Board of County Commissioners - Regular Meeting

i get to sit in middle chairs it's kind of a strange thing here but

Folks, it is after 10 o'clock now, and it is time to do an agenda review. And we do have online Commissioner Pro Tem Stephanie Wise, and I think Chairman Blubaugh is unavailable right at the moment. We're both here. Oh, he is here. Okay, great. Thank you.

They're both in a car driving. That's right.

We have two commissioners on one thing on the screen there, but that's great. We have both of them listening in. Great. Mr. Manager, what do we have today?

Good morning, Commission. Nicole, what kind of good news do we have for the agenda for September the 2nd?

Yes, good morning. We have a person in finance that received the Wichita State 35 Under 35 Nomination Award, so we are going to talk about that for good news. We will also do reminders that offices will be closed on the 7th, is that right, for Labor Day? and then also yes the seventh um also nine comcare 988 day is coming up that's september 8th so we'll talk about that and then we were just made aware that the secretary of agriculture um said cedric county is an eligible county for a drought declaration so we'll be talking about assistance that is available for those that qualify and that's all i have okay

We have one proclamation on item B, declaring Hispanic Heritage Month. On consent agenda, we have three or four items that we should probably talk about. Item C, I've got Scott at the microphone up here too. It's a PUD, but there's a lot going on with this PUD at 119th West and Kellogg. There's been a lot of action out there.

So Scott, can you talk about that please? Yes, sir, we've seen a number of rezonings taking place out there. This one's coming to you. It's a custom zoning district. It's at the corner. It's at Kellogg and 119th. It involves a number of different districts. So it includes commercial industrial as well as residential. and that's one of the reasons why they went for a pud was so that they could have that mix this one did go to the cab for district 3 and there was a tie vote so there was no formal recommendation coming out of that it went to the mapc and was recommended for approval and so therefore it's it's on the consent agenda questions for scott oh and i would add real quick that it wasn't protested so that's another reason why it's on the consent agenda

OK. Item D is a dedication of utility easement. It's associated with a lot split case. And there's no fiscal costs to the county on this. So if Lynn has any questions for Lynn. Item E, Tanya's on the road with the commissioners, but item E is an approval for a large event application for Somewhere Fest hosted by Movement Music. This is the second year for this. It's September 21 through 29 on the Coleman parking lot.

If I, quick question, and I know Tanya's not here. Justin, I don't know if maybe you could assist on this. With Show Eagle, we ran an article the other day that there's competing events happening at the same time down there at the Coleman lot. and this event here from Movement Music, do we have any clarity?

wichita eagle first i'd heard about it commissioner bay justin wagner i defer to tanya if she has anything on that i will tell you that i'm not aware of in terms of the county's use of the the coleman parking a lot there being a conflict but i think what and i haven't read the article i'm familiar with i saw the headline of what you're talking about um but i think the activities for whatever the county may be doing is limited to that coleman parking lot right so it shouldn't be double booked in terms of the county facility but i don't know if tanya has anything else she could add on this for

for the public. Tanya's driving. While she's driving, if maybe Commissioner Weiser or Chairman Beatty could convey the answer to this.

I'm on the phone and I can answer. Can you guys hear me okay?

Yes.

Okay. So just to clarify, I am familiar with that article. For the Summerfest, they are just renting the parking lot. So that doesn't include, you know... what they're doing for the St. Francis Street. So, and I don't know if Andrew has any more information. I know he's there as well. So we are not familiar with that other event that was in that article. We are just only familiar with the Somewhere Fest. And again, all they are asking from us is just to rent the Coleman parking lot for that event and for staging. Those are the other days that's included in that rental event is for staging. And so I don't know if Andrew has any additional information related to that rental.

Yes, thank you. Tonya and director of facilities. We were approached by the somewhere fest organization, and they requested to rent the common law. We have not been approached by anybody else for the same dates on the common lot. And it's my understanding that the dispute right now is regarding a street closure that is outside of it borders the common law, but it's outside of our rental agreement with somewhere fest. Very helpful. Thank you.

So in any street closer city, Wichita, the chief of police has to authorize that. So, okay. Thank you, guys. Anything else? Anything we need to double check on there, Commissioner? Okay. Item F and G on consent are an appointment agreement and a reappointing of Harley Shandost, medical director for the deputy district coroner position recommended by Dr. Guerrero. And then the rest of consent is routine. Getting into new business, the first new business item is the bid board, board of bid and contracts discussion. There are a number of items. But most of them have to do with HR contracts, and I'll refer to Sheena when we get to that. There's 14 total items, but 10 of them are human resource related. The first item, item number one on bid board is scrub seal oil for public works. That was competitive bid, and the low bid was taken there. Item two is public elevator. This is our favorite. Public elevator upgrade in main courthouse. Again, competitive bid. And they went with icon structures for that work radio system modernization for 911 that was a master agreement.

With a the entity that will do that work. And I think that was it.

Then everything four through 14 are employee ancillary benefits. And I'll just read them off. And it's important that we take a moment to discuss this. The COBRA benefits for employees, the dental benefits for our employees, the vision benefits for our employees, the impact benefit for our employees, flex spending benefit. life, accidental death and dismemberment, and dependent life benefit, short-term disability benefit, worksite benefit, hospital indemnity benefit, critical illness benefit. There's a cancer in here also. So these are all some paid by the county, some offered to the employee to augment their plan. So Sheena, I turn to you now just to give an overall comment on this. And we do this every year or?

So most of the contracts we have right now were ending a five-year. So it was a period of three-year plus two one-year renewals. And so that's why we went out for a bid in this process for that. We are not going out to bid for our medical and pharmacy plans. Those are still under contract right now.

Any questions for Sheena? Yeah. Item K is a new business item that Tonya will present. It's the Douglas Tag Office parking lot acquisition. We're paying $260,000 for 1.129 acres sold. It's immediately to the south of the Douglas Street Tag Office.

What was that purchase price again?

I'm sorry? What was that price again? $260,000. And then item L, I want to spend some time with, and that's not the reason Scott's at the table. This is an extension, our data center analysis, time period expires on September 11th, and I think we are all in agreement that that's going to have to be extended. I think the discussion that we need to have is how long should that be extended. So I want to spend just a minute of time talking about that. I know Scott's got a lot of slides. He's promised he's not going to show them all. He's going to tactically show a few, and then we can discuss. I think it really comes down to what the commission, how they would like this to go.

So, Scott. Thank you, sir. And yes, we do have some flexibility with this, but I do want to just present some background information and contextual information. Here we go. So, in terms of the interim control, so it was 1st, the initial interim control was started on January 14th. There was an extension on March 4th on May 6th. There was an extension and then the question I think that is before you, at least on this agenda is, would you should there be another extension on September? 2nd is when you're considering that because again, the current 1, it ends on September 10th. The recommendation that's in the staff report is to extend it to February 25th. That's approximately six months from now. And that would be a total time of one year plus one month. And I can certainly understand why there would be questions about that. And so I'm glad that there are questions and Hopefully this information will be helpful. And again, do want to emphasize that we have some flexibility. So interested to learn what your preferences are. In terms of some assumptions, my assumption is that the MAPC Advanced Plans Committee would hear this four different times. There's quite a few things that we need them to, we'd like them to chew through. They typically meet one time per month, but they have been willing and able to meet twice a month when requested. And we would foresee that they would do that. I anticipate one MAPC meeting. And the reason why is because once advanced plans has provided a recommendation, MAPC does tend to go over stuff, but they get it done in one meeting because they defer really to the discussion that's taken place at advanced plans. BOCC staff meeting, I have put that in the schedule. This is one area where we could squeeze some additional time, shorten the timeframe, depending on where this occurs. But I anticipated that you would have at least one BOCC staff meeting, especially based on our experience with the solar regulations. And then a question about one BOCC meeting, but that's all I've got on the calendar. In terms of context, we have been granted a lot of resources for this. So I do appreciate that. And I want to acknowledge that we've got a consultant team that's helping us out with this. We have the staff from advanced plans. So I think you very much for your. For the resources that you've allocated for it things also to be aware of. I'm always aware as a planning director. I try and always be aware of elections. I know that's that's not a major. Perhaps not a major consideration here, but I do want to acknowledge it. Holidays as well, as we start to get towards the end of the year, I look to the context of what happened previously with solar. So, you know, if that occurs again, if that process is similar, what does that look like? And then we also have other interim controls that are in place right now. We have solar that would end in December of this year. And then we have a battery energy storage system scheduled to end in March of next year. And then, of course, we always have projects that come up. So I do want to acknowledge the work that staff does on other projects as well, kind of shuffling and bobbing and weaving as we move through those. So I wanted to show you the calendar of kind of how this is laid out. And again, we do have some wiggle room with this. So, in September and October, what I got drawn up is that we would have the 1st discussion with advanced plans of the text for the zoning code changes on September 24th and that would be a special meeting. So that would be subject to them scheduling that being willing and able to do that on October 8th 8th. We would continue the conversation. That would be the 2nd meeting. October 22nd would be the 3rd meeting and that would be a special meeting. And then we would go into November. Now, on November 9th, in anticipation of the MAPC meeting, December 3rd, we would need to get the notification to the paper for the public notice for the public hearing. It's usually not a big deal to do that. And keep in mind that if the meeting gets deferred or moved back from that December 3rd date for the MAPC, we can always do that. But I just want to throw that in there so everyone's aware that's when our publication would go. November 12th would be the final MAPC advanced plans meeting. November 26th then is Thanksgiving. That would normally be our MAPC date, but because of the holiday, we would move to the next. So that would be December 3rd for MAPC. And then two weeks after that would be December 15th for BOCC staff meeting. And again, there's a lot of flexibility with this. You could move this up. This could occur while advanced plans is working on it. This could occur later on. Lots of flexibility with that one. Then I've got January 6th as the BOCC meeting, and then it would be published one week plus one day following that. Now, the request or the recommendation has been for February 25th. You'll notice there's about six weeks in between January 14th and February 25th. So that is a built-in cushion as part of that recommendation. Obviously, that can be shortened, but... It provides accommodation in case there are any extra meetings, any extra deliberations or questions that need to be tackled. If I did get a question, we were talking about this as staff is kind of putting together this schedule and 1 of 1 of the questions was, well, what about. About what is probably with as soon as that it could possibly be done and. There's a lot of things that could move, but I would, I would venture to say we'd probably be somewhere at the end towards the end of December, which of course would put us in next to Christmas. So. I don't know how appealing that is to folks, but that is a possible option. That's one of the things with the holidays and the end of the year. There's a number of policy decisions. You might ask, well, why spend so much time with advanced plans? I suggest spending so much time with advanced plans because, number one, it's a public forum. It's a place where people can come and we can get opinions from people who are pro data center, people who are concerned about data centers, and they can have a chance to speak before so that we can kind of air stuff out right away. Early on in the process, and also there's a number of things as we're writing the code. There's a lot of kind of options where you can choose a B or C. It's kind of a choose your own adventure and certain things and and it's a matter of what's the priority for the community the best fit. And so you can see them here size limitations. Are there different categories with different regulations, depending on different attributes? Are there geographic limitations are there clustering should clustering be allowed to reduce the impact and utilities or should it be required that there's a separation decommissioning? How does that work? And what's the interplay with regulatory reporting and state control? Now? I don't. I'm not asking to engage in a conversation on these things right now with you all. I just want to express that these are things that we're going to want advanced plans to weigh in on. We will give them an initial idea or concept, and then we'll give them options that they can choose from if they don't prefer that one. We're not going to leave them alone in the wilderness to have to make it up on their own, but we'll give them options. And yeah, okay. And then we start to bleed into, I've got, I attach this to another PowerPoint with lots of background information. I'm going to stop here, but if there's questions, I can, I've got those as resources.

And I know, I think the chairman might want to talk to you at some point when, Commissioner, whenever you get a shot. Pete, you want to go ahead?

Okay. Well, that calendar helps to try and understand why to justify why staff or why your planning department would be requesting this. My gut tells me that in comparing it to the solar world that we had, we had two applications that were kind of filed before. So there was applications at the same time we were trying to do all this stuff. It feels like... with the data center regulations, we don't have a pending application. Right.

I mean, I think in some ways the similarity is that with solar we had had interest expressed, but we never actually had a formal application. But but we knew that there was interest and there were there were at least a couple organizations that were looking at. So we kind of have a similar situation here in that there's been interest expressed by, in this case, a number of a handful of groups. But so. But how eminent and how much pressure does that create? I don't know.

Well, it just seems like that caused a lot of public during the solar world. And I think Chairman Blueball was at a lot of those meetings because there was a lot of public interest. because there was already visibility of one anyway or two of them so but i'm on there so you've also i assume you've gathered requirements and regs from other especially kansas counties like johnson and others so we there's some footprint stuff there.

And that's what part of the time that we're between now and September and what we've been working on is that we've, we've got a draft. Um, the consultant team was helpful in preparing that. Um, we've had to adapt, uh, consider it adaptations to better meet Kansas. So regulations. And then the next step is really that we're going to go through looking at input that we've received from other from the public and from other places and also comparing to other communities. And so that's why you're seeing this time lag between now and when we release it in September.

Okay. Well, I, my, uh, based on the fact that Kansas has been really, I mean, we're late to the game in a way, but it's allowed us to be better at the game, so to speak. So between the water requirements at the state level and the energy and power requirements at the state level that they've already implemented, It seems like I would rather try to get these initial regulations in front of us sooner than later. And so we can maybe at the same time as advanced plan gets it or something. So we can try to shorten the timeline from my perspective because... I don't want to send a signal that we're out of, you know, some counties are just flat out saying three-year moratorium and we're done, meaning kicking the ball down. We're not kicking the ball down. We want to be good on this. So that's just my feeling is I'll let others chime in, but I don't know how to squeeze it down, but I would rather it be sooner than not till January or February.

Hey, if you don't mind if I jump in here, Jeff Blueball. Commissioner Meister, I agree with your comments. My concern is, you know, the advance plan is that four meetings they're going to continue to have. We've had one. And I don't know, Scott, is there any opportunity to have a hybrid to kind of what Commissioner Meister? I would like to get the BOCC's hands on this, even though maybe all the I's aren't dotted and the T's aren't crossed. But I just, you know, we'll have six months in advance plans. And then, you know, we've got four to six weeks at the BOCC to make these decisions. So I just, is there any part of it we could get our hands on sooner than later? Sure.

Oh, certainly. Certainly. So, first off, my expectation would be that when we release the draft to advance plans, we can we can send you a copy so that you'll be aware of at least what's been released publicly in terms of having a joint meeting. We can certainly do that. That's not an issue. And in fact, I know there are members of the advanced plans committee that would. Would eagerly look forward to doing something like that because to them, we've heard some members of advanced plans express that they want to make sure that what they have is a good fit for the county and that you all have the best. Pulse on where county residents and stakeholders are so they look to you for feedback as well. So I think that would be a big benefit from having a joint meeting.

Okay, yeah, any simultaneous conversations we could have, I'd appreciate.

Anybody else? I have a couple of questions if nobody else does, but did you say that you'd be releasing something in September? Did you say that?

Yes, sir.

We would have the draft regulations. Okay, so when the public, I know there's at least one meeting with public, and then the advance plans will do some Theoretically do some work to that based on what happens at that hearing.

What would happen is all of the advanced plans meetings that they typically the practice is to take public comment at the meetings. So I would anticipate that they would take public comments. They would see the item. They would hear it. They would discuss it. And they would also open it up for public comment to receive that input at each of the meetings.

Okay. I guess my concern would be I want to make sure the public has time to. To understand what's in that document. And likewise, the calendar you showed with one BOCC meeting, does that mean that it would be presented to the BOCC and we're theoretically going to adopt it at that meeting? Or does that mean we're going to be presented to the BOCC and we've got another small delay for us to think about what we want to do with that and possibly make some changes to it? I don't know how we can do this in one meeting, is my question.

Yes, sir. As far as the schedule, it's just a draft and just an outline. I never want to give the impression that you're constrained to one meeting since you're the county commission and your decision is very important. But at the same time, I don't want to show multiple meetings because I don't want to give the impression that you're forced to go multiple meetings either. So I erred on the side of just showing one, but certainly it could be more.

And since this is a regulation, does Wichita also need to approve this?

Yes, sir. It would be part of the zoning code. And in fact, the same regulations would apply to the city of Wichita unless they decide that they don't want to have that apply in the Wichita city limits.

I know it's quite early right now to make this comment, but I hope that the county does it before the city only because I think these will be located primarily in the unincorporated. I would like to see us make any adjustments we need to make before then.

Thank you, sir. And as the planning director for both, we have seen the most, I would say, the most interest from stakeholders and citizens in the unincorporated county. And so I would bring it, my strategy is to bring it to you first, knowing that you have the context and stakeholders that you're working with.

And will these, again, I presume that these regulations will have topics like water and energy use and noise and things like that will be part of the

Yes, sir, I expect that it'll be quite extensive. The challenge that we always run into just to manage expectations is how much information is required as part of the application. How much information is spelled out as part of the requirements and how much is resolved later on through further plans and studies that are submitted. Yeah.

Go ahead.

Yeah. Kind of question for feedback, maybe Tom, Scott, your opinions. I've entertained a conversation from those that are industry experts in the data center world, as well as those that are from, I don't know if the opposition group is the right word, they're community advocates. And they both groups have expressed interest of getting this draft and sitting down at the table as a brain trust and redlining this thing and then making a recommendation from there. would that be something that should be a grassroots effort or is that something that we would entertain coordinating that meeting for community uh involvement is that i i don't know if that should just be hey here's the draft you guys can organize or is that something that we would even consider coordinating that meeting i i i think that's up to the commission but i think it's a good idea so if the commission remembers we had a group come together

six, eight months ago in this very room that had industry experts and some community people, grassroots people who were very knowledgeable, and they didn't agree on everything, but it was a good group for a banter back and forth. I could see value in that kind of group coming together again and finishing this document off for the commission to take a look at. I think there's value in that. Now, as I'm listening to Scott, it seems like we could run down the track simultaneously, advanced plans could continue to chew. You could mobilize that group. If the commission decides to do that, you could mobilize that group and run them parallel, but not together. It would be independent discussions going on. And that way, advanced plans and this group could download all that information onto you then to make the best policy decision you possibly can. I think that's merit worthy.

Okay.

And I would just add that I'm sure members of the advanced plans group would be interested in attending so they could observe and hear the dialogue, because I think that would be helpful information for them as well.

Members of that same meeting members on both sides of that discussion are very interested in that opportunity. So I think it'd be worthwhile that not that all zoning cases aren't important because they are. This is this policy decision has elevated itself to have. national conversation and it's important that we have a lot of community input and if we get them a seat at the table to help redline and shape some of these discussions i think it would be a good faith effort

I just say one other thing. It feels like the conversation that happened really two years ago at the state level did not understand, I guess, the amount of public interest in this topic that there is today. And based on some of the discussion in the governor's race by both candidates, I would not be surprised if this comes up in the 2027 session. Who knows what they'll do? But I just anticipate there might be some potential pivoting by the state of Kansas. And I think we need to give them a chance to to, I guess, lay the cards on the table and see what's going to happen before we finalize anything.

I'm also more. So, Scott, it seems like the Commission could make a ratified policy adoption decision on January 6th, according to your timeline. The February timeline was a cushion that you built in there, which is 100 percent optional. I'm just looking at December commission, and we have meetings in December on 2, 9, and 16. And then the next meeting after December 16th would be January 6th. Because if we're trying to maybe get something done by end of year, the last day for ratification for the commission without a special meeting would be December 16th. So for the purposes of this agenda item next week, I don't know that I'm... I guess, do you want to change the dates on that or go ahead, Scott?

If I may, one consideration is that there are things that are just simply outside of our control. If it goes, it has to go through MAPC. And if for whatever reason, MAPC decides that they defer it one meeting or something, that affects how quickly we can get it to you. So that's why there is some variability with this in terms of a cushion, because we just don't control what's going to happen at the meeting or what they're going to think.

Tom, if you're suggesting, I would be comfortable extending this with a target of December 16th, meaning because between now and then there will be some public information available. we'll have a feel during that time that, hey, we're making great progress, or we'll say, we got to go past December 16th. I think, because right now, we just haven't had any documents to look at to digest, but that's where my head's at, leaning a little bit to the

I think if there's documents out there in the public domain in the middle of September sometime, that does give us time to potentially move forward. I'll just make a point here. The first moratorium was 60 days. We added 60 days to that. We added 120 days. Now we're talking about 180 days. It seems a little bit longer than maybe... reasonable jump i would rather i'd rather bring it back to 120 and then we again we can always push it out if we need to but let's this is let's just continue to lean on lean forward to make progress that's my opinion be a little bit of pressure but is there someone online that wants to make a comment jeff stephanie anybody online want to make a comment i guess if not airman you

I think Jeff and I are in agreement. We'd rather see things sooner and keep the momentum going. We're both nodding our heads to having these meetings as well with stakeholders and industry experts. It's something I've been very interested in for a really long time. So we're nodding our heads over here. We want to see it move and continue to make progress.

If I could, sir, Council brought up a great point, which is, so there's the date of the BOCC meeting, but then the actual end of the moratorium we would recommend would be one week and one day later for the publication purposes.

Okay. That's all right. Yeah. Which would be fine. That would be then December. 23rd or right before Christmas. Yeah. Yeah. I must said that too.

I think that helps just keeps the, all the departments. And all that, you know, everybody knows that, Hey, we're. This is important for us to keep moving forward on. And, and. And maybe you could, you could even say December 16th or earlier if we're done.

That's been the general language of our extensions. Yeah.

Okay. All right. Okay. Any other discussion on this from anybody? That was 80 slides. That wasn't bad. Well, there's a lot more if you want to stick around.

I'm happy to. There was no humor today either. Yeah, we didn't have a joke.

Well, I have a couple. It's Friday.

Come on, let's hear one.

All right. Did you hear about the car crash that happened? It involved a dinosaur. Yeah, it's Tyrannosaurus Rex. Sorry, we're scraping the bottom of the barrel. Did you hear about the lion that ate the clown? Yeah, it felt funny afterwards.

This has been a fun, a really fun agenda review. Thank you for that. Thanks for letting me sit in the middle seat. That was also fun. Tom, anything else? We're adjourned. Thank you.

Anything?

Anything else, Jeff or Stephanie, online?

No, we're good. Thank you guys. Good job, Jim.

Thank you so much. Have a great weekend. Drive safer.

Thanks.