Board of Aldermen

MINUTES OF THE PUBLIC HEARING OF MONDAY, APRIL 20, 2020 VIDEO STREAMED AND ALSO OPENED TO THE PUBLIC AT 200 HIGHLANDS BOULEVARD DRIVE REGARDING A SPECIAL USE PERMIT TO ALLOW AND ATHLETIC FIELD ASSOCIATED WITH THE SEMI-PRIVATE INDOOR SPORTS FACILITY LOCATED AT 14290 MANCHESTER ROAD, IN THE “C-1 COMMERICAL ZONING DISTRICT” Mayor Mike Clement called the Public Hearing of the Board of Aldermen to order at 7:00 p.m. Roll call showed those present were Alderman Huether, Alderman Nolte, Alderman Hamill, Alderman Ottenad, Alderman Buamann, Alderman Toben, and Mayor Clement. A quorum was present. A following notice of the public hearing was then read: “The City of Manchester Board of Aldermen shall hold a public hearing on Monday, April 20, 2020 at 7:00 p.m. video streamed and also opened to the public at the Manchester Justic Center, 200 Highlands Boulevard Drive, to consider the following: CASE #20-SUP-003 - Brian Scott, with STL Pros, applicant, on behalf of Wohlfart Holdings LLC, Owner, has applied for approval of a Special Use Permit to allow an athletic field associated with the semi-private indoor sports facility located at 14290 Manchester Road, in the “C-1 Commercial Zoning District.” Mayor Clement advised that first the proponents would speak, then the opponents, and the comments from the public, followed by questions from the members of the Board of Aldermen or the CIty Staff. Mr. Rob Compton, parent of one the children of the STL Pros Organization said he wanted to make sure that everyone received the powerpoint presentation. Everyone stated they had received the powerpoint so they would only need the key notes to the presentation. Mr. Compton stated they are not planning for that area to have hitting or batting, there will be no lighting and no PA System. It will be used for private use of the club only. Mr. Brian Scott, President, stated STL Pros Organization has been striving for the last four years. They have 12 teams and they are a 501 (c) 3 organization. He stated anyone that has a child in sports knows it is hard to come by outdoor fields it is almost impossible to come by. Parkway South High School donated some turf to the organization, and they are looking for somewhere to lay it down. Public Hearing 04-20-2020 – SUP for Athletic Field at 14290 Manchester Road Page 1  Mr. Scott stated it will be a defensive station. There will be no umpires, games, leagues or tournaments. It will strictly be used for defensive training for youth baseball from 8u to 14u. There were no opponents, no comments from the public, and no questions from the Board of Aldermen. Alderman Hamill stated the Planning and Zoning Commission gave a favorable recommendation to the Board of Aldermen. Mayor Clement closed the public hearing at 7:06 p.m. Respectfully Submitted, Michelle Melugin Deputy Clerk Note: This is a journal of the Public Hearing from April 20, 2020, (summary); not a verbatim transcript regarding a proposed SUP to allow an athletic field associated with the semi-private indoor sports facility located 14290 Manchester Road, in the “C-1” Commercial Zoning District. If a recording of the public hearing is desired, please contact City Hall. Public Hearing 04-20-2020 – SUP for Athletic Field at 14290 Manchester Road Page 2  MINUTES OF THE REGULAR BOARD OF ALDERMEN MEETING OF MONDAY, APRIL 20, 2020 VIDEO STREAMED AND ALSO OPENED TO THE PUBLIC AT 200 HIGHLANDS BOULEVARD DRIVE 1. CALL TO ORDER Mayor Mike Clement called the Regular Board of Aldermen meeting to order at 7:06 p.m. 2. ROLL CALL AND STATEMENT OF QUORUM Roll call showed those present were Alderman Huether, Alderman Nolte, Alderman Hamill, Alderman Ottenad, Alderman Baumann, Alderman Toben, and Mayor Clement. A quorum was present. 3. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES a. Minutes of the Monday, March 16, 2020 Public Hearing Alderman Toben made the motion to approve the Minutes of the Monday, March 16, 2020 Public Hearing. The motion was seconded by Alderman Ottenad and carried unanimously, with no objections from any members of the Board of Aldermen. B. Minutes of the Monday, March 16, 2020 Regular Board of Aldermen Meeting Alderman Hamill made the motion to approve the Minutes of the Monday, March 16, 2020 Regular of Aldermen Meeting. The motion was seconded by Alderman Ottenad and carried unanimously, with no objections from any members of the Board of Aldermen. 4. ESTABLISHMENT OF ORDER OF ITEMS ON THE AGENDA Mayor Clement added a discussion about the Audit and Finance meeting under reports from Committees. Regular Board of Aldermen meeting 04-20-2020 Page 1  Alderman Ottenad made the motion to approve the Order of Items on the Agenda, as amended. The motion was seconded by Alderman Hamill and carried unanimously, with no objections from any members of the Board of Aldermen. 5. CONSIDERATION OF PETITIONS AND COMMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC a. Comments from the Public There were none. 6. REPORTS FROM THE MAYOR a. Mayoral Proclamation – Arbor Day 2020 Mayor Clement presented a Proclamation in celebration of the Arbor Day celebration which is this coming Saturday, April 25, 2020. b. Mayoral Proclamation – Employee Recognition Mayor Clement presented a proclamation to Michelle Melugin for her 20 years of service to the City of Manchester. a. Mayoral Report Mayor Mike Clement sent out an update earlier today on the upcoming blood drive. Almost every slot for the two-day blood drive has been filled. There is such a great demand for blood right now. The Red Cross has asked if they can come back in late August since the Parks Department is such a nice venue. Mayor Clement wanted to thank everyone for pushing this out. Mayor Clement wanted to acknowledge the composters pick up which had been scheduled for this Saturday has been moved back to May 16 because of the uncertainty of Manchester getting the composters. He said Dave Pracht will be keeping everyone updated. Mayor Clement also wanted to acknowledge in the Agenda there is a start of a Homeowners Association list. Manchester had a list for many years. It was splintered, degraded and misused. Manchester thinks we have been able to put some more security around that from a City standpoint. In the upcoming Manchester Message, there is an article asking trustees to sign up. It is more complicated, but it will guarantee more safety. Regular Board of Aldermen meeting 04-20-2020 Page 2 After the message has been delivered Manchester will be sending a letter to the trustees that we still have on file asking them to join the list. Mayor Clement hopes we are successful in rebuilding the list. There are many times over the last couple months Manchester could have been reaching out to the trustees for important information. Mayor Clement wanted to read some comments from senior adults. When Manchester had to come to the difficult decision and stop programming, we did it in a unique way. Manchester Parks called and talked to all the seniors. They spoke with them and explained why we were doing it. They communicated that we would keep in touch. That commitment has been met. The staff is still weekly communicating with the senior adults. 7. REPORTS FROM THE CITY ADMINISTRATOR a. List of Paid Bills (Warrant dates of 03-15-2020 to 04-18-2020 There were no questions. b. FY 2020 Three Month Financial Report – Director Don Yucuis Director of Finance Don Yucuis stated he sent out a summary of the three-month financial report. He stated even with the Covid-19 hanging out there we do not know yet the impact because everything is a 2-month lag. Our current sales tax for March was for January, we received February’s in April. Director Yucuis looked back for the last four months prior and we are slightly higher than we were in 2019. We will not see the impact of the Covid-19 up or down for the next couple months at the earliest. Director Yucuis stated he feels we need to get it earlier to the Audit and Finance Committee and Board of Aldermen. City Administrator Perney and himself will be tracking that when sales tax comes in. It normally comes in within the first ten to fifteen days of the month. We then can compare that. He has other reports he can get into with the state. He will be getting into more of that this week. Director Yucuis stated he will be watching closely to see if business drops off or not. We know that some of the restaurants are closing and dropping off. We are at 26.8 percent of Budget and 27.6 percent of expenses. Comparatively we are in line with where we were in 2019. If there were no Covid-19, Manchester is on target. There is work to do in monitoring sales tax. It is our biggest revenue source. We need to keep track on a timely basis. Director Yucuis stated there is one more thing he wanted to point out, the fund balance. The last couple years we have been able to increase the fund balance, we are Regular Board of Aldermen meeting 04-20-2020 Page 3 currently at $3.4 million in the general fund. Manchester might have to pull from it if revenues do not come in as we expect. Alderman Nolte asked if there is anyone than can give us an idea when they will be coming. He understands they will not know Manchester figures but what are the tax revenues are generally. Are they up or down? How much are they down? Director Yucuis answered he can look at a state level and get some information. He has not done that yet. Alderman Nolte said it would be good to know so the Board can have some expectations of where Manchester could be. Director Yucuis stated other areas we will have hits on, licenses and permits. He said not really hits but a delay when we will get revenues in. We deferred with renewals from March to April. So, we have been getting renewals this month. The cut off is at the end of this month. They will try to get in as many as they can. They did talk about deferring any penalty until the Covid-19 is not rampant as businesses can get back in business. Director Yucuis stated that when it comes to the Municipal Court, the court has been closed and has not had a court session in the building for a month or two. That will be reduced revenue. He spoke with Court Administrator Colleen Massey-Skaggs and she is not sure how much because we have still been issuing tickets. It is just that the collection and going to court to get the people to pay has slowed down. Once we can start getting back into court that should pick up, but he does think revenue will be down for the year. Director Yucuis stated on the expense side, like City Administrator Perney stated, the City is on a hiring freeze for all full-time people. We have three vacancies, unfortunately, they are all in the police department. He said we are holding back on filling those until we can see if there is real significant impact from Covid-19 on our Revenue source and we have curtailed all non-essential expenses and conveyed that to the department heads. Director Yucuis stated also on the expense side, we pushed a change in healthcare insurance. We had a large number of employees that switched to the health savings account (HSA). It increased the amount contributed to their health savings account because we frontloaded that to help entice them to move to the HSA plan this year. As close to 100,000 dollars in the month of January. To do that last year we did it over a 12- month period in equal payments and we had less people on the HSA last year than we did this year. And that contributes to the amount that we are over in expenses from 2019- 2020. Are there any questions on general fund? City Administrator Perney stated what he is doing right now is kind of his primary focus. Going forward in the next few weeks he wants to forecast different scenarios of what Regular Board of Aldermen meeting 04-20-2020 Page 4 the revenue streams are going to look like. For each different revenue sources, he can based on what it is, property taxes won’t be affected as much, sales tax maybe more. He is going to go line by line and do a worst-case scenario, middle scenario and a not so bad scenario and see what the gap will be for the expenses and what the revenue will be based on those. At that time, they can adjust and bring any ideas to the Board and how to get those in line. City Administrator Perney stated the City has not taken any furloughs or drastic measures, he is not saying they won’t, but we need to see the big picture. Director Yucuis stated the debt service fund is pretty straight forward and revenues from property taxes, expenses are for debt and we are pretty comparable from the year before and Manchester still has a decent fund balance of $646 thousand. We will have another revenue of taxes coming in November and December, so it will continue to go up later in the year. Director Yucuis stated the TIF fund, both 2020 revenues and expenses are in line with the budget and comparable to 2019. Manchester really has not had any expenses in the TIF fund this year. In May we will have a debt service payment on the new bonds so it will be a significant amount spent there. Once that happens, revenues are slightly under. He does not have the details as to why they are under but plans to get the details and get it out to the Board members and the Audit and Finance committee. He said it is about $150 thousand dollars down. Director Yucuis stated the capital improvement fund, revenues are down from 2019 but the big reason for that is grants received in 2019 and not received in 2020. Sales tax is comparable year to year. The difference between the revenues from 2019 to 2020 is grants, so that is good news. Director Yucuis stated on the expense side and keeping track with Director Bob Ruck, himself and City Administrator Perney, that there is nothing that will cause us to be concerned about spending our budget. Currently we have $1 million dollars in our fund balance. They started the year off at $800 thousand dollars going forward haven’t curtailed too many things in capital projects but they will keep a close eye on that for the next month or two. Director Yucuis stated that Parks and stormwater revenues are pretty much the same for both years, which is good. He said we started with a $2.9 million fund balance. The reason we started with this figure is basically because of the big projects we have out there. Manchester has the Brookvale/Chadwick project is a million and half. The good news is we have a revenue source and after it is completed, we will get reimbursed $700 thousand of that back from MSD. The other projects are moving forward. He does believe that the Mayor stated one of the channel projects will be deferred until later in the year. Regular Board of Aldermen meeting 04-20-2020 Page 5  Director Yucuis stated that the sanitary sewer lateral repair fund does not have much in there. The revenues are down slightly because less residents are doing less programs compared to the first quarter of last year. Residents do contribute to that fund. He stated even though they look like it is down it is basically because the resident’s contribution. Director Yucuis stated again we have an ok fund balance of $123 thousand dollars. He said that Manchester is still projecting it to go down at the end of the year. Hopefully in June we can get the referendum through that will help increase that fee to get more money into this fund so we can continue with this program as a “on an as needed” program rather than a managed program. Director Yucuis stated that the Prop S fund, the concrete street program, has $4 million dollars bond proceeds still left and moving forward on that. He stated Director Bob Ruck believes he has $3 million for the concrete streets and we have additional professional services and other fees that go into that. The $4 million will be enough to maintain that program through the end of the year. Director Yucuis stated overall if it wasn’t for Covid-19 wasn’t here he would say Manchester is in an okay spot but that doesn't make him comfortable moving forward until we get more data in. c. City Administrator Report City Administrator Perney stated that prior to Covid-19 they talked about doing the rest of the $16 million of what the voters approved in April of 2018. Manchester has done $9 million and we are in the process of selling bonds for the rest of the $7 million. He wanted to see if the Board wanted to continue down that path. He said that he along with the Mayor and Director Yucuis met with Ms. Joy Howard today and questions were asked. He asked the question of the stability of the market and whether we should proceed now or if we should wait. He read what her response was as follows: “She used the word unstable this morning, but the appropriate terminology is volatile, there is a graph that shows the last 45 days of raises and declines over the rates for the 45 days and it is up and down a lot. The up and down is still a very good rate, it is fluctuating from 2.2 to 3 percent interest rate. So, the benefit to proceed now would be a low interest rate due to the national trends and very low volume and securities in Missouri. The low volume is due to the bond election and everything was pushed back in April to June so there is not a lot of market right now for new bond sales. There is no way in predicting the future, and if the market will be better or worse in the future.” City Administrator Perney stated that he was trying to get a census of yes or no in moving forward on selling these bonds. Regular Board of Aldermen meeting 04-20-2020 Page 6  Mayor Clement stated he did ask some questions to Ms. Howard, there really was not anything negative that she said that would put us in risk. He feels she answered his question. He said we have already proceeded up to a certain point. City Administrator Perney stated we have already had a lot of the bond counsel that has done most of the work and there is not much left. They would be doing the rating, passing the Ordinances and then the actual sale. City Administrator Perney stated the Board has not approved any Ordinances and if they choose to not sell the bonds moving forward. Mayor Clement asked the Board if anyone had any problems moving forward. No one from the Board spoke. Mayor Clement stated to City Administrator Perney it is time to move forward. City Administrator Perney stated Ms. Howard needs to know because we are on a timeline. In the beginning of June, we will have some readings of Ordinances. City Administrator Perney said he did have some good news. Republic Services sent out an email and the week of May 4 they are going to start resuming curbside yard waste pickup. He said between now and then there will still be dumpsters, changing out sizes so they hold more. Residents have been filling up the dumpsters everyday so the bigger ones will help. It was nice that we were able to offer dumpster drop offs for the residents. 8. REPORTS FROM COMMITTEES a. Planning and Zoning Commission No Report. b. Veterans Commission No Report. c. Homecoming Committee No Report. d. Budget and Audit Committee Alderman Toben stated as everyone is aware Covid-19 will affect Manchester’s budget and revenues will go down. They will re-evaluate this on an ongoing basis. It was mentioned that the business licenses will be collected but have been pushed back so it is ongoing and monitoring of that will continue. Regular Board of Aldermen meeting 04-20-2020 Page 7  Alderman Toben stated they did have a 2019 audit update and we are on track to have a good audit and wanted to thank Director Yucuis for that. He said there is some new budget software that is becoming available to Manchester that will help a tremendous amount with transparency as well as the overall operations of putting together the budget. Alderman Toben stated that the Audit and Finance Committee will continue to have meetings over the budget and continue to present our recommendations to the Board. He said this is an on-going and fluid situation, they can have other meetings if we so choose. The next meeting is June 1, 2020. 9. ACTION ON OLD BILLS None 10. INTRODUCTION OF NEW BILLS a. BILL NO 20-2408 SPECIAL USE PERMIT - ATHLETIC FIELD ASSOCIATED WITH THE SEMI-PRIVATE INDOOR SPORTS FACILITY AT 14290 MANCHESTER ROAD Alderman Hamill introduced Bill #20-2408, entitled: “AN ORDINANCE CREATING A SPECIAL USE PERMIT AND GRANTING THE SAME TO STL PROS AND WOHLFART HOLDINGS, LLC TO OPERATE AN ATHLETIC FIELD ASSOCIATED WITH THE SEMI-PRIVATE INDOOR SPORTS FACILITY LOCATED AT 14290 MANCHESTER ROAD IN A C-1 COMMERCIAL ZONING DISTRICT,” by title only. Nothing further at this time. b. RESOLUTION NO 20-0740 ADOPTING THE HOMEOWNERS’ ASSOCIATION TRUSTEE CONTACT INFORMATION PROGRAM POLICY Alderman Baumann read Proposed Resolution #20-0740, entitled: “A RESOLUTION OFFICIALLY ESTABLISHING THE MANCHESTER HOMEOWNERS’ ASSOCIATION TRUSTEE CONTACT INFORMATION PROGRAM AND ADOPTING A POLICY IN COMPLIANCE WITH THE MISSOURI OPEN MEETINGS AND RECORDS LAW RELATED THERETO,” by title only. Alderman Baumann asked if trustees from other subdivisions will be able to reach out to different trustees. City Administrator Perney stated they would probably call and get permission. He said that the City is more concerned about us reaching out to our trustees than communication between other subdivision trustees. Regular Board of Aldermen meeting 04-20-2020 Page 8  Alderman Baumann made the motion for the approval of Resolution #20-0740. The motion was seconded by Alderman Ottenad and carried unanimously, without any objections from any members of the Board of Aldermen. c. RESOLUTION NO 20-0741 PURCHASE AUTHORIZATION - 2020 FORD INTERCEPTOR UTILITY VEHICLE Alderman Toben read Proposed Resolution #20-0741, entitled: “A RESOLUTION ACCEPTING THE BID OF MCLARTY CMFO, LLC DOING BUSINESS AS JOE MACHENS FORD LINCOLN IN THE AMOUNT OF THIRTY-FOUR THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED AND THREE DOLLARS ($34,503.00) FOR THE PURCHASE OF ONE (1) 2020 FORD POLICE INTERCEPTOR UTILITY VEHICLE AND AUTHORIZING THE CITY ADMINISTRATOR OF THE CITY OF MANCHESTER TO ISSUE A PURCHASE ORDER THEREFOR,” by title only. Alderman Toben made the motion for the approval of Resolution #20-0741. The motion was seconded by Alderman Ottenad and carried unanimously, without any objections from any members of the Board of Aldermen. D. RESOLUTION NO 20-0742 A RESOLUTION ENDORSING ST. LOUIS COUNTY’S GRANT PROGRAM FOR THE CITY’S RECYCLING EFFORTS Alderman Huether read Proposed Resolution #20-0742, entitled: “A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY OF MANCHESTER BOARD OF ALDERMEN ENDORSING SAINT LOUIS COUNTY’S 2020 MUNICIPAL WASTE REDUCTION GRANT PROGRAM FOR THE CITY’S RECYCLING EFFORTS,” by title only. Alderman Huether stated that the Public Works Director Bob Ruck and Assistant Director Dave Pracht are busy working on this grant. Last year the CIty applied for both assistance in the composting and the recycling grant. This year the City will just be going for the Electronic recycling grant. The goal would be that it covered the basic fee that we have with MRC recycling to hold the event. Alderman Huether made the motion for the approval of Resolution #20-0742. The motion was seconded by Alderman Nolte and carried unanimously, without any objections from any members of the Board of Aldermen. 11. MISCELLANEOUS a. Comments from the Public There were none. Regular Board of Aldermen meeting 04-20-2020 Page 9 12. ADJOURNMENT At 7:50 p.m. there being no further business, Alderman Hamill made the motion to adjourn. The motion was seconded by Alderman Toben and carried unanimously. Mayor Clement announced the motion carried unanimously, with no objections from the members of the Board of Aldermen. The meeting adjourned at 7:50 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Michelle Melugin Deputy City Clerk Note: This is a journal of the Board of Aldermen meeting held Monday, April 20, 2020, (summary); not a verbatim transcript. If a recording of the meeting is desired, please contact City Hall. Regular Board of Aldermen meeting 04-20-2020 Page 10