City Council - Regular Meeting

Lee Summit has lots of local destinations, but where do you start? Green Street, a vibrant community space in the heart of downtown, is where Lee Summit comes together. Its three dynamic areas have something for everyone. Green Street Market is a modern event venue and home to the downtown Lee Summit Farmers Market. Green Street Lawn is a covered performance space hosting live music, family activities, and more. Green Street Grove is a mixture of gathering spaces, an immersive playground, and bold architectural features. And all three areas host community events year-round. So the next time you set out to enjoy the city you love, remember, meet at Green Street.

Hello Lee's Summit, I'm Laura and this is your Flash Briefing for the week of May 18th. City Council will meet for regular session Tuesday night at 6 in Council Chambers in City Hall. Meetings are open to the public or watched live on the City's YouTube channel. If you can't watch, catch the recorded meeting on demand on the YouTube channel or by subscribing to the Council Debrief Newsletter, which breaks down three to four key agenda items. Subscribe at cityofls.net. Heads up drivers, beginning May 19th, southbound 291 Missouri Highway will have a new traffic configuration between Blue Parkway and southeast Bayberry Lane. One lane will remain open to traffic in each direction. For more information, find the project link on the city's Facebook page or at modot.org. Arts and Culture is seeking artists for rotating public art exhibits in the City Hall lobby. Art pieces could include paintings, photography, drawings, mixed media, and more. It would also be rotated quarterly in the City Hall lobby and other city-owned public spaces. Apply today on the city's website. And kick off Memorial Weekend with the Fourth Friday's Art Walk and Music in the Park in downtown Lee's Summit on Friday, May 22nd. Find a full list of details at downtownls.org. A reminder, city offices will be closed on Monday, May 25th. Thanks for listening and have a great week.

Every time you turn on a tap, high quality water is ready. But where does it come from? In Lee's Summit, water flows from two trusted sources, the Missouri River and its surrounding aquifer. This water is collected and treated in the cities of Independence and Kansas City. In Independence, the Courtney Bend Water Treatment Plant operates 42 water wells. These wells reach 85 to 125 feet underground, drawing water up from the Missouri River Aquifer, an underground water source that naturally filters water through layers of soil and rock. The facility filters, cleans, and softens the water before pumping up to 7.5 million gallons a day to Lee's Summit. In Kansas City, the KC Water Treatment Plant draws water from the aquifer and the surface of the Missouri River. It then filters, cleans, and softens the water before pumping up to 25 million gallons per day to Lee's Summit. In Lee's Summit, Water Utilities controls the flow of these sources into the local system. Advanced software monitors the entire system, including three pumping stations and eight water storage tanks. which maintain the water's pressure as it moves through 639 miles of water mains, carrying it to your home and the homes of more than 100,000 citizens. Water utility staff collect samples from throughout the system and send them for extensive laboratory testing, ensuring your water is safe, meeting or exceeding state and federal standards. When you turn on a tap, you're accessing a vast system spanning hundreds of miles, each foot carefully planned and strategically maintained. A system that leverages innovation to harness nature, turning a vital life source into an ordinary convenience, bringing you safe, reliable, high-quality water 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. To learn more about Lee's Summit Water, visit lswater.net.

Traditionally, we think as police officers, those responding to law enforcement needs within the community. But honestly, we are there to serve our citizens, and our citizens do go into crisis. They do have mental health crises, and we're being called to those scenes on a regular basis. In order to help serve those citizens better, we did initiate the Crisis Intervention Team Program. These are officers that are specially trained to de-escalate crisis situations. Recently, we've brought co-responders onto the scene, licensed, qualified mental health professionals housed within our police department. and they respond with those officers directly to those scenes where a crisis is occurring so they can interact with that citizen and get them the help they need right there on that scene.

The co-responders are either a bachelor or master level in a behavioral health related field. They wear plain clothes. They don't carry weapons or anything like that.

I have a police radio that I listen to all day. Listen for, you know, those key words. Mental health, behavioral health, crisis.

There's a lot of officers that just call for me. I have my own radio number.

I also have the ability to self-dispatch to them and say, 982's en route. Officers en route. 914.

So typically I arrive after they've made it safe. I'll make contact and get kind of the rundown, and then I just kind of jump right in.

Like, hey, you know, my name's Allison. I'm a mental health professional. I'm here to help you. I'm not here to take you to jail or arrest you. Sometimes

All a person needs is a voice, someone neutral, someone outside that can listen. I do a lot of safety planning, including family, their support network. Who's close to you? If they're home alone, who can come over and hang out with you today? Can we lock away your sharps? Can we put up your meds? Do you need meds? Can we get you over to the urgent care to get you assessed for your medications? Some of them also are like, oh, I'm so glad you came. This made me feel so much better.

Our main goal as co-responders is to, one, get people connected to the services that they need and also divert from emergency rooms and jails.

And they almost get a different view of the police responding. That lets me know you care and the officers care. Please call the police.

How can we help you?

In 2020, we had 722 mental health related calls for service. 2022, by that time, 1,479. These mental health related calls for service are increasing. How we're responding to that is increasing the number of crisis intervention team officers we have available, as well as the number of co-responders we have available to respond on these calls.

So what I think is important for the community to know about the co-responder program is that we're here, we exist. All you have to do when you call 9-1-1 is ask for us. You know, say, hey, I want a co-responder to respond to this crisis and we'll go. I was really struggling about eight years ago. My personal journey with mental health and I met some amazing social workers and amazing programs that have helped me get to where I am today. I really couldn't see myself doing anything else. We want to help and that's what we love to do.

So I had a client, we got a call, she had some suicidal ideations and she really felt that she had nobody. And you know, in getting to know her story and getting to know who comes around and sees you, well then we found a support person and they responded immediately and we made a plan. I called back and checked on her in an hour and then I checked on her in two hours. We were able to get her into the additional services to where she talks to someone every week or more. I just took a person that really just thought they had nobody and nobody would show up for them and show them you do. And you'll be amazed who is in your corner if you just simply say, I need a little help.

Welcome to the Leaf Summit sign department. We are going to walk you through our process from start to finish. We make signs as needed here. It's not like we just go out into the field and place the speed limit sign here, no parking here. Our traffic engineers, they go through and they'll do field studies. They'll send us down an engineering work order for us to go out, place new signs or remove signs as needed. Coming from the material, our blanks come in and they're just aluminum blanks. We can put our white our red our you know our fluorescent yellow green whatever and basically what it looks like is just that there throw it up into the roller and once we got it covered take it to our work table here and Tim will cut the corners, cut all the access off to where it's lined up right. As far as the plotter and the software that we use, there's a street name sign there, and he's gonna go ahead and print that out on the plotter so you can see the plotter and how it operates and runs. There's standards for the height, even just on letters on the signboard. Basically what we have on the computer there is it's pretty much set up to those. And it goes through, it's got a very small but sharp needle. that goes through and cuts everything out letter by letter. Once that's done cutting, our next stage would be bringing it over here. Currently picking out the sign letters right now. We call it weeding or picking or however you want to call it. Next, putting it on the transfer tape. Then after it's taped, we bring it over to the roller. That's where we apply it to the actual sign blank. And we'll roll it through one time just to get the air bubbles out. And the last stage is basically just Taking the transfer tape off the front of it. And there's the finished product of street name sign. We'll take you out to the field and show you our process that we go through. We're gonna go out and follow our sign guys and get something installed for you. This is where we check our underground utilities. Tim, you got AT&T?

AT&T is back there. Ever-G, Google.

We should be good to go. We normally put all of our stuff together out in the field. Then once the base is installed, we'll go ahead and put the post in there. That's how we do it. Simple. Quick.

do do Thank you.

Would you please stand for the invocation and remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance?

Good evening. Please join me in a moment of reflection. Tonight, we pause briefly from agendas, budgets, and debate to remember why local government matters. The decisions made in this room affect neighbors, families, businesses, and the daily life of our community in tangible waves. May we approach that responsibility with wisdom, humility, and patience, listen carefully, disagree respectfully, and remain open to perspectives different from our own. We recognize many people whose work often goes unseen, city staff, first responders, volunteers, educators, caregivers, and residents who quietly contribute to the life of the city every day. Let us extend grace to one another. We won't get everything right in this room, but we act in good faith, keep the well-being of our community at the center of our work. Thank you.

Thank you. I'd like to call the City Council regular session meeting number three, meeting number number three to order. Can I please have roll call?

Council Member Frazier. Councilmember Cravens?

Here.

Councilmember Rader?

Sorry, present.

Councilmember Funk?

Present.

Councilmember Pryor? Here. Councilmember Adkins?

Here.

Councilmember Carlisle?

Present.

Mayor Pro Tem Shields?

Here.

Mayor Lopez? Here. Thank you. Now we need to approve the agenda.

Mayor?

Yes.

Thank you.

She said yes for me.

I would like to remove item number 2026-7482, City Council Committee liaison appointments from the consent agenda for a statement and discussion, please.

Mr. Head.

Prior to the finalization of the agenda, any council member can request that an item be removed by right, so that is required. There is no second required and no vote is required. It should normally fall immediately after the regular consent.

Okay. Everyone else okay with that? Okay. We will do so then. We'll move that item off of the consent agenda and put it in as agenda item three. Or is it right before three? All right. Thank you. Okay. With that being said, any other questions or comments? If not, we have a motion from Mayor Tim Shields and a second by Council Member Atkins. Any discussion? Any further discussion? If not, please cast your vote.

Mayor, I'm an aye.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

What am I voting on?

All votes are in. The agenda is approved. Thank you. All right, it takes us to the consent agenda. As we discussed, one item is pulled out. So with that being said, I have a motion from Mayor Tim Shields and a second from Council Member Funk. Any discussion? If not, please cast your vote. All votes in? Oh, yours? Aye.

I'm an aye, yes.

Okay, so all votes are in. Motion passes 8-1. Agenda is approved. Thank you. All right. Takes us to Council Roundtable.

Do I get to speak?

No.

Okay, so let's go ahead and Council Member Rader.

Thank you, Mayor.

Oh, I'm sorry. Mayor Patem-Shields was on to speak.

Well, thank you, Council Member Rader. I was also going to ask to have this pulled from the consent agenda. Before we vote on these appointments, I want to thank every council member for taking the time to meet with me over the last few weeks, whether we just chatted on the phone or sat down for I really appreciate everybody's time and sharing their interests and their goals for this year. We had a lot of thoughtful conversations about where people would like to serve. But in putting these assignments together, I was trying to balance a number of factors, including member interests, experience, expertise in particular subject matter, our overall workload, and the needs of the council as a whole. I also wanted to make sure each committee included a balance of newer and more experienced members so that we could maintain our institutional knowledge while also creating opportunities for development and leadership growth among our new council members. I recognize with a limited number of committees and leadership positions, not everyone's able to receive all of their first choices. And I really appreciate everybody's willingness to serve where needed. And I really do believe that every one of our committees has meaningful and substantive work to do this year. It's going to take all of us working together as a team to get that work done, the work that our constituents expect and that they deserve. Just to touch on a few of the topics that I think we'll be working on this year, but without stepping on the toes of our new chairs who will be setting their own agendas, I know finance and budget is going to continue to work on our long-term fiscal sustainability, including reviewing employee health insurance structure and cost management strategies. CADC is going to be looking at updates to our incentive policy and possible revisions to our liquor license ordinance that we've kind of discussed on this dais already. I think Public Works provides really essential oversight of major infrastructure projects and our capital improvement plan, and I really look forward to the work that they're going to do on that this year. Rules Committee is going to be discussing our public comment procedures and council operations. And of course, legislative committee is going to continue to advocate for transportation funding and work on strengthening our regional relationships. These are all really important areas of work for the council and the community. And I really do look forward to what we're going to accomplish together. That said, since the publication of the agenda, I did receive communication indicating that one council member may wish to decline the committee assignments that were proposed. Before we consider these appointments, I do want to provide her an opportunity to clarify on the record whether those assignments are officially being accepted or declined. And if they are declined, I do have a proposed amendment prepared so we can ensure that the committees remain appropriately staffed and continue moving forward without disruption. So at this time, I believe Council Member Rader may have some comments to make. Thank you. Thank you.

A few weeks ago, newly appointed Mayor Pro Tem Shields contacted me to discuss subcommittee appointments and asked which committees I most was interested in serving on. I told her I was very excited to serve on Finance and Budget Committee as well as CEDC. Prior to that, a great conversation with Mayor Lopez about moving forward in a positive direction included my request to serve on Finance and Budget. I was excited to get busy with the new session and most importantly be part of working on the financial challenges we are now facing for the future of Lee Summit. In addition to this, following the announcement of the city budget deficit in April, numerous residents reached out to me and asked that I please be on finance and budget. When the appointments were announced last week, I was shocked and deeply disappointed to learn that I was denied both subcommittees of Finance and CEDC and was instead reappointed to Public Works but was demoted as Vice Chair to a member with less time on the City Council. I was also reappointed to Rules, which is a committee that meets only about two to three times a year, and that was all. I immediately contacted Mayor Pro Tem to ask why I had been excluded from the subcommittees I requested. Her response was she was trying to balance member interest, council needs, and experience, which she indicated earlier. Respectfully, that explanation does not align with facts. Member interest, I clearly demonstrated interest having three conversations with Mayor Pro Tem and one with the mayor on my desire to serve on those committees. the council needs. Finance and Budget Committee has a critical need for someone with first-hand knowledge of financial management accountability, and I think that 32 years of running a successful business predicated on finance, I believe that allows me to meet that need. And with regard to experience, again, professional business experience and two years of experience on City Council, which qualifies me over less tenured members. In all my conversations with Mayor Pro Tem Shields regarding these appointments, her answer remained a hard no, and she would stand by her decision. Meanwhile, Mayor Pro Tem Shields had appointed herself to both Finance and Budget Committee and CEDC. That raised legitimate concerns and difficult questions that I believe residents should ask. Why was a qualified and experienced council member continually denied the opportunity to serve on these two specific subcommittees Why were less tenured members given those appointments instead of me? And why, after the unexpected revelation of a significant budget deficit, would leadership choose to limit a broader oversight and expertise? So I am challenging this decision because I know subcommittees play a critical role in the city's vetting process. They provide the opportunity to identify concerns, ask important questions of our staff, and help develop solutions to the issues our city is facing before recommendations are brought forward to the City Council. My qualifications and experience are part of my strength to do that, to contribute meaningful insight and expertise, as well as provide solutions to critical issues we are facing today, which is a major concern for our residents. We were all elected to do our due diligence and serve our constituents in the best of our ability, and my insistence on these points aligns with my obligations to this community. This was a perfect opportunity for newly appointed Mayor Pro Tem to demonstrate leadership by appointing an experienced and qualified council member to come alongside the other subcommittee members on finance and CEDC and work together to solve problems. With no credible reasons given to me, no flexibility to come to a compromise, and my demotion on public works, her decision to deny these opportunities to serve appears exclusionary and counterproductive. Therefore, I will not accept the appointments for the subcommittees I was assigned to by Mayor Pro Tem Shields on that consent agenda. As a more senior council member, I deserve to be appointed to committees where I know I can have the most positive impact for our residents and is in line with my experience and my time on city council. Now, as a last-ditch effort... If Mayor Pro Tem Shills will reconsider and appoint me to serve as a member of the Finance and Budget and the CEDC committees as requested, I will be happy to continue to accept the Rules Committee appointment and move forward to serve the residents of the City of Lee Summit. Thank you.

Thank you. Mayor Pro Tem.

Thank you. I appreciate you clarifying that you are turning down those assignments. I do have a proposed amended set of assignments. If we could go ahead and throw this up on the projector so that we all know what we'll be voting on. Due to Councilmember Rader's inability to serve on these committees a couple other members will be serving on additional committees, so I hope that that doesn't pose scheduling hardships to folks, but I think that these are good assignments and If there's not any further discussion, then I'm I'm good to yield back to you mayor for for the vote all right Any other comments or questions?

Councilmember Rader.

Thank you, Mayor. Well, all I want to say is thank you for devaluing me on the City Council.

Here's one. Come on. You want to speak? Councilmember Pryor.

I don't... I will be voting no for these committee assignments. I think maybe can we take a week, can we discuss it and come to a compromise possibly? Do we have council next week? Do we not have council next week? We don't.

Members are welcome to vote yes or no on this, but these assignments were made thoughtfully. They were not intended to slight anyone. I do believe that Councilmember Rader was offered assignments that are substantive. that Public Works does important works. Rules Committee is going to do important work this year on issues, some of which I know are important to Council Member Rader. But I spoke to every person on this dais. I took into account your interests, your experience, and the needs of this council. And at the end of the day, I am unwilling to change these recommendations. I take into account everyone's interest, but if a member can just veto their appointments, then this system really isn't workable because we're balancing the needs, the desires, the scheduling availability of eight members and That's how this process works. So I would be more than happy for Council Member Rader to accept the appointments to Public Works and Rules Committee. I would still be happy to have those assignments, but I'm not going to negotiate a new slate.

Council Member Rader?

Thank you, Mayor. I just cannot abide by an accepted emotion. I'm worthy of more than that. I'm a two-year going on three-year member of the City Council. And I do not understand the lack of flexibility or collaboration. I don't understand it. And I'll never understand it. And you can stay firm with your decisions as you told me over the phone. But it's not reasonable. And I mean, you didn't even allow me to serve on one of those committees. so Okay, if this is how it is then this is how it is All right.

Thank you Okay, unless there's other questions. I will make a couple comments any other questions comments so Yes, I think we have to vote on this tonight because time is of the essence There's the committee's have to be formed by a certain period so That's not an option so If you're not in favor of this recommended second committee assignments, then just don't support it. But that's the reason why. And I have to say, honestly, I, having served in that role as Mayor Pro Tem for eight consecutive years, quite honestly, it's a very difficult process. You always approach it very objective, very transparent, very respectful. And I have no doubt that Mayor Pro Tem Shields conducted herself and acted in that manner. And she shared the assignments before they were made public with me and I have to trust that she has done her job and has vetted and taken this role very responsibly and respectfully. And so I stood by her recommendations. So I think going backwards I think would defeat the purpose. So yes, Council Member Pryor.

Thank you. And I just wanted to clarify, the initial assignments, I wasn't a part of any of the conversations between you two. I would vote yes on those. If this is the version we're voting on, I would be a no on these. So I wanted to clarify on that.

All right. Thank you. Okay. So any other comments or questions? If not, then we will call the vote. Do we need a motion? We're doing substitute. COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENTS?

FROM WHAT I'M HEARING SAID IS THAT THE MAYOR PRO TAM HAS WITHDRAWN THE INITIAL SLATE OF APPOINTMENTS AND WHAT STANDS BEFORE THE COUNCIL NOW IS THE SUBSTITUTE SLATE SO THERE DOES NEED TO BE A MOTION TO APPROVE THAT SLATE OR DENY IT WHICHEVER WAY YOU ALL WISH TO GO AND THEN A VOTE TAKEN ON THAT.

DO WE HAVE A MOTION TO, IS IT VERBAL OR ARE YOU ALL GOING TO PUT IT ON THE COMPUTER? You're making the motion? Oh, here we go. Popped up. So the motion's been made by Councilmember Cravens, and we have a second by Councilmember Adkins. Any more discussion? If not, please cast your vote.

My computer is still down, so I'll need to voice vote. So are we voting on this version that's on the screen, you said?

Correct.

Okay, I'm a voice vote. I'm no. Thank you.

Please clarify, Mr. Head, which motion we are voting on.

The motion was to approve the second slate. The first one was withdrawn is what I was hearing you all say.

Yes, that's right. All right. So that is what you're voting on. We're missing one vote. Still missing one vote. What's that? Oh, so you're a no. Okay, so I'm reading, and you can confirm, five yes, four no's.

I'm still missing Council Member Atkins' vote.

Are you voting on the second version? The second version. The second version. Yes. We're approving the second version. Yes. Yes. What's on your screen? Okay. All votes are in. I'm reading six yes, three no's. So this second assignment motion moves forward as presented. All right. So now this takes us to council. Now it takes us to council roundtable. Anyone? Yeah, Council Member Pryor.

Sorry, thank you. I just wanted to let everyone know that I will be leaving to go to my son's fifth grade graduation in about five minutes, but then I'll be back. I'll be back, so yeah, thank you.

Enjoy.

Thank you.

Mayor Pro Temp-Shields.

This Friday is going to be the Fourth Friday Art Walk and Music in the Park, so hopefully everyone will come out and enjoy our beautiful downtown for that event.

Great. Anyone else? All right, we'll proceed with the agenda. Takes us to public hearings. I am going to close the regular session and open the public hearing on application PL2026-064. Unified Development Ordinance Amendment to Articles 5 Overlay District Citywide City of Lee Summit Applicant.

I will need to swear them in, Mayor Lopez.

Yes, those wishing to speak, please stand and be sworn in.

Good evening. Sue Piles, Development Engineering Manager. I'd like to enter into the record Exhibit A, list of exhibits 1 through 11.

Please enter into Exhibit 1 through 11, please, into the record.

I'd like to speak to you guys, to the council tonight, for the floodplain overlay district updates that Development Engineering and Public Works have put together.

The floodplain overlay district... Get closer to the mic, please. For some reason, we're having trouble.

Sorry about that. The floodplain overlay district is in the UDO. It's Article 5, Division 2. It's the city's floodplain management ordinance. Purpose is to reduce the risk of flood damage to properties, provide a consistent floodplain development standards. It's also important for the property owners in the city to be able to take part in the FEMA National Flood Insurance Program. This slide is just to show that floodplain management, the picture on the left is lots that are platted outside of the floodplain. The picture on the right is how a floodplain can be used for natural areas and amenities. So we've had some questions about floodplain regulations versus stormwater management and what's the difference between the two. The floodplain overlay district regulates just the FEMA-designated floodplain areas. Stormwater management regulates stormwater drainage outside of those areas. This ordinance specifically covers the FEMA-designated floodplain areas. So why are we here to update this ordinance? We want to ensure consistency. We added some specific precision. We wanted to codify existing practices, provide additional clarity, and then just perform some general ordinance housekeeping. So for consistency and precision, we had some instances where the same thing was being said in multiple passages, but yet they were all worded just slightly differently. So we just made them all the same. And then we added precision to show two feet to, added it to go to the hundredth so we can align with FEMA requirements. We codified some existing practices. Again, these are things we're doing now. They're not new. We're just putting them into the code. Fill placed in the regulatory floodway fringe, we require a no-rise certificate, and fill placed in the regulatory floodway requires a letter of map revision. Again, not new, just putting them in the code. We have added a design analysis requirement in accordance with FEMA's technical bulletin TB10, and this is to reduce the risk of flooding to structures built on fill near a floodplain. This is just a little diagram. You don't need to worry about all the tiny print on it, but it just shows that structures that are built on fill, we want to locate them horizontally, a distance far enough from the floodplain that there's no water pressure that gets seeping into the basement or anything like that. We added some clarity by changing some of the definitions to use more common usage in line with FEMA terminology. And we added a couple of new definitions just to make sure everybody's speaking the same language when we talk about floodplain things. Made some other changes, revised city engineer to floodplain administrator because that's the typical role, although in Lee's Summit the city engineer is the floodplain administrator. We added in the code a duty and responsibility that allows the floodplain administrator to set higher standards than FEMA if deemed necessary. And then the city tracks substantial improvement to Structures damaged by flood and we've changed that from a rolling ten-year cycle to a rolling five-year cycle for better tracking by the city and That is kind of the meat and potatoes of the floodplain ordinance update so Would like to ask for your approval of the ordinance great.

Thank you. Do you have any questions from council? My questions is there anyone who wishes to speak in support of this application I Is there anyone who wishes to speak in opposition of this application? Hearing none, I will now close the public hearing and reopen the regular session. Are there any council comments at this point? No. All I will say is that I know that for quite some time now, our city does have significant flooding problems and zones. So I applaud staff for being proactive. and trying to get ahead of this as much as possible. And I think this ordinance will just solidify that and help us prepare down the road. So thank you. That being said, Mayor Pro Temp-Shields.

I move for a second reading of Bill number 26-096, an ordinance amending Chapter 33, Unified Development Ordinance, Article 5, overlay districts of the Lee Summit Code of Ordinances for the City of Lee Summit, Missouri.

Thank you. Mayor Pro Tem Shules has made the motion. We have a second by Council Member Funk. Any discussion? Seeing none, please cast your vote. All votes are in. Motion passes 8-0. Please record that vote. Thank you. All right. Takes us to one additional public hearing agenda item.

Mayor, before we move on to this item, Council Member Frazier, that was your recusal. So if you would please ask the clerk to reflect a recusal on that item for you.

My apologies. Can you please reflect the recusal on that? Yes, I'll report that. Thank you.

Are we okay on the next one?

Yes.

All right, good. Thanks. All right, so we will move on. I am going to close the regular session once again and open the public hearing regarding application number. It's actually ordinance amending Chapter 33. Is that the correct one? I'm sorry. Application number PL 2025-164, Special Use Permit Renewal for Chapel Oaks Maintenance Storage Facility 657 Northeast Newport Drive, Chapel Oaks Development Company Applicant. All those wishing to speak, please stand and be sworn in by the city clerk. Thank you. Staff presentation first? Or applicant?

Good evening, Council. Steve Barber, 10401 Howard Road, Lee Summit, Missouri. I'm going to defer to staff for the presentation. I'll be here if you have any questions.

Great. Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening, Pierce Pulliam Planner. Please enter into the record Exhibit A, list of Exhibits 1 through 20.

Please enter into the record Exhibits 1 through 20.

So this application is for a 10-year special use permit renewal for a maintenance storage facility at 657 Northeast Newport Drive. The maintenance storage facility was originally approved in 1995, and this will be its fourth SUP renewal since then. And there are no proposed changes to the site at this time. The property is owned RP3 and is surrounded by mostly residential uses with townhomes to the east, south, and west, and to the north lays Chapel Lakes Elementary School. The future land use map designates the property as residential two, which calls for multifamily medium density residential housing, which this maintenance storage facility serves. The facility is used to store equipment for maintenance of residential units in the Chapel Oak subdivision. As part of the SUP renewal process, staff conducted inspections of the property and did notice an issue with outside storage of maintenance equipment, such as wooden pallets, snow removal vehicles, and landscaping materials. The applicant did work closely with staff to get all these items removed, and all issues have since been resolved. And a neighborhood meeting was held on February 9th, and no members of the public attended. When reviewing a special use permit application, there are certain criteria outlined in the UDO for council to consider. The UDO provides a total of 16 standards of approval, and they generally fall under the categories listed on the screen here. And so with that and the conditions listed here, the applicant meets the goal of the IGNITE comprehensive plan and the UDO, and I can answer any questions you all may have.

Great. Thank you. Any questions from council? Seeing none. Oh, we do. Council Member Frazier.

Just to clarify, so the inspection or when they noticed the items outside of the facility, was that because of the city routine inspections or was that because the residents or nearby residents reported it?

It was for the SGP renewal when we got the application in as part of it to get it moved forward to city. City goes? Yeah, to get it moved forward. We went out and inspected it to make sure it was in compliance with the conditions.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you. Any other questions? Seeing none, is there anyone who wishes to speak in support of this application? Is there anyone who wishes to speak in opposition of this application? Hearing none, I will now close the public hearing and reopen the regular session. Are there any additional council comments? Not? Mayor Pro Tem?

I move for second reading of Bill number 26-097, an ordinance granting a special use permit for a maintenance storage facility in District RP3 plan residential mixed use on land located at 657 Northeast Newport Drive for a period of 10 years in accordance with Article 6 of the Fine Development Ordinance of City of Lee Summit, Missouri.

We have a motion made by Mayor Pro Tem Shields and a second by Council Member Frazier. Any further discussion? If not, please cast your vote. All votes are in. Eight. Yes. One absent. So thank you. Motion passes. All right. Takes us to public comments. I don't believe we have any today, do we?

Yep. No public comments.

All right. Thank you. Yeah. Can we have like a five-minute, ten-minute recess? Is that okay? We'll do a ten-minute recess. Thank you.

wondered how the city budget works? The total 2026 budget is over 380 million dollars, which includes funding for daily operations, capital improvements, debt service, internal service, and enterprise operations. For example, the general fund is the foundation for the city's day-to-day services and investments like road maintenance, public safety, and fire protection. The General Fund is supported by property taxes, sales taxes generated by local businesses, franchise taxes, and other sources like licenses, permits, and fees. For every dollar citizens pay in property tax, the City receives 18 cents. This means the City receives $845 a year in property taxes for a median single-family house. These taxes provide public safety, park maintenance, infrastructure, and the best services to keep Lee's Summit going and improving. One of the community's top priorities is infrastructure investment, which is reflected in the capital improvement plan. $113 million of the 2026 budget is invested into the capital improvement plan. The 2026 capital improvement budget includes investments like the 291 and 50 highway interchange, Third Street, Ward and Purcell's intersection, and Prior Road. The budget process includes guidance from the city council, citizen input, and critical success factors from the city's IGNITE strategic plan. To learn more about the city's budget, visit cityofls.net backslash budget.

When the person called on the phone, she said that there was a dinosaur walking down her road. Of course, we had to go out and check that out. We get out there and it was a big African tortoise. probably 60 pounds, walking down the road. When they walk, they really stand up tall, so I could see why she thought it was a dinosaur. I'm Rodney Wagner. I'm the manager of Lee's Summit Animal Control. So as you can see, we've got all sorts of animals here. You got some guinea pigs off to the side. All the windows up here are animals that are adoptable right now. Every one of these dogs is ready to go and ready for adoption. And the same thing with our cats over here. A lot of cool cats in here now, so. So this is our three acre lot we have out back. And this is where we do all the walking of dogs, exercise. We also have a side yard off to the side over there so we can let them run loose. They can run together and then we have what's called play groups. Kind of like having a bunch of kids. Here's our vent room. We have a vet that comes out twice a week. This is our sally port where we bring the animals into. This is one of our animal control trucks. And we can hold up to six animals. We have a lift on the other side to put big animals in. We actually have temperature gauges in here and in the truck to tell us how hot it is. Once it gets to a certain temperature, we bring all the animals back here immediately. So this actually has traps in it, but... We do a lot of wildlife trapping. I mean, a lot, so... Bats, pot-bellied pigs, horses, cows, emus, a lot of reptiles. We had a system one time that had over 200 reptiles in his basement. Caimans and alligators in here that are four or five feet long, you can't keep those. And people do, and they're surprised when they can't keep them. I'm like, really? You're surprised you can't have an alligator in your house? Our main goal here is public safety and also the safety of the animals, and we have very dedicated people back there, and they definitely stay here for the love of the animals, which also includes getting them adopted out. We'll have about 4,000 impounded animals a year, probably about close to 2,000 are dogs and cats. The cats and dogs, when they get impounded here, they go on a five-day hold, and then after the five days, if the owner doesn't show up, then we can put them up for adoption. Adopt an animal here is actually really simple. You just come in, look for whatever animal you're looking for, find the right pick. You have to go to the adoption room up there and see if you get along with them. You spend as much time as you want to in there. From that point on, it's just a matter of making sure they're spayed or neutered and all their vaccinations up to par and they're good to go. We have a very high adoption rate because we try everything in our power to get animals adopted out. We have Heart of America, a humane society that we do a lot of adoptions through. And then we also have other groups. We have some people that literally will just look all over the country for somewhere for a dog to go. And we sent dogs up into South Dakota, North Dakota, Washington State. So it's actually, it's a huge united effort to get all these animals home.

Tarzan's got lots of energy. Hazel's got a weird bell bell. She wants nothing to do with the other cats. She'll kind of get her grumpy face going.

And the good thing about the people here is that they get all their friends to get animals too. All of us have probably the limit of all the animals that we can have at home. You know, they are huge animal lovers. If it was up to the people here, we'd have 15 cats running around in here. We had a citizen one time out there, and he was bathing his two nine-foot-long boa constrictors in the front yard. Apparently, that was garnering some attention, and so we went out there and had to talk to him about that. Do I do this job? Oh, dude, I love this job. I grew up on a farm, and taking care of that many animals, you can't help but like animals. This is just like fancy farming. You know, you're just bringing animals in here, taking care of them and finding them homes and yeah, absolutely animal lover.

This is the best place to work.

I love working here. I feel very blessed. I love it here. I look forward to coming to work every day, being a part of this team. Like a family away from home.

Where everyone feels like everybody knows their name.

The city that supports you, we see that with our benefits.

A pension, vacation days, job security.

Being able to be heard. We feel valued, we feel respected. Lee Summit is a very progressive city. It's growing, it's thriving. We have this drive towards not just doing a job, but doing it with a spirit of excellence.

I had the opportunity to continue to grow.

Regardless of 30 plus years doing this kind of work. It's more than just dollars and cents. We're here really to give back. Providing a service to better a community. To go out and serve people. To be a part of something bigger than yourself. If I would have known what I know now years ago, I would have been here much sooner.

Traditionally, we think as police officers, those responding to law enforcement needs within the community. But honestly, we are there to serve our citizens, and our citizens do go into crisis. They do have mental health crises, and we're being called to those scenes on a regular basis. In order to help serve those citizens better, we did initiate the Crisis Intervention Team Program. These are officers that are specially trained to de-escalate crisis situations. Recently, we've brought co-responders onto the scene, licensed, qualified mental health professionals housed within our police department. and they respond with those officers directly to those scenes where a crisis is occurring so they can interact with that citizen and get them the help they need right there on that scene.

The co-responders are either a bachelor or master level in a behavioral health related field. They wear plain clothes. They don't carry weapons or anything like that.

I have a police radio that I listen to all day. Listen for, you know, those key words. Mental health, behavioral health, crisis.

There's a lot of officers that just call for me. I have my own radio number.

I also have the ability to self-dispatch to them and say, 982 is en route. Officers en route. 914.

So typically I arrive after they've made it safe. I'll make contact and get kind of the rundown. And then I just kind of jump right in.

Like, hey, you know, my name's Allison. I'm a mental health professional. I'm here to help you. I'm not here to take you to jail or arrest you. Sometimes

All a person needs is a voice, someone neutral, someone outside that can listen. I do a lot of safety planning, including family, their support network. Who's close to you? If they're home alone, who can come over and hang out with you today? Can we lock away your sharps? Can we put up your meds? Do you need meds? Can we get you over to the urgent care to get you assessed for your medications? Some of them also are like, oh, I'm so glad you came. This made me feel so much better.

Our main goal as the co-responders is to, one, get people connected to the services that they need and also divert from emergency rooms and jails.

And they almost get a different view of the police responding. That lets me know you care and the officers care. Please call the police.

How can we help you?

In 2020, we had 722 mental health related calls for service. 2022, by that time, 1,479. These mental health related calls for service are increasing. How we're responding to that is increasing the number of crisis intervention team officers we have available, as well as the number of co-responders we have available to respond on these calls.

So what I think is important for the community to know about the co-responder program is that we're here, we exist. All you have to do when you call 9-1-1 is ask for us. You know, say, hey, I want a co-responder to respond to this crisis and we'll go. I was really struggling about eight years ago on my personal journey with mental health, and I met some amazing social workers and amazing programs that have helped me get to where I am today. I really couldn't see myself doing anything else. We want to help, and that's what we love to do.

So I had a client, we got a call, she had some suicidal ideations and she really felt that she had nobody. And you know, in getting to know her story and getting to know who comes around and sees you, well then we found a support person and they responded immediately and we made a plan. I called back and checked on her in an hour and then I checked on her in two hours. We were able to get her into the additional services to where she talks to someone every week or more. I just took a person that really just thought they had nobody and nobody would show up for them and show them you do. And you'll be amazed who is in your corner if you just simply say, I need a little help.

We have a conceptual economic development incentive request for Project Kings. Mr. Bouchak.

Yes, good evening. David Bouchak, Economic Development Legal Counsel for the City. This is a conceptual presentation for the Council under the City's Economic Development Policy. As we discussed last week, this is the opportunity for an applicant to make a presentation to you, for you to give non-binding feedback to them. We typically give feedback to indicate which direction you might be leaning. But as I indicated last week, you're not making any formal decisions. This is just a process for the applicant to take the temperature of the council regarding the request for incentives and for you to provide feedback. And then based on that feedback, they may choose to proceed or not. So with that, I will turn the podium over to the applicant. They will provide their presentation, and then I will speak after they're finished.

Great. Thank you.

Thank you, David. Thanks to the mayor and the council for the opportunity for us to come here today to talk about this jobs project that is in front of you. Who am I? Kathy Musio from Atlas Insight. I am a site selector. I have worked with Graham Packaging for maybe 12 years now. on different expansion projects and strategic initiatives. We're excited about the opportunity for John to talk about Graham itself and me to give a little bit of background on the project. And then I'd also like to thank Joe Perry back there And I'd also like to thank Ryan, who isn't here right now, but will be here. We have been working with them for many months behind the scenes at a staff level, which have allowed us to get to this moment here tonight. I'm going to jump back in again later in the presentation, but I want to turn it over to John from Graham Packaging.

Thanks.

Thanks, Kathy.

My name is John Keffer. I'm a senior tax manager with Grant Packaging. I also manage the state and local economic incentives for the company.

So I think I have this right here.

So first of all, I appreciate the opportunity to present to you tonight, Mayor Lopez and city council members. Thank you very much. And also thank you in advance for considering our request that will be made tonight. Very much appreciated. So who is Grand Packaging? Grand Packaging is a global $2 billion leader in the design and development of global – I'm sorry, of – Plastic packaging, we operate in 60, approximately 60 manufacturing facilities across the world. Approximately 50 of those are in the United States. We employ close to 5,000 people. We develop and produce approximately 16 billion containers, plastic containers annually, serving a wide range of industries with high volume, scalable solutions. We're headquartered in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. And we combine extensive geographic reach, as the slide shows there, with advanced manufacturing capabilities to support our global customer base. We were founded in 1970, so almost six decades ago. And at that time, we played a key role in shifting industries from metal production to plastic packaging. Shown on the slide here is an old golf metal container oil that is now, we produce some of those products now in plastic packaging. So in early innovation, we converted some of these cans into, like it says, plastic containers, making them safer, cleaner, more cost effective, and also helping with some of the shelf appeal. We developed proprietary blow molding technologies and strong partnerships with major consumer brands all across the world. I think probably it's pretty safe to say that each of us has used or consumed a container that we developed or have produced, water bottles and so forth, Gatorade bottles, things like that. By the 1980s and 90s, we had become a global manufacturer serving food, beverage, household, and automotive markets all over the world. We are a leading provider of custom containers and a driver of sustainable packaging innovation. This slide shows a snapshot of our US locations. As I mentioned earlier, we have about 50 locations in the United States. Most of them, as can be seen here in the eastern half of the country. We are expanding as much as we can. We're making sure we're measured in those approaches to each location that we're interested in. There's another location soon to start in Idaho. So we're branching as much as we can westward, I guess you could say. So this, the LEAST Summit location fits our, kind of what we're trying to accomplish here in the next five to 10 years. This slide just shows our major markets that we serve, automotive, beverage, dairy and nutrition, food, and home care. So all kinds of plastic containers in all these various industries. Graham Packaging, we have a huge focus on sustainability. We're one of the leaders in sustainability and operational excellence. Annually, we earn a top ranking in the packaging industry by Sustainable Analytics for ESG performance. We have reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 20% in the last five years, which is very important, I think, to a lot of people all across the world. Graham, we actively incorporate recycled materials into our production processes with in-house recycling capabilities. And our commitment is reinforced by our strong safety culture. Executive leadership team is very key focused on making sure everybody goes to work and returns home safely every day. There's a broad and global focus on advancing these sustainable packaging initiatives as well.

All right, let's talk a little bit about Lee's Summit Commerce Center, which I think has been called different things, starting with the Scannell development, maybe. I have worked, like I said, with this company over 12 years. We have at Atlas Insight. For this project, I have been working on this for, I think, about 14 and a half months. They were looking in this area, then they focused in on the Kansas City region. They focused in on Kansas and Missouri. And then for a very long time, they looked for a building. Very long time. So they came across this building. I don't even know when this building was built, but it was a building built for, I think, logistics and warehousing. And they are a manufacturer. So manufacturing is a great use, a high use, high-paying jobs. They are a company that has a great average wage for the project. They saw this building. And there is work that would need to be done in this building in order to bring it up to specs to be a manufacturing building, including some electrical upgrades. But all that due diligence has been being done for months and months and months. and they are excited about the opportunity. And if all goes well, they would be installing and potentially manufacturing on the first of the lines by year end. All right. Well, this is a jobs project. I love when I can say that. These are 82 high paying for manufacturing quality jobs. They give a range of positions, not all entry level, not all have to be highly skilled. There are opportunities for Lee's Summit residents and the surrounding towns and the county for everything from entry level positions with and the opportunity for advancement to salaried positions because when you're talking about starting a new facility, starting a new plant, this isn't an expansion project which already has all your desk positions there and you just need some additional production jobs. These are everything from a plant manager to an entry-level person who has the ability to move up the ranks. As you can see from the average wage for all of the expected 82 positions combined, that's over $80,000. That is higher than the Jackson County average wage. We can usually not say that about manufacturing projects. Usually you're saying, hey, it's almost at the county wage, but it's still a great project. We're proud to be here tonight and talk about these high-quality jobs. It's also an investment project. I mean, they have estimated it would be just over $33 million, all machinery and equipment. This doesn't include the energy utility upgrades and some of the other building upgrades that would be needed to take a building up to manufacturing grade, but that $33 million of investment would be phased in over basically a two-and-a-half to three-year period where they would, again, targeting the end of this year to be operational with the first line and then having all lines operational at full capacity by the end of 2028. Welcome the opportunity, as does John, to get some Q&A. I think David may want to come up and talk a little bit more about this. I, again, want to tell you that we have been looking in Kansas and Missouri and then in the region for a very long time. And this company feels with this lease summit building and meeting people in the community and They just think it's going to be a great home for them, and I hope that you'll consider the request we have. I do want to say one more thing. When we made this request, it's, you know, we only made the request for what's needed to help with the early years financials because, again, an expansion project, takes a certain amount of money to do, but opening a new facility takes a considerable amount of money in the first, especially, five years. And so what we're asking for in our ask for Chapter 100 just for personal property, it's really just for those early years to help reduce some of the operational costs.

Great. Thank you. We'll have Mr. Bushek present as well, and then we'll open it up for questions.

All right, I will begin with a simple summary of the incentive request so you understand the economics of it, and then I'll get into some of the history and a little more background for you. This is the simple summary of the incentive request. As the applicant indicated, the request is through Chapter 100. This is for personal property tax abatement, not real property tax abatement. The difference there, real property, as we've discussed, is the land and the buildings that are built on the land. Personal property are things that are taxed that are not attached to the land, not a fixture of the building, so something that's taxed separately. So this tenant, if they move in, they will have a separate tax liability separate from the property owner, which is the basis of their request. This is tax liability that this tenant would uniquely have by bringing this personal property into the facility. So that's the basis of the request. And you see the total project cost. This is the cost of the equipment, not the structure that they're building, but the cost of the equipment, which is what we're analyzing And the value, the benefit to the developer is about $1.7 million. And so that's 5.2% of the total project cost. In this case, the project cost being the equipment that they plan to either relocate or purchase. This then is a more detailed summary of the request. And we'll start with the timeline analysis. As they just indicated, they'll be purchasing this equipment, purchasing or relocating equipment. essentially three tranches. So in year one, they'd be purchasing new equipment. They're requesting 75% tax abatement. And then in year two, and it sounds like based on what they just said, within two and a half years, but we've indicated year three, they're relocating equipment. Both of those relocations will be taxable equipment. So there is tax liability associated with the purchase of the new equipment and the relocation of the equipment, and that's the basis of their request. Personal property tax benefit to the taxing district's The first column here just shows the tax rates. Usually this column will show you the taxes that are already being generated by the property, but as I indicated in this case, this is not real property, so we don't have any comparison. There's no taxes being generated by what will become taxable if they locate this equipment in the building, so there's no starting point. It's not producing any tax revenues for the city today because the equipment doesn't exist. During the first year then, this is the projection of what the tax revenues would be for all the taxing districts, $124,000, the city's portion being $22,000, and this number represents the 25% pass-through after abating 75%. And then over a 10-year period, even though the abatement lasts for only five years on each of these groupings of equipment, The analysis that's been prepared is what would the taxes be over a 10-year period, and this is the number, close to $2 million for all the taxing districts, and the city's portion would be about $347,000 rounded. The value of this incentive request to the company, I just summarized for you, they're purchasing or relocating $33.7 million in equipment. This is the value to the company. This is the net present value of the tax abatement over the period of time that they would realize that, which is essentially a seven-year period up here. That's 5.2% of the total cost of the equipment. And then the impact to the city at the bottom, personal property tax abatement, the city's portion of the tax bill is about 17%. So the city would have about 17% impact of the number up here. And then the net present value of the pilots and the taxes received, this is the value of this revenue flow to the city up here with the net present value calculation. The next table that I will show you, this is a table, this is actually kind of interesting in connection with this project. So this table gives you data on the large abatement packages provided for industrial projects on the Missouri side of the Kansas City region. And I know it's too small for you to read, but I'll zoom in here. The original version of this chart, and this is where I think it's kind of interesting given the property here, We first prepared, I first prepared this chart and collected this data, all of the white lines, when this property was initially considered by the city council. So you'll see down here what we've done over time. The white projects were the initial version of this spreadsheet back in 21 or 22, when this project, the Scannell project, Lease Summit Logistics, the Commerce Center, different names, was originally considered. So we collected this data for the city council to start analyzing. what do other cities in the region do in comparison to what is being requested in Lee's Summit. And then we've added to this table over time, the yellow projects are other cities and the green projects are Lee's Summit projects that have been approved since we've been building this table. And so this data was initially collected for the city council to consider the property tax abatement that was provided for this very property. And we go down to the summary. The average abatement duration for the other taxing districts, the white line items on this table, is about 19 years. The average abatement from those other jurisdictions for the first 10 years typically exceeds 90%. And then for years 11 through 20, it's typically about 50% with some exceptions. And if you start to analyze the data for the lease summit projects, you'll see that the abatement packages that the city has approved are in the ballpark of these other projects, but some of them are lower. So I'd say that Lee's Summit is sort of setting its own trend here in terms of comparison to the other jurisdictions. We started with these very extensive abatement packages as a point of comparison from other cities, and you can see there's in some cases 100% abatement for 10 years, sometimes 90% or more. You can compare those data points to what this city council has approved. And the thing that I will emphasize again before I leave the slide, this project is the property where this is proposed to be located. So one of the logical questions you might have is, how does this work? How is it that the city council has already provided incentives for this property, and now you have a tenant coming in and making an additional incentive request, which is a very fair and obvious question. As I explained at the beginning, the incentive that the city council has provided was for Scannell and was for the property and addressed their property tax liability for the property as a whole. So the way this typically works is when a tenant moves into a facility like this, they sign a triple net lease. Triple net typically means that the tenant pays for insurance, utilities, and property taxes, and then common area maintenance is also in that mix. But it's typically called triple net lease, which means the landlord passes on these costs to the tenant. The benefit of the structure the city council previously approved for this incentive here was it lowered the tax liability for the landowner to induce tenants to come to the site. But as I mentioned in the beginning, If they are bringing personal property, that's a unique tax liability that they have to deal with, which is not addressed by the original incentive that the city council approved. So that's an explanation for why this incentive request on property that you've already incentivized. It's a unique aspect of this tenant's business. They'll be bringing in substantial amounts of personal property, and that's the request, which is distinct from the incentive that the council has already approved for the property, the real property. So I wanted to make sure you understand that. And in the end, the decision that you're evaluating here is essentially this tenant and the jobs and the economic benefit they bring in exchange for the personal property tax exemption that they're requesting independent from the incentive that's already been provided by the city council for this property. So you're specifically looking at this tenant and what they bring and their incentive request as opposed to, I mean, you're free to analyze whatever you like and we can talk about these, but My point is it's a distinct request that's separate from the request that the city council has already provided for the real property. The last slide that I will show you, and I don't think we need to talk about this, but we can use it as a resource in your discussion. This is the table that you've seen several times, which itemizes all of the major incentive packages that the city has provided historically. And we've included the Project Kings down here at the bottom for personal property. We can use this as a resource depending on which direction your questions go. And I will end by noting that the project has a unique name, Project Kings. That name, the name Kings, comes from the process by which this project came to the city. It started with the Regional Economic Development Group in Kansas City, came to the city's Economic Development Council, and as was mentioned in the applicant's presentation, Joe Perry is here from the EDC, and I think he'd be happy to talk with you, but the Project Kings name signifies that it was a competitive process started at the region, and they've narrowed their focus down to Kansas City and this particular site. So Mr. Perry can give you some more information on that if you have questions for him. That concludes my opening comments, and I'd be happy to answer questions or listen to your discussion.

Thank you. Yeah, I think at this point, I think it would be good to hear from Mr. Perry. Sure.

Mayor and Council, Joe Perry, Lee Summit Economic Development Council President. I'm delighted to be here tonight. We've been waiting for a big jobs. I've been here for a little more than 14 months now and ready to tell you why this is a great consideration for you for the Lee Summit Commerce Center. First of all, I just want to talk about from the jobs perspective. And I want to make a comparison of real numbers using real industry data of what this would generate with a expected 75 to 80 percent of the time this kind of building would be for warehousing and distribution. So let me just go over the numbers. The 82 jobs at $83,215 is a whopping $6.8 million per year payroll. Now, what would this building bring to Lee's Summit than by comparison if it was warehousing? So I looked at CBRE and Kushwake and real estate journals and came up with their data and their data would say that this building as warehousing would produce two to three employees per every 10,000 square feet at an average pay of $17 to $25 per hour. Well, let me do the math. So that means that this building would produce at the low end $450,000, or this space in this building, $450,000 a year of payroll to $1.1 million. So the differential that you would expect, if we end up with 75% to 80% chance if this doesn't go through, we're going to probably get... warehousing distribution. So that's an additional 5.8 to 6.3 million dollars of annual payroll that will come to the City of Least Summit for this to be this manufacturing instead of distribution and warehousing. which you would expect, again, according to industry standards, 75 to 80 percent of the time. So that's jobs. That's why I think you would see Dr. Shelton and others from the school district here eager to know what your thoughts are, because this is jobs. This is the kind of workforce opportunity that all of us in the economic development community want to see. The second part is the capital that you heard about. I want to do that comparison for you on the investment of that 33 million dollars compared to warehousing and distribution. So if this were to go that route, the average per industry standards would bring $3 to $10 per square foot of personal property. That's what we would normally see. So when you do the math, that means this space would bring in between $195,000 to $650,000 worth of property. taxable equipment that would be used for warehousing distribution. So this $33 million is 25 to 50 times the level that other occupants of this Commerce Park would bring in on average if it was distribution. So even at the abated level, it's easy to do for the first 10 years, it's 25% that's gonna be on the tax roll. So divide that by four. That means that this abated tax roll will bring in eight to 12 times the amount of taxing power to the city of Lee Summit the R7 school district and all the other local taxing jurisdictions that will get money compared to if it were as expected most of the time going for distribution and warehousing. That's why I get excited when these buildings bring us a potential jobs and manufacture that has in real big capital and why for me it's a no-brainer consideration tonight to think how do we say yes or no to this. Well, 75 to 80% of the time you're gonna get eight to 12 times less in personal property tax And you're going to get just a shadow of the money in wages. We know what Lee's Summit's growing in. We're growing in healthcare, we're growing in retail, we're growing in higher ed and other education platforms. These people coming for these jobs with this amount of payroll are going to be spending money in all of those things that we're importing now instead of exporting as a city. I'm delighted. I will sit down with the rest of the people that have presented, and I'll be delighted to take any of the questions you have of me.

Thank you. Appreciate that. All right. We'll open it up for questions at this point. Mayor Pro Tem Shields.

Thank you, Mayor. Mr. Perry, thank you so much for being here tonight. I know the EDC played a key role in bringing this project to us. I wondered if you would just talk briefly about how it kind of fits into your strategic vision for what the EDC is doing For the city and how that kind of ties to the city's strategic plan, because I know those are kind of, they're tied closely together.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. I'd be pleased to do that. We'll start with just the goals and objectives of our strategic plan as an organization. It is a key industry that we're looking for, so it hits that box. It's bringing jobs that will have that big multiplier, so it hits that. As this project looks in relationship to our goals for the organization, it reinforces what the lease on the DDC can do when we work with the professional staff of the city. That collaboration of being on the call and being available to do and to complement what the city staff does is the great joy of this. I mean, I knew when I took this job out here that that I was going to have this team. This team is highly performing in, you know, it doesn't matter if I need to. This industry often has, for instance, questions, well, how will the fire department view our handling of plastics materials? That's a valid concern for Mr. Eden and the rest of the fire department. I know when I work with Mr. Elam and Mr. Dunning, and the others in the staff that we're going to have a can-do and a problem-solving group of people to work with. So when I go out and sell this opportunity and that comes through our office first, that's the first thing I say to them. So this is the first time I get to stand before you and say, this is proof in the pudding. If we go out and we have narratives that we know that we do better in Lee's Summit than our competition, and we have buildings available, And I wanted to hit on that, and thank you for the opportunity to do so. This really reinforces the spec building question that this council took on a few years ago and said, if we build these things, we can compete. I think what was missing before was marrying the good abilities of this staff and the good strategic vision of the Ignite plan with storytelling and narratives that our agency can provide into this process. So the minute I met with Ms. Muzio, that's where we started. Those narratives that have heard me talk in public about the benefits of this city over our competition, we were able to use those narratives and complement what the city staff does very well as demonstrated in tonight's, is just give you the facts and let you all decide based on those facts. And that's why I tried to stay with numbers in my initial presentation, because I think the numbers speak for themselves. And then you add together the benefit of just good processes after you sign the deal, after you sign the lease. There's no other team in metropolitan Kansas City that I would rather turn over a deal to once they're sold on what you all do. And I'll end with this. The certainty of process. This council time and time and time again, your predecessors and you collectively, when you ask for something in your plans and someone brings you what you ask for, you have had a history of saying yes to that. And I think that's what's happening tonight. So thank you for that additional opportunity to say so.

Thank you. Thank you. Really excited to see our EDC being fully up and running and bringing this kind of project to us. I love the number of jobs. I see someone from our school district here tonight. I feel like this is the kind of thing that Dr. Buck is always pushing us to bring in, that these are the kind of jobs that pay the kind of wages that let people take care of their kids. And so I'm excited to support this. Thank you.

Excellent. Thank you. Council Member Funk.

Thank you, Mayor. I may have missed this in your initial presentation. How many square feet of that building are you going to take on?

I think we estimated about 215,000 square feet.

Does that leave anything? Does that leave any space left in that building?

There is another. I think there is one additional space. Is that right? Because I'm... I haven't seen the building. Maybe Mr. Elam knows that.

Good evening. Ryan Elam, Assistant City Manager. I believe that Building that space itself is like 436,000 square feet or so because it's the big building A. And I don't know the exact number, but I know there is a company in about half of it. So I believe this pretty much takes up the rest of this building. This is what's referred to as building A. They do have building B and building C that have some space available in that as well in this whole park. But I don't have that exact number with me, but we can definitely get that.

I just didn't understand. I knew that building A had a tenant, and if it was taking the remaining, I don't remember, I think that's the pasta company that's on the other end of that building?

I believe it's Zoetis.

Zoetis, okay. Maybe I was thinking it was a pasta company. So, Ryan, I don't know why you're here. If you want to answer this, or maybe Brianna could tell us from a finance standpoint, what revenue has the city received from that project already? Do we know that number?

I don't know that number off the top of my head. We'd have to look that up. I would have to look that up. Yeah, we would have to look that up. That's a very specific question to get a very specific answer. Okay.

This is, I'll save my comments for later, Mayor, but I think that's all I have for questions right now. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Frazier.

I think Council Member Fugg asked at least one of my questions in what percentage of the building would you be taking up? It's an entirety, but it sounds like it's pretty close to half. Not sure if this is the time. You provided a breakout for the jobs and the average salary. I'm wondering if you have right now the breakout of the entry level. I know you spoke to that roughly $17 to $25 or so an hour. Do you have a breakout between entry level, the management level and?

I can speak to that. Thank you for the question. The production personnel would be an average of $30 an hour. And the salaried personnel, plant managers, plant controllers, maintenance managers, technical managers and so forth would be approximately $70 an hour. And so you combine all those, you know, more heavily weighted towards production personnel at the $30 an hour range and $70 an hour in a higher range, and you come up to about $83,000 on average.

Okay. Just a kind of follow-up question. I don't know if you, and so when you've opened other facilities around the country, do you work, do you have a partnership with, I'm going to say the entry level, I'm very much into workforce development, the entry level with the school districts, and we've got a great MCC college network here, so don't know if you have a recruitment strategy or if we've thought about that.

Well, obviously we would welcome any recruitment help that we can get. Typically what they've done is that the states and communities and the regions have various workforce agencies. They sometimes have training programs. They sometimes have in-kind recruitment. And this company is open to utilizing and doing that. Like we just talked about that on the drive down. Yeah, absolutely. But they don't have a recruitment strategy today, but they will welcome the conversation. Great. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you. Any other questions, comments? Anyone? Council Member Carlisle.

Thank you, Mayor. So if you could just hold on, let me get to the page here. Tell me about in your in your. slide show, it says that you actively incorporate recycled materials and have in-house recycling capabilities. Can you tell me more about that?

Yes, thanks for the question. We have our own recycling facility in Pennsylvania. So we're, without saying too much, we're often looking for ways to expand that operation, whether it's within Pennsylvania or outside of Pennsylvania. So with recycling being, I guess, more and more important each year for our business, that's always on the table.

OK. So the materials that you use to make whatever you make, whether it be a water bottle or a laundry soap bottle, whatever it is, you take those back into that facility and recycle and reuse that material? Is that what you're saying?

MR. That's right.

That's right. MS. So you're full circle on that? MR. That's right. MS. You make it and you reuse it?

MR. That's right. MS. And there's a certain percentage, just without interrupting, a certain percentage of that that's required in certain states.

MS.

Correct. Yeah. MR. And also in the federal level, but yeah. MS.

Okay.

MR. And we try to exceed that percentage.

Great. And would you be, I know you can't tell the future right now, but would that be something you'd be looking to do here or does it just depend on how everything goes?

That would depend, yeah.

Okay. And then your next bullet down says that you are advancing sustainable packaging initiatives. So is that, what does that mean? Let me not guess. You just tell me what that means.

Yeah, so we spend a lot of money every year on research and development. So this is going to be along the lines of how can we develop, say, a water bottle for Winston's? How can we make that more lightweight? That would be one way to do it, so more sustainable, so there's less plastic going out into the environment. But things like that, you know, our designers often come up with new ways to create initiatives along those lines. So it's actually pretty fascinating. It's outside of my realm, but I do work with our research and development group each year, and it's fascinating what they can do.

Okay, so really it's just a focus on putting less material into each package so that there's less out there, but not really like trying to figure out a way to make it compostable or anything like that, right?

More the first part.

Okay, gotcha. Okay, and then in your presentation you said you're going to have one line open, your hope to. Your hope is to have one line open by the end of Q4. So how many jobs would that be, do you think?

We have that somewhere, not on our person. It's probably like 35. I mean, because when you think about the plant operations and the salary positions, most of which, I think it was like 35 or 38 by the end of the year. I'm trying to remember the sheet. Yeah.

And I won't hold you to it. Oh, no.

I understand you don't have it in front of you. And when they say they are targeting, it's not like they really want to be operational in that first line by the end of the year. They almost need to be by the end of the year, but you know how things go. Sometimes things slip. But that's the expectation.

Okay, so one line by the end of the year and then all lines open by the end of two years.

Yes, and part of this is because this building was not set up for manufacturing, it was a lower-use building, Evergy, a great utility to work with, they need to be able to bring more power into the building. You can't install the lines and get them operational in service until you have enough power to run the lines. That's taking time. So Evergy believes that by like the third quarter of next year, or maybe the fourth quarter, that they'll have the three transformers in that can run everything. And then the company wants to ramp up operations in a measured way, make sure that they can hire the right people, find the right people. So we expect by the end of 2028, we'll have the power by the end of 2027, and they'll be able to pull in the remaining lines probably by the end of 2028. But there'll be a significant amount of jobs that we would look to hire. Some upfront jobs in the third quarter, beginning of third quarter, that would get everything operational. But I think, again, it's, John, I think it's 35 or 38 by the end of the year.

Great. Thank you so much. Sure thing.

This is conceptual. I'll just remind each one of us colleagues up here. Go ahead and give your perspective how you feel one way or the other. So we don't have to come back.

Okay, so thank you. I think this is a great idea. I completely understand how you're going to have to build up to being fully operational, especially if they don't have enough power to run the machines. That's a little bit of a problem there. So, you know, I think that's great. I see that you have the MOW Works and the Evergy program standing behind you. So we know if the state program is standing behind you, then you're definitely above the threshold for the wages that you need to be. I wouldn't see any reason with what I've seen here that I would be opposed to this project. Thank you.

Thank you. Appreciate that. Council Member Atkins.

Thank you. I had a question for you guys, if that's possible. I'm curious about other revenue sources. besides the economic impact of the payroll. So thank you, Mr. Perry, for explaining the payroll impact because that's pretty impressive. The way you described it was pretty impactful in terms of the amount, how much larger it is than warehousing. Is the same true for sales tax revenue? Like when you manufacture the things and then the people buy the things from you, is there a sales tax impact there? Or how does that industry...

Typically for the manufacturing side of things, there is an exemption from sales taxes, use taxes. In Missouri, I can't recall if it's a state and local sales tax exemption or if it's just a state exemption. I'd have to dig into that a little bit further. But for me, there's just a general, hey, this is exempt from sales tax, at least at one of those levels, state and or local.

Okay. Okay. Thank you. So the significant revenue impact, the economic impact is from the salaries and it's in the property tax, personal property after time. Okay. Wonderful. Okay. Well, thank you. That was my other questions were answered. And I also, I do like this project because I'm following along with Mr. Bush's charts every time. And I know that five percent investment of your total operations i think is a great bargain for us to be able to invest in something that's going to improve our community long term which is what we're all here for so thank you for bringing it to us thank you mayor if i may i've got a couple of answers to a couple of the questions that we were able to look up real quick so thanks to brianna for for finding our pilot schedule on real short order on that but uh

In 2024, so the 2025 tax year for this particular lot, for LS Logistics Lot 1, The total pilot payment was $32,644. The city portion of that is $4,855.35 for that. And then related to the overall building size, I was off by a few thousand feet. The building is about 431,000 square feet, and Zoetis occupies about 215,700 of that square feet of those square footage. So this would take up the remainder of the available building in this particular building.

Thank you. Appreciate that. Council Member Pryor, please.

Thank you, Mayor. So I obviously was not here for the entire presentation, but I have reviewed the packet, our council packet. And from what I see in there, I'll have to go back and watch the entire presentation. But from what I see in the council packet, I'm in support of this. And thank you for bringing bringing quality jobs to our city.

Thank you. Anyone else wanting to make a comment or give a perspective?

No one?

Okay, well, then I will go ahead and make a couple comments. And I won't repeat what's already been asked. I think you're getting a good idea kind of where we're headed. I think when this council doesn't speak, that means we're pretty much in favor, unless they speak different. But I'll speak for myself. As I've said many, many times before, it wasn't very long ago, approximately 8 to 10 years ago, that we had these vacant sites where this building is that you're wanting to move into. And we have a lot of vacant land still here in our community. And the idea is not to build and... Built structures on every piece of ground. We still like our green space. However, eight years ago, we were not in this game. This game of having a regional agency like Kansas City Area Development Council even think of considering Lee Summit, Missouri. Just didn't happen. We had zero spec industrial spaces in Lee Summit. And because some of the council members up here now and previous council and mayor were looked at the strategic plan and were very strategic and very responsible, we were able to attain getting these spec industrial buildings. And I think what Mr. Elam just said just kind of validates that it's been a good investment. And the opportunity for you all to come here tonight, wanting to invest further, even further validating and just reaffirms that we are headed in the right direction. You all are considering our location here. I'm sure in your site selection process you've evaluated many, many issues and criteria. But I think you've done enough research that you know that the robust and great school districts that we have here, the workforce development training programs that we have here with our universities, put us in the game. And this was not done by luck or just wishful thinking. It was very strategic and very intentional. And so we welcome companies such as yours to come into this community. And we're very privileged to have this opportunity. We have a very dynamic economic development agency now with Mr. Perry's leadership. We didn't have that eight years ago. And so I think that's what we're seeing here today and tonight. And for me, this falls in line with the other incentive percentages that we've offered for similar type uses. Again, I already said it, the workforce we have here, you have an amazing workforce pool to choose from. And if they need to be trained to certain standards, we can help with all of that as well as a community. And let's see what other things. I think I've said everything I needed to say. The multiplier effect, that's the last part I'll say. you know, the fact that you're creating a certain tax base that we currently do not have, even with the incentives, the fact that these employees could potentially live in Lee Summit, hopefully they all live in Lee Summit, but at the very least will support the commercial retail that surrounds the area that is what makes this ecosystem work as a whole. We have a lot of retail surrounding that location that absolutely, I'd like to see Sometimes you put a graph up there of what the multiplier effect could be. You don't have to do that tonight, but maybe down the road. I'd like to see some numbers that might reflect that. So that's all I have to say. I think you're getting a good gauge. I think as a group, we're being very receptive. And we wish you well. Go back to the drawing or go back, work with staff and finalize it, firm it up, and then come back to us. And we look forward to having you in our community. So thank you guys very much. Thank you very much. Yep. Okay, so we will proceed with the agenda we have item number seven resolution number 26-08 We have presentation Are you just gonna read it I can go ahead and read it. Yeah, please I

Resolution 26-08 a resolution in support of the city of Lee summits intent to pursue a project partnership agreement With the United States Army Corps of Engineers for the Little Blue River flood risk management study Great, thank you We have a resolution read we have a motion made by mayor pretend shields and a second by councilmember Cravens do have any discussion Yes, mayor pretend shields

Yes, I just wondered if someone from staff could kind of briefly speak to how this partnership works and why this is on the agenda tonight. Thank you.

Good evening, George Binger, city engineer. The resolution is to keep moving forward with the project the city started several years ago. It's a combined study with the Corps of Engineers and several local agencies. With this, it's a project that was directed by the Corps, well, Congress directed the Corps to study the Little Blue Watershed to look at ecosystem restoration, like stream water quality, quality of the lakes in the watershed, as well as to look at potential for flood risk mitigation. One of the things that it showed in this study that annually, over a 50-year time span, the current flooding causes about $47 million of property damage and infrastructure damage per year on average. So moving forward with this study, the goal is to get to a construction phase. And so to do that, we have to go... The city has to make some certifications of what this is saying, basically that we're financially viable, that we can commit financial agreements, we have the ability to acquire real estate, and that we as a local community support the project. And so that's what this resolution is basically stating that support. Thank you. That's a brief summary. If there's any questions, I'd be happy to answer questions on this.

Thank you. That's all the questions that I had.

Great. Thank you. Council Member Frazier.

Is there a termination date on the agreement, or is it ongoing?

This agreement, with the process with the Corps of Engineers, this agreement allows to go to what's called a command validation milestone. This is where we meet with the Kansas City District Office. The timeline on this, I mean, there's no financial obligation with this. The typical timeline on this is that it has to go through a congressional funding cycle to come forward with their portion of it. But it goes from here, it'll go to the chief engineer's office, Army Corps of Engineers in Washington, D.C., and then if the chief engineer will issue the chief's report, which is probably about nine months from now, then this project would go forward. Got it.

Okay. Thank you.

Great question. Thank you. Mr. Binger, is this somewhat related to a presentation that was made by a representative from the Menoraca Regional Council last year, previous council, that talked about overall water overlay or watershed issues throughout our community and the region?

Yes, that's what this is. Because Menoraca Regional Council is kind of coordinating this action with the local communities and the Corps. So they were kind of coordinating the meetings and the progress on that and some of the public involvement as well.

And most other communities are also reviewing this and considering their own action within their own jurisdictions? Yes, that is correct. Great. Thank you. Any other questions or discussion? If not, motion has been made by Mayor Pro Tem Shields and a second by Council Member Craven. There are no more discussion. Then please cast your vote. All votes are in. Motion passes 9-0. Thank you. Please record that. All right, it takes us to proposed ordinances. Forward it from committee. Mayor Pertem.

Thank you. I move for second reading of bill number 26-098, an ordinance awarding the bid for project number P297 for the curb repair FY27 program to Phoenix Concrete LLC in the amount of $3,581,328.26 and authorizing the city manager to execute an agreement for the same.

Thank you. Motion has been made to advance a second reading by Mayor Pertem Shields, seconded by Council Member Carlisle. Any discussion? If not, please cast your vote. All votes are in. Motion passes 9-0. Thank you. Mayor for Tim.

Move for adoption of bill number 26-098 in ordinance awarding the bid for project number P297 for the curb repair FY27 program to Phoenix Concrete LLC in the amount of $3,581,328.26 and authorizing city manager to execute an agreement for the same.

Thank you. We have a motion to adopt by Mayor for Tim Shields. Second by Council Member Carlisle. Any discussion? Hearing none, please cast your vote. Missing one. All right. All votes are in. Motion passes 9-0. Thank you. Takes us to, for adoption. Oh, I'm sorry. Next bill.

I move for second reading bill number 26-099 ordinance approving change order number one to the agreement for project number 205 for the Boland tank recoding program to Cunningham sandblasting and painting covered increased contract price $105,400 for revised agreement amount of $782,500 and to increase the project timeline by 20 days and authorizing city manager to execute an agreement for the same.

Thank you. We have a motion made by Mayor Pro Tem Shields and second. Do we have a second? Council Member Adkins. Council Member Funk has a question.

Thank you, Mayor. I just would like to ask for some clarification on this. This is a $105,000 change order to this project. I don't know if we could...

Good evening, Jeff Thorne, Director of Water Utilities. In the process of working on the Boland tank recoating project, our Boland tank is a 5.5 million gallon ground storage reservoir near our Boland pump station down below Lakewood Dam. In the process of working on the recoating of that, we bid it originally as a full interior recoat with touch up to the exterior. They were cleaning the exterior to prep for paint and Painting material epoxy began to flake off more vigorously than we anticipated. and it was turning into a real problem. So we went to talk to the contractor, and they said we recommend to do a full recoat instead of a partial. And so we're looking at doing the full recoat on that. The project came in well under our budget, so it's still within the funds we hold. But we decided to go with the full recoat instead of a partial because of the fact that when we got to spraying at it and working at it, it started to come off a lot.

So it is within the budget. We're not going outside. Absolutely.

It's within what we had originally in the CIP. The bid came in well under.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

Is this the one that's down below the dam in Lakewood? Yes, sir. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. All right. We have a motion to advance the second reading by Mayor for Tim Shields and a second by Council Member Atkins. Any further discussion? Yeah. Council Member Frazier?

I just wanted, so that action is going to increase the timeline for 20 days. Is that what I'm seeing on the other end in doing so? On a record here. Project manager here.

Yes, that's correct.

Okay. Thank you.

All right. Got it. All right. Seeing no further questions, please cast your vote. All votes are in. Motion passes 9-0. Thank you. Please record the vote. Mayor for Tim Shields.

I move for adoption of bill number 26-099 an ordinance proving change order number one to the agreement for project number 205 for the bull and tank recoding project at Cunningham sandblasting and painting coffer increase in the contract price of $105,400 for a revised agreement amount of $782,500 and to increase the project timeline by 20 days and authorize the city manager to execute an agreement for the same.

Thank you. We now have a motion to adopt from Mayor Patem Shields and a second by Council Member Atkins. Any further discussion? If not, please cast your vote. Okay. Thank you. All votes are in. Motion passes 9-0. Thanks. All right. Member Tam.

Okay. I move for second reading of bill number 26-100, an ordinance awarding the bid for project number 1104 for the NBC Winnebago EFHB project to Mega KC Corporation in an amount of $2,160,247.50 and authorizing city manager to enter into agreement for the same.

Thank you. We have a motion to advance a second reading, Bill No. 26-100 by Mayor Patem-Shields and a second by Councilmember Carlisle. Any further discussion?

If not, please cast your vote.

All votes are in. Motion passes 9-0. Thank you. Please record the vote. Mayor Patem.

Thank you. I move for adoption of bill number 26-100 and ordinance awarding the bid for project number 1104 for the NBC Winnebago EFHB project to Mega KC Corporation in the amount of $2,160,247.50 and authorizing the city manager to enter into an agreement for the same.

Thank you. We now have a motion to adopt bill number 26-100 by Mayor Tim Shields and a second by Council Member Carlisle. Any further discussion? If not, please cast your vote. All votes are in. Motion passes 9-0. Thank you. All right. Moving along with the agenda. Takes us to committee reports. I'll just give an update on where we're at. I guess Council Member Funk.

Thank you, Mayor. On Monday, the 18th, we had a legislative and governmental relations meeting. I had to fill in for Chairperson Carlisle, so she can't give up this update here. Good day. We got an update from our lobbyist, Mr. Head. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. Bill number 2019 is on the governor's desk for the approval of the $250,000 for the canine facility. We also have one on the governor's desk for $772,000 for some additional technology stuff for the joint operations facility. And we don't know the exact dollar amount on the airport tower amount, but it is in the hands of Washington DC to be published and also the bill regarding utility relocation fees being passed back to municipalities died at the reading. Today, the 19th, we had our MARC Total Transportation Committee meeting. A lot of good talk down there. A couple good grant options. I know Mr. Park and Ms. Albers know there's some good grant options out there for us they're working on. And the committee voted to move I-470 on the unfunded list up to Tier 3. So some good news down there.

Great news. Thank you. All right. Mayor Pro Tem.

Thank you, Mayor. We had a meeting of the Finance and Budget Committee yesterday, probably one of the longer meetings that we've had for that committee. Really extensive discussion of the full budget for the city for the next fiscal year, which includes all our funds, our general fund, but also our various capital improvement funds, our enterprise funds, all of those. In that presentation, we did have some different department heads report out about how the budget was going to impact them in this next year, which I really appreciated how they were able to share that information with us. And the committee did, after some extensive discussions with the fire chief, recommend restoration of several budget items for that department, including items related to training and peer support, use for our live burn facility, some other items as well, which I understand will not be part of the Official budget hearing that we have on June 2nd But would come as a recommendation to counsel for an amendment to that budget shortly thereafter Probably presented that same night, but the official amendment would come later. Is that right?

Mr. Mr. Dunning?

Yeah, that's correct We need to prepare that budget amendment and once we got through the public hearing, okay So I just wanted to give the committee some awareness for that also a great presentation to go back and watch if you have two and a half or three hours, but it was very good discussion. I really appreciate everyone who participated in that. Thank you.

Thank you all for your efforts with that process.

Oh, and I also want to thank Council Member Carlisle, who's going to be taking over that chairmanship, and we'll get to see this through all of our mid-year reviews and everything. I know she's going to do an amazing job.

Very excited.

All right, thank you. I see no other committee reports, so we'll go to Council Comments. Anybody? Council Comments. None? Mayor Patem-Shields.

Thank you, Mayor. I think I already spoke pretty extensively on my thought process on the committee assignments. And I guess I just wanted to say again that the assignments that Councilmember Rader was offered, that I do really believe that they are good and substantive assignments. We just passed through tonight over $5.7 million of items that went through Public Works Committee. And I had hoped that she would be one of the experienced voices on that committee helping our newer members get acclimated. I understand that that's not the decision that was made. But I really do believe that that is an important committee to serve on. I believe that rules committee is going to have some really important substantive work to do this year. And that those are both places where her voice would be very valuable. I'm not going to force anyone to serve on a committee, but at the same time, once those assignments are made, it would be a matter of kicking other people out of the spots that were being offered to them. Like I said, I was trying really hard across all these different committees to balance experience with development opportunities, with subject matter expertise, and I've been on council Only six years, but I've never seen those assignments renegotiated on the dais. And I understand being upset at not getting the assignments that you want, because I have been upset at not getting the assignments that I want before. There have been committees that I've wanted to serve on for years that I wasn't appointed to. And I know that that's an experience that other members on this dais have absolutely had. And I try to take everybody's preferences into account, but there's only so many spots per committee. And there are multiple members on this dais tonight that didn't get their top picks for everything. And so I can understand being upset, but I can't change those assignments because there's no way to give everyone the assignments, all of the assignments that they want. And it's just not feasible. So I'm really sorry that those weren't the ones that you wanted. I would still love to see you serve on those committees. But if you're really not open to it, I won't force you. So thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Funk.

Thank you, Mayor. I didn't get a... I tried to click in there when Council Member Shields was talking about the budget, but I just wanted to... One of the things we asked in the budget meeting was to keep our lobbyists fully funded between the federal and state levels, and I think... Coming out of our legislative committee report, the dollar amount, I think we invest about $100,000, $120,000 a year in lobbyists. And the opportunity that we all get to venture to Jeff City in Washington, D.C. and meet with our federal and state representatives. You know, we're walking away with over a million dollars just in this little adventure. So I would really like to see that lobbyist be fully funded for another year. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. That's Member Frazier.

On Friday, I had an opportunity to attend the graduation of Leadership League Summit class of 2026. I will not say it was the best class ever because the best class ever was 2025, of which I was part of. But I'd just like to put a plug in. It is a great opportunity for the residents to become involved. You learn an immense amount of information about the city, how it works, and working with different areas. So I believe the application or the form is out on our city website, but made lifelong friends when I was there and am truly looking forward to the upcoming class of 2027. So it's out there. Take a look. There are no requirements other than you have a desire to learn and receive more information. So just want to put that plug in. Thanks.

Thank you. Council Member Rader.

Thank you. I don't know if you've ever been in an organization, but typically in organizations they rank by experience and time on those organizations and they do not demote. You do not take a member from a lesser time on a committee and demote them and keep that person on that committee. And that was an insult to me. And yes, Public Works is an amazing committee, but I'm not going to be dismissed that way. That was dismissive. I don't know why you did this. I hope that it wasn't for political aspirations to get me out of here, because that's what it felt like. I didn't want to do this on the dais, Mayor Pro Tem. I wanted to do it behind the scenes, but you refused to cooperate, collaborate, or anything with me. I mean, I do not understand this action. And as far as rules, it meets maybe two times a year. I feel like that I have a lot more Ways to help this committee. I mean to help the City Council and to help the people in this City then and then talking about a dress code Now the camera. Yes, it's important, but it's going to be turned back around. There's going to be one session and be done So again, I mean if that was what you set up to do you succeeded Thank you, that's remember fire

Thank you, Mayor. Well, I just wanted to ask Council Member Rader if she would reconsider being on Public Works, because I really like you on Public Works with me. I think you ask great questions, very thoughtful questions. So I would love for you to reconsider being on Public Works. And then also... I don't know. I know Council Member Carlyle is chairing rules. I didn't know if we could, if Council Member Rader could go back on rules, chairing rules, and then Council Member Carlyle take my position now that I'm on rules as co-chair and then I completely am off rules. Is that something?

Does that make sense? Mr. Head, that's something, I mean, we really can't like discuss it, but it can be talked about, but just more one-on-one.

Well, ultimately, all of these appointments are made by the mayor pro tem. The authority to make the appointment only lies with the mayor pro tem.

That was the original appointment.

It's a conversation for you to have with the mayor pro tem.

Okay.

The council cannot vote, for example, to change the order. That is not within the authority of the council. It's only within the authority of the mayor pro tem. The council's authority is either to approve or not approve the slate. That's as far as the council's authority goes.

But we already voted on, that's how it was initially, but we voted on the second one. Correct. So we can re-vote if that?

There would have to be a change made by the mayor pro tem. There would need to be people that would resign from certain committees because the committees are now established. The council has voted and has established the committees. So to undo that at this point, It would require for people to remove themselves from committees and then new appointments to be made, ultimately, is what it would require.

And that's what I was proposing. But, I mean, we don't have to discuss it right here. We can discuss it after. But that was literally what I was just proposing. Okay, thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Atkins.

I wanted to speak to it because this is, you know, Obviously, I'm one of the new people, so we haven't gone through this before. But I'm really conflicted about how this has all come about, because I do think it's important that your voice is on these committees. I don't want to see you not serving on committees. But at the same time, I didn't get to be on those committees either. I wanted to be on those committees, and I didn't get chosen. And I don't know if it's reasonable that every SENIOR PERSON GETS TO HOLD THEIR POSITION EVERY YEAR BECAUSE EVERY TIME THE BOARD TURNS OVER, THERE'S GOING TO BE NEW PEOPLE, AND THAT CHANGES THE DYNAMIC OF ALL THE LEVELS OF EXPERIENCE PROFESSIONALLY AND ON COUNCIL. I THINK THERE ARE A LOT OF PEOPLE WHO HAVE EXPERT SKILL SETS IN THEIR CAREERS THAT OUTWEIGH THE YEARS ON COUNCIL. I THINK THERE'S A LOT IN CONSIDERATION, AND IF MAYOR PROTEM IS IN CHARGE OF THAT DECISION-MAKING PROCESS AND YOU'VE already discussed it behind the scenes, if the precedent is that she sets it and that's what we do, then I don't think it's wise to change the precedent moving forward. And I wouldn't have known there was a precedent until this came up. But if we're going to set a precedent where we argue every year with the council positions, then I'd rather see keeping the slate that she made, because I do not want the citizens to not have a voice at all, from your, you know, we're in the same district, so I think the district needs to hear your voice, but I don't want to overturn, I don't want to negotiate in between those positions. I think there's very valid reasons for everyone getting placed where they did and the time commitments and the time of day and what our professional backgrounds are. I don't know. So I'm super conflicted. I don't, I do not think this was a political decision at all and that is I think she gave lots of very, very good reasons why she made the decision. So ignoring all those and calling it political I don't think is fair either. So I think you should be able to stand up for yourself, but also get what you get, which is I hope to be on different committees too as we go on. But I would not dream of trying to overturn the committees that I was serving on. So that's just my feedback on what's happening. And Councilwoman Frazier, the best year was 2021. It was not 2025. And for that matter, moving on to leadership discussions, I was a part of the Chamber Leadership Program and also the City Leadership Program. And they're both excellent, excellent processes to go through for people in the city who want to learn more about how everything works city level. From the business level, I think it's just super valuable, and I appreciate the staff that gives their time to it because it is extra time on the weekends of you all, and I have appreciated everyone's presentations that they give throughout the year.

Thank you. Council Member Rader.

Thank you. I just want to thank Council Member Pryor for her support and Council Member Carlisle for her support.

Council Member Pryor.

Thanks. I also forgot to add, congratulations to all the 2026 high school grads. I guess there's Lee Summit West tonight, Lee Summit High School tomorrow night, and Lee Summit North was last night. Yeah. So congrats to all the 2026 grads. Hopefully they're all choosing KU. Thank you.

Rock chalk. All right. With that being said, Mr. Dunning, staff roundtable.

Yeah, thank you, Mayor. 2003 was the best year, by the way. Now, we do have city employees that participate in that Leadership Lee Summit. I know one of them is our very own Tracy Albers, Development Services Director, just graduated Leadership Lee Summit. I'm sure I'm missing others, and so I don't know their names, but recognizing Tracy's in the crowd, I'd highlight that. So within the staff roundtable, there's a written report from the fire department. Our fire department's credited, and as part of that accreditation, there's a requirement that needs to be fulfilled each year, and that's providing this annual compliance report. And so if you... If you have questions after reading that report, please let us know. But that's one of the ways that we fulfill that requirement is submission of this written annual compliance report to all of you. Yeah, I think that's it. Thank you, Mayor.

Great. Thank you, Mr. Dunning. That concludes all the business for tonight. We still have some more business to take care of in closed session. So this meeting is adjourned, but we will go into executive session, closed session. So if you can read us into it.

Pursuant to Section 610.21.2 of the revised statutes, the State of Missouri pertaining to the leasing, purchase, or sale of the real estate by a public governmental body with public knowledge of the transaction might adversely affect the legal consideration. Therefore, and pursuant to Section 610.21.19d of operational guidelines, policies, and specific response plans developed, adopted, or maintained by any public agency responsible for law enforcement, public safety, first response, or public health for use in responding to or preventing any critical incident which has the potential to endanger individual or public safety or health, Financial records related to the procurement or expenditure relating to operational guidelines, policies, plans purchased with public funds shall be open. When seeking to close information to this exception, the public governmental body shall affirmatively state in writing that disclosure would impair the public governmental body's ability to protect the security or safety of persons or property and shall in the same writings State that the public interest in nondisclosure outweighs the public interest in disclosure of records and pursuant to Section 610.2120, existing or proposed security systems and structural plans of real property owned or leased by a public governmental body and information that is voluntarily submitted by a nonpublic entity owning or operating any infrastructure to any public governmental body for the use of that body to devise plans for protection of the infrastructure of the public disclosure of which would threaten public safety. I move to enter closed session.

Thank you. We have the motion made and it's been seconded. Please have roll call, please.

Council Member Cravens.

Aye.

Council Member Carlisle. Yes. Council Member Carlisle. Aye. Council Member Pryor.

Aye.

Council Member Frazier. Aye. Council Member Adkins. Aye. Council Member Rader. Aye. Council Member Funk.

Aye.

Mayor Pertem Shields. Aye. Mayor Lopez.

Aye. Thank you all.

Thank you. Thank you.