City Council - Regular Meeting

the best place [music] to work. I love working here. I feel very blessed. I love it here. I look forward to coming to work every day, being a part of this team. [music] Like a family away from home where everyone feels like everybody knows their name. A city that supports you. We see that with our [music] benefits. A pension, vacation days, job security, being able to be heard. We feel valued. We [music] feel respected. Lee Summit is a very progressive city. It's growing. It's thriving. We have this drive towards not just doing a job, but doing it with a spirit of excellence. I had the opportunity [music] to continue to grow regardless of 30 plus years doing this kind of work. It's more [music] than just dollars and cents. We're here really to give back. Providing a service [music] to better a community,

to go out and serve people,

to be a part of something bigger than yourself. If I would have known what I know now, years ago, I would have been here much sooner. Hello, Lee Summit. I'm Jordan. Here's your flash briefing for the week of February 2nd. Take time to be kind week is February 9th through 14th and is one week devoted to random and purposeful acts of kindness throughout the Lee Summit community. Community members, students, and businesses are encouraged to participate. perhaps performing a good deed for a friend, neighbor, or stranger without expecting anything in return. The Human Relations Commission will host activities in the city hall lobby throughout the week. The public is asked to share their acts of kindness on social media using #lskindness. Learn more at lskindness.net. City Council will meet for a regular session Tuesday night at 6 in council chambers in city hall. Meetings are open to the public or watch live on the city's YouTube channel. If you can't watch, catch the recorded meeting on demand on the YouTube channel or by subscribing to the council debrief newsletter, which breaks down three to four key agenda items. Subscribe at city ofls.net. And there is still time to get your tickets to the Lee Summit Parks and Recreation February father-daughter dances, but dates are filling up fast, so don't wait to register. Get your tickets at lsps parks.net. Thanks for listening and have a great week.

Traditionally, we think as police officers, those responding to law enforcement needs [music] within the community. But honestly, we are there to serve our citizens. And our citizens do go into crisis. They do have mental health crisis. and were being called to those scenes on a regular basis. In order to help serve those citizens better, we did initiate the crisis [music] intervention team program. These are officers that are specially trained to deescalate crisis situations. Recently, we've brought co-responders onto the scene, licensed qualified mental health professionals housed within our police department and they respond with those officers directly to those scenes where a crisis is occurring so they can interact with that citizen and [music] get them the help they need right there on that scene. The co-responders are either a bachelor or master level in [music] a behavioral health related field. They wear plain clothes. They don't carry weapons or anything like that. I have a police radio that I listen to [music] all day. Listen for, you know, those key words, mental health, behavioral health, crisis. [music]

There's a lot of officers that just call for me. I have my own radio number. I also have the ability to self-dispatch to them and say 982 in route. 914. So typically I arrive after they've made it safe. I'll make contact and get kind of the rundown and then I just kind of jump right in

like, hey, you know, my name's Alison. I'm a mental health professional. I'm here to help you. I'm not here to take you to jail or arrest you. So sometimes all a person needs is a voice, someone neutral, someone outside that you know can listen. I do a lot of safety planning including family, their support network. Who's close to you? Can some if they're home alone, who can come over and hang out with you today? Can we lock away your sharps? Can we put up your meds? Do you need meds? Can we get you over to the urgent care to get you assessed for your medications? Some of them also are like, "Oh, I'm so glad you came. This made me feel so much better." Our main goal as co-responders is to one get people connected to the services that they need and also divert [music] from emergency rooms and jails.

And they almost get a different view of the police responding. That lets me know you care and the officers care. Please help me help you. My husband. In 2020, we had 722 mental health related calls for service. 2022 by that time, 1479. These mental health related calls for service are increasing. How we're responding to that is increasing the number of crisis intervention team officers we have available as well as the number of co-responders [music] we have available to respond on these calls.

So what I think is important for the community to know about the co-responder program is that we're here. We exist. [music] All you have to do when you call 911 is ask for us. You know say hey I want a co-responder to respond to this this crisis and we'll go. I was really struggling about eight years ago on my personal journey with mental health and I met some amazing social workers [music] and amazing programs that have helped me get to where I am today. I really couldn't see myself doing anything else. We want to help [music] and that's that's what we love to do. So I had a client we got a call shift some suicidal ideations and she really felt that she had nobody and you [music] know and getting to know her story and getting to know who comes around and sees you. Well, then we found a support person and they responded immediately and we made a plan. I [music] called back and checked on her in an hour and then I checked on her in two hours. We were able to get her into additional services to where she talks [music] to someone every week or more. I just took a person that really just thought they had nobody and nobody would show up for them and show them you do. And you'll be amazed who is in your corner if you just [music] simply say, "I need a little help. Lee Summit has lots of local destinations, but where do you start? Green Street, a vibrant community space in the heart of downtown, is where Lee Summit comes together. Its three dynamic areas have [music] something for everyone. Green Street Market is a modern event venue and home to the downtown Lee Summit Farmers Market. Green Street Lawn is a covered performance space hosting live music, family activities, and [music] more. Green Street Grove is a mixture of gathering spaces, an immersive playground, and bold architectural features. And all three areas host community events year round.

So the next time you set out to enjoy the city you love, [music] remember, meet at Green Street. Keeping our city beautiful is a collaborative effort for all citizens. The city of Lee Summit supports these efforts with a set of guidelines or ordinances and the city's neighborhood services team helps put those guidelines into practice. These guidelines ensure grass stays trimmed, fences are maintained, home exteriors are kept up, and much more. We can all help out by first making sure our property meets these guidelines. If you notice a potential violation on a neighbor's property, first check the guidelines on the city's website. If it is a violation, the next step is to communicate with your neighbor directly. If that is not possible or if the problem persists, it can be reported through LS Connect. LS Connect is an online platform for submitting issues to the city. You can access it on the city website or by downloading the app through your mobile devices app store. Once you submit an issue, it is reviewed by the neighborhood services team. A neighborhood services officer will then visit the site for any violations found. The neighborhood services officer will leave a notice and speak with the property owner if possible. The officer's goal is to help the property owner solve or abate the problem as quickly as possible. After a 10-day period, the officer will inspect the site to see if the issue has been abated. Normally, by this point, the issue has been resolved. If not, depending on the type of issue, an extension could be granted or the city might fix the problem at the owner's expense. In rare cases, if all other measures have been applied, the issue will be resolved in the municipal court. Neighborhood services officers work hard to resolve problems quickly and positively. They are here to support the community as we work together to keep our city beautiful.

I really love living in our historic downtown. [music] Um I walk my dog around um the shops, take her for they, you know, they do pup cups at Poppies, so you can get ice cream with a little dog biscuit in it, which is her favorite thing in the world. My neighbors, we have block parties together. Um I just I really like how welcoming and how vibrant it is. It's a it's an amazing place to live. Leon is a really great community. I love living here and I just wanted to try to find a way to give back um look out for my neighbors, for the community. [music] I've always tried to be um involved. Before serving on city council, I used to volunteer with [music] AFS, which is an organization that um hosts foreign exchange students. So, my husband and I have hosted kids from around the world and then also volunteered with local families and schools. [music] In my professional life, I'm a parallegal. Um and then in my personal life, um I enjoy reading, sewing. I'm I'm a quilter, so I just finished a log cabin quilt that I'm going to send to my aunt out in DC. I can't claim any of our council accomplishments for myself. This is all always a team effort, but I am really excited about the uh farmers market event space that we have coming in. It's still in the design phases, but I think it's [music] going to be a really beautiful space and it's going to really um continue keeping our downtown thriving. It's been in progress for a long time, but I think that people are going to really love it when it's done. I think one of my top priorities is going to be attainable housing that um for example, I've been trying to find a place um for my mom and Lee Summit. It's really challenging finding something um that really works for a retiree who doesn't have a huge budget. [music] Just trying to make it more attainable for people no matter where they're at um in their lives to to [music] be a part of our community. Community is is what we make it. Everybody should get involved in whatever way they can, [music] whether that's just voting or whether it's joining a board or a commission or even running for office. Um whe they say the world is run by those who show up. So get involved [music] however you can and make a difference in the community.

Heat. Hey, Heat.

[music]

Heat. Heat. Hey, baby. Welcome everyone. Would you please rise

for the invitation and stay standing for the pledge of allegiance?

Heavenly Father, thank you for bringing us together today. Help us listen with open hearts and speak with kindness and make choices that truly serve our community. Guide us as we do this work together. In your name we pray. Amen. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the standice for all [clears throat] again. Welcome everyone. I'm calling to order the Lee Summit regular session number 62. Could I get a roll call, please? Council member [snorts] Hodes here. Council member Rder

present. Council member Prior here. Council member Shields here. Council member Funk here. Council member Levelville. Council member Carlile. Mayor Prom Lopez here. Mayor Baird here. First item on the agenda tonight is the approval of the approval of the agenda. Could I get a motion? Buttons aren't doing it for us. Oh, there's no

technical difficulty wise. Miss Arury Fowler, we are not able to put chime in. So, go ahead. Council member Shields. I move to approve the agenda as presented. Second. Have a motion to adopt the agenda as presented by Council Member Shield, seconded by Council Member Hodgeges. Discussion. Seeing none, could I get a roll call vote, please? Council member, I. Sorry. Council member Shields. I. Council member Carlile. Apologize. Council member Prior. I. Council member Hajes. Hi. Council member Rder. I. Council member Funk. I. Mayor Prom Lopez. I.

Mayor Baird. I. Second item is the approval of the consent agenda. Council member Shields. Mayor, I move to approve the uh consent agenda. Second. Thank you. I have a motion to approve the consent agenda by council member Shields. Second by council member Hodgees. Discussion. Seeing none, can I get a roll call vote, please? Council member Shields. I. Councilman Council Member Hodes. Hi. Council member Rder. I. Council member Funk. I. Council member Prior. I. Mayor Pro Tim Lopez. Hi. Mayor Baird. I thank you. Next is the council roundt. Mayor, council member Shields.

Uh this Saturday downtown lease summit, we will have the winewalk and I believe there are still some tickets available if anyone wants to attend that. Um and I think we're all giving wellwishes to council member Hodes who I believe is going to be out maybe for a couple of meetings at least.

Thank you. Anybody else? All right, then we will go into our business for the evening. We have a public hearing. So, I'm going to close the regular session, open the public hearing in the matter of agenda item [clears throat] 4 A. It's public hearing for chapter 100 for Midstates Warehouse Expansion, 420 Southeast Thompson Drive. Midstates distribute distributing LLC is the applicant. Would all those wishing to speak to this matter please rise to be sworn in? the city clerk. Tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing about the truth. So, help me. I do. Mr. Bushek.

Good evening. David Bush, Economic Development Council to the city. I will start by providing a quick summary of what this item is. Um, [clears throat] this is a public hearing for a chapter 100 incentive request for an industrial uh retention and expansion project. The city council heard the conceptual presentation on November 4th of last year and you provided generally positive non-binding feedback and tonight is the formal public hearing and I'm I'm filibustering a bit because Mr. Peterson is scheduled to speak next and he's still not here. So I'm not sure what to do next.

You want to do the city side of the presentation? Um, [clears throat] sure. I could do that. And then we'll have him do his side. I suppose that will work because you have heard this before. So, this is without the I suppose without the benefit of hearing the developer presentation so you have a full understanding of the project and [clears throat] as usual I go through I focus on the numbers. So, I will start by entering into the record the exhibits um for the city which is exhibits 1 through six as listed in your meeting packet. Please enter into the record exhibits one through six.

And I will start [clears throat] with a a summary, a financial summary of the incentive package as we usually do. [clears throat] So there's one tool that's being requested for this incentive and that is chapter 100. Um there's three different components of this incentive request. The first is sales tax exemption on construction materials at the rate of 100%. So what that means is the company would purchase the construction materials for the project on a tax exempt basis. [clears throat] The benefit to the company is about a half million dollars, which is a little less than uh 1% of the total project costs. And then the next two components are real and personal property tax abatement. We talked about this in the past. Real property is the dirt and the buildings constructed on the dirt and anything attached to the building that it's a fixture, meaning it's part of the building. And then personal property is anything inside the building that can be removed if there's a change in tenant can be carried away, can be unplugged, is not a fixture or an attachment to the structure. [clears throat] real property tax abatement. They're requesting 75% abatement on the incremental increase in the value of the property. So the current value of the property today will not will not have any tax abatement associated with it. Only the value that's added to the property and then 75% of that added value is what the incentive request is and I'll talk more about that in a moment. Purpose of that is also the same as the first component of the request to reduce project costs. [clears throat] benefit to the developer over the time period of the abatement is about $3.5 million which is four and a half% of the total project cost. Then p personal property tax abatement. Um the request is 50% abatement for 5 years and three installments. The company's going to be purchasing large uh purchases of equipment totaling $25 million in three installments. And each one of those installments will have its own 5-year abatement period. So if you approve this, it'll be 50% abatement on each of those three installments of the equipment. And that also is to reduce project costs. Benefit to the developer is about $680,000 which is a little less than 1%. So the [clears throat] total benefit to the developer if you approve

this incentive package close to an $80 million project is about 4.7 round up to $4.8 million which is 6% of the total project costs. Then we go into a slightly more detailed analysis of the incentive request. Starting with a timeline summary. So this is just repeating a bit of what I just said. During the construction period, the sales and use tax exemption would apply. So they would be purchasing the construction materials on a tax exempt basis initially. Then for for five years after the purchase of each of the new uh equipment that's used in the structure and three installments um they will have five years abatement for each of those [clears throat] and then the real property tax abatement is lasts for 10 years and I said at 75%. As we discussed during the conceptual presentation, if you were to ask the question, what's the percentage of abatement, both the current value and the new value added together, so all in when the project's completely constructed, new buildings in place, everything's finished, what is the full abatement on the entirety of the property? And that's the second number that I included just as a point of comparison, 44%. So it's 75% abatement on just the increased value. We're not abating any of the current value of the property. propert. And so when you factor both of those things together, it's effective effect effectively about a 44% abatement for the property as a whole for that 10-year period. Property tax benefit to the taxing districts. Last year, the taxes on the property were about $679 million, $679,000, excuse me. And then the projection for the first year after construction, the first year pilots, 877,000 benefit to the city shown in green. And then [clears throat] for the uh real property taxes over the full 10-year period, this is the benefit flowing to the taxing districts. So it is an increase in benefit to the city and all the taxing districts because 25% of the real estate taxes tax taxes flow through as normal. The value of the incentive to the developer then close to $80 million

project costs and this is just to recap the numbers I just showed you. About 6% of the total project cost would be the benefit to the developer. than the impact to the city. We've quantified the impact to the city of each of these three three components down here. And all in the impact to the city is about 17 and a.5% of the total benefit to the developer. Which means the leveraging effect that we've talked about in the past. Over 80% of the impact of this tax abatement is borne by the other taxing districts because they're part of the tax bill associated with real and personal property. [clears throat]

The next slide that I can show you is a slide that we've used on occasions in the past. This started as an explanation of the major in incentive packages that have been awarded to industrial projects on the Missouri side of the Kansas City region. The first version of this table I showed you back when you were consider the city council was considering this first project down here which is the Scanel project that is now constructed off to the west of the police station. All of the projects [clears throat] that are in white were included on that initial list that the city council saw and then over time as additional projects have been approved by the city by Lee Summit and other cities we've added those. So the yellow projects are other industrial projects that we've added to this list as the list has grown and the green are the projects that this city council has approved for industrial projects. So we've got the Scanel project, the Orega project which was initially approved but has not been implemented. the LS industrial project which has now effectively been absorbed into the east village project that Drake is undertaking south of the Costco on on the east side of 281 south war development the town center industrial that is under construction um the Reinhardt food service I would say this project tonight that you're considering is probably most similar to the Reinhardt food service where they did an expansion of an existing facility and you provided 10 years of abatement in the amount of 84% that 84% this was an interesting kind of interesting footnote to this discussion their original request was 75% abatement plus personal property abatement also like you're considering tonight and it was the LC board that recommended eliminate the personal property tax abatement just roll it into the real property tax abatement so that's why you see a somewhat odd number of 84% to achieve the financial benefit that Reinhardt was looking for and that's what the city council approved and then KN&R wholesale

was another indust ustrial project and so we get to the summary of all of these projects. So this is not just the Lee Summit projects but this is all of the projects on this table. The summary is the average abatement period is about 19 years. The average abatement exceeds 90% typically during the first 10 years and it's about 50% in years uh 11 through 20. And that's a summary of um the these industrial projects. The other thing that I will mention uh when it comes to uh your consideration of industrial projects incentives that you have provided all fall into three basic buckets residential, commercial and industrial and often you see mixeduse projects like residential and commercial together. When you are evaluating a residential or a commercial project, we typically just look inside the boundaries of the city as a point of comparison. But industrial projects are more regional in nature and as we've discussed on many occasions in the past. Lee Summit is effectively competing with other neighboring communities to secure large-scale industrial projects. So the equation is a bit different with industrial. There's regional competition. These as we've walked through these other cities are already were already providing large incentive packages for industrial before Lee Summit considered its first large industrial project. And now Lee Summit is quote in the game when it comes to industrial projects and and you've approved many of those in the past. This last table then um I've shown you [clears throat] on a few occasions as a a point of reference. This table itemizes all of the projects where the city council has approved real property tax abatement in the amount of 75% or greater. And green are the industrial projects, yellow are the commercial projects, and red are the residential projects. And you'll see along the lines of what I was just discussing with the last table, there's quite a few industrial projects that the city council has approved in the past. The bulk of these are industrial projects where you've approved abatement equal to or greater than 75% plus a handful of

commercial projects and then a few uh residential projects only. [clears throat] Um the primary factors for your consideration tonight I think are business retention and business expansion. uh anytime a an applicant is requesting incentives, it's typically one of two reasons, to induce the project to occur or to enhance the project. And inducing the project to occur in this case is coupled with this company's desire to stay in the city. As I said, with industrial projects, um there's certainly shopping that occurs between um jurisdictions, between cities, and sometimes between states. And the best evidence we have of that right now, Arrowhead and the Chiefs. the Chiefs are leaving Missouri, moving to Kansas, and companies do shop when it comes to incentives. That is certainly the case with industrial and the company that is um requesting the incentives tonight first approached the city by saying we would like to stay here. We would like to stay in this facility and we would like to expand. So the public [clears throat] purpose behind your consideration is business retention and expansion. So the company stays in the city and expands in this location. That concludes my initial summary and Mr. Peterson is here so he can provide their presentation next.

Thank you. [clears throat]

Mr. Peterson, good evening, mayor, council. Uh, nice to see everyone. Kurt Peterson here on behalf of the applicant, the proposed developer Midstates. With me is Rick Mez. Uh we had some folks that came from home office in Fort Worth that you may remember flew in last time were with us. They were aren't with us tonight, but we have Rick who is as some of you probably not and know him. He's in charge of the existing facility here in Lee Summit. So we thought he was a good uh stand in tonight to be with me. So again, try to be uh efficient but substantive since we've been through this before. It seems like not that long ago. And I will not go into all the specifics of the actual proposal tonight because we switched order and David did a really good job of that. But I'll tell you a little bit again about this company, accentuate a couple points he made and then end if I may with uh really the compelling nature of this for you all to consider. So this is Midstates Distributing LLC. Uh some of you may have known about them before 2019, but I bet most not. They actually took over that uh former Toys R Us distribution facility that David was referring to on 291 South just south of Shear or Tom. It turns into Thompson Drive on the east side of 291. So they came onto the scene and put in a solid investment to bring a lot of employees there and get that up and going as a distribution center. As I mentioned, they're based in Fort Worth, Texas. They have over 700 retail stores for farm and home business that they supply across the country. and uh they have 29 different owners. Each of them are these family businesses that own those retail stores. Um I you may remember when we were together whatever it was maybe a couple months ago, we actually had one of the Missouri owners here that was sitting in the audience uh reminding us how important this is to keep this in Missouri. So just a map of the stores so you can get a sense. These are the stores that are distributed out of this

facility. uh big geographic spread uh comes comes from humble beginnings was just a couple that was driving along in Indiana and uh back in 1954 that had a vision for this type of retail store and uh several generations later that's what we have here and speaking of generations this is a huge [snorts] generational investment decision as David said kind of stole the thunder I think I told you this last time but when I met uh Midstates they came to me and the conversation many more words than this but went something like us. We love Lee Summit. They've been good to us. This has been really good since 2019. We have a major problem. We have got to supply more of our stores. We need more volume. We either have to be here or we have to be somewhere else. And I asked him for permission to say this back when there was a lot of pressure. If you look at the map, they're doing a ton of expansion to the west. And there were some places west of the Midwest that was vying for this facility to be there. But because of the nice conceptual presentation where we presented all this and the informal feedback we got, they have doubled down and want to do this deal here and make this expansion. So in my opinion, this is what public incentives are for to be able to retain and grow and thrive a business here um in Lee Summit. Back to a slide here. This is the current facility. Uh it's quite large, 650,000 ft. Uh couple stats about it. 66,000 pallet racks, 104 dock doors, miles of conveyor systems inside, and importantly, 165 employees that are at the facility today. The proposed project, as David alluded to, is to take that existing building, which is on the bottom part of your screen, and expand it, build onto it with almost another half million square feet, um, into the property you see, uh, outlined in yellow. There would be uh approximately 90 new jobs that would come along with this expansion. That's conservative because

they don't want to overstate it will be more over time, but 90 new jobs initially and we'll retain this operation here in Lee Summit. I will skip but of course be here for questions any of the details David went over about the actual public private partnership that can make this happen and I'll go to the end which is just talking about the value proposition that is why should the elected officials uh find that this is something in the best interest of the citizens of lease summit so one is always going to the city's policy this is a specific area of targeted investment uh that as you can see on the screen and uh this is the 291 one south specifically targeted planning area that the red arrow indicates. There is a lot of construction spending here, some $55 million overall capital investments. Midstates has focused on the use of local professionals thus far in the design and development and plans to do the same thing with their construction. In terms of job creation, as I said, we're not only retaining the 165 jobs that are here today, but also planning to hire initially another 90 jobs across all positions. that's management down to uh the important warehouse workers and everything in between. Um and as we've talked about many times, we all know this. It's important to keep restating it though. Job creation has lots of positive local impacts. We talk about the multiplier effect, the effect it has on uh other businesses and workers and other businesses and just the overall local economy. We have the table on the screen. You can see here that for this type the red arrow indicates for this type of spending um there's actually an additional uh n this 90 jobs that will create as I said will generate another approximately 42 additional jobs through the multiplier effect and an additional $19 million in overall economic output. So again, it's a ripple throwing a a a rock in a pond and seeing the additional impacts it has on the local economy.

In terms of tax and fee generation, uh the chapter 100, as David said, will generate a lot of property tax. Today, we're at approximately at $250 overall per year for for the land that we'd be expanding into. And over the 10-year chapter 100 that's proposed for real property, the annual new taxes would be in the $150,000 to $165,000 a year. And during the 10-year period after that chapter 100, um it would total during that 10-year period about $7.2 million in real property tax, over a million dollars to the city specifically. We'd have excise tax that staff estimated around $100,000. We'd have park impact fees of about $100,000. So, a lot of revenue generation um associated with this project moving forward. Wanted to end as I did the conceptual with the timeline because I asked the same question. You know, if this is to be supported tonight after this public hearing, eventually a second reading. What happens? That means this project moves forward. That means that the that yellow land that was highlighted will be purchased here in the mid-spring and uh Midstates would go straight into uh the the construction process. They would work on I didn't go into it in detail tonight, but the conceptual I talked about all the personal property they need to put in both the existing facility uh for conveyor systems and other equipment. They would move right into that in the spring and then by we hope in mid 2027 we would be uh full up and running and uh bring those jobs to the city. And that's just a again a visual of the overall timeline. So this is meaningful what you're considering tonight. This makes this project possible. Um, and I'd love to answer any questions that any of you might have about it.

Thank you, Mayor. [cough] Okay. Thank [clears throat] you. Any questions for staff or the applicant? Council member Shields. Thank you, Mayor. Um, let's see. So, so, um, when you talk about I think it it was in Mr. Bushik's presentation, the three installments, you're talking about three like sets of equipment that are being installed, not like three in because I I hear installment. I think like payment, but you meant like actual like installing of phases. How about that? That's be the right synonym there. Okay. So, each one of those will have a 5-year abatement that it'll it'll kick off whenever they actually um put the equipment in.

Exactly. It's like 5 million then 10 then 10 and each would have a 5-year period. That's exactly right. Okay, that makes sense. Um and then the overall incentive level for presentative project cost was about 6%. Is that right? I think that's right. That sounds about right question. And that's that's um on the low end of of what we see for a lot of these kind of requests. Correct.

Yes. So the range of incentives that the city council is typically provided is between five and 25%. There's another table which I didn't show you uh even more data. That's the one that's the full wall of data going uh itemizing all of our the incentives that the city council has approved going back to the year 2000. The range is between five and 25% with some outliers being a bit lower and some being a bit higher. Um and this [clears throat] is definitely at the lower end of that range. It's at 6% with the that's almost near the the bottom of the range that you've uh the city council's approved in the past.

Okay. and the personal property. That's um not as common of a request to get that, but they're asking for it because the the value of that like a machinery and equipment is just so high they'd pay like a large personal property tax on that in addition to it's a very substantial purchase. Um if you've if you have if you ever have the chance to tour the facility, I would recommend it. The um the shelving and the conveyor belt system and machinery, it's pretty amazing inside the structure. It is substantial and they're planning to upgrade that. Right. And they like like how your car is taxes personal property. It's taxes personal property as opposed to real property. So they're just asking for an abatement on that bill in addition. Right. That's right.

Okay. Um, and then the the multiplier effect that they talked about, the idea there is because they're creating new manufacturing jobs, those folks are going to go out and spend money in the community and that's going to create demand for grocery stores and hair salons and all that kind of like like those are the additional 40ome jobs they talked about being created in the community. Is that's how that works, right? I

I think it's both that and also the way I think of it is the upstream and downstream jobs. So anytime there's an industrial facility, whether it's warehousing, distribution, manufacturing, whatever the case may be, when there's a new facility put in place in a location, there's typically additional jobs that are created upstream that generate the project the products that come into the facility and then there's more downstream jobs and that naturally occurs in the vicinity of the facility. It can't say that it's in Lee Summit specifically, but it has that effect. It creates up upstream and downstream jobs both. Right. Right. So the people who are going to supply everything to that facility and then all the places they're going to go and eat lunch on their lunch break and stuff like that, right? It just generates additional

we we hope and it just a positive cycle in the community. Right. Has has a positive effect outside the boundaries of this project to local commerce, restaurants, shopping, etc. Yes. Okay. I think those are all my questions. Thank you, mayor. Thank you. [clears throat] Other questions? Um probably I'll just ask a couple um with regard to one thing in the presentation. [clears throat] I guess I'd ask Mr. Dunning to um your P your take on this. We've been talking about this location for industrial for decades and we we kind of often refer to it as like Leone Smith property.

Yeah. Leone Smith Rail Center. Yep. So they've been wanting to economic development community has been wanting this area to develop quite some time for this type of of of this type of um use. Thank you. That's correct. Yes, it's been on the uh out there for quite some time. That's accurate statement.

Okay. Um and then [clears throat] it's an additional 465,000 square feet. Is that correct, Mr. Peterson? Okay. Okay, I'm going to go ahead and move on then to the um portion where we ask if anybody is wanting to speak in favor or in against the application. Please come forward. Scott Shepard, Lee Summit resident. I'll cut straight to the point. This proposal includes 80 million in bonds, 75% abatement on existing buildings and new buildings for 10 years and sales tax abatement on 24 million resulting in over uh 550,000 in lost sales tax revenue. In return, the city's getting 90 new warehouse jobs. These are not high-paying jobs. These are above fast food. I want to be clear. I'm not opposed to growth and I'm not opposed to business, but incentives of this scale should deliver clear and potential benefits to the community. And in this case, I struggle to see that balance. This project's located in an area that we're already developing. We have a Costco, a new parks facility, and multiple restaurants coming into this area not far away. This is not a blighted area, and this seems like it's an extraordinary assistance for an area that we're already building up. When we grant large abatements and exemptions, that cost doesn't exa disappear. It gets shifted. It gets picked up by the homeowners, the small businesses, and the residents who don't have access to get likewise deals. 90 jobs do not uh sorry 90 jobs do not justify tens of millions of incentives and a decade of reduced tax

contributions when many small local businesses receive little or no support at all. They threaten that they'll leave if we don't give them this. There's fixed costs to leaving as well. So is this really worth 5 million in taxpayer incentives? I urge the council to ask the simple question. Is this deal deal truly in the best interest of Lee Summit residents? If the answer isn't clear and confident yes, then we should be willing to say no. Thank you for your time and your opportunity to speak tonight. Thank you.

Okay, Miss Giddings. Yep. Debbie, Lee Summit resident. I'm going to reiterate some of the things he talked about, but also some additional ones. The um taxes from a sales tax perspective, they list 8.475%. Most of Lee Summit residents on construction materials that they buy to do something at their house, they're paying 9.47. 47% because of the extra 1% that has been added by the council to all of the districts where any kind of improvements have been made, even including the grocery stores. When it comes to the exemptions for the property tax, uh, personal property tax as well as actual property tax. You all talk about what's happening to Lee Summit's property tax. What about the zoo? What about the libraries? What about the colleges? There's a lot of things. The mental health. There's a lot of things besides just what happens to the city when this is done. I'm a little confused on the property tax going down to 44%. The way I interpreted the charts that you didn't see and some of the other information was that in addition to getting the abatements for the new development, they want abatements in property tax, personal property tax on the existing building and existing property. Well, if I were to go addition to building on my home, I wouldn't get a reduction in personal property tax or buying a new car. they wouldn't reduce my car prices on my existing cars because I'm getting a new one.

Um, the last number that they showed you on uh the the lawyers slide showed a reduction or amount impact to the city of 17.5%. It didn't say whether that was one year, 10 years, 20 years. I didn't understand that chart at all. It's important to note that one of the charts he did show you recently showed a residential that you just approved for 307 units of apartment complexes and that wasn't a reduction in time. The developers want to come to Lee Summit. Why are the citizens burdened to take the responsibility financially to let it happen? Why allow a reduction of taxes being paid just because there's another building on the property? they could afford it before. Many of the current residents, including myself, will not be alive when all these concessions made to developers will end. If so, however, I understands were given to previous people. I'm not opposed to growth. I understand that these type of things need to happen. However, perhaps it's time to start reducing the dollar amount and the percentage amount and the length of time to show the citizens that you understand that they're tired of financing all of this. The one last thing I'll mention and this has to do with the development in the area. They already have 106 docks. I think that's 106 trucks. How many more trucks that they didn't say were being added by this new building? Think about the traffic. All of those trucks are going to have to either go north or go south. You're going to add maybe half, maybe just a quarter, I don't know. All of those going north and then having to return south on 291 from 50 highway.

Think of that in addition to all of the traffic that is being generated by the new development. Thank you. Thank you. [clears throat] Anyone else? Okay, go back to council. Any additional questions or from council? Council member Rder. Mayor, I had a comment. I'm sorry you said questions and I hit the button. So, shall I wait for for comments? Yeah, wait till I close the public hearing. Thanks, Council Member Shields.

Thank you, Mayor. Um, just since I it seems like there might be a little bit of misunderstanding with the public, could could Mr. Bush come up and and clarify the the property that's already built up and the personal property, the equipment that's already in the facility, they're not getting any abatement on that. Correct. That tax bill stays the same and then and then it's the additional property where they're building on that they'll get a a tax break on that for a certain number of years. Correct. That is that is correct. but with one footnote dealing with the equipment. So that's accurate with respect to the property. Um it might be easier to go to one of the developers pictures.

I think I think what was mentioned was that 44% but that was one you just forformational purposes gave us a sort of a blended rate but they're not actually getting correct they're not getting a a break on the bill for this existing building next year or anything like that.

That's exactly right. So to put it in the simplest terms, the property taxes that are imposed on the property as a result of the land value plus this structure, which is what creates the value, none of that is being abated. So those taxes will flow to the taxing districts as normal. The value added to this property from the expansion, 75% of that will be abated. So, the 44% that I showed you is sort of the all-in number. If you were to compare full taxes being paid on the value of this and 25% taxes being paid on the value of this, put it all together in a blender, so to speak, that's 44% for the entirety of the property. However, you're not going to be abating the value of any of the completed structure,

right? So, and since it's not a full abatement on the new the new section, the actual number of dollars going into the city of Lee Summit will increase. Correct. It is it is it is absolutely a net benefit. So, and here's I I thought of maybe they would make this expansion without the incentive we would get more, but we're still we're still getting increased tax revenues, just not to the level that it would be if there was no abatement.

That is correct. So the the simplest way to say it would be [clears throat] if you approve this, you are not abating any taxes that are currently flowing to the city or any taxing district. You are only abating new taxes that don't exist today. And here's maybe a slightly better way to explain it so that the public can understand. I'll set aside the numbers and I'll just talk kind of big picture here. The costbenefit analysis that's uh sent to the taxing districts with the plan which goes out in the notice that was in the in the exhibits that I entered into the record. The costbenefit analysis really gives us three snapshots and this might help everybody understand a little better. [clears throat] The three snapshots are today, what's the data set associated with the property taxes that are being generated by the property today, the existing facility. The second snapshot for purposes of having a data is what does the project look like if you don't have any abatements. So, so what does it look like if you build this and it pays all of the taxes? We have that data set. That's snapshot number two. And then snapshot number three is what does the project look like if you do provide the incentives that they're requesting? And then you compare those numbers. And that's all the numbers I've already talked through. So the way to think about it, I I was thinking about this this morning actually. Think about those snapshots as actual photographs. Set aside the numbers. So you've got photograph number one. That's what the property looks like today with this green field up here. Photograph number two is this completed project. No incentives. Photograph number three is the completed project with the incentives. Here's here's the important point. What the developer is telling you very politely is if you don't approve these incentives, we're not going to do this expansion. So, you need to be comparing snapshot number one versus snapshot number three.

And to put perhaps an even finer point on it, there's a good chance that this entire facility would shut down and they would build something in another state. Yes. So again, the developers being I think polite and there's an there's a more aggressive version of this which is we want to expand. If we don't do it here, we're going to do it somewhere. So photograph zero maybe is the is same as photograph number one, but there's no trucks out here and and the store has gone dark. Okay. Thank you. That's that's helpful. Thank you, Mayor. Thank [clears throat] you, Council Member Hodes.

Thank you. So to kind of piggyback a little bit on that in the public comments, but I guess just to be blunt, how how could this possibly negatively affect taxpayers in our city? It's a net benefit to the city. It's a net increase in taxes to the city. There's uh it won't increase any resident or or the property taxes of anybody else in the city. It is only an abatement on the taxes that would otherwise be due for this city. So it's not like a citizen or other businesses have to pick up the bill. All you're doing is abating future taxes that would result from this project, which the company is saying won't happen if you don't provide the incentive. So there's there's no impact to residents in the way it was in the way that the argument was raised.

Perfect. Um, and then I guess my another question I have, and I'm not sure if you're the one to answer this now, but the average salary for these jobs, do we know? I have to have the Okay. And then I have a question for you right after. Okay. Thank you. Council member Hodes, the estimate is just below $60,000 across the management down to the warehouse workers blended together. So that's like on the average the overall average. That's right. Okay. Yes, ma'am.

Okay. So with that being said, sorry Mr. Bishek. Um so if you take that into account because with what the 165 current employees possibly 90 possibly more um added on to about 255 is [clears throat] what they're predicting. So if you think about the longevity of the many years that they could be here, have already been here. Um how how would that outweigh or what is the net benefit I guess compared to the incentive that we're giving um when you think about all this the jobs the salaries I mean that over time that would outweigh or would it? So maybe the simplest way to answer that question would be if you take a look at this [clears throat] data, this is what the property as developed produced last year. This is the projection of what the taxes would be if the project happens. You'll see that the taxes go up in the first year and then over the 10-year real property tax abatement period, the taxes certainly go up for the city. And now to answer your question, uh my pen blew up while I was standing up here. um all of the additional benefits that what the workers spend in the community, the upstream jobs, the downstream jobs, those are all in addition to these benefits that I've quantified for you. So, I try to stick to just the tax dollars and and the revenue that flows from this piece of property. We, as we've discussed in the past, we don't have a good metric to quantify those upstream and downstream jobs and the spin-off effects, but yes, it is certainly a positive for the city and and it it is quantifiable, but not by me at this point.

Okay. So, it's easy to say regardless of I mean where where the incentive sits at that they're requesting, the net benefit far exceeds the negative outcome that could happen or of the incentive.

Right. And and I think the argument against the way it it was stated in this case and it's often stated uh kind of a the the general argument against incentives. It's under the assumption that the city's actually giving something up that it's already receiving. And in this case, if you're thinking about what we're giving up, it's future revenues that won't be produced as the developers indicating if you don't provide this incentive. So the only loss is not incentivizing because then we would lose the entire production here. That's the risk. Um so really it's only a loss, right? And if you look at again what the company is politely saying is they want to expand and if not here probably someplace else. Okay. Perfect. Thank you so much.

Thank you council member Funk. Thank you mayor. [clears throat] Mr. Peterson, I have a question for you and this it's just general. Um, [clears throat] my fellow colleagues asked most all the questions of the net benefits to the city. You do this on a regular basis. This is your job. You're a development attorney. How many projects of this magnitude go to a community without an incentive? Well, it's hard because someone that doesn't know me may say this is self- serving, but it happens to be completely true. Um, you may have a sense of it even with your question that it is an extremely competitive landscape. Not just in Kansas City, Missouri versus Kansas, which there's there's a lot of that. It's I'm thinking of projects right now. It's Nebraska. It's Iowa. It's going west towards the West Coast. It's extremely competitive. But the answer to that question is there's there's zero projects that go before someone without

lawyers never say zero council councilman but um effectively because the very benefits that the city's attorney Mr. Buchek is describing and that I touched on are the reason that cities do make it a competitive landscape because they do want the jobs they do want the multiplier effect and all that. So let's say virt virtually zero. Anything of this scale is is hotly pursued by other jurisdictions. Thank you. Thank you, mayor. All right. Thank you. [clears throat]

Um [cough] Mr. Bushek on the retention side. So just because we're talking about it, um we've been working together a while now and at the beginning um eight years ago we kept having to scramble the first couple years when a um an employee employer was going to leave the community possibly.

Yes. and um they weren't coming to council and asking for a deal. They just picked up and left because they didn't think it was on the table and we had to scramble and we tried to keep a couple of them, but by the time that we we could put a plan together, which we we did put plans together, we didn't get to implement them, they [clears throat] were they already had one foot out the door and they were gone. So, can you at least verify that that happened numerous times? um in early at least in my tenure

that that has happened. There was one notable case where a company was shopping around looking to relocate to Kansas um we learned about that. We approached the company. We indicated that the city council might consider an incentive package. We'd have to go through the normal process and have to hold the public hearing when we get to that point. But we approached the company with a comparable package because for the very reason that we're talking about tonight, it's far more advantageous for that company to stay here and expand with incentives than to go dark and leave the city. That that's the worst case scenario. We did have one of those. There are other situations like that. One of the things that I'll note that I heard uh again I'm going to think back to um what I heard right after the chiefs announced they were leaving was it felt like part of the decision-m was based on the complexity of trying to secure incentives at the new location versus the current location and how many people and how many different jurisdictions the company had to deal with. Then in this case, I think it's uh it's a great benefit to the city that these companies do approach us and at least ask this question first before we have to learn about it through back channel discussions and then try to approach them when they've already made their decision to leave.

Okay. And then um Mr. Denning, I'm going to give you another um question that's similar, but like I remember when these incidents happened, the tremendous pressure that we were under from our economic development board members, council member, not council members, but economic development board um that we can't be letting those types of businesses leave our community. Is that accurate?

That's accurate. They were looking at us saying, "City, what can you do? What can you do?" Um, and [clears throat] thus I'm pulled up our incentive policy right here and it attracts or retains targeted businesses and it lists those sectors that we're trying to attract and retain within our policy. So, uh, you know, city absolutely took steps to uh to help deal with those types of issues. And then back to that area again, this Leone Smith area. Um it was referred to as blighted earlier, but it or not blighted earlier, but yet this has been a target area for three decades or more. My entire career with the city. Yes.

Okay. And it's not developed other than Toys R Us being bought by Midstates. Correct. Um so Okay. Um, thank you, [clears throat] Council Member Shields. Sorry, just just one thing that um kind of following up on what you're saying about our economic development community, I believe, was was this a project that our EDC had a hand in in bringing this expansion request to the city? Yes, they brought Midstates here in 2019 and and but with this current expansion request, did that I feel like

Oh, I'd have to ask the mayor and I both sit on their board and I I I don't want to offer testimony in the hearing. I just does our city staff know did the did the EDC help facilitate this current package and is supportive of it. Is that right? That is my understanding. Yes. Some preliminary discussions and then we work uh in conjunction with our EDC when we hear of these things. So we we are fairly certain that the development uh economic development community would be very supportive of this one as well based on that. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Um does the applicant care to make any further comment or respond? Hearing no further testimony. I'm closing the public hearing and reopening the regular session. Is there any council discussion on this application? Council member Rder.

Thank you, Mayor. Um, [gasps and sighs] I I I certainly concern I I certainly understand the concern that the residents have about incentives. We've we've spent a lot of money on that lately. Uh, but I want to say that I am very much in favor of this um application and uh keeping Midstates with us. I did have the uh privilege to be able to go and tour their facility. Um, this is a absolutely outstanding company. I got to talk to employees there. They love working there. Um, this is an opportunity, I believe, for our kids coming out of high schools to go in to have jobs immediately. 60,000 isn't too bad coming out of high school, I don't think. And um, they are a very good company. They take good care of their their employees. They offer 401k. Now, maybe that doesn't mean anything to you. It means a lot to me because I I want to know that the companies that we are helping by incentives are good companies and that are they are partners with us and they can help us build our community and make it a a better place. So I think this is a really good example of how we can use incentives as really good tools to encourage businesses stay through expansion and we have lost companies. I wanted to say that we have lost companies. Billy Goat I believe is leaving and I I noticed if Mr. Dr. Bushak's chart is accurate with uh all the uh industries that have come into Lee Summit. We had several in 22. We had one in 24. So we haven't really had a lot of industries that are coming to Lee Summit. So I think it's important for us to make sure that we are encouraging that and um helping those people uh and be able to compete to be able to bring these companies and keep the companies here in Lee Summit. So, thank you, Mayor.

All right. Thank you, Council Member Shields. So, I would just say that I also um in support of this uh it's a lot of good paying jobs. It's very important to our local economy and I think um especially given the low level of the incentive request compared to a lot of others that we see. It's it's a really great return on investment for us. So, I'm excited that it's uh they've come to us and want to continue investing in the community and expanding in the community. So, thank you. Thank you. Mayor Tim Lopez.

Thanks, Mayor. Just quickly, I I am in support of this uh request. Um as as it had already has been said, wasn't very long ago that um we we could not retain companies like this. Not only retain them, but recruit them. And uh that wasn't very long ago. And it's already been stated quite a bit, so I won't repeat all that. But for us to have this opportunity and it's a net gain, a net gain in taxes and benefits to the city and to the residents. It's not a burden on our residents at all. Um I think to me makes complete sense. It's very logical and uh you know as far as again not too long ago we did not have any spec light industrial buildings in the summit and because we've followed these plans we now have these uh spec industrial buildings that are creating jobs. We're creating hundreds of jobs um not only with retain retaining companies like this but bringing in new industry and new jobs. So, I think this is extremely important for us to protect our tax base and that's what this project is doing and I appreciate Midstates again investing in our community. So, thank you. That's it, Mayor. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Funk. Thank you, Mayor. Um, I too had the opportunity to see Midstate's operation and uh it's not a typical warehouse operation. This is a pretty cool automated facility, the way it functions and the way it moves. and knowing that they had many opportunities to go somewhere else outside our city um and and leaving the old toys of us building vacant. Um I think this is a great opportunity for us. This is what our incentive program is about um to to to help these people expand and retain and grow and do all the cool things in the industry. So I am in support of this project. Thank you, Mayor. [clears throat] Thank you, Council Member Prior.

Thank you, Mayor. I mean, everyone else has already stated, but I am 100% in support of this. I mean, it's kind of a given. The alternative is having losing the company and having an empty warehouse, and I don't think any of us want that. I don't think anybody living in our city um truly wants that. Um but also, I just wanted to say that I am looking forward to seeing more companies coming to Lee Summit. I think we need to get in the market of competing even um even more so for more companies like this and and even more um commercial like not retail commercial but like more like office commercial. So I I look forward to more companies coming here. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay. I remember when Midstates came here uh the first time and it was really really nice. They complimented uh the community and said that we had the kind of values that they uh also shared uh and they wanted to be a part of the community um and they wanted to uh I think it was a big testament at that time 2019 to um to basically uh disprove this notion that we didn't have a workforce to draw from. Um that was a big deal to us is like it was said well we can't develop this area because we don't have a workforce to draw from and so obviously Midstates is wanting to to uh expand and reinvest and um they they like our workforce so I also am in support because I uh the multiplier effect the the the jobs the more jobs it'll create the act economic activity and and more um will be a will be a a strong rate of return for our community. So, um, I'll be voting in support of this. With that said, [clears throat] Council Member Shields, would you please read bill number 26-021? Thank you. I move for second reading bill number 26-021, an ordinance approving a plan for an industrial development project and authorizing the city of Lisa, Missouri to issue taxable industrial development revenue, bonds, and a principal amount not to exceed $79,650,000 in connection with the Midstates project and authorizing certain documents and actions in connection therewith.

Thank you. Do have a motion to move to second reading. Bill number 26-021 by Council Member Shield, seconded by Council Member Hodes. Discussion. [clears throat] Seeing none, please cast your vote. All votes are in. Please record the vote. It does move to second reading unanimously. And thank you for investing reinvesting in Lee Summit. All right. All right, with that we've got another um agenda item, but I need u someone to read this uh to remand this if they would. Um so this is regarding agenda item 4B, public hearing application resoning from a to RP1, RP4 and CP2 preliminary development plan and conceptual development plan Legacy Ridge. Um council member Shields, do

we need to open the public hearing or can I just make a motion? Do I need to open the public hearing, Mr. Eison? Yeah, we can just um um then I would um motion to remand the application uh PL2025-079 to the planning commission meeting on February 26, 2026 to allow for submitting and consideration revised application. Second. Thank you. I have a motion to remand this application back to the planning commission on February 26th by council member Shields, seconded by council member F. Yes, Council Member Funk. I'm sorry. You You did the motion, but he did it on the Oh, he did it on the screen. So, I'm gonna give it to Council Member Funk since it's on.

Sorry. All right. Discussion on remanding this back to Planning Commission.

Seeing none, please cast your vote. [snorts] All votes are in. Please call the vote. It's remanded unanimously. Thank you all. And that will take us to public comments. We have three three public commenters tonight. Miss Giddings, I think you also wanted to speak. Yep. Let me uh read the at least one of these scripts. The public com portion of this meeting is where the public may address the committee the council on any matter listed on the the agenda for the meeting or directly related to the operations of the city summit except for those matters that are the subject of the public hearing requiring that testimony be sworn. Each person wishing to provide public comment will be afforded three minutes to speak and Miss Giddings, why don't you start us off?

Yes. First of all, I would like to reiterate on my comments talking with the city and exploring the slides that I took my information off of. They agreed it was a little bit of a technicality and very confusing. So, I apologize for what I said about the personal property because they're going to put new equipment in the old building. That wasn't listed anywhere on the discussion as well as some other things. But needless to say, some of my information was incorrect. and I regret having said some of those things. I'm going to start coming into the city and reviewing everything before I get up here again. My second comment is you just took the uh Legacy Ridge application and put it on the planning commission for February 26th. I would hope that the residents who have been here and who will future been here be aware that that has been postponed. Um, I would also like to let the residents know that we'll be coming to those meetings that there will be a neighborhood meeting for those around the property to attend on uh, February 9th from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. at Resurrection Church down on 150. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. Uh, next I have Mr. Alchawish. Three weeks ago, I raised concerns about the mayor's business ties with Drake Development, a firm that has received approval for over 200 million in taxpayer subsidies since 2019. And beyond a few snide and dismissive remarks following my statements, the silence from behind the dis has been deafening. Um, and now public records from the Jackson County Recorder of Deeds reveal a key detail uh that the mayor failed to disclose. Apparently, a substantial federal tax lean of around 115,000 for unpaid IRS back taxes was placed on the building around the time of the sale. So, Bill, when Drake Development purchased this building from you, it effectively build you out of that debt. Now, you describe this as a routine transaction. Well, a massive IRS tax lean hanging over the property undermines that claim and it raises legitimate questions about whether this was truly a standard sale or rather a favor disguised as one. You also claimed that the sale happened many many years ago. According to the recorder of deeds, the transaction closed September of 2022. That's during your current term as mayor. That's not many, many years ago. It was recent. So, I'm curious why you you would try to minimize the timeline with dishonest and misleading comments like that. I also found it interesting the report reported profit on it uh barely 4%. You know, you purchase this prop property roughly in 2020 and real estate values have about doubled since that. So, this gain gives the appearance of a very carefully calculated and structured price to minimize scrutiny in the public records. So, mayor, the burden's on you now. Open your financial books. Disclose all transactions direct or indirect between your company and Drake Development or any Drake affili affiliated entities like 304 investors.

You know, you chose not to recuse yourself from the voting on these projects. And I think that choice carries a heightened duty to prove every decision was above board and free of conflict. Now, Beta, I want to address you about transparency as well. You know, I've heard from multiple people that uh you intend to return to commercial development after this election. We also talked about that over coffee. Now, we got the chance to speak last night and you assured me that this wouldn't be for many, many years. Well, I'm hoping it's not the same type of many, many years that Bill talks about. And and I have a few questions. Um and I need a question. How do you intend to continue your full-time role in Guadalupe if elected mayor? Are you going to work two full-time jobs? Will you be able to fulfill your roles at mayor if you do? Or are you going to be leave behind your large salary there and try to live off 40,000 per year? I think that's unlikely. My issue is that you're campaigning presenting yourself as a nonprofit leader committed to the community. But a silent pivot to a for-profit developer after the election feels like a bait and switch. So I think voters need to hear your true intentions directly from you before they cast their ballots. You're well aware of how the residents feel about all the developments and the developer subsidies and lease summit. Don't make them discover your plans after the election. And gentlemen, your silence on these issues is more damaging than any questions I I could ask. So, I think it's time for honesty. The residents need to hear it from you instead of me. Thank you.

Thank you. I'll start off by letting you know that you just couldn't be more misinformed. You don't even know how to read the recorder of deeds. um the the timelines and such. There was no tax lean on that property. Um I'll post it. It's got your name. It's got your name on it.

I have Listen, I'm I've been upfront. There was a sale. I bought the I was a small owner in that at less than 20%. Um there wasn't much of a profit, that's for sure. um it was bought long before 2020. I don't know what that where that comes from. Just all your facts are wrong, sir. And so, um there was there was no extra money that went to me, um outside of it of the the the less than 20% profit, um and the typical real estate transaction commission. But at the same time, here's the thing. I've served 11 years if you count the school board as an elected official. I've done everything by the book and I've not risked my reputation in any manner by violating any laws. I've helped raise the bar for the school district, for the city council, for anybody that's even done any business with the city. I've raised the bar. When you talk about accountability, I have held people accountable. I have held organizations, individuals, and more accountable. I did it by providing documentation and proof of, you know, the fact that we needed to save money. I have weeded out corruption at the school district. I have by saving us millions of dollars. I put all of those dollars anytime we save money back into the teachers, the police officers, the firefighters, the employees, and more. I have [clears throat] done all of this. You sir have put yourself in a position where you're running on the the coattails of me by just simply trying to get more more uh visuals for your Facebook page which is really a fake news Facebook page. And yes sir, it is okay for me to use my first amendment rights to also talk about you who is paying you to come up here and create chaos and make false accusations against

good people. And you've made them against many of us. And I'm going to tell you, I wonder if you're going to disclose those things on your Missouri ethics form because you're required to, sir, and I have reported all of mine and I have a lot of stuff out there on the records. I've never been super successful in the financial world. Um, I've been more successful as mayor doing things up here and doing good for the community. and I have sacrificed, believe me when I have sacrificed the greatest income producing years of my life on this dis. So you sir need to do more homework and you need to find your own voice and tell the story um that you that you think is going to get you into office because I can assure you I can defend everything. Everything you're talking about I can defend. I can go on the record and I will. I can. But no, I'm not necessarily gonna show my tax records because quite honest, I wouldn't be too proud of them because I haven't made that much money. It wouldn't be that much of a pride factor thing for me as far as, hey, look how much money I've made, good or bad. It's just I've survived. So, my legacy is up here and you, sir, will not will not be able to take it down with you. Your 15 minutes of fame is almost up. Would you like a response? [applause] No sir. Mayor Pet Lopez. Thank you, Mayor. You know, I I for eight years I've taken 100% pride and being ethical and transparent the entire time that I've been up here on this DAS. Never once have I ever used this dis representing the public, the citizens, the residents of this city for campaign purposes. And I live my life by the highest ethics and transparency. and you use public comments which I think is dist distasteful and unethical for you being an elected

candidate to come up here and be make slanderous comments about any one of us and I hope the public is watching because making slanderous comments about individuals that there's public records that show everything about us who what we do full transparency as far as our our IRS records our ethics and how we vote All that's public information for you to come up during public comments. I think you're that's misuse and gross misuse of taxpayer time and the resident's time. I'm sure you'd like No, I don't need I'm talking now. I have the floor.

I have the floor, right? I respect you. You need to respect us. So, if anybody's watching and you listen to that, I'd be careful who you vote for. So, thank you. [applause] All right, Miss Fawner, you're up.

I'm going to use a Teresa and any one of those We can close that. While she's getting prepared, I'll just make another comment. So the timelines that were discussed earlier like everybody [clears throat] when I bought a house in 2020 it would have been 23. Yeah. So, I bought a house and then I did owe money to the government and I was on a a payment plan and they did put a lean on um the property once I bought it cuz I didn't have any other assets. Um but I took care of that lean. I got it paid off. I emptied my bank accounts to do so. Put myself at risk, but I wasn't real proud of that that I had a tax lean. But that's what the that's what the government does. If you owe the money and you're on a payment plan, they have the right to secure that. I don't really feel like I should have to be up here on the dis telling everybody those types of things because I did everything legally, ethically, and by the law, and I wasn't in default. They have the right to do that. Um, and so, but his time frames are all wrong. It had nothing to do with that building. And um, you know, it it had to do with once I finally got in a position to buy a house again, which is only a couple of years ago after the Great Recession, that I was able to do that. And that's that's that situation. So, this has all actually been public for quite some time. Um, people have asked me about it. I've been very open about it. So, um, going forward, like there's nothing more to address. You know, there is no tax

lean and it had to do with whenever I bought a home. Um, they put one on my current house to um to be able to secure it. So, not not that building. Miss Bellinger. Teresa Volenwider, 5201 Northeast Maybrook Road. Um, I kind of put together a little riddle first. So, you got two should have gotten two things from me. Um, the one that I have up on the screen now, um, just who do you think did that one compared to who do you think did the next one? So this one is the city. This one is me. I had Cheryl Associates do this much more professional. You see, North Arrow legend. This is but a snippet of a survey of a plat that was not signed or sealed, that was never recorded, that doesn't even tell you who did it. I'm going to go back to that one because I'll just go ahead and um

[clears throat]

we have sound. My ring went off and I December 1st, 2022. Hello. Hi, Stephanie. This is Dr. Bean. Hi. Hi. So, she's doing it again, huh? Yeah. I mean, I my ring went off and I I knew that the city had been out there like marking some stuff. Mhm.

And so then I see her, you know, she tied up her dogs and then she and it's like she's literally stepping on the corner of the driveway and I'm like, why? Okay, why? Um, I'm gonna go up to pull up. they can have the full they can pull up the full screen on it for the prosecutor. Um,

and I I've already talked with my captain and we're kind of of the same mindset that we're not even going to try to go talk to her. We're just going to do a warrant request and send it to the prosecutor and let her issue a warrant uh or and have talk with the judge and have a warrant issued for her arrest. um and go that route cuz I'm sure if we try to go up there and talk to her, it's just going to it's going to escalate it even further again and we'll probably have to take her to jail again. It's just going to be a disaster. Where where are where is all that?

So, um I spoke with So, today's my first day back. Um I was off yesterday. Um, but I talked with my captain and he and a couple other supervisors met with the prosecutor to let her know, hey, this is what's going on, including the harassment threat report that Officer Iceberg took. Um, literally like just literally Oh, I didn't want to stop. Before that happened. Uh,

so literally just before was iceberg at the house on the 22nd telling Stephanie Mullins, you know, she owns that land down there where the road is from down there down to where that dang pin is. I'm still trying to deter figure out how can you then if that has occurred she's talking about she the prosecutor that's got to be Abby Pennel so it didn't it's not Ross Nigro Abby Pendle had to have gotten that information from Eisberg he had to have looked at that video I mean certainly she would have looked at that before she decided to charge charge me with trespassing over and over and over and over again.

All right, thank you, Miss Fallen Wire. We're going to take a 5minute recess. It might be time to look into that.

Ever wondered how the city budget works? The total 2026 budget is over $380 million, which includes funding for daily operations, capital improvements, debt service, internal service, and enterprise operations. For example, the general fund is the foundation for the city's day-to-day services and investments like road maintenance, public safety, and fire protection. The general fund is supported by property taxes, sales taxes generated by local businesses, franchise taxes, and other sources like licenses, permits, and fees. For every dollar citizens pay in property tax, the city receives 18 cents. This means the city receives $845 a year in property taxes for a median single family house. These taxes provide public safety, park maintenance, infrastructure, and the best services to keep Lee Summit going and improving. One of the community's top priorities is infrastructure investment, which is reflected in the capital improvement plan. $113 million of the 2026 budget is invested into the capital improvement plan. The 2026 capital improvement budget includes investments like the 291 and 50 highway interchange third street warden and pursel intersection and prior road. The budget process includes guidance from the city council citizen input and critical success factors from the city's ignite strategic plan. To learn more about the city's budget, visit city of lls.net back/budget. When the person called on the phone, she said that uh that there was a dinosaur walking down her road. [music] Of course, we had to go out check that out. We get out there and it was a big African tortoise, probably 60 lb walking down the road. When they walk, they really stand up tall. So, I could see why she thought it was a dinosaur. I'm Rodney Wagner. I'm the manager of Leama Animal Control. So, as you can see, we get all sorts of animals here.

You got has some guinea pigs off to the side. All the windows up here are animals that are adoptable right now. Every one of these dogs is ready to go and ready for adoption. And the same thing with our cats over here. A lot of cool cats in here now. So, so this is our 3acre lot we have out back on. This is where we do all the walking of dogs, exercise. We also have a sideyard off to the side over there. So, we can let them run loose. They can run together and we have what's called playgroups. Kind of like having a bunch of kids. Here's our our vet room. We have a vet comes out twice a week. This is our sally port where we bring the animals into. This is one of our animal control trucks and we can hold up to six animals. We have a lift on the other side to put big animals in. We actually have temperature gauges in here and in the truck to tell how hot it is. Once it gets to a certain temperature, we bring all the animals back here immediately. So, this actually has traps in it. But we do a lot of wildlife trapping. I mean, a lot. So, bats, pot belly pigs, horses, cows, emus, a lot of reptiles. We had a a citizen one time that had over 200 reptiles in his basement. Cayman's and alligators in here that are four or five feet long. You can't keep those. And people do and they're surprised when they can't keep them. I'm like, really? You're surprised you can't have an alligator in your house? [laughter]

Savannah.

Our main goal here is public safety and also the safety of the animals. And we have very dedicated people back there. and they definitely stay here for the love of the animals, which also includes getting them adopted out. We'll have about uh 4,000 impounded animals a year, probably about close to 2,000 are dogs and cats. The cats and dogs when they get impounded here, they go on a 5-day hold and then after the 5 days, if the owner doesn't show up, then we can put them up for adoption. Adopt the animal here is actually really simple. You just come in, look whatever animal you're looking for, find the right pick. you have you go to the adoption room up there and see if you get along with them. You spend as much time as you want to in there. From that point on, it's just a matter of uh making sure they're spay or neutered and all their vaccinations up to par and they're good to go. We have a very high adoption rate because we try everything in our power to get animals adopted out. We have Harve America Humane Society that we do a lot of adoptions through and then we also have other groups. We have some people that literally will just look all over the country for somewhere for a dog to go. And [music] we've sent dogs up into South Dakota, North Dakota, Washington State. So, it's actually it it's a huge united effort to get all these animals home.

Crazy, but lots of energy. Hazel's got a weird bell. She wants nothing to do with the other cats. She'll kind of get her grumpy face going. And the good thing about the people here is that they get all their friends to get animals, too. All of us have probably the limit of all the animals that we can have at home. You know, they are huge animal lovers. If it was up to the people here, we'd have 15 cats running around in here.

We had a citizen one time out there and he was bathing his two uh 9 foot long boa constrictors in the front yard. Apparently, I was that was garnering some some attention and so we went out there and had to talk to him about that. Why do I do this job? Oh, dude. I love this job. I grew up on a farm and taking care of that many animals, you can't help but like animals. This is just like fancy farming, [laughter] you know? You're just bringing animals in here, taking care of them and and find them homes and uh yeah, absolutely animal lover.

This is the best place to [music] work. I love working here. I feel very blessed. I love it here. I look forward to coming to work every day, being a part of this team. Like a family away from home where everyone [music] feels like everybody knows their name. A city that supports you. We see that with our benefits. A pension, vacation days, job security, being able to be heard. We feel valued. [music] We feel respected. Lee Summit is a very progressive city. It's growing. It's thriving. We have this drive towards not just doing a job, but doing it with a spirit of excellence. I had the opportunity to continue to grow regardless of 30 plus years doing this kind of work. It's more than just dollars and cents. We're here really to give back.

Providing a service [music] to better a community to go out and serve people

to be a part of something bigger than yourself. If I would have known what I know now, years ago, I would have been here much sooner. [music] Traditionally, we think as [music] police officers, those responding to law enforcement needs within the community. But honestly, we are there [music] to serve our citizens and our citizens do go into crisis. They do have mental health crises and we're being called to those scenes on a regular basis. In order to help serve those citizens [music] better, we did initiate the crisis intervention team program. These are officers that are specially trained to deescalate crisis situations. Recently, we've brought co-responders onto [music] the scene, licensed qualified mental health professionals housed within our police department, and they respond with those officers directly to those scenes where a crisis is [music] occurring, so they can interact with that citizen and get them the help they need right there on that scene. The co-responders are either a bachelor or master level in a [music] behavioral health related field. They wear plain clothes. They don't carry weapons or anything like [music] that. I have a police radio that I listen to all day. Listen for, you know, those key words, mental health, behavioral health, crisis. [music]

There's a lot of officers that just call for me. I have my own radio number. I also have the ability to self-dispatch to them and say [music] 982 is in route. officers in route 914. [music] So, typically I arrive after they've made it safe. I'll make contact and get kind of the rundown and then I just kind of jump right in like, "Hey, you know, my name's Alison. I'm a mental health professional. I'm here to help you. I'm not here to take you to jail or arrest you."

Sometimes all a person needs is a voice, someone neutral, someone outside that, you know, can listen. I do a lot of safety planning, including family, their support network, who's close to you. Can some if they're home alone, who can come over and hang out with you today? Can we lock away your sharps? Can we put up your meds? Do you need meds? Can we get you over to the urgent care to get you assessed for your medications? Some of them also are like, "Oh, I'm so glad you came. This made me feel so much better." Our main goal as co-responders is to one get people connected to the services that they need and also divert [music] from emergency rooms and jails.

And they almost get a different view of the police responding. That [music] lets me know you care and the officers care. Please, how can we help you? My husband has in 2020 we had 722 mental health related calls for service. 2022 by that time, 1479. These mental health related calls for service are [music] increasing. How we're responding to that is increasing the number of crisis intervention team officers we have available as well as the number of co-responders [music] we have available to respond on these calls.

So what I think is important for the community to know about the co-responder program [music] is that we're here. We exist. All you have to do when you call 911 is ask for us. You know say hey I want a co-responder [music] to respond to this this crisis and we'll go. I was really struggling about eight years [music] ago. My personal journey with mental health and I met some amazing social workers and amazing programs that have helped me get [music] to where I am today. I really couldn't see myself doing anything else. We want to help and that's that's what we love to do. So I had a [music] client we got a call. She had some suicidal ideations and she really felt that she had nobody and you know [music] and getting to know her story and getting to know who comes around and sees you. Well, then we found a support person [music] and they responded immediately and we made a plan. I called back and checked on her in an hour and then I checked on her in 2 hours. [music] We were able to get her into additional services to where she talks to someone every week or more. I just took a person that really just thought they had nobody and nobody would show up for them and show them you do. And you'll be amazed who is in [music] your corner if you just simply say, "I need a little help. Heat. Heat.

is brokerage services. So, this is the um professional who will help us um look at different options for whether we want to continue with traditional insurance or move to a more of a self-pay model and then also will help us um as we actually shop around for those actual benefits. But this doesn't have to do with directly right now with the employee benefits package. This is a professional service who will help us as we plan for the future. Correct. Okay. Thank you.

Good evening. My name is Rick Collie. I'm with Allian Insurance Services and I'm grateful uh to be with you tonight. I'm a Lee Summit resident and I'm uh very appreciative of the process um that you have gone through to ensure that your advocate and adviser in this space which is really important uh to both the city and to um your employees. Uh the healthc care space right now is is the one of the most inflationary periods we've had. And so we're committed to um bring to the city and your staff and your committees to you um all that you need to understand the dynamics of what's going on in our industry, the levers that you can pull to try to optimize your plan um and transparency about the whole process um throughout. So I'm I'm grateful to be here tonight. I'm grateful that we're under consideration to become your partner and I'd be happy to answer any questions that the council may have.

Okay. Thank you. Um, Council Member Shields. Oh, sorry. Um, if I could. Yeah, please.

Um, so thank you for being here and thank you for coming to finance and budget committee. It was really, um, a great presentation yesterday and we appreciated it. Um so as as kind of we discussed yesterday sort of the plan right now is that there will be some initial kind of education for the committee or for the council to kind of walk through what the different options are and kind of high level pros and cons of of staying in a traditional model versus moving towards self insurance with a with a reinsurance option that kind of thing. And then with staff, you'll be working, I think it sounds like over the next year or so, on kind of a strategic plan of of what some options might be over the next maybe two to three years as we kind of shift shift models possibly that um we had seen uh this year our our employee benefits package uh the cost to the city jump by about $2 million. And so that had prompted some discussions um at council about maybe needing to look at some different options and how we can um contain those costs long term while still riding the kind of quality benefits that our employees expect. Um is that kind of sum everything up about

encapsulates our conversation very nicely. Um and a big part of it starts with communication education to understand who are the constituents that need to be involved in this process, what your budgeting process and diligence uh process looks like. um and creating a multi-year strategic plan with those folks at the table and then it's our responsibility to work with your team and execute that plan.

And we we did talk a lot about communication um both through that process and then also as as we go through the benefits year. You talked about how if if you see claims coming in higher than expected that you can kind of start alerting staff and alerting council so that we're not shocked at the end of the year when there's a $2 million premium jump that we can be kind of seeing the trends and planning and knowing what's what's coming down the road. Right.

Well said. On a monthly basis we will come to you. So at the end of each month there's um a period in which the carriers will report the losses back to us. We will summarize that near the end of each month for the prior month and a prior rolling 12 months and we'll share with you here's how your premium are relating to the desired loss ratio of the carrier. Here are trends. So we will every month put a recap on that and share with you if you're renew if we were to project your renewal right now for one one of 27 here's what we would project the renewal to be. So there should be no surprises along the way.

Okay. Thank you. Um, I would just say, you know, at the committee, we had really good discussion. I think we all walked away from it feeling really good about this choice of broker and about kind of the um prospect of what this would look like over the course of the next year. So, I hope the full council is is happy with that because I know this kind of reflects some priorities that we had discussed when we had to do that renewal um several months ago. So, thank you. Thank you, mayor. Thank you. I've got to get in the weeds just a little bit because back in I think it was September that we had that meeting and I'm guessing you probably watched that meeting. Um I've seen parts of it. I've heard a little bit.

Um I just want to make sure you've uh Mr. Ding, would you put this on overhead that you've seen this that was part of that meeting so it's public record. Um, so I just want to make sure that we as we go forward that we become competitive. Um, when you look at how much we're paying per employee, because comparing our city to other cities and as far as how much we're paying for health insurance is very very very very complicated because of all these different plans and all these different uh levers and such that you have in your industry. It's it's it took me months and months and months to put this together. months and months and months and hours upon hours and weekends and more. And like when I got to the bottom of it, I'm like, we're just paying too much. We're paying too much because we're fully insured. We're not using any mitigating risk levers to uh try to figure out how to save money. So, I just want to make sure that you know that this is somehow we have to be able to in the future come back to us. It doesn't have to be like this, but in your way with your expertise. Come back to us and say, "Hey, here's how we become competitive and here's what other cities are doing because I know that they're pulling some of these levers." Um, whether it's, you know, HSAs to the pharmacy to to whatever. So, um, I guess that's what I'm really looking for. And second, I would say, and I'll just keep going so that I don't half of you have to answer every little thing here, but um if you would, Mr. Dunning, can you pull up um their scope of services or Mr. Yeah.

So on in the scope of services, it's a 19page um document and on page 14 it says scope of services, it says given recent performance, the city expects to engage in serious consideration of a transition to self-funded model in 2026 for the or in parentheses it says 2027 renewal. So, first off, I do appreciate staff and you putting this in the scope because that it just is super transparent that this is what we're trying to do. And I just want to hear from you that you that yes, you're on board with this because I a lot of this verbiage was in the last brokerages scope, but they weren't really providing that advice and guidance as to how to get there. And and I'm not talking about fully insured. I'm talking about or self fully self-funded, but um but I'm talking about a plan to get there. At least a plan to get there. A a three-year plan, even if it was a five-year plan, or maybe we just do certain certain things, but it has to be pageuh 14. It's at the bottom,

bottom of page 14, right there. Scope of services. And that's where it says that we will pursue a a transition, a serious consideration. And I mean, you're you you you're fully understanding of that at this point, correct?

Yes, sir. Um, mayor, we um the majority groups that we serve are self-funded. Um, but it's not for everybody. So, our job, we feel like, is to show the governing bodies the various options, what the implications are of each one of those options, and let you make informed decisions. Um, and when we're looking at these options, the range that I would recommend we look at are fully insured like you are today with complete risk transference. And the other side of this is going to be self-funded, but self-funded with protections and a couple forms of reinsurance, right? So with an unlimited maximum and claims that can literally get into the tens to 20 million per person per year. Um, that's not something that I think would fe be feasible. There are interim steps that you can take in between those two ranges. And I believe it's our our responsibility to share with um the city and your team. Here are the um various steps that can be taken. Here are the implications of each. Um here's the the risk associated with it. Here's the upside. And one of the really important things is as you move across that continuum, you get more and more information that becomes available. When you become self-funded, that's no longer the carrier's data. That is the city's data. And then we can help analyze and and and share with you here are here's what our learnings are. Here's how it compares. Here's the actionable information, right? The opportunities that we have. The further we move along that continuum, the more control of your program and the better understanding you will have. So we have um real interest with only four really fully insured carriers that you have available. um we have interest in demonstrating to you here's the opportunities that exist of moving along that continuum. The reasons that many public entities still stay on this side and fully insured and many of those that have been are moving on that continuum is the variability in the budget, right? Uh when you're self-funded and you take some risk, um

there's um vibration in that budget and a potential for downside. If the carriers underpric the the um program, right, sometimes you'll let them. And then the the final piece is just the work associated with running and operating a self-funded plan is greater than an insured plan. You become the fiduciary. You have numerous responsibilities. So, our job, I feel, mayor Baird, is to lay those things out, share with um all those that are going to be involved in the decision-making process so that when we bring actually the the options back to you, you have the context that you can understand the risk and reward and then we are starting to look at what the market says from the numbers standpoint and our recommendation will be in the context of that that pre-work.

Okay. Well, I really I really like that. Um And I like did you did you write the scope or did you work it write it with in collaboration with in collaboration with so much of that came from your RFP itself.

Okay. Because there's just some things in here that are a little bit that are worded better than the last one that [snorts] wasn't being followed. So completely trans at the end of that paragraph it says completely transparent and reported annually to the city. It's talking about commissions fees and all of this stuff. And then even at the end of this document, you're saying, "Hey, here's, you know, here's how we make money. Um, here's our commissions. Here's our fees. Here's here's, you know, there's different ways we make money, but it's just it's it's a lot more upfront." So, I really appreciate that. Um, that was that's different than the last scope that we that we were that we had with

We spoke with the budget and finance committee yesterday. We will be fully transparent in our compensation. Um, you deserve that as a non-arisa plan. Um, some choose to have full disclosure. some of our competitors um you know fully disclose and some don't. We're committed to fully disclosing all of our compensation.

Yep. Okay. Could you scroll down a little bit to the next page? And then it says the second bullet says analyze existing coverage and identify or develop costs saving saving alternative benefit strategies and plans when increases are projected or if the benefit marketplace adjusts to where a more advantage advantageous position may be available to the city. And then the very next one says, "Maintain a pulse on benefit modifications in the marketplace and make recommendations for supplemental and benefit components for existing benefit plans." I really feel like our employees really need some of these options. Um, and yes, there's there's savings for everybody, but there's also I think getting them more engaged will be a really a really great thing for all of us.

Affordability issue is at your level. It's at the employee level, right? And inflation over the past five years especially has put so many of your employees in a spot where they're making hard decisions. And this is a really important part for many of those folks um in in trying to make the budget work. So where we can find savings opportunities, we'll be looking not only for the city, we'll be looking for how can we save money for the participants. One of the very direct ways we can do that is um optimizing your system overall. Uh but the other part is in the voluntary benefits. Ensuring that you're getting the biggest bang for the buck both in terms of the most coverage at the least expensive price um is a very important part because as you move up deductible and out-of- pocket responsibilities in your medical plan plans likely some every plan out there when they've made that cost transference or responsibility you've then shifted a portion of that responsibility onto your participants. giving them a way to budget and plan and meet those needs is very important. So then you've seen the the rise of voluntary benefits and the important of that importance of that. We take that as seriously if not more because it's the employee dollars as we're doing our diligence and trying to come up with competitive pricing and products.

Okay. So couple more bullet points down. Uh it starts out [clears throat] assist uh in the development of long range goals and strategies. So, if this is probably the most important one to me, I know that we can't do this overnight. I I mean, I'm guessing we can't, you know, make, you know, we can't just flip a switch here. It might take steps, but this is the most important one because we need it to continue um and it's going to take um continual education of not just the employees and the staff, but also us. So, I noticed that you had incorporated last night [clears throat] in your meeting you talked about I I don't remember was it quarterly meetings or something. Um there was something where you were going to those things need to happen for us. We need that continual education for not just staff but for us even if it's you know the bulk of it's with finance and budget it you know those committees change so over time you know we can get the exposure to it. So,

if we were to be approved, we will work um through your staff and through your committee structure to ask the right questions about how often um and what's what we see as normal and best practices for each of the governing bodies to be included and we'll submit that to you for your review and approval. I would much rather spend the time upfront, all the time that you're willing to invest. Um it will save us a lot of time on the backside and a lot of frustration by doing so.

All right. And then I'll just point out a few more. The very next um no a few down it says identify and compare health insurance plan design funding arrangements. And then at the bottom there's three in a row where it says provide financial and performance review or self-funded or fully insured plans. The next one says provide updated comparison reports of other public and private companies benefit plan offerings. And then the next one says plan and implement quarterly meeting to present. There's the quarterly thing to present analysis to the city's health programs and that doesn't have to be to the finance and budget or us, but I'm assuming that's with um the administration, but it just these things really need to need to happen. And if we council asked for a report, we need something to be able to look at, you know. Um and then if we keep going, there's another one that talks about a wellness program. Can you talk about that? An employee wellness program. I'm sure we have a wellness program of one kind, but do you have can you just give us some inspiration here as to what you might be thinking?

So the traditional, you know, where we started in this industry with wellness programs has morphed significantly and the very best ones we have right now are not top down. They are they we invite people to join and they have participation in the process of um how they are going to change behaviors. So this is this is perhaps one of the most challenging um aspects of our business and and it's different for every organization we work with and yours has um employees that have a wide range of from a demographic standpoint from responsibility standpoint from white collar, blue collar, fire, police. you you have um a wide range of um folks that are working for the city and we have to figure out we can't just throw a um plaster against the wall and a peanut butter approach, right? So, we really need to be thoughtful about sitting down. What have you tried? What have you done in the past? What are ways that we can get engagement that has worked for the city? Um because we can come up with great ideas. If people don't buy into it, it's a waste of time and money. We need to figure out what are the ways that we can um inform the the people that we're asking to join us in this journey. Increase the understanding of how things work that it's not in a black box. Um and help people really understand that you have a certain amount of money available for salary and benefits as as a city and as a budget. How can we maximize that? And if we're um using the plan efficiently and effectively, those dollars go further and it enures to the benefit of the participants. Um the education component, Mayor Barrett, is a super important part of that whole process.

Okay. Um just two more things. Sorry. Um on this page, the fourth bullet point says, "Provide city quote on separate pharmacy plans that would include transparency options if requested." So, do you think that we can save money on the pharmacy side of this? Cuz that's one thing that I thought was probably maybe the first lever we could pull.

Uh, if you're insured, you are going to have the pharmacy provider that the insurance carrier vets and provides typically with limited um flexibility. As you move across that continuum, one of the advantages is you go to a more open architecture approach and we regularly find prescription drug savings opportunities by um having that independence and that's part of the compelling reasons to move to that side of the continuum.

Excellent. That's what that's what I'd hoped you would say. And then lastly um recomm it says recommend risk mitigation measures. Um that's a word I use a lot. risk mitigation, not just, you know, in other areas, but anytime I talk about this because it's it's all-encompassing, and yet I don't understand all the details of this. So, um, I'd like you to use those type of terminology when you're talking to council and talking about, hey, here's one way to to mitigate risk. This is what this is about. And try to get us all on the same page terminology-wise because then we can that repetition helps us. Good news is that's natural language for us and operating in a multi-year strategic planning process is how we treat our clients. So the things that you're asking and what you're looking for, we um this this is normal protocol for us. So I I um appreciate that and part part of the education also is the risk that you take by being fully insured, right? It seems like that's the belt and suspenders. That's the easy way to go. You've experienced the downside of that as well, right? because you have limited information, limited ability to control, and so you are hoping that you get a positive renewal. Um, I I would contend that there's as much more risk of sitting in that position than there is of moving along that continuum.

Okay. I said that that would be my last thing, but there was one more thing. I'm sorry. Um, it's not an easy one. It's Can you explain I I if you keep going in the document, it talks about your, you know, the way the ways you make money and such. What is it? What was this whole thing about commission opt out? That's in that document. It says that the city can opt out [snorts] um of contingents or supplemental. Yeah. Okay. So, in our industry and a lot a lot of people talk about it. I'm glad to talk about it in open setting. Um brokers and consultants that have substantial business have relationships with carriers that create supplemental revenue. Y

um we're going to tell you that and we're going to tell you when we're eligible for it. we're going to tell you when when we receive it. Um, you can choose to say, I don't want a line or my broker to have any capabilities of having that kind of revenue. And if so, we would preclude that from the insurance carriers. Why do we want to get that revenue? So, we can provide the ser the people and the capabilities to fulfill these commitments. Um, in in my career, I've had two clients that say, I just don't want that at all. So, we've precluded that opportunity. And that's why you see that in the I I'm not worried about the commissions if we're saving a bunch of money and we're competing on the, you know, compared to other cities and other private side. Um, I'm all about the overall savings, you know, and still providing the best benefits that we possibly can for our employees. Um, I just don't want to be way overpaying and I certainly don't want to be way overpaying because, and please I pardon this, you know, but I don't want to be overpaying because the broker is getting paid more money for the plan that we're getting that we're paying for. It just it's, you know, that that's not acceptable.

When we disclose every year, here's our service summary. Here's our stewardship for you, right? Here's the things that we've agreed. Here's what we've done together. here's what you're paying us. You will be in a good spot to say, are we getting value for that? This went a lot better than that last meeting that I had. So, I appreciate it. Me, too. Yep. You can keep that sheet, though. Okay. Cuz that's that's I'll bring how I think and I know there's others up here that think that way, which is we want to we want to be better than those other cities. And there's some pretty good cities on there. So, thank you. My pleasure.

All right. Sorry, everyone. I just I I feel like that's one of the big things on my checklist this year, my last year here. Um, and I'm really happy to address all this. So, thank you, Mr. Dining, Miss Vargo, and Finance and Budget and Council. So, with that said, um, Council Member Rder, would you please read bill number 26-023? Thank you, Mayor. I move to second reading bill number 26-023, an ordinance approving the award of RFP number 2025 uh 029 for the provision of the Health Insurance and Employee Benefits Brokerage Consulting Services to Alliant Insurance Services, Inc., LLC for a one-year term with up to four one-year renewals and the authorizing the city manager to execute the same for the city.

All right. Thank you. We have a motion to move to second reading bill number 26-023 by council member Raid or seconded by council member Hodes. Discussion. Right. Thank you again for being here and presenting. Um with that said, uh please cast your vote. All votes are in. Please record the vote. It passes 70. Thank you all. And uh that'll take us to committee reports. We have to adopt. What's that? Oh, second. Oh, adoption. Council member Raider, would you please?

Yes. Um I move for adoption bill number 26-23 and Nord's approving the award of RFP number 2025-029 for the provision of health insurance and employee benefits brokerage consulting services to Alliant Insurance Services, Inc. LLC for a one-year term with up to four one-year renewals and authorizing the city manager to execute the same for the city.

Thank you. We have a motion to adopt bill number 26-023 by Council Member Rder, seconded by Council Member Shields. Discussion, Mr. Dunning, would you give this to Mr. Khali? This is second page of that. Seeing none, please cast your vote. [snorts] Tell that part's that part's more of an estimate. I need one more vote. All votes are in. Please record the vote. It's adopted. 70 to zero. Thank you. Uh committee reports. Uh yeah, committee reports. Finance and budget was busy. I think uh I think we've heard everything that we did yesterday. Sorry. I'm sorry. I just I really

I I wish I had more exciting things to report, but really dug in. So, it's great. Yep. Um, anybody else? Committee reports, council comments. I think I did enough council commenting tonight. Staff round table.

Thank you, mayor. Uh, couple updates. So, we've been uh having meetings with Jackson County regarding the 2023 2024 residential tax credits, trying to better understand what that environment may entail, and meetings continue on in that space. I can tell you that the county has provided us some very preliminary uh numbers with what they are seeing from their data on what impacts might that state tax commission uh order and county uh executive Leavota's intention to award or to grant those tax credits for those tax years. Um, so we're we're patiently waiting what we call the 2023 restatement, 2024 restatement so that we have actual numbers so that we can understand that impact. Um, those two years for that tax credit program uh would be I I won't say it. It's still being discussed how to implement that. It uh right now what we understand is it may be a tax credit program feathered over three years. think of taking those two uh re the the credits out of those two years and recovering that over a three-year period. Um so that's kind of a general update from what we understand. We're still waiting on information though so that we can make some calculations. um there's the the potential for a recoupment process uh giving these adjustments and and so we're anxiously uh awaiting a meeting to learn more about how that recoupment process works. So I share that with all of you to say that that's kind of where we're at with uh with that and uh more to come but I'll continue to keep you apprised. Um and then in addition to that, I I know at uh finance and budget, Miss Burktor provided an update on the tax uh payment. Uh so continued discussions there that that won't happen overnight with a flip of a switch, but we are still in dialogue with the county on propping those services back up. So just

wanted to share those two uh updates on on those fronts and we'll continue to figure out where we need to go. That's it. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you. All right. Wow. That felt like a lot longer meeting than two hours. Um, this meeting is adjourned at 7:58. Hey, hey, hey. Hey,