City Council - Regular Meeting

7 o'clock in Gardener, Kansas. Will call the meeting to order. Please rise and join for the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Good evening everyone. Very small crowd today. Uh we will start with a presentation 2025 end of year financial report. Matt, we all dressed up for this.

Yes,

I appreciate it. Good evening, Mayor Council. Tonight's presentation um includes unodudited numbers. Audited numbers will be available in June. Also, um please note that this end of year report compares 2025 actual performance to the 2025 revised budget. Um in the presentation it's referred to as the 2025 estimate. So starting off a general fund. Um revenues were favorable to the our estimate by about 4.5% or $914,000. Expenditures were favorable to the estimate by 2.8% or $587,000. This resulted in the ending fund balance increasing from 40% in 2024 to 44% in 2025. Digging a little bit more into this um on general revenues, here's our major categories and some kind of standouts were building permits and public improvement inspections. Um they came in considerably higher than anticipated. We budget um conservatively when it comes to development revenues. The reason we do this is the timing is very difficult to predict. Um overall it was a strong year for development with strong performance in the fall. Also um city and county sales tax um came in about a quarter of a million dollars higher than expected. Um this is in part due to some new store openings um that happened throughout the year that contributed to the increase. Looking at revenues over time,

overall revenues have seen some steady growth. Uh if you remember, um back in 2022 to 2023, we had basically essentially flat revenues, no increase, or now we're starting to see some of that increase. Um we're basically seeing this as an impact of development activity. This usually occurs first as onetime development revenues come on, but eventually you start to see growth in recurring revenues like sales tax and that's kind of driven by population growth and new businesses. On the expenditure side, um expenditures were favorable to the estimate by about 2.8% or 587,000. The savings in the operating budget are primarily due to savings in personnel, primarily vacancies. The unfavorable variance in administration is related to um funding deposits for developers. Kind of a timing issue where we get a funding agreement in place with a developer where we get a deposit in one year but it's spent over time. This slide shows expenditures over time. Um, between 2024 and 2025, expenditures increased 2.6%. General um fund end of year fund balance um went from about 7.8 million in 2024. We originally had planned to spend down to 7.3 million, but with the strong revenues and then also savings from vacancies, it actually climbed up to about 8.8 million in the electric fund. Um, revenues were

unfavorable by negative 54% or 26 million. One of the reasons for this is we were planning to issue $26 million in bonds that we delayed. So, it's really just a timing issue on the bonds. Those projects are still ongoing. Um, and that also helps explain why the favorable um variance in expenses because um some of the capital improvements were also delayed. So looking a little bit more detail on the expenses in the electric fund. Um the large unfavorable variance in contractual service is primarily due to wholesale electric purchases and also um um property and liability insurance premiums. The favorable variances in capital improvements are due to cast turbine um unit number one project being delayed. Substation number four, only about half the expenses were obligated in 2025. Only part of the expenses for substation number one, T2 upgrade and South Clare Road overhead power line projects were uh recognized in 2025. The slide shows um how the electric fund has been doing over time. Wholesale electric power has been around $11 million in both 23 and 24. It climbed to about 12.7 million um last year. Please note 24 and 25 had large budget shortfalls. This is only a temporary issue. We are temporarily cash funding some large capital projects and we plan to issue bonds to reimburse ourselves at the end of the project. So, the electric fund balance um it was $9.1 million in 2024. We expected it to be 19 or $15 million

um in 2025, but since we didn't issue bonds, we haven't reimbured ourselves yet. So, it shows fund balance at 720,000. Keep in mind, fund balance is not the same thing as cash balance, we still had about $1 million in cash. So, at the end of the day, when we issue the $26 million in bonds, which we're planning to do over the next 18 months or so, and we know we have about $13 million in project expenses that have been delayed, when you kind of net those out against each other, add the $720,000 into it, we end up with a fund balance between 13 and 14 million. And well, 13 to 14 million is less than the $15 million we're showing. That's primarily due to the increase of the wholesale electric that we talked about earlier and a temporary loss in revenue from dogwood temporarily shutting down. In the water fund, revenue had slightly favorable variance due to system development fees. This was driven by growth. So it's up about quarter of a million. The variable variance for um expenses is are primarily related to delays in capital projects. This includes 183rd Street, water tower rehab, clear well improvements, and we only recognized part of the pre-construction expenses for water intake structure and water transmission line in 2025. Despite both revenues and expenses being favorable, fund balance still went down in 202 from 2024. We had expected actually to go down further. Um but the decrease in fund balance um is due to temporarily cash funding capital projects until debt is issued. So it went down, but it's not as much as we were planning to.

On this slide, you can see why in 2025, the fund balance decreased. Um, we had originally planned for about $4 million in capital improvements in 2025. We incurred about half of that. So, even though the actual amount was favorable compared to the planned budget, it still resulted in a noticeable decrease in fund balance because we are already planning to spend on the fund balance. So in 2024 in the water fund, we had about $3.7 million in fund balance. The revised budget was we're planning to temporarily go down to about seven negative $700,000. Um that was a timing because we're planning to issue debt in future years. Uh we just haven't spent it down as much as we had planned to. Uh we do expect those capital expenditures to hit this year. in the wastewater fund. Um so revenues were favorable by about 2.7% or 0.98 million. Expenses are favorable by 36% or 7.6 million. This one looks even weirder because then ending fund balance decreased from negative 62% to negative 66%. But if you remember back to 2024, we had the Kilk Creek treatment plant expansion project. So we've been carrying this large negative fun balance in wastewater fund due to temporarily cash funding the capital projects. We have financial plans in place to issue bonds. This is primarily due to um that expansion project. The favorable expenses in 25 are due to only incurring a portion of the cost of the Cedar Isles lift station and forced main project. the delay of the MA wastewater master plan update and the delay of the Kill Creek interceptor design work. This slide shows um you can definitely see where the Kill Creek treatment and plan expansion project happened. It's in

2024 and it's kind of interesting. You look at 2025 revenues jump up quite a bit. Um that's because we issued about half the bonds for the K um treatment plant so far. We're waiting till the treatment plant's completely done before we issued the second round of bonds for that project. And why it shows this way because in Kansas um basically we're required to record the full contract in the year it happens. So when we had that $40 billion um contract happened in 2024, we record the full expense in 2024. We're not paying out cash in for all that. is paid out over time over the years as it's constructed and then at the end of the project we issued the bonds. So end of year fund balance for wastewater was 32 million in 2024. Originally we're planning to go down to negative7 million um in 2025. We actually ended at 8.8 mill negative 18 8.8 8 million um just because we didn't do as many capital projects as we expected to in 25 those got delayed. Um kind of the same story in all three utilities. Lots of capital projects, timing issues when the debt happens and um we're planning to issue that debt within by the next 12 to 18 months. Moving on to some of our other kind of major uh funds that we talk about during the budget process. um capital improvement reserve has about $700,000 in it. That's actually um funds already allocated to other um projects. One of them is 167 Street and then the other one is playground improvements. We've already transferred money into these funds for those projects. Um special parks and recck fund um

that's funded by about a third of our alcohol tax and that's by state law. Um that fund balances at 323,000. Park improvement fund, that's our park impact fees. Um those are currently dedicated um to the Stone Creek playground improvements project. The street improvement fund is our street excise tax. Um this must be used for art our major roads which we define as arterial roads. We have a budget transfer about 2.5 million in 2026 um for that project. um and it's going to help pay for the 175th and Clare Road project. Then we have the economic development fund um that has about $745,000 in it. That's our transient guest tax um that's currently kind of set aside for future debt service related to the turf celebration park um ball fields project. So, just to kind of recap the presentation, general fund balance, um, we have a target fund balance of 30%. Um, we're currently at 44%. It's higher than we had anticipated because we had really strong onetime development revenues, particularly in the fall of last year. And then, uh, a nice increase is our sales and use tax is up about a quarter of a million dollars. That's important because that's a recurring revenue. The electric fund balance is at 2% technically, but we know it's a debt timing issue. Um, right now the fund balance shows electric fund and a capital reserve fund at 4 million, but after we issue debt and finish out our capital projects, we expect to have around 13 to 14 million. The water fund balance is at 28%. the wastewater fund balance. Another

debt timing issue. We're we're carrying this huge treatment plant expansion project. Um we're bound to issue debt probably either in the fall or spring for that project for the second half of it. Um and once we do that, it will be above our um target fund balance of 25% in the wastewater fund. So when you take that into account and when we after we reimburse ourselves with bonds um our overall fiscal condition is sound. Any questions?

Thank you, Matt. Council, do you have any questions? Know it's just the kind of the start big picture, but it's better to start with the positive. So, that's good. Okay. Thank you, Matt. Appreciate it. We have time for public comment. See no one here. We'll move to consent agenda. Is there an item council like to remove? I hear a motion. Second. Oh, okay. Uh motion made near second. We approve consent agenda. All in favor? I.

All opposed. Same. Consent agenda passes. No planning and zoning consent. No committee recommendations. No old business. No new business. Move to council updates. Uh let's start with Chief Waldick.

I don't have much. Um we started two new officers last week. Uh one is a lateral and one is uh brand new will go to the next academy and we have three others that just graduated the academy in February that are in field training. But that leaves us just with one vacancy. So things are going well. Um that's all I have. Thank you. I have nothing tonight.

Nothing for me. Nothing for me. Public works. So nothing for me. Right. Is there is this a special day for any reason for you? Can't think of anything. Okay. Happy birthday.

Nothing from me. I'll break the the run. This is for Chief Walde. Uh the article in the Kansas City Star positioned our police department is very professional and doing a great job. Just wanted to say thank you. Made the city look good. You did us proud. Thank you. You're here. All right. Councilman Weed, I know you have a few things you want to go through.

Yeah. I'm also going to break the street. Okay. So, um, I've been giving a lot of thought to, uh, some discussions that we've had before about Project Grant. If you want to go to So, I wanted to see if we could again bring this up again. Um, our current donation is set at three grand. Um, it's now coming out of the special alcohol and drug fund. And since Matt went through um, our wonderful budget presentation, I thought I'd steal his thunder and make some slides of my own. Um, so I'm still looking for consent or consensus and maybe we can have another discussion if we can raise it to 10 grand. Um, for some previous requests that we've received some from parents and citizens who've come before us. Uh, I took a look at uh the special alcohol and drug fund. If you want to go uh I threw together um, you know, where we've been since 2020. uh 2025 and 2026 on this chart are based upon the estimates uh in our in our budget books. Luckily, over the time that I've been on the council, you guys have given me those nice thick books, so I've been reusing some of those. Uh the blue is uh the fund balance year-over-year. Uh the red would be revenue with uh the yellow being any any sort of expenditures. As you can see, in 2024, our expenditures went up a little bit, but generically, uh, we started around 30 36,000 in revenue, and we're now up to $80,000 year-over-year. So, why this donation I feel is different? Um, you know, uh, first of all, education. what we talked about the last time and why we were able to move this into that special alcohol and drug fund. Um is the education associated with it um project grad was conceived back in the 1980s um as a way in which

to or is a an answer to the question how do we uh lower the amount of drug and alcohol deaths on our highways um after events like a graduation and such. So, um, back in 1980, folks got together and came up with the idea and it started to spread. I can't I can't say when it started here in Gardener. Um, but I did talk to other folks who've seen it in Lawrence. I didn't personally see it anywhere else. Um, from an economic benefit standpoint, you know, we've talked about in the past that, you know, it's a party. Um, and maybe it's something that the school should put on, but um, and you know, you know, at the expense of, hey, everybody leaves with a hundred bucks. If you start to do the math of that, um, as I was thinking about it, uh, if you give if the if there's 200, 250 kids, take the 50 off since they're in Edertton, or maybe don't do something with that $100, maybe they save it. Um, if you put a $100 in the hand of an 18-year-old, what are they going to do with it? Probably spend it frivolously as we would maybe think. Whether it be um fast food or anything else that we might have here in Gardener, they may go to TJ Maxx or Five Below now and and blow it on candy for all we know, some Swedish fish. Um, so that's 20 grand worth of economic benefit that we might be able to see in the city if we're able to continue to um encourage kids to to to go to this event that's put on by their parents um in in the community. and then the widespread support, you know, when uh given the opportunity to go to the county fair, um the first person who came up to me uh that night said, "Hey, you need to protect Project Grant." Um and you know, that kind of stuck with me obviously and

I I I continue to see as those parents come up and talk to us year over year that uh it's just something that we should revisit from time time and again. And I think with the amount of money that's in that fund um and the revenue that we're seeing year-over-year is not a huge hit to that bottom line. Uh I know that we've had some u discussion about it in the past and I'm interested to see if there's any additional discussion or see if we can get consensus.

Thank you. And what is the what is the fund balance again on the special? It's like uh 300 almost 400 grand. And is that money?

We do pay the co-responder fees out of that. Um which I do expect it's been about 25 is it uh 20,000 per year so far. We paid for it the last two years. I expect an increase but maybe like 5%. where they us

um so they sent us anou for two years and we paid the 25 bill out of the in January of 26 or maybe it was late December but there is going to be 20,000 for um for 2025 and then in June they're going to bill for the 26 but we signed theou for both years. What's our annual revenue then roughly? I think it was I don't have the numbers that that's that's what I saw. Well,

the other thing we had is we contributing alcohol fun that we run but I mean the fun balance is growing. So the fund balance is growing. We're basically not spending what's coming in at this point. I mean, we're not committed besides the few that you mentioned to much more than that. Is that correct? I mean, right now, I mean, it's growing over the years.

Yeah. I I haven't looked at the numbers for 25 if you just published it, but I our projection was 82,000 was what the revenue was going to be with an expenditure of 34. So an annual hit to that fund let's say for instance 10,000 probably not significantly affect other programs which that we that I can say that that is correct. I mean this was really financial decision.

I'll let everybody else go first. My biggest thing is numbers are dropping at the school. We're we're not getting more kids every year. In fact, some of the years we actually were getting less. And then a lot of times when the school why aren't they contributing and they say, "Well, we're contributing the building." Well, they're not even doing that anymore because they're not holding it in a school building. So, what is the school's contribution?

And I would say um to that uh you know, my thought is is that they're not students anymore. So, at this point at for project grad, they're they're graduates. So I know it's going we should ask this the the school to do more. Um and I agree. I mean there the the numbers have but even at a 90% if it's four 450 students it's still over 300 um they're seeing two to 250 from what what they've said in the past. So, I think whatever we can do to help to encourage a little bit more that they're asking for um to to uh to to help boost those numbers. Um to me, there's an even a economic benefit to to more students going

to Overland Park or THA where they hold the event file

which is just just last year. I and and uh even if they were to do it there um and or if they were still to hand out $100 bills to everybody that that money is still going to come back this year. I mean it's not like they're going to spend it in Overland Park or tha or what have you until we have our own whether it be serve or or what have you in an area like that. It's a it's a it's a a concern. I can understand that. I think the u issue of having to go to overland park or tha is is valid. I I think that uh it would seem to me that we move it back here to gardener if and when we have the facilities that would be able to do that and right now the issue seems to be we just don't have the facilities to do it. Is that correct?

Uh I think it was the idea that they wanted to encourage more students to go. Um, and so that they saw an opportunity to do something a little bit different this past year. I I can't speak to um everything that they decided and went through to to make that decision. Um, what their budget was overall? Um, they've raised upwards of 40 to 60 grand year-over-year um in including the year that um, you know, my youngest graduated. So I think they were 40 40 to 45,000.

What levels of participation we see? Uh uh I think it's probably I don't know 80% or when I volunteered 250 or so out of three out of 400 400. Yeah. When I volunteered it was less than 50% of the senior class that went and I went two years in a row volunteering. What's the venue this year?

Oh, I don't know that I haven't asked that question. I It didn't factor into whether or not I felt like we should seek consensus on that. I knew that they're always continuously looking for ways in which to uh to get funds for the project. I know they're looking for sponsorship for each student. So, andor paying a potential fee for everybody. Yeah, we we attended one a couple years back when it was at the bowling alley out there on 56 and kids seem to had a really good time. Kept them off the streets and made it safe. So that in itself probably a good thing.

Um I was just texted uh that the event should be here this this year.

I like project graduation. I think it's a I think it's a good event, I think it's a great idea. Um, looking at the fund that the money would come out of. I mean, this is exactly the kind of thing this fund is for. So having the money just sitting in the fund when we could be using it to help keep graduates safer, I think I I just I think that that's what this kind of fund is made for. So I think it would be a good use of that 10 grand to put it toward project graduation.

I do actually I do like the fact that it's coming out of this fund and to me that's a makes it much more palatable. because like you said, I think that's kind of I can see that connection. Absolutely. What level of funding are they looking for? What would be adequate?

Uh we they've asked for 10 grand over the last couple years. We've stayed pretty steady at three. So I've always said the answer should be zero for several reasons. So Mark articulated several, so we'll go through them. Um, I don't think the economic benefit is something you can count on. Um, those kids are going to spend that on Xbox controllers or something out of town. Um, part of the reason that it moved out of town is because essentially it's a gigantic party and it's been trying to keep up with the Joneses of Blue Valley and Shauny Mission. So that's why it's got to go there instead of just, hey, go to the gym and hang out until 2 am and go home. So the fact that it's a $50,000 party, um people had quite the reaction to that this last year, um we're not thrilled with that. Um, if this if this fund had zero dollars in it or it has a million dollars in it, I don't think matters because first off, it's a party for kids that can be funded by their parents or the community. Solicit donations, no different than prom, homecoming, or any other event. Uh just because there's money in this account doesn't doesn't tell me we have to spend it for this. So I I disagree with that part. Um I I don't think we need to increase. Furthermore, if there was going to be anybody paying for it, I've always said this should be a school district expense because it's for the kids. So to me, the city shouldn't be paying anything towards this ever.

I see your point. But I think I think it's it's I I see your point. I do disagree though. I think this is um supporting community. Um, and I think you know alcohol and drug fund the whole purpose or the original purpose at least and I haven't been to it so maybe it's a party but

you could say the same thing though about some other things that Gardner does. For example, we do the Fourth of July independence party. Nobody's even trying to say that that's an effort to keep people from drinking or anything like that. So it's not unheard of even if you looked at it as just a party for the city to say we want to contribute to that. I don't look at it as just a party personally but even if you did we have precedent for throwing parties as community outreach also and graduating from high school is a big deal. It is

and keeping kids safe and not on the roads drinking alcohol is a huge deal and all it would take is one accident. So,

and we'd be having an entirely different discussion. I I think we need to figure out where do we put the value on having some an event that kids can go to that will maybe hopefully always prevent a tragedy. I can I can tell you back in my younger days when I graduated from high school 18 was legal in the bars. Everybody had fast cars in the 1970s and there were drinking parties all over the county. could possibly go wrong with that. We're very fortunate we didn't have some some pretty serious accidents. And I just see the issue of project the the need for project grant to be there. And the only thing that's touching my mind is um what's the amount between 3,000 that we're doing today and 10,000 that they're asking for? It's hard to put a value on that. So I'm going to kind of defer to the consensus of the group. I I get the the point of Project Red and I actually do think it's really good, but what happens when we send a bunch of 18 year olds out on the streets at two o'clock in the morning when it closes down? Do we think they all just drive straight home and say, "Hey, mom, I got $100 and I didn't drink tonight or do they all go to a field just outside of the county line and start drinking there with their $100?" Because that's what happened last year, right? We we bust them all back here and dropped them off in the parking lot at in the morning. This year, we're going to send them all out into the parking lot at 2 or 3:00 in the morning when it closes down. Are we preventing it

or are we delaying it? No. My my experience has been those kids are exhausted.

Still, being tired and driving home is more dangerous than being drunk and driving home. Studies will show that over and over. Furthermore, I still believe our kids are smart enough to know that they can get drunk the night before or the night after or 364 other days. Again, I you know, there was a need that was determined, not even inside of uh the state uh for this back in 1980, and it's survived this long. Um I, you know, I I I understand the points that you're making. Um uh I hope that uh I kind of tried to lay the the groundwork to understand that there's a large sum of money in this fund that we're not touching and maybe you know other points you've made. You know there are other uh valid donation um or avenues for that. I'm happy to entertain any of those through consensus as well or anybody else who's come forward but nobody else has. Um, I, you know, I'd hope that I I'd laid the case. You know, I I guess I respectfully disagree that economic benefit, um, I don't think it's anything you should count on. I don't think that, uh, the the sales tax revenue would be something that we put into the, um, into the budget year-over-year, but, um, the economic benefit is probably there. It's a ripple effect. Um, you know, I you guys understand where I stand. Uh, I brought this to for us to discuss. If we don't have consensus, we don't have consensus. Um, I I'll leave it to

Can I ask a quick question? Yeah. Do have the police seen an uptick in drunk driving with teenagers surrounding graduation the night before, the night after, or three o'clock in the morning in a field after they get back from Project Graduation. I don't think I can answer that off the top of my head. I don't have any anecdotal stories to share, but um I would have to look at the data. I I just wanted to maybe also say that, you know, I I I think that we've done $3,000 for several years, have we not?

Yes. Five or six. And over the years uh when you start looking at you know that value or level of funding versus inflation it would it would seem that for it to be the same value it needs to be something more. Does it need to be three times three and a half times more? I don't know but uh I would think there's somewhere number somewhere between the 3,000 and 10,000 seems to make sense. That's just kind of where I'm thinking 3,000 is probably low. uh just simply because of inflation and uh you know and the one thing I'd like to see is better percentage of participation. I could see an increase this year and then come back to this issue next year based on participation with the senior class.

Well, Council Johnson and Wayne and I mean, I think there's some consensus to move or continue moving forward with the discussion when we come down to budget time. Is that fair? All right. Mark, good job. Thanks for listening. Appreciate it, guys. Okay. Thank you. Uh, Council Vice President,

um, Jason, can we get an update on Winwood Park? I saw that it has been the park has been removed or at least the old equipment. Um what's a status update on new equipment and all of that stuff? So we have ordered uh the equipment picked color scheme probably a week ago. Okay.

Um and I think the lead time is six to eight weeks on the equipment. So, what we're trying to do is time it with the basketball court. There could be some cost savings with moving some filter and stuff, excuse me, for the playground. Um, we actually just got our bids for the court last week. So, the selection committee's in the process of going through those bids right now. So, tearing stuff up.

So, we're looking for like probably about six to eight weeks just to get the equipment, then a little bit longer to put it in. My goal or our goal is to hopefully by Memorial Weekend weather depending. So that'd be ideal for for both for both. Are we renaming the park? Did we come to decision on that? We are. Okay. Awesome. Thank you. I've just seen some posts in the neighborhood group, so I just want to be able to give some information. And yeah, and a couple of neighbor of residents have reached out once we have the final um renderings of both. what we're going to put on our website. So, we'll shoot that out. Thank you very much. Nothing,

Council President. I have nothing either. We do have an executive session. I will hear a motion to consider entering into executive session. So, move second. Motion McNair. Second, Johnson. We recess into executive session to discuss matters of attorney client privilege relating to data centers and small nuclear reactors pursuant to KSA 75-4319 B2 beginning at 7:40 p.m. returning to regular session at 7:55 p.m. All in favor? All oppose stay right.

I know. Wouldn't that wonderful Kansas weather for you? Right. Okay. It is uh 7:55. I'll entertain a motion to return. Some move. Second. Motion De second will return. All in favor? I oppose. We have enough guys. or nay choice. Do I hear a motion to adjurnn? So moved. Second motion to eat and second we hear wejourn. All in favor Iain.