City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. Welcome to the September 15th, 2026 meeting of the Topeka, Kansas governing body. I will now call this meeting to order. This evening's invocation is from Councilmember Valdivia Alcala. Please give her your attention and rise if you are able.

Thank you, Mayor. Our invocation tonight will be given by Imam Omar Hazin. If you want to go ahead and come up to the podium, sir, right here. And just a little bit of background, the Imam is with the Islamic Center of Topeka. He is the Islamic advisor to the Kansas Department of Corrections and has served in these positions since 1990. Imam Haseem was the first Muslim to give the invocation to the Kansas House of Representatives in the Senate on March 9, 1995. So with that, Imam.

All right. With that, we will have the clerk take roll.

With that, we will move on to appointments. City Clerk.

All right. Comments or questions on the appointments? Motion is always in order. Motion to approve from Councilmember Hiller. Second from Councilmember Miller. With that, take a vote, please.

With that, we move on to presentations. Presentation A, city clerk.

We've got a meeting. We've got to keep moving. Council Member Valdiviacola.

Thank you, Mayor. So last night I met with about 15 to 20 folks from the community and read the components of the ballot initiatives. There was vociferous no, we're not going to vote for anything that has market rate housing because that was not what the intention was. If we are having issues with what is being given to developers for RHIDs, then the bottom line is we need to stop giving them to high-end developers. If high-end developers cannot afford to build here or if like the last high-end developer that was here says we need to redo the process, and I think people on this governing body

And I think that if we need to have shared suffering in this city, I would not support in any way for that to be something that is listed on here. Thank you, Mayor.

I'm going to assume this is our baseline.

OK. I agree with Christina. I'd like to see more definition to what we're spending the money on. The other thing that I'm seeing missing is a time frame. I don't want to give somebody in any group an open-ended sales tax that goes on in perpetuity. We need to put some kind of a time frame, whether it's five years, 10 years. But I'd like to see that in future drafts.

Thank you. I really don't have a whole lot much different to say. I can't support a half cent sales tax that is just so vague, especially when I'm not completely confident that we have actually addressed the structural imbalance in the proposed 27 budget. Additionally, the one tenth of a cent sales tax is for affordable housing and to proactively begin to address the homelessness crisis that we have in this community. I will not support a market rate and neither have any of the constituents that I've heard from about this either. They don't support it either. Additionally, there needs to be la

Council member McGee thank you I also would not support this for market rate housing I think it needs to be for affordable housing and to address homelessness there is A ton of data out there. There's a group out of Wichita, the Kansas Data Trust. It has a ton of information. I think we need to tap into that so that we can back this up with good data. I think we need more specifics in this. We need to discuss this in more detail, but I do not support this for market rate housing. We need to follow through with what we said and what the people have said they wanted, and that is for affordable h

I see a little bit where the market rate is coming from because you're having people move up, which opens up the affordable housing more. But I think we need to focus more on the affordable housing aspect of things. I think that'll be our biggest initiative for the homelessness aspect of things. If we get affordable housing, especially those people that are just coming out of a house because of job losses or that, medical bills, it allows them to kind of work back into the system rather than going to a shelter or on the streets. Like I said, I'd rather focus more on the affordable housing side

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Several years ago, we, to get caught up on some of our streets, we passed the absent sales tax on the streets. And we went for hours to figure out the wording. And there's one wording in there that changes the whole dynamics of everything. And that's existing. And I'll never forget that word. And I'll tell you why. Because where I live, I have ditches. I don't have any curbs. I don't have any gutters. And so to use that money, and you'll hear me ask time and time again, Is this that sales tax? If they come and fix my street, they have to put it back exactly how they found

Council Member Banks. Thank you, Mayor. For weeks now, as we've been going through the budget process, I've mentioned that I did not think that our RHID process matched affordable housing. It just didn't match up. So as I'm looking in the audience, I'm seeing some signs that says 67% of Topekans want to fund affordable housing. I think that's what we need to focus on, affordable housing. And if 67% of our constituents think that we need that, then maybe the process of a tax increase is not that far fetched. I'm hoping right now the information that you gave us tonight that several of our colle

I appreciate that explanation. It clears things up a little bit for me. I don't know how the community sees it right now. I can't say that I would not support your efforts, but certainly would consider it. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor. I've got a lot to say on all of these things. For one thing, we should have had this conversation two months ago because all the things about considering what we're going to do with the budget or what we would do with any special taxes, needed to be figured out. And here we are at the last minute on the budget. And I don't like being in a position to say that this way here. But it's been very frustrating. And to not just be, we've talked again and again about looking from a management perspective program and department by department on what we do and is it critical? Are we do

32. But that one has always been collaborative with the county to do big street projects as well as other capital projects and so you know, for us to be thinking out 10 years, that's not even 10 years, to kind of have those things in mind. I think I'll go ahead and stop right now, but I really appreciate what everybody's been saying. I don't know how fast we can work this budget if we have to, and Mayor, you and I talked about it a little bit, if we have to get this passed because we have a deadline, I think there needs to be language in the motion that we make that says we understand that we

Mayor, Councilwoman Hiller, I've never heard you that fiery before. So I want to go back to the 110. And I don't think, I could be wrong, and not to speak to colleagues, but I can, poor colleagues, but with the expectation of you telling us with affordable housing, you know, you can have this much done and this much done and this much done, you know, per year. I don't think, I don't expect that. when it comes to moving away from the market rate when it comes to the homelessness and the build for zero which is why we need to have Carrie make her presentation with the budget wrapped around it an

I'm not a fan of sales tax. I'll admit that. But we're going to have to do something. So I want to get an idea what we need to do. Do you want us to write up our own versions and submit them to be looked at before we get to the October? That gives us two weeks before the October 6th meeting. I'm trying to look forward. So we're not upon that October 20th deadline. I have some ideas on a couple. I think we all have ideas. But it's what do you want us to do next?

Even though they have to mail it out 10 to 20 days, it'd be a March 2nd sort of date still, which would be December 1st. And I'm not suggesting we wait until December. But I guess I'm confused why our deadline is, say, October 20th versus November 10th, for instance, when we come back after the election.

I'd like a follow-up question with them. If they have the right under the statute, if they have statutory authority to set that deadline, then that's fine. That's the law, and they can do that. And I understand why they want it in advance. Again, I'm not trying to push it until the last minute. But I mean, if there was an opportunity for us to actually have the month of October to work through this as a council versus essentially three meetings in October, that's a pretty big difference versus having to make that decision. So if that's what we have to do, then that would be good information to

I don't expect you to have those numbers for affordable housing, because that's going to be a fluid thing. I mean, we can sit there and say, well, we're going to focus on four bedrooms now. But in three years, that could be our lowest demographic that we need. So I think it's one of those things we need to make it as fluid as possible on that, so that way we know what our needs are versus what the plan is. Because we can plan out forever, but if we're not hitting our needs, then it's kind of a waste. I think this is definitely a learning experience, especially on the half-cent sales tax on the

So I should have been more broader in the scope. This all started with Built for Zero looking and searching and bringing it here, the idea, and us talking back in 2021, I think it was. And then Equity Access Shelter was a small component of that without the full Built for Zero program. I think Carrie was part of meetings, the was part of meetings. There were a number of people part of meetings when we first got started with Built for Zero with the people in Rockford, Illinois because they have a Built for Zero program there and they have for close to 20 years and they have similar demographics

Just one thing I thought maybe I could clarify a little about the half cent street tax before and the term existing. We had the same kind of conversations that we've been having today about using homeless and affordable housing instead of market rate back when we did the first half cent sales tax as well as the renewal. And the reason that the word, she's right, the key word was existing and that was because at that time we had lots of plans, at least on paper, to turn this street into five lanes and this street into five lanes and mega streets and growing and the citizens said, no, we want to

Well, and that's why I asked because we are, I've thought maybe once a year was too often, but we're spending money to get the streets rated on their PCI level every year. So we might as well be able to see where they are.

Every three years. But at the same time, when they were done matters. You know, something that as much as people fuss about this and that, that we don't do well, this city has always been really good about geographic diversity, about parity and getting streets done in different parts of town. And so when you look at the dates on the streets when the last time they were done, that gives you an idea of what that rhythm has been as we've gotten to this point. And then looking at the PCIs, no matter when they got done, you know, may provoke some conversation, but then you can see the ones that nee

All right. City Attorney, I guess I have a question about the definition, maybe there's no gray area, about special use versus general use, right? And I guess maybe it's an either or. So in other words, if it's not, under the way it's defined is if it's not could be used for, say, everything, once you qualify it for any specific use, it becomes a specific use, even if it's generalized. And by that, I mean, for example, some of the discussions at this point have been about quote unquote public safety. which is 70% of our budget, which includes multiple departments, could also include fire stati

And what are we capping? Does the Gage Park Authority count against our... special use, even though we had nothing to do with it?

Gotcha. Okay. Okay. So then I have other thoughts. These are in no particular order, so I apologize. But as I've been taking notes throughout the conversation. I do want to point out, and I've said this whenever we have RHID conversations, is the RHID program was not created for affordable housing. It was created for all housing. And I think that's important as we have this conversation because it is a tool at our disposal that we should be utilizing to build market rate housing. We should also be using it for affordable, but it's one of those tools at our disposal to put towards those efforts

Before we continue we just had this discussion if if I heard you right we are capped at 0.5 For a special funds correct right now and 0.5 For general

We already have a 0.5 half cent sales tax for streets. So does that mean we're already at the cap and we can't be talking about that?

So we've still got 0.5 to go. Correct. Thank you. That's it.

All right, are there any other comments or questions on this issue at this time? Oh, so close. OK, I know. No, you're fine. You're fine. Councilmember, I'll .

OK, so what are we looking at right now? I heard what you said. I heard city managers say a work session would be nice. I would prefer to have meetings in October at our regular council meetings. So when are we supposed to find out about that?

That I imagine Nick will have our first answer by tomorrow won't take the election office long to give him a response and so my guess is he could notify us in the next day or two and then okay we feel like we need a special meeting we can we can take a poll and do we feel like we have discussed it or there will be further discussion in October so that folks can get a deeper understanding of what this well there will be further conversations because I think as you heard tonight we all have different variations of the question we're going to need to consider. Right.

But explanation of what this auditor will really be doing that we want, you know, that we're changing up the ballot for this conversation later.

I think the best advice I can give is I would suggest that our second meeting in October have as little as humanly possible on that agenda so that we can dedicate it as much as possible to this issue, if necessary.

Okay, and just as an aside, I think it's important, I don't think we're going to be able to discuss all of it, but the chair of the Citizens Government Review Committee gave us a lot of information about the city auditor, Jim Kopp. I hope I'm saying your name right, Jim. Kopp. Kopp, is it? Kopp. Kopp? OK. And so I think that's worth reviewing as we go further down this whole helpful hole. Thank you. Thank you.

All right. Anything else? All right. Thank you, city manager. Thank you all. All right. We got through one thing. Look at us. Next up, presentation B, affordable housing trust fund. City clerk.

Questions or comments from the governing body at this time? Council Member Hiller.

Thank you. Carrie, I've got a specific question about the project on Tyler. Yes.

Let's say it was a million dollars. I just want to throw it out to this group while you're here that, you know, I hope that we move into having a housing summit and getting a master plan for affordable housing in this community so that we've got some help in targeting money and efforts. But meanwhile, if anybody knows an individual or maybe a faith-based denomination or some source. A lot of times when really good affordable housing projects develop, they come from unlikely sources that have not been involved before. If there's a way, 817 Tyler's in my district, but if his proposal was to deve

Thank you, Mayor. There's a lot of merit in what Councilwoman Hiller is saying because Weibel's project was really thinking outside of the box. And I think as far as co-op, don't we only just have one other in Topeka? Maybe two at the most? Fox Ridge. Fox Ridge. Okay.

So it is a wonderful idea for that area. It is so sad. to see him continue to look for funding through financial institutions and not being able to find it. If there is private donors or a cache of private donors or somebody that has an extra amount, that would be certainly wonderful because it would be, I believe, transformative. But I would also request for the information that Hiller is asking for, if you could send that amount to the full governing body. So in case they're having any conversations with anyone that may know a lot of loaded people, they'll be able to say, hey, there's a grea

Thank you, Mayor. Any other comments or questions for Carrie? All right. Looks like you're free.

All right. With that, we will move on to the consent agenda. City Clerk.

All right. Thank you. We have a motion to approve from Councilmember Kell and a second from Councilmember Ortiz. Clerk, take the vote, please.

All right. With that, we move on to action items. Action item A, city clerk.

We do have one individual signed up for public comment on this issue, so we will call them up, Ms. Danielle Twimlow. I will also tell you we have a number of people still signed up throughout the evening for public comment, so we're going to try to keep it within four minutes this evening. Thank you very much, Danielle.

Thank you. All right. Questions or comments for staff or Nicole? Council Member Kell.

Just curious, was there a decrease in the number from last week?

I don't see any other questions or comments. Do we have a motion? Oh, Council Member Hiller.

Just to her, to some of her points I guess my understanding from when you presented about this before was that it's pretty straightforward that instead of going through collections and handling these things one at a time, you're able to just take whatever was due and just take them, record them as you need to, but just in one block and send them over to the county and that you also have let me not misquote it, a really high pay rate that people just pay it with their taxes and it's done. It's over 90%, right?

Any other questions or comments? All right, do we have a motion? A motion to approve from Councilmember Miller, and a second from Councilmember Kell. If there's no other comments or questions, then I will ask the clerk to take the vote, please.

With that, it'll be good. With that, we move on to action item B, city clerk.

Okay, well, first we have some individuals signed up for public comment, so we will go to them first, and then before we start governing body discussion. So with that, first up, Mr. Ledbetter told me he left, so we will go to Pastor Christine Potter.

Thank you. Next up, we have Reverend Julie Makoa. Reverend Julie McCullough.

Welcome, ma'am. When you hear the first beep, it's going to mean you have one minute still remaining. Okay.

I'm going to pause you for a minute. I'm going to let you finish because we're going to be here a while, but this is our budget agenda item, so I don't know if We got put in the wrong spot. I'm going to let you go ahead and finish tonight. No, because we're in a budget conversation. It's going to take a while. I have you on here twice, so I don't know if you're going to only speak once tonight. Since you're the last speaker, I'm going to let you speak. I'm just clarifying that that's what we're talking about. So that's it. Go ahead. You're back on. You're good. Your time was paused, so you didn't lose any time there.

Thank you, sir. All right, that was our last sign-up for this. It is close enough to 8 o'clock that maybe before we dig into the budget and our conversations, we will go ahead and take our 8 o'clock break. So 10-minute feedback here at 8.05, and then we will continue the conversation.

Okay. All right. We are back from our recess. With that, I guess I will now open it up to the governing body. Or actually, does the city manager have a...

that's for a city our size, just looking at average salary, we're probably going to need to bump that up a little bit just to be able to compete to actually get a qualified person.

So a couple things. We've looked at what I think we're right in line with that, actually, in looking at it. Because that's going to be their only job. And so we did look at some other cities. And if that's what we come down to and we need to have that conversation, we can. But this at least gives us an option to start that search sooner rather than later. But I think we're going to be okay, just based on looking at other cities and the market and some other things. At least that's the hope, based on the information I've looked up. I think what I'm going to... Oh, sorry. Do you have other comments on this? Council Member Miller.

Council Member Kell. I'm in agreement with Council Member Miller on that. I know the TCALC teaching position, I could see maybe let them just take care of that themselves, but when it comes to the actual SRO officers, until it's It's gone, done for, contracts over, no more negotiating. I'd like to see it stay there because if we're planning for it to be gone and we go back and negotiate, now we've got to find another place. So I'd almost rather keep that in there rather than have to rearrange later.

I guess I'm not understanding because it'll be in there until the contract ends in May and June. Okay. We've had a lot of discussion. We've had a lot of discussion for over a year. And I feel confident that they will be okay. Their director of safety, he wanted this because we had an issue of do our officers answer to him or do they answer to the chief? And I agree with Mr. Avery at that meeting. And he said, it doesn't matter what we do, but the one thing that we need to straighten out is to make sure that they know who they answer to, because they're public health and safety. The judge talke

91%. And we say, well, what are we going to cut? What are we going to cut? You know, we've done it for 20 years, 20 years. Just like every other, there's a lot of contracts being looked at, and I will agree with the mayor. We're going to have to make some tough decisions, some tough decisions. So, again, you know, I've had a lot of parents contact me that they don't understand the whole ordeal. Marcus, when I was in junior high, we didn't have SROs. You either got your butt whipped or you didn't. And you came on out of there. And guess what? I didn't take too many butt whippings. But that's th

I get more back to having an inside person helps that relationship happen because sometimes our priorities may not be 501 priorities. A good example right now, we've had a lot of car break-ins and porch thievery and things like that that have been caught on video. They're middle school, high school age kids. We could send that over to the 501 police and say, hey, can you help identify it? If they're like that, well, it's not our problem. Having that inside person there that knows who these students are can sit there and maybe help out even if there is talking to those kids and trying to get th

Thank you, Mayor. As stated before, I totally support and continue to support the chief and the city manager in making this very hard decision. With everything that Councilwoman Ortiz just read off, there is every indication that this program is not being dropped cold. I think that perhaps people underestimate Chief Cochran or whatever he's calling himself now. And I think they definitely underestimate Anderson because She was quite adept at bringing forth a number of teachers and students, et cetera. I think what needed to be said, Mayor, when you said it the other night, was something very i

So I think I've been pretty clear that I wouldn't support this change, but for some reasons. First of all, I get frustrations at times with some of the current officers that may be 501 employees. But I'm going to circle back. It was clear last week I got a little offended when they kept calling them security guards. They are not security guards. I want to reiterate this. They are certified police officers. And there are 16 of them that work for 501. And I've also been told by 501 if they don't have to pay into this contract, they can actually hire more officers to add to that 16. And so, again

I wanted to just support the conversation that I've heard so far. I did do one of the one-on-ones early and what I heard, thank you so much for the time you've spent on this and reading through the list. What I heard in brief was we could probably figure out how to come up with the money and there are some grants and so on. What we don't want to lose is the fact that these are genuinely police officers and that we have a a connection with the department, so instead of calling the front desk if something is happening with one of our kids, we've got this connection. That was their description of

Karen, the middle schools have hired a lot of social workers, and a lot of them come from DCF. And a lot of them, because they're my buddies, and a lot of them are trained in what to look for when these kids, troubled kids, come in, come to school and all that. So the officer doesn't even get involved with any of that until the social worker asks them to come and remove them or to get involved. That's all social work. which I've heard they're getting ready to cut some of their social workers, which, you know, I agree with Christina. Take that money and do something because there's a lot of kid

I'm sorry because I thought that they were going to go ahead and continue a force with their own funds. Either way, I appreciate that.

I don't know what they're doing because they knocked her down when she started saying, gave them some suggestions, which were some good suggestions.

Because I remember when they first got them, there were people that I knew that worked in 501 that were concerned that the teachers and the principals needed to have that role and didn't need to have somebody step in. I just remember their comments about being able to connect with the department and get action quickly, and it sounded like we'd offered that, and that was comfortable to me. not stepping in or being on campus.

If I may, Mr. Mayor, that meeting that we had with them was an eye-opener. There's a lot of things that are not being communicated. And you know why? Because our SROs say they answer to this person and not this person. And Avery was right on the money to say we've got to get on one accord because we're talking public safety. Here and when we got we got that scattered I think Cochran could build his army I think he could he knows what to do he I I think the training that him and the chief that they could do that and they have a little under a year if it was me I'd be I'd be hiring them to come

I want to make sure we're not missing a step or passing over something we shouldn't be. Is there a formal motion anyone wants to make regarding this specific issue where I make another motion?

Is this page a one part of the budget? We need to do more of these?

No, we'll get to that. I promise that's going to be my motion is to adopt this, but I want to make sure we're not passing over this issue first. Okay. I promise we'll get there. Council Member Reller.

Did you just say that you work for 501? Isn't that a conflict?

It's because I would want you to ask me that question if the shoe was on the other foot. Oh, yeah. I don't have an interest. I would want you to ask me that.

Contractor? Then we're good, right? Then we're good.

Okay. Do we have a second for Council Member Miller's motion? Council Member Ortiz.

But you were working at the grade school, right? In Meadows.

Was. Okay. It's not at this time. Do we have a second for Council Member Miller's motion? I'll place the motion there.

Because the item number seven is a decrease in revenue. It's not a cut. I'm not sure we understand what that line is.

I'm just not sure that It's complicated, I think.

It is because the contract, as of right now, expires at the end of June. At the end of May.

Right. And so this dollars, which is revenue to us.

Right. Removing the item seven is not going to preserve the SRO program. Okay.

So here's what we're going to do because we can make any changes at any time before this budget discussion is over. So if you'd like to think about it for a little bit, we can still adopt this and then still make any change, whether it's a proviso or whether it's an actual budgetary request before this evening is over. Wow. That would not, that would not impact this decision, but still didn't allow you to, take some time to see if there's a better approach.

I do think if it helps, everyone has continued to say that the door is still open to continue conversations with 501. The chief hasn't shut that door. City Manager hasn't shut that door. And I don't think those of us who have issues have shut that door. But what we have said is we have to plan. They just haven't been at the table as much to help us make that plan. So we've got to move forward with the goal of maybe incurring some of those conversations. So I will say I don't take this as an all out. We're done with 501 and talking to them. for whatever that's worth, if that helps. It seems lik

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'm going to make a motion that we let both contracts collapse. That's my motion. So that would stay right the way it is, right?

Right. I mean, you can make that motion for it's worth the authority happening. So...

Oh, it's already happened. Oh, okay. So I don't need to make that. Well, I was just trying to... No, that's already happened.

So the motion I was going to... I just want to move forward. The motion I was going to make then, so we don't forget it later or make the wrong motion, is to simply adopt this amendment. I'm going to move to adopt the amendment in front of you. So that way it's in our budget, and then when we adopt it later, we don't leak something out on accident. Gotcha. Okay. That's the motion I'm making, is to adopt this amendment. You've got to take away your motion there.

Oh, OK. So if I have a second for my motion.

All right. Any questions about the motion or comments? Councilmember?

Just the process, which somebody was asking earlier too. What you're planning to do is there's an assumption that we'll get to the motion to adopt the budget at the end, and we're going to do one amendment at a time. Councilwoman. Stack it up.

Okay. Respectfully, this is your 17th year. Anyone is allowed to offer an amendment at any time and adopt it into the budget any time during this process. Okay. City manager and staff have offered an amendment. Okay. And technically, we could wait until the end and hope that we don't forget to make a motion that says, I move to adopt the budget with all these amendments that have been offered. I think that's sloppier. I would prefer if the amendments presented, whether it's from the staff or from you or from anyone, that we deal with it in the moment and adopt it. And then that way, when we fi Thank you. So that's how I'd like to. All right. Make sure we all know what we're voting on at the end of the night, what's in front of us.

So any other comments or questions on this amendment, which is to just adopt the amendment in front of us? If there are none, I would ask the clerk to take our vote, please. This is the vote to adopt this amendment.

How long you been here? I just want to make sure. I've been here too damn long.

Some folks say you can't do an amendment until you get a motion.

So that amendment has been adopted and is now part of the budget. So we're back to just general conversation, discussion, suggestions, recommendations, amendments on our 27 budget. Anyone? Council Member Hiller.

Well, I think everybody knows I've got lots of issues with this, but it sounds like where people are going is that we need to just get this adopted, but understand clearly that we're going to start working immediately on the programmatic and specific pieces of all these possible changes. I would like to propose a proviso that would go with this motion. The proviso would say that all concerned are aware that various alterations and changes in personnel and programming will likely be needed starting immediately and through the 2027 year. and the city manager is expected to continue to invite the

Things now I would second that I mean I think it's in line with things we've talked about that this is a living breathing budget and that while we've got this balanced budget we know we've got challenges in the coming year just as we talked about whether it's sales tax or whether it's additional efficiencies cuts revisions to the budget so I think that's what this proviso does is just say that we're committed to working through the budget as the year goes on and making decisions as the budget goes to help defer our 28 issues, if we can, to whatever level that means. So that's all this proviso

Can we hear from the attorney? I mean, he's not going to be here much longer. I'd like to know what he thinks.

Well, to that point, provisos like this, I guess from a legal perspective, are not, it's not legally binding. Correct. But it is direction for staff and for council as we work through it.

I think the flip side is we have so many moving parts here and, and, you know, to have the city manager with this budget or even until then just be totally on his own about it when there are so many pieces to go through. And just to make sure we've committed as well as we've done with people.

So we have a motion and a second on the proviso. I don't know if either Councilmember Hiller or the city clerk would like to read it back to us before we take a vote.

This is just on the proviso. We have a motion and a second just to adopt this proviso. Hold on. Don't want to mess this up. It's the budget. We're going to get it right. So were you going to read that?

All right, so is everybody clear? We're just voting on the proviso to adopt it with the budget. So unless there are any other comments or questions on that, I will ask the city clerk to take a vote, please. We had a motion and a second.

Either comments, amendments, suggestions for the budget? I'm going to make a few comments, and then we'll see if we have a motion or what we want to do next. But I want to remind everybody, the public out there and everybody, that this budget is about cuts. We said from day one, I repeated it as many times as I could, everywhere I could, so that everyone was prepared in terms of the public that we were going to have to make tough decisions. This budget does that. We did not increase the mill levy. Yes, we did not stay revenue neutral, but for the 15th year in a row, we did not increase the mil

I have a question for Josh. I'm not going to let him get out of here. As nice as he looks, I want him on screen. They did take my advice and dressed up for the last meeting here. I know, HR's here, they're listening. Josh, you know, I think me and you talked about this before, like, Wade came in and changed and, you know, now they get so much money for food and stuff like that. What is the total amount on that for all departments if we were to cut that out?

Just $48,000? Okay. All right. Can you tell me in the fire department, is our safety guy in for this year or was he taken out for 2028? safety guy. See, this is what happens when you start throwing a lot at me. I'm just a one-year girl.

Okay, so Josh, we're holding the position, just not putting no money there. Is that what we're doing? Because I know it was explained to me and you talked about that. Okay. Josh, do you see anywhere else we could cut?

Josh did remind me it's about the badge. Wait a minute. Let me get it right. It's about the badge, the shield.

He put it to me like that. Can you do that again? Josh, it was the shovel, hose, and the badge. Yeah. All right. Thank you.

There's no other questions or comments. A motion to approve the 2027 budget from Councilmember Kell. A second from myself. Any other comments or questions before we take a vote on the 2027 budget? Council Member Valdivianco.

You know, I'm going to vote for the budget. I think what gives me more peace of mind knowing of voting yes for this budget are what we have coming down the pike, which is going forward. to be the emphasis on an internal auditor, which I believe is a very serious commitment that we're making so that the people can understand that we are trying to look at everything when we look at these looming deficits and not just depending on let's try to get more money out of sales tax. I'm still in the way of the forensic audit. We'll see what happens with this internal auditor. And so I just needed to say

And I haven't voted for the budget for the last couple of years, and I will this evening. Okay. based on the fact that we have really broken it open, I think, in terms of all of us understanding what's at stake. And my proviso was important to me, and it sounds like to all of you that we'll talk about the sales taxes in two weeks and three weeks and so on, but really get inside those. We've kicked it off. We've just got a lot of work to do, but it seems like we have a framework. I appreciate that on the part of everybody, the staff. Council and the public has really weighed in as well. Thank y

Any other comments? Council Member Ortiz.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'm going to support this budget. And I want to personally thank Josh. Josh, you're going to be missed by me and my questions. And I appreciate how you have taken the time. You were patient. And you know this like the back of your hand. I will need your cell number for next year to remind me what happened this year. But you're going to be missed. And you're a valuable employee. And thank you for all the hard work that you've done. Thank you for helping me understand it. And thank you for helping even the community with their questions.

Anybody else? If not, then I'm going to ask the clerk to take the vote, please. Just to be clear, we're voting on the 2027 budget.

Yes. Because we're voting on the 27th budget as amended, by the way. Correct. I know the city clerk already knew that. She's been here a little while, too. She knows what's up.

All right. With that, we will move on to public comment. We have several people signed up this evening. We'll begin with Reverend Julie McCullough. Oh, you're done? All right. Well, then we're up to... No, you're good. Ralph Anderson is next on my list.

Leave your email and I can answer both those questions for you. I think I even have your email still, but if not, if you could leave your email with the clerk before you leave tonight, I'll make sure I get your answers on what's happening with both of those projects. Thank you. Next up, we have Henry McClure.

Thank you. With that, I don't have anyone else signed up for public comment. We will move on to announcements. City Clerk.

Good luck to both Nick and to Josh. It seems like we're losing a lot of folks, but good travels to you. Just a couple of quick things. Deepest condolences once the name was released are definitely due to nine-year-old Alexander Honea, I think it was. His family was part of that devastating fire on the 100 block of Northeast Coach Light in the trailer park. There's no words to say how horrific it was listening to witness testimony. And kudos to the fire department. I want to make sure and talk to Chief Longstaff to see how that door-to-door went with having fire detectors and telling folks how

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. First, Brenda, do we have a meeting on the 26th or the 29th? Because you said there's no meeting next week. That's the 22nd.

I told you yes and see if you showed up.

Well, I wasn't. Just make sure that city manager hears us loud and clear. We need a break. I need a break. I need to go to Chicago real quick, so I don't need that. Nick, it's been a pleasure. Maybe we can do a proviso and bring you back or something. I don't know. It's that gray area, you know, but I appreciate that. Appreciate what you've done. So good luck to you. East Topeka North and South, not this weekend, but the next weekend, September the 26th, is bite the blight, drag it to the curb. There's no kids. You've got to keep your kids. They want all of your unwanted items out there by 7 o

help, especially with numbers. I really appreciate that. I'd also like to give a shout out to my youngest grandson who is on his way to being a better athlete than his grandpa. He is really amazing. So shout out, Isaiah. Thank you, Mayor. Council Member Kell.

Well, the count can help you with numbers. I want to say thank you to Nick and to Josh. Great to work with. People I can trust and lean on and get information from. I worked a lot closer and longer with Josh, and I felt like he was my most trusted employee, that when it came from him, it was the truth. And not to knock any other employee, but this was one of those things of, When you're shoving all those numbers around all the time, it's one of those things that they always pinned out the way it was supposed to. All right. As you see, I'm wearing my duck tie, my duck pin. The Sertoma Club of T

Thank you. I just wanted to say congratulations to Nick and Josh. best wishes moving forward in your new adventure, and you will be missed.

Thank you. I also wanted to say thank you to Nick and Josh. Having been on the council a long time, we've had our interactions and work together and I appreciate your input, your feedback. I appreciate what you do and have done for the city and for the residents of our community. Thank you.

Okay. I've got something a little different tonight. Last Friday was the last open house for the fire department and I think That was an excellent way for the public to be able to get out and see all 12 of the stations.

And last Wednesday night, we graduated six young men from the academy. So our newest fire officers or firemen are going to be Joseph. Sorry. I can't pronounce that one. Aiden Garcia, Brett Hooch and Hart, George Meyer, Connor Scott, and Brian wing councilman banks. And I were very happy to be there and to enjoy that ceremony. with the graduates, the officers, and their families. It's always heartening to see them when they come on board with a little bit of trepidation, but also a lot of excitement. So congratulations to them. And I will also add thank you to Nick and thank you to Josh. I'm no

Thank you. Not too much this evening, but I, too, want to really give a shout out and a thank you to Nick and to Josh and to echo Dr. Perez's words. We hope that you have a great time. Hope you get a little bored and decide to come back. Thank you.

All right. Well, I'll echo everyone else's comments about Nick and Josh. I will say, you know, these jobs, turnover's higher, sadly, in government than it is out in the private sector in these positions. And we get why. We work pretty hard and long hours. And we ask a lot of you. I'm not going to apologize for that. But I do appreciate that you hang in there with us. You know, in terms of both of these folks, sadly for us, they've just got better opportunities. And I will never regret it, even though I like to say sometimes they're dead to me now. I will acknowledge that you've got to make the

I'm going to move to approve. Do I have a second? All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed say nay. Nay. Oh, look at you. You didn't want to spend 15 more minutes with me. All right. Again, can someone get Mr. Anderson's email? Okay. And then they can...

Just so the audience knows, we're waiting for the room to clear. And then we will go into executive session.

All right. We will now move into executive session. We have come out of executive session. No action is being taken. This meeting is adjourned at 9.49 p.m.