City Commission - Regular Meeting

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Obviously, [laughter] he's not. I call this commission meeting, city commission meeting to order. April 28th, 2026. Please join me in the flag pledge to [snorts] 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. Thank you.

Dr. Michael Naggo, will you come up and lead us in a prayer?

Please join me in an attitude of prayer. Almighty God, our heavenly father, as we gather in your presence to conduct the business of this city, we thank you for all the blessings that you have bestowed upon us in the days past. And we pray that in the days to come, you will continue to look with favor on our community, granting to our leaders wisdom and a spirit of justice and mercy, and to your people righteousness and a spirit of forbearance and toleration. We ask these things through the merits and mediation of your son, our savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Thank you. [clears throat] All right. I'm going to open it up to public input. If anybody has something they want want to say in public input, please come forward. State your name and address. Thank you guys. Uh my name is Brian Hansen, uh owner of McCarthy's Pub right here in town. My home address is 111 Crestwood Estates, Pittsburgh. Um, first and foremost, I'd like to speak about, we all know the World Cup is coming to Kansas City and everybody's excited about that. We've even had conversations that uh they are short on hotels and places to stay up there, so people are going to come down as far as Pittsburgh. Uh, so it sounds like hotels are starting to book up and some Airbnbs and so I've heard locally. The state of Kansas has approved an an alcohol uh a amendment I guess you could say that they can anybody in the state of Kansas can serve alcohol during the World Cup dates. It's right there. I put a copy of those for you guys that uh you can serve 23 hours a day alcohol. Um I would like to ask you guys to approve that or pass that or discuss that also. Um it's summertime for us here in Pittsburgh in in my industry. It's dead as can be. When the college kids leave and the whole town goes on vacation during the summer, we just kind of scrape by and and and some are better than others, obviously. Um, luckily I've been in business long enough that I can get through a summer. Really, it's not that big a deal. But if we have an opportunity to have a few more sales, [snorts] uh, I would like to take that opportunity. Now, am I going to be open 23 hours a day? Probably not. But if there's a West Coast game that's being aired on TV that might run till 3:00 or 4 in the morning, I think I should be able to have the opportunity to show

that and and and help out a customer. Um, are you guys aware of this law that was passed through ABC by any chance? So, this was passed about 3 weeks ago. um the local uh person that takes care of the uh ABC in our area, Tommy Deetsz, he brought a copy of this to Tammy a few weeks ago. So, I just wanted to make sure you guys was was known about it, I guess. So, yeah, I mean, the the league obviously was aware of it and we're

I mean, I think most of our laws just follow the state, so I I I have no reason to oppose it. But I think it's a great idea and but I don't think we've announced it because I don't think we're that organized yet. Fair enough. I know it's it's coming up fairly quickly. So I just wanted to bring it up to everybody. It's for what a few it's for a certain number of days. Yeah, it says right there on there uh June 11th through July 19th. So just a little more than a month. So um again, I think it's just an opportunity. It's nothing. Like I said, I'm going to stay open all night every night. But if there's opportunities, you know, if we're busy on a Friday night at 2:00 a.m. and I say, "Hey, we're going to stay open another hour during that time," then I should be able to do it. Also, if if since the states passed it,

but we have to submit a according to this, we have to submit a uh an ordinance for that period of time, right? Correct. Our our level.

Yeah. You know, so and I I see that Pit States jumped on board. We've got the big FIFA sign in front of the college now and stuff like that. So obviously we we have some traction on this. So I you know if you guys next meeting or next couple meetings or whatever might look to pass it, I'd appreciate it. Uh and then while I'm here, I'd like to speak about last year around this time I was speaking about the ordinance of places that allow 18 plus to get in compared to 21 plus. That's age group. Those that have been allowing 18 plus recently, I'm going to use the pool hall as an example. They've been acting more like a club that I deal with day in and day out than a pool hall. In those copies there, it shows that they've been hosting live music, karaoke, things of that nature. Um, when the idea of the recreation facility is in mind to allow all ages, it's supposed to be based on their primary uh thing like bowling, pool hall, that kind of stuff. when they start getting into things like this, I start questioning they're doing nothing different than me. I have pool hall or pool, not a pool hall, but I have pool table. I have dart boards. I have recreation things also. I just don't have 10 pool tables. Um, so the businesses are starting to mesh similar and similar every day, but I still get excluded from allowing an 18-year-old kid into my in my business. There's only two maybe three places left in Pittsburgh that are under the 21 plus uh rules and there's more that are not than than are. Um, so you guys have set the precedent that the places that allow 18 plus or any age, I guess you could say, do a better job than we do currently because they can allow all ages and separate folks from drinking or not drinking or however you might look

at it. Um, I've now been in business in Pittsburgh 21 years. I've never had an alcohol violation. So I think we when I left last year, there was supposed to be a discussion about the ordinances, this outdoor recreation ordinance compared to the pool hall, the bowling alley. Did you guys ever have that discussion in depth about, you know, merging or changing? I know Stu was, you know, against any thoughts about that, but here we are a year later. I don't know if I was against it. I just with what was on the books, [clears throat] I I defer to the police department on what they on what they're doing and what they recommend. Well, you guys can have your own recommendations, you know, and thoughts.

Were there any changes to the existing policies that were in place this time last year? Um, we went to um I can't even remember who reviewed all our I think it was the league reviewed all of our ordinances and basically we sent them everything from pool halls to dance halls to um of course the dance halls off the books period. Yeah. So, we eliminated I think dance halls are we basically cleaned up our ordinance. I don't think anything significantly changed, but I'm looking at the police, but um we combined them in and and brought back and the commission approved the the new alcohol ordinance, but I don't have it in front of me, so I don't really know what the details [clears throat] are. I mean, there was no new alcohol ordinance. It was just you guys Well, we got rid of the stuff that we like you said, we got we had things in there that were duplicative and just like anything we're doing with the regular code right now. So,

my particular industry right now, and if you guys paid attention to the news, um, Annheiser Bush can tell you the same thing. The alcohol industry is flailing, I guess you could say, to some degree. The younger kids do not drink as much. We are close enough to Missouri where a lot of things that are legal in Missouri that aren't here happen. Um, so that takes people out of a social setting on a regular basis. And then if they do come they I I can give you an example over the last 3 months and since schools got back in session I'll say I have served roughly 2700 bottles of water to patrons. That's probably more than I ever had in the first 20 years in business. So people are coming in and they order water. I I sell more water as much as anything these days. It's really strange. So, I'd like the commission to possibly think about reducing some of these age, you know, verifications or whatever, you know, um because if you can go to the pool hall at 18 years old and hang out and listen to live music or or do karaoke, I don't know why you can't at McCarthy's Pub. Um we offer similar things, similar recreation opportunities. Um I have an outdoor space. We already have an ordinance specific for an outdoor space. And I was told that by our last mayor that maybe I should just put my operations outside and be quiet. Basically, I didn't much appreciate that. So, um, the way that the outdoor ordinance shows is I could have every age in the world on my patio, but nobody can come inside my building to use the restroom. So, I have an opportunity for two different things. either you're of age and you're 21 and over for everywhere or I can separate it and put a portaotty out there. I guess [clears throat] it the ordinance overlap for my building and I'm still 21 plus. So

So these other these other uh places that you were talking about, they can allow 18 year olds. They can allow 16 year olds 16 year olds in or 18 or whatever. Uh you know what makes them different than you? That's what I'm asking, Ron. That's exactly what I'm asking. Well, they're under an ordinance that's some of them have been under an ordinance for years and years, such as the bowling alley, the pool hall, and was the axe bar, but I'm not so sure it's even operating anymore. And they were special circumstances for those types of places. They use the the term recreation. So, if you [clears throat] because they have a bunch of pool tables, correct? They're they're they are recreation.

Correct. Okay. You have one pool though. Correct. Okay. So, all right. Yeah. That that's where it gets muddy. Yeah. But you have outdoor outdoor activities. Absolutely. Yeah. What is it? We we throw bags, you know, that kind of stuff. Yeah.

What is this yard? The drink yard. So that is the greenway, the new version of the greenway where last year's ordinance that was put into place back in May or so that allowed that you guys all passed with exception of DJ cuz he wasn't on the board at the time that you guys passed that to have all ages in a drinking establishment that didn't meet any of the other rules that were already set in place such as food sold 60% or more or a recreation facility such as the bowling alley or the pool hall. There was a special ordinance made just for that place and it's still in place as of today. And again, that's all ages. But they have live music. They host dance parties. They they're doing all sorts of things. No different than what I do except the ordinance protects them.

They're selling alcohol. Yep. They all do. Both all places do. Yes. Categorically, we're looking at alcohol sales, water sales, food sales, u recreational activities. It's kind of across the board. So, what currently differentiates one establishment from the other? Is it square footage? Is it location design? I mean, I have to do better looking. I need to go look at these myself. I mean, I haven't looked at Yeah. I mean, the definitions are in the ordinance, [clears throat] but the definitions are just bowling, pool, axe throwing. I mean, really, that's what it boils down to. qualify for a specific location. Does it have a number of tables of need number of primary business?

They're just their primary um activities. Okay. Well, it definitely sounds like we need to look at this deeper. Yes. I mean, what would it be?

I mean, because my question is if I put in four or five arcade games, can I then call myself an arcade bar and then fall under the recreation status? Because as a pool hall, it doesn't say you have to have a minimum of eight pool tables or 10 or five or one or whatever. It doesn't say it for it might say it for bowling. There might be a specific for bowling. You have to have eight lanes or more or something like that, but for the pool hall, it doesn't say any specifics. The only specifics on the the special ordinance for the was the greenway what drinky yard. Now it's just outdoor. Uh anybody can be there outdoor of any age. not below or above any certain number.

I agree with you, DJ. I I think this something we need to look into. I mean, I do offer the same

because with the younger kids right now um I let go one of my employees recently and uh so I have been working the front door of security on the weekends at my location for the past three weeks. I have roughly taken 30 fake IDs Uh that's probably more than any other place in town. Um that being said, young people want to come and be social. So let's set up a situation where we can ban those that are 21 and let's try to take the fake IDs out of the kids where they feel they can be comfortable coming and and socializing with their other college age kids and and make it more equitable for them to come to my place legally. No different than they can go to the pool hall or the drinkyard.

You said your entirety of your your time owning that establish, you've not had any instances. Not one. It's definitely something that that makes sense too for the Do you think changing that is going to affect that? Yeah, I think it I mean, you're protected now by not allowing by law 18y olds in there under 21.

But those other places in town have operated that way for years and they've in the eyes of Pittsburgh PD or you guys or whatever, you haven't had to have any discussions about they're doing something wrong. So why are they much better than what I am? I guess or could be. What part of the ordinance would you change wording wise? I just get rid of the ordinances. Get rid of the ordinances. I think everybody that owns an alcohol license should fall under the exact same expectations.

No different if you're a restaurant or or a pool hall or a bowling alley or or whatever. I don't I don't think there should be any separation. Um, you know, back Stu used last year back in in our day, I guess you could say, when we had 7,500 8,000 students and probably 12 or 15 bar slash locations in town. There was it, he used the term out of control, and there probably was to some degree. That was when it was 18 plus. And I we're in a different era. you can see the decline of alcohol sales already nationwide, not just here in Pittsburgh. Um, so I would rather charge a hefty cover charge and allow somebody to be social and make a decision if they'd like to come in or not. We can ban them. We can I could hire more security. You know, we we could do the right things. I'm not sure those other places are con are doing that right now, but they're allowed to be in those, you know, as underage kids. Well, I I mean obviously that ordinance has been on the books long before any of us were on the commission.

I agree. Yeah. And I think it was done with the best of intentions to combat when the when the drinking age went from 18 to 21. I agree with you. It was obviously enacted to combat underage drink under minors being in that establishment. I think there were food stipulations put on it. Those have kind of backed off over the years. I don't know if you talked about the pool hall. I don't know if they're under the food, you know, if they have a certain percentage of food. I don't I don't know. They have a pizza joint is what they have. I serve food, too. But I I don't I'm not going to get into your food sales compared.

It's It's not 60%. I'll tell you that. But I don't think that if you know if your primary business is pool hall and then you start acting and doing things as other places do and and say in my world karaoke, live music, things like that, then that's not your primary business is not a pool hall anymore. But Brian, I asked you before I asked you the last time you were here. I mean, what is it that you're missing out on on revenue other than the hefty cover charge? But that it's it's I'm in business to make money. high risk, low reward for you if you if you want to cater to under 21. But let me make that decision and not the ordinances are on the board.

So it sounds like currently other businesses are benefiting from foot traffic and so you're just saying level playing field. Level playing field. Yeah. Well, we'll definitely take a look at this and more in depth and and appreciate it. See what we can do. But the uh the FIFA thing, I would I appreciate if you guys would pass that. You know, also it sounds like we're we're on track to just playing catch up with some things.

I also believe that it would potentially stop some of the fake IDs that the kids are using because they just want to be in a lot of them want to be in the social scene. And then like I said, I serve more bottles of water now than I ever have in in my career. So the when people are even coming in of 21, 22 years old, they're ordering water. you. So, you actually think that under 21 kids are buying fake IDs so they can get in to buy water at your place? 100%. 100%. Okay. That is that is a little naive, Brian. I mean, well, I'm not saying that they don't not every single one of them, but a lot of them just want to be social. Okay.

You know, h half of them show up under some other substance besides alcohol. Also, we are close to Missouri. We are. Yeah. But but you're sounding like you're okay with them going to two other locations but not mine. And and and those locations must be doing something better than I am. Not at all. I I just I think those need to be monitored as well. Those were those were special conditions that were put on them. So we may need to readjust those. So if there was a special condition and the ownership changed, does that change that at all? Your ordinance was passed across the board on that. I mean, no, it wasn't

ownership changed if it was for them specifically. No, you signed it, Cheryl. I don't I I'm I'm assuming not. That was an ordinance that was passed directly for that place and that place alone. No matter, you know, once it's on the books, it's on the books. These are all locations pretty much designed around downtown Pittsburgh, Kansas. So, you're a block and a half off or something. The other two are Yeah. I mean, on Broadway. Yeah. with exception of the bowling alley up north. Bowling alley is farther north. Yeah. So, there's three. Yeah. So, okay. All right. Appreciate your time. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else that like to Mayor, I have a email that the city received that I'd like to read.

All right.

Okay. To the city of Pittsburgh, Kansas, I want to take a minute to say thank you and express how much I appreciate the way the city handles permitting and inspections. Recently, I had a situation where we were working on a job that should have been permitted, and I did not realize that at the time. When the issue came up, your staff handled it very fair and reason in a reasonable way. I went to the city, explained the situation, and everyone I dealt with was respectful, helpful, and easy to work with. We have worked with Pittsburgh on permits before, and that has continuously been our experience. Your team has always been quick to help, quick to answer questions, and quick to come out when inspections are needed. That makes a big difference for contractors trying to do the right way and keep projects moving. I especially wanted to point out how much I appreciate that your office works with people instead of against them. In construction, permitting can either be a smooth and practical process or it can become so difficult and even the basic work turns into a major ordeal. Pittsburgh has never felt like that to me. Your staff has always been approachable, clear, reasonable, and that goes a long ways. I can honestly [clears throat] I can honestly say that working with Pit Pittsburgh has been a much better experience and working in some other cities. It is obvious that your office cares about doing the right doing things correctly, but also understanding how to communicate and work with contractors in a practical way. That balance is rare and it deserves to be recognized. I wanted to send this letter to commend your staff for the way it handled their job and for the professionalism they showed. I would also appreciate it if this letter could be read at the city meeting because I believe good service and a good working relationship with the public should should be acknowledged. Thank you again for being fair, responsive, and easy to work with. Sincerely, Eli Wells of Wells Construction. [cough]

Thanks, Jacob. Sorry. Is there anyone else that like to speak in public input? Not seeing anyone. I'm going to close the public input and move to consent agenda. Are there any items to be removed from the consent agenda?

I have a just a comment for item C. Uh doesn't necessarily need to be removed. I just u there was a previous meeting where we talked about these grants and the use um and I asked for the commission to get some type of a back brief um sometime throughout the year. I know the end of the year roll up um gets covered a little bit, but I would like to see um I guess just the the collection of the information on where it's going, what it's being used for brief to the commission at some point. Uh uh Kim spoke about it before and like I said, it's just one of those um I think people would like to hear, you know, where where this funding is going and who it's helping and if there's gaps. I thought Didn't we have a briefing on that? uh this this last year, this last fall for the for the whole year. But I'm saying like after the grants's been exhausted, get a back briefing and they can

Can we go Can you go ahead and ask for that to be pulled off and we'll approve the rest and then she can talk about it? Okay. Yes. So, Mr. Mayor, I'd like to pull item C, please. You can move to approve A, B, and D. Second. All right. So, [cough] item C has been motioned and second to be pulled. Uh, is there a motion to uh the consent agenda A, B, and D? Roll call. Yeah. Are you doing roll call or? Yes. Roll call. Okay. Brooks, yes. Hi. Yes. Menel. Yes. [cough] Perry. Yes. Sigley. Yes.

See, item C. I'll read it all. Approval of staff recommendation to submit an emergency solution grant application to Kansas Housing Resource Corporation in the amount of $196,750 to help prevent individual families from possibly becoming homeless or assist those who are homeless and authorize the mayor to sign the appropriation appropriate documents on behalf of the city. Thank you.

I got Are there two?

There's two different ones. Okay. So what I just passed out for you is what we have spent in the 2024 to 25 grant and then what we have spent so far for the 25 to 26 grant. Um so the first page is basically the draw downs of what we have spent and then the second page without giving um names and items shows where they came from and then what program we used it on. Um, so in the 2024 2025 grant, you will see a majority of them came from Pittsburgh or Crawford County. There is one that came from Kansas City and that was a domestic violence situation. And then you'll see another one that came [clears throat] just right outside of Crawford County. Um, they had family in the area, so they lived with them. They obtained employment. there was an issue um with that family member. They became homeless. Um so they originated outside of Crawford County, but they were here, lived um and had an issue with a family member and became homeless, but they were employed. They just needed some help getting up on their feet. So that you will see that in the 2024 grant. Um, and then so far with the 2025 2026 grant, um, you will see what we're looking at so far for drawdowns and along with who we have helped. Um, we have helped two individuals that are out of state, but that was also due to domestic violence issues. Um, they utilize the safe house here in Pittsburgh. So, we were able to help them um obtain um housing and we are working with them to obtain um employment as well. So, is that kind of what you're what you're looking for?

Very much so. I just like just a little bit deeper on like what are we doing for homeless um prevention? Like what's what's taking place to make sure that they're not falling back into a homeless category? So they receive six months. So they receive case management and then they receive six months worth of case management after I have already assisted them with rent. So we continue to keep making sure that they are employed. Um utilities, they have monthly check-ins with me. Um so we just try to keep them on track. Um I can't guarantee that they're not going to fall behind, but I work with them to try to keep them on track. and you're you're tracking uh numbers and windows of time and then you have a you have a program where you follow them for six months for a year afterwards. Okay, that's kind of the information I was looking for and this is this is quite a bit of it. So

So the with each of the programs, the rapid rehousing and the homeless prevention, I can assist up to three months of rental assistance. So they get case management for that and then they get six months after I'm done with the rental assistance part of it. And do you have like a a category of local renters that are working with you with this group to um We use our same landlords that we use for our section 8 programs. Perfect. Just to be clear, not every person who's homeless wants help either. That is correct. And you can't I mean in essence, you can't save everybody you try, but if they don't want the help, you can't make them,

right? But if you see in 2024 we helped 24 households and so far we have helped I believe 17 so far and we still have five that are uh pending inspections. So we I know 24 doesn't sound a lot but in my world it's a lot. So you're helping a lot of people. So, we've helped 12 remain, you know, housed and then got 12 additional last year and the same moving forward this year, especially with all the accountability that you have to do. Yes. Maintain. Yes.

So, the numbers go off of the years 2024 through 2026 even though it's 20 26 27 emergency solutions grant. So, that is this is the new grant. [clears throat] So, I'm applying for new funding that would start July of 2026 based on the two previous prior years. So, they go they're a 15-month period. So, they start July to September of the following year. So, do you help homeless or without housing and put them up in motel rooms? We do not. My funding does not cover any of that. H

who who would do that? Um, I believe Building Health has some funds that can assist with that. Um, they have to meet some type of uh criteria. Um, but there's not a lot of organizations around that do do that because there's not a lot of funding on bus routes. Say that one more time. I can't hear. On bus routes, myself on my route, I pick up uh some kids in a motel that's probably been there three or four months now. There's three kids. Mom and dad. I'm just wondering how long are they having to stay in the motel room?

Yeah. I mean, if they have not reached out for services, I don't I mean, I wouldn't be able to answer that question, but it would be a matter of if the parents have reached out for services.

I know we still have a a large homeless uh situation in the city of Pittsburgh and we we see it every day. Our kids see it every day. So, I'm just trying to uh attack more information, make sure I've got a broad scope. And these individuals, they're they're based on um scores. So they get a coordinated entry. Um so it it scores them on their likeliness to die on the streets and those get referred first. So those individuals that you've seen here on the rapid rehousing, they've been referred because they have a high score and then they are sometimes the harder to house. So when we do house them, it's it's a it's a great thing.

I appreciate that. Thank you for having the stuff ready. Uh I make a motion to approve item C. Motion to approve item C. Is there a second? [cough] Second. All in favor say I. I. All oppose. Same sign. Thank you. Special presentation website update. representative from Limelight Marketing will provide an update on the city's website redesign project.

Come on up. Hello commissioners and mayor. Good. Good evening. We're excited to be able to share [clears throat] what we are looking like so far and they can share all these details. Of course, you met uh Brandy and you may have met John before in previous meetings and tonight we have a project manager that we've been working really closely with. She's helped guide us along the way. she's going to provide training for those who will be uh helping uh take care of the content on the website. So, it's been fantastic and I will let them take the mic because they do such a fantastic job at that. So, go ahead.

Thanks. So, uh thanks everybody for having us and uh just thank you for the vote of confidence you put in Limelight to uh work on the city's revamped website. Uh we are really excited about the project. It's going extremely well. We're excited to give you an update and answer any questions you might have. Um, John Keeler. I'm the senior director of digital experience and a partner at Limelight. And I've got Mallerie up here who is the lead project manager on it as well. Um, one of the things that we set out to do with this website when we got started on it was to build the best municipal website, not only in the state of Kansas, but also in the country. And so we believe that we're on the path to that and that we'll have a website that other cities of our size and of any size will look at and say this is the gold standard. This is who we want to be. So we're excited to show you what we've got today. So that's my intro. I'll let Mallalerie take it from here with timeline and other updates.

Hi. So we're about halfway through the project right now. Everything is in green is stuff that we've completed so far. So all the website structure, the website design. We did some user testing as well. Right now we're about halfway through development. So um we're working on some components and templates to get over to the city team to start doing content migration. Um we have that set to start in mid June, but we're actually ahead of schedule. So we're going to get them starting on content migration in a couple of weeks. So that will allow some more time to get that done since there are quite a few pages on the site. After that, we'll have about a four-week window where we'll do some testing and then if everything is good to go, we plan to go live at the beginning of September. Wanted to show you some previews of the design so far. So, as you can see here, these are snapshots of the homepage design. We have updated everything. So, it's very modern. It's a very clean layout. We're focusing on residents and business owners. So, um there's split out things for each of them if they have a resident section that they can go to. It's just directly for residents. There's not going to be anything for business in there. So, um mobile friendly layouts. Everything that we designed came with a mobile template. So, we're making sure that everything looks good on both desktop and mobile. This slide here has a few more design screenshots so you can see. I know that the events are very big for the city. So when migrating that over, we wanted to make sure that we were improving that as well. So as you can see here, we have a featured events at the top. So if there are important events that you all want to feature that are happening upcoming, you can do that directly at the top. Um, we also have better filtering for the calendar as well as some color coding. Another cool thing that we've added for the headers is an upcoming events block.

So for parks and wreck, they have a lot of events that they have upcoming. So if a user lands on this page, they can see, okay, youth soccer registrations coming up. I can click here and see more details. And then down here, I also have a screenshot of the memorial auditorium just to show you that this will still have its own look and feel as well. Um, but it will also feel cohesive with the rest of the site. One thing that we're really focusing on is making sure that people can actually use the site and know where they need to go to find things. A lot of what we heard from you all as well as users that we did user testing for was that it's very hard to find things on the site right now. So, we're making sure that um residents know what they need, business owners know what they need, and visitors know what they need. So, as you can see here, there's a business development dropdown. If you click in there and you're a business owner, you can see there's popular searches for things like building permits or if I need something about building safety, it's right there. And we also have a new I want to drop down which will show some of those more top visited pages as well. Um, another thing that we're trying to do to help users find things is having a smarter search. So, right now on the site, if you search for something, you're just going to get a big block of links. Some things could be from years ago and aren't even relevant to what you're searching. So, we're making sure that we have categories so you can easily filter to what you're looking for. And if you search for something like meeting notes, you're going to find a meeting from last week instead of a meeting from two years ago. So, just a few things that we're doing. Um, another thing which John's going to talk about to help us search is a little bit of AI.

Yes. So, one of the things that's very um you know trending right now is people want to be able to ask a question and get an answer quickly, especially for something simple. So, one of the things that we we've been working with the project team here at the city on is what we call an answer engine for the website. So, the way that this works is all of the websit's content is available in this engine. And if I have a question, I can ask that question to it. So, we've got a few examples up here, but one is like, "Hey, when do the pools open?" Right? Rather than clicking through the website to find that information, you can just ask that question to the website directly and it'll tell you that information back. Hey, the pool's open at this date. We've got the splash pad. We've got the, you know, the main pool uh near the park, things like that. And we know that that is the way that people like to interact with websites more and more these days. So, we want to make it really, really easy for people to find the answers to quick questions without having to click around as much. Um, this is all powered by a tool on the site called Alolia that we worked with the city uh to get and um it does use an AI engine but only on the content on the actual website. So that ensures that everything you get back is accurate based on just the content that's publicly available on the website. You just don't have to click through different pages to find it. You just ask the question and get the answer. And we're really excited about this. It's going to have analytics and we can see what people are asking, what questions they're asking and when. so that we can modify site content over time to make sure that the things people are asking all the time are the things that we're putting, you know, front and center on the website. So, that's going to be a great feature for citizens and people to find what they need really quickly, no friction, and again, it's only based on information that's on the website. So, you're not going to get anything that's factually incorrect, weird, anything like that. Um the other thing that I want to close with is this is a project that is being worked on by people here in Pittsburgh and we're really excited about that. Um you know that's something that I again I'm really

thankful for that you all put your faith in us because um we get to to invest here in the community and professionals in the community and have people who know our city, who love our city working on this website and that's putting a lot of passion into the project and I think that just makes the end product that much better. So that's where we're at. Everything is going great. As Mallerie said, um ahead of schedule. Uh we're on budget. Everything's looking good for the planned launch date. Um uh the folks we've been working with from the city, Stephanie and team have been fantastic to work with. So couldn't ask for a better project with you all and happy to answer any questions you might have about where we're at.

You were talking about um the current system pulling up all these links, those [clears throat] outdated information, things that aren't relevant, what's going on. There's still a large amount of people that like to find those old things and review them and catch up on what's going on. Is there going to be a place on the site for archive information? Yeah, all that will still be there. Uh there'll just be better filtering, better ways to kind of know what you want based on what you're searching. So if I want last week's city commission meeting notes, I'll get those more easily and I won't accidentally be seeing like like Mallerie said a couple years ago. But if I'm looking for that stuff, it's all still going to be there. So we're just going to section things better. Different search window. Okay. And then you were talking about the the data that's driven for the AI responses. AI

responds off the data that's provided. You know that you know so the how's the data uploaded to this website? Is it going to be multiple user source or is it going to be a single individual or it's different departments at the city who manage their content in their own areas. So it's all you guys managing that content. Okay. Perfect. That's all I had. Any other questions? Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. [clears throat]

Consider the following. Resolution number 1301. Consider approval of resolution number 1301 authorizing the offering for sale of general general obligation bond series 2026- A of the city of Pittsburgh, Kansas. Mayor, commissioners, hopefully [clears throat] everybody knows Darth by now. Um, we approved the authorization ordinance a month or two ago for the latest geo bonds and G is here to take us through the next step of the process and he is way more affluent at speaking than I am. So, I will defer to him right away. Thanks for coming here.

All right. Thank you, Darren. Uh, mayor, commissioners, as Darren mentioned, Gar Herman with Gilmore and Bell, the city's bond council. Uh the resolution before you tonight is the next step in the process uh to authorize the sale of the city's general obligation bonds to finance uh the projects that are shown there. Uh just briefly and as you authorize uh under resolution a few months ago, resolution number 1300. Uh these bonds will be used to finance intersection improvements uh at Free Kings Highway, uh airport uh taxi lane improvements, improvements at Lincoln Park, uh a couple of fire station improvements, uh Broadway intersection improvements, soccerfield complex development, as well as the automated meter reading equipment improvements. Uh the total estimated cost of those [clears throat] that are authorized are $6,500,000. This resolution would authorize the sale of general obligation bonds to finance those costs. Uh right now, the sizing of the bond issue based on information received from the city and from Baker Tilly, the city's municipal adviser, is they are scheduling a sale of $5,950,000 in geo bonds uh to pay uh a portion of the cost of those projects. This uh resolution would authorize that sale to occur on June the 9th at 10:00 in the morning. So, as you've done in the past, that will be the time that the city working with Baker Tilly and working with my firm will accept the bids from the interested investment banks who want to buy the city's bonds. U based on the best bid uh submitted on those bonds, which generally means the lowest interest rate to the city. Um that sale would be awarded at your city commission meeting that night. Uh a few weeks later on June 25th is when the bond issue would actually close. That in between time of about three weeks gives uh my office time to put together all the necessary documents uh to make sure that everything meets state law requirements. Get all that bundled up, sent up to the

state so the attorney general can review and approve that transcript. The bonds can be registered with the state treasurer and then sent uh to the holding company to hold those bonds pending closing on June 25th. As always, um you know, you will meet on June 9th on that evening to approve the sale. But on June 25th, that bond closing uh meeting or that bond closing date will not require a meeting. Uh that's all done electronically uh by me on working on behalf of the city. So, as I said, this is the uh the next step. This resolution, I'll come back on June the 9th for the final bond ordinance and resolution that confirms the sale, but this resolution here authorizes the city to move forward and actually hold that sale on June the 9th. With that being said, I'll pause for any questions that you may have.

Remind me again what was the improvements to Lincoln Park? Lincoln Park. Um, yeah, that's the wall fields. That's that's the turfing of the fields that we're going to talk about. Six minutes hopefully 16 minutes. I don't know. Yeah.

Artha, the one question I've received some phone calls about the bond process. Um, there's a lot of confusion. It was confusing to me. still there's so many facets to it. So, thank you for what you do for the city. Uh if you could just explain uh the primary concerns were the the process of who's available to buy the bonds and how you uh decide I know it's percentage and and who's going to purchase them, but who's allowed to purchase the bonds, I guess, is what they're asking.

So, so technically anybody's allowed to submit a bid for the bonds. So, as I mentioned on June 9th at 10 o'clock, that's when the bids will be due. Now, generally speaking, it is investment banks who submit the bids on those bonds. These bonds, as I mentioned, are for $5.9 million. They're scheduled to be repaid from 2027 through 2036. So, basically, every year during that 10-year time period, there will be a certain amount of the bonds that get paid off. Due to the size of the bond issue, usually there's not very many individuals who would be able to submit a bid to buy the entire series of the bonds. That's why the banks usually are the ones who submit those bids. Now, for individuals that would like to buy a portion of those bonds. Um, you know, working if they have a financial advisor, if they have an investment advisor, somebody like that, they can talk with their investment advisor about contacting some of the investment banks who generally bid or submit bids on these bonds to see if they are the winning bank, can I buy some of those bonds? Because in essence, what those banks do, they don't buy the city's bonds and hold on to them. They're going to buy the city's bonds and then they're going to turn around and resell them to their customers. And so that's how that process works. Individuals can bid, but usually they don't just due to the size. So that's why they work through their investment advisors or through these investment banks.

And so specifically from what you're you're describing, they're asking I've been asked um to make sure there's a vetting process. we're not having outside countries and other elements purchase these bonds and those type of things. So, there's a process to make sure they're valid and

yes, and and generally speaking with the city's bonds in the past, it's been a lot of regional banks basically throughout the Midwest who bid on these. They're all, you know, Kansas, Missouri banks, a lot of them, but but definitely Americanbased banks who are submitting these bids. And ultimately, it's a it's a public auction process. So, there's no thumb on the scale. There's no kind of picking. uh we like this bank better than that bank. Really the the ultimate way that the sale is decided is who is offering the lowest interest rate to the city which in essence means who's offering the the lowest cost to the city and the taxpayers to repay these bonds. So the difference is the city purchase I mean the bonds are purchased at a certain interest rate.

Yes. And they they essentially then resell the bond they resell the bonds to other entities at a slightly higher interest rate. Yes. They've got to make money. Basically. Yes. Yes. Okay. And we have no control of who they sell them to. So, and I think if they sell them to an outside or if they sell them to a foreign entity, they have to register that with the with the federal government.

That that's kind of outside the scope of of what what I know about that side of the process. Uh but generally what makes the bonds like this attractive are that they are tax exempt. And so what that means is as these bonds get repaid, it's not just the principal that gets repaid, it's that interest component also. And so [clears throat] generally speaking, that interest is income to the person or the entity receiving that income. However, due to the nature of these public improvements under state law, that interest income is exempt from Kansas income taxes. So there's a benefit if you're subject to Kansas income taxes. This is a way to get in or taxfree income. Likewise, under the federal tax code, that interest income is also exempt from federal income taxes. So once again, if you're a person or an entity who's subject to federal US federal income taxes, this is a good investment for you in order to get that interest income without also being subject to federal income taxes. So it would be more beneficial for someone being in, you know, living in Kansas who would be subject to Kansas and federal income taxes. This would be a good investment for them because then they get that dual tax exemption.

Okay. No, I appreciate that uh going into that too. Like I said, this is Yeah. Y very complicated. So, but no, it's one of those things is you can you can work with this every day and still not know all of it, obviously. [laughter] So, thank you. Understand? Yeah. Move to approve. Second. Been moved to approve and seconded. All in favor say I. I. All oppose same sign. Car. Great. Thank you all very much. Thanks. Item B, MBL Development Company Villas at Wellington Springs. Consider the recommendation of economic development advisory committee to approve a loan in the amount of 405,000 to MVL development company.

[clears throat] at 1% interest with the loan to be MRI over 20 years with a 7-year term along with industrial revenue bonds related sales tax exemption on construction materials to develop the villas at Wilton Springs, a senior living facility on Brad Hallway.

Good evening, m uh Mr. Mayor, members of the commission. Those of you that were on the commission last year would remember it was about this time last year where I brought you a recommendation from the economic development advisory committee related to uh an exciting project in southeast uh portion of our community on Bradshaw Way. Uh so for those listening at home uh we're to kind of orient you this would be located just northwest of Renew uh medical and spa. Uh at that time uh there was a proposed uh 55 and over uh residential development dubbed the villas at Wellington Springs. It was uh 40 independent units. Uh represented a $12 million investment for MBL development which is based in Kansas City but has done several projects similar to this in in this part of the state and over into [snorts] Missouri. And so, uh, Kim Linkl, who is here with us tonight from MBL, will be able to talk to you about the project when he spoke to you last year. And, uh, he was very honest that the pro the, uh, project was contingent upon a housing grant that they were applying for on the state level and that if they did not get that grant that the project would not move forward. Uh, they fell one point short of having the getting the grant last year. So, since they received that news last fall, we've been in regular communication with Mr. Lingal, encouraged him to to give it another go because we feel this would be a good project for the community. Uh, they do plan to reapply for that same uh housing grant. really everything about the project stays the same as it was when it was presented to you last year. But given that we had some new uh EDAC members, we have a new commission member, felt like it was a good idea to go ahead and go through the process again as if it were brand new. So I'm going to ask Kim to to come up and talk a little bit about the project and then I'll talk specifically about the recommendation from the EDAC. So Kim, if you want to come on up and you can just scroll through your slide deck like

that.

Oh, okay. Scroll up. Perfect. I need AI to help me here. Thank you. I'm Kim Lingle with MBL Development. And I know you're some of you were here last year, but I'm going to tell you a little bit about the process. We file for uh through the state of Kansas, the Kansas Housing Resources Corp, which you just recently saw, I think, on another grant. We f financing for the $12 million project through the same uh entity, government entity. It's a competitive process. It's based on a score. And I I'm competing against Wellington, Kansas. I'm competing against Garden City. Okay? So, we put these they put the applications in the area. And here's the other thing. We're competing rural versus rural and witchah versus Witchah. Kansas City can there's three different divisions. I'm competing against rural markets. Okay. So, what happened last year, and he he's absolutely right, we were within one point receiving funding for $12 million. So, uh we felt um I didn't sleep for a couple nights, but other than that, but we felt like we really wanted to come back here and and try to do it again. Uh, I have done this on I've done this for 34 years and on I think I tried to count tonight when I drove down six times over 34 years I've had to go in two or three times to apply for to apply for the funds. Okay. So, I'm always I'm always not the winner. Uh, but majority times I am. But, so that's what this is. Again, we're going to reapply from last year. They go back to the story. We're going to do 40 units, all two bedroomedroom, one bath, 55 and above community. Within that community will be a community building approximately, if I point my finger here, you can't see it, it's up here on the south side here of

that community building about 4,000 square feet. Within that community building will be a full kitchen. We'll have a uh recreation area. We have a computer learning center and then [snorts] just a uh TV, couches, and all that time. Within that center also is where we do all the supporting services for for seniors. We'll have people come in. Thank you very much. There you go. There's a picture of one. This is in tha, Kansas, by the way. Uh in uh over by Garmin, if you're familiar with that area.

So, back back to the community center. So, we'll put these supportive service plans together for all the residents. We'll have Bible studies. We'll have uh we have the the meals every Wednesday night, the the you know, people bringing their own food and this and that and whatever, but there's lots of stuff that we we provide the resident. And this once again, this is maintenancefree. We're taking care of everything. Okay. So the biggest thing I always tell about the economic develop development of this is not only the $12 million that we're going to spend. By the way, we're planning to do a phase two. We have enough property out there where our goals is to go to phase two, another 40 units. The economic thing is not only the $12 million, but about historically 50% of the residents will sell a house. So you're going to see a little bit of a turnover. You may not see it significantly. 20 houses to me seems like a lot of turnover. But in this scenario, that's it. The other thing you're going to see is is you're going to see a lot of folks, not a lot, but you'll see probably about 20% move into the community to be close to the grandkids. They want they they're going to come in from XYZ town and and move in closer to the family. Those are the type of residents that we have. And what a great area. I'm close to the hospital. I've got I've got [snorts] a there's a couple of dentist offices out there. There's just lots of great things for the senior. Walmart's just right up the street with their market. By the way, here's some car ports that we put in, too. Thanks. He's He's really good at all this rolling here. So, if you notice the carports, I always talk about that. I used to do garages, and I know that sounds why why don't you do them anymore? 50% of the residents don't have a car. Okay. So we also try to provide transportation services for that for that course. So we just kind of elim I shouldn't say eliminated the garage did carports instead for that st from from that standpoint. But anyway

I've gone fast. I'd love to have questions. I've done this so many times sometimes I think I go too fast but if you have any questions please feel free. Are these one or two bedroom? Two bedrooms sir. Two bedroom one bath 98 square feet. What is the uh rent? Good question. We'll be RA and then I'm going to give you a range. It's based on interest rates. I'm going to give you a range of $800 to $900. So, these will be rentals, not for purchase. Rental. Rental. Was that first [clears throat] building you show? Was that the community that an example of the community building or was that

No, that was just a unit itself. I apologize. I don't think I have a community building. But within this, the one other things if you kind of look at how the design is on this one, we try to segregate a little bit. So when Mrs. Jones sits out on her patio, she's not looking at her neighbor here. If you kind of can see how that's all suddenly kind of hidden back there. There's also a back patio as well from that [clears throat] standpoint. And did you said this they were 55 and older? Yes.

Yeah. There'll be there'll be a land you That's another good question on that one. There'll be a land use restriction placed on the property by the state of Kansas who does the financing. Okay. Okay. So, it always will be 55 and above. So, we'll never be able to turn that into a family type scenario. I like the idea that you're designing this to be a essentially a small community environment where there's lots of things happening that keep people active and and I don't know, just give them something to do so they're not just stuck in their house all day. Correct. Correct. Um, looking at the diagram, the So, is the intent to tie in the roads to Silverback? Correct. Um, do we have a go back to the original? [clears throat] Okay. So,

no. The answer that that road is going to go out to Centennial. Okay. So, this this road is coming in past the spot and we're going to extend it out. So, that's that's coming off Centennial right there by Renew. There's a dang already in there's Yeah, there's already 100 feet or so. I think I was just out there just tonight. About 100 feet of kind of roadways ready to go. Yeah. So, what we're going to do, expand this out and then you're talking about phase two. That'll just go north of the existing correct phase where it's at now. Correct. How big a unit will that be? I'm hoping in Well, we'll do this in a year. I would come back to you probably again in a year and a half. How many units?

Oh, excuse me. How many? 40 units. I apologize. We're do 40 and 40. I apologize. I didn't understand the question. Nice thing is the residents can walk across the street to the south and watch the new soccer fields. Yeah. Yeah. And have more activities right there. All kinds of activities. [clears throat] A lot of a lot of these uh projects finish the housing units but never put in anything else. The community buildings and that kind of thing. And I hear that complaint from people uh often. You're you are going to put in a community center where people can have their families and do dinners and stuff like that. I'm 125% sure I've done it for I've never not done one. Okay. And I've done 38 projects.

Okay. And [clears throat] uh how for you said about 50% of the people h don't have cars. Correct. What what happens there? Because we don't have a a great transportation system in town. It good good question. I when I get pro probably when I get to 80, we'll have our own van. The first phase we won't have a van to be able to trans. We're going to try to do what we can to you know to support those people. But then we get into the second phase, we'll probably we'll have the van and I use it all the time. You know, kind of a large cargo van that holds about eight. Will you have a manager living on site or?

Yeah, good question. We'll have a full-time manager. Some live there, some don't. And a full-time maintenance person. What are you doing with the ground to the south of the project here, right be from Centennial to the project that would still be owned by the current current property owners? [clears throat] You have one way in and then if you connect a future one looks like just one way in and one way out I believe. So that's what this I think that's Matt might be able to speak to that. Yeah, Matt might be able I I can't remember what Matt said. A lot of thought went into that last year.

Um yeah, we so actually we talked about having the oneway in however he doesn't have one shown on this but they're tying this end point right here. That's why that's an open part to have an access drive for fire access with a fire gate. So, he'll have to we'll gravel back like an alley back for alternative access into that property and use the existing um curb cut in Centennial. So, we we talked about that last year. It's not it doesn't pick up on the civil, but we did have that discussion that they would have an alternative access into that as a non-primary entrance. future or um past talks about a firetruck pulling in and being able to get and turn into the it's that's taken into account, right?

Yeah, that'll all be that'll all be coordinated when they get to the civil part of I mean, we're still in conceptual, but they'll have their turning radiuses accounted for and hydrant placement and all that kind of good stuff. We'll find it finish up in the civil side of it. So, we we discussed all that. And the water flow from the creek that likes to flood right there, it's there's a plan. He's out of the he's out of the flood plane. Yeah, he actually has it on this map right here. That's actually the flood plane right there on that level. So they they are that the back corner of that does have a little level of flood plane, but it's not they are out of that at the moment.

Just to reiterate that. So this this was all approved by DDAC and this commission a year ago. We didn't get the grant. Nothing's changed in your original plans or anything. You're just bringing it back before us.

That That's correct. and we we took it back to the EDAC this year as well. Uh so u commissioners the the KHRC grant process as they evaluate these local uh local participation gets uh MBL quite a few points. So that's the reason that they are requesting a $45,000 loan from the revolving loan fund. It would be repaid at 1% interest. It would have an amortization over 20 years with a 7-year term, which means the city would be repaid within seven years. I think Mr. Lingal has indicated an a willingness to uh pay even earlier than that because uh he will be coming back most likely with a phase 2 request. So, the $45,000 loan is part of the the request and recommendation from the EDAC, but then also approval of a sales tax exemption related to an IRB so that they would be able to save the sales tax on the construction materials. But those are the recommendations in front of you tonight.

When will you know if you receive this grant? August 1st. And then when do you start construction if you receive it? Uh I'll probably try to come out of the gate by spring for sure. So, this this really addresses two issues in our community. One, we have an aging population. Um, and then also our ongoing housing needs. So, we just we just lost a a facility, you know, on the corner there also. So, we're down spaces for people in that kind of will this be a taxed entity, a property taxed entity and Okay. Yes. I'd move to approve. A motion to approve. There second. Second. A motion by Stu, second by Cheryl. [clears throat] All in favor say I.

I. Motion carries. Thank you. Good job, guys. Item C, city's insurance policies. Consider staff recommendation to renew the city's property and liability insurance and associated policies for the period beginning April 1st, 2025 and concluding April 1st, 2026.

Mayor, commissioners. So every year we uh make sure that we're insured. We have uh changed brokers. So Blake is with the Ryan Dipman Insurance. They're our broker. We the first step that they have to do is go through and get us re-uped for the next year. So he has provided on page 77 a comparison of premiums from the current year and then uh what will they'll be next year and uh he's here to answer any questions and appreciate all your help. He's been very helpful getting this thing bid and [clears throat] put together.

Thank you. Thank you, mayor, uh, commissioners. I just want to introduce myself. My name is Blake Bartau. I'm from Ryan Dipman Insurance. Um, did work very hard on the renewal this year for for the city's insurance. Um, as you can see, the animal mortality, which is the police dog, has not changed from last year to this year. Currently, still with Hartford. Um, the cyber liability, we did move it from uh, Tokyo Marine, the Houston casualty company to CFC. Um, as you can see, there is a decrease in, uh, premium with the with the exact coverages. Um, the property and casualty with EMC, um, still the best in the game. Um, we did shop it with travelers. Um, not affordable. Uh, they do a 3% wind and hail on each building. Um, just doesn't suit, uh, the city. EMC did raise the blanket on the property um, from about 114 million to about 120.5 million, which is about a 5.8% 8% increase in building values. Um most of that's due to cost of inflation, materials, um and labor. Um the the business like the personal property in each building also raised from about 10.7 million to about 12.1 million. Um which is about a 13.1% increase. Um so that's where you can see the increase for the EMC part of it. Um, as for the airport liability, still with CHUB, but we are coming off a three-year policy with CHUB. Um, so that is the main increase for that. Um, it wasn't it hasn't been rated since 3 years ago, and as everybody can see, in three years, we have seen increases across the board. Um, but I also want to thank these two sitting right here. Um, they get me all the information that I need to to make this happen, to get everything to the markets. Um, do you guys have any questions for me? [snorts]

Uh, I just I know I spoke with you briefly about this that I'm, you know, this commission is trying to have the city kind of budget down and and make sense of things and and try to help the taxpayers with their taxes. Um, I know you put a lot of time in and both of our clerks have put a lot of time in to make this work. And I know there's a lot of increases on this column, but there's, you know, amount of time you've spent trying to make sure we're getting the right coverage for what we need is super important. [cough] See, I appreciate that. you know, there there is a good substantial decrease in our cyber. So, uh that's important too and in long in line with what we're trying to do here. Um the something that I I didn't ask you the other day. Um when you're sourcing for different agencies for this, what's the rotation for? Is it annual that you're going to go back?

Yeah, I mean I would definitely, you know, make sure that we're in the best spot every year. I mean, it comes down to I mean, some some carriers they have the option to non-renew. I mean in that case you are going to go to the markets. I like to go to the markets every year um just to make sure you don't know. Um we're actually coming into a soft market. Last probably four to five years everything's been hard. Nobody's want writing new business. Now all of a sudden all our reps are coming in. We want to write right right we want to write new business. You know they've last three four years they've made their adjustments um to make money and now they're wanting to take on more risk. Um that is something new that's just happening since quarter since January one. We haven't had very many you know major storms across the nation. Uh knock on wood. Um but it does affect you know here you know the California fires, the North Carolina hurricanes, flooding that all does affect insurance unfortunately. Um but yeah we we would take it to the market every year to make sure we're still at bat with with all of them. That's all I've had.

And I I will say, you know, 7 and a half% increase is is pretty good. I mean, you could almost budget for with insurance for about a 10% increase each year. Any other questions for Blake? Motion to approve by DJ. Is there a second? I second it. [clears throat] Second. And all in favor I approve say I I oppose the same sign. Thank you guys. Thanks for your business. Thank you.

Thanks Blake. Dawn Guttery Sports Complex Improvements consider staff recom request to enter into a contract with Mammoth Sports Construction LLC through the Green Bush purchasing cooperative in the total amount of 1,173,000 for improvements at the Dawn Gutage Sports Complex located in Lincoln Park to include the infield only conversion from natural ga grass to artificial turf at the Wild Redberry and Ted Carino ball fields in the amount of $763,000 and the full field conversion at SH Stice in the additional amount of $25,500 and a double batting cage in the amount of 85,000 to be paid by a private donor and 120,000 in stabilization allowance 40,000 per field with the city's commitment not to exceed $883,000.

Mayor, commissioners, I'm Chris Ly with the I'm the parks director for the city of Pittsburgh and um what we got here is the first bond issues that we discussed earlier and we're going for the turf conversions of the three fields there at Lincoln Park at the Dawn Gutter Sports Complex. And as you can see, here's a rendering of that's what the infield the infield only is going to be and then the outfield will remain natural grass like the similar to JC the way it is. And this one actually shows a full conversion that's because it's going to go all the way to the outfield fence for trail stice and everything. And there's some renderings on that. So that's what it's going to look like with the turf. And then here is wild red berry. This is what it overhead looks like. So just imagine that with the turf, artificial turf on the front or in the infield, I'm sorry. And then so that's the one of the fields. This is Cheryl Sty. This is the one that's going to be all turf here. And um that's going to be very nice because right now this is where Kan holds their games and I think they've only had one home game this year.

Is that softball field? That's that's where Kan plays their softball field and their only home game they've had I believe is at Pit State. So they did that. And this is Ted Carino, which the spelling on this is correct on Carno. It's been a tough one to spell. And um but yeah, this is the third. And uh [clears throat] by the way, tonight all games on these three fields were cancelled due to the rain. So that just count which we don't need the importance of it or anything. So but that's uh what we're going with the bond issue and everything and with that and with the uh private donation and everything. We like to do that and go ahead and get in a contract with Mammoth Sports through the Green Bush Cooperative.

So the ones that are remaining natural grass in the outfield, will those be redone at all or just leave? I mean, no any drainage or nothing? Yeah, they will be they'll be Yeah, it's an ongoing process with that. I mean, it's not the turf is the initial project right now, but yeah, they definitely will upgrade the but not part of this project or this is the turf only right here. So what what is a stabilization allowance? The stabilization it's 40,000 per field. And what that is is a safety net. That's what if they break ground on this and they look like wait a minute. If they find emergencies and everything do it that's just it covers that. So that's a safety net. So it's not an added cost. So we don't agree on a dollar amount. Next thing you know it continues to add up.

So if they don't find any any problem they don't spend the money. Right. Right. That's correct. Okay. But that's what that is. That's where the 120 comes from all three fields. So, so where's the money go if you don't use it? We'll be able to use the utilize in slop in the outfield and if there's some fence damage, if there's anything replacements to or even some lighting issues that we have. So, yeah, it'll be it's all 100% improvement for the ball fields. Yeah, there's there's way more need than money right now for those fields.

Once these are turfed, how you going to protect them at night and on when there's not anything? We have an overnight security guard and even as of now we have to rent the fields to use them. So we have an ongoing I mean so yeah they are monitored all the time and everything and yeah which we'll have more interest in getting on the turf fields and everything like that but we've had we haven't had any issues with people sneaking on. I mean they know they're not supposed to be there when you tell them when you remind them but we do have surveillance on there and there will be cameras installed too I'm assuming. The primary motivation to do this is because we're losing games and losing availability for athletic group in that field.

Yeah. And like this year we've lost uh three tournaments already this year. I remember you asked earlier in a meeting. So yeah, we've already lost three. So we're losing income and the youth is losing their ability to get out there and perform and do their thing. Absolutely. What's the life expectancy fee on this turf? with the new turf. It's been actually I know life expectancy. Can I introduce Can we Sorry. Yes. Blaze Bowers with Mammoth the Construction and Bla1 has been just instrumental in getting all this pulled together. No.

Um, couple things on life inspections. The the warranty on it has a warranty, but typically on a baseball softball field, um, we put these in Gerard when I was a superintendent there, and I had budgeted and planned in my own mental thought process is that field is going to last 12 to 14, 15 years. Um, the the biggest cost is getting it in. You know, didn't it cost anything like it does to to do the conversion the first time? Next time you peel the turf up and bring it back down. [clears throat] I do want to can I expound on a couple things on the stabilization? You got unfortunately you got to stand by that mic [clears throat] for nobody here.

On the stabilization allowance until you do a geo you don't know what's in the ground. I think you know talking to Chris and some others. I think you're probably good. But you know if you I'm going to give you an example. We did a project in the school district once and did a GL and there's a sister in there. There were some body or not body parts car parts in there. May have been body parts too. I don't know. Um, but so that's just a you don't want any big surprises and big change orders and cost. So you account for that and plan on it and hopefully you don't need it. But that's what the stabilization allowance is. Did you guys do the Gerard Fields and the front neck fields? Yes. Can I tell just a little bit about Mammoth real quick? You're here. You tell you need

Mammoth Sports Construction is a is a full uh design build firm. What I mean by that is we have all the architects in the same room, the engineers, um we have the construction people. That's a little bit different than than a lot of, you know, a lot of people think, oh, they just do turf. No, we don't. Uh we we're doing the outdoor track at Pittsburgh State. We've completely fully designed and built that uh with subs. Um we've done the front neck field, the Gerard Field, uh Pittsburgh softball field, and and all the fields at Pittsburgh State. A few playgrounds and daycarees in town. You did the soccer field at P State, too. Yes,

at our meeting last Wednesday, we talked about the parks at all these cities and they're beautiful. Gerard and Front Egg's fields are wellkept and Pittsburgh. It's it'll be a great addition to Pittsburgh. Yeah, I I can't uh um fortunately I get to see a lot of facilities and a lot of um uh city fields and and and places across the area. And I've always mentioned, I thought, wow, Pittsburgh is at this beautiful park, beautiful facility. It's coming eventually because, you know, these this is what kids play on nowadays. Um, and what it can bring to the community and allow for access and it's it's a community it's a community build. I predict someday you'll turf all those fields. Oh, yeah. Happily move to approve. Second.

Thanks, please. Moved and approved. All in favor say I. I. All

same. Motion carries. Thank you. Ordinance number G1386. Consider approval of ordinance number G1386 creating article 6 section 50-201 through 50-208 in chapter 50 in the Pittsburgh City Code to regulate the use of storage containers and shipping containers in the city of Pittsburgh, Kansas. Good evening, mayor, commissioners. This is an ordinance uh I believe last working day you tasked me with bringing in front of you. Um I think uh it's taking me quite a while to get this to you. On March 11th, I sent you an email and asked for some correspondence. I get it again on uh March 31st. I believe uh Chuck and Stu responded and I made the changes that we talked about. If you have any others you want to talk about tonight, happy.

I do and I sorry I tried to get a hold of you last week and you were out of the office and then I I tried calling again today. U I have a couple recommendations just reviewing additional uh municipalities that have similar ordinances for these and use of the storage containers. Uh I would recommend that uh we don't implement the need for the pitched roofing and the sighting initially. Okay. Um, I do like the fact that it needs to be coated and painted not to be advertising in somebody's yard. I don't know how we word that to where it's not painted in an obnoxious color like Harley or Well, I think it already says complimentary to the primary structure,

right? So, natural neutral colors with both side things, but I think people are using these uh because they're cheaper way to store their things. And if we apply the requirement for sighting and the roofing, then it's negating that the purpose, I guess. Um, in my mind, uh, driving around town, looking at them, obviously I don't think any of us want them on our primary roads or visible from the roadway or blocking roadways. Um, so if they're behind a fence, uh, privacy fences, and they're covered, they're not, you know, directly obstructing anything. I think that makes sense. And like I said, I I've there's a whole Facebook site for these things now, and it's chaotic the things people are using these for. Um, but I think uh implementing that necessary roofing and and siding material to me primary residence just adds a cost that will, you know, make this not feasible for a lot of people. Um, I don't think we're going to see a lot of 40-footers. I think we're going to see the 20footers and the smaller ones. Um, that's my recommendation and I apologize. I I said I I've been very busy.

Well, I'm ready to get it in front of you. I know I've had a lot of people call on both sides of the fence and there's people that are wanting to set them. There are people that want to get rid of them. So, I just want to put whatever it is that you want together and then enforce that. I just like to follow up not with what DJ's talking about, but where's in here about they can't be used to live in correct housing? U and the ones that's already somewhere in the city, will those that's not meeting the requirements have to be moved? Yes. There's a set time frame in the ordinance. I believe it's 90 days. The time frame is 30 days to move 90 days

for to bring them into compliance, whether it's move it or meet building codes or setbacks, whatever that compliance might be. Well, I think I do believe we need an ordinance on this. I just think it's going to be an enforcement nightmare. And you you've had quite a few of those on everything we have in the city. So, how you going to you know, if they don't meet this 90 days, what do we do? Well, it' be like remove them.

That is written in there. It would probably be the last step and it' probably be an emergency measure measure if we had to do that. I think uh the simplest step is it's it's just like any other ordinance we have. It's punishable by section 1-7. We send them a notice to appear to municipal court and let the court handle it. And then the court will probably give them another 30 days or 90 days, whatever the courts do. That's what I'm saying. Yeah. I think it's a good idea. I think there needs to be an ordinance, but I know that's just more work for you guys trying to enforce the ordinance. So, and now that we're talking about them, um, what about the ones that's sitting around for sale? Is is that going to

I I think they still have to meet this. So, some of these things, you know, th this again applies to commercial and residential. This does not apply to industrial. We have a lot of industrial zones. These are industrial containers. I think they move them in and out of there, but on commercial sites, residential sites, that's what what I believe the direction you you directed me to go. So, that's where we we wrote these ordinances. Um, if there are What was that question again? I might have run off track. Uh, I think it was one sitting around people trying to sell. Do they have to go?

They would have to meet the this ordinance. So, if you're selling them, I assume you're selling them on a commercial lot. So, have they met the setbacks? Are they sitting on foundations that the building code I think it's specific in there talks about the building code uh section 3114 would describe how those foundations need to be how they need to be bolted down. Uh they can't be stacked, things like that. So, if they're not in compliance, they would they would have to be brought into compliance. Are are you talking more of like we have vendors that want to come in and sell them? Yeah. So, yeah. How would as far as that's being handled? If vendors want to sell them in town, then how would

I think we have any in town that are just Well, and maybe we do. Um they're going to have to meet the setbacks unless you want to write something specific in it. It doesn't look like tonight you're ready to pass it tonight with a couple of changes. So, if you have some more, I'll be happy to take the feedback, put that back in there. I I don't know. The only thing I would say is is we've we've had the ordinance to look at. Um, apparently Chuck and I are the ones that replied. I I I mean I just wish we could approve it tonight and stop kicking the can down the road and and u I mean I don't know what the There's several different things. Walk somebody through your process. If I I come and I want to buy a one and I come to you. What's the process?

If you come to us, we're going to ask you, is this residential commercial? That's going to lead us down two different paths of how you can do it. We're going to come out to you. If it's a residential, we're going to come out. It's going to be a lot like a storage shed or anything else. Are you going to meet the setbacks? Do you have the room to put it in? Um, if we pass it without the siding in this, are you going to paint it complimentary to your primary structure? Okay. And is it going to be on a foundation slab or how is it? That's it. We're going to issue a building permit. We're going to inspect slabs or footings, how it's fastened, when it's done, sign off, and we're out. Same with based on me wanting one for my yard. say what about if the neighbors don't like it but it follows ordinance there's nothing that can be done no public hearings on this it meets the ordinance

it's not anything like a zoning permit or anything like that okay um there was I had one other question but well I say to your comments too I I don't think this is the process of kicking the can down the road I think there's just new things have come up on what people are using them for and it's taken more time to kind of I nothing's news come up though, DJ, as far as the ordinance that he gave us to review. I just I would like to hear from everybody else if everybody else thinks that's a bad idea to not have it roofed or sheated or whatever.

So, the the roof and sheeting came from an old ordinance that we brought in long before any of us were around in the city, I believe, was uh mobile homes for instance. You know, people want to bring single wides in things like that. They didn't fit in neighborhoods. You don't want to devalue your neighbor, you know, your neighbor your neighbor's homes, things like or a neighborhood. So, we said if you're going to bring in a a modular home, it's going to be 22 ft wide. It's going to be sided. It's going to have a front porch. It's going to have a pitched roof. It's going to have a block foundation, not the skirting. So, we kind of followed that same. I wondered how that's going to look. I mean, when I read that, I was like, well, how's that going to look with a pitched roof, you know, on a shipping container? I I don't even know how that looks. [clears throat]

You're talking about shipping containers on the ground. What about the ones on wheels that are in neighborhoods that we know have been We'll follow the the International Building Code on that. So, but they're that doesn't mean they're grandfathered in, though. Oh, no. Nothing is grandfathered by this the way this ordinance is currently written. So, when you pulled the information like this from other towns, what towns did you We looked in Kansas City. We l basically I went on to AI and I looked for any shipping container ordinances in state of Kansas. So, they're all over. probably the same thing you did, DJ. And you can find them in almost every community, whether it's a onepage ordinance or a 50-page ordinance. So, I tried to keep this short and modified for us.

Well, and that's kind of what the process what I was looking for was communities that were had already taken action on this and done something with it and and turned around and had to change it. So, with storage containers in the city of Pittsburgh currently, and I drove around about 45 minutes, uh, looking at storage containers, storage sheds, storage buildings, um, the majority of them are not pitch roof and they're not sighted to the primary structure. So, we're adding and that's why I'm essentially opposed to that section of this because we're adding an additional thing to prevent people from trying to store their items or lawnmowers, whatever. We're already in agreement. We don't want people living out of these things. Um, I think the pitch route and sighting will initiate some kind of a sneaky world where they're going to try to do that because it looks like a home. So, if it's just a storage building, then they're just going to put storage items in there. So, there's twofold. And again, it just took me some time to get responses back for some other areas. So, um, I would make a motion to

I got a question. Go ahead. Go ahead. So, if we approve this shipping container ordinance, you say they have to be uh on a concrete pad, boated down. I understand that because of the wind would blow them, maybe possibly blow them over, whatever. But if you own a storage building, I don't know what you call it. Do they don't have to be bolted down or on a foundation, right?

But there's all different types and sizes of storage buildings. So, I think we're talking about multiple different things and maybe there's all different sizes of shipping containers, too, that the building codes are going to dictate that based on size and square footage. It's a lot like our you don't even need a permit in the city of Pittsburgh to set a 10 x 120 square foot. You we just see them move those in from Red Barn out there. If they're not hooked down to a permanent foundation, then you don't pay property tax on that. You're asking me questions. Um, do you need a do you need a permit to do this? Because this you will shipping containers. Yes, by this ordinance you will need a permit. What's the permit going to cost?

Uh, it depends on the scope. It's permits are based on the valuation of the job. Valuation of the container. Okay. That's a good point that you mentioned that we see a lot of sheds. People do they do they have to get a permit to move those sheds in? Anything over 120 square feet. And what is that size-wise? 10 x 12 10 x 12 but we don't require them to be on a foundation over 120 square feet we can get into building codes that may require it again it comes back down to size. So what is a shipping container normal square feet? I don't know what all sizes they come in 40 40 by 10 about 400 square feet.

They're like six and a half 40 foot 20 foot 15 foot. I think somebody said 400 square feet. They're hard ones are really hard to find. I just like I said I worry that we're trying to make this more expensive for people to try to secure their items. And I think part of the lawnmower theft and the that's one side of it. We've got a lot of four-wheeler lawnmower theft and people are trying to use these containers to to store those things, but we're going to make it very difficult for them to put one on site. And the other side of it is I just I don't want people trying to live out of them and and be dangerous environments, heat exposure, all those type of things. So I mean um

So what do we need to change then to uh just the section for me? Again, I the section that requires the pitch roof and the siding to match the primary structure. If we omit that um and just have it to where they, you know, they have to paint it to where it matches the the property um add a line to where it does need to be recessed behind the home where it's not, you know, um in line with the property, but it's essentially something to be put. So, these would all be considered a secondary structure.

That's what they're considered. So, zoning ordinances already have a rule in there for where these can sit. Yeah. And they're they're just going to model that being a storage container, a storage building. Uh they're just going to model that saying if I could set a storage building there, I can set this there. Is there a clause in there that can't put them on a vacant lot either? Has to have a primary structure. Primary structure. Yeah. And these are not them. These are secondary structure. EJ, what section is that that has the pitch roof? What's page three? Section 4D. Uh I think it's uh number three. Three.

Would you be okay if we if we approved the ordinance as is and omitted that? Yeah, primarily with this. And again, if we have issues with it with with citizens, we can come back and reook it. But that's the one that stands out right now. I'd move that we approve this ordinance. You you have one more question. And not that I want to hold this up anymore, but about the sales of these uh if do you want to put something in here to create a clause where people can throw them out on the street for sale? Well, if you if I mean the ordinance the draft ordinance already says you can't have anything printed on it, does it not?

It painted correct remove all signage. So, if it doesn't have signage, I think it's inferred that if you want to sell them, you have to have commercial. You have to have an industrial property where you where they're allowable and then you can put whatever you want on them and they can stack up. But I don't I mean, it doesn't sound like you want to have the whole point of the ordinance is to keep them from just being on the in the neighborhoods. And I I think it's probably okay from what I'm hearing. Is that Well, I think I can advertise to sell these. They're stored out here and my industrial site. Come out and look at They're not hard to find if you want to sell them, but I don't think we need to sell them off the corner of Fourth and Olive.

No. And I say just some of our businesses that are currently there if new business coming into Pittsburgh want to have this as an option uh to sell them. And I'm talking I'm not talking about the 40footers, but I mean this is going to cover the 8-footers as well. So, you know, you can you can have a small lot um and put 10 of these things for sale. We're just going to make sure we're covering those bases, too, while we're making this happen. So, um, so if somebody has property in town and they have them for sale, it depends on whether it's zoned for the sale of them. Sounds like you probably if you're selling them and transporting them that quickly and moving them, you probably ought to keep them in an industrial zone, not in a res. One with a phone number. Yep.

I think there's a couple places they have them with phone numbers. That's not allowed then. Not allowed. So do we add a line says if um so you were saying D3 omit D I I D3 is what it was. Yeah. In section four. Section four. And so I would move to approve the ordinance with the omission of section 4 item D section three. It's been moved to approve. Is there a second? It's expensive. U second it

approved. It's expensive. Uh motion in second. All in favor say I. I. All oppose. Same time. Thank you, Dexter. Thanks, guys. Good job, Dexter. Thank you. It's been a long walk. It was uh what I found. Acceptance of property donation 110 North Walnut. Consider staff request to accept the donation of property property located at 110 110 North Walnut from the Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas, Inc. with the property [clears throat] to be developed into a dog park.

Good evening, mayor, commissioners. Um, if you recall, the launch students presented to you at the March 10th meeting on their design and idea for um, basically Second Walnut right over here behind El Cabayo. um that property is currently owned by community health centers. So um they um have a partnership there with the launch program and they are looking to donate that to the city to become a city park. Um this evening I have Becky Gray with Building Health, Inc. uh which is a subsidiary of Community Health Center here to give you just a little bit of history on that partnership and then Chris Voy will also um just give you a little insight on what we see the future of that property becoming a dog park. So I will invite Becky come on up. Thanks, Kim. Um, good evening, commissioners and staff. It's good to see you all. I am Becky Gray. I'm the executive director of Building Health, Inc., which is a nonprofit subsidiary of Community Health. Um, this project came to my attention in 2023 when I first took this position as community health center was um purchasing the lot from the city's land bank. It's my understanding that Kim's predecessor asked the launch students what they might dream up to do with this property. Um, and they had great dreams. Um, they designed a wonderful park. Then it came under the community health cent's ownership so that the students could fund raise and have a nonprofit for the funds that they raise um to be contributed to. And so building health then was assigned the task of facilitating the students as they move through the project introducing them into the community. You might recall that the launch program's purpose is to give students real life entrepreneurial experience in the business community. And so, uh, building health, Inc., I I was able to, um, convene different meetings with the students and different business owners as well as philanthropists and community groups

where they gained a lot of feedback on their design, simplified it over the the two uh, three years that we've been working on this. um and have come down to a uh a much simpler design that still includes shade structures, still includes active um activity. And I believe um Mr. Ly is going to tell you about that. But I just wanted to say thank you for the opportunity to um serve in the community in this capacity to engage the students with all of the business owners, yourselves, city staff that they were engaged with. Um and I really look forward to seeing um this dog park in action. First of all, I'd like to thank uh all the hard work from the PHS launch students. They put in a lot of hours in this and did a lot of good fundraising and everything like that. Of course, I'd like to thank CHCSK for their very generous donation and this has really become a very good uh community partnership. There's been a lot of donors and they're making this come to fruition. And that's whereas the parks department and other um departments in the city are going to work together to get this bring this to life. And so we're going to be moving pretty quick. We have some donated gazeos that'll be going up pretty soon. You'll be seeing some work done with that. And then everything else is just that there's going to be some trees planted and everything. It's just going to be it's going to be a nice green space and a place for the downtown citizens to have their dogs place to go. So,

every park has a name. What's the name? That's in the works right now. Oh, so the city gets another park. Mhm. Who puts up fencing, other stuff for the donation money will pay for the fencing and we will we will help the city. The parks department will assist with the building of the fence. But yeah, as far as all the money raised from the launch program, [cough] pay this that along with other donations. We'll help. Well, our teams will help with the labor, but everything else has been covered by a donation for the most part. Does these dog parks have water lines for water? They

Yeah, it's part of like utilities around there. Yeah, it'll have its own we'll have separate water for the vegetation. Pittsburgh Beautiful is big with they're going to provide a lot of vegetation. How big is this lot? The lot itself. I'm not for sure. Sorry about that. Is it big? It's smaller than the other dog park. It'll be smaller. Yes. Have you seen the one at uh It's definitely smaller than that. Schlanger. Yeah. Yeah. Will it have two sections? Like Slanger has a section for big dogs and and for smaller dogs. That's the plan right now. Yep.

I had uh there's been a lot of talk about uh dog trainers coming to the new park and and having training sessions. Um, so that's I mean it it's going to benefit a lot of people and it looks like they've got a pretty good design idea for the layout. It looks appealing for a hangout spot, I guess.

I think it's important to recognize real quick, just go backwards what this thing looked like four years ago when there was a building on there that was a nice old historical building, but it wasn't very nice. um it was old and it's gone and um the community really just has thrown so many opportunities to solve this and what can it be and with the with the knowledge that right across the street is the miners memorial and um you know after not just jumping on the first idea but really thinking about something that the parks department can have that we don't have to maintain and take care of because we obviously have one of you mentioned about 14 other parks already but um it's a it's kind of fun to see the community come up with something that they want and have such a big hand in putting it together and really giving it an easy handoff to us. There's wasn't a lot of ask about can you guys come up with 50 grand or 100 grand. It was just like can you help us put the stuff together and and are you willing to take it? So appreciate everybody's vision because it was it was an eyesore there for a few years.

When's the scope of completion and availability to the public? Uh I can't give a date on the total completion but there'll be a lot of done right away. like within the next couple weeks. We'll see. Any other questions? I have a motion to approve. So move second and seconded. All in favor say I. I. Thank you. All oppose. Same time. Thanks, Chris. Thanks, Chris.

Item G, revised purchase card program policy. Consider approval of the revised purchase card program policy. Good evening, mayor and commissioners. Um, you should have before you the the updated purchase card uh program policy. There are just some minor changes. We really just um did some reorganization of the current policy that is at the end of the um it's like on page seven of the purchasing policy. So, it's uh we pulled it out. So, it's its own policy here. And um some of the key changes that we made um were just some formal policy structure and we added some definition and scope to it. Uh we also added some changed the spending limits. It did have 5,000 monthly limit. Um we changed the wording to say not to exceed 5,000 per billing cycle. Um we had u a formal they we talk about a formal reconciliation of the workflow of what needs to happen um when they're bringing their receipts in. Um let's see we also expanded the prohibited list. Um one of them uh the gift card transaction splitting capital equipment are prohibited and also computer software or hardware without it approval. Um we um the departmental meal approval um for any meals or snacks for departments have to have the department director pre-approval. Um and then it just established um uh the finance department as a centralized program administrator and uh and then it had clear supervisor and director roles. So not a lot of changes to that. Um, one thing I wanted to note that with the new Tyler technology system that we're putting in, there is um, the functionality within that to have

electronic workflow for submission and uh, approval, supervisor approval through that with the PCARDS. Um, we will have some training sessions that will be provided. So all those that have PE cards will go through a training um for that uh where they can scan the receipts in and it could all be maintained within uh our system and easy retrieval for document um retention. So questions,

we have the ability or someone in the city staff or is that through the issuing bank if if there's a need to make the purchase on a on a PC card that is exceeds the $5,000 limit, can you adjust that? Can you call and have that approved? I I believe we have um the ability I would have to check with Jared Peterson, but I think we have the ability to log in and up those limits for that particular um purchase. I mean, I know a lot of businesses aren't going to want to accept it with you by anyway, but for the ease of purchase, I just I think it's important you be able to exceed that if necessary. Yes. With proper approval. Yes. Not just any Not just any PECard holder can just call and say, "Hey, I want my

No, it would have to have um a departmental approval for that limit to be increased." And then it would be I think we can do that online now. I don't think we have to call in Uh, something I brought up with Darren when I met with him this week about this policy, um, something I would like to see moving forward is, um, just additional training for all the employees that are going to be card holders, uh, certificates from that training and it being tracked from your department. That way, it's in their file. We we show they have had the training and and maybe, I don't know, make it more frequent than, um, one time. Maybe have it annually or, uh, bianually. Uh, a lot of the receipts that I went through, um, going through all these cards, um, they were they were itemized to a point, but it wasn't detailed to a grouping that explained what they were purchasing and why.

Um, so I'd like to see more detail um on the um accompanying sheet that shows the purpose and you've done well with putting the the details in this policy, but um, just a lot more detail on what they're spending and why. There were receipts that came through. Uh if I recall, there was one that was almost $900 that was approved that didn't have any receipts previously. So, we're trying to get away from any of that activity. Um so, the devil's going to be in the details. So, the more details we have u the more we can track this and and make sure they're and again, as the mayor said, uh 90% of the people in this uh city were using them correctly um and doing the right thing, but there was a window where that wasn't happening. So, just want to stay on top of it. I I do want to bring to your attention that we have a purchase card cold card holder agreement and li liability acknowledgement that when a um a person gets a PC card, they need to sign off on that and read through um the requirements which mirror what's in the policy. We also have a pecard lost receipt affidavit that if they have a lost receipt, we're going to have them start um filling these out and and we will monitor them so we know how many receipts um how many times if they're habitual um person without the receipts. So

misuse or miss follow policy. Well, I mean the whole idea is to make it easier on everybody. So, if we have an employee that just doesn't get it, then we'll just take the card because it's not going to we don't want to create, you know, hours and hours of, you know, it's hard for the directors to go track down a receipt from somebody. It's just um but it's going to be it's going to be a lot easier to track if that's becoming a pattern for somebody with the affidavit.

I know when we spoke about this last time, Darren, you threw out the number of uh reducing the overall cards to 30. Um, and that was kind of the number that I was looking at, too. I think part of the problem that the city was having was there were too many cards uh fluctuating. Uh so I would I would recommend that we move the total number of usage cards for reduce it down to 30 and if we find that we need additional uh to keep the city running then we address those when they come up. And we did Oh, go ahead.

I would like to go ahead and comment on that. Um part of the reasoning for PE cards is because an individual is responsible for their purchases and um they're not sharing their card with someone. when you um share a card, you lo you lose your accountability and your your card integrity. So um and loss of in internal controls and your financial oversight. So it also slows down the process for managers to get their parts quickly. So um these people out in the field that have PE cards that need to go, they don't want to have to hunt down their manager um to get a PC card to go purchase something. And if they gets to where it's a point where they feel like, well, we're just going to have to go back to house accounts. So when we walk into the business, we can just charge that and then we run back into the same problem where there's nobody held accountable because we get these invoices that we don't know who charged. [clears throat] So those are the things that I see um with reducing the number of PE cards is I'm going to have to hand my card off to somebody for them to go purchase something and then that loses the integrity of that card. So,

I I've worked at the fire [clears throat] department 25 years and we had credit cards, two I think the chief had one and there was a one at station one. Three shifts use that same card. We'd go make purchases. We'd come back, we'd have an itemized statement, we'd have cash reg receipts. We kept track of that. The problem, well, let me back this up. We have a policy that you know we've had in place and if you read the policy and follow the policy there wouldn't have been any issue. Then similar we have a new policy. The reason I started looking at the credit card because we overcharge people on their taxes and we're looking for a way to reduce expenses and a lot of people employees includ included told me to look at the credit cards. So, I started looking at credit card information. I found out we had an employee that was abusing a credit card and went on for months and the policy is you make the purchase on the credit card, you have the itemized statement, you have the cash register receipt, your direct supervisor, department head looks that over. If this approves this purchase, they initial it like they could and it goes to finance. a lot of how how did that happen? How did that employee that was basically stealing from our citizens? How did that get not checked out by the department head and initial that this is legitimate? It goes to finance and then every commission meeting the commissioner sat here and have to approve appropriation ordinance. I have never dreamed that I was approving somebody stealing from the citizens. Basically, that's what it was. And like DJ was saying, there's been

some of these cards, it's hard to read whatever there is and uh cash register receipt. You can't make it out. Uh, so I think the the burden is put on your department, whoever takes care of that and it should go to the department head or supervisor. You look at this purchase, you sign off of it, put your initials on this. If your employee is not using it like it should, then it doesn't go to finance. But a lot of that was happening. and it was going to the finance and whoever's in charge of paying this. It it would be a nightmare for me if I was the person having to do it like [snorts] you don't have the documentation. Why did we get away from following up on the policy?

I'm sorry I was not here at that time.

Let's take it one thing at a time. The Pecard was introduced many years ago to to rectify the lack of accountability in spending money. So, um maybe the fire department had it nailed, but um there was a time where there were so many revolving accounts at Napa, at General Machinery, um without city IDs that people were just charging. I mean, I remember when I first got here, I went to a store and they asked me, they recognized me and said, "Aren't you don't you work for the city?" And I said, "Yeah." And they tried to give me a discount on some stuff I was buying on the weekend for my car. So, waste, fraud, and abuse is why you implement a PECard. Um the reason and and and I've and I've talked to the staff um you know is there a right number across the board the department heads and the managers are adamant that the amount of uh accountability that would they would lose if they gave one card to a department and people were buying it and they had to be accountable for okay who bought a who was in general machinery this week and bought something and what is it the reason we um solved so quickly the riddle of it. Your question is why did it take two months? Well, it took two months because the first month the accountability um system that we have put in place came to us and said I've got a problem with some of these expenditures. And so we talked to the employee and we gave them a month and asked them if there was anything else that we needed to know and when it [clears throat] was repeated we took the action necessary. the pecard process that we have in place actually provides us the opportunity to do that and out of all the pecards that we have which is roughly 90 um over the course of at least 10 years I think we put the policy in that's the only individual that we found that was in fact misusing the pecard and it was very clear how they misused it what they misused it for and

it was easy for us to take the corrective action I think when you give it to a department head and everybody in that department and depending on the department there may only be one person purchasing anyway but when you get into utilities and police and IT um there's a need to purchase stuff on a regular basis quickly and so the departments have been pretty clear to me that they really wanted us to to push to um put the new policies in place um watch the rest of the year see how we do with the new financial management system the workflow that she mentioned that's going to be automated so it isn't the burden that you described on every individual having to run out everything and see how we do. Um I think um that's a that's a fair request by the department heads and it's one that I'm comfortable bringing today and say um let's um we don't think and I appreciate whoever said it a while ago. We don't I think it's way higher than 90% of our employees that use the PEARB. Um they're professionals. They try to do the right thing. But it did help us catch somebody that was abusing it. And it would be an administrative nightmare, I think, to go backwards and start using revolving accounts or one card per department and try to keep track of what everybody's spend is because right now we do have a record of what an individual spent with that card and they have to be accountable for it and it's pretty quick to do.

But don't you agree that the supervisor or the department head needed to look at those purchases and sign off initial them before they go to find how how did that happen? Well, without getting into too many specifics, um, because I don't want to get sued, um, it was a very small department. It wasn't a a department with 50, 30, 45 people in it. Um, and the supervisor of that department basically, um, and you're talking about a one, two, three department, you know, there's just a couple of people there. And so, um, you know, it happens. But the amount of of of waste, fraud, and abuse that was tied to the revolving accounts was, I'm sure, a hundred times worse than this one incident. And those [clears throat] things went on forever. This gives us an ability to monitor this on a regular basis. But it's a fair question, Chuck. I mean, I think um I think it's important to separate um utilities who you saw half of the room was filled with their their their section heads and and their division heads and and um you know I there's at least um six or seven people in IT that buy stuff not just for it but for a lot of departments. So I think it's a a sound policy. I think um you've brought it to our attention a few months ago when Missy got here and with everything else she has going on took it serious and worked this policy. I'm asking you to give us a chance to continue with the number of cards we have um and and see how we do. Um not that any system is perfect, but I think the system we have is much more perfect than the system we would be going back to, which is less cards.

Well, you mentioned the 30. I remember you. So, yeah, I'm think if it doesn't work out, then we could up it

because the department heads um we've been talking about it for probably three months and um I you know, I want to appease you all. you're my bosses and um you know it was early on and it was hey what are we going to do and it's like if you want to cut them I guess you can cut them to 30 but um thinking through it with with Missy who's our new finance director who has a lot of experience it it seems like um 30 would be a step backwards administratively it would be very difficult for the department heads with everything else they do to try to track how their pec card in their department is being spent that's and if any of them want to speak I'd be happy to hear from them because I'm not making this up I mean we've had a lot of discussions and

I'll give an example. Um I only have 20 people beside myself and we have four PC cards. Out of those four PC cards, it's just uh uh managers. So we have codes, we have trash, we have building services and myself. [clears throat] In those uh for instance, building services might be driving around that day, run across a dilapidated structure. PD may call them say we need a board and secure. They have to run to Home Depot and get plywood. If he had to come find me, it might be tomorrow before he's going to get that. Same with codes. They might need they might have a broken belt on a mower or a flat tire. We have flat tires on the trailer. They might have to run down to Kansas Land and pay for that or get a belt or get something. If they have to come find me every single time, I'm going to be driving around just handing out a card. It It's right now their name is on that card. And I think you commended me two weeks ago when we had this for our pec card.

The way we follow the purchase, we write it all down. We we put a description on it. But it's not going to work very good for me if we have to run around handing out a one PEC card. And then each PC card has a limit on it. So if we go to one PC card, are we going to be able to raise that limit? Not that my department won't need it, but I'm sure Matt has to buy a lot of stuff and he's probably got more guys that need PE cards than I do. But, uh, would we be able to raise that limit? I I would think we would. Yeah. And would we want that on one card? You're right, Dexter. I did commend your department and what you did because you looked at the charges, whatever was bought, you initialed it, you signed off on it, and it went somewhere. A lot of the ones

Well, and I think that's what Darren's asking for, correct me if I'm wrong, but to give us a chance to get that up to everybody to that standard. Right. I don't I don't know why if it it was original policy how we got away from that. Well, that's my concern. I guess the the number of cards that are out there is is roughly a third of the city employee base and and we had one employee. So you're so one that's actually not fraudulent one fraudulent employee but that doesn't mean that there wasn't other abuse. Fraudulent is when you put down for IT supplies and you buy snacks. That's another fraudulent account.

So, what I'm saying is the amount of cards that are out there, and I've heard this from lots of employees, uh, and may may or not been a card holder, but the amount of cards that were created in the vacuum we're in right now were out of convenience for the use to make things easy to make happen. The easy thing may not always be the right thing. like if it takes us to go back and make sure that we've got checks and balances and the supervisors are aware of the charges that we're not chasing them after they've been made and I I completely understand the argument of you know the cards that are in play do this we almost had a million dollars uh worth of charges last year the stuff that I've gone through again there was a lot of things that were exactly for what the city was needing done but there was also a lot of receipts and a lot of inconsistencies not just off one car not just off the one employee that was removed. There was a lot of of lack of information and that's why I brought up I'd like to see more information on the receipts, more details. Um, and again, with the reduced amount of cards, maybe 30 is not the right number, but a reduced amount of cards is going to make it easier for missing to track and and work those. It's also going to make it easier for the commission to review them. So, it's taken me, I don't know, close to a month and a half to look at all the cards and go through all the information. and I got flash drives. So, I know um if I look at the stuff on paper, it would take twice that long. So, again, we need to find a happy medium on the number. I I firmly believe that we have too many cards. There's too many out there. Uh

too many for you to review or just too many because we're spending the wrong Well, let's let's grab all all five of the aspects. The the things that are being spent on it out of convenience. uh there are too many you know for the commission shouldn't have to review them all. We're doing it retroactively because there was misuse. So we're chasing that. So how much time is being wasted on the followup when we can get out in front of it by reducing the number of cards and track it closer. So what was the misuse other than the one employee?

Uh I mean we talked about other things that were purchased. I don't have any of that in front of me, but we can go back and look at it and we can revisit the things that were I mean lots of lots of lunches from other employees. Um I mean

but that's a misuse. I mean I want to be real careful when I say this because I don't mean it disrespectfully, but we had a brief discussion about how people spend and what they spend on and who buys food for who. Um, and and that the city on the on the backside, there's a lot of the department heads and everybody that said, "Okay, I'm just I'm done buying food for anybody, and that's fine." I wouldn't call that a misuse. I mean, because you guys um happen to not be in support of that, and that's been made very clear to us. Um, for the 14 and now 15 years that I've managed here, providing water, uh, providing a meal to an employee when you think they need it was part of the discretion of the management. So, um, there was definitely misuse by the employee that we've spoke about two or three times here tonight, and I get that. But when I hear misuse, I think of waste, fraud, and abuse. Um, waste is discretion. Waste is completely um dependent on who the person is. I think it's important that we have the opportunity. Um, and I think it's gone away in the last two or three months to to to buy water and snacks and have have some coffee and things at city hall, but you guys made it clear that you were uncomfortable with it. And I think what we're saying here today is um we've seriously backed off on that across the board from what I can tell. And um but I don't I don't think that there was some huge misuse that would cause us to to reduce the number of cards if if that's only going to be administratively more difficult for the employees to do their jobs, mainly the management. Um I don't see anything where it's justified. It may not it may not be uncomfortable with it and that's a whole another discussion. And I mean, you guys being comfortable with how the city operates is great, but I don't want anybody to think that other than the one employee we found that there was anybody getting away with any misuse that wasn't um under their under their minds, something that they were completely supposed to do as part of the management structure of

the city and support employees and people that are visiting because I I just haven't seen it. I know we've talked around it and everybody has a different threshold. There was there there has been no blatant abuse of the cards. No. No. So the one you said there were other there were other misuses were there. Yeah. Did you did you look at any of the information? I looked at some of them. Yeah. But you know where were the where were the

but it's very unfortunate that the ones we were looking at and aside setting the one gentleman aside that it wouldn't be fair to other departments that are doing the right thing. say like Dexter's department, the one department that you see that was doing the majority of what I would say was not allowed. It was just like considered the norm. It was okay. But there's other departments that weren't doing it at all. And I think they're going to be paying the price for the ones that that we saw that it was because we did look at at this. And uh don't you think like Darren said though that that's been addressed and that's well for the time being it's been made clear that

everybody's always on their best behavior until it happens later down the road when nobody's watching and that's that's another part of this. So let's be proactive and not reactive. And you know it goes back to us. We were looking for ways to cut things in the budget and then we was asking about and looking at cards and um the policy was always in place, but the I think it falls back on who was in charge of the people in that department and then now you're you're changing the billing cycle is the billing cycle before was it 5,000 each billing cycle and billing cycle was two times a month. Is that how it used to be?

No, it's pretty much the same. We just said up to a month. We just put the wording in there up to because not everybody needs $5,000,

right? And I understand that. But, you know, it's kind of like, you know, your time cards are supposed to be on in on a certain time. You know, your receipts are supposed to be in. You know that you have this card and you've been allowed to use it and you signed for it. You read it. You understand it, but you're not doing what you're supposed to. And that's where it's getting caught up in. And I I really and truly believe that there are are people that have always been using it the correct way. But the ones who had not that thought that it was correct what they were doing were they were just doing it because they could and maybe the department head was letting them do it. I don't know. But it wasn't right. It was still there was policy in place. And

well, and this keeps getting pushed as a punishment. It sounds like a punishment. It's not. It's a way to be able to monitor this better, more effectively. And that's the direction that I'm trying to express here is that there's a lot of cards out there that and if it's really they're using if the cards there and for that person to get snacks and water and those kind of things, then that's what I was talking about before, then the departments need to budget in as a line item their their need for those things and plan it throughout the month. And there'll be pop-ups. I get that. But put it as part of their budget. So, they're going to try to spend $1,500 on water and food and snacks and those things and we track it that way and it can be purchased. We don't need a card for that every year. We don't need a card for that every every quarter. And that's that's the argument back and forth is well, they're not spending it on, you know, snacks and water and lunches anymore. Yes, we were the city was spending lots of money on lunches, taxpayers money on lunches while people are on duty for the city, not going out of town. So reducing cards will also assist with reducing the opportunity out there. And again, I don't want this to sound like punishment because it shouldn't be that. There's just there's instances and there's there's things that have been identified that we shouldn't have been doing and shouldn't have happened, shouldn't have been allowed to happen and it did. So now we're trying to get out in front of it for the whole commission.

The cards are a tool. I'm sorry. Go ahead. I'm just saying it's it's it's a way to get out in front of it so we're not chasing them. the Well, you are you going to get out in front of it by just by issuing 30 cards on the Well,

the cards are Well, it seems like the confusion is on our side is the card is a tool. The the spending policy is what you're allowed to buy has nothing to do with the card. It has everything to do with a policy. And and you guys made it clear. You don't want people to eat, you know, you don't want people to feed their staff. message received. The pecard is I mean is just a tool that gives us accountability to make sure that if somebody is abusing it, it's it's much faster and easier to identify than if you have people sharing cards. And some of the department heads are here and I'd appreciate they can come up and talk about why sharing pe why sharing 20 or 30 pec cards is a step back from everybody having it and being accountable for the the spend they have.

Yeah. I think for me I we don't have a lot. I mean I have two within our department. Megan and I each have one. Um if a card has my name on it and I'm committed to being responsible with it. I don't want to hand it to someone else. That's like my bank card. I wouldn't do that. If we need to buy something in my department, I'm probably not gonna send someone. Um, Megan would take it and go. Um, for the bigger departments, I can't speak for them, but I can't imagine having 10, 15, 20, uh, men and women working under me and taking my card left and right. When it came time to reconcile that, that would be an absolute nightmare. And I think the accountability is gone. I don't know how you would prove that Rick spin it or Jeff went an hour later. Like I can't even imagine that. I can't. Again, I can't speak to that. Matt, Dexter, you guys can have bigger departments. But if my name's on a card, I'll be responsible for that card. I would rather not someone take it and swipe it. From a retail standpoint, if you check ID and it says Kim Froman and they're trying to use my card and it's Donick, I mean, that might also cause some issues. I'm not sure people check IDs as much as we'd like them to anymore, but with fraud and theft and all that, that is kind of concerning for me. So, from my standpoint, from a previous employer, if you abused your gas card, you lost it. And that was how it worked. So, it was a privilege. Um, if you abuse it or do something wrong, then you lose it rather than taking it and then having us adjust. I don't know. Just makes me uncomfortable to hand somebody my car with my name on it. But I'll do whatever we need to do. So, as far as the police department, I'm I'm sure we probably have the most pec cards. Um, so we're a 24/7 365 operation. We have officers that are continually going to KATC, traveling, needing to purchase gas. Um we are mandated by the state of Kansas to have minimum of 40 hours of training

per year which oftentimes requires us to travel out of town. So we do have um some of those cards for travel for those uh supervisors, lieutenants on up that may not have a PC card. Um so if I mean there's a lot to talk about. Um could we give up a couple? I don't know. maybe a couple of them. I don't know. I'd have to visit with staff specifically, but right now our lieutenants on up have PECards. It's not uncommon for staff um to need to either check out from the front office. We have stringent standards of checking that out. Um I don't know if we've ever had any issues, if we have, it's very few, of not turning in receipts or or things of that nature. Um, it'd be as Kim indicated, there's a concern if if if I gave a pec card then it'd be our responsibility to go and track it down. That would create a ton of extra work for our staff who is already uh busy as it is. Um, could we give up a few? I don't know. How many do we have exactly? I don't even know. We have a lot. We don't have a lot, but we've got enough to do what we got to do. We're 247. We have a homicide. We're working over the midnight shift.

Uh staff skips a meal. We're going to buy pizzas for our staff so they can continue to investigate. They're not going to go home. That's perfectly fine. So they're going to continue. So there's caveats to what we're talking about. Um just like the fire department too. Same situation.

Um if you ultimately it create a lot of extra work for our staff. I think as far as the PD is concerned and I'm assuming for rest of the divisions in in the city, I think our protocols and what we have been doing is working 99% of the time. Um, you know, at the PD, we try not to punish um or negatively affect all of our staff for one mistake by an employee. So, I'll just leave it at that.

[clears throat] One thing I'd just like to echo exactly what the police chief said. Um, we are again 24, you know, hours, 365. One of the things to consider too is the length of time it's going to take if we do go back to house accounts for the vendors to actually get paid. With the PE cards, they get paid pretty much immediately instead of having to submit the invoices to the city, wait for finance to process it, and then actually get the money paid on later on. So, it's one of those things for local vendors, smaller vendors especially to be able to get paid in a much quicker uh fashion. So, one thing to consider.

Well, Chief, I I know it worked when I was on the fire department. We didn't have everyone with the P card. It worked out and now [snorts] you [clears throat] guys are telling me it is not feasible. It's not going to work.

Well, I'm sorry. Go ahead. And uh but like like we're all saying, the ones that did look into this, I don't know, 95 97 98% of the employees follow the existing policy to the tea. And now you're asking us, the ones that did not follow us, just forget about it. They can still have a car. They're going to do better. That's what we heard. That's what we heard when uh we try to fix the uh over charging on property tax. A lot of people say, "Oh, we do better. We they're going to do better." No, we're we're going to do something. We're trying to reduce expenses. And it's not fair to every city employee that follows the policy and then you have a group that doesn't follows that policy. Is that fair that you know, I I I don't understand it, but

Oh, maybe I screwed it up when I said 30. Why don't we Why don't you let us go back? Matt, are you going to say anything? Matt's the one that's been the most one of the most vocal to me about BCards, but I I just maybe maybe 30 is not enough is what I'm saying. Maybe we do have to come up with a better number and we can work on that. But let's hear from Matt and then let's get out of here and we'll come back to you with a better recommendation. How's that?

Well, before you start talking, Matt, it makes it look like we're after the employee. We're trying to our job is to look after the citizens and when you have employees that feel entitled to lunches and on a regular basis and all the rest of the employees are following up. What do we tell the citizens? Hey, they're trying to do better. But go ahead, man.

Um, I don't know as I'm going to say anything that I haven't said previously. Um, I do probably have the most credit cards in the city. um between the staff. I mean, you saw all the staff that I had here tonight all has credit cards plus an additional mechanic credit card. I've got one with traffic. Um you know, Derek's a prime example. Derek's running around putting signs up, fixing signs, doing stuff. He's got to swing a general machinery to get some bolts, some lag bolts to put in a sign, do something like that. If he doesn't have that credit card with him, then now he's running around the city all over the place trying to chase down a credit card to buy one stinking $123 bolt to put back in a sign to get his job done from that. Having a reduced number of credit cards is a is a hindrance. I agree with Kim in the fact that I don't having a reduction in our department doesn't work. I mean, it just the people that have them that's as as a department head, that's my job to oversee that. And I understand that you you all have looked at everyone and I can't speak to everyone else's department. I haven't looked at them. I don't care. It's not my job. Um, but pinpoint what the issues are and identify those. Um, I I agree that you're not trying to and I understand that you want to have oversight and as a commission, it'd be easier to look at 30 statements versus a hundred. I get that. Um, but at the same time that is that will make it just doesn't work. I mean, I won't hand my card to an employee to go run to General Machinery because it'll take me three days to get back because I won't see him because I'll be in meetings or do whatever. Then I won't have a receipt. I mean, we have hard enough time. I mean, that's one of Dwayne's jobs. I'm lucky to have an assistant because of the number of staff that we have that he spends I don't know, Jake, what' you do? You did it for a long time. Would you spend a day and a half?

Probably three days. probably three days organizing, putting them in accordion folders, verifying that each employee, and we went back and we said, "This is your statement. This is your card." And we find cards where we've had guys where they're at Ron's and pulled the wrong card because they're all gray. So, they grabbed the wrong card and and just in this last statement, somebody bought something at I don't remember where it was nor $125 worth of something. He's like, "Hey, hey, hey, that's not" And it very easily could have been a purchase that I probably would have even signed off on because it's some tool or something. He's like, "No, no, no. bought that personally on that card cuz he didn't have a receipt for it. And he's like, "You don't need a receipt." Then he realized that he used the wrong card and that and he took it to finance. We got a statement. We got a credit card receipt. We attached that to the statement that said this was paid on the wrong card. He's reimbured finance. Here's a copy of that receipt on that statement. So, I get that. I understand all that. But I'm telling you that we have some operators at the water treatment plant that run around. When we were talking about sitting off samples, we have to take them to FedEx and UPS now. And if those guys work different shifts, I mean, we have an extra card outside of the superintendent, we also have a maintenance guy who has to buy tools and different things at different plants. So, I understand looking at the statement, but I'm telling you as a department head that holds the most credit cards, it's my responsibility to have those employees accountable for making those purchases. And prior to I was here um whenever I continued to pass the same receipt around that said fire station one or didn't say fire or just said fire and had batteries or did whatever and then we're passing the same I mean the house accounts were were I mean it was a bad deal. is a bad deal. And yeah, and we could stop that, too, and just stop paying vendors. But is that going to feel fine to our local vendors to say that, you know what, I know that there's 18 receipts here that are all worth under $200, but we're not paying you because your your sales staff who's trying to help us out in a pinch didn't get that name or didn't write that department down or didn't force a a printed signature that we could read.

And I don't know what the answer is. I but and I get it and I don't I'm not taking it as a punishment but it is that reduction for the cards that we have in our own the people that have cards are responsible for those cards and accountable for those cards and they use them on a daily basis and we're and again our daily is supposed to be 7 to3 but we run 24/7 365. So if we swing through and you know the guys work a double working through we got we just we try to take care of it or we got to run and get a part or we have to run to Home Depot for something that we don't have on what whatever the case may be and having to track stuff around it just makes it more challenging. Um and it it will it will it will complicate operations and so that's that's my two take. I mean, you know, we live at the mercy of we live at the mercy of city manager and he lives at the mercy of your decision. So, um, that's just kind of where it's at. So,

no, I I appreciate the feedback. Like I said, I it's important that the commission understands the need and want and and separates the two. Um, there's a lot of talk tonight about reactionary use for these cards and not um planned use. Um, and I think that's kind of what we're getting caught up in. There's got to be some common ground here that we can find that that makes sense. Um, so I don't know. I guess we can look at this poly policy and move it forward and then uh revisit the number of cards and the the type of use and the the window of um pre-planning some of these purchases. Maybe maybe that's the answer. I don't know. Well, I want you to I I mean, the positive is you you you know, you're you're the new governing body, okay? So, I I think you've made it abundantly clear that it's like, look, we're not comfortable with the way this PECARD's been used and we want it to change. All I'm saying is give give us a chance to prove to you that we are taking that to um you know, it's important to us and and we understand and we heard you. But what Missy was saying was I don't think I don't think the tool it's like the it's like I don't even want to say gun so I'm not going to but this is a tool. The pec card is just a tool. If our spending practices were out of line with what your comfort zone is we heard you and we're going to take that into account. Give us some time to not undo a very strong accountability tool that we have which is the pecard and see if we can't address it through our behaviors. And then if the pecard still causes you concern and you know we'll do whatever you want to do obviously um you're the commission but I I do want you to know we heard you but but I don't think the pecard reduction is is probably what the staff feels like is in the best interest right now for just smoothly moving forward with our busiest

time of the year and we still have our finance team inundated with the FMS system and everything else. Um, we hear you and we we're going I think you'll see that we have that I know for one. The food thing is what just my takeaway was the food was a big deal. Too many people are getting fed on the city's dime. You're in town. I think it's pretty clear to everybody that that's that that's been heard and they're going to take it. But um we want to we want to do the right thing, but I don't know that the PC card number is the issue as much as how but the PC cards were being used. Is that fair, Missy? You're looking at me like, "Shut up. Let me talk." No, no, you're good. Um I I mean, you think about too, this finance position has been empty for how long? I mean, like

ever. Yeah.

There's been a lot of in-n-outs there. And so, you know, now that I'm here, I I want to be able to watch the pecards and I will look them look at them and if I see somebody that is using it too much for meals or whatever or they're not returning in their receipts, we can freeze their card until they come into compliance. We you keep talking about we brought up about food and none of us are opposed to a department buying pizzas, birthday cake, cupcakes, whatever for employees. What we're opposed to is that we work all day in an office and hey, let's go have lunch. And you know, it's not fair to the other employees. I I don't think mass guys go uh and have lunch uh $100 lunches, three of them. I don't think uh sanitation department uses taxpayers money uh to pay for their lunch. You know uh here recently I talked to well I talked to a lot of people that have cards and different businesses and they they do like like they used to like we used to. If you're out of town on training we go to league. I don't have a car but the city pays for our motel room and pays for our meal. What's wrong with that? The issue is that one department that I feel is my words, they felt entitled that hey, the lunch is on the taxpayers. That's the issue. You know, if you you get that under control, which now like somebody mentioned earlier, yeah, uh we're the bad guys because we're looking at trying to answer to the taxpayers and reduce cost. And when you see stuff like this that How long has this been going on? I don't know. I've been on commission 13 years. I've never had to look at receipts. I didn't think I'd ever have to, but when you do and you get your eyes open to

something, something is not right. And we have a policy that's not been followed. Uh it should have been. And 99, I'd say 99% of our departments follow that policy to a tea. And it's not fair to those people that follow it when others don't. So, I don't know. I don't Have you looked at the receipts the last two months for that department? Huh? Have you looked at the receipts for the last two months for that department? Well, yeah, I have. How's it How's it looking? They've changed. Yeah. Well, that's kind of what I was hoping. I mean, give us a chance to I mean, that's Why would they have changed? Because we looked at it, Aaron. If If we hadn't looked at it, nothing would have changed, right?

So, but we're we're we're labeled that we're after employee. We're not after employees. We're trying to do what's right for the citizens, you know. Well, yeah. Well, we didn't say you're after us. I mean, I've heard that mentioned. So, you know, and if that's if that's what wants to be said, yeah, that's not that's not coming from me. My job. So,

Missy, I would just ask under under section 9 that we add u revolving training on use of the cards, some some type of training as a card holder responsibility. So the card holders um get reminding reminders throughout the maybe once a year twice a year makes sense. I don't know. So just that they do they do this some training on proper use of the card that falls in line with this policy. Uh and then there's something that's put with their file that they've completed it and they're aware. Again, we're trying to look at preventative. Don't you think a sheet that's lists what they can use it for, what they can't use it for the and signed by them, then Missy Missy gets it and puts it on file.

They did that. We have here got that. No, but I think um it was still abused, right? Yes, exactly. Darren, I think that no before um software that for the training, you know, the training and stuff, I think we can add uh training into that. We might ask it about that. We could put this in an online course that they had to go through and then we would have it recorded that they took that. She's referring to the the bank fraud case and the training that's that's going to follow up on that and that this is probably something we could just add to that. There's a Yeah. Before the company you what the company's called No Before.

No Before. It's It's a It's really meant for um any kind of cyber security, any kind of um malicious attack or any of that. It trains your people to be aware of things coming through email, that sort of thing. And but but there's a training part part to that that you take these these lessons. And um we had to do it at the bank because it was a compliance issue. You know, you had to do it to be um compliant. And we have we already have the software that we use for the fishing attacks and stuff, but there's a training module to it. And from that, you generally can create some kind of a training and then that records that that person took it annually or they took it twice a year or whatever. And it's just basically probably be a questionnaire where they had to click and click and click and click through it. And then

I still would like to know what percentage. You know, you guys went through all of these 15,000 pages. No, it was not many. Yeah, there were. There were three three cases. You counted it. Yeah. Did you have you had them? I was curious. No, I didn't have them. Were you guys curious about throwing a number out there, Doc? You don't have It was about 15,000. Yeah. But were you guys curious? I walked in and looked at them right there. 15. You didn't see anything that popped up that you thought, "Hey, this is not right." No, I did a sampling. I did a sampling. I'm not going to go through 15,000 pages. When you have that many things, you do samplings and see if you see a trend, then you follow up on it. Yes. Did you find anything you followed up on? No, I did not. Really?

But I don't know about percentages. I'm trying to look to the future and look forward so we have more things available to our employees to ensure that they're doing the right thing and they're not, you know, uh, having to be scoped and watched like So, are we okay if we make a motion on this to approve this with the addition of annual training? Let me start with that. Yeah, I'm okay with that. Did I read something? You're going to conduct random audits also or is not of departments. Make sure I have to tell you our auditors do pull Huh? Yeah, our auditors pull samples. We've had to provide samples this last week for our PE cards

on PE cards. Yes. They do it on a lot of different things, but PECards was one specifically they did. I move that we approve the new policy with the addition of annual training for PECARD holders. I got that. Okay. It's been motioned and seconded. All in favor say I. I.

I feel bad for the people who've been doing the right thing all along and Those people should be mad at the ones who have not been. And well, I think it's time that people realize that you have to do the right thing always and you're not going to get away with all that all the time. Thank you for the ones who do what they're supposed to. Uh any non-aggender reporting requests?

Yeah. So, two short things but important. Um I want to congratulate two employees on their retirement coming up on Friday, May 1st. Uh CC Bass was hired on December 31st, 2003 and spent 19 years serving the fire department. In 2022, he was transferred to property and sanitation department where he's done a great job as a city building inspector. Um, so we sad to see him go, but thanks for the nearly 20 years of service. And Sharon Stanley was hired on July 12th, 2010. Um, she served as our animal control tech. Um, I'm still in touch with her today. She's a wonderful person. She's one of the reasons that, um, that department has such a a glowing response by the community. Um, they're very kind and they u took their job real serious and she had a 16-year career and she is retiring. And I want to say congratulations to both of them. So, thanks for that opportunity, mayor. Congratulations.

Anybody else? I got one thing. I'd like to tell the um fire department, the police department, and the EMTs who were in a situation this last week where it was a life ordeath matter. And I just want you to know that the people behind in this town are behind you for your safety, for what you do. And we appreciate you. But I am so sorry that you had to go through what you did all because of the choice the bad choices of a few people and uh we're always behind you 100% and whatever you ever need to stay safe to keep doing what you're doing we're with you and we're praying for your people that they're on the road to recovery.

That's all I got to say. I have um I have a quarterly financial statement that has budget versus actual up through the first quarter. Thank you. I wanted to circulate. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Can she walk through this real quick? See you. This Yeah, this is our quarterly presentation. So Missy, you want to just go to the mic? You guys have any questions on that? I don't I didn't get a copy, but I've seen it 20 times. You want to walk them through what you're showing them and just No, no. I just No. Just tell the people at home what you're handing out.

So, really what this is just showing what what our adopted budget is for the year and then what we've spent year-to- date as of March 31st in that second column. This is just expenditures. And then it we've we've um 20 at this time it was 25% of our fiscal year was complete. So, if you look over in the percentage used, what you want to see is 25% or less. So, um you can see some are quite low and some are just a little over. So, for the most part, we're um on track on some um most of them. So, if you have additional questions or um concerns, just get with me um send me an email or come by the office.

It's pretty early in the year, but we'll do this every quarter. So, at mid year, she'll give you a similar report and probably have um more accurate numbers. When you get this early in the year, you're bringing in money and spending. It's kind of kind of wonky. Thank you for providing that. Yes. Thanks, Missy. Renew my motion to adjourn. Move by. Is there a second to adjurnn? Second. Move a second. All in favor of adjournment say I. I. I. All post same sign. We are journey.