Jefferson City Councilmen Carlos Graham and Glen Costales sat down with some of their constituents for an informal chat over coffee with their new program called "Coffee with Councilmen" on Saturday morning.
Six people gathered in a semi circle around the council members at the local Barnes and Noble to discuss issues regarding golfers, multipurpose buildings and budgets.
"We try to host these in the fourth wards," Graham said before the audience arrived. "So we can get our constituents to come out and to support the businesses in our ward."
Both council members represent the fourth ward. This is the third time the members have had coffee with constituents in similar settings, they previously hosted the same event at Panera Bread Company. At the next meeting, they will be talking heavily about the city budget, Graham predicted, because the council will be making some of the final budgetary decisions.
As the attendees began pulling up their seats, Graham addressed the crowd by saying that he has no problem discussing issues with the budget, the upcoming solid waste contract, the proposed 2 percent raise for the city employee's wages or the possibility of city employees getting President's Day off. He also briefly mentioned the need for new police officers and firemen, which trumps the departments' need for vehicles.
Costales then mentioned that the new waste department had an opening ceremony and that they are doing a great job so far. In addition, the Environmental Protection Agency is monitoring the new facility to make sure they do not cause any public health problems.
However, the first two questions the council members were hit with were about the parks department subsidizing the a golf course and about getting a park on the south end of town.
Graham replied to the questions by saying the Parks and Recreation Department is a separate entity, and they have their own budget and don't report to the City Council. But, he said that he has no problem with working with them and bringing these issues up next time they meet.
They next moved on to the discussion of the new multipurpose building that will be constructed through a partnership with parks and recreation and Lincoln University. The parks department is hoping to create a building that will be bigger than what was originally planned for the university, said the council members. Also, the new building would not have any affect on the agreement between the university and the Boys and Girls Club for their new facility. There has not been any issues with the agreement yet, said Graham, who is also the director of campus and community for the university.
After that, the conversation turned toward the invading deer population. Multiple attendees of the informal meeting voiced concerns about the hordes of cervids that surround the city and are slowly inching their way into municipal boundary lines and residential properties. To abate their concerns the council members said that the Department of Conservation will select some licensed hunters to eliminate the deer threat in the city using bows, not guns or crossbows.