City Council - Regular Meeting

Mayor,

she's [clears throat] gone. She said good. Good evening. I'd like to call our meeting to order. If you join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [snorts] [clears throat]

Would you join me in prayer, please? Heavenly Father, we come before you tonight and we ask for wisdom and and peace and serenity. Uh seems as we're always gathering knowledge here, Father, but give us the wisdom to use that knowledge correctly and help us to make wise decisions for the benefit of our citizens. And we just ask this all in the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. With that, we will start by reviewing our minutes from December 15, 2025. Council,

I move for the approval of the minutes of December 15, 2025. Second. Got a motion and a couple seconds. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Let's move down to our appropriation ordinance number 12A and 12B. I'll make a motion to consider approval of the appropriation ordinance number 12A dated December 17, 2025 and 12B dated December 28th, 2025. Second. Got a motion and a second to approve those ordinances. All those in favor say I.

I.

Any opposed? Motion carries. Now I'm going to ask Mr. Jeff Brown to meet me over at the podium. [snorts] [clears throat] So Mr. Brown didn't run for reelection and this is his last official act on the city council to approve the minutes and the ordinance that he was part of and he's stepping down and going away now. So Jeff, I want to thank you for your dedication and your service to our community. Uh, it's been awesome learning from you and getting to know you.

No. And, uh, you you can come back in two years. Okay. I appreciate it. I appreciate it. I plan ON [applause]

I plan on complaining about the taxes for the last four years, but [laughter] I'll let you guys have that have it off. But I I I do real quick. I'll say a couple things. I appreciate, you know, I was one of those guys that I'm not a social media guy, but I like to complain in the background and I got a real good understanding what you guys go through over the last four years. It is not easy making decisions because you're going to make 50% of the people upset and 50% of the people happy every single time. So, all you new people, it's a blessing to see this many people come and sign up for this city because we got a good city and this is how many people should be running for election every year. But uh you are going to get your eyes open because it is it is a tough job and it's very important job that you're doing and just do the best you can and you make a decision based on what you think, not what somebody else tells you to think unless they're in your ward. Listen to the people in your ward because that's your job. You're here to represent them and just make sure you do that and you're going to be okay. And like I said, we got a great council. I really these guys get beat up every day. They're you are bad people all the time I see on Facebook. But uh you guys do a good job and I appreciate

I've already blocked your numbers. I have zero doubt. [laughter] Phone bells are coming, guys. But no, I thank you all and I'm glad to see so many people. I think the city should be proud. I don't know if they can see who's in this audience, but they should be proud this many people showed up tonight to run for these two seats, which is what we should have every time. So, thank you, Jeff. Yep. Thank you, Jeff.

And unfortunately, he has all our private phone numbers and emails. So, if he if he wants to complain, he will get to us. [clears throat] Okay. With that, this is the part where we uh ask that if there's any visitors here that are here about something that is not already on the agenda. And if you wanted to speak, this would be the time to do that. I don't see anybody moving. So, now we will go to our first order of business, which is the election of the new council members for wards one and four. So, our city manager is going to explain what we're doing tonight. Go ahead.

All right. Everybody got a notepad? There's there's steps to this process. [clears throat]

All right. I'm gonna gonna pull this up. So, the the situation that you are in tonight, it's a little bit different than uh this meeting that we normally have following an election where uh normally you would have someone elected in and they would be taking their oath of office and taking their seat tonight. In this case, uh you had a resignation at a prior meeting which created a vacancy and then the uh the person that ran for the other ward during the election ended up moving during that process out of that ward uh which made them ineligible for the seat that they were ultimately elected to. So in speaking with the city attorney um what you end up with at this meeting then is a vacancy in that seat as well. So, the uh the vacancy process is actually spelled out in your code of ordinances and that's in section 1-207. And basically what it says is at our next available meeting a an election will [clears throat] be held amongst the remaining council members. And uh if you can reach a uh a majority of the remaining council members, then you're able to make an appointment. If after being pulled three times, [clears throat] the council is not able to reach a majority, then the mayor will make an appointment to fill those [clears throat] vacancies. Okay. So, that's that's the basic vacancy process. One of the things we looked up today was just verifying the number count that [clears throat] is required because um Councilman Maher was unable to attend tonight. So, we have five city council members. Again, your governing body is nine, but the governing body consists of eight council members and one mayor, and the mayor doesn't vote unless he's breaking ties. Your code says it must be a majority of the remaining council

members. Technically, there are six remaining council members, one of whom is not here tonight. Uh what that means is you require at least four people voting in favor of one of the applicants and to move them forward. You cannot get by with a simple majority. You cannot have a 3-2. You have to have at least a 4-1 in order for someone to get appointed. Now, a few weeks back, once we knew the uh the vacancies were going to occur, we [clears throat] put a notice out on social media on the city's website uh to solicit applications. You received applications from 12 folks who were interested. Their packets of materials were provided to council and included in the agenda packet for tonight. One of those individuals contacted me today and notified me they were withdrawing their name from consideration and that person was Gage. I've already marked them out on my list uh up here. Um but in ward one you do actually have four applications. In ward four you have seven applications. I I spoke to the mayor today because a outside of holding an election at your next meeting, you don't have any law or adopted practice that determines how do you handle this many candidates and how do how do you guys proceed with uh moving your motions forward. So technically it's kind of at your will and the mayor presides over the meeting. So, I spoke with him to ask if we wanted to have any kind of procedure, if you wanted it completely open-ended. And what we came up with to try to have some kind of fair process for the candidates um was uh once I turn it back over to you and I'm done with staff report, uh we asked each of you to come up with maybe one or two questions. Um, and then we were going to put those questions on a list here tonight. And to make sure

all the candidates kind of got equal time, the mayor was going to select two of those questions from that list. And then if the candidates choose, they're able to come up and and speak at the podium and just do their introduction, [clears throat]

um, introduce themselves to the community and, uh, and answer those two questions that the council has asked. And then that way everybody has the same opportunity. uh they get asked the same question, they get to share that information, then you all can make your decisions from there. Um so that was the process we came up with. Again, we don't have anything that [clears throat] spells this out. We're just trying to figure out how do you consider 11 or 12 people at the same time and give them equal time in in uh in uh your consideration. So that's what we came up with. So, what I'd like to ask council, um, what I'm going to do is if you came up with any questions that you would like to be considered, I'm going to throw them up here, uh, on the screen and then the mayor will be able to pick two questions from that that we'll ask from everybody and then, uh, what the mayor and I talked about doing was after the questions are up there, take a five minute recess and then that gives everybody time to to process what they might want to say or if they want to come up and and speak to you all. Uh, so I already got uh two of them that were sent to me. Does anyone else have a question that you would like to be placed up here on the list for consideration? I think you already said it. You know, what is our most challenging subject that we face as a city? I don't know if ch subject is the right word, but issue. Yeah. Thank you. We'll say in your opinion.

Yeah, in your opinion. Yeah. Is there anything else you'd like to add? Edwin, what is the what is your vision for increasing the number of homes and businesses in Augusta? [clears throat]

Any others? I'll open a can of worms. Is there any way any ideas on how to lower our taxes? [laughter] That's a can of worms that could take forever. Sorry about that. But [clears throat and laughter] I'm Xing that one out. Okay. [snorts] Council, you have to be happy with the list. I'm always the guy. You have any others? [clears throat] Anybody else? Bob, you got anything? I'm fine. I'm good with what's up there.

[clears throat]

Okay, mayor. What's your prerogative? [clears throat] I like number one and Let's go with number three. I knew it. One and three. All right. So, um, if I can just give a little feedback to the candidates. This isn't a test there. There's not a right and wrong answer. Don't don't don't feel overly pressured to it. Um, I I think it's just to maybe give you a frame of reference, take time to introduce yourselves. Um, tell a little bit about your story and then touch on these as you can and then council if you feel like you need them to go deeper than um, you can do that. But, um, you don't have any background with us. We're all kind of learning each other. So, don't feel overly pressured. We didn't have a big process laid out for how this was going to happen. So, just uh, that would be my encouragement. Take your time. Don't be nervous. just just share a little bit about yourself and your thoughts about the city and answering these. So,

yeah. Um, and mayor, we you had talked about maybe just doing about three minutes just so it's it's not a lengthy answer. It's a short introduction of you to to the community and uh if you'd like to, mayor, the other [clears throat] thing we talked about was doing a quick recess, maybe like five minutes right now, just let everybody process the question and decide if they want to come up and speak. Okay, we need a motion to recess or or do can I just do that? Yeah, but I just did it before. We will take a five minute recess. Should they do it as a motion to do a rec? I feel like there should be a motion. Can we do it as a motion? I feel like that should be a motion. I make a motion to take a three minute five minute recess. Second. Thank you.

Got a motion and a second to take a fivem minute recess. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Back at 7:17 7:17 718 We should be back.

[clears throat] [snorts]

Mr. Mayor, I'll make a motion to return from recess. Second. [clears throat] Got a motion and a second to return from recess. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. So, I'd like to start with the Ward One candidates. If there's any of you that want to come up to the podium, we will have a threeminut time limit just for the sake of being able to get through all of all of this tonight.

Good evening. I brought my little notes in case I forgot something, but I think I know my name. So, we'll start with um greetings to the mayor Rawlings and the city council members and staff and all the visitors tonight. Um I'm honored to be here actually. My name is Christina Langanger, also known by as Chris. I live at 1012 Lulu Street in here in [clears throat] Augusta. Uh my husband and I lived there for 42 years. So, we I was very young when I moved here, just so you know. [clears throat and laughter] But um first I want to talk real quickly about why we moved here because I think it builds into the questions that are um on the on the the chart there. So we um we we were raised in Witchaw, my husband and I. Uh that was our plan for our children. Um that plan did not work out once our kids started school. Witchaw was going through a lot of restructure. politics, class sizes were being blown out of proportion and it was really starting to affect our kids even though they were only in kindergarten or second grade. And so our intent was to go find another um alternative for schools, affordable housing. Uh our the church that we attended was here and so we pursued Augusta. Uh that was in 1995 and [snorts] so um 1998 the flood hit. Uh we were very much in the middle of that. Lost 70% of our home. Um but I will tell you that what kept us here was the community. We had people show up at our door from the city, from the churches, from people that we didn't know that brought us food and necessities as we worked to rebuild our homes because we did most of that ourselves. And that is what kept us here. So to look broader at what's happened since then, I think I'm very proud of Augusta. I I will say, and this is a dirty word, but years ago,

some of my co-workers at Boeing would um often refer to it as disgusta. And I thought that was awful. It was awful. And I thought, if that's our image, we've got to change that. And I think it was just a running joke, but at some point I would tell people I don't want to hear that word. That's that's where I live. That's my home. That's where we're raising our kids. So I don't hear that anymore. And I don't know why. I don't know if that's because of all the changes that have occurred. I think it's a cool town. I'm very proud of it. I think our downtown area is very hip. Um you go and look at other small towns and they're not always in the same place that we are. So, I also know that growth is absolutely the the priority. You all have tons of priorities. I don't I uh I don't know how you get through them without unless you just do a lot of discernment and a lot of valid data. That that would be the only way I could do it. That's what I've done in my previous roles. So, my thought around moving the city forward without sacrificing services. I really think that um communication is the key. And when I say that, I think there's a lot of residents here that do not know the services that Augusta has. And I know that there's information on the websites and all sorts of social media, but it doesn't always catch fire. And the reason I say that is I'm on a couple of the community pages. I watch to see what's posted on there. And there are a lot of people that ask questions about resources that it should be obvious to them. They've lived here for a while. They should know where they are. someone always responds and says, you know, gives them the answer. So my in my mind, I think we need some marketing. I don't mean anything major and I don't mean electronic billboards, but I think wayfinding for people is very important in the city. You know, if you want somebody to go see the lights in the

park, the signs are everywhere. They know where to go see the holiday lights, right? Do they know where to go? Am I at three minutes? Oh wow. Okay. Well, um, most challenging I think is the same. So, I will close here and I just want to say thank you for your time and good luck on your vote and good luck to the other the other attending here for the council seats. Thanks. Thank you. Thanks, Chris. Yeah, sorry. I didn't want to cut anybody off [clears throat] midsentence. So, do do you want us do you want to hear the alarm? Do you want to give people a chance to wrap up their final thought? How would you like us to cue that? Well, let's hear the alarm and let them wrap up their final thoughts.

Okay, sounds good. Appreciate it. Thank you.

Anybody else from Ward One want to speak? All right. Hi everybody. Matt Ladder, 1018 O Sage. Um family and I we moved here 8 years ago from California. Spent about four years California, two years prior to that in the St. Louis area. So been around a lot of different governments, local governments. Uh got to see how a lot of things kind of work, don't work at a much larger scale, if you will. Augusta is great. Augusta has great leadership. I think what's interesting about these questions here is really what's your plan to move forward without sacrificing services. I was spent some time over the holidays. What I was looking at was, is our city council even right sized for this size of city? Should we be bigger? Should we be smaller? How do we really benchmark oursel against everybody else? I think that's step one, making sure we're comfortable with that. If we were to have the city council size, just throwing it out there. Don't want that to happen since I'm running. Uh, you know, you got to think about it right off the bat. It is a hardline savings. It isn't a lot of money. You guys aren't getting rich up here. I know that. But it does show that we are starting to figure out how to peel back layers of that onion and start to save some money. So I think it starts there. Then we start moving into the departments. Can some of the departments be managed somewhat with contractors versus actual employees? Probably done some of that analysis. If not, that'd be something you'd want to look into. Is there a cost savings doing that without sacrificing, you know, basically all your services? [snorts] Challenging issue. It's just cost. It's taxes. Everybody knows that everything costs more every year. I mean, Jake Maher said that, you know, a few meetings ago, and he's right. It does cost more. What do you do about that? How do we start looking at some of the big things we have like the Augusta airport? Is it making enough money? Why do we have an airport? You know, it's always been my first question. 99.9% of people don't fly out of it if it, you know, you have a budget of 500,000 a

year, bring 300,000 in revenue, that's 200,000 left to the taxpayers to cover. How do you get ahead of things like that? So, I think it's really starting to dig into each of your big buckets, really understanding what else you can do differently, and maybe look at it from a different lens. That's all I add. Thanks. Thanks, Matt. [clears throat]

Thank you, ma'am. Anybody else from W one? Okay, let's move to the W four candidates.

Are we going in the order listed there? You want to speak? If we could go in that order, if that would make it simpler. My name is Jack Dixon. I live at 2823 Stony Brook Lane and I've been a resident here in Augusta for 10 years. Prior to that, I have lived in about 15 different cities of various sizes all the way from New York City to Potwan, Kansas. and I have uh had the chance to experience government that works and government that doesn't work. And part of what makes government work, at least in my opinion, as someone that's been involved in many of the communities where I've resided, is a vision. And I have enjoyed and particularly been excited about the vision for Augusta. I think you all have created an atmosphere that we understand, an atmosphere that involves building around a part of the community. And I'm talking about the downtown area. And uh as I watch that area build and grow, I see different events take place there. But what I am hoping for is that we can create ways to renew those events and and to encourage those events so that they become part of a tradition and part of a history because I think that's part of what makes a community truly a great place to live. How do we move the city forward without sacrificing any services? I think just to that I think we continue the vision and we do everything we can to create that in that vision something that everyone in the community can rally around. When I worked for J Penney I was responsible for helping to start a brand that maybe some have heard of. It's

called the original Arizona Jean Company. And one of the merchants that I was working with told me that everything we do has to send a signal. And that's a part of what I think we can do to move our community forward without sacrificing services is to be so very focused on the services that we do off offer that we create something that is bigger than any one of those services. Something that perpetuates an identity for our community. And I think people will come to a community with that kind of an identity. the most challenging issue we face here in Augusta, Kansas. I think um when I came to uh Augusta, I had three nephews that were born here and they asked me growing up in Elorado, Kansas, they said, "What was it like to grow up in Elorado with a rivalry between us and Augusta?" I graduated from Elorado High School in 1973. And I told the kids we didn't have a rivalry with Augusta, Kansas. Augusta, Kansas was 2A school, I think, at that time, but we didn't play them in sports. And today, not only do we play them, but we kind of bury our heads and cower when we have to come up against them. It is something that has happened in our community that we have grown and that we have stepped forward and that we have been on the cusp of of truly some great things. And I think we are on that cusp once again. It's wonderful to be a part of Augusta and even if I have to acknowledge and accept a defeat uh for my Wildcats just every once in a while, I'm more than happy to do that. So, thank you all for your time and I look forward to uh to hearing from some of the other candidates for council.

Thank you. Thank you, J.

[clears throat]

Mayor, Council, thanks for an opportunity to be here. Um, my name is Daniel Jackson. I live at 2719 Danberry Road. Um, I've spent my entire adult life, my entire career working in some sort of law enforcement between correctional facilities. I currently work for the S County Sheriff's Office in role of a detective. Um what prompted me to be here is an opportunity. Um I've had completed a leadership butler. Um I've had the opportunities to be bosses, be in roles that were made decisions. And being a part of a team is what's probably the most exciting thing to me. And I'm not even going to act like I know what city government does, but I think that I'm would be excited to learn about it and to be able to play a role and work as a team. um moving plan to move with the city forward with sacrificing s without sacrificing services. I think first and foremost would be have an understanding of what services we have, identify core services versus what can be um messed around with whether it's for saving money or whatever and protecting those core services. Um meeting the needs of the community through those services and kind of doing that while being fiscally smart and having open communication with the comm with the community um and work as a team to protect those services. I don't think any massive change I'm not don't have a vision of coming in here and making massive changes. I think the key to accomplish the same goal, get your team on board and make those decisions small, implement decisions um again while being financially um fiscally smart and um keeping everybody informed and obviously I'm also part of social media, see the things on taxes are the biggest

complaint about the city. Um how do you fix it? The key is you can't fix it. You have to be open and you have to show that you're being financially smart, [clears throat] fiscally smart, and try to improve it where you can. And I think any ounce of improvement um or effort kind of leads the city to believe that um you're trying. And as long as the folks out there know that we try, then I think we're doing the best thing we can. Um, in personal visions, everything you do is in leadership, you have to have a vision and you have to be willing to understand the vision of the entity you're working for and kind of line that up to ensure that your personal vision meets the vision of the needs. Um, and transparency, honesty, and uh, keeping everybody informed. So, again, I don't want to take some of your guys' time, but I do appreciate the opportunity to get up here and to speak. So, thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank [clears throat] you.

Kurt Lind here.

If you would speak into the microphone just so the people at home can hear you also.

Okay. Uh Alan Riny. Uh I live at Fort Flanigan Drive in the Nebler edition. um moved here 5 years ago. Um moved here with family. My daughter moved here, married from Augusta and I enjoy the city here. Um I am on the board of the Nebler edition. Um I did serve in Simmeron, Kansas before I moved up here for 12 years on the city council. uh know a lot about mill levy, building mill levies and uh also helping going out to get grants to help on funding for streets, funding for sidewalks to schools, funding for uh airports to help save uh the taxpayer dollars, you know, so we can get them grants and we don't have to spend as much money to repair these kind of things. Um, that's that's my thing with sacrificing services. Uh, we shouldn't have to sacrifice, but sometimes you have to sacrifice, but the best way to try to keep from losing something um is to go out and maybe there is a grant or something that can help us try to uh do what we want to do in this this city and uh make it a better place. Um, challenges is always going to be the mill levy. Um, I dealt with it for 12 years and it it's up and down all the time. Um, so it's it's working together as a team of council members to try to please the city. You're not always going to please them. I I know that. Um, but I was on for 12 years and I really didn't have anybody that tried to uh run me over. So, uh, but like I said, I I I moved here. This is a beautiful city. Um, there's so much so many things to do

here for the kids. Uh, I have four grandkids that live here. Um, love watching them grow up here. So, I just uh I really don't have any gripes. I just seen it come open and it says why not? I want to be a servant to the city. So that's why I'm here. So thank you for your time and [clears throat] thank you. Look forward to work with you guys. Thank you. [clears throat]

Good evening. I'm Allison Whitey. I live at 610 Stonegate Circle. Um I'm here to express my interest in being appointed to serve on the council. I have lived in Augusta my entire life. Graduated from Augusta High School and um attended all schooling throughout my elementary and middle school years here. Um so I would consider it an honor to serve the city that has served me for so long. I appreciate the time and consideration you're giving the process. Um I know that selecting someone probably took a lot of time off your plate reading through resumes and going through um to responsibly pick the person that has the best interest of our city at heart. Um, I bring a family focused leadership perspective. I feel like, uh, something that is unique about me is I'm still going to playgrounds on the weekends, um, and talking to the young families on the playgrounds and talking about what they're looking for in housing. And a lot of those families don't actually live here right now because our parks bring them here. Um, but then they're like, "This is such a great city. It's really hard to find a house to live here." And so that kind of feedback, bringing it to the council, um, and just keeping that in mind of bringing those young families into Augusta and how we can do those things. Um, because the needs and priorities of those families will be the future of the needs and priorities of Augusta. When we think about how we're going to approach those decision decisions, um, we can ask how they affect daily life and how they shape or will shape the city that our children and grandchildren will inherit one day. Um, if appointed, I'll be collaborative, accessessible, practical member. I'm not looking to come in and disrupt what's the council's already doing, but rather contribute to the hard work that I already know all of you have done. Um, I've been sitting in on the meetings lately, and I've seen the collaboration that you're doing with the builders that want into town. You're eagerly wanting them to come in and build new rooftops and I think that's really what we need for our city to grow. um

at the questions on the board. I used to teach for quite a while and um I wrote a lot of grants in my life of teaching because sometimes when you're dealing with budgets from the government, it's really hard to find the money for the things that you actually need the money for. Um so we would write grants and a lot of times we would get things for our schools that we needed that we couldn't find the money for otherwise without sacrificing those services. And I know that there's grants available to cities for things like sidewalks and parks and um bettering downtowns and things like that. So I think one way that you could move the city forward without sacrificing services is to look for those grants and then incentives that are already being offered to cities that just need an application filled out. Um they can be a little bit like waiting through the weeds to fill out grant applications, but once it's done um a lot of things will be I think granted. Um, as far as the second question, our biggest challenge, um, I think the growth of the population and the age of the population is a big challenge right now. We're wanting to grow with those young families. We have an aging population where a large group of our families right now are older. Um, don't have kids in school anymore. Um, so to move in new families that have a younger population [clears throat] base, you know, when we're closing a school, it's not a great temperature of how healthy our city is. So to bring in those families, I think would be one thing that we could do. Anyways, thanks for your time. Um, and you're considering I would consider an honor and a privilege to serve alongside you on the city council.

Thank you.

Mayor and Council, thank you for having me here tonight. My name is Kimberly Williams. I go by Kim. I live at 2406 Pimrook Court. My husband and I [clears throat] bought that house um many years ago. It was one of the second houses built out there. We've been at that location for 27 years, but I'm a lifelong resident of Augusta. I've been here all my life and love Augusta. Um I teach I have taught in different districts. I taught in Lyon. I've taught in Augusta. and I currently teach in Witchah, but I have chosen never to move to Witchah because I like the community feel that I have that I can come back and it's just a nice calm community to be in. I do have my master's degree in curriculum and instruction and I recently completed my master's degree in leadership and so I feel like this is a great opportunity for me to help build on that leadership degree and continue to improve myself. Um, moving forward as a community, um, I think we need to maybe look more at some more family things to do. I feel like we have things for the younger kids and things for adults, but there's kind of a group in there with the teenagers that really don't have a whole lot of things that they could do. So, maybe focus on that. Um, I do believe we need to be very transparent with the community and I do feel like there needs to be a better way of communicating because I only found out about this from hearsay because I'm not always on social media and so I know we used to have a TV channel that had things. If we could get something again that would help people find, excuse me, find that information that would be great. Um, uh, looking at the most challenging issues. My husband's a firefighter, so I know that there's a lot of things with the public safety where they have some

issues up there of not having enough funding to get the police officers that they need and everyone they need to work on the shifts that they need. So, I know the budget there is kind of tight. Um, I also have seen the aging infrastructures in our community. Even just going into the bathroom here, I could see the aging of this building. And I remember as a kid coming in and going down the stairs to the utility office when I was young. So, and I have also noticed that in our community, we have a lot more of the homelessness in our community and maybe finding a way to help support those people or provide resources for them would be a great way. I do have a lot of experience in education. I've been teaching for 30 plus years. With that, I have done grant writing. I've done fundraising. Um, I found unique ways to get the funding for the things that I've wanted to do in my classroom. Um, I have also worked very hard towards my leadership degree and serving on different committees for those different opportunities. And I think that's all I have.

Thank you. Thanks. Thank you, Kim. [clears throat] [clears throat]

This isn't intimidating. Hi. Hello.

My name is Jodie Hefner. I live at 602 Stone Lake Circle and I [clears throat] am here for Ward 4 as an applicant for city council. Professionally, I am a retired RN. I worked for 25 years in the same emergency department in Las Vegas, Nevada. I learned to communicate calmly and collaborate well, frequently under pressure, and frequently without knowing all of the information available. I um [clears throat] also served as a community volunteer leader. I worked for a 501c u uh charity, Assisting Lives of Las Vegas. I spent two years serving as their co-chairperson for the thrift shop and one year as the thrift shop chairperson. During my tenure as the thrift shop chairperson, I increased financial income by approximately 40%. I do feel like my ability to lead and engage new member volunteers, engage citizens to come in and assist with the charity is one of my skill sets. I'm a cheerleader. You know, you wrote these questions up there and I'm thinking somebody said that's not a test and I'm thinking that is to a test. [laughter] I come to Augusta in August of 2025. So I no I haven't lived here for very long. But I will tell you that I am not new to Kansas. I was born and raised in Walkeini. [snorts] I graduated from Mry Mount College in

Salina. We then moved to Las Vegas, lived there for 40 years. We're back never seeing Augusta but one time and that was in 2023. I have a daughter and two grandchildren that live in El Dorado. We were here visiting, go on a road trip, come to Augusta. We have to go to the orange park. The kids were so excited about that downtown park. And I'll tell you what, Augusta and my first impression of Augusta is off the charts. You're talking about, well, you know, people complaining about taxes and I'm thinking, I can clearly see where my taxes are going and I want to live here. I want the benefits of what those taxes are buying. I have volunteered for the historical theater. I have volunteered for um Ignite Augusta. I am volunteering at the CA caring center. I attended a Go Augusta meeting. I attended a city council me meeting. I've got my library card and I certainly walked around the gym at the rec center. Augusta has so many things to offer and I can clearly see as a new member of this community what our taxes are paying for. If you want to complain about the taxes, you're not taking advantage of what we have. I kind of feel strongly about that actually. Time is up. Thank you for your consideration. I know I'm new. I have no private agenda. My only aim is to serve the city of Augusta to the best of my ability. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

That was easy. Council, [clears throat] let's move back to Ward one [cough] and try to uh appoint one of these candidates.

I I just want to put on the record I'm I don't really like this process because there's about I'd like to put chairs out here and get everybody who wants to serve up here. We're going to make some good candidates mad. I just I spend more than three minutes interviewing a server, you know, what we're going to do. But I understand time is of the essence. But anyway, I I just said my piece. That's all. [snorts] I guess it's coin flip. Uh I make a motion to uh elect Matt Lick Lick Lighter. Second.

Okay. I have a motion and a second for Matt Lick Lighter. And it's not personal. It's just I know where his views are. Ask for other ones. I want to make a motion for Chris Liner. Second that. Pardon? I'd second that. Okay, we have a motion and a second for Chris. First motion. So, [clears throat] do what? We will uh we might have to raise hands because there was too much. We're going to raise hands. Well, so Scott made a motion to a little bit. Elect Matt Llighter. Who was the second? Shane or Scott. Sean the other S. Everybody does that. [clears throat]

And then Mr. Richardson, who was it? You made a motion. Chris Langanger.

He made the second. Bob Bailey did the second. [cough] Okay. So, all those in favor of Matt, raise your hand. [snorts] Erica will count them. Okay. All those in favor of Chris Langanger. Okay, that's vote one. We'll do this again. All those in favor of Matt. Same through

four. We got four this time. One, two, four. Okay. So, that is it. So, welcome Matt. Does he come up? No. Okay.

So, at the next council meeting, we will swear Matt in and he will take the seat over here. Okay, ward four. [snorts] And [clears throat] I want to make a couple comments. I I've been on the council now for 25 years. We have never ever had anything like this. A few years ago, we had three candidates for Ward One for an appointment of a vacancy, and that was the first time we'd ever had anything like that. Uh, [clears throat] so this is very unusual and I'm excited that there's that many people wanting to take these jobs because in the past when it came time for elections, we were out beating on doors, going doortodoor asking people to run and nobody would run for the council. So, this is exciting and I want to thank you all for showing your interest. So, with that, I'll open the floor for nominations for uh Ward 4. I I could say I just want to say, you know, we have what, seven candidates now. It was just awesome as you as you pointed out. But the sad thing is is six of you won't make it right now. 2017 there'll be another vote. there'll be another election and stuff. So, please, please, please be a part of that and stuff. Don't don't give up on that and stuff. So,

yeah, please, please be a part of that. So, we appreciate that. But I echo what Keip just said, by the way, because look at this. Who would have thought, you know, and so and everybody's qualifying me. We're going to make somebody mad. Sorry, whoever it is, still eat up my place, please. [laughter] I'd like to nominate Allison Wedi. Second. There was a second

check. Any other nominations? Okay. I don't hear any other nominations. So, all those in favor of Allison Wedi, raise your hand. Okay. Allison, you are going to be our new council person. Once again, come 2017. 2027. And if they don't change the rules, you have to uh 27. Yeah. 20 2027.

2027. Yes. You have to declare before June 1st or by noon June 1st that you're going to run in November. And if we have more than two candidates for award, then we have a primary in August, I believe, or in September. So that's the way it works. And that catches people off guard because you have to declare so early in the year that you're going to run. So keep tuned. And if all of you that had suggestions would just email them to us, [clears throat] that would be awesome. Um, I would like to address the airport issue just while I've got you all here though. The airport is uh well, it's a special thing and we can't just get rid of it. If we were to try and divest it from our ownership, we would have to pay back the FAA millions and millions and millions of dollars that they've invested into that airport. So, that airport is ours for a long time. And so our best interests are to grow that airport and to make it make it make money. And that's what we've been trying to do for the last 2530 years. U if you want more answers on why we can't just get rid of it, you could email our city manager and he could send you some pages of answers to that. But the short the short answer is the FAA won't let us get rid of that and uh it has to go to

another government agency and Andover and Rose Hill don't want it and Butler County doesn't want it. So [clears throat] that's where we're at at this point in time. Um [snorts] and I once again I want to thank you all for coming and showing your interest in it. So yes. So with that, we need to move to our second item of business where we're going to talk about safe streets and roads for all of grant agreement. So staff,

yes. Uh, mayor and council, if you can remember back to April of 2024, it's been a long time uh, since we, uh, submitted our application for this grant program, but we received notice a while ago that our application was actually successful. And the way that the Safe Streets for All program works is it initially you have to apply for funding to do a an action plan. uh you're not able to jump straight to funding for construction projects. You're required to put together an action plan that lays out a scope of services for you addressing whatever your issues are. Could be uh traffic safety, could be pedestrian safety, um anything of that nature. And so the the funding that that we received or the grant award that we received, I believe, was $160,000. It does have a local match requirement. you budgeted for that match when we uh went after the grant. So, it's roughly a $200,000 project. Um we are a little bit late in the process in terms of actually getting this part done, but there there is a reason for that. Um transitions between the federal administrations. There are actually quite a few provisions in these grant agreements that change considerably. And the SSA4, sorry, the SS4A grant had a considerable amount of provisions that were tied to DEI and had a lot of requirements for local governments for your own uh policies, which you had to have in place in order to even um get to this part of the application. And what the administrators of the program told us was that with the new incoming administration, a lot of that was going to change. And so they recommended that we wait for a while um because uh some organizations that actually put that stuff in place because it was a federal requirement then got in trouble or had

to remove it because the federal requirements changed. So uh we just waited that out until the revised guidance was provided to us on the application. And so that that's why it's coming to you so much later than when we actually got the award. Um so uh we did have to put together a general scope and submit that to uh to the review people for this grant in order for them to authorize us to get to this point to uh bring this to you tonight. Uh but there is an attached grant agreement. uh everybody that has access to the packet online uh can go and read that that lays out the the funding levels and uh provides a general description of the project. If you authorize this uh the next step is for us to do a solicitation. So we will be doing a request for qualifications and that's where we put together a general scope of services of uh what we're hoping to achieve with the action plan and then we do a solicitation to engineering firms and they provide us their qualifications for delivering the project. So you're not bidding a specific scope and in fact cost is normally one of the things you're not allowed to take into consideration until the very end with these when you're doing a qualificationsbased selection. You're trying to find the best firm that has the most experience uh that is uh capable of delivering the uh the project and the scope that you have asked for and then the cost negotiations happen later. So that's a different sort of process than when you're uh then you're doing like a design build and getting into construction. In this case, you're just trying to find the most qualified firm to deliver your project. Um so again, uh the scope that we had prepared was approved uh by the folks that administered this program. Our assistant

city manager worked with them for quite some time going back and forth until they were willing to approve it. uh we've completed that application now and we're ready to present it uh for your consideration for acceptance of the grant agreement so we can move forward with the action plan. Um as you recall we've had a lot of discussion as a city about our needs for um safe streets for pedestrian infrastructure trying to understand how we can go about improving our sidewalks. The big the biggest reason um we decided to apply for this grant is because it opens us up to other grant funding opportunities for construction projects. We've already been fairly successful through other programs, but this opens us up to a whole world of other opportunities and you just have to go through the steps to gain access to that. And so we will start with this plan. It will coordinate and build off of our ADA transition plan. And then it'll expand out um into these street networks, really evaluate safety considerations um trying to focus on streets that serve not just pe sorry not just cars but pedestrians as well and trying to help us uh plan out our network and then prioritize the types of projects that you want your funding to go towards. So um it's been a while since we applied for this. Just wanted to provide a little bit of background why it's taken so long to get to this point, but we are ready tonight if council is to proceed with the grant agreement for the SS4A program. With that, I'll stand for any questions you may have. [laughter] Council, [clears throat]

I move for the approval of the Safe Streets and Roads for All grant agreement with the US Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, and authorize the city manager to execute all associated documents on behalf of the city of Augusta. Second. Got a motion and a second. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? [clears throat] Motion carries. Item number three, cereal malt beverage license renewals Augusta Arts Council staff.

Mayor and council, after our last meeting, I did receive the license renewal from the Augusta Arts Council. Um I staff is making the recommendation that any approval be contingent upon the applicant receiving the CMBB stamp, which I did call the state of Kansas and they have issued the stamp and have mailed it. They actually mailed it the same day I received the application. So, I just have not received that from the arts council. Um, but I still need to receive that. Also, they have not paid their license fee and um because of the holiday, I think we had a little bit of a slowdown with getting the background check. Um, I did verify that everyone on the check this year is the same people that were on the renewal last year. So, we didn't have any problems last year, but I would add to that that it'd be contingent on receiving the CNB stamp, the license fee, and a clear background check if there's any approval. The other option would be to table this and wait until those things are received, but they would not be able to serve in the interm until they receive that license. So, and we still have one applicant from the last round that has not submitted all the documentation and so they they're not currently licensed either, but as soon as I get their stamp from the state, then I will issue it. With that, I turn it over for any questions. May I make a motion to approve the 2026 malt beverage license renewal for the Augusta Arts Council contingent upon the applicant receiving the CNB stamp and the state of Kansas and submitting the license fee and background checks.

Second. Got a motion and a second. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Okay, that moves us down to matters from and for council. So Josh, I you have

Yes. Mayor and Council, real quick one. Um we do need to schedule our annual public building commission meeting. And uh just a a quick note, our next council meeting is going to be on Tuesday, January 20th. So, when you see uh the scheduling of the public building commission, historically, since we don't have any action items except approving the minutes, uh we've scheduled that 15 minutes in advance of that other meeting. So, you don't have to schedule another day for you to show up in this room. So, uh both of our announcements or our matters for from tonight are related to January 20th, which will be the Tuesday u because we are off for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, but then also asking council to schedule your public building commission meeting.

Who are the members on the public on the commission? All of you. All of us. [clears throat] And I run the meeting. Who was the president? Me. You. Okay. All right. I just wanted to make sure it wasn't Jeff. Yeah. Yeah. And so I mean real quick for council, anyone at home, public building commission is a mechanism that some cities use when they uh issue bonds specifically for construction projects. In our case, uh we utilized it for bonds, I think related to the hospital back in the day and maybe a few other [snorts] point

uh Cottonwood Point, the assisted living center. So, it's been it's been used for a couple of things, but all of the the bonds and projects that were originally tied to that public building commission have been paid off or um essentially expired. And so, there are no action items. There's been nothing on that agenda for years, but our bond council has recommended that you keep the commission alive in case you ever want to use that tool in the future. So, if anyone's curious what that is, that that's what it's about. Uh but but this governing body sits as that body as well, but technically it's a it's a different body.

Council, we need a motion. Motion to approve the city council's or schedule for the annual public building commission meeting for our next meeting, which will be on Tuesday, January 20th at 6:45 p.m. in council chambers. Second. Got a motion, a second. All those in favor say I. [clears throat] Any opposed? Motion carries. Does that cover both needs? Yes. Okay. Okay. Mr. Martin, you got anything tonight? I had somebody call me this week about some of the lights that are downtown not working at night. the the house burn out

front of Mark's building and uh just 500 block. I didn't take a count of them, but I just thought I'd make the Yeah, I saw a couple out the other. I don't have anything else, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. Thank you, Bob. That's all I had. The same thing. Okay. I just want to say thank you for everybody who came out tonight to Yes. to try to uh make a difference in our town. Boy, that's a lot of great candidates out there and I just want to thank you. I don't have anything. Thank you.

I just have one. Um Josh, I know they filled some potholes up on August Dearborn this summer. There's a couple more that are [clears throat] peeking through. Augusta and Dearborn. Mhm. Yeah, that intersection's taking a beating. Yeah. Um, I think if we can get them filled before the first snow, that probably would help us out. That's it.

I have a question. The sidewalk [clears throat] repairs that we're doing downtown and around, are they part of that ADA 5,000 page report that we're working on as well? This do they tie into that? Yeah, I mean any any sidewalk you do in town is going to tie into that that transition plan because that you know that guy said we needed to start making some inroads on that.

Um so there there's a not not all of them are so some of them are curb and gutter related as well but it's all concrete work and it's all in the area. So costwise doing all of that as separate small projects is about the most inefficient way for us to go about it. Uh so because we ran shy or we ran under budget on some other construction projects this year, um council has talked about prioritizing in the past trying to make it make sure that the downtown area looks as good as possible. Um so we put together a combination of sidewalk repairs if curb and gutter that's been broken. Um semi-truckss drive over the curbs all the time and smash them to pieces. And we've done different sort of like surface level repairs over the years, but they always end up looking terrible after a short period [clears throat] of time. So, uh these were full scale uh repores um to address those areas. Also address sidewalks and some tripping hazards and other things like that. So,

yeah, yes and no depending on which portion of the project they were working on. Well, I just I just thought it was good that we're checking a box here and there on that report. There there's a lot of boxes in that report. Yes, there were a lot. [snorts] Okay. Mayor make a motion to recess in executive session for 30 minutes to discuss an individual employees performance to conduct the city manager's annual evaluation pursuant to non-elected personnel matter exception KSA75-4319B1. I ask the city manager Josh Shaw join the council executive session and we will return back in the chamber at 8:49 or 4:41 p.m.

Second. Got a motion and a second. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. We will adjourn to a different room if you guys want to stick around all that time. [clears throat]

Action was taken. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Mr. Mayor will make a motion to um extend the city manager's contract through the year 2029. Second. Got a motion and a second to extend our city manager's contract through the year 2029. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Mr. Mayor, make a motion to increase the city manager's uh raise by giving him or his income by giving him 38% increase. Second.

We have a motion to raise our city manager salary by 3%. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. And Mr. Mayor, I'll make a motion to leave this meeting. Second. Got a motion and a second to leave our meeting and call it a good night. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? You can stay and lock the door. I said where there was no action taken, but there was action taken. You can't take action in that. Oh, okay. We don't take action. Oh, gotcha. I got you. T of