Board of Zoning Appeals - Special Meeting

Hey there.

Hey, I was in Art's meeting, or Appy meeting. Just now? Yeah. You missed dinner because of the meeting? Have you been to Scotland? No, I'm going on August 22nd.

Oh.

Recording in progress.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to this regular session meeting of the Leawood Governing Body. It's August the 10th, 2026. I will call the meeting to order and ask that we all rise for the Pledge of Allegiance, please. Please follow me. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. Thank you. Please be seated. And with that, I would ask the clerk to call the roll, please.

Council Member Pappas.

Here.

Council Member Guyette. Here. Council Member Harrison. Here. Council Member Rubin. Here. Council Member Castor.

Here.

Council Member Kane. Here. Council Member Larson.

She'll be here momentarily.

And Council Member Sunkel is absent. Mayor Mark Elkins is present and presiding. And there's Council Member Larson. Thank you.

And we'll note that Council Member Larson has joined us. So we do have a quorum present. And we'll move on to the business of the evening. I would note that originally and as published, the agenda is limited to the special business of the evening. But I also note that Ms. Strobel is in the audience. And with that, I would ask the clerk if there is a recommendation to amend the agenda to add a section for public comment.

Yes, if I can just get a motion to approve an agenda.

So staff is recommending that?

Yes, sir.

Thank you. Is there a motion then to approve the agenda as amended?

So moved.

Thank you. Ms. Harrison, a second.

Second.

That was Ms. Guyette, I believe. All those in favor, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed, same sign. The ayes have it, and the agenda as amended is approved. And with that, I will call the opportunity for public comment. I note that Mrs. Strobel and her daughter Sloan are with us this evening. If you all would like to come forward. we'd appreciate uh i'll note for the record that we have received a invitation from the two of you for wednesday some of us are going to be able to join you then some of us not but we very much appreciate the invitation mr strobel the floor is yours if you could introduce yourself even though we all know who you are i'll make our record clear okay um i'm beth strobel and i live at 10223 lee boulevard

And I'm Sloan Stribble and I also live at 10223 Lee Blvd.

Alright, and thank you everybody that's able to make it on Wednesday or another day. We walk to school most days so I appreciate you amending the agenda too. I know this is a special call so. I wanted to get up and just, first of all, let you know that if you come to our house to walk to school with us, we are not going to corner you about sidewalks on the east side of Lee Boulevard. Really, I got to thinking about it, and something that I've learned throughout my career is that sometimes we get so focused on the solution to our problem that we forget what is the problem we're trying to solve. And what I want to just say to the council is I think that the problem we're trying to solve is for people in North Leawood, really everywhere in Leawood, but especially North Leawood, to be able to get around safely. Whether they're walking to school or out for a walk, Or getting to and from a family member or friend's house. And so I think there's there's opportunity for us to consider more than just sidewalks And probably in the short term that might be more budget friendly and something that's more within the council and the city's Wherewithal to do without having to go through quite as many process oriented steps and so Really, we're here to say that, you know, it hasn't become less important, but open-minded to different options besides maybe just adding a sidewalk on the east side of Lee, even though I'll never let the dream go. And Sloan wanted to maybe add some things related that she's been thinking about.

Great. Welcome, Sloan.

Thank you. My friend Renly lives further down south on Lee Boulevard, and I was thinking about it, and I realized traffic is really different down there. And I was thinking about why that is, and I realized it's because the roads are more curvy, they have stop signs every few blocks, and the speed limit is 25 miles per hour. And I was thinking, and I was like, well, those don't take as long to... execute as a sidewalk would and i think they'd be very effective and because the truth is every pedestrian should have the peace of mind that they're safe walking down the street walking down streets whether it's walking their dog going up to meet friends or just enjoying being outside every pedestrian deserves to have that peace of mind that they're safe and everything is on the way it should be so

we're looking forward to the safe streets for all survey results as i'm sure everybody is um and just working together with with the council um with public works to figure out how we can um improve safety for pedestrians and in our part of leawood but other parts as well all right and we look forward to seeing those that can make it on wednesday thank you thank you mrs roble thank you sloan we appreciate your comments and you're joining us tonight

I don't believe there are any other comments from the public tonight. So with that, we'll move on to special business. I had the privilege and the pleasure this morning of attending the auction of our bonds. It was a very instructive session. And as Jeremy will tell us, it was a very successful exercise as we sat through the auction this morning. So, Jeremy, the floor is yours. And if you could share with the governing body. Some of the side events that we saw during the course of the auction would be great. Thank you.

Sure. Thank you very much. Jeremy Wellmuth, Director of Finance. With me tonight is David Arterberry, our Municipal Advisor from Stiefel. As the Mayor mentioned, we had a sale this morning for both the general obligation bonds and the notes. I believe that we had a successful representation on both issuances. Dave will get into those details with you, but we had three bidders on the notes, and we had 12 bidders on the bonds, and got very competitive rates on both. So with that, I'll turn it over to David, and he'll be happy to answer any questions that you all may have.

Mr. Arterbury, welcome.

Thank you. Thank you, Jeremy. I do have a couple of handouts here for you.

Thank you.

As Jeremy mentioned, today the city took bids for the series 2026 general obligation temporary notes and general obligation bonds to finance a variety of different capital improvement projects around the city. Before I go into specifically the results, I wanted to talk a little bit about what we've been up to since I or my colleague Connor was last here. Basically, since we were here last, one of the big things we did is we went out and worked with Moody's Investor Service to have the city's rating reviewed and affirmed at the AAA level. And so one of the handouts that I gave you here is Moody's, this is their simple write-up that they do. When they do a rating, and you can kind of look through it, some of the highlights of the rating were that they like your strong residential income, they like the tax base relative to the population size, the ongoing development that's occurring in the city, strong fund balances and liquidity, and rapid debt repayment. They view that as all positive things for the city. So the rating call went very well. Diane and Jeremy did a really good job of presenting the city's credit to Moody's and also to responding to all the questions that they had. Besides the rating, we also completed some due diligence questions just to make sure we were aware of everything going on within the city. We also talked a little bit about I'm sorry, we also completed all of the bidding documents and the disclosure documents that were distributed last week to potential bidders around the country. And then all that led up to the sale this morning. To talk real quickly, on the backside of that rating report, you'll see a graph. This is just a graph of interest rates for highly rated municipal bonds over about the last four or five year period. I just kind of wanted to illustrate to you what rates have done really since they started rising back at the beginning of 2022. And I put on here a few milestones for some of the city's other recent bond and note issues that you've had. So you can kind of see the interest rates here over the last four years have really kind of bounced around in a range. The last couple of weeks, we actually had a little spike up in rates, about a quarter of a percentage point or so. But that seems to have stabilized a little bit in the last few days. So that's sort of the market we were facing. And then today, as was mentioned, bids were received. We met up in the conference room and got a total of three bids on the temporary notes. The best bid was submitted by Bank of America Securities with a net interest cost of 2.796374%. And then a couple of bids by JP Morgan and Oppenheimer that were a little bit above that. Going into this, I was anticipating or predicting a rate of about 2.95%, so I was real glad to see this come in. The next half an hour after that, we opened up the bids on the bonds. And if you flip over that page, you can see the results of that. We were really happy to see a total of 12 bids come in on the bonds. That's, as far as I can tell, the most, at least going back five years, that the city has received on any of its debt offerings. All the bids you can see there, the rank of them based on their true interest cost. The best bid was submitted by Fidelity Capital Markets with a true interest cost of 3.621323%. I was predicting a rate probably 2.85 to 2.9, so again, real happy to see all these bids come in. Both Bank of America and Fidelity, their bid was fully compliant with all of the bidding parameters, and they provided the required good faith deposit. Also, with regards to the bonds, After the bid was received, we looked at how the bid was constructed, and based on that, we resized the bond issue. So the final principal amount of the bonds ended up being $9,595,000. Instead of up above there, it mentions $9,850,000. But other than that, that resizing, everything went really well, just as we expected, and real pleased with the outcome. The only steps that you've got left as a governing body tonight in order to lock in the interest rates and officially authorize the issuance of the notes and the bonds is to adopt a bond ordinance and a bond resolution and a note resolution. So I think we might have three action items in front of you. But obviously, we welcome any questions that you might have about the process or the outcome.

Mr. Atterbury, just one clarification, and I may have misunderstood you, but I thought I heard you say that you had anticipated that the bond rate would be 2.89 to 2.9. Oh, no, I didn't believe that was the note rate. What was your expectation on the bond rate?

The bonds I was expecting about 3.85 to 3.9.

I think it's important for the government body to recognize that they came in actually less expensive for us than what we had anticipated. We want to clarify our record for that, so I appreciate you doing that. Any other questions for either our finance department or for Mr. Atterbury?

Jeremy, did you have anything to add? Just a matter of housekeeping. So when the agenda was published, we had preliminary items for all three of the motions set before you tonight. And as is our custom, anything that has been removed from that preliminary has been stricken out. And anything that is new is underlined. So anyone who would have looked at these items before the sale would note that we didn't have a bid or we didn't have a bid amount, we didn't have the interest costs. Those have all now been filled in. We'd be happy to answer any questions that you all may have.

And we published those revisions earlier this afternoon, so they are a matter of public record.

Any other questions for Jeremy?

All right. If not, we thank you both for all the work that you've done. We'll come now to the individual items on the special business. As Mr. Atterbury noted, the first item to be considered is an ordinance authorizing and providing for the issuance and delivery of $9,595,000 in general obligation bonds, Series 2, 2026A of the City of Leawood, Kansas. to provide funds to finance the cost of certain public improvement projects within the city, providing for the levy and collection of an annual tax, if necessary, for the purpose of paying the principal of an interest on said notes as they become due, authorizing certain other documents and actions in connection therewith and making certain covenants with respect thereto. Is there a motion from the governing body to adopt such an ordinance?

So moved.

Thank you, Ms. Larson. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you, Ms. Guyette. It's been moved and seconded that we adopt the ordinance I described a moment ago. Is there any discussion over the motion? If not, I'll note that this requires a roll call vote of the governing body and would ask the clerk to call the roll, please.

Council Member Pappas. Aye. Council Member Larson. Aye. Council Member Guyon. Aye. Council Member Rubin. Aye. Council Member Harrison.

Aye.

Council Member Kane. Aye. Council Member Castor.

Aye. Thank you. I have a vote of seven votes in favor and none against, so the vote passes and the ordinance is hereby adopted. The second item under special business, it relates to these promissory notes, I believe. Oh, the first one is actually the... bonds, and that's a resolution prescribing the form and details of and authorizing and directing the sale and delivery of $9,595,000 in general obligation bonds series 2026A of the City of Leawood, Kansas, previously authorized by Ordinance Number 3217, which we just adopted, of the City, making certain covenants and agreements to provide for the payment and security thereof, and authorizing certain other documents and action connected therewith. Do I hear a motion from the governing body to adopt this resolution? So moved. That would be Mr. Peppas. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you, Ms. Larson. Is there any discussion over the proposed resolution? If not, all those in favor of adopting the resolution relating to the sale of the general obligation bond series 2026A, please indicate by saying aye.

Aye.

Those opposed, same sign. The ayes have it, and the... Resolution is adopted on a 7-0 vote. The last item relating to today's sale is a resolution prescribing the form and details of and authorizing and directing the issuance, sale, and delivery of $30,650,000 of general obligation temporary notes. Series 2026-1 of the City of Leawood, Kansas, providing for the levy and collection of an annual tax, if necessary, for the purpose of paying the principal of and interest on said notes as they become due, making certain covenants and agreements to provide for the payment and security thereof, and authorizing certain other documents and actions connected therewith. Do I hear a motion from the governing body to adopt this resolution relating to the temporary notes?

So moved.

That was Ms. Rubin. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you, Ms. Guyette. Is there discussion over the pending motion? If not, all those in favor of adopting the resolution relating to the sale of the general obligation temporary note series 2026-1, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed, same sign. The ayes have it, and the motion carries on a seven to zero vote. and the resolution is adopted. I think that concludes the business with respect to the sale of the bonds and the promissory notes. Again, our thanks to Mr. Atterbury as well as Mr. Wilmot for all the work they and their departments did with respect to both maintaining our AAA rating for I believe the 18th year, if I remember correctly, and the impact that that had. on the cost of our borrowing in this 2026. I don't believe there's any additional matters on the agenda this evening. So with that, I will declare the meeting adjourned. We will reform in the conference room for the special call work session that was published last week. Thank you all. Appreciate it.