City Council - Regular Meeting

All right.

Welcome everybody. I'm going to call this March 10th, 2026 governing body meeting to order. With that, I would turn it over to Council Member Brett Kell, who has this evening's invocation. Please rise if you are able. Tonight's invocation will be presented by Pastor Rick Fleming. Pastor Rick has been the lead pastor of Central Park Christian Church since November 2024 after a long career as an attorney. His church faithfully serves at Central Park neighborhood with an active youth ministry, a large recovery ministry, a weekly dinner, a monthly food and clothing pantry, and a warming center during the extreme cold weather. Pastor Rick grew up in a small the small town of Leroy, Kansas, and attended Washurn University, where he met his wife Michelle, a native of Topeka. They are parents of six adult children. Early in his career, Rick spent 15 years as a state securities regulator, including more than a decade as general counsel for the office of Kansas Securities Commission. Then he and his family moved to Washington DC, where he worked as an as for the association of state security regulators before being appointed in 2014 to the first investor advocate at the US Securities and Exchange Commission. In that role, he provided a voice for retail investors as policies were considered by Congress, the SEC, the stock exchanges, FS, FAB, the PCAO, and other financial regulators. Pastor Rick Fleming. Thank you. Let's pray. Thank you, God, for the leaders of our city, for men and women who are willing

to devote their time and their talents to serving us in this way. We pray that you bless their efforts this evening, give them strength and energy and patience as they consider the issues before them tonight and guide them in their decision-making. We also pray tonight for all the people who work for our city government, whether they're in roles like public safety or infrastructure or utilities that obviously impact all our lives, or whether they serve in roles like IT or other administrative services that are often unseen. Bless each person as they work from day to day to make Topeka a better place to live and work and raise a family and yes, to worship you. Bless our city, we pray, and all who reside here in your son's holy name. Amen. Amen.

I pledge allegiance 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, Pastor Rick. All right, clerk will call roll. Mayor Duncan here. Council members Hiller here. Valdivia Aqua here. Ortiz. Banks here. Kell here. Miller here. Bradberry here. McGee here.

And Hoer here. All right, we have nine present with council member Ortiz absent.

All right. Um, city manager is still recovering from his illness, but plans to be back in full force next week. So to this evening, uh, deputy city manager Braxson CPPley will continue to to serve in that role. With that, we have a presentation this evening from the Topeka Housing Authority, an update. I'm going to guess it's Trey George, but if someone else walks up here, you can introduce yourself and tell us who you are. But it looks like Trey. Thank you. And uh good evening, Mayor Duncan and governing body. My name is Trey George. I'm the president CEO for the Topeka Housing Authority. I appreciate the offer to come and present and give you all an update of some of our activities. Um tonight, what I plan to cover is go over some of our partnerships that we have. Uh talk about some of our other interactions in the community and organizations that we work with. um as well as um talk about some upcoming developments we're excited about and would definitely love to save time for any questions that y'all may have about anything that I talk about or any other questions that you have. Um first I'll talk about is the Pineriidge Partnership. Um this is the 15th year of the Pineidge Partnership which is pretty amazing and hard to believe. Um real quick overview of the partnership. It's located in the Pineriidge neighborhood. It's the oldest and largest public housing neighborhood in Topeka. It was built between 1959 and 1963. Uh has 202 homes and about 500 people live in Pineriidge. Um 15 years ago, we started working with United Way of Caw Valley. Uh Topica public schools. Uh were the initial partners and still partners there today uh to open a parents of teachers facility in the neighborhood as well as a early learning center preschool called Pineriidge Prep. Um and again 15 years later, um the partnership is still going strong. um has continued to grow and change and kind of expand over the years. Um we added the Piners Family Health Center in 2017, which is a nurse practitioner-led urgent primary care center that's owned and operated by the housing authority. Um to date, we have a little over 2,700 unique patients, a little over 11,000 patient encounters in that time. Um

Washurn University joined the partnership in 2017. Um the Piner Family Health Center is a dedicated training site for DNP andBSN nursing students from Washurn University. And so our staff precepts uh Washurn students in partnership with Washurn faculty at that uh at that site. Uh Bookri Environments or Brie is another partnership that we do with United Way of Caw Valley as well as the Top Shny County Public Library and HUD. Um HUD actually provides us with um thousands of books every year which is pretty amazing. Um it's not amazing to try to find locations to store all those books, but um we do get to partner with our partners to get out in the community and we do at least four different events every year where we just hand out as many books and get books into the uh hands of families as we can. Um and that's um been going on now for I believe this is our eighth year doing that. Um and it is it is it's always a lot of fun. Um they're always in the summer so it's usually pretty hot out but um I was not that excited about books when I was a kid. Um, and there are a lot of kiddos that are and so we're we're happy we're able to do that. Uh, the Deer Creek Community Center is another one I've talked about before, but um, we have the, uh, Topeka Police Department Community Policing Office over at Deer Creek in the basement of the community center. Been there for 11 years now. Um, we absolutely love having the officers there on a daily basis. We work very closely with TPD on a number of different things. Um, and we quite literally could not do a lot of things that we do without uh, the help and support of them. So, we we always have a great amount of uh gratitude for our police department. Um couple new ones on there. A foster youth initiative. This is a new uh partnership where we're working with uh DCF um providing um housing choice vouchers to uh individuals that are aging out of the foster care system. Uh they are the the nice thing about this is is they are referred over directly from DCF. They don't go through our weight list. And so as they have individuals that are aging out of the foster care system, they make a referral over to them or to us. We're able to provide them with a a voucher that gives them rental assistance where they go out and find where they'd like

to live in the community and they can stay on that program for 3 years to help them get stable um after coming out of the foster care system. So we're excited about that. We've not issued our first one yet. We literally just started um that program, but I believe we'll start issuing some vouchers in April for that. and the 811 program. That's another new partnership um that will provide rental assistance for um individuals with severe and persistent mental health disorders um where we'll be able to provide uh rental assistance um to them in existing developments in in Topeka. Um a couple other things that we're involved with that we don't always probably talk a lot about, but um we are on the strategic planning committee for the all hands- on deck um group to end chronic homelessness in Shny County. Um very excited about the announcement last week of the opening of the compassion at I'm sorry the compassion impact center that'll be over at Children's Palace. Um huge step in in the right direction to get that one-stop shop created. Um and there's a lot of work to be done, a lot of work that we will uh definitely be wanting to work with all of you on as well, but excited about that first step. Uh we're committee member on the affordable housing trust fund. Um and a lot of good work I think has been done in the first year. uh RFP is out right now for kind of the first um ideas from the community of how um those funds could be stretched out into the community to to make a larger impact on on affordable housing. Um we're also on the board for the Kansas Housing Association, which is a statewide association that advocates for the uh federal low-income housing tax credit um and state tax credit. Um if you so primarily our primary source of development or looking at being able to do new development whether it's on our public housing program or in the affordable housing side is the federal tax credit program. Um that program is been strong. Um the state credit was authorized two years ago. unfortunately caught a lot of scrutiny this last um

legislative session and has been cut uh dramatically and will actually phase out in 2028. Um which is unfortunate. Um still have some time hopefully to get that turned around. But if you have any type of influence in being able to um encourage or advocate for that state housing tax credit right now in Topeka, well soon in May in Topeka we will have a total of 426 affordable homes under construction. That is because of that Kansas housing tax credit. The federal tax credit helps, but the reason those are happening right now, and one of them will be ours, is because of that Kansas credit. And with that going away, I would anticipate not seeing those larger affordable developments possible, unfortunately. So, um, anything you can do to to help encourage that, it's definitely needed. And then we're also on the apartment council of Topeka, which is the local affiliate of the National Apartment Association. Um, and we are it's a it's an association of of multiple different um multif family communities, but also vendors that help to support the multif family um uh apartment community in Topek. And not just affordable actually, I'm probably on the on the lesser end of the affordable uh people that are there and everybody else is pretty much market, but um it's a it's a good opportunity just to stay in contact with what's happening in our community from a rental perspective. Um the two new developments we're working on um right now um I'll do these out of order, but Johnson Bets Meadows, I'm sure y'all are familiar with. Um we're super excited about that. Um that is one of those developments that I was referring to that um is made possible because of that Kansas credit um and 4% uh federal bonds. But um it is a partnership with Scent. uh they are the um uh the land owner and so there will be a long-term lease entered with scent to build the development on land that they currently own on Fremont Hill as well as then they will be the supportive uh services provider at that site. Um we are it's 176 new homes which we're super

excited about that. Um 106 of the homes will have a project-based voucher assigned to it. Um, I know if you're if you're not in the affordable housing world, a lot of these words may not mean a whole lot, but the biggest difference between a housing choice voucher, which is the h the vouchers that we issue at the housing authorities to individuals, is that voucher is assigned to a family and it follows that family as they move from one location to another in our community, where a project based um voucher, what that means is that the apartment itself is what's being assisted and when a family moves out, the next family moves in, then they benefit from that assistance. So, it's just a little bit of a difference, but um all both of those vouchers, even the ones that will be at Johnson Bets Meadows, are vouchers that are coming out of our uh voucher pool. Um with that, just want to tell you all thank you very much. Try to keep it brief, but definitely answer any questions that y'all may have um about, as I said, anything that we've discussed tonight or anything that you may have questions about.

All right. Council member Valdivia Alkala. Okay. Thank you, mayor. Um, Trey, I don't know how much more you can tell us about this, but with the housing tax credit, do you know, is it going to be coming up for a vote pretty soon? Is it still in committee? I hear that our lobbyist isn't here tonight, and I don't know if maybe if you don't know that answer or answers if maybe Duncan would. Yeah, I don't know 100% where it sits right now. Um, I know that there's been a lot of advocacy and support for it, but I'm I'm not sure where it sits as far as a vote coming up.

So, on that, they wanted to eliminate it entirely last year. The compromise that was reached was sort of what I call a 5-year phase out. Um, and so there's kind of threeish more years to to do something about it, but it is going to start to phase out over the next couple years unless something's done. So, there's not an active bill at this time. I think the plan is to try to come back next year with a plan um that does something to make it more cost affordable for the state, but still does what Mr. George was saying, which help us all build houses. So, yeah, there's no bill there's no vote the rest of the session, but the clock is ticking over the next couple years to to save it. Yeah. When it was Okay, so go ahead. I'm sorry.

And I apologize. I was just going to say when it was authorized, I believe it was for $35 million per year. Um last year it was cut to 28. this year goes to eight, next year's eight, and then it sunsets in 28 was my understanding.

Yeah. And I knew that this had started being on the radar, you know, ever since the last session. But I guess and and I don't know if this question would be or this request would be for the mayor or if it would be for assistant city manager, but what I would like to know so we can get ahead of this if there's any way which we should be able to find out how many current dwellings that we have in Topeka that are utilizing these tax credits. what the full, you know, how how many multif family dwellings or I don't know if this goes to duplexes and then what that dollar amount is and then looking at what phase out could mean with some kind of basic explanation to the council because once that fa let's just assume the worst and assume that the phase out's going to happen and it's eventually, you know, maybe in 3 or 4 years it's going to go to zero. Just a base explanation of how that will impact these multifamily dwellings because we should be concerned about it and we should be getting ahead of it rather than, you know, rather than behind it. And I would also say, and I know that Mayor Duncan continues to hear me talk about this, um, you know, we need to be building coalitions because what I've been hearing from the legislature is that in my opinion more and more they are wanting to dictate what happens in the cities, especially the larger cities, when everything that I can see is they don't even have a really good understanding of what the multiplicity

of challenges are in these larger cities. So again, I keep talking about coalition building, coalition building, coalition building. So along with our lobbyists and the lobbyists from other municipalities, so together that we can go and really try to sell this real story that's happening in our city. And and so I thank you, Trey, for bringing this forward. I'm sure you have some of the same concerns, but I think at this point we really need to get ahead of it if if this is something that may be phased out in the next three years. Thank you, Mayor. Council member Hiller,

just wanted to draw you back to your last slide and have you chat a little bit further about the plans for Van Beern.

I'm so sorry. Thank you. Yes. Um, so with Van Beurren, um, what we have done, uh, since the last time we spoke is we, uh, worked with Stantech to submit a Brownsfield ground application to the EPA, uh, to provide funding to mediate the building, but due to the condition of it and the fire that happened, mediate it means basically tearing it down and bringing back in dirt to make it shovel ready. Um, we should hear back on that funding here soon. Um, if that is awarded, then that would give us the money to take down the building. Um and then we have uh submitted a tax credit application to KHRC. Our preliminary application went in in February and uh we were invited to submit a full application and so we will get that submitted and we would find out if we get allocated that uh the end of u well towards the end of this year. They don't have a hard date of their announcement but um and so when we are awarded that then that would give us funding to build uh 20 new homes at that site.

Thank you. Yep. Thank you. Thank you. Any other comments or questions for Mr. George? Doesn't look like it. Thank you very much. Thank you. Appreciate y'all. Have a great night. Thank you for being here. All right. Before we move on, Council Member Ortiz says she's online. Okay. So, she wants to make sure we know she's here and two, but she's not sure we heard her. She was on that whole time.

Okay. So, do you want to unmute yourself, Council Member Ortiz, to make sure we can hear you? It says you're on mute. We do not hear you. So, we'll work on that as we move on, but you might need to reboot or something. We see you. It says you're not muted. We just don't hear you. Although, you're not talking right now. Okay. You might have to reboot your computer. We'll go from there. She threw me some signs. They looked okay, though. All right. With that, we will move on to the consent agenda.

Um items 3A and B are resolutions introduced by the public infrastructure committee recommending approval of project number 84 1099 phase 6 for street improvements to the area bounded by 7th Street, Cambridge Avenue, 8th Avenue, and Orleans Street. And B is recommending approval of project number 841099 phase 7 for street improvements to Southwest Oakley Avenue from 8th Avenue to Front Street. Items C, D, and E are resolutions introduced by the public infrastructure committee amending the 2026 to 2035 CIP and the 2026 2028 CIB to increase the budget for project number 241085 for the 2026 public rightway accessibility guidelines ramp program. D is to add project number 71072 for Southeast 21st bridge um repair over Butcher Creek BNSF and providing final approval for the project. E is to add project number 701071 for the Kansas Avenue bridge repairs and providing final approval for the project. F are minutes of the regular meeting of March 3, 2026. And there's one serial malt beverage on premise license application for Super Mart Elito located at 3000 Northwest Topeka Boulevard. And staff is recommending approval.

All right. I have a motion to approve from Council Member Kell. Do I have a second? I have a second from Council Member Bradberry. With that, I'll ask the clerk to take a vote. Council member Ortiz. Yeah. Is she online? She said she said the thumbs up. So, council member Ortiz says a yes. And then council member Valdiviaqua. Yes. Okay. And hope's out of the room. All right. Okay. We have nine. Yes. Um the motion carries.

Okay. With that, we will move on to action items. We'll start with action item 4A. City clerk A is a public hearing regarding a petition by AIM Strategies LLC and Dream Big Partnership LLC to vacate a public sanitary sewer line easement on property located at 1801 Southwest Waker Road and an ordinance introduced by city manager Dr. Robert Perez relating to the vacation of public sanitary sewer line easement line at 1801 Southwest Waker Road, City of Topeka, Shauny County, Kansas. Deputy City Manager, Mayor Dan Warner, planning director will handle items 4 A, B, and C.

All right. All yours, Dan.

Mayor, governing body, good to see everybody again. Uh so this first application is very similar to the next one, but we'll deal with them separately. So this first one deals with uh the vacation of a public sewer line easement at 1801 Southwest Waker uh the mall. Um at their expense, the developer will relocate that existing water line or sewer line, I'm sorry, around a new building addition on the west side of the mall. Um so again um the whole point here is to um allow a building addition on the mall so that sewer line needs to be moved. Um no object objections were expressed by reviewing agencies. Staff recommends the governing body hold a public hearing and approve the proposed vacation.

All right. So this item does require a public hearing. So does 4B. So I will go ahead here in a minute and open up that public hearing before we have discussion and questions. And so, um, with that, at this time, I will open the public hearing and ask if there is anyone present who would like to speak on this matter. Is there anyone present who would like to speak on this matter? All right, last chance. Anyone present who would like to speak on this matter? If not, and apparently there is not, which is fine, I will now close this public hearing. With that, I will open up to questions and comments from the governing body. I see none. So, if someone wanted to make a motion, I'm sure we could take that also. All right. I have a motion to approve from Council Member Banks, a second from Council Member Miller. Any other comments? All right. With that, I'll ask clerk to open the vote.

All right. Council member Valdivia Akala. Yes. and Ortiz. She gave a thumbs up. She has a floating thumbs up there. Okay. All right. We have 10. Yes. The motion carries.

All right. We will move on to action item 4B. City clerk. B is a public hearing regarding a petition by Aim Strategies LLC and Dream Big Partnership LLC to vacate a public waterline easement on property located at 1801 Southwest Wanomaker Road and an ordinance introduced by city manager Dr. Robert Perez relating to the vacation of a public waterline easement line at 1801 Southwest Waker Road, City of Topeka Shauny County, Kansas. Uh Dan, go ahead. Uh so similar circumstance to the previous case except this is dealing with a public water line. So again uh the developer is going to relocate that existing water line around a new building addition on the west side of the mall. Uh no objections were expressed by reviewing agencies. Staff recommends the governing body hold a public hearing and approve the proposed vacation.

All right. So this item also requires a public hearing. So before we have any conversation or comments at this time, I will open the public hearing and ask if there was anyone present who would like to speak on this matter. Is there anyone present who would like to speak on this action item? One more time. Is there anyone present who would like to speak on this matter? Does not appear so. So with that, this public hearing is now closed and we'll open it up to any questions or comments from the governing body. I do not see any. So that means a motion would be in order. I have a motion to approve from Council Member Kell and a second from Deputy Mayor Hoer. Any other comments or questions? All right, city clerk, take a vote.

Council member Valdivia, yes. And Ortiz. Okay. And council member Kell. All right. We have 10. Yes. The motion carries. All right. We will move on to action item 4 C. City clerk.

C is an ordinance introduced by city manager Dr. Robert Perez amending the district map referred to and made a part of the zoning ordinances by section 1850 of the Topeka Municipal Code by providing for certain changes in zoning on a 1.36 acre property located along the west side of Southwest Yish Road approximately 500 ft north of the northwest intersection of Southwest Years Road and Southwest 21st Street from PUD planned unit development district C2 commercial uses to M2 multiple family dwelling district. All right, Dan.

Thank you, mayor. Uh, so the next next case here is a zoning case. Uh, so the applicant wishes to reszone the subject property, which is uh just west of 21st from PUB with C2 commercial uses to M2 multiple family. Uh, so the overall property is 6 acres. Uh, the resoning is approximately 1.4. So that's what we're dealing with tonight. The remainder of the property is already zoned M2. So, the the reasonzoning is going to match the rest of the property. Uh, the proposed use is 18 duplexes. Uh, the applicant held a neighborhood information meeting and um answered questions at that meeting. Uh, the planning commission held a public hearing on this item in February and recommended approval. Staff recommends approval as well. Be happy to try to answer any questions.

Questions or comments for Dan? Deputy Mayor Hoer. Dan, I believe this is in my district, but I wasn't notified about it. Is there any kind of a plan or will they have to come back with a layout of how they're going to do this? Cuz I noticed the people that did go to the meeting were concerned about traffic. So, I'm curious, do we have any idea of what we're going to have for exits and entrances into the property? So, they will have to come back with a site plan application and that and at that time um we'll review a traffic study. Uh I believe we have the traffic study already. I'm not positive where the entrances are going to be at this point. Traffic study hasn't been approved anyway. Um so the process really is to come back with a site plan and at that point we'll review landscaping, buffer yards, traffic, you know, everything else associated with a with a development. Um I will note that um they are pursuing affordable h low-income housing tax credits. So uh that process would still need to play out. Um and if they're awarded then we will see the site plan and and that kind of stuff.

Okay. Cuz I know I agree with them. It is kind of a speedway on yours and I won't admit to what speed I go down that street, but it is a problem for people who are trying to get out of their driveways onto Waker. I've seen that happen several times. So, I just want to make sure that that's taken into consideration. Okay. I'll make note of that.

Thank you. I think to the deputy mayor's point, I used to say this as a council person, and I'll back up my council as the mayor now, is to all you developers, builders out there, if you're doing a project, find out who the city council person is and reach out to them and let them ask these questions and give them a chance and let them know what the project is so they can have a little more information and be able to ask some of these questions earlier on as we go through it and help the citizens out there who live there. So, I'll put that plug in for all you folks building. We love you. We want you here. we want you to develop, but reach out to your council person and find out who that is when you're doing these projects. Council member Bradberry,

thank you. I just had a question on the site plan that was submitted. Um the I believe the presentation mentioned it was 18 duplexes, but the site plan looked like it contained uh duplexes and quads. Could you clarify that for me or is it subject to change? So, we didn't have a the zoning doesn't require nothing about the zoning approves how it's going to be laid out or how many units. The the overall idea was 18 duplexes. Um when it was submitted, uh you are going to have another item that follows this assuming things go well here that's going to explain the RHID and some more details about the project um on that side of it. But um yeah, the I believe it's going to be duplexes.

So we can expect the site plan to change then. So we'll get a site plan if the zoning gets approved. They will submit an official site plan that will take into consideration everything else that we need for setbacks and traffic and and all that. So, okay. I suspect we'll get a, you know, I suspect we'll get 18 duplexes, but it is subject to change depending on the award they get or the incentives or whatever else. Okay. Thank you. TPC manager.

Thank you. And again, there's two different processes going here. One is the the zoning, which is the condition precedent to be able to move on. Just to clarify, the site plan will be submitted to the staff. It will not come back to the governing body, right?

But the governing body will have an opportunity through the RHID process that they're applying for to review the detailed RHID project plan. Tonight, we'll just be setting the public hearing for the first step of the RHID. after Commerce approves, then they will have to come back with a detailed plan laying out how they're going to develop it, what the ask is in terms of the RHID eligible expenses. So, we will get a lot more detail to be able to make informed decisions as we move through the process.

All right. Any other comments or questions? Uh I will say before we vote that this does require uh disclosure of any exparte communication. So prior to proceeding with the vote, each member of the governing body who has engaged in exparte communication with any individual either in favor of or against the matter being considered must state that the communication occurred and indicate that even in light of having engaged in the communication, they were able to fairly, objectively, and impartially consider the measure based only upon the evidence provided on the record. The record includes the planning commission minutes, the staff report and its attach attachments, the public comments made during the planning commission hearing, and similar relevant information related to the matter. So, if there's anybody who needs to disclose that, now is your chance. Otherwise, a motion would be in order if there's no more comments or questions for Dan or staff. I have a motion to approve from Deputy Mayor Hoer and a second from Council Member Bradberry. Any other comments or questions? All right, clerk, take a vote.

Okay. Council member of Aldia Aqua.

Council member. Yes. And Ortiz. Council. Oh,

okay. We have 10. Yes. The motion carries. All right. Thank you, Dan. We will move on to action item 4 D. City clerk. D is a resolution introduced by city manager Dr. Robert Perez making certain findings pursuit to the Kansas Reinvestment Housing Incentive District Act with regard to an application submitted by ATA Development LLC to establish an RHID and requesting that the Secretary of Commerce review the resolution and advise the governing body. Deputy City Manager.

Thank you, Mayor. Ecoovo Director Leah Bowling will take this item.

Good evening. Thank you. So tonight is a presentation on the first step of an RHID application process. This is in regards to the Yurish Center proposed project area. As you just heard the reasonzoning case. So ATA properties uh is proposing this district located at Southwest Urus Road north of 21st Street. And as you just heard uh the reasonzoning to M2 for the portion that was not classified as M2. The development runs north and south of Yurish Road on the west side. So, the proposed project, the initial application outlines 18 new twobedroom, two-b duplexes with single gar garage units, uh offering about 1,200 square ft of living space at $2,499 of rental monthly uh market rate. uh age in place housing units. So tonight, staff is requesting that you adopt the resolution on the agenda, which is the first step of establishing the district itself. Upon the governing body's approval of the resolution, staff have to send the application in the resolution to the Department of Commerce requesting their approval in ensuring that the district meets all of the statutes surrounding the RHID proposed development district. Upon KDOC's approval, we move to step

two of the RHID process, which was mentioned a few minutes ago. Um, there are several other steps that we must take. We will work with the developer for them to submit their housing development plan, also known as a project plan, that outlines all of the financial elements of the development project and all of the plans that go along with the actual construction. staff uh do a financial analysis to ensure it meets the B but four test followed by uh convening the RHID review committee or I'm sorry review team who then reviews the financial analysis and recommends moving forward with the proposed RHID application. We would then draft a development agreement and work through the terms and negotiation of that development agreement with the developer setting a public hearing then for the consideration of that development agreement and the governing body's approval of the project plan um as well as formally establishing the district along with state statute guidelines. So tonight we ask uh for the governing body to approve the resolution in front of you uh so that we can send the application to the department of commerce for their review and consideration. And with that I will stand for any questions.

Council member Hiller.

Thank you Mayor and thank you. Um, apologies that I didn't get these questions in advance, but um, when it says age in place, is there an expectation this would be a maintenance-free development if you know? And also, would the rent that is cited at $24.99 a month be would the final rent with the assistance of the incentive be less than that or is that the expected rent? with the application that we receive. That is the stated rent amount that they've proposed with their initial application. Once we have their their development plan and we can do that financial analysis, that development plan should accompany be accompanied with a full proforma that we can review and assess those market the market rate outcome of of the development.

Okay. And and the the first part of my question was it says agent place development. Is there an expectation it would be maintenancefree? I believe it is. I can verify and get back to you. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions or comments for Leia? Council member Miller. Thank you. Um $2,500 a month is wild. I know that's not you. I know that's not us saying that. Um but I just want to put that on the record so that they hear this. That's wild.

Looking for incentive for $2,500 a month. Now, I'll be living with somebody for the rest of my life if that's the case. Cuz I only got like $6 and2500 a month is a lot of money for anybody for a duplex. Nothing wrong with duplex. I think they're great. Um, and if it is a they do all the maintenance and they do all that, sure, that's that's worth probably a couple hundred bucks, but 2500 is wild. So, I just want to make sure I'm on the record saying that cuz I hope that they hear that. Thank you. All right. Any other comments or questions? Council member Kell,

can we get what you know, maybe a little bit more information when this comes back with what is the amenities are offered? you know, cuz if it's just maintenancefree and nothing else or are they offering um like other places uh like maybe like a Brewster or something like that where they have dining facilities and all that that are included. So this way we can understand if this is making more sense when you add all those things in versus hey we're going to mow your mow your last mow your grass take care of your snow and it's 2400 a month cuz as has been said before that is an extreme amount especially for people that at that point they're going to be on fixed incomes cuz most of them are going to be retirees and it's going to be social security and whatever they might have saved up in retirement but that is an extreme amount to try to be surviving. driving off of uh when you're uh not working for the most part.

Any other comments or questions? If not, we would take a motion. So, I will move to approve. We have a second. Second by council member Bradberry. There's no other comments or questions. I'll ask the clerk to take our vote. Council members Valdivia Aqua reluctantly. Yes. And Ortiz, she said. Okay. Okay. We have nine yes with council member Banks voting no. The motion carries.

All right. We will move on to action item 4E. City clerk here. E is renewal of a real estate lease agreement between the city of Topeka and the Kansas Military Board for the use of the National Guard Armory as a training facility for the Topeka Police Department.

Good afternoon, mayor, governing body, deputy city manager. I'm here requesting authorization to renew our lease which runs every 5 years with the National Guard Armory for our regional training facility located at 2722 Southwest Topeka Boulevard. I think most of you have been there. Some of you still have to come and pay a visit. Thanks. Um, historically we started uh in 2016 when we moved from the law enforcement center to the Nickel Armory and this will be our third request to uh renew our 5-year lease. the the long-term objective for this facility to act as a regional training center for this area and a training hub which we host uh classes of all sorts, excuse me, classes of all sorts and um uh people that want to hold training in a regional area. We we get inind uh payback such as extra seats and training classes that we wouldn't otherwise have to pay that we would otherwise have to pay for. Thank you. Uh for those of you that have been or um or haven't been actually the the training facility is located inside the armory in the secure area. Uh there are two large classrooms uh for hosting of training, bunch of storage, two locker room areas, uh a Milo center for scenario-based training, a training library, uh office space, and uh we also have access to the gymnasium. It's not in the PowerPoint, it's actually in the documents. I apologize for that. But if you're wondering the size, it's 6,938 ft of office space and 15,535 ft of joint use space such as the gymnasium and the workout areas that we use jointly with uh with the guard. The

ask for renewal this year will be 62,71340. The base rate of $4 per square foot did not change. uh they raised the cost for electricity for the year from $2.28 to $2.80. So I think it went up like 3600 and some change uh for this that they maintain the uh the rental pretty steady uh over the years. So that's what we're asking for any questions that I can entertain. Questions, comments from the governing body? Council member Miller,

thank you. Um, thank you um for the information. Um, can you tell us how often do we use that the the training center? Uhhuh. Well, it's joint use for the recruits academy and for inservice training, which we're doing both right now actually. So, we use that quite a bit. And then when we have space available, we'll invite training uh uh people that conduct training to conduct it here uh for regionally and then they'll respond in kind by giving us free seats. That's why we're able to Right. Yeah. Right. And I understand the use of I just wanted to how often it was being used. So if you're talking in in 30 days, are we in there, you know, two weeks at a time?

Well, in in the training center, the academy is there all the time. Okay. And then this coming spring, we're starting our inservice. We're going to get the entire department through uh through our inservice topics. One of them is deescalation training. So, we'll be in there um for the next 3 or 4 months. Uh pretty full, pretty pretty booked up class. So, awesome. Thank you. So, last time I was in there, the kitchen would be what I call nonfunctional. Has that improved and was there any discussions? I mean, is that our responsibility? You know, I'm talking basics. Refrigerator didn't work. the needed microwave. I mean,

right, the way the leases wereed, they, you know, certain structural repairs, they'll kind of like a landlord tenant kind of thing they'll do. Some of it is up to us. I I can't remember what the kitchen looks like at that point. I haven't wandered in there, but within the contract, though, they'll take care of the bigger issues. Sure. And I understand that. I just also know that that building's used a lot as we're doing that training. So not having some what I would call basic amenities that whether it's staff or trainees can just keep stuff in whether it's refrigerated or whether So it'd be nice if someone I can go in there and look I guess but if someone give me an update at some point and see what our status is of just making sure it's functional for everybody would be great. Yeah absolutely I'll do that

tomorrow. Any other comments or questions? All right. If not, I'll take a motion. I have a motion to approve from Deputy Mayor Hoer, a second from Council Member Kell. Any other comments? If not, clerk, take a vote, please. Council members Valdivia Aqua, yes. Ortiz, she sent a thumbs up. and kill. Okay, we have 10. Yes, the motion carries. Thank you, Chief.

With that, we will move on to action item 4F. City clerk. F is a resolution introduced by city manager Dr. Robert Perez setting a public hearing to consider the advisability of establishing a tax increment financing district for the Capitol City Town Homes property located north of Southeast 21st Street, east of Southeast Adam Street and west of Southeast Pennsylvania Avenue pursuant to KSA 12170 at seek. Deputy city manager.

Thank you, mayor. I'll take this item and the and the next item. Um, let me grab a little bit. You push the push the trigger in. Technology is great when it works. All right. Uh, Cap City Town Homes. This is the

Push the button. I got it. This is the redevelopment of the old Pioneer Adams town homes northeast corner of 21st and Adams. Um the yellow boundary shows the the boundaries of the proposed tiff district. This is the rehabilitation of 47 town home units in 11 buildings. Rehab expected to take 12 to 14 months. It'll be a rolling rehab. A grand total of 47 units. That would be nine market rate units and 38 affordable units. These would be restricted under the lura to a 60% area median income. the developer is is forming the TIFF to be able to meet the requirements for a 20-year uh neighborhood re revitalization program in lie of the standard 10-year, but the developer intends to forego TIFF to be able to take advantage of the NRP incentive. Uh the reason why he's doing this is to meet the underwriting requirements of the tax credit syndicator. um who uh is obviously very concerned about the very limited rental income of 47 units um over the course of the 15 years of the primary litec and then under KHRC's current rubric they would be requested to um agree to another 15-year um affordability period after that um the statutory The requirement is set forth in KSA 121770 that you have to fit within one of the statutory rubrics to be able to meet the requirement for redevelopment district. The developer has landed upon the blight framework and

has engaged a consultant who has already completed the the blight study. Um we also um under the 20-year NRP, there's a requirement that they meet the city's butt for test. uh we have done the financial analysis and it does meet the but for test. So we are well ahead of the game in terms of the information that we have provided. Um and again this request is to set the public hearing for the consideration of the tiff on April 21st, 2026. Um respectfully ask for your approval of the resolution and happily will answer any questions that you have.

All right. Any comments or questions for deputy city mayor? Council member Valdivia Alakala.

Actually, I'm a little bit confused right now, but I'll save the confusion until later. Tell me a mayor or a city manager, deputy city manager, who I would need to meet uh with to get a better understanding of the revitalization plan. Because initially when I saw this and initially when I start thinking about tips, I'm thinking about what we've been hearing from the public, I think specifically uh Miss Twello about set aides and how that those can be used in very creative ways instead of continuing to tax people or try to get something on the ballot to, you know, for half for mental health or housing for homelessness, etc. ETA. So bottom line is who do I need to meet to talk with about this because I just have basic questions of understanding.

Um, council member, I will reach out to the council assistants tomorrow and ask for them to set up a meeting for you and I and Miss Bowling and we will happily answer your questions. All right, that'll work. Thanks. Any other comments or questions for deputy city manager? Council member Hiller. Thank you. In my mind, these are new buildings. What year were were they built? Does anybody remember? 10 years ago. 10.

No. The the the original the original uh LITC has expired on these. Uh so this project I think dates back to

um four maybe. Um, so they the they have to wait. They have to go get past the original 15-year grant to be eligible for another trunch. Um, but we can we can find that out and I'll gladly uh send an email to all the governing body in terms of I just don't have that don't have the application at my fingertips to be able to tell you. Um actually give me one second because it is in the blight study uh when that was constructed. Um 2006 and 2007 were when these were constructed.

Yeah. I'm just again in my mind they're kind of new compared to a lot of the housing and so to have them deteriorated to the point where they need that major concern. It's concerning to me. I would like to see the history of the inspections on that property as the time went past. Just it's pretty young. Thank you,

Council Member Valdola. Thank you. Um Deputy uh City Manager Kley, could you please share the information that you're sharing with Councilwoman Hiller to the entire governing body? I'm also sure, Councilwoman Hiller, that's something we'd like to review on PHS. Thank you.

Um, if I could ask the council member, um, obviously the blight study is already included in the materials. Um, tell me what you mean by inspection history. One of the issues that's come up through councilwoman Vald Diviala and the changing our cultural property maintenance work is is that HUD is supposed to be doing annual inspections on HUD assisted property. So, um just wanting to double check what the inspection requirements were on that property, whether the inspections were done and whether Yes, ma'am. This was not a HUD property. This was uh low-inccome housing tax credits through KHRC. And is there a requirement for those? We can.

She's nodding. I I think there is. And so we just I thought Councilwoman Yeah. Mayor, can I speak?

Yes. My understanding is that there is or complaints or it may be and or complaints are supposed to be called in to KHRC if there's issues. I agree with you. I thought that exact same thing about the years. And I also think that we should work with inspe director Chardine to see how many code compliance calls have been coming in in the past 15 years. I know that our documentation was pretty hazy before Chardine and changing our culture of property maintenance, but still we need we need to look at this. Thank you, Mayor. Certainly, mayor. We will reach out to KHRC and we will reach out to our property maintenance code to see what uh level of inspection reports that we can get to share with the governing body.

Thank you, Council Member Bradberry. Um, when I was reading through this, I got a little confused about I mean, I understand they're requesting hearing from the TIF district, but it seems like the TIF district. It seems like the tiff district is being asked for in order to take advantage of a separate type of um incentive is did I I don't that that is 100% correct. Can you explain why something like that would happen?

Of course, ma'am. Yes. Um, so the underwriter for this project is looking at making sure that the income and expenses work out over the entire 15-year period of the of the initial LITC grant. So, the existing program under the neighborhood revitalization act would allow for a 10-year abatement on the increment. So the developer would still be responsible for paying the baseline property taxes. The increment in terms of the value increased valuation of that in taxes would be what is subject to the rebate. So the developer would pay him. He would be that amount would be rebated back. The 10-year doesn't meet the underwriters requirement. Hence the request by the developer to qualify for what we call the plus 20 or a 20-year neighborhood revitalization which requires that the property be in a tiff district. So, the developer's ask is to create the TIFF district so that it qualifies for the 20-year NRP. And the developer has been very clear that they do not intend to seek the TIFF, which would be up to 100% of the taxes to be able to to use those as to pay for redevelopment costs. Instead, they're saying, "We'll go ahead and agree to pay the baseline property taxes for that full 20 years with the request for the abatement of the incremental taxes under the plus 20 NRP program, which requires council approval. And it also requires that the project meet the butt four test." And so before we brought this in front of you, we had the developer provide us with the blight study to show

that it would indeed meet the statutory factors to create the tiff district. And we also asked them for the proforma to be able for us to do the financial analysis because we did not want to waste your time to have a public hearing setting a tiff district and asking for the NRP if it wasn't going to meet the butt for test. And so is this an unusual ask this type of incentive?

I've been around for a long time. This is the first time I've seen this. Do we have any kind of um information or analysis of the financial impact to the city as a result of I mean what we disclosed in the in the action item was that the property taxes currently are about $20,000. We do not know how much the we we know that the total project budget is 13 million. What we don't know is how much the county appraiser is going to value the reconstructed rehabilitated projects knowing that they will take into consideration the amount of the investment. But absolutely on commercial properties they take into consideration the amount of the rents. And again, the rents here are incredibly low when you're looking at requiring 60% AMI. And so we know that that will discount in terms of of the value that they ultimately need to land upon. So, um, I do not have a a crystal ball. I cannot tell you what the county appraiser is going to appraise the finished product at or what the what the tax value is going to be. What we do know and what has been clearly disclosed to you is the developer will be on the hook to pay the baseline taxes for that for that 20-year period. It would be the incremental amount that would be rebated back

and that and that's at 95% is that right or Yes ma'am. So 95% ma'am the city and county would share the other 5% as the administrative fee for administering the NRP. Thanks council member Kell. So just make sure clarity on this. If we're not losing anything by doing this it's just improving a a we're going to keep what we've been getting. Correct. Yes sir.

Okay. So we're not losing anything. So for me, improving affordable housing is a project like this where 80% of the units are for affordable housing at the 60% AMI. Um to me it's it's a it's a great thing that someone's wanting to to do that. My only concern is um while it's being a tiff district, are we able to go and inspect to make sure things are being upkept? because it's great that you're wanting to improve something, but if you're not going to upkeep it over that 20-year period, is it really worth a benefit long term for the city? Which I understand anything that, you know, affordable housing over that 20 years is incentive, but if they're just going to fix it up and then let it start falling apart again, what what's the long-term benefits besides just the housing? Because to me, it's that's where we run into a lot of problems with with our rental properties is the our landlords are not doing upkeep. They're doing the bare minimum to keep keep their their residences legal and beyond that they're not doing a lot. And and I'm not saying all we I'd say about 75% of our landlords are are are probably not following the best ability, but I know there are some great ones out there that take care of their properties. But I just want to see us invest something into this project and have it fall back apart again in 101 15 years. So is there any like clawback measures we can have on this?

We can certainly we can certainly explore that. Um, as council member Belvi Alkalid had indicated, if they are successful getting the LITC grant, then KHRC would require annual inspections. Um, and as we've already indicated, we will request any inspection reports that KHRC has as well as any um inspections that uh Mr. Shardine would have to provide that to you all. Thank you.

And and I'm not cutting off discussion. We have several council members with comments. Just remember the question before us tonight is whether to have a hearing on April 21st at which point we will then either be able to make a decision then or move it to a later date. So just council member Vald DeWalka. Well then I'm probably going to belabor this more mayor. So I have the questions in my mind but just let me just for clarif clarification for me 10 years they'll pay partial taxes and then they'll be rebated. Correct.

The the ask the ask is for the 20 year NRP. So during that 20 years, they will pay the base amount of tax that they're currently paying plus the additional amount that the county appraiser has and then they will be rebated back the amount over the base increment.

Okay. You know, I think that we I understand at least that I'm not an expert in this field. This goes all the way back to, you know, all this red, you know, all this new development, etc., etc. Um, I don't know for new council people, maybe they're really versed in it. I don't know if for us that have been on it for a while, uh, we're getting a little bit seasoned enough to know, wait a minute, all of this, uh, lingo I'm not understanding. So, in my opinion, staff's going to need to work harder. You administrative staff is going to have to work harder to help us understand at times, which is why setting up the special meeting with you. The other thing that I want to say with KHRC is I don't know specifically if they do. I think that they might do an inspection, but I do know that they're supposed to handle all complaints. The other thing I want to say about KHRC and I want to be very viferous in this from what we experienced with Timber League, they are lacking. They are lacking. So, I wouldn't put a whole bucket of confidence in KHRC and that is from people on the staff, the old city attorney, Charardine being in on the meeting, all of us and seeing what really went down behind closed doors when it came to Timberly Apartments. And we know that HUD dropped the ball, but KHRC major majorly dropped the ball. So, I don't think we should have a lot of warm fuzzies just because KHRC may be doing inspections. And if we want to get a handle on the abysmal state that so much of our multif family dwellings are in, we're going to have to understand what the terrain really looks like for those that are those organizations, agencies that are really

supposed to be doing due diligence and have not been. Thank you, Mayor. Council member McGee, just for a point of clarification, your NRP does not have a I understand the rebate. It does not have a stair step down on the rebate.

Um, it it depends. So, if it's in a historic, you get the 95 for 10 years. if it's just if it's not in um and I I'll apologize that I don't have it committed to memory but in other areas it would be for the first five and then it would stair step down. Okay. What this would be asking for is the special treatment of plus 20 for 95 for the full 20 years. Good. Thank you. So it it it depends. Some stair step, others don't. Okay.

Thank you. All right. Any other comments or questions? All right. Like I said, I will make a motion to approve. We have a second. Second from Council Member Kell. All right. I'll ask the clerk. Excuse me. Take a vote. Excuse me. Council member Valdivia Akla. Cautiously. Yes. and council member Ortiz. Not there.

Council member Ortiz see a thumbs up or thumbs down. Okay.

N thumbs up. Okay. Hold on here. All right, so we have 10. Yes, the motion carries.

All right, we'll move on to action item 4G. G is a public hearing to consider the advisability of creating a community improvement district for the Hotel Topeka property and an ordinance introduced by city manager Dr. Robert Perez establishing a community improvement district at 17th and Topeka Boulevard for the Hotel Topeka property and levying a CI sales tax of 2% within the CD. Deputy City Manager.

Thank you, mayor. Um, this is the third time that this item will have been in front of you. Uh, the first was in front of the TDC. The second was when we did the resolution setting the public hearing. And so tonight, we're actually having the public hearing. And the request is to pass an ordinance to establish a two cent on the hotel Topeka property. The CI boundaries are very intentional of the entire approximately 6 acres that encompass the in the hotel Topeka property. You said it's intentional because we wanted to capture that parking lot in the event that we were to charge for parking. In the event that we would have food trucks that would be there selling in the parking lot, they would be required to collect this additional 2 cent sales tax. The proposed scope in terms of discussions with the Endeavor Hotel Group include building envelope, mechanical, electrical, site improvements, roof, windows, ADA, um, as well as civil site improvements. Estimated project budget is approximately 6 million. This will be a pay as you go where the city will be reimbursing itself. The length of the CI is statutoily limited to 22 years. We reasonably anticipate that the revenue from the Hotel Topeka property, not including Maynor, would be approximately $3.2 million over this 22-year term. I want to just remind you that back in September, the governing body passed a target ordinance to increase the transient guest tax on the Hotel Topeka property to 8%. So all the other properties in the city of Topeka are limited to 7%. In addition, that charter

ordinance also um established the base year of 2025, which is approximately $122,000. That will go continue to be paid to visit Topeka and the city will get its 10% share of that. Any amount over that base 2025 year will be kept by the city of Topeka to reimburse itself for Hotel Topeka expenses, which to date are approximately $18 million, including the $5 million of interest on the bonds that were issued to cover the cost of the purchase price. Um, if you take those TGT projections out to 2062, that would net approximately 15.7 plus the additional 3.2, you're looking at 18.9. So, in in excess of the 18 million of expenses to date, including that future bond interest. Our recommendation is to go ahead and pass the ordinance establishing the two cent uh CID on this. As a reminder, the county passed a two cent on the entire expo campus less the hotel Topeka property. Uh and they anticipate, I believe it's 10 million of potential income from that over the 22-year CD. and they're using that re revenue to pay for the their uh portion of the mayor rehabilitation. And so with that, I'll respectfully ask that you pass the ordinance and happy to answer any questions that you would have.

All right. This item is a public hearing. So before we have comments or questions, I'm going to open the public hearing. So at this time, I open the public hearing and ask if there is anyone present who would like to speak to the matter. Your honor.

Hello, your honor. Last word, last week the word was pontificate. Today, deerzerism. This is the perfect case of deerzerism. A 2% U C. I'm for it. Let's do it. Let's approve it. But let's get some consistency. The poor guy up at California Crossing. Hey Avery, are you coming for me? No.

Double checking, man. You never know. Inside, man. The deersism here is is amazing. The um the 2% for the government. You got to start giving it to the people. the poor guy that builds the nicest grocery store in town. Bottom line, in an area that needs the nicest grocery store in town. And also the same guy, the same ger who has a high-end uh operation as good if not better than um HY. Hi is a great uh retailer. They're uh publicly owned or employee owned. But the deersism here, think about it here. You guys, you've got this whole government up here and you got to start taking care of us down here. You go to board meetings that uh set standards and policies that the public can we don't know about it. But you can't you're going to regret in the long run your decisions of having a state-run government. You'll regret it. Capitalism will eventually catch up with you. They talk about it in Kansas City. I got clients that laugh at me when they talk about coming here. You know, think about uh think about all the money the guy had to spend out of his own pocket. Thank God you guys redid his uh development agreement, you know, to bring in Chick-fil-A and Waterburger. But you got you can't give the poor guy you got to create an even playing field.

If it's good enough for you guys, it's good enough for the guy in California crossing. Start thinking about the little guy. You guys have got an unlim unlimited budget. Think about $5 million in interest to come out of your How come nobody gets fired over this deal? So, and everybody's patting everybody on the back. Hey, this is a good deal. This is a good deal. Are you kidding me? 5 million in interest to lose all the rest of the money. I won't take up much of your time, but it feels it's a it's a therapy to come down here and uh vent. What's really nice in my life is to peek is becoming a fleeting thought with everything else that I've got going in on in my life. When I first moved back here in 2000, it was because it was a good location to travel from. Dear sism, is there anyone else present who would like to speak to this matter? All right, last call. Is there anyone else who would like to speak to this matter? As it appears there is not. This public hearing is now closed. Council member Kell.

Um first I'd like to reiterate what I discussed last time when you talked about California Crossing. That is a lower income neighborhood over there and to say watch out for the little guys by adding more on to that as as the the the gentleman decides to leave every single time someone else wants to challenge him. What he want is he always looks for his best interest and not he always talks about the little guy. I'm looking at the little guy. Our low-income neighborhood over there doesn't need an additional pay-to-play tax for a developer. And for him to sit there and say, "Oh, that's a needed grocery store there. It's a great grocery store, but we already had several grocery stores right in those neighborhoods." So

the the issue is the hotel CIA.

Yes, I understand that. But I'm going to address what was brought up during that because I'm not I'm tired of us being under attack by people that are giving uneducated statements out there and attacking us. So this is my time to speak back. Now I did have notes on that for everyone to understand because I get plenty of emails about this. A C is a payto-play tax. It's for the hotel only. So, you're only going to pay this tax if you go to do something at the hotel and spend money there. Next, this is our this is one of the avenues of our reimbursement cuz everyone sit there and says, "Oh, you only sold the hotel for $100 or a million dollars." This is one of our avenues to recoup the money that we put into the hotel. The hotel is vital for the expo center. and after all that money that's put into the expo center to keep that going because if we lose that hotel we lose a lot of events at the expo center. So this to me is a no-brainer and it's not about what's good for us and what's good for someone else. This is is what's we're trying to do to recoup the cost that we put in on the taxpayer dollars to get back into the city's budget. And if anyone has any questions, ple please feel free to reach out to us. Um I'm sorry. I'm just upset about what was said at that last by the last speaker there. So

Deputy Mayor Hoer, I have I've read this, but I can't seem to find it. When would this go into effect? I'm assuming if we do this now, we're still in the first quarter. Would it be soon enough to start charging in the second quarter? Third quarter, July 1st. We're required required to give an entire quarter's notice. So that's why we're trying to get in in March so that we have the mic.

My apologies. Um, Kador requires that we provide an entire quarter notice before they would implement it. So, we're trying to get this in in March so that if we get it to them by March 31st, we will meet the deadline so that they will be able to start collecting this tax on July 1st. And then we'd actually see income. And this might be a finance question, but it's generally lagging about two months, I believe. Does that sound about right? That's my my understanding. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Thank you.

All right. Any other questions or comments? If not, we have a motion to approve from Council Member Kell and a second from myself. There's no other comments. We'll ask the clerk to take role. Take a vote, I guess, not roll. Council member Valdivia Akala. No.

Council member Ortiz. All right, we have eight yes with council members Baldivia, Aqua and Banks voting no, the motion carries. All right, with that, unless I am mistaken, there's nothing else on this evening's agenda. Double Always double check.

So, we will move to public comment. First up is Rodney Lavell. Rodney Lavell, are you here? All right, I'll circle back just in case I should. Next up, I have Danielle Twello. Good evening. Um, I wanted to, um, come back around because it's been a while, um, since I brought up the Kora request. um from a very long time ago um that I placed um for uh information regarding Kansas top soil and um dealings within our water department. And mind you, I spent $400 uh for records that are incomplete um and also are publicly available in many other cities. They just put this information on their city's website. um it's just transparent already. Um and I paid $400 for them. So that's a little rough um considering that what I received was 200ish PDF documents. Um the second set of PDF documents were just duplicates. um they were already included in the first set of documents that are also incomplete from what is required to be placed within um this set of information for a contract bid. Um so you know it was stated it was going to take two whole days to just provide the contracts, the bids, um this the invoices and payments uh for one company. it was going to take 16 hours. We paused the emails um

because that seemed a little tricky for for um requesting. So, I'm really concerned about the inefficiency of our recordkeeping or our ability to even just pull basic documents about projects and what is happening. As you can tell, even from printing out, this was covered in coffee um and likely was looked like it crumbled up on someone's floor of their truck um before I received it. Um so, we got to do better, right? Um, but it clearly was also just a scramble to get me the information and and I feel like maybe things were just written in because while um the rest of the documents are are still being um audited and reviewed um I went ahead and just pulled three to present to you just randomly. Um and consistently in all three sets of these documents um nothing made sense. So we would have printed worksheets that had printed dates um on them such as um this documentation coming from 8:30 of 21. It was preprinted, yet someone wrote in 82725 and assigned that work to Kansas Top Soil um for 827 of 25 giving it a high priority of an emergency even though originally was 2 years earlier. They completed it that day, sent the invoice that day and were paid very quickly. That's the case with all of them that I've pulled just as random sampling. Um, but I also want to state that the um comparison that I was utilizing last time I was up here was a website where the city was maintaining a database of these projects and you could pull up and

see where these these happened. It's no longer available on the city website. It's missing. the link is gone. But, you know, luckily I went ahead and just screenshot and you know, saved it so I would have it at a later date in case that happened as I anticipated. Um, and again, the dates are years or days off and none of them match up to the documents that were provided by the city. the own city's documents that were provided have different dates on each and every one with them being completed and paid for the very same day. So I I will I will provide my kora to all of you if you would like to to read it so you don't have to do it yourself. Um and I just want to state that if we're investigating different complaints that we need a financial investigation as well.

All right. Next up I have Mr. Lone Graze. Sure, why not? Good evening, city council. and mayor. The top sheet is well actually uh it was a part of the copies that I had provided last month on the 10th. So that was four weeks ago and I'm not sure on the second sheet Shaunie County if I had provided that. I had received this information from request by the Kansas Department of Labor. The next sheet uh two sheets by the numbers to pick up by the numbers. These are a copy of the of what the JTO receives on economic development. Sort of I guess a a snapshot of where the economics of the city is every quarter in the end of the year. The following several pages is other documents that I'd received from uh the Department of Labor over the years because these are sort of numbers that I like to look into. And the last sheet on the bottom is basically just proof that, you know,

I'm not new to coming and speaking to this issue. So, but I'm going to go back to the front sheet because it's the one that's important to me. It's uh the numbers that I highlighted in red, which I just had put a red dot on when I gave them to you on the 10th. I think that anyone looking at them can see that there's a problem with those numbers. I would think that if people looked at those documents when I passed them out on the 10th that somebody would say, "Whoa, is this the right number? We need to talk about this. What is there uh a solution to this?" Over the years, and the reason I provided the copies of what you received for your JO meeting is that they have their unemployment rates there. These are the only numbers that you get during the quarter. It's been like that for all the years. But what if I was to slide up these other numbers that are accurate next to it? Would that change the conversation, the discussion, the priorities, the directives that you would give your contractors to find solutions to something that is an apparent problem. You know, 3.40 and 4.20, you know, those aren't bad considering state and a national reflection. I mean, it's good enough to whereas you just get this unemployment 3.40 40. It's not too bad. Have your presentations, you know, give a million plus to a couple million couple companies that make multi-million dollars. Stop the meeting, go take a picture, come back, do it again. And by the time that those decisions are had, you can tell that a lot of discussions are had, meetings are had, budgets are shared, numbers are shared by the time you get information to vote on something. And so for the life of me when I bring up information that seems should be concerned about concerning to people who are elected in this community

that someone would say you know these numbers are bad and what do we need to do about it? Unemploy employment numbers and unemployment rates is economic development. This really isn't about money from the city. It's not really about money from the sales tax. It really is about leadership in some type of direction that would be given. If the Topeka unemployment population in large was 12% 14% I think that the powers that be would actually be talking about this and holding people to have some meetings and doing something about it. So these numbers just don't sit well with me and I would hate to think that the numbers in the back shows that these are not an anomaly. This is sort of the norm. You know, I don't know what to say about these numbers here. If the city was 12%, maybe you would do be doing something. But if this is an expendable population, then I guess you don't have to do anything at all. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Grace.

Next up, I have Mr. Henry Mccclure, your honor. Thank you for the grace of 12 minutes. You're a good man. I remember when I'm walking out of here last week, I remembered what I was pontificating I wanted to talk about. There was quite a presentation done by MTAA. But you know, one thing they forgot to uh talk about is their lawsuit. Do you know that their bank account got garnished between last week and today to pay that judgment? I think it's about 1.8 million. Imagine a government agency here. And also the deerism is perfect in that with the um the old chamber guy out there now, the magician, you know, the attorney from Payless. He's part of the whole thing. But nobody's talking about uh judgment to the MTA and the accountability. You know, they're they're all uh Project Great Guns. You know, we're we're the best agency known to man with no flight service. But let's think about the truth and transparency. You know, I I've got a real client that wants to bring 150 jobs here. I don't have to have the rail head. We want a 125,000t building with 35 ceilings. 35 ft ceilings. Well, if there didn't want

one, well, we can build we could build one. We're actually a building panel company. We could build our own building, but you haven't at least offered us free land. Nobody's made an offer. The way site selection works, and I've done this in my life, is yes, we've got we're we're out looking for the best opportunities in the city of Topek, at least give us a bid. Give me a bid to take to my people. But, um, Lone's presentation was pretty interesting. You know, one thing that's interesting about him, he all he had to do was sue in the very beginning the sales tax and he could have got that set aside the 10% in the beginning and we had people that were going to offer to back him, but that's okay. Here we are today. I I appreciate your time. I do. Um, but these are things that we got to think about. One thing that you've really got to think about when you crunch the budget, you got to start looking at GoP. That's all they are is an expense to you. The salaries you pay for them, the salaries you pay the NGO, it's unnecessary. You got somebody qualified back here to do it. She can do it. She can do the job. Give her a country club membership, too. She can keep up with Molly. The chickens, they're going to come home to roost. And it's really it's it's really sad. Somebody asked me today, "What are you going to talk about at city council?" I said, "I'm going to talk about trying to make it to where you want to stay in the city." Was a young lady serving me some

coffee. But we can do things different and you can do it today. But I can't wait to see this budget process. Thank you. All right. I'm going circle back one more time to make sure that Mr. Rodney Lavell you ever show up. All right. Well, with that, we will move on to announcements. City clerk

for the March 17th agenda. We'll have two presentations. The first on the city of Topeka 2025 um fourth quarter financial report and the second will be on effective utilities management. On the consent agenda, we have one professional services contract with SBV engineering for design services for dreams 2 and three projects. Action items include a resolution for a zoning or a conditional use permit at 1200 Southwest Taylor Street. The second item is discussion with possible action of Topeka Dreams program for 2027 proposed modifications. And we'll have one discussion on utility bill real estate lean ordinance, deputy city manager.

Nothing this evening. Thank you, mayor. Council member Cal.

All right. Um so um we have two regular speakers that um to me have brought up some very valid points recently that we need to look at as a council. Uh Mr. Gray and Miss Twimlow have brought up uh about how what we're putting into our TIFF RHID C projects and what are the short short-term and long-term benefits to the city and our citizens. uh they brought up very valid points about uh local um employment to get get the project started. Um local employment for once the project's up and running. Uh so I think we need to really look at what those uh those two have been saying and look at how we can as a council work on some of these projects to uh especially when we're where they're voting members on the when it comes to getting some of these uh benefits and some of these um avenues to get development going but to see how we can benefit the city short and long term on these projects. And uh those are two people I'm definitely going to be sitting down with here shortly and and figuring out what's the best way we can go about this and and then bringing in the city manager and other other council members on this because uh to me it's it's a no-brainer. I mean if we we shouldn't be giving something to somebody that's going to go out and hire a crew from from Kansas City to come in here or um turn around and just hire people from from another area and bring them all in. We need to be looking at our short and long-term benefits to the city and our citizens. Thank you.

All right, Council Member Miller. Nothing, Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Bradberry. I have something. Um, I just wanted to throw out there that TAC has uh Alice Cooper coming and if you don't have your tickets, go get them. they still have lots left. It's going to be an exciting show. I also want to say I agree with you, Brett. Um I think that we do need to um start figuring out ways how to incorporate some of those ideas that Lzone and um Danielle has brought forth to the council.

Council member McGee.

Uh couple items. one I I would like to explore a little more and look into the way the NRP program is set up uh specifically the rebates and stairst step look at the policy on stairstepping the rebates on those that something I've worked on for 30 years and usually see a lot of bigger there's more steps in Uh the other thing I would mention is uh I'm going to start making myself available uh to meet with uh residents in my district uh out at the Fairlon Plaza the first Saturday of each month 9:00 to noon uh and then the fourth Tuesday 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.

Wow. Thank you. Only someone else would have done that. Deputy Mayor Hoer, nothing tonight. Council member Hiller, nothing. Thank you. Council member Vald Diviala.

Thank you, Mayor. Um, I am a little bit behind on doing any announcements, so I have about four or five, so bear with me. Um, you know, I' I've been seeing the paper in the news and have deep concerns about the number of uh uh fires that we've been having. uh the injuries uh the loss of life, the numbers of condemn condemnations uh that we you know are having in multifamily dwellings. I think some brutal lessons were learned with Timberly and I know the changing our culture property maintenance is is working hard but um you know there's just so many things that we need to continue to relook at. One thing that I'm going to be focusing on really, really hard, which is a drop in the bucket, but a drop in the bucket is better than none, is the rental registry. I understand that there may have been some push back from some landlords, etc., but I am so beyond that at this point because if they know that they're a good landlord, then they don't have anything to worry about. I am deeply concerned of the number of bad landlords. So, I look forward and I hope that folks will consider consider uh tuning in to the public health and safety meeting uh tomorrow. And I forgot what time it is. Councilwoman Hiller, can you tell me what time it is real quick?

1 to 2:30.

1 to 2:30. So, thank you. Um, also I wanted to say that while I was gone, I did uh review the police uh videos uh that were released uh from um the city from the police department. And you know, just in a nutshell, I I need to say that they were absolutely brutal. They were beyond brutal. It they were both very hard to watch. Uh I'm not saying that, you know, there wasn't any kind of issues that were happening on either one, but especially uh the one with Christopher, there should have been more mental health services provided. And it felt to me honestly very similar to the Lowry case in that there was a sense of him feeling s or appearing to me to be surrounded and coralled. uh my deepest condolences to the family because families because we know none of this can be undone. I have a small glimmer of hope in that as I hear the chief talk about deescalation. I hope that deescalation can come become the norm rather than the exception because both of these in my opinion show a brutal amount of overreach and cruelty and brutality. Uh, and so, uh, the other thing I wanted to talk about is the whistleblowing. Uh, I made a comment in the paper that I was very heartened to see that Mayor Duncan was putting this into effect. Uh, I was still gone when all of this happened. I have asked him uh to still be a part of this committee because people in the community have been asking me, they've been texting me, emailing me since uh and there's no ego on this. This is just fact that it was over two years ago that all of this

started coming to me. So, Mayor Duncan explained that there wasn't a whole lot happening with the committee right now, but I do appreciate Mayor Duncan you stating that if more things came uh to light uh if more needs were had by the committee that I would be a part of that uh because I think it's important. And also, I just want to say uh it I'm very glad to be back. Um to all those people out there with heart issues, prayers for you. For all of those out there who believe that you may have heart issues, please get checked. And I want to say a huge thank you to the cardiac rehab and the cardiac nurses and doctors at Stormmont Veil Hospital. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you. Council member Ortiz indicated she had nothing. Um, Council Member Banks.

Thank you, Mayor. Uh, first for me, I'd like to just say how, uh, happy I am to see Councilwoman back and hearing her voice. Uh, not only do I consider her a colleague, but a friend. And for a while, it was pretty tough trekking, not knowing how she was doing. and to see you today uh kind of lifts my spirits. So, I just wanted to say that. Also, I wanted to shout out to council member Miller for having a very, very successful basketball coaching season at Topeka High this year. It was fun to watch him on the court and then sit by here. Totally different guy, but you'd have to be there to see it, but it's kind of funny. Um, the other thing on a uh more serious note is that I'm looking at this corer request fee. I just can't see a $400 fee for a core request. I don't know what we can do about it even if it's worth discussing uh at this level. But I just cannot see that. I know that in many cases these things are $25 or free. $400 seems uh pretty preposterous to me. So, thank you, Mr. Mayor, before I start crying and carrying on. So, thank you,

Council Member Miller. Thank you, Mayor. I I don't mean to to to extend this anymore. I just want to say thank you, David. Um, it's not a different person that you see. It's a another side of me. Um, it depends on who's coming at me from which angle uh of what you get from me. Um, and when we're competing out there within the lines, um, I 100% advocate for my kids and, um, thanks to coach Robbie Sanders, Cory Pal, and Darius Singleary, uh, who also were on the coaching staff. And I appreciate you and good luck to our Topeka High girls as they did make state and they are playing right now. Yeah.

Thank you.

All right. All right. Well, I also want to welcome back Council Member Alivial Alkala. Glad to have you back. Um, while we're on the basketball note, few things. The Washurn men and women both won the MIAA championship. It's the first time a school a single school has won them both since 2012. And that was Washurn that did it at that time, too. So, congratulations to them. The men play Saturday 5:30 here at home. There are still some tickets left last I looked. So, get on there and go go cheer them on in the NCAA tournament in Division 2. And then the women play this Friday night in Minnesota. So we'll we'll be cheering them on from afar. And to the point about the local, we've kind of had a basketball renaissance, I guess, or we've been very spoiled because we had Topeka West boys, the Seaman boys, the Shauny Heights boys, the Topeka High girls, and the Hayden girls all won their substate tournaments from the city. So that's a pretty good run uh for for city teams to do that. To council members Miller's point, the Topek High girls are playing right now. So hopefully it's going well. No, it's not going well. Well, they got there. God bless them.

Um, I I did want to say that there was a change this this past week and and we appreciate that it has a home as the one-stop shop that we've worked very hard to make sure continues to exist and provide resources for the community. Had to move over to the children's palace. But I want to thank the Rapa Rescue Mission for taking that on right now. um because it's one more thing they're adding and had they not I'm not sure where it would be at this time. So, I just wanted to thank them for for that step and and there's still some work to do there, but thank you for finding a home for for our one-stop shop. Last thing I want to say is um over the past several weeks, I have received questions about the internal review that I announced um from the mayor's office and what the scope of that effort entails. So, I want to provide a brief update. The review is underway. It will take multiple months to complete. While the work is being conducted directly out of the mayor's office through an independent third party and without involvement from city staff, I will keep this governing body informed and provide updates at appropriate times as the review progresses. It's also important to emphasize that this review is focused on examining our internal processes to ensure they are operating in a manner that is fair, consistent, and in the best interest of our employees. This effort is about evaluating how our systems and procedures function. One of the things I've heard and I want all employees of the city to understand is you should not be concerned that this review is going to reopen prior disciplinary matters. Doing so would not be appropriate from a moral, ethical or legal standpoint and that is not the purpose of this work. This goal the goal of this is not to take the goal is not to take cases in which employees were previously reviewed or absolved and attempt to reach a different outcome. Rather, the focus is on understanding whether our processes themselves are working as intended and how employees may have been impacted by those processes. When employees bring forward concerns, I want them to know those concerns are taken seriously. We have many dedicated and talented employees who care deeply about the work they do

for our community. I'm appreciative of them all and every day will work to help the citizens of Topeka understand the critical role they play in improving the lives of everyone. I want to ensure our internal processes support them, operate as intended, and reflect the standards of professionalism and accountability that I and our organization expects. If improvements are needed, we will take the necessary step to make those corrections. With that, we have no executive session. Correct. Woohoo. So, this meeting is adjourned.