City Council - Regular Meeting

We're going to start this agenda review at 11.04 p.m. and can we all stand for the a.m. Yes, it's that type of day. Can we all stand for the Pledge of Allegiance?

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

And we will turn it over to the city manager, Dennis.

Thank you. Vice Mayor, a couple things certainly to highlight. It's happy 4th of July week and our 250th birthday to America. We do have a special bus wrap that was just announced. And so you'll see a bus rolling around town to celebrate our 250th. Also certainly want to highlight as we're in the celebratory mood. The city's birthday is July 21st. 156 years old. So we'll work on doing some celebration. There will be community fireworks provided by the We'll call them Wind Surge in their new name. But on Saturday, July 3rd, followed by a big red, white, and boom from the City Parks and Recreation Department. So I hope the community will turn out and tune in. I did want to highlight for council, we've... shared with you that I have announced a new HR director. Congratulations on the promotion of Andrew Hudspeth from our HR department to serve as our new HR director. And then we are in the midst of our fire chief selection, and I hope to have some news on that announcement next week. And we are in the middle of the stage as well for the assistant city manager position. Looking ahead at the agenda for next week on Tuesday, note that city offices are closed tomorrow in observance for the July 4th holiday. So city offices will be closed on Friday. Looking ahead under unfinished business you have in your packet, we are asking for a deferral for the police robotics dog purchase at your January 19th meeting this past year. You authorized one purchase and said come back in July. if you want to do the second purchase. Police is certainly interested in doing the second purchase, but we've not had the current robotics dog. We're still doing staff training, haven't had that many deployments, so we want to make sure that we get more information and defer that Continue that into January for the regular CIP where it was originally Presented and so if you'll have it on your agenda item to push that back until January of 2027 Are we able to just defer like indefinitely so let's say that we don't have enough data That way we don't have to defer it again in January It may be tabled

So you could just table it, and then they could bring it back up when they want. So it doesn't force it to be brought up in January?

No deferment forces it to be at a date certain. Table is open ended. And so we wanted to bring it back on a date certain in January, because that way we know we'll have deployments that will have some data for you all. But also it keeps us on sync with the CIP is when we originally had that identified.

I just want to give a shout out to Wichita Police Department for being fiscally responsible and also in making data driven decisions and understanding that if we don't have enough data at this point, we shouldn't just proceed with something. So really kudos to Chief and his team. I appreciate this approach that they're taking.

Thank you. And then the other thing I wanted to highlight under business is the IRB for the Child Advocacy Center. Most of you are aware about their expansion. They would like to solicit IRB really more for the sales tax benefit that they can generate. Looking at some of the new business on there, there is the request for the CID for Margarita's, Old Margarita's Restaurant on Douglas Avenue. We are working to get a new development agreement. The council action is to have the CID, but also there's a company development agreement with that. The developer is comfortable to have within the development agreement the stipulation of no drive-throughs. That was not in your version that you have today. And so we will look to get out a new agenda item for this item that reflects the development agreement that says no drive-throughs will be allowed on that property. So I just make sure you had that update. But otherwise, that's the only change for the agenda item that you have so far. Pleased to announce you have a proposal in there to announce a new sister city with Chihuahua, Mexico There's some information there about being a sister cities partner. We've got four existing sister cities with the city of Wichita This one has come about because they too are the aviation hub for Mexico And so there's some opportunities there to generate some of that relationship in common around aviation. But also sister cities is very much cultural. And so that is being presented for your consideration at the meeting.

GREG BRUDNICKI I did have one quick question. Can we just make sure the actual agreement is attached as an agenda item? Because it was not in our packet. OK, awesome. And then my only thing is there's a lot of shalls in here that I'd just be interested on maybe talking to Jennifer of turning some shalls into mays. Because I don't know if we can guarantee that one of them talked about helping through the application process to come to America, like the visa process. And I don't know if we shall do that. Based on the individual, it's probably in May. So I might meet with Jennifer beforehand. Other than that, I think it's a great partnership.

And who manages the appointment for sister cities on the board?

the mayor so i'm the city's representative the mayor acts as the honorary chair and then i'm the appointment from the city council to sister cities and then i think i need to look at the bylaws of sister cities i think we're all given different appointments there's some conflicting i think they might have changed the bylaws that we may get appointments if that's the case there's open appointments i think that everybody has we used to but we haven't and I'll look at the bylaws because I appointed Ben Sauceda as mine, and so I think we're able to appoint, so I will confirm the bylaws, but I think we're all able to appoint someone too.

Did we approve your appointment from the bench?

We did last year. We didn't reaffirm it this year, but last year we did.

If you could let us know if we're able to make an appointment, I'd love to, but... Yeah, you could let us know that.

Yeah, I'll look at the appointments and let you know because I have had that same question.

Well, we do state in the green sheet that the program, that the nonprofit organization is composed of people appointed by the mayor, city council members, and as you stated, Mayor Wu is the honorary chair. So yes, we'll bring back the appointment information for you.

Yeah, and I'll look at the bylaws too. I'll make sure we get that. Thank you.

So that'll be presented for you and we'll have that additional information. One of the big items on the agenda is we are continuing on the focus or motion that you all set in place about water reuse. A water reuse study, it's moving some funds around but it is really leading to the vision that we have to create a small scale plant to help us start doing some of the preliminary work about what a water reuse structure would look like. So that's on your agenda item as well. We do have a new business for you to consider to name the DAB one, the District Advisory Board one, to allow them to have a grant committee function. There's been a great partnership established with the Wichita Community Foundation to help make some funding available within District 1. And speaking with the council member to have a role for the dab involved in that a process is outlined for you for your consideration You'll also see under new business transit cameras the purchase then looking on down some of the Consent items, there are a few zoning changes on there, conditional use, some flat agreements are on there as well, but then you'll see some sewer improvements. But one thing to highlight is there's a new agreement being proposed with KDOT. around some more of the bridge work and replacement on 135 as well as 235. There's some interchange work scheduled. That involves more with Sedgwick County as well as we're getting farther out to 235 and out in the county, but wanted to call that to your attention. We do have three items on there for your airport board role and related to some technology and some security and parking. So we do have three items for you related to the airport. Those are the issues of note from the July 7th meeting. So we'll leave with that. Any questions or anything I can address for you?

City Manager, I just want to clarify that the partnership between the Wichita Foundation and District 1, those funds are being privately raised to support specific improvement efforts in the district. It's based on the model from Strong Towns regarding little bets. So widening of the sidewalks, community art opportunities, street improvements where there's an opportunity to do that and offset costs for property owners who may not be able to afford some of those costs that prevent them from being able to make some of those improvements.

Great, thank you. I did want to highlight, looking ahead, I do want to say thank you to everyone for the en banc meeting with the county. We do have a follow-up list already identified as we talked about what is the interest in doing a feasibility study, talked about law school, some of the homeless information and information or funding decisions will be part of the budget conversation coming up here as well, bed space. looking at shelter space. So some of those will be coming back to you here in the next couple weeks. I mean, it'll be rolled out in a couple different situations, but mainly with the budget presentation, which will be July 14th. And so that is the main focus of that July 14th meeting will be the city manager's recommended budget and so we're working on putting the final touches on that for your consideration as we talk about the millage rate, new revenue and expenditures for departments and the CIP for our capital investments over the next 10 years. So that'll be the focus going forward.

Quick question about that one. Is that when we set the capture rate too or is that a subsequent meeting?

That's the first one, yes. We have to make the maximum amount at that meeting, yes, on the 14th. And so council will be asked to set the maximum millage rate, but knowing that it can always come down. But we want to leave the maximum flexibility during the budget process.

So we'll ask you to have the maximum rate available.

even for assessed valuation, but that can be adjusted during the budget conversation. But that will be one of the, I think, three agenda items that are related to the budget, is setting that, because you have to have a public hearing on that and let the public know what the maximum is.

And that also sets the breakdown for what mill goes to CIP and what mill goes to the general operating budget. That has to be delineated at that point, too?

Correct, and that will be outlined and spelled out for your consideration.

And remind us, the current max is it 7% or 7.5?

7.4. 7.4%. That's what was determined by, I believe, the state and county. Is there a minimum city manager? I don't think, looking to Mark, I do not know if there's a minimum. There's not a minimum amount.

Nope. See manager, I think it'd be helpful for me, and I've heard this feedback from constituents in District 1 as well. When we talk about the percentage, it doesn't always, how do we make sure that it's translating easier into dollars? So if we do a certain percentage, what does that look like per year in savings versus per year in cost? I think that that paints a fuller picture for constituents in terms of when we talk about how we are taking consideration of taxpayer dollars into this process. What does that actually look like in practice to the average? I know we can't do one for every single household, but the average. Thank you. Will do.

All right. And then we have a follow-up information for you at your place so you can see some of the items that have been discussed and reviewed by staff for your information. And that's all I had for today.

City Manager, I do have a question about the parental leave and understanding where we are in this budget cycle and tough choices to be made. I'm just curious, was this item of exploring parental leave on hold due to, I know that it was assigned to Jason who obviously is no longer with the city, but is that gonna now be back in progress now that we have a HR director or was there other rationale?

Mainly, actually, the primary rationale is a budget conversation. And so when we do the budget presentation, that will be a called out item for your consideration. But I'll tell you, knowing some of the conversation, is to highlight how it's been utilized within the existing union agreement or contract agreements, labor agreements, right now. So we'll highlight there's some different uses of that, depending upon the bargaining unit. So we'll highlight that for your consideration. And then I may have a recommendation on expanding that with some others that don't presently have that. GREG BRUDNICKI.

Perfect. And is this information, this dashboard, available online so that the public can see how our staff are working through requests? I just think, again, I think it's phenomenal how many items on here have been completed. And I think it's important for the public to recognize that we are getting things done and that we aren't ignoring the concerns or thoughts that come through council or the mayor. But I do think even if it's at a high level, seeing a dashboard where these items are in progress and or in completion or on hold for whatever reason.

We do not have this overtly out there but we can add it to our transparency page or portal and give a little bit of a summary for the lay person to kind of know what a lot of this is intricate things that we're working on a daily basis but we translate it and put on the transparency portal. I will say that um A lot of work, and we do highlight this, I believe under our freedom of information, request information, there is a high volume of requests from citizens. But that is also being tracked. And so some of that is, keep track of that on the website as well for people to see.

Could you just let me know what is the difference between the red and the white on here too? Could you remind me?

It's for America, Vice Mayor.

Completed. Well, you should put some blue on there too.

Just for today. No, red is mostly about, should be about completed because we have the date on here. I'm sorry, flip that around. White should be completed. Red, this go-around is in progress.

Well, I don't think that's... some of the whites in progress and then some of the reds as like on hold or.

Yeah, kind of where we've quote unquote completed.

It is completed, it's in white, okay.

Yeah, completed what we can do with that. I mean, some of those will require additional consideration for council or whatever.

GREG BRUDNICKI. Also, on the parking, free parking by City Hall. MARK MCQUEEN. Yes. GREG BRUDNICKI. Signs are, great.

Have we got the signs yet to say free parking available? MARK MCQUEEN. Where? Not yet. GREG BRUDNICKI. Not yet. MARK MCQUEEN. Not yet, but they're coming next. So we're trying to figure out. The only way you can get to the free parking is on Waco. You can't get to it through the other one. GREG BRUDNICKI. Or Central.

Can you get?

Anyhow, making sure that how you tell someone what entrance to go to.

I would just suggest an arrow.

They're looking at that, yes.

You can go out there and draw one, too.

Exactly. Looking at how you can best communicate without getting people more confused. But the point is, you're right. There's free parking available at the rounds and porter locations. We call it off of Waco.

That'd be fine.

And then highlight that if you do want that option, you don't have to do the paid parking. So, yes, we will continue to highlight that.

There are actually three entrances and exits, one off of 3rd Street, one off of Waco, and one off of Central. So those three entrances should have a sign, but I would also advise having... Two of them have a sign now.

the most convenient ones off, Waco and Central have signs now. But I don't think we need signs at the parking entrances to City Hall to say there is parking available there.

I would advise having the signs at Wichita Street and Central and Wichita Street and 3rd Street. Those are the entrances to the paid parking lot so then people know that there's an option, the paid parking or the free parking. And a very simple sign. To the right is this, to the left is this.

There's two entrances on 3rd. I think both of them should have it. On 3rd Street? Yes, to our city hall parking. Two city hall parking, two on 3rd, one on Central. All three of them should have it. Yes.

We've got the initial free parking. We've not got the directional signs to free parking is what the request has been.

While we're talking about signs, I just thought this was interesting. While we were in Denver, all their street signs had the Denver flag on the street sign. And I know that we do our signs in-house. It seemed like it was just a sticker. Maybe there's just a possibility of looking at our street signs, maybe in the core. It seemed like a small way to build some community pride, but it was the Denver flag on all the ones in the downtown core. I don't know if it extends to all of Denver, but I just thought it was something cool, especially because we do it in-house. It shouldn't cost us anything. So it would be cool to look at that.

Good.

I think the mayor grabbed a photo of it, so she may have a photo.

Okay. If not, that's all we have. Mayor?

Thank you. Happy Independence Day, and head out to three free events, Union Station tonight, Holy Cross Lutheran tomorrow, and Red, White, and Boom downtown on the 4th of July. Have a great weekend.