Director of Aviation - Regular Meeting

Councilman Robinson. Can you hear us, Councilwoman?

No. Okay. It was muted in the chamber. Good morning. Melissa Robinson, 3rd District. Thank you. Staff.

Thank you very much. Go to the first ordinance. There will be no holds today, so let's go directly.

Colleagues have any questions? I don't see any. Is someone from Kissick here?

Yeah, yeah. Similarly related, and this might be a question for Director Morgan, how are we looking? I know that we had some delays regarding resurfacing after we've done some water main replacement work. I know that in my district on 49th Street, that seemed to take quite a long while. The resurfacing on, I believe it was Southwest Trafficway, seem to take quite a long while. So what is causing the delay in that road resurfacing after we do that water work underground, and what are we doing to expedite that?

Thank you for that. I guess my question is, do we know, do you have a little bit of a ballpark average of how long generally it's taking, like once a water main replacement is done, how long before the resurfacing will happen?

Thank you. Because our residents don't know. All they see is a torn up road for six months and wondering why the hell it's not getting repaid. So thank you.

Any other? I might, while we're on water, ask Director I sent you an email the other day about the hacking. I think you guys might have seen the story. There was a bunch of water projects hacked around the country, and I just asked the director if we have, as a city, a plan going forward to make sure that we are not one of the hacked victims of this.

Yeah, just give us an update on what we have in the works to make sure that that's not occurring.

Any other questions? All right. I would ask if there is any public testimony on this ordinance.

Aye. All those against? The ordinance passes. Thank you.

You have someone from Lippert, I believe. Thank you for attending. Appreciate it.

All those opposed? Ordinance passes. Thank you, guys. Thank you, David.

Any questions for my colleagues? Is there someone here from PURE or...

Walks? Yeah. You guys are walks? Yeah. Thanks for coming. Appreciate it. All right. Any public testimony on this?

All those opposed? The ordinance passes. Thank you. Thank you.

So on the 4 million being moved over, it is coming from another District 1 project, am I correct?

Is any of that going to the streetlight that is the temporary streetlight we have there on Indiana and Barry?

And the improvements up by Staley High School, which is right in front of Staley High School, are what?

We've had a lot of accidents there. Excuse me? We've had a lot of accidents.

Is this on the District 1 CIP's program?

Yeah. Yeah, we've been working on this for quite a while and I will say Nathan has put a lot of effort into this and we've been trying to find funding for that stately road for quite some time. Yes, sir. All right. Any other questions? Any public testimony?

Second. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. All those opposed? The ordinance passes. Thank you, gentlemen.

Now I think we're going to have a... Short presentation from the, with a jail update from our Corrections Department.

Community Safety Department. Sorry, Mr. Chair. Director Knapp, Deputy Director Case.

Now you're just showing off because you know everybody's name.

You're talking about the leases in Vernon and Johnson?

So when you say you're hoping to get occupancy license by Friday or the end of the week, does that mean you'll be able to open the following week or what is that?

When would you anticipate people being moved in there as far as inmates and such?

Director Knapp, thank you. At the end of September, we start taking releases. Can you talk a little bit more what that looks like? Are we prepared? Because I know right now the folks are being released from Vernon and Johnson County, and then we take them, and then they're at one of the patrol stations. So are we going to start taking all of the releases from Vernon and Johnson County?

Thank you. Councilman Robinson comes in.

Yeah. So just, I know you don't want to give a date, but when are we talking, what date can we expect this to be fully operational?

And you're the professionals, and I get it, and I don't mean to question your professionalism. I'm just curious, with the staffing and with the contracts, We've known that we were building this for over a year, year and a half, I think. Why wouldn't those be in the pipeline of timeframes? You know what I mean?

First, you know, the first priority was to get the building built. I get that. The second priority was to hire staff. And this is the first I've heard that the contract, we have 90 days until we can enact it. Even if we sign it today, we still can't enact anything for 90 days.

And Mr. Chair, just to that point, Director Knapp, isn't it true that the municipal population is one that has a myriad of medical and mental complications? We've seen two deaths already in the new Jackson County Detention Facility. And if we rush this with not the proper medical care and the support system, we could be in a similar situation.

I'm not disagreeing with the rush. I'm arguing that I don't think that any of us have had a very good understanding of the process. The communication to us was we build it, we open it. And I mean, I get that there are complications in long term, but I would have liked to known that, you know, when the jail was built, you know, then we had staff it, and then we have to have a contract signed. That could be 90 days. Those are just, you know, we're the ones that allocate and put this thing together, and we should, that's just me. I just think we should have more information. Councilwoman Robinson

Mr. Chair, thank you for your presentation. Did you say that there isn't a projected timeline for opening? Is that what I heard?

So that particular benchmark is just transitioning staff or those inmates from Vernon County When you say take it off their plate, my understanding is that's just them transitioning from Vernon County or Johnson County back to Kansas City. Is that what you're saying?

But that's not the primary function of the jail. So my question to you is, do we have a timeline? Did I hear you say that with all the moving pieces, we do not have a timeline in which the jail is open? Is that what I heard?

Not yet. Okay. So firstly, let me say this. Deputy Director Case, hopefully that was a promotion that you received. But whatever the case, we want to say thank you for all of the work that you've done up until this point. We know that there was a lot of pressure put on you from many different directions. And I think it's really important for this body to recognize your efforts and to say thank you. Secondarily, in terms of the comments from the chair, we do need a process. So if someone could please you know, write the process down in terms of where we are, what we're going to do to get to ope

Okay, thank you. And so, again, Mr. Chair, and this is not directed to anyone that's presenting before us today, not knowing those standards based off of what we know is challenging. It's a very, very hard pill to swallow as someone who is elected to serve the interests of the taxpayers. And so waiting until September is unfortunate. I ask a basic question as relates to Does this facility will this facility meet national standards as it relates to restorative justice? I don't think that that's something we should have to wait for and I am disappointed in our. Management staff that we don't hav

Councilman Robinson, I just want to say that I completely agree with you in the restorative justice aspect of this, and that's an integral part and not something that's negotiable. I will say that I've spent many meetings with Director Knapp and the deputy directors, as well as the consultants from Falcon Trainer and Multistudio, and they are building those pieces out. And I've seen the presentations, probably some of the presentations that you'll be seeing on September 3rd, I think you will be impressed. And so definitely understand why Director Knapp doesn't want to give a half presentation

Well, and I appreciate that, and I'm glad that you're bird-dogging that and spending time. I, too, would love that same opportunity. With all due respect, Councilman Duncan, you represent the 6th District. You're an in-district councilperson. I represent the 3rd District. I'm an in-district councilperson. The majority of the people that this population is the 3rd District. right and so if they're giving you we don't run a closed door operation this is a governmental operation it should be transparent so if they're presenting information to you that's great but we all deserve access to that inf

Thank you. With that, hey, thank you guys for giving us that presentation. We appreciate it. We know you're thrown in a lot of directions. So we do appreciate you coming here and giving us an update. And look forward to the September 3rd update.

Yes, and please make sure that all of the consultants that have been meeting are available to have those same meetings and the same presentations for multi-studio. So I'll be reaching out immediately to set that up first thing Monday morning. Thank you.

All right. Thank you guys very much. If there's no other business, we will...