Remarks by Murray McGee
12 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 1
Thank you. I think you hit the points I was going to say. This is something where we can, like you say, create a specific list. These are the items we want to start with. Make it define what would provide the directives, the direction for it, and then let them go and seek out the information they find and develop. They could come up with recommendations for efficiencies, areas where we can approve, areas where we're doing good. But they would be able to provide that in, like you said, maybe a quarterly report. And then we bring that report forward, and then we move on to the next one. a good…
I'm going to Also, mention a little bit on fire safety. It feels like we're actually going to have a little bit of a fall. And that fall weather means that people have their fire pits going. So let's remember to be safe with fire pits, have a water source or something to put out the fire if it gets out of hand, and just be safe. Thank you.
Thank you, Mayor. I'll start out with a comment, and then I've got a couple of quick questions. But last week, I attended the Ligman Municipalities Conference. They had a session on hyperscale data centers. And one of the first things they said was, if you're talking to someone representing a data center or a developer, and they can't tell you who their client is, that's the first red flag. You need to know who you're talking to. It's difficult to have a conversation if you don't know who the other person is. So that's a first red flag. So I'm just throwing that out there. The other thing is,…
Again, I go back, and like I said, I'm giving you a chance to reinforce your earlier comment that this will not impact the mission of Forbes or... are any opportunities for commercial air service?
Thank you, Mayor. I'm good with the affordable housing and homeless programs. with the language suggestions that Councilmember Bradbury offered. I am concerned with language on this other part about personnel and acquisition of vehicles. And also last time, last week, we talked a lot about getting community input. And I'm not hearing that part this evening. So that's a concern for me. I think we need input. I would be comfortable with moving forward with the affordable housing and homeless programs because I think we've discussed a way to tweak that language and see a path forward for that.…
Thank you. I was going to ask about how often you are audited and you say 30 days. How many officers have the digital key or access to the system?
Just how many officers have access to the system?
Okay, but your patrol officers can actually access the system?
Thank you. I feel this is a very important issue, and we don't want to rush into making a decision. I do think we need to take the time to gather public input. I think we need to be very, very clear in defining exactly how the, you know, if we put this together, exactly how the funds can be used. And define that, set very clear boundaries. And, I mean, then we're... The public's going to hold us accountable. When we say how it's going to be done, then that's the way it's going to be done. And give us a little time and have the opportunity to have the proper staff, have more staff involved…
Council member McGee thank you I also would not support this for market rate housing I think it needs to be for affordable housing and to address homelessness there is A ton of data out there. There's a group out of Wichita, the Kansas Data Trust. It has a ton of information. I think we need to tap into that so that we can back this up with good data. I think we need more specifics in this. We need to discuss this in more detail, but I do not support this for market rate housing. We need to follow through with what we said and what the people have said they wanted, and that is for affordable…
Thank you. I also wanted to say thank you to Nick and Josh. Having been on the council a long time, we've had our interactions and work together and I appreciate your input, your feedback. I appreciate what you do and have done for the city and for the residents of our community. Thank you.
Thank you very much. I appreciate all the work that you and your staff do. I also like this last page and the numbers that I see there. Also, I wanted to make a point of clarification for transparency. The grant that was mentioned was from the Information Network of Kansas, and I am the executive director of that. group, I did not this year participate in reviewing any of the applications that we received. I did not participate in their discussions or even the board, the discussions when our board made final action on that. So I, as soon as the application for the city came in, I excused…