City Council - Regular Meeting

3 in the morning and go first at night. So bad side effects. [snorts] I think I'll bring this up and just close.

Okay. Yes. All right. It's working.

It works. Brandon. Hey, Brandon. Yeah, we we're mad at each other. We're not so busy trying to get here. Oh, no. So, now I got Oh, the flyers. Yeah, I have some. I have some. I'll go. Okay. Thank you. Hi. How are you, Mayor?

Thank you. chicken narrow Yeah.

Okay. [clears throat]

But the guys Yes, that one's kind of what we're Silver. I know. It won't even really have any grad. She's going to show [laughter] [snorts]

this element on the same tire.

Get a little break this weekend. No, I was going to change my Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. So, they noticed it a couple days ago. kind of

I don't I haven't heard

they excavated anything. Okay. I didn't know. I just saw all the stuff down there. You want to do warm up a little bit. I don't just keep it till spring is here. Yeah.

I prefer the warm weather than the cold. Me, too. This is part of my body. Yeah, I'm doing you know after that decor and everything

I'm still taking you close. [laughter] Everybody should come up and stay with you. exercise. Same thing right. [clears throat] I had it was sitting in my office. [laughter]

There's probably a lot of noise in the room. Zach, I'll do a sound check. Can you hear us? I can hear you. Yeah, sure can. Thanks.

Yeah. Yeah. I just heard I might need to turn up a little bit. You know what we really need is two screens side by side. [laughter]

He can hear you guys. [laughter]

Okay. Or too early. I keep I got it.

Good memories. Yeah, nice. [clears throat] Does that look okay on the

chair? I talked to him yesterday.

Yeah. Did you hear back? Oh, he's [clears throat] going to [laughter]

[snorts]

seconds on the clock. Oh, you know, I always thought the little numbers work. [laughter] That's the temperature only in Celsius. Yeah, you know, 23 seems like a deal. Oh, it's in here. It's the temperature. You guys do a picture.

Hi there. Another member. Hi. Everyone get around each other like we like each other. Maybe we should turn. and I'll email you all. Okay. Thank you. All right. Thanks for coming.

I got wonder.

Oh. Oh yeah.

Okay. That's probably

[laughter]

You know, you know, Keep doing it. [clears throat] 7 o'clock. I'd like to call the February 5th Dodto City Council meeting to order. Start with roll call, please.

Lane here. Sabo here. Bradley here. Patterson here. Mr. here. Present. All right. Thank you. I would invite you all to please rise and join me in the pledge of allegiance.

I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. Our first item of business tonight is a proclamation recognizing Black History Month. Whereas February is nationally recognized as Black History Month, a time set aside to acknowledge the role of Black Americans in the history and development of the United States. And whereas black Americans have contributed to the nation's growth and progress in many fields, including military service, agriculture, industry, education, science, and public service. And whereas recognizing the history of our nation includes recognizing the contributions of all Americans. And whereas the city of Dotto supports efforts to promote understanding, respect, and appreciation for the history that has shaped our country. Now therefore, I, Rick Walker, mayor of the city of Dotto, Kansas, do hereby hereby proclaim the month of February 2026 as Black History Month and encourage residents to learn about the achievements and contributions that have shaped our nation and to reflect on the many backgrounds and experiences that strengthen our community and our country. And we have presented the proclamation to representatives here. Thank you for coming. Would you Yeah. Would you like to address the council for a minute? Certainly.

Thank you, mayor. To all the council members. My name is Katrina Robertson and I am the president of the Johnson County NAACP and as you know, we uh partner with the city of Dodto. Um, our jurisdiction covers 19 cities within Johnson County, um, with the exception of the city of THA. And we certainly appreciate the proclamation and just a few minutes um, to kind of talk about our efforts. Um and so that the audience knows um we're a membership of about 5 to 600 and we um we have members from actually both sides of the state line so Kansas and Missouri. We meet on the first Saturday of every month and our meetings are open to the public and just so that the city of Dotto knows um each month we try to have informed meetings and I shouldn't say try we actually do so we focus on uh maybe health political action legal redress um education any one of the um areas that covers what we call a standing committee that would focus on one of those. So just real briefly, um this coming Saturday, the first Saturday, so we're having a meeting and we're having a um doctor who has specialized in cancer research. So she'll be at our meeting and again um it's open. We're at Shaunie Church of the Nazarene and we meet at noon. But uh more particular would like to invite and I'll leave these flyers here uh for our um African-American history um month in the program. Uh that'll take place on February the 21st again at Shaunie Church of the Nazarene. [clears throat] Uh we think it's going to be a really great program because we we're having a speaker who is a survivor of the

Jonestown Massacre. And so she wrote a book. She was um brought into that um ministry [clears throat] when she was 13, had a child while she was there, but she was one of the fortunate ones um that actually escaped the massacre. So, she's going to be there, talk about her book, talk about her experience. Um, we do have, and I'll just sort of give this away. We have a few books uh that we will give away and sign, but you also have an opportunity to meet the speaker, and her name is Leslie Wagner Wilson. Um, and so she'll be signing books. Um, and she'll have a, you know, sort of a I shouldn't say a Q&A, but an opportunity to kind of engage with the public after her speech. So, thank you, uh, for this opportunity. Thank you for the uh proclamation. And if um any of you should need um our assistance, you can um find us in Overland Park. We're on 8826 Santa Fe Drive. Thanks.

All right. Thank you.

Our next item tonight on uh the agenda is our consent agenda. On the consent agenda tonight, we have approved minutes from the January 15th city council meeting. Item B, approve ordinance 1012. Item C, approve change order number one for wastewater plant construction project. Item D, approve contract amendment number three for wastewater plant construction project. Item E, approve quote with Lloyd Herald LLC for the main lift station project. Item F, approve ordinance 2672 updating the rules for public information sharing sessions. Item G, approve acceptance of easements and writeaways for Cedar Valley Estates. And item H, approve agreement with ME communication for public relations and outreach consulting. Is there any item on the consent agenda anyone on the council would wish to remove for further discussion? Mayor and Council, I'd like to remove item 1H, uh, approve agreement with MAC's Communications for Public Relations and Outreach Consulting. Okay, we'll take up one H after we've addressed the remainder of the consent agenda items. Any other uh items from council? Can I have a motion to approve the amended consent agenda?

I'll move that we accept the um amended consent agenda.

All right, we have a motion and a second. Just clarificate. Did I do that right, Brandon? Should we have voted to remove that item or I don't think I'm trying to complicate it more than I don't think it matters. You made a motion to amend it. All right, we have a motion and a second. Roll call, please. Lane, yes. Sabo, yes. Bradley, yes. Patterson, yes. Macbran, yes. Mayor Walker on one G. Yes. Motion carries.

Okay. Item 1H, MA's consult um a agreement with MA's communication for public rate uh relations and outreach consulting. Um was there something in particular you wanted to talk about on that, Joe? Uh did you walk what Um yes, just wanted to have a better understanding of of the costs uh in relation to um uh also the new positions that we're considering uh and hiring on city staff and uh possible overlapping.

Okay. Um Mike, do you want to address the um Yeah. overlap or the [clears throat]

Sure. Um so this position um the position you're talking about, the new events coordinator was contemplated when we formulated the budget last year. Um and the 25 budget had an amount for within the communications department for uh outside consultant services such like this. What we did is we took that amount and reduced it by the same amount that the new hire would cost, but there's still budget within the communications department for um outside consultants of of this nature. So um the plan wasn't necessarily that these are the same effort, but that the funding essentially the funding remained level. We're able to hire an in in-house person to do events coordination. Uh but there's also a need for outside consulting expertise specifically with these areas uh specifically in the areas of uh crisis management um and press relations um considering the uh potential uh ongoing large large scale economic development activities that we've had in the past three or four years and continue expect that to continue. So, uh, with that, this contract calls for it's essentially a retainer contract. So, each month there's an expected amount if we don't use that amount that could be used uh to rolled over. Um, but the Yeah. So, the the intent was never to eliminate any outside consultants within that department. Um and and Steph, you know, has articulated uh in the in the memo the need to continue that that there is particular expertise uh that's needed that [clears throat] would be very difficult to have hired in inhouse. So um just probably I use u these services as much as anybody on the staff. So I'd like to just offer a couple of thoughts.

Um uh so the I Mike alluded to it but the key element of this is the I think the the crisis communications and and that's a specialized skill and um you know by its nature we don't know what it is or when it will be needed but we know that most likely it's going to be needed at some point during the year and if we wait until the situation arises before we would seek some help um it would certainly be too late to address uh an ongoing situation and would allow not allow us to effectively uh manage that and provide timely information in that high-risisk situation. So, uh I think it's the key things that I you know it's it's on call and as needed. So, it's not a uh uh it's services aren't build if they're not provided. Um, and I think um I think that that's been shown on what happened in 2025 when the um contracted amount was I believe 125,000 69,000 was spent. Well, that that um additional unspent funds, we were able to um redirect those toward uh some new um holiday decorations for Main Street, you know. So I think um I think that goes to support that we're managing these services and using them as we need it. It's not um a known annual spend. It's just the money that is spent when that uh service is actually needed. I would be curious to know of um of the hours spent last year what maybe that percentage was of percentage of the media relations or crisis strategic communications. I would be curious of those three areas, what percentage was

spent where? Because I not that I'm disagreeing with having that resource, especially uh for potential crisis management, but I I'm just wondering in these areas and based on what the communications department currently is doing and maybe will continue to do that. Um because some of the bullet points here I think are under the direction of the communications department specifically, maybe [clears throat] not so much of a consultant. I do agree with, you know, even like media training and the crisis management, things like that. So, I would just be curious how much time was spent in those specific areas to then maybe determine if that is 25 hours a month is appropriate. Does that need to be lower or higher or just based upon what time was spent where? That makes sense.

Yeah. I don't know if we have those broke out right now. That's just my thought. Yeah. Uh another concern uh also on on page seven uh it it lists the maximum budget at $10,000 a month an annual cap of $120,000. Is that a previous template or is that an error? It's the 2025 contract that's amended as exhibit B. So it's in exhibit B, I believe. And that was the 2025 contract that was attached to the

Right. So with your approval, we would have the that same agreement. It's our template agreement for professional services for year 2026. [snorts] So exhibit A would define the previous exhibit A. That's part of that contract again, Mike. Yeah. what this current amendment would cover, which is the 25 hours and 60,000 max. So,

this is Can you hear me? I'm sorry if I'm interrupting. I have a couple questions if if I may. Certainly. Yeah, Zack, we can hear you. Um, I'm g try to get the sound a little better in the room. It's not quite as much as I want to. a little better. Yeah, let me try to do a little better. Here's that. It's not you, it's us. Hang on just a minute.

Okay, try try it now. Zach, can you hear me a little better now? Yeah, that's better. We're better now. Thanks.

Okay. Yes. So I had a couple of questions. Um if you could you mind going up to the television where you see those three bullet points that were uh the services provided. So um my [clears throat] questions are with the amount of roughly 50,000 available um given the benefit that's roughly enough. four people once the uh which would be roughly 10% of the city staff for the communications which is okay fine I know that's about 800 communications which is fine but as to the consulting services overview um community engagement operation efforts we have a staff member to have crisis communications and strategic communications I believe our communications director has a master's degree in communications and has completed the master course through FEMA which is specific to crisis communications. So I'm not really understanding why you're duplicating efforts with item 3A and 3C. Is there a better understanding you could provide? [clears throat]

Yeah, I think you know so we have um Nancy May is in the audience here um and perhaps her or Whitney could better articulate the particular um services that we're looking for that really would be difficult for us to um for us to have or duplicate in house. Um so Mayor with with your permission I might ask either Whitney or Nancy to kind of maybe articulate what that give you some clarity there.

Yeah. Good evening, council and mayor. Yeah, I think the the biggest thing is resources in on staff. Um, other cities they they have a communications department and then they have a parks and recck department that handles the parks and recck department handles the community events. When I started, Dotto was very small. So, I took on both community events and communications. And now we have a need for both. And it is just growing. And a couple years ago, it was a we we have all these needs and we want to give more to the community. And so we hired a communications and outreach coordinator to help take some of the communications work off and some of the event planning stuff off so I could have some kind of backup. The because our combined department is communications and community outreach, we're taking on the role of of all of all event planning basically. Um, so to compare it to other cities, it's just a little bit different because the five people in THAA or other cities, those people are focusing specifically on communications and we're just have we have a way broader reach. So right now I'm doing a lot of the nitty-gritty because we have so much nitty-gritty. There's so many details, so many things that we have to do. Just get pushing giving it to one person is is a staggering amount of work. So when you're focused on that a lot, when a um an emergency does come up, you have somebody like me who hasn't flexed their muscle in a couple months of for media and crisis and we want to give the best possible to the community. So when we could we can respond fast enough and give them information quick enough and that having somebody that you can consult to be that support for you is immeasurable. It's it's so so valuable. So that that's part of why that's the communications the community outreach portion, but we'll probably go through more of your questions. Do you have

anything to add to that?

Um yes. Hi mayor and council. Thank you for letting us be here. My name is Nancy Mace and um I I think another thing I would add is that um hiring um just a staff person to do what media relations would be that that's an ongoing headcount. I'm I would come in only as it would be needed. Correct. Hours not used, budget not spent. So I think that that is another reason why I do work with cities and other companies on this type of work because it's not something that you would just typically have inhouse. Another thing I would say that um is that a lot of the media relations work that Dotto is facing now is different than any other city in the area because it's complex. It involves multiple partners, private and public. Um it involves national media, even international media. And um within all of that, that is a highly specialized skill set that you know, someone who's been around the block has has done in this area a lot. And so it's not just, you know, kind of run-of-the-mill standard media relations. So I I did want to point that out as well. Thank you. I would like to add as well if um what my plan is for this upcoming events manager position that we are currently hiring for is once that person is hired is to start splitting the department. So we have our communications outreach coordinator getting to focus on communications and getting to really grow that sector. And then we have somebody focused on events so they can really grow events and make our current events better. and we have more events and those people work together to do more things like town halls and public info sessions. That's how those people cross over and that allows me to step back, do more strategic work, but then also take more of the the media relations, the crisis the crisis um communications management. Uh it's just a process. So, yes, we've

hired somebody this year. I'm so incredibly grateful that that will take work off me and and my communications coordinator, but that just [clears throat] takes time. It's going to take time to onboard. And I see in the future us gradually lowering our the amount of hours that we contract as we have done. We we think we started maybe 7 800 hours of co consultation. Uh we went down to 600. Now we last year were at 345 hours. This year it's 300. I can imagine that to keep going down but always I think it'd be important to have somebody on again to to be that resource for communications. So what this may state was a specialized experience training what experience training system

um I I would say that's a great question um Zach and you know Whitney is beyond amazing so let me say that and I work with communications partner with communications folks all across the metro area. I I would say it's primarily uh time you know it's it's decades there might be like a specialized you know engineer who brings a skill set with like deep deep experience in water manes and now I'm showing my ignorance about engineering but um for me it's been media relations so I've led media relations for big companies in Kansas City H&R Block Applebee's I was the director of public affairs for Johnson County government so I do have experience in both the private and public sector which definitely helps when we're talking about big economic development projects. So in in essence, it's it's one of those things that it's just been literally decades of media relations experience

media relations component there for the consulting with 3D because we do have a full-time community engagement operation coordinator and we are bringing on a fulltime event planner which would alleviate some of the duties of our current communications director. Right.

I understand what you're saying and that's absolutely that's certainly a possibility. I I do want to point out that I have never overbuild and in fact routinely since I've been on contract I only bill the hours that are needed. So if something came up great we would we would talk about it and we would use the hours but you're right it it's unpredictable. We don't know what there would be. Thank you. Sorry. So of those three areas like the engagement now for community relations and crisis and strategications, how would you rank those in order of your contributions over the last

I would say I mean it the role has changed a little bit right. So at first it was let's introduce everybody into Dodto to the idea of Panasonic and we were having like town halls and open houses and all of that right so that's less and less but increasingly I would say the community engagement part is more ensuring that DODTO you know has a seat at the table in in a discussion about something that's happening right so I would say probably media crisis and strategic are first and then the community outreach part would be would be last But the other two are there. Would you agree? Yeah. [snorts] Thanks.

Thank you. That's what I was wondering. I know some of the bullet points under that portion. I think our communications department is Hang on just a second. Oh my gosh. I am so sorry, Zach. I can hear you. I'm just loud enough. I guess I thought everybody could hear me and then you could hear me all the way there. Um, [clears throat] but thinking that some of those bullet points, uh, I know that our communications department, I think, has been doing that pretty strongly in some of these cases. And so I was like, well, they're already doing most of those that, you know, maybe because of your additional resources over the last year, they've been able to grow and educate those. [clears throat]

H uh your earlier question about the percentages, we don't have that, but in every single invoice, we do have she writes out every single assignment that she's been doing and each deliverable. So, um yeah, with the community engagement, it it's a a bigger piece. It might be like, I'm thinking about starting this podcast. I'm thinking about starting this like I I can't even we want to do a state of the city but we want to change it up for residents. What do you how do we how do we work that? It's just a sounding board but again we I think this past year rarely used that piece of it. It's just one option that we could use. It's the contract was made to be very adaptable to

what we need at that moment. We have no idea what's coming up in this next year and that is her it is a support system. I think we just definitely want to make sure that it's a complement to those specific areas that we need. Absolutely. Versus more duplicating work that the current staff and addition staff [clears throat] um will be doing.

I agree. No, it's definitely and there was a a time recently where you're in a meeting and a business in town had a very large issue and we had suddenly your whole day is is dropped and you are it's it was a crisis call we had so many reporters calling CNN calling you so many people and well that takes a part of your day it's um yeah just again another support and was so grateful I remember saying to you and this is why we have a comm's consultant because that was all handled very quickly. Uh I do agree with that crisis piece. Yeah. That um someone with additional and deep experience uh did come in very handy.

But we don't Yeah. to duplicate efforts. We don't say, "Oh, we need something. We need this this magazine article written. We we might have a a couple years ago because we were swamped." Now it we don't say, "Hey, can you just write this little thing for me?" It is we take all of that on. is just the things we really need. They're very good at self-regulating what we actually have Nancy work on. [clears throat]

Anyone else?

Well, I would encourage us to renew the contract. suggested motion in the report. This is our motion that we make the contract the current hours the current staff that train as the owner of need as stated. All right, we have a motion and a second to approve a contract extension with one-third the previously approved hours. Is that fair? Is that correct, Zach?

Correct.

So, I think we still need to make sure the [clears throat] vendor would be okay with that proposed amendment. I suppose you could, you know, pass authorizing that contract and then we could, you know, determine later if that's acceptable to the maze communications. So I guess are you saying one third of what was approved in 2025 then to 40,000

uh $100,000 just a couple of Yep. Yeah. No, we well we said we have a motion to second but now we can discuss. Certainly

I um I think the contributions for media relations and the crisis communications would be more of a 23 versus a one-ird. It's just my my opinion just based on um what our current department can do and what resources would be more available to us and experience with all the growth that we are going to have with some larger companies. That's just my input.

Well, I would uh appreciate that input. Um, any thoughts on amending the motions act in consideration of Ron's comment? [clears throat]

I would ask part of the discussion ask just to make sure you have an honest understanding from previous conversation if she has the full training crisis communications offer that's available currently through that training.

Thank you so much Councilman Bradley for asking that. I was in the audience kind of panicking when we had talked a couple months ago. I told you I am going to FEMA at on this date and I'm going to get my advanced public information officer certification. That would have been last week and there was a snowstorm that I couldn't fly out to Baltimore. So I I am not certified in in emergency crisis communications yet. I in the tra the it's got rescheduled today in August. So there'll be a lot of Thank you again for asking that. to ending it to providers and 40,000 instead of 60 being the training to August which is more than almost three way through the year two way through the year I think that's reasonable and once the training is completed we focus on any future contracts that we take that into

[snorts] So, Zach has amended his motion to $40,000. Do you second? Okay. Any other thoughts or discussion? I'm in agreement with the understanding that it's for build hours only. All right. There's no further discussion. Roll call, please. Lane, yes. Patterson, yes. Sabo, yes. Macaran, yes. Bradley, yes. Motion carries.

All right. Item two, call the 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 4-minute time limit. Does anyone wish to address the council under call to public? If so, please come to the podium. State your name and address. Come on up. [clears throat] Good evening. For those of you that don't know me, uh my name is Joe Webb. I live with my wife Kathleen at 8825 Kil Creek Road within the city limits of Dotto. Our 5.4 acre property is one of those affected by the proposed sewer main project that would serve the Grata Limestone uh development. I've had uh conversations with Travis Shraam and Brady, the project uh develop manager of Grata. I've talked to uh on one occasion with Mike Brungard, your city administrator, Joe Johnson, city engineer, and uh a short conversation on the phone with Danny Lane uh concerning this project. This sewer easement uh [sighs] on our property will require the removal of all the trees within a 60 foot wide path running across the entire width of our wooded property. Um to give you an idea, this room I'm estimating is probably about 70 foot deep. So it's almost a width of this room uh over a football field length. uh 338

ft across our property. So, it's substantial. It's going to remove a lot of uh large trees from our property, including um seven or eight mature walnut trees. The sewer mains projected to cross under a streamway at two different places on our property at depths of as much as um according to Brady as much as 16 ft deep and through uh materials that are anticipated to be more shelf rock than so than soil. Uh we believe that the visible and physical changes to our property will be substantial. While we're aware that the location of the sewer main would give us the opportunity to connect to city sewer in the future, right now our 18-year-old septic system seems to be performing well instead of being of great benefit to us. Uh it just seems like an additional cost for us to bear to pay a contractor to install a service line of 100 to 150 ft from the sewer main to our house. I have no idea what that would even cost. I'm not sure just how committed the city council is to the Grata Limestone development. While we'd prefer that our land not be subjected to the kind of disturbance and permanent changes that a project like this would bring, we're also aware that the city has certain legal tools that can be used to force property owners to comply. [clears throat] Now, in anticipation of this project ultimately being approved, there are a few concerns that we'd like to state and have on record. The first one is having owned this

property for over 20 years and lived on it and lived on it for the last 18. We know that every time there's a rainy season or a sudden downpour, we're constantly aware of the large amount of storm water runoff that flows through the strange basin. I've personally seen water running outside the creek banks at least a dozen times at a depth of four to five feet 20 25 ft across and with a strong enough current that I'm sure a grown man um couldn't cross it without being swept away to the c river. Um the proposed grota development encompasses the headwaters of this whole storm water drainage basin. Once it's fully developed, I think it's safe to believe that over half of that 60 plus acres is then going to be hard surfaces, either roofs, driveways, parking lots, and of course that means even more rapid runoff for storm water. We also unfortunately seem to be living through a time of weather extremes with freaky freakish rainfall. um amount to as much as 8 to 10 inches in nearby areas within the past couple of years. So we would ask that special care be given to the design of storm water retention areas within the Grota development to prevent flash flooding downstream. I think that's going to be a tough assignment. One of the selling factors to the city council from the developer has been the positive aspect that once this sewer remains installed. It could also be used by future users outside of the GRDA development. Additional users along possibly 89 street uh even maybe punching this line

um further south to the south side of K10 Highway. The proposed sewer main pipe uh running across our property has been sized at a 15inch diameter. That's so we'd ask that the city engineering department confirm that the size this main sized correctly not only for the near future and the grata development but for possible long-term usage and future users as well. I think the last thing the deep property owner along this permanent easement would want to see is a request for an additional sewer line in the future. Our next concern deals with the issue of bank stabilization and land restoration. I mentioned that the plan is to pass this sewer main under the creek two different times on our property. At one of the crossings, the waterway is steep banks of 5 to six feet with the embankment held in place by a network of tree roots. Once these stream banks are removed to allow for the width of a large track excavator, these areas would have to be stabilized with large rocks or concrete to prevent wash out and possible land damage during heavy water flow. Also, since the majority of this area is currently cleared and mowed around major trees, we would expect the ground to be restored and seated to a mobile surface. The last issue I'd like to talk about has to do with compensation. And speaking only for my wife and myself, not for any other affected property owners, I'd just like to state that the monetary offer that we've received from the developer in our opinion is not close to satisfactory considering the impact to our property. Uh like to thank you all

for hearing our concerns. I've sat in your chair a number of years ago myself and I know some of the decisions that you have to make uh are not easy ones. So, we thought that this would be the easiest way for us to talk to you all at one time instead of individually. But if you'd like to meet with any of us uh at any time in the future, please just contact us. Thank you, Joe.

Thanks. Anyone else under call to public? All right. Don't see any. So we will go to item three. We have an executive session to discuss trade secret information pursuant to KSA75-4319B4. I did email you guys a proposed uh motion for the executive session if one of you wouldn't mind doing that. [clears throat] No,

let me see. I can pull it up.

7:43. 7:43 uh for sorry, how many minutes do we need? 15 15 minutes. 15 minutes uh with city attorney and city administrator invited to participate to discuss information pursuant to PSA5-294 with the open meeting resuming the city council chamber at 8 p.m. Okay, we have a motion. Do I have a second? I'll second. All right, we have a motion, a second. All in favor, please say I. I. All oppose. Same sign. All right, we'll be back. [clears throat]

Uh, so Zack Oh, he's gone. He's already gone. Yeah, we're gonna have to go upstairs. Oh, you're here. Okay. Uh, yeah. Give us a few minutes to get upstairs and I'll call your cell phone.

Okay. Save the mic. It's working with her. Yeah, she covers only [laughter] recess. probably

have to decide based on I'm trouble.

But I think most people said I can't try to get some information so I can pass out because I know you had

some Um, sorry.

I'm sitting from the southeast corner.

Yeah, brought us out. Yeah, I was thinking about mess up front.

Yeah, I think at the last meeting way behind that I didn't know they called

location about storage unit. It's been there I mean a year plus

um my only 11. Yeah, it's crazy. So, yeah, he's he's couch. So, he's picking himself up. Yeah. Did you go into northbound?

Oh, you think that's a problem? I remember those days you baby stuff you think you're like it's fine then you're just like oh yeah every day there's a new problem I guess yeah first but yeah it's [clears throat] my parents parents are coming.

There's five of us. So, we're all sitting right next to my sister's behind us. So hopefully between the five of us and the three-hour flight just kind of direct.

Yeah. And then the next about

two kids for the stuff.

Oh, YouTube. I muted the room on the thing. I don't think I can I just got

I don't know. interest. I'll just start the public. Oh, interesting. I don't know. I didn't get any response. cities here locally.

Not good.

Okay. I just want to be over the same. Yeah. different

couple of fine. Okay. But thank you. But um but uh yeah

how many graduated everybody out the same day? Uh over two days. Yeah.

Should be a field trip. It looks like I'm just

storm. Hope that doesn't happen. I would probably Oh yeah. So the world is deep. or somebody I

then he had heavy sends me a picture his family and go standard with his shorts on with like two or three inches of [clears throat] snow. So we're waiting for some day. It's gonna be so cool tomorrow. Great shot. You're gonna wear long pants. broadcast.

I think [laughter] there was a group that was doing a study frequently today. you know those thick players that you know I started but now that something else it's really it really Huh?

Yeah. Yeah. Yes.

I woke up around the house and by about 10:30. Oh yeah. I was like, "Okay." Yeah. Exactly. Oh yeah.

Where do you live? just

it goes it goes away the way the pattern sets up and you hear webinar we did the winter webinar in we just did the rest of winter April webinar and um we've got like one more chance to the end of the in early March. We don't get that one and we don't we don't know. Okay. Where's Where's

No, I see he's there. But if I go up and talk, I don't know if I would. They will. They may not. Um, I'm prepared. But um, but no, I see his picture, but where's his camera? Yeah. Where's your camera? It'll be shot. So, they'll get the camera back. The camera back. I'm glad I'm glad I did a coma. Hey, listen. You're doing better than me.

Turn on your mic. Sorry.

Just make sure everybody behave themselves. Yeah. Okay, that's fair enough. All right, it is 8:01. We are back in session. Continue with our agenda. Moving on. Item new business. Item 4 A. Consider supplemental agreement number one to the development agreement with Mount Sunflower Properties LLC.

Uh yes, council. Uh thank you, mayor. Um, in September of last year, we entered into a development agreement with Mount Sunflower for the construction of a data center facility on the Flint Commerce Center, which is at the northwest corner of uh 103rd Street in Edertton. Um, among many other things, that development agreement addressed a significant infrastructure effort that will be needed uh to support the water and sewer service demands for the ultimate project. Um at the time we realized that the complexity and scale of those improvements was such that it couldn't be articulated or really even defined um at the time of development agreement approval. So there's a mechanism for the parties to come together um and establish what those uh parameters are and the developer and city could uh negotiate um each step of the way funding uh for the phase of improvements that's needed for each milestone. So uh that's where we're here tonight. the these these follow-on agreements are defined in the DA as supplemental agreements uh for your consideration tonight as supplemental agreement number one. Um I have articulated in the memo the overall general nature of the scope and improvements that will be needed to the city's water and sewer system. Uh most importantly punchline for us is that the developer will be required to fund uh any treatment capacity that the city would need to meet the service demand fully fund upfront uh any service demand capacity that we need uh [clears throat] to to provide service water or wastewater to the facility. Um, so the general nature of those, we know that we're going to need to uh upgrade raw water capacity in the terms of water wells uh and raw water treatment mains

going from the wells to the to the water treatment plant. We know we're going to have to expand water treatment plant capacity. And we know we're going to have to um extend significant treated water infrastructure uh to the site which includes um pretty substantially sized water manes and uh elevated water storage. That's the general nature of the of the plan. Uh the DA cons contemplates a a phase milestone approach to get to the ultimate service demand. Today's milestone includes well the first supplement includes a fund the developer funding of $879,150. Uh primarily that funding is for the preliminary design of the treated water supply mains and the raw [clears throat] water supply mains. uh that will be needed for the ultimate project. There's also some administrative funds in there for some permitting activities uh and internal administration. So, uh with that, mayor, I'll stand for any questions. Staff recommends approval of supplement number one.

All right. Uh questions from council.

Okay. Motion. I move to authorize the mayor to sign supplement number one with Mount Sunflower Properties. Second. All right, we have a motion and a second. Any discussion of the motion? Roll call, please. Sabo, yes. Lane, yes. Bradley, yes. Patterson, yes. Macaran, yes. Motion carries. All right. Thank you. Item 4B, consider contract amendment with HDR for phase 2 asset management.

Mayor, council members, thank you. So, back in January of 2024, uh we approved kind of the the first phase of this um asset management agreement and really that was kind of set up um the parameters and um on how we're going to collect the data and how it was going to be collected. Um so that that was done. Um we did uh collect some of the data for the water treatment plant and the wastewater treatment plant and we've got some for each of the two new lift station. Phase two is to really take that data imported into our matrix uh and then work to identify a vendor that would then host that data where then we can manip manipulate the data. We can run scenarios. Um we're allowed to track our maintenance. It would give us weekly monthly reports um task orders for when we need to do maintenance and what the maintenance needed to be do needed to be done. It would also allow us to uh look at um establishing a budget for uh you know replacement of pumps 10 15 years down the road. So this will actually help us and and guide us on our operation cost or maintenance cost and to be able to be set ourselves up so when we have to start doing replacements of pumps and motors um those will already be budgeted um and as a report that could be generated each year to kind of show you where we're at um be part of the CIP discussion each year as we move forward. So this phase is kind of really the one that kind of brings it all together. Uh there'll be some one or two other phases after this as far as maintenance um with as we take on new infrastructure projects. Um but this is yeah this is begin that that that key phase is to import the data and then to find a vendor uh that will help um support the data and allow us to run the scenarios that we need to do and be able to track our maintenance and track our uh investment costs.

I'll be happy to answer any questions. Question for city engineer on the asset management scope. I have a question Joe. Um you mentioned that for future infrastructure. So this isn't limited to just those stations and things that are listed there. This is expandable for all or what's the limit on the passive tracking and tracking of maintenance? Is there any limitation for what?

Yeah. So yeah. So no this is expandable. So right now that the focus has been on our vertical assets. So the wastewater plant and water plant our two new list station. So as we expand and or build new uh infrastructure vertical infrastructure that will all be incorporated into uh as we get this set up the next phase would be to look at our horizontals. So look at our sanitary sewers and our water lines. Um so that we'll be able to track all of our infrastructure. Thank you. Okay.

Any other questions? Someone ready with a motion? I'll move that recommend that the city council approve the scope of services for the asset management and development phase 2 in the amount of $259,585 and authorize the city administrator to sign the final agreement. I'll second Dan. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion of the motion? Roll call, please. Mcmaran, yes. Patterson, yes. Bradley, yes. Sabo, yes. Lane,

yes. Motion carries. Item C, consider task order number 10 with HDR for grant application for 90.

Yeah, thank you. So, um, we had a meeting a month or so ago with, uh, HDR with some of their folks to look at, um, potential funding, uh, opportunities, and one of them was the bill grant. Um, and we looked at 95th Street given the potential cost for that that it would fit well with the grant. Based on the community size, um, the grant could potentially pay 100% of that cost. And um so in in working with HDR we made an application to uh the Kansas HUD center and uh infrastructure hub which um was approved which uh in this case the state will reimburse the city 100% of the cost for this grant application. Um so we've diligently been working on it. The grant is due February 24th and um we should have a a draft here uh early next week to review. Uh but we're on target to be able to make that submittal uh and hopefully compete and and keep our fingers crossed um get the project selected for uh for funding through the build grant. So tonight asking for that that approval for $88,450. Um and again this will be 100% reimbured by the state.

Questions from council. So, I understand it's going to be reimbured by the state, but it's $88,000 just to apply for the grant. Yes. Yeah, it includes Yeah, it's it's it's a very tedious process. Um Oh, I I believe that just make sure Yes.

Yeah. They've been working eight hours a day for the last three three weeks and and they've got a team of about four bringing all the pieces together. Any other question? I move we approve task order 10 in the amount of $88,450 and authorize the city administrator to execute Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion?

Roll call, please. Lane, yes. Patterson, [clears throat] yes. Sabo, yes. Macaran, yes. Bradley, yes. Motion carries. All right. Item 4 D. received presentations from acne weather and not consider contract for weather prediction services. Yo, Mike.

Yeah. So, um this bond the previous council meeting and and here again tonight. So um so Weather Knot has provided weather service to the city for the past two years and they've provided weather service here locally for 15 or 20 years and um so in as in the past when we um I brought this agreement to the council city of Prairie Village goes out for a public bid uh for weather services. Um and and this year they had a a single bidder whether or not. Um so it's open to anybody that wants to provide weather service. Um and so whether or not was was the uh only better than low bidder. Um based on the the memo, their cost has increased I think $121 over the previous two years. Uh so this is a uh the agreement with Prairie Village is a three-year contract. um and that the price stays the same for all three years. Um at the last council meeting, it was pulled and asked to look at some other vendors that provided weather service. Uh we met with two different companies. Prairie weather um they're a little different than than what we would need. uh they stand they provide a standalone weather station um for entities and and they're they have two clients here within uh the metro area the city of Leewood and the city of Shaune predominantly that what they're used for is their parks department uh they'll they'll put a weather gauge out um at their their parks department uh you can set different parameters and then based on those parameters as weather changes it sends notices to um individual uh folks within the parks department. Uh both cities still use uh in this case whether or not to do their their weather service for their snow removal and then for their uh spring and summer construction crews on you know and basically so now we're working with

winter. This summer we'll be working when when uh raintorms come and whether do paving operations whatever other outside work we do. Um the other company was Acueeather. Uh from the the conversations we had, they seem to be uh similar to what we had with weather or not. In the proposal that I got from Acueeather, I think it's uh $6,000 uh which includes weather and snow. Um it includes five users. Um right now we have five users within public works. The weather not includes 15 users. Both Acue weather and weather not both provide um services for lightning detection and um so they both provide lightning detection. Um I did ask whether or not uh to provide me or not whether or not Acue weather to provide some uh contacts with either local cities here that they work with or within our region. Um I did not get any uh back to call to see how uh those organizations how that service works for them compared to what I'm used to. Um so I don't have that comparison to be able to uh to say um based on what I got from ACE and then from whether or not to be able to have enough seats for ACU weather for the for the number of folks that need to be notified. It takes basically two seats. Uh so you're looking at uh close to uh $20,000 or not $11,000 for those services. And here whether or not we're at scroll down to that $10,900 uh to we can add uh lightning detection. Uh that was not part of the original bid for the weather forecasting. Uh that cost is an additional $500 annually and it's unlimited with the number of folks that um get the notifications uh when lightning is within a a certain radius of whether it's our pool or uh uh Riverfest Park or Bfields. It doesn't

make any difference. You can have a number of locations and notices will be sent when lightning is detected within I think it's a 10 milei radius is the is the standard that's used. So, after reviewing all that, uh, it's still my opinion and my recommendation that we approve the contract with whether or not in the amount of $10,900. Okay. Thank you, Joe. And I and I we do have sir group with weather not here. Um, I'm not familiar with anybody from ACU whether if they're here or not to make a presentation. There's any questions from council. Okay. Um, questions from council.

I think we were pretty thorough on this uh item on our diligence. Zach, did you want to jump in?

Yeah, I don't have any questions. Um it was a little uh slight communications on exactly whether they didn't for some reason include everyone in all their emails. Um and I agree with Dr. Perry whether that is not really I think close to what we're looking for here. Um I I don't uh think that the price is necessarily factor of the quality and service they provide. I I thought that after meeting I'm not sure I'm not sure but local Kansas advent health improvement medical center Um and that they would include uh no we did not need a second monitor. Um, so fun, but you're not going to be available for now. We need to help either one of the vendors, but I felt it was due diligence to to do some research and make sure that getting

Thank you, Zach. Anything from council here? [clears throat] I would look for a motion then to uh I wanted to ask him a question. Certainly that in the one that we use now, does it include the lightning protection? It doesn't. Yeah. Yes, we can add that tomorrow. We don't have it now, but we can add it for $500 and that's unlimited number. So they can every one of their staff u whether it's at [clears throat] Riverfest Park or at the pool. So everybody would be able to get contacted. uh in advance to be able to make the decisions and the service for 10,900 plus if we add the 499 that would cover that.

Yes, sir. And then also the amount of people would not be affected, right? Correct. Okay. Thank you. All right. Any other questions? Um, ready for a motion, I believe. I move to approve agenda item. Okay, Zach.

Oh, sorry. I I thought that we were going to I may be incorrect, but I thought we were going to have an opportunity in light of the fact that is not there. We need to, but I thought that we were going to allow to answer questions and uh any hard questions. Well, I I think Joe mentioned the representative from whether or not is here. Does council have any questions they have for whether or not? I thought in light of the fact we weren't necessarily going to have a presentation, we didn't need Did you do you have some questions for her? Uh, Zack will

she answer it all in the last presentation we had. I just want to make sure that the council members that weren't there um if they have any questions based on the presentation in the packet that is there available to answer questions. I appreciate you being here. Thank you.

I won't I won't I won't complicate anything. And uh Mr. Lane, just so you know, we already would be calling parks. Uh we're we're going to be um speaking with Jay and we're already going to be calling them whenever there are thunderstorms or major situations or even light situations that affect the parks. So the lightning is about a detection system that is automatic in its best of class. Um but yeah, we we already take care of those things and we do that for Oland Park, tha blue valley schools and many others.

Thank you. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. I move to approve agenda item 4D with the renewal agreement with whether or not in the amount of $10,900 with the addition of $499 for lightning protection. Second. All right, we have a motion and a second. Any discussion of the motion? Roll call, please. Mcmaran, yes. Patterson, yes. Lane, yes. Bradley, yes. Sabo, yes. Motion carries. All right. Thank you. [clears throat]

Uh, we do not have any old business number five. So, we will go on to advisory reports. City administrator.

Uh, yes, C. I just wanted to quickly acknowledge. I think we all we're all aware we had a pretty significant uh water uh main break event this week. um was was technically very challenging in a challenging spot. Uh we had a number of of users that were out for uh I think more than 24 hours. So I just want to take some time to express appreciation for the patience of the folks who were fab uh for such a time. Uh certainly appreciation for our public works crews that were uh worked throughout the night and into the next day. Joe was there for a good part of that time. uh and and Whitney and her and and Libby um on the communication side. Uh very challenging time uh for us. Um the water is is back on and I just wanted to acknowledge appreciation for those who who uh who were involved with that. So that was it. All right, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you, Mike. City attorney. Nothing for me. All right. Thank you, city engineer. Again, we had two more main breaks tonight. I think they got them fixed tonight. You think it was? So that was a main breakdown by the park then where?

Yeah, I think there were two down there. Two down there. So I just got a tech from Billy that in the last one they fixed they had to do it live. They couldn't shut the water off. So um really the only thing I've got is that u you know we talked about Waverly the new Waverly water tower. Uh so that will go out to bid uh first part of next week. The bid opening will be March 10th. Um, so, uh, shortly after that, we'll come back to council hopefully with the, um, contractor that that's within our budget. I talked with the PEC today and had them update their estimate. Um, so I think we're well within budget to [cough] have that work completed. It may take about a year to do it um just because they're just short number suppliers for tanks and um but uh we should uh have pretty good bids and u but yeah so Mark Champ will open up bids for that project.

All right, thank you Joe. Brandon, anything from the assistant city? I think Joe might had something before ask the new one over at uh or is it going to be a different type of design? It it this one's 250,000 Oh, no. 125,000 gallons. So, it'll be completely different design uh than the one there at at AST. That's two two million gallons. Yeah. All right. Now, Brian,

um just one quick thing. Um uh we are our next popup event for the community center master plan is next Friday at the Dotto High School basketball um game in the lobby there. So, um if you're out and about on Friday, swing by. Um we're looking for input from the master. That's all I have. All right. Thank you. Council comments, Danny. Oh, no. I'm going to start with Zack so I don't forget you, Zach. You're on live. I've done that before. Forget the online city hall [laughter]

knock I do want to say for those are a great job we've done it looks really nice up there and I think we've gotten our money's worth out of it. Um, it needs a little bit harder, something a little more equity up there, but aside from that, the work that was done I think is topnotch. I think did a great job supervising that and ensuring that's going according to that. I just want to sort of acknowledge that the staff has been working on that excellent job that I just want to explain. I don't want to be just getting ordinary with the weather stuff like that. I just want to express that as we grow as a city as we increase our revenue. I don't want us to get in a a feeling where oh well we've got money now let's spend it. I I want us to remain um fiscally responsible and conservative in our expenditures for the benefits of all of our citizens and taxpayers. That's really all I have. Thank you very much uh for allowing us to first.

Thank you, Zach. Now, Danny, I'll start with you. Anything for the meeting there? I I I'm good. All right. Thank you, Victoria. Um yes, I did have something. Um, I was hoping to be the first one to speak on this, but unfortunately it was made public before I could. Um, yes, as most of you know, I will be leaving city council. I am moving out of Dodto, unfortunately. Um, but my last meeting will be February 19th. Okay. Thank you. Sorry, I didn't plan a full speech. I don't do speeches. That's all right. You can save that for February 19th.

Oh, I don't do speeches. Ron,

I was just going to echo what Mike had said about this the street crew and the water crew and um I unfortunately uh was personally affected also by that. So, um it was great to know that um knowing the crew and knowing what they've even done in the past that it was in good hands and appreciate that. And Joe, I thought you did a great live uh video of what was going on and showing everybody, hey, this is what this looks like. It's not just like a straw broke. I mean, it was it was massive. And I I think that's helpful noticing that visuals do help. Definitely. And then I was just going to echo what Zach said also. I recently was able to go on to the second or third floor, I guess. Or second floor. Yeah.

Um and that does it's looking really, really, really good. So, um yeah, that's all I have. Zack safe travels. All right. Thank you, Joe. Uh, I would echo Rhonda. Uh, I was also affected by the outage. Um, had plenty of bottled water, took a cold shower. Um,

but, uh, and I and I also stopped out uh, and checked on the crew at about 10:00 at night uh, just and and saw how extensive it was. And then uh I was able to communicate to our infamous uh Dotto Facebook page and and just kind of help [snorts] uh calm the storm, so to speak. Um but then uh something also happened last night. We had a resident um who reached out on our social media page and said that he absolutely had no water at his house and he was right near where the break was Sunday night. Uh and I started reaching out to a few other people that live on either side of him and down 87th Street and everybody that I contacted had full water pressure. Um, and I think this was also around 8 or 9:00 at night. And I personally reached out to Joe and to our operations manager, Billy, and and they were both willing to go check on this this residence last night. Um, and speaking with the resident, uh, he said he could wait until this morning. and Billy and his crew were out at the house first thing this morning, 8:00, helped this this resident, which ended up being a combination of uh a water meter issue and then also [clears throat] something within his within his house that then they troubleshooted and fixed. And and so this resident sent me a message and said they ended up replacing everything, including the meter. Billy said, "Let's replace it." so you guys don't have to call us out again. And he said, "Seriously, where besides dodto are you going to get that kind of care?" I think that just uh

echoes uh with a lot of us with uh what what we got out of the service from from your department uh this week and uh thank you.

All right. Thank you, Jill. Um tonight I have uh so in light of um in the consent agenda we have we we were able to modify our uh ordinances to allow for public information sharing to take place. So I would ask I'm sharing uh Zach you I I'm sharing the calendar. So, I'd like to have us put these dates uh call these dates as meeting dates. Notice these as meeting dates, Brandon. So, um what the what I've got highlighted here are the the green dates would be those once a month uh town halls that we would get on the calendar that we'll notice up as meetings. Then we can get started uh communicating those to to folks when that will occur. But uh right now I've got one set uh every month and I would uh um [snorts] through October and then when we got into November and December again, I think I went over last last time that the we got challenged with holiday weeks and trying to fit that in there. So maybe um we'll end with that Halloween meeting and but um if you're in agreement, I would ask that we would adopt the meetings on this calendar or the dates on this calendar highlighted in green as uh dates for um um what did we call those? Uh

public information sharing meetings. Information sharing. That's what it was. And if you could just as part of your motion just read off these particular dates as part of the motion. Okay. If that's a great and the reason I would like to get it done tonight is so that we could start uh publicizing that February meeting. So um if you want to just do the February meeting and then we can follow up with the March and the rest of the year uh at our next meeting that's fine. But um or if you're comfortable and want to call all these meetings, I that's what I think would work as well.

May we could just do the one in for February and then you guys I can send an email if you guys get your calendar together. I'll just throw something on consent in uh for the rest of the meetings in one that way there's a paper trail and one record of it. Might be a little easier. Did you fall Brandon? So m so so make a motion for the February one and then if you guys are comfortable with the rest of them I'll just put it on the on the agenda for next meeting. That way it's a little bit cleaner. Yeah. Okay. If that makes sense. Hopefully that makes sense.

I move that we adopt the town hall meetings as um just call it for February 28th. for February 28th as the [snorts] first one and to be communicated that way. Second.

All right. We have a motion and a second to uh hold a meeting public information meeting sharing town hall session on February 28th. Uh any discussion of that motion? I would just like to add in my thank yous, I did not thank Patrick for putting all this together for us and helping make sure that our ordinance um fits what we're trying to do so that we are step we're in step I should say. So thanks. Thank you.

Yes. Thank you. Obviously, thank you to Patrick, but um I I really appreciate your diligence in protecting the city and making sure that we did this the right way so we weren't in violation of or anything else and taking the conversation to put that together and supporting the efforts that the mayor and I and the other council members really wanted to do. Thank you so much for your efforts in doing that. You're welcome. All right. Any other discussion? All in favor would say I. I. All opposed.

All right. Motion carries. Uh I don't have anything else. I don't think tonight. Do I have any? Do I? No, I don't. Okay. You're looking at me like you're waiting on me to say wait. I'm waiting for a motion to the motion. I motion to adjurnn. Second. All right, we have a motion to second. All [clears throat] in favor say I. I. Opposed. All right, we're