City Council - Regular Meeting

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now 5:30 and I will call the [clears throat] December 16th 2025 city council meeting to order. Please call roll. Richardson here. Garza here. F here. Maggers here. Goss here. 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, with liberty and justice for all. [clears throat]

Thank you. I have Glenn Cosner from the church, First Church of God here for the prayer. Shall we pray? Our gracious God and heavenly father, we come to you this evening thanking you for each one of these people who have served on this council and continue to serve. Thank you, Lord, for all they've done. Lord, we pray that you'll be with them tonight as they meet, that they will seek wisdom from you and not just from themselves, and that they will consider everything before them with that wisdom. Lord, may they consider every resident of the city of Hutchinson and every business as well as these things will affect many. Lord, just guard their hearts and the discussions they have. May they be open to true discussion. Lord, we lift them up in your hands. In the name of Christ we pray. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Thank you. Next item. Item number four is proclamations. And we have none, but we have Santa. Ho ho ho. Chris Kringle, South Pole. Here's Brad. A little joy. Chair council. Harry. We've all been good employees for the city of Hutch. We're volunteers. [laughter] Thank you. Sorry. You You were You take it seriously. Thank you. Thank you, Santa. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you all for good night. [laughter] Thank you Santa. Thank you. [applause] Next item, please. Item number five, executive session. Um I move to recess into executive session pursuant to the personnel matters of non-elected personnel exception KSA754319B1 in order to discuss city manager matters. the open meeting to resume in city council chambers at um 5:38 PM. Do you have a second? I'll second. Richardson, yes. Garza, yes. Fast. Yes.

Mayers, yes.

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So, where do your tax dollars really go? Let's break it down with a single dollar. First, here's [music] the truth. The city of Hutchinson only gets about 25 cents of every property tax dollar you pay. Sales tax, we get just 1.4% of purchases made in the city. So, no, we're not swimming in cash. But here's how we stretch every dollar we do get. 44 cents goes to public safety, police, fire, and emergency services. That's nearly half of your dollar keeping HUD safe. 15 cents for parks and [music] facilities, mowed grass, sports facilities, pools and splash pads, walking trails, and clean public restrooms. 15 cents covers capital improvements and bond payments, roads, major repairs, and the debt we've taken on to build what matters. 10 cents goes to public works and engineering, water, sewer, storm drains, and street maintenance. 9 cents runs the core admin team, IT, finance, HR, [music] the city attorney, keeping everything moving behind the scenes. 5 cents for economic development, bringing new jobs and opportunities. One and a half cents for code enforcement, making sure buildings are safe. 1 cent for planning and development guiding future growth. And just onetenth of a cent for arts and culture. Yep, 1/10enth. We listen to [music] residents. We crunch the numbers. And we focus on real needs, not fluff. We treat every cent like it counts [music] because it does. That's the city of Hutch budget in action. Smart, transparent, focused on what matters.

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feel. Heat. Heat. Next item, please. Item number six, consent agenda.

Um, item number six is the petition remmonstrances and oral communications. I'm sorry. That's okay. Petitions, for monstrances, and oral communications from the audience. Is there anybody here to speak in public comment? Please come to the podium and state your name. I'm Mark Buckley and this is Geneva Nisley. Give me one one second. I'm just going to read a quick statement. Please limit your remarks to five minutes and to items not on the agenda. Audience members may address items on the agenda when the item is discussed by city council. Thank you.

Thank you, Stacy. Uh I'm Mark Buckley and this is Geneva Nisley. We own the toy depot at 127 South Main. Uh I I'm here a little different today. I want to thank the council and I wanted to make sure John hadn't left yet because I love B Street. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for B Street. It is wonderful. and thank you for the park. The uh homeless left about two hours after you put the sign up, but we have not seen one in the last three and a half months. So, I want to just thank you for what you did for us. And as Forest Gump says, life is a box of chocolates and Geneva has a present for each one of you. We want to thank you from Toyo and from our neighborhood for what you did because I know you get paid absolutely nothing.

Thank you. Now, someone gets a little muddy, but you know, [laughter] we have one for everyone, including Justin. We don't want to leave you out, but I just want to say B Street's wonderful and the park. It's so nice to not have the people there and and it's it's helped our business and we just saw an instant change in business once they left. It it helped us quite a bit. So, again, thank you very much. I want to wish all of you a merry Christmas and happy new year. John, we'll miss you, but we'll see you around. See you, friend. Thank you. And thank you [applause] just uh to Mark, congratulations on winning the uh best window contest again this year.

Yes, thank you. There wasn't one, so [laughter] I got it by default. Reigning champ. Is there anyone else here to speak in public comment? Seeing none, we will move on to the next item. Please next item. Item seven, consent agenda. Any questions or remarks from council?

No. I would move to approve the consent agenda and authorize the mayor to sign. I second. Richardson, I want to abstain. I'm sorry. I'll abstain. Uh Garza, yes. Fast. Yes. Mayers. Yes. Goss. Yes. And before we move on, John, do you want to explain your abstension? Uh, my name is on here to be listed on the building trades board and I thought that it just didn't look good. Thank you. Thanks.

Next item, please. Item number eight, ordinances and resolutions. A, consider an ordinance submitting proposition of 34 general retailer sales tax. Angela Richard, director of finance. I think it is getting the PowerPoint ready. Okay. And you'll notice this says budget discussion because we are taking you back to when we prepared the 2026 budget discussion when we first discussed the idea of an additional sales tax. Um so you know it was a tough year. We ended up cutting many um park projects or postponing those. Um we ended up reducing traffic signal improvements, arterial restricts, many miscellaneous contractual items including engineering fees and we froze a position to get to the proposed budget. And then from there we learned that our medical costs were going to stay the same. Um and then we did some repprioritizing and some rearranging with staff and moved some of the general fund levy maintenance to the storm water fees uh utility fee fund. Um it did qualify to be moved there. So we did that to relieve the general fund after all of those cuts. We still needed to increase the mill levy 1.7 mills. And this slide shows what the impact of that was to a $100,000 home. It was 1955 a year. $400,000 home, it'd be 7820 and a $1 million commercial would be $425. So, this was all needed because of the

inflation we experienced because we're running fully staffed um at levels we have not seen in a very long time. I [clears throat] believe Chief Burley said that he's fully staffed for the first time in 25 years. So, what we're experiencing now is the true cost of being fully staffed and running um as we had budgeted. And so that has been putting pressure on the general fund and also the general fund almost 70% of that is made up of salaries. So we were trying to do this without reducing any headcount and still be able to provide um wage adjustments. So as a reminder, our mill levy is 42.095 and there's a list of others that are comparable in the neighborhood. were still um on the lower end and still comparable to our peer cities. I did want to point out the total cost of lowering our mill levy over the years. So, we started out at 44.492 and then we've been reducing it every year until 2026 where we went back up to 42.092. By reducing that mill levy, um, we essentially decreased our revenue a potential of $7.4 million. We I wanted to show the cost of doing that. After all that, the ending 2025 projected balance will be about 4.1 million. We may end up closer to 5 million. And then for 2026, the ending general fund balance would be 1.3 million. As a reminder, the GFOA and many other sources state that we should have approximately 7 million in our general fund for emergencies. So, we

need to work on building back up that reserve. Here's um a graph of where we started out with um our expenses and our revenue. All those factors I just discussed um led up to this where our expenditures in the green line are exceeding our re revenues. Now we were able to make those lines go a little bit closer with all the budget cuts that we did. So realizing that we can't maintain this level of expenditures and level of revenues, the idea was proposed that we propose a 3/4 cent sales tax initiative. This would go towards funding streets, parks, and recreation and stored water improvements. If this is passed, we would then eliminate the storm water fee from utility bills. Um there are some ground rules for sales taxes. Um, and there's a procedure for it. So, we would pass an ordinance calling for the election. We would then notify the county and then the county would publish the notice of the election. And sales tax [snorts] only starts at the beginning of a quarter. So, what does this look like? Well, first we have to decide whether this is a reoccurring reoccurring or limited term. if it's specific use or general use. We would um have to approve having this on the ballot by January 3rd and notify the county by January 3rd. The election then could be in March of 2026. It would go into effect October 1st at the beginning of a quarter, but we wouldn't actually see the collections until December 2026. sales tax is approximately two months behind um when it was actually collected by the

businesses. And then after we start collecting that, we would vacate um or expire the storm water fee. And Angela, if I could cut in here real quick.

Uh, so council, if you recall during the the budget sessions that we had, um, I I did advise at that time to use a limited term, so be a 10-year term, uh, and have it be general use. Uh, so that is the the default language that is provided in the in the agenda packet is the general use language itself. So what does this look like if we pass a threequarter sales tax? As you can see then our green expenditure line item is going below our revenues. So this those lines are very close together which indicates that we're not asking for over what we think we need to restore this structural imbalance. If we don't pass the sales tax, if it doesn't get passed, then we would need at to look at reducing our expenditures significantly. We had about a $3 million gap between revenues and expenditures. We would need to make up for that. That is going to mean significant service cuts. And and that could mean anything from reducing our level of maintenance on streets. It could mean less fire um employees, less police. Um we're going to have to figure that out. So, we're going to see service level cuts somewhere in order to make this balance if we don't pass the sales tax. So, look at our peer cities. You can see um right now we're at 8.25. So, the line is between 9.25 25 and 11.5. Garden City 8.95 and 10.95. Dodge City 9 to11. Um right now only half of our quarter spent approximately half of our quarter cent um sales tax goes to street maintenance.

If you look at the other cities, you'll notice between half a percent and 75 um 75% go to streets in those cities. Um, so this is just another look at how that's going to affect our ending fund balance, our projections over time. So we're not trying to [clears throat] get rich or add additional service with this. We're just trying to maintain. So what if what if we did a one 1% sales tax? um you would see here that the revenues would be significantly over our expenditures. So that's why we're not proposing a 1% sales tax. We want to stick to what we need. So are there any questions?

Who wants to start? Oh, you said what was that statement you said on Say it again. Let's stay. Go ahead. What's that? what you just said. Uh so the previous slide was breaking down like how you can define a sales tax and you could either have it be permanent um or limited or specific use or general use. And you was in a way you were saying it's going to be to specific use. Is that correct? Is that right? Yeah. Well, it would be uh general use uh but a a best practice um is to either pass like a resolution or an ordinance that further defines what that money would go towards.

So general use in in my perspective is on streets and stuff like that. Am I right? Correct. So when we were looking at uh trying to provide relief to the general fund,

um there was a few ways that we could do that. You could do it through cuts like to projects or something like that. Um but the other thing was also shifting say this the storm water uh money like the employees were being paid out of the general fund. Um but then we looked at and said hey well actually you could pay these out of the storm water utility fee. So then we made that shift to alleviate the burden on the general fund. Uh that did help uh but not enough because we still have that $3 million difference. And that's where Angela uh once we all kind of realized that does that mean personnel at at that point? Um and none of us want to ever propose that. Okay.

And so uh because we are in in dire straits um that's the where we're at. And so the idea of doing the limited term uh in principle is so you can kind of prove yourself and then if the voters kind of like what they saw then you can propose it back to be a permanent. And so a lot of the operations from parks and parks is inclusive of our facilities, animal shelter, the zoo, um a lot of the heavier street maintenance um work that we do, and then obviously storm water with the the FEMA flood plane map that we have now. We need more money, and that's something that does impact anyone that lives here. And so, um, the the issue with, uh, the storm water utility fee, one, it's not enough, but then also takes a while to build it up. And so, as we were exploring different projects that we could use the storm water utility fee money on, um, on one analysis, you can throw everything at Cow Creek and you almost, but could exhaust all of the the resources on just one project alone. or it's the state fair detention basin and a portion of Cow Creek. Well, then you're still wiping the the slate clean. Or um you increase the revenue somehow. And since I've been here, it's been a a huge push to get rid of the storm water utility fee. I can understand that. Um but we still need more money from somewhere. And so anyway, we're we're optimistic that if this were to pass that we could really make headway on the the FEMA issues.

Okay. Thank you. On the on the storm water utility fee, there are um reductions if uh retention detention aspects are designed into a property currently. Yeah.

Are we going to if we're getting rid of the storm water utility fee and we're going to pay for storm water maintenance through a sales tax initiative? What is motivating developers, contractors to try to hold on to that storm water on their properties? what motivation would they have to do that? Um because it does benefit our community to not put that burden more burden for the storm water drainage. Um is that something that we're going to look at is trying to find a way to encourage developers to retain water on their lots?

That's general good design practice. I know that depending on the size of the project, they have to do a swip as well to determine where surface water runoff's [clears throat] going to go. But we would design we were designing that into new developments to try to incentivize them to keep their storm water fees down to try to hold that storm water on their lot longer. Right. And if if we're taking that storm water I'm I'm just at this is something to address. Um that we want to keep encouraging new development to try to mitigate that storm water burden on our system. Um if we're already facing other storm water flooding concerns. Yep. Okay. and because it puts the ball in their court and makes them do the work.

Whereas if they don't do the work and they build whatever, um it it falls on on the city and the residents to pick up the slack. I have another question if that's okay. Yeah, go ahead. Um I have another question on the is is there what's the benefit of timing on the special election and what's the cost? Let me try. Paul Brown, city attorney. Um, I don't know that there's a benefit on the on the cost. The idea of putting it on the March ballot is that when you're preparing the 2027 budget, you'll know whether or not you have a sales tax to to work with.

Okay. Do we have an idea of what the cost is of running that election? About 43,000. And to further comment on the storm water utility fee, everybody that has a water bill or owns property without water service pays that fee to the city. That will all go away. Correct. Yeah, that would go away uh once we start collecting the sales tax revenue. And and generally speaking on on an average water bill, it's about 80 bucks a year that would go away. Correct.

Is that it's $4.75 a month? It's like $57 a year for residents. Yeah. Okay. Um so John, to speak to the cost that you asked, the cost of a [clears throat] um special election What number did you say? I'm sorry. Did you say 40,000? 43,000. The email you sent me earlier today says 27,000 in the email from Jennifer because

Oh, and then add in the 17. another 17,000 added because the polling place was going to be in a different location and you have to notify everyone of the change in polling places and that alone is 17,000 uh because they do it at the fairgrounds on March 3rd that facility is not available.

Not that this is we're bounc I'm going to bounce back to the storm water thing while I'm thinking about it. Not that this is good or bad, but one of the attributes that was pushed when the storm water fee was put in place was that it it's it's a burden based on it's a cost based on the lot, not based on being tax. It's a fee, not a tax. Um whereas on the sales tax aspect, it's being funded by sales taxes. So properties that that are, you know, sales tax exempt or don't spend money on sales tax or, you know, they might be a burden to our stormwater system, but they're not sharing in the in the uh support of it. Mhm.

Um that was one thing that was when the fee was put in place, that was one thing that was discussed is making it a fee and not a tax reason. And obviously too, council, if you recall, uh with the storm water utility fee that if you cut the road, you can use the fee to replace the pipe and not the road. So there are practical limitations with that and also what staff have experienced in trying to administer the fee. Uh based on the eru say if someone added on to their house most of the time we're probably not going back to factor that in um so we miss some we catch others. Uh so there are some limitations just from administratively trying to manage that the utility fee itself. So having the

So that's a that's a poor example though because residential isn't calculated off an ERU. It's a flat 475. I'm just saying but there there there have been so that would be on that would be on commercial only. Maybe I just misspoke but you did I just want I just want that to be accurate for people at home who are following along. Um you Oh, sorry. Go ahead. I didn't mean to jump your case on that. No, it's fine. I just off the top of my head. Yeah. Yeah.

I didn't know. Sorry, I didn't mean to jump in front of you. Um, so Enrico, you made a comment. Um, well, I shouldn't make a comment, but how much do we pull in off the storm water per year? Um, the fee. Uh, Angela, do you recall? Gosh, I can't remember. I think it's just over two million. And I think you were talking with the increased sales tax that we could probably increase how much we bring in based off the I mean based off the sales tax we bring in more off that versus storm water anyway. And then you'd have outside entities helping to pay for all of that versus all of our residents. Correct.

Okay. [clears throat] Um, so I had inquired if we would be able to um limit the food or grocery sales tax the same way that the state is able to. And the answer is no. Um so if this moves forward this would be a 75% increase on um food as well even though the state has moved to um reduce that to zero on that particular item. I have like three pages of notes here, but I don't know. They're like actual questions. I've just been doing a lot of reading on

Yeah, go through them. I mean, we need to we need to deliberate this. Well, I mean that the question before us is truly a a procedural question of do we want to submit this to uh to be an election or not? Um I mean if that's the consideration, the question is which election are we going to pick? Um, I don't know that. I mean, my notes are more or less justifying whether or not we like whether or not the sales tax is a good thing or a bad thing or

Well, let's let's back up a minute. Let's talk about how we got here even not just this past year, but the last few years. I mean, we had in 22 to 23, we tra we went revenue neutral, so we didn't raise the budget at all.

And then for 23 to 24, we went revenue neutral, so we didn't raise the budget at all. And then in 20 for 25 we we split the difference between raising the budget and so we and going mill levy neutral. So we brought the mill levy down a little bit but we raised our budget a little bit and now we're here. And so all that being said on top of a cumulative inflation of 25% over the last 5 years we've been trying to cut where it's easier to cut. And now we're to a point where we're anything that we try to cut is going to be painful for groups of our community because quite frankly, I mean, if depending on where you live and what amenities you use, you might be fine if we get rid of other amenities that you don't use, but the other people might not feel the same.

Well, and not thinking of a not thinking of this from a what are we going to cut, but who's going to benefit if if the sales tax is put in, who's going to not benefit? [snorts] Um, I think the the who's going to benefit is a lot harder to define because um the the people who would benefit are it's anybody who [snorts] um would potentially be paying um flood insurance because the majority of this money is going to go to to remediating [clears throat] the the flood plane map. Um, now [snorts] [clears throat] I guess the timing wise and understanding that our map isn't finalized for 2 years and we don't get funds until you said December of 26 if it passes in March.

Mhm. Um, I mean, we're like, and and all that March date really gets you is you get to budget for the next year of whether or not you're going to have those funds, but you don't have enough to actually do any projects before the map's going to be needing to be finalized. We're still going to have eight detention basins done by then. Well, I believe what it's going to come down to is the four of you plus council member Truan are going to have to decide if if if we vote if we decide to put it on the ballot for vote, then it could be a yes or no. If it's a no, it's the same situation as we don't put it on the ballot, except, you know, we spent $40 some,000 to put it on the ballot. And you guys are going to have to decide if you're going to raise the mill levy and raise everyone's property taxes to try to meet what we need to do or you're going to say we're not doing the flood plane work. We're not doing this. We're not doing this because we can't afford it. And that's going to be I mean I'm I'm not trying to say be but I don't have that burden. I'm trying to make sure we understand the consequences of the three [clears throat] options we have.

And they're not all fun.

Nope. I I think for me the people who stand to benefit the most are the ones who lack agency the most when it comes to voting in in local elections voting in special elections also um also most likely not registered to vote and that's renters and that's um people who are below a certain income level. um those are the ones that if they have to pay flood insurance, whether that's through an increase in rent or um on a mortgaged home or property, um those are the ones who are going to suffer the most. But then when you look at a sales tax, the sales tax is regressive. Um so it's going to have the biggest impact on um people people who are low income. Um,

it also spreads the burden to people who don't necessarily live here. If it's purely property tax, it's only on the people that live here within the city limits. If it's sales tax, anything we can do to increase sales revenue for people that come into town lessens the burden on our own community for some of these amenities,

right? But then to counter that argument, the property owners who own property in town but don't live in town, um because you can't have a sales tax for some and a property tax increase for some, um it's it's essentially all or nothing. So people who own property in town but don't live in town and you know don't even shop here, which I mean there are a lot of businesses and companies and people who would fall into that. um they would potentially see a property tax decrease because of the sales tax. And so again, the burden is falling to our residents. We're banking on this being carried by the tourism industry. Um I pulled the numbers from the Cosmosphere um vote and and those projects and all of [snorts] that. That was really helpful to read through. But um there isn't an actual number to say because it's sales tax. You don't know who spent the money.

Correct. You can tell me how many people walked through the Cosmosphere or Stratica or attended a football game. But we're also trying to create more sales tax revenue drivers through like the Star Bond, which wouldn't go if there wasn't a justification for more sales tax revenue. I mean that that's a focus that we have is try to generate more sales tax revenue.

One of the things to consider too is your pull factor. And I don't know if Kathy's going to talk about that in the strategic plan, but they had looked at our pull factor and I don't remember what it is off the top of my head, but we're pulling in um sales tax from surrounding communities like Nickerson Beller. So those people who are driving on your sheet streets to go get groceries, they would be contributing towards the streets. I know what we're voting, what we're deciding is if we're going to put it on a ballot, but I think it's important to discuss the consequences of any however these decisions play out. Well, I appreciate you mentioning the FEMA flood plane map and the increased cost in insurance premiums. We have to do that. We didn't ask for a new flood plane map that encompasses 30 40% more of our city. I would think it's very important for us to do all we can do to decrease the amount of people affected by that because I don't think anybody has any idea what might be coming if we don't because those insurance premiums are very expensive. I I'm I just I appreciate you bringing that part of it up. I mean, [clears throat and cough] there's there's a lot to consider here, but I I mean, it's it always my default to try to let the people decide what they want. And I think uh the voters could tell us in this way and and and there is value in discussing property, you know, owners carrying the burden or everybody that's coming to our

city carrying the burden. I mean, it's just a it's a it's a shared thing to try to get our budget balanced. Again, this well the whole reason we're talking about this is expenses are this way and we've held the line probably to our detriment on taxes. I I like it or not, and I'll I'll just say it and I'll get criticized for saying it. We have been revenue neutral. We're still at a lesser mill levy than we were 5 years ago. And if you look at the charts on sales tax, we're under the other communities around in a in a sales tax. I mean, you know, I I get it every day that that we're the we're it's it's more expensive to live in Hutcherson than anywhere. And it's factually not true, and that bothers me. How how would this I don't want to say strategically, but how would this align with the county's initiative?

It's separate. It's separate. Um are we taking Are they projecting or what are they pro suggesting? I'm not sure. I haven't been following it that tightly. Uh they're just doing a study to see what people would what they could stomach on the county side. But we get when the the sales tax goes to the county, a portion of that comes to Hutchinson. Correct. Correct. Like 46% of it or 44 about 49 I believe. I mean it would stack. It would stack. Assuming that this goes and then if there's where to go, you're probably closer to that 1% projection.

Just put us at 9.25. So with with just that what we're proposing, we'd be at 9% cumulative in the city of Hutcherson other than CIDs. Correct. Correct. We were at 9.1 like five years ago. Correct.

Okay. You know, and I would say to to add to this discussion, uh, you know, council, the other thing that we've been deliberating on in a lot of workshops and our budget tours, um, the condition of a lot of our most valuable assets, uh, the wastewater treatment facility needs a lot of work. Um, some of that's just age and wear and tear, and then a lot of it also is neglect just outright. And that's not something that U5 were aware of um at the time. I mean, you only know what you're being told. And so we have a lot of things where essentially we need more bonding capacity to fix a lot of this work. And the sales tax does provide relief that way. So anything we can shift away from the general fund provides more capacity to fix these other issues because those have to be fixed. Um, and so if if there was a go, no go for a sales tax, I mean, how are we going to fix those items, too? Um, I mean, theoretically you could do a revenue bond, but the the yield for those aren't great either.

Um, so you kind of incur more debt [clears throat] that way. Um, but I would we there's a lot of neglect around town that we need to fix and some of them are very they have a high price tag. Well, I'll take responsibility for some of that. I've been sitting up here four years holding the line on taxes and again to our detriment here we're having this discussion and uh you know I I realize I didn't know a lot about the wastewater treatment facility and some of those things u but was just making decisions based on what I was told

exactly and that that was a failure on staff um I mean that at least for some of these items I think that was pretty clear Um, but you know, we have a a reasonable path forward to fix these things. And you know, I am excited about what that can mean for the community and growth for the community. But some of this is growing pains. Well, you know, guys, um, people don't understand what responsibility us five have. is either way we're going to it's going to be bad if we if we if we pass this thing and say put it on the ballot and the people say they don't see it our way or don't understand that we do the best we can for the responsibility for the people in this town and we don't get paid for it and they don't realize how much responsibility we got who wants to raise taxes I don't want no taxes raised but I want this town to grow in earlier this year took us to the wastewater treatment plant took us to the water plant. Us five people are responsible for those plants and we have to do what we have to do to keep those plants up. The sewer plant and the water plant. It's us five people that's responsible for the streets that everybody complains about. It's us five people that's responsible for a lot of stuff. So you have to understand I'm talking to the public on TV and it's in here. We have a lot of responsibility. Just because we say we want more money doesn't mean that we're bad people. We're doing the best we can to take care of Hudson, Kansas. And I love Hudson, Kansas. I like being here. So, it's come to a time, like Mr. Fat said, we hold the taxes to a limit as best we can. But now, on the other hand of it is now we got good people in the office here. We got a great city manager. We have a great fire chief who's going to be leaving us soon. Uh we got a great

police chief. A lot of things has improved since we've been on the council. And I'm the oldest one here. Not age-wise. I am age- wise, too. But sitting on the council, and I've seen a lot of bad things. I worked for the city for 33 years. I seen this city going downhill fast. Now, we finally got five people on here or people before them that we finally have a good council that cares. But people have to understand it's our responsibility that whatever we do it's our responsibility and I I do want to qualify in my statement on the failure of staff. Those staff aren't here anymore. Yeah.

Uh so the staff that uh we do have we have been working very hard to give them a voice uh put people in positions to fix the things that need to be fixed. Uh so I don't want that to be a a thing where people assume that they're still here. the the the wastewater treatment plant has to get addressed. It is not a want, it is a has to. And that is a huge chunk of the budget for 26. Yes.

For me, that tour that we took, I don't remember when it was, um anyway, it was cold. Um that we took out there and we were actually walked around and we were shown all the crumbling concrete and the rust and the water. Uh that's the bad water that's infiltrated and you can't there's no um portable water out there. Um and all of the mold in the um offices and the lack of you can't even drink emergency shower. Yeah. Like

I almost threw up like I don't know a dozen times. I couldn't even go in some of the buildings.

Yeah. Uh, and yet we require employees to work out there. That was the second tour that we took. Oh, I I on boarded with a a different gentleman. Um, the first tour was just like a walk around and point like, hey, this is this thing does that, this thing does [snorts] that. Okay, let's go to the fire department. Um, so it was not shown to us until until Dave came on. um or right before Dave came on, I don't remember. But anyway, it and it was eye opening to go through that second tour and be shown the lack of investment, um the hazards, um the extra cost that we're constantly putting in, the extra insurance cost, the extra equipment, um the extra chemicals. Um um yeah, I understand it's a significant investment.

So, we're in a bad position almost either way we get is going to be almost that if we go for a tax 3/4 in tax and people think that I hear that all the time. We're tax too high, but the tax is what keeps this city going on. I'm sorry. Tax, we have to have tax. Pays for the street, pays for the police, pays for the fire. The only one that don't pay is us. But you know, but it's very, very important that we have a big job. And I'm going to be real honest with you guys. We have to have the 3/4 inch tax. We have to get it to pass. We have to get it going so we get Hudson going again. Um, you put your city council. What I mean is griping at us, yelling, yelling at us. I get a lot of it on the streets. We can't have taxes. And I can't explain to all the citizens, we have to have the tax to keep the streets going. The gentleman here in the toy said how great the street was. Well, we appreciate that, but it took tax money to do that. So it in my I just got to tell the citizens who's listening, we have to have the 3/4 inch tax. If we don't, then you're going to see whole then we're going to have another decision to make on how we're going to do come up with the money. So, we're at a position where we don't have a choice. We've held down taxes as long as we can, and we've done a good job on it. Done a good job on it. I worked here for 33 years, and this city is the best that it's ever been since I've been on with the city council and as an employee. And in fact, I am an employee. But we have to move on and we have to bite the bullet. And it's not a big just three quarter cents. I think Witchaw's making a decision tonight, too, aren't they? I think if I remember right, I already got calls about that. They thought I we were going to do that. It wasn't us. But in my personal opinion is just we have to have it or Hudson's going to go down.

Hutchinson's going to go down. So I've been thinking about this and getting more white hairs all the time. So I always been honest with the public and I'll be honest with the public now. We have to have 3/4 in cents to get this t to get this get get going on the city. Um there's no choice and if we don't it's going to be worse. If we don't pass this 3/4 incent it's not going to be great be laying on police fire. I don't know how we're going to do it. But you're just giving a more big burden on these unpaid people up here. More burden. And for that poor gentleman sitting there with his his arms claw. You're going to be up here sir. So,

Paul, I have a question for you. The language, the proposed ballot question that's on page 90, um, that says for March 3rd, 2026, um, are we so in the previous Cosmosphere um, Stratica roads and property tax um, the quarter cent sale sales tax that passed in 2022. Okay. All of those included property tax relief. Are we able? We would just have to amend this here if we wanted to include that in this language. Right. Well, this is the general one. Yeah.

We could say go back and make that the the three points that were listed. Yeah. Um but what was add a fourth of Yeah. What wasn't listed on that was property tax relief. Isn't that kind of a given if we're paying for stuff that normally property tax would pay for through the sales tax that it relieves the property tax burden because we're paying through sales tax? Not necessarily. Okay. So, Angela, I have a question for you. So, if we don't pass the sales tax, how much would we have to raise the mill to accommodate for that? About 10 mills.

Okay. So that's the thing that I want the community to understand too is if we don't go down this route with the sales tax, we're going to have probably have to raise the mills, which for me and taxpayers, I would think I would want more to have outside entities coming in to pay sales tax to help us cover that burden and putting more back onto our residents um and property owners. So, it's I just feel like it's a better use of a system for like the storm water to go away because we're we're kind of tied to what we can use that for to where we can have the sales tax in there, then we can use it and go, "Okay, we can compare everything from the top to the bottom." It just to me, yeah, it's I don't we don't want to raise taxes. And to me, in in my mind, I don't really think we are. We're just changing how we're acquiring the funds so we can use it how we need to as a city, which again, we're not up here to raise keep raising taxes. We're just trying to figure out a way better way to make the city function better, fix our infrastructure, and um I just it just to me this it makes more sense to go down this route. Now, I don't like I brought up a few months ago, I was really against, you know, special election. Um $43,000, it's a lot to throw out there if it doesn't pass. Um which I still think it's a it's a risk to take because I think in the end I think we're going to benefit from that if we do pass it. So, just my two cents. What's our total budget of the whole city?

The whole city. Um, it it varies so widely from year to year depending on the capital improvement projects we have. It could be anywhere from 80 million to 110 million total. Yeah. So $43,000 is a rounding error of $100 million.

It's not nothing, but it's I I [clears throat] view that the same way, Stacy. It's such a small amount, and I know that the small amounts add up. Um, but in the big scheme of things, it's not a lot. And I guess that's why I was willing to push it off. You know, I I really was against um the special election just because of that cost. Mhm. But I think if we have a better chance to pass it for our community to make it better for us, I just think that's a benefit to everyone. Another question is what's the benefit of knowing that before going into budget season for next year? Knowing that is huge.

Huge. I mean, you're we're obligated by the state to pass a budget that is we've either said well I guess we would know either way that it would be not revenue neutral. So, I mean, but what would we do if we passed a budget and then you would just immediately start cutting, right? I don't know if that was a full It would be a lot of cutting before beforehand.

Yeah. Mid July, we'll have to let the county know what our max mill levy is. So, we would have to do a lot of cutting before mid July. Um, if we were going to have the the election or the vote in August or November, you'd still go through that exercise of cutting everything. Is there a cost of putting it in the general election?

Uh, the cost for the August and November elections are borne by the county. Okay. I mean, for me, I think that, like I said, on the on the procedural question, are we going to put this out for a vote? Yes. The question of timing is the big question. Um, I mean, state law is obviously that we have to put it out for a vote. Um, or else it doesn't go anywhere. Did you say the county takes that that when we put in a general election, the county takes the burden over the cost of that, right?

August and November elections, the costs are borne by the county. So if we would add this to that, then that's they would of course have more money. They'd have to put in more money, right, to the for the election or no? No, no cost. Okay. No, you don't you don't have to spend that $43,000 for the special election. Problem is, you're going to go through the whole budget season not knowing if you're going to get that sales tax revenue. Yeah, truthfully, I don't know if I would want that stress and probably Angela either. Uh depending I mean if we go Yeah, if we were to go in March and then if it fails, at least we know what we're looking at. And then at that point, I'll probably take the longest vacation of my life after the budget's done.

Um so yeah, we'll have a lot of work ahead of us one way or another. So, if we don't if if say we don't put that uh sales tax in the special election, would we have to after if that if we go past that window, um would we have to raise the mill um to help with our budget going into to make up some of that since we don't know. Yeah. Uh we would um I I don't know by how much it just Well, we would have to just to Yeah, it'd be probably similar to what we just recently did. More cuts plus some marginal increase.

So, it still be more beneficial just to get the sales tax on the special election, go that route. Yeah. Well, um so I did the math and I don't I feel like I'm I'm giving both sides of the coin here. Um, in order to make up the $4.75 cents that you would take off or save from your water bill, um, you would spend Greg, I know you and I talked about this and now I I did the math. It's like eight grand

$8,000 a year in taxable goods. Right. Right. Um yes 756 7600 um in taxable goods and that's if you had a water bill and it was clean slated,

right? Um so what do you need? Do you need a a motion to see if we do spend the $43,000 on a special election or put it cuz we basically know we got to go to election somehow. So put it with the county which won't cost as much and extend it out and all all else be like this gentle have no hair or [laughter]

not heard not the first time I've heard that. or we spend the $43,000 and and put that get it closer so we know what's going on uh later on. So that's basically where we're at, right, Miss Mayor? Right. Yeah. I mean, I do want to open up for um public comment before we have a motion. Is there anybody in the audience who would like to speak public comment?

Can you please come to the podium and state your name? And there's a five minute timer on there. Um Joe, can you change slides so we can see the timer better?

Thank you.

My name is William Calvin. I live at 1518 Brookwood Drive here in town. And uh you probably remember me. I was here when we did the budget thing, tax thing a few months back. Uh, I appreciate all the information that was presented and I kind of came down here with one thing on my mind, but I kind of maybe leaning the other way now and think maybe the the uh increase in the sales tax isn't a bad idea because it it is shared by everybody. And that's one of my biggest complaints I have had with the property tax increase is mine was way more than anybody else in my neighborhood. If you remember my comments from before uh in the last 5 years, I hear you talk about 25% inflation rate. Well, my my uh property valuation went up 39%. And therefore, my taxes went up 39%. uh she's talking about how much it was going to cost per year uh for the mill levy increase for this year, but uh mine went up uh about 10 times as much as what she was showing on there because of my increase in valuation. But I I really feel like too that it's kind of like the gasoline tax. Everybody that uses the road should have to pay for the upkeep of the road. And so why aren't the people that are using the streets in town and so forth, why aren't they helping pay for this instead of just all the property owners? Uh I just I think the only way you're going to get this to the citizens to vote for this is you're going to have to show to them that the property taxes aren't going to increase like they have this last year. I can't keep going up with 39% increase in the last 5 years or it was actually 11% just this last year. You're going to have to somehow show that this is going to be offset and that their property

taxes aren't going to go up. This was posted on fa I saw this meeting was posted on Hutch post uh Facebook and most all the comments were very negative towards this sales tax increase and I had the same comments. You can just ask my wife some of the things I said this morning. Um but I I really think the only way you're going to get it to pass is to is to control the property tax increase. And I I know I saw something on the news that the state legislature was considering, but they don't have the votes to put a cap on how much the increases can be as far as valuation. And and that really upsets me. I think it needs to come back to the state level to put controls on this. Why should I be increased 11% and other people in my same neighborhood only get increased 3%. That's not fair. So, but this the 3/4 cent sales tax maybe is equal and fair to everybody at that point. I had one other question. I hear you talking about the wastewater treatment plant. Is there any federal or state funding that's available to help out with that?

There's lots, but it it has to be matched generally generally speaking. Okay. Am I correct? Uh the best case is for it to be matched. Um but the Evan Patterson come on up here. Sorry. Evan Patterson, city engineer. We are taking advantage of a state program with low interest loans for the set of work that we're going to be doing at the wastewater treatment plant the next year. Okay.

Um so there are state programs. There are also federal programs um for much larger projects that been used. Um Witchah's new water treatment plant for example use the WIFIA program um which is for really big scale stuff. Uh so there are all those and we're taking advantage of them when we can. Please don't go through all the hassles that they've gone through. I would really like to avoid [laughter] that.

Oh my gosh. I I see that on the news. I'm going what's going on over there? Uh the only other question I had was I think when I talked at the county meeting uh commission meeting was I talked about and I know there's some developments coming into town. I said can we get this where the property tax is spread out over some more people. I know there's some developments coming into town that will help get more property tax when those houses get built. How close is that to coming to fruition? I know there's one over there off 11th and Hri's, one up on Monroe. Is that correct? Uh the one out by Sand Sand Plums Plum Creek

Plum Creek School, how close is that coming to where that revenue can come in and help out with this situation as well?

So the um Hay Street project, which is like 11th and Hendricks, um that's eight homes in the first year. Um, the 36th in Monroe is 12 homes in the first year. Is that right? Anybody over there? They didn't know they'd be put on the spot. It's It's something like 12 homes in the first year. Um, and then if he sells those as quickly as he hopes, then he would do more as as he as the developer has capacity. Um, Plum Creek, I am not sure where they stand. The first phase is 36 homes. Um,

now will those people pay property taxes on those all those? Yeah. So those those types of items? No, not right away. Remember the RHIDs are in place and that's where the property taxes go for two. Are they all three RHIDs? Could be. Yes. Okay. So that's not an immediate they they will be. Yeah. if they are all I I thought that uh Monroe and Plum Creek were our HRs but sorry I don't have my notes. All right. Thank you for your time. Mr. Mr. Kulvin is that was that your name? Mr. Coven? Yes. I'm up here. Sorry the sound's coming from back there but it's I'm right here at the microphone.

So I want on your property tax. One of the challenges we have is the city of Hutchinson could keep keep the tax burden exactly the same or lower it. That doesn't mean the other taxing entities are going to play the same game because your property tax we're 25% of your total property tax bill. So if if our other cohorts taxing entities change the how much they tax, you may not see any benefit any of the work we do to try to keep it the same or lower it or whatever we do could be buried in the whole congregate of taxing. Right. And that's a challenge we have. Yeah. And I I I've got that's what that statement there tells me. Yeah, I appreciate your research on it though. Thank you.

To speak to uh Mr. Coven's point and the point Scott made right before he came up here, you know, the we really are looking at 10 mills plus flood insurance or sales tax. And the sales tax is the only one that we get to spread across visitors and our retail pull factor. [clears throat] Um, yeah. Is there anybody else here to speak in public comment?

I do have one more point, at least something to keep on our radar. Um, because our fund balance is so low and our target should be around that 7 million. Uh, this time last year, I think we got fortunate that our bond rating didn't go down. But part of the reason why it didn't go down is because we shared with them, here's our plan. Um, so that I I am a little worried that depending on how things shake out and depending on how we address the budget, I definitely want to keep the bond rating at least the same and that it that it doesn't go down because if it does go down, that just means our interest rates um will be that much more expensive. So, less projects that we can pull off, stuff like that. Um, but just to keep on the back of our minds that our bond rating um is somewhat in in jeopardy depending on how things go. The the other thing about sales tax, it's I had someone ask me this the other day. You we do collect sales tax on people what people order online.

Yep. We are I mean it gets reported to the state and we get our share of that. So just I mean we want people to shop local. That doesn't mean we're missing out on sales tax revenue when someone orders something online. Right. So Kansas is a destination based tax [cough and clears throat] destinationbased tax state. So, whenever you order something online or um you're you pay based off of the address that you're delivering or using to um but they no longer charge sales tax on freight. I don't order anything by freight. No, I used to pay sales tax on freight. That's a recent thing that changed.

Ah, okay. Um, you know, I think that if anything, and maybe I don't know that this is a argument for or against the sales tax, but I think that businesses would see a strong benefit um, as well because not only are they no longer having the storm water fee um, but they're they're tax exempt for the most part on certain things. um anything that they're um selling. So,

I'll just mention that I've talked to probably a dozen people um and I've talked to Mr. Culvin on his front porch, not about this issue, but about the property tax issue. And and again, I haven't talked to him. I was surprised at what he had to say, but I kind of wasn't because the people that I've talked to when we have a conversation like this, they're like, "Oh, wow. Well, that that's really a pretty good idea." So, I think there's a lot of people out there that maybe would understand if we can get the whole picture and understand that we're trying to spread this around to more folks and that that we're just trying to keep our city afloat. Um, and it it makes maybe a little more sense in property taxes.

Uh, yeah, bringing that up. I I talked to a couple people today actually, and I think it is if we go down the road of the special election, I think we need to make sure that we have that information out there because the people I talked to had no idea that, well, you're just going to raise taxes. I'm like, no, this is how things are going to trade out to do that. And it's just making people aware of what is actually going to happen. We need to make sure of that, too. um because I know that's um huge thing where people just don't know and so I we need to make sure we publicize that and exactly what's going on and so that they know how it's going to work. So, and we have absolutely no control over the flood plane map after a certain point.

And to John's point, we don't have control over property taxes other than our own as a city. [clears throat] Angela, the storm water fee currently has $11 million in it.

I do not remember. I don't have that with me right now. I'm sorry. Okay. Um uh hold on. I'm going to pull up our emails from earlier. I have 90,000 tabs open. Regardless of the amount that's in there, what happens to the storm water funds that are currently being held? I would imagine we would still use them for storm water purposes. I don't think that that could be repurposed in any way. We would have to. Right. Yeah.

That's not So, um, are we going to change the scope of the project though? Because when it was created, we basically dedicated all of the money to Cow Creek and we've still not completed anything really at Cow Creek. Mhm. So, through no fault of our own. I understand that. However, we've still not completed anything at Cow Creek. So, are we going to move the funds and use those to offset the detention basin ponds that we're currently working on? I know Evan is like chomping at the bit to get up here and talk. [laughter]

Uh Evan, if if if you're chomping at the bit, I mean, we still have a lot more to model and we're trying to what is the best bang for the buck for the money that we have. Um, I mean, if we threw it all at Cal Creek, then we're just going to have to wait for the sales tax money to come in to do those smaller projects. I mean, there's still a lot more to model before we can give you a more sophisticated answer. So there's a chance that even so hypothetically speaking, if the if this goes to vote in March of 2026, we start receiving funds in December of 2026. We're not delaying the storm water projects until we build those funds up again, which was what we were doing with the storm water fee in the first place. We're looking at a possible shift of those funds to cover the other projects.

Correct. I mean, it it also projects it seems like would take priority over the other identified the storm water um master plan from 2020. Correct. And I think it it's the volume of money that you can collect in in a year that's a differentiator. So you wouldn't have to wait as long to accumulate the same amount. And so we're going to have a bigger bang for our buck um going forward if we have additional money through the sales tax. Would we be bonding against our sales tax?

No. I mean that just the sales tax or at least shifting the operations to the sales tax. Um we'd still be bonding against the general fund. And so I just you have more flexibility now. Any additional questions or remarks from council? Are we happy with the general language as on

what did I say? Page 90. Uh it's Yeah, page 90. Personally, I think we should mention what it's supposed to be for. I agree. I I don't I think it's going to have a hard harder time at the ballot if it's vague on what the funds are being used for. and and it would be road construction, um parks and recreation and storm water storm water projects.

Yeah, it would be it's operations and capital. So, it could be to pay for the employees that are doing the work and also the equipment to get the work done as well. lesson learned from the storm water fee on how the funds can be applied. Yes. So is the language the sample motion that's given what would need changed on it.

Paul it depends on what you wanted to say. be very careful about the language that you choose though because you don't want to make make the general sales tax into a dedicated one. Well, let's let's talk about the dedicated because that's where we got in trouble or I wouldn't say in trouble, but that's where we've been um we've been caught on the storm water fee because we've had situations where we've had storm water projects that the storm water fee can't pay for all of the costs of it because some of it is tearing up a road and redoing the road and you can't apply storm water fee to that. So, we have to pull money from other funds to do it and that's been a real uh pain for budgeting and applying the storm water repairs. Well, can you provide us with the language

the U take a look at the ordinance page 89 the first 88 I don't yeah it's page 88 I guess and look at the second whereas paragraph are you thinking about that type of language I I think having something like that in on the ballot question would be important. Yeah, because it mentions um project project operations. Yeah, I think that one would be

and I tried to make it fairly generic so that it's not bound to any one of those purposes [cough] because you you don't want that. That's not the purpose of this particular sales tax. It needs to be general so that the city has the flexibility to take those funds and address whatever problems we're having. That would be the other operations of the city of Hudson? Yeah.

Would park improvements be too narrow to include repairs? Because I know like for the street it says street maintenance and repairs. Repairs is separate which well improvements would be anything you do to make it better.

I and I know we're playing word semantics and I know you just want to get it right, mayor. And I I I agree with that. But how about this? How about you trust me to to format the language to what you have proposed in the sample ballot and because I'll I'll take it. Um, and in between on the ballot question where it says 3/4% general retailer sales tax and there's a comma before you get in addition to the existing city retail sales taxes and then I'll incorporate the language out of the second whereas and if you want park improvements to be park maintenance and repairs we can do that also.

[clears throat]

So tonight we are just going to pass the ordinance and not just not establish the actual language of the ballot question. Actually, you aren't. I'm gonna do what I just said. Like, I'm I'm sorry. I don't understand what you're saying. Like, are you going to give it to

Let me try and read it to you between two two pages here. Shall the following be adopted? Shall the Hutchson City Council be authorized to levy an additional 34% general retailer sales tax for the needs of the city, including storm water modifications mandated by federal regulation, park maintenance and repairs, street maintenance and repairs, capital improvement plan projects, and other operations of the city of Hutchinson in addition to the existing city retailer sales taxes to be effective October 1, 2026 and expiring on September 30, 2036 and by allowing city usage of said tax for all needs of the municipality.

Thank you. So somebody needs to make a motion. I'll move to do that in March. Mhm. For a March 3rd, 2026 election. Yes. I will second that. Richardson, yes. Garza, yes. Baz, yes. Snagers. Yes. Go. Yes.

Item number 8B, consider an ordinance authorizing issuance of taxable industrial revenue bonds series 2025 for the Gun Bros project. Angela Richard, director of finance. In May 2024, the city council passed a resolution determining advisability on issuing IRBs of 2,935,000 for the Gun Bros project um by Saloon Investments LLC. At this time, they are ready to issue the IRB bond. So, the matter before you is um whether to approve the ordinance authorizing issuance of the bonds. As a reminder, by issuing these bonds, the city does not incur any debt. We will not be respons responsible for paying any debt or any cost of issuance or any legal fees or any other costs associated with issuing the debt. Um, part of the agreement will be that the city will become the lease holder and Saloon Investments will become the lease of the property. Um, this will allow them to apply for a 10-year property tax abatement. They have proposed a payment in lie of tax agreement that is included in your packet. It is based on the value of the land itself for the next 10 years. Um, are there any questions? This is a project that we started 18 months ago. Is that correct? approximately. Yeah. And the building is near completion, I believe. So, do we know when the when they will open?

I have not heard a date yet. Okay. I think there's someone in the audience who can speak to that. Yeah. [laughter] Come on up here. Please. Sorry. No problem. Uh Devin Ganiban. I own Gun Bros uh with my brother.

Uh yeah, so we plan to open uh it was supposed to be November 1st, but things uh with construction have obviously continued to uh progress, but right now pretty much everything cosmetic. um we probably will open um towards the latter half of January of 2020 uh6. So big things are happening. We've already hired seven new employees. Um [clears throat] and I think with so much excitement being drumed up in the city, I get questions about it every single day. So I think it's going to be a huge win. It's going to be a huge success. And uh obviously we'll draw in a bunch of sales tax revenue, too. [snorts]

That's a good thing to put in your camera. [laughter] So, yeah, uh tail end of January is when we're planning to open, but uh we're down there today and things are uh are shaping up really good. So, yeah. Thank you. Any remarks or questions from council? Is there anybody in the audience who would like to speak on this item? Seeing none, I will make a motion. I move to approve an ordinance authorizing issuance of taxable industrial revenue bonds series 2025 Gun Bros project and authorize the mayor to sign. I'll second. Richardson, I'm going to abstain. Garza,

yes. Bass, yes. Mayers, yes. Goss,

yes. Item 8 C, consider a resolution establishing rates and charges and franchises for collection and disposal of garbage and trash. Angela Richard, director of finance. Um, before you is a resolution establishing the rates for refuge service. Um, this is a a resolution that we pass every year per our agreement with Studsman's. um we increase the contract rates 2%. Um for the remainder of the contract. So a residential service cart will go from $11 to $122. Commercial from 11.86 to 1210. Um and then you'll see other charges for walk-in services. The additional recycling cart um stays the same at $4. So staff recommends approving the resolution as presented. Are there any questions?

Do you know what page that starts on? 242. Thank you.

Is there anybody in the audience who would like to speak on this item? Any questions or remarks from council? Nope. So, we entered the contract uh when did we enter into the contract that has the annual increase built in? I I want we had an original contract and then we amended it to extend it and at that point they dropped the prices of the carts for uh residential and commercial and I think that was back in 2019. I that was my guess also

because the contract expires in 2029. So I think it was a 10-year contract and so in 19 they went down but then we've gone up 2% each year since 19 per the contract. Okay. Thank you. [cough and clears throat] I don't have any questions. Nope. Looking for a motion. I would move to approve a resolution establishing rates and charges and franchise fees for collection and disposal of garbage and trash and authorize the mayor to sign. I'll second that. Richardson, yes.

Garza, yes. Pass. Yes. Mayor, yes. No.

We are going to take a 10-minute recess here. I know we have some presentations. Is that okay? Everybody looked shocked. Okay. Yeah, we'll take a 10-minute recess. Heat. Heat. [music]

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Thank you. Um, next item, please. Item 8 D. Consider a resolution scheduling a public hearing for Starbond project plan.

Good evening, council and mayor. Dave Sutella, director of strategic growth. In front of you, you have a resolution calling for a public hearing to consider the adoption of the Hutchinson Starbond project plan on January 20th, 2026 at 5:30 p.m. where we've been at this point, uh, Commerce has approved uh the we received the approval of the starbomb project plan on December 2nd of 2025. Uh we've also you sk you established a starbond district on September 17th of 2024. So you those are two steps that are completed. Now that we have commerce's approval, then it can come in front of you uh the council to approve the project plan. where we'll go from here. Um staff and the different developers are working on a development agreement that establishes how funds [clears throat] are distributed, the schedule of those funds being uh distributed, but that will come at a later point. All we're doing today is scheduling that public hearing for you to approve to discuss the project plan and approve the project plan. Um, and this allows staff to distribute the information about that public hearing and make publication of it. I'm happy to answer any questions. Uh, but a lot of this will be discussed at that public hearing.

So, the question before council is, do you want to hold a public hearing on January 20th at 5:30 about the start bond? Correct. Okay. I'll move to approve alert. Second. Uh, I'm sorry. I could finish reading. I was going to see if maybe somebody wanted to speak. I'm out of turn. Okay. Any remarks or questions from council? I'm sorry. Is there anybody in the audience who would like to speak on this item? I'm looking for a motion.

I'll move to approve a resolution scheduling the public hearing for Starbond project plan and authorize the mayor to sign. And that hearing will be when? January 20th. 2026 at 5:30 p.m. Okay. January 20th, 2026. And I second. Richardson, yes. Garza, yes. Bass, yes. Mayers, yes. Goss, yes.

Thank you. Item AD, consider resolution rescending resolution number 2018R17 and establishing permit fees as authorized in section 21-201 of chapter 21, building regulations of the city of Hutchinson city code from and after January 1, 2026.

Good evening, mayor and city council members. Jason Lady, building official. Uh so tonight before you um we have the building permits fees scheduled for uh 2026 and um so the city code authorizes the building and neighborhood services division to charge building permit fees based on section 21 uh 2011 of chapter 21 of the building regulations. Uh while it's never been the goal to recoup uh the full cost of processing application, most building and inspection permit fees have been set to capture a significant portion of their associated cost. So costs associated with these permits include just the division operating cost, uh the fuel cost, vehicle maintenance cost, uh things of that nature. So basic operating cost of the division. Uh the city of Hutchinson last updated its building permit fees in 2018. The basis for this review was to ensure that Hutcherson was competitive in its building permit fees with other comparable communities. Uh the adoption of the uh presented resolution to the building permit fee structure will bring commercial fees in line with uh comparable communities. It'll restructure the residential fees based on uh size as opposed to the valuation of the project. and uh to lower the cost of residential permit fees to try to incentivize uh new housing construction. Updates to the city's uh building and neighborhood uh services division building permit fees uh with appropriate changes would take effect uh January uh 1st of 2026 with this resolution. So in our analysis um same as the uh planning division, we evaluated the competitiveness of cities existing um with building permit fees, staff conducted a survey of 12 benchmark

cities across Kansas. Uh that's in your staff report as to what those cities were. Um so Hutcherson's current building permit fees in many cases were significantly higher than the average across Kansas. um when we get into kind of that upper echelon of building permit fee cost uh we were pretty comparable with the uh high end of Kansas which when we're talking about those Johnson County and uh that area over there which are really the um highest fees in Kansas. So uh the results uh indicated that Hutchinson's building permit well we are higher than the average [snorts] comparable cost um applicate for the application types and inspection services. So the table uh on the staff report [snorts] uh illustrates the low and high averages for several example permit categories within the building neighborhood services division. Hutchinson's existing fees were included in the calculation. U but under the uh proposed fee schedule, most fees fall below the statewide average identified in benchmarking [snorts] survey and a full cost comparison spreadsheet is available upon request. So you could see there in your uh staff report just kind of a comparison of uh and we'll talk about those here uh in the slideshow as well [snorts] in the presentation that I have. So uh the proposed residential fee schedule you can see up here. So less than 2,000 square ft we fall to a flat rate of $800. And on on my next slide I have some comparisons in in the chart. So um you can see it would go from 800 to 1200625 2050 2450 250 and so on until we get to that

10,000 square foot or more house with a flat rate fee of $7,400. So just to put that into perspective a little bit. So, these are some uh comparisons that we did of of um residents that have been built in the community. Uh I think we went back five years. We may have only went back three, but I think we went back five on some of these to draw in some uh better numbers. So, if you got a 1300 ft house, um if you recall on the last chart, it was up to 2,000 square feet. So, we can go halfway down this chart to to that ft house. So anywhere from uh what $175,000 there all the way up to $275,000. So you could see that those permit fees cost that uh we took in for those residents were 1493 1803 1768 1268 1518. And if you got that flat rate fee of $800, um you can see the significant cost savings in the in the construction of that house. 693 $1,000. So, anywhere from, you know, $500 to um $1,000. And, you know, when when you have these cost savings, any any little bit of cost savings you can get in the construction of the house helps to uh incentivize things. [clears throat] So, uh then you have a 2400t house, 2500T house, 4,000 foot house. And those are just things that were comparable within our community. We haven't had any real [snorts] uh large construction of of houses that would um you know get into that upper uh echelon part of the chart, but we got this $4,000 house and an $84 um,000. When you have a $5,000 [snorts] building permit fee, almost that uh 4593 there. Um, and then you take that down to 2050,

uh, you lose $2,543 in in the cost of a building permit fee. And that starts getting pretty significant when you're, uh, you know, building a house of that nature. So, uh, the goal of this is to help incentivize, um, residential construction in the community. And so, Jason, if I can add something real quick.

Yeah. Uh in council, if you recall when we were doing our water rates, um we [snorts] also did propose to wave the tap fee on residential as well. So hopefully we'll, you know, it can be that much more cheaper to build residential in Hutchinson. on the uh second page of the uh staff report. The proposed fee schedule uh was reviewed by the building trades board as well at their December 10th, 2025 meeting. And uh the building trades board did recommend approval of the uh of what's before you. And we'll go over some of the other uh and I'll stand for questions and go over some of the other proposed fees that are that are on there. But I want to go over a few more things uh real quick. So this is a uh a little bit of a commercial comparison. There in the staff report it says commercial and other construction. And it goes from 500 25500 uh 50,000 100,000 the million 5 million and 15 million. Um, and the reason it does that is because so one of the parts of the structure of the 2018 fees when you got to $100,000 it was $89355 for a $100,000 building permit fee. Well, when you get to 15 million, you take 15 million, you um take away a h 100,000, you divide that by a th000, and then you times that by $5. Once you got to a h 100,000, the chart was stuck at $5. And so you get to a $15 million project, the higher and higher and the higher you go, you're times in everything by $5. So the more money you put into a project

and you're timing it by that higher amount that with this um we've made it comparable with other jurisdictions and what we've done as we've gone to those higher um those higher valuation projects uh we've reduced that down and in fact I think uh when you're at that 5 million to 15 million uh you're only paying like a $1.94 um I believe is is what it is. I don't have it up on the chart, but but you can see in these top 10 valuations that we've pulled um over the last several years, uh you can see everything from uh 3 million up to 27 million. And you can see there in the assessed fee perhaps [cough] over that first one of three uh almost $3.5 million. You see that $17,000. Uh the new fee structure would be $12,000. There is a 20% plan review fee uh that we're proposing which is uh $2,418.86. So the total building permit fee would still come out less than uh with that 20% building per or plan review fee at 14,500 with a cost difference of uh $2,555. Uh you go up to our more significant project, um you know, you start getting in that $5 million range, u you can see there's a cost savings of about $5,464. You get in that $27 million range, but that's not really typical of the projects we get here in Hutchinson, but we do have one at this moment. So, um, but so under our current fee structure, um, it was 137,934 building permit fee. Um, so under the new fee structure be 54,300. You add a 20% on there for the plan review fee, $10,000. So, it would have

been $65,000. And that is really comparable with uh most jurisdictions across the state. We're a little bit on the lower end. Um but part of the reason for that is to really um from here on annually evaluate this process and get a kind of a cost analysis of what it costs to operate the department, what we're taking in and building plan review fees, what we're willing to take as a percentage from the general fund, from other things like that and really decide. It gives us a good gives us better context of when we should lower building permit fees, when we should raise building permit fees. And so from here on out, we can have um a good annual report of the department and and the fees that are being taken in and see where we really sit at for in building per permit fees. And I think what this does right now is really is what is good for Hutchinson. I mean, we need to incentivize construction. Um, and we need houses built, we need commercial projects. Um, and then, like I said, we can really evaluate from here on out u where we stand to decide when to um raise building permit fees. And kind of what that goal was as we do that do that annual cost analysis of uh income kind of an income to that debt ratio is to bring that to city council on an annual basis and be able to say here's our report here's our re recommendation you know for this next budget year we recommend not to raise building permit fees or we recommend to raise building permit fees. That way you as the city council also know out ahead of time before we get to this point uh you know exactly what we plan to do with

the building permit fees from year to year before the budget process. So that's the last slide there. Uh pretty short slideshow presentation. uh just wanted to show those um differences that were significant in the residential uh application type and then the commercial or other than new. So those residential fees that you saw, I did want to mention that those are for new detached one and two family dwellings. So that's a new house, single family dwelling house, that's a new duplex, that's a new town home, anything would fall under the international residential code. Uh so that would be those types of projects there. Uh when you get into commercial and anything residential addition, residential remodel, that would fall into that chart of um based on the valuation and not based on the square footage. And then we you can see we have other u on the uh attachment that I provided to you. Um, there was some existing fees compared to proposed fees. So, there was a list of fees there. And, uh, I'll stand for any questions if you have any questions on any of those. No [snorts] questions, but a comment. Um, my mind always works with this benchmarking. I appreciate the work that was put into that and it shows how we compare and that's part of weighs heavily when I make a decision up here is how are we compare how do we compare to other cities I've already mentioned that earlier tonight with sales tax and mill levy. So, thank you.

And that was part of the reason for lowering fees in some areas as much as we did. Um, not only to incentivize, but also to make that cost analysis from year to year based on Hutchinson, not based on other comparable cities. Because now that we know what the comparable city is across Kansas, then we got to think about um what is it for our community? you know, uh what's that median income here in Hutchinson, Kansas as opposed to Witchah or um you know, some of the other communities, Topeka and Manhattan, Salina, of of you know, that median income for our area. So, that's what we wanted to look at kind of across the board, too, and see what was best for Hutch as well.

Any additional remarks or questions from council? I got real quick one question to ask you real quick. This might be a stupid question, but hey, the building permit fees pay for the the inspectors to go out to to it pays for their time. Is that why we is that why we do the building per I don't know. Tell me about what that pay for.

I mean, building permit fees cover the cost of the of the building uh safety division uh building and neighborhood services uh division. So, I mean those those include even though a lot of what uh goes into it comes out of the general fund and everything when we talk about salaries and everything, but all this money goes back into the general fund as well when somebody pays a building permit fee. Um and so um you know that that money um goes towards salary. It goes towards u our division budget. It goes towards the cost of maintenance on our vehicles. cost of buying new vehicles when they're needed, fuel, all those all those things. So, um you know, really uh this isn't a a community cost and and the taxpayers. It's really a uh you know, a burden that's typically put on developers uh because this is a cost that they're coming into the community, they're building something, and they have to pay for the cost of of this division. And that's why we want to make that annual comparison of where we're at. um in relation to the to the cost of what we're bringing in as as opposed to what we're spending.

I don't think people understand because I've been in here. I worked for the city and I seen it how much time your inspectors do on reviewing the plans and and yeah, their their time they're really busy on a building when they inspect it and viewing the plans and stuff. So, I just wanted to make sure the citizens know what that building permit P goes to. I didn't understand it. I understand it a little bit better now. Thank you. Yes, sir. Mr. Lady, what is a courtesy inspection?

Uh there's a couple things there that uh so uh courtesy inspection is really we get a call, we do a courtesy inspection for averages. Um and say someone is uh been without power for a certain amount of time ever before they'll connect that back up. Uh our inspectors have to go out there. Uh so in instead of um making that a higher cost of of fee, we've tried to reduce that fee because really that burden goes back on the on the homeowner a lot of the times to pay that fee. So but ever before they hook things up, they'll want us to go out and ensure that it's safe before they hook it up.

So EverG bills the homeowner like puts it on their next utility bill. Um, so the homeowner really has to just call in, okay, and say that, hey, we need this courtesy inspection because every Jeep won't come back out and hook up our power. And then they pay that fee up front, okay? And then we go out and do the inspection. But again, that's kind of a lower cost fee because it's putting the burden on a homeowner who needs power. And instead of charging that fee like we do in other areas of $61, we're reducing that fee in that area to for those considerations. Thank you.

I I do have a few comments about this. Uh so I I I do want to share some success stories because I do think it's important. Um, and I know that we've had the reputation even before I got here that we were out to ding people or out just out to get people. Uh, I don't think that's anything that we should shy away from because you always know, you always want to know where you came from. Uh, but there were several recent projects um where they did uh sing praise for uh the building inspection staff. One was the tropical smoothie cafe that Vice Mayor Meggers had shared. uh one recently the Hilton Garden in um Raju one of his opening statements was um how how easy it was to work with the inspection staff and how accommodating they were um and another one was the the developer for the OYO hotel um the one that's getting refurbished he was so appreciative of the customer service that he received that he surprised everyone at city hall with lunch um just bought everyone lunch And so I think while we are looking and being mindful of what we're charging people, we're also very mindful of the customer service that they receive. So hopefully as we get more projects under our belt, people realize we're not just out to ding people. Um I haven't seen that in my time here. I think a lot of that seems like it's pain from a decade plus ago, but I mean the the attitude has changed. And so I it is great that uh people have said that and bought staff surprise lunches. But uh anyway, I just wanted to share that.

I asked Raju 6 months ago that question. Hey, how was the city to work with? He's the developer of the Hilton Garden in and he said, "Great. Best city we've ever worked with." I said, "Okay, talk to me more." And he's like, "I'm really not kidding." He's like, "We call and they're out here." and he he said we have to wait days sometimes in other other cities that we're developing in. So there are success stories out there and I appreciate the work that's going on in the city to try to change that and to make us more welcoming to folks. I appreciate it. Thank you.

I do want to make mention on and just so folks understand too on some of these miscellaneous permit fees. I mean when you talk about a furnace and air conditioning, I mean the average cost was $138 for a building permit fee. We're looking [snorts] at reducing that down to $65 flat rate for for a unit. Um so I mean cutting the cost in half water heater from 4140 down to $35. And you know there's just the things that we can um when you look at a roof based on a 1,700 ft uh roof and re-roofing $176 permit fee down to 85. So we're really trying to reduce the cost even not just for you know building new residential houses and incentivities that that construction but also um we see blight and deterioration and and things that need to happen to our existing housing inventory. Uh so we're trying to work with that level too and just make sure that we have the right cost for for people to be able to do the work that they need to do to their house as well. Can I go ahead and schedule a commercial temporary certificate of occupancy before the end of the year

before [laughter] the rate goes up? [clears throat] I'm kidding you. It's one of the few things I saw in here that went up a little bit.

We did have that discussion during the uh building trades board. So, u that question was brought up. I I think the trades board I uh commend them. they did their due diligence running over this um fee schedule even though they don't approve this fee schedule to come to um city council. uh they do um but you know I I hold them in high regard and I take it these things to them because I don't necessarily need their approval on some of these things but I want their recommendations on things because they're the they're the people that are [clears throat] out there doing the job as well and seeing these fees and working with the community and and all those things. So their recommendation is is but um you know the commercial TCO we actually had at 250 and 500 and uh the the trades board made some comments to those and so I reduced them in between the trades board meeting and this meeting down to 250. There was also a same day inspection uh which came up uh probably the most contentious thing uh during the building trades board meeting but um um that was 60 I'm trying to remember what it was off the top of my head I think it was $61 and we reduced that down to $35 to kind of go in in line with that courtesy inspection fee. So, and and there's some more things coming and there's some reasons for some of these fees. Uh February 1st, we're going to a new permitting and licensing system. Uh we hope February 1st, February 2nd, somewhere in there. Um so, the beginning of February where we should be rolling that thing out and uh so there's reasons for some of these fees and the way things are going to be handled in the future. So there's there's more to come on some of those things. As far as financial considerations, the

proposed fee adjustments, uh there's not going to create any significant changes in the overall revenues. It's going to create a little bit of a reduction. Uh but going back and comparing this year, we didn't see much reduction in what we would have taken in over the adjustment of these fees. So, it didn't make a significant difference in in the impact to the to the division or to the city. With the strategic alignment, um updating the building and neighborhood services permit fees supports the city's strategic goals by promoting long-term financial stability, uh strengthening the delivery of highquality development services and ensuring the adequate resources are available to effectively implement the comprehensive plan. Uh this update it also positions the department to better support the community's priorities identified in the Reno housing or the Reno County [snorts] housing needs assessment. So uh tonight's recommended action is uh it's recommended that the city council accept and approve the resolution adopting the updated uh building permit fee schedule. And I'll stand for any further questions if you have them. I don't have any questions. No,

I don't have any additional questions. Looking for a motion? I would move to approve a resolution rescending resolution number 2018 R17 and establishing permit fees as authorized in section 21-201 of chapter 21 building regulations of the city of Hutcherson city code from and after January 1st 2026 and authorize the mayor to sign Richardson. Yes. Garza, yes. Bass, yes. Mayers, yes. Goss, yes. Item number 8 F, consider a resolution approving the 2026 to 2028 strategic plan. [snorts]

Dave Satella, director of strategic growth. Uh this is really exciting for me uh to have in front of you a resolution to approve the strategic plan for 2026 2028. Um this is work that has been talked about um before I was in this role as a desire from the council and the directors uh and the different city managers we've had since. Um why this is exciting for me is because even though we've done a lot of work to get to this point um it it means that there's so much more work to do and we're doing it in a strategic way in a way that aligns our values in a way that aligns our priorities. Uh so it's pretty excited about that to start that work uh with the different department heads and and for all the organization. It also establishes a mission and some values and uh making value based decisions is really important for organizations and hopefully that's the trajectory we're on. So we began the strategic planning process back in September of 2024 uh in a partnership with the PPMC out of which State University. Uh they conducted an organizational assessment uh to facilitate this three-year plan. One of the uh cool parts of this process was that they reviewed 19 existing planning documents. One thing that we hear all the time is we have a bunch of plans and not a lot of action that comes from those plans. Uh so we tasked uh the team with reviewing those 19 plans and coming up with priorities from those 19 plans. Uh so a lot of this work has been from things like the downtown master plan, the pedestrian master plan, uh the love where you live survey out of the Hutchinson Community Foundation, just a lot of look at the different priorities. Uh because we thought the community is pretty surveyed out at this point. Uh so doing a process that reviews what they

have told us this entire time. U the themes usually were were pretty similar. Um, so I'm excited to for you to hear the presentation from Kathy and and her team and uh Sarah and for the approval of this strategic plan because that really means the work just is beginning now uh for this priorities that we're setting forward for the city and we can track the progress we're making. We can grade ourselves on how we're doing on that progress. Um and so I I won't say more but I really appreciate the work from which the state the department and the trust of the council uh different department heads and the trust of the council to begin this work.

Thank you Dave Kathy Ston senior management consultant at the public policy management center from at Witchah State University. So greetings from your friends the shockers at Witchah State. We were proud and happy to be a part of your planning process this past year. And I know the hour is late and you have lots more agenda items. So, if it's okay with you, I will briefly go over this giving you time for questions, comments, uh what about this or or um you know, comment on any section and we we can go into it more in detail if you'd like. I'm looking for a clicker. Your keyboard

keyboard. Thank you. So, first let me say thank you to the public, the staff, the department heads, the council. Everybody had input into this. We did focus groups, interviews, an employee survey, lots of things. And a small group of staff uh with council member fast were also in the leadership team which guided the process and gave us feedback, course corrections, that kind of thing. So, um, it was definitely a group effort and as, uh, as Dave indicated, we ended up with a very short, clear mission statement that is to support our community with excellent public services. This says a lot. It it there's a lot in there. Um, you know, you are blessed with a lot of leaders in this community and organizations in this community that work on various issues. And with that kind of active engaged community, the city can serve a support function to its communities and not have to lead on so many things like so many cities have to. You know, smaller communities, ones that are not as robust as yours is in terms of the engagement that folks show. So, the city can be supportive and you you heard that and you've seen that all evening long in terms of infrastructure support and fees and what have you. Um, so this this I think uh mission statement says very well and it took a lot of iterations to get to this. Um, but it says very well to the employees as well as to the public and and as Dave mentioned, it's great to have a strategic plan so you know what your priorities are and and that is definitely the clear the clear purpose of a plan, but the other purpose is communication. So that communicating with your public and uh people understanding what's going on is very there's a lot in this document that can be used in that way. The goal or the mission of excellent public services I think also says we are proud people.

We're going to do this right. uh we take pride as employees and I think this mission statement is a is a good summation of the work and um will be a guiding light uh for for the employees in doing their work. also guiding them with the be these five values. Core values uh nicely summarized in the Hutch uh name that we all like to use. But some powerful powerful words here in terms of honor uh unity, trust, collaboration and heart for service and is common as is common now in these days with values. A statement after each of those values that gets a little bit more as to what that is. the employees showed good feedback in the recent focus group on these values as did the community. So I think uh there's a lot here. It's not the same old like integrity and honesty and right. So each one of these words is a little more modern word that means a lot to a lot of people. So again I'm flipping through these pretty quick but um as you absorb them and and um have questions do do let me know. We have several strategic areas and you all have the full report in your agenda packet. Your very long agenda packet by the way. That's a lot of pages. Um but very uh pleased to know that we start out with taking care of what we have right which is something the public expects the city to do. and I've been sitting listening to your first hour and a half of this meeting and let me tell you what, you're obviously engaged in taking care of what we have as you talked about your storm water issues and your flood plane issues and your and your um wastewater treatment plant and streets and everything. So, there's a lot and on the plan in your document here, you've got a whole sheet then of what does this mean? What in this goal area would that do? And there is there's

water, wastewater, all kinds of utility issues, infrastructure issues, local sales tax you dealt with tonight. Um maintenance of parks, etc. So, lots in there. I won't go over it in detail uh due to time, but um there there was a lot on this one. In fact, a page and a half of different items on this one. So, strategic objective number two is your funding models. Every community has a certain amount of things we do on our own with our own employees and a certain amount of things that we share. Well, we help with the county with this or the school district helps us with that or the rec commission in your case, the state fair. You have a lot of sort and some of them are probably written down. I'm not familiar with all of them, but some of them are just longstanding agreements to do to do for each other all good, all um noble causes. But the question is, is it time to go ahead and analyze each and every one and see how costs have changed over the years, how needs have changed, how equity issues might be at at at issues. So, this objective gets to that. Uh, essentially the strategies under this one are things like economic um revenue expenditure forecasts. Do we know the numbers behind some of these partnerships and agreements? um you know data is uh helpful in decision- making and some of these are handshake deals from 30 years ago. So the idea of using that data then to make decisions by and determine if adjustments should or could be made to some of those uh funding models. Um the relationships are also a listed listed under this as strategic issues that we have to in all cases look at more than just the numbers, right? You have to have data for decision-m but you also have to have relationships with community partners and trusting relationships and productive relationships will get will go a long ways. And so all that said that this is

number two of five strategic directives laid out in this plan to work on for the next three years. The third one then is to do our part, the do the city's part in implementing this new countywide economic development strategic plan that was recently performed and and adopted. So defining what's the role of the chamber, what's the role of the county, what's the role of the city, etc. certainly is necessary and the strategies under under this one um that have been identified as clearly the city's responsibility is all about your maintaining your airport assets and also enhancing and using the potential of your airport assets for economic development purposes that maybe have gone untapped to date as well as community marketing and um your commitment your financial and other commitment to your community's quality of life assets. You certainly have several uh Cosmosphere and others for example and taking a look at that. And then the economic development u staffing the vice president of economic development idea to say we need to put more actual people power behind this thing called economic development to get stuff done and it takes staff and it takes dedicated staff. So the fourth objective is investing in the gateways to the community as well as the neighborhoods south of 17th Street. So just trying to get narrow down a little bit more on this one. We came up with three areas. One is navigating city codes and programs making that easier for people to understand. That is a key thing for city just to say, "Okay, here's what the state offers, here's what the city offers, here's the county." and getting someone who has that knowledge to help folks understand what all is available for them when they come when it comes to development and investing in their property. And number

two is preserving the neighborhoods. Huge piece. Um part of that's blight remediation. Part of that is revitalization plans and efforts especially for the Kerry Park South Main neighborhood. And then um the third piece on this would be your downtown redevelopment as well as focusing on density which um it is a necessary thing to have to focus on and it is more economical going forward to focus on density issues. And the fifth one, last but not least, is the housing issue. We all know housing is um is at a crisis point all over our state and all over really the country and honestly other countries as well. But in Hutch we do need to focus on existing housing units. You can't build your way out of this. You got to take care of what you have on existing units. You got to definitely expand production of new housing units as well as focusing on variety and accessibility and dealing with some renter occupied issues as well. So, lots of issues under housing. It's one of those things you can't just do one thing and think you've addressed housing. Too bad. I wish it were that simple. It's kind of throw everything at it in the kitchen sink and hope you make progress because that's what every community is figuring out is necessary these days to address this crisis. So, um Dave said some about it and I won't belabor it, but the stakeholder engagement was excellent on this. Since you all had the workshop October 6th, which was great. We hashed through a lot of this. We have refined some of it. There is a document in your packet showing exactly what changed from that time. In case some of this doesn't look quite familiar, most of it is the same as from the workshop, but some of it was a little different. What we did from the workshop is we tweaked it more when then we did more focus groups, an internal one and an external one. As you can see

by this data, um, generally the focus groups uh, liked what work you put into this and the staff put into this, but then they also had very specific recommendations and that fueled some of those highlighted areas of changes since you last saw this. Um, but generally speaking, the focus groups were positive. I think the we were pleasantly uh I say surprised but we were pleased that the both focus groups internal and external could relate. They had questions of understanding but um we worked through those and then they felt good about the process as well as the outcomes. So, of course, next steps, where we go from here, um, even though I've alluded to some of the strategies in each of these five goal areas, under them will be action plans. And the staff has been working on, as you saw in the document in the in the uh, agenda packet, a champion or someone to focus on each of these different areas. They will be leading the development of action plans, timelines, etc. And then um what you'll have to decide on and I'm sure um everybody's been busy with lots of other projects, but the next steps are thinking about how frequently you all want briefed by the staff as to progress on each of these five strategic directives and in what format. We have provided the staff with a couple different sort of Excel spreadsheets and how they can look to make it very user friendly to show progress and to show you know points of issue. Well, we can't make progress on this until we get money for that or or we're waiting on the grant that we applied for and then we'll pick that one up and this time we'll work on something else. So, I always advise, you know, um quarterly is pretty good when it comes to reporting. Maybe you already have a system in mind or maybe Enrico does. I don't know. But, um if you're not seeing updates on your

strategic plan for for until next December, ho ho ho, that's too long. It's a three-year plan. you need to be brief way more often than that. So, um that with that said, I would stand for questions or or try to answer anything that that we can. Hopefully, this gives you an overview without getting into too much detail. I'm sure you all have looked at this and like I said, a lot of it's familiar from your October workshop. We've enjoyed the project and and stand ready to assist in any way we can going forward. Thank you.

I have a question, Kathy. Um, so staff understands and essentially has like a users manual of how to measure their own projects and what progress and success looks like, right? We uh a users manual. I I would I would call what we've developed is more of a spreadsheet. Okay.

Yes. That says for each of these items developed when, how, who, how much does it cost, the action planning, and then reporting on the spreadsheet. Okay, that's done. Check. Okay, this one's running a little behind. Give me a little more time. You know, that type of thing. So, as far as that goes, I think we there's some direction there. And it's kind of the management from here on. If staff are assigned that they've got to be given time and expectation that these strategic things will happen. You have a very practical list of things to do. Some of these are already in process.

Um, but it's good to to put it all in one place and to be clear that the city cannot be all things to all people. I know you all get asked to do a million things and and you all have to make those tough decisions to say no sometimes, but you have this to rely on now that you can look back at this and say if we're going to get these things done in this three-year time frame because these are the most important, we have to say no to some things. So,

well, I appreciate the work that's went into this plan, not only from [clears throat] you and your team, but from our staff and the council and the um stakeholders who participated. Um I see pieces of the housing plan, um the county strategic plan, um the downtown uh master plan as well, um all reflected in different parts. Um, and I [clears throat] think this tells us who does what for the next three years and um, how we make progress on all of these. Um, I do believe you've prioritized the um, objectives appropriately in the correct order and um, like you said, these seem like common sense um, ways to go about making progress on these.

Thank you. So, thank you. Mayor is probably remiss. I think I forgot to introduce my colleague here. Sorry about that. Sarah Sarah Gooding is your project manager and she she did the heavy lifting on this project and we're also proud of Sarah because she's leaving us at WSU because she's going to be a city administrator now starting next month in the city of Towanda. So, um so we're always proud when people can go on to the next level of service after after their service at WSU. Thank you, Sarah.

Congrats. Well, thank you all very much. Appreciate it. And we would appreciate if you all would approve this document tonight because your approval then will trigger the staff to start working on some of the next level of detail. Thank you, Kathy. Any additional remarks or questions from council? No, I really appreciate how it come out, especially the statement, the mission statement. I think that came out really great. So, yeah, I'm really uh I really liked it. So,

is there any way we can look at the rubric, too? Um, or have it emailed out because I think that would be nice for council. Not tonight necessarily, but perhaps the next meeting. We'll sign off on this tonight and then at the January meeting if the next mayor is so inclined, we could have the conversation of um when to be presented to like is that on a timeline basis or is that on a um percentage of completion basis or on a when funding hits type of thing. um because that might be a different benchmark for different projects and I think it will be important to look at them all individually and assess where progress

should be reported. Looking at the city manager for some guidance there, but generally I think we can share that obviously with you the rubric. Um and I'm hearing you're asking for a discussion uh in January. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, that that's fine with me. I mean, I I definitely like the suggestion of quarterly because it does kind of give you enough buffer time to make a reasonable dent in things. Um, but yeah, I I definitely open to the discussion.

It seems like other some projects may be appropriate for quarterly reporting. Um, I know when you have like anybody has a quarterly project report due, you end up doing it all the last month um or trying to do it all the last month. so you have something to report on. Um, and I think that some projects may lean toward a a conversation or an update based on funding or seasonal or

one of the things that like even with the zoo master plan, um, you know, you've seen this a few times now at council and we usually try to bring these things back at like reasonable milestones. I mean, so it's it's I think what you're proposing is still in keeping with what we do. Yeah. So I mean, it seems fine to me.

I might suggest two other things as well. You have to tailor this to your normal way of doing business, but one thing, you know, there's five different areas. You could do quarter one, here's an update on on this one, goal one, for example, because that's like eight things underneath it, right? And so you you don't have to up review the whole plan every time you do an update. And the other thing I would say is you can look at the city of Maize's agenda packets. We did a plan like this with them last year and when I looked at their packet recently, what they started doing is just any agenda item on the regular agenda that you have, if it's in the part of the strategic plan, they would say goal one, strategy 4 is this. And it reminds you, oh yeah, that's in the strategic plan. So you can kind of look at your own agenda and see, oh, of all the things on the agenda, three of them are strategic things we identified that need to get done in the next three years. So that can be kind of a really good way, I think, to remind people that, you know, some things are routine business you have to do on your agenda, but some things are strategic and they're part of the plan. And to that point, just a few months ago, we baked uh strategic alignment as part of all of our staff reports. Uh so staff are expected to include a strategic alignment if applicable to the agenda. And so the ideally it will be connected to the strategic plan, but we're also asking staff to name which plan if there are other plans that that's referring to that will baked into there. But uh we'll have a discussion with staff on maybe some of that, how often we want it to our recommendation for updates to council and then we'll bring that up to you on January 1st. The other things I wanted to mention uh we are planning to publish this on the website. So the strategic plan, the staff survey, and the influencing factors report, those are all documents that at this point

you've seen and they've been on the agenda. uh but we'll also include them on our website just in case folks are interested in visiting them. Uh one conversation we've had uh staff and it was a priority for the city manager uh that staff survey that guided a lot of this work we are planning to do keep that on a routine basis. So it might not be uh wise to do it every year because the data might not change as m much much but we've had conversations with which state to continue to do that just to track how our staff is doing what the progress we are making on that and [snorts] gauge our gauge our progress. Um and yeah, the last point uh those strategic alignment portions of the star report I of the staff report I think are very important and just a key piece um of the making sure that we're uh talking about the progress we're making on the plans we've set in front of us. That's been if you look at the love where you live survey, one of the things that folks have concerns on is there's a lot of plans and we're not really sure what the path for our future is. we're not really sure what where we're going or where we're heading even though we have all sorts of plans, folks are just not connecting the dots. And so us making an intentional effort to mention that strategic alignment I think will be really important. Well, I'll move to approve a resolution approving the 2026 to 28 strategic plan and authorize the mayor to sign.

Second. Richardson, yes. Garza, yes. Fast, yes. Mayers, yes. Goss, yes. Thank you. Thank you. Item nine, new business. A, design services for Sue Zoo phase one master plan. [clears throat] Thank you.

Good evening. Uh Justin Combmes, director of parks and facilities. Um so speaking of plans, um we are following through with the first phase uh of the zoo master plan. Um before we get into the design services, I just going to have Nicole just give you a brief update um of where we're at on current projects as well as uh the phase phases within the master plan and then towards the end of the presentation, we'll get to the design services for this first phase. So Good evening, council. Nicole Mance, sue director. Um, I am here at a milestone to give you guys an update on where we are with the zoo master plan and our current projects. Um, so a little bit of a walk down memory lane, if you will, but a timeline overview of where we've been. So, in August of 2023, we um started a full master plan um update including in community engagement through online surveys and through our um uh we hosted an open house at the zoo and then also through community engagement out um in the community at third Thursdays. So, um, through that, we got a lot of feedback on what we wanted to see, what folks here in the community wanted to see, um, in our master plan. And so, we brought that to you in July of last year, um, in 24. And then um last year you also or I guess the beginning of this year and January of this year you allowed us the opportunity to go back and take a look at some of the areas that we might be able to create more opportunities for community engagement and um while keeping the zoo free help us potentially drive some revenue. So that is something that the friends of the zoo has been

heavily engaged in in our board. Um and I'm going to talk about those here in just a second. Um so now we are to December of 25. Um in our master plan we created a uh thematicbased um set of focused areas. And so we did some phasing and timing, but really this color chart gives you an idea of how we're telling the story. So when we identified what it is we really want our zoo to be about and our mission, we really focus largely on North American animals. And the reason that we did that is um four-fold. One, good animal welfare. So, we're choosing animals that can be outside um except in maybe the most extreme temperatures for the most part. And that actually helps us with number two, which is being financially responsible. So, we are not building a giant desert dome. We're not building an aquarium. We're building um facilities for animals that can live here naturally. Um and additionally we are able to create an environment that is different than some of the other zoos that you see here. So we have seven accredited aa institutions in the state. Um several of those are within an hour drive. We also have some nonacredited facilities um in the area. And so we wanted to have a different experience than what you might find at those other facilities. Um, and then finally, last but not least, is the fact that from an education and information standpoint and a conservation standpoint, using animals that are from North America, um, these animals can be um, affected by our daily activities, can be affected by the

education that we create for our community. And these are animals that our guests are likely to see in their backyard and to make decisions on how to protect them. So, um, the first project that we've been working on, um, and we hope to have this up and running by our 40th anniversary in May on our current site is, um, the addition of a pavilion and pedal boats. And so these are the four pedal boats that our friends of the zoo board has chosen. And um we have identified a an event patio area that has a goodiz concession stand that they will also be running. So, um, that large lagoon that we have out on the zoo grounds, um, you'll be able to come out and pick either a blue heron or a pelican or a flamingo or a dragon and, um, it will see four. So, um, families can come out and have another opportunity, um, to spend time in nature, to spend time with each other, and have a fun activity on zoo grounds. Um the project that we're here to talk about tonight um includes our phase one upgrades and this came about from our update that we did this year on the zoo master plan. So here you'll see um right when you first come into the zoo um we will be adding or moving our sata tortoises up to the front gate and we'll be including kangaroos into this habitat. And so this area will be an opportunity for guests to mingle among the tortoises, feed them lettuce, um to meet and greet with the kangaroos, and it will also have a winter habitat so we can see them year round and they'll have

plenty of space. Um, additionally in this area, we will be making structural changes um to the train loop. So the train loop is not changing its location, it is not changing its route. Um, we will make some adjustments to the train station. Um, but really what we're trying to do is just create a reliable experience. So year round, um, as long as the weather permits, we would be able to run this train. And then out on the train loop would be a whole new experience. So, our staff has been working hard out here already to um create pollinator pathways in this area. It is one of the largest spaces that we have on zoo grounds. It already has native prairie grasses and so planting pollinator plants out in this area um is something that we've been doing for the last year or two. And um in this space we will actually be adding um Mexican wolves and then peckeries or havalina. Um so both of those species the choco and peckeries and the Mexican wolves are endangered. And our goal here would be that we would be able to in time breed and have especially for Mexican wolves potentially um wolves that are released back into the wild which is pretty cool. Um in this area also we will be um planning a space to move our deer and pong horn over. And that area um that's because in this area is the next phase. So this is a rendering that Tesser did for us um that is on the agricultural center. So this is the corner of Blanchard and Severance

and you can see here um a little design in the bottom leftand corner of the pedal boats. Um but this area includes not only agricultural animals but also agricultural plots. And our vision with this space is that we've created a space where um students who may not who may not otherwise have the opportunity to learn to care for these animals um to learn the agricultural career would be able to do that here at the zoo. And so we would be partnering um with local um 4 um also with the Kansas State Extension Office uh to create some programming around this space. So we could even do backyard chickens um a class on backyard chickens if that's of interest to people. Um, but this area is really all about community engagement and giving us the opportunity to show um such a an important heritage piece of our community.

Can I ask you a question about this one? Yeah. Um, so currently that like farmland at Blanchard and Severance, do we we already own all of that lot, right? Okay. We already own it and it's in our perimeter. Okay. Yep. Good question. Um we actually own um all the way up to uh the train tracks. Okay.

In that space. Um and then before I leave this uh rendering, in the top leftand corner of this rendering, you'll see the beginning of our prairie area um with a walkthrough habitat that includes prairie dogs and other prairie bird and prairie birds. Not other birds, prairie birds. um and a view area, a viewing building that you could see up over the landscape and to the left of that is um a badger exhibit. Um so once the mini farm that's currently in the middle part of the zoo moves out to that a center, we would be coming back in and it gives us the opportunity to create this riparian story. So most of the animals that are in this space um rely on water in some way, including the new highlight of an addition here would be bringing grizzly bears to the zoo. So they are the only true prairie bear. And so we would be positioned in a way to take that space um that is uh currently where our mini farm is and turning that into a grizzly habitat. And then this is the slide that talks a little bit more about the prairie exhibit. And so using a large portion of that acreage that we have on the backside that's currently undeveloped would be creating this prairie space that's very similar to what you see at other facilities that is an African savannah. So instead of African animals, we would be looking at doing prairie space, having mixed species exhibits, bison, deer, elk, pong horn, and being able to move them around the space. So

great welfare for the animals, great for the guests because you never know where you're going to find those animals. So instead of knowing the foxes are here, this is there, this is where I find the badger, you're going to have to find for the most part and and see where the animals are depending on the day. And then the last phase that we have identified is back out into that train loop space, but creating a an oasis, if you will, for both animals and people and creating some lodging opportunities where you can look out on those large herds um and spend some time. Even though you're right here in Hutch, it will feel like you're in um in a prairie space in nature, in the wild. Um and this would complete our conservation hub. Questions? Okay. Actually, Nicole, could you touch a little on uh the engagement with the friends of the zoo and the work that they've been doing? I know they went to Emporia recently. Yes,

I think it's good to sprinkle in those feeloods.

Yeah. So, um, Friends of the Zoo is very engaged with this project. They are really excited about it, um, from a growth opportunity for them and, uh, we recently went to the Emporia Zoo. I wanted to go back to this slide. Um, we recently went to the Emporia Zoo. Uh, we met with their zoo director and their capital campaign board chair um, to learn about running a capital campaign. Um, what they put into it. It's a very comparable zoo. Um, and to learn about how they have um, a concession stand, how they run it, how big it is, all of those things. So, it can help prepare us for that next step. And really, um, and them being able to support the zoo and driving these next few stages of our master plan through um, through donations and revenue. Thank you.

Very cool.

Uh so a few weeks ago we um um did an RFP so request for proposals for design services for the first phase. So uh the train loop um that we talked about about earlier uh we received four proposals tester WDM LK architects and Davidson um architects and engineers. Um selection committee was Nicole Scott Conkling from Friends of Friends of the Zoo. He's a board president, Nicole Martinez and myself. Um some of the things we are looking at as we hire we're looking to hire an architect for this f first phase. um was really the qualifications of the team, their experience, comparable projects, ability to meet timelines, um ability to satisfy the project we were looking for for also kind of some budgetary um um issues as well. Uh it's a little hard to read there, but of the four proposals we got, there are the proposed fees. Um however before we really dug into the the fees um we did kind of a qualificationsbased um review and we did we determined to interview WDM and Tessray. So those top two um that are listed there. Uh the reason there's two two prices for WDM is they actually offered two prices uh or two fees. uh the first fee of 92,000 um was kind of what they would call their standard fee essentially and then they offered us a reduction of about $10,000 um if some of the buildings were pre-engineered. Um so the the holding building for the Peckery and the holding building for the Mexican Wolves are saying if we can reduce our engineering cost we can pass that on to you. Um we thought that was a great idea. They interviewed extremely well. Um we're really impressed with WDM. Um our second interview was with Tesser. Um, and because WDM kind of offered up that reduction in service and scope, uh, we

had that conversation with Tesar. We're saying, "Hey, WDM was looking at doing pre-engineered. What does that do to your fee? Is that something you can consider?" Um, so just to make sure we were really comparing scopes. Um, and so that's that negotiated fee of 102,400 is more in line with the 82, um, 400 from WDM. Um so so uh that's that's why we have the two there the two different prices. Um and then just based on the on the proposals we just didn't feel that LK and Davidson submitted um as strong of of proposals. Uh we are recommending WDM for a couple reasons or several reasons. Also want to point out uh they have a really great team behind them. Um they're using engineering consultants for structural and landscape architects. Um so they're here out of Hutchinson. Um and then electrical and u mechanical basis engineering a firm out of which I've had have really great luck with them on on other projects. Um also just since WDM up front found a way to save some money with their two budget um or their two options for for the design fee. U we thought they're already looking at ways to maxim maximize the bud budget. They also demonstrated they have really good um successful projects that were that were large projects that had multiple habitats that were kind of extended over a space. And then uh the final piece was during their interview it was very clear uh they have a heart for small zoos. They have a heart for a zoo that's literally in their backyard. I mean they work all over the country and even internationally. So they were really excited to work work back here in Kansas. uh and we were really confident that they were going to deliver a project that's right for us and not what's right for you know some other large zoo in another part of the part of the country. So um so with that it is our recommendation to proceed with WDM. Um you will notice the fee I bumped to to 84,000. The difference there is

reimburseable expenses. Every architect every proposal had reimburseable expenses. So those are things like travel costs when they come down for meetings. Very standard that they're in there. That's the difference in the price. Um, so but it is our recommendation to move forward with WDM at that lower price using the pre-engineered structures for two of the three. So that was pretty quick. So if you have any questions, I will stay. Any questions or remarks from council? [clears throat and cough] Um, we had this was our first time seeing the full master plan, right?

No, it was presented back in July. July. Okay. Yeah. Yep. So, we just wanted to give a quick update of the entire thing and then also focus a little bit. Okay. Because there were part there were parts that were added. In July, you had a revision, right? Yes. And we presented that, didn't um This might be the first time. I don't remember seeing something the housing and the Yeah. Yeah. So it would have been the first time that we when we added the the lodging piece. Yes. After we presented earlier in the year. Yes.

Yeah. The major changes then here from 2024 would be train loop edition and um lodging. Well, we approven the money too at the same time here in our paperwork. It doesn't have the money in here. So, this is just for the design services for it. Um the uh the project itself was was included uh the construction was included in the 2026 CIP budget. Okay.

Um so, total cost was $995,000 or under 192 somewhere in there, just under a million dollars uh for the construction of this first phase. I was just going back and looking at the CIP stuff and the the maps and all of that. I know there are couple different parts in the cap that are with the zoo, but like with the parking lot is next year, right?

This is the 925 zoo train improvements with exhibits portion. That's correct. 2026. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. And what's in the CIP? Um since we did do the late late adjustment to the master plan, they don't quite line up. um the first year does, but the the years going out do not line up with that. Okay. Just because of the timing of when we had to approve our CIP verse when we made the adjustments. So, okay, we'll correct all that next year going into CIP.

Is there anybody in the audience who would like to speak on this item? Seeing none, I'm looking for a motion to approve. I move to approve design services for zoo phase one master plan and authorize the mayor to sign. Second. Richardson, yes. Garza, yes. Faz, yes. Mayers, yes. Goss, yes.

Item 9B, consider water rights purchase contract with Sonokco. Hello, Erin Patterson, project manager with the utilities group, and I'm here to walk you guys through the work that we've done over the last couple of months regarding the Senoka water rights purchase. Uh, I know this isn't the first time you guys have been briefed on the Senoka rights, but we're going to go through what we did for our due diligence, and then hopefully at the end you guys will sign. So, um, there was a quite lengthy staff report that was included in your agenda packet for today. I have tried to condense it into eight slides. We're just going to go over a summary of the water rights, the work that the city staff did as our due diligence, um, a brief update on some of the most recent state of Kansas water comments. um there's some interesting things happening in the state and then what our recommendation is. Okay, so in September as you guys are aware the city of Hutchinson and so reached a tenative agreement for the purchase of the soco water rights. Uh the value of that agreement purchase was $10 million for all of the so water rights. Um, I think it's important to note on here, so Sonokco stopped operations in 2023, but uh, prior to then, all of their water rights were fully perfected and it's confirmed that it's 100% conversion. So when I talk about conversion, if we go from like an agricultural water right to a municipal water rights, they aren't going to convert 100%. But because of

we're going from industrial to municipal um it's been confirmed that it'd be 100% conversion. And then um just a bit of a summary on here. Sorry that was loud on the overall water rights quantities we're talking about here. So the city has I'm going to speak in gallons per day. We've got water rights of about 9 million gallons per day that are perfected. And when I say perfected, that means that the city has used that much water previously and it's been confirmed that yes, we have the authority to consume that much water. The city has additional water rights that have been unperfected. So, there are rights, but we actually haven't used that volume of water, so it's not finalized, if if that makes sense. And we've got about not quite 2 million gallons per day of unperfected water rights. And those are good through 2030 something. 2035 I think. [snorts] To give you an idea of the magnitude of the SNoka water rights, they've got over 5 million gallons per day perfected. So, you know, that's more than 50% of the city's perfected water rights and about 40% when we look at the total of the unperfected and perfected city rights. So, this is a substantial uh water right value that we would be potentially adding to our um municipal water rights. Okay. So, we broke up our due diligence into a couple of different areas. And the first one we wanted to look at was the physical infrastructure because in the initial discussions with Sonokco, it included their wells, the pumps, the

wellhouses, and their distribution piping. Um, we spoke with Kansas Department of Health and Environment and when we talked to them because we wanted to make sure they were on board with this, they very clearly spelled out to us that the Senoka wells because they were not constructed nor operated as a municipal water supply would not be permittable according to KDH for a municipal water supply. So, um, at that point in time, we went back to Senoko and said, "Listen, we aren't really interested in your infrastructure because it's actually a liability to the city because then we have to go through, we've got to cap the wells, demolish everything." Um, and at that point in time, they agreed and they said, "That's not a problem." And you can do that with water rights. You are not required to have the physical well to own the water rights. Um and a well is called a point of diversion. [snorts] So we stopped investigations in the physical infrastructure because it was a bit of a moot point at that time. The next thing we did as part of our due diligence was to actually figure out what the water quality is. The city doesn't have wells in the area of the Sonoka water rightites. They're farther to the east than we've got. So what we did is we tested three of the Sonokco wells. Um and then we also tested the irrigation wells for the hospital and also for the Trinity School. [snorts] And when we did that testing, um nothing stood out cuz we wanted to make sure that whatever these this section of the aquifer was going to produce, we would be able to treat it with the water treatment center. and that there's

nothing um that would be damaging to our infrastructure system. And good news is they came back um that we would be able to manage that. So they were all below drinking water standards other than I think the one of the wells had ecoli but we treat for that anyways. High in alkalinity and sodium not a surprise. We see that in a lot of our wellfield positive for PAS and P FS. Again, we have the RO system as I spoke about last time. We have the ability to treat for those and they were below the drinking water standards regardless. Um, any questions so far on this? Okay. [snorts] And then the next part we did is we had to have those discussions with the regulatory authorities, right? Because there's no point in us buying the wells if any of the state guys are like, "Sorry, too bad." So, um, we used Mr. David Barfield. And I want to just highlight David is amazing. He's a subject matter expert in water rights, specifically to Kansas. He worked for the division of water resources for 35 years. and for 15 of those years he was their chief engineer. So he um probably wrote most of the policies that we're going to be working through and was responsible for managing of the water rights in the state. So we engaged we've actually been working with David for a couple of years now. Um but he took his work a step further now that we were serious about purchasing the so water rights. had further discussions with DWR um confirmed that yes, all their water rights are in good standing. They are expected to fully transfer when they

convert and that we can find new locations for those wells. Um because we're not purchasing the Sonoka infrastructure, we have to drill new wells eventually, right, when the water's needed. We don't really like the location of the Sonoka wells regardless because they're to the east side of K61 compared to our water treatment center. We might have to cross over some rail. So, we want to relocate them regardless. Um, and we worked with David and DWR to confirm that within half mile of those current points of diversion, we would be able to find locations for those wells. Now, that's now in 2025. I will say in 2026, DWR is holding some public meetings um that might tighten up the criteria for where you can put a new point of diversion or drill your well. David also looked at that for us. It's kind of like a it's a very complicated vin diagram, but um even with the newly proposed regulations by DWR, we would still be able to find locations that we could put these wells. So, um, at that point in time, it's just an engineering problem, but there are options. [clears throat] And then the other regulatory board that we spoke with, like I said, is Kansas Department of Health and Environment. Um, no issues when we spoke with them other than, sorry, you guys can't use the SNoka wells. And when we are ready to put in new wells, we just have to follow the municipal well construction and location criteria um at the time of installation. [snorts] Okay. title. Uh probably the part I am

least familiar with. But to that point, uh the city did obtain outside legal counsel who were uh very proficient in water rights within the state of Kansas. They completed a stand-up title review of the Sonoka water rights. Their findings were in alignment with David's and that the title and the rights are in good standing. Um, and Senoko's actually providing us with a special warranty deed where they're guaranteeing that they actually do own the title to the water rights. It's not as like clearcut as when you buy a house is the thing that I found going through this process. [clears throat] Okay. And so this is kind of the interesting one. State of Kansas water, right? But I just wanted to highlight some of the work that's happening in municipalities in the state of Kansas at the moment because of water. Um, in our changing climate conditions, water is becoming more and more of a crucial resource. So, Witchah is doing two things. They're actually going to be looking to treat um excess water from the ark and then they're going to be depositing that back into their section of the Aquis aquifer. Uh and then additionally they're getting ready to start up a pilot plant where it'll be treating the discharge from their wastewater to a potable water quality standard. Um and I did want to highlight, you know, if they were to put in a plant that would treat for 10 million gallons per day, it will cost them $500 million. So just want to give you as a bit of context. You know, we're looking to buy not quite about five million gallons per day for 10 million versus 10 for 500. Garden City, they are working on reusing

their treated wastewater for irrigation purposes. And then Hayes and Russell, they are in an interesting spot. In 1995, they purchased a ranch and the Associated Water Rights over in Edwards County. and they are continuing to fight and it's now moved to a federal court to actually be able to transfer the water from Edwards County to supply them. So, they're looking at a 30 plus year um effort on securing water rights. And then my favorite part, which I just found out about, Dodge City, they just purchased two irrigation wells and the price tag was 3,750 bucks per acre foot. um it's they lose 10% of those water rights on conversion from agricultural to municipal. And if we were to pay that rate without discounting any loss on conversion, it would actually be about $22 million. Um, now they're farther to the west. They're in a more aried area, but this very much lines up with the benchmarking um when we looked at it. Recommendation. Uh, it's our recommendation that you city council proceeds with signing the contract so we can fully execute the contract with Sonokco for their water rights. Upon execution of the contract and all the monies have been paid, we will transfer the water rights with DWR into the city of Hutchinson and then at that point in time, we are going to move those water rights into the conservation bank that DWR manages. Um, it protects our water rights from any potential claims against non-use. And additionally, it gives the city the opportunity to try to perfect the water rights that we have, which are unperfected.

And the way you perfect them is by using them. So, we build new houses, we get new businesses in, they all need more water. And then we start to realize our total water rights, perfected and unperfected. It perfects them. Plus, then we get to stack on the SNoka water rights and we can draw down as we need to. Let's say we get someone who comes in, they're like, "We need 4 million gallons of water a day." Great. We can withdraw a part of the water rights that are in the conservation bank. So, we it's not an all or nothing. It's water water rights savings account

basically. [laughter] And DWR is very on board with the city of Hutchinson getting these rights and working with us on transfer them into our name and putting them into the conservation bank um because they feel that it's good for the aquafer and for the region and that's it. I don't think people realize just how much water that is. It's a lot. It's I mean it's it's more than filling up a 55gallon jug, a 55gallon oil can every second, every hour, every day, every week, every month. Yeah. It's a lot of water. Yep.

Okay. I think you've left no stone no stones unturned. I I am amazed at what I learned doing this job and serving the city. [laughter] I mean, I knew a little bit about water rights and about, you know, perfection and all of those things you mentioned, but wow.

I will say, you know, the folks that we used between David and then Tom Adrian for our legal council, these guys, I mean, they lived it. They worked for DWR. They are by far, they've forgotten more about water rights than I think I'll ever end up learning. Well, I certainly think this purchase will set us up for whatever comes along. That's the goal. I don't have any other questions. Neither do I. Okay. Me neither. Is there anybody in the audience who'd like to speak on this item?

Looking for a motion. I move to approve the Sonoka water rights purchase contract and authorize the mayor to sign all necessary documents in order to close the transaction. Second. Richardson. Yes. Oh yeah. Yes. Mayor, yes. Yes. Thank you. Thank you for your time everybody. Thank you. Item number 10, report of city officials. John, do you want to go first or last? It doesn't matter to me. I guess this isn't really your last meeting. Correct. Fine. Um, Garza, you're going to go first.

I am. Why does that not surprise me? Okay. I got a couple things to talk about. I've been thinking, you know, when Steve thinks he's got a lot on his mind. First of all, October 20th, I want to start my meetings again over there at the zoo. December 20th. Thank you. December 20th. [laughter] Uh, December 20 at 9:00 at the zoo uh administration building and in the park. I need everybody to come out. We got a lot to talk about and um come out and talk about the taxes. Whatever you want to do, be easy on Mr. Garza. He's getting older. So, just be easy. Come on out, have some coffee and donuts with me. It's at 9:00 over there in the park at the zoo. It's right off the parking lot. So, come on in there. We'll sit down, have some coffee, and uh we'll go over what the city what's going on. So, I want everybody to come out. Second thing I want to do is Mr. Truent. Mr. Truent, you've been sitting through all these things every city council meeting. I think you're going to be a great addition to us. You hear, you know, back basically where we're at. So, uh, I do appreciate you coming to the meetings and doing like you're almost one of us except you're sitting out there. You're not up here and you will be. So,

couple weeks I get the big boy. There you go. So, I appreciate you coming.

Yep. I appreciate you coming to the meetings. This is going to you should fit right into here and make sure you bring your sleeping cap because we do stay up. So, all right. And the last thing I want to say, taxpayers, listen to what Mr. Garza got to say. He's 67y old man. If you have not listened to what the city of Hutch is taking care of you, you're taking care of your water rights for your future. But you need to take care of us. you need to think about this tax thing that's coming up in order for us to keep going and building the city of Huds. Look at the thing that the the the zoo's doing. My god, you're living in a great city, but to have this great city, it takes money. And we're not asking you to pay two or 3% tax. We're asking three three quarter cents. Three 3/4 cent. And Garza is a little tired, so I get mixed up. Excuse me. But I talk from the heart when we up here and spend our nights here and we go to a lot of meetings and help you help your commissioners not get bold. Help us not get gray. Help us out on this tax thing. Understand it. Come to my meeting so you get understand it a little bit better. Other than that, that's all I got. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, John. Uh, I would like to comment that I thought the uh, efforts put forth for all the Christmas celebrations, including the parade, were fantastic. I think there's a lot of unsung effort that was put forth. I know a lot of city staff were involved in that, and that's appreciated. I think the attendance was great. I think the weather helped. Uh, from my vantage point, it was a full crowd. Um, I have to Chief Beer left, but but I don't I don't think he's still here. But the fire department, I appreciate their efforts on on uh on helping Santa Claus out and also the other departments that showed up uh in the parade. It was fantastic. Um, I hope everyone has a very merry Christmas. Looks like the weather's not going to turn on us. It looks like it going to be warm for the next two weeks. So, um, yeah, good. Have a good holiday. That's all I got. Good.

Um, uh, ditto that. Merry Christmas. Um, John, you've said some wise words over the years, but one of the things you said was Salina has highways, McFersonen has electricity, and Hutcherson has water. So, I think I think what we did tonight was very good. Thank you to the staff that works so hard um all the time. Um thank you, thank you, thank you and merry Christmas.

Scott, ditto of a lot of those comments. Um I do want to thank all of my council members for we we don't have an easy job.

You we don't want to raise taxes. We want to make this community the best we are. We want to we want to have it and we we're working hard to do that and it's not easy job and I welcome Mr. Truent to come join us soon so he can join in that fun task. Um I I want to thank all the city staff. I see him out working everywhere blowing out fire hydrants today. I don't even know what they were doing but there was water going everywhere. So um I just see him out there working doing a great job for our city. Um and the Christmas parade. uh that that weekend there was a lot of things going on and uh all the community members that came out and participated in all that uh I just want to say thank you and that's all I have and a merry Christmas.

Thank you. Um one thing I I don't think was mentioned on that last item, the Senoko um water rights is that we did budget for this um this was included in the 2026 budget. Um, so this is not an additional 10 million. This was included in I think it was page 488 of um the budget last year of the proposed budget. So this isn't a net new expense. This is very much something that we planned for and we've been we've been working on it obviously for months. Three years. Three years of months. No, I mean it's split up over three years.

It is split up over three years. Sorry. Um, so, uh, yeah, the cost is split up over three years and, um, yeah, so I just wanted to point that out. Um, in case anybody had sticker shock, um, the information like, um, our one um, speaker tonight said, Mr. Culvin. Um, you know, when you dig into the the tax question, the sales tax question, um, I think that's a deeply personal question for people to answer at the ballot box, of course. Um, but I really encourage people to educate themselves, not only on the process that we went through here tonight, but, um, how it may or may not benefit them personally moving forward. Um because when we're looking at um raising 10 mills or you know banks and lending institutions um and FEMA requiring um flood insurance on 40% of uh the city um and that never goes away um or you can do things to make it go away that are also expensive. So, um, we are trying to explore all paths forward and I think that's been, um, a concerted effort by all staff and council ever since we got the new, um, draft maps. Um, it has been a pleasure to serve as mayor and, um, yeah, looking forward to wrapping up the year. Um, and Garza, I will be at your meeting on the 20th.

Good. So, not the only one they scream, man. Yep. Um, yep. Exactly. And John will be there. No, just kidding. He's like, I'm done. Um, any remarks from Mr. Viegas?

Yeah, just just a few. Uh, and partly why I don't usually talk a lot during my part is because we communicate so often anyway. U, but a few miscellaneous items. Uh, so to continue to build off of the work that we've done in building uh in our building codes. Um, one of the things that I have talked with uh Matt and Jason about is standing up like a building and zoning 101. And so I think that could help shore up some of the gap that we have. So say for instance, if you're a homeowner and you want to re refurbish your house, you don't know where to start. And so if you attend one of these classes, we can kind of teach you, okay, here's what that looks like. Here's what this means. And the same thing would be applied to any zoning um request. Um, [clears throat] and I I think part of the analysis, if you will, of where maybe issues are breaking down, because it seems like on the commercial side, we've seen a lot more success, but on the residential side or some smaller projects is where people feel like they're being dinged. But I think it's a lot to do with just the educational component of why it's being asked or why we're requiring something.

And so hopefully doing a building and zoning codes 101 will help alleviate some of that stress. Um it's not going to be perfect, but it's at least a shot in a different direction. Uh and another thing that I I did want to point out, um how frequently staff utilizes all of the existing boards and commissions that we do have. Uh so for instance, um the HRO um has been very involved in the interview processes uh for the open positions that we have. Uh we've heard from friends of the zoo. Uh they're very engaged with the zoo master plan. um the building and trades board have been advising Jason along the way with a lot of the changes we want to implement that we're relying on the expertise and really the lived experience from those that are already serving our community. And so I I share that to say that we don't make any of these decisions in a vacuum. Uh sometimes it may have that appearance, but we definitely rely um on the expertise of the community at large. Uh, and I have been working and negotiating with the public arts and design council um on a revised ordinance um in support of the uh uh 1% towards uh arts um for projects. Um and really a lot of that has been tweaking some of the language. Uh they they re they we've been engaging back and forth for several months now. um kind of just slipped through the cracks a little bit, but uh I I do look forward to presenting that ordinance to you all. Um I I would be making a recommendation in support of it. And I know for a lot of our a lot of our friends that may see that as fluff. Um I I really think taking a an analysis or really a deep look on like the importance of art generally. Uh so whenever I go to a community um the first thing you always get oh the

architecture or any murals or anything that may stand out and catch your eye and those types of things are important because they give the community identity they give the community character and so that was a lot of the the subject discussions that I was having with the public arts and design councils to recognize and see that value. Um, but in particular, we're trying to carve out language for uh, say in a a doomsday scenario, a project is overrun with change orders. You know, I I I was really kind of talking with them on if a project is increasing that we would look at polling from some of those art funds so that way people can't say, "Oh, well, you're if you can pay for art, how can you not pay for this?" And so that was the really the thing we were talking about the most. Um, and I think we found some language that can meet the middle ground so we both feel like we're being heard. Um, and so anyway, uh, at some point, probably in the next few council meetings, um, some members of the public arts and design council and I will, uh, make a presentation to you all to consider. Um, and then to wrap this up, I do want to give a shout out to Avery Hoy um, on her recognition as being the youngest certified paramedic um, in the world. Um, that's an incredible accomplishment. Um, I think that she does represent the best of Hutchinson in that. Um, and coincidentally, I did talk with uh several of her uh paramedic colleagues and just others that have had interaction with her and they've all said that not only she very smart, but she's also a very kind person as well. Uh, so anyway, big shout out to her and that's all I have.

Thank you. Can I say one more thing? No, sure. Uh, I forgot tomorrow night our Blue Dragons are playing in Texas for another national championship football game. So, I want to wish coach Dallas and his staff and team good luck tomorrow night. Bring home another championship. That's all I got. That'll be your first proclamation to read and next year. [laughter] I'll do it. Um, looking for a motion. I move to adjourn. Thank you. Second. Richardson. Yes. Garza. Yes. Fast. Yes. Yes. Yes.

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