City Council - Regular Meeting

This council meeting will now come to order. February the 3rd, 2026 at 6:30 p.m. Would you please stand for the pledge of allegiance and remain standing for invocation by Councilwoman Cindy Antonich? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Dear heavenly father, I thank I'll start again. Heavenly Father, I thank you for this privilege of serving our city of Wellington. I pray, Father, that as we discuss our agenda and policies for our city, we will always put the people's interest above our own. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you. [groaning] Heidi, can I get a roll call, please? Miss Antonich here. Miss Grace, here. Mr. Haye here. Miss Lucas

here. Mr. West Morland gave prior notice. Mayor Sorya, I am also here. Mr. W West Morland is not here tonight because he had knee surgery last week. I've uh called on him several times to see how he's doing and he's doing good. So, uh this is why he's not here tonight. So, we wish him a speedy recovery. All right. Um got roll call. We have no uh Jan, I believe you have. Okay. I would like to make the motion to amend the agenda to add resolution number five. All those in favor? Second. I need a second. Second. Okay. I'm sorry. Second. Motion and a second. All those in favor? I.

All those opposed. Okay. We have no audience participation. I need consent agenda. Approval of minutes, approval of appropriations, receipt of council and correspondence. [snorts] Move to approve. Second. I need Okay, we have a motion, a second. All those in favor? I I All those opposed. All right. Move to reports of mayor and council. I'll start with uh Councilwoman Lucas. I don't have anything this evening. Thank you. Councilman Hayes. Nothing. Councilwoman Grace,

I would like to thank all the departments for working in that miserable weather and I'm from the north originally. Um the snow was easier for me to shovel early in the morning, but I can't imagine what it was like for every single one of you to be out there or on call. So, thank thank you very very much to all the city employees for helping out. Councilwoman Antonich Jen just took my words. Thunder. They call your thunder.

Well, I'll just come right back with that. For everybody that works out in the cold, the the the mailman, you know, the women and men that work for the city, the county, people that have to be out in that was brutal. It was brutal cold. The snow was relentless, not going anywhere. So, with that, I'd like to thank them for everything. You have my admiration and my respect. Thank you.

I'm going to add on to that because [clears throat] uh street department, everybody, sanitation, first responders, water department guys, they were out. They've been getting hit hard. Uh Saturday they were out by 3:30 block north of me. Uh they were there till after 9:30 that night. Still working on that water main break. And then they came back Sunday noon. Could have been Sunday noon 11:00 and still working on it. And I know it was a real it was a real bad uh water mane break. And these guys, there's only five of them, folks. So, being out there at nine, you know, nine o'clock after 9:00 in this cold weather. Um, my hats off to him. Jason, tell them we I thank him very much. And, uh, uh, Jeremy, street department, you guys took care of the streets. Um, guys were out just taking care of everything. Again, all the departments, thank you for showing up and taking care of of the citizens. I know folks are going to say, "Well, it's their job." Well, yes, it is their job, but man, when they're out in this cold weather and after 9:00 at night working on water, man breaks, that that's uh that takes a lot. So, I want to thank them all. Next, also, I want to I want to congratulate Nate Corno. He was inducted to the Kansas Baseball Hall of Fame. He joined his father, Marty Cornnejo, and uh I know that whole family is is just thrilled to death. So, uh Nate, we're very [snorts] proud of you. Wellington's very proud of you and he's also still coaching for the younger kids while pitching. So, uh a big a big uh well, congratulations to him. And

that's all I have. All right. [cough] We have no uh let's see, sorry. Report to city council. Heidi, you're up.

Thank you. Mayor and councel, you may recall that we do this every year. Um appoint someone to the KMEA board. As a member of KMEA, the city is allowed to have two members that serve on a two-year term board of directors. Each director selected shall reside within the territory served by the electric utility. Jason Newberry, if you recall, was appointed in 2025 to [clears throat] serve as director 1. His term expires April 30th of 27. Roger Estus holds the director 2 position with a term expiring April 30th of this year. Staff recommends the reappoint of Roger Estus to director number two position for a term beginning May 1, 2026 through April 30th, 2028.

Move to approve. Second. I have a motion and a second. All those in favor? I. All those opposed. Next we have Jeff or Heidi appointment.

Yep. Uh so there was a uh memo in your packet that basically lays out the process. Uh and you are now at the uh decision point in the process. So you have done the announcement. You have uh waited the requisite number of days for applicants. You have reviewed the applicants and took no binding action per the resolution uh that lays out the process for replacing a council vacancy. So, uh, tonight as the first meeting after your review, uh, you may take binding action if you so choose. There were two interested applicants. Their information is previously submitted. Um, now this is kind of your thing, Mr. Mayor.

Yes. I'd like to nominate Jerry Elmore to be able to come up and join us on the council. I second that. We have a mo we have a motion and a second. Uh, Heidi, I need a vote for votes for it. Roll call. Miss Grace? Yes. Mr. Haye? Yes. Miss Lucas? Yes. Miss Antonich? Yes. And Mayor Sora? Yes. So, that is five yes votes to add Mr. Elmore to the council. Okay. Um, we need a

oath vote. Okay, Mr. Elmore, if you could join me up front, please. Yeah, we're all going to have to shift. No, not tonight. No, but we'll end up shifting, so we'll be sitting on the other side. Hello. [laughter] I don't like having my rear to anybody. If you will raise your right hand for me, please.

Okay, Jerry, if you'll please repeat after me. I do solemnly swear I do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Kansas and the Constitution of the State of Kansas and faithfully discharge the duties of council member and faithfully discharge the duties of council member of the city of Wellington, Kansas. of the city of Wellington, Kansas. So help me God. So help me God. That's it. That's it. No going back now. Okay. If you will sign [applause] this for me before you take

Are we shifting tonight or you'll end up sitting here? Yeah. So, yeah, I would say just we'll put them over here for for right now. But Mike's [snorts] over and do that. You get my seat after this point. You get to go back to your original. Good. I get to go back to my original original spot. Mary get to go back. No, you you will have to move back on. Mike and I are the only ones. [laughter] That's true. We're in different zip codes anyway. Congratulations, Jerry. Thank you, council.

All right. Uh, next we have uh Heidi Woot. You already done that. So, next we're going to move to uh Matt. You're up, sir. [snorts] Am I on? Okay. Hey. Um first uh congratulations, Mr. Elmore, and welcome. Thanks.

Um Mr. Porter and I uh discussed kind of with a new council member coming in. Uh maybe it would be a good time to give just a brief outline uh regarding KOMA, the Kansas Open Meetings Act. Um so that was provided in your uh agenda packet for you today. Um, again, that's just a brief outline, but that goes over some of the things and requirements and [snorts] um just general procedures. Um, there's more detailed information and where to find it within that um within that memo. Also, there's additional information in your council member handbook. Um, again, I just wanted to let you guys know I'm always available to talk if you have questions regarding that um or the process. Again, we're also um scheduled to go into executive session on our agenda tonight. Not something that we normally do. And so, there's some information regarding how that works. Um as well, in our uh council uh member notebook, we also have the procedure that we use um which will be used tonight as we go in there. Um that kind of outlines the the process. So, just wanted to get that information out to you guys and um let you know that I'm available if you have questions on that or other things.

Thank you.

Thank you. Any questions from council? All right. Uh, next we have uh compensate uh Jeff the compensation study. So uh been about a year in the making uh but we have uh had a number of discussions both with the consultants with the governing body uh internally with staff and tonight uh the Arnold group is going to present uh some recommendations to you and hopefully council sees fit to move forward with u some form of implementation of the uh compensation uh study. study outcomes that will uh that we've been discussing now on and off for a good number of months. So, I'll turn it over to Heather and Phil uh to hit some of that stuff and then um I guess we'll probably open it up for some conversation.

Thank you, Ron. Yes.

Um thank you. Uh my my name is Philip Hayes. I've got Heather Porman with me as well. Um, Heather's been actively involved in this project um, really from top to bottom and uh, from the from the get-go. Um, I I provided the packet um, and I I think the note slides were provided to you. I apologize um, for for the size of the the font on those. U, we do have larger slides um, largely though for for members that have participated in those work sessions. It's largely the the same content, but I wanted to provide a little bit deeper, richer background really for the new uh new council members. Um congratulations, Mr. Elmore, on your your appointment tonight. Um and so [clears throat] I will um I'm going to really just um shift to a couple of slides and speak to them. Um I'm going to start on slide eight. So for you and your packet, it's going to likely be on page three. uh the middle slide [snorts] um and it just talks about the uh C3 process overview and uh project overview. And really this gives just a a generic framework as far as what we tried to accomplish at the outset of these programs um and projects. Uh namely that we want to establish a system and methodology to positively impact recruiting and retention. public sector employers over the last um well going on six years now postcoid um there's just been a lot of wage pressures and uh disruption in just the the market in general. [clears throat] The the blueprint that we offer is a best practice approach to compensation. It certainly ensures that comp is competitive in the local market and how we go through that process and again more detail on some of the slides but uh we look at the national level and we drill down into to our neck of the woods here. Um but we certainly want to understand uh where we're competing and recruiting and retaining talent from but

then also some of the the other overlays that that come into play. We want to support fair, consistent, and appropriate pay adjustments and decisions. Uh pay is the most personal aspect of any employment relationship. So having a process that is um transparent, that's logical. Um I call it science-based. We use the Hay methodology. Um but once we get through kind of the the building blocks, we want to make sure that we have a market uh or we address overall market adjustments to current base wages to ensure that we are looking at compression or the pay scale alignment. Um we work with a number of uh employers that there's without a formal system. Oftentimes you [snorts] may have a brand new employee with the city that's less than 6 months versus a 20-year vet that's in the same role and they're getting paid the same amount of money. And there's challenges with any pay system. Um ours certainly gives a little bit more separation and um uh looks at everybody's overall employment journey. um the deliverables that the city's going to inherit at the at the conclusion of this depending on the the final decisions made gives the city a tool that allows us to be a sustainable and dynamic system rather than having to go to market every decade and try to backfill u the whole um [clears throat and cough] in slide nine it's the pyramid slide can just visually this gives you a quick graphic as far as what our process entails uh we want to lay a strong foundation that is competitive that's comprehensive and it's also compliance. So, we want to make sure that the city's going to be in a defensible position, but we also want to make sure that we're competitive enough to attract new talent and that we're comprehensive enough to understand our pain points. Um, I call it field work, dirt work. Um kudos to the to the street and the the water um folks in any community um in this storm because that's that's tough work and nobody

really has the greatest amount of appreciation until a storm like that hits and then it's all top of mind for us. Um but water mane breaks and and potholes like we're in the thick of it. Um there's [clears throat] just things that we take for granted and and so this study is going to address some of the challenges that we see in different departments. first responders, uh the blue line, the red line. Um we talked to the department heads um in addressing some of those. But um when we get done with the project, we just want to make sure that when we put the capstone on that we've left the city in a good spot from a comprehensive, compliant, and competitive position. [clears throat] Um on slide 10, you can see the graphic there. Um, this is probably the the easiest way to explain any of these projects is on the left side we've got the employee heart and mindstrings that HR is really grappling with or even department heads. Um, looking at the employee psyche and and the the morale components and then on the flip side of the the balance is the financial pur strings. What's the reality? What's what's doable today but also sustainable as we move into the future. And the the fulcrum is the political strings. And this is really um the challenge that that Mr. Porter brought forth and through the work sessions, not only working with the department heads and framing up the realities of the challenges that we have, but then the the the political fulcrum and where that decision point ultimately lands with with you tonight. So, we're going to um get to the hard dollars here in just a minute. Um, but if this were if money were no object, tongue and cheek, it's a comp project. It is money. Um, but if money were no object, these projects would be extremely easy and we'd be able to position people where they are. But trying to find a system that's going to work for the city as a whole, um, understanding that we're never going to make there's never an absolute perfect

system. Um, [clears throat] and going to slide 11. Um just to to hit on it for the new council members um we use the Hay methodology. This is the logical the frame the framework components. Um we analyze job descriptions uh with contextual definitions of the components the compensible factors that we evaluate. This allows us to look at job knowledge the certification education the skills experience supervisory controls the guidelines the scope and effects the complexity of the roles etc. who we're talking to, why we're talking to them, and the roles that we're doing, the physical demands in the work environment. So, that allows us to get a really good indication of um how a position is evaluated, and that helps us preserve and build the internal equity of your position and your job families within the within the city. Um within those contextual definitions, we've got values that uh um correspond to those um structured guidepost and that allows us to get an aggregate score um to get a composite score to assign an appropriate job grade family. Um the question that does come up and it was asked in this group as well in past work sessions is um as much work as we do on the internal equity piece and how we evaluate those roles, we don't want to lose sight of that because no two communities that I've come across in two decades. They may call certain jobs very similar titles, but the duties and the nuts and bolts look different under the hood. And so we look at the nuts and bolts and that's what comes out in those compensible [clears throat] factors. So going to market just on a job title oftentimes can be misleading. So we do utilize benchmark roles. So we look at incumbency. We look at um um um roles that are going to be um consistently there. They're going to be reliable. Um they're going to be a good comparator when we go to the market. That brings

that external competitive competitiveness or that external flavor and the overlay and how we marry that up with your internal equity and the the scoring of your roles. Um, within some of those discussions, we looked at position pathways or career frameworks, too. Um, again, it's interesting. Um, I'll just kind of pick on fire for a minute because you would think that firehouses in all small communities in Kansas would all be the same, but different chiefs have different ways of how they go about that or police chief or even in in public works or road and bridge. Um it just depends on the challenges and and uh um how you choose to either be flat or a little bit more depth in your hierarchy. Um so we had a a good conversation around that. Um we do bring in national level data when we go to that external competitiveness look. Um we look at um salary rates at the US level. We bring it down to the state level. I'm on slide 14. It has that filter. What we're doing is trying to normalize that external salary data into our neck of the woods. So now we have a good um uh understanding on how we present in Sumar County also with close proximity to even Witchaw Metro being 30 minutes um 40 minutes up the road. Um and so all [clears throat] of that comes back into play, but we don't want to lose sight of that internal equity component. Um slide 15, it has a circle graph. Uh for me this is more than just the comp piece. Um that circle is the employee life cycle and at the top of it at the 12:00 position talks about attraction because recruiting starts well more than the day that we get an application or a resume in the mail. Um it really starts with our employment brand or our employer brand on the on the uh in the community. Do people see employment with the city as a a worthy endeavor? Do we want to move forward etc. Um we use something called employment journeys. We look at external

experience and job history that that all candidates and employees brought to the table when they were hired. And then we also ran internal employment journeys to help us find that right pay alignment within the pay scale. Uh I'm going to jump to um page 17. It's the slide with the bridge. This is where we are tonight. We're on one side of the bridge and we're trying to find our way across the bridge from the old legacy system into adopting a formal comp system that if it's managed well and managed annually. Um, and that's not to say that there won't be conversations that will continue, but this should serve the community well and it's going to get us across um really such a such a a large grade there. Um lastly on page 18 um I talk about identifiers and this is where we address some of the pain points within the city. Um so and I believe what we've got um that's with embedded within the system is looking at an identifier for um distribution or electric. We've got one turned on for fire. We've got a mixed uh market position um for some of the field work and then the sworn.

[clears throat]

We've also got a couple uh instances of certification pay where they made sense where we identified a business case that it made sense to to do so. Um the identifiers give us the ability to stay within the core framework of our compensation blueprint. And so every job going through that evaluation system has a score. The multiplier or the identifier allows us to understand the pain points. And a prime example is street work um or water line work. A lot of the new entrance into the world of work don't necessarily view that as favorable employment. And so this allows us to look at some some opportunities to rightsize a pay scale um to to combat against some of the challenges that are that are actually present in the in the market. Next, I'm going to jump to slide 22. um wage and salary survey administration. And I [clears throat] will tell you, if if you do nothing more um than just adopt the comp plan and the numbers, you're going to pigeon hole the city if you don't adopt a policy that's going to provide governance on it. Um this is going to give you the framework for pay transparency. It's going to communicate to employees how the city looks at comp decisions, but more importantly, it's also going to be your roadmap to not lose ground at such a considerable pace and have such a big hole to backfill because we're not going to be able to accommodate the findings of this study in one fail swoop. So, this is going to be a multi-year phased approach um just when it comes down to the dollars and cents. So, um good language in there. I know we've worked with Jeff and Rosita on that. Um, [clears throat] next I'm going to on slide 24 just to give you an idea. Um, we've got primarily 15 job grades, but with the the identifiers that we have in place, there's more that come into play. Um, but we've got essentially a grade and

step system that we've built for the city. Grades 10 through 15 have 18 steps. Grades 30 through 35. And there's no phantom steps. There's no 16 or uh no grades 16 through 29. These are just our core grades that we operate in. Um 30 and 30 30 through 35 give us framework that we lean against the Fair Labor Standards Act. It's a compliance issue from an HR tech standpoint. Um but those grades have 22 steps and grades 40 through 42 have 15 steps. Um, and why that is is your grades 10 through 15 oftentimes are going to be your feeder positions, unskilled, entry level, [clears throat] semi-skilled, um, and some skilled, but those are going to be positions that are going to build your bench strength and hopefully people will level up and and certify or get promoted into higher grades. So, you don't just have a horizontal earnings path, you also have a vertigal to unlock additional um, salary caps. So hopefully that was enough of an explanation um kind of on the cliffotes version tonight. Here slide 25 ultimately is why we're here. Um this is the comp plan adoption. Um the sub annotation here says 100% reality. This is today's dollars and dollars don't sit still. But the overall impact if we were to rightsize your entire workforce and to the scale that we are recommending [clears throat] um we would have roughly about a 10 and a half% pay hike just on base wages um to the tune of a little over $775,000. Um that would get us 100% pay scale alignment, get everybody situated. Um, and that also accounts for $30,000 in certification pay that would be annualized. However, if we go to page 26, understanding the the reality of the dollars and cents, and this probably not being a one-way p or a one-year path, we ran a couple of different scenarios, and

these are the three that we landed on for for presentation tonight. Option A, B, and C. you can see um percentage- wise against current base wages or dollars. Um and kind of the framework that we are trying to stay under is about $450,000 just based on the dollars that are available that have been earmarked um for at least the the first phase. I will tell you um the primary difference um actually all three of these options are still chasing 100% pay alignment um and we're applying a $6,000 limiter. So, no one employee in the city would receive more than a $500 increase per month is what how that limiter is going to serve. Um, however, there's a there's a number of employees that are compressed far more than that. Um, but this is a a structured path that gives us a business case to apply some logic to have a path forward. the [clears throat] the primary difference between option A, B, and C is if we look at existing wages because some people are already at their pay alignment. Um, and so we we would recommend that we like at least put a cola impact on existing wages and look then look at paycale minimums or the pay scale alignment thereafter with the the limiter. So, we have a 1% COLA option on existing wages as a start point, a 1.5% or a 2% COLA impact. Um, the 420,000, the 435, or the $451,000, those are the base wages with those differing COLA amounts. And then I also just want to hit that we still have the $30,000 certification pay on top of these dollars. So, if we end up at option A, um, proposition two, some employees may only receive a 1% cola adjustment as a result on year one out of the gate here. Um, but then they're going to be better situated to do a step

alignment movement as we move into subsequent years. But that 420 plus the 30,000 option A essentially is 450,000. Um, option B, the 435 plus the 30,000 on the certification would grow to 465. So, with that, I I know I covered a lot of ground in a short amount of time. Um, but happy to answer any specific questions. I know for the the new council members, um, you're kind of disadvantaged tonight unless you tuned in to um past sessions um or attended the past work sessions as a as a audience member. Um, but I'm happy to go further in depth and dig into the nuts and bolts and get into the weeds a little bit more if there's an appetite to do so at a later date.

Yeah. A, B, and C. Is that just a a one year? [clears throat] Is that over three years? That would be picked A was it 420 over three years or is that just boom, one year, second year and third year?

No. So the full amount is 775. So, if we did option A at 420,000, then we would end up with roughly $350,000 that we're going to end up trying to comb into over the next year or two years to get into the full picture. The tough thing is the longer we stagnate this and position this over three years, your scale is likely going to sit stale and get and be idle and you're going to lose market position. and that 350,000 that's going to be held over is going to probably grow um more. And I don't I don't say that as a in a concerning manner because the other thing that's going to work with you over a multi-year phase, you're going to have turnover. You're going to have voluntary and involuntary turnover. You're going to have retirements and so you'll have maybe higher earners that do retire and it's going to relieve some budget pressure and so your numbers are going to shift. This is something that we'll come back and we're going to look at if we go into a year year two phase of that 350. We may try to tackle half of that in year two and then leave the balance. So, um the the one thing I can say with certainty, the sooner you get to your your finish line on this, the easier it is because your cadence becomes much more predictable and manageable. But right now we're trying to backfill a hole because the city has quite frankly not had a formal plan that's allocated and looked at internal equity and the external competitiveness and um so with that the reality if if again if money were no object we'd flip the switch and be done with this. But we've also got additional budget constraints here because there's a benefit load on top. And and so I really appreciate um Jeff's approach on this. Very conservative um and mindful working with Heidi um throughout this and looking at the realities of of um

of the the project itself, but also trying to take a graduated approach that it's not going to be um a position of regret. because this this scale eliminates what we used to have like you can max out say you've been here 30 years we were we didn't have another jump for those people

and so we we still have maxes we have men's mids and maxes and we have step allocation for each grade um but we also when I come back to the policy we talk about coming back to the commission on an annual basis once we get to the the leveling of this is we're going to come back and we're going to ask for at least some sort of cola maintenance impact on the scale. So, we keep moving the target. And I'm not saying we chase it up, but we're going to couple a cola adjustment on the scale with your step progression. Um, and then the flip side to the heart of your question, if somebody's capped out and they're at the top, we've introduced some options to look at lump sum distribution. So, performance still matters, right? So if somebody's here, they've been here a long time, they've been a good employee. They may be at the cap, but how we approach the payout because they may not move over and we don't want to compound that, but we may do a lump sum distribution on the performance side.

Yes. My next question is for Mr. Porter. How do we pay this? How do we do this? So we based some of these recommendations and working we work backwards. So, what we did when we did the budget for 2026 is we allocated about 4% of total um payroll to addressing this. That's where we kind of got to that 450ish number. Mhm.

And when we met with council in the work session, that was kind of the target that we were instructed to work towards. So we don't with this we don't foresee any have to increase taxes or anything like that or we could live within our means.

So this only takes care of this year and as you are well aware you did object to the potential tax increase that was integrated in this year's budget. So uh budget was built with that. So I mean are you asking if I'm going to have to have another tax increase during the year? Uh no I'm not. Uh and also it's not technically feasible. Uh there are some state laws that prevent that. But budget was built with the 4% and there were tax implications with that 4%. Well, I'm saying 2027 2028. Do you foresee that's going to have to Can't guarantee that.

I I literally cannot guarantee that. Uh, one of the things that I was going to talk about tonight is there's actually a bill in the legislature right now that would actually get rid of the motor vehicle tax on uh, vehicles operated for personal use. Uh, that could have a potential impact of about $200,000 to us. So, if that passes, then we're going to have to have a whole different conversation because, you know, that kind of money is I mean, that's the facilities department. That's their entire budget. That's twothirds of the parks department. That's close to the entire budget annually of the cemetery. So, I mean, legis session's not over. I can't I can't My crystal ball isn't working that that good yet.

Yeah. So, thank you, Phil, and Heather for coming back. Your work sessions have been great, [clears throat] and this is a good overview of what we've talked about for about a year now. Is that been about a year? Yeah. Right. Um, if I'm understanding you correctly, Jeff, so option A is what we were discussing most of the time in our work session that we thought we'd have some money for that at least. Yeah, that's true. Okay. Yeah, that was that was kind of

working around the 450. We wanted to present you a couple different options so that we could you could see how it would work because we did talk several different options in in the work session and these are kind of the outgrowth of of what those cola impacts and trying to address scale and we played with some of the limiters. You may have remembered at one point we were talking up to an $8,000 limiter that just wasn't possible. So, uh, you know, we were trying to provide you with some some things that we could we could do guidance with and and you know, see what those impacts were and you know, based on your direction, you know, there was potential that we could maybe, you know, address it in a different way. But, you know, A is the most conservative approach. Could we maybe make B or C work? Probably. But it's just

we don't have crystal balls to see what the other stuff is coming if and I know I've asked this question before. I apologize for the interruption. Has the city historically always planned for employee wage increase. So uh in my time and then you know going back in budget history two three years before that um merit has been hit or miss but we have typically done uh one one and a half% cola over the last five to seven years but the the actual maintenance of the pay scale has not been great.

So one just one last thing I I would love to go with option three to move it along. However, to be that's a crystal ball ideally a is going to have to be what we can fit within our budget from what I see and from all the work sessions that we have. Unfortunately, I would love to give the employees even more, but we also need to be able to meet budget constraints in every department here has given everything they've had and cut and cut and cut. So, I don't feel I can go back and ask them to cut more by going with B or C. That's my personal opinion. Again, I would love to go higher, but I want to stay within

what we can do. My my takeaway is do what you can. Yes. Today there's going to be some left on the table and we can change next year the conversation and the conversation may be that you hit the pause button in a year because based on the outcome of the legislation this year or what hits the table next year. Um but one thing I've learned in nearly 30 years in HR and doing comp is wages never sit idle and right um there's also a cost of not doing anything. And so I think if anything something is done and if if the marching orders are to look at something different um we're also sending a message to the workforce.

Now I I A is my conservative ideal would be C but again I we've pulled too much from our employees and our departments this. Uh yeah, Mayor. Um, being that I'm the the new person here, I had a question. Uh, regardless of which comp plan adoption we eventually select, is that inclusive of the increased uh cost of benefits or is that separate from benefits?

The the benefits are outside of that. [clears throat] And so obviously um capers um being or KPF the combination of the two are going to be the the bigger ones on it. Um, but that's also what's [snorts] been weighed out and looked at. Um, because you have to look at the sustainability of that. So, would you be able to guesstimate a percentage of what the increased cost for benefits would be on top of that?

I really can't because we got a couple different retirement systems [laughter] going on uh and they have differential rates. But what I will say is when we did the budget, um the individual department heads were asked to do the 4% increase. I'm sure Mr. Hay can tell you that when we do the spreadsheets where we budget out each employee, the movement within their payroll would actually also it does include their various retirement rates. So we did capture a good portion of that in a potential pay plan.

Okay. And I guess my other uh question then was um the employees with pay misalignment compression, is that above the scale and below the scale at the same time or is it So we've got we've got um employees that are both above and below um their calculated position. And so at one point when we did a snapshot of this, we had uh three employees that were over the proposed max.

Okay. And which comes back to an earlier question, uh we had 26 26 employees that were under even the scale minimums that we were projecting or proposing. And then we had 95 employees um that were um under their prescribed pay alignment, but we did have a fair amount that were either at or above. And that's where the the 1% or the one and a half percent cola would impact those that are already at alignment, right? right that it would limit them to only a cola impact at least on this first phase implementation

with those few employees that are over the max um would you be able to estimate a percentage of the total cost like say if we go with option A are they themselves already sitting at like 10% of that cost or no so essentially anybody that's over max they sit idle okay and so they would also only get the 1% cola and our recommendation is I would pay that out as a lump sum

rather than add it to an hourly or an annual salary because that's going to compound in future years and work against and put additional pressure on on future budgets. So, um, this comes back to having prescribed mens and maxes and then living within what we adopt and understanding that there may be consequences, but there's also creative ways that you address long-term employees that may be over the max that are still performing well and performing the services. So, okay. Thank you. I don't I have one more. When you compared, did you compare the private sector too or just public?

So, great question. Um we look at because um this is I I would say most public employers their legacy methodology led them to go find comparator cities. So in Wellington prime example you may go look at Winfield City only and different communities look at those that are in their tier one or tier two or three cities and you're comparing raw job titles and not the nuts and the bolts. So we do look at public, private and nonprofit. So, we're looking at the community because when you're looking at onboarding, let's say administrative staff, you're competing with every entity here in town. If we're competing for construction or equipment operators, we're competing against private um construction. Fire and police are a little bit unique and and so we did go and we were doing spot checks on um some of those and understanding our position and that helped us give influence on the multipliers when we have put in the S or the F for fire or sworn personnel to understand where we needed to be in the market to be competitive.

What's our next step? [clears throat] In closing, if I can, I'd just like to thank the department heads and city staff also. Um, I know Heather um worked closely with the department heads. Um, and I think we got all the concerns kind of in there's different phases of this um process. Um, but I think we've we've got to a good landing point other than wish money were no object and we could just flip the switch. Um, but being realistic and I'm a conservative by trade, fiscal conservative. Um, these are big numbers that we're talking about and the sustainability certainly has to be weighed against that.

What's our next step, Phil or Jeff or whoever can answer that? need a motion. If if if a motion is made on option A, B, or C, I would also recommend that you include adoption of the comp administration policy as the companion because without the roadmap for it, you can veer off the road pretty quick just with the tools or just with the scales. And so the comp policy is going to give you the framework of all the nuts and bolts that's baked into your blueprint. I just would like to say I know I voiced my opinion for A. If people would like B or C, please speak up.

I'm I'm on board for A. Okay, then I I'll make a motion to go with option A with the comp package to go with that. Second. Have a motion and a second. Heidi, can I get a roll call, please? Mr. Haye, yes. Miss Lucas, yes. Mr. Elmore, yes. Miss Antonich, yes. Miss Grace, yes.

So, that is five affirmative votes for option A with the comp package for the Arnold groups compensation study. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank both of you. Re you guys really uh coming down here so many times and just it's it's rewarding to get to the projects because we know we're impacting lives and it's definitely meaningful. We're happy to be a part of it. [clears throat] [laughter] Okay. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you.

Drive safe. All right, we have uh no public hearing, no ordinance, uh resolution. Jason, you're up, sir. Council, uh this is a a request to accept the bids for tree trimming services. Uh in our budget this year, we have, I believe, $80,000 budgeted in electric distribution and $10,000 budgeted at the street department. Uh this is something that we've done for years. It has been very beneficial on the electric side. Uh we missed the ice storm this last one, but it's coming. Uh so

sooner or later it's going to get here. So it it makes a big difference on the reliability of our electric system. Uh we sent out bids to six different companies. We received four of those back. Those are in your packet for you to review. Our recommendation is to move forward with Davis Tree Service. They've done a good job for us the last few years. Uh basically, you know, if we get a a call from a customer, uh reference a tree that's close to a line, we go put eyes on it and if it's an issue, we call them. They're on it. They they do a great job of responding on that stuff. So, our recommendation is to move forward with Davis. Move to Hold on. Before we do that, which which I'm agreeable with it, we do have them stationed here in town. Correct.

So, yes and no. Uh yes, they during the year or during the summer, they they have a truck here. Uh they actually, if you remember right, uh they actually had chainsaws stolen out of their trucks last year. Uh so we kind of accommodated a little bit and let them kind of put their trucks down next to our facilities, so we had a little bit better eyes on them. Uh it's kind of the nature of the beast. They're kind of used to it, but we tried to help out how we could. But yes, normally they have a truck in town and can respond fairly quickly. Okay. Thank you. Move to approve. Second. We have a motion to second. Uh, hi. I need a roll call vote. Miss Grace? Yes. Mr. Haye? Yes.

Miss Lucas? Yes. Mr. Elmore? Yes. Miss Antonich? Yes. So that is five yes votes for resolution number 6419. All right. Second resolution. Jason,

mayor, council, this is our chemical bids uh for water production. I apologize for the memo. It is kind of a little convoluted. Uh but we send out bids to a bunch of different chemical companies. One of those companies will bid one chemical. Another company will bid for chemicals. So, we go through and we vet all their bids. Uh we did have some companies this year that bid alternative chemicals. Uh we did our due diligence to try to run those down to see if it was a good fit for our process. Uh reached out to KRWA on a couple of them and they just did not recommend the change on chemicals. So that's why if you look over the bid tab sheet, you'll see a couple of them that is not necessarily we're not recommending the low bid. Uh but the reason we're not recommending the low bid is because it's actual change of chemical. So it's not a like like thing. So be happy to talk about the different bids if you wish, but this is the process that we go through. We have to send water to town and these are the chemicals that we use to do that. So be happy to answer any questions. Our recommendation is to go with the many vendors that are listed there in front of you on the memo and on the resolution.

Yeah. How's the bid look uh compared to last year? It's comp. Yeah, that's a good question. Uh we actually ran that number. Um it's up a little bit as expected. Uh but our water that we're sending to town is actually down. So the in dollar amount is going to be negligible. But the chemical costs are up just a little bit. Okay. Thank you. Other questions? Move to approve. Second. Motion to second. Heidi, please. Miss Grace. Yes. Mr. Haye, yes. Miss Lucas, yes. Mr. Elmore, yes.

Miss Antonich, yes. That is five yes votes for resolution number 6420.

Third res resolution. Jeremy.

Yes. Uh so what you have in front of you is a proposal from our contract city engineering firm PEC to uh collect data and then get our storm sewer system within our mapping software that we that we use here. Um you know a lot of our utilities been been within that mapping system for 20 or more years. I know that they're still uh that's a continual thing that they work on and upgrade and make better. Um they've done a lot with within the last, you know, 10 years even on that. Uh but we have very little on our storm sewer system, just the inlets. Uh we don't have any data on those. So, this would have PEC and their surveyors come in and take shots on the location of all inlets, all manholes. [cough] We would pop the lids, um, get some photos of the outside and the inside of that structure, uh, the outflow depths and also looking at the size of piping and if possible the material, the pipe material. Um, so it's it's virtually a turnkey deal with the exception of uh to try to keep the cost down a little bit, uh, we will send out a staff member with one of their staff members um to that's familiar with our system to assist with that data collection. So, this would um also give us a lot better data to get on the one call system, which we currently do not participate in. And I think we really should uh when the fiber optic companies came through town, uh we'll see. We we'll see. We haven't had issues yet, but sometimes it takes a while uh to find out that somebody bored through a storm sewer. So we really need to get on

that system uh just like all the utilities are. Is this within our budget the 18,650? Yes. So we had uh we had this proposal right before the end of the year. Uh we had leftover operating funds in the street department probably close to 100,000 in there. So we encumbered this uh for this specific project. So it's actually coming out of last year's funds. Yeah. Yes. Um, so is this a one-time thing or are they going to be maintaining I'm assuming it's GIS? I don't have the packing for me, but will they be maintaining this as as they go?

I think for the most part it's it's going to be a one-time deal. Um, we don't have a lot of storm sewer get added. Okay. Um, and I think are they tracking like maintenance? Sorry to interrupt, but are they like tracking maintenance with it or what exactly are they doing? You know, I think to a certain extent we probably could. And I would have to I'd have to ask Jason. I know they use the mapping system a lot more than we do in public works as far as track and main brakes and they have them by age. Um, so I'd have to talk about what all the capabilities are

on that. Um, we don't have a lot of maintenance on our storm sewers unless they get plugged up. We'll go clean them out. uh after a rain we drive and clean out the inlets, but uh they don't really require the same same type of maintenance as say the sewer the sanitary sewer system. But uh I think any additions in the future we can probably one there would be plans drawings on and I think we could probably in-house incorporate those okay into the system. Awesome. Thanks for clarifying. And to to Jeremy's point on the

on the maintenance piece of it, I think just like you mentioned like just something simple like cleaning the inlets. I mean, they could track that and kind of see their troubled areas. We can put heat maps on it. Uh so they can kind of track stuff down a little bit quicker. So it'll help on efficiencies. Okay. Yeah. Now that's what I was curious about on the GIS site. So Okay. Thank you. Anything else from council? Motion. I'll make a motion to um accept this resolution. Second. We have a motion to second. Heidi call. Mr. Haye. Yes. Miss Lucas. Yes. Mr. Elmore. Yes. Miss Antonich. Yes.

And Miss Grace? Yes. So once again, that's five affirmative votes for resolution number 6421. Fourth resolution, Heidi. We do this every year.

We do do this every year, Mayor and Council. [laughter] Um, at the request of our auditor, uh, Sean Gordon, you guys heard, you hear from him throughout the year, at least once a year. Um, staff requests that you guys approve charging off uncollected utility accounts. What we do is we go back two years so that everyone knows or remembers although an account is charged off in our system, the process only clears it out of our current accounts receivable. So let's say that customer comes back to utility office, they move away or they come back to Wellington and they have a charged off account and they request a new utility service. We require that they pay that off in full before setting new services so that we don't have that hanging out there. Um the total amount as mentioned in the memo outstanding for the year 2024 was 83,000 52081. The billing for 2024 totaled 10 million81127599. Therefore, charge off amount represents approximately 0.77% of the total billing or less than 1% that was build for 2024 so that you guys know. So again, it's our auditor's recommendation that staff bring this before you every year um and that hopefully you will approve the charge offs.

Now, we also have a still h we still have a company that will try to get some of those. Yes. So um we do use collection bureau of Kansas. We've used others in the past. So we do occasionally get some from say the state of Kansas set off program that we've used in the past. But currently we use uh CBK is what we call them. Move to approve. Second. We have a motion in a second. Heidi Miss Grace. Yes. Mr. Mr. Haye, yes. Miss Lucas, yes. Mr. Elmore,

yes. And Miss Antonich, yes. So that is five yes votes for resolution number 642. Next we have uh the resolution number five, emergency declar de declaration. Jeff,

so uh Before you is a resolution uh requesting council to declare a local emergency in uh light of the potential for instead of using the technical term, I'm just going to say bird flu. Uh I think it's highly infectious aviary something or another. Um Mr. H can probably explain this way better than I ever could, but one of the first steps in trying to request aid from the state is to have the council uh basically adopt a local resolution declaring emergency and then forwarding it to emergency management and the county for concurrence that it is a local emergency so that we can try to access the resources of the state. Uh we've been informed by the staff at the health department that um potentially from an epidemological standpoint, the guidance we have gotten from the state department of wildlife and parks may not be in line with best practices from a human epidemological standpoint. And uh as a council member has pointed out in the past, uh much like we don't have a structural engineer on staff, I don't have an epidemiologist on staff. So, I need some additional resources uh to try to figure out if what we're doing is appropriate because um county health department didn't seem to think so. So, uh this is step a in trying to access those resources. I will defer to Mr. Haye as he has far more experience in emergency management than I do.

We talk to Sar [clears throat] County or James Far. Uh James Fair no longer works for S County. He retired. Uh but uh I am to have a meeting with Jeremy and health department staff tomorrow. So uh I was hoping to have some affirmative direction from them if we want to try to uh up this up the chain or not.

Okay. So this is just off the top of my head from a similar background. Um, have they contacted an epidemiologist at either KDH, which they have several in multiple departments, or even K State to their epidemiology department up there at all? I'm just asking if if our health department has contacted them and this is where they're getting their guidance. I know they've contacted wildlife and parks. I don't know what guidance they have from other agencies. From other agencies. Okay. Just curious.

Well, I don't I don't know anything about these. [snorts] I I animals. I um All of them.

What people? No, it's it's it's it's a contagious disease for this is for mostly um wildf birds, ducks, things like that that swim in the water and and enjoy the water. The issue is when people um walk dogs, we all know you're a dog lover. What's the first thing they're going to do? They're going to pick it up, a dead bird, and eat it, carry it around. you're going to tug at it without gloves on. Um, in the past they have mentioned that it's not highly contagious how to humans and animals. However, everyone who has an immune issue, you're always susceptible to something. So, that's why I was wondering. Yeah.

Bird flu.

It's bird flu. Yeah. So, we had this a bird flu a couple years ago that killed not just wild or water fowl, but killed other birds. Um, the aven flu was out there. So, that's why I was wondering if an epidemiologist who just studies this kind of stuff has been contacted to um get clarification on that. That's all. I I admire and and appreciate how quickly you close down Woods Park. Um because you do run the risk of having some um people wandering around because they're always there. They're always running their dogs. They're always running stuff just to close it down to figure out what to do and what not to do. Zoos closed down. Cedric Zoo is closed down for this issue. a bunch of them have to prevent. You don't want more birds to get it either.

No. So, you're just trying to prevent any type of an issue. Get it. So, that's the reason because I've been asked about Woods Park why you close it down. You're doing a prevention. So, thank you for closing it. So, we need a second to to declare declaration. I'll motion um to accept resolution five. Second. Second. Heidi. Mr. Haye. Yes. Miss Lucas. Yes. Mr. Elmore. Yes. Miss Antonich. Oh yeah. And Miss Grace? Yes.

So that is five affirmative votes for resolution number 6423. All right. Okay. I would like to make a motion that we recess into executive session to discuss potential litigation and potential settlement for 30 minutes cuz we can always come out earlier. Voice vote. So we need the statuto reason. Oh, this

I'm sorry I didn't finish it. Um, so with the consultation of the attorney for a public body or agency which would be deemed privileged in the attorney client relationship the numbers I do. I was just seeing if there was more. 75-4319 B2. I second. And we need we need who's going to be included. Obviously the attorney if we're talking about that. Um city manager, city council. Thank you. We have a motion. Oh, I thought somebody motioned.

You made a motion. Oh, I that was my motion and Jerry seconded. So 30 minutes would be 805. Yep. Thank you. All those in favor? All those I. All those opposed? You're now council.

Council reconvenes in open session at 8:05. Uh the council took no binding action during executive session. Um Jeff, you have something a study item. Uh, I was going to bring up some stuff on that uh House bill that potentially would uh exempt the uh would really change how motor vehicle tax is done. Um, we'll continue to keep an eye on it. Um, I do have some estimates of potential depending on how that one actually uh falls out, but I mean they could really have some some tremendous impacts depending on how it would be implemented if it gets all the way through. uh since it's in a transportation committee, theoretically it could get brought back in another form. Kansas allows gut and go where they take the contents of one bill and cram it into another one uh when it's in exempt committees. So, uh as we get closer to the end of the legislature, we'll definitely need to keep an eye on on how that moves through. But um that change of taxation could have some pretty deep consequences because if you want to if you want to talk about not only the general fund side uh because part of our advorum tax uh that supports our advorum funded uh activities uh does come from the motor vehicle tax. Uh there's also uh that also is part of the debt service fund. It's part of the firefighting ambulance fund. It actually helps fund the library as well. Uh, so depending on how that would be implemented, that could have some pretty devastating impacts on on budgets and things like that. I mean, like I said, it if we lose it all, I mean, that's that's close to 200 some thousand dollars a year just on the general fund side, which would potentially be four to five mills of property tax. So, for reference, for those who don't want to uh have to remember, um, again, I try to do this for you. uh about $53,000 is the value of a mill in our community. So, uh

when you start thinking about, hey, when we spend $50,000 on something, that's that's a mill property tax. Um would it do any good if we sent a letter to our reps? So, the governing council couldn't hurt. Uh fun story, Bill Riley is one of the sponsors of this bill. Oh, okay. I'm not going to say the camera's [snorts]

Yeah. So, um, and there's already some strikethroughs and stuff. Um, we'll see how it moves through committee. Like I said, we'll continue to watch it. Um, I haven't seen that it's scheduled for a hearing yet, but once I see that, I'll let you know. And it might not hurt to to have some emails or letters or something that that go through. [snorts] Yeah. Awesome. Yeah.

Yeah. So, um here's my thing. Um based on the last session where and some other things that happened in the interim session, um you know, it seems to me that because the state or at least the legislature could not um kind of force a true property tax lid and they could not um get rid of all of the sales tax on everything. um which a lot of communities actually have uh specialized sales taxes that are already pledged to debt service and things like that. So, you can't just take it away and then expect them to try to figure out a way to do that. Um that's kind of why the sales taxes for cities and counties on food and some of that stuff still exist. So I think what they're trying to do is try to erode other methods of tax taxation that um maybe people don't realize kind of impacts the locals uh so that they can say hey we got rid of this you know uh the way that the bill is currently structured. you would only pay taxes on your private motor vehicle essentially when you purchased it and then you wouldn't have to pay annual tax or annual tags until you sold the car and somebody the new owner would have to do that. Um again [clears throat] I don't know the the total practical implication of that. I mean obviously some Porsche people are going to buy a car every year but obviously people are keeping cars longer. So um again the the implementation of it is is very scary to me. [laughter] Um so again I that was just it was a very interesting uh thing that that came through um from the league and from the KMU and a few of our other uh folks that are you know up

in Topeka that kind of watch out for our interests. Um, and I just thought that was a really interesting uh piece of legislation that I've I've seen a lot of things over my career, but that one is one I've never actually seen considered as something um because also, you know, and I think one of the reasons that it is kind of a potential topic and there's really a potential discussion around it is it is a non-trivial uh source of revenue for the state. Um, so I I think as part of efforts to kind of um force the governor into some some compromises on the budget because of how uh now the legislature basically says, "Okay, governor, you can create your own budget, but we're going to create our own." there's no more kind of, you know, compromise and cooperation and trying to come to a budget. So, I I think this is potentially uh something that's going to held hostage as part of the budget cycle.

Yeah. Okay. Uh, anything else from any council back? Move to adjourn. I I beat you. You've been waiting for that, haven't you? Second. We have a motion, a second to adjourn. All those in favor? I opposed.