Remarks by Karen Hiller
86 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 4
Well, I will go ahead and put the motion in place. I think everybody knows that my preference would be total private sector. People have worked really hard on this. There is a commitment that very strong leadership and commitment in the community that a citizen-led choice to have this small sales tax assessed could be the way to go. There is enough money in here to really get going on both our affordable housing initiatives as well as homeless prevention and addressing homeless issues. Language is broad enough to cover anything from housing to the services, both prevention and supportive…
I'd like to see the text again. My inclination is not to do that for exactly what you said. The more specific and the more words you start to get, then the more you've limited, made driven assumptions that if it isn't named, it's not included. So I think the shorter the list leaves the interpretation more broad long term. One of the things we don't know, for instance, is there may be some big federal grants that would cover some element that's a big thing for us right now. If we can get that, we'll knock that part out and use those funds for other things. But I think, let's see.…
Just one more comment, and you touched on it. There has been a pretty strong inclination on the part of this body to move the concept of having an internal auditor forward. In effect, that would be able to piggyback on this because otherwise it would stand alone or it would have to wait until August as well. So for those who are really wanting to move that along also, again, there's an economy in piggybacking. Thank you.
I just wanted to clarify a little, and I appreciate Danielle's comments, especially broadening the view. As far as I look at an internal audit, I look at it that it's a good internal practice. We don't necessarily have to have something terrible that's wrong. or that we're seeking out, but instead an audit could be based on personnel, could be based on program, and it could be based on finances or any combination of those. To me, you're looking at is there a way we can work smarter and better? Let's pick X department of a particular year. Not necessarily because there's anything wrong. Maybe…
Certainly could. I mean, one of the thoughts I had was we could contract per issue also, rather than have a full-time staff, but that's up to us.
Thank you. I want to throw in a pitch regarding fire safety that both our property maintenance code as well as in fairly short order our fire code is adding carbon monoxide detectors to that safety feature in your home. For residential, the issue there is if you have any gas-fired appliances, you should have carbon monoxide detectors in addition to those smoke detectors. So stay tuned for that. Read up on it. You can get separate detector modules, or they also combine them in a single model. For Halloween, I live in Central Topeka, which most people know. One of the big dreams I have,…
Well, you are cutting in and out. I'm here.
Okay. I appreciate all the work that's been done and the comments. I'll kind of go through. in some sort of order. I sent something out today with some thoughts. I am not absolutely wedded to them, but I wanted to share them. Before I get to those, though, on the affordable housing and homeless, I feel like the community is really eager to participate in that and get some things moving. Promoting our own affordable housing and homeless leadership, if we need a hood ornament, if you will, I thought that the language leaned a little too more toward construction for my taste for homeless. But on…
Okay. I think with the .4, if you look at the numbers that Dalton ran, it still comes out okay with the budget balances. I had been concerned that if we were going to do March or August, that we needed to do some cuts right away, before the first of the year even. That's why the extra $2 million is in there. If people don't want to do it, I think we can get by. The issue is, what is it that people are looking for for us to demonstrate that we really got our arms around?
Well, or if I could call somebody's cell phone, you can put me up on the mic.
All right. Okay. I have no idea where my comments left off.
Maybe I need to give up. I'm not good at this.
Well, in my notes today, I learned in talking with Dalton that the $2 million a year cuts, which I know I had recommended before, I thought that when the $2 million cuts came out the first time, that they strung across the board. Budget worksheets because that two million that the preset budget would be two million dollars lower what he told me was that the way that is set up is that we need to cut two million dollars every year I just wanted people to realize that when we're looking at what we finally want to do And I think, did people hear my conversation about pulling the fire stations out…
Okay. I think people have the particulars that I sent out. Otherwise, I'd like to support comments that were made, particularly by Councilwoman Bradbury, I think. I didn't get a chance to say anything during the strategic plan, but I am very much hoping that our strategic plan isn't just a list of goals now, but is... the kind of strategic plan that we did in 2021, which identified our primary purposes as a city government, and then put things underneath that with outcomes afterward. I think that will help us focus on the priorities of the projects that city manager is suggesting we do. We do…
Well, I don't have any questions. I just want to give a shout out to the neighborhood reps. The leadership is standing in the back there, and they've worked really hard, had a lot of meetings with a variety of people through the neighborhood and the staff as well to get this cranked out. And the vision that they have in terms of looking at really the variety of housing and other amenities that are in the neighborhood, and what could work to fill and revitalize the blocks that need it, including the mixed use that Dan talked about. Those are really visionary, and it's really some great work.…
I was not at most of the work sessions, but I've had conversation with staff as well as with the people from the neighborhood, and I do not think that will negatively influence my vote.
Thank you. I was at that neighborhood meeting. It's in my district. There is a tea alley, so it's no problem for access from the back. I would say that Dan has pretty accurately described the mixed feelings that we have, and it's throughout District 1, but other neighborhoods that need revitalization, we don't want to... On the one hand, this neighborhood has really advocated for keeping the housing, and so getting a reversion of two from C2 to M1 on 10th Street is a big deal. On the other hand, having a brand-new house go in at that size and price was a little scary for them, and it's…
Thank you. I thought I understood where this $300,000 fit, but based on what city manager said, I have a question. My understanding was that the $300,000 would cover that right now we don't have an outreach team, so this would help us recreate an outreach team itemized by whom you said would be in it. But that was $300,000 for one year. of operation, is that correct? That is correct. And that I was, my understanding was that, okay, that's about a third of the amount of money that we have in the fund right now, but that we were going to continue to get money into that fund so that we could…
Okay. That unfortunately confirms what I thought I heard. Thank you.
I just wanted to punch in briefly on it. Some of the pieces that I like hearing the most, built for zero and housing first is important, but when you're out there, it's people first. You've got to make those connections with the people and build that relationship, and it takes some time. We also don't have to be the first provider. We've got a tremendous community network, including the private landlord sector, who sometimes go by the term of second chance landlords. And it's a very strong sector in this community. The thing I like the most about where we are right now, and I agree with…
Thank you, Mayor. I've got three things. One, that I would like to see as an amendment. I've mentioned it before. And two, that I guess I want to make sure in the record and that people consider. I've been advised by the mayor, and we've seen that, that this is a living document. So it doesn't have to be exactly what we're going to do or what our representatives will do. But I do believe in creating the language that's appropriate. So the one that I'd like to see changed, I think that the section on housing is very good. And what it says right now is recognizing that residents have a right to…
That section is lines 54 to 59. So you want to strike 54 to 59. Okay. No, it's only a phrase. So it would be to substitute from require mandatory inspections for landlords accepting public funds to replace that with assist renters in asserting their rights for safe affordable housing.
Well, if it comes back, then I'm happy to punch in. I didn't want to push it right away. The other two that I have, I just would like to be on the record for supporting the vegetation abatement. The abatement section that our lobbyist mentioned, if we need to do more study on it, fine. But because we have added all overgrown vegetation to our property maintenance ordinance, so it could be whole rows of shrubs or trees and things like that, unless there's a reason not to change the state law, right now it requires that any vegetation that we write up, if we're going to write it up, we have to…
I just wanted for the record that we had discussed it and would encourage staff appropriately to research that and see if it is something we would want to move forward. And the last one is we've discussed LLCs and the fact that people are wanting it to be a little easier to find out who the stakeholders are in limited liability corporations. And so it may be premature to put this as a specific thing in the agenda, but I would like to see folks research further whether we could ask what they call foreign LLCs Right now, Kansas, the state of Kansas, asks any LLC that files in the state of…
And that's fine. We had that discussion. I just wanted to make sure I mentioned it here so that it was on the record that it was an issue we were looking into.