City Council - Regular Meeting

This council meeting will now come to order July 21st, 2026 at 6.30 p.m. Would you please stand for the pledge of allegiance and remain standing for the invocation given by Councilwoman Jan Grace.

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. God of peace, we invite you to preside over this meeting. Even if we have different opinions, give us unity of spirit. Help us to each listen politely as others share their point of view. Help us to work as a unified team in combining ideas for a great outcome. Help us to work as a whole rather than as individuals trying to promote their own agendas. May we have the spirit of camaraderie in this room and work together on our shared mission. Amen.

Thank you. Heidi, can I get a roll call, please?

Sure. Ms. Antonech? Here. Mr. Elmore gave prior notice. Ms. Grace? Here. Mr. Hay?

Here.

Ms. Lucas? Here. Mr. Westmoreland? Here.

Mayor Soria? I am also here. We were going to have a proclamation for Drew Zika, but it's been moved to the 8-4-26. So we're just going to move on. And second coming up is Kelly College Sumner Campus Update, Holly Hopper. Executive Vice President of Finance and Administration.

Hi, guys. How are you?

Good. How are you doing?

Hi, Holly. Good. Well, we spent a lot of time at the Wheat Fest and had a great time, hosted the picnic, did the perplexing puzzle. That was a blast. Do any of you guys ever participate in that? You should. It's hard to get a spot. We have 16 tables and it's full, six apiece. And it's just a blast to watch. I've enjoyed that every year. Did the parade when we had a criminal justice team come and they were a part of that and threw out some shirts and some candy. And I think we had a good time doing that. Did the drone dash and then the kiddie tractor pool. And so this was my first year getting to participate in the kiddie tractor pool. And I did not know it was a state fair sanctioned event. So they were very serious about it. It was fun to watch those kids. So we had a really good time doing that. We'll be excited to do some more next year as well. And I didn't know if you guys had any update on the welcome sign. Okay, perfect. We're grateful to partner in that and just excited to see that go up. So I think it'll be beautiful out there on the property. We did hire a director of workforce recently. He will be at all locations right now. He's in Arc City getting trained on our systems and then he'll start moving through the area. He's actually been over here. I think he was over here today meeting with some companies. Ian Freeman, he comes from Pioneer Tech in Ponca City. So he's got connections from workforce that way and a welding specialist as well. So we're excited to have him on our team and you guys will probably see him out and about in Sumner County as he gets his way through Kansas. The biggest item I have to talk about today is our expansion. So we will meet with our board at a work session in September in Mulvane to talk about the expansion of this campus to the tech building and then the expansion of Mulvane as well. So the plan right now for our expansion is to add construction trades, machining, and then I believe the third space is going to be expanding the health and human services and working with fire science. And I think we're going to try to work with the city and see what the fire science program looks like over here. So right now it's housed in Winfield. So we'd be looking to move that over here to this site and the new expansion. So we're excited about that. If you guys are just bored and you want to come to a work session, September 21st in Mulvane, 1 to 430, you're welcome to come join us. Kind of see the plans that we're looking at and have a voice in what will happen here at this site. Lastly, our fall semester starts August 18. So that's upon us. We're excited about the students coming back. We have a good sized amount of students returning. I think our numbers are up from last year. I don't have those. I'm going to let Zach present those when he comes back. And he does have a healthy baby boy, just so you know. He's doing great. He's got two kids and mom, so he's trying to make everybody happy at the same time. Bless his heart. But we're excited about that. And just a little side note, we've been hosting the Wellington Heat in our dorms all summer. And it's been a great partnership. And we've hosted some games for them, as well as the, I always say Winfield Moos. It's not what it's called. Midwest Moos and then the Mulvane Patriots. So we've been participating in the baseball over the summer as well.

Any questions? I'm excited about the expansions. Yeah.

That's good. Questions from council?

You guys are doing a great job. You keep us informed.

And we listen. You asked about health care. So part of our health care expansion will be our CNA students. I remember that conversation we had several months back.

Yes. Well, I appreciate it. Thank you.

It's important.

Thank you, Harvey.

Thank you.

Thanks, Holly. Holly. OK. Moving on. I need consent agenda, approval of minutes, approval of appropriations, receipt of council correspondence. Move to approve. Second. I have a motion and a second. All those in favor?

Aye.

All those opposed? Then we'll start with reports of mayor and council. I'll start with Councilwoman Antonech.

All right. You're up. OK. Jeremy's not here, so this question might be moot. I was going to ask about back when we were talking about the dam, the problem with the dam out at Donut Bay. Do we have any more of an update or where we're at with that, with all this rain and the flooding and everything? Or is it still kind of we're just waiting?

PEC's been out. They've been taking measurements and other things to start working on how we would approach either trying to preserve the existing dam or building a parallel dam. They're trying to evaluate those two possibilities. based on need for permitting and that kind of thing. As you'll recall, it was going to be kind of a phased project. We're only in the first phase. And once we kind of have those results, we'll probably bring some additional information to you guys so that we can figure out how to proceed on a phase two.

Okay, thank you. I just, you know, with all the water and... everything i just wondered if it suffered more than what we would like to see but thank you for your answer and the other community building is it's the the school keeping up their end of the payment plan we bill them ahead of our debt service payments and so far they've made their payments

okay that's I was asked that so thank you that's all I have I would like to compliment the chamber and all the volunteers and all the sponsors on the best wheat festival ever and I'm saying that because it also drew people from out of state because of the contests that they had and we were number 14 So Wellington's been in multiple magazines, and people were showing up. So out of city, out of state, and businesses, downtown. I know everybody was referring them to other places to go visit, which was great. So we've got a lot of visibility over the Wheat Festival in addition. to all the other things, and the kiddie tractor pull is so much fun because they are pretty darn serious about that. And don't give out chocolate bars, they melt. So we did that the first year, and the kids ate them anyway. But that's all I have is a great wheat festival. It took everybody. All right.

Councilman Hayes.

There's a question on the fence down at Rock Island Fields. any decision on what to do with those since it's been the second time in eight years they've come down?

The Kansas Division of Emergency Management was down today surveying Sumner County, and we took them out to Rock Island and some other places that got damaged, and we will be asking them to consider helping us with that and or if they would rather see us look at other options and mitigation. So we will see where that proceeds.

Okay.

Councilwoman Lucas.

I don't have anything tonight. Thank you.

Councilman Westmoreland. I do not have anything. Okay. I just want to say thank you again to the Chamber of Commerce, all the staff, and all the volunteers. It was a great event, like you said, Jan. Also, for us older folks that are out there thinking that we're still young and trying to mow during the day, please be careful. Drink a lot of water and rest. Just be mindful that you're not young like you used to be, okay?

Really?

Nothing's happened yet, but anyhow, I'm just saying that after a while you're out there mowing, you're thinking, man, this is not good. I could have done this thing five years ago, no problem. But anyhow, folks, please, everybody, if you have to be outside, please be careful. Use a lot of caution in what you're doing. And that's all I have. Moving on, reports of city officials, Heidi.

Sure. Mayor and council at your previous meeting, council reviewed the three applications. The applicants were allowed to speak and they stated their motivations for being appointed to the board. Michael Mance and Curtis Thompson both submitted applications prior to the deadline. Kim, I'll turn an application shortly thereafter the deadline. If council so chooses, you can appoint someone to fill that vacancy tonight.

I'll make a motion to appoint Mike Mance to the Park Board.

Second.

We have a motion and a second. All those in favor? No. We have to do a roll call. Roll call. OK. Heidi, can I have a voice for it? Voice?

Roll call. You want a roll call. You said it right the first time. Mr. Hay? You've been outside too long. Mr. Hay?

Yes.

Ms. Lucas? Yes. Mr. Westmoreland?

Yes.

Ms. Antonich? Yes. And Miss Grace. Yes. So that is five affirmative votes to appoint Michael Mance to the Park Board. So congratulations, Mike. All right.

Anything you need to say, Michael?

I look forward to new adventures. So thank you.

OK, thank you. Thank you for applying. Jeff, we have a number two here procedure of entry. Yeah.

So some of you remember we received a letter from the AG's office and one of the outcomes of that was we have worked to revise our procedure to go into executive session. We put an updated checklist in your packet as well as an updated script. These have been sent to the AG for review. They have not told us that they see any need to make additional changes to it. So this will be the new documents that will govern how we will proceed with executive sessions in light of revisions to the open records, Open Meetings Act stuff, as well as some AG's opinions and settlements that have been made with other municipalities over the last probably decade since we last revised our process. So staff is here to answer any questions if you have them, and we encourage you that if there is the need for an executive session to Let us know ahead of time so that we can try to help you craft a motion because the complete motion requirement that is being enforced does require us to have slightly more verbose motions than in the past.

Questions from council motion to approve. I mean, if I call, can I get a paper copy of that that I can? All that.

Yep, we can give you.

That I can put with, I have a special notebook for things that I feel like I need to keep instead of trying to scroll back through everything.

Absolutely.

I'll talk to Kyle.

We can do that. And that was noted in the packet that we're happy to provide you with physical copies if any of you would want one. So, yep.

I'll call and give Kyle a heads up.

Can do.

Is this for information only or do we?

Yeah, this is just informational. You don't necessarily need to adopt anything.

Oh, OK. All right. The next one. Yeah.

All right. Max is a public hearing. We don't have any. We have the next one is the ordinance. Jeff.

Sure. Since we're doing some cleanup with the executive session related to open meetings, we're also doing some cleanup related to open records. Again, there's been some changes in the last 20 years since we last looked at this stuff. One of the things we're recommending is to update our pricing. We hadn't updated that in quite a while, so staff time will be charged at $5 in 15 minute increments, and attorney time will be charged at $10 in 15 minute increments. There is also some language that incorporates some revised statutory authorities that provides some greater clarity on what is available to be recovered on the cost side of the house. There is now some information on withdrawal of requests, because we've had a couple of instances where people have made some requests, staff has worked to fulfill those requests, and then we get crickets after we have pulled together the information. They'll still be available. It's just, you know, we'll make an effort. But if we don't get a timely response, we're not going to hold them forever. The state statute does allow for prepayment requirements. So we are clarifying that in our ordinance that is before you. And the proposed amendment would establish criteria for prepayment. when the fees exceed $100 or the request is expected to take more than three hours of staff time. Requesters will be notified of these estimated costs and work won't begin until payment is received and then any differences between estimated and actual costs will be reconciled before records are delivered. then there is a requirement that is actually getting a lot of attention from the AG's office right now. There is a cost mitigation discussion that is required for extensive requests. We will, per this ordinance, codify that such communications will occur when the request is expected to take more than five hours of staff time or result in a cost of more than $200. uh statutorily and per the ag's opinion the requester is not obligated to modify narrow or otherwise change the request as a result of these discussions it's just we have to reach out and have those discussions again it's been a few years since we have touched that particular section of the code and these are some things that we feel will help us modernize and align better with the currently in effect open records act requirements

Motion to approve?

Second.

We have a motion and a second. Heidi, can I get a roll call vote, please?

Mr. Westmoreland?

Yes.

Ms. Antonich? Yes. Ms. Grace? Yes. Mr. Hay?

Yes.

Ms. Lucas? Yes. It says five yes votes for ordinance number 4362.

OK, we have no resolutions, no study items, but we do have an executive session.

Mr. Mayor? Yes. I move that we recess into executive session to discuss matters relating to pending or threatened litigation and to discuss potential strategies with legal counsel and representatives of the city in order to protect the city's attorney client privilege and litigation position. The justification for the executive session by state statute is consultation with an attorney for the public body or agency which would be deemed privileged in the attorney-client relationship 75-41, sorry, 754319B2. The session shall include the council mayor and city manager and city attorney. And then we will reconvene in open session in the council chambers in 10 minutes at 6.58.

So there's your motion. You need a second. Second. Motion to second.

I'll be a roll call. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed?

We are now going to.

The council reconvenes in an open session at 6.58 here in Wellington. The council took nobody in action during the executive session. Jeff, is there anything that we need to know down the road?

So I actually was going to ask what people's next couple of weeks look like, because we probably need to get some budget work sessions set.

Are you wanting them in July or beginning of August?

If we could do maybe set one in July and then have another date in August, because sometimes you want two. And that way we can kind of plan around all the fun stuff that comes up.

Is next Tuesday too quick?

We can probably make that happen.

Next Tuesday?

I'm good for Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

okay next tuesday works for me i'm good for tuesday is it the 28th okay um what time do you want at 6 or 6 30. um let's shoot for sick sorry let me

Let me get with Jamie. I forgot to look at if he's got anything on the Planning Commission agenda. I mean, we can have it in a different room. I just would. But also, I would like him to be at the meeting since one of the points of discussion was property demolition funds.

Could we maybe bump it to Wednesday then if he's not available?

Yeah. I don't know if they have anything on the agenda. I don't remember there being any publications for hearings, but I will verify with him. I forgot to check with him before he left today. Sorry.

That's OK.

So August, I won't be here for the week, the 10th through the 15th.

I won't be here that week either.

OK, so we'll try not to have one that week.

And so is Wednesday, both days work. Yeah, 2-0 Wednesday.

Well, we'll shoot for.

Do we want to schedule a second one tentatively in case we feel we need to have an additional one? I know last year we ended up having two sessions.

That would be.

So it looks like the first week in August or the third week in August, since you guys are going to be gone.

I'd say the third week in August. And then that way, yeah, 10th through 15th. Yeah, the second week.

I can't make it on Mondays or Thursdays at all.

What about Wednesday the 19th?

We'll have a council meeting on the 18th.

I say I can't have a library board meeting. On the 19th? On the 19th.

What about the 5th or August 5th? Do it before.

Day after.

And then that way it gives if we request any additional research information that gives the staff a week, is that sufficient enough?

It just depends on how detailed you need, but we can make things happen.

So the fourth will also be a council meeting, too.

We could bump it clear down to August 25.

That puts us too far. How about the 20th?

It's a Thursday. Oh, you can be here.

I say the fifth. So let's put it on the fifth. Seems to be the most.

And we'll work through that. And that way. You may end up not needing it. You may not need it. So just depending on how your meeting goes on the 28th or 29th. Yeah, we can work with that.

Same time, 6 o'clock, the fifth.

Works for me.

Look adjourned.

That's the magic word, second.

I have a motion to second. All those in favor?

Aye. All those opposed? Aye. We are adjourned.