Congratulations to all Re-Elected and Newly Elected Officials

The main order of business will be the election of officers and Board members for the 2023-24 year.  The Report of the Nominating Committee will be emailed to members in advance of the meeting.

 

When:    Thursday, April 22, 2024
Where:   Armstrong Teasdale LLP
             7700 Forsyth Blvd, Suite 1800
             St. Louis, Missouri   63105(MAP) 
Time:     6:30 pm refreshments - 7:00 pm meeting

 

**Please note: Reservations are required for this meeting.  Please contact the League staff at [email protected] by April 25th,
if you plan to attend.  
   

The guest speaker for the evening will be Samantha Stangl.  She is the Executive Director of House Everyone STL (HESTL).   Samantha has a Bachelor of Social Work from the University of Iowa and a Master of Social Work from Washington University in St. Louis. She spent nearly ten years doing direct service social work in a variety of capacities, including providing services for Spanish speaking victims of intimate partner violence, connecting first generation students to higher education, and providing case management and crisis intervention to immigrant children and families. She also worked for the St. Louis County Children’s Service fund, the Clark-Fox Family Foundation, and most recently worked in the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. 

Samantha has a passion for systems change thinking and collaborative approaches to solving problems. She volunteers with YouthBridge Community Foundation and was selected as a 2019 Brown School Emerging Leader award winner.

HESTL is a nonprofit created by other nonprofit leaders to help solve some of the problems of the past with homelessness. HESTL has recently been entrusted with drafting a plan to allocate $14 million in annual federal funding to address homelessness. Inspired by successful models in Houston and Dallas, the initiative aims to unite government, nonprofit, and business leaders for a more efficient and collaborative approach to tackling homelessness. 

For more information on House Everyone STL, click here.

It was a short week, but a very productive one for the House.  When they returned on Tuesday, the House spent most of the day perfecting the FY ’25 budget, which they then third read and sent to the Senate on Thursday.  The Senate Appropriations Committee will begin their deep dive into the budget sent over by the House and have about five weeks to pass their version, send it to conference to work out the differences and truly agreed to and finally pass the FY ’25 budget by May 10. 
 
The Senate has spent a lot of time deliberating over the controversial landfill legislation which ended in the bill being laid over onto the Informal Calendar around 10 pm without being perfected.  This is one of those issues that has strange alliances among Senators but makes for interesting debates over issues like property rights.  While this has been put to rest for now, the Senators from the affected area do not intend to stop fighting to prevent the landfill from happening in their community and we believe that it will pour over into other debates. 
 
With the budget heating up in the Senate, and a variety of important issues that need to be addressed (like the federal reimbursement allowance tax), everyone is on pins and needles waiting for the Senate to blow up as per usual.  During a House hearing on a Senate Bill this week, the Senate sponsor told the committee that he understands some of the changes they want to make to his bill, but he sent the House the bill he could get out of the Senate and if they send it back with changes it’s probably dead.  This wasn’t the only instance of a Senator asking the House this week to please keep their bill free of amendments so that it doesn’t have to return to the Senate.  Part of what may be fueling this concern is that the House added what everyone is calling the “ballot candy” back into SJR 74 which is the constitutional amendment relating to the initiative petition process.  The sponsor had previously said at the House hearing that she had to remove the language to get it out of the Senate, but the House should put it back in and send it back to the Senate where she will work to get enough signatures to have the bill PQ’d (meaning the filibuster would be brought to an end to get it to a vote).  If such a thing were to happen, the Democrats will shut the Senate down for the remainder of the legislative session.  The final six weeks should prove to be interesting. 
 

Due to League term limits, there will be at least one vacancy on the Executive Board for the coming year.  Terms are now 3 years.  The Board meets about nine times per year and is open to any elected official from a member municipality. If you are interested in serving on the Municipal League's Executive Board, please send a letter or email to the League office by April 5 indicating your interest and outlining your qualifications, including public service, volunteer committees and attendance at League meetings and other events. The League's Nominating Committee will meet in early April after the municipal elections. The committee will make recommendations to the full membership on a slate of candidates for officers and board members for the 2024 - 2025 year. The Committee will be chaired by Alderperson Darlene Bell of Moline Acres, Immediate Past President. The recommended slate of candidates will be presented at the April 27 membership meeting. If you are interested in serving on the Board, please let us know!

                                                                    

Senator Ben Brown was elected in 2022 to represent Franklin, Gasconade, Osage and Warren counties and the City of Eureka within St. Louis County. He attended Lafayette High School and the University of Missouri-Columbia before pursuing a professional career in Mixed Martial Arts. He has served as chair of Franklin County Central Committee as well as Missouri’s National Committeeman for the Federation of Young Republicans. He has been honored with community awards from the Chesterfield Regional Chamber of Commerce and the Progress 64 West Alliance. Senator Brown owns and operates Satchmo’s Bar and Grill in Chesterfield. Senator Brown and his wife, Danielle, are the proud parents of three children, Layla, Summer and Jayden. The Brown family resides in Washington. 

 

                           

 

Election Results

After the approval of Props W and S, MSD advises this approval will allow them to issue bonds for a portion of the work ahead in the next 4 years, which will keep rate increases much lower. MSD has $3.7 billion worth of wastewater system improvements that are required in the next 15 years, as well as other Federal and State mandated projects. With the passage of Prop S, MSD Project Clear will begin to address more than $700 million of known stormwater problems, mostly flooding and erosion, across St. Louis City and County. They can now take a much-needed regional approach to flooding and erosion troubles. Voter approval of Prop S will also enable MSD to begin a new municipal stormwater grant program which will drive many decisions on stormwater priorities to the local level.    This is the first time MSD has had the funding to make major stormwater improvements, and they appreciate voters’ confidence in their ability to address the region’s growing stormwater problems. MSD has the first five years of stormwater improvements already mapped out and plan to start on several projects beginning in 2025. We appreciate everyone in the St. Louis region who took the time to vote today, no matter how they cast their ballots.

The Park Commission realizes that not all municipalities have professional public works, engineering or parks staff to coordinate construction grant applications and project oversight.  This has led, at times, to incomplete or inaccurate applications and delays in completing projects on time and within budget. For this reason, Commission members have adopted a policy requiring any municipality that does not have professional public works, engineering or parks staff, to receive a planning grant before applying for any construction grant.  Commissioners believe that this policy will help assure that quality projects can be planned for and implemented in a timely and efficient manner.  If you have questions about this policy, please contact the Municipal League staff at [email protected] or 314-726-4747. 

Planning grants of up to $10,000 are available 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.  If you are considering a project for next year, it is recommended that you start the planning process as soon as possible.