City Council - Regular Meeting

7 p.m on thursday september 10th 2026. debbie can you please call roll here here this evening we have pastor doug woodann to lead the invocation followed by the pledge of allegiance if you would like to join us and stand

Lord, I thank you for this day. I hope you were able to rejoice and to be glad in it. I thank you for this opportunity. We can come and listen and learn and share our thoughts. And thank you for our council who they give up their time and they serve and give them wisdom tonight. And Lord, before I close, I just want to remember all the families that were affected 25 years ago tomorrow. On 9-11, I pray that you may comfort them. And may we as a nation, I know we've already forgot some of this, and I heard a third of the nation has died since that time. And may we reflect on it and teach those who come behind us what happened on that day and those who sacrificed their lives. And speaking of sacrifice, thank you so much for giving your son to us so we could have on the cross and shedding your blood that we could have eternal life. May everything be done today for your glory. In Jesus' name we all say, Amen.

Okay, just before we move on, I'm gonna just make a community announcement separate before It's separate from community announcements. There's been ongoing online that people are having difficulty hearing people speaking in the meetings. So if everyone can please use the microphones. And staff, if you can pull them closer to you when you speak, that would be very helpful. That's just feedback that I'm getting from the community. And if you should speak at the podium, please make sure you speak right into that microphone. OK. We're going to move on to approval of tonight's agenda. I do know one additional change is that we have a second executive session for non-elected personnel for 10 minutes to be added, council. Is there anything else? Oh, sorry. I apologize. Anything else?

OK. Move we approve the agenda as written, adding a second executive session for non-elected personnel for 10 minutes.

second motion by council member headstrom second by council member baldwage all in favor any opposed no motion passes three zero moving on to approval of congen consent agenda um does anyone want anything pulled from the consent agenda tonight i would like to move the expense approval report for july and august down to new business um item 9b okay and i have one correction on the meeting minutes um on the i guess it's the second page um it stated that the council was in agreement for an independent audit to be completed the council stated that it was an independent investigation that they were required were um desiring Does anyone else have anything else for the minutes?

No.

I would entertain a motion.

I move that we approve the consent agenda with changing the minutes to reflect that it was independent investigation and removing expense approval report to new business.

Second.

Motion by Council Member Moreland, second by Council Member Hedstrom. All in favor?

Aye.

Motion passes 3-0. Moving on to communications. Are there any Keechai civic groups or committees that would like to speak this evening? Seeing none, we'll move on to community announcements. Council, do you have any community announcements for this evening? yeah okay so community announcements first off i want to say thank you to our city staff for engaging with each resident and business owner who has called or come to city hall regarding their utility bill additionally thank you to our public works crew who have checked a number of meters and answered a lot of questions and a lot of questions were asked at city hall as well too so just thank you to all of our city staff for your involvement in assisting our residents and business owners tuesday evening community dinners continue at kichai united methodist church from 5 30 to 7 30. please come and enjoy a meal provided at no cost and connect with your neighbors or meet somebody new September is the final month for the Keechai Farmers Market, Thursdays from 4 to 6.30. Keechai United Methodist Church parking lot. We invite you to eat and buy local. It's time for office party at the Keech I Playhouse from September 11th to October 4th, Friday and Saturday evenings at 8 p.m., Sunday matinees at 2.30. Call 744-2152 or message them directly via their Facebook page to reserve your tickets. The community build for the new playground is drawing closer. Watch the Friends of Keechai Park Facebook page for the latest events and updates. There's still time to donate to cover playground project costs and to sign up to volunteer to help with the build, November 10 to 15. And finally, the brush site is open this Saturday, September 12 from 8 to noon. City staff, do you have any additional announcements that I'm not aware of? Does anybody want to address any public comments from the last meeting? Seeing none, Debbie, do we have any public comments for this evening? Doug Widan? Please come and state your name, your address, and you have five minutes to share. Thank you.

Doug Widan, 392 East Cheyenne Court here in Keechai, America. I have a question for each of you, and it's not a personal question. If you answer, that's fine. If not, that's fine. And I'll ask, it's the same question for each one of you, but I'll ask it to you. I'll start with you, Teresa. Did you experience... A higher water bill than usual this past bill?

No, I did not.

Are you a resident here? Yes, I am. Thank you. Ms. Mayer, did you receive a higher bill?

I did not.

I live here. Yeah, I live here. We all do. I know it. We all live here. We all live here. Okay, I'll just... Kendra, did you experience a higher water bill?

No.

Okay, thank you. Todd? Yes. You did, okay. Mr. Administrator, did you receive a higher water bill? He doesn't live here. Do you live here? Are you a resident? He does not live here. You own property here? Okay. That's just for information, just for me. I do live here. You do? Okay. Thank you very much. I find it, I didn't think about this till I got home from the last meeting I was here. And I don't know how many we had. If it's 20, if it's 40, I've seen several different numbers. So just for sake of illustration, we'll just say 30. Let's say 30 homes had the higher water bill. And on your presentation, it was A flapper, a hose that was left on, leaky faucet, maybe a water line break, or something wrong with the sprinkler heads. I may have missed one or two. But I was thinking, to me it seems kind of weird that in a two to three, four week span, that these 30 homes, or however many they were, all had the same problem at one time. I've lived here a little over 10 years, I think, and to my knowledge, there hasn't been a discussion over, there might have been a high water bill, but I just think it's like we all got together at the park and say, let's increase our water bill. Okay, I'll leave my hose on, I'll do this or I'll do that. And I just find it odd that all of us at one time had that same problem. It wasn't spread out over months, but just one particular time. And I want to close with this. I've pastored for about 35 years, maybe a little longer than that. And when I first came into the ministry, I was a young guy. And when somebody had a... I'm going to use a heart issue. When somebody had a heart issue... They go into the hospital, either a stent put in or bypass or whatever. All of a sudden, they have heart disease. And as a pastor, I would go down and visit them in the hospital. I didn't make too many hospital calls before that, and I had never had heart disease, and so I really could not relate to what was going on. I just told them I loved them and prayed for them and went on. I've been here 23 years in Park City, Keechee, a pastor in Valley. And 21 years ago, 22 years ago, I had heart disease. Didn't have a heart attack, but had two stints put in. I mean, I had two bypasses, and I've had a couple stints since then. But since then, Now when I go to a hospital to visit somebody with that issue, I can relate perfectly. Because I know what they went through. I know their fears. I talk to them about rehab and physical therapy and diet. And I show them a little nitro bottle. And that's helped quite a bit for me. And the reason I say that is I hope that those who did not have a higher water bill somehow can connect with those, especially those who spoke last time, especially the older people who have trouble. I know the city will help with that, but if you don't experience something that we do or I don't experience something that you're going through, we can't relate to each other. And so I pray that you'll take the time to listen and be, you know, we were respectful of Mr. Ginsby's slide presentation and And I want to be respected when I say something, and I'll respect you when you say something, even though I may not agree. I don't want to be mocked at. I don't want to be chuckled at or laughed at. And I felt some of us were last time. And so that's all I had to say. Thank you very much.

I want to clarify. You asked about last month specifically. I did not. I have had high water bills in the past that shocked us and sometimes, and usually it was discovered once it was on us and once it was not. I have had a high gas bill and it was my, through education, I actually found out how to tell when my gas meter had quit and my gas meter had stopped in the wintertime. And because it was a malfunction, I knew that we had to do a catch-up, and they used an estimated bill. So I knew it was coming, though. But I did want to clarify, yes, I have been where you are, and I do sympathize. I have also been on the other side of the counter, so to speak, with those. But I do appreciate the question.

Thank you. God bless.

Thank you. Debbie?

Debbie? we will close public comment and we will move on to staff reports thomas public works i forgot your request last time was to change the order around once in a while that's all right hopefully you guys can hear me i'm pretty loud but i'll talk into this thing too that's mostly the online can't hear if people don't talk into the mic

um so i think you have my staff report in front of you um so we've been quite busy um Last month we had about 40 811 locate tickets. We read all the gas and water meters manually this last month. We've been out painting gas meters throughout the town, mostly the older neighborhood here. We're required to paint a third of the gas meters every year. So we've been doing that. We've been repainting storm drain inlets, kind of a stormwater state MS4 requirement. So if yours is dingy, we'll probably be out there to paint it again. If it's just white, they will be out there to finish it sooner or later. Graded dirt roads once. Been mowing and weed eating and catching up throughout the city. It's been nice that we haven't had a whole lot of rain. We did fix the gas leak at a resident's home. That took a full day. We fixed a water leak out on top of the hill. I don't know if anybody passed us that day. Thought it was a main leak. Found out that it was an old line that ran across 254 highway still that we didn't know was there. Don't know why it's still there. Seems like we ran a new main over on Huffman years ago and didn't run that. But we will be doing that as soon as it cools down a little bit. We did training on how to read water and gas meters. Kind of unexpected this last time. It was kind of a whirlwind. I was out on vacation in the switch to IT providers. We lost some little communications. Our collector was not reading with our IP address any longer so we could not get in touch with Zinner. When meter each came, so those guys got to read every meter in town. We usually do that with new hires. I don't know if anybody has noticed, but we hired four new employees all at once. They're all new to this. None of them have read meters before. They do not know your addresses. They do not know where your meters are at. They got about a 30-minute to an hour crash course is what Jason told me that day. I had no idea that it was going to take that long to get it back up and running. In the past, usually I could make a phone call and 30, 45 minutes it was back up and running. I guess there was a few more hiccups this time as there probably should be since we switched IT and they hadn't dealt with that before. Along with that we found out that our GIS had been shut down because of our static IP was missing on that too so we wasn't able to send guys out with tablets to look at meters or where they were at or valves or anything so it was kind of just a I don't know. Not a good moment, especially when you're supposed to be on vacation, but you're spending all your time on the phone. So we focused on that. We did water leak emergency response training, training for gas leak response, exercising gas and water valves. Spent the day recalibrating the GIS system. Training on how to use the city's GIS system for some of those newer employees. Installed manhole extensions on Mason for the overlay that we just put out there on that road. Meetings, had lots of meetings with Pearson. So not only did we have the Madsen, we had the hillside repair. We also had, I don't know if they got to it yet or not, on Woodlawn. I've been out the last two days. And then we also had the mill and overlay of 101st Street, not 101st Street, but Sunnydale. Cord up there on 101st Street. So we also hosted a gas meeting with KMGA here in Keechai. That went really well. Been mowing with the tractor, kind of doing repairs right now. Lots of oil, air filter change outs, tire change outs, replacing that tractor brake was down for a little while. but uh any other questions i'll be more than happy to try to answer them um you know unfortunately with newer guys sometimes numbers get mixed around sometimes they don't know where the meters are at i don't do social media so if i hear something i'm going to tell you i probably didn't hear that from there unless you come and talk to me personally so anybody who's out there for the city if you shoot me an email i'll be happy to respond to that i tried to get back to every one of them within a 24-hour period so they don't feel like i'm leaving them out um or approach me you know i'm approachable if you see me out there in the field or you see me out there you know you got a question stop and ask me what i'm doing you know i have no problem explaining things so but uh yeah i'll stand for any other questions you guys have or comments council any questions or comments for thomas

i just have one thing that you mentioned before oh did i interrupt you go ahead we're going to talk about what happened under unfinished business are you staying long enough

Yeah, I can stay around. I mean, my football team plays tonight, but yeah, I can stay around.

Just till we get through the utility discussion. That would be great.

Another thing that I kind of wanted to bring up, I guess I forgot, is that we are going to replace all the remaining old meters this year. We're going to try. to have all the ultrasonics in by the end of the year. I'm not out there installing them, so we do have new guys installing those and programming them. We have been going through training for that. And then I do have gauges that I have on my way out that I did get that we are going to install throughout the city to check the city's water pressure. I did also receive a phone call from KWRA. They are going to bring out their pressure gauges too. So they will do their own testing. That way we can compare our notes to their notes. The gauges that I take will take 130,000 pressure, and I will download those. So you have to give me a little bit. I will be out for conference tomorrow too, so I should be back next week to do that and hopefully get those installed and start taking those reads.

I could. Go ahead.

It's OK. So you said that you're going to replace the old meters. And this was one of the questions we had last meeting. How many meters do we have approximately that can't be read electronically?

So currently there is about 140 that we've been reading manually for a while. The problem is that we have about 240 left to change out. And when the MIUs go out on those, we don't replace them because they don't read. When they stop, they just stop. Sometimes they send us the same read unless we catch it. It could have stopped at five. It could have stopped at 10 units. You know, it could have stopped at 15. It could stop halfway through the month. We don't know that. And those are on a lot of those old rotometers instead of ultrasonics. And that's why we're hoping to replace those.

Thank you. Coach, I have you mentioned the brush site, I think a couple meetings ago or so, about the volume that has come into the brush site. Are we still seeing high volume that's coming in?

I would say we are, I mean, we're kind of averaging out now between 50 and 70 loads on a Saturday. You know, before we were probably at, you know, half that or less, but, you know, it's nothing that we're not, you know, not being able to monitor. It's getting out of control so.

Okay. So you had talked earlier about or before about like the pile getting really large and needing to be cautious with EPA and all that kind of stuff when you need to burn. So you don't have any concerns at this time?

No, we were burning about once every two years. We'll probably have to burn once a year now. The pile is actually getting pretty large this time, so we'll probably burn this winter just so we can make sure the smoke, if the wind does decide to blow, doesn't head towards the highway.

And have we noticed at all any landscapers or commercial people bringing brush into the site that shouldn't be bringing in?

No no no we do not check out the key anymore now if they see the gates open and they sneak in there whether we catch them or not we haven't caught anybody but we do have Sedgwick County down there again so Sedgwick County is the team that puts the sirens in for the emergency response and the alert system They are down there again this year. I guess they like the site. It's easy access in and out. So they asked if they could use that site again. So if you do see somebody down there, I think one of their guys is actually staying in a camper. The company's out of Oklahoma.

So I know we, to piggyback on that, we saw something posted recently about illegal dumping happening outside the gate. Is that still an issue?

We did have somebody dump one load outside the gate, but it wasn't nothing extreme. So I think it took the guys about an hour, a couple of guys about an hour to clean it up.

And do you monitor? How many are coming in from Bel Air and how many are Keechai residents?

No, no we don't. I mean that would require us to stop everybody and we only have one person down there monitoring and they're keeping track of how many people are dumping and what they're dumping and making sure they're dumping the right things. So sometimes it's not always easy to see the people on the back side of the pile.

great thank you nothing else council okay thank you thank you chief kichai pde please

Thank you, guys. Man, busy couple weeks or a couple months. Last month, Cops and Rotters, a huge success. It was incredible having the community out there. I can't say enough about the efforts that were put into that with the entire community, people showing up, coming out in droves, and just hanging out for a great time. Sorry it was so hot. I think we talked on this maybe last time. We're going to try to find a cooler month to have it next year and keep building on the – just dare I even call it success, just the community connection in that. It was awesome. Together, it looked like we raised about $3,500. So that's all going over to the park, and that's going to be a good shot in the arm for them, and hopefully we can continue to build on that. I was a guest speaker over at Goddard High School for the criminal justice classes. That was an incredible day, afternoon spent with them. Very well received. The instructor gets reviews back and relays those to us. He said they're exceptional. He said that they really enjoyed having Keechai in there. And we may be invited back to help instruct uh their class so that particular class is part of skills usa which is something that i came up in to start my career skills usa is what they call it now for us it was just something that was put together locally down in texas where we used our local community college actors to come over and act each school put together a law enforcement element We trained during school hours on 911 response, traffic stops, typical routine cop things that you would typically train for at KLETC here. And then it was operated almost like a track meet where everybody competes in certain scenarios, the actors, the whole thing. And then at the end, they were handed out first, second, third place. And the local law enforcement were the judges of those things. So Goddard is currently part of that. So we may go over there and help them instruct on some different scenarios and some different things there. Last month I was invited out to WSU as a guest speaker for Citizens Police Academy. This week I was invited again back to WSU to the Elliott School of Communication. I don't think they looked my resume over. I'm not sure how I even got a parking spot. really a cool opportunity there were majors in there for communication minors for communication majors in business just all kinds of stuff there and and the students were top-notch just incredible students great questions we went over our social media practices and how we have a reach and how we operate there again i can't say enough about that that school the instructors the teachers it was incredible so we had a great time there um sturgis man that was a great time too uh you talk about an undertaking for that agency and the networking that we're able to do uh we've got network network across north part of the united states which i previously had but i made some more more contacts up there anytime you got a town population of 7 500 you have half a million people descend upon it. It's a chore. And so just kind of a brief one i and i tried to do a virtual ride along as best i could while i was up there but there were 12 different beats we were on for 12 hours foot patrol and so every hour you rotated a beat and sometimes your beat were back alleys and dealing with um the things that you find back there dare i say uh what it was but dealing with the back alley stuff and then out front dealing with the vendors and then ultimately dealing with the bars and different things there so it was a great experience i learned a ton from it just on how to put that stuff together especially when you've got a Mass populace coming into a small town. So it was really good Man funny that last time we had a brief discussion about the police department getting a car We had one go down on us. It is still down. It's still in the shop. This is week three So what happened on that vehicle? I found out earlier this week the oil cooler a seal went on the oil cooler which mixed your antifreeze and your oil and that is never a good thing inside of an engine and So luckily, we didn't have to replace the engine on this like we did on Unit 18. Unit 18 had a blown head gasket back when it finally met its demise. This one was able to be fixed for $5,500. Still a pretty steep price, but at least it was repairable. That car's sitting on just a little over 80,000 miles right now. I estimate by the end of the year, it'll probably be at 100. We'll see how it goes, but I've moved that particular car down to a one-man unit, so hopefully we stay under the 100,000-mile mark. But they had to replace the entire coolant system, radiator, radiator hoses, and then they had to flush the coolant system plus the oil system in the car to get all the water out of the oil system and all the oil out of the coolant system. So still waiting on to get that car back, but the total bill, and that's going to be about $5,500. They also discovered that the CV joints, the CV drives under the front end of that, because it is all-wheel drive, they had no more grease in them. The boots were worn, so they've got to replace the two drive axles under the front end of the car. so i'm just uh joys of uh running the police department but any questions which car was that uh unit 20 excuse me i'm sorry unit 22 22 22 yeah it's our v6 uh charger unit 20 is over 100 000 miles that's the durango i did have um uh

Some information somebody had asked about our flock camera systems. We don't have one. I was going to say, I didn't think we did. Do we still participate with Sedgwick County?

So officers, the flock camera system used to allow access for outside agencies to operate and use any flock camera through an MOU. However, I believe that flock changed that policy, if I'm not mistaken. So while we don't have personal use of those systems, if we need one, we can call a commander and they can hit their system and see if we've got a suspect in that area or what's going on.

And I think that was where they were concerned with the third-party access. And I did not believe we had any. I knew that we had participated, but I also didn't want to give incorrect information.

Yeah, no. So as far as Keachow having direct access to FLOC, we do not. Anytime we need access to FLOC, we contact whatever agency it is that we may need that access from. Obviously, it's got to be documented in a case. They'll check the cameras, give us the information we need.

Thank you. Council, any other questions? I do have one question. Okay. I have been asked, how many officers do we currently have for the police department?

We're staffed at this point. We are at seven, I believe. Make sure I'm counting correct. Oh, yep. okay look what was it no it was kind of like you said yep i was like okay is that is it is that straight math yeah no it's yeah so seven we've got the one position that we budgeted but didn't feel so it's it's sitting there and just keep track of it all but i believe seven plus you or seven including you seven plus me okay or sorry seven including me apologize okay

And those six officers are all patrol officers?

Yes.

Thank you. Thank you. All right, thanks. Thank you. Next up, Dustin, zoning, IT, stormwater, and code enforcement. Welcome.

All right, uh, for zoning due to lack of cases, planning commission did not have a meeting in August. We did have one just 2 days ago and the planning commission reviewed the capital improvement plan. Um, Per state statute, they're to review it every year. They did that. IT, personal cybersecurity training, has been sent out to each user, and that should be coming out monthly. I don't know if council is getting those or not. Yes. OK.

I'm sorry. They are very juvenile. I felt like they were for my students.

you're not alone on that okay yeah okay yes but i have been doing it i think the biggest concern i had with that is that i mean i think both of us asked if the very first one we got if it was fishing because it did not look like a professional did you feel that way too i mean it was so something huntress and it said your magic link will disappear in a week and it was like what is this

Yeah, fortunately we had Imagine IT here and they were able to answer that question right away because we had all gotten it like 30 minutes prior to when I asked him, like, is this real? Oh yeah, we're sending that out. Okay, thanks for the heads up.

Yeah, it was just a little odd.

It was. In my previous staff report, I said that a new phone was being ordered for the front desk. That is being put on hold for now. I just replaced the cable. Our front desk person, Ben, likes to twist his phone cord up a lot. And it gets to be a rat's nest up there. So that cord was replaced. Stormwater, I have a meeting with PEC at the end of the month to go over where we're at on stormwater stuff. Code enforcement. One violation for a zoning regulation is being sent to municipal court next week. It is new territory for me. I've been to court plenty of times, but doing it this way is a lot different for me. So I don't know what's gonna happen. It's gonna be a whole new adventure from my point of view. Two other complaints have come in and those are being worked with. One of them, the property owner said today that he would take care of the issue. So just giving him time to take care of that issue.

council any questions um is that a weed ordinance issue yes okay is this the issue that there's been communication between you and council or between and the resident i don't arrest i think the count i think council has been included on emails that i've been a part of okay but i haven't been communicating with council on that no Okay, I think I tried to communicate with you on it. I'm not sure I had an answer, so I was just wondering if it was the same. It is, yeah. Okay, thank you. Appreciate that.

Yep.

Council, anything for Dustin? So I guess I have a question. Maybe this might be more for Andrew as well. So when the Planning Commission reviews the capital improvement plan, is that to just simply review it or is that for them to verify that they feel it complies with our comprehensive plan?

so the scope of their review is the latter it's to determine if the improvements within the within the plan the public improvements within the plan are in conformance with the comprehensive plan and that's the sole purpose of their review so what do we do now because the planning commission said that they did not approve that it did Well, I have my thoughts on that. I hadn't discussed it with Matt, so I guess we'll just throw it out there. I was actually going to be late. I was going to bring it up later anyway. You can certainly disagree with me, because I think there's probably few options. But I guess if it were me, i would suggest sending it back to the planning commission with a specific direction to review it for purposes of solely do these improvements comply with the comprehensive plan or not and see whether you can get a recommendation back out of them ultimately if it still does not get approved or recommended by the planning commission i think the council has the right to take it up and approve it on its own

okay i think their concerns that they raised was that they had a lot of questions and that there was not enough information provided with the plan itself okay yeah i don't i don't have a record of what their questions might have been yeah yeah so yeah it was just they were so does that impact the budget process at all um because that was the the cip was put forward for for the fiscal year 2027.

Yeah, so I suppose to the extent that there are proposed capital improvements for 27, And yeah, I mean, if you approve the budget and the CIP obviously wouldn't be able to be changed in a way that exceeds the budget without going through a budget amendment process. So it's a little hairy. Yes, the short answer is it would be much more preferable if the CIP were approved at or prior to the time the budget is approved so that you don't have that issue.

OK. Anything else for Dustin?

Nope.

Thank you. Moving on to administration. City Administrator Gensby.

Mayor and Council, my report is before you there. I will just kind of skim through it and you can ask any questions that you may have after that. Business has kind of been business as usual here at City Hall. We've been dealing with our budget this month and of course the utility water issues that we've been talking to people about. A developer at Turtle Creek, they are still waiting on their prefab building to arrive. They're having some delays with the manufacturer of the building. And that's what the holdup is on that. I spoke to him today. And it looks like he's going to move forward with some of the single family homes over there. So we're going to work with him towards that. Just attended my regular monthly meetings, city manager meetings. I met with several residents and attended other meetings throughout the region.

uh i'm just going to kind of move into well do you want me to wait or just move into some of the stuff we've done on the water um the next thing would be the playground but i'd like to pause there for just a second um i just realized andrew suggested something in a way to us um do we need to have a motion to send back the cip to the planning commission to reconsider

how do we do that i mean you said it and it's just like my brain it probably doesn't hurt i mean it's really not in front of the council now because they didn't approve it so they didn't come here but i i don't think it hurts if do we have enough time for planning commission meetings they'd have to call a special meeting yeah i think i would recommend maybe um a motion to send it back to the planning commission with a request to call a special meeting in order to reconsider it given the timing that we're under okay which is a super tight time yeah i think that would be a good idea okay um i think what might have helped um perhaps is city administrator jensby if you were able to attend that meeting so that you could answer questions that maybe weren't answered

So there was just a lot of questions that they had that they didn't have necessarily the ability to have them answered.

It would be very fast. Well, I'm going to make a motion that we send the CIP back to the Planning Commission and request that they hold a special meeting to consider the implications and compliance with the comp plan. Prior to next Thursday.

So just technicality, it's with them.

Yeah, but I think this is really a request.

Yes, that's what we requested.

Okay. It would be up to them. Instead of sending it back, we just request that they have a special meeting.

Okay.

Thank you for correcting my words. I appreciate that.

I asked for sending it back. Yeah, I said send. Sorry. I request that they reconsider the CIP in a special meeting prior to next Thursday.

Second.

Okay.

Motion by Council Member Moreland, second by Council Member Hedstrom. All in favor? Aye. Motion passes 3-0. And here comes Dustin again.

No, he's just doing something funny. I'm doing IT stuff. So I'm going to roll right into some of the park updates and then I'll roll into the utility bill.

Okay. So we're going to move on to unfinished business. A is a park update with City Administrator Jensby.

So on park updates, the only update I have for the park is PC. They were supposed to do core samples this week. I don't know if they've been done or if they're still pending, but that was the notice they gave us as they were supposed to be done this week. So once those are done, we'll know the soil condition and I'll have more information to report to you on that.

How long does it take to get those samples back, do we know?

I don't know. They didn't say. I can find out and let you know.

Anything else for the playground?

No, that's it.

Okay, then we will move on to 8b, the water usage analysis.

So I kind of wanted to bring council up to date as to where we are since the last meeting at the last meeting council given us direction to Possibly do an RFP look into that process part of that is we need to develop the scope of what that would include in order to create an RFP so Since the last meeting we have been working on that. I wanted to bring some new numbers to council here on our water use analysis that we're doing since the last meeting at the last meeting we had had 28 people come in uh we put some stuff on facebook there were additional people who called some of those were like hey we just want to throw our hat in the ring we really don't have a complaint but we want to throw our hat in the ring so we did end up with 63 total inquiries on water bills Out of that 63, 55 meters were checked and the reads were validated. The meters were working, the reads were correct. Out of that 63, there were four misreads. What this means, a misread could be when Public Works is out reading the numbers, they could have transposed numbers, they could have written down an eight for a four, or just misread a number, which is completely common. We have that any time that we do manual reads there's always that human element in there so just like we do we adjust those to where they should be and given their new bill we currently have eight open work orders that public works is still going out and checking those meters so that's kind of where we stand today on what we're doing So currently Thomas spoke about this a little bit. While we're developing this scope of service to present the RFP to the council for consideration, ePublic Works ordered three pressure monitors that we're going to install throughout the system because there was some question of is this a pressure issue on the system. We as Keech Eye are going to install our own pressure monitors on the water mains and like Thomas said, Rural Water, he consulted with them and they are going to install their own pressure meters on the system just to kind of validate and be a second check as for what we have on our system. I've been consulting with PEC to develop the scope of services for the RFP, developed a draft RFP, sent it over to them for review, and just late today I got their recommendations for some of the changes that needed to be included in that RFP. So that's what I will work on tomorrow and through the first of the week. drafting that RFP and then would like to have that presented to the council hopefully later this month in a draft form for your review once that is reviewed our next step would be having the council consider that and once it's reviewed if it's approved we would put that out for bid for the RFP After that, the bids would come back to the council for what this is going to cost for your consideration to see if that's, in fact, what you want to move forward on. that's kinda where we stand right now is just in that development process of getting everything together aside from that we have been meeting with people on the phone creating an individual file for each one of those inquiries that we've had with the water accounts putting together all the information and starting to go through those one by one where we can review them ask the people if they want to come in and look at them so they can see what we're seeing on our side Chris, and really Chris, has carried the weight on this. And she's done an absolutely incredible job on the city side. Unfortunately, some people are not that kind when they deal with her. So she has been catching a lot of flack. And all I can say is, Chris, I'm sorry. She handles herself well, always professional, and is doing an incredible job. Ben at the front desk is the same way. He's handling a lot of those, speaking with people who come in, walking them through where their usage is, what we're seeing on the city side, and explaining the process to them of where we're heading with some of this additional information that we're gonna look into.

council okay um so with that on the the meters being correct now i know that there was several people who had a concern that this bill might have been a catch-up from the previous bill it was not so the one that went from six to sixty two thousand that was found to be

We sat down with that person today and walked through that and got that resolved.

There has been metering the last four months.

Okay. But I'm talking about, so I think that the communication that I received was that it went back almost a year. And so did we go back, and like I said, I'm just, I would.

We have been talking about this in person. We had a couple of meetings and we did it.

So there was a history of the mitts? Okay. Okay. And I think that was where the concern was that I was communicated as it wasn't that it was over a period of time that the meter had been. Yeah.

If we're talking about the same person, all of their concerns were put to rest. Okay. We were able to.

okay thank you council anything else you said no so i have something to share too so okay well i'll let you go ahead okay

I communicated with City Administrator Gensby, as well as Council was sent the information as well. I contacted Kansas Municipal Utilities. I felt like it was important that, as your mayor, I also understood the background of utilities and what an outside source would make for recommendations on how to even begin to tackle this. and not asking them to be part of the investigation, solely looking for information. And part of it is where the city has already headed, talking with PEC and looking at this. And one of the other things is because after the last meeting, the number of people I had contact me about other utility concerns, about their gas bill, about low water read or zero water read that there's just a lot of concern and i'm not putting i'm not saying that the city's at fault or they're at fault i'm not saying that at all but sometimes when something happens it then falls on us to prove to the residents that it's all clear and good and one of the recommendations was to have a utility billing system audit and they did make a recommendation of a company who was willing to speak with our city whether it's considered to utilize their services or they recommend others to potentially assist with that i do just hearing the number of people who are concerned about their confidence in the utility building system is that even part of the rfp that you're considering

Mayor, what I know is this is not a billing issue. This is a usage issue. None of the cases that we have looked at have been a billing issue. The bills are correct. We have looked at them. We went back through them. We verified that it is not a billing issue.

Again, we heard from residents that they don't have confidence in that at this point. And so it's a request of that. We do need to consider that. Sometimes you have to clear your name that you didn't do anything wrong and that here it is. And so that's why I again am requesting that we consider a two-year billing utility audit So you're taking it as an accusation. I'm only aware of people saying things over the last two years. So I didn't put any context.

How can it be wrong? I don't input anything.

yeah we we are confident at this point that it is not a billing issue we have never seen that on our side we can include that in the rfp for your review okay so but i i do want to make it very clear this is not a billing issue we do not see billing issues um as part of this right now okay some of the questions i asked like give me just one more second

um i asked to see unusual consumption reports i was told that those aren't available i asked to see zero consumption reports i i did it was in a meeting that we were all in together yes i did ask for that and i was told that i can do like whenever i produce the bill i go in and i look at the register and i put all of the highs all the amounts and if it looks like there's issues with them i send them out

okay I asked if we could run an unusual consumption report which would identify all of the meters that would have read unusually high or zero consumption reports so and I was just told that that's not something that the city does so are you saying that that is something that we do and that that would be available okay So that's been a request that we would have an unusual consumption report run for May, June, and July so we can see if, I mean, are we showing that that happened, like the system's showing that that unusual consumption happened?

See, this is where we have to prove. I guess maybe what my question is to you is if we're looking at somebody to come in and do an analysis. And that could be part of the analysis. That could be part of the analysis. Absolutely.

Rather than having absolutely I'm just saying I had requested that and was told it wasn't available at the time So I just want to make sure that when this is all said and done our residents are like you did everything that you could possibly do and here's the outcome of the report the investigation and that here are the results and we didn't say well no we're not going to look at this or no we're not going to look at this that we're we were willing to look at all of it so that there's that certainty that we can i mean we had residents say that they don't trust the city so it's like we have to rebuild that trust now and unfortunately that falls on our backs then to do more than what you might feel is necessary to let our residents know that we're doing everything possible to show them that this really is the way it is what we'll do is we'll take your input we'll put that in the scope okay um and the council as a whole can decide on if that's the scope they want yes no i haven't i have i haven't needed to there wasn't an issue until okay I didn't say I didn't back you. I have to look at every side.

Exactly. And I am open to an invitation if it was extended.

Great, let me know. And kind of to follow up, and it's kind of like every year, we get audited financially just to see where we're at. They're not looking for fault. They're just looking to see that we're doing it. And the requests that I have heard is that's what they're looking for. They're not looking to say, hey, we're trying to catch you doing something wrong or saying that you didn't. I think that it's just a way to say, let's validate that you are. I mean, because an audit is, like I said, it is not necessarily saying, hey, we are looking for where you messed up. They are concerned. They have addressed it. And quite a few of them, I mean, if there was 55 people compared to the five that you usually get we just want to make sure that they're they're valid and i think what we're going to find out is exactly what you're saying and it will validate exactly what you're saying i'm i mean when i requesting it that's only why and i think the reason why it goes back the two years is basically what happened in april that we were told it was 20 months earlier and so that's where the two years is coming from So it is not at all an indication of what staff is or isn't doing right. It's, like Joni said, to restore confidence and make sure that people know, yes, that is exactly what's happening.

We will bring that scope back to you. Any other questions?

Just a comment that I think what we're trying to say is the billing issues that we know there's higher bills. We know there's higher usage. We know there's higher usage on the system. So we have to acknowledge that when everything they've looked into, we haven't had a billing issue where people were overcharged for what they use. What we're doing on the city side is putting in actually two sets of pressure monitors. I know I brought this up last time that I feel, OK, what if we have a pressure issue and people are using more? We as a community need to recognize we use more water. We bought more water from Wichita. More water went through the individual meters. We sold more water. We sold more water. That netted out. had a leak someplace. This has been the second driest year in the history of Wichita. We as a community used more water. So figuring out why the city on their end is putting together an RFP and making sure we're asking the right questions. Thomas is installing the new pressure monitors that I asked for. We've also got rural water coming to do the same. So we've got two sets of pressure monitors because I still think that might be part of the issue. That's what we're doing on the city side of it. Residents have started checking their meters and keeping, you know, I'm keeping, I've got a pressure meter and I'm reading my meter so we know what to do on that end of it. So together, bringing those things together, I think hopefully we can find out what's going on But we are using more water. And it's not, what they're saying is, it's not a billing issue. We're using more water and we're trying to figure out why.

With the Zinner, once we get all these ultrasonics installed, you guys as a council can get together and decide whether we want to purchase their program to where residents can sign up for an email and they can get on and look at their own meters without actually having to go outside and lift up a lid at all. They can get on there and get their hourly feeds on how much they're using. And so with all that system right at their hands, instead of having to call and say, hey, what's this or what's that? They can look on there and even go out and check their own meters if they want to. So that's the hopes with upgrading the whole system.

Thank you. Council, anything further?

OK. Mayor, just to wrap up my report here, I don't talk about our staff enough. And I just want to take a moment to thank everybody that works here in the city, from the guys in Public Works who are out reading those meters, who are doing the street repairs, doing the utility repairs, to the police officers that are working the streets, our police chief who's running the police department, Chris and Debbie, who are handling all the finances of the city. Ben at the front desk, who handles everything that comes in the front door. We have an incredible group of people here who work extremely hard. And I just want to recognize them because I don't feel like I recognize them enough. Everybody does a wonderful job, including our city attorney. push plenty over to as well so he just continues to incur more work as we all do but we have an incredible staff and thank him when you see him that's all i have okay moving on to 8c the league of kansas municipality delegate appointments mayor and council we need to the league of kansas municipalities conferences in wichita this year part of that conference is the they ask give the city the option of appointing delegates to vote on bylaws and other changes with the league and this agenda item is our recommendation for that meeting that we appoint Chris as the delegate and Debbie as the number two delegate I guess or the backup they're perfect people for the job they're involved in daily in listservs with current issues that are going on. Chris will attend the conference, so she will be there and able to vote. So that is our recommendation.

okay i'm going to speak about this before we have some conversation on this um i too am heavily involved with the league of kansas municipalities as mayor i attended the august 20th statement of municipal policy committee which is the lead up to the conference and the meeting that will occur at the conference So I'm aware of what the topics are, what the policies are that they're considering. And these are policies that will determine what LKM's legislative actions will be going into the 2027 legislative session. No one else from the city of Keechee attended that policy committee meeting. um so i'm quite familiar with what has been talked about um the other concern and i did confirm with the league um so chris you're registered for friday only and city minister jensby you are registered for friday only no friday only that was the okay so your invoice says friday so and and then unfortunately debbie's not registered to attend the conference so you can't get in without registration yeah she doesn't have to be to be the number two okay yeah the delegate needs to be there but if chris for some reason could not be there which she can OK. So because of my involvement with the legislative, with our elected officials, learning more about our legislative processes at the state and how it impacts local government, I am also now on, I was invited to join REAP's new legislative committee for that organization as well. So council, it's up to you. I would hope that you would consider actually sending the mayor as our delegate with my familiarity and my involvement with this process. But I will open it up to council now.

I guess I agree that the mayor was elected by the people to represent them and I think the league is one of those places. She has been very heavily involved with not just the legislative and statement of policy update with LKM. She has been attending REAP meetings, the Sedgwick County Association of Cities. She has been gathering information. I feel like as our representative that she should be our delegate and then the deputy city clerk would be the alternate and she has already signed up to go to the entire meeting.

I am all three days. Any further discussion council?

Okay well I make a motion to appoint Mayor Harris as our voting delegate for the league's annual conference and our deputy city clerk Chris Brown to be the alternate.

OK, motion dies for lack of a second.

I move we appoint Chris Brown, city treasurer, as voting delegate, and Debbie Creekmore, city clerk, as alternate delegate to represent the city of Keechai at the league's annual conference.

Second. Thank you, Chief. I've got it. But thank you. Appreciate it. Was there a second? Yes. Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't hear you. Motion by Councilmember Hedstrom, second by Councilmember Baldrige. All in favor? Aye. All opposed?

Nay.

Motion passes 2-1. OK. We're going to move on to new business. um planning commission appointment so um eric breckenridge his term expired i just discovered in july of 2024 he is currently the elected chairperson of the planning commission and i spoke with him after the planning commission meeting on tuesday and he would like to serve another two years and so i put forth to you to appoint Eric Breckenridge for another two-year term on the Planning Commission.

I move that we accept the mayor's appointment to the Planning Commission of Eric Breckenridge for a- Can we discuss first?

Oh, absolutely.

I'm still trying to make contact with the second person.

But you're not putting him on board?

I am not. Yeah, there will be a vacancy.

Is there a reason for that?

I just feel that we need a different person in that position than is currently there. And she's served very well. She has served well. And I thank her for her time.

So she's served well, but we've not re-informed her?

I'm not.

No reason for that.

i was giving her the time to i was giving her the time to be able to contact her and have discussion before i made that announcement but that's okay no no my motion i guess still stands to reappoint eric breckenridge to the two-year term to another two-year term to the planning commission

Motion by Councilmember Moreland, second by Councilmember Hedstrom. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes 3-0. Moving on to the expense approval report for discussion.

You want to start or do you want me to start? Go ahead and start.

OK. So I have a couple of city financial and city code questions to bring forward regarding things that are in the expense approval report. The city ordinance states that the mayor shall sign all orders and drafts drawn upon the city treasury. It's also the responsibility of the mayor to take care that the ordinances of the city are complied with. There is a check dated July 9th. It's on page 4 of your July report. For $674,877.20 to Pearson Construction, that was not brought before the mayor for signature and was sent out for payment. So that is a concern. The ordinance was not followed in that case. Secondly, a question I have about ACE virtual shooting, which is on page 1 of 12 for the August. It's listed as training for the PD. The value is $5,475.25. It's categorized not under training in PD's account summaries, but under firearms and weapons. This is also something that did not come before council for any kind of discussion. It's actually a three-year contract, and it's $5,000 every year. year and i have had conversation with city administrator gensby and he has indicated um with all of these things that i have to bring forward um is specific portions of the code regarding the city administrator of why these decisions um could be made um I understand there's $15,000 purchasing authority, but I feel that we're missing some accountability and transparency. And I of the city code under 1302, says that city administrator position will exercise general supervision and control over all city purchases and expenditures i understand that there's purchase authority that has been given but i also believe that we need to have accountability and i do think it's important that things are brought forward to the council for consideration and discussion and so that isn't my concern

Mayor, can I make one correction to what you said? Sure. The VR virtual reality was not a three-year contract. That was corrected. It was... on the estimate portion of that there was an invoice on the back of it the estimate was given as a three-year that it is not a three-year contract any contract would have to go to the city attorney for approval uh prior to being approved or anything like that okay that's how it was presented to me is it that's what the invoice said was a three-year contract okay so when something like that comes up just shoot me an email ask the question and i can clarify that for you real easily okay

Okay, I still have the question on that one that it's not listed under training their their website talks about this is a training and so why is it listed like a $5,000 $5,400 expense under weapons and firearms because it replaces some of their firearms training So all of the training monies for that is under firearms and weapons and

madam mayor if that's where the department had coded it that's where he felt it was best coded from but it does not violate their overall budget okay

so then i have one other one and this is bell carpet and floors um the total it's on page 2 of 12 in the august approval report and it's for 7 176.96 which i understand is also below the purchasing authority for the city administrator however those are discussions that used to happen with council and it's for re-carpeting chambers and There was often discussion about do we have a plan for building maintenance? Are there things that are identified? What are those costs that could be in front of us? And so the other issue I have with this check is that I did not sign this check. I put a sticky note on it asking about the budgeting as well as had council approved it. I did not have any response and the check was mailed out. so and then i have one final question with the expense approval report um so the approval report comes after checks are signed and so just trying to understand um it's uncomfortable for me to sign something or is is it just that our budget approval is where all the um authority and approval comes from so that's that's all i have council

Okay, so overview of budgeting and expenditures, right? So you're going through obviously the 2027 budget process right now. So that process that happened in 25 or 26, that's the process that budgets and appropriates funds for the entire city for the year. uh so the anything that is within that budget within those budgetary funds that are coming out of those funds those are approved and appropriated through that budget process then the city has approved a spending policy that says city administrator and then certain of the employees and department heads below them of various levels have certain spending authority and so to the extent that those city employees make expenditures that are budgeted and appropriated from the appropriate funds and within their spending authority Those are items that don't necessarily need to come in front of the council for further approval. And so those items are on the expense report that are provided every month for the city's review and approval so that you have overview and transparency and know what those expenditures are. But they have been approved through those two processes. If there is an expenditure that exceeds that spending authority for an employee, uh... it also falls into one of two categories either it would well that has to be approved by the city council one off items will come to you i mean you see them on the agenda so if there's an expenditure of over fifteen thousand dollars uh... that that will come on the uh... on the council for or approval council agenda and in addition you may see things on here that or example i think you pointed out piercing destruction uh...

It was a contract. I'm very aware of what it was for.

That's a contract. And so those expenditures, since it was approved, may go through, you know, may be expended without further approval.

Well, on that check, it's the fact that it was never brought to the mayor to sign.

Okay, and I don't know anything about that.

Yes, I have a copy of that check.

Right. Otherwise, so if those expenditures are within budget and spending authority, the obligation is to sign them and send them off.

The question I have is the approvals come after checks have been signed and sent. So what happens if there is something that comes up that the council does not approve something?

Again, the expenditures that are within an employee spending authority and are within budget are approved. The council has given that authority to the staff to make those expenditures. report that comes after is for acceptance approval transparency information and all of that but it is not necessary for approval those expenditures are within the authority and have been approved okay so if you're not changing that spending authority but that you would like more guardrails put into place um what would the council consider in that you would need to change the spending policy okay

Okay. Council, any other discussion? So I guess my follow-up to that would be, How is the mayor or Matt being informed of what's in the budget for that particular item? Do they see the, I know he sees what it's being coded to, but does prior to Matt Brewer signing off on each of the invoices, does he see where the budget is for that fund? So, If it's, so for instance, that one specifically is coming out of building maintenance and repairs. So if part of that budget, or that accounts payable process is to make sure that it is within the budget authority, wouldn't that need to be verified?

I can't speak for Mr. Brewer.

I'm speaking to the process is is the budget and what's available for the budget for that particular fund is that made available to him prior to signing sure if he would ask but not just arbitrarily made available okay so the the reports that would show from accounts payable what the budget is and what's left in the budget

and he could certainly look at that the mayor can certainly look at that um all i would point out of course is that if we if there were the scenario where a fund was more was spent out of a fund than would budgeted we would i know it would be after the fact But the auditor would be catching those kinds of things the state would be on our case about it We'd have to go through a budget amendment process at the end of the year in order to correct it So we know those things aren't happening. I'm not saying you can't ask for that and keep a running tally I have no problem with that whatsoever.

I just know it hasn't been a problem Okay, because I just when I when I looked at the that specific line item the 5201 based on the budget information we had there was nothing in the budget in that line item and So I think that's kind of a gray area then to me is if they're, because if they're supposed to be overviewing the budget and expenses and there's nothing been budgeted for that.

And when we talk about the funding and the appropriation, it's at a higher fund level. It's not necessarily at each individual GL number.

Well, and I guess I'm speaking more towards when we're talking about, being forthcoming, if we had anticipated these type of things, we would budget for them for that specific purpose. And I understand that we have a lot of extra budgeting authority that, I mean, we basically allow in our budgeting process that every dime that we have could be spent technically. I mean, all of our cash reserves. So there actually is no limit other than what we have in the bank. are in the process.

Well, there are because we have a purchasing policy in place that would bring those higher level purchases back to the council.

And I agree with that, but I'm also saying that, granted, that if it's something that we didn't deem needing to be in the budget for this year and we are spending on it, and I think that's all that the mayor is saying is that we at least should have the, there should be a conversation.

If, from a practical perspective, and this is just for my information, so if an expenditure is below the authority of whoever it is that might be approving that expenditure in the budget, how would the council like the staff to know whether something needs to come in front of the council or not in front of the council? I mean, generally we have the spending policy to say it's a dollar amount, it's a bright line, so we know here's where it comes and here's where it doesn't. If it's in the budget, you're authorized to do business with the city. So from a practical perspective, I'm trying to figure out It's going to be difficult for staff to say, I need to bring, I know this is within my spending authority, but I have to bring it in front of the council because they're going to ask about it. That's a hard rule to follow. I don't understand.

I am not necessarily saying bring it in front of council, but we routinely get emails and could it have been, hey, this is something that we didn't foresee spending money on, but because of the issues, hey, I'm just letting you know. Just an FYI, keeping you in the loop.

I think too there's a fine line with we have to be accountable to all of these residents in how their money is being spent and I know the governing body has made this decision to get a lot of spending authority and so I just, I think there's things that we need to be more accountable so that the public knows how we're spending their dollars. So, and often they don't see a lot of how that money's being spent.

Mean we've got the monthly expense reports So I'm not sure what every expense every every single expenses is on there if the council wants to change the spending policy That is totally within the council's purview to do Okay, I just had and this one I Guess it was more for me to wrap my head around it more than anything else is when we paid Pearson in

July, that came out of the capital improvement fund because that was for infrastructure. But when we paid again in August, it came out of the project fund, Fund 88. And if those are both for the same project, I guess I just was wondering why they weren't both in Fund 88 to kind of keep all of the expenses together.

Yeah, I don't have an answer for you, but I'll get with our financial person.

Okay, that was just something I noticed yesterday, and I just, because I know that when it, so.

And all of those funds should come out of the project fund to the extent there was maybe, and I don't know, I'm speculating, to the extent there was a timing issue, they wanted to make those expenditures before the project fund was available. Of course, our accounting allows us to reimburse. The fund, yes.

And those funds come back in, right? And that was, I just didn't know if it was, if there was some other reason, and I was just, going back through wearing my old hat. So that was my question there.

Council, any further discussion or comments?

I think one of the things, we had training and I believe you were signed up for the video training with the KLM on financials. And one of the very specific things that they highlighted is the governing body needs to be at a higher level. And keeping things on budget, knowing where things are spent, approving the budget is our main function. And we seem to be having a lot of conversations down in the weeds on very minor light items that always turn out to be money well spent. So I think we need to take that approach that, you know what, if everything is on budget and being accounted for, all our audits are good, we approve the budget, things are being spent responsibly, I don't want to spend their time as a governing body going through line by line on $10 purchases. And I know I'm being extreme. But that's the level we're going to is line by line type questions. And you would be the first one to object to this two years, three years ago.

Actually, not necessarily. What I will say, sometimes it's not the $10 ones. Sometimes it's the $0.39 ones. But yes, I will ask. Sometimes if I have a question, and I do have a, I'm sorry, if my old hat comes back and says, why? And I'll be honest, if you want to take a look, you're right. I did go through this. I have a lot of highlighted areas. I did not bring up all of them. Sometimes I highlight them because they make me think.

So I- I'm just saying when the carpet starts peeling up in City Hall and it becomes a tripping hazard, I expect Matt to take care of it.

And I don't- I'm not saying not to. I'm just saying there's times, there is times- There's refusals to sign those things and pay our vendors.

Not refusals. Yes. It's, no. If I don't sign, it's because I have more questions. It is not complete refusal. I have more questions, and I have been told that it can come before council. But I also had no response back on that recent check for the carpet, no response back at all. So, there was no response back.

I don't think that's accurate, but I will check my emails.

Okay. Well, that was a secondary conversation because I had asked to have it put onto the agenda because several weeks ago, I got no response from the note that I put on the check when I did not sign it. And there could have been a simple contact and conversation that could have happened. My greater concern is sending out checks without the mayor's signature, which according to ordinance is supposed to happen.

says the mayor shall sign all orders and drafts so that is a concern okay any further conversation well i i was um in in the process of saying that i understand that we want don't want these meetings to drag on and what you're saying however i think that these people want to know that we are representing them and if we have questions that we are willing to ask them

so i'm not talking about the length of the meeting i'm talking about the questions being asked okay details being looked at okay well i i'm not going to apologize i'm not going to apologize for looking at details i'm just not and we have more financial visibility and accountability than any third class city. I researched this quite a bit last year when we were going through the budget process. We have more detail than I have ever seen for any third class city. I mean, there's a second class city and even Wichita type stuff. So it's becoming cumbersome process.

I apologize for being cumbersome.

okay council i would entertain a motion for the expense approval reports for july and august of 2026. make the motion to approve the expense reports for july and august 2026. second motion by council member headstrom second by council member baldridge all in favor motion passes 3-0 okay moving on to council reports discussion and requests council do you have anything for item 10. Okay, I do have, I just wanna bring back up because we have residents have brought this up now and whether this is something council wants to discuss or not is we have residents who have asked for the announcements to be put back onto the utility bills. Is that something you're willing to have discussion about now or maybe in the future?

Yes, we can when everybody's here.

Okay, we'll make a note for that. The other thing I just want to bring forward is a budget item. I inquired about budget. What was the budget number that was given for education and training for city council and mayor for 2027? And city administrator Dunsby indicated it was $2,500. Matt Lon had said $3,500. He said he was willing to have Matt raise it to that. However, it's not a mayor question ask. make it happen um that is a council decision whether you want to increase up to the 3500 do you want it at 3 000 do you want it left at 2500 so i would just like that result before we go to budget approval next week

I guess I'm fine with either one. I think you requested the higher amount.

I made a request, but it's still council that makes that decision. Yeah.

I would rather have a little bit of cushion in there and not need it than need it and not have it. So I would go for the $3,500.

So do we need a motion for that? Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to cut you off. You're fine. I agree. That's fine. OK. So do we need a motion for that, or is that just acknowledgment?

This is still part of the budget process. You guys will approve the final budget when it's presented. And my comment in exchange in our email is that I would just change that to $3,500 because it doesn't take council approval at this point because the council will approve that during the final budget process.

that would still be a discussion during budget process anyway whether what number they wanted to land on at this point so appreciate that okay so then is there anything else council under number 10. okay then we will be moving into executive session and at this point i think maybe 10 minutes might be sufficient for the first one

All right, Madam Mayor, I move we go into executive session for State Statute 7543.19 for attorney-client privilege. The executive session is the justification for closing the meeting is discussion related to attorney-client privilege. And the time and place at which the open meeting shall resume is 8.45. Yep, 8.45.

Second. Motion by Councilmember Hestrom, second by Councilmember Baldrige. All in favor? Aye. Motion passes 3-0. We're in executive session.

Thank you.

as we return to the regular meeting i want to remind everyone that pursuant to kansas open meeting statutes no binding action was taken by the city council while in executive session council member hedstrom

Madam Mayor, I move we go into executive session. The subject per State Statute 7543.19 is non-elected personnel. The justification for closing the meeting is discussion related to non-elected personnel matters. And the time and place at which the open meeting shall resume is 8.58.

Second. Motion by Councilmember Hedstrom, second by Councilmember Baldrige. All in favor? motion passes 3-0 we're in executive session As we return to the regular meeting, I want to remind everyone that pursuant to Kansas open meeting statutes, no binding action was taken by the city council while in executive session. Before we adjourn, I just want to make an announcement that there is a special meeting next Thursday, September 17th at 7 PM for the 2027 budget approval. So with that, I would entertain a motion to adjourn.

Move we adjourn.

Second.

Motion by Councilmember Hedstrom, second by Councilmember Baldrige. All in favor? Aye. Motion passes 3-0. Thank you, everyone. Have a great evening.