City Commission - Regular Meeting

I call this Tuesday, April 14th, 2026 city commission meeting to order. Will you join me in a flag salute to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Chaplain Pete Mayo, will you come and lead us in a prayer?

I sure would. Thank you for inviting me. Let us pray. Blessed are you, Lord our God. You created us and blessed our daily existence. You grant us the gift of our local community and the caring people who call it home. Be with us this evening as we tend to its practical matters. May we recognize your kingdom in our midst as we listen to each other in fruitful dialogue. Identify our common concerns and give special attention to those most vulnerable among us. May your Holy Spirit abide within each of us, be present at this meeting, and protect our city through stormy weather. Amen. Amen. Thank you.

Thanks, Pete. Thank you, Pete. All right. I'm going to open the meeting to public input. Is anyone in the audience like to come up and speak about anything? uh in the public input portion of the meeting. Seeing none, I'm going to close public input and move to consent agenda. Are there any items to be removed from the consent agenda? Move to approve. Has been motion to approve. Motion and second. Roll call vote. Brooks, yes. I Yes. Month. Yes. Sigley, yes.

Thank you. All right. Moving to cons consider the following. Uh, Commissioner DJ Perry's absent tonight and we're going to pull item A and item E off the consider the following. So move to item B. Change of zoning community health center of southeast Kansas 20th and grand. Consider the recommendation of the planning zoning planning commission board of zoning appeals to grant the request submitted by the community health center of southeast Kansas to reszone the property located at 20th and grand from CP1 planned neighborhood commercial to R1C single family resident residential and to allow construction of three new homes.

Good evening everybody. There wasn't much discussion on this. It's been we've been doing this for the last few years. The properties around it, they're just growing out there and we don't see any issue in it. Any other questions for move to further request? Second. Been moved and seconded. All in favor say I. I. I. All oppose, same sign. Motion carried. Thank you. All right. Thanks, guys. Thanks.

Thank you. Item C, Guerilla Capital Group LLC LLC project. Consider the recommendation of the Economic Development Advisory Committee to reimburse Guerilla Capital Group LLC an amount equal to 10% of the total project value for the renovation of the property located at 410 North Broadway with the city's portion not to exceed $32,846. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of the commission. Here tonight to uh bring you a recommendation from your economic development advisory committee regarding a uh project at 412 North Broadway. Uh it was a long time the the Harry's Cafe uh building in Pittsburgh. It's now been vacant for for quite some time. Um, I know that that I was glad when when I received the call from Guerilla Capital Group, which is a local development company just starting out, that they were uh they were taking this on because um immediately after Harry's closed and the building was for sale. I know we fielded a number of calls from people who were interested uh but then once they saw the condition of the building, uh that interest uh dissipated quite quickly. So, uh, the fact that Guerilla Capital Group was interested in investing in this property was encouraging. Uh, so they are anticipating that this will be a $328,000 $467 uh, investment for Guerilla Capital Group. So, uh, the group made application to the EDAC. EDAC considered that uh, recommendation at its meeting earlier this month. And as with other similar projects that as far as uh building improvements that we've brought to you before, uh Guerilla Capital Group requested 10% of that on the back end of the project. So, as with the other projects, uh they would go ahead and uh make the the needed repairs and then submit verification that they spent what

they said they were going to and then the city would reimburse them on the the back end. Uh but we do have Dan Rank. Uh Dan, if you want to go ahead and come up. Dan is representing Guerilla Capital Group tonight and can give you an idea uh about the improvements that they they are making especially related to infrastructure improvements. So Dan come up with Blake. Hello. Hi. So maybe want you to just kind of share I know you've done a lot in terms of plumbing and fire suppression improvements and things like that.

Yeah, absolutely. So uh thank you guys for your time and putting us on the agenda. As you can see from the pictures, uh we're starting uh on our phase one, which is the lower level commercial space. Uh we've done complete interior buildout. Uh we'll have new uh new plumbing, electrical, uh HVAC, um we're updating, uh the bathrooms in the back area as well. And then uh we'll be working on the roof uh with some improvements at the same time. And if I had asked everybody, you know, how many of you been to Harry's, you know, how many people would raise their hands? It's really important to us and our our group. There's three other me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me members including myself that uh we are preserving that building and long after we're gone that more and more people continue to to be able to go there.

So this is phase one. What you talked about phase two, what would that be? Uh after we finish level one uh which will be in the next few weeks, we'll start on uh the upstairs which will be uh residential. Would you plan to have that um the restaurant site open before doing that or will you wait to get the sec phase two done? Um yes sir. So Kazoku will be our tenant. They signed a 5-year lease. Uh we're hoping to have the downstairs ready for them to start moving into uh early May and then they want to be up and operating uh early June. Great.

What What are some of the I mean probably didn't change the floor plan much at all, did you? Or did or did you? What what what are some changes on that?

Yeah, as you can see from the pictures, we're we're very thrilled to see the exposed brick as we started tearing out some of the drywall. Um there'll be new duck work. We uh as you can see, we raised the ceiling so it's more exposed and open. Uh we are uh keeping the bar area and some other features, but you know, the building's been there for 130 years. uh I think before Harry's in 1940 when it first opened, it was a furniture store for many years before that. We're very uh respectful about the history of the building, the owners of the building, the success of it. So, this is a new chapter uh you know, for it and for our group, but downtown Pittsburgh's changed a lot over the last 5 10 years, and we're hoping just to uh update the building um to match what's been going on in downtown Pittsburgh. So this will be another restaurant uh building. Is that what you're Yes, sir. Any particular type of restaurant? Are we going back to the Harry style?

Um so Kazoku Habachi and Sushi. Uh it's a family-owned and operated business. They have multiple locations uh in Joplain. And then of course they were right in front of Russ Hall before being relocated. Um so we've had really good conversations with them. They're very excited. We're very excited. So far, you know, it is a change, uh, which change can be, uh, uh, tough, but, um, they are a, you know, family-owned business, and so far we've gotten very good feedback. Um, we're also making the the restaurant uh, turnkey or very neutral. So, it's going to be updated. Uh, we'll have new furniture, everything will look very nice. Uh, but at the same time, if anything changed with that lease agreement, uh, we'd be open to a new restaurant being available to come in and and service our community. we change it to just one entrance or we still have

We will have both entrances. Um and to get into some details, we are putting in a hallway uh that goes through the back so um it'll just be more visually pleasing as you go through that. Nice. Well, thank you and your partners for your investment and commitment. So, yes, what a project. Thank you. I'd move to approve. Second. Been moved and seconded for approval. All in favor say I. I. All oppose. same time. Motion carries. Thank you so much. Thank you. Good luck. Thanks. Thank you.

Item D, portable radio purchase. Consider fire department staff request to purchase 50 portable radios from Uplink LLC of Pittsburgh, Kansas in the amount of $64,659.70 to be funded from the public safety sales tax. Chief,

good evening, Mayor Commissioners. Uh, as you can see, this request is to, uh, purchase the new, uh, digital radios, uh, portable radios for all our firefighters. Um, what this is going to do is it's part of a project that's been in underway for quite some time to upgrade the radio systems to go from the old analog system to the uh, a new digital system that's going to drastically uh, improve our communications abilities. Um, and so this uh this is the the best radio that we can find that will actually work for what on the system that we're we're looking to to move to. And it's uh the request is there in front of you. So So this compatible to the county? Uh

yes. So yes, 100%. And that's way we're actually moving on to their system as part of this update. Um and so we're we're actually switching to their radio towers. Um so it will be 100% compatible with with all them. So that's going to be the next part of this whole thing where we'll start developing you know a commonality as far as you know radio uh protocols and and zones and channels and things like that uh working with the county as far as like bringing everybody together uh and working more have have better interoperability throughout the the county. Did we uh did we put this out for bid?

So not out for bid. I I called and got uh several quotes from the from the areas that that actually or for the dealers that actually runs Motorola. Um and Uplink was the the lowest one and obviously they're local. So, um that's the the best way I could do. When you say radios, are these like radios also when you're in a fire that the firemen can talk back and forth? Yes. Also, yes. Uh and it's it's it's but it's a portable radio for this one. It's it's basically one of the ones that hangs on a radio pouch on your hip. It's got the the extended mic uh up on the side and then they can call out um on the Oh, so when you have your your pack on Mhm. I hear Well, in the past I could hear you guys talking, but is it to where they can hear and talk to you?

It's going to be this it's going to be very similar uh is what we have now as far as like the style um but it's it's drastically improved technology. Uh so that has a lot of the noise cancelling features part of it which will help a lot. Um, and it'll have a a much higher decibel range, so they can actually have a much uh better hearing as far as in the fire goes. Um, now the max the masks that we have do have speaker ports on them. Uh, and so they can actually take that and put that right up there. And so it actually will will work very well with with what we already have. What do you do with the old ones?

So, uh, I've been talking to uh to some of the IT things. So unfortunately the older ones are getting a little bit phased out as far as Motorola is concerned, but they're still operable. The plan is for right now is to keep a hold of those, reprogram them, and use them as a as a backup radio cache. So if as if we have a large scale incident, um that we'll have those that we can hand out to, you know, other responders from other jurisdictions as they come in, we won't have to worry about trying to program the radios. We can hand these things out. Um they won't be going into fires. We'll just be doing, you know, surveys and that sort of stuff. U so that's that's the plan with them right now. Can the uh the other local fire departments uh communicate with you guys? Uh all the smaller fire departments around the area, can they communicate with you?

For right now, no. Um and that has been a a major uh major thing that I've I've had to had to deal with since since being here. We've had several fires uh right on the line. one on Free Kings Highway, the other one the other day in Frontac, and we were not able to talk directly to the other uh the other units on scene. Um it became a very tense situation on the Free Kings fire when we had to evacuate the building and only half the people on the on the the scene could actually hear us, hear the call out to to evacuate. So, the faster we can get these in service and get these in play, the better. Um because we'll be able to everybody operate on the same fire ground channels and we'll actually have that capability to talk to everybody and everybody talk to us.

So the issue was our radios that we couldn't talk to the other front or Yeah. because the county is on a digital system and we're still on the analog system and so we just don't have the capability to talk to them. And this will be digital like the county. Yes. Move to approve. Second. Been moved and seconded. All in favor say I. I. I. All oppose. Same sign. Thank you. All right. Non-aggenda reports and requests.

Don and then Kim. Then it's open mic after that. Good evening. Just wanted to take a minute to update you guys on a situation that occurred. I'm going to read from this so that way I don't mess anything up here. Uh on March 5th, 2026, a nefarious individual or individuals I'll describe as bad actors began communicating with city employees through normal communication channels indicating that that excuse me, indicating that they were a current vendor um that the city was currently engaged in business with. the bad actors indicated that they were needing to update their banking information and provided the updated banking information. A city employee confirmed that change of banking information with who they believed was the city's uh vendor and they changed that banking information. On March 6th, the city sent a payment for services provided to who they again believed was the current vendor. On March 11th, a city employee was informed by the actual vendor that they had not received payment. It was at that time that they realized that while looking into that payment that the city was the victim of a fraud incident. The city immediately began contacting the city's bank, myself, uh, and other, uh, organizations to initiate a criminal investigation into the incident. I obtained information about what had transpired and began looking into the incident. Uh, I also consulted with an FBI agent out of the Kansas City field office. Uh, throughout the investigation, I was able to identify several accounts that was related to this incident and assets and those accounts were frozen. The criminal investigation into the fraud and theft is ongoing. Uh but due to the quick coordination uh and action by the city employees, local bank, the city's insurance, and coordination with

the FBI and our local police department, uh approximately 97% of the funds are expected to be recovered in reference to this incident. I would like to point out that city employees were interviewed and it was determined that there was no intentional wrongdoings that occurred with this incident. uh there has been some process changes identified to prevent similar issues from occurring in the future and the city finance director has already implemented those changes going forward. So again, this is a an ongoing criminal investigation that's being currently looked into. Adon, I think this is what's known as a business email compromise, a BEC for short. I think I I looked into that a little bit on the FBI's website after learning about this. I know from like 2024 there were just in Kansas alone there were like 157 of these um that were people were victims of businesses were victims of. So I just you know this is not a it's not a new thing.

Unfortunately it's not new or unusual. Um it happens regularly. the FBI agent that I spoke to on that particular day um said that this our our phone call was the third that he's gotten that day referencing this similar incident. And in all likelihood, again, I know it's an ongoing investigation, but in all likelihood, it's a the the bad actor is probably foreignbased in all likelihood or or

it's a little early to say. Um however, this investigation has led quite far. Thank you for everything you did. I think I think your swift action and the city staff swift action and recognizing what what had happened probably well not probably absolutely attributed to the fact that we're getting almost 97% back. So I know you're I know you did a lot of stuff behind the scenes to to get to make that happen. So thank you. Thank you. So you said finance department has implemented some policy changes uh to basically try to keep this from happening again. So

and I know probably we don't need to talk about those but uh we're on it.

It's just ongoing. It's it's it's the radar detector and the radar guns in the 80s and you know somebody's going to come out with something. Um, we have a lot of things we learned on the cyber attack that we had years ago that I think prevented that, but we get pinged every day. It's ridiculous. And um, I mean, it's amazing that we have a dawn and the, you know, one thing about the public safety sales tax is we have investigators now that know their way around and we don't have to rely on another agency to carry the water for us. But really Missy and her team were the ones where the fraud happened and they're also the ones that didn't just sit on it and and worry about what if and and think about it over the weekend. They just immediately came up and said, "Hey, I think this happened." And that's why Adon was able to freeze the accounts and and return such a a large portion of our money. But we're not um we're not alone. It's just it's it's kind of the new business, international business. It's crazy. But we are always adjusting what we do to make sure that we can protect the taxpayer money. And the hardest thing, you know, when you get the money back, it's the mental anguish that the boys went through for the six and seven weeks of trying to figure out just how bad it was and what we could do to prevent it. But it's a it's another lesson learned. And I'd love to sit here and say it's never going to happen again, but man, we just get pinged all the time for for you know, it's just what it's a cost of doing business right now, but thanks to Don and his team and the insurance company was great and our staff really stepped up and it's a you know, until the money's in our bank, we're not going to have a party, but um it's looking good and it's because of a lot of hard work by our staff.

We don't know when that will be. It's it's it's imminent, but it's somewhere that's going to stay until it comes back to us. Yeah, it's um the money is frozen. The money is ours and it's been identified and but you have you're talking about two or three different banks here. So, there's just, you know, we don't have any control over the banking system. But good work. Thank you.

Thank you. See if we can pull a picture here. So, this is kind of fun. Um, we were contacted a while back from community leaders in Aberdine, South Dakota. Um, and that's the home of Northern State University. So, Aberdine is, uh, slightly larger than Pittsburgh. Northern State University is slightly smaller than Pittsburgh State. Um those community leaders were I think about 22 of them uh represented their chamber, their city, their economic development, um their university leaders. Um but they were given a grant to visit a model community where they could learn about cooperative efforts and they chose Pittsburgh. So they drove, I believe, 10 11 hours down um from South Dakota on Sunday and uh stayed out at the the casino and um they were able to tour multiple developments and projects on Monday and they were also at CEK today. But um we just want to thank them for coming and choosing Pittsburgh. We learned a lot from them as well yesterday which was exciting. Um, but we want to thank our commissioners, of course, for coming uh last night and getting a chance to visit with them and uh we had a lot of community members there as well that stopped by and uh did a little meet and greet and that was really exciting. So, we're really proud of that. Um, also want to thank Blake and the chamber, Wes Streer, Emily Mecca at PSU. Um, everybody worked really hard to coordinate the visit, but um, it was pretty fun to um, relate to another community, but also be able to brag a little bit on our model and and how we all work together and and how we're growing. And um, we just want to thank you guys for coming and thank everybody for helping us. And this is a picture of the representatives enjoying the wind uh, yesterday right downtown Pittsburgh. And I believe they headed back today around 11:00 after their visit at CEK. So,

can I see the bus going to CEK this morning? Do they have any technical education and and uh they do and they actually implement it um within their high school. So, um that's something we're going to connect with them and and see some of the programs. They had similar things like, you know, welding and things like that uh that they implement at a a high school level, but I'm not sure. Well, we have high school students in that CEK and and I tell you that is that is awesome because the trades are dying and once they're gone, who's going to do the work? So, it's very important that we promote technical education. Yeah, I agree.

Something else that I talking to these people was tremendously interesting that uh I found out and then I did some follow-up research on it, but small colleges are closing at about 1.8 eight per week across the country. We lost uh about 90 small colleges last year and projected to lose maybe possibly more this year. So we are very fortunate to have PSU who's not considered a small college. In fact, we're about the same size as the Aberdine group,

but uh our and our that the city works well with the university to continue what we have had in the past and what we have hopefully will have in the future. And uh I would admonish everyone out there to get out and talk up PSU wherever you go so that we can keep our enrollment high. The major cause for these small colleges closing are is decreased enrollment and increased cost. Those are the two biggies. Uh they can't I know in Wisconsin personally I know because my daughter's in one that they've cut down a number of their departments. they've dropped their chemistry department and things like this in a relatively small college compared to PSU. So, you know, we're very fortunate to have PSU here uh and to be in partnership with them in so many areas.

Would agree, it was exciting. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks. That's all from us. All right. Entertain a motion to adjourn. Some move in a second. All in favor say I. I. Okay, we are journey.