Good morning. We're going to get started this morning with an invocation from Chad Kebe of uh pastor of Cross Town Church and that'll be followed by the pledge of allegiance led by Lynen Shaw of Girl Scout Troop 7110. Please stand as you are able. Morning. Let us pray. Our father in heaven, we praise you this morning because you are great and holy and you are worthy of all glory and honor. You have made the world and everything in it and you reign over it. You have given people you've made in your image dominion and authority over all things. I thank you for ordaining Mayor Hol and the city council, giving them authority and stewardship by your will and the election of the people of Oklahoma City. Would you give them wisdom, insight, unity, and patience to do whatever is true, honorable, praiseworthy, and good for the sake of this city and its people. Help us all seek the good of this city we live in. Thank you for enabling these leaders to be wonderful, to do wonderful work and great achievements for this place. Guide them by your light and truth. Empower them with a sense of justice and mercy. I pray that through their diligent work, your name would be glorified in your knowledge would be spread. May all that they do be honoring and pleasing in your sight. And may we all here today find our hope in Jesus Christ who is a sure and steadfast anchor for the soul. The hope of all nations, the savior of the ends of the earth, who we remember this month is risen from the dead. And that's why our labor is not in vain. To you will be all glory, honor, and praise now and forever. Amen. Please, please join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Well, thank you, pastor, and thank you, Linen. This morning, we're starting with a uh somewhat unusual uh joint meeting. And so, I will begin there. And so, I call this joint meeting of the city council and the Oklahoma City Housing Authority to order. And uh we'll begin with the public hearing. Amy, has anyone signed up to speak under this public hearing? No, they haven't. They have not. And so next up and our final item on the agenda of this joint meeting is the joint resolution with the Oklahoma City Housing Authority finding it in the public interest for the Oklahoma City Housing Authority to provide projectbased vouchers and other assistance. Uh this is in relation to a maps for project. We'll have a little bit of a presentation I believe Mr. city manager from Mark Gillette, the executive director of the Oklahoma City Housing Authority. The floor is yours. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And uh also want to acknowledge uh three board members that are here this morning from the Oklahoma City Housing Authority. Mr. Rocky Chavez, Miss Annette Jacobe, and Miss Jessica Gonzalez. Uh we appreciate the opportunity to come together as a joint meeting uh to determine if additional affordable housing is appropriate, desirable, and in the public interest. Amy, can you Thank you. So, why are we here? Why do we have to do this uh special meeting? The Oklahoma Housing Authorities Act uh requires a joint hearing be held by the Oklahoma City Housing Authority and the City Council of the City of Oklahoma City as a condition that precedes the implementation of any project involving more than 20 housing units. The act also requires that both the city council and the housing authority find that project to be in the public interest. For your reference, notice of the time and place of this public hearing was published in a newspaper of general circulation in Oklahoma City on March the 28th. The background maps for homelessness. You all remember that in 2023 the housing authority was selected as the operator of the maps for homelessness contract with the city of Oklahoma City. And one of the goals of the maps for homelessness project is to create 500 units of permanent supportive housing. That phrase means housing that is guaranteed by a voucher and then also receives support from case management that works at the property. We'll talk more about the specifics of that in just a moment. We provide that 500 units of housing across Oklahoma City in an effort to prevent homelessness among different target populations. And specifically this morning, we're here to talk about one of our goals that is to reduce homelessness among veterans and their families. And so I'd like to now call on Greg Shin. Greg is the assistant executive director in charge of development activities at the housing authority and he's going to remind us about Dorset Place. Good morning. So, we're going to talk about a project that we have um in partnership with the Oklahoma City Veterans Affairs Medical Center and this is called Dorset Place. This is an acquisition of an existing assisted living facility that had gone into default. It had low occupancy. And so we're we have this under contract and we intend to close on this property very quickly. This is a picture of the current conditions. And the building that you see there on the left is the building that was formerly assisted living. It's vacant. Um the seller had vacated it and moved uh everybody into the other building and then uh did extensive remodeling on the inside uh for us while we had a contract on the property so that we could have it move in ready and we don't have to do any construction on the building when we actually take possession of it. So you can see it's a very nice facility. Our intent is to is to have a a uh high quality living space for the veterans when they move in. Next slide, please. Thank you. Um, so we did we did uh have the VA medical center and um so uh write a letter of support for the housing authority in our application to get new HUD bash vouchers and that's called the Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing Program. I know I know there's been some federal cutbacks, but we just got these vouchers this year. Okay, so they're brand new vouchers. We have not used them before. We already have hundreds of HUD bash vouchers scattered around the city in all different locations with landlords across the city. However, this is will be a congregate site and we got 50 new HUD bash vouchers and so we're going to use 37 of those vouchers in phase one of this project at Dorset Place. So, it'll be a community housing model where the only qualified eligible people to live there will be veterans or and their family members that have experienced homelessness. And so like it says they're um they're at risk or they've already experienced homelessness and so they'll move into the permanent housing there. The housing authority will issue the vouchers and the veterans affairs HUDVASH team will will provide the on-site services. Next slide please. Uh so the request before the council is that uh we adopt the resolution uh jointly determining that it's appropriate, desirable, and in the public interest for OCHA to add affordable housing specifically to provide projectbased vouchers and such other federal, state, and local assistance as is available to support the acquisition and operation of the Dorset Place community and enter into a housing assistance payment contract in order to uh with applicable law and regulations so that we can issue these vouchers there. The residents can live there at 30% no more than 30% of their income. So the rent is subsidized. This will allow homeless veterans with disabilities, specifically a lot of aging veterans. When you look at the point in time counts year-over-year in in the Oklahoma City area, the really the sweet spot for homeless veterans is 55 to 60. That's the most that's where the bulk of these uh the homeless veterans uh are are in that age group. Very similar to what has already been in operation at this facility for years and years as assisted living. It won't be 24-hour assisted living. The VA will be there 5 days a week to provide case management and other services. and the medical director will be on site at least once a month with their mobile clinic delivering medical care and services to all of her patients that will be uh veterans that will be on the site. So, it won't be exactly the same as it's currently operated right now, but it'll be very similar in nature to the program that's already been in there as assisted living. Next slide, please. Okay, any questions? I'd be happy to take them. Okay. Well, we thank you for this support in our effort to end homelessness among veterans. Thank you so much. Thank [Applause] you. And uh Mark's introduction of the uh the board uh made me feel guilty for not have properly welcomed our guests. Uh and of course this is a five member board so three members does represent a quorum. Uh we thank you for your service. Um I guess if there's no question or I should ask are there any questions from the board comments? Okay. No questions or comments uh from the council we could adopt uh the joint resolution. We'll do this kind of through two votes I suppose. Uh first maybe um motion and a second of the council and then maybe I'll ask you to call the role of the housing authority. All right. So, first up, we'll take care of the council. We have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Who Who do we not have recorded? Who? What? Ward two. It's just not showing. How do you wish to vote? Councilman James Cooper. Yes, we we believe you. All right. All right. We had two not show up. Go back. Councilwoman Hammond wishes to vote yes and so does Councilman Lee Cooper. All right. Passes unanimously. Now, clerk, please call the role of the Oklahoma City Housing Authority. Oh. Uh, do they need to they need to do motions? Okay. Chavez. Yes. Uh, actually, sorry. Uh, we need a motion and a second from your board, apparently, if you don't mind. Make a motion. Okay. Second. All right. There's a motion in a second. And, uh, Amy will call the role. Annette Jacobe. Yes. Rocky Chavez, yes. Jessica Gonzalez, yes. All right, passes unanimously. All right, thank you. Thank you all for coming down. Thank you all for your patience with a very unusual uh joint hearing and uh we'll adjourn the joint meeting. Thank you. Thank you all. I'll give you one second to exit if you wish. All right. Now, we'll convene the regular city council meeting where we find ourselves at office of the mayor. And I have some presentations to make. And I will make my way to the front. And as I do so, maybe our friends uh here to bring attention to child abuse prevention might meet me at the front. All right. Well, we are here to bring attention to child abuse prevention month. And to learn a little bit more about that, I will ask the clerk to read this proclamation. Whereas Oklahoma City's future depends on the healthy development of the more than 189,000 children who live, grow, and learn in our community. And whereas safe, nurturing, and stable environments support healthy brain development and overall well-being, while neglect, abuse, and chronic stress increase the risk of adverse outcomes. And whereas child abuse and neglect can result in serious and lasting consequences for individuals and society, including health issues, academic challenges, and involvement with the justice system. And whereas parents and caregivers with strong social networks and access to support are better equipped to provide safe nurturing environments for their children. And whereas individuals, businesses, schools, and community and faith-based organizations all have a role in prioritizing and supporting the physical emotional social and educational well-being of children. And whereas the city of Oklahoma City in partnership with Parent Promise Prevent Child Abuse Oklahoma, the Exchange Club of Oklahoma City, the Downtown Exchange Club of Oklahoma City, the Oklahoma State Department of Health, and other organizations is working to promote awareness of healthy child development, positive parenting, and community-based support to help prevent child abuse and neglect. Now therefore, I, David Holt, mayor of the city of Oklahoma City, do hereby proclaim April 2025 to be child abuse prevention month in Oklahoma City. Thank you. Well, as you heard, there's a network of organizations who work in this area and we're so very grateful for their work. They're represented a little bit here today. And uh to speak on their behalf, I'd like to turn the floor over to Christina Seammens. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, council. Um as as we read um every year in April is child abuse prevention month and we are a part of a national network as well as local networks prevent child abuse America and this month is recognized nationwide and um we are here with our partners from Oklahoma State Department of Health. We have some board members here and even though she wasn't in in this capacity and at Jacobe is actually is uh the Oklahoma children Oklahoma Commission of Children and Youth Executive Director. So, um, we work in Oklahoma County and statewide in the prevention of child abuse and neglect. We help promote healthy and safe families across the state and our organization alone has been in existence since 1988, 1989 and we've served over 9,500 families in um, Oklahoma County. So, um, we're continuing the work and um, just appreciate you re you realizing and recognize the importance of our work. Thank you. Absolutely. Why don't we show our appreciation to these folks? All right, our Festival of the Arts folks, come on down. Well, it is almost time for the 59th. We're on the verge of 60 of 60, the 59th annual Festival of the Arts. And we'd like to be reminded about this topic of which we know much. And so I would ask the clerk to read this proclamation. Whereas the 59th annual Festival of the Arts produced by Arts Council Oklahoma City will officially open on Thursday, April 24, 2025, offering 4 days of exciting visual, culinary, and performing arts activities. And whereas Festival of the Arts is widely regarded as Oklahoma City's annual right of spring and reflects Arts Council Oklahoma City's mission to bring the arts and the community together. And whereas Festival of the Arts is nationally recognized as one of the top 25 fine arts festivals in the country, featuring more than 160 visual artists, live entertainment on two stages, delicious food and activities for all ages. And whereas the festival has drawn nearly 750,000 attendees and generated an average of $28 million annually in past years. And whereas Arts Council Oklahoma City continues its commitment to sustainability by utilizing recyclable and compostable materials and promoting echoconscious practices. And whereas the 2025 Festival of the Arts co-chairs Meg Sier and Gus Picera lead a team of more than 30 communities and 2500 volunteers who generously donate their time, talents, and resources to produce this celebrated event. Now, therefore, I, David Hol, mayor of the city of Oklahoma City, do hereby proclaim the week of April 20, 2025 as Festival of the Arts Week in Oklahoma City. Thank you. Well, uh, you know, as stated in the proclamation, a right of spring, uh, always a very exciting time, especially here around city hall these last few years. Um, you see here we've got the, uh, the official poster. I particularly like this view because it of course is the view from city hall uh, and looking down park. And we have here on my right uh the co-chairs um neither a stranger to us but certainly one a particular friend of city hall and that is who I will now turn the microphone over to uh Meg Sier. Mayor, thank you so much and thank you council. We appreciate your support so much this festival. Hello Lee. Good to see everybody. um you know it is April and it did snow so it's arts festival week and we hope that we've got that behind us but we are so excited um April 24th through 27th we hope everybody will come to opening uh ceremonies at 11:00 on April the 24th we have beautiful artwork from 160 or so different artists from all over the country we have fabulous international food we have uh entertainment And Gus, why don't you talk a little bit about our kids activities? Yeah. Well, we have uh activities for the kids and most of it will be right in front of city hall on the east side and uh activities that kids can partake in and also uh a collaborative piece that they will be working on and uh and then also families can make pottery and and whatnot. So there's activities for the kids. It's it's a community affair. So uh we have food from all all over the world and in taste and then we have uh art from artists all over the country and Canada. And uh we're here now just to get ready. So we've got a little over two weeks. So mark it on your calendar 24th through the 27th. And you know, we are a community festival and so we welcome all of you and every age group, everyone. Thank you so very much. Well, we're excited. Thank you to the staff. Thank you to the volunteers is for that poster is for you. We hope you display it at city hall. I always do. Thank you so much. Uh well, let's hear it for our arts festival team. Sure. We'll take care of it. Thank you. All right. If Julianne could come down, our next contestant, this is item 3B, and uh you are our teacher of the month, but we'd like to learn a little bit more about you. So, I would ask the clerk to read this resolution. Whereas, Julianne Anthony has been named teacher of the month for April 2025 by the Oklahoma City Public Schools Foundation and Rotary Club of Oklahoma City. And whereas Julianne was an Oklahoma City Public Schools District Teacher of the Year finalist for 2024. And whereas Julianne serves as a fifth grade math teacher, math department chair, and mentor to new teachers at Wheeler Middle School, where she actively collaborates with her fellow educators to modernize teaching methods. And whereas whereas Julianne recognizes her students achievements in numerous ways such as mastery of learning objectives, pride and confidence in their work, and their passion for learning. And whereas Julianne fosters inclusivity and high expectations in her classroom by creating an environment where every child's learning style is acknowledged and accepted. And whereas Julianne is a dedicated and active community member through coaching and volunteering roles. And whereas Julianne believes in the transformative power of education, mentorship, empowerment, and advocacy for students. Now therefore, be it resolved by the mayor and council of the city of Oklahoma City that they do hereby recognize and commend Julianne Anthony on her selection as April 2025 teacher of the month by the Oklahoma City Public Schools Foundation and Rotary Club of Oklahoma City. Well, thank you. Well, Julianne, we're very grateful for your service uh to the Young People of Oklahoma City and congratulations on all of your uh uh successes and awards thus far. We would um love to hear a few words from you. But while you continue to think about that, I'm going to pass this resolution. So, let's see if we can get you a motion and a second. We've got it. Cast your votes. I wish to vote. I passes unanimously. All right. Well, Julian, we'd love to uh hear a few thoughts. The floor is yours. Um well, I'm honored to be here. Thank you so much. Um, I really love teaching. I really love my job. Um, I work hard as a math teacher um to give kids what I felt I was lacking. I am not a math person. Um, so they say, but um, you know, I think that um, when students walk into my room, I give them zero opportunities to not be able to close those gaps um, and those achievements for where they may feel like they are lacking. So, you know, they say, "How do you go? How do you get a beach body? You go to the beach with your body." Well, how do you become a math person in my classroom? You walk in my room and you are a math person in my math class. So, that's awesome. That's awesome. Let's hear it for Julianne. Thank you so much. Thank you, Mayor. Mayor, if I may. Yes, you may. If you guys haven't paid attention, Wheeler Middle School is here every 3 or four months getting a teacher of the of the month thing. And I had the pleasure of being a PAL basketball coach there. And if you want to take a snapshot of what Oklahoma City public school does, right, it's Wheeler Middle School. Absolutely. Yeah. Well said. Thank you, Matt. Councilwoman PAC, item 3A is up now and that is to recognize your four years of service to our city and we'd like to be reminded a little bit about that and so I would ask the clerk to read this resolution. Whereas Councilwoman Barbara Peek was born at Keysler Air Force Base in Buxy, Mississippi, where her father later retired from the Air Force. And whereas her family moved to the Oklahoma City area in 1986 where she graduated from Putnham City High School before earning a bachelor's degree from the University of Central Oklahoma. And whereas Councilwoman Peek began her career as a dispatcher for the Oklahoma City Police Department, gaining firsthand experience in city government operations. And whereas Councilwoman Peek later became a business leader working in construction for 25 years primarily with Oklahoma City-based Loves Travel Stops and Country Stores Inc. And whereas in 2021, Barbara Pek was elected to the Oklahoma City Council, becoming the first woman to represent Ward 3. And whereas Councilwoman Peek has prioritized public safety, city infrastructure improvements, homelessness solutions, and economic development during her tenure. And whereas Councilwoman Peek has championed major initiatives including the key to home partnership, advancements in police department policies, improvements to the Meridian corridor, development of a new downtown arena, and prioritization of infrastructure projects for the proposed 2025 general obligation bond program. And whereas Councilwoman Peek has served on several boards and committees for the city of Oklahoma City during her term of office, including the airport trust, the Riverfront Redevelopment Authority, the Human Rights Commission, the Audit Committee, the Annexation and Deanexation Committee, and the Trails Advisory Committee. And whereas Councilwoman Pek has also served on the boards of the Alliance for Economic Development and the Community Action Agency. And whereas Councilwoman Peek has actively supported numerous nonprofit organizations, including the YW.CA and the Oklahoma City chapter of the National Association of Women in Construction. Now therefore, be it resolved by the mayor and council of the city of Oklahoma City that they do hereby recognize and commend Barbara Peek for her dedicated service to the residents of W 3 and the citizens of Oklahoma City and extend their best wishes for her future endeavors. That's a lot, Councilwoman Peek. That's you've been busy the last four years. Well, we're so incredibly grateful for your service. Obviously, for everybody who's willing um to put their name on a ballot and serve this city in this capacity, you got to be here at a pretty awesome time and there'll be a lot of legacies that I know you'll watch and admire and feel proud of as the years advance. So, we just wanted to recognize this, especially this is your last meeting with us as uh as a member of the council. And so, we wanted to take some time to to to look back and commemorate your service to our residents. And uh I suppose the floor is yours. Thank you, Mayor Council. It has been an honor to serve with each and every one of you. Your support, the education that you have provided to me, city staff, mayor, everyone has just been to truly incredible. If you have not had an opportunity to get to know somebody sitting behind me or one of our city staff members, I highly encourage you to do that. They are some of the smartest and most educated and caring people um that I've met and I've been all over the country with loves and so I'm very proud of this city. I'm very proud of the things that we've accomplished and the things that are to come and there are things on the agenda today that are very exciting and I am so pleased to get to be here one last time for many of those things to come to pass. So, thank you for the opportunity. Thank you Oklahoma City. Appreciate it. and I'm not going anywhere, so you'll see me around. So, thank you. That's good. Thank you. Yes. Let's hear it for [Music] council. And this is a resolution, so we actually do have to pass this. And I think you kind of have to vote on it, too. So, uh, so let's see if we can get a motion in a second. Got a motion in a second. Cast your votes. I wish to vote I. How do you wish to vote? I wish to vote I. Basses unanimously. Thank you, Barbara. We're so grateful to have had this time with you. Thank you for your service. Yes, that is yours to keep. All right, I'm going to make my way back to my seat. Thank you, Mark. Mayor, just to be clear, are we saving our Barbara Pet comments for items from council? No, I didn't know it's actually human beings. I wondered that. Good. You knew where my mind was. Um, sorry, Barbara Councilwoman. Um, for those of you who don't know, of course we're a nonpartisan body, so we don't run as Democrats or Republicans or independents, but we do come with our own personal backgrounds. You and I are on different philosophical sides. Uh, I have to tell you though, there are moments where I was like, Barbara, please do this other thing. And and and you didn't. And I would get very upset inside and then I would process it. And I have to say, and I really mean this truly, it has been such an honor to have those disagreements with you because you would always share your reasoning with me. You would hop on a phone call with me. I mean, you're just I don't know what else to say. You're a very reasonable person. And in this day and age, that's a very difficult thing to find. People dig into their ideological positions and don't listen to each other. You do. And I want to give a very concrete example, one that means a whole lot. So when you won in 2021, remember the summer before we had passed uh you know the community policing resolution that we had authored and this council approved unanimously. uh and you had a lot of skepticism about one of those items on the policing resolution. Uh it was for an alternative response to mental health calls and when you came on to the council, you said you were very worried about that. Uh and at the time I was mad at you and I'm just going to be honest. I I'm I'm we got to be honest with you. I was like why? We we we're the council approved it. we're we're going to do this research to study other cities where they've done it. And I was like, just trust us. Why don't you trust us? Why don't you trust me? I was taking it personally. Then I stopped and paused and I thought about your resume and your 911 dispatch work started speaking to me. I was like, she's being protective of the your people, the people she knew at 911 dispatch and the police officers that we send out into the community. and a mental health alternative requires a training, a retraining of 911 dispatchers to better recognize when it's a mental health crisis call. So, you were just being very protective of getting that right and you had a healthy skepticism. I will never forget last year's budget when fire and police stood at that podium and explained how they're going to implement this upcoming alternative response to mental health calls, how they're going to work together, how they studied different cities from Denver to you name it. And you were vice mayor and you're sitting where that tall mayor is sitting right now. And you said, "I was skeptical. I studied it and I learned more and now I'm proud to see this work go forward. And that's who Councilwoman Pek was and is. And I just wanted to take that time to say you're so being a lifetime learner. I I I just it's been really cool to work with you. Just really really cool. And you've also just been a very kindhearted person. Um and that just really means just I mean just truly thank you. Thank you. Barbara, you and I came into this crazy thing together at the same time, not knowing what we were doing. Um, kind of got to grow up together. You've been a big sister in a lot of ways. Um, you've helped me through many things. Uh, you put up with my jokes and my pranks and the chickens. Yeah, you've been an amazing sounding board. and and as to James' credit, the the person who can bring some clarity and a peace to a situation when we can get a little heated. So, um the things that you have taught me, I will be able to take with me forever. And I appreciate you and all that you have done and the countless things that we didn't even get to hear about on this resolution that you've done for this city and champion. So, thank you so much for your service and for helping me through so much of it. Okay, great. Councilwoman Peek, I would just like to say uh I've enjoyed working with you so much and one of the things that really helps me out is being able to talk to you and work through different issues. Um I love your sense of clarity, your professionalism. I think you've uh been lucky to probably undergo the most stressful zoning cases we've had in the last four years. But every time you've handled them very professionally um and tried to keep the communication flowing back and forth, but uh end of the day you've always decided to make sure and protect the neighborhoods in W three. So for that I just I commend you uh look forward to continue conversations with you. Thank you. getting to know you. Getting to know all about you've been a great neighbor. W three and Ward Four share a huge border and um the collaboration and your sense of humor makes this a whole lot more fun. So, I appreciate you and good luck good luck hanging out on the cruise ships waving at all of us while we're here. No, you you've been a great partner and good luck in your future endeavors. Thank you, Barbara. Uh short time knowing you, but it has been wonderful to serve with you. Uh thank you for your leadership, your wisdom, your clarity. Appreciate you and Godspeed. Barbara, there are three or four words that come to mind um when I think about you. um always kind, always gracious, always engaging, um always funny, uh but most importantly, always you've been a good friend. Uh I look forward to working with you in the future on other projects. Uh always come back and see us and uh good luck. All right. Thank you. Yeah, Barbara, I just want to express my appreciation as well. Thank you for all that you've done. It's been great working with you and I do appreciate your kindness and your patience and just the fact that you always just want to do the right thing and really appreciate that the way you've stood for your community for W three and the whole community. So, thank you for your service. Thank you. All right. Well, we will now move on. We're still on office of the mayor at 9:13. I'm sorry to say, but um item 3C is certainly a weighty and substantive topic and uh I'll sort of present this and then take any questions or comments anyone has. But this is actually our first opportunity as a city council and really as a city government to officially uh state our support for staging two sports of the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028 and uh also make some commitments. This is um you know probably the the first of many um uh official actions that this council will take over the next three years relative to this uh historic event. But as stated due to the nature of all everything that led up to this we haven't had this opportunity until today. So some of the things that are included in this joint resolution with PPA making these commitments are pretty basic including like you know that we would provide the river sport and the softball venues for example. You might think well that's seems obvious but we've never made that statement here officially from this horseshoe. So that and some other pretty obvious things are uh included in this resolution relative to the 2028 Olympics. And these um statements are important to our partners uh including uh the Oklahoma City Chamber which is slated to organize our local organizing committee. One thing that is particularly important to them that I want to bring to your attention for sure uh because it's not necessarily one of the more obvious um commitments that we would make and that is the guarantee included um actually as one of the commitments in the resolution. It's item E near the end and that is a guarantee of $34.5 million we're going to set aside and there'll be some paperwork related to that that we'll take up in the weeks and months ahead. Um but that is basically our guarantee that we'll keep our word and uh and that we will in fact host these events as we have stated that we will um in this in this resolution. So that is not a check we ever expect to write, but uh it is one uh it is a an amount of money that we will need to set aside uh to back up our word. And basically that amount is what LA28 has calculated as their expense of having a stage canoe, slalom, and softball in the Los Angeles area. if we do not um obviously everything we're talking about right now is relative to our very strong intention and plan to host those sports here in Oklahoma City, but it is understandable um that they would like a little bit of an insurance policy and that is probably not uncommon uh for events of this scale. So with that, I would love to yield for any questions or comments. Again, this is our first opportunity to make these commitments and uh there are more to come, I'm sure, but I don't mean more to come in that there would be further commitments. Everything will really fall into the parameters, I think, that you see here. But this sets the tone for the future and gives our partners, city staff, everybody uh a sense of comfort and a sense of direction as we move into the next exciting three years. Any questions or comments for me or for the city manager or for anybody in the room? I guess the one thing I'd say, mayor, is that um next year will be the 130th year of the existence of the modern games. The first games were held in 1896 in Athens, Greece. And to think that we're going to be a part of this is just incredible to me. They're estimating that there will be over 200 teams. There will be over 14,000 athletes that are participating in these events. and many of those athletes will be right here in Oklahoma City. So, it's really a day of great pride for the city and and I want to thank you because I don't think this would have happened without all your hard work. So, thank you, mayor. Thank you. Whoever signed up to speak on it. I'd just like to um mention that I really do appreciate the emphasis that LA28 has on sustainability and trying to avoid the uh trap that many large sporting events tend to fall into when they move around the world like this. um in creating new facilities that then um end up empty and just sort of sitting in these communities um or or are then like a burden on the community to try to upkeep and and program um if they don't have that. So, I really do appreciate that that focus. Um, particularly city manager has communicated that any improvements made to the current facilities that we own um and already have that they would be things that um are improvements that we can we can continue to utilize in the long term. Um similarly speaking with um entities like our transit department really excited about improvements that we might be able to make there that don't have those operational ongoing operational costs. Um, and so do want to just like kind of anybody watching or listening in, if especially as a transit user, um, but I think for any of these facilities, um, if you have those, um, ideas or or you know, things that you've seen in other cities, if you've traveled to other, um, cities who are who have hosted sporting events like this, um, you know, funnel those those ideas to us because I know that particularly talking with the transit staff, they do have some ideas, but as a transit user, I had a few like light bulb moments the other day when I was um at the at the downtown transit station. So recognizing that particularly transit is going to be a huge um need um to to coordinate all of this um really want to make sure that those improvements really make sense to transit users that again will will enjoy these sorts of things that we make, the improvements that we make um for years to come. So again, just really appreciate that lens that LA28 has um and and looking forward to being part of kind of uh taking that burden off of just creating facilities in the LA um area that that aren't really useful to them in the long term. um as someone who gets the privilege whether as a middle school teacher or as a college teacher to to teach the history of the Olympics going all the way back, you know, before common era, right? Um, and when I get to teach that uh topic, what we learn about the Olympics, and I say this is a kind of not big sports guy, but we learn that when the Olympics evolved by around the 500s, that suddenly a poor person could wrestle a king. It used to be just the aristocrats, but now at that time it was a meritocracy. So whoever won was based on your skill and that had huge ramifications in the 300 B.CE because suddenly the poor person who was going, "Well, I'm pretty good at wrestling and I just beat the king when they had a tyrant take over Athens, many of you all remember this in school. They had a tyrant take over uh Athens and he was a madman. He had lost his mind and would not listen to the people and he exiled his rival Kleines to get because he knew that that was his his enemy. Everyday people rose up and climbed the walls of the Acropolis and they overthrew the tyrant and the Olympics played a key role because it had taught the everyday people that you didn't have to be rich or born into power to have a say in your government. So that Olympic history gave way to Klesenees being called back from u exile and creating modern democracy. The yes or no vote. No more kings or queens. Now of course that gave way unfortunately to the dark ages many years later but for a while you had a good time. Um speaking of the everyday people uh city manager uh I am super grateful that the Olympics are coming here. I'm excited about this. One of the conversations though we had last week during our briefing. Um this kind of goes to what councilwoman was saying. Uh you spoke briefly about, you know, what some of our early thinking about in the areas where we'll be doing these improvements, you know, not just removing people who are experiencing homelessness for optics sake, but we're starting a conversation now about where people are experiencing homelessness, being able to do that outreach to them to better connect them to services. cuz I know we're in the infancy of that conversation, but would you just kind of mind cuz Yes. So the the key to home program is really what we're about as far as dealing with issues of homelessness. When we get complaints of camp encampments and things like that, what we try to do is deal with that issue, but we deal with it by getting them into housing, getting services for them. And that would be the intent with this is to have a focused effort in those areas of downtown. We do want them to look the best, but to make sure it's not about just moving people along, but about ensuring we're providing services. I I appreciate that and I was very happy to hop on that call and hear you already thinking like that. And I want to thank Councilwoman Hammond for raising that issue because that has historically been a problem as you know that when these Olympic games happen optically, let's clear all the the things we don't want people to see, but I think actually addressing those problems. Thank you, Mayor. I just want to take the opportunity to appreciate all the effort that you've put into bringing this here and how long you've been working on it. We're very excited about it and just a real short story. Um, so I have a great niece who's um an avid softball player. She's been playing softball for as long as she could walk. Like that's just that is that is her sweet spot. and to have an opportunity to present to her and to take her and have her see, you know, what the not just the next level but many many many levels ahead of her that she can strive for. And to have that here at home is so excit excuse me, so exciting. Um, and she's already super excited about it. I'm pretty sure she's already got her bag packed um so she can come uh to AME's and uh hang out for a few days and go see some amazing softball. Um and then with Riverport and just all the efforts, you know, when I started on council, we were working very hard to help um Riverport out and where they were then and where they are now are are light years ahead. And it's because of the efforts of Riverport and that organization and all of the um all of the support that they've had from not just the community, but from the participants and that sort of thing. And having been a dragon boater, which is nothing like Huslam. It's way easier and I get to play a drum. Um but being out on that water makes a real difference and it makes a difference for our community and being able to bring that sport here to show that off um on a national level and to show off our facility. We're very proud. We're very grateful for LA28 and the Olympic uh Council Federation and just the LA City Council. Just can't thank you all enough for giving us the opportunity to show off um all the hard work that we've put into our community here in Oklahoma City. So, we look forward to greeting these guests and I can't wait for them to be here. Thank you. Excellent. Thank you. Any other Yes, Councilman Cooper. Um, I just uh just want to say um how excited I am uh for Oklahoma City to be hosting these events. Uh I have uh the privilege of of being able to travel uh and internationally when I travel people are like where is Oklahoma City? Right. But I think this this event brings um eyes of the world um onto Oklahoma City and um because of the fantastic leadership that we have in the city, I'm excited about what this means for us uh in our continued growth uh as a city. Uh but then uh particularly excited for the fact that the eyes of the world will be on the greatest ward in the city of Oklahoma City. Uh that would be Ward 7. Both of these events will be happening uh in Ward 7. And so we're excited uh as a city and particularly as Ward 7. Um thank you for your leadership, your commitment, and what uh this process has meant uh for all of those who have uh shared and making it happen. And so um the city is excited. I'm excited. And so thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Any other comments or questions? All right. Well, we can take uh a motion then on the resolution. I I gave a later state. You've signed up for the second consideration of that. That's coming up in a few minutes. Oh, okay. Sorry. All right. So, we'll take a motion on this item. We have motion in a second. Cash your votes. Passes unanimously. Thank you all for your work and your uh enthusiasm and support. um you know it we've been able city manager and I have been in a position I should add of of making some assurances you know over the last few months and really years and this is actually quite validating to know that uh you stand shoulder-to-shoulder with us now and everybody knows that we're all supportive of this and excited. Okay. Finally, office of the mayor. Item three, uh, D is notification that Councilman James Cooper will serve as vice mayor starting next week. Of course, our charter, um, rotates this every six months, and his time has come. So, uh, we'll take a motion to accept this notification. I suppose it's going to happen one way or the other. So, regardless of this vote, but we'll go ahead and vote anyways. Got a motion in a second. Cast your votes. passes unanimously. All right, that finally concludes office of the mayor. And now we are at item 4 A. These are items from council. 4A is a resolution approving travel expenses for Councilman Stone Cipher to attend the uh chamber uh delegation flyin uh Capitol Hill meetings and other meetings uh in DC coming up at the end of this month. And uh we could take a motion on that. We have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. passes seven to one and with the necessary six affirmative votes required for approval. Item five, city manager reports. Mr. City Manager, thank you, mayor. We do not have anything on for today. We have claims and payroll on that can be found at okc.gov. Thank you. Item six, journal of council proceedings. We have items A and B we could take with one motion. We have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. Uh item seven, request for uncontested continuences. Mr. City Manager. Yes. Uh we have a couple of items on today. Beginning on page three on OCMFA item D. This is the jail services agreement. And there's a companion item that is on 9BZ um on page 12. These will be deferred to the 22nd of April. And I want to be clear that we're committed to moving forward with our jail services agreement. There's just a few more questions that we need to pro answer and provide some additional information to council, but we'll be bring that back on the 22nd. So, it's deferred to April 22nd. So, it's item OCM FAD and then item 9BZ on the consent docket. Okay. And then continuing on page 16, item 1101, unsecured structures. These are all stricken from the agenda. Item A, 2400 South Harvey Avenue. The owner is secured. Item C, 2000 Northwest 14th Street to not renotify the owner. Okay, that's all the items I have. Without objection, that'll be in the order. Item eight, revocable permits and events. Uh we have item 8A. This is a revocable permit with Makea-Wish Foundation for the Walk for Wishes on June 7th. And Kristen Flores is here to speak. Hello. Good morning. Uh yes, so this is the 14th annual um Makea-Wish Walk for Wishes. uh the local chapter. Uh all the fundraising that gets uh brought in from this walk benefits uh those uh children who are um diagnosed with a critical uh life-threatening disease uh to grant wishes in the state of Oklahoma. So all of the fundraising stays local. Um the walk will take place on June 7th. We have uh it's open to the public. There's no registration fee. Uh there'll be vendors, sponsors. Uh we offer 1 and a half mile walk along the river trail over at the Wheeler Fair School District and this will be the second year that it'll take place um at that location. Okay. Thank you. This is in uh W six. Well, it sounds like a wonderful time and I will move for approval. Got a motion and a second. Cast your votes. passes unanimously. Item 8 B is a revocable permit with the National MS Society for the Walk MSKC on May 17th. And we also have Kristen Flores. Yes. Yes. I am a volunteer for Michael. I was representing that. And I work for the MS society. So, um, our walk will take place on May 17th, very similar style to the walk for wishes. Um, we offer a onem and a threemile walk for our participants. uh that benefit um those who live with multiple sclerosis. So um we have been doing this walk in Oklahoma City for about 39 years now. We've had several locations. We've been at the Wheeler District for about five years now. So we really enjoy walking along the river trail. Um we uh our walk is fully accessible for those who have mobility issues. And um and again the one mile and three mile option, we have vendors. It's open registration, no required fee to participate. And um yeah, we look forward to having it again this year. Excellent. This is also in W six and in W 4. So, well, I'll just say thank you for all the work you do in both capacities. Sounds like you're going to have a busy next few months with all your planning. Um and I'm happy to move for approval. Thank you. We have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. passed unanimously. Thank you very much. Item 8 C is a revocable permit with the Oklahoma Office of Homeland Security for an operational readiness exercise November 5th through the 7th at Prairie Park Lake. Uh no one has signed up to speak. Uh Councilman Lee Cooper. Um I uh want to move for adoption for the operational readiness exercise. Okay. We have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. 8D is a revocable permit with the Riversport Foundation for the Central Youth Rowing Championship May 2nd through the 4th. Um, and we have Trisha Downey here. Good morning. I'm Trisha Downey, the national event manager for River Sport, home of the canoe kayak slalom events for the Olympics 2028. Uh today I'm here to uh cover the revocable permits for two events. The first one is the Central Youth Rowing Championship, which is a 2,000 meter race on the Oklahoma River. We invite seven states for three days of competition. We expect about 700 athletes. It's a US rowing sponsored event. So we have organizers from US rowing and officials from out of state as well. So we put a lot of heads in beds that weekend. It's a free event. So we invite you all to come May 2, three, and four. Uh winners of the regional event go on to a national rowing competition. So uh come cheer on our local river sport competitors. The next event is actually the weekend after Youth Rowing League, uh, May 10th from 4:00 to 8:30 p.m. Uh, River Sport Youth Rowing gives youth from Title One schools and area nonprofit organizations the opportunity to row at no cost, which is part of the Riverport mission. Um, it is a 500 meter course. We expect about 200 participants, but they're all local from local high schools. And I've you've heard me say this before, but it's my favorite because these uh middle school and high schoolers come, they really don't participate in other sports. This is their thing. They bring their mothers, their grandparents, brothers and sisters, older brothers and sisters, younger brothers and sisters, and we try to accommodate them all with um a bilingual announcer, food trucks, just trying to make them comfortable and enjoy the river. So, I do want to announce the following schools are participating this year. Aztec High School and Middle School, the Boys and Girls Club, Crystal Ray High School, Emerson High School, Middell Schools, Mission Academy, OSSM, Pathways Middle College, John Rex Middle School, Santa Fe South, Southeast High School, South East Middle School and High School, John Bosow Institute, and the Mustang Area Rowing Clubs Middle School and High School. Um they are some are title one schools. They participate at no cost. Riverport provides a coach uh all the materials, practice time, everything they need to participate and get on the water and the schools just need an advisor. So we are super excited to have two uh events come to the river in May. Any questions? Ma'am, thank you for all you do. Absolutely. Uh the investment in our young people and our youth. Uh we we're probably training some of the next Olympians. And so I'm grateful for your uh commitment and uh this this event is going to be once again another way to highlight uh Oklahoma City as we invite others to come and share. And so thank you so very very much for your uh commitment. I I move for adoption. Okay. Okay, we have a motion and a second on item D. P. Cast your votes. Thank you. Passes unanimously. Uh and item E, I think, uh Trisha, you spoke to that too, right? Move for adoption. We have a motion in a second. Cast your votes. passes unanimously. Thank you. And then item F is a revocable right ofway use permit with art space and entitled to hold the steamroller print festival on May 3rd. And we have Laura Warner here. Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Council. Uh we're here to um get permission to have another steamroller festival in the Deep Duce District and all of the uh money that comes from uh this event goes to our mentorship program and many of the same schools that were listed ahead of time were are our schools. We work with 15 uh high school and middle school kids and they all um will participate in this. So we have over a hund over 235 artists who have carved wood blocks and we use an asphalt a 12tonon asphalt roller uh to be our outdoor printer. So it rolls over the prints and makes them. So, it's a it's a wonderful free event for the community and in support of all of our mentorship kids, which we have 200 and hopefully by um next year's school we will have 300 kids in our program. If any of you have ever been to our I know Beth has uh let let me see. I'm I'm excited for the kids to have their events and and all of that, but just give me some idea of the steamroller and what that looks like if you if you don't mind. Just have you ever seen one of the asphalt rollers that is like 12 tons, 20 tons that becomes a printing press and all of the uh mentorship kids and several of the universities around Oklahoma uh bring their students and they have carved like um plywood uh big sheets of plywood and the smallest that we accept are two foot by two it. And uh we lay those out, ink them, and lay fabric on top of them. And the steamroller crosses over them and transfers the ink onto the fabric. Then we hang the fabric all through the Deep Deuce district and uh people can walk by and look at them and buy them if they want to and watch this kind of performance. And it's a it's a real fun. We have uh art vendors uh who have tents who will sell their uh art as well with along with food trucks and different stuff. So we closed down Third Street from EK Gay Lord to Oklahoma. And then we have uh demonstrations all day during uh the festival inside the building where we have uh exhibitions of the children's work that is hanging on the walls. So it it's a neat Thank thank you so much. I thought that was pretty cool. I mean I said I really want to experience this. So thank you. Thank you. Well, you when you see the work that kids from 13 to 17 years old are doing, it's pretty amazing to me. Uh the quality of the work that comes out of these children is it's mindblowing. We just had a artist and residents visit us from Chicago. She teaches at the Chicago Art Institute and she was floored by what the work that she saw at Art Space that was hanging there. She couldn't believe that they were high school students and middle school. So, we're very proud to be part of this. And I wanted to introduce Zack Camp and Eric Martinez. Eric is in charge of our mentorship uh program and uh makes this all these these guys make it all happen. I just stand around and in awe. Amazing. Amazing. Any other comments? Move for adoption. I have a motion to second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. Thank you. All right. Finally, item G, revocable right-of-way use permit with the U Health Stevenson's Cancer Center to hold the Outpace Cancer Race on April 12th. And we have Emily Banfield. Bananfield, you got it right. Hello. I'm the race director for the Outpace Cancer Race that's coming up on Saturday. Our event consists of a 10K, a 5K, and a onem event. Um it's meant to obviously raise funds for the cancer center this year with a focus on emergency relief dollars for families um undergoing cancer treatment um as well as research that happens at Stevenson Cancer Center. It's also a great community event for those that have been impacted by cancer which in the state of Oklahoma is pretty much anywhere any anyone as well as in the nation um to get together and support this race. Are there any any questions? Uh just uh uh for uh PR purposes, you not only have running, but you also have walking. Yes. Uh so participants can share at their own. Absolutely. Yes, we have a lot of um people that have registered this year undergoing chemo. So they'll be out there with their walkers, wheelchairs. Um it is an ADA friendly race. Okay. Fantastic. Move for adoption. All right. We have a motion and a second. cast your votes. Passes unanimously. Thank you guys. All right, we'll recess the council meeting and convene as the Oklahoma City Municipal Facilities Authority where we have items A through J. Item D was already deferred. We can take the remaining items with one motion. Have a motion, a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. We'll adjourn OCMFA and convene as the Oklahoma City Public Property Authority. Uh we also have uh same item we passed earlier relative to the Olympics also appears here as a joint resolution, item B. And we have one citizen who signed up to speak, Michael Washington. Thank you. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen of this illustrious horseshoe 100 Park Place. I think everybody know Michael Washington's going to get up and speak. Now then, it's been a while, but let me tell you a little bit about what's on my mind this morning. Well, now you're going to host this Olympic game. I don't have a problem ultimately with it. But what I do have a problem with you putting up millions of dollars when you got citizens here in the state of Oklahoma dying of fentanyl, dying relentlessly, continually and nonceasingly in the Oklahoma County Detention Center, excuse me, Oklahoma County Detention Horror House, House of Horror as I name it. You got people up here who are starving on the streets, don't have a home to live in, and you going to give 34 million no more to host an event for, oh, national recognition. Are we seriously not considering something? What in the hell is that for? Why do we need that for? Oh, now Oklahoma's on the map. We out here. Yeah. Oh, wow. Look at everybody. Hi, my name is Michael. Look at me. I'm at the games. Come on, man. Is that all they're supposed to get us? So if we given money they're not giving us money back then of it as an insurance as the mayor said. Okay y'all pay me if you want me to hold something here so we can have people from Istanbul or Johnny come lately ass countries and all this here. That's right. I'm not going to go for that. Sure I love people can canoeing or playing basketball, softball, volleyball, whatever they going to do. I love people coming together, but not at the expense of innocent non-suspecting victims who don't know what they're giving up and not giving a representation that they need in their survival as human beings. That's right. I love everybody. I love humanity. But I don't take it at the expense of people who don't know any better. Who think that society loves them and really doesn't. Who think their officials love them and really doesn't. who in their wards. We are human beings representing the state of Oklahoma, not just city people. Everybody's being affected. Children now being still born in hospitals and things of this nature. Let me continue if I may. Oh, I got 44 seconds. I just love it when my time is up. We are in a society where it's not about how good we look. It's about how effective we could become or are. 30 seconds. I'm not about to sit back and pretend I like something that's not going on in with respect to financial gains and non- gains. Where you going to get the 34 million? We already in debt. Where you going to get it from? Maybe a little fairy from the sky going to drop it down. I'm sure my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ going to say, "Hey, hold up. Let me come back just for a minute to give y'all some money to help you out." In closing, thank y'all very much for this opportunity. and I will, as Honor Schwarzenegger say, be back. Thank you so much. Mayor, if you don't mind, can I just clarify real quickly because when people get up and spout a lot of words that aren't accurate, uh, I just feel like we need to clarify that a little bit. The 34 mil that we're putting, Mr. Washington, you've already spoken. You may have your seat. Thank you. The 34 mil that we're talking about goes into escrow. It doesn't go to LA. The only way that would go to LA is if we said, "Oh my goodness, we can't host the events that we're saying we're going to host and we'll be hosting them." So, I just wanted to clarify that for everyone else in the room. Thank you. Thank you. All right, that concludes anyone who signed to speak on the PPA agenda. We could take items A through C with one motion. Got a motion and a second. Cast your votes. passes unanimously. All right, we'll adjourn OCPA and reconvene as the council. We are now on item nine, the consent docket. Uh we have a scheduled presentation for item X. Is there anything else that a council member wishes to pull out for separate vote or comment or question? Mayor, uh item uh AI, this is a followup on the uh Deep Fork Trail. This is about the RFP that we discussed. AI. Yes, sir. Okay. Yeah. I just feel like since we had people here from the public last week asking about that and really that's item AE AI both, but I think AI is the most important one there. Okay. And then um also just a followup on some sidewalks on AK. Okay. And that'll be it. Thank you. Have anything else? All right. We're actually going to start there because I know Councilwoman Peek wants to be here for the presentation on item X. So we'll start with you, Councilman James Cooper. The AE AI um Deep Fort Greenway Trail conversation. Yeah, if you just wouldn't mind director Miller kind of giving us a little bit of an update of where we are in this stage in the process, please. Sure. Uh Debbie Miller with public works. On this item here is a contract amendment with Half an Associates who is the consultant for the Deep Fort Trail. And this um amendment will incorporate phase two and uh develop four different alignments as options for trail alignment. And thank you. And so when do we and I I know we talked about this at the last meeting, but just again for people who might be tuning in for the first time, when do we anticipate receiving the results of that work from half? This summer. This summer. So, um, yeah, just wanted to make sure that that was on the public record. Thank you. Thank you. We we might as well wrap up the Cooper docket here, uh, while we're while we're close. AK, too. Thank you, honorable mayor. Uh, yes. Would you mind, uh, giving us just this update on um the the sidewalks and reminding us where these are going? Yes. Yes. Thank you. Um, this is a sidewalk project. Um, it covers Northwest Expressway Bridge over State Highway 74, uh, North May Avenue from Grand Boulevard to Northwest 47th, Villa from 16th to 30th, and Northwest 30th from Villa to North Pin, and Northwest 19th from Villa to Flynn Avenue. So, and we have also extended this project a couple of blocks to the west on 30th Street to the school to incorporate all of that so the children can get to school. when we were at the Britain district ribbon cutting the northern boundary of W 2 and one of your staff members Mike Clark came and told me that we were finally we you all have found those funds to extend the sidewalk from Villa on 30th up to Northwest Classen along where my predecessor the late great Sam Bowman uh lived and we had passed that resolution a couple years ago that we're going to do some sort of plaque or something honoring that he's the first council member since since World War II to get funding for sidewalks um back on the council agenda and we're working on that. I'm just so grateful for that. And Debbie Martin is reading that resolution again right now to kind of help guide us on what can go there. But just wanted to remind everyone that these sidewalks are coming. So, thank you for your work. Thank you. All right. Now, we will back up to item X for a presentation on the Meridian Placemaking assessment. Yes. Jeff Butler, our planning director, will provide an introduction to this item. Uh it's really something that's been worked uh our planning team has been working together with Councilwoman Peek and with Johnson and Associates to uh uh get this project or this work done to identify the um the placemaking do the placemaking assessment for Meridian corridor. So I'll let Jeff introd introduce the project and then Mark will provide presentation. Thank you city manager uh Jeffer planning director. Uh we've been uh we're really grateful to be able to bring this forward uh today. Councilwoman PC's last day. She's um been really great to work with her on this project and um it's been a it's been a good and important project for this Meridian corridor. Uh we're excited about this. Uh we're excited to uh see the potential that the corridor has and be able to move forward with it. Um so um and we appreciate staff too working with this. Kim Cooper Hart uh with the planning department led this project uh for staff and Mark Zitzau um with Johnson Associates and ADG uh were the consulting uh team on this project. And Mark's going to take us through the uh recommendations and uh kind of the vision that we have for this uh for this corridor. And uh with that, I'll turn it over to Mark. Thank you, Jeff. Mark sits out with Johnson and Associates. Address is 1 Sheran Avenue. Uh before I start, quick thank you uh Councilwoman Peek, planning department, Kim and Jeff, uh AJ Kirkpatrick with ADG BLAT and the JNA team. Uh we spent about the last year and a half, almost two years working on this. Uh and without Council Person Peek, I'm not sure we get to where we are. So one of her lasting uh projects and impacts on Oklahoma City, we hope will be uh the projects that we feature in this. There's a lot of information that came out over the last two years. So, I'm going to move very quickly, but I'll happily back up to anything that I move uh by uh quickly. So, the history of the corridor, uh it's interesting. It's really one of Oklahoma City's first truly suburban corridors in all of Oklahoma City. And what you will likely see in the future are more studies like this to tackle aging suburban corridors and what to do with them. And so over all of the public engagement, we've had dozens of one-on-one conversations uh and open houses, what we found were these really strong memories of Molly Murphy's, Apple fritters at Applewoods, uh and Hot Rod shows on Meridian. And not much on the corridor has changed since then, except we've lost a lot of those restaurants. So people had these really strong emotional ties to these places. They had birthday parties and weddings and Tim Johnson's business meetings over Apple fritters. All of this happened and all of this has gone away. And so now we're left with a corridor trying to figure out how are we going to move forward. And so we met with all of the the stakeholders that are out there, key businesses, restaurant groups, trying to figure out what's working for them and where the pain points are and why the district has continued to deteriorate over time. So this is uh the Meridian corridor today. One of the things I want to note that's the biggest challenge to improving the aesthetic quality of the corridor are the overhead electric lines. You can't plant under them. they take up a lot of space and visually they're quite impactful. So that issue along with the others on the screen, the declining aesthetics, uh the poor urban design and then the the perception of safety and other issues on the corridor are leading to investment likely moving over to MacArthur or to other suburban corridors that have seen new investment in recent years. And so part of this is how do we tackle those issues as you move forward? And a lot of this will be on the business community. It's not solely on the city, but there needs to be a partnership there. So, the creation of a business improvement district uh and more civic involvement from the business community and then ramping up branding and marketing efforts within the district are first are the first two recommendations. Community cleanup and engagement on safety enhancements uh and then infrastructure and beautifification. The infrastructure and beautifification and the corridor improvements are what we're going to focus on because that's where the pretty images are. Uh but on the corridor, one of the the easy ways that we think we can improve uh the aesthetic, increase greenery are through expansions of the median network that exists on the corridor today. So by strategic placement, we can not only make it safer by reducing conflict points with traffic, but we can add a lot of greenery, have spots for public art, uh and just help the corridor grow. Uh the last few ways, events and public space activation, property and business development. I talked about the property owners and I I'll use Boot Barn as an example here. There are ways that the business community without completely redeveloping their site can make improvements to improve the aesthetics. And so one of the ways that we've shown is using portions of their parking lot that are underutilized today by putting in plaza spaces for food trucks, for sidewalk sales, and other things that they can do while still maintaining their current built environment. This is kind of a medium-term solution that we've looked at. The last two are the major corridor enhancements and then making sure that the district has a sustainable growth plan as it moves forward. The RTA, while not passed, has noted Meridian corridor from the airport to downtown as having a fixed rail service. When we look at case studies from places like Salt Lake City, that one item is likely to impact this corridor more than anything else that we do. So when we looked at the streetscape and what we were proposing to do, we looked at it in a what could be done in the short term or the medium-term and then what could be done after the light rail comes through. So this street what we're showing are the inclusion of medians today, not knowing when RTA will pass and when the funding would come through, but improving the sidewalks, enhancing the landscaping, uh, and then adding new street street posts that have wayfinding and branding on them. And we've used uh existing businesses on here to kind of anchor these renderings. So you see these brick posts, those are in front of Boot Barn. They've been there for a long time. So on all the renderings, you'll see those. And then when you move forward, we don't know what the the fixed rail will look like, but at that point, that's when this corridor will likely urbanize. That's what we've seen in other communities. It'll get significantly denser, and you'll start to see urban design really come forward uh onto the corridor. Here's another view of Boot Barn uh in the medium term planting more landscaping, having rest areas for folks that are walking by uh and then additional landscaping. And then again, once the the redevelopment happens by private property owners, you'll see those plaza spaces change significantly. And so what we've tried to propose are are light improvements that while there will be costs associated with knowing they're somewhat temporary for when RTA and private development really comes through. And then the corridor uh is really anchored uh almost at Reno at the I40 bridge. Uh it's dark, it's not well lit, uh there's not a lot of landscaping. And so what we've done is propose uh kind of a two-fold approach to increase landscaping, improve the aesthetics of the bridge. We know that ODOT will come through at some point and rebuild that bridge. It's not on their current seven-year plan, but we know it's coming. So part of this was identifying tiered landscape beds along it. And that's an approach that a lot of other states take with highway projects that would be city funding uh to help enhance it and make it a bit more beautiful. And I'll shout out ADG on their Pegasus. Trying to tie in modern aviation at the airport with Old West fairgrounds is not easy. So a cowboy riding a flying horse was was how we got there. Uh, and so when you're under the bridge, we're taking a page out of the downtown OKC playbook, painting it with murals, putting branding, and putting light bars on it. We think will be a tremendous aesthetic enhancement to the corridor. And then the last thing that I'm going to touch on, the Meridian corridor is smack really in the middle of the string of pearls plan. At the time, the string of pearls plan likely didn't address Meridian because it was a thriving corridor and it was trying to figure out what else along the river needed to be activated. So now fast forward 20 years, the corridor struggling and the rest of the pearls have really shined through. So you've got Okcon on one end and the improvements at Overholster Lake on the other. So what we've looked at is more of a trailoriented development scheme that we hope will be picked up by the river master plan and that consultant. And so again, without removing businesses and taking out buildings, we're showing what could be done to enhance it. And this is a bit of a food truck park on the north side. You have new businesses along the river. a lot of the property the city owns and attaching something to the bridge to be more of a marquee statement so that when you're coming over the bridge, you know you are. If you've walked or driven over that bridge, you don't know you're over the river really until you're on it. And so trying to highlight that we think is a key part of the branding uh for the district. And then uh from the trail users perspective, what we're trying to show is is more lighting, more native landscaping, the terrace and then we're showing a child on a slide coming down dealing with the grade change. Uh but this is such a unique part of the river and that it wasn't channelized. When you come through downtown, you see a lot of rip wrap. We think that's one of the biggest opportunities for Meridian is to lean into the natural beauty that that corridor has. So, the report culminates in an implementation matrix that's broken down into short, midterm, and long-term uh items. And that's for both the city, but also the business owners to really take hold on. And I'm not going to say if when the business owners get together, they form their board, and they work toward a bid. We hope that this document is something that they can use over the next 10 to 15 years to implement what we've talked about. So, with that, I know I moved quick, but I'm happy to go back and answer any questions you might have. Thank you, Mark. Just a few comments. Um, just want to appreciate, uh, Johnson and Associates and you, Mark, personally, um, AJ and everybody at ADG Blat. Um, just really appreciate the efforts on this. It's, it's been like, as you stated, a couple years we've been working on it and it started out with an impassion plea um, to bring back the corridor. Everyone knows that Meridian's kind of the front porch of Oklahoma City for travelers coming in for all of the events going on at the fairgrounds. Um, you know, and just different things right there at the airport. You know, um, my idea was Runway Ranch. I did not bring the Pegasus. It did not land well with the property owners, but we did the best we could with the very uh diver, you know, not disparity between the two um industries in the area. So, we'll continue to work on that and you know, it'll really be up to the bid uh to to help drive the branding for the corridor. So there we told them during our presentation meeting to the stakeholders that you know that's kind of the goal um is for them to have that voice into the creation of this business improvement district and into what Meridian can become. The images that are shown here are really incredible and you know I remember being a young person and seeing these types of things um these types of changes in Brooktown. you know, the differences in the 90s and um late 80s, early 90s and the changes that we hoped for Oklahoma City, and we're living those out today. So, it's my hope that we'll continue to live out the aspirations of our city and make these kinds of improvements, especially to areas with the kind of traffic that Meridian has. The the car count on Meridian has only gone up over time. They're just not stopping anymore. So, we want to bring this back to a place where folks will slow down, enjoy the scenery, take a break, um enjoy some of the food, and we've talked about all of the food that has left the corridor, but there are still things that remain. So, Charleston's has been a staple on that corridor for a very long time, and they have towed the line. Um, and it's still a great place to eat. Um, there is Mug Scratch Kitchen that's on the corridor. if you haven't been there. It's so good. Um, one of my favorites. But my favorite breakfast place is Pickles Express where you can get the biggest chicken fried steak I have ever seen in my whole life. It'll feed a family of four right there on the Meridian corridor and and several others. You know, my daughter's favorite is Golden Palace at 15th and Meridian. So, come to the corridor. Come eat at the places that we have. Come be a part of the next generation of this expansion in Oklahoma City. you know, and and my plea to the stakeholders and the business owners in the area is participate participate participate. You know, you don't have to be the leader, but you do have to come. Um can't do it without you. The city can't make all of this happen without your involvement. Um you know, it it is what you have asked me for. This is this is the images of it. This is the investment and the beginning of the investment that the city is willing to put into it. and and I will continue you will continue to see me involved in this. It's just that important and it uh speaks to like we said um history right and Molly Murphy's and Applewoods and all of the amazing places um that we grew up and had crazy parties and potty trains to the bathroom. I'm sorry it had to be said. Um it's just got life there and we just need to polish it up and it will shine again. So, thank you for the presentation. Thank you, council, for receiving this today and I hope that your support for it will continue. I think it is very valuable to our city. Councilwoman, this is going to be your legacy. Mhm. This is a great project and it really needs to be done and the some of the great things we already have on the Meridian corridor, the FAA. I mean, we've already got people trying to poach that away from us and the more beautiful we make that, the better off we are. So, thank you. Absolutely. Thanks for mentioning them. And I would like to add um I hear there's a couple council members who are going to be as as your time with us ends on the horseshoe, but there are a couple council members who are going to be engaging in this. I learned during agenda prep and I've requested to join because even though this is not W two, Meridian uh comes up against W two and we have a long history in W 2 now with the PO streetscape Britain district streetscape uh uptown's coming the bond we're proposing Asian district there's the OCU corridor 23rd depend that's coming and for some of my neighbors in W 2 what you see here what I have been hang this is what I44 and Penn is going to look like. This is what I44 and Youngs is going to look like. Mark, can I just applaud you though? And councilwoman, what you all are doing here replicating Bricktown. You're not just polishing, right? The one of the first items I saw in there is then you had you ha you can't just wipe away all the homeless people. You have to connect them to services. Y Home has been amazing. They have been working with us since the beginning um focusing on the area. It is highly it is a very hightraic area from transients as well as the homeless. So we're having the opportunity to connect folks in a very consolidated way out of there. And so I think it's kind of great that they're there because we can go and get a lot of folks right into housing and into services and really make a difference in our point in time count. Yeah. I think the way you're thinking about this, Councilwoman, infrastructure and the actual people, it's really it's wise of you. So, thank you and good work. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right, that concludes the items on the consent docket. Um, we can now adopt it save for the item previously deferred. We have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. passes unanimously. All right. Item 10 is a concurrence docket. Uh we can adopt items A through O with one vote. We have a motion and a second. cast your votes. Passes unanimously. All right. Now we're on uh item 11 items for individual consideration. Item 11 A is an ordinance on final hearing that was recommended for approval reszoning 718 ECO Street from R1 I1 I2 A1 A2 to I2 A1 and AE2. Councilman Lee Cooper. No one has signed up to speak. Uh there were no protest and uh no one signed up to speak. Uh this is consistent with the area and development. So I move for adoption. We have a motion in a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. Item 11B is an ordinance on final hearing recommended for approval resounding 17700 North May from R1 to C3. Councilman Stonecipher known as signed up to speak. Yes, this is to allow commercial use and development. The planning commission recommended approval. There are no protests. So, at this time, I'd move for approval. Thank you. A motion, a second. Cast your votes. passes unanimously. All right. 11 C is an ordinance on final hearing recommended for approval reszoning 9140 Northwest Expressway from O2 and C3 to PUD 2052. Councilman Carter, no one decided to speak. I'll move for approval. We have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. passes unanimously. Uh item 11D is an ordinance on final hearing. It was recommended for approval reszoning 11744 Hope Road from double A to SPD 1673. Uh Councilwoman Peek, we have a couple people, two people who have signed up to speak. Okay, we'll hear from residents first and then the applicant. They are I I would say they are opposed. Do you want to hear the uh presentation first from the applicant and then the opposition? That's fine. Okay. I only say that because it more more coherent to those of us who don't know the the issues. Um so who's the applicant? Mr. Allen, are you presenting? My name is Charles Allen with Allen Engineering. Uh Wesley and Cheryl White are both here and their daughter Brandy also. Uh this is a five acre track that we're trying to uh have a family zoning case here. Uh there are two dwelling units now on this property. There's a single family home, twotory wood frame and one mobile home on there uh which is owned by Wesley's or Wesley's brother occupies that. Uh he's got mental issues and has had medical hardships in the past to have this uh mobile home on the property. We are trying today to get two additional mobile homes for his two daughters, Chelsea and Brandy, to live with him with the family there all on the same property. Uh I think yes, that's the the latest plan. Uh with the two additional homes, uh Hope Road is kind of a dead end right now where uh traffic trucks come onto their property, use their loop driveway to to turn around. Any emergency vehicles do the same as well. So, we would also be installing a uh gravel uh culde-sac to allow for turnaround. Uh this is kind of a simple case. I I think in other cities where you'll find family zoning, uh this is all we're trying to do. We're not trying to subdivide it. It'll always be one piece of property. Uh the mobile homes allow uh the two daughters to have shadow loans which aren't tied to the property which really it comes down to affordable housing for the family. U if this is not approved most likely they'll be doing major renovations to the existing house to allow the family to live there. So, I know some of the concerns that that'll be issues that will be brought up are the amount of traffic that this will uh provide. Currently, the children stay at the family at the home there. So, there a lot there's probably going to be less traffic if we allow them to have the two additional homes because they're not going to be going back and forth from from work, picking up kids, so forth right now. Uh the other issue I think is whether uh the aquafer can support this. We did the uh the PUD 1919 to the south at 104 where uh we had the Oklahoma Water Resource Board uh kind of tell you that the the aquifer is is rarely plentiful of water. Um, and on that one we've got what do we have? Six, I think 3/4 acre homes. Uh, one 5 acre and one one and a half acre on 10. So we've got eight on 10 acres just to the south of this. Um, these will be basically one home on one and a quarter if but it's again it's not being divided. So happy to answer any questions and and Brandy is also here to answer any questions. Thank you, Mr. Allen. Now, uh, we'll bring up those who signed up to speak. We have David Coun. If you'd state your name and address and keep your remarks to three minutes or less. Yes, my name is Dave Coun, 1181 Hope Road. Um, Wes and Cheryl White are my neighbors in front of my front yard. Uh, we've been neighbors for 33 34 years. I would like to say that u we've had a very close relationship. I love my neighbors. I would do anything for them. I've watched their children grow up and uh I am all for their success and uh I would do anything to help them in any type of uh situation that they need help with. That being said, um my home is uh we just got a letter for a increase of taxes. my home is pushing uh 800,000 in worth and uh I just feel like if we put we were sold our property with the regulations that it's one resident per five acres. So, and they already have two there. If we put two more, we're putting four residents on a 5 acre track. Without a doubt, my property value will come down. So, uh, that is one of my main concerns. I'm self-employed. I don't have retirement. I don't have pension. I put a lot of work into my property and the value of my property. And I don't see that increasing with this. I see it decreasing for sure my property value and that's the only reason I oppose it um is because I I'm certain that the value will go down. Um it's just not what we were sold. I I understand their dream of moving their children on the property, you know, but uh we've looked at other acreages because it's not permitted in our neighborhood. If I want to move my two boys on my property, I'm looking elsewhere where it is permitted on on a bigger track of land, not on five acres. So, that's the main reason that I oppose this is my property value. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Pam Cummings. Hi, my name is Pam Cummings. I live at 11800 Hope Road, right next door to the Whites. And um I lost my husband a couple years ago and had to move from 500 acres um to this 5 acres. I train service dogs for the Honoring America Warriors group. I uh also train um other dogs for hering um for farmers and ranchers and I also train I I I retired from AT&T. This was my lifelong goal was puppies and grandb babies. So I'm fully fulfilling that. Um but I have to I also train for dental offices, companion therapy dogs for dental offices and counselor offices. I have some at Ronald McDonald House, but I have a full five acres of of animals that I work with. Um, I bought this location specifically because it was non-congested. It was at the end of a long private road and um so I'm I'm just a little concerned about having this right next door. Um, but my biggest concern is a lot like Mr. Couns. Um, I invested what I had into my home. I've done a year and a half now of trying to improve the land. And um, I have experience of although no one can predict the future, I do have and come from experience of what this would cause. Um, there was a family in a town in Sand Springs where I had lived that had wanted this community and they put four trailers on 2 and 1/2 acres and after uh family situations, I understand the um emergency situation completely want to do what we can to help. Um, I can understand if it's a temporary situation, but what happened with that land, and you can look at the Tulsa County records, was as the family changed, dynamics changed, this eventually ended up getting sold off with all the trailers on there and became a trailer park and the crime rate went up substantial substantially. So although they've lived there 30 years, it it I see that it's an emergency situation. We I do want to help what we can, but where are the checks and balances? I've watched the first meeting here and although they have a home for their um brother there, it was not kept up and it wasn't found out until this came to light. there's not checks and balances to make sure that we don't get into that rental situation at the end of a private road that taxes our emergency services and the investments that the other neighbors have put into that. Thank you. Thank you, Counciloman Peek. Thank you. So, I met with um the applicant and I met with city staff to try and review, you know, kind of what the options were for this situation. Um I'm particularly um familiar with similar situations um both within my ward and across the city. Now, I've been educated on um some different areas where we've uh where we've approved these types um of PUDS frankly and knowing the applicant's situation and understanding that the traffic that um is happening right now is the daughters coming and going on the daily, you know, trying to take care um of the aging and infirmed family. It becomes very challenging as a city council member to look at these types of things and to, you know, predict potentially what could happen down the road when this family grows and and evolves over time and know what the family's um intentions are and what their hopes are for the situation. And I think based on everything that I know about this situation that it makes sense um to make this happen. There were um there were some modifications that were made to their initial um distribution that um put limitations on um the size of the homes and you know kind of the placement on the property and um how they had to be uh constructed and those types of things. So, it's it's my hope that with all of that um now in place that we will be setting not only this family up for success, but the neighborhood as well um in the long run with having those limitations in place. So, having heard, you know, from as many folks as are willing to speak and and that are affected by this, I still am inclined to move for approval. Okay. Are there any other comments or questions from the council? If not, we can take a motion. We have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes 8 to one. All right. Now, we're on item E. This was deferred for March 11th. Uh there's an amendment here to the master design statement and then the ordinance on final hearing. This is reszoning 2121 northwest 30th from SPUD 1257 and R1 to SPUD 1694. Um there are quite a few people who signed up to speak. Councilman James Cooper, tell me how you'd like to Thanks, Mayor. Uh and thanks to everyone who's joining today. I think the order I would recommend is let's hear from the applicant uh and then their um legal counsel and then I'll have some remarks and then I'll just turn it over to the neighbors and we'll just go from there. Thank you, Councelor Cooper and Council. My name is Rachel Bradley. I am the executive director at CESU Youth Services. We operate at 2129 Northwest 30th Street um here in Oklahoma City. We offer emergency shelter, a drop-in resource center, case management services, and housing programs for young people um that are experiencing homelessness between the ages of 15 to 24. Our goal is to provide you the shelter and support they need to pursue the lives that they want. When we purchased our property in 2020, we came before this council to reszone with SPUD1257 in order to redevelop an abandoned church into a youth shelter and resource center. We knew those were just the first steps, though. So, in that same zoning request, the council approved plans for a phase two of campus development that would add another building for things like additional case management, a clinic, and 16 on-site apartments. Phase one got us out of our original church basement just across the street um where we lived for seven years and into a customuilt space for young people in their time of crisis. But as we grew, we um outgrew that space pretty quickly. We realized that we need more space for partner agencies to meet privately with clients on site as well as a classroom um and a skills lab, a conference room for training, protected outdoor space, and additional parking and even more offices um for our growing staff to be able to support the young people on site. Um, when the property to our east became available, it empowered CCU to rethink the layout of the previously approved space to construction plan to better meet our needs and integrate any feedback and ideas from a few of our neighbors. Some of the steps we've taken to ensure clear communication and cooperation with our neighborhood partners include meeting with those neighbors seven times over just the past four months um, as well as over the past couple of years, setting up a dedicated web page and inbox so folks can contact our leadership team directly. Um, and we committed to quarterly meetings with our neighbors to share updates, plan events, and brainstorm solutions for any new concerns together. Many Shepard and Sequoia neighbors also took part in community building efforts um to surface concerns, workshop opportunities for growth for our area, and develop shared goals and action steps over the past few months. Our commitment to being good neighbors is documented um in our good neighbor agreement which was developed and updated based on feedback from neighbor partners and can be found on our website as well as our client handbook which is explained to clients and acknowledged during their intake and orientation process. This explains that only safe legal and respectful actions and behaviors are expected and required at CESU and that young people are held to those same expectations across our neighborhood. as well. In our bi-weekly good neighbor meeting with clients and staff, we reiterate those expectations and ensure that our clients understand public park rules, private property owner rights, and trespassing laws. CESU has been and will continue working with a trust a task force of representatives from the city departments like the parks, embark police and keto home alongside stakeholders in our neighborhood to advocate for continued infrastructure investments in community organizing efforts that benefit all of the residents of Sequoia and Shepard neighborhoods that we call home. The question before you today is not should CESU continue operations or even should we construct the second phase of our campus, but which version of the campus will CESU build. Although we are currently approved to build our under that original SPUD, based on the feedback from our neighbors in our years of operational experience, we know that this updated construction plan will provide a better, more appropriate, and safer campus for both our neighborhood and our clients than the current zoning and original plan from 2020. The campus we ask you to approve today makes room for the services our community wants and expects these young people to receive, including increased access to education, employment, life skills, mental health support, and additional pathways to permanent housing and safety options on site. A no vote means we will stick with the previous approved plan that does not address or take into account any of this neighborhood feedback. and we urge you to approve this updated version of the site plan so we can better address the needs of the young people in our city and in our neighborhood. Thank you for those remarks. And then uh Caitlyn, good morning. Caitlyn Turner, 525 Northwest 11th Street here on behalf of the applicant. So, I don't want to be too repetitive, but again emphasizing that the existing SPUD that was approved by council in November of 2020 would allow for 16 additional units. A couple other items I'd like to know on that original spud is it also allowed access onto cash in and it did not have some of the increased regulations that we have included in the spud before you today. uh things like removing that access from cash-in, having the 8-ft fence along the north as well as an 8-ft fence along the east. There's also an existing 8ft fence along the west. The proposed building, if you see this layout here, is also along the north to kind of create a more central secluded green space area for the youth seeking services to have. and that's just more um again secluded on site. Um we have also included in the program description or requirement that CESU board of directors will meet quarterly with the president or representative of both Sequoia Park or Sequoia and Shepard Park, excuse me. Um and we would just uh implore you to consider the pros of the new development, the new master design statement, the requirements in the program description while you hear other comments today from surrounding neighbors. Um, those community meetings as referenced have been ongoing since we have filed this SPUD application. Also, thanks to the efforts of councelor Cooper, we have had the opportunity to meet with police chief basy, assistant city manager Fairbrush, parks, um, key to home, um, and numerous other city staff that have greatly assisted uh, with making improvements not only to SWAT, but also to assist the CESU organization, uh, namely the Embark buses being reinstated and increasing, as well as the parks department, the shine program and CESU all cleaning up SWAT which I know I personally have driven the neighborhood a number of times and the park is beautiful. There are people walking their dogs and there has been a significant difference um in the past few months. So, thank you again counselor Cooper for those efforts. Again, efforts that will be ongoing and that are now required within that program description that is included with this SPD application. So, at this time, I'd be happy to answer any questions, and I'll save the rest of my comments for after uh the rest of the neighbors are able to speak. Thank you. Um, okay. I would just like to add a few comments if I might, and then I'll let the neighbors um share their perspective. Uh, because I just want to catch everyone up on some of the work we've done since we last saw each other and ongoing work. And so, uh, first was, uh, the park itself. One of the things we, uh, heard the neighbors request was that we remove a closed slide that was in the neighborhood and already seeing some nodding heads. So, that's something and we're, we've ordered an open slide, right? So, there were these concerns about what was happening inside the slide, maybe. Uh, and so, we took care of that. The second item in the park we addressed uh and feel free to ask questions about any of these. The second item was there was a request to remove a grill that sometimes um folk would come to the park, use and leave unattended without extinguishing the the fire they had begun there. Um so we removed the grill. I will note, however, um, one of your neighbors who lives there, he was out walking his dog and when I went to the park a few weeks ago and he lamented the loss of the grill because you all are now going to lose the opportunity to be able to cook and do picnics. So, I just want you to know that was another perspective I heard. We've added trash carts to Swatk Park, which is there at 30th uh between uh Young's and um Villa. Park crews service the park every two weeks. Um and then we have a crew supervisor from parks who make supplemental visits to monitor the park and collect litter. So that's on the parks side of things. Um, as you heard earlier too, for safety, we have new sidewalks which are coming to Northwest 30th that will connect the high schoolers there at Northwest Classen along the corridor of 30th Street. You're going to have new sidewalks all the way from 30th in May to 30th and Penn. Those will connect to the new sidewalks on Pennsylvania. Lighting will go along those sidewalks as well. Um, and then we were able to uh in December the public transportation board, we were able to approve funding not just for CESU but for nonprofits across the city to receive an increased number of bus passes so that those bus passes could find themselves in the hands of the people who need them to connect to employment, recreation, education. And so that was something that we approved in December. Um, and then just one one more thing that was already happening before all of this. Remember I pointed everyone's attention to the rendering uh that Councilwoman Peek, you all are doing there on Meridian and you saw I40 and Meridian, that bridge. That's what I've been saying when I've been attending neighborhood association meetings or meetings on the topic of this zoning proposal to remind everybody that even before this proposal was ever a conversation back in 2019, I had the honor of crafting alongside Mayor Hol and our planning staff two major improvements. I44 and Youngs is going to resemble the bridge like you saw at I40 and Meridian. and so too I44 and Penn. So Young's and Penn you're going to see lighting improvements, pedestrian improvements, public safety improvements. So I just want you to know that was something that's coming. You've now seen for yourself because sometimes it can be hard to imagine such things. The third big improvement is actually the OCU corridor from 23rd and Classen to 23rd and Penn. So, it was something that I got to be very intentional about and that was a result of knocking doors in the area of people saying they wanted to see that pedestrian connectivity, that public safety enhancement and hearing from the students at OCU. Just two more minutes if I might. Those are the the things we heard from neighbors that they asked for. Okay. A couple weeks ago after the proposal, I reached out to council and asked them to join me at the park to go on a walking tour. Um, some said yes, some said no. One of my council colleagues whom I respect asked me and said that they what they respect about me is that I always have a listening ear. But they asked me to open that ear to voices that I might not hear sometimes. So Shephard hosted a neighborhood association meeting two weeks ago on a Tuesday. About right. I went um at the end of that meeting, a neighbor who's been protesting CESU's proposal, he and I and his fiance spoke outside and he reiterated what this council colleague said. It's like, "James, we just want you to hear us hear our protest a little bit more." And they and they were like, "James, do you think we're just making up that we see youth outside?" And I said, "Well, I have data from police saying that the crime hasn't increased, so I I I'm not going to call my police chief a liar, and I'm not trying to call you a liar. I'm trying to figure this out." The next day, I taught at Oklahoma City University. My students have been focusing on problems facing youth, doing research during my lunch break and office hours. Stay with me on this part. This to me is the important part. The the improvements you heard are critical. This next part is where I'm going to need everyone's help who lives in Sheepard, Sequoia, Epworth, and Military. Michael's already heard this. I know Laura heard it because you're on uh a meeting a couple days later. So, there was the Tuesday Shepherd meeting. There was that request of me to expand, widen my perspective. The next day during my lunch break from 12:30 to 2:30, I drove to Swatk Park. I didn't just drive by it. I got out of my car because I saw about a half dozen youth aged 15 to 24. I parked my car. I put on my backpack. I need you to know as someone who used to get bullied as a teenager, going up to a group of teenagers, not my favorite thing in the world, but I knew I needed to because there had been people who had asked for us to address these issues. So, I got out of my car, put my backpack on, and I went over and I introduced myself to these these these youth. Hi, I'm James Cooper. I teach at Oklahoma City University. I also have the honor of representing us on city council. And I asked them, "What kind of improvements would you all like to see in Swatk Park?" I did not mention the controversy in front of us, the proposal in front of us. I simply asked them because maps for doing the corridor and the bridges. I just said, "What would you like to see in addition?" Here's what they said. There's in Mustang. And then they got out a a phone to show me this. Britney's Play Adventure, which Councilwoman Peek knows what I'm talking about. Brit, I did not. Britney's Play Adventure in Mustang, as an example. That was one thing they wrote down. I just passed this sheet around. You're welcome to I can pass around so you can see it yourself. The next thing they said were, and this is something the neighbors have said. I thought this was interesting. They said, "More places to sit that are covered." and away from families a bit for privacy. They said that I I I didn't even I just said, "What do you want to see in this park?" They said, "A race climbing wall climbing missing the letter B. A bathroom. A water fountain spelled w a t. fountain spelled f a l ten. This is what happens when people are homeless and they have found themselves disconnected from the education system. They don't know how to spell water fountain. More workout equipment spelled A P I T M N T. community and events, which I've heard the neighbors ask for. A splash pad, a day youth center, a fishing pond, a pool, a pool again, a a community center, a restroom, and water fountains spelled correctly. More shade and places to sit. This next one, I don't understand. Psalm 43. A gaga cell pit. It's like a sports type thing. I Okay, Rachel knows what I'm talking about. I don't know. Um, a basketball court to which the neighbors have already said no because of the sound. Soccer nets, emergency buttons for safety, a tether ball four square. I bring this today because I know our parks director is listening. I know our city manager is listening. And I now task the parks department to figure out as we move into this next phase of maps for what's possible here. I took the challenge that my council colleague asked and that the protesting neighbor asked and I went to the park. I listened. I just want to tell you this story. There was a young man there. I'm not going to say his name because privacy. I asked the whole group, "How many of you have jobs?" And one of them said, "I have a job." Well, actually, he didn't say he did not say that at first. He said, "Why are you hiring?" And I said, "Well, what are your skills? What are your skills?" I was hearing Councilman Hinkle's voice in my head, this idea of employment for the young people. and he said, "I've I've taken care of people uh elderly people, home health care." And I said, "Well, send me your resume. No promises. Let's see what we can do." And then he said, "But I work at Domino's in Bricktown and I walk there every day except for the one day I have the one bus pass." Well, this was confusing to me because we had just voted for more bus passes. Follow me on this because this is where I'm going to need all the adults help. And I was like, "Wait, but we just got you more bus passes. Why don't you have a bus pass? I said, "Okay, well, I'm going to reach out to CESU." Everyone finished writing their thoughts on this. I went back to go teach from 2:30 to 7:15 that night. I had called CESU, told him what had just happened, and I said, "Let us look into that because the kid had also told me that uh my my case manager is too busy to talk with me." And I was like, "Okay, let me think about that." And then because it's a former middle school teacher, I know what it's like sometimes to have students not always tell you the whole story. And um I listened to a voicemail later that day from CESU and they said, "James, this person, we'll call them Sam, had not been to their case manager in one month, and they said their case manager is willing to meet with them right now whenever they want to meet." I drove back to the park because I had received a text message from a resident saying, "We have some issues in the park." So, I went back and I saw that kid there again and I went up to him and I said, "I've spoken with CESU and your case manager is ready to see you." And he goes, "Oh, well," it was like that kind of moment where he's like, "What do I any parent knows exactly what I'm talking about and any teacher knows what I'm talking about, but I wasn't, this is important, I did not yell at him. I did not judge him. I just said to him, "There's a case manager waiting." And then I didn't have all the details. So I called CESU right then and they picked up and they were like and put him on speaker. And I was like, "If you can get there tomorrow, the person on CESU said, "If you can get there tomorrow, we're ready for you." The next day I had a series of meetings including the Britain I think it was the Britain ribbon cutting cutting I can't remember but a series of meetings that day and I got a text message from CESU saying to me Sam had gone and met with his case manager and that evening I went to a neighborhood meeting again that was talking about the improvements you've just heard and I shared that story. It takes one caring adult. We know from research, just one to go and become a word you heard all day today, a mentor. It took two times of me going there. One to introduce myself and then showing back up because a lot of times that inconsistency, that lack of support builds a lack of trust. So, I want to validate some of the things I've heard from the neighbors then. Yes, there are young people out there in Spatech Park because youth homelessness has gone up. But the good news is we have a way to intervene. And it's through the partnerships with the neighbors in the neighborhood that in between these quarterly meetings, what if you were to receive training the way that I have through teaching to learn how to go into that park and actually partner with one of those youth. Otherwise, this will just continue because they need that support reminder to go see their case manager. Because if we don't do that, this is my final thoughts. There is a duplex city manager that Thank you uh to your team ACM Fairbrush. I reached out to to them. There is a duplex not by a homeless person, but by someone who owns the home, who is renting the home, and in that home, they sell drugs. There's sex work going on. This is by someone who owns the home. So for those of us who think it's only homeless people who commit crimes, let me disabuse you of that because what's happening now, and I learned it by being in the park two times, you have residents in Shepard, in Sequoia, in Epworth, in Military Park, going to that house and purchasing drugs. That's happening. And then these youth who are already experiencing instability, who might actually have addiction issues without that support system, do you know where they will go? Right there to get those drugs and they will relapse and things will get worse and then they will be committing more crimes. We have to protect these neighborhoods from that sort of moment. But to pretend friends that that has not been happening in this area for 25 years that at the site where there they CESU has built redeveloped this church. There used to be homeless youth hanging out at an at a dilapidated abandoned building before CESU moved in there. There was already youth homelessness there. It was under I44 in Penn. It's at 23rd in Penn. It's at 10th in Penn. And we have an opportunity through the MAPS investments, the collaboration we've already been doing to not destroy CESU. It's easier to destroy than it is to create. And we have an opportunity to create right now. and I will be a partner the whole rest of the time in that creation story. You need to clap, but no, I just want you to know that's the work I'm doing. Volunteer with me as I've asked. Um, and I want to hear from the neighbors to hear what progress we've made and where you still think there's opportunities to grow. So, thank you. Okay, so there's a lot of people who signed up to speak. So I'll remind everyone to uh state your name, address and keep your minute your remarks to three minutes or less. But also remind you you don't have to speak for three minutes and um oftentimes especially when the topic is relatively narrow people tend to just repeat the same thing and that becomes um you know diminishing returns but nevertheless it's your three minutes. uh I will also state u a name and then I will say the name of the person who will follow in hopes that that second person might make their way uh to the front row so that there's not a bunch of transit time in between speakers. All right, with that being said, let's begin with Chaz Frell who will be followed by Ian Afflebomb. Chaz Frell, 2316 Northwest 23rd or 28th Street. Um morning. Uh this letter is on behalf of the concerned residents of Koa Military Park, Shepard and the surrounding neighborhoods uh to formally and unequivocally oppose the proposed expansion of CESU services at its current location. Uh this document serves to lay out in detail the cumulative and negative impacts CESU's current operations is posing our current community. Uh supported by hard data, firsthand accounts, and detailed analysis of the operation failures have rendered this location fundamentally incompatible with the surrounding neighborhoods. We recognize the importance of supporting homeless youth and not oppose the mission itself. I'll repeat that. We support the mission itself. However, the reckless and poorly planned integration of a lowberry facility uh populated in a family oriented neighborhoods has resulted in significant harm to our community safety, economic viability, overall quality of life and proposed expansion without first addressing these d deep rooted systemic issues is irresponsible and unacceptable. You're going to hear them talk today about a petition going on as well. 500 signatures plus on that. That's for the mission. Again, everyone here is for the mission. We know this is important. The execution of this is not great. We have gone door to door. These are just in the last four days. Uh 90 letters right here of neighbors just surrounding this that are very upset, very scared. Uh, and I've uploaded a lot of these into a Dropbox that I've sent some of you. Um, just here today right behind me, we have a neighbor that's had a gun pulled on them. We've had two neighbors here that had their yard set on just this last week. We've had several uh witnesses in the park last Thursday, myself included, who watched the youth walk down and one just immediately overdosed in the park. Uh, police were called. Just on Sunday alone, we had police and fire in our uh park again because there was fist fights. Nothing was No one was arrested. Um, that's just what we're seeing. So, and James, I know you're working hard. Uh, Mr. Carter, thank you for helping us get that place shut down as well. We have dozens and dozens of pictures of everything going on and that's all in the Dropbox. I'd be happy to share that with anybody else who would like to see that. So, I'll see you my time. Thank you. Uh, Ian Afflebomb will be followed by Marlenew Quigley. Ian Alphabomb, 259 Northwest 32nd Street. Um, good morning again. My name is Ian Alphabomb. Uh, I live with my partner in Sequoia neighborhood. As a neighbor of this community, I want to share my support of the proposed Spud for CCU services existing campus. Um, and again remind everyone in this room that this is not a question of if this will get the expansion, it's what version of that expansion exists. Um, the newest version of this spud gives us the opportunity to make our our neighborhood safer, create spaces for those youth to be able to stay, and I think that's a great um change to the original plans. Um, the challenges that youth in our community face today are particular, particularly those who find themselves without stable housing are real and pressing. It is vital that we come together as a community to offer them the resources, care, and opportunities they deserve. I've been to neighborhood meetings and open houses that included CESU and have been to and seen the dedication that CESU has put towards becoming our neighbors in our community. Firstly, we all know homelessness is not as simple as the lack of housing. It's also about the multitude of obstacles and trauma um that people experiencing homelessness will will experience during that time. I've witnessed CESU be a lifeline for these young people, offering them not just shelter, but emotional, educational, and professional support they need. We can't ignore the fact that these young people are often overlooked, but they are part of our community, too. And that they are our future. And by supporting them today, we are building a stronger neighborhood and stronger city and more compassionate society for them. I understand that a ch that change can sometimes be daunting, but I believe that this is a change that will bring more good than harm. What CESU plans to do as a natural extension of the services they already provide and a supportive environment, a safe and supportive environment for young people, but will also allow CESU to continue their work while addressing neighborhood concerns. So, I ask you to join me in support of this initiative. Let's show our youth that we see them, that we care for them, and that we want to help them create a brighter future. Together, we can make this community stronger, more inclusive, and more compassionate. I've spent time in Swatk Park. I walk my dog there a couple times a week. Um, the youth in that that spent time in that park are just as friendly as any of our other neighbors, saying hello and being friendly to them. Um, I get great responses from them. Um, I think they're they're great kids. They've all got a lot of potential and CESU is is one of those one caring adults like 30 seconds remaining. Councilman Cooper um described earlier that gives them the opportunity to to make that change um and have the supports they need to to no longer uh be experiencing homelessness um and have infinite potential. So, thank you. Thank you, Marlene Quickley, who will be followed by Michelle Espinosa. My name is Marlenewigley. Lment Shepard neighborhood 2241. Uh recent data from the Oklahoma City Police Department reveals a troubling pattern tied directly to the operational presence and relo relocation of SISU youth services. A comparative analysis of police calls from 2023 and 2024 clearly shows a sharp rise in public safety incidents correlated with SISU's current location. In 2023, while SISU operated out of the Church of the Open Arms, the site generated 234 calls for police services. These included 26 disturbance calls, 13 assaults, seven domestic violence incidents, three reports of assault with a deadly weapon, two lararsenies, one burglary, two rape reports of rape, one armed robbery, one robbery by fear and force, and 178 miscellaneous calls. After SISU vacated the premises, the same location saw a dramatic decline in calls to just 53 total in 2024, comprising nine disturbances, zero assaults, two domestic incidents, one assault with a deadly weapon, and 41 miscellaneous calls. By contrast, in the same 10-month period following SISU's move to its current facility on Northwest 30th, OKC uh Oklahoma City Police Department received 195 calls to that location alone. This included 40 disturbances, eight assaults, six domestic domestic violence cases, three assaults with deadly weapons, 10 larsenies, one robbery by fear and force, and 127 other miscellaneous calls. These figures illustrate a significant and immediate increase in incidents tied to Sissu's new location. And I wanted to say um it's disingenuous to say that we don't like them hanging in the park. It's more of what what some have done. I live right there. I see it all. I don't just walk my dog every, you know, couple of times a day. I live there. So, I've seen a lot of stuff. My house was the house that had the fire in my front yard started. So, this is not about kids hanging. It's about what we've experienced. So I oppose it. Thank you. Thank you. Michelle Espinosa follow will be followed by Jennifer Flowcow. Michelle Espinosa 2221 cash in place. Um, I oppose of this because of all the crime and everything else, but there's things that when this come on in 2020 is what you said. I think um I didn't receive a letter. I didn't receive anything notification of any sort that they was doing this down at that church. Nothing at all. And here I am still facing it. Want to talk about another thing? I want to be talked with and listened, not talked to and talked at. I don't know if that makes any sense to you. Personal experience. They don't know how to spell. They don't know how to do this. Honey, I was 12 years old and I had my first kid. I didn't graduate sixth grade. Look at me now. I own my home. I acquired it before I was 25. And I'm still continuing. It's not I don't know how to make y'all understand. The child has to want everything. And these kids, they don't want. They straightened up. honestly for a week before the meetings before we had to come up here. Now it's all over again. Can't drive down my road. I have and my son has said we can't bring Laya to LA to see because we're in fear of what might happen between walking from their co to my door. How many things that those kids will say? I'm trying not to ruffle feathers. I don't and damaged property and my two that live with me. Mom, please don't say anything. We don't want damage to the house. We don't want damage to the car. We don't want this. 30 seconds remaining. I only get $13,000 a year and I live on it. So, what I have right there means a lot. A lot. And I'm sorry. I'm emotional. I'm very, very emotional. Just please take into consideration everything. Let's find a solution. I'm tired of arguing. I just want a solution. It's a good thing they're wanting to do, but there's got to be another way and better notification. You think just the 300 ft or whatever? We need just a little further. Okay. Thank you, Miss You guys. Thank you, Jennifer Flow and Cow followed by Natasha Katie perhaps. Jennifer Flow at 2209 Northwest 29th Street. Swatak Park located just one block from the new CESU facility saw a 40% spike in calls from 31 in 2023 to 51 in 2024. This surge in public safety concerns appears to align with CESU's policy of discharging unsupervised youth into the streets daily, placing both them and the surrounding community at heightened risk. The drug house is a great example. Community and them at risk. The data provides a compelling and objective account of the public safety impact following CESU's relocation, underscoring the need for serious discussion, community input, and responsible planning around future youth shelter placements in residential um neighborhoods. CESU reports increases in homeless youth, which is supported by the point in time count. This presents concerns that they will out quickly outgrow their current facility and find the need to purchase more affordable housing in their immediate area to f facilitate more expansion. CESU's services are very much needed and I believe their need to grow beyond the approval of this spud will be imminent. CESU will expand whether this spud is approved or not, but it can't expand further without purchasing surrounding affordable homes, which our city is currently in short supply of and is a known barrier for homeless populations. I don't believe that CESU growing in its current location is the answer. It needs to be in an area where it can thrive as a safe expansive campus for the homeless youth where there is a where there is consistent daytime programming along with plenty of bed space at night. I don't believe that six or 16 apartments is um addressing future growth and current neighborhood problems. I do believe or I believe they will need a larger low barrier shelter resources and more staff to address future growth and that can't happen in the current location without the purchase of affordable homes. My hope is that the city council upholds its priority to promoting safe, secure, and thriving neighborhoods while also finding an adequate location for CESU to flourish and expand. Thank you. Thank you, Natasha. Possibly Katie, feel free to correct me when you introduce yourself. Followed by Wade Wynard. Yes, Natasha Cotay. Okay. Thank you. Um and uh I am the vice president of the CESU services board of directors and a psychotherapist at Sunbeam Family Services. Um um I'm really grateful to be here today. Um I'm here as an advocate, a neighbor, and a peer. Um a couple of weeks ago, um like um um council and then um Cooper stated, we had a Shephard community and CESU partners and staff and board members and friends come together to wrap up a three-part community engagement strategic plan meeting. Um in it, we imagined how our goals would play out. Um and um I I got to meet um um Mike and Lori and Wade and uh Jennifer and um just uh we came together and um I think division is um a huge part of where we're at just in our communities across the country. Um and engagement is um important. Um uh just to get to know where we're at and to meet on values. Um that was um extremely rewarding for me. Um I heard and uh the valid and frustrated concerns of our neighbors CISU and um you know we broke out into a group and discussed community safety um and our what I loved about that was um community safety I I think it's it's um a part of our state right to imagine safety and and policing thing and maybe um through um um like citizen patrol um and um the opposition or I think um moving more towards how can we CISU and our neighbors come together um uh centering it really really around engagement like um Councilman Cooper was talking about um how can we engage with our neighbors? How can um the youth and the neighbors get to know each other? Um um it was heartening to have that discussion on values and um the youth need more of that engagement not less. Um they're aware of the tension between them and the neighbors. I mean it's palpable. um why would um they feel safe um especially coming from where they come from if there is this direct opposition if um people are being extremely um um sort of observational and less engaging. Um so I mean we're talking about kids who have left or run away from harm, rejection and uh for whatever reason. Um, so I just I just want us to come together and for the council to um move towards um creating helping us to create a space that addresses the needs of the youth and the neighbors um that um and we can continue not only having these conversations but actionable steps towards um engagement. So thank you. Thank you. Wade Wynard, if that's correct, followed by Dennis Ruticil. Hi guys, my name is Wade Wynard. I live at 2125 Northwest 29th. Um, a neighbor came up and forgive me if I'm repeating. Um, but I did want to go over the crime reports from the neighborhood alliance that uh further substantiate our concerns. Since uh 2020, um there have been 144 instances of destruction of property and vandalism, 134 burglaries and break-ins, 95 simple assaults, 45 aggravated assaults, 135 thefts from motor vehicles, 54 uh motor vehicle thefts, 20 robberies 32 uh acts of intimidation, I'm sorry. um three homicides and two rapes. Uh over the past 5 months, many residents and I have noticed a uh troubling increase in certain activities. Specifically, there has been visible rise in substance abuse in public area areas that were uh previously quiet. I've noticed instances that struggly strongly suggest an increase in prostitution in the evening and near the uh shelter's vicinity. Uh Rachel, my intention in sharing these observation is not to condemn the shelter or its uh mission. However, it is crucial that we acknowledge and address the negative impacts that have um coincided with its presence. Open dialogue and proactive solutions are needed to ensure the safety and well-being of all residents in our neighborhood. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Dennis Ruticil will be followed by Laura Venderwent. Uh good morning. My name is Dennis Rutil. I live at 1102 West Park Place. Uh I have lived there for about 3 years. For the 11 years I've lived in Oklahoma City before that. My first residence was Copperfield Apartments, which neighbors Swatk Park uh 14 years ago. There were homeless people there, too. Uh my second residence was 1933 Northwest 22nd Street, which is one block south and one block east of 23rd and Penn. That's when we called the buy for less the die for less. It was also the first time I was a victim of a property crime when my house was sprayed by bullets. Uh the police suggested that it was a crazy homeless person and no investigation was ever made. My residence following that was 2255 Northwest 42nd Street, which is one block north and two blocks west from I44 and Penn. I stepped over syringes there. I saw exposed genitalia behind what was then the Circle K pretty regularly. [Music] Uh now I live at, like I said, 1102 West Park Place, uh near Mckenley Park. There are homeless people there, too. Uh the second time I was a victim of a property crime after a year of living there, we had a $5 camping hatchet thrown through our window. Uh I've come home to people bathing in my shower, you know, my my front spigot. Uh the problems that are being presented as directly linked to CESU are not specifically CESU problems. I have lived all up and down the North Penn corridor. CESU is visible one block west from 30th and Penn. Uh I've lived and worked all up and down that corridor. These are citywide issues and I would implore this body to take more action. We had uh permanent supportive housing for veterans. That's great. We acknowledge the mental health efforts of nonprofits in this committee. Those are great. Um the solution to these problems is not less CESU. It is more CESU. Uh so that being said, I would again implore you to approve this special use permit and uh do even more beyond that. Thank you. Thank you, Laura Vanderwent. Followed by Daryl Sally. Thank you, Laura Vanderwent. 2300 Northwest 29th Street. In the absence of accountability, a coalition of neighbors have taken the initiative to present long overdue solutions with concrete, achievable, workable ideas, including efforts to coordinate crime prevention and cleanup efforts, shut down known drug houses through grassroots advocacy, organize neighborhood watch programs, advocate for crime prevention through envir environmental design at Suadic Park, recommend infrastructure improvements, and hosting meetings with CESU leadership. city departments, OKCPD, and city staff. Despite these efforts, the sheer volume of illicit and illegal activity and daily disorder stemming from CESU's presence continues to overwhelm the area. With the approval of CESU Spud in 2020, bounded on all four sides by single family residential, the city set no conditions on the shelter to prevent and mitigate adverse impacts on neighbors in marked contrast to the considerable research conducted for the locations for the MAPS for youth centers. My question for you all is why was this diligence not taken when allowing the low barrier youth night shelter to be established in a neighborhood? I began reaching out to city officials in 2021 with concerns about what was happening in my neighborhood, particularly regarding the youth's daily unmonitored and unstructured free time while the shelter is closed during the day. And now here I am four years later continuing to ask for safeguards from the illegal, threatening and undesirable behaviors which are still common place in our community. This raises the larger question about the s suitability of a residential neighborhood for a low barrier youth night shelter. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Uh Daryl Sally followed by Michael Davis. Uh, morning counselors. Uh, Daryl Ci, 1633 Northwest 29th Street. I am here to offer the unique perspective of being a former client of CESU and former homeless person. Had it not been for the resources of CESU, I would not only not be here today, I don't think I would be in housing at my previous residence in Tulsa. Through CESU, I was not only able to develop more life skills that I was not taught. A lot of my life skills that I do know now, I had to learn through either peers or self-taught. Everything that I know professionally came from CESU's case management staff, which is why I'm absolutely for their expansion project because more people like me are in desperate need of their resources. And there's some other things I wanted to touch on as well. Uh so I believe the neighborhood does have some very valid concerns to bring up. However, I do believe a lot of these would be mitigated by expanding CESU's resources and that a lot of the reportings we are not given the full picture of the situation. So yes, while I have known people at CES who have gone on to commit stupid and reckless behavior such as trespassing or graffiti, dumb teenager things, I have also known people there who have been victims of serious abuse and sexual assault. I knew someone there by the name of Storm who actually had to report being kidnapped and raped because they were a member of the vulnerable homeless population that plagues our city. Well, plagues. It's more an issue of the system failing these people and people like me, people who don't have families that care about them and are willing to teach them these valuable life lessons as well as the education necessary. I barely graduated from high school due to my own drive to do so because of my parents constant bickering back and forth affecting me and my younger siblings as well. I wanted to mention that while CESU could always use an extra location somewhere else for larger resources, they do work in tandem with other programs such as the pivot tiny homes, which are homes far away from this property in which people are able to live in their own dwelling with obvious uh oversight from case management there. 30 seconds to leave fulfilling lives and learn all there is to learn about adult living as well as affordable leasing programs outside of pivot. I was actually scheduled for a pivot tiny home before I found success elsewhere. And through CESU's shelter, I was able to actually focus and accomplish my goals that I had set for myself that I would not have been able to otherwise. And I guarantee you that much. Thank you. Thank you. Michael Davis, followed by Jill Minkkey. Good afternoon, council. My name is Michael Davis at 1931 Northwest 35th Street in the Military Park neighborhood. Uh before I slip into my narrative, a couple things that were mentioned earlier uh by Mr. Cooper, Councilman Cooper about a house on 29th Street that was spun up with drugs uh and prostitutes and that was being visited by Sisu youth. Uh that house was identified quickly. It was a rental house. It's been shut down already and boarded up uh through grassroots advocacy, not just with the neighborhood, also in conjunction with help from SISU. Once it was identified, we shut it down quickly. uh in regards to the uh the disparity in uh crime data, we understand and I know holistically as well as through solid data that we have reduced crime in our area uh because we've worked diligently to ensure that crime has been reduced. I can list house after house after house by address in my neighborhood that used to be really bad drug houses that have all been shut down. So, we've seen positive results and positive impact through the neighborhood and through what you guys have done to help us. However, this one area we're still suffering in. So, problems without solutions aren't very fun. So, here's what we offer some potential solutions uh before another sput is approved for any more expansion. Uh we would ask for number one, a full moratorium on any sissu expansion. No further sput approvals until existing issues are rectified. Two, an independent third-party audit examining SISU's crime impact, staffing adequacy, financial stability, and program effectiveness. Three, establishment of a neighborhood oversight committee, including residents, law enforcement, city council, and city representatives to meet monthly and monitor progress. Four, mandatory transparency and metrics, monthly reports on housing placement, school enrollment, workforce integration, mil me mental health services provided, and crime incidents involving sisu youth. Five, dedicated transportation solutions. Suzu should provide a dedicated shuttle service with proper staff uh removing youth from the neighborhoods during the day to proper areas they can be better served. Six, security improvements, cleat certified security to patrol adjacent neighborhoods and parks funded by CESU. Seven, program reforms looking into the transition from a low barrier model to a structured transitional housing with clear rules on sobriety, participation in job training, education, and curfews. 30 seconds. Eight. Age restriction adjustments limit service to youth under 21 years of age, eliminating overlap with adult homeless populations. Nine, post OPR rules. Sissu must provide immediate alternate housing solutions for expelled individuals to prevent continued presence in the neighborhood. And 10, re-evaluation of SISU's location. Conduct an honest feasibility study on relocating SISU to an area closer to existing wraparound services, public transport hubs, and non-residential zones. Thank you for your time. Can you send me a copy of that sir? Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Jill Minkkey possibly followed by Jim Dunlop. Hello, my name is Jill Mankey and I live at 2445 Northwest 32nd Street which is in the Sequoia neighborhood. I actually moved here in uh March of 2023. Um knowing full well that this shelter existed. Um moving there with the full information that this shelter benefited the neighborhood it was in. I moved there knowing that I would have youth in my community supported by CESU. So I am speaking in support of the expansion and the special use permit. Um, I hear many of my neighbors concerns and I understand them, but I also think that you can't support the mission that CESU does while diminishing their ability to do so. I know that many of my neighbors are concerned about the crime in the neighborhood, but I work as a policy expert. I work from home. I advocate at the capital. I'm here as a private citizen. But from my expertise, I know that supports like this increase youth's ability to go back into their communities with employment and secure housing and diminishing CESU's ability to offer those services by not letting them do this expansion isn't in the best interest of the people in this neighborhood or the youth that they serve. Um, I want to yield my time, uh, but end there knowing that this expansion is vital to the community and will make our community safer. Thank you, Jim Dunlop. Followed by Jesse Valadez. Jim Dunlop, 2201 Northwest 30th Street. The mission, excuse me, the mission of supporting homeless youth is essential. However, the city has an equal responsibility and obligation to safeguard the well-being, safety, and quality of life of its longstanding residents. Let me repeat that the city has an equal responsibility and obligation to safeguard the well-being, safety, and quality of life of its long-standing residents. Um, and it can't be just sharing a couple anecdotal experiences at the park and then touting fixes. CESU's operation and proposed expansion at its current location represent a fundamental breakdown in planning, accountability, and public safety. To continue down this path without immediate action would be a dereliction of duty by the city council. And again, I want to be really clear. We are not against CESU's mission to help homeless youth. We are advocating for a neighborhood, our neighborhood, and those two things are not mutually exclusive. Continuing on this path of expansion in CESU's current location, despite the overwhelming evidence of harm and our experiences is an endorsement of failed planning and disrupted neighborhoods. We are simply asking for what any resident anywhere would want to feel safe, to enjoy our homes and neighborhood, and to see thoughtful, responsible governance. We simply want our neighborhood back. Please don't confuse our opposition to resoning with opposition of CESU's purpose. We are fighting for our neighborhood and we expect our city leaders to do the same. We respectfully but firmly demand bold, decisive action to course correct. Oklahoma City residents deserve responsible, datadriven, transparent, and accountable governments that protects all of its citizens. 30 seconds remaining. Leadership that doesn't sacrifice entire neighborhoods for the sake of unchecked expansion. It is time to course correct. We just want our neighborhood back. And since I have a couple seconds, on March 26th, my wife's bicycle was stolen in broad daylight from our house. And it was by a CESU kid that I have on surveillance. A few days later, 3:30 in the morning, prowling in my backyard, CESU kid, crime has gone up. And if if we go by the claim that it's the same, gosh, remove those couple crimes and apparently it's gone down. Next is Jesse Valdez, followed by Bonnie Bloomer. Hello. Good morning, Jesse Valadez, 911 Northwest 57th Street. I just want to take a moment to express my gratitude for the CESU youth community, and I am so thankful that so many youths have CESU to call home. The CESU team continues to engage with neighbors. They continue to explore additional programs such as employment opportunities, park cleanup enhancements, and methods to enhance the community safety. The homeless youth count is increasing. These plans will expand CESU's capacity to provide and meet the needs of the CESU youth. I relinquish the rest of my time. I just wanted to offer my support to CESU. Thank you. Next, Bonnie Bloomer. Uh followed by Jeremy Lukeba. My name is Bonnie Bloomer. I live at 2320 Northwest 27th Street. I have owned and lived in two different homes in the Shepard neighborhood for the last eight years, including on 29th Street that's adjacent to the park and near this house that we've been talking about. My husband and I, who's speaking next, we are um proud to live in that neighborhood. We are here in support of CESU. I'm glad to live near CESU shelter and honored to be a part of their neighborhood family. This group of youth are there and in need of services because all the adults in their life have failed them. They've experienced untold traumas and hardship. They they did not get the luxury of growing up in a safe household with parents directing and guiding them. So, they've had to go out and look for and seek out someone to take care of them. That's something I never had to do. I've known a few of the kids over the years and spent time with them. I've been inside that building that's on 30th Street. I've seen where they sleep and they work and they play. They share electronics. They share bedroom spaces. They keep their bedrooms neat and they stay on top of each other to keep um order of their joint areas, their bathroom, their living spaces, their bedrooms. They appreciate that space. I personally enjoy using and seeing the youth spend time in Swatk Park. I go there often. Um, I walk around that neighborhood nearly every day, sometimes twice a day. Being outdoors is so good for mental and physical health, and I'm glad that they have access to it. I know a lot of the neighborhoods maybe they came from, there isn't a lot of green space. Um, and a lot of the kids are from this area, and that's a really populated, common park that we are all really grateful for. And I can tell that the surrounding neighbors really appreciate having that, and I'm glad they get to use it, too. I know though that some of my neighbors don't feel that way. That park is for everyone. It is for youth. It is for kids that don't have stable homes. A while back, this issue kind of reached a fever pitch. So, I know that the youth um in this CESU house got together and held their own meeting to talk about what they should do. They knew that people were kind of struggling with them and they were struggling with the neighbors and so they talked amongst themselves about what they should do and how they could be good neighbors. They decided to take a break from the park for a while, let things cool down, and by doing that, they demonstrated their willingness and their desire to live in community with those around them, to make a choice to deny themselves something that they enjoy because they knew it would be good for those in their good for other people. I'm a criminal defense attorney. Professionally, I'm intimately connected to the conversation about how to prevent crime. This resources like this do that. They prevent youth and adults from ending up in the criminal legal system. I've had many clients over the years who have never needed legal help, who may have never needed legal help had they had access to this kind of support. I hope you'll join me in allowing and helping CESU to do that by voting to approve Spud 1694. Thank you, Bonnie. Uh Jeremy Would you state your full name and address, please? Sure. Jeremy Lickball. My address is 2320 Northwest 27th in Shepard Neighborhood. Thank you. I'm here to express my unwavering support for CESU youth services and their proposed bud 1694 zoning change. Over the past year, CESU's provided shelter and support to over 500 young individuals in our neighborhood who are experiencing homelessness or just need help. Their efforts offer not only just a place to sleep, but a safe haven where these youth can find respite and resources to rebuild their lives. I understand this council has previously recommended or the city planning commission has recommended 694 for approval. I encourage you guys to do the same. Approving the zoning change will enable CESU to expand their facilities, allowing them to extend their invaluable services to even more vulnerable youth in our in our neighborhood who are in need. I wholeheartedly support this initiative and urge you to do the same. I yield the remainder of my time to my fellow neighbors. Thanks. Thank you, Jeremy. Next is uh Samuel Gallardo. And next after that will be Michael C. Washington. Please scarn speaker. Hello. Am I on? Awesome. Hello. My name is Samuel Gallardo of 4611 Creek Court. I live in Dell City. I am voicing my support of CESU services. I follow their mission closely and I do support what they're offering. I believe that our city needs these services in order to stay healthy. This is something that provides a backbone and a safety net for people who would default to criminal actions otherwise. This is something I definitely do empathize our neighbors as far as the complaints that have been voiced. they are all valid and this does require further nuance and attention I think as far as dividing designing the perfect solution. However, I do think the facilities we have right now and where we're moving forward is a good step in the right direction and I do support it and I'll see you the rest of my time. Thank you all. Michael Washington will be followed by Robert Bryant. CESU great great program. I've heard of success stories from people I personally know. But the preconceived fears of the residents must outweigh the success stories that we've heard in the past. Neighbors with their yards being burned certainly didn't sign up for that when they owning that property. Families with their bikes being stolen certainly didn't sign up for that kind of activity. People running the streets at night and increased crimes such as but not limited to burglaries robberies homicide property crimes, rapes, substance abuse, and on and on and on. You people today here have a duty, as you've heard before me, to listen to those residents. I don't imagine any of you have that increased crime in your neighborhoods. Now, do you? Now, how would you feel if it did? Let's reverse the order now, Johnny. Boop, boop, boop. Certainly, you going to have concern, aren't you? No matter who is promoting saving our youth or saving our elderly, whoever the case may be. Yes, is that right? youth today, as everybody know, let's keep it real. I was youth myself and oh yeah, did a lot of terrible things. Not killing anybody, anything like that. But we did go in and steal out of stores. Come on, let's keep it real. Huh? Stole a candy bar, whatever cases. I'm I'm trying to tell you all these people have valid concerns here. See, Sue, they got other places they can find. There's plenty of places in the state of Oklahoma. Why does it have to migrate into the neighborhood with increased youth? Again, I heard a lady say it a while ago, the children who are failed by their families. So, how in the world do you think they're being adopted by CESU or anybody else going to change their attitudes only for those who actually want that change to come about? 30 seconds, please. Oh, 30 seconds always catches me when I get get to having fun. But let me say we should deny this expansion. Again, this group and company and and organization done a great thing. Again, I'll applaud it. With 12 seconds left, increase 195 police calls and increased crimes. My time is expired, but my goodness, I just get fired up when I get to going. Thank y'all very much again. We'll be back. Thank you for your self enforcement. Uh, Robert Bryant, followed by Renee Biggs. Hello. Uh, Robert Bryant, 1632 Northwest 29th. Uh, my name is Robert Bryant. You can do that. And I'm a librarian at the Downtown Metropolitan Library. I've come today to add my voice in support. Since CESU has taken up residence in my neighborhood, I've witnessed youth loitering and I've seen vandalism. My yard has been damaged as well. And I agree wholeheartedly we must have law enforcement monitoring Suat Park and the neighborhood to address delinquency. However, responding to actions committed outside of the shelter which CESU cannot be held responsible for. Responding to them by blocking CESU's development and growth would take us in the wrong direction precisely because CESU helps kids get off the street in the long term. CESU's education programs, which last year helped 40 young people complete their goals of obtaining a GED or getting in college, or their long-term housing goals of getting kids off the streets, are evidence of CESU's ability to fight youth homelessness and help them out. I will also say that if you visit the downtown library just across the street on any day of the week, you will see more 911 calls, violence, ambulances, and drug use than you will care to see. But this is not that downtown is a bad library or that CESU is a bad organization, but that desperate people such as the homeless population at downtown, they congregate where they can find help and resources. And with such a demand, sometimes people do bad and foolish things when they're in a vulnerable situation. However, they don't represent everybody. and the violence and crime in both situations demand a greater involvement between groups such as us that provide resources and law enforcement and um neighborhood watch. A greater partnership with the police is how we get out of this problem, not by moving the shelter someplace else. Let's combine the expansion with good grassroots efforts. We are the grassroots in this situation. Moving CESU somewhere else and the associated cost would only provide diminishing returns anywhere else it went. There's no perfect place for CESU other than the one that we make together. Let us continue the good work. Uh I will close. When you see a homeless child waiting for some place for CESU's doors to open, I urge you not to judge them by their presence in the neighborhood. Instead, look at them as they are now. Recognize they need help and CESU provides it. When CESU is able to achieve its fullest potential, so too will its residents. Thank you. Renee Biggs, followed by Erica Taylor. Hello, my name is Renee Biggs. I live at 604 Helm Street. Um, I have been a volunteer with SISU for about 5 years now. And I've seen them grow from the church basement, I think it was, until where they are now. And I have to say, I hear all the neighborhoods talking about their fear of the youth, their fear of the youth, their fear of the youth, their fear of the youth. They're scared of these kids. And I was one of those kids. I came from California. My brother was unhoused. He um died of fentinyl poisoning. And without these resources that su first of all, if you haven't been to their facility, let me tell you what it's like. You go there, you volunteer, you get an opportunity to face tof face with these kids. You can cook dinner with them. You can teach them how to paint. You can talk to them about writing. You can talk to them about any of these things that they don't get from any other peer. Okay? I have met with Rachel several times. I've been through her training several times. I have never seen somebody who is so adamant about what is it the best interest of the kids. And we hear all the adults. They're afraid. They're afraid. Um, can we take our power back as adults? Can we take our power back as adults? Can we go to the youth? We're adults. We have kids. Can we go to the youth? What would we do if our own kids came home and they had one of these hard knock kids as friends? We have to embrace them. What will we do if we take their resources away? So, let's go backwards from this and go backwards. If we cut their resources, we are going to be putting more of these at risk youth into the cycle of at risk adulthood. Okay? Are you going to be more fearful of those at risk youth or the atrisisk adults in your neighborhood? Right? These youth have an opportunity to be rehabilitated. If we are not supporting these systems and these cycles that are actually trying to improve our society and dump these kids back out with jobs, with educations, these kids are not going to do that without resources like this. They won't. We know it. They are not going to put themsel in a path usually to where they're going to pull themselves together and become an active member of society. When we support programs like this, we are saying we have the best interest of these children and we believe that they will recover. We believe they will recover. And I believe with the funding resources with SISU that we will recover this this cycle to where we're not going to have the stuff with the veterans and the kids where they're just merging into one homeless population. So, thank you. And finally, Erica Taylor. Good morning. I think it is still morning, barely. Um, my name is Erica Taylor. I live at 2240 Northwest 26th Street. Um, I've been a reser resident of Shepard Historic for 15 years. I'm a wife, a mother, um a radiation therapist, and while I am speaking privately as a private citizen, I am the current president of the Shepard Historic Neighborhood Association. Um there is really, as you know, not a lot more that I can say. I feel like both sides are becoming like Donote fighting a windmill. Um I am here today in support of the Spud 1694, which a proposal that represent represents a vast improvement over the current spud. uh 1257 which in 2020 I will remind you was unanimously approved and uh allowing CESU youth services to become permanent residents in our surrounding neighborhood. Um approving this bud 1694 today gives you some of you who were sitting on the council in 2020 the opportunity to better what was already approved. Um I I do want to remind everyone that CESU is not leaving. um they have spent over a million dollars on this facility. So, they will not be leaving their address. And I want um I I want to remind people that living in the urban core um presents uh unique challenges. Homelessness is one of them. 23rd and Penn is a hotbed. Um but it um is not just CESU's presence and um it was not created just by one organization and one one thing is not going to fix it. Um I do fully recognize that this has been difficult. Um it's been very divisive uh for me. I have neighbors behind me I think right now that hate my guts. Um but I I do see both sides of it. I want to be pragmatic about this. I want to look towards the future. Um, when I met with Lee Cooper a couple weeks ago, I I just point blank said, "I think some people have a heart for homeless. I think some people don't have a heart for homeless. I think people have different ideologies of how to deal with that. But looking specifically at this spud and what is approved already and what is in front of us, um I respectfully ask that you consider letting CESU provide this new spud that will give the neighbors um that are very upset a a space to uh be separated by CESU with a fence with a property that will um allow the youth to have a space to spend their day um away from Swatic Park, away from loitering and let us all move together forward in this. Thank you. Thank you. That concludes our residents who have signed up to speak. Councilman James Cooper. Thank you. Um and also let me say thank you uh to everyone who spoke. I appreciate that. Uh thank you to everyone who's engaged in this process. Um I taught from 11 to 700 p.m. 7:15 last night. I got home, ate, and Erica called me. And on the phone for two hours, I listened to her um just describe um a version of what she just said. And I just listened because that's what I do. Um I mean, we always agree, but I listen. And um just thank you, Erica, um for two hours worth of a phone call last night. Um, the main thing Erica asked of me and is asking of this body is to allow CESU to finish the job, the work from 2020 when this body approved their initial zoning request. The two names that are really heavily on my mind right now are Daryl and Rachel because Daryl is like the example I described to you of the person I spoke to in the park. When people when you're asking about we want action, we want metrics, Daryl is your action and your metrics. He is proof. He is alive right behind you right now because of CESU. And he told us that today. He told us that he is in housing now because of CESU. He has the ability to be a good neighbor now because of CESU. He is not at 23rd and Penn in front of Ace Hardware, Walmart, Masio's where I go over there all the time. He's not aged out of a youth into a homeless adult. That's what you heard from some of the neighbors, right? How do you keep someone from becoming homeless as an adult? And also, everyone who's talking about this is a neighborhood. Yes, it is a neighborhood, but please, let's not pretend it's not bound by commercial. Let's not pretend that 23rd up to Villa is not Old Shepard Mall and Pin Place. Let's also not pretend that what I'm working on right now on the bond, we have a chance to redevelop that parking lot just like you saw with the Meridian corridor. Remember some of that? We could be doing that and that's something I'm trying to get money for in the bond. Let's not pretend that this is just residential. This is residential bound by commercial. There's a Domino's right across the street on Penn. There's 39th Street District with bars and clubs at 39th and Penn. There's the Oak development at Expressway and Penn. There's Penn Square Mall at Penn and Northwest Expressway. We can't pretend that commercial and real estate are all not by each other. I said Rachel, too, because when I went out to that park that night and helped connect PE Sam to his case manager, do you know who was already there? Rachel. Now, I don't know how long you were there, but she had been there and she stayed in that park with me, council, and city manager and mayor, until 9:30 that night. And she made sure everyone in that park either made their way to CESU by curfew or got them housed in shelter that night someplace else in the city. I watched her call place after place after place to make that happen because she's seen the success of her program in someone like Daryl. And I did not get to say that when I went to the Thursday meeting and I wanted to say in public, I saw you and worked alongside you that night. So we now all this but is asking all it's asking it's not about expanding building a whole bunch more we've already approved a building the question now and Darl was asking us to approve this proposal because what it does is there will be more opportunity for services like mental health and education and the programming inside the building right now. Some of those folk are actually still operating out of the church. They are divided in terms of space. And what Daryl is saying to us is that all needs to be right there together where the youth have quick access to it. Am I wrong, Darl? That's what I'm hearing. That's what I'm saying. It's what he's saying. So sometimes we need to also listen to ourselves and the youth. And that's I'm so happy you're here. I I didn't know you were going to be here. And I'm so happy to hear the success story. So for the neighbors who are wanting that success story, there he is. He is alive right now and not robbing you because of CESU. And we can do more of that. I heard what you you said. I did. And I'm going to say something a conservative council person said back in 2019 when we've finally for the first time in all the city's history addressed homelessness by putting housing in there. The veterans housing you just saw us approve that's from MAPS score. I cannot promise you that what this proposal is going to do by improving the programming there and the space for the programming you I can't promise you that there will not be bumps ahead. Larry Mcatee, the conservative council member, right before we passed maps, went on flashoint and he said, "I cannot promise you that this approach of building the housing and connecting people to case management is going to create a perfection." He got on television. He said that. But he said he he used to represent where Councilwoman Pec does on 23rd. He goes, "But I'm not going down without a fight. We're going to try and I'm trying and I will continue to try and I will not promise you that even if we approve this today that it's going to lead to perfection. Same to you Jennifer Michael. I I I I would never promise you that. But just as I went to that park that day, I will keep showing up and we will keep finding out what works and what doesn't work. We will keep working on this. I I you have my honor. you you I stepped away for a brief moment because in my final note here I had asked the police chief to speak about the statistics. I'm not going to do that. He already said to us that the reason why people are making those calls at that location is because crimes are happening to them elsewhere and they're reporting them from CESU. And I don't know why some of the neighbors don't hear that. I'll never know why. I'm not going to call this man a liar. Um I will keep showing up. I will be at your quarterly meetings. You have my words. I will keep showing up. Um I know this can work and I am grateful to the council members who understand what that work in front of us is. Um and I just have faith we're going to we're going to get more Daryls out of this. So with that being done, I'd like to take a little bit of personal privilege here to speak on the matter. Um most of my colleagues know my background uh with regardless to the uh with regards to the homeless population in Oklahoma City. It started with pivot a turning point for youth because I think that when we start with our young people who are struggling through situations that oftent times they did not create themselves. Sometimes they did but oftentimes they start from a place that they had no control over. that having access to services is something that is pivotal and um life-changing for all of them because the item before us isn't deciding that CESU is staying or leaving. I think that is very important for us as as a body to consider the changes that have been made through the process of all of the community meetings that have evolved this application not only from its original application but also from the original form of this application in trying to answer as many of the concerns of the residents as could possibly be done in one application. We have they have changed so many different things with the layout and the amenities and the different aspects of the situation. And because of that and because of how I know the benefits of a program like this can affect our community, not just today, not just tomorrow, but when you're dealing with youth, you're changing generations ahead of us outcomes. So I would encourage my colleagues to vote for this proposal. Thank you. Thank you. I forgot one thing first. Again, thank you for those comments. I lost my train of thought when I when I told you I stepped out. Your slide, it's replaced right now this morning. So, the work continues. The work that Councilwoman Pek has just described. It's replaced right now. Director Melinda McMillan Miller let us know that. So, thank you for your comments. So, if you don't mind, please, Mr. Mayor. Councilwoman Peek, I take everything back that I said good about you earlier. I'm just kidding. You know that. Uh I would like to say how much I appreciate really appreciate um those against this also realizing you know what a a great thing SISU is right and and how much we do need them in our city and how much I appreciate their work and everything else. However, when I look at the the problems um potentially that it's possibly creating in the neighborhood perceptionally anyway. Um and I look at some of the things that SISU has come forward and said, "Hey, we're going to try and do this. Try and do this." I love that. Um and I look at this list that some of the neighbors came up with and said, "Hey, here's some more things we'd like to see take place." AB2. So we don't have that kind of impact even perceptively, right? Um I mean I would I would be interested in putting this thing on a pause and seeing how these steps impact it, how they impact the neighborhood. I would love to see it on a I don't know four month, six month pause, right? And then when we hear it again and we only have one person show up to yell at us, then I'm like, "Okay, it worked. It worked." And I would just I would like to be able to see I would like to see it work that way. And again, I appreciate the heck out of SSU. I I love what they do. Um, I'm sure they do a fantastic job, but at the same time, it's I'd be interested in seeing uh how we improve accountability. So, with that, I just wanted to let you know, I'm going to weigh in here, too. I made the mistake, or maybe not the mistake of speaking up last time about what's going on in South Oklahoma City with the bridges and the more public school foundation. And from that conversation, I had multiple residents from the neighborhoods reach out to me about not being heard, being talked to instead of I mean being talked at instead of having a conversation. And I gave them the opportunity to email me pictures, things, and they did in droves. And I asked Whitney to put together a brief slideshow of of what the neighbors have to deal with. And this I can tell you now this is nowhere close to the number of pictures, screen captures from text messages, uh, videos I got. And funny enough, when I was sitting having lunch with one of the residents, he got a note on his phone and there was a kid getting arrested at Swatk Park the day we were having lunch with little kids all around. So, just look at your screens, look at your things, and think about how the neighbors would feel. I with the massive salary we all get as being city council people, we have the opportunity to benevolently give to some of the nonprofits and I can tell you 33% of what I give goes to CESU. So I'm a fan of CESU but protecting 0.001% 01% to the detriment of everybody else in the neighborhood with fires and people living on front porches and people breaking into cars and backyards and and I'm I've heard well it's not the CESU kids, it's the people in the park. But if you're turning the SEU kids loose every day to go out and hang out with those people in the park and they don't have any structure and they don't have any thing to go to on a daily basis, when I was 17, if I got in a fight with my dad and somebody was willing to feed me pizza every night and I could go smoke dope and drink beer in a park all day long with no repercussions, I probably would have done that at 17. Once again, I'm not against CESU, but you can look at these pictures and we have continuous turmoil going on because of what's going on there. And it can't all be CESU's fault. Look at this picture right here. We got kids on the playground in the park watching somebody from a fentanyl overdose. Would you want to live with that? I wouldn't. So once again, just I mean, look at this. Whoever owns this poor fence didn't put it up for that purpose. And once again, the pictures go on and on and on and on and on. Um I I support CESU. I just can't support this. So, as we've gone through this, we've listened to every side. Uh, I work with the homeless personally in my day job. Um, even even through this seat, I'm a father of five. I've worked through a number of different things when it comes to youth, when it comes to drug and alcohol recovery, different situations, life experiences. When there's no accountability, no one holding these kids accountable, things like this will continue to happen. No one here today has disagreed with the foundational aspects of what CESU is here for. We we disagree with how it's going and what's going on. and they've had four plus years going through this and we've got numerous reports, numerous things that are going on. Um, in fact, I was going to say this before Councilman Stone did and I have to agree with the words. Anyone can make the conjecture and agreements to do everything that they want to do whenever you're in the middle of this. I want to see it take place before we approve this. I want to see the evidence that they're listening to the neighbors. The neighbors are also working with CESU. I want these kids to feel that their neighborhood is behind them and working together. But before I can ever even sign off on this and approve or give my approval for it, I want to see the evidence. I want to see it work together. And if it's 6 months, if it's 12 months, whatever it is, I want I want to see that. I want to know that we're not just doing this in vain. I think um everybody agrees we really want to help these kids uh and we want to do everything possible and and and we need to do more and uh we need to grow the program. But there are two things that weigh really heavily heavily on my mind and why I'm going to be against this ordinance. The the first was um it was about 2015 2016. We're in the middle of a bunch of maps projects. It was either Steve Blackmire or Bill Crumb was interviewing this lady that was having a problem in her neighborhood. And she said, I never will forget as long as I live. If your neighborhoods aren't thriving, what you're doing downtown is nothing. What you're doing downtown is nothing. And so I've always been a neighborhood guy. And that comes to my second point. And some of you have heard this story before, but I was the president of the homeowners association. And we had about 32 points of ingress and egress out of the neighborhood, this large neighborhood. And we started having these breakins and they were occurring daily. And they had one day they'd come in over here and the next day they'd come over here and then they'd come in from up here. And we just couldn't stop it. We I went to the major. I went to the police department and we could not come up with a solution. And so I finally I picked up the phone and called my city council person and I said, "Pat, I need your help." I'm not going to go into the detail on how we solved this problem, but when we caught the people that were breaking into these houses, two were 17, one was 18, one was 19, and the problem was solved. But the repercussions, um, people afraid to go out and walk the streets, pre people afraid to go to a park, uh, because of all these breakins, it it traumatized the neighborhood. And so, um, the reason I'm here today is I I believe that that if your neighborhoods aren't thriving, uh, then then it's nothing. Uh, it's it's not what we should. We must be about our neighborhoods. We must protect our neighborhoods. these neighborhoods need some protection. So, I'm going to vote against this ordinance. Thank you. I think I'd just like to say um that again, like I said during the last meeting on this item, I live in a neighborhood where these sorts of issues are at my doorstep literally every day. I have to I have to make sure that my dog does not eat human feces whenever I take him for a walk. like I experience these things as well and it's frustrating. I I feel frustrated with our systems and with the uh the lack of accountability for our systems to actually provide the things that our neighborhoods and our people need like public restrooms, like litter cleanup in our parks. every two weeks. Every two weeks, that is what this council has funded to serve our neighborhoods to do litter pickup in our parks. You know what happens when there's litter? People throw more litter on the ground. People think that a place is abandoned because there's litter. That is on us. That is on us not funding our parks department well and it's not serving our neighborhoods. We put it I just I participated at a litter pickup this weekend that had hundreds of volunteers from Norman all the way up to Edmond coming into Oklahoma City to do the work that we should be paying people to do in our public spaces. It is our dereliction of a duty and our lack of accountability on us to actually provide that crime prevention through environmental design. That is things like picking up litter in our parks, providing public restrooms so people aren't using restrooms use going to the bathroom in public. I find it very hypocritical to say that we need to hold CESU or some private entity and people accountable when the thing that they are literally asking for is a permit to expand their services so that more youth can stay on site throughout the day. I don't understand this. We're not going to approve this. Maybe we need to defer it. When the thing that they are asking for is more space, permission to have more space built out to provide those daily day services so that they aren't turning youth away that don't necess maybe aren't enrolled in full-time school or don't have a full-time job, whatever it is. So I again I understand the frustrations of living in a neighborhood where you see people passed out across the street because maybe they are uh under the influence of some substance. Maybe they're just really tired and need a place to find some respit in the shade because it's hot out there, it's hard out there and they don't have a place to do that because we haven't built those places for them. But I don't I don't want to turn that frustration on that individual. I want to turn it towards our systems that are failing people. And one of those is the city council. Is this city that is about to go through major budget cuts and we're likely going to be cutting parks pretty heavily and that affects our neighborhoods. It is it's just very frustrating to sit here and listen to people say we need to maybe put this on pause or deny this when the thing that CESU is asking for is the opportunity one they have made efforts to engage neighborhood neighbors be that you know be that regular presence. aren't sherking that accountability and that neighborliness, but they are literally just asking for approval so they can build this space that is going to be one. It is not a solve all, but is one of the pieces to address some of these problems. So, I support approving this and I again would ask the public to put that pressure again back and that accountability back on council to not cut our parks department so that probably even less mowing and litter pickup happens in your parks because that is only going to attract more litter defecate whatever. That that's all I have. Um I I uh have have heard the residents and I know that what they're dealing with is certainly real. I um have taken it upon myself to drive through the neighborhood and through CISU uh and uh their property. Um was invited uh to come and share a meal. Uh I wasn't able because of my schedule to get there. I hate that I wasn't able to to get there to to share u in the meal. um the residents um have these concerns and I realize that driving through the neighborhood is quite different than living in the neighborhood. I I get that and so I want you to know that I've heard all of what the residents have said. I also uh am also glad to hear uh some explanation from the the police department about how calls are are answered and and what those calls uh mean. Uh and so I'm I am uh happy about that. I I know that CESU does uh tremendous work. Um I hear uh from those that I know uh who would know about their work and that that work is um um is ongoing and will continue uh whether or not this is approved today or or not. Uh that that work continues to to move forward. The question is then how denying or approving this affects that work. I hear the the residents and and what they're saying, but it seems to me that some of the solution is being able to increase the services in the facility and to get the success stories that we're hearing from Daryl and and others. I I really appreciate him coming to share. Um, also the story of a young lady who uh was put out of her home and became homeless because she was pregnant. And the question then is where does that young lady go and where will she be able to turn for shelter for not only her but also her child. I struggle with those stories just like I struggle with the stories of the residents. I I hear them. I'm not turning a deaf ear to hear uh the the residents, but when it's all said and done in this city, there are no perfect places, but there are opportunities to build community together. We have uh a report that has outlined uh I think it was eight steps I believe uh or 10 steps uh to be able to move forward. I think all of those should be taken and implemented. The only way forward when it's all said and done is to do this together and is is no perfect place, but then not providing the resources to say, well, we want to see evidence, but then we don't provide the the resources for them to provide the evidence going forward. When you think about just this what what we're talking about today is just this facility to be able to help them provide that. I I think it's incumbent upon us as a council to take all of that into consideration and then a part of that good neighbor agreement needs to be implementation of things that this community knows that they need. and then being able to help us uh to to finance that. And so, uh, all of that considered, I am in support of CESU. And so, I think that we as a council need to take all of that under consideration. Thank you. Thank you. And thank you for your words. Uh, Caitlyn, do you have anything else as the applicants wrap us up? I see Rachel does not um just I believe everyone has spoken and said what they needed to say. I'm here for any last minute questions or comments, but again uh Councelor Cooper said it perfectly. This resoning application will allow us the tools to start implementing change and facilitate improvement. So we would request that you approve this application today. Thank you. And regardless of what happens next, I will be at your quarterly meetings if you need me in the meantime. In fact, I ran into Jennifer at Antigua on Sunday with her family. So, I'm not going anywhere. Um, I do want to make a comment about the neighborhood. I do uh neighborhoods. I began my remarks by talking about the improvements that are coming to 44 and Young's 44 and Penn OCU corridor the sidewalks. That is that is me investing in your neighborhood. That's how much I care about your neighborhood. I love your neighborhood. I see homelessness in my neighborhood too in PO and uptown. We have a lot of work to do because there's as councilwoman Hammond said decades of disinvestment in the urban core. Decades and that's why you should also be frustrated because we're only now starting those improvements. So um you went last uh councilman uh and I just wanted to you had me thinking about and you'll know it from the good book. What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but not works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to him, "Go in peace and be warmed and filled without giving him the things needed for the body, what good is that?" So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. Our good friend Daryl is not because of our works and the work continues. I would move for approval. Praise the Lord. I knew there was a reason I was here. I could once you started saying it, I was like, man, it just start it reminded me of something. I did read the Bible for dummies two years ago. So front to back, Genesis to Revelation. So I'd move for approval. All right. So I take your motion actually be a motion to adopt the amendment to the master design statement item E1 that has the actual we're going to have these quarterly meetings that's in there. And so yes, I would walk me through that again and he's make the motion with the amendment. We have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes 5 to four. And then we're on item E2. This is the ordinance on final hearing. Uh move for approval with the modifications. A motion and a second. Cast your votes. passes 5 to [Music] four. All right. Now we're on item F. This is an ordinance on final hearing. It was recommended for approval reszoning 11700 ER drive to SPD 1706. Uh Councilman Lee Cooper, no one has signed up to speak. uh if uh there's no protest on this uh and uh the split uh of that particular property on five acres. So I move for adoption. Got a motion in a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. Item G is an ordinance on final hearing. It was recommended for approval. Reszoning 504 South Meridian from C4 and I2 to SPD707. Councilwoman Peek, no one assigned to speak. Thank you. This item is to convert an old hotel operation into some affordable housing. It is one of the first steps in the revitalization of the Meridian corridor and it is being uh put forward by one of the um key stakeholders in that corridor. So I am grateful and move for its approval. Got a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. Item H is an ordinance on final hearing. It was recommended for approval reszoning 2701 Northwest 12th from R2 to SPD17. Councilwoman Hammond. No one assigned to speak. I'll move for approval. We have a motion, a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. Item I is an ordinance on final hearing recommended for approval. Reszoning 1134 Northwest 40th from R1 to SPD 1710. Um, Coun Councilman Cooper asked me if I could carry this. I will move for approval as well. Great. Have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. Item J is an ordinance on final hearing. It was recommended for approval residing 1465 Northeast 16th Terrace from R1 to SPD 1711. Uh, Councilman Lee Cooper, no one signed up. Uh, this is a a recommendation coming from the Urban Renewal Authority. Uh, passed by the property almost daily. Um, and so I'll move for adoption. We have a motion to second. Cast your votes. passes unanimously. Item K is an ordinance on final hearing that was recommended for approval establishing a special permit to operate use unit 8250.2 uh in the R1 single family residential district found at 3500 North Lindsay. Councilman Lee Cooper known as signed up to speak. Okay. This is a property that uh formerly was the Dwey School and uh those who are familiar uh 34th and uh Lindsay uh uh they are doing re redoing the whole property and I've seen uh some sketches of what that property is going to look like and I'm just uh pleased and excited uh to see this happening uh for the neighborhood. Uh my only uh thing I would just caution uh uh as as we develop the property to to consider the flooding that happens in the neighborhood and make sure that there's proper uh drainage and mitigation as it relates to to that in that particular neighborhood and and that site. So uh but I'll move for adoption. We have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. Okay. Item 11L is an ordinance to be introduced and set for final hearing on April 22nd. This relates to food sales from vehicles in the public ride ofway. uh specifically in Bricktown and I think we have a presentation. Yes, Clea Fischer and Chief Basy are here to present this item. Good afternoon, mayor and councel. This in this this ordinance is being introduced on behalf of the police department to amend section 21-395 which relates to food sales from vehicles and creates section 32-104.2 which relates to empoundment of food sales vehicles. Um the sale of food sale the sale of food from vehicles is regulated by chapter 21 of city ordinances and establishes certain permissions and restrictions on food sales vehicles. Generally the ordinance allows food sales vehicles to stop temporarily to sell food or beverages in the public right of way subject to a few restricted areas. The proposed amendment to section 21-395 adds an additional defined restricted area and also adds that food sales vehicles cannot temporarily stop to sell or distribute food on or beverages in the public right of way in that defined restricted area between the hours hours of 11:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m. Um, the ordinance also creates a class A offense and authorizes the police department to site uh the food sales vehicle. Um, basically a a class A offense is an offense that carries a fine of up to $500 with no possibility of jail time. Um, finally, the proposed ordinance also creates section 32-104.2, which pro provides that any food sales vehicle may be impounded for violating for violating section 21-395 or for any other reason other vehicles may be impounded. Does anybody have any questions? I did. I are we going to be giving warnings and letting them know of the updated codes and ordinances before we just start slapping fines and impoundments on them? I think the chief or his design would be able to speak to that, but I suppose that the police department would um give food truck owners uh time to adapt to the ordinance. And what does that look like? Sorry chief. Um, first and foremost, thank you Khalia for all the hard work on this. Um, and I want to acknowledge that I have Major Dan Stewart and Captain Tommy Arian from uniform support here who are greatly responsible for the area that you see here. Um, public safety is of our utmost concern in that area. Um, I think specifically to answer the question you had, if I'm not mistaken, is are they going to be giving a warning that this is coming? And the answer is yes. Uh, we're going to let them know in plenty of time before um, we get to this point. um just there has to be a little bit of a grace period to allow them to know that this is coming and be able to act accordingly. And so um we'll notify them immediately. Thank you. I haven't got a chance to look at the language yet on the empoundment issue, but um I I would like to let us all consider that language. I'm glad we we're going to be given a warning for a period of time, but before somebody's impounded, is that I'm hoping it's a may, not a shall um on a first offense get impounded. Absolutely. Um let me deviate uh a little bit away from your your question and just give you a why. First and foremost, um doesn't seem like that long ago, we enacted a curfew in um a similar area. um just to keep people safe. And we noticed that when we saw large crowds of juveniles congregating, uh there was a possibility or a an increased possibility of violent acts occurring. Well, we're also seeing those with um with food trucks after a certain period of time. Um there are several issues. Um number one, ingress and egress. um when the establishments let out at night, when you have those areas that are blocked off, it definitely impacts traffic, but it also obscures visibility. Um you have to picture what certain areas inside of this perimeter that you see uh look like at 1:00, 2:00 in the morning with the pedestrian traffic um and taking into all the factors that go into um the motor motor vehicle traffic in conjunction with that and the obscured visibility. So, I mean, this is addressing several issues. Um, whenever we have areas like this, especially at event closing time or establishment closing time, it creates an additional place for people to congregate. Um, and so the the whole purpose behind it is safety and it's not meant to be punitive by any means. Um and um for the to I think to answer your question, you're concerned that we're going to show up tomorrow and and tow someone's um business and we're going to give them um adequate warning up front that it's coming. I support and agree with everything you're doing. Uh it's just my one concern is the first time offender loses business to empoundment and it may be hard to get it back out to where he can have his employees back out on the street. But I I 100% support what you're trying to do here. I I just don't want it to affect somebody's business for a first time offense. Well, if I'm going to be completely honest with you, um, Councilman, uh, we are, uh, as flexible as we can be in any situation. But when it comes to a public safety issue, I'm not going to tell you there's never an opportunity or a situation where someone is refusing and it's creating a public safety incident, at that point, we would have to do exactly what we need to do. But I do understand your concerns up front. Um, and so I think there's language we can craft that works for both ways. So I I am I'm 100% behind you on this. Okay. Uh, Chief, I have uh first of all, thank you uh for seeing being proactive about addressing issues before we have something serious all some serious altercations. So I'm I I am excited about that. But I have the concerns as well about how notification happens with uh those who are are you know providing the food service uh you know and whether or not they get you know a a warning you know as we distribute inform them distribute that whether or not impounding somebody you know uh all of that. So I think some care needs to be given, some consideration needs to be given about a time frame for making that ordinance change and allowing that to circulate uh to the businesses and then uh being able to to to work with them uh so that we're just not, you know, so heavy-handed u uh because we're we're we're addressing the issues before they're happening uh before something serious happened. but you see it already building towards that and we know that we're getting ready to go into the summer and so we've got to be proactive. I understand. So, thank you for doing that. uh and uh but I think some consideration for how notifications happen and then some warning system about how to go about you know if if you if you got a a a person that's violating it you know one or two times then you know and you've you've told them then that has to be addressed so thank you but some consideration that's all we ask I think you already said that absolutely it's no different than when we uh enacted the curfew violation um or the curfew ordinance. We gave plenty of warning to the public that that was coming um so that they would be able to um be in compliance by the time the effective date went into effect. And so we are um planning on doing the same thing and making sure that all the food truck vendors are well aware um well in advance before we take any um any action in regards to that any violations. Good. Now, back in the day, I needed the food truck after 2:00. Okay. Well, there are other places that are open that time of night. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Chief. All right. If there's no uh further questions or comments, we can introduce the ordinance for consideration. As stated, final hearing will be in two weeks. Have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes 5 to one. Uh and uh as stated, final hearing in two weeks. All right. Uh 11M is an ordinance to be introduced and set for final hearing on May 6th. Um this relates to accessory dwellings and we have a presentation. Yes. Jeff Butler, our planning director, will give us an a reintroduction of this item that we've seen before. There's a few adjustments and he can explain that. Yes. Thank you. Uh again, Jeff Butler, planning director. I'm very happy to be standing up and presenting to you all. Um so again uh this is reintroduced because um well it's it's been a minute since we uh discussed this. So I'll I'll go through this presentation. Uh I'll try and do it expeditiously. Um but want to cover all the bases uh since it's been a while. So first of all just want to um uh introduce the need for housing uh in Oklahoma City. Um, we've developed this ordinance to allow accessory dwellings in the urban core to help implement the housing needs of the city. According to the housing affordability implementation plan that you've recently uh seen adopted, home sale prices and rental prices have increased dramatically in the last 5 years. There are 77,000 cost burdened households in OKC, 48,000 of which are renters. Cost burden means that a household is spending more than 30% of their income on a housing and both owners and renters uh can be cost burdened and are cost burdened. Um and our data shows that the lower your income the greater your chance of being costburdened and that increases significantly as you get uh uh down into the 30 or 80% or 60% AMI groups. Um so we've been working uh for a while on our zoning code and um what we want to do is allow uh on this slide here it talks about the different things we want to do um in that code. Accessory dwellings is just one of those tools. Uh we want to allow more flexible zoning regulations that can help the private market to work more quickly to respond to affordable housing demand. We want to move remove regulatory barriers to do that. Multiple local and national studies in our own research indicate or include recommendations for zoning reform to increase h quality housing supply and reduce housing costs for both owners and renters. Uh so four zoning code related strategies were overwhelmingly consistent across the studies that we've looked at and best practices. One is to allow for more than one dwelling per lot, allow for smaller homes, allow greater density, especially near jobs, schools, and transit. and to reduce and streamline permitting costs and time frames. These strategies are the basis for the entire code of date project and all are addressed by the proposed accessory dwelling ordinance. Increasing the supply of housing uh will help with affordability. Allowing accessory dwellings in the core by right is just one way to increase housing supply by increasing property rights for single family homeowners. An accessory dwelling unit you see defined here is a small secondary living unit that is located on the same property as the principal dwelling. This ordinance would allow accessory dwellings like other types of accessory structures such as workshops, garages, pools, and cabanas to be allowed by right in core residential areas including R1 zone properties. Um talk a little bit about who needs accessory dwellings. Um you see a few uh images on here that uh I'll go through. So for example, Howard who's retired and single, his adult daughter and her family now live in a larger home on the same lot. And this happens quite a bit with accessory dwellings. So he may have raised his family there. He can now live in the accessory dwelling and and um enjoy that uh family time. Uh Dominique we have is a case manager. She needs housing that she can afford with her modest income. Uh, living in a smaller accessory dwelling unit in a core neighborhood is more affordable and allows her to live close to her office. Gloria is a single mom who works at a local sandwich shop. Living in an accessory dwelling allows her to live within walking distance of work and her daughter's school. And then, uh, Martin is a college student. He wants a quiet space to concentrate on homework and it's close to campus. And finally, Emily, a first year teacher, likes that her accessory dwelling is close to the elementary school where she works. and close to a lo local shopping district where she can socialize with her friends. Um, we'll talk about the benefits of accessory dwellings. Um, so here's a summary. We we want to expand the housing supply. This is just one tool to make that make that happen. Uh, especially in walkable areas, as I mentioned on the last slide, that are near schools, parks, shopping opportunities, and transportation. We want to support home ownership by providing homeowners with supplemental income from accessory dwelling units. We want to allow multi-generational living and the ability to age in place. And finally, adoption of the ordinance would accommodate the continued use and rehabilitation of existing non-conforming accessory dwellings of which we have many in the core. Uh so why again? Um there's a few reasons why I'll march through on the next few slides. Plan OKC policies recommend allowing diverse housing types. Uh, as we know, plan OKC is is our policy document regarding land use. Uh, it mentions accessory dwellings and the need to have those uh by right in the in the in the city. Um, in addition, as I alluded to a second ago, historic uh these are historic building forms. They exist quite a in a quite a few neighborhoods in the city. They've been around a long time and we would like to make those legal again. Um this is a list of the the studies and the the sources that we've that we've looked at. Um allowing accessory dwellings by right in the core in single family districts is one small step in the effort to increase availability of affordable housing. And these studies, including the 2025 housing affordability plan, uh the 21 2021 housing affordability study, our market studies, um and also the Association of Retired Persons, the National Association of Homebuilders, the National and Local Realtors Associations, and the US Conference of Mayors are unanimous in recommending that zoning codes be modified to allow accessory dwellings. um peer city approaches. Uh we've looked at those of course uh many many peer cities um allow accessory dwellings whether it be citywide or in certain areas as we're proposing. Um we also have Norman and Edmund who allow accessory dwellings these days in certain areas of the city again as we're proposing. [Music] Um just wanted to also mention uh we've done surveys uh here's a couple surveys that we've done mentioned on the slide here covering the brown area that you see which is the urban medium the area that this would apply to and also the red area which is the kind of the northwest part of that was a specific area that was identified in the in a market study that we did a couple years ago. So we felt moving forward that we had strong support from those surveys in addition to u the uh the previous studies and and best practices I mentioned. Uh in addition we have we've had many recent resoning applications um to do right now the only way you can do this is via a spud. Um so we've we've seen numerous spuds and and um because the accessory drawings of course are not allowed in the code right now that remains the only option to do that. I mentioned a couple times that the code would allow this by right. Um, and why is that important? Um, reszoning is is timeconuming, can be expensive, and it is by nature unpredictable. And that's a hurdle to the construction of accessory dwellings. So, this ordinance would allow accessory dwellings by right only if they comply with carefully crafted regulations that preserve privacy and protect neighborhood character. The proposed regulations have been developed based on resident input, best practices, previously approved spuds, and regulations from peer cities. In other words, residents can be confident any new accessory dwelling will fit well and be consistent with the character of their neighborhoods without having to take their valuable time to review materials, attend hearings, etc. And residents who want to build an accessory dwelling will know exactly what they need to do. So because accessory dwellings are recommended and supported by plan OKC and the best practices practices we've discussed um we considered allowing them early on in our in our work with the urban medium code. So um as you all are aware we started so the the kind of the inset here on the top right the urban medium again that's where we started with the code update what we've been working on. We spent a significant amount of effort and outreach in this area. Um, not just with accessory dwellings, but with the code update in general. Um, so there's there's demand for infill. Uh, we we have strong demand for different types of infill, including accessory dwellings. So, this is really uh why we're starting here. Um, in the new zoning code, all new zones will have context specific regulations for all development, including accessory dwellings if they are appropriate to the Luda context. Planning staff hasn't yet developed regulations for or done much outreach to residents in suburban or rural areas. And that is one reason we are not proposing accessory dwellings or other Ludas at this time. Also, a foundational premise of the new code is that site development standards and metrics that work well in one area may not necessarily work in another area. Um, sorry, make sure I get the right page here. So, uh, moving on to the ordinance itself here. I'll talk briefly about the outreach, um, and what's been happening. So the biggest change in the situation between when the ordinance was first introduced and now is uh that several neighborhoods on the north of the urban medium area which you can see in this in this map uh this is up to date were changed to urban low by the planning commission. This means among other things that those neighborhoods will not be subject to the current ordinance. So on the outreach, um over the last several years, we've had many outreach activities for the new code. Accessory dwellings were discussed from the beginning and we've had many many outreach uh meetings regarding accessory dwellings over the past several months. That's included outreach that was done by the planning commission committee specifically uh who put a lot of work into this effort in addition with staff to help refine the ordinance. So uh last part of the presentation we'll talk about the ordinance itself and the conditions that uh would be put upon accessory dwellings. Um accessory dwellings may not be divided from property ownership of the principal dwelling. Uh it would apply to areas where the site is zoned R1 or one of the other zones you see on the screen NCR2 R3 or R4 where there's a single family structure. Uh at this time it does not include historic preservation or landmark uh historic landmark properties. Half the neighborhood is um the I mentioned 1 AD accessory dwelling allowed per lot and there's a maximum area as you see there. Uh we also have building um height and massing criteria. The height limit would be 25 ft. Um there are setbacks as per the zoning regulations. That's just uh per usual. Um we also have um paving requirements, uh light lot coverage requirements. So there are actually not every lot. In fact, there I think a minority where you'd actually be able to put an accessory dwelling because of the various requirements regarding setbacks. If somebody already has, for example, uh a pool or something to that of that nature, they may not be able to do it because there isn't enough room. So, there are several design considerations um in consultation with other ordinances and with what the neighborhood uh requested. Uh we've prohibited rooftop decks. We've prohibited we've allowed second floor decks with privacy considerations. Um manufactured homes are not allowed. Um we also have privacy considerations related to the windows uh that would or would not be allowed. uh additional conditions uh regarding notice. Uh that was something that um uh some folks would like to see in there and so this requires that a property owner post notice uh that an accessory dwelling is contemplated. Um, parking was also something that uh was a was a a concern. And so there's a requirement in the code that if the if the accessory dwelling exceeds a certain size, parking would be required. Um, and there are design considerations for that too, so that it doesn't impact the neighborhood character. We want wouldn't want somebody paving their front yard to allow that sort of thing. for example, um home sharing was a concern and and that's I think one of the reasons why the the planning commission took their time a little bit on the accessory dwelling ordinance because uh home sharing as you know uh was kind of moving forward in a parallel pace. So there are uh conditions that relate to home sharing. You would only be able to use your AD, your accessory dwelling for home sharing if it's located on the same parcel as the host primary residence. and if the host's primary residence is occupied by the host at the time of the rental and a special exception uh would still need to be uh obtained. So, uh to wrap up um kind of where this all fits in the code update timeline, the code update project is a complex multi-year process. Over the past few years, as we have continued to develop potential changes to the overall zoning code, we have completed some early action items, resulting in the adoption of the new sign code, consolidation of our design review committees and commissions into fewer bodies, a recent update to the home sharing ordinance, and now, of course, a proposed accessory dwelling ordinance. Currently, we're working on completing the zoning code for the urban medium Luda, as we've discussed. We first intend to hold meetings uh coming up soon and to do additional outreach with urban mediums. So, this would be related to the bulk of the code, not necessarily the accessory dwellings. There's a lot of work we still need to do with these neighborhoods to make sure we're uh getting it right for them, preserving their neighborhoods, allowing infill as appropriate. Um we will also address uh other development types, design review, historic preservation, historic landmark, other topics. Um and after the new and that includes accessory dwellings for uh the suburban areas potentially uh after the new urban medium zones are adopted will complete the new zoning code including potentially accessory dwellings as appropriate for suburban areas for rural areas. But the way the code is designed the code update is to start with the core and move out uh from there. So it's a phased approach just because it's such a big job. Um we can only do uh that kind of phased approach. Um so that that concludes the presentation. Uh we uh the the next step would be public hearing adoption potentially on May 6th if that's the council's uh will. Um but I'm happy to take any questions. Seven or eight slides ago said something about 50% lock coverage. Is that if the dwelling already takes up more than 50% then they don't qualify for if the ADU causes it to take up more than 50% then it doesn't qualify. Am I reading that right? So yeah, um and that would be there are some large houses that would be pushing 50% but yeah, if they already have a house and you know a large shed in the back or a pool or something like that, then yeah, they would not be able to do an accessory dwelling or they may have to make it smaller than they would otherwise like to. I know lots of times in the past on planning commission, they were asking for 65% lot coverage on smaller lots as it already was. though if they have already have 65% then they don't get an ADU. Yeah. So that's that's and I I wasn't I wasn't against this. I appreciate you guys listening and the time you spent visiting with me about this. I'm still not crazy about that by right. I think that's a slippery slope that we're going to end up. But I'm I'm Thank you for listening and I'm going to support this. I appreciate that. And of course, you know, we're available to discuss and as we discuss the next phases um there's there's a lot um a lot we can talk about and that we have talked about for the future phase of the code update. I had a quick question on the historic land the historic areas that are excluded when they have an existing because that's where most of the existing stuff is, right? The apartment over the garage thing. Uh, if it already exists, is it still not included? Just curious. Um, so well, maybe Lisa can help me out here because um, sure, throw Lisa before I get into trouble because I mean, because you could already have someone living in it, right? U, sure. So, Lisa Kronistra, assistant planning director, an uh existing accessory dwelling that was uh originally legally permitted that can that the property owner can prove has been in continuous leasing since before they weren't allowed, then yes, it can continue in operation. But if they if there's a lapse in the leasing or uh the property owner wants to retrofit it in some way, uh they might not be able to do that. Okay. I was just curious. Thank you. Follow question. Does that also mean that um despite all of this they can still go for a spud or a pud to ask the planning commission to approve 65% lot coverage or Yeah. Okay. Yes. Yeah, that's always a possibility. Thank you. I just want to say thank you. you guys have put a lot of work into this and there's been a lot of back and forth and headaches and grimaces and whatnot, but you guys have really kind of buckled down and thank you for listening to us and and the residents that had their their concerns and their complaints and and putting everything in this. So, appreciate your hard work. Thank you. Thank you, Jeff. Thank you. We have one resident who signed up to speak, uh, Senator K. Floyd. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, members of the council. My name is Kay Floyd, 528 Northwest 12th Street. As some of you know, I was uh fortunate enough to serve in the state legislature for 12 years, two years in the House and 10 years in the Senate. And it was an honor to serve, pardon me, I have allergies today. It was an honor to serve as a state legislator. Um, my district was 46, Senate District 46. My House district was 88. Uh, both of them are in the uh, urban core of Oklahoma City. My Senate district had 82,000 people. So, um, I'm sure some of them are realators, but I haven't heard from any of them recently. Um, my last session, it was brought to my attention by numerous constituents that they had serious concerns about proposed amendments to chapter 59, article 2 of the um, city code, which is the ADU section. I reviewed the history of the proposed amendments and the issues regarding the um, ADUs and had lengthy conversations with some of the associations, including the realators association. Um I had worked with the real litterers extensively over the 12 years I was in in the legislature and had a good working relationship with them still do I hope. Um so you can understand why I was a little dis disappointed when I found out that that was one of the associations that had been loving the planning division planning department for the amendments while simultaneously failing to include district residents in those conversations. So, I think a minute ago we saw a slide with various groups associations AARP, realtors, associations. The people I've heard from on this the last two years are people. They're not associations. They're residents in these areas that are concerned with the way this is moving forward and that what it's going to do to their property values. I came from um away from the conversations that I've had with some of these associations realizing that further discussion is needed. For example, there's not been enough discussion about the absence of language addressing Airbnbs. There hasn't been discussion regarding the need for more transit transportation in order to accommodate those who would be residing in ADUs and that needs to be addressed. 30 seconds remaining. Also, the neighborhoods are um concerned that ADUs will be used for short-term rentals and not the mother-in-law plan which has been represented by some groups here today. These issues are currently unresolved and I would respectfully request that the agenda uh this agenda item be tabled to a date in the future after discussion and resolution of these issues to go forward with language for ADUs without first addressing all the issues as well as other issues brought to my attention would be premature. I would respectfully request therefore that the ordinance not be set for final hearing at this time. Thank you. Thank you. I'll yield for questions. Mr. Mayor, I guess I'll say normally I um because I heard your very specific request there at the end. I would just say for myself, I'm generally going to introduce things. Um we have the final consideration in two weeks open to if that's the a strong uh interest of the council and residents to uh deferring it at that time. I generally think that we should introduce things and then get into the business of deferrals later. So that's just so you know, I'm about to vote yes for introducing this. Any other comments for the senator? Yeah, I think u K what I'd like to do is get Jeff Butler who's sitting your left behind you uh and set up a meeting and several of us can sit down with him and and you can voice your concerns and we can have discussions about it. what that May 6th hearing is not locked in stone. It it can be moved, but I think we ought to first talk to Jeff, make sure uh what the issues are and then we can deal with those. I'm absolutely open to discussion. I think this is a discussion we need to have continuing dialogue. I've had a lot of constituents, former constituents who are very concerned about this, but I think with more discussion, we can get there. So, I'm not saying not ever. I'm just asking not yet. Jeff, can you after this meeting sit down with her, set up a time, and I'd like to attend that meeting if I could, please. Thank you, sir. I was going to say introduction uh to me is like uh approving with the title off. Does that speak your language? Thank you. I I knew this was about to be a senatorial reunion. Any other questions, Mr. Mayor? Council members, thank you for your time. Thank you. All right. So, if there's any no other comments or questions from the council, we do have introduction in front of us for potential adoption. I do want to just briefly say as we move forward in this process, um, and I was having another meeting back there. Forgive me. Um, I just want to say for me, I would love word to to understand a very important thing that the the three things for me. When we've already started to address Airbnbs where we are limiting by block, there will no longer be where someone can do an Airbnb. Correct me if I'm wrong. An Airbnb wants 10% of the block has an Airbnb. Correct. So that please Lisa, I'm so sorry. Uh yes, the 10% only applies to nonhost occupied properties. So if it's if the owner is living on site, it can be more than 10%. This can help take care of this whole and this is the next two things. This is what I live in existential dread for word two. Um the next thing is what is it 29% and this needs to be out in the ethermore. There was a read frontier article about this. 29% and I actually think Councilman Hinkle and I talked about this. My memor is coming back. 29% of single family home purchases are not mom and dad. the couple who's wanting a starter home, the single teacher, the barista. It is big businesses. They make up 29% of single family home purchases in Oklahoma County right now. I think that's wrong. I think that's wrong. They are depleting our precious depleting uh housing inventory. These big businesses are gobbling up our homes in Shepard in Sequoia, turning them into Airbnbs, tearing them down, and building suburban homes that are out of character with the great history of this urban cors neighborhoods. I'm not lying. Some of you are looking at me like I'm making this up. This is not lie. This is true. Go look up the Reed frontier. uh Richard Macauen came up to this podium and said it. So, all that to say, we've worked on the Airbnbs to reduce big businesses from being able to come in and gobble up a bunch of our homes to turn into Airbnbs that they don't live at because they live in Texas and California or in Tulsa, right? So, we started that. The next two things over the summer, as you heard, I think during the presentation, I would love any neighborhood in W two who wants demolition review protections to prevent these big businesses from coming in and tearing down their homes, right? To build something out of character and unaffordable. demolition review and design protections that honor the design inventory, the architectural inventory in that neighborhood to say if you're going to tear down a property here, you need to build something not replicating but complimentary to the homes in that that neighborhood that honor the history, honor the people who built those homes, right? Uh in some cases honor the Sears catalog from back in the day that came up with that home concept. But I think I will feel better as a council person with us moving forward on this item if there are design review and demolition review protections for the urban core because otherwise you're going to have a lot of neighbors who are going to be very afraid that people are going to come tear down homes to put an ADU there and then build something out of character. To say it is to speak the truth. So, just wanted to put that out there to let Ward 2 know and the urban core wards, the urban medium, I believe we call this part of town that there are conversations about protections underway. My fear is, and he's not here so I can pick on him, is that David Box finds a developer who buys 12 lots contiguously and puts in 24 duplexes and completely changes the character of a neighborhood because now by right you can do that. So sorry David. All right. Well, is there a motion to introduce the ordinance for consideration? We have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. It is set for final hearing on May 6th. Although that is in some sense a euphemism. As Councilman Stonesside for reference, we can always defer to continue conversations. All right. Uh from here forward, Councilman Stonecipher, Vice Mayor Stonecipher is presiding. You're in [Laughter] charge. find ourselves at 11N, correct? Which is um a public hearing regarding dilapidated structures. Is anybody signed up for Okay, hang on. Hang on. Yeah. Um hang on a second, Bill. Um do we have any hearing devices for him or hearing aids? We do. You need a hearing aid. All right. Thank you. You're welcome. I'm hearing some great debates, but I can't. Huh? If you want to voice the rest, when does this come up? Citizens, do you want us to proceed or do you want us to wait on the hearing aids? He's got it. You got it. Okay. Okay. All right. Okay. Thank you. And and so we find ourselves at item 11N. Is anybody signed up? No, they haven't. All right. Then we we'll move to 11N2, which is the resolution. I'll entertain a motion. I got to go back. We got a motion, a second. Please cast your votes. I vote I vote yes, please. It passes. Uh we now find ourselves at 110 which is a public hearing regarding unsecured structures. Has anybody signed up for that? No, they haven't. All right. Uh we'll move on to 1102, which is a resolution declaring the structures are unsecured. I'll entertain a motion on that. Please. We have a motion to second. Please cast your votes. Yes, it passes. We now find ourselves at 11 P1, which is a public hearing regarding abandoned buildings. Uh, has anybody signed up to speak on abandoned buildings? No, they haven't. We'll move on to 11P2, which is the resolution declaring the buildings are abandoned at page 16. I'll entertain a motion and a second. cast your votes. I vote yes. It passes. Uh we are now at item 11 Q at page 16, which is a request to enter into executive session to discuss the status of several collective bargaining negotiations. I'll entertain a motion for executive session. We have a motion, a second. Please vote. I vote yes. It passes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh we're now at page 17 of the agenda, item 11R, which are claims recommended for DEM denial. We have one claim recommended for denial to date. Uh I'll entertain a motion for that denial. Second. Cast your votes. Yes, it passes. We now find ourselves at item 11s, which are claims recommended for approval, where we find three items being recommended for approval. I'll entertain a motion of a second, please, to approve. Motion second, please vote. I vote yes. It passes. We're now at item 12 of the agenda, page 17, which are comments from council. And I'll start with you, uh, councelor Peek, just one more time. It's been an honor to serve with each one of you, to serve this city uh, in this capacity. I have learned so much uh, from the constituents, from my fellow council members, uh, from city staff who are the smartest people around. Um, and I'm just so grateful for the opportunity. So, thank you again. Ward four. Okay, just one more time. I would like to say again how much I appreciated working with you. You mean you don't take it back anymore? I'm not going to take it back anymore. And uh how much I really have enjoyed working with you and discussing things and letting you help me figure things out. So, thank you very much. Thank you, Todd. Ward five. W six. Yes. Thank you. Um, so in addition to I was I was planning to make this comment um during this time, but I did mention that I participated in OKC Beautiful hosted their Tackle the Trails Litter Blitz event this weekend. Um, it was very cold and very windy, so I don't think we were probably as effective as we might have otherwise been. Um but it really did highlight to me the the dereliction of duty of our public dollars. Um not uh really doing the work of of the you know sort of litter abatement and and stewardship of our public spaces. Um, you know, I I recognize that there's nuance to um us um sort of shuttering or or discontinuing the city support of the a better way program. Um but from my perspective, those sorts of initiatives could be lifelines to youth at CESU, other people who have struggle have barriers to um traditional employment or getting back into traditional employment. And when we, you know, shutter programs like that or contracts like that that um can help supplement what the parks department is able to do with the meager budget we give them. um we're we're taking away the stewardship of those spaces and the the support for the neighborhoods that are utilizing those green spaces and and really putting it back on um those residents, nonprofit entities that are already working on a shoestring budget to um to pick up the slack. And um and so I just I guess my my plea for us is to think holistically as we talk about um our city budget and where we put our dollars um and the types of contracts we have to to support um you know keeping up these public spaces. Um because it it is going to connect somewhere. That domino is going to fall and um and it is connected to increased trash and litter. um people illegally dumping because they think that this area is not an area that is being cared for. Um the other thing I wanted to highlight um The Frontier published an article on April 2nd. Um the title is S Tulsa's surveillance gamble, but Oklahoma City is highlighted in it. Um and it was a little concerning to me as I read this article to learn a few things for the first time through reading this article that um as we have deployed uh automated license plate readers and other surveillance technology um throughout the city. Um that there are there are actually some legal concerns that um in conflict with state law that were not presented to us as city counselors when this technology was presented. Um, so I wanted to rate I wanted to read a few it pieces from this. It's a very long article, very worth the read. Um, really does a deep dive into claims about the technology and then other um, sources of information sort of saying, well, maybe that's not the whole story. So, I think it does a really good job of sort of running the gamut of the conversation about um, surveillance technology and the way that we deploy it in our communities. Um, particularly uh, the This article very much focuses on Tulsa's deployment of the flock um cameras, but it is very similar, my understanding, to what we as a city have done. And one thing that this is the first time I had um heard this, but that the technology has also raised legal concerns. Tulsa installed flot cameras despite a longtime state law that explicitly prohibits the use of license plate readers for any purpose other than the enforcement of the state's mandatory insurance law. Um, so it is just concerning to me that as a city board essentially that we were not provided information about the legal risk that we were um potentially being opened up to, you know, um at least being given that information to make that um to make that consideration when we when we started deploying this. Um, I'll also uh one piece that I also did not know um about this technology is this uh the article reads, "Flock safety cameras do more than read license plates. They also use AI, artificial intelligence, to create vehicle fingerprints based on make, model, color, and unique features like dents and bumper stickers, allowing the system to identify cars even when license plates aren't visible. Officers can search for cars without a warrant using a license plate or descriptors like all vehicles with an American flag bumper sticker. The software can then combine these data points to map a vehicle's movements across the city. Again, just a concern that city uh staff and legal did not provide information about that this technology has the capability of doing this um when we when we were asked to consider implementing it. And then finally, um, another concern that I've had is again the information and data sharing with other, um, with other databases. Um, and in particular, again, was not aware of this. Um, Johnston, there c the captain in Tulsa that's sort of over this effort there, said he wasn't sure how much access federal agencies have to data to the data that they collect. um but said it was shared with the intelligence fusion center in Oklahoma City, which aggregates local intelligence for federal use. Um a 2013 media report alleged the center shared information with an oil company and law enforcement that was used to surveil and disrupt environmental pro protesters opposing a pipeline project. So again, I just wanted to raise this up since there was an article that mentioned us. Um and this is these are concerns that I brought. Um, again very frustrated that some of the information I was learning in this article was the first time that I was hearing it, particularly about potentially not being in compliance with state law. Um, and you know, if if we're going to talk about accountability, again, we as an entity, um, if nothing else, I think should be con presented the potential ramifications of our decisions. Um, and then I guess as a body, we can decide to to go forward or not. that that my concern that we weren't presented the information that we were potentially violating state law um with implementing this this technology um and this process. So, city manager, I do have a few questions and followup that I'll put in writing to you so so you can um know specifically what I'm asking, but I really would like uh a detailed list of um one maybe and I guess this is also for the municipal council's office. Um you know, what is our opinion about this conflict with state law? Um there's information in the article saying that there are people at the legislature who are working on changing that law, but it didn't go anywhere. it's it's reached its life um in this session. Um so we might still be in conflict with that. But um so I'd really love to hear from our municipal council um maybe a memo or something about um the legal risk that we're open to um if someone were to choose to to uh take us to court on that. as well as um a list of where what agencies and what other databases we're sharing information with and and what um authorizes that whether it's anou or some kind of legal requirement um because it I think again in the interest of transparency and the public understanding where their tax dollars are going um particularly when they're uh they have vulnerability to be used against the surveillance technology we use against them um and as we've experienced in error um in in pinging databases that we didn't have intention of pinging um I'd really like to better understand and have a list so like I said I will put that in writing so that you have kind of a formal request from me about what I um what I'm asking but I just did want to raise it um because I I find it concerning that again we we we tal I was at a a public forum a few weeks ago um about police accountability and talking about transparency and and saying that we want to do those things, but um really feel like we're missing the marks in a mark in a lot of ways and just hope that we can um kind of live up to to our stated ideals. Thank you. Hey Joe Beth, for viewers, what's the date of that article? April 2nd. April 2nd. Thank you very much. W seven. Vice Mayor Stone Cipher. Uh thank you. just want to acknowledge and uh say thank you to Barbara uh just for your tremendous work, insight, wisdom. Thank you. That's all I have. All right. Thank you, Word Seven. Now, we'll uh recess, go into executive session, and we will return. Oh, I'm sorry. You know what, Bill? I almost left you off. Do we We have a citizens to be heard. This is um William Kathy, but I know him by Bill. What a pleasure it was for me to be here this morning just to watch you. Barbara Peek, I don't know you at all. Never met you. I don't even know what word three where it is. But you're a great person. Todd Stone, I don't know you, but someone I know real well knows you and thinks you're great. And I don't you have a son that was a politician. Great guy. I don't know, Miss Mc is it Devett? I was an attorney for 36 years. I went to the best law school in the state, Oklahoma City University. I just jabbing D David Holtz replacement Mark Stone Cipher. He went to He went to somewhere down south of the Canadian River, University of Oklahoma, I think is what they call it, wouldn't it? I won't tell you where I went to undergraduate. Did any of you know or guess? Read my shirt. Says Oklahoma State. Can you see it? Yes. You know what we call Oklahoma State? God's country. You know why? Why? Because it's made up of 30,000 Oklahomaans that love each other. You all love each other. I can see it just in your faces. That's why you get so much done here. It's not because you're Christian, Jew, or atheist or gay or straight. Doesn't matter. Love is the answer. That's the philosophy of my life. Love is the answer. It was a song written. It was written by I'm getting a little dementia now. I seriously I'm not kidding. It happens in our family. My dad got it. My brother's got it. Two of them now have it. And I have it. Todd Rundren. I didn't take too long to say Todd Rundren. I was a genius. But I I paused. I bet no one noticed that I took too long to say that. I haven't prepared any remarks. I'm just talking off the top of my head. I was a pretty damn good trial lawyer. I won a lot of jury trials. 30 seconds remaining. Huh? What' you say? You have 30 seconds remaining. It's You're limited to three minutes. Okay. If I'm running down, are you bored? No. Yeah, I think you are. Let me give you some advice. Put this at the head of the table, not at the back. Anybody hear my brilliance? This was as dull a day as I've ever had, but I loved hearing it because I used to be the president of student council at Bishop McInness or vice president. I was president of my class. You're making a big mistake building that arena where the Marriott was. The incomparable Marriott was the original name. You You could build it across the street the other way, but Clay Bennett's a friend of mine. I'm all for it. I'm just make I'm saying this so it's recorded. I say I told you so after the thing, but it'll be perfect. George Nice said Oklahoma's revival. It isn't because of politicians. is because of the thunder. I support everything you do. I love the comets. I'm saying this. If you give me just a second, I'm dying. I have stage three kidney failure. I have a heart problem. I have cataracts. I got every other thing you can think of. Give me 30 more seconds, Miss McDibet. I'm not coming back. And if you don't, I'll come back every single week and do this. I promise never to come back. I promise. I'm also disabled for a lot of reasons. I'm mentally ill. I have bipolar. You know who knows all this? This guy right here. Mark Stoner is one of the nicest people in the world. He went to law school with my brother John Kathy. See him nodding. You know John, didn't you? Oh, yeah. And he knew me, too. Even though I went to OCU, the better school. It didn't school with Alan Campbell. What? With Alan Campbell. Alan Wayne Campbell, one of my best buddies at school. You know what he did for me? One time my nephew came up from Miss Mississippi and I couldn't think of where to take him to be make him feel special. He was like 18. You know what Allan said? We're drinking beer at a bar. I drank a lot of beer in my life. Allan just said, "Bill, I got extra tickets to the some golf tournament up in Tulsa. It was a major. I think it was called the PGA." It was. Yep. I didn't know much about golf, but that's special. We got to meet Hubert Green. Wow. It's a life memory for me. It's a life memory for my nephew. Yeah. But Allan did it because we're buddies in school. And you know what? People care about people matter. I love Clay Bennett. My mother taught him in the fifth grade at Cassidy. She slapped him across the face one time. Hey, Bill. We got to get into executive. Okay. I'm just I'm just going a second, Mark. All right. Thank you, sir. And Clay and my I asked my mom that day. She said, you know, I slap Clay Bennett in the face, I'll probably lose my job. He said something very bad. I said, 'What'd he say? You know what my mother said? None of your business. I'm his teacher. I'm not gossip. Well, he he was in good company. My mother slapped me in the face twice. I didn't ever say anything. One time she slapped me in the face when I was 12 in the car. She was driving, no seat belts. Just pop. I said, "What was that for?" I didn't say anything bad. I didn't say a cuss word. She said, "Your tone, young man. Your tone. You were being very rude to your mother." Me. I said, "Mom, that's not fair. I was going to be a lawyer even at 12." She goes, "Okay, I might be all wrong. Tell you what we'll do, Bill. If you're right, I'll apologize to you at the dinner table and we'll take you to any movie you want in dinner. I said, 'Th that sounds pretty good. And what I have to do that said, we'll go to the Supreme Court of this home, your father, when he gets home. We'll see what he thinks. All right, Bill, I promise you 30 seconds. Okay, 30 more. He said he said, my mother said, you want to do that? I said, Mom, we're done. And I don't want going to dad. I have got a whipping. Thank you, Bill. Really appreciate you. But you know what? Making things work is what lawyers do. Find a better place for that arena. Bye sir. We have returned from executive session. We now find ourselves at item 11. Item 14 at page 17 which is adjournment. We are adjourned.