Finance, Governance and Public Safety Committee - Regular Meeting

Alright. We're going to go ahead and begin. It's 10:30. Right? Yes. It is. Good morning. I am Andrea Boo. I'm chair of the finance governance public safety committee. It is I'll call the Tuesday, 03/10/2026 committee to order. I will have my committee members introduce themselves.

Wes Rogers, second district. Darryl Curls, fifth district at large.

And if staff will introduce themselves.

Howard Rice, city clerk's office.

Tammy Queen, city manager's

William Choi, Interim Director of Finance.

Stan Miller, Assistant City Attorney.

Britain's Civil Relief Finance Department.

Alright. Thank you all for being here and finding us as we made a slight adjustment to the 10th Floor today. Not that it's much cooler down here, but I hear it's really steamy on the 26th Floor. We have several holds today, and I I understand that maybe some of you are probably here to testify, and we'll we'll get to that those ordinances, pretty soon, and we'll discuss those. Starting, on the ordinances that were, newly introduced, on ordinance two six zero two six two, that is the moratorium ordinance.

We will hold that ordinance for let's see. Let me I didn't write it down. I believe that is going to be held for

One till the twenty fourth.

Till the twenty fourth. Thank you, assistant city manager. The twenty fourth. We do not meet next week, so it's technically a one week hold, but we will hear it when we reconvene in two weeks. So two six two will be held for one week.

Two six zero under the items held in committee, two six zero zero six five, that is a legal expense fund. We will hold that until 02/24 as well. Item number two six zero zero seven one, we will hold that until March 31. That's the week after the budget ordinances will be taken up. We'll skip two zero five.

That's our budget ordinance right now. Skip down until to Ordinance, two six zero two two two, that is the frequently asked questions relating to relating to the communications plan. We will hold that for, a week until the twenty fourth as well. The violence prevention fund 02/24, we will hold that as well. So that will be held until the twenty fourth.

And then probably the one that a lot of you are here as well, ordinance number two six zero two five o. The mayor has requested that be held as well. As you can see, the mayor is not here today. He has requested a one week hold until the twenty fourth. Personally, I'm hoping we hold that off until after the budget meeting.

So for those of you who are interested, we will try to put out any information if we're gonna hold that past the twenty fourth. So if, if you want to email my office, andrea dot booh, bough,@kcmoe.org, we will try to keep you updated on the status of that. So that is that kind of cuts down our agenda for a little bit, but we will proceed at the top of our agenda for two six zero two five four.

Two six zero two five four, resolution directing the city manager to assess the feasibility of creating a centralized one stop shop for city fee and tax collection and to report back to council with recommendations, including cost and saving and staffing considerations.

Alright. I'm

happy to present on that one.

Oh, okay.

Yeah. Oh. So this this stem from when I was asking some questions in one of the budget hearings the other day about how we gotta go to several different websites to pay bills and fees and taxes in the city of Kansas City. And, councilman Patterson has leaned over to me and said, why don't we put it all in one spot? And she had the suggestion for this resolution.

But I will say I think it's and I've spoken with ACM Queen about this in the past. It's expensive. There's a lot that goes into it. I think the city the state of Missouri just tried to do this recently is actually doing it right now, and the cost is astronomical. So I imagine we'll have a similar response, but I think it's worth looking into because I think we could provide I think it's good for taxpayers. It's good for the citizens, and, I think we'd collect more revenue. So worth looking at.

Right. So is I think always having a one stop shop is good. But, is would this would the do you envision this, like, to have, like, a one stop shop virtually or one stop shop, like, on the, like, the physical one stop shop? Or do

you do you For have

me, the virtual part's the more important part. Because right now, you know, you get your pet license in one spot, you pay there, you pay a parking ticket somewhere else. You get on the e tax website, you pay there. You pay the water bill somewhere else. So there's just a lot that goes into it. And in a dream world, you'd go on one website and pay all those things in one spot.

So it could just be having all of those feed into one.

Yeah, maybe it's just as simple as creating a landing page, and that may be the most cost effective way

to do it.

Great. Councilman Kearls.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Councilman Rogers, I see that you said for the city manager to report back with recommendations, do we need a time frame on him

to report

back or is it just whenever he gets ready?

Probably always good to have a deadline on there, and I don't think there's actually a deadline in the in the resolution. What would you suggest?

It We've got thirty days.

Oh, was it thirty days? Three of

the resolution.

It's not on my list list.

Is Oh, it's probably in the body of the resolution.

Is it in the body?

Ms. Oh, Ms. Days? Ms. I guess only with my finance chair hat on it. I know I mean, and we're getting close to the end of the budget. We've probably got three weeks left. Yeah. I'm I'm just giving the finance team a little bit of breathing room. Would you entertain maybe forty five or sixty days?

Make make it ninety. I don't think we're in a huge rush.

Okay. Could we Change Change it to ninety.

Change it to ninety.

Thank you.

I just know I'm exhausted for all these meetings, and I'm not having to do the hard work here. Having received an email from Brenton last night about who knows what time. Yeah, late. Late. I didn't get in until this morning because I wasn't up yet, so. Or checking emails, so. Alright. So is there any public testimony for ordinance number two six zero two five four?

There's no written testimony submitted for this resolution, and no one appears by Zoom with a raised hand or a person person to testify.

Alright. And I know there were several cards. I think most of those cards are for items that we've held. So if if you submitted a card, some of them did not have a ordinance number. If you submitted a card, and and I don't call you, go ahead and stand up because at this point I've put the cards aside because I think they're all for items that we have held. Except one I just got handed and I'll check that one as well. Alright. I would entertain a motion with the amendment to change it to ninety days.

I move that resolution number two six zero two five four as amended be what? Advanced and do pass?

Committee subcommittee

subcommittee subcommittee Second.

It's been moved and seconded. The committee sub for resolution number two six zero two five four be reported off committee with the recommendation of advance and do pass. All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Okay. The motion passes.

260,255, acknowledging that the twenty three year statutory period for the capture of tax increment allocation financing within projects two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, and thirteen of the Hickman Mills tax increment financing plan have expired. Terminating the designation of each of each such redevelopment project area, therein terminating the Hickman Mills Tax Increment Financing Plan, declaring as surplus those funds within the special allocation funds established in connection with each such redevelopment project area, dissolving the special allocation funds established in connection with each such redevelopment project area, and directing the city clerk to send copies of this ordinance to Jackson County.

Good morning.

Good morning. Thank you. Howard, would you mind putting the password?

I'm sorry.

IT is on the way to get that fixed. We're we're having a slight issue with the presentation, screen.

Oh, okay. Okay.

No worries. Sorry. I will just pull up the presentation as I have it, and hopefully I can explain it as good as I can. The Hickman Mills oh, sorry. I apologize. My name is David Leader. Thank you for having me

here today.

Pull it

a little closer. I don't know. It's hard to hear. It is hard to hear.

Is that any better?

Oh, that's a lot better.

Okay. Perfect. Good morning, madam chair, members of the committee, staff. Thank you for having me here today. My name is David Leader. I'm the development incentives and program manager for the Economic Development Corporation of Kansas City, Missouri. Today, I'm here on behalf of the tax increment financing commission to present for your consideration an acknowledgment of expiration for the Hickman Mills tax increment financing plan. This acknowledgment of expiration will terminate the plan in all effects. The plan itself was approved in 1992. It has 13 project areas.

The purpose was to construct improvements to the Hickman Mills corridor. It proposed a development of 1,000,000 square feet of office space as well as 500,000 square feet of research, developmental laboratory space, and commercial space. Some public improvements included the reconstruction of Hickman Mills Drive from a two to four lane, a relocation of KC Public Works and MoDOT facilities, removal of an abandoned rail bridge at Hickman Mills Drive and 1 And Hundred And 3rd Street, and other infrastructure redevelopment projects. The total redevelopment budget for this plan was 333,000,000, and the total TIF reimbursable project costs, were 222,000,000. Now only $149,000,000 was certified and $29,000,000 approximately was paid out, leaving an outstanding balance to the developer of approximately a $120,000,000.

So this plan didn't do maybe as good as it potentially could have. However, no further obligations are paid to the developer after the expiration of the final project area. We certainly have already hit that time. I believe it was at the end of last year. And so, as the funds are being collected, it's just through the funds at the end of the plan.

Everything past that has been surplussed. Everything before that is to be paid to the developer for the outstanding costs, just as one would expect. But currently, there are no funds in the, SAF account to surplus for any purposes at this moment. This project itself had a couple other public improvements within the first project area that had already been expired, came through committee a few years ago. This was, some pictures I would like to share, but maybe I can send them to you later.

This was the Santa Fe Trail as well as, the green belt that was in the corridor. And then, of course, this was the home of the Cerner campus when it first came to town. Let's see here. Base assessed valuation was approximately 10,600,000.0 before we started. And then at as of 2022, more than doubled 22,300,000.0, as the current assessed valuation.

And then as of 2022, apologies. And then the base Eats revenue for that plan area was approximately 1,400,000.0. Current Eats revenue is approximately 3,760,000.00. Happy to answer any questions for you, but that is my presentation. The Tax Increment Financing Commission does recommend approval, so does staff.

Alright. Are there any questions on ordinance number two six zero two five five? That counts when curls.

Are you sure there's no money left?

I'm a 100% positive. I think Tammy would agree with me. Okay.

Okay. No money. Alright. Alright. Yes. I'll agree.

Is there any public testimony on ordinance number two six zero two five five?

There's no testimony submitted for this ordinance.

Alright. I would entertain a motion.

Madam chair, I move that ordinance number two six zero two five five, be recommended advance and do pass.

Great. Could we place this one on the consent agenda?

Place it on the consent agenda?

I mean, there's no

There's no actual action other than accepting the acknowledgment. This the the action gives us an ordinance number, which the county and other partners can reference for the, like, official end of the plan despite it being Yeah. Already done. So

And I and I think

the important part is the advertised public hearing that we're doing right now.

Right.

Okay. Alright.

Madam chair, I move that ordinance number two six zero two five five be advanced out of committee with recommendation of advance, do pass, and placed on the consent agenda. Second.

It's been moved and seconded that ordinance number two six zero two five five be reported out of committee with the recommendation of advance and to pass and be placed on the consent agenda. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. The motion passes.

Be here

on Thursday. Thank you.

260258 authorizing the director of general services to execute a one year lease agreement with two options to renew for one year each with Pathway Financial Education for the purpose of an office space located at 1520 East 18th Street, Kansas City, Missouri 64108.

Good morning, chair and committee. I'm Ashley Wise, real estate manager with the general services department, and to my right is miss Latasha Jacobs with the Pathway Financial Education Group. This ordinance is for a three year lease, down at 18th And Vine. They are an excellent tenant. They've been there since 2020, and they've done a lot for the community. They've helped over 2,000 individuals in 2025, including the, jazz District Apartments, the one nine Vine Apartments, and Lincoln Prep Academy. And we would like a new lease to be approved, as soon as possible. And then miss Jacobs is here to add any additional comments if you have any questions about Pathway Financial.

And I think the what is the amount of the lease? Isn't it 10,000? Less than 10,000?

Yeah, for this fiscal year.

That was asking because I think this would be eligible for the consent agenda as well. Correct. Are there any questions on ordinance number 260,258?

Madam chair, move

that I was gonna take public testimony, but

There's no testimony submitted

for You were ready, yes. Is there any public testimony for ordinance number 260,258?

He said no.

Okay, sorry. We're all talking over each other. It's hot in here. We're trying to get out. Thank you for being here, thank you for the services you're providing.

She did mention that you have your five year anniversary coming up.

Oh, wow. Yeah. Great.

Go go right go right ahead. I'll give you the opportunity to speak.

Thank you. Our five year anniversary, celebrating our inception, also honoring financial literacy month, April 29. Oh, great. Is open to the public.

Right. I I think that sounds like a great special action in April. Right. Financial literacy month. Alright. Can now, councilman Rogers.

Madam chair, I move that ordinance number two six zero two five eight be voted out of committee with the recommendation of advance, do pass, and placed on the consent agenda.

Second. It's been moved and seconded that ordinance number two six zero two five eight be reported out of committee with the recommendation of advance and do pass and be placed on the consent agenda. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? The motion passes. Thank you

very much.

Right. Hold on just a second. Let me check here. Let's go to two six zero two zero eight.

Two six zero two zero eight amending chapter 78 code of ordinances entitled water by appealing section 70 eight-six, 70 eight-eight, 70 eight-ten, and 70 eight-twenty eight and enacting in lieu thereof a new section of like number and subject matter that adjusts charges for water service and establishing an effective date.

I would also recommend that you read the ordinance for chapter 60 as well. Two

Go ahead.

Two six zero two zero nine, amending chapter 60, code of ordinances entitled sewers and sewers disposal by repealing sections 60 dash two and sixty dash three and enacting in lieu thereof new sections of like number and subject matter that adjust charges for sewer service and establishing an effective date.

Good morning. Phil Cordoba, water services joined by Hugh Wooden, also water services. Apologize, apparently, the technical issues. Staff is printing copies of the presentation for members here, and they will distribute them as soon as they're available. So I'll start. Any questions you have, we can feel free to circle back to. Okay. Casey Water, while we are one city department, we operate three separate and distinct utilities. Water, which provides safe, reliable drinking water and fire protection. Wastewater, also referred to as sewer, which safely handles and treats the waste you produce and stormwater, which works to keep Kansas City safe through flood prevention.

We cover a large territory, maintain significant assets, and serve several different customer classes. Kansas City covers three twenty square miles of geography with over 519,000 residents. We maintain approximately 2,800 miles of water mains, 2,300 miles of sanitary sewer mains and 600 miles of combined sewer storm water mains. The water utility serves roughly 177,000 customers, and the sewer utility serves over 172,000 customers. The difference being there are still over 5,000 septic customers within Kansas City, Missouri boundaries.

We serve both residential and commercial customers, inside city and outside city customers, and large water wholesale, as well as large sewer interjurisdictional customers. Kansas City has a service area or service territory that is larger than the cities of Boston, Philadelphia, Miami, and San Francisco combined, Yet our population is less than 15% of those cities. This is the graph you were referencing previously. As background, the population of Kansas City, Missouri has grown from 450,000 in 1950 to approximately 519,000 in 2025. That's just a 0.2% per year population growth over seventy four years.

Over the same time period, Kansas City, Missouri's geography has grown 400% from 80 square miles to three twenty square miles, and that's since 1950. As a result, it has become very costly over time to maintain our utilities. Looking at the water side, we have one water treatment plant. It is a two forty million gallon per day production capacity, excuse me, 155,000,000 gallon treated storage capacity and produced on average 106,000,000 gallons per day in fiscal year twenty twenty five. We also have six wastewater treatment plants.

Combined, they have a design capacity of just over 155,000,000 gallons per day of treatment. In fiscal year twenty twenty five, they averaged 78,000,000 gallons per day in treatment. While we are one city department, we are three distinct enterprise funds that cannot commingle dollars between each of them. Thus, we charge customers for each service from each of those utilities that provide access to unlimited high quality water, whether it's from your tap, going down your drain or through your toilet. We follow industry standards in determining revenue requirements, allocating cost to customer classes based on demand and designing a rate structure that recovers those costs.

In Missouri, we are also subject to the Hancock Amendment, which only allows us to set fees that cover the cost of service for water and sewer service delivery to customers. In order to meet our operating expense, cash funded capital expense and debt service in fiscal year twenty twenty seven, we are proposing rate adjustments for the upcoming fiscal year as follows: a 6% water rate increase and a 6% sewer rate increase as well as a 0% storm water rate increase. This is zero because the storm water rate is technically a tax, and therefore any increase must be approved by the voters. Even with the proposed rate structure for fiscal year twenty twenty seven, Kansas City's KC water's price per gallon is much less than the cost of bottled water. Our proposed usage rate for fiscal twenty twenty seven equates to $0.008 per gallon or per 128 fluid ounces.

Less than a penny buys you the equivalent of eleven, sixteen point nine ounce half liter bottles of water. In addition, KC water tap water is cleaner, healthier, and better for the environment than bottled water. Think of all the plastic waste that ends up in the ocean. Are several reasons driving the need for our rate changes. The water utility uses chemicals like chlorine and lime to disinfect water and coagulants to help remove impurities.

The cost of chemicals has increased significantly in recent years. The cost of electricity from Evergy has increased the cost to operate our plants and pumps throughout the system. We are required to follow strict environmental rules to ensure safe, clean water. This includes national standards like The U. S. Clean Water Act, which helps protect water quality. Waste water treatment plants must be up to grade to reduce environmental pollutants. We have experienced increased costs in chemicals such as sodium hypochlorite. Wastewater treatment plants also include the installation and maintenance of advanced filtration, aeration, and chemical treatment systems. We also deal with sludge management.

This requires the proper disposal or treatment of sludge to meet environmental compliance regulations. The cost of managing, recycling, or disposing of sludge has increased in our operations. Finally, stormwater runoff, especially in our city's heavily populated areas, impacts the utilities costs related to building or upgrading drainage systems, retaining ponds, and implementing green infrastructure like permeable payments, rain gardens or wetlands. The current proposed rate increases for water and sewer equate to a $0.26 per day overall increase to our average customer. The projected average bill, assuming the same usage in fiscal year 'twenty seven as 'twenty six, is projected to increase from $135 per month to roughly $143 per month.

That's $51 for water, dollars 89 for sewer, and $2.5 for stormwater. This is based on an average residential monthly water usage of 3,792 gallons per month and average residential wastewater disposal usage of 3,291 gallons per month. From an affordability standpoint, the projected average bill of $143 per month is roughly 2.4% of the most recently reported American Community Survey, KC Missouri, median household income from the year 2024 of $67,449 EPA's affordability definition for water and sewer is 4.5% of median household income. Assuming the same usage in fiscal 'twenty seven as in 'twenty six, the average monthly residential bill for water, sewer and storm water services will increase roughly 5.8% in total. There are several benefits derived from continuing to invest in the water and wastewater systems.

These include making repairs to mains, valves, hydrants and service lines so we can continue to deliver clean drinking water and reduce service interruptions. And I'll pause to let Osama pass out the

You might tell him what slide you're on.

We're on slide 13. 13? Thank you. It's titled benefits for the community and services. Old corroding pipes are more prone to leaks and can allow contaminants into the water system.

By repairing or replacing these pipes, we prevent water contamination, ensuring cleaner, safer water for customers. In addition, replacing or repairing old pipes helps reduce the frequency of water main breaks or leaks, which can disrupt service. This means fewer outages and water interruptions and more consistent water delivery for customers. We also need to continue to upgrade our treatment facilities. The water treatment plant has been in operation for almost one hundred years.

The largest of our six wastewater treatment plants, Blue River, has been in operation for over sixty years. Another benefit that the community realizes from the rates is that we continue to meet EPA and DNR requirements. For example, after water is used for things like bathing, washing clothes, flushing toilets, etcetera, it becomes wastewater. This wastewater has to be treated before it's returned to the river. Treated wastewater must meet certain standards set by both the EPA and DNR to make sure it's not harmful to the environment.

Next page. Casey Water Management takes a role as fiduciaries of ratepayer funds very seriously. Our goal is to manage every dollar in the best way possible. We need to deliver high quality services to our customers, maintain our obligations with our debt holders who also help fund our systems and meet everyday regulatory requirements with EPA and DNR. We are enhancing the system through investing in things like sensors in the water and sewer main networks to enable predictive maintenance as opposed to more costly reactive maintenance.

We maintain automatic meter reading capabilities that help customers monitor their usage online. We perform water delivery investigations in alignment with regulations. We continue to meet service delivery levels even though we currently have a nearly 23% employee vacancy rate. And we are investing in our customer information system and our self-service portal. Next slide.

We acknowledge that our rate increases are challenging for some customers, so we offer several forms of assistance to meet the needs of our customers. For those customers that are in need of financial assistance, we have several options. We have payment plans that extend up to twelve months. We offer utility assistance through our partner Mid America Assistance Coalition. A few years ago, we were contributing $500,000 a year to this program.

That increased to $800,000 in fiscal year twenty twenty one during COVID and is now at $1,000,000 per year. We also have the Leak Stoppers program, Bridging the Gap, where we provide assistance to help customers stop leaks through installing new filters and toilet flappers as well as new toilets. The expense for that is roughly $200,000 per year. Even with all these forms of assistance, we are at the disadvantage compared to our local gas and electric utilities. They have federal LIHEAP, Low Income Heating and Electric Assistance Program.

KC Water does have a federal program that customers can utilize for financial assistance. Next slide details the history of our water rate increases. Going back to fiscal year two thousand, you will notice that from fiscal year two thousand and two to 2004, there were no increases. While this was politically popular, it essentially kicked the can down the road. As a result of the action, the Water Fund debt was downgraded in 2005 by Moody's as they became concerned about utility's future ability to meet its debt service obligations.

In addition, the freezing of rates during that time period forced the utility into a period of prolonged double digit rate increases to get back to properly investing in the system and sending the message to the municipal debt markets that we were serious about being able to meet future obligations. From fiscal year twenty sixteen to 'twenty two, the council, to its credit, was implementing rate increases that were consistent with consumer inflation and providing relief during the COVID crisis. However, as mentioned earlier, several costs in the industry have skyrocketed, and our rate increases have not kept pace with this industry inflation. A good example would be the cost to fix one mile of water mains to replace one mile water mains. That cost has risen from roughly $1,000,000 per mile back in 2020 to about $2,300,000 per mile currently.

The next slide illustrates our sewer rate increases historically, going back to fiscal year two thousand. When the city entered into the twenty five year consent decree in September 2010, fiscal year 'eleven, we are already starting a campaign of double digit rate increases to address the overflow control program. Since then, the EPA has signed off on three amendments to the consent decree, the most recent in fiscal year twenty twenty two, reducing the amount of the program, reducing the combined sewer overflows capture requirement and extending the program five more years from 2035 to 2040. As a result, we have been able to temper sewer rate increases and accordingly meet these obligations. The next slide touches on the future water bond authorization need.

For the water utility, we present ordinance two five one zero two seven on January 6 asking for council approval to put an initiative on the ballot for water revenue bond authorization. The council agreed to this ordinance. However, it still needs to be addressed. The deadline for the to be included on the August 4 ballot is May 26. As you can see from the table, the water utility has nearly exhausted the remaining amount of the 2,014 water bond authorization.

That authorization was for $500,000,000 and we've issued six bonds from it. We currently need a new voter approved water revenue bond authorization to sell any water bonds in the future to generate proceeds for bond funded capital improvements. Bonds allow us to spread capital costs out over time and keep rate increases reasonable as opposed to using cash, which is spent at the time it is expended for capital projects. With that, I'll be happy to answer any questions or circle back and touch on any of the earlier slides.

Okay. Oh, we're not up yet. But I sent Hugh an updated map of this Okay. That we had staff prepare because I think this is actually one of the best illustrations of the issues that we have during budget. Mhmm. Because it and if we get this up, wanna show it because it I wanna go back to what you said. Kansas City has about 319 square miles of space, of land area.

Correct.

The cities of San Francisco, Miami, Philadelphia, and Boston combined are two sixty six square miles. So when we are out and not only that, but our population is about 515,000. The populations of those four cities are about 3,500,000, a little over that. And so when we're talking about the allocation of resources, the tax revenues that we receive, it makes it difficult not only our lane miles, our sewer systems, our water mains. We have These four municipalities have 3,000,000 more people to supply revenues to support the infrastructure that the city of

Kansas Exactly. City So

when we are talking about our budget and how we support all of our departments, whether it's TIO, I saw Councilman O'Neill having discussions about KCATA, and paving our roads, and doing the things that we need to do that we talked about in our public budget meetings with replacing our water mains that were on a one hundred year cycle.

Correct.

This is what makes the budget process difficult, and especially now when we are facing a structural imbalance that frankly we've been facing for a while. I just want to say that because I think, again, this illustrates to and I've been fascinated with this for a long time,

because

I think it does illustrate the issues that we as a city face. So I will just put it at that. Appreciate, one of my questions was what was our rate last year, and so I appreciate you showing the, our rate increase, excuse me, last year, and I appreciate you showing the history of that. Are there any questions from the committee? Gentleman Gearls.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Just a couple questions. Reasons behind the rate change you've got on slide 10, you've got inflation, chemicals, electricity. Does this have anything to do with data centers?

No, sir.

No, sir? No. Because I'm sure a lot of people are going to say that, you know, a lot of people are equating water increases with the amount of data centers that's coming.

Right. Now currently, we have plenty of excess capacity, so we would we would not need to make any changes to be able to supply water to them. If there was a infrastructure need, if there was a a pipe that needed to be run to supply the data center, they would be responsible for supplying the cost of that. So in all honesty, the more water we sell, the better it is for every one of our customers. So long run, centers could improve our overall position by being able to sell more of the water that we have available.

Okay. And then slide 15, to support those in need. A lot of people, and I get a lot of phone calls about the water bills, And, water you know, some of them are on fixed income and can't they have a hard time paying the water bills now. Have we looked at or have you guys looked at other opportunities? I think you mentioned something about you don't have a federal source.

Is there a way that you could look at a federal source or is that even an opportunity?

I I believe we're constantly lobbying for federal funds to be available for customer assistance. During COVID, they did make a a water program that we took advantage of, and we're able to provide additional assistance. But it had a drop dead date on it and did not extend past the the peak of COVID. But I believe that we're just you were constantly lobbying for funds to be made available for water customers.

What about any I don't know, grants or any other opportunities?

We explore all opportunities, sir. Yes. Okay.

Alright. And then when is this rate increase taking place?

It'd be effective May 1 with the change of the fiscal year.

And that's going to be included in water bills, or how will the

Yes, sir.

Residents

Yeah. Any any bills that go out in May, they'll be billed to current rates through their usage at the to the April, and then starting with their May 1 usage, it would be billed at the newer rates.

All right. I just have some concerns, but thank you, Madam Chair.

Any other questions? Is there any public testimony for ordinance number two six zero two zero eight or two six zero two zero nine?

There was no testimony submitted for either ordinance.

I do have one question that I was thinking of. I believe that based upon the EPA consent decree back years ago when we were talking about projected rate increases and there were some very significant rate increases back ten years ago or so. And I think that we were given information on projected rate increases over the next ten years or so. Are these lower increases than what we were anticipated before the last modification

Yes, the project to

That's what I thought.

Each modification has been advantageous to the rate. The third one, it really allowed us to maintain that 6% into the near future instead of having double digit rate increases. Because some of the demands of the program in the out years are significantly higher than current years. So we still expect to see increased spending. But given our financial model, we anticipate that we can maintain where we're at and be able to complete everything on the wastewater side.

Right.

Yes, just to be clear.

All right. If there is no public testimony, I would entertain a motion on these, and I would look no

No advance.

No advance. Just to pass on these two so they'd stay with the budget ordinances.

Madam Chair, move that ordinance numbers two six zero two zero eight and two six zero two zero nine be reported out of committee with the recommendation of advance.

Do pass. Just do pass.

Pardon me. Just do pass. I'll second.

It's been moved that ordinances number two six zero two zero eight and two six zero two zero nine be reported out of community with recommendation of do pass. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed?

Say no.

We will hear them on the twenty fourth. Twenty sixth. Twenty sixth. Yes.

Thank you all.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Mayor pro tem is here. We will go to her ordinances, but please don't let me forget to go back and get the other ones. Let's go with, 260247, and then we'll go to 249.

Committee substitute for order number 260247 expressing support for exploring us.

Oh, go ahead. I'm looking the committee sub. Right?

Yes, ma'am. Okay. Committee substitute for order number 260247 expressing support for exploring a sister relationship between Kansas City and Akira, Ghana, recommending the sister cities association of Kansas City to work with Ghanaians in Greater Kansas City to develop formal proposal consistent with section two dash 12 of the code of ordinances and authorizing the mayor to execute an agreement with the mayor of ACRA contingent upon the mayor of ACRA's consent to enter into a sister city relationship with Kansas City and successful completion of the proposal process.

Good morning. Good morning. Thank you for taking these. I appreciate it. So, colleagues, this ordinance is will authorize the mayor to formalize a sister city relationship between Kansas City and Accra, Ghana, which is a metropolitan region of approximately 2,500,000 residents and the capital of Ghana.

This is a strategic partnership that is aligned with the citywide business plan priorities. It supports infrastructure, collaboration, workforce development, economic growth, environmental sustainability, and global engagement. Accra is a commercial gateway to West Africa, establishing this relationship will help structure opportunities for trade missions, export promotion, and business to business collaboration for Kansas City companies in logistics, healthcare, manufacturing, technology, and it also expands access to emerging international markets and will strengthen our long term economic resilience. So what you have in front of you really is a, proposal that outlines ultimately what I'm speaking to, and, I'll make sure that we have this, uploaded to the clerk so that, anyone who wants to see this obviously, we were planning to do this last week. We had a lot of people here to testify last week.

You saw what happened on Thursday as well. But, ultimately, what this will do is allow, authorize the mayor to, sign an agreement with the mayor of Accra who their city council has their legislature has already established this back in November, their willingness to want to establish a sister city relationship. I'll entertain any questions.

All right. Do. I think the committee substitute, if I'm reading this correctly, would require us to take additional action, is that right, once a formal designation

So it's my understanding that they and I don't actually have a copy of the committee sub in front of me, but I I believe that what the committee sub, does is it, ensures the sister city the greater Kansas City sister city committee or the commission that we have is also engaged in this process and that they, will establish a vote. They actually haven't officially, taken a vote, so this ultimately really uplifts them, and it's so it's contingent upon them Okay. Finalizing it. And they didn't have quorum in their last meeting to be able to do that, and so, it ultimately will give them until their next meet or until they're able to establish their quorum.

Just for clarity, I I believe the the section two of the committee substitute calls for s as, mayor pro tem says, an SCA KC's, has to approve the proposal according to our code of ordinances. It comes back to the council, and then upon a send from the mayor of Accra, you would have that relationship formed.

Are there any questions from the committee? Yes.

Briefly. How is there any cost associated with this at all?

No, other than when we have people to people exchanges, there's no additional cost to the city at all to be able to establish these relationships.

Any other questions? Is there any testimony for, committee substitute for ordinance number two six zero two four seven?

There was some written testimony submitted in favor of this ordinance and no one appears by Zoom or a person to testify.

Alright. And I do wanna recognize, mayor pro tem, that there were people in the audience last I rode on the elevator and I apologize to them for the length of our our committee last week that we did not get to this and I apologize to you as well. I would entertain a motion.

Madam chair, I move that ordinance this is an ordinance Committee sub for

Ordinance.

Ordinance number two six zero two four seven be recommended voted out of committee advance and do pass. Second.

It's been moved and seconded that committee substitute for ordinance number 260,247 be reported out of committee with the recommendation of advance and do pass. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? The motion passes.

Thank you. Uh-huh. Okay.

Then Go

back to 20.

Can you

say 249?

Yeah. Four nine.

Two four nine. Thank you. Two six zero two four nine resolution directing the city manager to conduct certain actions in support of the homeless community within thirty days, directing the city manager to estimate cost and develop a funding plan if necessary, and directing the city manager to engage relevant stakeholders in carrying out the above actions.

All right. Thank you again, madam chair, for taking this. The colleagues, as we all know, Kansas City is preparing for historic moment as a host city for the twenty twenty six FIFA World Cup. This event will bring visitors from around the world and generates significant economic activity across our region. As we prepare for this moment, we also have a responsibility to ensure that our planning reflects the values of our city.

Resolution two six zero two four nine is about making sure that our preparation includes residents who are currently experiencing homelessness. It recognizes that while global events bring opportunity, they also require us to strengthen the systems that support our most vulnerable neighbors. This resolution directs the city manager to develop a plan within thirty days to strengthen our response in several key areas. First, it calls for identifying ways to increase shelter capacity for individuals and families who need a safe, stable places to stay. Secondly, it calls for expanding outreach teams so that individuals living unsheltered can be connected to housing resources, health care, behavioral health services, and other supportive programs.

And finally, and most importantly, it focuses on workforce opportunity. The World Cup will create jobs across hospitality, restaurants, lodging, event operations, security, and logistics, and this resolution directs the city manager to work with partners like the Hotel and Lodging Association and the Greater Kansas City Restaurant Association to create pathways that connect those individuals experiencing homelessness to those opportunities. Unfortunately, we had, so I guess I need to actually announce who was here with me. But I'll say due to us not being able to present last week, we had, Andrea from the restaurant the executive director of the restaurant and hotel lodging association who, we've been in discussion with in terms of their, strategies to host a, hiring fair to engage not just for World Cup, but even long term. I look at this as an opportunity to create a launch pad.

They are needing additional staff and wanted to have this collaboration established. I also have with me Shanita McAfee, who is the new president of the COC, the Continuum of Care, as we know that really oversees a majority of the funds that come into this region, and she took office or took that seat in January. And of course, I have Doug Lehner with Hope Faith as well. So, ultimately, finally, this resolution calls for collaboration with city departments, service providers, faith based organizations, and industry partners so that we can leverage the strong network that we already have that exists in Kansas City to ensure that World Cup will be a place that is comp is, complementary and supportive and strengthen the pathways to help all of our residents move forward from crisis towards stability and opportunity. With that, I'm going to ask Shanita to say a few words.

Thank you for having me. I do want to mention before I get started, the last assessment that we did with the Restaurant Association, this was back in October, there was a shortage of 6,000. They had 6,000 open positions as they prepare for World Cup. So, as a representative of the, COC and also the Prospect Casey, that's my organization, we really want to make sure that as the city prepares to welcome the World Cup, that we also demonstrate that we're still welcoming to our most vulnerable residents. These opportunities sometimes come at the expense of the people who are on the on the brink of already struggling and pushing them out of out of their jobs.

This ordinance can help start to strengthen crucial conversations across these departments, nonprofit, faith organizations, and communities, and also engage some people. The COC and other organizations have people with lived experience who have a level of expertise when it comes to their ability to access these services. So again, I'm just not here to advocate for one single organization, but I am here to affirm that the city has a commitment to collaboration, and it must include a broad, diverse table of community based providers, civic leaders, people with lived experience.

Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, mayor Brotem and, madam chairwoman. And Doug Legner, executive director of Hope Faith Homeless Assistance Campus. I'm also a board member now of the COC with Shanita.

And our our path is to bring you solutions. You know, first and foremost, as we get ready to welcome the world, we wanna make sure that we're prepared to welcome those in most need that are already in our city. One of the things I'm speaking for today is not for myself, but the many people we see on the front lines that are saying, hey, where am I going to go during this time? One thing I asked this committee to think about during these proceedings is oftentimes hotels are used as a temporary place before people get into housing. And in talking with the Hotel Lodging Association, that is just not gonna be feasible during this time.

So that's why one of the things we're asking that we work together to see that we have enough shelter capacity during the time of the World Cup. But not just to shelter people. So many people that come to shelter. Over 35% that stayed at our shelter this winter, through a contract with the city, and we thank the city for that, had income. Most of the people that solved their housing situation needed rest to be off the streets and and needed connection to jobs.

And that's one of the main things we're trying to do today is to expand workforce development. Hotel Lodging Association and the Restaurant Association have told us that they need workforce, not only during the World Cup but beyond. And this is a strategy many other big cities that have reduced the numbers of homeless in their city have really partnered together with with people in places and spaces that are within transportation zones, that are within the urban core. And that's where a lot of our houseless population that are trying to get their lives back on off the streets and back together, rely upon connections for that. So the the connection to workforce development is is paramount in this.

So that's one of the things we want you to consider. We also realize, yeah, there might need to be some funding around maybe shelter capacity, But I think the workforce development piece is something we would call upon other nonprofits to say, how can we step forward? At Hope Faith, we're gonna come together and say, hey. Let's make sure people have their IDs ready to go so they can be hired when they go to some of those hiring events that hotels and restaurants are gonna have. And so we also know that there's this is an alignment with long term goals.

The housing department is here, and I think that their direction is is spot on. And I know there's probably a concern about taking from the next year's budget. And one of the things we wanted to do is say, if there's any short term investment in this onetime event, let's focus it to where it extends and enhances what their long term direction is. We know dollars are finite in this, and so, we just act ask you for your support because this is something people we serve are asking for. They want safe, reliable places to be off the streets while they're working on their lives to move it forward. So thank you for your time.

And I'll just say that, just uplift Blaine Proctor and Mary Owens. I know they have already started doing some of this work, they're available to answer questions. Thank you. Great.

Thank you. I do have a couple of questions, and I'll start with sort of two questions. One goes back to a resolution that we just adopted not too long ago, and it deals with the housing gateway program. How does this relate to the Housing Gateway program and what role did the Housing Department play in the preparation of this? Because I know we have programs that are going on.

We adopted zero KC some time ago. That's sort of two, but I'm going to add on a third one. As I mentioned just recently, just with a prior ordinance, thirty days is a very short time period. I know the World Cup is, okay, I'm going to add a fourth one. I'm to get all my questions out, I think.

Think this is absolutely something that we need to do. Think, no question, I think this is something that we've talked about as a council for a long time. How is this different than what we are already doing? And you know, I I'm always a little bit hesitant to say we're doing this just for the World Cup. That has been something that we've talked about a lot is let's let's do things to improve the the citizens of Kansas City and not just say we're cleaning things up because of the World Cup.

And so think, Mary, since you're there, I'm going to ask you kind of the questions on what are we doing now that is or maybe what are we not doing now that this would supplement?

So the housing gateway program that mayor Pro Tem and Councilman Duncan sponsored last month is a municipal voucher and landlord incentive program, and it's intended to provide permanent housing to individuals experiencing homelessness, particularly unsheltered homelessness. So going to encampments and then placing those people in housing. This effort is really targeted for the World Cup and the immediate housing needs for those individuals in encampments, asking us to look at expanding shelter capacity, which we have looked at that. If we were to expand our cold weather shelter seasonal beds through World Cup, it would be at a significant cost, and we're wanting to ensure that the housing gateway program is really our long term strategy. So we'd have to balance this this essential need for shelter during World Cup with that longer term vision for housing gateway.

But we do have other things prepared that were addressed in this letter to us. One of them is expanding our outreach team. We are currently listing three outreach workers for the housing department. That's going through the PRC process right now, and it's already budgeted for. That's not something that would come out of our our that we would need to allocate for next year.

With workforce development, we have our cleanup KC initiative, which Doug of course is the lead agency for that. We're hoping to use that program for this effort, but very open to and excited about these partnerships with the workforce in Kansas City. In terms of the encampment training that was proposed, we are planning to host a training with an interdepartmental training prior to World Cup so we're all really on the same page, and that would include KCPD, neighborhoods, the housing department. We have a very, robust encampment closure process. We do, monthly meetings where everyone identifies which encampments we wanna close, and then our interdepartmental team goes out and works that.

So that process will remain in place, but the training for World Cup, we plan to do in April.

Okay. So just a second. One of the things that you said is I think the Gateway Program had a six month report back and this has a thirty day report back. So the Gateway Program I believe had a $1,000,000 reallocation of the source of income funding.

Yes.

So how are we able to make a comparison of, you know, if there's a budget issue and we're going to make budget decisions in three weeks, which obviously would have to come through a supplemental appropriation at quarterly cleanup. But guess part of my concern is how do we if it's going to be a budget comparison of what we make, I guess we can make the decision in thirty days, and then if we have money in six months. But how do we make those determinations if the reporting period is different?

So the six month housing gateway report is really a system wide analysis. It's intended to be a report on the entire Kansas City homeless system. So the COC, the housing authority, our department, and assessing ways to improve that system. So that is separate from this resolution which would require the city manager to produce a report and a funding plan on our World Cup strategy in thirty days. I would view them as separately.

In terms of making decisions about funding, the housing gateway program we're hoping to get $10,000,000 this year to launch that voucher program through public private partnership. But part of that is also to include 40 new shelter beds for our annual supply of shelter, low barrier shelter. And so It is included in the housing gateway program. Whether that aligns with the timing of World Cup, I think is subject to discussion. We're hoping that any investment made for World Cup would be placed in housing gateway for the department and for our program to be able to distribute those funds.

Were you gonna say something?

Yes. I was gonna say two things. One, this type of support from the city would incentivize employers who would not typically look at the people that we serve as an employee. Sometimes they get overlooked because they're not the perfect employee. And so through this partnership, it would allow us to work together as a system to uplift the employee, like Doug said, getting the IDs, getting the birth certificate, helping with housing, and doing the things that they need so that they can go ahead and maintain that employment.

And then the other thing I was going to say is that in terms of the short time frame, a lot of the people that Doug and I have been working with, Mary, we've already been kind of having these conversations in our own silo. So this, again, would, encourage us to work together as a as a collective unit and have a little bit, I think, more higher level of accountability to come back with the plan instead of everybody doing their own ad hoc plan that would probably be very disjointed.

Councilman Duncan.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Can you hear me?

All right.

I'm a little bit confused on a couple of things. So this resolution definitely would end up requiring funding, funding that we don't have. And while I am completely supportive of ensuring that, you know, as I told Doug, that we're looking at immediate term solutions while we focus on a long term strategy, this resolution would end up requiring funding. And my question is, where is it gonna come from? To the finance team, you know, somebody asked me the other day, looks like the the federal government's giving you all a whole bunch of money for public safety.

How is that being distributed? And I didn't have the answer. So maybe do you all have an accounting of the FIFA dollars that are coming for public safety and how that's gonna be split between KCPD, KCFD? Because when we think about public safety, expanding shelter opportunities during the World Cup is public safety. Right.

FIFA or KC twenty twenty six is the recipient of those dollars, and so we the KCFD, KCPD have made requests for allocation of that funding, but they receive and will distribute that because they are the grant recipient, not the city. And so I don't have the detail, all of that to say. I don't have the detail, We can probably get that from our partners at KC twenty twenty six.

I probably shouldn't say anything if I don't know completely the correct answer, but some of what I've heard is that oh, we have, I'm not gonna ask you to answer this question, that it may be tied to day of or event sponsored,

like Security

Security on game days or FIFA sponsored events. Mean, it's very restricted

It did.

On when it can be used. So I just was in one meeting and it was even KCPD was concerned because there's activities that occur that they are on call to, that they may not even be able to use it. Yeah,

mean, think because that's my question. I think the other question that I have is, you know, this resolution encourages the city to work together with COC and frontline service providers, but aren't we already doing that? And if the answer is no, I guess my question is why, and why would a resolution make that more so than we've already directed our housing department to do that? So I guess that's my other question.

I think very specifically, this is an enhancement of that. What I've heard from housing is don't sacrifice a short term moment for a long term gain, and I 100% agree with that. The difference is as frontline providers is we see and hear already today what is the reality of what's to come for two months. I'm gonna get kicked out of my hotel room. Where am I gonna go?

I don't wanna be on the streets. Where am I gonna go? And we have too much of that still. So this long term thing is 100% the right way to go with that. I I think it's really hard as a service provider and someone who sees people on the streets every day, to not know. Because the other thing that ends up happening during an event like this, all of a sudden, downtown businesses say, hey. We've got a real problem here. And then they call the providers up and say, what can we do? And we've been saying that for for months, like, we ready? Maybe there's ways within our own system now that we can and are ready without a further financial commitment.

But I just really worry about this at this time for those two months. And, again, I think it points to the to that longer term goal of of pushing this forward of, you know, I think representative Cleaver says it best. The best the best government program is a good paying job. And so if we can connect more and more of our houseless community to jobs, that's a savings for all of us. But to your point, I think the one area that there might have to be some short term ask is around shelter capacity, maybe.

The other thing is that I think we have not really considered all of the different scopes of workforce. Right now, there is a cleanup program, and I think that you guys had we talked at another meeting about a construction program, but there's other areas that are low entry jobs that just haven't been are being discussed outside of this collective organization. Again, I mentioned accountability. I think this will allow a level of accountability and kind of force people to the table to kind of share the resources and the information that they already have instead of it being happening at Doug's place and my place and what Mary's doing, but all together so that we can come up with a plan that serves the community.

And I would just add, I think it's unfortunate Andrea O'Hare was not able to be here today. She was here last week, but she would be able to speak to the workforce piece. I think that is, to me, that that is this will create an opportunity, a launch pad opportunity, and I think that's what's different about, about this resolution in that we're ultimately trying to be more intentional about utilizing this opportunity to launch our unhoused individuals, and we've got a willing partner who needs who needs this entry level workers. And so, ultimately, this resolution will, you know, task the staff to to look at this more closely, talk with all the key partners, and then come back to the council with the recommendation that then we can decide if, you know, if there are funds that we want to appropriate or not, or if it's, you know, just making sure that we are working that that we are utilizing the resources we have in a more collaborative nature with our workforce, with our employers in the hotel and lodging and restaurant association.

One comment. We are working with a national expert, Jim Mathey, and he's going to be coming to Kansas City prior to World Cup and helping us map our shelter capacity. So there are a lot of shelter providers that are not coordinated with the city or the COC. They are not funded by the COC. A lot of them are faith based organizations.

And so we think there could be a real cost savings by just better understanding what currently exists for shelter capacity. They might not be low barrier shelter, but it would be shelter if someone were in an emergency. So we're trying to do a better job of mapping the resources that our community has because we know there are lots of programs that we just don't have visibility into how many shelter beds that they have, and we need to do a better job of that.

Councilman Kirs.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess my question would be along the same lines in regards to money. And it looks like it says to report back in thirty days on this resolution, which means that we would be have our we would have already passed the budget within the before that thirty day period. So are you asking for the city manager to look at funds after we pass the budget, or are you looking at trying to identify funds in this current budget, I guess? Or how does that timeframe fit in with this current budget, I guess, maybe?

Well, of course, keep in mind that this was on the agenda last week, that delay, I think, put us in a different time frame. But ultimately, really, it's, I know that we're in a tight we have a tight budget, and so ultimately, my thought is that, you know, staff has already somewhat been working on it on this. I don't know that they need the full thirty days, but if they come back with a recommendation, of, you know, what the potential needs are, as soon as that is available, you know, then I would ask that it's presented to the council so we can, you know, either have an ordinance to consider at that time. So, really, the short answer to your question is I will leave it to the direction of the city manager and the staff to come back with the recommendation to us as soon as they can.

I'll just take this opportunity to say the budget amendments are due Thursday. Thursday.

Yeah.

I think the program is something that is needed. I think it's something that's needed. And I understand the the short term versus long term. But I think it's something that we need to do long term. And I I I understand the focus on the World Cup, but it it does cause me some pause to to reference this in in the World Cup because I I I fear that it's okay, we're dealing with this on the World Cup and then we're gonna turn our backs on everyone. People are going to staff up for the World Cup and then they're going to

Cut staff.

Cut staff and turn them away and we're not gonna have a long term solution for this issue. My preference would be to say, you know, can we do this and take out the reference to the World Cup, to look at this in collaboration with our housing gateway program, what we're doing on a global basis and say this is another step in what we're going to do as a city and looking at our global houseless policy. But if we need to accelerate not six months, look at it more closely so that we can provide some element of urgency to address some of the needs. But I think I just I fear that there's going to be a ramp up and then there's going to be people that are not going to have a job after July 15?

I've been in the hospitality industry for twenty eight years. I don't know if anybody remembers when Walmart used to bring their national convention here. That's when I used to be a chef's apprentice at Johnson County Community College. So, we would all leave our jobs, and they would bring in apprentices from across the country. We would all leave our jobs and come here to work at the hotels for that one month convention.

So if we don't, say, hey, work with our city, what they will do is bring in people from other properties in other cities, and then they will take the job. And this could be a launch pad. Hospitality, this event jumps off to summer, and all it does is do this for till the end of the year. Right now, we're in a lull. We're all in this very slow moment, which is why we're all thinking about this.

We've all passed holiday. Everything kinda falls off in in our industry at the January, and it slowly starts to ramp back up to insanity right around this time. So where our hope is that we can create opportunities for our community to get in the door and get those jobs now and be able to be on their way to sustainability, and not be a part of that crew that comes in from outside properties for that two month period and then heads back to home. I

agree, but I think that you just made my point, is that they come in for two months and then they're gone. And so, absolutely, you can provide them with some skills and training during that two months that they can then transfer to other places, but ensure that we have that long term solution. And so that's why I'm saying I would prefer to just take the World Cup out of here. Just take that reference out of here and say, we're looking at, this may be the training that you would have at the culinary institute, but we're going to sustain that program so you can start here, but look to the long term solution. That's all I'm saying.

And I I tell you, I had the same concern as well in terms of, you know, looking at it as a World Cup thing, and then everybody and then it's done. It would take Andrea O'Hare to to speak to it. When Shanita started speaking, she mentioned the the 6,000 gap, or need of 6,000 individuals already, and so when the meetings that I had with Andrea really referenced that, that they have had, consistent issues with with being able to maintain their staff in the hotel and restaurant and lodging associations, and they want a partnership with the city. They want to to see, a more comprehensive strategy so that they can employ these individuals who in Kansas City that need the job. So for them, it wasn't just a short term.

They look at it as a launch pad as well. And so, you know, I just wish she could have been here today to actually speak to

that

because, you know, we're we know that, you know, the trajectory of Kansas City and where we're going, that they they will continue to need these individuals. And so I'm I'm supportive if you wanna take out the, quote unquote FIFA World Cup piece of it, and kind of do an amendment or a committee sub to it to remove that, because it's really about making sure that we use this opportunity to create long term sustainability for those who need it most.

Yeah, and I think that's true. I mean, I think the service industry for some time has been lacking something that we could have partnered with them for a long time ago. I just want to make it clear. Councilman Duncan, did you have something else?

Yeah. I mean, I I concur with the with the with the sentiments that, you know, we shouldn't just be focused on on World Cup. I think, you know, my attention is more of Section one of the Be It Resolves and subsections that increasing shelter capacity and expanding homeless outreach and providing additional specialized training for law enforcement are all unfunded mandates. And so, I mean, we can say that we want to do this all day, but like without the funding, then how do we do it? I think number three is something that we could be doing anyway and should be doing.

And but again, think, you know, there's no way to develop a plan without funding.

And

to finance chair's point, right, you know, by the time this is reported back, we budget have that's already been voted on and passed. So those are the tensions that I have with it. And I think, you know, without without a funding plan, then these are just hopes, wishes, and dreams.

May I say one thing to that? And that is the one thing that hasn't been stated in this is correct from the city standpoint. Having worked on this for a year with FIFA, what FIFA always says, not our problem. Not our problem. Not our problem. FIFA's about ready to have a great windfall from us welcoming the world to Kansas City. And they themselves have a budget and what we could use help with possibly because I'm I'm in full agreement with chairwoman about not focusing on World Cup per se. The only hesitation I have with completely removing it is it lets FIFA off the hook again. Maybe they have some resource they can put to this. You know, I I don't know.

I mean, that might be a helpful discussion with housing, with with the city manager's office or other, just as a consideration, because otherwise, I'm in in full agreement. Would sorry.

Go

ahead. Would a would an amendment of a be resolved to direct the city manager to to ask to what's the word I'm looking for? To advocate for to petition KC 2026 for funding for increased homeless Mhmm. Outreach and support and shelter. Yeah. I mean, I think I mean, it because it's I again, I'd tell me where in our budget we can find it, and I'm all for it. Yeah, I

will support that, Councilman Duncan.

Okay, so I would suggest that we take out the clause that references the World Cup, and reference the World Cup in the recitals, but what about the report back within thirty days? I'm looking at you like you're on the committee. I guess you can provide it, but look to my committee members. We'll take public testimony. Well, let's let's take public testimony first, and then we'll come back and discuss it.

So is there any public testimony for ordinance or committee, for resolution number two six zero two four nine?

No one appears in person. There's one person who appears by Zoom with the right hand.

Alright. Yeah. Maya has been promoted. Okay. Go ahead.

Unmute yourself, and go ahead.

Hi. My name is Nehemiah Roselle, constituent. I also work, I'm I'm with House KC and also work at the Greater Kansas City Coalition Homelessness. One well, I I appreciate all the discussion on this, and, I think one thing I wanted to highlight, as part of the resolution, I think when we've talked about this in spaces with homelessness providers, there is a lot of concern about the well-being of those who are on the streets during the World Cup. I think we've already seen an increased level of camp sweeps, people being being displaced and, feeling like there that is as a result of the World Cup trying to, quote, quote, like, clean things up in preparation for it.

And, especially with the increased security presence, I know that that's not necessarily all the you know, in in control of the, of the city, but needing to have a plan in about how we're going to work with those additional security, forces. I know the the ordinance mentions, like, training for that to have some sort of pressure release valve that when those when either our police or other security, individuals, encounter folks who are experiencing homelessness, maybe there's disruption, maybe there's not, that there's a a plan in place. People know what they need to do to get them into services, either get them into shelter or or what the plan is. Otherwise, my concern, I think people a lot of people's concern is that the most punitive option will be taken and that there's gonna be, a mass arrest of people who are experiencing homelessness that will end up in jail. And, I think as most of us can can recognize, that's actually gonna make it harder for people to then resolve their homelessness and get into housing if they have those additional records, fees.

And so I think that's a part of it, wanting to make sure that we are thinking about the security and well-being and what's gonna happen when, those people are encountered, during the World Cup and that we can coordinate with outreach, coordinate with security to make sure that those who are taken care of in a dignified way, in a trauma informed way, so that they just don't end up in jail again. Thank you so much.

Alright. Thank you. Are there any is there anyone else?

No one else appears.

Alright. So what is the the pleasure of the

Could we could would, mayor pro tem, would you would you be amenable to a friendly amendment that would direct the city manager to petition KC 2026 that would for funding for subsections one, two, and four? Yes.

Yes, I would be amenable to a friendly amendment.

And might I suggest that could be a report back on that within thirty days, and then maybe the rest of the resolution looking at a more longer term solution that we, since we've kind of, the budget process has moved beyond us, think, but maybe it could be a quarterly item, more something that we look at the first part of fiscal year twenty seven, just a thought.

The other part that's actually not really spelled out in the legislation that I want to make sure you are aware of is the Hotel and Restaurant Association. They are planning employment fair on April 25, and I would like to just ensure that our outreach coordinators, our outreach teams are working with individuals to working in partnership with them for the workforce piece of it, so I just want to make sure we don't lose sight of that. It's not really spelled out in there, but

So, maybe I'll ask the housing department this, or whomever, because I think this collaboration with the hotel and restaurant or hotel and lodging association is a good thing. What is it that's needed from us to facilitate that? I mean, are they looking for funding? Are they looking for coordination? Because I think it's, I mean, this is something that is, I think is good that we do, but is, I'm just looking, what would our role be? Is it financials, is it facilitation? Because I I don't know why we can't be doing that anyway.

Yeah, we're happy to facilitate discussions with some of the restaurant industry. I don't believe we currently have that engagement, but I think that that sounds like a great opportunity.

Would you go to the microphone, Blaine?

I think in this role, it would be our staff or our department coordinating, facilitating the discussions between the provider community and the hotel restaurant, the name of the association is.

And perhaps we,

okay,

so Councilman Duncan's amendment was to seek petition funding for

the

funding of items one through four.

Two, and four.

Oh, yeah, one, two, and four. So I wonder if we could then say to authorize the city manager to support workforce development partnerships so that we could go ahead and proceed with that because I'm assuming that that would not require any financial commitment at this point.

In any of our discussion, there's been no ask. I don't want to speak for them, but there's been no ask of financial support. Coordination was probably the closest thing that they spoke about.

And I agree, they haven't asked me for

And anything then that way, there's no question that it's authorized by the city. Sam, help me if we're going off the rails here. We could then maybe on section two, or let's jump to section three because that would be easier, that the city council maybe Do we need that section, Sam?

So if I could just kind of run through what the committee's amendments to this resolution have been so far.

Could you get closer to the mic? Sorry. Think you have to be real close to these.

Go cross looking at it. So far I have an additional section that was a friendly amendment from Councilman Duncan that the committee is adopting, which would petition KC 2026 for financial contributions to the city in alignment with section one, sub one, two, and four. We're amending section three to authorize the city manager to engage in more of a coordination effort with the hotel and lodging association as opposed to what's currently written, which is to identify matching funds. We're moving that to more of just a coordination and operational support. And then you're now at the point the committee is suggesting elimination of Section two, is that correct?

I think the question is, I think, twofold. Are we sticking with Section one, which is to develop a plan with respect to those four? Are we doing that later?

Hard to

develop plan without funding.

Yeah. Well,

you definitely would, madam chair.

Go ahead.

I don't know if it would still require the thirty days in there. I mean if you're looking at funding or a source of funding, I don't know if that's gonna be

In a potential

in thirty days.

I'm sorry, councilman. A potential source of funding doesn't necessarily have to be the city. It could be philanthropic partners. It could be the, you know, FIFA. It

could

be other sources, but we, you know, do need some sort of a strategy that we would seek to, you know, if we're going to go and ask FIFA for some funds, we need to have some reason or strategy around or plan for how we would use it.

I mean, I guess that also goes back to our first resolution that we talked about in thirty days and the pressure that it might put on the finance team or the city manager during this budget season. And I think we changed that from thirty days to ninety. I don't know how that because I think with the, you know, we got three weeks left in this budget cycle and we had discussed earlier, and I don't know if you were here or not, Mayor Pro Tem, about the stress and strain that the budget department is already on with the city manager trying to get this budget out.

I understand that. Actually comes And I'm sorry I cut you off again. I apologize. Go ahead,

I'm just saying that I'm good with the thirty days, but I don't know if the staff would be good with the thirty days is the question.

And actually, the housing department staff, I believe, has already started working on that. And not, you know, I'm sure they consult with the finance team, but they have their own finance staff they are the ones actually that have done the lab work.

Do you think we could just say that it's the policy of the council to prioritize a homeless response that, or to create a policy or a plan that prioritizes the following responses, and then have the housing department report back within you know, forty five or sixty days on the progress of the plan or something like that. Then that would include, you know, the potential funding sources. And so it's because I think this is it very specifically says it directs to develop a plan to conduct the following actions. So it allows them to report back on the progress on these plans that are very well under Underway. Underway.

Or maybe there's better language to say this that's a part of I think what I'm trying to say is part of the current plan that you're doing, and there may be some better language and I'm just not thinking about it because it's so hot in here.

Yeah, I mean it has a report back to the council, so I would be supportive of that. I mean it's a report, have them do the work and report back to the council in terms of their observations, their recommendations of how we would move forward with more intention.

So

if I can ask, timeframe wise, because you all know what you've done so far and what it takes. What timeframe do you need?

I think some of the objectives are we've already will tell you, we're hiring three outreach workers, and we have the cleanup KC effort. In terms of working with hospitality and coordinating that, I think we need to meet with them and figure out what that would entail.

For

shelter expansion, I think we could have a recommendation in thirty days, certainly. So I think that the workforce, work sounds like it's gonna be ongoing, and the other three sound like it's like a point in time mandate. So we can definitely come up with a recommendation in thirty days for council to consider.

And I think that was the point I was making. The recommendations and a report back on the progress as opposed to like a plan that implements these four. That was sort of the distinction that I was making. Okay. And then, but with respect to the coordination with the hotel and lodging, just make sure that that is that authorization to proceed so there's no question that that can go ahead and start, the authorization for that can begin immediately so that any work can be done on that. This is as clear as mud as

it is.

So I would interpret that as an amendment to section one for the city manager to provide recommendations to conduct the following actions and then report back to the council within thirty days. Section two is still kind of in the air on what the committee wants to do, but that's your prerogative. And then Section three is, of course, authorizing the city manager to engage the restaurant organizations forthwith, I guess, for lack of a better word.

I think two is taken care of if we have the thirty day report back the recommendations in one.

So we would strike section two in that?

I think so. Okay.

And solicit FIFA World Cup though? What section did that go to? A

new section, right?

A new section four?

Correct.

It'll be three now.

Madam Chair, I think you suggested earlier removing World Cup?

Yes, except for the

Request request for

for assistance, yes.

So remove the references to the World Cup and the recitals but keep it in sub three of section one?

Yes.

Thank you.

So it's like this is our plan, but because of the need that particular period, we would ask for it for additional funding. Okay. All right. Would entertain a motion for a committee substitute.

Not all that? No.

Madam Chair, I

See you on Thursday.

Madam Chair, I move that committee substitute for committee ordinance number 260,249 Be recommended voted out of committee with advance and do pass.

Is that a committee sub? Did you say

committee I got it right that time.

Yeah. He did say that, I think.

It's a resolution, though. Resolution.

Resolution. Yes.

Second. It's

been moved and seconded that committee set for resolution number 260,249 be reported out of committee with the recommendation of advance and do pass. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? The motion passes.

Thank you all.

Thank you for bearing with us in that sausage making. All right, let's go back to 02/60800. Howard, if you can read that.

260206, setting the rates for the trafficway maintenance tax, the parks and boulevard maintenance tax, the boulevards and parkways front foot assessment at $0 for fiscal year twenty twenty six-twenty seven twenty seven in accordance with section 68 dash five eight two of the code of ordinances.

Alright. And

Very quick very quick recap on what this is. This is part of the budget ordinance package. We're leaving behind the main budget ordinance because we'll have a lot of debate about that in a couple of weeks. But this particular one sets the traffic way, kind of the parks related traffic way and levies to zero. And we have to do that every year because of that exchange that we did back in the day to have a park sales tax in lieu of all of these taxes. So we set them to zero annually. That is also recommended and supported by the Board of Parks Commissioners.

Right. And I believe, Britton, you gave this presentation, the longer presentation, The full presentation of all the budget ordinances a few weeks ago. Alright, is there any public testimony on 02/2006?

No testimony submitted for this ordinance.

Alright, and this will be a due pass too. We won't advance it.

Madam Chair, I move that ordinance number 260,206 be recommended out of committee do pass.

Second. It's been moved and seconded that ordinance 260,206 be reported out of committee with the recommendation of do pass. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Right. The motion passes. Howard, let's do two zero seven.

Two six zero. Two zero seven, levying the Avalon taxes for fiscal year twenty twenty six twenty twenty seven for the general revenue, health, general debt, and interest, and museum special revenue funds on all property in Kansas City subject to taxation on 01/01/2026, providing for the extension of such levies by the director of finance, recognizing this ordinance is having an accelerated effective date in authorizing the collection by the director of finance.

Yep. Madam chair, this one is the sets the property tax levy rates the same as they were for tax year 2025 that we just left and just did the billing for, and it will allow for the collection of revenue, the amount of revenue shown for property taxes within the budget as of right now. We'll set the real property tax rates for tax year 2026 in the fall.

All right. Any questions? Is there any public testimony for ordinance number two six zero two zero seven?

There's no testimony submitted for this ordinance.

Alright.

Madam chair, I recommend that committee ordinance number two six zero two zero seven be reported out of committee with recommendation of advancing do pass?

No. Just

pass. Just do pass. Second.

It's been moved and seconded that ordinance number two six zero two zero seven be reported out of committee with a recommendation of do pass. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Did you just say you opposed it?

No, I said aye.

Okay.

Right. Motion Late.

Okay. The motion passes. We will hear this in two, three weeks. And then are we going to do the bond ordinances, two ten and two eleven?

Okay. Two six zero two one zero. Establishing fund number 3257, the general obligation series twenty twenty seven a question one bond fund in the records of the city of Kansas City, Missouri, estimating of and appropriating $37,370,000 from the unappropriated fund balance of the general obligation series twenty twenty seven a question one bond fund establishing fund number 3627, the general obligation series twenty twenty seven a question two bond fund in the records of the city of Kansas City, Missouri, estimating and appropriating $20,000,022,329,603 dollars from the unappropriated fund balance of the general fund general obligation series twenty twenty seven question two bond fund establishing fund number 3727. The general obligation series twenty twenty seven a question three bond fund in the records of the city of Kansas City, Missouri, estimating and appropriating $1,010,000 from the unappropriated fund balance of the general obligation series twenty twenty seven a question three bond fund declaring the intent of the city to reimburse itself from the bond proceeds for certain expenditures authorizing the director of finance to close project accounts and establishing the effective date of this ordinance.

This item is for the general obligation bond plan that was adopted with the citywide business plan last November. So this would allow these projects to get started on May 1, so they kind of can hit the ground running as soon as the new budget becomes available, and then we will actually issue these bonds next spring.

Like we did last week? Yes. Alright. Is there any question on this ordinance? Is there any public testimony for ordinance number two six zero two one zero?

There's no testimony presented for this ordinance and no one appears.

Alright. I entertain a motion of do pass.

Madam chair, I move that ordinance number two six zero two one zero be reported out of committee with the recommendation of do pass. Second.

It's been moved and seconded that ordinance number two six zero two one zero be reported out of committee with the recommendation of do pass. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? The motion passes.

Two six zero two one one establishing fund number three eight two seven, the general obligation series twenty twenty seven a q one twenty two bond fund in the records of the city of Kansas City, Missouri, estimating and appropriating $47,500,000 from the unappropriated fund balance of the general obligation series twenty twenty seven a q one twenty two bond fund, establishing fund number 3927, the taxable general obligation series twenty twenty seven b q two twenty two bond fund in the records of the city of Kansas City, Missouri, estimating and appropriating $12,500,000 from the unappropriated fund balance of the taxable general obligation series twenty twenty seven b q two twenty two bond fund, declaring the intent of the city to reimburse itself from the bond proceeds for certain expenditures authorizing the director of finance to close project accounts and establishing an effective date for this ordinance of this ordinance.

Yes, madam chair. This item is also related to the citywide business plan five year financial plan capital program that was adopted in the fall. This one relates I didn't mention it on the prior one. The prior one related to the 2017 bond authorization that has the three questions. This particular ordinance is related to the 2022 authorization that has the two questions, one for conventions and parks and the other for affordable housing. So it funds the housing trust fund contribution. So that's what this is. It would be effective May 1, and again, let those projects proceed. We would issue the bonds next spring.

Great. Any questions on this ordinance? Any public testimony for ordinance number I just closed it. Two six zero two one one.

There is no testimony submitted for this ordinance.

I will take a do pass as well.

Madam chair, I move that ordinance number two six zero two one one be reported out of committee with the recommendation of do pass. Second.

It's been moved and seconded that ordinance number two six zero two one one be reported out of committee with the recommendation of advance and do pass. Oh, no, just do pass. It's habit. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? The motion passes. All right, we will hear that in a couple of weeks.

Yeah, two weeks. Two weeks. It's not three. You're wishing,

but I

did did

only say three weeks on the last one, but it's just two. All right, I believe that concludes Oh, no, have a presentation. I'm sorry. Brenton?

Madam Chair, I'd also request that the committee take an action on the budget ordinance itself, two zero five, either to confirm a hold or

Oh, okay. I'm like

Good call.

No, we can't. Yeah. Yes. We 205. Yes. We will hold 260205 for a week, which was will actually be the twenty fourth. So that will be held. So I think if I've missed anything else, we will hold that. And then we have additional business. Hello. Hello.

Hello.

Good morning, chair and member of city council. My name is Patrick Yu, financial manager financial manager for the Raymond division. I'm joined today by Scott Carroll, manager of refund team and the Johnson, manager of IRS audit team. Today, we'll walk through Raymond division tax audit function, what we do, how we do it, and how this effort help recover revenue, improve compliances, and safeguard the city financial resources. Our goal is simple, to ensure fairness in tax system and recover revenue already onto Kansas City without City loss revenue it is entitled to collect.

Over five year, that would mean a project then net benefits about 5,500,000.

Recording in progress.

We see this as strong return on investment and practical way to protect city revenue while also supporting fairness for taxpayer who already doing the right thing. This also adding long term benefit when auditor identify non filer. Those taxpayer often begin file and pay it in future year. Not create ongoing revenue is not fully reflect in our initial estimate. So the actual impact will be even higher.

Our current staff performance also show what this function can produce. In fiscal year twenty twenty five, seven auditor each generate more than 1,000,000 in collection, including one who generate near 4,000,000 and another one who generate more than 2,000,000. That give us confidence that this added position would deliver real result. I'll turn over to Scott for tax gap.

This slide shows our fiscal year twenty twenty five tax collectors broken down per source. In every tax system, there is what we call a tax gap. A tax gap represents the difference between the taxes owed under the city law and taxes that are actually collected versus what is owed. Even a small compliance gap between a small city such as Kansas City, Missouri could potentially represent millions of dollars. Our goal is to reduce that gap by identifying cases where taxpayers are owed, or taxes are owed but have not been collected. It's important to note that we do not know what the true tax gap is, but we need these auditors to potentially explore and potentially close this tax gap as much as possible. There are four primary causes of the tax gap. First is underreporting. Second is non filing. Third is underpayment.

And the fourth is limited enforcement resources. We currently receive more leads than our audit staff can investigate because the statute of limitations expire. That means there are monies out there that we leave on the table are unable to collect upon or investigate. The revenue division attacks the tax gap in three different styles mainly. The first one is modernization. We invest heavily in technology to potentially find these non filers and under reporters. The biggest gap is our new revenue system, Gentax, which was about ten years old. The second is service and education. We believe education is important just because if you educate your population, they'll typically file on their own behalf. We believe that most non compliance is not willful, but simply uneducated and not knowing.

The other part is service based where we try to make it as easy as possible to get this information and file taxes as possible. We meet with the CPA Association and other different places to try and explain our taxes and just get out the earnings tax and all of our relevant taxes. The third one is increased enforcement. We try to increase our auditors that actually review these try and go through all the leads identified in our previous GenTechs and data mining strategies and non filer compliance with IRS data collection. The next one is our enforcement strategies.

The first main strategy is to try and identify the potential non filers and under reporting. That's where we use Gentex, which captures all the filing information from our tax returns that we capture, and we can compare them to internal revenue service data to try and identify these under reporting and non filing individuals. Once we've identified what these individuals are, they get assigned out to the auditors who then in turn review the cases, determine if they're legitimate, and then potentially contact the taxpayers and get the issues resolved. And that might be closing down a lead because it's not a good lead or potentially pursuing additional tax collections and potentially collecting monies. And so let me turn this over to John regarding the actual specific process regarding the auditors used to collect these monies.

Hello, chair and council member. My name is John Zing. I'm here to talk about the job process and the job functions of tax auditors. So our star our job start with something called the leads. So we begin by processing lead. And the lead is a a piece of information that tells us a taxpayer could be a individual or business that owes us earnings tax money, and we have to pursue them. So our auditors will verify the residency, the taxability of this leads to make sure the lead information is correct. And we then calculate assessment. We generate the lead letters, assessment letters. We create audits.

Your tax software called Gentex. And before we communicate the findings to taxpayers, we always make sure our assessment is well grounded. And the taxpayer correspondence is where the real work starts. This is a very general description of what we do. So next, I will dive into the six auditing steps that each auditors follow for their daily job.

So where do leads come from? Our leads are generated by matching data from the IRS with our local filing records. So let's say if a taxpayer had a case email address and filed a a federal return with the government but didn't file anything with the city. That is a lead. And leads like this will be assigned to auditors.

And each auditors will be assigned leads based on their specialization, their workload, and also their preferences. Our auditors will then do their hard work verifying and validating the accuracy of the leads. There are there are few specific areas we would be able to check. First is we verify their residency. Is this taxpayer even leaving Castlem, Missouri?

We also check the taxability of the income in question. Is it earned income or passive, honored income? And other things we also check is their prior filing histories. We wanna make sure that the income is not filed by a parent company or subsidiaries or some other associate accounts. So if lease turns to be good, we would proceed by communicating this with taxpayers.

If any of those boxes didn't check out, we would close them as bad lead. And the the way we communicate this finding to our taxpayer is by following a specific timeline. We start with opening letter, which give them forty five days to communicate with us. If there's no response, we then shift to assessment letter. Assessment letter will have the actual tax balance due, and we will give them thirty days to response.

And if there's still no no response, we will turn to a ten day notice, which give them ten days to respond. And during any of the stages, the taxpayer can respond and resolve this by agreeing and paying full. They can also disagree and send us documentations for adjustments, then pay pay based on the adjusted balances. If there's no response from taxpayer and before the statute of limitation, which is five years runs out, we would send them to a collection agency or law department, which I'll talk more in the future slides. So next slide, I will take this profit tax assessment as example to show you how we apply the six steps in real practice.

We we work on many different type of leads, and this profit tax assessment is perhaps the most commonly worked. It has the highest volume of leads because it covers the broadest taxpayer base. It can come from a individual who who operate as a proprietor and file schedule c with the federal government but didn't file anything with us. It can also come from regular c corporation, file with the federal government but didn't file or underreport income to the city. It can also come from a partnership.

So by after verifying the accuracy of our lead information and validating that we have a solid evidence for the assessment, we follow the three stages of communication to our taxpayers. Opening letters, forty five days, assessment letter, thirty days, ten day final notice. And during avenue of the stages, the taxpayer can reach reach out to us, and we would help them. They can contact us by many different channels, phone calls, emails. They can work in.

We also have a quick tax portal where they can file, pay, and dispute. As you can see, we have many different touch points where taxpayer can engage with us, many channels they can talk with us because we are we are here to help, which will leads to my next slide about our commitment to taxpayer as well as to the city. There there may be a conception that enforcement and the taxpayer services don't go so well together, but we believe that thorough due diligence is a very good part of taxpayer services, if not the largest part. That's why we spend all the time, efforts, and resources to to go through different databases, to reference and cross reference just to make sure our assessment is accurate. And we offer all the different channels for taxpayer to communicate with us.

And when they do, we prime them with professional, respectful, and transparent customer services. They can request a payment plan if they agree but unable to pay. They can also send us documentations to dispute. And and because we are city employees, we also are bonded by a fiduciary duty to the city, which means that we have to act in the best interest of the city. If So there's no response to the city, from the taxpayer and, we were unable to resolve the assessment within revenue division, we have no choice but to send them to a collection agency or law department.

And the way we do this is by prioritizing cases based on collectability and also financial impact. So for taxpayer who live in Cassidy, Missouri or in a metro area, any cases over seven fifty, hundred dollars will be sent to law department. If it is outside of the metro, we will send them to law department only if it's above $1,000. And anything else goes to a collection agency. So by doing our due diligence and providing good customer services, we hope to fulfill the fulfill our commitment to both the taxpayer and also to the city. Now I should turn this back to Patrick to talk more about bill of rights and the return for the investment.

Okay. So I include this slide because enforcement is only part of our job. We also want to make sure taxpayer are treated fairly, and the taxpayer bill of right proved by city council in 2014 has set that expectation. It means clear information, professional services, accurate assessment, and a fair process. This is a standard we try to follow every day.

So I also include want to include in this slide because it show another side of our work. Yes. We focus on compliances, but we also work hard to provide good customer service. These are real coming from the taxpayer, and they reflect the way our staff trying to work with people professionally, clearly, and respectfully. So next slide.

This slide will show what our enforcement work has produced since 2021. We have averaged about 17,600,000.0 a year in collection. In fiscal year twenty twenty six, we are already at about 20,200,000, and the year is not over yet. The key point is that enforcement work. It bring real revenue.

Adding auditor will help us identify more cases and continue those results. This is also important to remember that this is a team effort. A revenue division identify tax due and make assessment, and when needed, those case move to legal and collection agency for follow-up. That process help the city bring in revenue that might otherwise be lost. At end of day, does this work support essential city services? That's our presentation. Thank you for your time today. We're happy to take any questions.

Alright. Thank you very much. And I think, this presentation came out of some questions that we received. It was our first day of maybe a budget.

That's correct.

Questions related to the finance department's department presentation.

Right. And I think I'm going to ask this question because I don't know that it was addressed during our department bedroom meetings, but I think it was somewhat implicit in the discussion is the information that you discussed here that you are able to use to determine unpaid taxes, that is information that you can access because you're in the finance department. Is that right? I mean, the other departments, like I can't go and look at somebody's K-one information or any information and determine who isn't paying their taxes. That's something that the finance department specifically has privy to.

Is that correct?

Yeah, that's correct.

Okay. So if we would say, okay, all of this activity is now transferred to the law department. The law department really doesn't have access to that information, do they?

Oh, hello.

I'm Nicola Smith from the

law department. I'm the supervising attorney of our collections unit. And yes, on the cases that are referred to us from the revenue

That was probably a bad example. Let's say

City planning.

City planning. That was a really bad example. I was looking at Sam, he was sitting in the middle of the finance department. But other departments don't necessarily have that information because you're the finance department and you have limited access. The city council, if my constituent comes to me and says, wants me to have access to their taxes, that's something that I don't have access to. That makes you unique in your ability to investigate, and then pass it on to the law department, because they do have access to that. Sorry, very bad example.

It's confidential information. We go through training every year, giving us access to look at this information and review it. Other departments in places in the city don't have that same access. If someone transferred the revenue and did all the necessary functions, could gain access to But right now, we're unique individuals to be able to see that information, review that information, and use that information to help make collections.

Okay. And so I think that's why these positions are unique, you just can't kind of transfer them, is the point I was trying to make. I should have just See, was never a litigator. I was never in the courtroom, so sometimes me asking those leading questions, I get like off the pathway, so I don't do very well, so I should just come out and say them. I think that's the point that I was trying to make.

You can have this information and pay for the services of these positions. The other point I think I wanted to make, and I'm glad you put this in here, because we occasionally do, and I have just in the last probably maybe two months now, received information from residents or businesses in the 6th District about, you know, I didn't realize I was supposed to get a business license, or this and that, and the education I think is a very good thing.