City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. Welcome to the Monday, August 3rd, 2026 City Council meeting. Our invocation will be provided by Laura Dean Wiley at the Vision Church KC. please stand for the invocation and remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Madam City Clerk, please call the roll call.

Start off with the resolution here. Whereas the service recognition program recognizes outstanding performance and exemplary acts of service by employees of the city of Independence. And whereas an employee committee selects the I-Star Independence, service and teamwork above responsibilities. award recipient for exhibiting the qualities and ideals that best represent public service. And whereas the Service Recognition Committee has selected Krista Fala Te Wai. Building Maintenance in the Parks and Recreation Department as the I-STAR award recipient for August 2026. Now, therefore, be it resol

And a second. Any further discussion? Madam City Clerk, please call the roll.

Yes. 26-759 is passed with seven ayes and zero nays. All right. Today... We are recognizing Krista for her outstanding dedication and commitment to George Owens Nature Park. Krista consistently arrives ready to help in any way she can. She takes great pride in making sure the park's restrooms, lobby areas, nature center, and lodge are clean, well-stocked, and welcoming to the public. She works to maintain these spaces to the highest standards so visitors feel comfortable and cared cared for during their time at the park. Chris is dependable, considerate of her coworkers, and always pleasant to

Now, we have a few citizen awards to give out. So, citizen recognition. So I'm gonna start here and we'll kind of work through this. Citizens awards for Derek Young and Charles Lister. Officer Bloomquist recommended these two guys for their assistance when a lady, Sheila Clark, stopped breathing at Pizza Ranch. Derek observed Sheila choking, ran over and performed the Heimlich on Sheila who was choking on her denture. Her family said she was not breathing and her lips were turning blue. Derek's efforts at the Heimlich were successful and he and Charles Lister assisted Sheila to the ground and

Next with citizen recognition is citizen Clara A. Anson. Detective Winans recommends Clara for a citizen's award in recognition of her exceptional persistence and concern for the welfare of a child living in dangerous conditions. After twice requesting a welfare check without knowing the child's address or information, Clara refused to give up. Through her determination and resourcefulness, she located the residents and provided the information to law enforcement. Officers responded and rescued the child from deplorable living conditions. Clara's perseverance and commitment to protecting a vul

All right. Next up is citizen Darren Neermeyer. Detective Winans would like to recognize the citizen for the following. In August 2024, the Independence Police Department's Criminal Investigations Unit began investigating the disappearance of Andre Jr. Martinez, who was last seen at the Executive Inn. On December 26, 2024, Detective Winans received information indicating that Mr. Martinez had been killed and that his body had been dumped behind the executive inn. Detective Winans immediately contacted Darren Niermeier of K9 Missouri Search and Rescue for assistance. Despite it being the day af

All right, moving on. This brings us to citizen's request. I just want to read a statement real quick before we move on. Just a few reminders here. Please state your name and city of residence. Speakers may only address one topic per meeting. All remarks must be addressed to the council as a body and no personal remarks about individuals, whether positive or negative, are permitted. In addition, everyone present must maintain decorum and comply with directives from the presiding officer. If an issue arises, then you will be given a verbal warning, but if the issue persists, then you will be re

Thank you. Our next speaker is Tony Sommer. You please state your address and your name and you have five minutes. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker is Wes Epperson. Please state your name and your address and you have five minutes. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker. is Darlene Pollard. Please state your name and your address, and you have five minutes. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Roxanne Robinson. Please state your name and your address, and you have five minutes.

Thank you. This brings us to our consent agenda.

Got a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Would anybody like to pull anything off the consent agenda?

I would actually like to pull resolution 26-760 as well. Are there any other ones? Seeing none. Madam City Clerk, please call the vote.

Yes. Consent agenda passes six with yeses and zero noes. All right. At this time, I'm going to turn it over to Council Member Vought for item number 18.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I move to approve item number 18. I second.

Got a motion and a second to approve item number 18. Any further discussion?

Yeah, sorry. So I know council has already voted on much of this project, but I do still have some questions that I would like to get. Could we hear how this roundabout will affect emergency vehicle access being single lane?

Okay, so since I, well, maybe not for Chief Walker, but since I assume that a fire truck can go through, that would also mean that a bus could make it through that roundabout.

Okay, and then can I have an explanation as to why Sheely Road was chosen for the roundabout?

Okay. And this probably is for you also. So if we postpone this change order tonight, what work stops and what work would continue?

Okay. And cost savings, would there be a result in cost savings with not going with the change order?

Just a quick question. I know this has been discussed a lot and, and maybe I just want to clarify a couple of things with city manager. If we vote yes or no, what's the options here? If we vote this down, can we direct municipal services to go and give us different ideas looking at this moving forward?

Thank you. I want to make sure I heard you right. You are recommending this to pass, correct?

I want to make a motion to postpone indefinitely. Just to evaluate that multimodal component a little bit more.

Got a motion and a second to postpone number 18.

So I'm going to refer to our counselor to make sure we do this correctly.

Okay. Yes, I move to withdraw my motion to approve and make a motion to postpone indefinitely.

So we got a motion and a second. All right. Any further discussion?

So this is to postpone indefinitely. Yes.

All right. Madam City Clerk, please call the roll.

Yes. Item number 18 passes with 18. Postpone. I mean, postpone indefinitely with seven yeses and zero noes. So, all right. I kind of want to talk about 26-760 for a minute, if you don't mind. Can you tell us what the resolution amending the council rules or procedures, if you don't mind?

Thank you. I would move to approve Resolution 26-760. Second. Got a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Madam City Clerk, please take the vote.

Yes. Resolution 26-760 passes with seven yeses and zero noes. All right. So at this time, this brings us to our public hearing. I am going to recuse myself at this point in time for the public hearing and for 26-063. Mayor Pro Tem Perkins will take this over for me, and I will come back in after the public hearing and 26-063 is voted on. Thank you. Will do. Thank you, Mayor.

Sorry. So I've heard from some constituents in my district regarding this and there's some major concerns about that the traffic will be flowing into the subdivision that would be sit right next to this. So I'm going to be voting no on this. That's all I have. Thank you. Thank you.

I believe that this was one that did not have like any storm shelter or basements is this correct or am I incorrect I don't believe is there a plan on this for since it's a higher density housing now to have some sort of storm shelter for that subdivision so there is no requirement in current codes or ordinances

Thank you. So one of the biggest differences between independents and the communities around us that are seeing is that they're building new single-family developments. These homes represent new single-family housing at a price point that is attainable to many families, and I think that's an important piece of the housing puzzle. I understand the concerns from neighbors, especially regarding traffic, and those concerns absolutely deserve to be heard. The traffic study did conclude that this development will not be a major contributor to delays during either morning or evening peak traffic peri

The Planning Commission was very split on this. So it sounds like it's the lot size that's small is what our concern is. The neighbors have concern about the traffic or that many people. These aren't tiny houses. I mean, what I would view as a tiny house. So what is the feedback from the Planning Commission? What was their concern that they're split? Because we're

Sorry, guys. This brings us to our ordinances 26-070.

Any discussion on 26-070? Hearing none, Madam City Clerk, please call the vote.

Yes. 26-070 passes, seven yeses and zero noes.

Any discussion on 26-071? Seeing none or hearing none, Madam City Clerk, please call the vote.

Yes. 26-071 passes with seven yeses and zero nos.

Madam City Clerk, would you read the first readings?

We have a motion to postpone 26-075. I second it. Got a motion and a second. Any discussion on 26-075? Madam City Clerk, please call the vote.

Yes. 26-075 passes to postpone indefinitely seven yeses and zero noes.

This brings us to Council Member comments. Council Member Dorman.

Thank you, Mayor. I have two quick things. Many of us were present over the weekend to celebrate Hope House. They had their yearly fundraiser. And every year I'm always reminded what a wonderful program they have. They do amazing things for a lot of people in our community. And also what a great legacy it is for Mayor Potts, who I always think about so much when I'm in the presence of the staff at Hope House. So thanks to them for inviting us. And then I have been getting calls in the last couple of weeks for animals outside in the heat. I just want to remind everyone that we do have adequate

Thank you, Mayor. So I would like to just give a quick update to residents about Fire Station 5. The station is closed now. It closed July 31st for demolition and construction, construction of a new state-of-the-art facility designed with both community safety and the well-being of our firefighters. Construction is expected to take about 18 months, and during that time, The Station 5 crew has been relocated to Station 1, and Stations 3 and 4 will also provide coverage. Kansas City Fire Department will also be available for mutual aid from its station at 47th and Sterling to cover the southern

Thank you. Just a couple things. I want to thank everybody that attended my town hall. I thought it went really well. There was a lot of engagement there. I learned a couple things. Less topics, more time for people. to listen to and have those conversations, but I really appreciate everybody that came out to that. I hope that they were inspired, and I really saw how much our citizens really care about what's going on in this city. A couple things that kind of spurned off of that, though, is we talked about doing a volunteer small business committee, and I'm going to October 19th at six o'cloc

Yeah. August 11th, they will be around the Independence Square all day. So if you're not doing anything on August 11th, go up and meet them. There are some that speak pretty good English. There are other ones that don't speak it as well. But they are very excited to be here and can't wait to learn about our culture and our history here. So that is... All I have. I'm going to turn it over to City Manager Anderson.

Well, thank everybody for coming. This adjourns the City Council meeting.