About 30 Maplewood residents met Monday evening to talk about funds the city is due to receive (annually) following the passage of Proposition P in St. Louis County.
Maplewood is set to receive about $400,000 as a result of the tax, intended to go toward policing and public safety.
A group called Maplewood Community Builders sponsored the community meeting at the Focal Point to discuss what the money should go toward; accountability and transparency turned out to be part of the discussion as well.
Maplewood Mayor Barry Greenberg said after the meeting, “We had a lot of concerned citizens that want to have transparency and want to make sure there’s accurate over-site with the money that’s coming out of Proposition P.”
In addition to Greenberg, council members Shawn Faulkingham, Jenny Schmidt and Ray Crader; and Police Chief Steven Kruse were there.
“I think everyone felt pretty comfortable that the process needs to be transparent, but that we still need to have these discussions and make sure everyone gets heard, and if there’s innovative ideas with regards as to how that money can be used, we want to hear about it,” Greenberg said. “That’s why there was such a representation from the city government, because we do want to hear what’s going on.”
Police Chief Kruse said he’d like to use the funds to hire two more officers.
Some at the meeting said they wanted better police officer education, including diversity training. Chief Kruse responded that the department is already very diverse, and that the department has the international CALEA accreditation.
Some said the city staff needs to be more accessible, and suggested open office hours.
The group plans to poll residents on the issue in a door-to-door survey in December and January, then hold another community meeting in February, and in mid-March to share the results of the survey and meet with city officials for the budget process.
