City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. Welcome to the October 20th, 2026 meeting of the Topeka Governing Body. I will now call this meeting to order. This evening, Council Member Ortiz has the invocation. Please give her your attention and stand if you are able.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I welcome to the podium Elder Shanae Calhoun. She was born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, and graduated from Florida State University. Spending eight years in Florida, in 2013, she made her way to Topeka, where she became a member of El Shaddai Ministries Community Church and began putting down roots in the community she now calls home. With more than 15 years of experience as a community organizer, Shanae has worked through Topeka JUMP to influence policy and funding decisions that make life more manageable for Topeka families. Today, she serves as an elder at El S

So that's awesome. And El Shaddai Ministries is in my district. It's right at 10th and Sherman. It's huge. You can't miss it. And if you want to be spiritually fed, go see them.

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. Thank you, Shanae. Only you'll understand this, Shanae, real quick. My grandfather went to Florida. One of my aunts went to Florida State, so we had that turmoil for a while in my household. Yes, house divided. Everyone still loves each other.

All right. And anyone else you want to bring up? Maybe nobody, but if there is anybody.

This is not the reason I'm doing this. Everyone gets to submit these and then we do them, but I will say I have a little bit of a connection. Oh, no, you have to come stand behind me and be seen and on camera and everything. But I have been a member of Rotary for a while now. I was two-time president of one club, which is no longer with us, courtesy of COVID. But now I am a member of one of the Rotary groups here in Topeka. So I do appreciate all the work they do and what we're about to discuss here this evening. Whereas Rotary International in 1985 launched Polio Plus and spearheaded the Glob

All right. With that, we move on to presentations. City Clerk.

So since we're talking taxes and financial here, there's been a lot of talk about temporarily relieving the federal fuel and diesel tax, gas and diesel. Would that affect our budget in any way with what we have going on with anything due to some of that money that comes to us? It could potentially.

Roughly monthly or quarterly, what are we getting that usually? I believe that comes in monthly.

Yes, thank you. When you're talking about the sales taxes, what categories are short? Are they short just overall in general or are there specific ones that are coming in shorter than others?

To that point, though, somewhere maybe in your inbox, I'm sure he'd be happy to resend it. Council Member McGee did do some follow-up with Department of Revenue, and it's not perfect, but it does do a little bit of breakdown, at least at the state level of somewhere their collections have been coming from. So it's not Topeka-specific, but it gives sort of a very – overview of kind of where the state's at in some of those collections. So if you can't dig that out of your inbox, I'm sure he would be happy to send it to you again. I won't speak for him, but he's not even said yes.

Yeah, I'd appreciate it. And then with the lower... with the projected lower revenue for the sales tax, how... How is that affecting the projections for 27 and what are some of the things you're going to be looking at?

So to that end, Alton, as we look then at, I mean, let's say that even it's an awesome Christmas and we somehow get there and we can all hope or whatever the economy. But regardless, are we going to then start as we look at the 28 budget? Because we're using, what, 3%? 3%? 3.5%? What are we using as our baseline?

So, I mean, are we going to take a look at just adjusting that and see what that looks like if we used, I don't know, a number 2 or 2.5% just to hedge our bet for the 28 budget?

Maybe just use whatever we end this year at and you can see where that percentage is and use it. Okay. Yes, sir. My second question is, so there will be... assuming it'll knock on something at the end of the year, $3 million savings in our reserve fund. That means that what we projected for next year's reserve fund balance is going to be readjusted so that percentage will change slightly, right? That magic 15% we all like to, one, Duncan here likes to complain, but I mean, will we then be able to look at those funds again as we look at the 28 budget for carryover maybe as to how we could utili

Okay, perfect. Any other questions or comments from the governing body on this issue?

That's okay. That's okay. I have just two other questions. On the contractual services, the savings on that, can you speak specifically where those savings are being realized?

That would be great. I appreciate it. And then the final question that I have is on commodities. The savings that you're showing in commodities for the remaining three months projections, You're including in that, I assume, the things that the city would require if during the winter we had a snowstorm, some of the salts and the treatment for the roads and that kind of thing?

OK. I figured there was. I just wanted to just make sure. Thank you so much. I'm done with my questions. Thank you.

All right. Any other questions or comments? Seeing none. Thank you, Dalton. We will now move on to the consent agenda. City Clerk.

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

All right. We get to move on to action items. Action item A, city clerk.

All right, so a few things just to Make sure we're all on the same page. So a couple points, and it makes total sense why the city manager talked about the auditor and the sales tax now during one presentation. But our item A is the first discussion will be focused just on the movement forward or not for a March ballot initiative on the 10th of a cent sales tax for the housing and homelessness piece. I believe this governing body was pretty clear, as the city manager said, that anything else at this point besides the auditor piece, which we'll talk about later, is not something we're intereste

Thank you. Next up, we have Mr. Henry McClure.

Thank you. All right. Now we will turn our attention to the City Council. Council Member Kell.

All right. Just because of what I was reading online earlier today, this is a vote to put it on the ballot for the citizens to vote on. A lot of people were confused about that. We're not voting tonight to have the sales tax. We're putting this on the ballot for the public to vote on. When would this take effect if it were to pass on the March, if it was on the March ballot, when would it take effect?

So estimated $2 million in the first year, because it's half a year. Half a year, yes, sir. I'm in agreeance on the aspect of we keep on slashing the budget, and then we're going to spend $155,000. That's where it bothers me a little bit. I know when it comes to the primary time frame, that will be divvied up a little bit more. We'll still have a cost. My biggest thing is I think between now and then, we need to look at a lot of our programs also to tune those in. Because if you get our rental assistance program, That's almost, and we've talked about it a little bit in the past, that's almost

Yes, thank you. So I want to speak to the cost of the election, and I share the concern of the cost. I understand that. I also want to say that we spend that much and more being reactive to this situation. It costs that much, if not more, to clear encampments. It costs more For first responder, all the first responders, we have to make contact that way. It costs a whole lot more just overall impact on the community. This is a policy question. Prevention costs less than a crisis response. And that's what we're currently doing. if you're responding in a crisis, we're reactive and prevention cost

Council Member Banks. Thank you, Mayor. A couple of questions, City Manager. This $155,000 that people are talking about, is that a set amount to get an agenda on the ballot?

Well, I think that, you know, just about everybody on everything does research. I think this initiative going on the ballot for us is an attempt to find out for sure. There are people waiting to hear whether we can do this or not, whether the community is going to vote for an increase not we don't know that we have right now many of us up here have been talking to people that says no we don't want any tax increase but you know there are some that saying that's saying to us that it's worth looking into I think that as a governing body we have a responsibility of at least having that having that

Well, I will go ahead and put the motion in place. I think everybody knows that my preference would be total private sector. People have worked really hard on this. There is a commitment that very strong leadership and commitment in the community that a citizen-led choice to have this small sales tax assessed could be the way to go. There is enough money in here to really get going on both our affordable housing initiatives as well as homeless prevention and addressing homeless issues. Language is broad enough to cover anything from housing to the services, both prevention and supportive throu

So I want to clarify, your motion is to move forward the proposed question to a March mail-in ballot? Okay, just want to make sure we all know what has been the, what you've motioned, and there is a second on that from Councilmember Miller, who is now also up to speak. Councilmember Miller.

Thank you, Mayor. Councilwoman Hiller, I'm happy to second that motion. I think this is the right thing to do. People have asked about this for a long time. It's up to us to put that forth for people. I'm glad that Councilman McHale made the clarification, so everybody understands this is not us voting on it today. This is to allow the public to do so, which is also the very right thing to do, like I just said, but also a very right clarification for people. I like the thought of having a committee for this. You know, folks say, what is one more meeting? Well, some things need to be met on. So

I just want to say that the words of Councilwoman Bradbury have changed my mind. The aspect of prevented, you know, if we wait until August, that could be one camp cleanup. The cost between then and then that, you know, we're spending. So I believe that Councilwoman Bradbury, I always try to come into everything with an open mind. and listened to everyone and she definitely changed my mind on that and made me think that the sooner the better. So thank you.

Deputy Mayor Hofer. I still have some issues with this.

I'm probably going to support taking it to the citizens but will we be recovering our administrative costs to handle the program, because it costs money. City employees' time supplies everything to handle the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, and if we set up a homeless task force, I want to make sure that we are recovering our cost out of that sales tax. I don't want it to just be something else we're going to do and not take care of So that's one of my questions.

Okay. I was looking for something in here. We were saying something about having a task force to overlook something.

We would try and have that in place say around the first of the year to run from then on or just a short term?

Council Member Kell. I would like to make a friendly amendment on this that we include cleanup on this ballot initiative also because I don't want to be where we leave something like that off and then it comes down later on, well, we can't do cleanups. That's got to come out of the general fund. So if we're doing cleanups where we have to tear down the house because it's been occupied by homeless and been uninhabitable after that, that any cleanup destruction would have to be through that also.

I guess that's up to the council, or I guess that's up to the maker of the motion. I would say the question also does say, but not limited to, for that exact purpose, to try to not make it such a large list of things that gets a little too...

I know in the past some of our things have gotten too narrow, and I just want to make sure we're not being too narrow with the scope.

I'd like to see the text again. My inclination is not to do that for exactly what you said. The more specific and the more words you start to get, then the more you've limited, made driven assumptions that if it isn't named, it's not included. So I think the shorter the list leaves the interpretation more broad long term. One of the things we don't know, for instance, is there may be some big federal grants that would cover some element that's a big thing for us right now. If we can get that, we'll knock that part out and use those funds for other things. But I think, let's see. Evidence-based

Yeah, I'd say that's what Council Member Miller just mentioned. I just want to make sure we're, because a lot of that in the past has come out of the general fund, and I just want to make sure that someone doesn't sit there and say, well, that's a general fund issue, not a homeless initiative issue. So I was trying to make sure we're covering our bases with stuff like that.

Thank you. I don't have a problem with putting this on the ballot for the people to vote on. The problem I have is paying the money. That's the problem I have. I don't care what anybody says about things up and all this other stuff that we spend. I'm going to vote no. I'm not going to support this because I believe that money can be used for something else. I was out to the election office and they stopped me and they said that they had quoted us wrong. Did they come back and that they were sending you a new amount? It could have even been Brenda because I said, is it the mayor? Is it the mayo

Yeah, because they said they really gave us something that was under it.

The original number was $118,000. The new number is $155,000. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? I've got a few. So, you know, what's complicated this whole discussion, whether it's this sales tax or the other, is the legislature did none of us a favor two years ago when they limited the number of times, even if we're willing to pay for it, that a municipality could send any sort of question out to its public. It used to be you could kind of do it whenever you felt it was necessary, and so on issues like this, on issues like bonds, It's been limiting, and it's been discouraging for mu

Just one more comment, and you touched on it. There has been a pretty strong inclination on the part of this body to move the concept of having an internal auditor forward. In effect, that would be able to piggyback on this because otherwise it would stand alone or it would have to wait until August as well. So for those who are really wanting to move that along also, again, there's an economy in piggybacking. Thank you.

Any other comments or questions for staff on this issue? If not, we have a motion on the floor to, just to clarify, the motion is to move this question as written and proposed to a March ballot. With that, I will ask the clerk to take the vote, please.

We will now move on to action item B. City Clerk.

Yeah, I'll just add to that, that as we had this discussion and the creation of this position, which we budgeted for, we might have to make an amendment to that, but we can move forward with that posting next year and hope that this, even if this charter doesn't get changed immediately, we can still bring that person in and sort of still work with them to start their job. This is not uncommon of the cities that have this in Kansas, that it is independent of their internal staff that they do report either at the direction of a committee of the governing body and then the governing body as a who

Thank you. Next up, we have Danielle Twemlow.

Thank you. All right. Back to the City Council. Are there any? Council Member Hiller.

I just wanted to clarify a little, and I appreciate Danielle's comments, especially broadening the view. As far as I look at an internal audit, I look at it that it's a good internal practice. We don't necessarily have to have something terrible that's wrong. or that we're seeking out, but instead an audit could be based on personnel, could be based on program, and it could be based on finances or any combination of those. To me, you're looking at is there a way we can work smarter and better? Let's pick X department of a particular year. Not necessarily because there's anything wrong. Maybe t

Thank you. I agree with Councilwoman Hiller. When I think of the city auditor, I think of somebody who's going to look at the operations of the city, the internal controls, any risk management, any evaluating our contracts and whether or not we're needing objectives that we want to meet in ensuring that we're using the taxpayer dollars efficiently and wisely. I also want to note that there are several different qualifications an internal auditor An internal auditor can have a CPA. They can also have a CIA, which is a certified internal auditor, which audits internal controls, risk management,

Thank you, Mayor. Quick, I just want to run back on that for a quick second, Councilwoman. So the thought would be that just like our annual legislative agenda, we would have a focus for our auditor from a year to year basis that they would, but that they can still address other things throughout the year as needed from the council, correct?

Certainly could. I mean, one of the thoughts I had was we could contract per issue also, rather than have a full-time staff, but that's up to us.

So the way those work in the other cities that do them is exactly what you're saying. They have, let's say, three or four projects throughout the year. You work with them and say, these are a couple projects that we've decided we'd like you to look at. They'll give you the assessment. Yeah, I can do that in two months, or that's going to take me six months. Councilman, let's adjust it. And then same, in the meantime, if small things come up, you want them to take a look at. But also then, to Councilmember Hiller's point, the goal is not to say, go in and create chaos. It's quite the opposite.

Thank you for that clarification. Appreciate that. I think that would be good. I think a quarterly update to the public would be something that I think would be a way for our public to understand exactly what's going on. on a 90 day basis. I think that's enough time for them to adjust to different things that are happening. But also for the public to stay informed. You know, we have a lot of people that have some comments on this position and I think some of them are valid. But If they think or expect this employee to then be someone that they can just continue to call on to say, hey, you need

Thank you. I think you hit the points I was going to say. This is something where we can, like you say, create a specific list. These are the items we want to start with. Make it define what would provide the directives, the direction for it, and then let them go and seek out the information they find and develop. They could come up with recommendations for efficiencies, areas where we can approve, areas where we're doing good. But they would be able to provide that in, like you said, maybe a quarterly report. And then we bring that report forward, and then we move on to the next one. a good a

Okay, my concern is who is going to develop the personnel or the job profile and what qualifications are needed. Is that something the council is going to do?

I'm working on a version to then run by staff to then bring to this council to review as we speak. My goal is by last meeting in November, knock on whatever, if that helps.

Okay. Because I'm concerned whether we get the right person that's the one that actually will do the work that we're wanting. And I'm a little concerned about 10 of us. directing. So unfortunately, when there's all of us involved, it can be a little chaotic at times. So I want to make sure there's a direct line established of how this person, how their work is going to be decided on and directed. That's very important.

All right, we have a motion and a second on the floor. Just to clarify, this motion is to approve the adopted language that would be put into the charter. This is not yet a vote to put anything on the ballot in March. That's what's next on the agenda. So this is just to approve the charter, what the charter language would be. With that, as I see no other questions or comments, I will ask the city clerk to take the vote, please.

All right. With that, we move on to action item C, city clerk.

We do have two people signed up for public comment on this item. First up, Mr. Joseph Ledbetter.

With that, are there any questions or comments from the governing body? If not, the motion is always in order. We have a motion to approve from Councilmember Miller and a second from Councilmember Banks. Again, this would be to place it on the ballot along with the other item that we approved earlier this evening. Council Member Ortiz.

If there are no other questions or comments, then I would ask the clerk to take the vote, please.

All right. With that, we will move on to public comment. First up, we have Mr. Joseph Ledbetter.

See you. Thank you. Next up, Danielle Twimlow.

Thank you. Next up, Megan Ryan, who I believe is on Zoom. No, she's not. Next up, Henry McClure.

Thank you. All right. I have no one else signed up for public comment. With that, we will move on to announcements. City Clerk.

City Manager. Nothing tonight, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Ortiz.

It doesn't matter who you vote for. Just go out and vote. I gave everybody some applications via email and hard copies. I would hope that you would take them serious and they're free to give out, but they do save lives and they do help our firefighters. This is Fire Prevention Month. I don't know where Chad's at. Chad, you want to come up front real quick? If he's here, say something to our people. He's not here?

He might be in the back, Mayor. If he is, I'd like him to come and say something. We should be pushing our fire prevention month every October, pushing it hard. Because when I see those emails, I just cringe. And I don't think that we really need to do that. Hi, Chad. Come on and give the people a hand. Give us some knowledge that we don't have, that we need.

And one more thing, Mr. Mayor, if I may. Who? Cody Foster, I love you. Bye.

Council Member Banks. Thank you, Mayor. As Councilwoman alluded to, Fire Safety Month in October, of course, this is a time that kids are indulging in fire play. And currently, I don't think we push our ordinance enough when it comes to kids using fire equipment like lighters or matches. it is certainly a tough time for them. Kids express themselves through fire play. A lot of times it isn't because they're bad kids. They're trying to tell us something, asking many times for help in a lot of situations that they can't do anything about. As the past educator for the fire department, when I look

Two things tonight. Halloween safety. Please make sure on Halloween, it's going to be a busy night because it's on a Saturday night this year. Make sure you're watching out for kids running around. As parents, make sure you try to keep your kids as close as possible to you. Checking the road before you cross it, all that great stuff. Check their candy. Make sure there's nothing in there. We live in a weird world nowadays. There's plenty of trunk-or-treats out there, so check those out also as an alternative. Finally, as Councilwoman said, I don't care who you vote for, just please go out and v

Thank you, Mayor. I did have some things to say about voting tonight, but I want to go home and see my family. So everybody get out and vote. You know what we're up against out here. Thank you.

I was going to say the same thing about voting. Get out and vote. It doesn't matter who you vote for. Just get out and exercise your right to vote.

I'm going to Also, mention a little bit on fire safety. It feels like we're actually going to have a little bit of a fall. And that fall weather means that people have their fire pits going. So let's remember to be safe with fire pits, have a water source or something to put out the fire if it gets out of hand, and just be safe. Thank you.

Okay, this is the Zoo Minute. Boo at the Zoo is this Saturday, the 24th, and next Saturday, the 24th, and it's a good place to take your kids, a safe place to go for trick-or-treating. And believe it or not, we are one month away from Zoo Lights. It opens on November 20th, so that will be coming up very quickly.

Thank you. I want to throw in a pitch regarding fire safety that both our property maintenance code as well as in fairly short order our fire code is adding carbon monoxide detectors to that safety feature in your home. For residential, the issue there is if you have any gas-fired appliances, you should have carbon monoxide detectors in addition to those smoke detectors. So stay tuned for that. Read up on it. You can get separate detector modules, or they also combine them in a single model. For Halloween, I live in Central Topeka, which most people know. One of the big dreams I have, particul

All right. Nothing from me this evening. However, we do have a need for one executive session. The city attorney would state the motion.

I would move to approve. Do I have a second? Second. Second from Councilmember Kepp. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed say no. No. Miller and Ortiz's are no. With that, we will take a 10-minute break. Before we go into executive session, please be back here at 8.14. We have come out of executive session. However, no action is being taken, but we need to extend our executive session. So with that, I'll ask the city attorney to make a motion.

Okay. She's making the motion. I guess I can make it. I move to extend our executive session by an additional 45 minutes. Do I have a second? Yes, under the same previous conditions. Do I have a second? Second. Second from Council Member Aldebiacola. All those in favor say aye.

Nay from Councilmember Ortiz. With that, we are going right back into executive session. All right, we have come out of executive session. There is action that needs to be taken this evening. So I'm first going to move to suspend the rules. I move pursuant to governing body rules 6.3H and 9.1 to temporarily suspend to the extent applicable the requirements in rule 7.3A and the restriction in rule 5.3 on taking action on non-action items or other items to permit discussion and action tonight regarding the duties of city manager and related business.

Second from the Deputy Mayor. I guess do we need to sign in or roll call vote us? Some turned theirs off, so we'll just do roll call votes. I think Ortiz turned hers off, so she can do it by herself. I ask the clerk to take the vote, please.

All right. Passes 9-0. Next, I move to accept the resignation of City Manager Dr. Robert M. Perez effective immediately, approve a separation agreement between the City of Topeka and Dr. Perez, and authorize the mayor and legally appropriate city staff to execute the agreement on behalf of the city. I'll second the motion. I have a second from the Deputy Mayor. I would ask the third to take the vote, please. Hold on just a second.

All right. Passes nine to zero. Next, I move to appoint Deputy City Manager Braxton Copley as Acting City Manager, effective immediately upon Robert Perez's departure, with authority to exercise the powers and perform the duties of the City Manager until a successor interim City Manager or permanent City Manager appointed by the governing body assumes those duties, unless otherwise directed by the governing body. I have a second from the Deputy Mayor. I would ask the Clerk to take the vote, please. Okay.

All right, passes nine to zero. Next, I move to authorize the city attorney on behalf of the city of Topeka to negotiate and finalize an employment agreement with Michael Webb to serve as interim city manager consistent with the compensation benefits and other material terms approved by this motion. The agreement shall provide for service beginning Monday, October 26, 2026, or another date mutually agreed upon by the city and Mr. Webb under the agreement. I further move to authorize the mayor and legally appropriate city staff to execute the agreement following the city attorney's approval to

All right, I would ask the clerk to take the vote, please.

City Attorney, are there any other steps or actions that need to be taken by this governing body this evening? Then with that, this meeting is adjourned at 9.31.