City Council - Regular Meeting

All right, welcome to the May 12th, 2026 governing body meeting. I will now call this meeting to order. This evening we have Council Member Bradberry presenting the invocation. Rise if you are able. Good evening everyone. As we begin tonight's meeting, we invite a moment of reflection. We are honored to have with us Reverend Andy Wright, senior pastor at St. John's Lutheran Church here in Topeka. Pastor Wright has served congregations in both Kansas and Iowa and holds advanced degrees in theology, including a master of divinity and a master of sacred theology from Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He is currently in the final editing stages of his dissertation pertaining to a topic in Lutheran in the Lutheran confessions for a PhD in doctrinal theology from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis. He and his wife Rebecca are raising their six children in Southwest Topeka and he enjoys family time, tennis, and all things aviation and space. We're grateful to have you with us this evening. Um and thank you for offering our invocation and the floor is yours.

Thanks. Good to be with you. Let us pray. Oh merciful father in heaven, from you comes all rule and authority over the nations of this world. And as we gather here tonight, we graciously ask that you regard your servants who make, administer, judge, and enforce the laws of our nation and our communities. Look in mercy upon them all. Keep them safe. Grant integrity and well-being to all who are in authority in this community, especially the Topeka City Council, the mayor, and all of our public servants. Grant them grace and wisdom to rule and discuss according to your good pleasure to the maintenance of justice to the hindrance of wickedness that we may lead quiet and peaceful lives in all godliness and honesty. Enlighten and defend the council and those who serve our community. Grant them wisdom and understanding that under their governance of this city and our community that we may be kept safe, directed in righteousness, quietness, and unity. protect and prolong their lives, their work, and their service that we with them may show forth the praise of your name through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen. Thank you. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Clerk would take role. Mayor Duncan here. Council members Hiller here. Valdivia Alkala here. Ortiz Banks here. Just in time. Kell here. Miller

here. Bradberry here. Here. McGee. Hi. and Hoer. All right, we have eight present with council members Ortiz and Hoer both absent.

Maybe there we go. All right, Alicia Walker, are you here? And anyone else you would like to bring up here with you is welcome to come up. We do have a proclamation this evening as it relates to community action month. Thank you for being here. All right. Whereas community action creates pathways to prosperity by helping hardworking families achieve economic independence rather than keeping them reliant on government assistance. And whereas community action is built on innovative, responsive, and efficient programs that are uniquely tailored to meet local needs. And whereas community action delivers high impact, cost-effective results that generate a significant return on investment for local communities. And whereas community action agencies are trusted pillars of the community that engage volunteers who donate their time to advance local progress, support working families, and contribute to lasting community success. And whereas community action programs are both necessary and popular, delivering effective, highquality assistance that strengthens community resilience and fosters local prosperity. Now, therefore, I, Spencer L. Duncan, mayor of Topeka, Kansas, do hereby proclaim May 2026 as Community Action Month in recognition of the passion and dedication of our local community action agency and the staff and volunteers who work there. I say often I people hear me say it a lot and I I mean it and it's something we as a city are trying to do is government cannot solve everything. We are a tool. We want to help but it's going to take groups like this and others in our community working alongside them to solve some of the real issues in Topeka. And so I'm very glad that you're here this evening. Thank you for being here. And if anyone would like to say something, this is your chance.

Good evening everyone. My name is Alicia Walker. I'm the executive director of Community Action and with me is our board chair, Dr. Sarah Barrett. Thank you for allowing us to come this evening and thank you for the pro the proclamation. This month we are celebrating over 50 years of being an agency in Topeka, Kansas. So we appreciate the support. Which color?

Oh man, they might just be screwed. I think I buttoned it wrong. You know, trying to fix my wardrobe up here, but I think it's a lost cause at this point. So, all right. We have a presentation this evening. Uh, city clerk. 3A will be the Topeka Tourism Business Improvement District annual report. City Manager. Thank you, mayor, members of the governing body. Kurt Young, president of Topologian Association, will lead us through this discussion.

Welcome, Kurt. Thank you, council members. Kurt Young, the executive director of the Topeka Lodging Association. We are here at that this time of year again as we have been for the last several years to update you on the Topeka Tourism Business Improvement District. And for just a a brief history for those that may be new to the process, the Tourism Business Improvement District, we affectionately call it a T-BID, was established to provide supplemental funding to the Topeka Lodging Association specifically for the design, administration, and operation of a downtown Topeka Plaza. The Twi City Council adopted the T-BID ordinance on March 14th of 2017 and the district began operations on January 1st of 2018. In accordance with the Kansas Business Improvement District statute, the T-BID Advisory Board must present the upcoming year's scope of services and budget to the governing body by May the 15th. This report outlines the proposed services and budget for the calendar year 2027. This T-BID funding mechanism is the primary source of funding for the day-to-day operation of the Evergy Plaza. In 2025, the Topeka Logic Association contributed $244,355.70 in T-BID funds to the downtown Topeka Foundation to support daily operations of the Evergy Plaza. TLA also provided an additional $3,124.98

for maintenance and repairs to the cross crossroads fountains and the fire pit burners. TLA continues to collaborate closely with Visit Topeka to ensure the success of the Kansas kids wrestling tournament and other opportunities as they present themselves. This tournament, now in its 40th year in the in Topeka, was successfully secured, as you may already know, for another 5-year cycle following last year's bid submission. That's important because TLA contributes $10,000 annually to the Kansas Kids Wrestling Organization, which is provided as a supplement to the funding already provided by Visit Topeka. This event remains one of Topeka's most significant economic drivers every year. In addition to financial support, TLA organizes funds and staffs a barbecue meal for all wrestlers, coaches, and staff following weigh-ins on the first day of the tournament. With the continued growth of girls participation, this tournament brought approximately 2800 wrestlers to Topeka in 2025. The barbecue event expanded to two days, one for the girls and one for the boys. The average annual cost of the barbecue is approximately $6,000. Though this amount is expected to increase in future years as particip participation continues to grow. Tournament attendance has nearly tripled over the past decade. It is anticipated the participation for this coming year will match that of last year.

Just to talk a little bit about the 2025 budget performance. We budgeted $327,800 for the downtown Topeka Foundation uh for the uh EverGy Plaza, but experienced a shortfall of $50,4116. The primary cause for this shortfall was a significant decline in room night activity at Hotel Topeka driven by reduced convention and group business during its transition in ownership and branding. This decline is expected to be temporary with improvement anticipated once the hotel reopens under new ownership and management. Additionally, as I have noted in other presentations, the closure of H Heartland Park racetrack resulted in the loss of approximately 6,000 room nights annually, further impacting revenue. With H Heartland Park reopening later this year, we have every reason to believe some of this loss of room nights will be mitigated. Keep in mind that the T- bid is based on room occupancy. It's a dollar per night. It's not a percentage of receipts. So when the occupancy goes down, our revenue goes down. So the proposed 2027 budget and program of services. The following outlines the proposed distribution of T-BID funds for 2027. As in previous years, the primary focus remains operational support for the Evergy Plaza. The Evergy Plaza has

become the focal point of numerous events and activities. Our support for this venue continues to be our number one priority of support. The original Kansas kids wrestling tournament takes place when I wrote this, it was in the future. Now it's in the past. It took place uh May 12th and the 15th of 2026. Uh I'm sorry that was that was the second one. Anyhow, the wrestling Kansas Red kids wrestling tournament has been here and gone. We recently received word that a second wrestling tournament has signed a contract with Visit Topeka and the Stormmont Veil Events Center. And that will occur the first week into May of 2026. And that event has occurred. That event brought approximately 1,800 wrestlers. And this group had specifically asked for some of the some same benefits provided to the original tournament. So now TLA will be providing a second barbecue during this new tournament in May. So we have become quite the barbecue afficionados over the last 10 years in doing this annual event. Uh what you see in the report that you have in front of you, we are budgeting $298,800 to be uh given directly to the downtown Topeka Foundation for the operation of the plaza. That's 83 cents on every dollar that we take in. Uh the city takes a 2% uh administrative cut. We

hold 10% uh for our own operations and then there's a contingency fund that'll we've allocated 3%. And then the dollars that we spend on the wrestling tournament for the barbecue are anticipated to be in the 3% range as well. So that is what we've accomplished. That is where we're what we're planning for in in uh 2027 budget year and I will answer any questions that anybody may have. Council member Kell,

I just want to say thank you for the work you do with that Kansas kids wrestling and working with visit to pick and things like that for the other events. Um you know that's that's a huge event. I I've been to that the last three years and recently went to the nationals in Kansas City and nationals I understand the for the for the wrestlers is a lot bigger of event but it actually brings more people here to Topeka than they do at the nationals in Kansas City. So very proud of the event we have here and I was thrilled we got it locked down again and uh it's one of those things that we were working forward trying to get there because it does bring a lot of a lot of people into the city and a lot of dollars spent within the city. So uh thank you for what you guys do to keep that help keep that event here and and help putting that on. Thank you.

Any other comments or questions for Kurt? Council member Hiller. I'll just briefly say in front of everybody what I said to Kurt when he came up here at the beginning of the meeting. We would not be here without you. Thank you so much, Kurt, and the association from getting downtown renovated to the arrangements and financing and then staffing of the plaza and the events and growing with us and with it. Um, it's priceless literally. Yeah.

Thank you. Thank you uh for the comments and uh we take a lot of pride in in the fact that uh the Evergy Plaza in in a lot of ways has been more than we ever anticipated and I think everybody recognizes that now. So well a little spoiler alert. Did you say that a groundbreaking is coming up?

Yeah. Yes. I uh I hope to be uh giving you word of a groundbreaking on the ice rink here very soon. So, uh we're we're down to just a few details that need to be worked out and we'll be ready to make an announcement on that. So, thank you. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. All right. We will move on to the consent agenda. Item four, city clerk.

A 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 seek concerning noise prohibitions. B is the approval of a utilities department contract amendment for professional services between the city of Topeka and Bartland and West, Inc. in an amount not to exceed $72,950. C. Staff is recommending approval of the May 1st, 2026 special meeting minutes as well as to defer the approval of the May 5th, 2026 regular meeting minutes until the May 19th governing body meeting. D is the approval of 22 serial malt beverage off-remise applications. A list has been provided for the governing body. Uh majority are renewals besides one which will be the quick trip. Um and staff is recommending approval on that as well.

All right, we have a motion to approve from council member Kell and I do apologize. Due to the deferment, we would need a motion to amend the approve sorry an amended consent agenda. You agree to that? Yes. All right. So the motion will be to approve the amended consent agenda. Okay. Thank you. Second from council member Banks. clerk will take the role or I guess the vote. Ready the role.

Council member Valdivia Alka, what will be your vote? Yes. Okay, we have eight. Yes. The motion carries.

All right, with that we will move on to the action items. We'll go to action item A. City clerk A is a public hearing to consider the establishment of the Johnson Betts Meadows Reinvestment Housing Incentive District and the adoption of the housing development plan as well as an ordinance introduced by city manager Dr. Robert M. Perez establishing a reinvestment housing incentive district for the Johnson Betts Meadows District and adopting a plan for the development of housing and public facilities in the RHID. City Manager. Thank you, mayor, members of the governing body. Leah Bulling, our director of economic development, will lead us through this item.

Good evening. Thank you. This evening, there are two action items on the agenda, both pertaining to the Johnson Betts Meadows RHID. So to start um an overview of the Johnson Betts Meadows RHID district, in August of 25, the governing body adopted a resolution allowing staff to submit the application to the state of Kansas for the review and consideration according to state statute. Commerce approved that request in September of 25. staff then received the housing development plan and had the financial advisor conduct the financial analysis relative to the project. The project did meet the but four test and so the RHID review team met and recommended moving forward with negotiating a development agreement. Staff brought a resolution to council and council set a public hearing for this evening, May 12th, for the establishment of the district and approval of the housing project plan. As a reminder, the project location is at Southeast 31st Street, north of Southeast 31st Street and east of Fremont. It is that area shaded in blue. It is only for the phase 2 location titled Johnson Betts Meadows and it is a LITC project consisting of 176 units. 106 of those units will have projectbased vouchers. And then 40% of AMI or less will be for

61 units, 27 units for 30% and 88 units for 60% or less AMI. to show a little bit more on the breakout of those units. This table illustrates what what type of rents will be tied to each of their each of their bedroom sizes. So, the projectbased vouchers are set under THA's current payment standards uh where the tenants will pay 30% of their adjusted monthly income towards rent and utilities. And so those projectbased vouchers will make up the other 70% of the rent associated with their unit. For an example down below that table, if a tenant has an adjusted monthly income of $1,250 a month, 30% of the rent at 760 for a one-bedroom unit. Um, with that 1,250 a month being at 30% AMI, the tenant would pay $375 a month, while the projectbased voucher would make up the other $385 a month. As a reminder, the housing need and RHID policy um in July of 2020, the city conducted and adopted a city-wide housing market study and strategy which identified a need for 420 new units a year or 2300 units over the next 5 years to address the housing shortage in the community. Specific to this project, the study identified a need for 910 units in the affordability classification of less

than 60% AMI. So that's how that relates to this particular project. And a recap of our RHID policy. Um, to proceed with an RHID, developers must provide detailed project information to the city so staff can conduct their due diligence. The applicant must cover the costs of the city's fees incurred by our legal counsel and financial advisor when doing the review of their application and financials. The developer and affiliated parties with the project must be current on all their taxes. They must not have any delinquent fines or fees with the city's utility, zoning, or code enforcement areas. The developer and all affiliated parties have no outstanding fines and fees. They are all current on taxes and they are all active and in good standing with the secretary of state. The developer must also uh their project must meet the but for standard which says but for the RHID the project would not be able to proceed and the developer must provide the contractual and financial guarantees to ensure that the project will be completed as stipulated in in the agreement with the city. This project is um $53.5 million. The RHID maximum reimbursement set in the development agreement is 4.6 million. It does meet the but four test. The development agreement is set up as a pay

as you go over the next 25 years. The developer fee that's outlined in the development agreement states that THAA has the right to purchase the developer's ownership interest once the developer fee has been paid to the developer. And if the developer does not exit the partnership through that method, the city will recalculate its financial assumptions and adjust the RHID eligible expenses. If that does not occur, I will go over more of that in detail here. The development team is um somewhat complex. The developer is Mesner Hoppy JV Development Development LLC. The general partner and owner is Johnson Bets Meadows GP LLC which is comprised of the developer Mesner Hoppy and THAA. The lender is US Bank National Association and the limited partner is US Bank Corp and USB Kansas State Investor LLC. To illustrate that better, this is a development team or chart. As you see, Johnson Bets Meadows LP is the entity outlined in our development agreement. Johnson Bets Meadows GP LLC, US Bank Corp. and USB Kansas State Investor One make up Johnson Bets Meadows LP. Towards the lower left of your screen, you'll see THAA is Topeka JB Membership LLC, which holds 51% interest currently in the project. Meznner Hoppy JV Development owns 49%. And so Mesner Hoppy JV Development is

your um developer who THAA would purchase that 49% from at the conclusion of the development fee being paid and the project being completed. So to conclude, our next steps um as established on April 7th would be for the governing body to conduct a public hearing to consider the establishment of the RHID district. Following the public hearing, the governing body would formally establish the district through the adoption of an ordinance and adopting the project plan. And then the next item would be to approve the development agreement that's on the agenda for this evening. Trey George with THAA and Connor Manard with the developer are both present as well. And with that, I would stand for any questions.

Council member Valdivia. Thank you, Mayor. I have a couple um Leia and some of them might be out of your purview but uh the first one is who is currently on the RHID committee. That's for my edification.

So those members are are outlined by policy. It is the city manager, the mayor, the council member whose district the project is located in. The deputy city manager, the director of public works, the director of utilities, the economic development director, our senior management analyst, the planning director, and I think I've covered all of them. They are outlined in the RHID policy. Okay, thank you. Yeah, I don't read that very often. So, thank you for that. Uh, the other thing is um is that can we go back to page eight of your presentation because I was a little bit confused and apologies for the confusion this page.

Okay. Yes, the developer fee. Um, so THAA has the right to buy the developer's ownership interest and the general partner after the developer fee has been paid to the to developer. If the developer does not exit the partnership, the city may recalculate its financial assumptions and adjust the RHID eligible expenses. Obviously, you know, RHID has not been around forever. Is this this this sounds very complex? I I'm not it's not like I'm not going to vote for it, but it it sounds very very complex. All of the information that you're that you're showing us is that developer fee uh and what that paragraph states is is that normal usually in RHIDs or is it because of the complexity of all of the entities involved? Um, thank you,

council member. I'll take this one. Um, having worked on the private development side, I will tell you that the developer fee is absolutely a an essential part of any of these tax credit deals because that is how the developer actually funds their operation. The developer only has a 01% interest as a general partner in that partnership. The other 99.9% interest is that tax credit equity investor because the tax credit equity flows in proportion to the ownership share. And and really what we're talking about here is if the developer does not exit the deal, then that developer fee has to be imputed as income to the partnership, which necessarily we would have to recalculate the but for test would which would result in a reduction of the amount of the RHID eligible expenses so that we're not over incentivizing the deal.

Okay. So yeah, that's a whole lot of words. I understand. I I get it because it has to be that wordy. But what I don't have a question about the developer fee. I don't have a question about what may happen with RHID eligible expenses. I guess my question is and again just for my education as we continue with RID is that THA has the right to buy the developer's owner's interest in the general partner after the developer fee has been paid. If the developer does not exit the partnership, it's that part right there. Is is that common or is there tell me the in the most base way that you can why the developer would exit because obviously it's something that's confusing me

in this this is a unique case because THA obviously is committed long-term to the maintenance and operation of this property because their mission is to provide affordable housing. So this one is slightly different. Usually you don't have the developer exit. Usually the developer is required by that tax credit investor to stay in for the whole time in a deal. This one is unique because it's a third party developer. They have got that THA has that ability to buy out their interest because we know THAA is going to be here forever in a day. And that's what allows us by passing through that developer fee and having them exit that is not imputed as income to the to the partnership which allows us to not include that um in the financial analysis because otherwise it would have been it would have been over incentivized.

Okay. So that what you told me totally made sense. It was base. It was to the point. It was something that I could totally understand. And part of the reason I asked that is because I didn't understand and uh because I I figure a lot of folks that are listening are not understanding. So somehow in these if we are not if the council people are not asking the questions even if we think it's a dumb question because I thought okay I'm going to look stupid. I'm going to ask the question but it still led to a lot of worthwhile information and I totally agree with the way that that has been put in there. The other thing and I'm not sure who would answer this but we know that we have started putting into these with the developers we're being much more intentional with putting no past code you know no current code violations no tax leans no assessments are all paid up and I know that an email went out with this or that was part of an email chain and I'm not saying that for anything other than I know that we were told as a governing body that this would start happening. But city manager or Braxton or whoever, is there any way to I don't know if codify would be the right word so that after we're no longer sitting in our seats or whatever, we can know that these things to be checked on remain part of our due diligence forever and ever as as long as we're working with developers.

Thank you, council member. 100%. So right now we are in the process of reviewing all of our RHID C tiff policies and certainly looking at that with an eye towards how can we um affect change in terms of where are there opportunities for um local suppliers, where are there opportunities for training. And so we're going to have that conversation with the and have ongoing conversation with the policy and finance committee right in terms of starting that conversation in terms of what that looks like. At the end of the day, what I expect is that that will result in some uh resolutions amending our existing tiff, RHID and C policies. And certainly at that time we have the opportunity to include in there that additional step that we have as staff agreed administratively to do and that is to look to see whether there are outstanding housing or property code violations and we can include that in and what I would do is include it as as a certification by the developer and then have staff uh trust but verify to make sure that there aren't any outstanding ones. So, thank you for that. I think that it sounds like it might be a little bit down the road. It's good that it's happening right now. And I think that if eventually we get to that point where it becomes codified and and goes through us for a vote, which I imagine if it's going through policy and finance, something would have to come through us for a vote, is that we really make noise about that so that citizens can see that we're taking this seriously and that we're not just going to keep letting any Tom, Dick, or Harry come in and you know, be a developer and

in a lot of instances, not everyone not give a damn about the tenants themselves or who are going to be living or purchasing or renting the property. Thank you, Mayor. Any other comments or questions at this time? Council member Hiller.

Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to thank you, Leah, and if you had helped them too, but the uh the slide that showed how to calculate the rent for people with with the subsidies, I think all of us on the council have had a little bit of sticker shock when some of the proposed developers have named what the rents would be. And um the the example that you the the grid that you laid out in the example helps to see that it's adjusted gross income, not just what people's paycheck is and that there is a utility allowance as well. And and then still sometimes that looks like a lot of money, but at least it's not 700 or 1,200 for people who have very low incomes. So thanks for that layout and the notes. Council member Banks.

Thank you, Mayor. Uh, director, just for my own personal knowledge, do you have any idea how costly those uh fees associated with the applications could be? I there were a number of them and I'm wondering just how steep those could be. The fees associated with the RHID application. Yes. like the legal fees and

so I can look into what the normal uh I should say what the average expenditures are related to the legal fees and uh the financial advisor fees that are associated with with projects like these and and get that information to you as deputy man city manager mentioned that we'd be providing information to the policy and finance committee. Part of those application fees are in that discussion and and that information will be shared as well. Thank you. Thank you, mayor.

All right. Any other comments or questions at this time? Seeing none, this is a public hearing that needs to be opened on this issue. So, at this time, I'm going to open the public hearing and I will ask if there is anyone present who would like to speak to this matter. Yes, sir. Come on up. Please pronounce tell us who you are and then you have four minutes.

Hi there. Thank you for the opportunity. My name is Christopher Dy and I'm homeless here. Um what what I don't understand is the uh well I heard the part about the 30% and um what I don't understand is how homeless people how do they access this? You know like for low-inccome housing and getting vouchers and getting subsidized housing. How does this actually occur? I've been homeless for 27 years. I sleep on the ground. I get money through social security and I spend it on motel each month about seven or eight nights a month. And uh when I try to get help, I go through the social services and different places like the the doors stop and uh various social service pl they they won't help me. They oppose me. I I meet up with opposition and uh and so I just continue sleeping on the ground. I'm like, so all of this sounds very nice, but in pragmatically speaking, it doesn't it doesn't it doesn't work. Um, so I just want to point that out. And one other point is just to follow up on the uh the transient uh levy tax, the guest levy tax from last month or last week. Um, I worked this out. I didn't have the the numbers last.

So So this is specific. This hearing has to be specific to the RHID just to this RHID issue. But but it does tie in because it's it's addressing people that can't uh get subsidized housing. You're spending 100 I'm spending $130 in tax on these motel to get like eight nights a month in a motel for $80 a night. I looked it up. It's $1,750 for all of these for the uh the sales tax and the uh all of them. It's $1,750 a night. So times eight, you're looking at $140 a homeless person is paying per month for taxes on motel and then they're sleeping on the ground for the rest of the month. So that ties in as to this issue of dealing with subsidized housing that's not reaching people like me. So thank you.

And before you leave here this evening, sir, somebody from our staff or even THA will get it will either get your information or provide you information and connect you with our housing services individuals. We did that last week and it didn't nothing help. Nobody helped me. They just they gave me the runaround and nobody helped me. This happened to every city I go to all over the country. But thank you. Yep.

All right. Is there anyone else present who would like to speak to this matter? All right. Last call. Is there anyone else present who would like to speak to this matter? If not, then I will close the hearing. So, the public hearing is now closed. Are there any other comments or questions from the governing body? All right. With that, I guess it's just a hearing. This doesn't take many. Yep.

Mayor, we would uh respectfully request a motion to approve the ordinance authorizing and establishing the RHID. That's part of this action item. Yep. All right. We have a motion from to approve this RHID from Council Member Bradberry. And we have a second from Council Member Kell. Any other final comments or questions? If not, I would ask the clerk to take the vote. And Council Member Valdivia, what what will your vote be? Yes. Okay. Okay. Okay, we have eight. Yes, the motion carries.

All right, with that we move on to action item 5B. City clerk. Sorry. Okay, I am good to go now. I apologize. B is a development agreement between Johnson Bets Meadows LP, a Kansas limited partnership, and the city of Topeka for the Johnson Bets Meadows Reinvestment Housing Incentive District Project. All right, city manager.

Thank you, mayor, members of the governing body. Leah Bolan, our director of economic development, will lead us through this item.

Thank you again. This is the second item on the agenda this evening for Johnson Betts Meadows RHID and asking the governing body to approve the development agreement as provided. Any comments or questions for staff? If not, a motion is always in order. I have a motion to approve from council member Kell and a second from council member Miller. Oh, let me make sure. And just FYI for everybody, which we should have done on that last vote. Councilwoman Ortiz is now online. So, yeah.

All right. With that, uh, any final questions or comments? If not, have the clerk take the vote, please. And Council Member Valdivia Alka, what will your vote be? Yes. And Council Member Ortiz, yes. Okay. Oh, I thought I hit it. I thought I hit it. All right, we have nine. Yes, the motion carries. All right, we will move on to non-action items. 6A. City clerk.

A is the discussion of a resolution introduced by city manager Dr. Robert M. Perez amending the 2026 to 2035 CIP and the 2026 to 2028 CIB to revise the budget and years for project number 701053 for the Southeast 29th Street Kansas Turnpike Authority interchange and providing final approval of the project. All right, floor is yours Jason.

Thank you mayor and members of the governing body. So what we have tonight is discussion on a resolution. So, previously we had in our CIP that was proposed to you a project to construct an interchange at Southeast 29th Street with Kansas Turnpike Authority. Uh, this is a project that we originally had slated for construction in 2030 and was budgeted based on that timeline uh that the city of Topeka would be fully responsible for. Since that time, we have done some negotiating and had some conversations with KTA. they have now uh in principle agreed to provide 20% of the funding for that project if we would like to begin construction right away. So what we have is an amendment to the CIP that would allow us to start design of this uh in 2026 to start construction in 2028 with the KTA providing 20% of the cost. So there's two reasons why the cost has gone down. One is that we are constructing an earlier and the second is that there be an additional sort of funds source of funds. Um they are proposing that city would pay 80% of the cost and the KTA the Kansas turnpike authority would pay 20% of the cost. With that I'd be happy to answer any questions.

All right. Prior to that we No, that's the next item. Never mind. Comments or questions from the governing body? Hold on. Council member Valdivia Alcala. Thank you, mayor. Um Jason, um do we have any amount or slide that we can show the public what the old amount is and what the new amount will be with that 20%.

So a an exhibit was provided as part of the agenda. Um the cost for the city uh the the total cost of the project would be $18,450,000. The cost for the city share would be 14,850,000 with $3,600,000 provided by the Kansas Turnpike Authority. Okay. And I know and I know that we've got a presentation on it, you know, in another place as well. I'm just saying that is something that we need to have up so that people can see it. And then it was originally slated and sometimes CIP is confusing to me. Uh but it was originally slated for 2030.

That's correct. So originally the CIP um that was proposed to this body had this project as a 2030 uh design and construction. And so we are moving it up. You're saying trying to move it up to 2026 this year right now because of that 20% buyin. Is that basically it? That's correct. That uh by constructing sooner, we would uh in theory be able to construct it at less cost because we know construction costs continue to go up as well as the fact that the KTA has offered those additional funds.

Okay. And also has there been what is the most current when these type of major um you know constructions and and revamping and all of that take place? Uh are are there engineering studies and traffic studies and all of that done? Correct. Yes, that would be part of the design process. Okay. So, the design process is going to be doing a study and how much do we have any idea how much that's going to cost?

So, that's all factored into the total cost that is proposed. That would include design of the roadway itself. Uh typically with those studies are also going to look at uh how it's going to connect to the existing infrastructure if there are uh suggestions for more improvements. Uh that would all be part of the design for the project.

Okay. Thank you for that. And I'm just going to make my comments on this. Um mayor, just real quick, I'm not supporting this. It's not that I don't want it to happen. It's that in a matter and we know that it's been on here for a long time and it's been on a lot of CIPs. I get it and I get that in some ways there may be the need for it but for us to jump from 2030 to now to 2026 because of 3.4 4 million that will be given to us. The amount that is having to be go bonded when we are in the deficit that we are in and when we should be having a serious audit of the entire city that I mean there's just there's no way it feels it feels really really rushed and so I I thank you Jason for answering those questions but I will not be supporting this. Council member Kell.

Um I do feel that counciloman there is a little bit rushed and um but I do agree with the director there that you know these projects are going to cost longer. The longer they're out on the schedule, the more they're going to cost. And right now we have someone willing to to chip in $3 million rather than in four years it being three $3 million more out of our own pocket. Uh it's one of those things I've been thinking for several years that it's needed on that side of of the highway there because if they for some reason if they close off that at at 470 and and Topeka Boulevard in essence close it off how are you supposed to get on on the road there? The only way is on off I7. So if you're going down to Witchaw and you live wherever you're going have to go out out to Rice Road and back down again. So, it's something for years I think we we've needed and with the technology changes in KTA, it's a lot more cost effective to to be able to get on to there, especially as someone like myself or my wife uses that use that exit every single day to go to to to her school. She teaches that, but I use that exit all the time. And if that exit got closed off, it's going to cause a lot of inconvenience for for Topeka. And so this will be another way where we can finally get some work done on that exit that's been direly needed, but also now have another exit for people to come and and come in and speak at.

Thank you, Council Member Banks.

Thank you, Mayor. I think that it is certainly a good idea for us to look at the fact that when we talk about rush, this project has been in the works for almost 12 years. So, it's not a rush, it's a necessity. If we now decide to vote against this process, then we go back to the bottom of the list. So, we lose the 3 whatever million dollars that KTA is willing to give us. So, I'd ask this council to think clearly, take a clear look at where we are and the opportunity that we're about to receive. We cannot afford to think, oh, we can do it in 2028 or 2030 when KTA may not be there at that time.

Thank you, mayor.

Thank you. I'll piggyback off that a little bit. Um, we can't do this project without KTA. It's not something we can just magically show up and do. It's going to take their agreement to work with us to open that up to to do some long because once they take a little ownership of this too long term, keep that in mind some of the maintenance of this. So, so it has to be something that they have to sign off on and they have to approve and we are at their mercy in the sense that to council member Bank's point, we we sat there for 12 years trying to get this moved up and it's finally in their hopper and if we miss this opportunity, it's it's done. it's they're going to move on. Remember, we are competing with dozens, if not a hundred projects across the state, going to KTA every day saying, "Help us with our project. Let's do this project." One of them just down the road in at the Auburn Washurn at the Auburn Exchange. Right. So, we're even competing with our own county here to make sure that we're getting these projects. So, so I just at least want to make sure everyone aware of that. Approve it. Not approve it. I I'm fully supportive of this because I don't view this as a road project. I view this as an economic development project for a part of town which we have repeatedly said historically we have underserved and so this is one more way to open up those economic development opportunities. So is the timing ideal? It's not of course not in some respects but again it has been in the CIP for for a decade and so we aren't unprepared and some of the initial work feasibility study that part's been done. We're literally at the point where if we sign off on this in a week and KTA signs off on it, which they're going to do, then this these dollars aren't for spinning our wheels again. It's to start the actual design project to move this thing forward and get it built in the next couple years. So, I think those are important things to just highlight and make a point of here and then we will go to Council Member Bradberry.

Thank you, Mayor. Um, are we pursuing any additional sources of funding or grants such as a build grant? So, we are always pursuing additional funding opportunities for all of our projects. There's no current application. Uh there are some challenges with federal grants for the KTA specifically. Uh but we are always pursuing additional funding.

And I'll also add to to that that we continue to work with our um our state um legislative officials uh to look for additional funding through uh KOT as well as uh other uh other opportunities. So yes, this this is what is before you for discussion this evening is worst case scenario. In the event that additional funds become available, we would obviously apply that to this project. Yes, ma'am.

And there are no promises, but I will tell you our our Shauny County delegation is engaged in this and trying to work with they tried actually during this legislative session uh and there may be dollars outside of the session and then they'll they're going to go back next year and also make the same efforts again to help us find some dollars. Council member Alivia,

thank you. Um, you know, I think I'm coherent just because I may not be voting with the majority and I definitely think I think things through even though I may not vote for with the majority. Uh so again I my thought is that this kind of reminds me of what the Pope Quincy viaduct when you know we paid and I think we ended up paying the 20 million to get it to the head of the line. Um I think that there is something to be said for the economic development and how we need that. At the same time, we are using an extraordinarily am uh large amount of bonding. And I'm thinking what else could we be using that for? I know that there are different specifications for, you know, for go bonding, but um I just think about all the other needs that we have that we can't meet because we say we're in the budget deficit and on and on and on. And the other thing is things stay in the CIP forever and sometimes they get kicked out because they have been found not to be beneficial. Again, I'm not saying that this is absolutely one of them. I'm saying that the timing is off. And it's once again where you're going to expect the taxpayers to swallow all of this and rush something that was from 2030 to this year all because of the 3.4 million. And I think that's why the city ends up getting a bad rap because things get rushed into. And it's one thing to say that things are rushed when this really is rushed and there's one thing to know the reality of how the CIP works. Those are two different things. Thank you, Mayor.

Council member Ortiz. Thank you, Jason. I thought some studies were done when we first started this. So, there have been two studies that were done. One was a study that was done by the Kansas Turnpike Authority. Uh, an additional study was performed uh by a company um called Development Strategies to study the economic impact. Okay. So, why do we need another study?

So, those studies were from the KTA perspective. Specifically, what the KTA wants to look at is what do they think the long-term operations and maintenance cost will be for them and what revenue would this exit generate for them because this would be a toll exit. Um so they would be projecting toll revenue and balancing that against the cost of their maintenance. Uh the additional study that was done was an economic impact study. Um when we look at additional design that is specifically about what the geometry of the road will be, how it will connect to the infrastructure that's existing and if any improvements are needed on that infrastructure. So all of those are functioning for different reasons.

I thought on the infrastructure California was supposed to be five lanes. We had that slated for five lanes and to save money, we we put it down to three lanes. Um, but they said we really needed five lanes to put this in. Is that not true what the study says?

So, this specific exit would actually be on 29th Street, not on California. There were some California um iterations that were considered. This would actually exit onto 29th Street. You are correct. That stretch of road is not five lane today. If additional traffic comes as a result of this interchange, that would be a cost consideration uh in the future that would have to be considered as well.

Okay. Um I think for me and I understand where we're at and I understand where we're trying to go and where we've been trying to go. Um like I said, California was supposed to be five lanes. We knocked it down to three lanes to save money on the budget. Da da da da. Um, I just want to make sure that we don't need any more studies than we already than we need. Um, because it seems like we're always doing studies and studies and studies and we get nowhere with it. Now, I know it's 12 some years later and things have changed, but I even thought that they gave us um documentation off of 29th Street on on one of their studies as well. So, I don't know any specific uh documentation related to 29th Street. Um I know that the KTA study was presented to this body as well as the market impact study was presented to the infrastructure committee. So, I would have to go back and review if there was anything specifically that called out those locations in either of those documents. And one more thing, does now that we don't have people in the toll booth, you know that they're you just drive through, how does that affect this as well?

So that is part of KTA's cost consideration. So those are costs that they would bear in terms of ensuring that they are accurately reading who's exiting at this location. Uh so that's KTA's purview to handle those aspects. Another thing to keep in mind, this would be a KTA run project. So, we would provide funding, but they would be managing the project themselves because this is their infrastructure, right? I just didn't know if it would be lower since they don't have to manage it with the, you know, with employees that that cost is what was used for the cost projection of $18,450,000 that's in the project before you tonight.

Yeah. by by doing the by doing that. Thank you. It's okay to go ahead. Thank you, council member. Um by by going to the the tollless uh or the yeah the tollless cashless toll lane. Uh it basically lowers the overall project cost uh the runs that they have to do um the queueing that they would normally have to do whenever there's a toll booth. Uh basically shortens the the amount of roadway that's needed. Uh so basically like going to the cashless tolling uh it allows for lower project costs uh on the capital side and then the operating costs on the KTA side.

Okay. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I I will be supporting this. I think this is long and overdue and we'll figure it out. Council member Hiller.

Thank you, uh Mayor and and Council. I've I've been through this before. I I appreciate my uh colleague Councilwoman Vald Divial's comments. I mean, sometimes we've those of us that have been around for a while have seen things that have stayed at the far end of the CIP for a long long time uh for a variety of reasons. This one um KTA wouldn't support it at first. They didn't think there would be enough traffic through it to make it worth having from their end. That may have changed with going to cashless tolling. Um when we talked about economic development, the the push at early on was was for um economic development, but one of the conversations that happened then is that when most of us can think about how we choose when we're going to get off the interstate if we're travelers, we get off only if there's something right there. We get off, we see there's four different gas stations, there's place to eat and so on. And uh for a long long time there was no plan. We didn't have any ideas for developing the the interchange itself. And so it was in terms of us investing as a city in it as an economic development idea. It looked like the only thing that would happen is that people that lived in East Pika would leave town and get on I470 instead of drive down 29th Street and shop in town. That kind of thing. So those kinds of conversations occurred along the way. Um I'm not hearing that a whole lot has changed on the side. Not being not not put forth with this item was the idea that maybe um there would be some development there. And my understanding is that and city manager you can correct me that the city manager would like us to invest another substantial amount of

money to get that development going. If not mayor is shaking his head then we we have a an undeveloped intersection. We have to look at how much we'd be spending versus how much economic development we would get back from it. Um, I also had someone uh kind of outside reach out to me about whether assuming it was going to be developed. Um, there are no utilities out into that area and what kind of responsibility if if we're looking for that kind of development to happen, what what would the costs or the responsibilities be that we never talked about before? I don't know. water lines, especially utilities, things like that.

So, Councilwoman, a few of the things, a few notes. Uh, one, um, the economic development feasibility study that was presented to the PI committee back in September basically supported the notion that if we build this, the additional there would be additional economic development benefits tangibly. It would serve over 200 of the 2 million annual visitors that go to Lake Shai on the west, I'm sorry, on the east. on the west it would provide a direct connection to California crossing which is another location that we are trying to to build up. Uh there's CIDs and or IHADs and things out you know that are going on there. Um operationally it also provides direct access to fire station 9 which will be on the southwest corner uh of that intersection. Um so yes the the there is support for economic development with that the utilities uh obviously as we you know look to develop any um undeveloped land that's a consideration that we would work with a developer to install and then there's multiple uh there's multiple incentives that we can work with you know to get that done to accomplish that. So yes, there there's uh the economic development feasibility study. I'll make sure that we include that as an attachment um for next week's item. Um but again, that study that was presented to PI committee back in September justified or uh supported the um the construction of this intersection at 29th Street. And there were three there were three intersections that were looked at. California 29th and I believe it's 10th Street, I think, further to the north. So, um,

10th Street, whatever it is, there's another crossing further up north, KTA. There were three locations, and I, and again, I may may be misspeaking about 10th Street, but there's a there were three locations that were looked at. 29th Street was the location that had the most developed uh infrastructure or the the roadway there to actually support the the construction. Um, and so again, there's there's an economic development justification for this. Uh, and then also too, um, like I said, there's there's other tangibles for visitors to the area.

Well, I think those are all really important. I know that I haven't seen any of them. And I also, similar to what council member Ortiz said, recall, you know, this hasn't been developed. There hasn't been public input on how that would go yet. And there were real concerns about the routing of the traffic off the KTA into Topeka and whether, you know, how an intersection going straight into 29th Street would work or to California or kind of looping it around that corner so that it neither had quite as much of the traffic. And I I just know that there really were concerns about that before. So to to jump on it before we had some of those things worked out seems premature to me. Um I appreciate the thought, but uh let me see if there's anything else. Not right now. Thank you,

Council Member Valdivala.

One final uh one final thing is that this all feels rushed. We don't have any alternative sources that we're going to for money. We don't have a presentation about possible developers. Uh, you know, as city managers talking about developers and we'll get them or kind of we'll get them, they will come. And you know, in case anybody I'm sure everybody knows, inflation jumped today almost 4%. Almost 4% in the United States. There has been continued talk about us going into a recession. And as we get closer to November, more and more unknown variables are going to be happening. We have a mess of a budget, a mess, which is why we need an audit. We need a forensic audit. Thank you, Pat. And yet, we are willing to put the people's dime on additional bonding. I don't know if this is a pet project that is being bumped up. I'm not saying it is. I'm not saying it's not. I definitely think it's needed. But you know what? By 2030, we'll probably be a lot better about where we know where we're going than right at this moment in 2026. I bet you. I bet you. Thank you, Mayor.

Council member Banks.

Thank you, Mayor. You know, as I sit here uh and I think about my colleagues obviously have not been in Southeast Topeka because we are economically growing. The thinking that I'm seeing from our colleagues, my colleagues today lets me know why this city hadn't grown 10,000 people in 50 years. We have to take these opportunities. Nothing is for certain. We could have we could have a different president in two weeks. Then what's where is inflation going to be? We have to start thinking about the growth of the city. Not just central Topeka, not just West Topeka, not just North Topa, but we've got to think about the entire city. If you've been in southeast Pekica right uh recently you would see that there are small businesses popping up all over there and if we are not aware small businesses are the growth the backbone of our country always has been without this opportunity it's going to reduce the opportunity for us to have some some extra economic growth in South Dica. They're deserving of it. I am not going to sit here and worry about what could happen four years from now. We need to think about immediate growth, take advantage of all the opportunities that we can get. $3 million to me is a lot of money and it's not coming out of our pockets. If you ask those if you would ask the taxpayers in Southeast Topeka today, would they be willing to take this opportunity? I bet they'd say yes. Thank

you, Mayor. We do have one individual signed up for public comment on this. Joseph Led Better. Mr. Lebet, I had you down for 6B. Is that still accurate or was that a switch accidental switcheroo? No, I was 6A. Okay. Just want to make sure. Then I'm not going to call you on 6B. That's why I'm asking. So just just checking. Just verifying. Yep. Yeah. If I get 10 minutes, I'll be fine. Nope. You get four, sir. We have a lot of people signed up to speak this even.

Yeah, I know. And they keep keep repeating. Um, so I was president of Highest, which borders on California, uh, in 2016. And I brought this idea to the manager at that time, Mr. Coulson, about could we possibly get a connection with the KTA since there was none uh between the far east side and South Peak. It was about a six mile stretch. And I also knew that at the time uh KTA just built another interchange further east and uh they haven't built a new one in about 10 years. So, timing is actually perfect. Now, one thing that we haven't talked about is how much traffic's going down that uh KTA every day. Well, back then it was about 13,000. Now, it's about 15 16,000. So, that's per day. Trucks, buses, tourists, people that need to get off the road so they can take their kids, you know, to a restaurant. and uh they're out there trying to find a place in Topeka to land and buy fuel cuz they may be running out, but they can't they can't do that because they've got to go all the way to South Topa and if they miss that interchange, it's another 30 miles. So, uh what's happened since 2016 is we've widened uh we've widened California Yeah. to three lanes but all the way to 45th. 45th has been widened. 29th has been widened to five lanes between Croco and and the bridge where KTA is, you know, proposing to put this interchange which is the best place. There were three locations. One was on California. Uh there was one

a little bit further to the north and east came off a hill. It was kind of expensive because it would involve bridges. And then there's a southern one that involved a bridge. This diamond one is probably the most efficient and cheapest to build of any of them. Now, what else has happened in the last 10 years? Well, we've gone to tollus uh uh tolling. So, this is a lot more attractive to the KTA now than it was 10 years ago. Uh they don't have to staff it. That money pays for maintenance. Remember, we don't have to maintain this. This will be maintained by the KTA into perpetuity. uh we don't have to build it. We do help fund it, but they also help fund it. Uh 10 years ago, they weren't talking about anything. Uh now they're talking about approximately 3.8 million, 3.6 depending on the total project. Uh the inflation is true. It did go up and it's probably going to keep going up for a little while here. And so this is a good opportunity to uh build this. And I do believe when you don't build it, they don't come. So that's kind of the opposite side track. Uh and they haven't come. Although right now when I was on the uh advisory for parks and wreck, uh the last numbers I saw and I shared them with the city was we're over 2 million visitors a year at Lake Shaune with the Betts and the complexes and those are drawing out of state competitions. A lot. And why doesn't the east side have a hotel? Well, because they don't have any exits to get off the highway or to get on the highway. Imagine if you had an exit. Wow. We could have hotels on the east side instead of the people jumping in their cars and going to Lawrence because they think it's more convenient than to drive to the west side of town because they can't get back on the highway.

Okay. Senator Clus has also told me that he's he wants to work on maybe trying to get us some additional funds, but right now we got to deal with what we've got. 3.8 million came in that meeting where I was at in February. Could I get an additional two minutes? Joe, I I can't do We have more than 10 people signed up to speak this evening. Oh, okay. So, there will be no extensions this evening. Okay. But you'll be back up. You're signed up to talk again. It's all good.

Okay. Thank you. Are there any other comments or questions on this from the governing body at this time? If not, then thank you, Jason. With that, we will move on to action or non-action item B. City clerk. B is the discussion of the proposed 2027 to 2036 SE capital improvement plan and 2027 to 2029 capital improvement budget. City manager. Thank you mayor, members of the governing body. Josh McInarney, deputy director of budget and finance will lead us to this discussion.

Thanks manager. Um good evening governing body. So we've already talked a little bit obviously about the CIP tonight. Um, and the last couple of weeks reviewed public works projects and and utilities projects. So, tonight's just kind of any any lingering questions because the plan is to vote next week um on on the document. But just one thing to keep in mind is that the CIP is a malleable document to where we can move projects up, move projects back, delay projects. So, the CIP is one of the first many of approval steps that it will the project will go through um as we as we eventually put it out on the street for construction. So we have to take it back to the public works infrastructure committee various contract approvals. So this approving this document long story short is not the end all be all. So with that we'll stand or sit for any questions.

Questions or comments for Josh? Council member Hiller. Um related to what we I've got two things but related to what we just talked about. What is the proposal from staff to trade out the $18 million or the $15 million if we were going to move?

So there there is not a quote unquote tradeoff. It would just be moving forward. Um I can provide any financial uh scenarios. So remember when we bond this, it's about $1.4 million depending on the interest rate per year for 15 years. And so that's paid out of the debt service fund. Right now, our debt service fund is a $24 million fund balance, which is 10 times higher than our policy. So, we can absorb the payment now. It's just a matter of how the council wants to dedicate those dollars um in the future. So, I can provide that to the governing body if necessary.

Well, I think it would be important. I mean, when and again, we have not had a single session where we really went through the whole CIP and could kind of see how the pieces relate to one another and how the totals work. But when we um have looked at what your preliminary one was, which a a year ago to move two mills out of the going into the debt service fund into the operating budget for a year, um the idea had been to migrate that back, but also what was built into the CIP at that point was going to need not only that revenue, but an additional two mills a year by about the sixth year in um which I personally ly found unacceptable and so uh you know came up with some proposals for the CIP to um take that those two mills and and begin to use them for the things that we have had in the CIP that are not eligible by our own policies. they're too small a projects and so on to bond and and start getting those shifted out to cash so that our our debt service can afford some of these big projects because they really are extra instead of us bonding everything we have and I'm not seeing any changes on that. So, you know, a balance this year or some state thing about what our percentage of reserves needs to be and so on um isn't as important to me as looking at how how the progress would go if we bond as much as was proposed. And um I'm I'm gathering that then you just want to bond this on top of everything else. And there are we really haven't had enough discussion I guess to um see if you had any counter thoughts about moving some some of the things out of bonding to cash.

It's not really my decision to uh change how projects um flow, but I guess doing so. The reason we bond it is because it's less cash intensive upfront. And so when we're already facing a shortfall in the general fund, it's hard to we'd have to make additional cuts in there when we're already knowing we're going to have to do that. Well, I understand that they don't want us to go bankrupt. Thank you.

Questions or comments for Josh? That it for this evening? All right. So, as a reminder to everybody, if you have changes to this document, you need to think about them this week so that if we think we can approve this next week and we're ready, great. If not, we can have those discussions of any changes, amendments, corrections you'd like to see um before we either take a vote or decide to push it back to take a final vote the following meeting in first meeting in June. So, just want to put that on his radar. Do your please do your homework, I guess, is what I'm is what I'm charging you with. So, anything else from staff on this at this point? Great. Thank you very much. With that, we will move on to public comment. Uh, just two reminders. First of all, remember when you're doing public comment, you're addressing the entire council, not individual council members. And then, as you heard me say in Mr. Lebet earlier, we have a number of people signed up. due to the number of people uh there will not be any extensions this evening so that we can make sure everybody gets their their four minutes this evening. So with that first up we have Donna Lacy.

Okay. Thank you for letting me speak. Um I feel out of my element here. I just spent the day with two toddlers and a cranky 10-month-old, so bear with me. Um, my name is Donna Lacy. Um, and um, I retired in 2016 from Washurn University and I was widowed two years ago. That all kind of factors into my thoughts about a sidewalk. Um, so this is concerning a proposed sidewalk uh on Mallister Street between Blue 13th and Drury Lane. That's where the markers are. And I have talked to some neighbors. None of them are happy about it. Um, but they didn't volunteer to come with me. though, you know. Um anyway, um I would think that that would be one place where you could save money in your budget by not building an unwanted sidewalk. Um and also I'm wondering who is the sidewalk supposed to benefit because it really won't benefit me. Um I would have to do snow removal and leaf removal and probably get my weed eater on both sides of the sidewalk. Um, it'll cut out a flower bed. I brought a beautiful peie that the flower bed, you know, that it would greatly affect. And, um, I don't know if these questions can be answered tonight or

if I'm going to have to No, this Well, this is not a back and forth. I know um and I do know your council member is she's on and she's listening and I know she's communicating too and is getting some answers for you on some of those questions you've asked. And I have heard, you know, I did respond to her today. Um, I've been I've been watching it also to to monitor it.

Good. Thank you. Um, so let me see. You know, I like say I was busy with kids today. So anyway, um, I did go out and measure the construction marker that was put Well, I actually took the one out of my yard cuz I had to mow. Um, but I went and measured another neighbors and it was 16 ft and 10 in from the curb, from the inside of the curb, and I was of the belief that the city easement was 6 ft. Well, I did some research and found that is now 12 ft. I don't know when that changed. Um, but 16 feet is way past 12 feet. So, why would it be marked at 16 ft um and 10 in? That would take up almost a third of my front yard coming in that far. And to point out, um my lot and several other people down the street, our lots are smaller in the back because we have a creek that runs behind us. And so, our front yards are bigger. And now it's proposed that maybe you're going to take away a third of mine. Um, oh minute. Okay. Uh, there's also, uh, one big problem. If you were to do this, there is a big water. Um, let me see if I find it. A culvert at 13th Emallister. It goes under takes the creek, which is usually dry, underground all the way to Oakley. It would be a big safety hazard if you put a sidewalk right along there. Uh there's another similar creek over at 17th and Hunton and they have fencing. Not 17th, I'm sorry. Honing along that which would be a deterrent.

This culvert has nothing except an iron rail. So you might think about that when you're proposing putting a sidewalk right there. So and I think that's it. and thank you for allowing me to speak. Thank you very much. Next up, we have Michelle King. Welcome.

Good evening. Topeka Eastern Topeka Corridor Initiative. John Wesley once said, "Do all the good you can by all the means you can in all the ways you can in all the places you can at all the times you can." So, good evening, city council, mayor. Thank you for letting me speak, and Megan, who was so gracious to put me on, and um Mr. Curtis, who is helping navigate our charge. Um, I'd like to share with you what I like to call a lifetime opportunity for Topeka. So, my name is Rochelle King. I'm a lifelong resident here in Topeka. I have I'm the mother of four, grandmother of six, and I am the Topeka, Kansas Black Nurses Association President. So um in this comprehensive action it encourages a upward mobilization of Topeka this time the east side is uh consistency in action is a forward move of top city as a whole this time including the east side. So the legacy as to what you are doing by placing this proposal um for the Eastern Topeka corridor initiative, quarter cent sales tax on the agenda for the August 2026 ballot process vote I think would be um monumental and needed to say the least. So um it includes uh helping people all generational um all economical um areas um all age areas. So the things that they are proposing and you know as you look through what they have given you it does include a lot of that and

once it's placed on the ballot you know they can answer any other questions that you may have. But um the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, "If you can't fly, then run. If you can't run, then walk. If you can't walk, then crawl. But whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward. This is a forward movement for Topeka. And so, thank you for your time." Miss, were these copies that council members can keep? Yes. Okay. And would you also like it submitted into the public record when we do our minutes? Yes. Okay. Great. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right, next up we have Dasha Net Groves.

Welcome.

Hi. Hello. My name is Dane Groves. I'm one of the few representatives of the youth of Eastern Topeka. I really want to push um the Eastern Corridor um sales tax initiative because I feel like a lot of the youth in Topeka should have something to look forward to and to just be a kid without feeling like pressured or like as if they're not welcomed in their own community. And I also would um just like more of an opportunity for kids our age outside of just academics and sports. And yeah, um that's pretty much it. Thank you very much. I'm absolutely going to mispronounce this, so I'm just going to apologize right up front, but Zeshas Drakes Oh, you're not even hearing I mispronounced it.

Drakes. Last name Drakes. She's not coming.

Okay, that's fine. Someday someone will tell me how to pronounce that right so I can get it right. Uh Christopher Dy. Thank you very much. You got my name right. Um, like I said last week, only um, Europeans have ever got it right on the first try. The um, I'm following up on public safety regarding 12step meetings. And what I like to point out is that just so that people can have fully informed decisions when they attend public uh, 12step meetings. Um, they need to know and and this also pertains to people being court ordered to the meetings. They're told straight up front that 12step meetings are spiritual program. It's a spiritual program and not religious. I'd like to read the following that I provided to the council. Um, a copy of my uh my my written paper as a as a being and I'm not being publicly controversial by doing this. I'm trying to be helpful for a public safety reason. As for a being a spiritual program, not religious. God, capital G, God, and him capital H are religious concepts central to the 12 steps. God and goddess are spiritual. Bill W when asked what he credited the source of change in people's lives to in aa pointed to a portrait on the wall of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane and said there it is. That's in the AA big book pages 216 217. Co-founder Dr. Bob always emphasized religious angle very strongly when when working with others. That's in the big book page 292 third edition. AA's own literature refers to it being religious 10 to 15 times in its AA comes of age pages 33 304 to 324. Harry Emerson Fosdic's favorable review of AA's big book in 1939 states quote

the core of their whole procedure is religious. End quote. Fosdic again in 1956 quote moreover these testimonies bear witness to religion's reality for Alcoholics Anonymous is deeply religious. end quote. In the 1958 Mike Wallace Reinhold Neighbor interview in Reinhold Neighbor, he wrote the serenity prayer which AA adopted and they opened up the meetings with his prayer. In the 1958 Mike Wallace Reinhold Neighbor interview available online, neighbor immediately emphasizes the importance of the separation between church and state. This makes court-ordered AA highly questionable even when offered as a choice such as AA or Siberia. Compare the Judeo-Christian context with aa primai. Quote, it is a spiritual axiom that every time we are disturbed, there is something wrong with us. End quote. That's from 12 steps in 12 traditions, page 90. Quote, and acceptance is the answer to all my problems today. Unless I accept my my life completely on life's terms, I cannot be happy. End quote. Page 449, paintbook, third edition. And please look up those passages in full so you get the the total context. Compare that to this. Jesus was so incapable of accepting life on life's terms in the Garden of Gethsemane, his sweat turned to blood. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote of his tribulation. One minute left. Tribulation is a crucial term conspicuously missing from AA teachings. This is what Martin Luther King wrote. Quote, "Since that jury day, I have known very few quiet days. I have been tortured without and tormented within by the raging fires of tribulation. Day in and day out, I have been forced to stand up amid howling winds of adversity. Times without number, I have learned life has not only sunlit moments of joy, but also fog path moments of sorrow. End quote. That's

Martin Luther King papers, page 544, July 1962 to March 1963 in the Library of Congress. Okay. When you consider all of that and you see the importance that there can be false teachings in these programs, there can be religious extremists within these groups incognito that make it dangerous for individuals to go there because they're thinking it's not religious. It is religious and there may be extremists in these meetings controlling the narrative. You need to know that. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Next up, Joseph Led Better.

Thank you, governing body. Uh, I'm here to speak uh on behalf of my sister. That's Donna Lacy. And uh she is a widow. And I think if you uh any of you I know a lot of you have, probably all of you have read the Bible at some point. We're to take care of the widows and the orphans uh above all. And uh my sister has probably the most beautiful front lawn on the Mallister if you drive over there. Uh she's had it that way for I think 25 30 years. I don't have that green thumb. I never really had an interest in it, but all of my family does that except me. Uh now my wife does it, but I just I just go buy the stuff and I'll get what they want. But she has a fantastic, beautiful front yard full of flowers, full of butterfly gardens, all that stuff that I don't grow. And uh this sidewalk proposal just popped up in her uh inbox and completely shocked her because she doesn't have a husband anymore to help her shovel that snow. And we know by ordinance, if you've got a public sidewalk in front of your house, you're supposed to clean it in the winter and keep it free of debris. And I don't want a sidewalk in my neighborhood. I I'm fine. A lot of neighbors across Topeka have them, but a lot of them don't, and I prefer not to have one, and uh a lot of people prefer not to have them. Uh it's just a lot of extra maintenance and it cuts into your privacy and your space. Like she said, she's got a creek that hasn't been maintained by the city. Uh full of dead trees and uh if you want to spend money on something, right, go back and clean those trees out, which is actually a utility easement for storm water and

it's full of dead trees and they're going to fall over and dam that creek up. It's just going to happen. It's just the way of nature. And uh I think she said the last time they cleaned it out, according to old neighbors that she talked to, was in the 70s. So um these things do have to be maintained occasionally, especially after 50 years. Um, I I talked to her a lot and I I do appreciate uh Michelle, you know, talking to her and and including me in the emails which I forwarded to the council so you could understand what she's concerned about, what she's upset about. And uh and she does take care of some some great grandkids. And I don't know how she does it. I've got a 5-year-old. That's Wow. Uh but anyway, um I I honor her. She is a great woman and a taxpayer. She's lived in that house for over 40 years. Uh kept it immaculate. That's the way she was raised. And uh and I I love her. I want her to be protected. I don't want this sidewalk shoved down her throat, put in her yard. Uh we're not even sure when the easement supposedly got expanded. Uh, isn't that a taking if you weren't paid for it, if it was expanded? Uh, but whether it was or wasn't, we need a lot more details about how this happened and who dreamed this up. And then it doesn't even connect to another main thoroughfare. It goes to Jury Lane instead of 17th. That doesn't even make sense if you drive down it or look at it. So, I hope the infrastructure committee takes that back and and starts looking at all of these types of requests. I'd like for these kinds of things to be brought before the council so we can vet them. I remember

years ago, every construction project that was ever talked about, there was arguing till midnight about this was going to be done, that was going to be done, but at the end of the night, it was vetted. It was vetted well and people knew what they were getting. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Next up, I have Mr. James Balden. Good evening, mayor. First of all, I'd like to say giving all honor to God who is the author of my life and the city council, city administration for your hard work. What I'd like to talk to you about today is love our neighbor. confronting hatred and evil in our city. In every city, there are places of beauty and belongings. And there are also signs of hatred and evil that try to take root in our streets, schools, homes, and even our conversations. When we do not love our neighbor, we make room for what harms us all. This document is a call to see the damage clearly, to speak honestly about it, and to choose a better way, the way of love, courage, and responsibility. Naming the reality. Hatred does not always arrive loudly. Sometimes it shows up as contempt,

mocking, dehumani, dehum dehumani I'm sorry, excuse me. I went to the dentist today and dehumanizing language. Cruelty disguised as just joking or the decision to look away when someone is being harmed. Evil often grows in the ordinary. neglect, abuse of power, dishonest gain, and violence, and in slow hardening of the heart that says that's not my problem. We do not have to deny what we see. We can admit there are wounds in this city. There are people who feel unsafe, unseen, or unwanted. And when we allow indifference to become normal, hatred gains strength. Because silence can become permission. Cost of hatred. It always charges a price. Fractured families and neighborhoods. Teaches children that cruelty is strength. turns disagreements into enemies and differences into threats, makes ordinary people suspicious of one another, and convinces us that safety can only be found behind walls. Hatred also damages the one who carries carries it. It narrows our compassion, distorts our judgment, trains our hearts to celebrate someone else's pain.

In the end, hatred promises power, but delivers emptiness, leaves a city less human than what it was meant to be. I agree with the uh Sister Alcula, we need a forensic audit. In closing, we reject hatred as a way of life. We reject the lie that evil is inevitable or that our actions do not matter. Starting with our own hearts and our own homes. We choose to love our neighbor with courage, patience, and truth. May our city become a place where dignity is protected, where people are not reduced to labels, and where goodness is practiced. One decision, one conversation, and one act of mercy at a time. Love is how we push back the darkness right here, right now, and together. Thank you very much.

Thank you, sir. Next up, we have Danielle Twello.

Thank you. So, I do want to address tonight the utility rate conversation, um, but also how that ties into public trust. Um before this council asks residents to absorb another utility increase, this community deserves a full independent audit of the utility department, its billing practices, its financial assumptions, and the policy decisions that created the current crisis. Because what we are learning about the readiness to serve charge, raises, and again, serious concerns about what the water department is doing. For years, residents were told that the readiness to serve was simply the same base charge that had always existed. But the facts really show something quite different. Um, Topica Capital Journal reported back in September of 2023 um that the previous city managers under the desk consultant orchestrated the readiness to serve as a new revenue generating strategy. He states in the article that the intention was to use those revenues to subsidize development incentives, free meters for builders, and housing expansion goals. It was also estimated this policy could generate $600,000 or more annually. And most importantly, the consultant who helped propose the expansion stated that the city legal staff later told him the charge had quote been on the books for years but not collected. And that matters because there is a major difference between a dormant ordinance provision and an aggressively enforced city-wide revenue strategy. The city cannot reasonably claim nothing changed when the number of delinquent utility accounts exploded from 269 accounts in 2020 to approximately 792 accounts in 2025. That is nearly a 200% increase in the number of delinquent accounts entering the lean pipeline. 73% in 2020 were actually repeat offenders because the ordinance didn't just expand who is charged a base rate, but the

price of that base rate since 2020 increased more than 70%. To be clear, the rate is paid by everyone. And we need to be honest about something else. Vacant properties do not substantially increase utility operating costs. A vacant house is not consuming water. It is not generating wastewater uh treatment costs. It is not increasing chemical usage, pumping costs or processing demand. The overwhelming majority of utility infrastructure maintenance is already a fixed systemwide cost that exists whether one vacant house sits next to another that's connected. So, when residents are told utility rates must increase to make up for the loss revenue charges from vacant homes, that is somehow creating major costs, those numbers simply don't support the narrative. And the published report states it was intended for loss revenue, but yet again, we've heard time and time again that it potentially had this other other reason. So, how much of that revenue has been used since RTS was enacted to directly or indirectly um help development uh free water meters, housing and whatnot? Where is the line item audit that we have of what is happening in the department? Um so, this isn't stabilizing neighborhoods. I know we have uh listening sessions to come forward, but the fact of the matter is it isn't just about the input. It's about the series of misinformation that has been coming over and over again. And this concern is more serious alongside prior discrepancies and inconsistencies involving the water department, including the Kansas top soil matter where potentially millions of dollars and fraudulent work has happened and broader questions about accountability, transparency, and oversight in the wastewater treatment facility. When residents see contradictions in explanations, shifting justifications, and inconsistent narratives, confidence erodess. And perhaps most importantly, why are residents being asked to pay

more before the public has confidence the system itself is operating fairly? That is why that independent audit is necessary before this body can even consider additional utility rate increases.

Next up, we have Mr. Paul Burn. Uh thank you for giving me an opportunity to uh talk a little bit. I am Paul Burn. I'm a resident of Topeka. I'm also by profession an economist. And I just wanted to talk a little bit about the affordable housing trust uh fund and also the potential use of pilots to to fund that. Um I you know the the only reason I I came up here is because I've heard it in the news a lot the last last month or so um about you know different groups lobbying you all to to increase funding for the affordable housing trust fund and and putting pressure on you guys to do that. Obviously there's a budget problem sitting here in the meeting. I've heard a lot of there's there's a lot of good things you guys want to fund and there's there's not enough money to to fund all of it. So, um, for those of you who aren't aware, pilots are fairly common in in the Northeast and in the, uh, upper Midwest. They stand for payment in lie of taxes. So, when you have a city that has a lot of property that's owned by nonprofits and they they're exempt from having to pay property taxes, they make often a voluntary agreement to to pay either a portion or a full amount of the property taxes they would have owned in order to to help fund for the uh, typically city services that they receive. you know, they call the police, they have a a fire in their property, they're still going to be served by the city as well. So, um the the reason that got me thinking about this because it seems like there's a local group, Topeka Jump, who's funded by a lot of the um or sponsored by a lot of local churches that seems to be pushing for um higher taxes or more funding into the affordable housing trust fund. So over the weekend, I looked up the uh property values from the appraiser uh the county appraiser for the 31 churches that were funding uh Topeka Jump and they came up with about

a little over 90 million in appraised property value in u according to the to the county appraiser. So that if that they're exempt from taxes, they don't pay any taxes on that. Um if they were taxed at the commercial rate of assessed at 25% uh they'd be paying about 3.4 4 million in property taxes. Most of that isn't going to the the city, but about 840 of that thousand of that would have gone to the city. If they're assessed at the 12% um uh rate, then they would be paying that would be generating about 400,000 in city property taxes for the uh city. So, to put it in in context, you have a you know group of organizations. They have 90 million worth of property. A lot of the revenue that that cities and overlapping jurisdictions raise is via the property taxes, but they're not paying any property taxes. A homeowner who has a home appraised at $100,000 would pay about $1,500,500 per year in property taxes. Again, not all city property taxes, but total property taxes in 2025. Um, so that's $650 every six months. It's not a lot, but somebody who lives in a home that's that's appraised at $100,000 may have a hard time every six months. And I think my bank does it, but I think I think May beginning of May is when uh the check has to has to be sent in. Um they they could have a tough time making making that bill and finding the $750 for that. So before you ask those people to pay more in terms of property taxes or pay a higher sales tax every time they go and purchase something, I think a fairly easy way is to to go to those groups that are advocating for you to to fund this this program. And it's pretty easy, right? I don't know if they get it in the mail like the rest of us do, but they could easily look up what their property is appraised at. They could multiply that for either either the nonprofit um assessment rate or the commercial assessment rate and multiply it by the mill levy and they could give it to city of Topeka, they can give it to the county, they could give it to the

schools as well. It's it's fairly straight uh straightforward. Um and that's it and and thank you. Thank you for my time. Thank you very much. All right, that is the end of our public comment. With that, we'll go to announcements. City clerk.

Okay. Uh just a reminder, we will have a jetto board meeting tomorrow um at 6:00 p.m. here in the city council chambers. And then just a brief overview of the May 19th agenda. We will have one mer proclamation for national public works week. We will have one board appointment for the downtown improvement district advisory board. We will have a downtown B annual report for presentations. Uh action items. We will have three disposals of property. One for 1196 Southwest Lane, Southwest 7th Street, as well as Southeast 2nd Street. Uh we will also have the approval of the land bank budget operational years from 2024 to 2026. The ordinance for the Topeka Land Board of Trustees, Land Bank Board of Trustees amending the sections. Uh we will also have a resolution for the capital improvement project exceeding 20 $250,000 for the KTA. And then we will also have the resolution for the 2027 to 2036 CIP and 2027 to 2029 CIB. And then a resolution and notice of intent for the 2027 CIP revenue bond projects. And that is all I have. Thank you.

All right, city manager. Nothing for me, sir. Thank you, Council Member Bradberry.

Thank you. Um, I just want to say that I I know it's close to the end of the school year, but um, when you're driving through school zones, please make sure that you're watching your speed. Um, I live very close to a school and I was driving through um this the school zone one morning and I can't tell you how many vehicles were um not doing I would imagine the speed limit um including a delivery truck which was really bothersome because um they were driving so fast that they did have to stop suddenly to make the lights and then sped off during the during in uh in the school zone. So, just all I wanted to say is watch your speed in those school zones.

All right, Council Member McGee.

Uh thank you. Um, it was suggested before the meeting here that maybe we could put notifications out with our utility bills, print them on the utility bills for things like the utility rate meetings that are coming up. Nearly everybody gets a utility bill and it's a good way to get a notification out. Not everybody's on the internet looking at our website or Facebook page or things like that. So, I think thought that was a good suggestion. Um, the other thing I wanted to mention is Relay for Life is coming up this Friday and you could get more information on that uh online at relay.org. Thank you,

Deputy Mayor Hoer. Nothing tonight. Council member Hiller,

just two things. one um it's past Mother's Day, but I each year I really appreciate how much people celebrate the moms in the community and also at the same time reach out to those who have lost their moms or for for whom things weren't as perfect as all of our ideals were and and really reach out for celebration and support. It's it's just nice in this community. Um, and second, um, we we keep talking about homeless populations and the trust fund and so on. And, uh, I'm not prepared to to name the donor, but I had the privilege today of accompanying a private sector donor who wanted to help out for homeless and affordable housing deliver a $10,000 check to the Topeka Rescue Mission. and um that really affirms for me some some things we've been talking about that the private sector is very interested in helping out. So that was a highlight today. Thank you,

Council Member Valdivia Alcala.

Thank you, Mayor. Um a couple of things all based around the audit. For a while now, I've been asking for an audit. an audit, but it's not with the usual auditing entity that we go with that's totally separate because of the number of issues that we've been having over the years. And we know that we still don't have a CFO. I learned shortly after I started giving information out to residents about the meeting that was had at policy and finance about having an auditor that had total independence. That kind of sounded like it might have a forensic specialty. uh you know when there seemed like there might be a little bit of opening with that. But I think that where constituents are now if you look anywhere on social media a lot of them are still and talking to them in the districts are still really upset with the expenditures and just not trusting what the city is saying. So I looked up what Pat Dilap had said just briefly about forensic audit. What I found was this. Some is going to apply, some is not. And I think it's up to us as a governing body to determine. I I definitely feel we need a forensic audit. I don't know what the pulse is on the governing body. I don't know what the pulse is with the city manager or anybody else, but at this point, I shared it in community and just on social media alone, it has had a hundred shares, which they in turn are sharing it. and folks know about the upcoming utilities meetings and there's a lot of folks upset. So, who knows what that what that crowd is going to be like. But a forensic audit in municipal government is a highly detailed specialized examination of financial records designed to detect, document, investigate fraud, mismanagement or

corruption. Unlike a standard annual audit, it is proactive or reactive, providing admissible evidence for legal or criminal proceedings, often triggered by suspicion of misappropriation of public funds. Key aspects of a municipal forensic audit. Deep investigation. Forensic auditors examine specific transactions in depth, looking for red flags such as unauthorized purchases, vendor fraud, payroll irregularities, and missing funds. Purpose: The goal is to uncover evidence for potential criminal prosecution, civil litigation, or disciplinary action, often respon often in response to public concerns or scandals. Focus areas. Common areas for review including municipal credit cards, procurement and contracting, cash collections like police fines or water fees, and expense reports. Proactive tools, while often used when fraud is suspected, they are increasingly used to proactively strengthen internal controls, ensuring integrity in high risk areas. Distinction from standard audit. While annual audits focus on compliance and financial accuracy, forensic audits focus on who, what, where, and how fraud occurred. Outcome: The audit result in a report designed to hold individuals accountable, which is often used by local law enforcement or for prosecution. When is a forensic audit needed? It is considered when there are indications of embezzlement, bribery, or conflicts of interest that could harm a community's reputation and financial health. Proactive audits used in high-risk areas such as procurement and cash collection to identify vulnerabilities.

And finally, investigation triggers. Often these audits are requested following suspicious activity such as unexplained budget shortfalls, vendor inconsistencies or whistleblower reports. Again, not all of these this is going to be relevant, but some of it sure sounds really relevant here. And so I think that we can, you know, talk the talk or we can either start talking about this or as a governing body, we can ignore this um to the peril of possibly just additional mistrust of our local government by constituents and spending their money when we don't even have accurate validation of where that money is actually going because we can't even get specific line item budget. budgets like we used to back in the day. Thank you. May

council member Ortiz

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, want to apologize for chiming in late, but my brother uh retired. I also want to say congratulations to all of weekend and there's a lot of partying and um crack um I do this you hear all the time to people we're we're for the best and yes yes that is done but I want to tell the residents over here that we are getting millions of dollars worth of work on Southeast Sixth Street from Golden to Rice Road. They just shut California down. Everybody's complaining cuz they can't get where they want to go. It is it is a mess. But we are getting money poured over here. We're getting new streets. We're getting a new bridge. We need to be patient and we need to slow down. And again, we need to be respectful of the neighbors when you're going through residential areas where they have kids and elderly away anytime soon. Um, please be patient. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

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

just want to remind everyone, I've talked to the chief police and and assistant deputy manager uh uh about this uh the use of unauthorized vehicles on city streets is uh really kicked up. uh things like mini bikes, mini ATVs, regular size ATVs, dirt bikes without lights, uh turn signals, side by sides, golf carts, and a lot of these are being driven by elementary and middle school age kids with no adults around. Uh the other day I saw for the second time in a couple months a mini ATV going down to Pika Boulevard with two elementary age kids on it. Uh that is just asking for those kids to get severely hurt. Uh, I've asked that we kind of get a PSA about what's allowed on what's on the streets, what's the legal ages, and to try to educate our our citizens a lot better because uh I've seen probably in the last week going on my nightly walks uh about five unauthorized vehicles on our city streets, uh, dune buggies, uh, you know, things like that that when you have elementary school age kids running these things, they they they're especially without helmets on and things like that is is asking for a major issue and these kids don't have that long-term thinking of the danger that some of these things can can bring by doing certain things in certain type of especially vehicles like that. So, um, you know, there's areas in PA that that's perfectly fine and legal to do, but just not down our city streets, especially at nighttime when some of these vehicles have no lights and people are driving down down certain streets or even the ma major thorough affairs definitely have no business being on there. So, please work with your kids on this. It's g I know it's going to get worse as school gets out and and the weather gets better

and stuff like that. So, please work with your kids on this kind of things. just don't want to go out there with whatever vehicle that they they think they can drive and you think they can drive because it's happened in other cities where there's been severe upticks on those things and the injuries and death rate of those accidents skyrocket because people think that's no big deal. But uh the last thing we need to do is have our children hurt because people aren't taking responsibility for what they could should and shouldn't be doing. Thank you. Council member Miller.

Thank you very much, Mayor. Um, tonight I would just like to express how fortunate and blessed I feel to be able to call my daughter um who now lives in Lancen, Michigan right now. Um, and just a few nights ago in the middle of the night, uh, and the reason I'm saying I was blessed is because she wasn't at her apartment, her apartment complex caught fire. Um it was because of something that I always believed to be a very known uh issue uh or problem. But um you're not to grill above the ground level of your apartment complex. It is a huge fire hazard. Um, and maybe the the team can put out a little something about a reminder to our city about how we do not do that uh for the simple fact that you can uh hurt a lot of people that live in that apartment complex if something goes wrong. Um, but yeah, so I just wanted to to give my thanks to the Lord for allowing my daughter to not be in that place and also to not let anyone that was there get hurt. So, uh, thank you very much. All right, I just have a few things. Um, graduations are this week, high school and college. In fact, I will be at multiple ones for Washurn as part of the board of regents. I will also be at my one of my nephews graduation. So, I want to say congratulations to all the graduates in the schools across the city, both collegiate and high school level, and even some middle schools out there who are graduating kids on to high school. That graduation counts, too. And so, congratulations to all of those folks. Um, real quick, you can look on our website, but I'm going to do a quick rundown of the utility meetings. The first one is tomorrow at Hillrest Community Center starting at 5:30. Next one is this Saturday at the Shauny

County Library, Top Pikachi County Library at 10:30 a.m. Next one is next Wednesday, May 20th, at Crest View Community Center at 5:30 p.m. And then Thursday, May 21st at Garfield Community Center at 5:30 p.m. Please go to those. I've already had emails and been engaging with folks online um about the importance of those meetings. I promise you we are listening to your input. We really are. Those of us who sit up here on this days and have a vote, your input is critical. So, please go and uh talk to staff about your concerns or your thoughts and suggestions about utility rate increases. Um, there is I want to announce uh a food drive being done by the American Legion at the Hi Ve store this Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Um, so if you buy an extra item, you can drop it off and those donations will actually go to deployed military members uh primarily with the 190th Air Refueling Group. So it's just a way to continue to support uh our members of a military here in our community. I didn't expect to address this tonight, so we'll see how this goes. But I do want to talk about this discussion of an audit or an auditor. Couple things, just few clarifications and some some first of all, everyone's been very clear that I think we need a full-time CFO hired. We we know that we're working on that. But to be clear, we do have an interim and he is an accountant and he reviews our finances on a daily basis working with our staff. Um, we also do get, it is not a forensic audit, but we get an audit every single year by a third party, which we have an entire presentation here, and that is made public for everybody to see. The policy and finance committee is taking up the recommendation that was made by our 10-year review committee, which suggested that we as a council should likely consider having an auditor that reports directly to the governing body. I was supportive of that when they made that recommendation. I was supportive of

that as the policy and finance committee chair when we started that conversation to review those recommendations and I know that council member Miller is giving that serious consideration in his committee as they move that forward and look at it and I know that even includes if we have to make some charter changes to do that what those would look like. So that is moving forward. I think I hope since I took this seat almost 5 months ago that I've been very clear that I have no problem if we have serious issues within our departments that I will root them out and I will solve them. I showed that by the first 30 days getting up here and announcing which is still ongoing uh an investigation into some of our processes. So I have no fear of us dealing with issues. What I will say is allegations are easy. At some point you have to provide the receipts and some of us up here have asked for those. My inbox is open and so far there are no receipts in that inbox. And so I take these things seriously. I will continue to take these things seriously. Staff will tell you I talk to them about it all the time. And I have no problem and continue to have conversations with the public with some of the concerns that they have. But if you're going to come tell us that you know something's happening, you've got to then be willing to have the conversation with us and show us what your concerns are so that we have something tangible that we can follow up on. That doesn't mean we're not doing it. I promise you, we follow up on those things behind the scenes all the time, even when we hear them. But it is our responsibility to sit up here and say, I we have a pretty good staff and I they have my trust until they don't. I always tell them that, too. I've always said, you don't have to earn my trust. You have it, but you can lose it. And I will continue to hold that line. So, I'm open to the concerns that people have, but at some point, you have got to come to my office or I'll meet you in a coffee shop as others have and show me exactly specifically what the concerns are so that we can address them. Otherwise, it's not a productive

conversation for our city or for the staff or for the citizens. and it doesn't allow us to make actual decisions that will make an impact across our departments. So that is the ask I have of everybody. I will do my part. I'm just simply requesting that you help me help you through this process by providing us more detailed information with your concerns. With that, we have some need for some executive sessions this evening. I will turn it over to the city attorney.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, the first motion would be to recess into executive session not to exceed 15 minutes to give or to discuss matters related to non-elected employees and non-elected employee positions as allowed under KSA75-4319B1. The open meeting will resume in this room, the city council chambers. The following staff will be necessary to assist the governing body in its deliberations. The director of human resources, the deputy director of budget and finance, and other staff members as needed. All right. Do I have a motion to approve our first executive session? Motion from Council Member Kell. Second.

Second from Banks. All those in favor say I. I. Anyone opposed. All right, we will take a 10-minute break before we get into it. So, you got 10 minutes and only 10 minutes. All right, we have come out of executive session. No action is to be taken by this governing body except for the next thing, which is we have another executive session. So, I will turn it over to the city attorney. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The motion would be to recess into executive session not to exceed 15 minutes for the preliminary discussion regarding the acquisition of real property. We're not live. What?

We're not live. We're not live. We're we're live. Council member, we're live. It's not on TV there. There's a delay. Council member, the motion would be to recess into executive session not to exceed 15 minutes for the preliminary discussion regarding the acquisition of real property as allowed under KSA75-4319 B6. The open meeting will resume in this room, the city council chambers. The following staff will be necessary to assist the governing body in its deliberations. The deputy city manager, the director of economic development, and any other staff as members as needed. Yes, there's always a delay because you never know if I'm going to have to be bleeped or not. So, someone's got to be ready for that button. All right. Do I have a motion to move into executive session? Motion.

Motion from council member Banks. Second from Council Member Kell. All those in favor say I. I. Anyone opposed say nay. All right. With that, we will now move immediately into executive session. Nay. All right, we have come out of executive session. There's no action to be taken at this time. However, we have one final need for one last executive session. City attorney.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The motion would be to recess into executive session not to exceed 15 minutes to give legal advice and discuss potential litigation and other matters deemed privileged under attorney client privilege as allowed under KSA75-4319B2. The open meeting will resume in this room, the city council 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, I will move to approve. Do we have a second? All right. Second from Banks. Uh, all those in favor say I. I. Anyone against? I knew it was coming. All right, it passes. We will now go immediately into executive session.

All right, we have come out of our final executive session for the evening. No action has been taken or will be taken by this governing body. This meeting is adjourned.