e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e IED Al to the flag the United  States of America and to the   repic which it stands one nation under  God indivisible with liy and justice for all please be SE thank you very Madam clerk  can you please call the first item approve the   minutes of the regular meeting of June  11th 2024 are there any corrections or comments I see none I move that we approve  the Min mining sorry right regular meeting   minutes for June 11th 2024 second Motion  in a second any further discussion I see   none Madame clerk please open the motion  passes 70 Madame clerk please call the next   item we have Awards and proclamations  today's Proclamation is amateur radio week good morning can we please have the   individuals with amateur radio  week please come forward at this time the proclamation reads the city of witch  hands is founded in 1870 whereas amateur radio   operators are celebrating over A Century Of  The Miracle of the human voice broadcast pass   over Airwaves since 1932 the Witchita amateur  radio club and amateur radio operators have also   provided countless hours of community service both  in emergencies and to other local organizations   amateur radio provides resources in support of  stem curriculum the city of witch chab recognizes   and appreciates the diligence of these hams who  also serve as weather spotters in the skyw program   of the US Government weather bureau now therefore  be it resolved that I Lily woo mayor of the city   of witch Kansas along with the Witchita city  council do hereby Proclaim June 19th through the   25th as amateur radio week in the city of witcha  and encourage all citizens to acknowledge the   importance of amateur radio and their operators in  their field day exercise and encourage everyone to   join members of the witchat amateur radio  club in celebrating amateur radio field [Applause] day on behalf of the amateur radio Community this  Proclamation says it all these are volunteers who   have your back in way so you don't even realize  they're really good people and they do it just   out of the goodness of their hearts so if you  get a chance to learn more about Hammer radio   we've got excellent clubs in this area and  definitely appreciate the recognition thank sure thank you for the proclamations Madame Clerk uh council member hois thank you mayor um  Vincent I'm a little disappointed I wanted   to hear it in radio speak so next time you accept  the award I expect some breaker breaker or over or I'll look that up later and see  see what my reply will that be to that b clerk please call the next  item Scott lady hazing in the fire department is Scott lady here I don't see Scott  um we also received that twib Purity is not able   to attend today Madame clerk please call the  third item William Whitaker homeless issues is William Whitaker here I see William Madam  clerk please call the fourth individual our   fourth speaker canceled mayor so we  are on consent agenda items 1 through 22 do we have any items to be pulled  Madam mayor I would like to pull item 2-8 any other items I see none we motion to approve all  the items except for item number 18 I move   that we accept all consent items with  the exception of item 18 second motion   and a second any further discussion I  see none Madam clerk please open the rooll motion passes 70 council member  glasow thank you mayor um yesterday   evening I received about 10 emails in  opposition to this project given that   it's on the consent agenda item and um I was  just informed of opposition I'm motioning   table this item until the July 2nd meeting second  Motion in a second Adam clerk please open the roll motion passes 70 Madam clerk please call the   next item Board of bids and  contracts dat June 17th 20124 good morning mayor city council Josh lber  Department of Finance uh the board of bids   and contracts convened for June 17 2024  the following items for engineering we   have water distribution system storm water  drain sanitary sewer and Paving to serve   mac Meridian addition for me Construction  Incorporated in an aggregate bid total of   55252 36 subject to your approval of  a new engineer estimate and budget authorization we have the storm water drain  396 for Green Brier box storm sewer repair   for me Construction Incorporated in the amount  of $233,500 we have North Market water main   replacement for me Construction Incorporated in  the amount of 2, 425,000 we have the outsourc   Paving preservation program joint and crack seal  phase one for Innovative Road composits LLC DBA   super cealing USA in the amount of 180,000  awarded to the engineers estimate we have   the Outsource Paving preservation program  joint and crack seal Phase 2 for conspec   Incorporated DBA Kansas Paving in the amount  of 215,000 awarded to the engineers estimate   we have the roof replacement for South  sewage treatment administration building   for Buckley Roofing Company Incorporated in  the amount of $ 68,69 we have the Fortress   muscle control system ion chamber anoid for  om Consulting LLC in the amount of $129,200 for Trojan Technologies Group ulc for  an amount not to exceed 180,000 per year   requesting a one-year with 4 oneyear options  to renew we have for airport three multitasking   snow removal equipment for MB Companies  Incorporated for an aggregate bid total of $3,587 we have one 2024 caterpillar 42071 T back  o for fully equipment company in the amount of $42,988 3,112 35 this is how to become  a vender with the city these are open   request proposals out on the street today and  I'd be happy to try to answer your questions   and recommend your approval any questions  for sta I see none is there a motion to approve so moved second motion second Motion in a   second any further discussion I see  none Madame clerk please open the r motion passes 70 Madame clerk please call the next item Charter ordinance and resolution  naming City website as official newspaper good morning um Sharon deckra  City Law Department um we're here today   to discuss the charter ordinance um regarding  the designation of the city's official newspap paper maybe too far um background as you may recall  on April the 2nd of this year the city council   initially reviewed this item it was deferred for  staff to uh do a couple different things establish   an online retention policy formalize the website  search options and make presentations to all the   dabs presentation were ultimately made to all  the Dabs at their June meeting um dab comments   um General comments were that dabs 1 and six  were generally opposed to the proposed changes   um citing generally that they felt the changes  would not promote transparency and concerns   that not all individuals have readily available  access to Internet services dabs 2 three four and   five were generally supportive of the proposed  changes um State Statute requires um cities to   designate by resolution and newspaper as the  official City newspaper for the publications of   ordinances resolutions and City notifications  um State statutes and city ordinances require   that certain actions be published in a  newspaper or its official newspaper and   a list of statutes requiring publication in  the official City newspaper is attached to   the Agenda Report currently the widel eagle  is designated as a city's official newspaper   um we have contracted with them since 2019  approximately $120,000 is spent each year on   legal Publications this contract is to remain in  effect until August of 2024 when it will be rebid   um as far as publication requirements for print  requirements the state statute does have a number   of requirements if a print version is chosen as  official newspaper has to be published at least   week weekly 50 times a year must have been uh  in effect one year prior to uh the Publications   the publication needs to be considered a uh  periodical for the US Postal Service and has   a general circulation in the county where the  city is located must be must not be a trade   religious or fraternal publication and has to be  published within sck County um the pro proposed   Charter ordinance allows the city to designate  by resolution the city of wi's website as the   official newspaper Charter ordinance must be  approved by at least five votes the resolution   is not in effect until 60 61 days following  publication it allows a period of time for   citizens to initiate a protest petition if they  were so required uh the resolution designating   the city's website as the official newspaper  requires the website to be made made available   to Citizens at no cost um the clerk will also  execute an affidavit verifying that the document   was properly published um paper copies not to  exceed 20 years must be provided to Citizens   on no cost and notices will be maintained  for a minimum of five years online um the   resolution does not change the requirements that  the city clerk um essentially keep these types   of notifications uh indefinitely Or as required  by State Statute I'm going to turn it over to   Tyler at this point of the communications team who  will talk about changes uh to the city's website good morning mayor member of city council Tyler  sh B City W Talk Communications uh just want to   clear up some misinformation that was out there  our website was never actually down it's hosted   through a third party uh Civic plus so the website  was never down there were applications through our   website that were down but the website itself  never went down and from the beginning we were   telling people to go to wi.gov alert to get  updates so um legal notices you can get direct   access from our homepage under the government or  how do it tabs there's also a little icon there   on the very front that you see first thing to get  legal notices it's in the website footer you can   search it it's in the archive Center and it's  also on the city clerk's page so who has access   to the files one thing was talking about people  being able to alter files that sort of thing uh   only the city clerk and Deputy city clerk have  access to ordinances and resolutions no one else   can get into those files except for those two and  our three system website administrators they have   to be able to have access to everything but they  usually are out out of that so it's just the city   clerk Deputy City Clerk and then there are other  notices out there by Department uh relev relevant   Department staff have access to uh whatever  notices they are publishing uh print copies   are available upon request at all the witto  public library locations and the neighborhood   Resource Centers so we were also asked to uh  come up with strategy strategy excuse me to   uh Target people and uh get more information  out there about notices so who's our target   audience all witto residents people who are  impacted businesses Community organizations   neighborhood organizations so we have uh  updates on wi.gov we're going to be sending   out uh quarterly I believe uh links to news to  uh notices in our newsletters we're going to   continue our monthly uh social media push and  we're going to look at Community Partnerships   as well to find those audiences that this may  be direct impact and then we're also looking   at a broader marketing camp campaign to sign  up for notifications we didn't think it was   best to to spend paid dollars on just legal  notices but we can push information out there   to sign up for all of our notifications whether  that's news releases calendar invites that sort   of things so we'll push people to uh sign up  for notifications legal notices being one of   those uh with our website we're able to track  the analytics on wi.gov see who's visiting the   site how much information they're getting social  media the feedback that sort of thing and then   uh Community feedback we have Poco or newsletter  survey and then just anecdotal feedback so with that the recommended action is that the  city council approve the charter ordinance   and resolution and authorize all necessary  signatures and both uh Tyler and I would stand   for any questions questions for staff beginning  with council member Tuttle thank you thank you   Sharon and Tyler for the present appreciate it  very much Sharon could you please go back to slide 24 thank you so the first bullet says must be  published in a weekly at least 50 times a year   correct yes so if the city website became the  official newspaper if you will of the city of   Witchita but we still wanted to have redundancy  and Ure transparency by also having another site   such as a print media Source printed copies and  then also on their website would we still have to   have that publication be required to have 50 times  a year as as long as you were not designating that   print publication as the official newspaper you  could have a a redundant or secondary source   for information and transparency and that would  open it up for other media Outlets if you will   or or you know news outlets to be able to also be  eligible for this work yes as long as we assured   that the city's website was still operating as the  official City newspaper um there will still be a   secondary uh class of notifications that have  to be published and those have to be published   in a newspaper General circulation sure um so you  would need to make sure that whatever newspaper   is chosen for as as the official version for those  Publications would meet certain requirements they   are not as stringent as these however okay thank  you very much member Johnson thank you mayor um   Sharon just one quick question early on there were  concerns uh that I heard of folks saying um where   we would where would we keep the record of these  legal notices and I know that in the ordinance the   city Clark would maintain those but they had  referen the witto public library would these   records also be there as well not just online that  is not currently something that that we're doing   I you know staff could be directed um the city  clerk by State Statute is the official custodian   of those records um by designating another  depository I I think you run the risk of or all   the pages there um you're also talking of a large  volume of documents for the library to maintain um   but that's a policy issue not a legal issue  okay that that makes a lot of sense because   the the argument was that there are records of  the papers there but that's a lot of paperwork   and not just the legal notices ye yes I mean you  would have the legal notice is is in many cases   the legal notice is attached to another document  sometimes those documents are fairly large as you   know I like to write ordinances that are long  so you're talking about 39 pages of ordinances   for one ordinance so you're really duplicating  the online online depository of ordinances um as   well as with the city clerk has and then you would  have a third depository of documents okay so this   would make it a lot easier just to get directly  to the legal notices it it should okay thank you   council member hoisel thank you mayor uh thanks  Sharon for the presentation I think we've seen   it three times now and it gets more exhilarating  every single time I got to say um could you go a   little more in depth about the um the secondary  requirements um for the additional um postings   that we have to have not sure I understand the  question by law we have to have a official City   newspaper yeah yeah I mean for not not for what  the state still requires us that we can't opt out   of could you give me a little background as to  what the requirements are for that is it still   oh okay you you mean about the secondary group  of Publications for uh newspaper of official uh   newspaper of General circulation yes ma'am um  there are not any set statutory requirements   um however the attorney general has weighed  in um that that the a newspaper of General   circulation is one which circulates among all  classes which is not confined to particular   class or calling in the community and the term  is generally applied to a newspaper which the   general public will Resort in order to be informed  of the news and intelligence of the day editorial   opinions and advertisements so does that mean  that it has to be publish and available around the   community is that more the interpretation there  there is there is not a rule as far as number of   subscribers or how often it needs to be published  um it it's really kind of open ended um however it   needs to be something that's generally available  to all citizens in a community okay appreciate it a one follow-up question to something you  mentioned you said that sometimes you like to   write lengthy ordinances and those are published  on a print newspaper but any additional documents   are not on that specific notice right yes yes  that that's correct when it's published all that's   going to be published is the ordinance itself  um any kind of an Agenda Report or those kind   of things are not normally uh accompanying  that ordinance when it's published in the   newspaper thank you any further questions  for staff I see none this time for public comment please state your name your address  and the district that you present side thank you Vince Hancock from deleno mayor city council  uh in Dalton's district and there's actually   something very important about Dalton's district  and our dab board that I have to speak about back   in the 1980s opponents of free market economic  theories characterized it as voodoo economics   like to springboard off of that idea for a moment  and discuss what could be called dodo econom iics   to survive in a competitive Marketplace we must  learn it's not the big that eat the small it's   the fast that eat the slow if you fail to adapt  a business model to a rapidly changing economic   condition it will result in the extinction of  your business another good way to kill a media   business in Kansas is to get caught lying it takes  some kind of nerve to disguise facts optional   have truths as an oped this is not what we expect  from responsible journalism it is not right to   make innuendos about the motivations of state  and local officials without even the pretense   of offering to interview them to hear their side  of the story we don't have enough time for a   full debunking of the inaccuracies that I've seen  but let's examine a short quote all dab meetings   in May had to be cancelled due to the city's  computer crisis while I also don't report to   be a lawyer I am a journalist and citizen  documenter on Wednesday May 8th 2024 I   attended and made the only extent recording of  the dab for meeting I published six pages of   meeting notes for the wiaw journalism Collective  I also attended Maggie dab just one week later did those meetings not exist Does the paper  seriously expect us to believe that because   their reporters didn't attend the meetings  they were cancelled this is not just about   being disingenuous about government transparency  or accountability it's about wasteful government   subsidies nothing in this proposed ordinance  prevents any newspaper or television station   or any other media outlet from serving their  readers viewers and listeners by publishing   legal ads in print or online in fact an  entrepreneurial business could actually   add value by creating a new service that would  allow their constituents to search through legal   ads past the five-year expiration date be a  wonderful way to make money it would serve   the public but face it if the paper doesn't shape  up it will go the way of the dodo I'll stand for questions thank you any other individuals who would like  to speak public comment on this agenda item white one to follow hi I'm Susie Cunningham  I live in district 6 um and I just want to make a   few comments and clarify a few facts um false  information that was never publicly corrected   the Witchita City council's assertion that  Kansas Press Association provides redundant   and accessible free Public Notices overlooks the  fact that kpa's service relies on data from its   member newspapers in this case the Witchita Eagle  it costs quite a bit for them to be members Emily   Bradberry wrote me an email and she said that uh  the director of the Kansas Press Association said   that um without a contract with the eagle the  city would not qualify for the kPa membership   losing access to this free service people are  really accustomed to using that and I hate for   them to to have to go to all these different  sources to find different things um half truth   I listened to the council when various claims  towards um distribution numbers were presented   but they omitted the city's website's limited  reach from January to March of 2024 the website   only had 181 unique visitors to our city site  looking at Public Notices following the lock bit   ransomware attack the citizens p and the loss of  citizens personal information the security breach   has eroded public trust in the city and the city's  available ability to effectively disseminate   public information including public and legal  notices raising concerns about the reach and   reliability of the city's communication channels  the assertion that notices are freely available   on the website ignores reality um I saw council  members glasscock's demonstration where he held   up two newspapers that he found at the at the um  Library um but he NE neglected to mention that   the witch Eagle was also available at uh library  branches when I visited my ever Evergreen Branch   right before a dab meeting um only the eagle was  available they have a table they have a couch they   have Publications on it there's all kinds of of  uh different nonprofit Publications magazines that   sort of thing there were five copies of the eagle  um when I picked one up one of the Librarians came   over and said and oh and if you come over here  we have all the back issues in or in date order so assuming that sufficient public notice access  through these limited circulation SP sporadically   available papers is misleading and potentially  probably inaccurate um honor about April 9th or   11th mayor woo said that you really wanted  to make our budget cut decisions databased   I got an email when I wrote a blanket email  to all of you in in a support signed by other   board members of of a group that I that I'm  with um this is what these are just comments   that I got back that I think are disingenuous  arguments that don't contribute to the database   decision-making Pro uh process and here's what  they said the Witchita Eagle is antiquated   and unreliable newspapers should provide public  notice Publications for free mclatchy is an out of   outof state owner and should not receive taxpayer  funds the intent of these arguments were meant   from my point of view to defame the eagle and I  found this assertion to be condescending to me I   know we do business with companies that are have  headquarters out of state I know because I've been   a subscriber of the eagle for 20 years I watch  them go online they've been online for 10 or 15   years that I know of and I know that they count  their numbers of reach in hundreds of thousands   not 181 on one page I don't know what your total  reach is but I bet it's not what it was before   the lock bit assessment anyway that's what I have  to say I just think the way this was the way you   argued this point was U discouraging anyway thank  you council member Glock this is a question for   staff real fast it was um alleged that our website  only has a 100 unique visitors between January and   March I don't know you may not have the exact  numbers but I don't believe that to be accurate   from things I yeah I I don't believe that number  is accurate it's in the thousands but it's not 181   or whatever the number that was quoted I'd have to  look at exact I appreciate it that's good enough context we'll continue public comment um my name's Doug Ballard I live in  district 6 and live in Riverside and uh what   what puzzles me is that this is what you choose  to work on you've got so many problems before for   you so I most of my working career uh big part of  my job was buying construction materials for a a   job a job that we had in fact this building was  one of them so when I changed vendors or started   looking for other vendors there was always a  reason for it so is the eagle not doing a good   job I mean they've been doing it a long time so  I'm not sure what you hope to gain by doing what   you're doing I mean it it it looks bad to me uh  from a political uh point so I just am not sure   what you uh the responsibility of doing it you  can't do it for nothing so you're giving staff   something else to do that's already been done  for before you guys were born all of you so I'm   not sure what you what the point was and why  it Rose to the level of this kind of concern   so I I I would be opposed to it uh and I guess  we'll see here in a few minutes so anyway that's all question for staff uh Sharon can you come up  and explain the process regarding or ordinances on   first read and second read and how they eventually  get on a printed newspaper right now as well as on   our website you just show us the process I can  explain what I know and I may need to defer to   Jamie um an ordinance is written is presented to  the council it has to be published um well has to   be read twice and then following the second  reading it's published in the newspaper um   and Jamie's shaking her head over there the the  ordinance is s to the newspaper um it contains an   OCA number so that we know how to bill it and then  the ordinance is sent Jamie then goes and verifies   that the ordinance is accurate and correct and  then when the billing comes in we have to verify   that the OCA number was correctly build for the  item that was published um website is is much the   same process once the ordinance becomes official  um Jamie or Tyler then download it to the city   site and that process has been going on for a  couple years um that it was directly put onto the site followup question for Jamie okay um Jamie  can you explain how long you've been doing this   online and can you also address since you double  check the newspaper if it's published correctly   have there been any errors um so yes we opened we  set up the website um for legal notices a couple   years ago about two three years ago um prior to  that we have always published our ordinances and   resolutions online no matter what um that's just  something we've always done we've always posted   those to the website this time we just set up  another separate website specifically for legal   notices um and then to verify the publication  is correct they always send me a Whenever I   send the legal notice to the paper I get a email  back for a check sheet to look through to make   sure everything's on there correctly if I have any  changes I let them I have a deadline to let them   know by and then when I get that affidavit back  um I check it again to make sure it was correctly   published um sometimes I'm able to correctly  verify that appli or that affidavit sometimes   I'm not because the copy they give is not legible  um so I just have to ask and trust that it's accurate council member Glascock yeah I  would just like to one correction from   a previous speaker as well in May of 2024  the total visits to the wi.gov website were showed me what I had emailed her previously  she was not talking about the entire website   it was page views for legal notices  and it was like 183 in uh March and   little less than 100 in both months  of uh January and February so it was   just for that page not for the  entire website thank you Tyler yep any further public comment I see none we'll  bring it back to the bench vice mayor Ballard thank you mayor legal notices  are not for Community engagement they are about   publishing in an independent record that is  maintained in all libraries of Congress for   future legal use the website does not accomplish  that and for that I'll be voting no council member   tle thank you thank you to the community members  who are here today also thank you to the community   members who reached out um I've had robust  discussions regarding both sides of this um   thank you to Communications thank you to Legal um  you've been very helpful to me during this process   and and certainly um answered all my questions  I've said consistently since the first time this   item was brought to us that I'm not willing  to sacrifice transparency for cost savings I   understand that we have looming budget shortfalls  in 26 27 28 but I also think it is our responsib   possbility to be transparent to the community  um I understand that our website was not shut   down during the Cyber attack but people thought it  was or they were worried about going to it because   then it could somehow impact them and and so I  I'm not completely comfortable with just having   our own website serve as the official newspaper I  think there's maybe a a spot of compromise in the   middle um and so if uh the mayor is okay I would  like to um have an option um I would like to make   an amendment to the resolution itself and I have  the language prepared for that for a motion if   that does pass and it would require four votes not  five then we could address the overall ordinance   change which is a charter ordinance change and  would require five votes so with that being said   I I think there's a spot for us to have compromise  I believe in being fiscally responsible I believe   in transparency and I also believe that we must  think about the free market and as somebody in   the audience mentioned times times indeed are  changing and so with that being said I would move   to amend section two of the resolution and insert  the following language after the second sentence   so I'll let everyone get there so a sentence  would be added to say in addition a secondary   print source shall be utilized to supplement the  city's website what this motion would do would   mean that the city's website would be utilized  as the official Source but we also have to have   another source so in case we ever did heaven  forbid have another Cyber attack and our website   did go down and wasn't functional we would have  redundancy and it would make sure then that our   community who maybe aren't as Adept in technology  and want a printed version still has that option   available but it will go out for RFP if you will  and so we then will be utilizing the free market   to determine what the best service would be for  this so I feel that this is the best compromise council member Glascock I Echo everything that  councilman Tuttle says and so I would be glad to   Second her motion Motion in a second any further  discussion I see none Madame clerk please open the role motion passes 61 Madame mayor with a motion I would move uh that  the city council adopt um the proposed Charter   ordinance resolution and Exhibits A and B with  the amendment presented by councilman Tuttle   council member hoisel thank you mayor um I  will wait until after there's a second for   discussion council member tutle I will second  and then if it's okay make uh questions like   comment okay um thank you um and thank you  for the motion I appreciate it I just want   to point out that what is happening right now  just it's it's complicated we've been working   on this for months I agree with the speaker  I'm ready for this to come to resolution so   that we can move on to the really important  work that the city has to do we're going to   have a very heavy topic to discuss regarding um  drought in our community so I'm glad to see this   come to fruition which what I think is the  best compromise that we could have so with   the resolution change and now with the ordinance  that we are going to be voting on the city's   website will be the official newspaper but we  will still have a secondary source so it will   not just be the city's website and isolation also  this then will allow other news outlets to be able   to see if this is something that they want to be  interested in partnering with the city so I think   it kind of checks all of the boxes that I I have  heard my community members regarding transparency   and then also being fiscally responsible thank  you council member hoisel thank you mayor um   just a couple of things before we get to the vote  here uh this whole argument the whole debate that   we've had a lot of it's centered around our our  City newspaper the witch tow Eagle I think this   has been um outside the scope of necessarily what  we should be looking at on here the conversation   should be about essentially the the charter the  the resolution um our policy here as opposed to   Bringing In A lot of these external discussions  so that that that's kind of bothered me through   the the whole course of this um occasionally our  state legislature gets something right it's it's   maybe not as often as we would hope but they  do hold our feet to the fire as to um what what   actually qualifies as a a newspaper of not so um  I do appreciate the changes that we've worked on   up here that you guys have worked on I think it  does uh help with the transparency issue quite a   bit uh this is just a little too quick for uh the  need there's no need to act now on this because if   what people say about the future of news is true  we're going to have to face this issue um someday   eventually anyway so uh with that I don't think  I will be supporting this but I will say I do   appreciate my colleagues work on this txt actually  make it more transparent than it was originally proposed I have a motion and a second any further  discussion I see none Madame clerk please open the RO motion passes 5 to2 Madam  clerk please call the next item amendment to 2024 exempt salary ordinance good morning mayor and members of the city  council my name is Jonathan Jones with human   resources department and I have free- reviewed  today a suggested Amendment to the 2024 exempt   salary ordinance little background on this  on April 23rd of this year the Department of   Labor announced a final rule defining and  delimiting the exemptions for Executive   Administrative professional outside sales and  computer employees which will take effect July   1st 2024 the final rule updates the minimum  exempt salary level to $ 43,800 meaning all   employees in exempt level positions now require  a minimum salary of 43888 by July 1st 2024 this   rule also outlines a scheduled increase to this  minimum exempt salary on January 1st 2025 to 58656 analysis of current staff and all exempt  level pay ranges shows that all employees are   currently making above the minimum salary  threshold requirement of 43888 required by   July 1st 2024 um no salary increases for  individual employees are needed to bring   current staff into compliance by July 1st however  to ensure that the city of witto has a salary   amount that is not illegal per the Department  of Labor's final ruling it is recommended that   the 1 b32 classification minimum salary range  uh be increased to 43888 on the exempt salary   ordinance there are no Financial impacts to the  city of witchta with this proposed update so my   recommend our our recommendation is that  the city council uh place the ordinance   with the proposed revision on first reading and  authorized necessary signatures I'll stand for   any questions questions for staff with C  high thank you mayor um so this does not   apply to hourly rates at all this is strictly  salary correct all right I'm glad to see that   we are already above the uh yes the recommended  minimum here so uh appreciate just this doesn't   also have anything to do we don't have any  salaried individuals that are in SEIU no   all seci repres employees are non exempt okay  all right well I appreciate it thank you no problem any further questions for  staff see none we'll open it up for comment public would like to none back to the bench no further comments from colleagues  I'll move that we approve the recommended action second have a motion and a second any   further discussion see none  Madame clerk please open the r motion passes 70 Madame clerk please  call the next item drought response plan sorry uh good morning mayor and council members  Gary Jansen Public Works and utilities uh as we   are currently in stage one of the drought response  plan and and looking towards stage two the item of   before you this morning is requesting revision  of the drought resp response plan ordinance that   would allow flexibility and activation of the  subsequent plan stages and would create the   ability to account for progress and changes  that we have seen since the Inception of the   plan in 2013 so just to clarify our discussion  and this item today is not a request to move to   stage two of the drought response plan that's  something that's been asked considerably since   last week I'll talk about that more as we go  through this presentation today uh but more   so is to make proposed code changes for the  authority that resides with the city manager   that's the part that I'll get to at the end uh and  there's a lot of stuff to talk about in between   I'm going to discuss the drought response plan  where it started including the impacts for each   stage our conser conservation efforts overtime  and especially those that have been enhanced   and and we've seen a lot more things happen over  the last two years and then we'll talk about the   recommended revisions based on the collective  discussion uh right now we think there's an   opportunity for CommunityWide adaptive approach to  Dr response and a focused effort toward continued   voluntary conservation which is so critical at  this point it's been our Focus during stage one   that's our best bet to avoid mandated restrictions  which I don't think any of us want to get to so   some background on the drought response plan um a  prolonged drought that began in early 2011 ended   with heavy rainfall in the summer of 2013 if  we could get one of those right about now that   would help uh if any of you are around at the  time during that drought it literally was uh   almost literally was fixed by one major rain  event that we haven't seen since then but the   important part is where it Reigns which I'll talk  about also to here in a little bit when we start   talking about cheny during that time City staff  presented drought response options in numerous   meetings with the city council District advisory  boards the water utilities advisory community and   Community groups a staged drought response plan  was approved by the city council in October of   2013 this drought response plan was developed  to accommodate a 1% chance drought same type   of drought that was seen during the dust bold  days uh and that was based on continued use   of the current water treatment plan and other  operational aspects and conservation approaches at   the time many of which has have changed since that  time especially the fact that we have new water   treatment plant about to come online that really  is a game changer in all of this the drought   response plan and ordinance included phased imple  implementation of water reduction strategies over   four stages triggered autom a atically by lake  levels at cheni reservoir uh which is really   key to our discussion today we want to expand  that and be able to have other considerations   and not just the lake levels at cheni for moving  to subsequent stages cheni Reservoir being one   of two primary water sources for Witchita and  the region I'll stop there and talk about that   real quick because there's been some discussion  especially over the last week about our water   sources and uh where we get our water from I  think all of of you know we have two primary   water sources including cheni for surface water  and EOS beds aquafer we are currently utilizing   historically about a 5050 mix it can kind of vary  uh we are starting to look at moving towards more   groundwater because of the situation at cheni  uh I will tell you that the Equis beds aquafer   we are fortunate is a little bit more naturally  recharging than some other aquifers probably heard   about the ogalala aquifer in Western Kansas the  challenges it's been facing the stresses uh as a   response to Drought conditions in particular over  appropriation and use over time we're in a lot   better shape our aquer storage and Recovery  project ASR overtime uh on top of providing   credits that we can utilize for future long-term  drought situations has also kept the Equis beds   aquifer at a higher level and in better shape long  term so while the Equis beds is not immuned to Dr   it responds better to and reacts better to these  conditions so we're still in good shape with the   Equis speds we've still got water that we can  use there but we do have two primary sources it   is not just cheny using current chy Reservoir  water levels Public Works projects future Lake   conditions based on anticipated inflows and water  use provisions of the plan reduce water demand and   increase protections to manage a water emergency  and again we have made U pretty considerable   strides since then that I'll talk about soon  keeping the current water level triggers provided   by the plan will continue to protect cheni and  optimize supplies during drought however we do   believe that program and system enhancement  sense approval of the plan call for the need   to evaluate evaluate more factors than just that  level at cheny for Activation of the stages I know   there's a lot of repetitiveness as I go through  here and I apologize for that but I just want   to make it sure it's very clear what it is that  we're doing um in our request to you today so I   want to talk about the drought response triggers  that are within the plan um this is entirely based   on a 12month average of the cheny conservation  pool we're currently in stage one you see the   bottom level is 70% we're getting pretty close to  that number the actual level of cheny is below 70%   but the at this time but the 12 month average is  still above 70% as we start getting closer to that   we're going to start looking at considerations for  what happens for possibility moving to stage two   that's why we're here today uh stage one began in  January of 2023 I'll talk about that more in just   a moment what we've done since that time uh and  again the current levels are hovering around that   69 to 70% so drought response plan stage one all  this information is included in the actual code   this is just a way for uh to be able to compile  it and look at it in a little bit different way   stay stage one uh provides for voluntary water  conservation uh and I'll talk in a moment about   what we did uh for communication with the public  and Outreach when stage one was activated in   January of last year it also talks about taking  advantage of rebate program to incentivize indoor   and outdoor water conservation that reate rebate  program has been in place for many years now uh   as we spoke to you earlier this year with the  2024 rebate program we f focused almost entirely   on outdoor water usage that's where we see the  most increase in in water demand and usage is   for outdoor irrigation it's really where the focus  needs to be what you see on the right side of this   table is city of witcha internal conservation  I'm not going to talk about any of those on   these four stages because I want to talk about  those collectively uh the organization has been   doing quite a bit for numerous year multiple years  now in numerous areas so kind of want hit all of   that together what's been being done for internal  conservation we entered stage one again in January   of 2023 uh and I mentioned the rebate program  having been in place for some time so moving on   if and when we were to look at drop response plan  stage two uh which the focus of stage two is all   outdoor watering would be prohibited to one day a  week uh the city would be broken up into quadrants   there's no watering on the weekends they're going  only be watering in the evening this would apply   to all users except the exemptions which I'll talk  about in just a moment this includes residential   and Commercial properties us utilizing irrigation  for lawn garden and Landscape areas basically any   outdoor use we've had that question asked if this  is just residential and it's not any businesses   any developments commercial developments whatever  they might be they're using out outdoor water used   primarily for irrigation would be prohibited  to one day week so what that brings with is   the need for enforcement we've talked about  that over some time what that might look like   the code discusses potentially how enforcement  might be done uh through the use of mabcd WTOP   Police Department Public Works and utility staff  if you as you can imagine with resources where   they currently are that would be a challenge uh  for us but it's something that we would need to   do the first thing we would look at uh we have  approximately 20,000 water customers who are   current Curr ly on have irrigation systems we  know that because of the backflow preventers   that they have that are required to be inspected  each year uh we would look at their use that's   still a big task that's a lot of work that's a  lot of resources we can start to compare to their   average winter consumption to see what their usage  is pretty well tell if they're if they're watering   one day a week or not but it's something that we  would have to plan for looking ahead uh I talked   to staff with the city of Derby yesterday they've  started to look ahead to because the conditions of   these drought response plans apply to everybody  I'll talk about that more in just a moment um so the drought response plan applies to all  customers we are a regional water provider to   over 500,000 people um that is one in  six canons the 177% of the population   of Kansas that will apply to everyone we have  wholesale um water contracts with 15 different   customers uh neighboring cities roll water  districts other customers within the region   everything that you see here within this  plan applies to all of them we have provided   communication to those other customers those  wholesale customers when we entered stage one   of the drought response plan early last year I  sent information to all of them we had provided   rebate information to them some of the funding  for the rebate program is also utiliz us utiliz   ized by wholesale customers uh within their  community so if this happens they also have to   be part of enforcement which is something that we  would have to work through um I want to talk about   the exemptions real quick and the penalty you can  see in the upper left if we go to stage two uh   penalty would be a warning for first incident $50  for the second and $100 for third incident Beyond   exemptions to stage two are food producing Gardens  utilizing drip irrigation or hand watering and   businesses that generate their their core economic  activity from outdoor usage will be exempt such   businesses include golf courses car washes  nurseries so companies and others identified   by the city manager again something we have to  work through um there are some nuances here this   plan again was developed 11 years old as we have  looked at this I think there's some things that   we need to consider going forward in the future  we'd have to work with the city manager on talking   about the specifics of businesses I'll mention car  washes real quick because it's something that has   come up we all know that there's a lot of new car  washes in the community they do utilize a recycle   filtration system their business model won't  allow it to be done any other way so that that's   what all of them do that doesn't mean that they're  not still using water but because that is a core   part of what they're doing that's would would  be considered no different than processing or   industrial water for other companies when it talks  about outdoor water usage when this was developed   it was not considering what would be the new  type of car washes at the time I don't we don't   need to get into any further into the Weeds on  that but it's something that we could talk about   as we go forward if and when we get to stage two  which we are trying to avoid stage three plan uh   would ban all outdoor watering no no exceptions  on that for irrigation whether it's residential   commercial all of our uh partner communities all  of the wholesale water customers everybody would   be banned from outdoor or water usage as if and  when cheni continues to drop and we consider other   factors the same exemptions that are in fact for  stage two still apply for stage three I did want   to mention here this talks about reduced hours  at City owned fountains starting early last year   we shut off all the city of fountains they have  stayed off and will stay that way we hear from   the public quite often uh asking to turn those  fountains back down but uh those fountains do   recycle water nearly all of them do but with our  climate conditions especially with wind and heat   you see a lot of evaporation you see a water  loss a lot of water loss if people are getting   in those fountains and so we think it's best uh we  think it's a good example plus it's a good water   saving measure to keep those fountains off one  second vice mayor wait till you're done it was   just a quick question about the fountains are you  talking about the decorative fountains or water   fountains or both good clarification decorative  fountains only okay thank you sorry I should have   clarified that uh drought response plan stage FL  last stage uh we hope to never see getting to this   point if we do the penalties increase first is a  warning second is $250 uh third incident is $500   a month and then flow restrictions would be put  in place all outdoor water usage is banned with   without exception and everyone in the community  is is required to reduce their water usage by   15% below the average winter consumption you can  imagine the effort that would take uh to make sure   that happens but again this plan was set in place  to deal with a dust bow type drought if we ever   got to this point that cheny was this low this  would still be necessary measures um one of the   reasons again why we're here today is to talk  about potential changes here to how these are   evaluated because there's some new uh technology  there's some things in place that we can utilize   since the plan was put in place hopefully we never  get to this but I wanted you to understand what is   there now major hospitals and dialysis centers  would be Exempted from uh the lowering of their   water usage 15% I think we can all understand  the reason why there so I wanted to talk about   what we did this is a busy slide I'm going to  explain to you what's on here for public Outreach   and Communications with the community when stage  one was activated in January of 2023 the item on   the left is the city council item that approv  the water conservation rebate program in 2023   it talks about having entered stage one of the  drought response plan there was a lot of media   attention to that as a followup in the upper right  you can see a story that was published there were   quite a few of them through our Communications  team we provided Outreach uh to the media to the   public everywhere that we could there was numerous  discussions and there has been since then every   time we get the opportunity at public meetings  District Advisory board meetings uh I make a lot   of presentations to community groups about a new  water treatment plant and the things that we're   doing we always keep that upfront and Center that  we're in stage one of the drought response plan   we need to do all we can to not get to stage two  bottom right uh was is direct Outreach I mentioned   that we have 20,000 customers with backflow  preventers those back flow prevention devices   have to be inspected annually and rebuild every  five years we send out an annual notice that's   what that is on the bottom right uh to everyone  that has a backflow preventer this is residential   commercial and business customers all of the  above everyone received a notice saying that we're   in stage one of the drought response plan with  their notice to uh make make sure that they get   certified maintenance of the backflow preventer  if you look in the bottom right there so it talks   about tips for reducing water usage two to three  times a week things that you can do hopefully uh   this has helped and I think it has we did the same  thing in 2024 or notice earlier this year in 2024   also mentioned the impacts on cheny and why we  need to continue uh to keep focused on voluntary conservation I mentioned cheny new numerous times  uh one of the things we came to really realize   in 2024 uh basic especially watching what was  happening in the local media and the conversations   across the community is more Awareness on what's  happening with cheni and why we've been so focused   on cheni and the impact it has on our drought  response uh as you can see on the left is the   chiny lake Watershed of the North Fork of the ncar  River on the right side is that purple area that's   the reservoir itself the chy uh Watershed  Basin that feeds uh the reservoir is over   600,000 Acres you would think that would be a big  enough area to keep water in this Reservoir right   the challenge the problem is it's been true lack  of precipitation in this area um we we can talk   about conservation efforts all all day long and  we need to continue to do that we are in this   situation more so because of lack of precipitation  for long period of time if you spent time up in   this area and you can see the different Creeks  there's Farm ponds all of them are dry um so what   we were seeing is we're starting to get some rain  in the area uh witch all in the surrounding area   has seen a reasonable amount of precipitation  compared to what we've seen the last two years   I spoke to somebody yesterday who's got a farm in  Windfield that said their Farm ponds are full for   the first time in a long time if you looked back  at weather patterns over the last year it's like   like there's some shield around this teeny uh  Basin we're just not getting any rain uh one   thing I want to mention real quick about chy  Reservoir itself I've had several questions in   the last week about facilitation being an issue  and and diminishing the capacity of the reservoir   while that is a problem on many reservoirs  across the state it is not with Chen at this   time that's not a factor I just wanted to let you  know is lack of precipitation uh one more comment   on that facilitation issue we have done a really  good job of being pro proactive over the years   city council has supported funding for programs  uh to protect the Integrity of the uh Watershed   Basin and and those programs are focused on  settlement control and keeping that out of   the reservoir upper right corner is a story that  KWCH did last week uh focusing on cheny we started   talking to uh local meteorologists because  what was happening first thing I mentioned   the narrative and the story was that hey we're  getting rain everything's good if you look on   the Kansas water office site the governor has  a map for Declaration of drought emergency it   even started to show that things were getting  a lot better but there was not a focus on this   one spot so it's important we started talking  to the meteorologists asking them to keep the   focus on cheny even if it's raining here we've  still got to conserve because it's not raining   there lake level is currently down 6 feet  if you've been out to chinii recently you   can see it's pretty Stark compared to where  it was in the past it's impacting what the   use of the reservoir and what's happening  there best thing we can do is get some rain so moving on to talking about drought  resilience resiliency and conservation   especially those things things that have changed  that we've done uh to improve where we're at since   2013 since 2013 significant strides have been  made to improve drought resiliency strategic use   of raw Water Supplies also protects the Eis beds  aquifer and sustains the overall Supply and tiered   water rates with escalating prices encourage  conservation I think as you know currently we   have three tiers of water rates uh tier one is the  cheapest cost to everyone that is based on average   winter consumption over four months tiers two and  three then uh are triggered based on that average   winter consumption so what it's what it does is  to try to disincentivize as much use during the   summer months especially related to irrigation so  uh as we get to this time of year and folks start   using more than a certain level of their average  winter consumption they move into tiers two and   three we are currently evaluating those rates  to see if it might make sense to change those to   change when tiers two and three are activated to  maybe change what those rates are that's something   that's going to take us a little bit more time to  evaluate and probably become a discussion part of   the future rates discussion but we think for  the future it needs to be looked at additional   progress includes adaptive treatment capabilities  with the new witto Waterworks treatment plant   which I'll come back to a minute and initiation  of other projects like Rehabilitation of the   local wellfield and added ASR recharge capacity  conservation efforts targeted for the organization   and Community have been in place for some time  with robust enhancements implemented in the last   few years I talked about the rebate program we  think it has been successful anything we can do   to help save water especially when it's focused on  outdoor use and a reuse water supply system is in   place uh we currently have at plant two our main  wastewater treatment plant we send graywater which   is the affluent from the plant to spe it under an  agreement with them uh where they could use up to   380 million gallons a year of gray water which  would replace pable demand that they previously   utilized for uh their production processes and  Industrial use so always looking to the Future   too for more things like that the we have a better  understanding of drought conditions uh since 2013   with some of the modeling that we can use some of  the technology that that's in place I mentioned   the local wellfield and ASR um enhancements those  are water resources available to use now that did   not exist in 2013 that's another Factor we want to  be able to take into account here when looking at   moving on to subsequent steps which to Water Works  Water Treatment Plant you hear me talk about this   a lot I won't spend a lot of time on it but is  really the Keystone for Drought res resiliency   and the way we treat and manage our water supply  it provides more flexibility it provides the   ability for us to treat more groundwater our  current water treatment plant is restricted to   the amount of groundwater it can treat we could  get to a point with our new water treatment plant   that we could treat 100% groundwater if we needed  to at some point in time which we can't do now we   are working on commissioning and startup plan  perfecting that right now our projection right   now is to have the new plant online April 1st of  next year that becomes a really big deal and a   game Cher at that point point and how we address  drought because of the flexibility provided all   in looking at this we have uh established an  annual conservation rate of 35% uh which um   has a goal of saving 80 million gallons per year  we have generally exceeded that every single year   and want want to keep improving on that so I'm  going to keep pushing sorry I know there's a lot   of information but I want to make sure you had  all of this at the same time our conservation   efforts can all be found uh generally all found at  save witto water.com this is on the city's website   I'll hit on a few highlights here um there's  drought update information which I've already   talked about it talks about cheny and the levels  at cheny and where we're at there's irrigation   education uh which provides links to K State and  Cedric County Extension Office reference materials   talks about how you can save water watering less  letting your grass grow higher what that does   um there's a lot of focuses in many places here  that you don't need to water every single day   Watering your grass once or twice a week during  the seat will still keep the lawn alive may not be   as green as some people want it to be but it makes  for a healthier lawn uh no matter how you look at   it the internal conservation plan as mentioned  here it's the next slide I'm going to talk about   and really focus on what we've done uh to make a  difference Lawn Care managing Supply is what we   talked about the balance between the Eis beds and  chy and then our water conservation rebate program   so really good information Allin one place we  send people here often uh especially those in the   community want to know what they can do to make  a difference conservation efforts um especially   focused on the internal conservation plan for some  time now we have had an internal conservation team   there's a representative from every single one of  our departments that meets on a regular basis to   talk about what can be done with the organization  through the organization uh to help conserve water   I'm going to hit on some highlights here I'm not  going to stop on every single one of these but   I'm happy to come back to it reducing water usage  on City owned grass covered land uh an effort has   been made even through contractors uh to mow at a  higher level which improves root shade and reduces   evaporation that lowers water usage and also  requires less mowing that is a really big deal   when you look at the number of facilities that  we've got also in that same vein uh give you some   quick examples wit toop PD East substation is  just about to open uh the grass that would be   placed there is a warm seasoned grass requiring  less water most once you once it gets established   it doesn't need much water at all historically  if you look back in time most of our facilities   would have fescue Fescue sad in place just like  you see with a lot of commercial developments   we were stepping completely away from that the  advanced learning library includes warm seasoned   grass the witto water works new water treatment  plant campus all of the grass areas will include   warm seas and grasses uh reducing water usage on  city-owned golf courses there quite a few efforts   that are going on right now give you some examples  at McDonald Golf Course several years ago the   ponds were rebuilt they were made larger they were  made deeper so that water can be used effectively   reused for watering that golf course that's a big  deal if that could be done at more golf courses it   would really help they've created no mo areas um  uh where there's no watering needed no mowing done   they're looking to convert to Drought resilient  grasses where possible this is done at various   golf courses in different areas where it makes  sense and they're trying to add to that more it   changed the way that uh carts are washed you know  that can happen a lot during the day they're using   air hoses to clean them off primarily wet and  dry Rags getting away from using so much water   Clubhouse Renovations have been done to um install  automated fixtures water bottle fi stations things   like that that we've done on facilities across the  community I mention City fountains uh decorative   fountains are being turned off splash pads and  pools also use a recycling filtration system   and they have sensors that are in place to help  with water reduction the aquatics master plan   that was implemented several years ago provided  new technology and a lot of good stuff that's   really focused on water conservation Striker  Soccer Complex was a major project to replace   all Turf uh grass fields with Turf needless  to say that's a big savings on water over time   without facility um we looked at using gray water  from Herman Hill with the water Center to water   trees logistically it hasn't been ideal as far  as getting people to and from there but something   will'll continue to look at conservation-minded  Landscaping guidelines have been applied across   all City projects for many many years now looking  at Zer escaping drought tolerant grasses anything   that we're doing in the medians to make sure  that irrigation is not needed um I mentioned   Park and Recreation facilities with buildings  across uh our organization we own and maintain   over 500 buildings we've done everything we can  to put in lowf flow fixtures automated fixtures   Plumbing that uses less water uh we're still  working on that in many areas water reduction   has been put in place for uh vehicle cleaning  needless to say we've got a lot of vehicles so   that has changed considerably uh for fire hydrant  uses and fire training there's a lot of things   we could continue to talk about construction  projects and testing of new water lines I can   remember when I worked in our Construction office  we would build a new water line and to disinfect   that line you've got to run a certain volume of  water through their for a certain period of time   we would have inspectors that would open up that  hydrant and let that water blow and go to other   projects for a good part of the day and come back  because they knew that they we got enough through   it we're good we are very calculated now and  deliberate about utilizing only the amount of   water needed to actually disinfect that line so I  just want to provide that as a good example a lot   of stuff there to take in but I wanted to make  sure you knew the things that we're doing we're   continuing to do that are making a difference  we have seen a decrease in internal water usage   over the last two years as as a result of this  it's incremental some months but it at least is   a decrease we think this is a factor that needs to  be considered going forward because we're going to   keep moving on all these initiatives continued  voluntary conservation now I mentioned this   before can help avoid mandatory conservation and  enforcement efforts going forward so getting to   the point of why we're here thank you for bearing  with me again uh the revision to city code section   1714 this is what it says when the 12-month  moving average of Chin's conservation pool level   indicates the existence of a drought response  stage in accordance with the previous section what   it currently says is the city manager will issue a  public declaration as such drought response stage   of such drought response stage we would like  to change that to say that the city manager   shall be empowered to the next part of that does  the same thing for coming out of that and saying   that we're no longer in place the bottom part of  it is really the most important and what it says   is that factors that may be considered the city's  manager discretion but not all inclusive to the   Declaration of drought response stage include the  utility's ability to reliably treat and deliver   portable water cheny lake levels the condition  of other available Water Supplies emerging water   demands and weather trends current conservation  efforts Financial impacts and economic conditions   pretty much everything we just spoke about  accidents prescribed by the plan are outdated   and should be revised in alignment with current  conditions empowering the manager to assess other   critical factors will enable an Adaptive approach  to implementing the drought measures and Water   Management there is no current cost to adopting  the code revision if the drought continues and the   response plan restrictions are enacted if we move  to subsequent stages Revenue reduction will occur   what I talked about with tiers two and three is  a considerable part of our Revenue let something   we are looking at looking forward to when our  rate plans are developed we try to include some   contingencies in case we get to this point we were  looking ahead of what needs to happen in case we   get to this point to help accommodate that Revenue  loss last thing we want to do is have to you know   consider emergency rate hike and that's something  that we've had questions about from the public   with all of that staff recommends the city council  approve the code changes place the ordinance on   first reading and authorize the necessary  signatures uh assuming your approval today   we would we would continue to Monitor chinii and  all other water sources water use and continued   conservation efforts keeping you and the public  informed along the way I might mention one last   time just to be very clear we are not requesting  that we move to stage two today thank you very   much I'm happy to answer any questions questions  for staff beginning with council member glas thank   you Madame mayor um first off this is the most  important thing we do in the community else is   conser water and I'm thankful for everything that  we're doing proactively as well I don't think any   of us up here are water experts as uh councilman  Tuttle says you all are um the quick question I   have just for like a historical nature have we  ever entered into and it may have been called   something different of stage two stage three stage  four have we ever implemented let's say a stage   two stage three restrictions completely not since  this plan has been in place in 2013 I hear stories   from others about water rationing in the future I  in my 29y year career with the city I'm not aware   of it but I may not have been paying attention but  I don't believe we've gotten the stage to you for   quite some time I know a lot of communities  especially in the uh western states are   experiencing probably even more severe droughts  than we are as well have a lot of communities   moved to the same stipulations or requirements  that we're asking if we move to stage two or stage   three are they already in those stages themselves  themselves I think so and if you even look at the   western parts of our state you probably would see  a lot more severe restrictions uh talking about   the southwestern part of the country I mentioned  reuse in the gray water many communities are   having to rely on that as almost their only water  source uh which is still a good an Innovative use   but there are challenges with the public wanting  to use reuse water as a pable source as you can   imagine thank you and one last question because  I know the board is full too I know some of our   Landscaping um uh some individual homes have wells  versus City water would we still be encouraging   the same behavior does that help the system as a  whole it it does when you look at there are so if   you if you kind of look up the m at the makeup  and the geology of the community you see a lot   more Wells on the west side of the community for  a lot of reasons you don't see as many on the east   side just because again the geology and the makeup  and the availability of groundwater but but those   wells in and of themselves residential Wells don't  have a large impact um none of these restrictions   apply to those that have wells however we still  would consider conservation from all um the at   some point in time it's all coming from the same  place when you talk about water groundwater even   though it may not directly be from the Eis beds it  does make a difference so our conservation message   is for everyone thank you Ela member Tuttle thank  you thank you Gary for your presentation and   for your staff and your team and and all that  you're doing every day but especially we have   enough challenges you know getting the new water  treatment plant up and running and then now adding   this in so certainly appreciate your efforts um  just one quick comment and then some questions I   do want to say slide 55 was the slide that talked  about what the city is doing and I just could not   be more impressed to see that really comprehensive  list and things that I would have never ever   thought of so kudos to you and your team for that  for sure um I asked this on Friday during agenda   review but for those who you know weren't tuned  in um what are we doing to ask the community for   help in terms of conservation are we communicating  with the HOAs are we communicating with business   and industry and then the second part of this  question and then I have one other question but   you know if um one of our um anger Industries or  you know other large entities that that use water   want to try and conserve more how can we help them  do that so how are we communicating with with with   our neighbors about the confer conservation plan  and what they can do and then how are we helping   them so commit thank you council member and I I  do agree on our internal conservation efforts uh   I know I talked about a lot of things here but I  could spend a lot more time talking to you about   what we've done and again all this information  is available on our website uh communication   to the community has become so critical uh and  we've done everything we can especially since   entering stage one of last year working with our  Communications team we've made sure when staff   was out in the public to keep this message out  front I mentioned that each year when we sent out   uh notices on the backflow preventers it talked  then about reminder we're in this situation do   everything you can to conserve water so that gets  out to the 20,000 ,000 directly uh we can and have   put notes in the water bills that would be to all  150,000 customers reminding them of the situation   that we're in and encouraging conservation um  this often we will come back to this information   at the mayor's weekly press conferences often to  talk about don't forget we're still in a drought   I talked about that we have reached out to  local meteorologists I think is a big deal   lot of people rely on them and watch local weather  and to hear them talk about we're not out of this   situation you need to keep conserving has been a  big deal it's going to be continue to be our Focus   going forward even if we get that huge rain event  next week that takes us out of this situation like   it did in 2013 we're going to continue this going  forward everything that we're doing because we we   we need to because you never know when we're going  to come back to this you mentioned HOAs which I do   want to talk about real quick there's a challenge  with homeowners associations and their covenants   the what's applied under covenants with HOAs is  subject to state law and typically not to local   ordinance so we have heard from many folks that  live in an HOA that has Covenant that says what   do I do I'm being told I have to keep my grass  as green as you can possibly be and so to do   that I've got a water every day or I'm going to  potentially face um fines or whatever it might   be from the HOA we started reaching out to HOA  management companies last year uh HOA management   here in wiah oversees 200 or more homeowners  associations so it was nice to talk directly to   them they understand the challenges that we're  facing they started talking to their o HOAs we   talked to some directly so far our conversations  have been positive I think everybody understands   the concerns they want to start looking at their  requirements to see if they can change we probably   haven't gotten as far on that as I would like  to but it's something that we're going to keep   focusing on especially as we get closer and closer  to stage two that's a big deal you heard me talk   about we see the largest increase in water usage  is from summertime irrigation it just is and so if   we can work through the HOAs which cover a lot  of our citizens and outdoor water use to be a   I mentioned before or if you could go if we could  get everybody in the communi to go to watering two   to three times a week as opposed to watering every  single day it would have a huge impact on where we   are at currently with water usage impact on cheny  impact overall ho we're going to keep working on U   messaging we're going to keep working on I think  I covered everything you did I have one more   question then goad um thank you and Gary and I had  a chance on Friday to go meet with the mayor of a   neighboring city um who purchases water from wiah  and and they were extremely concerned about this   issue and and interested in learning more about  what they could do and what we are doing um and   I did this morning also on on a local news outlet  they said that we're going into phase two right so   the misconception is out there and I know on slide  56 you gave us a really good you know overview but   you're a champ at this Gary if you had to explain  this to your neighbor you know going to get the   mail this afternoon and you're both at the mailbox  at the same time and they said hey what you cover   today at City Hall how would you explain this in  the most um easiest way for every Community member   like what's our talking points when people say  are we going into phase two what did what are we   doing today I think the message that I would keep  upfront and Center is that voluntary conservation   is so important to what we're doing right now and  this is a collective effort it's an opportunity   to be adaptive to this if every one Buys in to  voluntary conservation we can avoid going to   mandatory restrictions because we're getting ever  closer to that um that's something I spent a lot   of time talking to the manager about we're trying  to keep the messaging out there there's so much   information available uh I see people in my own  neighborhood right now that are watering two and   three times a day I've spent time over my career  looking at problem problems with pavement where   you get an imperfection in the pavement and the  reason why it got worse is because it's constantly   sitting underwater I've been out to look at  streets where the irrigation system was not   running in a yard and there's still water pouring  out over the curb that is where we can make a   difference and that and a lot of that comes from  education there's so much information available on   our website this is not a very succinct answer to  what you ask and I don't know if I would tell my   neighbor all of this uh but there's a lot of great  information out there that's why we're trying to   steer people to that I talked about K State  and Cedric County Extension they've got great   information out there uh not to get any further  into that but people that water their yards every   day and so often or that's creating a re a weak  root system it is not good for your yard because   those roots never have to go anywhere to find  water so as soon as you start to take that away   it will suffer and it'll suffer immediately  we encouraged through discussions with the   management companies and these uh Communications  with those that have backflow preventers to   start changing now this year as you bring  your system online start watering one two   three times a week instead of every we'll see  like I said we have seen uh decrease in water   usage incrementally over the last few months so  hopefully the hopefully the messaging is making   a difference the biggest deal is we need to  stay all on voluntary cont conservation so   that we don't have to go any farther perfect  thank you Gary member hois thank you mayor uh   Gary letting the the the grass grow even longer  than we have now I think M ABCD is going to be   reaching out to you shortly about that um just a  couple questions here do we are the surrounding   communities do they have inspections on um  the back the backflow devices as well uh yeah   yes that that applies to again all of our users  okay so we will be able to know what houses have   those and use the watering systems well because of  the potential for cross contamination you get old   water in the system nobody wants it coming back  into the portable water system so I think that's   required even at the state level okay yeah I was  just wanting to make sure it's not just our users   that we would have that knowledge of or just which  to residents correct okay um how much extra gray   water do we have and what else can we use it for  you touched on it a little bit in the presentation   but what are some other ideas as far as using that  water source right I I don't know that I can give   you an amount of gray water available so we have  four currently active wastewater treatment plans   every single one of them treats a certain capacity  of of Wastewater that's coming through the plant   the affluent then goes to the nearby River Creek  whatever it might be plant three Northwest witw   goes to cowskin Creek um South End again our M our  main sewer treatment plant goes into the big Ark   River so right now the only graywater use that we  have in place is what I talked about for Spirit uh   considerable cost goes into implementing those  systems spirit is um that's their Debt Service   they're paying for that it's an agreement we had  with them because of the benefit to everybody as   a whole we had the council member Tuttle talked  about the meeting that we had on Friday uh with   the mayor of vanover and that was to talk about  potential graywater to pteridine golf course   considerable water User it's a big cost to get  there from our Four Mile Creek treatment plant   it becomes a challenge then to figure out who  does that it's probably not the responsibility   of the r pairs at large uh and and so we've got  to figure out a balance we've been looking at a   plan over there for a couple of years that the and  the point I want to get to it's not easy to get to   that point especially from a cost perspective um  I mentioned when council member Glascock asked uh   there are South communities in the southwestern  part of the country that have been forced to go   to reuse water only because they had no other  sources everything else is effectively gone   we We are continuing to look for opportunities  right now it's an expensive proposition uh for   the infrastructure and trying to figure out who  might pay for that but we're keeping it there   we're talking with other communities about what  they're doing we've got staff that are engaged uh   on that level to make sure that we're not missing  opportunities I think our our our best bet is to   find industry that can use that in a proximity  to our water treatment plant we've had um request   EST from different type of Industries over the  last several years as you all know to come to   the community some are large water users we have  tried to look at seeing if we could position them   closer to one of these treatment plants such  that the cost to get infrastructure there was   not um so prohibitive so I think that's  really where our focus goes continuing   to talk to Spirit as we're already sending them  gray water others that can take that on more so   than having to look at a pipe that's five  8 10 miles just to get to one Golf Course   that may not have been the the the the best answer  you were looking for but there's a lot of moving   Parts uh and I think more than anything we've got  to find a user that we can put in a place that it   makes sense okay I appreciate that U when when is  the water plant coming online and then we have a   six Monon period before we fully transition from  the current water plant to the new water plant is   that my memory correct so we're our goal right  now is for the new plant to be online April 1st   of 2025 uh if we don't make that date we risk uh  a water usage issue between the plants so we'll   get there we're perfecting some things related  to the commissioning and startup plan now and   I think we'll get there in April at that point  in time that plant will be producing water so   there will be a period of time when both of our  plants are producing water and sending it out to   the system everything still goes through the Pump  Station which is near the main water treatment   plant now 6 months is probably pretty close what  we would hope to have everything worked out on the   new plant make sure it's all operational at that  point in time we would take the old plant offline   okay so right now we'd be looking towards the end  of 2025 that we would be providing water to the   community from the new plant only okay because  some of the water savings we're looking at here   is from the new plant so those water savings won't  necessarily would be uh fully active for another   year or so maybe not but if we got in a worse  situation um I think there's some things that   we could do to expedite sending more water through  the new plant sooner uh and then the last question   is this is only um pertaining to going from phase  one to phase two does that mean phase three and   phase four are still the hard limits that we're  looking at yeah this is everything we're talking   about here is for all stat stages and it's based  on these levels um you never know again I talked   about the challenges with no precipitation in  the cheny Basin if that continues we're going to   continue to see the lake levels drop however we're  doing everything we can on our end to balance   the use of the Equis beds this continued con  conservation overall less usage is going to help   maintain that level and hopefully we never see  those stages three or four but this will still if   we get to those levels potentially and if you so  inclined to approve the requested uh code changes   today it would not be based just on that level but  all these other factors we talked about because so   that includes stage three and stage four correct  yes sir all stages okay appreciate it thank you   vice mayor Ballard thank you mayor this is really  all overwhelming um okay a couple questions if it   makes you feel better it is for me too that almost  makes me feel worse um I I can you talk about the   north the new Northwest Water Treatment Plant so I  know I talked to you about um you guys are testing   the water now correct so we are at a point uh  construction is effectively complete uh we're   doing what's called some functional testing  at this time which is you kind of check all   the equipment make sure everything's working when  you start bringing stuff together and we look at   performance testing and running water through the  plant we're not going to be able to start really   doing that at any level until later this fall and  for the very reasons that we've talked about even   if we weren't in a these drought conditions right  now to be able to meet the normal summer demands   we don't have a lot of water available to run  through this new plant so our working through   final parts and pieces of our commissioning and  startup plan we are very focused on that and when   the best time is to start moving so right now it  probably won't be until November that we start   bringing water through the plant for performance  testing and we're doing everything we can uh   working with witto water Partners to minimize  the amount of water needed but to make sure   that we can still confirm that this plant will do  everything that we need it to so there's more to   come on that but that's very front and center for  us recognizing that we're still in this situation   we've got to minimize but it's something that has  to be done or we're not going to bring this plan   online and everything we talked about today just  gets even worse okay um I also received an email   about um conserving water for people that are  watering their grass but on a well so do you have   any thing to say or advice or suggestions sure and  so I think going back to the other question that   was asked um these restrictions don't apply to  those on a well however we still would recommend   voluntary conservation for everyone no one needs  to water their grass every single day no one needs   to should be watering in the middle of the day  all of these things that we talk about all of   these things that are available from the resources  on the website we would ask for everyone to look   at and take that into account I mentioned before  that the Wells and Witchita are not going to do a   lot to draw down what's in the Eis beds but it  all plays together at some point and it makes   sense that the conservation across the board needs  to be done and for what it's worth he did say that   he was on a well but he thought that he should  conserve water as well so um we appreciate that   question are there penalties for um any businesses  that are like on timers that they're watering the   grass when it's raining out or or when it you know  sorry quick trip but when they're water shooting   out into the street instead of the grass or I  mean are is there so anything to be done on the   first part of that watering when it's raining  uh is a big concern for all of us uh I'm sure   they're on a timer but well but even then that  rain sensors are available commercial businesses   should have them homes should have them that's  something that's part of our rebate program um   I've got one myself um that's a big deal anytime  we see that we try to talk to those if we know   about that and encourage them to do that the part  about watering on the sidewalk that is a violation   of city code and if we hear about that we will  talk to them to make sure it becomes a public   safety issue and a potential Hazard but beyond  that you as you can see there's some information   uh and one of the areas that we talk about that  concrete does not need water to grow and so it   doesn't make any sense so we're always trying  to keep an eye on those things I think that's   something that can become more of a part of our  messaging going forward uh but everywhere you   look in here especially they'll talk about rain  sensors the last the the worst thing you can do   is is be watering when it's raining I mean when  we look at all of this together that's that's   something you would hope that we could fix so  we'll keep working on that okay a couple more   questions I'll make them quick um on slide 55 um  do we have any um council members or appointments   to any to this internal team that works on these  efforts we do not right now it is run by my staff   and comprised of representatives from every one of  our departments do you think it would be possible   to add a council member or something like that  just so cuz I would love to celebrate these things   that we're already doing and I know that we can um  you know through our social media and stuff but um   just so maybe there's one of us that's the expert  on um some of the things that we're doing maybe   I think would be important I would see no reason  why we couldn't do that okay and just to be clear   I know you already said this but if this passes  today it would not affect any of the landscaping   or sod companies or anything like that unless  we moved into the stage two correct well even   at stage two they would not be impacted even into  stage three so any businesses that utilize water   as part of their core activity are still exempt  so if you look at these exemptions it talks about   golf courses car washes nurseries side companies  I know that's one that you and I talked about I'll   tell you something that we've started to look at  in that regard that that we'd have to consider sod   company itself that's their business right they've  got to have water uh to grow the sod and sell the   sod the question we had from the sod companies is  the only way we're going to sell sod is if those   people who are buying it they've got to be allowed  to water every single day for three weeks to make   sure the sod doesn't die that becomes a challenge  what our message would be to them and needs to be   going forward is they need to consider encouraging  the use of warm seasoned grasses that take a lot   less water and can be established a lot quicker  that's something that we'll talk to them about   about um most of our community is fesus sad but  that's something I think holistically we need to   start thinking about um you look at the Southwest  areas of the country I know everybody knows this   but you don't see that type of grass because  there's no water you see zeroscape Landscaping   you see worm season grasses you see people that  have Rock in their yards not that we want that   but I think that's some place that we really need  to look at and maybe start changing that Dynamic   going forward but for now they are exempt even in  stages two and three okay last two questions um I   had someone send an email asking if we've been  um making progress over the last two years on   voluntary then why are we suggesting the change  I think we have been making progress It's again   it's incremental we haven't seen a drastic change  um but if you look historically over the years at   water usage I think we've done a pretty good job  of stabilizing the water use of nothing else at   this point in time um the as far as the change  assuming that's asking about the change that   we're asking for today is just simply because  we've done a lot since 2013 when this plan was   put in place we don't think it's prudent at this  time to use the cheny water level as the only   trigger for moving into mandatory restrictions  we can continue to watch what's happening with   conservation we can watch water use and make sure  that we're we're considering all factors at the   same time everything I've talked about today  and not just that one thing so for those who   are concerned about moving to Stage 2 to their  benefit this may keep us from going there quite   as quick I can't predict that uh but this gives us  the opportunity to not just go there automatically   once the 12 month running average is below 70%  which we're getting pretty close to okay awesome   and last question question okay I'm going to pick  on Bob for a second um on slide 56 where it says   factors may be considered at the city manager's  discretion is it just Bob or is it a group or is   it as it Bob a lot of as it would set right now  uh the recommendation would effectively come from   me and from my staff who spends a lot of time  in this area are we've got staff that has been   very dedicated to these conservation efforts  and everything that's going on the messaging   we are going to do the best we can to take all of  this information and make a recommendation to the   manager by the code is ultimately his decision  of whether we move forward or not but but I want   to make sure he has everything he needs all the  tools that he needs I think this really helps the   manager uh weigh a lot of different things but  but we're going to we're going to consider all   factors and make sure that the best information is  there including Trends where we're at again what's   happening with water use what's happening with  conservation and if we can keep pushing forward   on that new water treatment plan it makes a big  difference okay thank you so much council member   Johnson thanks mayor thank you Gary um appreciate  the informative presentation I do hope more of the   public um pays attention to everything you said  um I just had two things on following up on the   vice mayor the piece about the manager the factors  being considered um I really like on the website   right now uh you have one of those things that  talks about the current cheny level but I wonder   if we could add some more thisinformation to the  site for those people who are paying attention I   think it kind of sets a uh kind of lets them know  where we are and what may be coming and seeing   right now it says Chi reservoirs 69% like that's  a that's something that people would look at but   I think it would also be interesting to see what  the emerging water demands are the weather trends   current conservation efforts like all of that on  that space I just think that would be a benefit   um if we could do that we we certainly can uh  we're always looking for ways to provide more   comprehensive information on Save witow water.com  on every everything you talked about is there   some of it's embedded in certain places some of it  in others we'll continue to look at a way to make   sure that it all sorry coordinates and and works  together the best that it can just to clear up I   did not go to that website this is on the wi.gov  website okay on the sorry well that is within   wi.gov for what it's worth I know it sounds like  a different one but it takes you to the wi.gov   website we'll look at that too I want to make  sure that those messages do resonate with each   other okay and then lastly I know you said the  water treatment facility may come online April 1st   does it have to be April Fool's Day uh we we will  try to stay away from April 1 that's a good point   thank you thanks gar council member glasscock  I just have a few rapid fire questions based on   these comments so um does Derby get their water  from they do so when they're looking at Large   Scale potential projects that involve a lot of  water what is our role in that when we're looking   at we're having this conversation so I know that  question came up before and I will tell you that   I failed to close the loop on getting more  information on that but I started looking into   that speaking with the city of Derby at bottom  line is that particular development is using   some new technology for uh water conservation and  recycling however uh our wholesale water Partners   as part of their water uh sale agreements with  us are required to provide a conservation plan   to the city it doesn't necessarily detail what  all that means but we have the ability to ask   what are you going to do in this regard what are  you going to do to save water so we are very aware   of that and working with them going to continue uh  I don't have all the final answers on that yet but   it's part of what we do Derby is looking at moving  forward with their own water supply at some point   and maybe not utilizing As Much from the city  which isn't all bad because that provides   more water supply for the entire region and  the community right but I do appreciate you   bringing that up again because it's something  that we've got to keep an eye on and make sure   um again the language within the agreements  requires that they provide conservation plans   so nobody that we provide water to can really  go out and do something that that's just going   to waste water it's something that we would have  to be a part of in approving what they ultimately   do okay thank you I know that your job is not  a landscaping expert but if let's say someone   is watering their lawn every day now and they're  wanting to conserve more water and also maintain   their lawn is they're like kind of a phase out  approach I mean if they cut cold tur I know I'll   probably get this question from constituents if  they cut cold turkey and watering their lawn once   a week and they've been watering every day that'd  have a negative impact on their lawn or should   they maybe start going to three days a week and  then maybe two and then and slowly phasing out   I think a stepped approach based on what I know  we we rely on our Park Department experts a lot   uh and those extension places that I've talked  about because they're really the experts but a   stepped approach is really going to be the best I  I mentioned before if you have a lawn that you've   watered every single day from the start it's got  a very shallow and weak root system because it   doesn't have to go far to look for water if you  cut that drastically you're probably going to see   your yard not just good dormant but it may die  pretty quickly and so stepped approach makes a   big difference that was our messaging has been  our messaging each year as systems were being   brought back online as uh they were winterized uh  they're bought back into service we have tried to   encourage and implore everyone go to that don't  water every day as you come back out of the   winter and into the season start watering less  it's hard to know where we've gotten with that   but that's going to continue to be our message uh  there's some great resources on our website that   would help answer that question people that they  can talk to but if that's what people have been   doing they're going to struggle if they drive if  they go from watering every single day to one day   a week that's why we've had these conversations  and everyone needs to know what stage two means   because that is exactly what would happen if  we have to mandate the restrictions of states   too regardless of what you've done you can water  one day we start preparing now in case we have to   absolutely thank you no further questions for  staff so I have a couple of comments um I'll   start with I believe vice mayor Ballard just  nominated herself internal conservation plan   group um and I think that that is a great idea um  we have seven individuals on this board that have   our own platforms to communicate with consent I  think it's appropriate for us to try to be the   ones that communicate conservation uh message  and that is something that I think is when it's   based off of data and right now we're at 69%  is that correct at chinii Reservoir so if if   we're lucky but it's somewhere around there so at  69% this would automatically trigger if we didn't   do this revision Ju Just so just to clarify real  quick Madame mayor sorry to jump in the current   water level is less than 70% the 12-month average  which we need to consider there's two numbers here   not to make it confusing current water level  is below 70% 12-month average is still above   70% it's necessary to consider that 12month  average because you get seasonal variations   if you happen to get a single event that impacts  it we need to use that so we're still not quite   there with that 12month average but we're getting  ever closer so the website does say currently are   we're at at 71.3% is that correct correct uh for  the 12mth average so again it would trigger at   69% if we don't make this change um to the to the  ordinance so just as a reminder I think that that   number needs to be very big and clear for folks  that we really are inching closer uh 71% um in   addition to I wanted to highlight that the website  does have a lot of information save wital water.   and that does also remind folks that there is a  rebate still going on in terms of rain barrels   and unfortunately a majority of that money  is already gone 72,000 of the 75,000 actually   there's sorry rather the opposite of what I just  said not enough people are applying for that so   you I'm trying to remind people that there are  lots of resources on the website if people read   all of the bullet points in here so I don't know  if uh maybe this is a staff recommendation to   Communications if we can have this information  more in um not just bullet point format but very   clearly stated at the very top some of this um  the 69% 71% the remaining money in the rebate   program these are all things that community  members would really appreciate because they're   tangible items that they can really grasp and  so if we can challenge Communications or task   Communications to um have some sort of plan  with this information it would be helpful we   will work on that I'll just mention real quick  again and I hopefully I made this clear one of   our biggest challenges has been that cheni is  not here right it's miles away and so anytime   it rains here people figure it's I'm good uh we  can keep on doing what we're doing so I think   keeping any information related to cheny at the  top of the page on the front page makes a big   difference that's why it really helped us when  the meteorologists started focusing on saying   hey just because it rained we're still not in a  good spot because of cheny so I appreciate that   comment see no further questions for staff thank  you thank you we'll open it up for public comment uh my name's Doug Ballard I live in Riverside  District 6 um most of you weren't here but back   when we were talking about a water plan I was  down here quite a bit um my eighth grade science   teacher at Hadley 1960 before any of you were  around got me interested in climate change and   water and I remember you know uh he said the war  of all wars will be overwater in probably 1993 I   was on a committee to talk about the possibility  of building a new water plant and conservation   and uh there were so many business people on the  committee that they they could not imagine wanting   to build a water plant because it would cost like  $80 million uh we kicked that can down the road   for a while for quite a while one of the things  that I was impressed with uh and I wished I had   saved a copy was the water usage uh for the city  per address between 1960 and 1990 and it exploded   and I don't know a lot of this stuff is unrelated  but it it really is related so 50 years ago we'll   say the turf industry started promoting a grass  that should be grown 200 miles north of here   but what it does it it's a grass you have to  overwater over fertilize over mow collect the   grass clippings pay somebody to haul it to the  dump for us so I wished we hadn't gone down that   road I wished when we started irrigating our yards  with treated water that's drinking water that's   what it's really there for I wish instead of just  putting a backflow preventer on that we would have   also put a separate water meter on it I think if  we had done that we'd be in shock as to how much   water is actually wasted because I'm interested  in this subject throughout the United States   there are a lot of cities that have gone through  what we're going right going through right now   quite a while back and the voluntary part of it  did not go very well so you have an industry out   there who is planting grass every day that needs  to be watered this is June 18th and I I think   think it's it's great and you obviously put a lot  of work a lot of thought into it I would leave it   the way it is because this is June 18th you go  out to cheni and you see all that bare dirt and   all those facilities that are way away from the  water it'll be a shock and you can't once it's   gone you can't say oh I wish we' done something  different you do not want to get to stage three   we're in trouble if we get to stage three and if  we get to stage three the rest of the state oh   my God so I would I would leave it the way it  is and maybe Bob will get to get a little bit   more sleep when we get a little bit closer it I  I just leave it the way it is it's great I think   that you talked about this subject because it is  so important but I think honestly I think think   we're in trouble I really do and so I would leave  it the way it is and at some point you can adjust   you may want to move them numbers at some point  uh there's several things we could do we could do   we could put a I wish I put a pressure reducing  valve on my house I wish it was Cod because you   could I have turned our uh because I live in  Riverside most of the time I have about 993   pounds of water pressure and I have it turned down  to 60 right now I've got a pressure reducing valve   that will go between 25 and 75 and I've turned it  down to 60 and you can't tell the difference so   any water that I'm saving because I did that it's  just free water essentially so anyway I I could   go I could do a couple hours on this subject but  uh I would leave it the way it is thank council   member Glascock I just want to make a quick uh  comment um I we had talked Mr B and I talked I   think in the parking lot of a post office for like  30 minutes about water who that a lot and so I was   thankful for the conversation I can see where uh  councilwoman Ballard gets her love of conservation   from as well I think you make a a very good point  we're all very visual Learners and the more that   I think we can share and the city can share the  photos of the cheni reservoir the photos of uh   the dirt around the reservoir the more that it  sinks into people um I remember seeing photos of   uh drought restrictions in the west and you  just see um the decrease of water expansion   there and so I think that's a helpful tool that  the city can use because we're very visual I'm   sorry one other little State I've I have five  bird bass that I have to fill up every day and   as the temperature goes up because you have that  Cheney the surface area the evaporation is the   evaporation is more than we use and that's  that's a problem and it's only June 18th so any any further comments I see none we'll bring  it back to the bench council member hoisel thank   you mayor uh Doug I love you man um I I have  concerns about changes to the plan uh currently   our response is well defined as far as the water  levels uh regardless of what we save here in   Witchita it also doesn't affect necessarily what's  going on at of gen it does in some ways with the   water that we pull in but there's still a lot  of issues that we need to pay attention to out   there uh water is too important to just put off  difficult choices for especially if what we're   talking about is um saving people from going to  only watering their lawns once once a week you   don't have to worry about me with that one my  my lawn is definitely has some deep roots there   because it only sees the rainwater so um so I I do  appreciate all the work that staff is putting in   for conservation we definitely need to talk about  that more uh the great things that they're doing   the great suggestions we have um but in this I  don't think think I'll be supportive of this just   because we need to make these difficult decisions  now because water is just so vital to everything   that we do to life itself so I just figured I'd  give my two cents here before we vote on this   council member John St thank you mayor I I would  like to thank the previous councils for having   foresight and and the aqua beds and recharging  them and have the available water so we're not   just relying on Genie so it's it's new information  it's new plan and uh I think it's very responsible   and that we know the levels of those Aqua beds the  additional wells in the AR Kansas River Arkansas   River so I think all this comes into play with  a total response and we're not talking about   just cheny so therefore I'll be voting for  it getes us a lot more flexibility thank you no further comments from board I move  that we take the staff recommended action second motion and a second any further  discussion I see none Madame clerk please open the rooll motion passes 4 to three Madame  clerk please call the next item   janitorial services at various City facilities good morning mayor members of the  city council I'm Aaron hening with public   works and utilities and the item before you is  requesting your approval of staff's recommended   vendors and contracts for janitorial services  at various City facilities the city has been   Outsourcing janitorial services for many of  its satellite facilities for 30 years now   the current contracts provide services to 103  facilities that range in size and complexity   from pool restrooms to the advanced learning  library just last month you were kind enough   to approve a one-month extension of those  existing contracts to give us time to wrap   up a re request for proposals or RFP process  for for uh new contracts that RFP was issued   in February of this year and consisted of  105 facilities that were Consolidated into   20 distinct groups it included new facilities  of the patrol East substation and the witcha   Waterworks administration building when it was  issued more than 90 venders registered with   the city for similar Services were advised of its  release nine proposals were received and all nine   proposers were interviewed they were evaluated on  Project understanding and experience references in   past performance pricing and then collectively  on the overall benefits to the city given the   specific requirements of each group and the need  to safeguard uninterrupted services to all the facilities based on those considerations  staff recommends awarding contracts to five   vendors air Capital Building Maintenance  Crowder cleaning service haris stream   clean P&P services and Wilson Wilson  Building Maintenance as shown on this Slide the total cost of the services under  these Collective contracts is just over 1.2   million it's about 9% higher than the cost of  the expiring contracts but that includes the   two new facilities that I mentioned previously  there is money allocated in the current budget   based on the outgoing contracts the increases  with the new contracts will be incorporated   into the 2024 revised budget and each of these  contracts has a duration of one year and options   to renew under the same terms and conditions  for up to four additional one-year periods with that staff recommends that the  city council approve the recommended   vendors approve the contracts and authorize the  necessary signatures and I'm happy to stand for   any questions questions for staff beginning with  council member Glasco two quick questions when I   imagine pre-co postco we probably would started  cleaning the facilities more and that could just   be an assumption did we start cleaning the  facilities more after Co than we did prior   to co during Co it was there was definitely  enhanced cleaning going on during covid I   think since then we've kind of backed off back to  what we were doing before okay so we're back to   stable levels okay yes that was number one and  then number two this is just there's probably   reason for this but the number just stands  out to me so on group number one the advanced   leing library is $170,000 which is I think the  most substantial of all them for one building   I imagine we had more cleaning there that just  seemed like an outlier compared to all the other   uh groups and Facilities on group number one  for yeah on group number one yeah the advanced   learning library is about the most complex  facility that we have under these contracts   and the frequency and the scope of services  there okay is the reason for that so you're   not concerned with it being hired just given no  sir okay thank you council member Johnston thank   you very much mayor uh quick question we're  adding two buildings the East substation and   uh the other one the administration building  yeah thank uh at some time will be be taking   the old buildings offline uh well the so the old  Patrol East I think is still going to be utilized   by the fire department so depending on its usage  yes it would be if we can but uh but right now   the services will continue just adding square  footage yes thank you I see no further questions I   have one I wanted to uh make an emphasis on the 43  outside restrooms that the city of witon maintains   can you um again share what that cleaning schedule  kind of looks like and that we do as as a city of   Witchita maintain at the very least 43 outside  restrooms that individuals from throughout our   Community can utilize sure I think for the most  part those are cleaned during uh during season   the frequency is is it once a week once a  day sorry they're they're cleaned once a day I have one additional question um this is  in regards to the Portland L when that Portland   Lou will come will that also receive a once a day  um cleaning schedule and where is the port right now it would it I'm I'm sure it would  receive once a day cleaning as well I'm   not sure where that is in the process but  we can certainly find out and and let you know Gary Gary can you give us an  update on the Portland Lou or Gary are you sorry you talking about the timing yeah  uh we and I sorry I didn't even catch what Aon   said if he said anything we've got uh one of them  coming relatively soon I think for a price wooded   park I think the goal was try to have everything  in this fall and everything I know we're still on   track but I I'd have to get you a detailed update  sorry I don't I don't have any more than that I   we're still trying to have that in by this fall at  least the first one there was some more challenges   at Navar logistically to try to make that one work  for a variety of reasons but I hoping to have the   first one in yet this fall but I would we'll have  to I'll have to confirm and let you know for sure   so that will be added into this configuration  because right now we have 43 outside restaurants   if this comes in the fall would add 44 yeah yeah  and those one part of at Portland Lou I'm not the   expert on it but when we talked about that and  bringing that into the mix they're supposed to   need less attention for cleaning but that's  something we're going to find out because we   haven't had one yet thank you I see no further  questions for staff we'll open it up for public comments none we'll bring it back to the bench is there a motion to approve mayor I would move to approve  the recommended vendors and contracts   and authorize the necessary signatures second  motion and a second any further discussion I see   none Madame clerk please open the rooll motion  passes 70 Madam clerk please call the next item   design build contract approval alord  Angelou and Rockwell libraries expansion and renovation morning mayor and council members  again Gary Jansen Public Works and utilities   I appreciate the time you allowed me on that  first item I will make up for it on this one   uh the item before you this morning is is  a design build contract approval for uh   renovations to the offered Angelo and Rockwell  Branch libraries in October of 2023 the city   council initiated arpa allocations for  each of these libraries phases as part   of the branch library branch master plan and at  that time the council also approved criteria for   the design build contractor selection in  December of 2023 the city council adopted   a resolution uh for just under $4 million for the  projects an additional $2 million of city-wide   contributions have been committed for margin  of Excellence enhancements from the library   Foundation specific items within the capital  campaign will be incorporated in the branch   projects as outlined in theou with the foundation  which was approved by City Council in December of   last year assuming your approval today to move  forward uh as design progresses and develops   there'll be consideration of whether additional  improvements might be able to to be made to uh   be able to utilize some of that funding but we  won't know until we get to that point in 2020   and 2020 preliminary schematics were drafted  to reflect updates to Public Service spaces   and how programming needs are met in the library  branch master plan the covid pandemic and Lessons   Learned From initial Library System remodels  resulted in updated atics for these particular   projects in 2022 in August of last year the city  council approved the adopted CIP which included   that nearly $4 million in funding broken out as  shown just under a million dollars for Al alfer   just under $500,000 for Angelou $2.5 million for  walkwell it is it is the project with the most   expansion which I'll talk about in a moment and  then there's a um dedicated funding for public for $90,000 just to go back uh and talk  about Concepts real quick Aller is   primarily interior remodel for collaboration  spaces to better connect partners and more   city services uh for family engagement  and early literacy enhancements and to   accommodate Workforce Development and digital  training and Technical access technology access Angelou uh improvements would also include  primarily an interior remodel along with a minimal   expansion to celebrate African-American culture  addition of a reading salarium community garden   family engagement and early literacy enhancements  and also to accommodate Workforce Development   digital training and Technology access Rockwell as  I mentioned uh is the largest proposed Improvement   including 4500 foot expansion for family  engagement and early literacy enhancements   Workforce Development digital training and  Technology access a larger meeting space uh   pickup window and expanded parking in October  of 2023 a request for proposals was advertised   for improvements to make these improvements to  the three branch libraries in December of last   year interviews were held with the three firms  who submitted the three teams uton Corporation   was selected to be the design build Contracting  firm for all projects uh based on the response to   the criteria that again was approved by the city  council looking at a timeline uh for Rockwell the   designed will be completed in July of this year  with construction completed in March of 2025   Angelo would be complete designed also in July of  this year construction would be completed yet in   2024 and for offord uh design would be completed  in August with construction completed in March   of 2025 so all the work should be done by the  summer of 2025 total amount of funds available   for the design Bill project is that same number we  looked at just under $4 million to be complemented   with Foundation directed funds again we don't  know exactly what those would go to yet but   as the design progresses and at some point in  time we will bring a guaranteed maximum price   Amendment back to the council if any changes  have been made uh we would present those to the   council at that time the amendment will include  the detailed scope of design construction and   final total cost limit for the design build  contract with Hutton staff recommend city   council approve the contract for design build  projects for the three branch libraries and   authorized necessary signatures I'd be happy  to stand for any questions any questions for staff see none we'll open it up for public comment  n back to the bench council member Tuttle thank   you thank you for your presentation Gary thanks  for the public excuse me not only public works   but also Park and wreck for excuse me library for  their work on this um I just wanted to say that I   really appreciate seeing the $90,000 allocated  for art something that I'm really super proud   that we do to make sure that our facilities are  not only functional but also you know have art   incorporated into all of them so glad to see that  I am sad to say that at Rockwell and that's where   District 2 has our um dab meeting because we don't  have a library in District 2 we'll be losing the   library excuse me not the library the fireplace  right CU Rockwell is the only Santa friendly   library that we have now so sorry to see that go  but glad for the expansion council member Johnson   thanks mayor uh no questions for me either just  really excited to see this happen these are some   much needed improvements I've been excited to  see these come to us for quite some time and I   think uh each of the projects is going to make a  huge difference but for sure uh rockwells expans   will be pretty incredible in the my Angelou  Library those improvements have been needed   for a very long time and seeing any types of  expansions in there will be appreciated by   Community as well as the artwork so I'm supportive  of this really excited about it and appreciate all   the work that's been done to get us council member  Johnston thank you Mayor Gary quick question for you sometimes in typically in design builds you  have a cost shared cost savings have anything   in that in place I don't think there are  with these contracts um that is possible   uh especially on some of the larger projects  that we've built over the years um these are   relatively small ins scope and so the way this  contract I'm pretty sure is structured is any   cost savings is to the benefit of the design  build team that and that that's the purpose   of working between now and to the point of the  guaranteed maximum price uh to hopefully find   the place where we can all agree to that doesn't  mean things can't be changed uh but if they're   able to find efficiencies that we agree to any  savings are to the benefit the other and and   the other way around they are held to build  what they they designed at that point for no   more than that cost so if anything costs more as  they move forward it's to the benefit of the city   okay thank you I know the contractors can can find  ways to save money still get a great product out   maybe look at that in the future we we will but I  think that our staff does a really good job along   the way as the design progresses uh we're we're  we're good partners with a design build team but   we're not going to allow them to find a way to  save money just for the sake of saving money if   it impacts quality or anything that an of an  asset of ours for the future so it's we don't   see that a lot um we' we've been able to do some  value engineering on some big major projects these   projects generally aren't large enough to be able  to find that many Savings in anyway okay thank you I just want to remind community that  this is a a big investment by the city of   which on nearly $4 million 3 million in  just district one alone and an addition   nearly 1 million for District Number Four we've  been very intentional I believe in the maintenance   and expansion of Library projects as you all know  we have six library branches and then the seventh   one being the advanced learning library there's  not even one uh library in District number two   Becky tuttles District um so again these  are intentional Investments um and I don't   want that to not I would be remiss if we don't  say that um because again this is a nearly $4   million investment into libraries Alone um  so we do care about the importance of these   facilities and the importance of libraries and  Community um so again as we are about to face   tough challenging decisions moving forward  I just want these projects to be a reminder   that we do make investments into facilities  and we do make investments into districts   and the return really is to hopefully have  Community connect not just at libraries but the   resources that are there whether it's uh printed  Publications or resources thanks to our wonderful   Library staff that help individuals connect  to resources in community I'm really grateful   for that but again it's a mindful investment  that's nearly $4 million and so because these   reside in District 1 and District 4 if either  of the council members would like to make the motion I happy to Mayor I moveed that  the city council approve the contract   for design Bill projects at Angelou Alfred and  Rockwell branches and authorized the necessary signatures second Motion in a second any further  discussion I see none Madame clerk please open the role motion passes 70 Madame clerk please call the   next item cdbg public services and  ESG homeless prevention allocation recommendations good morning honorable  mail members of council Sally Stang with   the Housing and Community Services Department  for the record the item I have for for you   today is the cdbg public service and ESG homeless  prevention allocation recommendations this really   is a continuation of the Consolidated plan and  annual action plan that you approved last month   so the city receives an annual allocation of cdbg  Community Development block grant funds um from   the Department of Housing and Urban Development um  we also receive emergency Solutions grants that's   a specific Grant designed to assist homeless  programs to receive the funds City's required   to create a Consolidated plan every five years and  an annual action plan that details the activities   to meet our goals uh the Consolidated planning  process is broken up was broken up into three   phases the first of which was in extensive  public engagement so during phase one uh our   staff as well as our consultant wfn Consulting uh  engaged all of the dabs conducted Community needs   assessments and surveys met with COC the Continuum  car Administration held stakeholder engagement   meetings visited with the nrc's consulted  one-on-one with stakeholders and met with   both four and nonprofit developers and then they  presented to a council workshop last fall many of   the community needs identified in phase one uh of  that Consolidated plan process had only one area   in which it could be funded and that was under  cdbg public services in the past for the past five   years under the last Consolidated plan um the only  areas for cdpg public services that went out under   a request for proposals were for domestic violence  shelter services and youth crime prevention and en   and enrichment programs specifically targeted  at middle school students this year staff had   proposed a general RFP for cdbg public service  funding based on the the feedback we heard from   stakeholders and which opened up the process to  potentially address more of the uh needs in our   community based on that feedback um and in the  past additionally 60% of the ESG Grant had been   made available through an RFP for the operations  of homeless shelters under the ESG regulations   homeless shelter support is capped at 60% of the  annual Grant however during our uh our stakeholder   engagement the operation of a winter shelter  came out as the number number one priority and   as such it was proposed that the first two years  of this Consolidated plan cycle that that 60% of   the ESG Grant be set aside specifically for winter  shelter operations so winter shelter RFP was not   issued this year the only other area in ESG that  typically goes out for RFP is homeless prevention   funding so the RFP for cdbg public services and  ESG homeless prevention was open from April April   12th to May 3rd the grants Review Committee and  Continuum of Care coordinating team or committee   reviewed the applications to make funding  recommendations for a formal uh consideration   by the council in accordance with our citizen  participation plan so we made $50,000 available   in ESG homeless prevention and $475,000 in cdbg  public services this is both of these numbers   are actually up from the previous 5year periods uh  ESG homeless prevention was around $38,000 a year   previously and only $400,000 was made available  in cdbg public services in the previous five-year   period uh the the program was also adjusted to  ease administrative burden incorporating a $50,000   minimum contract award and a current uh cycle that  informs two program years so we'll enter into a   one-year contract with a one-year renewal option  and that renewal will be contingent on funding   availability of course and and compliance with  the contracts the next round of funding would   inform a three-year program and that would be  done in 2026 on a one-year contract with two   optional renewals that will take us through the  entire five years of the Consolidated plan so the   grants Review Committee um has the responsibility  under our citizen participation plan uh to review   those proposals and make those recommendations and  that grants Review Committee includes 14 different   Representatives one nomination from each of the  district advisory boards two representatives from   the Witchita independent neighborhoods Association  one from United Way one from Sedwick County one   from usd259 one from witto State University one  from a large business nominated by the chamber   and one from a small business nominated by weba  a very diverse group of individuals nominated to   take on this task and I it is a nom it is a huge  task they are charged with reading all of those   those applications um interviewing or being part  of the presentations of of all of the programs and   then debating and making uh recommendations it is  a very challenging task we had nearly $1.3 million   in funding requests for only $475,000 worth of  cdbg that tells a lot we could only award about   a third of what was requested um the GRC met  four times it's also a very uh timeconsuming   process each of those meetings was two to three  hours long um but they met four times between May   16th and June 3D and they held a public meeting  on May 22nd where all of the respondents all of   the applicants presented proposals for any public  input or GRC discussion to add another complexity   to the process uh the HUD regulations mandate at  the local Continuum of Care provide input into   those recommendations for ESG program funding  so in witchta that group which provide those   recommendations for ESG is the Continuum of Care  coordinating team and that team met on May 17 2024   to prepare those recommendations and presented  their findings to the grant Review Committee at   the public hearing on on May 22nd they the grants  Review Committee considered all written and oral   information including the ESG recommendations from  ccct and prepared funding recommendations during   the convenings this year's RFB and GRC processes  again informed the first two program years of the   Consolidated plan and those contract terms will  be for 12 months they start July 1st 2024 so   this is a pretty quick turnaround um once the HUD  funding becomes available to us they are always   late in getting us the funding into the program  year um this chart represents the recommendations   from um the the grants Review Committee funding  these eight organizations I found it interesting   actually watching the debates uh of the the  Review Committee because even though the rfps   were open to any eligible public service we  saw that the recommendations that came out   of the grants Review Committee still in domestic  violence youth enrichment and homelessness which   homelessness was addressed under ESG I thought  it was quite interesting to watch um and and for   homeless prevention the recommendation Catholic  Charities this would be their first time receiving   an award under homeless prevention in the past  five years uh Center of Hope and Salvation Army   were the recipients of homeless prevention funds  and neither entity actually applied this year and   so this is the first time out for Catholic Church  parities so there is no impact to the general fund   as a result of those funding recommendations  however we have imposed that cdbg Awards may   not exceed 40% of the total program or pro project  budget and the ESG regulations do require a dollar   Ford dooll match which is satisfied either  by funding uh by cash funding or in kind   or volunteer services at the emergency winter  shelter so ESG match must be provided to an ES   G funded activity we have two funded activities  homeless prevention or winter shelter so that will   be the only ways in which they can provide their  dollar Ford dooll match uh all funding agreements   will be reviewed and approved as to form by the  Law Department uh it is recommended that the city   council approve the funding allocations approve  the associated budgets and authorized staff to   make any budget adjustments to authorize the  necessary funding agreements and signatures   and we have multiple uh first in the audience  we have representatives from the grants Review   Committee here um if they are still here  to be honest James and shaa are you still here oh there he is James uh to talk  about serving on the grants Review   Committee James thank you so much and thanks  for waiting Madame mayor council I stand Here   representing as she stated the GRC the grant  Review Committee uh I represent the large um   business representative from evergy um as she has  stated this was not easy work um trying to get $475,000 amongst a host of worthy applicants  and so um got quite contentious contentious   a few times quite honestly um most of of  uh I shouldn't say most but all of our uh   GRC committee was very dedicated to the task  very passionate about certain causes um some   more than others uh but again just as you know um  coming together to make a decision about something   that will impact this community as a whole uh  in the entire witow Community um we were able   to get it done like I said it did take countless  meetings it did take countless reviews of of the   applications um what we strive to do was to um  you know provide funding or recommended funding   to those that would provide the best bang for our  buck if you will um for those especially when it   comes to um preventive uh programs preventive  Services um um that will help impact the city   of Witchita as a whole um and then also reduce  um crime in our community by providing these   particular programs and outreaches um hopefully  we through our services are able to provide a d   and our homeless uh uh reduction as well and  so again U we're honored to be selected to   participate with this particular uh GRC body um  again I want to thank those that um spent the   time spent the meetings um amongst this body  um that uh were able to talk through some of   our disagreements uh because again we kind of  joked at the end that we were like a jury duty   team sometimes so um but again we're grateful  that we were able to get it done um and uh for   those that were not awarded this time we want  you to know that uh again it wasn't that your   um request or your causes were not honorable um  but again it's it's uh it's a daunting task to   try to provide funding um that's so minimal  to so many request and so again thank you   for this time thank you for allowing us  to present um and uh let's move which St forward also with us today  is Matt low from the COC uh   Coordinating Committee for their  perspective from the Continuum of care good morning as the um as a lead Agency for  the Continuum of Care I was tasked with putting   together an application review panel for programs  applying for funding and homeless prevention so I   recruited representatives from the substance  abuse center of Kansas Salvation Army Family   Promise the witch Children's Home and com comare  and one rise which we felt like gave us a a pretty   diverse group of people to uh to come together and  review applications from four providers Children   First CEO Kansas dear neighbor Ministries Catholic  Charities and yes for Christ Jesus uh we reviewed   each of the applications individually and then  came together as a group to discuss and make our   recommendations one of the programs yes for  Christ Jesus was um asking for funding that   was outside of the scope of what would be allowed  for ESG so unfortunately they had to be ruled out   but the three other applicants are already doing  such amazing work in our community and there was   no doubt in any of our minds that um they would  continue they would make it continue to make a   great impact should they receive the funding  unfortunately we could only recommend one of   them for the funding so the is issue ultimately  came down to coverage and the ability to serve   the most amount of people with the funds uh  that were available dear neighbor Ministries   um does tremendous work in southeast Witchita  in the hilltop area they made a proposal where   they were looking to expand that outside of just  Hilltop and cover the uh entire Southeast witch   region unfortunately it was limited to just the  southeast Witchita region and we know that there   are families and and households and other parts  of the city that also um face homelessness on a   regular basis so we also looked at Children  First CEO of Kansas they do tremendous work   with families or households with minor children  but again they were limiting their um their reach   to only those households with minor children and  we are seeing increasing numbers of seniors and   other households that are facing uh homelessness  in our community Catholic Charities was the only   one that said that they were they were willing and  interested and committed to serving any household   in the Witchita area that was facing homelessness  um and so looking at them more in depth they have   the capacity the ability to perform the services  they have the infrastructure in place and the   ability to do the data reporting that is necessary  um for the ESG Grant so our recommendation to the   grants Review Committee was that we award  the $50,000 to Catholic Charities um but   again I say that all all of these programs are  so so tremendous and without which you know our   community would be at a huge deficit if they were  not actively operating in our communities so thank you with that we'll stand for I'll stand for any  questions and I know we do have several people   who will come up and respond from the public  thank you Matt James and Sally we'll open it   up for questions from for Staff first council  member hoisel thank you mayor uh first thank   you to everybody who served on any of these  committees and Boards um it's a tough thing   to do it's rewarding when you see the people who  receive the money but at the same time it's a lot   like choosing your favorite child here as to who  you give the money from it's not an easy process   especially all the meetings in that short amount  of time as well so uh thank you guys for that um   Sally how how much of this funding is going  to the winter shelter that's about $157,000   okay um do we provide any followup with those  who have been denied I know we can only go so   far as far as telling them kind of the holes  in their proposals or um the reasons we went   elsewhere but is there follow up that we based  there they were invited to request any followup   by email when they received the notice that they  weren't funded okay thank you vice mayor Ballard   thank you mayor um Sally you mentioned who were  the other two um that have applied in the past   for emergency shelter you said Salvation Army and  that was for homeless prevention it was Salvation   Army and Center of Hope and do we know why I  mean I think I maybe know why about Salvation   Army but do we know why they didn't apply no we  do not know why I mean I know Salvation Army is   changing their model obviously that I know Center  of Hope has been very very challenged in meeting   the E ESG requirements for the inspection and the  reporting we can only assume that that's part of   what's keeping them out okay thank you for that  um another question is typically when um when you   apply for the money and you start receiving it  do you generally continue to get it I guess my   point is does it not open up opportunity for new  applicants like usually like if I'm just going to   say YMCA if they got it and they started getting  it every year um do they typically continue to   get it or I mean I know they have to reapply and  stuff but once you kind of start are you kind of   in or is there opportunity for new I know there's  a several different new applicants that's what I   was asking um I mean really it is an RFP that open  puts it all back on on the table but on the the   grants Review Committee did look at pre previous  funding histories and even if they were funded in   the past what were their results from that funding  so there is no guarantee if they get it you know   awarded in one award period that it would come  necessarily to the next yes sir I just want to   add a couple things that we also discussed during  meeting is that um hopefully these organizations   are not basing their budgets off of these grants  because there's no guarantee that you're going   to get approved for these grants once the um once  the vote comes back around and so just want to add   those two cents to your question yeah I totally  agree with you and thank you so much for that um   I know there is you know so many asks and only so  much money um and so many of these organizations   are doing really incredible work I think the  one that sticks out to me the most um that is a   little troubling is uh the WT family crisis center  losing almost a third of what they normally get   and I know when I did my ride along with WPD the  majority of the calls in involve domestic violence   so I just wanted to put that out there that I'm a  little sad to see that um well a lot of sad to see   that they lost so much funding and I know all of  these organizations are incredibly deserving but   the domestic violence piece makes me a little bit  nervous to lose funding I I absolutely believe the   grants for Review Committee saw that too as a a  major priority and that you know domestic violence   Services received almost 50% of the funding made  available thank you council member Johnston Sally   thank you and thank you for the great work you  do much appreciated disappointed Center of Hope   didn't apply because they do such a great job  on such a slim budget with a lot of volunteers   so that that's that's sad I know they never have  enough money each month they run out every month   to keep them in their homes um also disappointed  that dear neighbor Ministries didn't receive it   um I'm going to relate a cour short story about a  a client we had at gual Lupe Clinic um this last   fall hope I don't get choked up tell them this but  uh lady presented herself in the our evening hours   on Tuesday night and uh she had bruises on her  body that were visible she uh four kids s abusive   partner and my staff called everyone wanting to  know where can we get her shelter with her kids   and uh there was no place available even as far as  away as is Newton and they called me and uh they   said hey JB you know these people can you call  I did and one of them I called was Jason at dear   neighbor Ministries he told me JB we've even got  somebody in our closet family in our closet trying   to protect them so there's not enough resources  for this at all I feel really badly about that um   it's just it's really really sad to finish  that story our staff took her to Via Christi   St Francis and uh she had over 100  uses bruises on her body she thought   she had a few terrible situation and sad  there's not more money thanks for the work Sally I have a few questions I see no other  questions on the board at the moment um you   mentioned that 50% of the cdbg funding is  going towards domestic violence um efforts   uh three specific organizations are working  with domestic violence uh survivors Catholic   Charities stepstone and wit family crisis  center um are those all in line with what   you've given in the past when it comes to  domestic violence initiative all three of   those organizations have been funded in the  past five years yes at the similar level um   you know they vary from year to year uh Domestic  Violence Shelter Services was unique in the last   fiveyear period because they could actually  apply under cdbg Public Services as well as   ESG because those fleeing domestic violence um  are qualify as homeless so they were actually   able to uh apply under two different funding  sources and so the amounts that they were funded   year-over-year could be some from ESG some  from cdbg but yes overall they they receive   different amounts year off after year um so  cdbg funding I also saw that um one provider   was homeless uh helping our homelessness uh  population United Methodist Open Door the remain   ing our uh youth so you have coven kids club one  toone youth mentoring uh with Big Brothers Big   Sisters pass with prime fit and then YMCA's middle  school after school program can you share from the   youth side um what were the previous um Awards  uh for these grants any new ones share a little   bit more because our community survey showed that  Community wants us to work on crime prevention and   crime reduction and I do believe that when you  speak with the witcha police department youth   violence is among one of those uh key criteria  and so youth programming is definitely critical   of those four programs recommended for funding  three of them consistently received funding in   the last fiveyear period uh Prime fit the  P program is the this is their first year and then last question is more of collaboration  uh question um because we have three domestic   violent uh nonprofits and four youth programs  have we thought about collaborative efforts to   try to be maybe fa facilitate that collaboration  um more specifically the youth portion because I   look here and I see one is a city of which  Parks and Recreation program versus the   other three youth programs are true nonprofit  organizations in our community um how that can   be more collaborative so that again we're we  do have limited dollars but if we can maximize   those dollars that would be most beneficial I  know usd259 has their own initiative helping   youth um within usd259 uh connect to resources so  I guess my question is what are some collaborative   efforts to try to make sure that youth related  nonprofit organizations are all working together   and domestic violence organizations are working  together and homelessness uh providers are all   working together well they have some integrated  uh areas where they work together already I can   you know obviously for homeless that you know  all homeless providers that receive any type   of federal funding are required to collaborate  through the Continuum of Care that is designed   specifically for that task now in more recent  months our domestic violence programs are now   getting more integrated and collaborative with  the Continuum of Care because they do meet that   criteria of homeless which causes you know them to  to collaborate more but I mean in talking when we   talk with them they're always bouncing off of each  other have someone they don't have capacity how   can they connect with others that's for sure uh  the youth some of these programs do vary different   things um and and we didn't restrict it as it  had been in the past in Middle School it last the   last five years it was Middle School only you know  other in the uh the parks project coven that latch   key program really wasn't put out under the RFP it  was a set aside because of the need for that latch   key program in that neighborhood in the in that  plan view neighborhood um we did pull it under the   RFP this year in order to be fair and to be able  to let the grants Review Committee evaluate and   to see that we didn't necessarily have overlaps  in what was happening but there's always room for improvement may I ask one more question um  since you mentioned that three of the four   youth programs have previously received funding  one is a new program um I would like to know if   anyone from any of these organizations would like  to come forward and just share what they do um so   that Community is aware of these resources again  our community has a lot of wonderful nonprofits   and programs that really do help with um services  in our community and I if there's an opportunity   for them to come up to uh the microphone I  would appreciate we have several here so thank you good morning mayor and Council uh as Sally  mentioned uh we got pulled over under the r RFP   process this year kind of an overview what we do  with the Calvin Community Center with the kids   program there we do work in conjunction with the  school district there we house on site there at   the actual campus and we provide both both before  and after school program uh for that community and   just from our research we know that a lot of crime  prevention and things take place in that 3 to six   time frame when kids parents are still working and  they're unsupervised so we're intentional about   making sure that we have programm that's available  to give them a safe haven that they can be in   a place where they're supervised they're Lear  learning and also have uh good mentorship there   to help uh them with their academic challenges  that may have some of the social skills that   they encounter and we work real closely with the  school district uh with the police department and   some other organizations in the community as well  for some collaborative efforts to make sure we're   providing a positive environment for those young  people and one of the things that we do as well is   we work real closely with the school district on  the individual education plan the IEPs for those   students so that way we can make sure that there's  consistency from the school day to the after   school program to help with that academic piece  that they need additional support with as well I   have uh Elis is here with me from our team as our  program supervisor to kind of share one of our   success stories that we have there as well good  morning uh Madame mayor and council members uh   my name is Alisa cardi Harrison I'm an assistant  Recreation supervisor with Park and W and I am the   director of the coven kids club program which was  previously known as latch key but since we're not   usd259 funded we changed the name to cven kids  club and as Reggie mentioned we work a lot with   our kiddos on um reading math skills leadership  skills and how to handle um emotional behaviors   as they come up and self-regulation and whatnot  so we do a lot of journaling with our kids we   play emotional uh dominoes with our kids um but  one of our outcomes is reading comprehension and   math skills to to go up and we work with the  school with that and we had a young man who   was in second grade who was really struggling  with reading um we did site words and whatnot   um in our reading club after school um and by  the end of the year he was not only being able   to read those site words but he read his an  entire book at his age group so we know that   these programs are working we know that keeping  them off the street is really important um we   know keeping them engaged and helping them  build those social skills and learning how   to conflict manage and um not be so uh or  be able to you know control themselves in   a in a better manner um you know so much so  that we had the students ask our staff to go   with them to their fatherdaughter dance mother  daughter dances so um we know that we're making   an impact and we're super grateful for this  opportunity to be at cven and to receive these fundings hello everyone Madame mayor council I'm  Kim Wilson I am the co-founder of prime fit Youth   Foundation we are a brand new applicant and we're  super excited I will tell you the process um I'm   I'm an avid grant writer I've written grants  through my role as Dr Kim at Witchita state for   years and um this is a daunting Grant application  process and I'm sure it's because it's tied to   federal dollars but one of the greatest things and  I'll get to our program here in a minute but I did   want to reach out to the team because for the  in my 20 years of being Dr Kim it was the first   time that I got the the opportunity to respond  respond to questions and make revisions before   it went to the grant team for review which was  really exciting um because and you could address   any kind of deficits or questions they had before  that it actually went to the review team so I was   grateful for that process so a little bit about  prime fit Youth Foundation um we have been a   nonprofit for 5 years we were founded in 2019  our charitable mission is to provide support   resources and mentoring to marginalized  youth in our community um upon launching   we started serving 120 students in six schools  we have a very strong partnership with 259 and   we work very closely with Dr Polly's office  who is the off uh the office of equity and   diversity um and we served 120 kids in those  six schools um because of the outcomes that   we have because we are a very datadriven  program we were able to expand and we are   currently in 28 schools and serve over 700 kids  every single day um a lot of this grew out of   my time being spent in classrooms and and seeing a  lot of narrative around well this child's behavior   is just attention seeking it's just attention  seeking no it's connection seeking these kids   are starved for connection and their behavior is  a form of communication and so our entire model is   built on this notion of relationship and so  there is a mentor and we are a a culturally   congruent model so our mentors look like the  kids they're serving there are also men which   is different um and it's lacking in schools  if you're familiar with education most of us   tend to be white middleclass females that's the  education pool right um so it's built on this this   relationship and so every single day every single  day the mentor goes to the school um and provides   mentoring services for the student because we  also know that sometimes challenging behaviors   are really because of task avoidance because  they're struggling academically our model also has   academic support built in so twice a week another  mentor and academic Mentor comes and provides   school-based mentoring related to academics and  that's done during core instructional time we   also offer once a week group sessions so there's  a one-on-one mentoring component but then there's   a small group mentoring component that again  happens at the school and that tends to help   form positive peer relationships which is also uh  a protective Factor if you're looking at reduction   of crime and risky behaviors um we also offered  on called deescalation so if a child's Behavior   has escalated and and the student is at risk  for getting suspended or expelled and hasn't   done a non-negotiable the school can contact  the mentor and the mentor can come come help   deescalate and this is not physical it's because  of that relationship the mentor can literally go   into the same room the student sees the mentor and  I have seen it happen they physically decompress   take a breath and let's let's take a walk  let's calm down and we go back to class the   other thing we offer is family engagement nights  because we know that no no change happens without   family involvement and so we also offer family  engagement nights um we are very data driven   like I said we've been in existence for five  years we have six primary outcome goals and   over the course of the five years that we have  outcome data um the first year was covid over   90% of our mentees meet or exceed our outcome  goals so we have a very um effective efficient   intensive program that's really focused on um  connections and improving factors that impact   student outcomes so we are very grateful for  the potential um opportunity for this funding it   will help us expand services to serve more kids in  additional schools so I appreciate your time thank you council member Johnston thank you mayor I would just like  to uh thank the great work at Covan my CSR   is Teresa vzy and she covers sometimes  that that Center and so we had our weekly   meeting and she said do you want to have  it virtually I'll be down at Coen I said   how about if I just come there and when I  came there you really get to see firsthand   the need in that neighborhood tremendous need  and and tremendous work they're doing so thank you I see no further questions  oh do we have one more we'll open it up for public comment and any of  the providers who are still here and would like   to say a few words you may good morning my name  is Amanda Myers I'm the executive director of   the witcha family crisis center so one of the  um DV shelters that we're talking about today   we offer emergency shelter for domestic violence  and human trafficking victims um and I just want   to clarify some of the things that are happening  oh thank you some of the things um some of the   conversations that we're having this morning  um so there are only two Emergency Shelters   as um council member Johnston alluded it's  Austin Catholic Charities Harbor House we   also um work very closely with stepstone which  is transitional housing um one of the one of the   issues that first of all I want to say thank you  so much to the grant Review Committee I would not   make it through that I wouldn't there's just  no way so I'm really really grateful I can't   imagine what that process is like um and we're  grateful to be recipients I just wanted to bring   some air to what this process looks like from us  from our perspective um I went back we are we've   been here for 115 years so we've been doing this  work for a very long time um and I went back into   our records and from what I could see we've been  receiving this funding from both cdbg and ESG for   at least 15 years this year we took a 30% um  cut and I get it there's plenty I don't want   to you know debate the value or the morality of  of any organization but I want you to know what   that looks like and in fact um council member  Johnston's um example I couldn't give a better   example of what that's going to look like for us  we don't depend on it we're out there fundraising   you know we're going to do our best and I feel  bad talking about $50,000 we're talking about   $50,000 with regards to our organization um Miss  Den said that um DV agencies received 50% of the   cdbg allocation what you need to know is that's a  35% decrease from what we've received in the past   we've received more or less stable funding  um at least the witto family crisis center   has for 15 years this is a 50% decrease and I  know when we're talking about you know $90,000   worth of art or $170,000 to clean a library  50 I feel a little bit weird talking about   $50,000 but that's huge for us our margins are  very close that means that there will be more   and I can guarantee it um women and children who  will not be served it's just the way it's going   to be um and in my you know in my world you can't  appreciate art or go to the library you know it's   maso's hierarchy if you're not alive right got to  keepable alive that's sort of the way things go   so I am not here like I said to say that the  decision that was made or the allocation that   was made is inaccurate anyway I just want everyone  to understand the consequences of that um it just   means more um we need to and it's this is the  way it is right I mean this is the way funding   is for nonprofits decisions are made um but  this is going to have a a consequence for us   and I would be remiss if I didn't come here as  a um a leader of one of these organizations who   sees the kinds of things that you talk about every  day who will go back to the shelter who's running   out of the room to you know to to deal with  um issues of shelter um if I didn't come here   on behalf of my clients and talk about that  so that that's all I have thanks vice mayor Ballard thanks mayor Amanda thanks for being here  um I appreciate the few organizations that have   hung in there today um you always pick the best  meetings that go extra long so apologize about   that but um I just want to say I'm sorry um I know  that they have really tough decisions to make but   you do incredible work and um I just want to tell  you thank you and I appreciate you being here no   I thank you and um like I said I understand the  way these decisions are made but um I think we   need to spend as much time on this conversation  and the way this process is done as we do on you   know the newspaper versus the website right I  think to your father's point so that's why I'm   here so that everyone takes a deep dive into  why and how these decisions are made thanks I about said good morning but I guess it's  good afternoon uh Madam mayor and fellow   council members I'm Jason West and I serve as the  executive director of two different nonprofits   here in town stepstone which is one of the  funded partners for cdbg as well as dear neighbor   Ministries that was an applicant for ESG but did  not receive it I just wanted to thank council   member Johnson for his story and I wanted to share  that the part of the story you didn't hear was I   was in the background calling Amanda's team and  calling Harbor House trying to help that Survivor   and I just wanted to highlight that because it's  a collaborative effort of all of our domestic   violence programs working together um our group  doesn't handle emergency shelter um but we work   closely with the shelters in Reverse um helping  survivors get where they need to go I'm also thank   you to council member hoisel for your support  of dear neighbor and all the efforts we have in   Hilltop um the other thing I want to highlight  to Amanda's Point um just some feedback is the   minimum award amount was 50,00 for this which was  higher than normal and I think that impacted some   of the funding our our funding went up and I'm not  trying to brag or or uh complain about that um but   our our award is normally less than the minimum  so I think that also helped um play into what got   funded and maybe what got cut um stepstone um just  so you know is a transitional housing program we   have 34 total housing units um here in Witchita  and we also provide supportive advocacy Services   um those advocacy services include um relationship  relationship building skills um economic and   financial budgeting as well as um therapy we have  a full-time therapist on our staff currently we   have 31 adult survivors living in our housing  and 60 um over 60 children um that live in our   housing and receive support on a daily basis and  then we serve hundreds more through our outreach   program which includes a production order liaison  at the S County Courthouse who walks survivors   through the protection order process um actually  there are four of those Advocates one from each   of the um the three domestic violence programs as  well as wiah area Sexual Assault Center um I've   got eight uh support staff that work full-time  for us that support survivors um including um   our therapist um yeah we're just grateful to the  city of Witchita um we're grateful to Harbor House   and to the witch family crisis center who are  important partners of ours and we look forward   to um continuing our work collaborating with the  community and providing wraparound services thank you thank you I just wanted to make one um  quick comment and encourage um our domestic   violence providers through the Continuum  of Care there is a bonus that's available   every year um for a rapid rehousing program  that's specifically for domestic violence   survivors it's about $300,000 a year so  I will encourage our two friends here   to consider applying um hit me up after the  meeting and I'll be glad to talk to you about it any further public comments I see  none will'll bring it back to the bench you I I know this is redundant but I do want  to thank Sally and your team you do amazing work   and I know this is this is hard work andk thank  you for all the entities who applied um I've been   a grant maker and a grant Seeker um in my past  career so I know that applying for any Grant takes   extra time and work away from the programs that  you're already starting to manage but I did want   to give a special shout out to the grant Review  Committee and the continum of care coordination   team I was on the grant Review Committee before  I was on councel um and I've always said in my   career as a grant maker and a grant Seeker it's  harder to give away money well than to receive   funds so you're efforts are not lost on me the the  needs of our community are great and and this is   an extremely challenging process but um just thank  you for your time and commitment to our great city council member Glascock I too also  served on um this committee and I think   it was one of the best committees that  have had the opportunity to serve on the   city of seeing the great work happening  in our community and how can be their   supportive of it and encourage that  work um and just thank you for um all   applicants that came here today in addition I  would say the committee we have appointments uh   to the committee and so if there are people  in the community that are interested often   I know it might be a challenge for us to find  appointments because we appoint to different I   think 30 different committees and boards and so if  someone is interested in this make sure to apply   online because we're always looking for people  that are interested in serving on these type of committees I see no further comments I motion  to approve approve the staff recommended action   second motion and a second any further  discussion I see none Madame clerk please roll motion passes 70 Madame clerk please  call the next item public housing section   18 disposition application for group 3B well  good afterno afterno again Sally Stang with   the Housing and Community Services Department for  the record this next item that I have for you is   a public housing section section 18 disposition  application uh for group 3B so we're going to go   back a little bit I think this is the first time  we've presented one of these to this um group of   council so we're going to go back in time a little  bit in 2017 the the witto Housing Authority board   approved a rental assistance demonstration to HUD  to convert its entire public housing portfolio um   under that rental that pilot program and  it was broken up into two projects it was   our four multif family senior projects um  Greenway Manor mlan Manor Rosa Greg and   Bernice Hutcherson and then we group The 352  single family homes into a separate project   we were successful in securing a a tax credit  investor and Hud loan and GAP financing for   the multif family senior project but we were  not successful uh securing financing for the   conversion of the 350 52 single family homes  both the tax credit investors as well as HUD   themselves on a on a a a loan application said  single family housing is too expensive and too   difficult to manage and maintain so as such we  had to to terminate that that rad application   and we worked with HUD in in May of 2021 HUD  convened a panel of national experts to evaluate   our options for those single family homes and  they determined that the uh restricted rad rents   uh would not be able to support the amount of  Debt Service the amount of of funds that we   would need and act to actually do the repairs to  those homes they recommended that we dispose of   those properties and then reinvest those proceeds  into new affordable housing so we've started this   process a long time ago this is actually our fifth  grouping of properties that we're moving forward   for disposition this is 61 single family homes  scattered across the city and in VAR they vary   in condition we're recommending disposition under  Section 18 of the ACT um as recommended by Hud   to be sold at fair market value either through  the city's real estate office or on the MLS by   Contracting with a real estate broker um these  properties will have no future affordability   restrictions however we do provide a preference to  owner occupied use as well as for investors who uh   maintain affordability and future Tendencies  like the voucher program so we also request   tenant protection vouchers for existing residents  so because we're disposing of some properties um   HUD provides us some new vouchers to our voucher  allocation to make sure that we're pro protecting   those existing residents and those residents are  provided relocation counseling and all of the   relocation costs are paid for by the project so  there are um as we move through this grouping we   did groupings based on several different things  um pilot areas one and two had to do with the   affordable housing fund the first group of 37 were  wildly scattered um this group of 61 uh was put   together they did have some minimal environmental  issues that came out through the environmental   review which pushed it further down on the  application um we had Elan radon leev levels   only in one unit and that uh is a vacant unit and  per the regulations that only has to be disclosed   they're now not requiring previously they were  requiring us to install radon mitigation systems   now we only have to disclose of that um and then  we have two units that are in the 500-year flood   plane so HUD recently changed the regulations we  only had to do the review process on properties in   the 100-year flood plane now we have to review the  500-year flood plane so that added some additional   time and consultation with HUD on those reviews  uh no formal mitigation is required so there'll   be no expenditure on those environmental findings  the 61 units are are displayed here here on this   map you'll see quite a concentration there in  Northeast Witchita few scattered throughout uh   the other areas amp is just a HUD clustering so  HUD had grouped our project our properties in   two different uh in two different uh portfolio  groups so that's what's re shown here typically   um we would not bring this to you until we've  received the authority to use Grant funds on the   environmental review that environmental review is  posted it is in its public posting period however   the HUD system used for these application is  going down for 3 months starting on July 1 um   for approximately three months and so we received  feedback from HUD that said go ahead and get this   submitted before the system goes down on July  1 and we can send them that authorization to   use Grant funds once it's received in in mid  July so this is a little bit uh that's the   one difference between this application and the  previous ones we didn't want to have to wait and   additional three months to submit the application  um so they did grant us that ability so that   environmental review was posted on June 14th it  takes two weeks through our process another seven   to 10 days through Hud's process we should  receive it mid uh mid July we have completed   all of the other requirements for the section 18  application including the appraisals the resident   consultations resident relocation counseling home  ownership resource counseling and local government   cel consultations we expect the appraised value  of all 61 houses is 3,1 158,00 of the properties   sold to date most of them are selling slightly  5 to 10% above appraised value which is good um   this particular group that averages out to $52,000  per unit uh will the proceeds will first be used   to pay off pre-development the predevelopment loan  from the failed rad conversion with the remaining   to seed a Section 8 rental project is approved  by the witcha Housing Authority board at this   point we are uh projecting using them for those  housing units in conjunction with our efforts   around the multi-agency center and HUD will not  permit the pro proceeds to be used for affordable   home ownership it must be by regulation a public  housing property or a Section 8 assisted property   there is no impact to the general fund again we'll  uh request that HUD allow the net sales proceeds   to fund the Section 8 rental project in accordance  with HUD notice P 20223 the law department has   reviewed and approved the uh the resolution as to  form and it is recommended that the city council   approve the resolution and the submission of  the inventory removal application in section   18 dis disposition addendum to the US Department  of Housing and Urban Development for 61 single   family homes from the public housing portfolio and  authorize the necessary signatures and I stand for   any questions questions for staff beginning  with council member hoisel thank you mayor um   that's a lot to say there at the end Sally um  now now once we sell these houses once they're   off our rolls does that impact the area's  eligibility for any of the affordable housing plans not necessarily uh the affordable housing  funds the RFP that's open now are very specific to   the 66 properties in those public pilot areas one  and two so these won't be affected by this um but   any per qualifying household that potentially  could purchase these could then apply for   Homeowner rehab or other programs that run through  our office in the future it wouldn't negate their   ability to do that okay I appreciate that um the  relocation vouchers do any of them help with any   sort of uh rent payment if they they can't find  like a a a rent that's comparable to what they're   paying now you know it might be $100 more a  month is there the the rent calculation under the   program is almost identical to the public housing  program we're not seeing people having increases   in their portion of the rent because of the  disposition the dis the relocation under   the voucher so okay well that's promising  thank you yep council member glassock just   a quick question to try to synthesize this  entire report this moves us more or moves us   away from being landlords into putting things  back on the market get out of the business of   properties correct it gets us definitely  gets us out of the public housing program   which has been underfunded by Hud for decades  it doesn't negate our ability to do something   in the future but these properties will be better  served under a voucher where a landlord can get   voucher rents versus what we could get under  public housing or even under rad thank you I   see no further questions for staff thank you  Sally we'll open it up for public comment I see   we'll bring it back to the bench I have  a motion to approve from council member   Glascock second Motion in a second any further  discussion see none Madame clerk please open the RO motion passes 70 Madame  clerk please call the next item approval of travel for mayor woo to attend   the farboro international air show in  London England July 19 18 through 26 2024 I move to approve the travel second motion   and a second any further discussion I  see none Madam clerk please open the r motion passes 60 with one abstention Madame  clerk please call the next item council member   appointments and comments start with  council member appointments beginning   with council member glov thank  you Madame mayor I would like   to appoint Susan mayor Decker to  the csbg committee for the private sector have a list of individuals  we'll start with sedu County Community   Corrections Advisory Board Christopher  Haney wiah airport board Kathy mlan wiah   animal advisory Dr Katherine Jones  and Richard Ruth wichat Transit   for Access Advisory Board Craig perck  for reap Justin Shore and for WSU Emily Martin a motion to is there a  motion to approve these board appointments I move to approve second Motion  in a second any further discussion I see none   Madame clerk please open the RO motion  passes 70 we will now have council member comments council member Johnson thanks mayor  um just want to shout out our park and rec   staff for the June team celebration this  weekend as well as our Police Department   um did a wonderful job it was a wonderful  celebration well attended pretty hot but   it was a really good celebration uh the  parade was better than it than it has been   it gets better every year but park and  Rex did a uh wonderful job helping out   out uh in WPD as well and looks like they  had a good time too while they were out there um I just have one comment and  that is uh an update from earlier   we asked staff for information and  that information was emailed to us   uh so wichita.gov in January had 91,000 351  users February 84825 March 10 18,32 3 April 128,648 when it came to wichita.gov  Leal notices in January there were   34 in February there were 34  March 115 April 3 87 and in May 420 I see no further comments  uh is there a motion to adjourn moved second Motion in a second Madam  clerk please open the RO motion passes 70 meeting   is adjourned have a wonderful week and we'll see  you at unity and the community on Saturday for