City Council - Regular Meeting

Good morning, Witchah, and good morning to all of you. Thank you for joining us for this week's city council meeting. We call this meeting to order. With us this morning is Pastor Ryan Emmens of Friendship Baptist Church to provide our invocation. Following that invocation, we will have the pledge of allegiance and we ask that you please stand for both. Let's pray. Gracious heavenly father, we come before you this morning uh with a lot of important business to discuss and even as we're entering, we see the precious children and the different things that are going to be taking place today. And we recognize the decisions that are being made here are important for our future. Not only for the children's sake, but even for our current uh citizens of this wonderful city that you've given us to be to live in and to be a part of. And I recognize that as we make these decisions, Lord, that we would try to make them on a biblical foundation with morals according to your word, the Bible. I think of what John Adams said that a nation without a moral compass and a biblical guide, our democracy is not fit for it. And so, we're so grateful that our nation was founded on biblical principles. We're thankful for the opportunities we have to still look to the future and try to provide a guide that would be helpful for the citizens, but mostly we are thankful for Jesus Christ and what he did on the cross for our sins so that we could have our sins forgiven and his resurrection that proved that there is eternal relationship with you. And we're grateful for the city council behind us and I ask that you'd give them wisdom and direction. And I ask that that things would go very smoothly today and that as they get done, they would be refreshed and not just overwhelmed and discouraged and that we would be citizens of this wonderful city that look to have an established foundation

in a good way for the future for the younger generations and for the others that are around us. We love you, Father, and we give all these things to you in the name of your son, Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you, Pastor Emmens. And thank you to our young leaders who were also reciting the pledge of allegiance. we could hear you and our hearts smiled very big. So, thank you very very much. Madame clerk, can you please call the first item? Approve the minutes of the regular meeting, April 28th, 2026. Council members, are there any items to be edited? I see none. With that, I move to approve the minutes of regular meeting April 28th, 2026. Second. A motion second. Any discussion? Seeing none, madame clerk, please open the role.

I motion passes 70. Madame clerk, please call the next item.

Awards and proclamations. Today's proclamations are National Small Business Week, Goodwill Week, Witchah Heights Women's Basketball Day, and Provider Appreciation Day. Please ask the US Small Business Administration and Wayne Bell to come forward at this time. The proclamation reads, "The city of Witchah, Kansas, founded in 1870. Whereas small businesses are the engine of the American economy and the foundation of a free and pro prosperous nation built by men and women who work hard, take risks, and believe in the power of the American dream. Whereas small businesses make up more than 99% of all private sector employers and create nearly two out of every three new jobs in America, fueling opportunity and driving local economies across every corner of our country. Whereas the city of Witchah shares this administration's commitment to cutting red tape, keeping taxes low, and fighting for the hardworking entrepreneurs who work and power our economy from the ground up. Now therefore, be it resolved that the

Witchah City Council does hereby proclaim May 3rd through May 9th, 2026 as National Small Business Week. [applause] Good morning. So good to see the young people in the audience. Just wish you all all the best. and you're in for a treat this morning because you're going to hear a little bit about one of our great small businesses in this area. I am Wayne Bell, the district director with the US Small Business Administration here in Witchah. And it's my honor to be with you this morning. I want to also um send regards on behalf of Brad Zhan who is our regional administrator for SBA region 7. Brad covers Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa, and he also is covering some other states in the upper Midwest. So, he couldn't be with us here this morning. So, we are honored to receive the proclamation from the city of Witchah to recognize National Small Business Week. Every year since 1963, the president proclaims National Small Business Week, which recognizes the critical contributions of our nation's entrepreneurs and small business owners. More than half of Americans either own or work for a small business and they create about two out of every three new jobs in the country annually. Today I'm joined by our SBA resource partners with SCORE counselors to America's small businesses. I'm joined by Dennis Black who is the chapter chair and Patterson who is the vice chair. We're also joined by Brandy Willlet who is the regional director for the Kansas Small Business Development Center

and also representatives with Texron Aviation Defense including Mark Winter, Joseph Stratitz, Lurma, Porsche Melendez, and Lelle Brown. And we're certainly joined by the stars of this morning for us, SBA's 2026 Kansas Small Business Persons of the Year with Harlo Aeros Structures LLC. They're the winners, uh, and they're based right here in Witchah. So now, let me introduce you to the winners. I want to recognize CEO Philip Freeman, President Matt Austinine, Engineering Director Dale Sparks, and Vice President of Operations David Hunter. Again, they are SBA's 2026 Kansas Small Business Persons of the Year. For this award, the business was evaluated on sales growth and employment, staying power, response to adversity, and contributions to the community. The nomination was submitted by Texron Aviation Defense and Harllo Aer Aeros Structures executives were selected among a very competitive field of nominations. Here's a quick summary of the company. They were founded as a simple machining shop machine shop company here in Witchah back in 1954. Harlo Aeros Structures LLC has grown into a leading provider of electromechanical and mechanical and structural assemblies for the commercial, military, space and missile industries. Do a lot of defense work as well. The company manufactures a range of products from cockpit pedestals and motion controls to cargo doors and avionics racks. The company's in-house engineers can execute

uh the redesign and modification work on its assemblies and prototypes when needed. They're a very agile company. They can they can really on a dime pretty quickly turn out customized parts and unique parts for the aircraft industry. The company has been steadily growing year-over-year with annual sales of $ 35 million in excess of $35 million. The company's diversified customer base has allowed it to withstand several downturns in the aerospace market, typically with little to no layoffs. Harlo currently has 120 employees at the Witchaw facility and 375 employees corporatewide. And so they utilized SBA along the way uh by uh basically leveraging one of our loan programs, the PPP loan program. Also uh they became Hubzone certified which is a certification uh for those that are seeking federal contracts. So now, please join me in congratulating the executive team at Harlo Aerosstructures LLC, the Kansas 2026 Small Business Persons of the Year. [applause] [applause]

Well, thank you, Wayne, uh, for that introduction. Um, my name is Matt Augustine. I'm the president of Harlo Aeros Structures and I would just like to take a minute to thank the SBA for this recognition um and for the pivotal support that that the SBA provides small businesses like ours uh to small businesses across the country. Um and I'd also like to say thank you to our customer textron Aviation Defense uh for their trust, their confidence and the partnership uh that we've that we've had over the years. And ultimately I would like to just thank our employees. Uh this this award belongs to them. Uh they are the ones that come in day in day out and uh without their um their hard work every day we wouldn't be here. So thank you. [applause] So you guys get a little bit. All right, ready? One more. Congratulations again. Congratulations to the small business winners for Kansas this year. Our own Witchah's Harlo Aeros structures. I would like to invite now the Goodwill Industries of Kansas and Aaron Yncan to the front.

The proclamation reads, "The city of Witchah, Kansas, founded in 1870, whereas Goodwill Industries of Kansas, founded in 1957, is a nonprofit social enterprise working to transform lives and communities through the power of education, training, and employment. Whereas Goodwill Industries of Kansas provided 18,000 services to canons in 2025 through its adult education and workforce development programs as well as their opportunity centers. Whereas Goodwill Industries of Kansas is one of the largest employers of people with disabilities, operates the second largest adult education program in Kansas, and diverted 10.2 million pounds of materials out of landfills in 2025. Whereas more than se for more than 70 years, local goodwill organizations across the United States of America have been celebrating Goodwill Week to raise awareness of the Goodwill mission and its vital impact on the people and the community. Now therefore, be it resolved that the Witchaw City Council does hereby proclaim May 3rd through May 9th as Goodwill Week.

[applause]

Thank you, Mayor Woo and council members for this proclamation and for recognizing Goodwill Week here in Witchaw. We are truly honored by your support and partnership. At Goodwill Industries of Kansas, our mission is simple but powerful. To provide opportunities through education, training, and employment so individuals can achieve their fullest potential. And while that mission is carried out in classrooms, opportunity centers, and workplaces across our community, it really begins somewhere much more familiar, right in our local Goodwill stores. Every time someone in Witchaw donates a bag of clothing, household goods, or gently used items, and every time a neighbor shops or aisles, they are doing far more than thrifting. They are investing directly in people. And as an added benefit, this community helped divert more than 10 million pounds of materials from our landfills last year, demonstrating that doing good for people can also mean doing good for the environment. Because of this community's generosity, just last year, Goodwill Industries of Kansas was able to provide more than 18,000 services to Kansas. We help individuals earn diplomas, gain job skills, explore new careers, and overcome barriers to employment. We are also proud to be one of the largest employers of people with disabilities in the state and to operate the second largest adult education program in Kansas. Witchah residents like Briana are an incredible example of our mission in action. After being involved with the justice system, Bri wanted to make a change and entered our Goodwill re-entry program. She earned her high school diploma, a work ready certification, and is now working at Textron Aviation. Our program provides a path to a brighter

future for Kansas while also developing skilled talent for local industry. Goodwill Week is a celebration of those successes, but more importantly, it's a heartfelt thank you. A thank you to the donors and shoppers, our nonprofit partners, our business supporters, and our sponsors along with our civic leaders who understand that communities thrive when opportunity is accessible to all. On behalf of our team and the thousands of individuals whose lives are changed through Goodwill's mission each year, thank you for believing the power of second chances and for helping us transform donations into opportunities across Witchaw and throughout Kansas. Thank you. [applause] May I please ask Council Member Joseph Sheepard and the Witchah Heights women's basketball to come forward at this time? Thank you, Mayor. This is the proclamation of the city of Witchah,

Kansas, founded in 1870. Whereas the Witchaw Heights High School girls basketball team achieved an extraordinary undefeated regular season and rose to the number one ranking in Kansas class 6A, demonstrating excellence, discipline, and competitive dominance. And whereas under the leadership of head coach Jin Pilage, the program experienced a transformational culture shift that fostered confidence, accountability, and a renewed sense of purpose amongst student athletes. And whereas the team cultivated a culture of connection and empowerment both on and off the court, uplifting student athletes to grow as leaders, teammates, and individuals within the Witchah community. And whereas the program's historic success reflects not only athletic achievement but also the impact of representation and leadership including an all female coaching staff plus one [laughter] and a renewed commitment to mentoring young women through sport. May now, therefore, be it resolved that the Witchaw City Council does hereby proclaim May 5th, 2026 as the Witchita Heights Women's Basketball Day, signed by Mayor Liy Woo. [applause] I'll make it extremely quick. I am so grateful. Um, first of all, thank you all for being here. Thank you as well for making this moment uh matter. Thank you to my assistant coaches. Uh yes, all female staff as well as that plus one being my son. He puts up with me. So um I also want to thank my athletic director Tracy NG as well as my principal Eric Philippy and also another assistant principal who helped to get us all here today. And none of this would have truly happened not only with the uh city of Witchah, but with these young ladies that are behind me. I'm grateful for them

allowing me to be their leader. I'm grateful for just the opportunity in the stewardship of of as we prayed earlier, Jesus Christ as my guide. So, thank you guys. I keep this short and uh continue to keep watching Witchah Heights, Hollywood Heights girls basketball. Thank you. [applause] This should be a problem. I know.

We're looking this way. Yeah. Look over here. Is it the mayor in here?

All right. Y'all ready? One, two, one more. [applause] May I please ask Council Member Becky Tuttle and the Child Start providers to come forward at this start this stage. Good morning.

Good morning.

Thank you very much. I'm going to take a point of personal privilege. I am so excited to be able to read this proclamation today. Um I have been an advocate for early learning, third grade literacy for decades. Um, and it certainly is my privilege to be able to acknowledge the hard work of child care providers across the city. I say almost every day, child care providers are not in the babysitting business, they are in the brain development business. So with that in mind, this is a proclamation of the city of Witchaw, Kansas, founded in 1870. Whereas ChildStart and I'm a proud board member and the city of Witchah childare licensing team partner and partner organizations across the nation join together to recognize licensed child care providers acknowledging that young children thrive when supported by skilled, educated and dedicated and fairly compensated early care and education professionals who provide consistent highquality care. And whereas more than half of the children under the age of six across the nation spend a significant portion of their week in care of an early learning educational professional where they receive essential enrichment that supports healthy development for children of all backgrounds and contributes to the strength and stability of our economy. And whereas access to highquality early care and education plays a critical role in reducing the impacts of poverty, identifying developmental delays at an earlier stage, and preventing child neglect by providing stable, supportive, and nurturing environments for young children and their families. And whereas young children benefit from early care and education settings that are developmentally appropriate, accessible,

and readily available, which in turn support working families who depend on strong regulatory framework to ensure that their children are safe. And now therefore be it resolved that the city of Witchdaw does recognize and proclaim May 8th, 2026 as PR provider appreciation day. Thank you. [applause] Good morning. My name is Mandy Wah. I am the Early Childhood Connection CCRNR program director at ChildStart. Thank you for the opportunity to recognize a group of professionals whose work is essential to the well-being of children, families, and our local economy, our licensed child care providers. As we recognize May 8th as provider appreciation day, we honor the dedicated early care and education professionals who show up every day to nurture, teach, and support our youngest learners during some of the most important years of development. Their work goes far beyond supervision. They create safe, enriching environments where children build the social, emotional, and cognitive foundations that prepare them for lifelong success. For many families, childcare providers make it possible for parents to work, pursue education, and contribute to our community. Their dedication strengthens not only individual families, but also the workforce and economy of Witchah as a whole. These professionals are often the first to identify developmental needs, provide stability during challenging times, and partner with families to ensure children receive the support they need to thrive. At Childart, alongside the city of Witchah Childare licensing and our many community partners, we are proud to stand in support and recognize the incredible impact they make each and every day. Today we ask the community to

join us in expressing gratitude for their commitment, advocacy, and care. Please join me in celebrating and thanking all licensed child care providers for their invaluable role and that they play in building a stronger future for Witchah's children and families. Thank you. [applause] Thank you to our four recipients of proclamations. Something special that we will start doing is showcasing some of the award videos that have been shown throughout our community at special events. And one of those uh is from the Witchaw Regional Chamber of Commerce. So we would like to share the first video honoring empowering [music] overhead. Hi, I'm Ariel. It's my first week. I have a nonprofit. I have a vision. I also have absolutely no idea where to

put my coffee. Everyone says start with a plan. [music] Great. Love plans. Huge fan. Anyway, here's the thing about the northern end. The plan, it isn't on the screen. It's outside. Because if you're going to do something real in Nomar, you don't guess, you listen. 6 days in, this building comes up for auction. And I'm staring at it like this is either brilliant or I need a nap. Jean, meet me at the corner of 21st and Market.

I'm on my way. [music]

We pull the board together fast, not because we're impulsive, [music] because opportunity doesn't RSVP. From day one, we didn't want to renovate a structure. We wanted to build something transformational. This [music] had to elevate the mission and strengthen the identity of the neighborhood. Bold, [music] forwardinking, but rooted because this is a predominantly Latino community and the design should feel like pride. We went hunting for inspiration. Mexico City lit the match. Exterior textures, materials, finishes, [music] a breezeway block exterior that catches light and attention. And instead of normal landscaping, we chose something sculptural, [music] desert steel, beautiful, intentional, and built for this corridor. The Camarina Adilante Center is a hub, meetings, workforce training, educational classes, community events. It flexes. It adapts. It even turns into a pop-up retail space because small businesses need real doors to walk through. And at the heart of it, a 24/7 commercial kitchen with seven stations so multiple food entrepreneurs [music] can cook, test, grow, and scale.

When I found this place, the place gave me hope that I really can start my business. The impact [music] empower has on my neighborhood has been really big. Our community is stronger. To see something new and attractive within the neighborhood is allowing new vendors to come in and see improvement within the whole neighborhood and our community.

This place is a brickandmortar commitment to [music] Nomar and a signal that the future here is bright. And the best part, we're just getting started. Again, [applause] Empower was the recipient of the Keeper of the Plains Awards at the Witchah Regional Chamber of Commerce's honors night a few weeks ago, and they have wonderful videos that we will be again showcasing during the awards part of our meeting. Um, and again want to say thank you to every single staff member and volunteer this past Sat uh Sunday for Open Street's ICT Nomar where you actually got to see Empower and you got to interact. And I want to recognize Council Member Ballard for her leadership in that as well. With that, Madame Clerk, can you please call the next item?

Public agenda. We now come to public agenda. The public agenda allows for up to five speakers to have five minutes each to address the council. Please bear in mind that this is not a period of dialogue with council or a question and answer period. This is your opportunity to address the city council with your concerns. I ask that you address your remarks to the city council as a body and not to any individual council member. No action will be taken relative to items on public agenda other than referral to the city manager for information as necessary. Speakers will please speak into the microphone. Please state their name and address for the record. A time clock will display the speaker's remaining time to speak. Order and rules of decorum will be observed. The first speaker today is Lola Eastwood with engineer Enzo Luhan. [applause] Hi, my name is Lola. We appreciate you allowing us to share our vision of our future with you today. Some people think the best inventions are things like phones or cars, but actually the brightest idea ever literally is using something we get for free every single day. Sunlight. Solar energy is fueled on the sun. Why should we use solar? We should use solar because solar will provide us a better future. A reason people do not want solar is because solar's panels take over acres of land. However, for major cities, solar panels could be placed on top of buildings and our homes. However, our government has stopped tax credits for renewable energies. McKibben wrote that in a 2025 PV magazine. They shared a story titled US residential solar on the brink of collapse, which states, "Sun, the country's biggest residential solar provider stock fell 40%. Why can't our city provide tax credits to homeowners for solar panels? This would help solve the land usage issue because people would have solar roof shingles or

panels. Also, the sun has an endless supply to share. So, that means endless energy that we could harvest. Since Witchah has many sunny days, solar will work better than using fossil fuels. According to to the National Weather Service, 65% of the year is in Witchah is sunny. Therefore, it does not make sense why we aren't using this clean energy source. In addition, solar does not create air pollution. According to Nature Communications researchers, solar power protects nature, whereas fossil fuels pollute our air, water, and land. The World Wildlife Fund claims we must urgently reduce the carbon pollution and prepare for the consequences of global warming, which we are already experiencing. This means that we have to use solar energy. In conclusion, I want you to make a change and switch to solar and help save the earth, our home. I'm t taking action by talking to people about solar. You can help by switching to solar and saving our earth. Please help save our home. Thank you. [applause] Can

you talk a little bit about your your diarama or your your model there? This is a house powered by solar energy with a light on the porch powered by solar energy. [applause] Thank you, Lola and Enzo. Madame clerk, please call the next individual. Hazel Nordine with engineer Giata Penichi. Hello. Have you ever wondered what life would be like without air pollution? Ever since I was little, I love going outside and breathing in the fresh air. But now, sometimes the air doesn't seem so fresh. We could ha have cleaner air if we switch to using wind power. We don't own the world, but we can choose what happens to it. We could use coal and oil, kill the world, and run out of fossil fuels. Or we could use wind power, save the world, and never run out. According to the US Energy Information Administration, some people say that wind turbines kill too many birds and bats. But some scientists and environmentalists are working on identifying their migratory paths and building wind farms away from these areas.

Also in an analysis by the center of research published by REA Global 150,000 birds die each year from wind turbines. However, interestingly, domestic and feral cats kill about 1 billion birds each year in the United States in comparison. If people were to keep their cats inside, we can decrease the deaths of birds per year. Kansas is known as the windy state and yet other places with way less wind have wind power and way less pollution than we do. Plus, wind power is the most cost effective for places with constant strong winds and we have exactly that. Witchah, Kansas would be the perfect place to use wind energy. According to Britannica, one small wind turbine can power a whole house. If businesses had rooftop with mills and homeowners installed one small wind turbine, everyone could help us have healthy, clean energy. Something that might change people's minds about using wind is that most big wind farms aren't your large population centers, but they could be if we made them. and just on the perimeter of Witchah. And it's more important to have healthy, clean, renewable energy so the environment is not harmed and that no further damage is done to the point where we cannot live on Earth. Our environment is dying and we have a way to help. We just need to use more renewable energy sources. We've had this solution for a year and now is the time to use these inventions. We're breaking our environment and we know it's time for a change. We all need to stop using coal and oil and switch to wind energy or other renewable resources. I will continue to advocate for wind energy and encourage people to stop using colon oil. I hope you will too. Thank you. [applause]

I have made a a house with a street lamp and a wind turbine. Once It uses the wind turbine uses kinetic energy to power the street lamp. Once wind blows the wind turbine, the street lamp will turn on.

Thank you, Hazel and Giata. Madame clerk, please call the next individual.

Sherach Sadas Suvani with engineer Owen Kaufman. Good morning dear city council. My name is Char of the Suveni and I will be presenting about the benefits of hydropower and which it does future. The argument against hydropower is that dams are killing fish since fish can't swim fish ladders. However, some dams have fish elevators. As in an article published by the US Energy Administration, the Safe Harbor Dam in Pennsylvania has fish elevators. If we were to build a hydropower plant, we would need fish elevators so fish can go up and down the Arkansas River. We can build a reservoir at the junction of the Mitch Mitchell floodway and the Arkansas River. The world is mostly made of water. Research from Britannica says 71% of the world is water. My reasoning is if we have so much water, we should implement more hydro power. Hydropower also does not pollute the air or the land. According to the 2020 hydropower status report as cited in POPA and peer-reviewed article, using hydropower over coal can prevent 150 million tons of air polluting part air polluting particles getting into our air. If you use more hydropower in the future, we can prevent inedible foods, undrinkable waters, and unbreathable layers. If a water current is too strong, there's a slight chance a dam can break. So, in result, dams can be inspected by structural engineers because they provide humans and wildlife fresh drinking water and outdoor activities such as fishing and swimming. When I'm fighting for hydropower in Witchah to harness clean energy, however, I can't do that myself. So, you need to help me by telling your friends and colleagues about clean energy. If you want a better life for your children and grandchildren, if you help me, we can renovate the world together. When I

grow up, I want to see green energy everywhere. I say this for the future of Witchita because fossil fuels are slowly killing our city. Thank you for listening to my concern about Witchita's future and energy. [applause] [applause] This is a model of hydro power. This is the water flowing down, hitting the turbine and lighting up the house. [applause]

Thank you, Sherack and Owen. Madame clerk, please call the next individual. Mia Cabrera Beltran with engineer Evelyn Person. Hello. I hope you're having a good day. I'm here today to tell you we need to become better Earth citizens. If we don't start taking care of our planet, it will die. We live on planet Earth and if our home is not a safe environment for us, we would have to leave. But to where? We should add more wind energy because it could potentially reduce global climate change. Wind energy does not pollute the air. According to Britannica, no pollution is produced from wind turbines. Therefore, it's better for our earth in the long run. Wind energy can help slow down global climate change. In an article by the US Energy Information Administration, Faith Byro, the executive director of the International Energy Agency, clarified in 2024 that fossil fuel consumption makes climate change, air and water pollution, and public health worse. We all need to help slow down global climate change. And since wind energy doesn't cause air pollution, we should build more wind turbines. Some people do not want to use wind turbines because they say it is too expensive. On the contrary, it makes enough energy to power a whole community. Plus, wind turbines provide cheap energy after building. According to Britannica, a single modern a single modern utility scale wind turbine can power approximately 1,500 homes annually. In addition, Oklahoma University's extension states in an article by Damona Doy and fellow researchers that property owners earned as much as $22 million just from leasing their property for wind turbines in 2014. I think witchin should consider this because Oklahomaans are making much more money.

After studying wind energy, I have realized one thing. Kids are talking about how they are worried about their future and that's not something they should be worried about. We should not have to be worried about things that are not in our control. The city council and the people of Witchah should start to realize that kids know more than you think. And if you do not start helping our planet, we could end up living in the world in a world like the movie Wall-E. And that would be horrible. Please consider adding more renewable energy resources. Thank you for your time. [applause]

This is my model about wind energy. I have two houses and a wind turbine. [applause] The kinetic energy flows through the wires through the wind turbine and goes into the batteries which then powers the LED lights. [applause]

Thank you, Mia and Evelyn. Madame clerk, please call the next individual. Maya Gersstein with engineer Nora advice.

Good morning. Thank you for allowing me to speak to you today. As humans, we live in such a beautiful world and we've created such wonder so many wonderful things. However, unfortunately, for many years, we have been destroying our world by polluting it with fossil fuels. If everyone could be open-minded to solar energy, we could possibly save our world from these harmful things. In my research, I found that one of the benefits of solar energy is that it lasts forever. Encyclopedia Bratannica states that if we use solar energy each day, the Earth would receive about 200,000 times the total world's electrical generating capacity. We would be making so much more energy and would never run out of this renewable resource. Britannica states that one of the main problems is storage. Therefore, we should build larger power grids. This means that solar power can be used ideally to better our world as a whole. Another benefit that solar energy provides is that it is the cheapest available energy source. I found in a new scientist an article published by Maline Cuff that initially the cost of solar energy may be expensive. However, in the long term people would save a ton of money. That is money you could be saving for something else. So although there is a cost up front for this renewable energy in the future solar energy will will save you hundreds or thousands of dollars. According to Cuff Kings Mill Bond writes in the 2020 run report from the United Kingdom think tank carbon tracker by the end of this century it is pretty clear that we will be getting all of our electricity from this renewable resources of which the vast majority will be solar. So what are we waiting for? As a result, solar energy is ideally a must for our future so we can save money for ourselves, for other things, and our families. It is also very safe, clean, and beneficial for all people to use this energy source

versus others. Solar energy does not place these harmful pollutants in the air. We have a clean, life-changing energy source standing right in front of us. We should use it. Thank you again for letting us speak to you today. [applause] Um this is my model on wind power. Um wind wind power uses kinetic energy to make power. When the wind turbine blows, it makes energy and it goes to the LED light. [applause] Thank you, Maya and Nora. And I want to say thank you to the teachers at Independent School for bringing your students here and presenting to the city council this morning. Again, good job to all the kiddos that spoke in front of the council this morning. I have a board of uh council members that want to speak. So, I'll start with Vice Mayor Glascock. Well, first off, thank you for your incredible and articulate advocacy. And I also want to thank the parents for raising such fine citizens of our community as well. I used to do solar and wind work, so I agree with a lot of what you all said and I appreciate you protecting our shared space and our earth. I'll also say that you can currently get involved. the um board of county commissioners and the metropolitan area planning commission are currently hearing solar applications and that process right now. And so if you care deeply about this, there are decision makers looking at certain applications and they meet Wednesdays at 9:00 a.m. And I'm sure they would love to hear from you and uh hear your advocacy. So keep it up and keep holding us accountable from this bench and hopefully uh someday all of you replace us as well.

Council member Hoheisel. Thank you, Mayor. Uh, thank you kids for showing up. Anytime you guys come, I think about what I was doing when I was your age and you guys are light years ahead of where I was. So, I do appreciate that. And also, um, our director of public works, Gary's back there. We might get some of their numbers and get them in the pipeline now for uh, future employment opportunities. Uh, thank you for advocating. This is our Earth. This is our shared space. Um, don't lose that advocacy. make sure you keep that throughout the rest of your lives and keep pushing people like us on these issues to make it cleaner and more accessible. So, thank you guys again for showing up. Council member Shepard.

Thank you, Mayor. And I want to echo the sentiments of Council Member Hoisel. Thank you all for showing up, but more importantly than that, never ever let anyone tell you that you can't lead because of your age. You are already a leader. You proved that right here. I believe that young people do know more than we often give them credit for. And so it's critically important that we not just say good job, but we create space for you to have a seat at the table. Um I think that we need to do a science fair here in city hall. Would you all like that? I see some really good eyes. Yeah. So my commitment to you is making sure that I work with your administration to figure out how we can make that happen. Maybe next year we can have a science fair so we can invite the community out to see your intelligence and your advocacy. Um, this is your building. It belongs to you. It's the people's house and that includes you. Um, many of you live in my district and so I look forward to engaging with you all further. And we brought you some Witchita lapel pins for each of you and I want you to wear it as a reminder that this is your community and that everything you do and say and how you show up impacts the future of Witchah. So, there's plenty to go around, but I hope you'll wear it with pride. Thank you for being here.

[applause] Madame clerk, can you please call the next item? Consent agenda items 1 through 20.

Council members, items to be pulled. I will be pulling Consent agenda item number 5A, supplemental design agreement number one and funding for Douglas from Washington to Grove in district 1. Any other items to be pulled from consent? I see none. With that, I move to approve consent agenda items 1 through 20 without 5A. Second.

Motion second. Discussion. See none. Madame clerk, please open the role. Motion passes. 70. We're at consent agenda item number 5A and we have Paul Gunelman with public works. Can you please uh share with share with us uh this funding for Douglas from Washington to Grove the amount and can you talk about this pilot program?

Yes. Thank you, [clears throat] Mayor Paul Gunsman, public works and utilities. For the record, um the item before you is um in December of 2025, the city council had approved um doing a pilot program along Douglas from Washington to Grove. And as part of that PI pilot program, we would uh temporarily restripe Douglas um from those limits. Um, parking would remain the same as it is now with diagonal parking on the south side of the road with parallel parking on the north side of the road. And we would also include on street bike lanes that would be adjacent to the curb. The supplemental agreement for that work to complete the design and prepare plans is uh approximately $105,000. And the remainder of the budget that we are asking for is for construction of the pilot program, installing the temporary markers, the tubular delineators to protect the bike bike lanes adjacent to the curb as well as the consultant will be performing data data collection or collecting data such as pedestrian, bicycle and vehicular counts. Um intersections will be monitored to see if any signal timings need to be modified as well as we will collect travel speeds and speed data through the pilot period.

So can you um address I know that this passed uh not unanimously when this came before the council. Can you share again um what the original um ask was in terms of the amount of money for the redesign versus this pilot program?

Mayor, I let's see. I think the ask we have um including with the the the 1.4 4 million we are asking for today. There still remains $3.3 million left in the CIP um for the remainder of the project. Um again, we will um we anticipate the pilot program. Um once we put this out for bid and get the uh hired a contractor, we will anticipate the markings going down um early July and then we would leave those you know probably down six months to collect the data and then I would return back to city council to present that data to you for final concept approval. Can you also address um the parking that you mentioned? It will remain the same. Um right now paid parking is only in downtown Witchah. It is not anywhere else. Can you just address some of the things regarding parking?

We would not um extend the paid parking plan um east of Washington at this time. Um, again, as parking is now on Douglas, there is angle parking on the south side of the roadway, which will remain, and then parallel parking on the north side of the roadway, which we um it will remain during this pilot program. Thank you, Paul. We continue with questions with Vice Mayor Glasco.

Hey, Paul. I just have a few questions about the green packet. So the existing budget initiated when we're looking at under the projected budget the projected budget at the bottom is that the projected budget for the pilot or is that the projected budget for the entire redesign? That would be for the design for of the pilot which is the pavement markings for the plans and then to implement the pilot we are anticipating construction cost to be about $300,000. So, it looks like the budget initiated request. Are we saying the there's an additional request of 415,000 or that's just as part of the existing budget initiated? Because it looks like it's an addition.

That is in addition to what has been initiated. So, why has the pilot increased $415,000 since February 6th?

February 6th. I lost you there. Okay. Okay. So, it says the existing budget initiated was on February 6, 2024, 2024. Yes. Why has the pilot increased $415,000 since that time? Sorry, that we were not anticipating doing a pilot project. So, during the But my first question said that the existing budget initiated was just for the pilot at 1 million or is that the total budget? How's your the addition the February 6th I believe was initiated to complete design of the overall project full design full design or at least through concept to this time. Yes.

Okay. Because the council had approved the pilot later on as on December 16th. So correct. And it in order to implement the pilot to have Bofman create plans for the pilot project and to collect data during the pilot project. They're asking for $105,000 to complete that work. Okay. Above and beyond the original design. Okay. And then we are anticipating $300,000 for construction and implementation of the pilot as well as collecting that. Yeah.

And then the last question, well maybe have two two questions. So the 15,000 in geo art were implementing art as with a non-permanent pilot or will that be permanent art installations as part of the pilot? I'm thank you for bringing that up. We are and we had discussions among staff. We we would like to initiate $15,000 of the art budget at this time so that we can go through the selection process of hiring a an artist for the overall project completion. If council moves forward with this pilot and the threelane roadway, um our thought is that the art would probably be placed at the curb extensions. So I think we we don't want to we want to keep them concurrently kind of on board so they know what's going on. Um if you know when next year after the pilot program I I present the data um you know, if the project um I think we can I think there will still be a project depending on lane configuration to do curb extensions at the intersections for pedestrian safety etc. So, I don't believe we're, you know, the money is still I think it'll still be um we can still implement part.

So, let's say we decide not to move forward after the pilot because the pilot means let's see if it works or not. See, if we decide not to move forward after the pilot, we'll still expend that 15,000 regardless, right? And I I think and it' be a decision of the council at that time whether or not we still move forward with, you know, keeping Douglas as it is now. however, you know, do some curb extensions, etc. MIT block crossings to make it safer for pedestrians and to kind of control speeds through the area. Okay. Thank you, Council Member Shepard.

Thank you, Mayor. Appreciate you being here and I appreciate all the conversations that you and your team have had throughout the community. I was a part of several of those conversations prior to my time on council and I know that you all have gone to extreme lengths to hear from both the business community, the residential community, folks who dropped their kids off at East High. Uh we have also been working concurrently with uh USD259 because I know the buses being on the street was a very uh big ordeal and in that conversation I can now share this publicly that part of the USD259 bond is going to be to remove those buses off of the street and so I appreciate the work that often goes on in the background. I really wish I would have had the opportunity to engage to to provide some context before today. But with that being said, I would like to make a motion to approve the supplemental design agreement number one, revised budget, and adopt the amending resolution.

Second. Uh, we can't do that. We have to open it up for public comment when an item has been pulled. Okay. Well, I'll be ready for a motion when you do that. Uh, council members, any further questions for staff?

I see none. With that, we will now open it up for public comment. How council text doer um to have one chair. I was going to briefly mention this uh during the discussion on the backup policy. Um but it seems very gerine here because I fear it may be like the last chance to get some perspective from the DAB one level um for the this design concept. Um when this came forward to DAB, we were told we were choosing between basically bike lanes um and parking. Uh and and we were basically approving a design concept. One of the things that came up though is if um and and I brought up be especially is if we're going to be doing all making all this investment, we should not be looking at having a half modernized solution. And if we are talking about safety, then the greatest thing with safety when it comes to our angle parking spots on Douglas would be to allow for backup because when you see that, you actually see a reduction dramatically in accidents when you have a front departure. A reduction so dramatic that the city of Tucson saw zero accidents where they did that from parallel parking to backup angle parking for four years straight. Moreover, one of the complaints we think of the stakeholders who showed up. You had business owners on Douglas. I office Douglas uh and my landlord was there testifying uh where he wanted to see the traffic slower. He was in favor of the road digest. You have other business owners who want to have more front storefront access. You had Bikewalk Witchah who want to have the bike lanes there as well. And then there was a fourth contingent which is all the folks you heard from after the fact saying they didn't want to see Douglas narrowed because and I and it's all fairness to them. We had this problem on DAB. You can't envision really um traffic flow

until you test it out. And one of the biggest concerns is uh at certain points of the day, you probably feel like you have more than 20,000 ADT on Douglas. Uh but the reality is with having with passengers not having to wait on left-hand turns anymore with the center lane, that's going to help a lot. But um the other reality is we can add up to 70% additional parking on a block theoretically with backup angled in parking replacing parallel parking. Uh the city of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, uh Nelson Degard, the uh transportation consultants used this as a as a model where they they were able to add 21% gain in parking and the storefronts with parallel and bike on one side and backup angled on the other. When we brought that up at the DAB level, public works said that um twofold. one widgets won't know how to back up, but I think that those who have issues with parallel parking and those who have issues would also have issues with backing up can use and do use and we've seen this uh the streets on the sides there. Um I also think that um Council Member Johnson at the time, I can't speak for him, but I know he was just wanting to get the road diet in place, hoping there were votes um for the traffic flow um and wasn't probably sure if he had the votes. But even if you don't think you have the votes, it's important to sometimes look forward for a vision long term of what's best for the city and see if there's maybe other folks that can buy in. We looked at mixed use all along the Douglas corridor continually in our zoning cases as uh as we go forward. And Witchah is unique in that many cities develop along their highways or in their downtown areas. We have a Douglas corridor where we can use actually and maybe envision as a main street alternative that emphasizes walking and pedestrians with backup angled spots on both sides. Um that is an option that hasn't been considered and I think y'all y'all should consider it. Unlike Pottstown, uh we also have a unique situation with First and Second Street bike lanes already in place where those can become then enclosed and protected

and then the short term short distance bike lanes are put on Douglas. Um then also then central could be used as an incity thoroughfare and then dellog is the outcity thoroughfare. So then Douglas becomes more a destination than a pass through over the next few decades where you could envision college hill to through Delano as our core beautiful main street. Um I think that's a vision that we should consider. It's uh their success. I'm a little surprised that staff did not include a budget of a pilot program as a part of this to y'all originally. Um because I think that's important to know because concrete before consensus uh that ain't good for community and that ain't good for change. Um, so I think uh if moving forward we also need um to be clear about um um traffic flow and maybe there should be a transit emergency and a loading ops memo because one of the confusions was if there's a if we move forward with this current proposal which need understand that they can use the center lane for passing and for traffic flow. I think it's uh important we um don't put the cart before the horse and that we continue having these discussions. And so if we're going to have a road digest, I can't think how um exciting it could be potentially to then go back to Witches and say, "But we're going to increase your parking by anywhere from 20% to 70%." So you don't even have to park as far away as you want to and you can focus on walking more down Douglas. Thank you.

Thank you, Tex. Council member Hohheisle.

Thank you, Mayor. I appreciate you coming up here text. Um you actually kind of jumped the gun on me a little bit as far as the parking situation goes. I was in Tulsa this last week and I observed there uh many areas where they had backend only. Um it seemed to work pretty well. So I guess I have two questions um regarding Douglas here. One is the design locked in or is there still room for public input as far as maybe some of the adjustments they'd like to see? And then two, speaking to the backing in parking issue um as a whole, and this might be part of another discussion, but is there room to have designated backend spaces where it would be easy for car park to still see if it's like a single lane or maybe a section somewhere that it would be easier um for people to be able to still back in and for us to be able to read the license plates. Let me start with first first question. Council member Hohisel, I I believe we should move forward with the pilot as it is designed. We went through as text mentioned and council member Shepard mentioned, we went through a lot of public engagement to get to where we are now. Um, and further direction with council in 2025 to do the pilot program. So, I believe we need to move forward with that. collect the data, collect input from area, you know, adjacent property owners, folks who travel through the area. Um, so I would recommend that we move forward with the pilot as it is um how we have it designed. We have um met with um some property owners as we've gone through uh the design of the pilot regarding some of the parking that some areas have. So, we've been working with the property owners along the project already.

We do have in response to diagonal backend diagonal parking, we do have and we had installed it up on 17th Street near the park. Um, it's supposed to be reverse backend parking. However, I think people pull in forward facing. So, we we've tried it. Not not along a corridor such as Douglas, but We have Houston in some places as you know down at Clap Park near the school as well. Okay. So, if we go ahead with the trial, there will still be room for public feedback moving forward. That doesn't mean it's a it's a six-month trial, I believe.

Yeah, that's we feel we probably need to do it at least six months just to collect some good data. Um, as I mentioned, I'm sure we will hear from the public as we roll it out and we'll we'll stay engaged with those property owners. Okay. I appreciate that, Council Member Tuttle.

Thank you. Thank you, Paul, for your work in this. I truly appreciate it and and especially being adaptive and and being nimble. Um, I'm going to talk about that in a second. I also want to thank Tex. Thank you for coming today. Um, I did want to just address the rationale for the pilot. Um, I can't even remember how many months ago when this first came up, but I was meeting, Council Member Johnson and I were meeting with some of the business owners along this corridor and it was a Friday afternoon that ended up turning into a Friday evening because we were lucky. We called uh public works director Jansen and asked if he was in the building and could come down. And so, you know, the the business owners were upset, they had concerns, they had questions, and by the time we left the meeting, they were thrilled that we were going to move forward in this direction with a pilot project. So, I think it makes a lot of sense. The other thing that I just wanted to mention is last week I was invited by the Greater Witchaw Partnership to attend a bio uh med business development strategy meeting and [snorts] a national consultant came in and one of the things that we talked about is how wide Douglas is and what that the implications that it could bring as we're revitalizing downtown again with the biomed center. And many people have the misconception that the biomemed center is just going to be the educational institution of KU School of Med, WSU and WSU Tech. But the vision of many for this, that's the first seed of many. We hope that more business, more industry will come because of the biomed center. So, it's an exciting time for our downtown and this is the perfect time to implement this pilot project with that project in mind. So again, I'm going to be very supportive. I seconded the motion. Thank you for all your work on this, Paul.

Is there anyone else in the public who would like to speak on this item? I see none. I close public comment and bring it back to the bench. Council member Shepard.

Thank you, Mayor. As I mentioned before, uh I've seen all the work that's gone into this prior to my time on council. I too was also on the district advisory board along with Tex who's the current chair of the district advisory board. Really appreciate that. I just want to remind all of my colleagues anytime you have any questions in regards to anything that's happening in district 1. Please open door policy give me a call. I'm happy to share perspective. Not that you can't change or advocate things that you believe strongly from from the bench, but always happy to take any questions or concerns. And I appreciate the folks who reached out yesterday about things on the agenda that they had questions about. I would offer you to do the same consistently with all items. With that being said, I motion to approve the supplemental design agreement number one, revised budget, and adopt the amending resolution.

Second.

Motion second. Discussion. I will just uh again state my reason why I will be voting against. On December 16, 2025, I voted against the design concept for Douglas from Washington to Grove. That motion passed 6 to1 with the mayor choosing to vote no. And I will be consistent with that vote. And so today I will be voting no. Madame clerk, please open the role. Motion passes 6 to one. Madame clerk, please call the next item. Board of bids and contracts dated May 4th, 2026.

Morning, Mayor. City Council Josh Lober, Department of Finance Board of Bids and Contracts on May 4th, 2026 convene for the following items. For engineering, we have the water distribution system sanitary sewer improvements to serve Arvda second edition for me construction incorporated for an aggregate bid total of $371,68 for purchasing we have the pipeline cleaning north industrial corridor and Gilbert Mosley for Mayor Specialty Services LLC for an aggregate total of 133,62830 we have 66,000 gross vehicle weight requirements. Hydro evac evac excavation truck, excuse me, for key equipment and supply company for an aggregate bid total of $476,4752.50. We have the security fence and entry exit gates for Witchaw Fire Department operations command and storage facility for nine mere fence construction for $15,000. We have the white and yellow pavement marking paint for Enis Flint Incorporated for $224,100. We have safety ladders for Ed M. Feld Equipment doing business as Feld fire for $101,772.73. We have the audiovisisual equipment and installation at the Advanced Learning Library for Conference Technologies Incorporated for $229,6.96. We have the Dell three tier data center infrastructure hardware for logicalis incorporated for 1,895,762.19. We have the security and video surveillance system for the multimmoal

facility for Santa Engineering and Controls Incorporated for $134,267.82. And for the Witchaw Cedric County Addiction Intervention Coalition, we have the opioid abatement support and evaluation services for RULO Strategies Incorporated for a 5-year aggregate total of $294,299. For airport, we have the airfield traffic line paint reject all bids. And we have the airfield lighting maintenance agreement for 2026 through 2029 for Cooper Krauss Hins LLC for an aggregate three-year total of 137,900. This is our purchasing website of how to become a small business with the city. This is our purchasing calendar of small business resource partners we saw from earlier that we're hosting or participating with in our calendar. And these are open public opportunities for May 8th, May 15th, May 22nd. And I'll be happy to try to answer your questions or recommend your approval.

Thank you. Any questions for staff? I just have one on slide number 15. Can you explain why all bids were rejected? Um, so specifically on the airport project, there were questions of the vendors. Um, let me get into my notes. Uh, none of the vendors provided all the required information. So, there was no no vendor that met all the specs. So, we're going to have work with our requesting department, make sure the specs are uh built correctly, make sure we get all the information we want and put it back out.

Thank you, Josh. Any further questions for staff? I see none. I move to approve the board of bids and contracts dated May 4th, 2026. Second. Motion second. Discussion. See none. Madame clerk, please open the role. Motion passes. 70. Madame clerk, please call the next item. Petitions for public improvements.

Good morning again, mayor, city council members. Paul Gunsman, public works and utilities. For the record, I have some new petitions for your consideration this morning. The signatures on the petitions represent 100% of the improvement districts and the petitions are valid per Kansas statute. Clear Ridge addition phase three located in district two. The project will provide water, sanitary sewer, and paving improvements required for an existing residential development. First furlong addition located in district two. The project will provide water and sanitary sewer improvements for a new commercial development and Stony Point edition again located in district 2. The project will provide water and sanitary sewer improvements required for an existing commercial development. It is recommended the city council approve new petitions and budgets, adopt the new resolutions, and authorize the necessary signatures. Stand for questions.

Thanks, Paul. Questions for staff? See none. I move to approve the petitions for public improvements. Second motion second. Discussion. See none. Madame clerk, please open the role. Motion passes. 6. Madame clerk, please call the next item. Public hearing and request by Knoxcore LLC for approval of a letter of intent to issue multif family res housing revenue bonds for Knoxcore East.

Good morning, Mayor and uh city council. Uh Corey Nisley with uh development services. Just want to say this is my uh first time up at the podium. So what a better way to kick it off than by doing three presentations back to back. So this item before you is a public hearing by uh uh for like uh for uh for uh Knox Court East. They are looking to do a sales tax. Uh a sales tax. Uh yeah, a sales tax. Uh sorry, my stutter is acting up a little bit. A sales tax. A sales tax. Uh those attacks. Uh uh yeah, thank you. Sorry about that. So, Knox Court East is seeking to convert a church into a into a into a apartment complex for senior citizens. This project is located in district 2 at 831 East Gilbert and it will consist of 27 units, you know, and the layouts would be a one to two bedroom. Uh the project will be financed with the low income housing tax credits at the 9%. As we know this um you know these credits are very competitive and so because of the competitiveness uh you know like a lot of you I don't know developers want to achieve the maximum points possible for these projects uh KHRC you know gives uh uh gives like additional 10 points to these projects you know who get a sales tax uh uh who get a sales tax. Yeah, thank you. Sorry. So, with that, Knox Court is asking for 7.5

uh million dollars uh for the project and the sales tax exemption uh you know uh valuation is there on your screen. This is our standard uh you know disclaimer for the uh bonds. Uh high level pictures that no taxpayer dollars are at risk for this project. Uh so the bond documents will be prepared by the outside bond council and the city's uh you know uh and the uh and the uh and the uh and the uh law department will approve all final form of these documents. And as with that, I uh recommend that city council close the public hearing, adopt the uh adopt the adopt the uh resolution and and uh and and uh authorize the necessary uh you know signatures. I will stand for questions and we have the the light developer here today to uh uh you know for uh any uh project specific questions. Thank you very much, Corey. The applicant, I believe, is it Byron who is here today. Um, I believe we may have some questions. Uh, we will now start with council member Hoheisel.

Thank you, mayor. And I'll have this question for the next the next one as well. Um, is this within is this conflicting with any other LITC applications that we have being within the was it a half mile radius of another LITC project? I believe it is. So, I'm trying to look for Sally. Um, but I do not believe so. I do not believe there are other, you know, projects within this one.

Okay. Byron Adrian with Menite Housing and that um issue really only comes up on the 4% be a 9% so that doesn't factor in on this application. Okay. Appreciate it. Byron, can you just uh share again this project? This is something that um has come up before uh regarding church property and revitalizing it to provide housing which is something that we critically need all across the city. Can you talk about this project and what you hope to accomplish?

Yeah, we are very excited to be able to partner with the Presbyteria of Southern Kansas. They've got several properties, these two uh for this year. There may be more in the future. And um so um it's just a really good opportunity for two organizations here in the community to come together. They uh are looking for a way to better utilize these church properties that really no longer have uh ongoing congregations um um worshiping there. So they've approached Menite Housing uh for affordable housing uh opportunity especially with seniors. So, we are um putting in this application here in a couple weeks and um we we really do appreciate the support that the um council has provided already in um approving the zoning change that makes this flow a lot better if it is approved and then also the approval of home funds that uh helps in the application. So, those two things along with if you do approve the sales tax exemption and and also the the fee waiver that was on the consent agenda that provides a lot of strong support for uh applica for these this application here for Knox Court.

Thank you, Byron. And I know that this is in district two, Council Member Tuttles district. Will this church building be renovated into those 27 units and any additional in the front?

Yeah, the church building on the uh district 2 site will be used. Yeah. So oftentimes on a senior project, we uh construct a clubhouse that has some really nice amenities for the seniors and their families. And so we're going to use the existing church building on the east side for that. And then we also have the opportunity to include [snorts] three uh units, couple onebedrooms and then one two-bedroom unit um in part of the church building. So it's situated on the property very well that allows us to do that. It's not the case for the one in um in district 4. Uh so that one um it's all going to be new construction there.

And again, thank you Byron and your entire team for thinking of housing in areas where it is within walking distance to several um amenities. Um and then knowing that you'll be renovating the building itself for also housing and then new housing as well. Um, I'm very appreciative of that and I know that this council is appreciative of housing of all types in all areas of our community. So, thank you, Byron, and thank you, Corey. I see no further questions from the council. We will now open it up for public comment. I see no one from the public who would like to speak. We'll bring it back to the bench. This resides in council member Tuttles's district.

Thank you. Um, first of all, thank you, Corey. Um, great job and I think you're just doing wonderful and I think you're cool. [laughter] Um, [clears throat] also I want to thank uh, Knox Court LLC. Thank you, Byron. You and I, it seems like we've met four or five times about this project and and I just appreciate your tenacity. I appreciate you navigating through complicated processes both here and at the state. So really in appreciate you, Menanite Housing, everything that you're doing to invest in Witchah. Um, it's been said here, I think it comes up every single week, we need housing in Witchah. We need all types of housing in Witchah, but especially having elder parents, um, having housing for seniors that's lower cost, but also provides the amenities that you mentioned, I I think is just a fantastic idea and something that's easy to support. So with that, I will enthusiastically move that we clo the city of Witchah close the public hearing, adopt the resolution, and author authorize the necessary signatures.

Second. Motion second. Discussion. I see none. Madame clerk, please open the role. Motion passes. 70. Madame clerk, please call the next item. Public hearing and request by Knoxc Court LLC for approval of a letter of intent to issue issue multifamily housing revenue bonds for Knox Court South.

So for my second presentation uh this is for uh you know this is the same uh public hearing but this is for Knox Court South. So uh just again Knox Court South is seeking to convert a church into an apartment complex for senior citizens. This project however is uh located in district 4 at 1522 west uh you know 27 uh 27th street south you know and will consist of 20 uh you know uh units uh with one to two bedrooms. So uh just like the previous project, this uh will be financed uh uh uh uh you know this would be financed with those uh uh credits at the 9% uh and with this sales tax abatement it will uh make the project more uh uh you know uh more competitive and so Knox is uh asking for uh 6.5 u million dollars in bonds for the project and the sales tax uh uh you know uh valuation is there on your screen below. This is our uh also our standard disclaimer. Uh you know again uh this project uh has no taxpayer dollars at risk. uh bond documents will be uh prepared by the outside bond council and the city's uh you know uh uh you know and the uh law department will have uh you know approval on all final forms of those bond documents and is that and it is with that that I recommend that city council close the public hearing adopt the uh resolution and authorize the necessary signatures. I stand for questions. Thank you, Corey. Questions for staff or the applicant? I have one

question. Um I know this resides in Council Member um Vice Mayor GlassCox's district. Uh Byron, can you talk about um where you're seeing uh more potential to provide more housing? These two properties that uh come before us are about senior housing. Are there more opportunities throughout our community to either convert or build new uh of this type of affordable housing?

Yes. Um the answer is yes to that question. There's a lot of opportunity in the uh community for both new construction or for doing, you know, possibly like an adaptive reuse project where there's buildings that might be used currently for something other than housing that can be um adapted into housing. We haven't done that in the past at Manite Housing. We focused on new construction, but over the last couple years, we become exposed to more opportunities that uh that that might be an opportunity for us in the future to take a look at some uh rehab types of programs or adaptive reuse to make better use of existing buildings similar to what um you know to what Presbyterious Southern Kansas is looking to do with their properties to uh to use those uh for for affordable housing. Sure. Thank you again, Byron. I see no questions from the council. We'll now open it up for public comment. I see no one from the public who would like to address the council on this item. We will bring it back to the bench. This resides in Vice Mayor GlassCox's district.

Mayor with a motion to close the public hearing, adopt the resolution, and authorize the necessary signatures. Second. Motion. Second. Discussion. See none. Madame clerk, please open the role. Motion passes 70. Madame clerk, please call the next item. Public hearing and request by Vino Bond Group LLC for approval of a letter of intent to issue multifamily housing revenue bonds.

So for my uh final uh presentation today is a public hearing, you know, uh from uh Bino Bond Group asking for that sales tax abatement uh you know and of property Uh so getting into the presentation you know Fino Bond group is uh uh you know is uh looking to uh redevelop and construct a multif family complex. Uh it is located in in district 3 at at 1130 South Broadway and will consist of 50 uh uh you know uh multif family units. back in uh December of 2025, this project was also approved for project choice, you know, vouchers as well. Uh so I mean uh once again, this project will be uh financed with the uh credits at the 9% and the sales tax abatement will uh make this project more competitive uh during that process. And so Vino is uh you know is uh asking for bonds in 20 No, a million dollars uh you know for the project cost and the sales tax uh uh you know like a payment is on your screen there below. Uh the project is also uh uh per our guidelines qualifies for a 95% property tax abatement uh you know with the uh uh uh you know with the with the investment uh you know above the 10 you know uh uh with the capital just above that 10 you know uh million dollar mark uh you know using state incentives and the uh you know and the project you know uh being located within a uh redevelopment area uh you know the estimated property

tax payment at the 95% level for the first four years year is about $443,000 you know with the city county state and the school district below our friends at CEDBR uh you know conducted the property tax abatement uh sorry uh the cost benefit for us uh and per guidelines these numbers numbers are above the you know the like uh you know the the uh you know the like uh the uh one to one as you may see the state is not on there and so this was a so for the cost benefit this is mostly a new um part of the model that is developed and so the model doesn't really you know like accurately um show what those state values are because uh uh you know because it is before the state is like awarded those tax credits and so the state is giving up those tax credits. Yes. So then the numbers presented in the CPA are going to be you know uh highly deflated and so that's why those numbers are not shown because it's not uh uh you know because uh those numbers are deflated and so we didn't want to show that here just because it's not true. So this is our standard uh uh you know disclaimer and so um uh yes so once again the no taxpayer dollars are at risk for this project uh bond documents uh uh uh you know will be uh drafted and prepared by the city's uh bond council and the law department will approve all final uh you know documents and so with that it is uh that I ask the city council to close the public hearing, adopt the adopt the

adopt the uh adopt the uh adopt the resolution and uh you know and and uh authorize the necessary signatures and I stand for questions and we have uh you know you know we have members from the vino bond group here to uh some of those project specific questions as well. Heather with the Casino Group's online too, so she's available for any questions that you may have. Thank you, Corey, and thank you to the applicants. Questions for staff for the applicant, beginning with council member Hoheisel.

Thank you, mayor. Um, thank you again for choosing to invest in uh my district, my community, our community. Um, just take a second and I see Amy back there as well. Maybe just talk about the whole scope of this plan and this project and what you guys want to see moving forward because this is a property that's been kind of a a burr in the in the in the boot here lately. So, um, I'm hopeful that this will get going and that we'll see some housing and development going up here shortly. Yeah, we're really excited about this project for a lot of different reasons. One is to kind of continue to, you know, add 15 new units to Witchaw's stock of affordable housing. We're going to be having some set aides for our our psychosocial um therapy group uh individuals. It's CL it's clubhouse model and we'll have 10 that we already have vouchers for. So, but we'll also be adding programming and a case manager and a peer support specialist on site in the apartment complex. So, be able to help uh mitigate any kind of barriers people have to staying housed and continue to be housed. But, I'd like Amy to talk a little bit about the overall vision of the neighboring movement.

Good morning, everybody. Um, the neighboring movement is is in support of this project as well. As part of this deal, we would be purchasing back a portion of the property that is currently the Christian Faith Center. Our dreams and vision for that are to put in a co-op grocery, a laundry mat with some additional smaller retail opportunities for small business owners and entrepreneurs. really creating kind of a hub on that South Broadway corridor to um encourage people to come and be a part of our community, get outside and really support several services that are missing in SOC currently.

All right, you guys are doing incredible work there and again uh 10 units set aside for people exiting homelessness. So, and support services for it as well. So, again, thank you guys for your work and I'm real hopeful on this one. Council member Shepard.

Thank you, Mayor. I just want to say congratulations on the great work that you all are doing in that community. I don't represent the Southside, but I think a win for any of our communities is a win for all of us. And so, um, I invite you all to to take that step and learn and then bring it on over to District 1 so we can learn and grow together because that's how it should work. We are neighbors and when we work together there, the power is stronger and all of Witchah wins. So, thank you. Council Member John Sten. Thank you, Mayor. I just want to say thank you for investing in an area town that's often forgotten. It's a wonderful project and uh thank you for taking a chance on it and uh very much thanks for your work on it.

Yeah, that's why we were excited about the site because of the vision and having the grocery co-op right next door. It'll be super helpful for the folks who are serving. I know that you have also Heather on the line. So, uh, without, uh, omitting her, I wanted to see if Heather could just talk about, uh, the Vino Group, we had the opportunity, I think several council members and I, as we traveled to Kansas City, we got to see some of the product that they've provided, uh, in terms of affordable housing uh, in those areas, and they were of great quality. And I just wanted to see if Heather wanted to speak about that.

Yeah, thank you so much. Um, and thanks for having me. I apologize I can't be there in person. Uh, but Vino Group is a we are a national supportive housing developer. So, we develop housing uh throughout the country. I actually am a canen though. So, I live in THAA, Kansas. Uh, so uh Bodie will be our second community in Kansas. uh but we have 30 supportive housing communities in 10 states and really uh believe very very strongly that permanent housing is the way in which we end homelessness for folks. Uh we look at um all the people that we're serving across the country. So in 2025 we were able to end homelessness for 621 households. Um, and we know that if someone stays in a permanent housing unit for more than two years, their likelihood of going back into homelessness is only 5%. Uh, so last year, 621 households remained permanently housed in a Vino community for more than two years. So, we're really proud of that and really excited to work in Witchah and of course really excited to work with Andy and his team at Breakthrough. um they will be the majority owner on this community. So really just excited to work with them and and get started. And just a huge shout out to the city. You all have been really welcoming and um very supportive of this. So thank you so much.

Thank you Heather and thank you Andy and the entire team. Uh we appreciate again all types of housing in all areas of our community. So thank you for making that investment into Witchah and to housing. With that, I see no further questions from the council. We will now open it up for public comment. I see no one from the public who would like to address the council on this item. We will bring it back to the bench. This is in council member Hohheisel's district. Thank you, mayor. Um I move to close the public hearing, adopt the resolution, and authorize the necessary signatures. Second

motion, second discussion. See none. Madame clerk, please open the role. Motion passes 70. Madame clerk, please call the next item. Public hearing on proposed assessments for 28 paving projects, 24 water projects, 24 sewer projects, and 15 storm sewer projects in the September 2026 bond sales series 838.

Morning, mayor, city council members. Paul Gunsman, public works and utilities. For the record, the item before you this morning is a public hearing on proposed assessments for 91 projects. As was mentioned, 28 paving projects, 24 water projects, 24 sanitary sewer projects, and 15 storm sewer projects for a total of 41,547,578. Notice of hearing letters were published February 27th, 2026 for all 91 projects. All affected property owners have been notified in writing. The Department of Finance and Public Works staff held a virtual informal hearing on March 16, 2026. There were residents that had called in with questions as well as some expressed frustration of not being aware of the special assessments as they were not disclosed to them by their realtor or developer. A few residents also knew there were had been paying on water and sanitary sewer assessments. However, paving assessments are now being um done in some areas which caught a few of them um by surprise. Statements of special assessment will be mailed to the property owners on May 15, 2026 pending city council approval today. The property owners have 30 days from the date of the statement to pay the assessment and avoid paying interest. The assessments not paid during this period will be in the September 2026 bond sale. The interest added to the principal amount will be determined by the rate at which the bond sale and the principal and interest will then be spread and place on the 2027 tax rule. With that, it's recommended city council close the public hearing, approve the proposed assessments, and place the

ordinances on first reading. And I will stand for questions. Thank you, Paul. Questions for staff, beginning with Vice Mayor Glasco.

Thank you, Paul. I know you've been getting a lot of emails from me uh from constituents that have been concerned and I I know that you expressed some of that as well. in particular one of theirs and again just clarification of our process and whether we need to refine our process or is this the process that works in really every community that some of the improvements were completed in 2022 yet they did not receive notice until 2026 during that time the interest rates increased from 26 to 2% or to 2.25% 25% which should be more than a 2% increase which added additional cost to them that even they purchased their property in 2024 but however the original costs were at the 2020 level. Can we just talk about maybe how we ensure that gap does not escalate later on. I know that when they purchased the property in 2024 they are not made aware of these obligations. So there's that problem, but then the other problem is the length of when the first approval is made to the second approval and the increase in interest which then increase the total cost of it as well. So can you maybe address how we can mitigate that in the future when people have concerns or maybe what tools we might have to ensure that residents are made made aware at the time of purchase?

Sure. Yes. Um to address your question, I believe it was uh a few of the calls we had received was from the Auburn Lakes Edition. Um but uh correct. Yes. Unfortunately, that project did take a while to close out from um pavement being done, negotiating a final change order. Um fortunately, we had some staff changes. So, um that one did take longer to um process than what typically is, unfortunately. Um shouldn't be an excuse, but that's what happened. Um we are, you know, working with staff to prevent that from happening again in the future. So what normally is the gap because this would be four years for this project.

Yeah, usually it's probably I would say 18 months to you know to get it closed out and then when we can get it immediately on the next bond sale and do we normally see similar increases during those 18 months or this be maybe outside of that margin of what is typical? That might be a question for Mark as far as temporary interest percent. I'm sorry, council member, can you repeat your question, please?

Of course. So, um, one of the constituents, there was multiple that had reached out the increase of our interest rate of 0.2 to 2.25, which is about a 2% increase over the course of the life of the project from 2022 to 2026. Given that this project took four years when a typical project might take 18 months, did we put an undue burden on these neighbors that saw a larger increase opposed to our typical process?

Well, I wouldn't characterize it as a unfair burden. I would tell you that my responsibility is to provide financing for special assessment projects until they're bonded. Uh, you know, the fact that it took a little longer than usual is regrettable. Uh but again, in order to avoid uh using property tax revenue to subsidize our special assessment program, we do temp note any outstanding costs before we bond them. And that's the procedure that we took in this case. It did in fact add interest rate interest cost to that which will get rolled into their assessment after we approved the bonding. But you're right, it's regrettable that interest cost increase. But again, it's a function of the time in which it took to complete the project. Do we ever have the reverse where residents actually see a benefit from the length or does that rarely happen?

I think that would be pretty doubtful. I mean cost cost probably incur in terms of just construction material everything else. Yeah. Okay. I saw Maggie had a comment or council member Ballard had a comment. So I will pull. Council member Ballard. She removed. Any further questions for staff? I see none. We'll open it up for public comment. I see none. Oh, we do have one.

Good morning. Thank you. My name is Gabe Schultz. I live at 633 North Wheatland Place in the affected Rainbow Lakes District for this uh specific conversation that was happening. Um, I think our main concern as as citizens is we put trust that that something's going to be done according to a process. Um, that can take longer. We we've found that here, but we're we're looking at almost double the time. Uh, and then all of that work that got completed, we get assessed on the increased cost of it. Um, we're I mean significant. I think there's about a $200,000 increase in the project um for this piece. So, our main concern is we know that that part of our responsibility is to to pay these assessments and we agreed to it as a as an addition and as a a group um and are happy to do that because it benefits us in inside of our neighborhood. Um the problem we I think all run into as a group is that when processes get extended and people get moved on, we're still going to get stuck with that increase. And we're hoping that's not the case in this situation. Um the original amounts that were sent out are um significantly higher than than what was presented. Um, so I I hope that as this process plays out, there's going to be some consideration in the process in which the city moved was a direct effect. So I I understand the financing point of it where there is changes over time. Uh, but when it's a deficiency in process or the ball was dropped by somebody within the city as they moved on from a position, not pointing blame at him, but just part of the process, u caused a significant delay in that. uh having some sort of uh not reciprocity necessarily, but just some sort of accounting for that where we're not stuck with that entire increase is I think our main concern as a group.

There's only 27 houses that are in there that we're covering the entire amount for. Um so we're we're happy to take care of our share. Um but if there was there was something that has been identified as a deficiency in the process in the city, having some accounting for that would be very much appreciated. So thank you. Council member Johnston. Thank you, Mayor Paul. And in this case, is the city going to cover some of that cost?

We are. So that that project, I think the original um petition amount was around $430,000. Um we opened bids on the project. It was over the estimate. Um but we do we are covering part of that cost as well. um per the agenda item back when that was over the estimate. So yes, we are covering part of that cost. Okay, that's good. I appreciate that. Council member, Vice Mayor Glascott. Paul, quick question. Are we also covering the cost for the Auburn Lake special assessment?

No, not that one. I'm sorry. when the when the um the Wheatland place when that was over the estimate um again we had we had the original petition amount was $430,000 there was action taken I believe that was in June hang on yeah June of 2019 thank you and then we opened bids on the project and then Um, we had another uh council agenda item going back to council in November that increased that petition amount as well as added some 2020 neighborhood improvement project funding to that project.

So, is it because the process that process started in 2019 versus the other process started? Part of that was that we were funding some of the intersection improvements with neighborhood improvement project. Okay. Yes. Thank you, Paul. We'll continue with public comment.

Good morning. Uh my name is Jeff Roberts. I'm in the Wheel and Place uh improvement district um that Paul was just speaking about. Uh one concern on that. So, our petition was approved in 19. Uh the project was completed in 20 and then we just got the it took five years for that final cost to be sent to us. So everything's going to cost more five years from from 2020 to now. Um that's just a concerning process. I know Paul said he's trying to address that. Maybe it won't happen again in the future. Um the other issue he had spoken about the uh there was a soding portion to that project. Um that was done by the uh paving contractor himself who is not a licensed professional landscape professional. Um it was done very poorly. They did no fine grading. Uh they didn't match the grass. They left the mesh on the backside of the sod. They rolled it in with an asphalt roller. Um all the repairs and improvements to that were done by the home homeowners themselves. Um, no one from the city's ever attempted to fix any of that. Um, I would kind of request for that cost to be diminished a little bit. Um, as well as to try and reduce um, that overall cost from when that was approved in 20 to to right now in 2026. Thank you,

Council Member John Stone. Thank you, Mayor Jeff. Thank you for coming to speak. Dave, also uh I'm I'm happy that the city is covering most of that additional cost. Um I'm sorry about the siding. I'm sure that contractor has already been paid. So there's probably not much we could do about that other than look at that in future contracts for that contractor uh for doing a poor job. Uh maybe not give them as much many contracts. So again, thank you for coming today. I'm I'm glad there is uh the city admitted some some fault in this and covering the cost of that. So again, I appreciate you coming and and hopefully that's a good res resolution for your neighborhood.

Would anyone else from the public like to speak on this matter? I see none. I'll bring it back to the bench. Vice Mayor Glascott.

Thank you. just based on comments from staff and based on some concerns. I think we have to reform policy in terms of not letting this happen again in the future four years and that additional burden especially when a lot of families are at the margins already can be make or break to keep in their home and we talk about affordability a lot from here but when government cast a larger burden than people expect affordability becomes a real issue. I don't know what the solution is but I think we can find something. I don't know if that's exploring relief options for homeowners who maybe purchased after project completion and before assessment or maybe there's a standardized policy that past the certain date if the project is not approved then there's going to be a remedy from the city or us to make some contribution like we are at wheat loan place but I think we have to reform the process I also don't want to delay the process further and have cost to continue to increase as well and so as long as we're continue to looking at being good faith actors and try to reform this I don't know if that's something my colleagues would want to talk about in a workshop, but obviously there needs to be some reform. So, I'd be interested in that coming back for the council to make sure this doesn't happen again and put an undue burden on a lot of our residents. So, I found it concerning uh knowing especially from two residents speaking about their projects being done for multiple years and just now getting that assessment. I'm sure it shocked you and um it was uh a great outlet that you were able to reach out to your council members and also coming to city council. This is how we again address um process issues. And so my direction to the city manager I think from uh Vice Mayor Glascock is if we can explore ways to not delay um items like this for multiple years in this situation five I mean six years um I think I am in support of seeing that in a workshop. I would like to see if any other council members would be interested.

Council member Johnston, Coun Vice Mayor Glascock, I need a fourth. So, uh, city manager, you have a majority, uh, that would like to see that. Um, so that will be the reform. Um, I'm sorry that this has happened to you, but again, we want to correct processes that are again undue causing an undue burden onto residents uh, and property owners. So, with that, um, there are more individuals who would like to speak. So, Council Member Shepard.

Thanks, Mayor. And prior to committing to that, I was actually going to say I do believe that we should go back and undo harms that have been done, whether it was intentional or unintentional. I continue to bring up redlinining from the bench, continue to bring up disparities that exist in communities from the bench, continue to bring up other communities on the margins that we have not talked about and or showed interest in. So, while it may give some folks constrnation, if we're going to talk about folks on the margins, I just hope that we do it inclusively and holistically. So, yep, I'll be supportive of this and doing it in a workshop. I hope my colleagues will look at folks on the margins holistically and not just when it impacts someone's pockets. Thank you, Council Member Hoisel.

Thank you, Mayor. I concur. I was going to buzz in and say that as well. there's plenty of opportunities to go back and look at how the city through neglect or negligence or um other other reasons have harmed certain communities within our city. So, I'd be supportive of that. And also to Council Member Shephard's point, an overall discussion regarding uh past actions and how we can make it right. Thank you. With that, I see no further council members who would like to speak. I will move to close the public hearing, approve the proposed assessments, and place the ordinances on first reading. Second.

Motion second. Discussion. See none. Madame clerk, please open the role.

Am I missing motion? There's someone missing. Oh. Motion passes 70. Madame clerk, please call the next item. Operating agreement for Pinnacle Wellness Facility.

Good morning, Mayor Woo, members of the Witchaw City Council. Dante Martin, assistant city manager. I'm here with you today to present an operating agreement for the Pinnacle Wellness Facility. Uh, Pinnacle is a joint initiative between city of Witchaw, Central Cedric County and the Witchaw Metropolitan Area Crime Commission. Witchto Mro Crime Commission, excuse me. In the way of background, as we know, first responders routinely face high levels of trauma, injury risk, and ongoing mental health challenges. At the same time, existing wellness services are decentralized and do not adequately meet the needs of our first responders. Locally, uh, Witchaw PD's wellness efforts are limited and underutilized. Uh, there's challenges, concerns related to access as well as confidentiality. Um, these concerns discourage use and also services are not well coordinated which impacts the continuity of care. When we compare ourselves to our peer communities, many have implemented program-based wellness efforts. We see this in Kansas City, Kansas. We see it in Kansas City, Missouri. We also see it with the Cedric County Sheriff's Office. However, nationally, there seems to be a shift toward a more centralized integrated model. Um, facilities such as Pinnacle, which represent the next step in and the progression towards a first responder wellness. We see this in Louisville, Kentucky, as well as Fairfax, Virginia. Public safety agencies are increasingly prioritizing wellness as a core function. Integrated models improve access to care, improve coordination, and long-term outcomes, and are linked to stronger retention, performance, and over overall workforce health. A little bit more background on Pinnacle. Pinnacle is a joint effort between the city county and Witchaw Metro Crime Commission. Uh the facility would be located at third and Broadway

and is expected to open in 2027. It would provide a centralized location for therapy, rehabilitation, fitness, training, and confidential consultation services. Uh city of Witchaw greatly appreciates the investment and the support that the Witchaw Metro Crime Commission is making uh towards acquiring the building uh that ultimately may lead to uh the facility being opened. The model uh that we are proposing as it relates to Pinnacle brings services to a central location to improve access and coordination. It emphasizes early intervention and resilience with the city and county each providing programming for their personnel under a seven uh a shared seven member government's board. Uh the board would consist of a representative appointed by the Witchaw Metro Crime Commission, two representatives each appointed by the city and county managers as well as a representative appointed by the uh Cedric County Sheriff and the Witchaw uh police chief. Financial considerations, the annual estimated operating cost for Pinnacle would be 188,000 each year. uh split evenly. That's 94,000 per jurisdiction. 94,000 to the central county, uh 94,000 to the city of Witchah. Um working with finance and the police department, our plan is to if approved today, $47,000 would be added in 2026 in the revised 26 budget uh with $94,000 in ongoing annual costs added to the 27 budget and thereafter. uh legal considerations. The law department has reviewed the agreement and approved uh as to form. I want to make a correction to your agenda report. Uh staff was working closely with Cedra County and the crime commission late last week. The agenda report was submitted on Thursday. The document you have says there's a 5-year uh initial term with three one-year options. The

final draft of the contract is a five-year term with the option for the crime commission to convey or transfer the facility to the to the county at the end of the five years. So, sorry for that mistake. Uh, staff's recommended action is to approve the operating agreement and authorize necessary signatures allowing the project to move forward with development and opening. Uh, with us today is board chair Alan Banter with Witchaw Metro Crime Commission. I believe I saw Captain Moses, Chief Snow, maybe even Chief Sullivan floating around back there somewhere behind me. So, if you have any questions, we're available. I believe board chair Alan Bander is prepared to make comments today. Good morning. I am Alan Banton, 9005 East Crestwood. I'm chair of the crime commission. We've got several of our board members here. Also, we have our president, Ed Pavey, and our executive director, uh, Sharon Van Horn. I appreciate your consideration of this consequential action that we're we've been working on for over 18 months. Sharon and I met with the uh sheriff, the chief, and the DA about 18 months ago to ask [clears throat] them what their dream need would be, something that would help them recruit and retain and field the best uh law enforcement per uh professionals possible. they noted a health and wellness facility would would be the big ask and and that was a pretty big ask. Um the definition of the facility the the cost to to to build it or renovate it significant but crime commission took it on. So, we did locate a property. It was a um a property that is owned by the First United Methodist Church, and uh the Reverend Amy is actually here today, too. And they've been great partners in working with us to try to bring this to

reality. Uh it was an underused north end of their uh complex that has a full gym and three stories. So, it was a perfect fit. Our plan is to p purchase and repurpose that existing building. Um it's 27,000 square feet. There's an adjacent parking lot for about 40 cars which will secure for the law enforcement vehicles. And this won't only be for for law enforcement. This will be for as we as we got into this and began to to to dig a little deeper. Clearly all first responders can use this especially on the mental health and wellness side. Um the the trauma that they all can face on a daily basis is beyond what any of us have you know in our lifetime even. So uh we call this the pinnacle. Um, we have been through the property multiple times, as the reverend can attest, with uh Sheriff Faster and his staff, Brad Crisp with County Fire, Laura Forsy with 911, Angela Fuller and Kevin Lannerman with EMS, the district attorney, Chief Sullivan and his staff have been through multiple times and Chief Snow and Chief Cole with the fire um Witchaw Fire have been through it and they all have been extremely supportive. and and extremely complimentary of the design and and the concept. So, Schaefer Architecture has donated um a lot of hours uh working on the property. They've got a space plan that they have um um submitted to uh the sheriff and the chief for for input and approval. Um they have also done a property assessment u with engineers going through the building and and arrived at a renovation budget and they've done

that all at no cost. We've been working on funding for this uh over the last six to eight months. Um we've got a number of um folks that are are generous with our city in many ways. And when you when you talk about supporting first responders, it's it's really an easy sell. And so, um, you know, our cornerstone donor, first first person we went to, called me Sandlin, um, in 10 minutes of me explaining what we were doing, he said, "I'll give you a million dollars to get us started." So, we've got some great people here that um in Witchaw and they understand the need and they want to support this. Um so, just briefly, the facility will have physical training and diagnostics, full gym with equipment, basketball, pickle ball court, uh male female locker room, shower, screening and assessment area, separate entrance. On the mental health side, there'll be an an entrance so that it's anonymous as you go into the mental health part versus going into the gym. Um, it's access for all first responders, city and county. Um, 24-hour access to the gym. It'll be card secured on the parking and entering into the facility. Um, we're going to have a a graband-go kitchen um where you'll be able to get healthier food options and there'll be microwave and some appliances in there to uh so it you know if you're on third shift or something you go workout there'll be something you can grab the [clears throat] there's also on the third floor um there's going to be five training rooms that will be available for city county under we understand from the first responders law enforcement in particular

training space is uh scarce at times. Uh one of the rooms will hold up to a hundred people in a training situation. So um so we have plenty of room. Our plan is to start the renovation um as soon as possible, hopefully 1 of August. We've got a a bid letter out ready to go out to GC's right now. Um and we've got a number of our members who are general contractors that really want to lean into this. We've got other vendors that want to lean into this to help us try to get our budget down uh as low as possible obviously, but um as it sits, we're looking at $5 million budget and I just want to urge you uh to support this. This is a $5 million gift to our city that will really impact us for generations. So, happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, Alan. And thank you to Assistant City Manager Dante for the presentations. We'll start with council member Tuttle.

Thank you. Thank you for being here today. First, I have a question for the city manager if that's okay. Um, manager, I just have a question on slide 73 and and we don't need to go back, but when you and I talked and several times about this project, and I should preface by saying I'm incredibly supportive of work site wellness initiatives, especially those that support our police and fire. I've worked extensively with fire. I see Chief Snow in the back. Thank you for being here today with firefighter cancer screenings. Now, we're going to create a culture of wellness. We have funding to hire a consultant to be able to do that. Been working with police as well. So, thank you for bringing this forward. But one of the questions that we you and I talked about significantly was the $188,000 operating budget and it was my understanding that it was going to be divided 6040 with the county, not 50/50.

Correct. Council member, we had originally talked about a different split on that, but when the um crime commission agreed to be the back stop for no more than 94,000, then we changed the um proposal to do the 50/50 split going forward because the $94,000 back stop is for all five years. So that changed the dynamic a little bit. So I think in the end when you had the 60% split now with the backs stop we're actually going to be paying potentially less than what we originally thinking over the five years. Okay. Thank you for explaining that. And then the 94,000 that would come from the city's portion. Correct.

Is that split equally between fire and police? As of now, we haven't as of now, it'll be mostly police, but we're looking at doing it all in non-EP departmental because it'll be multi-EP department sharing that expenses. So, when you see in the budget, the non-EP departmental line item is potentially where we're looking to house that um funding.

Okay. Um and Alan, I do have one more question for you if that's okay. Thank you so much and thank you for being here and sitting through all of this to get to this point. um to when it talks about the governing committee, the seven member board and it says the city, the county, the crime commission and public safety leadership. Um I just wonder from the city's perspective because we have police, we have fire, we have there's lots of entities that I think should be at the table. I wonder if seven member board is enough to have representation from police and fire and all of the entities within the county. You know, I think that was um you know, seven seemed to be a a workable number and recognizing that there are a lot of voices that probably need to be at the table.

Yeah. Um, you know, from the crime commission standpoint, we want to buy it, renovate it, turn it over to you guys, and our only voice on the board would be with regard to um significant capital improvements or repairs, which by the way, in our budget, we're raising uh um $500,000 as a capital reserve. And so if there is a significant uh you know the elevator breaks down or something like that, we've got the money to backs stop that. Anything over $7,500 at the end of the five year five years if we indeed do turn this over to the to the county then along with that we will give them our res the remaining reserve fund. So um so you know from the city standpoint you know you really your costs are fairly defined and limited for the first five years and I I but I certainly as far as governance we would have one say you know and that would really be with regard to these capital expenditures and if you all wanted to expand that to a bigger boards certainly no problem with us

and they think we've all been on boards that are too big so I totally understand. Um I do just have concerns from um working as I mentioned with police and fire on wellness and really different perspectives, really different needs and really different interests. And so to um optimize the highest utilization from all the entities, it might just be an interesting concept to have more people at the table to make sure that you know voices are heard. Like I said, trying to work with wellness with fire is much different than working with fel with wellness with police. And then I can't even imagine, you know, EMS and and all the other entities. So, um, don't want to get too big because then you get group think, but also don't want to limit it so that you're not hearing every perspective. But I'll have more accolades and kudos at the end. But thank you for answering my questions.

Coun Vice Mayor Glascock.

Thank you, Mayor. I'm glad to see that the county uh plans to provide on-site security uh during the duration of it and that the city's responsibility looks like the specific wellness programs for city personnel. And so I appreciate the delineation there under the duties of the Witchaw Metro Crime Commission. I see number C share a viable working security offense around the facility parking lot is installed which I think is a good step forward also for the security of officers and anybody that's there at the facility. The only fear I have is a rod iron unattractive fence right at Third and Broadway. Can you calm my fears regarding the level of attractiveness of the fence right on the intersection?

Yes. So obviously this is a um changing area with the activities of Chase Ko and his group and um we have been in contact with them and we certainly I'm a downtown property owner since 1997 and uh I have a high level of concern about what is built and how it advances our downtown community. I was chair of downtown Witchto. um we will build something that um will be aesthetically pleasing. I can tell you and the renderings that we have, I think maybe you have seen some of the renderings of the exterior of the building. And incidentally, the church's plan is to tear down the u two-story older uh preschool building between their main complex and uh the building we're purchasing. They're going to turn that into a green space and maintain the little chapel um that sits there, the very picturesque and beautiful inside chapel. And um u so it will create a a visual there that is u far better than than it is today.

Was chair of GWP I imagine if it wasn't visually impeing Heather would be uh having some comments about it. So yeah, um thank you for calming my fears on that.

Yeah. I see no further comments from city council members. Thank you again, Alan and Dante, for the presentation. And again, thank you to the Witchaw Crime Commission for making a $5 million investment into our first responders and their wellness. Uh we appreciate that. With that, we will open it up for public comment. I see no one from the public who would like to address Mayor, oh, sorry, council members. Ed Pavey, president of the Witchdaw Metro Crime Commission. Thanks for the opportunity to to spend a few minutes here with you and echo what Allan has said about the Crime Commission's support of this project. I retired from the Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center. I was the director there for 24 years out of my 28 years career and the health and wellness need has has come to the forefront uh all across the country. It's an investment in the health and well-being of our law enforcement officers and our first responders. SE County uh District Attorney Mark Bennett could not join us today and he's in support of this project and I'd like just to take a minute to share his comments about uh his support. He writes, "I want to express my unequivocal support for the proposed baldness center for first responders. Our police officers and sheriff's deputies have to be in top physical shape to do their jobs and to overcome injuries sustained on the job. The stress associated with seeing immediate and ongoing impact of fires and car wrecks compounds over time that they bear witness to violence, abuse,

sexual and physical, is unavoidable. There are others in the community and the criminal justice system impacted in less obvious ways. 911 operators who are literally the first on scene often listen to the violence as it occurs. Children hiding in closets while domestic violence rages in the next room. Sexual assault victims moments after their attacks end. Homicide victims breathing their last breath. Devastating moments during which the operator is expected to get the right information and share it in real time to officers in route and then go on and just be as sharp as they can for the next caller. We demand a great deal from these dedicated professionals. For prosecutors in my office, the issues are less obvious. Hundreds of hours of body camera images of everything every officer witness witnessed at a crime scene, every witness interview, crime scene photos, and worst of all, child pornography. Victims of domestic violence who refuse to testify against their abusers, and outcomes that disappoint all wear down on a person's resolve. On several occasions, I've had to move attorneys to new assignments to give them a break from the litany of ugliness that they see a every day. Having a committed, experienced attorney stand in your office with tears in their eyes asking for a break is a reminder that the weight of the job compounds. Finally, having wellness center where people can go and exercise, speak to a counselor, and to do so in a place that understands the unique rigors of your chosen profession is a gift. To live in a community that has made the commitment to support a health and wellness center that the work we do is valued.

I recognize there will be cost and your jobs is to be good stewards today of our tax dollars. I believe this center is a physically responsible investment in the first responders who work tirelessly every day to protect public safety here in our community. I want to thank you signed Mark Bennett S County District Attorney. Council members, again, thank you for the opportunity to speak before you and uh we urge you to support this project. Thank you.

Thank you. Would anyone else from the public like to address the council? I see none. I also want to recognize again that Chief Sullivan and Chief Snow are both here in the audience. If they would like to speak, um, they are more than welcome to. Uh, Vice Mayor Glascock, I'll leave it for comments after public comment. I see no one else from the public who would like to speak. We will bring it back to the bench. I do want to recognize that this does reside in Council Member Ballard's district.

Thank you, Mayor. I just have some final comments. Um, incredibly supportive of this today, not just for commission police officers, but also for everybody else that serves our community as well. That includes the crime scene investigators, the victim advocates, community service officers and support officers, and also firefighters. This is a holistic approach and hopefully has a space of camaraderie for all of those that serve in public service. They see things that I won't see every day and I'm thankful I don't, but they have a space that they can uh separate from the world and be able to talk about these things, especially the difficult things that they see every day. And I think this is a great solution and it's a true definition, I think, of what a public private partnership should look like and something that advances uh holistically our entire community when it comes to public safety and addressing the increased needs we see, especially the holistic needs uh regarding mental health for officers. So incredibly supportive of this day and I look forward to a robust discussion because I see all my colleagues on here.

Council member John Stunn.

Thank you, Mayor. At first I was hesitant to to support this project because I don't want taxpayers to have another building to maintain. Uh however, I see a tremendous benefit especially in the mental health uh for officers um attorneys like uh district attorney Bennett said. Um it's really a tough job. So I see a tremendous benefit to that and so I think it could be helped the wellness of uh all the officers uh 911 dispatchers, sheriffs, um everyone. So I will be supporting it and I want to thank the uh crime commission for backstopping it uh alleviate some of my fears um of runaway cost. So I appreciate that very much. So thanks for all the work you do.

Council member Tuttle.

Thank you. I'll pile on. Um, thank you to the crime commission. I really truly appreciate your interest um in this topic and and you you know working so hard to get to this place. I also want to thank um Chief Snow um Chief Sullivan for your support for your input. I've talked to you both about this project and and you are supportive and and so therefore I obviously will be supportive too. Um working with police and fire wellness as I have and somebody mentioned it in their comments I think Mr. Vanta that you know if I call 911 and I've had to unfortunately in police or fire show up quickly at my home but you know for business for us as residents we we not only want them to show up but we want them to show up at their best and we want them to be healthy and to be of you know mental health and also physical health so that they can protect our persons and our property in our community. So, I just applaud the Witchaw Metro Crime Commission for your efforts on this and I will be very supportive.

Council member Shepard.

Thank you, Mayor. Uh, I want to thank the Witchto Crime Commission for the work that they're doing. When you all reached out, as I mentioned in writing, this is a no-brainer for me. It kind of I think I told you all, you don't have to waste your time trying to convince me, but this is something that I could get behind 100%. Because I believe that mental health should be available and accessible to everyone. And um our police, our firefighters, those who are on the front lines every single day are not exempt from that for me. Um I had the opportunity to chair Leadership Witchaw through the Witchaw Regional Chamber of Commerce. And one of the things that we do so we do ride alongs with police, we do ride alongs with fire and we actually go in and sit in with our 911 dispatch and hear live phone calls. And so to know that they are not just on the front lines, but they are being exposed to that traumatic experience. Um, we know what education says about ASUS scores and that doesn't stop as we go throughout life. And so I'm really glad we're providing wraparound services to make sure those who are protecting and defending us every single day are also being taken care of in addition to their families, their loved ones, their partners because when they go home, they have to carry that burden as well. And it's really important that we take care of the whole family, the whole person. So, thank you for seeing this vision and thank you for bringing it forward today.

Council member Hohheisle.

Thank you, Mayor. Um, thank you to the commission for the work that you're doing. Uh, thank you to all our first responders. It's difficult enough sitting up here and seeing the cases that come before um your you guys. And I can't even imagine being the first one on the scene to a child who's not responsive or some of the other um just terrible situations that you put yourselves in. Um, healthy first responders, mentally healthy first responders are healthy first responders and they'll be better able to actually come out and deal with a number of the issues that we do rely on them for. So, um, I think this is a great thing. I appreciate your work on it and um, it it's it's really a great thing. So, thank you all for your work.

Council member Ballard. Thank you, Mayor. also like to thank the crime commission. Um I think we our first responders are obviously very reactive um in most of their situations all day every day. And so I like that this uh will provide some prevention before a situation happens. You will have the resources at your fingertips among all the other amazing things that it's going to offer. I'm also really excited about revitalizing and rejuvenating a building. um that has a lot more life to offer um an organization such as such as what you guys are working on. So um also I had one more thing. Um I think that's it. Thank you with that. I also wanted to add my uh gratitude to the Witchaw Crime Commission but also more importantly to the collaboration between city and county. For the past two and a half years, we've been consistently meeting as a body, both a city council body and a Cedric County Commission body. And together, we have been coming up with ways where we can better serve not just the employees that work for city and county, but also the residents who live in Witchah and Cedric County. And I believe that this really looks at it holistically from call to court. And that includes anyone who is a 911 responder that does take that call from a resident to the court system that has to see justice come to fruition. And you're talking about that whole spectrum of individuals who serve residents. And I again am so grateful to see that collaboration, seeing that we're not just talking about our police and firefighters, but that whole spectrum of when an individual in our community needs help to finally getting justice

and the individuals who actually serve uh that call and that um call to help. And so, thank you again to the crime commission for helping us see this holistically and focusing on wellness for those who serve us in our community. So, with that, um, I know that this resides in council member Ballard's district, so I will give her the honor. Thank you, mayor. I move to approve the operating agreement and authorize the necessary signatures. Second. Motion second. Discussion. See none. Madame clerk, please open the role. I.

Motion passes. 70. Madame, you can clap for this one. [applause] Madame clerk, please call the next item.

General obligation note sale. Good morning, mayor, members of city council. Mark Manning with the department of finance. Uh today I am here to present the results of our most recent note sale. So as you know when we are completing capital improvement projects uh we issue temporary notes to finance those construction costs. And I I thought I'd elaborate just slightly on this slide reflective of our discussion 30 minutes or so ago and kind of give you a little bit more color on how we do that. Uh my function is basically I'm the banker for the projects that public works is completing. My job is to finance those projects while they're being completed. Now, in regard to special assessment projects, as you know, the initial step in that is a petition and then that turns into a resolution which specifies the projects to be completed and the amount uh authorized for those projects. Then in finance, we monitor those projects and when we see costs coming in based on whenever public works uh initiates the construction phase, my job is to then finance those costs with temporary notes. We typically do that every six months. We see how much has been spent and then we're going to finance those costs. Uh we have nothing to do with the project management side and you probably don't want me to have anything to do with the project management side because that certainly is not my area of expertise. Again, we're just a financer. As you may know, we can finance projects with temporary notes up to four years based on state statute, and after that, we have to either take them out with cash or bond them. But as I was sitting there talking, it does occur to me that one thing that we can do in finance that might assist public works in this process. And to address some of the concerns raised earlier today is we are well aware of how many times we've

issued temp notes on special assessment projects. I should also point out we cannot do anything until public works gives us a final statement of cost. In other words, they drive the process. But I think uh in finance we can do a little bit more communication with public works and let them know how long notes have been outstanding on the various projects. Again, that may or may not mean that they can accelerate the pace of the construction, but at least we can raise their awareness as to how long the notes have been outstanding. So hopefully something like that could at least increase awareness and maybe hopefully try to head off another situation like what we had recently on this. So uh this sale you approved on March 3rd. Uh we actually had the sale on April 23rd. Uh you may know that we initially had scheduled the sale a little bit earlier than that, but due to some of the challenges coming out of Topeka, we actually deferred it a couple weeks because there's a significant degree of market turmoil. But we did have a successful sale on March uh 20 or on April 23rd. Uh the the the sale results today will be ratified by you consistent with our policy and then we'll actually close the sale on May 21st. Uh so we sold about $43.4 million worth of notes. Uh notes are by definition short-term. In this case, they mature in five months or in October of this year. We fund a variety of projects. In this case, there's 232 projects. vast majority of those are special assessment projects. So, exactly what we were talking about earlier today. A much smaller portion is for geo at large projects. That's how you get to the $40 million or so. Again, we had three bids. Uh there's a little bit of turmoil in the markets. That's a little bit less than what we normally get, but our spread was very tight, which shows uh a lot of good market participation. Uh we awarded the bid to Jeff LLC and the interest rate was about 2.59%. Again, we like to compare that to other issuers of similar quality and that is

right in line with what other issuers were issuing at whenever we sold. So, we thought that was a very successful sale. So, the recommended action is to approve the uh ratification of the award of the bid that the city manager made uh adopt the note resolution and to authorize the necessary signatures. With that, I'd be happy to answer any questions. Thank you, Mark. Questions for staff? I just had a follow-up question to your um comment regarding temp notes. Will this um be helpful with our centralization that is being under uh gone here in finance?

Yeah, I don't think this one would be applicable to that uh mayor because there's a pretty clear delineation between us in finance doing the financial side of it and public works really doesn't participate on the financial side. They're focused more on the construction side. So, I mean, we'll explore it. uh but this may not have applicability to our centralization initiative.

I wanted to recognize uh thank you Mark because you raised uh that topic and said it's really about raising awareness. There are 16 departments in the city of Witchah and uh sometimes we're working so hard uh to get the job done that again we may work in silos and so that uh collaboration of communication within departments and raising awareness might be that key to unlocking making sure that people know from other departments hey this project is taking four five years um and that again shouldn't happen and so with more raising of awareness I do believe uh we can resolve that. So, thank you for raising that. I see no further comments from council members. With that, we will open it up for public comment. I see none. I'll bring it back to the bench. With that, I will go ahead and move to ratify the award of the bid, adopt the note resolution, and authorize the necessary signatures.

Second. Motion second. Discussion. Seeing none, madame clerk, please open the role. I motion passes 70. Madame clerk, please call the next item. Ordinance authorizing the issuance of the sales tax special obligation revenue bonds K96 Greenwich Star Bond bond project phase three.

Uh good morning again. Mark Manning with the department of finance. Uh my next item is I want to present to you the K96 and Greenwood star bond issuance. So, just a little background on the district out there. Uh, the K96 and Green Witch Starbond District was actually created back in 2012. Uh, we issued star bonds in 2013 originally for phase one of the project and then in 2017 we issued more star bonds. Uh, we actually retired the original star bonds and then we funded phase uh two starbond eligible costs for that district. All of those bonds, I'm happy to report, were paid off as of March 1st of 2025. So there is no Starbond debt on the district right now and has not been for over a year. So relative to phase three, and I won't go into a lot of detail because you've heard a lot of this detail over the last several months, uh, but city council approved the project plan for phase three back in December of 2025. Uh, after that, uh, you approved a development agreement with the developer, which in this case is Family Destinations LLC, for phase three of the project. I'm just briefly going to summarize it. My understanding is we have representatives from family destinations here today if you have any detailed questions and I again I I don't want to be redundant so I'll just give you the super high level overview but phase three includes an estimated $191 million in investment and essentially it's for a athletic complex and a resort hotel and there's a variety of athletic uh facilities out there that will be built tennis center ice rink go-kart facility baseball golf surf I Think I may have missed one. Very large project, a lot of investment out there. So, the next step is to go to the Kansas Secretary of Commerce and uh get uh their authorization for us to issue star bonds, which they have done. They provided us authorization to issue up to 79.5 million on a net basis uh in star bonds. And I say net because there's

always a few ancillary costs every time we issue cost of issuance and things of that nature. Uh but essentially, let's call it $80 million in star bonds is what we have authorization to issue. Then we came back to you on March 10th of this year and you authorized us to issue uh star bonds for this project. Again, pursuant to your action in March, you also authorized Crews and Associates to serve as the underwriter. We've had a very productive relationship with them over the years. They actually were underwrote the previous uh star bonds on this project. So, they're very familiar with the area and we're very familiar with them. So, the initial offering uh that we created is about $53 million worth of star bonds. As I noted before, we have authorization up to close to 80 million. Uh so, it's certainly possible that there could be a second issuance a little bit later. Uh perhaps later on this year, but again, the initial issuance that we're contemplating today is about $53 million. So the next step in this process of underwriting them is to price them uh which Cruz does for us and we uh conducted that on April 28th of 2026. Now just a little clarification on star bonds. Star bonds are not general obligations of the city of Witchah. Uh they do not increase taxes. Basically they're payable from incremental revenue generated from new development that doesn't exist today. Now, I will point out that that incremental state and local tax revenue does include some transient guest tax uh in the district. Uh as I mentioned before, I think there's a resort hotel contemplated in phase three which will generate incremental tax guest tax revenue which will be uh collected for the retirement of these star bonds as well. So, all of our material has been uh drafted by our bond council and approved by our law department. And I also point out something a little unusual. Uh to expedite this sale expeditiously. Uh we're recommending

that in addition to approving the ordinance, you do it with a declaration of emergency. Again, that's common place in our bond sales because our bond uh buyers and our underwriters like to conclude uh the transaction as quickly as possible. Uh so basically that just obiates the need for a second reading is all that does. But it's very beneficial for our friends in the capital markets. Uh so our recommendation today is to approve the bond ordinance with a declaration of of uh emergency and authorize necessary signatures. And I should also point out that our underwriter is also available today. I believe he is available with us electronically and bond council as well is with us today. So with that, I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Thank you. Mark, questions for staff. I do have one. Um I know that this has three phases. Can you tell us or maybe the applicant when construction will commence and when completion uh is projected for phase one, phase two and phase three? I will point out first of all uh this is only phase three. Phase one and two are are mostly completed. So he's going to focus on phase three.

Hi mayor, council Morgan for the developer. Um so construction actually commences with infrastructure um pursuant to the development agreement June of 2026. Um the end construction I believe I' I'd have to go back and look and see what exact date that we agreed to but I want to say it's somewhere around 2032 2033 with the final construction done at that particular point in time. So it will be phased. There will be construction like I said beginning in 26 and then it will commence in certain increments in 27 28 29 and I believe the final issue um of it is 2031 to 2033 somewhere in the neighborhood.

Followup question to that construction commences this June. Um how many phases are you expecting?

Um so the I I guess in the simplistic terms there will be the phase of the infrastructure work. There will be the phase of WSU tennis. There will be the phase of the uh entertainment um and attraction side of the uh complex. Then there will be the phase for the resort hotel. Um there will be certain pad sites that will be available to be to be developed as well, whether that be retail or restaurant. I'm not not going to I [snorts] would classify those in one phase, but I don't know exactly that it wouldn't overlap some of the other phases. So, four major phases with the retail restaurant component um sprinkled in amongst those phases as they fit with the phasing and the development as a whole.

Appreciate that. So, the very first one will be the WSU tennis. Uh so, that would be starting June of 2026. When do you expect that one to be completed? So, the infrastructure begins June of 2026. WSU tennis um is going to begin I believe in 26 as well. I do not want to steal WSU's thunder with their announcement. So I will plead the fifth albeit we are not in a courtroom. Um but I am pleading the fifth because I do not want to steal WSU's thunder on that announcement.

Appreciate that and thank you uh for explaining that there are four phases to this $91.7 [snorts] million investment. So, it does take time. Um, but I'm looking forward to seeing construction begin as soon as possible. So, thank you very much for answering that question. I imagine you will see equipment out there on May 21st or 22nd when the bonds sell.

Thank you very much. With that, I see no further questions from the council. We will now open it up for public comment. I see none. I'll bring it back to the bench. And this resides in council member Tuttles's district. Thank you, Mark. Thank you for all your work in this. Truly appreciate it. Appreciate your presentation today. Thank you to Family Destination. Always appreciate your investment in the city of Witchaw. I just wanted to highlight Mark made the comment about the star bonds being paid off in this area in in this sector of our community. There was also a C that was paid off in seven years and not 22. Um so what this shows you is this is a very vibrant area in our community. It's certainly helping to attract and retain talent. One of the things that bothers me is when I hear my friends or colleagues or neighbors saying that they're going to go to one of our peer cities for an attraction and now our residents are going to be staying in Witchah for these attractions, but then they are these attractions are also going to recruit people from other cities. So instead of us going to pier cities, now pure cities are going to be coming to us and there's nothing better than that. So with that, I will enthusiastically move that the Witchah City Council approve the Star Bond ordinance on a declaration of emergency basis which authorizes the issuance of a series of 2026A star bonds.

Second. Motion second. Discussion. See none. Madame clerk, please open the role.

Motion passes 70. Madame clerk, please call the next item. Witchah Public Library integrated library system. Hello council. Jamie Nicks, director of libraries for Witchah Public Library. Our online presence functions as a full access digital branch with an integrated library system, the ILS, that serves as the backbone for all functions, staff and public um to be able to access customer information and materials. Our digital use is growing and it accounts for more than 50% of all material circulation, but access to those digital materials needs a strong backbone. With an aging contract, we haven't been able to upgrade our catalog and software features and some of which are at the end of their support. This last summer, Witchah Public Library issued an RFP for an integrated library system to ensure that we have a qual qualified supported functional system that includes customer notifications, a mobile app, and in integration with our thirdparty products like Libby where we access our econtent. Um, the selection committee unanimously approved contracting with a a business called Innovative, who actually offers our existing software system. Service would include a onetime implementation fee of $39,550 with an annual subscription cost of $124,63. MFP device co costs are financed in the ITIS internal fund and the contract for the ILS has been reviewed and approved to law by as to form. The recommendation today is to approve the contract and authorize the necessary signatures. Thank you.

Thank you Jamie. Questions for staff? I see council member Hoheisle. Thank you, Mayor. Just one real quick one. I see Cindy Miles sitting in the crowd with us today. We have had uh some discussion about potentially doing a and I've think I've discussed it with you as well. Um like a nonprofit directory that we could put on the library website perhaps. Would any of this help with that or is this outside of that scope? This is outside of that scope. Okay. So that's something we'd have to work with comms on. Okay. Thank you.

I see no further questions from council members. Thank you Jamie. We will open it up for public comment. I see none. I'll bring it back to the bench. With that, um, I wanted to congratulate the Witchaw Public Library for their big anniversary this year during America's 250th anniversary. And Jamie has been uh, attending regularly the America 250 Witchah uh, committee meetings. And we appreciate everything you're doing um, to provide services to the community when it comes to library services. And uh we just launched uh the civic engagement uh passport um and there are plenty of passports still left. Uh you could also print out those passports uh from the website. So again, thank you Jamie for your leadership. With that, I will move to approve the contract with Innovative, authorize the necessary signatures, and authorize the payments to begin implementation of the project.

I will gladly second. Motion second. Discussion. Seeing none, Madame Clerk, please open the role. Motion passes 70. Madame clerk, please call the next item.

Safe haven baby box. Good morning, Mayor Woo, city council, city manager Marstall, city staff. Jose Okades, battalion chief with the Witchaw Fire Department. here for the presentation of the Safe Haven Baby Box. I'd like to begin with a brief history of the Safe Haven Baby Box, which was founded by Monica Kelsey in 2015. She wanted to provide a legal, anonymous, and safe alternative to illegal newborn abandonment. here under the state code in the state of Kansas. Kansas has a state statute KSA 3822-22-82, Kansas newborn infant protection act which allows a parent or persons with lawful custody to anonymously and legally surrender an unharmed infant 60 days old or younger. Infants can be left at fire stations, police stations, hospitals, or with staff at other designated, staffed, and approved facilities. A safe haven baby box is a climate controlled, alarmed, and secure boxes installed at fire stations in the hospital. inspired by Monica's personal history which who was abandoned as an infant herself and a similar system in South Africa in South Africa during her visit. This [clears throat] simply this simple device allowed mothers in crisis and to safely and anonymously surrender their newborns rather than abandoning them in unsafe conditions. How did we get here today? I was initially contacted in April 2025 by Samantha Oats Oaks. She was a she's a an employee at the St. Joseph emergency

room that contacted Witchaw Fire Department. During that time, I got permission through my chain of command to um meet and discuss the possibility of a partnership with the Safe Haven Baby Box with St. Joseph Hospital. During [clears throat] the meetings, we were able to acquire additional stakeholders from a session via Christy Medical Group, Wesley Hospital, Macau Gordon Construction, SPT Architecture, Cedric County EMS 911, and City Witchah departments from police, legal, public works, and communications. safe haven baby box location had to be determined uh in an ideal spot um for the insulation and privacy of that the purpose of the safe haven baby box. City staff recommended the old Witchah Police Department patrol east substation which is also attached to station 9 um as the location. Witchah police vacated their that location for their new east substation located on East Lincoln. Fire station 9 is located at District 1, 350 South Edgemore. Apologize for the North Edgemore. So, the correct address is 350 South Edgemore. Station 9 was selected for um from other fire stations within the area for the reasoning of ease of accessibility and privacy. Station 9 is located both between St. Joseph and Wesley hospitals. Other safe haven baby box locations in the state of Kansas, Hutchinson, Salina, and Garden City. Each of those cities, their safe haven baby box is located at a fire station. Financial considerations. A correction on the correct uh name for the foundation is Via Christie Foundation, not the Assession Medical uh foundation. Via Christie Foundation has agreed to cover all expenses of

installation and construction from the initial fee of the device of $16,000, annual fee of $600 and additional um alarm services of $500. Also part of this agreement with Via Christie Foundation is Richport Rich Point Church, which is which is also donating a $5,000 um donation with Via Christie for the Safe Haven Baby Box. An agreement includes a 5-year annual membership with Safe Haven Baby Box. It is recommended that the city council approve Safe Haven Baybach lease and service agreement in partnership with the session via Christie Medical Group. I'd like to thank you uh Mayor Woo, city council, city staff for your time. Also like to thank everyone involved with this uh process um for the past year. Um, Vice Mayor Glascock, City Legal, Miss McGana, uh, Session V Christie Medical Group, Wesley Medical, Cedric County EMS 911, and city departments, police, public works, and communications. Here with me also is uh, vice president or excuse me, the president of a session via Christi St. Joseph, Clauddio Ferrero, um, Mr. Alexander with the Via Christie Foundation, and we are also available for comments and stand for questions. Thank you, Jose. Questions for staff, beginning with Council Member Hohheisle.

Thank you, Mayor. Um, thank you, Chief. I appreciate everybody's work on this one. Uh, just a couple of questions. What happens if the child is harmed?

So, if their child if the a child is surrendered inside the safe haven baby box, um, that baby box is, as I said, it's going to be climate controlled. It's going to be has a alarm detection system. There's a three-phase alarm system that's going to be associated with it. From the time the door opens and the time that the baby the sensors that detect weight on inside the box, those uh there will be a signal sent to the fire station and uh 911 for alerting police, fire, and EMS to respond. Okay, I appreciate that. What I was talking was more um it says legally surrendered an unharmed infant. So if there is um bruises or whatnot on the child before it's dropped off and we think maybe there's some sort of abuse. Uh what does that look like?

Um that would be left I believe Captain Moses. Thank you for saying uh Captain Aaron Moses with Witchaw Police Department. So the way we envision this is the primary concern is obviously the welfare of the infant uh from the box getting the infant from the box to the hospital. Uh we envision that the hospital will likely notify us that an infant has been surrendered and we'll respond to the hospital to do a police protective custody investigation and any investigation into abuse. Um so just surrendering the baby into the box does not uh eliminate any culpability if the child has been harmed. We will still investigate that and take appropriate action through the district attorney's office if that's the case.

Okay. I appreciate that. And back to the sensors and whatnot. just paranoid Mike over here. Uh what redundancies are built in just to make sure in case there was a failure. It's tested at least once a year I think I read. [clears throat]

Yes, it will. It is required to be tested and prior to going live. Um there's still a much longer process um from after your approval today. If you do approve this um there's the testing of a 7-day um process along in the with the fire alarm system. Everything's going to be connected and have a backup battery source for that fire alarm system. So the long ongoing process would be continuence of of uh testing and inspections of that alarm system that's going to be connected to the fire alarm panel and send that signal out just like a normal fire alarm. Okay. And will somebody be on call at the station 24/7 such as if they're away at a a call at that time where there'll still be somebody at the station?

No, nobody has to be specifically. There's a there's a time frame that we need to respond um from EMS, PD, and um EM fire to respond to that location of the alarm activation. There might be a possibility that station 9 is empty at that time. We have other stations from station 15, station 5, station 11 that would also be dispatched to that area along with the closest um police officer and uh EMS unit. Okay. So, it's a regionwide or a across the department alarm that will be Yes, this it's going to be connected to Cedric County 911 system. So, they will be able to dispatch the closest uh public safety uh agencies to that alarm system. Okay. Thank you,

Council Member Tuttle.

Thank you. I really appreciate your work on this. Um thank you to all the partners involved. Um it certainly isn't lost on me that this is a need, right? um something that we wish we didn't have to have in our community. Um with that, I do have a question. How are we going to let folks in the community know that this new resource exists? I mean, it's something that we don't want to encourage, right? But in in rare extremely rare cases, there is a need. Um so, I'm just curious how how that will happen. And then I'm going to say this again when I make comments at the end, but until this is in place and if people are in crisis and potentially don't have transportation to get to station 9, there is a 24-hour or 7-day a week national hotline available for parents or caregivers in crisis. It's 1-86699 baby 1. So 186699 baby 1. I hope that when we are in some way and you're going to explain um letting the folks know about this that can also be incorporated. I'm going to say it one more time 186699 baby 1. But how will we let our most vulnerable residents in our community who are in crisis know about this? Thank you.

So so um with that uh thank you for that number. Um but for right now even all fire stations right now are a safe haven drop off right now. So at any time um in a time of um difficulty of caring for an infant child or just a child itself um they could be dropped off at a fire station. Um specifically an example occurred just last year at station one in April of 2025. A child was dropped off and the proper connect uh connections with uh police and EMS was contacted and was able to address that situation and be able to care for that child at that time. Um so from the standpoint of promoting the safe haven baby box again this is still a w a ways away before it gets installed and it's really uh go live and it's in service um we will have a large outreach and public service announcements on the safe haven baby box and they will have the news media involved in also recognition of the location and the abilities of uh the capabilities of the safe haven baby box. Thank you for that. And and I did notice too when I was preparing for this and and doing a little research and then you had it in the slide that Garden City, Hutchinson, and Selena also have already have taken these measures. So might be some interesting conversations with some of our colleagues across the state just to see what they've done and and you know, if they've had um successes, if you will, uh or or challenges. So again, thank you for all you do to protect Witchah's most vulnerable.

Yes, ma'am. Council member Johnston. Thank you, Mayor. I'm just curious what happens after after the baby box, it goes to the hospital. The baby goes to hospital get inspect and stuff. What happens after that? How is it adopted or where does the baby go?

So, I would like to see if Mr. Ferraro or somebody from Samantha might be able to assist with that. Good morning, mayor. Good morning, council members. Uh we would take our normal uh measures whenever there is a baby surrendered or if there's adoptive measures that need to be done. We would work with, you know, local local law enforcement as well as, you know, our legal counsel and making sure that we're doing all the right things for the baby to be placed and adopted. um and taking all those measures.

You use local agencies then to local attorneys and with our own legal counsel as well as um you know our case case manager, social work to to take all the appropriate steps. Okay. Okay. Thank you.

I'll have Captain Moses follow up on that. Uh because currently you can drop off a child um through any of our fire stations. There's no box, but firefighters are available if you are in that unfortunate situation where you want to surrender a child. Can you talk about the next steps after a child is surrendered, whether at our fire stations currently or in the future through this um safe haven box?

Yes, Mayor. Captain Aaron Moses again. So we have a a detailed process to take a child any child into police protective custody if necessary currently and that's the process we would follow in these situations. So, if we're notified that a baby was surrendered into the box, uh we would respond either to the box or to the hospital, uh we'll have to flesh that out for process and then we would likely place the child into police protective custody that then triggers additional processes including involvement from DCF, potentially the Witchaw Children's Home to assist with um ensuring that that child is placed into a safe environment both short-term and long term. And thank you, Captain Moses, for highlighting that. Uh the Witchaw Children's Home is where most of the children surrendered uh through police protective custody go. Is that accurate?

Uh yes. So, primarily if we run into a child uh or take a child into our custody that does need care and is placed into police protective custody, they will go to the Witchaw Children's Home. Uh in this case there may be uh a need for additional medical treatment. Uh and so if a child is admitted into the hospital we for medical treatment we can still place that child in police protective custody. Uh we work with the hospital then at that point the hospital will let us know when that child is ready to be released uh and can go to the Witchaw Children's Home. Um throughout my career, I've taken many uh children under the age of 17 and even even uh small infants to the children's home. And they have a a great network that they work with of people who will respond 24 hours a day to their facility uh to take those children to a safe and welcoming home to care for them again in the short term and then work with the appropriate uh parties to ensure that that child is placed somewhere safe in the long term which could very well be back in back in the home that they were surrendered from if they can work with that family. Obviously, our goal is always to get a child back with their family if it's safe for them to be there. Thank you, Captain Moses. With that, I see no further questions from this bench. I just want to recognize uh Captain Moses and Joseé Okades in this effort. I remember having my first sitdown meeting with both of you in 2024 when residents uh were reaching out to us about these uh safe haven baby boxes. And two years later, we're at this position where we have a community partner willing to provide the funds to um provide this service. However, all of the fire stations are currently available if there is anyone in need of help right now. So, we don't have to wait. However, the box will be another uh added service that uh fire station

number nine will have. And I want to recognize that fire station number nine is so uh located at a great location because it is off of Kellogg. Therefore, um part of the communication in the future will be this is the location. It's easily accessible. Um and I am glad to hear that there are now processes in place where if a fire um station is empty at that time, other firehouses nearby will be able to immediately respond and get the child out of the box to the appropriate appropriate hospital. So again, thank you for this collaborative effort community coming together with city government uh to provide a service um for those who are most in need. So again, kudos to all um present today and part of this partnership. With that, we will open it up for public comment. Good morning. I think it's still morning council members. So my name is Cindy Miles. I'm I'm not here what didn't come here today to speak on behalf of the safe the the box but I I did feel like because of my involvement with Witchaw Coalition for child abuse prevention for the last 14 years and actually my involvement with launching the initiative here locally to bring awareness to safe haven as well as making sure that we had signs distributed at all the hospitals all the fire departments all the police police stations I did feel like that I needed to get up and speak in support of the safe haven baby box. So you ask about what happens if if a baby is harmed, they the baby will go to the hospital for exploration. The difference is when a child is when a baby is dropped off at

one of these places, a parent can walk away anonymously and not give any information on this child to whoever they're dropping it off. That is not the case if you have a child that's harmed because it does not relinquish them the the re relinquish the the liability that they've harmed this child. So you needed to know that. The other thing that happens when a when a child is relinquished or a baby is relinquished is the the police are certainly contacted but that child will a sink case will be filed. A child in need of care case will be filed. that child will be in care for at least 72 hours before the the judge determines what happens to that child next. During that time, that child will go to an emergency foster care placement. The children's home does not take many small babies because they can accommodate those babies. But we need to really get the word out that the safe havens exist. And I know a few years ago when I got involved with launching this initiative, I did so because of losing my own grandchild. And so you know this I'm very passionate about this initiative. But one of the things with the box is that the fact that an the whole anonymous factor. So some people won't go and relinquish a child if they have to hand it or a baby if they have to hand it to somebody because there's no anonymity associated with that. And so that's really important to have these to have these boxes and to encourage and create awareness of the fact that the safe haven laws exist. And I had somebody ask me several years ago, well, how many babies have these boxes saved? Or how many babies have been relinquished? It doesn't matter. If we save one baby, everything that we've done has been worth it. Thank you.

Amen.

Thank you, Cindy. Would any Good morning. My name is Samantha Oaks. I serve as a patient care tech at Via Christie St. Joseph. I am here to voice my support for the city to approve this contract with Safe Haven Baby Box. In my role, I see people in their most difficult and vulnerable moments. A little over a year ago, I met a young woman who came into the ED when she was 28 weeks pregnant. No one in her life knew she was about this pregnancy. She was alone, scared, and felt like she had nowhere to turn. She told me she wished there was a place where she could leave the baby anonymously, somewhere she could be certain the baby would be safe, but where she could remain invisible. The conversation stayed with me. So I started researching and I found the safe haven baby baby box. It became clear that while we have excellent resources in Witchto, a gap exists for those who feel they might they must remain invisible and safe stay safe. I bought I brought the safe haven baby box project to the city and the fire department because we believe the communitywide approach is the best way to honor the dignity of every life involved. My hope is that no one ever ever feels alone as that young woman did that day and that this project gives the community a way to ensure every newborn is met with safe medical care and a future. My hope is that no one ever feels alone as that young woman did and that the project gives our community a way to ensure every newborn is met with safety, medical, and the future. Thank you.

Thank you, Samantha.

Good afternoon, mayor and city council. And it is afternoon now, by the way. My name is David Alexander. I serve as president of the Via Christie Foundation and I'm here on behalf of the foundation just to inform you and formally express our commitment to fund the installation uh and the first year maintenance for the safety baby box. Via Christie's history is rooted in providing care for those in our community who feel that they have nowhere else to turn. That's a big part of our mission and this project lines up perfectly with our mission. So much in fact that our original plan was to put it at our St. Joseph Hospital, but because of our advanced security there, we ran into a concern. And it's that concern for an enemy, making sure that we had total privacy. We could not do that at the hospital setting to justify putting it there. So then we turned to, of course, the city. The partnership with the city and the Witchaw Fire Department ensures the privacy and safety that this program absolutely demands. Uh while we hope that the parents in our community will feel empowered to use the many adoption and family resources available in Witchah, we know that for some this will not seem to be an option. So this box will exist when a parent in crisis faces an impossible situation that there is a safe, dignified and legal path forward. I do need to mention that our involvement is possible only because of our generous donors who believe as we do that every life is a gift deserving of a safe beginning. We view this as a vital community investment and the Via Christie Foundation is proud to do our part to ensure that the resources this resource is available to our community and will come at no capital expense to the city. I'd be glad to entertain any questions related to financing, but we're committed to making this happen. There's other community partners that have stepped up as well that will be

partnering with us and helping us share that load, but we will make sure that it will happen with no cost, no capital cost to the city. Thank you. Thank you, David, for that financial investment by the Via Christie Foundation.

Good morning again, mayor, members of the council. My name is Clauddio Ferraro and I serve as the president of St. Joseph Hospital. So for 137 years, our facilities, our ministry has been serving not only Witchaw but the state of Kansas uh with a special emphasis on those who are most vulnerable and really supporting this initiative as an extension of that. Um while the physical box is going to be located at station 9 as has has been presented, you know, via Christy St. Joseph um stands ready as one of the clinical partners to provide our clinical and continuum of care. So because we believe that this is really a community initiative, we really we asked our friends at Wesley to participate as well. [snorts] And so should a surrender occur, our collective medical teams are fully prepared to provide immediate highquality care for the baby. We see this as a collaborative effort between healthcare philanthropy and public safety to ensure that no door is ever really truly closed for a child in need. And so we urge approval of this contract to help us provide this essential safety valve for our city and our citizens. Thank you.

Good afternoon, Mayor Woo and city council. My name is Brent Workington and I am pastor of Ridge Point Church here in Witchah and I too want to speak in favor of this initiative. So grateful that you're entertaining it. I'm also grateful for the Via Christie Foundation that has committed uh the uh initial uh financial support for this. Rich Point has committed $5,000 and I am more than confident that there are many parishes and many churches that will step up so that uh finances will never be a reason uh for this not to be approved. So I speak in favor of this and I'm grateful. This is such a critical step of compassion for parents uh who who feel they're facing a hopeless situation. So, thank you for your time and I urge uh the approval of this recommendation.

I see no other individuals who would like to speak. I want to say thank you to the five individuals who spoke during public comment regarding this item. And I just want to highlight one more time how critical it is to have collaboration. And that key word right there is being unfolded right here in front of us. And this is truly a great community and it makes my heart so full right now seeing collaboration between providers, between law enforcement and fire and EMS as well, but also community advocating for this. This is how things work in a community that cares for our youngest to our oldest. And you saw that even from the beginning of this council meeting when we both had young people speaking in front of us to also the first agenda item which was senior housing in our community. So I'm so proud of our community right now and I just want to say thank you again for the five individuals who spoke. With that I'm closing public comment and bringing it back to the bench. Uh Vice Mayor Glascock.

Thank you Mayor. What stands out to me most about this is two organizations in our community independently were approaching the city at the same time to do the exact same thing which I think is shows the need in our community and shows how much we value life as well. And so I want to thank Ascension from one side for approaching our community. I also want to thank uh Ridgeoint Church for also coming in that conversation. And I think I had set probably through a dozen of these conference calls and trying to get us to this place. And I'd seen a lot of collaboration between the healthcare industry, philanthropy, church, and also city staff as well. And thank you to uh Chief Okades as well for your leadership on this and leading the city towards getting to this point. For me, if we truly believe that every life matters, we should make it as easy as possible to choose life, even the hardest moments. And I'm pro-life. And I am pro-life because and it shouldn't just stop at birth. We should make it real safe options to be able to take care of mothers and babies when they arrive as well. And I think this is one step toward that. And so truly thank you for your partnership on this. Hopefully this is never used. But as uh Cindy Miles said, if just for one child we save one life, it's worth it and that worth this investment. So thank you all for the time that you've taken to get this across the finish line as well. Council member Tuttle,

thank you. Um, just a few comments from me. Again, thank you to the Via Christie Foundation. Thank you to everyone involved in this project. Um, also thank you for the speakers who came today. And to be redundant, Cindy, your comment about if if it's one, it's there's no there's no cost, right? So, um, thank you to everyone. Again, I'm going to be incredibly redundant. 186699 BAB1 86699 BAB1. If anyone is in crisis or needs information about what to do, please share that number far and wide, right? And you can certainly always call 911, but um that is a specific resource just for families and caregivers in crisis. Um as with my friend Cindy Miles, I my I'm also a member of the Witchaw Coalition for Child Abuse Prevention and I'm a past um child abuse mandatory reporter. Um so this is near and dear to my heart. So, thank you for everyone involved. Um, I hope this is never used, but I'm glad we're going to have it.

Council member Johnston. Thank you, Mayor. Also want to thank Via Christie Claudio Far and David for the great work you do in our community, both on the hospital side and the foundation side. Uh, very generous. So, thank you. And also, Ridgeoint Church, one of the great churches in our city, uh, proudly in Northwest Witchah. Um, I don't know if people know, but they have a a day of giving where they dedicate a Sunday and all the money it goes to uh to uh community. And so this year, I think it was at least a half a dozen partners that you gave money to. It was hundreds of thousands of dollars. So great work you're doing. And uh thank you very much, Council Member Shepard.

Thank you, Mayor Samantha. I just want to say thank you. Uh what resonates with me is the fact that you were taking your professional experiences and you said I've got to do something about this. You didn't sit back and just leave it into somebody else's hands to solve. And I think that is the power of democracy, but most importantly just a person who cares. Um this particularly for me is about giving resources to the community. It's not about where you fall politically in regards to uh your choices and what choices you decide to make. It's making sure that the resources are there so that when you make that choice that you are taken care of and you know that that choice is in good hands. Um I talked earlier about district 1 having the highest infant mortality rate even as it compares to the state of Kansas. So if we care about our children, right, the votes need to be consistent with how we are voting. So I'm voting yes because I want to do something about the infant mortality rate and I also believe in giving those resources and providing those resources from the city. So thank you and thank you to everyone who is involved in this.

Vice Mayor Glascock. Thank you. Seen that none of my colleagues were on the board. I'd like to make a motion the city approve the safe haven baby box lease and service agreement in partnership with AMG and authorize the necessary signatures. Second motion second discussion see none. Madame clerk please open the role. Motion passes 70. Madame clerk please call the next item. Police vehicle storage building improvements. Could we do a quick five minute break?

I've been asked um is it okay? We'll take a quick five minute break.

meeting. Thank you for that quick break, Captain Kulie. Afternoon, mayor, city council, Captain Kulie, Witchaw Police Department. Uh today I bring before you police vehicle storage facilities. Uh the background on this is the uh Witchaw Police Department operates several highvalued specialized vehicles uh to provide emergency response during critical incidents. And as you know, maintaining a secure facility for that equipment is important uh for security purposes and to prolong the life of the equipment. In 2019, a portion of the west side of Rounds and Porters uh located just to the west of city hall here uh was evaluated for the vehicle storage and funding for that project was adopted in the CIP at that time. Uh as the rounds importer expansion plans progressed, it was identified that the vehicles uh would be stored more effectively and efficiently at at the respected bureaus instead of one downtown central location. Uh it's important to store the vehicles in a strategic location to enhance responsiveness. Storage buildings are expected to be even more critical uh in the future as equipment is being modernized and replaced. Uh the structures are to be built on the portions of the site immediately adjacent to the existing parking lot that I'm referring to each of the four patrol bureaus. In 2024, the new patrol east building was finished and was identified as the first best option for uh the four plan storage facilities. And in 27, the new patrol west building is scheduled to be

completed and subsequently is identified as the second location for those four facilities. Uh the WPD has explored many options to secure these specialized vehicles. Uh the initial options uh was round and porters adjacent to city hall. That funding was initially approved by city council on July 23rd, 2019. Progress on the project was postponed due to the pandemic period occurring at that time. Uh during that time an evaluation of rounds and porters was also conducted. Uh that evaluation determined that there was some constructional considerations for the building. Uh there was a storage capacity issue, parking lot in infrastructure uh concerns, uh space, and then proximity to critical infrastructure is mainly city hall. Uh storing these vehicles next to city hall as a critical infrastructure makes it hard for us to get those vehicles out safely if we're having to respond to city hall or the core area. Uh after additional studies and concurrently with the plans to construct the new police stations, uh funding was allocated to align the plans with the construction of the three new police stations, west, south, and north. Uh these storage facilities will be built adjacent to those new bureaus uh which will improve the security enhance storage options for the stations and improve responsiveness. In the 2025 to 34 adopted CIP an additional 250,000 was allocated for a storage facility for the new patrol east location. And in the 26 to35 adopted CIP, 600,000 was allocated for the storage facility at the new 26 patrol west. Uh again, the 28 patrol south and the 2030 patrol north station

to give kind of a an overall of of uh what we're looking at here. This is the new uh Patrol East building at Lincoln and Edgemore. And with the the I guess the bottom white square is the projected location. Uh that is within the just short of the five acres of fenced in property we already have. Uh so everything with this building is already secured. It's already within the the fenced in property and that is vacant land that's already owned by the city of Witchaw at the Petrol East location. Uh this is a a construction photo. The building is up and operational now, but I put this in here to show you kind of the uh plan of the color and material uh that is planned for the storage facility. Uh we plan to mirror or match uh each of the substations. So, this happens to be the Patrol East building. Um the architect called it police blue. That wasn't my doing. Um and then the uh stone color that's used in there. Uh this is the initial rendering uh the preliminary rendering of Patrol East uh storage building. Uh this is uh after the building was completed. Uh we had them actually give us a rendering of where the building would sit and what it would look like. Uh on the uh right side of your photo, that is the entrance from uh Pinerest there. So as you enter into that secure gate, the building uh sits right there in that parking lot. Uh the idea behind the building is it has three bays to house these uh vehicles. Um much like uh the plans with the bureaus uh the fire department, EMS, um our bureaus and everything are placed strate strategically within the city

based on response times. Uh each bureau is ultimately responsible for 25% of the calls within the city. Um we try and stick with that with our response times as well. So, some of these vehicles um that we have purchased will move to each of the patrol bureaus and be stored inside these facilities. Uh there's a couple renderings here just to give ideas of kind of conceptually of what we're thinking. Um some landscape. There will be a uh a bottom portion of the building um that has some type of architectural work to it. That way it's it doesn't look like a auto shop garage or something on the property. Um this will be the outside of it. So it's hard to look at in that other rendering. Um but the uh conceptual design is that it will have some type of architectural structure to it. Uh both inside and outside. Again, this is a side angle. Um we do have some conversations going about um some windows on the side and the back. That way it it looks more like a uh a office structure than a garage. Um but essentially um one of the concepts is the bottom will look like that or we may go with a different brick um to match the uh patrol bureaus. Uh the patrol west location. This is the rough plot of what was purchased for patrol west. That's actually going up now. Um we are just starting um the foundation work of that the grading and things are done. Foundation will start to go up and then shortly after that you'll start to see some structural work out there on that property. Um the this is the plot of land essentially that was purchased for Patrol West. Again, just roughly five acres. Um, back

on November 21st, 2023, when um I presented the Patrol West uh plans to city council, I also presented this conceptual plot map over on the bottom left of the Patrol West parking lot of the idea of how we thought the parking lot was going to be laid out and where the storage uh building would be placed. It's not too far off. We did have to change uh the public parking um to come in off of one drive. Basically, there was some ordinance things of where you can put uh vehicle access. Uh this is probably a a more accurate view of what the Patrol parking lot will look like. And on the bottom left corner, uh you'll see that's where the facility uh will go uh back off of 13th um there. And this is a more accurate drawing of what the parking lot and the building will actually look like when done. This is just one with some uh landscape. So that way I wanted to give you guys a view of of the there'll be some trees, some foliage and stuff going on in that parking lot as well. Uh financial considerations. Funding for the patrol east vehicle storage facility is available for repurposing and the amount originally designated for the storage at rounds and porter building and a subsequent amount included in the 25 to34 adopted CIP. Funding for the patrol west vehicle storage facility is available in the 26 to35 adopted CIP. Uh we recommend you approve the initiation of the project fund, adopt the bonding resolutions, and authorize the necessary signatures. And with that, I'll stand for questions.

Thank you, Captain Kulie. Questions for staff, beginning with Council Member Hohheisle.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Captain. Um do we expect the same stable of vehicles at every station? Yeah. So, the idea is um like one of our armored vehicles at each station um that way like we're working a SWAT call right now for example um that is out west. So, that vehicle could have responded quicker and then the other vehicles will respond as support vehicles. So, yeah, pretty much every bureau will have the same assets parked in it. Are there any that we're going to be continuing or looking at storing downtown if it's like a specialized piece? The bear cat or whatever.

Um, is that going to be downtown or is that Nope. So, the Bearcat is one of those armored vehicles. We have three different brands. So, but we just armored armored rescue vehicles. Um, but the Rook, for example, is too big for these type of properties. So, uh, the facility, um, that we purchased on Harry, uh, that's where the Rook and these larger vehicles will they'll have to be stored at that location. Yeah. Okay. So, every storage unit will be essentially the same design at every

Yeah. Um, same design, same concept. The outside may look a little bit different. Patrol West, I didn't uh design the outside really any different than Patrol West. Almost the same colors even. So, Okay. Thank you. Captain Kulie, um can you talk about just the four substations and the vision of having those storage units uh within that footprint? Um was that always part of the plan and talk about um are there opportunities maybe to make them bigger so that therefore you won't need as many or you want the four

um bigger? Yes. And sure. Um, so we bought roughly just under five acres for Patrol East and then a little bit more at Patrol West. Um, we realized we didn't uh have enough acreage at Patrol East. Um, when by the time you add runoffs and various things um for the amount of money that's allocated in the CIP, um, we're building them as big as we can on the footprint for that amount of money that's allocated. Um, strategically, yes, we want them in every one of the bureaus. Um, at Could they be in a different location? Sure. Financially, we already own the land and those bureaus, we've already plotted out for response times as well. So, I'm working on where is South going to go and where is North going to go and and uh there's a lot of planning that goes into that. So, we get them, you know, response time to each one of their areas. Um, so it is important to have them at each of the four locations uh for response times.

Thank you, Council Member Ballard. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you for the presentation. Is this consistent with other jurisdictions having these types of buildings outside their patrol, whatever their whatever that looks like?

Um, I don't know that I would say consistent. every in policing, every jurisdiction seems to kind of do their own thing when it comes to um do they have a headquarters, how many bureaus do they operate, do they break it up into beads, how many watches it there's really no consistency in that. Um, a lot of large agencies have a massive storage facility where they will buy replacement fleet vehicles um in the masses and uplift them and have them parking and waiting in there. Um, we don't do that here. We buy them as needed and then uplift them and then rotate them out. Um so I don't know that every you know is it common that other agencies have um storage facilities at their substations? I don't know that.

Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Captain Aaron Moses again for the police department. Along those lines, Chief Soliv and I actually just visited Kansas City, Missouri about two weeks ago and had the opportunity to tour some of their stations and their facilities. Uh they have in their patrol south uh building and complex, they actually have two of these buildings at one of their stations that they use for this exact purpose. Uh so we were actually able to see how another one of our neighboring jurisdictions, a major city's chief organization just like us, is using buildings just like this uh in the same way that we're proposing here. Thank you, Council Member Shepard.

Thank you so much, Mayor. I just wanted to I know you mentioned this, but I think it's really important for the public to hear this as well that the funding for the vehicle storage facility 500,000 is available by repurposing. Correct. Uh, yes. Okay. Yes.

Um, and then you mentioned when the mayor asked about um I believe it was space. I think that's a really important question as it relates to building for the future. Are you able to account for that in the building of the space so that way you don't have to come back and two three years from now and ask for more space to build on? Um at patrol west probably uh patrol east becomes a little bit difficult because there is a old tennis court that is occupying a chunk of the property um that I looked at removing during construction and unbeknownst to me I guess tennis courts are made out of different structure than normal and that's pretty costly to take them out. So, could we build bigger? If we had the finances, we could. Um, would that help for growth? Yes. I don't know the cost of that at Patrol East because I stopped short of the tennis court.

Okay. I just know that um some of the projects that are either uh completed or coming before us, we continue to ask about building for the future so that way we can be proactive and and really accounting for the additional needs. And again, as we continue to grow as a city, um, unfortunately, suburban sprawl is a thing, right? But people don't realize that as we continue to go outward, that's more fire, that's more police, that's more services that we have to account for, which then trickles back to more equipment, more space. And so, I'm just trying to think through this holistically as well. The final question that I want to make sure one of the things that I've learned as I was orientating on was uh that there's a particular uh depth of like concrete and different things of that nature [clears throat] that you need to consider as you are building for housing the equipment in the apparatus. Is that being taken into consideration with this storage facility?

Yep. Um when we uh built uh Patrol East um through some value engineering, we reduced the um asphalt thickness. Um but we only did that in certain areas that we knew our armors or the trash truck and the uh fuel truck would not drive on. Um we left those at the upgraded thickness. Um we will have to go back and um probably reinforce some of the edging as we pour the foundation for these facilities. Um but yes, the short answer is is yes. We feel pretty confident we've taken those into account and left them at the appropriate thickness. I really appreciate that and even monitoring that as you move along because everything has a shelf life including the equipment that you know you all are using the vehicles and so as long as we're doing everything that we can to mitigate having to replace it consistently um I I think that's you know using taxpayer dollars wisely. So I appreciate that.

Thank you. Lastly, Captain Kulie, um, according to our green sheet, back in July of 2019 is when the initial conversation started and that was at Rounds and Porter just across this parking lot um, for storage purposes, but since then it has changed to again the Harry location and then eventually the four storage facilities. Can you tell me if there's been any um deferred maintenance that needs to be addressed at Rounds and Porter? Uh anything that this would be a trade-off? I'm not sure I understand your question.

Is there any deferred maintenance at Rounds and Porter that we won't be doing to do this?

Um no. the the money that was allocated in the CIP was uh um just to repurpose some of that building for these um I I believe I don't want to speak for uh public works or um you know engineering or MABCD when they evaluated the building but um I don't think there's any structural considerations uh if we don't put our vehicles there. I think our vehicles were what was causing the issues. Thank you, Captain Kulie. I see no further questions from the council. We will now open it up for public comment. I see no one from the public who would like to address the council. I see that these two storage locations will be in Council Member Hoheisel's district near Kellogg and Council Member Johnston's district near I235.

Make the motion. I would like to make the motion. I have it ready. Recommended action. Approve the project initiation, adopt the bonding resolution, and authorize the necessary signatures. Second. Motion second. Discussion. See none. Madame clerk, please open the role. Motion passes 70. Madame clerk, please call the next item.

Community events, Witchaw River Festival. Good, good afternoon, mayor and city council. Isaac Haskins, Department of Park and Recreation. Today, we'll be presenting the uh Witchaw River Festival item, which is basically a reiteration of theirou. Uh so, for some background, since 1972, Witchaw Festivals has produced the Witchaw River Festival. Uh this year, the multi-day celebration is scheduled for May 29th through June 6th. It attracts local restaurant or local residents, tourists from within Kansas and surrounding areas. Uh the city entered into the currentou with witchaw festivals on April 15th, 2025 and it is still valid for the 2026 festival. Uhou outlines inind services, permits, licenses, street closures and WPD security. Uh Witchaw Festivals has been coordinating with city departments for licensing and street closure requests. Approval of the license reports will be in lie of the issuance of individual permits and authorizations. Uh per theou the city can provide up to $80,000 as a cash sponsorship. Uh and that is a budgeted expenditure of the tourism convention fund. In contributions include public safety, use of park property, use of century 2 facilities and other similar services that have been provided to past festivals. Um the city's total financial cons contribution to the Witchaw River Festival will be that $80,000 in cash sponsorship and an estimated $350,000 in in services. U and as with any other applicant, Witchaw Festivals is required to cover any of their application and permitting fees. So with that, it is recommended that the city council approve the licensing report, street closures, and request for permit for the 2026 river festival per theou between the city of Witchaw and Witchaw festivals. With that, I'll stand for questions.

Thank you, Isaac. Questions for staff, beginning with Vice Mayor Glascock. Isaac, thank you for this. This is an easy yes for me. I do have a couple questions, though. Is the inind also include overtime for officers? Is that paid separately? So about 250,000 of that is public safety. How much of that is overtime? I don't have that directly in the 250 out of the 350. Okay. Uh so that was question number one. Question number two, in terms of included in sign, it says public public safety related expenditures. Does that also include the barricades that were city barricades that we're letting them use or is that an added cost? So they get all their barricades through a traffic control company here locally. The city doesn't provide those.

Okay. So, what would be maybe some of the examples of other 100,000 in kind services? Uh, about half of that would be downtown paid parking if we were to charge them for use of the parking stalls that they're using. Um, the rest of that is going to be primarily Sentry 2. Um, and then park property. So, is that going out of the So, it says inkinded. So, is that being ininded through the parking fund or is that being ininded as in we're taking money from the general fund to then make the parking fund more whole? We're just waving the parking fees. Waving the parking fees. Yeah. For everything that's within the footprint of the festival.

So, I know council member Shepard and I have specifically maybe had some concerns about sometimes charging for parking when there's community events. And so, what is the practice of doing this for other community events as well? if we're going to do it for this community event versus other community events, what is our level of when we do this and when we don't do this? So, that's there's still been a discussion with that. I actually spoke to the downtown parking manager yesterday and uh at this time they're not currently charging for special events. Uh but we're going to be looking into doing so potentially next year or at least visiting the subject.

Okay. So, I'm thinking of some large scale events like the well St. St. Patrick's Day parade would be different because that's on the Deleno side, but I'm thinking of when we do either Riverfest parade, which should be included those, or Automoilia or events at NASCAR where we have to shut down uh the Williams Street, St. Francis, shut down St. Francis. And so, I just want to make sure whatever policy we're doing for certain entities when it comes to community events because we want to encourage community events that it's more of a holistic approach and it's not just us picking random ones to be okay with and not okay with in the future as well. Agreed. Yeah. Thank you, Council Member Shepard.

Thank you, Mayor. Just want to echo the sentiments and thank you for all the work that you're doing on this. By the way, I know Riverfest is a major event. It uh draws a lot of tourism into our community. We know that that's critically important to enhance our quality of life. Um I would also just offer the sentiment that um I'm really pushing for if there's a CI um I do not believe that you should have to pay those hooding fees. And I know that previous assistant city manager Troy Anderson did hear that from me. I would argue St. Patty's Day is a part of District 1. And so that would include Nasper Park as well all the way down to Deleno. And um again for Riverfest, I think that that would align with the standard of they're having it in an area that hopefully soon will have a central business district as well. Parts of it will be in the C area. And so maybe that's the rationale that we can consider using when looking at events. But very supportive of this. Um, every time I turn around, I see Riverfest working extremely hard. And so I want to make sure that we honor being a good neighbor and also honor the entities that are bringing in large quantities of people and generating revenue for our economic success.

I see no further questions from this bench. Uh thank you Isaac and thank you to Witchaw Riverfest for uh hosting this year's festival May 29th through June 6. We will now open it up for public comment. I see no one from the public who would like to address the council. With that, um River Festival is everyone's festival. Uh but it does reside in districts 1, four, and six. Uh so with that I will go ahead and move that the city council approve the licensing report street closures and request for permit for the 2026 Witchah River Festival per theou between the city and Witchaw Festivals Inc. Motion second discussion see none. Madame clerk please open the role. Motion passes 70. Madame clerk please call the next item. 2026 to 2027 third program year HUD annual action plan. Good [clears throat] afternoon, mayor and city council. Uh my name is Andrew Tyrie. I'm a management analyst with the housing and community services department. And today I'm here to present on the 26 27 3rdy year annual action plan. Before we get uh too deep in [clears throat] the woods, just some background um here. The city receives an annual allocation of funds for community development activities uh from the US Department of Housing Urban Development, otherwise known as HUD. Uh the funding activities align to the city's goal of creating a livable and sustainable community and these funds are used to create strong, sustainable, inclusive communities and affordable housing.

So we operate off of a couple different planning documents. Um the first being the consolidated plan. Um uh every five years we are to produce a five-year strategic plan to HUD. Basically what that does is identifies community development needs, affordable housing needs, homelessness needs and other priorities of the city. Um like I said that's every every five years. Um annually we have to uh submit to HUD what's called the annual action plan. Um the annual action plan has to um align with the consolidated plan. Um so we can't um propose any activities or projects that don't meet the strategic needs and goals of that consolidated plan. Um, the action plan also serves as an application uh for funding for uh federal entitlement grants, community development block grant or or CDBG, which I'll be referring to um throughout the rest of this presentation. Uh but CDBG is a very flexible uh funding source. It's used for a wide range of community development needs. Home Investment Partnerships, otherwise known as HOME, um is used to create uh affordable housing for lowincome households. And then the Emergency Solutions Grants or ESG Oh, sorry. Whoa. I will not touch that again. Um is is used to address homelessness. Wow. Is everybody awake now? I think so. Um so the planning process um public comment period on the action plan began on March 27th of 2026 and ran through uh May 4th of 26. Um this was to solicit public comments. Um uh staff, myself, Steve, we we tag team the April DAB meetings, went out to those and presented on the action

plan um to solicit comment there. Um and then the third program year action plan is due to HUD. We're looking to have this submitted um by May 15th um 45 days before the next program year starts. Our program year runs from uh July 1 through June 30th. So um when you hear me say program year, that's what that's what I'm referring to. So for 2627 uh program year um in an attempt to ease the burden of tracking and meeting expenditure deadlines, any funding that was previously allocated but not under contract um that those funds were swept back and reallocated into the current program year. So any funds that weren't under contract, we we pushed it all into this program year. Um award amounts for 26 27 HUD has released those. We got those a while back, but um they are as follows. Um CDBG2,982,354, home1,410,48.95 and ESG $260,932. And so we'll start with CDBG. Again, this is used for a wide range of community development needs. Uh you'll see total funding amount going into CDBG this year is that 6,365,22468. Um before um I get too uh into the activities, just some background on CDBG. Um in order for a project or an activity to um be CDBG eligible, it must u meet one of three national objectives and those are on the screen there. Um, it must be used for eligible spending activities. At least 70% of spending must benefit low to moderate income

persons. And public services, which I will get into more here in a minute. Uh, but the city of Witchaw is traditionally public services heavy. Um, approximately 30% of our award goes towards public services. Nationally, however, there is a 15% cap. So, we are actually grandfathered in at that um that 1.1 million total. So, um, we're able to to put more funding towards public services activities here. And so, we'll start, um, with public CDBG public facilities and infrastructure projects. Um, total allocated is that 3 million, um, number there. Um, and that's going towards infrastructure projects. Um, under that category, we're carrying over some some funding um, for the Midtown lighting project. Um we're setting aside the 95,978 for demolition and clearance. Um historically we worked with uh MABCD under contract. They identify properties that um are um blighted structures and so that funding goes towards the demolition and clearance for those [snorts] uh public facilities. Uh again, there's over 2.4 4 million G dollars going into that. U 1 million is going towards the um construction of the new community center in the Plane View neighborhood. Um we have set aside that 414,327 for a 2B determined acquisition and rehab project. And then another million is going into the um to build non- congregant shelter on the second light site. And there's how the public facilities and infrastructure improvements um total out on the on the far right hand side there.

Next we have CDBG housing activities. Um that just under $1.6 million there. So home repair um $1,260,000 is going towards the home repair program. And you kind of see how that breaks down there between project funds and program delivery. And then again, we're setting aside um some money there that $334,78.68 um for um for a to be determined act rehab project under the housing activities category there. And as far as housing activities, you see how um that all totals up. CDBG administration and planning. Um total allocated is at $596,471 and that's going for um program administration costs. And then we also have $2,000 going towards fair housing training. Um that'll take place at our annual um housing conference this fall. So um and you'll see on the far right hand side how the admin and planning totals up. Next we have uh CDBG public services. touched on this a little bit already, but we're at that we have that public services cap of $1,163 and or $1,163,310 and we're right up on that cap there with the um1,160 allocated. Um that funding breaks down $385,000 is going towards the office of community services at Atwater, Kulvin, and Evergreen. That's your neighborhood resource centers. Uh 77,500 is going for housing first project coordination. Um $222,500 is going for the way to work program. That's the summer youth employment

program which will actually be kicking off here pretty soon. And so that brings us to the competitive application that was released for uh citybujie public services funding. Um in December of 2025, the housing and community services department, we released a competitive application for CDBG public services funding in the amount of $475,000. And also there was ESG homeless prevention funding uh for $50,000 which I will talk more about ESG here when we get to those slides. But we'll focus on the $475,000. Um we had a total of 10 agencies submit applications for that funding. And so uh 10 10 applications um total funding request amongst those 10 uh 10 agencies was $885,355. And so again we had $475,000 to go around. And so that's where the grants review committee uh comes in. Um also in December of 25 um the city council appointed a grants review committee or GRC. And so um the establishment of the GRC is a component of the city's citizen participation plan. Um this committee is responsible for reviewing proposals for CDBG and ESG. Um they're tasked um to review agency proposals to utilize the CDBG funds to deliver public uh public services uh programming. Um and so again this year they were responsible for um reviewing 10 applications um different agencies. Um they um reviewed those applications um and made their requests or recommendations for funding and those are as follows. They're being brought to

you guys today as part of this annual action plan. So again you'll see 475,000 available. Um we had um they're recommending three uh domestic violence um services. Um Catholic Charities Harbor House, Witchaw Family Crisis Center, and Stepstone, all at $50,000. Um we had one homeless services provider, United Methodist Open Door for 50,000. And then the other four were youth programming. Um, Coven Kids Club at 50,000, Kansas Big Brothers Big Sisters 50,000, Prime Fit Youth Foundation, $60,629, uh, Masters and Mentors, $55,625, and the Witchaw Children's Home, $58,746. And as far as CityB services go, you see how all of that uh, totals up there. Moving along to the home program. Again, as a reminder, home program funds can um only be used for um the creation of affordable housing um for low to moderate income households. Um and so this year we're um that 10 million number you see on the screen, that's how that's the amount we're allocating towards home activities. And those activities break out as follows. Um, we have the home program administration. Um, $255,91457. Um, and then we have the home ownership uh program, $986,000. That's for home ownership uh down payment assistance. Uh, we have the home ARP. Um, the 4,477,900 or $9955. Uh that's also going for the development of 25 units of non- congregate shelter and supportive services. And then also

the tenant based rental assistance or TBR $1.6 million. Um that's for security deposits or rent for low to moderate households um with a preference for those coming from homelessness. [snorts] And lastly, on a part as part of home, we have the home development loan program. Uh that 2.9 million number there that's going towards HDLP um program. Uh these funds are used uh by nonprofit and for-profit developers for the development of affordable housing, rental or home buyer units, and that can be um rehabilitation and new construction. Um there is a minimum of 15% um of the total annual home allocation that needs to be set aside for CHOTOS. And so those are your community housing development organizations. Um that set aside requirement that's managed within the HDLP um to ensure that that 15% is being met. Um all HDLP applications are reviewed by the um affordable housing review board. And just some CHTO requirements uh there on the screen as well.

[snorts]

And you see how the home on the again on the far right hand side how the home um allocations add up. Lastly, we have the emergency solutions grants. Um uh ESG again is for uh homeless um the homelessness uh activities. Um it can be the the way that we are distributing our um ESG fundings is for homeless services uh homeless prevention and rapid rehousing. And so we'll start with homeless prevention. Um I touched on it a few minutes ago when we were talking about the competitive application, but that was also released for the ESG homeless prevention funding in the amount of $50,000. Um during that process, we had one organization that applied for that funding. Um after um reviewing the application was reviewed by the um continuum of care staff, our team and then housing staff as well. Um after reviewing that application, it was deemed as not being eligible for the home prevention homeless prevention program. And so the the department will [snorts] use these funds along with uh 10,000 from the prior year. So, a total of 60,000 is going towards um it's going to target previously homeless individuals, households um that are receiving rental assistance who are at risk of returning to homelessness. And so, this program is designed to address uh the community's return to homelessness rate, which is around 25%. Next, we have homeless assistance. um 300 a total of 313,3 uh $27.80. Um this is for encampment and unsheltered coordination services. Um that includes program year funding from 2025 along with the program year funding

for 26 for that total of 313,000 there. Um and then the rapid rehousing program uh that's funding that's made available for rent and utility assistance um for literally uh homeless persons. um this enables them to move into permanent housing. And then as with CDBG and home um ESG, there's also program administration uh um amounts there as well. You see how that breaks down [snorts] and total for ESG on that far right hand side. Again, uh we had a public comment period for this plan that ran through uh March 27th through May 4th. Um we attended all the April DAB meetings. Um some of the feedback that we received uh you know from the DAB meetings um is on the screen listed there. Um we had some feedback from Sed County Department of Aging and and Disabilities um wanting to you know maybe some more homeless programming with older adults in mind. um Sedroid County Department of Emergency Management um inquired about the use of CDBG CDBG funds for hazard mitigation projects. And then um since about Friday afternoon, this was after I'd already submitted the the presentation here, uh my inbox has been pretty pretty busy. Um gotten about 57 emails from the Justice Together group um stating their support for affordable housing um that is in the plan. So, um had some voicemails from them as well. So, um and then we also had some citizen feedback just regarding um just endorsing um more affordable housing options and then also with how our homeless data and reporting is um put out there. We had some feedback on that as well. So, financial and legal considerations, uh

there's no impact on the general fund. All funding agreements will be approved as deformed by the law department. And it is recommended that the city council close the public hearing, approve the funding allocations, staff and grants review committee recommendations and authorize submission of the 2627 annual action plan to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development and authorize the funding agreements and necess necessary signatures. And at this time, I will stand for any questions you may have about the plan. I we have backup in the audience in case I can't answer those questions. We'll work as a team to get those taken care of for you. And then also, we have uh Miss Cindy Miles in attendance today. She was actually a member of our GRC um this year. So, she um graciously volunteered to come down in case you all wanted to hear from an actual GRC member today. So, uh that's all I have. So, I'm turning it over to y'all. Thank you, Andrew, for that presentation. Uh we will now open it up for council member comments first. Um and I'll start. Uh I have specific questions uh on the presentation. Can you go back to slide number 164? Um right here I find something very concerning. Um and that is big uh that is the YMCA's middle school afterchool program. uh with zero dollars being allocated to them. Uh this is a critical uh youth initiative that has been around for decades and one person who has been a major champion of that is former council member Levant Williams. Um and this was brought to my attention. Um, this is a service that is again for those I believe the term for CDBG funding was for low to moderate income

individuals and a lot of our youth in the specific areas that this program services are those individuals. Can you please explain why YMCA middle school after school program was not funded? Um so again it was this was part of the um public services dollars that went out via the competitive application um that um the GRC was tasked with making those uh recommendations. So um I I don't know if if Miss Cindy would want to come up and speak to that or not. Um she's welcome to do that because it was like I said they're they were the ones that were deciding factors on these things. So turn it over.

Thank you Cindy for serving on that board.

Absolutely. Um thank you for giving me time to respond to some of the questions. As you all know, funding is hard. You know, I work with have worked with nonprofits for many years. Um I I see the challenges that they're faced. And just to give you a little bit of information that you may or may not know, Witchaw, the city of Witchaw has 1,325 nonprofit organizations. Of those 1,325 organizations, we have 305 of those are churches. So that leaves us a net of 1,020 nonprofit organizations. It's a challenge. We have new programs that are coming up to be funded. I've sat on this committee more than once over the years and I I can remember back when, you know, Menite Housing used to receive funding. They received funding for a number of years. Uh Jacob's I think it's Jacob's ladder received funding for a number of years and we always have new things that are going on. One of the things that we see is uh youth are struggling with violence. We have we have a youth violence problem and we've seen that. So in our considerations as we had a discussion uh about what to fund because number one we're limited we we can't give less than $50,000 to any one single organization. So that limits us because we can't choose say masters and mentors was a new applicant. Masters and mentors works through the gift uh works through chess to teach youth how to play chess and change their cognitive thinking and redirects their path from a path where they may be involved in the juvenile justice system or you know they're they're just going down the the wrong road. Um, and so I I feel like the conversation was at some point in time

we have to look at what are the new things that can be funded. So two organizations we looked at that had been funded by this funding for 30 years was the YMCA and the uh Witchaw Family Crisis Center. None of us felt like that this funding should be something that's sustained year after year after year and we never open up for new organizations to be funding. Big Brothers and Sisters hasn't been funded for a lot of years. I sat on the committee when Big Brothers and Sisters was funded by some of this funding. So, it is very challenging. The other thing that came into play is of those nonprofit organizations, YMCA is number six in the amount of revenue that's brought in by those organizations and they have the opportunity to generate earned revenue which a lot of nonprofits don't have the opportunity to do. They provide which family crisis they provide services for free. Not a lot of opportunities to generate earned revenue. YMCA also has a foundation that had 3,410 $410785 income in 2024, an increase of more than a million dollars from the prior year. They are a big organization. Total assets for their foundation in 2024 was more than 73 million and 8 million increase from the prior year. They are a strong firm organization in this community. They are not going away. they have a lot of resources that are available to them. Not all of these organizations have that. Not all of these organizations can have a membership or whatever. And so we were kind of looking at overall how do we give some other organizations that are smaller organizations that are doing unique work the opportunity to also be funded by this funding.

That That's my response. I will ask questions to staff. Okay. For this one, uh as a followup,

I believe in outcomes, not just output. I think just serving number of kiddos or serving number of individuals is not the ultimate goal. The ultimate goal is in this situation when we talk we're talking about youth, I think it's youth crime prevention and youth opportunities. And this is a proven model for over 30 years. And I don't understand I guess I understand new and the shiny new object needs to be t taken a look at but a proven model should also be uh rewarded because it's an investment by community. Community has said we believe that this certain organization is doing good job. We will keep investing and the city of Witchaw has an opportunity to be a partner and this is a partnership. um these are dollars that come from the federal government that then the city of Witchaw has the opportunity to reallocate and in this situation being a small partner is still better than not being a partner. Um and so I'm very concerned again when a proven model has shown to work in our community now they're not getting rewarded because they're a good model. I think that this is I don't know um a system that we should be rewarding outcomes and they have proven to provide outcomes. So I am very concerned about this. So I would like to know um can you provide outcomes to each of these uh nonprofits that have asked for dollars over the years and provide actual outcomes in what they've been able to provide to the community. Uh YMCA again this middle school after school program is exactly that. It's providing services that in some of these middle schools they don't have the opportunity to pay for other activities and it's already located within their schools so the kids don't have to go to other locations. Um

can you please tell me about outcomes and specifically YMCA outcomes? Sure. Um, when it comes to YMCA, as of as of March of this year, um, they had served with in their with their CDBG funding, they're reporting 1,400 K youth um, that have been served in this program year so far. Um, last year it was the same because the their their funding amount was the same. It was $50,000 last year. Um, in prior years when they've had more um, funding available, it's been like double that. So it's been close to like 300,000 um for that. Um but I have I mean did you want um some other other programs as well or is that

specifically um outcomes? So if you have any other outcomes within these subreients uh one of the things that you mentioned that I want to correct is there were other organizations on this list that do provide homeless services and I know that there's a new one on the list right now Witchaw Children's Home. They've been a really good partner in providing homelessness services to youth under the age of 24. Sure. And we want to make sure that that is another subgroup that is being supported. Um I guess my question is what are the outcomes for some of these established uh nonprofits that are here?

So So as of right now um like uh Coven Kids and that's the program that operates um in Plane View neighborhood. They're they're uh reporting 65 as of right now. Their their program is with 65 kids. Um Catholic Charities Harbor House um they've reached 145 as of right now individuals that are in their shelter and these are unduplicated numbers by the way. Um Kansas Big Brothers Big Sisters, they're reporting again as of March 35 matches um their their um rare match program. [snorts] Um, Prime Fit Youth Foundation, uh, 117 as of March, um, youth that that they've reached. Um, United Methodist Open Door, um, over, 1,144, again, that was as of March that I'm seeing. Um, Stepstone, 142 individuals as of March that they've reported to us. And then um to to touch on like you mentioned the homeless with children's home. I I agree like I um I was lumping them in with the youth um services. So that's I I did miss that that they do work with homeless um youth. So yep.

And now I have a question regarding United Methodist Open Door. For how long have we been providing services or funding to this organization? And will this organization be partnering with Second Light? Um, one of the missing pieces of uh, United Methodist Open Door is that they don't have overnight sheltering. Second Light provides overnight sheltering plus day services to those who want to be part of that program. Can you please explain to me uh what the outcomes have been for United Methodist Open Door? Um so as far as CDBG goes, this is their second program year um receiving CDBG funds. Um they they spent out their their grant this year and last year. Um again those numbers um for this year is over,00 that they reported to me and it was uh I have last year's here too. some of my phone. Uh it was over 1500 last year that they reported. Um and then prior to that they received ESG funding uh for years. Um I think it was close to 30 years that they received ESG funding. Um but that two years ago that stopped. We we used our started using our ESG um homeless assistance money. um we didn't put that out for for a bit anymore. So um they they applied for CDBG two years ago and got that. So one of the concerns that I'm hearing from community and also observing as an actual resident of Witchah is um second in Topeka is where United Methodist Open Door is located. Uh we keep having individuals calling in encampments um loitering. Can you please address how um a $50,000 investment through these funds

will alleviate any of what we're seeing when it comes to a lot of services that need to be um reoccurring um in terms of encampments, loitering, etc. Um I can't probably totally speak on all all of their um services, but with um what they report to us is that you know they they have their their day shelter where there's different um activities that are going on there. There's laundry services. There's um you know all all the um I'm I'm leaving stuff out. I know I think we have someone here from United Methodist Open Door today that can speak more intelligently about that than I can. So um but um so yeah that's I mean that's what I would say that they they use their their money for their day their their day um shelter services. So

I will actually ask housing to please come forward and explain to us how this is um duplicating some services that second light is providing. Day center services are an essential component of our homelessness services ecosystem. That being said, we're looking for housing focused and you know, I think that we probably would ask Deian to come up and speak to how many people Open Door has housed with their day center services. As we are currently attempting to stand up, as you all know, the housing focused services surrounding Second Light, if that's your will.

That is my will. I would appreciate someone from United Methodist Open Door to address that. Good afternoon. I'm Deianne Smith, executive director at United Methodist Open Door. To answer your question directly, we are first and foremost a basic service, getting people in for the basics of showers, laundry, um noon meal, a place to have their mail brought u mailed to them. um all those kind of basic services and then that is a draw for us to then engage them in helping them make the next steps into more productive. So we have partner agencies Hunter Health Grace Med IC2 Street team that work on the medical health co-located in our building is comare center city we also have colllocated uh substance abuse center of Kansas to engage um and try to get people who are very very ill to get into the next step of treatment. Um, we have other partners as well that are on site in order to engage in benefits and those kinds of things. To answer your question directly about housing, we have a housing navigator that has been uh with us for two years now. So the first year had a little bit of um upstart to get her going, but just in this grant year, program year, um she's um done 33

house directly. Um and this is these are folks that um are very high barrier, high needs individuals. um chronically homeless in some cases um are ones that um need an extra level of care. So, it's not only just about housing, but also she helps in maintaining housing for those that have gotten housed for some of those.

Thank you, Deianne. Um I appreciate the services that you provide. Um Union Res, sorry, United Methodist Open Door. Um, however, you guys are not open 247. As you mentioned, you're not open on Saturdays, you're not open on Sundays, and you're not open from 4:01 p.m. to 7:29 a.m. Can you please help me understand um what have been the conversations about possibly moving your services or providing those services at Second Light where there is a 247 shelter available where food is being donated by one of our partners um the Lord's diner is providing food services. Can you please tell me how you're working in that ecosystem of coordinated services? Sure. Would and I would have been happy to have that conversation with you earlier um as I have with several of your colleagues. Um we have been in those conversations with Second Lights Development Multi- Agency Center for seems like several years now, probably two at least two years about ways in which we could be supportive, ways in which we could um be participating in that. Um we are unique in that we were being asked to um move our program to Second Light. Um that comes with risk, financial risk to us. Um we we're continuing to have the conversation um about what that would look like. Unfortunately, the sales tax did not go through. So there is financial uncertainty with Second Light and what that would look like. Um also the space um because of the need to um accommodate many different aspects. The space that we would be

using for at Second Light is a FEMA shelter without any sunlight or ventilation um natural ventilation. We were looking at what would that look like for doing courtyards and those kinds of things. Um there'd be also an opportunity to do another in another uh room former library. However, that's been haden to take up space with uh laundry and computers. Um though that would still be available somewhat. But again uh the setup would be which would have to have more funding than what we currently do operating in order to function out of that space. No space is perfect. I understand that and reason why we work so closely um in trying to figure out ways to mitigate that and overcome that. Um in addition uh because the sales tax has um did not go through and f funding is uncertain. Uh our board of directors looked at what is going to be served there and uh theund plus beds that will be done 247 are folks um I believe that second lights using the term will and skill be willing and able to um engage with staff and case managers and those kinds of things and the skill to be able to achieve outcomes into housing. Um, and I respect that a whole lot. That is important. Um, but the ones that we deal with, um, a good majority of those are often folks who are so sick that they

cannot are will not able are able to engage to the level to be able to have that will and skill. So looking at all of those things, our board of directors said at this point we're not able to move in. That does not mean our board of directors will never consider that. It's just at this point with financial uncertainty with the space not being and the population being different that we at this point decided not to move in. Thank you, Deianne. And I appreciate um what you just mentioned, which um skill and will is one of the things that Second Light has talked about. However, you said um again, quote, dealing with um your most sick, but you're only able to serve them again from a very limited time, 7:30 a.m. to um sorry, 7:30 a.m. until 400 p.m. each day, weekdays only. So, where do where do they go after that then? Unfortunately, um, we wish they would be able to have someplace to go. We would love to be open more often if we had the funding, which had been the decision that we were going to. And we moved at Second Topeka through the task force in chronic homeless, the city, county uh task force that chose us to open the housing and homeless resource center that we would be hopefully be able to have the funding to be open more hours and more days. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. And so that's where do they go? I would love to say that I know 30 uh beds plus will be at Second Light for those who are overnight and then they will leave it during the day and we will probably see them.

So again, every day at 4:00 they will have to go find some sheltering. They will most we chose that time when we had to scale back because of funding issues. We chose that time so that they could engage with the Lord's diner and then hopefully get into shelters. Unfortunately, there's this challenge with shelter space. And Deianne, can you help address? I have many residents that talk about Second and Topeka, your location, and multiple um tents that have been popping up, torn down, popping up again, torn down again. Can you please address um what your organization does to discourage individuals from such an inhumane uh opportunity, which is to live on our sidewalks?

Yeah. We don't want them to have to live on the sidewalks. We're right with you. We wish that there are services that would allow, but many of those that um are in those tents um are not able to go into a shelter perhaps because of anxiety disorders or those kinds of things. Some of them um we are engaging with to try to get to them that point. Uh we also work very closely with with police and whoever else we can get to engage outreach to engage those folks. Um part of the reason why you see them moving around is because um they are asked to leave that spot and then move around oh a football field area and set again and then asked to leave. And so and it's the same in the encampments. And I'm very glad to see that some of the CDBG funding, home funding will be used to um help residents go directly from encampments. And I would hope that that would be the same with those folks who tend to move around. But it's not just at Second Topa. It's over several places in the city. I see it too. face. Mayor Glascott,

thank you. This would be a message for Andrew. Is funding able to be allocated with requirements that the 50,000 be spent to offer services at Second Light. Uh so let's say for one of the applicants, if there was a particular applicant, can there be funding requirements that specific funds be used as a partnership to move or partner with Second Life? Um, and Sally may want to back me up on this if I misspeak, but if if we were to have put that in the competitive application that that's a requirement then then yeah, but that that was not in

are you able to put that to certain subreients or does the the each recipient have to be held maybe to different they all offer different services. So that requirement [clears throat] necessarily wouldn't make sense for let's say Prime Fit Youth Foundation, but it could make sense for providers of homeless services to partner with the city's one-stop shop for homeless services. Can that be added as a requirement for the use of funds as of Yeah. Yeah, she's saying yeah. So we we could do that. Okay. Thank you. Yep. Council member Johnston.

Thank you, Deian. I have a couple questions for you if you don't mind. Again, thank you for everything you do, your organization. I really appreciate that. Um, I did talk to Dan Clifford this morning, director of Second Light. Uh he said he would be more than willing to have uh open conversations with you on where to locate at the facility. He said that has not really happened so far. So,

well, I don't know how that can't be since I was sitting at the table for all those design conversations and and just until recently um when they started to look at the just the hundred and I we and our board said not at [snorts] this point that I felt like I could disengage I stepped away so that they could do some more indepth conversation about that population in which they were going to serve. Right.

So I and those in this room know that Open Door has been the providers know that Open Door has been more than present at all of that for for a couple years, two, three, I don't know how long we've been planning this. Yeah. Yeah. So, and I know I mean that the Second Light probably is not like I would have designed it

or managed it exactly and it's probably not like you designed it or would like to have it designed for our discussions yesterday. But since it is designed like it is, um I I think we need to have a conversation on how we can make it work with what we've got now. I I certainly so

and we we want to say yes. Um we part of the challenge is again the population that we serve are very very ill and so the space that we would be asked to use um is very challenging for that population with no sunlight and and no ventilation. Again, we could utilize outside some, but that's an additional cost to operations. And regardless, um, if we're asked to, there are showers and bathrooms that are shared in one space. our experience has been because when we moved out of the location and into second Topeka we had space like that and it was very difficult um behavioral issues in that one space we would again have to have staff so it's it's it's just the real realistic understanding that we need the additional funding in order to work in that space and do it safely and well and to the extent that we're doing Now, where we are, which with a building that has seven showers separately, our staff can monitor and do several different things at once. Um, you would have to have staff designated in certain areas in order to do that. But again, um, we were hoping to be able to say yes. And it's not that no forever, right? Are there ways in which that we can um look at the space that could be changed? Are there ways in which financially it will be undergurtded

to so that it wouldn't just support the overnight shelter piece but also the ongoing needs for services. Yeah. Well, he would like to have those discussions with you. Oh, and I've told him I've been very open with him and he's open to the library space and being part of it or other spaces. And he said specifically he would be willing to compromise, not just his way or the highway. He'd be able to compromise with you and work something out and also on staffing. Um have conversations on how it would be staffed, who would staff it, and different things like that. And even even the wages of staffing. Oh yes, you

know there disparity of there. There is a disparity there. We have folks who are making very low wages that dealing with a very difficult population and we don't have enough staff as it is and then to take how are we going to increase staffing going into second light. No. And we don't have the funds to do it. I think all those conversations need to be had. I would just encourage you to they have been had and we are willing to continue to have. I think the biggest part of this is how will this community undergard and sustain financially what you want it to happen. Yeah. I understand there's some financial

risk and stuff and I understand running a business you have to maybe know what those answers are. Yes. Um but I also know that some of those conversations have not happened recently.

Okay. Well, that's your understanding. I It was only within the last month that I quit going to these weekly or bi-weekly meetings. So because it was going back to 100 plus service shelter and what they were doing and that's not our expertise but I have continued to say and I our board chair said to their board chair and uh in the meeting we are willing to look at other ways any ways that we can continue to partner together but in the end we have to look at those that we are serving and the continuum of services in this community and make sure that those that are the um sickest and the most vulnerable have a space even if they're not having the will or the skill at this point. But Second Light is an important continuum in that and I give thanks that the city council has supported Second Light where they have because we have more shelter space than we ever have. It's just limited right now. And I know Second Light wants more than what they're able to do at this point. So, it's not that we're in contention against each other. It's just how do we best serve the people that are on our streets knowing what realistically what barriers we have in doing that.

Yeah, I completely agree with everything you said. Um, I think it's really important that you're part of Second Light. What you have day services is really important for that population. And like the mayor said, the other 16 hours of the day, second life can handle work with those people during that time, too. So, I think it's really important that that you are a part of that. I appreciate everything you do. I would just strongly encourage to to reach out again, go back to the meetings again, start having more conversations.

Please understand, I have told Second Light and I I'm saying it very publicly now that we will be at the table whenever our resources and whenever our expertise can really benefit. I just had to back away somewhat because I didn't think our expertise and resources could best suit them at this point. But we have I I personally have been at meetings for hours and hours even more than some of my staff would probably like because I wasn't at open door right because I believe in the community working together. I believe in the ways in which we try to strengthen one another. I believe in all of that. That's what I've done for the 25 years that I've been executive director. have been about trying to find innovative and creative ways, but we also have to be realistic about where we are and what we're able to do at this time.

Yeah. Well, to make this work, I think you're important part of that. We need to figure out a way to make it work. H happy to have the conversations. No, I appreciate that. So, thank you. Any further questions for Deian so she doesn't have to keep going back and forth. I get my steps in. So, it's I just have a comment here if Council Member Tull's comment wasn't directed towards Dean. It's not twisting.

I want to say thank you for being here. Um, we've had conversation. I went over to Open Door and we had a a very private conversation, but you know that I've shared with you that I was frustrated. Um, and I [snorts] share that publicly just because I know that I shared it with my colleagues. And I think it's important to just be consistent and own what we believe. And I don't want anyone to believe that I don't feel frustrated still, right? But context matters. nuance matters. And it was a reminder for me, and I told this to you and and some of your staff, it's a reminder for me to before jumping to conclusions and allowing my emotions to kind of overshadow what I don't know to take the time to reach out and engage. I agree that Second Light needs open door and we got to work together and collaborate. I also believe in a healthy partnership and I believe that all parties if we're going to solve this issue of homelessness we all to include the city have to recognize that it's not about us it's about who we can serve and I think even here you've shared some real challenges I mean we might be concerned about the unhoused neighbors outside of of open door but as you mentioned the resources I worry about that for our Witchaw police apartment. You want them to move the unhoused neighbors, but where are we moving them to?

Amen. And so, we have to be mindful and methodical about our approach. And we have to stop putting the cart before the horse because when we choose to do that, we put a strain on the system. We put a strain on housing. We put a strain on WPD. We put a strain on our nonprofit agencies that we all need. So, thank you for being here. Thank you for standing in the heap and me with me and Council Member Ballard when we walked over there. uh and not walked drove over there and engaged with you. Um it's not easy doing what you do, but I just want you to know that I appreciate you. I think we all appreciate you even if we're asking tough questions today.

And that's okay. Tough questions are important. But please know that I and we will look at anything that we need to look at. Ultimately, it's about those that we serve. And many of again many of those that we serve are the sickest. And so I would love to be able to change some systems so that we had some resources for people to go into long-term care because they're never going to go into a shelter or into a space. Um so it's a both and. It's not just about police. It's not just about EMS. It's not just about it's about a larger system and how can we best do that? So we want to be a part of that. We are I think a very important part of that. But it's also important for us to be where we have can have access for folks because I believe each one of those individuals are some are the child of God or somebody's mother and father or sister or aunt or uncle [snorts] and they shouldn't have to die on the streets just because we can't get them resources. I literally stopped in the middle of the street, put my hazards on as a guy was standing yelling about get this out of me, get this out of me. So trying to protect him from getting run over as we have. So we have unfortunately we just have to meet them where they are and start where we are and try to get those resources and change the systems so that we complete we have a complete system for everybody just not those that are unfortunately just needing a little bit of additional help. Some of them need a whole lot of help and we'll work and do that.

Thank you for the commentary. Uh Deianne, any other council members that have specific questions or comments to Deianne? Um I just want to address one more thing. Um we were not around in 2012 when you opened up at Second and Topeka and I understand that we are now in these seats and we get a lot of feedback from residents regarding Second and Topeka. I have toured Open Door. I have been with you and seeing the services you provide within the building. I think what people see is what is outside of that building and the visible homelessness in our community. And we know that each individual is facing a different challenge whether it's a simple hand up because they couldn't pay their rent or as you've mentioned our sickest uh individuals who don't want that help inside. they want to be outside and h and engage in that way.

Um, but we have to have a balance and that's where we as a council came up with back in 2024 in December an ordinance against illegal encampments which had been around for more than a decade and that's representative of the community that we want. we don't believe that people should be living in tents in our community. And so the agreed

the fines were reduced at that time and it also said when there's shelter space available. Well, now fast forward to 2026 and we do have a shelter that is available. Um this is a low barrier shelter that's available for men and women in our community that want that help. And what I'm asking is that collaboration of as council member Johnston just said, Second Light needs Open Door. We know the critical services you provide from 7:30 a.m. to 400 p.m. Monday through Friday, but we need those services also on Saturday and Sunday and beyond. And that's why the city has invested in one location at 9th and Main Street. and it is a collaborative effort and I understand that back in 2012 it was supposed to be a collaborative effort that didn't get followed through but we're in 2026 now and everyone is wanting to be part of that solution at 9th and Main Street called Second Light and I really urge you and encourage you. I understand that you've been at the table for more than three years with these conversations, but we need Second Light and Open Door to provide those services to individuals that are facing homelessness. And when we have one location, Ninth and Main Street, where we're providing a lot of those services, but the missing piece is those day services that you are an expert at. You are an expert at day services. How do you engage people during the daytime? And so I encourage you to be back at the table and make sure that again, Second Light with Open Door are able to provide services at 9inth and Main Street and really make it a true one-stop location

to serve residents that are facing homelessness. And again, I know that this council has a heart for lives from our young baby lives that we just passed an ordinance to our elderly individuals, which by the way, Second Light is seeing a lot more individuals who are older than age 55 at their doorsteps needing homeless services.

Absolutely. And so again, my encouragement is to please work with Second Light at 9inth and Main Street to provide those services in one location so we can tell people you can get those services over there and everything's coordinated. And this is not uh for Open Door, but it's really for the rest of the community that wants to help out. We want help at Second Light at 9inth and Main Street. Instead of providing the sandwiches at a random location, Second Light has the food thanks to the Lord's Diner. And so, how can we be more collaborative in one location is what I'm asking for and my encouragement

and I look forward to that. And key will will be uh funding funding funding.

Thank you, Deian. Council member Tuttle. Thank you, Cindy. Could I borrow you for a second? Up here, please. I'm I'm going to ask you a few questions and then I'm going to editorialize because I am really really really uncomfortable with this conversation right now in this process. Um I've been a grant maker and a grant seeker for 30 years. And so what we have done in the last bit while I appreciate this discussion, it should be happening at a workshop or a separate opportunity because we have given one of the 10 applicants preferential treatment by allowing them to have a Q&A response in my opinion. So I'm going to ask you during this process there were applications and each each any of the 10 parties the or organizations completed a an application process that each of the grant review committee members read we're assuming. Can you tell me what happened then after that? You all convened together presentations where question and answers asked. Can you just tell us a little bit about the process because today we are creating a new process and like I said it's making me very uncomfortable. I'm hearing for some other folks that they also think that it's uncomfortable. Can you just confirm to us that the grants review committee did their due diligence? Please explain. Thank you.

Yeah. So, so I certainly can. And we had more than one three meetings, right? Three or four. I couldn't There was one online and I I thought there was two or three additional ones. So, we we each received all the the applications, had plenty of time to review those applications. Uh, and of course I I think we're all looking at how many how many people that each of the organizations serves. What's their role in their community? What kind of impact are they have are they having? What kind of revenue do the organizations have? What kind of, you know, what kind of grants are there they're asking for? And then we did have uh a session where we had each of the organizations come and provide presentations so we could hear a little bit more about what those organizations are doing. uh that gives us some additional insight and and I like you uh count councilwoman Tuckle Tut Tuttle Tuttle I can't I'm uh you know I've been sitting on grant review committees for quite some time and I've been on both ends and so it is challenging work so we listen to all the presentations we had conversation about what we thought was most important to the community again looking at the different resources that the organizations had access to looking at the years of funding ing that organizations had been had been funded. Uh I think we had pretty good conversation about, you know, how we could best spend the funds that we had available. There was certainly conversations about, you know, the youth issues that we're hearing about in the community and how do we best address that? And then we came to consensus on how we were going to fund these organizations. I know there was some frustration expressed by by a few of us the fact that we're limited with we have to give an organization a minimum of 50,000. So we can't break it down and say okay we're going to give the Y 25,000 and we're going to give Prime Fit

25,000. Um I'm also exploring like you know Prime Fit they were just funded a couple of years ago. That's the first time they've ever been funded to address youth. Witchaw Children's Home. They're they're new to this list. Big Brothers and Big Sisters. I think it's only been in the last six or seven years. And every time we fund somebody new, not on this grant, on any grant, unfortunately, funds have to be reallocated from other some other organization that was funded. So, I felt like it was a pretty fair process. We had a lot of great conversation on what we should do and again trying to make the best decisions we could with the funding that we have. just like all of us do with with our personal budgets or our business budgets or whatever every single day. So,

thank you. And and I'll have more comments later, but I just wanted to highlight something that you said. Every one of these 10 applicants is completely worthy to get full funding. It isn't that. It's that just like with everything, we have to allocate funds based on the best information that we have at the time. The other thing, and and I talked to Sally about this several different times, I've talked to Andrew. We had some chats that the grant review committee is tasked with saying this is the application. This is their presentation. That's what you should be looking at. And that's a that's a very u model process. You shouldn't be think and it's hard but you shouldn't be thinking about the good work that they do or the gayla that you went to or the you know this or that or whatever. You have to be with the the information that's presented to you and and that is really challenging to try and keep that objectivity. But I talked to my grants review person today and she also concluded that she felt like the process was followed and the recommendations from the grant review committee were solid. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Ballard. Thank you, Mayor Andrew. I have a quick question for you, and I'm sorry if this has already been covered. Is 50,000 the minimum? Okay. Yep. So, is that just the way that the grant is written or could we give 20 different organizations a lesser amount?

So, so we we pivoted to $50,000 as a minimum a couple years ago um just because we I think it was in our ESG funding specifically. We would have some organizations that were getting like $8,000 or $9,000 and it was just administratively burdersome for for both to have us this small amount of of money going towards um our receiving these funds in that small amount of money. So, in order to kind of try to to ease that administrative burden, we would we went to the minimum of $50,000 just to um have that there um as far as you know because it is it does take a lot um to administer these programs and receive this funding. And so um kind of raising that minimum was something that we discussed internally of doing. So,

and last question. This is a little redundant and nobody asked for less than 50,000. No agency asked for less than 50,000. Great. Thank you, Council Member Shepard.

Thank you, Mayor. And I really appreciate just the u conversation that's happened um with the previous speaker and a council member uh particularly because I think it highlights a major issue that I coming from a nonprofit world, I feel like we are always running up against of fighting for crumbs is what my nonprofit friends would say. And um I too have already received emails and conversations about um you know some of my colleagues share with me their thoughts of it's hard to pick winners and losers when so many of these agencies are doing critical work and I agree with that sentiment. I think it's also hard to to say that when we have decided to invest in a nonprofit agency astronomically and uh that that I do know is not sending a good message to our nonprofit community and it's something we need to be honest about. It doesn't mean we stop funding. It doesn't mean we stop supporting. It means that we have to look at the precedent that has been set and how do we create an equal and equitable playing field and we have to in my opinion not always rely on the federal funding from housing to to do that. And so I also feel for housing uh because you all are just receiving the allocation from the federal government and dispersing it to these agencies who are doing hard work. It is up to us as a council and working with our city manager to figure out how do we provide a level of support for these agencies that are helping fill the gap that we are unable to due to capacity, whatever the case may be. That being said, um I did have the opportunity to meet with Sally as I and many other council members do one-on-one every month. I was very transparent in saying I had some concerns. Yesterday, I took the time to go physically meet and sit down with um District 1's appointment to the board. That feedback was was shared with me as well as I had the opportunity to review

the applications. I asked for the applications. All of us had the opportunity to ask for the applications. I reviewed the applications. And so I say that to say I will be making recommendations to amend this. But it is not to disparage the quality or the value of any of these organizations. I have supported every single one of these organizations both in my personal time and in a professional manner. I think I have to look at data. I have to look at um the application and taking into consideration the recommendations of the committee. Folks have warned me that opening up this door would maybe create an opportunity for other people to lobby me. Great. That's what I signed up for. I'm in government. folks should come and lobby local government and every level of government for what they feel they need in order to have a thriving city that meets their needs. So, I know we're just in discussion now, but I just wanted to share that. Thank you. Uh, a couple more questions. I did ask you about outcomes and um I appreciate you giving me outputs. Outcomes is what I'm really most interested in. what are we truly solving when it comes to um these various community services? And it started with a conversation about YMCA and it really is about youth opportunities and youth programs and youth crime prevention. And then we talk about our homelessness in our community and outcomes there is we want to see functional zero homelessness in Witchah. And so I'm looking at this in the outcomes uh perspective. So I'm going to start off with I did review the applications. Thank you council member Shepard for forwarding the forwarding on those applications. Um United Methodist Open Door um over the past five months housed 23 people. My question maybe is not to you but to housing is outcomes. uh can you please provide over the past

five months uh how many folks have been housed from Second Light and I know that housing has been present at Second Light. Um and again I also see that housing is listed as one of the uh providers at Open Door. Uh there were 10 providers listed at the homeless resource center. Puncher Health, Grace Med, Cedric County Comm, uh, Substance Abuse Center of Kansas, ICT Street, Department of Children and Families, City of Witchah Housing, United Way of the Plains, uh, Veterans Administration Hospital Days, and BikeWalk Witchah. So, can you please share um the outcomes at Second Light? I will have to provide you follow-up information since the last number I had is about a month old and it was at 43. So that would have been towards the end of the first quarter was about 43 and that was a combination of all the community partners from about January uh December 31st but I'll provide you updated information.

Thank you Steve and I appreciate that. And maybe this is another follow-up question regarding outcomes. Again, um there are only so many dollars and proving that we're trying to solve the issue is what we want to see. Uh whatever the challenges, homelessness, youth crime prevention, really youth opportunities, uh is what I consider what um some of these services provide. Can you again share um how you look um at outcomes versus outputs within housing?

Certainly the greatest outcome would be a reduction in our point in time count of known homeless individuals across our community. Right? So you have to track the differentiation of inflow then outflow to see a net reduction over the course of the year. And with the programs that the housing department is implementing currently, including the encampment and direct the housing processes, we are shooting for a net reduction in our point in time count for the January 27 point in time count. So we're looking to reduce overall homelessness in our community. Yes, we can count output as housed individuals, but there's also other metrics including keeping them housed, right? and finding some way to manage inflow in some way. So, we're working with a criminal justice system to somehow divert inflow. Our homelessness prevention program is entirely intended to divert inflow. So, at the end of the day, we're looking for a net reduction in homelessness in our community over the course of the year as counted by our annual point in time count.

Thank you. And maybe this is a follow-up question. Maybe Captain Moses. Um, this is a question regarding outcomes when it comes to youth crime uh in our community. That has been a topic that has been of great interest to this council. Um, and so I wanted to just hear what overall you're seeing when it comes to youth crimes in our community.

Uh, I don't have data in front of me right now as far as youth involved crime. um across the city. I do have the most recent data we had uh through the end of April for city-wide crime showed reductions in every single cate category of violent and property uh part one crime. Uh other than homicide for this year compared to last year, we have seen an increase in 2026 compared to this time in 2025. Uh but compared to the five-year average, we are below in homicide. Uh and then every other category has seen decreases. Thank you for that and sorry to put you on the spot. Um I know that youth services is something that the police department has a specific juvenile intervention unit and even that group right there collaborates with multiple partners and one of those partners is the YMCA. And so I guess my question again goes back to there has been a proven model that has worked, one that is helping our young people connect to positive uh engagement after school hours. Can you just address I guess um these youth opportunities like YMCA? How are they critical for youth crime prevention? Uh we welcome any engagement with youth across our community regardless of what entity or body is doing that engagement. Um I say all the time the police department's only real mechanism that we're powered with to intervene is arrest and it should not be the default mechanism. Um, so we certainly encourage anybody to engage with youth across our community regardless of what entity or uh personal group, religious group that they represent.

Thank you, Captain Moses. Council member Hoheisle. Thank you, Mayor. Um, Steve, just real quick, I have a question or two for you. [clears throat] Um, do you have any idea what the budget is that Second Light used to house the 43 individuals in the first quarter? [sighs]

Well, their current operating budgets related to the the services they need to keep the building open and a lot of the mechanisms used to house those people were a combination of the senior housing complexes that are operated by Metanite, the RAD complexes like Greenway Manor, MLAN manor. We used some tenant based rental assistance. Um we used some homeless um preference program on the section 8 program. Um it was a combination of all those as rental resources because as you know Second Light doesn't have any actual rental assistance resources attached to it.

Okay. [snorts] And the second question is um what can you describe the barriers towards getting into the program beds with Second Light? Is somebody who's screaming at the clouds? Would they be accepted into Second Light for the uh their programming to get them eventually into housing?

Well, I'm not Dan, right? Not running the organization. I'm not even on the board. Um, I have been in a lot of these conversations as many of us have, but the entire idea was that the continuum of services offered at Second Light was low barrier um, congregate shelter and if you're working a housing plan and you really want to work towards ending your homelessness, then you'll be offered a program bed eventually with Parkland on the back of it. if whatever barrier is keeping you from congregate shelter has you moving into non- congregate shelter in the first floor so that you can eventually use the entire campus in order to move on from your homelessness was the original idea

so if you have extreme mental health mental illness um that program might not be suitable for you I don't think any program that puts a roof over somebody's head is without merit no matter what your barriers are

I agree I'm just I'm looking at what the options are for some of these crowds that are not quite ready to go to second night quite yet and what are the options out there for them currently. There's reasons why people don't go to congregate shelter including pet partners and possessions right and we second light is growing to accommodate for all of those barriers and it's becoming a more accommodating place and I think there's a lot of conversation in the non in the unsheltered community that shelter's not somewhere they want to go and they have not given this one yet a chance as it's evol evolving and becoming a lovely place which is also why we've developed this uh direct to housing program in case people for some reason need to skip shelter.

But again, if you have severe mental health illness, um that programming, that 100 beds that they have set aside probably is not for you. But the 30 beds that they have for overnight, that that might be suitable to at least get you off of the streets. And I understand too, we're building this as we go. I want collaboration in the future. I'm also looking at what options we have for certain crowds that are being overlooked right now. Forgive me for not providing a direct response because I think somebody with severe mental health probably also needs to be in shelter because that's going to ailarate the significance of their mental health to a point where maybe they can engage in home housing services,

right? So that's sort of my response that shelter is really really important and if they have significant mental health issues that doesn't mean they don't belong in shelter and belong in a street. I think our state mental health hospital and other resources that are coming online might be a more direct path for some of those people, but let's not forget how traumatizing it is to be unsheltered and how much of that unshelteredness contributes to their mental health. Thousand%. I appreciate it. Thanks, Steve. Welcome.

A followup to that, Steve, really quick. Sorry. I think what council member Hohheisle um is alluding to, I've had the opportunity to be in his district, district number three, uh where multiple residents have said things like, "Well, there's an encampment at Chapen Park." And that in particular is a location where people do go uh if they don't go to shelter a building. Um so can you address I guess where do people go? So if an individual is severely mentally uh ill or has more sickness once open door closes its doors at 4 p.m. where do they go? Can you just address what where do they go?

It's a little bit of conjecture because the folks who are down at Chap Chapen and in Johnny Mack are survivors and it what it takes for them to live in that encampment situation. There's permanent structures down there. There's solar panels and certainly there's people down there with significant mental illness. There's people in shelter, but there's also people who are living on our sidewalks downtown waiting for our mental health resources to open the next day. I think and I'm seeing that a lot of them are downtown still. Thank you. You're welcome, Council Member Johnston.

Thank you, uh, Council Member Hohisel. I think your example is good. the person screaming with their hair on fire in the middle of the street uh years ago would have been the state mental hospital.

We don't have those resources anymore. Um so that that's sad in itself and as Dian said, we do need some some way to house the the the population that is not be able to function in the society anymore. Um that being said, mayor, I think when we talk about outcomes, we have to compare apples to apples. And I think we're comparing apples to oranges because right now Second Light is doing the easiest to house. Um whereas Deianne and Open Door are doing the hardest to house and it's completely two different populations. And and both of them need to be taken care of, but I also see Second Lights. We have to have some success. Let's get people taken care of. And I see Deian's point to where we need services for the house, hardest to house to. That's why I sincerely hope that although I'm very disappointed that the board decided not to partner with Second Light now, very disappointed. Um I think hopefully in the future they can work that out and and figure out a way to partner with with Second Light. So

a technical question for Andrew then uh given what council member Johnston just said, can there be a provision that requires uh those services if provided to a specific entity to then be required to provide those services out of specific location? Yes, we can do that. So in other words, we can allocate um in this situation, United Methodist Open Door funding to be um only utilized at Second Light. Is that accurate? Um Sally is going to probably provide more feedback on that. So

Sally staying with the Housing and Community Services Department for the record. Technically, yes. Um actually, the HUD regulations do not even require you go through any type of process. The city can hand choose who they want as a subreient. We have chosen through our consolidated plan to go through a process for allocating that. But in the end, it is the per it is up to the council as to what they want to fund and what we would place in that contract.

Thank you, Sally. I see no further questions from this bench. Uh, thank you for all those who provided answers during staff and community questioning time. We will now open it up for public comment. Good afternoon. My name is um Amanda Myers. I'm the executive director of the Witchaw Family Crisis Center. We pro we provide services and safe confidential shelter to victims of domestic violence and human trafficking throughout South Central Kansas. On behalf of the board of directors, I'm here to ask you to reconsider the grant review committee's recommendation for community development brock grant or CDBG funding allocations. The purpose of CDBG funding is, and this is a direct quote from the federal government, to support community development activities to build stronger and more resilient communities. The Witchaw Family Crisis Center receives absolutely no city funding and absolutely no county funding. The Witchah Family Crisis Center served over 4,000 people last year, not 44, and reached 10,000 community members with its programming. We provide services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to homeless victims. Yes, we are also a homeless provider. um they are fleeing for their lives which is incredibly challenging work. Our advocates deal with incredibly traumatic situations. We are part of the process of dealing with victims of domestic violence. We work really really closely with law enforcement. Thank you so much for providing for law enforcement today. But I also want to acknowledge that without our services there would be nowhere for those victims

to go. So, as part of a holistic process, we are part of that. Um, and our advocates deal with a lot of trauma. We deal with those those victims who sometimes choose not to testify that cause those DAs all that stress. Um, there are thousands of victims who become financially independent, housed, stronger, and more resilient community members because we work with them every year. Demand for our services hang has increased dramatically. Last year, we served 109% more survivors and double the number of children. And the Witchah Police Department recently reported last week that domestic violence is on the rise. Unlike programs that operate periodically, like once a day or, you know, one time a week, our work requires constant immediate availability. Domestic violence is at its core a life ordeath issue. Safety must come first because without it no other support system, no other program, no other afterchool program can truly take hold. This level of work is incredibly intense and it's incredibly effective. We are very good at what we do and yes, we've been doing it for a very long time. There are a lot of nonprofits in this community and we know that we've been doing it for a very long time. a lot of nonprofits per capita and to your point a lot of us are very good at what we've been doing because we've been doing it for a very long time. We see a lot of new profits new nonprofits come up and they're amazing and I would never want to throw any under the bus because we are all struggling for scraps but unfortunately a lot duplicate services because we all have such great hearts but they duplicate services and they dissipate funds. CDBG is not the place to be struggling for those new funds.

That's not necessarily that grant. That's not for it. It's an amazing thing that we're doing a grant review committee for this. I'm not necessarily sure this is the right place for that. Right. This is federal funding for one purpose. [sighs and gasps] This level of work, like I said, is incredibly intense and effective, but it's also incredibly expensive. For example, this year we will run out of government grant funds for food and client needs by the end of our fiscal year. Last year we provided close to 20,000 meals in our shelter alone, just in our shelter. The Witchaw Family Crisis Center does not rely solely on CDBG funding or even on government grant funding, even though we've received it for a really long time. I also want to acknowledge that we used to receive EESG funding. Um, and we have received less than $50,000 at a time. I know I know it's administratively hard, but it's administrative administratively the same whether Oh, shoot. I have 30 seconds. Whether we receive 50,000 or 15,000. We are good. And I Oh, shoot. I have 30 seconds. Andrew's amazing. He's a great administrator, but less than 50,000 is okay. It's still money. Without the 50,000, children won't receive them the food and we won't be able to open up as many rooms. Thank you for your time today.

Thank you, Amanda.

Good afternoon. My name is Lavant Williams and I will have to say that my heart was warmed when I saw the independent school kids and heard their presentations. I think that my life's purpose was for young people because I feel that that's where our future comes from. For more than 30 years, the afterchool, the YMCA middle school afterchool program with the partnership of the city of Witchah and USD259. All of those components are very important. It started with a city manager by the name of Chris Churches who said, "Let's come to the table and let's see what we can do to help inspire that vulnerable group of young people who are middle schoolers." There are so many of you that would not teach a middle school child. I did for over 35 years. Sometimes the middle school program is quiet, but recently I was so inspired by my old school, Hamilton Middle School, being on TV in the afterchool program, showing how they could make quilts for others that needed them. That was very inspiring for me to see. These programs are not new. This program is not new. For over 30 years, close to 35 years it's been in existence. It's been untested. It's been proven. We serve over 3,000 up to 4,000 students. This very afterchool program led by the three partners was very instrumental in us acquiring the title of all American city because we went on the trip with them taking kids and we

had an opportunity to say Witchah is doing something that other cities want to see. So for us to say an all-American city has been inspired by the YMCA afterchool program and its partners is very important. They keep our schools and our young people safe after school because those hours from 3 until 6:00 are very very important especially for middle school. Especially for middle school. So it keeps them safe, but it also keeps them out of getting into trouble. So that's a very important part as well. Youth crime prevention is very important. We need to be pouring information and pouring ourselves into as many youth as we can. So all of those youth that are on that receiving end, thank you. All of us need to be there doing that same thing. Not only does it keep them safe, but those youth have to have academic assistance after school. So, they take the time to get their homework done and they take their time to even interact with teachers in a different way. But making sure that the homework is there is very important. It helps families because the families sometimes don't get home until 5 or 5:30. And so if the kids are just getting home, this helps a family household as well. These programs also build students, they build futures. They teach teamwork, leadership, and responsibility. They expose young people to opportunities that they might not otherwise have. And they help prepare the next generation of leaders right here in our city. As a person who enjoy youth, I was very responsible for

bringing on the mayor's youth council. To go out of town and see that others had a youth council and Witchah did not. When I came on council, I was like, "Oh, no. That's not going to happen here." And we created a mayor's youth council. Again, that's an opportunity for us to pour into our youth and to help our youth see that there is a future that is very important. And let's be clear, the programs play a critical role in equity for many neighborhoods. As I think about it and and I look at the preventing super uh supporting afterchool programs is not just an expense. It's an investment in safety, success, and the ability. It's not about the YMCA. I don't even want to sing the song, but it's not about the YMCA. It's about kids. City Council, I want you to understand that it does take that village to raise that child. And the city of Witchah has been a part of that village for over 30 years. and we ask that you continue to be that partner with us and help us to make sure that our youth are headed in the right direction. Please, let's take a look at how this process is done.

Thank you, Levant.

Hey, good afternoon. My name is Mark Quail. Uh I'm the the board chair of the Witchaw Family Crisis Center. up here on behalf of them. But my day job is with Cargill. I'm the general counsel of Cargill's protein business. And I also in that capacity get to serve as uh the the lead of our giving uh in in Witchah, which is really just a joy and really a fun part of my my role. And I heard earlier, you know, giving is hard and I understand that. And we look at what we need to do and where we need to make our impact. So I just want to I just want to reemphasize what you're saying earlier, uh Mayor Woo, in terms of outcomes. I do think that that's important and we look at the the number of people that we we look at the number of people that that that are impacted. We look at the number of people that we feed. We look at the number of of people who frankly are alive with with with what we do and how we can manage that. So I just I just want to add that it's I've I've been listening today and sometimes it feels like you know just the nature of this grant. I understand, you know, we're talking about apples and oranges in in so many ways and so it is it is difficult but I really urge you to think about the impact on on on people's lives who are really have nowhere else to go and then what what that means in relative to what this grant is supposed to do. So thank you for time.

Thank you Markwell. Hey, mayor council. Thanks for having us. Just wanted to speak a little bit on the on the process and just clarify a few things. Levante did a great job of of uh proitizing for how great the program is. Um just on the uh on on the on the process itself though um as she mentioned you know we uh ve very interested in in a competitive grant or the system that we have and and I think it's been said several times obviously from these conversations it's apples and oranges all the way across not just in the homelessness but youth versus homelessness um and and we respect as the why every every grant or every applicant we certainly want everyone to be funded as as uh council chef said, "Sometimes it does feel like um that we're going for crumbs here." Uh I did want to say though that that you know that the application wasn't really about how long you were doing it or necessarily how much what what else you do. And similar to you guys can't take CDBG funding and and put it in potholes, you know, our membership revenue goes to and invest in our facilities and and all of those things. And so as much as it looks like we have coming on the balance sheet, it's all going out every single year back into our community through our facilities and through our investments in our community. So um when we when we do do offer a free program like the afterchool middle school program, it is ra fundraised through uh community members and for over 30 years it's been a partnership with the city as well as USGT259. Um it does it will have an impact if we don't receive funding. So we do appreciate the consideration. Thank you. Thank you, Ron. Would anyone else from the community like to speak about this agenda item?

So, I just want to wrap up with saying the the committee, we don't we didn't believe that any of these organizations aren't making a huge impact. They all make a huge impact. We have tons of organizations in this community from small to large that making an impact. But one of the things I we had to look at as a committee was what resources did each of these organizations have available to me to them? And I can tell you United Methodist Open Door doesn't have the resources that the Y has. I can tell you Witchah Family Crisis Center doesn't have the resources that Envision has. I can tell you that because I look at nonprofit data all the time and I can tell you they're all doing great work. And if we look at, you know, if if we looked at impact and I can the first time that I served on one of these committees several years ago, I took my pen and I started figuring out, okay, the Y serves this many people divided by this much money they want. that's $1 per kid or this one serves an this many people which is $100 per person and you can't make decisions based on that because if I serve a kid that is headed down a road like Big Brothers and Big Sisters may that is has specific challenges that they're facing and we have an opportunity to intervene with that child. That's very specific. So the number of people that Big Brothers and Big Sisters serve is way less. And same with Prime Fit than the Y than the Y serves. And and it will be. It always will be because they're serving kids with specialized needs. We have an opportunity to intervene specifically.

It's not a shotgun approach. We're not serving all the youth. We're serving those that are already headed down a road that's going to end them up at the Witchah Family Crisis Center or United Methodist Open Door if we don't intervene. That I think that's the concern that we saw is that what resources are available and and where do we serve those specific people to make sure that they don't go down that they don't continue to go down that path. They don't end up in prison. I I know with the population that I work work with, black children go into the foster care system at three times the rate of white children. How do we stop that? Well, we've got to have very intensive services to stop that and a shotgun approach. While it's great to have an afterchool program for kids, I don't disagree. I think all of our kids need to be able to engage in something, but it is a shotgun approach. We're hoping that we save some of those kids, but we're letting, you know, we can't choose to also let those that are already going down the wrong path to continue to sink. Thank you. Thank you, Cindy. With that, thank you to the five individuals who spoke during public agenda. I will close public comment for this agenda item and bring it back to the bench for discussion. Council member Tuttle.

Thank you. Um I I spent some time chatting with Sally and um I talked to the city manager. There's two things that one thing has to happen today. We have to approve the plan. Um and I think all of us are probably okay. I'm making an assumption and I would like discussion. If not, I think everybody's probably okay with all of this except the $475,000 for CBDG. So, I am going to make a motion because I want to make sure the plan gets passed, even though I have a feeling this other part's going to get tricky, sticky. I don't know what word I want to use. So, with that, I'm going to move that the Witto City Council close the public hearing, approve the funding allocations excluding the subreient public services from the grant review committee in the amount of $475,000.

Second. Thank you. Motion second. Discussion. Council member Ballard. So, Council Member Tuttle, you're saying approve the funding, but not specifically who it goes to. No, I'm saying approve everything but that part and carve that out and have it as a separate discussion because the rest of the plan must be approved today. Okay. Thank you for the question, Council Member Johnston. So, a follow-up question, Council Member Tuttle. When would we decide? Who would decide? When would we decide? I think we should do it today, but there may be people who want to vote for the rest of the plan, but not what is being recommended and that. Okay.

So that way you don't have to vote no. Uh I I am fine with the rest of it. I have a feeling the $475,000 allocation could include some things that I'm not in favor of. And so that way you don't have to vote no for the plan and put the rest of the plan at risk of not getting passed for HUD. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for the question. We have a motion. Second. Any discussion? I Oh, council member Shepard. No, you can.

Well, I will offer a substitute motion. I do not want to delay this any further. So, I am going to make some amendments to the Go ahead. May I ask you a question? Of course. Absolutely. Yeah. So, what I'm recommending is that we discuss the recommendations for funding after this vote. So, that way the rest of the plan still gets passed and then have the what I'm assuming will be a hearty discussion regarding the 10 organizations that applied for funding. Yeah, I I totally understand your logic behind that. I wanted to just submit it all together as one with amendments to the CBDBG area. Okay. So, you're making a motion just to vote for it all at once. Uh-huh.

Okay. Thank you. I just wanted to clarify. Yep. Okay. So, uh um I will make a motion to amend Prime Fit from 60,629 down to 556 or 53 629, I'm sorry. Also amend masters and mentors from 55625 to 5625 Witchah's Children's Home to the minimum 50,000 and increase Witchah Family Crisis center. So, I believe that would allow us to increase Witchaw Family Crisis Center to the 71,000. I I really wish I could get to the 100,000. I also can't justify cutting anywhere else that would make sense that would also honor the recommendation of the committee to an extent while also taking into consideration the percentages in which we have cut Catholic Charities which is a similar organization. So if we ex if we approve this that means Catholic Charities would have been cut 33%. This would put Witchah Family Crisis Center at 30%. It's not what I want at all. It's It's where I think I can get today.

Second

motion. Second. Can I offer a friendly amendment? Um, all of these organizations are valuable to the community and I'm very grateful that there are executive directors passionate about solving the challenge that is ahead and that is why your nonprofit exists. Um, I have a friendly amendment asking if it can go down from 50,000 to a more reasonable level. would 45,000 or 40,000 still allow um these organizations to be funded, but I think more of an opportunity for um what I've been hearing, which is intervention and prevention is key. And at least four of the current providers provide that intervention and prevention then that's Big Brothers, Big Sisters, Prime Fit, Plain View, and Masters and Mentors. But it's missing the YMCA which was something again that it was a collaborative effort and we just held a tri-government meeting literally about city county and USD259 coming together and in this situation it's city community partner YMCA and USD259 coming together. So may I ask if the qu if it can be reduced below the 50,000? Um, so as city council, you you do have that um ability to do so. Yes.

I'm going to offer a substitute or a friendly amendment.

I would not be supportive of that and let me let me explain why because there are organizations that have been recommended that do work in tandem with the school district. I mean these these the committee one of the points of feedback that I've heard from my colleagues is to we also want to be mindful of respecting the time of the committee and the recommendations that they have provided. I also don't believe that means we have to accept it fully. I'm trying to balance meeting the moment with what has been shared by the committee. And when I have again consternation was high with this. I reached out to just about everyone I could, including Witchaw Police Department. My rationale in moving things around to make sure we get as close to that allocation for Witchaw Family Crisis Center is because the data of the spike in domestic violence cases in 2025. Uh we had DV crimes 3% increase compared to the 5-year average, 8% increase compared to the 2024. And then 2026 year-to- date part one violent DV crime 5% increase compared to the 5-year average 6% increase compared to the 2025 year to date. And so when I take that data into consideration and and I and I hear of the cases that are happening and I see the need and what is being provided by Witchaw Family Crisis Center, I think they're going to have to cut what they're able to provide. Even with that 71,000, I'm trying to mitigate the damage that this does for folks who are trying to flee domestic violence and many of whom do become homeless because they feel that they have nowhere else to go. But if you want to put it forward, mayor, I'm I'm comfortable with you seeing if you would get any support from other colleagues. I'm not going to stand in your way.

There's a current substitute motion, so we'll go ahead and work this one through. I feel like there's still some comments. Vice Mayor Glascott or Council Member, sorry, John Sten. Okay. Vice Mayor Glascott. Uh, Council Member Shepard, is yours a substitute motion or an amendment to Council Member Tuttles's motion? It was a substitute motion so we could accept it all as one. I think Council Member Tuttle wanted to just parse it out and I offered a substitute motion to accept and amend this section.

Okay. Okay. So, I would offer an amendment to the substitute motion that we go back to the prevailing motion that we would just approve the funding allocations excluding the subreient public services um GRC in the amount of 475,000.

Second motion second. Any other discussion? Council member Tuttle. Okay. I have lots of concerns about what's happening right now. And I've said this before when we've had conversations about our economic development tools. We are changing the game in the middle. We're changing the rules in the middle of the game. And it doesn't seem appropriate to the community. It doesn't seem appropriate to the uh grant review committee who took a lot of their time. It doesn't seem appropriate to the applicants. So, I still would like to vote on them separately, but I'm even thinking now that the rule is changed that it doesn't have to be 50 and it can go down to whatever number we want it to be. Do we send it back to the grant review committee and say we've changed the game rules? Um, I I don't know. I see some no from the grant review committee representative, but we could sit here all day long and nickel and dime and not all of us maybe read the applications. We didn't see their presentations. Like I said, we changed it to it has to be 50 now. We're saying it doesn't have to be 50. I mean, we're we're going by the seat of our pants. So, I would very much like us to make sure that we pass the plan so that Sally has exactly what she needs from HUD and then we make a thoughtful decision of do we sit here and figure out how many more rules are we going to change, right? And so, we task the grant review committee with these are your guidelines. Please come back to us with decisions. I understand there wants to be, you know, discussion, but how many more rules are we going to change? So, I think I would very much like us to approve the plan for HUD's sake, for Sally's sake, for her team's sake, and then we figure out, are we going to sit here and decide which of these 10 organizations is getting, how much, and I don't know what kind of that's going to what discussion

that'll be, or do we come up with another plan? Um, that wasn't as varnished as I wish it would have been, but my level of frustration is just pretty high right now. Thank you, Council Member Shepard. Thank you for your vulnerability. Uh, Council Member Tuttle, I I understand why you're frustrated. Um, may I ask a question? Oh, sure. Can you help me understand how moving this plan forward and parsing out helps with the reality that we are still going to have to have spirited debate about the allocation of the CBDG funding?

Yeah, I'd be happy to answer that. Um, I think first of all, it gives Sally what she needs that we can make sure the plan has the plan Sally say yes, no, yell, scream, whatever you want to do. The plan has to be passed today, right? Even if we don't decide the exact funding allocation. Andrew is also nodding. So that way we don't get any I don't think troubles the word but we need to follow compliance with HUD. Am I correct?

Correct. We have to submit 45 days before the plan year starts. So we only have until May 15th to submit the plan. So absolutely the plan could be submit. It could be approved with the 475 allocated for public services with the particular allocations to be determined later today. Whatever you guys decide. But in the end, we really need that plan approved so we can get it submitted or we're putting $4 million at risk.

Completely understand that and we definitely don't want to do that. I certainly don't want to do that either and I'm supportive of moving the plan forward. I I I guess a followup to that and I don't really care who it comes from. I I mean, we keep talking about the implications that it has on staff and what are the implications that it has on the nonprofits if we choose to keep them waiting in limbo.

Yeah, that that's also a challenge. Our program year starts July 1st. I hate to say it, but HUD's been very, very slow in getting us funding agreements, which provides even more challenge for those agencies. Last year we received, they couldn't actually get started until October when we received the funding. The year before that was November. So, yeah, we just we want to make sure we have everything in timely. So, we are not causing any type of delay that hurts them further.

Thank you, Sally. And and I say that because I I've already mentioned out loud that I think nonprofit organizations are oftentimes trying to make ends meet. Um we have we have someone on the council who runs a nonprofit organization. So certainly we hear about that perspective often. Um we have folks who come from the nonprofit background as well, including my colleague. Um I I guess that that's my concernation and frustration I guess is both matter. [laughter] getting this plan approved for staff matter and making sure that nonprofits know how to move forward today matters. Um and and the last question I have is may I ask because I'm new here. Um what rules are we changing? Am I doing anything illegal? I don't want to I want to make sure I'm abiding by. I don't want attorney to send me any cease and desist letters or notices. So what what rules are changing just for my awareness? Can somebody clarify that for me? And I'll just say it was my understanding that the grant review committee was charged with not allocating less than $50,000 for per organization. And then and it's not like a please arrest. No, I'm just kidding. No, I'm just saying it was just it was the we had the guideline for the grant review committee that no one no organization would receive less than $50,000 and now it's being suggested that they do. And so that then is a totally different parameter and how the grant review committee might have allocated funding. They might have said $25,000 here or they might have said $30,000 here allowing other organizations to get funded or to get funded more. So that's why I I don't disagree that um we should leave here with a product today if at all possible for the sake of the non-forprofits. And I appreciate you recognizing that. The other caveat, as I mentioned, is I approve the rest of the plan, but I may not approve or be in agreement with how funding is changed if it's coming from this when we've already had the process

that we we recommended. So, that's why I'm suggesting that we vote on them separately. Thank you. And council member, just also when we put the RFP out, that was the organizations were charged with putting together an application that met that $50,000 threshold. They may have put in a different application if they knew they could be funded at a different level. Thank you, Council Member Hoheisle. Thank you, Mayor. I'm just trying to understand where we're at. So, Council Member Glascock has a amendment to the substitute motion to Council Member Tuttles motion.

So, the and the amendment is to essentially take staff's recommendations. The amend the amendment is to go back to the amendment is to close the public hearing authorize the necessary or close the public hearing approve the funding allocations excluding the subreient public services GRC in the amount of 475,000 and authorize a submission of the 2026 2027 annual action plan to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development the intention to continue to debate the funding allocation with the subreient public services. So your amendment is essentially council member Tuttles's motion. Correct. But it's tied to the substitute motion on the floor.

Okay. So we have to vote on the amendment and then vote on the substitute motion and then depending on if that fails or passes, we vote on the amendment. If the amendment passes, then the sub then the substitute motion the substitute motion with the amendment is there. Yeah. And then it becomes really what the main motion would have been. Right. Right. Okay. All right. Um I guess you have comments left. Vice Mayor Glascock. I was going to move to previous question.

All right. So now we are clear. We are voting on the amendment to the substitute motion that is moved by Vice Mayor Glascock, seconded by Council Member Tuttle. Council member Johnston. Wouldn't it be simpler just to vote down the substitute motion and go back to Councilman Tuttles's motion? Theoretically, which is very clear. Theoretically, it's the same thing, but it's a lot more clear. If the substitute motion were to pass, then the entire thing is passed in totality without the debate. Correct. So, which is council member Tuttles's motion?

And if it fails, a substitute motion fails, can the prevailing motion be brought back? Okay. Then it would be voted on. If the substitute motion fails, we are back on the prevailing motion. Council member Shepard, I just want to say if we move this forward and then it passes and we get to the CBDG portion and the prevailing vote kicks this down the road, that means nonprofit organizations are leaving here today not knowing what the outcome of their funding allocation is. Well, no, we could still decide that today. We just I said if if we leave here today and the vote is we want to table this particular portion if there's a majority. So I just wanted to share that. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think we're going to do that. I'm going to decide today

but let's just pass. So why not do it all? Let's just pass let's pass the rest of it and then decide. Move to previous question.

Okay. We are back to the amendment to the substitute motion. Vice Mayor Glasco, Council Member Tuttle. No further discussion on the board. Madame clerk, please open the role. Motion does not pass. Four to three. We are now back to council member Sheepard's substitute motion which had moved by council member Shepard and uh seconded by uh council member Ballard. Any other discussion? I see none. Oh, council member Tuttle.

Thank you.

Sorry. Thank you. I talked to again Sally and her team this morning and I told them that if it came down to this, I am not voting about the entire plan. I am voting about the way the process has been changed for the CDBG funding. So, I just want to make sure that the nonfor-pr I want to thank the nonforprofits who applied. I want to thank the staff. I want to thank the grant review committee. Um, I I just want to make it perfectly clear that um I I think again we're we're changing things in the middle and that's how I will be voting. Not that I don't support any of the nonforprofits and appreciate the work that they do and not that I don't support the rest of the plan. Thank you,

Vice Mayor Glasco. Just clarification from legal. If the substitute motion that is on the floor fails, then we go back to to the original motion from Council Member Tuttle. That's correct, Vice Mayor. Okay. Thank you, Council Member Hoheisle. Council member Shepard.

Thanks, Mayor. I just I just want to share none of the amendment includes keeping everybody at the $50,000 which respects staff's recommendations in terms of how they put out the application. Okay. So I'm not asking for anyone to go below that 50,000. This also balances out the recom tries to take in consideration respecting the committee's wish as well as meeting the moment in terms of the need and what our data shows [snorts] us. I really am confused on how it is that this amendment may be changing the rules. From my understanding, there have been multiple things that have come before the bench before where staff has made recommendations that we have completely voted against. There have been recommendations that have come before the bench that we have approved and and even enthusiastically. So, I think it's important for us to recognize that this is how democracy works. My friends remind me all the time that we live in a democratic republic. So I I think it's important for us to be consistent with the standards and the process in which we hold ourselves to. And I stand by my amendments and I welcome anybody to correct me if I'm doing something wrong.

Council member Hoheisle. Uh thank you, Mayor. Call the question.

Vice Mayor Glascock. All right, we have a substitute motion moved by council member Shepard, seconded by council member Ballard. I see no further discussion. Madame clerk, please open the role. Motion does not carry four to three. We are now back to the original motion moved by council member Tuttle, seconded by Vice Mayor Glasco.

Mayor with a motion. The motion for allocation for subreient of public services, I'll read it down by the line. Catholic Charities 50,000, Stepstone 50,000, Witchaw Family Crisis Center 100,000, Witchaw Children's Home 58,746, Kansas Big Brothers Big Sisters 50,000. Prime Fit Youth Foundation, $60,629. Uh Plain View Kulvin Kids Club, $50,000. United Methodist Open Door, $50,000 with the requirement to part or $50,55,625 the requirement to use those funds in a partnership with Second Light Masters and Mentors. 0.

Is there a second? I I I believe we still have a motion on the floor. Correct. Was that a substitute motion? Oh, so I will I will hold that until we pass. Uh yeah, I think we have to vote on the motion. We'll vote on the floor and then I come back with that. Yeah, we need to vote on your motion. It's your motion. We are back to the original motion moved by council member Tuttle, seconded by Vice Mayor Glascock. Discussion still on the board. Council member Hohheisle. Council member Tuttle.

I just want to clarify. We're going to be voting now on approving the plan sans the $475,000. And and I'm just going to make one more comment and I'm not trying to lobby my colleagues. The reason that I made it and the reason that I am going to be supportive still even through all this discussion is I am in agreement with the rest of it. How this is shaking down with the $475,000 I'm not. And I would appreciate the opportunity to vote on them separately so that I can show my support for the rest of the the plan and the work that housing does. So that was my rationale for the motion. Not that we shouldn't still try and hammer out this other um but that was my rationale. Thank you. Okay, we have a motion, second. No further discussion. Madame clerk, please open the role.

Motion passes 4 to three.

Mayor, with a motion, I move that the city council approved subreient public services in the amount of 50,000 for Catholic Charities, 50,000 for Stepstone, Inc., Uh 100,000 for Witchaw Family Crisis Center for Witaw Children's Home, 58,746 for Big Brothers Big Sisters, $50,000 for Prime Fit Youth Foundation, $60,629 for Plain View Kovven Kids Club, $50,000 for United Methodist Open Door, $50,000 contingent on partnership um with Second Light and then Master ers and mentors $0.

I think your math needs to be 55,625 for you. Sorry. Yes, that was the last $55,625. United Method open door contingent on Yeah, contingent on and it's actually an increase of the allocation suggested by $5,625. Is there a second? I'll second. There's a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Council member Shepard,

I will not be supportive of this. This cuts the recommendation of a program that specifically works with children who have been touched by the juvenile justice system to zero. Um, when we look at all the things that are happening in our community as it relates to gun violence, as it relates to Witchaw Police Department asking for community to be engaged in the process, this is a program that aligns with that. I also appreciate that the founder of this organization has been touched by the criminal justice system himself. He is using his expertise to now go in and work in partnership collaboration with JDF, a county entity, USD259 public school entity to meet the moment. Again, doing this would be detrimental and go against the urgent need that our community has told us that they have. So, I will not be supportive of this and I hope my colleagues will not be supportive of this recommendation either as we know the conversations that we've been having about crime in our community.

Council member Johnston, I can appreciate that, but there's only so much money and I think the full funding for Witchaw Family Crisis Center is critical. I think $100,000 is critical. an organization that does a great job um has proven it over years and just deals with a lot of tough issues. So that's why I second it. So member Shepard,

I completely agree that Witchaw Family Crisis Center does phenomenal work. I think we are pitting two vulnerable communities who serve remarkable factions of our community uh in very different ways, which is why the amendment that I made recognized that. And I and I wish I would have had the support for it because it didn't necessarily put Witchaw Family Crisis Center at the amount that they received last year, but it got them up to that being cut to 30%. Which was in alignment kind of closely with Catholic Charities Harbor House, which had been I think roughly 33%. So trying to balance out or similar organizations to get them to be at least near each other. Cutting this program. I mean that no one I don't know too many organizations that were applying again having read the applications who are using datadriven research to particularly work with kids who have been touched by the juvenile justice system county USD259 public schools and particularly in areas of our community where the data shows us that this is this is where the crime is happening. These are where our young people are most vulnerable. Not to mention the individuals running this program, they're coming from a lived experience background, using those lived experiences to create a framework that they know will work when they talk about impacting these kids. We we have similar programs like this in Witchaw. I think we have greater first team teaching golf. We have League 42 teaching baseball. And no, Masters and Mentors doesn't have a big infrastructure in our community, right? But the work that they're doing at a grassroots level matters and I hope that you all will join me in honoring that and saying no to this motion.

Vice Mayor Glascop.

Yeah. Justification for this motion is there are no perfect outcomes to this. We have limited resources and we have a lot of needs in the community and this I think is a compromise from things I've heard up from this bench especially when it comes to council member Tuttles. um I think rightful concern of the applications could have been different if somebody would have had 50,000. So making sure in that spirit we continue to allocate at least 50,000. We also heard of the need of the Witchaw Family Crisis Center and in addition I know people from this bench have expressed the um desire for the YMCA to get funding. While this doesn't offer the funding, it offers um connected partnerships to make sure that we have stipulations with certain funding agreements as well and that we're actually increasing funding agreements as part of maybe to cover some of those additional costs of those funding experiments. So, is anything perfect? No. Is this motion perfect? No. Nothing to do from this bench is perfect. But I hopefully it captures the spirit of I think the conversation that we've had from this bench today. And with that, I would move to previous question.

Council member Shepard.

Thank you, Mayor. No, nothing is perfect, but I do think through proximity, we understand the impacts of how our policy decisions touch people. Black and brown children in the district that I represent need this support. And black and brown children all across this city deserve to have access to grassroots resources that will show them that there is a better path and that there is a better life. Not all of them are going to be able to make it to Elite 42. Not all of them are going to be able to make it downtown. Heck, many of the kids in my district have never been downtown. And so I just asked this committee to please take into consideration the impacts of cutting this down to zero. To one of my colleagues points about respecting the committee's recommendations, this is this zeroing out a program that they actually gave $55,000 to you and taking it to zero is not respecting the committee's recommendation. Again, my amendment balanced that by saying, how do we get Witchaw Family Crisis Center, who is serving a vulnerable population, a little bit closer to that 100,000, while also making sure that we do our very best to showcase to the committee that we are respecting their wishes without drastically cutting down what their recommendations were. And again, I ask my colleagues to not support this motion. We have a motion and a second and I'm going to propose a substitute motion. My substitute motion is to approve very closely to what the board has asked us to approve. However, I am going to ask for YMCA to get some funding. The way I'm going to propose this is Catholic Charities at the same 50,000. Stepstone at the same 50,000. Waw Family Crisis Center at the same 50,000. Witchah Children's Home at 50,000. Kansas Big Brothers Big Sisters at the

same 50,000. Prime Fit Youth Foundation at the new 50,000. Plain View Culvin Kids Club at the same 50,000. United Methodist Open Door at 50,000 with the stipulation that the services must be provided at Second Light. Masters and Mentors receiving $50,000 and now YMCA receiving $25,000 so that we can continue being a partner with a longstanding group YMCA, USD259 and the city of Witchah. Second. Motion second. Any further discussion? Council member Shepard.

Thank you, Mayor. I will not be supportive of this motion because it hamstrings nonprofit organization and so if they do not meet those obligations to work with Second Light immediately then they don't get access to these funds. I think what I heard today is that we want to see a future where all resources are located on one campus. I don't think any of us disagree with that, but I'm taking into consideration the real realities that all of us have heard from our executive director that oversees that agency that there are some concerns. I think removing those guard rails and allowing them to work through those concerns this year without any limitations is the right and reasonable thing to do so that way they can continue their operating [clears throat] hours to serve the hardest to engage without any barriers and hamstringing them or forcing them into Second Light. When we force collaboration and partnership, that is a disaster. That is a disaster. And so I cannot be supportive of this and I hope my colleagues think about that when they go to vote on this as well. We have a motion by the mayor and a second by the vice mayor. Any further discussion? I see none. Madame clerk, please open the role.

Motion does not carry 5 to two. Mayor with a motion. Uh, we have a motion already, so we have to be at this motion. Could I do a substitute motion? I'm sorry. No, it's already substitute motion. [clears throat] I'm sorry. Um, council mayor, we can't do a second substitute on one motion. So, we're back on um, vice mayor's motion. Clarification. Um, Jennifer, if this were to fail, could another motion be brought forward or would it have to be brought back? If your motion fails, yeah, another motion can be brought forward that's different. Um, we can't vote on the same motion twice. Okay. If it fails, it fails. We can't vote on the same one twice.

Okay. So, the motion is moved by Vice Mayor Glascock, seconded by by Council Member John Stunn. There's still discussion. Council member Ballard. Yeah. Vice Mayor, can you please read your motion again? I'm going to try. We've had a few since then. So,

I know. I'm try to follow my notes now. Um, it for Catholic Charities 50,000 for Stepstone 50,000. Witchaw Family Crisis Center 100,000 Witchaw Children's Home 58,746 Big Brothers Big Sisters 50,000 Prime Fit 60,629 uh which am I on? Plane View Culvin Kids Club 50,000 and Methodist Open Door $55,625 of the stipulation that those funds would be spent on partnerships with Second Light. Not in the original motion. I would be I could entertain an amendment if that's allowed that we would cut off let's say Witto Family Crisis Center gets 90,000 and we begin to help um masters and mentors of 10,000.

Can you propose an amendment to your own motion? You could. Okay, I'll do that. Second. Okay, I'll propose that amendment. Okay, we have a motion and a second with amendments added. Was that a friendly amendment or are we voting on the amendment right now? I think you have a motion that you just agreed to. I I think we didn't have an amendment. So, a friendly amendment. I think you just made your own change. I'll take that as a friendly amendment. Can you clarify? Family crisis center then 90,000 and then MA um masters and mentors since it's a first time funding application would get 10,000. So slightly break the 50,000 requirement at least give them something to move forward with.

Can I offer another amendment? Let's see if I'll take it from one. Okay. Um for Witchaw Children's Home, reduce it down to 50,000 instead of 58,776. Reduce Prime Fit from 60,629 to 50,000. and reduce and and reduce uh masters and mentors. Well, you you gave it as 10,000 vote now, right? I'm just going to do the friendly amendment that the eight Let me add this up for accuracy.

19,375 19,000 Hold on. Okay. 19,375 goes to YMCA. Okay. Jennifer, do you want me to restate that? For the record, it would be helpful for everyone involved.

Okay. So, for the record, Catholic Charities 50,000. Step 50,000. Witto Family Crisis Center 90,000. Witaw Children's Home 50,000. Big Brothers Big Sisters 50,000. Prime Fit 50,000 Planeview Culvin Kids Club 50,000 United Methodist Open Door 55,625 with the partnership Second Light Masters and Mentors 10,000 and the YMCA 19,375. So that is my friendly amendment to my motion. So that's my motion. Council member Tuttle.

Thank you. I'm just going to state for the record, I am not going to vote for anything that is changing the process of the RFP. We have now officially changed what the RFP was stated. There may have been organizations who asked for 10,000 or 15,000 or 20,000 if that was the parameter that they were given. I would imagine this is pretty much similar to how the conversation went with the grant review committee after they read the applications and heard the presentations. And so again, I know I'm being a purist, but we charged a group of community members that we appointed to go through this process. and it was a diverse group who had robust discussions and and now not only are we disregarding their recommendation, but we're also changing the RFP. And to me, that's not being transparent. So, I'm not going to be able to be supportive, but I appreciate the creativity from my my colleagues and trying to come to a solution.

Coun Council member Shepard.

Thank you, Mayor and Council Member Tuttle. agree with you about maintaining that $50,000 threshold that we put out. That was the expectation that we put out to our nonprofit agencies who applied. It is the expectation that we should hold to. Changing this, I feel, opens up the door for people to say whether or not they can trust us. And I don't think that that is a good thing, especially as we talk about trust. Again, uh, under this particular motion, not only would it hamstring and hold a nonprofit agency to doing exactly what we want them to do or else, what it will also do is it would literally deduce the amount of funding recommended by the committee to one of the very few organizations serving primarily black and brown males in a community that needs this attention the most. and because I read the applications has one of the strongest evaluation and research methods where they are bringing in PhD doctoral level individuals from a 30 PhD field to work with these individuals to ensure that the outcomes of their program is exactly what it says it's going to do. So we talked about outputs today, we talked about outcomes today. We talked about trust. We talked about maintaining the process. And so again, my original amendment would have maintained and balanced all this to the best of the ability. So I will be voting no against this for the reasons that I've stated. I ask my colleagues to join me in that.

Vice Mayor Glascock, we're going to have to get to yes at some point. And so move to previous question. We have a motion and a second with those friendly amendments. Um moved by Vice Mayor Glascock, seconded by Vi Council Member Johnston. Madame clerk, please open the role.

Motion does not carry 4 to three. Council member Johnston. Thank you, Mayor. We are going to have to get the yes sometime. And I think our record is what? 7:04 p.m. Is that right? We could break it. I could break it. [laughter] I I I'll make I I will make the uh motion to move everyone that's on the list to $50,000. Everyone $50,000 and the remaining I think it's $25,000 goes to the Witchaw Family Crisis Center.

Second to go to 75,000. second.

So everybody gets 50. So that's everybody listed on the green sheet currently here. Everybody on the green sheet. So Catholic Charities, Stepstone, Children's Home, Big Brothers, Big Sisters, Prime Fit, Culvin's Kids, Open Door, and Masters and Mentors, and then Family Crisis Center to 75. Correct. Councilman, would you also still have the same stipulation as in previous amendments with open door or not? Yes, I would. Okay, then I would second that same stipulation for open door to work with uh Yes.

Okay. So, we have a motion and a second and it includes the uh stipulation that United Methodist Open Door will have to work with Second Light um at the facility. Spend that money at the facility. Yes. Spend the money at the facility, which I'm confident they will do. Council member Hohheisel, I am just curious uh Open Door if you could come. I I'm just curious how that would like what would be the plans for that. So unfair to them. Be creative. I'm sorry. I'm not sure if this is

I'm I'm sorry if this is But he asked me a question. I'm not sure. Can we go back to public comment? It's not public comment. When you're asking for clarification, you can ask that question. It's it needs to be strictly on that question and stay in that scope.

I haven't a clue. You're changing everything. Um Beck, you're changing everything on the fly here. The reason why we can't we have said no was because space and funding ongoing instability of funding. And you just you're stipulating something that I would have a clue how we can just do this little bit of portion there. It please hear that we are not abandoning second light completely. We are still needing to be in conversation. There are high barriers that need to be overcome, including how the city of Witchaw is going to fund Second Light. Not just this city council, but I mean the city as a whole. How are we going to do that? And asking us to move our operations to a facility that is not undergurtded financially. So you put our what we are doing at risk so that you can make it clear that you want us to go do something that we would like to do if it could work out. So I I don't know how we would do that.

I think it's just incentive to do that.

That's great. But if I can't do that, if I can't figure out a way to spend $50,000 at Second Light doing the services that you want us to do, then you're putting what I am doing at risk and putting the people that we serve at greater risk and and putting the continuum of services of because we've I we sat down and met with other providers saying here's the reality of where Second Light is with Second Light in the room and city staff and other providers saying, "Okay, knowing that this is where we are, where are the gaps? How are we going to have to serve each other? What can we do? How can we?" And be have begun that conversation. So, it puts all those conversations at risk.

And you're not doing it to anybody else.

Amen. Council member Tuttle, I have two ideas. [laughter] Okay, I'm sorry and I'm going to step gently on my soap box. As a grant maker and a grant seeker for 32 years, I've never seen anything like this happen before from either side. And I don't think this is transparent. I don't think it's fair. I think there's so many issues that can be brought up about this funding. While Open Door probably feels like they're getting grilled, another applicant could say, "No, you're getting more facetime with us to justify your cause." So, this whole thing has become um really convoluted. I'm vacasillating between asking for a delay on this or just, you know what, so I can sleep well tonight and we'll see where this goes. I move that the Witchaw City Council close the public hearing, approve the funding allocations for the $475,000 in uh recommended by the grant review committee. It's a substitute.

We've already got a motion on the floor. There's a substitute I'm making a substitute a substitute motion. So, I move that the Witchah City Council close the public hearing, approve the funding allocations recommended by the grant review committee in the amount of $475,000. Is there a second? Didn't Didn't we already vote on that and passed? No. No. No. Is there a second? The original. I see no second. Motion dies. Council member Hohisel. Thank you, Mayor. Um I'm wondering if we could drop the requirements working with Second Light this year, make it part of next year that that's an expectation to anybody working in the homeless fields.

Okay, I'll I'll I'll accept that. I'll drop that recommendation for this year and uh review it next year. Okay. So, you have to amend the motion then. So, so then that would mean that you would need to amend to include no strings attached for open door and then that additional 25,000 would go to Witchtop Family Crisis. That That's correct. Everybody be $50,000. Drop the uh the motion there. Um, and the extra 25,000 would go to Witchaw Family Crisis Center. Just keep it real clean, real simple. I wouldn't mean simple. Kind of simple.

Are you Are you Is there a second? Second. Okay. So, we have a motion. I don't know that. Nope. There was a friendly amendment. Friendly amendment. It's already seconded by council member Blascock. And was the stipulation dropped just for the first year? The the the friendly amendment was to drop the stipulation that you have to work with. Second leg, but this is this a three-year allocation is the question that was asked from the bench. It's three-year allocation. Yep. Then no. Uh, I think that it needs to be reset exactly what you want because this is a three-year there's no review after.

And I would preface that by I firmly believe that Open Door will work with Second Light. They'll figure it out somehow. So, I'm confident of that. So, my motion is to take everyone to $50,000. Catholic Charities 50,000. Step Zone 50,000. Uh Witchaw Family Crisis Center 75,000. Witchaw Children's Home 50,000. Kansas Big Brothers Big Sisters 50,000. Prime Fit Youth Foundation 50,000. Plain View Culvin Kids Club 50,000. United Methodist Open Door 50,000. And Masters and Mentors 50,000. Second. Motion second. Discussion. Council Member Ballard.

Withdraw. We have the motion and the second. Any further discussion? I see none. Madame clerk, please open the role. Motion passes 4 to three. Drama.

Again, I want to state for the record that I am very disappointed in this process. Um, it was a signal to our community that if you've been a longtime partner, you get to be disqualified or not get any funding because you're doing a good job. I think it sends a wrong signal. Um, and yes, out of full disclosure, I am a board member of the YMCA. I have no benefit, financial benefit from the YMCA. As a matter of fact, I give money to the YMCA. And that makes me very sad that right now we're pitting homeless prevention or homeless services to youth prevention and crime prevention. And I feel like that's the conversation that was had amongst these providers. And I am very saddened by that because I do believe in our youth. And just as these young people came to us this morning, uh we want to provide those services to them. And when the YMCA is able to provide them for free and we can't even be a partner as the city of Witchah, I I believe that that sends a wrong signal. Um and so again, being a partner does require some financial uh benefit, and that is because anything that is free is at a cost to someone else. And again, I'm very grateful to the YMCA for all the services you provide to not just our youth, but also our families. And again, this is not a this is a better organization than the other conversation. But as I get all these emails about homeless being so prevalent in our community and many point to second Anttopa and the city of Witchah has invested millions of dollars to Second Light. That stipulation was the reason why I could not vote yes on this because it needs to be at Second Light at 9th and Main Street and those services are for individuals that want

that help and there is help available. So again, um I'm very disappointed in this vote um as it carries forward. Uh but again, it passed four to three. Council member Johnston, thank you. I'm going to steal a line out of Councilman Glascock's book.

Government is about compromise. Um and I think that's what we came. I also will address Councilman Tuttles's uh point of view that we have to pay attention to committee. I think it to a great extent it does pay attention to what the committee wanted uh not the exact dollar amounts for everything but it does fund everybody at the minimum level of $50,000. Um and I to my personal opinion it gives more money to WTO Family Crisis Center. So that that's why and I I'm I'm glad it passed and uh I know everybody's not happy. I maybe it's a good compromise when nobody's happy. So that may be Council member Shepard. Thank you, Mayor.

We are doing the best we can with what we have. And the amendment that I made, it it actually ended up in my opinion being a little bit more equitable because, you know, we're trying to balance out everyone's needs. Um there's lots of conversation here today about open door and again my colleagues know I have expressed frustration too about things I've heard I shared it with Deian as well but I always struggle with folks coming to city hall and feeling like they're getting beat up on and leave feeling discouraged. Don't leave feeling discouraged. Please keep doing what you are doing. Uh to Council Member Johnson's point, we'll work with you to help close whatever gaps might exist to ensure you and Second Light are able to be together and maximize those resources. Um you know, it it's hard, but we I just want us to to think about the implications. There's a lot of things we talk about that I feel like I'm hitting my head on a wall. Last week I fired off a lot of emails out of frustration for what I feel like a lot of people could care less about a part of my district that is suffering with disparities. Um but then I had to go back and I had to reflect and understand that it's not personal. So I hope folks understand the decisions today are not personal. It's a messy process but thank you for sticking this out with us all of you and uh hopefully we can continue to work together.

Council member Tuttle,

just a quick comment for me. Andrew, am I correct that we won't have to do this again for three years? Okay. [laughter] Yay. Um, my other comment is going to be I and I Cindy, thank you for being here today. Thank you for serving on the committee. Thank you to all the members of the committee. And again, thank you to the applicants. I wish we could give them all so much more than they even applied for. But I would just caution this body from asking for representation from our districts to spend their time and energy away from their family, their friends, their faith, and to disregard their recommendations. So, um, you know, I I think that it's we're not just to rubber stamp it, but we talked about changing the RFP. We t we threw a lot of things around. So, this is a good learning opportunity. the next time we do this, how do we want to do it differently? Because apparently this time the system had some some clinks in it. So maybe lessons learned for the next time that we do this. You know, the RFP, does it need to be 50,000? Maybe it could be whatever people want it to be. Um do we even have a grant review committee? I don't know that. Does there need to be council on it? I don't know that. But um just I don't want this whole process to happen and then in three years we go through it and and have the same drama again. So I hope we take this as a learning opportunity for moving forward. Thank you,

Council Member Johnston.

Thank you. Uh with all due respect, Council Member Tuttle, um the public did not elect the people we chose for the committee. They elected us and we are the final decision. So we can take it's a recommendation. It's not a set in stone. It's a recommendation. I think I think we at uh gave them what they wanted. Everybody was funded at the minimum level and then some additional funding was to family crisis center. So I do think we took the city's recommendations into consideration. Um we don't have to do it exactly like they said though. Thank you.

See no further discussion. Madame clerk, please call the next item. Council member agenda.

Council member agenda. I sent an email uh again a policy discussion that I ask no one to reply to all because I will be bringing it up uh during council member agenda. and that is um I would like to ask staff to draft an ordinance to repeal the current 2008 ordinance that uh illegalize that makes it illegal for backing into a parking stall. And with that, um, I wanted to address, um, first and foremost a couple of questions that I had for the city manager and he was going to provide those answers. So, at this time, city manager Dennis.

Thank you, mayor. part of the question or the conversation was actually we have Stephanie Nabble here and she has some the some of the questions that were presented were what were some what was some of the rationale that we had talked about for using the or why the ordinance I guess was adopted to not allow backend parking for parking spaces. So, one, the I'll let Stephanie talk in a second, but I want to highlight kind of three things. One, the current parking structure that you all adopted is based on the premise of license readers. And so, if you have backend parking, that makes it more challenging to utilize license plate readers. Two, we've also found as a side benefit of how license readers are, it's used in public safety, block cameras, other things. Um again those are dependent upon license plate readers. Um three also part of the safety conversation if you imagine one of the tickets that was discussed for someone who got ticketed for backing in parking was on Douglas. So, the safety aspect of people trying to back in park, whether you're in Douglas or you're in a parking stall in a parking lot where someone may think you've gone past a parking stall, but then you want to back up, but you have a car right behind you. Um, but we also highlighted in the last presentation about different damage that has happened. It seems that there is more damage when someone's backing into a fence, a post or whatever barrier, planter might be behind them versus when you pull into a parking stall. So, that was one of the questions that was asked is about what was some of the uh premise for having the ordinance in place. We have some of the history on the

ordinance and then some of the questions about how many um tickets have been issued for backing in and then some of our proposed process last time. I'll let Stephanie, we're still reconciling some of the ticket numbers, but as Stephanie can take that data point and share that with you, but our proposal was not to do a ticket on a first incident. It just be a warning if anyone gets a ticket backing in. It would just be a warning in the first one that might assuage some of the concerns that citizens may have expressed to you about it. But the other four reasons that I outlined is why um we had not recommended any changes to the existing ordinance. Stephanie, is there some data you want to share?

Yeah, there's a few more pieces I thought I would share. Um, we were able to gather the total number of parking sessions that have been started by parkers out in the community. We've got two columns. Number of sessions that we did in 2025 and the number of sessions in 2026. And there there's there's a difference there, but not much. In 2025, we started 93,390 parking sessions. uh compared to this year so far through the end of March is 76,298. So there's couple 20,000 differences there. 2025 backing in citations issued out of those 93,000 parking sessions started was 120. Out of those 120 citations, um two of those were dismissed. Looking at 2026, remembering that there's been 76,000 parking sessions started, we've issued 218 citations for backing in and 21 of those have been dismissed. Couldn't do enough research to find out more about the wise and the wherefors. They were dismissed, but they were dismissed after review through our administrative process. So, I can offer those numbers. Mr. Manager. Thank you. I have a follow-up question. There are individuals that prior to last Tuesday's workshop have received a citation and because of this new one first uh citation warning,

they want to know what's their process now if they get a warning. No, if they already received a citation, but because of the warning that we now have on your first attempt,

it would still be the same. If they don't believe they deserve a citation, it was issued incorrectly, wrongly. It would still be the same administrative review process that we've been following. So, the citation itself has a phone number to municipal court customer service. There's an email, I think it's prosecutor.gov. gov. Send an email plus your citation, a photo of the citation and proof of payment, couple sentences about what you think should have happened instead. And that's reviewed that same administrative process that we're doing. Now, if you don't want to go through that administrative process, that's okay, too. You can take your case to the judge right away, and that's scheduled for a municipal court hearing.

Council member Hoheisle. Thank you, Mayor. Um, I was wondering if we could look at a place like Tulsa. Again, I visited not too long ago. I think they had license plate readers for their um their parking plan as well, but they did have designated backend spots. Um, if that's something we could explore, especially in parking lots, um, designated areas that would still maybe make it easy or maybe they just have to get down for out for that one row and check it out. um for the people that just want to make sure that they back in. So, is that something we could look at? Maybe specifically Tulsa or any places that have alternate um plans like that?

Yeah, it would it would take a bit of research to really understand what the ordinances they are have in place and what the circumstances are in their downtown and the way traffic flows and all of that to really get a handle on that to make sure we're comparing apples to apples as much as as much as we can. Um, and if that is some research that you would like to have done, we can work with the manager on figuring out a timeline to have that done for you. Personally, I mean, it's something I personally would like to see, especially if we want to pursue repealing the ordinance.

Um, it could just make it just again figuring out a way to make it easier for um the people taking the license plates, make it easier for law enforcement. It's just an um an option I'd like to see. Mhm. Thank you.

I wanted to uh get a little further clarification. Last week on Tuesday during the workshop, uh there were multiple citations that were said to be uh issued by the Witchah Police Department and I believe that was inaccurate. Um again, that was shared during the workshop though and so there was no opportunity to retract that information. Can you please address has the Witchaw Police Department been enforcing backing into a parking stall as illegal?

So after a council meeting yesterday, we started trying to figure out and and and doing more queries into the database that municipal court has and we have some different numbers. I haven't had a chance to review those with the police department, what those findings are, trying to understand the difference between what PD enforced and what our parking ambassadors uh enforced and what they wrote citations for. Um, and then adding in the car park numbers. The car park numbers won't change any. It's just understanding the difference between the police department enforcement and uh parking ambassador enforcements where where we're where I need to spend some more time with them. In addition, I have another clarification question. Uh, there were pictures shown of damage in Oldtown. I believe that's the only area where those photos during the workshop uh showed.

How do you know that that was because of backing into a parking stall versus someone who may have been uh inhibited by uh alcohol or just doing it on purpose? How do you know that it was because someone was backing into a parking stall? Well, I went to our facilities folks who are the ones that maintain that. And I said, I'm looking for photos of of damage to those decorative areas, and I said, I'm looking for the ones that were backed in. Um, and that's what they gave me. I didn't ask for the email that accompanied them, but that staff has been there a long time and has seen a lot of things. So, I I believe that's what they submitted.

And on some of those, mayor, we have claims. Mhm.

So for instance, if someone does damage or whatever, so we'll have to go back through and then you can match up a claim whether it was front end or backend or whatever. But on on the initial information um was it was caused by backing in. But again, that's where we got to get more granular if you all want to get into some of that um specific questions and information. So, but I guess I think the overall question is what is the volume or what is the problem we're trying to solve or the concern and if the concern is that people do want to back in, I don't know how widespread that is or if the concern is they got ticketed for it, it's a established ordinance like other ordinances. Um, but if they want a little bit more leniency for education about the backing in policy, we've suggested we can do that through the warning through our parket. Um, it still may mean WPD would do it because there are other places in town outside of parking areas where WPD may want to enforce that, but we can talk about from the parking program doing the warnings as the first first communication.

Yeah. I think the other message I heard last Tuesday was education, too. Not just the first warning, but is there something you can do different with the signage that's out there in the community? Is there something different that you can do with instructions, for lack of a better word, on the mobile app that people are using or even the pay station? Just making them more aware of of this particular ordinance. Uh because this ordinance and the enforcement of it seems to be having the most grief in the community. I don't know what we do if we figure out there's four or five other ordinances, but I can I can do signage on this one. [laughter] Thank you for uh city manager and Stephanie for addressing some of the questions I had. However, I am still um listening to this community and there's a lot of um information that a has not been shared by the city of Witchah to residents since 2008 when this ordinance was passed. There's also new technology in 2026 including backup cameras and warning signals um that were not taken into consideration in 2008. And then the cumbersome as some have said of getting out of the vehicle to site an individual as a problem. Um I again believe that we want people to come to Witchah. We want people to come to our downtown Witchah and I don't want this to be an issue where um it is something of convenience and one that I believe from what I've read read through research is a safe option of backing into a parking stall so that you have perfect line of sight to see who instead of backing into who you're uh driving in front and may uh not have that accident happen. So again, um I am very much trying to listen to

this community in finding something that they would like to see and that is the repeal of this ordinance. So with that, um at last workshop on Tuesday, uh it did not seem like there was enough uh individuals that wanted to move this forward. So at this time, I want a formal vote. Um, and that motion will be for the city staff to create an ordinance to repeal the 2008 ordinance regarding backing into a parking stall. Council member Tuttle,

we cannot vote on that. Anything that we vote on from this bench has to have been on the agenda by Friday, excuse me, Thursday 5. Am I correct, Jennifer? And if I'm wrong, I'm sorry. I'm just really tired. But I also don't feel very comfortable voting on something that we haven't had the opportunity to let the the community know is going to come to a vote. So, Jennifer, please tell me when I'm wrong.

Oh. Um, under council um under city code, under the order of council business, um under city council member agenda, um the a majority must be voted. If someone wants to bring something forward, we must have four votes today to bring it to a future agenda and to begin staff to direct staff to work on it. So I I believe that you can vote today to put it on a future agenda if that's the will of a majority of this council. Thank you, Jennifer.

And I will be more specific then. I will move that city staff draft an ordinance to repeal the 2008 ordinance that makes it illegal to back into a parking stall. Today is May 5th. I ask that this come back to council on June 16th on June 16th which will be a new business item that will then have public comment and it also allows for more than a month for individuals who are part of DABS. uh they can also go to DAB board meetings to provide their feedback or contact their council member before that. So again uh my motion is to direct staff to create a draft ordinance that would repeal the 2008 ordinance that makes it illegal to back into a parking stall and bring it to a new business item for June 16th.

Can I make a friendly amendment? What about the evening meeting of June 2nd? We had Did we have a second before you did that? Is there a second? I'll second it. Thank you, Council Member Johnston. What if you have an evening meeting? Yes, that's actually a really great idea for people to come. I will accept your friendly amendment so that uh this item can be discussed during the evening meeting of June 2nd. Any further discussion? Council member Shepard.

Thank you, Mayor. I just want to clarify saying yes to bring the ordinance forward will also allow staff to do research on the implications and will staff will not have a recommendation though city manager on like whether or not to approve or deny the ordinance will be drafted for a repeal. So that will be the premise going forward. That will be what's presented. staff will weigh in as we see fit once we do the information. So, they'll do the standard presentation on their findings and different things of that nature as well. Okay. I'm interested in knowing the findings even if I'm not supportive in the end of the ordinance change.

Council member Ballard. Thank you, Mayor Stephanie. So, we've had 76,000 people start a ish a parking um session and 200 of them have been broken the lawm essentially and we're looking at changing a whole ordinance because they're breaking the law. We're trying to be more efficient with parking. We know the state is likely not going to require people to get two license plates. There would be a fee, I assume. So, we're going to spend a lot of staff time on this issue is what we're voting on right now to dig deeper into it.

Yeah. And the numbers that I quoted today will be different in uh a month or two because I get new statistics at the end of every month. So, what I'm going to show you around middle of June will be different than what's today. Okay. So, thank you. I'm just struggling with spending a lot more staff time on when we have, in my opinion, more pressing issues. So, Council Member Tuttle,

thank you. I I also have concerns with the same rationale. We have a new parking plan. Um, this is one of the unintended consequences that we weren't expecting that came from that, but we have a parking plan and it passed and we're moving forward. My other concern is that um and city manager mentioned it briefly, but what are the implications for license plate readers when people back in? We've seen incredible success with flock. Um and so just want to make sure that you know again an unintended consequence of repealing an ordinance isn't maybe doing something that is you know altering something that is working. So, um, I I have concerns regarding this.

Thank you. With that, we have a motion by the mayor, seconded by Council Member Johnston. Madame Clerk, please open the role. Motion passes 5 to two. Madame Clerk, please. Actually, we're still in council member agenda. Are there any appointments by council members? Yes, mayor. There is. Council member Shepard.

Thank you, Mayor. Ellen, I would like to appoint Are we appointments or comments right now? Perfect. Uh, I'd like to appoint Ellen Per to the Witchaw Animal Advisory Board, Lori Lawrence to the Sustainability Integration Board and Tiana Kelly to the Affordable Housing Review Board. I have one, too. Council member Johnston. Thank you, Mayor. I'd like to appoint uh Lamont Anderson to the arts committee, arts council, whatever it is. Do we have appointments? Any other appointments, council members? Correct.

Thanks for the help at at at 3:55 and no lunch. I need help. [laughter] Thank you. Uh I will move to approve all the board appointments. Second motion second. Discussion. See none. Madame clerk, please open. Oh no, that's not Please open the roll. Motion passes 70. Council members, it's council member comments time. Any council members? Coun Vice Mayor Glascock.

I'll keep it brief for the anybody in the room. Um, which there is no one for anybody online right now. Oh, well, no, sorry. We have Captain Moses in the back. Um, I just wanted to give brief brief comments and thank uh thanks to Andrew Crane this morning. I was able to take Witchaw Transit to come to work. Um, it was a great experience and I want to thank all of our transit staff. Incredibly friendly. The buses were ahead of schedule on the routes that I took uh today, route uh 17 and route 12. It was very efficient to go there. I did also see challenges as if you were on a tight um titan schedule obviously it's very difficult to make appointments in addition the stop at 17th in Tyler in particular had no concrete had no protective barrier over um it was also incredibly windy and cold and so you were very exposed to the elements and so seeing that firsthand was a really good experience of how can we make sure that those spaces are welcoming to all people to stand out there and so it's something that as we begin the CIP I would like conversations about how do we make sure that all these spaces have some protective space for people that have to wait in the elements. But overall, it was a really good experience. Uh Andrew had to help me uh because they didn't take AMX try to get on my card. So, I owed him five bucks after uh to make sure that I had a day pass for the bus. And so, next time I'll come more prepared in riding the bus. But, it was a really good experience. And um I know that a lot of my colleagues have ridden the bus. If you haven't run the bus, it was a great experience. I would do it again. And I learned a lot just in the hour and a half that I did this morning.

Council member Ballard. Thank you. I have one question. How long did it take you to get to work? Serious question. So, to get from 17th and Tyler to the transit hub took only about 17 minutes, which was pretty efficient. And then I could have walked to city hall, but Andrew and I went out to breakfast instead. So, because of that, I started at 6:15 and by the time I got to city hall was 7:45, but I also stopped at homegrown for breakfast. Okay. So, that was 45 minutes of it. Cool. Um, [clears throat] I just wanted to thank everyone for coming out to Nomar. It was a great time for open streets and the weather was perfect. So, hope everyone had as much fun as me. Council member Johnston.

Thank you. Anyone who's still watching after seven hours, I'd like to invite them out to the breakfast uh this Saturday at uh Westlink Library at 9:00. Um, city manager Marstow will be there from 9 to 9:30. a little bit about himself, then uh go over the budget, what we should spend money on, not spend money on. So, I encourage uh everyone, especially in District 5, to attend. Council member Shepard.

Thank you, Mayor, and to everyone who is still listening, happy Asian-American Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Uh make sure you take time to understand the rich history that we have here relevant to the city of Witchah as it relates to uh those communities. get out to the community of Oakland and experience some of the amazing small businesses and beauty of our community is today we have an Asian-American mayor. So, want to celebrate the month.

Thank you, Council Member Shepard. I'm going to tag along really quickly on Asian-American Heritage Month. There is a free event this upcoming Saturday at Mark Arts called Explore Asia. It's an annual event that invites the community uh to celebrate Asian heritage but also connect with community. And so anytime that there are free opportunities like Open Streets ICT or this opportunity on Saturday at 10 a.m. I like to share them since they are free for the community. Council member Johnston. Well, just wish everybody a happy Cinco de Mayo. It is today.

Thank you very much. With that, we cannot leave uh because we have executive session. Therefore, I move that the city council recess into executive session for 20 minutes to receive information on a civil lawsuit pursuant to KSA75-4319B2 for legal consultation with the city attorney which would be deemed privilege in the attorney client relationship pending litigation legal advice. The executive session is required to protect attorney client privilege and the public interest. We will take a fivem minute break. So at 4:05 we will begin the executive session and end at 4:25 p.m. Second

motion second discussion see none. Madame clerk uh all those in favor say I. I. All those opposed same sign. Motion passes 70. We'll see you in executive session at 405.