When:   Thursday, January 25, 2024
Where:  St. John City Hall
             8944 Saint Charles Rock Road, Ste 100
             Saint Louis, Missouri 63114 (MAP) 

Time:     6:30 pm refreshments - 7:00 pm meeting

 

The speaker for the evening will be Jeff Kaiser VP of Operations at Missouri American Water. He is responsible for the strategic direction and overall management of the company’s water and wastewater systems throughout the state.

Mr. Kaiser joined the American Water family in 2008. He formerly served as the Director of Engineering for Illinois American Water, Iowa American Water, and most recently for Missouri American Water since 2019.  He has more than 30 years of engineering experience and is a registered professional engineer (P.E.) in the state of Missouri.  He also holds a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis.

 

Mr. Kaiser's topic for the evening, starts the year off right presenting "2024 Investments in St. Louis County".  He will discuss overall System Investments, Main Replacement Projects, the Lead Service Line program and Permitting and Restoration issues.

The Missouri General Assembly will kick off its 2024 session on January 3.  Prefiling of bills began on December 1.  While there are some bills that the League supports, there are many more that are extremely damaging for cities and will be opposed.  The most threatening are the bills to eliminate the sales tax on food.  With the House Minority leader announcing her support, the House will likely follow suit, as they did last year.  These bills are SB 1062 (Coleman), SB 1252 (Rehder), HB 1418 (Sauls), HB 1464 (Sander), and HB 2055 (Keathley). As the MML has noted The Missouri Legislative Research - Oversight Division has begun sending out fiscal note requests. Fiscal notes are important because they let legislators know the economic impact a particular bill will have on municipalities. Please do not become overwhelmed with the number of fiscal notes requests you may receive. Many of the requests refer to bills that have a minimal impact or are not applicable to municipalities.  Definitely respond to fiscal note requests on the above bills.

Other bills of interest that have been filed include: 

• SB 1115 (Schroer) - provides that when a juvenile officer makes a risk and needs assessment of a child, he or she shall use a cumulative total of points assessed for all alleged offenses committed to determine whether or not the court shall order the child to be detained. (Support)

• HB 1796 (Mackey) – eliminated municipal courts and requires all trials in the circuit court.  (Oppose)

• SB 750 (Hough) - authorizes St. Louis County and any municipality with more than 1,500 inhabitants and not located in St. Louis County to establish a land bank.  (Support)

• SB 953 (Moon) – repeals the gas tax increase.  (Oppose)

 

Each Friday during the session, the League will email a recap of the week’s activities in Jefferson City.  Alerts may be sent out when action is scheduled on important bills.

  

 

This past May, elected leaders from across the St. Louis region agreed to be part of a violent crime reduction program overseen by the Violence Reduction Center (VRC), which is led by nationally renowned criminologist Thomas Abt.  Abt studies, teaches, and writes about the use of evidence-informed approaches to address violent crime and other public safety problems. He is an Associate Research Professor at the University of Maryland and the founding Director of its Center for the Study and Practice of Violence Reduction. 

The Regional Crime Summit was organized by the East-West Gateway Council of Governments with support from Greater St. Louis, Inc. The summit convened elected leaders, police, prosecutors, educators, the business community, human service providers, religious organizations, and outside experts to begin forming a unified strategy to reduce violent crime. 

For the past seven-months, Mr. Abt gathered information and prepared recommendations for reducing violent crime in the St. Louis Region.  Starting December 4, about 30 participants, representing each of the region's counties, public safety organizations, service providers, and business leaders participated in a weeklong practicum examining the result and study.  The practicum reviewed Mr. Abt’s report on St. Louis, national trends on crime, crime reduction programs in other cities and potential solutions for the St. Louis region.

The results of the practicum will be released in early January.  The next phase will be developing a plan to reduce homicides and violent crime in the St. Louis Region.  The links below are two PowerPoints containing information on the crime reduction practicum.   

https://www.stlmuni.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Day-1-Practicum-Overview.pdf


https://www.stlmuni.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Day-5-VRC-Recap.pdf

 

      

Senator Karla May, a Democrat, represents the 4th Senatorial District comprised of a portion of the City of St. Louis, Richmond Heights and Shrewsbury; and portions of Maplewood. She was sworn into office on Jan. 9, 2019.

 

Before being elected to the Missouri Senate, Sen. May served as state representative for the 84th District in the Missouri House of Representatives. First elected in 2010, she served eight years in the Missouri House. As a state representative, she served on the Budget and Transportation committees. She was also the ranking minority member of both the Subcommittee on Appropriations – Public Safety, Corrections, Transportation and Revenue and the Special Committee on Employment. She formerly served as the vice chair of the Missouri General Assembly’s Black Legislative Caucus; treasurer of the bipartisan Missouri Women’s Legislative Caucus; and has served as a member of the Budget and Revenue Committee for the National Conference of State Legislatures. Senator May served as the Region XI chair for the National Black Caucus of State Legislators from 2012-2018, serving Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska, formerly serving on the Executive Committee as chaplain and currently serving as an at-large member.

 

Currently, Sen. May is the Minority Caucus chair and serves on Appropriations; Commerce Consumer Protection, Energy and the Environment; Judiciary and Civil and Criminal Jurisprudence; Rules, Joint Rules, Resolutions and Ethics; Joint Committee on Child Abuse & Neglect; Joint Committee on the Justice System; Joint Committee on Public Assistance; Task Force on Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment; Interim Committee on Elections; Interim Committee on Greater St. Louis Regional Emerging Issues; Interim Committee on Medicaid Accountability and Taxpayer Protection and also appointed by the governor to the Missouri Justice Reinvestment Initiative.   Aside from her legislative duties, Sen. May is president and board member of the St. Louis Philanthropic Organization. She has been involved with the organization for the past 25 years, helping award grants to agencies focused on education and programs that benefit the residents of the City of St. Louis. She is an executive board member of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU) St. Louis Chapter and serves as an international at-large board member.   Born and raised in the City of St. Louis, Sen. May currently resides in the city’s 26th Ward, and has been employed with AT&T for 25 years. She attends Grow 2 Go (G2G) Christian Center (formerly St. Louis Christian Center) where she has served as youth minister since October of 2001, serves on the Pastor’s Think Tank, outreach ministry and the intercessory prayer ministry. She holds an ASBA from Forest Park Community College and a BSBA from Saint Louis University.

 

                             NOMINATION FORMS DEADLINE:  January 15, 2024

The Missouri City Clerks & Finance Officers Association is accepting nominations for the 2024 Outstanding City Clerk Award.  This award recognizes a city clerk or finance officer who has demonstrated outstanding service and commitment to their municipality, community and professional organizations. 

The minimum requirements for the award are:

• Held a position of city clerk or finance officer for a municipality in the State of Missouri, serving at least five years.

• Active, participating member in good standing with the Missouri City Clerks and Finance Officers Association for at least five years.

• Has attained the Missouri Registered City Clerk (MRCC) or the IIMC Certified Municipal Clerk (CMC) designation. 

Nominations may be submitted by a municipal official or by a MoCCFOA member.  The nomination form is available at www.moccfoa.org/outstanding-clerks.  You may also contact Debbie Ryan, chair at [email protected].  The deadline for nominations is January 15, 2024.

The award will be presented at the annual MoCCFOA banquet in March 2024 in Columbia, Missouri. 

                                          

           

Registration open now for the MML Legislative Conference for 2024!   Join fellow local leaders from across the state at the MML Legislative Conference to share information, learn about legislative issues, and visit with state legislators. The Conference will provide you with a unique opportunity to: Learn more about the issues pending in the Legislature. Participate in discussions with legislators and peers on a wide range of municipal issues. Visit informally with Senators and Representatives during the legislative reception. Hear first-hand from invited state officials and learn more about their programs and how they will affect your city.

                               

                                                                             

 

The St. Louis County Boundary Commission will begin accepting map plan submissions on January 1, 2024, for the five-year cycle starting on that date.  The final Deadline for map plan submissions for the five-year cycle commencing on is July 1, 2024. 
   
To review the five-year timeline and registration, click here .

Each Municipality located in St. Louis County, the chief elected official of St. Louis County, and any citizen group may present general maps of proposed boundary changes and proposed established unincorporated areas to the Commission for map plan review. 

The maps must be depicted with sufficient detail and accuracy to permit review and comment by the Commission. They may be submitted on paper AND digitally and the cost of the maps will be borne by the submitting party.     
 

For more information and detail on the plan: https://boundarycommission.com/