City Council - Special Meeting

Booth selling suntan lotion this weekend. What'd you say? Booth selling suntan lotion. That may make the biggest profit. Sunscreen, sorry.

Yeah, yeah. Sunscreen, yeah. That would be nice. Yep. Yeah, it's going to be toasty. But... We're going to have a lot of those little cooling stations.

But they... events have been coming since nineteen ninety-nine so it wouldn't be the first what's going on you know that it has been working out there and i don't think so i don't think i don't think i don't think i don't think i don't think i don't think i don't think i don't think i don't think i don't think i don't think i don't think We got instructions.

They poured my concrete yesterday.

Oh, you can see it.

Looks like hell.

Oh.

So I really don't even see it.

Looks like hell.

Oh, my god.

Because of the heat? Yep.

Dried too fast? It's crumbly, not flat, couldn't even brush at all. I don't know.

I mean, talks with QSI right now. Who did the contract? Cue aside. Everything else has been great.

One, I contacted him and said, I prefer you not to do it because it's hot. They're like, it'll be fine. They decided to just do it anyway.

And it's colored concrete. And it didn't help when they were pouring it. These balls of things came out, and they were throwing them in the middle and stepping on them. They looked like balls of coloring.

Oh.

So they thought it'd mix on the way to your house. Well, normally they do. So here's the thing. And it's the same company that provided the concrete that my son had his driveway done, which they did coloring.

Concrete. Oh, yeah, that's what I was asking. Who did the contract for the concrete?

Oh, gee.

Somebody out of Lawrence.

Someone out of Lawrence provided the concrete. QSI's got a contractor for doing the work. But so on my son's job, what they did was that the guy doing the work, he went and got the die. When the truck showed up, they jumped up there and poured it in, you know, the number of bags they needed and stuff. Well, this comes from the concrete. This group did it where they do it at the concrete, you know, factory. And they do it. And from the looks of it, they threw the bags, paper, and all in and just assumed it would dissolve. So, yeah.

It did not. Rick was active. It was Al Warren's...

MCM, is that the one? Is that like yellow?

Yeah, yellow. Bright yellow. Nice. Round up.

Oh, thanks, Zach. Appreciate it. I'm going to be giving some of those to the fire department to help all the people with heat stroke.

No, we're going to try to help with that. I'm going to be standing by the cooling fans and the misting fans. We put Jay's swamp cooler in the old fire station to make that a kind of cooling area. Are they opening up the old fire station? Yeah, that's where the pike hunt is going to be. And then when that's not happening, there's tables and chairs so people can go in there. I'm excited about that.

That's good to provide that.

Yeah.

I get a good idea every once a year.

You're done.

You're good until next year? Yeah. Well, I saw the pool was down. I thought you meant that.

You took it down too early. Yeah, I'm a little upset about that whole situation. I have a few more weeks left.

So welcome to the webinar. But as you may have seen, people search too small for people. Uh-huh. So we're going to empty it out, and we're going to take some pictures, and I'm just going to put it out there. If anybody wants it for free, they can have it, because it's still working.

Yeah.

And he just went ahead. I don't know. I don't know. Anyway, when it took it all down, I go, so did you, were you going to give it away? No, because then we'll come back with the plane. You just wanted it out right now.

I know a guy. Hello? Garrett. Take out an art. He's a cool guy.

I am sure that Jay will not complain if it disappears. No, not at all. He

He takes that stuff apart, refurbishes it, and he builds it.

Well, it's just a big plastic. You know what I mean? It's a big liner and all the metal poles. Yeah.

Don't underestimate anybody because when I was getting rid of some of the rock around my house, I took a picture of it. and said, free, you come get. They brought five gallon buckets and they were bucking it up and everything. I was like, that's the best thing I ever did.

They were putting it in the back of a Durango that the window was busted in because they didn't have anything else to put it in. I was like, I'm not shoveling that stuff. Tell Jay to send me a picture of it.

You've got a picture of it that you sent me.

I'll send you a picture right now.

Well, it's probably too late because Friday's picking up.

No, it's still sitting back there.

Oh, is it? Oh, yeah.

Friday's our big trash day, isn't it?

Yeah.

We've been too busy.

It always comes around and I miss it.

So it's the last weekend of the month, the first?

It's the first Friday, and I always just miss it.

Most of the stuff never makes it to the trash dump.

Yeah, we have a guy that comes around with a trailer. Yep. Usually on Thursday night. Yep.

Well, you've seen him in the gold truck? Yep, and he picks up everything that's metal or anything. Thank you.

Only when you say.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Because it's highlighted right there. Yeah. I'm going to say a few words. What's that bright shirt say?

What?

What's that bright shirt say? It's the same as . You like that? Yes, yes.

Thank you.

Yeah, they have to be there Monday, Wednesday, Friday. And then Tuesday, last night, they had a breakfast. Then Friday's the game. So they're being busy.

5-13. I have to call a recess.

Thank you.

Yeah. Yeah.

I've got that, too. Oh, there you go. It's got the complete out here.

Yeah. Now.

Is that set up today? I'll ask if it is already. I was wondering how it connects if it is already. Yeah, it takes a while for people to realize it's there. Yeah.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, beautiful, yeah. Thank you. Thank you. That's it. It's a muscle, yeah.

Oh, it's fast, yeah.

Yeah? Well, maybe it's a little fast. I can't see it.

Look, just a little bit. Which is, because you find it.

Hold on a minute. That is probably the eye injury.

What do you mean by that?

Bustage. That thing's been there since I've been here.

Yeah. Yeah. But one really big hug. And so I think now is the right time. So that was a great decision. So I'm looking forward to three years from here. That means a lot to me every time in January. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

And broke them up. Thank you. Thank you

All right, it's 7 o'clock.

I would invite you all to rise and 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,

Our first item tonight is a proclamation regarding Hunger Action Month. Whereas hunger and food insecurity remain critical issues across our nation, affecting millions of individual families, and whereas the city of DeSoto recognizes that access to nutritious food is fundamental to the health, well-being, and quality of life of our community, and whereas hunger and food insecurity can affect individuals and families of all ages, backgrounds, and circumstances, and addressing these challenges requires a collective effort from our entire community, and whereas the City of DeSoto is proud to support and partner with our Community Food Bank, which provides vital assistance to residents in need and helps ensure that everyone in our community has access to nutritious food, And whereas Hunger Action Month provides an opportunity to raise awareness about hunger and food insecurity, encourage community engagement, and strengthen efforts to ensure that no one in our community goes hungry, Now, therefore, I, Rick Walker, Mayor of the City of DeSoto, Kansas, do hereby proclaim the month of September 2026 as Hunger Action Month in the City of DeSoto, and I encourage all residents, businesses, organizations, and community partners to take action, support our local food pantry, and work together to ensure that no one in DeSoto... I would like to thank David Williams for championing this proclamation, bringing it forward again this year, and to thank David for his efforts to get a donation barrel in City Hall. It's work to get that filled up. I would invite those that want to receive the proclamation to join me in front for a photograph. Brandon, are you ready to capture the moment? Jeff, act like you like each other, guys. I need to balance off the orange here.

Take a couple. David, you want me to email these to you? Please.

All right, I got like five or six.

I will leave this to whoever wants this. Do you want them to go to the pantry? Oh, awesome.

David, you'd mentioned you might want to share a couple remarks. You want to go ahead and do that now? Hey, you guys.

I don't leave yet. A couple words for you. Thank you.

They're the lifeblood of the program. Thank you. There's a saying, it takes a village, and when it comes down to food insecurity, it sure does. Hopefully, in the future, when you see orange, it will prompt you to think of ways to help reduce hunger. Hunger Action Month is a reminder that ending hunger takes all of us. No effort is too small, and every action has the power to make a difference. Whether you're a volunteer, an advocate, donate, or help spread the word, your support helps create a stronger, healthier community where everyone has access to nutritious food. I want to thank you Mayor Walker, council, city employees for the proclamation. I also want to thank you for allowing us to place the barrel in the lobby of the building for the month of September. Last year the food pantry received close to 500 pounds of non-perishable food. and personal hygiene products. As I have said before from the podium, I've been volunteering in pantries and with Harvesters Food Network for 26 years. Now, this year is my 26th year. I have been in hundreds, maybe if not thousands of food pantries in the Kansas City area. I have never seen a food pantry located in a city facility until I moved here to DeSoto. Having the DeSoto Food Pantry in the facility shows where your hearts are in food insecurity for individuals and families amongst us. This year, families here in DeSoto are heading into the back to the school season with less. School supplies costs are up nearly 8%, and lunch staples have risen even higher than that. Keeping food in the house at all is a daily struggle. In areas one in five, or 20%, of the children among us go hungry or I should say are at risk of hunger. The sad thing is that this is up from last year at 1.6 children. When you think of food insecurity families, you should also think that the more likely or more than likely there is also housing medical and transportation insecurity also. Harvesters Network and its pantry partner agencies feed 226,000 people per month in the 27 counties that we cover. 35% of them are children. A lot of people aren't aware of this. 15% are senior citizens. 61% are at least one of the adults in the household has worked in the last 12 months or is working and just can't make ends meet. 9% are living in temporary housing or are houseless. At this time cuts to state and federal hunger relief programs have left food pantries and harvesters with significantly less food to distribute, making your support more important than ever. Nearly 7,000 Kansans lost SNAP benefits in July of this year alone. Since July 25th, or July 2025, more than 32,000 Kansans, including more than 14,000 children, have lost benefits. I want to thank you once again for all you do for the food insecure individuals and family amongst us. Thank you, Mayor, council, city employees, and Tim Halverson with the EDC for your continued support for the food pantry. When negotiating with companies coming into our community, community involvement programs just don't happen. They are the value add of these companies need to be giving back. and getting involved with our community. With your help, they won't just show up and look good. They will listen to our community's needs and truly become citizens of DeSoto. I want to thank organization, and this is my personal observation of what I'm going to share with you now. I wanted to thank Organizations like Panasonic that does regular food drives and employee involvement benefits to our community and the pantry. Harps for being a partner in many ways, but most importantly, giving the pantry the opportunity to supply our food insecure families with delicious baked goods on a regular basis. I want to thank BO Infrastructure for recently stepping up when the pantry was not a winner in a $10,000 grant that Tim brought to my attention and we got a group together to submit our package back for the grant. We did not win that grant. Beal stepped up and paid us or gave us the $10,000. No questions asked. Today, that $10,000 is supplying our food insecure senior citizens with fresh fruits and vegetables for over 22 weeks this year. I want to thank Bolland Farms, Lone Elm Community Gardens, Circle B Ranch, KJ's, which I think is the best pizza joint this side of Italy, and all the individual gardeners within the community. that drop off fresh fruits and vegetables that they have excess of and don't want to be wasted. Along with the personal hygiene products that we give out, fresh fruits and vegetables are probably the fastest things that leave the shelves. Thank you for the community members that have donated on a regular basis. with either food items or monetary or gifts, it is greatly appreciated. Last but not least, after this you can leave. After this, last but not least, I would like to thank the volunteers. They show up week in, week out, month in, month out, to assist the pantry clients. They do it with a smile, treating our community food insecure individuals and families with respect and grace. Please join me in giving them an applaud. Now, you'll notice the orange. It's kind of a subliminal message. And hopefully, as you go on with your lives, and every time you see orange from now on, think of a way you can help fight food insecurity. Thank you. Joshua Power that came, he's our political policy and advocacy strategist. He works with all the government programs and government offices to help with SNAP benefits and things like that. He does a great job. And then Judy and Doug were my pantry workers. volunteers that I worked with until somebody beat me up to the sign up machine.

Thank you, David. Thank you to the pantry volunteers for your efforts. Let's fill the barrel this month, right? Here at City Hall. All right, we'll move on in our agenda. Our next item is our consent agenda. Tonight on the consent agenda, we have approved the minutes from the August 20th and August 22nd city council meetings. approve pay ordinance number 1026, approve temporary use permit for fireworks display, approve October 1st special meetings for joint work session and to change the regular meeting start time, Item E, approve the Transportation Alternatives Grant Award with the Kansas Department of Transportation. Item F, approve Amendment No. 1 to the Sheriff Contract. And Item G, approve Chain Border No. 1 for the Riverfest Soccer Field Project. Is there any item anyone would wish to remove from the consent agenda for further discussion? Hearing none, can I have a motion to approve the consent agenda?

Make a motion that we approve the consent agenda as an...

All right, I have a motion and a second. Any discussion of the motion? Roll call, please. Sabo? Yes. Patterson?

Yes. Bradley? Yes. McCracken? Yes. Lane? Yes. Mayor Walker on item 1C? Okay, yes. Who cares?

All right. Item two is call to public. Members of the public are welcome to use this time to comment about any matter relating to city business not listed on tonight's agenda. The comments that are discussed under call to public may or may not be acted on by the council during this meeting. There is a four minute time limit. Please stand and wait to be recognized by the mayor. Anyone wish to address the council under call to public? Please come to the podium. State your name.

Hi, everyone. I'm Jennifer Sharp. I'm a DeSoto resident. I will be reading this, excuse me, directly from Neighbors United Coalition of DeSoto, Kansas. So I am speaking on behalf of our coalition, DeSoto City Council members. Neighbors United Coalition, excuse me, DeSoto, believes the city cannot use trade secrets as a reason to withhold information about data centers from the public. such as the information redacted from the development agreement with Beale. Moreover, we believe non-disclosure agreements based on trade secrets, as contemplated by proposed ordinance 2698, discussed at the August 20th meeting, are likewise invalid. We hereby request, excuse me, that the city provide an unredacted version of the build agreement of element, or I'm sorry, the development agreement and formally vote not to adopt the proposed ordinance. Simply put, where you want to put your data center is not a trade secret. Rather, as the Kansas Court of Appeals found in the most detailed opinion by the state's appellate courts on the subject, a trade secret may consist of any formula, pattern, device, or compilation of information which is used in one's business. The location or incentives offered by the city to a prospective developer is not a formula, pattern, device, or compilation of information developed by a company. Rather, such information is just a set of ideas the city would prefer not to disclose. Kansas law also sets forth a six factor test to determine whether information qualifies as a trade secret. Those factors which include a company's effort or money expended in obtaining and developing the information show that proprietary commercial information like a recipe, design, or formula are trade secrets. Negotiations between a city and a developer do not count. The fact that the Kansas Open Meetings Act, unlike many other states, does not include an economic development exception that allows for discussions about location and incentives for prospective development. Such an exception cannot lawfully be shoehorned into the trade secrets exception in Coma via KSA 75-4319 . Likewise, because a location and a relationship between the city and a developer is just a plan, not proprietary information about a company's goods or services, it cannot be withheld under the Kansas Open Records Act via KSA 45221 and KSA 60432. Until state law is amended to be consistent with other states that allow for exceptions to transparency for economic development, the city is obligated to follow CORA and COMA. we are reiterating our request to provide a fully unredacted copy of the Beale Development Agreement and to vote to table proposed ordinance number 2698. If you decline to proceed as requested, we will have no choice but to consider further legal options including but not limited to pursuing CORA and or COMA enforcement actions either administratively or in court. Thank you for your consideration.

Anyone else under call to public?

Sarah Vandecreek. I'm a DeSoto resident also. As Jennifer just spoke, we have had much time that we've spent consulting with lawyers and spending money and hours on all the different processes of what's going on within the city. But there's a few questions that I have. that I would like to see if you guys can help me understand. I know it states how much our city administrator can sign a contract for, but I want to know how is that monitored? Like who is checking to see how much the contracts are for or even what the contracts are about? Like how much are they for and what are they about? Who does that checks and balances? That's one question. The other question I have is who is writing the contracts for our city with these developers also? Is it that the developer is bringing a contract to us to have us check it over and understand it better or is it that our attorney is writing the contract and they are adding their their reflections on it. Those are things I'm just trying to understand in our city process. Again, we are all open to discussing with you any questions that you might have or helping us clear things up. We have a printed copy of what Jennifer read and I will also email each of you a copy. And in your emailed copy, there are hyperlinks to the different situations. So you'll see hyperlinks. Thank you.

Anyone else want to call the public?

I have some documents that I think you can actually hear. Sorry, I forgot.

This is just a printed copy of it, Jennifer. Sure.

Anyone else under call to public?

Hello, Cheryl Ragland, 8635 Penner Avenue, DeSoto, Kansas. My simple request is more clarity around how our water is doled out, for lack of a better word. There was some contract floating around that indicated maybe residents weren't the priority in the water and that the place out there had higher priority. So I guess my preference would be to hear that, yes, the people who live here will have top priority. I want to know that if I want to go water my yard, if I want to if I want to do laundry, if I wanna fill my pool, that I'll have enough water to do that. By the way, I don't have a pool, but I want people to have the ability to understand, hey, I can fill my pool. There's not gonna be a restriction on how much water I can use today. Okay, thank you.

Anyone else under call to public? All right, not seeing any takers, so we'll move on in our agenda. We don't have any old business, so we will move on to item 4A, receipt presentation and update from the Johnson County Sheriff's Office.

Yes, Mayor and Council. As is customary, the Sheriff's Office comes up and does a quarterly update on law enforcement activities, so we have Dan here to give the presentation.

Good evening, council. I'm here to answer any questions. And the sheriff.

We should. We have an honored guest here. I was going to let Dan introduce the sheriff.

I was just coming to support Dan. Hello, everyone. We'll see you on Saturday.

But I'm here to present the quarterly report for the second quarter of 2026 and to answer any questions you might have regarding the slides as we go through them. Some interesting notes, though. Of course, our first page here is just some definitions that we created at the last presentation to answer any questions you might have about the type of offenses and activity that we engage in. The next is the executive summary that Brenda and I have put together. One item of interest is that dispatch calls did increase during that period from 753 to 820 in 2025. Self-initiated calls for service increased from 995 to 1072 for the same period. We did have a decrease in traffic, in self-initiated traffic calls during that time. About 300. The reason for that is over this past year, we've done a lot of training with new deputies that are coming out in the patrol division, getting them trained, getting them into their activity level, and that self-initiated activity. That's why you're seeing that drop right there. One thing that was interesting, I met with Mike and Brandon here last week, and the accidents did increase from one to five during that period. The interesting aspect is that All of them, or I think all of them, were along Lexington Avenue stretching from Gardner Road, I believe it was, to Penner. All at different times during that quarter, all non-injury, but for some reason they all just seemed to happen along Lexington there. I don't have an explanation for it. It's just one of those anomalies. But again, nothing unique about the nature of them. They're just simple car-on-car collisions and no injuries, but all situated along Lexington Avenue. One thing that will happen next quarter with the end of this month is we have been utilizing our Power BI management system for the last year now. So when I do present for the next quarter, we will be able to show that comparison of e-ticketing from last year to this year. So that will be something we're looking forward to.

All right.

The first slide there is the offenses, type A and type B offenses there. Any questions you might have about the type or the numbers? Okay. You see we had 60, total of 298 offenses there. Again, the next slide I believe will show a comparison to 2025. Nothing striking in the numbers, fairly close in the numbers. Like I say, we did see a drop actually in the number of drug paraphernalia and also the drugs and narcotics incidences. And right here we have the self-initiated traffic activity and the dispatch calls. As I mentioned in the first slide, 820 dispatch calls during that period, 1,072 self-initiated non-traffic, and 1,574 traffic. Each of the dots on the map there show where each of those calls took place. Okay. This is what we call our heat map, very similar to the one you saw, but it just kind of shows a general area of where the hot, as we said, heat map, hottest spots where those calls are taking place. You see generally activity takes place within the city center. And right here is our e-ticket data for the quarter. DeSoto Municipal Court, we had a total of 412 tickets with a total of 598 violations and 239 warnings. 102 were issued through the district court for 131 violations and 93 warnings. And then number of drug cases, drug court five total citations for 13 violations and one warning. And here were the accidents I was talking about. If you look, you'll see the dots as it just go along. Again, for some reason right along Lexington Avenue. Key takeaways, calls for service increased by 9%. Proactive non-traffic activity decreased by 8%, as I said. Traffic stops decreased by 16%. Again, that's due to our new number of deputies that are out in the field. In that time, their activity will increase as they become more confident and accomplished in their activity. And accidents remained low, but we did have that spike there for some reason. Any questions that I can answer?

Any questions? All right. Thank you for your presentation. Thank you for your presence, Sheriff Roberts. Appreciate you being here. All right. Thank you very much. All right, moving on. Item B, discuss procedural outline for various policy and zoning revisions.

Yes, Mayor and Council, I think you're aware that over the last several months we've initiated several different actions to look at policies or city code or... other technical issues involving zoning or fiscal policy matters in the city. These range from lighting restrictions and landscaping to how to deal with NDAs and noise regulations. And at the last meeting, as we were talking about, I think three of those specific elements, the direction of the council was to come up with a more structured procedure to address each one of these and some format to establish committees to look into the various elements that we're working on so that we can make sure that proper feedback is given, proper research is done, and that we come up with a recommendation from a committee that has had time to investigate each one of these of these areas and so I think as you know some of these are further along than others some we're just getting started on some we've been talking about for several months but here on the first page of the staff report I've listed them and there's eight of these my mouse is trying not to work but I'm gonna Mike I can scroll if you just tell me to okay I'll almost try and stumble through it here yeah just yell at me Um, so there's actually nine different topics that we've been looking at over the past several months, um, lighting regulations. So I've got this, just list the topic, a general category and the status of each one. I won't talk about going to the status of each one, but, um, they've all been at least discussed here at this body. Some of them have been presented, uh, with more detailed information. Some have been discussed and presented the planning commission level. uh... over the last several months actually so these are listed so lighting regulations uh... those regulations are in our zoning ordinance forestry and landscaping those are also in our zoning ordinances uh... The idea of restricting data center uses within M1 or only allowing them in the heavy industrial zoning district, that's obviously zoning district or zoning code related. Streamway buffer rigs, remember we had Dominic come here last month or a couple months ago to present his work on streamway buffer rigs. That also would be a zoning category. We also have incentives policy. So we know that we have a pretty robust incentives policy that we've been needing, wanting to overhaul for some time. There's a specific focus now on whether or not to extend incentives to data centers. So specifically that is an item here. And that relates to fiscal policy. Taking a look at our policy around NDAs, that's also fiscal or policy. There's also a request to look at permitting wells within the city. Currently, we don't really permit them, allow them, or disallow them. That's done through the state. So there's a discussion going on around wells. There's a discussion around the idea of an environmental compliance officer. We talked about that in the context of our 27 budget. It's incorporated into the 27 budget. But exactly what that job description is, what those responsibilities would be, how that exactly works is something that we also want to dig into. That's also fiscal policy. And then the last one on the list is noise regulations. We've discussed that here over the last several months. currently in the process of onboarding a noise consultant to help us do that. That's city code related so if you notice these categories I've kind of assigned, kind of grouped them into three categories and that would suggest that if you're gonna form a committee around these maybe let's don't have nine committees maybe it makes more sense to have three committees that could do the work and What I've done is I've laid out a framework for each one of the committees. The first committee relates mostly to these things up here that have zoning by them. These would be built environment and zoning standards. The assigned topics here would be data centers in light industrial district, updating the landscaping regulations, looking at the lighting codes. considering streamway buffers so those four things importantly on the stakeholders group the Planning Commission of course Planning Commission maybe should be involved in all these but definitely needs to be involved in the first category because all those are zoning related those the Planning Commission's purview is to make recommendations on zoning. And a large part of what they do is implement the zoning regs they have. So Planning Commission is certainly a key stakeholder in that group. Also, engineering consultants, local developers, citizen groups, other stakeholders are suggested there. The next one is protection and noise enforcement. So this would be the city code part. So we look at items here like the wells, the noise regulations, and the environmental compliance officer. Again, I've listed acoustical engineer. Obviously, the consultant we hire will certainly be central to this committee. in the work on the noise regulations uh other stakeholders are suggested there and then the last one is a fiscal incentive and governance policy uh for this we'll look at the um the nda issue and the incentives issue here so um I think those are logical groupings of them. And I would suggest that if the council proceeds in this way, whether it's these three particular committees or some combination of these or four or five different committees that allow the committees to kind of establish a framework for their own work and stepping through the main areas. Because some of these issues are going to be easier to address Implement the another some of them have more more research to do and will just take a bit longer but what I suggested is Just sort of a general framework for how these things typically work usually when we do amendments to say setbacks or we did one recently to reduce lot with sizes to encourage um workforce housing projects things like that here's kind of usually they're sort of breaking up into four phases uh the first phase and and this usually these take six to 12 months i'm not saying all of these should or or none of them should but that's generally the process so that usually starts off with some research then we have stakeholder groups and maybe drafting some policy frameworks Then we go out and get public feedback from the general public, development community, stakeholders in general. And then there's a fourth phase of formal adoption where it comes and we pass ordinances and resolutions or what have you. So that essentially is the framework that I'm suggesting. And I'd like your feedback on it. If we want to proceed with this, the obvious next step would be to fill the committees out, determine who's going to be on the committee. And that's where the rubber meets the road kind of here in this room because I'll be looking for volunteers for hands raised. Certainly, I kind of breezed through this, but certainly council representation on each one of the committees is strongly encouraged. And so I will stop there. Mayor, answer any questions you might have. All right.

Questions from council? Discussion? Who has thoughts to share?

Your second committee, but I want to make sure that we're going to conduct these as public work sessions before the council meetings as we discussed previously. Is that correct?

Well, the committee's work will likely involve work sessions, I would think, but it could be that the committee has many meetings that wouldn't necessarily be public work sessions. We could talk about the process by which you might want to direct that all the committee's work should be in an open kind of format that's advertised and open to the general public and that, that's perfectly acceptable. I didn't envision these as being necessarily full council work sessions where We all get together before. I didn't envision them that way, but you did.

And that's not what I was... I like what you're talking about, open public. The committees are open for people to observe what's happening, not necessarily to provide individual input and support the committee, but at least to observe it, and then they can provide that input to the committee members after, or something like that, just so long as it's not a... hidden process?

I would say usually, so what my recommendation would be, would be to not be so rigid, but allow the committees to do some work before then having the work session. So in this version of this, the public feedback and revision sort of this phase three would be where potential public work sessions would be taking place. But certainly we could incorporate that into each one of these phases. And, of course, phase four happens here, you know, planning commission in here.

Does that make sense? Yeah, and the planning commission has to announce any zoning changes. Public comment would have, I think, 30 days.

Yeah, so any change to the zoning regulations require a public hearing, and the planning commission, yeah, holds that. Now, city code's different. City code doesn't require a public hearing. Council can change that, yeah. So that's at your discretion.

I certainly feel like we don't want to create bad law. That's never a good thing. We also don't want to belabor this unnecessarily. And so I think 12 months is a pretty long time, considering that we're inviting technical experts to the committees who can provide the necessary information. I feel like maybe that's a little long. I would be more comfortable if we went with the first numbers up there, so a maximum of six months to do that, because we've already been talking about it for three months now. That would put us at nine months of discussion.

Yeah, certainly some of these, yeah. Some of these would be on the shorter end for sure.

That's what I was going to ask. So some of these can definitely happen sooner than later, I guess, based on the committee's prioritizing.

Yeah, you know.

It's like, oh, we can tackle this one. Let's...

I don't think it would be a bad exercise to prioritize these in terms of timing. Because the committee's going to get four things, like, say, the zoning committee. They're going to have to work on four things. Which one do you want to do first? I mean, that'd be good feedback, I think, to start off, start the process off. And like you said, the lighting and the forestry and landscaping one, the Planning Commission was actually almost in the position of maybe calling for a public hearing even in September, to enact a few changes there. So that one's quite far, quite far along. The environmental compliance officer might be one that takes a little more time to suss some of that out. And we don't have a budget for them until next year anyway. So just some examples. But it would be good to get your feeling on a sequence priority.

The other thing was...

I'm sorry, Patrick, go ahead.

Oh, I was just going to interject. I think a big thing that's kind of missing in a lot of these is feedback from interested parties. Like, just for example, the well permitting. It seems like, you know, that ordinance is pretty ready to go, but of course... And I don't even know who has wells in the city, but, you know, we've not reached out to talk to... You know, people that have wells, or how that would affect them, or if they have feedback on that. And it seems like that's true with a lot of these. I know the environmental stuff, at the last meeting we had, there were several businesses that came forward right at the last minute. having pretty a lot of concern about these added regulations. So I think that's, it just seems like on a lot of this, we need to have stakeholder feedback on, and that's really what's missing throughout.

I think that was in there, wasn't it, in your, further down?

Well, certainly, yeah, it's a phase. What I meant is, to me, that's what, like the well-permitting, That's ready to go except for that. So I feel like, you know, those pieces, if we can get those done, that might be able to speed this up.

So for example, like the zoning, switching something from one zone to the next zone. What might be an example that that's maybe been done before or is that...

Well, that's a good example of the stakeholder input. You know, it's a pretty simple code revision. I mean, but, you know, some of the considerations you might want to make while you're doing that is, I mean, why do you categorize things into different zonings? And do data centers fit more within category one or two? And I think that's worth a discussion from a land use impact. I mean, typically when you talk about land use impact, you're talking about impacts to surrounding neighbors, closer neighbors, you know, more heavily weighted than further away neighbors. So there is dialogue, there's disagreement about a lot of those things, but yeah, I think that's a discussion that really needs input from public and from stakeholders, from the business community, from experts about All sorts of things, you know, maybe noise, maybe lights, maybe buffering. It's a very easy code change, but it's not an easy decision.

It would need to go through planning commission.

Yeah, that's one of those.

Brad will normally tell you any change is 90 days, pretty much, for a text amendment or rezoning or... This would be a tax amendment. And normally, by the time you have the public hearing notice, it's usually 90 days.

I think the idea is there at 10 is to divide these up into smaller chunks so that we're not all having to focus on all these. I mean, if we had to use a work session for the whole council to work through all of these, that could be time-consuming and could push us. But the idea if we can divide these into committees so that we can all split into groups, take on chunks of it, then we can advance all of them at once and then make advances on several fronts to handle it more efficiently. And the challenge is to secure volunteers for the various committees.

And I want to make sure, I wasn't saying that the whole council should do the work sessions. I meant more the public.

Make sure that the work sessions could be visible and transparent to those that want to observe.

So when do we get started?

We've already begun several of these, as you know. And a show of volunteers for each one of the three committees. We could have as many as two council members plus the mayor on each committee. if there's interest in doing that. And I would like to hear some feedback on sequencing prior. I think the sequencing would be good. Yeah, we could just go through this table here.

As a body of the whole, right that way, when we split into committees, we know that we're working on things that our fellow electives would have priority with as well.

I definitely think low-hanging fruit is important, and we've already got the Planning Commission input on two of them. I think those can be... clearing the easiest items from the plate first.

So I would say the landscaping one, we're pretty good on that one. So that's pretty low. I'm not sure we talked about the lighting, but... We're kind of swimming in sort of what to do, the planning commission.

And I saw some input from Commissioner Lane on that, Miss Lane, on that regarding the lighting and the forestry. The only concern I had there was that I don't know if we've gotten input from the state forester or from K-State Extension Office yet on the specie of...

Yeah, again, no, I don't think we... Flora.

But either way, those are pretty close to being done. I think those are easy ones.

The lighting is not close. I don't think we're... The planning commission is not close about the direction they want to go with the lighting. Okay. But the landscaping, yes, it is. And I think, like Patrick said, we're talking low-hanging fruit. The wells is pretty easy to do. So... In terms of easy stuff to prioritize, I think I would suggest those two are in that first.

I think that would also give those groups a little more confidence in their work and accomplishing something like that. They can probably move further along with the other stuff. So you're not presenting them with a final exam on the first day of classes.

Good point. They can get the feel for the process, and yeah, that's a good point.

I'd like to see us double down on the noise regulation and coding. OK. We've talked about it. There's citizen concern in this area. And we've spoken about hiring the outside party. We need to come to an agreement and move that one forward.

Move that forward quickly. Sure. Yeah.

Along those lines, Brandon, do you want to just quickly, just a quick update on where we are in that consultant selection process?

Yeah. So we received four responses to the RFQ. We sent it out to about 15 different vendors. And we are waiting on final scores from the committee. Hoping to bring that back to council two meetings from now. with the contract. So we'll get started probably October, November-ish.

Okay.

I would say that I think after the presentation, from Mr. Saiki on the StreamWay buffer regs. That was a really good presentation, but it seemed like a lot of work is still needed on that one. There was a lot of comment and things. So that one I would move further down probably.

Okay.

I'd like to see, of course, the zoning. I think, you know, the specific topic data center is more specific than a broad range. And really looking at those zoning categories more closely to see what falls in where.

I'll just run through what I, I mean, I guess somewhat. So I looked at the, I accepted Mike's groupings and then I just ranked the groupings by one to however many there were in terms of that group. And then I think the next order of business then is our group is then to look at the overall kind of priorities. So in the zoning regs I went, the forestry and landscaping is one, the lighting is two, the M1 data center uses in M1 is three, and the streamway buffers is four in terms of priority for that committee to focus on. The fiscal policy, fiscal or policy considerations, I put the incentives for policy, incentive policy as one, NDAs as two, and environmental compliance officer as three. The only reason I pushed it to three was knowing that we have a budget year consideration on that, whether that falls in there, I'm hoping that it, you know, It might be able to come sooner discussion, complete, conclude discussion sooner rather than later. And then relative to city codes, I put wells as one and then the noise regulations as two simply because I believe that the wells we can put to bed relatively quickly and the noise regulations is a longer process, but I think we're on a good path. I would, you know, so I think... I guess I would welcome any feedback. That was my first take at that split. And then the next step I would say that I think we should kind of look at then is among the categories, what priorities would we rank? How would we rank various elements across all priorities as a body?

Well, can you scroll down to the bottom if you don't mind? I think it was already grouped down there in that table at the very bottom. Does that help maybe with us? You're talking about prioritizing within each of those boxes?

Yeah. That's just kind of what I had run through right there.

I'll go, I guess. So in the first built environment zoning standards, I would move the forestry landscape to the top because we talked about that being an easy one. And then you said lighting is further. So maybe put it at the bottom with the data center just because that's probably going to be more achievable, easier than the lighting. In the second box, I think maybe, as you mentioned, the personnel is budgeted for next year. So I mean, I think we need to talk about it, but probably, like you said, Wells is almost done, so put it at the top. Then noise, then environmental compliance. And then the final one, I don't know that it, I mean, either one, I think, goes whatever you guys think.

Okay.

I'd say incentive policy first.

I disagree. No disagreements? So then, in terms of our overall priorities of things to get done out of this list, I guess any thoughts on... I think, I guess... Again, looking at the forestry and the wells, we should, at forestry slash landscaping and wells, I think we should be able to put, to complete quickly, more quickly,

Well, and those are in two different groups, so I think having the committees, I think they can be simultaneous.

Right, exactly.

And then the incentives policy already exists, so it's really just a revision of it. So that's probably an easy one. Those would probably be the top three priorities, I think, because they're the easiest.

I think it's, yeah. And then I think, then the last item, I think we need to kind of, about I don't know that we need answers tonight or not but is to get some volunteers volunteers for various committees what what what areas of interest each of us might wish to put our efforts in so I heard Rhonda say fiscal policy fiscal or policy yeah relative to incentives

I would do that one because of the NDA's one, and I would also volunteer for the environmental compliance one. I think that's enough.

Okay. So then the fiscal or policy, I think then that volunteer list is full.

Yeah, it is. By my count.

So we need some help relative to city codes or some help relative to zoning, if anybody had any questions.

inclination on volunteer for city codes okay yeah so you were noise right so you're in zoning that's zoning all right so being so so that one's full okay right yeah my counts right yeah

So now the zoning, working with the Planning Commission. So that's me.

Okay. Well, if anybody wants to jump in, it's never too late. Just put it that way. And you can be...

I'll develop a passion.

Where are you? Where are you?

If I need to do zoning.

Step into some zoning, learn a little bit about zoning as it fits in.

Okay. All right. Well, that's really good feedback. I appreciate that, and I appreciate the will to volunteer. I know it's going to be a little extra time here in the next six months.

All right. Any other thoughts on that before we move on in the agenda? Okay, we will talk about our budget. Item C, discuss 2027 budget.

Yes, council. So in the packet, I've completed the full draft document that You might or might not be familiar with it. It's the same format as the past several years. It gives all the narratives, gives the background, gives the reasons, all this. Several hundred pages there. Just as a reminder, we're headed toward a public hearing at the next council meeting on September 7. That hearing will involve, there's actually two public hearings, one, two, exceed the revenue neutral rate and then also one to adopt formally adopt the the 2027 municipal budget so tonight what i did is i've got just a little a presentation that i'd like to step through shouldn't take too long here uh just to hit the highlights as essentially it should be a review refresh for us here over the last six months or so that we've done this process. So I'll just do that. If you want to stop me, I'm just essentially going to hit the highlights here, the general fund, law enforcement, debt service, and then our two main utilities, water and sewer utilities there. So from the highest level, we are reducing the mill levy. This is the fifth or sixth or seventh year in a row we've been able to reduce the mill levy by about almost 6%, about 0.77 mills. Total mills will go from 12.94 down to 12.17. You'll remember this does not meet the revenue neutral. rate but that rate is artificially low due to the expansion at Panasonic causing a massive increase in the amount of tax collected but that is TIF money that goes back to the developer and does not come to the city so our revenue neutral mill rate is down around 10 so we won't be able to meet that but we are able to meet our we've kind of just a de Soto specific revenue neutral rate and What that does is it looks at the average increase to residential property values in the city? And that's about five point nine percent for for this year and we've reduced the mill by that much so that the average homeowner the average residential taxpayers bill will remain the same from the city's standpoint. We also talked quite a bit about franchise revenue projections and sales tax collections projections. B, continuing to be very conservative about those two specific things. Interestingly, those two things feature prominently when you talk about potential tax revenues from data centers. We've purposely included zero of any of those revenues in our next year, certainly next year's budget. It wouldn't be up and operating anyway. And even in the five-year projections, we are not counting on any of those data. This year fully implements within the 2027 budget the five-year CIP that we approved this spring. So highlights there. In 2027, we'll be issuing $4 million in... new debt, so we'll see that in the debt service fund. And there will be $6.78 million in projects for 2027. So that's also in there. The annual road maintenance program, we're continuing that at a $1 million rate. This is essentially to resurface roads. Basically, it's a pavement maintenance program. We're not building new stuff, we're not carving new territory with this. This is to preserve the existing and improve the condition of the existing road network. There's not an additional 1K support for the chamber. That's a mistake. We did this last year. We upped the chamber support last year. staffing essentially two new FTE positions ones in the parks and maintenance department the technician we've been planning to do that for the last several budget cycles this has kind of been in the long actions so another part maintenance tech and then also in super small fine print not not on purpose but here it's small print the environmental compliance officers in 2027 with the fully offsetting revenues from fees to large-scale industrial projects. There's also a shared services agreement with the Northwest Consolidated Fire Department. This is under the Building Inspections Department. Cameron Moffmer was here several meetings ago to talk about that. We are fully funding that for next year in an effort to help out the fire district with their mill levy for 2027, rather than splitting that cost, so it's about $100,000. In terms of budget enhancements, the spreadsheet that we've asked the council to help us prioritize and the department heads to work through, about $783,000 in budget enhancements. And the water and sewer budgets we'll see, are inclusive of increased demand and conditioning new treatment facilities. Really most importantly there is the out-year projections for revenue streams associated mostly with Panasonic. We really just kind of this year started to really see an uptick in Panasonic's water and sewer use and so that started to reflect in our revenue streams for those funds and you'll see the funds in the out years are really benefiting from that large user. We talked about in the, I think it was in June, that the county assessor, the county appraiser comes to the cities and they tell us how much the actual valuation of the assessments are. This is when people get their home assessments and see if they've increased or decreased. I don't know that since 2008 or 2009 at least, I don't think anybody says decreased. You can see that represented here, but importantly what's really represented here, you'll see that the value of the real property starting in 26 is just skyrocketing and that is entirely because of the Panasonic facility. As it's constructed, built out, partially built, the appraiser goes and assesses the portion that's built. Each year they become more fully built out. They assess more. But you see the red bar is our effective valuation, and the red bar takes into account the fact that we collect the tax from Panasonic, but we don't get to use it for any city services. That's part of the TIF. So the red bar is really the one that we look at when we look at meeting the revenue neutral rate and those setting the mill levy. We talked also quite a bit about projections for sales and use tax. So this is really kind of just the sales tax from from retail exchanges, both in brick and mortar and online, and also importantly, sales tax that Evergy pays when they go and do big projects throughout the city. And you see a big bump here in these sales tax for 24 and 25. This is when Evergy was building all the infrastructure needed to support Panasonic. And a large part of what was that, but it was also the construction workforce at Panasonic contributing to the restaurants and all that. So that was a big bump then. For 2026, we're projecting to meet the budget estimate. But you can see it diminishes quite a bit. Within our budget projections for 2027, we're anticipating that to diminish even a little bit more to remain conservative. And then there's a conservative outlook, 4% and 3% increase in the projection period for the sales and use tax. So there's quite a big bump there for a couple of years. If another big project comes along, there will be another bump, but we're not counting on it. This, I thought, was an interesting chart, one you haven't seen before. This is not in the budget document. I just did this this week. But we've been closely monitoring franchise fees. And when we talked about how we were going to project how much revenue we're getting from franchise fees, the Panasonic facility has been the center of that discussion for a number of years now. Initially, Avergy estimated the franchise fees just from the facility itself, once it's fully operational, will be about $4 million per year. We have never projected that. We've always projected about half of that long-term. And we continue to project about half of that. But you can really see on this chart, it dates back to January of 23. So it's all 23, all 24, and 25, and so far in 26. And you can see the time in 2025, in the summer of June of 2025, when Panasonic started the production line, you can see these franchise fees just taking off. And currently, I think this is actually the last dot on that is actually August. We've gotten, it's almost $200,000. So, you know, that does support its confirmation that our projections are correct. 2026, we're projecting about total franchise fees. Now, also remember that Electric franchise fees include more than Panasonic, and they also include more than just electric. So it's phone and gas are the other two. So we're projecting about $2 million in franchise fees this year. We're going to hit that mark. And for the budget for next year, $2.4 million. So here's how that franchise fee looks over a longer period of time. So it's about $2.4 million for 2027, and then leveling off as Panasonic comes under full operation. They're currently running four production lines. The plant essentially is designed for eight. Continue to engage with them about when those lines might be coming on. online in that demand picking up. So we're still showing that that will happen within the projection period. So these will be leveling off. But we see that still, and these are just from Panasonic here on the right. We're still just anticipating about $2.7 million in total. So I believe still being relatively conservative there on franchises. This is a chart of the mill levy. So since 2018, we've been able to reduce the mill levy, I think, all year but one where it stayed flat. I'm sorry, between 20 and 21, it increased just slightly. But you can see the big dip that we were able to do in 2025.

And since then, two consecutive years, we've lowered that even more.

So that's good. This is how the general fund revenue picture looks going out, just stacked between franchise fees, sale tax, property tax, all the different fund balances you see. 2024, a big jump primarily in this all other revenues, and that's building permits. That was Panasonic building permit there. 2025 had some other building permitting activities. What you can see is there's a dip here after 27, a dip in the building permit fee. It caused that little dip. Won't go over this list here, but we talked about the budget enhancements. Again, about $783,000. A thousand dollars in those include the two new FTEs, the fire services agreements. When you combine all that together for the general fund, this is what the five-year forecast looks like. You've seen this before. 26 is highlighted there as a projection where we might end this year. The blue line here was what we actually budgeted, so it's looking better. But you can see that in the out years, what we tailored the projections to do is having the year-end fund balances match 30% of operating revenues, which is our fiscal policy for fund balance. So in many ways, we're keeping our powder very dry for a quickly changing landscape of large-scale economic development, not being too rosy about revenues and still . Just quickly on the law enforcement projections, a quick chart here. Not a whole lot of change there. The relationship is very stable. Costs are very stable. Costs are very known from year to year. We will be in our last year of our contract for 2027, so we'll be looking for a new contract in 2028 and beyond. But the mill levy there, fund balance, there's not a whole lot of reason to have a big fund balance in that fund, but the mill levy there is shown. Here's the projections for debt service. There's really no reason to keep a big debt service fund balance, so we are diminishing that over time. At the same time, increasing the mill levy that we're going to need to support the CIP mostly. So we've got a $4 million bond issue in 2027 in the debt service. And you see we programmed in another 3 in 2028 and another 1.5 in 2030. That's to support our CIP. So that's what that fund looks like.

Waterfront. Does that change with the new developments with Merck and Beal and Digital Realty? Is that projected in there, or how does that account for those?

Well, specifically with debt service. You know, the revenues that will come in have to do with property tax. So I've projected those. So short answer, yes. Yes, this incorporates those new development, ones that are underway, ones that are permitted. Yes. Water and sewer fund are kind of in similar positions. We've talked that they currently do not have the 30% fund balance that we want to see. We've talked that as the Panasonic production ramps up and their usage ramps up, the revenue streams from going into those funds will outpace the expenses and so the fund balance in out years goes up. There's a lot of uncertainty around this. We've got Almost a year under our belt now with the new water treatment plant, so we kind of have a little better idea about what those costs are going to be. The sewer treatment plant's a little newer, but it's the same as the old plant, where the function is. And so we kind of know, but there is still some uncertainty. But the punchline here is increasing film balances over the next several years, largely due to increased water usage from Panasonic. and no rate increases. So that is the punchline for the water and the sewer fund. This is just a little, you can't even read it, but it's a state form, the public hearing notice that you approved at the last meeting. Public hearing will be held on September 27th, and the budget is due to the county on October 1st. Mayor, that is all I have this evening.

I'll stand for any questions. Questions for the city administrator on the budget presentation? I just would make a couple observations that, you know, it's clear from our budget and where we set our priorities that we're taking this economic growth and we're converting it into three elements. Lower residential property taxes, increased and better city services, and we're investing in our long-term infrastructure. So I also... I think it's important, and I always appreciate your, sometimes frustrating, but I appreciate, Mike, that you budget conservatively so that we don't count on revenues until they actually arrive because, for instance, we've had discussions about the sales tax jump and how a flat projection next year may not make sense or a dip, but that conservative approach has served us well for a long time, and I appreciate that. Any other comments before we move on in our agenda?

No, I think you're right about the improvements. I think it's important that we message that to the citizens what's in it for me, right? And I think that's important messaging for the city to get out there is what's in it for the city if we do these development projects? How does it benefit the city? How does it benefit the residents? I don't think that it's not, but I think it's important that we maybe more clearly explain it. I understood that. That's why I was asking. I understood what you're saying, but I think having a better display of the difference with, without, that type of thing would be helpful if you want to secure citizen buy-in to it.

I think it's important to explain what's in it for us.

That's all. Thank you.

Well, I think growth needs to benefit the people that call DeSoto home. And I think that's what certainly has been a hallmark of the efforts I've had while sitting on this dais, We work to reduce that mill rate, that we make it more affordable. Things that we can control, we take care of that. And that we improve the services. I recall my first year on city council, we had a pavement maintenance budget that was probably less than $100,000. And that was not even enough to keep up with... ceiling cracks, let alone an overlay. So we've come miles from that point, and we're heading toward a place where we can provide quality services here in the city of Soto. All right. No executive session, so I think that's it for our new business or that part of our agenda. We'll go to advisory reports. Mike, you got anything to continue?

Yeah, a couple things, Mayor. I will not be here at the September 17th meeting. I'll be out of town that whole week. So certainly if you... If you need something, Patrick, Brandon are here. I won't be here. All right. And also I hope to get out, it'll probably be next week, a summary of our workshop that we had on August 22nd to summarize those categories, the action items that we had to follow from those. I won't belabor it too much, but it'll be a several-page document. For your review, it'll be a draft. And what I'll ask is for you to give input on that draft so we can prioritize things moving forward. Appreciate everyone's efforts on that Saturday. I think it was a very productive day. All right. Thank you.

City Attorney. I was just going to clarify on trade secrets. The city doesn't have any trade secrets. And economic incentives requested by a company or given by the city clearly are not trade secrets. Trade secrets are owned by companies. And it's not the city determining what is a trade secret. So just wanted to clarify that. And we've not had, as far as I've been involved, no company has ever tried to argue that. the incentives are asking for from the city should somehow be qualified as trade secret, nor would we ever approve that.

So that's it for me. All right, thank you. City Engineer. Nothing tonight. All right, thank you, Joe. Assistant City Administrator Brandon.

I only have one thing, just because Mike had mentioned that he was going to be gone, and I know right before the meeting it gets kind of... hurry and I don't want to forget. On October 2nd at 8 a.m., which is an early morning, A group of staff, the mayor, myself, are gonna meet with the DeSoto High School art students. If you remember, oh, I think in July, the council accepted a grant to paint a mural out at Miller Park. So they're gonna show us the preliminary designs, get some feedback. So if anyone's interested, just shoot me an email. You do need to give your name at least one day ahead so they can make sure you're okay to come to the building and everything else. Just wanted to get that on your radar. If you're interested in attending, please let me know. That's all I have.

All right. Thank you. Council comments. Danny, anything for the group tonight?

Yeah, I wanted to first thank the city staff for the open house that was given on the renovation of the school building here. Wonderful job. And the mayor, thank you. It was good seeing the building restored. from what it was when we went to school here. And also I wanted to thank Joe and his crew in the street for keeping up with the mowing. I know it's been a challenge. And I saw that a lot of places that were kind of going kind of crazy, you took care of them, cleared them, and they're clean. And especially for the safety concerns of some of the traffic. So I wanted to thank you, Joe, about that. I've been having some serious concerns about some of the data center. I'm trying to get a hold of Mr. Adley. Haven't got a hold of him yet. We've been back and forth. I want to get with Tim on some disturbing news, and I wanted to share that with him and the city administrator. So that's all I had tonight, Mayor. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. Lindsay, anything for the group?

No, I just, you already kind of mentioned it. I was going to say the workshop that we did, or the work day a couple weekends ago was productive, and I'm excited to see what comes out of that. And I'm not going to steal anyone's DeSoto Days thunder, but I did want to pre-thank everyone on the DeSoto Days committee for the hard work and the time that goes into that, because there are so many little intricate pieces of it that people don't realize. And so thank you, Rhonda, Joe, and anyone else who may be in the room that is part of that thing.

Yeah.

It's going to be a hot weekend.

All right. So in that vein, then Zach, I'll ask you to go next.

No, I really don't have that. So echo those comments about, uh, thinking our volunteers on the, the Saturdays work group, all their volunteers who both plan and execute it. And I think it's, um, they're really, um, under-appreciated sometimes, how much work they actually put in throughout the year, not just for a few days leading up to it. Thank you guys very much.

I'll let the chairman go last. Joe, would you go?

Yeah, I do have a couple of things. I spoke with Brandon earlier this week and today. I'd like staff to take a look at some similar moves that Overland Park and Olathe have made regarding bikes and e-scooters and mandatory helmet usage. And I bring that up because I had an individual just kind of run out in front of me and it was... kind of close. But just because technology has made this equipment cheaper, more affordable, and Class III e-bikes are approaching being able to do speeds of 30 miles an hour and There's been some recent changes within Overland Park and Olathe, both by their councils, and I think that's something we could look at. Then, second, Tim, I see you're in the room. Thank you for attending. I'd like to work with you and start getting involved with identifying some possible available spaces within town and looking where we could support small business and residents that are interested in supporting something or looking for opening business elsewhere in town. And then continue our discussions and counsel on our incentive matrix plans. And then last but not least, I'll plug our fireworks show. Friday night after being canceled twice, we are going to try to set off at 945. So they will be set off at Riverfest park, but Riverfest park is going to be close to the public due to where they're setting off. Uh, the fireworks are going to be set off usually in the parking area, which is a little bit closer to town. Um, so if you're attending DeSoto days, you should definitely be able to see right down 83rd street. We're going to put the band on pause right about that time. Um, and then, uh, I'm not sure if the football game's been pushed back, but anybody that's sitting out at the football game in the stadium should have a really good seat as well. So with that, I would say good luck to Coach King and beat Topeka Seaman and DeSoto versus everybody this year. That's all I have.

Thank you, Joe. Rhonda.

I was also going to thank the city staff for the open house. That was really great, especially because I brought my mom with me. The tour might have lasted a little longer, but it was great to hear some stories. And I know, Danny, I know you had some stories as well. So that was really great to see and see those. Yeah, that was. And then I don't know, does the Does the fire department give us any kind of bi-annual updates?

Yeah, they will be providing updates similar to what the sheriff's department has done. I don't know when it is.

They traditionally do it right after they adopt their budget, which I think their budget hearing is tomorrow. So I would guess sometime in the next couple weeks.

We get a similar update, yeah.

quarterly it's supposed to be quarterly maybe have biannual updates from our district as well okay i just wanted to check on that because i'm sure their numbers have changed a little bit over the last year or so so just wanted to see that and then of course yes the the plug for de soto days um appreciate any thanks but it wouldn't happen if it weren't for you know the tons of volunteers that put that together and then of course the sponsors that help us be able to do that and help us grow But, yeah, it's a great event, and it is going to be a little toasty, so definitely we've gone out of our way to provide some cooling fans, some misting areas. We're trying to provide any additional cooling. And there's the beer garden. But try to provide what we can, but people just definitely be prepared for a little bit of heat. And then, of course, it is a five-day event this year, so it's not just I mean, it's a full Labor Day weekend now. And then, mentioning the Hunger Action Month, I think this could be perfect because we do have a pie contest, and the proceeds from our pie slices go to the food pantry. So everyone come have a slice of pie after the pie contest, and Support Dave and wear orange if you'd like, or red, white, and blue for the theme. But appreciate that. Appreciate everybody's support. And again, I like seeing the crowd show up. So that's it.

All right. Thank you, Rhonda. Thank you for your, and Joe, both for, and you're on the committee as well, right, Lindsay?

I do a little behind the scenes work.

Thank you, too, for sure. She's a gopher. I appreciate it. Relative to the soda days, I know that's a lot of work. And it's appreciated. I only have one comment or one observation. I'm not aware of any contract or would ever approve a contract or development agreement that would put water needs of our residents behind those of any industry. There is no such agreement that I'm aware of, and I would never support such an agreement. And with that, I will approve a motion to adjourn.

I move we adjourn.

All in favor say aye. Aye.

We're adjourned.