City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening and welcome to the Monday, August 17, 2026 City Council meeting. Our invocation will be provided by Tim Allison, chaplain of the Visiting Nurse Association. Please stand for the invocation and remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance. Apparently Tim is not here. I'm going to ask Mr. O'Neill if he would come up and give us an invocation.

Heavenly Father, we come before you humbled tonight asking that you give us wisdom and understanding as we go about the business of this city. Please, Lord, Be with those that are in severe need of you tonight and bless them, Lord, and help them if they are in dire needs. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

Madam City Clerk, can you please call the roll?

Council Member Dorman?

Here.

Council Member Perkins? Here. Council Member Stewart? Here. Council Member Atkinson? Here. Council Member Wiley? Here. Council Member Vaught? Here. Mayor King?

Here. We have no proclamations tonight, so we will get into citizen requests. I'm going to read a statement real quick. Just a few reminders who have signed up to speak under citizens' requests. Please state your name and city of residence. Speakers may only address one topic per meeting. All remarks must be addressed to the council as a body and no personal remarks about individuals, whether positive, negative, are permitted. In addition, everyone must maintain decorum and comply with directives from the presiding officer. If an issue arises, then you will be given a verbal warning, but if the issue persists, then you will be required to leave the meeting. Thank you. Our first speaker is Mark Graber with the Community Services League. Please state your name, your address, and you have 10 minutes to speak. Thank you.

Good evening. Mark Graber. I'm with Community Services League, 404 North Nolan Road here in Independence, Missouri. And I wanted to speak to you very briefly about the Independence Together program, the litter pickup program. We are very grateful for the partnership we've had with the city, which has been in existence since 2023. In that time, we have employed 43 individuals. Most of those we were able to successfully permanently house. On the rare occasion, there have been times where through personal situations, life circumstances, they have regressed. however that is the beauty of the program CSL is able to to be there to catch them and to find a new path forward to get back in the right right direction at times we have had a waiting list of over 40 individuals for this program we've actually had to discontinue the the waiting list just to set expectations We've leveraged the city's support for this program to start similar contracts, most recently with the Missouri Department of Transportation's Kansas City office. That certainly encompasses all of Jackson County, but we do spend a lot of time in the Independence MoDOT managed roads, so certainly a lot of crossover. You should also be very Glad to know that we've been able to partner with several CIDs that have also contributed money and their budget towards supporting this program. The beauty of this program, again, is the wraparound services that CSL offers. That includes housing, financial coaching, career services, personal needs such as food and hygiene. So we're there, again, to walk with these individuals to promote that upward economic mobility. And I'll apologize, maybe I've buried the lead here a little bit, but we've also picked up a little bit of trash along the way. 1.7 million pounds is what we have picked up, a whopping 68,000 bags of trash since 2023. And in addition to that, our MODOC crews have certainly contributed, again, above and beyond that on several of the the Independence thoroughfares. So again, we are so grateful for the partnership with the City of Independence. And I'll apologize, I am not able to stick around for the duration of the meeting due to some other obligations, but I do want to thank you in advance for your consideration of this continued contract. So thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Cindy Rogers. Please state your name, your address, and you have five minutes. Thank you.

Thank you. Cindy Rogers, 1316 West 29th Street, Independence, Missouri. I am here tonight to invite everybody out to Main Street 1849 at Santa Caligon. Santa Caligon happens in about 17 days, Labor Day weekend. Contrary to the name Main Street, Main Street 1849 is on South Liberty Street. at 110 South Liberty Street. But we invite everybody out. It's great for families, kids. Main Street 1849 really kind of gives you a flavor for what independence was like in the 1800s when the city was first around. We also invite folks to sign up for the free beard and mustache contest as well. So thank you very much.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Steve Dean. Please state your name and address, and you have five minutes. Thank you.

Steve Dean, 818 West 29th Street. I just want to comment on the ordinance amending Chapter 14 of the City Code regarding data centers and battery storage facilities. I'm just confused why this is necessary as the two current data centers in motion are exempt from this amendment. Why go to the trouble of writing this amendment if the first two don't have to follow the proposed additions to Chapter 14? It seems in the rush to approve these data centers, mistakes were made. In the amended language, it states that no major data center shall be located within 500 feet of schools, parks, playgrounds, daycares, nursing homes, hospitals, or churches. Well, the nebulous data center is within 500 feet of the Little Blue Trace Park. So if you vote in favor of Ordinance 26-072, it seems that you're either trying to put the horse back in the barn or hide the fact that you let it out in the first place. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Mark Mangels. Please state your name and your address, and you have five minutes. Thank you.

Thank you. My name is Mark Mangels, 1103 West 36th Terrace. I'm a lifelong resident of Independence, Missouri. I also volunteer at the Bingham-Wagner Mansion and Estate. But first, I just want to thank you, Mayor King and City Council, for this opportunity to share some thoughts about the issue of preserving our city history. I came across an interesting passage in a book I was recently reading that kind of spoke to me. It was written by W.L. Webb. His book includes an introduction by Major Robert Barr, who first states in his book, the use of history is to give value to the present hour and its duty. What a fitting piece of wisdom. for us to be able to use here in 2026 as we look at our use of history here and now, the history here and now in Independence, Missouri. But here's what I really found interesting about this book. The book is entitled The Centennial History of Independence. It was printed in 1927. Now I must point out that this is where my definition of history comes alive. Anytime the past speaks, that is history. So his words speak from 100 years ago. Major Barr went on to say, the liberties and conveniences we enjoy today are the fruits of the struggles of past generations. So now on a personal note, my parents moved to Independence in 1953. I remember them telling me that the reason they didn't move to Liberty, Missouri, was because there was no hospital. You see, my dad became a doctor after serving in World War II, and he and mom looked for a new home halfway between his parents in Kansas and mom's parents in Illinois. So, Independence became that place. Not a bad strategy, by the way. Not just for them did Independence become home but for the four boys, we all went to school here, we worked here, and continued to live here. My first job out of college was working for the city of Independence. Absolutely loved it. Meeting my wife Kim here in Independence, we raised four children, all Truman High School graduates. All have lived or are still living in Independence as adults now, raising their families. So for me, The liberties and conveniences that Major Barr referred to are the fruits of the struggles of my own family past generations. No one here witnessed the great westward expansion. No one here witnessed the Civil War. And frankly, there are very few left who can speak of meeting or even seeing the Trumans here in Independence. But this we can do, preserve our past. give value to the present hour, and make it our duty to honor and remember the struggles of our past generations? So thank you for your efforts to save our historic sites. I have seen several lost to demolition and in the name of urban renewal. Please remember, as was pointed out by those who celebrated the centennial of independence, that the use of history is to give value to the present hour and its duty. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker is Daniel Morehead. Please state your name and your address, and you have five minutes. Thank you.

Daniel Morehead, 716 North Bly Road. I want to thank the staff for and the people in the City Council that have met with me at various occasions to try and work through the changes on the UDO that are up for vote tonight. They're actually really very important. And while we could have a lot of disagreements about the strength of the moratorium, the depth of the amendments, and we will, I really appreciate the efforts of the people that have met with me to have those conversations. I know that there is a desire to talk about what might have happened last week, but I want to talk about a future now, because it's far more important. Here's the facts. Both the NEBIUS and the PATMOS projects have come in under the same inadequate zoning framework. The City appears reluctant to address one, while many do not want to enable the other. the Guard Alliance has repeatedly sought to cooperate on better zoning for tomorrow not simply to criticize the city. It's really easy to find opportunities to criticize hard work that the city goes through, and that is not the point. Some conversations have been very productive, and I appreciate it. Some people have been willing to meet and listen, and that is appreciated. But we really need to have conversations that lead to action. The engagement needs to extend beyond only those willing to participate. The data center provisions, and this is another fact, will lack important protections as they sit tonight. The current approach is a start, and it's a really good start. It's a far better start than what we had before, but it is not complete. It is not full. I would recommend that you do not pass the ordinance as is. It is not quite up to the sacred standards you hold for the health, safety, well-being, and good you uphold as your sacred duty. Send it back for expedited revisions. Work on those changes. We've sent in from the Guard Alliance many different documents to help with that, and we're still willing to meet to talk about what the future of independence can look like. Happy to work with anybody that would still be willing to work with us. And in fact, this is not an isolated item that you have to figure out in some sort of silo. There are other communities all over the US that are facing the exact same problems you are, same challenges. How do you enable? good business and protect your citizens at the same time with a very unknown and new kind of zoning challenge. This issue is not going away. It just isn't. And neither are we, the people who care about it. We are awake. We are paying attention. We are learning. We are organizing. We are gritty. We are resilient. We're in this for a long haul because we believe to do the right thing, you can enable great business and protect your citizens. Don't sacrifice one for the other. We want to work with you, but the results need to be real. Valuable UDO zoning reform. I ask you to push this one back, get it right, and start over. It's a good start, but it's not enough. Thank you.

Thank you.

This brings us to our consent agenda. Mr. Mayor.

Proceed.

I move to accept the reports and recommendations of the city manager.

I have a motion.

Second. Got a motion and a second.

Which items does the council members like to pull? Mr. Mayor. Proceed.

I would like to pull item number one.

Anyone else?

Mr. Mayor?

Yes.

I'd like to pull number 10, please.

Number 10?

Mr. Mayor? Yes. I'd like to pull item 5, please.

Anyone else? Mr. Mayor? Yes.

I'd like to pull item number 8, please.

Anyone else? Madam City Clerk, please call the roll. Or the vote, please.

Council Member Dorman?

Yes.

Council Member Perkins? Yes. Council Member Stewart? Yes. Council Member Atkinson?

Yes.

Council Member Wiley? Yes. Council Member Vaught? Yes. Mayor King?

Yes. Vote passes with seven yeses, zero nos. We'll start with number one with Councilmember Dorman.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I believe that this question would be for City Manager Anderson. My first question is, when was the last time that we competitively bid for audit services for our city?

I'm going to defer to our finance director, Ms. Melissa Cabrera.

Good evening, Mayor, members of the council. The last time that we did a competitive solicitation was in 2019. So we are recommending that after this, we go ahead and go back out to bid. Typically, we like to do this every five to six years on our contracts. But given some of the staff turnover and changes in leadership, this one has just fallen a little bit behind.

Okay. So is there a way that we can make sure that for next year we do put this on, that we are going to put this out for bid?

Yes, we're already working on it. So we pulled the last solicitation, and we'll look at some of the other cities just to see if there's any language updates or requirements changes to the way that these solicitations go out. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome.

Anything else on number one?

I move to approve item number one.

Second.

Got a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Madam City Clerk, please call the vote.

Council Member Dorman? Yes. Council Member Perkins? Yes. Council Member Stewart?

Yes.

Council Member Atkinson? Yes. Council Member Wiley? Yes. Council Member Vaught? Yes. Mayor King?

Yes. Number one passes with seven yeses and zero noes. This will take us to item number five, Council Member Atkinson.

Yeah, I believe this would like to have Chief Walker up for this one, if possible, or somebody who can talk more about the subject.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor and Council. So what this is going to be, it's going to be for our life scan physicals. They were negotiated in the contract, but these physicals are full comprehensive physicals, including lung x-rays, full ultrasounds on the entire body to check for all sorts of ailments that come as part of in the course of firefighting. I will say in the last four years, we have caught a major outbreak at least one major health problem, including cancer, every year with these physicals. So they're definitely paying for themselves. And any further questions? I brought Chief Duplantis here. He's my authority on life scan physicals. Is there anything you'd like to add, Chief?

That actually covered everything I had to ask, so thanks.

Perfect. Mr. Mayor?

Yes.

This goes more to staff, which may be for you. Do we do this for any other departments that are at risk for different ailments? I mean, I can think of several departments might be at risk where this kind of fiscal might be a good idea.

Yeah, we would absolutely love to explore kind of what this looks like for other departments. These particular programs are specifically designed and tailored for firefighters, just given the known risks and exposures to certain carcinogens, particularly in fighting fires. We know that there's an elevated risk, particularly for firefighters, so a lot of these sort of health and wellness programs and pre-screening programs were specifically intended and designed to help filter and screen firefighters because of the exposure that they're presented with. But we're certainly open to seeing whether a program like this could also be expanded to represent other departments and some of the risks that those other departments are also presented with for sure.

So the ones I'm thinking about that could be similar would be maybe those that are in parks and rec where they have chemicals that they're using, police officers who are going into drug houses. So I just think from hearing this, that might be a good suggestion to see. We might expand that to other areas or some sort of a different physical for those areas. Absolutely.

All right.

Thank you. I move to approve item number five of reports and recommendations of the city manager.

I second.

Got a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Madam City Clerk, please call the vote.

Council Member Dorman. Yes. Council Member Perkins. Yes. Council Member Stewart.

Yes.

Council Member Atkinson. Yes. Council Member Wiley. Yes. Council Member Vought. Yes. Mayor King.

Yes. Item number five passes, seven yeses, zero noes. This brings us to number eight, Councilmember Perkins.

Thank you, Mayor. This is just a simple postponement. I move to postpone this item until September 8th, please.

I second it.

Got a motion and a second to postpone item number eight until September 8th. Any other discussion? Madam City Clerk, please call the vote.

Council Member Dorman? Yes. Council Member Perkins? Yes. Council Member Stewart?

Yes.

Council Member Atkinson?

Yes.

Council Member Wiley? Yes. Council Member Vaught? Yes. Mayor King?

Yes. Item number eight passes, seven yeses, zero noes. I'm sorry, passes to postpone to September 8th. This brings us to item number 10, Council Member Wiley.

Thank you, Mayor. I move to approve item number 10. Second. Thank you. I want to thank the CSL representative for coming and speaking to us tonight. I don't have any questions about this, but I just want to talk about how great this program is, how happy I am that it's an independence. This is, you know, $100,000 this year, but I would like to invest more in this program if possible and expand it if possible. So I'm an enthusiastic yes on this. Thank you.

Thank you. Any further discussion?

Mr. Mayor? Yes. Thank you. It's been exciting since 2023 when this project was, this program was implemented to see the success and the trash that's been picked up and the large items of trash in the Western Independence is kind of focused a little bit on us at first, then through MoDOT, through the county and through the CID. So it's nice to see that our homeless folks are able to get the step up and the help that they need. So

continue working with this program and the success that has been thank you any further discussion on item number 10. madam city clerk please call the vote

Council Member Dorman? Yes. Council Member Perkins? Yes. Council Member Stewart?

Yes.

Council Member Atkinson? Yes. Council Member Wiley? Yes. Council Member Vaught? Yes. Mayor King?

Yes. Item number 10 passes with seven yeses and zero noes. This brings us to our regular agenda.

Mr. Mayor.

Proceed.

I would like to make a motion to postpone the public hearing as well as the second reading of Ordinance 26-072. I second it. September the 8th.

We got a motion and a second to postpone the public hearing and 26-072 till September 8th. Any further discussion?

Mr. Mayor.

Proceed.

So the Planning Commission actually did not recommend approval of this item. So since that time, I've actually had some meetings and had some conversations regarding some amendments we might be able to come up with. And I believe we've came up with 13 amendments, which I believe are pretty good. However, I got them sent out last Friday to the entire council. So I would just like to give the council a little more time to actually really look at those amendments to see if there's anything they would like to see changed on them. That's all. Thank you. Thank you.

Any further discussion? Madam City Clerk, please call the vote.

Council Member Dorman? Yes. Council Member Perkins? Yes. Council Member Stewart? Yes. Council Member Atkinson? Yes. Council Member Wiley? Yes. Council Member Vought? Yes. Mayor King?

Yes. The vote is 7 yeses, 0 noes to postpone the public hearing and 26-072 to the September 8th meeting. This brings us to our second reading of ordinances.

26-057, second reading, an ordinance creating section 12.05.018 of the Independent City Code for the prohibition of unlawfully gaining entry into a motor vehicle, second reading.

Any further discussion? Madam City Clerk, please call the vote.

Councilmember Dorman? Yes. Councilmember Perkins? Yes. Councilmember Stewart?

Yes.

Councilmember Atkinson? Yes. Councilmember Wiley? Yes. Councilmember Vought? Yes. Mayor King?

Yes. 26-057 passes with seven yeses and zero noes.

26-058, second reading, an ordinance amending Chapter 5, Article 10 of the Independent City Code regarding private security guards. Second reading.

Any discussion on 26058? Hearing none, Madam City Clerk, please call the vote.

Council Member Dorman? Yes. Council Member Perkins? Yes. Council Member Stewart? Yes. Council Member Atkinson? Yes. Council Member Wiley? Yes. Council Member Vought? Yes. Mayor King?

Yes. 26-058 passes with seven yeses and zero noes.

26-073, second reading an ordinance amending ordinance number 19723 by repealing and replacing the previously approved legal descriptions for parcel one of the annual neighborhood sanitary sewer project, project number 302004-1, second reading.

Any further discussion on the ordinance? Seeing none, Madam City Clerk, please call the vote.

Council Member Dorman. Yes. Council Member Perkins. Yes. Council Member Stewart. Yes. Council Member Atkinson. Yes. Council Member Wiley. Yes. Council Member Vought. Yes. Mayor King.

Yes. 26-073 passes with seven yeses and zero noes.

26-074, second reading, an ordinance authorizing the acceptance of a mutual aid agreement in the amount of $450,000.00 from KC2026 for law enforcement assistance provided by the Independence, Missouri Police Department during the FIFA World Cup events held in Kansas City, Missouri, appropriating the necessary funds in the Police Department grant fund, authorizing the acceptance of future change orders, extension, amendments, or addendums for additional funding or time extensions for the same project and authorizing certain future appropriations. Second reading.

Any discussion on that? I do have a question if you don't mind. I know it says for future change orders, but do we expect to get any more out of this other than the $450,000? I know our guys worked a lot, and we appreciate all the time that they put in, but are you expecting or anticipating more coming from this?

We are continuing to... process the paperwork and compare timesheets with actual time served. And so, no, we don't anticipate. But again, just to keep that door open, this was the original MOU amount. But if for whatever reason we come to realize that given our internal audit of those hours worked, it exceeds that dollar amount. But no, we don't anticipate it at this time.

All right. Thank you. Any further discussion? Madam City Clerk, please call the vote.

Council Member Dorman? Yes. Council Member Perkins? Yes. Council Member Stewart?

Yes.

Council Member Atkinson? Yes. Council Member Wiley? Yes. Council Member Vought? Yes. Mayor King?

Yes. 26-074 passes with seven yeses and zero noes.

26-076, second reading, an ordinance authorizing the city manager to execute a... with the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission for the Winter Road Complete Streets Project, project number 112403 slash federal project number STBG dash 33479 parentheses 440. Second reading.

Any discussions on the ordinance?

Mr. Mayor.

Proceed.

Thank you. This is one more step in the big Winter Road Complete Street project that we started with a discussion some years back. Funds are here, so this is the start of the Winter Road 24 highway side, just for a quick discussion. It follows all the way through Winter Road, goes to Truman Road in Winter where you have an intersection upgrade for pedestrians, for the kids that are walking to Van Horn High School. It goes all the way up to Hedges in front of Englewood. So excited for this next step. About a $7 million project, just more investment into western independence. Thank you, Mayor.

Any further discussion? Madam City Clerk, please call the vote.

Council Member Dorman. Yes. Council Member Perkins. Yes. Council Member Stewart.

Yes.

Council Member Atkinson. Yes. Council Member Wiley. Yes. Council Member Vought. Yes. Mayor King.

Yes. 26-076 passes with seven yeses and zero noes.

26-077, second reading, an ordinance amending section 12.03.009A of the independent city code to add subsection 3 to create a Santa Caligon district curfew over the Labor Day weekend, second reading.

Any discussion on 26-077? Mr. Mayor. Proceed.

Yeah, I would just like staff to kind of go over this one. Given the closeness we are to Santa Caligon days, make sure that the public is well aware of what all this entails.

Hey, Doug Brinkley. Good evening, Mayor and City Council. Doug Brinkley, Interim Police Chief. So good question. I think it's more of a precautionary, being more proactive than anything else. I can tell you over the last month, maybe two months, we've noticed groups of youths throughout the area. I think about a week ago, kind of took over a quick stop Our officers wound up making seven, eight arrests in that instance. We've been doing directed patrols throughout the city to kind of curtail that. With Santa Clara coming up, we're going to make sure we have the resources there. We'll have drones. I think we have barricades there. But one extra additional item that we thought would be useful is actually have the curfew in place. Typically, over the last couple of years, we haven't had a whole lot of activity. Some things, years pass. But this is more precautionary than anything else. If we have some youths or young people who are not there with parents or guardians, we would escort them outside of there or either have their parents or guardian come pick them up. I've got a little bit of cold, so my voice is kind of screwed up right now.

Thank you, yeah. This was in large part a response to what happened in Lee's Summit, and we definitely don't want that to happen here. So I appreciate staff working on this and finding a reasonable, hopefully, preventative measure for anything that could happen.

Just one thing, because I want, as we talk about this curfew, but Chief Brinkley, we already have curfews in place now, don't we? Could you go over those, if you don't mind?

I didn't write all of them down, but we do have a city curfew from Sunday through Thursday, 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. And on Friday and Saturday, it starts a little bit later, 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. This just brings it up a little bit to make sure we get people out. Now, kids can come. Young people can come. But they need to be with a parent or guardian after that 6 p.m. curfew. Short period of time, just doing Santa Carolina, and that's it.

All right. Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

Proceed.

Is it one chaperone per underage child, or is it one chaperone per, what is it, four?

I don't know about that prerequisite, but I hope that we interpret it as a parent or guardian for those groups of kids. So if one parent or one group has 40 kids, that's probably impossible. But I'm looking for the parent or guardian for each individual children or group of family members.

Thank you.

That make sense?

Any further discussion? Madam City Clerk, please call the vote.

Council Member Dorman. Yes. Council Member Perkins. Yes. Council Member Stewart. Yes. Council Member Atkinson. Yes. Council Member Wiley. Yes. Council Member Vought. Yes. Mayor King.

Yes. 26-077 passes with seven yeses and zero noes.

26-078, second reading an ordinance calling an election to authorize the issuance of general obligation bonds for the City of Independence, Missouri, second

Any discussion on this ordinance? Mr. Mayor? Proceed.

Thank you. I just want to say it's been quite a delight working with historic groups over the last spring and going into summer, coming up and working with the different needs that each of the groups has. So thank you for your patience. As you know, we kind of started off with a rough start there with the PGAV recommendation and all that conversation. So thank you. Thank you to the council members that also helped work with this. And we also added in with the 76, the fire station number one in the groups there. So I'm glad we got you guys included there. Much needed history right there on that corner. So we're looking forward to moving this to November. So a big thank you. Thank you for your patience. And, Mayor, I'm looking forward to the vote in November.

Thank you. Any further discussion? I will just say this for me, uh, historical sites are extremely important to the city and they need to stay with the city. And I appreciate everybody's work and hopefully, um, with this going on the November ballot, we hope that we can get this past and protect our historical sites. Thank you. Any further discussion? Madam city clerk, please call the vote.

Council member Dorman. Yes. Council member Perkins. Yes. Council member Stewart. Yes. Council Member Atkinson? Yes. Council Member Wiley? Yes. Council Member Vought? Yes. Mayor King?

Yes. 26-078 passes, seven yeses and zero nos.

26-079, second reading, an ordinance authorizing persons to hold more than one office within the city, second reading.

Any further discussion on this? Mr. Mayor? Yes.

Mr. City Manager, can you go over what this is and why we need it? And if you just read the headline, I think there might be questions about it.

Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity to expound a little bit. So this is intended to apply to appointments to boards and commissions. So under the charter... There is language that restricts appointments of individuals to one position on any one board or commission. Historically, in order to conduct city business, we have had to take volunteers who want to serve on various boards and commissions and appoint them to positions on multiple boards and commissions. Simply, in order for us to continue to conduct city business and to remain in compliance with the city charter, this ordinance allows for the city council to appoint individuals or persons to more than one board or commission. Now this doesn't necessarily mean that city council has to appoint individuals. Ideally, right, we would have enough volunteers that would want to come out and serve that individuals would not have to feel compelled to serve on more than one board or commission. And so we'll continue to strive to encourage volunteers from within the community to come out and serve their community by serving on various boards and commissions. But at the end of the day, this ordinance allows us to then become compliant with the charter. There's a provision in the charter that says that otherwise by ordinance, no one person can serve on any more than one board or commission. So this ordinance allows us to be in compliance with the charter. and continue to conduct business as we need to. But again, we're going to continue to try to encourage folks to come out, volunteer, get as much diversity on our boards and commissions as possible. But again, just allowing us to remain in compliance with the charter.

Okay, that's all I have. Thank you.

Any further discussion? Just real quick, the whole, we really want to see individuals on one board, but we do have, sometimes we have some issues where we can't get quorums for some of the boards, and so, and this is kind of became a concern, correct? That's correct. All right, thank you.

Mr. Mayor? Yes. To kind of tie into your point, when I was on the Board of Adjustment, there were a couple different times when a quorum would not be met, and on the that you're trying to either let somebody know whether they can or cannot move forward with a project becomes incredibly frustrating. I can only imagine from the perspective of that business or the individual resident within this city to have some level of delay that is unnecessary. So please reach out to any one of us. Let us know where you would like to plug in. It's a wonderful opportunity to learn more about how city government works. The people are always nice. It's very interesting most of the time. And, yeah, please volunteer. And if a board or commission isn't your fancy, there are plenty of other opportunities we'd love to hook you up with to help the city. Thanks.

Any further discussion? Madam City Clerk, please call the vote.

Council Member Dorman. Yes. Council Member Perkins. Yes. Council Member Stewart. Yes.

Yes.

Council Member Atkinson? Yes. Council Member Wiley? Yes. Council Member Vaught? Yes. Mayor King?

Yes. 26-079 passes with seven yeses and zero noes. This brings us to our first readings.

26-080, first reading, an ordinance amending City Code Chapter 16, Article 5 by adding provisions requiring an Energy Services Agreement, ESA, for large load customers... Served by Independence Power and Light. First reading. 26-081. First reading. An ordinance authorizing acceptance of the 2026 Midwest High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, HIDA, Memorandum of Understanding for the Kansas City Overland Park DEA Task Force Initiative and related documents with the Kansas Bureau of Investigation for a grant award in the amount of $165,015, making the necessary appropriations and authorizing future change orders for additional funding and 26-082 First Reading and Ordinance Authorizing Acceptance of the 2026 Midwest High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, HIDA, Memorandum of Understanding for the Investigative Support Center Initiative and related documents with the Kansas Bureau of Investigations for a grant award in the amount of $135,054.31, making the necessary appropriations and authorizing future change orders for additional funding and 26-083, first reading, an ordinance authorizing the city manager to execute a certain grant agreement in the amount of $6 million with the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission for the 23rd Street Safety and Mobility Improvements Project, project number 112601 slash federal project number STBG-3379 parentheses 448, and adopting amendments to the fiscal year 2026-2027 budget, which was approved by ordinance number 19816, first reading. 26-084, first reading, an ordinance amending ordinance number 19748 and authorizing the city manager to execute a certain grant agreement supplement with the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission as part of the 23rd Street M78 Complete Streets Phase 3 project, project number 112113-3, slash federal project number CRP-3379, parentheses 447, first reading. 26-085, first reading, an ordinance approving a rezoning from District R6 single-family residential to District R6 slash PUD, single-family residential slash planned unit development, and approving a preliminary development plan for the property located at 199-01 East Missouri 78 Highway, first reading.

This brings us to Councilmember comments. Councilmember Dorman.

Okay, I have a couple of things I want to share, which I don't have all the specifics, but I think it's a good time to maybe get some things on people's calendars and have them looking forward to it. My first thing that I want to share, and it might be renamed, but we are working toward having a citywide cleanup program. of some kind, and I'm not sure what the name will be. Lisa Reynolds with our staff is working with G.K. Callahan with UMKC Extension, and they have people from Parks and Rec. We have Master Gardeners. The two of them have done a phenomenal job of working on volunteers. The week that's planned is September 28th to October 4th, and this is something that UMKC Extension does throughout other communities. We may not accomplish everything that we would like to at this point, but we're hoping to get some areas that need improvements kind of prioritized and touch on those, and then long-term continue to work on this. I think that we've seen citizens really expressing wanting to lift up their community. While I was campaigning, I had someone say to me that Independence is the biggest small town you can ever find. And I truly have experienced that the small town still exists that I knew when I was growing up. So to all my friends that when I was knocking on your doors or that I've known from my childhood or selling real estate that said you'd grab a paintbrush, we might not be painting this time, but we will be. And whatever we're going to do Be prepared for that week to help your neighbors. Or if you need help or you know someone that needs help, we'll start getting them on a list and taking care of that. So thank you to Lisa's group. She has way more people, her and GK, that are working on this. City Manager Anderson coordinated this. I'm a little bit of a control freak, so I wasn't really sure stuff was getting done, but it was. Thank you. So second thing is our human relations board, and this kind of goes along the same thing about us taking care of our community, because it's really about the people, not what we are going to do up here. But it's been an annual event, the skateboard competition. So that is on the books for this year. It is September 26th, and oh, now I forgot which park it's at. Hill Park. Hill Park. Thank you. They are needing hoodies, jackets, and that donated. A couple of skateboards. I'm reaching out to someone. Some gift cards. You got the skateboards? Stand up. This person's gone through a lot, and she's still donating to others. Thank you, Sarah. We got two of them ordered today.

We should have them...

Wow. Thank you. So this may sound like kind of a small thing that's going on on a Saturday, but it's actually created a community pride in that park. And they're taking care of it because they want to skate there. And it's small kids to, I don't know that it went to my age, but pretty close to my age. So I think it'll be a great day. Even if you don't skate, you could come out and support them. or you could volunteer. I'm sure they'd like even more gift cards or, I don't know, money for the next year. We can always use money for stuff, but thank you. That's all I have to share, but it's a work in progress. It'll take a while for us to see all the results, but as a community, if we stand up together, that's how it's gonna get changed. That's it.

Thank you. Council Member Perkins.

I'm sorry. I apologize. Are we going out of order?

No, we are not. Council Member Stewart.

I don't have anything in that matter. Thank you.

All right.

Thank you.

Council Member Atkinson.

Yeah, I just want to say thank you again to all the volunteers who showed up. This really is going to tie nicely into what Council Member Dorman and city staff have been working on with the citywide cleanup. Um, so to have that little targeted bit there in Fairmount park, um, if you've seen the pictures either on the city's Facebook page or, uh, a couple of council member pages, it was a lot of stuff. Um, unfortunately a lot of folks do feel that, um, there are some dumping grounds that we all, uh, as residents wind up paying for in some way or another. Um, so again, thank you so much, uh, to those who were able to show up to the council members who came and, cleaned up that park we had a couple folks who walked through there and just showed a lot of appreciation that the city is out there taking care of that several of them even said that they typically kind of pick things up themselves so it was nice to see a little bit of extra help there so again looking forward to everything that council member dorman is working on with citywide cleanup and we'll continue to do this and hopefully build a nice volunteer base for this city to be able to respond to all sorts of different situations where volunteers are needed.

Thank you. Council Member Wiley.

Thank you, Mayor. I also want to thank the folks that came out Saturday for the Fairmont Park cleanup. It was a really good morning. It was a little hot, but... It was fun to work and meet a lot of people. It was a really good morning. And then the other thing I wanted to mention was the Truman Library had a groundbreaking last week for some new landscaping they're doing around the Truman Library. They're doing a walking trail. They're doing outdoor classrooms. They're doing picnic areas. So it's gonna be a really big, beautiful project for independents. and I was able to go to the groundbreaking with the mayor, and Senator Blunt was there, and Congressman Cleaver was there. It was a really nice event, and I'm really excited for that to be finished, which I think it'll be next summer. So it's going to be a great addition to independence. Thank you.

Thank you.

Council Member Bott?

Nothing tonight.

Thank you.

Council Member Perkins. Thank you, Mayor. Yeah, it was hot Saturday, and the best thing about that, I did not catch the poison ivy, so that was good. Great cleanup. Thank you for organizing that. And Councilman Dorman, thank you for organizing the Good Neighborhood Week. Kind of dovetailed pretty well this year. Normally the Northwest cleanups is the first week of June, but with FIFA, we moved it until later this year. So coming around this fall is a good time with that. Westside cleanup usually involves with Maywood Baptist Church, Englewood Church, Revive Church, Grace Church. This year we're going to include Kentucky Hills. We'll be a part of this Good Neighborhood Week as well as the Fairmont Community Center with 40-yard dumpsters for large item pickups. So everything seems to be jiving very well this year. So that's all I have tonight, Mayor.

I have a couple things. And thank you, Council Member Wiley, for talking about the groundbreaking ceremony. That was really neat. And the drawings and what it looks like could be, you know, I've said this before. I don't think all of our... residents and citizens here actually know what that is because there's nothing outside that really says what it is. So that'll be one of the things that you'll see is a sign out there that shows that it's the Truman Library. I had a great time the last couple weeks. The students from the Japanese sister city have been in, and we had a mayor's breakfast, and I want to thank Councilmember Dorman and Councilmember Vought, and actually State Rep Will Jobe came out. We just got to talk to the kids. They had a great breakfast. They ate all their food. I passed out donuts because if you don't know me, I love donuts. So every day is, if you ask the staff around here, I'll say, guess what today is? It's donut day. So passed out donuts to all of them. We came in here to the council so they could see the council chambers. And you know, it's a little bit different over there. They're very respectful. And, um, I had to tell them it was okay. Cause they wanted to sit, they, they wanted to sit in the mayor's seat, but I actually had to tell them it was okay. And even then they were a little skittish on sitting down. I said, no, really it's okay. So they took turns sitting down and I, and taking pictures. And I said, wait a minute, you're getting it all wrong. I said, you got to sit like this. And so, If you look at some of the pictures on Facebook page, they're all standing behind me as I'm sitting here like this, and then we went up to the mayor's office up there, and again, same thing. Hey, it's okay to take pictures, and so they had fun up there, and then again, I told them they were sitting in the chair wrong, and so I kicked back, and I said, this is how the mayor sits, and I just went. put my feet up on the desk. Anyway, we just had a really good time. I got a letter from their mayor over there that was really nice. Also, what I found out is that Japan has two types of fans. There's a male fan and a female fan. I was given a male fan as a present, and I really appreciated it. I had a lot of fun hanging out with them kids. They did not want to go back, but I will tell you this. The two favorite places that they really liked the most visiting here was our Super Target and Taco Bell. Yes. So anyway, and I want to say this. I want to thank the host families that had them here for the two weeks. They did a great job, and those kids were really appreciative of everything that they did. But also that committee, the plans that they had, they were all over. They were busy every day. But I want to thank them for that. I attended, last week I attended Shine KC and it was an event to recognize volunteers. that help coordinate and help the unhoused. And there were 55 people that they honored there, but just the conversations and some of the people I met there really kind of got me. And it's humbling to see that many people that are interested in trying to help people in a time of need. And we need as many as we can. Also attended the Roots Festival. Great time. The one thing is, I did get my exercise in, because if you haven't been, you have one band on one side, on the north side, and one band on the south side, and they play for about 50 minutes, and I know some of you that are here were there. You move from one side to the other, so you get exercise and you get to listen to good music each hour. And just a reminder, the Volunteer Small Business Committee that I put together after the town hall meeting, We'll have our first meeting Wednesday, this Wednesday at 6 o'clock. If you have not, if you're interested in coming, please reach out to me or Kim Osborne and let us know. But right now we have between 15 and 20 people that are interested in coming. And so we can have a good conversation and see what the city can do to help our small businesses grow and really take away some of the burdens that I've heard and I think some of the other council members have heard to start up a business here because we really want to make sure that people feel like and we want them to know that we're business friendly here and we appreciate small businesses because they're the backbone of our community. Yeah. And that's it for me. City Manager Anderson.

Honorable Mayor, the only other announcement I have is an update on our police chief executive search. The listing closes tonight at midnight, so I've been in consultation with the recruiter and we are really excited about the number of applicants that we have seen come in and the quality of applicants that we have seen come in. It's inevitable. We'll probably get a few more before midnight, but really excited about where we're at thus far and looking forward to the next part of the process.

All right. This concludes our city council meeting. Thank everybody for coming. Appreciate it.