Cape Girardeau's 2024 State of the City address highlights economic health and public safety

Water infrastructure needs are among the challenges facing City of Cape Girardeau Officials.

Southeast Missourian file

Cape Girardeau is a city of hospitality. Our economy revolves around businesses that sell goods and services others want and need, hotels and restaurants that people enjoy, and events and spaces that bring joy and a wonderful quality of life. We see top-notch opportunities for education, health care and training here, all produced by folks who have dedicated their lives to improving the lives of others.

As mayor, I have had the huge pleasure of greeting conventions and trade groups, giving out welcomes, shopping tips, and the local perspective on where to find the best pancakes. I’ve consistently heard from visitors that Cape is unique in its welcoming nature, in the natural warmth, and the helpful attitudes of our residents. The citizens of Cape, ultimately, are the reason why people love Cape.

I say all this, in the introduction of my 2024 State of the City address, to help Cape residents understand why Cape’s government does what it does. As our residents go about their lives, working in their chosen professions, toiling away at their education, raising kids, or practicing hospitality in any number of ways, it is your municipal government’s job to allow you the freedom to do that to the best of your ability, in safety and good health, enhancing the quality of life for all along the way. It is the level of our city’s economic health, infrastructure, and public safety that impacts our citizens directly, and those are the issues that I’m focusing on here.

The Economy in Cape

Overall, the City of Cape is in a positive position to manage necessary financing, balance the city budget, provide required services, and maintain emergency funds. That is municipal talk for “the city government is working well,” and that is, of course, dependent upon the economic health of the city. Sales tax collection is the biggest driver of Cape’s economic health, as it fuels 76% of the city’s general fund.

The city’s general fund is the operational fund for the city, used to provide for the most basic municipal functions, such as public safety, street maintenance, and parks and airport operations. In this fiscal year, 69% of general fund expenditures go toward employee salaries and benefits. This point makes a clear and strong connection of the city’s ability to pay competitive salaries, to the necessary business climate and sales tax collection in the city. That aforementioned hospitality of our citizenry is an essential piece of this big puzzle!

What is also important to note is that our tax collection numbers are boosted by recent and continuing inflation. The flip side is that inflation has also caused the expenses of the city to grow, just as it has for every business and household. This is seen in everything from insurance, concrete and concessions costs, to vehicle and equipment expenses. For this reason, the city will continue to take a very conservative approach to budgeting in both receipts and expenses, especially as we approach the challenges in dealing with the city’s debt load and various enterprise funds.

The city’s debt load currently stands at $87,749,000. Almost half of this comes from 2012 and 2013 revenue bonds used to pay for the acquisition, construction, and improvements at the city’s wastewater facility. This facility is not to be confused with the clean water treatment facility that needs improvements now and has been discussed in detail recently. More on that facility in a moment. The wastewater treatment system is what takes all the dirty water out of a house, business, or hospital after it has been used. As a mom of three boys, I am very comfortable talking about the details of this system and why it is needed, but instead, I’ll simply point you to the public works page on the city’s website, and you can learn all you need to know about this crucial city facility.

The relevant point to our city economy is that while the concept of bonding large-scale projects is at times appropriate for a city, it is not always so. The city is in a period of needing to pay down on our debt in various funds and projects, and we have begun to do so intently in recent years, dedicating approximately $10 million to that endeavor in FY25. However, nearly $2 million of that annual debt payment is in interest costs alone. Carrying a high debt load is simply a very expensive way to operate, and the city does not intend to take on more debt if we do not have to.

Additionally, taking on debt to pay for things that will need to be replaced long before the debt retires, but not planning for maintenance or replacement costs, has helped foster an accumulation of debt in recent years. This is a practice the city is steering away from.

Infrastructure needs in Cape

The needs we have been discussing in the water treatment facility and distribution system bring this concept into sharp relief. The water system falls into a category of activity called an enterprise fund. Enterprise finds are the business-type activities in the city and are generally supported by user charges. Other examples around Cape include the sewer system, trash and recycling, the Jaycees Golf Course, and the city’s sports complexes. Even under a municipal government, these activities are supposed to be run like a business, with the money coming into the fund supporting the services going out. Ideally, then, the fee structure for the enterprise would support the activity of the enterprise, including the annual operations, maintenance, future improvements and creation of reserves.

Cape city voters will decide on Nov. 5 on whether to raise city water rates. This rate increase will apply to every clean water user in the city — residences, businesses, schools and medical clinics. The discussion with residents is the need for higher water rates to better fund our water system, to cover vital improvements needed at both the water treatment facility and in the distribution system throughout the city.

The city is able to make an initial outlay of $9 million in needed upgrades right away by using reserve funds. Phase 2 of improvements over the next eight years will cost $56 million, and will need these rate increases to assist in funding. Phase 3, beginning in 2032 and costing an additional $60 million, would continue needed improvements to the plant and in water mains throughout the city. Phase 3 will also need those increased water rate increases, as well as additional funding sources.

A fair question being asked is why we have to consider funding these improvements through higher water rates, instead of simply bonding the improvement costs. There are three answers to that question:

1. As I just explained, we as a city need to operate city enterprise funds and activities with better fiscal planning. Having the enterprise activities operate more within the means of the enterprise fund will create that, with long-term stability to the system as a result.

2. Cape’s water rates have been shown to be very low, and are not high enough to qualify for state or federal grants that might help in future funding. Various state and federal funding sources will always look to the locality first to ensure that local support is shoring up local services, and Cape is simply not providing that in local funding.

3. Given the city’s current debt load of $87 million, we simply do not have the capacity to take on enough additional debt to cover all the needed infrastructure costs in our water treatment system.

There will be much more information coming to residents in the next few months on this issue. The city is, of course, engaged in many more infrastructure projects and improvements, and I will share the progress the city is seeing in our various other departments at a later date. Here, I want to provide an update on public safety issues.

Public Safety in Cape

As I was running for the position of mayor here in 2022, I used a phrase over and over again to describe many different issues. It was, “We should not continue to do things here like we did them 30 years ago.” Nowhere is that phrase more pressing than in the issue of public safety. We are seeing trends in Cape that didn’t exist 30 years ago, and we as a city must adapt and respond accordingly.

The Cape Girardeau Fire Department (CGFD) has an important role to play in our city’s public safety. A few important highlights in that department include:

• The CGFD received a grant award of $111,000 from the Regional Homeland Security Oversight Committee, which includes equipment for the city’s Homeland Security Response Team, Dive Team and our interoperability communications vehicle.

• Together with the Gordonville Fire Protection District, the CGFD has been approved for an Assistance to Firefighters Grant for $94,500. This grant will be used to replace water delivery devices like hydrant valves, manifolds and supply hose.

• Currently the CGFD is hosting a Hazardous Materials Technician course, and eight of our members are going through that training. This will significantly aid our department in its ability to handle emergencies that could arise from the numerous hazardous materials traveling through Cape every day.

The CGFD is involved in many of the calls the Cape Girardeau Police Department (CGPD) goes on as well. In addition to utilizing new techniques and updated equipment to fight fires, our fire department must also be ready to assist in emergency health and safety issues that happen daily around the city. For these reasons, the general fund for FY25 dedicates 61.5% of total expenditures to public safety. It is the highest priority of our city’s operational budget.

Circling back to local trends, those involved in law enforcement in our city and region are increasingly seeing younger and younger males — boys even — committing crimes while using guns. It is the most concerning and dangerous shift in behavior in Cape, as well as around the country. Citizens and business owners alike are concerned about their safety, property and ability to live, work and go to school without fear and inhibition. For these reasons, the city and the CGPD are engaging in some new activities:

• Three new police dogs have been purchased. Two are replacing retired police dogs, and the third is a new gun detection dog. This detection dog will be used at events where firearms are not allowed, or at crime scenes that involve a firearm.

• New body-worn cameras will be used for all officers this year.

• Through the U.S. Department of Justice, the City of Cape was awarded a Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) grant that has helped place an officer downtown at the Salvation Army, and who will man the police substation being renovated on Good Hope Street.

• The Gun Violence Task Force has begun its work and will continue to meet throughout the fall. The first few meetings have brought a lot of data and discussion of trends from the CGPD, as well as from the judicial system. Upcoming meetings will involve discussions with the regional Juvenile Division and the Cape Public School District. It is an important first step in collaboration with community partners in addressing both the prevention and enforcement needs of impacting gun violence here.

• Cape’s Development Department has spent the past several months revamping and strengthening codes to rental ordinances, and these ideas will be presented to the city council soon for approval. Code violations and chronic nuisance issues involve CGPD officers every day. The city will use these strengthened codes to better address the problems in neighborhoods caused by negligent landlords, as well as renters, who are not dealing responsibly in rental and property standards.

• Beginning this year, the CGPD Co-Responder’s Unit will be funded entirely within the city’s annual budget, after three years of grant funding from the U.S. Department of Justice in partnership with the Community Counseling Center. This unit has shown a great deal of benefit not only to our citizens experiencing mental health crises but also to our police officers, who now have trained mental health experts assisting in interactions and cutting on-scene time. This is all proving to reduce jail time for those with mental health issues and has saved millions of dollars already in local health care expenses.

• Public safety officer salary issues persist, especially as the property tax initiative to raise those salaries did not pass in April. We in the city have heard specific concerns about that initiative, and are continuing discussion with the police and fire departments on moving forward with that issue. Competitive salaries are an essential piece of creating strong public safety here.

• Through the normal budget process, all city employees received a 3% raise in FY25. The city continues to look at ways to make the salary and benefits package better for our public safety officers.

The most essential component any community needs for success is safety. Without it, businesses will not invest, nor will its citizens — the community will not flourish. The City of Cape is engaged in recognizing new threats to our economy, infrastructure, and collective safety, and is taking steps to mitigate those threats before they become entrenched realities.

The intent of all this is to continue to be a welcoming city that provides hospitality and opportunity for all, while serving and protecting its citizens. The City of Cape has the same message to everyone — we welcome you, and we appreciate you being here. We have standards and opportunities that work toward the benefit of both you and the community at large. Despite new challenges, the city is working to enhance and grow those standards and opportunities.