City Council - Regular Meeting

All right. Welcome to the March 3rd, 2026 city government meeting. Um, for everybody's vibrance, the city manager is out sick this evening. So, we have Oh, so I have to turn my microphone on if anyone wants to actually hear me. So again, welcome to the uh March 3rd, 2026 governing body agenda or governing body meeting, which I will now call to order. Um, just for everybody's reference, the city manager is out sick this evening, so deputy city manager will be filling in for him. Uh, with that, I will ask everyone to turn their attention to council member Brett Kell, who has this evening's invitation. Please rise if you are able. Let's take the time to be thankful for what we have. find the positive force that push us through the negative situations and the ability to find joy in our life. Thank you. for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Just remember more weeks.

All right, with that, I'll ask the clerk to call roll. Mayor Duncan here. Council member Hillard here. Valdivia Aqua Ortiz Banks here. Kell here. Miller here. Bradberry here, McGee here, and Hoer here. All right, we have eight present with council members Valdivia Aqua and Ortiz absent. All right, we will move on to presentations. We have one this evening. City clerk, uh we have an update from the Metropolitan Topeka Airport Authority,

Deputy City Manager anyone I don't know if you need to introduce anybody or we just want to call them up. Sorry. The MTAA start leading off with the president will make a presentation to us this evening. Thank you. Great. Thank you.

Come on up. Okay. All right. Mayor Duncan, council members, thank you for bringing us here tonight to provide you with our annual update of the MTAA. My name is Sam Sutton. I am the current 2026 uh chairman of the airport board. And I'm joined here today by the president um president of the MTAA uh Mr. Eric Johnson and our director of economic development, Mr. Curtis Sneeden. The uh MTA was created in 1974 as sort of a an entity that could help transition the airport over from a military controlled entity to a civilian operated airport. Um in 1978 the airport was consolidated with the airport authority was consolidated with uh Billard airport and uh the city and county voted to combine those two assets under one roof for the purpose of acquiring, owning, maintaining, operating and improving and disposing of properties that are essential to the uh airport operations. Our uh areas of responsibilities include the Topeka Regional Airport itself, the Philip Billard Airport on the north side of town, and the Topeka Regional Business Center on the uh outside of the fence between uh Topeka Regional Airport and the Topeka Boulevard. Our current board structure is uh we have three board members that are appointed by the city and two that are

appointed by the county. And we are responsible for providing uh uh oversight to Eric Johnson, our current president, who I'll bring up now. Thank you.

Good evening. Um my name is Eric Johnson, president and director of airports uh for the MTA. Just want to give you a rundown of how the airport is or the staffing is structured. Um we have approximately 50 to 55 employees, full-time employees that cover everything from police and fire airport operations, our maintenance staff that maintains the airfields and remodels buildings and grounds. We also took over a couple years ago the fixed base operation at Billard Airport. So, we're providing fueling services uh to to tenants and and uh transient aircraft. We have our admin and finance department and of course um our economic development with Curtis and his assistant. So, you can see from our sources of revenue, property tax um plays a big part of it, but also our our fuel and our rent fuel and various fees, landing fees, um things like that. Um it's our job to optimize um the greatest return on the dollar that we can for the taxpayer um and always working towards self- sustainability. Um and we have a number of properties and um what it shows here is we have properties available for all types of aeronautical activities but also a great percentage of that is non-eronautical which supports the aeronautical side of the house. commercial service, and that's the one that always gets us. Um, we've been fighting for commercial service, I think, for as long as I've known you. Um, so we've been fighting for this commercial service for a long time, we were able to bring it in at one point about a decade ago. Um, and through no fault of ours, the city of Topeka, the the Shauny County, or anyone around, uh, that service failed. They had about a 14% cancellation rate in the first month, which doomed us from the beginning. So we have those ongoing

conversations now. Um but we have that history that we have to deal with. Uh no matter how we look at it, the airlines are always going to look at that service failed when it was here. Um but we do have some good things going for us. We have uh just recently completed a a conversation with an airline at their headquarters, which is um quite an undertaking to get the headquarters invite. Um that sounds good. It just doesn't happen very fast. Um and we have a lot of things that are are working in our favor. Um some of the things that surprisingly works in our favor is that new terminal building at in Kansas City. Um the cost for the Kansas City airport went from about $6 and change 637 or so in something like that per passenger and plane for the airlines to pay up to over $16. So the airlines have cut back. they've they've taken out uh about 1,500 seats daily. So, we can offer that same type of employment service to our airlines for less than a dollar. Um that's working in our favor. We also have a lot of incentives where we don't have a bill to pay on our terminal building. It's it's ready to go. The best thing we have going right now for us is we have a revenue guarantee that has demonstrated community support um across the board. So, we have that revenue guarantee ready to go for any airline that is able to come in and provide the services we need. The most recent conversation is looking at um two large hub connections and we're working on a a program to put that together. I think that's about it.

Next on you, I think so. All right. And now Eric would like to introduce his director of development, Curtis Needen. Curtis.

Thank you, Eric and Sam. Well, let's let's I'm going to quickly try to update you on um some of the other side of the house initiatives that we're pursuing at both of our airports. And I think you'll be pleased to hear what what we have coming. Uh we we spoke last year about the our our project to construct a large hanger within which uh widebody aircraft could be worked on. It's called maintenance repair and overhaul. It's a vast sector within aviation. And I'm pleased to tell you that in January, we finally signed a lease with a developer who's going to who's basically in town working on standing up that structure right adjacent to our apron uh down there at Forbes. And he is so confident of the demand for this type of hanger that he's building it on spec essentially. He is beyond confident that it'll he'll have a subtenant in there before it's even finished. and that's he's the expert, but it certainly aligns with all of our experience thus far in terms of people in the industry calling and asking if we have a big hanger that they can put their planes in. So, that is going to be exciting. um it's going to uh drive economic activity both during construction and then once we get a company in there working on those large aircraft that that should account for uh several hundred good highpaying jobs of the sort that uh city clerk younger's son is now trained to do. So we're going to try to get him back to town. Uh as long as things stay on track, this hanger should be operational by the end of 2027. So stay tuned. That's a big initiative and we're pleased to tell you that that that's coming. We're also very thankful to uh Senator Moran and uh and others who have uh arranged for a federal appropriation to the MTAa to help us with a part of our airfield that currently is so dilapidated on the surface that you

can't even drive aircraft across it. It would suck up the debris and ruin their engines. We call it our abandoned North Apron. But it's not going to be abandoned for long because thanks to Senator Moran, we have about $6 million coming our way to help us start to rehabilitate that part of the airfield. That will help us remove the concrete which is in a severe state. It's basically gravel. It's so beat up and it will open up an area ultimately that's about 35 acres there on the north side of Forge. The exciting thing about that is that having just mentioned that, I'm already getting calls from people, private dollar people who are interested in uh talking about potentially coming and uh developing some hangers up there. So, I I sense that as momentum that uh hopefully will continue to roll. And that graphic on the screen gives you a sense of what we hope to create up there on the north side of our apron. That's a part of the airport you probably haven't seen because it's out there and it's flat, but come out anytime and we can drive out there and I'll show you what I mean and you'll have a sense of the potential out there. Up at our other airport that we're very proud of, Billard Airport in Oakland, uh there is a lot happening. Our flight academy uh run by top aviation services is uh virtually done. The building that's been uh rehabbed is done and the and it is growing. There are more and more flight students coming through there. We are pursuing a couple of initiatives that we hope to have done this year to uh resurface the main entrance road over there, Sardo, which is badly needed, but also to lay in a couple of new access roads that will um help alleviate a situation that involves occasionally vehicles and airplanes meeting each other on one of our taxi lanes down there. That's suboptimal, you can imagine. but it will also provide access to the airport for people that we hope

will want to come and and develop there. I've conversed with um capitalists who would love to stand up a 10,000 square foot hanger um but without some sense that they'd be able to get to it. Those conversations are a little hard to are a little hard to continue with these roads in place. We're setting the plate to to see uh further grow growth up at Builder. Um, we are continuing with our fence project to uh have a perimeter fence all the way around the airport up there. That's good because it keeps deer from running across the runway, but it's also good because it enables uh some of our higher tech tenants there to um know that they're operating in a in a secured operating environment and it makes them competitive for uh certain types of more lucrative contracts. So, uh it's a win-win unless you're a deer. And we're also um planning to uh pursue an upgrade of our fuel system up there at at the very least uh putting in a self-s serve system which will enable aviators off hours to be able to put fuel into their aircraft and we think that will please our base customers but will hopefully also draw more traffic uh from the skies. So there's a lot going on at both airports. We we've uh abused our time I think but we'd be happy to u answer any questions you've got for us. questions or comments from the governing body? Nothing. Yep. Council member Miller, I'd just like to see the advancement that you guys have going out there. I mean, this is been a long time coming, and I continue to see the energy around you, Mr. Sneeding, and the rest of the board on the things that we're going to be doing in the near future, and and and I I want you to know that we support you here, and we want to see some things happening. Um, I I can see the growth. I can see the the picture 20 years from now and continue. Please, we need that.

Thank you. We appreciate your support. Curs, how much land is available that can actually be developed whether it's for airport use or for nonair airport use that's out on I guess either of the probably mostly out of Forbes not

in the uh in the industrial park out there. It's a about 190 out there in in front. We also have a really big parcel that is on the order of 300 acres or so on the uh south end of Forbes. Don't usually think of that uh because it's sort of singular. We we weren't really marketing that if if if a company has a need for that much property at the end of an airport, they'll find us before we find them. But in the in the industrial park itself, it's on it's somewhere between 170 and 200 acres out there and it's shovel ready. The utilities are in place. We are ready to go out there.

So So on that other 300 acres then or with has it been sort of kept that way in case one of those folks ever come to Topeka needing that much land or has there been just conversations about platting it out and divvying it up for for other kind of development? I would say that our focus has been on getting the industrial park proper beefed up and also following through on the the what I call the beachfront, you know, the airfront property. Um where for example, Varys is doing their expansion project. You know, that's that's been our focus. Um ultimately once we've achieved our goals there, then we'll set our sights on that other property. Like I say, I don't really see that as a this the sort of thing we would single out and try to market at this point in time anyway. If if the right type of it would probably be a cargo operation making use of that property, if they were to approach us,

we'd drop everything and talk to them. And then my last question is, is there any positive benefit or maybe it doesn't matter now that H Heartland Park is reopening since that whole area will again see some life again that hasn't been out there for a few years. I mean, is there any impact on any properties out there? Not maybe not race related, but just the fact that there's going to be new activity again. I I would say in a generic sense, more activity is good all the way around. In terms of, you know, airport specific benefits, I I'm not sure we would

identify anything in particular. I suppose if charter planes come in to go to events across the street, that'll be a win, but we'll have to see how that plays out. Okay. Council member Hillary.

Thank you, Mayor. First, congrats on a great report. It's really been fun to hear. Slow and steady is okay with me as long as we keep going. And so some really good wins and some good developments. I I wanted to make a comment about passenger air. I was already on the council. I think maybe maybe came on after it had started, but I was on as it failed. And I think the data is there that shows that our community fully supported that United Air Service.

Both the companies in terms of using them, the city did, the chamber did. Um I traveled through that at the time. My understanding is that those cancellations almost 100% were due to the the airline carrier itself cancelling flights and not having um either missing a delivery time or a transfer time midway. There were just two flights a day each way. Um and and that um you know there was no plane here in the morning because they never got in here that night then it didn't leave and I was part of a chamber trip actually where some people drove to St. Louis to get out others of us waited for a later plane. It was terrible.

But my understanding is that the data is there to say that people in Topeka strongly supported it. And if there's some question about that and that data can be renovated to pitch the next airline, you you are absolutely correct. The the city, the county, this entire area supported the airlines, wanted the airline. The airline failed us, right? And and I don't know if that was extremely clear or perfectly clear um when I'd spoken about it before, but it wasn't. And I wanted to correct that. Failed us. Yeah.

Um they had misconnections. U the mayor at the time, Mayor Wolgast, told me he had an 80% failure rate flying on that particular airline and it was due entirely to um the airline failing to show up or misconnecting. I just I just wanted to clarify that with the council now and if there was a need on your end because that was that was very strong. Oh, it and it's and we have the we have the support to fill those airplanes. We have over 1300, excuse me, 1,300 people from Topeka going to Kansas City every day. So, we can certainly fill those airplanes. We just have to get that right service here.

Just want to make sure we're pitching it. Thank you. Thank you. All right. I don't see any else. So, thank you to all three of you. We very much appreciate it. Appreciate you coming tonight. With that, we will move on to item three, the consent agenda. City clerk, a minutes of the February 17, 2026 governing body meeting. And there are no applications. All right. I have a motion from Council Member Kell to approve and a second from Council Member Bradberry. I'll ask the clerk to take the vote. Council member Ortiz.

Council member Ortiz. Yes. Okay. And then council member Hill, mine isn't set up again. So, yes. Okay. We have nine. Yes. The motion carries. All right. With that, we'll move on to action items. Action item 4 A. I'll ask the clerk to read. A is a resolution introduced by city manager Dr. Robert Perez, establishing a procedure for the selection of two council members to serve as voting members of the joint economic development organization, JEDTO, and rescending resolution numbers 8823 and 9916. All right, deputy city manager.

Thank you, mayor. This first item is simply to move up the election of the two Jedto voting board members to the first meeting in January, and that would be the same meeting where we vote in the deputy mayor. Um staff today circulated an amendment that includes that the vote can be either by voice or by paper ballot. Previously, it was just by paper ballot, but by adding this language in, if a council member were working remotely that evening, they would be able to participate in the election by voice vote. And so we would look for a motion to approve as amended. Mayor, thank you.

All right. Before we discuss, we have one individual signed up for public comment. Uh, Mr. Henry Mccclure. Your honor, thank you for the opportunity to discuss responsible policies for Jedha. And one thing I'd just like to make, I I'm all in favor of the resolution, but one thing that I think that you all ought to consider is the duality of being a Jedo member and a board member of GOPA. I think in the long run that will haunt you. I think that uh there are people out there from what I hear in the grapevine that are trying to uh say, "Hey, wait a second. Go Topeka is really no longer an NGO just uh sucking off the taxpayer money." They are now a government organization. When you consider the county commissioner, the county counselor, the mayor, um your city manager, I think you really also put your city manager at risk because the whole reason we went to a city manager form of government was to not make it political. And when it comes to budget, you know, as a as a voting citizen, when I know the fact that he voted to give nine and a half million dollars to AIM strategies for the AT&T building and not put it into our roads, he ought to be the number one guy uh wagging his finger at you all saying, you know what, I need that money for the streets. So as to be gerine to the comments here that uh responsible

policies can be changed at this moment and you ought to consider those going forward. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Mccclure.

All right. So with that we've got this in front of us. I am going to make a motion to amend item 4A to include the amendment that I think does everyone have a copy of that I believe that would do exactly what the deputy city manager said that would allow voice votes or a paper ballot which we've been doing but it's nice to codify it into our actual ordinances. So I will make that motion to amend. I guess I need to hit a There we go. Have a second from council member Banks. Any comments or questions on the amendment? That's all we're voting on now. It's just whether or not to approve the amendment. All right. Now, let's ask clerk to take the role.

Hold on. I need to put the amendment in the vote to make a motion to approve as amended. Do you want to do I can alter my unless there's further discussion. We're I will change my motion to say to approve as amended the proposed amendment. Is that good with you? Great. Now, is there any conversation about this policy at all in general? All right. So, now we are voting on the whole thing with the amendment. So, there we go. All right. I'll ask the clerk to take the vote. Ready to coun council member Ortiz? Yes. Council member Hillary. Yes.

All right. All right. We have nine. Yes. The motion carries. All right. With that, we'll move on to action item 4B. Clerk B is a resolution introduced by city manager Dr. Robert Perez relating to the appointment of three council members to the Metropolitan Topeka Planning Organization Board, MTPO, Policy Board and repealing resolution number 8848. All right, deputy city manager.

Thank Thank you, Mayor. Um, this item is to move the election for the voting members of the MTO policy board to the first meeting in January following the election of the deputy mayor and the JATO members. Um, staff earlier today circulated a amendment that would allow for that vote to be by voice vote or paper ballot so that if it member were absent streaming, they would be able to participate in the election. And mayor, we would look for a motion to approve as amended. Council member Kell, what is your motion? Approve as amended.

All right, we have a second. All right. Second from Council Member McGee, any comments or questions on this one for staff? No. All right. If not, then I will ask clerk to take a vote. All right. Council member Ortiz. Yes. All right. All right, we have nine yes. The motion carries.

All right, with that we'll move to item five, public comment. At this time, I'll call individuals signed up to speak for general public comment. Just a reminder, you have four minutes. It'll beep at you with one minute to go and the light will turn yellow and the timer is right there in front of you so you can see how much time you have left. And with that, first person I have on the list is Mr. Henry Mccclure. Good evening, your honor. Thank you for the opportunity. Hey, I'd like to salute you. And this is the first time you're going to ever hear me say that a consultant is actually a good idea. your idea on the uh the uh uh third party to do uh the interviews. Although I do think you banks and I think uh Michelle here are are on the committee together. I think you could have done it on your own but that's okay. I think maybe it's a good time for the opportunity to have a third party report and may it may be an opportunity to do some housekeeping. But what I hope you do is I hope that you do exit interviews. Just recently, we had a few people fired. And why don't we go back a certain amount of time and why don't we look into why don't we ask these people what was it like to work here? Do exit interviews, but use your third party. I think that you might uncover some really interesting stuff when it comes to what it's like to work for the city of Topeka. You might have remembered the election, but I sure heard I got an earful of people that u they u they're not happy that work for this this city.

And it's really sad. I mean, I can't imagine coming to work every day and being in fear of fire, getting fired or retribution and things like that. But I do uh I do want to change the subject. I want to talk about my uh company that I'm working with. I emailed you guys. If you look at this, we're working on uh building some apartments from the same company that is looking for space and they would consider coming to Topeka. And yeah, part of it is to put Topeka to the test. Why? I live here. Why shouldn't my clients get the same benefit? You know, I was looking at the uh I was looking at the board members of GoPA and it's basically a construction department and I almost see why the members of GoPa wouldn't be wanting a company that has to do with construction to come in. So, uh, the apartments that I'm trying to build, they're talking about, um, oh, it's going to c it's going to take, uh, anywhere from 65 to 95 truckloads to bring their parts from Kansas City. So, what I'm trying to find is a rail head, but I'm also, yeah, we're shopping around. You know, we've gotten two responses back to at least get free land. Think about how much land we have in that commerce park. But I don't get it. I don't hear a beep or a peep or I heard a beep, but I don't hear a peep from uh

the city, the county, your contractor. That's a shame. Let's see. Was there anything else I wanted to pontificate on? There he is. But um I do want to thank you for your time. I do want you to know I mailed this to you guys. It's a real deal. And uh we're looking at two we're looking at 37th engage and we're looking at something up in North Topa. So, I hope we can build some uh some new apartments in the community. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Mccclure.

Next up, we have Mr. Lone Graze. No need paperwork. Not sure if I have enough to go around, but uh I think I I think it was eight of them.

Yes, council woman. The council woman, I can send a copy to each council

good evening, city council and mayor. Uh probably didn't need to give you an extra copy because this is a copy of something that you already had. I presented this on the 10th of last month. those questions about developing developers. I hadn't heard from anyone. I know that this document was with a couple of other documents that had some statistics. It's a numbers. So maybe that got y'all mixed up. So I just wanted to focus on this right here. Um I don't think that I'm not sure if someone actually spoke with whoever is negotiating for your developers to see if this is something that they're going to do. uh if they looked into it to see if it's something legal or illegal, unlawful, unconstitutional. If that's not the case, I think it's pretty clear that personally there should be some resolve. You know, is the city going to have your negotiators ask these questions or not? If no, why not? It would seem that someone, an elected official, a mayor, can direct whoever is negotiating for your developments to ask these questions so that when they come here and they're sitting here asking for your vote, you will have the answers to these questions. Good decisions are made when you have all of the information uh in front of you. I don't think there's anything wrong with asking, will you commit to using on the job training for local residents? Which registered apprentichip programs will be used on the project? Any specific goals for contracting with local small businesses? What percentage of subcontracting dollars would go to Topeka Shauny County based contractors? What partnerships would local workforce and training providers would be available to work with? If you don't ask the question, you won't get the answer. And as I said before, I think that the people who pay who's going to be paying

some tax dollars and pay paychecks, you know, would like to see that you are negotiating for them and not just the developers. So, I'm not sure. Well, I think that it's appropriate for someone to either tell your negotiators that you want these questions asked and why and you will ask questions or that you say no, we won't and these are the reasons why. I wasn't followed up with. I think that people should respond when people come and ask questions and ask them to do something and not just blow them off and put them off. So, the ball is sort of in your court. You can ask your negotiators, not ask them to tell them to ask these so that they'll be prepared when you come up and being asked to vote for a 60 or $50 million project. If you're going to do that, I would suggest getting with that nonprofit groups, the state, those who can pay the tools, the boots, the transportation on these training and entry- level job sites. I would think that you would want to put the horse before the cart on this instead of just waiting for something to happen. And finally, I think that if the questions are asked, you will find developers who want to do this. It'll it can't be bad for the community because when they leave after 3 years, 2 years, they're going to leave in their wake some people with some skills, some jobs, and some better lives. So hopefully someone tonight will make sure that those questions are asked on each and every development project that comes up here for your vote. Thank you.

Thank you. Next up, and if I mispronounce this, I apologize. I have Matthew Shrieve. You got Thank you. Welcome, sir.

Thank you. I have a few questions. I hope you don't mind if I use this. Topeka municipal audit public comment script. I the water meter scam. The Amy smart meter program was a $14 million taxpayer investment. Why is the Amy fee still being charged on our bills when residents report these meters are failing or inaccurate? When will the city release a public audit of the 64,000 units that are not performing as promised? Two, the data traffic and cloud security. Following Governor Kelly's recent block of federal attempts to seize Canen's private data, what firewalls are in place to prevent our municipal and school data from being leaked into cloud networks? We are concerned that student data and personal identifiers are being exposed to decentralized networks where predators can harvest this information without oversight. Three, the Hotel Topeka giveaway. The city has invested over $12 million into Hotel Topeka. Why are we finalizing a sale to a private group for only $1 million in cash while the city is still projected to eat a $1.75 million operating loss this year? Please explain how a 90% loss of taxpayer funds constitutes a successful deal for this community. IV, the school book and AI monitoring. Is the public being fully informed about the AI monitoring systems currently watching our kids in 501 United States dollars and seaman 345? We need to know if these safety algorithms are actually harvesting student behavioral data for third-party use while sexually explicit materials remain

in school libraries. Is this council coordinating for rating transparency to protect children from both physical and digital exposure versus the GETO/FTTZ oversight? As members of Judo, what oversight does this council actually have over foreign trade zone number 161? We need a clear answer on whether local law enforcement has full access to these bonded zones or if we are allowing jurisdictional black holes to exist within our city limits. Topeka municipal.

If this council won't provide an audit, the citizens of Topeka are prepared to exercise our rights under KSA22- 3001 to summon a grand jury and conduct the audit ourselves. That is all. Thank you very much. I expect some answers in the minutes and I understand you won't have any right now, but something to think about. I'll be seeing you at the next council meeting with more topics to discuss. Thank you very much for your time.

Mr. Records request staff has that. They'll follow up on follow. Thank you. Have an excellent Don't leave Mike. Sorry. Thank you. Have an excellent evening. Thank you. You too.

All right. With that, we will move on to announcements. City clerk.

Okay. For the March 10th agenda, we have um one presentation for the Topeka Housing Authority, an update. We have five resolutions on the consent agenda coming out of the PI committee. Action items include a real estate lean agreement with the Kansas National Guard Army related to the Topeka Police training facility. We have an ordinance for a from ATA development for zoning change at Southwest Yurish Road and 21st Street. We have a resolution from ATA development for Yurish Center Reinvestment Housing Incentive District. Uh sending to the state for approval. We have a resolution setting an April 21 uh public hearing date for Capitol City Town Homes TIFF district. We have a public hearing and ordinance for um AIM from AIM strategies for a vacation of a public sanitary sewer line easement. And then we also have another public hearing and ordinance from AIM strategies for vacation of a waterline easement. And then we have a public hearing and ordinance for Hotel Topeka Community Improvement District.

All right. Deputy City Manager. Nothing. Mayor, thank you. Council member Kell. Nothing tonight. Thank you. All right. Council member Miller, nothing. Mayor, thank you. Council member Bradberry, nothing. Council member McGee. Uh, nothing. All right. Deputy Mayor Hoer. Well, I have a couple things.

All right. Um, Friday is the open house for fire station number six and it is from 4 to 7:00. This is the monthly basically first Friday open house. So, anyone who would like to see a fire station and I haven't been to this one. Where is this one? It's on sewer. It's on sewer. Okay. Sew number six.

Okay. The other thing is on this Thursday night there is aformational meeting on the Pul Quincy vioaduct. They're going to it's at the holiday building in their conference room on the first floor and it's going to run from 5:00 to 7:00. It's an update meeting for some of the next phases. They're going to talk about the California Bridge, California Avenue Bridge and when it's going to come down and they're going to start replacing it. They're going to talk about their um later in the spring they're going to open up Topeka Boulevard to two directions going north and south and I believe access to I70 coming off and going west. There'll be an update on that and there will be an update on when I 70 will be closed. And the um the main detour is going to be 470 for anybody's going east or westbound on I70, but they're also going to talk about um what the detour will be if you come into downtown or from either east or west. So it's going to be good information and they will be there for qu stand for questions. are going to have a uh continuous continuously running video so you can see what things are looking like and I believe it's next week they're going to start pouring the deck on the new vioideuct. So there's a lot happening and hopefully we won't get water logged with all the rain we're going to get this week. That's it. Council member Hiller,

what she said, nothing else. Council member Ortiz, I have nothing. Thank you.

All right. Just a couple quick things from my part. Um, just I I I've alluded to it earlier, but it's nice that H Heartland Park isn't just going to reopen. They have already announced something of their first event in October. October, I think it's that first or second week. So, it's nice to have them back. I know that's been kind of a long winding road for for there, but with the Hot Rod Association now in charge, I I expect big things. So, it's nice to know they they're starting to schedule events. So, everyone check it out and congratulations that that's back up and running. And the second thing is we and we put out an announcement, but we as a city received a $200,000 grant from KDHE to enhance accessibility in city facilities and find opportunities for energy efficiency. I just want good job by staff for for getting that grant. It was work goes into that, but it's also just a reaffirmation of our commitment to find other dollars where we can to offset other expenses. And so that will certainly help. It seems small, but it'll certainly make a difference. So with that, there is a need for two executive sessions. I will turn it over to the city attorney. Banks.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Oh, I forgot Banks. Oh, it's cuz he's after me.

Bank. Council member Banks. You better have something good now. That's all. No pressure. Thank you, Mayor. Uh, yesterday myself and Council Member Miller had the opportunity to attend an economic summit uh relating to black efforts here in Kansas. Certainly, our focus is locally and it was a really really good panel. Uh, I had to say there were so many really important people there. I appreciate my colleagues being there for just to be comfort and you know comforting and supporting. Um I learned a lot. Uh I learned our 501 school superintendent. Excellent. A very very very smart lady. And I learned some things about our state that I did not know about. So, I'd like to just shout out to my colleague and uh to say how how valuable that summit was to us for me to learn about our city and state. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Yes, Council Miller. I'm sorry. I appreciate the opportunity. U but I almost forgot, but I didn't really forget. My wife's birthday is coming up this weekend. So, shout out Caitlyn. I'm sorry, baby. I almost forgot your birthday. Uh, and my daughter's birthday coming up as well. So, so love you both. All right. See, we're all forgetting a little something tonight. It's all right. With that, I will finally turn it back over to the city attorney.

All right. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh the motion would be to recess into executive session for a time not to exceed 30 minutes to discuss personnel matters involving individual employees as allowed under KSA75-4319B1. The open meeting will resume in this room in the city council chambers. The following individuals will be necessary to aid the governing audience discussion. The deputy city manager, the human resources director, the city attorney, and any other staff members as needed. All right, with that we have a motion to approve by council member Kell. Do I have a second? Yes. C. Second by council member Banks. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? I.

All right. With that, we are going to go into executive session immediately. We are not going to take a break. So, as always, you're not taking a break. All right, I think we're back. All right, we've reconvened the meeting and are now back in open session with no action having been taken. Uh but however, we have a need for a second executive session. So, I will turn it over to the city attorney.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The motion would be to recess into executive session not to exceed 30 minutes to give legal advice and discuss cases currently in litigation and other matters deemed privileged under the attorney client privilege as allowed under KSA75-4319B2. The open meeting will resume in this room in the governing body chambers. The following staff will be necessary to assist the governing body as deliberations. The city attorney and other staff members is needed. All right. I will move to approve. Do I have a second? Second. All right. Second from council member Banks. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Yes. I All right. One opposed. We will now go immediately into executive session.

All right. All right, we have come out of executive sess session. No action was taken as there's no more business before this governing body. This meeting is adjourned.