At the October 27 meeting in Sunset Hills, the League membership adopted six Legislative Priorities for the 2023 session.  These are:

• Video Service, Telecommunications Providers and Right-of-Way - The League opposes any new federal and state legislation or regulations that would diminish the ability of local governments to manage the public rights-of-way or to charge a fee or taxes to telecommunications and video service providers that use the public rights-of-way to deliver their product or service.  All video service and telecommunications providers must comply with all local right-of-way regulations and consumer protection provisions.  The League supports the authorization of local governments to impose reasonable fees for any use of the public rights-of-way and opposes any legislation that limits municipalities' authorities to manage the right-of-way for the public interest and/or transfer the cost of relation of utilities from private industry to public entities.

• Home-based Businesses - The League supports legislation to allow municipalities to license, tax and regulate home-based businesses and to enact any such land use regulations that would preserve the residential character of neighborhoods that may be threatened by a proliferation of home-based businesses.  In addition, the law should be amended to include a definition for those employees simply working from home as opposed to operating a home-based business.
• Sales Tax - The League supports legislation that would simplify the sales tax statutes and allow municipalities the flexibility to designate sales tax use, subject to voter approval. 
• Sunshine Law and Closed Records - The League supports legislation such as SB 930 that would allow the closure of certain email and phone records under the Sunshine Law.  In addition, Missouri Revised Statute Section 610.010 Definitions, subsection (6) “Public Record” states “that personally identifiable student records maintained by public educational institutions” are note sunshine able.  The League supports amending subsection (6) to replace “public educational institution” with “public governmental body” to protect identifiable student information held by any governmental body.
• Sovereign Immunity - The League supports the provisions of HB 2690 (2022) which would shield local governments from the need to be listed as an additional insured on the policies of other non-government entities.
• State Funding for Rock Island Trail - The League supports funding and development of the Rock Island Trail and other similar trails throughout the state in support of environmental, health, economic development, and tourism benefits that the trails would provide. 

Representative Plocher is the majority floor leader for the House and will assume the House Speaker position in January 2023.  He is a native Saint Louisan who graduated from Ladue Horton Watkins High School before attending Middlebury College in Vermont. He then returned to St. Louis to attend St. Louis University Law School, earning a law degree in 1997.

Representative Plocher recently joined Blitz, Bardgett and Deutsch, LC.    In addition, Representative Plocher serves as a Commissioner for the Uniform Law Commission.  He has served as a Municipal Judge in the 21st Judicial Circuit in 2005 and served on the Board of Directors for the Missouri Municipal and Associate Circuit Judges Association.  Representative Plocher is a member of the Missouri Bar Association, the Republican National Lawyers Association, Illinois Bar Association, and the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis.
He has served in the Missouri House of Representative for the 89^th District since 2016. 

Dean resides in Des Peres with his wife Rebecca, a registered nurse, and their two children.

We look forward to working with him in his new role as Speaker.  

                         

Park Grant Commission Round 23 Grants
 

The Municipal Parks Grant Commission awarded 25 municipal park improvement grants totaling $9.8 million for Round 23. To date, the Commission has awarded 429 grants totaling approximately $97 million. 
 

Municipalities can also apply for planning grants up to $10,000 to help develop master plans to guide future park developments or for construction specific project planning. The planning grant applications are available throughout the year and can be found Here.

 

The Missouri Municipal League is holding Eastern MO Regional Meeting on Tuesday, November 15, 2022, at the Kirkwood Performing Arts Center, 210 E. Monroe St., 63122.  MML members from St. Louis County and surrounding counties are invited to attend. 
 

During the luncheon, East-West Gateway will be presenting the Outstanding Local Government Achievement (OLGA) Awards to honor the extraordinary work of individuals, municipal and county governments/ departments, special purpose districts and public educational institutions in the city of St. Louis and Franklin, Jefferson, St. Charles and St. Louis counties in Missouri and Madison, Monroe and St. Clair counties in Illinois.

Before the luncheon, join for a presentation and discussion of a Transportation Equity Assessment for the St. Louis Region. This session will be from 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

Go to EWGA 2022 Annual Meeting to find out more information about both events.

It is time to register to attend MoDOT’s St. Louis Transportation Update on Tuesday, Nov. 22, 8 a.m., Maryland Heights Community Center. MoDOT leaders will share the latest info on:

• Projects
• Operations
• Career opportunities and
• How to do business with MoDOT  

This will be an in-person event ONLY. There is NO fee for attending.  
Register: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/modot-st-louis-transportation-update-tickets-450822531327                                                                                           

  
               Rep. Kevin Windham

      There are over 5,500 properties in some stage of the tax foreclosure process in St. Louis County.  Most of the properties are vacant and in disrepair which attract criminal activity, lowers the property values of adjacent properties, destabilizes the neighborhood and the entire community.  In many cases, when the County is unable to sell the properties, the properties are given to the municipalities which become a financial liability. There are several municipalities in St. Louis County that currently control more than 100 foreclosed properties.
 Although the properties have gone through foreclosure, they do not 

The call center and email operations were especially important to smaller governments as well as many of the municipalities that did routinely receive federal funding previously and worked with agencies other than the Treasury Department.

 

STP-S and CMAQ Project Solicitation Applications open November 4, 2022 East-West Gateway Council of Governments will soon be accepting applications for Surface Transportation Block Grant Program - Suballocated (STP-S) and Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program (CMAQ). EWG will host three project development workshops to provide information on STP-S and CMAQ, including program eligibility and requirements, project applications, scoring criteria, and available funding. One will be hosted virtually and two will be in-person.  See Upcoming Events and Webinars below for details. Application forms and additional information will be available soon.  Department of Homeland Security State and Local Cyber Funding Opportunity Application deadline:  November 15, 2022 Long-awaited federal cyber dollars are becoming available with the release of the Notice of Funding Opportunity for the State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program (SLCGP). The federal government is making $183.5 million available under the SLCGP in FY 2022. State, county, and local governments are eligible to apply. For more information: https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=343579   2023 LWCF Grant Round is Open Application deadline:  November 16, 2022 Land & Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) grants are available to cities, counties, and public-school districts to be used for outdoor recreation projects. For more information about this program, to download the grant application and Open Project Selection Process, and to register for a grant application workshop: https://mostateparks.com/page/61215/land-and-water-conservation-fund-lwcf-grants Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership Program Application deadline:  November 16, 2022 The Missouri Department of Natural Resources’ Division of State Parks, is now accepting application for the Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership Program (ORLP).  The grant focuses on communities with little to no access to outdoor recreation opportunities in urban areas. The grant can be used for park projects to create new outdoor recreation spaces, reinvigorate existing parks, and form connections between people and the outdoors in economically underserved communities.  For more information: https://mostateparks.com/page/55065/outdoor-recreation-grants