The stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve signaled it's time to reset the clock on work Jefferson City officials need to do in the new year.
Each of the city's departments has its own priorities ranging from employee retention and recruitment to an influx of federal funding and approaching deadlines for projects around the city.
For City Administrator Steve Crowell, one goal is retention and recruitment of employees.
To reach this goal, he said, the city needs to ensure staff members are compensated fairly -- which includes a good benefits package -- and feel appreciated.
"We have employee recognition that we do, and every time I communicate with employees, I always say, 'Thank you for all your work,'" Crowell said.
Human Resources Director Gail Strope said it's also important to make sure employees have the tools, equipment, education and resources to do their jobs.
While some items approved in the 2022 budget will help, Crowell said, there are other challenges coming down the pipeline.
In September, the Jefferson City Council approved a budget that includes a 3 percent cost of living adjustment for all employees. Council also approved a program intended to digitize performance reviews, and another to offer online continued education for employees.
Strope said the city has a request for proposals out for both systems.
Like employers in the private sector, Jefferson City is experiencing some difficulty filling positions. It struggles to fill openings for police officers, bus drivers, planners, maintenance workers and financial workers.
"We're lucky," Strope said. "There are others that are traditionally hard to fill like (information technology) and engineering. We've been lucky that we haven't had turnover in those areas, but if we did, those would be harder than ever."
City employees need to work as a team, Crowell said, which makes positions that remain open for an extended period of time even more of a challenge to fill.
"When you think of getting a police officer out on the street, that takes equipment," he said, "which takes the accounting people and the purchasing people to buy. It takes the mechanics to make sure the cars are out there. It takes the IT people to make sure all those things are working."
In December, Gov. Mike Parson recommended a $15 minimum wage for all state employees. While that wouldn't require the city to also be at $15 an hour if it goes through, Crowell said, the city would still need to match it.
Strope said, the lowest hourly rate for a city employee is $14.35 per hour. She said there are very few positions at that pay rate and the majority of employees are already at or above $15 an hour.
Even without going up to $15 an hour, she said, state employees are receiving a 2 percent increase at the new year, there's discussion of going up another 5 percent at the beginning of February and consideration of compression increases.
Salary compression is when there's little difference in pay between team members despite differences in things like skill, experience, performance, seniority or tenure. It's commonly seen when new employees are offered starting salaries similar to tenured employees or as team members' salaries approach those of their managers.
"In this competitive market, it's easy to fall behind," Crowell said.
Jefferson City has discussed compression issues in the past, particularly in the police department, but Crowell said it applies to all city departments.
The Fraternal Order of Police, which is the local police union, and Jefferson City entered negotiations this month to adjust salaries after voters approved a quarter-cent public safety sales tax in November.
However, those pay increases would only apply to Police Department employees.
The City Council approved seeking proposals for a compensation study to analyze compression at all city departments, but the study would also determine whether the city is competitive and make recommendations for salary adjustments.
"I think one of the important things for us here ... is just to help convey and help employees understand and see the contributions they're making to overall quality of life," Crowell said. "The accountant making sure we have tires on the police car has a piece of public safety. That's an important piece of being able to help that police officer get out and do the thing they do."
Funding
Jefferson City will see an influx of federal funding over the next several years.
The city is applying for $2 million in CARES Act funding through the state. It will also receive $7.5 million from American Rescue Plan funds and $7 million in disaster relief funding from the May 2019 tornado.
In addition, the federal government passed a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill -- some of which could come to Jefferson City, but how much isn't known at this point.
Rachel Senzee, neighborhood services supervisor, said the money provides opportunities and challenges.
The money can be used for a variety of different things. For instance, the city's application to the state for $2 million in Community Development Block Grant COVID-19 funding includes money for widening Monroe Street -- which was already a planned project to be paid for through sales tax funds, but could be expanded with the additional funding.
Jefferson City residents indicated through a survey, and during community engagement meetings, that affordable housing and public works/infrastructure should be the top priorities for the funding.
COVID-19-related funds must be used for something related to the pandemic. Since Monroe Street goes up to Capital Region Medical Center, widening it would improve access to medical care, Senzee said.
Disaster-relief funding needs to relate back to the 2019 tornado and subsequent flooding. For example, this can mean rebuilding housing or work focused along the tornado's path.
While the city wouldn't be the one spending all the money, it will filter through the city to local nonprofits and organizations -- which is where Senzee's department comes in.
She helps apply for various funding sources, which includes aspects of COVID-19 funding through the state.
The neighborhood services department will also be subgranting out some of the funds to local organizations. For instance, the city has approved 11 applications from childcare facilities to distribute $413,000 in COVID-19 funding.
However, distributing the funds also means developing requirements, setting up procedures, reviewing applications for funding and paperwork back to the state.
One success in 2021 for the city was passage of a five-year extension to the half-cent capital improvement sales tax.
While different departments get certain amounts of the sales tax -- Public Works will receive money for stormwater improvements -- $11 million is set aside for city-county joint projects.
"That sort of resets the clock for us in terms of the projects that we're working on," City Engineer David Bange said.
The city and county identified four projects for that funding, but federal funding may pay for that, then the scope of the project can expand or some of the sales tax money could be diverted to other projects. Bange said the Monroe Street project could be the first to break ground.
"If that were to come to pass, then that would probably get a little bit more attention sooner rather than later," he said. "That could well be the project that we sort of begin to work on first."
The other two main projects scheduled to get sales tax funding are repairs to the High Street viaduct and improvements along Stadium Boulevard.
Bange said the High Street project is likely several years away from breaking ground, but that doesn't mean work won't start on it. The viaduct is in a state of disrepair, he said.
Bange said the firm Bartlett and West studied the bridge and determined it would be more cost effective in the long term to replace the bridge, but that cost estimate is higher than the amount set aside for it in sales tax funds.
"For the moment, we are looking for the possibility of additional funds from grants or other sources," he said. "When we have a clearer understanding of those possibilities or lack there of, we can make some decisions as to how we will proceed."
Work on Stadium Boulevard presents a different challenge in that it isn't a specific project at this point.
Bange said there's discussion of work on different intersections along the boulevard. For instance, he said, the city's heard concerns about where Stadium Boulevard intersects with Edgewood Drive, Creek Trail Drive or Southwest Boulevard.
"There will probably be some public input on that," he said. "You're trying to sort out which one of those projects would be the best use of the funds at this moment. Because there are some decisions that need to be made there, I would see that project kind of in the middle of those three projects."
A looming question mark at the moment in terms of funding for upcoming projects will be decided on the April ballot.
Jefferson City residents will vote in April on whether the city can take out $44 million in bonds for sewer-related projects.
The list of known projects the city needs to complete includes replacing three pump stations and a meter, reworking the lines at eight locations, and upgrading the city's biosolids processing plant. More may come up that would cause the list to change.
Public Works Director Matt Morasch said the request to buy bonds is to allow the city to do the necessary projects sooner than it could if it did a pay-as-you-go method.
If bonding passes, Morasch said, the city can apply for a low-interest loan through the Department of Natural Resources' State Revolving Fund.
The fund, he said, is a pool of money the state loans out to municipalities. It then grows as the loans are paid back with interest.
At the moment, loans have an interest rate of less than 1 percent, he said.
"That's a big deal to us here at the wastewater group here at the city," Morasch said. "If that weren't to pass for some reason, then we get fewer improvements in. Basically, you're back to pay-as-you-go or maybe higher interest rates."
Public Works isn't the only department looking at projects for the upcoming year. Parks, Recreation and Forestry Director Todd Spalding said one of his focuses for the next year is playground improvements.
Spalding said his department would like to improve playgrounds in Hickory Adams, Aurora and Washington parks. Washington Park, he added, has no playground equipment at all. He said the goal is to bid out the first two in the next few months, but Washington Park may be later in the year.
Mayor Carrie Tergin said she's focused on two projects around the downtown area: the Missouri State Penitentiary and Capitol Avenue.
Jefferson City, the state and a St. Louis-based developer are in discussions about the future of the MSP site -- the land that doesn't have the historic prison on it.
Tergin said she anticipates an agreement this year for the site. The city has received grants to start building infrastructure such as roads on the site.
There's potential for work to start this year, she said, on aspects of the project such as roads.
"While we want to take the time to do it exactly right, we also know that there are things that can be happening along the way in order to get that redevelopment," she said.
In terms of Capitol Avenue, the city and Housing Authority are working on addressing blight and dangerous properties in the area.
The Housing Authority has purchased nine properties through eminent domain and eight have found new owners working on redeveloping the properties. For two, that meant demolition, but the others are getting restored.
In December, the Housing Authority won another eminent domain lawsuit for four more properties along Capitol Avenue that are being appraised to determine their value.
Eminent domain is a process for government agencies to take control of private property for public use.
Also, the local nonprofit Transformational Housing put a bid in for the Housing Authority's remaining property, which the City Council is considering.
Tergin said if more action isn't taken soon, more of the properties will need to be demolished.
"We've seen some success stories with it," she said. "Ivy Terrace is being redeveloped into an event center. We've seen challenges with a tornado ripping right through Capitol Avenue."
One property Tergin wants to put focus on is the former Buescher Memorial Home, at 427 E. Capitol Ave.
While the property had minor safety concerns in the past -- such as needing windows boarded up and grass mowed -- concerns became more serious in October.
The biggest issues, city officials said, are the east side of the building and its front porches.
Building inspector Dave Helmick said columns on the porches are deteriorating, and ceiling joists and supporting structures are rotting.
An abatement hearing in October found other serious conditions exist:
• The roof is damaged and exposes the interior to the elements;
• The doors, windows and exterior walls are deteriorating; and
• Deteriorating windows, porches and sections of the roof may become fall hazards if left in their current states.
Based on photos presented at the hearing, chunks of the porch's columns are missing, part of the roof over one porch is falling and another section of porch roof is missing.
Tergin said the property is one of the more historic buildings along Capitol Avenue.
"It's an icon very similar to Ivy Terrace," she said. "It's been identified as having issues that need to be addressed. And if there are people out there that would want to come forward as far as the development (of it), the city would certainly talk with them."