Effortlessly Manage Your Maintenance Bill Format for Planning

Maintenance bill format for Planning

uh good morning everyone and happy holidays first off I want to thank president M green and all the woman Alicia son for their help with this also want to thank all of our department heads uh we've been having several conversations with them about how to put all of this together and especially my mayor's office staff uh for their hard work and all of the other all the persons whove been working with us uh to build this coalition to uh spend this money responsibly and in a way that helps everyone and of course the people of St Louis uh you have participated over the last year or so in a public engagement process and we have taken all of your suggestions to heart and this is what we have come up with did you know that St Louis was the only city to take on the NFL and win and today we are showing that our win is a win for everyone from delmare to Dutchtown and every neighborhood in between they deserve to benefit from these settlement funds and the board of alderman asked the public to give us guidance and insight on the best way to do that and St Louis city residents delivered I'm proud to say that this bill which we are calling the transform STL Act is a reflection of that public input and the Deep intentional collaboration between my office between President Megan Green's office and the many members of the board of Alderman and our department heads this is a once Ina lifetime generation opportunity that will be used to transform the lives of many generations to come and benefit St louisans throughout their entire lives and to that end the transform STL act will invest more than $270 million into three different funding buckets people development and infrastructure one of the essential functions of government is to make sure residents can get around the city no matter how they travel and that they've got easy access to clean drinking water while we are proud of the more than $300 million that's being invested in Mobility infrastructure improvements between 2024 and 2027 through arpa and other various sources we're also aware that they will require continuous maintenance and improvements to prevent our streets sidewalks and bike infrastructure from falling into disrepair this bill directs $60 million into the Citywide Mobility infrastructure fund which will be used for maintenance improvements and accessibility across our city and $40 million is directed to the Citywide water infrastructure fund which will be used to maintain and improve existing water infrastructure conduct emergency repairs provide matching funds for federal and state water infrastructure grants and with these funds we're looking at safer streets and clean water for St Louis city for decades to come and as we look to those future decades we know that the success of our city relies on expanding our population expanding our economy and expanding our city Workforce and to be a city family and businesses want to move to and stay in St Louis needs a plentiful stock of affordable and market rate housing units focused on supporting local businesses the transform STL act directs $70 million to the Citywide housing fund which will expand the availability of housing in the city and offer support for firsttime home buyers or tenants looking to stay in their rental units and on that home buying Fe first priority will or access will be given to city employees as a part of our efforts to recruit even more residents to our Workforce which is crucial to improving city services like trash collect trash collection and Public Safety and another $30 million will be directed to the Citywide neighborhood Development Fund with a focus on supporting small businesses and nonprofits through capacity building Redevelopment and expansion and other support to help their neighborhoods Thrive and finally we know that our neighborhoods cannot Thrive without our City's family our City's families children and workers our city is nothing without its people and we want residents to grow up here and stay here we also want to boost our Recruitment and Retention efforts for city employees so we can improve those essential services that help make our government run this bill will direct $20 million to a new Citywide Workforce Citywide Workforce fund to expand the community Workforce training efforts and City Workforce training programs of the St Louis Agency training unemployment and uh training and employment or slate and 57.2 million will go to an endowment fund with two accounts held and invested by the city Treasurer's Office one of those accounts will support residents by helping with child care costs with first priority given to city employees and others will be and other funding will be for the St Louis promise program which will be a glass dollar funding for the Youth who live in the city who want to get postsecondary education or training in the city I want to reiterate my pride in this collaboration effort good government governance requires collaboration and the transform STL act shows that we can accomplish that when we put our heads together and listen to the will of the people and listen to each other I was born in St Louis I grew up in St Louis and I'm staying in St Louis and I hope the same is true for my son and so many future Joneses this bill isn't about large Appropriations it's about opportunities we're given to current and future Generations we're building a government that takes care of you with Safe Streets sidewalks and drinking water we're building a place where you don't have to go broke buying a home or sending your kids to college we're building a place that takes care of our youth and fam starting in early childhood and providing Pathways to middle class jobs we're building a brighter future for the city of St Louis and now I it's my pleasure to turn it over to president Megan green who will get a bit more into the mechanics of how the responsible work president green good morning I am so excited to be here after a year worth of of work into this endeavor I want to first thank mayor Jones and Her Administration for their commitment to this process and for working alongside my office and members of the board of Alder to transform public priorities into public uh policy I also want to express my gratitude for alderwoman Kane who over the last year has brought together residents Community Partners and our colleagues to answer the question how can we create generational prosperity for all residents whether they live in North City South City or downtown through public hearings and online participation residents made their response clear a successful proposal must invest in infrastructure development and people infrastructure was frequently named by the more than 16,000 participants who engaged with us through the ram settlement portal residents want to improve safety for all Road users and maintain the high water quality that our city is known for nationally the transform STL act establishes the Citywide water infrastructure fund and Citywide Mobility infrastructure fund These funds will continue the progress we've made with arpa dollars and provide immediate Capital to the water department and the streets department and because residents know that building a resilient City takes more than upgrading roads and Water Systems they call for Citywide development to strengthen all not just some of our neighborhoods the Citywide housing fund will support affordable housing development vacant property Redevelopment and matching funds for down payment assistance in mortgage loans the Citywide uh neighborhood Development Fund will drive economic growth and Commercial corridors focusing on local businesses child care providers and nonprofits another key priority for residence was affordable child care The Children and Families endowment fund will subsidize child care for Working Families offering them a financial lifeline and making it possible for stay-at-home parents to rejoin the workforce and a related initiative will cover last dollar expenses for public school students who pursue postsecondary education and some we want families to move into this city under uh because we're going to provide them lowcost child care and we want them to stay here for the long term because we're going to help them pay for their kids postc education finally the Workforce Development Fund will connect people with training and resources to secure Dependable jobs in addition to serving residents These funds will prioritize Child Care subsidies down payment assistance and professional development opportunities for city employees creating these benefits for city workers aligns with residents Vision to boost the value and appeal of city jobs residents know that attracting and retaining city workers is vital to improving the delivery of essential services like trash pickup Park maintenance and pothole repairs to maximize the settlement's reach and amplify its impact each of these funds will be held in separate interest bearing accounts as develop as departments work to prioritize spending These funds will continue to grow to date this strategy has raised the city portion of the ram settlement from 250 million to by growing the principal amount through corporate and philanthropic contributions the endowment would create a long-term sustainable source of funding that could expand Child Care subsidies and college aid for the long term together these Investments put us on track to meet our City's greatest challenge population decline the growth of our city depends on fostering a vid Community where people want to live and work and I believe this plan offers compelling incentives for families and and individuals to start their lives in their city and build their their lives in the city for the long term I want to close by recognizing that this process has been uh more about more than finding Solutions it's been about rebuilding trust between residents and local leaders and after more than a year of working with the public local leaders have a meaningful opportunity to demonstrate that we are listening and that residents voices are Central to the decisions that are being made here to shape our future future and with that I want to turn things over to my friend and colleague alderwoman son of the Seventh Ward and the chair of the committee of the whole I first want to start by thanking the people of the city of St Louis not long ago when I ran for office and knocked doors I heard from door too all of the questions and all the concerns that the city had and as after I got elected and had the privilege of becoming the aler women of the seven and we began to embark on our committee of the whole process I remember when President green approached me and mayor Jones and we were having these conversations about this concept of a committee of the whole to me it was incredible because what I heard many City residents saying is that they were tired of Divisions keeping their leaders from coming together and figuring out solutions for them so this historic idea of every single member of the board of alderman of the com controller's Office of the mayor's office of the president's office all coming together on a regular idea to discuss things that came from the public was historic in itself and it's the only reason that I agreed to facilitate the process because I knew that it was important to show our residents that we can work together and that we do put you first while there are many things in this bill that I could focus on I want to really focus on the people because that's what we're here for uh the transform act stands for turning Rams assets into strategic funding opportunities to revitalize and maintain St Louis a large goal of the bill and a large part of what we want to show is that we don't live in a zero sum gain that we do not have to choose between this issue or that issue and to do so is poor leadership we know that our city has a number of struggles we know that our residents have a number of priorities and we want to show you that we can and we will meet those number of priorities so to the city worker who is frustrated because we've had our earnings tax cut who is frustrated because we're struggling with Staffing we want you to know that we here you we want you to know that we want you to stay in this with us and that we are determined to figure it out almost everything in this bill prioritizes city workers which means that you will get first access and first Dives to the things in this build we know that's important because the residents that are at their home who want their trash picked up who need their potholes fill who want their cars to have D driving Greenery who want to have robust engagement need city workers to get that done it's also important because for a very bold ambitious policy maker like myself and many of my other colleagues we understand that our ideas and the things that we put on paper cannot be done without your work and that you deserve the proper compensation and benefits and we want you to know that that's prioritized uh to the mothers um and particularly to the children of the city we want you to know that we see you and we see the numbers the fastest declining population in St Lewis is that of families when people have children they're choosing to go elsewhere so we focused a lot of our eff energy on this bill on why that is and we found out it was a number of ideas and many of them are things that the city has been struggling with for decades whether it's affordable housing whether it's having to spend a mortgage on child care whether it's struggling to access postsecondary opportunities which I want to emphasize is not limited to just College when we say all not some we're not just focusing on those who graduate high school and want to go to college I have peers who make great money as wielders as Carpenters as union members and we want to make sure that their support if you are a student you went to the city of St Louis for school you want to pursue higher education you want to give back to your community we want to support you in those and davors we want to give people a reason to stay here we want you to know that whether it is a concern for water which is really important we can see all across our country what happens when cities fail to make needed improvements on their water and one of the things that St Louis does uniformally agree on is we have some of the best water and we want to keep that for you uh to the folks who drive our streets which is every single one of us in this room in our residence we know we hear about the bumpy rides we know we hear about this is not moving fast enough that's not moving fast enough which is why we're suggesting the idea of starting a a fund that is just focused on sidewalks and streets and things that can go on in perpetuity we know that City residents just voted overwhelmingly for Department of Transportation that means we're going to have to have some conversations as a board and we're going to need some resources to do those things as a city and that is the perfect the purpose of the Citywide infrastructure fund uh to those who are right now like myself that you've been in the city of St Louis you're a young adult you're walking into adulthood uh you're thinking about buying a home but you're struggling to find a home that is a quality that you can afford you don't have $3,000 to put down the down payment or to you the idea of a 300 or $400,000 home seems overwhelmingly we want you to know that we hear you that's why we hope that one of the things that we can with this bill is create a matching down payment fund for city workers and for City residents think of the power of having $1,500 that has now become $3,000 $3,000 that has now become $6,000 and what that does to open up where we're going think of the many vacancies we have in our cities the many land that's left to be developed we want to support our community development corporations and other developers to build this market rate housing that we need uh there are so many things in this bill that I am excited about uh but most importantly what I want to do in this moment is make sure that when we speak about this bill we speak factually this bill is not against anybody this bill is for the people this bill is not an opposition of any entity or anything this bill is a result of a process that was over a year where over 16,000 residents made their priorities clear and so our goal in the coming weeks with this process is to continue that sense of collaboration continue that sense of out of everything that we have going every Leader's responsibility our core responsibilities is to solve problems and it's my hope that the next time a 27y old black woman becomes older woman she won't have to spend her time fighting for the issues that I've had to today it's my hope that these transformational ideas that are new that are bold that they will lead to solutions that that will mean that 20 years ago we're not talking about streets that aren't paved we're not talking about as much difficulty with accessing child care we're not talking about such a need for affordable housing but leaders at that time are able to discuss new issues because the leaders of today came together and put the people first and thought innovatively thank you all right we got time for questions folks a Computing proposal you know outlined kind of some neighborhood by neighborhood expenditures including like uh downtown the north side Southeast city um why did you not uh mention any specific neighborhoods or specific parts of the city such as downtown seles well as each of us said in our remarks this is for everyone whether they live in Dutchtown downtown uh North St Louis and anywhere in between um and this isn't a zero Sun game we don't want to pick winners and losers we want to make sure that these funds are available for every neighborhood and for every person that lives in the city or chooses to make a home here are there some of those funds are there some of those funds that you intend to get out more quickly than others in terms of of priorities and if so which ones uh absolutely our infrastruct fund you know our infrastructure is crumbling and we want to make sure that uh the funds that we've set aside for water infrastructure for transportation and Mobility uh is used for matching funds for federal programs uh either through the EPA or the Department transportation raises for city employees was the third most popular pick but unless I'm missing it I'm not seeing it in here why was that left on The Cutting Room floor because these are one time funds um and it's not smart to use one time funds for raises because then we'll have to have aable way of keeping that keeping those raises intact but some of these programs are Perpetual like early uh like child care for example that's not a onetime thing that you're paying off exactly but again these are one-time funds and funds for raises um are again it's not smart to use these funds for raises we'll be a sorry we'll be able to use these as additional benefits uh to combat some of the things that our city employees are experiencing so they'll have to pay less for child less for housing less for all of the things that we're trying to solve in this build sorry um with the child care uh uh benefits and things like that like how soon will that be like will people be eligible to get those and things like that is there a process uh already implemented you know so that people can you know take advantage of those so the child care funds will live in an endowment at the treasurer's office uh what we anticipate is first piloting the child care uh process with city workers so the idea is essentially that the city would uh pick up uh probably 2third of the cost of child care for uh a worker and the family would cover that remaining third um once we get that program up and operational and get all the Kinks out of it then we'll be looking to eventually expand this uh to to other uh segments of our city alderwoman s said that this proposal does oppose anyone but mayor maybe you've seen some conservative critics have have said it omits other priorities perhaps like police how does all this spending make the city of St Louis safer yes so we're using this to address the root causes of crime the root causes of uh crime are you know access to uh affordable and safe housing uh access to Workforce Development programs so they can make a living wage to support their families by addressing the root causes this makes our city safer in the long run the dollar amount is 277 million right now it's going into endowment funds to AC crew interest have you done any kind of analysis to estimate how large that number could become before the city spends it down uh no we have not done that analysis but we also are trying to grow this pot larger than 277 Million by talking to local corporations and philanthropy to help us grow these funds so we're we're putting our skin in the game and we're hoping that the community matches us we're just about to our goal is definitely to get this done before the board of alderman breaks for elections part of the reason uh we're moving forward and and introducing this now is because we want to take the holiday recess to continue conversations with older people to continue soliciting feedback from the public um the bill is now live in the ram settlement portal so the the community can start to give us some feedback directly on the bill as well we'll be taking that into account over our recess and then ready to hit the ground running uh in the new year with more public hearings uh work through any amendments that might be coming and the goals to get this pass by mid-February when the board goes down a break one of the last times you were here you were talking about your proposed or task force to grow more Revenue in the absence of the city's earnings tax with all of this available money to grow where where does that does this check off any of those uh to to-do list items in growing revenue and with all this extra money growing in the city's coffers these days can you rule out the need for a tax cut a tax hike no those are two different um those those are two different issues so the the commission is continuing its work and will come back to us with recommendations and on a tax hike the commission is continuing its work and will come back to us with recommendations have you done a w um you know we've definitely been having conversations all along I think a great Point um one of the things that many of my colleagues has expressed with me as we've been talking is an idea of not wanting to feel like they had to pick between one issue or another a lot of my colleagues are have the same Focus that I have was want to make sure that our city workers are supported a lot of my colleagues are very passion about and want to make sure we're doing everything and so although we don't have a whip count um we do have a democratic process to go through and so this bill is filed we have to have committed hearings we have to get consensus but we've had a lot of positive good conversations um this bill the reason it took so much time is because we wanted to give every colleague chance to you know go to the committee here and hear the idea get their ideas around that um but we've been having meetings and conversations for months and every colleague had a copy of this bill before it was even made public and so it is looking POS positive and I do believe we will do what we need to do in order to pass this bill and help to transform St Louis May you're aware of the criticism of the the roll out of the arpa arpa money are you concerned at all that with with this there is accountability with different boards that need to get set up but are you confident that the city city government's infrastructure can get this done yes I'm confident that the city's current infrastructure can get this done