The Jefferson City Council's meeting on Monday will allow the public to address the council before any major votes.
At previous meetings, the council would hear "presentations from the gallery on specific bills or resolutions" as the ninth agenda item, which was after appointments by the mayor and public hearings, which often include bills. There was also an opportunity for the public to approach the council at the end of the meeting, "presentations from the gallery on other topics," directly following the City Council voting on bills and resolutions.
Now, "opportunity for public comment" is the fifth agenda item. The only thing the City Council will do first is adopt the agenda.
The change of the agenda order comes after the City Council's committee on administration discussed transparency at its March meeting. The administration committee chose to remove the second opportunity for public comment and combine both into one at the beginning of the meeting. Speakers will have four minutes at the podium in the Council Chambers.
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The council has two resolutions, which only require one read before a vote, on Monday's agenda: a contract for the Jefferson City Regional Economic Partnership (JCREP) and a contract to Garfield Public/Private (GPP) for the conference center project.
The council is scheduled to vote Monday on a $185,000 contract with JCREP for the 2023-24 fiscal year; the contract states "the term of this agreement shall cover the period of Nov. 1, 2023 to Oct. 31, 2024."
The contract also states JCREP provides business development through facilitating local growth opportunities, community and infrastructure development and advocacy by promoting "pro-growth" policies in Jefferson City.
The city will pay JCREP $46,250 in four payments throughout the year. In return, JCREP will provide project and activity updates to the city and "make itself available to meet with (city) representatives."
The second resolution on Monday's agenda is for GPP to prepare a development proposal for the council; the contract will be between $342,000 and $170,000, according to the bill summary. Funds will come from the city's 7 percent tax on hotel and motel accommodations.
The City Council approved GPP as the lead developers in February for the planned downtown conference center; GPP will design and build a conference center with a joint hotel and parking garage in the 200 block of East Capitol Avenue.
The first step is to pay GPP to conduct a hotel market study (to determine how many rooms and the amenities of the hotel), conduct a parking study (to determine how many parking spaces), and to plan exactly how to finance the study.
The base price to GPP is $342,000 for five main tasks.
The first includes the hotel market study and the parking study, expected to take three months, for $127,000.
The second task, expected to take two months, includes developing floor plans and renderings through the FACET architectural design group for $110,000.
The third task, expected to take one month, determines construction estimates for $45,000.
The fourth and fifth tasks involve determining capital and business plans at $40,000 and $20,000, respectively.
The contract also states GPP may hire third-party consultants to provide a geotechnical report, set to cost $40,000, civil engineering for $20,000 and marketing for $30,000. GPP will use in-house legal counsel, estimated at $45,000 in labor costs. In addition, GPP may accrue "miscellaneous reimbursable expenses" at $35,000.
If GPP ends up providing the additional services, the contract price may increase to $512,000; Monday's resolution states GPP's contract can not exceed that amount.
The pre-development report is due to the city on Feb. 11, 2025.
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The City Council will also vote Monday on a garage rehabilitation project, a wastewater facility improvement, bond issuance for Unilever and a code for administrative chargeback fees.
The city has five pending bills scheduled for votes Monday.
The first is a $337,985 contract with Western Specialty Contractors to repair the municipal garages on Jefferson Street and Madison Street. Western will repair the deck, handrail and fascia panel at the Jefferson Street garage and tend to major structural damage at the Madison Street garage.
Western's bid was the lowest of six total bids; John Rohrer Contracting's bid was the highest at $730,895.
The owner of Keeley Restoration Services, Jeff Keeley, approached the council at its last meeting to discuss his bid, which was the second-lowest behind Western at $342,760.
Keeley said Western would likely submit a change order for the contract, which could result in the city paying even more than it would have with Western. Public Works Director Matt Morasch said his department would look into the bids, though apparently staff members are still recommending Western for the contract.
The second bill is a $12.6 million contract with Burns and McDonnell Engineering for a biosolids improvement project; the third bill on Monday's agenda covers that cost by issuing $14.2 million in sewer system revenue bonds.
The fourth bill approves chapter 100 bonds for Unilever to cover the cost (expected at $83 million) of modifying the warehouse to add Liquid I.V. to its product line. According to the bill's summary, Unilever plans to modify 110,000 square feet of its total 447,814-square-foot building in order to produce the new product.
These bonds will allow abatement of 75 percent of real property taxes on $33 million or real property improvements and 75 percent of personal property taxes on $50 million of personal property purchases for 10 years.
In return, Unilever must maintain at least 441 jobs at the existing site for the next decade.
The council approved earlier this year a different set of chapter 100 bonds for Unilever to expand its warehouse with the same stipulation.
The fifth and final bill creates a new section in the city code stating exactly how to calculate administrative chargebacks for the enterprise and special revenue funds, a popular method to fund the city's administrative chargebacks.
The new code states the calculation will use the total operating expenditures for the non-general funds.
Finance Director Shiela Pearre explained the methodology during a budget committee meeting: The finance department takes the previous year's total operating expenditures for each enterprise fund and divides that number by the previous year's total operating expenditures for the city's general fund, which was approximately $52 million for 2022.
This gives the department a percent of total operating expenditures that is then multiplied by the administration department expenditures for the upcoming fiscal year, about $3.8 million. This sum then equals the portion of the fund that is allocated to cover the costs of the administration department.
For example: the Jefferson City Memorial Airport's operating expenses for FY22 were $392,342.
This divided by $52,890,415 equals 0.0074, or 0.74 percent. This percent is multiplied by $3,863,297 to equal $26,658.
The new code also states the city can also use direct cost allocations to fund the administrative department. For example, Pearre said, because the finance department spends a lot of time assisting with wastewater bonds, the wastewater division contributes more for that.
The airport's administrative chargeback fees also include part of the personnel costs for Public Works, another $15,127. The total chargeback fee for the Jefferson City Memorial Airport is therefore $43,785. (This, combined with all other enterprise and special revenue funds, funds the administration department.)
The change comes after the budget committee voted to amend the administrative chargeback amount for the Parks, Recreation and Forestry Department; for several years, the parks department was contributing a set 5 percent, though there was no clear reason why the parks' chargebacks did not follow the same calculation as the other funds.
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The City Council will introduce two bills Monday.
The first introduced bill is for a $70,300 design contract with Barr Engineer to stabilize the sewer mains adjacent to and under a tributary to Grays Creek between Highway 179 and Booneville Road.
The second introduced bill amends the requirements for examinations for the Jefferson City Fire Department. The ordinance would allow JCFD to hire fire fighters who have passed state agility tests and have state certifications.
On the informal calendar is a bill that would remove the stop signs on Monroe Street at the intersection of Woodlawn Avenue. Ward 2 Councilman Aaron Mealy placed the bill on the informal calendar because he said he wants to determine whether there would be safety problems as a result of removing the stop signs.
The City Council will vote on three appointments: Trey Popes to the airport advisory committee for a full term expiring March 2028, Mitchell Woodrumm to the cultural arts commission for a full term expiring March 2027 and Mike Harvey to the transportation and traffic commission for a partial term expiring June 2026.
The consent agenda includes:
Four traffic cabinets for $31,816.
A $4,843 change order for Stantec's contract to conduct city directory research of West Main Street.
A $40,884 replacement pump for the Algoa sewage pumping station at the Jefferson City Correctional Center.
Allowing the wastewater division to auction off camera equipment through Purplewave; city staff estimate the equipment could go for $23,000.
An $85,738 change order for Donohue and Associate's contract to design a new pump station on Westview Drive.
The council planned to recognize communications supervisor Angela Stiefermann, who the Missouri Chapter of the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials chose as the "trainer of the year," but city clerk Emily Donaldson sent out an amended agenda Friday afternoon and said Stiefermann will not be able to attend Monday's meeting due to a scheduling conflict.
The council will meet at 6 p.m. Monday at City Hall.