City Commission - Regular Meeting

turn this thing on there. Okay, it is 2:00 and we have scheduled a study session on the Salena Animal Services and I will turn it over to the city manager. Yeah, I'm going to quickly throw it over to Jeff Hammond. Um, so this is uh we've kind of had animal shelter updates uh about annually for the last three or four years. So, uh this kind of uh just kind of falls into line with that and I'll uh pass to Jeff. We've got a presentation for you that we'll go through.

Thank you. Thank you so much. Uh Mr. Wood. Uh again, Jeff Hammond, director of parks and recreation. And to my right is Andrea Murphy, operation superintendent for parks and recreation. Um and we did as Mr. Wood spoke point pointed out this is our fourth annual uh animal services upgrade uh update. Um and then as we make improvements and actually as we make uh process changes, we uh have reported those out uh the last four years in this um that this open forum um or this study session. Uh, as always, we'll continue to review and improve our operations and remain committed to process improvements and, uh, Andre and I, uh, will also be reporting out, continue to report these out as much as needed. I have a agenda for today's study session with uh, uh, some items. Uh, I will pause at certain points in time. There will be an opportunity for questions throughout uh, so we don't wait till the end. Um, and there is uh some question slides in there that we'll be able to pause around 3:30 p.m. I want to make sure we are getting close to the end to give the commissioners opportunity for some feedback for some final questions and answers. Um, as I've provided before, I've always updated the animal services division staffing table. Um, as u many of you are aware in 2023 we had two uns unsatisfactory inspections. Um, and part of the improvements for change from those inspections where we added staff and you can see we added a receptionist, a full-time kennel tech, a part-time kennel tech and we added temp and tempse seasonal dog walkers. Uh in 2024, we added another temp seasonal

kennel tech. So for some additional cleaning and then we also provided uh a put an operations manager superintendent position to provide a little more oversight, a little more managerial um input into the animal shelter. And then I also provided the current vacancies uh of the animal shelter. uh we are pretty close to uh being able to offer a position to animal welfare coordinator who's that position that's responsible for u surgeries and animal care. Um and we have an open uh vacancy for animal control officer. Um and at at this point in time we have not filled that position. Um uh again I pro provided this in the past about why the um animal services decision division was put under parks and recreation in 2013. There was that decision to to to make in speaking to the former parks and recreation director who was in the role at that time. Uh there was really the community community community conversation was really about whether or not they wanted an animal control approach and enforcement approach or do they want a customer service and an animal care approach. And then if it were the animal care and the um animal welfare and community service approach, they would be looking at parks and recreation. Uh if it was the enforcement approach, it would be under the police department. And ultimately it was decided to put it under uh the parks of recreation at that time and then effective January 1st of 2014 is when the city then take took on that responsibility of the slanted animal shelter. Um current census of animals. I'm going to let Andrew do that.

So these numbers were taken last Wednesday. So just a couple updates as of this morning versus what's on your paper. In terms of available dogs, we actually have 15 available now. We had surgery last Thursday, so some of those that were still under vet care got moved to available. Um, we do still have the 24 pitbulls that are city property waiting for transfer. And we have two pitbulls that are waiting for court. So, a total of 26 pitbulls inside the shelter. And then on the cat side, we still have seven available for adoption. We have 12 that are under vet care and zero actually that are in the stray room, but we've got three that are on exposure quarantine that are in that room. So, those are our current numbers as well as one available chicken that is up for adoption and a second that came in as a stray in terms of the animals that are at the shelter right now. Uh, and then foster care, we have one dog right now and 11 cats. as to moms and their kittens.

As uh were we uh as we're also aware as we t I talked about earlier about we had previous inspections. We had two in 2023 that were uh unsatisfactory. Uh but since that point in time until just recently we had some satisfactory uh inspections. Um and the there was it was a complaint based and but that complaint was unfounded. Uh the summary I wanted to provide a quick summary of some of those 2023 things that we identified at the time. Uh we had some maintenance concerns. Uh lids on waste, lids on uh animal food. Uh things that were difficult to clean or that couldn't be cleaned like rust. Uh that was one of those maintenance concerns. uh plastic bowls instead of metal bowls, those can't be disinfected. Uh food bedding as well, bedding not sepaled containers. Um you know, vet care concerns about getting animals to the vet or getting more prompt vet care. Um and whether it be our from our contracted veterinarian or from a local veterinarian. Um and then an exercise plan was part of that. um making sure we had an exercise plan and a documented exercise plan and also um foster care realizing that um we had some improvements to make in our foster program through our volunteers at the time. Um those are some of the things that we rectified and I'll have a list for you shortly. Um some of those I provided a a slide about cleaning and sanitizing standards. Um, let's go ahead and go to the next page if Oh, you were there.

You're you're you're good there, Scott. Sorry. Thank you. Uh, provided a slide about cleaning and sanitizing standards. Um, National Animal Control Association or NACA um recommends 15 minutes per occupied kennel per day. So if we have 50 occupied kennels and as you learned earlier from Andrea uh we have of the number of dogs we have that's approximately about 12 and a half hours a day of cleaning that we provide for cats and dogs. So some of those completed improvements um many of these were from 2023. Um as always we're looking for those opportunities for process improvements and opportunities for uh making improvements at the shelter. Uh we added those positions. Uh we did a better job of documenting um how we document things. Um we made some we improved outside. Um we did um most recently we added laundry capacity on the end of this list. We added laundry capacity and reorganized the laundry room. And I have a slide about that later. Uh we did make improvements to the foster program in 2023. Um, let's see. We did offered some clinics this past this year. Uh, free. We did a microchipping uh clinic which was free microchips. We did a vaccine clinic which there was a fee associated with that. Um, and we started the volunteer program most recently and we'll talk about that a little bit later as well. Uh, at this point in time, I'd like to pause if there's any questions from the commissioners. I have a question if I could, Jeff.

Sure. When I look at the staffing table, I'm seeing animal control officers. I'm seeing four full-time equivalents and then a a lead that you're looking to hire. Uh we have a lead. Uh we have an animal control officer position that's vacant currently of the four. So, we'd be looking at five of them. We have four animal control officers and one lead.

Okay. I I have talked to the um shelter in Manhattan and I don't know how they get by with one. Do we handle the county too when when an animal needs to be picked up or a situation needs to be dealt with? Uh we have an interlocal agreement with the county uh really for emergency services if you if you will. um where the sheriffs can inter interface with our animal control officers. So as a rule we have is it four total or five total then it's four lead I'm sorry say again is the lead included in the four it is not

okay so we have five that are in charge of call call them the officers and one vacancy in there of the of the animal control officer I guess I still I don't know how I would compare it but I got to go back and check with Manhattan again because they use one. And I talked to her and um she was just I won't say she was twiddling her thumbs, but um she didn't seem overloaded at all. You don't mention volunteers. Do we have volunteers currently?

We have a we have a slide in the f in the uh in the presentation for volunteers later on. I thought I thought there was but yeah while we were talking about staffing I the thought came to my mind. So so the animal control officers in in Salina in our setup they also have duties and responsibilities at the center. So they also do cleaning, they do walking, they do all kinds of stuff that's not just out on the streets doing animal control. So I would say that's that's probably a difference. I can't tell you the difference in in how much um it's not like they're just out on the street all the time. and and that might be a that might be a distinction, but we'd have to contact Manhattan and find out what it is or how that they how they run that. Okay.

I I had a question couple questions. One, give me what's the definition of animals in foster care. Go ahead. So, those would be animals that can't stay at the shelter. So mainly it's going to be mom kittens or mom cats with their kittens underneath the 8 weeks old when they've been weaned and can be adoptable. Okay. So these these animals are in foster care are off premise then. Yes. They're off premise with approved fosters. With approved fosters. Okay. But they're still our responsibility. Yes.

Okay. Um can you refresh our memories a little bit um as to what the unsatisfactory complaints were back in 2023? Sure. Um, and what we've done to to rectify those. I know some of the commissioners weren't on back then, so they'd be beneficial.

Uh, we had um some rust on gates and fencing outside. Uh, we had some plastic bowls that were chewed that can't be disinfected, so we replaced those immediately with metal bowls. Um we this was a recommendation for an improvement, not an identified um unsatisfactory item was to incorporate uh air conditioning into garage spaces because we just started using garage kennels because we had a uh such a demand for strays and surreners that we wanted to provide better service. So we put in a air conditioning system into the garage. um lids on uh outdoor lids on waste containers for dog feces. Uh making sure there was lids on those and tight fitting lids. Uh there were lids there, but they might not have been tight fitting or they might not have been on at the time. Uh food and bedding and sealed containers, uh outdoor water bowls.

So some of those things you went through. So I was thinking there was more than that. So my my question is now when we get inspected and I know things aren't perfect. Don't we get a isn't a rating like between one and five or something if I remember right that we get? Is that is that under the satisfactory or the unsatisfactory when you get that?

So there's severity levels of 0 to five uh that they rate you on. So when they find something that's unsatisfactory they would say unsatisfactory severity level 1 2 3 4 5. There were a couple more things that were on that list. Uh and it's really why we staffed up. We weren't walking the dogs enough and we weren't uh just general cleanliness. I mean, we had some issues. We weren't keeping the kennels clean. Um we weren't spot-checking them very often. I mean, so that's really that was the crux of trying to hire additional staff. And uh there was some issue with uh with yard uh we weren't taking care of the lawn very well. I mean, there just there was some other just kind of general maintenance things that we weren't doing a good job with. And that's that's that was really the basis by why for why we hired additional people to take care of those things and we hired specific people to walk dogs one to five when we've got our unsatisfactory or or room for approval. What have those numbers been ones, threes, fives? Do you know?

I couldn't I don't recall

on the original two on the original two we had some higher level. I can't I can't off the top of my head tell you but I I do know. So, what what normally happens is if you you get an inspection, they come back and they inspect you. And if you still have issues or if you have additional issues, if it's really bad, then they're gonna they're going to find you. And so, we got fined. I mean, that original thing in 2023, we had two inspections unsatisfactory. We got fined. I mean, and so when it's really bad, you're going to you're going to get that level. Since that time, I don't as I was looking through those, I don't think that we've had anything higher than a severity level one uh since the 2023 report. And I I I don't know if they were I don't think they were severity level fives. I mean, I don't think they were that high, but they were certainly enough um that we felt like we needed to hire additional people at that point. Um and that's so my background in this is as the deputy city manager, I've been the parks supervisor for for a number of years. And when we got those original complaints, um I was initially it was, hey, go figure out what's going on, work with the parks department on this. Um, and so I've been involved, uh, you know, since since that time. So, it's why I kind of have a little bit of background knowledge in what was going on. But we certainly had, um, at the time there were lots of really grave concerns and that's why we um, that's why we started to implement changes and started to do things um, differently. We really tore into the Kansas Animal Pet Act. I mean, we sat down and we went through that thing um, with staff from top to bottom and, you know, kind of made lists. Hey, these are the things that we're not doing well. These are things that we're not meeting the standards. and we started to to work towards um trying to meet those standards. So, uh for instance, walking dogs, I think we were we were walking dogs. We weren't recording it very well at all. Um I think we were walking them maybe one time a day, if that. Um so, we hired additional dog walkers. Now, we are we are walking the dogs twice a day. They get out of their kennel at least two times a day. Um and so we are very particular and strict about trying to make sure that we do that because we weren't we just weren't doing it

correctly at the time.

Thank you. If there's no other questions, I'll move on to the next slide. Um, a recent inspection, um, January 12th, 2026. Um, all the items identified in that inspection that resulted in being unsatisfactory were a severity level one. um food storage, condition of a few water containers, uh documentation issues related to euthanasia records. Uh the inspection also raised concerns regarding euthania procedures, staff training, corresponding documentation and uh and documenting veterinary care for specific animals. Um at that time KDA recommended that we halt all euthanasia from staff and have veterinarian conduct those euthanas. Uh the shelters process has not changed in many years for euthanasia and has not been cited in prior inspections. Um and then uh then when we met with KDA on the phone uh they advised that this concern may not be isolated to our shelter that uh the state is reviewing similar euthanasia compliance expectations across other shelters as well. Um we've made updates. We replaced water pales with metal, ordered more sealed food containers. We strengthened our internal recordkeeping procedures. um ensuring all veterinary care docu further ensuring all veterinary care documentation is uh maintained and in an animal's file. Most of the smaller items are taken care of immediately. Um most concerning item listed was uh euthanasia process and training as well as consistent documentation of that process and we will continue working closely with KDA uh and our veterinary

partners to ensure actions are completed and sustained. Um and then on December 16th, 2025, there was an intake of three stray puppies. Um, the puppies presented with symptoms of diarrhea. Uh, they were severely de dehydrated, very lethargic to the point of being somewhat unresponsive. Uh, they were very small. They were about the size a little bit bigger than my hand according to what I was told. Um, parvo virus or K9 parvo virus very contagious. Uh, life-threatening virus can be fatal within 48 to 72 hours. um causes gastrointestinal distress primarily in puppies. Um staff tested the puppies for parvo virus and the result was positive for the virus. Uh staff determined the best course of action uh was to act urgently urgently to avoid the spread of the confirmed parvo virus. Um they uh that when they tested the puppies they used an IDEX snap parvo test uh which is considered to be accurate for positive tests. Um staff performed euthanasia using the training that they had received. Um uh the three uh three methods of euthanasia that we typically get thrown around are IV or intravenous uh IP, interparitinal, IC or intracardiac. Uh staff perform the euthanasia procedure with the intent of providing euthanasia solution to the abdominal cavity which is that intraparitinal. uh our process is to perform euthanasia via IV unless a vein cannot be found. In case of the puppies, we cannot find a vein due to dehydration. Um so staff chose to perform the euthanasia by uh interpariteneal but

they did not use sedation for the puppies. Um and the euthanasia by intricardiac is pretty is very rare and will be done will be done with with sedation. Um in 2020 the AVMA AVMA guidelines for euthanasia of animals recognizes interpariteneal injection as an acceptable method of euthanasia for small or compromised animals. And lastly, last slide of this section was the we had that reinspection on March 17th which we um uh we did receive a satisfactory uh rating. Um the results are attached to the packet the public packet that went out actually both uh inspections the unsatisfactory inspection and and then the most recent reinspection. Uh I just want to repeat um currently staff are not performing euthanasia um animal shelter staff. We are um working through that with the state. We're getting trained up. Uh we're getting better documentation of training efforts and um we will not be euthanizing until the state is satisfied. Uh currently our contracted vet or our veterinary partners in town are the ones vet are the ones uh doing euthanasia on our behalf. Again I'm stopping for questions at this point in time. A question Jeff when you say staff performed a euthanasia using the training they had received um who trained them?

Uh our veterinarian our contracting veterinarian that Dr. Jubie

correct. One other question uh just in theory, not necessarily about the case described here, but if you have a tiny kitten and you want to give the IP cocktail for lack of a better term, uh what type of sedation would you use? Particularly if it's dehydrated, you can't get a vein. So we use a mix of ketamine and xylazine at the shelter is what we have to do that sedation but it is not required it's not it's just a recommendation so it depends on the size of the animal for yes for IM

okay for the sedation yes

when we look at inspections does the the state do an annual inspection or do they just do inspections when they're contacted? Um, we typically see another inspection occasionally. It's been rather inconsistent, but they've also come for complaints, but there's a routine inspection and that routine inspection is prior to any reertification uh that uh would occur. Uh we've there's a few reports that I have in the records that I provided uh what that were a routine in I think one actually was a routine inspection.

So most of the inspections have been complaint based though. We haven't had a lot of routine inspections and and I maybe they haven't done the routine inspections because they've been here so much doing that's my understanding of it. there hasn't been one in the last year that's complaint based then they will come in for a routine inspection because I would think that during a a annual inspection they would look at those records and and I know you stated that we were taken back somewhat that and some of the recordkeeping that we had done was not hadn't been done for quite a few years and that that showed up. So you would have thought that the state would have had an annual inspection that would have caught that or they would have caught that on some of the you would have thought the six previous inspections would have

Yeah. And so an issue with those inspections was really, you know, one of the things or at least a portion of it was the reporting. And so the reporting on the outtake reports that we do or the ethanasia reports, there's a column that says what is the method of euthanasia? And we as a practice haven't filled that in or very rarely. There have been some where people have filled it in, but we didn't require anybody to do that. That was just not part of the practice. And so that is something of the state is saying, "Yes, we want you to do that." So then as far as the training goes, uh you know, as soon as I kind of found out about this, we did try and meet with the state and we sat down and talked with them through and said looked through the the AVMA guidelines that that you're and said, "Hey, what is the proper type of training? What do you want us to do?" And they said, "Well, there's not really a specific training that the state requires." Uh there is one that we have listed in one of our procedures that's an online course where you you go through the course and then you have to actually do some clinicals with a veterinarian. you record yourself uh doing uh the procedures and you send that in and get certified and we are working through uh whether that's an appropriate thing to do. I think Andrea has already uh started taking that course but until such time as we feel like and we feel like the state is satisfied with the training that we have as we said we will not perform any any euthanas that's not done by a vet like our on staff vet or a vet within the community. So, I do just want to mention with that this this inspection report did not mention those three puppies. They were not listed on that inspection report. The state has not said anything to us about these three puppies. Um, I will say uh you know there were some concerns about the way that we performed that euthanasia. We probably should have uh done it a little bit differently. Maybe we should have sedated them. Our veterinarian uh Dr. Jubie was made aware of the situation and we met with her. Um, I wasn't involved with that meeting, but she met with staff within a couple of days of that happening and said, "Hey, these are some things that we think you guys could do better." So, we recognize that that probably wasn't done appropriately. Um, that we could probably do that differently. Um, and

so, um, you know, in the future when we have any circumstance like that, I I will say um, you know, these three puppies came in with parro virus. That's very it's very contagious. We didn't want that to spread to the rest of the facility. Uh so they euthanized those puppies uh um pretty quickly kind of right on the spot because we didn't want to risk spreading disease. Uh the community has been fairly critical of our of our shelter anytime that there's been any disease spread. So uh we are certainly hyper uh sensitive to that. Um and that's part of the reason that they probably uh made that decision uh so quickly. Um you know, hindsight's 2020. We can't we can't redo it. We can't take it back. Uh but we certainly would have done it differently had um you know had we had to do it today. So uh this is all part of trying to learn from your past mistakes. Uh and acknowledge we acknowledge that we could have done it differently that we probably didn't do it appropriately. Um and and we'll try to work through that uh as we go forward. But today uh no staff members are performing any euthanasia at all. Okay? So it's it's only veterinarians uh from the community or our or unstaffed veterinarian. I just want to make that clear. They're not doing any euthanasia.

So, what do we do if um those three puppies come in again? Do we wait for a vet to show up and risk

spreading? Well, honestly, at this point, if it happened today, we would have to do that. We would probably take them off site and find um find a vet to do that cuz our vet is not there all the time. So, so yeah, I I think we would do that. Um uh you know, part of the the problem is is we didn't take them on into the facility. We did we performed the the procedure uh right there kind of in the lobby. It was closed to the public, but it probably shouldn't have been done um out in the open. We should have taken them back into the facility and taken care of it. Um so, uh yeah, I think at this point, if we did it today, we would probably take those puppies and take them to a vet immediately and have that, you know, not be in our facility. Um we also after that incident we did close the facility down just to make sure that we were doing some extra clean cleaning and make sure that we didn't have any spread of par virus. I mean it's a it's very contagious. Um it's not something that we want and it it's there's nothing you can do about it. So once once it gets in your facility um it can spread and be a real problem. So we didn't want that. I just want to clarify, Jacob, when you say maybe we should have done it different or we probably should have done it different. I think we all can agree.

Yeah, we should have done it. It should have been handled. It should have been handled. Should have been handled completely different. I just want to chime in there real quick on that. When we say it should have been done differently and appropriately, we want to hold ourselves to better than just the minimal legal standard. We want to do it um a best practice standard. So, we do think that we met the minimal legal standard, but we do want to make sure going forward that we're hitting higher than that and that more of a best practice standard at the at the animal shelter.

The uh this Thank you for the state. So, they they're not coming in annually and reertifying our shelter or anything obviously um since they're not doing annual. Is there a way for us to be proactive and to is there some way out there that there's a company or somebody that does a certification or accreditation um that would help us to

we've started to look at that and see if there's an organization uh as you commissioners know we're we have accredited police department we have accredited fire department we have an accredited museum and those uh actually have been very beneficial for our our organization to have somebody have a usually what happens with that is it's peer review process where we have people from the outside come in and look at your processes, look at your things you're doing. We are um looking at that to see if there's an accreditation process that we can go through and have that uh kind of extra layer of protection to have somebody come and look at you from the outside from a different perspective to see if there's things that we can do do differently. So, we certainly are looking at that. I'm not sure that we found uh you know an organization just yet which would be the right fit for us. Um but we we are going to research that for sure. Okay.

Thank you. Um, any other questions? Okay, thank you. Thanks. Just one item of clarification. We have been I I didn't didn't know if we have been reertified or rellicensed as a shelter every year that I've I've uh I've worked here. Um, it just that inspection occurred whether or not it was a routine or a part of a complaint. So, but we do get an annual license from the state. Great. Thank you. Yes.

Uh, next slide. This is some information that I provided last time I spoke as a study session and also to the advisory board uh in February of 2025. Um, talked about no kill philosophy. Um, it's a it is a philosophy or a movement and got to pick it up from there a little bit. So, municipal shelters operate to accept animals regardless of condition, behavior, or circumstances. And are and the shelter is meant to be temporary housing, not long-term housing. We shouldn't be turning animals away due to space, medical needs, behavior, or breed. This is the idea of the community service approach, which was why originally in 2013, it was placed under parks and wreck and not the police department. Some challenges to achieving no kill factors such as pet overpopulation, limited housing options, and financial barriers for pet owners directly impact the shelter intake and outcomes, which we'll have those numbers here shortly. Without communitywide support systems, the burden falls entirely on the municipal shelter, making no kill extremely difficult to achieve and sustain. Achieving and sustaining a 90% live release rate requires significant community infrastructure, robust foster networks, strong rescue partnerships, and accessible veterinary care as well as public participation. Rather than focusing solely on the term no kill, we are focused on building a community that reduces intake and increases positive outcomes. This is going along with our 2026 prevention focused goal uh to help animals return home quickly before they even enter the shelter system. We are offering free microchipping uh during our Thursday clinics as well as to anybody from the public that just comes in. That simple microchip can be the difference between going home and entering the shelter system which then takes up the kennel space staff time and

public resources. as I uh spoke to spoke spoke about

as I spoke about this u a year ago at this study session about um having a you know we we were frequently have not able to take in strays and surreners which uh we found unacceptable uh as a community approach as a community animal shelter that's we need to be able to take strays and surreners um you know there was a comment made about that at the advisory board meeting um you know really we showed data and I'll show that data in the next few slides about how we were not able to meet that 90% threshold uh for calling ourselves no kill or following that movement or that philosophy. Uh we did at that time uh in February of 2025 uh adjust or add add some criteria for youth in Asia. Um uh we will uh we we have had an increased focus on improving our capacity for being able to accept strays and surreners and I think we have some positive outcomes because of that and you'll see in the upcoming slides. Uh but we will always strive for a high live outcome rate or that no kill rate and we this is how we calculate it. That's the link and that's available for how we calculate uh no kill uh from the best friends society. Um so we had we provided this a year ago in February of 24 of 2024 data and I included 2025 for CAD intakes. Overall there was a 40% increase of CAT intakes from yearover-year. um 78% increase in surreners. 48% increase in strays. Uh a lot of this is because of the trapneuter uh rehome rehome or replace release trap neuter release program that we've been doing very consistently with our contracted

veterinarian. Um, also, um, we've been able to offer, uh, been able to take kittens, uh, that are at least eight week old and with a mom and be able to adopt them quickly. Um, 2024 and 25 data for outcomes for cats. Um, as you can see, um, we have u, well, the previous slide, uh, you can see the number of total intakes went up from 59 to 713. And thus our outcomes for cats are also increasing. Whether it be adoptions have increased and that live outcome percentage to determine that no kill for cats. We're still not there uh where we would like to be that 90% around there for live outcome for cats. Uh if you recall the conversation a year ago is was about pam lucipenia in cats that we were seeing a lot of and that was resulting in a lower than a lower than desired live outcome rate. As you can see we've increased that by 8% uh approximately 8% for 2025. Um and then the same similar slides uh the next two or three are for dogs. Uh dog intakes looks like uh for surreners, we had 197% increase in surreners for dogs, 15% increase in strays, and overall a 12% increase in intakes for dogs from year-over-year. Um and I believe so I think this kind of shows that we've been able to better successfully um serve the community by accepting more strays and surreners than we previously did. Um and we have a better ability to do that. Uh we've we've shown a better

ability to do that. Uh dog dog outcomes again uh increased outcomes, increased adoptions for dogs and that dog that dog live outcome rate um or dog live outcome percentage uh is about the same uh but with higher intakes and more dogs. Uh this is a similar slide for criteria for euthan Asia uh at the shelter that I provided before. Uh hasn't been updated since February of 2025 and I have provided this previously. Uh lots of times we uh you know there are more than one criteria that uh we look at when making those decisions about euthanasia. And then um a live outcome percentage uh year-over-year since 2013. And uh the summary of euthanasis statistics since 2013 for cats and dogs. And then a live outcome percentage provided for all those years that we've been able to we've been tracking since 2013 with the software we have. Um and then there's other animals which include wild animals, birds, reptiles, rodents, bats, livestock, and then um total euthanatious. The uh other animals are not included in that live outcome. It's only dogs and cats. And as I said previously, uh the city did take over the shelter in 2014, uh January 1st, 2014. And here's a graphical representation of the cats and dogs uh euthanas by each

and um this also this slide um and I think the next one after this is opportunity for questions but this slide is um also part of the conversation that we had with the advisory board and also ultimately this city commission the governing body about providing this data and why we were providing this data. We were uh being asked by veterinarians why we were standing on a why we were so focused on no kill and that's when we decided that we wanted to change our approach and really focus on being able to accept strays and surreners. Um uh any questions? Um was done at the recommendation of the the animal control advisory board.

That's correct. Yes. And that was that conversation we had at the time. Uh there wasn't a direct recommendation by the board, but this is the information I did provide to the board. The same information I gave you uh for 2024, I gave to the board at that time. You know, one other part of that discussion back then was that you don't start operations on January 1st with the mindset we don't kill. You don't find out if you're no kill for 2024 until 2025. So it's always a retrospective yeah description of your of your operations.

The the range of time could be um selective but looking at it year and year every year I think is makes the most sense. Right. I just had one qu maybe a silly question but I'm hoping I know the answer. For the dogs that are dead on arrival, do they count against the live outcome? They do not. Okay. Just went make sure. Okay. Most likely a animal struck by a car. All right. And yeah, that arrival at the shelter or when the um officer arrives at the to pick up the animal. Just curious that do they pick them up alive and they're they're

No, that's when they arrive on scene. Once that animal is in shelter care, it is considered okay as part of a shelter. It gets intaken. It it gets like it gets documented. And just a a quick more of a comment, but but for today, we got to figure out pit bulls, too. We can't continue to hold them forever, whether it be 30, 45 days. But um in my humble opinion, inhumane to hold them forever in a cage. We're going to discuss that in next couple slides, too. Yeah, we have that.

How many shoulders in the state of Kansas are considered no kill? Do we know? Is that a standard or is that are we the exception to the rule?

I've never I've looked for that data specifically and I cannot find such a thing. Um, like I said, it's a there's not a a piece of paper you get saying you're no kill. It's just a phil philosophy or a movement. And I I have some other questions, but I think they may be more appropriate um when we talk about rescues companies and adoptions and stuff when we get when we get through the pitbull information. I think that'll maybe make a little more sense. So, I'll just hold those till then. If I may, I'll move on. So, these are some various advisory board topics that are of note recently that the advisory board asked staff to look at. Uh, wildlife. Um, we uh uh have been always taking community the community's always brought wildlife to the shelter. Um, and then they process it for the uh game warden or the uh rehabber. Um, I'm going to let Andrea talk about this a little more. So, we can't house wildlife at the shelter due to the potential risk of disease transmission um because it can't be in the same area as domestic animals in a licensed animal pet animal facility. So historically we've relied on euthanasia for any severely injured wildlife or coordination with a licensed wildlife rehabber. So one we work closely with is Carrie Newell. She's a federally uh permitted wildlife rehabber out of Hayes. So we would coordinate with her to transfer wildlife to her facility as well as we are in constant communication with our community game warden uh Coulter Silhan. um anytime a a wild animal comes in because we don't track that as well as he does in terms of what's protected, what isn't and his

suggestions and he comes regularly to pick them up as well. The goal has always been to provide the most humane and responsible outcomes for wildlife brought into the shelter from the community. With that in mind, there have been times that wildlife have gone home with staff with the authority from the game warden to do so because they cannot be left inside the shelter as a licensed pet care um facility. So, they would go home to receive care overnight before then being transported to one of the rehabers, either by a uh volunteer through that rehabber or by the game warden himself. The alternative option is for the shelter to no longer accept injured or sick wildlife and just refer uh every animal like wildlife that comes in if a community member brings it in or calls to call the uh game warden or the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks.

Reading through the email uh from the game warden Coulter um he stated that if uh if he had to based on the number of calls he gets 90% of his time would be in Salena. um he just can't be here all the time. Um he has no problem with holding on to injured wildlife uh for staff to do so for a day or two until it gets to that rehabber. Uh get if as long as it gets to the rehabber in a in a reasonable reasonable time frame. Uh if there is an issue with Kansas wild Kansas wildlife and parks relating to our practice of doing this for a long time u then um that's unknown to us. Um, and again, as as Andrea mentioned, um, it would be my preference to stay out of any internal squabbblings or internal

um, preferences within Kansas Division of Wildlife and Parks. And what type of wildlife do we see some brought in? There's been a lot of like babies, baby bunnies, um, baby squirrels. if the parent has something has happened to the parent um or they've fallen out of a tree like with the squirrel. Um there has been some birds of prey, fledgling birds of prey like Mississippi kites um that can't fly or something has happened or uh a lot of there's been a lot of birds with like broken wings and stuff like that that then we just communicate with them.

We do no trapping. I know that we've we've uh I've been asked, you know, if somebody has raccoons or something, who do we who do we call or who do we refer those individuals to? We have a list at the shelter of three individuals in the count like in Selen County that are licensed through the Kansas Wildlife and Parks to do wildlife trapping and we just refer somebody to them and I believe there's probably a cost with them because it would be a business for those three but it's we don't trap wildlife. Okay. Y thank you.

Um um go ahead Andrea L. Uh the next advisory board update was uh laundry. We if you can imagine are doing laundry 12 hours a day almost constantly. So we updated our units uh recently and reorganized our laundry room to store bedding more efficiently in sealed containers. There are pictures coming up. Um but we added a washer and dryer to increase the number of pounds being washed and dried at a time. So, our washer, we went from a 45 lb washer to a 60 lb and we went from a 30 lb dryer to a 55 lb. Now, these are the largest units that we could purchase and install without having to make modifications to the facility to get them into the facility, which are concrete walls. They they barely fit through the doors. So,

yeah, we have to knock down some walls if we want to get bigger.

Then the next slide is the pictures. Instead of cabinets, we switched to these racks with the tubs because that's one of the things that's in the Kansas Pet Care Act is that all of that bedding has to be in a locked sealed container. Starting at the end of January, uh we organized and started a volunteer volunteerism plan. We currently have five active volunteers at the shelter. Out of those five, we did our first orientation at the very end of January that last weekend. We had 23 applications. Out of those, only five attended the orientation. Two were scheduled to attend, but they did not show. Uh, seven of those applications never responded when we attempted to contact them and eight of those applications declined after turn after they had turned in that application. So, we had we have five active ones now. Uh we do have a handful of applications again and we are scheduling a another orientation here in the next couple of weeks to get more going.

I think you said uh 30 39 hours. Yes, we've had a total since the end of January a total of 39 volunteer hours at the shelter.

Um garage kennels. uh provided this before and I talked about it earlier. Um to increase our ability to accept strays and surreners, we uh made some uh changes about a year and a half year ago uh to be able to um put kennels in the garage that each kennel has a bed. Each kennel has a water bowl and a dog and a and a food bowl. Um you know, I mean, we always must be able to adequately house animals that we're responsible for. It's part of uh the Kansas Pet Animal Care Act. Uh the garage kennels were always intended to be temporary and still that's our that's our goal uh is to be able to reduce our total census overall census uh to be able to um serve the community but also not use the garages for that purpose. Uh, but they are cleaned and docu cleaned daily and documented and air air controlled with HVAC whether it be heat or um cooling. I think you had something else that

the garage kennels also provide a less stressful calm environment for some of the high anxiety and smaller dog breeds. With that, I have an example. We had a husky come in as a stray um about a month ago, just over a month ago, and it was in active labor. uh we had to rush it to a local vet who did an emergency C-section and there were five puppies. Out of those five, uh the only one is still living and it has been bottlefed since day one by a staff member and that's the one dog that we have in foster care. Um but that mom was not interested in the puppies at all. And because of her high stress and anxiety, she is one of those animals that we have kept in the garage um in one of those garage kennels just because it's not as stressful as the main kennels and how loud they can get. Um, as uh I think most of the community is aware community is aware, there was a special election for um um relating to an ordinance change for um pitbull breeds. Uh Andrea has some data relating to our current infant current census of pitbulls in the shelter.

Yep. So I said earlier we have 26 pitbulls. Uh so our current procedure is we run a physical characteristics test. If it the animal scores higher than 16 out of 32 then we will do a DNA test and send it in. That takes anywhere from 2 weeks to four weeks to come back. If they are 50% or more uh pitbull, then they would go on our transfer list out of So this list is all of as of last Wednesday, how many days all 26 of our pit bulls have been in the shelter with us. So the average comes out to 181.9 days, which is 6 months. So out of the 10 of those pitbulls, they've already been there six months. And the average for all 26 is six months. And as you can see the uh on the left side of that list, it shows that percentage

of that uh pit bull based on that DNA test. And you can see we've been DNA testing almost every pit bull we have. It doesn't the last one there. I'm sure we're waiting for results.

Um following that special mail in election uh where voters decided to keep the city's uh breed ban for pitbull type dogs. As I said, we have 26 pitbull dogs as of last Wednesday. Uh was that Thursday? Actually, last Thursday. Um you know, current the current practice and the practice that's been ongoing is that we do not adopt out we have not adopted out any pitbull type dog. Uh we've only transferred or traded with other organizations, with other rescues, with other humane societies or municipal animal shelters. um you know this has become increasingly common that increasingly less common uh due to really some what we've hear what what Andrew hears is about overcrowding of pitbull breed type breeds. Um however um staff proposed to maybe uh see if if there's an interest in uh considering allowing staff to adopt pitbull type breeds outside of the county in counties that are outside of Selen County. Um they'd be microchipped and spayed or neutered. Uh we would treat it like any other adoption in that case. uh they would have to provide an identification a current utility bill to show residency. Um then there would be an adoption agreement that be in writing. Uh if the pit bull type dog is found outside inside the city limits uh the dog would be seized uh the owner cited and the dog surrendered back to the animal shelter. Um we have a we have a question later if you want to discuss it at that time. Um, so just throwing it out there as a possibility. Uh, as you somebody that you've been on, we we've uh there has been staff requests um to in the past

about um being able to adopt uh pit bulls in the county and not in the city. Um, but there are from what I recall was there was conversations about liability concerns relating to pit bulls coming back into the community into the city uh limits and that was a concern at that time. It still could be. That's why we're looking at outside the county. Uh, any questions relating to that section? Is there a demand? Go ahead, Jerry. If if that were made available, would they be adopted? Much would there be a better chance of them being adopted outside of the county?

Yes, there there would be. Right now, our policy is we work with uh other shelters that would be interested in we'll do a transfer where we will transfer the dog to them and then somebody could adopt that dog if they're interested out of that shelter. It would just take that step out which is also a deterrent to people. It would give us the opportunity to adopt them out from our own shelter without the time of doing that transfer. So with transportation goes along with that out of county shelters would have no res. So someone from Selen or Salina could go to that shelter adopt it and bring it back as a possibility.

So it's something we actually see regularly now with our pitbull release agreements where if we get one then it's going through the court system. We work with the city prosecutor to release it out if the owner has somebody outside of Selen County that will take ownership of that animal and then we can release it out to them with that transfer of ownership. But you'd be surprised how many times we see them within a couple of months back in and strays and they end up back at the shelter. I don't think I'd be surprised

question on the percentage of pitbull and it maybe isn't so much of a question but as I understand it there's a certain amount of judgment call that goes into that from from the test you run and I I mean I right up top I see 53% 51% 54% so those percentages are from the DNA test that we sent off. That's not from the tests that we're physically like that we're running. We're running them the DNA test and that's the percentage of the DNA.

But still based upon the comment I made earlier that we can't hold them forever. Um, gee, if the dog is 51% or 53% um, just got to think it through all the way. I think we looked at at the time was the majority. It was a it was greater than 50%. uh of those three breeds that are called out in the city ordinance whether it be Staffordshire Terrier or Pitbull Terrier or American Pitbull Terrier of those three breeds combined if they equal a 50% 51% or greater than we than

I would think just as a buffer we'd want that a little higher just my thought that's by ordinance now and can't be changed correct I'm sitting here thinking I haven't read that ordinance lately and I'm relatively knew I'll look at it again, but I believe that is the case. By or you'd have to change your ordinance potentially to adjust your standards and obviously we just had a vote on that for 10 years. Well, so but I'll I'll look at it again before next meeting

that 51% is really a staff um it's something that administratively that we've developed. It's not the the percentage of the breed is I don't I don't I do not believe is in the ordinance but as you can imagine there's lots of mixed breeding of dogs and there's never 100% pitbull rarely. And one of the things I've noticed as I've gone out and looked at other shelters is a high percentage of a shelter's um dogs being in there is pit bulls. I think no matter where you go, if you go to Witchah, you go to Manhattan, you go to wherever, I think pit bulls have a tendency to be a high percentage of what's in a shelter currently. Um I guess um what is the and again the state is there guidelines on how many days I mean when you're talking about humane it's keeping a dog in in in captivity and and is there any kind of guidance out there?

I wouldn't call it guidance. I mean there is a state law that says when uh cities sees a stray animal they can't destroy it or do anything with it for 72 hours. But that's more on the compliance animal control side. That's to give owners 72 hours to find their dog basically and that's a that's a state minimum. Um obviously at the Sina Animal Shelter we've far exceeded that and have a interest in exceeding that but but there's not the state's not going to require you to do more than 72-hour hold.

Okay. I knew there was a number. I wasn't sure. Then I know there's comp I say companies there's people out there that are rescue that have we looked into any of those? We are constantly contacting rescues and everywhere is full. Everywhere is full. So I guess one of the decisions we're gonna have to make is the the no kill status and how we handle pit bulls, I guess, and things in the future. I guess that's going to have to be a policy decision. There's a decision point about no kill. I just don't think we're we're not

we're not and I don't know. When I was in the shelter the last time, it's completely full and a large percentage of that is pit bulls that are not going anywhere, which like you said hampers our ability to take care of other animals that need to be in there. So there's some probably hard decisions to be made here in the future. Um I don't know. Have we do we have any idea if we reached out and tried to adopt some of these out into other communities because right now we won't adopt them out to individuals. Correct. Is that what I understood? That's right.

Do do we have any idea if there's any what kind of growth we could have in our adoption rates if we did that? So, we have been we were doing transfers with McFersonen and they have now made the decision to not do transfers with us um due to liability and those animals going in and then being adopted out under them. We do some every once in a while with carrying hands in Newton, but it also takes the time and the staff to transfer and the transportation and wear and tear on vehicles and all of that that plays into that as well. Yeah, I don't think there's any preconceived notion that doing that is going to solve our problem, but it just gives us another another avenue to try and and get the dog into somebody's home that'll care for it.

And I I guess it would be no different adopting out to another county or to individual a pitbull versus a German Shepherd. Do we have any liability as a city? I look at our legal counsel to if we're adopting out, is there any type of release form we have signed or what do we have that would be protection for us?

We do. We currently do a release. I think we do have some generic ones. We would possibly enhance a release if we were adopting pitbulls within, you know, in directly. Um, you can never, as an attorney, you always say there you can never say there's no liability. Uh but we do have um you know state state ordinance or state statute that protects us fairly well on on civil liability and um we would just make sure people waved their rights and understood what they were adopting when they did that. Um, moving on. Um, on February 11th of 2026, the animal control and appeals board uh voted to recommend to the governing body to consider an independent contractor u prairie pause for the operation of the Salena Animal Shelter. Um there is some if if this is a direction that the city commission wish wishes to go um we would need to get a you know put together some specifications a scope of work for an RFP. Uh we're unaware if there are other independent contractors other than Prairie Paws that would want to be participating in that RF that request for proposal process. um you know solutions may need to be come up. Uh and I think we touched on it earlier about animal control. Uh if uh there might might have have to have a separate solution for animal control. uh if that was an interest and if this was an interest we would have we can have something prepared for you in approximately 60 days um for developing that RFP the specifications and the scopes and getting it out uh on the streets.

Uh we have been contacted by uh someone for um offering staff to do a operational assessment. um they uh look at uh we've done and this is not this is not something new that we've done for the animal shelter. We've done something similar and I think you've heard the results of that in the past. Uh we did one for animal control for National Animal Control Association. We did that in 2019. Uh in 2023 we did one for um uh shelter planners of America to look at an architecture plan for square footage and space and allocation of space and use of space. U and there was a recommendation from that about an addition and a uh renovation. Um this is more of an operational assessment for the animal services uh side. Um they look at the facility, they look at standard operating procedures. Um we look at they look at animal care and housing. Um again there's a list here. I can I don't have to read them all to you but volunteerism uh data management leadership management violent veterinary services. Uh the approximate costs be 25,000 as a budgetary uh number. Uh but if this is something that the governing body is interested in, we can do an RFP for such services and uh I think it'd be helpful to develop a list of things that uh we can start knocking off to continue that process of uh improving the shelter uh identifying uh processes uh to improve and our overall improvement program. uh wanted to provide uh a table of veterinary care expenses. Uh this is uh from just from 25 2025 and the use of donation dollars and general fund

dollars for veterinary care whether it be uh local veterinarians or it would be from um our spay and neuter clinic uh from our contracted veterinarian. Um, you know, local vetsu have uh scheduled patients daily which have uh have limited availability for shelter animals. Uh the through the KDA uh through the pet animal care act, they have been pushing us much harder to get more involvement from a um um from a veterinarian. And as we stated earlier, our contracted veterinarian is only available once a week. Um, however, on the next slide, there is a uh option we're looking at for a pilot program to allow our or have our our contracted veterinarian to come in an additional day. Uh, or be available for consultations on an additional day in addition to the spay and neuter day. Uh, generally we do spay and neuters on Thursdays. Uh, could be on Tuesdays or Mondays or something like that. uh where we can get more um contracted veterinarian care and offset offset some of that expense for the local veterinarian care. Um you know based on feedback from the state of Kansas and the increased regulation for youth in Asia. Um we we think having additional veterinarian care is is a is a very good idea. We have looked at staffing as far as a um a classified part-time or a classified full-time position for a veterinarian. Um be a shelter veterinarian. I provided some pay ranges that I found. Uh they're not very they're not super common and they're much more they're common in bigger cities typically than we have. Um but um uh Michigan City,

Indiana, which is I think a similar size community for a part-time vet is $75 to $100,000 for salary, typical salary range. Um and then based on that expense of vet care, we have looked at all kinds of options to try to get better care and use our dollar use dollars, whether they be donated dollars or um general fund dollars. And uh coming to the end of this presentation, um just questions for the governing body. um you know discussion for u these some topics. Uh one the first one being uh consider the request for proposals for an independent contractor for animal shelter services which was the advisory board's recommendation to uh for the governing body to consider that. I'll look to commissioners for

I'd rather do the operational assessment first. Uh we might find out that it's just a few people that are the difference and may find out our operating scheme is the diff is the problem. We might find out we just need to throw more dollars at the problems. That's probably not it. But money is always useful. But if it's something we can easily reasonably fix ourselves, um I just assume lead towards keeping it uh in house. uh if it's something that just didn't fit with the city's way of doing business uh I was or just something that we as a city wouldn't be expected to do well uh then at say farm it out but if there's some inherent problems they probably will continue over even into privatization uh sooner or later they'd have to be fixed And I I I just from from looking at this and and from wondering and I do believe that we're probably short on veterinarian hours to be in the community and maybe and that's I'm guess not knowing what other communities have that that assessment may tell us that. Um it's kind of hard to to run a shelter when a veterinarian's available one day a week and you may not even be the day you really need them on some things as you're aware. well aware of and dealing with medical issues. So, um

are there other money tends to increase their availability? Um is there other companies besides this Timrumb that we're aware of that that offers a service of looking at operational assessments? It's kind of what I guess what I was getting at earlier when I talked about accreditation and some of those things is is there somebody that comes in and we would do an RFP and send it out and see. We're not really sure. That's just the individual that's reached out to us. So yeah, we would we would take a look and see if there's other organizations or other individuals that would be interested

because there's because there's more there's there's different ways to run shelters obviously and most communities have their own animal shelters. I know and I'm not sure if I looked at at Witchah's they not only have their animal shelter but they have a humane society too and I don't know how those work together um and if that's

I don't know a lot to be just enough to be dangerous probably but the it kind of comes into that concept you were talking earlier about animal control you know kind of the police side of just housing an animal that's a stray versus rehabilitation into the public so I think that's kind of what they're getting at there is the the control side is just the hold and then the shel the humane society is more trying to rehabilitate animals but I don't know how they process between going from one side to the other are they both ran by the city of Salina or city of which I mean I don't believe so yeah I think the one's a 501c3 and the one might I believe it's Kansas Humane Society is operates the rehabilitation adoption side and then the shelter is uh under the police department

are they in other communities the Kansas Humane Society are they in other communities besides Witchah that be I don't I don't know something to look at. It gets confusing because a lot of city a lot of places will have their own regional humane society, but it kind of goes off the concept of we all kind of have a concept of what that means, but a lot of times they are functionally a separate uh separate body. So, um that's why it gets confusing. They might have Humane Society in their name, but they may not be part of a national network.

Okay. I have a few comments and I guess I want to start out with we've all heard the definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over again and looking for a different result. To me, we've been there, done that. I would like to see I'd like to see uh an assessment looking at the the pros and the cons of a private entity taking over the shelter. A few that come right to the top of my mind. One is they're experts on running a shelter. That's all they do. They're not under Jeff's or Andrea's umbrella or under Jacob's umbrella. the city's umbrella. Their business is dealing with animals, dealing with a shelter. They stay on top of the rules and regulations. The person in charge is doing it for an organization. They have a big vested interest in knowing what's going on. I know from my background with running multiple locations of businesses, if you have an inspector that goes to different locations um after an inspection at the next meeting of the minds of the people, I'd be telling my my fellow shelter managers, the inspectors out and here are things that they're looking at because inspectors are always whether they have hot buttons or hot buttons will come from a previous inspection they had so they make sure they check it out at the next location. It would allow it would allow more communications between the managers of different shelters on hey the inspectors out and

these are the type of things that they're looking at. um vet care in Manhattan. When I visited the shelter, there were Kansas State students in there along with along with an instructor and they were working on animals. They have a relationship with the vet program at Kansas State. And if our shelter was part of an organization, animals can be moved around or if they have a vet, that's a shared expense among four locations where there's economy of scale. They're more nimble. They don't have to go I mean, Jeff, if I heard you correct, to put together an RFP might take months. Um that that's just a private entity can turn on a dime if need be. Um dollars. Have we even has anybody talked to Manhattan or Emporia or Ottawa and and checked on what they spend on the shelter now versus what they did before? because I've done a little bit of research and I I I think we could perhaps save the city money. I think the pets could get the animals could get better care, which is really why we're all here. Um they're open more hours. They're they're they seem to be much much friendlier.

Um and and talking to the director They said, "We treat it like a business. We have to be open when people want to come in and take a look at the pets. They're open seven days a week." Um, community ones. This is a 8020 issue in our community. Our community would like to see a private entity take over, at least the people that really truly care. But that was a survey that was done in Salina 311. I don't know how many I'm guessing thousands of people participated in that survey, but it was an 8020 issue. Actually, a little over 80 volunteers. We talked about our volunteers. We talked about volunteer hours. It I mean we're we're we're comparing we're comparing a a grape here to a watermelon as some of the other communities with the amount of their volunteers or the amount of volunteer hours donations. I'm not sure how many people from the community are donating to the shelter right now with the private entity. I've been told donations increase. I haven't seen their books. I haven't seen the numbers. I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing right now because of things that have happened with the shelder, there's not that many people stepping up with a checkbook. If I take a look at the cons, do we lose some control? Yes, we lose some control. But that's why we would do it right now. It I I some of our some of

our people, some of our staff. Um, I if I were the city manager, perhaps I'd want Jeff there every day to until every issue was taken care of, until everything was hunky dory over there. And I don't think they have that type of time. So, I've already stated or I've I've talked I've talked enough. It seems like with a lot of issues, I'm a I'm a one-man band, but I think a private entity could do a better job.

Except one, a lot of the things that you suggested should be at the an ideal shelter. You're kind of giving the impression that these wouldn't of necessity never occur at a facility run by city employees. I think that's kind of a slap in the face to our city employees to think that they can't be as professional, can't get as much training, can't be in in uh group chats with other directors. I mean, I didn't hear anything that you were saying that could not occur at a city-run facility. you know, our our parks department runs facilities for youth, probably more friendly than what some of the private athletic uh places in town do. So, I don't think just being city is the reason that those aren't happen. Uh they're going to have to employ local people. And I don't know what we actually spend on the shelter bottom line per year, but I'm assuming

even privatization doesn't come cheap. I mean, they're in the business to make money or at least make ends meet. Uh they're going to have to cover all their all their costs, including the veterary services. Understood. So that so that's the reason I would want to see the operational assessment. I mean, if we don't know what we need, we're not going to know whether the private provider is giving it to us either.

I'll go back to has anybody talked to um city manager of one of those cities or the mayor of one of those other cities and asked those type questions because the ones that have done it are very happy with the operator they have chose. Well, there only three of them. Three of them. There's only three of them and and a fourth would provide economies of scale.

Perhaps, as you said, perhaps. Um I I kind of agree with Commissioner Davis. I think we should do the operational assessment. It's hard to to make a decision um without all the facts. And I think a an a company coming in and analyzing what we have. And they'll have some history on on other shelters would be helpful. Is there a possibility that an operational assessment would come in and say this is just not working. You should go private. I mean, is that something? Possibility, I guess. Yeah. So, we're going to hire another consultant.

Well, something that we know we don't do well ourselves. We'd be stupid not to. I mean, you wouldn't go build a house without getting an architect to design it for you, right? record. What harm is there looking at a private entity? What harm is there in getting a proposal? Yeah,

I know we talked about the employees there, but I mentioned previously they're already operating under a dark cloud. There is a lot of very unflattering stuff floating around out there that we we really have no control over. Some of it is is very beyond unflattering. Now, most of that dark cloud is coming from social media. Understand? But it's out there. So, so you know when we Could we please keep the comments down from the They don't come to work. I'm sure deliberately trying to say how much can we mess this place up today on understand.

All right. So this is a situation where you know the operational if it's an independent operational assessment that may very well be their assessment. You know the way this city runs and is constructed it's not ideally suited to run an animal shelter. Well,

but you know, I don't run animal shelter. Uh, I'm guessing the other four of you don't. I'm just thinking Jerry, well, Greg and Jerry may may may come in closer contact with people who use those services. But um you know if we know we're assessing something out of our ballet wick I mean there's nothing wrong with getting a consultant. We we we use consultants for lots of reasons and I think this is you know I hear the figure 25,000. Yeah approximately. We'll know. Yeah.

Yeah. is, you know, for a one-time expense, not that much considering the totality of what we're looking at.

And and again, if we're concerned about the care of the animals, I would think we would be willing to spend that money to to get a better idea of what we need. So, I'll look at Commissioner Linquitz and then Commissioner uh uh Ivy to get your comments. So the only thing I have to add is that you know that the consulting firm is an impartial set of eyes with no skin in the game and and that's the bottom line and I I think that that's going to be a necessity and I'd be in favor of anything that puts veterary presence on site uh for a longer period of time. However that may look I think that the animals will benefit from it and I think staff would benefit from that as well. Commissioner Ivy,

I would I'd agree with the veterarian. It'd be nice to see more. And um I don't know where the local vets stand on this if if I assume the one we get now is from Witchaw. Am I correct? Yes, she comes up from Witchaw every Thursday. So we're just none of the locals available or are they too busy? So she's the one that we've got the contract with. We use local vets the other days of the week as needed. Commissioner R, did did you happen in your conversations find out what these localities are spending per year to privatize

the thing I talked to the mayor of Manhattan who was very pleased with their partnership, but we did not get in the dollars and cents. I did not um I have received a financial statement, but I'd have to look back at my records from the um Prairie Paws organization. I didn't print it off or anything, but what I looked at um was I'm going to say comparable or less. When I looked at it, they seem to be running very efficiently in Manhattan with a total of seven employees. Now, do they do animal control as well?

The county provides one animal control officer and I talked to her on site and she made no mentions of having too much work for her. They cover a lot of ground. They expanded the area they cover over there. It it might be up to as many as several different counties are covered out of Manhattan because they were able to take on a a bigger area. And with the lower number of staff, if I remember correctly, it was well over 100. It might have even been as many as 150 150 volunteers. And I want to say like a hundred thousand volunteer hours, but

it's certainly tens of thousands of volunteer hours, which would explain why they have only seven employees. Yeah. So, if we had a um private private t sorry stuttering um we would still have to have the animal control. And how would that work with the pit bulls? Would animal control be in charge of any seized pitbulls? And would we still be housing 26 pitbulls through the city versus through the private company? Um, that would have to be written into the agreement. I mean, they would have to take any animal that the city seized

and house it. Yeah. Well, I again I think we can do the operational assessment and if it comes out and it says we need to do an RFP for for privatization, we can always do that. But I think u that's the way I guess that do I do I get the understanding that's kind of the way at least four of us are kind of leaning. Yeah, I would agree. Yeah. So does that give you direction as to Y where to head? Okay. Any other comments from the commission? Okay. If not, we'll be back

on the on the last item allowing the animal services to adopt pitbull type dogs outside of Sleen County. It sounded like the commission was okay with us moving forward with that. We'll produce some sort of I think we're okay with that. I'd like to make sure we have an agreement with uh some language in there that protects us a little bit if could we look at um for second and third time offenders at stiffening that fine maybe so that if somebody does go out of town and adopt it and bring it back into town. Is that an option or is that part of the ordinance again?

You know, yeah, it's a good question. I mean, it's currently in the ordinance. I would talk to the city prosecutor about that before we came back because I do think there's a little bit of a there's a first time offender we kind of say, "Well, you probably should have known you shouldn't do this. We think you knew, but we might look at that a little differently." When someone is kind of intentionally if they're intentionally circumventing our rules by having a fake adoption and getting back to them, we would look at that probably much more harshly. So, let me talk to the city prosecutor about options if we we might already have it in our ordinance is just an enforcement issue or we might have to buff to change something. Thank you.

Okay, we will be back here at 4:00 for the regular meeting. Heat. Heat.

Hey, hey, hey.

Heat. Heat. Back out.

Heat. Heat.

Heat. Heat.

Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Heat.

Hey, Hey.

Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey.

Hey, Number

Okay, it is 4:00 and I will call the March 23rd, 2026 Linus City Commission meeting to order. I look to we'll look to staff for confirmation of the Kansas Open Meeting Act required notice has been properly provided. Yes. Thank you. May we have a roll call? Mayor Hopek here. Commissioner Davis here. Commissioner Ivy here. Commissioner Langitz here. Commissioner Remp here. Will those who are able please stand for a pledge of allegiance and a moment of silence.

I pledge algiance 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. Thank you. Okay, that will lead us to uh public hearings.

Item 3.1, conduct a public hearing and consider approval of resolution number 26-8334, showing cause as to why the building at 1616 West Crawford Street is dangerous and ordering it removed by the city. With that, I will open the public hearing. Mr. Furbeck.

Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor, commissioners. I'm Sean Furbeck, the dangerous structure specialist with development services. We're here today to talk our for the show cause hearing for the property located at 1616 West Crawford on October 28th, 2024. The city commission passed resolution 24-8244 directing that the city proceed to cause the dangerous structure located at that address to be raised and removed. In November 2024, the owner hired a contractor to start the demolition work. The building was demolished. However, the rubble is what's left. We have had a change of contractors. A secondary contractor was hired to finish that complete that demo project. back in uh February of 2026, that contractor pulled his demo permit. So, there is no active demo permit for that site. When the when that contractor left the site, he drove over the entrance gate. It was never fixed. So the city contracted with our contractor and that

site has been secured. So the KSA 121750 provides the authority for cities to require the repair or removal of dangerous structures by complying with the applicable statute procedures. So on o, like I said, on October 28th, the commission deemed it to be dangerous and to have it raised and removed, we paused that while giving the owner the opportunity to complete that work. When all negotiations with that owner failed and progress halted, we completed the required mailings to all parties of interest back in February of this year. What what we are asking at the conclusion of this hearing is for the commission to direct staff to raise and remove that structure and then we would put that out for bid. State law provides us a process in order to do that. And once that is completed, then that bill would be forwarded to the owner.

And if the costs of that were not paid within the 30-day time period, that fee would then be assessed to the property. And I think I've covered all all of the background up to this point as far as when the commission started this process. And where we are at today is I I hope everybody has at least driven by that to see kind of the what we're left with. And that has set in that condition since the summer of 25. In conclusion, we're requesting that the governing body makes a finding by resolution 268334 that the structure be raised and removed by the city and the premises made safe and secure. Option two would be to approve resolution 268334 with amendments as the city commission deems appropriate. Three would be postpone consideration pending information or modification or four decline to approve resolution 26-8334. City staff's recommending option number one to have the structure raised and removed and premises made safe and

secure. Be happy to answer any questions. Any questions for staff?

If we approve this resolution, what's the time frame to have have it back to everything gone? Um the bid would go out for 30 days. Once that bid is we're open, the sealed bids. Once that's done, I'll come back before you guys with our recommendations. Once once that has been approved, that resolution, then it's down to simply uh signing that contract with whatever contractor it is, and then they can start work on it.

And I don't really have a a question. I have more of a comment. Um, if you remember, we kind of held the owner's feet to the fire and instead of us tearing it down as as a city, we had the buyer. So, a a majority of the cost has already been um handled by the by the current owner. Uh any expense incurred, as Mr. Furbeck said, um we'll send the the seller or the owner a bill, if he doesn't pay it, that gets added to the tax roles. If that property is ever foreclosed on or sold, the taxes are the first thing to get paid. So, we'll get reimbursed at that point, if not uh when we send him the bill. So, right. So we're in a much better position now than we would have been if we would have torn the property down ourselves. So just wanted to make that statement. So

just one question, the landfill fee, will that be a bill to the city that would be held up for that eventuality or does the landfill send a separate bill as well? That would be part of the contract. So the contract will include landfill fees. So, the landfill would get paid by by the contract. So, the city pays the landfill. Um, but it is kind of a it'll be a shuffling of funds until until we get paid. Okay.

At some point through property taxes. Okay. Are there any questions or comments from the public on this item? If not, I will close the hearing and bring it back to the commission for action. I'll make a motion. I make a motion that we approve resolution number 26-8334 directing that the structure at 1616 West Crawford Street be raised and removed by the city and the premises made safe and secure.

Second. We have a motion, a second to approve resolution number 26-8334, directing that the structure at 1616 West Crawford Street be raised and removed by the city and the premise made safe and secure. All those in favor? I opposed. That item passes 50. That will bring us to consent agenda.

Item 4.1, excuse me. Consider approval of the minutes of the March 9th, 2026 regular meeting. Item 4.2. Consider authorizing funds to purchase fixtures, furnishers, and furnishings, excuse me, and equipment for the new fire station number four construction project in an amount not to exceed $38,846. Item 4.3, consider approval of resolution number 26-8340, repealing resolution number 12-6931 in its entirety and adopting updated guidelines for approving and issuing special event retailers permits for alcoholic liquor and cereal malt beverages. Item 4.4, consider awarding the bid for the 2026 microsurfacing project to Vance Brothers of Kansas City, Missouri in an amount not to exceed $944,58921. And item 4.5, consider awarding the bid for the 2026 Crack Seal project to Vance Brothers of Kansas City, Missouri in an amount not to exceed $375,480.

Okay. Are there any items a commissioner would like to have removed from the consent agenda? Mayor, I would like items 4.2 and 4.4. A brief brief question and maybe a follow-up comment on each, but it'll be very brief. Okay. We will remove items 4.2 and 4.4. Okay. Are there any comments from the public on items 4.1, 4.3, and 4.5? If not, I would accept a motion to approve those consent agenda items.

Mayor, I move we approve consent agendas 4.1, 4.3, and 4.5. Second. We have a motion, a second on the floor to approve consent agenda items 4.1, 4.3, and 4.5. All those in favor? I opposed. That passes 50. That will bring us to item 4.2, Shane. And I probably could kick this off or cut a chase. Wait for Shane to get up here and he'll be able to answer your questions. Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor, commissioners. Uh Shane Pearson, fire chief. Yes, sir.

And Shane, I already talked to the city manager this morning about this item. In the amount of that 309,000, call it for furniture, fixtures, equipment, and looking through the dollar amounts allotted to each item. Um a lot of them were very inflated. For example, cost of TVs. They were two to three times what smart TVs can be purchased for. And shoot, there was maybe eight of them or something like that. My only question is who who will I guess who will approve the final dollar amount? because I think I I bought a TV or two recently and again the numbers were about triple the mounting brackets were about triple what they actually cost from a wholesale club or Best Buy or some some place like that.

Sure. Happy to answer that question. So the the uh architect firm is who provided the initial bids or not bids the initial cost estimates of that are contained on the list. And when they bid when they when they put those cost estimates they're they you kind of shoot for the moon I guess is the easier way to say it. They they estimate high just in the event cost because this list was created probably a year and a half to two years ago roughly. So anticipating increased cost um they don't know what things are going to do and and they they did quote high-end TVs which we typically don't purchase. we we purchased, you know, a a nice quality TV at whether it's at Sam's or Best Buy. We will throughout this entire process, we will follow the city's purchasing policy as far as bids, soliciting bids. Um it everything will be vetted through the through the purchasing policy that the city has in place. So, we've already started that process and and everything that we've gotten solicited bids for so far has come in well below any of the estimated prices that were provided by the architect with the exception of uh SCBA compressor that's coming in a little bit higher than what their initial estimate cost estimate was.

Thank you. you and Jacob told me that and this morning

ju generally speaking with our purchasing policy if there was some an item like this where you added a bunch of stuff up that exceeded my purchasing authority then we would have to bring each of those things back to the city commission. So this gives us the authority to do that to purchase all these individual items. So even though it's this kind of gives you a blanket authority to purchase um all of these items without bringing each individual one back to the back to the um back to the city commission. We um intentionally in our purchasing policy, we don't allow people to split things out and and exceed the city manager's authority. So, like let's say there were two items or there was a project that had um you know, it had HVAC and it also had flooring. Well, if those both exceed the city manager's purchasing authority, that would be like splitting the bids out so that it would um kind of give me authority above and beyond what I already have. So, so this uh the reason we're bringing it back to the city commission is because we don't want to violate the purchasing policy in terms of um the maximum bids. So, if that all makes sense.

Thank you. Sure. And I think this is pretty standard that there that when it's something like that always is high because it's easier to to deal with it now than them to have to come back to us and and uh be over budget. So, but certainly everything will be bid. I mean, we won't we don't just go out and buy it. We'll all go through a bid process. Yeah. The about the only thing that's come come in consider that's not come in considerably lower than what their cost estimates were has been so far the SCBA compressor. We have four different quotes on it so far and they're all over the unfortunately over their estimated amount, but everything else has been considerably less than than what's there what they estimated. Any other questions for Chief Pearson? Thank you.

Any comments or questions from the public? If not, I'll bring it back to the If not, I'll bring it back to the commission for action. 4.2 separately. Yes, please. I move approval of item 4.2 on the consent agenda. Second. Okay. We have a motion and a second to approve consent agenda item 4.2, two, which is to purchase furniture, fixture, and equipment for fire station number four, an in amount not to exceed 38,846 and authorize the city manager to approve all purchases. All those in favor? I

I opposed. That item passes 50. That will bring us to item 4.4. So item 4.4 Four was again consider awarding the bid for the 2026 microsurfishing project of Vance Brothers of Kansas City, Missouri in an amount not to exceed $944,58921. Okay. You're not Jim, but we'll give you I'm covering for Jim today, mayor. Uh, good afternoon, Mayor and Commissioners. Ron Marsh Director of Public Works. Quick question for you. Sure. I I don't want to assume incorrectly, but that bid does it include the striping of the streets?

Yes, it does. Restriping the street. Yes. I want to make a comment then that in my opinion the Cheryl's um information I've got we pay as a city roughly $10,000 per mile for the Cheryls for the Cheryls by themselves. Um, I know the the map I needed a bigger magnifying glass than what I had to see all the roads, but I know one of them was Mury Mount. And I gee, if there's a bike on the road, we've dealt with it forever. When I'm driving Elm from Ohio over to here, there's Cheryl's all the way up Elm and they're going right down the middle of the road. I think at 10,000 and and I'm not saying Elma is one of the roads that's going to be redone, but for $10,000 a mile, it just to me seems like it doesn't seem like a good use of money in my opinion. Wh which part is the $10,000? the

the the painting painting the sherrows the uh lane bike lane. Yes, commission. Not the actual bike lanes, but not the bike. There's a difference between the bike lanes and the and the sher. The bike with the arrows. That's the symbol that's on the correct. The symbol is merely to let without the bike lane. Uh but the Cheryl by itself is merely to let the it's a traffic control device that allow that tells the motorists that there's an increased possibility of increased bike traffic on that road. So we're talking about the picture of the bike on the pavement that's 10,000 mi or the correct the lane marker itself for that

the sheros themselves the run about two in this bid they're $275 each. Okay. And that works out to 10,000 a mile for this project is 24,000. I mean, not per mile for the whole project. Sorry. Okay. So, the 10,000 per mile was referring to what?

And our our 2025 costs uh for sheros were was approximately $250 a piece was roughly it was I think it was $9,100 $9,100 a mile for for the sheros. are they're spaced. We space them. Our engineer our engineers have tried to take a very pragmatic approach to it. And at intersections when you turn onto a road that is connecting bike trails that is going to have that going to have uh sherrows, they try to put them after each intersection. And then on longer stretches, for instance, Mry Mount where we don't have as as many uh intersecting roads, they're going to be anywhere from 3 to 400 feet every 300 400 feet. The manual on uniform traffic control devices authorizes them or recommends every 250 ft, but we stretch that out to try to save a little money. It doesn't sound like it, but it does. I mean, it's

I can't unless we're going to paint them ourselves. I don't know whether I can't remember when we did this. How did we set up what roads have those on them? And and was how did we

Yeah. So we have a bike committee that has uh that has met and so sheros are intended to connect people between two places where there's bike lanes. So if you have a bike lane then you don't need a sher. Um but if there's a if there's two areas of community and there's there's designated bike paths that were designated by that committee. Um they you know I don't I it's been years since they kind of came up with the the designated bike routes. And so where there are places where we don't have a a designated, you know, bike lane, there there would be a sher that would connect those two locations. So, um, it's been a number of years that that we've had those in place. I don't think we've made any changes to the bike paths, um, in quite some time.

Okay. And we have committed to being a city of connectivity with the hike and bike trails, the the bike lanes in this in the street. Um, it seems like that paint wears out faster than the lane markers. Is it a different

Well, Commissioner, this is a There's two methods, several methods to put these down. What's in this bid is thermoplastic. So, it's a much more durable, much more long-asting product that also reflects much better than the paint we use. We there are occasions where we we will go in and when paint let's say we've done a project and has torn up some we'll go in and we know we're going to be redoing that project that street in a few years then we we just paint them on and that doesn't last near as long but these are thermoplastic they should last till we redo the street. Okay. So,

have we ever looked at a sign that along the street like on a no parking sign having a bike lane sign versus the Cheryl? To me, the bike sign would last a heck of a lot longer than a Cheryl. I don't know, Commissioner. I don't know if we've looked at it. have to I'd refer to the uh engineers the other yeah I'm not sure that we have looked at at signage on the on the sides not sure certainly can I mean

possibility who so who if we were to send something like that back what committee was there I mean we had a bike committee but that's not a standing committee or anything yeah I believe I think they still do meet periodically so I think we could you know poll that group and see what they're I mean I've heard this concern turned before. So, it might be something to send back to them and and review. The the shadows are reflective. Yes. Which means at night you're more likely to see that than a sign on the side that I'd hope I'd hope you'd be looking for a reflector on the bike. But well, that and that's another reason to have the reflective surface on that pavement probably.

Okay. Any comments or questions from the public? Ben Salina. I remember when this first came up years ago, it was a group of doctors that wanted these things done because they rode bikes. Um, at that time the sheriffs were $125 a piece and the city was putting them everywhere. I mean, they were each block had probably four to five sheriffs. Since then, they've figured out what the cost that they had to go to less. But now we're up to 250. I'm with the idea, too, that it needs to be a road sign um put up and get rid of the Cheryls. And the Cheryls wore out easily because I brought this up in the past that on Kenwood Park Drive alone when they redid that street, they put the Cheryls not even close to the curb. They put them in where the cars drive and the tires go over them. In order for you to avoid them driving over them, you either had to go against a curb or over into the other lane. To me, that didn't make any sense that you would put a sher where you have tire traffic all the time. Yeah, that's going to wear it out quickly. So maybe they should look at when they put these together on streets that don't have bike lanes, but they're putting sheriffs in the street, putting them closer to the curb or somewhere that won't get the traffic of of the tires going over them. Or just do away from them. Do away from them because $250, that's a chunk of money. And let's do signs. Thank you.

Thank you. In response to Commissioner Davis's that you say the Cheryls need reflective light. Rosemary. Oh, I'm sorry. Can you and can you pull the mic down? You're not that tall. Rosemary my swine of Kansas. I'm sorry I'm so short. My uh

Abene stop signs have reflecting lights around them. So at night when you go in you can see the stop signs very visibly because they have the uh reflecting lights. So that could be a idea for the bicycle signs so they can see them at night. Thank you

commissioners. I did not prepare on this topic um in advance and our city engineers not here. It just occurs to me as we talk about signs versus uh different traffic controls, there are some um there are some municipal standards that cities are if not required to follow, sometimes they're good things to follow. And if we deviate too much from our engineering recommendations or some of those standards, we might have some liability issues. So, I just am a little bit cautious if we just start on the fly adjusting too many things. I would be worried about that without talking to our engineers and making sure we're kind of following the accepted practices. Thank you. Okay. If there's no other comments, I will bring it back to the commission for action. A move to approve item 4.4 Four on the consent agenda awarding the bid for the 2026 microsurfacing project to Vance Brothers of Kansas City, Missouri in an amount not to exceed 944,58921.

Second. Okay, we have a motion, a second to to approve the bid for project number 260005 2026 Microsurfing to Vance Brothers LLC of Kansas City, Missouri in the amount of $899,68.77 with a $44,98044 construction contingency for total project authorization not to exceed 944,58921 and authorizing the city manager to execute a contract with Vance Brothers LLC of Kansas City, Missouri upon fulfillment of all prerequisites under the bid documents. All those in favor signify by saying I.

I opposed. That item passes 50. That will bring us to administration.

Item 5.1. consider authorizing acceptance of the 2025 People's Choice sculpture into the city's public art collection and placement of both the 2022 and 2025 People's Choice sculptures onto public property. Good afternoon, mayor, commissioners. Thanks for your time today. My name is Crystal Hammer Schmidt, art services coordinator with Arts and Humanities Department. Um, I am asking for the authorization the acceptance of the 2025 People's Choice Sculpture, Mr. Hatter's Pursuits and Becoming Human 006, The Fisherman at Fall River by Brady Hatter. Um, if that image could be pulled up, it is item 1.0 in the packet. All the images today that I will reference are um included in the packet today. Um, this location we have determined to be over off of and I'm gonna I've got a couple here. So, let me Riverside Drive and this is at So, maybe we'll see the photo of it. Uh, the sculpture is currently down on Santa Fe, so it will be removed um midappril. The location for this um would go and we have the map an image of the location for this piece um is 1.5 kind of skip around there. Um this is the would be the west entry point to a foot bridge off of Riverside Drive. So, if you are on Ohio, kind of north Ohio, um this is a spot which this bridge goes over the river um and goes kind of directly to Lakewood School. Um in addition to the 2025 sculpture, we also are asking for um the recommendation for placement of the 2022

people's choice sculpture. that was previously accepted into the collection in 2023, but it is kept downtown and we have moved that around until we found a really great location. Both of these pieces we were taking into consideration um the river renewal project and finding some really nice spots along the river. Um both of them do have a fishing theme. Clarence the catfish, the 2022 people's choice. He is a catfish on a bicycle seeming very appropriate along along the river. So you've people have probably seen him downtown. We've moved him a couple times since the acceptance officially in 2023. So he has been part of our collection. So um we're asking for the acceptance of the 2025 sculpture and then the placement onto public property for both the 2022 and 2025. Um I don't know I don't remember if we got the image up there for the 2025 the foot bridge um over by River Riverside Drive and then clearance will be placed by the water treatment plant and the foot bridge at fourth and Oakdale Park on the outside of the park. We do have that image also and that is item 1.4. Um, this spot will require some concrete work. I have worked closely with parks and recreation department. Um, you can see in this photo that yellow arrow is where the concrete slab will go. So, we'll be sort of midway point from that fourth street sidewalk and the bridge. Um, there's a blue sign that includes curfew and some of the park rules that will get transferred to the south side. So that yellow arrow is on the north

end. We'll have a concrete slab poured that will be done internally. Parks will be doing that in combination with some other concrete work here this spring. Um and clearance will be placed there. So we will have ground mounted signs like all of the other signs that we have with our public art pieces in the collection. Um and once we get him there, we'll decide kind of the orientation, but we'll have enough space on that concrete slab there. The other sculpture doesn't require any concrete work. Um there's plenty of space there. We will be moving a bench from that location at that foot bridge um from the north end over to the south thinking about cleaning and snow removal for parks and wreck. So we have pretty simple installation and all of that work will be done internally with parks and wreck. I do want to note on these projects, um, parks and recck director Jeff Hammond has continued to participate in our our CAD meetings and our recommendations. Um, very helpful in the site visits and identifying possible locations both with the river renewal project and in combination with the parks master plan. Um, and Jeff has really helped out sort of in the flow of these projects. There's a lot of steps sometimes whether we uh need concrete work or moving sculptures or any care and maintenance. Um we've been working together in the past year to create a document that works really well between our departments. Um there's a lot of boxes to check just from that purchasing point to actually getting it on site and who's all responsible. So, that's been a really helpful support in making sure we're not missing a step or um if we we need forms done outside or ahead of of construction or concrete work. So, that's that's been a great improvement between the two departments on these processes.

Any question? Okay. Any questions or comments from staff? Is there any questions or comments from the public on this item?

Tony Johnson, Salena, I would be curious to know if the representatives from Arts and Humanities went and had lunch on the taxpayers dime like they so often do to pregame for this presentation. Norman Lena, what is the security around these statues? Have you seen the price of metal market lately? There's some valuable metals in some of them things. You had this issue brought up a while back about a metal statue being donated to the city. Okay. Any other comments?

I guess I wasn't worried about security, but I think Clarence is going to get a lot of attention during River Festival. Okay, with that, I will bring it back to the commission for action. I'll make a motion. The motion is to approve the acceptance of the 2025 people's choice sculpture into the public art collection and placement of both the 22 and 25 people's choice onto public property. Second. We have a motion, a second to accept the 2025 people's choice sculpture into the public art collection and placement of both the 2022 and 2025 people's choice onto public property. All those in favor?

I I opposed. That item passes 50. That will lead us to item 5.2. Item 5.2. Consider approval of a second amendment to the Salina destination development phase 2 development agreement.

Commissioners, uh Sean Hennessy, deputy city manager. Um I'm going to um this is for the second amendment to the phase two. Uh I'm going to very briefly uh I know this this is project has been before you a number of times but I'll very briefly go over the background of this project for anyone who's not familiar with it. Um if you remember from the past the city received via special legislation a $25 million incentive to uh help address some of our housing um concerns. We then went through an RFP process, selected Salina destination development uh to uh utilize th those funds from the state. We uh adopted a DA for phase one and it is nearing completion. Now phase one consists of 250 uh apartment units. It's actually going to be 252 uh apartment units for phase 1. Those are again the traditional apartment units. uh $12 million of that $25 million was utilized uh to pay for a portion of the cost for that phase 1. 1 million of the $25 million was utilized for the purchase of the land which will be utilized for both phase 1 and phase 2. Uh phase 2 uh was adopted. Phase 2 will be different from phase one in that it will be uh 148 uh nontraditional apartment units. These will include single family homes, duplexes, forplexes, etc. along with an additional 100 units of the traditional uh apartments at the far southern tip of the property which is located down behind Menards. Um that phase 2 DA was uh adopted. Uh there was one amendment earlier to that which basically set forth a cost for special assessments. These were the special assessments to

pay for infrastructure improvements such as the roads etc in that area. What you have before you is the second amendment to the phase uh 2DA agreement and what this essentially does is modify the timeline for the expenditure of the funds. Um during phase one we took the approach of reimbursement as the units became available. Um the state however has a requirement that all of these funds need to be expended before the end of this current year. Um so as such what we have came to an agreement with the developer is to allow them to draw down the funds uh not on a as a per unit becomes available but as they experience costs. Uh the the 500 unit uh requirement and guarantee is still in place. However, this amendment does also have a provision that would allow the developer to locate those final 100 uh apartments at the far southern tip in another location if they decide to do that and with city agreement. However, the 500 unit requirement still remains. There currently is still the $12 million remaining of the $25 million for phase 2. If um you agree to this, um they're in the process of finishing up phase one. They plan to transition to phase two fairly quickly, and I would anticipate that we would draw down that $12 million uh fairly quickly. So, I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have about this amendment. the the three key dates. Um there are a number of other dates, but the three key dates are they require uh the developer to spend all of the state remaining state agreement funds by September 30th of this year. Um the state does not want to

have a deadline at the very end of the year. Um and we have discussed it with the state and they have agreed uh to this. uh then the first 148 units of phase 2 must be offered uh for occupancy by December 15, 2027. So that's going to be roughly a year and a half from now. And then the final 100 units of the traditional apartment types uh would need to be available for December 31st, 2028. So, uh, those are the important, uh, dates within there, and I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have about this amendment.

If the date uh, for completion of these those three areas that you mentioned are not kept, is the state looking to get money back from the developer or city? This is why um the state requires all of the money to be expended this year and we cannot do the reimbursement as the units become available and still meet that requirement. So what we've agreed with the developer is is they will be able to draw down that money as they experience any costs rather than as the units become available. That way the 12 million of the state money will be expended for the end of the year.

And the agreement that the money would be drawn down as the units were available was something we the city put in not the state. Yes. With with the agreement of the state. Um um and so because we have the inability to take that same approach, cut the timeline, but they do still have the legal requirement to provide 500 units to be available.

So does the state have to approve this as well? I have gotten um an email from the state saying that they are fine with this and they will be submitting a formal amendment to the agreement with the state, but the state has indicated that they um are in agreement with this. Okay. Thank you. Quick question, Sean. I believe you said there's 252 apartments complete.

They currently in in phase one they are finishing up. I do believe we have their attorney online. It is my understanding as of a week ago, they were hoping to finish the remaining uh units. These are blocks of apartments uh this week or to the uh next week and that they would then uh once they finish all of phase one be transitioning to phase two. So they are are just finishing up the last few apartments in phase one.

And do we know what their demand has been? I are are they running well? It's it's been very good. Um they for quite a while have had a waiting list as people were waiting uh for the apartments to become available. I think there was initially some concern about market saturation. So far we have not seen that. Um this is a different mix uh for phase 2 u at least the initial stages of the 148 units and then the final 100. But so far we've seen a very strong demand for the units and um uh it continues to be so far. I anticipate that because this is a different mix um there will be uh a different demographic looking at these phase 2 148 units because like I said it's there's a big difference. They're very compact. Don't get me wrong. I know the term is horizontal apartments and I actually don't like that term because these are oftentimes standalone single family homes and forplexes. So when you say horizontal apartments, it gives the wrong impression. They are very compact, but there are single family homes of different sizes. There are forplexes, there are duplexes, there's a wide variety of housing in phase 2, and I think that that will serve to attract from an even larger demographic.

Okay. M Driscoll. Mr. Mayor, commissioners, Lauren Driscoll, director of community development services. Just to fully verify the permit, um that is closing out the last building in phase one. They have called for final inspections. Usually on a project this big, um you know, there may be a bit of back and forth for some of those final inspections, but you should see that closed out here very very soon. So, and we have started to have conversations with the developer about prepping product um for phase 2 because there's a variety of different buildings as um Mr. Hennessy mentioned. So, they are moving forward with that piece.

Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Any questions or comments from the public? Hello, Richard Albert Humphrey the second. Um just uh trying to forecast um hopefully that we are working with the housing authority or hopefully we can kind of get those people that are on that uh waiting list a chance or possibly put that involved in future agreements. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay. If there are no other comments, I will bring it back to the commission for action. I move um I move to authorize the mayor to execute the second amendment to the development agreement phase 2 project between city Salina, Kansas, and Salina Destination Development LLC. Second. We have a motion, a second authorizing the mayor to execute the second amendment to the development agreement phase 2 project between the city of Salena, Kansas and Sina Destination Development LLC. All those in favor?

I opposed. That item passes 50. Thank you. That will bring us to item 6.1. Item 6.1. Consider a request from Overlook Estates LLC releasing the declaration of restrictive covenant requiring automatic fire sprinklers and all new dwellings in the Overlook Estates edition.

Good afternoon, mayor and commissioners. Uh Dustin Michaelelsson with planning planning manager with community community and development services. Uh this this is application M260001 which is a request from Derek Lee on behalf of Overlook Estates LLC for approval of the release of a declaration of restrictive covenant requiring automatic fire sprinklers in all new dwellings in the Overlook Estates edition. So, the Overlook Estates edition is a 52 acre 52.9 acre residential subdivision consisting of lots 1 through 12 in block one that's located south of Riverrun Edition and west of Great Life Golf and Fitness at the south end of Overlook Drive. Uh it's a it's planned development district PDD with an underlying zoning of R Single Family Residential and it was established by ordinance number 22-1134. So, the covenant that's the subject of this request was recorded in the in the register of deeds on November 9th, 2023, and it it originated from a voluntary offer by the developer to install automatic fire sprinklers in all dwellings in the Overlook Estates edition. That offer was made to address the fact that the subdivision's existing secondary emergency access road at the time that it was platted could not satisfy the remoteness requirement of the 2012 international fire code which was the fire code in effect at the time uh the plat was approved in 2023. The 2012 uh IFC uses the diagonal dimension formula to measure separation between the primary and secondary accesses. Um and the site's peninsula shaped topography and and geometry made it not possible to satisfy that. Um, essentially you have to take the sub, it's it's a formula that's intended for rectangular or square shaped subdivisions where you take a distance from the primary access down to the furthest diagonal corner and you

establish what the separation to the secondary access is based on that. Um, the changed condition here that forms the basis of this request is that the city's adoption of the 2018 IFC via ordinance number 25-11266 took effect on January 1st 1st, 2026. That ordinance uh included a local amendment to the ISC section D 104.3 uh replacing the diagonal dimension formula with a flat minimum separation requirement of 300 ft between a primary and secondary fire access road. Uh the existing secondary emergency access is on lot 11 uh which connects across Great Life uh golf and fitness to Mry Mount Road. Now to explain this a a little bit more. Scott, can you go down like show just below the edge of the screen there a little bit? Now the other direction just uh to where we can see that parking lot. If we can zoom in on the the parking lot there. So that's that parking lot is on Great Life Golf and Fitness. Immediately to the west of that between the gravel road that is going to be Overlook Drive, there's a there's an access easement that's established on the Overlook Estates plat. That's that's what I meant by uh the existing fire access road that was built um with Riverrun. So that's that's existed there for a while. The the other piece of this is that Great Life Golf and Fitness has recorded an a fire access easement across their property that brings you through that parking lot and up the driveway to connect to the roundabout at Mry Mount Road. Um so that ordinance uh included a local

amendment to section D 104.3 replacing that diagonal dimension formula and the existing emergency access road that's on lot 11 on the great on the overlook estates edition connects across great life and brings you up to Mry Mount Road. um that provides a a separate separation distance of approximately 1130 ft from the primary entrance at Riverrun Parkway to that secondary access. And that is actually a little bit up north where Riverrun actually comes into Overlook Drive. Riverrun Parkway comes off of Mry Mount, goes west over to Overlook Drive. That 1100 foot measurement is from right about where Riverrun Parkway starts at Mrymont Drive down to the secondary access that is going on to Great Life. Um that distance exceeds the 300T minimum on the currently adopted IFC. And the fire marshall has reviewed this secondary access route and confirmed that it satisfies the applicable uh physical requirements of the 2018 IFC. and his memo is included in the packet that was provided to the planning commission and is attached to your packet as well today. Uh on March 17, 2026, the planning commission held a public hearing on this this application. And during that hearing, the fire marshall presented his findings and also recommended a fifth condition of approval requiring a Knoxbox padlock on the fire access gate. And there was a a number of new conditions of approval that had to be implemented with this request to approve that secondary fire access. Uh the applicant agreed to that condition and the planning commission then took two actions both with votes of six to zero to approve. Uh the first action was that the commission approved a motion to amend the resolution uh resolution number 26-02

to add that fifth condition. Second, the commission adopted resolution number 26-02 as amended, confirming that the overlook estates edition satisfies the requirements of the subdivision regulations through the existing secondary emergency access road under the currently adopted fire code and recommending this that the city commission approve the release of the recorded covenant. That request doesn't seek to amend the PDD zoning zoning ordinance and there's no changes to land use or density or setbacks or any other zoning conditions uh that are being proposed with this. The only change is the revised is a revised finding that establishes that it meets the subdivision regulations and then bringing forth a a recommendation to the city commission to approve release of that covenant. So staff recommends approval of this request uh con consistent with the recommendation by the planning commission as set forth in resolution number 26-02. And if the commission concurs, the motion is the recommended motion is provided in your in your um commission action section of the staff report or of the blue sheet. Uh, I would want to note though that I noticed that there is a line at the very end of that motion that says to authorize the mayor to execute the release of a recorded covenant or a restrictive covenant. That that last piece can actually be removed. So, I was going to go ahead and read out that motion just to give you the the um the correct language. So it would be to move to approve the release of the declaration of restrictive covenant recorded in book 1432 pages 980 through 983 of the Selen County Register of Deeds requiring automatic fire sprinklers in all new dwellings constructed in the Overlook Estates edition consistent with the recommendation of the planning commission as set forth in resolution number 26-02. And that motion could stop um could stop right there. just that last piece of it

that's in your packet um is not necessary. Um so the commission also has the available options to postpone or deny this request. And with that, I'm happy to answer any questions you might have. And the we do have the fire marshall here as well and the applicant. Questions? I think it's spelled out here. Just make sure the secondary access route is already an all weather surface or it's going to be made into one.

Yes. Um it is already it has already been improved. Uh that like I said that existed since the river run was done and it did need some improvements. Uh overlook Estates has already done those improvements and fire marshall has already confirmed that it meets all the standards and then the the new easement going across great life is on a paved surface. So yes. Okay. who who pays for the upkeep of that road once the development is, you know, fully those are the responsibility of the property owners um to maintain those

and that's actually in the in the resolution. Um that was one of the conditions of approval that was added was um clarifying that that maintenance and um keeping that access clear is on the is the responsibility of Overlook Estates Edition and and Great Life on the access easement that goes through their property as well. Any other questions or comments? Any comments from the public? Okay. If not, I will bring it back to the commission for action.

I'll make a motion. And as already stated, I move to approve the release of the Declaration of Restrictive Covenant recorded in book 1432, pages 980 to 983 of the Seline County Register of Deeds requiring automatic fire sprinklers and all new dwellings constructed in the Overlook Estates addition consistent with the recommendations of the planning commission as set forth in resolution number 26- -02. Second that.

We have a motion, a second. I guess we get to hear it a third time to approve the release of the Declaration Restrictive Covenants recorded in book 1432, pages 980 to 983 of the Selen County Register of Deeds requiring automatic fire sprinklers and all new dwellings constructed in the Overlook Estates edition consistent with the recommendation of the planning commission as set forth in resolution number 262. All those in fa favor. I

opposed. That item passes 50. Okay, that will bring us to other business and I will look to the commissioners to see if anyone has something they would like to bring forward. And I know there's one to my right.

Yep. I just wanted to mention um as a proud alumni of Sigart High School, I wanted to say congratulations to the Sigahart Lady Knights on winning the uh 2A state basketball championship. Um just a few notes of their tournament. The first game they took down the team that had one of the top scorers in the states. The second game they beat the defending champions and in the third game, the championship game, they beat the number one seed. And um I just want to note this is the first ever girls basketball state championship for Sigahart in over a hundredyear history of the school. So congratulations to them.

Thank you Jerry. Anyone else? If not I have a couple again Rosemary to stay positive. I've got something. Have two things. um one last week um match madness was held at the fieldhouse and uhund plus organizations participated in that and I just got a number given to me just before the meeting started that the total amount donated before the match was given was 1 million76,622. So again, as usual, our community has stepped forward to support numerous organizations and I thank the public for that. Then this morning, we had a ribbon cutting out at the new Amazon um building um that opened actually opened the fourth quarter of last year and is up and going. Um originally um they projected 100 or so jobs out there and as of today they have a little over 200 full and part-time individuals working inside the building plus another approximately 200 uh full and part-time drivers delivering. So uh really impressive and and good thing going on out there. Um this is a 90,000 square foot uh state-of-the-art building uh facility. It was built on 20 acres. Um the SL airport Authority um has developed 80 acres, so there's still 60 acres out there for other businesses to move into. So, uh that was fun to be a part of this morning. And again, just another example of some good things going on in Salena. So,

okay, with that, any anybody else? With that, we will move it to citizens forum and we ask that you give us your name, where you're from, and please keep your comments to 3 minutes. Yes. Anybody? Okay. Yeah. Anybody?

Uh, thank you, Sina. Let me get my phone. Got it. And I'll time it. Let me take this jacket off, too. A little comfortable. and please give us your name and and where you're from if you could.

Okay. Uh hello, my name is Naen Christina Marie Wyn. I was born in Los Angeles, California. I'm a citizen of Seline County, Kansas since October 2024. My first job is a missionary and I have a passport and I've gone to Ukraine and Muldova twice during the Russian and Ukraine war. My job demands that I am flexible, courageous, strong and kind of demanding when it comes to my work. During my last visit, um I was overseas for a couple of months and gave the Ukrainian children a ver a voice. I have written both the 46th and 47th presidents several times. I have since received two letters from the White House. I come to speak for the community that is affected by drug use, sex traffickers, pedophiles, serial rapists, and serial killers. That includes children, men, women, and the elderly. I worked at Bishop Carroll High School in Witchaw, Kansas, and was really impressed that one of the principal's dads helped apprehend the BTK killer because he was a cop or sheriff. In fact, I lived right down the street from one of the properties affected by his evil actions in Witchah. Evil comes in many forms, especially in this county. From our teachers at the schools to disability re disability resident providers and our very own neighbors. Slang Seline Sign Kansas has a national crime average of 54.82 82 per 1,000 people compared to 33.37 national average to similarized cities. With the war in the Middle East going on, I imagine there will be rising prices for farmers, taxes, food, and gas. Also, public services like fire, EMS, police, sheriff, highway patrol, and will likely see funding cuts and overwhelming crime from changes in

president policies um in the White House and state. And just as I witnessed in 2022 in this community, I'm here for all the missing children reported in Kansas and the United States, some do not go reported. Unfortunately, I'm a voice for them also. I want to be a a voice for Nicole Horde. Um, she would have graduated in 2008 if she was still alive, same as me. She fell through the cracks cracks. She was murdered and her bones were found months later. I asked myself, why is the crime rate so high? Do people care? I'm sure the only ones affected by it do. My uncle and mom were military brats, drug addicts, and they were convincing, deceiving, manipulating, especially when it concerned telling the truth about harming vulnerable individuals. I understand Kansas, especially Selen County, had a lot of families, especially from California, move here in the late 90s. As of right now, the municipal laws make it hard for people affected to reach the community. Families cannot post flyers on poles or on the highways, roads, or put them on cars, under the windshield or in mailboxes. This makes it hard for the families to help the police. I am begging the Slick City Commission to protect the citizens, small and elderly, from the evil of this world. I would also like to thank you for um saying the pledge of allegiance uh at the start of this meeting. Um, I made a report earlier this uh month about a young child uh possibly autistic um in danger on North 11 Street. Um, obviously was somebody that was not their parent or family member and the police did not take it seriously. So, with that, my three minutes is up and over, and I hope that you guys will think on it and come together as a team to um make uh better laws and to help um the smallest of people, big and small.

Thank you. And could you give me your first name again? I missed that. Uh Naen Christina Marie Win.

Thank you, Naen. Appreciate it. Forgive my jacket, but I don't want to advertise a business out of town. I'm Lucille Sanders in Salena, Kansas. Um, many years ago you demolished buildings to give parking lots. Well, I can't I would take up three minutes to tell you how many buildings you removed and when you put buildings back on those parking areas. So, stop and think what you've done. Now, you're going to build a hotel and there you take some more land. and the animal shelter many years ago had Salina Seline. Those people that live in the county, bless their heart, become caretakers of animals that the city people take out and dump next to homes. They take underare and they feed them. Those animals are not left to starve. Now you want to put a roundabout in. How many accidents happen at a four-way stop? Very few. Correct. I feel like you guys are looking at the neighbor and said, "Hey, look what they've done. Let's do that same thing." You're like a child following another set of kids. Now, I was sitting in the senior center this afternoon playing cards. I don't know the proper name for the building west, but our state flag was in sad looking

condition. It needs to be replaced. Why I'm saying this? How many other state flags are flying around the city that could be replaced or should be replaced? And just stop and think. Stand on your own feet. Don't follow somebody else. How many people have children here that have grown? Hey, Dad. Mom, John is doing this. I want to do it. No. No. You don't need to do it. But he's doing it. And that's exactly what you're doing. Don't build that hotel. And I know that it's too late to say don't. How many people have gone to the Stifa? Where do you park? You build that hotel. That parking garage is not going to solve it. How many of you have driven downtown now looking for a parking place to go shopping? It's not there. And so look back at how many buildings you tore down so they'd have parking parking lot and you took them back. The south of the UMB or the United Building, I'm sorry. A lot of that place where it was parking has now been assigned the public can't park there. People in the United have that privilege. So think, grow up, think. Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening or afternoon, commissioners, mayor. I want to speak tonight about something.

Can you give us your name? Bonnie. Thank you. Sorry I was going so well. Okay. I want to I want to speak tonight about something just as critical as animal care and finances and that is the complete breakdown of relationships between the Salina animal shelter and the community it is supposed to serve. An animal shelter cannot function in isolation. It depends on partnership, outreach and community trust. Right now those relationships are failing. We have been given excuse after excuse about why outreach events are not happening, why partnerships are not being maintained, why opportunities are being missed. But the reality is it takes more time to unravel these excuses than it would simply be to fix the problem. At Petco, there are empty cat enclosures just sitting there unused. space that should be helping animals get adopted is going to waste. We've also learned that donations intended for the shelter, including food and supplies, have not even been picked up by the shelter leadership. While the shelter had suggested that Petco had been delivering items to them, the store manager states otherwise they are not. That is not a partnership. That is a breakdown in communication and responsibility. Walmart has historically supported this shelter with donations of pet food. That relationship has deteriorated to the point that it doesn't even exist any longer. And there are additional organizations in this community that are unwilling to partner with the shelter under the current management. But at this time, they will not let us put their name out there publicly. These are not small issues. These are major community partners. choosing to walk

away. The public is crying out, "Please pay attention." Salina 311 poll, which was brought up earlier, 81.8% of the respondents favor privatization of the shoulder, keeping it than keeping it under the current city management. That is not a narrow margin. This is an overwhelming signal from our community. And so I asked plainly, "Are you hearing your community? Are you hearing us? We're not here to fight with you. We're here to support you. We voted for you, you know, and so because the community is speaking through lost partnerships, through declining support, and through overwhelming public sentiment, the community has done its part. We show up. nervous or not, we do show up and we've asked questions and we've made our concerns clear. What happens next is up to you. You're the guys in charge. Your decision from this point forward will depend on whether this um shelter heals or continues to fall apart. We really need the shelter. And thank you for extending my time. Thank you.

Thank you, Bonnie. You stole some of mine, but that's okay. Kim Hill, Salina.

Um, these issues that a lot of us are bringing up with the shelter. They didn't just start with this recent December, January issues that took place. These have come about little by little over several years. Um, there's been multiple incidents that have brought us here. After reviewing many, many, many documents covering several different areas of our shelter, I am more convinced than ever it is past time for a change. Mo'Nique has a history of being toxic. That is documented well in a packet from the friends of the shelter when they disbanded. It is also documented in other areas that some other ladies have. Um to kind of address something from your study session, there are several vets, local vets that have cut ties with our shelter because of the way they are treated by shelter staff and management. That's what happened there. Just like K State.

Yep. cutting ties because of the way they are treated. Now, let's go to 2023 when Andrea Murphy started at our shelter. Within less than a year's time, we had veterinary staff at an animal shelter advisory board meeting talking about abuse and neglect cases that they had treated. And since that time, things have escalated from there. I don't believe in coincidence. I believe in evidence. I believe in following the evidence because the evidence leads you to the truth. The evidence doesn't lie like people do. Now, with that being said, because I'm running out of time, as I've said before, I was born and raised in Salina. I am 54 years old. I am the daughter of a retired fire chief right here in this city. the youngest daughter. And last year, no, in 2024, he passed away last March. And in 2024, he had a talk with me. When he retired, there was several people that wanted him to run for city commission. They wanted him in the mayor seat. And he not only said no, but he said hell no. And the reason is he was tired of fighting city hall because at that time he had to fight city hall for everything. But he looked at me and he told me, he said, "Kimberly," he said, 'You are passionate about this city. You are passionate about what happens in this city. He said, "When you retire from your job," he said, "Run for city commission." And after watching things the last few years, that's what I intend to do when I retire from my job. Please listen to the people. Like she said, over 81% are ready for a change in management. Talk

to the veterinarians in Salena, too. Thank you.

Good evening, ma. Um, good afternoon, mayor and commissioners. My name is Kathy Schwarz from Sina. I am 72 years old and I I'm in my twilight years. Like so many others, I'm hoping the nest egg my husband and I worked our entire lives to build will be enough to carry us through. In other words, I'm cute, not rich. However, it is getting more difficult. Medicare and supplemental insurance has gone up, as well as gas, groceries, and our property taxes. Social Security cost of living adjustment does not cover these increases. Far from it. When living on a fixed income, every dollar matters. So yes, how the city spends money matters to me. What's happening at the animal shelter should matter to you. What we are seeing is not just disorganization. It is a failure of recordkeeping and financial accountability. There are no individual drug administration records for sedation prior to euthanasia, only bottle logs. That means there is no way to verify what was given to which animal or whether proper protocols were followed. There is no verification of how the animals were euthanized. Regarding the veterary billing, invoices don't clearly match the procedures. There are changes that raise serious questions as well as payment approved without clear justification. This is not transparency. This is not accountability. This is taxpayer money. My money. Money I cannot replace at this stage of my life. I am asking you, why should I trust it's being handled responsibly when the records don't support what's being claimed? Trust has been stripped away and cannot be rebuilt. with explanations, but with actions. You have a responsibility to

demand answers, enforce oversight, correct bad behavior, and hold leadership accountable. At 72, there is not enough time for this to be slowly fixed. The community is also counting on you to make this right. This isn't enough to if this isn't enough to act, then I have to ask, what will it take? Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you, Kathy.

Tony Johnson, Salena. First off, I want to give a thumbs up to public works for their quick action on the pavement collapse there on Pacific Street near Fifth Street. It went from bad to worse in about 3 hours, it looked like, and they've already got it taken care of. Uh, secondly, everybody keeps mentioning this poll. I reached out to the owner of the poll. Uh there was 4,852 votes all from within the county. The average age of the voter was 38. Uh split 62% female, 38% male. All redundant votes based on email addresses and IP addresses were thrown out and there was a 3% margin of error. Having said that, uh, I want to talk about the financial oversight at the animal shelter because the numbers and records behind them leave very little room for interpretation. From 2020 to 2025, shelter expenses increased from 535,000 to 96,000, almost 70% increase in spending. At the same time, revenue declined from 142,000 to 122,000. So while costs are rising dramatically, community support is declining. That's not a funding problem. That's a management problem. Veterary services 2024, the vet was on site for 46 days. 2025 that dropped to 41 days. Yet during the same period, there was an increase of 112 surgeries. So expenses are increasing, veterary presence is decreasing, and the output is not keeping pace. That raises serious questions about how these funds are being managed. And when you examine the day-to-day spending, the lack of oversight becomes even more clear. Credit card statements show a pattern of constant fragmented purchasing Amazon

transactions over and over again alongside purchases at Dillons, Menards, Tractor Supply, Bombguards, Dollar General, and other local retailers. There's no evidence of centralized purchasing. no evidence of consistent vendors and no evidence of bulk buying to help control cost. Instead, what the record shows is scattered spending, repeated small transactions, and a system that operates appears to operate without structure or accountability. And this is not just about money. It's about time. time spent placing orders, time spent running to multiple stores, time spent managing disorganized purchasing, all of which is time that should be spent caring for animals. This is not how you should properly manage a facility. So, what we are left with is spending's up 70%, revenues down, vet costs are rising, and basic financial controls like structured purchasing are not in place. That's not inefficiency. That is mismanagement. And the question you have to answer is simple. Why would this community continue to invest more money into a system that is not demonstrating accountability with what it already has? Because without immediate structural change, additional funding does not solve this problem. It rewards it. Thank you.

Thank you,

commissioners. Sue Nickel Salina. I want to begin by saying this clearly. No one in this community believes that euthanizing animals without sedation should ever be casually referred to as a hiccup. That kind of language minimizes the seriousness of what occurred. I want to focus on the timeline and the truth. On December 16th, three puppies were euthanized at the shelter. The public only became aware of it because of an anonymous eyewitness letter which led both community members and the media to begin asking questions. Those questions were not answered. Those emails were ignored. And importantly, the person receiving those questions and now responding to open records requests, Andrea Murphy, is the same individual for carrying out the euthanasia. Then on February 9th at the animal advisory board meeting, she stated, "We will always sedate." Go back and look at the YouTube video. It's about the 47 minute mark. But now we're being told that these puppies were not sedated. We were told this was due to dehydration and the inability to find a vein. But sedation does not require IV access. So why wasn't it used? On March 6th, the contracting veterinarian, Dr. Jubie, stated publicly that intracardiac euthadasia is only acceptable in an unconscious animal and that within about an hour of learning what occurred, she raised serious concerns that a heart stick had been per performed without sedation and directed that shelter staff stop performing euthanasia. That is a very different account from what you've heard earlier today. And now, more than three months later, the public is being asked to accept this

latest version as accurate despite shifting explanations and a lack of transparency. We also know that this wasn't an isolated in incident. The failed inspection documented a cat euthanized via intracardiac injection without sedation on October 10th. This was done by a staff member who had not had any euthanasia training. Additionally, due to incomplete records, we can't verify how euthanasia was administered to at least 41 animals between October 1st and January 12th. The shelter has stated there were no individual drug administration logs, meaning there's no way to confirm whether sedation was used at all. There's also an email from Dr. Jubie that would clarify exactly what happened. I requested that email through Kora and it's been withheld. I have filed a complaint with the attorney general's office and if that does not produce the email, further legal action will. This is not transparency. This is not accountability. And when leadership provides inconsistent information, withholds records, and controls the flow of information, the public cannot trust what they are being told. At this point, the city will not regain the trust of the community under the current leadership. Public trust has been broken at its core, and the only path forward is real systemic change. Very good.

Good evening, commissioners. Rose Base, Salina. What we're looking at with the Salina Animal Shelter is not an isolated issue. It's a sustained failure of leadership, oversight, and accountability. Let's start with animal care. State inspections report document repeated non-compliance across multiple inspections in 2024 and 2025. Dogs were found standing in kennels with water once slipping and falling while the state inspector was there. She documented that on the report. Unsanitary conditions persisted. Damaged equipment that could not be properly cleaned remained in use. This was not corrected. It continued. Then on January of 2026, a shelter failed its inspection. That report found at least 41 euthanasia records with no documented method. I know this probably sounds repeated, but I want to make sure this this gets heard. Employees were performing euthanasia without proper training or supervision. Animals were subjected to improper euthanasia methods without the appropriate sedation. Prescription drugs were administered without veterary authorization. And the shelter wasn't even following its own veterary protocols. These are not minor violations. These are fundamental breakdowns in the most basic standards of animal care. Next is transparency. The public has attempted to understand what is happening through open record request. What we have received or missing documents, withheld communications, ignored follow-ups, and incomplete records. Even more concerning, the individual controlling the release of these records is the same individual at the center of these concerns. That is not transparency, that is obstruction. And finally, the financial stewardship. And I just want to repeat what Tony had mentioned. From 2020 to 2025, the shelter expenses increased from approximately $535,000

to over $96, a nearly 70% increase. At the same time, revenue declined from about $142,000 to just over 122,000. So I will ask you directly with the rising costs, the declining donations and this level of negative public exposure. Do you honestly believe donations are going to increase? Or are we looking at a system that is becoming more expensive, less trusted, and less supported by the community? Because that's exactly what the numbers show. This is not a perception problem. This is a management problem. The reputation of the SL animal shelter is at one of the lowest points in history. And that and the only responsible path forward is not incremental change. It's a full systematic overhaul beginning with leadership, independent oversight, and complete transparency. Anything less is failure to act. Thank you. Good afternoon, Mayor Hoppik and fellow commissioners. My name is Lori Hall, and I will not be telling you my age. I appreciate the opportunity to share my concerns about the animal shelter under Andrea Murphy and Monnique Holly. Today, I'd like to provide you with a few examples of why immediate change in management and operation is justified. I've provided each of you a packet of information. Um, is anybody here on the the commission familiar with the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918

or Kansas Wildlife Regulation Ka uh 115181? Probably not. And apparently neither is Andrea Murphy or Mon'nique Holly because over the years these wildlife regulations are routinely being violated. And by doing so they place you and the city of Salina and its wildlife in jeopardy. Now why do I care about wildlife? I spent my career as a wildlife professional working with Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, prairie raptor project, the city of Salina Parks and Recreation and Rolling Hills Zoo. For two decades, I was a Kansas licensed rehabber and for four years I was honored to serve on the Kansas Wildlife Commission. It was during my tenure on the commission with the aid of natural resource managers, rehabers, and fellow commissioners that K15181 was drafted, voted, and passed into law. And I I provided you a copy of that. And I also put in uh the migratory bird act too. Both of these laws prohibit the pro the possession, killing, selling, and trading and transporting of wildlife without legal permits. To date, no no fines or arrest have been issued, but as more and more layers of the mismanagement surface at the Salena Animal Shelter, enforcement of these laws will be warranted. Working closely with US fish and wildlife, Kansas Department of Wildlife, licensed rehabers, zoo, natural resource groups and public is a vital to the welfare of a wildlife. The sheer load of

wildlife cases is difficult for all these groups to manage. They rely on wildlife professionals like animal control and shelters to help them. But when laws are broken, the trust is broken. Confidence in the animal shelter here in Salina as a reliable and trusted partner is no longer possible because they don't follow the laws and by doing so they risk the welfare of both humans and wildlife as stated in the mission statement of the Salina animal shelter website. Wildlife is not a responsibility of their facilities. record, however, indicate that they do deal with wildlife. And I'd like to share a few of these violations.

Now, another 30 seconds. Okay. If you would, please.

Okay. Taking in wildlife that is suspected to have rabies. Asking an officer to cut off the head with only latex gloves. You know, as a doctor that rabies virus, if it had that, can be shared with that person. Um, I gave you a list of all the migratory birds that they've taken in. Now, Department of Wildlife and Parks won't touch these, but US Fish and Wildlife will come in and arrest anybody dealing with these animals, especially these birds. Um, when they put down things like sparrow, we don't know what kind of sparrow it is. We don't know what kind of dove it is. They don't know over there. and they are putting everybody here in jeopardy. So, I'm asking you to please pay attention, read the regulations, and um you know, we somebody said we did put you up there to sit in those stands or to sit in the seats to represent us. And I know it's a hard job to do, but you're there to represent your constituents and not the uh the agency, the city agencies. So anyway, thank you very much.

Thank you, Lori.

Carrie Clovis, Salina, Kansas. I'm really hardened and hurt that what's going on at the animal shelter is happening. I have dealt with the animal shelter for many years. I am a nurse of 38 years. And I will want to give you all a suggestion. When we work in a nursing home, we have annual inspections. But what we do is we train our personnel to work as if they had an inspector following them at every minute of the day. And that's how you reassure that your residents, your loved ones, get good care and that they are treated right. You don't wait for the inspector to show up and everybody panics and nobody knows how to take care of anybody because they've all done it wrong for so long. So, with this animal shelter thing, I think the situation is is the problem is is that it's not been run correctly. You don't have the right personnel in there to take care of these animals right now. That's evident by uncanliness and the other things, these the injections they're taking. I've dealt with a shelter here just last Thursday. I went over because I have feral cats in my neighborhood and I'm trying to do my best to get those feral males fixed. So, I take them on trap, neuter, and release. When that cat came in, the cat was ill. And I told him, "This cat is not well. It's skinny. I feed him three times a day at my home. I provide for these wild cats." And I said, "I don't know what's wrong with him, but I need him neutered." When I returned to get this cat, I was told that he had feline disease. He had cracked teeth. This is why he wasn't eating because he was in pain. And this is why he had become so thin. And why he was drooling at the nose. His eyes were smothered. It was awful. And

you know what I was told? Take him home and release him in your yard. It's okay because within the year he'll go off and he'll die somewhere alone. Wow. That's what I was told. Last Thursday,

I took that cat home brokenhearted. and I took him into my home. This is a wild stray. He's the most gentle cat and he's now in my home being taken care of. But this is what I was told. Five or six years ago, people down the street from me had a vicious dog. My neighbor and I reported them on many occasions. Did anybody do anything? No. He got loose one day and on the property that I own, he bit me in the back four times, the legs and the hip. and I had to seek medical attention. We're talking a very large dog, very, very large dog held by a chain and he broke that chain and he went wild. And as I was standing there talking to a gentleman who was also terrified of his dog who had a shovel and he pulled that shovel way up high and he hit that dog in the head and on the hip. That dog took off back in my backyard and it was crowded in between two fences and it balled and it balled and it balled and I this man spoke Mexican. I couldn't speak Mexican back to him and I kept shaking my head. No. The next thing you know that dog comes up to me. It's it's coming quiet. It's coming nicely. I put my hand down. Let's just say you know you're okay. And he turned on me. I went to the shelter and of course I reported it and Mo'Nique took me in to a side room with my husband. We spoke for probably an hour and a half and she dumped all the dirt that on this family. I didn't know them personally. They slipped down the block.

About another 30 seconds, please. And when it came to an end, um, when after she had done what she had done and telling us all this garbage on this, she turned around then later when I would call to find out what's happening in this situation, she wouldn't speak to us then. She'd already dumped all the information. I think she knew she was wrong, too. You shouldn't talk about somebody else like that. And I just want to say that if this place was handled like a nursing home, you wouldn't have an issue like you have right now. You don't and it's not anything to do with Facebook, Mr. Trent.

Nothing to do with Facebook. This is being handled by the city and it's handled by the commissioners. It's handled by a shelter that doesn't know how to run itself properly. Thank you. We need a new representative. Thank you. I bet you guys are ready for something besides an animal complaint, huh? Not going to get it from me, though. Um, on 411 2025, sorry, can we have your name, where you're from, please? Sorry, Annette Cox.

On 411 2025, trip to Petco, they bought uh a bunch of equipment for a bearded dragon named Gaga. That animal was at the animal shelter from 411 2025 until it it went home to with Mon'nique on 111825 in which during that time they spent $959.14. There's also a McCall that was brought in on um 517 2025 two and a parrot Anna McCall. They both promptly went to um Andia's or whatever her name is. Andy Andy's uh home in Foster is now been adopted by uh I'm not sure yet, but you guys could probably find out because it never went on the page for adoption. So, we're assuming it's with her, but finally got adopted. 731 2025. I also went through several of the uh payments and everything and Dollar General, he was talking. Um well, I guess whoever spends money there, they get to go for a get asked on whether or not they want to donate for a literacy program. And of course, our animal shelter decides to go ahead and I guess maybe not be able to read. With that said, and they go ahead and donate on our dime. Um, Dillan's, Hershey's, uh, Snickers, you know, Reese's peanut

butter, Fredo Lay snacks were purchased. Um, also the I was looking up that the uh science diet when I worked there, I used to do all the ordering and everything of that and I got the science diet down to just 39 cents a pound. Now they are buying it from our locals here and they're paying almost $90 a bag for a 45 pound bag. Um, the pill pockets that they're buying off of Amazon. I looked at Chewy. They could get them a little bit cheaper there. Uh they could save $16.58 each time they order. I know these are little amounts, but I'm kind of a stickler for little things. And so I also Tidycat, they're buying it from Mards and everything. Roughly they purchased uh well, they made 32 trips to the store purchasing 233 bags for an average of $12.86. 86 a bag. Whereas if they did Chewy Auto Refill, they could have gotten it for $11.77 per. So a savings of $254. That is a little amount, but you got to look at the little things to to go for the big. Um my feelings.

Another 30 seconds, please. Annette.

Okay. Sorry. Um that might be all anyway. But I think they they should be looking at science diet again. I mean, they I saw that there was a bill there uh from Science Diet that they they were late on paying, but it was of $225. I don't know how much they ordered, but that's that would be a lot cheaper than what they're doing right now. Um, also look at their Caroli Donuts in which they did that twice for a $40 fee. um Sonic or paying for food from a Sonic during when the snow supposedly was holding them in, but yet that person was able to go get the food for everybody.

That's time. I think we think we got No, it just doesn't make sense. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay, this is a change of topic in a way, but I will say nine years ago when my mom passed away, we had donations to the shelter and Mo'Nique was very ungrateful and I had her write a check and I took it to K State Veterary Clinic. So, that's a side note. Your name? Your name, please.

I will, but I had to add that. I'm Mary Kay I live on Sunset Drive. In 1918, Mr. and Mrs. CF York of Salina, Kansas, sold a 25.8 acre plot of land to the city of Salina for $100 with one condition. It remains a park. And I believe you should be familiar with that, Mr. Hammond, since you're the director of parks and recreation. The park is Sunset Park. I've lived on Sunset Drive for 30 years. My husband and I have raised three children in our home. I witness every day that park being used, walking, jogging, biking, pushing strollers, exercising their dogs in Sunset Park. And for 30 years, I've watched children play on the playground and they love the waterfall area. People play basketball on the basketball courts. They use the baseball field. They use the picnic shelters to celebrate birthdays, holidays, family reunions, class reunions, anniversaries, and other events. High school students gather there at prom, and they take pictures, and they also have their senior photographs taken there. Sunset Park is home to many animals, squirrels, rabbits, birds, and on occasion, I've seen foxes, and raccoons. Sunset Park is home to a very beautiful flower garden that surrounds the centerpiece of the park, which is the Salina Selene County War Memorial, where visitors stop by daily and they pay respects to who have served in the US military. And I learned while in college, while I worked at parks and recreation when I attended KU and I worked in the summers for Don Jolly and Steve Snyder, who were former amazing directors of parks and recreation. That was their passion.

That they said parks are meant for citizens and visitors to enjoy. And I'm not above pleading or begging you commissioners to please not destroy a neighborhood park to build the new Boy and Girls Club. It's not the right location. It's a park. It is a city park. And if you build it there, you will destroy all these activities. Not to mention, like I said two weeks ago, the sound, the the more traffic. it. It's not It's just not a good location. No park would be a good location. Not Jerry Ivy, not Oakdale Park. No parks. You need to find a separate place. I don't know who came up with that idea. I don't know. I feel like we were blindsided by where the location was going to be until all of a sudden it's in our backyard basically. So, it does not belong in the park. So, please respect Mr. and Mrs. F. CF York back in 1918 that sold the city that plot of land for $100 with one condition that it remain a park. Thank you.

Thank you. Ben Winhold Salina study session at 2:00 last until 3:30. No public comment. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. It is not surprising to me nor anybody here or anybody watching the result that you guys came up with from this study session. Four of you sat up there and said, "Let's get a consultant. Let's spend some more hard-earned tax money for a consultant." Only one commissioner had common sense to say, "Let's look into a partnership." So let's look into city partnerships that you guys have. The biggest one that you have. The bsentennial center was built in 1976. It was great for about the first 10 years. After that it became known as the white elephant of Salina because it couldn't make any money. So what did you guys decide to do? Let's get a partnership. This is one of the biggest partnerships that you have in Salina. It is OVG360. And when they first I have a contract. I have a copy of the contract with them. And at the first month of when they took over, they are getting over $10,000 a month. And they can get up to 3% a year increase if they produce. There was a loss two years ago. I don't know if they got their increase. So, there's a partnership, a partnership that the Salina Animal Shelter could use

and needs desperately to be able to change. Now, I say to myself, why is it that you guys are so adamant about getting a study done on this? And I'll tell you why. I know the excuse for almost all of you. The five and a half years that I've been up at this podium, I have noticed starting with the the lawsuit for Cozy, the log jam removal, that all of you, including the last two city managers, have in your mind that no department head of this city can do any wrong. that they're always right. Everything that they say is the Bible and it's not. In this case, it is downright criminal with what has happened. And it's time for a change. And it's time for you guys to not think like they are the right people in place when they're not. They're not. So to hell with your study session, it's time for a change. Thank you.

Thank you. Anybody else?

Rosemary my salina.

Uh Commissioner Remp in the study session made a comment that contributions and um are going down. uh with the problems that we have at the animal shelter. And I know that for a fact that is true because I substitute meals on wheels. And some of the clients that I have been delivering to in the past three weeks have told me that they have had in their wheels contributions to the animal shelter and they have taken those contributions out of their wheels. So this and if if I'm hearing it from two and three people, how many other people in this community are doing that? And also um as uh Bonnie mentioned um the um animal shelter has not been picking up the uh contributions from uh Petco and so they have been calling me and I have been picking them up and distributing them to um Salina Share and uh the senior center because they are very willing to take this stuff and it seems like that apparently that the animal shelter is not interested. So, I just wanted to verify that. Thank you.

Thank you, Rosemary.

Norman Manina, hell hath the fury of a scorned woman. Okay, I'm going to go a long difference. Water. We just shut down a project here in Selen County. They're wanting to build 75 units. It's because of water. They're shutting it down for 5 years. I know where it is. It's about water. I'm going to sub substitute the eastern half of the US for this issue here. Water. We're running out of water. uh the Solomon River, the Selen River, the Smoky River, it all runs this way. It runs east through Kansas, east of the Mississippi, lawsuits in various states over water. We're looking at our water future for 25 years from now. We're going to run out of water. This documentary, we're taking out these dams. We're taking them out because you're violating the laws of nature. They've already done it in uh Northern California, Southern Oregon. Four dams went out in Washington State. They took out one. They put 800 lb of dynamite under it. So, you better start looking at water. You're going to shut other projects down here in this county cuz we got one shut down cuz we're looking at water shortage for 5 years from now. When the levels of these dams fall below the outlet of the income, then we got trouble. For years, the phrase has been used for futuristic alarmist forecasts. You better start looking hydraological waters. When you go up the Selen River up here, if you walk across it, you won't even get the top of your shoes wet. So, that's where you're going to go ahead and you're building all these units in town.

This is what this country is going to look like because of water. So you're running out of water. We're not having the snow like we used to when we were kids. You remember how much it snowed? You couldn't even see the ground for all winter long. Kids used to play in the snow. You tell them snow. What? Yeah. It used to snow here in Kansas. But you did. It's fun, wasn't it? Thanks water. Okay. Anybody else?

Uh Richard Albert Humphrey the second son of Kansas. I just wanted to let the uh the city and the the citizens know just to um kind of understand uh and get familiar with their bereavement rights and laws and try to expand on those so when that time comes they can find proper closure and move forward especially in the workforce. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, anyone else? Okay. If not, with that I will accept a motion to adjurnn. So move second. Motion and a second journ. All those in favor?

I opposed. Okay. Thank you.