Council Recap: Filing for Municipal Elections, a Memorial Shelter, Police Vehicles, and More

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Consideration of Filing Dates for the Municipal Election of April 4, 2023

It was announced that the first day to file for the April 4, 2023, General Municipal Election will be Tuesday, December 6, 2022, at 8:00 a.m. Filing will close at 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, December 27, 2022. The final day for certification of the ballot is January 24, 2023. This year there are two (2) positions that will become vacant on the City Council. Filing is done with the City Clerk in the office of the City Manager.

Approved 5-0

Consideration of Golf Course Memorial Shelter

Mike Jarman requested the City’s permission to place a Memorial Shelter on the Golf Course. With the city council’s approval, Mike will collect donations to fund the improvement and when all funds have been received, a building permit will be issued to complete the construction.

Approved 5-0

an example of the style of structure to be built on the golf course

a map showing the proposed location for a memorial shelter on the Excelsior Springs Golf Course

Consideration of Liquor License Application by Excelsior Playhouse, LLC

Police Chief Gregory Dull presented a request for the consideration of a liquor license. “Linda Bond, Managing Member, of Excelsior Playhouse, LLC. requested a Liquor by the Drink and a Sunday Sales license. Excelsior Playhouse, LLC has leased the building at 101 Spring Street, Excelsior Springs, Missouri. A police computer check reveals nothing that would preclude the issuance of a liquor license to Ms. Bond as managing officer of the licenses. Approval of the liquor licenses should be conditional upon satisfying the requirements for a business license (i.e. inspection: life safety issues). The State of Missouri, Division of Alcohol and Tobacco Control has approved and issued their licenses. Ms. Bond advises a tentative opening date of December 2022.”

Approved 5-0

Consideration of Police Vehicles Purchase – Resolution No. 1389

Chief Dull also presented a request for the purchase of four new police vehicles. The Police Department customarily replaces three to four vehicles per year in order to minimize repair and maintenance costs, as well as the associated vehicle downtime. These vehicles are normally purchased using monies from the City of Excelsior Springs Public Safety Sales Tax (PSST) Fund. On July 20, 2022, the Public Safety Sales Tax Oversight Committee met and authorized the purchase of up to four police vehicles in FY2023, using PSST funds.

The police department is requesting city council approval to purchase two (2) 2023 Dodge Chargers and two (2) 2023 Dodge Durangos, pending availability. If approved, the vehicles would be purchased from Landmark Dodge in Independence, Missouri, which was the State of Missouri bid winner for this fiscal year. Dodge is the only auto manufacturer of both police sedans and police utility vehicles, and they are becoming the primary vehicle for many agencies, including the Missouri and Kansas Highway Patrol. The costs of the individual police vehicles per bid specs and our chosen options are as follows:

2023 Dodge Charger V6, AWD – $35, 570 each
2023 Dodge Durango V6, AWD – $39,628 each

Chief dull requested authorization to purchase vehicles from Landmark Dodge utilizing PSST funds, in the total amount of $150, 396.00. He said that proceeds from the sale of decommissioned vehicles will be returned to the PSST Fund to help offset some of the costs of the new vehicles.

Approved 5-0

Consideration of Community Center Board Appointment – Resolution No. 1390

Dr. Mark Bullimore, Communications Director for the Excelsior Springs School District was appointed to the Community Center Advisory Board with a term expiring 9/30/26.

Approved 5-0

Consideration of Community Center Boiler Heat Exchanger Replacement – Resolution No. 1391

Nate Williams Parks and Rec/Community Center Director requested permission to use funds to replace HVAC components at the community center. He stated:

The ES Community Center uses 2 boilers for heat to the building. The heating through the HVAC as well as the heating for the water. Recently we had a boiler malfunction that requires immediate repair to be able to continue to operate the building as it gets colder. ESPRCC had to perform an emergency approval to get the parts ordered. We are now asking City Council to approve the expense of $27,330 for the boiler heat exchanger replacement. P1 Service is our current contracted maintenance group that will be performing the work necessary. This cost could be lowered with warranty reimbursement at a later date, but the parts had to be sent in and evaluated before the answer to this is known. The funds are available in the Community Center budget to pay for this expense.

Cost of Boiler Heat Exchanger Replacement $27,330.00
Cost of Warranty Reimbursement, Unknown at this time
Cost of Shipping and Installation, Included in the price listed
Total Cost to Replace Boiler Heat Exchanger $27,330.00

Approved 5-0

Consideration of Agreements with MTM Related to Non-Emergency Medical Transportation – Resolution No. 1392

City Manager Molly McGovern requested the extension of an agreement with Medical Transportation Management, Inc. to provide non-emergency medial transportation for the broker. McGovern said, “The City Transportation Department provides medical transportation through a broker which streamlines trip scheduling and billings. The customer arranges their transportation through their Medicaid or other insurance providers that are working with the broker. Our service is one of several service providers that receive trip requests from the broker and we can elect to accept the trip or not. The broker compensates us according to the agreed-upon terms and handles collections from the insurance providers. MTM is the current broker that has been awarded the agreement from the state and is actually the first broker we worked with when the service started in the 90s.”

Approved 5-0

Consideration of Hall of Waters Phase II Grant Match – Resolution No. 1393

McGovern also presented a request for fund allocations to match grant funding which will provide repairs to the Hall of Waters. McGovern said, “the City is currently constructing improvements at the Hall of Waters with Saving America’s Treasures and CIP funds. Both funding sources have contributed $500,000, which I will call Phase I. We have an opportunity to apply for a grant either on November 30th or December 14th, which I am calling Phase II. Both grant opportunities require a 50% match. Both programs will allow us to match our Phase I investment and CIP has authorized $1 Million of CIP funds and $400,000 of ARPA funds can be available for a total match of $2.4M. ”

She continued, “our Phase I scope of work includes: life safety structural concerns underneath the water bar, and foundation work in the sub-basement. Repair of the railings on the north porch and refurbish the water bar center island lighting system. We will restore the water bar as funds will allow.

Phase II scope of work would include:

Shoring the front yard & study the permanent solution
Finish repair of the water bar
Tower stabilization, replacement of the roof over the center building, repairs to 2nd-floor hallways, and around skylight; repair the roof in the SW section of the Hall of Springs.
Warm white box entire mezzanine level + commercial zone HVAC, move staff to council room; council to share courtroom with the court; refurbish east wing 1st floor to museum standards
Replace entrances on west and north porches

We are seeking $2.4 Million in grant funds, which would constitute $3.8 million in new work. The Community Revitalization Grant is due November 30th and would allow us to seek up to $5 Million. The Tourism Asset Grant is due December 14th and would allow us to seek up to $1.5 Million. Please approve the allocation of $1.4 million in funds toward a grant match for Hall of Waters Phase II.”

Approved 5-0

Consideration of Budgeting Application Renewal – Resolution No. 1394

McGovern also presented a proposal for fund allocation for budgeting applications/software utilizing ARPA funds. She said, “Earlier this year, we used Clear Gov to prepare the city budget under a trial agreement. Renewing the service will cost $16,500 per year to subscribe for five modules. The modules are described below with their individual subscription prices:

Budget Builder ($8,300) allows several contributors to work on the same budget at once using a cloud-based application. At the beginning of the budgeting cycle, historic financial data from Naviline is downloaded into the Clear Gov application to prepare the budget and upon adoption is then uploaded into the city’s financial software, Naviline. The advantage of changing from Excel is the ability to work from one cloud-based document, easily share the same version with several, and transfer data between Naviline and Clear Gov rather than manual input and should make budgeting easier in future years because of the information that is stored in the application avoiding the need to collect information from multiple sources.
Personnel Budgeting ($8,300) provides all of the rules/rates for compensation to the employee roster to be downloaded from Paychex into Clear Gov, and allows you to consider multiple scenarios and upload the selection into the Budget Builder. This is a change from using Excel and made it easy to change rules with little adjustment to the data.
Capital Budgeting ($4,700) uses pre-built request forms to create a multi-year capital budget. We are just starting this process to include it in the next budget cycle. It will enable us to maintain the information in a database and easily shared, improve our review of capital needs.
Digital Budget Book ($4,700) creates an annual budget book, web-based, automated with templates, narrative, and charts to supplement the budget line-item information. This has been partially built and we will continue to add to the information provided.
Transparency ($4,100) exports fiscal data from Naviline into Clear Gov, pulls data from operational and capital budgets, infographic-based website and custom charts, department pages, capital projects, and narrative, publish and share on our website. This is the next step, to publish the budget on our website.

Prior to selecting Clear Gov, I evaluated other similar programs and preferred this application based on the perceived ease of use and transfer of data between our financial application and the budgeting application, price, and access to support services. There were several cities in our area using Clear Gov with positive reviews. Please consider approval of subscription renewal for five modules at $16,500. The cost of this service is budgeted with ARPA funds.”

Approved 5-0

Full Council Agenda for November 21, 2022

Excelsior Springs City Council Meetings are normally held on the first and third Monday of each month at 6:00 PM at the Hall of Waters in downtown Excelsior Springs. Meetings are streamed courtesy of the Simmons Sales Team and Excelsior Springs Hospital, to the Excelsior Citizen Facebook Group, Facebook Page, and YouTube Channel. Find City Council agendas and information here: https://cityofesmo.com/index.php/council/