Minutes of 07/07/25

   Minutes of July 7th, 2025 City Council Meeting 

The Missouri City, Missouri, City Council held their monthly open meeting at the MCCA Building on Monday, July 7th, 2025, at 6:30 pm.   Attending:  Mayor Woody Owen, Clerk Julie Freeman, Council members Mickey Stewart (Ward One), Amy Jeffries (Ward Two), Jan Kohl (Ward Three), Johanna Davis (Ward Four) plus several residents.

Mayor Owen called the meeting to order.  Minutes from the June 2nd, 2025, meeting was read and approved. 

Councilperson Kohl made a motion to approve bill payment as presented.  The motion was seconded by Councilperson Stewart and passed by a 4-0 vote.

Old Business

City Auditor Kenney Hales presented the 2024 audit report and has submitted a copy to the state.  Mr. Hales stated there were no audit findings and the city filing is in compliance with generally accepted accounting principles.

Mayor Owen is awaiting a credit card application from UMB.

City e-mail and website:  The city currently uses Host Gator for web hosting costing $158.27 annually.  Our yearly subscription with Host Gator is due in August.  Brandon Gray who provides website support, has suggested using Namecheap going forward as it has more services and is less expensive.   Council discussed temporarily staying with Host Gator as it is too short of a timeframe to move to a new web host at this time. Brandon Gray and Mayor Owen will research additional web hosts to replace Host Gator.  Motion was made by councilperson Davis to table the decision to change web host at this time and was seconded by councilperson Kohl.  Passed with a vote of 4-0.

Tree Trimming along Public Roads:  Danny Bush and Mayor Owen continued to trim bushes and trees along St. Bernard Hill Rd as AAA trash service has complained of issues maneuvering their trucks along that stretch of city road. Additional tree trimming will continue in the fall.

City Resident Letter: Letter is on hold until the water billing issue has been resolved.

The application for high-speed internet grant from the state has preliminary approval and is awaiting final approval pending funding. No changes at this time.

Pot hole repair:  Councilperson Stewart has volunteered his dump truck to haul cold patch for the city.  Work to fill the holes will commence once the weather is a bit cooler.

Ditch repair on Gano St.: No update at this time.

Shed Floor: work will begin once the summer heat goes down.

Shooting Range Building Application: This will be taken up with the City Planning and Zoning Commission.

New Business

A city resident presented a water runoff problem to the council stating rain water coming down Stillhouse and crossing Main Street did not go into ditches as it should and is running into her yard causing foundational and flooding issues.  Mayor Owen will meet with her to determine the cause of the miss direction of water and what can be done to resolve the issue.

Councilperson Johanna Davis submitted her resignation from the city council for Ward 4 effective immediately.  Mayor Owen nominated citizen Brian Adcock to serve as councilperson for ward 4 until the April 7^th, 2026 election. Councilperson Kohl made a motion to nominate Brian Adcock to serve as ward 4 councilperson and was seconded by councilperson Jeffries.  Motion passed with a 4-0 vote. Councilperson Adcock was a sworn in. 

Planning and Zoning committee nominations and terms were submitted by Mayor Owen and voted on by council members with the following results:  

In addition, Mayor Owen chose to be a part of the planning and zoning commission. Mayor Owen asked the council if they wanted to send a representative from the council to the planning and zoning commission. Brian Adcock volunteered. Councilperson Jeffries made a motion to have Brian Adcock represent the council on the planning and zoning commission. Motion was seconded by councilperson Kohl. Motion passed 4-0.  

Water Rate increase: Water rates from the City of Liberty to Public Water Service District #4 (PWSD #4 the water provider to Missouri City) will increase from $4.05 to $4.22 per thousand gallons. PWSD #4 is passing the increase with additional charge of  16% to Missouri City for a total cost of $5.00 per thousand gallons. A motion was made by councilperson Adcock to table a vote to increase the city water rate until additional city costs to run the program can be assessed to determine if the cost increase to the city can be absorbed instead of passing the increase onto the citizens.  Motion was seconded by councilperson Stewart and passed with a 4-0 vote. 

Water Accounting System Update:  The gWorks water accounting software that replaced the UBMax software has been difficult to use and customer service to address issues has been slow and inefficient.  The treasurer and water collector have had to work additional hours to process billing. Some citizens have been locked out of online bill pay. The not-for-profit organization Missouri Rural Water Association (MRWA) has offered a software system called Small Utility Billing Software (SUBS) that has been reviewed by the treasurer, Walter Wilson, CIO and Mayor Owen and was found to be a better system for the city. It will cost $400 a year for the service and $300 for the MRWA membership that the city already pays for.  This will provide software billing including online bill pay for up to 1000 water accounts. A motion was made by councilperson Kohl to change the city water bill pay system from gWorks to SUBS and was seconded by councilperson Stewart and passed with a vote of 4-0. In addition, we were given the option of using 2 different online pay systems.  1) Stripe is an online bill pay site that offers to accept credit card, ACH, Venmo, PayPal and Apple Pay for a 4% fee.  2) CourtMoney that accepts credit card, debit card and ACH for a fee of $1.50 for bills under $50 and 3.5% for bills over $50.  We do have the option to change pay systems later if needed.   A motion was made by councilperson Jeffries to use Court Money as the online pay option.  Motion was seconded by councilperson Stewart and passed with a vote of 4-0.

Road resurfacing bids:  Two bids were received for road resurfacing in Missouri City.  A bid by Tandem Paving Co. for $71,138 for all 4 roads listed in the bidding process.  This bid is good through October.    The second bid was from All Pro Asphalt and Maintenance LLC for all 4 roads listed in the bidding process for $76,600 with a 15-day limit.  A motion was made by council person Kohl to reject the bid from All Pro and was seconded by council person Jeffries and passed with a 4-0 vote.  A second motion was made by council person Adcock to table the acceptance of the Tandem bid until lean wavers were received and an additional review of the project can be held with Mayor Owen and a Tandem representative.  The motion was seconded by council person Stewart and passed with a vote of 4-0.

The city Bobcat is in need of a new left track motor and safety bar break repair.  An estimate from Bobcat KC was given to Mayor Owen by Steve Thompson of $4010 for the motor and $75/hr. for installation and repair.  A motion to table the repair decision was made by councilperson Jeffries until additional research can be done to weigh the options of repair or trade-in.  The motion was seconded by councilperson Adcock and passed with a vote of 4-0.

An inquiry was made by our patrolling service Extra Duty Solutions to ask if the city was in need of additional patrolling hours for the summer.  The council discussed that further research is needed to determine what duties would need to be done if additional hours were awarded.  A motion to table the decision was made by councilperson Adcock and seconded by councilperson Stewart and passed with a vote of 4-0.

Community Calendar:  The next monthly Council meeting is scheduled for Monday, August 11th, 2025 at 6:30 pm in the MCCA Building.

Meeting adjourned.

Respectfully submitted,

Julie Freeman – City Clerk

Attested:    Woody Owen – Mayor