City Council - Regular Meeting

That'd be good.

Good evening. I will call this April 7th, 2026 governing body meeting to order. If you would all please turn your attention to Council Member Miller for this evening's invocation. Please stand if you are able. Thank you very much, Mayor Duncan. Um, it is my pleasure to introduce Pastor Carl Frasier of the New Hope and Love Community Church. Not only does he along with his better half, Lanessa Frasier lead that congregation. He is also the executive director for the Topeka Center for Peace and Justice. Together they have served for many different organizations in our community and by all accounts are seen and heard as solid topica leaders. They have three grown children that all seem to have followed their lead on community based service. And with that, I ask him to bless us with the word we need today. Thank you. Gracious, wise, mighty God who created heaven and earth, we come there before you today with gratitude for the opportunity to serve this city and its people. As the council gathered together, we ask for your presence to be in this room, foster the atmosphere of peace, respect, understanding, and most of all, love. Lord, grant these leaders the wisdom to governor amid conflict interest and the courage to make decisions that honor you and serve the common good. We pray for a spirit of harmony in their deliberations. Enable them to work together and constructed by uh and kindness. We ask for peace in our city and our nation and this world within its neighborhood, its streets and its

horrors of the citizen. Calm the storms of discord. Heal division, guide this council towards action that brings stapability and justice and lasting peace to our community. May their heart be open and their minds be clear. Their action be driven by love for their neighbors. And we trust that this lead to your guidance, seeking peace above all. Amen. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. Thank you sir. All right. Clerk would take role. Mayor Duncan here. Council members Hiller here. Chris Valdivia Aqua here. Ortiz here. Banks here. Kell here. Miller here. Bradberry here. McGee here. And Hoer here. All right, we have 10 present.

All right, we'll move on to item two, appointments. City clerk. A is a board appointment recommending the appointment of Stephanie Lucera to the Topeka Landmarks Commission for a term ending December 31, 2028. And B is a board appointment of Diane Malot to the City of Tika Americas with Disability Act Advisory Council for a term ending April 7, 2028. All right. Any questions or comments on the appointments? All right. I have a motion to approve from Council Member Kell and a second from Council Member McGee. This clerk, if you will take the vote. It's my vote. I don't know if I vote or not.

Okay, we have nine. Yes, the motion carries. The mayor does not vote on this one. Uh, I believe those individuals are here. Will you please stand to be recognized? There they are. Thank you very much FOR YOUR SERVICE. ALL RIGHT. ITEM THREE, PRESENTATIONS. First up is the Topeka Metropolitan Transit Authority update. City Manager, anything to add before? No, sir. Mayor, uh, just uh that Bob Nent, uh, general manager of CMTA will be leading this discussion. Welcome.

Well, but I'm going to go first. and foremost. All right. Good evening, mayor and city council. My name is Candace Styles and I'm the current chair of the Topeka Metro Board of Directors. Happy to be presenting on behalf of the board. And I'm Bob Na, general manager Metro.

So, I wanted to start off by showing what our vision, mission, and values are and how we make our decisions. We have limited funding. So it is really important that we can define Topeka Metro and what we do and how we accomplish the mission of improving the quality of life by providing safe, reliable, responsible, innovative and efficient public transportation to the residents of Topeka. So this is where we start.

There you go. and we have goals. On this slide is our writership for both our fixed route and our lift service. We're happy right now with the use of both of these services. We probably won't see that 2018 fixed route wrership. Again, um our world in 2018 is different than the world we have today. Today, anything can be delivered to your home. You can have a doctor's appointment online. You can work remotely. Those were all possibly bus trips in the past. Um, but those riderships right now are looking pretty good. This is our student ridership. In 2024, our board voted to offer high school students free rides with a student ID. Prior to 2023, 501 was purchasing passes for students to use, but they dis discontinued doing that. Washburn continues to prepay for that service for their students. So, we track those student rides and we are happy that that is a service that we can can offer. This is probably what you've heard about recently is the board has made a proposal to discontinue our microtransit service in May. I want to be clear and upfront that this does not affect fixed route service or lift service. When MOD was introduced in 2023, it was introduced as a three-year pilot. Microtransit was a new tool in public transportation, and we weren't for sure if it would work for us and helping some of our current fixed fixed route lines. We did not have extra money to start MOD. We carved 12 hours of service out of our fixed route to free up the money to try this pilot. I also want to point out that MOD is a premium service in an

overlay of an area that does have fixed route service and we're going to see why the board made this decision is the operating cost per passenger. If we go back to our mission to provide efficient public transportation to the residents of Topeka, we can see that MOD is not a fiscally efficient way to get Topekans from place to place. Before we raised the mod rate from $2 to $6 and created a premium service of $15, the price per ride was $50. We needed to see if the people that were using the service were willing to pay the premium that it costs, but it turns out they were very rate sensitive and so ridership dropped by 2/3. Fixed costs, price per ride went up. The result is our pilot is too few people are ma using the service to make it fiscally viable. Um since we have new city council members since last year, I wanted to do a very quick explanation of how our mill levy got reduced last year. When we had our revenue neutral rate hearing last year, it was before the cities and it was presented by the cities and the public comment seemed to be about the city's revenue neutral rate. Yet you were voting on ours and the board voted that our revenue neutral rate should not be should not be raised or surpassed. Is that how you say it? Anyway, so ours went down from 4.2 to 3.9. so we would stay revenue neutral. I do believe this was an honest mistake though because the council did vote to give us $250,000 so we would not have to um interrupt fixed route service. So I'm very grateful and thankful for that. Um but

it wasn't the the full amount. We're estimating that that mill cut actually cost around 320,000. But again, thank you for the 250,000 to help make that right. A few suggestions that I had last year that I'll just bring up now because why not? I have a microphone. Um is we would like to have our revenue neutral rate hearing separate from the cities and we would like to peek a metro staff to present that hearing if it's possible. So we do have some things that are on our radar that we wanted to discuss. Um the I70 vioaduct project and the California bridge closure are both going to be things that impact metro service. Um we run by the minute. That's where people have a time they have to get to an appointment. They have a time they have to get to a job. They expect us to be at the bus stop when we say we're going to be there. So we stay very sensitive to when there's road closures. Traffic comes into the main routes. those where the buses are, the buses get delayed. Um, there's uncertainty of federal funding. I think the city is also very aware of that fact. So, that's nothing new. And then employee recruitment and retention. While we're doing better at that, again, that's another thing that is on our radar. We did want to end our presentation on some winds that we've had recently. We now have electric vans in service and of course the charging infrastructure to make that work. And we have received four electric fixed route buses that we are going to start in their testing phase. Um I am a city council appointed board member. I have the privilege of riding alongside the staff at Topeka Metro and they keep getting these grants and incorporating new technology to keep our service going for Topekans. Small market metro systems are tricky, but

with focus and dedication, the team at Topeka Metro is a pro is providing a service that we can all be proud of. Um, and I'd also like to say that some of the hours that we're saving from if we do discontinue mod, we can use to deploy smaller vehicles to help when there is traffic disruptions this summer with the road closures. That was in my notes somewhere. I realized I didn't say that, but that is one way we're going to use those vehicles and those service hours to help keep our fixed route service propped up and dependable for those that use it. So, be happy to take any questions. All right. Any questions from the governing body?

Uh, Council Member Bradberry. Yes, I do have a couple of questions. Um, can you tell us a little bit about the um the people who were using the mod transportation that you're considering discontinuing? Bob, do you want to?

Sure. Uh, as as Candace was saying, the premium service of MOD was overlaid on top of existing fixed route service. So all along our intention was to try a new tool which was the mod microtransit service to see if there would be any ridership shift from fixed route to microransit service. So as and when microtransit and mod goes away we still have that same foundation. We still have the same fixed route service that we had out there before. So you know they they'll just shift back over the few that are still riding mod will shift back over to either route four or route five which operate in that area. Can and could you uh explain the difference between that and the route service?

So the mod was ordering your ride and so it was more of a pointto-point within an area. So within the mod zone you could be picked up at your home and taken to another point in the area versus fixed route is bus stop to bus stop. So, like we said, it was a premium service. Um, which is why we had to try and charge to make up the cost for that service, but most of the people that were using it, it wasn't worth the extra $4 when the trip costs an extra $45.

Okay. Thank you. And then I have um a couple of questions on the five-year plan. Okay. Um, when was the initiation of the five-year plan and what are your how are you measuring whether or not you're meeting your goals?

So, the five-year plan started this year. We did some strategic thinking around the strategic plan that was already in place and kind of modified it to we have new board members and we kind of wanted to see what is the direction that the metro we think it should be going. Um which is to support the fixed route service and the people who have to use our service. Um, we really believe that we are here to serve the captive rider, the people who have to use the metro instead of trying to make bells, whistles, and flashes for people who have a choice, who have a car in their parking lot that might use it if it was convenient enough, but don't have to use it. Um, and we have some measures in there to as far as if we're hitting our goals, but we haven't been doing it long enough to to do that part yet.

Okay. Thank you. Thanks, Council Member Kell. Um, sad to see the mod go away. I I actually used it myself a few times, so it was something that I felt was a a nice service. Uh, you had the price per ride since August 2025 is like I think 15184. What was the the price per rider prior to that? About $50. Okay. Um, and we were charging two.

Now, I I would like to see an I kind of thought this an idea prior to uh the mod system because there are certain things I feel that are timesensitive and trying to be on a fixed route sometimes doesn't work. I'd almost like like to see the mod system for students and the mod system for doctor's appointments where they're going to Stormmont or they're going to wherever the VA and it's more of that fixed route that you're going to you have to go to one of these fixed locations um uh and that becomes the mod system.

Okay, that's a f that's fun because that is actually something that we discussed in length like trying to make like grocery routes, right? But the problem is the population isn't in one spot. So then it's like, are we in five different areas to do the grocery route that gets the people from this area to the grocery store and back? And then Bob was like, well, you know, all of our grocery stores are served by our fixed line service. And so we were we were trying to jump through a lot of hoops to maybe we can get people there quicker, but it's not costefficient to do that.

And see the grocery store to me is a lot more that works on the fixed route, but it's like sometimes the doctors like I live at 37th and and uh Truman, how many buses do I have to take and how many how switchovers do I have to do to get to Stormmont Bale and how long does it take me to get there? And then if the bus is running late, do I get do I end up losing my appointment? So that's why I was thinking this could be or such situation as a student needs to get from somewhere to somewhere. This can get them directly from their house to the school or from their house or from the school to their doctor and back uh a lot quicker than a a fixed route might possibly do. So that's what I'm just trying to say is maybe something like that could be more um

it is just very cost prohibitive because if you don't have the people in a central location, you're going to have to add more vehicles to cover more zones to get the people to where they need to be. Each vehicle covers about three square miles. Uh so you can imagine how many vehicles we'd have to have. Uh the the mod service right now is performing at less than two passengers an hour. It's actually less than one passenger an hour now where our fixed route system is about 18 passenger an hour. So you can see the additional cost it would be to add all those vehicles to take care of of that of that ridership.

But as as of right now I think all the all the all the high schools and all the hospitals are outside of the mod zone right now. So that's what I'm saying. This may be that may open something up completely different in that aspect of

uh you know because even I believe after it started the mods don't even shrink even more from the original thought process. So is this I'm looking at my area has a lot of people that don't own own cars uh can't drive anymore things like that. uh and and uh trying to get to the hospital and you're spending 2 hours on a bus possibly may not be the most acceptable thing for them to do. And I understand the world has changed where we do have the tellahalth and things like that, but uh sometimes trying to get to those places and get there on time can be that difficult thing.

Yeah, I think the funding piece is just it's expensive. The real reality is if we had all the money in the world, we drive up everybody's front door and give them a cup of coffee and take them where they need to go. We don't. We still have to use the public's money that we're entrusted on spending the get the biggest bang that we can out of those dollars with an operation like like microransit of $151 a trip. That's pretty expensive. I mean, we can buy people cars in instead of doing that. So, it gets it's extremely expensive. So, we're not saying no, but we're saying it's going to take a lot of money to do it. And and the other thing I I'd like to touch on is there's so many other cities that have at least even one bus that goes till like 9 10 o'clock at night. We have so many workers and even if we can like I said we can just do the loop of of town and just get them maybe from uh let's say Kane's over right next to Sam and Walmart and they get all the way over to the east side somewhere. It at least gets them a lot closer to home and where we have that late night service because we have so many people that work that have to try to find a ride home or walk across town that there's so many towns that at least have one bus making a more wide loop of town. Not nothing, you know, something maybe even cuts across town a little bit, but something that gets gets them a little closer to home that you know they rode the bus to work and now they have to walk home from from work. Uh, I'd look like like to see something like that that

and I've said that more service hours is in our our 5year 5-year goal. Council member McGee. Uh, I do like the idea if going to a full-size bus to a van where you can. That creates efficiencies. My question is actually on that line of thought goes to your licensing. Are all your drivers, do they have the chauffeur's license or do some have a class A CDL? They all have CDLs with passenger endorsement and air endorsement. Okay. Would that be required for those driving the vans?

It's not required, but the way we do our staffing, it is required because the drivers are interchangeable between different kinds of vehicles. So, they all have to have a system. I just thought it may assist you in retention or especially in recruitment if somebody could just if somebody could get that chauffeur's license for the van services. Yeah. You have to have a a passenger endorsement over 16 passengers. So the vans that we'd operate would not be operating with 16 passengers or more. So they would not have to have a CDL. You're correct in that.

Yeah. Uh, but as I say, the way we staff our work and since we only have a certain amount of work that we could staff, it means that everybody has to have a CDL because a driver could be on a big bus one day and a small bus the next day. So, okay. Thank you, Council Member Ortiz.

Thank you. Um, I understand how the funding works. I understand that we have better services than some of our neighboring partners, but they have somebody advocating for them and we don't and we never have and so they get a bigger piece of the pie. I get that from the federals, not from us, from federal. I'm talking federal. I hate to see us give up the mod. I really do. I I I hope that there is a way. Um there are so many people Yeah. They can get on the regular bus and they can go to the store, but that ice cream is melted by the time they take two slips home. It's melted. You talked about that car in the driveway that they don't drive. Look at the gas prices. That's going to be me. I'm about ready to to park my car, not in the garage, but in the driveway and ride the bus. So, there are people that ride the bus. I I ride the bus. Sometimes I'll just write it just to see who's on it, just to see how it's operating, just to see just to see, you know, talk to people and and it's it does it saves a lot of money, but I know I cannot go grocery shopping. I know that. So, I hope that we figure that out because there's a lot of low to moderate income people that are looking at that. And I know we've haven't gone far enough northeast. Um, I wish we we we could maybe with some of the um electric buses maybe that that will work. I'll continue to say that, you know, because I'm I continue to hear that. I continue to see them walking to the store down Golden. My next that's my comment. My question is what are we going to do when the VA comes through there? Are we going to go down Golden? Are we going to have that special route? Have you guys talked about that? uh a lot of what happens when I mean whenever there's road closures the road closures are not the

same every day. So part of we do have some theories and some approaches that we're going to use. They're called early turnbacks and stuff like that where if the bus is not running on time, you can run one a short distance to try to make up that time. We have some approaches to do that. But as I always say about like like the vioideuct, if the vioaduct is they're shut down for a while, it's traffic is just like water. It's going to find the path of least resistance. So traffic is going to go to Sixth Street. Then they're going to get into an intersection there where it's going to be congested and the next day they're going to go to 8th Street or 10th Street or 17th Street and then it's going to get congested down there. They're going to come back to sixth street. So, it's going to start moving around. That's the issue that we're going to have to be reactive to and we can't really have a grand plan and go out there and expect it to work because it's not going to work every day. It's going to change as as the vioduct pro program or project continues to roll out. So, it's it's going to be, you know, just reacting to whatever is happening on that day the best we possibly can to try to keep people, you know, try to keep our buses on time so people can get to work and through their appointments and things like that on time.

Well, well, we do know that that bridge is coming down California and I7 that's coming down and that's coming down for months. It's going to be down and we do know that Sixth Street is tore up and we do know that I think there's some work going to be done on Golden, but my people are are going to probably shoot down Golden and Sixth Street. But again, those low to moderate income people, they catch the bus there at 11th and California and they have that's where they catch it on the north side of I7. And so I'm really concerned what's going to happen with them. Are we going to go through gold and come back down 13th? We need to get that word out and we need to get it out.

We've already been working with housing and everybody else about what's going to happen over there and we'll probably have some temporary stops at different locations to serve some of those same areas. So, yeah, we've we've had those conversations. I thought your initial question was about the vioideuct. That was my first answer. But if it's about the bridge, yeah, we we've got a pretty good solid plan right now. As a matter of fact, we we know that it's probably going to take some more time because it we're going to have to deviate about a mile or so. in a mile or so is time to us, which means we're running late, right? So, we've been working with like Walmart trying to figure out if we can change the way we operate in the area around Walmart and the high school to gain some time back so we can stay on time over the whole thing and maybe make some concessions in other places so we can we can operate better on time. So,

right. And I and I appreciate that. And I believe city manager, the viuck and the California bridge are going to be simultaneously, right? Yeah. And that and that's one of the reasons why they're bringing it down so so that we could get through that. It's going to be a mess. Yep. Council member Kell. Sorry, I didn't mean to. Oh, Council Member Hiller. Um, two questions. One, I think there might be some confusion between the MOD and the Lyft. We haven't talked about the Lyft. Could you talk about the difference between the two or at least the lift service?

Yeah. Well, let me explain a little bit about what microtransit's about first. I don't think we're clear on that. Okay. Microtransit is it's very similar to an Uber lift kind of service, right? I mean, different than a lot of transit kind of includes taxis, lift services, all that kind of stuff.

Lift with a Y and L with a Y and L with Yes, you're right. Confusion. Thanks for clear clarifying that. Um, but microtransit is basically using an app. So you can schedule a trip and get, you know, on an app and get that and go where you need to go at immediate, you know, it's demand response stuff. With a lift, on the other hand, is mandated by under the ADA act, American Disabilities Act. So, in order to use the lift service, which is also using a small vehicle, you have to be certified, which you have to be able to prove to to us under the air ADA guidelines that you can't physically or you can't physically get to a bus route or you can't navigate the system. So, in other words, you'd have a cognitive issue that you couldn't transfer from buses and those kind of things. And there's a third element, which is if our buses were not fully equipped to handle mobility devices, which they all are. So that one kind of goes away immediately. So yeah, the lift service and mod and that microtransit are completely different. One is you have to be certified.

The other is anybody can use it. It's it's more like a taxi service or or an Uber s service.

I just wanted to make sure everybody knew that that was there because that's really significant. It makes a difference for a lot of people. Um the other comment I wanted to piggyback a little on my colleague Councilman Kell. I've always, you know, had this idea that what we could I know that all the businesses that are shift work that are way south in particular in way north have different schedules for crying out loud, but but something that I would dub the midnight special that would go around and pick everybody up and get them home, I think would be I'm glad that it's on your list. Maybe not by that name, but anyway, it matters. Thanks. Don't copyright that midnight special. Council member Valdivia.

Thank you, Mayor. Were you all ever a part of the uh Councilwoman Hillary might remember this with Jada the Noto? Were you a part of that whole thing that never could consistently get off the ground with picking up the late night workers out of Kanza? Is it uh Yeah, we were we were part of that. JO gave 70,000 plus or so dollars to operate that service. We did not operate it. We we basically did the bookkeeping behind the scenes. Uh the service was run by uh Capital City Taxi, which Capital City Taxi no longer exists. It's now Capital City Transportation. So,

so in your long range, this 5-year plan, are you looking at talking with JO about the challenges I'm sure that some of the workers still have out there for that late night? Well, one that's outside of the city. So, um, you know, we're So, you did the book work, but you didn't do

Yeah, basically they a capital city taxi would would send in their invoices us. We would we would monitor the trips and and the cost, all that stuff, and then provide that to JO or to to the partnership, I think, is where the money was ended up lying. Well, I was just I mean I'm just pulling stuff out of the hat because I mean I think it was a real frustration for workers, you know, that didn't have the transportation. And to me, at times there seemed to be a lot of lip service, not by you guys, but by JO and trying to get it consistent. But now we have Uber. So I'm just thinking that that definitely is a challenge. It kind of piggybacks on on Councilman Kell's, you know, the late night riders and you're saying outside of the city limits, but you know, we keep saying that we want the workers, we want the workers, and then, you know, if the workers have any issue with transportation, then all of a sudden it can seem like, oh, bad worker, but the realities are transportation issues. And just a shout out to Candace about being such a trooper last year for that 250,000. You really were. You you went you went to bat as as a a board member. So, thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Council Member Hiller.

Um, just to pick up on the threads of this conversation. Um, I think that that agreement happened maybe Bob before you came, but it J was doing a it was a two or three year trial was what it was. split up the money with the idea that the employers themselves would pitch in and help cover it if the wrership um demonstrated. I I agree with my colleague that you know for us to to have that service such that people who would do well in those jobs could get to and from work really really could make a difference. it might be worth it to um one of the concerns that your predecessor had was going outside the city limits which you mentioned but you all are authorized to go. I think they were concerned that the city council would not think that was a good idea and I personally am open to that conversation if you're wanting to look at it in the future um and and also talk to those businesses about promoting it and so on. And I don't know exactly what happened internally, but um times have passed and we've got more folks down there and so on too.

Well, if if I may, what what ended up happening? Yeah, there was a progression where the first year the trips were kind of paid for by the third year it was going to be on the employers. The employers started bailing in the second year where they had more when they had more skin in the game, they started bailing and so it was not valuable to the employers. But we did go back and set up what's called a transportation demand management kind of thing or a management association. We tried to promote other things and give them direct contact with taxi providers and stuff so they could do that if they really needed that that service and that they didn't even pick up on that either. So we tried a number of ways but it just didn't work.

Yeah. Just maybe maybe the gap in time will help. I don't know. But thank you. Thank you. All right. Anything else? Thank you very much for being here. We very much appreciate the update. Thanks. All right. Next up, city clerk. Our next presentation is from Washurn University Student Government Association.

All right. So, this presentation came about because they called me about a different issue and we talked about that for a little bit and then I said, "Hey, what about this other issue you should come talk to us about?" And so that's why they're here this evening. It's kind of from one conversation to another has led to a presentation. So I will now turn it over to these Washurn students. Let them introduce themselves and take it away.

Hello. I am uh Caleb Newfer. I'm going to be the uh next uh student body president. And right here is Kate Coulter. Um our current student body president. Um so yep. Today we're going to be we have this pretty brief uh presentation. um kind of progressing on some already made uh progress uh by the council and the mayor in the last month and I have it here. Yeah. Uh so as Caleb said, my name is Kate Coloulzer. I currently serve as our as our Washurn student body president. Um I was elected last March and Caleb just got elected this this March, like a few weeks ago, actually. Um, first of all, I want to say thank you for your time tonight. Um, I come from a very small town and my dad is actually the mayor of the small town. It's very small though, so like not I mean it's cool, but not that cool. Um, and so I just want to thank I just want to thank you guys for your time because I know what it's like to be away from your family and to be here listening to uh your people. And so with that, um, I'm going to kind of give you an overview of what our student government association is. So it's called WSGA. It stands for the Washurn Student Government Association. Um our motto is students serving students and if you interact with any of our senators uh you will see that through their actions. Um we have 34 seats in our senate and then we have 10 cabinet members or 10 executive uh who serve our student body. It is a campuswide vote that happens every spring or we also have open seat applications that happen throughout the year. So it kind of depends on when people are interested on joining our association. Um, like I said previously with our motto, student serving students, we focus on meeting students needs and listening to what they need and then being the bridge of student voices to the university administration and making sure that we're listening to students and carrying that voice to the administration while also listening to the administration and giving answers to our students. Um, we manage the student activity fee. We host lots of big

events. Uh, we actually put on our university homecoming this year and I believe that we took that back underneath our belt. Um, we also did Woo Fest, which is a campuswide event that focuses on getting students engaged and plugged in early on. And then, um, other smaller scale events. We go to the capital, we advocate for higher education. And, yeah, that's kind of what we're about. Awesome. Um, so I'm going to talk a little bit about some of our current relations that we have externally focusing in Topeka. Um, that being primarily internships. Topeka has great internships. Um in fact actually our vice president is back there and she is actually taking an internship with you guys this summer. Um but that is a really cool opportunity that students have. Uh this past year our past President George Berdict got a crosswalk in the process between McVicker and Washurn University that kind of road. Um there is uh fraternity and sorty houses that live on that road. And so we want to make sure that our students are able to get to our campus very safely. And so there was a whole thing done where that is now in motion. And then we also have a lot of city officials who come and visit our campus. Um I know I've been in a few classes where they come and present and they talk about all the cool things that they're doing and how it impacts students. And so um those are just a few ways of how uh our campus interacts with Topeka. So, um, the first thing, uh, I'll talk about is the, uh, the city of Witchaw currently has a youth advisory council, uh, that is focused on generating ideas to improve young people's lives. Um, and we'll get to that in the next slide, but recently now, um, Topeka has one of these as well or, uh, is in the formation. It was announced that, uh, there would be a youth advisory council. And so um beyond that it's uh they have different I know there was an idea of getting subcommittees of that council um and all

those things to focus on certain policy aims and uh with that I think uh we'll go on to the next slide. So, uh, the city of Topeka has created, uh, one of these councils already. Um, and this is an great improvement, um, in terms of getting more young people involved. you know, getting these uh kids involved in civic engagement and getting them focused on what their city and their local officials are doing and maybe away from some of the uh the things going on that uh at the federal level and more towards stuff that is really affecting their day-to-day lives and they may not realize where they can really make a a more impactful difference here and their local government. Um so next slide and then see if we can so we we want we are here to advocate for uh the creation of a young adults council essentially. Um this would be uh here to serve uh college students. Um and uh I mean beyond college students just young people in uh the Topa. Yeah. Mic I push it. Okay. Here we go. um the uh young people within Topeka. Uh because I with the same um problem that might happen to the kids in Topeka, you know, young people often feel like they may not have an invitation to the table or may not be included in the decision-m um but really they have just as much of a right as any other citizen to be included in it. And I think creating this council could be a step to both influence them with the policy making and the decision- making of the council.

Um but also uh show them that you know civic engagement is for people of all ages. Um I I don't foresee this being particularly controversial given the creation of the the youth advisory one uh just recently but um that that is our main advocacy point here is the creation of a young adults sort of advisory board or council.

Yeah. And I think a benefit of this would definitely be retention. I know that whenever you feel like you belong or you have a stake in something, you feel the need to serve that stake or be more involved or get more involved. I know that I personally felt that at Waterman. I mean, when I first got involved, I ran as a senator and here I am as president because I just felt like I belonged. And so, I feel like whenever you create that opportunity for people to get involved, especially young adults, they'll take it because they love their voice being heard. Um, but they'll take it and then they'll run with it and they'll get more involved and that will increase retention rates, especially for youth in a city that's as amazing as Topeka. So, yeah. With that, thank you. Uh we will stand for questions.

Yeah. Council member Alivia Alkala.

Thank you, Mayor. I think it's wonderful what you're doing. I started out as a non-traditional student back in 95 and finally got my degree, which took forever. Uh our grandson currently is at Washurn on, you know, from Topeka and has a 4-year scholarship um to go to Washurn. But I think that it is really important that even if it's a youth advisory and not specifically Washburn, that you all, and I'm sure you will, work really hard to get folks that are interested in government, whether they have a political science background, whatever the case may be, is to understand there is the need for young people to learn more about local government. It is much easier at times to focus on the state and obviously you know my love was for you know at the at the national level in political science but to understand and for that retention that you're talking about because whether students stay or whether they leave if they can learn more about their local government they could end up being future leaders because it sounds cliche as hell but you guys are the future. I mean, you know, people get hear that all the time. So, I think with ambassadors such as yourselves and having other people interested at Washburn, this could really be something momentous if you're really down with working hard and really learning and pushing to have your voices heard. Not just coming up with things and okay, here it is. pushing for them to be heard and to become hopefully a part of policy. Thank you, Mayor.

Council member Kell, thank you for showing up tonight. Um, I know what you do is very important. I was on at uh student government at Highland Community College and then at Peru State and and it's nice when you can get to that point where you can help shape your campus and then the area around the campus. Um just curious on on your student government is Washurn Tech a part of that or is that completely separate?

Yeah, so Washurn Tech is actually not a part of our student government. Um and neither is Washurn Law. So Washurn Law has their own student government and they are a very interesting group if you ever get to interact with them. Would encourage it. They're great people. Um but Washurn Tech is not um they don't get charged a student activity fee just like the Washurn law. They get charged it but it goes to their own uh student government. Okay. cuz it's a little interesting because I think sometimes you guys are separate but you're under the same umbrella. So it's almost like a little bit of division there where it almost I'd like to see maybe where even if you just have one person from each group join your group it can at least show where how you guys go along. Uh I love the the youth advisory council. To me it's great for retention to stay in Topeka but I've said for years I'd love to have a program called student to staff where at the high school level it's people that want that necessarily don't want to go to college that can come in entry level but also then we can work with a Washurn Washurn Tech Washurn Law uh to try to get some of our our higherend positions to be filled especially we're always looking uh it seems like we're always looking for engineers and things like that. So, I'd love to see some of our our need positions and then that's where we can work as a city to say, "Hey, here's our needs to our campus and then that can translate possibly because I know a few schools have seen what the needs are in in m municipalities and they've actually geared their their uh their educational system to that. Um, so, uh, that's something that, you know, I think as as the youth advisory council, I think should look at is something where the retention is staying to speak, but also the trying to get them to, uh, work for the city and and try to get those things to help out because there's needs throughout throughout the city. And uh it's it's something that not only does it help our city government, but then it also help all of our businesses that we try to attract because if we're not

having the retention rate, then we're not attracting the businesses to to stay here. So or even to come here. So, thank you very much for your time tonight. Council member Banks.

Thank you, Mayor. Uh, being a Washurn graduate myself, I'm thinking about starting out as a a government major at Washurn. And when I go there now, things are so different than they were in the 80s. And of course, you know, things change. But when I heard you mention retention, is that like how you get kids from this city to stay in this city or move on to different cities and how do you do? I mean, what exactly how do you reach out to them? Um well, yeah, that it would be to uh keep those young adults and everything from moving, like you said, you know, out of the city of Topeka. And uh I think a great way to do that would be to I think a lot of it relies on career prospects and what kind of careers do they have in Topeka? What's their future look like in Topeka? And um so I would say, you know, I I can't I can't list off like exact uh industrial policy or anything that the city could pursue necessarily right now, but anything that could incentivize um young people who have career paths where they may be already uh kind of being just the way things are led out of Topeka by the career they've chosen, maybe incentivize programs Um obviously those sort of programs may may be costly but um those sort of things where you can incentivize these businesses and these industries to start hiring these people uh you know um within uh Topeka. I know a great way that you can do that is hire them while they're in college at Washburn because the Shaun like if

you're in Shauny County then you get it's a lot uh more cost effective to go to Washurn and then if you're at Washurn and you're being hired by a Topeka uh company or business then you have that incentive that uh you're here and you're working here to stay in college so or to stay in Topeka uh if you're already working um and working on your career. into PA before you've graduated college necessarily. So I I feel like that would be a pretty good way to to hold that retention. But

yeah, I would agree with that. I also think like the sooner you can engage them I think you I mean even at the university level the sooner you can engage them and you know like get have them get a job on campus job or a job here or you know get them plugged into an organization of a sort they feel the need to stay especially if they feel connected to it because then they feel like they have some sort of connection and they you know you want to stay where you have connection and so I think making them like catching them young catching them early is very very very important um that's something that like we at Washurn we call it weeks of welcome It's like the first I want to say eight weeks, 16 weeks. It goes till homecoming. That's the weeks of welcome. That's how long it is. And essentially that is your time to try and get a student involved before they what they call melt off or melt away, which means that they are open to looking elsewhere. So I would encourage, you know, especially what Caleb said, getting them plugged in young is very very important, especially like a first job for a college. I mean, I'd be intimidated intimidated to quit my first job. So,

well, I came here from Chicago and I stayed because it's so our city is so different than where I grew up. Um, Washurn itself, the classes were uh of such that I I learned a lot there. I would not chose I would not go to KU or over Washurn or any of those schools. But being a student at Washurn and an athlete at Washburn, I look at how Topeka High students, Highland Park students do not get the opportunities to be uh talked to about our council or advisory uh committees, whatever you guys are on. We just don't get that. And I think that as the new guy or the outgoing lady, maybe stop in at Highland Park at Pika High and talk to those kids. I don't know if you do that now, but I know that there would be a great deal of interest if we started to promote our school. You you look at the adults, most of them go to the KU game. A lot of them may not even realize how deep our school went this year in the MIAA tournament. And I think we should have won it, but you know how those things go. So, if the adults are not interested in what's going on governmentwise in our school and our city, it's going to be difficult to uh get our young people involved unless we decide to go. Certainly my position here on this council did not have anything to do with what I did at Washburn, but what the

city did for me and my family is what got me here. But I think that it certainly would be a good idea if we had an opportunity to visit with those young people in those schools. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Is it okay if they go to Topeka West? Also, no. Council member Hiller.

Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to pick up on something you mentioned at the beginning of the presentation, and that was internships. Uh I saw Professor Saunders that in the back, I can see her face finally. She was behind somebody, but love her. She's got probably 12 in interns in our neighborhoods. And if if our my colleagues on the council didn't know that, it's very exciting. It's a two-way street for sure. having them contribute to anything from ideas to labor to getting things moving in our neighborhoods, but correspondingly um learning what that's like literally boots on the ground. In prior years, we've had um events like neighborhood cleanups that were specifically Washurn Student Government Association linked with the central Topeka neighborhoods looking for opportunities like that through the city or otherwise. I certainly encourage also with the idea I I love what you're presenting, but thinking about the kinds of of fields that people at that are students right now would be looking into and and suggesting, you know, I don't know that it'd be so much through us. We have a forge young professionals group through our um local greater Topeka partnership that's very interested in attracting and keeping young professionals here as well, but looking at whether it's manufacturing or financial services industry or whatever it might be and um reaching out to see if we can find placements for students if they don't already exist. I think we're really open to that as a as a city certainly, but as a community.

Yeah, absolutely. I will also say that this past weekend, she's actually in the room. We have a director of special events. She's in the back. Hi, Amaya. Um, okay. Yeah, if you want to like wave or something. Yeah, there she is. Absolutely beautiful. Um, she put on an event that is called the big event and essentially it's a campuswide volunteer event where anyone on campus can sign up to volunteer and she had I can't remember how many entities us uh volunt or offer spots to volunteer at. Um, I know we both spent our Saturday morning last weekend volunteering and so, um, yeah, but 100% agree. Council member Miller,

I make this very quick. Um, you minimized it earlier, but uh, it sounds by the way you you speak that you're well on your way of being the next mayor of Eureka, Kansas. Am I correct? Oh, no. You Wow, you did you did a deep dive. So, shout out shout out to Steven Coulter. Steven Coloulzer. That is my dad. Father. There you go. All right. Perfect. I had to do a uh funny story. I had to do a mock uh campaign in one of my senior year government classes and my campaign was to be the mayor and my slogan was keep it in the family. I love it. I love it. I did not actually run though. Council member Bradberry,

thank you both for coming to present um this evening. I really appreciated you guys coming in and speaking. Um I do have a couple questions. If you if the advisory council were to start today, for example, what would be your vision? How do you see the advisory council engaging with the community and the council? Uh yeah. So I'm I'm not entirely sure as to the current one that's being formed uh the youth one for the high schools. Um if if that's up and running or if that's still being formed right now. Still being worked out.

Still. Yeah. Um in Witchah they've had one since Carl Brewer was the mayor. And um they basically pull for uh from different high schools and they will get a a couple high schoolers and then uh they kind of decide a policy to work on and they work there with the kids to um uh go through how exactly this policy would work, how they're going to promote it. Um I know there was the idea of subcommittees. I'm not too sure as to if that ever came to fruition, but to work on different policy ideas and and the kids would sort of uh self put themselves into those groups. Um, and I imagine a a youth or a young adults one would work very similar to that. um where they are, you know, you you get people maybe from each council district uh or or wherever. And you can have them decide on like three policy, you know, topics that they would like to pursue. and then they can go down and work through individual policy points and sort of work it out with policy experts or people who are knowledgeable on the policy to then hopefully create something that's actually uh something the city could admin administrate and everything. I would also say that like I know I personally like if this were a thing, I know I personally would be probably highly interested if you can't tell by my personality. Um, and so I would I would think that even just the exposure alone to what each of you guys do and how local government really works, like I'm in a local Kansas local government class right now and I'm learning so much. I had to watch Parks and Wreck this past week if you guys have ever seen that. Um, and so anyways, I feel like just being able to be in an office and get that type of exposure is honestly a great thing. And so, yeah,

thank you. I I do have a couple more questions. Um, what would you do to engage young people um and get them interested in becoming involved? And what would be a priority? on your group. It was um for the uh for the youth ad like what would be the priority for the youth advisory council or the uh potential like young adults one I think for your for you for Washurn students for correct for Washurn students.

Okay. Um, I mean, I imagine, you know, when our student government was involved in, uh, and with the city for setting up that crosswalk, uh, it would be something like that because it it's never usually, uh, super controversial. Obviously, cost is always a factor, but sometimes it's just, uh, bringing up something that, uh, people may not know about. um not because the council is not is not accessible to those people, but they're typically just starting out in their education or their careers. They're not to the point uh in their life where they would be so civically engaged as to know how to go about advocating for something like that. And of course, once they get to that point, they have other concerns. And so it's more so inviting them to sort of share their ideas on things, see how it can be fixed, and then they can sit down with with people who are knowledgeable in policy and uh have some possible like feasible uh solutions to those problems. Um, I I I guess I I wouldn't be able to to speak on what exact priorities they would have uh since I would uh hopefully ideally that would be up to the potential advisory council to sort of decide what kind of things they would like to focus on. Uh cuz it could be anything from transportation to, you know, what what should we do with this space? Uh are what kind of capital improvements can we make in this area? what's your opinion on this current policy that's going to be seen by the council? Things like that. And and they would then decide and and give uh input and hopefully come to some sort of um decision.

Thank you, Mayor.

Okay. All right. Well, just two things. So yeah, this kind co like many things one of the things that did not sustain itself as co came and went was that Topeka did have a youth commission for a period of time. Um so Forge has said they would like to have some interest in in helping to move that forward again and the conversation we're now having is exactly what's been talked about today is obviously the needs wants and perspective of someone if you're younger than 18 is very different than you're older than 18, right? And so mixing those two is probably not the best in terms of making sure that each of their their needs are focused on as you go forward. So I think the conversation we're having is how can we kind of have two different groups that are providing us that input so we're hearing all those voices and not one drowning out the other or prioritizing over the other. So so that's the goal and hopefully in the coming months as I continue to have that conversation with Forge that that's where we'll end up. And so I am confident this is not the last conversation we'll be having with you as a governing body and certainly out of the mayor's office. Um, I always say Washurn does half the work for us. They get them here and they get them to stay here if they're from here, right? To to continue whatever their life path is, whether it's through the technical school or whether it's through the larger campus. And so where we need to pick up the slack is making sure that we can increase retention because if you talk to most students who come to Washurn or stay here, if they especially if they're not from like we loved Washurn, we love the city of Topeka, but now we're leaving. Right? And that's that's a fault of ours at times for not engaging in some of the things you guys have talked about tonight. Making sure you're involved in the community from day one to your last day here. So it's it's either really hard for you to make that decision to leave or we've provided you that opportunity uh to stay here. And so I think that's a really important thing. We we have the benefit of having a university and a technical school with almost 7,000 students and we're we need to keep as many of those folks here for for the future. So I appreciate that. That's why I wanted to have this conversation tonight. And like I said, I know it won't be the last and so thank you very much for being here this evening.

Yes. Thank you. Yep. All right. We'll move on to item four. You can all settle in the consent agenda while the city clerk reads.

Also, before I get started, I want to bring to your attention item 4F or 4 L, I'm sorry. It's the resolution for the imminent domain. Um I have handed out a resolution that has the correct project number. Everything else in the resolution is fine. It was the project number that had um was a typo. So if you all accept it in that manner when we get done with reading the consent agenda, if we'll have a motion to approve the consent agenda as amended. All right. Uh A is an ordinance introduced by city manager Dr. Robert Perez allowing and approving city expenditures for the period of January 31 to February 27, 2026 and enumerating city expenditures therein. B is a resolution introduced by council member Karen Hiller granting the Celtic Fox an exception to the provisions of city of Topeka code section 945150 at seat concerning noise prohibitions. And then items number C through K are resolutions introduced by the public infrastructure committee recommending approval of project numbers 281255 phase 4, 281298 phase 4 and 2813004 phase 1 for the riverware uh crest capped installation and rescending resolution number 9718 as further described in exhibit A. D is a um recommending approval of project numbers 281215 phase 1, 281307 phase 1 and 28138 phase 1, 281337 phase 1 for the Montter South Tower project as further described in exhibit A. He is recommending approval of project numbers 84104 phase 2 and 84106 phase 2 for street improvements on Waker and possible additional locations as part of the pavement preservation program. F is recommending approval of project numbers 841099 phase 16 for street improvements to Northwest Lower Silver Lake Road from Northwest Gage Boulevard to Northwestville Avenue. G is recommending

approval of project numbers 84 1099 phase 15 for street improvements to Northwest Pika Boulevard from Elmro Avenue to Mine Road. H is recommending approval of project numbers 84 1098 phase 5 and 51125 phase 3 for street and storm sewer improvements to the Shadywood West neighborhood. I is recommending approval of street traffic signal and utility improvements to southwest PA Boulevard from 29th Street to 37th Street. Projects number 701038 1410 38 phase 1 1410 38 phase 2 uh phase 3 50 1125 phase 6 uh 281300 phase 8 291129 phase 5. J is recommending approval of project number 84 1099 phase 5 for street improvements to northwest Kansas Avenue from 1st Avenue to Kansas River Bridge. K is recommending approval for street improvement to the revised location of Northwest Tyler Street and Southeast 25th Street under the 2026 pavement management program project number 841099 phase 18. And L is a resolution introduced by city manager Robert Perez authorizing initiation of imminent domain proceedings to acquire temporary easements for the sanitary sewer rehabilitation project on Southeast 10th Street Indiana to Lafayette project number 291129 phase 8 m are minutes of the regular meeting of March 17 2027 and there are no applications.

All right. Do I have a motion to approve as amended? I do from council member Banks and a second from council member Bradberry. Kirk will take the vote.

Okay, we have 10. Yes, the motion carries. We will now move on to action items. Item 5A, city clerk. A is a public hearing regarding the petition by the city of Topeka relating to the vacation of a public street rideway for Southeast Kfax Street line north of Southeast 31st Street and an ordinance introduced by city manager Dr. Robert Perez relating to the vacation of a 60 foot wide public street rideway for a segment of Southeast Kfax Street line north of Southeast 31st Street within the city of Topeka Shauny County, Kansas.

City manager. Thank you, mayor, members of the governing body. Dan Warner, our planning director, will lead us through this item.

Thank you, city manager, mayor, governing body. This is a vacation request for an unimproved uh section of rightway for Southeast Kax. Uh this request was um made by the developer for Johnson Johnson Mets Johnson Betts Meadows. That's the multif family project to the west directly west of this. So the vacation helps facilitate the affordable multif family development immediately to the west. Scent Inc. and James and Alicia Brooks are the only property owners impacted by the vacation. If the vacation is approved, each will receive a portion of the rightway kind of based on their how they adjoin that rightaway. The Brooks property is the long rectangular property that's immediately east of that highlighted rightaway. Uh that property um has and will continue to have access to Southeast Adam Street. Um the Brooks have expressed their objection to the vacation when staff met with them a few weeks ago. Um no objections were expressed by reviewing agencies. staff recommends that the governing body hold a public hearing and approve the proposed vacation if they see fit. Happy to answer any questions. All right. So, as this is a public hearing before we have discussion or question anything, we will open the public hearing. So, at this time, I will open the public hearing and ask if there is anyone present who would like to speak to this matter. speak to it, but how much you planning to pay for them to take their land.

Ma'am, if you need to if you'd like to talk, if you'd like to address the council, you need to come to the podium. Oh, I didn't know how that worked. Yep. You'll have the four minutes. Uh okay. You'll see the clock in front of you. It'll beep once at one minute. How you were planning to uh take the people's land without their permission or staff not paying them for that? That's all I was wondering. So to that, can you explain what a right of way is and what piece of property is that? I'm I'm talking to staff so that everyone can understand what this piece of land is, who who currently operates it, owns it, and what what a what this is.

Right. Can we go back to the image or the presentation? So that portion of rightway that's being vacated, as I mentioned earlier, if it's vacated, each owner will get a portion of the rightway based on where they are fronting it. So it's not necessarily going to be a half and half, but it will revert to all the adjoining property owners. So again, scent and James and Alicia Brooks will get the rightway that's being vacated by this action. Um, that's the that's essentially what'll happen that they will get that land. That's part of that vacation.

All right. Is there anyone else present who would like to speak to this matter after the fact? Councilman, you've got a hand. Yep. If you'd like to speak, just come up onto the podium. Again, you'll have four minutes and it'll give you a beep at one minute if you need that long. So, please introduce yourself and the time is yours.

Thank you. Appreciate your time. My name is Jill Rice. I have a couple of different hats, so I'll introduce all of them so you fully know where I'm at. Um, I am scent operations director. I also live in the Highest neighborhood. I am our High Crest NIA president and I'm the executive pastor for Fellowship Highrest at our church. So, a few different hats, few different roles. I think primarily today I'm going to be speaking from our NIA. Um, they've been highly invested in this project. um working alongside scent um working alongside the developers that have come and visited with us um given us all of the information on the project. This is 176 units of apartment complex uh that are reserved 101 of those units reserved for zero income. Um get to partner with Topeka Housing Authority with this is an incredibly important project. Um my understanding is that no one is losing any land, but the the rideway is being vacated to the property owners on either side. So people are gaining property. Um we're just choosing the city is choosing not to put a street there because there doesn't need to be a street there in the future because an apartment complex is going to be sitting there. It'll be an entrance way into an apartment complex. Um, like I said, from the NIA's perspective, this has been a decadesl long request that something be developed on Fremont Hill in our community. Um, that addresses affordable housing needs for our community, uh, that addresses land that primarily sits as an empty field or, uh, trees on it that gets a lot of trash dumped on it. um to be used for something that's actually going to bring reinvestment into our neighborhood and revitalization into our neighborhood. So um really important

piece of work that we want to see happen and go forward and just here to support that and show u show that support. So thank you for your time. Thank you. All right. Is there anyone else here at this hearing that is present that would like to speak on this matter at this time? All right, ma'am. Can you please come up to the podium and introduce yourself? So, everyone else, you have four minutes.

Hi, my name is Trisha McCort and I am a High Crest resident. I also work for Scent. I am the addictions counselor at Scent. Um, I would like to speak on um behalf of being a resident in Highest and um there are way too few um housing opportunities for individuals in the Topeka community. We have a lot of individuals that are struggling with homelessness or un live in uninhabited um buildings, if you will. And the fact that scent is willing and able to bring this apartment complex to Topeka, to the Highrest community, um will benefit so many families. um especially with it being both low to moderate income um mixed income which we know is um the healthiest uh way to build community. So thank you for considering

Thank you. All right, one more time. Is there anyone here present who would like to speak to this matter? Again, make sure you introduce yourself and you have four minutes.

All right. Good evening, council. My name is Jonathan Sublet and I am the founder and executive director for Scent, Inc., this project is one um that was held in the dreams of our community a long time before I ever arrived in Topeka. Seeing housing on Fremont Hill and other development um has been something that has been attempted several times and we're getting the opportunity to see it come about. This is really important. Also, as a part of this is important that people are heard. Um as we spoke with the development team and those leading this, we wanted to make sure that happened. And so we made all the attempts we could to make sure we spoke with our surrounding neighbors and land owners. Um we tried calls, we tried people who had um relationships and even myself going by their place of business and different things of that nature to saying we're not we don't want to force you into anything. We simply want to hear if there are objection objections or anything else. We want to hear those and we want to be able to work through those. We want to make sure you understand what's happening. um whether you want to split the land the right away um when it's vacated or if you have um objections to taking on an extra piece of land and we get the development team to pay you for those because I spoke very clearly um to the development team and said if the rightway is split as is designed to do when vacated then they should be compensated for that also. Um neither of those choices were taken up and after the multiple attempts to try to arrange a time that's um sending emails, phone calls, making visits or saying whenever it's convenient for you to speak, I'm willing to listen and having no return and no options. And so um this was our last hope of coming this way to see this

done, but there was no other way of seeing this done. and we got to just the end point and so we're going through this process. We hate that the council is in this position to have to make this decision. Um, and we know that there's always going to be different feelings around different things like this that bring tension. Um, but our hopes are that this would go forward because we do believe that this is in the best interest for our city as a whole. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Is there anyone else present who would like to speak to this matter? Ma'am, again, make sure you introduce yourself, please.

My name's Alicia Bulocks. I am Bullocks Brooks. Um we are the owners of the um the the site. They're talking about the ement. I guess we're not the owners. We're we're splitting the ement. And I'd just like to say that we weren't contacted till it came down to this easement. is probably the only reason we were contacted. We had no idea that they planned on building the threestory 176 uh apartment building right behind us in a very small it's not a very large area. So a compact area they're going to put this building up. So I don't know that I think the only reason it came to my attention was that it was the Eastman. I hadn't been contacted. my husband was contacted as business, but it had already gotten to that point where that's the only reason that they needed to contact us because of that little sliver of land. So, I guess you know that the plea that was just entered to y'all, you need to understand that we did not know until we went to downtown to talk to the uh the folks at the the city,

the city planner. So all of this is a is uh so this is just phase one and then there's another phase for some some commercial space um right behind it. So we go from having you know and it's just us and the Jeffersons and I don't think the Jeffersons were contacted. I don't know but um that's a huge disruption. There's there's not been anything. We I mean the the plot we own was what we still have the documents from 1800s. So there's not been anything there, but they're going to put that concentrated area in that small space. So that's my concern. So I mean this decision I don't think is that big, but I mean it's just an easement. I'm not contesting that part. the whole point of putting such a large area um of apartment buildings right behind us and then also a commercial spot. I just feel like they should have at least come and talk to us then when they were talking about doing it. So I just wanted to very clear the air. It's not me being petty. It's just, you know, if it's truly a community, you should have come and talk to us uh well before this point. Thank you.

Thank you. Is there anyone else present who would like to speak to this matter? Last call. Yes, ma'am.

Hi, my name is Amy Copasty and I'm the senior development director at Scent. Um, I just wanted to say that my husband and I moved to Topeka just over 9 and a half years ago for employment purposes, my employment. And um, one of the things I very quickly got involved in and learned was Topeka's homelessness issues and initiatives. And I got very involved in that work. And that work has been very important to me in my life. And I know that we've had consultants here come and give us plans and there have been different conversations for years and years and years about our growing um homelessness issue. So the idea of affordable housing is not controversial. It's a national problem. It's not unique to Topeka. It's not unique to Shauny County. And I'm very fortunate that I have employment with an organization that prides themsself on community development and making sure that everyone is treated with dignity and respect and worth. And that's what this project represents. It represents a a place where there's multiple levels of income and zero income. zero income to get you in some of th those housing options. And so I would just encourage you to think about this. I know you will. I appreciate your time and I hope we can move forward with this project for the greater good of our community. Thank you.

Thank you. All right. Is there anyone else present who would like to speak to this matter? Sir,

good evening, mayor and governing body. My name is Trey George and I'm the president and CEO of the Topeka Housing Authority. Um, THAA, Inc., our nonprofit, will be the general partner of the entity that will own Johnson Bets Meadows. Um, long term. Um, my only point that I wanted to bring up tonight is um I I would like to apologize to the Brooks um if they felt that this was not done in appropriate manner. Uh we follow the development process that we do with the city where everybody gets notified I believe within a 300 foot radius of the development project. Um I was at the neighborhood meeting. I don't believe y'all attended. Um but our intent is to never have bad neighbors. Um our intent is to be good neighbors. Um I reached out and I spoke with Mr. Brooks and I explained that um as well. And so I'm I'm sorry if they feel that this was not done in a way to speak with them ahead of time. Um, but I can assure you we made every effort to contact them and discuss the options with this. Um, and I would I would love the opportunity to speak with you later. Um, because we will be long-term neighbors and we would like for that to be a uh equal and and agreeable partnership. So, thank you all for your time.

Thank you.

Is there anyone else present who would like to speak to this matter? All right. One more time. Anyone else present who would like to speak to this matter? All right, with that I will close the hearing. Turn it over to the governing body. Council member Ortiz. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, this is kind of a awkward situation here. Dan, um, did the Brooks state why they didn't want this? I I heard them saying they weren't invited. I heard them saying I mean I know where their properties that they put my sign out there every year. And um so I I I've been out there. They're in town but they got that outtown feel. So that's why I'm asking the meeting with planning staff. I don't believe a specific reason was stated um at that meeting for the objection, but I there was a sense of just general objection to the vacation at that meeting. So it wasn't like um h

Mr. Mayor, you closed the public meeting, right? Public hearing is or the public hearing, not the public meeting, the public hearing. You are welcome to make any request you'd like to make. Council member, is it appropriate, Nick, to ask Mr. Brooks and Mrs. Brooks why they're opposed to it? If if they're willing to come up and speak to that, I think you could ask. Well, and she said they weren't. She said they weren't, so that's good. James, do do you feel comfortable coming up you and your wife stating why you're opposed to this? Could you could you do that?

I know. Well, from what I understand is they want to take part of our vacation, our property, and uh split it down the middle. And me and my wife were concerned that possibly there would be a road put through there which will run, you know, pretty close to our property. And you know, we we were just concerned about the foot traffic. Um it's it's already a pretty high crime area. We lived there for over 20 years. And and when stuff starts creeping in, just like the other day, somebody robbed the um laundry mat and helicopters and everything were coming through our neighborhood and the person ran through there. It just it just let us know that, you know, we have granddaughters and children that come over all the time and we're just getting a little bit concerned about, you know, what this is going to bring if we were to get a road that went through our property.

So, I would say that um like I said, it was a small easement and you know, 50/50. We started getting these letters from people from I think they're from out of town or out of state. I don't know. But they were asking emails.

Yeah. Well, you got emails. I we got letters just constantly. And we also own other property that we're that are on the planning commission for other things, you know, that not near us uh where we live, but so we get those things and we kind of I kind of mixed it up sometimes. But the fact that now uh the gentleman that was just up here saying I wasn't at a meeting. I have been at a meeting uh when they showed initially um the plans for the not for this thing behind us but it was more towards uh the deeper highest area. I grew up in that area. I was a victim of that area. It's it's closed off and I was like all for it, you know, like you're going to build it up. you're going to remove some of those houses. You're going to open the park area. And I'm thinking as I'm looking at the the things, it's back there. I don't hear that. They're talking right behind us until the easement came up. So, I don't know if it's just us against I'm not against the easement. I was we were literally just notified that they're building this thing right behind us. And so, you know, to say that they they have uh reached out to us They didn't start calling until it came down to a vote of whether or not y'all were going to allow the vacation of the easement. So that's not genuine to me. If you really wanted to get a hold of us, obviously you figured it out, right? So that so I don't know if it's just against this easement. It just came up to us uh once that became an issue.

Thank you. Thank you. I I just wanted to hear that and I think I'm titled to hear that hear from you guys. Are they the only ones Dan opposed to this? Is the Brooks? So there's only two property owners involved with the vacation sent. That's right. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Dan, the property that we're talking about around their property, what is it zoned for currently? Does it need to be reszoned before this project is done? And how long has it currently been zoned in its current zoning?

We've recently gone through a a reszoning, a PUD amendment uh for that property uh last year. So, the zoning's been satisfied. We're in the process of site planning and and those sorts of things. Okay. So, so the planning commission and we approved that last year, went through that process of notifications and reszoning and Okay. I just want to be clear about that. Uh, Council Member Kell.

All right. So, this area concerns, you know, three of us up here, myself, Councilman Banks, Council, Councilwoman Ortiz. Um, Irest is a very active neighborhood and I is very active in that neighborhood since has been very active in that neighborhood. Um, and this is something that I know that's been wanted for a long time. And uh, it's a it's a neighborhood that's on the upswing. I remember when I first moved to Topeka, it was something and I live block two blocks away from Highest. I'd hear gunshots almost every night. And now you barely ever hear it anymore over there. Um there's there's things going on with the dreams and other things going on in that neighborhood that's getting little things slowly but surely making that a better neighborhood to for the people that have lived there for a long time and to attract new people to live there. Um something that's desperately needed in Topeka is uh low to moderate income housing. And it's uh I wish there was something we could do right now to allow people to be able to buy homes, but right now the banks aren't giving money out to do that. So people need apartments and with the need to have an apartment drives up the part uh the rental um right now. So we're we're people are looking at unreasonable rents. So we definitely need some low to moderate income housing. Um, I' I've seen the plans for this. It doesn't look too exorbitant to me. And this was a couple years ago when I saw the plans. Uh, and it's something maybe that um can be looked at a little bit harder, but this is something I think that will be good for the neighborhood. And

that's a large large area of land in that area. So hopefully it's something that um the neighborhood and scent and the developers and everyone involved can work together on this to try to make this the best for the whole entire neighborhood. Um I know it's not the easiest neighborhoods to drive through because there's times I drive through it and I get lost in there all the time. So it's one of those things of uh you know I think we need to make sure we're looking at traffic traffic and that kind of stuff also. But um to bring up I unfortunately uh you know the the thing that was brought up was the the um robbery at the laundry that happens all over throughout town. If they would have gone north it would have been you know wouldn't have been that big of or south that would have or sorry north that would have been not big a thing but they went south and then went through high crests. So people are going to attach high crest crime all that kind of stuff. So, um, I think it's been, like I said, a neighborhood on the upswing for the people, but also for what's been happening in that neighborhood in the past when I moved moved to my house 20 years ago. So, uh, it's something that I will definitely support, and I know that uh, people there and and the organizations around there have been working really hard to get something like this done.

Council member Vald Divi Alkala. Thank you, Mayor. Um, can I ask Trey some questions? Hi, Trey. It's good to It's good to see you and good to know that, you know, this is something that you've invested y'all's time in. But hearing the concerns about how packed it is and it's going to be 176 units,

we definitely know we need housing. We know we need to be more aggressive as we can with the built for zero program. Um, you know, just thinking about built for zero. Historically, the way that it is meant is, you know, if you have housing, they really recommend not so much um apartment style housing. But, you know, at this point, I just think we need to get people off the streets, offer them the wraparound services that they need, blah blah blah. But my specific question, since I don't recall seeing the plans, how tight is this this building that you're talking about, is there going to be space that people are going to be able to go outside and and have an area where they can, you know, relax? Or is there going to be the ability for there to be movement? or is it going to be a space created where there is and not this isn't any slam on any THA. I'm just talking in general the way that apartment complexes can end up being feeling so compact of where there's going to be a squeeze fill in this which to me ultimately can lead to a feeling of rustlessness in the tenants.

Yeah. No, it's an it's an excellent question. the the development site for this particular project is just under 10 acres. I think it's 9.78 acres and so it's fairly goodized site. Um if is it possible to bring back up the site plan? Um to your point, the the way that the development was put together and this was done through neighborhood meetings. There was input that was um gotten from the NIA and other uh neighbors that were interested. Um and it was it's been rearranged a couple different times. Um, but I don't know if you're able to see that. There you go. So, um, what you're looking at is the the buildings are surrounding a larger green area in the middle of it. And in the center there will be a playground. There will be, um, lots of open green space with a community center that has uh, rooms where families can utilize that space. They can have birthday parties there. They it it was intended to be a larger outdoor kind of living room area um, in the center of the development. And we put all of the streets and the parking around the backsides of the building so that it was a safe place for families and kids to be able to come out and play in the center of the neighborhood. To the uh north um what is shown um just beyond the parking that you can see before you get to the larger grassy area um is just an open play area. Um and then beyond that is uh land um that the Brooks referred to as a potential phase two. There's talks of that. Um it's nothing that's guaranteed. There's nothing in the works right now, but there there has been plans or there has been discussions about what could potentially go on to that land in the future. But until a time when that happens, that would continue to be open space. It is there are some um still some trees down in that section. The the site largely will be clear of a lot of the trees. Um, but one of the things that um that our GM team has talked about and we would love to talk to the Brooks about is understanding that they're going to be the closest neighbor to that. Is there a way that we can

provide a buffer or or something to be able to have that be a more um agreeable uh backing up to their to their um neighborhood or to their um land. And then I really like what you're talking about about the expansiveness because obviously whoever has been involved in all this understands how confining it can be. I think about you know when THAA was the at one time the property management going into kind of a bad situation all the way around with the motive power place. It is just so tight and they have very little area to do you know to do anything. So it seems to me that there is a thoughtfulness in approach with planning this. Now what is THA's exact involvement with this again?

So uh THAA Inc. will be the general partner and the reason for that is that we are uh placing 106 of our vouchers at the property. Okay. And so what that'll do is it'll guarantee rental assistance at that property specifically for a large portion of the homes. Um, and it's the the first time we've done that to where our vouchers, typically our vouchers are housing choice vouchers, so they're allowed to go wherever. Uh, we're taking 106 of those and placing them at the site to guarantee that the site would remain affordable for all income levels. Okay. And remind me of who the developer is.

Uh, it's uh, Meznner Hobby Development. So, Mezzner is a a company that we've worked with a number of times. They helped us build Echo Ridge, Tennessee Town 2, and Yubara Place 2. Okay. Um they've worked with other entities in Topeka as well. They've partnered with Hoppy Development. Um and particularly in this one, Mesner has a I won't get too far to the we have a specialty in 9% tax credits. Hoppy has a specialty in 4% tax credits. And this is a development that was made possible with 4% tax credits. Um both federal and state um credits. So it sounds to me like you really believe in this project.

Absolutely. Um when when we talk about this has been a a goal for a long time. Um we THAA worked with the mission when they were originally um in the Aendelia center under Net Reach and we talked about development on Fremont Hill at that time. Um and we've continued to work with Scent. We we property manage we managed property for Scent uh for their single family homes in the neighborhood right now. And um this is the largest development that we will have done to date. It is something that we have spent a lot of time and effort on and something that we feel very passionate about. Um, and set will be providing all of the supportive services. Um, that's one of the things that I'm super excited about with this development because it's the first time that we have had an intentional partner to be able to provide services to the families on site. And part of our mission is to successfully provide housing to the families that we serve. And that success takes a tremendous amount of supportive services. And that just continues to get more and more important on a daily basis.

Absolutely. So it sounds like again a lot of intentionality here. I hope there's some way in the capacity that you have to be able to work with the two neighbors for some type of wholeness as whole as anybody can be in this type of situation. But I I really believe, especially with the need for that zero income housing, we desperately need that after having viewed a number of camps uh about two weeks ago, which just dropped my jaw tremendously. So, I can see myself supporting this. Thank you, Trey. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Hiller.

Thank you. And thanks to everybody for the conversation we've had so far. I guess hopefully to bring this down, please correct me if I'm wrong, and I'm looking at the Brookses here, that the issue at stake this evening is vacating that ride of way, therefore guaranteeing that there will not be a street going through there, which is something that was important to you all if I if I heard you right. Correct. Yes. Yes. So, so with all the change and it's hard when you've lived in a kind of a country situation to all of a sudden have it developed, but if the

we weren't alerted to the fact they were doing it until it came to they had to cut me off to get permission. Just wanting to make sure that that the issue of of the day today is to vacate this piece of it was up there a minute ago to to vape vacate this par part of shared land. So and just give it to the the Brookses on one side and to the development the highest development on the other side guaranteeing that there will not be a street. Is that correct to some degree? That's correct. Dan, what's the

So, that is correct. There won't be a a street there in the future. It's possible there'll be a driveway for the development in the future, but there won't be a public street extending north from 31st Street. That's being v if if approved, that will be vacated and given to the adjoining property owners. Well, and if if it's vacated and it's split down the middle, then if there is a driveway, it will be on the scent side of it. Correct. Not on the Brooks's property. Correct. Correct. Yes. Thank you. Just want to clarify, Council Member McGee. Thank you. Um, the vac the vacation is this for setback purposes?

The request came from the Johnson Betts Meadows developer. They requested that the city lead this vacation of that right away, but it's a needed it's a needed for setback. Correct. Thank you, Council Member Hoer. Deputy Mayor Hoer, sorry.

Um, I'm somewhat on the same wavelength. So there will be from the looks of the one page that we had the map it looks like they will have a drive on their portion of it. Will that be and it looks like it might go up even further. Will there be any more right away that needs to be vacated further to the north or is it just this portion is the only portion we had for KFax? That's the only portion we have for KFax, Councilwoman.

Okay. So, there won't be any kind of a street further north. It just might be drives for the apartment complex itself. Correct. Okay. And I do appreciate Treyer um bringing up the fact that you're going to work to try and help screen and um kind of a sound barrier type and visual barrier. I appreciate that. That helps. That's all I have.

There any other questions or comments for staff or anyone else at this time? Do have a motion to approve from council member Kell. Oh, Council Member Banks.

Thank you, Mayor. As I sit here and uh we go over this, um, of course, the Brooks are friends. I would call them friends and the other neighbor uh involved is also a friend. It's a a really difficult situation, but you know, when I think about what we're trying to do in this city as far as growth is concerned, I don't I'm not sure Uh whether the Brooks or the Jeffersons were contacted or not seems to be uh thin line there. Uh we all know they should have been if they weren't. Uh this has been on uh the NIA agenda for couple years now. We've been talking about it. I don't recall seeing either the Jeffersons or the Brookses at any of those meetings. Uh I'm not saying that that's the catalyst to making this uh more comfortable for everyone, but you know, being a council person for district 4 and understanding how important it is for us to attempt to grow this city and meet the needs of people for growth. We've got to look at these projects. Although we need to be sensitive to uh the people that live in the neighborhood, we need to be sensitive to how they feel about their privacy. But we still got to think about the ultimate income, the ultimate outcome is to certainly provide growth to this city and make it so that uh people that do not have opportunity to um add to the growth have that opportunity. I'm thinking as we talk that if we could get

more people in homes, of course, that grows our revenue and give people an opportunity to feel good about having a nice place to live. Now, I've been in this neighborhood or near this neighborhood for many, many years, and being a firefighter in this city, I saw a lot of things going on over there that are not going on right now. And it makes it really tough when you have someone uh or a family saying, "Hey, this is going to infringe upon our privacy or our ability to maneuver in in our own space." But, you know, I would say we certainly need to think about the city now, our growth. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you,

Dan. Outside of this action that's in front of us here and the next item on holding a hearing on RHID, are there any other phases of this project terms of its design or development that will need to come back before this council or those steps already been done through the planning processes that were done last year? I don't believe anything else from a planning perspective is coming back. It's administrative review of you know, site plan and building permits, that sort of thing.

Okay. Well, and the only reason I bring that up is it won't give us another chance to have this kind of conversation unless we have it. But I think the message we've all been very clear about this evening, and I know it's being heard, and I'm hope it's being received, and I think it is by not just planning, but by Trey and Sent and the developers is any action that can be taken as this project move forward to alleviate those concerns about the closeness of the development or any buffers or zones that can be put. I think that message at least from this body has been please we expect every effort to be made as this project moves forward to to make that accommodation and so that's my ask I think because I think that is on behalf of the governing body that I I think has come across this evening. So so I know they're all listening and so we're appreciative of them hearing what these concerns have been this evening. Um so with that we have a motion to approve from council member Kell and a second from council member Bradberry. Oh, any other comments or questions? Yep.

Thank you mayor. I I just wanted to ask this. If there are future phases of this type of development and there were requested incentives for those future phases, we would have similar conversations. That's correct, city manager. So, if we're talking about developing the property further to the north, that would likely require a zoning change and some incentive discussion. And Sure. And I think one one more point, there are u standards in our zoning code that would require that buffer as well. uh from this project to residential. So, we'll work through that uh through the site planning process. Thank you. Thanks, sir.

All right. With that, if there's nothing else, I will ask the clerk to take a vote, please. Okay, we have 10. Yes, the motion carries. With that, we will move on to action item 5B. City clerk.

B is a resolution introduced by city manager Dr. Robert Perez providing notice that the city is considering establishing a reinvestment housing incentive district for the Johnson Betts Meadows development, adopting a plan for the development of housing and public facilities in the proposed RHID and establishing the date and time of a public hearing. City manager. Thank you, mayor, members of the governing body. Leah Boling, our economic development director, will lead us through this item. Thank you, Leah.

Good evening. So, you just heard a lot about this project and the vacation of Kfax. So, tonight I am here to ask the governing body approve a resolution to set a public hearing for phase two of the Johnson Bets Meadows RHID. And to recap for the district overview, the governing body last saw a resolution 9706 that was adopted back in August of 2025 for the first step of the RHID process. Following that approval, staff sent the request to the Kansas Department of Commerce requesting approval, review, and uh acceptance for creating the RHID. staff uh received that approval on September 10th and started to work with the developer, received their housing plan and conducted a financial analysis. The RHID team uh review team reviewed and assessed that financial analysis in the but four test and concluded uh that they would like to move forward with negotiating a development agreement. As a reminder, the project location is there at Southeast 31st, east of Fremont Street. It's in the High Crest neighborhood. The area in blue represents the project area that we are discussing this evening. So the project details at this time, the project is estimated to be $53.5 million, 176 units. These are affordable rental housing units across three buildings ranging from 1 to threebedroom units, including a park and community building. As you heard earlier, 106 units will use vouchers from THA. 61 will be 40% or

less AMI, 27 will be 30% or less AMI, and 88 will be 60% or less AMI. This evening, we're asking the governing body to adopt the resolution to set a public hearing for May 12th. After you conduct the public hearing on May 12th, we would ask the governing body to approve an ordinance to formally establish the RHID district and then make a motion to approve the development agreement that we will have negotiated by that time with the developer. With that, I will stand for any questions.

Questions or comments from the governing body? If not, because this is just setting a hearing, I would make a motion to approve. We have a second from council member Bradberry. Either comments or questions before we vote. If not, then I would ask the clerk to take the vote, please.

Okay, we have 10. Yes, the motion carries. All right, with that we will Thank you, Leah. With that, we will move on to action item 5C. City clerk. C is a resolution introduced by city manager Dr. Robert Perez, authorizing the disposal of real property located at 11:21 Southeast Quincy Street, pursuant to Topeka Municipal Code, section 3330.

City manager. Thank you, mayor, members of the governing body. Braxton Coffee, deputy city manager, will lead us through this item.

Thank you, Governor Body. Uh, first item will be the disposal of 1121 Southeast Quincy. Um this is a um our ask is going to be to allow us to engage a commercial real estate broker to um look at this property, analyze it, provide us with their estimate of the um listing price and then to go out and market the and market the parcel. Um, the policy and finance committee did recommend approval of this item with our request to engage a third party to market the property. The parcel we're talking about is the 10 lots of real estate and the above ground storage tank as well as the underground storage tank. These have not been used as part of our distribution system for more than 26 years. Uh the utilities department has absolutely no objection to um disposing of this parcel. Um it currently is a used as a parking lot. We generate about $2,000 a year from that parking lot. It's zone D1, which is our downtown zoning district that allows for a wide variety of uses, including commercial and residential. Um, our staff came up with a a value of approximately $2,500. The county has it um their value for the purpose of appraisal for taxes is $28,000. The um the the leases are monthtomonth. Um I've already covered the above and underground of this property will absolutely be marketed as asis where is uh so the city will not be expected to

bear any cost of the removal of the of the tower from the site. And with that I will stand for any questions. Again, our ask is simply to authorize the disposal to allow us to engage a broker to market this parcel. Um, any deal would be potential deal would be negotiated and be brought back to you for a decision. So, you will see this again. Council member Ortiz. Thank you, Braxton. We have a lot of housing going up right there. Yes, ma'am.

Are we not going to need this parking for that or I mean there's a I every day I kind of every other day I try to go through there and it's just growing. So what about and I know that you have to have so much parking when you build your apartments and all that but will we need this for that? So certainly um I would expect that the broker will get offers from individuals who will want to be taking advantage of the union tower to purchase this and market it for parking, whether that's to put a structure on there. Um this the ask came in from a a a developer slash entrepreneur um who has property in that area for this parcel as well as a couple other parcels looking at it as a possible um get it on the tax roles and have and possibly generate income for him. So I absolutely expect that we will see some potential for that. But at the end of the day, the governing body needs to make what's the best decision in terms of the highest and best use for this. How do we maximize the amount of money that we have? Um, is there a potential beneficial reuse of that tower? Maybe they can maybe someone has created to come up with a way to to turn it into into housing. Um, it is a pretty substantial lot, so there an opportunity to subdivide that as well. So, uh, again, our goal is to try to get this property that has been off of the tax rules for many years to engage a broker. Let's see what offers we get and bring it back to you to make that decision.

Have you steered them to that white building down there with no windows? We So, okay. So, just to be clear, we're talking about the parking lot basically and the land that the tower is sitting on. That is correct, sir. And the tower. Do we own the grass in between that parking lot and 12th Street? There's a there's a square grassy field lot right there. Also, next to it be parcels 391. No, I don't think we're we're not talking about 391 through 385, right? We're only talking 380 for 381 to 363.

So, you're talking about the grassy patch immediately to the east of the tower. Yes, that goes over to 12th Street. Yeah, that is um so the underlying fee would belong to this, but that is uh platted rightly, sir. No, between between the sidewalk and the back of curb. I'm talking about 391, 389, 387, 385. We don't Oh, no. We don't own that, sir. We don't own that grass either. Any of that. That's the area on the screen. It's the area bounded in yellow. Yeah, that the one next to it, right? Okay. We don't own that grass. Okay. No, sir. I didn't know who owned that. So, okay. Thank you.

Any other questions for staff? All right. Do I have a motion to approve? I have a motion to approve from council member Kell and a second from council member Miller. There's no other questions or discussion and I will ask the clerk to take the vote.

Okay, we have 10. Yes, the motion carries. All right, we'll move on. Oh, maybe we'll move on to action item 5D. City clerk. D is a resolution introduced by city manager Dr. Robert Perez authorizing the disposal of real property located at 307 Southeast 12th Street pursuant to Topeka Municipal Code section 3.3330.

Uh city manager.

Thank you mayor, members of the governing body. Braxton CPPley, deputy city manager will lead us to this item. This is disposal of another tract of land currently owned by the city, currently not generating any um income and taxes for the city of Topeka and um not being uh put back to a beneficial use. Our ask on this is to declare the property surplus and give us the opportunity to convey it to the Topeka Land Bank. Uh the Topeka Land Bank obviously is their preeminent charge is tasked with taking properties and redeveloping those for use for affordable housing. The policy and finance committee did recommend approval of this item for surplus and conveyance to the Topeka land bank. This particular tract is zoned M3 which is a high density multifamily use. The size of the track itself um will only would only accommodate a single family residence, but the size is sufficient for a single family residence. For an M3 use, you would have to um acquire adjacent parcels to be able to develop to that to that density. Our value that we estimate is $500. The county has the appraised value at $350. You will see just to the south that there is a parcel that is outlined in blue on this map that is roughly the same size as the yellow tract. The blue parcel is already owned by the land bank. Um and again the ask is

for you all to declare it surplus. So, we have the ability to go to the land bank and ask them if they would like to acquire this parcel, to take it in their inventory, to market it, to try to get it redeveloped for affordable housing. Gladly stand for any questions. Questions, comments, motions. Council member Ortiz Braxton. A while ago, I don't remember how many years ago, they bought up a whole bunch of property around for the water tower project. Is this part of that?

Um, no ma'am. I'm not sure why the city of Topeka own owned this. Uh there was actually a a developer um that speculated purchasing many many of those lots all around the water area. That developer was who entered into the agreement with the principles uh for the union tower. So a big chunk of his property was conveyed and was part of that. So, I'm not sure what the history was on this particular track, why the city why the city owns this one. Thank you, Council Member Hiller.

Um, I do think that this is in my district as a lot of this stuff is, but if you go through there, particularly with Union developing, there are um you can see there are some houses. It's but there are these these couple of sites for instance I think with the development now to infill on those particular sites in an appropriate scale which is what the zoning or the the size of the lots is going to require could be just perfect really so I would support it.

All right we have a motion to approve from council member banks second from deputy mayor Hoer. Any other comments or questions? All right, clerk, take a vote, please.

Council member Ortiz, and council member Bradbury. Brian says I voted as well. My vote is yes. Okay, got it. Okay, we have 10. Yes. All right, we'll move on to action item 5E. City clerk. E is a resolution introduced by city manager Dr. Robert Perez authorizing the transaction of real property owned by the city pursuant to Topeka Municipal Code section 330 through 310. City manager.

Thank you mayor, members of the governing body. Braxton CPPley, deputy city manager will lead us through this item. So governing body, a few months ago, we came before you and we asked for your authority to surplus the property to allow us to engage a broker to market this particular trap. Uh we did do that. The broker um has marketed it. They came up with a listing price of 250 $215,000. The broker did receive an offer of $215,000. Um, as I told you when I was here before that any decision as to the sale is vested in you and we would come back to you with the information uh and lay it out in front of you and see what you wanted to do. And so this particular tract is the surface parking lot at Fifth and Jackson. This parcel is um fully paved. It is zoned D1. The estimated value that our staff came up with was 255,000. The county appraisal has it listed as 2144. The broker came up with a listing price of 215,000. And uh part of that in terms of the the listing price and what is before you reflects the um fact that the site has recognized environmental concerns. Um and that includes uh a this site was used to be the law enforcement center. So there was a underground storage tank on this site as well as there was a long history of vehicle repair being made on this site. on adjacent sites. There was also vehicle repair as well as uh dry cleaning. Um we did have a limited site

investigation done in which we took soil samples and had those analyzed in a lab and that showed that there were uh volatile organic compounds total petroleum hydrocarbons in the mid to high range as well as there were eight different metals that are identified under RECRA which is federal law relating to the resource construct conservation and recovery act including arsenic, barerium, cadmium and chromium. Chromium being at a level higher than the state of Kansas risk level. So, I bring all of this to your attention because the offer for the property is to continue to use it as a surface parking lot because the cost of remediation of the site would be um substantial. Hence the the the city's historic use of it as a parking lot and the developer wants to continue to use it as a parking lot. Um the $215,000 Dale $215,000 sales price would generate net proceeds to the city of approximately $21,000. So, we also did a costbenefit analysis and we basically said, okay, if we were going to continue to use it as a surface parking lot for the next 20 years based on the annual revenue and expense, we would look at an annual profit. So, you take the net present value of that and that would be about $448,000 over the next 20 years. If we sell the property and then they the new developer

operates it as a surface parking lot, we are going to only net about $900 of real property taxes paid to the city each year plus the sales price. So you take the net present value of that over the 20 years sales price plus the small amount of property tax we would be getting and you're looking at $232,000 in terms of the net present value. So the bottom line is the staff's recommendation is based on the fact that the developer wants to purchase it and then continue to operate it as a surface parking lot. Financially, it is in our best interest to continue and have the city generate that because we're going to make far more income, almost twice as much income, than selling it and only getting a small amount of taxes. The decision to buy and sell real estate is vested in you. It's not vested in me or the city manager. And so that's why we are here in front of you to say we marketed it. We have an offer. Here is the offer. Our analysis based on cost benefit is to not accept this offer. And so that's our recommendation. And my ask would be that you not approve the sale of this parcel for the use as a private uh privately owned parking lot. Now, if we get another offer that someone is willing to come in and do multi-million dollar investment that's going to generate a million dollars of taxes a year because they're going to build a high-rise or a mixeduse development, then we will do the costbenefit analysis and I guarantee you I will have a different recommendation for you. But given the facts that we have and the offer that we have, my recommendation is financially it's in our best interest to continue to keep this and operate. So, with that, gladly stand for any

questions. Council member Kell.

All right. Um, I honestly think that the expense cost is low because I'm just looking at it right now. It it looks like it needs to be redone and then you said over 20 years or let's say in 15 years it needs to be redone. So, it's going to cost a lot more I think than $11,000 in expense over that time frame. Uh, plus also if KDHE or the feds come to us and say, "Hey, that needs to be remedi remediated." That's on us and like you said, that's a costly endeavor. So, I'd rather unload the property, let someone else take it, and they take the risk of the remediation if that comes forward in the future because at that point, we may not even be able to get rid of that property if we wanted to. So, uh, I look at it this way that, um, I've kind of been saying for, uh, about a year now, I think we need, honestly, we need to get out of the parking business. We need to let other people take care of it. Uh, we're losing more money than we're making on it. So, uh, I I truly believe let's let's get rid of this property. Let someone else take the risk if there is a a call to remediate it in the future. Um because I think this going to cost us more in the long run over that 20 years than what's what's on the table right now which uh there's a lot of uncertainty over the next 20 years what could happen. Thank you.

Yes man.

Thank you. Um Councilman, I'd also like to point out though um especially with the with the hutch coming on that's going to take up some downtown parking. the if you if you think about it in the long run the downtown parking stock is going to decrease with the creation of that property. So I mean we also need to think of it and this is probably two blocks away from where the hutch will be. So we need to keep that in mind that the demand for parking will increase as the stock decreases. So I I just want us to look at that as well uh in the decision of this. I I think most of those people will want to go indoor parking, not uh open lots and uh you know blocks away. So, we're going to go.

Council member McGee.

Uh, to me, this property sounds like a good candidate for the brownfields program and also the underground tank removal program, which helps on the cost of removing those tanks and and taking care of the contamination. And that could either be done by the city's current owner or by someone else if they were to own it in the future. So those programs are available. I think we ought to look into utilizing them. Sorry to clarify that the underground storage tank was removed, but the fact that there had been an underground storage tank rose to the level that became a recognized environmental concern, which is which is what triggered the limited site investigation for actually doing the soil samples.

Yeah. Well, I think it's a good candidate for the barrel fields program. Thank you, Council Member Miller.

Thank you, Mayor. Um, a couple things. If we had previously said that we will market this to be sold and then it's picked up to be sold and then we try to backtrack from that, would that be good business or bad business in your estimation? So, I would say that in the best interest of the city that um we should look at that cost benefit. I mean, I I'll tell you that right across the street from there, uh there's a developer who's come in and from out of town and and purchased uh the building on the south west corner of Fifth and Jackson. Um, and if there's an opportunity to have that developed um to something more than just a parking lot, then I I think that we would be best served looking at the best use of of the parcel. Um, as mentioned, um, we previously received an offer for a part of the parking lot, which is why we even looked to surplus it at the onset of this. Um, and again, we marketed the entire parcel. Um but again in looking at the costbenefit analysis I think that we need to we need to protect and and do what's best in the interest of the city. Uh again, if somebody comes, as Braxton mentioned, if somebody comes later on down the road, I would rather be able to develop a structure or something that would really generate some property taxes and potential sales tax um versus, you know, selling it to somebody who's just going to maintain it as a private parking lot, especially when we I mean, we generate, I think, about $45,000 a year in parking revenues at that lot. So, I mean, I'd rather us look at the longer term um the longerterm benefits to the city uh than just than just selling it uh for the same

use. I can understand that. Um my second part of that question is you you with the analysis that we've done, you came up with some environmental problems, okay, some issues. Um, is there something that we can secure from the developer or whoever has made that initial agreement to buy it? Um, some cost that can be done and sent to make sure that we mitigate some of those environmental concerns.

So, the conversations that I've had with the broker that's representing that prospective purchaser because there is there is an offer to purchase. We have not entered into a contract because that's why we are here to get your agreement is they are aware because we fully disclosed the phase one environmental as well as the phase two which is a limited site investigation. They know that they have no plans of excavating any of this, getting into it and possibly having extreme costs in terms of mediation and so they plan to just leave it capped with asphalt and to continue to operate it as a surface parking lot.

Okay, that part of it concerns me greatly. Um, okay. Thank you for that information, Deputy Mayor Hoer. What is the current um occupancy for that lot? Is it 50% full? 75% full. I've driven fine and I know it's not completely 75 approximately 75 stalls that are leased out on that 75% sorry. So we've got some room to increase the number of people parking there. Correct. Okay, that's what I wanted to know. Thank you.

Okay. So, a little bit of clarification. The resolution before us tonight really has nothing to do with accepting or rejecting any offer. It's only to allow the city manager to enter into the agreement with Coldwell Banker to market and sell this property. I just want to be clear about that because we're not making any judgment tonight as to if we take a vote yes or no as to whether any offers at this time should or should not be accepted. Can I clarify, sir?

Yes. approximately three months we were in front of you and asked for the authority to allow for us to enter into ana contract with a broker to market this property. So that has been done. What is in front of you is a offer to purchase and if the council approves to votes to approve that the city manager would have the authority to sell the property and you would be giving us the right to sell that property because I when I was back in front of you 3 months ago I told you we're here to have you surplus it and give us the ability to market a broker. This is truly the decision to sell the property for $215,000, which is the offer at hand. And staff's recommendation based on the costbenefit analysis, is to respectfully not do that. And that's why there is a policy decision here. It's your decision to make. We're giving you the information. I fully understand that there are environmental issues. There's issues of having marketed it. There's all of those issues. that you guys need to take into consideration as the the political body. Right.

Okay. Just for future reference, these need to be written better because the proposal before us tonight is written as you want us to authorize this. I'm not talking to you personally, Bracken, but the way this was written, I think they they felt they needed to do that and have us vote no.

I understand, but I just think that needed to be clear. My my follow-up question is, did we do this city manager, did we do this costbenefit analysis before we put this on the market? Because I mean I think some of our concern isn't whether we prove this or not is irrelevant. It's that we're going to put something on the market and tell people we want to sell it for $215,000 and then turn people down when they make us a full offer for a property we have listed for $215,000. I mean at some point that's a little disingenuous on our part to to to promote it that way. I think that's the concern you're hearing from a couple council members.

I I and I absolutely will take ownership of that. The costbenefit analysis could not be done until we had an offer that a we knew what the amount of the purchase price was and b what the proposed use was because this would be a completely different costbenefit analysis if someone came in and said they were willing to pay $500,000 for the lot and they had plans to build a fivestory mixeduse development that was going to generate $750,000 of real estate taxes a year. that costbenefit analysis based on that offer would be completely different s and we did have Caldwell Banker did both a uh comps analysis right as well as they did an income based on just a mythical business in terms of what that would be and that's how they landed on the $215,000 which was their recommendation to us as to what price to list it at. So, if we don't approve this tonight at this time, will the property still continue to be listed with Coldwell Banker for the sale price of $215,000?

Yes, sir. Unless you

So, if somebody comes to us and says, "I want to build a new property there and I'll pay you $215,000." We're going to say, "Okay, regardless of what that is, even if it's a half a million." I mean, nobody's going to come in and offer us twice the amount of money we're asking for because that would be quite frankly a little idiotic on their part, right? I mean, so even if what they're going to build is better, I understand that the costbenefit analysis when you add the property tax element is different, but what we're generating revenue-wise at this point isn't going to change over the period of that. So that's all I'm saying is we're basically deciding we're really marketing this as someone who wants to build something there and if you're interested in just keeping as a parking lot, the message needs to be probably not going to accept your offer at this time, right? I mean, is that more kind of the message we're sending? That that absolutely is the message that if you want to continue to operate this as a service parking lot and make a full price offer of 215,000 the governing body is not interested in pursuing that because it doesn't pencil out in terms of the costbenefit analysis. Now if someone comes back to us and says they want to build a fivetory mixeduse development on there that has commercial and that's we reasonably estimate is going to generate $500,000 taxes a year. That's going to be a different a different analysis. Now, if the governing body also says, "We think that we should just operate this as a surface parking lot in perpetuity and don't want to continue marketing it," we're staff. We'll follow your direction. Right. But this the sole item in front of you tonight is whether or not you want to authorize the sale of this property to this third party who has made an an offer of $215,000. Okay.

Council member Hiller. Um, I was only going to point out that that with the change with Hutch coming in and the change in parking arrangements on the 100 blocks east and west of Kansas Avenue, um, there is already more pressure on parking, alternative parking lots and parking spaces in that area and people are expecting that to grow. So the 75% rate will likely be 100 or even oversold if possible in fairly short order for what that's worth. Thank you,

Council Member Miller.

Thank you, Mayor. Um, I want to say that I appreciate the work that the staff has done on this project. That cost of benefit analysis is is extremely important. My concern which I it clearly is shared with others here if we don't have that upfront to people when we make those ask or we we give it to Codewell Bank and whoever to to to market that property or any property in the future. We have to be very clear about what our intentions are in doing so. Cuz if somebody makes a request to purchase that and then we go like you know what nah I don't think so. not not for what you're wanting to do. And then we say, "Okay, well, you want to do that? Well, sure. Maybe I'll make this a little more favorable. I'm not saying you guys are doing anything to fairies at all, but it just looks like terrible business doing it that way." Now, maybe those conversations were had before they made this offer. 100% agree. If that's the case, then cool, we go forward. But I have a hard time believing that's the case. So like like mayor said, whether we approve it or not is not the point. How we do business in this realm is extremely important. Um thank you

council member Valdivia.

Thank you. Um yeah, it just doesn't smack of um being uh thorough and complete and above board with what the intentions maybe as they changed once that costbenefit analysis was even though you needed to to know what the offer was going to be. I would say that the way that it is written here is extraordinarily confusing. So before a vote is made, I would ask someone to clarify exactly what a no vote would be because I think I still have the impression that if this person or entity that offered the 215,000, I'm going to tell them no because they don't want to do anything to it. But so they're being scrapped, but we still want it out there. So would that be a yes vote?

So I guess city attorney or city clerk, who wants to clarify for us what a yes vote, what action leads to a yes vote and what action leads to a no vote on this item. Uh thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'm pulling up the actual uh agenda item to see how it's worded within the uh it's a resolution authorizing a commercial real estate contract. So that is the resolution. So So the resolution authorizes the real estate contract. So a yes vote would be in favor of the of agreeing to the offer that particular offer. That particular offer. So a yes vote would direct city manager to accept this offer and sell the property.

No. A no vote would mean at this time not to sell it to this individual. Doesn't mean that individual can't come back and we can talk to them later or anyone else, but not to sell it at this time to this specific offer on the table. It is a rejection of the offer that is presently put before. Okay. But it's still going to be out there at 215,000 for somebody that may want to do something with it and make an offer that is more palatable to the city. Yes. Morel, wouldn't it be I put in for the motion. Would it be off of what I have the motion though? Like vote. Trying to say what how we're going to vote on something is we need to know what the motion is first before we know what a yes and a no is going to do.

Well, we'll get to that in a minute. But since you hit the button as opposed to made I will tell you right now and let's make this clear moving forward. If you hit the button, I'm going to assume that that is a motion to approve exactly what's in front of us. If you have a different motion you would like to make, then you need to make that verbally and vocally. Otherwise, we are going to assume your motion is to the issue specifically in front of us. So, that's a good clarification for moving forward. So, if you'd like at this time to repeal your motion and make something verbal in a moment, you more than welcome to do. We'll get to here in a second. Okay. So, with that, would you like to So, as I understand it, my motion is to approve the sale of the property.

Okay. So, which is what we just said a yes vote. I just want to make sure. Okay. Yes. Correct. So, the motion the motion council member Kell has made would be to sell this property to the individual who has made the current offer to authorize the city manager to sell this parcel to the offer in front of you. A no vote would say not at this time and we can something we would discuss later. So that motion is on the table. Do we have a second? Let's see if we have a second first.

I have a question. All right. So if we don't have a second, then I'm going to move on to Council Member Hiller. Well, the qu my question is, is it essential to have that positive motion in what's being considered or is it possible for somebody to make a motion that says we would decline that offer? I think there's discomfort in this. So, the resolution is specific to this offer. Correct.

So, the yes vote is specific to the resolution. It's the whether or not to pass this resolution which is specific to the offer. I think the confusion is we've been given an affirmative resolution with a negative ask and that's probably not how it should have been presented to us. That's why I so I believe it may be our best bet for me to make a motion to defer this from two weeks from now so that we can maybe rewrite the resolution or figure out a more simpler way to ask it so we don't wrap ourselves in this pretzel. And so I would move I would I would make a motion to move it to our I don't even know what date that is. April Nobody just decline the offer.

If nobody seconds the motion dies. I'm trying whoever that is. I know. So we may need to backtrack because of technical. You got to speak up. Speak up. I'll still take your voice. I said that and he mentioned me. So, we have a motion. All right. So, all right. Well, we're going to go back because we have an active motion. So, we got to go back to Robert. So, council member Kell has a motion to approve

this resolution. Council member Ortiz has seconded that. So, that is on the table. That means if you vote yes, you're instructing the city manager to sell this parcel at this time to this individual. If you vote no, you would like to not sell it at this time and either move it to a different date for further discussion or we can continue to talk about it. Council member Hiller, we've moved on. Hopefully in the future we could just vote to decline the offer and feel more straightforward about it. Thank you. Deputy Mayor Hoer,

I have a quick question. Do we have a time frame we need to have this done by? Was there any time time frame um tied to the offer? I honestly don't remember off the top of my head what it was. We've communicated with the broker that the earliest that we would be able to get it to you was tonight's was tonight's meeting. So um I I do not unfortunately I do not have the answer to that question because I don't have the contract in front of me. But did have did have a time period in which the author would expire if not accepted. Okay. Thank you.

All right. So, for what it's worth, I'm going to vote no on this because I think we need and then I'm we can move on and then city manager and staff can bring this back to us at a different time. I'm not really against what the individual trying to buy it is trying to do. I just think there's been confusion this evening. I think I'd like a little more time to take a look at the numbers and talk to staff about what our actual long-term plans are to market it if our goal is to keep it beyond a parking lot. So, I think since I came into this a little unprepared this evening to sell this property, I'm going to be a no vote because I I don't think we need to sell the property at this time. So, for whatever that's worth with that, any other comments or questions? Council member Miller,

real quick, I want to say that I agree with you, but just off GP and just off principle, I'm going to vote yes because I feel like we didn't do it correctly. So for whatever that's worth. All right. I don't think there's any other comments. So with that, I will ask the clerk to take vote.

Are you not able to vote? It says I voted. Okay. Yes. Just not talking to the Alexander. Sir Alter Ego, she's doing all my vote. So, your vote, your vote is yes. Yes. And council member Bradberry, my app hasn't been working. Um, I'm going to vote no.

Okay, it looks like the motion fails. We have uh six no and council members Ortiz, Kell, Miller, and Hoer voted yes. So the motion is fails. With that, we will move on to action item 5F. City clerk, everyone has a heads up. We will do action 5F and then we'll take a short break. Okay. F is discussion and possible action of a professional services contract for amendment number two to city of Topeka contract 52066 amended by contract number 52958 between the city of Topeka and Kansas Legal Services Incorporated to administer the eviction defense program for the city of Topeka.

City manager. Thank you, mayor, members of the governing body. Carrie Higgins, our housing services division director, lead us through this item. Good evening, mayor and governing body. Tonight we have Nick Blessing here with us from Kansas Legal Services who manages our eviction defense program. So we are at the end of our second year contract and we are seeking your approval to renew that contract for a third year. Uh but before we do that, Nick is going to give us an overview of the accomplishments the program has made in the past year. Turn it over to you.

Thank you, Carrie. Uh thank you for having me, Mr. mayor and governing body. Um so we had a very successful year this year in the second year of the uh eviction defense contract. Um the scope of this work is to provide housing legal services to eligible tenants who live in the city of Topeka. Um we've um uh assisted many individuals this year um by providing legal advice um or providing limited scope uh legal assistance either through preparing documents or negotiating with the landlord's attorney um where there is a dispute between the landlord and the tenant. Um and on some cases we have provided full representation to tenants in eviction court. Um and these uh these folks that we've been helping they're uh we're helping them at a time when they're they're facing some really difficult things and they're facing some things that are really confusing for them and that they don't have to they don't really understand much of the time. And we um bare minimum what we try to do is we try to na help them navigate through that process and we have in in many cases been able to get some really good outcomes for some some of the tenants here in Topeka that have had these kind of issues. Um many have experienced financial hardships which have led them to get behind on the rent and then leads um their landlord to in many cases file an eviction against them. And then that's where we come in. Um, and in many of these cases, um, the

apartment or house that the tenant is renting, um, has substantial, um, uh, condition issues, um, in some cases completely unacceptable conditions. And we've helped, uh, several tenants deal with, uh, those kind of problems as well, and have had some pretty good outcomes on those um, this year. And and just to be clear when I say this year, this is starting in uh May 1st of 2025. And the figures that we have for you today go to about uh the middle of March um because we're we're now at the end of the second year of the contract, but we're not quite at the end. So we um provided assistance to over 130 tenants this year. Um, we've increased our limited scope services and our full representation services. The first year of the contract, we did we had more cases where we only provided uh legal advice. Um, this year there's we've been able to expand the number of tenant households that we helped, but fewer of those that we helped only receive legal advice. more of them received either full representation or document drafting or negotiation ser negotiation services from Kansas legal services. Um this graph here kind of uh uh shows that what I've got here in on the screen the first two years May um 2022 through April 23 and May 23 to April 24. This is what Kansas Legal Services was doing before we had this contract. And as you can see, we were doing about giving about 50 people advice over one year. And we had

a few cases where we did more than that. Um, and we had a significant expansion of that. So last the first year of the contract, 92 uh tenants received legal advice, 17 received limited scope services, and 10 received full representation services. And now we've expanded that. So only 79 received only advice, but we have 37 who received limited scope services and 17 who received full representation in eviction court from Kansas Legal Services. Um, and as I was saying before, when when I say limited scope representation, what I'm saying is we either um we did not enter an appearance in the eviction case on behalf of the tenant, but we either um prepared a answer for them. Um, usually when we when we meet with people, we meet with them at the agricultural hall um um during the answer hearing where they have to go for their first appearance and we meet with them at our table that we have there every week and we either will give them legal advice, look at their case for them and give them give them our recommendations or we will move forward and provide um significantly more services than that. Um, and at that at that appearance, they're given a form that they have to fill out to basically say why they think the eviction case shouldn't be um that why they should not be evicted. And we in many cases help them fill those out. Um, this year we had about 41 cases, at least 41 cases where our services led to

the eviction case. either being dismissed or we were able to buy them more time so that they could um move out and and and not have an eviction on their record. Um let's see here. We also had a community legal education event in November of 2025. Um, this was done, we did this in partnership with the city and with the Topeka and Shaunie County Public Library and with the Topeka tenants group. Um, we had about uh 28 or 26 people attending that. Um, most of them were in person. I think about 4 to eight people um were were on Zoom. So, the the event was available online as well. Um and in and I give this presentation um what I go over with with them is I go over the eviction process. I go over what their various rights are in different situations. Um I talk about what things that they can do if they are having an issue with their landlord that their landlord isn't making repairs. um including um the option to seek compensation through small claims court um to make a claim against their landlord for um any kind of violations the landlord may have made um of of the violations of the lease or of the Kansas Residential Landlord and Tenant Act. Um let me see here. Um this is just a quick demographic snapshot. Obviously, um majority of our clients are lower income. Um they but they come from all walks of life uh ranging from younger

people in their 20s and uh people who are uh who are elderly. Um and for the most part the the folks that we serve there they are nonsubsidized uh market rate rentals. Um and um some just some examples of the challenges that we see um retaliatory evictions after maintenance complaints are made. Um many times there's evictions filed when that are just based on a misunderstanding. We've had we've seen um folks, this says rent to own, but I I think what we really meant here was that a if the tenant is not actually a tenant, it was a buyer under contract for deed, that's not somebody who should be uh have an eviction case filed against them in limited actions court. Um but really really common we we see folks with with bad condition issues in their house or apartment. Um and um many times and and the thing that I think is important to understand about um these eviction cases, they many of them they have valid legal defenses which you know nobody would know and nobody would bring it up if they did not have legal advice given to them or if they did not have legal representation. Um, and that's those are many of the cases that we were able to get dismissed because we can point out that there's a defect in the eviction notice that was provided before the case was filed. Um, and then real quick, we've got a a couple of example cases that we just wanted to highlight. Um, we had one

client who was a um, veteran that was living in a unit with many, many issues, many uh, in absolutely um, unacceptable condition. Um, one of our attorneys represented him and got that case dismissed. Um, that client got a $1,500 check from the landlord and did not have to pay rent for four months. and then and we got them some time to move out. Um, we had another client who had a uh is an elderly woman with a section 8 voucher. Um, was in a situation where she had been coerced into paying some improper charges. Um, and when she stopped paying them, the landlord filed an eviction case. We represented her. We got that case dismissed and we got the landlord to cut her a check for $2,900 and then we were able to navigate um dealing with uh section 8 uh afterwards. And I think that's it.

We're happy to answer any questions you might have. All right. Before we open up to the governing body, we have one individual signed up for comment on this item if she is online. Is Martha boat right? All right. Martha, can you hear us? Oh yes. Can you hear me? All right. Yep. The time is yours. Four minutes.

Hi. Um so I'm speaking here kind of in two capacities. Um first as of someone who as as you know I every time I go up here I say I work with tenants. But um uh it was said at a meeting um a few months back by uh someone at one of our uh like the committee meetings during the day that part of the reason landlords uh can get away with doing all violations that they do and um exploiting workers that they do is that uh our people of Topeka are I believe the terms he used poor and not well educated which which is kind of a crass way of putting it but it is true that people don't have the resources to go out and hire hire lawyers themselves. They um they don't have the money for it. They don't have the time because they're working full-time jobs and they often don't know what um their actual rights are as tenants and what the responsibilities of landlords are in dealing with them. To be honest, a lot of landlords don't know uh the rights and responsibilities that we should have. um when KLS have done educational programs uh with us, we have had both tenants show up but also landlords who want to get themselves educated. Um and so speaking as um as someone who works therefore with a kind of tenant population, I strongly encourage that we continue this program. Um it is one of the definite ways that we can empower tenants who are often at a disadvantage, especially against some of the big big slum lords that we have here in our city that um just don't seem to care about tenants at all. Um, I would also say that I'm speaking as someone who works as a targeted case manager um for individuals whose only income is often just their social security checks. Um, being able to um refer them to Kansas legal services is oh it's a it's a godsend. It's great. I've been really encouraging it and passing it around through the ID system, but people reach out to KLS when their individuals in the

community are having um difficulties because um it is they they're also a very vulnerable population for being taken advantage of. And lastly, I've also been um sometimes use some of the documents and things that I've k to educate some of our potential providers who are also landlords and aren't always aware of what their rights and responsibilities are. I see KLS and when I look at that graph I you may have seen me do a little clap reaction on um the Zoom call because I see them contributing so much um to helping kind ofate some of the power imbalance that we have in the attendance. So I strongly hope benefit to the city to peek up. Thank you.

Thank you Martha. All right with that I will turn over the governing body council member Valdivia Alkala. Thank you, mayor. I have some questions and I don't know if the first one uh if you can answer or not. Maybe Carrie can. Um the the money with this contractual obligation, are we giving or have we given in the past? Uh because all of this has come out of changing our culture of property maintenance, the study by Karen Black that suggested that, you know, we had these things in uh in place. Um but for housing and credit counseling has there ever been any money paid to them which they've now changed over

we do we have uh three separate contracts with HCCI for um our some of our HUD funded programs. How much altogether? I would need to double check and get back to you.

Okay. if you could and then send a full email to the governing body. Um because I am going to request city manager that whoever HCCI has been bought by that they make a presentation here. Are these the best numbers? No. Are they good numbers? Hell yes. Because look at where we were starting from. Look at how long and this is what we have to take in account is look how long it has taken so many of these multifamily housing slum lords to get away with everything they're getting away with to evict oftent times on whim usually when it's complaint driven how many folks have not been touched yet because even Though Topeka tenants, the tenants association uh is doing a good and aggressive job, it is going to take more than 2 years to see the results that we want. So when we're looking at about $83,000 a year because we know the budget constraints that we're in, none of us, I think realistically on on this governing body, would say that that's a drop in the bucket. It's not. That's all serious dollars for us, but oh, if only we could do some kind of cost analysis or whatever if we were not there giving you the money and you did not help these folks because the numbers show the new homeless face is the elderly. And so what is being prevented by you being out there? My concern is that

we need to still be aggressive with the education and that can't just fall on you. That has to whoever HCCI is now. I don't know whoever you know the Topeka tenants and continuing to do what they do. But we also understand the majority of those folks are working full-time jobs and then trying to work with you all. They're trying to help work on the uh landlord tenant registry. So, they're trying to do their due diligence. So my support of this will remain constant because we can see the numbers going up and unless we take both situations in hand where you all are right now after 2 years what it took us to get you here and what we're having to deal with across a city. Right. We're I I mean it's just terrible what folks are still dealing with and they have no idea. They just do not know their rights.

Yeah. And to me, this is a worthwhile um funding and and I will be supporting. Thank you, Mayor. Yep. Council member Kell,

um I got a few messages about this uh saying, you know, a couple were landlords saying, "Why should I pay taxes to to fight a fight against me?" Well, people get public defenders all the time when they get when there's criminal cases. People should be able to defend it against a company that honestly will try to play some of the shadyiest games. They're out there to do stuff. And I I've had a landlord that uh wanted me to pay for a brand new refrigerator that was from the 1950s after one in the 1950s broke and then wanted me to replace the finally had me move out was wanted me to replace a 40-year-old roof. I'd never been on the roof of that house, but he wanted me to replace it. And we're getting into things now where uh we have new payment systems. Some of these landlords are now requiring you have to pay a certain way now, but here's all these fees on top of this now. Instead of just, hey, walking down to the front office, here's $1,000 cash. Boom. You know, they're requiring all this stuff. The biggest thing I can say as a person that was uh was low income for several years, start early on a process. If you have an issue, please start early because sometimes if you wait trying to handle it yourself too long, even an organization's there to help you cannot help you because you you let it go too far. Uh I worked at DCF and there's sometimes I saw that as a case. There's sometimes me and my wife waited too long and we had things where uh you know almost had a vehicle revoked because we waited too long thinking we couldn't help ourselves or we could do it ourselves. when there's help out there, please reach out. Uh especially in like a situation like this, the earlier you can reach out to a organization like this, the more they're able to help you. So, please start early. And like I said, I I'll support this because this to me is as a public defender for someone that is being wrong, possibly being wrongly accused, and allows them at least have someone with some legal knowledge to help them through the process. Thank

you, Council Member McGee. Um, I'm going to dubtail on on your comments because there I'm aware of conditions that people are in where they're in terrible living conditions and they need assistance. I'm also aware that there are some good landlords out there.

Yes. Uh, and I know one one personally where they signed a contract with two tenants to live in a single family residential. Uh, but then they would never received any rent payments and that went on for a long time and there was little to no communication. So they finally went to file for an eviction. They went through the full process. They finally got the eviction and they found that there were four or five people living in the home, not two that were on the lease and rent was never paid. So that's a situation for the landlord. But I also understand there's a lot of folks out there that they need assistance. Education is very important leading up to that. I have a question in on the 41 eviction cases that were dismissed or delayed.

Mhm.

Were those based upon your recommendations? Were were those dismissals all based upon a recommendation that came for you or is it a situation where a case was dismissed due to other factors? So, it's a it's a variety of of situations. There are cases that were dismissed because the case went to trial and it was dismissed by the judge. There are probably the majority of them are ones where we were either we were either representing the client in the case or we were just speaking to the landlord's attorney on behalf of the client and we negotiated an agreement for the case to be dismissed. Sometimes that means that there's an agreement and uh this amount's going to be paid by the tenant and tenants's going to get to stay in in the unit. uh might mean that okay um we're gonna we're gonna move out in 30 days. Um every situation's different. That's that's kind of part of our job and what we do is we we talk to the client. We figure out what's going on and then we we figure out how can we maneuver this to get them the best um outcome possible. So there's very many different situations. There's some situations where all we did was we provided advice and we advised them and then they made a they were able to make a deal with the landlord by talking to the landlord or the landlord's attorney. There's some situations where we provided advice um and drafted um a answer for them in the eviction case and they were able to get the eviction case dismissed. Um, there's I think there's at least one or two where it was this

year where we had somebody that we advised or helped on a limited basis and they represented themselves at trial and they and the case was dismissed. So, it's it's a variety of situations, but that's that I think that's the best I can summarize. Ben, I I agree. Education is the key. If we can get out ahead of it and and do more to educate people ahead of the process, that can go a long ways. So, thank you. Thank you, Council Member Ortiz. Thank you. It's no secret that we have a shortage of attorneys. Is there one dedicated to this?

We have. Um, so I have done I've handled some of the cases myself. Um we've um we have three attorneys, well actually no four attorneys that kind of rotate in our Topeka office that are the main ones handling it and two of those attorneys are handling the majority of them. So So there there are about four attorneys that are rotating in and out to handle these kind of cases. I mean, I I I'm just asking because, you know, there is a shortage and I know our our city attorney, um, her name is Mary. Um, trying to think of her last names over there.

Finey. Yeah. She went over to help just to volunteer because there's so many cases over there, you know, um cases that I've had people go over there, they couldn't get in there. So, I just wanted to make sure that we have somebody dedicated, you know, to this. She volunt Where did she volunteer? She volunteers at the Kansas Service Children's League or Yeah. KS um Kansas. The Kansas League. Yeah. Kansas Legal Services. Oh, okay. Unless she quit. Unless she retired again. I know at one I don't believe I'm acquainted with her. Oh, well, look for her. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. What was her name? Mary Feny.

Yeah. Um, so I just wanted to make sure of that. Um, you also mentioned if they are on contract that they cannot be evicted. Didn't you just say that? If if they miss a payment, but for rent to for rent to um or what is it for rent to own? Contracting.

Oh, yes. Yes. So, yeah. And we don't get a lot of these. I just said it because it was it was on our our slide there, but so this is a little bit in the weeds, but so if someone is purchasing a house, the contract for deeds are quite common. I'm sure many of you are familiar with that. When someone can't get a mortgage, they'll do a contract for deed to purchase a house. There's there are many sellers of houses that do these contracts for deed and they they kind of I don't think they're super forthright in the way that they Yeah, we have one we have a a a landlord, right?

That's put some stuff in there that I can't believe is in there that these people sign. Well, so here's the thing that's funny. So, when you're selling a house um on a contract for deed, that's not a lease. That's not a lease and you can't file an eviction in eviction court. Okay.

Eviction court is through limited actions uh the limited actions process for civil procedure in the district court. Any any dispute any legal dispute regarding ownership of real estate can't be done in limited actions court. So they have to either dismiss it or they have to elevate it to chapter 60 full civil court. Um, and you can't do the eviction process through that. So, basically it means they get more time to deal with it. But that's I'll try to that's about Well, that's interesting that you say that because that's not what they believe, you know. I know. And so this one we have a landlord

that he's made them believe that. So, they're scared, you know. And and that's another thing just to comment on that really quick. That's another thing like more broadly. There's things that people believe and then they act on those beliefs and if there isn't someone there to say no, you can't do that, they will just keep doing that and they will get away with it. Well, that's what he's doing. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'll be quiet since I didn't council.

Sorry, I'll make this quick, but there is also another person in the city. He may live outside of the city, but he owns 400 properties that are all rent uh rent for deed and he is screwing I don't know how many out of money. I it and I have this from a very good source of from a social service organization that has dealt with it and has tried to get the rent for deeds to get it on the uh the registry at the you know courthouse because there's just a lot of shadiness regarding that whole rent for deed but my question is since we know that Topeka has one of a really high level uh based on census track of 16% poverty rate is probably higher than that. Now, are you see in the past two years that you've contracted with the city, are you seeing any trends that are really starting to come out to you that are disturbing? And what more do you feel is needed? I know you would like to have more money for bigger contracts because that's just common sense, but what do you feel is needed out there to address some of these grossest violations with so many multifamily

dwellers? Yeah. So, I I would say this I'm not sure if it's much of a trend because I think it's I think it's just kind of been the state of things for a long time and I think you all know know that more than I do, but um just there's there's a lot of properties that are in really really bad shape that are being rented out and people are paying the rent and legally they they should not have to pay that rent for something. It is illegal to rent that to somebody. it is illegal to do that. Um, and it's happening and it's not this not just a Pika either. I mean, it's all over the state. It's in the Kansas City area where where I practice as well. Um, but

um I'm sorry, I lost my train of thought, but I I would say that that's that's a major trend that that we do see. And I guess I guess what would be nice is I mean because handling these cases it takes a lot of time and when you have those kind of issues and you're really trying to address them it takes a lot more time. It's a lot more complicated when you know I'm having to talk to a client about okay wait so what's wrong with the sink? What's wrong with the toilet? Okay I need you I need you to send me pictures. Okay, we're going to get and even if you're also talking about, okay, we're going to get we're going to subpoena, you know, uh something from uh code enforcement. So if there was an expansion to to focus more on those issues specifically and not and because this what we do with this contract is great in it in of itself just trying to um help people with the eviction issue itself and we do deal with those um habitability issues as well. I mean, we assert, you know, we assert counter claims against the landlord in the eviction case, but

those are on those few cases. It's much smaller number of cases where we provide the full representation. Um, so I I I think I've answered your question. we could do more to help people assert claims in small claims court which we we we talked to people about that in the presentation that I give and I um I hope to give a presentation like that again as well but um yeah something something to address those issues more headon. Okay, thank you. Thank you oh sorry council member Hiller.

Thank you. Thanks everybody for the comments and and for yours as well. I've been working with Carrie on this. This this contract did originate out of changing our culture of property maintenance and wasn't intended. It was really intended to be about property maintenance and avoiding even getting evicted. And so when it when it actually went through, at first we went we'd already figured out that we didn't really want it just to be eviction defense because we were trying to avoid by counseling and by intervention things even getting that far. Um I appreciate that you've been flexible with this. They you talked in your report about bringing other resources to bear as well. Um um and we talked through Carrie about the small claims court thing. One of the things we know is that um people get pushed out. What we used to call a constructive eviction and and it costs money. Sometimes they haven't paid their rent the last month because they needed the money to put a deposit down on a new place because they just run out of steam in putting up with whatever it was. And so working harder on coaching folks on how to go and supporting them on how to get compensation for what they've lost. And of course, you can't represent them in small claims court. So we need to work out some buddy systems perhaps or otherwise really support people additionally um in this coming year. Uh also I think Carrie has indicated I mean already housing and credit counseling has contri committed to 10 education programs some of which are through impact avenues and so on that's already going on so to coordinate getting you all out at least once but maybe more often uh but but really targeting how we're reaching people. So we're really adding to the prevention that we we've been hoping to see. So really appreciate you being here

and and getting started on all this. Thank you. All right, we have a motion to approve by Council Member Kell, a second from Council Member McGee. Any other comments or questions? Nope. Great. We're going to move to the vote. Nope.

Okay, we have 10. Yes. The motion carries. Thank you. Thank you. Couple things before we move on to non-action items. First of all, is is Esther Bradley still here? Yes, I'm still here. All right. Well, hold on, man. Hold on, ma'am. If there's no objection, she's the only individual signed up for public comment. And I would like to go ahead and move that up to this time to allow her to do public comment since we still have several things to do this evening. So, there's no objection. Ma'am, now is your time for public comment. You got four minutes. Come on up to the podium. Thank you very much, Mr. Brad. Thanks for the time, even though I forgot to say that before, but um it's about the streets that I'm complaining about. I got my truck

shocks all redone because the streets are so bad. And then it had to get realigned because the street pots, street holes and pots are so bad or whatever. And I read that uh at the first of the year that you're the city was going to pay for anybody that had to get their truck aligned or vehicle aligned because of the potholes. Is that true or is that bogus? So, we don't do back and forth here, but after you're done, I will address that. I promise. Okay. Well, I'm done because that actually pisses me off.

No, that's fair. Okay. Well then, so to my knowledge, that is not our policy and has not been approved. However, you can always file a claim with the city. We will take a look at it. Oh, gotcha. And then we'll judge those on a case-to case basis. They have been paid out before. I can tell you that. But you have or you haven't? We have paid some of those out before. That is correct. But no promises. But I But if you go to if you contact our city clerk, she'd be happy to walk you through that process. Okay. Thank you, ma'am. Oh, contact later. Straight too. So, while she's doing that, let's let's let's reset a little bit. Um,

going to do a couple things here. We still have our CIP discussion and a couple of executive sessions. Let's just knock one thing out of the way. I'm going to make a motion to extend this evening past 10:00. I'll second that. So, just going to do that now so we don't have to deal with it later. So, I will ask the I will second from council member Miller and we'll take a vote on that, please. I guess all those in favor say I. I I All those opposed. She's not here, so I'll say no for her, even though that's not allowed. Council Ortiz. All right.

So, with that, we are going to take our 10-minute break right now, and then we're going to come back. Josh assures me his presentation isn't too long. We'll go into executive sessions and then that'll be the end. So, take 10, please. But be back here in 10 minutes at 9:20. Straight to it. All right. Now, we're back. So now I can say we will reconvene. We will move on to our non-action items. 6 A. City clerk. A is discussion of the proposed 2027 to 2036 CIP and the 2027 to 2029 CIP. City manager. Thank you mayor, members of the governing body. Josh McAnney, our deputy finance director. Lead us through this item.

Thanks city manager. Um good evening everybody. So tonight will be one of many meetings where we'll talk about our annual CIP process. Tonight's just solely a highle overview of what the CIP is, why we do it, how it's funded, things of that nature. Um, and then also any challenges that um, and constraints that we have when developing the CIP. Um, so this uh is just a road map of the next several meetings that we'll have. So tonight, just like I said, high level overview. Next week will be public works will go over where they will go over the citywide halfcent sales tax um, projects and programs. And then uh the next week we'll be going over the countywide funding source. And then um any other funding sources public works has to fund their projects. And then that May 5th meeting will be um the utilities night um water, wastewater, and storm water. And then beyond that is pretty malleable where'll go over what the governing body additional items they need before they take a vote in late May, early June. So that's just a quick road map. Um CIP overview. So, um, how we have our CIP structured is we have our three-year CIB. So, those are projects in the short term, um, with a little more defined scope and and price estimates. And then we have, um, our CIP, which is a 10-year lookout. The reason we'd like to have a 10-year lookout is we want to sequester funds now, um, because sometimes for these projects, we have to issue debt or save up cash to actually do those on hand. Um, so we want to be able to budget that um, in order to eventually afford those projects if we if they if we actually want to do them. Um, and then also it's a communication document to the public. We want to communicate to the public when we're doing a major road. Um, that may deter a business or um, preempt a business to do something if they know we're going to close a road for extended period of time. And then also it's a communication document um, amongst city departments to work together on how to best maintain the city's um, asset network. And then finally, we use the CIP to inform our budget process as well. So this is one of the uh next steps because these are

all city dollars at the end of the day, albeit different funding sources, but it's still money that we're spending. So we like to keep on top of that. Um and that's just a that's just a slide. So project may be identified in years 4 through 10 and then as we get a better idea and better feedback from the council that it'll make the 1 to threeyear CIB mark and then it'll eventually depending on the type of project will go back to the subsequent public works infrastructure committee then work its way back up to council for full approval eventually. Um how does it get in the CIP? So, um, broadly, if it's anything tangible, uh, and it's over 50 or $25,000 depending on if it's new or existing, that that's what gets in the CIP. So, think a street, um, water mane, um, sidewalk, curb and gutter, things of that nature. And things that are spent um, in multiple calendar years. So, obviously um, a project like Hon Street um, that that takes multiple years. So, we extend it out in the CIP for multiple years. And then finally, this was passed I think two years ago where any project over $250,000 that then go back goes back to the governing body and the public infra work infrastructure committee to approval um just as a as a final field check before actually awarding the project. Um and then so how is our CIP funded? So it's funded through a variety of ways. So, um, on your screen are just examples of funding sources that we use in a specific location in the past that, um, for a project that's been funded with that funding source. So, a good example, um, Tikica Boulevard 21st to 29th, that was primarily a citywide halfcent sales tax project. Um, countywide was Hun Gauge Harrison. That's on that Jato resolution. Um if we if if something isn't covered by that citywide half cent or the JTO funds and and it's not existing, we typically bond it or we have other cash such as the federal funding exchange um to fund the project.

And then for the utility side, that's either funded through either operating for via an operating transfer or issuing revenue bonds that are backed by utility revenue. Um what are considerations we have to take when having the CIP? Obviously funding is isn't unlimited. we only generate a certain amount amount of money and we only can spend that subsequent amount of money. We love to fix everything at once but obviously there's only so many funds. Um and then uh also too certain funds have to be used for certain things. So I go back to that citywide halfcent sales tax that can only be used for existing existing infrastructure. So we can't have that built up fund balance and go build a new road. So there's legal constraints too. Um, and then sometimes we have to work with other entities because there's multiple rideways such as KOT and Shauny County and the railroads. So those are things we have to work out through the on our end as a city staff. And then finally um there's timing constraints. We can't fix uh adjacent roads like Kansas um and Topeka Bald all at once. Traffic has to flow a certain way. P Quincy is a good example of that where um that delayed some some projects that we had on the books such as Kansas 4 to6 because that was used as a detour route for P Quincy. So those are some of the things that we keep in mind uh as we as we um develop the CIP. Um and then in your CIP book uh that was sent out last week and it's online too. This is just a summary page on how to read it. So, a lot of that's primarily staff information, but the main thing the governing body and the public were to take away are how much are we programming in um for each of the subsequent years and then just a brief description of it. We'll go over programs like this at a at the next meeting, but this is just a highle overview how to read it and why we do it um and the funds sequestered by year. So, um that's just a quick overview of the CIP and obviously this is a long process. We go over over several meetings. So, we're happy to answer any

questions on project specific, but um big picture, this is the first step of how we're programming for the future to fix our infrastructure. Josh, everyone's been given the CIP, right? And it will is it going to be is it posted yet on the Yeah, it's posted online. Um and then also I Yeah, I provided the books in the the council offices. Okay, perfect. Any other questions or comments for Josh? All right. Yes, Council Member Hiller.

Thank you. Um, I don't know if this would really be a question for you or for the public works department, but we've talked a fair amount about how how far we've progressed on our master street plan in terms of getting major streets done and beginning to do subdivisions as well. Um, for our reference as we go through whatever you've proposed here, is there now a a a review of where we are with all our major street projects?

Um, I I'll I would defer to public works and we'll have that on hand for next week. But, um, in this CIP, so I'll just use an example. We'll provide the list of what we're going over in the future years and we can provide a past list of what's done. Um, but I think our our needs are far out great are far outweigh the money we're generating in. So, we're constantly playing catch-up to to get things fixed.

Uh, if I could add in, council member, I think we looked at our streets inventory and for all the streets that need to be either mil and overlaid or reconstructed and then also just like rent and maintenance, I need somewhere around $740 million. Yeah. So, just so we we've looked at overall the network. So I I mean it's as Josh mentioned our our needs for we our available resources.

Well I I just I I go back far enough to when we passed the first half sales tax and the idea was that it was 10 years and in eight years we'd have all the main streets done and would be able to move on. Obviously, we decided to do, you know, in-depth what turned into being three-year projects per per each major street rather than three months in order to get underneath, get the utilities done first, rebuild them, and so on. I get that. Just trying to figure out where we are overall. We we talked about 10th Street the other day about redoing it when we haven't done all of them for the first time yet. I don't have that inventory in my head. So, just trying to figure out where we are as we look at this if possible.

Thank you. Anything else for Josh? All right. Thanks, Josh. Yeah. Thanks. Get started on it next week. All right. We did public comment. So, with that, we will move on to announcements. City clerk.

Okay. Um, initially we had scheduled a TDC board meeting on April 21st. We are going to move that to April 14th. It will take place from 5 to 6:00 prior to the council meeting next week here in the council chambers. I will uh send out an updated um announce or notice on that one. Also on the April 14th governing body agenda, we'll have two proclamations. fraud prevention month and take action for autism. We have three presentations. ADA advisory council annual update, friends of Topeka Zoo update, and then the Oakland wastewater treatment plant remediation review. On the consent agenda, we have two professional services contracts. We have one resolution for the 2026 governing body meeting schedule. We will cancel the meetings of August 4th and November 3rd due to elections, and we will add a special meeting on August 25th for budget discussions. Action items include the ordinance for 2024 International Property Maintenance Code amending um the code related to delivery of notices. We'll have an ordinance adopting the 2024 International Building Code. We'll have an ordinance amending code section relating to obtaining pet permits after deadlines that relates to dogs, cats, and pigs. And then we'll have an ordinance amending code relating to um chickens and roosters permitting for those. And then we'll have a resolution amending the citywide fee schedule that's related to the previous ordinances. And then we'll continue discussion on the CIP.

All right. City manager. Nothing tonight, Mayor. Thank you. Council member Miller. Nothing. Mayor, thank you. Council member Bradberry. Nothing. Thank you. Council member McGee. Uh, nothing at this time. Thank you. Deputy Mayor Hoffer, nothing that I can think of. Council member Hiller, nothing. Thank you. Council member Valdivia Alkala, nothing. Council member Ortiz, I'm going to say something only because you don't want me to. No, I do want you to.

I want to send out a couple of condolences. Um, first one is to um Justice Evelyn Wilson who passed away. She was a district attorney, hell of a city attorney or not city attorney, but hell of a attorney. Um, and she was very fair, just a good person to work for. Um, so I'd like to send out condolences to her family and Supreme Court family. Next one is Betty Phillips. Betty Phillips was very instrumental and she has a park named after her and um Betty Phillips Park over in Highest. Um she was some of the things that she did. She was the High Crest Neighborhood Improvement Association, serving as president and vice president and secretary since 1989 and as chair of the community development advisory council for two years. She served on the board of the YW.CA Community Action to Linden Library on the Aenddale East School Planning and Management Team when they tried to close it and as PTA president. She is also was also a volunteer secretary for the mayor's commission on affordable housing and Topeka housing partnership was a member of the human relations commission and served on the weed and seed commission. She was a dedicated trustee on the board of friends of the free state capital for restoration of constitutional hall. Um she will be sadly missed. She has served her community well, very, very well. And I'd like to send my condolences out to

her son and her grandson and her family. Highest is in a better shape today because of Betty Phillips. She is one of the pillars there. Um, there was also Betty Dunn. I used to call them Betty White and Betty Black. and and they they they were a hell of a team. And they would come to the council and they would be very stern, but they also got the job done. They didn't just bring this or point out this that was wrong or all of that. They they were very instrumental in getting the job done over there and they got the ball rolling over there. And when Aendelle East said that they were going to close that school, they said, "You're not going to take the heart of our community out." and they fought to keep that school open and now we got CRC in there, we got sin in there, and we've got things of to give back to the community. And so, um, for that job well done, Betty, rest in peace. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Council member Banks. Nothing tonight, Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Kell.

Since our last meeting, I spoke to a Boy Scout group, and it's great to speak to the youth of Topeka. let them try to ask as many questions they want about what we do around here. If there's any groups such as scouts, 4, church, or school that want my help, please reach out. I know a lot of the other uh council people will do the same. And there's no official announcement yet, but I'll make it here for Topeka. The US military war dogs will be coming back. We were here two years ago. We'll be playing uh the Topeka Capitals and hopefully I will be able to pitch again uh like I did two years ago. It's a great experience to represent the War Dogs in the city at the same time as I did two years ago. And and uh the War Dogs are a team of baseball players uh comprised of active duty and veteran ball players and uh we play mostly collegiate summer league teams or for first responder teams. So, I believe that is June 29th that we're going to be here. It'll be a Sunday afternoon game. So, please come out and support the uh active duty and veteran ball players. Thank you.

All right. I just have two things. One, I just want to reiterate what Council Member Ortiz said about um Betty Phillips. I always tell folks I knew her a little bit before I got on the council and she made sure I knew her a lot of bit once I did get on the council and that was fine and and it worked out great. We always had great conversations. even when we didn't always see it the same, we we were always able to have really good conversations about th those things and she put a lot of things in front of me as a council person that were important. Um, I will give it to the city clerk. I'll I'll email a copy and I'll give a card copy. I did put together a recognition that I presented to her family or I had presented to her family at her visitation uh honoring her service to this to the signing.

Oh, was it okay? So, I'll make sure that gets in the record. Second thing is, uh, my wife and I were able to participate on Saturday. Ross Elementary School, uh, dedicated a musical garden. Um, it's just a good example of a truly community-driven project. It came out of an idea that some members of the PTO had years ago. They went out, they raised the money, they used a local artist to put it together, and now they have this nice little metal musical garden that the kids can go out there and play on. And so, it was fun to see them dedicate that and watch the kids play on it. Again, a good representation of just a community effort that that's going to contribute to that school and those those children's enrichment on the playground out there. So, with that, we have several executive sessions this evening. There is a need for several. Uh if the city attorney would state the motion for number executive session number one.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. A motion would be to recess into executive session not to exceed 15 minutes to discuss the potential acquisition of real property as allowed under KSA75-4319B6. 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 its deliberations, the city manager, the deputy city manager, and other staff members as needed. All right, I will move to go into executive session. Do I have a second? Second from Council Member Miller. All those in favor say I. I. I. Anyone opposed? No. I. One opposed. With that, we will go immediately into executive session so we can get this started.

All right, we have come out of executive session. No action was taken by this governing body. We have a need for a second executive session. If the city attorney will read. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The motion would be to recess into executive session not to exceed 60 minutes to give legal advice and discuss litigation and other matters deemed privileged under the attorney client privileges 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 and other staff members as needed. All right. All right, I will move to approve. Do I have a second? Second from the deputy mayor. All those in favor say I. I.

Anyone opposed? With that, we will go into executive session immediately.

We are out of executive session. No action has been taken by the governing body and we have a need for a third and final executive session this evening. Hopefully the city clerk has some or the city attorney has something to read for this. I do. I do.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The motion would be to recess into executive session not to exceed 20 minutes to discuss the potential disposition of real property as allowed under KSA75-4319 B6 and a discussion of data relating to the financial affairs of corporations as allowed under KSA75-43194. The open meeting will resume in this in in the governing body chambers. The following staff will be necessary to assist the governing body in its deliberations. Any staff members as requested by the governing body. All right. I move to go into executive session. I have a second. Second from council member Kell. All those in favor say I. I. Anyone opposed? I. All right. We're going to go immediately into executive session.

I will set this for 20. Yep. I'll watch it. I'll send it to you. We have come out of executive session. No action has been taken by the governing body and this meeting is adjourned. Damn.