Council - Regular Meeting

All right, I'm going to call the meeting to order.

Go ahead and call the roll. Council Member Cain? Here. Council Member Alvarez? Here. Council Member Wells?

Here.

Council Member Larson is absent tonight. Council Member Click is absent tonight. Council Member Saper? Here. Council Member Bailey?

Here.

What am I missing? Council Member McGrone? Here.

All right, now we're going to do the Pledge of Allegiance led by Council Member Cain. Now we move on to the approval of the agenda. Do I have a motion?

Motion.

Second. All in favor? Yes. Any opposed? All right. Next is comments from the public. If anybody has any comments from the public, we ask that you limit them to five minutes. Please step forward if anybody's got any comments.

Hi. I have just made a brief comment. I wanted to do this last year, but lost the nerve. So here I am. OK. Good evening and hello. My name is Tara Jean King. I have proudly called North Town home since 2015. My husband Thomas White and I are homeowners near 21st and Erie. And we got married here. We love this community. We feel very fortunate to call it home. We also share it with a delightfully opinionated pug who, if you've met out on our walks, is running a campaign for mayor. I do want to sincerely thank the real and current Mayor Smith for his appointment, nominating me, not appointment, sorry, nominating me for another term on the Tim C. Crummett Charitable Funds Project Committee. and thank the council for the opportunity to serve this past year. I see several faces here tonight that I know as neighbors through my work in the community or through this committee. Those relationships have deepened my roots here and honestly, my courage to keep showing up and speaking up. As a queer, creative, neurodivergent person and admittedly a bit of a social anxiety ninja, this committee has given me a wonderful opportunity to put my education, creativity, and commitment to work in a way that benefits our community and fills me with civic pride and gratitude. It has not always felt natural for me to show up in rooms like this. But every time I do, I think about future generations of odd ducklings who may be watching, wondering if there's a place for them here too. So I hope that by showing up, speaking up, and participating, they might see that there is. Local government belongs to all of us, and our communities are stronger when more people believe their voices are worth bringing to the table, especially those who may not always see themselves reflected in the room. This past year, alongside some wonderful individuals and organizations, we as a committee launched Civic Canvas, bringing together city resources, local businesses, and our education partners to highlight the voices and creativity of area students. I smile every time I pass one of those boxes. Those students took something ordinary and made it personable, visible, and meaningful, and their stories and their art are going to stick with me for a long time. I believe the best way to show love for your community is to leave it a little more beautiful than you found it. Sometimes that's through a mural. Sometimes it's planting a tree. Sometimes it's creating an opportunity for someone else to share their voice. And sometimes it's simply choosing to invest in the place you call home or showing up and participating in local government. That's something I hope to continue doing, both personally and professionally. I am the lead designer and showroom manager for Cabinet IQ, and our flagship showroom is opening August 27th in Lee Summit. While that's not here in North Kansas City, I am hopeful that in the next few years, we will have an opportunity to bring that Cabinet IQ presence to North Town as well. I'd love for my work to continue being another way I contribute to this community, whether that's through design, public art, supporting local businesses, or simply helping make the places we live a little more thoughtful and beautiful. So thank you to the mayor, council, city staff, my fellow committee members, and community partners, and every resident who chooses to invest their time, talent, and creativity in North Kansas City. I have genuinely been humbled and honored to serve in this place I'm lucky enough to call home. Let's continue to steward our community and leave it a little more beautiful than we found it. Thank you for allowing me to be part of this.

Thank you so much, Tara. Are there any other comments? All right. Seeing none, we're going to move on to the consent agenda. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda?

I'd like to talk about 8.

All right. We want to pull 8 off. All right. Is there a motion to approve the amended consent agenda?

So moved.

All right. All in favor?

Yes. Any opposed?

Okay. Moving on to regular items.

We'll start with item number eight. Appointment of Christy Higginbotham to the Community Enrichment Advisory Committee. Term to expire August 5th, 2027.

I'm just pulling this trying to understand whose seat she'd be filling. Was that in the agenda that I missed or is it

It would be, I've got to think, I mean, well, both Ward 4 seats are empty right now, are vacant.

She's in Ward 1, yes.

No, no, Cynthia's Ward 4. This is part of SEAC last summer. Redid the bylaws to where, yeah, I think if 30 days pass, then it could be at large. Is this Cynthia's nomination?

Yes. Okay, that was my only question. I didn't see Cynthia's name attached to it. I have no issues about that. If she was a floater, I want to make sure that we assigned her to a seat, given the fact that she's eligible for all the seats right now.

Yes, it would be right here on the end. Sorry, thinking of the meetings.

I move to approve Christy for the seat.

Second. All in favor?

Yes. Yes.

Any opposed?

All right. Moving on to regular items. Item number 12, consideration of an ordinance adopting and approving a development agreement and a real estate sale with North Diamond Development LLC. Bill number 8003, ordinance number 9800.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Before you today is a development agreement in real estate for purchase agreement with One North Redevelopment Area, and it is the applicant and partner is actually going to be developing a Chipotle. I'd like to introduce Chuck Zug, who is here with us this evening, and he's going to give you a presentation.

Thank you, and good evening. My name is Chuck Zug, as she said, and I'm the managing member of Diamond Development, LLC. And I'm very happy to be here to present a potential Chipotle for One North. We've been working on it for three years, and the time has come. A little bit about myself. I've been in the commercial real estate industry for 30 years, and of that 30, I've been representing Chipotle for 28. Little known fact, Chipotle came to Kansas City. The first expansion outside of Denver was Kansas City. And since 1998, I've personally done over 80 deals with Chipotle. And about seven years ago, they allowed me to start developing for them. And I've done 10 deals so far and have one under construction in Hutchinson and would love to be able to get one north under construction as well. So without further ado, I'll, oh, it's already switched. Okay, so what we're talking about is the lot, well, it was lot five when we first originally talked about it, but then area seven in the RFP from last summer. It's just south of it's 1.01 acres. This is the proposed site plan with input from the city. We've gone through a number of edits, but this is the most recent. We did have a pickup window at one point, but now we have taken that off. Dungan Design is the architect. They're based here in Overland Park, Kansas, but they work with Chipotle throughout the United States. So to give you an idea, Chipotle would be one of the new Habanero prototypes. This is a brand new prototype for them. It's 2385 square feet. And with input from the city, we actually have upgraded the architectural finishes. We've incorporated some stone and smoothed the limestone. And it's just not ephus like what was proposed originally. There will be 36 seats inside the restaurant and 16 out on the patio. I've attached this picture because this is an actual Habanero that just opened in July. The rendering, some people have a hard time understanding what the building would look like. But this is an actual building in Hudson, Florida that just opened in July. I think that's all I have. And if you guys have any questions,

All right, are there any questions? All right, do we have a motion? First reading.

Second.

All in favor? Yes. Any opposed? All right.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

And ordinance, adopting and approving a development agreement between the City of North Kansas City, Missouri and North Diamond Development LLC for a certain development project in the city and adopting and approving a real estate sale and purchase agreement between the City of North Kansas City, Missouri and North Diamond Development LLC.

Is there a motion for that? Yeah, I move that bill number 8003 be placed on second and final reading and passes ordinance number 9800.

Second.

Call the roll.

Councilmember Cain?

Yes.

Councilmember Alvarez? Yes. Councilmember Wells?

Yes.

Councilmember Saper?

Addendum, we've been working on, Council says this is actually a case where I agree and will say yes when I finish. But for those watching, it's going through very quickly, but we've been working on this for years. and have been through many iterations, and we think we've got a great partner. Now I will say it. Yes.

Council Member Bailey?

Yes.

Council Member McGowan? Yes. An ordinance adopting and approving a development agreement between the City of North Kansas City, Missouri, and North Diamond Development, LLC, for a certain development project in the city, and adopting and approving a real estate sale and purchase agreement between the City of North Kansas City, Missouri, and North Diamond Development, LLC.

All right, moving on to item 13.

Oaks Auto Plaza Redevelopment and Expansion Project Financial Analysis Presentation.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. A while back, you heard a presentation from Oaks Auto Plaza about a redevelopment that they are considering. They did approach the city asking for a Chapter 100 plan consideration. After that presentation, the city council directed staff to go through a funding agreement and a third-party financial analysis. Our partners at Columbia Capital have completed their independent financial advisement, and they are here to present on the findings.

Hi, good evening, city council. Jim Pritchard here with Columbia Capital Management. Happy to be here. Oh, there's my presentation. I thought a different one was up, so. Thanks for having me. So as was stated, We were asked to perform a financial analysis of this incentive request from Oaks Auto, which we have done. So really, the basis for our analysis is to answer two main questions. First is, does this project require incentives to be financially viable? And two, if so, is the level that is being requested Does it appear reasonable, or does it appear excessive? So before I get into that, just a quick, super high-level view of the project. $32 million total investment impacting 86,000 square feet. This is a new Kia dealership. It's also doing major renovations on existing facilities there. And it also has public improvements including on design drive and some stormwater infrastructure. And if it goes forward, it's expected to be completed in 2027. The incentive request has two pieces. The first piece is a Chapter 100 sales and use tax exemption on construction materials. We value that to be about $350,000. The second piece of that is a Chapter 100 real property tax abatement. That would be 75% for the first 10 years, then drop down to 50% for the remaining five. We value that to be about 3 million. And if you present value that, about 2 million. So this is the key slide, really. So we ran the project through our models. First, we run it on an un-incentivized basis. Then we layer in the incentives and calculate those returns and compare that against market expectations. So the first table at the top, that's really the key information. It's the unleveraged project return as we've calculated it. So we, on an un-incentivized basis, we believe the financial return is about 4.4%. When you layer on the requested incentives, that increases to about 6.5%, which we would view as being within the market. I won't get into the second table unless folks want to. The second slide is attempting to answer another question, a similar question, is if the project doesn't exactly pan out the way that it's been presented, with key assumptions being rental rates, total development costs, things like that, we want to stress test that to see how that impacts the financial return. So we ran our models with pretty significant changes in the rental rate and total development cost and also the capitalization rate to see how that impacts. That's not what we're expecting to happen. We're just trying to test our conclusions, which is that this doesn't appear to be over-incentivized. So in conclusion, our review of this project and the incentive request, it does appear to be reasonable. And it is likely that the project does need incentives to achieve a market rate of return. Running our sensitivity analysis, we think under reasonable changes in total development costs and rental rates, unlikely to be over-incentivized. But if this gets approved in the development agreement, you should have things in there that allow the city to verify these key assumptions. And if there are material changes in the benefit of the developer, then there should be clawback provisions so that this doesn't become over-incentivized. So with that, happy to answer any questions.

All right. Does council have any questions? All right, Tom. Council Member Bailey.

And just to confirm, the request for property tax incentives is over the value currently on the books, not entirely correct?

Exactly. That would just be the increment.

All right.

Any other questions? Councilmember Wells?

Yeah, could we go back to, you said there was a key slide, and there was a second table that you said we wouldn't get into unless we asked, and I just need help understanding it, so if you could explain that.

Absolutely, so the first table at the top, that's the project return, so we're not assuming that the developer borrows money It's a way to sort of look at the project on its own merits, but developers are going to typically borrow money, so they're going to have an equity piece and a debt piece. And that's a little bit trickier to calculate because there's going to be different financing strategies, different ratios of how much they finance versus not finance, different interest rates, different amortization periods. But that was just our way to try to see what that looks like with the understanding that's a lot more difficult to calculate. But the basis of our conclusions and recommendations is, is the project return that doesn't have the financing pieces layered into it.

Thank you.

Any other questions from council? I'll make a quick comment. I just want to let people know that while the ask is over our standard 50 percent for a certain period and then 37.5 for another period, you're asking for 75 and 50 percent reduction tax abatement. what the city would get out of this is some good road repair and more importantly some, was it stormwater retention or stormwater mitigation? And I'm sure Anthony could talk a little more about that if we wanted him to, but I think it would be helpful because I think that this isn't just a project to allow Oaks to build a new dealership with no real benefit to the city. And I think that that stormwater benefit is pretty important.

Madam Chair, we do have a representative of the applicant here this evening. If you would like to have him kind of present the public benefit components of this.

I think that would be really helpful. Thank you.

Hi again, everyone.

Test, test. My name is Kurt Peterson. It's nice to see you all again. I'm here with Dan Oaks in the back. I'd be happy to address that question about public benefit. Sorry, you're beating me there.

Slide 19, maybe if it's the one we, maybe a little farther.

If not, it's no big deal. But if you go to slide 19, it'll specifically have what I was going to speak to. So we can divide it up to, it was right, into public street, beautification, functionality, and then really flood mitigation, stormwater detention. So starting with the street specifically, that way you're giving me a picture. OK, we can go to the picture, too, if you're visual. But at least on the design drive, it's nice to. So you can see, there you go, highlighted in yellow. That is the perfect image right there. So that stretch right there is design drive and the improvements, which would total approximately, it's just over a quarter million dollars, $276,000. would, as you can see, stretch from the southern end of the Oaks property, at the bottom of the screen where there's yellow, all the way up to Burlington, and it would entail certainly a surface complete refresh, but it would also put sidewalks in on both sides and then street trees all the way down. And our hope is, in talking to staff and everything, while we don't control anything farther than that, we hope that's a little bit of a fire starter as to, okay, a vision on public streets, what we can do someday even continuing on. So that's piece one. Piece two, which is even much more extensive in terms of capital investment, has to do with flood mitigation. And why, it was funny, when I was preparing, I thought, okay, what's my image gonna be for the detention? And I went, oh, it's underground detention. Meaning there's not actually something to point to, but any image of the site, whether it's this or something else, I'll direct our attention to it. So the building and project area two on the left three sorry i don't have project area three exactly where the yellow box is is that you driving kim because whoever driving is doing it perfectly you're like before my thoughts get there you're actually where i'm going um so our building in the back that we're going to refresh for all of our intake or new new cars come in they still need preparation for some of us some of us to buy a car then also all of our pre-owned cars will go through that building there in the back after we totally renovate it. And when we do that, you can see inside the yellow box, if you happen to know that ground back there, that there's a little bit more pavement. It's going to look a lot better. But we, in other words, we get it right with my, we are decreasing the impervious. Got it right? Decreasing the impervious. So when you do that, the code says you need to do something with the additional water that won't have somewhere to go. So we are required to put in some detention. So we're going to do the underground attention, but we're going to over-detain, design it to the 100-year storm, which will help with water. I feel silly with the stormwater experts in the room, but which will help with the corridor and go towards the overall stormwater master plan. So that's additional funds we're spending there. But leaving the best for last, if you look at Project Area 1, that's the new building you're seeing on the screen, the new auto dealership.

And

That actually, because we're not increasing, because of the site that's there today, we're not increasing the... Should I do it backwards?

I did it backwards last time. Is that your whisper or not?

Do you ever have the pervious, impervious thing? You have to slow down. So right now, we are not increasing the impervious on the new dealership site because it's all asphalt. So meaning the code says, I mean, you don't have to do anything, but instead, Mr. Oaks decided to spend some... with the other detention, it's almost a million dollars, to put an underground detention there, and that's huge because that is really helping in the overall corridor. I don't have David Eichmann from Olson here tonight, who's our engineer and does the city's overall stormwater design, and you always try to get engineers to tell you specific things. Like I said, what percentage of the overall corridor stormwater is that helping? And he actually told me a significant percentage, but he can't say that because I haven't done every little last quantification. the bottom line is that really will as i can get support if i need it help with overall flood control does it solve the whole city's problems absolutely not but it's it helps a lot so when you add all that up the public street enhancements and the regional flood mitigation you get to that about it's just over 1.25 million dollars that is the additional public enhancements that we're offering with the project marvelous thank you i really appreciate that are there any other questions from council

Okay, so what do you need from us?

So what we are looking for is if the council would like us to start to prepare the Chapter 100 plan documents.

I think we just kind of need a thumbs up, thumbs down. If there's, like, I would say, do I see anybody that is strongly against it? Nope, looks like the direction is move ahead.

We will meet with the development team and begin those papers. We appreciate you.

Excellent. And thank you all for coming out and speaking about this. We really appreciate it.

All right. Next is item 14. Presentation and discussion of the strategic plan.

All right. Members of the council, we've got Meredith Houck with Everest Drive Solutions that's been working with us on the strategic plan. There's a draft final that she's going to present to all of you with a little discussion.

Thank you.

Good evening, everyone. It's nice to see you again. I was looking back at my notes and the last time we were together was at the beginning of May and I can't believe summer has come by, has passed us by already. All right, well, I am here today to share the results of the strategic planning process that we have been working on with the city and your citizens and residents and council members for the last four months or so. So the full draft of the plan is in your packet for your review. Tonight, I'm just gonna cover it at a high level, and then there will be some time for questions and conversation at the end. So one of the things that we heard loud and clear as we got into this process is there are no shortage of good ideas in the city of North Kansas City. I mean, you all have a lot of big ideas and big hopes and dreams for the community. And so we started the process of collecting those ideas and we are going to talk about what we think is possible over the next two years tonight. But I do want to zoom out for a second and just talk about how the strategic plan fits into the context of the other planning documents that you use as an organization. So as a community, there are really three main planning documents. We have the comprehensive plan, which you all are undertaking the update right now. And that really looks big picture and long term. Where are we going? The long term horizon, 20 years from now. Then we have our strategic plan, which typically has a shorter time frame, somewhere in the two to five year mark. And that really looks at the comprehensive plan and thinks, what should we be focusing on right now to move the needle forward? And then finally we have the annual budget and that is the document that operationalizes everything. So that's where you actually start putting your resources towards those items that you're seeing in the strategic plan. So I always like to start with that high level conversation because often we want to have comprehensive planning conversations as part of the strategic planning process. And I know you all are going into your budget process as well. So I want to make sure that we're connecting that as we move forward. Now, as you see on the screen, and as I've already mentioned, this plan has a focus of two years, and that's done very intentionally. Since you are doing the comprehensive plan update, we don't want to get too far ahead of that work. So we really approached this planning process from the framework of what do we need to get ready when that comprehensive plan is done? How do we start building a really strong foundation for the community? So from that work, or I guess to begin that work, thankfully this is not just Meredith's big idea of what the city should be doing here. We actually spent a couple of months reviewing the work that the city is already doing and then spending time talking out or talking with folks throughout the community. So we did a series of leadership interviews with folks inside the organizations. We had a focus group with the management team. We did an employee survey. We also did a council survey and talked to some of you. And then finally, we brought the council and leadership team together in May to do a strategic planning retreat together. and really start to dive into the insights, make some plans, and start to prioritize things. So from all of those different components, we started to hear a core set of themes throughout the community. There is a more detailed insight gathering report that is included as part of the full planning document, but today I want to focus on the six high-level themes that we really pulled out of all of those conversations. So the first big theme is staff is a real strength for this community. We heard that as part of every conversation. People understand that there are big dreams and hopes for this community, and we need a really talented group of people inside City Hall to move that forward. Second, we know there are infrastructure needs that just can't wait. These are not the sexiest or most exciting pieces of the plan. These are things like water, sewer, stormwater, fiber needs. but really thinking about what do we need to get in place to make sure that we are a development-ready community moving forward. And number three, growth needs direction. So just like we heard, there is a lot of interest in North Town right now. There is a lot of opportunity. But like we said during the retreat, we can do anything. We just can't do everything. And so this theme really points to we want to have some more focused and strategic conversation around what development looks like in our communities. In that vein, number four, identity matters. We talked about it during the retreat, but a small town feel is probably the number one thing that we heard in every conversation. That phrase came up over and over and over. What we were not able to figure out is what exactly does that mean? Everybody has a little different take on that. And we have some work to do about what does that mean when we think about development standards or community engagement or customer service. So there's some work to be done around defining what small town feel means for North Kansas City. Insight number five is you guys have actually been doing some really good work and it is making an impact on the community. So all of the engagement efforts that you've been undertaking are being noticed and they're making people feel more connected to the work of the city. And then finally, number six, like I mentioned already, there are no shortage of good ideas here. And so the real opportunity for this plan is in the focus. What do we need to say no to? How do we need to get our resources pointed more strategically in one direction to, again, make some big moves to set us up for success with that comprehensive plan? So from these insights and from the work of the management team and the city council, we developed four key strategic pillars. Infrastructure, development, community engagement, and operations. And I just wanna make two notes about these pillars. Number one, these are not city departments. These are intentionally designed to be overarching pillars that every department can work towards and contribute to. And number two, we need to acknowledge as part of these the good work that you're doing already. So you may not see core services called out in here. You may not see things that are already happening and already working well called in here. These aren't called out in here. This is an additional layer that will operate on top of that and again start to give focus to your resources. So let me just quickly run through each of these. I'm not going to read every tactic that's in the plan, but I just want to hit them at a high level. So the infrastructure pillar here is really focused on making the community or getting the infrastructure in the community investment ready when we have these other projects coming through with a comprehensive plan. So we have three goals as part of this. Number one, we want to create a good roadmap for that infrastructure investment. Likely that would be the five-year CIP and any annual work that's done as part of the budget. Second, we want to really think about what projects will advance or unlock future growth and being strategic about prioritizing resources towards those. And then number three, we really want to think about the city's approach to mobility and connectivity. We talked a lot at the retreat about understanding that this is one community in a metro area and we need to think about connections to our neighbors and how do we get from one side of our community to another side of the community. And so there's space in this plan to really start exploring that. And then finally for every pillar we have these markers of success down at the bottom. And each pillar has two buckets of success. The first are the metrics, and these are the data points that we want to start to measure. It is important to note that we are not collecting a lot of these data points right now. So part of this work is just getting baseline measures established and starting to figure out how do we actually collect this data. And then with each pillar, there is also the second bucket, which are projects completed. And this is like the literal checklist of things that we want to make sure that we accomplish over the next two years. Next up, we have development, and this pillar is really focused on the growth that is happening in your community. First up, the number one goal is really hitting on defining that identity. We need to address what small town feel feels like before we can make other decisions. We talked with the staff team this morning, and there is a great opportunity to loop in the work that's happening as part of the comprehensive plan update. help define that so we're going to start exploring some opportunities there the second goal here is acknowledging the work of the comprehensive plan update that is an incredible effort and undertaking by a community a multi-year process and so goal number two is really focusing on completing that plan and beginning to implement it and use it on a daily basis And then goal number three focuses on enhancing the city's economic development efforts. And this goal is focused on positioning you all as a connector and a resource, not necessarily as the number one person that needs to be doing the economic development work. So how do we use our neighbors and other organizations that are working in this space already to do more better together? And then markers of success down at the bottom. So you can see just getting some of these projects done and plans move forward. And then projects completed, it's getting the North Town 2040 adopted, getting that shared identity adopted, and then you can see identifying development partners specifically for One North and getting the redevelopment plans done in that area. So some good specific goals there to accomplish. Next up we have community engagement. And community engagement pillar really focuses on building upon the great work that you are doing in this space already. What we heard in the conversations, though, is there's an opportunity to be more strategic, that every department is doing community engagement a little differently, the council and mayor are doing community engagement a little differently, and there is a lot going on, and it's a lot of really good things going on, but there's an opportunity to streamline, to be more efficient, and to use resources better. So the first goal that we have there is to just really figure out what we're doing already in this space and create a strategic community engagement plan moving forward. The second goal is focused on improving transparency and communication. That's both internal to the organization and making sure that decisions and information is communicated down through the organization better. It's also focused on being more transparent and communicating better throughout the community externally as well. then finally you see a focus there on building stronger relationships with the business community this is called out specifically for two reasons number one you are doing a ton of work already with the residents in town and we think there's an opportunity to loop in the business community more number two we need to recognize and acknowledge the big impact that the business community does have on the tax base in town and so there's an opportunity to engage with them more and start to loop them more into the process and into the conversation. And then the final pillar here is really focused on what's happening inside of the organization on operations. In this space, we have focused on four key areas. Number one, strategic communication and alignment. Again, are we communicating throughout the organization and are we actually using the strategic plan on a regular basis? Number two is making the commitment to align operations and budgets with strategic priorities. This is the one we put in there as the check. If we're going to do the plan, we want to make sure that we're holding ourselves accountable to actually using the plan. Goal number three is focused on modernizing systems and improving organizational efficiency. We have a lot of ideas from our staff conversations of things that we can address to make things operate a little smoother and a little easier throughout the organization. specifically focusing on technology, financial controls, and administrative processes. And then finally, we want to continue to build the capacity needed for the future as we are looking at the staff team. So identifying some of those core positions that we need succession plans for, thinking about workforce development, retention efforts, and whatnot. Okay, so I know that's a lot of Meredith talking up here. So let me stop there. I would love to dive deeper into any of these aspects for you or answer any questions that I can.

Are there any questions from Council?

councilmember king uh thank you meredith i appreciate it and i appreciate all of your time and getting to work with us as a council and with city staff i i really appreciate that um i just wanted to call out some things i i really liked and you know maybe if members of council have you know items they kind of want to discuss too but from the development perspective the north town identity framework like that is something that absolutely comes up a lot in conversations with the community um and i think it could really help inform the development piece a lot more um especially when it comes to topics like housing when it comes to topic like you know what business we want to attract in the community um and how to align that with what people already really enjoy about north kansas city sometimes that feels like a conflict in those conversations and i don't think it has to be it shouldn't be um so it's something that maybe if we can come up with a planning document In that way, I think it would be very helpful. I think a related question off of that, though, is if there are communities that you've worked with in the past that have had similar endeavors or sort of had, you know, maybe vision setting, kind of describing what the town is in order to lead with that.

Sure. Yes, so actually every community that I've worked in has gone through some sort of branding process, and that's typically what it's called. And we sometimes think about branding in terms of just your marketing materials, but in this sort of process, we're really thinking about what is your reputation as a community? What are people saying about you when you're not in the room? So that's where we really start to define what is the character. I hesitate to bring up this example, but I'm gonna do it. So 15 years ago, I worked at the city of Riverside, and the branding initiative there resulted in the tagline, Upstream from Ordinary. Our neighbors in North Kansas City did not love that at the moment. You were not who we were intending to be upstream from. but that was really capturing that community and when you dive into the documents there riverside was very intentional about saying we are a community that wants to be a little rebellious we are founded for specific reasons and we want to take risks and so we're going to create a brand and identity that really supports that internally and externally i also worked with the city of merriam and for 20 years they have had a tagline that is just right and nobody has ever known what just right actually meant it's kind of like small town feel And so a couple of years ago, we undertook a process to actually define what does it mean to be just right? We didn't change the logo, we didn't change the tagline, but we took the council and community through a conversation to figure out how will we know that Merriam is just right? What does that actually start to look like? And you can see the impact of that in the policies that Merriam approves. You can see it not so much in the visual development community, but you can see it in the way that they look at economic development projects. So there are a lot of communities that are doing it, and I was sharing with your staff, I have some good resources and partners who might be good conversations as you guys are diving into that space.

That would be great, and it sounds like some local examples too, so that's really helpful. I think another thing too I had a similar question about was the agenda cover memo suggestion, aligning agenda items with our strategic goals. I think that's really helpful, and I also think it's a neat – you know, transparency measure as well for folks that maybe don't read our agendas very often, but they can take a quick glance and see how does this align with a broader city goal. I've heard this, you know, idea kind of discussed to when it comes to like fiscal impact, or, you know, just things that residents can look at at a quick glance. Do you have any other, you know, examples there against similar communities that are trying this out?

That is a very common tool that is used. So I can look and see if I can find some good examples that I think do it particularly well. But it is not uncommon for communities to use that as a tool to even report out at the end of the year, or to use it as an after action, or to show like, hey, we're really focused right now on pillar X, and next year we're gonna get to pillar Y. So there's a lot of different ways that you can really frame that and use that. I will also add that we were chatting with the management team today about this plan. And we were talking about how do we make sure that this document does not sit on a shelf, that it does not become an exercise that you all did that one time. And the number one thing I recommended is the first question should be with any decision, how does this align with our strategic plan? It doesn't need to be more complicated than that. Sometimes you're gonna have decisions that don't align at all and that's okay, but just getting in the habit of asking the questions helps everybody use it a little bit more regularly.

Thank you, I appreciate it.

Any other questions? Council Member Wells.

Yeah, so I'm trying to understand. So the strategic plan informs the master plan or North Town 2040, if you want to call it that, Is my understanding of that relationship? It actually goes the other way. Other way, okay.

So typically once you have your comprehensive plan, then you work from that to develop the strategic plan. Since you're in the comprehensive planning process right now, we didn't want to wait two years to have that plan and just kind of be operating a business as usual. So this is a more focused plan that is like operating in the interim. Once you have that comprehensive plan identified, part of the work of that is figuring out what are the first few years start to look like.

Okay. I agree with Council Member Kane that the community identity portion is very important. I do also suspect that it's going to take some time for us to sort through that. I don't see that as an overnight definition that's going to come up with. So I'm hoping that that is built into the North Town 2040 process. Obviously, as a council member, I've not been, you know, kind of at the ground level of that at the moment. But I'm just hoping that that, and I just hope that community development hears that message and we get that worked in.

We did talk about it today, so I can confirm that is on their radar and part of the conversation. Thank you.

Anyone else? Excellent. Well, thank you so much for all of your work. I have appreciated being involved in the sessions and in the interviews. I think that the work that you've done here is really impressive. I think that if community members are curious about how communities and organizations in general kind of focus their efforts on what it is that they want to do, please take a look at this document. I think it's really well prepared, and I think that it gives a good overview of we've got these big bucket things, and then here's the tasks kind of that we need to do to achieve that, and here are the measurements we're going to use to see if we've achieved those goals. So overall, I think it's really good. I know we've got a lot of work to do to figure out where we start and what metrics we want to use and all that, but I look forward to continuing down this path. For city staff, is there anything that you need from us?

Yeah, actually, the first would be More or less a thumbs up to bring it back with a resolution to adopt it, if that's council's wish. And then I would add some comments that some of these, the agenda form is in the works. A lot of these things, I mean, kind of going through the process, getting to this point, we've already started on a lot of them to a point where they could be altered if needed. But just to let you know, we're already running on the ground. But thank you for all that. And yeah, if there's kind of a thumbs up, it'll be back on the 18th. That sounds fantastic. Resolution point. Thank you.

Excellent. Excellent. And I also just want to comment. I do love the approach of every time we make a decision, thinking where does this fit with our strategic plan and ultimately with our master plan. So good way to kind of frame our focus. All right. Next up is item 15.

North Town Day's presentation and request.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. I'd actually like to call down Council Member Wells, who's going to kick off this presentation.

Okay, I'm going to try to speak loudly and firmly. I'm told that I can be a little quiet on the mic, but... When I get going on something that I feel passionately about, I think I can make it happen. And community identity, placemaking, some of the things we were just talking about with the strategic plan discussion are things that I do care deeply about. So I'm just going to go for it. Big question tonight, what in the heck is North Town Days? I think of it as a brand rather than a single event or a festival that happens on a night or a weekend. Really, it's a brand for the entire month of October. And I started thinking about fall festivals after NKC Fall Fest didn't come back in 2025. I'm a big fan of all things autumn, all things fall. So it was really a blow to me, and I just wanted to see that come back in some way. In addition to serving on the council, I also volunteer with the North Kansas City Historical Society. And last winter, I gave a program on the history of festivals here in North Kansas City and celebrations. and just the way that we sort of celebrated community identity in the past leading up to Snake Saturday this year. In preparing for that program, I learned that we've had a long tradition of fall festivals and other celebrations and other times of years, parades, all kinds of stuff long before we had Snake Saturday. That's just really the one that stuck, and hats off to everyone who put that together originally and have kept it going all through the years. That's just great work on their part. But I was really left with this feeling that we should bring back the fall festival tradition to North Kansas City, but give it a slightly new twist. Everyone always says that we do Halloween like no one else here in North Kansas City. So October seemed like a natural fit to me, with Halloween serving as the month's built-in grand finale. And so why a month-long celebration? And I have to admit that I borrowed the idea from West Bottoms Heritage Days, which is a month-long celebration every May designed to get people excited about going to the West Bottoms and patronizing their businesses. And what I love about the model is that there's literally something for everyone. So if you like music, they have concerts. If art's your thing, there are gallery openings. There's charity runs, bike rides, architecture tours, history programs, food festivals, you name it, they have it going on in the West Bottoms in May. And over the years, they've continued to add new signature events while also continuing to celebrate those things that are already going on in their businesses and organizations, all the work that those people are doing to make the West Bottoms special. So the first thing I did was meet with the person who built that event up from the ground. If you're listening tonight, Bruce Matthews, shout out to you. Probably not since you don't live in North Kansas City. But if you are, great work with West Bottoms Heritage Days. He told me that it took a lot of volunteers, a lot of love for the West Bottoms, and of course a lot of time, which didn't surprise me at all. But then he said something that did kind of surprise me. He said that he wished that when they started to build that festival up, that month-long celebration up, that they had as many things going on in the West Bottoms that are already going on in North Kansas City. And that if we were to do something like that here, we'd have a tremendous head start. I happen to think he's right. And that brings me back to my other source of inspiration, which was Snake Saturday. While researching my presentation, I learned that Snake Saturday began as a simple St. Patrick's Day party at the American Inn Motel out on Armor, which back then was called the Roadway Inn. And they had a parade in the parking lot. And the local lore is that Mayor Clark Ferguson went down, saw what they were doing, thought it was a good idea, and invited them to come downtown the following year. That would have been, I believe, 1985. And I love the story because it reminds us that sometimes the stickiest traditions, the things that really last, have humble beginnings with just a few people with a good idea and the dedication to do the work that needs to get done. And that's the spirit I hope that we can capture with North Town Days. So let's celebrate the things we already love about North Kansas City while creating some new traditions of our own. We definitely have people who love the community. We have volunteers who are willing to step up and do work. And most importantly, we already have a lot of cool stuff happening in October. We have events going on at our local businesses. We have North Town Supper and volunteer organizations that are hosting programs. We have football games and the homecoming parade. We have wonderful parks and rec events. And of course, we have Halloween night. We could have an incredible North Town Days in year one with just these events if we wanted to. But like our friends in the West Bottoms, we can add new events year after year. And we are going to hear

about our first opportunity in just a moment here.

Yep, so we're on my second slide, so that's good. So my final pitch is this. Let's make, in North Kansas City, let's make October ours. Let's own Halloween here in North Kansas City, and let's finally make our unofficial black squirrel mascot official and build something around that too. And I just wanna say that this is not a me thing, it's a we thing. It's gonna take volunteers, ideas, partnerships, and a whole lot of love for our community. So if that sounds like something you want to be a part of, I'd love to hear from you. Shoot me an email that you see there up on the screen. Or you're welcome to stop by one of the two North Kansas City Historical Society events that we're holding at the library in August. And that's all for me. So thank you very much.

So the second half of this presentation is actually the North Kansas City Rotary Club. So I am going to stand up with them, pretend I am shifting my hat, because I am also a Rotarian.

Hi, good evening. My name is Emily Morgan. I work in North Kansas City, and I just want to share just really quickly a little bit about your North Kansas City Rotary Club. Just over a year ago, the North Kansas City Rotary Club was really defunct. I think there was one member left of the Rotary Club. And if you know anything about Rotary Clubs, which prior to just over a year ago, I didn't. I really kind of thought it was just some dudes in like church basements. But after discovering a little bit more about it, wow, it's a really great organization that gives back to the community. And over the last year, your North Kansas City Rotary Club has grown from one member to over 50 members. We went recently to the president and president-elect statewide convention for Missouri, and we were the poster children of the entire convention. The North Kansas City Rotary Club is pulling in members where other Rotary clubs across our state and, quite frankly, our nation and internationally just aren't seeing. It's actually interesting to note that our incoming international Rotarian president is from our community. And he's come to our club, and he's very impressed. And so I will say that I think the reason why your North Kansas City Rotary club is so successful is your businesses want to come together. Your neighbors want to be together. We have our North Kansas City Biz Council. They do wonderful, wonderful events, opportunities to network. Your Rotary Club does those things, but then also gives back to the community. As mentioned, we heard about the Northland Days Festival and were really excited and tried to think about different ways for the Rotary Club to get involved. And again, as a Rotary Club, we want to give back to the community. We need to do that through fundraisers. And so I came up with the idea of an Oktoberfest. I'm going to pause here and look and see if there's anyone behind me. There's more. You can talk through it too. I wanted to do the high level.

Kim Nakahoto, Rotarian at the moment. So what they are presenting is really, it's been patterned off of, as Council Member Wells alluded to, we've had Northland festivals, we've had fall festivals. So a lot of it is what worked well from those prior experiences and what new twists can we put on it. So what is before you today is for October 10th from noon to 6, kind of going off of what we learned from the Swift kick of what worked and what we would like to see in the future, is a two-block festival on Armor, which is in the heart of our downtown. So it would be in between Swift and Erie State. Nope, Fayette. And it's really in front of a lot of our businesses that cater, that would be excellent partners. One of the things is Screenland Armor is going to be one of our partners. They are looking to partner with us on the liquor license component as well as the food component because of, and I hope everybody has gone down to the new Latte Life. But the kitchen, they have a commercial grade kitchen and we'd be able to actually supply the festival with food from that commercial grade kitchen, kind of learning what we have learned off of our swift kick and working with our partners at Clay County Health. So can you advance the next slide? So kind of some of the things we are looking at, again, is learning what worked really well last time is live music and entertainment, a craft beer garden, traditional Oktoberfest food. This would actually be the fundraising component that was alluded to before for the North Kansas City Rotary Club. It's really patterned off of the Liberty Club. They hold a

Butt buster. They said it, not me.

And it is really become their signature fundraising component. We think that there could be a lot of fun games that are associated with it. Stein carrying, hot dog eating contests, long games. Adam at Screenland, we have kind of proposed a new, it's not quite ready for prime time, but it would be a competition style that we would invite little carts that were squirrel themed, and you would race them down Armor Road. It's a little bit Pinewood Derby, it's a little bit Survival of the Fittest, but you would actually make carts and we would set up a track down Armor Road and anybody in the community, there would be two different brackets by eight, one a kiddo division and one an adult division. And it would be let the best cart win. Humans are not in it. We are not putting people in there, although Councilmember Wells, boy, we did look at those bud races quite a bit. But we decided the insurance policy would frown on us. So we are thinking of unmanned carts about yay size. Should the city council move forward, we would be doing kind of a test run of that so that people could kind of get an understanding of what we were looking for. And again, going off of, especially coming hot off of the Swift Kick, a lot of the things that we heard during that community was, and it's something that was said to me personally, of what we really loved about this festival is it felt like it was by us for us. and some of the community feedback items that we had heard was we love this, we want more of this, something that brings us together, something that feels truly North Town. So really we took a lot of those comments when we were trying to put together this proposal for an event that really felt by us, for us, and a lot of it was informed off of what Council Member Wells kind of talked about is that North Town days, You know, this kind of was playing in the backdrop of our strategic plan of hearing that what makes Northtown Northtown and give us more events that do that. So it would be showcasing a lot of what makes Northtown Northtown. That's our independently owned food and beverage. That's one of the reasons why we put it right there on Armor Road. Strengthening North Kansas City's identity. Again, the strategic plan, everything that Meredith had talked to, that was really playing in the backdrop of our minds. And really establishing that signature event. It's not to say it's the only signature event, but it's perhaps one of many to come. It's within that landscape of October and the Northtown Days celebration. So with that, you can go to the next one. There is a request for funding, specifically from the Convention on Tourism. What we would be looking for for year one would be a $20,000 tourism grant to support the formation of this particular event. A lot of that was based on what we had heard from festivals before.

Go to the slide.

So this is kind of what the event budget looks like, at least for year one. Just like any event, we would like to make sure that this becomes a self-sustaining event. It's going to take time to be able to do that. If you talk to anybody in the event world, they tell you anywhere between one and five years. Because if you catch a couple of bad weather ones, it just sets you back. So really, we would look at this as a long-term partnership. We would like to make sure that this festival is sustained over several years to be able to make it a signature event. So within the memo, I'll switch now to my city employee. One of the things that kind of the reason why this was proposed in two different phases is we are looking at a $40,000 budgetary request, it is within your proposed budget. $20,000 would be to support just the October Days event, but really that other $20,000 is to kind of do some branding for the Northtown Days. Council Member Wells has done a fantastic job of really trying to pull together a calendar of events. So it would be kind of that branding, it would be that communication of all things Northtown Days, what the celebration is, As well as we're envisioning some banners up and down the corridor Very similar to what they do with snake Saturday and arts in the park this way you kind of get an understanding you want to get everybody excited for what those days are Get people familiar with it from both a visual as well as a programmatic standpoint So with that I'm gonna stand back and let my fellow Rotarians take any questions I was like, when I'm on a roll, I'm just going.

All right. Any questions or comments from council? Council Member Alvarez. Quick question.

You now talked about the swift kickoff where we closed down the street, things like that. Would that be a specific weekend or would that be...

So the closure, that map that was shown, that would only be for October 10. And we picked the hours kind of very intentionally. The event would run from noon to six, so the closure would only happen in the morning. Working with Screenland, we wanted to make sure that we were kind of bringing a whole bunch of people that would hopefully go in and patron those businesses after the festival was concluded. So really what we would love to do is partner with all the businesses along Armour, see if they could do some programming so that we could quite conveniently kind of disband the festival outside and make sure everybody is patroning those businesses that are along that corridor. I do know that Screenland was thinking of doing a movie that evening open free to the community that would tie into this event.

Go ahead. Also, since it's going to be a month-long celebration, are activities planned for the weekends through the month of October or through the week also?

Yeah. As Kim alluded to, I've been putting together a calendar of the existing things that are going on in North Kansas City at the time, the homecoming parade, the homecoming game. There's another home North Kansas City High School football game in October as well. There are events like the month-long Shocktober screenings at Screenland Armor. There's all kinds of things that are already happening up and down. We've been talking with Cinderblock about some different ways to eventize weekend days there. The Parks Department, of course, has Trunk or Treat and Halloween, and then there's another one that's coming up called Howl at the Moon, which is an after dark event at the dog park in October. So yeah, I've been putting those together, and really those events will be gathered together and sort of marketed and branded under North Town Days. So that's the theory behind it.

Any other questions or comments? I love this idea.

Go ahead.

Council Member Cain.

Oh, thank you. I just wanted to give my compliments on the branding. I think my jaw dropped when I first saw the badge logos for this. So this is so impressive. And again, of course, huge kudos to Council Member Wells for kind of galvanizing this idea and taking it and running with it. So I appreciate your work.

I think it's fantastic. I'm really excited about it. Any opportunity to showcase our black squirrels, I think, is phenomenal. Obviously, I love North Kansas City, and October is a wonderful month here. We actually moved to North Town on Halloween in 2018. It was like moving into a movie. It was just, there were people and kids. I mean, there was somebody in the middle of our street having a bonfire. It was great. It was amazing. The more people who can come and experience that, I think, the better. And the whole month is going to be really fun. So do you need anything? I know you need something from us, but what do we need to do?

What we would like for this, if council's agreeable, we would work on a contract for services much like Northland Festivals when they put on the request is $20,000. So that's the question to council. I will say in the budget that we're going to discuss next, There is a presumption, but for Northtown Days, there's a total of $40,000 budgeted for the, you know, just so if you guys chose to do all this, you could see how it affects everything.

All right. Is there everybody thumbs up, thumbs down, head nods? Looks like we're all on board.

We'll come back with a contract.

Forge ahead.

Thank you.

Yeah. All right, next item is item number 16, fiscal year 2027 budget discussion.

I'm going to let Nick jump in here. I would like to start with a quote of a comment made at the last meeting, if I may. Kids, we're having spinach tonight. It's going to be really good. No, that's... Actually, I was telling Council Member McGrone that I almost put a spinach can on the cover. That was a great comment. And I do like spinach. So, okay, 2027 budget. We're going to go through it. Our plan tonight is I think we've got a total of nine or ten slides. But we're going to go through the overview. Nick and I are going to kind of bounce back and forth and then, I mean, really open it up to questions. But as you've all seen, I sent out a couple emails yesterday with some questions. Sorry, I have to think if I sent one today. I know I replied to one council member. I don't remember if I sent it out to everybody. I did. Thank you. It's been that day. So trying to keep you all up on, you know, if one council member asks it, then others most likely are thinking it as well. So getting those answers out to everybody. But, Nick, are you ready? We're just going to kind of go back and forth and then open it up to questions for all of you. So first slide, kind of the budget at a glance, $117.8 million budget. Now, if you take out the Interfund transfers, roughly $21.8 million, that gets you to a $96 million operating and capital budget, which for a town our size, I will tell you, is unheard of. So that speaks to the strength of North Kansas City. I've heard one of our engineering firms will often say that we punch above our weight, and I would say we do it really well with the help of everybody. So the other part, the general fund balance, as proposed right now, will end at $23.2 million, which will be 97 percent of our general fund expenditures. That's a good spot. And I will stress again, and you'll hear it again later, but right now the general fund is, I want to say it's, to the positive proportion, you know, with this budget to the positive at the end of 27, $17,237, which as those of you that have been here, you know, last year and then previous years, it's been a long time since we've had a zero or a positive number budgeted. Now, we've always come out okay, but I want to compliment staff on that. And then staffing, as you'll hear a little bit later, we do, this includes, We're losing, well, it's decreasing three positions but adding, I've got to think, seven. So a total of adding four. But we're doing that. All but one of the positions are in the general fund. So it's still being done with balancing or, you know, say overbalancing the general fund. So, again, that's impressive as well. I mean, that's a testament to the staff. So budget highlights, again, the balance general fund. You might hear that a few more times tonight, sorry, but we're proud of that. I mean, that's a big thing. Then comprehensive department budgets. One of the things we've done is moved capital from just one capital tab to the departments. As you go through the budget, you'll see the narrative, the actual budget, line item budget, but then a capital page as well. Um, we've done that. We've, we've done that with insurance as well. Split that health has been that way, but for property liability, um, all that type, we've moved that to the departments as well, just to give a, uh, kind of a little more clarity on, on what the departments cost, the, the O and M and everything. Um, so that's the difference. Um, We have strategic transfers in the budget, capital transfers from gaming to general fund. However, I will say that it doesn't, general fund is paying for some of its capital. It's not all funded by gaming. So that was a good plus. I gotta think through my head. Transportation, let's see, transportation, that communications, parks, library, and WPC, none of those are receiving transfers from gaming to achieve their budgets, their proposed budgets. So again, that's a testament to them. I'm getting a little off track. The other big thing in the budget that we want to highlight, self-funded health insurance. So we're proposing going from fully funded where we pay just a flat premium every month to go into self-funded to where we'll still, it's still Blue Cross, it's still the same plans that we have right now. This is through Blue Cross. It's just that on a weekly basis, they'll submit claims as they come in and we'll pay the claims. We've worked with our broker on this, Lockton, and they've gone through it and they said, you know, based on our claims history, They, I won't say they, they think it's a valid thing to try. I mean, I see a possible question coming. Okay. I'll hold. I was going to let you, I mean, if you wanted to, while we're on this subject.

Council Member Bailey. How much is that to the positive? Just, it takes one kidney transplant.

Yeah. So it does include stop-loss insurance. There are guardrails on that. Blue Cross is still going to get some administrative fees and things like that, but there is stop loss insurance to cover items like that. But it's true that one year can be rough. Right now, what we're proposing is no increase to the premiums for either the city or the employee. Those will cover what our expected claims are. We are budgeting a one-time gaming seed that would get us at 40% reserve. The thought being, though, as we go through the years, the good experience will take care of itself, the reserves and whatnot. But I did mention to the mayor before he left, we were talking about this, and he was fine with it. But I said this is, I say it's a three-year commitment. but really you need to do three years because, yes, there could be that one large claim, but it's over the long haul. It's almost like a bond versus the stock market.

You've got to... How deep do you have to be in the red before stop loss kicks in?

75,000.

Remind me of the total budget line.

3.2? No, wait, maybe two point, let me, I have that. If I can get my, there we go. I want to, 2.5, 2.5 million. Okay. All right.

Council Member Alvarez.

I'm curious. I guess I don't understand. I'm not familiar. What's the advantage of having the self-funded insurance?

Better cost to the city. We have more control over our plans and then also better cost. It's a savings right off the bat based on Lockton's review and everything and their projections. Right now we're looking at a 9.9% increase. fully funded, and this would be a zero. But even then, Lockton looked at it and said, yeah, with your claims history, it makes sense to do that.

So this would keep the rates the same and the coverage?

Correct.

Okay.

Same plans and same cost. And potentially going forward, I mean, you know, we see what, if we keep having, you know, if we keep having great claims experience, then potentially even better. All right. Hand off to Nick.

Good evening. So I'm going to talk a little bit about long-term financial strategy, and I really can't think of a better intro than Meredith talking about the strategic plan tonight. One of our goals in finance is to really just infuse the budget process with strategic planning, with capital improvements, and having that really be a driver in terms of budget decisions year after year. So, you know, some of the things that we've already really kind of been working on with that are in October of this past year, we passed a pretty comprehensive financial policy code adoption, and that set forth a financial reserves goal of 50% for basically all of our operating funds outside of our TIF funds. And as you've seen in the summary of this budget, each fund meets or exceeds that goal. And what that really does is that provides us a really strong basis for being able to do things like the self-insurance. We have a very strong base that we're working with. We can think really strategically about the things that we want to do when we get into things like, no one wants to say recession, but should those things come up, we are in a much stronger position than just about any other community in this region. When I looked at what some of our peer cities are at right now, in their general fund, they're hovering around 25% fund balance, and we have nearly 100%. So again, that provides us a lot of room to think strategically, both about expenditure options. Also, before we get to a point where we really hit a structural imbalance, we can look at revenue options and present those to you well in advance so you have time to make decisions that you need to make. help continue to support the city. I'm going to talk a little bit about also our transfer strategy. I think Mike gave a really good overview of that. One of the things that I think really helps with an evaluation of the budget is to be able to see all the departments as they operate. So with our transfers, we've moved a lot of the capital that was in the gaming fund into the individual department budgets, specifically the general fund. You've probably seen in years past, like for water, parks, library, we've already done that. But the general fund has always been more focused on operations. And in the capital, it becomes a different discussion. So with this budget, and I think budgets moving forward, you'll be able to have that conversation together and really see how the departments operate. So the gaming fund essentially operates as our capital fund, and so that provides support for most of the major capital projects that we do, specifically like our water projects, maintenance at the community center, and then as Mike was talking about, this provides us a seat for that health insurance reserve fund so we can really evaluate it properly. And then parks, library, transportation, convention, WPC, all of those are budgeted as self-sufficient for FY27. Pass it back to Mike.

Okay, I'm going to touch on personnel in a little bit. We kind of got into the health insurance already, so I'll lay back on that unless there's more questions. On the personnel, I mentioned that we were going from or proposing to go from 204.75 full-time equivalents to 208.75. Those positions, human resources generalist, right now we have one human resources person for 208.75 full-time equivalents. Talking to our peer cities and whatnot, I mean, I don't know that anybody's over 100. I think 96, I heard, one city. But they have... That's... the ratio of 1 to 96, but they have more employees than us. So, I mean, they still have the help. Budget management analyst, what that is, is we want to hone in on procurement and then some of our insurance. But the big thing is grants management, the procurement piece, making sure things go where they're supposed to You know, we have the new policy that was adopted last fall. There are a lot of steps to it. Somebody with more focus on that, that, hey, you know, here's our context. Did you get your three bids? I mean, just helping with the whole process. And then, of course, the budget piece of it. Fire training captain. I apologize on the slide. We left out training. But it's for the training aspect in the fire department to assist with that. And then three contingent firefighter EMTs. This is with the safer grant So this is the piece that if the grants not awarded They get pulled out immediately and then a water utility maintenance worker. They get called in quite a bit So they've been asking for this we put it in the budget and looked at it and it works But they're also wanting to look at with this look at on-call kind of a rotating on-call system right now I think I'm gonna speak for Anthony but I think the supervisor gets all the calls but they're if they can get set up on a schedule or rotates to where it's not beating down on one person all the time but they've asked for the help and we found a way to get it in here so we're proposing it I mentioned the health insurance And then, yeah, as always, I mean, personnel costs, they remain the largest ongoing piece, but that's any company, unless you're a business of one, but you're still probably a big chunk of it. That's it on this. I think I hit all that, Nick? I think it's, like I said, we're going to bounce back and forth.

The general fund is our largest primary operating fund within the city, supported by a diverse set of revenues, sales taxes, franchise fees, charges for service, and also rentals as well. And out of all the funds in the city, this is the one where the key driver is personnel. So about 75% of the employees in North Kansas City are housed primarily in the general fund. And so when we look at long-term effects and cost drivers, in the general fund it starts with people. Even though that we've added the transfer for a lot of the capital, it is really a transfer and it's still being supported by gaming. So as we discussed the general fund, that's going to be the key driver. And so as we continue to look at our long-term projections, we'll talk about staffing levels and what it will take to keep operating levels consistent. So one of the things that we've added in this budget on each of the fund pages, you'll see a long-term outlook. And really, again, tying in with the strategic plan, we want to make sure that you're aware of those things as we look at keeping operating levels consistent with where they're at right now or possibly enhancing them. what could be the possible effects of either lowering expenditures or increasing revenues. So we will continue to look at those options. Really, if I had to say anything about this budget, is operationally it is very similar to how we are operating today. But again, as we try and think more strategically long term, I think we've really looked at how this budget looks from a public-facing standpoint and also internally so that when we're making decisions and looking at options, we can really see the impact of that. On the flip side, probably the biggest overall cost driver for the city as a whole is actually capital. And so one of the things that we've tried to do in the last several budgets is create a capital improvement plan that is fluid and really gives departments a lot of leeway in terms of getting projects done. We've honed that in a little bit over the last couple of years. We've shown a lot of, I would say, budgeted deficits, although we do carry forward a lot of projects from year to year, so we have revenue reserved for those, so we're really not operating at a structural deficit. But what we've tried to do in working with departments is really look at capital from a three-year perspective. So this first year are projects that we want to get done within the next 12 months, but years two and three are also shovel-ready projects that If the funding capacity is there, if the staffing capacity is there, we can move those up and get started on them earlier so that we can hit strategic goals. And again, as Meredith said earlier, really, the capital plan is critical for feeding into hitting those strategic priorities. So over the last couple of years, we've had our three major utility master plans Those are going to continue to guide us. From a financial standpoint, we will continue to look at what is the best overall structure for funding those. Right now, currently, we have zero debt. We've been able to leverage the gaming fund for pay-as-you-go financing of some really big projects, and that's helped both our utility rates and just our ability to really get things done. But as we see these bigger projects on the horizon, debt can be a good option for the city, revenue bonds for utility capital projects. But again, just hitting on the fact that we have a very healthy fund reserve policy and very healthy reserves overall, we can take a time to work with our financial advisors and staff to make the best decisions for how those are funded going forward.

Okay, we're almost there. So budget calendar, obviously we're going through this tonight. August 8th is balance and balance. That is from 9 o'clock to 10.30. Kim, I'm sorry if I took your staff comment. it'll come up again you'll hear that again that's that's this Saturday the next meeting August 18th you know we've got it on there for updates follow-up discussion if it's needed if for some reason you all think this is wonderful tonight and say come back with it adopted we'll do so okay humor and then September 1st is also you know discussion and slot it out now we expect Property tax hearing on the 22nd. As a reminder, part of the consent tonight was moving the September 15th meeting to September 22nd because of Missouri Municipal League. So 22nd, we're hoping to have the property tax hearing, and then October 1st, the budget year begins. I think we've hit all of our stuff, but now the big thing is council discussion. Any questions? Are there parts of the budget that you have questions about? Are there changes you would like to see?

Council Member Saber?

This is a time when I make an ask of the community. Come to us with any comments you have on this budget.

We've taken a look at it.

I'm confused by some of it. Some of it's been explained to me.

Some of it may be confusing to you.

Come forward and ask the council, and if we don't know the answers, we'll go to others who might know the answers. And if we can't get an answer, then that becomes an issue for the budget. But come to us. Thank you.

Council Member Wells?

Yeah, thank you, Council Member Saper. I echo that absolutely. All of this is easier when people reach out to us and give us their feedback. So definitely encourage that. I did have one specific question about the communications budget that I was just hoping that you could add some clarity to. And there may have been discussions and things that predate when I was appointed to this seat. So I'm fully acknowledging that I might just be not in the know on this. I believe it's been sort of an ongoing goal to extend fiber optic internet service to the apartment communities. And I don't really see anything about that in the budget. It seems more of a maintaining the infrastructure and supporting current operations. Is that something that's still being discussed at the city level?

It's in the process right now with Spanish 8. NACIX has ordered the equipment. It's not complete, but... Last I talked to them, I want to say they said about a month. But yeah, they've ordered the equipment. The poles are up. The wires are run. So that's the pilot project. So right, not specifically in the narrative, but I'd say in the budget. The $500,000 for operating expense is a general expense for that budget. But yes, the pilot study is in process right now. Thank you. Yes?

Council Member Saper?

One of the things that's still in this budget and has been in the last several, actually, is an animal control facility. And a lot of residents and at public meetings have pointed out that that's something they really want to see. Nothing seems to be moving forward. What is the status of that?

I'm going to that page for you so I have the cost and everything. So that's been through discussions, one of where it's going to be, what's going to be done, if it stays where it's at, is it renovation, is it rebuild? As we got towards the end of the budget, then we're also within the last month or so taking on a feasibility study of a wastewater treatment plant, which if that happens, that changes where animal control is right now. So without the progress, we hadn't made the progress we thought we would make, but we threw the $300,000 in there for design. So we could still try to get that progress. But there's questions of where it would go. Is it a renovate or is it a new build?

At one time, there was a strong favor for a new build because of location is not desirable right now. And residents keep asking. They want that to move forward. And it's been in the budget for too long without anything happening.

Well, as Nick mentioned, our goal with all the capital this year was to kind of pare down the number and and be more progressive with it. I mean, attacking the projects. But that's what we're trying to figure out is where. But yes, it has been in for two years, I believe, two years. And I think last year we had a bigger amount. But that didn't happen. So we'll keep working on it. It is heard, what you said. Thank you.

Council Member Cain. Thank you. And thank you, Mike, by the way, for answering so many questions over the last several weeks, but also this week. trying to learn as much as possible. This is my first budget season. So going through line item by line item and learning, you know, what's a Zoll monitor? You know, what's a smart belt? What's a multi-spray brine application tank? You know, like trying to dive deep and see like what the function is and how this is going to all benefit the city. So I appreciate you answering the more specific questions too about large increases line item by line item, and things where there's a lot of change generally is where I tried to pin the focus. I had a couple of general topics that I wanted to touch on, and maybe we can talk a little bit, too, about the strategy focus. a long-term outlook of the gaming fund. So I'm curious, because it looked like year over year there were times where expenditures didn't exceed revenue, but times where it has, or at least it was, you know, initially budgeted that way, that actuals didn't meet or projections didn't meet that way. So, I had some general questions about this year, because, obviously, expenditures are going to exceed revenues by about $10 million, or at least as budgeted, bringing the fund balance down from $30 million to $20 million. So, I was just kind of curious about, like, the long-term and short-term plan, too, in terms of capital projects on the horizon and how we're, basically balancing those out. So a mention of CIP, a fund reserve policy, you know, what are the kinds of things that you all are taking into account for the next, not just this year, but the next several?

We do have the fund reserve policy in the code that was approved last fall. That is, gaming fund built up and built up. There were projects budgeted that were having a hard time getting out of the starting gate. But now those, you know, we're starting to see some of those. You know, the big chunk of this year is Burlington, Watermain. Now gaming's not paying for all of it, but it's a large transfer. But, yes, over time, I mean, if we spend more than we bring in, it's going to take us down to that reserve threshold, 50%, I believe, is gaming. So that is something to think about. And that's where Nick was talking about, you know, we start looking at debt, you know, More, I would say, with water and sewer because there's revenue to repay that debt. It's built in. It's very common with water and sewer to do revenue bonds. But yeah, you start looking at those opportunities. What are other ways? Because, I mean, you can see the budgeted revenue is $8.9 million for gaming. So right now, while we have a healthy reserve and we can plan ahead and take care of some things, I mean, there will come a point where, you know, just like at home, you know, you've got to – we have to keep that reserve for emergencies and whatnot. So, I mean, that's our goal is to start looking at – as Nick mentioned, we don't have any debt. I don't know how long it's been since the city has had debt. Not since I've been here. I don't know. I'm looking around a little bit. I would say at least, you know, probably since – casino game and the gaming fund started it's not a bad thing if you do it right so I kind of a long answer but yeah we do have the policy already set in place but that's part of this you know next year we've got Bedford and 19th Avenue pumping stations on the horizon that are gonna be large tickets too so that's what we're starting to look at is what does financing that look like at what level, you know, how much does gaming, um, it can.

So a lot of that 18 million then was tied to projects that were delayed basically and are coming to at this point. And we're going to start working.

Correct. Um, two of the big ones, Burlington water, Maine Purina mill, uh, has, has been on the, uh, I say the books. I mean, since I, since I've been here, I mean a long time. Um, And then the Safe Streets for All demonstration, that's been an ongoing part of the planning grant, the continuation of that. But yes, there are some that we're getting for. The lime feed system, I think that's another one that has been stalled for a little while, and rightfully so, but we're ready to go.

And the other question I had was on water rates. So I know water rates are, at least for this budget, would go up 5 percent. And thank you, Mike, by the way, for making that, you know, a total dollar breakdown, too, to try to see between, you know, residential, apartment sales, and then industrial. So it looked like about $170,000 for FY2027, and then $30,000 of that going to residential or residential and apartment sales. and then 140 for industrial. So I was just curious, like, what elements go into the rate increase? Like, you know, what are you all, you know, the variables that you all are assessing? And, you know, to come up with that 5% figure. And then, too, just a little bit of the history. You know, any rate increases in past years and, like, you know, kind of the background on that.

Yeah, so it was before I came here, I think in 21, when Raftelis... did the rate study, and that was a five-year. We've been going by those since that study. But, I mean, sure, what goes into it is you look at the revenue that you're collecting. You looked at the O&M, any debt, any of the cost, we'll say, for water to produce the water, distribute it, to get it from the ground. to your taps, you look at all those costs and then projected costs in the future, and you line them. I mean, you know, what is it, what's it gonna take, what kind of revenue do we need to do that? That's the short, I mean, there's a lot that goes in, you know, looking at residential versus commercial, if there's a difference in that. But the short of it is, here's what we're gonna need, here's what we're collecting right now, so here's what we're gonna need to increase. So we've been going off Raftelis, but we also know that with the master plans and increased O&M, I mean, with the master plans, we have more projects. Burlington Water Main is a huge one, but there are others coming behind it. And then with the sewer, the same thing. We have all the projects listed in the sewer master plan. And as you alluded to, I mean, gaming fund is a healthy fund, but we can't cover all of them. You know with that so So it's recognizing the O&M that we have right now and the increased cost and and planning also to go well I mean we could not increase the rate But there's gonna come a day where we have to and it's it's honestly it's better to keep up with with the O&M instead of a huge You know wham to the to the residents so that was done in the past Before I came I mean, if that, again, long answer, but.

No, that's great. No, I appreciate it. And not as a request for the next council meeting, but just if you have that study, I'd be definitely curious. The Raft Ellis?

Oh, yeah, we can get that.

Perfect. Thank you.

Other questions or comments? Okay. Well, we ate some spinach. It was delicious. It always is. I appreciate all the comments that everybody has made. I love the questions about rate increases because I think that's one of the things that our residents and businesses are really curious about. I will say it again, as I've said very frequently up here, that we're very lucky to have some of the lowest water rates in the entire state. metro when we moved to north town our water rate was cut in half and so even as it creeps up it is still below kansas city water so i'm a five percent increase i'm i'm personally okay with it i'm it's still better than than the alternative so um i also appreciate council member saper's comments about the animal shelter it's one of those things that would be really nice to have however i'm i i I think that some of these larger capital projects like the Burlington Water Corridor and our stormwater and that sort of thing that are very expensive, but also, not that an animal shelter, an improved animal shelter isn't necessary, but I think that some of our sewer and stormwater and wastewater needs are more are more pressing at this moment. So that's my opinion. It's not, I'm speaking as Councilmember McGrone, not as anybody else. So is there anything else you need from us this evening?

Kind of direction. You know, the next meeting is the 18th, August 18th. From comments and all that, I mean, it sounds like the budget's good, pending comments maybe from the community. So we'll just kind of hold it steady and have a discussion item or an item on the next agenda in case anything comes up.

I think that's reasonable. Everybody good?

And not to mention, we'll have the balance and balance Saturday.

Oh, yeah. Everybody that is interested in asking some questions, I know Council Member Saper said to ask the council. I don't have answers. Kim and Mike and Nick have answers. And I assume all three of them will be at the Bounce and Balance event.

Correct, as well as all the department heads and some of their staff.

And can you remind us of when that is?

Saturday the 8th, August 8th at Parks and Rec from 9 o'clock till 10, 10.30.

Okay, so we can go do that and then we can go help sort photos. Is it at the library or the Parks building?

Library.

Okay, so we can do both on the same day. Be really engaged. Awesome.

All right.

Okay, moving on to item number 17. Consideration of an ordinance amending section 1.12.042 regarding listing of candidates on municipal election ballot. Bill number 8001, ordinance number 9798. All right, who's taking this one?

Good evening, Mr. Excuse me. Madam Mayor Pro Tem and members of the council. What we're doing, Crystal brought this to my attention that was brought to her attention by the election board that we probably needed to amend our ordinance on how we handle filings, et cetera. And basically, what it will do, and this will specifically authorize by state statute, those who file on day one, the first day, let's say we have five people file for one seat, all right? Those people will, on that day, They will draw a number, and that number will be assigned to them, and then they will be ranked at the end of that day. And that's the order they will be on the ballot on day one. Now, people can file on day two and ten and whatever, and then they will just be added as they file. Okay, there's no more drawing or anything like that. And it's... The city clerk and I have discussed it, and she's ready to go. But all it does is really pull us into compliance with a change that there had been in the state statute. If there are any questions, I'll be glad to answer them for you. But that's all that this does.

Questions? Mayor Bailey?

First reading.

Second. All in favor? Yes. Any opposed?

All right. An ordinance amending the code of the City of North Kansas City, Missouri by repealing section 1.12.042 and enacting a new section 1.12.042 in lieu thereof to conform the procedure for listing candidates on the ballot to section 115.124 revised statutes of Missouri.

I move that bill number 8001 be placed under second and final reading and passed as ordinance number 9798. Second. Call the roll, please.

Council Member Cain? Yes. Council Member Alvarez? Yes. Council Member Wells?

Yes.

Council Member Saper? Yes. Council Member Bailey? Yes. Council Member McGraw?

Yes.

An ordinance amending the code of the City of North Kansas City, Missouri by repealing section 112 and enacting a new section 1.12.042 in lieu thereof to conform the procedure for listing candidates on the ballot to section 115.124 revised statutes of Missouri.

Excellent. Moving on. Number 18.

Consideration of an ordinance approving a license agreement with Tanimi. Bill number 8000, ordinance number 9797.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Before you deny this agenda item is simply just a license agreement between The city and Tanemic for us to place a pole on their property where we can hang in one of our city cameras to enhance our network where we have a gap in coverage on that northwest side of town. We have several of these already in place. I think five total by my recollection. Two with Armor District LLC, one with Regal, one with StoreSafe, and one with Brown and Company out off of Choteau. So, again, this is prepared by Council. Councillor Barzee, to protect the city and protect Anemic, and happy to answer any questions about it.

Any questions from council? All right. Is there a motion?

First reading.

Okay. All in favor? Yes.

Any opposed? All right. An ordinance adopting and approving a license agreement by and between the City of North Kansas City, Missouri as licensee and Tanimi Company Incorporated as licensor for the use of a small certain piece of real property owned by licensor adjacent to the west right-of-way line of Burlington and north of 23rd Avenue in North Kansas City, Missouri.

I move that bill number 8,000 be placed on second and final reading and pass as ordinance number 9797. Second. Call the roll, please.

Councilmember Cain? Yes. Councilmember Alvarez? Yes. Councilmember Wells? Yes. Councilmember Saper? Yes. Councilmember Bailey? Yes. Councilmember McGraw? Yes. An ordinance adopting and approving a license agreement by and between the City of North Kansas City, Missouri as licensee and Tanimic Company Incorporated as licensor for the use of a small certain piece of real property owned by licensor adjacent to the west right-of-way line of Burlington and north of 23rd Avenue in North Kansas City, Missouri.

All right, number 19.

Consideration of an ordinance approving accounts due and payable by the city through July 31st, 2026. Bill number 8002, ordinance number 9799.

First reading.

Second.

All in favor?

Yes. All right. Any opposed? All right, go.

Getting ahead of myself. An ordinance authorizing payment for certain accounts due and payable by the city through July 31st, 2026.

I move that bill number 8002 be placed on second and final reading and passed as ordinance number 9799. Second.

Call the roll, please. Councilmember Cain? Yes. Councilmember Alvarez? Yes. Councilmember Wells?

Yes.

Councilmember Saper? Yes. Councilmember Bailey? Yes. Councilmember McGraw?

Yes.

An ordinance authorizing payment for certain accounts due and payable by the city through July 31st, 2026.

All right, next up is staff comments.

All right, we're going to start out with Kim and then Chief Freeman, and then I'll end it.

As promised, I am re-inviting everybody to Bounce and Balance. It's from 9 to 10.30 a.m. at Mackin Park, and also at Mackin Park is the ribbon cutting and community kickoff for the community compost bin. So we are doing that at the one in Mackin Park. It's over by the ball diamonds, and that's at 10. So you can actually do three events this weekend, including the one at the library.

Good evening again. August 14th, 6 p.m. to 8.30, I believe, is National Night Out at Mackin Park. This is our third iteration of National Night Out. It does continue to grow. Talking about the Northtown Days and festivals, how they start small and continue to grow. This is continuing to grow for us and becoming a more well-attended event, and we always try to bring new things. National Night Out is the concept of bringing the community and law enforcement together and originally constructed to fight crime, right, and talk about ways to do better together. And so just a reminder, August 14th, six o'clock at Mackin Park and followed by a movie night in the park as well, right? Concert is what I meant to say. And because I sat here all night, I just want to give recognition to some of my staff that did the majority of the work in helping prepare the police department's budget for your review. Major Holm is here. Sergeant Harmon is here. And Major Kimmel just stepped out. But they're the ones that did the majority of the work on the police department's budget. And I wanted to give them the recognition that they deserve. Thank you.

Well, those are kind of my comments.

One second. Oh, sorry. I'm sorry. What time did you say the Friday night at?

August 14th.

But no, what time?

Oh, 6 o'clock.

I have 430 to 7. OK. OK. to say it.

Show up when you want.

Just thought I would point that out. Okay.

Okay. Well, kind of like Kevin mentioned his staff, I was going to commend the department heads again with the budget and thank the council for the questions ahead of time and the discussion tonight. I appreciate it. And then also I was just going to share with you I will now be at the next meeting on the 18th However, please send any further questions, comments that you hear, please send them in. But I've joked with the department heads, I'm trying to load that agenda up since I won't be here. Anyway, thank you again for tonight.

All right, we're going to move on to council member comments, starting with council member Cain. Thank you.

Yes, thank you. First, I want to thank Tara for making public comments tonight. Congratulations on your reappointment. Tonight, I don't want to take too long on public comments, but just to run through and call out some events. We've already mentioned the triple play on this Saturday, so I won't mention that. Tuesday, August 11th, is City Hall Selfie Day, by the way. So if you want to come take a photo in front of City Hall, you can. Put it on Instagram, Facebook, whatever people are doing these days. And use hashtag City Hall selfie or hashtag NKC City Hall selfie. So that's a fun time. Celebrate public service and show pride in our city. Next Wednesday, August 12th, NKC BPAC will be hosting a North Town Bike Audit starting at 6.30 at 23rd and Swift. So for those that are familiar with the walk audit concept, it's just been adapted for bikeability and safe cycling infrastructure. So they're going to make some recommendations based on that as well. So again, that's Wednesday, 6.30, 23rd and Swift. On Thursday, August 13th, NKC New Neighbors is hosting an end-of-summer happy hour at Rewind Video, 10% off all tabs for NKC residents. So be sure to show up. And then finally, National Night Out. So folks, go out to Mackin Park at 430 and be sure to...

I confirmed. I checked our Facebook page. Council Member Alvarez is correct. Okay, great.

Please make note of that. we'll see you all there councilman robert yeah i just wanted to say uh thank you to tara again for coming out um i know she did a great job on the being on the crummett committee so i i agree i love looking at the boxes that were wrapped with the uh the pictures and things that the kids did, or whoever, you know, the adults did too, but it looks really great, so I enjoy seeing those too. Also, I just want to say, yes, August 8th, the balance and balance, I know we've talked about that, but again, 9 to 10.30, and then right after that, you can go to the library for the information there and the historical records. society and then august 14th again the national night out for 30 to seven and then right after that is the movie in the park so bring your chairs blankets concert i mean concert sorry so bring your chairs and blankets and stay for that and then i also want to say thank you for all the work that was done on the budget i just I almost got a headache just looking at all the numbers, and I know there was a lot of work put into that, so I just thank you for all of that information. Great job. Council Member Wells.

Well, I was prepared to also do a calendar rundown, so I don't know what I'm going to say now, but You know, yeah, I do. I mean, I know that the North Kansas City Historical Society event on Saturday has been plugged many times during this meeting, but I, you know, I have to say it again. If you have an interest in North Kansas City history and want to learn more about volunteering with the Historical Society on a more regular basis, please come and see us on Saturday morning at the public library. We'll be down in the big meeting room. That starts at 9 AM. We'll go till noon. So come see us. Go over to the park to learn about the budget. There's a bounce castle, right? That's the bounce part of it. So once you're finished with learning about the budget, crunching the numbers, and finished with the bounce castle, come to the library. Help us sort photos. We could especially use assistance from longtime residents and people who can help us identify people, places, events, that sort of thing, because a lot of our photos are sort of community gatherings and things like that. So any of that knowledge that can be brought to bear would be especially useful. Also excited about the BPAC audit. You know the time and dates in particular, so I won't dwell on that. I have found that the audits, the walk audits, and this will be, I think, the first bike audit that's going on in the city, have been very useful in providing the city direct feedback from residents about, say, what it's like to walk in a certain area, and in this case, what it's like to ride in a certain area. So if you have interest in those kinds of issues, I will be there. So please come and join me down there for that event. Also, looking forward to the neighbors happy hour. I actually visited Rewind Video and Dive, where that's going to be held, I believe, at 6 p.m. on the Thursday after. Yeah, Thursday next week. For the first time last week with Councilmember Cain. And, you know, I will go. It's always uncomfortable when I see the ephemera of my 1980s and 90s upbringing sort of blasted back in my face. But I will... I will go, I will withstand that onslaught and go see some new and old faces, hopefully. And then like everyone else, I am also interested. This will be my first national night out, but I think it's a great opportunity to come down and learn more about the police department that helps keep the city safe. So I encourage you all to attend that. And that's everything from me.

Council Member Saper?

Well, so far, that's been a lot from everyone. I'd like to remind people that there is a new coffee shop in town, Latte Life. It's adjacent to Life Unlimited, and it's part of what they do now. It gives people an opportunity to train and learn and grow the mission of Life Unlimited. And I would hope people would give it a try. We did today at the business council, and good coffee, good pastries. Try them.

Council Member Bailey.

I was... very disappointed i wasn't able to make that meeting this morning um normally batting the last you don't get to anything new but i'm gonna i actually have a few things that slip through here one i'd like to thank mr chuck zug for coming out with chipotle that's a huge piece of news buried in there is this is a financially awesome decision by the city there's a lot of great things uh You look at the purchase price of that sliver of land. You look at the financial reckoning of it all. It's a really good decision on top of I really need a burrito bowl. So I'm very proud of that. It's been a long time coming, a lot of work by staff. Chuck has been a great partner through all of it, and we really appreciate him coming to town. Two, it was mentioned briefly, but I'll shout it out again, the compost committee. This is a group of citizens who have just taken it upon themselves to go out and do the thing with a little bit of funding from the city, but they did the research, they did the work, and because of that, we now are going to try to be more eco-conscious here in North Kansas City and see what comes of that. So a great shout out to that team, Diane, Bart, Everybody else that I'm obviously forgetting right now, thank you. We really appreciate it. Council Member Wells, it takes a lot of work to bring a project like that to fruition. It takes a lot of time, effort, and a lot of stuff that's unseen. Thank you. I appreciate it. Staff, a ton of work goes into a budget, a ton of work. Thank you. I appreciate it. And then lastly, the New Neighbors is looking if you want to buy a coffee cup. That will help fund a New Neighbors package for people who are moving in. It's $20. Get a cool coffee cup. Go out and find them. Jack Cooley is one of the guys accepting money, so good opportunity to put $20 in Jack's hands.

Excellent. I don't have a whole lot more to say, but I will say it anyway. I thank you all who are here, who came to speak, especially Tara. I really appreciate what you've said and your commitment to helping make North Kansas City a more artistic and beautiful place in many ways. And if everybody hasn't gone around and walked and looked at the utility boxes that were painted, they are so cool. And they represent different schools in our school district and people in our community. And it's very, very cool. um the national night out it's after that is a concert it's a band called friendly thieves it's one of my favorite kansas city local bands um they are just all all i think there's five of them in the band and it's kind of funky and fun and and they're all just truly wonderful people and i encourage everybody to go listen to them you'll have a really good time um it's been a pleasure to be uh the temporary mayor for a minute uh and um i'm glad that uh it has been very quiet while mayor smith has been gone so i uh knock on all the wood fake wood i don't know wood right there yeah so um with that uh that is all that i've got um other than thank you to our city staff and and um for all of the work that you do all the time And now at this time, the, wait, do I need to do anything else? Oh, no, I need to do the executive session, correct? I'll read it.

You what? You want me to read it? Yes, please. Consideration of a request to hold in recess into an executive session as requested by the city administrator to be held on this date pursuant to Missouri revised statute 610.0211 legal matter, 610.021 litigation matter, 610.0212 real estate matter, and 610.0213 personnel matter. Legal matter, litigation matter, real estate matter, personnel matter.

So move. Second. Call the roll, please.

Council Member Cain? Yes. Council Member Alvarez? Yes. Council Member Wells? Yes. Council Member Saper? Yes. Council Member Bailey? Yes. Council Member McGraw? Yes. At this time, the live stream in Channel 2 will shut off. There will be no further votes or business this evening.