
[20:21] June Frazier: Is this the agenda?
[20:24] June Frazier: I don't… You're… do you want to talk to us about it?
[20:27] June Frazier: Yes.
[20:32] June Frazier: Yeah.
[20:35] June Frazier: Okay, I can… Find my way home, if you… Yeah.
[20:41] June Frazier: No, I can… I can transport myself.
[20:46] June Frazier: the presentation right now, but will you vote on it during… Okay. Yeah, no, that's… Let us know.
[20:54] June Frazier: Yes, it is on the agenda.
[21:00] June Frazier: Okay.
[21:01] June Frazier: Yeah, that's… sounds good to me.
[21:04] June Frazier: I'm not sure the mouse is hooked up to…
[21:12] June Frazier: That would do it.
[21:13] June Frazier: Yeah, okay. Yes.
[21:17] June Frazier: Yeah.
[21:19] June Frazier: So, as Deb said, as we've discussed, I am presenting on the, grant application that the Sustainability Advisory Committee has worked on drafting over the summer while I was interning there. And it would be to the St. Louis County Department of Public Health.
[21:36] June Frazier: In order to support a composting awareness campaign.
[21:40] June Frazier: So, as I said, our goal…
[21:43] June Frazier: for the campaign would be to increase the use of the existing curbside composting program that we have in Clayton. Now, that's available to all single-family homes alongside their yard waste, and also any multifamily homes where the landowner is paying for that service.
[22:02] June Frazier: The grant structure is… it's rolling applications. We would probably apply in 2027, just because we're getting late in the year.
[22:12] June Frazier: And they can have up to $25,000 reimbursed through this grant, so we do have some flexibility if more budget items were added or something. It would take around 12 weeks to turn around and fund the material cost of any programs.
[22:29] June Frazier: And then the important thing is that it requires a resolution from the City Council in support of the application, which is on your agenda for the meeting today. And then it also requires quarterly reporting
[22:42] June Frazier: From the city with photos, educational materials, the number of residents reached, and a survey at the end of the program.
[22:53] June Frazier: So this is what the text of the resolution looks like. It basically just says that the City Council endorses this grant application.
[23:03] June Frazier: that we commit to providing this data, and then authorizes the Director of Public Works to accept the grant funds if it was awarded to us.
[23:15] June Frazier: Our project plan is a composting education campaign, so, in the current draft of the application, we have, allotted $4,000 to… for the overall,
[23:29] June Frazier: budget, and that would include 125 stainless steel kitchen scrap pails, which, we've tied to a concrete number because that's around 5% of single-family homes in Clayton. We…
[23:43] June Frazier: after much discussion with the Sustainability Advisory Committee, decided to go with these bins. That's not an exact photo, but it would be something like that, because they are, very durable and recyclable, and so we think that it reinforces our message of sustainability.
[24:03] June Frazier: We are… the implementation of this plan would involve collecting, residents' names and contact information through SAC event tabling, as well as hopefully online sign-ups.
[24:17] June Frazier: And then residents who are interested in this program could pick up the bins, perhaps a limited number at tabling, but mostly at a centralized location, like City Hall or the Center of Clayton.
[24:28] June Frazier: We've also, in that budget, included money for educational components, so a composting talk from Jean Ponzi, who is
[24:39] June Frazier: does the green-to-go talks with the Missouri Botanical Gardens, and she's very willing and able to work with us about figuring out the best format for that.
[24:50] June Frazier: As well as supporting those educational materials that could also include stickers and flyers and things like that, but supporting that with a communications campaign from the city.
[25:01] June Frazier: Such as materials on our website, articles in the Clayton Connections, or, social media posts, as well as the, banner that
[25:12] June Frazier: Deb showed already that I've decided to hang outside of City Hall, and so that could… that will hopefully go up around the same time as we would be getting these and distributing these bins.
[25:24] June Frazier: And then, as I said, one of the county's requirements is a follow-up survey from the city, which they have some supports to provide to the city to, produce that survey as well.
[25:36] June Frazier: So there's the banner again. I'm sure you all wanted to see it some more. It just has a very,
[25:43] June Frazier: simple message about how residents can compost their kitchen scraps in their yard waste. Yeah, so that is my overview of this grant application, and I hope you all will consider passing the resolution in support of it.
[25:57] June Frazier: Great. Grace, thank you so much. So then, would there be a definitive amount that you would ask for in the grant? Is that… Yes, so the,
[26:07] June Frazier: I was just noting that there is, room for some flexibility as we continue planning, as city staff is planning, before the grant application is submitted, but, right now the number on the application is $4,000.
[26:21] June Frazier: All right, thank you. Does anybody else have any questions for Grace related to the resolution that we will vote on later?
[26:30] June Frazier: just quick appreciation, just noting, I don't think people are… it doesn't catch their attention yet that the impact of
[26:39] June Frazier: composting, that it really does matter, and this was really an awareness campaign. Even the survey at the end.
[26:45] June Frazier: reinforces to people that, oh, maybe some will think, oh, I missed getting my bin, or it's just the awareness out there, so it's beyond just providing these on some kitchen counters. It's a, you know, again, transformational. It's putting that into the culture that this is something that we should be doing. So thank you very much for all your work on this. Thank you, Susan.
[27:04] June Frazier: What happens if more than 125 homes
[27:08] June Frazier: would like these. Yeah, so we did have some discussion about, what amount of bins we should order, and we landed on 125 because we wanted to make sure that we didn't over-commit ourselves and end up with a bunch of bins in storage spaces.
[27:27] June Frazier: But we really don't have a great way to assess interest until we begin,
[27:34] June Frazier: collecting people's names and handing out the bins, and so we decided to go with that lower number, and then possibly reapply for the grant next year if there's a lot of interest. But yeah, I definitely think that that is…
[27:49] June Frazier: That's kind of what I was curious about, like, with the… you described it as a rolling application, and said we would do the application in 27, and I'm wondering if the rolling aspect of it would mean, like.
[28:02] June Frazier: If they're all taken or claimed by May.
[28:07] June Frazier: could we submit again for additional, or something like that? Do we know? I mean, some… Yeah, so we definitely were trying to be in communication with the county about the, like, details on how the…
[28:23] June Frazier: financial stuff rolls out, but I don't know that we ever got a response on that question, so that's probably something that we'll need to follow up about, because if… if we can get
[28:36] June Frazier: You know, an additional amount later in the year, if we have a lot of interest, then that would be…
[28:42] June Frazier: I think the ideal way to roll out this program. Absolutely. I mean, I know I've… we have a grant at my workplace where, like, if we use it all up, we can ask for more, for the particular item, and so that would be awesome. And if you need help.
[28:59] June Frazier: getting hold of people at St. Louis County, we can try to do that through staff or elected officials or something, too, to get attention.
[29:08] June Frazier: Yeah, we could definitely… I think in our talks, we decided to err on the side of fewer rather than more, but that's for sure a… Yeah, I don't have a reason to suggest a higher number, like, I don't know. I have one of those…
[29:24] June Frazier: already, so I won't take another, because they do last forever, practically. Thank you very much. Thank you.
[29:33] June Frazier: I think it's also… Deb, will you come… will you… Deb, will you just come up? Sorry. I don't know if… I don't know if people are online or not, but…
[29:41] June Frazier: I think I have such a loud voice. If…
[29:45] June Frazier: they will not allow us to reapply later this year. It's really just a few months before we would reapply for the next year, so I think it's okay, and it also is sort of reinforcing for the people that took them the first time when they see another second edition of the campaign come out, so…
[30:01] June Frazier: We struggled with this, we wrote to them, but I think they all took vacations around the time of Labor Day.
[30:08] June Frazier: And I don't have a hard answer.
[30:09] June Frazier: Thanks.
[30:12] June Frazier: Anybody else have any questions?
[30:16] June Frazier: Well, of course, thank you again for all your hard work with this. Well, and I just want to do a quick thank you, Grace.
[30:23] June Frazier: for those of you who don't know… that don't know, and I know we went through a whole bunch of all the things that, we've done on the Sustainability Committee, but Grace, who, you know.
[30:31] June Frazier: through spring and summer was with us. She had her hand in almost all of the things that we've done over these past few months. You know, and I know Debbie mentioned this, but she helped work on the Bird Safe class for City Hall.
[30:44] June Frazier: the food waste grant that we're doing right now that was, you know, the main driver in the creation of this really great banner. She helped, research and support for the mayors and monarchs. She actually helped us finally get over the finish line with the idling program.
[30:59] June Frazier: Skip the… skip the stuff. Research and proposed resolutions encourage food vendors to provide disposable plastic, or not to provide them unless on request.
[31:09] June Frazier: And then just really updated, you know, our communication, including, a review of the Climate Herald's coverage of plate and sustainability efforts.
[31:17] June Frazier: And then helped, again, finish up the, application for the Oak Knoll Park. So, I just want to thank you, you know, from the City Council, just of all your hard work and dedication and time. I know you were a busy student at WashU, of all places, Junior, and so, thank you very much. And we just have a small token of gratitude for you.
[31:47] June Frazier: Thank you. It really has been a pleasure to work with you all, so thank you. Thank you very much, Grace. Good luck.
[31:53] June Frazier: Thank you.
[32:01] June Frazier: All right, so I think… thank you, Deb, again.
[32:05] June Frazier: We, have come… we've actually a little bit past 7, we've come to our, 7 o'clock meeting for our City Council September 8th, if the City Clerk could call to roll.
[32:16] June Frazier: Councilmember Views? Here. Councilmember Patel? Here. Councilmember Fader? Here.
[32:22] June Frazier: Councilmember Yorg? Here. Councilmember Waldman? Here. Councilmember Malin-Smith? Here. Mayor McAndrew? Here. City Manager Gibson? He stepped out in just a moment. Thank you. City Attorney O'Keefe? Here.
[32:36] June Frazier: Thank you. So the first part of our meeting is the open forum portion of our meeting, where somebody can… is welcome to address us. You just come up to the microphone and make sure that the light is green, on a matter that is not on our agenda. If there's something on the agenda you wish to speak about, you would just wait till that agenda item comes up. Each person that comes up has a 3-minute time limit for speaking.
[33:00] June Frazier: I do have two speaker cards up here. I think first,
[33:07] June Frazier: And I… I would also like to say, our three of our MIAC members are here tonight. MIAC members,
[33:16] June Frazier: MIAC members, as Deb mentioned, are going to do things a little bit different. They're all required to come to at least one City Council meeting, and then also go to one Parks and Rec meeting, one sustainability
[33:28] June Frazier: one, I'm gonna forget, one planned commission meeting, one equity commission meeting, so everybody has to go to one. So, there are over 30 students, there might be 33 students, so we will see rotating students throughout the next
[33:42] June Frazier: 8 months, 7 months, 8 months. So, you guys are a year ahead of the game. You're here tonight, so good job. I think two of you have marked off your attendance white t-shirt. Will you remind us what your first name is?
[33:56] June Frazier: Luciana, okay, great, thank you. But with respect to our open forum portion, it looks like, Adam, would you like to talk to us?
[34:12] June Frazier: Oh, great, alright, okay.
[34:15] June Frazier: And then, Natalie Dowd?
[34:18] June Frazier: You're welcome to come up, and just, Natalie, just make sure that that microphone is on.
[34:27] June Frazier: Can you hear me? Yes.
[34:30] June Frazier: I'm Natalie Dowd, and I live in Ward 2.
[34:33] June Frazier: Flock cameras invite the chaos and violence of ICE to our community. On Monday, July 13th of this year, I shot and killed a father in Bidford, Maine, on his way to work.
[34:46] June Frazier: The news outlets will tell you he had a social security card and was in the country lawfully.
[34:52] June Frazier: ICE will tell you, they got the wrong guy by mistake.
[34:56] June Frazier: None of that matters.
[34:59] June Frazier: Undocumented immigration status If you want to… Natalie, if you want to… okay, go ahead, I'm sorry.
[35:07] June Frazier: Undocumented immigration status is not a crime punishable by death.
[35:13] June Frazier: Law enforcement of any kind cannot act as the judge, jury, and executioner in any just society.
[35:20] June Frazier: ICE operates with racist violence and without accountability. The chaos and violence of ICE intrude on communities without regard for human life or due process.
[35:32] June Frazier: When I first heard about this murder, I got on a group text with my twin cousins, Mike and Matt.
[35:38] June Frazier: They live in New Hampshire, and were raised about 45 minutes from Biddeford, Maine.
[35:44] June Frazier: Yes, they tell me. They know Biddeford. They've been there.
[35:48] June Frazier: My cousin Mike talked about what a tragedy this was.
[35:53] June Frazier: And discussed the social and political context leading up to this needless loss of life.
[35:59] June Frazier: And yes, of course I agree.
[36:01] June Frazier: My cousin Matt, however, only had one simple point to add.
[36:06] June Frazier: He said, Biddeford is a nice community.
[36:13] June Frazier: Locked cameras invite the chaos and violence of ICE to our community.
[36:17] June Frazier: If anyone is quietly telling themselves that ICE violence would never happen here, please know that Bidford, Maine is a nice community.
[36:28] June Frazier: And Clayton, Missouri is a nice community.
[36:34] June Frazier: Blood in the streets is just as likely here as it ever was in Biddeford. Each day that we allow AI surveillance to remain in our community is a day that we are inviting the chaos and violence of ICE and making our community less safe.
[36:50] June Frazier: You, the City Council, can make our community safer by canceling our flock contract and rejecting all other AI surveillance possibilities. Thank you.
[37:00] June Frazier: Thank you.
[37:05] June Frazier: And just a reminder for anybody that is online, if you wish to speak during our open forum portion of our meeting, or alternatively, if you wish to speak on any agenda item, feel free to raise your hand, and we can move you over so that you can speak.
[37:26] June Frazier: Seeing no other speakers, I will, start our regular agenda. The first agenda item is a conditional use permit for 6369 Clayton Road.
[37:40] June Frazier: Yes, Mayor, thank you. And I will go ahead and go through the description here this evening. Tonight, we will not vote on this matter, so we still have to hold the public hearing for it. There was an error in the notice for this particular item, so this will be on the agenda again on the 22nd with the full public hearing, but just for anybody that
[38:02] June Frazier: may know that this item was coming forward this evening. I will walk through the description, and at the next meeting, probably do an abbreviated version. This is a request for a conditional use permit for the proposed operation of a drive-through banking lane on the north side of the subject building.
[38:16] June Frazier: The property is located at the northeast corner of the intersection of Clayton Road and DeMont Avenue, and is zoned M2 General Mixed Use.
[38:23] June Frazier: It is in the Clayton Road Urban Design District. The site is developed with a one-story retail bank, and it formerly housed Commerce Bank. The new occupant would be State Bank.
[38:35] June Frazier: Drive-through facilities for financial institutions require a conditional use permit, or CUP, and any enlargement, alteration, or extension of the use requires a CUP to be approved by the City Council. The current owners proposed
[38:47] June Frazier: Building alterations, including a reduction in the drive-through capacity from three lanes down to 2 lanes. The Plan Commission considered this request at their meeting on August 17, 2026.
[38:58] June Frazier: and voted unanimously to recommend approval of a conditional use permit to the City Council. The CUP requires the City Council to conduct a public hearing prior to acting on the request.
[39:07] June Frazier: The notice requirements for a public hearing, again, were not met for September 8th, which is tonight, and therefore we recommend that the Council hear anyone present to speak on the matter this evening, and then continue the request until September 22nd.
[39:22] June Frazier: Is there anyone present in the audience or online that would, like to speak about this matter?
[39:30] June Frazier: Nobody in chambers and nobody online. If I could ask for a motion to continue this to September 22nd?
[39:40] June Frazier: I move that this matter be continued to September 22nd.
[39:44] June Frazier: Second.
[39:46] June Frazier: All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right.
[39:52] June Frazier: The next item on our agenda is a conditional use permit for 62349 Allenwood for an accessory dwelling unit.
[40:01] June Frazier: Yes, this is a public hearing and subsequent resolution to consider granting a conditional use permit to the owners of 6349 Ellenwood Avenue to allow for the construction of a 415 square foot pool house containing an accessory dwelling unit, or ADU. The property has a zoning designation of R1, Large Lot Single Family Dwelling District.
[40:20] June Frazier: An ADU is a type of accessory structure, either attached or detached, which provides complete independent living facilities on the same site as the principal residence.
[40:29] June Frazier: The Plan Commission and Architectural Review Board considered the CUP application and the architectural plans for the project on August 17th, and approved the architectural plans and recommended approval of the CUP with two conditions.
[40:42] June Frazier: First, that the applicant shall record a deed restriction prohibiting the sale or rental of the ADU separately from the primary residence, and submit proof of the required deed restriction to the city prior to the issuance of a building permit. Secondly, the pop-up emitter in the front yard shall be moved to the north, to the mulched area.
[41:00] June Frazier: Staff recommends that the City Council conduct a public hearing and consider approving the resolution granting a conditional use permit for a 415 square foot detached structure containing an ADU at 6349 Ellenwood Avenue.
[41:15] June Frazier: Thank you. So the public hearing is open. I'll open the discussion. I see somebody at the podium. Would you like to just state your name for the record and let us know, are you…
[41:26] June Frazier: like, who you are related. Sorry, so I may have jumped the gun, but my name is Elle Knoll, I work with Bowerleith Design. We're the architecture firm that's working for the Drefels. They are, unfortunately, stuck at a Clayton school curriculum night, so they asked me to come in there instead. No problem. Do you want to talk to us about the project at all, or…
[41:45] June Frazier: Just very briefly, they are very excited to have a pool, and they intend only to use this accessory structure, for, you know, pool-related activities, and occasionally when a family member comes to visit. They have no interest in renting it or inviting other people to stay there.
[42:00] June Frazier: Thank you. Are there any questions or comments from the City Council members?
[42:07] June Frazier: Great. And I don't see any questions or comments, online or in the audience. As such, I will close the public hearing. Councilmember Buse?
[42:21] June Frazier: I move to approve resolution number 2026-26, granting a conditional use permit for 6349 Ellenwood to allow for an accessory dwelling unit.
[42:31] June Frazier: Second.
[42:32] June Frazier: Any discussion?
[42:34] June Frazier: All those in favor?
[42:36] June Frazier: Bye. Bye.
[42:37] June Frazier: Opposed? The vote passes 6-0.
[42:41] June Frazier: Thank you. You're welcome. Have a good night.
[42:44] June Frazier: The next item on our agenda are the property tax levies for 2026, fiscal year 2027. I will open the public hearing and request proof of publication.
[42:55] June Frazier: Yes, each year the city must approve property tax levies, which are then submitted to St. Louis County for billing. Calendar year 2026 is not a reassessment year. Therefore, there is little change in previously assessed properties.
[43:07] June Frazier: The City experienced new construction growth, increasing residential assessed values by nearly $2 million, and subject to the maximum voter-approved rate of tax levy, the City is allowed to receive additional revenue up to the lower 5%
[43:21] June Frazier: or CPI, which was 2.7% for this year, as well as the value of new construction. Per fiscal year 2027 proposed budget, we are submitting the maximum allowable rates for your review.
[43:34] June Frazier: As part of the property tax levy process, the Council will hold a public hearing, which we're doing right now, to seek public input on the proposed tax rates.
[43:43] June Frazier: The levies provided are subject to change due to the County Board of Equalization process and the Missouri State Auditor's certification process. Therefore, there is the potential for the rates to change slightly before the meeting on September 22nd.
[43:56] June Frazier: There are a number of schedules and tables within the document. The one thing I would point out is on the total tax levies, on residential, we are looking at an overall increase of 4 tenths of 1 cent and 8 tenths of 1 cent on commercial, but no change to personal property tax. So again, nominal changes, to any of these categories.
[44:17] June Frazier: For a home valued at $700,000, it is expected that the homeowner would pay approximately $814 in annual property taxes for just the city of Clayton portion. Based on last year's rate, the same owner would pay $5 more than last year to the city based on this increase, assuming that value remains the same.
[44:37] June Frazier: There is also a nominal increase for the Special Business District. We do recommend that the City Council conduct a public hearing and have a first reading of an ordinance setting the annual property tax rates for calendar year 2026, which actually hits our fiscal year 2027 at the rates referenced in the memo that was contained within the packet. And Karen Dilber, our Finance Director, is here this evening if you have any
[44:59] June Frazier: Questions?
[45:01] June Frazier: Thank you. I'll open the discussion. Are there any questions or comments from the Council?
[45:10] June Frazier: Questions or comments? Any questions or comments from the audience or online?
[45:17] June Frazier: Seeing none, Councilmember Buse.
[45:19] June Frazier: I introduced Bill Number 7172, approving the property tax levies for tax year 2026 to be read for the first time by title only.
[45:28] June Frazier: Second.
[45:30] June Frazier: Any discussion? Mr. City Attorney?
[45:33] June Frazier: Bill number 7172, first reading, an ordinance levying and establishing the rate of annual tax for general municipal purposes, police building debt service, general obligation debt service, and special business district purposes to be collected by the City of Clayton, Missouri for the year 2026.
[45:53] June Frazier: I am going to close the public hearing. Are there any,
[45:57] June Frazier: I guess, all those in favor?
[46:00] June Frazier: Aye. Aye.
[46:02] June Frazier: Any opposed? The vote passes 6-0.
[46:10] June Frazier: And that is because we will just read it for the first time, and then we will get it again in two weeks.
[46:17] June Frazier: The next item on our agenda is the fiscal year 2027, operating and capital improvement.
[46:24] June Frazier: budget. I will open the public hearing and request proof of publication.
[46:41] June Frazier: Okay, yes, this is our public hearing for the fiscal year 2027 operating budget and capital improvement plan. We did hold a work session on August 21st, and anybody that may be watching this that wants more detail on the budget, I would refer you to that particular meeting where we really go in depth. So this evening, I'm going to give an abbreviated
[47:01] June Frazier: version of the presentation that was given on the 21st. I will note there was some changes, some reconciliation, between the budget work session and what you actually have in front of you this evening.
[47:13] June Frazier: That was contained within the packet on page 39. The big change to note there is the fire trucks that we've been waiting three and a half years for. We know that those have been pushed to a date that will be after October 1st, so it looks like
[47:27] June Frazier: There's this big $3.5 million change from our last discussion. It is a big $3.5 million change, but it's two trucks that make up that entire amount.
[47:37] June Frazier: The other changes were very small. This was adding the BirdSafe glass and some marketing for the special business district. So, I just wanted to point out that we did have that slight adjustment since the last, conversation that we had. So.
[47:49] June Frazier: Going through these slides here, we always start with the general fund and just kind of that trend line over time.
[47:55] June Frazier: The green line is our revenue over time, the blue line is our expenditures over time. You can see expenditures have been going up at a steady clip, right about 6% a year. The only outlier would be 2024, where you see a dip. The change there was the fact that the city turned over waste billing to residents that particular year, and that's why you see that drop. It wasn't that our expenses
[48:17] June Frazier: You know, went down for any other reason, or some sort of sustainable reason.
[48:22] June Frazier: The revenue that you see here, this green line, you can see kind of a peak here in 2025, and really kind of flattened out on us. We're seeing really stagnant growth in property tax and in sales tax. We just talked about our tax rate and the changes that we're gonna see there. It's a nominal change.
[48:40] June Frazier: Sales tax, we're seeing growth right around 1.5% or so, so nothing too substantial, there, so…
[48:48] June Frazier: We are in a situation where revenue's relatively flat, and again, our expenditures are going up at a rate of about 6% a year.
[48:55] June Frazier: Our sources of revenue that we receive every year, you can see them on this pie chart. Our property tax makes up 25%, utilities at 17%, sales tax at 22%, licenses, permits, and fees at 11%, which is primarily the building permit fees that we collect every year.
[49:13] June Frazier: Parking at 6%, parks and parks and Rec programming, so, various leagues that are held outside, this is all of their activities, aside from the Center of Clayton.
[49:22] June Frazier: Very small amount there. Fines only make up 2% of our overall revenue, and then we have some intergovernmental that has been increasing in recent years, mainly due to,
[49:33] June Frazier: more collaborative efforts with other communities, or expanded collaborative efforts, where Clayton has been kind of the lead driver, and then we're reimbursed for those services. So you'll see an uptick in revenue, but also some associated increases in expenditures there. So that's the makeup.
[49:47] June Frazier: really well diversified through our biggest, tax drivers here. The problem is they're just not increasing at a fast enough rate. But this is the mix you want to see, because we… we do have that diversification, we do have that steady property tax base, steady utility tax base for the most part, and then your volatility, you really see within that sales tax area, and of course, that's what we witnessed during the pandemic, where we had a significant drop-off there.
[50:12] June Frazier: So that's revenue, and on the expenditure side of things, we have 3 primary categories that we'd like to talk about, the first being personnel, the second being contractual services, so all the utility bills we pay, all of our software licenses, dispatching, which we do with a number of other cities, lifeguards, insurance, those types of things.
[50:31] June Frazier: Commodities, this is, what people tend to think of when you
[50:35] June Frazier: talk about a budget. People go straight to these items that you might buy. Uniforms, supplies, fuel, salt that we throw out on the road, construction materials. But as you'll see on this chart, commodities makes up a very small portion of our overall budget, usually hovers right around 4% or so.
[50:51] June Frazier: We're actually showing our expenditure categories two different ways this year. So here's our expenditures by category.
[51:00] June Frazier: per the budget, and this includes a bunch of expenses that are related to the tornado, so what you'll see is
[51:06] June Frazier: the contractual services at 20%, personnel at 6, just about 69% there, but this other financing use is at 6%, and that's a transfer over to the capital fund so we can, make some of those tornado damage repairs. And then on the right.
[51:22] June Frazier: This gives you a better picture of the operating revenue that's coming in versus the operating expenditures. So on the expenditure side, 73% of what we spend actually goes towards personnel on an ongoing basis.
[51:36] June Frazier: 22% or so for contractual services, just 4.3% for commodities, and then you can see modest capital outlays and transfers out to other funds. Primarily, that's going to be to equipment replacement when we're talking about the general fund. So, personnel, not a big change there over past years. We're always right around 70% or a little bit higher on the personnel side, so relatively flat in the numbers that you see there.
[52:00] June Frazier: But still a situation that's…
[52:03] June Frazier: really difficult when overall they're increasing at a pretty good rate. Here's the budget in a little more detail.
[52:10] June Frazier: This shows with the tornado expenses in, we anticipate, and I'll just kind of jump to the big numbers here, about $34 million worth of revenue, $34.3 to be exact, $37.5 million in expenses, and as you can tell, expenses are more than the revenue, so down below in red, you'll see a $3.2 million, roughly, deficit.
[52:31] June Frazier: when we count for that tornado expense that we're going to have. That money is going to be coming out of our general fund balance, or the city's reserves. Think of it like the city's savings account. So we're going to pull money from that savings account and use it to make those particular repairs.
[52:47] June Frazier: To give us an idea, though, of what we have kind of on an ongoing basis, again, that standard operating revenue versus expenditures, again, revenue at $34.3 million, but our ongoing expenses, right around $35.3, so right at a million dollar deficit.
[53:04] June Frazier: We've known that this was coming, we've talked about this for several years. It's not a huge surprise. A little bit of a deficit at the end of 2026 at $220,000. You can see that with that 6% increase overall, in annual expenditures that's pointed out
[53:19] June Frazier: right here in the bottom right, that 6% number really makes that jump. So you're gonna go from 220 to a million, and then next year, without significant changes, you're going to see a number that's going to be higher than that, so probably in that 1.8 range, if not higher. So, it's a compounding issue when you start to get into those deficits.
[53:39] June Frazier: When, structurally, your expenditures are outpacing revenues to this extent.
[53:45] June Frazier: And that is something that our Citizen Finance Committee is working on at the moment.
[53:49] June Frazier: Fund balance are those reserves that I was talking about. Again, look at it like the city's savings account. We do have a minimum fund balance, so a certain amount that we need to keep in the bank. That's 25% of our annual expenditures.
[54:02] June Frazier: Our goal is to have at least 50% in the bank, and if we ever drop to 40%, then we'll take action right away to make sure that we don't get down to that 25% number.
[54:12] June Frazier: You can see at the end of 2027, we anticipate, and this is with those tornado expenses included, that we're going to be at about a 68% fund balance. So we're still above that 50% goal, we still got
[54:23] June Frazier: a little bit of room there. The tornado expenses should be done at that point, but again, we're in a deficit spend situation, so that number will erode over time.
[54:32] June Frazier: Without changes, but for this… at this point in time, we're still in a really, healthy situation at 68% in the fund balance. And we saw the value, of course, in having the fund balance above 50% when we had the tornado, we were able to
[54:47] June Frazier: Go after that aggressively, and then make all the subsequent repairs that we need to.
[54:52] June Frazier: So that's the general fund. On the sewer lateral fund.
[54:55] June Frazier: This is a special assessment that's levied and paid. At the same time you pay for your annual property taxes, it's $28 a year. If your sewer or lateral breaks, you can call the city and get a reimbursement of $2,500 to help go towards the repair of that line. We do carry a balance within
[55:14] June Frazier: that particular fund. You can see over time, we were at $2,000 per reimbursement, and so you can see that the revenue is much higher than the expenditures. When we go to $2,500, it starts to flatten out. We would recommend keeping it at $2,500 for now. If you go to $3,000, it's gonna tip the other way, and you're going to deplete those reserves pretty quickly.
[55:34] June Frazier: It's really important that you have some reserves in the sewer lateral fund, because the last thing you want is a resident that's been paying that assessment for years go to finally collect on their $2,500, and you don't have it in the bank. So, we're in a good position as far as the sewer lateral fund is concerned today.
[55:51] June Frazier: The Special Business District Fund, this is a tax that's levied just within downtown Clayton. The funds that are derived from that are used to pay for advertising, special events, economic development purposes, things that go to promote that district overall.
[56:05] June Frazier: You can see this year, our other financing uses, which is essentially the transfer from
[56:11] June Frazier: the Special Business District Fund to the general fund is higher than the revenue that's coming in. There was a little bit of a balance there. We're going to use all of that money this year, and the majority of that balance is really going to help pay for the lit parking signs that would be outside of parking garages and public parking areas in downtown Clayton, so…
[56:30] June Frazier: Great use of that money. We think it's going to be very productive, and so we're excited to get that going.
[56:37] June Frazier: On the equipment replacement fund, again, there was an adjustment here since the last time you saw this number. Last time, it was up over $5 million, now it's down to $1.8.
[56:46] June Frazier: Or actually, that number should go back up.
[56:49] June Frazier: I think we need to revise that. I used the earlier slide. So that number's going to be inflated, by the 3.2. My mistake for not having that on there, that's going to be closer to $5 million because we moved the fire trucks over. So that number has jumped since the last time, but the equipment replacement fund for the MIAC students in the room.
[57:06] June Frazier: What we do is we save money every time we buy a vehicle for the replacement of that vehicle, so…
[57:12] June Frazier: 10 years from now, when we need to buy a truck to replace the truck we have, that money's already there. We don't have to go find it. So, we do that with all of our vehicles here in the city, and then a lot of major building components and facilities-type equipment. So,
[57:27] June Frazier: just a smart way to do it, rather than, oh my gosh, the truck's broken, where are we gonna get the money to do it? We save a little bit over time so we can make that purchase responsibly, and that it's all predictable in the end.
[57:37] June Frazier: So that's that particular fund.
[57:39] June Frazier: The 5-year capital improvement fund.
[57:41] June Frazier: You can see here what we've got planned over the coming years. Really big number in 2027. So we're finishing up the municipal garage, so we're going to have some expenses over there. We've got a number of tornado projects, and the number that's still kind of driving that up at the moment is the roof at 10 South Brentwood, which is unknown how much that will cost at the moment, but our early estimates and what we plugged into here was about $4 million for that.
[58:06] June Frazier: So, 27 appears to be a big year. A lot of that is due to.
[58:11] June Frazier: that, you know, those tornado-related expenses, the wide-own improvements, the street lighting, that's going in across the city, that sort of thing. But you can see the fluctuation year over year, but what I always point out with the Capital Improvement Fund.
[58:24] June Frazier: When you look at this pie chart, while Tornado right now is about 40% of what we're spending out of the capital fund.
[58:30] June Frazier: The rest are all maintenance-type activities, so the city's really not going out and building new things and, you know, spending our capital money on that. We're really trying to maintain what we have in good condition. So, you can see how much is going towards improvements within the parks, keeping up shelters and ball fields and lighting, microsurfacing, keeping up the health of our streets, and then facility improvements.
[58:52] June Frazier: So, all the work is really being done to maintain our existing infrastructure. And then finally, debt service.
[58:59] June Frazier: We do have just over $30 million in total outstanding debt. You can see on the far right the years that those, the debts, the various debts will be paid off.
[59:08] June Frazier: So, in 2019, we borrowed money to buy what is now the police station. In 2021, we borrowed more money to renovate that building and do some parks work as well. You may remember the city, or the Center of Clayton work that went on years ago, or just a few years ago. A lot of that expense came out of this,
[59:27] June Frazier: bond issue here. Got about $3.2 million left on it.
[59:31] June Frazier: In 2022, we refunded, or we refinanced, the general obligation bonds that paid for all the road reconstructions in 2014. That'll be paid off in 2034. And then last year, we issued brand new debt, just under $14 million, to redo our public works and parks facility that we call the Municipal Maintenance Facility, or it used to be called the Municipal Garage, lots of names.
[59:53] June Frazier: But that's underway and should be done, hopefully, by the end of the year.
[59:59] June Frazier: And it looks like it's on track to do that, but if you drive by right now, it's a mess, but it's really coming along. So we're excited to get that facility done. It's been a long time coming, and we'll have that debt paid off in 2044. So that's where we're at as of today with our debt service.
[1:00:14] June Frazier: And as far as the budget approval schedule, today is September 8th, so you can see we are currently doing the public hearing and first reading on the annual budget. We've got the Center of Clayton budget that's on the consent agenda tonight. We just had that meeting with the school district last week.
[1:00:29] June Frazier: And then September 22nd, we'll have the second reading and final approval of both the tax levy and this budget, and then it will go into effect on October 1st.
[1:00:38] June Frazier: At that point, we'll turn things over to Citizen Finance to really go to work to figure out how to cut this deficit down over time, and I'm sure we'll have a lot more discussions within this room and at the Board, or the City Council's retreat, next summer as well, as we start to prepare fiscal year 28. So, with that, I'll take any questions you might have related to the budget.
[1:00:58] June Frazier: Thank you so much, David. I will open the discussion. Are there any questions or comments, from the audience or online?
[1:01:08] June Frazier: No, I don't see… do you wanna… you… you wanna come up to the microphone? Yep.
[1:01:15] June Frazier: And you just have to state your name for the record, and just make sure the light is green. Okay. I'm Adam Watson. My question is about, the, revenue.
[1:01:25] June Frazier: So, why is revenue, stagnant and, like, the expenditures are increasing? Because I'd assume that property taxes would be increasing by some set amount to keep up with things like inflation or something like that.
[1:01:38] June Frazier: So, as we were talking about on the property tax levy, the state of Missouri limits how much we can actually collect on property taxes every year as an increased amount. So, with that cap being CPI, or 2.7%, we're not seeing
[1:01:52] June Frazier: big jumps year to year on the property tax side. So that's why that's… that's relatively flat. On the sales tax side, we've seen some increases over years, so you can see here, this starts in 2025.
[1:02:04] June Frazier: Here's what we anticipated we would get in fiscal year 26, so we thought we'd taken about $7.5 million, but in the end, took in about $7.3, so we came in under our target.
[1:02:15] June Frazier: we saw some annual increases due to inflation, so the goods people were buying were getting more expensive. It was getting more expensive to go out to eat or go to a hotel. We're starting to see that flatten out a little bit. We're starting to see activity really kind of stagnant, so it's picked up since the pandemic.
[1:02:33] June Frazier: But day to day, just seeing the people on the street and what's going on around town.
[1:02:37] June Frazier: There just isn't a whole lot of additional activity.
[1:02:40] June Frazier: The other thing that we haven't had in a while is a new sales tax driver here. So, like, on Olive, they just got this new Costco and the new Dearburg's and these other things. If you think about Clayton, we're really hotels and restaurants. That's about 50% of our sales tax revenue.
[1:02:55] June Frazier: Outside of that, we've got, you know, Walgreens, we've got Straub's, we've got a CVS, but we don't have supermarkets or Targets or anything like that, so…
[1:03:03] June Frazier: until we get some bigger sales tax drivers, I think that's a number that's also going to stay relatively flat. So that's what's holding those numbers in place. And then down below, when we're talking about expenditures, the big increases that you're seeing, a lot of that's due to personnel costs, so things like health insurance, just the salary, just the market generally for employees is going up at a faster rate than that revenue that's only going up.
[1:03:28] June Frazier: 1.5% or so. But that's what's going on here, is we're really limited into how much we can take in in additional property tax year to year.
[1:03:37] June Frazier: We're not capturing that whole property value increase that homeowners might have.
[1:03:41] June Frazier: And then sales tax, it's just… it's stagnant act… stagnant activity that we're seeing.
[1:03:46] June Frazier: All right, thank you. Yeah, sorry for the long explanation, but… Oh, thank you, I appreciate it. And we will discuss it more, in our next few meetings, we'll have more discussions about… David will present to you guys to talk a little bit more about finances and the budget, so there'll be an opportunity for more questions.
[1:04:06] June Frazier: Great question, thank you for engaging in that.
[1:04:09] June Frazier: Are there any comments, from the Council, or questions?
[1:04:17] June Frazier: Seeing none, and I don't see any questions online, Councilmember Buse.
[1:04:23] June Frazier: I introduced bill number 717. I'm sorry, one second, I will close the public hearing. Sorry, go ahead.
[1:04:30] June Frazier: I introduced Bill Number 7172, approving the property tax law.
[1:04:35] June Frazier: levies for tax year 2026 to be read for the first time by title only. Budget. Wait, I'm in the wrong… I believe we're at the next item.
[1:04:45] June Frazier: Councilmember? Right.
[1:04:48] June Frazier: Oh, yep.
[1:04:50] June Frazier: I know, and I just start reading it without paying attention, so…
[1:04:57] June Frazier: Find this on the agenda here.
[1:05:00] June Frazier: Bill 7173.
[1:05:05] June Frazier: Okay, I move to introduce bill number 7173 to be read for the first time by title only.
[1:05:12] June Frazier: Second.
[1:05:13] June Frazier: Any discussion? Mr. City Attorney. Bill number 7173, first reading, an ordinance adopting an annual budget for fiscal year 2027, commencing on October 1, 2026, and appropriating funds pursuant thereto.
[1:05:28] June Frazier: All those in favor?
[1:05:29] June Frazier: Aye. Any opposed? The vote passes 6-0. And then the second reading for this bill is scheduled for our next meeting on September 22nd.
[1:05:42] June Frazier: The next item on our agenda is our consent agenda. Are there any questions or comments on any of the
[1:05:53] June Frazier: Any items in the content agenda?
[1:05:56] June Frazier: Councilmember Buse. I move to approve the consent agenda. Second. Any discussion?
[1:06:04] June Frazier: Councilmember Buse? Aye. Councilmember Patel? Aye. Councilmember York?
[1:06:10] June Frazier: Aye. Councilmember Waldman? Aye. Councilmember Malin-Smith? Aye. Mayor McAndrew? Aye.
[1:06:17] June Frazier: The first item under our new business, is the grant program that we already talked about, that Grace presented to us. So we've already heard about it, so I will, open the discussion. Are there any other further questions or comments about the program?
[1:06:36] June Frazier: I have a comment that is maybe not totally germane, but, one of the things that I'm really interested in and,
[1:06:47] June Frazier: would like staff to consider what
[1:06:51] June Frazier: like, options we have to set ourselves up for success is, I think, like, I personally think…
[1:06:58] June Frazier: composting as a form of waste diversion is critical, to happen, and so I love that we're doing more to make it more,
[1:07:10] June Frazier: Under… well understood by our residents to take advantage of the program we have.
[1:07:15] June Frazier: And I want to be thinking about what we can do to position ourselves well to have it as an option when we go back out.
[1:07:28] June Frazier: For the next bid.
[1:07:30] June Frazier: I'm concerned that I think… I think we're still the only municipality doing it. I don't know if that's for sure, but I know it's not widespread.
[1:07:42] June Frazier: And I would love to…
[1:07:45] June Frazier: make sure that we're doing everything we can to create an environment where it's, like, still an option. Or if we have any reason, like.
[1:07:55] June Frazier: To find out that it might not be to…
[1:07:59] June Frazier: start working on considering how it could be, right? Whether that's, like, meeting with the other… starting to work with other,
[1:08:08] June Frazier: Like, the businesses that specifically do composting, and they do… it's very, like… sort of…
[1:08:15] June Frazier: ad hoc residential, right? As far as I know. But, I would just really like to see us
[1:08:22] June Frazier: work on that, because I'm afraid…
[1:08:26] June Frazier: it'll go away, just like we think, like, rear yard might go away, but, I don't think that would have as detrimental impact on our…
[1:08:37] June Frazier: Planet.
[1:08:39] June Frazier: Yeah, I mean, I think… I think we are one of the few. I have had municipalities reach out and ask about our program, so I think we are in the minority, for sure. Well, and maybe it's something we, like, work through sustainability or regionally to try to get more people
[1:08:57] June Frazier: To do it, so there's more of a demand, so that the suppliers
[1:09:03] June Frazier: are more interested in offering it. I mean, I just would love us to figure out
[1:09:09] June Frazier: how we think of ways to approach that. I don't have the answer. Yeah, we're happy to. I don't have an answer at the moment either. I can tell you that I haven't heard any indication that it may go away. Okay. One of the difficult things for us, though, is to track the effectiveness, because it's just put into yard waste. We get the general yard waste numbers, but we don't know what percent of the yard waste is actual…
[1:09:28] June Frazier: compost. So, that is the tough thing. When it's mixed in like that, we really don't have good
[1:09:33] June Frazier: information on the usage. I think this grant will be nice, because we'll see how many people come in to pick up a VIN and may be able to gauge some sort of interest that way, but the way we currently do it, it's really difficult to measure. So even to try to measure improvement, to see if we had some big campaign, if it's actually being effective.
[1:09:51] June Frazier: But in the end, yeah, we can see what's out there, and I think it's something that's of value to our residents, and we'll try to preserve it.
[1:09:58] June Frazier: I think, yeah, I think that's a really, a really good point. And part of it is, I think, hopefully as we raise more awareness, even though we've had it for a long time, raise awareness in our community, and that's one of the issues, too, that working with the school district, like with the
[1:10:13] June Frazier: the no idling, there are articles in the Globe and everything else that takes it to a lot more families and a broader audience. And if there's more demand within our community for it, more usage, which, again, is hard to measure, but hopefully the bins will help.
[1:10:26] June Frazier: It should be…
[1:10:28] June Frazier: hopefully something that we can push more. It's also something that does come up, as you said, Bridget, that you get, or David, that you get inquiries from other cities, cool cities, the other cities involved.
[1:10:38] June Frazier: and that are interested that we have this, because people don't have it. So, again, that awareness within our community and beyond, and hopefully that transfers into what, the services provide. So, that's a great point, I'm glad you brought that up. Well, and real quick, I was wondering if we look at, like, the winter months.
[1:10:57] June Frazier: I know we're gathering then, and just see if that's increased, just because most people don't have a lot of yard waste in the winter months, if we could kind of, like, get a window there and see if this increases that at all.
[1:11:08] June Frazier: I don't know if that's… if that is a thing, but I know we don't have, like, hardly any yard waste, you know, in the winter. Yeah, we can take a look at it. I like that. See what the trend looks like.
[1:11:20] June Frazier: Great, thanks. Any other thoughts or comments?
[1:11:23] June Frazier: Councilmember Abuse.
[1:11:31] June Frazier: I move to approve resolution number 2026-28, endorsing submittal of an application to the St. Louis County Grant Program.
[1:11:40] June Frazier: Second.
[1:11:41] June Frazier: Any discussion?
[1:11:43] June Frazier: All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? The vote passes 6-0.
[1:11:50] June Frazier: The next item on our agenda is, public art for 211 North Merrimack.
[1:11:57] June Frazier: This is exciting, so we have a project at completion here. The subject property is located at the intersection of Merrimack Avenue and Pershing Avenue, and has a zoning designation of Planned Unit Development, or PUD. The development is known as the Vivian. It's currently under construction. As I said.
[1:12:13] June Frazier: for the most part, complete over there, consists of a mixed-use residential building. The development was approved through the PUD process on June 27, 2023, and was later amended on November 28th, 2020… that should have been 2025.
[1:12:30] June Frazier: 2028, or 2026 would be in the future, sorry.
[1:12:34] June Frazier: Alright, as part of the approved PUD, the applicant committed to providing public art as a public benefit. A maximum of 5 public benefit points may be awarded for public art.
[1:12:45] June Frazier: This particular PUD was approved with a tentative 3 points for public art, pending a final recommendation from the Public Art Advisory Committee and confirmation by the City Council.
[1:12:55] June Frazier: The applicant proposes a public art installation titled Sampagita, and is designed by Space Design and Construction. The installation consists of three stylized Sampagita flowers.
[1:13:07] June Frazier: which is the national flower of the Philippines, rising from the public sidewalk at the intersection of Merrimack Avenue and Pershing Avenue. An interpretive plaque describing the significance of the flower is also proposed as a part of the installation.
[1:13:20] June Frazier: The installation is, again, proposed to be located on a sidewalk bump-out. It's located at the corner of Merrimack and Pershing, so it will require a right-of-way permit, and we'll need a use and maintenance agreement, along with that right-of-way permit. As we look at it, and do the review, it's possible that we may have to change the location slightly, once Public Works gets in there, but, if it moves, it shouldn't move
[1:13:44] June Frazier: you know, too far from that location. The Public Art Advisory Committee met with representatives of the development on July 30th of this year and August 24th to discuss the concept. They unanimously recommend approval of the art to the City Council as submitted at their meeting.
[1:13:59] June Frazier: On August 24th, 2026, that's the same drawings that you have in your packet or renderings, staff note that at the time of the drafting of the report, the QR code links to Wikipedia, rather than a page described by the applicant. Staff is of the opinion that this QR code should link to a page managed by the property owner or the Vivian Apartments.
[1:14:19] June Frazier: And with that, we recommend…
[1:14:22] June Frazier: Thank you, I'll open the discussion. I… are there… I don't see any representatives in the audience here in person. Are there any…
[1:14:33] June Frazier: Looks like there is somebody online, Shelley Niemeier? So we will promote you. I see that your hand is up.
[1:14:41] Shelley Niemeier: Yes.
[1:14:43] June Frazier: Great. Shelley, would you like to talk to us a little bit about the project, and maybe, obviously, state your name and what your position is for the record?
[1:14:50] Shelley Niemeier: Oh, sure. I'm Shelley Niemeier, principal at Space
[1:14:54] Shelley Niemeier: architecture and design, and I'm also here with my husband, Tom, and he's the architect of
[1:15:01] Shelley Niemeier: the project as well. So, and just to,
[1:15:05] Shelley Niemeier: address the concern about the QR code. That was just a dummy QR code that we put in there until the developer provides us with a web page on their website to
[1:15:18] Shelley Niemeier: put content on it for it. Yeah, so I'm sorry, I didn't make that clear in the, in the PDF that I sent out last week.
[1:15:27] Shelley Niemeier: Tom, do you want to talk about those?
[1:15:28] June Frazier: Yeah, I was kind of curious, like, there is some attachments in our agenda, is that… is that the language that you anticipate that would be attached to the Vivian's website? I mean, there's some language that's, you know, was in our packet, I don't know, that I'm assuming you guys submitted to us.
[1:15:48] June Frazier: Is that somewhat similar to the language that you think will be there?
[1:15:52] Shelley Niemeier: Actually, so, what you are seeing in the packet, that was just the packet that was sent to the Art Advisory Board. For the… what will be on the website that would be linked by the QR code, we intend to actually do
[1:16:08] Shelley Niemeier: More of a historical analysis that includes,
[1:16:13] Shelley Niemeier: Links to primary sources and things of that nature for somebody… something that's a little more scholarly written than what you have in your, packet.
[1:16:24] June Frazier: Got it. And maybe if you could just kind of talk about how, or if you're talking to somebody about what your, you know, that sort of language, or…
[1:16:34] June Frazier: How you're going about that.
[1:16:37] Shelley Niemeier: Going… I'm sorry, I'm…
[1:16:40] June Frazier: Like, I know you mentioned I was president at the Public Art Advisory Committee, as you know, so you talked a little bit about… I think you spoke to Rhea Sharon in the past, like, will you be talking to her about this language, or I'm just curious, I think we might just be curious as to, you know, if you're talking to anyone locally about it.
[1:16:58] Shelley Niemeier: That's this.
[1:17:03] June Frazier: Oh, I… you may have accidentally muted yourself.
[1:17:06] Shelley Niemeier: Yeah, no, I did because the dog was yelling.
[1:17:09] June Frazier: No.
[1:17:09] Shelley Niemeier: I'm sorry.
[1:17:10] June Frazier: No, no, it's fine.
[1:17:11] Shelley Niemeier: Yeah, so, you know, that's been very important to us every step of this process to make sure that we get,
[1:17:20] Shelley Niemeier: buy-in from, especially, you know, Filipino descendants, to make sure that we are approaching this properly. And, just to give some context that, you know, we were…
[1:17:33] Shelley Niemeier: We were hired by the, the developer to produce some art that would sit on this corner, and
[1:17:41] Shelley Niemeier: We didn't want to…
[1:17:44] Shelley Niemeier: we didn't just want to put some random sculpture here. We wanted there to be a reason for it. We started doing some research into,
[1:17:53] Shelley Niemeier: Pershing, and then we found this interesting connection between purging and,
[1:18:01] Shelley Niemeier: the Philippines, which typically is not taught very much in school, and we felt like, you know, considering the,
[1:18:10] Shelley Niemeier: the Philippine village that's, you know, over in the Demon neighborhood. We thought it could be kind of a lovely visual to commemorate that.
[1:18:19] Shelley Niemeier: So, that's where all this came from, and, yeah, and so when we start doing, you know, more of this content, this more historical content, we do want to make sure that we're,
[1:18:33] Shelley Niemeier: being careful about how it is presented on this website. So yes, we will continue to, contact. You know, if you have anybody else from,
[1:18:44] Shelley Niemeier: Who was a part of the…
[1:18:46] Shelley Niemeier: the Philippine Village Memorial, we are happy to talk to them, as well as anybody else, but yes, we have found, you know, kind of a core group of
[1:18:55] Shelley Niemeier: Filipino descendants that we have been consulting with up to this point.
[1:19:02] June Frazier: Thank you so much. I think, Mark, rubin, you look like you have your hand up.
[1:19:11] June Frazier: Go ahead.
[1:19:16] June Frazier: Mark, can you hear us?
[1:19:18] mark rubin: Yeah, could you hear me?
[1:19:19] June Frazier: Yep, yep, we can hear you now, yep.
[1:19:23] mark rubin: So… so, yeah, anyway, I just wanted to add, and I know Shelley…
[1:19:28] mark rubin: Bridget, you were, you were at that Art Commission hearing, so I think you've got more context. I know Shelley made some outreach with some people in the Filipino community, and I think they want to maintain, some of the people that she's had some outreach to.
[1:19:46] mark rubin: I think at this point in time, I don't know that they want public acknowledgement.
[1:19:51] mark rubin: So, that might be why Shelley is, you know.
[1:19:55] mark rubin: you know, being a little vague in that, I know, as you heard, she's done quite a bit of historical research so far. So, I think it's, you know, it's an ode to the community, some of the history, you know, I think it tells a great story, and that kind of…
[1:20:12] mark rubin: you know, presents, you know, I think not just an attractive piece of art, but something that has some historical foundation as well.
[1:20:24] June Frazier: Thank you. I'm just gonna go around and see if, any of the council members have any questions.
[1:20:30] June Frazier: Yeah, you've pretty much addressed, my, my one, my one concern that there was.
[1:20:36] June Frazier: whenever we're doing something historical like that, and it was a complicated relationship with Pershing, the fact that you are going to continue to get input
[1:20:45] June Frazier: from the Filipino community.
[1:20:47] June Frazier: seems pretty critical. At one point, at the first time this was presented, I was at that meeting and had suggested that
[1:20:55] June Frazier: we had had, as City of Clayton, a commemorative landscape task force. It's no longer
[1:21:01] June Frazier: active right now, so if you're reaching out otherwise and keeping that sensitivity, I think that's really wonderful. The way this concept came up and everything else, I'm very impressed with as well.
[1:21:14] June Frazier: So, again, the sensitivity in making sure we get this right, or you get this right, is, I think, pretty well… pretty good, and you've already addressed that, so thank you.
[1:21:25] mark rubin: Appreciate the feedback.
[1:21:27] June Frazier: I just have a question, my ability to imagine space is…
[1:21:35] June Frazier: not strong, and I was looking at the dimensions and some of the renderings, and it looks like these are quite tall, like 9 or 10 feet, so taller than people, and I was trying to figure out whether people will be able to, like, walk among them.
[1:21:54] June Frazier: like…
[1:21:55] Shelley Niemeier: You want to talk?
[1:21:56] June Frazier: Or will it be something you stay on the outside of?
[1:22:00] mark rubin: No, I mean, at the human scale, this will be right in that streetscape. So, yeah, I mean, it's gonna be right in the right-of-way. So, you'll be right next to them.
[1:22:13] mark rubin: It's an interactive experience, so to speak.
[1:22:18] June Frazier: Thanks!
[1:22:21] June Frazier: I mean, I don't have much. It sounds like the art review board was comfortable with it.
[1:22:26] June Frazier: frankly think it's too tall, and it needs more color, but, we talked about color, but… Yeah, I mean, especially the scale, at least in the pictures, it looks like it… I think color would help fill the space, and I think…
[1:22:40] June Frazier: 9 feet, it seems a bit tall for a piece of art, but…
[1:22:44] June Frazier: I am not an art person, so I will… with that said, if our art group is okay with that, then I'm fine with it.
[1:22:52] June Frazier: Yeah, I, I will say that, yeah, as, I mean, as was mentioned in the staff report, PAC was, they were unanimous, and we did talk about color, and, you know, Shelley, talked about color. They just decided that at this point, it's
[1:23:08] June Frazier: Better to go all white, just to match the building better, so…
[1:23:14] June Frazier: Yeah, I had similar concerns about the color, just because I feel like it kind of gets lost in, like, the sea of concrete. Like, when you're kind of walking up the street, like, you know, there's just so much concrete, whether it's on the street or the sidewalk, I would be fearful, like, the visual would get lost a little bit.
[1:23:32] June Frazier: So…
[1:23:33] June Frazier: I'm glad that it was brought up and thought about, because that was my, I guess, my… a big concern. And then also, I know, like, we're describing 3 of these, but then in every rendering, there's 4? Which one are we…
[1:23:46] June Frazier: I think, Shelley, I don't know if you want to talk… I mean, you can maybe address the color concerns, and then maybe just clarify there are 4 flowers, or how many there are?
[1:23:56] Shelley Niemeier: Yeah, absolutely, yeah, there are four flowers, to be clear. And we did… we went… we went with white, because the Samogita is a jasmine flower, and it's traditionally white. And we did…
[1:24:11] Shelley Niemeier: Entertain some other colors, and…
[1:24:16] Shelley Niemeier: we, in the end, I think collectively, us at Space, and with, Mark and his team, and, the art community… the art…
[1:24:27] Shelley Niemeier: committee… committee, I'm sorry, we collectively decided that, you know, having this pure, clean white against the backdrop of the building made, the nicest statement.
[1:24:41] mark rubin: Yeah, I mean, Council, to your point, we actually challenged Shelley and Tom pretty hard on wanting something with a little more pop. They really debated us pretty hard.
[1:24:52] mark rubin: A, about the native color, of the flower in order to maintain, you know, its authenticity. They wanted to really kind of stay true to that color.
[1:25:04] mark rubin: We actually kind of kept going back to them and, you know, introducing, well, what if we do red? What if we do just one out of red? What if we do black?
[1:25:13] mark rubin: The challenge with black is black has a tendency to just kind of go away. So, to your point about white conceivably going away, amongst the backdrop, I think it's… the conclusion was it'll actually be more recognizable than black. I mean.
[1:25:30] mark rubin: Obviously, black is very classic in tone, very compatible, not polarizing. The concern there is that it really would go away, though.
[1:25:41] mark rubin: So… that's how they kind of kept pushing back.
[1:25:46] mark rubin: And said, you know, we really want to leave it clean, we really want to preserve the authenticity of this flower, which is a white flower. That's how we landed there.
[1:25:59] June Frazier: Yeah, thank you. I'm just kind of curious, like, how you guys kind of, like, thought around that, so thank you for that explanation.
[1:26:04] mark rubin: Yep.
[1:26:07] June Frazier: I just have two questions. One is, just to sort of piggyback on Councilmember Patel's question.
[1:26:16] June Frazier: I know these are quite tall, and I can see that they appear to be fairly substantial, being 4 to 6 inches wide, but I know that we have some
[1:26:30] June Frazier: very nimble members of our community, I imagine, and will they be able to sustain Climbing or other adventuring…
[1:26:41] June Frazier: people?
[1:26:42] Shelley Niemeier: You wanna take this one?
[1:26:44] mark rubin: Tom, do you want to speak, I mean, to the integrity as well as maybe the scale relative to especially, you know, our 80, you know, 80 building, too?
[1:26:55] Shelley Niemeier: This is Tom Niemeier. I'm the architect in space, and
[1:27:00] Shelley Niemeier: So, a couple things. One, the height of them, I just wanted to address that. The flowers, the whole sculpture itself is made of steel.
[1:27:12] Shelley Niemeier: That'll be powder-coated white. And so the leaves and the flower is made up of thin steel, it's 16-gauge steel, so…
[1:27:24] Shelley Niemeier: We didn't really want people to be able to reach it, so that's one of the reasons why it's up at 10 feet, to just kind of discourage people from trying to handle it, yank on it. They will be welded very securely up there, so it's not like…
[1:27:43] Shelley Niemeier: You know, they could be ripped off, but they could be possibly bent.
[1:27:50] Shelley Niemeier: Or, you know, people just pull on them, and, you know, they could hurt themselves. So, we wanted to elevate them out of people's reach.
[1:27:57] Shelley Niemeier: And then as far as, the stem, is made up, and again, this is art, and we're going to, we're going to fabricate a sample first and test it, obviously. But the first, prototype is gonna be made up of.
[1:28:17] Shelley Niemeier: The bottom, 4 to 5 feet is gonna be, a thick-walled steel pipe.
[1:28:25] Shelley Niemeier: That's an inch and a quarter, in diameter. There'll be a 7-eighths, solid steel rod that'll be inserted into that pipe.
[1:28:36] Shelley Niemeier: To continue the stem, upwards, and that'll be… that'll be all welded together. when we do the install, we will be core drilling into the concrete, and inserting the stem into, a slightly oversized hole.
[1:28:55] Shelley Niemeier: And then we'll fill that with a grout, that's an expanding grout, so that as it cures, it'll really seize up on that steel pipe, making it, impossible to move or pull out.
[1:29:09] Shelley Niemeier: As far as someone being able to climb it.
[1:29:14] Shelley Niemeier: I think it'd be very difficult. I couldn't…
[1:29:19] Shelley Niemeier: Rule out the possibility, someone very nimble,
[1:29:24] Shelley Niemeier: could maybe try to shimmy up that poll,
[1:29:28] Shelley Niemeier: But I'm not… you know, the most that it would do, potentially, would be, the top part of that stem, if they, if they were able to shimmy all the way up to the top. I suppose, that top steel rod might bend.
[1:29:45] Shelley Niemeier: But again, I think it would be…
[1:29:48] Shelley Niemeier: you know, on that public of a corner, I think it'd be…
[1:29:52] Shelley Niemeier: Pretty difficult, for someone to do that.
[1:29:57] June Frazier: Okay, thank you. May I ask one more thing? Sure. Are you done? One more question, but sorry, if you…
[1:30:04] June Frazier: render…
[1:30:05] mark rubin: rendering.
[1:30:06] June Frazier: I'm wondering if there are any other plans for landscaping, or, like.
[1:30:13] June Frazier: Large pots or something that could maybe soften the the starkness.
[1:30:20] mark rubin: That's…
[1:30:20] June Frazier: That's not what we're talking about, but…
[1:30:22] mark rubin: No, no, no, I know, but I can very much so address that. Actually, Artelope.
[1:30:28] mark rubin: did the landscaping design, and, you know, we have pretty conventional streetscape, pavers, as well as street trees, obviously. We do have some landscaping, decorative grasses around our townhome.
[1:30:43] mark rubin: porches. The back, you should see, if you've not been by there, poke your head in the Western Muse. The landscaping's tremendous. It's absolutely fantastic, as well as that
[1:30:57] mark rubin: Southwest corner, the pool deck as well. More than happy to give anybody a tour, by the way. And if you're looking for a nice urban place, as a good counterpart to your suburban house in Clayton, we're more than happy to lease a unit to you as well.
[1:31:15] mark rubin: But the answer is we have Artelope doing some… now that the building's up, we are going to be doing quite a few planners up on that front.
[1:31:25] mark rubin: Furthermore, we'll be doing some patio seating, too. We're working with a restaurant, right now, so we'll be… we'll have some patio seating out there, so we're going to want to make sure that there's consistency and…
[1:31:36] mark rubin: continuity, but the long and short is we absolutely are gonna… that's gonna be very planted out in the front. We're big believers in color and character and that type of stuff, for sure.
[1:31:49] June Frazier: Thanks, Mark. Are there any other questions or comments from the Council?
[1:31:55] June Frazier: Oh, I'm sorry, Stephan, yes. Mine was on landscaping as well, and it actually fit into the whole conversation about color and everything else, especially with the fire hydrant sitting right there.
[1:32:06] mark rubin: Yes.
[1:32:06] June Frazier: that if there were grass or plantings around the street there, I know part of it is right-of-way and part of it is not, something to give some color versus just the…
[1:32:17] June Frazier: the starkness of what's… what's shown here, I think would help, and would address the… the comments about the white… the white in the… just on that black concrete as well, so…
[1:32:31] June Frazier: From what you just said, my understanding is that you're looking at adding a lot of that.
[1:32:35] mark rubin: Oh, yeah, so Susan, yeah, I mean, you know, like I said, we put this back, and Artelope does… they do a lot of big institutional work, too. They're super creative, so we've thrown this back at them and asked for some architectural-scaled
[1:32:51] mark rubin: you know, appropriate planners on that front. So… and we do, we want to make… we've got a water vault, we've got the fire hydrant, we've got some things over there that we definitely… we want to mask, and we want those to go away very much so.
[1:33:07] June Frazier: Okay, great, thanks.
[1:33:09] mark rubin: Yep.
[1:33:10] June Frazier: Thank you, and, Mark and Shelley, I'll just, and Tom, too, I'll just, thank you. I, you know, I think, I really, I do like the art, and I think, I, I appreciate,
[1:33:24] June Frazier: I appreciate the fact that you guys tried to kind of think outside the box. It's always wonderful when we can educate, our residents, our visitors, anybody that's gonna hopefully go to this wonderful restaurant that Mark is gonna open.
[1:33:37] June Frazier: Just about, our community and, members of our community. I think it's… it's great that you've taken the opportunity to do that.
[1:33:48] June Frazier: So if there are no other questions or comments here and online, I will… Councilmember Buse. Okay.
[1:33:57] June Frazier: I move to approve resolution number 2026-29, approving the public art for the Vivian Apartments at 211 North Merrimack Avenue.
[1:34:06] June Frazier: Second.
[1:34:08] June Frazier: Any discussion?
[1:34:10] June Frazier: All those in favor?
[1:34:12] June Frazier: Aye. Any opposed? The vote passes 6-0.
[1:34:16] June Frazier: We look forward to seeing it.
[1:34:18] mark rubin: Thank you, everybody. Appreciate it.
[1:34:21] June Frazier: The last item on our agenda is a contract for a new City of Clayton website.
[1:34:27] June Frazier: I'll take this one, Mayor. Staff requests approval of a contract with GHD Services for professional website design, development, implementation, hosting, maintenance, and support services for the City's official municipal website.
[1:34:41] June Frazier: City's current website is 10 years old, and we are in need of an overhaul. City seeks to create a dynamic user and mobile-friendly website that offers clear, user-centered navigation, simplifies content management.
[1:34:52] June Frazier: Presents a unique and creative visual design, promotes the city's image in the community and beyond, integrates with existing municipal systems such as GIS mapping and third-party applications, and most importantly, meets current and impending
[1:35:05] June Frazier: ADA and WCAG accessibility standards. Website design and development is expected to begin on October 1st, 2026, subject to approval and appropriation from the City Council. Funding for this project is included in the fiscal year 27 budget.
[1:35:19] June Frazier: The city issued a request for
[1:35:21] June Frazier: Proposals from qualified firms. The submission deadline was July 8th, 2026. 36 proposals were received, opened, and evaluated in private by city staff.
[1:35:31] June Frazier: A list of those proposals is attached to the summary. Seven firms, highlighted in the attachment, were invited for interviews and live demonstrations.
[1:35:39] June Frazier: Following analysis and evaluation, staff found the proposal from GHD to best serve the city's needs at the most reasonable price.
[1:35:47] June Frazier: GHD did not submit the lowest base bid. However, interviews and live demonstrations revealed that the lowest bid excluded several key functions from their proposal that would have required additional costs, eliminating the initial price advantage.
[1:35:59] June Frazier: The review team determined GHD provided the best overall value to the city based on transparent pricing and functionality, competitive costs.
[1:36:07] June Frazier: and overall responsiveness. The proposal submitted by GHD calls for a first-year total investment of $55,228. This includes all implementation, hosting, and maintenance. There is an annual cost of $28,629, which includes $24,495 for hosting.
[1:36:27] June Frazier: And 4,134 for Pluto Search, which is an AI-powered site search solution tailored for government institutions.
[1:36:35] June Frazier: Staff recommends a 10% contingency of $5,522 to address any adjustments
[1:36:41] June Frazier: or unforeseen implementation or content migration challenges. Staff recommends approving the ordinance authorizing the contract with GHD Services in the amount of $55,228, plus a contingency of $5,522,
[1:36:56] June Frazier: For website redesign, development, hosting, and support services for a total of $60,750.
[1:37:05] June Frazier: Thank you, Myron. I'll open the discussion. Are there any questions or comments, from the Council?
[1:37:11] June Frazier: I certainly don't feel competent to analyze these different proposals. The numbers are all over the place.
[1:37:20] June Frazier: So I guess my… my bottom line question, and I trust the staff to have looked at… to see what meets
[1:37:27] June Frazier: the needs going forward, what is the life of this system? If 10 years ago we got something and we're replacing it now, what do you anticipate for this?
[1:37:36] June Frazier: That is a good question. Typically, these things have, like, a 7-year lifespan, but I don't want to speak to that.
[1:37:42] June Frazier: Right now, because I don't know the actual answer to that.
[1:37:46] June Frazier: Okay, so the fact that it went 10 years is actually a good thing. 10 years is pretty old. Okay, or a tough thing. Maybe not a good thing.
[1:37:53] June Frazier: Okay, thanks.
[1:37:57] June Frazier: I… in my day job, I recently participated in an RFP process for our… for a website redesign. And one of the things that,
[1:38:09] June Frazier: I think… It's really important that we…
[1:38:14] June Frazier: did, or are trying to do, and I'm curious how the city thinks about this.
[1:38:20] June Frazier: is, really thinking about, like, the customer or user experience. Like, who are the different, like, what are the different, like, personas or types of people that come to our website or come to us looking for information? And do we know what they're trying to do?
[1:38:39] June Frazier: And are we, like…
[1:38:41] June Frazier: Making sure that we have mapped a way for them to easily find the thing they want to do, right?
[1:38:49] June Frazier: Does that… can you talk about what… Yeah, absolutely. That was the purpose of redesigning the website. Make it more user-centered, easy navigation. So this company that we have chosen, we will meet with them over the span of, like, one or two months in mapping and navigation, and content migration.
[1:39:07] June Frazier: all be handled there. Yeah, awesome, that's great.
[1:39:10] June Frazier: Thank you.
[1:39:12] June Frazier: Do we pay for our website now? Like, I know it's old, but, like, are we paying an annual fee for that? It's about $19,000. How much is it? $19,000 annually. You talked about…
[1:39:24] June Frazier: this not necessarily being the cheapest bid when you started adding others, which makes sense. I guess my bigger question, though, is… or my bigger concern is.
[1:39:33] June Frazier: what's… if you take, you know, Susan's question of 7 years, 8 years, like, what's…
[1:39:38] June Frazier: do we have a sense of what the present value of all those annual costs are going to be? And then, is it still cheaper, or is it more expensive? Because some of these…
[1:39:46] June Frazier: look like they're $5,000 annual, $11,000, and I'm concerned about the compound of a 7-year website cost of $28,000 a year. Do you have any sense of…
[1:39:57] June Frazier: Do you guys factor that… Again, over the 7-year period, for the sake of…
[1:40:01] June Frazier: discussion, what the total cost would be from one side over another? We did save for website re-replacement in our IRF,
[1:40:09] June Frazier: So, some of that…
[1:40:10] June Frazier: to answer your question, yes, we do calculate that into replacement. When we were looking at this particularly, though, really centered on our ADA and PDF remediation. That would cost us
[1:40:23] June Frazier: and a nominal… astronomical fee, to make sure that we're complying in the amount of pages and PDFs that we have to remediate, going forward. So that was kind of the leading factor in choosing GHD versus another company. No, and that makes sense. I guess my question, though, is…
[1:40:42] June Frazier: I get we needed to look at what the total cost
[1:40:45] June Frazier: This year would be versus other firms, and to completely understand your… the logic of this one may not have been the cheapest when you started adding all the add-ons.
[1:40:53] June Frazier: But my question is, it seems to be higher on an annual basis than many of these other ones, so what I'm trying to get a sense of is.
[1:41:01] June Frazier: Are they in line with the total cost? Again, if you use 7 years, 10 years, whatever you want to…
[1:41:08] June Frazier: how much over are they? Are they… are they cheaper? Are they the same? Because I just look at the numbers and see, like, some of these, like, I'm playing tarot for no reason other than coming to mind, it's 54 grand a year.
[1:41:20] June Frazier: And over the course of, let's call it, 10-year period, that's…
[1:41:25] June Frazier: $100,000, if my math is right, that we're gonna be paying extra. So I'm just trying to get a sense of how you guys thought about the continued cost, not just the… the…
[1:41:34] June Frazier: the,
[1:41:36] June Frazier: The one time… The installation cost, or whatever the proper term is that I'm blanking on. Implementation cost. I don't know if we took that particular question that you're asking into consideration.
[1:41:46] June Frazier: We looked at overall costs for the first year, implementation fees, what we had in our budget to cover, and if they were able to meet all of the needs that the city would need to develop the website. So we did interview Planetaria, and they had a lot of add-ons that would
[1:42:00] June Frazier: Run up that price for us.
[1:42:02] June Frazier: Okay.
[1:42:05] June Frazier: The only other comment I had is I really wonder why website companies can't just have normal names. But that's just my own personal aside. Thank you.
[1:42:16] June Frazier: I don't really have a question, just that I'm excited that our website is getting redone, because I think it's long overdue, and…
[1:42:23] June Frazier: you know, I know the website pretty well, and I still struggle to find things, so, I think it's gonna be really helpful to our residents and any of the…
[1:42:31] June Frazier: contractors that try to find… permit, all the things. I just think it's going to be really beneficial, so I'm happy we're doing it.
[1:42:39] June Frazier: I do think Jeff's point is a really important and good one, because the annual cost
[1:42:46] June Frazier: Being $10,000 more than we're paying now, it sounds like.
[1:42:52] June Frazier: Ongoing.
[1:42:57] June Frazier: Makes sense to me that that would be figured into… Our overall assessment of the…
[1:43:05] June Frazier: of each company. But if you're saying that the other companies could not
[1:43:12] June Frazier: meet our needs to… to create the website in the first place, then that answers that question, I guess.
[1:43:23] June Frazier: But to me, if it's… like…
[1:43:26] June Frazier: to use his example, Planetaria, which is…
[1:43:30] June Frazier: $54,500 to build, and then only $5,400
[1:43:38] June Frazier: to maintain versus $29,000, that's a pretty substantial difference. So, I guess I would hope that That ongoing cost.
[1:43:53] June Frazier: Was a consideration, too?
[1:43:57] June Frazier: Well, and I feel like it is, it's a huge… Difference.
[1:44:01] June Frazier: Some of the… some of the firms listed here, there's a price difference because they're not able to meet what we need. So, that is represented, but definitely with the ones that are in yellow, those are the ones that we did interview. I can go back through our notes, the staff's notes.
[1:44:17] June Frazier: in… Come back to you at a later date.
[1:44:21] June Frazier: The other thing I would point out on this, and we've run into this with our current provider, is
[1:44:29] June Frazier: when you go back to them to get something adjusted, they charge you for that. So once it's built, the maintenance just keeps the website up. But if you want to reconfigure things, then there's a charge for their people to go in and reconfigure it. I think something that
[1:44:44] June Frazier: What would be interesting to know is whether or not this amount, the higher amount, includes more of those changes without the additional charges down the road.
[1:44:51] June Frazier: being a more flexible website, you can make, you know, what we have now is very, very rigid. So, the big change where we went from the blue website to the green website, I don't know if you remember the blue Clayton website from maybe…
[1:45:04] June Frazier: 7 or 8 years ago. Just to make that change was a pretty substantial expense to get them to go in and do that, and to reconfigure and move buttons from one spot to the next. There was a charge for that individual change, so… Yeah, I don't doubt… I'd be interested to know is whether or not that…
[1:45:22] June Frazier: It's still the situation with, the proposed vendor.
[1:45:25] June Frazier: Yeah, I don't doubt that… that it's an improvement, I just…
[1:45:29] June Frazier: you know, want to be mindful of, like, looking at the upfront costs is one thing, but then the ongoing costs, and if… if it is ultimately a savings because they're not nickel and diming us on any kind of edits, that's… that… that's a valuable thing for us to understand, I think.
[1:45:48] June Frazier: Yeah, so if there's… I mean, I don't know what the process is, but at least for me, it's like, I prefer to just kind of table it and just kind of have you do a little of that and come back. It's not… at the end of the day, to me, it's not a…
[1:45:59] June Frazier: crazy amount of money, but as we're getting into the budget we just looked at.
[1:46:02] June Frazier: before we accept a 7-10 year cost, which I assume some sort of inflator in that $28,000 number, because most of these have a 3%, 5%, 8%, whatever the inflator is.
[1:46:13] June Frazier: I'd like to kind of have a better… at least for me, I want to have a better sense of kind of what the
[1:46:18] June Frazier: I'm gonna use 10 years because it's easier. The 10-year cost we'd be taking on for the website.
[1:46:24] June Frazier: Okay. We can do that.
[1:46:26] June Frazier: Sounds good.
[1:46:27] June Frazier: Great.
[1:46:28] June Frazier: So we will… If you just have a motion to continue.
[1:46:35] June Frazier: Yeah, do we have a date to when we want it continued, or… 22nd. 22nd.
[1:46:44] June Frazier: I move that we continue… Bill number 7174.
[1:46:51] June Frazier: To the council meeting on September 22nd to allow staff to provide some additional
[1:46:57] June Frazier: Cost analysis… cost and effectiveness analysis.
[1:47:01] June Frazier: Second.
[1:47:03] June Frazier: All those in favor?
[1:47:04] June Frazier: Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Great.
[1:47:07] June Frazier: Alright, so we have come to the end of our agenda. Given that we, I think, perhaps will skip the roundtable since we, have to
[1:47:18] June Frazier: do one more thing this evening. So, Councilmember Buse.
[1:47:23] June Frazier: Or, Malin Smith, I don't know, I was like, I was like, yeah.
[1:47:27] June Frazier: I move that the Council hold a closed meeting with a closed vote and record.
[1:47:31] June Frazier: As authorized by Section 610.0211, 2, and 3 revised statutes of Missouri relating to legal issues, real estate, and or personnel.
[1:47:41] June Frazier: Negotiation of a contract pursuant to Section 610.02112 RSMO, and or proprietary information pursuant to Section 610.02115, and or information related to public safety and security measures
[1:47:57] June Frazier: Pursuant to Section 610.02118 and 19 RSMO.
[1:48:03] June Frazier: Second.
[1:48:07] June Frazier: Councilmember Buse? Aye. Councilmember Patel? Aye. Councilmember York? Aye. Councilmember Waldman? Aye. Councilmember Maylene-Smith? Aye. Mayor McAndrew? Aye. Thank you. Alright, thank you. That ends our regular meeting.
[1:48:24] June Frazier: Go back there.
[1:48:27] June Frazier: Thank you.
[1:48:28] June Frazier: Thank you, guys. Great question, Adam. Thank you.