The City of Columbia will spend $96,540 on an external engineering study about pedestrian safety near medians. After much discussion at Monday night's meeting, the city council voted 7-0 to enter the contract.
The street and intersection pedestrian safety study will be conducted by St. Louis-based George L. Crawford & Associates, Inc. The contractor will collect and analyze data and then present recommendations for improving pedestrian safety to the council in two to three months, according to a council memo. Those recommendations could then eventually influence future changes to ordinances and procedure about motor vehicle safety.
The Columbia Public Works department recommended contracting an external study, after they reported findings from their own pedestrian safety report at the Dec. 16, 2024 council meeting.
According to that report, between Jan. 2022 and Nov. 2024, 91 crashes within Columbia city limits involved pedestrians. Seven of those crashes were fatalities and 25 resulted in serious injury. A "majority" of the crashes also occurred along collector, arterial and highway roadways.
During Monday's meeting, multiple council members questioned the need and cost of the study.
"I'm trying to understand why we'd contract for data we've already contracted for in another place," said Ward 1 Councilmember Valerie Carroll.
In response to those concerns, Columbia Public Works Director Shane Creech said he currently doesn't have enough staff to gather and analyze all of the necessary data in a timely manner, and that he is currently short two traffic engineers.
"The best way I can make my staff bigger is by hiring a consultant to take a look at those things that would take us quite a bit longer to do," Creech said at Monday night's meeting.
Another concern brought up during the meeting was if the focus on panhandlers at medians was targeting homeless people instead of looking at pedestrian safety as a whole. This concern was also brought up during public comment.
“I think that this is a thinly veiled attempt to target homeless people, and it’s not about pedestrian safety,” said McKenzie Ortiz, the advocacy coordinator for nonprofit Local Motion.
The attached report documents in the Dec. 16 safety study did not specifically mention how many pedestrian crashes were at a median. A list of 14 service calls to Columbia Police Department regarding pedestrians in the median was the only part of the Dec. 2024 report that specifically mentioned pedestrians on medians.
Ward 6 Councilmember Betsy Peters was also on the fence about the need for the study and its focus.
"I do not know whether it's going to be helpful or not, because we know it's not a good idea to stand on a median," said Ward 6 Councilmember Betsy Peters. "So I'm not so sure we need to spend more money saying it's not a good idea to stand on the median."
Council eventually agreed that the study's findings would give them a more comprehensive look at pedestrian safety in Columbia, to then make more informed decisions about future traffic ordinances.
The $96,540 study will be funded by Capital Improvement Sales Tax funds.
2024 Financial audit
The city council was presented the fiscal year 2024 financial audit prepared by external auditors at Allen, Gibbs, Houlik, LC. The report investigated any discrepancies on how much money the city made and spent between Oct. 1, 2023 and Sept. 30, 2024.
The auditors said they "did not identify any significant unusual transactions" in the city's financials. However, they did find that one quarterly report was not filed, and three quarterly reports were filed late.
Overall, the city of Columbia received the best possible designation for financial management.
New hires
City Manager De'Carlon Seewood announced D'Markus Thomas-Brown has been hired to lead a newly created Office of Violence Prevention. Thomas-Brown is the regional director of Good Dads, a Missouri organization focused on fatherhood and is the Chaplain for the Columbia Police Department.
Paul Eisenstein was also installed as the city's Director of Economic Development at Monday's meeting. Eisenstein will serve as the President of the Regional Economic Development Inc.
Eisenstein previously worked at the Missouri Department of Economic Development for eight years, and had been serving as a senior director since 2023.
"I'm really excited to really focus on economic development at the local level," Eisenstein said after being sworn in at Monday's meeting. "We've got a ton of assets here in Columbia and in Boone County."
Lisa Meyer announces medical leave
Ward 2 Councilmember Lisa Meyer announced she will be on medical leave starting April for her breast cancer diagnosis.
According to previous reporting by the Columbia Missourian, Meyer previously was also diagnosed with a rare head and neck cancer in 2009. She beat that cancer later that year.
