St. Louis County Government now offers both summary and a complete copy of ordinances and laws, free of charge, to the public online. The documents are easy to access and user friendly. We are happy to include them for our readers.
Missouri’s commitment to openness in government is clearly stated in Section 610.011 of the Sunshine Law:
“It is the public policy of this state that meetings, records, votes, actions, and deliberations of public governmental bodies be open to the public unless otherwise provided by law. Sections 610.010 to 610.200 shall be liberally construed and their exceptions strictly construed to promote this public policy.”
The law sets out the specific instances when a meeting, record or vote may be closed, while stressing these exceptions are to be strictly interpreted to promote the public policy of openness.
Public meetings, including meetings conducted by telephone, Internet or other electronic means, are to be held at reasonably convenient times and must be accessible to the public.
Meetings should be held in facilities that are large enough to accommodate anticipated attendance by the public and accessible to persons with disabilities.
What IS A "Meeting" of Public Officials?
According to the Sunshine Law:
“Public meeting”, any meeting of a public governmental body subject to sections 610.010 to 610.030 at which any public business is discussed, decided, or public policy formulated, whether such meeting is conducted in person or by means of communication equipment, including, but not limited to, conference call, video conference, Internet chat, or Internet message board.
TheGrantwood Village Board of Trustees announced at the regular meeting on Tuesday, September 15, that it will receive a Tree Replacement Improvement and Maintenance (TRIM) grant from the Missouri Department of Conservation in the amount of $3,900. The grant money will allow the city to undertake a professional inventory, inspection and report on the condition of trees and stumps located in Village island parks.
The Village has hired Davey Resource Group, a professional arborist company, to perform the inventory and inspection. The cost of this project is $4,500, leaving the Village to pay only $600 for the extensive inventory.
Village Treasurer Cathy Forand told .info that the report will enable the Village to develop a regular pruning and maintenance schedule for all park trees and will be a step in the right direction toward preserving old growth trees in the parks.
The MDC paid 100% for a similar grant to the City of Creve Coeur because the city is a member of the Tree City USA program. The Grantwood Board of Trustees has ceased to pursue that status for Grantwood Village.
Forand said that Davey plans to start the project as early as October 1.
Street Repairs Planned for Fall
The jury is still out on which of three companies will be awarded a contract for street repair in the Village. Of the bids received from the R. V. Wagner bid was the lowest; however, Boone indicated that he needed to clarify some detail of the bids and intended to contact Joseph Cement once more. Joseph is operated by Kevin Kelso, a Village resident who lives on Julia Dent Drive and, R. V. Wagner is owned by the family of Rick Wagner, also of Julia Dent. The third bidder was Stika Concrete Contracting Company of Affton.
Chairman Robert Prebil noted that during recent smoke testing by Metropolitan Sewer District, he observed smoke escaping from the center of at least one street andcommented that MSD may have to make repairs to some sewer lines and, in so doing, may improve some trouble spots in the Village.
McManus Gains Snow Removal Contract
The Board also approved a contract with McManus Construction, who have been both chastised and praised for their handling of snow removal in the Village. The company will charge $85 per hour, as they did last year but quoted salt at $40 less per ton than last year.
Speed Bumps to Morph into Speed Humps
Several speed bumps in the Village are being singled out for improvement according to Street and Building Commissioner Mike Boone. Residents have indicated that they favor the effect of the wider humps in slowing traffic on Village streets. Boone is in the process of compiling a list of changes.
PowerOn is Powered Off for Now
Board Chairman Robert Prebil told the Board that AmerenUE had informed the Village that the PowerOn underground utility program initiated with the municipality will not be started anytime soon even though many residents had reacted positively to it.
Trustee Mike Boone said that a contact of his indicated that the utility company had found itself short of funds due to the economy and an extremely mild summer.
No projection was given for a restart date.
Auditor Praises Village Board
In his annual report on the review of the books of the Town of Grantwood Village, John Anos, accountant with Boyd, Franz & Stephens, told the Board and a handful of Villagers that revenue for the Village had decreased by some $33,000. Of that amount, $25,000 was due to a one time past due fee accessed to Charter Communications and received last year but not expected this year. He said that there were few unusual expenditures during 2008 other than the purchase of chairs for the town hall at a cost of $920; $3,000 for public safety and $5,000 for roads and bridges. Anos praised the Board for its handling of a decreased budget and said, "I do feel the Board is pretty responsible when they see that receipts are going to be down they see where they can make adjustments to allow for that." He added, "For a village of this size, that's a significant downturn." The Board voted to retain the firm, Boyd, Franz and Stephens for the 2009 audit process at a three percent increase resulting in an annual fee of $750.
Village Will Investigate Lateral Sewer Insurance
In response to resident interest in the establishment of a Village wide lateral sewer insurance program, Streets and Building Commissioner Michael Boone, told the Board and residents attending the Tuesday, November 17 meeting of the Board of Trustees that he is pursuing information on the matter. If the Village Board feels that the possibilities are good for participation, the matter will go before voters, possibly as early as April, 2010.
Although he has researched the program before and believed that the Village cannot afford it, Boone said that questions from resident Bill Hund, at the October meeting, prompted him to look into the matter again. At that meeting, Hund said that he had done some investigation on his own and learned that most municipalities in St. Louis County provided the coverage for their residents. Hund said that even those whose populations are as low as 148 residents are part of the program.
In an election, voters would give the city the right to impose an annual fee to protect homeowners from incurring the, often tremendous, cost of repairing lateral lines between homes and sewer mains.
St. Louis County administers the program which utilizes fees collected in conjunction with annual real estate taxes for municipalities who contract with the County for this
service. In unincorporated St. Louis County the program is administered under the Public Works Department which is responsible for administering repair contracts. In 2005, the budget for the Sewer Lateral Fund was increased based on an estimated increase in the number of sewer lateral repair projects. Generally, annual premiums run from $18 to $50 depending on the number of residences in the municipality and the age of the sewer system.
Most municipalities assess the annual fee, then, in addition to that, the program requires homeowners who file damage claims to pay an “application fee” of three or four hundred dollars. Generally, that amount is reimbursed if the repairs qualify for coverage. For repairs that don’t qualify, application fees are refunded minus the cost of scoping and videotaping lateral lines.
Homeowners who file soon after approval of such a program may be out of luck because the Village will not have had time to collect property taxes and fees in until January of the first year following the approval.
On the other hand, residents who do not have the insurance face the total cost of repairs which can run into thousands of dollars. At least one project is currently underway in the Village.
Access these public records from the Grantwood Village Board of Trustees ___________________________________________
Missouri’s commitment to openness in government is clearly stated in Section 610.011 of the Sunshine Law: “It is the public policy of this state that meetings, records, votes, actions, and deliberations of public governmental bodies be open to the public unless otherwise provided by law. Sections 610.010 to 610.200 shall be liberally construed and their exceptions strictly construed to promote this public policy.”
The law sets out the specific instances when a meeting, record or vote may be closed, while stressing these exceptions are to be strictly interpreted to promote the public policy of openness.
Public meetings, including meetings conducted by telephone, Internet or other electronic means, are to be held at reasonably convenient times and must be accessible to the public. Meetings should be held in facilities that are large enough to accommodate anticipated attendance by the public and accessible to persons with disabilities. ********************************************************************
