City Council - Regular Meeting

All right. Good evening. Welcome to the March 17, 2026 governing body meeting. I will now call this meeting to order. If you would please pay attention to Council Member Kell, who has this evening's invocation. Please stand if you are able.

All right. Tonight, um, Mike Sabbert will be given an invitation. Mike is a former executive director of the Topeka Youth for Christ. Mike now works as an adviser for Washurn Institute of Technology. Mike is also one of the elders at the Grace Bible Church, an evangelical free church. As a side note, Mike is an avid hockey fan going back to his days uh of the Omaha Knights in Omaha, Nebraska. Please welcome Mike Sers.

Thank you for the honor to lead you in prayer. Um because it is a holiday, I want to just share a couple of paragraphs. Kind of a Paul Harvey type thing. Some of you are too young to know who Paul Harvey is, but deal with it. Um we'll go with that. Uh Pat St. Patrick wasn't even Irish. He was actually kidnapped as a teenager and taken to Ireland as a slave. But instead of becoming bitter, he turned to uh he turned to Christ. And after escaping, God called him back to Ireland to bring the gospel to a pagan nation. He spent his life preaching, planting churches, and leading thousands to Christ. That's what St. Patrick's Day is really about, not luck, God's amazing grace, and the power of the gospel to transform lives. Just wanted to share that with you because it is a holiday and sometimes we forget what the the root of some of those things are. But let me lead you in prayer and again, thank you for the opportunity to be here. Lord Jesus, I thank you for these men and women. I thank you for the fact that they are willing to serve this community. I pray tonight for wisdom for them as they talk about different issues, as they discuss and vote on different issues. I pray that they would go to you for the wisdom that they need on each and every issue that's talked about. Father, as they have expressed concern about a huge debt for this community, I pray that you would give them wisdom on how to uh prioritize the things that need to be done and the things that can wait. Give them discernment. Help them to be a body of unity. Help them to be a body that hears from their constituents at the same time. Father, also we pray for our city. We pray for protection for those who serve us and the police department, the sheriff's department. Father, we thank you for those s soldiers that we have that are serving overseas, especially the 190th. We pray for their protection as well. Father, again we thank you uh for the opportunity to serve in the community and we pray your blessing on each and every one of these people on the council in Jesus name. Amen.

Amen.

I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. All right, the clerk would take role. Mayor Duncan here. Council members Hiller here. Valdivia Aqua here. Ortiz here. Banks here. Cal

here. Miller Bradberry here. McGee here. And Hoffer. Oh gosh. Oh no. Sorry. One moment here. I apologize. Just erased all my hard work here. Okay. All right. We have eight present with um council members Miller and Poper um absent. Oh, hi. All right, with that, we have two presentations this evening. So, I will turn it over to the city manager.

Um, this first item, Josh Mcnar, our budget and finance deputy director, will lead us to this discussion. Thank you, Commander. Good evening, President B. Um, tonight we're just going over the preliminary 2025 um, financial results. There was a memo.

Thanks, sir. There was a memo also attached in the packet that was sent out that goes in a little bit more detail, but tonight we're just going to hit the highlights. Um, so starting off with the general fund revenue. Obviously, like we've talked about before, the three major revenue sources for the city and general fund is sales tax, property tax, and franchise fees. The good news is is a lot of those came in over what we budgeted for, meaning that we collected more than what what we thought. So part of the reason for that was sales tax in came out a percent higher than we originally intended when we passed the budget back in September of 24 for the 25 budget. Our delinquent tax collections were a little bit higher this time around. And then franchise fees are determined off net profits for our um franchise utilities such as Kansas Gas, Evergy, Crocs Communication Due to that cold spell we had all the way back about 13 months ago. The first quarter for that was a little bit higher since there was higher usage. So we saw a spike in the collections, but then they eventually stabilized throughout the year. So that was part of the reason there was kind of a little bubble in the first quarter. Um and then finally, we had some one-time transfers into the fund just with some project ledger cleanup um and then just capitalizing interest rather than um in the internal or in in the uh risk funds, we place that into the general fund instead of um into the risk funds because that's how those are funded anyway. So to get as much revenue as possible, we wanted to put um the interest in the general fund. Now going on the expense side, there really wasn't anything major that we we expensed that was not anything unexpected. Um the only thing I want us to keep in mind is the reason that we came in under budget was we forgoed many transfers to other employment funds. So one in particular was the retirement reserve fund. So how that fund is funded is mainly where an employee is paid out of which majority of our employees are paid out of the general fund is there's a search charge to their cost out of the general fund

that gets transferred in that retirement reserve fund. We forgo those transfers in 2025 and we will continue to do so in the future because there's a huge there's a large built-up fund balance in that fund. So, we wanted to take as much heat off the general fund because we know, as we'll get on our next slide, that expenses are exceeding revenues, which is okay in the short term. Um, but we wanted to do anything we could to take um expenses out of the general fund when we didn't necessarily need to do so. And so, how does this tighten it all together? How does this play out? So, our end of year fund balance at the end of 2024 was roughly 37 million. And expenses over revenue, we spent down about $4 million. meaning we had about $33 million at the end of 2025. Now, on paper, we set we did set a balanced budget with the amount of resources we had for 26, but we are using reserves to spend that down. Now, I don't think we'll probably need that full $7.3 million amount, but that's what it was slated at. And then couple that with the project view, if we pursue that project, we'll be spending down reserves even more to where we'd eventually on paper $23.2 2 million which tied to our p fund balance policy of the expense budget is about 17.45%. Now our minimum fund balance policy for the general funds 15% so we're still above that but that just something we're going to have to monitor going forward. Um getting into a couple of these other funds just just the highlights. So uh our JO sales tax fund has surplus for 2025. Now, that's kind of misleading from the standpoint of we don't have many projects going on in that fund right now. So, therefore, we're not spending much money, but in the future, that fund balance will be drawn down as we have more projects coming online such as Hunton, Harrison, Engage, um, Seward, and a couple of others. Um, but big picture in that fund and something we'll have to talk about in the future is the

the amount of incumbrances for projects exceeds the amount of revenue going into that fund each year. So, we're there, that last sentence kind of ties it together. We're going to have to either reduce projects, supplemental funding, um change some scope, or a combination of of the two. Um and then our next C sales tax fund. There's our citywide house sales tax fund. Obviously, there's a huge fund balance in the right right now. Public works, there was a CIP amendment a couple weeks ago allocating an additional 5 million to spend that down. So, they're they're trying to rapidly spend that fund balance down. Um, and we'll be talking more about that fund as we get into the CIP, but um, a lot of incumbrances on that project. So, the goal is to spend that money down. Um, looking into our enterprise fund. So, the parking fund, um, the previous year had about a $500,000 loss. This year we only had about a $200,000 loss in that fund. Two main reasons are we increased um rates on the the a little bit and which which helped bring in more money. But then also the way our debt um amortization schedule played out is there was less expenses to pay out in forms of debt service payments in fiscal year 25 than in previous years. Just that's how how it laid out to where we had a natural more um had a less of a loss. And then our utility fund, um, they had surpluses, um, which was good to see just because even though we levy for positions within the utilities budget, if we don't fill those, those are just unbudgeted expenses that we don't actually pay out. And so, couple that with um our strong investment strategy with Cumble Capital, we had more collections and and revenue via that um interest income. Um but one thing to keep in mind going forward for utilities obviously we'll have rate discussions this year because our

current rates expire. Then also we have two union negotiations um coming up. So we have to be mindful of how the future looks um depending on policy decisions we have um to make in the future. Um and then next these are these insurance funds. So the way a majority of these um funds are funded are transfers from the general fund. Um a couple of other funds such as utilities and um but mainly the general fund. So one thing to keep in mind is we are spending on fund balance in all of these which is okay um but it's only sustainable to to the point. And then I want to touch on the health insurance part because we did spend down about uh $2.5 million this year in health insurance fund. That's because we had higher premiums and we didn't increase as much as we should have in the past. That's kind of been rectified looking forward because in 26 we transferred about $2 million into the health insurance fund and increased rates to where hopefully that's stabilized going forward. But that's something we'll have to monitor going forward. That way, um, we don't spend down another $2.5 million in a year. Um, and then finally, just some other funds to note. I talked about this one a little bit earlier, our retirement reserve fund ended the year at $4.7 million. Now, we did transfer 2 million out of that in 26 to go into the special highway fund, um, which is which is the next bullet. Um, so we're basically moving moving cash to subsidize that fund, but there is money in the fund to a point going forward because in 26 we're not placing any revenue in the fund um because there's a fund balance, but that that option will no longer be available to us in 2027. Um, and then finally, uh, internal service funds. um those are funds that charge other city

departments um to to place the revenue source and then they obviously provide services for the rest of the city. Um for a while we were carrying some negative cash fund balances each one of those funds. We finally got back to the point where we're we're profit neutral which is where we need to be. We don't want to carry negative fund balances. Um, even though if they were all the cash was pulled together, we're fine, but we're back to the point where we've stabilized those funds. Um, but that's that's where they ended the year. Um, and that's that is $400 million in eight slides. But obviously what I wanted to provide is where we ended the year. And we can always approve a budget in one year, but we have to be looking forward because we have costs that are going to come online going forward. So, the main thing of note is the main takeaway is we ended the year better than we expected. Um, and I think we'll end 26 to where we won't have to use all of that $7 million, but and that's more resources for the future budget year. So, that's just one thing to keep in mind. But, um, all in all, uh, personnel underruns and then sales tax came in about a percent higher than we thought. So, that's good news. So, happy to answer any questions.

All right. Thank you, Josh. Council member Valdivia Alcola. Thank you, Mayor Duncan. Actually, this is a question for the city manager, not really a question, but a request. Can you please update the governing body and in the public that's curious uh sent an email to you last week or maybe it was this week? No, last week about the hiring of the chief financial officer. Um, and can you give an update on where that stands right now? Josh does a wonderful job. This is no slam on Josh, but we also understand that we need a CFO and that that detailed experience, that dedicated experience that comes with the CFO. So, can you please update the governing body and those listening like you updated uh myself and Mayor Duncan?

Yes, ma'am. So um as I share with you and it's also included in our weekly reports that go out the uh finance director is uh posted it's been posted for about 2 weeks. Um we have posted it not only on the city's website but uh other u job sites uh to include ICMA to include GFOA uh and others LinkedIn etc. Um the position is uh scheduled to be open for another couple of weeks. Um once the once we get the applicants uh for that, we will go through and determine if we have any uh candidates that are that would be a good fit for the city of Topeka. And uh if so, we'll interview them. And if we get a qualified candidate that we feel is a good fit for the city, we will move to hire. If not, then uh I know that the mayor and you have chimed in on uh potentially looking at a uh recruiting firm to help us uh find the right fit for our city.

Yes, thank you. And how important do you feel as a city manager, the leader of the city, one of the leaders of the city to get a CFO, a qualified good uh CFO? Um, I mean obviously if we have a good qualified CFO for the city, I mean uh it's additional experience, additional uh brain power, if you will. Um, but also I want to make sure that we find a good leader for the team. Um, I will tell you right now that I have full and complete confidence in Josh and what he's doing. Uh and um but yeah, I mean if we if we find a uh good qualified candidate for the city then then yes it's definitely important to fill that position.

Yes and I would agree and again this is nothing on Josh that that was made uh you know pretty direct at the beginning. Josh has done a really great job but we also know that there is a lapse here. there is a gap here that needs to be filled for the most viable uh you know finance department that we can have. So thank you. Thank you Mayor Duncan. Okay so Josh in this chart we have the act we have what we budgeted for 25 and then we have what we act our actuals what we spent

and so the first thing is just a kudos to everybody. I mean, yes, sales tax revenues were up, but some of those savings came because we did make some tough decisions and didn't fill some positions and made tough decisions on projects. And so, that was a concerted effort to keep those costs down. But my my my next question though is on the variance side, how does that equate to where we actually ended up in our actual spend versus our actual revenue at the end of the year? Is that reflective of that or is that a different number in terms of what our revenue versus expenses really were? Because this is obviously just a variance in terms of what we budgeted versus what we actually spent. It doesn't show our actual for lack of a better word end of the year balance of what our revenue was.

Yeah. So, okay. So, if I'm let me I'm going to walk give the long answer to make sure I'm understanding your question. So if I'm looking on slide three, so the variance of that that so I'm just going to choose compensation. So that means we spent 65.3 million but uh we budgeted 66 I'm rounding.1 million. So we were came in under 862. So putting that all together um we had we have to have a submitted balanced budget. So we submitted basically 127 million um in that budget column and that's the same thing about for revenues but the way to see revenues versus expenses I would if I I'm understanding the question correctly that's where side slide four comes in that negative 4.15 million

okay um since that in 2025 we generated $123 million we spent out 127 that's the difference and um using that difference if we subtract where we ended in 24 That's where we ended in 25 is the 32.9, right? So, we filled that gap with that draw down. Yes. Okay. So, I I see. Yeah. So, the point I make is we did a great job of cutting where we needed, but we didn't bring that variance is not revenue that we brought in. We didn't bring in an extra $4 million. Actually, quite the opposite. Correct. Yes.

We we had to fill a gap of $4 million that we draw down from. So, and that's fine. I mean, but I just wanted to make that clear so if people see those numbers, they don't say, "You guys still have $5 million sitting around." And I understand that. That's why I wanted to make a make sure I was reading it right, but make sure other folks who look at it understand that that distinction between those two numbers. Gotcha. Thank you, Council Member Hiller. Thank you. Uh, first I I just want to thank city manager and Josh for these incremental updates. I think it's helpful for us getting our heads around it. So, thank you for that. I have a question on your revenue slide. Mhm.

Um I mean when you look at our at our shortfall that miscellaneous line where we were expecting 10 million and got 4 and a2 is pretty significant. Um what what were we expecting that we Yeah. So no that's and that kind of goes back to Mayor Duncan's point where we have to submit a balanced budget to the state and so that difference basic essentially recognizes what we budget we what we budgeted for the with the use of spend down reserves. So that's that's what that that's why there's a variance in that particular um row. So essentially we didn't have to transfer in as much money to balance our budget. So that's why so the 10 million includes the draw down of what was it 710? Yes.

Yeah. Um we we had programmed the use of our uh unassigned reserves to balance our budget. Okay. But because we did better on expenditure side, we didn't have to transfer as much which is why you see the $6 million uh that's there. That's why we get dizzy. Yeah. All right. Um, also I have a question if if I may. Um, some time ago as as we were talking last year, um, there was a decision made on the 26 budget to migrate two mills out of the debt service fund to help plug the operating fund.

And the discussion from you all at the time was that that would then go back. And I had a suggestion or incrementally go back but would all go back to the debt service fund. And I had made a suggestion that we capture that money and begin a cash uh CIP fund so that the smaller items that don't really qualify for bonding, we could progressively start to do cash on. Therefore, minimizing how much bonding and financing expense. Is that being considered for next year?

Um, it's still early in the budget process. We we can definitely consider it, but it's right now our debt service fund balance is very high. Our minimum minimum fund balance policy is 10%. We're at 100% right now. So, it's hard for me to rationalize spending down cash when when for projects we're not already spending down cash of because that's going to have to come out of the general fund. So, that's we can do that, but we're going to have to make even more offsetting cuts because we already know we're going to have to make more cuts for 2027. Well, I would hardily encourage you to reconsider that thought then in that for every million dollars we spend, if we borrow for it, it cost us $600,000. Not in that first year, but over time, that's a lot of money. And if we can can knock that back so that we're not mortgaging our grandkids,

uh, futures, uh, kids and grandkids, I I hope we can still think about that. Thank you. Any other questions or comments for Josh or staff? Doesn't look like it. So, thank you, Josh. Y Thanks. All right, we have a second presentation this evening. City manager.

Thank you, mayor, members of the governing body. Sylvia Davis, our utilities director, uh will lead us through this next discussion, which is our effective utilities management uh proposed program. All right. Good evening, mayor, governing body. Tonight, I am coming before you. I'm excited to talk to you on behalf of our over 200 um utilities employees to highlight an initiative that we kicked off this last January. A lot of planning has gone into this over the last year. And um I'm just going to start by diving into this presentation so I can make sure I get it all through to you. So, can you put that up, Dian? You good? Um our team comes to You guys can see this presentation. Perfect. Okay. Our team comes to work every day to accomplish our mission from river to river. We manage water protecting the health and safety of our community. And I think they do a very fine job of that. However, we also have a vision to lead in excellence, innovation, and outstanding service, foster collaboration, efficiency, and continuous improvement. We want to enhance our infrastructure, building strong community partnerships, and working towards a safe and sustainable future for Topeka's water, storm water, and wastewater utilities. So, if our mission is point A, and our vision is point B, we've been discussing a lot of different ways um about how we can get there. What does there mean? And then what does it look like and how do we make that happen? And and this is where EUM comes in. Um we have a mission and a vision and we have a lot of initiatives. We have master plans. We have project plans. We have benchmarking efforts and we have goals and objectives and we have all of these things. But what ties those things together and how do we better

communicate that to you all and to our customers. So this initiative is the beginning of a really collaborative effort to put all of our existing knowledge and plans and efforts together to build this roadmap that will take us from point A to point B. So EUM it's a comprehensive water sector utility performance assessment and management framework. It's endorsed by the EPA. Um it was developed in 2008 by many water sectors across the country. um folks like American Waterworks Association, the Water Environment Federation, um and several others. It is a um it's an approach that's built on, and I'll explain this a little bit more here in a minute, 10 different act attributes of effective utilities performance, five keys to management success, but the the true kicker here is it's a a focus on organizational culture and continuous improvement. So, constantly striving to do better with what we have and what are our needs and making sure we capture all of those. It will allow us to take a 360°ree look at all three of our utilities and set priorities that will allow us to move from being so reactive to more proactively planning uh protecting our current infrastructure investments and allowing us to better face our everyday challenges. It's designed to help make informed decisions and practical systematic changes to achieve excellence in utilities performance. We dove into after doing a lot of research dove into EUM because it's designed um to fit any scalable utility, small utilities, large utilities. We have a team that interviewed several utilities from across the country who have worked through the EUM process. Some as small as seven employees to um Austin Water, which has thousands of employees, have been working with EUM for more than 10 years. um people uh as

many people as we could talk to and listening to their success stories and what they liked about EUM and how they worked through that process so that we could bring it in house and start down this effort. Some of the benefits of working through and hopefully um getting to champion the way that we are and effectively util effect effectively manage utility um it will align help us align our utility operations with our strategic goals. Um it enhance it enhances service reliability and will help us build more customer trust, supports financial and environmental sustainability, builds a resilient future ready workforce, and it encourages stakeholder engagement and transparency. So these are things that we feel like we have a lot of play in here and there. There's a lot of information that comes out of our department every day, but this will help us tie all of that together, be more transparent, and better communicate to everyone what our efforts are. The 10 attributes um that you can see here uh are really intended to help ensure we maintain a balanced focus on all of our areas of need, all important operational areas rather than being reactive and bouncing back and forth to one another. Um it's it's very easy sometimes for a community, a utility to really focus on something that has popped up from a regulatory standpoint and put a lot of investment there and inadvertently ignore some other key factors. So um this process will help us assess ourselves over all 10 of these attributes and see um which one of those we think are the most important to start working on. Um there it also intertwines five keys to management success which are proven approaches to maximizing our re resources and improving our performance by embedding them in our everyday workplace culture. The self assessment tool. Let me Okay,

let's take a step back here. So I just instead of going through all 10 of these attributes with you tonight because there's a lot that goes into those. I just put two examples up here. So, customer experience and satisfaction. Not only does this program help us look at do we provide reliable and responsive services and what does that mean, it also gauges customer feedback, how we receive that, um how we respond to that, what different ways do we receive customer feedback. helps us gauge how much we are training our personnel to be customer friendly and what that looks like throughout the department. Also helps u make sure that we are taking a note to provide tailored customer services throughout um our customer base looking at things from a residential customer standpoint to a commercial customer standpoint, industrial etc. Um, from a financial viability standpoint, again, looking at do we have established um, predictable and equitable rates. We're going to get talking in lots and lots this year about rates and what that looks like. Um, so do we have established rates? Um, are they consistent with our community expectations? Do they consider full life cycle costs or not? Um, do we have we effectively balance our long-term debt, capital and operations and maintenance expenditures with revenues and asset values, adequately recover costs, provide re uh reserves, invest for future needs while maintaining optimal bond ratings and addressing cost of service and the needs of disadvantaged communities. So it it's looking at um lots of different things throughout each of these attributes and comparing ourselves to other utilities across the country. So um moving into what does that mean

and how have we started this there is EUM is the first step is an assessment phase where we go through and we ask ourselves how do we rate ourselves internally? what are we looking at? Um and who do we want to contribute into that assessment? That's where we come to you guys because we want you to be a part of that as well. Um the self- assessment tool will help us evaluate our operations, identify which um attributes rise to the top so that we can again start focusing on areas that we think are prime for improvement right away. This slide talks about performance visualization. and it kind of helps loosely outline this process. We will have some attributes that collectively speaking throughout the way we perform currently and the priorities that we have set. Um these are the most important ones that we think we're going to tackle first. If they got a lower rating, why did they receive a lower rating? Um probably because they're not achieving as high as they could be or should be. what are some of the gaps that we have um in our processes and looking at effective practices that exist throughout the country what we have what we could do implement in house um look at potential projects and then start implementing those projects once those are completed we should see some improved practices which would result in better achievement which again when we start reassessing because it's all about continual improvement we should see higher ratings for these attributes and continue down that cycle. So that's um an entire manual of EUM in in one slide here. Um we started in January by conducting self assessments across um just about 50 of our management executive team folks that are outside of

our frontline um labor union employees. Why did we do that? Because we are doing this in-house. A lot of communities that work eum hire a consultant to do this and lead this effort. Um we are not spending money to do that. We're we're looking at this internally so we can build it into our programming and we did not want to bite off too much more than we could chew this first year, this first stab. So um we've done some internal self assessments. we would like to after tonight email you all that assessment, give you the opportunity to look at it um read through that and then we can of course meet one-on-one to help um work through those for anybody who might be interested. Um we wanted to make sure we presented so you all knew what we were working on, compile all of that data and work some charts so we can help communicate out what those results were. Identify some attributes. conduct interviews with internal staff to see why did you rate us here? Um why is this a high priority for you? It's really helped us gain some different insight into how our own employees are thinking which has been really great. After this first quarter, we move into second quarter where we're going to present all of this data to management. We'll do some workshops um so that we can develop key priorities, see what those attributes that we are going to be tackling are, and then build some core groups around those. so that we can start identifying projects. And then the second half of the year, we'll look at goals and performance measures, how we can do some different gap analysis, and then what pro improvement projects we want to launch. Um, and then hopefully develop a dashboard and scorecard that everyone can follow along with internally and externally to see how we're coming on this effort. Um, next steps, again, we would like to email you all the assessment instructions. Um, it's simple, but at the same time, there's a lot there. And if we haven't done a great job of

explaining all of the different components that we work on every day, a lot of folks may not know how much we are doing that can um contribute to these attributes. So, we want to um help give people an overview and see what uh kind of information gaps we have out there. um doing the staff workshops to review these assessment results and determine those high priority attributes. Throughout those interviews that we did um we've determined that biting off two or three attributes is usually the sweet spot. Some communities tackled more than that and regretted it right away because there are so many things that we need to look at when reviewing how we compare across other utilities. Um we don't want to again bite off more than we can chew. We'll identify some effective practices that have worked elsewhere and what we want to incorporate within the resources that we currently have and then start setting near and long-term goals implementing those improvement projects. And then come up with a summary, an annual report that we can continue to build on to and present to you and our customers to highlight all of those different efforts across the department. So you can see where your rates are going, how we how we measure across the country, and then how our trends are moving as well. So with that, that's a lot uh in a very short period of time, but I wanted to give you that overview um open for any questions you might have and then just kind of give you a preview so you knew what we were talking about when we sent you this email asking you for some feedback. Council member Kell,

do you have a uh a citizens academy coming up anytime soon? We do have one starting next month in April. So, we're taking applications for that now. And again, that's one of the many ways that we try to communicate out all of the different responsibilities that the utilities has and get community feedback as well.

Yeah. Uh I attended it a couple years ago with uh the deputy mayor and I highly recommend any staff members that haven't done it uh in a while or have you know new to new to uh the council to do it so you can learn all the ins and outs u of what's going on with with the utilities and the public works department. So uh that would probably a good good idea to kind of say seeing kind of seeing what's going on with different things for this survey would would help out.

Good. Yep. Thank you for that plug. Uh we we really like that academy. It's hard to condense all of the things into um six short weeks, but we sure try and uh it it's a good starting point for people to really get engaged and understand all of the things that those three utilities touch every day. Council member Hiller,

just want to shout out kudos to you. you know, these last few years have been pretty tumultuous in many, many ways, you know, in the community, in the city, all over. And so, one of the things I've tried to say to myself is, well, but we're pulling out of this, maybe that's it. And so, to see this come together in this way and to do it internally, just kudos to you and and your team.

Thank you. because of that uh tumultuousness uh we know that it's hard to stick with something for very long, right? So, this is the goal here is to help us build a sustainable plan that doesn't matter who's sitting in this spot, our team knows what they're working towards and again communicating it to everyone so we can all help support those efforts. Thank you for that. So, uh, when when Director Davis and I sit down and she showed me this, I gave her very much a ringing endorsement and I for all some of the reasons Councilwoman Hiller said, but I guess two of the things you guys will get sick of hearing me say, but staff is maybe some of them already have is that I always ask is what is the problem that we're trying to address, right? But second of all, how are we defining success and effectiveness within our programs and our departments, right? Because if we don't have that, then our staff as a whole doesn't always know what they're supposed to be where they're supposed to be spending their time and energy. Our department heads then can come back to us and make when they need to make tough decisions or even simple decisions about where resources need to go or they can show us wins and how things are progressing when we have to make decisions. That's a critical piece where we can say how are we defining the effectiveness of this program. And then lastly, the public needs to see that that we have a plan, that we have a program, and that we are judging and and analyzing these things on a regular basis. And this program does that. It hits all those levels. And so I'm very appreciative that she's put it in. And we have other departments doing similar things, but I will continue to always ask that is how how are we judging success and effectiveness? And these type of tools, I think, are critical to helping us all answer those questions and making the decisions we need to make. So, thank you for being ahead of this and installing this.

Thank you all. Any other comments or questions? All right. Well, with that, you're free. Thank you so much. Thank you guys. All right. We'll move on. Agenda item three, the consent agenda. City clerk. A is an approval of a public works department contract between the city of Topeka and SBB engineering for professional engineering and design services and an amount not to exceed $212,240. B are the minutes of the March 10th, 2026 governing body meeting and there are no applications.

All right. I have a motion to approve from council member Kell. Do I have a second? I have a second from council member Banks. The clerk will take the vote.

Council member Valdivia Aqua, what was your vote? Yes. Okay. All right. We have nine yes. The motion carries. All right. We'll move on to agenda item four, action items. Move to start with 4 A. City clerk.

A is a resolution introduced by city manager Dr. Robert Empirez in accordance with section 186010 of the Topeka Municipal Code approving a conditional use permit to allow for social events, parties, receptions to be hosted at an existing permitted short-term rental type 2 non-owner occupied on property located at 1200 Southwest Taylor Street and zoned R2 single family dwelling district all being within the city of Topeka, Shauny County, Kansas. All right, city manager. Thank you, mayor, members of the governing body. Dan Warner, planning and development director, will lead us through this item.

Thank you, city manager. Mayor, governing body, um, as already explained, this is a conditional use permit for,200 Southwest Taylor. Uh, that property is currently a short-term rental type two, which is non-owner owner occupied, or another way to think about it, there's nobody there hosting. All the rooms are available for rent. Uh the cup is a proposal to allow social events uh parties receptions to be held at the property which would be accessory to the permitted short-term rental. Uh meaning if that short-term rental is not operating, the cup does not uh remain in effect. So a few of the kind of details about the proposal. There's a limit of four events per month. Um there's quiet hours. This is all spelled out in the statement of operations. Uh parking will be adjacent to the lot to the rear. Uh so there's parking behind the house. Uh the applicant has also secured approval from Blue Cross Blue Shield to use one of the parking lots on the weekend, one of their parking lots that's nearby on the weekends. Uh the planning commission in their uh review of this case um added a couple conditions or uh that were approved. Um so uh one of them is no more than 50 people at any event and the other is to re that staff will review parking for the events for the short-term rental if that property sells. Uh meaning you know is you know how are they going to accommodate the parking for the events should the property sell because the agreement is between Blue Cross and the current owner of the property. Uh the applicant held a well- attended neighborhood information meeting and no one at that event uh or that meeting expressed opposition to the to the conditional use permit. Planning commission held a public hearing on this item in February. There was one uh

representative or um member of the neighborhood that got up to support this conditional use permit and ultimately the planning commission recommended approval. Staff recommends approval as well. staff would be happy to or I would be happy to answer any questions.

All right. Questions or comments from the governing body? I guess I have a few. So, what happens if at 2 am the party is still raging on and police have to get called and shut it down? I mean, what what are the penalties if they don't abide by the rules they've said they will abide by?

So, I think we um would do our investigation and use that information um when that short-term rental comes back up for renewal, there would be some potential that it wouldn't be re wouldn't be renewed just kind of based on previous behavior. Uh so, that's one avenue I would say that um could happen. This the short-term rental I believe runs through next year. So they still have a year on their current approval. So th this gives them some exception on the party piece, but do all the other when there's not a party in place, all the other short-term rental rules apply? Correct. This is a just a a carve out within those rules for these spec four parties a month that would be outlined here. That's correct, Mayor. Okay. Okay, Council Member Hiller.

I just wanted to say this. This is in my district. I was at that um neighborhood hearing um with all the concerns people have had. There was very strong support and uh it was kind of fun to be there. So and with that I I motion to approve. Thank you, Council Member Ortiz. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um Dan, so is this just for the weekends only or is this during the week as well?

It could be during the week as well. Okay. So, you know, Blue Cross works during the week and they so they they still agreed to let them have their cars parked there even though it's during their working hours. Yes, I believe so. And also, so there is parking behind this house and there's fairly robust on on street parking around that property as well. So, parking isn't that a oneway uh 12th Street is? Yes. Oh, there. Okay. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to cut you off. Go ahead.

I think I was done. I think there's a lot of parking around that area. Um, just behind the house with that lot Blue Cross is offering and also on the street. Um, so the neighbors, are they okay with that or do you know? You said you held a meeting and did they come or? Uh, there was quite a few people that came to that meeting and nobody expressed opposition. Councilwoman, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

All right. This item does uh require exparte communication disclosure. So prior to proceeding with a 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 indicated and indicate that of 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 attachments, the public comments made during the planning commission hearing, and similar relevant information related to the matter. We do have a motion to approve from council member Hiller and a second from council member Banks. So, if anyone needs to disclose anything, now is your chance.

Well, I I said I was at the neighborhood meeting. Um, there really wasn't much discussion because people didn't have problem with it, but I'm not influenced. I think what I learned would is supported by the document. Anyone else need to disclose? Any other comments or questions. All right, with that, I'll ask the clerk to take a vote.

And Council Member Valivia Acla, what is your vote? Yes. Yes.

Yes. Thank you. Yes. Sorry, Council Member Kell. All right. Okay. We have nine. Yes. The motion carries. Thank you. Thank you, Dan. Thank you, Mayor. All right. We'll move on to action item 4B. City clerk. B is a discussion with possible action of proposed 2027 modifications to the dreams program as recommended by the citizen advisory council. City manager.

Thank you, mayor, members of the governing body. Bianca Bernett, our community programs administrator with the office of inclusive communities will lead us through this uh discussion.

Okay. Thank you. Um good evening, mayor, governing body. Um I'm going to be brief today. Um basic basically just to provide an update on uh the DREAMS program uh following some recent discussions and the citizen advisory council's review um of this plan on February 4th this year. Um let's see here. Is this the one I use? Okay. I'm going to actually start here. Um so as you know the current 2026 um CIPCIP um was adopted last year um and already reflects the policy direction for the dreams program moving forward. Um the citizen advisory council's recent recommendations um do align with that direction um with a couple of key clarifications related to uh dreams 3 funding beginning in 2027. Um so if you'll note uh dreams one was recommended that um that program will um no longer um be continued beginning in 2027. Um the intent with that is to now focus on two uh annual neighborhood plans for the um the NAS which would which would allow uh for uh each neighborhood to receive an updated plan every 10 years. Um, Dreams 2 will become an annual um program um 850,000 annually um for flexible funding for u multiple neighborhoods.

And um the change for dreams 3 um is that it was previously a $200,000 um annual program supporting small infrastructure beautifification and community building projects. Um for 2027 and beyond, the Citizen Advisory Council recommends um refining this program um to 60,000 um in HUD CDBG funding that we receive annually from HUD. Um this program will focus exclusively now on community building activities with grant amounts ranging from 1,000 to 30,000. Um, this adjustment also removes the infrastructure components from DREAMs 3, um, which are now focused in DREAMS 2, um, and allows the program to focus more directly on strengthening neighborhood engagement and participation. Um, for housing rehab is no longer tied to um, either dreams one or dreams two or tied to any one neighborhood. Um the change now is that the housing rehab program will be open to all qualifying city residents um that meet income eligibility and uh home eligibility requirements for that um HUD funding. And in addition, the citizen advisory council has supported a proposed pilot within the dreams 2 program um that would begin in 2027. Um, this pilot would allocate up to 350,000 in total available DREAMs 2 funding um to target two neighborhoods um with higher nighttime crime rates. Um each neighborhood would receive up to 175,000 for midblock lighting improvements um with the goal of

improving uh safety and reducing crime in those neighborhoods. Um these projects would still follow the standard application process and be considered alongside other uh dreams 2 project applications. Um the pilot would also allow the city to evaluate effectiveness before considering um future expansion into other neighborhoods. And those are uh the basic changes. The overall impact of these recommendations is that um there was more frequent, flexible, and equitable funding um throughout the neighborhoods. Um it allows for stronger citywide planning and um increased community engagement and safety. So in summary, um the CAC recommendations are consistent with the direction already adopted um by this body and with these refinements providing some additional clarity on those programs. I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have.

All right. Before we do that, we have one individual signed up for public comment if they are on Zoom. Dan is there. Yep. All right. We Michael Bell. Hello. Can you hear me? No. Nope. Give us one second, Mike. We're going to turn it up a little. Okay. All right, try now. Michael, you can hear me now? Yes, I think so.

Okay. Okay. Uh, good evening, uh, members of the governing body. My name is Michael Bell. I am the newly elected chair of the citizen advisory council, and I'm not here really to add anything to what uh, Bianca has already uh, presented. Uh I would uh give thanks to uh the office of inclusive communities and uh and also to uh council member Karen Hiller uh for um coming to us with the looking at possible changes. And I think this moves us closer to what the CAC originally voted to support a few years back. And so um we're making progress and so that's uh all I would have to add to the discussions.

Thank you very much, Michael. All right. Any comments or questions from the governing body? If not, we have a motion to approve from council member Hiller and a second from council member Bradberry. Any final comments or questions? If not, all right, ask the clerk to take a vote. Council member Valdivia Aqua, what was your vote? Yes. Okay. All right. We have nine yes. The motion carries. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am.

All right. With that, we'll move on to non-action items. We'll start with 5A. City clerk. ASA discussion related to the imposition of real estate leans on properties that have received utility services and failed to pay for such services. City manager. Thank you, mayor, members of the governing body. Sylvia Davis, our utilities director, and Nicole Malot, our utilities deputy director, will lead us through this item.

All right. Good evening, mayor, members of the council. Uh we're switching up the lean process slightly. We wanted to take the opportunity to get in front of you uh to let you know that letters are about to be mailed to the properties identified in the attached draft ordinance. Uh it created quite a bit of confusion last June when letters were mailed prior to the council being made aware and ultimately in the end having no lean actually assessed. We wanted to give you the advanced notice and make sure there were no questions that might potentially derail the assessment process. At this time, uh, we're coming to you in an off cycle to clean up these accounts that are severely delinquent, in some cases up to two years. These accounts have been build readiness to serve and/or base charges along with storm water. The rates and the enforcement thereof are not in question this evening. After much discussion last year, the decision was affirmed to maintain rates as established with the name change back to base charge. We now need to get these accounts back in good standing so that we're not so that they are not being assessed ongoing late fees. Uh the utilities have a few different collection methods available to us but but the lean assessment is by far the most effective. However, a lean can only be assessed uh when the account holder is also the property owner of record with the county which is the case for all of these accounts. Leans are also less expensive to the property owner uh as only the past due amounts are being assessed. There's no additional fees or interest charged or added on as would be uh if the city's collection agency was involved. The draft ordinance you received as part of your packet lists the customers who will receive the 30-day notice letter. Uh the customers identified in the document are delinquent by at least 90 days and in many cases have delinquencies dating back to January of 2024. Since this agenda item was posted, uh the list has already come down by 63 accounts and a little over $36,000 due to customers making payment payment arrangements or a change in ownership.

We'll be mailing 694 letters for delinquent balances uh of 566,342. We will we will then be back on May 5th for adoption of the lean ordinance. Upon passage of that ordinance, it will be provided to the county on June 1st who will immediately start the process of entering the assessments on each property. With as with all assessment ordinances, we will continue to take payments and remove accounts from the list up until noon on the day submitted. That's the short and sweet of it. Uh so with that, I will take any questions.

I think before we start discussion, we have two individuals signed up for public comment. So we'll do that first. The first person up is Danielle

Tmlo. Hello. Thank you. Um, I wanted to take this opportunity um where still have some concerns about um the readiness to serve and I know that there was a pause um because there was um statement that we need to kind of come up with the the money if we get rid of this readiness to serve. Um but also about this process. I mean we still have the MTAA on here. I remember last year they presented walked out the door and then we had this ordinance like how did we not catch them? So that seems a bit inefficient along with McDonald's. I mean like feel like that's that's easy to do but I come with solutions. Um, you know, I feel like we're having a hard time constantly putting pressure on citizens um to foot the bill over and over again when we're not taking like a real serious look on internal procedures and are we being efficient? Are we doing everything we can? Um because one thing that I feel like we could easily do is just en enforce some of the things that we have on the books um specifically within the water department. Um for instance um looking at the contracts that we have um where uh responsibility of contractors for instance with traffic control um states that once a specific job location has been assigned to a contractor it shall become the responsibility of the contractor to keep the provided devices including signs all those where they are placed. It shall also be the responsibility of each contractor to give same day notification when each individual job or project has

been completed. Um, if you do not um do so, then we can enforce this. We can enforce a $50 per day charge for every day that the the things are not picked up and notified um as long as that notification occurred. um along with some other fees. And you know, just generally looking at some um documents that I I have received through that core request. Um you know, we have um one individual entity who is being assigned and completing jobs in the same day while also providing an invoice the exact same day. upwards of 10 plus thousand dollar jobs. Yet we're having traffic materials left on the street for 87 days. Um that was on Hope Street. Um 126 of 24. Um on Winterwood in January of 25, 22 days past the time that the documents say the project was completed. We have Southeast 36th Terrace that was done in February of 24, which this can be a little tricky because a lot of these um all the documentation doesn't match. So sometimes it says a date happened here. Uh one occasion it was like a whole year before we paid them before the job was done. But like you know generally speaking um we have at least 45 days past due. And this is just three documents out of about 200 that I pulled. And right there is close to $10,000 or more that we could be getting back if we actually enforced um the contract ordinance that we have in play. Um should that work have actually occurred um in that one day considering

they build us for 20 hours uh for one of them which was 14 hours past um what they said they were going to do. So, I think there is a way that we could actually be recouping a lot of funds um that are just, you know, inefficiently being spent here um and not keep putting a lot of pressure on citizens who are just trying to make ends meet. So, looks like it's an efficiency problem and that maybe we need to look at the way that we're doing our business.

Thank you. Next up, Mr. Pat Dilap. I sent you an email uh explaining paperwork and giving you the KSA's specifically 12 uh-08C. Um explain it. This ready to serve bill, you know, last time we had it, that was a fiasco. It came out of committee. You should have opened opened that what the committee said up or down. Instead, it was turned into a committee of the whole. Nobody stopped that. That was against Rob rules to order. Now, Nicole said basically, we're not charging interest. Well, they've been just now started charging a $15 late fee on the bills, which that's never there before. There's an ordinance. What this thing came about is we hired uh a consultant. The consultant was Capital Consultants LLC. Um our former city manager Weey did that. He paid them 49, excuse me, $49,500, just $500 below what he would require the city council to know about that and approved that rate. Well, his job was to look for how to make fees, things like this. He said some things that just were dead wrong of what he was talking about. Um, some had had to do, for example, water rural districts do this all the time. They do not. There is not one raw rural water district that just charges a fee without providing some type of services. Now, they do have a different arrangements than you and I have. municipalities. We put huge leans on people's properties to have the

availility of water line in front of the house and a sewer line. Also, right now, Braxton did something two years ago with with uh Sherwood and I think they were going 50 $70,000 a lot. I I could be dead wrong, but I happened a couple years ago for that. Um real water just use a totally different method. What their method works out is they use the uh they use water from the department of a agriculture or a loan from that. They have their membership say we want a district to provide water to us. So their members get out together. They said we want this. They bring a water line once they get it and get the loan from the uh USDA. They determine the size they need to serve the number of members. And so they get the water and they get the meters. Well, that line you're talking about rural water. It could be a mile between service people that they're getting. So they only have so many wa people they can serve with that size water line and the meter. So therefore, when you get your water meter, they want you to continue paying for it. They're not required as people tell you to. What it is though, if you don't have water service on, that meter might go to somebody else. If it goes to somebody else, you may not get the meter back on because then it will lower the pressure and lower the volume that you're expected. If they eventually want something more, they have to go back and redo it. Um, and there's a way cuz you know, not everybody who has water line and roller waters has water service. They have to ask to come on. You could skip one person, one one of another. They're also

allowed to put leans on properties here. The KSAs do not. If you looked what I pointed out, it's prohibited. Real water districts are the only ones that have an exception. Now, question came up. Where is this money coming going to come by to pay these people back? You know, our contractor that uh Capital Consultant LLC, we require them to have a million dollars worth of insurance for liability for errors and emissions. Mr. Do you need additional time? Yes. How much? Give me two minutes. Any objections? All right. Two minutes.

What? That's what we should be doing. Also, what was recommended is this water extra fees we're going to collect because of this. We're going to be using this to give free water meters to city contractors who build new in the city limits. I've even heard Dr. Ped me mention that in a meeting. Well, we kind of forgot about that. We're putting that all in our pocket now. Um, it's greed. Absolute greed. Don't do this. This This is wrong. This may end up costing the city a lot of money. How? Damaging people's credit ratings. Matter of fact, interesting. The collecting agency from working with the city right now has put an interesting clause in that collection letter. It says no one in that office, their attorneys had reviewed this bill for legalities. Kind of a strange clause in there. I think they're they're feeling kind of itchy about continue doing that. And I don't know many people they've sued at all. They do try to do a offset which has something to do with collecting of taxes about this. What else? We've got damage credit rating. We've got are we subject to uh Kansas Consumer Protection Act? As you know, if you listen to the radio, that's about a $10,000 fine per count. How many people are going to be fined by that? I doubt if a court would give that much to every person on here, but that's a possibility. Are we subject to it? Doesn't preclude us, but you read the law, and it certainly looks like we're included in that. Um, there's a mistake, gentlemen. I didn't go into many horror stories, but they're out there. The department has put water meters on properties that weren't there before just to collect the fee. They

shut off one of my tenants who owed a bill 12 from 2012 and one letter turned on to it was completely paid off. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Excuse me. All right, that's all we had signed up for public comment on this item. So, questions, comments from the governing body for staff. Council member Hiller,

just just one question. Um, I have a lot of people on this list. Could you give us a clue? Me or us? You know that there seem to be a number of these that are in the $900 range and then there are some that are like 500 or 300 or in the 100. Could could you give us an idea of what those different levels might be? What's just so I can have an idea?

Most most likely timing of when the charges began. Uh the ones that are in the 8 to 900 range, I would expect that those are somebody who has owned the property and has been charged that fee since January 1 of 2024. somebody who may owe $200, $300, uh, property switched to their name at some point or a tenant was in there and they moved out and nobody has moved back in because we do give all properties a two-month grace period intended for that selling of houses or tenants and and landlords moving in and out so that it's not automatically switching. But yeah, if per say a tenant had moved out and the landlord hasn't put anybody back in there for 6 months, there's three or four months worth of charges which would make up that smaller amount in most cases.

And when you say those charges are are these almost all readiness to serve or some of them water runoff?

These uh include both. It includes both the readiness to serve/base charge um and storm water because that is part of when the readiness to serve and now base charge went into effect. It did allow us to start charging the storm water which we always should have been charging to residential customers but it didn't make sense uh as an individual bill. This has provided us the mechanism to include that now. So it includes both it it is both the base and the storm water. I'm just trying to figure out the monthly on it. I know the storm water is based on how much impermeable surface you have. So like how much roof, how much

correct? Yeah. And therefore, if it's a meter on a property with no structure, no driveway, no nothing, then no storm water charges. Uh-huh. What What is a storm water? For instance, a irrigation meter may be somebody might have an irrigation meter that's on a separate lot that doesn't have any impervious surface if that helps. And what's the typical range for storm water annually or monthly? However you I believe I heard earlier I hate that I don't know this off hand $7.34 I believe monthly. A month. Yes. For a typical residential. Correct. Okay. So those are little. Yes. Okay. Most of this is water then. Yes.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Council member Ortiz.

Thank you. I went over this list as well and I talked to Director Davis. Um had very good conversation because there's some members on here that maybe this has gone to their estate um because um um some people on there are deceased and so we want to be very compassionate with that. Um, one thing that we did discuss though is if your name is on this list, and I started calling people, I think me and Karen, Councilman Hiller have always done that. Call people and say, "Hey, do you know you're on this list?" And some of them don't, but then I realized you have not sent the letter out yet. Um, and I've started calling some people. And one thing that we did discuss is you can call the utilities department and get on a plan. Is that correct?

Yes, absolutely.

Okay. um because we want to do everything we can to help them so that they don't have a lean on their house or have that send it to the credit credit agencies or whatever. Um so I think that we need to really really stress that and if it's not in that letter I think we need to make sure that that it is that we can put them on some some type of plan. Um, and then I think Sylvia, if I my memory serves me right, which I'm getting old, so it might not serve me right, but you did say if for some reason they didn't fulfill that plan to call you guys back and and set up another plan or see what we can do to work to work that out. Is that correct?

Yep, that's correct. Normally, um, if somebody isn't paying a bill, we can shut them off. These are accounts we cannot shut water service off at. So, if um somebody can't fulfill that commitment and and we can't get a hold of them or they just for whatever reason they can't do it anymore, we can come back to you and have them. We plan on coming back to you anyway for our annual lean ordinance that we do in the fall. But again, this is off cycle trying to close out those long-standing accounts so we can just have one lean discussion with you all uh annually moving forward.

Okay. So, I just wanted to to mention that. I think that's very important to mention that. Um, I I've never supported this and I I think me and the former city manager that was one of our downfalls was I um because I see how it is hurting people, but I understand as well as we're going to have to figure out where the money is going to come from, you know, but um I just want to make sure that and I and I think with our discussion I I just want to make sure that we're doing everything that we can to help the citizens as well. Thank you.

Absolutely. And if there's if people have questions, just please encourage them to call in and and talk through those questions with us. Um whether we like agree with it or not don't agree with it, uh it's our purpose to help support and enforce these ordinances that are put into place. This was the rate structure, currently is the rate structure that was in place in 2024 and 2025, now base charge in 2026. But again, um just trying to capture that so that we can appropriately budget moving forward as it is a significant amount amount of money outstanding. Some people are continuing to pay base charge with their active bills. Of course, they're getting active water service. So, they have consumption on top of their base charges. Um other folks that only had base charges and storm water, they've paid their bills as well. So, these are just ones that we would love to close out if possible. Council member Vald Divial Alkala.

Thank you. Uh, Mayor, can I verify with one of you that this will be voted on? Did you say in May by the governing body? Is that the If you don't mind, I'll take it. Councilwoman, yes. Our intents to bring it back on May 5th, first meeting in May.

Okay. Thank you. I can just tell you right off the bat, I'm not going to support this. I have a number of concerns about the utilities department. And I think I've made that very evident. If I had it my way, I'd have an independent auditor come in and audit the whole department. Uh I don't know why we continue uh with all the rationale to uh raise uh the rates on uh our citizens uh and then get them wherever we can uh with additional charges. and it was disturbing to hear that there may be other ways that we can collect uh and it doesn't appear that we're doing it for things like the signs that are that are staying up and and not being taken down. And I would also say too it's you know it's very concerning about again we continue to look at a pattern of where often times the little guys and I'm not saying these are all little guys on here u the little guys uh get hit with something but the big guys the big movers and shakers can get off clean and I'm not I'm not going and do it. It just it it stinks and it smells and I have concerns also about um just that opaque veil that continues to be over the utilities department. So again, just right now I'm not supporting any of this. Thank you, mayor.

Any other comments or questions from the governing body? Does not appear so. So, all right. Thank you very much. We appreciate it. All right, with that we'll move on to agenda item six, public comment. First up, Tamika Terry.

Good evening. Good evening, mayor, governing body. Can you hear me? Okay.

Yep. My name is Tama Terry. Uh I chose to speak tonight in regards to the reszoning that's uh being planned for the development of 25th Street on the east side to the area between that and Dorwood Park. I was uncomfortable as well as some of our commissioners last night during that meeting due to the fact that uh I don't know the process but I don't feel like it was adhered to. It's like where they were playing chess with the intelligence of our commissioners. I don't like that. And with the emotions and the the opinions of the community. I don't care too much for that. We have daycarees. We have a Dornwood Park. We hold a lot of city uh events there. You have a blighted the old uh Clarence Kelly youth facility to the north of that that's still blighted and and run down. It's due to have a new development which is going to be a daycare center. You have a church there. I live in district 2, but I my church is the Apostolic Church of Jesus Christ right there off of 25th in Belleview. We have uh oh, I'm drawing a blank, but we have the Colonial Park town homes. We have the Highland Park town homes. And then we have Deer Creek Town Homes. I can't for the life of me understand why that district or any surrounded district would want to have a 24 unit complex trash the health and safety of our our our head start the children bus schedules the traffic. There's other places in our city that we need to try to enhance in our housing and development besides a area that's duck back off in in you know back off in the area where there's already plenty of PUD developments. There's already it's already zone for what it needs to be zone. It doesn't need to be bigger. My

concern was uh March 2nd there was a Microsoft meeting. Not everybody in the in that district is able to be on Microsoft Teams to not even let the the community know about it in their NIA meetings. I'd be I I'm furious for them. It's about what the people want for the safety of their community. It should be the taxpayers and and then the commissioners, you know, how are we going to spend this money? Who's going to maintain this? It doesn't matter how modern. They didn't have a clear outline. They did not have a clear plan. It was sh it was shoved to the planning committee as a M3 zoning and then oh well that's not going to work. Well, let's just do an M2. Was it ever voted on? I don't know. The people don't know. I don't know if you all know cuz I don't know. But we voted last night for a M2 to a M1. We still have questions on the effectiveness of this infrastructure in that corner where you're going to have a lot of traffic here in the next upcoming months with Dormwood Park. You know, how's that going to work with all this construction? I feel like the people deserve it. If it was up to me, I'd remand it back to the planning committee, go back to the the owners of the said property, come up with a a clear outline on what studies were enacted and and the results of that that studies. Thank you.

Thank you, uh, Tama from Topeka. You're welcome.

Tika is my buddy. We're good. We went to high school together. All right. Next up, hopefully I pronounced this right. Rosetta Prawl. Well, I'm Rosetta Prawl and I happen to be a member of the Colonial Park Town Homes and I'm with the young lady that was just up here. We do think that it's a bad idea to add any more apartments or duplexes in that area. There's too many already. We have uh Der Creek. We have Highen Park apartments. We have Colonial Park, which by the way, they seem to think at this meeting that uh it was old and run down. Uh it's been there 50 years, but we have improved on the property every year. We have put new roofs on all the buildings. They were all completely re remodeled within the last seven years. And I mean from the ground up. They had new floors, new cabinets, new appliances, new everything. They are well up to date. And I invite anybody who would like to come and see one. Our manager would be more than happy to show you a unit. Uh we have a waiting list there to get in because they are nice. The other thing is we have to put up with trash from there again the section 8 uh properties

that we have around us. We get a lot of trash from those areas and the church that's over there. They make every effort to keep the things clean. But it's not their trash. It's coming from people that, you know, don't care. So, and with with Colonial Park, these people that live there, they own that. They don't rent it, they own it. There's a big difference. When you rent someplace, you don't take care of it. Most people don't. But if you own it and you have a vested interest in it, you take care of it. I think there's a will be a lot of excess traffic and like she said, we have a day daycare facility over there. The Head Start program, they use the park, Dornwood Park. We don't need big vehicles coming in and out of there disturbing the children that we have there. I just I don't think this was given a a well enough uh consideration by the planning commission. I would greatly appreciate it if you guys would look into it yourselves. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Miss Pearl. Next up, Mr. Henry Mccclure.

Hello, your honor. Good evening. The word of the day is malfeasants. Excuse me. God bless you. Thank you.

Malfeasants. So, What kind of first I want to commend you again. The only time I'm going to ever say it was good to have a consultant in your idea of examining the personnel issues. Now for us from the private sector whether or not you're your intention it tells us that you don't have confidence in the administration to be able to handle the um issues at hand when it comes to personnel. Now you might remember running for mayor. I do. But I heard so many people that are employees of this city that don't have any confidence in the administration of this community. And I know that there are so many good people that work for this city. And I'm looking for reasons to love living in Topeka cuz I'm here today. But what kind of signal does it send to the rank and file? Hey, and I think that your spouse is in the investment business. All right, I got a plan for you. Here's the investment. We're going to spend $7.5 million on a hotel and I'm going to hire a consultant to tell you to fix it up and sell it. That's 540,7.6 6 million 5 million in interest carry all for the luxury of losing $6 million and when nobody loses their job for that

I mean where's the justice? How could people come to work every day knowing man that dude got promoted? So, I hope that this um quest of yours, call Bill Cochran. You ought to call Bill Cochran. Used to be an interim city manager, police chief. Good fella. Said he'd come back for 175 in a company car. That ain't a bad deal. Him and Avery would make good friends. But I want to talk about real quickly before I ride off into the sunset the um the the uh California crossing C. There was a public hearing here the other day about and one of your staff folk uh mentioned that well they asked for a 1.5% CI. So I cred the applications. I've got them right here. I sent them all to you. right in their application it says a 1.9 request and I think I mean if you're going to give yourself 2.0 Oh, at the um hotel. Why not create some consistency? This guy ought to get the same deal that Wefield got dudes what 78 million out there and he's getting better deals than the guy. So, it's just timing. That's all that happened. Tim timing at at California Crossing. Thanks.

All right, last Dale Cushenberry.

Welcome.

Thank you. Good evening, everyone. I'm here in regards to the prop the zoning at 2450 Southeast 25th Street. Last night, um the zoning went from M2 multifamily dwelling to M1A and we feel I feel that we shouldn't have it reszoned for anything, not have the housing put there. My thing is that when when I came to the meeting, I had a feeling that the commission had already made up their mind before they even had comments from the public. Number one, we had people here talking plus someone had called in, a property owner had called in and said they were against the property also. And I feel like that they were ignoring property owners around the proposed project and the project would increase our property taxes. I attend the church apostolic church of Jesus Christ that would be right next door to where the proposed project would be done. Also, if it was done, they would have they would hire a management company and then the management company would hire a project project manager. A lot of times that don't work out. The apartment complexes, they've been failing in Topeka, some of them, and they've been closed down.

What happens if this one fails? and you have to find them. How much money are you going to spend to go after them for them to pay the fine? You're going to have to spend money to get money and you may not get all of the money. Also, that the safety like it had been say said before is congested already. It'll be more congested if they came in and we're not really wanting this project to go through and it said that the neighborhood they had a neighborhood meeting on March the 2nd. March 2nd, we had no idea that they were having any meeting and found out that the meeting was Microsoft team on the internet. How many people have Microsoft team on your on the computer internet also? How many people know how in the neighborhood? We have a lot of seniors in the neighborhood that don't have computers, don't know how to work computers. So, I just wanted to let you know that the neighborhood didn't show because we didn't know that it was even happening. If we knew it was happening, we would have been at the meeting. And I just want to let you know that we're not a neighborhood that will not show up when it's important to us. Thank you. Thank you very much. Just double checking that's the last person I had signed up for public comment.

With that, we will move on to announcements. City clerk, I have nothing tonight. Just a reminder, we do not have a meeting next week. Um, we will see you back at the 1st of April. So, thank you, city manager. Nothing tonight, sir. Thank you, Council Member Kell.

Um, recently we had the Olympics and currently right now going on is the World Baseball Classic. And I have taken so much from watching these events that we have so much division in our country. But when you look at events like this and you see people from all over the world come together, enjoy the experience, enjoy it together. Um, you have countries battling each other right now. Come to an event like this and just sit side by side and enjoy it together. Uh, share their life with each other. And I've actually attended one of the World Baseball Classics. So that's kind of how I know know a little bit about how this goes on. And it's just amazing how an event like that or the Olympics can bring these people together from all these different sides of the world and take the decisiveness out of it. So I think, you know, as as a as a community, as a country, we need to look at some of these things and see why we are so divisive on certain topics and why we can't just seem to just be able to talk about it without having it become a fight. Um because like I said we have so many things like the Olympics, World Cup, World Baseball Classic that bring people together and it becomes a joyous occasion and and these are people from all different types of of backgrounds, different parts of the world and get along great. So we need to find that common ground locally, statewide, and try to figure out how to how we can get along better as communities. Thank you,

Council Member Bradberry. Council member McGee. Deputy Mayor Hoer. Before I say anything, Marcus is online. Oh. Oh, okay. Council member Miller. Nothing, sir. Thank you. All right. Back to you, Deputy Mayor Hover.

Okay. Well, then I'm going to bring up something that he probably would have if he'd remembered. Next Wednesday night, uh, from 4:30 to 6:30 at Marvin Auditorium at the public library, there will be another plan review of the Hunton Street project. Um, we've had three or four so far. This is another stage of it. So, I'm going to encourage anyone and everyone who drives on Hunton, is concerned about our roads, please show up and take a look at the plans, express your opinion because we're getting very close to finalizing the plans and we want to build what the citizens want. So, uh that's all I have. Oh, happy St. Patrick's Day.

Council member Hiller.

Thank you, Mayor. I just have some um some good news comments. Um I'm really thrilled about the changes for the DREAMs program. I worked on that hard with the neighborhoods, but I'm I'm really excited about that refreshing our um our our neighborhoods and the engagement in neighborhoods. So really appreciate seeing that happen. Um, also seeing a a successful Airbnb and people people's biggest problem has been parking and and they worked it out and the neighborhood was supportive and so we we've learned things can pass and have support. It's nice. Um, also Councilman McGee and I carried the city's banner at the front of the St. Patrick's Day parade on Saturday and it was a whole lot of fun and um I've done that for years at least hasn't always been me but usually um since I've been on council and with the changes in Kansas Avenue and the dreams people had about having parades and still having the businesses make money and having lots of engagement. We didn't even have the plaza at first if you think about it. Um they've been playing around with the parade route and instead of starting at fourth in Kansas and going all the way to 10th street and across and all the way down Jackson to Fifth Street, they've shortened that to where people now stage in the Supreme Court parking lot. There's lots of room because people don't know it. Usually there's as many as 200 floats in our St. Patrick's Day parade. They're very popular. So you need a lot of room. But by staging it in the Supreme Court and then kind of snaking people down 11th Street to start at uh at 10th in Kansas and only going down to 7th and across two blocks and disbanding at Van Beern. The crowds were huge. The parade was fun. The um the route worked. Um we've also played around with security for years and the idea of red and white pylons with crime

tape just didn't go over very well with folks. They figured out how to use some very attractive pylons that are tall and green tape and then the police go up and down on bicycles, on foot, um, and on the three-wheelers. Also, citizen volunteers are part of that core. I just want to kudos to everybody, staff and volunteers, city staff has worked on that. The it's not just the St. Patrick's Day parade, it's it's all of them. I think we finally nailed the plan. and how to make it work downtown and just was fun to be there and to see it all happen. Uh so just wanted to uh to give those kudos out. Um also it was really interesting to hear Pastor Sabbert's story about the the background on St. Patrick's Day. Always good to get the real story on things and overall happy St. Patrick's Day. That's it. Council member Valdivia Alcala.

I have nothing. Thank you. Council member Ortiz.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just want to tell our city residents as they are going down Southeast 6th Street to slow down. Please slow down. I think um Braxton said it well. be patient and slow down. We have a lot of traffic going um down Golden cuz they've got California all messed up and Sixth Street is all tore up because they're putting that and we're going to be like that all summer. So, um I'd appreciate it if you would just We have a lot of walkers, a lot of people that walk to the store, a lot of bikers and um I just don't want to keep calling Braxton telling them to come and check those signs. So, please just just just slow down. Mr. Mayor, um last week I don't know what happened to my volume. It's probably a good thing I didn't have no volume. I don't know. Sometimes God will do things like that. But, um I heard you mention about all the Topeka teams that were that made it to the substate. And you were right. You were right. It was it was very um it was very exciting to see all the teams and congratulations to to the Hayden girls who made it and um we were just hoping that some other teams would get in there. Topeka High had a pretty good uh stretch there, but just didn't finish the dance. And um but they had a good season and and and it was good to see all of the Topeka teams that were represented there. So, I wanted to thank you for mentioning that. Thank you.

I thought you were going to say I forgot somebody, so I'm glad I got the list. I was worried there. Council member Banks, we were wondering where Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Just so you know, I'm just to your right. I I wrote it down this time.

All right. Well, you know, I wanted to acknowledge uh some of my constituents. I represent district 4 uh that showed up here tonight to discuss a proposed uh building project uh 20 25th near Golden. And I would encourage those constituents uh to join me in supporting u at least approaching our count our commissioners about uh Dorwood Park. We definitely need some improvements over there. Uh in the summertime, you go over there and drive through the parking lot, you cannot see the players. And I've talked to uh a couple of them in individual settings uh to take a look at doing the parking lot. Maybe consider doing a couple of those diamonds. There are a lot of baseball players over there. And I look at that, then I look at what's happening at the lake and I think to me, we're living in two different worlds.

Yes.

And if we were thinking of competition wise, we would find out exactly what how the hog eats the grass or whatever somebody might say. But I don't think that we're being fair uh in our efforts to improve that area to make it uh a comfortable situation for uh the players that are over there. And at at the next meeting, uh I too would like to sit down as our commissioners talk about those improvements and certainly would be in support of uh working to improve the parking lot and the diamonds. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you.

All right. I got just a few things the mean. Uh first of all, we've made live, if you go to the top.gov page, the budget survey. We we do want input from residents on what our priorities should be as we work through our budget. But we're only going to know that if you go and fill out that survey. So, please take some time to either go to tika.gov. It's right there on the front page. You can also always email any of your council members or my office, too, with any suggestions, comments, or recommendations that you have. Um, among those basketball teams, Hayden's girls basketball team won the state championship. So, congratulations to them. Um, great win on their behalf. That's right. We also had in town this past weekend over 2500 people for Kansas Kids USA wrestling, their freestyle championships. That's a huge event, one of several now that they start to do here. Brings a lot of folks to the Storm Veil Event Center and to this community. So, we're very glad to continue to be a partner with them uh and be able to to take care of all of their needs. Uh I did serve and I was glad to do it at the Barney breakfast on along with uh Chief Long staff over there and some others. And they haven't told we all got tips, but they haven't told us the tally. So, I'm just going to put out there I'm sure I got the most tips, right? Until they make it public, I'm going to take I'm going to claim I got the most tips for the cause. So, um but we'll see. But that was a fun. I was very glad to do it. I I had to serve drinks and I spilled none. So that was my main accomplishment and goal for the day and I met it. And then obviously the parade was great. Good weather helps. Always makes it nice in between these very cold spells. We got a nice wonderful Saturday for the parade. And the last comment I want to make is um my wife's great uncle. Some people in this community still know him. L Wendland turned 100 this past weekend. He was a he's a reverend and he served this community for many many years as a pastor and he's still at Aldersgate. Serves does stuff over there and serves folks over there. So, God bless LOL at 100 years old and I was very glad to be able to celebrate that this past Saturday with him and the rest of our family. So, with that, I believe there is a need for an executive

session if the city attorney would state the motion. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The motion would be to recess into executive session not to exceed 30 minutes to give legal advice and discuss litigation and other matters deemed privilege under attorney client privilege is allowed under KSA 75-4319B2. The open meeting will resume in this room in the governing body chambers. The following staff will be necessary to assist the governing body in deliberations. The city attorney, the deputy city manager, and other staff members as needed. All right, I will move to approve. We have a second from council member Kell. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed.

All right, with that, uh, we will take a 10-minute break, which probably really means 12 minutes. So, let's not be back later than 8:00. We can get back a few minutes before. Awesome.

All right, we have come out of executive session. No action was taken. This meeting is adjourned.