Board of County Commissioners - Regular Meeting
The Sedgwick County Board of County Commissioners recognized multiple community awareness weeks, reviewed the 2025 suicide data report, and discussed zoning amendments and an airport hangar project.
About this meeting
- Government Body
- Board of County Commissioners
- Meeting Type
- Board Of County Commissioners
- Location
- Sedgwick County, KS
- Meeting Date
- September 16, 2026
Published excerpts
Only published remarks appear here. The full transcript is not published.
208 sections (from 223 segments)
Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the Sedgwick County Board of County Commissioners meeting. Welcome to those joining online, Facebook, and YouTube, and everyone joining us in person. We're glad you're here today. When you walk in, we encourage you to grab a meeting packet agenda that allows you to follow along with all the items we'll be discussing at the county commission. If you're ever curious about supporting documents, you have access to those at www.sedgwickcounty.org. Let's get to work. We've got a full agenda today for September 16, 2026. Madam Clerk, first item.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Okay. Thank you very much. Commissioner, do you guys have any questions about the Boyle advisory? Okay.
Sounds like an exciting event. Thank you very much, Commissioner. Do you guys have any questions or comments? All right. Thank you. Thank you.
And thank you for helping out with the messaging this morning.
It doesn't mean we're in the red, right?
Brent, certainly appreciate all the hats that you've worn for Sedgwick County and helped us out specifically last year with the appraiser's office. Really, you stepping up and helping us make that bridge. Really appreciate it. Commissioner Howell?
Thank you, Chairman. I'd be remiss if I didn't share a few of my thoughts about you. You're a friend. You're an extreme professional. I think you could do anything. You have a can-do attitude, and we've given you some very difficult things to do, and you just mastered them beyond our imagination. So you've done a tremendous job. I can't tell you how much I appreciate just getting to know you a little bit. You're one of the few people I've ever met that I don't think I've ever seen you angry about anything. You're always kind. You always have a smile. You always have a good word. Those are some
I see your girl snickering back there a little bit about never being angry.
We always knew this day was coming. I've been here for three and a half years, and we knew this day was on the horizon. I get asked a lot in three and a half years, a lot of people from the private market, I know those that have had private business dealings, they get asked us a lot, like, what's it like working in local government? And there's a lot of things that I like to share, a lot of things that I think the public isn't aware of, of the weight of the decisions and just the busyness that happens here with 3,000 employees. But the thing that I share the most, and I don't think it caught m
I feel like Ed McMahon, you're the Johnny Carson. Out of respect for the chair and the vice chair to wrap this up as well. But Brent, your early resume that was read off by Sheena was just remarkable about what you've done here. And that's just an example of your broad reach in our county government for years, way before I was here and currently. But it's been, and most recently as the chair referenced, Filling in the county appraiser job interim was kind of an introductory to us to learn more about the appraiser office and maybe the first couple of big steps you helped implement on. We talk a
Brent, I just want to echo the comments about your can-do attitude and anything we've asked you to do, no matter how big the ask is, your face says it all. It's like, yep, I can do that. I can take care of that and really appreciate that. I don't think there's any ask that we wouldn't have that you wouldn't gladly take on for this commission and for the citizens of Cedric County, and I genuinely appreciate that. Thank you. All right. Thank you very much. Thank you.
Any questions? All right. Thank you, Nicole. Thank you. Madam Clerk, next item.
Okay. And this proclamation will be read by Commissioner Beatty. Yeah. Thank you, Chairman. I'd like to read a proclamation of Sedgwick County, Kansas. Whereas in the United States, one person dies by suicide approximately every 11 minutes, with an average of 134 deaths by suicide each day. Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death overall in the United States. About every four days, someone in Sedgwick County dies by suicide. In 2025, 90 Sedgwick County residents died by suicide. Whereas, psychological studies have consistently found that 90% or more of people who died by suicide had a menta
Okay, and I'll second that motion. Madam Clerk, I'll move motion to second. Madam Clerk, please call the roll.
Aye. And the motion passes 5-0. And this proclamation is being received, I know, Dr. Nicole Cross from Associate Professor at KU Medical Center, Michelle Calvert, our Director of ComCare, and obviously Jennifer Wilson, Director of Crisis Services at ComCare. Welcome.
Thank you very much. Yeah, Commissioner Beatty. Hey, Jim, thank you so much. Could you tell us a little bit more about the coalition and the work you're doing? And I'd also like to know, and I'm not putting you on the spot on data, but what is the trend line in regards to our local community, those that are losing their life to suicide? Are we making progress? And if not, what do we need to do?
Well, that's great. And I appreciate that Dr. Glass is here. She's going to give us more of a broader update and trend lines. I'd be amiss if I didn't ask. We have a large project being developed right around the corner here, right next to the Biomed School. It's a new ComCare Crisis Center. Can you tell the community a little bit about where we're at in the progress and what all that facility will be doing?
I want to second that. Thank you very much for all you do. It's so important, and I'm I'm so happy to hear that the trend is starting to come down, and you guys will continue to work on that because it's something that every one of us in this room has been affected with at one time or another. So thank you very much.
Okay. And this will be read by Commissioner Wise.
Thank you, Chairman. I'd like to read a proclamation of Sedgwick County, Kansas. Whereas mental health crisis, substance use emergencies, and behavioral health challenges impact individuals and communities across Sedgwick County, requiring compassionate and effective intervention. And whereas ComCare's Community Crisis Center, in partnership with Emergency Communications and the Wichita Police Department, has dedicated teams to respond to these urgent situations with expertise and care, connecting individuals to appropriate services and promoting public safety and wellness. And whereas ComCare
Okay, and I'll second that motion. We have a motion and a second. Madam Clerk, please call the roll.
And we have Regina Stout, Program Manager, Community Crisis Center at ComCare and Malachi White, Crisis Team Supervisor at ComCare to accept this proclamation.
Thank you very much. Any comments or questions?
Yeah, just a profound thank you. The co-responder models and what's happening in this community I do think is cutting edge, and I think it leads to less, I choose my words very wisely, on-scene disruptions when the right personnel are there to handle the right type of call. I'm kind of curious, Landon, how does this work on the 911 dispatch side, on the co-responder thing? Help us understand how this works and when the decision is made to send a unit that's a co-response unit, any number of our co-responding units.
Can anybody speak to what that's like to be able to divert that way a law enforcement officer isn't taking as many mental health calls on scene? Do we have better... outcomes in those situations? Is there less friction in those situations? Why is it important for the community to understand why we invest in models to where we have trained professionals going, particularly to mental health calls, which I'd imagine I think our sheriff's office and WPD would tell us that there's a lot more mental health calls over the last decade than there were historically. Why is it important to send this type
is trying to put our foot on the gas and modernizing some of these models and get the right people on scene on the right calls, I think it is a better outcome. So you see a lot, you do a lot. God bless you guys. Thanks for the work that you do.
I just want to make a couple comments. I was on the Wichita City Council whenever we originally looked at this model and very thankful for each and every one of you for what you do out there and that we have the right people show up on these scenes and the right resources that are there to handle that. We generally appreciate that. Thank you. All right. Thank you very much. And I do want to, hopefully everybody's done a proclamation here. You guys stick around. We've got one more proclamation. We want to go out and get a picture with everybody. So hopefully everybody hangs right here pretty qu
And this will be read by Commissioner Howell. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I really appreciate the chance to read this one. It says, whereas September 17, 2026 marks the 239th anniversary of the drafting of the Constitution of the United States of America by the Constitutional Convention, and whereas it is fitting and proper to accord official recognition to this magnificent document and its memorable anniversary and to the patriotic celebrations which will commemorate the occasion, and whereas Public Law 915 guarantees the issuing of a proclamation each year by the President of the United States
Okay, and I'll second that motion. We have a motion to second. Madam Clerk, please call the roll.
And this is supposed to be received today by Mary Jo Drury. Thank you for being here. I also know that Karen Oliver is also here with you today. They are members of the National Society of Daughters of the American Revolution. So you're welcome to make some comments and I also have some comments after you. Good morning, ladies.
Thank you very much. Commissioner Howell?
Well, I'm knowing that's going to be read at the courthouse. That's fantastic. Thank you for that. And you might wonder, how long does it take to read the Constitution? I'll just tell you, it's 4,400 words. And if you read somewhat thoughtfully and slowly, you can finish the Constitution with the Bill of Rights in about 30 minutes. So I would encourage us all to read the Constitution at least once this week if we can. And with that, I will give a few copies of the Constitution to my good friend Nicole. And I'll just say this. I don't have enough for everybody, and I apologize for that. If you
Thank you very much. Thank you. I appreciate everything you guys are doing. I'll at least get the preamble down this week. Thanks to Schoolhouse Rock. All right. I believe that's all of our proclamations, so we'll take a quick five-minute recess. We'll go out and take our pictures, and we'll be right back. All right, we'll call the meeting back to order. Madam Clerk, next item, please.
Okay, public agenda. We do not have anyone signed up on the public agenda. Next item, please.
Chairman and Commission, good morning. Tom Stolz, County Manager's Office.
Asking for approval of consent items D through M this morning with the exception of item E, which I'd like to move to do business. Okay. Does anyone have any questions about consent items D through M with the exception of E? If not, I'd like to make a motion to approve items D through M with the exception of E. I have a motion and a second. Madam Clerk, please call the roll.
Aye. Motion passes 5-0. Next item, please.
Okay. Commissioners, do you have any questions? If not, I'd like to make a motion to approve the recommendations of the Board of Bids and Contracts. We have a motion and a second. Madam Clerk, please call the roll.
Aye. Motion passes 5-0. Thank you. Next item, please.
Thank you very much. I appreciate you sharing all this trend data. I don't see a lot of consistency with age. It seems like it's all over the place. But I do see two sharp things that stick out to me, males and firearms. Okay. I mean, that seems to be your largest trend indicator of anything that I see out here.
Okay, that's, yep, I appreciate that. That's really standout data there.
So, Commissioner Beatty? Yeah, Dr. Klass, thank you for being here again. And I kind of prompted and led the witness earlier knowing that we were going to be able to have some conversations about trend lines and I want to talk specifically about children. I see that death by suicide for our youth seems to be, we have a downward trend and trajectory. Although anecdotally, I don't think we could say that children's mental health or behavioral health issues are following that same trend. I think we see anecdotally in our schools, particularly families that children are having, more children are h
One of the things that I remember when I first got on the commission was there was a deficit of child psychiatrists in the Wichita metro area. Significant. I don't... You may or may not be able to validate this number. I remember when I first got it, there was only like one child psychiatrist that was in the city of Wichita. And I remember hearing that number and thinking, that has to be an error, correct? It wasn't an error, right? There was one child psychiatrist. that was certified in the city of Wichita. So alongside KU Med and the county commission, our health department and ComCare, I do
Well, those are incredible numbers. I want to thank you again publicly for KU Med, the partnership that we have there, ComCare, our health department's been involved, and the leadership at the county and the commission for investing in a program, in the fellowship program, to try to get this pipeline at South Psychiatry and growing there. So we have two. So the public's, we have two. This is a significant need that we have to continue to grow in this community. And I know it's an investment that we're making here. So thanks for letting me.
Good news. Okay. There's progress. Yeah, I was like Commissioner Beatty as well. One of them was a lifelong friend of mine. When she came back here, I was amazed to hear that we didn't have any childhood psychiatrists here. So I think it's very important, especially as we have discussions about talent. This is just as important as anything else that we need the talent for our region. Commissioner Howe.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I always appreciate this report. It gives me some time to think about what's going on. A couple of questions for you. Did you state how many suicides happened in 2025? You did say that already. It's on the slide, I believe. 90. I'm looking at slide number six. And just trying to do the math here. It looks like they had about... If I was going to interpolate that graph, I would say he had about 35 per 100,000 times our population of Sedgwick County. He'd be about 160. So I'm wondering why those numbers are so different.
Look at 2025 right there. If I extrapolate those numbers, about 26 or 27 plus about seven or eight, to add that together, say it's about 35 times our, that's per 100,000 population. That would give us about 160 versus 90. This is per 100,000. Right.
You see, just the males alone are about 26 or 27 on that chart.
I'm not sure I'm communicating well. What I'm saying is this slide seems to indicate we had about 160. You take the males and females, add them together, times 5.26, let's say, or 5.3, because we have about 530,000 people in Central County. That would be about 160 deaths for Central County, if those numbers are right. The other one shows a much lower number. That's why I'm trying to figure out which one of these slides is correct.
I guess I'd like to have someone review that slide right there, make sure that those numbers are, in fact, right. One of the questions I have is, again, there was a previous comment about firearms, but what wasn't stated was the increase due to drugs. There's a large increase on slide seven. It's due to drug overdose and poisoning. Now, I'd like to know whether this is only unintentional deaths or does this include accidental overdoses? Someone who takes drugs on their own, maybe they did not intend to die, but again, they were alone when they died. I'm not sure how you define that as whether that's considered a suicide death or not.
I understand they died by drugs. One question is, we don't know from the coroner if it was intentional or unintentional. If it was drugs, we understand that. The question is, is it called suicide if it was unintentional? They're just messing with bad drugs and killed themselves by accident.
I guess I don't understand how the coroner would know. They don't understand whether they left a suicide note or whether there was some type of financial problems or relationship problems or whatever, health problems, maybe that they were depressed because of health problems. Looking at the life stressors slide... You have relationships, legal problems, financial problems, job issues, school problems, physical health, gambling, and then there's other. And again, I don't think a coroner would have any idea. Based on the physical evidence of someone who came in and did an autopsy to find out wha
And again, I understand they died by drugs. I get that. I see Rusty's up there as well. My only question is, so I'm going to include, I'm going to say these were everybody who died by drugs, and if they had some intent to do this or not, if they were by themselves, they did drugs, they died, they would be included in this list. That's what I'm trying to find out.
That's what I want to get to. So, again, I think there's another number that we're not seeing here. That's people who messed around with drugs that died, maybe not intentionally, but there's a number of people who died alone or maybe with someone else. But the cause of their death was drugs. And it was something that they self-administered. So they did something that caused their own death.
Okay. And so I would assume that every other item on here, we don't know what other means exactly, but firearms, if someone died by a firearm, but it was unintentional, that would be not included as well. Right. Okay. All right. Another question here on the slide eight. Are these overlapping statistics? In other words, can someone be included in the mental illness that also has suicidal ideation, someone who also has suicide attempts, for example? Are these numbers overlapping numbers, same population? What I'm getting to is how many people actually end up completing suicide that are on any of
When did we start the 988 line? Do we know what year that started? Have we seen any change in our data before and after that date? Has our data had any type of a knee in the trend lines? Go ahead.
I understand that. I believe that that's absolutely true. We've done a good job promoting the number, and people do know about that. The question is, for those people that complete suicide, have we seen a change in the trend lines on that specific data before and after that date?
Okay. I guess a final question. Our trend lines we have here in Central County, I'll just classify it. I mean, there's a chart here. We've seen over... really since 2011. I'm actually going even further back than that. These trend lines are increasing somewhat slowly, but I don't see a trend line change really anywhere on that entire graph on slide number four. What I would say is, I don't know, it's just because there's a larger population. I don't know. Our data is more dynamic. The blue line there is quite a bit more dynamic in terms of up and down. The orange line is much flatter, and then
Okay. I look forward to seeing another few years of data on this. Hopefully we will see that drop. I hope so. That would be our goal. I guess I just have one other thing I would notice here is on slide nine, the number of people who complete suicide that are elderly because of physical and health problems is notably high. That is something we should pay attention to. A lot I could say about that. I think there's opportunities there for us to help. And trying to find things to help people address their issues that's causing this type of decision, I think we have maybe the greatest opportunity w
Okay. Commissioners, any other questions? Thank you very much. At this time, I'd like to make a motion to receive and file the information. A motion and a second. Madam Clerk, please call the roll.
Aye. Motion passes 5-0. Next item, please.
Scott, thank you for that. Can you help me understand cost? What kind of cost is someone going to be looking at to do one of these? In terms of construction? No, no, no. As far as our fees.
Okay. Help me better understand some of the struggles they had, like when Phil Meyer is trying to go in there and work some of the core areas. And I kind of heard some war stories as to tens of thousands of dollars for permits and stuff like that. Is that the case or is that exaggerated?
Okay, okay. Commissioner Brady. Yeah, thank you. And I just want to thank the Planning Department. We've been talking about this for a couple years. I know we kind of pushed on this rather heavily here a few years ago, and then we got really busy with a lot of things. And you've been very busy. And I think this is going to be a big step in the right direction, in my view. Accessory dwelling units are more practical for families nowadays, especially with Parents that are aging in place and trying to get unique creative opportunities, kids staying on the property, I think it's very relevant in t
Thank you, sir. Commissioner Howell. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a couple of questions. I see on slide 18 it says a maximum of one ADU may be allowed on the same single-family dwelling unit or duplex. Please clarify, you can have a duplex by right on a single-family property? No, sir.
I do understand that. I want to make sure this is not ambiguous and can be misinterpreted. Maybe it's fine, but okay. I think that's fine. You may have already stated this. I'm not sure that if you did, I apologize for not hearing it, but is there a minimum lot size to have at ADU?
And two adjacent properties that wanted to share a lagoon, do we allow that?
But in this case, they could share a lagoon. An ADU and a main home could share a lagoon.
And if there was a municipal sanitary sewer line, would they be allowed to have two taps on that sewer line? No.
But they potentially could have two taps or one. One of those would require a variance or something?
Okay, so we look at probably one electric meter, one water meter?
Okay. And this being one parcel, we would have one tax bill for the entire property with two structures on it. Is that right? Yes, sir. I believe that's correct. And down the road, if they decided they wanted to sell the accessory structure, could they sell that to someone else? How would that happen?
So for them to sell this, they would have to meet all the requirements of separating utilities and everything else would have to be.
So the two homes could be the same size, um, the the first one we call that the main the main residents And the second one we envision, that would be the ADU. I'm curious why that matters. If someone built a larger home subsequently, why can't the larger home be the main home and the older structure be the ADU?
So if the smaller structure was out in front and they weren't five acres, that would be a problem?
So beyond the setbacks, is there any other reason why we have these classifications of main residence versus accessory?
I think that we should go forward. I do support this. I think there's going to be some learning on our part on some issues that might crop up from this whole thing. We might need to come back and do some cleanup on this at some point in the future. But I think it's a way for us to get started. So I don't think this is the perfect document. I don't think it's going to do everything we need it to do. But I think we can get started and we'll learn. And we'll probably need to make some adjustments at some point. I did say earlier in the staff meeting earlier when this was presented that I do think
Thank you. If we don't have any other questions, I do want to open this up to the public. If there's any public comment, if you'd like to comment on this, please come up. You all have five minutes. Please state your name and address for the record. Okay, I'll bring it back to the Commissioner. Commissioner, do you have any other questions or comments? If not, I'd like to make a motion to adopt the findings of the Metropolitan Area Planning Commission, approve the proposed amendments to the Unified Zoning Code, side the resolution, and authorize the resolution to be published. We'll have a motion and a second. Madam Clerk, please call the roll.
Aye. Motion passes five to zero. Next item, please.
Okay. Commissioner, do you have any questions?
Commissioner Howe. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a couple questions here. You said that the annual land lease value, I guess, is $22,600 per year? That's correct, Commissioner Howe. And that's a 50% reduction of what they would normally charge?
So one of my questions is where does that revenue actually go? I know it goes to the airport authority, but ultimately where does it go and how is that money utilized in the future?
Does it end up in the Wichita, the general, the Wichita budget? Do they have access to this money at some point?
Is the 50% reduction, again, that was a discretionary decision of the airport authority, airport advisory board. Who had the authority to make that decision?
Jesse Romo is the one who gave authorization to me for that. Okay. So is that a discretionary? Do they have to charge something? Is the range zero to full price is what I'm wondering? I believe that's correct, yes. I think he has some discretion, though not total discretion, the way he was describing it to me. Well, knowing that we still have a cost on this hangar, I wish that, and then again, to the point, this is primarily to the benefit of Wichita. I wish that they would have brought that down to zero as their, if you will, support for the hangar. We're going to be putting property taxes in
Not really. I guess I'd just say I'm looking at the what-ifs. What if we end up with a hangar that KHP decided they didn't want this hangar for something? They want to do something different. We end up with a multimillion-dollar hangar on airport authority land. What do we do? I'd like to know what my options are at that point.
Well, again, we don't have a contract with the state, so we don't know for sure what they will do going forward. We don't know. There's no way to...
Let me ask Mr. Manager a question. The conversation about the 50%, was that a discussion where we negotiated to that number, or was that simply... A short conversation. That's what they offer. We said that sounds good. I'm going to describe that as a short conversation. That was the best they could do. Okay. Once we do this, I think our chance of negotiation is gone. So is there some reason we have to do this today?
I continue to have concerns about this. I'll be voting no on this today. That's probably not a surprise to anybody. I still think there's issues that are potentially going to cause some second guessing on whether this is the right direction for the state to go. We're now creating obligations for us that I'm not sure we're ready for. And I think there's, again, in terms of negotiation, the fact is it's going to cost us, I think our general consensus is it's going to cost central county taxpayers roughly $80,000 a year to do the state a favor without a contract for the state of Kansas, and Wichi
A couple of questions. So we're looking at $0.12 per square foot, and that's monthly, or $1.44 per square foot per year, just from a commercial real estate perspective. It's pretty good rent. Of course, I'd love for it to be lower. I'd love for it to be nothing. Rent, it shows that rent should start six months after execution, I guess, of the agreement. Have we asked them if we could have the rent commencement date to line up with completion of construction? I don't know how long that process takes, but I'd hate to start paying rent when we don't have a building constructed.
or even an on or before date so that we have time to complete, and then they have a security of knowing that we're going to have a date in mind.
Yeah, I think there's different dates we could have. We could have a lease commencement date and then a rent commencement date, and those two dates could be different. I'd like to ask the question at least.
And some of this I'm asking just to have it on record that this is where my mind is so that if we can further negotiate some of these when we get to a final agreement. I know in an LOI we want to be as close to business terms as possible. I don't want to throw any curveballs at them. And then a couple more questions. How long of a lease, this might be for Colonel, how long of a lease do you think we could get signed with KHP. Can we get a 20-year lease? Can we get longer? Just take a seat.
Yeah, I would just echo that comment. The 20-year lease is what we have discussed. Okay, I appreciate that. Absolutely.
And is there a way that we could get that lease...
Yeah, I want to make sure that we don't tie ourselves into something and then something changes that's out of everybody's control from the KHP side and then we don't have a tenant or a use for it. We just have an expensive lease agreement. So protecting ourselves on that end, I'd like to get that lease started simultaneously so that we can have that commitment and that level of confidence that we've got a tenant for the building that we can... Sure.
I think those are my only ones. I'll look at it closer and let you know if I have any other. But I appreciate the work that you guys have done, and obviously this is an area I can kind of geek out and get excited. Appreciate that. But thank you. Those are, I think, all the questions. I think I'm okay with moving forward knowing that a letter of intent is just what it is. It's not a legal binding document. These are the overarching business terms that we would like to continue conversations. There might be some tweaks or some requests, and I think it's all for the betterment of everybody that w
Thank you. Commissioner Meister. Thank you, and good questions. I just commented myself and Commissioner Blubaugh formerly served on the city council, which was over the airport authority, and there was numerous cases where hangers and land were subleased or exchanged or sold and all that stuff. So that does all fall under the Wichita airport authority's guidance with city council approval or rejection. So in this being non-binding and an intent and understanding that there are steps that have to happen, I appreciate especially Commissioner Wise brings her commercial experience in commercial b
And I'll second that motion. I have a motion and a second. I do have an additional question. Justin, we've had public discussions on this numerous times now. Can you give me a timeline as to what other action will this commission need to take?
OK. And Lindsey, help me better understand Is this rent fixed? Do we have an escalator? Like right now, they're talking about raising the rates again. And I just want to make sure that we're still, we've got some kind of CPI or some kind of escalators.
Okay. So we've got a motion and a second.
Commissioner Howe, did you have an additional question? I do. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just to clarify, this letter of intent is not binding. It is simply just an indication to our council on what to work on. You just said that. That's correct. The lease we do sign with the airport authority, that will be binding? That's correct, Commissioner Howe. Okay. So then ultimately there's going to be a lease agreement. You just mentioned a lease agreement with KHP. Is that binding?
I didn't know that that's a comment that they had made. I wonder if the legislature would be supportive of that type of fiscal plan. I don't know that they would be. But anyway, if they did, again, I understand that they're not willing to sign a lease agreement without some type of wiggle room to get out of it if they should choose to do so. My question is, why are we going to sign a binding agreement that doesn't have the same wiggle room? If they backed out, why can't we also find a way to... I guess, have the same right to not continue this and possibly sell the land or whatever without som
To clarify, I'm not suggesting we would default on our debt. I'm suggesting we have the right to sell the property and recoup whatever monies are available for the sale as we continue to pay off that debt. I see. Whenever that happens. So I'm not suggesting there's any defaulting of the debt. I'm simply saying I don't want to own a hangar forever because of a 50-year lease that we can't sell the building that we constructed forever, even though the state's not committed to the same level that we're being committed to. And just one final comment. Again, I know I'm beating a dead horse on this t
Okay, a couple other questions. He asked one of them, and that was if we did want to sell the building, do we have that option? So I guess we don't for the reason of the bonds.
Okay. And then was a 50-year lease the only option, or they can't do anything less than that?
Happy to ask questions if it's appropriate for me to talk to Jesse. I haven't talked to him about this. And then I had one more question. Oh, so as I look up on the GIS, Wichita Airport Authority at Jabara, they don't pay property taxes. So would we pay property taxes on this building? Okay. So I don't know if I heard Commissioner Howell mention that as a concern, but I wanted to clarify, we would not have property taxes then?
Do I remember correctly, is it on this project or a different one that has Jesse already pursued a grant or some sort of funding to help us and it got denied? Okay. All right.
I think those are all of my questions. I think that there is some contingency language that we should probably craft in there to help protect us, even on the LOI side, just so they know that we have some risk that we want to make sure we're covered on. But again, I think as long as we can feel comfortable with the LOI right now, all of those things need to be worked out before the agreement's made, and surely they understand that we've got business to do, too.
Thank you. Yep. Justin, I want to ask again. I thought the property at the airport was property tax exempt regardless. I thought that was part of our... our mission to try to lease out for commercial development more airport property. But you're saying you have to go through an exemption process?
Yeah, go ahead. There's a motion and a second. Does it make sense to go ahead and add, to amend the motion, to go ahead and add particularly the rent commitment date, rent commencement date, and the contingency on a contract with KHP? Does it make, that way we don't have to, if you fix it in this LOI, that way you don't have to redline it later. I mean, it's just an amendment to the motion just to include those two factions separately. understanding the spirit of what's trying to be accomplished. That way you don't have to send it over. We're approving what is here, and then you have to send i
Okay. Well, for me personally, the rent commencement date, I think that's very standard. I don't think that's... unusual for land leases. And I think the contingency in regards to a contract with KHP, I think that would be a, those are very standard, I would believe. So the maker of the motion and whatever, we'll allow you guys to do what you want. Just those two things I think are very reasonable things.
SLOIs typically are redlined back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, then you go to the rent document, the lease document. But what you're sounding, it makes sense. I just think those are two very practical elements that would offer protections to the taxpayers that I think we need.
Commissioner Howell? Thank you, Chairman. It just seems like there's three options here. You could approve it as is. You could redline it right now and approve it with a redline. It's got to go back. It looks like it only has one signature on the LOI. That's the director of the airport authority. So it's not hard for him to review that and potentially sign it again. But again, the third option, of course, is to push us back one week and have that conversation first and approve it without the redlines. In either case, I'm going to vote no, but I'd just like to point out, I don't know if there's
Any other questions or comments? We have a motion to second. Madam Clerk, please call the roll.
Aye. Motion passes 4-1. Next item, please. Thank you, Commissioners.
Commissioner Beatty. Thanks, Kirk. I just want to, for the public and their awareness, I just want to make sure you repeat what you just said 37 seconds ago, which is the county commission has no authority to decline this, correct? This is by state statute. We just have to ensure that the service agreement that they've entered into, they remain compliant to the service agreement.
So my next statement is in no way a disregard to Goddard. Goddard's growth plans and what they're doing is phenomenal. I'm a big fan of what's happening in Goddard. I have heartburn over unilateral annexations as someone who lives in an unincorporated part of Sedgwick County. My direct representative is a county commissioner. I don't have a city elected that I report to. I don't pay city taxes. I didn't get to vote in the city elections. It's the county commission. And there's one property owner here, and I've spoken to this property owner. I have no idea how they truly feel about what's happe
Thank you. I did receive a phone call from this homeowner. It sounds like there's been a series of events. I'm not sure I followed completely, called me on my cell phone while I was driving, so I asked for a follow-up email to kind of tell the story of what's happened so that I could understand it better from the homeowner's perspective. I never received that email, but just knowing that there was some discontent, I would like to ask if you'd be willing to speak on behalf of Goddard. Can you tell us about what the homeowner situation has been? Have you guys smoothed that out or talked to them
So you just answered what I was going to lead into next is once it comes into the city of Goddard, there will be code enforcement. What does that include for the homeowner?
What is the timeline that a homeowner has to comply with such? It sounds like it's not just mowing a yard, you know, fixing a fence. Right. This is a... This is a huge expense that perhaps it's not been fixed because they don't have the financial capacity to do so. What's the city going to give them for a timeline to come into compliance?
When I was on the city council, I had a similar issue with the trailer park just east of there, and they wanted out of the city of Wichita, and I had similar concerns because that's the gateway right into Godfrey's. Mm-hmm. So hopefully you guys are addressing that. If you don't have any other questions, then I'm going to go ahead and make a motion to receive and file and take any other action deemed appropriate. I have a motion and a second. Madam Clerk, please call the roll.
Aye. Motion passes 5-0. Next item, please.
Brandy, thank you very much. And yes, you are the elected treasurer. But as you know, people come to the county commission and whenever it's a budget request like this as well, I'd ask you for information. You provided it quickly to me. And I was trying to get a good grasp as transactions. So I looked at 23 from your data, 618,920 transactions. So in 24, we had 636,215. So we increased 2.8% from 23 to 24. 25, with 645,787 transactions, went up 1.5%. I look at this year, and you've got data up until August. It looks like for this year, we're about a 1.8%. 6% increase. So less than 3% a year. An
Okay. Are you comfortable explaining what's going on with the legislature here with this three-year period so that everybody understands why you're charging this and it's not handled as it has in the past?
When did that prior fee schedule change to what we have today?
When does this three-year period end with the legislature?
I do hope, I know we've got a lot of other questions up here. I do hope this commission, we continue to work with our lobbyists and with Topeka so that we have updates as to what's going on instead of just waiting three years to see what they give us.
Okay. Commissioner Brady. Yeah. Okay. Brandy, thank you. Appreciate it, Shannon. Thanks for coming and talking yesterday, a couple days ago, I guess, on some of these details. Senate Bill 325 was a victory on a lot of levels. The biggest thing on my end is it reduces property tax dependence to where what should be a fee-funded office is now a fee-funded office. And we're not going to have to loan the TAG office from the County General Fund a million dollars of property tax support. Plus, you said it was going to be $2 million estimated this year. So that's a big win. Wait times, this gives you
Next question. We talked about pay, and I do agree. I think part of the wait times is technology, software, and UQ line. I do agree that has to happen. I'm glad that IT can help with the custom system. I think that might be a unique opportunity for us. Can you help me understand, what is your starting pay for a frontline tag office clerk right now? And we're uncompetitive at that point in attracting and retaining. Correct. What is your staffing situation like now? Right.
Understood. Okay. That's helpful. I am very favorable to some of the things that you're working on in reform. I very much like the satellite office concepts. I love the idea of the auto dealerships being able to come on and work titles in the back end. These are things that I think that we can continue to push. I know publicly I think some people have heard some of these things and some haven't. But this commission was very supportive of the reforms that you talked about wanting to do and push through. And I want to try to get you the support you need. I want to really understand these numbers
Thank you. Brandi, I assume you're working with HR and trying to find out what a competitive rate is. I know we've had issues in the past with 911 operators and other folks that weren't.
Commissioner Meister. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Brandi, for this. I've got a couple of questions. questions that I think if we could get clarity then I'll be way more comfortable approving some level of a fee increase and basically this this is kind of a big decision from my perspective and I first had a set of numbers from you at like two o'clock Monday We had a discussion. It was all brand-new information, a queue list, replacement, 10 people. Everything was new. And it was your numbers. Subsequently, yesterday afternoon... We received a corrected email from you with corrected numb
$480,000 is the number that you basically need a $1 fee increase.
Okay. Well, I haven't, my comfort zone is not good because when we've solved other department, when we've added as a team, we had HR, we had a lot of information from HR saying this is the plan that we think will help recover and perform. We haven't had a meeting with HR and had HR weigh in on any of this. Of course, it all started on Monday afternoon and got updated yesterday afternoon. So I haven't had a meeting with finance to say this is good, HR to say this is good. You've talked about somehow an IT solution with your Q list. We haven't had IT get with us to say this is a good solution. I
I feel like July 1st, you effectively put in the $5 fee helped right away. You're getting great revenue to help solve some problems.
Well, I appreciate your explanation. I think July 1st, we could have watched everything through July, even August, and we could have had a better evaluation from all the departments required. any time between then and Monday afternoon two days ago for a rush decision. So I'll wait and hear what the comfort zone is with my fellow commissioners. But you know where I sit right now. And if we need a week to pause to get affirmation one way or another, then that would make my comfort zone be a lot better. Thank you. Commissioner Wise.
Thank you, Brandy, for all of the information and for our meeting on Monday, too, to catch me up on what you've been working on. I just wanted to share a couple of agreements, perhaps. I agree that the cost of doing business has increased since 50 years ago. I agree that this is a fee-funded service that shouldn't be propped up by property taxes for people that aren't tagging and utilizing your service for their vehicles. My concern would be if you could tell me if I have a family of six, what does that do to my total annual cost if I have six drivers in my family? I know that you said that th
Yeah. I wanted you to do that math out loud because I think that's what, before I even knew what was coming on today's agenda, it seemed like I was already getting, um, emails from constituents that a huge concern that, you know, these fees are going to impact their lives. And I'm not saying 20, $30 doesn't impact someone's life annually, but, um, I think we have to find a way. I think so far the TAG office maybe hasn't proved, have the proof in the pudding. Is that what the saying is of improvement? And perhaps that's because you've had to, you're still swimming upstream a little bit with sta
Nobody knows. Nobody has the crystal ball to know that we're not going to over-collect and then lower it because it doesn't seem like we get to lower much ever. We didn't lower our mill levy at Sedgwick County. But that's the concern of front-loading this is, okay, we front-load it. Why would you ever reduce it after that? And I'm just speaking from some of the constituents that have reached out to me.
I think that's all the questions I have.
Commissioner Howell? Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a couple quick questions. You mentioned there's, before the $5 fee started in July 1, what were the fees we were charging before that?
So that fee for people who were visiting the office did not change? So the total fee was $4.50 for the state and then $5 for someone who visited the office. It was $9.50 total. Is that right? Well, the state charges a modernization fee.
The total is $450 for the state? Correct. How much of that today goes to KDOT? All of it. All of it. Okay. But there's other fees included in the $450 you just said?
So if someone comes in and they just get a renewal, what's the total fee currently and what's the total fee that's proposed? Current fee total would be what? For everything that is required to do a renewal today. How much is the fee for today's renewal versus what we're proposing?
I see. And then on top of that, we still charge $5, I assume, for us. Okay. On the renewal, does the state charge fees for the online and mail?
So the state does not charge a fee for the mail?
A little bit ago, Chairman Bluebot gave you some numbers for, I guess, I'm not sure if his number is, or people visiting the office. He used the word transactions. He said, for example, he used the number 636 or 645,787 transactions, I think what he said. But your estimate here today is, if you add this up, For the things we can charge this permit fee or this fee on would be 537,421 transactions. That's my estimate. That's correct. Is the number that Chairman Blubaugh used including things we can't charge?
Based on the 537,421 transactions in 2025, If that was the same number going forward and we charge $5, that's an increase of $2.687 million to your office. Our shortfall, the shortfall we talked about for the subsidy from the property tax funds was $831,000. Correct. And that was for 2026? That was for 2025. 2025.
It would have been over $1 million in 2026.
What I'm wondering is, again, I understand you have a salary concern and some other things we want to talk about here, but the $2.6 million is more than, if you wanted to talk about the subsidy, what we would have had in 2026 budget or 2027 budget. budget, it sounds like it would be less than the $2.6 million.
Right. And you said the starting pay today is $1,704. Correct. What's it going to be once this is done? What's your new starting pay going to be?
Starting pay is still $1,704. So the guy at McDonald's would still not want to come work here.
By the way, I don't want to compare Sedgwick County with McDonald's. I just Googled it because you said it. They say online in Kansas the starting pay is $11.20 an hour on average. There's a range. $10 to $14 is the range. And I would argue our benefits are far superior to what McDonald's would provide. So let's just be clear. I don't want to use data that, in my opinion, makes it look like we're not paying our staff. I don't think that's fair to Sedgwick County.
Okay. A couple of things. Just a couple of quick comments here. I do think it should be on our legislative agenda that we would rename this modernization fee, call it a KDOT fee. That needs to happen because, again, people get the idea that we're collecting money that we're going to use in this office somehow. Correct. It's a false narrative. We're supporting a lie by the state of Kansas. By the way, if you add that up, it's well over $300 million they've collected in this fund that has been swept for alternate purposes. They misnamed the fee. It's over $300 million they've collected since tha
And you can't buy one of them, but can you buy the other one today?
Does KDOR have the rules and regulations over this that they can change this if they want to? They do.
And if and when they would approve some other more modern model of printer, we'll have to re-outfit all of our printers. How many printers are we talking about?
So it could be $150,000 potentially as a one-time hit.
HR, you agree that $487,000 is the right number for this? You've done the full analysis. That's what we need to do this change in how we pay.
How much of that 487 is going to the administration side of this?
Okay, and I'm looking at the budget book. There's like 41 of one type, and there's 11 and a half of another type, but I don't know. I asked a question, I think, when we spoke the other day. You said there was like 51 or 52, 53 clerks, and you want to add 10. So I'm just trying to understand how this 487 breaks down amongst that number of staff.
First of all, I want to thank you, Gina. I appreciate that. I want to state I'm generally supportive trying to fix the stated and known problems of this office. I think it's going to take some funding to address a lot of these things. I'm not against everything on this list. I'm against a few things on this list. I'm a little concerned. We have a meeting next week. I'll just throw this out there to my colleagues. We have a meeting next week. I feel like we're just, again, this came at us kind of quick, and I think Commissioner Meister kind of mentioned that. I feel the same way. I don't feel l
So here's what I'm saying right now. I don't know which one of these to support. You know, you recommend a 950. I don't feel great about that number. I don't know if that's the right number. And, again, some of the things on this list, I'm not going to go through the long list here. I have a lot of notes here. I don't know that I support everything. You know, some of this stuff I think is more important than other things, and I want to be very careful. So for me personally, I would rather not vote on this at the moment. I think we have a week to chew on it and figure out a better number, be a
It says Section 1, the Board of County Commissioners, I'm sorry, the Board of Commissioners of Sedgwick County, Kansas, approves the recommendations of the Sedgwick County Treasurer and motor vehicle transaction fee authorized by KSA 8-145VA2B, thereby increased to $9.50, effective January 1.
As I've heard from lots of people, if you're explaining, you're losing. We need this to say to the public, it's $4.50. By the way, I'm not sure that's the right number. I wish it was $3 or some other number, $2.50, or something else that's a little more conservative, perhaps. But I would like the public to say it's $2.50, not $9.50. And to me, the way this is worded, we're just creating the news headlines that we just raised the fee. By the way, in $9.50s, almost, let me just say this, that it is... If I can get my math right, $5 fee increase is right at a third of a mil equivalent in property
The Board of County Commissioners approved a fee increase of blank. That's what it needs to say. It might be less. But whatever that's going to be, we want to state it specifically. And the total fee under this authority of your office is going to be some other number. All right. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Okay. Commissioner Meister.
Just listening to everything, I know we're under a lot of pressure. If we do have a meeting next week, I would like to delay it until next week. I'd like to see, is it possible to have a staff meeting and we get buyout or get an agreement? Commissioner House pointed out great stuff. I mean, $5 times 500,000 transactions is already $2.5 million into the system. But for me, and the other commissioners might have even more, but I would like to make sure that, because even Sheena was up here explaining, HR director was explaining, but... I wrote it down. It's one of your last sentences. It said it
I'm fine with staffing it and getting everybody more comfortable. I think that it's good practice for us to honor that if we have two commissioners here that would request that. So I would support their desire to study it a little bit more and bring it back next week.
I think you guys have some prior commitments.
OK. OK. That's a required motion. So I guess we're just looking at making a motion to delay this one week?
I'll make a motion to defer this item until the 23rd.
Okay. And I'll second that motion. Motion to second. Any questions? Madam Clerk, please call the roll.
Aye. Motion passes 5-0. Thank you, Brandi. Thank you, Shani. Next item, please.
Good afternoon, and thank you for your patience.
Okay. Commissioner, what questions do we have? Commissioner Brady. Just thank you. There's so much work. This is something you do every year, and you come, and Mario will be next. Mario's next. I have questions for Mario, too. But I just profound thank you to you and your staff. You are right. You supervise a lot. a very challenged and complex population. But if it wasn't for corrections, many of these individuals are presumptive prison. And we're supervising in this community because there's better outcomes when we're able to rehabilitate people with supportive services. So we are believers i
Yeah, we got a lot of people involved, governor's office, everyone, and the Department of Corrections, and the secretary himself brought staff down, and they heard our concerns. And we presented and asked them to appoint a third party to actually do a study, and they said, you know what, good idea, let's do it. So I just want to publicly thank your support and supporting us in those asks, but also I want to publicly acknowledge the Kansas Department of Corrections and that we're in the midst of that. Commissioner Meister and I have met with them a couple times even and had this conversation of
Thank you so much. That's good Or I think your recidivism rates say a lot and Really appreciate what you guys are doing there and making a difference.
Thank you very much Yeah, thank you in that thank you for the presentation and sitting through this to get to get to this but Part of this funding conversation we've had also was eye-opening to us is that You guys are working on outcomes based on recidivism, and recidivism really isn't even much part of the calculation.
Yeah. I would think recidivism is in line with outcomes.
Yeah, good. Well, I think, unless I missed it, you have 1,500... clients, so to speak.
1,300. So Sheriff Easter's jail population is about, any given day, 1,200-ish. And any one of these 1,300 could be... and should be in a way in the county jail, but the judges in our efforts locally is to give them a chance to get help, keep their job, maybe keep their family and their spouses and everything else. So I think the citizens need to understand that there's another 1,300 people that have committed a crime and have been convicted, and the judge chose to send them to you for help versus sending them to prison. And, of course, the elephant in the room is of those 1,300, how many are f
So we've got 300 people from outside Sedgwick County that are in our streets and under your programs to work and get better. So once again, the Wichita area or Sedgwick County, we're taking a large... responsibility for actions throughout the state. And we accept that responsibility, and that's why things like funding and performance and everything else, we need to speak loudly and strongly on that. And so probably a similar percentage will get to hear the juvenile report shortly. Thanks for helping educate us on what you all do and your staff and the outcomes. I think they're helping turn the
Commissioner Howell. Thank you, Chairman. A couple of questions. How long is the program for the adult population that's out on supervision? How long does that usually last?
I'm a pretty big fan of the drug court, but it's interesting on the two numbers here, the one year and three years, same data. It says two of 24. I'm just curious, is that correct?
One thing I would like to, typically, and this is probably another really giant variable, but what's our average adjudication time period to go from a charge to a judge's decision or a jury's decision on that charge? I don't know that. I couldn't speak to that. Well, one of the challenges I see with this definition here is it talks about convictions within one year. That's not really... Fair, because I would think that the adjudication process probably takes most of the year in many cases. It can. So if you were to add that to that and say they were charged and ultimately convicted, that charg
I think that does need a little bit of discussion, perhaps some cleanup there, only because I think it's a little bit misleading not to understand. I mean, it's a great number, but we should track it. I just think it doesn't really present the entire picture there. But again, thank you for all you do. Appreciate the presentation. Thank you very much again, Laura.
Laura, I want to extend a thank you to you publicly and your staff. Thank you so much for what you do, particularly with our kids. This is hard sometimes when we start talking about juvenile and juvenile detention and juvenile corrections. This is very difficult for a lot of different reasons, but you guys do a fantastic job. Thank you. You care deeply about outcomes. HB, the houseboat that we helped champion, and we really cared a lot about the gun charges and things of that sort. Obviously, there's some effect and some impact, so keep us posted on that, please. I talked to you two weeks ago,
Just again, just to clarify, you said JDF has 81 beds total?
It reminds me of Second Light when they say they don't have beds, but they have beds right there. They just don't have the staff to manage what's going on in Second Light. At the end of the day, those beds are available. We need to provide the appropriate staff if we need those beds. So let's have that conversation. I know things are bad right now in terms of we're seeing an uptick in... and these placements and these facilities. But again, I think over time, this might get better. At the end of the day, having better standards for youth behavior, I think it'll pay dividends down the road. The
And that is under the bill, House Bill 2329. That means they're committing some type of a chargeable crime with a firearm. Not just possession. But there's a crime being committed with a firearm. And we're simply letting these kids out. Am I understanding that correctly?
Right, but they have possession of a firearm while they commit a crime. Correct. And these kids are not supposed to have guns. Correct. But that's what's going on is they're committing a crime in possession of a firearm. It doesn't mean they used a firearm in the commission of a crime, but they did have it on their person.
But of those 12, ultimately nothing happened to any of those 12. Those 12, the charges were dropped or released or not charged, whichever, but there was nothing that happened actually. So again, I hate to say this, but that's the problem. These kids need to have consequences for this type of behavior. People wonder why are we seeing these kids commit these violent crimes with guns. And a lot of these kids, some of the cultures there in this county, these kids feel like they have to have a firearm because what they perceive as their enemy also has firearms. It's gang activity. And these kids ar
Would you be willing to provide that data at some point soon? That would be great to have that. That's one of our concerns, I think, is the juvenile system, frankly, under Senate Bill 367, charging and adjudicating crimes under the juvenile system is nearly impossible. And I think that's what we're seeing right now is the juvenile population, frankly, doesn't have any behavior standards whatsoever. Unless they committed a violent crime when they're age 16 or 17 and they're charged under the adult system, nothing happens to these kids. One more thing. The Senate Bill 323-29 did require separati
Yeah. Out-of-home placements being handled by foster care system rather than handled by the criminal system. They're handled by foster care.
What I'm saying, let me clarify my question further. The out-of-home placements actually has been, we didn't have a place to put these kids. They're not sick children. They're kids who've committed crimes. So rather than handling them in an out-of-home placement, they put them in foster care. That's been going on. And that creates havoc in the foster care system because you have a kid who, frankly, has parents. That's not the problem. They're just a kid that can't go home for some reason. They're a criminally charged child, if you will. They're under 18 years old. They have a criminal charge o
Okay. I want to track that going forward because this is one of the problems in foster care. We've had... And I'm looking at Commissioner Beatty here. We've had a huge problem with this. And the foster care system is just reeling with challenges because we have kids who are so behavior challenged. And it's not these are just children that need parents. They're not just neglected and abused children. They're not four and five-year-olds. These are 16-year-olds that committed crimes. and they're being placed in D.C., and then they run away. We hear about their spending the night in offices. This
Is there any other questions? If not, I'd like to make a motion to approve the reports and authorize the chairman to sign. Motion to second. Madam Clerk, please call the roll.
Aye. Motion passes 5-0. Next item, please.
We do not have an executive session. Meeting is adjourned at 1-12.
These excerpts are remarks by officials whose identity a person confirmed, from a transcript generated automatically from the official public meeting video and presented unedited. Accuracy may vary; view the original recording for reference.