Remarks by Brett Kell
62 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 3
So since we're talking taxes and financial here, there's been a lot of talk about temporarily relieving the federal fuel and diesel tax, gas and diesel. Would that affect our budget in any way with what we have going on with anything due to some of that money that comes to us? It could potentially.
Roughly monthly or quarterly, what are we getting that usually? I believe that comes in monthly.
All right. Just because of what I was reading online earlier today, this is a vote to put it on the ballot for the citizens to vote on. A lot of people were confused about that. We're not voting tonight to have the sales tax. We're putting this on the ballot for the public to vote on. When would this take effect if it were to pass on the March, if it was on the March ballot, when would it take effect?
So estimated $2 million in the first year, because it's half a year. Half a year, yes, sir. I'm in agreeance on the aspect of we keep on slashing the budget, and then we're going to spend $155,000. That's where it bothers me a little bit. I know when it comes to the primary time frame, that will be divvied up a little bit more. We'll still have a cost. My biggest thing is I think between now and then, we need to look at a lot of our programs also to tune those in. Because if you get our rental assistance program, That's almost, and we've talked about it a little bit in the past, that's almost…
I just want to say that the words of Councilwoman Bradbury have changed my mind. The aspect of prevented, you know, if we wait until August, that could be one camp cleanup. The cost between then and then that, you know, we're spending. So I believe that Councilwoman Bradbury, I always try to come into everything with an open mind. and listened to everyone and she definitely changed my mind on that and made me think that the sooner the better. So thank you.
Council Member Kell. I would like to make a friendly amendment on this that we include cleanup on this ballot initiative also because I don't want to be where we leave something like that off and then it comes down later on, well, we can't do cleanups. That's got to come out of the general fund. So if we're doing cleanups where we have to tear down the house because it's been occupied by homeless and been uninhabitable after that, that any cleanup destruction would have to be through that also.
I know in the past some of our things have gotten too narrow, and I just want to make sure we're not being too narrow with the scope.
Yeah, I'd say that's what Council Member Miller just mentioned. I just want to make sure we're, because a lot of that in the past has come out of the general fund, and I just want to make sure that someone doesn't sit there and say, well, that's a general fund issue, not a homeless initiative issue. So I was trying to make sure we're covering our bases with stuff like that.
Two things tonight. Halloween safety. Please make sure on Halloween, it's going to be a busy night because it's on a Saturday night this year. Make sure you're watching out for kids running around. As parents, make sure you try to keep your kids as close as possible to you. Checking the road before you cross it, all that great stuff. Check their candy. Make sure there's nothing in there. We live in a weird world nowadays. There's plenty of trunk-or-treats out there, so check those out also as an alternative. Finally, as Councilwoman said, I don't care who you vote for, just please go out and…
Councilmember Kell. I agree with the mayor on working with you, Curtis. You've done a great job here in the city for years in different capacities. But I agree with the mayor. We need people here. We need them on the record. And that's the problem is I've even emailed some of these companies, put the media on there, said reply all so it's on the record. And I get no replies. I don't even get a reply just to me without the media involved and all. So that's what we up here want. That's what the citizens want. We want people on the record to tell us what's going on 100% so we can hold them…
And before you even mentioned the taxing, I had it written down. It was one of those things of I knew you weren't taxing property. Your property tax didn't happen out there. And my theory is you talk about pilots. Well, the state house has talked about getting rid of fantasies. What if they get rid of pilots? Now we have someone sitting out there. with nothing. I'd want something more in a contract that sits there and says this is what you're going to pay every year with a bump of 3%, 4%, whatever. Something more like that before I even see anything. I'd be against something like that with a…
On this one? Yeah. So on this right here, your annual spend, what is your household size? That makes a difference on all this here. I know you're using Euro labor statistics. which sometimes more of an estimate than an actual, you know, what the data says. And then household size, right now our household size is 2.21 people per house in Topeka. So if you're equating for four people, you're actually doubling up what kind of the mentality there.
To kind of go off what you were saying there, the only way I'll support any of this is if we push it to August because I think we need the time frame to work through this, to get the community involved in it. and make sure we're making the correct decision and not rushing through this. On slide six, you have the annual spend and the 9.35 and the 9.9. I'd like to see that also broken down off of just regular sales that people purchase. But also food, because if you go to the food aspect of things, you drop the 6% from the state off that. So I want to make sure we have our projections right on…
Okay. Then the one thing everyone keeps on saying is cut, cut, cut. I think we need to have a chart of what we've cut over the last few years to show people in what departments, what percentage of the department it's been, and what savings there have been by cutting those positions. And to show that we have, over the last three years, cut an eighth of our workforce and saved this much money by doing that. and cut half of this department, cut this department in half so this way people understand that we have done these cuts and what it has affected. Thank you.
I think for what we get return on our investment after what we have to pay for the election that it's not very feasible to pay out that just to try and gain so much over that, you know, what, March, what, six-month period, that we'd be losing money possibly in that scenario. So to me, it's best we just wait for all these, allow the community to have all their input into this, you know, know that we have a set date that we're working towards rather than trying to rush it through like we have been. And just do it all on the general election, or primary election, excuse me, in August. Because if…
Just wanted to mention this last area mentioned about a crosswalk at 37th and Gage. That was put in about three, four months ago. That was something when they closed off the west side of Gage north of 37th. I pushed forward and The street department put that in pretty quickly. So there is a crosswalk there to use. I would like to see us come up with something either off industry standards or government standards on what a data center, a hyperscale data center is. So we're making sure we're staying, you know, we're all kind of on the same page because they're based off of server count, floor…
What safety features were looked at around the hospitals? Because I know that's been a big issue for the last few years to try to improve some of the safety with all the foot traffic that happens around there, plus all the accidents, people blowing through stop signs, things like that that keep on happening around the hospitals.
If I'm trying to read this right, there is concern of teachers' system capacity for high-density or intense commercial development. Here's my phone. Oh, sorry. It says, located in the primary service area, there's a concern for future system capacity for high density and intense commercial development. The San Jose Mains to the west will need to be upsized to handle the greater capacity.
And this was to allow them to connect to our system. Are we paying for any of that cost or are they paying for all that cost?
I just wanted to make sure we didn't have extra, you know, if it was on the east side of the road and now we're having to run stuff over the west side towards them, I'll gauge there. So I just want to make sure we're not incurring cost on that. Thank you. Council Member Bradbury.
Council Member Kell. Totally for the tiny home idea. I've been saying for years, about two, three blocks away from my house is a nice open field that used to be a trailer park back in the day at 37th and Kansas. Perfect spot. My issue is I think we're kind of going about this the wrong way. We're doing the outreach first, then possibly maybe building, I think we should build what we're going to build first, then be able to go out and outreach and be able to put someone in. Can we go out and touch, talk to people and do all those kinds of, but if we're not really accomplishing anything and…
Now on your partners, your outreach team, you have the Sheriff's Department. Does that include the jail or is that just the on the street officers in the management of the Sheriff's Department?
I'd like to see the KDOC involved in that also because you're going to have people walking out of the jail, walking out of the prison and if we can kind of maybe catch them on the way out and transition them easier that way than letting them be out on the streets for whatever amount of time. Because as you said, the services take a long time. You only usually get released with a month's worth of medication. So if you have any mental health medication you're on, you run out by the time you get back on disability, you're having issues. Same with the jail. If you have nowhere to go, you're going…
Thank you, Mayor. Council Member Kell. Well, we can focus on recovering, can't we, on that aspect also? So that's what I'm saying, where we need to watch out for the recovering addicts of opioids and not put them with an active user because that can run into situations. Speaking of programs, I've worked at DCF, I've worked at the prisons in Kansas, worked at the Halfway House. Programs can be great, but sometimes they... Don't really offer anything tangible there are some great programs that there's one of the the kids part of correction runs called brothers in blue great getting guys in…
Yeah, on number six here, the combat human trafficking, I almost on top of that title like to put the child sex abuse. I think that is just as important or if not more important than human trafficking because a lot of child sex victims end up in human trafficking. So that needs to kind of be in that title work also. So that shows that the predominant of the of what the issue is there.