City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. We're going to get the study session uh going. Um we have a resol resolution, a council sponsored resolution 26-719. I'm going to turn it over to uh council member Stewart if he wants to talk on the resolution.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, I don't have a whole lot to say on it, but this resolution um is basically that if the city manager would want to do a separation agreement um beyond what their spending authority is, which is currently $100,000, they would have to get city council approval on that. I'm not trying to impede on anything with personnel with the city manager. It's just simply a monetary thing and I think there should be guard rails. Thank you. All right. Next is citizens request. I've not seen any. Uh so if there's no citizens request to speak on the resolution, um we'll move to presentations.

I'm sorry, mayor. We just usually give an opportunity for any discussion, okay, amongst the council before we move to citizen requests in case anything anybody else wants to ask or talk about. I'm sorry. Any further discussion on the resolution? Mr. Mayor, proceed. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. City Manager, with this, any any concerns or thoughts you might have? No, we've discussed this internally and with the law department. And uh I don't have any objection with the resolution or the policy yet. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just I did have maybe I should have mentioned this previously. I did have discussion with the city manager as well as the city attorney before it was put on to make sure we were in compliance with the charter. Thank you.

Any further discussion? Mr. Mayor, um I also spoke with Councilman Stewart and uh Jeremy about this resolution. Um made sure we were all good to go and sounds good. I look forward to supporting it.

Any further discussion? All right. Hearing none. All right. Moving on to uh I'm going to turn this over now to city manager Troy Anderson for the presentations. Honorable mayor, first item on uh presentations tonight is the 2025 annual police report. U call on Chief Brinkley. I'm missing a slide. Give me one second, please.

Yes, Councilman. Mr. City Manager, if we're having technical difficulties, are we able to bounce down to number two, then come back to PD for for further presentation? Yeah, I'm going to refer to my technical team if we've got the next uh presentation for the Simeiana report. Absolutely. We can reorganize the agenda if that's the will of the body. Yeah. Is that what you want us to do? I think we should. If we're not ready. Yeah. If we're not ready.

All right. Let's go ahead and skip down to number two and then once we sort out the technical difficulties we'll uh come back to the annual police report. The next item on the agenda is a semiannual report of the Independence Park Commission called Diane Kaiser.

I hit which button do I hit that one? Okay, great. Good evening. Thanks for the opportunity to tell you what a terrific job the parks and recreation department is doing for the city of independence. Uh so we'll just go through a few slides here and show you what's happening. So we start with just the overview. The commission that I'm the chairperson of was created in 1999 by ordinance. Uh our primary mission is to act in an advisory ca capacity to the council and also to review the status of the projects funded by the parks improvement sales tax. So we want to kind of bring you up to date on how all that's going. Let's see. There we go. So here are the revenues for the past for the first six months of the fiscal year. Um so you can see that they're all pretty much on target being about half of what we expect for the year for the budget. U don't know if you have any particular questions about that one, but we'll keep moving along if you don't. And these are the expenses. Uh again, pretty much on track for six months of the year. And then the fund balances okay with all those numbers. So let me tell you about what we're doing. So, the parks and recreation master plan uh was begun in January of 2025. It was completed just this past March uh started with a community profile and surveys. Uh an inventory of the parks and trails and green spaces that the park manages. Uh the recreation program was analyzed. A financial an analysis was done and then a strategic plan was put together which the council approved on April the 8th. So you've all well while I don't know the old council would have had an opportunity to pursue that. So let me tell you about park maintenance which the sales tax funds. So we have 40

parks and green spaces. There's lots of mowing and trimming and maintenance that takes place on those spaces. We have 28 playgrounds and two splash pads. 42 basketball, tennis, and pickleball courts. 21 baseball, softball, and te-ball fields. 19 football and soccer fields. 30 miles of trails, 984 acres of parks and green spaces, and four recreation facilities. And hopefully you've all accessed accessed at least some of those as uh in your own recreation programs. So, we have some of the things that we've actually done in the field. We have new turf at the Cloier Park. Replaced the walking bridge on the play and the at the play feature on Waterfall Park. Replaced fences at Dickinson Park and George Owens Park. Repaired park restrooms damaged by fireworks. Repaired damage to the Waterfall Park fishing pier and numerous parks from a July storm. And replaced and upgraded vandalized wiring and plumbing at athletic parks. I can tell you that the repair of the restrooms and the replacement of the vandalized wiring are are a major ongoing concern that we struggle with. Uh it just seems like a waste of money to have to keep putting money into the care of those or the repair of those places that are just I don't know why that happens, but it does. Uh during the fall and winter months, what does the staff do? They sharpen blades, winterize their mowers, do equipment maintenance, trim trees, and remove dead trees in parks and along the trails. Uh they do CDL training for the new staff, assist with moving staff, office furniture, and records out of city hall into the municipal commons and daily challenges with vandalism, graffiti, and homelessness. Lots of good recreation programs in these categories. We have aquatics, arts and culture, community and special events, continuing education and life skills, fitness and wellness, nature education and outdoor adventure, and

sports, youth and family out of school enrichment. So, here are some more specific examples of recreation activities. Uh, the Fourth of July celebration, popsicles in the park is popular. New 30, the new theater trip to Clue, Dragonfly Days, hummingbird festivals, plant academy, the UV night hike, fall bird survey, building bluebird boxes, Santa Fe Park tennis tournament. So hopefully you've participated in some of these or at least been exposed to them in some sense over the past year. Uh continued examples, farmers market, the winter market, toddler town, my first camp out, fall craft classes, best little arts and craft show, annual cultural and heritage skate competition, senior autumn adventure trip, holiday lights trip, winter solstice, torch lit hike, and senior Christmas celebration. And again, I hope you've participated in some of those. We've done a great job, I think, this past year of getting out the word. Uh we've published the first annual report uh began designing the spring and summer 2026 park and recreation activity catalog. And hopefully you've seen this. It's quite a a it's great document. Provides lots of information about the programs that are available through the sum this summer and and early spring. Uh launched a new Instagram account for parks and recreation. We managed five f Facebook and two Instagram accounts. Gained followers for all of those accounts. continued development of sponsorship programs and policies. So the the commission meets once a quarter and receives these kinds of reports at every meeting and so we can assure you that the money is being well spent the on the tax improvement tax parks improvement tax and that the staff is doing a really great job. So thank you for the opportunity to share this with you.

Any questions or any questions or discussion? Mr. Mayor, do we do we have any participant numbers for these events? Any sort of headcounts or anything like that? They're reported at our our commission meetings. They keep really good records of all those. So, we have them and could provide them if you were interested. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much. Okay. You're welcome. Anything else? All right. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Honorable mayor, the next item on the agenda, item number three, the semiannual report of the storm water oversight committee. Um, going to call it R. Scott Smith.

We can do PD now. We can we can do PD.

Mr. Mayor, if you don't mind, it sounds like that maybe we've got the tech back up for the uh 2025 annual police report. All right. Um so, if we can go back to number one, presentation number one.

All right. Sounds good. Thank you. Wow, I caused a lot of problems there. Uh, I apologize there, Le going left or right. It's not working. Don't click it again. Just just just

Good evening, Mayor Council. Uh apologize for the delay. Um I'm going to present the annual report for 2025. So uh it is my honor and pleasure to present the annual report for 2025 tonight. uh myself and also Deputy Chief Sumstead and also Peterson provide an overview of our crime data for 2025 as well as well as share some of our successes for the year and also some of the accomplishment uh that's happened in the police department. So I'm going to kick things off a little bit first to talk about some of the issues uh areas that I focused on when I first joined the police department seven months ago. It'll be real quick after which deputy chief Peterson also somestead will provide each of their substantive operational review of the areas of responsibility and I think it's good for them to be able to come up and actually do that as well too. Uh like most new police chiefs what I did was focus and try to meet as many people as I could in October when I started and a lot of it just to get to know everybody but also to identify some of the areas that need to be addressed immediately but also look at some stuff for f future consideration. So much of that, I'll summarize most of it. Most of it came down to better communication across the organization both top down up down up down up. Uh greater leadership accountability and direction by all of us in leadership positions in the PD. The need for leadership training development and also secession planning. Uh they really wanted more consistent and fair promotional processes, but also wanted us to address the vacancy issues. At the time when I first started, we had about 25 vacancies at the time. So that was kind of the main focuses that we've been working on. So to address some of the communication issues, I initially established a weekly chief's newsletter. That's something I've done previously in other organizations, and that's helped to kind of convey the word directly from the chief's office, what's going around the organization. A lot of things that we put in there varies from week to week, but a lot of is related to technology issues, things that may be working, things that are not working, and things we need to address. A lot of it is is communication to make sure we make everybody aware of what we are in

the progress of that uh budget. I spent a lot of information and propose actually submitting everything we submit to the budget for the city. So know actually know exactly what we're submitting but also what our prioritizations are. Obviously we can't afford everything we ask for but we try to concentrate on what the needs are and not just the wants. Um and then any policy changes that we have in the organization is good to hear that directly coming from the police chief. Uh the pursuit policy is one of those things that I put in the new in the chief weekly to make sure they're aware of what we're working on. Promotions um since COVID we have gotten away from his organization doing formal promotional processes inviting uh area departments in there city council and actually doing a a personal ceremony. So we've actually upped that and also we did award ceremonies as well too and also attab boys. Um, and then last but not least, one of the biggest things we've been working on since I've started is actually we had a police assessment in 2025. And I can proudly say that we've actually completed that assessment here. So, I'm going to go over um I try to go over each one of these areas as uh quickly as possible, but I want to give you an idea of the things that we addressed. So, a little bit of background. In 2025, the city contracted with Legal and Liability Risk Management Institute, also known as LL RMI, to perform an operational assessment of the police department. Now, they identified several key areas of focus and provided recommendations for us to address the concerns. The assessment emphasized areas related to officer and public safety, accountability, transparency, and also legal defensibility. Now, these are the eight areas of focus and I'll pro a quick update on each one of these. Uh you remember we did a press release, I think a couple months ago, announcing what our process was by going through these. These are the final results of these eight areas of uh focus. In 2025, IPD officers involved in a foot pursuit, vehicle pursuit, and also also involved shooting death all in one night where

the acting chief or the deputy chief were unable to respond to the scene. So since then we made some changes to the related IPD policies to make it very clearly defined what level of response is required for specific instances. We want to make sure we codify in the policy if we have an officer involved shooting a death a major disaster civil unrest uh in custody death armed barricaded hostage situation. These are things that we will make a chief's notification either the chief or his design will come to the scene. So it was important for us to complete that recommendation from the assessment assessors. Uh going down next one is use of force and afteraction reviews. This is one of the ones uh where the assessors really uh recommended that we review our processes and provide a little bit more objective analysis. So here the internal affairs established a standard for an early warning system that would trigger additional reviews of response of force. So when they re when they use force against someone, they actually actually file a report um use of force report supervisors review that report and normally that's about the end of it unless something happens. We have an internal affairs investigation and then and only then will it go to the to the police chief. What we've done is actually provided actually an opportunity so when we have an officer who has quite a few uses of force in a quarter, a lot of times we won't we won't be aware of it. So early warning system what it does we actually have a trigger of four instances. So if one single officer has four or more uses of force in one quarter we'll get alert on that. That alert triggers us to make sure we have more of a a detailed operational review. So what we're looking for is to go back and look at those four instances. What was what was the actual issue that caused the use of force? Uh did they comply with policy? And number two, which we haven't done a whole lot, is review the supervisor's response to all four of those to make sure that we're following policy and proto protocol. Uh

if there's additional training that need to be made, additional direction, uh we can make those reviews. That's something we haven't always done. So we actually do the reviews and it goes to the sergeant, uh the captain, and the major, but it rarely goes up to the police chief and the deputy chiefs. Uh so we've changed this and putting the early warning system in there to make sure we have greater oversight. Next one is bodywn um cameras. The assessors uh when they came in, I'll give you an overview. They pulled reports, documents, police reports, pursuits, uh they were video cam, body cams. One of those reviews, they looked at a body cam of a use of force involving a ta a deployment of taser. Well, the officer's body cam failure, they failed to capture the video of the incident. So upon further review of this incident, it was discovered that the officers um placed this body cam in sleep mode and the whole purpose for that is to preserve the battery life. If you leave it running the entire time, it it drains the battery from the body cam. Um the assessor wants to review that and actually change the policy. But upon further review, we found out that there's really nothing wrong with the camera. We thought we couldn't retrieve that data. We've gone back to make sure uh that we could retrieve it and we believe that is uh adjusted. So, no policy uh uh changes and actually no changes to the equipment. It was one of those things we had to tweak internally to make sure we can capture that that video. So, a lot of times we engage with someone, you've got the pre-event data that you can grab. Uh in this instance, we didn't have it for that one instance. So, we resolved this issue as well too. And then vehicle pursuit policy is probably one of the most controversial things I've had to address uh in my time here. So the assessors re reviewed a sample of the IPD pursuits and advised the department to review the vehicle policy and procedures to ensure that we continue to weigh the seriousness of the offense. Basically what that is what we're chasing for is it a traffic offense? Is it equipment violation? Is it a felony violation? Is it armed robbery? What are we doing? but also

ensure we continue to weigh the seriousness of the offense of the underlying crime and whether the risk of the pursuit outweighs the public safety benefits. Example, 16-year-old steals a car and we chase him. Is it worth the risk of us of that person, unexperienced driver, young person, he t-bones and ends a citizen in in the in the intersection, that person dies. Is it really worth pursuing a 16-year-old Ford stolen vehicle when it could cost someone's life? Now, these are complicated scenarios and situations. Um, and I'll talk a little bit about uh how we changed or why we changed the uh the policy. Um, when we look at this, we started to go back, we convened a working group to re and revise our pursuit policy and we really emphasize on restricting pursuits for low-level offense. That's number one. also strengthen the supervisor control of those instances and what we've done there is if they call out a pursuit normally it's always customary actually by policy the supervisor has to get on the air actually what's the reason for the pursuit what do we have what's the speed road conditions and all that stuff now will we change policy provide more oversight for the supervisors is if we don't get a response from an acting supervisor on duty supervisor by policy we will terminate that pursuit we want to make sure we have a supervisor we hold them accountable to make sure the policy and procedures are being followed. But if that's not in place, we want to make sure that we terminate that um unless it's something is uh severely um dangerous. So, we update it and we allow for pursuits for dangerous felonies or when occupants present a clear and present danger to others. Now, this is consistent. It's not something we just made up or just got out thin blue air. This is consistent with national policy recommendations and also regional a agencies, other agencies in our area as far as Kansas City Police Kansas, Kansas City Police uh Missouri Lee Summit and

also Blue Blue Springs. Now, our internal affairs or professional standards will randomly audit five pursuits every single month to make sure we have a follow-up. We we can look at those pursuits to make sure once again that we're following policy. Did the officer follow the policy? Uh, and it also did the supervisor monitor the pursuit the way we intended for that to be monitored. So that was that was the uh the j of it. I think most of you maybe not new council members were here when I did the actual presentation for the pursuit policy. But this is just to codify that policy and sign off on it. I met with the city manager today. It was our opportunity to kind of go over the policy and I provided some key points for him in a presentation uh format as well too. And then um almost finished only have a couple more. Internal affair process. The assessors uh really want us to strengthen our internal affairs investigation and standards process. So professional standards investigators have gone through some additional formal training and interview techniques and protocols and I think they went to the reed school investigations. Staff are finalizing the complaint classification and documentation and making sure we uh do a thor more thorough review on our case uh reviews. And what that mean is you look at some of the verbiage from the assessment a lot of times and when we close out a case if they follow policy we'll say no policy violation it's very short we want them to give more follow information about what when I give the incidents about the use of force and the Walmart where where the body cam didn't go off uh they use taser in an instance instead of just saying we follow policy what's the detail of that why do we use force why was it appropriate what was the need for that so we're asking internal affairs to get a little more detail detailed in their afteraction review and that policy has been updated already. And then last two, property and evidence. The sessions uh came to the police department and actually toured our property and evidence and what they do is actually take a sampling involve the evidence and that's pretty customary. So they may ask for about 50 items of evidence and what they're doing

is check and make sure that our computer system can track those items of evidence but also that we can find it. If we say we have um some fentanyl that's and we probably don't keep fentanyl there but marijuana, cocaine, all those drugs, if we have it in evidence in the property, we want to make sure that we have it. It's the amount or weight or quantity we say it is and it's there. We can retrieve it. So when they come in and do that assessment, um all that lined up and we did a phenomenal job on that portion of it. However, uh what they saw was we needed more formalized training, employee training for our employees on operations of an evidence and property unit. Uh there was some confusion whether or not they knew the policies and procedures. Um we have double checked and make sure they have signed off. They know the policy and procedures, but since the assessors noted that we should send a new a different formal school, we've made arrangements to do that. The other thing they noted in the property and evidence is the locking mechanism for the vault was broken and also they recommended we include a video recording system to make sure we monitor everything within property and evidence. So as of today's date we have actually um um completed the lock or replacement of a lock on the vault. Uh we have the camera installed and it's operational and working and the employees are scheduled for training in um July of this year locally in the in the Kansas City area. So all those recommendations or suggestions for property and evidence has been completed as well too. And then the last one last but not least before I turn this over to the next person. Based on recent changes in leaderships in the last five years, the assessors recommend focusing on leadership development and also secession planning. Um leadership development senate and sustainability committee was established to identify leadership and police executive training programs. And I'm proud to say that we work uh pretty well with financing budget to identify $30,000 in uh training, executive training for captains and above to make sure they can get the training they need. Uh when I first got here for a city of this size,

I don't think we have one person that's been to the FBI National Academy. No one's been to the Boston SMIP school. No one's been to uh Northwestern Stafford Command. So when you rise up during the ranks and you become executive, you assume on an executive levels, we want you to have that experience, but also the professional development education with your peers around the country and those are standard courses. Uh when you hire a police chief and a deputy chief, most of them will have at least one or more of those executive courses. Right now we have no one in our organization that had that. So um it's not doom and gloom, but it is part of our process to update and prepare the next generation of leaders within this police department. I'll always say even though our company outside I like for us to grow our leadership capacities within the organization for so in the in the very near future you can promote the next police chief from within instead of having to go outside. So that kind of concludes I'll take any questions you uh that you may have for me reference this otherwise I'll turn it over to uh deputy chief uh sumstead to provide operational review of our area's responsibility. Thank you. At least the technical difficulties have been resolved. Maybe perfect. All right. Thank you guys for letting me come up and talk today. Mayors, me members of the council, as always, it's always a pleasure to get up here and talk to you guys. Um, my name is Deputy Chief Michelle Sumstead. I am over the patrol division, the investigations division, and the special operations division. I always say I have the fun job. So, I have everything uh pretty much everything uniform related. I'm not going to go over all of these stats. We'll go over them in a little bit more detail to try and I know you guys have got a long night tonight, so

I'm going to try and be respectful of your time. Um so, we'll start with domestic violence. Um, we had a 2% increase in domestic violence. I am not going to go over all these stats on these slides. You guys have got it in the agenda. Um, I'm just going to kind of highlight a couple of the things. Big thing I notice always with domestic violence is the ongoing relationship with Hope House and the incredible partnership that we have got with Hope House. Throughout the years, people have become more comfortable reporting domestic violences. And I think that that is why we get a little bit of an increase in that because Hope House every year really pushes for that. gotten with the relationship that we've got um to the point of this year uh Sergeant Kennan is also getting uh the Hope House uh one of their awards this year. This lunch is Thursday for that. So, like I said, we've got a great relationship. We do uh domestic violence revisits with them pretty much every month, if not more. There's a group of officers that go out with Hope House and go double check on victims to make sure that they're doing okay. Uh same thing here with drug and narcotic violations. We you're seeing almost a 25% increase. However, the one of the things with that increase is we have uh core core program the crime we'll talk about it here again in a minute crime overview um response and evaluation program that has for about the last year been kicking back off in full steam um which is a lot of self-initiated activity. That's why you're seeing a almost a well 24.59% increase in drug violations. The guys are out there really, really, really working their tails off to try and get some of these um street level and high level drug dealers and drug users off the street. As you can see, about 576 of those are just the possession. So that's going to come from most of your patrol officers. Um firearms related, that's a 14.18 decrease. So that's the ones that are

being reported. That's not the guns that are be being taken off the street by our officers. That's the ones that are being reported. So, we have a whole lot less violent crime in the city to the point of about 14 just over 14% decrease in gun crime. This is uh any of our officers that have been assaulted or killed in the line of duty. Um luckily in 2025 we had a 100% decrease and we had nobody killed in the line of duty last year. Um, however, there was a 40% increase in our guys getting assaulted, our guys and gals getting assaulted. Obviously, that's way too high. Any amount of increase is too high for me. So, um, that's whenever you hear Leoka and you hear any of the officers talking about Leoka, that's what that is. Law enforcement officers killed and assaulted property crimes. This is one of those numbers that as high as that number is of 4,000 crimes of property crimes, this is something we just really don't have a whole lot of control over. This is going to be your lararseny shoplift from Kohl's. If you know our Kohl's loss prevention, he's the number one in the nation for shoplifts. So, we're going to have high numbers of crimes. We've got the Independent Center in the 39th Street corridor. So, we're going to have those kind of crimes. Um, obviously, you've also got burglaries and fraud that are listed in there. Um, burglaries of storage units have been a hot topic lately. Um, we've actually, that's one of our core initiatives right now is the um um storage units. Sorry about that. Violent crime, another decrease. So, again, this is a lot of this is the guys out there working their tails off trying to get, you know, some of these bad guys off the street. our personnel.

What we're looking at right now, a lot of the reason um you know, you guys have heard about our staffing issues. I know the chief kind of talked about it very very briefly. We are budgeted for 231 sworn officers. Um we are at right now with nine conditional offers and people in the academy, we are at 29 vacancies. Um and that's vacancies throughout the entire department. That's vacancies within investigations, vacancies within special operations, and vacancies within patrol. Um, we also have within patrol, and I'll talk about it here again in a second, but we've also got guys that have gotten hurt in the line of duty that are on modified duty. I think we're sitting at about 14 right now total. Don't quote me on that number. Um, and then our civilian professional staff, we've got 98 budgeted, but we've also got 25 vacancies. Those are uh within fiscal um those are um some of our admin positions, records positions, detention positions. So we've got near or just over 50 vacancies within the department altogether. That's pretty small, but that's the organizational chart. You guys have got that again in your agenda item. So investigations kind of proud of this number that's on here. There's uh nearly 4,000 cases that were assigned last year with a nearly 61% clearance rate. National average is about 40%. So we are substantially above the national average with six vacancies to handling a city this size. Um six vacancies having that kind of a clearance rate is a absolutely astronomical. So I could not be more proud of our investigations unit for the things that they do there. part of investigations is special victims unit um which is a lot of our sex crimes the things that none of us want to talk about um property crimes

and any of the crimes against persons and these are their numbers and again gun squad uh we've got one one detective assigned to um it's RCFL it's a regional computer lab or forensics lab um officer Taylor or Detective Taylor is up there now and basically they focus on um anything computer related crimes is they do a lot of that kind of stuff stuff that it's one of those they can't even tell me about it on a lot of that. So our drug enforcement unit um again just like you saw with the drug crimes is they've been working their tails off because everything that we get on the street usually gets assigned to them as well to investigate. I know a lot of you are familiar with the street crimes unit. Uh their numbers again, they've got four 54 guns off the street and over 50,000 rounds of ammunition that they pulled off the street in 2025. Um they've recently gotten their um federal credentials back or are working on getting their federal credentials back with the US Marshall Service as well. Um and trying to build that partnership and collaboration back with the USms again. crime scene. Again, every time our guys go out on any kind of violent felony, they're calling out crime scene. So again, they keep their keep their numbers pretty high. And big thing with patrol, nearly 57,000 calls for service last year. Um if you guys remember the ones that have been on the council, we started we tried to do a sector um concept to where officers were broke down into three different sectors throughout the city um to try and get them moving around the city a little bit more than what they were. Um we've determined that that was not working quite as effective as we were hoping that it would work. So, we've gone back to districts this year um starting in I think it was December 14th is when we

started that again and response times have gone down and um it has worked out very very well going back to districts. Uh Major McVey did a really really really good um analysis of that program and determined that we were going to go back to districts again with the shortage. Imagine having you know we have 90 people are slotted for patrol and handling almost 57,000 calls in a year. Core we talked about um basically what core does is we come up with a project for them to work. Right now it is the storage units and a lot of the foot traffic along third 23rd Street and they have one focused area or one focused issue that they're dealing with and um these are the stats that they've gotten over the last year. Captain Jarnan took that and ran with it and has done gotten absolutely amazing work done and the guys have like I said they're doing shoplift sweeps, helping out with the mall. um they are doing they were helping Kansas City for a little bit with some of the street racing and things like that to make sure that we didn't have that come over here to Independence at all. So, uh crash or accident investigations. Uh as I'm sure a lot of you have heard, we had a lot of very serious crashes in 2025, which is part of the 23rd Street initiative is to try and eliminate some of the foot traffic going across 23rd Street. Uh, so these are their numbers, 121 felony DWIs that they that they put in for last year. Motorcycles, um, they're doing all of our city works complaints, parking complaints, um, and obviously their traffic citations, and they're doing all the, uh, different speeding complaints and different complaints we get from the residents. SWAT uh they are working still just uh as when the ones of you that have been on the council um got street crimes

initiated. SWAT has basically been tied handinhand with them. They will also be getting the US Marshals um certification as well. They're going after the worst of the worst in our community. K9 not a whole lot to say about them other than they're like 413 K9 calls in a year. So, that's a lot of calls that they've that they've gotten. Um, we are, uh, we just finally got full staffed in K9, so we've got everybody set and ready to go. Community services. Um, as you guys know, we've got a substation at the Independent Center. We've got the new one up on the square, uh, that they have got a constant traffic traffic of the community coming and going from there every day. And then obviously the substation out in Hawthorne which they've got all of their community relationships that they build in Hawthorne. Um national night out that I know a lot of you went to this year. Uh trunk or treat which is one of the largest trunk or treats in the state. Uh the Halloween parade that we do every year. Uh they did a car show for Cody this year. Uh every year we go do nursing homes and bring Christmas cards and everything to the nursing homes. Uh c coffee with a cop and um bunch of other stuff that they do. I mean, they're every day they are out in the community and doing neighborhood neighborhood watch meetings, doing uh volunteers in police service. Uh we've got a ton that those guys are doing. They like I said, they you can see their number of calls for service. Uh this is officer Romero for our crisis intervention team. He actually this year got voted to the board of directors for CIT. If you guys remember, we also had uh one of the media outlets did a ride along with our CIT program and did a really really nice um story on that. SRO's

have a great relationship with all of our schools and all of our kiddos. uh sniper and EOD. Um not a whole lot you can say about them other than um uh snipers have had, you know, seven deployments, average two hours, but I know we just had one the other day that we were out there for about six. So the patience that those guys have is incredible. Hostage negotiations, they are at 100% success rate. um 11 11 call outs and 11 11 wins as you put as you would like to put it. And the drones, they get called, they get used all the time. We've got several of our patrol officers that are drone certified, so the drones are out constantly every day. So, any questions on any of that? I think that is my last one.

Mayor, of course. May I ask a question? Thanks. Um, Deputy Chief, there for a while, um, the state of Missouri had a quite a massive backlog of rape kits for years and I my understanding it has it has been cleared up and is a lot better now. That is my understanding as well, ma'am. And so what is where do we send ours for for this for the city? Do do we do that ourselves or do we highway patrol? Sorry, highway patrol.

Okay. Um, and then how is um, CIT working with ARCH now? I know this was a conversation we had um, maybe a year and a half ago about how we were coordinating those calls. I'm just wondering if if if how we've worked on that in the last couple years. I know that the communication has gotten a whole lot better. Uh I know uh battalion chief um Burell is frequently talking to Major Kelsey about different Arch things and how we can work better together between CIT the co-responders and with ARCH. Thank you. Anybody else?

Mr. Mayor Pissy. Um just a couple of questions. Um, you mentioned all the the substations that you had at Hawthorne and on the square and at Independent Center. There was a I attended a community meeting about the redevelopment in Nolan Fashion Square and somebody had mentioned possibly could a substation be put in that area if it was redevelopment. I know you you're spreading your resources very thin, but I mean is there been any thoughts of putting one that on that side of town? I am open to those conversations if we have the staffing. Right. That's right. However, we do not have the resources.

I mean, yeah, it's just a matter of what the staffing levels are and if we can, we'd have to up our community services unit as it is to be able to man another substation.

Okay. Uh the second question, and I know in the past you you mentioned gun gun crimes being down and violent crimes. Were those the two? Right. Um, so my question with that is I know in you guys can the police department can arrest people all day, but you know they have they have to be charged. So I guess my question is I know in the past there has been you know some back and forth with the prosecutor's office and not just this agency but other agencies in Jackson County did not feel that the prosecutor's office was charging the case as they should. So has that relationship changed for the better since the new prosecutor? And I hate to put you on the spot but I I think it's a good question.

You know me I'm pretty open and honest. So, um, no, that relationship with the prosecutor's office has become absolutely amazing. Our investigations unit has been extremely happy with the prosecutions that we've been getting from the from the current staff at the prosecutor's office. Okay, I'm glad to hear that. That's all I have. Thank you. Yep. Anybody else? Uh, M. Mayor Percy. Um, so just wanted to see if you all have been compar comparing these stats to the regional and national trends. Are we kind of in line with that? Are we exceeding regional and national trends?

I know our cases solved. We're far exceeding. Um, I think we're pretty much on average with uh I mean per capita, I think we're we're pretty much on average with everybody else. That's good to hear. Um, I can get the exact numbers and get back with you, council member. Yeah. Um, so I I wanted to put a little context to the drug amounts. I um are you able to kind of give a rough idea or outline of, you know, how much fentanyl was seized and how many kind of lives may that have saved? I have no idea what a lethal dose of any of that stuff is.

We have I've actually got the actual number, I think, on here of the actual fentanyl cases. Um, yeah. 203 grams of fentanyl that was seized and that's just from investigations. That's not counting anything that was seized from patrol. Gotcha. And just off the top of your head, do you know about what is a lethal dose of fentinel? Just to kind of roughly let the public know how much how many lives this may have saved.

I'm going to say that that's probably well over um 200 probably. I I don't know what the exact lethal dose is, but it I mean it's minuscule is what a lethal dose of fentanyl could be. You could probably double that number is how many lives were saved.

Okay. I think that's important context. Um the animal cruelty task force, I know it's something that uh Councilwoman Wy, you were all very passionate about. I just didn't know if there were any updates on kind of that education piece. Um you had mentioned Hope House and the relationship uh on reporting domestic violence there, but obviously uh those who abuse their animals are often um almost a onetoone uh abusing somebody within that home as well. I didn't know what we could do to support those efforts on education on animal cruelty as well.

Yeah, we we did have absolutely have those conversations and I think anybody that's sitting on this council knows what my passion is towards that. Um, again, we're looking at some staffing issues and with the amount of cases right now um that our sorry that our investigations unit has got, it's been hard to get a group of people to go and with the changes in animal control and where they've gone and and gone back. Um, it's been hard to be able to get that scheduled and between the state schedule and our schedule, it's just been hard to get that scheduled. So, but it is definitely like I said, we most cops are huge animal lovers. So,

yeah. Yeah. U would love to work with um city manager on that. Uh and then one last thing. So, the drone program uh you said they're kind of out constantly. Are they is that what is the protocol for when they are out? What are they surveying? Is that specific or they just sort of It could be just about anything. It could be a lost juvenile. It could be somebody that has taken off on foot that we're doing an area search. It could be surveillance. It could be uh just about anything. We can use the drones for. There's a lot of agencies now that are going to a drones as first responders program, but you're look, it's a substantial amount of money. Gotcha. That's all I have. Thank you.

Quick question, and maybe this isn't a time for it, but I'm going to ask. I mean, obviously, we got the FIFA World Cup coming up. Um plans have you guys kind of had talked about that. I mean, obviously, we've got the independent center where we're going to have a drop off location. Um, any plans that you can share with us moving forward regarding FIFA and security? We've got a lot of security plans. Uh, Captain Durst has been since day one, since we found out about that World Cup was coming here, um, Captain Durst has been involved in all of those and working on operational plans and different things like that. Right now, we're really not in a position to go public with that. Um, but I'd be more than happy to get with you offline, mayor.

Appreciate it. Thank you. Yep. Mr. Mayor. Yes. Proceed. Thank you. Uh, deputy chiefs, as I'm thinking out loud with the offduty officers, I'm referring specifically with the 24 highway community improvement district where we have decided we the board of directors there have decided to hire offduty police officers. Yes, sir. One car with two officers in the car. or I won't give the schedule that they work, but they are making an impact there. Do those police interactions do they make it to to the screen? It's we've just been doing it for several months. So, I I know this probably isn't reflective, but how does that process work?

They do not uh they don't make it to this screen because that's an offduty job that's paid for by the uh 24 highway SID. Um so, I know they've got stats for up there and I'd be happy to get those from uh Mr. Raybeck if if you'd like those. I've seen them. They're really impressive that the work they're doing over there and that's why it just occurred to me if it translates into what your presentation is. No, it was it well if it if they've made arrests that that yes, that will be in that presentation if they've made actual arrests. Okay. So, their citizen contacts probably are not. Um but any arrests will be be in these presentations. But thank you. Yep.

Anybody else? Thank you. Mayor and members of the council, thank you for the time that you've given me to speak here. I will not keep you too long. I'll burn through these slides pretty quickly. Uh I'm Jason Peterson, deputy chief over operations support bureau. That means I have emergency communications, professional standards, records, detention, fiscal, fleet, and technology. I'm going to go the wrong way and start at the bottom of that list and work my way up because I don't have slides for everything. So technology is everything from radios to computers, MDT, body cams, everything else. Uh, as you see there, the Panasonic Toughbook, we have replaced all of our aged and uh, really outof-date data 911 MDTs in our cars with Panasonic Toughbooks over the last couple years. We continue to expand the fleet and that footprint that we have for Panasonic Toughbooks wherever we can. Um, it will definitely serve its purpose when we replace the rest of the SRO's desktops with Panasonic Toughbooks that they can use in their car or at the school if they need to with the desktop dock. Uh, with regard to fleet, we have over 230 vehicles in our fleet and uh, it is complicated. There are a bunch of special use vehicles. Um, and our vehicles in patrol run 247. We have 12-h hour shifts that run backtoback. that car is essentially hot swapped. It's parked. The next officer jumps into it and drives it off. That's hard on vehicles. We put a lot of hours on them. We put a lot of miles on them. Um we had the opportunity to outfit vehicles that we had purchased in the last fiscal year prior to the the one that has uh we're in now. And um we

deployed 26 vehicles that were either frontline enforcement vehicles or um supervisors for those captains in patrol or in special operations and then one arson truck for investigations. It's special purpose vehicle for arson investigations and fiscal. We have a great team that's very small that deals with all of our purchase orders, uh, procurement on the PD side and um, all of our budgeting and and they do the lion share of the work when we talk about our presentations for um, any of our budget needs and they also assist with our grant management when it's um, say forfeite funds or BJA grants or anything like that. Okay, so emergency communications is commonly referred to as dispatch. You can see that they had 236,044 incoming calls last year. That's a tremendous amount. Um, in dis in December of 2025, after about five months of work with Sugar Creek PD knowing that they were going to close their dispatch center down, we had conversations with our dispatch personnel. They said they could take it over based upon the call load. I think they would say that no matter who it was, they're proud. They're very good at what they do. and um they take ownership of that. So they were more than happy to jump into it. Uh they were confident they could provide the services that we needed to for Sugar Creek and we took over their dispatching in December. So we have a contract with Sugar Creek, the city of Sugar Creek to handle their PD dispatching. We don't handle handle fire for them. Their fire dispatch goes to Lee Summit. So you can see that we have a 91,7991 calls and then a tremendous number of non-emergency calls that have to be routed. Uh you have the the numbers there on uh police and fire incidents and 98.81%

of those calls are answered within 15 seconds. That's a tremendous rate. I check monthly on our previous month's responses for 911 calls that come into dispatch through the Mark website and really that I think that's available for everybody and the vast majority of our calls are answered within four to five seconds on average every month. That's incredible based upon the the number of vacancies that they have. But like I said, they take their jobs very seriously. They're good at it and they're proud of what they do. Okay. So, moving on to professional standards. While this has complaints and response to force incidents listed, professional standards also encompasses training, recruiting, hiring, uh background investigations, and all of that. So, it's not just um the complaints and the things that come in. So, we did have 138 complaints against personnel. Um that that incorporates both internal and external complaints. So if we recognize a policy violation internally, that's a complaint just like it would be if it were a citizen that called to make a complaint on something. So we had 138 complaints against personnel last year and you have the numbers breakdown on on how they shook out. Um that top number that 85 closed. That is one of the things that's used broadly and we're going to try to fine-tune that a little bit, refine what that really means and parse that out a little bit to maybe be more accurate. um but it's used as a review by staff with nothing to investigate meaning there isn't enough information to move further with it or um something of that nature. Then exonerated means an action occurred but it was it was justified, lawful and proper. Uh not sustained is neither proven or disproven. Unfounded is um the acts complained of did not occur or the complaining party admits that there was a false allegation or the member was not involved.

Then response to force resistance incidents the chief talked about a little bit. We had 234 response to force resistant resistance incidents last year. Uh 51% of those offenders sustained no injury and less than 3% of the offenders sustained moderate injury and a very small number were actually hospitalized. In those responses to force, we had 34 officers injured uh during these incidents and those injuries ranged all over the place. Moving on to police records. This is front desk and our records personnel that are in the back. And front desk took um over 6,500 police reports last year, 6,840. That's everything from call-in to walk-in reports, um record staff in the back handled entries that included stolen autos, missing persons, runaways, orders of protection. On the warrant side, while it warrant sounds like they're out there snatching people out of their h homes for warrants, that's not what this is. It's predominantly clerical where they get the information from a court and then they enter that information as a warrant into the system so that we can take action on it. So, you have the numbers on their warrants there. Down at the bottom, we have detention information where we had over 5,500 people booked last year, meaning we arrested them, we booked them, and then they were either bonded out or in 815 cases, they were housed off site. Uh we we only have short-term housing here in Independence. So, anytime anytime somebody is um sentenced to more time than what we could deal with internally, we'll transport them off to where we have um contracts to house for longer term. And then the year in review, as you all know, we lost Cody Allen a little over two years ago. And last year, 42 IPD officers travel to Washington DC for National Police Week to honor uh Cody's name being inscribed on the wall. Uh IPD officers participated in the Missouri Mavericks First Responder

Appreciation Night. If you ever get a chance to ride in the vehicle when you're on the ice, it's a good time. Uh we held our first awards ceremony in December since 2019. I don't know if you guys remember what happened in 2019, but everything got kind of turned upside down and um we've been delayed since then. In that awards ceremony, 104 officers received awards. Many of them received more than one. So there were tremendous number of awards issued and this will be an annual tradition again. for bringing that back. As Sergeant Kennon's name's already been mentioned once, but she also received the 10th annual Examiner of Woman of Distinction Award last year. It's a big deal. So, we're proud of her for that. Like I said, I'll burn through mine pretty quickly. I'll stand for any questions. Any questions,

Mr. Mayor? Proceed. Um, you mentioned the Panasonic Tough Books. How often do you have to replace those in the cars or how often are you replacing them in the cars? What we have begun to do is when we made the first purchase, we were planning a they have a 5-year warranty. So, we were planning to purchase a um portion of the fleet every year. We were fortunate enough that we were able to to do everything within the first two years of that plan, but we will continue to budget and purchase additional to further expand that footprint as I described. And then when that four years rolls around, we'll be replacing. So we'll replace about 25% of the fleet every year.

Okay, that's all I had. Thank you. Now, with respect to failures, I don't think we've had but one that we had to send back under warranty so far. Uh just a couple questions on my end. Um we talked about the chase policy and things but you know um we do not have any vehicles that are equipped with the star chase or the grappler system uh as that I know of right now. Is that correct?

That is correct. opportunities here for us to to get some vehicles that could have these uh systems put in place that would help with some of these policy, the chase policy and and some of these pursuits.

That is entirely based upon budget constraints. We budget for vehicles every year. We need to based upon the number of vehicles we have in our fleet. We can't replace them all at one time. So we project that we would like to replace a certain number every year. Obviously we operate under budget constraints based upon the amount of money that we're going to have coming in. But the plan for this year was uh we submitted resource requests for vehicles some of which would incorporate the either Grappler or Star Chase uh a separate budget request for reintroducing Star Chase back into the field. So it it just it depends on what our opportunities are to take advantage of that.

Any other questions? Thank you very much. Thank you,

honorable mayor. Uh getting back to the regular agenda item number three, we'll continue back with the semiannual report of the storm water oversight committee again. or Scott Smith.

Mr. Mayor, ladies and gentlemen, hopefully this will be a short slide long run. We uh we have in uh let me figure out how we do this. Oh, that's not us. That's the police department.

Bingo. Hit the

bingo. Okay. As I said, I'm R. Scott Smith. I'm chairman of the stormwater tax oversight committee. Myself and Les Boat Wright have been on this committee since its inception back in 2001. The purpose and by the way these are all council appointments program overview. We monitor appropriate expenditure of the city's storm water sales tax. Uh it was uh established in 2001. We had our own SWAT team back then. We called ourselves the storm water action team. And we went out and got our our voters convinced that we needed a special tax to take care and alleviate our our flooding problems in Independence. and uh it was renewed in 2010. The first storm water tax had a 10-year sunset on it and it had an assigned uh oversight uh committee just as we have now. The uh new tax um o uh it's been very successful. We've completed more than 50 million in improvements on our on our storm water system. Unfortunately, you may not be able to see that because the storm water department buries their best work. But

I'm going to show you some of the things that will have been accomplished here recently. I think the most important aspect of this tax is that it creates a fund that can be leveraged against grants. And more in recent years, the we've have people on staff now who can apply for those. And that'll become very apparent when you see some of these uh particular projects that have been done. uh and the how much we leveraged those funds to get federal grants. This slide shows the tax revenue. Um and you'll notice that this based on a fiscal year July 1st to December 31st. The sales tax revenues are slightly below the expected level halfway through the fiscal year. The majority of use tax revenue comes in the third and fourth quarters. The use tax is how we grab funds from people like my wife who buy things online. And with Christmas being at the end of the fiscal year, no wonder our third and fourth quarters are our best quarters. Storm water sales tax allocations. As you can see there, a total allocations of funds is $20 million.

uh maintenance 3.5 uh million uh capital budget and this is for fiscal year 26 plus rollovers. We have encumbrances and those are thing projects that are in the planning or and or in the uh in the stage where they're acquiring uh property, acquiring uh rights of way. Uh and so we know that the funds that are shown there, $7.9 million, that money is being held so that we can use it to pay the bill when the bill comes due. Um you can see uh expenditures um there the various amounts. Um to date we've expended $4.9 million and we've got 5.8 million still in the fund balance. Storm operations summary. This is where the rubber meets the road. You can see here how much is being spent for various activities of the storm water department. The standard operations numbers on the target for the year uh over comparison notable increases in occurred in structure repairs and conduit inspections. We've got a whole lot of underground pipe. A lot of it is galvanized pipe.

Galvanized pipe has a maximum life of a hundred years. In our environment with salt on our streets, the life is more like 50 years, 75 at tops. And you'll see some pictures coming up to show you that the conduit in inspections are our guys in the storm water department going out and checking out those things either by camera or in the case of say a 72 inch pipe. The low man on the totem pole is sent in to take a look. Let's talk about construction. the Rock Creek watershed phase two. This is one where amazingly that leveraging of federal funds came into play and this is one of the first grants obtained and it's therefore 80% funded. Um, for those of you who want to know what this is, you can see that big you can see the bad pipe coming out. And the picture on the left, that's on South Forest. Um, the other one is uh, no, that one's Crescent. I'm sorry. Crescent Avenue. The one on the right is on South Forest. Phase two is nearing completion with major pipe repairs, replacements, and inlet upgrades, which are substantially finished. The federal government paid for 80% of this through that grant.

The total cost is $6 million, 80% federal funding. And so we get in independence a cost of 1.2 million or $6 million worth of repairs. I mean I my hats off to the staff members who do this grant work. It's just incredible. Next thing here is the emergency project at 45th and Noland. Um that's across across from the uh um uh honeybaked ham. Um this because it was an emergency work, our people did the work. We didn't have to let it out for a bit. we were able to get a real bargain on the uh pipe and all of the materials and consequently we got this for a total cost of $383,000. Had it not been done, uh Nolan Road probably would have gone away. It would have been shut down if that, you know, if that pipe hadn't been repaired. The Rockwood storm drainage improvements. Um, this picture on the left is at 10516 East 27th Terrace. The one on the right is 10608 East uh 27th Terrace. Um

this particular project was something that the folks in Rockwood in the Rockwood neighborhood have been looking forward to for some 10 years. Uh there's always been a flooding problem down in that area. And uh this one there were 20 new inlet structures installed. And by that they mean the little catch basins at the corner of every street where the water goes goes into the pipes. 1,800 ft of new pipe was installed. U it's at 95% uh completion. The projected cost to complete it is $2 million. The storm water tax uh part of that is $42,000. So you can see just having the money available, we can get big projects done so that the homeowners, our citizens homes don't flood and their streets don't become impassible. Um, next is Leslie Crane and Herford storm drainage improvements. Um, this is in the Cracker Neck Whed and in case you weren't aware, uh, our city has a a large number of watershed and what we're talking about is where does the water go and like in Rock Creek where I live, it all ends up going into the Rock Creek and flowing downhill. And it was so bad

at the beginning of this per this particular project when we first got the stack the tax money is that we actually had to go and buy out some homes because they were in the middle of where the stream was. And you know, we had some people who had to have put garage doors on the back of their garages so they could open the front and open the back so that the water go on through. Well, this is the culmination of those types of improvements. 1300 ft of storm drainage conduit and 15 new inlet structures. Cost is $3 million. It's 80% federally funded and the storm water tax funds were a mere $631,000 and that's going to help a number of people. In case you didn't know it, the the storm water department looks at each individual proposed project. They look at the number of citizen complaints about the issue and they look at the project in terms of okay how many people how many citizens would be benefited by this particular project and then it's all in a matrix and they know by using that matrix which places need the most help the fastest. another emergency project up on North Rogers. Um they're going to install 200 ft of 48 inch pipe.

That's it. I I'm glad I'm not low man on the totem pole, but you can see where the galvanized pipe is collapsing. And if you look at the bottom, you can see all the refuge and debris. Refuge and debris. And what happens is the bottom rots out of these galvanized pipes. Um, not only because of salt from the streets, but just from debris and water laying in the bottom and not draining properly. Um it's 5% completed and they expect the uh the project to be completed uh in spring of 2026. We're almost there. Anyway, I'm sure that the people in that neighborhood are going to be very pleased. future capital improvements. These are particular projects that have gone through the matrix and they're on the books. So, there's a lot that goes into it. Just because they're on the future capital improvement pro uh list doesn't mean it's going to happen overnight. I don't know if you were provided with we have a sheet that shows every project and its stage in the past you received those. It's colorcoded and you can take a look at it at any time and see just how the each individual uh project is progressing. Some of these I can, you know, I've seen

them. Not all of them, but I've seen them. And I know that those people, our citizens, are waiting with baited breath for these projects to take place. Um, that's all I have. I'm open to any questions. I'm not I won't necessarily know the answers, but there's somebody here who can. Any questions? All right. Thank you very much. Thank you for your attention.

Honorable mayor. Uh, next up we have the semiannual report of the public safety tax oversight committee. We have Bruce Franks here.

We had Bruce Franks here. Um, if it pleases the the council, we can uh move on to the semiannual report of the animal welfare committee and then we'll come back to public safety. But Ted Luth, yes, Troy, uh, city manager, real quick, did we street improvement oversight?

I apologize. I skipped over that one. Let's try that again. Uh, street improvement oversight committee. We have Wes Eperson, ma'am. Show me again. Okay. All right. Thank you. Okay. Good evening, uh, Mr. Mayor and council members. I'm Wes Eperson. I'm the chairman of the street improvements oversight committee. And uh the other members of our committee are John Pal, Levette O'Hara, Marcy Greg, Pam Lashon, and Marcus Bowen. And we have one vacancy. Uh the program overview. The uh SIO monitors the use of the street sales tax and the general obligation bonds. Uh the sales tax program went into effect in 2009. The uh voters approved it uh in 2017 and uh did away with the sunset. Voters approved the GO bond funding for bridges, sidewalks to schools and preventative maintenance, pavement maintenance in April of 25. Uh this sixmonth report of the uh street sales tax revenue. Uh the sales tax revenue is uh at the sixmonth point is 49.55%.

Uh the majority of the uh use tax uh which the other gentleman mentioned uh most of that use tax money will come in in the third uh and the fourth quarter. the street sales tax allocations. Uh these numbers show the operating budget and the capital budget. uh on the budget operating budget, a uh milder winter season uh allowed for savings in personnel and operating expenses. Uh and remaining debt service fees uh will be fully paid before the end of the uh financial year, fiscal year. On the capital budget side, uh $14 million is encumbered or expended on projects currently in design or in construction. And the remaining 30 million uh in the fund balance is earmarked for federal grant match projects awaiting contracts or the 12 projects currently in design. On the street operations summary, you can see that we we have uh street sweeping, sweepings collected, the rightway illegal dumping that is collected. We have traffic signs that are repaired, potholes repaired, snow operations, uh, almost 1,900

employee hours, and then snow operations of treatments, which we used about 780 tons of salt and almost 38,000 gallons of brine as a pre-treatment. And uh we also had partial and full depth street patching at uh almost 13,000 ft. So we'll move on to completed projects. We have completed the veil sidewalks phase two and the 31st street sidewalk improvements uh completed in uh fall of 25. And those projects came in under budget uh by a little more than $55,000. We also have the uh uh square streetscape phase one that's been completed. Uh again, that was a federally funded project of uh over $3.7 million and that project included major pedestrian uh lighting and storm water improvements.

Sorry, Mr. Mayor. Did I hear the word underbudget? Yes. Okay. Just wanted to have that on record so we can emphasize under under budget was said here today. Yeah, it came in under budget.

Okay. Let's look at what's under construction right now. And uh we have the pavement preventative maintenance. I think another word for that is overlay. And uh uh part of that is overlay. I'll say we also do uh microurfacing crack scrub and cape seal and that is in the fifth year of the uh what we call the alternate maintenance programming. Uh we also had um over 18 18.5 lane miles of overlay that was included in that. So we're uh we had over uh 400 miles of improvements to our streets over the past four years using this program. Uh we also have the U 24 highway complete streets phase one. Uh this is a MDOT cost share project contractor Burns and McDonald. It is a uh uh administered uh by MODOT and that project runs from River Boulevard east to uh 291 highway. It includes new sidewalks, curb and gutter uh and pavement. We have 10 foot multiuse path on the south side and a five-ft sidewalk on the north. also includes uh storm sewer and traffic

signal improvement and that project is over $15 million. Uh let's move to the Truman connected phase one. Uh again this is 80% federally funded. It includes the sidewalk, curb, gutters, storm sewer, landscaping, hardscape improvements, shared path uh from Truman Library to Inglewood Arts District, and that total estimated project cost will be uh a little over $3 million. looking at our future uh capital improvements projects uh at about uh $33.6 million for upcoming projects. There's uh uh and we expect approximately uh $49.7 million in expected grant reimbursement for these 12 projects. Truman connected phase two square uh street uh streetscape phase two historic trails phase one fairmont loop trail sidewalk programs Nolan road multi moal corridor the uhwood traffic circle and the winter road streetscape and finally the 23rd street uh mobility and safety improvement

project phases one, two, and three. Now we'll shift to the uh the geo bond part of the street uh oversight committees. our our overview of that. Uh, as you know, last year at this time, the voters approved a $55 million geo bond, 15 million for bridge bridges, 10 million for sidewalks, and 30 million for pavement maintenance. Bet GEO bond is number if you look on our financial report uh that is uh fund 54 was established for the purpose of tracking the uh general obligation bond funds. Um the first of two rounds of funding uh was received in October of 25. We expect the second round of funding to be received in 2028. And again uh fund 54 will track those geo fund uh geo uh bond funds uh expenditures that there that slide shows the uh geo bond budget uh and expenses as of December 31st 25 and We're uh we're kind of just getting started on that. And the first couple of projects that

are being funded uh by the geo bond is the uh couple of bridges. The Chrysler Avenue bridge over the Union Pacific Railroad and the uh East Kentucky Road Bridge over Mill Creek. Both of those bridges have uh begun construction. They're both expected to be completed later this year. And total project cost for both of those locations is expected to be uh right at $3.6 million. Now, we we have other bridges that right now are in design. Uh you can see those Kentucky Avenue over Rock Creek, RDM uh over Little Blue River, Winter Road over the CEP KC rail line, Arlington Avenue Bridge over Rock Creek, and the Lake City Valley Road bridge over Small Creek. We also uh have a couple of projects uh ready to go on the geo bond sidewalk to schools and uh the contracts the design build contracts in progress uh for Castle Park Elementary and Mil Creek Elementary. There are five additional schools listed there uh there to be addressed in the future and the uh the needs and the priorities

for these sidewalks were established by the school districts. And finally, the geo bond overlay program. This is a five-year investment. Uh we'll spend $6 million a year uh on overlay. The contractor on the 26 overlay program is Superior Boeing. it. The contract's amount is a little over $6 million and that will get us uh a little over 50 uh 53 lane miles of overlay. And that completes our report. Uh any questions? I'll try, but if I can't, I've got uh municipal services director Mike Jackson back there. So, any questions?

Any questions for Mr. Eper? Mr. Mayor, proceed. Thank you. You may know this. Um, can you remind everyone the streets in Independence that are the responsibility of MDOT? Uh, yeah. uh 40 highway uh I believe 24 highway uh 23rd Street and some of Truman Road I believe.

Okay. And so when we have potholes, it's their responsibility to fix those. Do they also mow? Is that their responsibility? Like beautifification along those roads? Let me ask Come on up, Mr. Director. And Okay. Hello. Mike Jackson, Mun Municipal Services Director. Um, one you one road you did forget was 291 was another the other state. Um, yes. Okay. Yes, that is their responsibility. That is their rightway that they have to take care of.

Okay. And then my other question was um I did a ride along with your crew last year and there was some discussion about um you were having a hard time filling some vacancies that you had some job openings that you were having a hard time filling which was um affecting some of the things that you were able to do. I'm just wondering if that's better that has improved.

It is better. It kind of es and flows. Um, the good part of that is when we lose people, we tend to lose them internally because they get promot promoted on up. Um, so it's a kind of a good problem to have, but it's it's a really bad problem, especially going into the winter when we need um we need people out there pushing snow. Fortunately, this year, as as Mr. Everson said earlier, we it was kind of a light um winter, so it wasn't too bad. But yeah, we we have seen um uh a much higher percentage of folks stick around recently. Right. Thank you. Any other questions? Mr. Mayor, proceed.

Thank you. Um, thank you, Mr. Eper, for for your presentation. And, uh, Mr. U Jackson, you can stay there. Uh, I want to first say thank you, Mr. Jackson, for showing up the community meeting that I had last week and also to you, Mayor and Councilwoman Dorman. The, um, purpose of that meeting was kind of to discuss the Truman connected phase one. So there's been a lot of conversation regarding the trees that we did remove out of the winter road median there. So we with good cross collaboration with the Independence Arts Council and the uh tree commission. Just for the record, let's uh talk about the trees that we're going to replace back in the median there. So they are going to be the ginko male, ivory silk lilac tree, spartan juniper, state street maple, Ohio buckeye, Pacific sunset maple, golden rain tree, white bud, red bud, and these trees were selected for color for fall and spring and summer with interesting leaf uh texture. So those trees will be replaced. They are going to be inch and a half to two inch diameter once they're replaced there and they're going to look beautiful and we had a great turnout. So, thank you for everybody that did show up for that. One of the other discussion points we did have was talking about the large amount of leverage that we have done with these capital improvements. I would say at this point, correct me if I'm wrong, Mr. deputy director. At this point, we have leveraged so much uh funding from the grants and uh different federal grant programs that we've had that we're going to have to slow down a little bit

kind of um we're never going to be turning down any grant potential grant funds, but we do need to we've been very successful with getting those grants obviously in the last 5 years or so. Um, so some of those uh uh projects may have to be pushed out a little bit further just so we can get caught up with the the street sales tax to help our 20% portion, but we're really not we're kind of just taking our foot slightly off the gas, just not pushing it all the way down. So, we're still moving forward. We just got to be mindful that there is a limited pot of street sales tax funds.

Sure. Well, thank you for all the hard work and staff's hard work to helping us leverage those for those improvements. Thanks. Thank you. Just a quick comment or a question. Um, is there a particular reason we're going to have Ohio Buckeyes in Tiger Country? I will I will say that the professionals the the experts um in the tree area picked those. Um, we would I would just would have picked whatever weeping willows, but uh they they actually did a whole survey and picked what was appropriate for the region. So, appreciate it. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Uh, one one quick question. This kind of dubtales in with the storm water stuff. Uh, our road salt usage. Um, what kind of road salt are we using and is there an alternative that is less corrosive to the storm water system that is within our budget? Uh that's well that's potentially a pretty loaded question. Um don't know uh the specifics of what our chemical makeup is for our salt as far as the the the granle size and the and the the style if you will. Um I can get that information to you. Um I will tell you that we do make our own brine on site. U we use brine just as much if not more than we use the salt for that reason. And obviously you know the salt only works to a certain temperature anyway. Um, but that is something we've discussed in the past and we are kind of looking into other options potentially, but I can get you the details on that.

Yeah, thank you so much. Any other questions? All right. Thank you. Thank you.

Honorable mayor, we'll get back on schedule with the fifth presentation tonight. Uh, the semiannual report of the public safety tax oversight committee. We have Bruce Franks who is here. Um, welcome and congratulations. Uh, my name is Bruce Franks. I'm the co-chair of the public safety tax oversight. Uh, I serve along with Commissioner Aaron Boatright, Pat Casey, Tara Cruzie, and Charlene Gray. On behalf of that commission, we'd like to say it's great to work with Chief Brinkley and Deputy Chief Sumstead and Peterson. and they're great to work with. Chief Walker and Stoart are great uh and very responsive uh for some of the issues and concerns or questions we have. So they're great to work with there. So I am doing so the what we're our program is designed to monitor the uh use of the over the taxes uh the expenditures for public safety um reviewed by the public uh committee. Uh we're all uh com uh citizens appointed by the uh somebody on the commission and I think commissioner I mean council member Wy appointed me for my second term. The that we meet quarterly for reports on expenditures uh taxes that come in the funds in a fiscally sound manner for the guidance and ballot language for the city charter policies and state statutes. um Independence Fire Department, uh July 1st, 2025 to February 28th of 2026. The protection sales tax uh two-year objectives uh the fire department's going to continue to work on and towards the objectives set in the cover of the committee for risk management, the master plan of the fire department. It'll include station

locations, um upgrades, future needs, staffing, um the update to the capital outlay for the five-year plan, uh to account for the tax changes, um the creation and rec uh rec a reorganization of the fiscal budget of the for the sales tax. Uh to stay compliant with the ordinance and the budget, there will require some adjustments. Uh there's so there's transparency transparency in how the tax dollars are spent uh uh with with the income and what we what they spend. So uh the bring that's there for to bring the staff levels up to meet the full staffing existing apparatus uh begin the construction of station 8, station five and station 11 as well as determine the locations for future uh stations uh or replacement and or upgrades as needed. This could include property acquisition uh from the beginning uh and to the from the design. So they we continue to evaluate the staff and the apparatus locations uh look for logistics side of where the calls are and the service needs are. Um so the fire department updates the open and unpaid uh incumbrances. So one pumper that was ordered October of 20 has was del is going to be delivered two pumpers ordered for the fall of 2027. Uh the station design process, groundbreaking footings, they were poured for station eight. That was a big ceremony just not long ago. Conceptual design for station five and station 11. The completed projects that they've hit so far is we have one pumper delivered uh that went into service in February. Uh one pumper was ordered in the fall of 27 and additional pumper ordered for the

fall of 27. and they did it. It came out with a savings under the they saved $80,000 on that uh order and uh it with the timing of it. And then station one uh where we do some meetings there the west side all those trees have been cleared out there uh for parking and um access. And then so uh for the beginning uh the tax for July 25 to February of 26 uh the beginning unassigned fund balance was $16,645,670. And so the budget uh revenue from sales tax was about 11 a little over 11 million and the unassigned fund balance on 228.26 26 was 14,688,878. I'd say that's a good stewardship of the funds we have there by the staff that the executive executive staff. So, so there's a some different reports reviewed by public safety. We do the public safety tax uh sale sales tax report, the use prop uh P report, the marijuana tax report, and the prop PD tax report is what we do with the independent um police department. So the information is from July 20 July 1st of 2025 to February 28th of 2026. Uh the beginning fund balance uh for 2526 was a little over $3 million. The total revenue collected was a little over 2 million1. The expenditures were 1.2 million a little over that. Um the pending capital transfers to fund for052 is a million a little over a million dollars and the unassigned fund balance

is just shy a million7. So those are some numbers. Um expenditures are devoted to three main purposes of this department. Uh communication, facilities, and equipment. And that new police department is fine. And they did a great job with it. And you could tell as the tours I've done, which I'm a little off my script here, you could tell they had some of the cops help them design that. If you go through and look, the people that were involved in it have done a remarkable job with that because that new facility is is uh spectacular. See significant purchase fiscal year, the Tyler Tech, the new world maintenance agreement, annual computer replacements, just the stuff that's outdated, the purchase and replacement of the incar mobile data terminals that the chief talked about. Uniforms and body armor, we like to keep that state-of-the-art and top-notch. Um the mobile command centers we had took in a smaller unit uh for more of an on-site and we have a fullsize um command center for any major issues. Perfect timing for the World Cup coming in and so the security cameras on the Bearcat the ongoing payments to project advocates. Um, so the owner reps and independent the justice that's what I was just talking about was the justice center is is uh well worth the investment and about 25 years or 30 over overdue is needed. Um so the police department use tax prop the beginning fund balance for 25 and 26 was 3 million about 3.6 million. The revenue collected was about 4.9. Um the expenditures going out was 3.4. Um pending capital projections transferred is u about 1.8 million. The unassigned

fund balance was 2.4 million. Um Prop B was designed, it was passed uh on a standalone Prop, I believe here just a little while back, uh to make sure we keep up on staffing and the pay is competitible in in the metro area. Um let's see on the 32 tax position helps her some of the vacancies during the quarter transfers out reflect payments to Hoffler Wckler and the date of the for the police department the new police headquarters. Um the police department marijuana tax information from July 25 to February of 26. The beginning fund balance uh is 326,000 120 bucks. The total revenue is about 565,000. Um public safety gets zero. Animal services gets right at 30,000. Uh community development got 96 bucks. Uh unassigned uh fund balance is 660,000 uh 673 spent cents. The expenses include salary and benefits, part-time animal dispatchers, investment advisor fees, and payments on the 2025 public safety infrastructure revenue bond. I'm talking pretty fast. Is everybody with me on this? Independence Police Department Prop PD tax uh information from July 2025 to February 26. uh the beginning February 25 unassigned was 1.16 million the total revenue was 4 point just it was4 million19,000 the transfers from general funds through 228 was 24 million right there at that area approximately the expenditures with

salary and benefits 24,700,000 services um four 4.8 8 million. The supplies is just shy of 300,000. Equipment is about 170,000. That's a total of 30.4 30 million just just over $30 million. And the unassigned uh fund balance uh is 844,463. uh the PD it's a funding mechanism uh to maintain to maintain competitive wage scale for sworn officers and make independents more competitive uh in the hiring market. Uh in 2025 the police department's budget was shifted out of the uh the general fund uh to the Prop PD tax fund. So expenditures now reflect the divisions within the department. So I think that is it for me. That is it. Now with that I would be happy to take any questions I may be able to answer. If not I have great deal of experience right here behind me.

Any questions? I do have one question and you might have covered this and it went quickly but debt service amount. Um let me see where we are here. for it's on the marijuana tax. The debt service amount 201,100. Yes. So that leaves the 230. What is that? The debt service. I think that's for um it's Hang on real quick here. I want to get the right answer.

The debt service. Yep. Yep. Um that debt service piece is uh a portion of the uh public safety bonds that were issued last April. So this is for the JC um the Independence Justice Center project. They had $5 million uh for that project. Okay. Thank you very much. And uh if that's all

everybody any I do have a question. Yes, sir. Uh if so, Prop P was designated to hire additional police officers and I think there was a comment made earlier by the other presentation were 29 officers short. Yes. Um how many officers um have we hired using this Prop Pax? I'll let vacancy on this. Okay.

Yeah. There was when when that was went to vote, Mr. Uh there was a huge vacancy somewhere, Deputy Chief Sumstead in the 30s and it has totally uh closed in once the tax was it was made public that this uh the police department was going to be in wages and salary in comparison with the rest of the metro. And there was a huge gap uh closed right if I remember right on once the Prop PD did pass for the to to fill the vacancies. Right. But we're talking about Prop PD. Yeah.

Um for wages and then we're talking about Prop P to hire officers. And my understanding is when we did Prop P, we were about 30 officers short at the time and we're still 29 short. So I'm trying to figure out uh what we got going here. Mr. Mayor,

thank you. Uh, Mr. City Manager and interrum chief, maybe the first a little clarity and let me know if I get out of turn at the portion when we were doing the the prop PD, there was a significant amount of individuals that were at the retirement level and we had quite a few that had retired out and that we were back filling and working through those positions. Some injured. Yes. and some injured. U we did acquire quite a few officers I believe through the Prop PD um from different area agencies. Ray Town was is the one that comes to my mind. The county I think was a lot

in the county was a lot. So a lot of those vacancies that we did have then were because of retirements and injuries, but as we fill them, we do have an an older force. I mean, um, there's there's quite a a wave of the silver tsunami that's going to hit our city just in general. I believe about 40% of our, um, employees in the next 5 to seven years are going to be eligible to retire. So, I say that to put a little bit of context, a lot retired. He did hire some more in and then another wave of retirements took place.

Yeah. And I believe the prop pe was um a year two years ago right at a couple of years ago when that uh was voted on on a standalone prop and so it did fill close the gap on the openings just as you said and I think we've closed the gap and then as just what you said that the age of the department they're retiring they can retire at 50 and there are some off but I think we have some in in in the recruit stage and things like that but Mr. Uh chief, I'll let you if any

all the FTES are are not covered under the prop P tax. Some are general funded as well too. So you may have filled the ones as allocated for this tax revenue, but we still actually do have about 25 to 30 vacancies. They may be on general fund side though. So quick question. if we have and maybe you can answer this. My understanding and you can correct me if I'm wrong is that there's a freeze on hiring police officers right now. Is that correct? Correct. And we're short 29 positions. Uh somewhere between 24 and 29. Yes. Okay. I'm trying to figure this out here. If I I'm sorry.

No, if I can separating out, right? Uh you heard the chief talk about positions that are funded by general fund dollars that have yet to be filled. There's a freeze on some of the and then those positions that are funded by Prop P, right? And so, yes, Prop P did allow for a number of positions to be filled and funded. While yes, there is a quote unquote freeze on hiring any new individuals, any new officers, we are permitting certain positions to continue to be backfilled as they are being vacated. So, we're continue to maintain staffing levels to the greatest extent that we can, but there are limitations in general fund dollars that are available to fill those other unf uh unfunded vacant positions. And I I understand that portion of it. You know, I think I started out in saying how many how many positions

uh how many police officers are being funded through this program right now. 30 32 I think there's only one vacancy. Correct. That person retired in February. So we're filling them as as we as they come available. But this doesn't cover all 230 officers funded from this particular tax revenue. I don't know if I'm trying to I'm trying to cover you. Yeah, I I understand. I'm just going to have to take a little bit more of a dive into this because this is not making sense to me. So, and some of the openings come from promotions within it'll show a vacancy whether it be general fund or the Prop P and those show a full-time equivalent.

Yeah, we'll be more than happy to sit down with you. We we've got some budget discussions coming up here in the near future. Uh we'll be more than happy to kind of sit down with you, provide you a much more thorough um detailed explanation of what positions are being funded out of what revenue streams and and what positions have sort of been frozen and and yet allowed to be conditionally offered. Sure. Sure.

So, originally when the Prop P use tax was passed, it did have a set number of officers that were to be funded by that. Um, it was changed later. There was a new ordinance that that changed how many officers and it opened up the language uh I I believe ballot language as well as the ordinance uh for what could be funded in uh we call it fund 18, which is the police youth tax fund. Um, and then when the sales tax was added last year, it was mostly for the salary increases. Um, that has very quickly been eaten up by salary increases as we've hired on. Um, they were a little more expensive than I think what was originally anticipated. Um and then in the general fund um it was restricted to be a certain percentage of general fund revenues that were supposed to be allocated for the police department and we have maintained that.

So I'm going to ask another question because you brought up something that you said part of that was eating up wages, but that's Prop PD that's supposed to take care of that. Correct.

It it is. But but the very first year those wages were about $4.9 million if everything was fully funded and it the tax generates about 6 million a year um between the sales tax and the use tax. So as those salary increases go in we have health benefits and things like that increase. It gets eaten up very quickly. Um, and so it just is not um it's not adding to adding to what can be available for for budgeted positions um as we're supporting officers that are already employed.

Yeah. As the Prop P, if I may, as the Prop P came in, there was a kind of a mad dash out of the department and it was to equal the Metro pay scale. If I remember correctly, there was way more than 29 and people were just going where it paid more. So, as she said, it brought the staff. They didn't they just got everybody up to speed to stop the exit. That was one of them. And kind of securing retirements made a difference for people not to leave or people that come to the department is how I remember that. There was a lot of people going until we got up to where they couldn't just go across the city city the line and and about 20 grand more whatever the difference was and it was one of them to stop them from fleing.

Any other questions? Mr. Mayor, I have a question. When was the change made? You said that because the language was very clear when Prop P was passed and you said there was a change. When was that change? Um, I don't remember the year off the top of my head, but it was, let's see, I started in September of 22 and I think it was 2022, I believe. Okay, this is one I can answer. It was November of 22. The polls were cold that day.

Okay. And so that was a voting change because it was also very restrictive on how we could use this money. We couldn't even use it to do any recruiting to get additional police officers only for the salary. So, I'm trying to get my arms around how the money has gone back and forth to general fund and normal police officers. And so, that's why I'm asking these questions. Sure. Um, I don't remember the exact language on the ballot. I can go grab my computer really quickly or you can send it to I mean, I don't know that it needs to be answered now, but if you will get us that information. Okay, Mr. Mayor, proceed.

If I remember correctly, that the B when we updated the ballot language in 2022, it only paid for the salaries of the new hires. So, we changed it where it would also pay for to basically give them their equipment like their car and their uniforms because there wasn't enough money for that. So, that's what that's what the change was in 2022. Thank you. Any other questions or discussion? All right. Thank you.

The other half of Prop P uh and our last presentation this evening, the semiannual report of the animal welfare committee, Ted Loots.

Greetings, Mr. Mayor, members of the city council, my name is Ted Loose. I have been a member of the uh animal welfare committee since last summer. Um, Prop P was approved by voters in 2019 and uh 50% of the funds up to $750,000 adjusted for consumer price index. A collection of these taxes began in January 2020 and the oversight is performed by the animal welfare committee. Um these are the members that shown that were uh when this was voted on. There's been some changes obviously in that revenues and expenditures. Fiscal year 202526 through February 26 uh we received nine revenues were $911,000. Expenditures, uh, salaries and benefits, $544,873.82. Operating expenses, $15,494.32. Uh, Prop P, the funds from Prop P have enabled us to do some great things. Uh, we've taken in uh,520 animals. Uh 4,864 pounds of fet pet food has been donated to the public through the food pantry. We have over 12,000 Facebook followers and we just started an Instagram page. Uh, one thing that really impressed me, we performed 158 TNR operation litterless surgeries and TNR stands for I will look this up here. Trap, neuter, and release. And uh that's

where we take what we call community cats or uh feral cats. Uh we spay and or n or neuter them. We vaccinate them and we do what we call ear tipping. We cut off the corner of their ears so we're not bringing out the same cats in that have been, you know, processed. Um, this really decreases the the feline feral feline population. Finally, um, we've had over 95 197 volunteer hours. Uh we've got a great group of volunteers at the animal shelter that I'm I'm really proud. I was able to spend some time over there, get some training and do uh spend an afternoon over there and it was very rewarding. Uh it's the opinion of the members of the animal welfare committee that the items and individuals funded by the Prop P use tax are in keeping with the program's intent and that the use tax program is critical in supporting the work of the animal shelter. And with that said, are there any questions?

Any questions, Mr. Mayor? Christine, this may be more for Christina. Yes, Christina. Christina Heinen, Health and Animal Services Director. How can I help you? Um, pretty easy one off the top. Would it be easier for Independence to operate the shelter if we owned the facility uh and land outright? Yes, absolutely. it would be so much easier. Um the county actually was out at the facility today.

Um starting some much needed repairs. They are not done. So it is an ongoing thing. But yes, um the the county is not in there every day, so they don't have to learn or listen to, you know, the fire alarm beeping constantly or the, you know, no hot water coming out of faucets, those sorts of things. Yeah. Um and we recently got a new full-time vet at the shelter. Is that correct? We did. Dr. C started with us just a couple of weeks ago and she jumped right in. Gotcha. And how has that changed how the shelter operates as far as ease of operation with fulltime vet?

So, we had been for almost a full year having to transport animals from the shelter to local vets. That not only affected the shelter, but it affected our residents. Uh we use our local vets for operation litterless um and sometimes for TNR because our local vets were busy trying to help the shelter spay and neuter our animals and treat our animals. They couldn't see as many of those, you know, owned animals for Operation Litterless. So, we had to cut back on that program some. This has made a huge huge difference for us. Gotcha. Um, and then just looking over the budget for um the shelter, it's um what was the budget when Great Plains uh was in charge of the shelter?

So, the last year that Great Plains was there, their budget was $1.7 million. Um I believe they had one animal control officer who was part-time who served unincorporated Jackson County. So, it won't be apples to oranges necessarily to compare us because we of course have our four animal control officers who serve um uninccorporated. We had those four officers at the time also when Great Plains was still operating. Gotcha. So, $1.7 million. And how long ago did Great Plains leave independence? 2019. July 15th. 2019. So, we've had a pretty uh high inflationary period since then. Yes.

Uh and how much do we now uh bring in per year? Is it more or less than $1.7 million? It it's it's um we are we are right around that number, a little less. Um we we operate on what I would consider a shoestring budget um and are constantly we've had to decrease the number of staff members every single year since we've been in operation because of growing not only just costs for health insurance and salaries. um all of those fees, but of course during COVID vaccine costs not only went up for humans, but they went up for animals also. And so those costs have exponentially risen. So we've had to cut back where we can.

Gotcha. And um can you kind of touch on the long-term cost savings of uh spay and neuter, how that affects residents if we are able to increase a program like that?

Yeah. So, uh, spayneuter, of course, not only keeps owned animals from running at large, um, it keeps them home more often, which is less stray animals coming into the shelter, less time away from their families. For community cats, uh, it, we have approximately 15,000 community cats in the city of Independence. It will take, if we were really, really serious about it and threw a lot of money at it, it would probably take about a decade to get those numbers down to where we could be in the same place that Oregon and Washington State are where they're having to ship cats in because they don't have enough cats in their shelter. Um, we would love for that to be the case, but we are aware that it is kitten season. We had four tiny little kittens come in just today.

Yeah. And then what are some services offered for the general public by our shelter? So not of of course we have adoption which we would love to push. Um we have our TNR program operation literless our pet food pantry is unfortunately really popular. Um we are constantly seeing the need amongst our population just to have that pet food in order to keep their families together. Um, so we do all we can. Um, I'm not going to lie, there's been a few times when people have come and, you know, whether it's um, end of life decisions for their animals or um, needing, you know, any other assistance we can connect them with, we've been there.

Gotcha. All right, that's all I have. Thank you so much. Thank you. Anything else, Mr. Mayor? Yes. Proceed.

Can you talk about um, compassion fatigue with your employees? So, everyone who comes into this line of work does it because we all love animals. We love them so much. Um, however, there are lots of really hard decisions that have to be made whether it is because of medical or behavioral issues. Um, we have lost so many staff because it is such an emotional roller coaster every single day. Um, you know, everybody wants it to be, you know, a good, happy story and a happy ending, but that's not always the case. And it's really, really hard when, you know, you show up every day, you work 10-hour shifts, um, you see these animals every day, you care for them, you feed them, you take them for walks, you put them in playgroups, and then, you know, you find out that they're not going to make it out. Um that is that is devastating for so many of our staff. Our um our animal services officers of course also see the worst of the worst. Um they see

things that they know um will be maybe a slap on the wrist for, you know, the actual court verdict. Um living with that, recognizing that still going through it. um they every single day come back in trying to do their absolute best and so be because of that the staff turnover can be pretty high for for those kinds of jobs. Absolutely. And so that makes um volunteers really important.

Yes, our volunteers are wonderful. They come in, they help us from everything from just making sure laundry gets switched over to spending that extra time. We have um six animal care techs, which means on any given day we're lucky to have four. Most days we have three. That works out to just about 12 minutes um that each animal care tech can spend with an animal in a day.

12 minutes is not enough time to be spending with a pet. Um those volunteers step in and help spend that quality time that we just don't have time for. Um, we have, you know, those six animal care techs and it was there was a study that came in an outside group and they said that we easily should have 13 animal care techs which we just we can't afford. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions, Mr. City Manager? Thank you. That's all we have.

All right. All right. I appreciate it. Thank you. Ma mayor, if I could before everybody leaves, if we can get a motion and second to adjurnn. Pardon me. If we can get a motion to adjurnn. Motion to adjurnn. So moved. All right. Thank you. And a roll call vote. I didn't. Okay. just meeting. We have concluded this meeting. Thank you for coming tonight.